Calculus exam

Today was my third calculus exam. I was really surprised when it seemed like I actually knew how to do all of the problems. Did the last week of studying help me understand this stuff, or did I know it better than I thought I did? Maybe some of both. I'll find out on Thursday. Talking to classmates before and after the test makes me think that I know the material at least as well as most of the class. There are a couple of exceptions, like the Asian girl with the amazing writing who sits in front of me. She is always done first. Today was no different. The test only took her about 10 minutes. I finished in about 35 minutes and at least half the class was still working on their test. I'm glad that's over and I will only have the final exam left. Maybe I will get a decent grade, but I doubt that I will get an "A" unless I do REALLY well on the final. Only three more classes before then. Is the term really that close to being over?

More school stuff

Just about all I ever write about is school. You might think that I don't do anything else. You would almost be right.

My Excel class is pretty easy. The in-class part is almost a waste of time for me. This class should be helpful in my Stats classes and I'm pretty sure that if I do become an economist, I'll be using this and Access (databases) pretty often. The homework only takes a couple of hours and I usually have it done by Sunday night.

My English class is entering the final stretch. Last week we watched Brazil and had some interesting discussion about it. Even though I've seen this movie a bunch of times, I now have an even greater appreciation for it. I never really bothered to think about many of the deeper themes presented in the movie. For my final paper, I have chosen to write about the Harry Tuttle character in the movie Brazil and his relationship to Sam Lowry, the main character. I may also look at Tuttle using concepts like leaderless movements, resistance, and subversion. I want to compare him to groups like 4chan, and Anonymous. I'm a little worried about getting it up to 7 pages, but I think I'll be alright. I have 2 weeks to finish the rough draft for submission and them 2 more weeks to finish it. I shouldn't have sold my Little,Brown Handbook. It would come in handy for this. At least I have the internet. It won't be quite as easy, but it will work. Hopefully, I will be able to convince myself to work on this daily instead of waiting until the last minute to finish it.

My one credit PE class has been harder and has taken more work than I thought it would, but it is helping me to exercise more and eat (at least a little) better. I am having a harder time exercising (riding my bike) every day now that it is starting to rain. I've been trying to do more simple muscle-building exercises in my room, but I find it hard to get excited about them and find it difficult to stay motivated. Winters are long and wet here. I need to do more. I really don't want to gain back the weight I've lost and would like to keep losing more. That's going to be hard to do if I don't cultivate some new exercise habits.

Busier than I want to be

I never thought I would be doing so much extra homework. I still don't like calculus, but I feel like I'm starting to understand it better. Whatever that means. The last two weeks have been horrible. I was not understanding the composition rule (or chain rule) and the assignments that followed required that you know it. So I got a little farther behind in the two classes that followed. I still have some unfinished homework assignments and lab work that need to be done by Tuesday afternoon before the exam. I've done pages and pages and pages of extra homework, went to the PCC learning center numerous times, and talked to a friend of mine who had taken calculus only a few years ago and did well in it. I finally felt like I was understanding the rule, at least somewhat, yesterday and am feeling a little more confident about the upcoming test. I've been spending most of my time doing this and am getting sick of it. Hopefully, the rest of the term won't give me quite as hard a time. I hope that I don't have to ever take any more calculus classes, but it may be unavoidable. For now, all I have left is two Statistics classes. They should be easy after this one.

Bicycling update

I was doing calculus homework (never-ending!) and the batteries in my calculator needed to be charged, so I decided to go for another bicycle ride. The weather today has been amazing. Sunny, clear skies, and almost 70 degrees. Is it really November?

Since I bought my bicycle I've learned a lot about it. And I also learned that buying a cheap bike may have not been the smartest thing to do. The latest thing I've had to buy for it was a new rear wheel and gears. I discovered that the cheap wheels I have aren't going to hold up to my weight. At least the rear one. Even though I only ride on the streets and don't do any curb jumping, the old style (meaning cheap) rear axle is easily bent. And it did. After talking to the guy at the bike shop I've been going to (Citybikes) I decided to upgrade the rear wheel to a cartridge type so I wouldn't just keep bending axles. I bought a decent used wheel and the cheapest new gears they had for $81. I also got a couple of plastic tire levers for $4. I put the new wheel on, adjusted the brakes, and went out for a ride. I neglected to check the chain travel on the new gears and ended up hyper extending my leg after the chain came off. A couple of days later I ended up replacing the tube also, because I damaged the valve stem when I was putting it back together. This was definitely a learning experience for me. A couple of weeks ago I also purchased some fenders (another $40) so I wouldn't get too dirty when it is wet out. I hope that I am close to being done spending a bunch of money on it, but I should probably get a tire pump (instead of using my house mate's) and I will probably need to buy some rain gear. I keep putting that off, but it is an inevitable purchase.

I started out riding about 20 minutes at a time. Pretty soon it was taking less time to ride the same route, so I extended it a bit and was riding about 25 minutes twice a day. It didn't take long until I had to extend my regular ride even more to keep it at 25 minutes. I'm now doing that route in about 20 minutes if I push myself a little bit. When the weather is nice (like today), I either zig zag up and down the blocks on my way home (I did 50 minutes this way a few days ago) or I ride more than twice a day. I'll probably get in at least three of those today.

Between my continually changing diet and bicycling I've been able to lose even more weight. I'm creeping up (actually down) to almost 255, which is the least I've weighed for quite a few years. I'm hoping to get under 250 by the end of this school term. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the nice weather to continue. I need to start doing some strength exercises though. I'm thinking about using some 1/2- and 1-gallon plastic jugs filled with water as dumbbells. I haven't been able to get into a habit of doing any exercises other than bicycling and I need some options.

I hate calculus

I really did expect calculus to be hard. And it is. But I'm a little disappointed. Two weeks ago our instructor told us that we had gotten through the hard stuff and that the rest of the term would be relatively easy. Last week was relatively easy when you compare it to what we had already done. But after today's class and trying to do the assigned homework this evening, I feel thoroughly lost. This class is easily the hardest one I have ever taken. I highly doubt that I will end up with an "A". I might have a hard time even ending up with a "B". It all seems so logical and relatively easy when I'm taking notes on the lecture, but I always seem to leave the practice lab (last hour of class) frustrated or even angry. I had a hard time even wanting to try this week's homework or finishing the lab after I got home. I was able to do a couple of the homework problems and spent about an hour trying to figure out just one of the lab questions that I had left. I can't imagine how horrible Calculus II is going to be. I can't even fathom what I'm going to ever use this crap for. If I at least had some idea of what I'll use it for I might be a little more excited about it. I'm going to be really pissed if I never have to use it.