How soon will the end come?

I am not talking about the end of the world, just the semester, but I guess that means tests. Just now looking up the testing times. I have one on Wednesday and two on Friday. The one on Wednesday is German, the two are Probability and Stochastic Processes (Statistics with integrals and billed as a "Friendly introduction for Electrical and Computer Engineers") and the dreaded Electronics class. I hope I pass electronics, I really do because otherwise next semester is a mess not to mention taking nearly 19 hours if I have to retake that class.

The hardest class next semester should be the operating system design class, I hear it is lots of programming, not fun. But the class on modern robots and softbots should be extremely fun since it is being taught by a very good professor. Can you tell I want this semester to be over, I will leave behind some good memories further in the past, but, so is life, sais la vis.

What I am looking forward to with even more good cheer is the end of undergraduate schooling. If I manage to get out of here and start working, to teach English in Japan or work in industry, then I will be fairly happy. Happier of course if I get into the JET program, but if it doesn't go that way then I will be looking for a job in Germany more than likely.

Monday morning I was able to sprint the Hurlathon on the stair that we do twice a week. I mean actually sprint, I had run the entire exercise and this is where I usually stop because that is hard to do on its own without the hurlathon. We run up to the top of the first colored chairs, then down, cross over and run up to the same row. Then come back to the first side and run up to the top of the different colored chairs, do this until the top is reached. Do the top a total of four times and then work down to lower and lower levels. When finally finished with that pattern sprint to the top four times in a row. Most people don't sprint but I flew up those stairs, I was surprised by my increase in strength since the beginning of the school year. I guess I should be doing more school work. It sounds like bragging I think but it is just how it is, now if I can get up tomorrow morning for the Thursday run that will be great.

The Day Before Tomorrow

That day is today. Ach! and today means that tomorrow is coming soon. The faster and faster progression of days will lead to other days, but now I am finally looking at these days in a somewhat better light. Actually I like the nights better, if there is a moon it is nearly as easy to see as in daylight and if there isn't then it still isn't so bad as some people think. It isn't quite as cold as it should be here this time of year. Some people are wearing short-sleeves and not because they are used to the cold as is the case in the spring when twenty degrees feels balmy. This morning was finally colder than the sixty degree days we have been having the last two weeks. When snow falls again and the temperature never gets above forty for months on end and hopefully the snow doesn't melt the day after it falls. If it gets down to negative twenty or thirty again then it will be a good winter. If it were to stay that cold, to keep the snow around of course, then it would be a real winter again. I wonder if my generation even remembers winters, real winters not the warm ones these days.

Relaxing, Really

The more I try the harder it gets, to relax that is. I was able to relax when I went home for a total of 23 hours. That certainly helped, but I am still really wound-up, it has been like this for nearly a month, maybe a little less. I feel like I have so much energy and yet no place to expend it. I do fencing, Kendo, and ping-pong something of three days a week, I also run stairs in the mornings twice a week although I admit I missed one today. I am extremely tired at the same time though, it seems as if I was carrying something very heavy but only when I think about it.

More specifically I think I passed all of my exams last week. Two exams, a presentation, and on the Saturday before I had the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, an eight hour monster standard throughout the US that is the precursor to getting the PE or Professional Engineer's License. Fun! The presentation was definitely the highlight of the week. I taught people how to fold cranes in German. Most of them got it and I was complimented on it by my professor.

Now I know it might sound disingenuous to say that I might be in Japan next year because my Germany plan fell through because I just want to finished with schooling, but... I am applying for the JET program to go teach English to Japanese students somewhere in Japan. Fun! Fun really, not joking this time. I just hope that I will learn lots of Japanese.

Fun with Electronics

Just got done with a lab report for electronics, now to finish prelab. These would be more fun if they weren't so cut and dry. But oh well, just another thing to get through right now.

Finally Settling into Winter

Ah, the nice cold days of winter, I believe they are right around the corner because it snowed today and the temperature is in the 30's and expected to drop this afternoon. So now that I am not so willingly freed of some things that I was involved with I think I have more time for homework and the like. Got to go find a professional background for a powerpoint dealing with a telescope. Here's a picture that I definitely will not use for the background:

This is a rose that is still blooming, as of today, in front of my basement apartment. That is my window in the background. It is a little bright but the white spots are snow. The snow started falling early this morning, but as with all snow in Wyoming these days it really doesn't stick around for as long as it should.

Enjoy the picture, now for me to do work, but you can continue enjoying.

Interesting Things and Bad Things

Interesting thing: my roommate has a blog. I didn't know, the info came from a third source. That's how much I talk to my roommate though. Really haven't seen him in a while because I have been gone from our basement apartment except to sleep, eat, or get some stuff for the next activity. I think it's cool, but as long as we keep the comments positive about each other. Going to set up a link on the side, go visit his blog.

Bad things: Sick and two tests coming up this week. Self explanatory.

Interesting thing: Some friends and I actually made tea with ginger root boiled with it. Then they put cocoa powder, crushed red chilis, cinnamon and a couple other spices in. Right now I really don't feel sick, and am a bit beyond wired, for a few more minutes. Here's the recipe:

8 cups water
1/3 cup coarsley chopped fresh ginger root.
4-5 bags of black tea
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3 dashes of ground cloves
4 dashes cinnamon
5 dashes cayanne pepper or else crushed red pepper in a coffee filter, you really don't want to drink it.

Boil the water with the ginger in it. At the top of the boil put the teabags in and turn the heat to a simmer and let the bags in until the tea is a satisfactory strength. Take out the tea bags and the ginger. Put the pepper in if it needs a coffee filter, wait for two minutes and remove. Add the other spices and the cocoa last. Stir well. Drink carefully, it will burn even if it is luke warm. Drink until tongue goes numb along with the back of the throat. There really isn't any need to add sugar to this, it has enough flavor on its own and you will be able to chew fresh ginger root directly after consuming this sort of beverage as demonstrated by my friends.

Thinking

For some reason it is very hard to think right now. I really don't know what to write and, well... I don't know how to continue. I guess I am tired but I know how to deal with that. Classes are easy except one that I shouldn't even take my eyes off of for fear that it might destroy me. And well... here's another dead end in thinking, or at least writing. Let's just say that somedays are better than others in certain confusing situations. It is amazing how irrational the mind can be and once the analyzing kicks in it flings me to lower depths or greater heights. Fun. Or not. To not be confused is my goal, and in all instances that is what it is, but then (fingers dead on the keyboard) I am confused for no good reason. Do I just forget or what? It really isn't forgetting as much as analyzing a single point until that is all I am thinking about and not seeing the entire picture. This is not a very good strategy for nearly any application but this really isn't an application, just life.

Now I see my flow is coming back, even if it doesn't make sense to anyone but me or the few people that I have talked to. I just... cliche statement, want to understand but I am afraid that I might not even if I drop everything that I am doing and try to figure it out en totale.

Now to listen to some fun music while I try to do things other than type here, if the page loads. Finally, Cape Breton Live, good source of streaming celtic music, mostly Scottish I think. That's all for now.