December 2001

The calculus exam wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I only needed a 44% to get a B in the course (an A was impossible as I only scored a 6 out of 8 on the Gateway).

The hardest exam is this afternoon: Materials. Something went wrong with the e-mail the professor sent out with the time/location of the review session, so only a few people knew where to go and at what time. I was, unfortunately, not one of those people, so I’m officially screwed.

However, I pass/failed the course, so if I fail the exam and fail the course, I just don’t receive credit… it won’t hurt my GPA at all. That’s good for me because like many others in the course, the grades are pretty low. The prof promises a nice curve for the semester, but there is always somebody in the class who gets an A on everything and throws the curve all to hell.

So, my exams are nearing an end I can’t wait for tonight: dinner at Olive Garden and then out to see Harry Potter. Tomorrow I’m going back to Cairo… fun fun!!

Apparently people do read the entries in my journal! Tonight some of my ROTC buddies got together and threw me a surprise birthday party next to Fathers in the Union. It was a great break before a hard day of exams, and a nice way to spend my birthday. I really appreciate it Thanks James, Jess, and Cyril!!

Here’s an interesting AIM away message from Mohammed Ragheb, who is also studying for this calculus final exam…

a new version of the well known song “i’m too sexy” … by me… “i’m too sexy for this problem… to sexy for this chapter.. too sexy for this subject…. i’m a crack head and you know what i mean… and i do my little thing on the scrap sheet.. yeah on the scrap sheet… i shake my little pen on the scrap sheet… i’m too sexy for this exam, too sexy for this professor… too sexy by far..”

Thought that would lighten the mood a little bit!

The calculus review last night was an ultimate waste of time. The TA’s who were there came without anything prepared. They opened up with “This review session is basically going to be all about you guys”. They asked for everyone to submit a question on paper at the beginning, and they would work through them on the overhead at the front of the lecture hall.

However, 40 minutes into the review session, the TA’s were still quietly working out problems amongst themselves at the front of the room before displaying them to the students. It would have been great if they had prepared even a little something before the review session, but alas.

So for now, it’s back to studying integrals, vectors, and series in preparation for the Calc 2 final tomorrow morning at 8 AM. Wish me luck

My last two exams are both on Tuesday (Dec 18), and it just so happens that they are my hardest two exams yet. Ugh… but at least the next morning I get to leave for Cairo.

The first one at 8 AM is Calculus 2. I found the class easy, but there is so much material on the exam that it will take quite a bit of time to prepare sufficiently. And I would have enough time if it were not for my second exam on Tuesday…

Introduction to Materials (which is different than Chem Mat 1 for all RPI geeks out there) will definitely be the hardest exam I’ve ever taken. I say that because most of the material on the exam (no pun intended) is way over my head (and everyone else’s for that matter).

Anyway, I’m looking forward to vacation now more than ever! So good luck with all of your exams out there and leave some words of wisdom if you have them

As part of my birthday celebration, my girlfriend took me to see Behind Enemy Lines this afternoon as Crossgates Mall. Besides the action-packed (hokey) ending, it was a pretty decent movie. The camera work was really wobbly, kinda like Three Kings. It made the movie kind of dizzying (a nice effect) but hard to watch.

It reminded me of a genocide project I did junior year in high school (you can still see it at http://www.lemworld.com/genocide). There is a scene in the movie where Burnett (the downed pilot) falls into an open grave filled with dozens of murdered Muslims. The entire situation drew me back to the countless photos and statements of the people slaughtered in Nazi concentration camps during WWII.

I wish the movie had focused a bit more on why there was a war in Yugoslavia. They did make an effort to discuss the political motivations (which I will admit was a big part), but they didn’t discuss the genocide in much detail. I am not suggesting that they make another Schindler’s List here or anything, but they could have placed a bit more emphasis on why the information the pilot had (photos of the graves) was important to ending the war.

The next movie I would really like to see is Blackhawk Down. That and Harry Potter… because if I don’t see that movie, it would be like missing American Beauty. Everyone would think that I spent the last several months in a box!

Allow me to welcome you to my online journal! I want to take a second to explain the purpose of this web site and try to clarify my intentions.

First of all, I feel that so much of my life goes unrecorded. Sure, I may have it in my own memory, locked away for me to browse when I choose. However, what about my friends, family, and the general public who will never get to experience such things. What’s the point of that? It is to allow you the reader to gain a little insight into my life!

Think of it like reading some classical literature. No matter how obscure it may seem, you can always identify with certain aspects of the story. My intent is to show that certain parts of my life is both similar and dissimilar to those of my audience.

Another purpose of this journal is to allow my friends and family to keep up with me. I’m constantly trying to find ways to keep them up-to-date short of sending individual announcements to each of them. On top of my coursework, I really don’t have the time to send 100 e-mails every night!

So back to the recording bit for a second. I think it would be great to be able to look back in a few years at what I was doing on say Dec 14, 2001. Perhaps 30 years from now, I will have written enough entries to publish a book… yeah, that’ll be the day !

Overall my intent is to keep this from being a cut and dry synopsis of the daily grind, but allow it to be a place of expression of my thoughts… my musings. Please take time to comment on my ideas. Your feedback will be one of the lifelines of this endeavor.

The computer science exam on Wednesday night was quite possibly the easiest final exam I have ever taken. Basically it was like another in-class test, covering only material since the last test five weeks ago. They usually require an hour or so to finish, but we had three hours to take our time.

That said, I face a couple of the hardest finals any freshman could possibly have: Calculus II and Introduction to Materials. The subject material for calculus is pretty easy, and is definitely review from IB HL Math (from high school), but we covered so much this semester, the exam is going to be packed.

As for Materials (no, this is much different from the freshman Chemistry of Materials I course), there is also a great deal of material (no pun intended), I just never understood it. There is a full-class review session on Monday night (17 DEC 2001), but my team (my lab group) is getting together Sunday afternoon to review.

I did find out that my plane tickets and reservations are confirmed for my trip back to Cairo next week. I will post an itinerary as soon as I can, probably this weekend sometime. Unfortunately, I cannot guarantee site updates during the vacation because I’m not sure I have configured the web server correctly for access from outside RPI. Keep your fingers crossed!!

Getting an 8 on the Calculus Gateway, writing the final paper for Minds and Machines, passing the Calculus exam, completing the Computer Science project, finding a new place to live, and then taking the Ranger Company Gateway are all just a few tasks to be completed during this, the last, week of regular classes before exams begin.

However, with the exception of the Ranger Company stuff, I should be done with the rest by Wednesday night. From then until next Wednesday, December 12, the first day of exams, it is smooth sailing. However, just as in high school, college professors tend to procrastinate as much as their students in trying to cram everything into the last week of classes.

So with that, I’ve started the countdown until December 18, the last day of exams, and also the day before I leave for Winter Vacation in Cairo, Egypt with my family.

Remember to watch this site for continued updates on the moving status. I will post the details as I get them in!