Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Senior Design Day

When you're in college, your entire 4-year undergraduate study cumulates into one big class - Senior Design. My Senior Design class is 2 semesters, and it is a (very) large capstone project that demonstrates all my knowledge I have gained over the years that I have spent at UNT.

My capstone won't be finished for another 365 days. In the mean time, here's some things that some classmates worked on here at Discovery Park!

"Unmanned Aerial Vehicle: Quadcopter"
Electrical Engineering
Computer Engineering


This first project (pictured above) is work put together by the College of Engineering's own Electrical and Computer Engineering students Andrew Arbini, Matt Ponce, and Chase Przilas. As you can see, the project is titled "Unmanned Aerial Vehicle: Quadcopter". If you've ever seen those neat youtube videos of quadcopters playing pong, this is the sort of thing these are capable of. Extremely stable, very precise, and can bare a light load. This particular project is designed "to construct an unmanned aerial vehicle that will have full capabilities of implementing a surveillance system." It goes on to say that is is designed to maneuver tight locations. I could imagine breaking into a compound and deploying one of these in front of your SEAL team to capture or kill a certain suspect may come in handy ;)

All joking aside that's a neat project. There were dozens of projects from every department on display that day. Another poster:

"Autonomous Vision Based Planetary Surface Explorer"
Electrical Engineering
Computer Science


I actually show this project to everyone I give tours to. It uses a Segway, XBOX Kinnect unit, power supply and computer (MAC) to work, and the end result is an autonomous robot. It's neat to see it roam around and balance itself when pushed, stop to avoid obstacles, and view the infrared and visual output on the MAC. The project is funded in part by NASA, as the logo in the top right corner proves, and the idea is to develop autonomous roaming, roving, smart robots. The current Mars rovers are "dumb" in that they require constant oversight by controllers on earth. --Nah I shouldn't say dumb, just different. Outdated perhaps..



The landing sequence of the mars rovers was so neat.

Anyway there were many more projects. Here's some more pictures I took that day:

Well done design classes!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

UNT Grand Chorus and Symphony Orchestra

Yesterday I went and saw UNT's Grand Chorus and Symphony Orchestra perform at the Winspear Performance Hall. This particular concert hall is inside the Murchison Performing Arts Center - although when I refer to it to my friends, I call it the "Armadillo Building". I wonder if the architects appreciate me calling it that.

I'm not supposed to take pictures during the event, but then how would I blog about it? Besides, this was during an intermission and they were tuning their instruments ;)

It was pretty interesting. I love orchestral pieces. However, I found out I'm not too big on opera or grand chorus performances. I'm biased, though, because when I was in middle school, I played violin for 3 years. I'm going to have to add Violin to my list of things to buy, right there next to HD projector, pet dog, and new house. Yeah it'll be a while I suppose.

Anyway, you always hear that UNT is a big music school? Well look at their performances page. There's got to be 30-40 performances going on just this week! Somehow I've gone my entire UNT undergrad career without making friends with a music major. I know RTVF, Kinesiology, Language, and of course Engineering majors, but no music. At least not that I remember. Please if you're a music major and you're my friend, don't kill me for forgetting you!!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Thunder Storm!

I've had some bad luck with storms in Denton. You may remember my past blog post about my dorm getting struck with lightning - and thereby frying the Ethernet port on my computer. It seems the ethernet ports on everyone's machines in the Santa Fe dorms back then got fried. I never knew ethernet was capable of Gigabit transfer, 100 M attenuation range, AND carrying enough electricity to destroy the ethernet interface in my computer's motherboard. I'm honestly surprised that that's the only thing that was destroyed. I mean literally - the device manager shows no ethernet port anymore. The only network connection I have now is a USB Wi-fi dongle I have.

I bring this up again because north Texas in general has been going through some pretty rough winds lately. It happens yearly I suppose - after all, April showers bring May flowers right? All weekend we were under a tornado watch and even Monday while I was on campus the sirens sounded. I mean these things get loud - especially if you're on campus. There's got to be several scattered around the campus. In fact - here's a map of Denton County and its storm sirens:

I sort of wish they labeled I-35 on this map

As you can see, they aren't shy about the sirens. In fact, I had the misfortune to walk home on a Wednesday afternoon from class last semester - the first Wednesday of the month mind you. It sounded like we were under attack... by mother nature.

Monday I was actually in the physics building going over some lab material when we were hit by a storm system. The storm alarms sounded and professors came walking briskly by all the classrooms and labs shoving all the students into the basement of the physics building - which I was hardly aware it existed. It was neat - it was a little underground den where you can hide and study physics. Lots of reading material down there too. It's own little miniature library.

Anyway, if you're worried you won't hear the sirens, you can also tune into KNTU 88.1 FM - a local radio station in Denton that a lot of UNT RTVF students work for. They intermittently inject weather alerts (about every 5 minutes or so) during their regular broadcast. I think I also heard them say "To help you remain tranquil in the face of certain death, smooth Jazz will be deployed in three, two, one *queue Jazz*." ...Or something like that ;)

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Strategies for Successful Coding

If you want to study Computer Science, Electrical Engineering (Technology), IT, Computer Engineering, BCIS, computer networking, etc., you are going to have to program. A lot. In fact, programming a lot is the only way to get better. That applies to everything! In order to get better at anything, you have to practice! If I want to get better at tennis, baseball, ping pong, swimming, riding a bike, tying shoes, etc., I have to practice. The same applies to coding.

However, while coding, your brain assumes a certain state of mind. Nothing to be alarmed of or weary of. Your brain assumes another state of mind while driving, playing games, etc. The "programming" state of mind is unique though. Not everyone likes coding. There are some EE students I know that absolutely despise coding. Maybe it's boring, hard, not applicable to their studies, or what have you. I personally don't mind coding, especially when my script works well and does what it's supposed to (and gets me an A). Anyway, your mind will become fatigued while programming for an exorbitant amount of time. The process becomes worse if you are tired, stressed, or distracted. When I code, I function best on a nice buzz, while sitting on either my work computer or my laptop. When I say buzz, I mean caffeine buzz, mind you. I've actually never tried coding while slightly inebriated, but that's beside the point. I CANNOT program on my home desktop computer. Oh sure it has all the system requirements and a nice screen, comfy amount of desk space, etc., but the thing that ruins it for me are all the distractions. Seriously my desktop machine is a pretty good rig - it can run any type of game out there and has a 1920X1080 display, so I am always tempted to play a game, browse the internet, open up that new tab, check my email, Steam chat with a friend, fire up Portal 2...
But with my laptop, I don't have too many distractions - which is why I am oh so much more productive on my laptop. What I'm trying to say is:
Rule 1: Limit your distractions
It's ok to play music or occasionally facebook chat with someone in the background, but personally I work best when the option for distraction isn't even there. The smaller screen and resolution also keeps me concentrated on one screen at a time. Also - there are no games installed onto my laptop. It may be capable of playing games, but I choose not to install any since that would just present an opportunity for distraction. Admittedly though, my laptop isn't any good for gaming. Sometimes though, a distraction may be just what you need - bringing me to rule 2:
Rule 2: Take breaks
I can't program for 3,4,5 hours at a time - especially when I'm tired. Just last night I was trying to fix a TCP communications algorithm dealing with RSA encryption, and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing -- because it was 6 in the morning. I had been trying to fix this for about an hour now. I also had a project due that day (today). So I ended up taking a 1 hour nap, and upon waking up, found a solution within 10 minutes. Sometimes taking a break from programming is all you need to clear your thoughts and take a fresh perspective on a problem. The same applies to other critical thinking homework assignments - perhaps in your math classes, physics, etc.
Rule 3: Utilize your resources. I know this one is probably pretty obvious but I think it's worth mentioning. If you have a friend taking the same programming or math class as you, don't be afraid to ask them for help or to study together. Your friends in your degree are your most valuable asset, because they are taking the same exact classes you are. Make friends with people in your classes and you can troubleshoot with each other and help each other out.

Anyway that's 3 - that's good enough for a list. Besides I'm getting fatigued from writing this blog entry - time for a break ;)

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

DCTA University Pass Program

Today I went to a DCTA Public Meeting. This informational meeting in particular was about the upcoming A-train service that is opening in June, and how students can take advantage of it. The rail will connect to DART's GREEN Line, and will connect Denton to the ongoing web of rail networks throughout North Texas. This PDF contains the proposed fare structure and their reasoning behind it.This is the brochure they handed out.

A lot of conversations were brought up during the informational meeting. Part of what was brought up was the possibility, in the future, of using student ID cards as a sort of pass card to ride DCTA rails. The issue, however, was the costs associated with implementing that sort of system and the funding is simply not there at this time. The outlook is somewhere in the 5-8 year range, and even that's a maybe. With no subsidies provided by UNT/TWU, it makes it harder. Subsidies are a cost that would fall on us as the students, which would ultimately just increase our tuition rates I'd imagine.

Something else that was brought up was the fact that Commuter Express, will be phasing out. It is in essence being replaced by the railway.

Other random things: The rail will not operate on Sundays
The Downtown Denton station will be located at Hickory St. and Bell Ave.

Some other interests that were expressed by attendees included letting UNT students pay "discount" rates, providing faculty/staff the option of a salary deduction to pay for the fares, offering per-semester fares, setting up a bulk package to UNT for a discounted price to provide to students at UNT to pay for, and much more.

I found out about the meeting through UNT's eaglemail. If you are a UNT student, don't neglect checking that email!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

UNT + TWU Degrees

Denton is the home of two colleges - University of North Texas (UNT), and Texas Woman's University (TWU). Each a mere 10-15 minutes from each other, both great academic communities. Recently I found out that TWU works closly with UNT's College of Engineering to offer dual degrees in Mathematics/Electrical Engineering, Chemistry/Materials Science, and Math/Materials Science. The program started in 2007.

Allow me to say that from personal experience, it is exciting to be a part of a new program. When I was at Collin College, I studied and worked for a center called Convergence Technology Center. It was a new degree at the time and it was a study in computer networking, voice over IP, CCNA (Cisco Certified Networking Associate), CCNP (Cisco Certified Networking Professional), project based learning, and case studies. Being a part of a new and growing program really insured that I would get all the attention I need. Not only did I want to look good by learning these things, getting my degrees/certificates, and graduating and getting work, the center itself wanted to look good. What I mean is, in order for a degree program to have any merit, its graduates have to perform well and "make it" in the world. To clarify my point, at the university level, every degree program strives to be ABET accredited. That's "Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology". In the state of Texas, an Electrical Engineering major cannot be legally called an Engineer unless they have a degree from an ABET accredited engineering school - in which UNT's EE program is ABET accredited.

Anyway my point being that with new and growing programs, you have the full attention of the professors in order to help you do well and succeed in the marketplace. As a side effect, there are smaller class sizes most of the time, and your professors will know and address you by name. Most of the time, your professors can be your most valuable assets when seeking work, references, employment, internships, and opportunities just about anywhere. So get to know them, and be sure to make yourself presentable. Try hard in your classes and show up, do your homework. Your professors have a lot more connections than you do.

Original university story
More info about UNT/TWU Degrees

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Willis Library

Willis Library is a 4 story library where students can go to work in teams, on computers, print things, study, or quietly rot away in the basement while trying to memorize 3 chapters worth of material before an exam the very next day and you can't go back to your dorm or apartment because your roommate wants to party or there's a game going on your you just prefer the peaceful quietness of the basement:


The use of the facility is included in your tuition and fees paid to the school, so you should make use of it. It's also handy since you can print an infinite(?) amount of pages at this library. I used to have tests that were open book but not open laptop. I only had a PDF of the book at the time. Solution? Come to the Willis Library and print my book!

Alright so I do not condone printing off entire books in the library since that isn't really a "green" practice. In fact, I chose the PDF of the book specifically to avoid wasting paper, but I ended up having to waste a bunch of paper anyway.

At least it was only a chapter or 2 at a time of material. I still didn't waste the 800pgs that the book was.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Denton County Police

Last night, two of my girlfriend's best friends celebrated their 22nd birthdays, so we all went out to a local bar near campus and said cheers to a spectacular 22nd year. The night was full of chatting, and everyone had a gay ol' time. That is until they decided they wanted to switch bars. I had not had anything to drink, mind you, besides a White Russian. But that was early in the night and I was being a responsible little engineering student and offered to drive to our next destination. This is when things got interesting.

I pull out from our parking spot and we hear a funny noise coming from the rear end of our car. As I pick up speed, the noise gets worse, and there's a slight turbulence in our drive. It turns out, we blew out a tire somehow. To make matters worse, neither me or the significant other knew how to change a tire. Yeah hush - I know I don't know anything about cars, don't rub it in. So here we are sitting on McKinney St. stranded and confused. A random guy pulls up to us and offers to help. He was equally as clueless about the whole matter, but some help was better than none.

Then, out of nowhere, a police officer drives by. For once I'm happy to see those flashing lights. He pulls up to us and I expect he'll lecture us for stopping up traffic in the middle of the road or perhaps ask me how much I've been drinking (I was well under the limit FYI). But no, the gentlemen walks up to us and asks us what happened, introduces himself, asks if we need help. He even helps us change our blown tire. By now a friend of ours shows up as the officer began loosening the tire lug nuts, and the other random dude that pulled up to help us excused himself. We all worked together in jacking up the car, shining the flash light, holding lug nuts, chatting about what it's like to be a cop, etc. This is the most pleasant experience I've ever had with a police officer. And I've had my run-ins with Denton County Police before.. I even blogged about a different experience here. Another time, I was pulled over for going 10 meters in the wrong direction on a one way and despite my squeaky clean record, they wrote me 2 citations - the other for an expired inspection. Thanks a lot for the warning....

Anyway, it turns out the girlfriend's Sequoia was in no mood to be jacked, and broke our first Jack and refused to work with our second jack. The officer called us a Tow Truck, and stuck with us the entire time we were having trouble. He was a likable guy with a wife, 4 month old daughter, and a fun sense of humor. Apparently, Denton officers get paid a little better than Corpus Christi officers ;)

In the end the Tow Truck helped lift the car, we swapped tires, and we were on our merry way. I took a picture of the whole ordeal but somehow it didn't save, and my phone died.. I'm more pissed about that than having the blown tire.

Thank you, Officer King. You are a gentleman and a scholar.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Sumo Bot Competition

If you're a regular viewer of my blog, you may know that I'm a member of UNT's robotics society out of Discovery Park! It's a rag tag group of fellows that just like to mess with robots and play with toys. Recently, we had a little Sumo Bot competition!


The bots are written in BASIC Stamp, and as the name implies, are very basic. Despite this, they are very powerful. They've got infrared sensors on the front, color sensors on the bottom, LED emitters, and a speaker on them. They are all sorts of fun to play with. These are also what we use at Robocamp.

All of the robotics society students are engineering majors of some sort. Some Electrical Engineering, some Computer science, etc. Regardless, robotics is a great example of how different types of engineering disciplines can co-mingle. This is just one of the many student societies at Discovery Park!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Blogger App

So today I found google's blogger app. Since I'm always glued to my phone, I figured it'd be easier to write up my posts if I could at least START writing them while on my phone. It's also pretty fast since I've got the whole swype keyboard thing. Since my laptop is up and running now, here's a video of me typing with
Swype!



Ok I give up on debut video capture.I've switched to Snagit. Anyway, it's just a video of me writing with swype. It's pretty fast and I have minimal complaints about the keyboard. It's nice to have the voice to speech while driving as well. I don't really know what else to say so I guess I'll stop now. I guess it is worth mentioning that typing on swype requires all your attention, so it's annoying while walking or driving, but that's why my phone has a physical keyboard as well. I love physical keyboards. Wow the whole video turned sideways that's interesting.

Also, here's a picture of my laptop:

Notice the neat custom made sticker my friend made for me!
Speaking of apps, NPR had a segment recently about the unemployment rate. They said the united states has dropped to 8.5 unemployment, and that the numbers fluctuate for certain fields. Interestingly enough, job postings with the word "android" in it have doubled since this time last year, and that the unemployment for computer science is a mere 5%. 5% by the way, is considered full employment!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

The e-learning curve

Nowadays people disseminate information primarily over the internet. When I'm talking to a co-worker, or a teacher, or a friend and I ask them for something, gone are the days where they write it down and they do that task later. If I want my grade in a given class, I have to e-mail the teacher. If I want to remind someone of a party going on, they say "oh just text me". If I hear an ad on the radio, they say "google such-n-such to find out more info about us because we're just that awesome!!!" Web sites or email addresses are given out as another way to communicate with people. In fact, communication is such a vital part of our lives, that tyrannical governments first turn to communication methods to shut down the peoples' movements and communication. The "Twitter revolution" in Iran, whether that actually happened to the scale we've been told or not, at least played some roll in Iran's recent post-presidential election protests.

The point is, technology has become an integrated part in everyone's lives -- not just the nerds like me that sit on it day and night, or who carry it around in our pockets. It's touching grandmothers and parents, kids, and rural communities, even rebelling communities. It takes a small learning curve and a way-of-life change to move your entire calendar away from you pen and paper written agenda and onto sync'd online calendars. My girlfriend still uses pen and paper, but of course there's nothing wrong with her methods. I'm just different is all. Like my preference for Wendy's french fries over Food Poisoning Whataburger french fries.

That being said I still have a hard time tracking random things such as Blackboard. If you're not familiar with blackboard, it's a teaching system that UNT uses. Thankfully, some of the Discovery Park classes use a different, more accessible system called Moodle. Nonetheless, some of those deadlines really sneak up on me in those Blackboard classes....

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Lasers

I recently chauffeured several high school students around UNT's Discovery Park campus. This was a group of Lake Dallas High School students that were interested in engineering. By the way, if you're a high school teacher or parent of a high school student and you want to take a tour of the campus, let this lady know.

Anyway long story short they got to see our Engineering Technology department, Materials Science department, and a demo of robotics from students in Electrical Engineering. This demo in particular was quite interesting - it demonstrated different applications of fairly common devices and how robotics can be used in - say - a Mars roving environment. This ties into a grant that UNT's electrical engineering students take advantage of. These students are tasked with thinking of and creating feasible Mars rovers or perhaps even asteroid rovers that need to be able to navigate, think, and maneuver a foreign surface. You may be aware of robots that NASA recently sent to Mars to explore the martian surface. As I am told, these robots are controlled manually by humans in Houston. Do you know how long it takes for a transmission to go from Earth to Mars? 10 seconds. A lot can happen in 10 seconds. Try driving a remote control car with a 10 second delay. Not easy. These students are in a bid to develop totally autonomous Mars roving bots.


Try guessing what this bot is made of!

As my title promises, here's a video of a laser. This thing requires ~3000 watts of power!



The laser starts at about :50 seconds

What it's doing is etching someone's name into the casing of their phone. Mind you, they did not stick their whole phone in there, they simply removed the back case. One kid had an iphone and really wanted his name etched into it, but he couldn't ;)

In all fairness, plastic melts pretty well at those temperatures, so it didn't turn out as great as he would have liked. In fact, the plastic casing looks more like it has been shot or something, or a grenade went off next to it. Metallic materials are best for etching. This is not what Material Science is all about mind you, this is just 1 of a million uses and applications of this type of science.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Recently at Discovery Park

Despite how my blog is an excellent source of info about UNT's Discovery Park, there's actually a lot of things that happen here that I don't cover on my blog. Occasionally, we get newsletters through the school e-mail system. The most recent one being this one. It just so happens there are several students I know that appear in this issue. The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers at UNT pictured a couple kids I knew, as well as the UNT Robotics Society pictured yours truly, along with fellow blogger and ambassador Jordan Simleness! Although I don't know if we made a good enough impression on her...

The letter also gives you a nice feel of what PhD students accomplish. If you ever read my "random criticisms", one of them mentioned how our traffic system is very inefficient, and we desperately need an engineer. Well Yiwen Wan heard my call, and he is on the case:

Yiwen Wan and colleagues assembling traffic surveillance equipment on Loop 288

As pictured in the student newsletter, Wan is pictured here fiddling with traffic surveillance equipment.

"Ms. Wan submitted a video-based traffic surveillance system for which she leads the development. Specifically designed for remote locations, the system communicates via wireless to the base station. The camera autonomously calibrates and, in addition to collecting traffic statistics, watches for incidents." -Source

Also mentioned in the article is her receiving of the Wanda J. Shafer Graduate Scholarship. There are many scholarships available for those dedicated (and lucky) enough to receive one. Deadline is March 1st!! So start applying!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Ice Day Consequences

In the short run of things, ice days are great. They allow you to put off that assignment til' tomorrow, sleep in, and have snow ball fights. I mean, everyone loves snow right? And this is Texas, we never get snow. Want to know what happens when we do get snow?
Here's us at the back of the walmart parking lot. Fellow UNT Engineering blogger Jordan also shared her experience with the apocalyptic snow storm as she had a dickens of a time simply filling a prescription. It just so happens I was there for medicine too for quite the case of cabin fever (and a nasty cold).

In the long run, ice days stink. We missed 6 days of class because of it. I live in Texas for the 110 degree days, not the 10 degree days. We will receive no make up days, and I missed a Physics lab because of it. Not to mention I almost got steam rolled by an 18 wheeler that was barreling down a frozen over highway too fast.

On a positive note, it was so refreshing to see other people hating on the cold. I saw plenty of people falling on their arses, and people actually shivered. You know how annoying it was being the only one shivering in New York? I'm surrounded by a bunch of eskimos up there. Here, I'm with my own kind...

Monday, January 31, 2011

Eagle Alerts

Quick! A Volcano just erupted outside of UNT and the lava and ash are overcoming the school campus within the hour!! Oh no! But I also have an exam in MATH in 45 minutes what do I do!??

*BZZ BZZ*

What's this?

Why, it's a message from our friends. Eagle Alert is a campus wide alert system that the school uses in order to communicate with students in the event of an emergency. As seen in the screen shot above, classes are canceled tomorrow here at UNT because of inclement weather!! Now that Volcano threatening my ability to take my exam effectively and on time is no longer an issue, since all my classes for today are canceled and I can run for my life!!

Actually for real, it's raining right now and only getting colder. Forecast for tomorrow is snow! It was just 70 degrees on Saturday, and now it's freezing. Thank you, Texas weather, for being so unpredictable.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Electrical Engineering Department

This is the Third in a 5 part blog post series about every single department we have at Discovery Park.

UNT's College of Engineering at Discovery Park has 5 departments, each significantly different from the other, but with a few similarities.

  1. Materials Science and Engineering
  2. Computer Science and Engineering
  3. Electrical Engineering
  4. Engineering Technology
  5. Mechanical and Energy Engineering


As the name implies, Electrical Engineering has everything to do with electricity. Elements of Physics and Chemistry are also applied in this field, as well as computer science, digital logic, mathematics, and even Understanding the Human Community. OK so that one is just thrown in there by the University as a requirement to graduate, but it's all part of a well rounded education I guess. An EE Degree plan has you sitting at about 15 hours per semester. In case you're not familiar with semester hours, here's a brief summary - each class you take represents a certain number of hours. 12 hours of classes in one semester is considered full time. I believe 19 hours is the max any student is allowed to take. Most classes are three hours - that is - you'll be spending about 3 hours in that class every week, not including homework time. A Physics class though, for example, is 4 hours - 1 extra hour for the lab.

Look at how much fun they're having!!!

Anyway, with a degree in EE, you could find yourself working at any minor or major engineering firm, tech company, design company, the government, work in electronic systems in computers, household appliances, televisions, communications equipment, automobiles, airplanes, missiles, sub munitions, satellites and even space shuttles. Electrical Engineers are the guys who gave us calculators, wireless internet, cell phones, (HD/3D)TVs, etc. This requires understanding of electronic circuits, measurement systems, digital and analog signal processing, control systems, computer-aided design, microprocessors, video and image processing, and wireless communication (Source). Master's degrees are also highly encouraged.

So come out here and get your EE degree. The EE department is ABET accredited, by the way, so you can legally call yourself a full on Engineer. That title is reserved by law for only those who deserve it!

Also, in case you need any more encouragement, EEs make anywhere from 82-$160K a year. And your job prospects are great too! Worried about the economy? Don't be, in Electrical Engineering.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Overrides

What is an override? Up until last week I hadn't really heard of the term.

An override is the process in which upperclassmen can go through in order to be enrolled into a certain class, with said class being full. It is the process that will be going on in many departments this week as Juniors and Seniors such as myself are desperate to graduate on time, and will do anything to get enrolled in their class. So if you've read my previous post, you'll know I've been shoved out of my Physics class due to a fantastic mistake on my part. Now I'm doing anything it takes to get enrolled in the class. Otherwise I'll be faced with an 8 hour semester, which does no favors for my financial aid possibilities, and I'll be here at UNT for a whole extra semester *Queue dramatic horror music!!!!*

I mean I'll be in college a tad longer. ;)


*Update - as of 1/18, I've officially been enrolled into PHYS. Thank goodness. Needless to say, the lecture hall today was pretty packed. Glad all that's behind me now. Now I have tons of work ahead of me though. Can't say I didn't sign up for this.

Friday, January 14, 2011

And so it begins... again

Classes start Tuesday. In case you haven't already, you better sign up for those classes you need. I've signed up for almost everything I need. I can't believe this. Words of wisdom: Putting a class in your shopping cart does not reserve that spot in that class for you. You then need to continue through the rest of the process directly short of paying for the class. I made the fantastic mistake of assuming my spots in those classes were held when I added the classes to my "cart". A month later I get back on to sign up for my one last remaining class that I hadn't decided on what it should be, and low and behold my classes were filled. Wow do I feel stupid.

It's all part of the learning experience I guess

Maybe I can still wedge my way into this physics class...

In case you were wondering, my break went well, with the absence of posts here as evidence. Here's a picture of me in New York:

My brother, 25, on the left. Me on the right

Night time snowmobiling. Now there's something that will really get your heart racing, and
really get you thinking about your will and funeral arrangements. I also went snowboarding, equally as hard, equally as fun. I like my freezing cold weather in moderation, though, thank you very much. I just can't wait for 40 degree days again... that is 105 degree Fahrenheit days mind you ;)