08.27.07
Posted in Classes, Job at 22:00:22 by darksol
Today
was the first day of classes! All in all, a fulfilling day.
Did lots and accomplished more. I had three classes today, and
they look to be good ones.
First off, I'm taking Programmable Logic Controls. I love
playing with PLCs, but I'm horrible at describing what they do. Class
started out at 9 this morning and lasted about an hour. I kind of
wish that the really nerdy guy that sat in the front would shut up and let the professor teach. Isn't that his job?
Speaking of jobs, I went into work after that for about four
hours. Built up a machine for a user except that I can't deliver
it to them without this particular form. I left before the person
was supposed to report to the command, so I'm not so sure about the
status of that. Hopefully they got their machine!
After that, I went to my Fascism in Europe class. I really
don't need to be taking a history class since I've taken all my
mandatory history prerequisites before, but I needed something to bump
me up to full time and that caught my eye.
Lastly, I had my Christianity class. Now this class, I had
been looking forward to all summer long. Professor Ahktar, whom I
studied Islam under, is one of my favorite professors because of how he
views how class should be taught. Also he is the most objective
teacher I have ever met. I wish the rest of my professors were as
professional as he is.
Looks like its going to be a good semester!
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08.18.07
Posted in Friends, Fun! at 17:51:08 by DarkSol
Today
was an awesome day. My very good friend Benjamin invited me and a
few other friends of his to go for an all day trip on his ship.
Did I mention that his ship is an US Destroyer? Must have slipped my mind.
Anyways, I had to work today as well this morning. Thankfully my
boss said that I could go. So, after installing Office XP on the
few machines that needed the installation done still, I drove over to
Pier 6 where the U.S.S. Barry is docked. Ben said that we should
all get there around 0830, and thankfully I had saw a couple of his
other friends there and we all walked down to the pier together.
We eventually left the pier around 1015ish and we sailed on out to the
Atlantic. It was so beautiful and we couldn't have had a
better day for this.
Unfortunately, Ben had watch for all but two hours of the trip, so
we didn't get to see him all that much. However, the bunch of us
took it upon ourselves to go exploring throughout the whole ship.
At least where we were allowed to. From what I overheard, we went
about 30 miles out into the ocean. You could see for miles and
miles and not see any land on the horizon. The captain also did
some pretty neat maneuvers with the ship, doing some high speed turns
where the boat tipped over pretty far and it was hard to stand, going
around 32 knots an hour (about 37 miles an hour) and going from that to
around 15 knots in reverse extremely quickly. We just got back,
and I am wiped out. I definitely don't see how people can do that
for 6 months straight, but I guess that's ultimately why I decided to
get out of the Navy.
I promise to get some pictures up as soon as I get them from Ben's
friends. (I still need to get a camera. I'm actually leaning
towards getting a Sony α-100.)
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07.01.07
Posted in Friends, General at 10:18:14 by DarkSol
Last
night I went to the ER for some pain in my chest and because my left
arm had gone numb. It started around 5:30 and I eventually had gone to
the hospital around 9:30. My friends Thomas and his girlfriend
Julia were kind enough to go with me and wait around while the doctor
looked at me.
I had never been to the emergency room before, so I was a bit
worried. By the time we three had gotten there, the pain had
really become unbearable and being unable to breath quite right was
making me tired. So they had taken me back for an EKG.
Turns out that was fine. Pretty much all of my vitals were ok,
but they still wanted a doctor to look at me so they took me back to a
bed where I lay there for six hours. During that time, I had to
have a couple chest x-rays done and some blood drawn, as well as stint
for a possible IV drip put in. I was honestly really scared that
I was having some sort of heart problem, but I had balked at going
sooner because I had had this problem before (in a much lesser degree
of pain) and it turned out to be a spat of gas. I had thought
that perhaps this might have been gas as well, but I did not want to
take any chances with that. The doctor was really nice and made
me feel as comfortable as the situation warranted.
Turns out that I did have a huge pocket of air (gas) in my
intestines. (I figured as much.) Of course, I didn't find out
until 3:00 AM where I had been passed out in the hospital bed for a
good 2 hours before hand. I don't think I really had been any
more worried about myself before last night. I'm just really glad
it turned out to be that and not something very serious like actual
heart disease.
Thomas, Julia and I were going to go to IHOP after I got released
from the hospital, but as soon as I got into her van, I promptly got
very tired and decided that it would be best if I just went back home
and got some sleep. All in all, it was a very interesting
experience. Definitely one I would not like to repeat anytime
soon.
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04.16.07
Posted in Classes, Job at 13:03:58 by DarkSol
So
summer is almost upon us, even though it still feels like winter.
I've been very busy writing up essays and doing calculus
homework. Speaking of which, I've been working on a rather long
essay for my Islam class about "Is the Quran Anti-semitic?". At
first, I decided that, no, it wasn't since we had talked about in class
a few things that made it look quite positively on Jews. However,
the more I researched, the more I was troubled by what the Quran says
about Jews. Note, this does not mean that Muslims are given a
religious mandate to kill Jews because it explicitly does not say that
in the Quran's texts. Also, I have another essay due for my
Judaism class that is due this Thursday. I just have to give an
outline about Reform Judaism and mention certain qualities about it
that make it different from the other sects of Judaism. Calculus
is going decently, although I could always be doing better on
tests. Just need to study my butt off for the exam. Read the rest of this entry »
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03.01.07
Posted in Friends, Fun! at 14:29:32 by darksol
So, my broski Time
gave me an old Apple Blue & White G3 with Debian on it back around
New Years Eve. Unfortunately, when I first bought a USB keyboard
for it, it didn't work. So I ended up getting a new keyboard and
it worked! Now, I asked for some ideas of what I should do with
it since I am unable to connect to the internet at the same time with
my Thinkpad T43 and the G3. Well, shade suggested that I make the
box into a router. So that's what I decided to do. I'm wanting to
put more RAM in to the G3 because it's just not that peppy with only 64
MB. My buddy Thomas gave me a couple sticks of 256MB and a stick
of 128MB. Which didn't work. Read the rest of this entry »
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02.20.07
Posted in Classes at 13:36:47 by darksol
So,
I'm sure all the people who read my blog know that I have been having
immense problems with calculus. I've failed it three times at ODU. And I'm on my last leg when it comes to the class, which is why I am taking it at Tidewater Community College.
I've been driving over to Virginia Beach from my apartment for
the past seven weeks now. It's a pretty ho-hum drive on the
Interstate for the most part, except people down here drive really
crappy. Scares the bejesus out of me sometimes. Anyways, so
I've been driving out there Monday through Thursday of each week,
learning all sorts of calculus principles and ideas.
On my first test, I scored a D which wasn't great, but higher than
any grade I received while at ODU. I was pretty happy about it,
but I do need at least a C to have it count for anything. So I've
been working my butt off studying, asking questions in class,
participating when the instructor asks questions, and the like.
Well, it's paying off too since I got a B on my last test that I just
did two Thursdays ago. Plus, I was able to get back 3 extra
points and raise my grade to an A. I'd have to say that's quite
the improvement, but there's still a long way to go and I'm not just
going to give up either.
I'll discuss my other classes in a later post soon. I really should be updating this more often, shouldn't I?
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01.30.07
Posted in Classes at 12:20:50 by darksol
Ok,
so I didn't do as good as I thought I did on the test. That being
said, I did pass and I did get all the major concepts. There were
a few errors I made here and there that can and are attributed to
stupid mistakes that I made. When it's all said and done,
getting, at least, thirty points higher on this test than on any test I
took at ODU has to say something about a) finally getting the material,
b) understanding the material, and c) that ODU isn't the best place to
learn math for someone with my way of learning things. Things can
only go up from here, and they will. I'm going to be talking to
my friend Thomas about scheduling definite times to actually work and
study calculus. I'll get an A in this class, just you all wait
and see!
Although I didn't do great, I am still in a very good mood about all this.
Permalink
Posted in Classes at 09:52:10 by darksol
I'll
find out what my grade is on the calculus test in just over an hour.
Wish me luck. I'm definitely very nervous about what my grade
might be. That being said, I feel a lot more confident about what
I am learning this semester and I'm actually picking up the ideas
really easily. I have to say that this teacher is the best at
explaining stuff.
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01.23.07
Posted in Classes, General, Job at 20:45:50 by DarkSol
Ok,
so it's been a while since I've posted last. I'm sorry, but life has
just been getting out of hand lately. So much to tell, so little
space to do it in.
So let's go back to last semester, I didn't do so hot. In
fact, I did poorly. I got a F (in calculus), a D and two
C+'s. Definitely something not to be proud of. That being
said and done, I've put it behind me and I'm focusing on this semester,
as I should be. I decided to change my minor to Philosophy with
an emphasis on Religious Studies. So that means I am taking
Islam, Judaism, and Japanese Philosophy & Religion. (As well
as calculus yet again, but I am taking it at the "local" community
college.) So far, it looks like my Islam class is actually going
to be the most interesting out of the three religion classes. The
teacher isn't way out there and he actually teaches the material and I
feel like I am always learning something. The same can't be said
about my two other classes though. With calculus, I finally think
I am making headway with this. I actually understand what I am
doing, plus the teacher is extremely helpful and he knows what he is
doing. Speaking of which, I had my first test today, I think I
did decently, but we'll see when I get the test back. Read the rest of this entry »
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10.31.06
Posted in General at 09:32:11 by darksol
*blows all the cobwebs away*
Sorry about all the mess in here, people. I know I've been
negligent on my website for over a month now. Well, let me fill
you in on what happened in that month. I've just been depressed a
lot lately, so I decided to get off my ass and do something about
it. I finally went to see Dr. Dunker about it and he prescribed
me some Welbuterin XL. I started taking it and then when I went
home on Fall Break, I left it at home! DOH! So I went back to
being depressed which really disturbed me and showed me that I really
do have problems and that I am doing the right thing by seeking help.
(I do have my "happy pills" finally after Mom sent them this past
weekend.)
School, well, school is being a pain in the ass. I'm honestly
not doing well in Calculus, but what's new with that? My other
classes are going, for the most part, pretty well. That being
said, I could definitely do a lot better in my Electrical Power and
Machinery class. I just am not good at converting polar and
rectangular coordinate systems. Read the rest of this entry »
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