Monday – 14th November
The aerodynamics test went a lot better than the last one due to me actually understanding what’s going on in class and having prepared for the test. It was a pretty uneventful day with most of it spent in the library just preparing for the test.
My Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim came today though, and the box was HUGE. I brought it to the Avion, and called Karissa to see while I opened it. I think she now wants the collector’s edition as well. There’s nothing quite like having a foot high dragon statue in your room.
When I brought it home, I left it in the living room, waiting for Jill and Reggie to get back so I could open it. They were quite puzzled as to what the huge box was and Jill rolled her eyes when I opened it while Reggie just kept going “holy cow!”
Tuesday – 15th November
Physics lab was really quick and I don’t even remember in vivid detail what happened. It was one of those experiments where everybody gathered around one workstation to watch a few people do it. The writing lab was quite busy as everyone has papers due. The dynamics grading has slowed down quite a bit, so at least I’m not under pressure from all sides. I do have Navin’s Differential Equations to help grade in his absence, but it’s not easy.
The Avion meeting was pretty quick and we planned for the incentive. With Thanksgiving and Finals around the corner, most of the campus events are slowing down. I had a really early night and I think I slept almost 10 hours total by the time I woke up the next morning.
Wednesday – 16th November
It was the usual Wednesday of classes and we had Professor Jason Aufdenberg to speak about twin stars for the Science and Technology Communications class. While I understood the topic, I foresee myself having problems figuring how to write the story and make it appealing for the masses. I’m actually quite happy to be taking all these advanced writing classes because even though I don’t know it like a science, I find myself utilizing the skills of looping and periodic sentences. I’ll have to try out the one word or three word paragraph for impact soon.
It was warm when I was done with classes so I skipped yoga and immediately raced to get the truck and board to go surf. It was pretty awesome to not need a wetsuit in the middle of November and be surfing. The water was slightly chilly, but it was not going to make me catch a cold or anything. It’s also possible that I might have been getting conditioned to the cold water as well. I do not remember it being this warm last year, I seem to remember using the thick jackets around Thanksgiving time.
The only downside was that I got my board sliced by an old guy on a Stand-Up Paddle board who did not see where he was going. I was paddling out to the lineup, about to duck under the oncoming wave, and I see the guy off to my left, and his board, body position and head are all looking in that direction, and it looked like the wave was going to break in that direction anyway. The next thing I know, is that he suddenly cuts into my direction, which leads to me instantly yelling at him. I push the nose of my board down to avoid him, but with a big a board as his, he was on a direct collision path with me.
His three fins run across the nose of my board, with his main fin leaving a nice cut in the board and he fell off. I didn’t get angry with him or anything, but I told him that his body language and all were aimed in the other direction. He said that his board was a new one and that he thought he was the only one out there. This led me to believe that he is probably fairly new to the sport, as any experienced person is always aware of not just what is around you, but where you are in relation to the shore.
In any case, it’s not like I could get cash from him or anything, it’s one of those things where you just suck it up. The damage wasn’t really major, but the fiberglass was definitely breached, and the foam might have been damaged a little. I still carried on surfing and caught a few nice waves before heading home to prepare dinner.
Thursday – 17th November
Experimental Aerodynamics lab is done for the semester, so Karissa and I were supposed to go surfing early in the morning, when the waves were better, but and she was all excited about it as well. Unfortunately, her two group mates decided to abandon the paper since they were failing the class anyway, and she was up the whole night writing it. Sometimes, the stories I hear from the other majors makes me realize that in the AE program at least, the ratio of dicks and/or dumbasses is fairly low, especially in the higher level classes.
To survive and get to the 300 level classes in AE, you probably would have to put in quite a fair bit of effort and you’re not averse to hard work. For some of the other majors where the workload may not be as consistent, especially with project and papers based classes, it’s not difficult to get blindsided. The constant homework in the engineering classes force you to stay on top of things.
My hypothesis is that the higher level AE classes have a certain caliber of student, while a lot of the other majors end up with people who transfer out of AE. This is by no means insulting the other majors and putting AE on a high horse, as there will always be smart, hardworking people and lazy, don’t-give-a-crap people in all the majors, it seems that the lazy, don’t-give-a-crap people are not as common in AE. Maybe it’s because I’ve yet to meet those people?
In any case, I still went to surf on my own in the afternoon. I dropped the board off at the Salty Dog before heading out to Main Street for a quick session. Unfortunately, while the air and water were fairly warm, I had missed the sun and without it, it was really cold. I barely lasted an hour before I left.
Friday – 18th November
There’s only like 2-3 weeks more of school so these long day of classes are going to be over. My new semester is looking to be a lot more balanced compared to this one. I start at the same times as this semester, but I end at 3:15 on MWF, and 12:45 on TTH. I won’t get anymore free days or early releases like I have now, but it should be a lot more conducive to studying.
I still pretty much get half-days on Tuesdays and Thursday, which leaves time to surf and do other things. I might not work as much next semester, or space it out a bit more. In the Spring, my days were really well-broken up and I had classes and breaks as bite-sized chunks. This semester everything is a long block which makes the days long but the weeks short.
I did not study that hard for the thermodynamics test, but I’m confident of how I did. Somehow, I have a natural affinity for the subject and it’s possible my meticulousness helps. Paying attention in class and doing the homework is The concepts are very straight forward, and the only thing is knowing when and which formulas and assumptions apply. I seriously think that I could actually do more thermodynamics for a career, and get into gas kinetics and all that.
Immediately after school, Reggie and I went to picked Navin up from Orlando. I’m glad we insisted he take my jacket before he left as he needed it. He was complaining about how he didn’t even have a TV for economy class and Reggie and I were laughing our asses off. When we flew, we prepared our trips with books and PSPs. At least Navin had his iPad with all the textbooks on it, so it wasn’t wasted.
I’ve been wanting to eat at the Cheesecake Factory for a while, but by the time we got there at 8 p.m., there was still a one hour wait time, it was ridiculous. We had a cheap meal at Johnny Rockets, before heading back and I just played Skyrim till it was time to sleep.
Saturday – 19th November
I spent almost the whole day playing Skyrim except for the bit where I met Karissa for a while, and Navin and I went for our Sigam Gamma Tau Induction Dinner. Today was really quite a quiet uneventful day, but I had a decent escape from life in Skyrim.
Sunday – 20th November
I woke up fairly early and headed to Ponce Inlet for the first time in weeks. I was there quite early and while the waves were not as glassy as I would have liked, I caught a bunch of nice lines, and the thing I’m more proud of was that I only wiped out once. Most of the time, I was stable enough to go back down on the board rather than falling off.
The Avion production was very quick and we were actually done by 4 p.m. for the most part. My 1,500 review on Skyrim was the front page and I think it’s one of the most eye-catching covers we’ve ever done. It’s not really that big of news, but the people who play games in this school, (75%?) will definitely pick it up.
Dinner was the leftover duck we bought from Orlando on Friday, and it was awesome!
