January 25, 2004

First Impressions (Spring 2004)

Last spring, I decided to document my first impressions of my classes, so it could be contrasted with my end-of-the-semester reviews, but that tradition quickly died when I forgot to talk about my classes this fall. However, in an effort to resurrect this tradition, this entry will be dedicated to my first impressions (academics and beyond) of the upcoming semester.

History 160

This was my first and only class on Tuesday and to tell you the truth, the one I was anticipating the least going into this semester. Don't get me wrong - I love history. Probably more so than even my choice of majors, but this class was on the economic history of the 20th century, which sounded kind of dull. The only reason I enrolled at all was because it was killing three requirements for me - L&S International breadth, Engineering humanities, and Engineering series requirement. The first lecture was less boring than I thought and I remembered how much I really love history again. Plus, we began talking about money and Big Business and how the rich screwed the poor, and of course, you know how much I love that kind of stuff. All in all, the class doesn't look too bad and I hope I'll come out of it with a positive experience.

MCB 110

Biochemistry, again? That was my thoughts going into the class. I like biochem and all, but it does get kind of hard to memorize all that crap and I had mixed feelings entering the class. However, I have once again become absorbed by the material (like last semester) and am looking forward to learning about DNA (and stuff like that). The only downside visible so far is the emphasis placed on lab experiments. Seriously, no one cares about gel electrophoresis. Like, NO ONE. Except perhaps the grad students who dedicate their lives to it.

EE 122

I don't know if I have ever seen such an interesting subject (Communication Networks) juxtaposed with such an awful presentation before. If I wasn't so damn interested in the Internet, I would have walked out of the first lecture and dropped the class in two seconds. The professor basically read the entire syllabus to us, twice, in the first lecture!! Not to mention, he speaks quietly and we're in a shitty room (10 Evans) in one of the shittiest buildings on campus! But reading about webservers and FTP in the first chapter of reading sort of compensates for all that. You can now feel free to refer to me as "King Tool."

CS 162

The operating systems class has been one I've been looking forward to since I learned I had been accepted into EECS in high school, and after a difficult decision not to take it last spring (a last minute change), I'm definitely excited this semester. The professor seems really cool and the material is fascinating. The project is really daunting and I foresee a lot of sleepless nights in the future, but oh well. It's all worth it, in the end (whenever that may be).

Overall Assessment

This semester promises to be a challenging and hopefully interesting academic semester. Outside of school, the semester has already started off with a bang, as the gallery reflects, especially here, here, here, and of course, here. Everything seems all good and hopefully, it stays that way!