April 25th-27th, 2011

Yay Dead Week! The time when all of Georgia Tech shifts from its typical pattern of studying, tests and pain to even more studying and pain! Though professors are typically forbidden to give tests or large projects during this week, they are can be quite creative. "Oh that massive paper isn't exactly a project, just homework, by the way, you also have an exam in my class as well. Good luck!"

Typical Georgia Tech Dead Week, minus the zombies

Monday was an excellent day, class ended by two PM (no physics lab! Yay!). I was actually productive as well! I got through a chapter of orgo and did a bit of physics. My main goal for this week is to stagger everything out and try my best not to die, which may prove easier said than done. I did manage to beast out a psychology paper in class though, so I'm pretty proud of that. I also ended up getting a 102 on my last orgo test so that really helped kick off my week to a good start :D.

Yea random meaningless business poster about productivity!

There is something nice about not having class on Tuesday (or Thursday for that matter), aka not having to worry about having to wake up at some terrible hour in the morning (sadly I'll will not have that pleasure in the fall).

Fall Schedule, click in enlarge

I did manage to meet with my Organic I professor though and the meeting went pretty well. Basically I'm looking to TA for orgo I/II and/or work in a lab part time because I'll only be working at Axion part time during the summer. My orgo I prof was super nice and basically he went with me to talk to the guy who hires TAs and he (hopefully) hooked me up with a TA job. I just have to wait to hear from the other guy! It was definitely a nice boost to an already fantastic week!

Today hasn't been to out of the ordinary, just more studying but with some tornadoes thrown in for the heck of it. Tornadoes have always freaked me out a bit because when I used to live in Illinois, we would get hit with them all the time. Combine that with the fact I was like 8 at the time and you get something that stays with you. We got hit with a lot of severe weather today. The entire south was hit by either storms or tornadoes and sadly there were a lot of deaths :\. I was in the library studying with some friends today and some storms were blowing though. There was a tornado warning for some cities south of us, but nothing too big. Then when I was watching the storm with some friends, the library announced that a tornado was spotted in metro Atlanta and we had to get to the basement ASAP. Well, cue the usual "CRAP CRAP CRAP" moment. We hurried back to our table, grabbed our stuff then made our way downstairs as fast as possible to see a huge crowd of students trying to go down a flight of stairs. All of sudden they start heading back up....

Turns out it was a false alarm. Apparently some guy at the GTPD misread the watch as a warning....Yea....

Eventually my friends and I made our way over to Whittaker where I just finished studying some Physics II. Its 3 AM right now and I'm exhausted. Good night and good luck!

April 19th-24th, 2011

Crap! I keep forgetting to update this thing...I swear I'll get better!

In any case, last week wasn't too bad. Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty ordinary days. Sleep, wake up, classes, eat, Starcraft, repeat. It was really nice not having to worry about synth lab this week. Speaking of that, I still do not have my final grade yet. I swear the TA for that class is just trying to prolong our suffering as much as possible...

Work wasn't that bad at all, I had to inspect more die so that production increase. This job is definitely the best I've ever had. Working for a small start up is so much better than a big corporation. Less annoying bureaucratic nonsense and you actually get to know people. Plus with a start up, everything is going so fast that there is always something new to take care of. Considering I've worked in placing ranging from a computer store to a grocery store, this job is amazing.

I had my last Organic II test on Friday, which I'm actually kind of sad about :(. I've absolutely loved organic chemistry (which makes me weird I guess). In fact I'm going to go talk to my orgo I professor tomorrow to see if I could possibly TA. Man, that would great if I actually got that. I used to tutor students in chemistry last summer and it was absolutely fantastic and I loved every moment of it.

Have you ever thought how your life would be different if you made a different decision? Yea, happened to me on Thursday. Its kinda funny actually, because during my senior year, I was dead set on RPI, my dad's alma mater. I went to visit it during the summer and other than the 12 hour car drive, I fell in love with the college almost instantly. The beautiful, old brick buildings covered in ivy made me feel like I jumped back 200 years to Ye Olde England. At that time, GT wasn't even on my radar. My Dad mentioned it a few times during applications and I only applied because he basically forced me to. Now fast forward about 3 months and I'm sitting in my room trying to decide where I'll spend the next 4 years of my life at. RPI had a great campus and culture to boot, but for some reason I was drawn to GT. Tech was also way less expensive than RPI ($35k vs $52k) and I guess that influenced my choice, but I still wonder how my life would be different if I did decide to head further up north to a far away land called New York.

For one thing I seriously doubt I would be a biochemistry major right now. I used to (and still do) love game design and RPI had one of the best game design programs in the country. When I went to visit, I brought my portfolio and showed it to a few professors and they loved it. I probably would have my same personality, though I bet I would be slightly more reserved (due to the fact that at GT everybody is bit eccentric). The more I think about it doubt I would have as many friends as I do down here. RPI is a more traditional college than GT (in terms of majors and culture) and my geeky personality would most likely have a harder time fitting in. Overall while I might have enjoyed my life up at RPI (especially being close to my friend Michael), I would still pick GT because while hard, I still love the geeky culture and general southern hospitality.

I'll do one of these every time I post now, there has been tons of events in my life that have always had a "what-if" component to it haha.

Also, today was Easter! Many people see Easter as the time when a bunny goes around and gives people chocolate goodies to make them fat. However to Christians, the day has a much larger significance. Easter is the day that Jesus was resurrected after dying on the cross. The past couple of days basically build up to Easter. The Thursday before Easter is called Maudy Thursday and it is the day when Jesus was betrayed by Judas. The following day, Good Friday was when Jesus was actually crucified. The reason why Easter is so important to Christians is because it is when Jesus defeated sin. Basically in Christian theology, Jesus died so that we could enter Heaven. He took on all the evil (sin) in the world so that we as people may get to know Him. Thats why many Christian songs contain phrases like "He is my Redeemer" because Jesus paid for our sins in full. Easter services are usually pretty joyous because of how important the day is to us, but they can be somber as well as we also remember the suffering that Jesus went through for us (getting whipped and nailed to cross isn't exactly a pleasant experience).

In any case, I've got finals in a week (organic II on Monday, Physics II and econ back to back on Wednesday and a hopefully easy Psychology test on Friday). Wish me luck!

April 16th-18th, 2011

Never thought I would be glad for the weekend to actually be over...

Except Saturday, Saturday was fantastic. Get back to my apartment at 10 AM, go back to sleep, wake up at 2 PM and do practically nothing the rest of the day. Well, not exactly nothing, I took a stab act some Organic Chemistry II homework due on Monday. And by "take a stab at" I mean try to figure out and eventually give up.

Flash forward (more like sleep for about 7 hours), and its Sunday! Ah what amazing weather! Couldn't wait to go to church, toss the frisbee around, and do...orgo homework? Yea...thats the Tech lifestyle for you I guess. But this time I just couldn't give up, well I could have, but having a 0 on a homework tends to dissuade one from stopping. Nothing makes me feel better than having no idea how to do the homework of a subject I'm supposed to be good at...

Organic chemistry: The Bane of every science major

For some one reason I felt completely out of it Sunday. I guess school is finally taking its toll on me. Sometimes I feel absolutely overwhelmed with everything. There is so much pressure to perform well on every test, report, or job and have some semblance of a social life. It always seems that I am on my breaking point. Sure there are down weeks, but I usually just use those to prepare for my future commitments. I've always loved the opportunities that Tech has given me but I hardly have time to enjoy the things that I used to because I have been so busy.

But right now I'm just glad that this semester is almost over. I had my last (hopefully) physics lab, and I'm so happy to be done with the horrible lab. The labs aren't that difficult, just time consuming and I feel I do not actually learn anything, just how to plug and chug numbers. After I finished with my classes, I went over to Atlantic Station to see Insidious with my room mate Taylor, Jason, and Kevin. Insidious was quite the scary movie. I've always loved psychological horror movies and boy did this one deliver. It starts out as your typical ghost story but then it takes some nice turns and ends a good(?) note.

Seems like a happy, family friendly movie...

The movie definitely had some of really good scares and I was the edge of my seat for most of the movie. Probably the creepiest part is when this song played:

Which was followed by some super creepy moments. Not going to spoil it for those that haven't seen it yet, but you'll be laughing yet terrified at the same time.

I know I said beforehand that I'm starting to feel burnt out, but here the thing: we can all make it. We've all gotten this far in life, and for me, I don't plan on wasting it. Sure it might be painful now, but nobody ever said life was easy.

April 11-15th, 2011

Wow, I've definitely been slacking on this thing...

Basically I'm just glad this week is over. The first few days were not that eventful other than the typical "study, go to class, eat, rinse, repeat". However, by study, I mean try to figure how the heck I should prepare my synth lab reports and final on Thursday. The class itself isn't that difficult in terms of the experiments, its just the vagueness of the entire class that gets on my nerve. I absolutely hate not knowing if what I'm doing is correct. The lab manual is woefully incomplete to the point of missing data, details, or just outdated about the experiment. The class that meets one hour each week is does cover the corrections but it seems to place the burden on the student to correct the issues which results in a higher workload than need be. The grading can be schizophrenic at best as well. Some of friends got very low grades simply because they did not know they had to include something that was not specified in the lab manual. I can understand taking off points for something that is stated in the manual, but to simply leave the students in the dark about what is required is simply not fair.

The lab practicum wasn't TOO bad. The experiment was actually pretty easy, basically along the lines of put two chemicals in a tube, shake, and filter. The actual test was more difficult than I had hoped. The questions were tricky and were basically a summation of orgo I/II. I seriously hope I did well on it, but only time will tell!

The good news is that I am officially the Chemistry Representative for SGA! Woo! I don't actually start until the Fall semester, but I'm actually pretty excited. I really do want to play a role in the Georgia Tech community and this seems like a great fit. I'm also getting involved with the Neuroscience club as well, which should be pretty cool, especially if I can get an officer position.

Friday was a great break, especially as I can feel myself getting slowly burned out. Hung out with some friends, watched some movies, and enjoyed the pleasure of running outside after a fire alarm. Overall, not bad at all!

April 8/9/10th, 2011

Yea...kinda forgot to update this over the past couple days, I guess I've been enjoying life too much.

Anyway, Friday turned out quite nice. Got my tests back and suprisingly I did quite well! 88 on psychology, 80 on physics, and a nice 62 on organic (wh

ich I beat the average by 1 point! Woo for not studying!). Friday night was great, spent time with some friends at California Pizza Kitchen (food was good,

service sucked. Alot.) and saw The Source Code which was surprisingly good, considering the lame name. It was like a mash up between Inception and the Bourne series.

Ok food, terrible service. Aka not worth it

Shopping Saturday was absolutely fantastic! Major props go out to my friends who helped me out with everything! I managed to snag two shirts, two jeans, n

ew shoes, and thin tie (which I'll have to return for being too long sadly) for around $100 which I consider a success.

I'm hoping to get in the near future some sort of blazer, I've always wanted to try this out:

Its been nice not to worry about school at all for the past couple of days. After last week, I definitely need a breather before finals hit. Micro economics has been an absolutely pain this entire semester. The professor is hard to understand and just reads from slides which come from the book so lecture is completely worthless. I've basically been learning the material on my own and things have been kinda rocky, but I've been doing well, I guess. The professor doesn't know what an A will be so once again I'm basically just trying to keep my average as high as possible.

Anyway, going away from the rant on MicroEcon, Sunday was pretty fantastic as well. I went to church this morning (Grace Midtown) with my roommate Zach and the message was good, basically about how we should stay as humble as possible help everyone in need, even our worse enemies. In theory it sounds easy, but helping out somebody who you absolutely do not like is very (speaking from personal experience). But hey, one can always try :)

I also got some ultimate in today for about 1 1/2 hours. I played ok, but some of the people were much taller, faster, and overall better which made it hard for me :P.

Well time to finish off the rest of the semester strong and beast my finals :D.

PS: This piece is amazing:

April 6/7, 2011

Wow...talk about a long past few days. Seriously this was probably the most intense few days that I've had in quite some time. Three tests, meetings, and life in general means one very busy Ian.

Tuesday wasn't too bad. Woke up around 10 AM (with about 6ish hours of sleep), and went to a meeting for SGA election coming up soon. I'm running for the chemistry representative spot and I am the only one in the race, so that takes some pressure off me. Basically it was time for t

he candidates to meet each other and talk about our platform. I'm focusing on fiscal responsibi

lity and improved faculty-student relations. I want to make sure I can save GT (and fellow students) as much money as possible. Also, I'm working up on a few plans to help teachers get feedback on their performance and create an integrated undergrad research website (more details to follow!)

The rest of the day was spent cramming for psychology and physics II with a bit of orgo II tossed in for good measure. I hate cramming because I actually want to know the material, not smash my face into a book over the course of a day to get ready for some test. I decided that the orgo test would be my drop (we have five tests and we can drop one). Physics and psychology were a different story. Psych isn't hard, its just time consuming, which is the other wya for

physics so combine them together and you get a terrible time. Neither test I could afford to do bad on, so the pressure was definitely up there.

Now here's a breakdown of the tests using memes for your viewing pleasure:

1. Psychology:

I didn't really have time to read as much as I needed to. The test was ok, I'll just have to wait and pray for the best.

2. Orgo II

I've always wondered what it would be like to completely wing

a test and see what happens. Now I know! It was nice just being able to pick and answer because it kinda seemed right and not really caring!

3. Physics II

Half the test was basically:

While the other half was:

I. Hate. 10 point multiple choice. Seriously, its worth more than the free response and just as hard. The free response was not too bad but now I'm paranoid about messing up one of two of those 10 point questions.

But in any case, its all over now. As much as Tech can drive us to insanity, its good to remember that as long one tries their best, everything is fine. Sometimes we can all get too wrapped up in trying to perform on top of our class that we forget that college isn't just about grades. To figure out what one enjoys in life is way more important than any grade in my opinion.

To close, this song has been my favorite for the past couple of days, enjoy!

Sunday April 3, 2011

Well interesting day to say the least...

Day started out with me going to church with my room mate Zach. The message was pretty good, about how we should keep our hearts open to those in need. I've always liked Grace Midtown, especially how focused on service it is and their messages definitely reflect that. The service ran over by a bit which made it hard to get back in time ultimate but stopping by sublime donuts (amazing by the way) was a nice treat.

Ultimate was a complete blast. Like I said before I've never been one for long distance jogs, but short quick bursts with a goal (ie getting that stupid frisbee). The wind made things a lot more difficult as the frisbee often decided that suddenly curving was a smart idea. One of my friends brought her little sister and another friend to frisbee which was pretty cool, especially when I learned her friend went to the same elementary school as I did and might have been in a few of the same classes as well. Talk about a small world.

Brinner was probably a terrible idea (sausage and eggos are not a good combo for the faint of heart).

My Wednesday has suddenly gotten a lot worse when my psychology teacher sent out an email saying we have a test Wednesday, which makes three tests in the same day. Yay..... So basically it looks like life will be a lot more hectic than I originally planned. But hey, I say bring it on Tech, I've gone this far, you won't stop me now! :D

Saturday April 2nd, 2011

Well, what a nice way to start a Saturday, by going to bed at 4 AM and waking up at 1 PM. Seriously, after slowly dying last week I was glad I had the chance to feel super lazy (not like next week will be any better with a physics II and orgo II test on the same day). Ironically, after taking care of my laundry, I felt like running and went for a jog around Tech and boy did I need that. I haven't been to the gym as much as I have liked, and it has shown. Luckily I've been good at short bursts of speed, but long distance running has always been a pain. Hopefully I can get a schedule and actually follow it for once.

Dinner was nice, some Indian style chicken followed by some sauted onion, carrots, and spinach. The chicken turned out well though the spices left something to be desired. I'll have to try a new concoction I came up with tomorrow for dinner. As usual, I never actually follow any recipes, but simply try my best to pair things that would go well together. Its worked well so far, except for one with ramen which was a disaster (eggs, pineapple, and ramen=terrible).

Other than that, life has been pretty fantastic! School is going well and I'm starting to develop more and better friendships. I didn't get SMART, but hey, just gives me the chance to pursue more opportunities :).