The School Thread

Talking to classmates, I'm thinking my terrible accounting essay is going to be a lot better than I thought. Most people didn't even make it to the 2000 word minimum.

I've just struggled with trying to get PHP 5.4 on my domain for the past three fucking hours. The host offers 5.2 and 5.3 and of course we learned 5.4 which apparently is different when it comes to, oh, arrays or use of square brackets in general. So all the stuff I've tweaked from class for my final project that works great on my virtual machine? Won't show up on the host I need it on.

I feel like throwing my hands up and just failing this fucking class. I'm going to bed now where I am sure I won't sleep what with worrying about this god damn thing all night.

Edit: I finally, FINALLY got php 5.4 to compile and install on my host. Now all my test files are showing up. Thank fucking GOD.

Update: I went to office hours yesterday to get feedback on that writing paper, and it turns out everything is fine and the paper's going quite well and etc etc. So I guess I have nothing to worry about, despite my angst!

Perfect score on last week's linear algebra exam! Woo!

More impressed by Sluggo's perfect week in the NFL picks league.

I really need to just sit down and tackle this final project. Tonight I have to lead a section, which means at lunch and after work I need to watch a shitload of videos to catch up, but after that I'll have two hours alone at work waiting for Bahimiron to get out of class where I can just sit here and get it working. I finally got the pages to show up once I figured out the php version issue, now I need to get all the details together and get the forms working. I'm not even going to worry about how it looks until everything is returning right. Once I have that, slap a mobile interface up and my Worst Case Scenario is all set. Then i can focus on the damn app.

*headdesk* I finally work up the nerve to go back to school, and I can't get anyone important to call/email me back this week. Argh!

Woot also got the top grade in my class on my econometrics exam. (Yes I'm bragging!)

Econometrics. Why do I feel like you made up the name of that subject?

I didn't! It's a very important foundational topic.

So you say, but am I going to take the word of someone who claims he studies econometrics? I think not.

IT'S TOTALLY ECONO DUDE

I have one more presentation* to do, and then I will be done all projects, assignments, quizzes, and other related tedious busywork. Just finals left to worry about!


*A presentation on capital assets. Specifically repairs, betterments, and improvements and when to capitalize, revalue, or expense. Super exciting stuff!

Here's a pro tip:

If we're in week 14, and you decide to go ahead to submit the assignments for weeks 3-6 (finally) all in one weekend, you probably shouldn't then post a day or so later wondering why they haven't been graded yet. You know that life you said got in the way of you submitting assignments on time? It's about to get in the way of me grading you. I'll get back to you in 6-10 weeks, how about that?

One good thing about graduate school is that I got to see how my peers acted in class as students and as teachers while we were co-TAs. Without exception, the people who were always asking to be the exception to the rule as students were the biggest hardasses as teachers. As far as I can tell the underlying philosophy was, "Fuck you, I'm special, and I don't need to deal with this shit."

So don't be concerned about the lack of empathy or reciprocity. Some people are just broken and there's not anything we can do about it.

Final result for my MSc was published this morning and it turns out that a distinction in my final assignment meant that I got a distinction overall!
I am now allowed to call myself Master of Science in Science.
Woohoo!

Congrats NyimaR!!! Have some cake and champagne (or the comestibles of your choice)! That's wonderful!

Haven't slept yet, along with about a hundred of my fellow students and I still can't get the fucking form to look right on my mobile jquery site. If I could, I'd feel like I was close to being done. Arrrrgh!

Earlier this year, in econometrics (the subject that does not exist), I had to learn how to derive the OLS estimators for the coefficients of the single linear regression model. Both are hideous messes of sigmas and Xi's and this and that. Today in Linear Algebra we learned how to derive these estimators using vectors and matrices and SURPRISE SURPRISE it's about a thousand times more straightforward and easy (though still computationally intense).

Finished my final project for Hell Class and handed it in at 3 am this morning. Now I just have to wait until January to get my grade.

And of course, do my final project for the other class I've been totally neglecting while Hell Class ate my life. But I'm freeeeeeeee!

/sends a large bottle of champagne to Quackers

At last! YAYYYYY!!!

Finished my accounting theory exam today and got my paper back. I got 8 on it. 8/10, 8/100? Who knows!

The exam itself was pretty terrible. I gave these horrid half answers to these open ended questions that I should've aced. The one math question I know I got perfect but that was only worth about 8 marks out of 100. Ah well, I'm hoping for a 75%, which shouldn't affect my overall GPA too much. If I can maintain my GPA through 5-6 more courses, that'll net a 'Graduated with Distinction' on my B.Tech.

I have very little work left in the last class of my online MBA program. Everything has to be finished by 9PM local tomorrow night.

Trying to build up the enthusiasm to do this is proving exceptionally difficult. There's a big part of me that's like, "As long as I don't fail, I graduate, so why am I even writing this?"

Woo! Freedom! At least until January.

For my film and theatre final exam, I wrote a comparative essay between the play True West and Office Space. It was the most glorious bit of liberal arts bullshitting I've ever out to paper.

SHARE! SHARE WITH US!

Time to do the final revision on my paper for my writing class. The last draft was graded as a B (didn't count; it was just to give us an idea where we were), so I think I'm working from a pretty solid floor here.

Well, it was a hand-written essay I scrawled out in an hour and a half, so I don't have a copy and the school keeps all prior exams under lock and key.

But the general gist was that both film and play highlight the emptiness of the daily 9-5 grind and how we'd all be happier living out in the desert (Peter becoming a construction worker being a metaphorical desert, naturally). They both bring to light the myth of the American Dream, True West saying the past glory of the old west is a lie, Office Space is saying the forward-looking capitalist lifestyle a lie. I also put in something about how Innitech was a mid-90s software company and the dot con crash ending the dream and blah blah.

Like I said, total Libs BS, but the instructor eats that kind of stuff up, so I should be golden.

I'm giving you half a like for at least summarizing the stuff, which I have to say is pretty funny. However, Broken Forum represents likes as integers so it rounded up to a whole like. FYI.

That essay I mentioned? I'm really dragging on it. I've finally managed to incorporate most of the feedback I received; now I've got to add about a page and a half to bring it up to the appropriate length. I just have no fucking energy to do it any more; adding more of those absurd quote sandwich paragraphs won't improve it in the slightest; it's just more nonsense jumping through hoops. Argh, I can't wait for this class to be over.

Finished a grading sweep for tonight. Got a pile of final papers I'll do this week, then I get finals back on Wednesday for one class, then a final project for another class is due on Friday. And for me, the last final project I have is due on Tuesday. I was hoping to finish it up tonight but this semester has been so stressful with everything that's been going on that I am just fucking exhausted at this point. I went to bed at 8 pm last night and woke up at 9 am this morning and I've felt all day like I could just go back to sleep. Ugh.

Yeah it sucks. I'm struggling with this paper and then I'm in the home stretch: I have three exams over three days. Fortunately they're all in fairly technical subjects so they'll be easy to study for!

Attempting to sign up for classes next semester that I actually NEED is proving to be impossible.
Classes keep getting closed and the schedule that's shown online that's supposed to show when classes are closed isn't doing it and eugh. Everything that isn't closed is full. This is horrible.

Rutgers was the same by the time I registered. Things to mollify despair/frustration: lots of those closed classes will open up, keep trying over the break. And lots of them will definitely open up in the first days.

Finally finished the fucking thing. I think what made me hate this paper was the super rigid stucture. I get why it was required, I just think it was a stupid requirement. Ultimately I ended up actually enjoying the research I did, and I'm happy with what I came up with in terms of my own writing. I just hated having to conform!

Now it's time to study some linear algebra!

Working on my final project. I love the professor for this one but it's annoying--we've got to put a website together and have 25 pages total. With actual content. Even though she's specified that she doesn't care if it's the ugliest website ever so long as we just show we get how to edit things and move things around--we need 25 pages of content. No lorem ipsum allowed. It's a total busy work requirement that is annoying. I've got everything else done except for that and I'm constantly counting pages and trying to figure out what the hell else I can add. I WANT TO BE DONE GOD DAMMIT.

Turned in the final project last night. All that stands between me and NO SCHOOL is a pile of final papers, a bunch of finals I'll get on Wednesday, and the final projects that will be turned in on Friday. ALMOST DONE!

I also decided to swap TAing gigs with my usual partner. We usually do a January term short class together then a spring class together, but enrollment is pretty low so they're going to take the January term and I'll take the spring on my own. So a whole month of NO SCHOOL! For the first time in...a lot of years. IT WILL BE GLORIOUS!

Intermediate Macro final today, econometrics mañana. Two more days and done for a month!

The Gods of Cumulative Finals giveth and they taketh away. I blew one obvious bit of one question that I thought I knew during today's final, but on another I took a wild-ass guess and was totally right. So I guess it evens out!

I wont know my marks until January. *sadface*.