We Get Signal

Oh man, I'm such a nerd.

Anyways, the blogs have now been linked to the HMC Admissions website. Wheee!

As if anyone read this thing before.

So, onto the topic of the day: signals.

Now, this could go plenty of different ways. I could talk about signaling each other. Which would in turn be about communication. Or, I can ramble about my High-Speed PCB Design class and all the lovely troubles I'm having.

But, I think I'm going to go with the VLSI project.

VLSI is an acronym for Very-Large Scale Integration. Yeah, kinda lame. It basically translates into chip design. Way back in the day, building a simple analog circuit was the coolest thing. Then people got creative and started doing logic. And later, memory. Jump forward a bunch of years and you've got millions and billions of tiny transistors on a 1 inch silicon chip doing everything from accessing external memory to doing a linear transformation, not to mention dealing with internal signals and cached memory and figuring out what it should do next with the instruction we just fed it. So, yeah, Very-Large Scale Integration.

This particular class is very interesting. In E85: Intro to Digital Design, we learned about digital systems and logic and all that. So, how to build something that works. Now, we're learning how to build something from idea to schematic to layout to fabrication, and make sure it doesn't guzzle giant amount of electricity nor takes forever to do anything (i.e. minimize delay). Also, if you follow the microprocessor wars, you'll know that every little bit counts. Basically, it's a class on how to make a good chip.

The bulk of the class is taken up by a project where the entire class builds a chip. That's 14 students trying to build something. This year it's a 6502 processor, the thing in the Apple II and the NES game system, with a fun research component called a Razor latch. The idea is we run the chip so fast that it break (i.e. gets the wrong answer) in the worst-case scenario. However, most of the time, it works. And when it breaks, we detect it and pay a penalty to fix this issue. So, we're running this right on the edge of failure, instead of padding a little margin of error. As I said, every little bit counts.

Now that you know the back story, here's the main event.

It's a 14 person team.

Our professor David Harris was talking with a friend and they talked a bit about how the VLSI project works. The other professor, after hearing what's going on, asks, "Is this one of those only at Harvey Mudd things? I mean, what if one of the students doesn't do the work?" I'm sure you're familiar with this, that chance that one person drops out or slacks off and everyone else has to pull the extra weight. However, David Harris has been doing this at Mudd for every year since he's gotten here (well, maybe not his first year, but you get the idea) and not once has anyone dropped out of the project. Usually they drop during the first few weeks of class, pre-project time.

But basically, it's weird. At least to me. I mean, at Mudd, when you think about it, there's this weird feeling of letting others down. Thus, even in a giant project with 14 people, students don't want to let their team down, so they all try their hardest to make the project work. That is just awesome. I mean, I've always held a strong conviction about my work and ownership of a product, probably why I did so well on projects back in High School, but it didn't click until recently that elsewhere, sometimes people don't care about the team or the project and essentially screw everyone else over. Kinda cool that at Mudd we don't worry about that.

However, it's not all fun and games. We're talking about trying to build a processor with 14 students in about 8 weeks. This has several components to the process, all divided amongst different teams, and huge dependencies everywhere. We really felt that last week. One team didn't realize how much several other teams needed certain tests. The problem was exasperated by the fact the RTL (basically code that outlines the idea of how things work) wasn't quite finished yet. In fact, it's still not quite finished yet. Thus, even if they built a comprehensive test, they couldn't check if the test even worked. I eventually got in contact with these guys (one of them lives down the hall, and is a girl) and we hammered out what I wanted for the test, and how we could move forward even with stuff in a state of flux on the RTL side. We eventually got a simple starter test, and have since been able to start slowly moving forward again.

So, here's the lesson. When you've got something this big and complex, make sure you talk to each other. Plan ahead, figure out what you need when and make sure others know you need it. One of the biggest problems has been not getting stuff because people didn't realize others were depending on it. With all of these dependencies, if one end gets stuck, it eventually can bring the whole project grinding to a halt. Not fun. So, it's a learning experience not only on how to make a good chip or team dynamics, but especially one about how to plan ahead and make sure you communicate in a group as large of this.

And you thought classes would only be lectures, homework, and tests, now didn't you?

Your View, My View: a Survival Guide

I mentioned that I'm a Christian in my little intro. Just want to preface this by saying I don't speak for Christians, I wouldn't call myself a model Christian (then again, by definition a Christian should be someone who realizes they're flawed, but I'm getting off on a tangent there), and etc. all that legal stuff that gets me off the hook should I say something stupid.

Anyways, the main thing to note is 1) there are other Christians on campus and 2) there are people who are NOT Christian.

The first point in pretty obvious, as should the second.

The key is understanding what this means.

You'll recall in a previous post I talked about how small and tight knit the Mudd community can be. Everyone more or less can know everyone, or at the very least have heard about them or passed them on their way to class. I also talked about how you can't hide.

So, people have different views on life. For example, I'm not a fan of alcohol, whether it be underage or legal. If I was a jerk, this could lead to me shunning those who do drink, me ranting loudly about how alcohol is a social evil, and basically be a jackass. After all, there are those who do think alcohol is OK. Heck, there are those who think getting yourself drunk is a good stress reliever, albeit can cause hangovers. Never got why they still like it, even those who regularly get hangovers, but then again I don't drink.

So, I recognize others are different than me. Now, once you make this realization (if you haven't already) you need to choose what you do about this.

Mudd is a very small community, so being a jerk is not a good idea. In fact, it's a very good idea if you want to get shunned by everyone. Instead, usually people either agree to disagree or you accept the person and shun the crime (or habit, or sin, or whatever). So, bottom line, don't be a jerk. I guess this applies to lots of other things as well, but here it applies very rigorously.

Now that we've established what not to do, i.e. go around acting superior, let's look at some more reasonable courses of action.

I would personally recommend being a good friend. This entails accepting people of different views. I'm using the word accepting in a manner that does not force you to embrace or promote their views, just accept the person. After all, even with different views on certain topics, there's plenty of other topics that you should be able to find common ground. Like how expensive war can be. So, be a good friend, and make your view a positive influence in yourself and others. No body likes a jerk, but sometimes if people see something they like about you, they just might change over to your perspective. Plus, it's always good to have friends you can mess around with. Now, this doesn't mean you have to be the most outgoing get all the attention person, just be considerate and even being available to talk to can make a big difference.

Of course, with differing views inevitably comes discussion. Since there are many very intellectual people here, we often get into discussions about our different views. And this isn't random tossing around ideas, often people cite studies, personal experience, philosophical rants, etc. And it's not just about drinking, but also on the Problem of Evil, where a particular phrase came from, and of course politics and religion. So, if you have a certain view, there is a chance it will come into question. The key is that people here tend to argue on a very logical system. Leave a hole, and people will tend to find it. So, feel free to believe whatever you want, but the moment you step into a discussion, you'd better be prepared to defend yourself.

This, unfortunately, can lead to a problem. Since it's a small community, it can actually become a very strong priority to be accepted by others. This might mean hiding or burying your personal views in fear of them being picked apart by the heavyweight argument lawyers. Also, your view might be perfectly valid, but if you don't support your view, it can be extremely disheartening.

Trust me, I know. I've taken the minority side on a couple of issues. This tends to lead to me arguing against several others, each with their own wit and skill. On some topics we find mutual ground and agree to disagree, others seem to be extremely one-sided, and while losing an argument doesn't seem that big, it can be. Now only am I disheartened about what I used to believe was right (or maybe even still believe) but it sometimes feels like I've lost credibility. There goes that moron who took the losing side. I mean, it was obvious since we have twenty different statistics and studies to back up our side, and he tried to pull some random babble and maybe a rumor or two.

This is perhaps a very negative aspect of the small community. People feeling the need to hide their views because of fear they won't be accepted. However, as much as I personally feel defeated, I still have great relationships even with those I argue quite a bit. You see, the Mudd community is usually pretty good about accepting people, as crazy as we all might be. Sure there's been a few bruises, but overall I'd say the discussions have been positive. If anything, they've helped clarify my ideas, and actually fix some really bad old presumptions I'd had. Also, I've let other people know what I think, and maybe some people have even converted to some of my ideas. At the very least I've shown those with similar views that they're not alone. And finally, it can be a battleground where you can gain respect as someone who's thoroughly thought over their opinions and can acknowledge other people's views without putting them down.

So, what's the point in all of this. First, remember that there are those who see life differently than you. Second, I'd recommend not being a jerk about your beliefs. In fact, be as awesome and fun to be with person as possible. And lastly, be prepared to defend your ideas, because inevitably someone will question them.

And that's my little survival guide on how to deal with differing views at Mudd. Feel free to flame now.

The First Rule of Room Draw is....

You don't talk about Room Draw.

Unless you're in Room Draw. In which case, God help us all.

Now, you might be wondering why this is such a big deal. I mean, the idea is pretty simple. People get a random priority number, you pull a room and roommate, some special rules about special petitions and stuff. Seems like a simple enough procedure. They even help us out by providing white boards of the dorms so people can lay claim to a room and work things out.

You see, at Harvey Mudd, you're guaranteed housing all four (or five, but usually four) years that you attend. Wait, all four years? You mean it's not just freshmen and then they kick you out into the real world to find an apartment? Yes, about 98% of all students live on campus all their years at Harvey Mudd. So, it's literally one huge community. Walk down the hall and you'll pass by classmates' doors, and upperclassmen doors, and freshman doors, and your best friend's door, and you get the idea. Everyone lives on campus.

The upside to this is everyone can get to know each other. Homework help is just a door or dorm away. It's quite common to randomly pass someone's room and suck them into your dinner posse. So, pretty much one giant community.

The downside includes Room Draw.

Since everyone lives on campus, that means there's almost exactly the number of rooms as students. So, chances are that people won't get the room they want and have to take whatever is left. Also, since you know everyone, you don't want to be a jerk (Rule #1: Don't be a jackass) and mess up other people's plans for their happy little suite living with their friends, but at the same time you want a certain room so you can be with your friends and also happy about noise, traffic, accessibility to certain things like the lounge or stairs. Also, if you've ever done a group project, you know how much of a hassle it can be to get a group of four, five, or six to agree on anything. Now try getting a campus of 700 to agree on optimal rooming situations. Not happening.

This leads to certain interesting emergent organizations. For example, there are those who try to machine. This term refers to a massive large-scale organization of students who work with each other to ensure they as a group get what they want. South Dorm is famous for machining the entire dorm such that only Southies can live in their almost 100% single occupant room dorm. Typically, a dorm to some extent machines itself to try and get those who are part of the dorm community to get the best situations possible. Also, there are special suites that have been formed to ensure that a group of Sophomores can live in their desired dorm. Time Suck in East is an example of this, a suite that goes to selected Sophomores that sometimes is designed to keep Sophomores in the dorm. But, they also are selected so that they will put on events such as movies and parties for the dorm to enjoy, i.e. be a Time Suck and help relieve stress. These are typically a big issue, and heaven forbid you pull yourself into that suite because the entire dorm is expecting that suite to be their selected Sophomores.

This also leads to a lot of drama. I mentioned machining. What happens if you can't machine everyone in? I mean, there's a limited number of rooms, what if you have too many? Well, sometimes people get burned and machined out of the community. Back many years ago, this happened to a group of students, and they then formed Suite Vengeance in other dorms. Suite Betrayal spawned since there were too many trying to get into East a few years ago, so they voluntarily left for another dorm. Also, certain rooms are preferred over others. Singles, for example, are preferred over doubles. More privacy and less of your roommate, love them as much as you do, having their alarm go off while you're sleeping because they have a 8am class on the days you start at 11am. Trust me, you'll want those 3 extra hours of sleep. Sontag is a highly coveted dorm because it's the newest dorm on campus and has a kitchen in every suite. So, living there means you can get off the meal plan and cook for yourselves. Ironically, Sontag also has the smallest singles, but there is a high density of singles, and the doubles are HUGE. So, typically, Sontag is almost completely Seniors and Freshmen.

By the way, Freshman are distributed among all the dorms so there isn't a Freshman dorm at Harvey Mudd. All dorms are open to all classes and both genders, although you can petition for a single-sex suite and currently you cannot room in a double with a roommate of the opposite sex.

So, in the end, not everyone is happy. Plus, the whole random number thing tends to be weird and annoying, giving to some the grace and option of whatever room they want and forcing others to grovel and make deals just to ensure they have secured a room. For example, one of my friends hasn't gotten a number higher than 100 out of 170 for the past two years. There's random numbers for you.

Oh, and did I forget to mention there usually ends up being a wait list? Yup, there is always a few fewer rooms than students in Room Draw. Don't worry, though, because students go on leave of absences or study abroad, so it's an extremely good chance you'll have a room during the year. It just can be very uncomfortable not having a spot locked down in the dorm and with the friends you want. But, you will have a room.

Thus, Room Draw can be a pain. A necessary pain, but still a major pain with lots of planning, drama, reconciling, loss of sleep, nerves, the whole bit. And since it leaves a bitter taste in some mouths, plus the fact that some of the machine fanatics would never sleep during the rest of the year, it's a rule that you DON'T TALK ABOUT ROOM DRAW.

You've been warned.

By the way, numbers for Room Draw came out last week, so room Draw has begun its terrible reign over the campus. Pray for us, and our souls should we not make it.

24 Hour Crack

Greetings. I am not insane. Just prefacing this particular post, because the moment most people see 24 Hour they freak out and think you're mental for doing something for 24 Hours.

Anyways, there's been a high density of game related posts, and I'll be blogging on other things, but this just happened so I'm obligated to post about it.

We recently (or are currently) concluding our annual 24 Hour Crack session.

If you recall from a previous post, Crack refers to anything addictive, and in this case refers to Video Games. Mostly computer games to be specific. So, logically, this would be a 24 Hour gaming marathon.

Now, if you're a gamer, a 24 Hour LAN party sounds ridiculously awesome and insane at the same time. For non-gamers, this sounds stupid.

Here's a bit of history. I started this last year during Spring Break because I had an idea of mashing several Cracks such as ITR Games, Crack in the AC, and Warcrack into one giant session. Then I talked to some people, and we decided instead there should just be a 24 Hour session. So, I organized it, got a fridge, had people bring drinks, reserved the computer lab, and we had a blast. Some alums even popped in during the night to have fun with us. And of course even if you didn't try for 24 Hours, what I called Hardcore, you could drift in and out as you please, a Casual player.

So, this year, I decided there needs to be a little more organization. Buy drinks so people didn't have to bring their own. This ended up as 24 2-Liter bottle of soda. Of which 6 currently remain. Mental note, less Pepsi. Still got a fridge. Ordered dinner from Chipotle who were really awesome at getting our order together for us. Also, easier for me to handle who owes me what. Got Dominos for the midnight and morning meals. After all, nothing keeps quite like pizza for the morning, and nothing is open at 6am to order food. I had a special time where we took a break and tried out more alternative games. Didn't work out so well since no one brought alternative games, so we watched a replay of the stupidest StarCraft game ever. I opened it up to the Claremont Colleges. And lastly I setup a more constrained game list and made sure the games were all loaded onto the computer ahead of time.

Whew.

It was a huge success. We had at least 20 players at all times with the exception of very early morning. We had non-regulars show up and experiment with the games. People were fragging. We had some serious and some ridiculous games, such as UT2K4 with all Shield Guns on Double Domination mode. Super Smash Brother Brawl was on continuously for the duration of the session on a projector. Several epic games, including a StarCraft free for all where I went BattleCruisers without anyone realizing it until I squashed the Medic Marine player. Then I lost all 24 of them to a bunch of cloaked Wraiths since I had not enough Scanner Sweeps and no Science Vessels. Basically, ridiculous amounts of awesome.

Being someone who takes pride in what they do, I of course have already taken down notes on how to improve this for next year. It still will have to be during Spring Break so people can sleep and recuperate. I might shift it to the 5pm to 5pm slot instead of noon since some people don't want to wake up pre-noon on Break and then people could sleep and come back if they wanted to. More incentive for people to play through the morning. Then you can get dinner afterwards and sleep to the next day. I should bring my own alternative games in case no one else brings any. Less Pepsi, especially since Root Beer is king when pizza is around, and more Mountain Dew. Oh, and I should eventually get a USB mouse so I don't have to use the ones in the computer lab. They've served me well, but the Mac mouses tend to have a finicky right-click, which is bad for FPS games.

So, if you happen to be around for Spring Break, keep an eye out for me spamming the e-mail lists again next year. I promise it will be even more awesome.

It's a Small World After All

Preface: if the pictures are too big or whatever, I'll try harder next time.

Harvey Mudd is classified as a small college. 700 Students. This means that you can potentially know everyone, and potentially everyone knows you. Of course, you can subvert the system by never leaving your room, but then usually your dorm/suite mates takes notice and try to contact, foiling your plot of anonymity.

Anyways, the advantage is you know everyone. One big giant happy family where it's familiar faces all around and since everyone lives on campus (OK, about 98% do all four years. We're guaranteed on-campus housing for all 4 years) you can walk down the hall and bug people about homework, life, or making a group to split a bill down at a restaurant down the street.

The disadvantage is you know everyone. Do something stupid, people will likely find out. Don't even try 6 degrees of separation, try 2, or maybe even 3 if you're a hermit, to everyone. And that's ignoring the lame degree of went to the same college, I'm talking about direct friendships / usual contact whether it be your groupie circle or through classes. So, if you want to slide with a B- and miss weeks of class, you'll have to try really hard. Some professors shoot their students e-mails asking where they've been if they miss class, and usually offering them homework and telling them to grab notes off someone.

Anyways, here's some pictures to illustrate:


My E80 group from Sophomore year. Well, you can't see Kacy's face, but you can see her hair at the bottom of the picture. Engineering Major here likes to do lots of team building, so often you do team projects. Like the whole class building a 6502 processor in VLSI. Yeah, trying to communicate between 14 students gets kinda hard.


People wanted to vacuum the lounge, so sofas got moved outside. It was also a nice sunny day and good breeze so very low smog in the air. The result? Outdoor lounge.


This is Jenny aka Alaska (because she lives in Alaska, duh). She's making LOL with her hands and face. What'd you expect? We're nerds. Although we're not all that crazy all the time. OK, so maybe we have a distribution of weirdness. The majority of students could blend in with the real world if they tried. We just enjoy being ourselves and messing around when we get the chance. And it doesn't matter how weird you are, you can always find someone weirder, so feel free to be crazy if you want.


People decided they needed to stack people on a couch. For some reason, not sure if it was intentional, the girls were on top. Yes, there are girls at this school. Freshman class had a whopping 42% females. Overall it's about 35% female for all the classes combined.

Unfortunately, Picasa is having issues publishing more pics, just like Skye, so I'll be back later with more. Maybe.

Being lazy

I'm being lazy and still figuring out where to put my pictures so I can start embedding them into my posts.

So, instead, here's a fun review of the games of 2007 by Yahtzee, one of the best game reviewers out there today. Although he's a little insane sometimes and curses, he's one of the few that I agree with 100% and this particular vid has all the cursing bleeped out.

Video Link

Enjoy!

Slang/Jargon you Might Hear

Here's some terms you might see pop up in the blogs or hear if you visit the campus. While not canonical definitions, they should help give you a good idea of the general meaning of the word/phrase.

5^th year – a student who is taking a 9^th semester at Mudd due to scheduling

AC – pronounced “ack”, short for Academic Computing (computer lab) or Academics, usually referring to the academic end of campus as opposed to the dorm/residential end

Bio – Biology

Clinic – The act of the College outsourcing it undergrad students to a company who pays for the students to fix something for them. Often considered a timesuck due to high levels of involvement. Required to be done by CS and Engineering Majors in order to graduate.

Crack – anything addictive. Usually associated with a game, for example World of Warcraft or Civilization 4.

CS – Computer Science

DOS – Dean of Students, includes several students who help organize random events about once a week, things like a trip to Mt. Baldy or showings of movies on the giant inflatable screen with themed snack or bed races

Flame war – an argument often carried out on e-mail lists or a forum between two or more parties, often but no necessarily including personal attacks, ad hominems, and/or continuing longer than anyone not involved cares. Usually, but not required, it starts out as a civil argument.

Graduate – the goal of most Mudders to do. Afterwards they disappear into the Real World, sometimes reappearing with tales of how easy life out there is yet wishing they were still here to hang out with us.

Graduate Student – these don't exist at Mudd

Honor Code – Rule #1: Don't be a jackass. Created under the assumption that if given the choice, people will do what is right. Covers both academic and social responsibilities and fosters a strong mutual trust and sense of community between students, staff, and faculty.

Hygiene – Something many people maintain, but there are those who don't upkeep it as much as others would like. Degradation of this stat is usually from the Sleep dep status effect.

LAC – Linde Activity Center, contains lots of cool stuff including fitness center, computer lab, ping pong table, and a printer. Also the hub for intramural sports and Dean of Students (DOS)

Nerd – what everyone has at least a little bit of inside them

Northie, Eastie, Westie, Southie – Student who identifies with North, East, West or South Dorm respectively. These dorms are not positioned according to the cardinal directions, South is the north most dorm and north of West and west of North.

Mudder – a student who is currently or previously enrolled in Mudd and is associated with Harvey Mudd College.

Prank – a humorous setup organized and executed to be relatively harmless but humorous for both parties involved, the prankster(s) and the prankee(s). Must be reversible within 24Hrs and you must leave contact information. Can be on a No Prank List to pranks in general or specific pranks from being performed, but you can not do any such pranks to others.

Prefrosh – a prospective student who is not currently enrolled in Harvey Mudd but potentially wishes to in the future. Sometimes visiting from the Real World to observe or even stay the night.

Proctor – not be be confused with a Resident Assistant (RA) at other institutes, the Proctor(s) of each dorm are there to help keep the students safe, provide emotional counseling, and look out for the well being of the members of the community. They also have keys to let you into your room if you locked yourself out and are required to host a number of events for the dorm.

Prof – short for Professor, as in Prof Yong or Prof Ran. Teachers of classes, people with office hours so you can talk about homework, your best friends and worst enemies, especially when they give out tests.

Real World, the – a mythical land out there where people have jobs, earn money (usually), and are much less sleep depped.

Sleep dep – short for sleep deprived, often a result of homework, projects, all-nighters, waking up early for class, or messing around instead of sleeping.

Timesuck – A sophomore suite in East or anything that takes up a lot of time, such as Clinic.

Wank – An action. To complain.

Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

That's what some days are made of.

So, if you're a data mining insomniac (which one of my friends actually is) then you might have noticed a much lower density of posts this last week. The reason being I didn't want to post while sleep deprived (i.e. sleep dep-ed in HMC slang), grumpy, and generally not happy.

You see, life at Harvey Mudd is not all fun and games. Sure there's times when it's fun, and there's times when people play games (I happen to do this quite often if I get the chance), but it's not one continuous run giggling and holding hands with your fellow peers and professors through the daisy fields of academia. Sometimes you're holding hands with your peers as you drag each other along through the war-torn countryside of France in WW1, except it's not France it's Harvey Mudd and instead of Germans throwing mustard gas it's professors lobbing project due dates at you.

For example, last week we had due a Problem Set and a Project for VLSI. It's a chip design class where you learn how to build a good chip with low delay and power consumption by optimizing sizes and making a good layout. Well, the Problem Set was beastly, as in there were four of us working together 'til around 3am on it. Then two of us had to wrap up some other homework from another class. I was part of the two with more homework. Next day, up for a 9:30am class and more stuff to do, hitting sleep around maybe 2am. Up for 9am class and more work.

Now, the clincher is that the project due on Thursday was the optimization of a 20-bit adder. The optimization parameter was the product of the delay and the energy consumption for one clock cycle. If you don't know anything about electronics, then I'm sure you're completely lost. For those of you that do, you know this is some pretty serious stuff. For one thing, people have done really really fast 8, 16, and 32-bit adders with low power, but not much 20-bit work has been done. Add onto the fact there's about 5 ways just to do a basic adder without going into the many crazy combinations that make up tree adders, which is what people use nowadays to get the best delay possible for as little energy cost possible on 32-bit and 64-bit adders.

So, optimization is something that you can't quite just churn out from pencil and paper. You can do basic guesses, but it really comes down to simulation to find all the quirks. Plus, everyone's doing a slightly different adder, so it's harder to help each other out except on basic ideas of how to optimize. So, I spent about 1 hour just figuring out optimal supply voltage. Then another couple hours isolating and optimizing my critical path. Then some more optimizing a special component I was using called a Manchester Carry. Again, non-uber geek probably have no idea what I just said. Go Wikipedia it if you'd like.

So, details aside, I probably spent about 8+ hours optimizing that bugger. That's on top of other class times, meals, other homework, you get the idea. Not alot of sleep, to say the least. And of course the less sleep you have the less efficient you have, so it's a downward spiral. Thank goodness for weekends allowing you to reset the sleep counter.

I'm not completely bitter. That would have been last week. Now, I'm better, got some sleep, that project's finished, things are looking up. The best part of the project is that even though it took a lot of time, it's quite a feeling of accomplishment. Just suddenly finding the right balance and watching the goal parameter drop was amazing and kept me going through that process. Granted sometimes I was frustrated and tired and angry about certain things, but in the end it worked out. I guess that's similar to most of life. Things tend to work out.

Lesson of the day: don't expect it to be a free ride through college here. It's not all happiness and love and dancing around the lawn. There's tough times, tired times, angsty times, but then again, that's life. Plus, here we at least help each other out. E-mail your professor, bug someone down the hall, stay up late together cracking stories to keep each other going. Well, either that or sing a random song together. It was American Pie last time. And I really can't sing that high. At least not well.