4 posts tagged “statistics”

Just some quick school updates in case anyone was interested. First, statistics. I ended up getting a 90 on that test I took last week, despite finishing about 30 minutes before everyone else. So that's a definite plus!

Also, I was finally able to get my project sponsor to acknowledge my presence (also mentioned in my post last week) which is another definite plus. I'm supposed to swing by his class on Tuesday and show him what I have done. Hopefully he likes it and doesn't make me totally redo it because that would mean one very, very long week for me next week, and I'd rather do more constructive things with my time.

So, as promised, a couple of quick school updates for you. I have some musical stuff that I need to write about too later if I remember. I've just been (again) too busy to post anything recently, so I've got a backlog of things that need discussing.

I had my third test last night in my statistics class. I think I did OK on it, but it was one of those situations where I finished the test approximately 30 minutes before everyone else. Normally, I'm a fast test taker anyway, so I'm probably the first person done. I just don't like being the first person to hand something in, so I usually hang out and recheck my work to make sure everything looks good. This time though, I kept checking and checking and checking and checking...so I'm really hoping everyone else was just slow and I didn't totally miss a question or 6.

One more to go and I'll be done with that class and, hopefully, classroom instruction as a whole. However, this project thing is another matter entirely. I e-mailed my advisor/project sponsor again requesting when his office hours were so that we could meet up and I can show him what I have done. But despite suggesting that we meet up early last week, he's yet to respond to ANY of my e-mails since then. Warning...mini-rant incoming. Take cover.

I think he's intentionally trying to make this as hard as he possibly can for me and it's starting to piss me off royally. I'm getting awfully tired of being jerked around by professors here. Even when I started working on this project and asked him how it generally worked, he didn't tell me anything as far as what was expected of me. I'm just flying blind here and hoping that whatever I get done with will meet his expectations, which it probably won't and then I'll be forced to stay back another semester here so I can do it the right way. If that happens I can assure you I'll be marching straight to the deans office because I'm getting tired of this red tape crap. I want out.

Last night was the first night of hopefully my last semester of college classes. Nothing like a 3 hour statistics course after work to pass the time. Or something. At least the professor is an interesting guy. He's got a quirky sense of humor and knows how to make things interesting.

The first thing he said to the class was that he was annoyed at the school because they don't know how to do anything right and nobody will actually pick up the phone if you're trying to get a problem fixed. He basically went on a 5 minute mini-rant about how annoying working with the school was. It was at this point that I realized that this is my kind of teacher. He also seemed to know how to teach people too, which is kinda a rarity. Although he does also teach at Herkimer County Community College which might explain it. I've found that most of the teachers at community colleges actually know how to teach.

And as far as the big project goes, I'm beginning to wonder if my faculty advisor guy knows what he's doing at all. I'm trying to get some guidance about how the project is generally run and the guy isn't telling me anything. I have a feeling I'm just going to have to stumble through this blindly and hope for the best at the end. Fun.

Let's see here...in other non school related news, I discovered that something ate my Guitar Hero 3 saved game on my memory card, so now I need to replay the game from scratch to unlock everything again. Not that I really mind doing it, exactly, but it's just a pain to have to. I have no idea how my saved game got corrupted either as I don't recall turning the game off while it was saving or something along those lines.

Today was the day I got my grades back for this semester of school. My horrible, horrible software engineering course (which I've complained about before) resulted in a C- which I'm happy to take since I won't need to take the stupid course ever again. I got a B+ in world religions which is about how I expected to do.

I actually contacted the dean of the school about Software Engineering because of how the course was taught. Mostly because of the fact that with roughly 4 hours of class scheduled per week, we only met about an hour and a half of that. The instructor pretty much gave off a vibe that he didn't want to be there. He'd give his lecture, mumble something about seeing us next week and then rush out of the room in 40-50 minutes. It was getting totally ridiculous.

The dean actually called me back and told me that something was going to be done about it after final grades because 2-3 people had complained about it. I also complained that I thought the course was much too centered on Java, to the point where it felt like it was a Java programming language course. That one didn't go over quite so well, but...we'll have to see I guess. Hopefully future students don't find the course as much of a waste of time as I found it to be.

Moving onward to next semester, I found out I need to take one more course just so I have enough credits to graduate in addition to my project. So when school starts up again I'll be taking a Statistics course, plus doing my final project which is all set up and squared away as far as having an instructor and a project. I just need to do it now.

I'm almost free...

As far as the bonus item goes, my new car has developed a severe case of non-working-airbag syndrome. I was driving home from my friends house on Saturday and my airbag warning light started flashing. I called the dealer up today and it's being brought in tomorrow for service. Hopefully it's just a little kink and won't develop into a major long term issue. That would be...annoying. I'm also having them check out a squeak that's developed from the center console area that occurs when I'm going through corners. Sounds like the little silver trim around the gear shifter is loose, so it rubs against the plastic and causes it to make a noise. So hopefully I can take care of both things.