February 5 (2)

This isn’t the Superbowl!

2 #

This….this…isn’t the Superbowl! It’s like 5PM and bright outside, and it’s halftime already! The game started around 3:30PM here which is ridiculous. The Superbowl is supposed to start much later and also in Eugene’s basement where there are lots of games, food, and drinks…

By Michael | Posted in Home, Update | Comments (2)
February 3

Chemistry Nobel Prize Winner 2005 Lecture

0 #

I got to see Robert Grubbs, awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, talk about his research in one of the classes I’m taking, Frontiers and Chemistry (Ch1b). He was a pretty nice guy that seemed very enthusiastic about his work. I couldn’t understand everything in his lecture though…

By Michael | Posted in Home, Update | Comments (0)

Tags:

+

Hell Week 1

0 #

Yattaa! I made it through Hell Week 1. What is it you ask? Well, every term, there are some very stressful weeks. Here’s what I’ve discovered (in temporal order):

  • Hell Week 1: This is the first week where you have in addition to the 3-4 problem sets due during the week, a hum essay (or two) and two quizzes (along with regular class attendance). It’s a hellish week with mass sleep deprivation and lots of complaining.
  • Midterms: Midterms is next week for me (yeah, right after Hell Week 1). It’s bad because along with 1-2 problem sets due (some classes are nice and don’t assign a problem set), there are regular classes, and of course midterms for about 2-3 classes. This is also a generally bad week.
  • Hell Week 2: This is the second week with the same characteristics as Hell Week 1. I think this occurs close to around Finals Week…
  • Finals: This is a really cool week since there are no classes, but you have your Caltech career hanging on the line with these finals that take a long time to complete. Compound this with mass loss of sleep (MLOS), one’s sanity rapid decreases until the last day. Then it’s back to home for recuperation!

Of course, there are bad weeks with 1 quiz and all the regular stuff, but those are manageable…

So yeah, already, it’s midterms! The good thing about Caltech is that it moves so fast. I’ve only been here for about a month and the winter term is about half over. The bad thing is that the classes try to fit a full semester’s information into one term. Also, there is little chance for screwing up on quizzes and tests (which I’m a master at) so everything has to almost perfect to achieve a high grade (unlikely for me).

I’m just happy that it’s Friday…

By Michael | Posted in Home | Comments (0)

Tags: