I had a rather awkward moment the other day. I was over at my mother’s house and I decided to fix a drink while I was watching The History Channel. I reached for what I thought was a Pepsi. After filling the glass, I took a big chug, as I love my Pepsi. It had a rather odd taste and I looked at the bottle to see if it had expired. Come to find out, I drank my first Pepsi max. I was not impressed. That is almost as bad as the time I bought grapefruit juice instead of orange juice. The grapefruit juice is just slightly more sour than orange juice.

So, it’s 2012! It’s been a while since my last update. I’ve been slightly busy. Rachel and I have been going steady for six months now. Things have been going very well for us. School has also been keeping me busy. My winter break was nice, but I was excited to get back to school. I have a fairly fun quarter. Differential equations is probably my favorite class thus far. Linear systems is still going over review of circuits and calculus. Once things start to pick up, I think I’ll have more fun. Physics is just going to be a pain. Light and sound sounds light a big old hoot!

Work has been draining me as oblate. I can work very hard at a project, and by the time I come into work the next day, it will be destroyed for what seems like no good reason. This is pretty frustrating, but I keep at it, hoping that our inventory will improve.

All in all, I am happy with life right now. I have about a year left in my undergrad. I am finally going to finish it. I think I put it of long enough. If all goes well, I should have my degree next spring. I might have to put it off for a semester due to the psychology minor. I don’t have it done yet, and I’m waiting on semesters to take the last 4 classes I need.

I was recently looking at new computer parts, since it has been a while since I updated my computer. After a long while of looking, I came to the conclusion that I really don’t need a new computer or any parts. I have a rule. I don’t upgrade something unless I will get three times the benefit as the last one for the same price as the original element. Most of my components fall into this category, but I just don’t use my computer enough for games anymore. Skyrim was the last game I played for an extended period, but I find myself not playing because of lack of time. School, work and a wonderful girlfriend keep me pretty busy.

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I know it’s been a while, but I want to come back on one of the greatest pieces of technology to come in 2011. A tablet with full Windows 7 capabilities.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/09/acer-iconia-windows-7-tablet-hands-on/

For $600, you’de be stupid not to buy one of these. 32 GB SSD with expandable media. 10.1 inch screen makes viewing information easy. There is also a dock for this that turns the device into a laptop computer. Note that the picture from engadget only shows the device plugged into the dock. When you unplug it from the dock, you have a stand alone tablet.

If I didn’t already have a full blown tablet, I would buy this in a heartbeat. I have always said that tablets needed to have a full blown OS. Android came very close with the 3.0 Version of android, but it still wasn’t quite there. The iPad, don’t even get me started on that PoS. With a tablet like this, you can run any application you could think of, as well as manipulate pictures on the fly without having to lug around a huge laptop. Think about running photoshop to edit a picture of your friend to make them look like a clown in front of the louve. This device gives you the power.

Did I mention it has an ethernet port and built in USB? You now have the ability to plug in a mouse, DVD drive, EXT HDD, or whatever else you would need. It can get bulky to lug around all those devices, but you don’t have to take all those items with you. Being a tablet, you can touch the screen instead of using a mouse. Who needs a DVD drive anymore? And External HDD could be nice on the go, but I can’t think of too many times I would actually use it.

Since this is a full blown OS, you’ll have full access to flash content as well as a larger selection of games. This won’t run crysis, but you’ll be able to run the full version of plants vs zombies, crazy machines, as well as many other arcade style games. You know what? I just thought of a great idea. Since you’re running the full version of Windows 7, you can install the xBox 360 controller driver and play games like Dirt 2, or any other arcade style games.

I would have loved the iPad if they just would have had these capabilities built in. Instead, you have a larger iPod touch.

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As I was rummaging through some papers and I found a great article I wrote my Junior year of high school. It was covering how gravity affects different sized masses. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I set up your basic run of the mill implicit function with three unknown variables. The equations I formulated were very, primitive. Looking back on the paper, There are so many places I can simplify the equations with simple integrals and derivatives. I titled this paper, “Gravitational Forces.” This was my first piece of work I’ve really been proud of. I took a concept of gravitational forces of planet sized bodies and derived an equation that would solve for acceleration’s “constant” for three or more objects moving together. I use constant in parenthesis because acceleration due to gravity is not constant, but i doesn’t change at a very fast rate, so we call it constant. Looking at this paper, I can see how people from the past can come up with crazy ideas like calculus. It just takes the imagination to think about something in a different way.

It’s funny to look back on grade school. I was never really challenged in grade school, so I never really applied myself. Heck, I enjoyed Band class, but I never really took it serious. This is a problem I still face today. Physics now is very easy, and I don’t really take it that seriously. The labs are trivial and the basic. In college, I’ve been challenged in some of my classes, but not others. For starters, I’m really digging the neurophysiology course I’m taking this quarter. I’m glad I decided to take it. I’ve always been fascinated with the brain, and this is a two part course on the CNS. Next quarter, I’m looking at taking another group of boring classes. I’m either going to be taking Calc IV or Differential Equations, Circuits I, Physics II, and neurophysiology II (the only one I’m excited about). I need to bear with a few more boring classes until I can get to the really fun classes.

For the last two or so months, I’ve been working the day shift at my place of employment. This is something that’s helped me a great deal with my school work. When I was working third shift, I would have such an irregular sleep schedule that I would not be able to sleep for days at a time, and I would then beige sleep for days at a time. This caused me to miss work on a few occasions and caused my school work to suffer. The hour a day commute to work and school was killing me. Switching to days gave me the time I needed to be able to enjoy life and still have time for work and school, even though I’m working more hours than before. I don’t really need to work, but I enjoy the extra money.

I’ve been playing a few games lately to ease the “stress” levels of life. I was never one to really stress over anything, as I’ve always been pretty laid back. What’s the point about getting upset about something? When you’re mad, you can’t think straight. When you can’t think straight, how can you make intelligent, logical decisions? I say this, and I know for a fact that I’ve been angry about things in the past. Things that people have done to me, or things that have been said to me. I get over it, but for that time, I don’t think as logically as I should.

It’s getting to be pretty late. I need to get some sleep. I have an 8:30 class tomorrow.

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For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved math. Yesterday, while in my calculus lab, I started thinking about my days back in elementary school. I remembered how much I was held back by my teachers. I always wanted to move one step farther than where the teacher was teaching.

I’m starting to feel like that again. We were going over a relatively simple concept. We were talking about calculating the volumes of non-continuous objects. While talking about the current way we were analyzing the area, I began thinking of other ways we could analyze the area. I started jotting down notes, and before long, I had another way I could analyze the area. I felt pretty proud of myself, until the professor said, “Ok, now we’re going to look at this from another angle.” Then he explained how to solve the equations the way I just came up with.

This was kind of what was happening with me in elementary school. I did the work how they wanted, but then I found different ways of solving the same equations. When doing it my way, I was able to solve the problems faster, and I was able to get the right answer. However, teachers frown on you doing things in your own way. At least mine were. I was always marked off because I didn’t do it their way. I would get my points back when I argued my point. One teacher that would never budge was my analytical geometer teacher in high school. She would never give me any points back, even when I got the right answer and did it her way. I didn’t understand her at all.

I was used to doing things the way I was taught and not ever trying to go beyond the equations that I lost my drive to ever think outside the box. Everything I’ve been taught so far has told me that you are only to read equations and plug in numbers. I think that is a problem with my old school system. I was never pushed. I was only taught to do the bare minimum.

I think sleep is also helping. I’ve had more sleep this week than I’ve had in probably two weeks combined. Right now, I feel like I can solve any equation, read any book in record time, or write any paper I feel like. Is this a sign that I need a job that gives me a better sleep schedule? I’ve told my managers that I need new hours, so I can sleep to no avail. I’ve just been, “talked to.” This leads me to believe that they do not want to move me, just keep me complacent that I will be moved at some point in the future. I can tell you, I’m not looking forward to going back. I like my job enough; I just can’t handle not having any sleep and trying to get my homework and labs done on time. Not to mention all the writing assignments that I have to do. It’s a lot of work and I have very little time.

As humans, we can’t survive not being able to have our down time. People spend it in different ways. I like to play games, watch movies, go to the gym, and hang out with friends. Being either at work, school or sleeping, I have very little time to do any of this. I’m thinking about trying to get a job on campus next year, so I can work around my school schedule a little easier. This week has been the best school week since school started. I’ve had some down time so I can concentrate on school work and have some time that I can dedicate to playing a game or two. I also went to Richmond with some friends last weekend. That was a lot of fun, and I miss being able to go out and do things.

Decisions, decisions.

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