Friday-Home for the Holidays!

First, I'm sorry didn't post yesterday.  I didn't leave Tech until after 6, so I didn't get home until 10:30.  After driving for four hours I wasn't awake enough to remember to post. 

My Calculus exam on Thursday was a little more difficult than I was expecting, but I think I did well. I'll let you know as soon as I know my final grades. I almost can't believe that I've completed an entire semester of college!

Well, I'm going to be home for the next month, so I won't be posting regularly, but if something interesting happens, I'll be sure to let you know. Happy Holidays!

Wednesday-This is it!

After studying today, I'm ready for my last exam of the semester!  In just a few hours I'll be sitting down to take my Calculus exam....

Wait, just a few hours?  Thats all, I've got to get to sleep!  See you tomorrow!

Tuesday-One More to Go!

This morning I woke up in full physics mode.  I got out m textbook and started flipping through chapters, writing down equations and making sure I knew the material.  While working on my equation sheet, I found out something interesting about Microsoft Word.  It will auto-capitalize lowercase Greek letters if they are at the beginning of a line.  I had to go back in and un-capitalize almost all of my omegas.  Around 6:00 I went to D2 with Matt, and we got dinner. And then...

I took my final exam for physics!  I felt prepared and the test seemed relatively easy, so I think that I'll get a good grade.  I got my grade back for my final exam in Engineering Cultures: 97.5%!  That should put me at an A in that class as well!  So now I am almost positive I will have A's in World Regions, Vector Geometry, Engineering Cultures, and my Galileo course!

After the exam, Matt and I came back to Lee and de-stressed by playing some Team Fortress 2.  People kept quiting and the server would automatically auto-balance, so one minute we'd be on the same team and the next he'd be shooting a rocket at my face.

On a side note, I haven't forgotten to post the interview with Aung San Suu Kyi from my World Regions class. In fact, I just found the video on Professor Boyer's page today.  Anyway, here it is.  It gets a little laggy in the middle, but thats not the video, its just the poor internet connection in Burruss Auditorium.

Well, thats all I have for today.  I'll see you tomorrow when I will share with you my exciting tale of...(pause for effect)...studying for the Calculus exam...ALL DAY!  There probably won't be anything exciting, but who knows?

Moday-Almost Done!

As of today, I'm more than halfway done with my Finals.  I took my World Regions exam on Saturday (even though I had enough points that I didn't need to), and took both my Vector Geometry and Engineering Cultures finals today.  As of now I know I have an A in both World Regions and Vector Geometry and I'm fairly confident I have an A in Engineering Cultures.

Tomorrow evening I have Physics exam from 7 pm to 9 pm and I finish up with my Calculus exam on Thursday morning from 7:45 am to 9:45 am.  Only three more days until I'm finished with my first semester!

Well I'm gonna head to sleep now, so I'm well rested for tomorrow. (and to make sure I'll be able to wake up for my Calculus exam) I'll let you know how physics goes.

Friday-Candlelight Vigil

Tonight, Virginia Tech held a candlelight vigil on the Drillfield for Officer Deriek W. Crouse, who died in the shootings yesterday.  Over one thousand students, university officials, and community members attended.  People read poems and a member of the Corps of Cadets played taps.  After the ceremony people wrote messages to Officer Crouse's family. It was inspiring to see so many people come together to mourn the loss of a single person. This is a picture taken from the War Memorial  looking out over the Drillfield during the vigil.

This weekend please keep Officer Crouse and his family in your prayers.

Thursday

First, I apologize that I didn't post yesterday.  I got back to my dorm late after a World Regions event, and I completely forgot.  Yesterday was my last day of classes for the semester. After this its exams and then I go home.  During exam week, I'll do my best to keep posting every day.

As you probably know, a shooting occurred at Virginia Tech this afternoon. I woke up at about 12:30 to the sound of sirens and saw several police cars driving down the street.  Then my roomate told me that he had gotten a message on his phone that there was a report of gunshots fired.  The message encouraged us to stay inside and lock our doors.  A few minutes later a second message came through giving a description of the victim and saying that he was headed on foot towards McComas Hall.

At 1:11 pm another alert came through stating that a police officer had been shot and that a second victim had been reported at the Cage lot.  At 1:18 one of my Facebook friends said that police had someone on the ground outside his building.  It later turned out that that person was not the suspect.  At 2:25 pm another alert was sent out saying that the reports of recent sounds ID'd as gunshots and suspicious activity on campus had been investigated and were unfounded.  At this time, this video was posted on Facebook.  It shows students in Torgersen Hall being escorted up to Torgersen Bridge by armed officers.  Another friend also posted this picture, taken in Torgersen Hall.

At 4:29, the last alert was sent out saying that they had determined that there was no longer a threat and that the lockdown was lifted. At 4:30, the University, the University Police, and the State Police held a press conference which you can see here. They didn't confirm that the second victim was the shooter, but it was implied.

This entire time I was in the 6th floor study lounge with Matt, who lives across the hall, working on physics homework.  As the news spread, I received calls and messages from my family including my sister, mother, father, grandmother, and aunt. After the alert was lifted Matt and I went back to my room and since we hadn't eaten the entire day we went out to get dinner.

I think that the police and the University did a good job in handling this incident.  Everyone on campus was notified within minutes of the shooting and there was a large police presence on campus in a very short amount of time.  Many people are starting to describe Virginia Tech as dangerous, but I feel safe due to the response to this incident.

As I close I would ask that you keep Officer Deriek Crouse and his family in your prayers.

A Rainy Tuesday

I got up early(ish) this morning for my Vector Geometry recitation. As I was walking out my door my roommate reminded me that recitations had ended two weeks ago.  So instead of going to that, I worked on my ePortfolio for Galileo.  The ePortfolio is a personal website that is supposed to give potential employers information about you.  You can check out my ePortfolio here.  I've written up a short biography, attached my resume, and talked about some of my community service.

Later, I went to my last Calculus 1206 class.  We finished up the year learning about tests to determine whether an improper integral is convergent or divergent.

Finally this evening I had my last large Galileo meeting.  We got to talk to Dr. Watford, who is the head of the Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity which runs Galileo.  We discussed what we liked about the program, what we thought needed to be changed, and what could be removed.  I enjoyed being able to give feedback on the program.

In other news, I just got my Red Cross blood donor card in the mail, just in time for the Lee Hall Blood Drive on Thursday!  I've already signed up for an appointment, and I'm looking forward to being able to donate again.  See you tomorrow!

Monday-Awesome World Regions Class!

I usually talk about what happened over the weekend on Monday, but today I'm just going to skip to my World Regions lecture.  Tonight we had a special guest video chat with us during class: Aung San Suu Kyi.  Aung San Suu Kyi is a political activist and a leader in the National League for Democracy in Burma.  She wasplaced under house arrest for 15 years as a political prisoner, and was just released last year. She's won many awards for her efforts, including the Nobel Peace Prize.

In October we filmed this video requesting her to give us an interview.  We found that she had agreed to an interview and that she would be speaking to our class on Thursday, December 3.  However, soon after that she canceled the interview because Hillary Clinton scheduled a visit with her.  We weren't sure if we would actually be able to talk to her this semester, but in the end the interview got rescheduled for tonight!

During the interview, which lasted about 45 minutes, Aung San Suu Kyi answered questions that we had submitted beforehand. We were on local TV (WBDJ 7) and they wrote up an awesome article about the event. Professor Boyer said that a video of the interview would be posted online, but that hasn't come out yet.  When it does, I'll post a link to it in my daily post.  Before I go, here is a picture from the back of Burruss Auditorium.

There were more that 3000 people crammed in there to hear the interview!  That's all I have for today, see you tomorrow!

Friday- Nerf Wars Recap

This is going to be a short post since its now almost 6 am and I really want to get to sleep.  At tonight's Nerf war I got to try out two guns for the first time. The first was my Buzz Bee Belt Blaster, which I bought over thanksgiving break.  It had plenty of power, but unfortunately the belts come apart easily when they are just hanging loose.  I made a drum to hold the belt, but it got broken by a zombie in the first game, so I'm going to have to come up with something else.  The second gun I got to use was the emergency blaster that I talked about yesterday.  It worked surprisingly well.  In fact it saved my life twice!

After the War, some of us went to Deet's Place and got ice cream.  After that, a few of us went over to Newman Hall where we made popcorn and watched Youtube videos on a projector in someones room. We ended up watching videos until 5:00 am!

Thats all for tonight and for this week.  Have a great weekend and I'll see you again on Monday!

Thursday-Yep, Thursday...

So I got up this morning and did some laundry.  While that was going on, I worked on my Galileo assignment.  We had to look at our grades and determine what we had to get on the final exam in order to pass each class.  In order to pass I need to score at least a zero on all of my exams!

After laundry I went and got lunch and headed over to my Calculus lecture.  We went over more of L'Hospital's Rule including using it to solve improper integrals.  Those are fun because you combine limits, derivatives, and integrals in one problem.

After calculus I came back to my dorm and took practice quizzes in order to study for my Vector Geometry test.  Unfortunately, I took a bit longer than I thought I would, and by the time I had gone through all of the quizzes I felt that it was too late to go and take the test.  I'm going to take it tomorrow or Sunday instead. (the emporiums closed on Saturday)

Since I didn't go to the Emporium, I had to do other stuff, so I worked on the Atlas quizzes quizzes for World Regions.  I'm now up to 8 out of the 11 quizzes, almost there!  In order to get an A in world regions, I need to get at least a 16% on the final exam...maybe.  That's if Professor Boyer doesn't announce any extra credit in the next few days! If he does I may not need to take the final exam at all!

That's all I have for today.  I'm looking forward to tomorrow because I'll have a chance to try out the Nerf blaster I made at the Nerf War.  I'll let you now how it goes. See you tomorrow!

Wednesday-A pretty good day...

Today started out nice and earlt (for me) at 10 am with my small Galileo seminar.  It was relatively warm yesterday, so I put on shorts and a t-shirt. Well today was not at all like yesterday.  On my way to class it was very cold and windy and then it started to snow.  Needless to say I was in a hurry to get to class.

In my Galileo session the program leader came into our class to talk to us about what would be happening next year and encouraged us to apply to be second year mentors.  Apparently, all of the math, science, and engineering living communities will be moved into Lee Hall. In addition, Lee Hall is going to be renovated to add classrooms and a project work room.  It almost makes me wish I had taken a year off after high school. Hopefully I will be selected to become a second year mentor so that I can use these new things, but I'll have to wait and see.

After Galileo, I got some lunch and came back to my dorm room.  I took two more atlas quizzes for World Regions and did some work for Galileo.  After that I made this device:

It's an emergency dart blaster for Nerf wars.  It holds one surprise shot that I can use if my gun jams or runs out of bullets. It will probably be most useful for Humans versus Zombies.  The cardboard circle slips over my arm to hold the blaster in place, I pull back on the handle to cock it, and then I put a pin in to hold the handle in place. I can then slide any type of Nerf dart into the barrel and I'm ready to go. Here's a picture with it all ready to be fired:

I just have to pull out the pin connected to the blue string and the dart will fire. It doesn't get great ranges: only about 15 feet, bit I think that its pretty good for a homemade one. I'm going to use it at Friday's Nerf War and I'll let you know how it works.

In the afternoon I headed over to my physics lecture.  Today we were learning about heat capacity and work done by gases.  Also, as part of a demonstration on the relationship between temperature, pressure, and volume, my professor ran an experiment where he boiled water with ice.  First he heated the water to a rolling boil and then took it off of the flame.  Then he waited for the bubbles to go away.  He put ice around the flask and the water started to boil again.  The lowered the pressure inside the flask, causing the boiling point to drop and the water to start boiling again.

After physics I went and did more physics! I came back to Lee with my neighbor Matt, who lives across the hallway from me and is also in my physics class.  We worked together on the Mastering Physics homework assignment. About halfway through we gave up and went and got dinner at D2.  Turns out tonight was also an Gingerbread House Competition.  I didn't know about it so I hadn't signed up, but it was cool to see all of the entries. After dinner, Matt and I went back and, after much frustration, finished the Mastering Physics homework. After that my roommate and I played Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas Two on co-op mode.

Tomorrow is going to actually be a busy day, which is strange for my Thursdays.  As usual, I have my Calculus lecture and I'll be doing my laundry, which I do every Thursday.  I'll also be studying for and taking my last Vector Geometry test before the final exam.  I also have to finish the Galileo assignment I was talking about earlier and turn that in.  I'll let you now how all that goes in my next post.  See you then!