View Full Version : 40 days and 4 Cs away from the end of the world
Qutsmnie
03-21-07, 10:42 AM
40 days and 4 Cs away from finishing college with a BS in Mathematics.
I have to say... I am so sick of everything. Nobody gets it when I say "just 40 days and 4 Cs to go!" They say stuff why not go for Bs? I laugh and want to slap em up side the head. If they only knew...
I feel like that agent in the Matrix 1. Where he goes "you know what I hate most about this place? The smell..." Its the smell! I cant stand the stench of it anymore.
I sit in classes and I am so sick of these instructors wasting my time. I think it just gets cumulatively worse and worse. Finally at the upper reaches of senior college courses these research oriented professors with a few exceptions are just going through the motion. I mean there is nothing worse than listening to an instructor that is dispassionate about teaching.
But ive never been good at school. When I was kid I missed like 5 questions on my iowa test with a .4 grade point average in my 8th grade year. Yes .4.. And I can recall the principle telling my mom I was to smart to flunk. So off to my 9th grade year I went with even lower grades (though I only missed 4 questions on that year). But that was it. I never got the hang of school. I just couldnt draw myself up around it. And off I went a highschool drop out at 13.
Some where in the army I got it in my head that smart people should go to college! Since I definatly count as smart off I went.
And I wrapped myself around this thing called college. And I hated it. I failed spectacularly at it a couple times. I took 10 years to finish 4 years of college! More than once I failed simply cause I couldnt take it anymore.
And not cause I am dumb. I mean I took the GRE and got 800 out of 800 on the quantitative portion with higher than 85 percentile in the rest of the catagories (including writing but youll never tell!)
And through it all I told myself I have to go back no matter what! But for the last 10 years I have made this collosal mess of my life in the process of doing something I am so not naturally inclined to do.
And now 40 days and 4 Cs from now I will be sitting on a couch at 31 years of age thinking... wtf do I do now... My life is a mess, but I did it.. right? sigh.
My life is a mess, but I did it.. right? sigh.
Wrong.
You did it... YOU D I D IT. You got up off your ass and finished something you started. Sure there were some bumps along the way.. but you mulled through it. Which is allot more then allot of people I know, who just bum around through life.
College is done my friend, and for that, congratulations!!!!!:Blow: I admire you for sticking with it.
Now ya just need to figure out. Where do you go from here?
I just had this conversation with my brother (2 credit hours from graduation).....The time for ranting about college is past because, well, you're past it. Time to start thinking about what you're going to do next, instead of remaining mired in the asanine BS that college puts you through. You're almost done. :)
Well, you got a few options:
The gun store.
The liquor store.
The arts and crafts store.
The store with the "Help Wanted" sign outside.
The store with the "Space For Rent" sign outside.
No use looking back. Much congrats, and it sounds like you're ready to get on with your life. Go to it.
If I were you, id lease the building with the "Space for Rent" sign out front and sell Guns, Liquor AND arts & Crafts..
You'd rake in the cash!
korthuran
03-21-07, 03:08 PM
sell mac & cheese in the crafts section and you'll have a one stop shop for the ghetto
Lenilya
03-21-07, 03:27 PM
Mac-n-Cheese-n-Liquor-n-Guns.
I'd shop there!
Qutsmnie
03-21-07, 04:00 PM
You shop at walmart?
Well acording to the safehouse, with your 10 years of college now done, with a nice fancy diploma, your now heading to a fufilling career in retail.
Congradulations! Its not the end of the world, its just 10 years ago :thumb
JazzyJazz
03-21-07, 07:35 PM
you should be proud of yourself, not feel hopeless and lost. It's not late for you to start a career, it's never over till the fat lady sings! it's never as bad as it seems.
Morvran
03-21-07, 11:11 PM
Aye, stop wallowing and enjoy the fact that you're almost done! You have two choices really: you can approach this with all the pain and anguish you can muster, or you can approach it with a positive attitude.
If you choose to go the first route, these last few months are going to creep. I mean crawl, in the most painful way possible. You may even land a D or F in a class and turn that 10 years into 10 1/2. At it will be painfully boring.
If you choose the second route you'll realize that you're almost done! You're just about to put school behind you, possibly forever. Have fun with it. Good things will come out of it if you can see it for what it is; a completed and successful college stint. Mission complete.
Krimzan
03-22-07, 02:13 AM
I suggest that you spend the next 40 days developing a hugely positive world view, so on graduation day you impress all of the ladies with your wit and exuberance, and get yourself a bunch of college-girl ass while it's easy.
If I had it to do all over again, I still wouldn't have finished. I would, on the other hand, have actually persued any/all of the girls who were not only hot, but fruit so low hanging that I would have had to bend down to pick.
So, recap: 1. Think positive. 2. Try to hook up 2 at the same time.
It's seriously not going to get any easier to check those fantasies off the list, so all I am saying is it'll probably be a hell of a lot better if you propose the idea to two drunk college grads now, than like say your wife should you get married. Unless she's into that. In which case :thumb
You think I'm just kidding around...seriously, it doesn't get any easier to meet girls than in college. Carpe bossom.
Not for all colleges. Some require a certain grade in courses counting toward your major, or a certain GPA for those courses.
Morvran
03-24-07, 06:07 AM
Yeah, a D would have failed me in my major courses...actually I think even a C- might have.
Qutsmnie
03-24-07, 10:34 AM
You guys want to see one of the fuggliest long divisionee math assignments youll ever encounter as an undergraduate:
http://acms.math.arizona.edu/education/Math424-524-07/homework08_03-22-07.pdf
You could always try and solve problems like this:
http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/90/2679/320/881348/expand.jpg
You could always try and solve problems like this:
http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/90/2679/320/881348/expand.jpg
Well done friend, well done!
Krimzan
03-26-07, 10:28 AM
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/140/396732601_c5acfb380e_o.jpg
Qutsmnie
03-26-07, 12:33 PM
hahaha noob.
I actually am a TA and grade papers... omg i should have a scanner. I thought I had bad hand writing. Some of these dudes I grade have amazingly bad handwriting. I am like "does this guy have a muscle disability wtf is going on here"
I wonder if penmanship is falling off with the computer age or something.
I wonder if penmanship is falling off with the computer age or something.
Yes. We don't write letters anymore--we write emails. Phones don't help the problem either.
It's why a lot of teachers now require written assignments to be typed, although that's rather cylical. Guess you can't expect a college student to learn to draw letters again after all those years of bad practice.
Qutsmnie
03-26-07, 08:35 PM
Hey your right! I could get all Ds this semester and graduate... well hell.. I didnt realize cause i like... avoided them.... I always thought of Ds and Es as interchangable because all the requirements to get into courses said "must have completed XXX with a C or better". Turns out you can get alot of Ds and get a diploma... WTF! You D bastards shouldnt be getting my C degree!
Morvran
03-26-07, 09:50 PM
I always thought of Ds and Es as interchangable because all the requirements to get into courses said "must have completed XXX with a C or better".
The hell is an "E"?
Qutsmnie
03-26-07, 10:17 PM
Its an F in a school without failing.
Morvran
03-27-07, 02:54 AM
lol...but it still *means* the same thing as an 'F' doesn't it? Isn't it just a different letter?
Dragynphyre
03-27-07, 05:26 AM
"E" for effort?
Heh, don't worry, even those of us with some sort of degree find it difficult to figure out what we want to do when we "grow up".
Heck, I went from going for a masters in Pharmaceutical Science, to an Associates in Liberal Arts, to working in the securities market for the past 10 years after having answered an ad for a receptionist (they didn't hire me for the receptionist job, but I did get one in what was the Sales & Marketing dept.)
"E" for effort?
Heh, don't worry, even those of us with some sort of degree find it difficult to figure out what we want to do when we "grow up".
Heck, I went from going for a masters in Pharmaceutical Science, to an Associates in Liberal Arts, to working in the securities market for the past 10 years after having answered an ad for a receptionist (they didn't hire me for the receptionist job, but I did get one in what was the Sales & Marketing dept.)
Hey, My Biology degree does a lot of good here as a Software Quality Assurance Analyst in a bank department dealing with Securities and Loan trading!
Oldie but goodie
http://www.personal.psu.edu/srr120/findx.jpg
Hey, My Biology degree does a lot of good here as a Software Quality Assurance Analyst in a bank department dealing with Securities and Loan trading!
And my chemistry degree is doing me worlds of good as a stock broker. (Although it does help some when dealing with research on Pharmaceutical companies and whatnot).
Krimzan
03-27-07, 01:47 PM
Oldie but goodie
http://www.personal.psu.edu/srr120/findx.jpg
Clearly no one taught this guy about the great math god SohCahToa.
Pratell
03-27-07, 04:19 PM
definitely the most useful and widely used mnemic ever... I'd never have been able to get where I am today without it. even after finishing my math creds as an engineering undergrad I still refer to it mentally every time I am faced with a trig problem.
Krimzan
03-27-07, 04:25 PM
It was my 2nd thought when I saw the problem, I think it will always stick with me. One day I will make a big, giant, wooden Tiki mask. The first thought was, "Well ****, that's not 30:60:90 is it."
Qutsmnie
03-27-07, 06:53 PM
Whats sohcahtah or whatever.
Whats sohcahtah or whatever.
I think its the indian chick on the dollar coins. ;)
Dragynphyre
03-28-07, 06:08 AM
Never learned that mnemonic, and I was pretty darn good at Trig. I assume it has something to do with Sine, Cosine, Tangent?
Never learned that mnemonic, and I was pretty darn good at Trig. I assume it has something to do with Sine, Cosine, Tangent?
Yeah, Sine is Opposite over Hypotenuse, Cosine is Adjacent over Hypotenuse and Tangent is Opposite over Adjacent. None of which has anything to do with the problem above for solving for X, however.
Krimzan
03-28-07, 10:22 AM
Yeah, Sine is Opposite over Hypotenuse, Cosine is Adjacent over Hypotenuse and Tangent is Opposite over Adjacent. None of which has anything to do with the problem above for solving for X, however.
It's a right-triangle so a^2 + b^2 = c^2
8 + 9 = 17
c = sqrt( 17 )
I disagree with the "anything to do" bit, and if I cared enough I'd start drawing unit circles to disprove you. :b
It's a right-triangle so a^2 + b^2 = c^2
8 + 9 = 17
c = sqrt( 17 )
I disagree with the "anything to do" bit, and if I cared enough I'd start drawing unit circles to disprove you. :b
Actually, c=5. You multiplied a by 2 instead of squaring it. My point was that most kids learn how to use the Pythagorean theorem in algebra class long before they use it in Trig.
Krimzan
03-28-07, 11:24 AM
:censored
I showed my work, do I get partial credit? :brow
braincandy99
03-28-07, 12:15 PM
its SOHCAHTOA
Sine = Opposite over Hypotenuse
Cosine = Adjacent over Hypotenuse
Tangent = Opposite over Adjacent
Estebar
03-29-07, 10:00 AM
Yeah, Sine is Opposite over Hypotenuse, Cosine is Adjacent over Hypotenuse and Tangent is Opposite over Adjacent. None of which has anything to do with the problem above for solving for X, however.
I guess it helps if you also use sin(A)^2 + cos(A)^2 = 1
Qutsmnie
05-08-07, 11:54 PM
2 days and 2 Ds to go!
This has turned out as bad as others had warned =) In post mortem I decided I had took more math classes and harder math classes then I had ever done before. Those two together dont mix when you lack as much character as I do.
I ended up checking escape options and noted that I had already qualified for another version of the math degree which made happy. But also makes me sad cause I could have got out on a high note and my transcript would have more value to me. I had to remember why I bothered with this option, and then I thought "oh yeah ironically in case you wanted to go to grad school". ITs a shame really. If i had just withdrawn from all these classes at the start I would have graduated with a decent gpa.
I did end up getting accepted to a grad school with tuition payed + modest salary for in exchange for teaching a math course. HA! It wouldnt have worked though cause the school has a hard line at 3.0 gpa and this semester is going to drive me under that easily barring any miracles in the next 48 hours.
Would have been a good story with some polishing though! From highschool dropout at 13 to college instructor. So close! they sent me the contract to sign +)~
Nothing to do but wrap this up.
I think I have a mental illness that only gets aggrovated when in college! I would go to a psychologist, but ehh it goes away as soon as schools over.
Do psychologist ever give a diagnosis of "Lazy". That would be hillarious.
"Well after talking you these past few sessions... I have come to the conclusion that you are just one lazy mofo. LAZY LAZY LAZY. DUDE YOU ARE LAZY! You need to get your ass up and work for some crap. Holy smokes I have never met anyone as lazy as you!"
You never hear about a psychologist or psychatrist just saying someones lazy. Is anyone ever truely just lazy to those guys? Does DSM-VI have a section on how to tell the difference between a personality disorder and lazy?
In a perfect mental health world do lazy people exist? I bet when we got close to such a world laziness would turn into a secret cult or fetish. Overheard at the water cooler of the future, "Psssh I hear he is lazy on weekends." Followed by "OMG not phil? LAZY? Why would anyone do that? Ewwww" and "I dunno but I hear he has a whole circle of lazy friends who get together and do nothing at all!"
Solanar
05-09-07, 02:44 AM
"I dunno but I hear he has a whole circle of lazy friends who get together and do nothing at all!"
I was laughing out loud ;)