Well Summer classes started off yesterday bright and early at nine am in West Hall. I honestly don't even think before yesterday I'd ever ventured into west hall... well I take that back I went in there one time to see the tow tank. But that was it. SO it was fun finding class.
My Anthro-Bio class seems pretty interesting. Its about Evolution. Pretty interesting and the professor seems very well educated in the subject and she's been to like every country on this planet. haha she's a real archeologist. she really digs up bones for a living. haha I never really thought that I'd actually come across some one who does that. When I was little, that is ALL i wanted to be. I mean how fun is digging in the dirt when you are 5 years old, and to find old dinosaur bones... wow now that would be too much fun. Haha, and then I grew up and realized that not MANY people actually get to do that. She does tho. I wonder if that was also her childhood dream. If it was good for her for sticking with it. I decided to become and electrical engineer. Strange career move. I've always been an engineer at heart tho.
My Soc class so far is 'alright'. The GSI teach it is pretty funny, but I think its going to be a lot of work with all the readings and papers I have to do. I'm not much of a writer these days, so hopefully I can pull some shit out of my ass and pass this class with flying colors. I'm the only engineer in the class, I can tell. I didn't really want to even tell them I was an engineer. But I did because what the heck. They probably all think I'm weird. Oh well.
I'm pretty bored with this life I'm leading these days. My research project is sorta of standstill-ish because James is on vacation and I'm just very reluctant to code and learn VHDL. :( I need to just go do it. I should have worked on it all last week when I had a bunch of off time. But I didn't. LAME.
I'm excited for Thursday because I am going home for the weekend. Thank god. Get out of this hell hole and go see those puppies. I miss them. I feel like I never get to see them and they are growing up so fast. I do love to come home and see how much they've grown in the past week or two. This time I'll be coming home two weeks after I've seen them last so they should be a lot bigger. AHDLJSLFj That's how they make me feel.
I am SOO glad I am done with that stupid Materials Science class. Every day I rejoice because I am not in that class. It was horrid. I don't think for the rest of my life I would want to studying anything in that class again. Well maybe the very last bit of it because I do love me some semiconductor material. haha. NIOCE.
Oh, I got a power adapter for my laptop for 10.75 on eBay stores. WAY excited. Hopefully it works and doesn't blow my computer up or anything. I feel sorta bad telling my parents because they just bought a new one for 60 bucks. :( Maybe I'll tell them it was more so they don't feel bad.
I have nothing else to say, and plus my fingers are super cold so I'm gonna go sleep probs. I'm exhausted today.
later
-JRA
So I took a nap at around 3:30 today and was only asleep for maybe an hour. I get up and check facebook because I hadn't checked it all day. Everyone's status on my news feed said that Michael Jackson was dead. I felt like I had to believe it since everyone was saying it, and most of these people have no link to each other so its not like they were playing a big joke or something. Weird. So even though I did believe them, I still looked it up and yep it was true.
I was never the biggest fan of MJ but still he was part of the pop culture of my time. When I was little I remember seeing him on TV and I didn't think he was a real person. In growing up there was the countless MJ/child molestation jokes and just jokes about him in general. There was his music of course. I wasn't really a fan, but how can you NOT listen to a song my MJ if it comes on the radio. So over all it was a shock to me that he was dead. I guess I just never pegged him as old. He was only 50 but for some reason in my mind he was younger. And to have died from a heart attack... scary.
On another note, I have air conditioning in my apartment right now. Way excited about that. It has been 90+ these past few days and I don't think that I could have survived if I didn't have air. AHHH!!! My dad came down yesterday and installed it for me. :) I was so happy. Tony also was here last night. We made coney dogs and watched a movie. I had a horrid headache and eventually just fell asleep.
Today was pretty boring. I had to work at the lab for a few hours. We got pretty frustrated and ended up leaving. We have a lot to learn/do on that project and its sorta of discouraging when nothing goes right and the code is impossible to deciliter. Whatever.
I'll leave you with the much anticipated pictures of the puppies. I think I'm gonna go on a bike ride for a while. Later.
Well I took my final exam today. Finally. I really don't think I did that horrid on it but whatever as of right now I don't really care. Its all over and that's all that really matters to me(right now).
Got the first(of many) phase of our project to work today. It was pretty exciting. TO see something actually work sorta makes me like engineering. Its when everything goes wrong that I get really frustrated and just want to give up. Really what we did today was sorta lame, we just got serial transmission to work. I suppose that's not really a daunting task but I've never taken a communications class, and I only started to code in VHDL like a month.5 ago so I it was hard for me(us). We now have a TON of work a head of us. Hopefully we can get it done eventually.
Blah, its sooo hot in my apartment. My dad is coming down tomorrow to install an air conditioner for me. I cannot wait!!! It's rather large so it should cool like my entire apartment. NICE. It will be so nice to come in from the HOT out side and actually be able to be comfortable and not have to strip down to underwear and take cold showers. :) Can't wait.
Tony's coming down tomorrow to. We are gonna hang out and have a decent day. We are both like MEGA poor right now so we don't plan on doing much of anything, maybe go on a bike ride if its not TOO hot out side. Its supposed to be like 93 tomorrow. SICK. I hate heat and sometimes I hate summer, other times I don't really mind it.
Well I really don't have much to write about. My days are all sorta blending together. All I know is tomorrow is Wednesday and I have a meeting at 3:45 for an hour and then my dad is coming down to install a godsend. :)
I will write later when my life is more exciting... hopefully soon.
So today... well yesterday I guess now was the last day of classes for spring. I am overjoyed. I honest never though this day would come. Every since we started learning about steel in MSE I wanted it to be over. That was the most boring class I've ever taken. I just hope I pass the final and never have to think about it again... well actually even if i didn't even pass the class I'd never have to think about it again because its nothing like my major. I am SOO glad I'm an electrical engineering major.
Other times I can't say that however. For instance, today we started working on the software for the research project that I'm working on. OMG I understand why I didn't become an fricken CS major, but I still feel like I am one. I mean I'm sitting there trying to decipher this VHDL code that has NO comments and very minimal explanation. It was hard. I will honestly say I really haven't even touched the surface on everything there is to know about EE. I don't think even if I spent my entire life learning I would/could learn everything. For one things change daily and for two, there is just TOO much. But I do feel like from this research I'm learning more than I EVER have in any of my classes. I feel like this is more beneficial than any EECS class I could take(with the exception of the lab based classes like 452 and 423). Really just searching around on the internet, reading about how others have figured things out, writing my OWN code and creating something that I thought up really is better than doing a bunch of homework problems.
I was thinking today about high school and senior year Calculus. I remember we all had to take this quiz because everyone(well not me) was doing poorly on a subject. My teacher told me I didn't have to take it because I "already knew everything". High school gave me a big head. I honestly think I though I knew EVERYTHING there was to know in the world. There wasn't a thing that I thought I needed to learn. Now here I am entering my senior year of college and I feel as if I know nothing. There is SOOOOO much I need to learn and want to know. I really LOVE learning and that feeling of "getting it" after trying so hard and having something work. It makes me happy.
I think that the rest of my life it's going to be like this. I'm always going to have to keep on my wikipedia reading(haha) and never will there be a day when I know every thing. Sorta scary because I thought(back in high school when I was a genius) that after college I would know all I needed to know for the rest of my life/career. I was so stupid come to think about it. How did I honestly think that things would just be DONE the day I stepped out of the Stadium with my new found Michigan Education... I don't know. But I can remember that feeling.
Its hard for me to believe that I've been done with high school for going on 4 years and I'm going to be done with college in less than a year. After that Life starts. Everything from there on out will be up to me and I have no concrete plans for after college. Hopefully a job!! :) And of course getting married. But other than that, life will happen I suppose.
I need to go to bed, I have work to to do tomorrow... and a TON of reading.
Later
-jra
I know I've said like one million times that I am going to post pictures of the puppies, well I WILL get around to it... tonight maybe, but I've been busy and really haven't had time to even put them on the puppy website much less come here and post them so the anybodies that read my blog can see them.
Speaking of the puppies, we are pretty sure that we've sold 6 of them. Seems pretty decent. We only have 2 left to sell now. One of them is going to be shipped to Colorado. I'd love to go there. Ever since I was in like 4th grade I've always dreamed of seeing CO and the mountains. Seems like it would be so pretty to take pictures of. 'Cept I doubt that I'll get there any time soon, and before I know it I'm going to have kids and a life that will inhibit me from going places. Back to puppies, I'm glad that they are selling. My mom was so worried about getting rid of them once we found out Bail was going to have nine of them, and now that they are selling she's excited and relieved... which is nice.
Also my mom got the summer job she was hoping for. I'm super happy. At least now they don't have to depend on the puppy money for the summer while my mom isn't working. I'm sure that made my parents a little more relaxed about summer plans and such. I know I'd LOVE to have some extra money right now. haha so I'm sure they are happy.
Money, I HATE money. Honestly it just puts me in a bad mood. Now don't get me wrong I love getting things, but thinking about the whole money situation and earning money and paying back all the money I've borrowed from the government over the past few years really makes me sick. I just hope that I get a job early on this fall and don't have to freak out come graduation and I have no idea what I'm going to do about working and paying back the loans and just living expenses for that matter.
Well I suppose I am going to go do some research for the project. I'll update later with some pictures... I won't promise, but I'm sure going to try.
:)
-jra
OMG, siiiccck, I'm so done with my classes right now. I can't wait for this week to be over. Its the last week of classes and my brain is blowing up!! I just want to puke.
Came back to Ann Arbor this morning. Got here sorta late and then had to race over to class. Material Science 220 is HORRID. It is the boringest class I've ever taken and I hate it. I don't even care about anything in there right now. I suppose the electrochemical stuff is sorta cool, but the rest is just like KILL ME!! :( haha
The puppies are so cute. I will HAVE to post some pictures tonight when I put them up on the website for my mom. I love them and can't wait to see them again. I think i might go home next Sunday since it's father's day and all. I think my dad would be sad if i didn't go home because i went home for mother's day and all. So i'll see if Tone will do that for me.
I am gonna go try to make myself listen in this stupid class.
I've been home all weekend. It hasn't been horrid, but its been sorta boring. I mean I really didn't have anything planned out cept the puppies and that's what I've been doing. No complaints. They are so sweet. We are taking pictures of them later tonight so I will post some of them. They are finally starting to open their eyes. And they look so sweet.
Tony's been working all weekend. I honestly feel like I never see Tony anymore. He's always working or sleeping. I guess it just doesn't give us much time together. And when he does have time off I feel like he'd MUCH rather spend it hangout with his sister. and that whole situation's weird because honestly his sister is going in High school and she acts like a 12 year old boy. weird. Just wish he'd actually make some time for us. I don't know. It just makes me worry that he DOESN'T want to spend time with me... i don't know.
Tomorrow I'll go back to Ann Arbor. Back to on-my-own-ness and stupid classes that I'm not doing well in and quizzes and work and research and reading tons of crap... :( I just want some time off. A break from it all. I don't even know what I'd do with it, but I need some time away from EVERYTHING.
I'm just so not content with my life right now. I'm sick of things never going my way and I'm sick of always being put last. It just sucks.
-jra
Right now I'm working... working during lunch is really boring in the Lurie Building. Nothing happens. No one calls, no one needs directions or any type of help. Pretty much I sit here for an hour and smile at all the other people leaving to take their lunch breaks. Once 1 rolls around however it will be much busier here. The tour today has a bunch of people on it so I'll have a ton of stuff to take care of before they all arrive. Sweet makes time pass.
Right now I'm not feeling like giving a tour at all. I really just want to go back to my apartment, get my laptop loaded with a bunch of programs I need to work on the website this weekend and go home. I need a break. Especially after this week. This week sorta sucked. I didn't do so awesome on my Material Science exam and it really bummed me out. I just need to get like 100 on the final to do well in that class, otherwise it looks like a bad grade for me. SUCK!! :(
Tonight is gonna be fun. I can't wait to see the puppies. I will post some on here if I remember and get a chance to do it. They are so sweet. I talked to my mom this morning and she said that their eyes are just starting to open. Very exciting. They are gonna be so cute!! :)
I am sorta excited to actually show my mom how i've been putting together the website, because right now I don't think she really gets it. I think she thinks its all just drag and drop and I can use any program in the world to do that(or no program at all). It will be nice for her to actually understand how much effort I've been putting into this website and maybe that will make her want to give me some dollars... haha jk. But I'll just be happy when someone appreciates all the effort and the extensive learning curve I've put myself through these past few months.
Speaking of learning curves, I have to start reading about all the hardware that my DSP project is going to entail. Its gonna take so long to understand all that material. Heck right now I don't even really quite understand the project. All i know is that we are going to have to pull data from the camera, compress it, save it to the FPGA, send it through a transmitter connected to that FPGA, and then receive it on the other FPGA and send it to a VGA connector and produce the image/movie on the screen. WOW!!! sounds hard, but after we get most of it working I think it will run nicely. The biggest problem that we are going to have is snycing the channels so that they accept the packets and read them properly. That will be hard. And since I've never taken anything communications based, its gonna be difficult!! But once its done and over i'm gonna be smart! haha
I should go work. Later
So, I will admit that I've really been slacking. I'm sorry about this. I guess I just haven't really had a lot of time lately. I really don't even know what's eating up all my time because I don't feel like I do much of anything these days. But some how I wake up in the morning an before I know it its night time and I'm sleeping again. Weird how that works.
So lets see, what's happened since the last time I posted... A lot I suppose.
Tony and I are good. I love spending time with him, yet I really feel like I never see him anymore and I just miss him a lot during the week. Then the weekend rolls around, we have and wonderful time and Monday comes WAY too fast. And then I start to miss him all over again. i just can't wait to get married and not have to worry about when we'll see each other and just all the current stresses of our lives. It will be nice to settle sorta.
James and I are finally getting started on our summer DSP project. We're researching remote cameras and sensors i guess. Here's some videos of what we might look into doing. Pretty cool stuff.
The part with the line tracking looks pretty interesting and it could have some pretty neat applications. However my favorite part of that video is the robot that follows the small orange ball. I can't even stop thinking about all the neat things you could do with that. It could pretty much be your best friend!! :)
Sad news, Sam had to be put to sleep yesterday. His hips got the best of him. I can't say that his body weight was helping him at all, but his hips really were giving out on him. He had a wonderful life and was a great dog, and I'll miss him a lot. Even though I never really liked him all that much because I'm just not a huge dog person, he was still our dog and he loved everyone more than anything in the world. He was never bad and honestly I can't even think of a thing that Sam did that was even the slightest bit bad. Poor old dog. I do believe that he is in a better place now and I think he's happier. :) RIP Old man Sam. Love you!
In happy news, Bailey finally had her puppies. She had them on June 1st. I was home for the weekend and was going to go back to Ann Arbor that Monday morning, but once she started having contractions I decided to stay home and wait for all her puppies to be born. It was pretty cool, sorta gross but pretty cool. She had nine. 6 Girls and 3 boys. I haven't seen them since June 1st and I'm really excited to go home to see how big they've gotten. I think that they are going to start to open their eyes soon. So that should be fun to see too.
Well I suppose that's really all that's been going on in the life of me. I will try to update more this month. I'll def. keep posted on the project because I'm gonna need some documentation some place, so here works. quick easy and to the point.
later.
