Classes at the Beach

I am about a third of the way through this semester at CSULB.

Class I like
So far my energy conversion class is going well. I am enjoying the class and the work makes sense. I got back my midterm last week and I did well. I got an 87, which was the second highest score in the class. The average was 58, with a high score of 100 and a low of 24. Somehow I have become friends with a wide cross-section of the students. Of my three friends in the class, one got the high score, the other the low score, and the third about average.

The one thing I need to fix is how much time I am putting into the homework. I am not finishing all of the problems or doing my best on all of them. It is not an issue of difficultly, I am just not putting in enough time. While homework is only 10%, I need to pick up every point I can.

Class I despise
The second of my two classes is communication systems. It is not going well for anyone. It is a waste of time for me, the other students, and the professor. So far he is the worst math or science professor I have ever had. He spent four weeks talking about Fourier transforms, but managed to avoid working out even one example. Most of the time he walks around the room pointing to people and asking them to answer the question he asked five minutes ago. "I don't know" and "What is the question?" are the most common responses, even for me. However, I usually manage to say something that is completely wrong when I am called on.

I think I am more confused about Fourier Transforms that when I started the class. If you are working on a campaign to end the tenure system, he is a great poster-professor.

So far I have perfect grades on the labs for the class. I have the good fortune of having a great lab group (see the person who scored 100 above). However, there has only been one homework assignment, which no one fully understood. Most people completed less than half of it, and even then it was a lot of scribbles on paper instead of intelligent work. There is a midterm on Wednesday and I think it will be a disaster for everyone.

Fun people
I am happy I am getting to know some of the students in my classes. In my waste of time class, I sit in the corner with my lab group and talk about the latest episodes of Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead (which just so happens to have its season premier tonight on AMC) before class.

As for the girl in class I like, I think things are moving along well. A few days ago I asked if she wanted to do something fun with me this weekend and she said she was babysitting for her out of town relative. I will ask again this week.

Fun project
Since I do not have any experience working on an engineering project, I joined a computers and robotics club. They have different teams working on various projects, such as an unmanned aerial vehicle, a fire fighting robot, and a mechanical arm. I am on a team of people (all two of us) that is building a micromouse. It is a small robot that is programmed to navigate a maze and find the shortest route from the corner to the center. Neither of us has built a robot before, so this will be fun.

Overall I am happy with how things are going at Long Beach. I wish I would have thought of going there a year or two ago.