I want to get back to blogging and there is a lot to say. Things for me have been switching between busy and way too busy.
This past weekend I was in Berkeley for an alumni event for the Cal Newman Alumni group I am working to get moving. The event worked out well with more people attending than I expected. There was enough wine and cheese left over for an afterparty at Lisa's house.
My classes at Long Beach have a lot of work due. Yesterday one lab report was due and today a second lab report and some problems are due. The good news is I am pleased with the people in my lab groups; they are helpful. I also managed to join a club where I am on a team that is building a robot.
The group I am involved with at church that puts on retreats is trying to come back to life. We have a meeting scheduled with the pastor, but one of the three main people just had his work schedule changed and cannot make our weekly meetings anymore.
It is college fair season, so I am volunteering my time as an alumni representative for Cal. I go to high schools and community colleges when they have college nights and answer the questions of students who are thinking about applying. While I like talking to prospective students, the food the schools provide for the representatives is even better.
My dad is in the hospital. The short version is he was bit by a spider, got an infection, got blood clots, the blood clots moved to his lungs, and now his kidneys are stressed dealing with the medications that are being used to treat these things.
My grandma is visiting. She arrived last week and will be here for a month. After she leaves, my other grandma will come to visit for around two months. Among all this busyness, this is a reminder of why I need to move out.
I am looking forward to this weekend. There is no major commitment of my time. I am not driving to the other side of the state like last weekend or spending a lot of time in L.A. for a convention like the weekend before. I will be driving to LAX twice, but that is it.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Class at The Beach with the Dirtbags
I am in the third week of taking two classes at Cal State Long Beach. I need to explain how I got here.
Several months ago I came to some conclusions. Very few companies have jobs where the ideal candidate has a bachelor's degree in physics. Most of the things I want to do are engineering related, but my education is not. While I can understand the basic things behind what is happening, I do not have the specific training they want.
This and my lack employment led me to decide I should get a master's degree in engineering. The next problem is deciding what type of engineering. There is mechanical, electrical, aerospace, and a lot of other specialties I do not know anything about. After some thinking, reading, and vacillating, I decided electrical engineering was the field for me.
The next step is to get into an electrical engineering graduate program. My undergraduate GPA is nothing great (imagine a number less than three). I looked at schools that were ABET accredited in electrical engineering and decided one of the Cal States would be a good choice. The GPA requirements are within my range and they are very cost competitive.
To have a better application, I decided I should take some engineering classes. I have completed some UCI Extension classes in engineering, but those are not at the level of actual classes for matriculated students. So I took a real UCI class over the summer in Control Systems. While I was taking this class, I decided CSU Long Beach would be the best choice for me. I looked at their website and found a list of classes they expect everyone to have completed before starting the graduate program. When compared to the classes I had taken, I came up with some deficiencies and some questions.
I emailed the graduate adviser and asked to met him. He replied back that I should make an appointment to see him at the end of September. This was very unhelpful, as I would have to enroll in classes for the fall well before then. So I picked the classes I knew I would have to take. I also had to make a schedule that did not conflict with my UCI class which was ending the same week the Long Beach classes were starting. Since I was taking classes through a special program for non-admitted students, I had to get a special form, get the signatures of my professors, and get the department chair to sign off on it.
At The Beach with the Dirtbags
Now a few comments about CSU Long Beach. I had never been on campus until an hour before my first class. It is often called "The Beach" from its city Long Beach and the school being close to the beach. The sports arena is a big pyramid. Their sports teams are the 49ers. However, their baseball team is called the Dirtbags. The entire story is told by the Unnamed Geniuses. I am disappointed all of the teams are not the Dirtbags, but I am adopting the name until they come to their senses.
I am taking two classes at Long Beach this semester. One is Communication Systems. It covers putting information in signals. The first day I went to class I felt like I was in a bad high school class. It was an odd feeling. The professor speaks with an accent, writes in small lettering on the board, and walks around the room pointing to people asking them to answer his question. Usually he has been talking for so long nearly everyone (including me) has forgotten the question. There is a lab component to the class which is doing things in MATLAB. On the positive side, I found two good people for my lab group. One is a transfer student from a community college and better at MATLAB than I am. The other person is in the electrical engineering masters program. This is the first semester both of them are at Long Beach.
The second class I am taking is Energy Conversion. It explains how electrical energy becomes mechanical energy through motors. The professor is lively and makes funny comments. I think the class will be fun. The labs also use MATLAB to solve problems and simulate things. There is one other good development. There is a girl in class I have a crush on. So far we have met up to work on a lab together and she took my advice about watching Breaking Bad. I will play this out the best I can.
I am also involving myself with the campus life. I went to the club fair and picked two groups to investigate. I feel like a transfer student; I know I only have a couple of years on campus and am going to make the most of every minute of it. I think I will enjoy being at The Beach. All I need to do now is get accepted.
Several months ago I came to some conclusions. Very few companies have jobs where the ideal candidate has a bachelor's degree in physics. Most of the things I want to do are engineering related, but my education is not. While I can understand the basic things behind what is happening, I do not have the specific training they want.
This and my lack employment led me to decide I should get a master's degree in engineering. The next problem is deciding what type of engineering. There is mechanical, electrical, aerospace, and a lot of other specialties I do not know anything about. After some thinking, reading, and vacillating, I decided electrical engineering was the field for me.
The next step is to get into an electrical engineering graduate program. My undergraduate GPA is nothing great (imagine a number less than three). I looked at schools that were ABET accredited in electrical engineering and decided one of the Cal States would be a good choice. The GPA requirements are within my range and they are very cost competitive.
To have a better application, I decided I should take some engineering classes. I have completed some UCI Extension classes in engineering, but those are not at the level of actual classes for matriculated students. So I took a real UCI class over the summer in Control Systems. While I was taking this class, I decided CSU Long Beach would be the best choice for me. I looked at their website and found a list of classes they expect everyone to have completed before starting the graduate program. When compared to the classes I had taken, I came up with some deficiencies and some questions.
I emailed the graduate adviser and asked to met him. He replied back that I should make an appointment to see him at the end of September. This was very unhelpful, as I would have to enroll in classes for the fall well before then. So I picked the classes I knew I would have to take. I also had to make a schedule that did not conflict with my UCI class which was ending the same week the Long Beach classes were starting. Since I was taking classes through a special program for non-admitted students, I had to get a special form, get the signatures of my professors, and get the department chair to sign off on it.
At The Beach with the Dirtbags
Now a few comments about CSU Long Beach. I had never been on campus until an hour before my first class. It is often called "The Beach" from its city Long Beach and the school being close to the beach. The sports arena is a big pyramid. Their sports teams are the 49ers. However, their baseball team is called the Dirtbags. The entire story is told by the Unnamed Geniuses. I am disappointed all of the teams are not the Dirtbags, but I am adopting the name until they come to their senses.
I am taking two classes at Long Beach this semester. One is Communication Systems. It covers putting information in signals. The first day I went to class I felt like I was in a bad high school class. It was an odd feeling. The professor speaks with an accent, writes in small lettering on the board, and walks around the room pointing to people asking them to answer his question. Usually he has been talking for so long nearly everyone (including me) has forgotten the question. There is a lab component to the class which is doing things in MATLAB. On the positive side, I found two good people for my lab group. One is a transfer student from a community college and better at MATLAB than I am. The other person is in the electrical engineering masters program. This is the first semester both of them are at Long Beach.
The second class I am taking is Energy Conversion. It explains how electrical energy becomes mechanical energy through motors. The professor is lively and makes funny comments. I think the class will be fun. The labs also use MATLAB to solve problems and simulate things. There is one other good development. There is a girl in class I have a crush on. So far we have met up to work on a lab together and she took my advice about watching Breaking Bad. I will play this out the best I can.
I am also involving myself with the campus life. I went to the club fair and picked two groups to investigate. I feel like a transfer student; I know I only have a couple of years on campus and am going to make the most of every minute of it. I think I will enjoy being at The Beach. All I need to do now is get accepted.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Three classes, two campuses, one week
Last week was a crazy week.
As I have mentioned before, I was taking a summer class at UCI. Last week was the fifth and final week of that class. On Monday and Wednesday I had lecture and discussion that went from 8 to noon. On Tuesday and Thursday I had lab that was scheduled from 8-11. One of the people in my lab group was late on Tuesday because she was celebrating a religious holiday and completely missed Thursday because of a family emergency. To make things worse, our circuit board, motor, and (expletive) tachometer took a lot of coaxing to work correctly. Even the graduate students who supervised the lab could not make it work immediately. Things went so bad the entire class had to come in for a second lab day. I did not leave the lab until after noon both days. There was also the usual monster sized homework due on Wednesday. Completing that required me to stay up until 4 Wednesday morning before I woke up at 6 for class.
That was only half the fun. Last week was also the first week of two classes I am taking at Cal State Long Beach. The two schools have overlapping schedules because UCI is on the quarter system while Long Beach does semesters. I also had to get signatures and special forms to take classes there since I am not a matriculated student.
For Monday through Thursday of last week I drove from Huntington Beach to Irvine to Long Beach and then back home to Huntington Beach. Fortunately, all three of these destinations are close to the 405. On Thursday I left home before 8 in the morning and got back just after 9 at night. Since it was the first week the professor ended lab early. It is scheduled to run from 7-9:45.
The Weekend
This crazy week happened to have one of the more interesting weekends I have experienced in a while. On Saturday I watched the Bears beat Fresno State in the football season opener with the Orange County Cal Alumni Club. On Sunday I went to Ryan's house where I had a few drinks and decided it was better to spend the night there instead of driving home.
On Monday I went to Aden's to watch a Patton Oswalt comedy special. I am not familiar with Oswalt's comedy, but Aden and Nick orchestrated food based upon his sketches. They had Famous KFC bowls (also called mashed potato bowls) which Oswalt calls sadness bowls, cupcakes with french fries, chicken McNuggets, Cheetos, soda, beer, donuts, and ice cream topped with Lucky Charms. We never even opened my chips and cookies. It was awesome.
This Week
On Tuesday I went to UCI to met with someone to work on our lab report. However, she had been working on it until 7 that morning and could not make it to campus before I had to go to Long Beach for class.
Tuesday night I worked on an extra credit homework assignment and chatted over gmail with my missing lab partner. I gave her some great commentary to add to our report. Since the homework assignment was extra credit, I did not finish it and went to sleep at 2. Aside from the report and homework being due, Wednesday morning was also the final.
After the disaster of a final I went to Long Beach for class and to met with a lab group. I had to share with my group how I coded a Fourier series in MATLAB. All I could say was I could not finish it or know how to make it work. Then I made my way home before heading to a meeting at church where I essentially lead a mini-Bible study.
From Monday last week to Thursday of this week I made six round trips from home to UCI and then Long Beach. I drove over 400 miles.
Even with all this, I am happy to be involved with everything. Some things could have turned out better, but I am doing things and making something with my time.
As I have mentioned before, I was taking a summer class at UCI. Last week was the fifth and final week of that class. On Monday and Wednesday I had lecture and discussion that went from 8 to noon. On Tuesday and Thursday I had lab that was scheduled from 8-11. One of the people in my lab group was late on Tuesday because she was celebrating a religious holiday and completely missed Thursday because of a family emergency. To make things worse, our circuit board, motor, and (expletive) tachometer took a lot of coaxing to work correctly. Even the graduate students who supervised the lab could not make it work immediately. Things went so bad the entire class had to come in for a second lab day. I did not leave the lab until after noon both days. There was also the usual monster sized homework due on Wednesday. Completing that required me to stay up until 4 Wednesday morning before I woke up at 6 for class.
That was only half the fun. Last week was also the first week of two classes I am taking at Cal State Long Beach. The two schools have overlapping schedules because UCI is on the quarter system while Long Beach does semesters. I also had to get signatures and special forms to take classes there since I am not a matriculated student.
For Monday through Thursday of last week I drove from Huntington Beach to Irvine to Long Beach and then back home to Huntington Beach. Fortunately, all three of these destinations are close to the 405. On Thursday I left home before 8 in the morning and got back just after 9 at night. Since it was the first week the professor ended lab early. It is scheduled to run from 7-9:45.
The Weekend
This crazy week happened to have one of the more interesting weekends I have experienced in a while. On Saturday I watched the Bears beat Fresno State in the football season opener with the Orange County Cal Alumni Club. On Sunday I went to Ryan's house where I had a few drinks and decided it was better to spend the night there instead of driving home.
On Monday I went to Aden's to watch a Patton Oswalt comedy special. I am not familiar with Oswalt's comedy, but Aden and Nick orchestrated food based upon his sketches. They had Famous KFC bowls (also called mashed potato bowls) which Oswalt calls sadness bowls, cupcakes with french fries, chicken McNuggets, Cheetos, soda, beer, donuts, and ice cream topped with Lucky Charms. We never even opened my chips and cookies. It was awesome.
This Week
On Tuesday I went to UCI to met with someone to work on our lab report. However, she had been working on it until 7 that morning and could not make it to campus before I had to go to Long Beach for class.
Tuesday night I worked on an extra credit homework assignment and chatted over gmail with my missing lab partner. I gave her some great commentary to add to our report. Since the homework assignment was extra credit, I did not finish it and went to sleep at 2. Aside from the report and homework being due, Wednesday morning was also the final.
After the disaster of a final I went to Long Beach for class and to met with a lab group. I had to share with my group how I coded a Fourier series in MATLAB. All I could say was I could not finish it or know how to make it work. Then I made my way home before heading to a meeting at church where I essentially lead a mini-Bible study.
From Monday last week to Thursday of this week I made six round trips from home to UCI and then Long Beach. I drove over 400 miles.
Even with all this, I am happy to be involved with everything. Some things could have turned out better, but I am doing things and making something with my time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)