Last week I received my grades for the semester at Long Beach. I got two As and one B. These were upper division electrical engineering classes that students usually take junior or senior year.
One class was on assembly programming. It was my first real programming class, so I was concerned. Everyone I talked to said it was a difficult class. However, I thought it was one of the easier classes I have taken at Long Beach. All of the programming made sense to me and I understood most of the computer architecture concepts.
The second class covered analogue circuits such as current sources, amplifiers, and op amps. My earlier exposure to transistors was five years ago and much less theoretical, so I had a lot of background learning to do. All of the other students took the prerequisite class a few months before. I spent a lot of time in office hours and bought another textbook to help. I scored 1/10 on the first homework and 4/20 on the second one. I spent a lot of time learning things and working problems. By the end of the semester I learned everything I needed to and got an A.
My third class was on power systems. Since I took the prerequisite class last semester, I figured it would be the easiest of the three classes for me. However, it was the class I got a B in. I blame my low grade on the final. I only scored 5% above average. This was because all three of my finals were in 24 hours. I spent so much time preparing for the other two finals, I did not cover everything I wanted to for the last one.
For comparison, my comments on these classes at the start of the semester are also posted.
With these grades, my GPA is now above the minimum cut off to apply for the master's program at Long Beach. This is great.
However, the application period for the fall semester closed before my grades were posted. The soonest I can be accepted and start the program is spring 2013.
Since they have a cap on the number of units I can use for the master's degree before I am admitted, it is only practical for me to take one class next semester. The good news is the class is scheduled to be taught by the graduate adviser for the electrical engineering program. I will have a great opportunity to impress him by my performance in class. It is a graduate electrical engineering class in linear algebra.
While I should be excited about my grades (and I am), I am disappointed I cannot start the program this fall. I want to get on with my life, but I am stuck in the grey area of being a non-matriculated student for six more months. I can't even take a full load of classes like I did this past semester.
I am also sad for other reasons. I realized in May I graduated four years ago. Since then I have not attained any of the major things I would have described as success. I do not have a job. I am not in a degree program to further my education. I still live at home. I do not have the kinds of relationships I want with people. If four years ago I was asked to describe my idea of failure at this point in my life, this would be it.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Now is it Summer
On Wednesday I had my last final for the semester at Long Beach. With two finals on Tuesday night and one Wednesday afternoon, I had all my finals within 24 hours. The good news is I had strong grades in all three classes going into the finals. One of them was harder than I expected, but the professor admitted after he made it that it was harder than he intended it would be. Since it was a lot of multiple choice, I think I did well enough for an A.
I spent a lot of time preparing for my finals. I did a lot of practice problems and spend a lot of time at the library. This is in sharp contrast to when I made a Facebook album like I did my last year at Berkeley (see I should be studying for finals).
Now summer is upon me. I want to make the most of it.
These are three of my priorities for the summer.
Some of my drink recipes have mentioned sour mix (or sweet and sour mix, which are the same thing). While there are many premade mixes available, the one below is what I make and use myself. Since I recently learned of a reader who made a drink that required sour mix, I am sharing a recipe.
Sour Mix
(short for sweet and sour mix)
18 oz water
12 oz Real Lemon lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
Mix the above ingredients and keep in the fridge. Real Lemon brand is highly recommended, unless you have a bunch of lemons. However, I do not have a largess of lemons lying around.
My mom found this recipe online, but I do not know where. Some person on the internet deserves credit for it.
I spent a lot of time preparing for my finals. I did a lot of practice problems and spend a lot of time at the library. This is in sharp contrast to when I made a Facebook album like I did my last year at Berkeley (see I should be studying for finals).
Now summer is upon me. I want to make the most of it.
These are three of my priorities for the summer.
- Turning my volunteer worker position with the City of LA into an internship. I will go there two or three times a week and treat it like an internship. I will also work on a few specific projects I can talk about when I apply for a real internship next summer or a job. Right now they want me to design and build a solar turbine and figure out how a dual compound spraying machine works.
- Upgrading my amateur radio license. After working with radio stuff for the Baker to Vegas race, I am inspired to take a couple of tests and get the highest level of radio license I can from the FCC. I currently have a technician class license, which has only basic frequency privileges. All I have to do is learn some things and take two multiple choice tests.
- Do something different and fun every week. There are a lot of things to do around Orange County and into LA I have never looked into. I want to combine this with seeing people I do not see as often as I would like. This is also where you can get involved. If you are nearby and want to go somewhere or do something, let me know.
Some of my drink recipes have mentioned sour mix (or sweet and sour mix, which are the same thing). While there are many premade mixes available, the one below is what I make and use myself. Since I recently learned of a reader who made a drink that required sour mix, I am sharing a recipe.
Sour Mix
(short for sweet and sour mix)
18 oz water
12 oz Real Lemon lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
Mix the above ingredients and keep in the fridge. Real Lemon brand is highly recommended, unless you have a bunch of lemons. However, I do not have a largess of lemons lying around.
My mom found this recipe online, but I do not know where. Some person on the internet deserves credit for it.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
From Baker to Las Vegas
A few weekends ago I was on the support staff for a relay race. The Challenge Cup Relay is a 120 mile relay race from Baker, CA to Las Vegas. It is for law enforcement personal.
The race is divided into 20 different stages of 5-10 miles each. At each stage, there is an EMT team to handle any medical emergencies that occur on the course. The medical radio system is used to dispatch ambulances if any of the runners go down or any of the spectators need medical treatment. Since most of the race occurs in the desert near Death Valley National Park (aka the middle of nowhere), there is very limited cell phone coverage and the only reliable way to communicate is by radio. I helped service the medical radio network.
The weather over the course can vary wildly. The weekend before the race, part of the course had snow. The weekend of the race itself was hot; it was over 100 degrees.
My assignment was ensuring the first four stages had their medical radios up and running before the runners got there. Since we issued all of the stage leaders their radios the day before, most of my field work was fixing problems, replacing fuses, and giving them speakers.
The Race
I left Vegas at 6 in the morning so I could get to the first location before the race started at 9. It was 115 miles away and I had to contend with race traffic. All of the roads in my area were one lane in each direction. The pavement was just wide enough for the lanes and the shoulders were gravel. Each of the teams was required to have a vehicle follow their runner at all times, so there were a lot of cars on the road. Driving the same way as the race required passing all these follow vehicles, while driving the other way involved avoiding the cars that were using my lane to pass. Everyone talked about how dangerous it was and how long it would take to travel any distance. For me it was a lot of fun.
This picture gives an idea of how empty the desert was. You can also see some runners and their follow vehicles.
I spent 10-15 minutes on average at each of the stages I was responsible for. After that, most of my time was sitting around listening in on the radio for any problems, essentially doing nothing. I spent a lot of time sitting at one of the repeater sites. The person in charge of the site had a camper trailer with an awning that provided some shade. I also hung out at medical base where one of our group serviced the radios on the ambulances. This was the place the ambulances took people who needed more advanced care. If a patient's condition required hospitalization, there were helicopters on hand to transport people.
One of the things I liked was seeing the immediate effects of what I did. A few hours after I replaced a fuse powering a radio at stage 2, the radio was used to call for a direct helicopter evacuation for a runner who was unconscious. There was the time I helped someone replace every part of a radio in an ambulance only to discover it still did not work. Then when I heard him test it I realized the low voltage alarm was going off. After we removed an iPhone charger from one of the power outlets it worked perfectly. Minutes later the ambulance was off to collect someone.
If I was talking directly instead of writing, I could capture all the drama and immediacy of these incidents.
We were surprised there were around 250 medical incidents for the race. Surprised because last year there were over 400. A lot of the incidents were related to the triple digit heat. For a few hours the radios were in constant use. At one point they ran out of ambulances; they had to call 911. At another time they ran out of helicopters.
Our Thermal Resonator
Out in the middle of the desert I ate some great food. Someone from our shop built a pizza oven and was making fresh pizzas. This is the oven at the repeater site I spend most of the day at. The guy wielding the pizza mover did most of the design and welding for the oven. He is an interesting character; he is a certified welder and a registered nurse.
It was some of the best pizza I have ever had. This is not just because it was the only food around; it was top tier stuff.
Here we have Tom making some pizza. In the back you can see my car sporting an MRN (Medical Radio Network) sticker, as well as the truck I have been practicing manual transmission driving with.
The Route
From home to the Riviera Hotel (where we were based out of) on Friday I drove 272.9 miles and followed the normal way into Vegas on the 15. On Saturday I took Nevada 160 to Old Spanish Trail to California 127 (Death Valley Road). I then drove up and down 127 since that was my area. By the time I got back to Vegas past midnight and after some breakfast the next morning I had driven 314.0 miles. On the way home I drove the entire race course so I could drop some keys off in Pahrump, Nevada. That took me 327.8 miles and 6 hours, 45 minutes.
During the race at some points there were dozens of cars parked on both sides of the road and the street was filled with people walking around. It was past midnight and I had to drive at walking speed to be sure I did not hit anyone. I drove by the same place later that day and there was no sign of all the commotion from a few hours ago. All that was left were some bags of trash awaiting pickup.
The race is divided into 20 different stages of 5-10 miles each. At each stage, there is an EMT team to handle any medical emergencies that occur on the course. The medical radio system is used to dispatch ambulances if any of the runners go down or any of the spectators need medical treatment. Since most of the race occurs in the desert near Death Valley National Park (aka the middle of nowhere), there is very limited cell phone coverage and the only reliable way to communicate is by radio. I helped service the medical radio network.
The weather over the course can vary wildly. The weekend before the race, part of the course had snow. The weekend of the race itself was hot; it was over 100 degrees.
My assignment was ensuring the first four stages had their medical radios up and running before the runners got there. Since we issued all of the stage leaders their radios the day before, most of my field work was fixing problems, replacing fuses, and giving them speakers.
The Race
I left Vegas at 6 in the morning so I could get to the first location before the race started at 9. It was 115 miles away and I had to contend with race traffic. All of the roads in my area were one lane in each direction. The pavement was just wide enough for the lanes and the shoulders were gravel. Each of the teams was required to have a vehicle follow their runner at all times, so there were a lot of cars on the road. Driving the same way as the race required passing all these follow vehicles, while driving the other way involved avoiding the cars that were using my lane to pass. Everyone talked about how dangerous it was and how long it would take to travel any distance. For me it was a lot of fun.
This picture gives an idea of how empty the desert was. You can also see some runners and their follow vehicles.
I spent 10-15 minutes on average at each of the stages I was responsible for. After that, most of my time was sitting around listening in on the radio for any problems, essentially doing nothing. I spent a lot of time sitting at one of the repeater sites. The person in charge of the site had a camper trailer with an awning that provided some shade. I also hung out at medical base where one of our group serviced the radios on the ambulances. This was the place the ambulances took people who needed more advanced care. If a patient's condition required hospitalization, there were helicopters on hand to transport people.
One of the things I liked was seeing the immediate effects of what I did. A few hours after I replaced a fuse powering a radio at stage 2, the radio was used to call for a direct helicopter evacuation for a runner who was unconscious. There was the time I helped someone replace every part of a radio in an ambulance only to discover it still did not work. Then when I heard him test it I realized the low voltage alarm was going off. After we removed an iPhone charger from one of the power outlets it worked perfectly. Minutes later the ambulance was off to collect someone.
If I was talking directly instead of writing, I could capture all the drama and immediacy of these incidents.
We were surprised there were around 250 medical incidents for the race. Surprised because last year there were over 400. A lot of the incidents were related to the triple digit heat. For a few hours the radios were in constant use. At one point they ran out of ambulances; they had to call 911. At another time they ran out of helicopters.
Our Thermal Resonator
Out in the middle of the desert I ate some great food. Someone from our shop built a pizza oven and was making fresh pizzas. This is the oven at the repeater site I spend most of the day at. The guy wielding the pizza mover did most of the design and welding for the oven. He is an interesting character; he is a certified welder and a registered nurse.
It was some of the best pizza I have ever had. This is not just because it was the only food around; it was top tier stuff.
Here we have Tom making some pizza. In the back you can see my car sporting an MRN (Medical Radio Network) sticker, as well as the truck I have been practicing manual transmission driving with.
The Route
From home to the Riviera Hotel (where we were based out of) on Friday I drove 272.9 miles and followed the normal way into Vegas on the 15. On Saturday I took Nevada 160 to Old Spanish Trail to California 127 (Death Valley Road). I then drove up and down 127 since that was my area. By the time I got back to Vegas past midnight and after some breakfast the next morning I had driven 314.0 miles. On the way home I drove the entire race course so I could drop some keys off in Pahrump, Nevada. That took me 327.8 miles and 6 hours, 45 minutes.
During the race at some points there were dozens of cars parked on both sides of the road and the street was filled with people walking around. It was past midnight and I had to drive at walking speed to be sure I did not hit anyone. I drove by the same place later that day and there was no sign of all the commotion from a few hours ago. All that was left were some bags of trash awaiting pickup.
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