I do not want to pay attention to the lecture I am in, so I will write a blog post instead!
A lot of stuff has been happening. The most exciting thing, I met a girl.
I met her at a church event over the summer. Then I saw her again at a couple of Beach Newman meetings. One day last month, she got my phone number from a mutual friend and started texting me. In 24 hours, we had exchanged around 100 messages.
We like each other. There are too many examples from her text messages for me to list.
There are some very positive signs and some indications of possible problems. The problems being she does not have a driver’s license and does not have a definite plan to transfer out of community college. She is 21 years old. For over a month I have been saying we should go out and thrown out ideas, but she says she has family stuff to do. Until she spends time with me in person, this can’t move forward.
However, the positives are very positive. We have been averaging 50 text messages a day for the last few days. The subtext from all of them is she likes me and wants a relationship. Most importantly on my end, I am very excited by her. I can't get her out of my mind.
That is all I can think of to write. If you call me or message me I can explain more.
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Monday, September 16, 2013
The Scoop on Classes
I have finished three weeks of classes at The Beach. I have a better idea what they are like.
Technical Communication
The professor works as a technical writer and wants to teach us useful things. Our first big assignment is writing a resume and cover letter for a real job posting. I am enjoying hearing and thinking about applying for jobs in a new way. What I was doing before in my job search was a clear failure. The professor is telling everyone they should get LinkedIn profiles. In this way I am ahead; I have a profile with 126 connections. The best part is one of my friends from Beach Newman is also in the class.
Our textbook is interesting; it was published in 1998. There are comments about this new thing called email and how search engines work. Did you know: If you search "basking shark" in AltaVista it returns 403 sites, while Yahoo only returns 2? If you search Google today, it has about 479,000 results. However, the book backs up almost every comment about what to do and not do in a resume or cover letter with results from surveys and research.
Very Large Scale Integration
This class is focused on programming for a FPGA circuit board. It is entirely hands on. There is no required textbook, only lab projects that need to be done and a final. However, the professor is not good at organizing the information he wants to present or providing help to get everyone started. He does not even have a syllabus. Getting the software running, the computer communicating with the board, and all the settings correct for a basic program is difficult. However, somehow I became friends with the one person in the class who has worked with this stuff before and he helped me get everything set up.
Advanced Math for Electrical Engineers
My friends warned me that the professor for this class was difficult. After the first day, I realized he was an old school type of teacher. He thinks students should learn a lot of little things and theoretical background to stuff, at the expense of doing simple calculations. While all the details are important, if they cannot be applied to basic situations, the knowledge is worthless. I have had many professors like this before, so I know how to handle things. However, I am in the minority. On the first day of class, there were around 25 students there. Two weeks later (after the drop deadline), I was one of five.
This brings up a tangent on my great teaching idea.
This covers the layout and design of integrated circuits on silicon. I am working with lengths that are on the order of 50 nanometers (around one millionth of a centimeter). For capacitance calculations, I am using the atto prefix, which is 10e-18. For added fun, there are multiple layers of this stuff on top of each other.
The professor has created a bad first impression. He is late to every class. Sometimes 9 or 10 minutes late, but on lab days he can be 30 or even 50 minutes late. He had not expressed any concern or worry; he thinks it is perfectly acceptable. He assigns homework that has very little to do with his lectures. Fortunately, the textbook is very good. I am learning a lot by reading it. Another good thing, the professor has mentioned we will be following the standards set at advanced places like the Lincoln Lab, UC Berkeley, and MOSIS.
The incompetence of tenured professors notwithstanding, I am very happy with my classes. Programming for a FPGA and laying out an integrated circuit on the transistor level seem like fun. Last week as I was reading about resistor layout on silicon wafers, I thought this is some good stuff and I am glad to be learning about it.
With all these classes and Beach Newman Week of Welcome events, things have been very busy. There is a lot of stuff I should be reading, working on, and doing. Since I have limited time (or questionable time management) I am following the motto "If it is not due, it is not getting done." As long as I get good at multivariable calculus theorems by the first midterm I will be OK. However, I am not trying to be OK, I am trying to be great.
Technical Communication
The professor works as a technical writer and wants to teach us useful things. Our first big assignment is writing a resume and cover letter for a real job posting. I am enjoying hearing and thinking about applying for jobs in a new way. What I was doing before in my job search was a clear failure. The professor is telling everyone they should get LinkedIn profiles. In this way I am ahead; I have a profile with 126 connections. The best part is one of my friends from Beach Newman is also in the class.
Our textbook is interesting; it was published in 1998. There are comments about this new thing called email and how search engines work. Did you know: If you search "basking shark" in AltaVista it returns 403 sites, while Yahoo only returns 2? If you search Google today, it has about 479,000 results. However, the book backs up almost every comment about what to do and not do in a resume or cover letter with results from surveys and research.
Very Large Scale Integration
This class is focused on programming for a FPGA circuit board. It is entirely hands on. There is no required textbook, only lab projects that need to be done and a final. However, the professor is not good at organizing the information he wants to present or providing help to get everyone started. He does not even have a syllabus. Getting the software running, the computer communicating with the board, and all the settings correct for a basic program is difficult. However, somehow I became friends with the one person in the class who has worked with this stuff before and he helped me get everything set up.
Advanced Math for Electrical Engineers
My friends warned me that the professor for this class was difficult. After the first day, I realized he was an old school type of teacher. He thinks students should learn a lot of little things and theoretical background to stuff, at the expense of doing simple calculations. While all the details are important, if they cannot be applied to basic situations, the knowledge is worthless. I have had many professors like this before, so I know how to handle things. However, I am in the minority. On the first day of class, there were around 25 students there. Two weeks later (after the drop deadline), I was one of five.
This brings up a tangent on my great teaching idea.
Everything needs a conceptual and practical component developed separately. I would spend the first part of my time explaining how stuff worked. There would be a select few equations; the goal is teaching everyone to visualize how things work. Then, I would work a few simple examples with real numbers. Next, I would cover stuff in mathematical detail. I would demonstrate key parts of important concepts. I would provide some general and specific examples. If things were in multiple dimensions, there would be at least one example of every concept in three dimensions. I get very annoyed when something is in only one dimension in examples and they expect me to figure out how multiple dimensions work. The homework would include simple problems with numbers and some more general ones without real values.Mixed Signal Integrated Circuit Design
This covers the layout and design of integrated circuits on silicon. I am working with lengths that are on the order of 50 nanometers (around one millionth of a centimeter). For capacitance calculations, I am using the atto prefix, which is 10e-18. For added fun, there are multiple layers of this stuff on top of each other.
The professor has created a bad first impression. He is late to every class. Sometimes 9 or 10 minutes late, but on lab days he can be 30 or even 50 minutes late. He had not expressed any concern or worry; he thinks it is perfectly acceptable. He assigns homework that has very little to do with his lectures. Fortunately, the textbook is very good. I am learning a lot by reading it. Another good thing, the professor has mentioned we will be following the standards set at advanced places like the Lincoln Lab, UC Berkeley, and MOSIS.
The incompetence of tenured professors notwithstanding, I am very happy with my classes. Programming for a FPGA and laying out an integrated circuit on the transistor level seem like fun. Last week as I was reading about resistor layout on silicon wafers, I thought this is some good stuff and I am glad to be learning about it.
With all these classes and Beach Newman Week of Welcome events, things have been very busy. There is a lot of stuff I should be reading, working on, and doing. Since I have limited time (or questionable time management) I am following the motto "If it is not due, it is not getting done." As long as I get good at multivariable calculus theorems by the first midterm I will be OK. However, I am not trying to be OK, I am trying to be great.
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Labor Day Weekend
There is always something exciting going on with me.
On Thursday night I bought some new running shoes. Well, they are my first pair of running specific shoes. In the last few weeks I have been exercising a lot. My goal is to run or bike 5 days a week. It should be known, I do not like running. However, I dislike being out of shape and how I look even more than I do not like running.
Friday morning I tried my new shoes. They felt a lot better than the old ones. Later on I went to the library and practiced for the Fundamentals of Engineering Test. I practiced electrical circuits, which I am not as good at as I should be. Then I saw Frank and company. This is the first time I saw Frank and Sabrina since their wedding a month ago. We saw Wolverine and then ate at Karl Strauss.
On Saturday I went to an apartment warming party. It was themed as a tea party with scones and tea sandwiches. Everything was good, despite being vegan and gluten free. I brought my teapot, which I bought in Berkeley for tea parties. After the tea, we played Double Take, which is a game I do not recommend. It is like charades, except two people are acting out different parts of a compound word or phrase. For example, the phrase could be tub of lard (an actual one we came across). One person would act out tub and the other would do lard. Some of the words were stupid. For the category of things relating to cars, one person had to act out "bump" while the other person mimed "her." I was horrible at the game. At the end, there was this exchange:
Score Keeper: "Chris, you got 28 points, so you tied for third place."
Me: "What is the nice way to say this? Did you count correctly?" She recounted.
Score Keeper: "Actually, you got 20 points." This put me in last out of 8 people.
After that, I went to watch the California Golden Bears open their football season. I was at a viewing party with the Orange County Cal Alumni Club. We had a new head coach and a true freshman quarterback. It was an exciting game to watch. It was tied near the start of the fourth quarter. However, our top 25 opponent Northwestern won in the end. While it was a loss, the Bears looked great. There is a lot of potential and the team should only get better.
On Sunday Eric organized a BBQ with the Vietnamese Crew. It was in a park and I did the grilling. Consuming two hamburgers, three beers, a hot dog, and some chips was wonderful. After that, I went to Ryan's for another BBQ. While I was plenty full from earlier, I enjoyed many of the beers he had. Aside from Dave, it was all people Ryan knew.
On the Labor Day Holiday, I cleared a space in my room to set up my laptop. I had to download a program for class to program a circuit board. The program I downloaded was big. It had to be downloaded in four different parts; each was around 2GB. After the downloading and decompression, it took an hour for the program itself to install. After I figured out the license, I started working through a tutorial online. Then there was laundry and some reading. I registered and paid for the FE test in October.
On Thursday night I bought some new running shoes. Well, they are my first pair of running specific shoes. In the last few weeks I have been exercising a lot. My goal is to run or bike 5 days a week. It should be known, I do not like running. However, I dislike being out of shape and how I look even more than I do not like running.
Friday morning I tried my new shoes. They felt a lot better than the old ones. Later on I went to the library and practiced for the Fundamentals of Engineering Test. I practiced electrical circuits, which I am not as good at as I should be. Then I saw Frank and company. This is the first time I saw Frank and Sabrina since their wedding a month ago. We saw Wolverine and then ate at Karl Strauss.
On Saturday I went to an apartment warming party. It was themed as a tea party with scones and tea sandwiches. Everything was good, despite being vegan and gluten free. I brought my teapot, which I bought in Berkeley for tea parties. After the tea, we played Double Take, which is a game I do not recommend. It is like charades, except two people are acting out different parts of a compound word or phrase. For example, the phrase could be tub of lard (an actual one we came across). One person would act out tub and the other would do lard. Some of the words were stupid. For the category of things relating to cars, one person had to act out "bump" while the other person mimed "her." I was horrible at the game. At the end, there was this exchange:
Score Keeper: "Chris, you got 28 points, so you tied for third place."
Me: "What is the nice way to say this? Did you count correctly?" She recounted.
Score Keeper: "Actually, you got 20 points." This put me in last out of 8 people.
After that, I went to watch the California Golden Bears open their football season. I was at a viewing party with the Orange County Cal Alumni Club. We had a new head coach and a true freshman quarterback. It was an exciting game to watch. It was tied near the start of the fourth quarter. However, our top 25 opponent Northwestern won in the end. While it was a loss, the Bears looked great. There is a lot of potential and the team should only get better.
On Sunday Eric organized a BBQ with the Vietnamese Crew. It was in a park and I did the grilling. Consuming two hamburgers, three beers, a hot dog, and some chips was wonderful. After that, I went to Ryan's for another BBQ. While I was plenty full from earlier, I enjoyed many of the beers he had. Aside from Dave, it was all people Ryan knew.
On the Labor Day Holiday, I cleared a space in my room to set up my laptop. I had to download a program for class to program a circuit board. The program I downloaded was big. It had to be downloaded in four different parts; each was around 2GB. After the downloading and decompression, it took an hour for the program itself to install. After I figured out the license, I started working through a tutorial online. Then there was laundry and some reading. I registered and paid for the FE test in October.
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
The Secret History and Free Books
I just finished reading The Secret History by Donna Tartt. It was good.
I first heard about this book from the graduate student instructor for my Ancient Religion class at Berkeley. He said it was the reason he became interested in classics. Since he was working on a graduate classics degree at Berkeley, it must have been a pretty good inspiration. However, when I had time to find and read the book after the semester, I forgot the title. I tried searching online using a few words of what I remembered from the plot, but they were too vague.
Fast forward five years to last month when I was a groomsman at the wedding of my friend Frank. I was sitting next to his friend from the University of Chicago. This person studied Byzantine history, which is interesting to me. He wrote his thesis about the Secret History, a work by Procopius from around 550 AD. In this work, Procopius gives a scathing critique of the Emperor Justinian and his associates. For his thesis, this person analyzed if the Secret History was based on facts or a made up propaganda piece. He was from San Mateo, so I asked him if knew Monica (a friend from Berkeley), and he did. They went to the same high school.
When I got home, I was interested in looking into the Secret History of Procopius. I googled the secret history, and the first thing I found was a novel by Donna Tartt. I took a quick look at the summary and realized this was the book I had forgotten the title to.
Now for the novel The Secret History. It follows a group of classics students in a small college in Vermont. The books opens with the narrator saying he and his friends killed someone. He then explains the events and people years earlier who brought his life to that point. It centers around a group of odd students who study Greek and revive worship of the ancient Greek god Dionysus.
The book was published in 1992 and the main action is retold years after the fact, which would put the book happening in the early eighties or earlier. All of it is from another era. There are things I can relate to, but it is also decades away. For example, dorms had one phone for the entire building. If you wanted to get a hold of someone, you had to call the building where he lived. If he was not there, you left a message with whoever answered the phone.
I enjoyed all of the ancient history and classical references. Everything from direct quotes of works, to mentions of ancient Greek drama, to allusions to Greek heroes, to a character comparing a teacher to Richmond Lattimore. It is unfortunate a lot of readers will not enjoy those comments.
While I liked a lot of the book, a couple of things in the book were unnecessary. I will not go into details since that would compromise the story. I also had an idea to prevent the murder that did not occur to any of the characters.
I have imagined what it would be like if I attended a small liberal arts college. It would be nice to live in and use buildings that had a lot of history and to live on a small campus where the seasons could be experienced. However, I would also be disappointed. There would be so few choices for classes and most of them would be taught by the same few professors. Their idea of a science class would look like a bunch of people playing with over sized kids' chemistry sets. I would think, I shelled out $30,000 a year for this place? Plus, they wouldn't even have an element on the periodic table named after them.
Free Books
My friend James is moving to the east coast to start law school at Harvard. To downsize his book collection, he posted a list of books on facebook he was giving away for free to a good home.
I got three books from James. They are:
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
Rogue Regime: Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea by Jasper Becker
Military Leaders in the Civil War by Joseph B. Mitchell
I am thankful for all of these books.
The first book was one he got as a gift from a former roommate of mine. The second was one of his several books on Korea. I know almost nothing about Korea and I want to change that. The third book was one James thought I would enjoy. It is short sketches of ten military leaders of the Civil War. It is a character study that analyzes what personality traits, strategies, or themes lead to their successes or failures. It looks interesting, so I think James was right in thinking I would like it.
Now the biggest problem of all, setting aside time to read all of these books. To inspire myself to work harder, I am starting with the Theodore Roosevelt book. I am taking the book with me to school and reading it in the library when I have some time. I am aiming for a chapter a day.
I first heard about this book from the graduate student instructor for my Ancient Religion class at Berkeley. He said it was the reason he became interested in classics. Since he was working on a graduate classics degree at Berkeley, it must have been a pretty good inspiration. However, when I had time to find and read the book after the semester, I forgot the title. I tried searching online using a few words of what I remembered from the plot, but they were too vague.
Fast forward five years to last month when I was a groomsman at the wedding of my friend Frank. I was sitting next to his friend from the University of Chicago. This person studied Byzantine history, which is interesting to me. He wrote his thesis about the Secret History, a work by Procopius from around 550 AD. In this work, Procopius gives a scathing critique of the Emperor Justinian and his associates. For his thesis, this person analyzed if the Secret History was based on facts or a made up propaganda piece. He was from San Mateo, so I asked him if knew Monica (a friend from Berkeley), and he did. They went to the same high school.
When I got home, I was interested in looking into the Secret History of Procopius. I googled the secret history, and the first thing I found was a novel by Donna Tartt. I took a quick look at the summary and realized this was the book I had forgotten the title to.
Now for the novel The Secret History. It follows a group of classics students in a small college in Vermont. The books opens with the narrator saying he and his friends killed someone. He then explains the events and people years earlier who brought his life to that point. It centers around a group of odd students who study Greek and revive worship of the ancient Greek god Dionysus.
The book was published in 1992 and the main action is retold years after the fact, which would put the book happening in the early eighties or earlier. All of it is from another era. There are things I can relate to, but it is also decades away. For example, dorms had one phone for the entire building. If you wanted to get a hold of someone, you had to call the building where he lived. If he was not there, you left a message with whoever answered the phone.
I enjoyed all of the ancient history and classical references. Everything from direct quotes of works, to mentions of ancient Greek drama, to allusions to Greek heroes, to a character comparing a teacher to Richmond Lattimore. It is unfortunate a lot of readers will not enjoy those comments.
While I liked a lot of the book, a couple of things in the book were unnecessary. I will not go into details since that would compromise the story. I also had an idea to prevent the murder that did not occur to any of the characters.
I have imagined what it would be like if I attended a small liberal arts college. It would be nice to live in and use buildings that had a lot of history and to live on a small campus where the seasons could be experienced. However, I would also be disappointed. There would be so few choices for classes and most of them would be taught by the same few professors. Their idea of a science class would look like a bunch of people playing with over sized kids' chemistry sets. I would think, I shelled out $30,000 a year for this place? Plus, they wouldn't even have an element on the periodic table named after them.
Free Books
My friend James is moving to the east coast to start law school at Harvard. To downsize his book collection, he posted a list of books on facebook he was giving away for free to a good home.
I got three books from James. They are:
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
Rogue Regime: Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea by Jasper Becker
Military Leaders in the Civil War by Joseph B. Mitchell
I am thankful for all of these books.
The first book was one he got as a gift from a former roommate of mine. The second was one of his several books on Korea. I know almost nothing about Korea and I want to change that. The third book was one James thought I would enjoy. It is short sketches of ten military leaders of the Civil War. It is a character study that analyzes what personality traits, strategies, or themes lead to their successes or failures. It looks interesting, so I think James was right in thinking I would like it.
Now the biggest problem of all, setting aside time to read all of these books. To inspire myself to work harder, I am starting with the Theodore Roosevelt book. I am taking the book with me to school and reading it in the library when I have some time. I am aiming for a chapter a day.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
I'm a Real Student! plus the FE Exam
On Monday I will start as a full time graduate student. I am excited!
I feel like I am starting college over and I want to avoid every mistake and regret I had the first time. I am half way there already with the classes I have taken so far. I have made some friends in class and gotten to know a professor or two. I have gone out with two girls who were awesome, even if they did not feel the same about me in the end. Last night I celebrated the birthday of a friend from Long Beach. After some silly string, Irish car bombs, four different bars, and Denny's, I headed home around 4.
Three of my four textbooks have already arrived in the mail. Some of them are a little intimidating, but I know if I practice a lot, read and reread them early in the semester, and ask questions when I do not know what I am doing I will do great. I have mostly evening classes starting at 5:30, 6:30, or later. I have one afternoon class on Tuesdays at 12:30. I have no classes on Wednesday or Friday. However, almost no one at Long Beach has class on Friday. I am taking four classes this semester: Technical Communication (an English class that will mostly be a waste of time), Advanced Engineering Math for Electrical Engineers (it covers everything I am not good at: Fourier transforms, Z–transforms, and differential equations), VLSI Design (Very Large System Integration, which is putting one thousand plus transistors into a single integrated circuit), and Mixed Single Integrated Circuit Design.
In the Catholic club, I have established myself as the person who knows what is going on and how to do things. When I make suggestions people usually agree with me. It also helps that I know from experience what ideas work. Unfortunately, there is a ridiculous amount of red tape. CSU Long Beach makes life difficult for student groups. Faculty advisers, signed paper forms, mandatory in person officer training sessions that do not start until August, a stupid online network few people use that every campus group must use, paying for a table at the big club fair, a block on clubs reserving rooms, shutting down the one webpage people have used to find our club, and writing a club constitution that must contain paragraphs with exact wording copied from campus and state law are not helping anyone. This is a load of bullshit.
Things are looking up, and I am excited!
Fundamentals of Engineering Test
In other news, I am preparing to take the Fundamentals of Engineering (or Engineer in Training) test in October. It is the first step in becoming a licensed professional engineer. While it is only necessary for a small fraction of engineering jobs, I think passing the test will be a boost when I apply for internships and jobs. The test has 180 multiple choice questions. Half of it is general engineering knowledge. It tests physics, math, statics, dynamics, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, probability, chemistry, computers, engineering economics, properties of materials, electricity and magnetism, and ethics. I am working through a review book, though I am learning some things for the first time. I never took engineering economics (present value, future value, depreciation, cost benefit analysis, and all that stuff) and have very little exposure to some other areas, like fluid dynamics, properties of materials, and probability/statistics. I took chemistry, but that was in high school. The second half of the test covers my area of specialty, electrical engineering. There will be circuits, electronics, power, control systems, and more circuits; all of which I took in the last couple of years. Here is the detailed list of what is covered on the test.
I bought one of the approved models of calculator (TI-36X Pro) for the test and have been practicing with it. For the last 11 years, I have exclusively used my TI-83+ Silver Edition for everything. There are a few changes in buttons I am getting used to. Aside from the calculator, I am learning how the handbook I can use for the test is laid out. It is 250 pages and has most of the equations I will need. However, I need to know where to find things and what equations are not in it. There are also tricks I am developing. For example, I could memorize some equation and a constant for a speed of sound equation to determine Mach numbers, but it is so much easier to remember sound travels at 343.2 m/s at 20 C.
I am finished reviewing/learning around two thirds of the general topics. There are some areas like fluid mechanics that I understand better now that I ever have. For engineering economics, it is mostly figuring out the right equation to use and plugging the numbers in. The hardest section for me has been statics. It is about forces in things that are at rest, like how much force is in a beam in a bridge. The next hardest section for me looks like chemistry, because it expects me to memorize a lot of chemical formulas and oxidation reduction stuff. If I was Walter White, this would be easier. Fortunately, that is only a small part of the chemistry section, which is a small part, 9%, of the entire general section of the test. I still remember some important elemental symbols and atomic masses from high school, and all the calculations are basic algebra. If those are my biggest problems, I am in great shape for the general section.
Solving the problems quickly and time management will be the most difficult part of the test.
For the last testing session in April, the overall passage rate was 61% (though first-time test takers had a passage rate around 75%). For comparison, the California bar exam in July of last year had overall and first-time passage rates of 55% and 68%. However, people who took the engineering test did substantially less complaining. I have not seen a single facebook post about "I am taking the Engineering FE/EIT test." In contrast, I have seen way too many posts about bar prep classes, studying for the bar, and taking the bar. Alternatively, this could mean I have made horrible life choices by associating with too many lawyers and not enough engineers.
I feel like I am starting college over and I want to avoid every mistake and regret I had the first time. I am half way there already with the classes I have taken so far. I have made some friends in class and gotten to know a professor or two. I have gone out with two girls who were awesome, even if they did not feel the same about me in the end. Last night I celebrated the birthday of a friend from Long Beach. After some silly string, Irish car bombs, four different bars, and Denny's, I headed home around 4.
Three of my four textbooks have already arrived in the mail. Some of them are a little intimidating, but I know if I practice a lot, read and reread them early in the semester, and ask questions when I do not know what I am doing I will do great. I have mostly evening classes starting at 5:30, 6:30, or later. I have one afternoon class on Tuesdays at 12:30. I have no classes on Wednesday or Friday. However, almost no one at Long Beach has class on Friday. I am taking four classes this semester: Technical Communication (an English class that will mostly be a waste of time), Advanced Engineering Math for Electrical Engineers (it covers everything I am not good at: Fourier transforms, Z–transforms, and differential equations), VLSI Design (Very Large System Integration, which is putting one thousand plus transistors into a single integrated circuit), and Mixed Single Integrated Circuit Design.
In the Catholic club, I have established myself as the person who knows what is going on and how to do things. When I make suggestions people usually agree with me. It also helps that I know from experience what ideas work. Unfortunately, there is a ridiculous amount of red tape. CSU Long Beach makes life difficult for student groups. Faculty advisers, signed paper forms, mandatory in person officer training sessions that do not start until August, a stupid online network few people use that every campus group must use, paying for a table at the big club fair, a block on clubs reserving rooms, shutting down the one webpage people have used to find our club, and writing a club constitution that must contain paragraphs with exact wording copied from campus and state law are not helping anyone. This is a load of bullshit.
Things are looking up, and I am excited!
Fundamentals of Engineering Test
In other news, I am preparing to take the Fundamentals of Engineering (or Engineer in Training) test in October. It is the first step in becoming a licensed professional engineer. While it is only necessary for a small fraction of engineering jobs, I think passing the test will be a boost when I apply for internships and jobs. The test has 180 multiple choice questions. Half of it is general engineering knowledge. It tests physics, math, statics, dynamics, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, probability, chemistry, computers, engineering economics, properties of materials, electricity and magnetism, and ethics. I am working through a review book, though I am learning some things for the first time. I never took engineering economics (present value, future value, depreciation, cost benefit analysis, and all that stuff) and have very little exposure to some other areas, like fluid dynamics, properties of materials, and probability/statistics. I took chemistry, but that was in high school. The second half of the test covers my area of specialty, electrical engineering. There will be circuits, electronics, power, control systems, and more circuits; all of which I took in the last couple of years. Here is the detailed list of what is covered on the test.
I bought one of the approved models of calculator (TI-36X Pro) for the test and have been practicing with it. For the last 11 years, I have exclusively used my TI-83+ Silver Edition for everything. There are a few changes in buttons I am getting used to. Aside from the calculator, I am learning how the handbook I can use for the test is laid out. It is 250 pages and has most of the equations I will need. However, I need to know where to find things and what equations are not in it. There are also tricks I am developing. For example, I could memorize some equation and a constant for a speed of sound equation to determine Mach numbers, but it is so much easier to remember sound travels at 343.2 m/s at 20 C.
I am finished reviewing/learning around two thirds of the general topics. There are some areas like fluid mechanics that I understand better now that I ever have. For engineering economics, it is mostly figuring out the right equation to use and plugging the numbers in. The hardest section for me has been statics. It is about forces in things that are at rest, like how much force is in a beam in a bridge. The next hardest section for me looks like chemistry, because it expects me to memorize a lot of chemical formulas and oxidation reduction stuff. If I was Walter White, this would be easier. Fortunately, that is only a small part of the chemistry section, which is a small part, 9%, of the entire general section of the test. I still remember some important elemental symbols and atomic masses from high school, and all the calculations are basic algebra. If those are my biggest problems, I am in great shape for the general section.
Solving the problems quickly and time management will be the most difficult part of the test.
For the last testing session in April, the overall passage rate was 61% (though first-time test takers had a passage rate around 75%). For comparison, the California bar exam in July of last year had overall and first-time passage rates of 55% and 68%. However, people who took the engineering test did substantially less complaining. I have not seen a single facebook post about "I am taking the Engineering FE/EIT test." In contrast, I have seen way too many posts about bar prep classes, studying for the bar, and taking the bar. Alternatively, this could mean I have made horrible life choices by associating with too many lawyers and not enough engineers.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Something great every day
I have been busy. In the last couple of weeks, I have been doing something interesting almost every day. Instead of trying for long posts that capture every nuance, I will throw everything at you.
Before this story starts, a few notable things happened at the end of June. I was in a three car auto accident that resulted in no damage to anything. People were merging because construction closed a lane, but there was only 100 feet between the first cone and the complete closure of the lane. Everyone stopped and exchanged information, but the bumpers did their job!
Eric locked his keys in his car. I used my AAA membership to get it opened for him. This was around midnight after we saw Now you see Me and had In-N-Out.
Then I went to Las Vegas for Frank's bachelor party. I saw all the same people again a few days later for Independence Day. Ryan had a BBQ at his new house.
Then this jumps to the 9th of July.
Tuesday: Beach Newman meeting, young adult meeting at Long Beach church
Wednesday: Board meeting of OC Cal Alumni Club
Thursday: Happy Hour with OC Cal Alumni in Corona del Mar
Friday: Nothing (worked on fundamentals of engineering test practice problems)
Saturday: Cleaned my room, saw friend in modern blues band perform in Dana Point
Sunday: Spent the day with Frank and the groomsmen; got fitted for a tuxedo, had lunch, saw Pacific Rim, saw Frank's new apartment, went to the OC Fair, enjoyed a Krispy Kream sloppy joe sandwich
Monday: Happy hour with Long Beach friend
Tuesday: Beach Newman meeting, saw Corpse Bride, had cake from friends' wedding (a year after the wedding)
Wednesday: Went hiking at Sturtevant Falls with Long Beach friend (from happy hour)
Thursday: Nothing (show of my musician friend was cancelled at last minute)
Friday: Baby shower for Long Beach friend (same one as wedding cake), saw Angels game with Dave (including an Angels win!)
Saturday: Beach Newman officer retreat, camping in someone's backyard, Twinkies!, spending the night in a tent without a rain fly, experiencing rain, gave a great talk
Sunday: Finished up retreat, syrup shots at Denny's, went to Slater's 50/50 with Ryan, Dave, and Daniel for my birthday
Monday: Went to Lucille's BBQ for my birthday
Tuesday: Responded to all my birthday messages, Theology on Tap with Beach Newman friends
Wednesday: Hike in Peter's Canyon with Dave and Long Beach friend, tested new hydration pack
All of the things I did above were awesome. I have been getting back into the habit of exercising. I bike almost every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, except for the days I am hiking. I have gotten back up to going 12 miles in a ride. I am watching Sons of Anarchy on Amazon Prime. I just finished season three. If you have not watched Sons of Anarchy, you are missing out on a great show.
Now what I have planned for the next few days.
Thursday: Pick up tuxedo for wedding, pack and get everything ready
Friday: Drive to Santa Barbara with Dave and Aden, rehearsal dinner
Saturday: Frank's wedding, me standing around in a tuxedo looking important
Tuesday: Theology on Tap with Beach Newman friends
Wednesday: Help friends move
Thursday: Hike somewhere, maybe Santiago peak
There are a lot of things around me I want to change. Living with family can still be horrible. However, I am doing a lot to make the best of my situation. I am happy about the way a lot of things are going.
Before this story starts, a few notable things happened at the end of June. I was in a three car auto accident that resulted in no damage to anything. People were merging because construction closed a lane, but there was only 100 feet between the first cone and the complete closure of the lane. Everyone stopped and exchanged information, but the bumpers did their job!
Eric locked his keys in his car. I used my AAA membership to get it opened for him. This was around midnight after we saw Now you see Me and had In-N-Out.
Then I went to Las Vegas for Frank's bachelor party. I saw all the same people again a few days later for Independence Day. Ryan had a BBQ at his new house.
Then this jumps to the 9th of July.
Tuesday: Beach Newman meeting, young adult meeting at Long Beach church
Wednesday: Board meeting of OC Cal Alumni Club
Thursday: Happy Hour with OC Cal Alumni in Corona del Mar
Friday: Nothing (worked on fundamentals of engineering test practice problems)
Saturday: Cleaned my room, saw friend in modern blues band perform in Dana Point
Sunday: Spent the day with Frank and the groomsmen; got fitted for a tuxedo, had lunch, saw Pacific Rim, saw Frank's new apartment, went to the OC Fair, enjoyed a Krispy Kream sloppy joe sandwich
Monday: Happy hour with Long Beach friend
Tuesday: Beach Newman meeting, saw Corpse Bride, had cake from friends' wedding (a year after the wedding)
Wednesday: Went hiking at Sturtevant Falls with Long Beach friend (from happy hour)
Thursday: Nothing (show of my musician friend was cancelled at last minute)
Friday: Baby shower for Long Beach friend (same one as wedding cake), saw Angels game with Dave (including an Angels win!)
Saturday: Beach Newman officer retreat, camping in someone's backyard, Twinkies!, spending the night in a tent without a rain fly, experiencing rain, gave a great talk
Sunday: Finished up retreat, syrup shots at Denny's, went to Slater's 50/50 with Ryan, Dave, and Daniel for my birthday
Monday: Went to Lucille's BBQ for my birthday
Tuesday: Responded to all my birthday messages, Theology on Tap with Beach Newman friends
Wednesday: Hike in Peter's Canyon with Dave and Long Beach friend, tested new hydration pack
All of the things I did above were awesome. I have been getting back into the habit of exercising. I bike almost every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, except for the days I am hiking. I have gotten back up to going 12 miles in a ride. I am watching Sons of Anarchy on Amazon Prime. I just finished season three. If you have not watched Sons of Anarchy, you are missing out on a great show.
Now what I have planned for the next few days.
Thursday: Pick up tuxedo for wedding, pack and get everything ready
Friday: Drive to Santa Barbara with Dave and Aden, rehearsal dinner
Saturday: Frank's wedding, me standing around in a tuxedo looking important
Tuesday: Theology on Tap with Beach Newman friends
Wednesday: Help friends move
Thursday: Hike somewhere, maybe Santiago peak
There are a lot of things around me I want to change. Living with family can still be horrible. However, I am doing a lot to make the best of my situation. I am happy about the way a lot of things are going.
Sunday, July 7, 2013
St. Therese of Lisieux and Vatican II
A few weeks ago I finished The Story of a Soul, the autobiography of Saint Therese of Lisieux.
It was not as good as I had hoped. There was a lot of stuff about Therese growing up. She would have been a handful to deal with. The littlest things set her off. She also does not take no for an answer. She knew she wanted to join the Carmel cloister when she was young. When she made her intention known at the age of 14, the priest-superior of the order said she was too young. Then she went to the bishop to ask his permission. When he said the same thing, she traveled to Rome and appealed to Pope Leo XIII. He told her to do what her superiors instructed, which was wait until she was older.
What I do like about St. Therese (which I knew about before reading this), was her idea on small acts of kindness. When we cannot do great things, we can do small things with great love. She is often called Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face (the names she took as a religious) or the Little Flower of Jesus. She died in 1897 at the age of 24. However, she is a Doctor of the Church, which means she is really important (only 35 in 2,000 years). She is not to be confused with St. Teresa of Avila, another Doctor of the Church who reformed the Carmelite Order and wrote The Interior Castle in the 1500s.
Seeing posts online, some of my friends like St. Therese of Lisieux and her writings a lot. Mother Teresa of Calcutta took her name after Therese of Lisieux.
One remarkable thing is the piety of Therese's family. Both of her parents have been declared to be blessed. All four of her sisters that survived to adulthood became nuns.
Reading this was a continuation of the reading club/discussion group/salvation Skypes/Catholic conversations (we do not have a good name) I started with Amanda last year to read the Bible.
Vatican II
The other thing we read earlier this year was all of the documents from the Second Vatican Council. All the Vatican II documents are available online in a variety of languages, including Byelorussian and Swahili.
There were no great revelations in the documents for me. A lot of it was stuff I had heard before. I was disappointed in a few of the documents. They had a lot of general comments. Often they said a particular issue needed to be addressed and said bishops should appoint a group to study a problem and recommend changes. This was boring, because I wanted to read about the changes themselves. However, people say it was a really important council and a lot of stuff came out of it, like the mass being in local languages instead of Latin.
If you are interested in reading a few of the documents, I would recommend you read the constitutions. They were the best and most important.
Vatican II took place from 1962-1965, so last year was the 50th anniversary of when it started. To celebrate this, the Pope declared a celebration called the Year of Faith. People are encouraged to read the Vatican II documents as well as the Catechism of the Catholic Church and gain a deeper understanding of their faith.
It was not as good as I had hoped. There was a lot of stuff about Therese growing up. She would have been a handful to deal with. The littlest things set her off. She also does not take no for an answer. She knew she wanted to join the Carmel cloister when she was young. When she made her intention known at the age of 14, the priest-superior of the order said she was too young. Then she went to the bishop to ask his permission. When he said the same thing, she traveled to Rome and appealed to Pope Leo XIII. He told her to do what her superiors instructed, which was wait until she was older.
What I do like about St. Therese (which I knew about before reading this), was her idea on small acts of kindness. When we cannot do great things, we can do small things with great love. She is often called Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face (the names she took as a religious) or the Little Flower of Jesus. She died in 1897 at the age of 24. However, she is a Doctor of the Church, which means she is really important (only 35 in 2,000 years). She is not to be confused with St. Teresa of Avila, another Doctor of the Church who reformed the Carmelite Order and wrote The Interior Castle in the 1500s.
Seeing posts online, some of my friends like St. Therese of Lisieux and her writings a lot. Mother Teresa of Calcutta took her name after Therese of Lisieux.
One remarkable thing is the piety of Therese's family. Both of her parents have been declared to be blessed. All four of her sisters that survived to adulthood became nuns.
Reading this was a continuation of the reading club/discussion group/salvation Skypes/Catholic conversations (we do not have a good name) I started with Amanda last year to read the Bible.
Vatican II
The other thing we read earlier this year was all of the documents from the Second Vatican Council. All the Vatican II documents are available online in a variety of languages, including Byelorussian and Swahili.
There were no great revelations in the documents for me. A lot of it was stuff I had heard before. I was disappointed in a few of the documents. They had a lot of general comments. Often they said a particular issue needed to be addressed and said bishops should appoint a group to study a problem and recommend changes. This was boring, because I wanted to read about the changes themselves. However, people say it was a really important council and a lot of stuff came out of it, like the mass being in local languages instead of Latin.
If you are interested in reading a few of the documents, I would recommend you read the constitutions. They were the best and most important.
Vatican II took place from 1962-1965, so last year was the 50th anniversary of when it started. To celebrate this, the Pope declared a celebration called the Year of Faith. People are encouraged to read the Vatican II documents as well as the Catechism of the Catholic Church and gain a deeper understanding of their faith.
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