So I saw the physio today, whose expertise has aided me somewhat.
In other news, my uni results are in: high distinctions in all three units…
The surreal side of everyday life
So I saw the physio today, whose expertise has aided me somewhat.
In other news, my uni results are in: high distinctions in all three units…
Okay, so tomorrow is my Java exam and Tuesday is my Perl/CGI exam.
Mmm… In 48 hours I’ll be so relieved… to be quickly approaching another semester!
Okay, I just sat my first exam for this semester, which means there are only two remaining. Phew!
Of course, this was the easiest one of the lot. The real challenge begins on Monday…
I just received the results for my first “Web and Internet Programming” assignment: 49/50. Not as good as I would have liked, but very good nonetheless. I’m pleased with this result in particular because it’s the only third year unit I’m studying this semester — the Java unit is second year and the UNIX unit is first year. (It’s my opinion that the Java unit is the more difficult one, however.)
I think I’ll celebrate by eating the vodka jelly shots I took home from my best friend’s 30th the other night. They’re like there’s a party in my mouth and everyone’s jelly wrestling.
Update: For my first “Object-Oriented Programming in Java” project I just received 41/50. I feel suitably chastised — no vodka jelly shots for me tonight…
Update #2: I argued my case for my Java project and got an extra 6 marks, resulting in 47/50.
Here’s a summary of the actual project:
To heck with all those useful programs, this time you’re ready for the ultimate programming challenge: video games! Your next task is a small arcade game. Not at all practical, but hopefully, entertaining and fun to design and play. It will give you more practice with threads, drawing, events, and images.
It’s a recreation of SnakeBite for the Apple II. Should I be excited or scared?
(Note, kids, that the Apple IIGS was the model of choice for the computers in the computer lab in my high school in the early ’90s — quite a step up from the Microbees I was using in primary school in the ’80s. I have fond memories of playing Choplifter off a 5.25″ floppy circa 1992 or so…)
On Monday I had a Java project due, today I’ve got a Perl assignment due and next Monday I’ve got a Java assignment due.
The Java project was (for the most part) fairly simple, though I didn’t manage to create all the required functionality. (I was able to implement roughly 90-95% of it.)
The Perl assignment was also fairly simple, though there were two very curly programming problems that took a lot of thinking to figure out. It’s done, and I’ve submitted it, so at least that’s out of the way.
Now there’s this other Java assignment to do, and, to add insult to injury, it’s due on the Monday immediately after Easter!
The good news is that I’m feeling productive, at least.
Update: I just did two more assignments today: the next Java assignment (due Monday) and a C/UNIX assignment (due 05/04). Sometimes I amaze even myself…
I’m a perfectionist. This is a tendency that I recognise as a weakness, and certainly, university has beaten some of that out of me, sometimes with a figurative crowbar.
To continue this particularly nasty metaphor, today uni gave me a black eye. Next time it may be an anal rape in the showers.
For my Java unit, I received my results for my first assignment: 100%. Excellent. I’m happy with that.
But I just submitted my first major project for this same unit, and I just couldn’t crack one part of it. Because of that, I perfected everything else, but boy was it a kick in the pants.
Still, let’s think of this as a learning experience…
Okay dudes, I’m currently on a high: I just submitted my first assignment — a bit of very basic Java code involving the calculation of compound interest. (Riveting stuff, I know…)
That, however, is not the exciting part.
No, the exciting part is that I submitted it a full two weeks early.
Furthermore, this afternoon I had a slight mishap while using the rm command to clean up my assignment directory before submission — every file in the directory was deleted. Luckily, I’d just run a less command on my main file and was able to reconstruct most of my work from that. Reminder: never use rm without the -i option!
My advanced standing for my two Philosophy units was granted yesterday, so they’re now counting towards my Bachelor of Computer Science degree. This means, then, that I’ve completed the following units in service of my CS degree:
(Electives are in italics.)
This semester, I’m studying…
Still on the agenda:
…plus one other 300-level Computer Science unit. Hey, at this rate I’ll have graduated by the time I’m… 31!
Depending on your point of view, these 23 units read like either the study programme of a genius or a complete loser. Considering that my major (Web and Networks) doesn’t even require most of those maths units, a compelling argument could indeed be made for the “loser” label.
(We won’t even discuss the Communication Studies unit “Popular Television Drama” — which had me watching The Bold and the Beautiful, Neighbours, The Biggest Loser and Big Brother — since it now won’t count towards my degree anyway…)
In any case, it feels great to be back in the swing of things. I may be an artiste, a philosopher, a pontificator par excellence, but at heart I’m a geek and (more importantly) a craftsman, and Computer Science is where I belong. Sometimes it just takes a little while to figure out who you are.
Well, I rang the uni today to find out what was happening with my transfer back to Computer Science, and it seems to have been all sorted out. I’ll be getting written confirmation in the post soon, and I need to still confirm my new major and completed units, but for all intents and purposes, I’m back!
I am Dion C. Detterer: Computer Science student.