CS 2900

First, I'm going to say, "brilliant marketing." I'm paying to work for them.

Background: My college is rewiring their entire network infrastructure in their Computer Science labs over summer semester. They're running network wire for over 100 new computers in 5 different rooms. Each wire needs to be terminated to either a server block or a jack, both ends, 8 "twists" per wire and then certify the whole line, that's a lot of tedious work. That's just the beginning, there's still installing all the server software in the server rooms as well as a myriad of other details I won't go into.

Anyway, because this isn't a private college all the hiring of labor goes through the state's bureaucracy. Because the two instructors in charge of this project don't have much time, they have to do it themselves.

The Brilliant Part: They created a new elective class, CS 2900, and are having the students do all this work. Their pitch is, "this class will NEVER be offered again in any semester in the future" and "no school has EVER done this before, nor will they ever do this."

So, what do I do? I paid my tuition and joined the class, just to put it on a damn resume. I'm paying THEM to let me work. I'm thinking of dropping the class and saving my money so I can play video games and enjoy my summer, but the experience lasts as long as Moore's Law.

NSE

Okay,

So, I've pretty much had it with math. It's cool and all; defines the physical realm, gives it depth and provides reason to it's seemingly chaotic direction. But, I'm done. Somewhere around finding the direction, velocity, acceleration, speed, spin and curvature of a cylinder, within a ball, within a cone is when it happened. That's when I thought to myself, "wait ... what?" So, I plateaued at absorbing the concepts.

It's 3rd, 4th, 5th, ... nth dimensional mathematics. Try to wrap your head around that for just a moment, fourth dimensional mathematics. You can't even conceive of a 4th dimensional object, let alone plot it's surface. The picture to the right, is a two dimensional rendition of Boy's Surface. It only looks three dimensional because of lines and color. A ball or truck has three dimensions. How can you conceive a fourth? Go ahead, think of a surface that has height, width, depth ... then what?? Hm? How about a fifth dimension, or sixth??

The professor couldn't even give the class an example where this type of math is used in the real world.

I was warned, though. Whenever I mentioned that I wanted to become an Engineer, practically everyone said, "you'll need to like math ... a lot of math." Somehow, I was ignorant to it.

Well, after picking up all the pieces of my skull and peeling my consciousness off the back wall, I decided it was time to change degrees. You're now reading about the next Network Systems Engineer.

What's a Network Systems Engineer you ask? I'll let you know as soon as I find out. I think I'm picking my degrees based on how cool or important they sound.

Still Employed, School is Long, Summer Come Soon

I'm still employed. Everyday, fellow employees joke about how long I have until I'm fired/laid off. I swear, theres a fucking office pool going around.

Currently, I'm in the middle of a project that no other employee in my department is capable of handling. The remaining hardware can't be ordered until May, so the installation can't happen until then. Which means, I won't be let go until it's complete. A wise worker once said, "make yourself indispensible." So, I'm employeed until at least the end of May. After that, who knows.

The end of Spring semester is approaching. Right now, I have too much homework I should be working on, instead, I opt to write here. My communication class is going great! I'm at a steady 102%. No kidding. Top of my class. We just have one more group project then the final test(s). Two more weeks, then that class is finished. I really liked it. I really liked Psychology, too. Scored an "A" there.

My Calculus class is kicking my ass. I estimate a low "C" right now. The math is getting so complicated, I'm 80% sure I'm going to change majors. I mentioned this to my professor and, of course, she had intent to change my mind. The words of encouragement failed to take hold, especially considering that I'm 7 chapters behind and I'm more inspired to write on my site than pull out my book.

I can't wait for summer. I don't intend to take any summer classes. Spring semester is always bad for me because I'm hyper and can't stay focues on school that long.

My A.D.D. is kicking in again and need to change out of my work clothes for school.

Oh yeah, and I think I want a motorcycle.

Horray for spare time.

Sorry for such a long hiatus. It's been over a month. Why? School and damn work, that's why. If you've been keeping up, I going to school to be an Electrical Engineer a Computer Science Engineer. (I recently decided to change majors.) So, between calculating the curvature of a surface in 3-space and creating power points for conflict management, I play games in my spare time. It's my "me time". Plus, when I would post weekly, it was at work when I had nothing better to do with my time.

As per the last couple updates, my position at work came into question as to whether or not it was actually needed. It wasn't, but because I'm so valuable, they didn't want to fire me and so, opted to transfer me to a different area. That area has no eff'n wi-fi and it's driving me crazy. I have an iPhone 3G so maybe I'll see if I can update from there. However, the office is like a war bunker and if I stand just so and position my hand just right, I can get a couple bars on the "E" network. Good times.

Note:* I found out I actually have an audience outside my usual group of close friends who care enough to check the blog out. Comments are nice. Thanks for reading Anonymous', now, I do it for you, and the $50-every-10-years-for-ad-space-from-Google.

Note to self: get more anonymous'es.

Fetishes, you has one, or two, or ...

I'm in school. I'm in a psychology class. Now, whenever I talk to people or watch TV, I think I'm a fucking psychologist. I'm diagnosing, labeling disorders, getting that "ah HA!" moment when people express anxiety because I know why. The problem is: I don't know what I'm talking about. The only class I've taken is the damned introductory class, Psychology 101. Who do I think I am?

One class isn't going to make me an expert. But, you've probably heard the saying: in the world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. Well, I may not have a full eye and the one I have is cloudy and vague, but I can make out more than the blind.

My final report is on fetishes. And I've learned quite a bit, like Freud's reason why people have them. After I give a nutshell explanation, you might find that you have one, too.

Freud theorized in a Castration Complex. That's where little boys, who are horrified to find out their mother doesn't have a penis, substitute an object in place of the penis. Mind you, this is all subconscious and relative. Little girls on the other hand, discover that boys DO have a penis and assume theirs was torn off, so they substitute and object in it's place as well (a.k.a. "penis envy"). This is all assuming that the penis is the symbol of erotic sexuality.

The most common fetish is a foot and leg fetish. This includes any object or behavior that is associated with feet: bare, shoes, high heels, stockings, skirts. But typically, there's a behavior associated with them. What are the feet doing/wearing. Stocking alone won't do the trick, but stockings on feet might. Perhaps bare feet being squished into a pumpkin does it for some people.

High heels are the most prevalent. This is because the high heel is symbolic of a phallus. A woman in high heels is seen as a phallic woman. These women are associated with power (which could also be the reason ultra high heels are often seen in BDSM.)

Well, there's a two paragraph of a 20 minute presentation of fetishes. I summarized. Chiao!