blueswede

mandatory orientation? no thanks

So I'm all moved in now and got everything set up. It's so
hard to believe that I'm actually at college now.

We've been going through mandatory orientation so far, and
today was the first day that wasn't packed full of stuff to
do. I thought about going to a seminar on debate, but in
all truth I think I'd rather relax.

I register for classes tomorrow, and right now I have a bit
of a monkey wrench in my plans. It's called Honors Calculus
171Q, and it's really being troublesome. Faculty from math
and computer science pimped the hell out of it at a session
the other day, and now I'm interested. But I can't fit
everything in at once, and I still need to take my discrete
mathematics course. Oh, and fuck the writing requirement.

I may be able to test out of discrete mathematics, depending
on what material is covered in the course. So my plan is to
register for Honors Calc, Computer Programming, an art class
called Digital Interpretations, and German I. Then I'll see
if I really want to do all the work involved in Honors Calc
and whether I'll be able to test out of discrete math
without too much trouble.

Now you may ask, "But Dave, as lazy as you are, why take the
hard course?" Answer: because it lets me be lazy later on.
If I finish the sequence (four semesters), I get out of the
senior project for CS and I also get out of another math
class I have to take. So by adding on work now, I can avoid
some work later. Plus if I can test out of discrete math,
I'll get credit for it. The 4 units from that coupled with
the thirteen units I'll already have, plus one more from the
honors calculus (it's 5 units), means that if my plan is a
success, I will be able to graduate early. That means, if
I'm lucky, get a job sooner and be one step ahead of most of
the rest of the graduating class once we're all out in the
workforce. Advantage .

The other reason for taking it is that I may minor, double
major, or if I don't like CS, major in math. If I do that,
the honors calc will be a huge advantage.

Basically, if I do things right and I can pull this off, I
will have a huge advantage in the workforce, especially if
the economy is shit when I get out. A degree in math and
computer science with a minor in art is a very good thing to
have. If nothing else, I could always teach. Teaching math
wouldn't be so bad, as long as my students were reasonably
bright people.

All things considered, I can probably do everything right if
I put my mind to it and am fortunate in scheduling. Though
they already blocked me from taking Russian with the stupid
CS lecture, so I'll need a whole lot of luck there.

This is Dave, signing off.