I'll shift your index
Two down, one to go. Exams this week that is. Physics? check! Vector calculus? check! Differential equations? pending . . .
So I'm studying for that differential equations exam tomorrow, about which I am a little nervous, and the last line of this web page made me smile (and agree!). btw, it seems to be a really helpful site for anyone reading this who's taking a math class :)
The exam is also covering Laplace transformations, and à-la-BK, I've taken to exclaiming "Hey Laplace! Transform THIS!" and considering myself just *ssssoooooooo* clever . . . yeah.
So I may tentatively have a co-op offer (=internship, but you go back at least once and work again) with a company I think is kinda cool. And it may be in Alabama. My dad's opinion on me being there (Calera, Alabama) for several months? "Welllll . . . it is _technically_ within the continental US." har.
The company is called Lafarge, and they're very international and big business-y and industrial, but they attempt to operate in an environmentally sustainable manner, which is right up my alley. Oh, and international headquarters are in Paris. The positions I'm being considered for seem to be pretty hardcore manufacturing, which is what I think I'm interested in so it would be a pretty good way for me to figure out if I actually like that kind of stuff.
My math studying was interrupted by a call from my friend who's an engineering major at UPenn, and after I told him about possibly being flown out to Alabama to meet with management there, we ended up discussing (among other things) the differences between ivy league engineers and large public university engineers (the former tend to end up on Wall Street, at the front of university classrooms, or in labs, usually with a PhD following their names).
Right, math studying. Eeeeeepers I hope this exam goes well tomorrow. Man, have I been cut down to size by these classes lately. I'm pretty solid in physics, but these two math classes have made a mediocre student out of me. I'm just hoping to pass decently. There's this kid in my diff eq class who only got two wrong on the AMC. I was happy if I got two RIGHT on that back in the day. He doesn't come to class every day, and when he does, he's usually doing crossword puzzles. And once there was this tricky conversion that involved utilisation of a geometric series, and the clarity with which he immediately determined the answer was _ridiculous_. Then there's also the kid who sits diagonally from me playing his handheld gameboy-mabob. And yep, that's a 100/100 grade on his most recently returned homework thrown to the corner of his desk. Can you say last nail in my math-ego's coffin?
And that's the thing, there are always those ridiculously brilliant characters who will outsmart you, even if 90% of their focus is on a crossword puzzle, or a video game, or a nap. It's this mildly aggravating fact of life. But I keep going, because I want to. I keep going because I can.
So off I go, because I need to do more than a crossword puzzle to prepare for this exam.