Hello Familia,
This update comes at a bit of a strange time for me. I have been extremely busy and had spent just under 40 hours on school by the end of Yesterday. I have made a big change to my schedule and it will probably take a week or two before I really start to process the impact but I'll leave the vague intro there and get on with more specifics.
This class occupied a lot of my time last week, and that ran over into the first part of this week, but it was all related to my project Moon Lander. I ended up finishing the project with a few minor extras but refrained from going farther for two reasons. Adding onto code often has the unfortunate side-effect of breaking something unexpectedly and requiring far more time than planned to complete. I did not want to deal with that just before the big project was due. The other reason I wanted to move in is because I wanted to invest the time in my other classes. The lander program is very much playable but is only compiled for a Linux Machine and would need to be recompiled if moved to another computer- otherwise I would share a copy of the game with all of you. Maybe my instructor can help me figure out a way to do that later but, for now, you'll just have to imagine
This class has been getting more demanding over the past couple of weeks. Before we were given adequate time to complete our labs during class time but I have repeatedly had to leave labs uncompleted at the end of class to head home and will have to spend a few hours in the lab tomorrow to catch up before we start a new lab on Monday. Our midterm also opens up on Monday and we have learned a lot of material lately that hasn't stuck as easily for me so I anticipate some exam preparation tomorrow and also waiting until later in the week to take the exam so that I can let my studying sink in before committing to the exam itself. We are doing a lot more that is software related now and, though it is easier to troubleshoot in theory, it can be a real pain to get things working sometimes and we often have to wait for our instructor before we can move on. Here's a mostly complete but somewhat incorrect circuit that we built on Monday. Sadly the right half is still off and we spent about an hour just trying to figure out what was wrong with our circuit. There are also 4 sub-circuits that feed into this one. It's pretty complicated to think of an example of why you would use a circuit like this but let's just say that many computer processors are set up similarly.
This class has been a major focus for me this week. To be on track for the class, I was supposed to have a Windows Media Player skin created that performs (on a very basic level) the functionality that I had designed earlier in the class. Unfortunately I had nothing working by the time class was over so I sat down at my laptop and worked on the project... for hours... and hours... I got to school for class at 8:00, left at 9:30 and stayed in the hallway working on that project almost exclusively until 4 PM. I came home and rested for a bit, ate a snack, and worked away some more. After grocery shopping I continued working. I put in more than 10 hours on the project Yesterday and hit 12 hours of schoolwork in a day for the first time this semester. Thankfully, I have the basic panel working at about 90% of where I want it and I have some sample code to utilize to build the two side panels that I hope to include (they will be tricky at first but take less work over-all). The one major plus out of this all is that I spent hours using Adobe Photoshop and, though I wouldn't call myself proficient, I have definitely become far more comfortable and can use the program to build my interface fairly comfortably now. This class continues to be very challenging but also quite rewarding and I constantly feel like I am developing skills that will prove useful professionally. Here is a snapshot of my Windows Media Player skin as it stands and I promise to send out the completed project when the semester ends in about 6 weeks. The running legs are just a place holder for the scrubber and the yellow dot is a place holder for the volume slider but otherwise this image is a close approximation to the primary pane in my full design. I had to start really basic and build on it slowly (hence the 10+ hours of work yesterday) but the buttons respond and do as they are supposed to from what I can tell so things are looking significantly better than they did as recently as yesterday morning. At that point I had nothing working at all. : /
Mobile Application Development (The Subject Line and the Big Announcement)
After countless hours of internal debate, and a brief discussion from my instructor, I have opted to withdraw from this class. I really, really, really didn't want to but I have had to spend so much time on my other classes that I was on the fast track to an F and a withdrawal was my only other option at this point. I immediately felt some weight off of my shoulders when I determined to withdraw but my feelings are still very mixed. I guess I am having a hard time letting go of a class that I loved but simply didn't have the time for. My HCI class and this class were both out of my depth and the Digital Systems class was my first of its kind so I knew that this was going to be a challenging semester. I figured that perseverance and focus would help me win through but the major factor that I didn't account for was time and limitations on how many hours my brain would function. Thankfully this semester has taught me something about my limits and I have been able to push my boundaries as well as improving my approaches and techniques. I fully intend to take this course up again, either next semester or the following, and give it far more of my attention. The biggest issue with taking classes that are beyond my comprehension is that it takes longer to understand things. I'm already putting in roughly 40 hours a week on 3 classes and know I can be doing better is those classes if I have more time... now I do. I look forward to a second go at this class but, for now, will put those 3-6 hours a week into my other classes and maybe enjoy my time off of studies just a bit more, knowing that I won't be as far behind. I will also know what to study between tracks or over the summer so that I am well-prepared to tackle the class with far more momentum next time.
The rest of life
As I mentioned last week, I did have a date on Friday. My date and I doubled with her brother and his girlfriend. We first went out for Mexican food and then went ballroom dancing on campus. The food was great, the dinner conversation was fine, but the dancing was soooo much fun. I had not done ballroom for several months and the warm up session with Foxtrot and East Coast Swing was all I needed to get into it. Though I don't like it as much, I even danced during a few Latin numbers. The girl was a one time date but probably will be a repeat dance partner in the future. I was supposed to have a date this week but that girl was too busy so we'll see about next week.
This week is a regional conference so us so I believe I will get an extra hour of sleep on Sunday but I'm not sure what else to expect other than a possible general authority speaker or change in leadership.
This week's devotional was not necessarily one of my favorites but the speaker used clips from the movie Polar Express to help us face our doubts and stick to the things that we know to be true, despite discouragement or times of intensity that cause us to lose focus.
One of my roommates went a little crazy and bought a weight bench, a popup punching bag (with water in the base), and some sparring gloves. It has been nice having it so easy to get a little exercise in so hopefully I'll be getting into better shape without much change in my normal routine.
That's it for me this week. I love you all and hope that life is treating you well.
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