I have a blogger blog. Apparently, i've had it for quite some time, but have just forgotten about it completely. I guess it is about time that i should start populating it, but i will likely forget about it in another week or so. anyways, i have a journal on another site that i am much more prone to update. however, you will never see it, cuz that one is just for me. as far as this one goes, i will say certain things, but won't go into nearly as much detail as i do for the other. since the last time i posted appears to be shortly after finals of the spring semester, i suppose that it is just fitting that my new posts will be right before the finals of the fall semester. i had said that i was probably going to retake chem 2 over the summer, but that was wrong. i decided to retake it in the fall instead, and i think that i am glad to have done so. i should easily get at least a C, if not a C+ or B. I haven't retaken thermo yet, but i am going to retake that in the spring. I do not expect to have any problems with it this time around though. For starters, its not going to take place at 7:30 in the morning. Also, i took a class this semester called Heat Transfer, which is really just a subset of Thermo. I enjoyed it quite well, and did pretty good in it too, so i know i will have very little problem with that part of thermo. i also did alright on my first exam in thermo in the spring, so i don't see any reason i won't do well on that part either. it is the material that comes between the first part of thermo, and the heat transfer that gave me the most problems. that stuff was the cycles part. i suspect that it will be a lot easier to understand if i am not still half asleep when i am learning it. Other classes that i am going to take are Dynamics, the next in a line of physics classes, this time dealing with motion of particles and objects. Its going to be taught by a different person than who has been teaching it. I suspect this will be a good thing, because most of the people who have already taken it have very little good to say about the current professor. the only good thing i have ever heard is that he curves it decently at the end, but i'd settle for someone who teaches it well enough that a big curve is not necessary. Thats just my two cents on the subject though. I am also going to take Organic Chemistry I and the lab for Chem 2. Orgo is going to be a struggle, but i think i can survive it. I really have no desire to drop any more classes. That would just throw my entire schedule off for the rest of my undergrad career. Which, i hope, will not take more than two more years. As things stand now, i think i will be able to graduate in December of 2006, which is exactly two years from now. Winter graduates seem to have a better time finding jobs too, i guess cuz more people opt for the spring graduation. Last, but certainly not least, i must finally take Differential Equations. I really don't want to, but i have to. At least i won't have to take any classes like linear algebra or the like. This may actually be the last pure math class that i have to take. The rest of them from here on out are more computer based, but require math and physics. Math is so much better when it is tied to physics, and i know i'm probably a dork for saying that. Then again, there are a lot of people who just live for math. Personally, i think it is very boring if you don't have a real use for it. I'm not talking about statistics and stuff like that either. I'm talking about figuring real world stuff out, like how fast a roller coaster can go before people start losing their lunch, and how much stress a femur can withstand in a car crash. Stuff like that is what makes math interesting. Once i get through the fall semester, i think things will definitely go more smoothly until graduation. I know that many of the classes that i am going to take will be tedious, and i will probably curse them at the time, but i think that the spring will be the worst yet. Something that i have been thinking about lately is a design project. I know that it will be over a year before i get to take senior design, but its never too early to start thinking about cool stuff that i can build. My original idea from when i was still doing EE probably won't apply as much to BioE, but i guess if i can't figure anything else out, that can still work. It would be pretty expensive though, and i really don't know where to begin. I'd still like to do something that either uses optics, or biomechanics. Unfortunately, unless i postpone the senior design another year, and extend my graduation date another semester, i won't have any of the BIoMech classes done before design. In which case, i may need to do some independent study. Hmm, i just got a cool idea. I could do something that uses both optics and biomechanics. Well maybe more like robotics or something similar, but i am coming to realize that there is a very thin, if not non-existence line between robotics and biomechanics. Since i want to go into designing prosthetic devices, many of them could be used interchangeably between a human and a robot. I may even look into designing prostheses for non humans. Just imagine a dog with an artificial leg or tail. Or a dolphin with a prosthetic fin. Wait, someone has already done the dolphin thing. At least i think it was a dolphin, but it may have been a whale. Anyways, thats what i want to do in the long run. Perhaps i may even study medicine, not necessarily for the medicinal part, but for the anatomical parts that could help better understand how the mind controls the limbs. This could be used to make prosthetics that can directly interface with the nervous system, and can be controlled by thought or reflex. The biggest obstacle i see right now is being able to produce motors and such that are small and powerful enough to be built into limbs, and other materials that can constantly deform, but do not lose their original properties while doing so. Power is another problem with such devices. I am also convinced that the human body already produces enough power to do this, it is just not useable in that way yet. If the thing can power real arms and legs that require a lot of energy and waste a lot, then it should be able to power an artificial device that probably wouldn't waste as much. The kind of power waste that i am talking about is things like heating and cooling, twiddling your thumbs, twitches, and stuff like that. Enough of that, i should probably look at the near future a bit. I have three exams to go, and just one day of regular classes. I still have two assignments, one that i can't get done until thursday, but its not due until friday. The other i have been working on, but kept running into a wall on, so i took a breather, and will work on it more tomorrow. That theoretically shouldn't take me too long, especially if i can compare my work with someone else's and see where i am erring. After finals, i am probably going to hang around town for a week or so. Then i am going to head to clearwater for christmas, probably not until christmas eve. And with any luck, i will be able to get the following week off, and be able to go on a road trip with dad. The only kink in my plans is that i told manda that i'd help her move on one of the days that i am supposed to be gone. She also suggested that she could postpone her move for another week, which would work out well for the road trip thing, but i may not be able to get that weekend off of work. I still have to talk to my boss and see if i can get any of that time off. Anyways, thats my current situation in a nutshell. Well, minus the emotional snippets, but they're not for you to read.