Category Archives: School

School Related items.

Fall 2006 Finals Complete

I have finished up my academic portion of the semester. I had two night classes this past semester and finished both finals this week. The finals were about what I expected; nothing too surprising, although my fingers on my writing hand are hurting! I’m sure my marks will be lower than my semester’s work, but I’m sure I’ll do alright. It feels good to be done classes, since now I don’t have any stress from trying to remember all the information that we had to know. I can let my mind go free again and explore new knowledge on its own. This semester has been a busy one, with working my coop job full-time Mon-Fri, and then the two night classes on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Then working my other job on weekends. Not to mention soccer games on Monday nights. My schedule was pretty much packed solid. Next semester should be nice with classes taking up my mornings leaving me with a lot of time! I suppose I could use that time to study for the classes… but that’s not likely going to happen.  I just calculated how much books are going to cost me.. this is going to be my most expensive semester yet, they are around $750.. and thats with one class not listing anything yet!

Midterms Already?

Well it’s that time of year again although it really doesn’t seem like it should be. Whatever happened to putting midterms in the middle of a semester. Now, midterm just means a test that isn’t a final, therefore they aren’t limiting themselves to just one either. Luckily I only have the two night classes though. This week I have my first midterm in Economics 238. It’s the choose two out of three questions type. Then each question is going to have multiple parts. I’ll have to make sure to go over all the things we did that could be questions. There comes a problem though, with only 4 classes down so far, it’s hard to think of big questions that could be asked. In my other class news, he still had the midterm listed as TBA. So maybe we’ll wait another month or so and actually have the midterm in the middle of the term.

Another One Bites the Dust

I finished another CS assignment last night. This assignment was for my CS375 – Database Management Systems class. The assignment was really rather simple with only 4 questions. The questions were taken from the first three chapters exercises. Overall I probably spent an hour working on the whole thing, more if you include reading the textbook to find out what is going on. That is one thing I’ve noticed in this class; everything I know so far about databases, I didn’t learn from this class. I’m not sure if I’ve picked up much of anything so far. Maybe soon … or not.

Upcoming Events

During the next couple weeks I plan to be rather busy. I have work all the time, and then the night classes on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. On Thursday September 14th, the CSSS is having a beer and pizza so I will make sure to stop by there after work. Next week, September 19th, I’ll be in Saskatoon for the Red Hot Chili Peppers Concert. Then September 23rd there will be a CSSS games night. Thats another event I want to get to. September 26th, will be the season premiere for The Office. It should be a great season opener that hopefully will answer some questions and tie up some loose ends. I’m sure I will be forgetting some things but thats alright.

Week One Complete

I have finished going to my first week of classes. Both classes don’t seem to be too difficult and I expect that I will be able to follow along at a reasonable level. With economics, there is an optional assignment. It will take 5% out of both midterms and 10% out of the final to make the assignment worth 20%. The problem is you have to decide soon if you are going to do it but we won’t find out what the assignment is until November. I don’t know if I’m willing to do that since I don’t know what my plans will be like later. I’ll just go with the midterms and the final. I’ll have more time to work on CS375 assignments and give me more time overall. One thing about assignments though, is that they normally help me understand concepts better. Anyway, I can always try reading the textbook too.

Long Days

With my coop job I am working from 8 – 4:30; and now with school on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, I am occupied from 7 – 9:45pm. Now last night at my class, I learnt again how long night classes really are. Good thing I brought some RedBull to keep myself alert. There are so many distractions in the classroom, such as people reading books, people using their laptops, and people watching videos on their cellphones. It takes a lot of concentration to be able to learn from the prof. Tonight’s class is going to be bigger so I can only expect to have more distractions.

Back to School

Well today is back to school for most. Even I will go back to school tonight for a night class. Only going to night classes is going to have a different type of atmosphere while going to school. During the days, you will interact with other students inbetween classes and eat lunch whatnot. With night classes, its all about getting to class right on time and then leaving as soon as class is done. I suppose there is always the option of sitting around and doing things but it isn’t the same. At night, the university is like a ghost town, with all the students gone home. Oh well, I’ll get back to the rush again in January.

Labour Day Weekend

Another long weekend. This weekend I’ll be at my first Saskatchewan Rider game of the season: the annual Labour Day Classic down at Mosaic Stadium at Taylor Field. I still don’t like the new name for the stadium, but I suppose it doesn’t really make much of a difference. Hopefully they put that sponsorship money to good use. I am hoping that the Riders come out playing good and win. The last couple games against Hamilton have been entertaining with huge wins and no real threat.

Also this weekend is my cousin’s first birthday party down at Kenosee Lake on Saturday. That should be fun for supper and cake. I don’t remember my first birthday but I hope I had a good time. On the way down to Kenosee we should probably be passing through Kipling. This is the place where they are having the housewarming party for the red paperclip guy. We most definetly will not be stopping by, but it could be interesting to see how busy the small town will be.

After the weekend is over, it’s back to school. On Tuesday night, I start off with CS375 at 7pm. Then on Wednesday at 7pm I’ll be in Economics 238. Both classes should be interesting. I’m really looking forward to the economics since I enjoy sports so much.

The countdown continues.

Textbooks Arrival

I have received both textbooks that I ordered. The textbook from Montreal looks pretty good for a used textbook. It is an edition older but it should still be useful. Price paid $25 – shipped. The next textbook I ordered from India arrived yesterday. It took 9 business days to get here which I thought was pretty quick. The book itself was a little worn on the edges from the shipping but nonetheless it’s a great deal. The textbook is over 1000 pages long so it had some weight to it. That textbook came to $33 shipped, or $16 without shipping. I saved a lot of money buying that textbook. My total textbook costs from the bookstore would have come to $260 + taxes, and I only paid $55 with no taxes. Not bad for a bargain hunter like myself. I think I’ll probably be able to sell my India textbook after the semster for at least $40 so I should be able to recoup my losses.

Fall Semester

Everything seems to be coming together for the upcoming fall semester. I had to email the Faculty of Science to get registered for the second half of my work term, no troubles there. I also asked for special permission to take more than one class during my work term. I’ll be taking two night classes, CS375 – Database Management Systems on Tuesday nights, and Econ238 – Sport Economics on Wednesday nights. I have a feeling I will enjoy both of these classes. Sport Economics should be a lot of fun since I really enjoy sports and I’m always analyzing the economic angles. The CS class could be interesting as well. Even though I have never really done much database work before I find that it is something I’m interested in. Since I’m interested in my subjects I shouldn’t have any problems motivating myself to learning them.

I thought I’d take a gamble yesterday, instead of paying $130 for the CS textbook from the bookstore, I ordered an “international” version from India for $15. I know already that it is going to be in black and white and printed on non-glossy paper, but it should still provide me with the exact same information that everyone else will get. This isn’t going to be the first time I’ve used an international version of a textbook; I used the international version of CS350’s textbook. I’ll have to wait for my textbook though, it’s going to be 7-14 days shipping from India, plus the time it takes to clear customs.