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Among my other end of semester statistical analysis, I decided to repeat my calculations relating time spent studying to prelim grades. The results from the first round of prelims (Spring 2014) led me to the conclusion that studying leads to worse grades.

Round 1

The second round of prelims not only followed the same general trend, but was even more mathematically convincing.

Round 2; note the R² value

I also took estimates of how I spent my time duing fall and spring semester of my sophomore year and made some more pie charts. If I chose my representative week correctly, in the fall Physical Chemistry I and Mass and Energy Balances were my most time consuming classes, followed by History of Science in Europe I, then Linear Algebra. That sounds about right, since History of Science had a lot of reading while Linear Algebra only had weekly problem sets that weren’t too horrible. Mass and Energy Balances didn’t feel like it took up a lot of time, but I guess it did between lecture, recitation, problem sets, and the occasional project. P-chem I had less class time, but more “why isn't Mathematica working?” time.

In the spring, Fluid Mechanics won the “which class is eating my life?” award, though Biomolecular Engineering and Physical Chemistry II were close contenders. Physical Chemistry Lab, a two credit class, still took almost twice as much time as Introductory Macroeconomics, a three credit class.

A more general analysis led to the calculation that there was a 22% increase in the amount of time I spent in course-related activities (lecture, problem sets, etc.) from 32.25 hours in the fall to 39.58 hours in the spring. I also managed to get about 2.75 hours more sleep during spring semester, but lost 9.6 hours of other activities. Which would explain why I sadly missed most of the pep band events in the last couple months of classes.

We’ll see what fall brings.

3rd of July

For the first time since after my freshman year of high school when I went to Disney World with my family, I got to see live fireworks tonight. Ithaca does fireworks for July 4^th and you can see them from the Cornell campus, so a friend and I made the trek over to the slope to watch fireworks.

There were some fairly impressive fireworks. No pictures in the sky or anything like that, but it wasn’t just balls of flaming light in the sky for twenty minutes. Some of the fireworks changed color, some of them had multiple colors, they had different burn times, some of them were obscured by buildings or clouds . . . wait, that was just due to where we were sitting. What was kind of funny was that the first firework that came up was directly behind one of the dorms on West Campus. At the end of the show, it looked like some of the lower fireworks were missing their bottom half. Turned out there was a smoke/fog cloud right between us and the fireworks. Such is life.

Anyway, proof that I did indeed leave my apartment:

Happy 3^rd 4^th of July.
Edit: So I was thinking, and if industry, research, and academia don’t work out, making fireworks is a legitimate use of a ChemE degree, right?

Meet the Penguins

So when I said I’d introduce the penguins “very soon,” I really meant “more than a month later.” I blame my permanent writer’s block.

I’m not sure exactly how the idea for the penguins was born, but I know I saw these photos (there’s also a Facebook page). I liked the idea and started thinking about what I had that I could photograph. All my LEGOs were at home, so I didn’t have any minifigures. My LEGOs are still at home; I meant to bring some back with me this summer, but I forgot. Guess I should have packed more than twelve hours before leaving. Anyway, I thought (shocking, I know) some more and decided on a plastic animal figure.

The next time I was at the mall to go to Target, I stopped by AC Moore to check out their selection of plastic animals. I was looking for a penguin, because I like penguins, but the only one I could find was about three inches tall and cost four dollars. I considered a couple cheaper options, and then I saw a whole tube of penguins. They were only an inch or two tall, but there were eleven of them, and they were on sale for five dollars. They came back to campus with me.

I then decided to name them after the Fellowship of the Ring. Here they are:

Front row: Merry/Pippin. Middle row: Frodo, Gandalf, and Sam. Back row: Legolas, Boromir, Aragorn, and Gimli

The penguins occasionally travel with me and they tend to see the world from a different perspective. I plan to feature them on the blog every so often, because who doesn’t want to see life as a two inch tall penguin?

1189

Among the other things I meant to write about and didn't was the fact that last week I came to the 1772^nd page of a book and finished reading its last (the 1189^th) chapter. It was a book that took a very long time to finish, but it was a very good book. There were battles, journeys across deserts and oceans, visions and prophecies predicted and fulfilled, and even a left-handed judge who wasn't properly checked for weapons and who killed an opposing ruler by plunging a dagger into the enemy king’s stomach. And then the king’s intestines fell out.

Upon completion of the 1772^nd page of the Bible, I decided to go back and start again at the beginning. This time I’ll be reading chronologically. Hopefully it takes me less than six and a half years this time. Reading fairly regularly, I got through the New Testament in nine months (October 2013 – June 2014) and that was about one third of the Bible, so there is light at the end of this tunnel. Projected ETA: 2.25 years.

Art

First off, I am back at Cornell in the midst of summer college, tour groups, and no less than four major construction projects around the main part of campus. I have thus far survived mostly on cereal, peanut butter and jam sandwiches, pasta, frozen vegetables, eggs, and a variety of fruits.

Second, there is currently a giant root outside of the Johnson Art Museum.

I can’t find a picture of it right now, but I just wanted to let people know that I happen to have a smaller version at home. It’s an original work, produced by spade and manual hedge trimmers, and I would be willing to let it go for the right price.

Third, I became the owner of a tablet about a week before returning to Ithaca. It’s one of those that graphic artists and photographers use to make art, but since my art skills peaked in elementary school, the most useful thing it’s done for me so far is turn about six pages of handwritten equations into computer text. I honestly don’t think it was much faster than typing everything up, but it was less painful due to the preponderance of Greek letters, superscripts, and fractions. If you've ever had to type up equations in Microsoft Word, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, be glad.

Since, of course, my photography is usually only slightly blurry and slanted nearly professional, I was semi-interested thrilled to also be able to download a version of Photoshop that came with the tablet. It only took my sale-price high-end laptop three hours to download. Once I got to try Photoshop, I had no idea what I was doing instantly became a Photoshop master and produced such quality photos as these:

It was a dark and stormy night.

When the Statue of Liberty came alive.

And then we went to Mars.