So, it’s been a while, huh?
It’s been a while, I admit. I was just going to abandon this blog, but I realized that I really just need some sort of outlet to write in order to maintain some semblance of my sanity. So here I am again! Enjoy continuing to not read this blog!
What has happened since August of 2009, you may ask? I admit, not much. My final fall semester came and went without much to-do. I passed all of my classes, including computer Architecture and Databases, meaning that the only other computer course I had to pass in the spring was Software Engineering, with Dr. Sam. Honestly I figured it was going to be my worst class this semester but I have been pleasantly surprised. More on that later.
Other than school, not much happened last semester. I did, however, purchase another ukulele. That’s right, now I have two: the soprano I bought this past summer, and now a tenor, which is really the only one I ever play anymore. I’ve learned every basic 7 chord that exists, that is, every m7, M7, and diminished 7 chord. This is evidenced by the fact that I can play through the entire “Tune Up” song on the Aebersold album of the same name. Tune Up is a song which, every chorus, moves up a half step. And the play-a-long does twelve choruses, ensuring that every single version of the above-mentioned chords appear somewhere.
And now that I know my minors, majors, and diminisheds (shut up, I know it’s not a word), I also can play them over other chords, where the upper structure forms that chord. For example, C7b9 (that’s C7 flat 9; stupid font) is simply a C#dim chord, over a C. And since I’m playing a ukulele, I don’t really ever have to worry about the bass note, so I just move the root up a half step and play a diminished chord. Similarly, the upper structure of Dm9 is FM7. Since I only have four strings to work with, substitutions like this are always necessary. And if I’m playing jazz (which, let’s face it, I usually am), the upper structure is always the most important part of the chord anyway, really.
Sorry to geek out there for a moment. I’ve been doing a lot of ukulele playing over the past few weeks, so it’s kind-of on my mind.
So, that brings us to this semester, I suppose. My course load isn’t the most insane thing that has ever existed, but I’m constantly reminded that if I actually passed all the courses I attempted on the first go, I would have far fewer classes right now. Oh well, though.
I have Public Speaking, which is criminally easy. I have Astronomy, which is fairly easy, even if the professor likes to pretend it’s a super hard class where you will absolutely fail if you are not Stephen Hawking. I have Modern Concepts of Math, which is supposedly easy but I am a total failure at math, so it’s actually pretty hard for me. I definitely will not be passing that one with an A. But I will pass, dammit. I must.
Then there’s Geomorphology, which is a terrible class. Every day at 10:00 AM (9:00 on Fridays), we go sit in a room and have the professor read off slides that are freely available on the network drive. He reads them in an almost incomprehensible Chinese accent, and doesn’t really explain anything. Then, for the tests, I have no idea if he writes them or steals them from other professors / the authors of the book, but they are so in-depth and cover material most of which we never even looked at in class. Instead, they come from the gigantic Book of Doom we needed to buy for this class, which is full of nothing but insanely technical explanations for every single chemical reaction that ever takes place at any point on the planet, ever.
However, I foresee myself passing the course, just because everyone else in the class (with the exception of one guy who is a geology major) is in the same boat as I am. So, we’ll see.
And I guess that brings us to Software Engineering. This class was touted as the absolute worst class you ever have to take in the Comp Sci department. On top of that, it’s taught by the “meanest” teacher in the department (this is true, actually). Honestly though, if you actually go in and do the work for the project (something I have always done; I may not be great at remembering to do homework, but if I am assigned a project I will do the hell out of it), you will have no problems whatsoever in the class.
Our project is to make a web application that utilizes three mapping services, Yahoo, Bing, and Google, to display information the user requests. It really hasn’t been too bad so far. We’ll see how he grades it at the end of the semester in three weeks. Four weeks. Something like that.
I was going to mention one other thing. I totally don’t remember what it is though. Oh well, I’ll remember later. This entry is long enough as is.
Oh, and happy Easter or something.
