Semester graded

Today I received the last pending exam score for this fall semester: 95% on chemistry, better than I was expecting. If the online gradebook is correct in its weighting of all the assignments, that produces a >100% in the course. Despite some uncertainty along the way, I managed an A in all my classes this time, but there will be far more work this coming semester.

Final 3/3

This afternoon, I took the final for my chemistry class. It was somewhat more difficult than I expected, but I think I did alright. Before going to the exam, I ran a load of laundry so that all my clothes would be clean when I return from break. Almost immediately after the exam finished and I got back to my dorm, it was time to depart, so I hurriedly packed up my laptop and some clothes and ran down to the awaiting car. I am now at home and officially on break. One semester done!

Another class wrapped up

Today I saw that all assignments for the LAS orientation class are graded. The online gradebook doesn't perform the weighting that will be used to compute the final grade, but my grade in the class should be about 99%. That's three of five classes completely graded.

Tomorrow I'll take the chemistry final. To prepare for that, I took the practice final, scoring a 92%. That helped me find what I needed to study, so I reread the appropriate textbook section. I now feel pretty good about the exam. After I finish that tomorrow, I just need to pack the items I need over break, then leave for home!

Final 2/3

Today I took the final exam for MATH 241. Conveniently, it was held in the same location at the same time as the one yesterday. Three hours were again allocated to it, of which I used two and a half. It included no exceptionally difficult problems, but by the end I was mentally exhausted. Checking over my work, I realized that I was just staring at what I had written, unable to comprehend any more math. Several hours after the exam ended, I realized one mistake (using a sine instead of a cosine in a conversion to spherical coordinates), but it was on a free response question, so I think I'll get partial credit for the rest of my work there. Overall I again feel pretty good.

The biology exams from yesterday (!) are already graded - I got a 97.5% on the final and 102%~ in the course. Another course in the bag.

Final 1/3

This afternoon, I took the final exam for IB 150, the introductory integrative biology course. It went well - I finished completely (including checking over my answers) in two hours, while three were allotted for the test. Overall I remembered concepts from the semi-distant past well, the application/thinking parts far better than the memorizable details. I did miss a couple details from the first unit in my review, but overall I think my performance was solid.

Tomorrow afternoon I have the calculus exam. I've conducted several review sessions for other students and can handle the practice/past exams with relative ease, so I feel good.

Here come the finals

Today was Reading Day, the designated academic day where there are no classes and no final exams. I slept a lot, then held a small review session for the calculus exam that will happen on Saturday. Tonight I did some reading for biology, the exam of which is tomorrow afternoon. I feel good about that one considering my past performance in that class.

The final exam for religion class already happened during regular lecture time, and results are out. I got a 96%, which makes my final grade in the class a 98%. That's one class fully wrapped up.

Second session of bell ringing

Today I did another session of bell ringing for the Salvation Army. This time, my shift was only two hours instead of four, but the weather was far colder. (It was briefly snowing this morning.) To prepare, I bought some gloves at the bookstore and donned a sweater and hat. Putting on two pairs of pants would have been a good idea, but I didn't think of that until I had been standing out in the cold for a while. It probably would have been fine if not for the wind. Eventually I decided to move the kettle stand and myself into the store's lobby area with the carts. That was a good decision.

That concludes my service project for LAS 122. I'm glad I could help the Salvation Army, though if I do anything else for them in the future I would strongly prefer higher temperatures.

Classes finishing up

Today was the last lecture for calculus class - all material is now covered, so the professor canceled the remaining three meeting times. That clears my Friday completely. All that remains is two review days in discussion and the final, plus another set of online homework assignments. With chemistry lab also done, my schedule for next week is noticeably thinner than normal. In fact, there are only five more days of actual instruction left, four if the now-empty Friday isn't included.

Bring on the finals

Today I took the third biology exam. It was easier than I expected, especially the multiple choice section. My next exam is the biology final, which will span three hours next Friday.

Yesterday was the last meeting of the general chemistry lab course. Conveniently, we even had time to finish the postlab assignment after completing the lab. It'll be nice to not have to worry about that anymore.

One more exam before finals

I realized recently that there are not very many days remaining in the semester. The last day of instruction is next Wednesday and finals begin that Friday, finishing up for me on Tuesday the 19th. There is an accompanying deluge of normal work items to wrap up the semester, but so far it's manageable.

Tomorrow morning I'll take the third and final hour exam for biology, thereby completing the third round of exams.

Ringing for the Salvation Army

Today I served as a bell ringer for the Salvation Army's annual Red Kettle campaign. When I arrived at the location, the previous shift's ringer handed over the bell and apron. I then proceeded as I had seen other ringers do: I greeted people as they entered the store and as they left, doing my best to hold a smile and continue ringing the bell. There was a continuous stream of people entering and exiting for most of my four-hour period, so there was almost always greeting to do. People were more generous than I expected - every few minutes, someone would make a donation. At the end, my legs were tired from standing and it was getting cold (the jacket I selected was much more appropriate for the beginning of my shift than the end), but I felt that I had helped facilitate some good.

Time to ring some bells

The LAS orientation class requires a service project. Near the beginning of the semester, I reached out to one local ministry to hopefully do some computer-related work for them, but due to scheduling conflicts I was unable to make it to any of their training/orientation sessions, which are required before doing the work. As the end of the semester is rapidly approaching, I started pursuing a fallback plan. This Saturday, I will be a bell ringer for the Salvation Army, serving two shifts for a total of four hours. Next week I will find at least one more shift.

Lab work is official

Today I stopped by the research lab to pick up the MCB 290 academic credit form, now signed by both parties. I had expected to do 2 credit hours (10 hours per week in the lab), but the professor decided to have me do 1 credit hour instead (usually 5 hours per week). That is probably a good thing considering that my spring schedule even without the lab is more vigorous than my schedule for this semester. I then stopped by the MCB office to get the form processed, after which I received the CRN for which to register. When I came back to the dorm, I put the pseudo-course in the registration system, making the arrangement fully official.

Back in business

I returned from the Thanksgiving break to campus this Sunday. There's no shortage of work to do: I immediately prepared my notebook for the chemistry lab on Monday and did the biology pre-lecture as soon as it became available. There are two chemistry worksheets due this Thursday and a chemistry exam on Wednesday for which I've been reading the book quite a bit. I have a reflection paper for the LAS orientation class mostly written; I will finish that up tomorrow. Quite a bit is going on, but it's nice to be back to work with things to accomplish.

Packing up for home

Today I made most of the preparations for leaving for home tomorrow. I removed most class-related items from my backpack, filling it instead with just a textbook I need to study, a few clothes (to make sure I have enough at home for the week), and some of the high quantity of extra snacks I've accumulated. Before I go, I'll wash all the pending laundry, unplug my appliances, empty the trash and recycling, rinse out the coffee maker, and pack up my laptop. I'll arrive back home in the afternoon, then I have a full week off!

Break coming soon

Tonight I took the third exam for my calculus class. It was significantly easier than the previous; at a leisurely pace I finished with several minutes to spare. Results might come out tomorrow night; otherwise they should be ready by the end of the week.

That exam is the last noteworthy work item I have before going on Thanksgiving break for a week. Usually I would have one class on Friday, but it is cancelled due to us having the exam tonight, so I have Friday completely free. I'm pretty sure I will return home then and will stay for the week. It will definitely be nice to have a break after 12 weeks of class.

Found a lab

Through the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, I heard about an opening for an undergraduate researcher in a lab on campus. I did some reading on the faculty profile page for the lab's professor and was excited to find that the lab's work is related to genetics, which is my area of interest. A story of moderate length made short: today I received an offer to that lab! I will start work in the spring. It will be an opportunity for me to learn about real-world lab procedures, apply my computing experience to another discipline, and hopefully contribute to science.

Second round of exams done

Today I took the second midterm exam for IB 150. This unit was on genetics and inheritance, which I thoroughly enjoy, so I felt very good about the exam. This Monday was the second chemistry exam, which felt like a disaster (and evidently was for some because the instructor said he plans to curve it), but apparently I scored a 96% before the curve. That was a pleasant surprise. This concludes the second round of exams; the third will begin in two weeks with another calculus exam.

Registered for next semester

Last Friday I met with an academic advisor to select my classes for next spring. For my major, I will need to take the second general chemistry course and the introductory molecular/cellular biology class. I decided to take the honors section of MCB to leave open the option of doing the MCB Honors concentration. I also inquired about how to add a dual degree in CS - the time for that will be after I have grades from first semester to show the College of Engineering. To get a head start on the CS requirements, I also selected the next math class (differential equations) and the first CS class. The only CS section that fit the rest of my schedule meets at 8 AM, so I'll have to get used to getting up early.

Today the online registration system opened for me. After the meeting with my advisor, I had placed all my desired classes in a plan, so I just had to click Add All to commit to the plan. To my surprise, it let me add all of them, even the CS class which I thought I would have to wait a couple days for due to my not being a CS major.

Start the exams again

It seems like such a short time since I got the results back from the first round of midterms, but it's apparently about time for the next. The second calculus exam is next Tuesday, so I've started looking things over to make sure I'm prepared. A quick refresher on the tools we covered should do it. The first exam for religion class is also next week, but we will be given the questions in advance of the test, so that makes it pretty easy to figure out how to study. The week after that has the second chemistry exam.

First round of exams complete

Last Thursday, I took the first midterm exam for biology (IB 150). Yesterday in lecture, the professor talked a bit about the overall performance of the class - though no numbers were provided, the histogram made it look like the average was a C. We then had an opportunity to earn some points back. He put up the five most difficult multiple-choice questions (excluding two that were thrown out) and allowed us to work in groups to answer them. My group answered four of those correctly, getting four percentage points added to our exam grade. With that boost, my score came to >100%. That concludes the first set of midterms. The second will begin in a couple weeks with another calculus exam.

Also today, I received a score on another paper for religion class. I got my eighth 100, so I no longer need to worry about writing the essays, only doing the readings and knowing the material. That will nicely balance the increase in work in chemistry class.

Almost done with first round of exams

Tonight I got my first chemistry exam score back: 92% (23 correct out of 25). That's what I was expecting, since I realized only after the exam that I had misunderstood a couple questions. Next time, I'll try to minimize the number of activities on the day of the test so that I have more energy left over to think about it.

Tomorrow morning is the first biology exam. I feel good about it, since I looked at all the learning objectives and can satisfy all the specific goals. It being my first activity of the day will also help.

Saving my eyes with f.lux

I've recently been staying up late and feeling tired even after getting a normal length of sleep. Recently I switched to my new laptop for everyday use, and a couple days ago I noticed that the screen is really bright at night. Then I remembered that since this laptop is new, there's a variety of programs on my desktop that I haven't installed here. One of those is f.lux, which changes the color temperature of the screen toward red at night. I installed that and now my eyes feel much better - hopefully my sleep will also improve.

First exam went great

Results came out yesterday for the first calculus exam. It turns out that I did pretty well, especially considering that it was an evening exam. My only mistake was an arithmetic error when calculating the determinant of a 3x3 matrix.

My attention now turns to studying for the chemistry exam next Monday. A lot of the material is things I learned previously, so that's nice, but there is some reviewing I should do.

First exam handled

Tonight was the first Calculus III midterm. We had 75 minutes, which was plenty of time. I was briefly confused and thought the exam ended at a time that would make it only an hour, so that induced a bit of panic as I observed the rate I was handling the questions. I got stuck on one in particular, decided to skip it and come back, and was worried that I wasted too much time trying it. When I finished and realized that I had lots more time, I rechecked my answers to the other questions (finding a mistake in some arithmetic) and solved that tricky one. Overall, I feel pretty good about the exam and I look forward to getting the results.

It turns out the chemistry exam is not this week, but next. Next week will also include the first biology exam, and then after that I'm done with tests for a while.

Exams are coming

Tomorrow I have my first exam at UIUC, a midterm for Calc 3. I'm feeling pretty good about it - I took an old version provided by the professors and did quite well, and I haven't had much trouble with the worksheets in class. I've also had several years' experience taking college exams from Black Hawk, so I'm familiar with the process, though the proportion of class grade determined by exams is markedly higher here. It's also held in the evening, and after my chemistry lab (the most challenging class of my week). Still, it'll be fine.

Later this week, I'll have the first chemistry midterm. The professor is moving through the material much slower than I expected, so I can easily handle the material covered so far. The only studying I need to do there is reviewing my memorization of the polyatomic ions.

Getting things done ahead of time is a great idea

I had plenty of extra time last weekend, so I went ahead and handled as much homework for this week as I could. This turned out to be a great idea, since I have quite a lot of assignments that have an item due each week, and it would be easy to get overloaded if everything piled up for the day before. Particularly on Tuesdays and Thursdays, there isn't a ton of time between classes, so work done on those days mostly has to be done in the evening when I'm tired, and that's suboptimal. Handling all assignments as early as possible is definitely the way to go.

So far, my strategy of using a Notepad text file to keep all assignments is working. I have a big "recurring" section with the weekly routine; individual assignments are in sections grouped by date due. I delete non-recurring work items when I complete them, but I haven't yet figured out a quickly-readable way to record when I last handled a recurring task (other than double-checking that it's submitted).

Additional activities

Today I attended a couple more interesting meetings on campus. After my chemistry lab, I went to hear about a chemistry-related volunteering opportunity. The REACT program connects college students to elementary schools to demonstrate basic chemistry. It looks like a neat way to get involved in my new city, and it has the added bonus of making the chemistry class count for honors credit. I think I'll join them.

Then I went to hear an FBI recruiter speak. The event was a cooperation between some specifically-FBI-related group and the ACDIS Security Studies Group. A career in the FBI sounded pretty good from the speech, though it might not align with my current career goals. It's something to think about, at least.

Finding activities

Last week, I attended the first informational meeting of the ACDIS Security Studies Group. They're pretty interesting - they cover all kinds of security, from the environment to computing. Many members are particularly interested in nuclear security. They invite experts on various kinds of security to come and speak. They also manage a blog and a reviewed journal-like publication, both of which accept student submissions.

A handful of math contests are held at the University. Looking at some sample problems, these competitions are far more challenging than ones I've done previously, but there are training sessions. Perhaps I'll attend some of those and see if I can learn to handle problems at this level.

The Navigators are starting up their weekly studies next week. The freshman men's group apparently meet at 9 PM on Mondays, which is pretty late, but I'll try it to see if it's manageable.

Doing fine

It's now the second week of classes here at UIUC and so far everything seems to be going quite well. Making a Google Calendar for classes and other important events was a very good idea - I couldn't possibly remember all the places I need to be and the times I need to be there at without some organization. Even with slow-moving crowds of people on the quad, 10 minutes is enough to get from one class to the next, and I have been on time for every class. For getting from the dorm to the quad, the buses are great. Each evening, I prepare the Google Maps directions page for the first building I'll be going to so that in the morning I know when to go down to the bus stop. I've gained a decent sense of direction, enough that I don't need to constantly check Google Maps for which direction to walk, but there are a couple classes for which I needed to double-check with it today.

To manage assignments, I have a simple text file with dates and brief descriptions of the things that I have yet to do. That's doing the job so far, but if it gets too clunky, I might have to look for a more sophisticated system.

Ten dining hall meals per week worked out fine for the first week. I always eat breakfast in my room, and I went to the grocery-store-like facility in the neighboring residence hall to get some individual food items using café credits. Occasional free pizza from various campus events helps too.

Second day of classes

Today was my second day of classes at UIUC. The first class this morning was of the introductory integrative biology class. Just like with the first meetings of classes yesterday, the instructor explained some course policies and the online system. Interestingly, we were given (non-graded) biology/comprehension quizzes to fill out, as some sort of educational research program.

The next class was the first meeting of Religion and Society in the West, with the expected introductions. In this course, there is a passage and an essay question for each lecture. Each essay submission receives either an 0 or a 100. Only eight 100's are necessary for full credit. Tonight I read the first passage (Hesiod's Theogony) and noted the relevant portions that I plan to focus on in my essay.

After a couple hours' break, it was time for two discussion sections. First was that of calculus, in which we worked on a review worksheet in groups. Then was the chemistry one, which didn't have much material because the majority of the previous lecture was spent on course meta. The TA reviewed significant figures and let us go early.

Tomorrow I again have four classes, but the first is at 11.

First day of class

Today was my first day of classes at UIUC. The first one was at 11 AM, but I had to get up at the normal time anyway because I had to go to the bookstore to buy some three-ring binders for the textbooks that apparently come in loose-leaf (stack of unbound pages) format. There were no sufficiently large binders, so I split each of my two physical textbooks into two volumes.

I had some extra time after the bookstore, so I went ahead and watched the chemistry lab safety video and completed the quiz.

With my newly bound book, I went to the main quad for the general chemistry lecture. Much of the time was taken by an introduction to the online course administration system, which I had already looked around. The professor then proceeded to review very basic concepts, presumably to jog our memory from previous chemistry classes. A worksheet related to the discussion section (which meets tomorrow) was already made available in the online system, so I later completed it just in case.

Right after chemistry was calculus. The course intro was nice and brief; the professor directed us to the course site for all information. He then proceeded to present the basic concepts we need to do calculus. Mostly, he reviewed vector operations. Judging by the titles of the upcoming chapters, this class should ramp up fairly soon.

Later in the day, I rode the bus over to my last class of the day, the chemistry lab, where it turned out I didn't need to have already handled the safety quizzes. The TA went over the lab policies and the safety features in the room. Next week, we'll have an actual lab to perform.

The first day was quite easy to manage. Tomorrow contains four classes instead of just three, and starts earlier.

Quad Day

A few weeks back, I scheduled my mandatory ACE IT training for this morning. After attending that today, I went to Quad Day, the UIUC event at which registered student organizations set up booths to inform and attract new members. There were a lot of people there - I suspect almost all of freshmen were on or around the quad at some point during the four-hour event. My primary goal of finding the Navigators was accomplished only after a lot of wandering through crowds of people.

On the way, I found a handful of interesting groups, though my understanding of all of them is not completely clear yet, so I'll just attend a couple meetings to see what they're about to narrow down my extracurricular activities. I'm thinking about Research Park (which seems to be a good source of connections for internships?), the go club, the Security Studies Group, a society for biology, a data science group, the Federalist Society (which seems to be a forum for law experts to debate legal issues), and of course the Navigators.

Tomorrow is the first day of classes, so I also spent some time planning my physical route from one building to the next.

Finding the way around

Today - the third day of my life at UIUC - started with the orientation meeting to the honors program. After that and the provided lunch, I stopped at the bookstore to buy some batteries for my i>Clicker because it came with none. I used the bus service (which I familiarized myself with yesterday) to get back to the residence hall, but couldn't find a bus to get to the next event in time, so I walked down to the south quad.

Classes start Monday, and it would be a good idea to know how to get to them, so in the afternoon my roommate and I navigated around to all the buildings that we need to be at throughout the week, finding some of the specific classrooms - I will finish finding all of mine tomorrow. The only vaguely difficult transit for me is from the main quad to the engineering hall: a five-minute walk in a ten-minute break. To keep track of where I need to be, I inputted my classes and their locations into a Google Calendar.

Moved in

This morning, I and family boarded the already loaded vehicle and drove down to UIUC. We stopped at a curb and unloaded all the stuff, where I noticed that I had brought an above-average volume of belongings. I checked in and acquired my room keys. Some very helpful student guides assisted us in loading everything onto a draggable carrier for transport to the room. With all three of us working, it didn't take terribly long to unpack. After some slight furniture rearranging my workstation is set up, though it took some finagling - and the assistance of a University-provided Hub Bag - to get the Ethernet connection working.

So far I've attended the mandatory floor meeting, listened to a very entertaining fire safety presentation, and looked around the recreation center. Tomorrow, there is a new student convocation, followed later in the day by a welcome event from the college (LAS).

Moving out

I spent today gathering my items and making final preparations to move into my dorm room at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign tomorrow. I ended up with a fairly large pile of boxes, but I'm hoping the devices that came in boxes of their own (printer and coffee maker) will be smaller than their packaging. There is far more stuff that I'm not bringing, though I will end up with a bit more luggage than comes with me tomorrow because I ordered some necessary textbooks from the bookstore to be picked up in a few days.

After I finish typing this post and waiting for a file transfer to complete, I will power off this computer and prepare to pack it and its peripherals.

College registration

Today was my day to attend Registration, a mandatory event for incoming freshmen at the University of Illinois. At Registration, students receive some general information on the University, some more specific information on their college (College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for me), break apart into major-specific sessions (I'm in Biology), and finally see an adviser one-on-one to sign up for classes.

Interestingly, Biology isn't an actual major at UIUC. I will need to decide between Molecular & Cellular Biology and Integrative Biology in my second year. I'm leaning towards MCB. Since I already had a lot of college credit from Black Hawk College, I only needed one general education class, in western history. I would like to add a CS double major, but that would be across colleges, and might be tricky. To keep that option open, I also added Calc III to my schedule.

My course load is 16 credits: those two plus the first set of required classes for my major.

Last promotion ceremony

Each year at the end of the school year, my high school has one promotion/awards ceremony honoring all students, then a few days later the graduation/commencement for seniors. Since I'm now a senior, this was my last promotion.

Me (right) receiving a certificate from the headmaster (left)

Tonight were the senior presentations, where each senior described their experience with their respective internship or research project.

Delivering my presentation

Finally, all the seniors and many of the faculty went out to dinner. The food was delicious and we had a great time remembering all our experiences.

Finals over

Today I took my one and only final for this semester, Spanish Film & Literature. The test was easy, since the teacher gave us the essay prompt far in advance and supplied a dictionary for composing it.

This was the last high school final I had to take. The remaining days aren't academic at all - there's an athletic day, then the promotion/awards ceremony, then a while later the graduation. Promotion day also includes the Senior Project presentations. Once those are completed, it's smooth sailing through graduation.

Graduation!

Today was my Black Hawk College commencement! In the middle of the day, I left high school to attend the rehearsal, in which we learned how to line up and move around when appropriate. Later, I picked up my suit and returned home to put that on. Then it was time for the actual ceremony. Everything proceeded as expected, plus a handful of people who couldn't make it to the rehearsal. The speeches were pleasant and brief. For the degree-granting part, the trustees announced the name of each person as they walked across the stage.

Waiting in the seats

Now with diploma case (the diploma will be mailed)

To celebrate, my family and I went out to Culver's for some ice cream.

Preparing for graduation

Tomorrow is my Black Hawk College graduation - classes ended yesterday and grades are being worked on now. The afternoon has a rehearsal; the actual event is tomorrow night. After school (high school, that is), I'll pick up the suit to wear under the graduation gown, with plenty of time to return home to grab the cap and gown. All invitations are already given out. Exciting times!

AP exams over

Today I took the AP Statistics exam. I feel that it went well. More importantly, that was the last such test I will take. I am officially done with AP exams; my next college-credit-granting class will be an actual college class. Exciting times.

Nearing the end

The printer just spit out the first copies of the invitation to my college graduation next week, at which I will receive an AS. The practice run of high school Senior Project presentations are Thursday, as is my last AP exam. High school graduation is shortly after the real Senior Project event a few weeks later. In between, this month will be largely uneventful.

In general, things are getting ready to conclude. Then the next deluge of items to handle floods in: actual (four-year, UIUC) college registration, placement testing, no shortage of forms to fill out.

Decision is sealed

Today is May 1, College Decision Day. I already decided on a college - University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign - but since the decision, a few more things are now handled. I successfully set up my internal credentials and institution e-mail account. (That makes five separate e-mail inboxes for me to check. I should consolidate these somehow.) I have applied for on-campus housing. My registration session, in which I will meet with an adviser and get registered for my first semester's classes, is a month away.

Meanwhile, graduation from Black Hawk College (with an Associate of Science) is only a couple weeks away. The graduation from my high school is two weeks after that.

Exciting times.

Decision is made

I made my college decision yesterday:

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

The enrollment deposit is made. I notified the other schools that accepted me so that they can admit students from their waitlist. My major is Biology.

Gathering Blue concludes

This was the second and final night of my school's spring play, Gathering Blue. As intended, it proceeded like the opening night. There was a new (possibly larger) audience, with somewhat different reactions to different scenes.

After the show concluded, as is tradition on closing night, the cast stayed on the stage instead of leaving, calling up our director so she could be recognized. Since blue is a centerpiece in the play, I found it appropriate for us to give her a bouquet of blue flowers as well as a blue pendant.

This was my last play at the school - I'll be graduating in about a month.

Opening Night 2017

Today was the opening night for my school's spring play, Gathering Blue, based on the novel of the same name by Lois Lowry and turned into a drama by Eric Coble. I played the role of Jamison, a member of the Council of Guardians. This was the first play in which I wore a wig, so that was an interesting new thing to manage.

Left: the actress playing Kira; right: me

Cold calling not effective so far

Today I continued the project of trying to get more customers for a software product of mine. I have not met with as much success as I had hoped:

• One company on my list doesn't even use the necessary companion product despite being listed on that product's web site as a long-time user
• Another is actually out of business, despite being listed on the web site
• One answered the phone, I asked to speak with the person who I had already e-mailed, but he was unavailable, so the phone answerer took a message, but the person I was trying to reach has not responded in any way

I have yet to expand into non-already-emailed potential customers. Hopefully those future attempts will go better.

Sorting through sales strategies

I'm currently trying to market a product to a certain rather niche market. The pool of potential customers is finite and indeed quite small, so it's very important that I make the best of the contacts I've found.

There is no shortage of sales strategy articles or cold e-mail templates on the web. I have no trouble getting ideas. The problem is that there are so many, and all the advice is conflicting. Not a single article that I recall has specified what markets/circumstances its contents should be used on. I feel that the more informal examples would be inappropriate for my target audience. There's even one page with nine different formats for cold e-mails, which all use different methods of persuasion. Still, no mention of what cases each is appropriate for.

Usually I would try to meet in the middle and incorporate aspects from everything I read, but such e-mails are supposed to be concise. A bland, safe message would probably be supremely useless in terms of audience engagement. This will be a tricky project.

I Voted

I missed being able to vote in the 2016 general election by a month. My township held an election today for a few local positions, so I got to exercise my civic duty for the first time.

I hadn't registered in advance - I didn't know this election was coming up. Therefore, I couldn't vote at the township hall. So I went to the area's courthouse and registered there. After a very brief wait while they processed my registration, I voted in a room of the courthouse.

Interestingly, there was only one position with more candidates than seats. There were also plenty of positions with no candidates running; I'm not sure how those will be filled.

All the college decisions are in

This week, I received the last two college admission decisions - Dartmouth and Stanford. Both were rejections, but that's to be expected; those are very prestigious institutions. On the plus side, that means all my applications have been judged, and I already have a pretty narrow list:

• University of Iowa
• University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
• Reed College
• University of California, San Diego
• (University of Chicago - waitlisted)

Now I need to decide, probably between UCSD and Reed. College Decision Day is May 1, only a month away.

Volunteering at Imagination Station, again

Last year, a group of friends and I volunteered at PBS's Imagination Station event, which features fun and educational activities for young children who are fans of PBS Kids television programming. This year, we did it again. I was assigned to one of two Sid the Science Kid rooms, fortunately the one for slightly older children.

I and one of my friends managed the electricity table. When children arrived, I showed them a "circuit" with one wire missing and then lit up the bulb by making that connection, explaining that electricity only flows when there's a circuitous path. I increased the brightness of the bulb by inserting additional batteries.

Nearby, we were provided with several question-and-answer sheets. Each cell in the table had a metal pin through it, and wires on the back connected each question to its answer. When the children touched one free wire of a bulb-and-battery apparatus to the question and the other wire to its answer, the bulb lit. For some reason, the division quiz had several questions with the same numerical answer, but there was one answer choice per question and only one instance of the answer worked. Since that would not do, my partner and I inserted wires on the back as appropriate to make all copies of each answer electrically equivalent.

My favorite demonstration and knowledge fragment of the event - which I only remembered late in the day - was that batteries add or subtract brightness (i.e. voltage) from the circuit depending on their direction relative to the other batteries. It was interesting to hear the children's attempted explanations of that phenomenon; some came much closer than others.

Two more college decisions

Apparently 'tis the season to hear back from colleges.

• Reed College, accepted! They even sent the admission letter in a nice box, with confetti folded inside it. Their first-year humanities course has a focus on the Iliad, and they included a copy of that book too.
• University of Chicago, waitlisted. Interesting.

More admission decisions

A few more college admission decisions came in since last post:

• UC San Diego, accepted! This is looking like a very good option.
• MIT, rejected. Not surprising.
• Washington University, rejected. Somewhat surprising, but I had about zero interest in actually attending there after getting accepted in a couple other places, so no disappointment.

Accepted to a place

A couple months ago, I sent off applications to a handful of colleges. I got automatically accepted (based on test scores and classes taken) to Iowa quite a while ago. Today, I heard back from the first Regular Decision, non-automatically-inspected application: University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign). When I logged into the online application, I was greeted with this message filling the screen:

That's an acceptance! There are plenty of schools I've yet to hear from, but the University of Illinois is a very nice place and I would be very happy to go there.