All grades in

Both the MCB lecture and lab courses from last semester finished their grades, both A+.

Final grades coming in

Today I received emails from multiple courses informing me that final grades are out. Both CS classes I took this semester and the organic chemistry lab course are finalized: A+ in all so far for me.

Third semester wrapped up

This morning I took my last final of the semester and departed campus shortly after. I'm now back in the Quad Cities!

One more final

Tonight was the MCB 250 final exam. That just leaves CS 173 tomorrow morning. Interestingly, the format of that exam is just two weekly-quiz-sized examlets put together, so it shouldn't be too intense. Then winter break begins!

Farther walking

I had tons of free time after an early morning exam today, so I decided to go walking again to visit more bus stops. Even though my nearest unvisited stop was only 1.8 miles away (by street distance), the route I planned went a different direction, following one specific route all the way down to the southernmost stop, the Walmart in Savoy. It was a little over a mile to the first new stop and a total of 8 miles to the end. I took the bus back.

Still walking

After taking a final exam this afternoon I decided to go walking to continue my quest to visit all bus stops in the town. My nearest unvisited stop was 1.25 miles west, so I started by getting there. Then I squiggled back and forth in eastern Champaign to pick up a few stops along two close-together streets. I was going to head back after just that region, but going north I ran into a very convenient pack of 10 stops. I'm now over 25% done, having visited 281 stops. Interestingly, the new nearest unvisited stop is virtually the same distance as today's (1.28 miles) but in a very different direction.

Lab ends for the semester

Today I went into the lab for the last time this semester. I spoke with my supervisor about plans for next semester - we have a lot of interesting ideas I might be able to pursue once the current project is wrapped up. I also met with the other researcher I'm working with to show her the progress I made on our computer work.

Final project fair

Tonight was the final project fair for the CS class I'm on staff for. As a course developer, I was assigned to judge projects, specifically the projects that had already passed the first round of judging (in their lab sections). Another judge and I spent a couple hours handling one room while different judges talked with students in different rooms. After that, everyone walked from the CS building to a large auditorium where the professor gave out awards. This concludes CS 125 for the semester.

Instruction ends

Today was the semester's last day of instruction. Lab work will continue for at least a couple days - I did some computer work for that tonight. The CS class I'm on staff for is holding its final project fair tomorrow; as a course developer I'll be a judge there.

Finals begin

Even though instruction is still ongoing, tonight was the written final exam for my organic chemistry lab class. I had done the practice exams fairly successfully, so I was mainly concerned about just one thing: only non-programmable scientific calculators were allowed. I have a programmable scientific calculator and a simple (four-function plus square root) calculator, but some of the calculations done in class used logarithms. So I spent some time before the exam figuring out how to approximate the log function with only the functions available to me. I prepared three different ways that work in the context of the relevant type of problem, but it turned out that there was no such question on the exam. Overall the real final was much easier than the practice worksheets.

Applied for another course staff position

Since it looks like the dual degree plan isn't going to work out, I'll probably have more free time next semester. So I've applied for a position on the staff of a course I'm currently taking. I plan to also stay in my current staff position with the 100-level class. They're different roles - this new position is much more office-hours-focused. I'll hear back around or a bit after the semester ends.

Walking in the cold

This afternoon, after getting some work done, I decided to go walking to continue my quest to visit all bus stops in the town. I went east again, beginning with a one-mile walk to the nearest unvisited stop. I continued southeast into Urbana for a total of 3.6 miles. I happened to be in the neighborhood of a friend's house, so I stopped there and stayed with him for a while. I have now visited a total of 251 stops (22.6% of total done). Now the nearest unvisited stop is 1.25 miles west, so it looks like my next trip will go into Champaign.

Finishing up lab work

Since this semester's instruction will be ending next week (!), I need to finish up the lab projects I had in the queue. I made a decent start on one of the computer analyses today, but haven't done the really tricky part yet. I'm still thinking about my algorithm and data structures for that. The other computer project should be simpler - I need to rearrange an existing database schema a bit then load another data source into it.

Organic lab is mostly over

Today was the last lab session for the organic chemistry lab: the lab practical exam. It was pretty much exactly the same as all previous labs, except that we couldn't ask the TA for help (only for safety concerns) and it used a bunch of different techniques we had used before. Everything went fairly smoothly. Now this class only has the paper final exam remaining.

Semester end approaching

Less than two full weeks remain before the end of the semester and classes are wrapping up. The last organic chemistry lab is this week, so the last weekly quiz is now behind me, the first item to be removed from the "recurring" section of my to-do list. I've also adjusted my list to have a specific deadline for my application to the College of Engineering, which was previously in the "soonish" section.

Further walking

It was a nice day today, so I went walking to continue my quest to visit all bus stops. There is one neighborhood that is moderately far away, served by only one route and only on certain trips. I had tried to visit it before, but the sidewalk curves away from the road and goes on a long detour through a park, so I turned back. Today I was prepared and went all the way. On the way back north, I picked up a few more stops in western Urbana. In total, my walk was a bit over six miles. I've now visited over 20% of all the stops.

Hit a snag

The College of Engineering only accepts dual degree applications from students in certain stages of their course of study. Students from outside engineering must apply in their second or third semester. This is my third semester, and I was previously advised to apply this semester so that the application could be processed after this semester's grades are finalized. However, I may have misunderstood, or there may have been some confusion somewhere, because the deadline for applying in this semester has passed despite grades clearly not being finalized yet.

That could sink my plans for a dual degree, but that's OK - a minor in CS or just graduating early are still very viable. I am looking into whether exceptions can be made to the deadline.

Still moving paperwork

Now that I have my dual degree form signed by an advisor in each college involved, I need to get signatures from deans. This morning I took it to the academic office of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Apparently LAS has a designated dual degree advisor with the authority to sign off on these forms. She was not available at the time, so I left the form with the receptionist and will be notified when it's been processed.

Further plan adjustments advised

This morning I went to get my adjusted plan signed off on by an MCB advisor. I then had some extra time before class, so I went to see a CS advisor to get their signature. The advisor I met with also approved the plan, but suggested some changes that I will probably make. Two of the classes I had put into one semester are extremely time-consuming, so I will switch one of those with a less intense class I had put for the following semester. Physics on this campus requires a large time commitment, so students often take it at the community college in town and transfer the credit. I'm not certain I'll do that, but at least I have a while to think about it.

Plan further adjusted

This morning I went to see an MCB advisor to get my dual degree class plan approved. It turns out that I got one requirement slightly confused - I need 15 hours of advanced MCB classes, not just 12. Fortunately, I had room in one semester to add a class, so I've tweaked my plan and will try again tomorrow.

Plan rearranged

This morning, I tried to register for the other CS class I was planning to take next semester. Unfortunately, between general registration opening and my attempt to register, the lecture filled up completely. So I later went to an advisor to ask about an override. There, I learned that its prerequisite of the other CS class I'm already registered for will actually be enforced, and therefore I can't take the two in parallel.

That required me to rearrange my plan for my remaining semesters, which was tough, but I have something that works. This version has me taking a gen ed online over a summer, but at least I now have only one semester at full load instead of three. Conveniently, one of the CS classes I was planning for next fall is possible to take this spring and has seats open, so I got registered for that.

Tomorrow morning I'll see an MCB advisor to get my proposed schedule signed off.

Back on campus

I arrived to campustown late last night and returned to my dorm this morning. There's now only three weeks (a little less, since the last one is truncated due to finals) left in the semester. I need to finish my dual degree application before the semester ends - I'll hopefully get the dual degree worksheet/plan signed off this week. Tomorrow, registration opens for the other CS class I was planning to take next semester. There are ~80 seats left and the entire College of Engineering has already had a chance to register, so my chances are fairly good.

Long-term class plan made

Since I'm applying for a dual degree in UIUC's College of Engineering instead of just a transfer, I need to attach a dual degree planning worksheet to my application. That worksheet is quite a bit of work in itself; it requires signatures from two advisors and two deans regarding a full course plan. So this week, I pored over the online degree audits for MCB and CS, the last two semesters' course catalogs, and the MCB advanced courses list. I managed to create an Excel file containing the plan that I think satisfies the requirements for both degrees. It's intense, but it's the only way I could find to graduate with both degrees in the normal timeframe. This week, I'll meet with as many necessary faculty as I can to get their approval.

Doing some parsing

Today I worked on parsing a document for the lab. We're interested in various biochemical pathways and the enzymes involved. Much of the data we need already exists, but the web site that provides it has it an an inconvenient format with several different kinds of data smashed together into one string. Some records were missing the gene name; those had a somewhat different format. Records of one kind seemed to be already fused to the corresponding records of a different kind, even though one of the latter can correspond to one of the former, so there was duplication. My script picked out the individual pieces of data (using regular expressions) and deduplicated the combined records into several separate lists.

More data processing to do

In the research lab, I have two pending data analysis tasks that I hope to get done over break. One is a continuation of sequence alignment analysis work last semester. The other is pretty much just parsing for the researcher I've recently started working with.

On break

Today was the last day of class before Thanksgiving break. It was also the due date for the CS assignment I helped write, so before I left campus, I answered as many forum questions as possible. I'm now at home.

Even though I'll mostly have the week off from schoolwork, I have quite a few tasks I need to get done over break. I'll start dealing with those tomorrow.

Third MCB exam went well

Last night I took the third MCB 250 exam. Surprisingly, the answer key came out earlier today, so I went ahead and calculated my unofficial score. Just like the last two exams, I missed exactly one question of the 35. I'm very satisfied with that.

CS application started

I had a bit of free time after my MCB exam tonight, so I started working on the application/portfolio for the College of Engineering and CS major. There is a lot of writing to do about interests and performance so far. I plan to get the rest of the form (or at least as much as I can do at this stage) done over the Thanksgiving break.

Holding more office hours

The course assistant who usually staffs office hours tonight couldn't make it this week, so I picked up the shift. This time was much quieter than last week. Only about six people came in throughout the two hours, but most stayed for a while. Today's homework was a lot easier, but most people were at the really tough part of the current two-week assignment (the one I helped write).

First western blot done

This week in lab, my supervisor showed me how to perform a western blot, which is a way to visualize protein expression in cells. It's quite an involved process; I spent a couple hours in lab each day from Wednesday to today and only got the final images today. It worked fairly well for a first attempt!

Safety training

Tomorrow I'll attend an in-person seminar on the "safe handling of human cell lines in a research laboratory." The timing is very convenient, because almost immediately after the training session I'll go to lab and perform my first tissue culture task.

Some free time

For the first time in quite a while, I didn't have any work to do last night. So I went out walking around on my quest to visit every bus stop in the transit district. This time I went north of campus into a region with both businesses and residences. I've now visited over 200 stops, about 19% of all of them.

Assignment is out!

This morning, the professor of the class I'm on staff for published the assignment I've been working on for the past month. It was made available to students early in the morning; the first major wave of people started looking at it tonight. I'll make sure to monitor the course forum closely for the next two weeks to answer questions.

Starting new things in lab

Having been in the research lab for more than a semester now, I'm now easily able to handle the straightforward techniques I've learned so far. I'll soon be learning how to do more complicated and delicate experiments involving tissue culture. The safety training seminar is next week, then I can get started.

Assignment almost ready

The CS assignment I'm helping write will be released to students in three days! Last night I finished up the Javadoc documentation and tweaked the writeup a bit. Barring any adjustments to the writeup, my part of the project is done. The UI frontend (to help the students test their code) is being finished up by the other developer.

Partially registered

General registration opened for me this morning. As expected, I got a seat in all the non-CS classes in my plan. Surprisingly, I also successfully registered for one of the two CS classes! Registration for the other should open up near the end of next month.

Done documenting for now

Tonight I finished hammering out the documentation/writeup for the CS assignment I'm writing. It's a rather long document, but much of it is for the optional extra credit part. I've asked some of the other course staff to try solving it so that we can anticipate commonly asked questions before the assignment is released to students on Friday.

Still documenting

Last night I continued working on the documentation for the CS assignment I'm writing. It'll be released to students in 6 days! I've produced and embedded a bunch of helpful diagrams to illustrate the correct behavior of students' code. I just have three more subsections to write tomorrow, but they're all probably going to be diagram-heavy.

Schedule sketched out

After seeing academic advisors yesterday, I put together a possible schedule for next semester. If I can get into the CS classes I'm hoping for, I'll have to get up really early for an 8 AM class every Monday/Wednesday/Friday, but other than that the schedule is nice.

I get to register on Monday for all non-CS classes. That's pretty early, so I'll definitely get seats in those. The restriction schedule for the CS classes isn't out yet, but it'll probably be at least a month away.

Seeing advisors

This morning I got up early to go see a biology advisor and figure out what classes I should be taking next semester. I'll continue in the MCB core sequence, of course, and probably take a 300-level MCB course to get started on the advanced hours requirement. I had hoped to take the second organic chemistry class over the next summer session, but it's only offered in-person then and isn't strictly required for MCB anyway, so I'll put that aside for now.

I then walked across campus to the CS advising center. Information on enrollment restrictions isn't finalized yet, but I'm hoping to get into the next two CS classes next semester as well. More excitingly, this is the semester that I can apply for admission to the College of Engineering and the CS major. I have quite a while to actually fill out the portfolio - it won't be evaluated until grades are in for this semester.

Writing documentation

Tonight I sat down to seriously start on the documentation/writeup for the CS assignment I'm writing. I wrote a section suggesting a couple built-in data structures Java has that will be helpful, then I wrote much of the problem description. I still have a few cases to cover, then I need to make the illustrations, then I need to write a section about using the debugger. The other course developer and I will be meeting with the professor tomorrow morning to discuss our progress.

Holding office hours

Originally I intended to spend this afternoon working on the documentation for the CS assignment I'm preparing, but I saw on the course forum that a lot of people were having IDE setup problems, so I decided to stop by office hours after lunch to help out. I ended up staying there for five hours troubleshooting issues and answering normal questions about the currently active assignment. It was fun, but exhausting, and now I still need to write documentation.

Now to document

A few days ago I finished up (for now at least) the test cases for the autograder of the CS class assignment I'm writing. It's going to be released to students in two weeks, which is a while but also really close because there's a lot to check over for a brand new assignment. My goal for this weekend is to write the documentation so that students (and the people who will test solving the assignment) will actually know what to do.

Lab work going well

Today we got sequencing results back that confirm I've completed the little project I'd been working on for the past month. Plasmids extracted from the cell cultures do indeed contains the desired sequence.

MCB exam tomorrow

Tomorrow evening is the second exam for MCB 250. Interestingly, the course splits after this point - a new lecturer will take over the course starting Friday.

Cool weather at last

Last week had very inconsistent weather - hot at the start, snow on Friday, and moderate cool this weekend. Now the forecast looks consistently cool, which is nice.

Weekends are packed

Since I'm in class, lab, or a meeting pretty much constantly throughout the weekday, work tends to pile up for the weekend. Today I just handled work that's due on Monday, pausing in the afternoon to go take a CS exam in the computer-based testing facility. There's still plenty left to do tomorrow, mostly another MCB lab paper for Monday and chemistry lab preparations for Tuesday.

New data analysis for the lab

Earlier today I met with another researcher (not my supervisor) in the lab to discuss a possible project. My part will mostly consist of data management and querying that seems pretty straightforward so far.

Nearly finished writing test cases

Tonight I wrote yet more test cases for the auto-grader of the CS assignment I'm writing. All but one section is now finished. In the process I found another tiny bug in my reference solution which is now fixed. I think the assignment itself will be done very soon, with almost three weeks to spare before it's released to students.

Troubleshooting in the lab

Last week, my lab supervisor returned from his conference and we figured out why the procedures I did the previous week didn't work. We've corrected the problem and I re-did part of the process last week. I'll pick up again tomorrow.

Intermittent sidewalks

Yesterday afternoon I went walking east again to visit some more bus stops. My usual strategy is to go straight out to a region I haven't visited, then follow a loop back, picking up all the stops along the way. This time my loop took me through a small, quiet residential region without sidewalks in the middle of a system of more navigable roads. Eventually I ended up near Lincoln Square again, at which point I decided to end my trip and take a bus back to the dorm. I've now visited 13.1% of all the stops.

Nearly finished the reference solution

Tonight I continued working on writing the CS assignment that will be deployed to students in a few weeks. I mostly focused on writing more test cases to exercise student code on difficult cases, fixing up the reference solution in the process. The reference solution may be finished now, but it's possible that it has more tiny bugs that will be uncovered as I continue to write tests. Once that's done, I "just" need to write the documentation/instructions/writeup.

Still walking

Earlier tonight I continued my quest to visit all the bus stops in the town by foot. On this trip, I started going east toward the residential area, but following a trail of stops led me to Lincoln Square, a hub for bus travel, parking, and shopping. The difference between sidewalks on campus vs. residential parts of town (real brick roads!) vs. business areas is very striking, and they're all within walking distance of each other. Tonight I passed the 10% mark, having now visited 125 of the 1108 stops.

Further progress on the assignment

Tonight I continued working on the reference solution for the CS assignment I'm developing. Even the much-simplified version (relative to my original idea) that I'm now going with is turning out to be fairly tough. I'll probably need to finagle the test case organization and grade cutoffs such that the vast majority of points can be earned without hitting the really interesting cases.

Running out of sidewalk

Continuing my goal of reaching every bus stop in the town by foot, I went exploring a bit south of campus a few days ago. Even near big installations like the sports stadiums, I found a lack of sidewalks. That wasn't too much of a problem in this instance since there were parking lots to safely wander through, but it could become an issue farther away from the population-dense region.

Chemistry lab wasn't all that bad

Today was the first true organic chemistry lab session. Interestingly, the lab itself took just about as long as preparing the notebook for it yesterday. It was about using thin-layer chromatography to characterize and identify compounds. It went pretty smoothly and finished in half the allotted time, which was a relief.

Turns out "wet" chemistry labs are a lot of work

Tomorrow is the first "wet" (i.e. using an actual lab instead of doing worksheets) organic chemistry lab session. These sessions require copying the entire procedure by hand from an eBook into a physical lab notebook for use in the lab. This turns out to be quite an ordeal, since the procedure is extensive and there are some other sections to prepare too. On the plus side, this first lab probably won't require the full four-hour period allocated for the class.

Further progress on the CS assignment

Today I hammered out the backbone of a reference solution the CS programming assignment I've been assigned to write. I also fleshed out the test cases (grading sections) that I've written so far. Of course, my solution so far passes the tests so far. The tests so far are still fairly easy to pass relative to when the assignment will be released in the course, but I have a functioning assignment. Fortunately, there's plenty of time to keep working on the interesting parts.

Keeping up with reroutes

I semi-recently published an unofficial app for the local bus system and only then realized how often there are reroutes. I signed up for reroute notifications about all routes from the official bus company so that I can manually create concise alerts in my app. (Most students aren't aware of the official alert system, and it's nice to have the alert right in a bus app instead of needing to check e-mail or a web site.) A particular, moderately important thoroughfare tends to get closed for large music-related events, including some festival this weekend, which affects a ton of campus routes.

Cell transformations not going so well

My cell transformations didn't work again last night, but a test using a known-good plasmid did. Therefore, it looks like I made a mistake during the assembly of the new plasmid, so next week I'll go back to that step.

New procedures in the lab

This week in the biochemistry research lab, I've learned how to transform bacteria with new plasmids. My first attempt yesterday didn't work, but I tried again under slightly different conditions today and will see the results tomorrow morning.

Progress on the CS assignment

Tonight I continued writing the auto-graded CS assignment I'm responsible for creating. I now have the skeleton of a test suite, so I "just" need to write the test cases and precompute the correct answer for each. Other scaffolding and helper objects are done, barring any little bugs remaining. (I found and fixed one tonight while writing a few test cases.) Of course, I need to write a reference solution so that I can determine and finagle the difficulty.

Last of the dry labs

Today was the last of three "dry labs" in the organic chemistry lab class. In dry labs, we did worksheets about using spectroscopy results to determine the structure of compounds. Next week, we'll start doing "wet labs," experiments in the actual lab.

Still writing the CS assignment

Tonight I continued working on the new CS assignment. Most of the scaffolding (convenient builders for the data structures that will be provided to the students) now exists; I just need to put it through more thorough tests. Even now, though, I can start writing some test cases for the autograder!

Getting some course dev work done

I finished my my queue of normal schoolwork this afternoon, so I had time to finally get started doing some CS course developer work! Since the task of creating a programming assignment has a specific deadline - namely when it's supposed to be released to students - I started on that first. It takes a lot more work than I expected! After a couple hours, I'm only partially done with infrastructure/scaffolding.

First exam went well

Official scores for this past week's MCB exam aren't out yet, but the answer key is released, so I scored my answers. I just missed one question out of 34 (originally intended to be 35, but one was accidentally duplicated in the assembly of the exam). Considering the difficulty of the exam, I'm very happy with that. Next up is the first CS 225 programming exam next weekend.

Early morning exercise

The campus ministry I've joined is doing its annual "mini-Olympics" tomorrow morning, starting at 7:30 AM. The logistics and practice meeting went until almost midnight tonight, so hopefully I'll get enough sleep to perform and have enough energy to make sufficient progress on the pile of work I have for this weekend.

Lots of projects

Today I had my first one-on-one meeting with the professor of the CS class I'm a course developer for. I got information on what he's looking for in the project I was originally put on, plus all kinds of interesting plans for a new, related project. These are both in addition to the assignment I and another course dev will be writing, so there's all kinds of exciting things for me to be working on.

First exam of the semester

Tonight was the first MCB 250 midterm. As expected, it was challenging. There were a couple details that I didn't expect to be tested on (and that weren't in the practice exam), but I worked around that by remembering related information and applying some test-taking strategies. I think I did pretty well.

Tomorrow is the second CS 173 examlet.

Assignment development starting

This morning I met with the other CS course developer who will be working on the new auto-graded programming assignment. We determined who will be doing what, decided on some architecture, set up the source code repository, and got our development environments working. I can now get started on my half!

Exploring the town

This afternoon while taking a break from MCB homework, I walked south off campus to try to visit an interesting loop of road I had seen in bus route maps. I couldn't actually get all the way there because the sidewalk veered away from the road into what shows up on Google Maps as an extremely long detour around to the other side of the loop. I turned back there since it was hot and I had already gone a long way. The walkway goes through a park, part of which I saw on my way there and back, but much of which I'll need to go back to experience.

CS course dev work starting

Today I had my first meeting with the professor of the CS class I'm working as a course developer for. I'll learn about the details of my specific project next week, but today I learned that I'll also get to work on creating a new auto-graded programming assignment for the students. My assignment will replace one that tests similar concepts but wasn't amenable to interactivity. (One goal this semester is to add an Android frontend to more of the machine problems so the students can interact with their creations.) The assignment won't be given for at least a month, so I have plenty of time to engineer it and write up the directions.

Now the semester is actually going

The semester is now in full swing. The first MCB exam is coming up, both MCB and chemistry labs are meeting weekly, and CS 173 is holding its first quiz/examlet tomorrow. CS 225's autograded programming problems are starting to be a bit of a challenge. Exciting times!

Semester up and running

It's now been two weeks of class (one of which was a bit short due to Labor Day) and the semester is fully going. I had the first Data Structures exam this afternoon. Discrete Structures will start holding weekly quizzes this coming Thursday. Both the biology (class, not research) and organic chemistry labs will be held this coming week.

Paperwork done for now

I recently got through all the new-hire HR electronic paperwork and gained access to the time tracking web app, so I think I am ready to start actual work as a CS 125 course developer! I think I'll receive more specific directions at the meeting of all the developers, which will hopefully be next week.

So much paperwork

Today I went into the CS department's HR office to get all the paperwork for my course dev job in order. The appointment itself was pretty quick - I just had to type a bit of basic information into their computer and show identifying documents to their staff. Later I got an e-mail with a link to their new hire portal, through which I embarked on a long journey. So far, I've signed a handful of understandings, verified a bunch of information, gone through two training presentations, and become a mandatory reporter, and that was all the first of six steps.

Back in lab

Yesterday I went to the biochemistry research lab to check in and learn what I'll be working on at the start of this semester. Today I started on that work by doing a straightforward PCR. Next Wednesday I'll go in again and run a gel to see if it worked.

Paperwork time

In order to technically/legally be appointed for the CS 125 course developer job, there is apparently some paperwork to fill out. Fortunately I have all required documents/cards with me on campus, so it's a matter of going to the HR office on Friday to get all verified. Then I can start working!

Lots of work ahead

Today was the first day of classes for the fall semester and it's shaping up to be a handful. As I knew coming in, CS 225 strongly suggests CS 173 as a prerequisite, but I am taking both simultaneously. The first exam in 225 is meant to get us comfortable with the testing facility, but it covers many aspects of 173 that are foundational to 225. Fortunately I read the 173 book over the summer, but I definitely need to review the relevant chapters. In MCB 250, the professor said that it would probably be the hardest class we've ever taken. The first order of business is to memorize the structures, abbreviations, and properties of all amino acids and nucleotides.

Semester starts tomorrow

The new semester begins tomorrow. First thing in the morning, I'll join the other CS 125 course staff on stage in its first lecture to welcome the freshmen. Then I will attend the lectures of a CS class I'm in and a biology class. After the biology lecture, I have the first four-hour lab, for which I had to go get a few more supplies today.

Everyone else moved in

Today was the general move-in day for freshmen. I got up at 6:30 AM, went down to breakfast a bit before 7:30, and started working around 8:30. My job was to bring moving carts to families while they unloaded their items. I then helped bring the carts up to the student's room and brought each cart back down after the student unloaded it, answering any questions along the way. When assisted move-in ended after 3 PM, I took a shower. Then I went to meet a friend from high school and showed him around campus.

Moved in again

I arrived back on campus this afternoon and got my whole setup back together. After a bit of downtime, I went to the training session for helping with general move-in tomorrow. Check-in is at 7:30 AM, work starts at 9. Since I have to get up so early, I made sure to put everything I'll need in the morning in a convenient place.

Packing up for year 2

Today was my last full day in the Quad Cities before heading back to Champaign-Urbana tomorrow. At the moment I'm getting the last of everything packed up and put into the car. I'll leave sometime in the morning, no rush. Once I get to campus and unpack everything, I'll go around, pick up books and supplies from the bookstore, find my classrooms, and hopefully meet up with some friends.

Moving in early

As a returning student to University Housing, my move-in date would be the Saturday immediately before classes start. But since I'd like a little more time to get settled in and make sure I have all necessary materials, I've signed up to be a move-in guide. That way, I can move in on Wednesday, help arriving new students on Thursday, and have plenty of time to organize.

Got the course dev job

I received an e-mail earlier today informing me that I've been offered the job as a course developer for the CS class I took last semester! I accepted by filling out the Google form and uploading the image that will be listed on the course staff page. Reading over the information document, apparently the 10-hours-per-week figure is a maximum workload, which is good because I may have a lot of other things to do too.

Prospects for the course dev job are good

I previously applied to become a course developer for the introductory CS class I took last semester. I got a response a couple weeks ago. The professor mentioned some of the projects the course devs might work on and asked what I would prefer to do. Interestingly, there was never a mention of an interview despite the indication of one in the generic "application received" message sent out to everyone. That all sounds very promising to me, but the e-mails didn't explicitly say anything one way or the other. The semester starts in a bit over two weeks, so hopefully I'll hear something concrete soon.

Organic chemistry grade in

Yesterday the final exam results came in for the organic chemistry class I took online. While there were 220 possible points on the exam, the 100% mark was 200 points. Apparently I only missed 2 out of 55 questions for a score of 212. Course grades are also finalized - thanks to that boost from the final exam, I ended up with a grade of 101%.

Organic chemistry: it's over

Yesterday I took the final exam for the online summer organic chemistry course. It seemed to go really well, but I won't know the results until sometime this coming week, probably Monday or Tuesday. The Word document I was writing all my notes in turned out with 13,624 words and 33 pages.

Last chemistry discussion

Tonight was the last live online discussion for my summer organic chemistry course. Yesterday and earlier today I did the practice exams. They went very well, and the problems I had were addressed in tonight's review session. The final exam is two days from today.

Applied for CS course dev role

The professor of the introductory CS class I took this spring mentioned that I might be interested in a role as a developer for the course. These developers would be responsible for the software that runs the class. It seems like serving as a course dev would be a boost to chances of admission to the university's CS program, so I applied today. Interviews are next week.

First chemistry exam went well

A few days ago, results from Monday's organic chemistry midterm came in. I'm fairly certain that I missed at least two questions (I looked those two up at home after the exam), but apparently there was some kind of curve or partial credit, because I got a 99%. That's encouraging, but things are going to get more tricky - the first chapter covered after the exam includes twelve different reaction methods.

Ready for organic chemistry midterm

Tomorrow is the midterm exam for my organic organic chemistry class, so tonight the professor held a review session. The practice exams were straightforward - I knew how to do everything; mistakes came from overlooking little things. I will make sure to recheck my work on the exam.

Coming up on summer midterm

Next Monday is the midterm for the online organic chemistry class. All material covered on the exam has now been done in class. Tomorrow I will complete the homework for the most recently covered chapters, then I can go back and review older material and do the practice exams. I think the intensity will increase further after the midterm, since a lot of the material done at the beginning was at least partially review from general chemistry. We've only done four reactions (SN1, SN2, E1, E2) and I suspect there are a lot more to learn.

Back home

Today we did the remainder of the drive back home, starting from Council Bluffs. After getting back, I caught up on some things and did some studying for the online chemistry discussion, which took the usual two and a half hours. I still have a lot of work to do for chemistry: three chapters in two days.

Omaha

Originally I was going to use this evening to attend a live online discussion for chemistry class, but it got canceled due to technical difficulties on the instructor's end. So instead my father and I looked for interesting things to do around the Omaha area. We settled on the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge. After walking it, we found quite a bit of nice park area.

South Dakota

Continuing our visit of the Mountain timezone, my father and I headed to Mt. Rushmore this morning. On the way, we stopped at the very nearby Crazy Horse mountain carving. The carving itself is still in progress; the visitor center had a lot of interesting history on the carving and the Native Americans it honors.

After exploring that, we got to Mt. Rushmore.

Beginning our trip back home, we went through the Badlands.

Colorado

After doing some business in Colorado, my father and I had time to look around. We first did the Ruse Escape Room, which was a new style of experience for both of us. With the live hints provided, we solved the mystery. The puzzles were fun and the story was interesting - a very good time.

On our way to the next destination, we stopped in the Red Mountain Open Space to do some walking. Even the head of the trails is fairly deep into the mountain range, accessible only via a very long, winding gravel/dirt road. The hiking trail was an amazing tour of geological variation.

Chemistry class is moving along

The online summer organic chemistry class started last week and is very much up to speed now. The online textbook has questions interspersed throughout the text and homework questions for each chapter. Since we're still covering introductory/review material, the class has so far assigned two chapters per discussion, and discussions happen twice a week. I've found that reading/answering one chapter or doing one discussion's homework per day is a good pace.

Studied for fall CS

Over the past few weeks, I've been reading the textbook and doing the past exams for CS 173, Discrete Structures, which I'll be taking in the fall. It's much more of a math class than a programming class, and it has a huge emphasis on proofs, something I haven't done a lot in the past. So I wanted to make sure I could get a handle on the material. Today I read the last few chapters and attempted the last examlet; it went decently. I'm now acquainted with all the topics, so the class itself shouldn't be terribly challenging.

Starting organic chemistry

The summer online organic chemistry class starts next Monday. The relevant web sites have already opened up, so I started looking at the assignments. The first thing I noticed is that the first chapter is extremely long - I've been reading it for literally hours and am only about two-thirds through. It's mostly a review of general chemistry, so maybe later chapters will be more manageable. Fortunately I have a clear schedule this summer and will be able to devote lots of time to the material.

All grades in

The term's final grades came out yesterday morning. The only one I didn't already know was the research pseudo-class. It would have been wise to discuss expectations and grading at the beginning of the semester, but apparently I did what they wanted and was assigned an A. I received A's in all other courses as well.

Exam results coming in

The MCB exam I took yesterday morning already got scored: I only missed two questions, for a 97%. I knew the machine-graded results of the CS exam before leaving the testing center: 93%, which should increase to about 98% after the human-assessed scores are determined. The chemistry exam was a scantron, so it should be ready pretty soon, but differential equations was mostly free response, which will take a while to grade.

Back home

This morning, I took the final exam for MCB. It was pretty easy and I finished with plenty of time to spare, which was good because packing to move out took a while. Loading all the stuff into the vehicle, getting the emptied room inspected by a housing staff member, and buying enough stuff to use up my remaining food credits took about an hour and a half. I'm now back home with almost all the stuff moved into the house.

Cleaning up

I didn't have an exam today, so I took some time to get as prepared for move-out as possible. Even after my last cleanup pass, I had a ton of papers collected at the beginning of the year that are no longer necessary, so I recycled them. Since my main computer was already sent back home, I put away all its leftover cables and peripherals into a bag. Strewn-about office supplies were likewise packed into a bag.

The floor had gotten pretty dirty over the course of the year, so I borrowed a broom and dustpan to clean that up. After sweeping away the loose stuff, I scrubbed away the stuck dirt and spills with an entire tube of Clorox. The room looks much nicer now.

Finals have begun

Today I took the final exam for my CS class. As expected, it went very well. Tomorrow afternoon I have the differential equations exam, which is the most impactful of my finals in terms of grade percent accounted for. That class's last midterm went very well (99%, just released a couple days ago), and the relevant questions on the given past exams are doable, so I feel good.

Starting to clean up

This semester will be over in just five days. My first final (CS) is tomorrow, then I have one on each of Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, after which I will depart campus. Today I started cleaning up a bit, recycling old papers and returning the borrowed Ethernet switch to the front desk. Hopefully the volume of the new items I've accumulated over the year is offset by that of the desktop computer and monitors that I sent home a few weeks ago. I managed to compact some small food boxes into the large box of oatmeal packages, and I have a large bag that should fit most of my clothes.

Last lab of the semester

This morning I went into the lab for what turned out to be the last time for this semester. We transformed some cells and, during the waiting-with-the-cells-on-ice periods, looked at some sequencing data from recent plasmid purifications. I went through my lab notebooks and made sure everything was up to date and wrapped up.

I will return in the fall, taking two credit hours of the research pseudo-class.

Wrapping up group projects

Tomorrow is the semester's last day of regular instruction. I have five classes as usual, but they will almost all be review. CS lecture will present information about the exam and then give us time to fill out course evaluation forms. In chemistry, presentations of group poster projects will finish up - my group presented yesterday and it seemed to go well. Differential equations will do review and course evalutions. MCB will go over a bit of material and then also do evaluations. Finally, in CS lab my partner and I will present our project, which we finalized earlier today.

CS is happening

Registration for the two CS classes finally opened today. The schedule document only said that the restrictions would be lifted sometime between 9 AM and 5 PM, so at 9 I started attempting every few minutes to add the courses from my planned schedule. I noticed that a handful of seats had become free in CS 225, the one that was previously completely packed. (The department had previously announced it was going to crack down on people who had already taken the class and were holding seats for their friends, so maybe that happened.)  I also noticed that the discussion section - not the lecture - of that class that I was hoping for was completely full, so I changed my plan to a free one, which meets at 7 PM. Suboptimal, but far better than nothing,

Around 11:30, my registration attempt succeeded, and to my shock I added both classes! Therefore, I dropped organic chemistry from my fall schedule and will take it over the summer. For fall, I'm currently registered for 14 credit hours and will probably add 2 of research. My day consistently starts at 11 AM (a huge improvement over this semester's 8 or 9 AM) and ends at a variety of times from 2 to 9 PM.

Only finals remain

Tonight I took my last midterm of the semester. It seemed to go really well; results should be out sometime next week. Now all that remains are four more days of classes and then finals. Some classes are already over - today was the last chemistry lab, and biology discussion doesn't meet on the last week of the semester.

One more full week

Next week is the last full week of normal class days for the spring semester. I have two midterms of the third round: differential equations on Wednesday and chemistry on Thursday. Today I did a lot of practice problems for chemistry, without much trouble. This weekend I should focus on math. Yesterday and today I finished off two groups projects and started the last one.

I started filling out the paperwork for remaining in the research lab next semester. It looks like everything is in order - I just need to figure out how many credits to register for, which I can do after working out the rest of my schedule on the 30th.

Probably not going to get both CS classes

I just checked the registration system again to see how many seats are left in the CS classes I'm hoping to take in the fall. The almost-empty one is still almost empty, with only eight seats taken in the lecture I plan to join. The other, however, is 100% full in both the lecture and discussion I was hoping for, with only thirteen seats left in the other lecture (that conflicts with my planned schedule). It's therefore very unlikely that I'll get into both, but that's alright - I'll take organic chemistry in the fall, which gives me a full schedule of helpful classes.

Week of group projects

I don't have any exams this week, so as originally scheduled it was going to be pretty clear. It turns out, though, that three out of my four classes have group projects that will be starting or finishing this week. For MCB, we need to finish recording our "tips for success" video that will give advice to the students in the course next semester. For chemistry, we need to make a small correction to the poster we've been working on and submit it for printing. The CS final project is done in pairs, which will be determined this week in lab. I'd like to get started on that as soon as possible since next week (the last full week of classes!) will be busy.

Need to wait longer for the CS class

I happened to check the CS department's registration restriction schedule again recently and noticed that it had been updated. Instead of one class opening on the 23rd and the other on the 30th, both the ones I want open to all of campus on the 30th. Especially with the entire College of Engineering having an extra week to register before me, it seems unlikely that I'll get into the changed one. That's alright; I'll just take organic chemistry in the fall and leave the summer clear.

On the plus side, the MCB exam answer key came out yesterday, so I used it to compute my unofficial score. I only missed one question, for a 98%.

Kicking off the third round of midterms

Tonight was the third MCB exam. It covered a wider variety of material than the previous two and required more memorization (as opposed to thinking/application) than I expected. At first I felt uncertain about several of my answers, but looking over the exam before submitting, I'm satisfied with my choices and feel pretty good. The answer key will be released sometime tomorrow, and I will score my responses then.

I now have a week of relative calm before the last two midterms, and then there's only half a week of instruction left.

Chances are good for one CS class

Looking at the section availability, one of the CS classes I hope to take in the fall is almost empty: a grand total of three people have registered for my intended lecture section. That makes sense, since I'd be taking it half a year shifted from most CS majors. It looks like I'm probably going to get a seat there, even though one non-CS major's students will become eligible a week before me.

The other class could be more of a problem. The discussion section I plan on joining is already almost half full, and the entire College of Engineering gets a week's jump on me. There is some hope in that most discussions are not that full and I would be willing to rearrange my schedule to fit this class. Even if I can't get in, I can have a normal amount of credits if I take organic chemistry in the fall instead of summer.

In other news, there's only one more month left in this semester.

Now we wait

Just in case, today I retried pushing the button to register for the two fall CS classes. As expected, I still can't get in, but I can see the seats available for the sections. The majority are still open, especially in the discussions I'm planning to add.

From the CS department's registration eligibility chart, it looks like CS majors' entrance to these particular courses isn't staggered by year, so hopefully there won't be too many more waves of registrations. At least in my current college (LAS), priority registration happened Monday and Tuesday for students with honors status, and I am under the impression that almost all CS students are honor students, so I am unsure but hopeful about there being so many seats remaining. For one of the classes, a CS-adjacent major's students will get a week's jump on me, but most people on the CS track will be taking that course right now - I'm shifted from most CS majors by half a year - and won't register for it in the fall, hopefully leaving many spots.

All I can do is wait.

Partially registered for next semester

Priority registration opened yesterday afternoon, so as soon as I could, I logged into the course registration system and pushed the buttons to officially add all the classes in my previously created plan. As expected, they all went through except the two CS classes, which are currently restricted by major. I will have to wait until the 23rd and 30th for those two, hoping that they don't fill up by then. If I can't get into those classes, I will take the first organic chemistry class in the fall instead of summer, so I registered for it in both terms to make sure I have the seat.

I am still trying to find a time to meet with an adviser to possibly expedite the CS admission process, but other than that, all I can do is wait.

Preparing next semester's schedule

The registration "plan ahead" system opened a while back, so last week I figured out my ideal schedule for next semester. It's significantly nicer than this semester's, since I wouldn't have to get up early for any class at 8 AM. Unfortunately, the CS classes don't open for registration to non-CS students for a couple weeks after my registration time, so if they fill up, I will need to significantly rethink my schedule. I plan on taking the first organic chemistry class over the summer to make room for two CS classes in the fall, but that could be moved to the fall if CS isn't an option. I still need to find time to see an adviser to determine whether there's a better course of action to get into the CS program.

Back to work

This afternoon, I arrived back to campus. After unpacking, I started handling some of the items on my to-do list. I completed the pre-lecture assignments for MCB and a worksheet for chemistry, both due near the start of this week. I then did some quick investigation into a bioinformatics tool sent to me by my lab supervisor, getting it up and running in a VM. I was about to go across the street to buy some groceries for the week, but then I remembered that all but one of the university shops are closed the day after break, so my roommate and I took a bus to that one. I now have sufficient bagels for another week.

One week to break

Last Thursday's MCB exam went pretty well. Official results will probably be out tomorrow; my unofficial grading says I got a 93. Speaking of MCB, this week I filled out the form to officially change my major from the generic Biology not-actually-a-major to MCB. It was approved and the change has replicated to some of the official systems. The others should be updated in a few days.

There's now just one more week before spring break. It's going to be pretty busy, with two exams on the same day. I've studied for chemistry this weekend and I feel pretty good; I'm still working on differential equations, but I'll be ready by exam day.

Exam series before break

The week after next is spring break. I'm very much looking forward to a rest from this semester's schedule. Before that, though, there's another round of exams. The MCB one was tonight; it felt pretty good. Originally I was going to have one next Wednesday and another the next day, but the Wednesday one was rescheduled to that Thursday at the same time. That's clearly a problem, so I had to register for the conflict exam, which will be held also that Thursday, but earlier in the day. Once those are over, I have a single class on Friday and then I'm gone for a week.

Found some numbers for the lab

This week while working with some sequence data in the lab, I found an association between a certain base change and a splice variant. We're not yet sure whether it's a signal of a biological reality, but it's very intriguing and might lead to something interesting. Either way, I'm having a good time using scripts to extract patterns from sequences. I've gotten a lot of interesting figures out of this data set already and there's still lots more to explore.

Trying to find an adviser

Continuing on my quest to add CS as a second major, today I tried to speak with an adviser in the College of Engineering. I had previously spoken with a CS departmental adviser, who pointed me to a page with information on transfer into engineering, but the little path-deciding web app returns "ineligible" when I put in my status. Since the College of Engineering maintains that system, the CS adviser suggested I see them. Alas, I only had an hour between classes and no adviser was available, so I could not see anybody today. I probably won't have time to stop in tomorrow, but I'll try to keep moving as quickly as possible.

Continuing to investigate dual degree options

For a while, I've been hoping to add a second major in CS to my current course of study in biology. The tricky part is that the CS program - and the College of Engineering in general - at this university is extremely competitive and transfer is not easy. As I heard from an adviser, apparently they consider me a transfer student due to my previous college experience, which means I don't have to be held up with the pre-engineering program, but also means there isn't an obvious path to entry into CS. I recently contacted my adviser again to get more specifics on that, but in the meantime I'm considering taking the next chemistry class online over the summer to free up space in my fall schedule. That way, I can take the next two foundation CS classes simultaneously despite them being moderately intense.

Running numbers for the lab

I'm continuing to help perform experiments in the lab, but recently I've also had the opportunity to do some data analysis on a set of aligned mRNA sequences. We're trying to determine what proportion of this protein's instances are from a certain splice variant. One might think this would be easy to detect in aligned sequences (especially since there's a consensus sequence that they're aligned to), but due to imperfect sequencing technology, there are some judgment calls. Nevertheless, I have some possible numbers that seem right from eyeballing a visual representation of the alignments. I will continue to work on making refinements and looking for interesting related metrics.

First round of exams survived

Today I got the results back from last week's differential equations exam. As expected, it turned out pretty well - I only got one point marked off (for an algebra mistake in an otherwise correct solution). This evening I took the first chemistry exam. Going in I was moderately confident, but it felt easier than I expected; I could answer all the problems without any issues. The downfall is that it was 19 multiple choice questions, so even a couple small mistakes could remove a lot of points. I'll probably find out the results at the end of this week. For a little while, I won't have to worry about any more exams.

Getting a head start on scheduling

Today I met with an academic advisor in the MCB department to discuss my schedule for the fall. Registration won't be open for a while, but I'm trying to think ahead so that I can keep open the possibility of doing a dual degree in CS as well as biology. It looks like I'll need to take the two tough foundational CS classes simultaneously if I want a good shot at admission to the program, so I wanted to see whether it was possible to do that and continue in the MCB sequence as scheduled and not go insane. There are two MCB classes that I'm expected to take next semester, plus an organic chemistry class. If I take that chemistry class over the summer, I could handle the remaining workload, even if I need to also take a physics class to be eligible for the CS transfer.

Exams OK so far

Last night's differential equations exam seemed pretty straightforward. I learned earlier this week that I scored 97% on last week's MCB exam, so things are going pretty well so far. The next test is chemistry next Tuesday, for which I will definitely want to do some reviewing.

A side effect of the trickle of exams is that I haven't yet gotten around to non-urgent things like seeing an advisor about dual degree options. I should do that very soon.

Trickle of exams

Just about a week after last Thursday's MCB exam, I have a differential equations exam tomorrow, followed soon by a chemistry exam next Tuesday. The trickle of them makes for a reasonably paced cycle of reviewing, at the cost of having no closure to a quick round of tests. Over the past few days I've reviewed for tomorrow's DE exam by looking at the practice/past tests. It's a good thing that I did, because otherwise I probably would have lost track of the tools we need to be able to use. I now feel pretty good about tomorrow, though it being an evening exam after a day of five classes will be rough.

First exam complete

This evening I took the first midterm for MCB. It was held in a theater that I hadn't taken an exam in before. I sat off to the side, which proved to be a small error because not all the lights covered the area, so shadows of my head were on the paper the whole time. Alas, I'll keep that in mind for next time.

The exam itself went decently well. There were a few questions where I waffled back and forth between two answers, but after going over them several times I'm happy with my choices. One in particular covered a little detail and took me off-guard, but I learned after returning to the dorm that my guess was correct. I'll find out tomorrow how I scored on the exam in total.

Preparing for exams again

My first exam of this second semester is this Thursday. It's shaping up to be a busy week with plenty of standard work to do and an evening meeting tomorrow. I feel moderately confident about this exam, having taken a practice test and attended a review session tonight. I'm a little concerned about it being an evening exam and me being tired for it, but Thursdays aren't terribly packed and I'll be sure to get good sleep.

Even weekends are going to be busy this semester

Today I took the first CS 125 quiz at the Computer-Based Testing Facility. There is one every week, and due to my busy schedule during the week I'll need to take them all on Saturdays. There are also pre-lecture assignments for both chemistry and MCB as well as post-lecture assignments for MCB. Therefore, I'll have lots of work to do even on the weekends this semester.

Unrelatedly, the chemistry section I'm in is a little bit special in that it provides free genetic testing kits from 23andMe. I picked mine up today and will use it soon.

Learning more in the lab

Yesterday I (with the help and direction of my supervisor) prepared my first gel electrophoresis. I have not yet figured out a good way to see where the wells are (since the gel is transparent), so I had to go on the distance from the previous well. After we ran the electrophoresis and put the finished gel through the imaging machine, we discovered that only two of the three PCR chunks worked. My supervisor has a handful of ideas on why the one may have failed, which we will look into more on Tuesday.

Lab work begins

Today I started doing some actual lab work with my supervisor. We set up a PCR with multiple primers to make copies of just a few specific runs of DNA. We will next use Gibson assembly to produce unified, rearranged plasmids from those runs. My job was to pipette a lot of very small amounts of liquids into various tubes to prepare the 18 (2 templates times 3 temperatures times 3 primers) PCR tubes. There's a lot to keep track of, and though some parts were repetitive, it was pretty neat getting to actually set up a PCR, having only read about it previously. I also got to start a lab notebook and start keeping track of relevant information.

Things are getting intense

Today I had five classes. The first was a CS lecture at 8 AM, so I was up shortly after 6:30 (hooray for coffee) to hop on the bus to the other side of campus. The professor covered the course policies and what we'll learn in the class. The course teaches Java, which I already have something of a handle on, but it can't hurt to get more practice.

The first chemistry lecture likewise was just an overview of the class. My next class, differential equations, held its second lecture and covered actual content the whole time. Then MCB started the intro (which will apparently span three days, with the next two interspersed with biology content). Following the biology lecture I ran north to the CS lab. Today's lab was meant to make sure everybody had their computers set up to work on and submit the machine-graded projects, but since I had already partially finished the setup I managed to complete the first project during lab. It'll be nice to not have to worry about that next week.

When I got back to the dorm, I was very tired. I watched the pre-lecture videos for Friday's chemistry lecture and did the questions. Then I watched the newest Star Trek episode to relax.

Tomorrow I have only one class because the chemistry lab has not started yet. I will go into the biology research lab in the afternoon to start doing some work.

Second semester begins

Today was the first day of classes in the second semester. My first class was at noon, but lab work began at 9, so I got up bright and early at 7:30. In the lab, I learned how to use micropipettors and heard about the techniques used in the experiments we'll be starting on Thursday. I was also told what kinds of things we might want to be able to know from sequence data. I look forward to doing some biologically relevant programming.

After finishing up at the lab, I walked over to my differential equations class. In the first session, the professor just covered the syllabus/policies and the outline of what we are going to do with differential equations. After a quick stop at the dorm for lunch, I got on the bus to the chemistry discussion, which is conveniently exactly where it was last semester. Unfortunately, due to the vast amount of people getting off and on the bus and there being so many cars on the road, the bus took ten minutes longer than I expected and I was a bit late to class. (First impressions ahoy!) I'll take that into account next time. Since there have been no lectures yet, the discussion was just personal introductions.

Tomorrow I have a CS lecture at 8 AM, so I'll be waking up at 6:40.

Ready to launch the semester

Today I went around campus with my roommate to find all our classrooms. Some of the buildings were locked, but at least I now know the streets of the engineering side. On Wednesdays I'll just need to run straight north to get from biology lecture to the CS lab, which shouldn't be difficult.

I now have the semester-opening e-mails from all classes except math. CS 125 has a neat course website with detailed information on how the projects and labs work. My biology class indeed works with last semester's materials (including the online access code), so I think I can return the new textbook I bought. Chemistry uses a free online textbook, which is wonderful.

I also received an e-mail with the times I should come in to the research lab. My first day is tomorrow! I am very excited.

Moved in for the next semester

Today I arrived back at UIUC. I immediately unpacked all my stuff and found that I had forgotten my toothbrush at home. So I went to Walgreen's to get a couple disposable ones, and on the way I went to the bookstore to pick up the biology textbook I ordered. It looks identical to last semester's, so I will not unseal it until I attend class and know for sure that last semester's online code will still work. That way, I can return it for a full refund if I don't need it.

For most of the day, I did some reading and organizing in preparation for classes. Tomorrow I'll go around campus and find all my classes. I recognize a lot of the places, but there are a few new buildings for me, especially ones on the engineering side of campus.

Once my roommate woke up (jet lag is rough) we went out for some late-night sandwiches since the dining halls are all closed until tomorrow. From now on, I'll need to be more disciplined about my sleep schedule.

Packing up again

Tomorrow I go back to UIUC after three weeks of break. I've accumulated many more items that will travel with me. My main desktop computer is now back in service and will be more so once a more powerful power supply arrives. It's accompanied by an excellent microphone, which I hope to use for some recording soon.

I'll have less than two full days to get everything together before class begins on Tuesday, so there will be plenty to do when I arrive tomorrow. I plan to pick up my biology textbook from the bookstore and find all my classrooms before it gets too dark and cold.