I’ve been home for a week now, and I think I’m comfortably out of school mode now. The last couple weeks of the term seemed to pass by in an odd haze. I wasn’t completely focused on studying or school work, but not really all that concerned with it and still getting it done.
On the last day of classes, I had that project and presentation for biostats due. I got things put together pretty slowly, but I think the paper part turned out rather well. The presentation was … well, a presentation. Never exactly been my favorite thing to do, but I got it over with and that’s that.
During the previous weekend, Lin came into town for her birthday. On the Saturday a bunch of us got together for a birthday lunch (in DC of all places, with pizza & cake). Sakina, Rashi, and Xiaoxin were there, as well as some of their friends I hadn’t met. That night some of us went to Sakina’s place at WCRI to watch movies and attempt making pancakes. I was in charge of the latter, and after some trial and error with the batter (made from scratch), we found an acceptable mixture. We watched Four Weddings and a Funeral first, and after pancakes Lin, Sakina, and I put on Love, Actually. I ended up staying and chatting until well after three in the morning, probably not the best idea with that project looming, but it was a welcome break from recent school monotony.
As mentioned, studying for Stat 831 went well. Sven, Mike and I were up late the night before, breaking in Mario Party 6, but the nice thing about afternoon exams is that you can sleep in (or in this case, have a nap after getting home the next morning). The exam itself went well for the most part. I realized afterwards that I made a pretty silly mistake on one question but overall I’m satisfied by how it went.
Biostats studying similarly went well. Prof Brown provided a copy of last year’s exam, so it was nice having that as an idea of what we might expect. I got what I wanted done in terms of studying by 4 pm on Sunday, the day before the exam, so I spent the rest of the time playing some Xbox (Simpson’s Hit & Run) and then watching the Survivor finale. Go Chris! Not because he was the last guy surviving, but because he overcame 6-1 female-male odds. Ami really got on my nerves despite my initial rooting for her. In the end, I think Julie was my favorite. Turns out she’s apparently now seeing host Jeff Probst. Lucky guy.
The biostats exam went very well except for a couple of parts. One in particular involved the use of a formula which I didn’t bother studying at all. It had been mentioned once, as a special case of a certain setup, and we never used it on any assignment. It was referred to by name only on the exam, so I didn’t even know where to derive it from. Bah, that pissed me off. Serves me right for taking that chance, I guess.
Somewhere in the final few weeks in Waterloo, I found time to go through the My So-Called Life DVDs I had copied. Sadly, that encompasses only 19 episodes of this wonderful show. It was cancelled in midseason, almost exactly 10 years ago now, and left many things up in the air. It brought back lots of memories of watching it in grade 10, and although some aspects definitely date the show, it holds up very well as a realistic look at what high school is really like. Now, it wasn’t always entirely realistic, but it’s certainly a much more grounded and believable show compared to most other teenage dramas (especially a lot of the glossy stuff to be found these days). And oh how I loved Claire Danes back in those days.
You must be logged in to post a comment.