My sisters tried to persuade me that we should get my parents a Wii for Christmas. I literally thought they were crazy. I had never used a Wii but knew what it was and the games that were involved. I could never imagine MY parents playing with the Wii, especially knowing them the way I do. I was almost sure they did not even know what a Wii was. My sisters assured me over and over that my parents would use and love the game system, so I went along and agreed to get the game.
My skepticism subsided when I saw my mother's 'kid in a candy store' expression as she unwrapped the Wii system on Christmas morning. Then all doubt was erased as my entire family spent hours playing with the system the day after Christmas. It was so fun to play and it was great to see everyone enjoying themselves. Since learning how to operate the system, my parents have gotten into making their mi's, the games (especially bowling), and all the features they can use. My parents continue to practice and suggest playing a game or two at any chance. The Wii was such a great idea for my parents and the family.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
5 Finals Down, One More to Go!
Study break for the evening. Since I am entirely burnt out, I CANNOT wait for tomorrow afternoon at 12pm. I will be DONE with the semester!
MORE IMPOSSIBLE FINAL EXAMS
Instructions: Read each question carefully. Answer all questions.Time limit: 2 hours. Begin immediately.
Mathematics: Derive the Euler-Cauchy equations using only a straightedge and compass. Discuss in detail the role these equations had on mathematical analysis in Europe during the 1800s.
Medicine: You have been provided with a razor blade, a piece of gauze, and a bottle of scotch. Remove your appendix. Do not suture until you work has been inspected. You have fifteen minutes.
Metaphysics: Describe in detail the probably nature of life after death. Test your hypothesis.
Music: Write a piano concerto. Orchestrate and perform it with flute and drum. You will find a piano under your seat.
Philosophy: Sketch the development of human thought. Estimate its significance. Compare with the development of any other kind of thought.
Physchology: Based on your knowledge of their works, evaluate the emotional stability, degree of adjustment, and repressed frustrations of each of the following: Alexander of Aphrodisis, Rameses II, Hammuarabi. Support your evaluation with quotations from each man's work, making appropriate references. It is not necessary to translate.
Physics: Explain the nature of matter. Include in your answer an evaluation of the impact of the development of mathematics on science.
Political Science: There is a red telephone on the desk beside you. Start World War III. Report at length on its socio-political effects if any.
Public Speaking: 2500 riot-crazed aborigines are storming the classroom. Calm them. You may use any ancient language except Latin or Greek.
Religion: Perform a miracle. Creativity will be judged.
Sociology: Estimate the sociological problems which might accompany the end of the world. Construct an experiment to test your theory.
Extra Credit: Define the universe, and give three examples.
MORE IMPOSSIBLE FINAL EXAMS
Instructions: Read each question carefully. Answer all questions.Time limit: 2 hours. Begin immediately.
History: Describe the history of the Papacy from its origins to the present day, concentrating especially, but not exclusively, on its Europe, Asia, America and Africa. Be brief, concise and specific.
Mathematics: Derive the Euler-Cauchy equations using only a straightedge and compass. Discuss in detail the role these equations had on mathematical analysis in Europe during the 1800s.
Medicine: You have been provided with a razor blade, a piece of gauze, and a bottle of scotch. Remove your appendix. Do not suture until you work has been inspected. You have fifteen minutes.
Metaphysics: Describe in detail the probably nature of life after death. Test your hypothesis.
Music: Write a piano concerto. Orchestrate and perform it with flute and drum. You will find a piano under your seat.
Philosophy: Sketch the development of human thought. Estimate its significance. Compare with the development of any other kind of thought.
Physchology: Based on your knowledge of their works, evaluate the emotional stability, degree of adjustment, and repressed frustrations of each of the following: Alexander of Aphrodisis, Rameses II, Hammuarabi. Support your evaluation with quotations from each man's work, making appropriate references. It is not necessary to translate.
Physics: Explain the nature of matter. Include in your answer an evaluation of the impact of the development of mathematics on science.
Political Science: There is a red telephone on the desk beside you. Start World War III. Report at length on its socio-political effects if any.
Public Speaking: 2500 riot-crazed aborigines are storming the classroom. Calm them. You may use any ancient language except Latin or Greek.
Religion: Perform a miracle. Creativity will be judged.
Sociology: Estimate the sociological problems which might accompany the end of the world. Construct an experiment to test your theory.
Extra Credit: Define the universe, and give three examples.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Another Study Break...
More Impossible Final Exams:
Instructions: Read each question carefully. Answer all questions.Time limit: 2 hours. Begin immediately.
Economics: Develop a realistic plan for refinancing the national debt. Trace the possible effects of your plan in the following areas: Cubism, the Donatist Controversy and the Wave Theory of Light. Outline a method for preventing these effects. Criticize this method from all possible points of view. Point out the deficiencies in your point of view, as demonstrated in your answer to the last question.
Electrical Engineering: You will be placed in a nuclear reactor and given a partial copy of the electrical layout. The electrical system has been tampered with. You have seventeen minutes to find the problem and correct it before the reactor melts down.
Engineering: The disassembled parts of a high-powered rifle have been placed on your desk. You will also find an instruction manual, printed in Swahili. In 10 minutes, a hungry bengal tiger will be admitted to the room. Take whatever action you feel necessary. Be prepared to justify your decision.
Epistemology: Take a position for or against truth. Prove the validity of your stand.
General Knowledge: Describe in detail. Be objective and specific.
"Final Exam"
Four college friends were so confident that the weekend before finals, they decided to go up to Dallas and party with some friends up there. They had a great time. However, after all the partying, they slept all day Sunday and didn't make it back to Austin until early Monday morning.
Rather than taking the final then, they decided to find their professor after the final and explain to him why they missed it.
They explained that they had gone to Dallas for the weekend with the plan to come back and study but, unfortunately, they had a flat tire on the way back, didn't have a spare, and couldn't get help for a long time. As a result, they missed the final.
The Professor thought it over and then agreed they could make up the final the following day. The guys were elated and relieved.
They studied that night and went in the next day at the time the professor had told them. He placed them in separate rooms and handed each of them a test booklet, and told them to begin.
They looked at the first problem, worth 5 points. It was something simple about free radical formation. "Cool," they thought at the same time, each one in his separate room. "This is going to be easy."
Each finished the problem and then turned the page. On the second page was written:
(For 95 points): Which tire?
Friday, December 12, 2008
A break from studying...
Since final exams are this week, I wanted to include some ‘finals’ humor.
IMPOSSIBLE FINAL EXAMS
Instructions: Read each question carefully. Answer all questions.Time limit: 2 hours. Begin immediately.
Art: Given one eight-count box of crayons and three sheets of notebook paper, recreate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Skin tones should be true to life.
Biology: Create life. Estimate the differences in subsequent human culture if this form of life had developed 500 million years earlier, with special attention to its probable effect on the English Parliamentary System circa 1750. Prove your thesis.
Chemistry: You must identify a poison sample which you will find at your lab table. All necessary equipment has been provided. There are two beakers at your desk, one of which holds the antidote. If the wrong substance is used, it causes instant death. You may begin as soon as the professor injects you with a sample of the poison. (We feel this will give you an incentive to find the correct answer.)
Civil Engineering: This is a practical test of your design and building skills. With the boxes of toothpicks and glue present, build a platform that will support your weight when you and your platform are suspended over a vat of nitric acid.
Computer Science: Write a fifth-generation computer language. Using this language, write a computer program to finish the rest of this exam for you.
If only it were this easy...
Smart Students Taking A Final Exam
A professor stood before his class of 20 senior organic biology students, about to hand out the final exam.
"I want to say that it's been a pleasure teaching you this semester. I know you've all worked extremely hard and many of you are off to medical school after summer. So that no one gets their GPA messed up because they might have been celebrating a bit too much this week, anyone who would like to opt out of the final exam today will receive a 'B' for the course."
There was much rejoicing amongst the class as students got up, passed by the professor to thank him and sign out on his offer. As the last taker left the room, the professor looked out over the handful of remaining students and asked, "Any one else? This is your last chance." One final student rose up and took the offer.
The professor closed the door and took attendance of those students remaining. "I'm glad to see you believe in yourself." he said. "You all have 'A's."
IMPOSSIBLE FINAL EXAMS
Instructions: Read each question carefully. Answer all questions.Time limit: 2 hours. Begin immediately.
Art: Given one eight-count box of crayons and three sheets of notebook paper, recreate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Skin tones should be true to life.
Biology: Create life. Estimate the differences in subsequent human culture if this form of life had developed 500 million years earlier, with special attention to its probable effect on the English Parliamentary System circa 1750. Prove your thesis.
Chemistry: You must identify a poison sample which you will find at your lab table. All necessary equipment has been provided. There are two beakers at your desk, one of which holds the antidote. If the wrong substance is used, it causes instant death. You may begin as soon as the professor injects you with a sample of the poison. (We feel this will give you an incentive to find the correct answer.)
Civil Engineering: This is a practical test of your design and building skills. With the boxes of toothpicks and glue present, build a platform that will support your weight when you and your platform are suspended over a vat of nitric acid.
Computer Science: Write a fifth-generation computer language. Using this language, write a computer program to finish the rest of this exam for you.
If only it were this easy...
Smart Students Taking A Final Exam
A professor stood before his class of 20 senior organic biology students, about to hand out the final exam.
"I want to say that it's been a pleasure teaching you this semester. I know you've all worked extremely hard and many of you are off to medical school after summer. So that no one gets their GPA messed up because they might have been celebrating a bit too much this week, anyone who would like to opt out of the final exam today will receive a 'B' for the course."
There was much rejoicing amongst the class as students got up, passed by the professor to thank him and sign out on his offer. As the last taker left the room, the professor looked out over the handful of remaining students and asked, "Any one else? This is your last chance." One final student rose up and took the offer.
The professor closed the door and took attendance of those students remaining. "I'm glad to see you believe in yourself." he said. "You all have 'A's."
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Can I like one half of school?
With finals coming up next week, I HATE school right now and just want to be done. I wish I was done with academics, graduated and moved on because I hate the stress that comes along with school, especially when finals are around. Everyone just wants to do their best and when a test determines a quarter to one half of your grade, there is a lot of pressure to do well. I also hate the extra ‘stuff’ you have to do outside of school for classes. The tests, the exams, the papers, the projects, the assignments all make school more of an assessment than purely a place to learn. It would be great if school was like the ideal 9 to 5 job in that you could leave school at school and not have to work on it at home or on the weekends. Sadly, school is your life when you are at college.
After all that complaining, almost scary to say this outloud but….I actually like school. Contradictory to everything I just talked about? I know. I like school just not the evaluations, exams, papers, and finals that come along with it. I really enjoy going to classes that I am interested in and learning new things, I wish I could just remember everything I learned. I wish I could go to class to simply learn and not have to deal with the evaluations that accompany every class. If this were the case, I could become a lifetime student. I would not mind learning everyday. Think of the possibilities. If I knew and could remember everything I learned, I could potentially cure cancer or teach everyone everything that I know to make everyone else just as knowledgeable. School really is a GREAT place, if I could just skip over all the extra things I hate. I guess life would be too easy if people could just skip over everything they did not like and only live up the parts they loved. Living through the stuff you don’t like, makes the rest even better.
After all that complaining, almost scary to say this outloud but….I actually like school. Contradictory to everything I just talked about? I know. I like school just not the evaluations, exams, papers, and finals that come along with it. I really enjoy going to classes that I am interested in and learning new things, I wish I could just remember everything I learned. I wish I could go to class to simply learn and not have to deal with the evaluations that accompany every class. If this were the case, I could become a lifetime student. I would not mind learning everyday. Think of the possibilities. If I knew and could remember everything I learned, I could potentially cure cancer or teach everyone everything that I know to make everyone else just as knowledgeable. School really is a GREAT place, if I could just skip over all the extra things I hate. I guess life would be too easy if people could just skip over everything they did not like and only live up the parts they loved. Living through the stuff you don’t like, makes the rest even better.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Grip Marks On a Steering Wheel
Driving back to Drake after Thanksgiving break was interesting as I left home it was raining/snowing a nasty mess until about 100 miles outside of Chicago. I was fine with this mix of sleet because it was wet but not too heavy. After passing the Mississippi river about 1.5 hours later, it started to snow without the wet rain. I was still OK with this as the flakes were big but not sticking too much to the ground and traffic was minimal. Around Iowa City it was snowing more and the traffic got so backed up that I was standing still on an interstate, yes an interstate full of cars and no one was moving. Still bearable as I was on my phone with my cousin for about an hour trying to get my mind off of the delay.
The wind started to really pick up, really... it started to blow the whole world around. I gripped tighter onto the steering wheel as the car began to move with the wind. Road signs were shaking around and blowing in the snarly gusts. I had to really try to kept the car going straight in the interstate lanes. It was getting darker as it was getting later in the day and the snow was not letting up. The wind blew the snow around and formed a screen in front of the car. By this time I could not see more than about 200 feet in front of my car and could feel the ice begging to form on the road under the wheels. I only had about 60 or so miles left to Des Moines, but they were some of the most nerve racking miles.
Good place to remember that I HATE driving! (mostly due to an accident I had in high school)
I gripped the wheel tighter as my car began to slide around as the ground was freezing up and the wind strengthening. All the cars began to slow as everyone was experiencing the same lack of control. I was driving fast as I slowed to about 35-40mph on the interstate. Every 2 miles or so there was another car spun into a ditch or a cop helping a driver that hit a fence off the road. I gripped the wheel even more praying that I would not end up like one of those drivers. The car in front of me began to break, which was the worst thing to do on the icy road. I tried to break and the car began to fishtail but thank goodness no one was behind me for a mile or so. I still could not see in front of the car and was squeezing the leather out of the wheel as I gained control of the car. I was more nervous than ever evident by the fact that I could barely hold my bladder any longer...
But I made it...to the bathroom but more importantly to my apartment in one piece. I was so happy to just be off the road. While unpacking my car, I noticed though that my hands were all red and swollen and that the steering wheel was all misshapen from me hanging on for dear life.
The wind started to really pick up, really... it started to blow the whole world around. I gripped tighter onto the steering wheel as the car began to move with the wind. Road signs were shaking around and blowing in the snarly gusts. I had to really try to kept the car going straight in the interstate lanes. It was getting darker as it was getting later in the day and the snow was not letting up. The wind blew the snow around and formed a screen in front of the car. By this time I could not see more than about 200 feet in front of my car and could feel the ice begging to form on the road under the wheels. I only had about 60 or so miles left to Des Moines, but they were some of the most nerve racking miles.
Good place to remember that I HATE driving! (mostly due to an accident I had in high school)
I gripped the wheel tighter as my car began to slide around as the ground was freezing up and the wind strengthening. All the cars began to slow as everyone was experiencing the same lack of control. I was driving fast as I slowed to about 35-40mph on the interstate. Every 2 miles or so there was another car spun into a ditch or a cop helping a driver that hit a fence off the road. I gripped the wheel even more praying that I would not end up like one of those drivers. The car in front of me began to break, which was the worst thing to do on the icy road. I tried to break and the car began to fishtail but thank goodness no one was behind me for a mile or so. I still could not see in front of the car and was squeezing the leather out of the wheel as I gained control of the car. I was more nervous than ever evident by the fact that I could barely hold my bladder any longer...
But I made it...to the bathroom but more importantly to my apartment in one piece. I was so happy to just be off the road. While unpacking my car, I noticed though that my hands were all red and swollen and that the steering wheel was all misshapen from me hanging on for dear life.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)