So, today was the first day of school. Good stuff. Let's review what happened.

First, I got there about an hour and a half, almost two hours too early. I wanted to make sure I could find a parking spot, which was kind of silly on my part. I should have gotten my stuff together and gone and worked out beforehand, but I'm still trying to figure out how I can incorporate some DDR into it, with the student center being so far away. I don't mind the walk, but I definitely have to shower afterwards. I mean, get there at six, do a little elliptical to warm up, then move on to the weights, then go play DDR, then shower? That's a decent plan; the only problem is that I lose a good half hour walking all the way to the Student Center to play DDR, then all the way back to the Rec to shower. I think, though, that that's what's going to end up happening.

So anyway. First class was Probability and Statistics. It's in the same room that I had probability the first time, which is okay. The teacher has a Ph.D in Prob., which is kinda cool. A few cute girls in the class - they're all math majors; most of the guys are CS majors. Not much to say from the first class, other than that we get daily homework, which isn't something I had my first semester. Two guys from previous classes are in that class, one who's okay and one who's incredibly, incredibly annoying. The guy who kept complaining about the professor giving us assignments that he hadn't given us sufficient information to complete (which he had, just fyi).

After the initial class in Derrick Hall, I have to go through the Quad and to Centennial Hall - G01, for Chem II. This is the first of my insane professors. Quite insane. Anal compulsive, control freak, no patience for students; take your pick. We spent almost the entire 1:15 going over the syllabus, which is fine, since he's very, very clearly communicating what he wants from us. Oh, did I mention that the syllabus is TWENTY PAGES? I am in no way exaggerating there - 20 full pages of syllabus. The only mitigating factor I can offer about that is that the last three pages are duplicates of test information - the cover sheet and supplemental materials given to us, so that we can "familiarize ourselves with it". Even with that, we're talking SEVENTEEN PAGES. He gave us optional problem sets and reading - oh! He doesn't use the textbook that all the other teachers use; he uses his own textbook, which has EVERY POWERPOINT SLIDE, with room for notes, every problem, everything. It's pretty nuts. Anyway, optional daily problem sets. Weekly quizzes as well, But check this out - he does a weird thing with attendance. You have to have 80% attendance to even get a grade for the class. Whatever. Then, you're not allowed to leave after taking a quiz, or you get a 0 for that quiz. That seems kind of redundant, a little heavy-handed. So yeah, those weekly quizzes? The first one is over the syllabus. I'm going to repeat that, as it bears repeating. The first quiz is over the syllabus.

Walking to the chem class, there was this huge traffic jam in the middle of the Quad. It was like a giant, giant clump of students, half going towards Derrick, half towards Old Main, and they were barely moving. I'm a big guy, but I'm not always comfortable fighting my way through a crowd.

After Chem, I had Intro to Fine Arts (Music). Janelle met me outside, because she's good friends with the professor, and wanted to introduce me. It's interesting, 'cause she's always been "Billy's little sister" and "Bambi's little sister", so I get to follow her legacy for once, and I think she liked that.

Anyway, the professor for that class is also crazy, but in a good way. There's two girls, though, in the class that more than make up for that. One WON'T SHUT UP. AT ALL. EVER. I mean, yeah, there's a major participation component of your grade, but you don't have to earn it all on your first day. I'm not looking forward to having to do all this artsy stuff, but I think I'll be able to manage it.

The last class I have is Data Structures with Gu. The desk in that class is quite possibly the smallest desk I've ever sat in. Yeah, I'm a big guy and need to lose weight, but that thing is just ridiculous. I might have to play a little musical chairs and find the most comfortable one.

(How many times will they mention the urn? We understand that it's an important kayfabe element for his character, but you don't have to bash it into our heads every thirty seconds).

The class itself looks kind of interesting. I've already done Data Structures, but in Java, so for me, this class is more about learning C++ than it is data structures and algorithm analysis. That's going to be interesting.



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