Quick Note

Had a wonderful birthday call from my Grandma and Grandpa Kleinau right now, and just wanted to post a bit in response to our talk: My address this year is: Paul Kleinau 222 Adams House, West Quadrangle 541 Thompson Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109 There ya go! Now you can send me things! :)

And we are go for liftoff....

Well, the school year has officially started. Syllabus week of class is over and I started my next week of classes just today. It's time for the rundown: STATS 412: IN THIS CORNER, a 400 level Stats class that is a requirement for CSE majors to graduate. Boasting graphs, charts, tables, and an older Indian lady who does not understand technology teaching a class of computer majors. My question to the University is... is this a real class? Or a secret University project designed to test the limits of how mere words can put humans to sleep? EECS 281: IN THIS CORNER, A programming class coming in at 4 credits! The logical progressor after the lightweight EECS 280, this class tests the limits of your programming ability by forcing you to develop and understand problem solving algorithms on a level mere humans can barely comprehend! The projects are aimed and loaded, ready to fire at my sleep schedule. There is little time... we must prepare. EECS 370: IN THE OTHER CORNER, A Computer Architecture class focusing on the programming that goes into microprocessors and how assembly language and machine code actually translates major computer languages into things that a computer can understand! This is a class that has a predecessor in EECS 270... which is not a major requirements for CSE majors! Be wary however, as the professor assumes everyone has taken EECS 270 and expects you to convert phrases to hexidecimal and binary within milliseconds of the question being asked! Almost like a computer! Except THIS computer has never heard of converting to binary or hexidecimal and spent the first class drooling on the table as the teacher taught to the elites who do programming as a hobby! IN THE FINAL CORNAHHH, Physics 240! The only returner on the schedule, this class is know for its ferociously difficult exams and incomprehensible gibberish it spouts in battle! Look for the fights to be mighty and well rehearsed this year... and this horrific, hated beast might finally go down in a flurry of notes and practice problems. ON THE CEEEILING, R. O. T. CCCCCC! The week opened strong with orientation giving yours truly his first opportunity to train cadets instead of being trained! It went outstanding and the amount of work put into it was well worth the effort. Well yours truly is quite out of shape after a summer recovering from field training, hard work and dedication will rectify that, as well as prepare the new freshman for years to come! We're looking forward to the future of this fighter, for sure! AND BEHIND THE WALL, RESIDENT ADVISINGGGGGGGG! Move in Week has finally ended and regularly scheduled programming has resumed! The hall appears to be building up well, though the multiple athletes on the floor have busy schedules that often leave them invisible to the public eye! There have been no major issues as of yet, with the exception of one room being busted for weed. However, the guilty recognizes the mistake and has seen the penalty of their actions, and now needs every ounce of help that can be provided to get this rectified in a good and beneficial manner! One can only hope it goes well from here. And personally, I'm starting to feel the stress, but this year will be a better year than last year. I've learned and grown, and today on the anniversary of the event that wasted 9 months of my life, I'm proud to say the past does not control me any longer. This will be the year I excel, in more ways than one. ...I apologize for the... odd... format today. It's the author in me getting angry that I don't pay any attention to his desires.

School Year Ramping Up...

So I never did get around to giving y'all a summary of what I did at Field Training. Truth be told I STILL haven't finished my own journal of it. As much as I thought the whole experience benefited me, there's a lot of it I sorta want to forget. :P

So, I moved into the dorms back on the 19th to begin my RA training. Basically just a whole bunch of meetings introducing us to our staff, talking about ways to handle problems, and getting info on how the buildings runs. Pretty useful, but it does seem a bit long. Simultaneously I've had a lot of prep to do for the upcoming ROTC semester, what with me being in charge of teaching freshman drill this semester. There's been a lot of email exchanges going on, writing up my plans, getting them proofread... haven't even seen anyone in person yet and I've talked to at least 7 different people more than once. So, keeping busy.

I've still got a bunch of stuff to prep for being an RA, though my ROTC stuff is starting to wind down until we actually run our orientation program. I've still got to make bulletin boards and come up with a floor meeting agenda and get my school books... got a metric ton of stuff to do.

So yeah! Roughly a week in and already in the midst of it. Gonna be an interesting year.

Summer is SORTA busy

Just busy enough that I haven't even finished transcribing my OWN journal from Field Training, much less had time to put chunks of it onto here. I'm pretty busy taking school classes Mon-Thurs in Ann Arbor, where I'm subletting an apartment. Fri-Sun I typically head home and have a more typical summer, relaxing and seeing people I don't see during the school year.

The classes I'm taking are Psychology 111 and Econ 101 (Macroeconomics). Into classes basically, and just to fill my social sciences/humanities requirement for my major and to buff my GPA a little bit since last year hurt my overall GPA because I didn't do too well.

Getting back in the studying mindset is hard, even after the focus and drive Field Training brought. It's one thing to sit down and accomplish a task, work out, solve a problem... entirely another to sit down and read something for comprehension, especially if you don't enjoy the subject material. But, I'm adapting, and it'll prepare me for my upcoming 17 credit semester (ughhhhhh.)

I haven't been entirely lazy outside of class though. I have friend in Field Training write now and I've been making them a newsletter with news from the past week, some funny pictures, and a few comics. Hopefully they're enjoying reading them as much as I had fun making them.

Spending most of my free, non-studying time in Ann Arbor down at the local gamestore. The people who work there are great, I've made friends with a few of the regulars (and become one myself) and I've been using all those models I've been buying and painting for their intended use: simulated heavy ordnance. It's like painting those jet models as a kid, but now instead of flying them around and making 'pchew pchew' noises there's actually set down rules and even tournaments I occasionally participate in. Hobbies are fun, and they've pretty much replaced video games in my free time (not that I don't still set aside time to rock out a few single-player video games with good stories, like Mass Effect 2, or the Fallout series.)

Anyways. That's what I've been doing this summer! Hope y'all are having just as good of one.

I'm home!

Made it back from the Deep South last night and proceeded to sit around on my butt, eating chips and salsa and catching up on some episodes of Dr. Who. I plan to repeat this process for the next few days until all MREs are purged from my system and this cold I picked up in the last day or so of FT goes away.

Anywho, I have an absolutely massive journal compilation I plan to transcribe pieces of here from what I did at Field Training over the next few days. Stay tuned!

Off to Field Training

Quite literally, in maybe 20 minutes. I have some free time waiting for Michelle to clear out of the bathroom so I can shave... so I figured I could finally knock this posst out. I apologize my end o' school year blog has been delayed so long! Don't really have an excuse other an absolutely gratuitous amount of sleep and laziness because of summer.

So quick summary of the end of the school year: Did good in the class I care about (Programming, which I retook), did meh in most of the others, did godawful in Physics. Now I need to retake THAT next semester... and I don't even have an excuse like 'time management' like I had for programming as for why I failed Physics. I just physically (heh. Physically. Physics.) could not grasp the material that was on each exam and had a gross overestimation of my own understanding everytime I walked in to take one of the tests. I'll just have to try some new things next semester and hopefully the second time through is the charm.

And next semester certainly will be a challenge. 17 tough credits, starting being a Resident Advisor (RA), and having a prominent role in ROTC as Drill and Ceremonies Officer for the incoming class of cadets (ie: teach them drill). I plan to lock down and try and improve my grades, because frankly, they need it. I weep for my free time.

Speaking of free time: my summer is pretty much already over. I have Field Training now, 2 weeks when I get back, then I start summer classes in July in Ann Arbor till school starts.

Well, that's all I have time for. Gotta go. I'll post when I get back. Write me letters!

Finals

They're the reason I'm not posting.

But first programming project. Then Physics exam. Then Programming Exam. Then Philosophy exam.

Oh, and I've got to keep getting ready for Field Training this summer. I spent almost $200 on stuff to pack for it in the past two days. It's a good thing I get paid... lol.

Talk more when free. Ciao!