Two hours of awesome (See? That wasn't English!)

Well, the end of the first semester is now officially two weeks away. This weekend was pretty awesome, mostly because I ignored all sense of responsibility and just did what I wanted to do.

The lab practical on Thursday wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. As I sat down to do it, I really just pushed aside all of my nervousness and began writing out some code for the problem they gave us. It was a lot better when they didn't make us do everything "their way" and let us all approach it differently. The important thing was that the code itself ran without major flaws and did almost everything it was supposed to do...I left out one part because I didn't know how to do it. I guess it's worth noting that I apparently must've learned something about programming in my engineering class, because I didn't leave the screen blank like I thought might happen (no problem, the practical was only 15% of our grade).

My stupid roommate decided to buy an XBox (along with Halo 2 and KOTOR) this weekend, a week before finals. Way to go. I think it's pretty safe to say that his grades will be affected (he hasn't turned it off all weekend), but I refuse to let it enslave me. I will admit that the temptation of cable TV, the PS2, and now the XBox is quite alluring. Perhaps I can find some reward time this week, also.

Or not. Dead week going to have to be some hard-core studying. I'm kinda worried about my grades, and I have to at least do decent on my finals to maintain them, and if I can do slightly better than my normal, perhaps I can even raise them. So, I have two main priorities this week: studying for my three finals and my last engineering project. I can do it- it's almost time for Christmas break.

Speaking of Christmas break, I'm seriously considering some sort of mental counseling or therapy at the Purdue University Student Health center (PUSH). I don't want to blame the world for my problems, but this all is getting me down. Perhaps I'm still adjusting to college life, but it's really difficult to get out of bed in the mornings. I don't know if it's a pride issue, or a time issue, or whatever, but we'll just have to see how that works out, if I go or not.

It's really starting to feel Christmas-y around here at Purdue. Even without a picturesque snow, there's enough seasonal TV movies and hall decorations (especially on the girls side of the dorm, geez) that I'm starting to get that feeling. I finally put up Christmas lights in the dorm...the soft orange glow warms my heart. Perhaps there's a certain someone who would consider going with me to the 71st Annual Purdue Christmas Show...

Tentative goals for Christmas break:
*read a thousand pages for fun
*finish present shopping
*visit lots and lots of people (MWCC, teachers at Amelia, Dan/David/Eric, Kev-O and Chris Martin, Amelia reunion, GE reunion, Kristy, Alicia, and I'm sure plenty more)
*complete FAFSA and paperwork for Purdue 2nd semester
*watch Purdue playing in the Sun Bowl
*road trip with sis to DC to visit Jacob