Curve

What professor makes a 96.75% in class a A-?

Looks like I'm going to need to do some haggling with the admins to let me do an honors thesis. "The required GPA is 3.50, which I have if you use three significant digits!" Heh.

Things to do with what little time I have left:
-contact professors for recommendations/honors thesis
-research companies I would like to work for
-research grad schools --- done
-practice piano
-study for GMAT/GRE
-finish website
-finish mastering those recitals I recorded (!!!)

Ahhh where has my summer gone?

Catching Up

I'm terrible about keeping up with my own blog, even though I religiously view others. One drawback of posting less often is that I often feel compelled to write a huge uber-post that covers what several smaller posts would have done better. I'm going to try and avoid that in hopes that I will start writing here more often, so let's just talk about my summer plans for now.

This summer I'm working for the Segal Design Institute, which is really just a fancy name for Northwestern's design engineering department, which received a significant amount from money by Gordon Segal, founder of Crate and Barrel, in exchange for his name. Basically, I work to redesign, test, and manufacture various EDC projects that the RIC felt sufficiently lacking in fail to pursue further. So far, I've worked on a jar opening device for people with only one functional arm, and a feeding system for a girl with very little manual dexterity/strength. The next project involves a bit more engineering design, and is a pair of swimming goggles for people with limited upper-body dexterity. None of the projects particularly appeal to me, perhaps because I lack the disabilities to make any of these products necessary, but it certainly has been familiarizing me with the shop tools. Perhaps I'll even make something I'd be willing to put in my portfolio! Having flexible hours is also a perk that I've been taking advantage of a little too much :-P

I'm also taking GEN CMN 102 (Public Speaking) and ECON 311 (Intermediate Macroeconomics) this summer. The main reason I'm taking these classes is because I really want to do a senior thesis (for whatever bizarre reason I cannot say), but can't unless I raise my GPA to a 3.5 by the end of the summer. Having taken a few too many unnecessary classes that destroyed my GPA (*cough cough orgo*), this is my last chance.

In many ways, this summer is my last chance to really shape up in preparation for next year. I had been putting off preparing for the future, thinking "Oh I have time, I'm taking 5 years with the BS/BMus program", but signs now point to me graduating in 4 years with a BS in Mechanical Engineering (hopefully with honors thesis) and Certificate in Engineering Design, so I need to start thinking about finding a job or getting into grad school. This is the summer to beef up my GPA, refine my portfolio, ace my standardized tests (GRE and GMAT in September), and do the relevant things that will land me a nice job/grad school. Oh, and I should keep practicing piano so I can give my senior recital this fall. And learn Chinese better. And get in shape. And maintain some semblance of a social/romantic life. Time really does pass by faster as you age... and yet there are still people that complain of boredom.

Epic Fail

Here's a post to start off a new lunar year! I wonder if blogging is my back-up response if people aren't available to talk through stuff. A lot's been weighing on my mind recently. Some highlights:

Grades: This was supposed to be the quarter where I finally get all my acts together and emerge a newer, smarter Jon. I even set up my class schedule so that I could ease my transition into the brotherhood of smart people. Well, that goes to show you can't get rid of idiocy that fast, no matter how much you wish you could.

Co-op/Internships: I need one! Please! I'm still trying to sort out my 5-year plan, whether it ends up being co-op or BS/MS. My future still seems so uncertain, though, which bugs me.

Friends: I've been disappointed in a lot of people lately, myself included, but at the same time getting to know other people better. I'm partway in so many groups of people and trying to figure out where I belong is confusing me. This is especially tricky in the case of...

Housing for next year: Who am I living with? Why are other people so picky? Why am I so picky?

Family: I worry about my brothers maybe more than I worry about myself sometimes. I hope they don't resent me for being overbearing and hard to deal with at times. I figure I'll be one of those stressed-out Asian parents that push their kids to overachieve. Maybe it's because I wish I did get more discipline. That's no fault of my parents, though, that's me just not taking in what they had to teach me. Although, as a prerequisite to parenthood...

Relationships: Another year passed. Still a Zero. Someone'll show up in the end, I hope.

Well, I really shouldn't be up this late -- Celebrasia is today, and there'll be a lot of work to do! But I just finished downloading Enchanted...