Return of the Syrup Smell

I returned to my room after Spamalot (which is very funny) and it appears that the mysterious syrup smell has returned. According to a couple pages I found by googling syrup smell new york this is at least the third time since October that the smell is noticable. The other two times were also Thursdays... It's very strange. I hope it's not dangerous.

My schedule - finally set?

Well, maybe. Here are the impressions of the classes I've been to this week:

Quantum Mechanics - A continuation from last semester. Prof. says it's going to be harder than last semester which means it's likely to be a complete pain in the ass. Joy.

Mechanics (Classical, graduate level) - Why I'm taking a second semester of mechanics when I really don't like the subject remains a mystery. Nevertheless, lectures should be interesting because the prof is pretty good. Pros include takehome midterms and final. Cons include high risk for professor disorganization. On a side note, when I ordered the textbooks on Amazon I got a free three month Amazon Prime trial. Hooray for cheap one day shipping.

Physics lab - Again. Not because I failed the first time (I didn't) but because there's a three semester requirement. I'm hopeful that I can waive the third semester though.

Independent Reading in Physics - Details of this still need to be worked out, but I'm hoping it will encourage me to actually do some work during the semester.

Object Oriented Programming in Java - Damn the Comp. Sci. Department for not offering Data Structures in C. This will be useful I suppose, because I've never done any real object oriented programming... but I'm not that interested in a) comp. sci. theory or b) Java. Sigh.

Scripting Languages: PHP - This class runs from the end of March until the end of April. It may get dropped before I've ever gone.

And now, for something non-technical:
German - I briefly thought about taking the fifth semester French class but the idea of Advanced Grammar and Composition in French scares me a little. I also though about taking Swedish but I would have had to start that in the fall. Should be fun.

I'm impressed with myself. I'm going to have enough credits to qualify for Dean's List this semester (after my little mathematical screw-up last semester). This semester will also be historic as it's the first in which I take more credits than in the previous semester. See the graph I made when I should have been doing my quantum homework... the top shows how many credits I've taken each semester, the bottom is the number taken for letter credit each semester. The sixth semester letter credit bar is a low estimate.

Edit 1.25.06: Here is a plot requested by my friend Chris who, as everyone can now see, is not as lazy as I am.

Classes start

and I still have no idea what I'm taking. Now it looks like I'm going to be taking a couple physics classes, intro German, and possibly one or two comp. sci. classes. Crap. I need to figure this out so I can buy my books.

In other news, I learned most of a semester of Java this afternoon.

Back in the city

I got back yesterday, am hanging out today, and classes start tomorrow. It looks like I'm going to be taking a couple physics classes (quantum II, advanced mechanics, and lab), a couple comp sci classes (PHP and scientific computation), and a music class (Music in the United States). Hopefully this will leave me with enough credits for letter credit that I will be able to get myself back onto Dean's List this semester... he he he.

To appease my mom...

who thinks I've been doing nothing but playing Grand Theft Auto since I got home from school:

This is a plot related to the job I had over the summer. Basically this plot has been pissing me off for a week now. Without explaining neutrino physics in detail it's supposed to show the rate of oscillations of anti-muon neutrinos to anti-electron neutrinos. I have an equivalent plot for regular neutrinos. However, the anti-nu case is annoying because there is a contribution to the background from contaminating regular muon neutrinos oscillating to regular electron neutrinos. This would mess up the plot since the background is dependent on the variable I changed around and would need to be three different sets of bars... After spending a while stressing over the difference in event rates I asked my boss what to do and he emailed me back to the effect of - "try adding the wrong sign events to the signal." Wow... in hindsight that was surprisingly obvious. Duh.

Apparently time flies...

When you're taking finals, doing Christmas shopping, becoming addicted to Grand Theft Auto and turning 21. I only have one week of vacation left. Yikes!