Difficulty Studying

I have an English 110 final tomorrow morning and a CS350 final Friday morning. I know how I am able to study for the CS350 final, but the English final I am lost. I don’t really know how a person is suppose to study for something that involves writing an essay. I already read the novels and short stories, and know what is going on . . but without knowing the exact essay question that is going to be on the final, I am a little lost. All that was given was to “think about what we have seen in Scotland and then in our own news think about themes and people’s struggles.” Alright, thats a good start, I can build off of that.

Incase anyone was interested in what I had to read for the semester, I provided a list. The topic for this class was Scottish Crime Fiction.

Novels read:
Hide and Seek – Ian Rankin
Death of an Addict – M.C. Beaton
Garnethill – Denise Mina

Short Stories Read:
Bampot Central – Christopher Brookmyre
How the Angels Fly In – Ron Butlin
Death Wish – Linda Cracknell
Conviction – Chris Dolan
Someone Had To – Janice Galloway
I Shall Fear No Evil – Iain Grant
Statutes and Judgements – Susie Maguire
The Writing on the Wall – Val McDearmid
How You Look at It – Candia McWilliam
A Change of Face – Agnes Owens
The Hanged Man – Ian Rankin
Common Knowledge – Elizabeth Reeder
Of Tooth and Claw – Manda Scott
Business – Raymond Soltysek
Whistling, Singing, Eating Fruit – Ruth Thomas

1 Down – 4 to go

With 1 final in the books, that only leaves me to write Chemistry 102, Computer Science 330, 350 and English 110. Hopefully I can pull off some good finals for these classes and finish off the semester on a positive note for a change. I can’t wait for finals to all be finished though. Then I can finally get some rest time. Having to finish assignments and working on project/essays is not very fun. Next semester I think will be just as busy so I should try to enjoy my free time during the break. Next semester I will have to worry about my Computer Science classes since they normally equate to a lot of work. My other two classes of Economics and Chinese 100, should be easier and manageable. Actually, I can’t wait for Chinese 100. I think that my prior experience of working in China and learning Chinese in elementary school will make this class the easiest out of any class I have ever taken before. I just hope they don’t try to say I’m over qualified for it. Well look at the time! I have to get back to studying.

Final Exams

It is that time again. Final exams are upon us all. I have been really busy as of late finishing up all the last assignments for my classes and trying to get caught up. I finished my English essay and a CS350 assignment for Monday. I think that this will have gone ok, but not good. After Monday, it has been no school but I have gone to some extra help classes from 9 – 12 in the morning for math class. I sure hope that this pays off and I will get a decent mark in the class. . What am I saying?? I just want to pass. I think passing should be manageable though. I will probably only need 35 – 45% to pass the class. . but then there is always the problem of getting 50% to pass. I will put forth my best effort and hope to succeed, since that is all I can do. After this Math final tomorrow, I don’t have another final until next week Monday (CS330). Maybe in the meantime I will get an Xbox 360 . . .

New Xbox 360 Hack

For those of us who can’t seem to find the Removable Hard drive anywhere.

I tried to use my portable hard drive with the XBOX360 and it wasn’t recognized or anything. . I didn’t know what the problem could be. After reading this article I think my problem is that I need to reformat my drive to be FAT32, since it is NTFS. I’ll have to give it a try, but I’m hoping it works. :)

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Intense Indoor Soccer

Campus Rec indoor soccer is the Christmas break right now for me. To summarize the season so far, I think my team has done well. We have 3 wins, 2 loses, and 1 tie. We have come a long way, and I’m sure we will make the playoffs. I have done a good job at contributing to the goal scoring this season. Last game we played, I scored 5 goals in a 10 to 1 win. I had a good game kicking the ball hard and accurately. The start of the game I was a little worried though. We didn’t get our first goal until at least 10 minutes into the game. After that first goal they all kept rolling in. I can’t wait to get back at it after the break. Although the second half will be more difficult since we will be playing the more difficult teams in our pool :( Oh well, if we try hard I’m sure we will do well.

New Card

I finally went and got myself a new student card today. My old card wouldn’t scan at the gym and I was being continually lazy and not getting it replaced. I finally had enough energy to goto the PAC office to get them to sign a form saying it wouldn’t scan. Then I had to walk to the Ridell center to get them to make me a new card. It didn’t take too long and I’m just happy it is free. If the card was worn out, broken, or lost I would have to pay $10 for a new one. With the new card I will be able to go to gym now and not have to worry about not getting in. :)

Hypnotize

Back last week, System of a Down’s new cd Hypnotize came out (Nov 22). That means a new cd for me to buy. I don’t many cd’s but I make sure to buy every System of a Down cd. This new cd is actually designed as a part 2 to Mesmerize (a really great cd). Everything was thought out and the cd cases are designed so that they can be put together to make a bigger double sized case. I bought the dual disc version so I also get the cd in a dvd format with some bonus video footage. I thought that the video was interesting and the music videos were great. Now all they have to do is release a concert dvd and I’m set.

Tracklisting:
1. Attack (***) 3:06
2. Dreaming (****) 3:59
3. Kill Rock ‘N Roll (****) 2:27
4. Hypnotize (*****) 3:09
5. Stealing Society (****) 2:57
6. Tentative (*****) 3:36
7. U-Fig (****) 2:54
8. Holy Mountains (****) 5:28
9. Vicinity of Obscenity (****) 2:51
10. She’s like Heroin (****) 2:43
11. Lonely Day (*****) 2:47
12. Soldier Side (*****) 3:39
Total track length 39:36

Grey Cup

Since the title of the post mentions the Grey Cup, that probably means I didn’t do any homework and instead watched the football game today. Alright, so I didn’t get much homework done this weekend oh well. The Grey Cup game was very close. I missed the first half since I was still at work but the second half was back and forth. When the game ended up going into overtime I wasn’t sure what to think. I’m not really a fan of this style of overtime. . I would have preffered two mini halves first since I like it when a team is able to come back from a mistake. I wasn’t really cheering for anybody since I’m not a fan of either team. I think Edmonton played a good game but I don’t agree with the decision of making Ricky Ray the MVP. To me, he didn’t really do much out there today. His receivers saved him on a couple throws and he was sacked and had that fumble that almost cost them. Overall though, the second half was exciting football and I’m happy to have seen it.

Back to homework though! I have an English essay due next week and I’m still working on the book. I hope that I can finish reading it soon so that I can move onto writing a really good essay. I want to have a really good essay before the final to give my mark a big boost. In other homework news, I have barely started the CS330 project part 2. . good thing for that extension, that is going to save me. Also, around the corner are finals. I hope that I am able to set myself up well enough so that I can go into the finals confident about getting good marks. This probably means more hard work and determination to set my sights on studying! I guess that means I should probably stop typing and get back to work.

Weekend

It’s the weekend but that just means that the work is going to get going tough. Tonight I am going to Nick’s birthday, it should be a lot of fun. Then on Saturday I am working from 3:30-9 and on Sunday I am working 10:30 – 6. Now someplace in this schedule I have to find the time to finish a Computer Science 330 project that is due on Monday. This could be tough! –> Then I decide to check out my University email account and I see a very relieving email. It basically says I have another week to finish and the project is due December 2nd. That is such a relief off my shoulders. I will still try to get as much done during the weekend though. Finals are fast approaching and I want to make sure I have plenty of time to study and review all this material.

Picture Contest

Sunrise on Taishan The Faculty of Business Administration held a picture contest last week to promote their International Education Week. Nova, my CS330 lab instructor forwarded me the email and suggested that I should enter one of my pictures. I submitted one of my pictures that I took of the sunrise on Taishan. I thought the picture was really good and thought I should have a good chance at winning. Today on the way to school I got a call from my mom informing me that I won. The prize for winning is a gift certificate to an international restaurant in Regina. I think that this prize is awesome since I like to eat food.

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