State of the David Address

I figured it was about time to do an update-post, so here goes.

School's been going quite well. I had my first Calculus 3 midterm last Wednesday, and we got the tests back on Friday. The exam was on functions of several variables, limits & continuity, and vectors. The, uh, class average was around a 60 (My section had the highest average at a 62.something - more on that in a moment, and others were in the 50s [I believe one section got below a 50]). I got a 98. So, ah, yeah. Doin' well. As I mentioned in the parenthesis, my class had the highest average at a 62 point something, which apparently was only because of three people in the class who got above a 90. Two of them (myself being one) got 98s, though I'm unsure of who the other one is.

I went and visited my high school at the end of last week and spent a while talking to my BC Calculus teacher. At one point he jokingly asked if I was happy with the 98 or if I was mad that I missed the two points that I did. My answer kind of summarizes my philosophy on learning and whatnot: I'm pretty much at the point where I don't really care about grades too much. I believe that I learn solely because I'm really interested in the material and really enjoy learning. Grades sort of follow along. Though it's a bit idealistic, I'd argue that this mindset is far superior to the "oh no I need to get a whateverpercent on this exam so I can maintain my whatevergrade so I can get a whateverGPA so I can graduate and go to whateverschool" that I see in a lot of people. If you're learning because you're genuinely interested in the material and want to understand it, you don't have to worry about grades because you'll understand the material. Moreover, I almost enjoy exams, because I view them as a way to learn new ways of applying the material, etc., and enjoy the challenge. So, yeah, that's me on education and learning.

Oh, I've got genetics and chemistry midterms this week, but again I'm not really too concerned, due to previous stuff.

We're currently working on a 'fission essay' in my writing class - essentially we have to use three items picked randomly to prove an also-randomly picked proverb. I'm using LEGOs, Ayn Rand, and Rorschach from Watchmen (Aw yeah, another assignment where I get to use Watchmen!) to prove the proverb "innocence is bliss". I've actually made pretty good headway in linking the three together and have a fairly in-depth and interesting essay in the works. I'll probably put it up once I finish.

In non-school-stuff, we've started learning tonfa in martial arts. I'm quite excited because I've wanted to learn them for a while now - they're reasonably sized and could theoretically be carried around. Potentially useful! We also modified ours a bit - the handles were a bit wobbly, so we put in screws from the bottom of the weapon into the handle so they're sturdy. I also engraved the Batman sign into the tops of the knobs on the handles: BAT-TONFAS. Pictures maybe sometime.

'Til next time!