Sunday, September 20, 2009

A New Perspective


So, how many people get to have this perspective of a swamp? More on that in a later post!

Well, it can probably go without saying that I am back at school, considering September's mostly past us by now. Wow, how time flies. For much of the last month of summer, I was really anxious to get back to school. Not because I got sick of home (that never happens!) but because I was ready to start learning again and definitely ready to see my school friends again.
What does this school year have in store?
  • Differential Equations - The next step for most scientists and engineers after Calculus 3. I have found that once you get to this level in mathematics, it doesn't get much harder, but you're just learning applications. As for me, differential equations are everywhere in meteorology, so this class will be very useful for me.
  • Writing about Literature - Probably one of the most hated classes at FIT. I love it, for the most part. It is definitely nice to have a break in all of my science and math courses to study literature...Especially considering we studied William Faulker and Flannery O'Connor, two of my newly favorite authors.
  • Probability and Statistics - Wow. There are people who succeeded in all levels of calculus that are having trouble with this supposedly simple course. All of the theory is nearly incomprehensible, but the applications can be fun sometimes.
  • Physics 2 - Electricity and magnetism! It's really fun and interesting, but my exam this Friday has 3 problems on it...Covering 3 chapters...and a study guide with 300 practice problems, on much more than 3 topics. God only knows what 3 problems he will pick.
  • Physics 2 Lab - I really hate general lab courses, but this one really isn't that bad. My partners are great and the GSA who oversees the lab is actually a friend of mine who plays the keyboard at church. Can't complain!
  • Meteorology Research - As of now, my work-study job under one of my professors has only involved updating forecasts and plotting tropical storms/hurricanes on the tracking map in our department's building. Soon, though, I will be cursing one of the computers in the lab trying to figure out the source of the error in some program that I wrote to make some calculation to describe some meteorological phenomenon. I love that job so much.
  • School Newspaper - I have been given the honor of being the "Weather Columnist" in this year's edition of the school newspaper, The Crimson. Though the newspaper goes largely overlooked on campus, it's still nice to be published on a regular basis. I will post my writings on here every other week with each edition.
  • Campus Ministry - I have also been given the honor of being employed by Catholic Campus Ministry as the Social Jusice Coordinator for this school year. This job involves organizing community service projects and events to help our community and raise awareness of social justice issues across the globe. Cool beans.
And all of that is just school-related stuff! I haven't even started talking about tree climbing yet!

4 comments:

Pablo said...

Social Justice is a high calling. Good for you!

R.Powers said...

That's a full plate buddy.
Good to see a post again!

threecollie said...

That is an amazing schedule. I am so impressed. My brother, who is now a PE, used to call differential equations Dif-EQ. I think they should just call it difficult (but then I never progressed beyond trig.)

MinorcanMeteorolgist said...

Pablo - Thanks a lot. It's good to see you again; it's been quite a while!

FC - Yes, it is. Most of my days run from 7:30 AM to 1:00 AM. But I'm happy with it :-)

threecollie - Yes, we call it Diff-Eq, too! It can be rather difficult sometimes.