Merry Christmas

I'm sitting here waiting for my clothes to get out of the dryer, after which I'll drive out to my sister's for Christmas, which has become a tradition since I moved to Asheville.

The semester ended as well as could be expected for me, with A's in every subject except abstract algebra (B+). I've finished applying to grad schools, with the exception of some things I need to do for UNC and Oregon State. The final list was those two schools plus Scripps, Washington, Columbia, Rhode Island and a late entry, Duke. Now comes the waiting, and possibly visiting some schools.

My research project is going nowhere. I ignored it all fall because I was too busy, and now I can't seem to ge ahold of the guy at NCDC I need to talk to for the data. Plus, my PC is acting very unstable, so I'm not sure I could do anything if I tried.

Hell Almost Over

I'm pretty much through. I still have some work for real analysis to do, but my finals are all taken. I'm exhausted.

Turns out the thermodynamics test I blogged about bombing a couple of weeks ago went better than I thought. I got a 92, in fact. I was in a state of shock. I think I did OK on my final too, so I'm hoping for an A in there.

Abstract algebra I don't know about. I think I did OK on the final, but I just haven't been able to get out of the high B range all semester. I'm not sure it's really possible to get an A in something like this when you're taking it self-study and the rest of the class has the benefit of lectures. But if my professor doesn't throw me a bone with an A- or B+ at the very least, I'm going to be pretty ticked off.

I finished my classical mechanics take-home exam today. From what I gather, I may be the only person who actually got all the way through all the problems, so I'm pretty confident of an A in there.

God -- I came in and flipped on the television just to hear some noise while I wrote this. What's on but Clay Aiken, Barry Manilow and some black chick singing "Santa Clause is Coming to Town" on Aiken's very own Christmas special. Just how fucking retarded do you need to be to get the slightest amount of enjoyment whatsoever out of a shit sandwich like this? I'm living in a country filled with morons.

In more significant news, Jackass's defense secretary was questioned by troops in California preparing to ship out to Iraq today about why they still didn't have adequate armor on their vehicles. His answer was something like "you go to war with the army you have, not the army you'd want to have." This despite the fact that the war has been going on for coming up on two years, with planning starting three years ago. Oh, and Jackass recently annouced that Rumsfeld will be keeping his job in his second term. Way to go, Jackass.