Twice a year all of the bloggers essentially get a freebie post. We each get our schedules and get to talk about our classes, yay! Schedules just appeared the other day and mine is, as far as I know, in its final form.

Although I'm excited to have new classes and a fresh start, a new schedule means that school (and the accompanying work) is about to begin. This makes me sad. I think that MIT sans work would be an amazing thing, as evidenced by Orientation, CPW, and IAP, but unfortunately we must endure PSETS, exams, and sleepless nights. What will be causing those sleepless nights this year? Here we go!

As you can see, my Mondays and Wednesdays are pretty awesome. My Friday is pretty the opposite of awesome. Oh, and a quick translation for those of you who don't speak numbers.

2.003 = Course 2, Mechanical Engineering, Dynamics. Basically, the mechanics part of physics only concentrating more on movement and using differential equations.

2.005 = Course 2, Mechanical Engineering, Thermodynamics and Fluids. This is the class I'm afraid of failing. It's notoriously difficult so I'm going to try to put a lot of effort into it.

Toy Design = This is where I continue to work on ElectroPlushies and get them up and running. We're meeting with a manufacturer in a couple of weeks to discuss production so this class gives me a chance to work on details.

Western Narratives = My HASS-D class (HASS=Humanities, arts, and social sciences. Basically, MIT forces you to take artsy-fartsy classes in order to stay well-rounded and pallateable to normal society). We read classics of Western narratives and watch on film, with a generous amount of writing, analyzing, and discussing.

Digital Poetry = Using different technological mediums to create poetry. This includes MatLab, Flash, HTML, and various others. This is also a HASS class.

I'm quite excited, not for Friday, but I think that Monday and Wednesday will provide a good catchup opportunity to get some work done. It all starts September 3rd, way too soon!

Comments (Closed after 30 days to reduce spam)

A SNIVELY FIRST??!

Posted by: Ann on August 21, 2008

First is the worst second is the best and third is the one with the golden chest!!!

Posted by: Ehsan on August 21, 2008

First is the worst second is the best and third is the one with the golden chest!!!

Posted by: Ehsan on August 21, 2008

the notalwaysright thing is funny

Posted by: Philip on August 21, 2008

Okay, I'm even annoying myself.

All those lectures in the morning!

I think this is a fairly valid question: How hard is it to stay awake during lectures? Or rather, in conjunction to psets, sleepless nights, waking up early and general tom-foolery, how often do you get the urge to fall asleep in class? And if you do completely conk out, what's the effect when it comes to doing the work afterwards?

Actually, this is a pretty stupid question. I know a guy who would never sleep in class, and another who spent a good 40 minutes napping--both were stellar students. Usually sleeping in class = very bad, but I'm just wondering if it's different for MIT.

Posted by: Ann on August 21, 2008

Man I can't wait to get my schedule. Gotta get past those darn ASEs. Got them in the morning next week :/

Posted by: Omar on August 21, 2008

that's a lot of pistol

what about the sports and stuff, and clubs, where do those fit?

Posted by: mynameiscabbage on August 22, 2008

Amen to artsy-fartsy! I cant believe you're complaining about this stuff- people would kill for it all!

Posted by: Ahana on August 22, 2008

Yeah, Friday looks grueling, good luck.

Posted by: Jeremy on August 22, 2008

One Q-totally unrelated:
What did you fill in as your crazy "Short Essay" answer in your blogger app?(the Jess/Laura one)

Just curious...

Posted by: Ahana on August 22, 2008

I think either you or someone else mentioned that there is a MIT course scheduler page where I would be able to drag classes around to play with my schedule.
I lost the link >.I think either you or someone else mentioned that there is a MIT course scheduler page where I would be able to drag classes around to play with my schedule.
I lost the link >.<
Could you give me the link again?

Posted by: 0 on August 22, 2008

You're taking 2.005 as a sophomore?! Good LUCK to you, sir! =P

Posted by: Laura on August 22, 2008

@Anonymous
http://picker.mit.edu

@Laura
Sophomore Exploratory FTW

Posted by: Snively on August 22, 2008

@ Snively

Good post, lets us get an idea of what an MIT schedule is like.

Can you explain the Digital Poetry a bit more?
(Do you write the poetry and use flash and html to great effects in the text or a video concerning the poetry information?)

Do you know if other bloggers will also post their schedules? (That way we can get a broader view of possible schedules)

Thanks in advance

Posted by: Ivan on August 22, 2008

@Ivan
"Digital forms of poetry, including hypertext poems, Flash-animated poems, poems within short digital videos and interactive forms of poetry and games. Readings in early hypertext theory and creative writing. Experiment with creating poetry for wireless access on hand held devices. Test the assumptions of these early theorists through practice of creating digital poetry. Students discuss online examples of each of these kinds of digital poetry and then compose their own work, to present in class for critique and revision. The final project allows students to build upon their experience throughout the term with these forms."

I know of one person who wrote a love poem in MatLab and when it ran it created heart fractals. Other than that, I don't know much else about the class.

Posted by: Snively on August 22, 2008

@Snively

Thanks for answering so fast.
I now have another question, this class is pretty much a science class with humanities embedded?
(You learn different ways of using technology and you present what you learned by using a poem?)

Could you post some examples of these poems in a few weeks so that we can get a better idea of this class?

Is Pistol hard to learn, it seems fun but I've never done it before? Do you have an tests in it? (You need to be able to hit a certain target at a certain distance by the end of each month?)

Thanks in advance

Posted by: Ivan on August 22, 2008

@Ann

It's all about how engaging the lecturer is. I had opposite ends of the spectrum. A class where I was always engaged. A class where there was never a lecture that I completely stayed awake throughout.

Try chewing on/eating something, like cereal, that wont bother people too much (as opposed to a food truck box) or stretching out your legs and feet without getting in the way. You can work on other classes work or something to keep your mind awake. Still, there were classes when I just gave in and put my head down.

Some classes you miss something while you're sleeping. Other classes, you benefit from resting and haven't missed much from the lecture.

Posted by: 0 on August 22, 2008

@Ann, re: sleeping in class - Sleeping in class does happen, definitely much moreso in large lecture halls (I highly advise you not to fall asleep in your small HASS classes - professors usually aren't too happy about that! Actually, I've never seen anybody do that, I don't think... maybe during a movie?) For large lecture classes, most of the materials tend to be posted online, so if you think you're really going to sleep through the whole thing, it's probably more polite to stay in bed and then catch up on the lesson later (not that I'm recommending this - I rarely miss lectures, I'm just saying - why go if you're not going to be awake for it?) but if you think you'll be awake for at least part of it, go and sit in the back if you're expecting to fall asleep... or if you're trying to keep yourself awake, sit towards the front and take lots of notes. I don't think that the stress at MIT is enough to have people falling asleep in class regularly - it's more something that happens to people the night after a big project when they're too tired to do anything but too stubborn to just stay home and sleep (like me ^_^). Personally, I can only think of one instance where I've actually nodded of in class, and that was 6.005... hey, it was a 1.5 hr lecture in a fairly dark and large lecture hall and I'd stayed up late the night before, and once I noticed that the girl sitting next to me was asleep it just seemed like a really good idea.

I also used to knit a lot in class - I could listen to the professor pretty well that way, but then I realized I wasn't looking up at all to see the lecture slides... if actually seeing what the prof is doing doesn't matter to you, I recommend taking up knitting. (It depends on the prof for this one - I never had anyone who had a problem with it, Prof. Winston of 6.034 once asked me what I was making!) ^_^

Posted by: Nicole '10 on August 23, 2008

@Ehsan:

Third is the one with the HAIRY chest, dumbo.

Posted by: 0 on August 24, 2008

@Anonymous & Ehsan:

Up here, third is the one with the treasure chest.

Posted by: MN Mademoiselle on September 1, 2008

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