That's a bottomless hole.
The very same one that has swallowed my GPA this term.

I've been upset with school before, but I'm as close to being completely fed up as I've ever been. This was supposed to be the final stretch, not the ultimate fight for survival.

The 30% midterm last week was an absolute slaughter, triumphantly hoisting itself to the honored place of "Most Difficult" and "Most Impossible" test of my 9 year school career.

Tomorrow's the same deal. 25% of my term in the morning, 30% at night.

I guess to put it all in perspective, I'm feeling about as satisfied with school right now as I felt when I left the movie The Thin Red Line. It had all the hype, all the promise, and all the disappointment.

It's kind of weird. I've been really busy all term, but it's all been "work" in the traditional sense. I've been burning pencils up and running my calculator nonstop as I've been fighting to meet the incessant line of assignment due dates and lab write ups.

Today It just feels weird. I'm not really using the pencil. It feels like it's been forever since I just sat down and read to learn. I have the entire week ahead cleared from work like due to some effort late last week. Now I just need to study. I need to learn and actually remember this stuff so I can reproduce it on the 30% midterm this week. Unfortunately, this next week has 2 more 30% midterms and the week after has yet another. It's not going to be an enjoyable couple of weeks. I just wish I could study, I don't want to do this, and as simple as that sounds, it's having quite a devastating effect on my efforts.

Yesterday it was pouring rain and utterly miserable. Perfect study weather, However, I spent most of it doing house work and chatting to my brother and friends. Of course, it was terrible for a reason, a hurricane was passing south of us.
Today it's hot and humid. Actually, several times I woke up last night to readjust my fan it was so warm. There's not a cloud in the sky and the place reminds me of paradise. There's a tropical green hue to the water in the harbor and the entire place is erriely silent. (well that's not entirely true.. I heard a siren a little while ago) But still, it's not a good day for studying with the blinds open... but I can't shut out the sun, I haven't seen it in nearly a week, I've been stuck inside sooo long..

The Seasonal Update.

This has essentially become the symbol of this term. This emblem has become the logo (at least for now) of our design team.

I'm fairly excited about the project, which is described here on this fairly basic webpage.
(I'm struggling to recall any html as is fairly obvious from the page)

I spoke to a former supervisor about the project in an attempt to get a handle on defining some of the requirements of the design. The response was nothing of astounding. Within hours I had e-mails from my former supervisors and essentially everyone I had ever worked with or spoken to at my old place of work. E-mails ranged from opinions on operation, complaints about current tech, well wishing and offers to help. Of course, this project is now sitting posed to devour the remainder of what little time I have to relax.

This term at school has somehow managed to explode.
Of course, it's the result of our schools administrative genius. As the terms are setup, the last year was fairly moderate with respect to difficulty. As a result everyone in my class probably did better than engineering students in similar programs at similar levels of completion. Hence, when we apply for jobs during the middle of recruiting season (now) we have higher marks (as we apply with last years marks) then our competition and we all get really cool jobs.

Unfortunately, now we're paying for this favor with the prospect of tripping at the finish line looming over us. This term has been so brutal with it's demands for time thus far, I've only managed these handful of posts between sleeping, eating, and schooling. This week alone I got to sleep one night before 1am and I shattered my "at school time" record by setting a new high point of leaving at 1:55am after an 8:30am start.

In short I hate school right now, but it's nothing I hadn't heard before, all my friends that went through Memorial's program hated their home stretch as well. Ah well.

To finish off this discontinuous post, I might as well finally admit I've taken a full time job with Shell. This means my dream of living on a coast is delayed for the time being. The details as to my career plan are still being fleshed out but I figured a start at a company willing to offer me the exact job I wanted is a better start than most.

Already I'm finding it hard to tolerate the "bullshit" of school given that my entry into the real world is cemented. I hate the assignments that serve no purpose except to have something due for a course that is outdated and senseless for my career. Plus, the dreams of how I'm going to spend the next couple of years are intoxicating. I'm feeling the list is developing like this:

• Purchase a condo/house
  
• Get a Season Ski Pass:P
  
• Get heavily into mountaineering... ultimate goal to climb Mt. McKinley within 5 years
• Purchase a Motorcycle
  
• Motorcycle roads trips: Grand Canyon, Alaska, and Right down the west coast to Tijuana.
• Finally build a Millennium competition machine. (It can't be any harder than what I'm doing now...right? :P)

I've worked the economics as they stand now, with a 35% contingency (Thanks Exxon For the lessons in conservative economic forecasting) for cost overruns for a house purchase and stuff I want to do in my first year. Replacing booze consumption with outdoor Sports and activities I should save tonnes. Plus, without bragging too much, I'll have 5 weeks of vacation to blow :D

now.. I just need to keep School and these stress levels from turning me into some fat F%^&.