Unbelievable

I am so pissed off now it's not even funny to say it's not even funny.

I just got out of my Japanese test that, according to my tutorial teacher, was only supposed to be on kanji, with the full reading/writing test to be held in lecture next week. As a result of that information, I staggered my preparing techniques. This past weekend I studied my vocab from Japanese to English and the kanji both ways around. Next weekend I planned on studying the vocab from English to Japanese and then studying grammar, as well as putting everything together on Monday.

As it turned out, it was the full test this week. What. The Fuck. I was so mad when I was handed that test that my head almost spun around and started speaking in tongues. All that being said . . . I don't think I did all that bad considering I was horribly unprepared. If I get a 75, I'll consider myself lucky. Obviously, where I had the most trouble was with some of the grammar and with translating some words from English to Japanese, especially during one of the long prose passages we were expected to write. There were some words we had to use and due to me not having prepared adequately - as well as panicking inside my head because of that - I just couldn't remember them.

On top of that I feel like I'm so lost in my Internet Computing class. The labs have just been terrible for me. The first couple of labs, I spent most of the time trying to remember how to use a UNIX interface along with emacs to program. I haven't done that since high school. None of the other people had a problem with this because it's how they do every programming course here from beginning Java on. As a result, I didn't finish the 1st lab before that lab ended, nor the 2nd before the 2nd lab ended, and so on and so forth.

Then last week's lab assumed a full working knowledge of SQL language. Specifically MySQL. Um, yeah. I don't know SQL at all. We kind of had to use it in that stupid INFO341 class I took, but we mostly used phpMyAdmin which wrote all the SQL statements for us. We just had to know when, where, and how to use them (which was difficult enough). So, I spend the whole class trying to figure out SQL. I was also set back because I didn't have a MySQL account with the school yet. To make a long story short, I have none of the 3rd or 4th lab done. So today is my day to get all of that done, or at least make a valiant attempt at it. I hate those labs, though. The instructions on them always assume you have perfect retention of all the intermediate steps you learned last lab. Don't they know that repetition is the mother of skill? I mean, obviously they shouldn't have to go as in depth with the intermediate step explanations as they did the first time around, but they should at least mention the steps to help you along and help reinforce good programming technique.

There is some bright side to this post, though, although it has nothing to do with classes. First, I've finally got the problem of my finances solved. All the holds are taken care of, all the road blocks down. The IPE will enroll me in Autumn quarter, and on the Friday before Autumn quarter starts (Sept 22) I will be able to get a short term loan, which will more than cover all my expenses here. In the meantime, I'm gonna try and get a job besides. Yeah, that means I'll probably have to wait while to get some real money, but I'm pretty sure the college will be understanding about this. I've been late for rent a few times and they don't really bitch too much as long as they know they're gonna get paid eventually. Besides, I'm sure they're used to International students having issues with getting funding in a timely manner. In the meantime, I have enough money to eat, maybe even to buy a ticket to the ball. Maybe even buy a few CD's (which, for me, is right up there with the necessity of eating). And if all else fails, I have credit cards I can fall back on, and I'll get replacement money to pay them off before the bills are due.

And the best part about the finances is . . . it's looking more and more like I can skate by without getting that wisdom tooth removed. Because of all the swelling it was difficult to really gauge where the thing was coming in. It's definitely not in-line with my other teeth (it's kind of a little to the side), but it's also not coming down right on top of them either. As long as I remain diligent with my oral hygiene (which I am anyway), I should be able to keep that area of my mouth clean enough to not have to worry about this until I get back to the States. Obviously I will be in a dentist's chair as soon as the first sign of trouble appears, but . . . I don't think that's quite yet. I've been brushing and using Listerine after every meal instead of just twice a day since I noticed it coming in. It's important to do that while it's coming in because apparently bacteria can get trapped between the gum and the part of the tooth that has yet to be exposed. The Listerine should take care of that, though.

So, ya got some good, ya got some bad. Nice to have some balance, huh?

Aussie Doozie of the Day:
Any CD's that are major releases (and thus released simultaneously in many countries), often come out in Australia first, as the typical day for CD releases in Australia is Saturday as opposed to Tuesday.