The first month of this semester.

So, the first month of this Winter semester will soon be over. I just had my first test in Calculus I, and I should be finding out my grade on that sometime this weekend. There was one problem I didn't get, and one I'm pretty sure I got wrong, but other than that I'm alright. It's a 100 point test, so I'm expecting about a 95%, which means I did okay.

My Calculus I professor is letting me take quizzes before class instead of at the end of class so I don't have to deal with nicotine withdrawal. I'm really excited about that. If you don't know why nicotine withdrawal is such a problem for me, please read this paper. When I was telling her about it, I wasn't expecting her to make any sort of special accommodations for me, but since I'm always early to class she said I could just take the quizzes beforehand.

I asked my professor (that I've had for Astronomy, College Physics I and II, and now Cosmology) about working at the school this summer. He said we may just have to talk in person about it. I then e-mailed him my schedule, but he hasn't e-mailed me back yet. I don't think I'm good enough to work there, but Ryan seems to think otherwise and I really trust his opinion because he works there already and has for quite some time. Everyone else I talk to seems to think I'm good enough as well. I guess what's really important is if my professor thinks so.

Ryan showed me something really cool - how to square large numbers in your head. Here's how you do it:

Think of a number to square, say, 43. That would be 43², which is the same as (43)(43). Now, turn it into a number that's easier to multiply. Like, for example, 40. That would be (43-3). Since you're taking away 3 from each 43, turn it into (40)(46) - which is easier to multiply. Multiply those two together, which would be 1840. Since you took away 3 from each 43, take that 3 and square it, which is 9. Add the 9 to the 1840, and you'll have your answer - 1849.

Now, try it yourself! It's pretty awesome, I have to say.

I started my Shakespeare class. Since it's an online course, the professor had us do a practice quiz just to see what the questions are going to be like throughout the semester. All the questions on the practice quiz were either political or astronomical in nature. His A's are also 95% and up - which I really like. I'm going to have to earn that A, which is great. I like this guy, I like this guy a lot.

I currently have 19 points of extra credit in Calculus II. You need 200 extra credit points in order to get a 5% increase in your grade. Hopefully I'll be getting more extra credit once the grades come out for our tests, because you get extra credit points if your group scores highly on the test. I don't know how the rest of my group thinks they did on the test, but I'm sure they did alright. Our group name is Apple π, we've got to do awesome.

Well, I've got some homework to do, so I'm done writing for now. I hope you enjoyed that little squaring large numbers trick.