The Whitis Court banquet is a dorm tradition where we celebrate the end of the year together. The dancing was not all that great — it was mostly dirty dancing. However, I was surprised to find out that I was Mr. LLD (for good reason because I was one of the only 10% from the building to show up) and I was asked to present an award. Wow… that totally caught me off-guard.

Other than that, I took 110 pictures during the event. Afterwards, I instantly got to work with eliminating the red eye and stuff (I had to fix half the pictures I took). Additionally, I deleted about 20 pictures because they were not of much action. Adobe Photoshop Elements (unpaid, shameless plug) really saved me some time with that, although I had to manually go in and do a good few of them. The pictures are in my Gallery.

After our IEEE officers’ meeting, it turned out that I had some business to take care of with the chair, so I went to the office with him.  It so happened that we received our new couch in the process.  All of a sudden, someone came up with the hilarious idea that we should take our many-year-old couch and stick it in front of our rival’s door to block it.  Little did we know that they too were expecting a couch, so we simply left it for them to take in.  Hilarity shall ensue soon…

How in the world did I manage to make it to my 8:00 class? Miracles, my friend… miracles. However, this is at the price of me feeling really irate. I have been tolerating this for a while, but last night was the last straw: He played World of Warcraft with the speakers on while I am trying to do homework, so I had to move my work to a different room. As if that was not enough, he started doing his homework with the lights on when I was trying to get some sleep, forcing me to move to the living room to get some sleep.

I moved back an hour or so later to confront him, and that was when I found out that he was doing homework. He made excuses about why he did not use the his desk lamp. A more important question I should have asked is why he did not play World of Warcraft at night as the lights are not very necessary there.

I am now complaining to the RA about it, and my parents will be hearing about this soon. I hate World of Warcraft for all the annoyances it has caused me.

Remember the days of elementary schools when teachers would let you make something and you could take it home to show off, to store, and to treasure for life?  As I go through my studies in EE, I have longed for something like that, even if it costs me a nominal fee for supplies and stuff.  In lab, I do not want to be merely chugging numbers like I am now in EE 411 (Circuit Theory) — I want an opportunity to apply those concepts by building something, (maybe) letting it blow up in my face when I did something wrong (that’s why we invented the circuit breaker, gain 1 buffer, and fuses), and if possible, take it home with those calculations to remind myself of what all those lectures add up to.

So, while I was grinding on my EE 316, I came across this very delightful problem:

14.8) A sequential circuit has two inputs and two outputs. The inputs (X1 and X2) represent a 2-bit binary number, N. If the present value of N is greater than the previous value, then Z1 is 1. If the present value of N is less than the previous value, then Z2 is 1. Otherwise, Z1 and Z2 are 0. When the first pair of inputs is received, there is no previous value of N, so we cannot determine whether the present N is greater than or less than the previous one; therefore, the “otherwise” category applies.

a) Find a Mealy state table or graph for the circuit (minimum number of states, including starting state, is five).
b) Find a Moore state table for the circuit (minimum number of states is 11).

Answer

Some UT organizations decided to stage a walkout today at 11:11 over the illegal immigrant issue (notice here). It appears that the House was being its typical, irrational self by proposing that it is a felony to immigrate here illegally and a felony to assist illegal immigrants. Furthermore, they wanted the deportation of any illegal immigrants, regardless of whether they contribute to society or not. Both sides have very valid arguments, and I have my own to chip in:

• Due to their unregistered status, employers could exploit them by paying less than legal wages. We need to stop that kind of the human rights abuses we accuse other countries of (that is, unless Americans would like to continue their tradition of doing so — if you would like some idea of what I mean, look up slavery, Indian reservations, segregation, and my favorite: The Chinese and the Railroad).
• It’s not fair that my parents went through the long process to get them and their family naturalized and let these illegal immigrants waltz right in and become citizens fast.
• America is a country of immigrants.

I think a good compromise bill would look something like this: Go ahead, tighten the borders by adding fences and stuff. But as far as the ones who are already here, let them have a path to legal citizenship as long as they are not causing any trouble.

Relevant links:

• News 8 Austin
• KXAN
• Click2Houston

Apparently, I somehow managed to sleep past EE 312 (Introduction to Programming). I think it’s a warning sign that I need rest.
My final test was for EE 411 (Circuit Theory). I quickly snagged up those points… until my calculator died. Whoops… there went my
source for a sanity check! I did as many algebraic manipulations as possible manually, and forced the calculator to do as many calculations as possible until it really gave out. After that point, I got at least 80% of the test done anyway, so I finished up the test and turned it in. I proceeded to DiffEq worn out and tired.
Ooh, la, la… I’m done with my stuff… cookie? Why, yes, I had cookies! As a matter of fact, I ordered a dozen from Tiff’s Treats late last night to be delivered at precisely 7:30!

Just wanted to give you folks another update on what’s going on:

• The DiffEq test was hard. It appears that everybody struggled with it, so I suppose I could hope for a generous curve.
• Some folks in my building apparently can’t clean up after themselves. The kitchen is a mess, and the RA is threatening to make us all clean up. I think I know who the heck it is. I considered cleaning up the kitchen over the course of several days, but why be Atlas when I have so many burdens? Collective action for the win!
• Failed Unit 14 for the 2nd time today. How in the world am I going to catch up?
• EE 411 (Circuit Theory) test tomorrow! Bode plots are so difficult!
• On the bright side, I got promoted to be a residential FIG mentor! That means I get to live in Whitis Court again! Unfortunately, my roommate-to-be didn’t want to join me…

I was sitting in my EE 411 (Circuit Theory) class today, and right in front of me were two people. They were doing their homework due today. As if that was not enough, they were sharing a laptop with the instructors’ solutions manual pulled up on there, and they were blindly copying stuff off there. The solutions manual actually had some of the steps involved in the problem (I could tell because it took about half a page per problem). I was tempted to rat them out. However, I have faith that someone else will take care of them, so there’s really no point in getting too mad about it, right?
People like these… people who slack off and are unwilling to put forth the effort… simply do not deserve anything.

This was a dream I had while taking a nap.

It was time for me to move in for my second year at UT. Out of luck, I got San Jacinto, the “hard-to-get-into” dorm. Little did I know what I signed myself up for. It was a 100-story building that might as well be the new UT tower! I proceeded, thinking, “Thank God I am on the 5th floor,” as I unpacked my parents’ minivan and attempted to proceed like everything is just fine.

Well, things turned out less than ideal. I put my stuff in my elevator, got in, and punched in my request for the fifth floor on the keypad. The elevator zoomed past my floor and started heading toward the 100th floor. In the minute that seemed like eternity, I fumed at the prospect of having to move all my stuff 95 floors down using the stairs.

Finally, the elevator stopped. In the few seconds that it usually takes for the door to open, I wondered, “Well… will it open?”

Nope. Click. WOOSH! Down I went like I was riding the Dungeon Drop. The elevator finally came to a stop and opened its doors… on the fifth floor.

Shaken but unhurt, I proceed with moving things into my room, tolerating several more cycles of this until all my items are moved in. Needless to say, I took the stairs for the rest of the year unless I was bored and wanted a thrill.