Hip hip hurray for a 3-day weekend! I love stupid legal holidays that give me off while the rest of the world still has to go to work.

My plans for the weekend: More shopping (I still need some fresh work clothes). Babysitting G&J's dogs (they're going to Mexico). Sleeping in. Hoping it stops raining. My V-day plans? Well, two co-workers and I are going to BBQ and watch stupid movies and celebrate being single.

I've decided Karen needs to find a cell-phone that lets her talk earlier in the evenings, that way we can talk while I'm driving home from class, rather than when I'm eating dinner. Karen, you work at that, and I'll work on the transportation technology that gets me to El Paso like its next door instead of a million miles away.

Happy 51st Anniversary G&G!

Woe Is Me.

I was warned. I was told that I needed to commit the notes to memory. I thought I did a pretty good job. I was wrong.

One student looked at the test, got up and left. I assume that meant she was dropping the class. Another two students were PhD students auditting the class (they didn't have to sit for the test). 3 students took this professor's last class, so I'm assuming they knew what to expect. The remaining 2 students have shown themselves to be well-ahead of the curve in the class (they appear to have had a lot of optimal control before). This puts me dead last in the class. I hate that feeling.

The test was literally a regurgitation of the notes. Every question prompted me to move onto the next section of the over 30 pages of notes from 15 hours of lecture. If I had an history degree and a photographic memory I would have had a better chance of passing this test. As it is, I estimate I got about a 60-70% (I bombed 4 questions, made errors on another 2).

To add insult to injury, the T.A. came in and announced that we had until 6 p.m. to complete the test. Class supposedly ends at 5:15 - the hour-long class period was part of why I assumed (incorrectly) that I wouldn't have to repeat the ENTIRE set of notes on the exam -- that wouldn't be possible in only an hour. In fact, I had another class right at 5:15 (luckily its a casual enough class that missing it wasn't a problem). I was still working on the test at 6:15 when I decided I had enough and turned it in. What if I had someplace to be after class? What if I couldn't have missed my next class? GR!

On top of all this, if I drop the class today, I only get a 50% refund of tuition (meaning I'd have to pay NASA back the other half, $1700). Of course, if I get anything below a B in the class, I'd have to pay NASA back 100% of my tuition, $3500. I never really seriously thought about this risk of taking classes through NASA before. Its kind of frustrating.