Correction. David was supposed to be at Tom's at 5:30 on Friday, not 5:00. I missed the memo.

Triple arrogance alert

1. I liked to be stretched academically. Perhaps my most fond memory as a student is spending two to three hours on a physics exam and, upon finishing, coming out into the real world again, my brain absolutely abuzz with mental stimulation. For any of you singers out there, it's sort of the same thing as a "post-performance high" where you feel an ecstatic sense of giddiness. And so I wonder sometimes--especially when I hear about Mech E's working on the third term of Thermo, or when we're bombarded with a blackboard-full of checklists and boring qualitative methods--if I'd not be better fulfilled in the Physics department where I'd be constantly trying to wrap my brain around difficult concepts. You know, it almost comes to the point where I wonder if IE isn't too "easy" for me. That's where the fear of some arrogance comes in. But I know that there are going to be some nasty (read: great) classes coming up, there's just some stuff to wade through in the meantime. And I'll tell you one thing, Hypothesis Tests (in Statistical Process Control) are pretty hard to wrap the brain around for sure. I'm trying to revel in that.

2. I've realized this many times during my life as a college student: I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I'm quicker than a lot of people at picking up concepts, but there are many who are quicker. But many of those quick people may not have the best grades. Quickness, sharpness, smarts are less than half of acheiving good grades, I'd say. The other more-than-half (how do you like that?) is study skills, study habits, and dedication.

3. Could it be that the IE class I'm in is smart? We got two of our tests back today and on one the average was 85 and on the other it was 87 or so. We'll probably come tumbling back to reality on the SPC midterm coming up.

I'm trying to evaluate what I'd think of a person who I knew that blogged something like I just did. I'd probably be tempted to think of him as a proud person, so you may think of me the same way. And pride is definitely an issue in my life. Maybe I shouldn't even post this, but it's what I've been thinking about. So here goes...