29.9.05
Addendum/Epilogue/Followup/Whatever
And then in the afternoon, I saw the distribution of grades and realized that anything about a 77 was considered an A. O.O Well, my only comment is that our school really must want to look good, giving out so much As and Bs, or just want to cover up that we're all as stupid as hell. :p But truthfully and honestly, I'm very relieved with this distribution. Granted, this is no excuse and I should be getting a higher grade than what I got on the test so I have to study harder, but hey the weight of depression has been lifted temporarily and I can goto Anime Club in peace. :p
Not another test rant!
Man, I feel so beat down after midterm season 1 of USC... very disappointed in my own performance. Some of it is "ok, I realize it was my fault and now I'll act a little more responsible", others it seems like "Damn, maybe I just suck".
In terms of the "it's my fault", this would attribute to my rather low grade on the test in Calculus and my presumed failure in the computer science midterm. By saying low grade on the calculus I mean that I recieved a B; before anyone damn tells me "it's good, that's fine" I have to say that no, it's not good because I'm trying to stay on a program that will allow me to graduate in Biology with honors. In actuality, I could probably care less about the honors part; it's the opportunity to work in a lab that I'm after. But that's something else. Regardless, it's true that recieving a B isn't bad at all, but recieving an A is always much better, especially when your school expects you to keep a freakin 3.5 GPA in math and sciences just so I can stay in research labs.
In any case, calc and csci was my fault. I thought arrogantly that I didn't need to study for the tests since everything we covered so far seemed simple, but obviously there had to be some things on the test which I was slightly unclear with. And calculus has steep point drops. Miss one constant and everything else is right? 7 points off. Well, obviously that constant must then be important, but nevertheless, it teaches me that I should go over things I'm a bit unclear on next time, so I can get a better grade in calculus than I did this test. So, for calculus and for computer science, yes I did bad first midterm, but hey I learned my lesson, I'll study for these tests and go over things I'm not clear on, and hopefully I can still pick up an A in the classes. I hope.
Then comes the Molecular Biology test. Unlike Math or compter science, I studied for this one. I studied ever since I began the class, memorizing base pairs 1 week into the season, so obviously I had that down. But in the end, I was still slammed down hard, which is why I come to the conclusion of "maybe I just suck". Looking over the test, I see a lot of it is "need more explanation" (which I was advocated not to do, because apparently the TAs were looking for specific wordings or stuff? So either I didn't get the word right or I should have BSed more). One question involved scientist names, which I thought the teacher said we didn't have to memorize and completely screwed me over. Lost a good 7 points or so from random error and overlooking. When it comes down to it, I would probably have been satisfied with my results if the random error was eliminated.
I am probably the only person in the world that would cry over what would be considered a "decent" test grade. Perhaps again if the stress of "I need to get As or I won't get to work in a lab" gets to me too much. Or, it could be a hidden, malicious desire to try to prove to everyone that I'm better than them, only to fail horribly and recognize my humility with repentence. Of course, this could have been a result of the fact that everyone is graded on a curve, so the worse the rest of the class does, the better I do. Consequently, I always hope that everyone fails the test, or at least gets lower scores than I do so I would be able to retain a grade. This is confirmed as true as in one of my chemistry tests last semester, I had recieved a 70 or something but still retained an "A" according to the curve, and I was satisfied. On the contrary, the semester before in chemistry I recieved a good 91 out of 100 on a test, but I recieved a B because everyone did really well on the test, and I was devastated. Which tells you that curves can suck sometimes, but most of the time they're in your favor. But realizing that I am not better than everyone else and there's a good chunk of people that will always be better than me is obviously smart to recognize, abeit painful.
There is no A for effort in college. Except in humanities courses, maybe, but that's not the point. The point is that it is very possible for a person to get an A in a course just because he's smart, but impossible for a person to get an A in a course if he doesn't have a nick for it, no matter how much he studies or whatnot. Granted, an accomplished person who studies will technically be the ones that will always get the high scores, but there's always a couple who can get away without doing anything and get perfect scores. Never the other way around. If the person devotes his entire life to studying a subject but still doesn't have a nick for it, he won't get a good grade. With that in mind, studying still helps and I'm still going to try and get that A. I failed to get an A in physics, which is bad. I don't want the same to happen with all my courses. Even in BME, I will study for the damn midterm because I want to stay in the high end, to be able to participate in things like research and upper division classes. The classes I'm taking this year are awesome. I love learning the material, though trying to memorize it can be tedious. I really don't want grades to ruin my semester, or the rest of my days at USC.
/ag!! If only the damn limit for honors was 3.0 instead of 3.5... /pif
In terms of the "it's my fault", this would attribute to my rather low grade on the test in Calculus and my presumed failure in the computer science midterm. By saying low grade on the calculus I mean that I recieved a B; before anyone damn tells me "it's good, that's fine" I have to say that no, it's not good because I'm trying to stay on a program that will allow me to graduate in Biology with honors. In actuality, I could probably care less about the honors part; it's the opportunity to work in a lab that I'm after. But that's something else. Regardless, it's true that recieving a B isn't bad at all, but recieving an A is always much better, especially when your school expects you to keep a freakin 3.5 GPA in math and sciences just so I can stay in research labs.
In any case, calc and csci was my fault. I thought arrogantly that I didn't need to study for the tests since everything we covered so far seemed simple, but obviously there had to be some things on the test which I was slightly unclear with. And calculus has steep point drops. Miss one constant and everything else is right? 7 points off. Well, obviously that constant must then be important, but nevertheless, it teaches me that I should go over things I'm a bit unclear on next time, so I can get a better grade in calculus than I did this test. So, for calculus and for computer science, yes I did bad first midterm, but hey I learned my lesson, I'll study for these tests and go over things I'm not clear on, and hopefully I can still pick up an A in the classes. I hope.
Then comes the Molecular Biology test. Unlike Math or compter science, I studied for this one. I studied ever since I began the class, memorizing base pairs 1 week into the season, so obviously I had that down. But in the end, I was still slammed down hard, which is why I come to the conclusion of "maybe I just suck". Looking over the test, I see a lot of it is "need more explanation" (which I was advocated not to do, because apparently the TAs were looking for specific wordings or stuff? So either I didn't get the word right or I should have BSed more). One question involved scientist names, which I thought the teacher said we didn't have to memorize and completely screwed me over. Lost a good 7 points or so from random error and overlooking. When it comes down to it, I would probably have been satisfied with my results if the random error was eliminated.
I am probably the only person in the world that would cry over what would be considered a "decent" test grade. Perhaps again if the stress of "I need to get As or I won't get to work in a lab" gets to me too much. Or, it could be a hidden, malicious desire to try to prove to everyone that I'm better than them, only to fail horribly and recognize my humility with repentence. Of course, this could have been a result of the fact that everyone is graded on a curve, so the worse the rest of the class does, the better I do. Consequently, I always hope that everyone fails the test, or at least gets lower scores than I do so I would be able to retain a grade. This is confirmed as true as in one of my chemistry tests last semester, I had recieved a 70 or something but still retained an "A" according to the curve, and I was satisfied. On the contrary, the semester before in chemistry I recieved a good 91 out of 100 on a test, but I recieved a B because everyone did really well on the test, and I was devastated. Which tells you that curves can suck sometimes, but most of the time they're in your favor. But realizing that I am not better than everyone else and there's a good chunk of people that will always be better than me is obviously smart to recognize, abeit painful.
There is no A for effort in college. Except in humanities courses, maybe, but that's not the point. The point is that it is very possible for a person to get an A in a course just because he's smart, but impossible for a person to get an A in a course if he doesn't have a nick for it, no matter how much he studies or whatnot. Granted, an accomplished person who studies will technically be the ones that will always get the high scores, but there's always a couple who can get away without doing anything and get perfect scores. Never the other way around. If the person devotes his entire life to studying a subject but still doesn't have a nick for it, he won't get a good grade. With that in mind, studying still helps and I'm still going to try and get that A. I failed to get an A in physics, which is bad. I don't want the same to happen with all my courses. Even in BME, I will study for the damn midterm because I want to stay in the high end, to be able to participate in things like research and upper division classes. The classes I'm taking this year are awesome. I love learning the material, though trying to memorize it can be tedious. I really don't want grades to ruin my semester, or the rest of my days at USC.
/ag!! If only the damn limit for honors was 3.0 instead of 3.5... /pif
13.9.05
Oh No!!! *gasp*
More shocking than 9/11!!! More catastrophic than Katrina!!! It was... it was... the blackout in LA!!!!
...ok not really, slight exaggeration. :p But it was a pretty big blackout nonetheless, quite impressive. Although honestly I didn't think of it as being that serious until 15 minutes after the blackout had happened; the lights had gone out where I was, but I was on my laptop and the wireless was still working perfectly (I thought that was kind of funny) so I didn't really find it a bother other than the fact that I couldn't see the pork in my rice bowl...
But actually the blackout hit pretty hard, and I saw that when I was going back to my apartment, which is pretty far from my school... by the time I left (around 4:30), most of the traffic lights were fixed, but not all; and this ONE TRAFFIC LIGHT that was broken clogged the street back up like 5 freakin traffic lights behind it; I can only imagine how torturous it would have been if all 5 of those traffic lights were broken as well...
Luckily enough, I had my ipod and KOTOKO music to last me through the traffic... yea, KOTOKO... um... I swear, one day I'll be in the middle of a science conference describing the structure some newly discovered biological enzyme and... "So, in the DNA structure the nucleotides are usually linked to each other from the 5' to 3' end through phosphodiester bonds; the bases themselves are attached on the 2' end via aOH MY GODDESS KOTOKO!!!! *drool...*" (Well, that last part could also be "Oh my god it's KOTOKO", but considering I'm not religious except in worshipping her music it would probably more or less be the former) I really need to deal with that problem appropriately. >.>
Oh, and I watched another episode of FMP. That blue haired girl's character is so "fake" imo, I don't like her very much, her attitude changes way too suddenly. However, the "cool version of PMA" character is pretty awesome :D good for laughs, good for laughs!! They introduced that white haired military girl, who not only had a good voice (I should check the seiyuu >.>) but looks like a pretty deep and interesting character. Speaking of deep, I'm pretty confident at this point that this will be more or less a Thomasish type anime in the future, and not a bit Engiish except for possible cheesey angsty moments, which I don't even classify as Engi-type. Cheesey angst = bad, angst about love = worse, cheesey angst about love = worst.
...ok not really, slight exaggeration. :p But it was a pretty big blackout nonetheless, quite impressive. Although honestly I didn't think of it as being that serious until 15 minutes after the blackout had happened; the lights had gone out where I was, but I was on my laptop and the wireless was still working perfectly (I thought that was kind of funny) so I didn't really find it a bother other than the fact that I couldn't see the pork in my rice bowl...
But actually the blackout hit pretty hard, and I saw that when I was going back to my apartment, which is pretty far from my school... by the time I left (around 4:30), most of the traffic lights were fixed, but not all; and this ONE TRAFFIC LIGHT that was broken clogged the street back up like 5 freakin traffic lights behind it; I can only imagine how torturous it would have been if all 5 of those traffic lights were broken as well...
Luckily enough, I had my ipod and KOTOKO music to last me through the traffic... yea, KOTOKO... um... I swear, one day I'll be in the middle of a science conference describing the structure some newly discovered biological enzyme and... "So, in the DNA structure the nucleotides are usually linked to each other from the 5' to 3' end through phosphodiester bonds; the bases themselves are attached on the 2' end via aOH MY GODDESS KOTOKO!!!! *drool...*" (Well, that last part could also be "Oh my god it's KOTOKO", but considering I'm not religious except in worshipping her music it would probably more or less be the former) I really need to deal with that problem appropriately. >.>
Oh, and I watched another episode of FMP. That blue haired girl's character is so "fake" imo, I don't like her very much, her attitude changes way too suddenly. However, the "cool version of PMA" character is pretty awesome :D good for laughs, good for laughs!! They introduced that white haired military girl, who not only had a good voice (I should check the seiyuu >.>) but looks like a pretty deep and interesting character. Speaking of deep, I'm pretty confident at this point that this will be more or less a Thomasish type anime in the future, and not a bit Engiish except for possible cheesey angsty moments, which I don't even classify as Engi-type. Cheesey angst = bad, angst about love = worse, cheesey angst about love = worst.
12.9.05
Full Metal Panic- first impressions (OMGWTFMP?!?!?!!!1111one)
Yes, someone gave me a CD with the entire first season of FMP, so I'm checking it out. By first impression, I mean I only so far watched the first episode, so this really IS a first impression. Overall, I'm sure many of you will be happy to hear that I am quite "satisfied" with it, meaning I'll probably watch it till the end and it's not because I'm a sarcastic evil man who enjoys making fun of series like this... well... ok... maybe I am, and maybe I will make fun of this series, but the series so far isn't bad IMO!!! (I only watched one episode though :p)
As if it isn't obvious enough, FMP is a "PMA" anime. "PMA" anime obviously classifies into the giant mech-type anime such as the infamous Gundam wing series, and FMP,without a doubt, is fully PMAish, with a bit of high school action and fanservice thrown in. Because I realize that many people have not heard these genres I made up for anime, I will elaborate on a few of them right now. "PJBW" anime is similar to PMA anime, but not quite. First off, it doesn't necessarily involve mechs; in fact, probably most PJBW anime only involves fighting, and not giant robots fighting, but nonmechanical, fully biologically alive and mostly humanoid style fighting. Weapons can be used in the fighting style, but a really really PJBWish anime has lots of fisting-fighting action and majorly buff people. Well, as long as it has a decent amount of fighting, it works as a PJBW anime. :p Thomas anime involves most sci-fi anime that does not involve giant mech bots; these are usually more philosophical, can have some dealing with humanity, or is a miracle of science alltogether that isn't absurdly impossible, but rather inspires the thought: "Maybe that CAN happen..."; in other words, Thomas anime is very deep. Engi anime has to deal with more emotional feelings than anything else. It is usually the complete opposite of Thomas's anime but still has a "feel good" attitude about it; as in, scientifically, the concept is absurd, but the emotional effect of the anime is still deep and affecting. Engi anime can also be classified as any anime that just has exceptional music; if the anime itself sucks but the music is miraculously good, then it's also an Engi anime. XD And Guai anime involves any pointless comedy that just makes people laugh. And laugh really hard, at that. :p So good jokes only! not lame ones please. :p Obviously, my preference is Thomas, Engi, and Guai anime for reasons unexplained to some, only too obvious to others.
ANYWAY!! FMP seems fully PMAish, with a touch of Guai... it might get either Thomasy or Engi-ish in the future, but that's for me to find out, NOT FOR ANY OF YOU GUYS TO TELL ME!!!! (Pet peeve: spoilers) In any case, I have to admit that artwork design and characters are not very strong points in this show, but as the saying goes, "it could be worse". Some of the characters seem rather fake in FMP, but others are okay and quite entertaining. We have of course, the main character, who classifies as "the character PMA would be if he was cooler and not as arrogant", and I am looking foward to that mech otaku that was sitting in class, who classifies as "Probably the closest character to represent PMA irl"... The blond mech guy is funny, I look foward to his antics... the girl associated with them is a bit more "fake" or cliche, don't like her character too much... the blue haired girl is the naru clone... and we must always love pink haired finger munching girls!!! :o not really, but I thought that was kinda interesting :p
Artwork, from first glance, looks bad. I don't like anime where the mouth of the character is large, so that has an immediate negative effect on the artwork on me. However, like Honey and Clover, it turns out it's not as bad as I had thought it out to be... artwork probably ranks around the same range as Honey and Clover.
Music, I hvaen't heard much, but sounds good. Look foward to unintentionally singing it in my head in the future.
As if it isn't obvious enough, FMP is a "PMA" anime. "PMA" anime obviously classifies into the giant mech-type anime such as the infamous Gundam wing series, and FMP,without a doubt, is fully PMAish, with a bit of high school action and fanservice thrown in. Because I realize that many people have not heard these genres I made up for anime, I will elaborate on a few of them right now. "PJBW" anime is similar to PMA anime, but not quite. First off, it doesn't necessarily involve mechs; in fact, probably most PJBW anime only involves fighting, and not giant robots fighting, but nonmechanical, fully biologically alive and mostly humanoid style fighting. Weapons can be used in the fighting style, but a really really PJBWish anime has lots of fisting-fighting action and majorly buff people. Well, as long as it has a decent amount of fighting, it works as a PJBW anime. :p Thomas anime involves most sci-fi anime that does not involve giant mech bots; these are usually more philosophical, can have some dealing with humanity, or is a miracle of science alltogether that isn't absurdly impossible, but rather inspires the thought: "Maybe that CAN happen..."; in other words, Thomas anime is very deep. Engi anime has to deal with more emotional feelings than anything else. It is usually the complete opposite of Thomas's anime but still has a "feel good" attitude about it; as in, scientifically, the concept is absurd, but the emotional effect of the anime is still deep and affecting. Engi anime can also be classified as any anime that just has exceptional music; if the anime itself sucks but the music is miraculously good, then it's also an Engi anime. XD And Guai anime involves any pointless comedy that just makes people laugh. And laugh really hard, at that. :p So good jokes only! not lame ones please. :p Obviously, my preference is Thomas, Engi, and Guai anime for reasons unexplained to some, only too obvious to others.
ANYWAY!! FMP seems fully PMAish, with a touch of Guai... it might get either Thomasy or Engi-ish in the future, but that's for me to find out, NOT FOR ANY OF YOU GUYS TO TELL ME!!!! (Pet peeve: spoilers) In any case, I have to admit that artwork design and characters are not very strong points in this show, but as the saying goes, "it could be worse". Some of the characters seem rather fake in FMP, but others are okay and quite entertaining. We have of course, the main character, who classifies as "the character PMA would be if he was cooler and not as arrogant", and I am looking foward to that mech otaku that was sitting in class, who classifies as "Probably the closest character to represent PMA irl"... The blond mech guy is funny, I look foward to his antics... the girl associated with them is a bit more "fake" or cliche, don't like her character too much... the blue haired girl is the naru clone... and we must always love pink haired finger munching girls!!! :o not really, but I thought that was kinda interesting :p
Artwork, from first glance, looks bad. I don't like anime where the mouth of the character is large, so that has an immediate negative effect on the artwork on me. However, like Honey and Clover, it turns out it's not as bad as I had thought it out to be... artwork probably ranks around the same range as Honey and Clover.
Music, I hvaen't heard much, but sounds good. Look foward to unintentionally singing it in my head in the future.
4.9.05
Angelic Layer!!!
So, I finished this Clamp anime, and I have come to the conclusion that the anime is pretty neat, indeed. Probably not the greatest or one of my favorites, but definately something worth watching IMO. Actually, when I first started off with this anime, I was a bit disappointed, but that was because I was trying to look at it from (probably) a sci-fi viewpoint, you know, dealing with philosophical issues about humanity and etc... actually the show is a lot more like Air and that genre, with the main theme being relationships and touching the audience, which is good, but of course different from what I had been expecting it to be.
But then again, this is supposed to target a younger audience, so it was probably my mistake in the first part to expect a really deep philosophical, scientific, and humanitarian point of view. It's still nevertheless great for a kid's show, as was Cardcaptor Sakura. Probably appeals to both boys and girls, girls for the general girlishness atmosphere of the whole anime, boys with the action and fighting... ( you really wonder how they can interpret fighting into a girl's anime, hmmm... o_O)
Anyway, what's also interesting is one event in particular that seems to be sticking out in my head right now, it's nothing that great, but I thought it was pretty interesting. In this one scene where they were playing with japanese fireworks, one of the characters (Icchan!) says that whoever's firework lasts the longest gets their wish come true. Well, Icchan's firework lasted the longest and beat another girl's firework, and the girl started crying, probably expecting that her wish won't come true. Ironically enough, her wish did come true for the most part (in the epilogue) while Icchan's wish was not exactly fulfilled, though there are implications that it MIGHT come true as time comes by (of course we don't get to see, the epilogue is so short :( ). I just thought this "false foreshadowing" was a bit different from what other shows would do, in that they would have probably followed the strict "this was foreshadowing that so it must happen" issue.
Oh, two cutest characters in Angelic Layer are Hatoko, the mature kindergardener (sp?), and Shuko, Misaki's (main character) mother. Yes, ironically, they are the youngest and oldest characters in the show, respectively. Even more ironic because I don't usually find older women "cute" (especially 30 year old moms o_O)... but her character design was very nice IMO, I guess it was similar to Mirielle in Noir; I actually liked Mirielle, the older assassin, than... the young 14 year old one that I even forgot her name. :p Kizuka? or something? Whatever!! XD But another thing is that Hatoko seems to act more mature than Misaki's mom, which is also kind of ironic and funny.
Oh, and Hatoko kisses Misaki. No hidden themes there, nope, not at all. Not symbolic of anything. Absolutely not, just another insigificant event within the whole series itself. Yup, nothing to talk about here.
But then again, this is supposed to target a younger audience, so it was probably my mistake in the first part to expect a really deep philosophical, scientific, and humanitarian point of view. It's still nevertheless great for a kid's show, as was Cardcaptor Sakura. Probably appeals to both boys and girls, girls for the general girlishness atmosphere of the whole anime, boys with the action and fighting... ( you really wonder how they can interpret fighting into a girl's anime, hmmm... o_O)
Anyway, what's also interesting is one event in particular that seems to be sticking out in my head right now, it's nothing that great, but I thought it was pretty interesting. In this one scene where they were playing with japanese fireworks, one of the characters (Icchan!) says that whoever's firework lasts the longest gets their wish come true. Well, Icchan's firework lasted the longest and beat another girl's firework, and the girl started crying, probably expecting that her wish won't come true. Ironically enough, her wish did come true for the most part (in the epilogue) while Icchan's wish was not exactly fulfilled, though there are implications that it MIGHT come true as time comes by (of course we don't get to see, the epilogue is so short :( ). I just thought this "false foreshadowing" was a bit different from what other shows would do, in that they would have probably followed the strict "this was foreshadowing that so it must happen" issue.
Oh, two cutest characters in Angelic Layer are Hatoko, the mature kindergardener (sp?), and Shuko, Misaki's (main character) mother. Yes, ironically, they are the youngest and oldest characters in the show, respectively. Even more ironic because I don't usually find older women "cute" (especially 30 year old moms o_O)... but her character design was very nice IMO, I guess it was similar to Mirielle in Noir; I actually liked Mirielle, the older assassin, than... the young 14 year old one that I even forgot her name. :p Kizuka? or something? Whatever!! XD But another thing is that Hatoko seems to act more mature than Misaki's mom, which is also kind of ironic and funny.
Oh, and Hatoko kisses Misaki. No hidden themes there, nope, not at all. Not symbolic of anything. Absolutely not, just another insigificant event within the whole series itself. Yup, nothing to talk about here.
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