Another school semester/term has come and gone. This is my second term as a graduate student, and somehow I managed to survive. So once again this is my thoughts on my courses from last term. Just like the 2010 Fall semester, I took only three courses, but they sure weren’t easy.
Year: 2011
My First Car
There comes a point in one’s life (especially in North America) when a person buys his/her first car, and I have finally reached that point. I managed to survive my first six months of graduate schools without a car, but it’s inconvenient not having one in a small/medium city where there are lots of highways and not a lot of public transit. After looking for several long months including through the bitterly cold winter, I finally bought a car, and what did I buy:
2010 Fall Term in Review
It’s time again to write about my last term of studies and the courses I took. This is my first term as a grad student and I managed the survive the term… barely. As a grad student, I didn’t need to take as many courses as an undergrad, but the courses were still handful on top of project work I have to do. I took three courses last term, and here are my thoughts on them:
Losing My Wisdom… Tooth
I had one of my wisdom tooth extracted about a week ago. I’ve always been resistant to going to the dentist, but the tooth in question was a bit slanted and had a big cavity in it, so that’s why I decided to have it pulled. The extraction process wasn’t too bad since the dentist put in plenty of “freeze” so I couldn’t feel any thing but pressure, and the tooth came out relatively easily. The first day was a little tough though since my saliva still had blood and the freezing took a long time to wear off, but the recovery process has been fine so far. I ate only soft foods like congee, can soup and mashed potato for the first three days and was careful about using the other side of the mouth, and there hasn’t been much pain. There is sensation at the operation site sometimes, and sometimes there is a smell (probably food got stuck in the hole), but I don’t think I’ve developed dry socket anything nasty like that. Hopefully the recovery will continue without hiccups.
This is the first adult teeth that I’ve lost. I still have my other wisdom teeth, and I’m hoping that I can keep them cavity-free so I don’t have to get them pulled. I have my doubts though given that my teeth are quite cavity-prone.
Thoughts on Cowboy Bebop
Ever since I started watching anime regularly (again) a couple of years ago, I’ve mostly watched new series, but starting a few months ago I’ve been trying to watch some older “classics” just to broaden my horizons and see what makes these series stand out for people. Watching completed series is also a good way to be entertained since I don’t have (or rather don’t want to pay for) cable TV at my apartment. I started with Cowboy Bebop, which is closer to my comfort zone since I like sci-fi and action. I recently finished watching all 26 episodes of the show and the theatrical feature Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, and thus here are some thoughts I have on Cowboy Bebop as a whole.
My Experience: Repairing a Video Card
First post of 2011! I hope all of you had a happy new year. For this year’s first post, here is another article documenting my attempt to repair electronics, and this time it’s for the video card of the six year old Athlon XP PC that I built myself. Similar to my last repair article about LCD monitors, the video card was also afflicted by the capacitor plague, and thus I had to get out my soldering iron once again and replace some capacitors. I’m no expert at repairing electronics, so this just goes to show what you can do with a little bit of research, some inexpensive equipment, and the courage to try.
Thoughts on Mobile Suit Gundam 00: A Wakening of the Trailblazer
I just watched the Gundam 00 movie, also known as Gundams vs. Aliens for the first time EVER!! That sentence is just to give you a taste of how ridiculous the movie was. By ridiculous I don’t really mean bad, just far removed from reality (even for Gundam). Still, I found the movie to be pretty entertaining and here are my thoughts on it.
Post contains some spoilers, so read at your own discretion.
