Algebra vs Purses

I got up at 8:10 PM. Class was at 8:30 PM. And no, class wasn't be held outside my door. So, I indeed had no time to shower to style my hair (sigh). I didn't even get a chance to go to the bathroom before I left this morning -- roommates, gotta love 'em. Nevertheless, I did make it to class on time.

Rewind.

I'm not sure if I've really stressed how much College Algebra made me freak out. She assigned a whole lot of problems, but that wasn't it. I didn't understand half of the material. It wasn't totally foreign to me, but I didn't know how to do a lot of it. The homework assigned and the material covered in class made it seem like I had someone's calculus homework. In fact, many of the problems in the book had asterisks next to them stating at the bottom of the page, "This is a calculus related problem." I skipped those problems. It could've been 2 + 2 and had that asterisk next to it -- I would have skipped right over that baby.

The worst part is that film majors don't even need college algebra. They only need a class called "finite math," course which I'm sure translates into the "I almost dropped out of high school" math course. Most of the people who take that are horrible math students, and most of them are simply getting degrees that have little to do with math whatsoever:

• Advertising/Public Relations
• Animation
• Art, Art History, Art-Studio
• Communication
• Communicative Disorders
• Criminal Justice
• English, Creative Writing
• Film, Cinema Studies
• Foreign Languages, Foreign Language Education
• French
• History
• Humanities
• Journalism
• Legal studies
• Liberal Studies, Liberal Arts
• Music, Music Performance
• Organizational Communication
• Philosophy
• Political Science
• Prelaw
• Public Administration
• Psychology
• Radio/TV
• Social Work
• Spanish
• Theatre
  

I walk into College Algebra¹ today and sat a seat away from Laura. She tried to trip me, the little whore. Anyway, after recovering from my near-death experience, I sluggishly pulled my notebook from it's home and placed it on the grassy knoll to write on. Ms. Plye made a few announcements, and then we jumped right into the material for that day.

It was easy.

Very easy.

I felt so good about it. I remember having fun doing my math today because it was so easy to understand and process in my mind. Now, for those of you who aren't aware, I do not like math in the slightest. In high school, I got an A in Algebra IA and IB, a B in Geometry Honors, a C in Algebra II Honors, a B in Trigonometry, and a B in Physics. Whoa, hold up, there spike. Did you say "honors math courses?" Why in the world would any sane person take honors math courses if they didn't like math? The answer is simple.

Honors Math Track at Flagler-Palm Coast High School

1. Geometry Honors
2. Algebra II Honors
3. Pre-calculus
4. Calculus
   

Standard Math Track at Flagler-Palm Coast High School

1. Algebra IA
2. Algebra IB
3. Informal Geometry
4. Geometry
5. Algebra II
6. Trigonometry
7. Probability & Statistics
8. Business Math
9. College Algebra

Jesse's Math Track at Flagler Palm Coast High School

1. Algebra IA
2. Algebra IB
3. Geometry Honors
4. Albegra II Honors
5. Trigonometry
   

In order for a student to receive the Scholastic Diploma, you have to have trigonometry or college algebra (which technically, is what I should have taken). So, instead of taking a lot of additional courses through the standard math track, I decided to jump from the honors to the standard, back and forth, creating a track that literally no one takes. However, this not only gave me my scholastic diploma trigonometry class, but it also gave me the additional weighted honors classes.

"Alright", you're thinking. "I see that you took harder classes to reduce the amount of classes, but you got good grades in those classes (for the most part). Why are you saying you're bad at math?"

Well, I am. But I'm a hard worker. Hard workers can go very far in any subject, even if they aren't very good at it. So, the moral of the math story is that I will stay in the college algebra class because I'm excited to take it. I'm excited to prove to myself that I can do it. Because, if I'm not doing things for myself, then what's the point?

"But wait one second, Jesse. Why are you even taking this math course? Your major doesn't need it!" Well, kids. I think the answer to that is simple. Let's say I decide to switch majors somewhere along the lines -- for whatever reason, and that new major requires College Algebra. Well, I'd have already taken Finite Math, right? So, now I'm taking College Algebra in addition to finite math -- when I can just take it now, get it over with, and live my life in peace.

Makes sense to me. I'm all about working harder on a project and getting it done with rather than spacing it out over the course time. Time is valuable to me. I spend time with the people I love, and that time is not to be taken by another math course. I will not allow it!

In this interesting shot, we see Daniel Keys (Jamie Lowe) singing over a wooden walkway, and also running away. This shot was composed accidentally, but displayed an interesting aesthetic appeal.

I worked on my latest video project, "two know" again in between classes. It's the wonderful video with Jamie Lowe and Jill Vanderoef (have I plugged them enough throughout this journal?). I started working on the singing part of the video, and I made some good progress. I actually moved a clip on top of another clip accidentally a few days ago, and just realized it today. The mistake made an amazingly interesting effect, and it's going to stay in the video. Wow, the way mistakes effect our lives. I guess it's good to make them every now and again.

In English class today, we watched a video on segregation. I now have a paper to write about segregation, and trust me when I say that I'll be posting it on here as soon as I finish writing it. Hopefully it'll be good enough for people to read and enjoy, but it is segregation. I mean, it's not exactly a topic of normal discussion. It's due Friday, so I'll probably post the literary masterpiece on Thursday night sometime. That's pretty much all we did there.

I hate walking. It's hot, it's long, and it's hot. I hate it.

I think I'm going to have to invest in some shorts. I have no shorts with me. I do not like wearing shorts.

I had some difficulty understanding how I.D. cards work here at UCF. Apparently, I.D. cards, or "Smart Cards," are good for many different things. Standard I.D. things such as library books and, well, for identification purposes. However, there are two other very valuable purposes for your card. First, you can load money onto the card and use it on campus. Unfortunately, you can only use smart cards on the UCF campus or at places that accept them -- and there are only a handful of those places around, and you can bet your bottom that they're only in Orlando. The Smart Card accounts are split up into sections that are referred to as "purses." Yeah, it's gay.

Purse 1 is used primarily for vending, laundry and copy machines. The maximum amount you may add is $80.00. The money on this purse is not PIN number protected so if the card is lost, the money is not refunded.

Purse 2 is used at the bookstore and for tuition only. The maximum amount you may add is $4000.00. The money on this purse is pin protected so if the card is lost, the money will be transferred to the replacement card after a 24 hour waiting period.

Purse 3 is used for food and retail purchases (excluding bookstore). The maximum amount you may add is $4000.00. The money on this purse is pin protected so if the card is lost, the money will be transferred to the replacement card after a 24 hour waiting period.

Anyway, purse one doesn't require you to use a PIN number (and let me be the first to tell you that the phrase PIN number, although used a lot, is completely redundant.Personal Identification Number number). Purse two is for the bookstore. Purse three is for food and retail purchases outside the bookstore. Problems: What if you don't know which purse you want to put money on? Can you move money from the various pursi? You can't use these cards off campus, so what's the point of even putting money on them?

Ah, and there lies the confusion. You can link your UCF Smart Card with your Suntrust® bank account. By doing this, financial aid money will automatically be put into your Suntrust account, whereas it would normally be mailed to you. Ah, good, that's much faster. Getting money faster is always good. Spending it faster is not. Also, by linking the accounts you can then use your UCF Smart Card as your Suntrust debit card. Interesting, no? So, maybe this Smart Card isn't so useless after all.

But wait. You can only use the Smart Card as a debit card in a place that you enter your PIN. For example, places like Wal-Mart, TARJAII, Old Navy, etc. Humm, so this is what I'm thinking. I'm thinking that the Smart Card is good for one thing -- identification. I'm thinking that linking them is good for one thing -- faster financial aid payment. And I'm think that your debit card should be used for everything else. Did I forget to mention that anywhere that Smart Cards are accepted, debit cards are also accepted? Well, that's what you'd normally think, but UCF, the geniuses that they are, have decided to start having "Smart Card Only" acceptance. So, they're trying, for God knows what reason, to force you to have money on both your Smart Card and your debit card. This entire process seems highly useless and promotes time-wasting activities. I'm not a fan of those.

So, I went back to my dorm shortly after and hopped on the computer. It started raining shortly after I got back. It's rained every single day since I've been here. I'm not liking the rain, actually. I mean, I don't have a problem with it. I'm not like the fifty or so people I saw today complaining about rain, and how they're going to miss class, and I'm thinking, "Uhh, walk in it." I hate people who are like, "I'm not a snowman, I'm not going to melt." Ha ha, cute. How many snowmen melt because it rains, girly? None, theenks. Anyway, even though I hate that saying, I have the same mentality as long as I'm not going somewhere important and non-good-appearance required.

That was at 2:08 PM. I worked on the "two know" video some more while I was there. I was just kinda waiting around. You do that a lot in college. You wait around for things to happen. I could have studied, but I didn't much feel like doing that at first. Judy was supposed to call sometime today, and I assumed she would, but I remembered I had my phone on silent. So, I checked my phone and, no, Judy wasn't there...but Paisley was -- on voicemail. Speaking of voicemail, I hope everyone's heard my new "Jamie Lowe" voicemail. If you haven't, call in and listen to it while you can. I'm probably going to change it soon, because it's sort of an inside joke (you have to have heard Jamie's answering machine to get the joke), and I don't want to scare off any potential friends. Oh, yeah, and Paisley fell for it.

So, Judy eventually called me. She had to meet down here with me to give me all the program information for Seussical. Let me just say that there is a crap load of things I have to design for this program. The program will probably run over twenty pages, so I'm curious to know how exactly they're going to get all this printed up and collated. Oh well, once I've designed it, it's out of my hands. Mr. MacDermid is pretty good about getting things done -- one way or the other. So, I have no lack of confidence in the program being created. I have already designed the front and back covers, and they look pretty good. We have to print them in grayscale, but we're going to print them on red paper. The designs are cool, and the red paper will look good.

So, I met Judy for all the ad information and we went to a lovely little Italian restaurant. Nothing too crazy happened. I tried to get up from the table to go to the bathroom, and I nearly knocked the table over when my foot got trapped on it (yeah, not too sure how that happened). Then, Judy and I were talking and we heard a wonderful conversation transpire a few booths away. Two older ladies were talking back and forth to each other, plain as day. They were talking rather loud, however, which made the entire situation even funnier.

crazy66: WHAT WAS THAT MOVIE CALLED?
crazy67: WHAT MOVIE?
crazy66: YOU KNOW, THE ONE WITH THE BIG MAN.
crazy67: I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT.
crazy66: YEAH, THAT WAS IT. A CRAZY MOVIE.

Neither Judy or I could help but laugh at this insane conversation. Afterwards, Judy and I had a very good talk about life. It's so wonderful to stay in contact with the people you truly care about. I'm so glad that she actually came down here to see me (she did not have to drop Ricky off at soccer practice, she came for me, and me alone). The things people do to go out of their way (RICKY DOESN'T EXIST).

That pretty much ended my night of activity. I came back home, started working yet again on the "two know" project with Jamie and Jill. I was thinking of interesting ways to end the video, and I came up with one pretty good ending. All I can say is that no one knows the ending except me. Anything that I've told anyone at this point is outdated, and there will be a twist at the end. So, ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourselves to sit at the Academy Awards and see me on stage for this project.

No, seriously, go buy a suit (gentlemen), or a dress (ladies, Tyler). It'll sure be a night to remember.

After working on the video project, I spoke with Rachel on the phone for awhile, but I didn't say on too long. I wanted to read some in The Wedding, which, I am currently still reading despite many popular criticisms from my fans. Yes, I am reading a novel, and yes, I am planning on finishing it. It's a very good book so far.

It's 3:15 AM, time to plug your nose, and skydive into a toilet.