Meals: Done!

The way meals work at Carnegie Mellon is that there are a set number of meals for a two week period. I have 22 meals for 2 weeks, which works out to 11 meals a week. I had yet to finish all 22 meals, but for the first time I FINISHED. It was quite the accomplishment. 

Birthdays!

 It is my best friend's birthday today, and so at midnight, about 15 of us went over to his dorm with an ice-cream cake and wished him a very happy birthday! I've never really celebrated someone's birthday with cake at midnight, but it's tons of fun, and I absolutely plan on doing this again.

Shout out to the birthday boy: Happy Birthday, Sid! Have a fantastic one :)

Registration for Fall 2012

It's so crazy to think there are only one week of classes left before my freshman year of college is almost over. As cliched as it sounds, it seems like only yesterday that I was unpacking my things in my room and attempting to figure out the quickest way to the furthest building on campus. And the fact that freshman year is over was cemented by the fact that this morning, I had to register for classes for next semester.

I had an 8:30 registration time, which was one of the earliest ones, so I was excited. I woke up at 8:15, looked at my watch, told myself I could sleep for another 5 minutes. Next time I open my eyes, 9:15. Freaking out, I nearly jumped off of my bunkbed, grabbed my laptop, furiously opened Chrome, and registered. And got all of the classes I wanted to get into. Looks like I'll be taking Differential Equations, Combinatorics, Functional Programming, Systems, and Personality next semester :) 

Hammerschlag Hall

This is CMU's "Engineering" building-the equivalent of the Gates Building for CS students. Most of the graduate students have classes here, but I have my Matrices and Linear Transformations class in the 2nd basement of this building. I took this picture because the contrast of the sky with the building was gorgeous :) 

Pausch Bridge (again!)

This time, you can see it changing colors! 

Giant whiteboards!

One of the giant whiteboards that we CS majors work on! This, incidentally, is on the 8th floor of Wean Hall, which is where the office hours for 251 take place. There is very little covering the board right now, but on Wednesday and Thursday nights, the board is covered in Expo marker.

Incidentally, this week, we got a 2 day extension on the 251 homework, meaning it's now due Saturday. Coupled that with the fact that the only other homework I have is studying for my matrices midterm, and this week seems to be a pretty light one so far :) 

Tazza D'Oro

So Tazza D'Oro is a cafe on Gates 3, and they have the best cookies and chocolate croissants, especially when they are freshly baked. So me, who was craving dessert, decided to buy both a chocolate chip cookie and a croissant. And it was delicious. 

And with that

Carnival is over. It was an eventful three days, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was the first time that I was able to completely let loose and not worry about anything that I had due in the next week. And it was the first time that CMU felt like a real college campus (although not sure that I enjoyed all parts of that).  While Sunday is still considered to be a part of Carnival weekend, it is generally reserved for tearing down the booths and finishing all the homework that was assigned over the four days. This next week is going to be hell week, but hey, Carnival was worth it! Expect to see more Carnival pictures come up in the next few days once I upload them from my camera.

El Clasico 2012

I'm a huge soccer fan and I also have a lot of work to finish. So what do I do when my favorite team and their arch-rivals meet? Do both. El Clasico 2012. May the odds ever be in Barcelona's favor.

(EDIT: Just as I was typing this post, Madrid scored. Great.)

And Pittsburgh weather strikes again!

Saturday: The best day of Carnival. When alumni, all undergraduate students, and random city of Pittsburgh people come out to see the booths before the award ceremony, the finals of the buggy races, and the amazing concert. 

And it's raining. Because clearly the Pittsburgh Weather Gods decided that Carnival wasn't important enough to keep the sun and the warmth in the picture for 4 days. 

What this means for Carnival? The buggy races were cancelled, no one really visits the booths because many of them don't have ceilings which means you would need an umbrella and that's just annoying, no one goes on any of the rides, and the concert will be held indoors, which means you won't be able to enjoy it unless you have a ticket to it. 

Thank you Pittsburgh Weather Gods. I appreciate it. 

I won a giraffe!

So a friend of mine from the Mock Trial team and I went around Midway, and won almost every game there (the only game we didn't win something at was closed). I won an adorable giraffe and a teddy bear, and she won a teddy bear, a duck, and a basketball. I love Carnival <3 The only time CMU feels like a real college. 

Crepe place!

There's a delicious crepe place (conveniently named The Crepe Place) that has at least 25 different varieties of sweet crepes and maybe 15 or so savory crepes. I finally went to this place last week, and again yesterday, with a friend of mine who had never gone. This is a picture of a nutella and berries crepe. Delicious! 

Dinner at Chipotle!

So my friends and I have a weekly tradition. We always eat at Chipotle on Friday after all the homework has been turned in for the week. Unfortunately, since we are allowed to take late days to finish the 251 homework (we have five in total), for the past 3 Fridays, we haven't been able to go since we generally work until midnight and then eat dinner, at which time, Chipotle is closed. BUT YESTERDAY, after the 251 midterm we decided to go out at grab Chipotle. The midterm ended at 9:30 and Chipotle closes at 10. By the time we finally left Gates (where the exam was taken), it was around 9:40. Me being the Chipotle fanatic that I am, decided to walk 0.8 miles instead of waiting for the bus. And so, at 9:40 pm, I half walked/half ran down Forbes Avenue to Chipotle. I made it at 9:50. The others who had waited for the bus? Made it at 9:51. But it was completely worth it, because my Chipotle chicken burrito bowl was delicious, and after a week and a half of no Chipotle, that was all I wanted. 

What CS majors survive on

And they are quite delicious. Better than the small double shot espressos. Chocolate and coffee is delicious. 

Typical Lunch at CMU

Typical lunch at CMU-salad, side (of pudding) and soda. 

Last day before Carnival!

And I am so excited! The booths are looking bigger and better than ever, and everyone on campus just seems to be happy and stoked for four days of non-stop fun. Most people were done with work yesterday, so the majority of campus may or may not be intoxicated right now, I don't know. However, all of us 251 freshman have a midterm from 6:30 to 9:30 tonight, so we will all be in hyperventilate/panic mode until then.

But after 9:30, Carnival officially starts.

I. CAN'T. WAIT. 

MIDWAY :)

This is a picture from my room of the parking lot where Carnival will essentially take place! The wooden structures are what we call Booths-essentially two-story wooden structures that students build by hand. The parking lot was shut down on Friday, and it's amazing to see how much all the organizations have gotten done since then. At the very back of the parking lot is SigEp's booth-rumored to be the best one this year. The theme of all the booths is "As seen on TV", and apparently, SigEp is building the Krusty Krab and Spongebob's house. Can't wait to see it! :)

A friend of mine is studying 251 on Gates 6 Balcony...

And looking pretty baller doing it. That's how we do it as CS kids at CMU. 

More Gates Pictures!

View from Gates 6 balcony! On the left is the Cathedral of Learning, a Pitt building.

Pittsburgh Weather

Yes, an entire post dedicated to the weather in the city of Pittsburgh. Simply put, the weather in Pittsburgh can transform from blizzarding to bright and sunny in the span of 20 minutes. Think I'm kidding? It happened three times in one day. It was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. The weather in Pittsburgh is unpredictable and bipolar, and you can never plan for it.

However, today, Pittsburgh was kind enough to give me my favorite weather-cold and sunny, with no clouds in the sky. Of course, I'll be spending today on Gates 8, attempting to finish 251 homework.

Pausch Bridge again.

Pausch Bridge at night!

View from Gates 6! Another shot of the Pausch Bridge, this time with the Purnell Center for the Arts in the background. 

View from Gates 8!

So the Gates-Hillman Center for Computer Science-affectionately nicknamed as Gates by CS students-is my home away from the dorm. And in fact, there have been quite a few days where I have spent more time in Gates than in my own dorm room. I love this building! Currently, I'm sitting on the 8th floor of Gates, working on none other than 251. The bridge that you see is the Pausch Bridge, named for Professor Randy Pausch, who unfortunately passed away. Apparently, there is a graduate-level class in which you can actually program the lights on the bridge (which are visible at night) in whatever manner you want to. Rumor has it someone programmed it to be like Mario Kart.

Expect to see more pictures of both the exterior (and interior) of Gates in the future!

Great Theoretical Ideas in Computer Science

More commonly known as 251. The dreaded freshman-spring-semester-discrete-math-class. The class that chews kids up and spits them out. And requires them to re-take the class if they get less than a C-which isn't a 70%, closer to a 58%. That's right, the lower boundary for a C is a 58%. Twelve percent lower than normal. If that doesn't scare you, then I tip my hat to you.

Why is 251 so difficult? It's a combination of the concepts, the homework and the exams. So currently, we're learning about Definite Finite Automata (which are actually really cool-very logical) and Counting and Diagonalization. Those concepts are difficult, but it's the applications of those-that we see in the homework-that make them ridiculously difficult. The homework consists of 6 questions, most questions that have multiple parts to them, and must be typed in LaTex-which is a software used to make proofs elegant. Much, much better than Microsoft Equation Editor.

While six questions may not seem like much, there has yet to be a week that I have not pulled an all-nighter to finish this homework assignment on time, or a day late (since we have 5 late days that we can allocate, using at most 3 per assignment). Understanding the question is difficult. But it's when you finally understand the question that you realize how difficult the question really is. Yesterday, for example, I had to prove that there was no sequence of length 3 that consisted of odd numbers separated by two that consisted solely of prime numbers. First, this proof was a contradiction proof, which means I assumed the opposite and proved that to be false. Second, this proof had 12 subcases. TWELVE. And the kicker? That wasn't even what the question was asking for. This just happened to be a sub-proof that I needed to answer the question "rigorously".

Now, of course, I would be lying if I said I hated the class. Yes, it's a really hard class. Yes, I keep bombing the exams and am dangerously close to failing. But the concepts are interesting and I'm learning more about math than I ever did in high school.

And now, back to studying for the weekly quizzes that we have in this class.

Parents visited!

This weekend, my parents + brother + brother's-friend-who-is-basically-my-little-brother all came to visit me at CMU. There was no special reason for this, but I had some free time this weekend and it was Spring Break for all of the kids back home, so they decided to come down for a day.

What I realized when I was with my parents? How sleep deprived I truly am. Now call me crazy, but a person shouldn't be sleepy after sleeping from 10:30 pm to 9:30 am. But all my body has wanted to do after receiving 11 hours of sleep is sleep some more. My hypothesis about this phenomenon: You don't notice when you're busy how tired you actually are. You only realize how exhausted you are when you stop. 

My sincerest apologies for the delay..

but today at 9 am, I had a programming midterm. It did not go well. There were 3 questions, weighted 45%, 25%, 30%. Pretty sure I got the 25% one completely wrong (maybe I got a 5%, if I analyzed time-complexity correctly). The thing is, I studied extremely hard for this test, but nothing that we actually learned was on the test. It was fantastic. Afterwards, however, I proceeded to watch TV shows and movies until my next class (which was at 3 pm) sto that was nice. BUT pulling an all-nighter tonight to finish homework that is technically due at midnight tonight (but that I can't finish so taking a late day). Granted I could sleep and then finish it tomorrow, but working on a Friday is terrible. And CMU has made me nocturnal anyway, it won't be a problem.

Fun fact of the day: While CS majors may work extremely hard, we also party hard. As a CS major told me, "CS majors are 20% more likely to be alcoholics than any other majors." While that statistic might be completely false, it captures the general idea. CS majors work hard and party hard. 

At a ripe early time of 3:34 am....

....I have finally finished about 90% of the programming homework due tomorrow.
And my body has decided that all of the caffeine I digested early should be implemented now, which is why I won't be sleeping until very much later. Which of course is terrible, seeing as I have a 9 am class tomorrow. Which, coincidentally, is the programming class I'm staying awake for.

So one of the things I've learned about being a CS major at CMU is that while it is true that we have the most work (although the Archies and the ECE majors do come close), we also spend a solid 50% of the time complaining about how much work we have, and the other 50% actually doing work. So granted, if we started earlier, we would finish earlier. But being nocturnal actually is slightly more productive, since everyone else is asleep, meaning that there are a fewer distractions. And there's a sense of camaraderie that you feel with the rest of CS (whether they are in your class or not) when the Gates building comes alive at 4 am in the morning.

And as much as I complain about it, I truly love being a part of a wonderful class of Computer Science majors. We're arrogant, annoying, awkward, but (and I'll attempt to be modest and fail miserably) we're also some of the most hard-working and brilliant people I know. And I'm so glad that I get to spend the next 4 years of my life with these people <3

<\post> back to work.

Mock Trial Constitution Meeting

Hello again. I'm currently sitting in a Mock Trial Constitution Amendment Meeting (hence the title).

What is Mock Trial? Essentially it's a debate club. At the beginning of the year, the American Mock Trial Association sends out a "case packet"-which consists of a series of affidavits that relate to that year's case-which this year, was a drunk-driving and possible murder case. Normally, there are 10 affidavits, and a certain portion are "prosecution" witnesses, a certain portion are "defense" witnesses, and there are a few that are "switch witnesses"-witnesses that can be used on either side depending on how the case is argued.

So each tournament consists of four rounds, two rounds in which the team debates as the Prosecution, and two rounds in which the team debates as the Defense. There are 6 people per side, 3 attorneys and 3 witnesses. Rounds proceed as follows: Pre-trial, where the attorneys are introduced, then Opening Statements for both sides. Then, the Prosecution begins it's Case-in-Chief. The first witness-attorney pair proceeds in what is called as the Direct Examination-this is the time for the witness to shine and for the prosecution to have it's case heard. This year, we called the best friend of the victim to the stand so that she could cry and tell everyone how terribly the defendant drove that night. After the Direct finishes, an attorney from the other side comes up. This time, it's the attorney's time to shine, because it's up to the attorney to interrogate the witness and show the inconsistencies in the witness's story. This happens 3 times on each side on the prosecution's side, and then the defense goes. After both sides go, Closing Arguments are given by both sides. The judges then fill out the ballots, they're sent to a toom that determines which side won, and then judges give comments. All in a maximum of 3 hours.

It's fantastic. Also lots of work. But right now, we're done for the year, since we didn't pass the Opening Rounds of the Championship Series (aka first rounds of Nationals). 

Why this blog?

Good question. Seeing as my free time at Carnegie Mellon University is close to 0.

It started out one Sunday afternoon, as I was programming the Huffman Algorithm for the programming class I was in. Like all college students, I was finding a way to procrastinate doing this assignment. Granted, it is due in 60 hours, so I do have time to procrastinate (a little), but with all the other homework assignments I have to do this week, I really should be doing the work.

So anyway, I was procrastinating on tumblr (on my other blog) when I decided that it was time to make a new blog that dealt with what it was like to be a computer science major at CMU. What it was like to have to spend over 40 hours on one homework assignment, to spend 9 hours on a Friday night typing up math homework, deal with the awkwardness that follows all CS majors and their inability (in various degrees, of course) to have social interactions. But, this blog will also deal with the amount of fun that happens at 4 am in the morning after all the assignments have been turned in, the amount of ridiculousness that occurs at CMU in general, and why I would have never picked another school to go to.

And with that, I will wrap up my first post and go back to programming.