All my grades have been posted and I was finally able to get through the slew of “error codes” and Javascript malfunctions that is UK’s grade-checking system in order to see them myself. I got A’s in algorithms and biology and B’s in discrete math, microcomputer organization, and the second physics lab. Not a bad haul, and I’m tickled to have done so well in some of the classes that I was fearing at the beginning of the semester, such as microcomputer organization (I got a C in the first one) and discrete math, which I had heard was hard. Biology was a 100-level class, so I felt confident I’d end up with an A in there. Algorithms was taught by a professor I had worked with before and who is known for being an easy grader, so I figured on an A or B in there. Physics lab involved a whole lot of work in the form of 15-page lab reports, but the experiments weren’t hard so writing about them wasn’t hard, either. The worst part about that class was how darn vague the instruction manual was. Our lab guy would tell us to do propagation of error, but for what? How many results should we have? Which equations? I think a class should be difficult because its material is naturally complicated, not because the professor is unable to communicate instructions.

Now I’ve got Lexmark to look forward to this summer and a full schedule of classes again in the fall:

• Calculus IV – I’m looking forward to this because 1) I love calculus and 2) Jess told me it was a bunny class for her.
• Database design – I think I’ll enjoy this because I like working with databases. Since I’ve been designing, normalizing, and creating them for years, too, I figure it’ll be easy for me.
• Intro to numerical methods – This one sounds scary to me because I’ve heard it involves a lot of proofs, and that’s something that was difficult for me in discrete math this year. I’m also unclear as to what ‘numerical methods’ are to begin with, and I’m always dubious about classes when I can’t figure out from the name what the heck their subject is.
• Statistics – Jess tells me I won’t have any problem with this one because it’s just a bunch of math.
• Logic/theory of computing – Todd loved this class, but we differ a bit when it comes to what it is about computers that we enjoy. He’s a hardware guy, and I’m more interested in the software and programming. We’ll see, though, maybe this class will be enjoyable.