Wow, the time between my last entry and now is almost as long as my self-imposed break almost 2 weeks ago. Not much to write home about I guess. I did get through my finals. The toughest part of finals was the Marketing final. It was a take-home final consisting of 100 questions all multiple choice and weighing in as a very large part of the final course grade. The professor gave us a take-home because the class as a whole did lower-than-average on the midterm. He did help the class out with the 5+ point "curve", so I wound up getting an 87 instead of an 82.

I think an essay type exam would have been more appropriate for this course, or perhaps a more traditional exam breakdown of true/false, multiple choice and essay questions. Having been to all the classes I strongly believe that would have been able to elaborate on most any essay type question rather well. If anything, I do feel intellectually enhanced by this class. I mean we are after all a consumer based society, so it's good to know some of the principles behind this marketing driven economy.

As for how well I did in the exam and in the course, only time can tell for sure when I get my final grade. I made my usual calculations based on the breakdown of the grading in the syllabus. I need a 92 or better to get an A- in he course and I need a perfect 100 in the final exam to get the lowest end of a solid A. It's interesting how that worked out. There were about 8 answers that I had to make an educated guess in since I could not confirm the answer in my notes or the textbook. My guess is that the professor recycled a test answer from an earlier outdated edition of the book.

I would say however that there is a very good chance of me getting at least a 92 on the final exam and an A- in the course. I never, ever got a perfect score in an exam, so although a solid A is technically possible, I'm not sure if I will be able to land it, at least not without a "push" from the professor. He stated in class that in borderline grade cases, he would put the students who were in every class and participated regularly up the next level if it were only a matter of a few points. That's me right there, so if I wind up with a 98-99, I might actually still be in. Really though the difference between an A- and a solid A is negligible. I'm not even sure if it will affect my GPA any. At this point, it's mostly just for shits and giggles.

The internship course didn't actually have a real final, just one final essay. I would say overall, the internship course is a breeze. The toughest part is actually getting an internship, though if a student already has a computer-related job he or she can apply that towards the Computer Science internship course. Then again, there is always the generic interdisciplinary studies internship course that can be taken if you have any other type of job. That's neither here nor there however since that is pretty much done in my book.

I'm surprised how things lined up so nicely though, in an unexpected way too. While I was working and getting tuition reimbursement, I was more than happy to turtle along at the relatively slow pace of 2 courses per quarter 3 quarters/year schedule. I might have taken more but that's all the employee tuition reimbursement would cover. I suppose if it weren't for the layoff, I would have been finishing up either March or June of 2005 instead of this November. A Thanksgiving where I may actually have something to be thankful about... Hmmm, interesting concept. I shouldn't jinx it though I still have 2 more quarters that I need to pass.

As for the actual internship job I did the calculations based on the offer of $7.50/hour against what I am receiving through my unemployment benefit and it turns out that I will be making less if I took that position, so I negotiated with my boss for my return around September when my unemployment benefit runs out. I will of course be seeking other employment opportunities, but my class schedule this Fall is really messed up so an actual full-time "9 to 5" job would be totally out of the question until I graduate.

Besides that I totally need a break. Seriously, before my layoff it's been nonstop school and work, then last quarter I took on a full-time class load for the first time in ages and finally this summer I picked up the pace with the internship and the classes. This break between now and September represents my first real break in at least 6 years which is right around the time I shifted my career and education focus to computers and really started getting serious with those goals.

So now I suddenly have all this free time on my hands, so I decided to start hitting the gym, one of those goals I've been putting infinitely on the backburner. Now there's no excuse. No job, no school, no girlfriend it's the one thing that will keep me from being a total slacker. I actually went to the gym last Friday, and stepped on a scale for the first time in I don't know how long and I weighed in at 232 lbs. I could probably lose a good 15 lbs of fat, especially around the gut.

The muscles in my upper body still have fairly good mass from my previous strength training efforts. I guess the fact that I don't starve myself keeps them from going to atrophy. =p Still if I trim down the gut a little with cardio and go back to my strength training, I should start looking good naked in about a month or so. My muscles are fairly responsive to strength training. If I keep pushing the weights I'll solidify fairly quickly.

Aside from the looks, I'll probably perform a little better in bed too with all this physical fitness, not that I'd need to since I gave up sex and all, but it's good to know it's there just in case I change my mind. ;) Since this is a vacation of sorts I might actually hit the beach and work on my tan. It's kind of funny, my arms are really dark from the driving. A trucker's tan if you will, but the rest of my body is a really pale tan. I wouldn't say it's white, but it's the closest I'd get to white and compared to my arms it's a glaring difference. Maybe I'll have a chance to even it out this summer.