The courses I'm taking this quarter, in case you wanted more information on why my life is so hectic all the time. XP

Time Schedule
ARCE 223 // MWF // 1210-1300
ARCH 353 // MWF // 1310-1800
ARCE 351 // T // 0810-1100
ARCE 223 // R // 0810-1100
ARCH 342 // TR // 1310-1400
ARCE 227 // TR // 1410-1500
ARCH 342 // TR // 1610-1800
MLL 103 // Credit By Eamination


ARCH 353 // Architectural Design 3.3
Catalog Description: Development and exploration of architectural theories, building systems, and design processes involved in creating appropriate architecture with an emphasis on socio-cultural and space planning/life safety concerns.
My Take: This is the class I usually refer to as "studio". As an architecture student, I have a studio every quarter, fifteen hours a week. We also get a key to our studios, so I can be in studio at any time, depending on what I have to due and stuff like that. This quarter, my design project for the quarter is to design a winery on a site located in Paso Robles (Central Coast, California).

ARCH 342 // Architectural Practice 3.2
Catalog Description: Concepts, methods and processes pertaining to the preparation of outline specifications, production of design development drawings, life safety, systems integration and cost estimating.
My Take: Another core architecture course. It's broken up into a lecture component and an activity component. I usually refer to the lecture component of this class as either "lecture" or "practice". The lecture portion is just that -- a one-hour lecture two days a week. The activity portion this quarter is with the same professor I have for studio. Usually when this happens, practice activity turns into just a continuation of studio, and that's not any different this quarter.

ARCE 223 // Mechanics of Structural Members
Catalog Description: Advanced topics of stresses in beams. Plastic bending, unsymmetrical bending. Combined stresses. Stress transformation. Buckling. Deflection of beams. Material test laboratory.
My Take: Taking this class for my ARCE minor -- I'm not so hot at ARCE and I haven't taken a real ARCE class for a year, so lots of troubles. There's a lecture and a lab component to this class. The lecture has homework due every Friday with about eight problems per week. For me, eight problems DEFINITELY take more than eight hours. =( 'Cause I suck at ARCE hardcore. =/ Also, another issue I have is that this an ARCE core major class, so all those ARCE students will definitely bring up the curve. =(

ARCE 351 // Structural Computing Analysis
Catalog Description: Computer calculations, programming basics and technical reporting. Emphasis on use of spreadsheets as a tool to analyze structural elements.
My Take: Lab class that is attached to ARCE 223. We're mostly working on Excel in the class, but the labs seem to be super long. =( Also, we have homework excel projects to do every week, so I'm kinda worried it'll take a lot of time. =/

ARCE 227// Structures III
Catalog Description: Advanced topics in two-dimensional and three-dimensional equilibrium of structural building systems.
My Take: Another ARCE major class. The thing is, I'm retaking this class 'cause I failed it last year. x_x I pretty much know most of the information for the class (since I learned it last year, but messed up on the two tests in the class), so I'm hoping that I can do really well this time. The bad news is that the homework is still long, so lots of time will be devoted to this class as well. =/

MLL 103 // Foreign Language III -- Chinese
Catalog Description: Organized group instruction arranged for students who wish to acquire basic skills in a foreign language indicated by subtitle. Laboratory drill required. Language taught in its cultural context.
My Take: The third quarter of Chinese class. I'm taking this credit by examination 'cause the times interfere with my studio. x_x Kinda bad taking it by exam 'cause you don't learn as much as you would in class -- especially since this is a language class. But the thing is, I've gotten through the other two quarters of Chinese, so it would be a waste if I can't even say I completed a year of Chinese. Last quarter, I also took Chinese by examination, but this quarter is super busy with architecture and ARCE, but hopefully I can still do well self-studying Chinese on top of that.


So yeah, there is is. The only major problem I have with my schedule is that I'm taking ARCH major core classes and ARCE major core classes at the SAME TIME. There is obviously problems with the workload because of that, since people from either of those majors would just have the core classes (read: intense workload since it's your major) plus one/two GEs or side classes. I, on the other hand, have double the hardcore workload. x_x Let's just hope I survive with adequate grades.


~Remula

So it's finally Friday! YAY! But last night, I totally felt like it was already Friday and that today was gonna be Saturday. I guess it's 'cause tomorrow I have to get up early still 'cause I have to do some stupid club stuff... master planning and all that jazz. How exciting. x_x

Anywayz... The last couple of days have been pretty boring. On Wednesday, in studio, each group presented their layouts and rules for studio, then we had to choose the layout we wanted. After that, it was a lottery to get your desk, where the teacher numbered the desks and then we put the numbers in a hat to decide. I ended up with number 13, which is a good number and all, but I wanted to sit at number 2, so I was really sad. =( People were going up to the layout paper and writing their names though, and then Jeff came by me to go up to the board and I was like, "Aww, I want number two. Who has number two?" and Jeff was like, "I have number two!" And I was like, "Do you wanna trade?!" and he was like, "I dunno. Maybe. I might be interested." Then he went up to the board and wrote our names in our respective places, then he came back to me, looked back at the board, and did that a couple times, then said he would switch, lol. So yeah.. I got the one I wanted! Yay! XP Unfortunately, though, I have to sit next to Brittany...

After we settled into our new seats, we got our project for the quarter. We're only doing one project, so yeah. Our project is a Retreat Center on campus, in this hill-y site on-campus that has nothing on it. It's in a nice location 'cause it's part of the campus core, although off to the side. The main street that goes around campus is right in front of it, and it's surrounded by the Heath Center, Rec, the Graphic Arts building, and the CM building. To the back of it, there's the University House. So yeah.. the site is pretty cool, IMO. I like it 'cause it reminds me of the park near my house back home. XD It has the trees and the dirt and it's a pretty peaceful place. XP But yeah.. The terrain varies a lot, with a lot of steep areas and stuff. I'm not sure how to work around that, 'cause it is a source of natural drainage, so yeah.. Also, I'm not sure what a retreat center entails.. I mean, I've try to start on it, but all I've done so far is look up definitions of retreat, and write out what I think a retreat should be, but yeah.. I dunno. I'm better at describing concepts and the effect I want to go for, but design-wise, I'm not that good. I have no idea what to do to achieve the feel I want for the place... Hence the reason I say I'm probably better suited for interior designer. I mean, I can kinda picture the space I want on the inside and the effect I want that to give, but that deals with the fact that there are already boundaries set and stuff. But yeah.. I mean, I made a list of the criteria I want in my building, so yeah.. Maybe something will come to me this weekend.. I need to come up with something before Monday though, 'cause I want to have Monday and Tuesday to make my presentation thing for the Wednesday pin-up.

Along with the Retreat Center project, we also have a Building Analysis project. I'm working with Brittany on it -- we're gonna analyze Norman Foster's Commerzbank in Germany. My only hope is that Brittany will actually do work, 'cause I don't want to be the one that ends up researching everything. x_x That's due in three weeks or so... BLAH.

Chinese class is okay. It's kinda hard though 'cause yeah.. It's hard, hahaha. I mean, there's the tone thing.. and even though I know Cantonese and Cantonese has more tones than Mandarin, I don't, like, classify them or anything.. And I know that there are times where I say the tone wrong for the word I want, but it's kinda like, that's what context is for! And right now, since we're just working on the tones and initials and finals and stuff, the tone matters so much more 'cause there IS no context. x_x But I'm pretty sure once we know enough, the tone won't matter all that much, 'cause in the end, the context is there to help you figure it all out. XP But then again, I could be wrong, then I'll just sound retarded when I speak Mandarin. XP It won't be all that different 'cause I know I sound somewhat retarded when I speak Cantonese right now, since I'm positive I say things wrong sometimes. ^_^;;

So at our school, there's this thing where they say, Study 25-35 hours (each week), which they get from saying you should study for two hours for every unit you're taking. But then, the unit thing really means that, four units or whatever is equivalent to four hours of lecture time. Unfortunately, that's not true in architecture, but we'll just follow the rule of two hours of study for every hour of class. I have 32 hours of class time a week. That means 64 hours of study time outside of class. This is impossible if I only want to study during the week 'cause there' not enough hours in the day for that and for me to still get sleep, eat, and do all that normal stuff. x_x But hopefully I'll be able to keep up in work and not fall behind and stuff. But I also have another goal for the school year -- to READ. =O

Usually during the school year, I don't read any books except for my textbooks. This is normally because I know I won't have time to keep up with books as the quarter goes on. There's always other homework to do and studio stuff to work on, then the next thing I know, it's been a year and yeah. It sucks. This year, I want to read. I've started doing that, but only during the wait-time before class starts. I mean, I don't have the time to read any other time, since I have so many classes to work on, plus studio stuff, so this is the best I can get. Hopefully I can keep that up and maybe even get to finish reading Black Powder War sometime this quarter. Unlikely, since it took me a week to get done with one chapter of the book, and that was with the fact that the teachers started class a little late to wait for people on the first week. Plus, my classes are really far away from each other, so I waste a lot of time I could be reading in transit, speedwalking to my next class. =/ But it's a start!

Today, I also went to the admin building to pay for the WPE. That's a test we have to take and pass to graduate (unless we want to take a class for it, but it's way more work and yeah, no.) It was $25 and it's gonna be next Saturday at 9:00AM. It's just a two hour essay test, where we get an editorial to read as the prompt and, most of the time, the instructions are to summarize and respond. The paper I got after I paid was about the stuff I need to know about the test and stuff and on the paper, there was a sample prompt, about recruiting at high schools. And yeah.. that's such an easy prompt 'cause I have all this ROTC experience to use in my essay. On the WPE website at my school, there's also an example prompt and essays responses. They were about flying in an airplane. I thought that was a hard prompt 'cause I don't have any experience flying, so yeah. Hopefully I won't get something really hard on the test that I know nothing about, 'cause most of the time, you have to rely on first-hand experience to write the essays to get a good score. I guess I'll just have to hope! If the prompt is okay, it should be fairly simple.. Hopefully, lol. I haven't written a real essay since first year though, so I may be rusty. x_x Hopefully the fact that I'm writing in my LJ again will help me out, since I'm writing, at least. XP


~Remula