Off to Uni: Delays from Gaming
My turn to just drop in to explain about the slow posts as of late and possibly for the whole upcoming two week too. Eh, like I blog much anyway though. I’ll be moving up to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo this coming Wednesday, which is a boring six hour drive from my place. Classes start on the 17th so there might be quick time to blog whatever that’s been out over the weekend after settling in, but my schedule is definitely full from the 19th to a date I am unsure of. Personal matters will be leaving me with no choice, but to skip classes already on the first week to go back home. I must be the only person pissed about having to be called for a mandatory registration to become a permanent resident. Not quite sure about the workload in college, so can’t say until when I will be kept off doing all that off-class make-up studying. If anyone started their first year earlier, please put down any advices for a Computer Science major running classes on weekdays from 8 to 12 in the morning. Yes, I am talking to you Totali. Hopefully torrents run fine there, and they don’t bust me for downloading something that’s not licensed in America. Right, I am still at home left with lots of free time after the packing, and wrestling with my new Vostro 1500 running on god damn Vista. All that free time seems to be going into playing Giotail and falling in love with Makita Yaoi for these past few days though. Really good hentai-free visual novel/RPG game from Kogado I heavily recommend checking out. I’m not proficient with Japanese myself, but years of watching anime somehow helps me understand 70% of all spoken parts of the game. I’ll most likely leave a post on thoughts and a mini-guide for the English-speaking community before leaving on Wednesday, and I also do have long interesting editorial of-sort in wait. That can be schedule posted once the proof reading is done.
Like omg I got mentioned in an aura post! I guess I should give you some of my experience as a fellow freshman in college?
My schedule is a bit different than yours. I have a stacked Tuesday and Thursday with classes all day, a night class on Wednesday, and a 4 day weekend to make up for that…that’s just how I wanted it. Everyone has their own style, and most people prefer a 5 day week with classes ending early. You have probably been told that College takes soooo much more work than High School I’m sure, but that’s not exactly the case. Well, there is just more independent study. Personally, I prefer that over the HS style…shorter classes, and you just study on your own time. Just don’t put things off…I’m sure you don’t have that problem….people only fail at college if they are extremely lazy or just plain dumb. If they are either they don’t belong in college anyways.
As far as getting anime on campus, yea, hopefully your Uni doesn’t block torrents. Mine DOES and it’s a real pain in the ass. I can basically only get anime through IRC, which really limits my options (especially since I prefer raws). If they do block torrents, you’ll probably have to do like me and settle for what you can get through other means. It’s tough! Again, hopefully that isn’t the case. As far as actually watching anime and gaming, it’s not like all the time for that goes away either. I’m still blogging the shows I started in the summer, just a bit slower. I still marathon shows, but only when I’m working on art projects as well. I’m not gonna lie..you do have less time for your favorite hobbies….but it’s not 24/7 studying.
By the way, I’m a digital media major, not a CS major….but my roommate is, so you can probably still hit me up for advice if you really need it later. (always lurking in IRC ;P) He doesn’t seem to be having a hard time at all though. Good luck with your first year in college Aura. I’m sure you won’t find it as bad as you first thought after a few days! :)
Wow, did you write a comment or an essay? :P
Yes, I’m getting all sorts of thoughts while bored of waiting to fall asleep every night. (I have a lot of trouble sleeping.) Well, glad to know it’s not really true college requires more work. The schedule and all made me believe it would my style more and making the work easier, but part of me was still unsure just in case. Right, nothign for me to worry about. I’m not a genius level guy who’s has a math brain or writes good essays, but I’m confident to say I can constantly stay above average and pass every class. Even a C is usually unthinkable.
Wait, so how do you get your raws if you can’t use torrents then? Oh right, I think some raw provider groups did have IRC channels. I can’t really say I have hobbies. Usually I sit here bored if I don’t have a new game play or a bunch of self deadlined posts to make. Call me anti-social if you wish. I know it’s not to brag about, but heck, that’s who I am. It’s more comfortable like that as that’s how I grew up. Don’t like having to speak with someone while making sure to keep the right word choices as to not offend them.
He doesn’t seem to have a hard time you say. I don’t know, there’s probably a huge different between a student going in knowing plenty of coding and a student who goes in knowing jack. I fall under the latter even though I do know enough at least know my HTML and customize my blog. Hopefully all the Java stuff comes as something that only requires common sense to learn. Last year in AP Computer Science during high school should be an exception because that was the worst teacher I have ever had.
Hmmm, are there any needs to safe certain belongings by the way?
Did I ever mention that I like to hang around other anime blogs while I sit around waiting for my next class to start on stacked days like this? (Tues)
Yea, I think you are worrying more than you should. Well, that’s not too surprising for anyone going to college for the first time. I forgot to mention that this is also freshman year….it will probably get tougher as we go along, but they’re not just going to overload us as soon as we arrive. I remember that you were worrying about missing the first few days of certain classes. Don’t lose your cool over that. Plenty of students enter class on the 2nd or 3rd day, because of class changes, etc. The first day of class is almost always just an introduction to the class and the syllabus (all of this can be read on your own easily). Most of the time, the professor isn’t going to be a total douche either, so he/she will probably be glad to catch you up on the small things you missed. Oh yea, and always read the syllabuses they give you…most of the time they will outline the entire class for you, and you should generally know what to expect.
There’s no problem with being an average student in college…I mean look at all the dumb preppy chicks that make it. Oops, I shouldn’t offend anyone….wait, none of them read anime blogs. Um lolz? I have checked some sub groups’ irc channels, and a lot of them also provide media through irc. As far as being “ant-social”, whatever. I was there too. As long as you’re not like Sato in his hikki stages (NHK), you’ll be fine. It’s a bit early for me to say if Uni is really sooo much more social than HS, like everyone else says. Honestly, I spend a lot of time in my dorm….heh. It’s funny how they these things based on a group as a whole…if a person is social he will be social, if not….well you know.
Hey, my friend doesn’t know jack about CS either. Most people don’t! Don’t worry, you’re in the same boat as the large majority. I mean, you do enter college to LEARN this stuff right? I’m sure you’ll actually do better than a lot of people. If you have a asshat teacher, I guess you’ll just have to deal with it. It’s pretty rare though, especially if you don’t cause any trouble. It is very true that Uni professors are much different than HS teachers. As far as safe guarding belongings, it depends. I’ve actually known my dorm mate since junior high, so I don’t, but I know you’re living with like two other strangers. Just keep your most important belongings with you. Really, the other people in the dorm won’t want you stealing their stuff either, so it’s kind of a mutual understanding that you don’t mess up each others’ stuff. If they steal anything it’s like….illegal….so yea, theft doesn’t usually happen between dorm mates from what I’ve seen or heard.
Aura: I did CS and while I had some experience programming I had never coded in C (the language my program used at the time) and was pretty much 100% self-taught so a lot of concepts were new to me. The first class in the programming sequence in my program was a joke, I don’t know how anyone with a brain could have failed that class (well skipping labs which had mandatory attendance perhaps…). Granted the course was designed to be taken by non-majors too but it wasn’t terribly hard and was taught extremely well. CS programming courses will almost always have labs for the first two years of coursework at least (this was 100 and 200 level at my college) and even if you have a huge lecture hall the labs will be smaller because you can only have as many people per lab session as there are PCs in the lab. For me this was always around 25 people per lab, and you have TAs so if you are having problems you can get plenty of help. You’ll find that most CS students are very much like you and you’ll get along with them quite well. People tend to not mind helping others in the labs during open hours so don’t be scared to ask someone a question if you’re lost. :)
Belongings: Until you know your roommates better I’d avoid keeping small, valuable, easily stealable stuff laying out just to be safe, but bigger stuff you shouldn’t have to worry about at all. The biggest problem you may run into is your room/suite-mates not remembering to lock the doors when they leave. o_O
As for bad professors…. If it’s immediately obvious a professor is an ass or can’t teach worth shit, change classes right away. Especially in your first few years when you can adjust your course plan easily this is the best thing to do. Good examples of this would be if your professor tells you the first day of class they never give any A’s. They won’t be a good professor, they’re full of themselves, I know some friends who had professors like that and they didn’t learn shit in those classes. Remember you’re paying for your education, don’t be shy to speak up if things are bad. Unless a professor’s a total jerk they’ll listen to your complaints as long as you do it the right way. (I’d suggest making an appointment to talk to them in their office outside class hours and be very polite.) I had to do this with one of my CS professors, the guy wasn’t a jerk and he’s absolutely brilliant. However he’s _always_ been brilliant and just wasn’t reaching our level at all. That was a Tues/Thurs class and we’d get out 30-40 minutes early every day because he’d rush through things so quickly. After I talked to him (and actually I took a group of classmates with me but I was elected spokesperson) things improved a lot, and we learned a lot. :)
If you have any problems you can talk to me, I didn’t go to your university but I did help teach First Year Studies at mine for 4 years, so I know what to do in most situations and most universities are run similarly. If I don’t know exactly what to do I’ll know who you should talk to to find out. :) I can also probably help you with some code problems, but I don’t do as much coding nowadays so no promises. :)
Above all else though, HAVE FUN! Don’t just study, participate in events on campus. You’ll regret it later on if you don’t, and you should seriously look into doing a year of study abroad if you aren’t already, it’s the best time in your life to live in another country for a year so don’t waste the chance. :)
Too many long comments, lol.
I did hear during the orientation that they don’t even expect you to have seen a computer in your life before, but still can’t really get over the fact that there will be others starting off with more advantages. But then, yes. We probably do have a lot in common. Aren’t Computer Science majors usually poor in atheletics? :P
Understood what Totali said about belongings and it all makes sense. Maestro does bring up that real issue about theft from roommates forgetting to lock the door. Eh, I’ll probably keep my laptop close with me at all times. Maybe it strap it to my desk if necessary.
Ah, interesting part is that at the orientation, the students handed us like a list of teachers to avoid. Apparently they did have one Computer Science professor who just can’ teach the lower level classes because he expects you to know everything. Probably the only reason I was glad I went to that boring orientation with shitty food. Class registration went safely as far as I know. They say professors in other classes are all fine, but we’ll see about that.
Totali, no need to take your words back here. I really do wonder how some of those dumb preppy chicks make it to some colleges. This one girl from my high school actually made it to UCLA when someone in the nerd crowd like me couldn’t.
Fortunately I am now able to go abroad as freely as I like. I’m definitely not big on events like a dorm-held party, but I will try and look in to some clubs. Eh, we actually had a similar discussion about this in #himegimi. Nice of NovaJinx to share about his so-called anti-social life. These are more or less my words as well. Apparently I do give off that same aura, and it’s just not that I’m weird and anti-social, but that I have nothing to say to a normal person who probably has interest in some stupid pop culture stuff. Anyway, words from NovaJinx. Hope he’s not encouraging my ways though.
“I’ve kind of failed at socializing here. I’m in good terms with everyone but not exactly friends with anyone and I’m not too popular as lunch company, because irl I have the conversation killer aura around me. My silence affects everyone. I just keep shut unless someone asks me something which annoys most people. I just suck at talking with normal people. I don’t really have any of the same interests they have. I don’t really mind that anymore unless it’s like once when we were supposed to have a lan-party. Just when I was all set up a bunch of friend’s friends bust in, brainwash them to go to a bar and everyone leaves me there alone.”
I sincerely wish you good luck in college. Since I’ve just entered as well, we’re on the same boat, aura. Everyone should be approachable right now, since we’re all new and nervous. No one shows it, but everyone is still feeling the weight of a new environment.
You gotta get going with the socializing. So far, I’ve felt that this really made my entering freshman atmosphere. The more people you know, the better. Nothing sucks more than spending the night in your room, not by choice, but because there’s no one to spend it with.
Be just as good of a listener as you are a speaker. You should care about what others have to say to you and respond with personal anecdotes. Silence is alright, so long as you’re listening to others and intend to respond. Keep a positive aura about you, smile often. Not the creep smile, but a smile like you enjoy life. This will help you gain the trust and respect from many, even those you don’t relate to very well.
I know it’s really strange to ask you to change, but that’s what it takes. I know, my current roommate is a recluse who does nothing but play FPS, program stuff, and chat on Ventrilo all day, with the lights constantly off. He’s socially awkward, but all he needs is more experience and an opportunity. (Which I’ve presented to him, but he’s dropped the ball numerous times, guess he needs more experience.)
Really, just get out there and talk. You have nothing to lose. If you’ve never taken a random stroll to the lounge or the cafeteria, do it now. If you’ve never sat in a library next to others, do it now. You’ll never find a better chance like freshman year.
I’m sad that my favorite blog is going on hiatus. Anyways, I would agree with Lainforce actually. Even though you don’t have to be the biggest social butterfly around, college is a great time to meet new faces. Living on campus makes the atmosphere much different than it was in High School. Just going to class and using the school’s resources (food, etc), I’ve already met a few people. You’ve been in college for a couple of weeks(?) now, so it’s only a matter of time before you get settled. I don’t even think twice about being in my dorm anymore. I’m sure you’ve already learned what to expect from classes as well, but I think we already talked a bit about that in IRC. Have fun, and again, good luck ^.
Don’t have much time on my hand right now so putting this short. Uh, probably for the best unless you wouldn’t mind hearing me whine about how I hate it here. I don’t know about all those social suggestions. It’s really discouraging when everyone is white here. I’m used to a more racially diverse school.
Anyway, I have been growing to coup with this and that. Well, that one roommate just needs to stop leaving the fan on 24/7. Hopefully even be able to handle my classes without thinking they’re a lot of work.
However, things really aren’t going to work out fully when my college is throttling connections on both torrents and DCC sends on IRC. Can’t say I’ll be able to blog freely even if I do find the time since my only means is to grab direct download links or have someone on IRC put it up on FTP for me to download and the like. It really puts you down when you lose access to the one thing that will help relief study stress. I mean, that is the biggest letdown, taking away my one interest in life. At the moment, I am resorting to having a Black Lagoon marathon. Sure, like that will last long.
That and well, seems like Maestro is going to help me adjust to the American food here. I really don’t know how I will be able to survive on these. Right, and contrary to what he said, schedules are very harsh here. We even have people who couldn’t enroll for classes of their own major. I did consider switching out of my English class to lessen the workload, but there just aren’t any classes to switch into. Dropping the class won’t be an option as I will have to take English eventually anyway. Yeah, I’ll see how it goes, but I just can not tolerant the fact I can’t download anything. Magically, I am able to continue collecting doujins to some extend since these guys sleep until noon.
Yes, having only American food here was a shocking change. They have no white rice on campus here, WTF IS DIS SHIZ. I haven’t had a proper chinese meal in over a month, I think.
I think you’ll get used to it. If you ever need company, you can always come over to my college. =)
This one time, they had a dish with orange chicken as the Today’s Special. I got it hoping I can at least eat something Asian, but turns out that it’s not. If you see any dish that looks remotely Asian, do not get it. At least over here. The rice was just awful. No wonder Americans don’t eat rice. Bad. Few days back, I saw some shrimp dish that came with some other things and rice. Immediately passed that line and went for the pasta’s.
You have any soup recommendations, Lain? I haven’t of any of the ones on the menu.
LOL my rents run a Chinese Restaurant and I’ve been eating the stuff for as long as I can remember, so I’m actually quite open for something new. I have to admit that I miss it a bit after actually not being able to have it though. Bleh, I was born Azn American, so my situations a bit different I guess. My cousin from Taiwan called me a banana (yellow on the outside white on the inside) one time and I was pretty shocked. I thought I was pretty azn. :(
Oh, and the soup here is gross! wtf! I agree completely about the fake chinese food. “Lo mein” my ass! ;P
Soup? Well, I’m not so big on soup, but I’d only hunt for chicken noodle or chicken and rice soups. French Onion? No thanks.
Pasta and sandwiches seem like the only thing colleges have going on. My college has an expensive-ass sushi bar, so I don’t use it, unless someone is treating me.
Ouch I can give u some advice although its pretty late since we’re already into the third week now. You’ve prolly already heard but that professor you were talking about a few posts back is most likely Dalbey. Try not to take Professor Dalbey unless its your ONLY ONLY option and you are desperate for it. He’s basically… uhh, well he seems nice and easy first week or two then screws u in the ass pretty badly. Most CS/CPE majors like to switch to EE (electrical engineering) and its vice versa (im EE).
NEVER NEVER eat at Golden China, worse place ever, even worse than a fake chinese place run by people who’ve been to china (my noodles and soup came out lukewarm and uncooked). Also theres nothing to do around here unless u got a car. By now you’ve prolly learned that the only place to eat is to grab food from the avenue with ur plus dollars, sandwich factory, or the grill. VG’s is just too overpriced
If your going to download anime, do it on the mustang wireless with a laptop that doesnt have resnet installed. (i brought desktop&laptop). For the wireless, all u need to have is to have Cisco clean access installed and that program is just used to log u into the service. I usually get around 300kbps off the wireless dling through bots on IRC. My torrents dont work however. (I live in Stenner Glen but because of the my 1gb per hour / 2gb per day / 5gb per week bandwidth quota i stay on campus sometimes and sit in the UU downloading anime. You might see me around sometimes :P)
My AIM is my email except without @yahoo.com if u want to ask me anything. Im a second year EE major at SLO also (I’m assuming Wordpress shows u peoples emails)
Oh wow, I posted this thinking just maybe someone from the same school will read it. Nice. :3
The professor I was told to avoid was O’Gorman so I did like people suggested. Thanks, I’ll add Dalbey to the list as well. If there is one thing I learned about college, it’s the fact that having the right professors makes a difference. I currently have Mammen for CPE101. He seems to be picky about making sure there aren’t tabs on our coding, but besides that I’ve been managing fine. Little troubling part is that half the hall seems to come ask me for help when personally, I feel I don’t know jack myself.
Heheh, luckily I haven’t been there. Mostly go to Garden Grille, and well…VG’s is too far for me so I haven’t been there at all. Yeah, don’t have a car, bike, or any of that. I know the owner of Sumo Sushi in town, and he told me come often, but taking a bus seems too much of a hassle.
Would you mind clarifying on that? Let’s see…I am on wireless. What do you mean by not having ResNet installed? I’m going through my programs here and the only things that seems close is something called ResNet Root Certificate Wizard. Do I remove that? I’m in Palomar by the way if I didn’t say it any where.
Yeah, Wordpress does show the email in the administrator’s page. Hmmm, I don’t really use AIM, but I’ll see if there’s time setup it again, lol. Eh…well, while we’re still here. Is there any way to send packages out on campus? I can only find information on receiving or returning packages.
A good site to look at is polyratings.com, downside is that its a bit out of date but good enough to see some of the professors who’ve been here for a while.
Basically if your only going using wireless (if i remember correctly the wireless was crappy inside the residential halls also), the only thing u should have installed from cal poly is cisco clean access,(symantec if u dont have ur own antivirus). Remove the resnet root certificate. Only thing is that if u were using ur wired jack in ur room, u wont be able to anymore
I’ve never actually has resnet myself since i lived @ stenner my first year also since i was late with the housing application. The problem is that if u use the ethernet ports in the resident halls u need to have resnet installed. Last year my friend lived in whitney and i went to study in his room, i gave up after i installed the ResNet Root certificate because it said i needed to install some addition items (which i knew they track ur computer’s running processes).
Regarding packages you would have to ask ur residential halls package distributing center (never lived on campus so sorry about that). goto the cal poly site and search “packages”
Basically for the wireless all u need is cisco and nothing else. So take off ResNet certificate if u can.
Do you have two computers? Since it would be a pain to not be able to use the wired connection in your room
Also since your a CS major i think u should be able to get microsoft software for cheap (if u order the cd), free if u check out a cd. Heres a site to look into
http://www.isa.calpoly.edu/msdnaa/
Okay, this isn’t working out. Only ended up having trouble getting back online so I had to transfer that ResNet Config Wizard from someone and back online. My fault for not keeping backup though.
Are you sure there’s nothing missing in the specifics here? Maybe a certain version of Cisco Clean Access or something? Yeah, I tried with ResNet taken out and Norton gotten rid of for good. Then CCA just asks me to install all those back. (I’m on wireless laptop. Wired is possible though.)
Sorry I completely forgot spysweeper is installed on my laptop, just that i never ran it ever since i installed it since the beginning of last year, so i forgot i had it.
On my laptop the only thing that is detected was Ad-aware SE, Symantec Anti-virus, spybot, and webroot spysweeper (after i installed it i removed it from windows startup and never used it again, so its sitting there and not doing anything)
The version of cisco i have 4.1.2.1
Cisco just checks to see if u have the things like spysweeper installed but not if they are running.
Okay, figured out some stuff. It will ask me to install if I don’t have Norton running so I did that. Norton is required, it’ll keep asking if it’s not running.
So, I remove the ResNet stuff. I did managed to get it running without ResNet, but there’s no difference with it on IRC. The speed still throttles.
I was wondering how is ur schedule like cause then maybe we can meet up in the UU or something, mondays & fridays im packed 11-4 and tuesdays and thursdays is just 3-4, wednesday is 11-12, 2-3.
Regarding your speed still being throttled, I am stumped. I do wonder where u were using the wireless from, and how many people could be sharing the same hotspot since if i use the UU before 5 i only get around 100kbps since there are alot of other people there but after 5 i usually get decent speeds
Generally my schedule is 8 to 12 on weekdays. Bad choice. I better to stick 9 o’ clock classes next time.
Uh, I’ve always been using it in my dorm. So you’re saying I can get better speed if I take this guy out somewhere?
Yeah try going into the UU, (my perferred spot is the tables next to the doors of chumash auditorium on the second floor). Speed picks up there after 4/5ish, before 4 its decent but iffy.
Dear aurabolt,
COME BAAAAACCCCKKKKKKKKK~
Your Friend,
Totali
Give back my animu!
haha hey aura =) hope you’re enjoying college ^^