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tnunamak

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Everything posted by tnunamak

  1. By getting the undergraduate degree and staying one extra year, I should be able to eliminate much more than I would be able to in graduate school during that extra year, since I can begin taking classes for the degree immediately. The engineering major at my school is over 80 hours, in contrast to some majors which are as few as 30-35, so I'll be covering a lot of ground. The other option would be to stay until my fourth year, then go to graduate school without the undergraduate degree and pick up where I left off. I don't really like this idea because I'd be a few credit hours away from an undergraduate degree which might make a difference in determining what graduate school I am able to go to, among other things. Also, I was very lucky that my grandfather, before he passed away, arranged a trust which covers education expenses for myself and all of his other grandchildren. From what I understand, there is more than enough money available, so that I don't have to worry about the cost of school. Unless it would make a huge difference financially, I don't know that it would be worth it. Also, if I end up liking physics, staying the extra year will give me time to explore that more as well. As far as worrying about what employers want, the question of me having a job should be a non-issue for the most part. Concerning what specific work that I want to do, could you explain a little more about what you mean when you say "tailoring your skill set?" To what extent, in your opinion, should it play a role? My attitude is not that I should completely neglect what employers are looking for, but that it will be a much lower priority than doing precisely what I want to do. I can't really see the need for a job necessitating a major change in how I pursue my academic career. This makes a lot of sense. In computer science, for example, you use very little of the actual material that you have learned in school, once you get to the real world. By then, however, you should be accustomed to learning new languages and should be able to pick things up pretty quickly. I can see it being the same way in engineering. Hopefully, this shouldn't be a problem for me (I don't think it will).
  2. I would agree with Perl. I haven't used Python so I couldn't say much about that, but I do know that Perl, although it has a lot of shortcuts that might be confusing at first, is a very easy language to actually start doing things in. I took a scientific computing class as an elective this semester (CS class), which was taught in Perl, and one of the students was a biology major with no programming experience. She was nearly up to speed with us without spending too much extra time figuring out the fundamentals. I would recommend against C++ or Java (especially C++). C would be ok to start with. I wouldn't recommend starting with a functional language like Scheme, debugging would be very difficult for someone new to programming and there would be a steeper learning curve. Whatever direction you choose (sounds like Python), good luck.
  3. Thanks for this, I think that will definitely be a step in the right direction. I cannot cut all contact without alienating myself from all of my friends and physically moving to another location. Of course I could probably severely limit the amount of contact we are in, but I still think it would come at a greater cost than benefit. Just because I like this girl doesn't mean I've blinded myself to everyone else. I will keep looking, although I'm not going to compromise my standards by "replacing" her with whoever I can get at the moment. There are certain things that I find romantically attractive... but they are not very dependant on context, they are dependant mostly on character. Generally character doesn't change, so if I like someone -- I will probably like them for as long as they don't change, and as long as my standards don't change. I think this is also what you mean when you say that you can't go back to thinking about someone as a friend. If I were to pursue something with her, it would cause more harm than good, and that is assuming that she would even decide to give up on her boyfriend, one of my best friends... I have ruled that out. I don't quite see what you are getting at. Do you mean to say that there is a problem with my character that is preventing me from getting over it? Could you elaborate a little? I have definitely not given up on developing my other interests, in fact school is definitely my focus right now. I don't think you could have misunderstood me more. Firstly, I never said I set a goal to get any girl, other than a long term one which I had already made. Also, I never said I was trying to get her to like me. That would be pointless because the situation would not allow for anything to happen anyway. In addition, I am trying to move on, that was the point of my post. How can one simply "be indifferent" to the outcome of a situation? Like I have said, I have already rationalized why I need to move on and get passed it, but unfortunately emotion is not necessarily prompted by rationalization. Other things play a part in that. I am having no self esteem issues, I don't feel like a loser, I just want to get over the girl that, because of various factors, I simply cannot be with at this point. Again, my goal is not to get the girl... my goal is to get over the girl. Why don't I steer things away from the "friends" category? Because she would have to leave one of my best friends for me, creating many complications.
  4. I spoke with an engineering professor last week to ask about what it would take to get into grad school and she basically told me that I might as well stay here an extra year and do an engineering major, because I will be taking all of the classes sooner or later. So now I am registered for two engineering classes and am on track to graduate with a degree in 2009, on top of my CS degree. I don't know if I will stick with physics, it is another 22 hours after I take the required classes for engineering. I understand exactly where you are coming from when you say this, but let me tell you, even if I had not come to college and spent the same amount of effort/work on learning programming, I would probably not have been as good at it in three years as I have gotten in a year and a half. There are things that the professors direct you to learn where you don't understand the point of learning them -- until later. For example, I am taking a functional programming class right now, and I will probably never do functional programming again after this. If I had decided to learn how to program on my own, I would have never even considered functional. But what will I get out of it? On top of other things, I can solve recursive solutions blindfolded, which is an extremely good skill to have. Also, computer science is NOT programming. Computer science is the science of computing. Programming is just using a language to solve a problem. about 20-30% of the classes I have taken so far have included no programming, but have been based upon theory, and I'm sure I will see more of that when I get into more upper level classes. Anyway, I only have 5 more of them left and it just makes sense for me to finish what I started if it's not going to be that hard. At my school, computer science has very minimal math requirements (calculus I and either some logic classes or two other math classes of your choice), so a math double would not be ideal in my situation. This is something I have been realizing more and more after talking to engineering professors and students. The engineering major at my school only requires two physics classes, so as I have said above, I don't know if I will stick with it or not after switching to engineering. We'll see. This is another thing that helped me decide to start an engineering major in undergrad -- I don't know what type of engineering I want to do, so if I can get a taste of each field, I will be better off. If I started over, I probably would have just done engineering had I known that I wanted to do it. But I am only a few classes away, and I find it interesting, and I may want to do some CS work sometime anyway. I could honestly care less about what employers want. I'll find the job I want, I'm not worried about that. I just want to make sure that I am going down a path that I want to go down and that will get me to where I am trying to go. This is a little encouraging, and now that I think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Thanks guys.
  5. If you want to skip all of the background info, I have indicated where my questions/concerns begin with asterisks. Let me warn you now that this is going to be tough for me to put into words correctly, so I may seem to be unclear or jump around a bit. Last year one of my very good friends became friends with a girl that he studied with often. I didn't really know her well at the time, but one night he told me that he thought she liked him, but he said that he didn't want a relationship with her. In fact, he told me (paraphrasing), "You should date her so I don't have to worry about it." At that point I didn't know her too well, and I only really saw her when my friend invited the two of us to do something, like watch a movie, etc. I found her to be attractive, and when we did see each other there was definitely flirting, and I know that she liked me, but at the time I felt that I was too busy to get involved with anyone and nothing really happened. This didn't stop me from growing interested in her when I did see her, however. In the meantime she also grew interested in my friend, who she was spending quite a bit more time with. When I spoke with him about it, he continued to confirm his disinterest in her, so I took this as an ok to become interested in her. Eventually, however, as the year went on, he started to like her more and although I didn't really know much about it, they both had feelings for each other and he said yes to a relationship at the end of the year. I didn't find this out until I returned from home after the summer, but last year they had been going out to dinner a lot, etc. I think she initiated most of it but he didn't try to stop her, and eventually he went along with it. I remember that she just suddenly seemed to be very cold towards me, and I was very confused as to why, when just the day before we were enjoying ourselves together. Now I am sure it was because my friend finally decided to try something with her. At the time, I took that as a sign of disinterest and I didn't see or speak to her much at the end of the year or over the summer. For the summer, I was on the other side of the country, and they both lived in the same town and were in a relationship. I was a little disheartened to know that my friend had told me that he wasn't interested in her, but then went back on that after I had allowed myself to become interested, but I never really talked to him about how I felt about her so I can't say I blame him. This year my friend transferred to a school in Georgia (from Texas). By now the girl was kind of in our circle of friends, so I would see her fairly often and we would go out in a group together once in a while. We got to know each other pretty well as she would come my room fairly often (to visit my roommate and I, and to study with him). This past weekend, I was visiting my friend, her boyfriend, for Thanksgiving, and she went home to talk to her parents and sort things out. A few weeks ago she disobeyed them by travelling to Georgia to visit my friend. Things have been very rocky between her and her parents, and my friend and I were constantly talking to her on the phone or online because she was very distressed and frustrated with her parents. They have been trying to keep her under their rules and are using the money they give her for tuition, etc, as leverage against her to follow those rules. She has kind of made a stand against them, saying that if it means that they disown her and she has to support herself, she will assume the responsibility and become independent of them. A lot of it has to do with her boyfriend, my friend, not being the same race as they are. In the process, she has been in need of emotional support and she hasn't really been getting it. I knew that if I were to be the one to give it to her, my actions would make me "the friend", and it would be that way forever. This was also irrelevant, but it was hard for me to accept, although I decided it was the best thing to do. She asked me to come spend the night at her house and to ride home with her today, and I did. We spent a lot of time talking to each other last night and actually getting to know each other better. The entire time I could feel her shifting me into the category of "friends." ***The whole thing that is bothering me is that I have a very hard time going from being attracted to someone to just being friends with them. Since last year, I have only come to like this girl more, but the whole thing is hopeless because she's dating one of my best friends, and if she weren't, she would still be his ex-girlfriend, and that is off-limits as well. For me, I have never completely thought of her as a friend, which I'm sure she has picked up subtle indications of. Whether she feels the same way, I don't know, but that is kind of irrelevant at this point. I really like her, I can't deny that. In the past, if I became interested in a girl and it didn't work out, I would generally not remain in contact with her very much and things would be fine. Now, however, we are very close to each other and we care about each other, so that is not going to happen. Even if I wanted to, we share the same group of friends so I would still see her quite a bit. I really do want to be her friend. In fact, I have been playing that role perfectly. But I am still attracted to her. It can be painful to see her embracing my friend or even acknowledging their relationship, knowing that I will not get the chance to share that with her. I am reminded of how Dagny leaves Hank Rearden for John Galt, but how Rearden will always care for Dagny. Trying to think rationally, I have accepted all of it. I know that the two of them are going to be together, will probably break up in a few months, but that I will still be friends with her and no matter what, it will have to stay that way. But how do I get over it? It seems that most people would be able to simply move on and forget about it, but I can't and I don't see that happening any time soon... I have been in a similar situation in the past, the only remedy was that the girl in that case moved quite some distance. Maybe I'm just rambling, but this has been a very complex situation and difficult for me to untangle. If you feel like posting comments, I would greatly appreciate it, although it really helped just for me to write this.
  6. Mendelssohn's violin concerto, Bach's cello suites (I like suites 1 and 6 best), Vivaldi's four seasons, and of course Brahm's violin concerto.
  7. Ok thanks guys, I didn't really know much about Mensa other than that they were an organization of people with high IQs. I guess I'll spend my time on more important things.
  8. Sorry I missed your response until now, Pancho Villa. So you seem to imply that a special occasion is not grounds for doing something that is not usually okay. Why I think that alcohol is ok for a special occasion (at least more ok than usual): For the same reason that it is okay to give a few hundred dollars of toys to your kids on Christmas, but not to do so every day. In the short run, it can be more beneficial than detrimental, but in the long run, it might be the other way around. The same thing with alcohol. I might have lost a few brain cells, but I had a very fun weekend that will be remembered better than most random drunken nights. In the context, I think that I had more to gain than I had to lose. I would not drink tonight, however, just for the sake of drinking, because I think that I would have more to lose than to gain. The next week I would have forgotten about it.
  9. I have taken a few IQ tests online, and from the ones that I have looked into that appeared to be accurate, my IQ would seem to fall somewhere around 125-130. That is only an estimate and I would have to take a real, live test to get a more accurate score, but I think I can refer to it to get a rough idea of where it is. I found out that Mensa accepts the top 2% of the population, based on IQ. That would be an IQ of about 131, which is just above what I estimate my score to be. Mensa accepts scores from a number of different tests, you just take the test and have the institution send your score, so if I take enough of the tests maybe one of them will just fall within their boundaries. My question is, what would potential employers think when they see "member of Mensa" on a resume? Would it be a great credential to have? Would it be worth trying to get? I don't know if I could make it, but if it would really help... it might be worth a shot. What do you guys think?
  10. Hmm... out of Java, C++, C, Scheme, ML, Matlab, and Perl... my favorite is by far Java. Granted, I'm only in my 3rd semester of computer science, so I haven't used any of them extensively. For those who choose C++ over Java... one of my professors (my favorite in fact), told me something to the effect of, "There is no such thing as a good amateur C++ programmer. To be able to use C++ correctly you have to be an expert in it." After taking a semester of Java, then taking a semester of C++, I have realized that it is taking me much longer to learn my way around C++ properly than it did for Java. I would argue that I was able to do more in Java after a month than I can do now in C++ after more than 2 months. If you use C++ solely for managing data, or whatever else it is good for, then I'm sure it would be an ideal language to master. But if you need to be flexible... you will need to look to other languages and spending all of your time in one language is probably a bad idea. Just a thought.
  11. I found this article to be quite an interesting read: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.02/ffsimon_pr.html
  12. I am currently involved in an online discussion/debate on another forum, that evolved from my asking the question, "why is greed bad," into an elaborate discussion about morality and what people are entitled to. It starts here, but what I am really interested in knowing is whether my logic is correct in this post. I am basically taking ideas from Objectivism and explaining why it is moral to be selfish. If anyone is willing to read through any of it, I would be very happy to hear your thoughts/comments. A lot of the fundamental ideas behind Objectivism are really starting to click for me, and I want to make sure that I am on the right track. <I am Nocturnal by the way, and I am debating with Visceral> Although I would be suprised to find that my arguments were free of error, for anyone who has gone through the thought process of something like this for the first time, you know how refreshing it is to start seeing things clearly...
  13. Kevin, you are making the assumption that the girl says what she means. I don't like to generalize, but I will say that often, the best way to understand what a woman thinks or means is not to listen to her words but to listen to her actions. Obviously there are certain times when regardless of what is going on in her head, you have to take the words for what they are, for example if she tells you to stop touching her then you had better stop touching her, even if she likes it, because the risk of a sexual harrasment suit is not one that you probably want to take. Looking at the context of the situation, however, it sounds like there is no real danger for Strangelove to be continue to pursue the whole thing. I agreed before that that he should continue to pursue her and be aggressive, but I was under the impression that she had not really made a definite decision and that she didn't necessarily mean what she said. That was an error on my part, Strangelove is really the only one who could have a definite idea about that since he was the one talking to her.
  14. Research would be great. The problem would just be where to start. I had an opportunity to do research in AI last year with an excellent professor, which would have been great if that were my field of interest, but it wasn't so I turned it down. Other than that I don't know of any opportunities, but thanks for bringing it up, I will find out more about it. We do have a programming club, I just never joined it because of my heavy schedule. I do wonder if I could join on a non-commited, "come if I have time" basis. I'll have to look into that as well. The only thing is, I do a lot of "write a program that will do this" kind of assignments, where I am using what we learn in class to solve a problem. Depending on what it is, sometimes I really enjoy the assignments, but I do think I have quite enough of them already. Research seems to be what would bring something new to the table. I think you hit the nail on the head. My day to day schedule really does consist of sitting at a desk during lectures in class, coming home, and then setting at my desk for many hours doing homework. I thought about it a little, and I think another problem is that physics I am doing is really just preliminary to what I want to do with engineering, and I'm not doing much of the kind of work I want to do in computer science right now. I guess everyone has their ups and downs, and I must be in a down, I just hope it won't stay that way for too long. Thanks for the help guys.
  15. I don't specifically see a contradiction, but I do know that last year I had much more leisure time and I don't know that I would say that I feel like I enjoyed last year any more than I do this year. I have had very rare moments working on a project where just the idea of what I am doing and am able to accomplish is enough to inspire me to achieve much greater things, or times when I have taken ideas from lectures and marveled at the ideas throughout the day, so I know what it is that I want to experience. I don't think that it has much to do with picking the right field, I have taken classes on a variety of topics (I'm at a liberal arts school) and none of them have interested me as much as computer science, physics (somewhat), and engineering do. I will definitely look into the book you have suggested, although it will probably be quite a while before I get to it. It has taken me about 3 months to get through 3/4 of Atlas Shrugged, and I try to read when I have free time; most of my reading is usually textbooks.
  16. There is a problem with your analogy, the cake does not have to want you for you to have your cake. "Letting her cook naturally" will almost definitely result in a loss of interest, depending on how long that takes. Also, she is not going to change her mind about the situation unless she has a reason to. Strangelove: Like dondigitalia said, be aggressive. Let her know (this doesn't necessarily mean directly with words) that you are giving her a chance and if she passes it up it will be gone. This will make her go one way or the other, and if she decides she doesn't want it, then you can move on and won't be troubled by the situation any longer. You are a freshman in college, the girls are still transitioning out of the high school mindset and are probably confused about what to think as far as relationships go. You can't make her behave rationally but you can give her a clear idea of where you are coming from, and beyond that there isn't much you can or should do.
  17. So within the last month or two, I have decided that I want to be an engineer, and that I will wait until grad school for it and in the meantime finish my computer science degree and do a physics major as well. I have been working pretty much nonstop for the last few weeks on various assignments/project/studying for tests, but it hasn't really worn me out and I know I could handle it for the next few years, which I just might have to anyway. But what bothers me is that I feel a lack of motivation. Other than the fact that I have set the goals, there is not much that is really keeping me motivated on a day to day basis. In Atlas Shrugged (which I am still reading), so many of the characters are full of life and invigorated, not willing to waste a second on anything or anyone that would take time away from what they want to do. I know that this is only a book and can only reflect reality to a limited extent, but I generally live with a strong sense of what I should and would like to be like, and usually when I can, I move in that direction. Motivation, however, is not an easy thing to summon and it is not as easy as following a certain procedure to achieve a goal. For the last few years I have become more driven, but not significantly, and what has really changed has been my goals. I have been telling myself that it is a long term process, that I just need to give it time, and that eventually my logic will seep into my own nature and I will be more driven than anyone I know, but I have given it quite a bit of time and I still often feel like it wouldn't matter if I just stopped what I am doing, that I wouldn't be any happier pushing myself to the limit than I would if I took things at an easy pace. I can rationalize everything, but it's one thing when logic has to take precedence over impulsivity in an event where obeying emotion could result in worse emotion, such as denying the convenience of driving drunk and ending up on a stretcher or worse, but when the ends to my effort aren't what I had hoped for... it seems like a bit of a problem. For the novelty of it I took an unusual online personality test based on colors (http://www.colorquiz.com/), and the results told me that I am egocentric and basically sensitive to what other people think. The truth to that is irrelevant, but it got me thinking and I have kind of concluded that I am insecure, not in the sense that I care about what other people think of me, I really don't (although I used to quite severely), but that I don't feel like I am living up to my own standards; I have always been a bit of a perfectionist on occasion, in fact I would sometimes throw fits as a child if I made an irreversible error on school work such as coloring out of the lines. I think I might be holding myself to unrealistic standards, but I can't just let myself give up. Academically, I have pretty much pushed myself to the limit as far as what my course load is, it would be very hard for me to find a harder schedule. I don't know if I am going to be able to handle it. I do know that I will work until I shut down if that is what it takes. But I just want to enjoy it more... what does that take?
  18. Ok thanks David that's exactly the answer I was looking for.
  19. Sorry, I should have specified that I am asking in the context of moral rights, not legal rights. Say the organization is one where nothing would be at risk except for John's reputation. This is what I have a little trouble accepting without clarification. Everyone has the right to life, correct? So if you try to take someone's life, they can impose restrictions on you from doing so and claim it is by their right to live. Does the same rule not apply in this case?
  20. Do people have rights to information about their lives? For example, say John joins an organization, but he doesn't want people to know about it. Somehow, his friend Steve finds out. If John tells Steve to keep it private, would it be immoral for Steve to go around telling everyone about it? Does John have inherent rights to information about himself, excluding the possibility that other people share in the information (for example if Steve had been there and thus it became about him as well)? I started thinking about this and couldn't really come to a conclusion either way... maybe you guys can.
  21. Has anyone read this book? One of my professors recommended it to me, and it sounded pretty interesting. Would you recommend it, and why or why not?
  22. Edit on the above, I was a little tipsy last night waiting for my friend to park his car, I know what you mean by moral transgression. All of the talk about alcohol probably doesn't leave a great impression, but my good friend is visiting from a few states away so it's kind of a special occasion...
  23. What exactly do you mean by "moral transgression?" Dictionary.com defines transgression as, "A violation of a law, command, or duty." http://www.answers.com/transgression&r=67 Thanks for all the feedback and help though, to everyone. I have learned quite a bit about myself and I'm sure I have learned things about myself that will be good to know in the future.
  24. My friend just told me that he filled out an extensive survey, and once he gets it okayed, he plans on going to donate to a sperm bank. Once I got beyond the humor of it, I started to wonder what would really be so bad about it. He says he can go twice a week for $80 each time, and for a poor college student he will be doing pretty well considering how much time he will have to spend on it. So the question is, is it immoral? You are trading a product of your body for money, a product that will possibly be used to create life in your physical image (partially). I just find the whole thing to be quite amusing honestly.
  25. I think those are all good ideas. It takes a lot for me to regret something. I think that I could have learned the same lesson at a much greater price, and I'm almost glad that it happened because now I know how to approach a similar situation in the future. Now, whether it is moral or not, that is something that I don't think has been explained as well as I had hoped. Obviously, however, it correlates with the fact that I could have been more careful than I was. A side note--I found out that what usually happens is that she goes to a certain guy's room, who is the kind of guy that can manipulate people into doing what he wants, gets drunk, and does things with him. Then apparently she regrets it the next morning, but will do it again a few days later. I would be sympathetic... but she does it to herself so I'm not.
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