Just Call Me "The Insomniac"

I think it's about time I describe the torture that is I&C. I&C is short for "Instrumentation & Control", which is short for "Process Instrumentation & Control". To clarify, the course teaches all the fun little ways engineers have dreamed up to monitor and control just about any process out there. The flush mechanism on your toilet; that's an I&C thing. Your thermostat; I&C as well. Just about anything that's "automatically" monitored and controlled is an I&C torture device.

It's really not as bad as I make it out to be. But the course is challenging. Imagine, for 15 (semesters are 15 weeks long, aren't they?) weeks, every Tuesday and Thursday (except for Thanksgiving) you sit in a 90 minute class absorbing massive amounts of information. Most of this information is hidden in "example" problems. The homework is so challenging I'm lucky to finish half a problem set. Now imagine having to recall every minute detail of this information for an exam. This is why I'm terribly sad about this test I'm about to take in about seven and a half hours. Don't sweat it; it's only worth 25% of the grade.

After writing up my crib sheet for the exam, I'm only slightly more relieved than when I was procrastinating for it. I'm thinking, "Oh yeah, I remember all this stuff." We shall see if I really do.

Let's also not forget that I was sick for a week and the notes I borrowed from someone (gratefully) and copied included giant blocks of space with the words "Picture Here" jotted in the center. Excellent. Not that my notes are any better. It's just so difficult to extract all the information/equations/conversion factors/etc. that we're supposed to know.

I know. I'm just a cranky senior. I'll quit bitching now. (I pray Neil Wahl passes me. He DOESN'T want to see me next year. I'll be more cranky than I am now.)