I’m sure everyone already knows about, but the event is so big that I’m going to post it here anyway.  Windows 7 has finally officially been released today for the general public!  That means anyone can now purchase Windows 7 and begin using the glorified savior of the MS operating systems.  We all know that Vista was a flop and XP is over a decade old, so now we can finally celebrate the new!  Hooray!

And I bring to you Nanami Madobe – the character who is featured in the first 7777 copies of Windows 7 Ultimate DSP edition in Japan.  The first OS-tan marketed by the company themselves.

And for all of you college students out there (like me), you can go get yourself a copy of a $29.99 windows 7 home premium or windows 7 professional upgrade.  You can pretty much use this upgrade as long as you have some sort of windows on your computer already, so don’t sweat the small details (or just check out the requirements for upgrade over buying the full retail – I personally am upgrading from Windows 7 RC).

[$29.99 Upgarde]

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So when I was first entering college, I was under the impression that my grades would be determined by 1 or 2 tests in each class during the semester and nothing else.  Well – for some classes this is true, but, for the most part, your class work, homework, and the whatnot factor into your grades as well.  Don’t get me wrong though, tests are a huge part of your grade and basically can determine whether you pass or fail a class in one fell swoop.

At Lehigh University, we have what are called 4 o’clocks.  Basically, instead of having midterms, we have 2 designated periods during the semester where a lot of classes (mostly freshman classes) have tests at 4 o’clock (big surprise!).  There are also finals at the end of the semester, but that was pretty much expected (so 3 test times in total basically)  As you get into your higher level classes though, these tests end up happening mostly during classtime.  So even if the test doesn’t occur at exactly 4 o’clock, the time at which you have many of your tests do is within the week or two when 4 o’clocks are going on.  (What you see above are some of my notes sprawled out and messy.  I haven’t exactly been studying as much as I should have though…)

So, while I have never been fond of test-taking, I don’t actually think they’re as bad as some people make them out to be.  Sure, some may be excruciatingly challenging, but there really isn’t a better way to gauge whether or not a student has been keeping up with learning the material in class.  And while test-taking situations are never realistic (you don’t have access to any material during it, unlike the real world where you can solve problems using any reference), as long as your professor isn’t a douche, the tests are usually pretty reasonable.  And trust me when I say I’m no study-nut or super-genius cause I’m not.  I rarely score 100’s and I never pull all nighters – I think people who do are kind of silly (or just really smart if the do the former without the latter).

Oh – on a last note, the only tests I do have problems with are the SAT’s, GRE’s; basically any standardized test that isn’t administered for a course.  These tests are just unreasonable and don’t give a measure of true intelligence at all.  And if you think I’m just bitter cause I didn’t score well on my SAT’s, that’s wrong because I scored pretty fairly in my opinion.  I just don’t like those kinds of tests or their formats at all.  And that’s that.

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So, exciting news: school started.  Again.  It’s funny how ever since you turn about 5 years old, you start going to school.  Then you basically stay in an institution for at least the next 12/13 years.  And for a lot of us, we go onto more schooling past this in hopes of being given better opportunities or just more time to learn about what we love.  It’s funny though, because ever since I can remember, the first day of school, no matter what, has always been a day that holds a lot of anxiety for me; good and bad.  I anticipate what my classes are going to turn out like, but at the same time I know it’s going to be a lot of work ahead.  Unbelievably (or maybe very believably), we only have the first day of class about 12-20 times depending how long you go to school for.  I’m probably going to see about 18 first days of classes.

Here’s a picker of a hall in the Asa Packard building on Lehigh’s campus.  I currently go to Lehigh University and today was the first day of the fall semester in my junior year.  I’m studying Computer Engineering at the moment, so most of my classes revolved around electric engineering and computer science.

This is one of the classrooms I was in today.  It’s fairly basic with desks, a chalkboard, and a projector.  I actually took all of these pictures much after when all the classes on campus end.  Didn’t want to take a picture during class in fear of getting reprimanded by my professors.  Had my first CSE 216 (Software Engineering) lecture here today.  Software Engineering – doesn’t seem like too bad of a class.

Had a lab in this room today, but the door was locked.  Electronic Circuits lab.  Lots of expensive equipment in this room, so I can understand why they lock it up.

Lehigh is currently building a new “STEPS” building, which stands for “Science, Technology, Environment, Policy & Society.”  I think it’s going to be mainly an environmental science building with multidisciplinary stuff in it as well.  Constructions been ongoing since my Sophomore year.  They sure have been taking their sweet time finishing it.

This is the inside of Maginnes Hall.  It’s where the Modern Languages all are.  It’s where my Japanese teacher’s office is.  I have had quite a few of my engineering classes in here though – I guess it’s just convenient to put the classes here cause it has a lot of rooms.  I had my Electronic Circuit’s lecture in this building today.

Almost all of these seats were filled when class was going on.  This is on the bottom floor of Maginnes.  It’s actually underneath the floor of the picture previous to this one.

Some notes that were left on the board.  Easy math is the best math.  Unfortunately I doubt all the concepts will be explained this easily for my Electronic Circuits class.  Thevenin-Norton equivalency?  Mehh.  Hmm, so yeah – since I’m in college, I actually haven’t been to all of my classes yet.  Tomorrow I will pretty much see what the rest of my classes are like.  Except for Japanese.  Unfortunately I have a time conflict with Japanese, so I have a lab on Mondays that overlaps with my Japanese class.  That means every Monday, I miss my Japanese class.  I won’t have it until Wednesday now.  It’s one of the few classes I really like to go to though.  So what’s everyone else’s experience with their first days of classes?  Do you hate it?  Enjoy it?  Impartial?  For me, the anxiety quickly passes and I try to get momentum into the semester since I know I still have 15 weeks left.

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