# Winter 2024 wrapup

2024-05-05

My second semester at UMich is just over, and I will recount major things
that happened. I will continuously update this blogpost.

## Course reviews

The biggest mistake that I made is that I elected three EECS courses, two
of which are extra heavy in workload. The rest are not trivial either. It
is impossible to cover all of them in one single blogpost, so I will split
them up into individual articles, listed below.

- [EECS 482, Intro to OS](w24_482.md)
- [EECS 373, Intro to Embedded System Design](w24_373.md)
- [EECS 311, Analog Circuits](w24_311.md)
- Other courses WIP

## Notable material gains

- A 20 oz thermo flask, as a gift from the School of Information for
  participating in the 10-week accessibility challenge last semester
- A bicycle, as described in [2024-04-05](../random/2024-04-05.md). Easily
  the best investment this semester.
- A MIDI keyboard (AKAI MPK mini play) with which I made a few loops
- A MCR-themed zine I took at the Duderstadt gallery (it said "take one")
- Two CDs: Blurryface (2015) and Scaled And Icy (2021).

More on the CDs: Blurryface is for myself, SAI is for a friend. I rode
downtown to four record stores in one day and bought them in the third and
fourth, respectively. The first store had SAI listed online, but they sold
out recently. The second store sold mostly vinyls. In both the third and
fourth, I took the last tøp CD in stock, so I can't really blame the
person who did it in the first store.

The four stores are

- Your Media Exchange, 319 S Main St
- Underground Sounds, 120 E Washington St
- Encore Records, 208 N 4th Ave
- Wazoo Records, 336 S State St

All in downtown Ann Arbor. I've been to YMX last year, and I found some
rare items in the tøp vinyl section like the Location Sessions for record
day. I don't have a turntable, so I left them for people who do. This time
it's gone, along with many more. Whoever bought them has great taste.

## Notable losses

- My sanity over the 373 project

## Notable expenditures

- $39 for the MIDI keyboard (I outbid a swarm of ebay bots by one second)
- $512 for the Boston trip
- $90 for the bicycle
- $187 for a ticket to tøp's Clancy Tour (ffs fbr)

## Notable experiences

- I visited my friend in Boston over spring break.
    - I saw The Museum of Fine Arts
    - I saw The Museum of Bad Art
    - By law of the excluded middle, I saw all art in existence
    - I took a lecture on Chinese policy at Harvard
    - I took a lecture on computer systems in the auditorium by the
      so-called Banana Lounge at MIT
    - I took the MBTA subway
    - I saw a weird MIT exhibit with a bunch of glass, lamps, and wood
      rescued from a bathhouse on fire
    - I went to the MIT museum
    - I talked with W1ATO over the W1XM repeater
    - I went to the Harvard art museums is basically a tub for rich people
      to dump their art in and as an excuse to exhibit stolen shit

Quiz time!

Which two of these paintings are from the Museum of Bad Art, and which two
are from the Harvard art museums?

![Four paintings. 1: a tabby cat resting paws on a basket of fruit. 2:
a frowning lady drawn with crude lines. 3: a bald child with blurry facial
features. 4: a frowning lady with a rodent-like thing on her
head.](img/w24_wrapup/boston_art.jpg)

<details markdown="1">
<summary>Click to show the answer!</summary>
1, 4: Museum of Bad Art

2, 3: Harvard art museums
</details>

- I went to an iDKHOW show in Detroit, as described in
  [2024-04-05](../random/2024-04-05.md).

![Dallon Weekes singing and playing a red bass](img/w24_wrapup/dallon.jpg)

- I watched the eclipse (98% partial in Ann Arbor)

![Solar eclipse through eclipse lens; a crescent
glow](img/w24_wrapup/eclipse.jpg)

For the folks without eclipse lenses, here's a reenactment:

![Me holding a banana in the way of the sun](img/w24_wrapup/banana.jpg)

- Except for two occasions, I participated in the W8UM/R Sunday net every
  week, getting to know AC8TO, KE8BZJ, W8EMV, and KB6NU. Also I love our
  net control WD4DSR.
- Attended a W8UM monthly meeting (though one hour late and didn't get any
  pizza) and met AC8TO in person
- Saw a crime drama play called Trojan Horse. My friend played a role who
  died for the most of the play
- Applied for IA of 370 and 373 next semester
- Cracked open a beer, which I just finished as I write this. The cashier
  typed a "1" into the YYYY field on the auto checkout before realizing
  (1) I was born 2003 and (2) aging is inevitable

## Things unrelated to coursework that made my day worse

I received the prize money for last semester's GERMAN 103 roleplay.
Instead of $200 per group, it was $200 per person. But it went straight to
my direct deposit and was split to two parts:

- $172 to repay my "financial aid"
- $28 in federal tax

It pisses me off that I worked so hard on a roleplay just for the prize
money to fund genocide.

## Things unrelated to coursework that made my day better

Last year I signed up for [Kristin Henry's Stickers and Stamps
project](https://kristinhenry.medium.com/stickers-and-stamps-a-bright-spot-in-2020-d3011afefa09).
It took months, but I finally received their letter in the mail. Enclosed
is a sticker, a handwritten postcard, and a stamped envelope for me to
return something in. So I handwrote a brief letter a few days later and
sent it to Kristin.

It was the second time I physically put something in a US mailbox. The
first time was when I had to send form 8843 to the IRS to prove that I had
zero income last year.

Cool find at the 373 lab: a vintage Fluke 77 multimeter.

![Grey multimeter with automatic range
selection](img/w24_wrapup/fluke_77.jpg)

## Albums discovered

I spent the entire semester listening to Radiohead, all thanks to [a meme
video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KGRvIFrF3c).

- _The Bends_ (1994)
    - Favorite tracks:
    - Fake Plastic Trees
    - Street Spirit
- _OK Computer_ (1997)
    - Paranoid Android
    - Let Down
- _Kid A_ (2000)
    - Everything In Its Right Place
    - The National Anthem
    - Idioteque
- _Amnesiac_ (2001)
    - Pyramid Song
    - Life In a Glasshouse
- _In Rainbows_ (2007)
    - Weird Fishes
    - Videotape

And if you stretch the definition of "discover", I discovered _Clancy_
(2024).

## Interesting food in the dining hall

Both of these were found in Bursley:

- Blueberry pizza (pretty good actually)

![Blueberry pizza](img/w24_wrapup/blueberry_pizza.jpg)

- Gummyworm cake (it tastes exactly what it looks like)

![A single gummy worm on top of oreo powder and
cream](img/w24_wrapup/gummy_worm_cake.jpg)

## Funny car plates

- NYANKO
- UWU 55
- B1GENUF (on a mini)
- QING1SE (清一色)