Half an engineer....well, not literally anyway
By the time this post is up, I would’ve completed my last day of school (which is a lousy lab) and finally get that diploma (Associate’s Degree to be exact of which my free tuition is entirely dependent on) I painstakingly tried to attain for the last dozens of months, with much opposition.
Jeezuz…I can’t believe I made it out of shitloads of bullshit .
Last May, I think I might have spammed Twitter with my rants on how the college administration was being an ass by suddenly taking a summer course out of the course catalog. And it just so happens that the summer course they canceled happens to be the very last course I needed in order to graduate! 
Fortunately for me, there was a way I can restore back the class…that is, if I can find enough people to sign up for it; and that was what I did exactly. At first, the minimum number of students to hold that class in session (according to the rulebooks anyway) was ten. So I went out…and somehow managed to hypnotize ten unsuspecting students to sign up for the class; only to find out that the minimum increased to eleven! WTF?! Okay fine…maybe one more wasn’t too bad. So I got another student to sign up to satisfy the requirement only to be told by them higher ups that the class I was taking was worth five credits, which in turn changes the minimum to twelve. And oh…the madness and blasphemy do not stop there. When the class was finally in session, I found out that that out of the eleven students that signed up, only seven actually paid for the class….and was later informed by the top people that having seven students was actually okay………..
WTF MAN?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! You made me go through all that for nothing?!?!?!?!
So pretty much I did all that for nothing and the First Law of Equivalent Exchange is violated.
On the bright side, I received a phone call of invitation from the dean herself the day before the graduation (around the end of last May) that I originally intended to skip. I mean what’s the point? I’m one class short…so it only makes sense not to go through all that trouble just to attend a boring ceremony (especially when there’s a bajillion of you). Turns out that, because the school only holds one graduation ceremony, people that are one class away from satisfying the graduation requirement are given special eligibility to attend the ceremony, given the condition that they complete that one class within one semester. Okay…so maybe I was eligible, but that doesn’t give me enough of a reason to travel some 50 miles away just to dress up and pretend that I’m going to get a diploma at that time.
What did I do? I attended the boring ceremony of course. And what for reason? I was the sole summa cum laude of the entire engineering department. Woot~!
With regard to Anime and how they can affect a person’s demeanor and/or way of life
Honestly, I was going to write this up as another ‘What If’ post; but since I’m talking about my chosen career path and how it all started, I might as well stick it here.
I am primarily heading down the path of a chemical engineer; and while looking back at how and why I suddenly decided to be one, I was greeted back by what I think is one of the most intricately made anime series out there….and that’s none other than Full Metal Alchemist (and its entirety). Well okay, I admit. I loved mixing stuff as a child, but what really makes up of why I am what I am now is because of this show; pretty much a catalyst of sorts. The more I got in to the science-fictional world where the predominant laws of nature are primarily can only be interpreted by the pseudoscience of alchemy, the more fascinated I got with its real world counterpart. Don’t get me wrong…I’m not such a fool that I lose my sight of the thin line between fact and fiction. But given the chance of being able to apply fictional creativity throughout the FMA series and apply it to real world situations in hopes of increasing the chance of solving the world’s problems by a fraction of a percent, I can guarantee everyone I’ll be the first to act.
But heck…it’s amazing how one series can affect one person (that’s me). Of course, I’m quite aware that my case is something that’s easy to overlook..but imagine if everyone who’s currently watching an anime and/or reading manga suddenly stands up and says…”I think I know what to do in life!” That by itself would probably bring about some changes…I don’t know what but you can bet on it that things will change. Now I’m wondering if there anyone out there who might have experienced something akin, even to the smallest degree.
Oh wait…what am I saying? The younger ones do it all the time with those kiddie shows like Pokemon, YuGiOh, and things of that nature. Though the chances of hearing somebody at a tender age say something like “I want to be a zoologist” because of Pokemon may be slim, I’m sure there’s something going on in that little heads of theirs. As to what extent those shows would have on their life, one can only guess.
Okay, you got your stinkin’ piece of graduation paper…what now?
This is how happy I am while my Summer lasts...
Well now that school’s out for two whole months, I can finally have my first real summer break since last two years. That said, I’ll be able to reduce the strain I put on this frail body to a significant degree and be able to do things I wasn’t able to do before because of ridiculously cramped up schedules. In other words….more time to catch up to more anime, more time to hit the books and learn basic Japanese (which I’ve started doing every time I’m commuting on the train), more time get back into sports (tennis, to be exact) and much much more. I guess you can throw in “watching Summer Partial Fail shows to see if I can get any good out of it” in the list.
Come September and I’ll find myself in hell again since it will be the time when I will enter a University, where everything is fckingsrsbsns. It will be hard…especially since I’ll be going in as a transfer student and I probably need to adjust to their pace.
As far as blogging and the maintenance of KokidoKom go, I might have to pause them for a while, at least until I get used to the whole new atmosphere. So unless it’s absolutely necessary (as in one blog suddenly crashes), I’ll probably (50%) stay out of these things.
If there’s any compensation, I would most likely (60%) attend NYAF and go see Makino Yui, whose autographs I will get and sell on eBay even though it’s stuck right in the dead middle of September where classes start. UGH! And yes, there’s the meet up with two or so people in the aniblogosphere, FuyuMaiden being one of them if all goes well.
I guess that’s that.
{ 8 comments }
Aniblogger + Extreme intelligence and/or lack of procrastination = ????
Does not compute.
Massive grats on half-graduating, though. Good luck with your chemical engineering, or whatever these “chemical engineers” do.
.-= fangzhao´s last blog ..Don’t visit Mikotoism until next week =-.
Nice! Only one more year until university for me…have all the fun you want during summer! I’ll be taking Jap classes during the summer
due to my asian-ness.-= Seinime´s last blog ..Boring Haruhi is boring… =-.
Congrats on graduating! Summa cum laude is damn impressive.
I know it’s cruel, but that whole back and forth with getting enough people signed up, and not getting enough people signed up, and then finding out you had enough people signed up cracked me up. There’s a slice of life plot in there somewhere. You’re telling me you wouldn’t want to do that again?
.-= RP´s last blog ..Gurren Lagann, Remembering love, Part 1 =-.
Kudos for being a half engineer. Hope you become one soon. My dad’s a chemical engineer
though I still don’t know exactly what he does. I actually don’t know anyone who persued and knew what they wanted to do with life because of anime. This is a compliment, not an insult. Good thing you picked FMA because of all the science instead of something like Pokemon because of the pokemon. Man I haven’t watched FMA in a long time. I really need to catch up. Anyway, good for you for getting out of the hellish college classes and finally having a summer. I don’t know what college is like personally since I’m going into highschool this year, but I imagine it’s hellish like what my sis said. Good luck on learning Japanese..-= Rin´s last blog ..New Look =-.
Congratulations on completion of an important step in your career! It sounds like the process was not easy, but you made it with high honors. I wish you luck in your further studies
I had a similar experience, after watching Princess Tutu I wanted to try out Ballet. Ok, don’t laugh. But now I’m repeating Ballet I at my school next year, and I’m still excited
(Though I still feel like a Ballet Flunkie, but hey maybe I’m “Duck” in her next life?! Yay! She’s a girl again!)
Sounds like a situation that would make me pull my hair out. XDDD
But congrats on your half-graduation. Engineering sounds so interesting. I can see how you were influenced by FMA. :’D
I have no idea what influenced me with what I want to do. I don’t think there are any animes about politicians or U.S congress, so haha~ Guess I was just influenced by my history teacher this year. ^^;
Ohh. Transferring is never fun. But I wish you the best of luck with absolutely everything. Sounds like college is pretty difficult, but lots of people manage to make it out of there. So again, good luck! ^_^
.-= Lea´s last blog ..Weekly Anime =-.
^^
I’m happy to know that there’s another person out there who chose a career path based on or at least drew inspiration from an anime/manga they enjoy. I don’t think this kind of scenario is rare but it just rarely pulls through into any firm accomplishment (for lack of better smart phrasing
). Most people give up on it to do something more practical and have basically have a more stable job. I don’t blame them. But it’s just a hell of a lot more fun if it’s done this way.
I guess my career goal can somewhat be relatable even though I only just decided this recently. And no, it’s not limited to just translating and interpreting. But I’ll do a post on that later before the end of my blogging term.
Anyways, yay! Glad you have some free time until school starts again! ^^
I’m jealous. I still have to go for 6 more weeks of Public Speaking. And I absolutely LOATHE that subject. Ugh. Dx
*sigh*
But yea, you’ll do fine when you get to the University. It’s not so hard that it will kill you
if you don’t procrastinate into oblivion like me
;and hope you’ll be able to go to NYAF. ^^.-= Xiao Jie´s last blog ..SoMT Stage 1 Results =-.
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