Thermodynamics

I'm going to do my thermodynamics homework today..

Professor Carey is my thermo teacher. He doesn't talk about his past, but from what I can tell, he studied hard when he was in college, and it got him far. He's not cocky, not cocky at all, he knows the value of hard work. I think I lost my work ethic somewhere in high school, when I realized that no matter whether I spent hours on my essays at home, or whether I spent one hour at lunch, the grade was the same. I remember my AP english writing class, the first week we took a "diagnostic" timed essay from a previous AP test. I got the second highest grade for that class, a 6 (out of nine). The teacher said our scores should improve over time. Mine didn't. I think mine went through a sequence of 6 5 3 3 4 7 4 3 5 4 or something like that. Completely random. I had no idea what the teacher wanted me to do. Maybe I just suck at writing essays. But I think the issue with me, was that in English classes, I always thought that the trick to writing a good essay was finding something imaginative to write about. The teachers would always tell us, don't write about the obvious. Suppose we're reading Catcher in the Rye. They say, "We read a hundred papers about the dangers of phoniness. Give us a paper about something we've never read before, something original, something unique." Well, shit. There's only so many things we can learn from one book. No matter whether we talk about coming of age, or the virtue of being well prepared, or lust for power, or birth, or death, or accepting your heritage, or conformity, or racism, either someone's written about it before, or it doesn't appear in the book. So, logically, I picked a theme that didn't appear in the book, and strained myself to find examples supporting that theme, often staying up late at night; my writing style suffered because I found it difficult to explain connections that didn't exist ("Thus we can see that the symbolism of the black and white keys on the piano represent the juxtaposition of childishness and maturity," and above it, in red pen, the word "How?")

We can't discover an original theme, yet an original theme is necessary. What do we do? It might seem contradictory, the way most English teachers talk about theme, but theme really isn't that important to them. As long as you bypass the most obvious theme, you're okay; they just want to make sure you don't use the Cliff's Notes. What they care about is style. English teachers become English teachers because they like to read books. Why does anyone like to read books? Because they're entertaining. Nobody reads a book hoping to learn something. They read it because of its shady oak trees, or it's wild, intricate plots, they read it for the beauty of the book, and that beauty you should incorporate into your own writing. Even essays. I'm sure that an essay that wasn't as dry as the paper it was printed on would be welcome to the eyes of any teacher. If they learn something, too, bully for you. But style is what's most important, and style is what's going to make the difference between a B and an A. If you want to improve your style, then read the book Elements of Style and throw away that heavy-ass textbook they give you.

So that's Thermodynamics in a nutshell. It's hard work, but at least I'm assured that when my professor asks me to "find the specific volume of a gas," he's not joking.

My Classes

These are the classes I am taking:

ME 40: Thermodynamics
The study of heat and energy. I've had trouble with thermodynamics before (in Physics class), so I'm especially careful of my performance here.

ME C85: Statics and Mechanics of Materials
Basically, how far I can push stuff without it breaking. I've skimmed the book and the first half of it doesn't look so hard.

E45: Structure and Properties of Materials
The study of the molecular and intermolecular structure of atoms and how it determines their properties. This is the class I have the most homework in, due to the labs every other Tuesday.

Chem 3A: Organic Chemistry. No homework in this class, but I'm very nervous for quizzes/midterms/finals. Could easily be my hardest class.