Exploring my major and major exploration

So, now that I've completed my project for GT 1000, on designing a new major out of our groups' combined ones, I feel like I know alot more about my major, MSE. Despite that, I'm more unsure than ever about whether MSE is actually something I'd like to do for the rest of my life, or that it's something I'd be good at.

When I started out at Tech, my major was Undecided Engineering, because I really didn't know what type of engineering most appealed to me, though I knew, for sure, that I did want to go into some type of engineering. I switched to MSE at FASET, because I found out that students only had one guaranteed major change once classes had started, and I didn't want to waste that one chance on changing from undecided to something I might not stick with either. So, I picked MSE, because it seemed like the broadest, most widely applicable major, and it seemed like the best way of staying undecided while actually having a major.

So here's really what I learned through the project. MSE is as vast and diverse as I'd orginially thought, though it involves a good bit of chemistry, which I'm not entirely comfortable with. We actually have the highest average SAT score amongst all the engineering majors on campus, which I found pretty remarkable and which I'm rather proud of. Looking at the job opportunities for my major, and the projected growth rate, MSE looks like it would be a pretty cool place to be, but at the same time, I'm still daunted by the fact that it's a chemistry-based, rather than physics-based, major. This is primarily because I'm struggling with my Chem 1310 class right now, though I'm not sure whether it's because I had next to no chemistry background before Tech, or because it's just not really right for me.

After considering all this, and what classes I'll be taking next semester, I've reached a decision. I'm planning on staying with MSE for at least another semester, and then reevaluating the situation and seeing if I'm genuinely interested in it. Next semester, I'll have the first of my major-based classes, MSE 1111, and I'm hoping this will give me a better idea of what MSE really does. I'll also have HP Physics 2211, and so I'm waiting until after that class, so I can judge whether I like it or chemistry better. If I find chemistry to be more palatable, I'll definitely stick with MSE, but if physics is much easier or more enjoyable, I'll probably switch to a physics-based engineering major. Of those, I'm considering AE or Civil, because I know a bit more about them.

All in all, it's going to be a rather long, drawn-out process of trying to decide what to major in, and what I want to do with my life. :)

On an unrelated note, my thoughts about registration day:
http://beautyberry-marmalade.tumblr.com/post/12275324544/registration-day-first-day-second-day

Belief

Apologies if you can't hear what I'm saying, this was recorded in the GT Library, because my dorm room is a bit messy at the moment, and since it's a library, I figured I should probably try to keep it down. Enjoy!

Progress, or my lack thereof

Well, I've never been much for public speaking, or talking to a camera, but this was my attempt for GT 1000. Also, I'm not the most proficient with a webcam, which no doubt accounts for the end product you see before you. :) (And I realize that the initial thumbnail isn't the most flattering shot, and that the sound is a bit off. I double checked my web cam, and recorded a few more videos as a test. It seems to be Blogger's doing, as all the videos are just fine until I upload them.)

So what did I really do today?

For this blog post, I’ll be examining one of my days to determine my overall productivity and time expenditure, and what my time was spent on. The day I’ve chosen is yesterday, September 27, 2011.

This was a particularly good day which I felt to be very productive, overall. At this point in my academic career at Tech, I’ve finally started to get the hang of how to juggle my schoolwork and activities, and I’m getting better at time management and avoiding procrastination.

My first class isn’t until 12:00 p.m., but I’ll wake up early to get ahead on some schoolwork and check my Facebook. I wake up at 9:30, and spend the next thirty minutes preparing for the day. After I’m dressed and ready for the day, I check my Facebook account and email, and reply to any emails that require an immediate response.

I then get to work at my desk on my health project that’s due Thursday, and finish most of it by 11:30 a.m., when I head out for brunch at Brittain Dining Hall. I give myself about 15 minutes to eat brunch with a few friends. I leave Brittain at 11:45a.m., and run by Buzzby to get a snack for later. I arrive at Calc recitation at around 12:00 p.m., and get my results back from my second test.

After asking a few questions about what I missed, I leave recitation at 12:55 p.m. I then head to my usual study spot on the fourth floor of the library, and I get there around 1:00 p.m. From 1:00 to 2:45 p.m., I work on finishing my Health project and working ahead on my Chemistry homework that’s due Friday. Once I’m around 40% of the way done with my Chemistry homework, I start work on my direct examination for Mock Trial later tonight, and I finish just before I leave for COE 1000 at 2:45 p.m.

I make it to Boggs B6, where COE 1000 is held, around 2:00 p.m., because I stopped to talk with some friends I ran into on the way over. Today’s COE 1000 presentation is on Civil and Environmental Engineering, and we get out of class around ten minutes early. I head back to the library to print my Health project and put the finishing touches on and print my Mock Trial examination. By this time, it’s around 4:15 p.m., so I decide to head on over to the Howey Physics building, where my Health class is held at 4:30 p.m., because Dr. Decker likes to start class a few minutes early.

In Health, we view a presentation on applied physiology, and class gets over around 5:25 p.m. I spend a few minutes after class talking to the presenter, and asking Dr. Decker a few final questions about my project that’s due Thursday.

Around 5:30, I head to the Society of Women Engineers meeting in the Flag Building with a friend, so that we can get good seats for the presentation and to take advantage of the free supper the SWE offers. When we arrive, they’re having Italian food, which I don’t like, so I run over to the Student Center and pick up some Taco Bell for supper. Back at the meeting, a representative from General Mills speaks about techniques for success at career fairs, and gives away several prizes.

After SWE, I pick up some coffee from the vending machine in the Flag Building and head to Mock Trial in D.M. Smith at 7:00 p.m. At practice, we go over and revise the direct examination I typed up earlier, as well as the statement of the other witness I’ll be portraying. Both of my lawyers have to leave at 8:00 p.m., so my captain lets me leave too.

I arrive back at my dorm, just in time for the new NCIS episode, and while I’m watching, I check my email and Facebook and call my parents to check up on them. At 9:00 p.m., when NCIS is over, NCIS:LA comes on, and I’m working on my blog entry for GT 1000 and texting my boyfriend, who has a major test tomorrow.
            Around 10:00 p.m., I take a break from my blog assignment to do the assigned reading for my GT 1000 class the next day, as well as updating my planner and reviewing for my quiz in English 1102 tomorrow. After reading a few articles about the movies and skimming through the play, I go back to finishing my blog entry, which I’ll revise tomorrow after my Chemistry class. I finish up my article, and go to bed by 11:15 p.m.

My goals for September 27, 2011 were:

·         To finish up my Health project, which I’d started some on Monday.

·         To wake up early, rather than sleeping in.

·         To make it to all my classes on time.

·         To get ahead on my Chemistry homework that’s due Friday.

·         To get my Mock Trial direct examination revised and typed up.

·         To attend the SWE and Mock Trial meetings Tuesday night.

·         To get in bed before 11:30 p.m.

·         To finish my blog entry tonight, rather than tomorrow after Chemistry.

I accomplished all these goals successfully, so today was a really good day for me. The past

week, I was fairly stressed about accomplishing everything I had to do, and I was even considering quitting Mock Trial. This week, however, seems to be off to a much better start.

            Despite my best efforts, however, I did waste some time on Facebook that I could have put to better use. This time only amounted to around 30 minutes for the entire day, though I spent another 30 minutes catching up on the current news. Also, I got distracted while working on my blog entry because of NCIS and NCIS:LA, and this took around fifteen minutes of my time.

            All in all, today has been a great day, and I’m pretty satisfied overall with the way I managed my time and the amount of work I accomplished.

Zombie Nation

Georgia Tech is currently being invaded by zombies. The carnage began on Monday, as two original zombies wreaked havoc on the unsuspecting human Resistance, creating over one hundred Horde members in the first day alone. That day, I was turned, and now I wander the Tech campus craving brains and attacking all humans in sight. I've killed two already, but with no time to reflect on what I've done, I continue to pursue the kill. I will starve if I don't feed by Thursday morning... What's a zombie to do?

So I haven't gone completely insane, and I've never actually killed anyone. Instead, I'm playing Humans vs. Zombies, a Tech tradition I've wanted to get involved in since the tenth grade, when I was touring the campus and saw the game being played. Basically, HVZ is just a giant game of tag... with marshmallow and sock-throwing and yellow bandanas. If worn around the head or neck, the player is known to be a zombie, but for humans, the bandana is to be worn around the upper arm or upper leg. The Horde is the collective name for the zombie faction of the game, while the humans are known as the Resistance. 

This is my first game at Tech, and while I was slightly dismayed at getting turned on the first day of playing, I'm also fairly glad I was turned early, as now I can safely go to my classes unarmed, rather than being escorted by several pairs of socks with which to protect myself. I'll update my game progress later in the week, and hopefully I'll be able to get another kill and make it to Friday without starving. To my fellow Horde members: Happy Hunting! To the Resistance: Run. Run fast. For we want your BRAINS!!! 

First Impressions and Introductions

Good evening, all! My name's Breanna Poteet, and I'll be doing this blog for my GT1000 class this semester. I'm a first year at Georgia Tech, majoring in Materials Science and Engineering. I'm originally from Buchanan, Georgia, the county seat of Haralson County, about an hour west of Atlanta and a world away. Moving from forty acres of hills and trees to the middle of a bustling city has been quite a transition, and I'm still not quite sure what to make of it.
  My hometown (the red dot) in relation to the rest of the Southeast

To understand my perceptions and impressions of Tech, it helps to understand where I come from. I grew up on an old farm in rural west Georgia, the daughter of a preschool teacher and an airplane inspector, playing in our creek and running around barefoot for the majority of my childhood. As a young girl, my mother, sisters, and I would go visit my great-grandmother on the weekend, and help her work in her fields. Some of my first memories are of all my relatives gathered around scalding, peeling, and canning tomatoes for soup to sustain us in winter, and it's these memories I hold most dear. As a part of my upbringing, I was raised in a Southern Baptist church, and I accepted Christ at a young age. First and foremost in my life, I strive for my relationship with Him to take utmost priority, though I am not perfect and often struggle.

But anyways, back to GT. I was on campus two weeks early for Tech PrEP, a pre-calc course, so I suppose I was slightly less confused than your average freshman at 8:00 A.M. on August 22, but somehow I still found the prospect of starting college (finally!) more than a tad bit daunting. That morning dawned, and I scurried from class to class, praying I'd remembered their locations and names, along with 20,000 of my peers. My first impression of Tech was truly akin to that of a just-disturbed anthill, with students furiously darting between classes like so many ants trying to frantically get from place to place. My impression of Atlanta wasn't much different, only with more diverse ants and more varied reasons for running about.

As far as dorm life, and my impressions of it, it definitely takes a bit of getting used to. Back at home, I have a room to myself, so having a roommate was new. After a week and a half, I'm still not too fond of communal bathrooms, but I suppose that's just part of being a freshman at Tech. All in all, there's good stuff, like having a decent roommie, and awful stuff, but on the whole, the good outnumbers the bad.

This semester at Tech, I'll be focusing mostly on academics, with some, but limited, extracurricular involvement, just because I want to try and get my feet wet at Tech before diving in totally. I'm still unsure if I'll be co-oping, studying abroad, or doing research at this point, but I hope to find out soon. The extracurriculars I'm involved in so far include the Society of Women Engineers, the Technique newspaper, the Baptist Collegiate Ministries, and Hall Council. I'd  like to give Humans versus Zombies, Muggle Quidditch, Mock Trial, and fencing a try as well. In the mean time, however, I suppose I'll just have to wait and see what the year has in store.

One last laugh:
A lesser known fact about my home county- Tallapoosa, a town about ten minutes from mine, was once known as Possum Snout. See if you can figure out what's wrong with this "cat"!