2pac - changes

my cali license finally arrived in the mail. so, after 5 months of being in cali, i've slowly acquired a california bank account, driver's license, bills, residency, college enrollment, job, and car. yay, i am finally an official california resident.

man, i just realized how much i've changed since i was 16 (not just physically).

below is my license picture from 2000 when i was 16 (the 2005 exam date was not an exam; it was merely license renewal, and they keep the same picture). laugh it up:

ucla classes

okay, due to popular demand (aka brian), i will mention (1) my ucla classes and (2) the student body:

(1) i am taking 4 courses:

• CS246 (web information management):

we learn about the most novel and monumental ideas of the web by reading the academic papers that started everything. for example, we read some by the the creators of google the 1st week. each week we are assigned 3-4 papers to read and write reviews on them. we get to pick any cool project we want to do. past projects have produced papers that were later read in the course. it's like a recycling program.

• CS118 (fundamentals of networking):

the internet was invented at ucla back in ~1970. so, they are pretty good at networking. this is just a course i have to take to fulfill my breadth requirement for my master's.

• CS495 (teaching assistant seminar):

at florida tech, this course wasn't even a course; it was a 3-day-long session of what not to do in the classroom. here, it's amazingly thorough. we meet 2 hrs 2 times a week and really learn about all the minute subtleties that go into teaching well. we each have to do a simulating teaching lesson to the class, and they even video record current TA's and critique them...

• CS201 (computer science seminar):

we hear (2) 2 hour lectures a week from smart ppl. last week, we heard a great talk from douglas comer (he has been a prominent member of founding the internet and its direction for the last 40 yrs).

(2) the student body seems clearly divided:

• undergrads:

everyone is white or asian and is from cali. about 70% of all undergrads are really pretty white girls.

• grad students:

everyone is from taiwan or is named chris tanner.

i love the dmv so much

i need to get my cali driver's license ASAP (actually last week) so that i can claim to be a cali resident for tuition purposes next yr. last week, i went to the DMV, hoping to freestyle the writing test and luckily pass. i get there, wait in line, then am told that i need to bring my birth certificate (not listed on their website.) i drive back, wait in line, then am told that my birth certificate isn't real. i need my REAL one. i told them this is my REAL one. i spoke w/ manager. i explained that my past job w/ the government accepted this document as my REAL birth certificate--along w/ every school ive ever attended--possibly because it lists my birth info, has doctors' signatures, and has a golden sticker that reads 'birth certificate.' manager said i need a different one.

week later, my parents mail me a different one (hopefully the DMV will deem good enough). wait in line, they accept it. whew. i wish i had studied for the written test, but not really. a guy walks out, explaining to his friends that he missed 4 (you must get 33/36 for renewals) but they let him slide and gave it a license anyway. weird. that guy gets leniency but i don't. i take the test. as i wait in a huge line to get it graded, i see a med student in front of me as he's still in his gown. the grader only graded the 1st page, and said, 'man, u missed 9 out of 18 already! u didn't study at all did u!?' great. well, i luckily got a 34/36 and was excited, thinking maybe i won't have to pay the extra $15,000 non-residency fee next year. as i wait for my license, i was told:
lady: "thank you, please bring this with you when you come back"
chris: "come back?"
lady: "our computers just went down. we can't issue any licenses today. please come back some other day w/ these documents..."

as partying gifts, they gave me my forms to take home, along w/ my dmv test. so, if anyone wants culver city's DMV test #6b answers... jk. no cheating.

man, i love the dmv so so much.