My long absence

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve posted. The reasons for this are quite varied. First, my site was hacked. What an eye-opening experience. Previously, the security on my site was fairly minimal because I thought that no one would bother trying to break into a little personal blog. Apparently that’s not true. Some foreign entity inserted some malicious code in practically every page that resulted in a redirect to a spam page. I ended up wiping the entire site and starting over in order to make sure none of the bad code lingered. I also beefed up my security measures and learned some valuable lessons in how to systematically back up a website. It was a bit of a pain, but I think that the lessons I learned were so valuable that I’m almost glad it happened.

Second, school got crazy! A 15 hour course load of only core engineering classes with three (3!) labs is pretty rough. I’m staying on top of it, but it takes some serious time and commitment. However, I feel like I’m learning SO much this semester. I’m deep into assembly language in digital systems, and I’m loving it. I’ve been spending time outside of class on getting a really solid grasp of Maxwell’s equations (I even ordered and read this fabulous book).

I’ve also been participating in MITx 6.002x, which seems like a lot on top of my courses but it’s been so valuable. It is very similar to my classes I’m taking right now, but it takes a completely different approach. I remember when reading through Richard Feynman’s memoirs, he always emphasized that one of his most valuable tools was a different approach. When Feynman taught himself geometry and calculus, he made up his own symbols and used bizarre methods. Although this drove his teachers crazy, he went on to say that this helped him solve very difficult problems later in his career because he didn’t follow the conventional tactic. In this MITx course, they start from fundamental theory and show many different methods to solve complex circuits. I think this will be a huge advantage as I move along in my curriculum.

Finally, I have a bit of exciting news. I’ve gotten some nibbles regarding my summer internship applications! I couldn’t be more excited. I’ll have to wait a little longer to see how things pan out, but this is a huge affirmation that my hard work and dedication is paying off.

I’m currently on spring break, and I spent the first half relaxing and running the millions of errands I put off during school, so back to the books. I have four days to get some really solid studying and advance preparation done. I know it’s so geeky, but I love when I have the time to make beautiful outlines at a leisurely pace and get a few weeks ahead in reading.  Hopefully, I’ll have a little more time from now on to do some more blogging about interesting projects!

One Reply to “My long absence”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *