thissss weeeeeeeek

the semester has been pretty challenging , but i really have learned to appreciate school for what it is. i mean, i get to come into class and learn something new every time. i know that when i (hopefully) start working in industry, that that will almost never be the case.

today i got blasted by my professor on my sloppy contribution to the presentation. and he was right, it was pretty sloppy, and the part i hate about it is that it didn't really represent how much time i put into all the other work for the lab, and that sucks, because the professor didn't see my last presentation which went a lot better, and prolly won't see my next one, which i have promised to improve upon. 

i feel that pretty much 90% of your monetary success in the professional world is dictated on how well you professionally present yourself. and although i've admitted to myself that this is a pretty big problem for me, i have never strived to improve that aspect of myself while in school. i really hate how it has to work that way. i mean, i know it doesn't have to be this way, and that you can have success by "just being yourself", but more often than not, people tell me that the more interviews that you do, the more you'll know what to say because you'll know what they're looking for. to me, that sounds kinna like you'll know exactly what to say to get the job, regardless of how qualified you really are. 

then what's the point? what's the point of trying so hard to do well in school, when all this studying to be able to work as engineer comes down to how well i've learned to present myself? we only take one class on technical communication, which i guess counts as professional training, but that was an easy class. so still, i'm pretty much lost when it comes to being able to professionally present myself.

that being said, i would like to point something out about berkeley engineering as the gold standard for studying engineering. if you look, most of the ranking done for engineering schools is usually actually ranking the engineering graduate schools, and not the undergrad. and while this high rank distinction for the grad schools might translate to a good undergrad program. that's not always the case. and in my opinion, for the most part berkeley focuses more on engineering research, and not engineering practice. this is good because many important technological discoveries happen because of research, but bad because i still don't have a solid idea of what it means to be an engineer, as opposed to just a scientist, or other technician. 

that being said, sleep has been irregular this week. and i haven't gotten much fresh air. and i'm staring at a computer for prolly close to 80% of my awake hours.

i have managed to improve my omelet technique, and my biscuit technique as well. i have a bottle of 2006 charles shaw merlot that i've been wanting to open for awhile now but i don't have a bottle opener in the apartment! maybe i'll start buying the twist cap wines, since i prolly won't be able to tell the difference in my young sommelier career. (i spelled that right on the first try)

can't wait for the weekend. i love gameday (food)!