2002-04-15 Mondag: Applying to Swedish universities
``You can't do everything. But you should damn well try.'' — Bookmark Eric and Holly sent me for my birthday last year
What a hectic day. Firstly, I don't think I'm capable of waking up at 07:00 on a Monday. I slept through my 8-12 classes again, making this something like the fourth consecutive time. I think this pretty much means I have to give up on taking these classes (ie, Radio), which is really pretty sad. Of course, I could just read the book and learn it all on my own.
I sent off applications to Göteborgs Universitet, Uppsalas Universitet, and Lunds Universitet today. Of Lund I requested to be a third level Mathematics student (including such courses as algebra, analytic functions, differential geometry, differential equations, number theory, and topology, depending on the schedule). I also asked for theoretical particle physics, accelerator engineering (held at the MaxLab), with `jewish humor and cultural identity' (JDK107 Judisk humor och kulturell identitet) and `introduction to icelandic' (NOI325 Inledningskurs i islänska) thrown in on the side, and `nordic music history' as a backup. (There's also a class `Zionism: from Utopia to Ideology' that sounds interesting, but it's during vt03.) Sounds fun, no? The kind of weird thing is that I can't find the working copy of the anmälan. Did I enclose it in the application by mistake? Oh well, just another sign that I'm going crazy.
I hve observed that I ``lack direction.'' By this I mean that I don't really have a specific goal in my education. I've always known that, but I only now identified it as a possible problem. I don't really know what I actually want to do. (Yes, I do know what I want: a hardcore liberal education. And no, that's not a contradiction in terms.)
I'd really like to get involved in some cool project, and to be able to work on it without being distracted by other obligations. I suppose that's an indication that it's time to move into a Master's program or something. On the subject of Master's programs: I ran into Nareet today, who came here from Thailand to do a master's thesis in solid state physics, and he told me some of the secrets of getting a master's degree here. I think I'll begin shoping around for a good master's project. I think I will also take a field trip to Uppsala to talk to people there. Maybe if I do a nice master's project somewhere I could actually get into a good gradschool. Hm.
Of course, all I really want to do, is work at the Carlsberg Brewery.
The TISUS exam is on Monday and I'm thinking of moving to the May date since I'm hopelessly unprepared.
Federico Mena-Quintero has a really nice activity log on his website.. I mean, I like the formatting and visual appearance.
Project: I want to make an Apache module that serves as a web interface to RCS ",v" files. I started by just making a simple CGI script that does some of what I want: rcs.cgi. You can even apply it reflexively.
I also want to make a little project tracking thing, to keep track of all these proposed projects. Note that this is itself a proposed project.