You know what’s really nice about finals? It’s that loving, carefree feeling that just floats through campus like an unburdened swallow. And, in some universe, I’m sure this is all true. Just, you know, not this one. It’s not even finals I have a problem with, to be honest; it’s the godforsaken projects (this hate primarily applies to programming projects. I generally enjoy essays/research) and the early-as-hell exam times. I mean, seriously, I have Spanish every day from 2:00pm - 3:00pm. Why the hell would I want to take the Spanish exam at 8:00am? It really kind of defeats the idea of a late class for purposes of sleeping in. Not to mention that it totally screws up everything. Just like Orlando Bloom — yeah, that’s right pretty boy, I mean you. Someone on the Internet thinks you’re gay — not me, definitely, but I’m sure someone does. Good luck sleeping tonight… Orlando.

So, I “finished” my final programming project today at 11:00pm. I of course didn’t finish it in the literal sense, I just got it to the point where I said “Hey, that works, I’ll call it a day” after I got two thirds of it done — majority is the new completion. I just have a relatively hard time trying to focus and apply myself to a class for a major I decided I have no interest in pursuing. I mean, sure, I want to do well in the class, but I don’t really want to devote my entire finals week to trying to finish one out of five projects that will, in total, amount to 30% of my grade. That’s five two-three day long projects that won’t even amount to the chunk of my grade that a single exam will have. Seems kind of off if you ask me.

Speaking of off, one of the things that really drove me away from pursuing Computer Science — aside from the fact that I have no desire to spend 100+ hour weeks slaving away at something I only marginally enjoy spending ten hours per week on — is the way this school treats programming. There’s this “honor code,” see? And this “honor code” means that you can’t even mention a word you may have thrown into one of your code’s comments. That’s an “honor code” violation right there — have fun in the land of expulsion. You totally just cheated. Game over, mang.

Even though I took the previous example to a certain boundary past “exaggeration,” it’s not all that far from the truth. The “honor code” at this school is a code which your forced to read and sign before you take any exam, just to drive home the point that, yes, cheating off someone else’s exam is a bad thing. Somehow this “honor code” extends to the realm of not talking about any aspect of a programming assignment with any of your peers. Whatsoever. Wondering if you formatted your output correctly? Oh, well, too bad. You’ll find out when the soulless auto grader whacks off points for that space you put at the end of that one line. Is this some kind of elaborate scheme to inspire competition with people enrolled in the same class? Competition is great, I love it. In sports. In job position interviews. In a class designed to help students learn and cooperate? Yeah, sure, thanks for making that guy next to me shield his paper whenever I cough. Really — in this day and age a cough is just the new “Holy crap I can’t believe I wrote this function in a completely different, though equally correct and efficient way! Let me steal your brainwork.”

This is perhaps the most wound up I’ve gotten on this site within the last few months, and for that I apologize. My annoyance with the whole idea of this “honor code” hit a peak when some guys were too afraid to tell a guy “Hey, yeah, your output seems to be right” since they were more concerned with an honor code violation. Cool, now that guy won’t break the curve that doesn’t exist in this class! Diabolical.

Not that this really applies to me anymore. We English Majors are a superior breed of man who believes in some sort of class community. Yeah, we don’t just embrace our fellow man; we embrace his ability to proofread as well.

The game of the week this week is Dark Cloud 2, a game that I bought almost exactly two years ago and have just now decided to play through. It’s… Pretty fantastic. Maybe I’ll get bored of it for a few hours so I can beat God of War this week too.

I have some nice stories to tell, but the lack of sleep I’ve been getting due to these last couple of projects for my whole two classes has ruined my ability to be clever — an ability that some may doubt has ever existed in the first place, but I digress — so, here’s to a nice little story-related post in the nearish future.