Looks like an all nighter tonight

After tonight's test I am going to be preparing for Saturday morning's test.  I'm probably going to be up all night tonight studying and finishing class work so I can pass and proceed forward.  Like they all say it'll be worth it.  I'm staying up because I don't have to work Saturday afternoons and therefore I can come home and crash till whenever.

Another short post but not much going on till tests are over.  Thanks for reading!

First final down two more to go

I have done what has been asked of me for Digital class and passed my final.  I'm proud to report that I passed with a A.  Now I must finish the work for the next two classes if I am to be passing with good grades and get out of my academic hole.  Again this just goes to show you what real motivation can do in a situation where you are wanting to better yourself and not just go through the motions.

Again, cheating will get you nowhere.  Yes, it may be a quick road to a short success but eventually the truth will come out and somewhere and sometime later the real you and what you really have to offer the situation you created will come to pass and then you either be arrested, fired, or killed for that matter.  Hopefully it is one where you stay alive.  But the best thing to do is to stay positive and optimistic.  

Optimism is dangerous to people who are very pessimistic.  But I would rather think theres a possibility to succeed at anything than to think I'm going to fail.  For me failure is not an option anymore.  I have come too far to fail out now.   Like others have told me, "keep going up."

I know this post is a little short but I feel I wanted to give you an update for this finals week.  

Its Finals Week at ITT Tech yet again!

It is the start of week 11 and everybody at school is either frantically finishing late work or studying or just stressing out over their final grades.  As they should be.  Many have worked hard to get they are in this school.  But there are many who have cheated their way too.  This I do not condone.  Cheating may seem be the easy way out in the beginning.  But just wait till the harder classes start and the stuff you should have learned is what you need to know for a component of the new class and you are sitting there struggling only to resort to what you know best.  That is to cheat.

Its bad enough that former students and other people post their work online for other people to see and use without their knowledge just to get their homework done.  I'm not saying that every one who has posted work online has their work stolen theres others who are in the business to help kids cheat.  Most of all the instructors already know that these sites exist.  Kids the teachers aren't as stupid or oblivious as you think!  Odds are they already know that most kids are cheating or looking for the easy way out.  So for most of us doing the honest route for higher learning help us out and help put these kids back on track, isn't that part of what we stand for helping others succeed?  I'd like to help others succeed, but I'm not doing it for you.  You also must do the work too.  Anyone from Clive campus knows what I mean.

Anyway that was my little rant against cheating.  I think I will do well this quarter.  I should be able to get all my work done before the final day.  As I type this I am getting work finished up for my Digital Fundamentals class.  Doing honest work for this class has been fun and learned a lot from what there is to work with.  My one wish is to have a class where 90% of the class doesn't skip out before the lab and actually takes it seriously.  It isn't fair for me and my friend Greg who stay to end time to learn and get the lab completed with no help from anyone.  I think I'm going to be giving a no so high grade for John this quarter.  I and Greg believe that he has given up on us.  Hopefully we have somebody else that actually gives a damn to teach the integrated circuits class.

Working days has helped me to realize that wasting my life away isn't healthy and that being away for the daytime has been beneficial to my mood and personality.  The stress of the moronic atmosphere from the drunks from main street, and the jerks who consistently "forget" their ID.  This ID policy has not only caused more pain on regular customers but also stress on my end of the equation because I have to tell them they need ID to purchase Cigarettes and Booze or no sale, they are clearly old enough to purchase said items.  Thats a whole other story in itself.  The short run is that management has put a 100% ID policy that makes us, the cashier ask for ID from anyone regardless if you are old enough or not.

Anywho wish me luck on my tests this week and thank you for reading!

Asynchronous Circuit with JK Flip Flop Chips

The previous video I posted is incorrect.  This video is the same circuit with a correct output.  The previous video showed synchronous output.  The correct output is Asynchronous as the longer clip shows.  The preset and clear pins of the JK Flip Flop 7474 chip override the synchronous inputs making them asynchronous with the clock pulse.  I hope you weren't like thats a fail or thats not right because I feel bad for posting an incorrect post about something i was confident about.  But O well,  I'm in school I'm learning things every day.  Enjoy!

Well I am free! From working nights that is....

Yes its true, I have worked my last night tonight for a long time at the gas station.  The day time worker got accepted at an ISU (Iowa State University) graduate study program and will need to switch shifts or quit.  For now hes working a couple nights a week and my other co worker is covering the entire weekend at night.

I'm not going to rant but I am sure glad to be done with the evenings.  The section of Ames I work in is now become ghetto.  Lots of innercity folk and druggies and drunks from a block away come to my store just to be stupid and hang out it seems.  I don't mind this but theres a time and place to smoke your marijuana and being loud and obnoxious.  Lots of people don't understand that our company set up a ID policy that requires the cashier to ask for ID no matter what age you are and is able to not sell you the alcohol or tobacco when a customer does not have his/her ID.  I think it's a good policy but I get a lot of flak from the older generation who have too much pride than to show their drivers license.

To me I would consider being asked at my age I'm 29 almost 30, a compliment.   I guess we all who work there will just deal with it.  It's just going to be an ongoing thing 'till policy changes.

Working the day shift will help me in the long run and my boss doesn't need to reset my work schedule because of my class schedule which is also at night.  Not working on saturday will help me a bunch because having class in the morning and then working till 11 pm just puts a strain on me to stay awake.  This way I can just go to class then drive home and go back to bed if need to.

Its getting late and 630 AM comes sooner than you think! ;)  So good night everybody!

Its week 8 everybody!

Here it is the middle of the week of week 8 at ITT Tech, I've already posted what happened in tuesday's Digital Fundamentals Class.  Later this evening I will be going to my physics class hopefully there is something I can be able to share.  This is my best quarter yet.  I've learned a lot.  Been a great experience because I've actually put real effort into learning this time.  I'm getting proud of what I am capable of accomplishing.  Now if I can just get my troublesome car under control.  Thats another issue for another time.

Also, I should be able to get a snippet of what I'm learning in my C Programming class on saturday.  Im thinking a slide show video uploaded to my youtube should work.  Topics are getting very deep now that its getting close to the end and also its fun to learn this stuff.  Electronics has been fun to learn and experience so far.  As far as anything school related I will keep you updated.

Classwork: Lab: Digital circuit as a clock timer

This may look like a bunch of mixed up wires but It is very well organized as to what is connected to what.  Also this circuit here just demonstrates how I and my lab partner greg has gotten to understand what the IC chips do in applications like a digital clock.  This video clip demonstrates the 1 second timing for a clock.  The LEDs flash showing 1 second duration for the output.