Mod B is Over

PTAP

The PTAP final was brutal.

Just imagine Clubber Lang and Ivan Drago both fighting Rocky in the same ring at the same time ... just imagine what Rocky would look like at the end of the match. His left eye would be completly closed. He'd have cuts above his eyes, blood gushing out his nose and maybe even missing a few teeth. But Rocky would still be standing. That is what the PTAP final did to me last night. It was the hardest test I've taken at Cox.

Kumar said that we should manage our time and that it would take at least 2 hours. The test started at 6:30pm. It was around 8:10pm when the first person got up and handed in his test ... he's probably the smartest student in the class and he was in our group. 8:30pm rolls around ... everyone is still there. 8:45pm and a second exam is turned in. 9:10pm and Kumar comes back in and says that the morning class was pretty much done by this time! One student said, "they just gave up early!" Everyone laughed. 9:20pm and I am done. I can't take it anymore ... my brain is fried, my hand is numb from writing and I'm tried of flipping between the 15 pages to see if I answered all the questions. I go through the test one more time and count up the points (what I think I'd get). I estimate that I'll get a 30/50 (60%). I add our project scores and I estimate I'll get about an 85% in the class ... a solid B. Anyway, I'm the 4th person to turn it in ... I give up. One other student turns in his exam at the same time. As we are leaving the building, he says that the test was a beast and that it was the hardest test he's taken. I agree with him.

I drive home and just sit on the couch. It wasn't until I woke up this morning that it sunk in that I'm done with the Spring semester.

Now I play the waiting game ... grades should come out early next week.

LET SUMMER BREAK BEGIN!

Quixote Update

Didn't read.

Chess Update

Tonight I play chess! After I put the kids to bed and do some light reading, I am going to play for a full hour. I can't wait!

The May 3, 2006 chessgames.com puzzle is 55. ? Nxc4+ Black would capture the knight with a pawn and then the white queen would check the king at d6. Black must block with his queen so white checks with the queen on b8. At this point, black will lose the queen and the game.

The answer is Nxc4+ and it follows as I said.