I need to flesh my study abroad plans out soon. I’ve already missed the priority deadline for the application process for Tokyo this fall, but I purposely didn’t apply because my overall GPA could be counted on less than 2 fingers. (As of right now, a 3.868 GPA for the fall semester has boosted my overall GPA to a full 2.0, and once I get the two bad semesters bankrupted I’ll be sitting somewhere around 3.4.) That’s not to say Tokyo is completely out of the picture – the absolute deadline is March 1 – but that does mean I need to start looking at contingency plans in case there isn’t any room left. Looking at things now I see two possibilities (among others):

1) Go in the fall of 2010 instead. No big deal.
Advantage: I get all the way through the 300 level Japanese classes and go over a little bit more prepared.
Disadvantage: In a sandbox for 12 weeks, taking classes in English, and staying in a dorm that is by several accounts a couple steps above squalid. I get the feeling it’s the kind of program where you’re a glorified tourist who takes classes in between sightseeing.

2) Scrap Tokyo and go to Sapporo instead in the spring of 2010.
Advantage: It’s a 9 month program, and Sapporo is closer to Nebraska in terms of weather, except the temperatures don’t go near to the extremes in Sapporo as they do here at home.
Disadvantage: The 9 months are April to December. This means I can’t take spring 2010 classes at UNL because I won’t finish them, rendering me idle for three full months. I could, however, spend that time working.

Right now I’m leaning toward the latter, but we’ll see.

Results from this semester’s classes that actually count toward my GPA:
World History: A-
Philosophy: A-
History of Rock: A
Japanese: A+ (both sections)

Straight A’s, but not a 4.0 GPA due to the A- grades being worth slightly less. The school assigns 4 quality points per hour to an A or A+ and 3.67 to an A-. Since all of my classes were 3 hours, that gives me 58 quality points out of 60 possible, which works out to a 3.86 GPA. Enough for the Dean’s List, but not without room for improvement.

The goal next semester is to do better.

Consider the argument (symbolized and written in standard form, where the first three lines are the premises and the last line is the conclusion):

p
p · q
~p v ~q
q

The definition of an argument’s validity is thus: if all the premises are true, then the conclusion must be true. The argument is invalid if all the premises are true and the conclusion is false. So to determine whether the argument is valid or not, we simply look at all possible scenarios where the conclusion is false. This means we evaluate the premises and the conclusion given that q is false and p is false, and again given that q is false and p is true.

(Also, the expression ~p v ~q means “either p or q must be false”, and p · q means “both p and q must be true”.)

p	p · q	~p v ~q	q
T	F	T	F
F	F	T	F

What the table tells us is that there is no possible situation where the conclusion is false that all of the premises are true. Logically, the argument is valid. So what’s the problem? Watch what happens when I expand the table to allow for the conclusion to be true as well:

p	p · q	~p v ~q	q
T	F	T	F
F	F	T	F
T	T	F	T
F	F	T	T

Look at the third and fourth columns – p · q and ~p v ~q. As you can see, these two expressions always evaluate opposite of each other – that is, one will be true and the other will be false – regardless of the individual values of p and q. This is a problem, because both of these expressions are premises in the same argument. So while logically the argument is valid, it’ll never be correct.

Screw you, Spock!

That’s the story of my life. Bookended a weekend of moving from the east campus to main campus with exams on Friday morning and Monday night, and I have another test tomorrow and yet another on Thursday. So in the span of six days, one test in each of my four classes.

I also have to write a paper on Justinian’s Flea by next Friday, and I haven’t even picked the book up since early October.

My assessment of last Friday’s performance on the history test turned out to be pretty accurate. I got all the multiple choice questions right, lost 3 points (out of 20) on the long answer stuff, and lost 2 points (out of 35) on the essay. The 5 lost points were a result of leaving minor-but-important details out that the teacher was specifically looking for. Grand total was 70 out of 75 points, or a little over 93%.

Also took a history of rock music test this week, and keeping in mind I got a 97% on the first test, I only got a dismal 92% on this one. I didn’t pay enough attention to the material on Bob Dylan, apparently. Either way, I have one more test coming up in November, and as long as I get a B I’ll have an A for the semester.

If the semester ended today I’d have a 4.0 GPA. That’s not a bad start… now I just need to keep that up for another 10 weeks.