# Midterms and Dorm Life > Published Oct 10 2015, last updated Jul 07 2026 > By Ryan Fleck and written without LLMs! > Original post at > An article of astonishing quality and insight. Happy Hacking! **October 23, 2015** I had my last really difficult midterm yesterday- Engineering Mechanics. It went well, but the funny thing is, it was interrupted. We, the students, were all filing into the lecture hall, preparing to write the test. Our prof hands out stacks of tests, and says begin. Standard stuff. Before anyone can even start to draw a free body diagram, EEHHRRRR!!!!!! The fire alarm, which sounds like a low, long, harsh beep, fills the room and shatters our concentration like a locomotive through a glass house. I could swear my heart almost exploded from the pressure of the exam and the caffeine. We all looked about in shock for a moment. Then the bell went off again. The room then broke into laughter, and then applause. After that, we shuffled outside, waited for a solid twenty minutes, were brought back inside and, even though we had a bit of time to discuss the answers, were shuttled back in and given a 10% boost on the exam for the lost twenty-odd minutes. Not much, but hey, it’s better than nothing. ![Sunrise - Thompson Residence](/pic/IMG_20151015_072632.jpg) The past few months have gone by like nothing else. I have had ups and downs, surprises and hard lessons... Overall, things are going well. I’m not failing any of courses, and am not in any danger of doing so. I’ve passed every midterm I’ve gotten back, and feel confident in the ones I haven’t. ![3AM - Thompson Residence](/pic/IMG_20151022_031032.jpg) **Significant things that have happened:** 1. I am better at studying. I got my a\*\* kicked into gear by a chem quiz or two earlier in the semester. 1. My room feels like my room now, which is nice. I’ve got myself some posters, and my guitar, and a nice lamp… 1. My love/hate relationship with coffee has been taken for a spin- Some nights (especially during midterms,) I’ve been getting 0-4ish hours of sleep. 5 hour energy has occasionally been useful, as well, for those really urgent ‘you need to be awake to finish this lab’ moments. **Since my last update, a this is how my courses are going:** 1. Linear algebra has devolved from an impossibly complex course to what is basically mathematical philosophy. It is the ambiguous, artistic side of math, where literally anything is possible and quantifiable. 1. Engineering Mechanics and Calculus are fun. They follow rational, normal patterns of thought, and aren’t linear algebra or chemistry, therefore, they’re great. 1. I’ve got very close to a perfect score in my computing class right now, so that’s that… 1. Chemistry has consistently been my worse course. It is, in general, a time suck and an inconsistent science. I love how things are always, always, indisputably X… oh, unless Y happens. Or Z is present. Hmph. At least I have been doing well in may labs and assignments, and passed the midterm. With reading week coming up, I finally have a gap with no assignments, labs, etc, and will finally get in some solid study days, so that’s nice. ![uOttawa - Thompson Residence at night](/pic/IMG_20151015_185611.jpg) I’m going to have more time to write things over reading week. For now, I’m going to get back to my computing assignment/chem labs. Bye! **R** --- **November 8, 2015** Breakfast of champions. And scientists. ![Coffee and Soylent.](/uottawa/coffee-and-soylent.webp) Don’t worry, I eat real food, too. Soylent is a meal replacement that has been in development for a while now. *They just released 2.0.* --- This article is a collection of writing from my early years at the University of Ottawa, sourced from the following Medium posts: 2. [Reading Week Update](https://medium.com/@rcf/reading-week-update-4aaafe72a6dc) 3. [Breakfast of Champions. And Scientists.](https://medium.com/@rcf/breakfast-of-champions-and-scientists-be0a188460a) 4. [Coffee](https://medium.com/@rcf/i-present-to-you-the-love-of-my-life-7f9ac6b2f975) > Thank you for reading! > Find more content at > Source page: > Site index: [llms.txt](https://ryanfleck.ca/llms.txt)