Flashes of Panic

The next four or five days will be spent living in C.

I have a final programming project (for Prof. β) due on Monday; that’s in C, and I’ve started roughing it out today. That’s the top priority.

Close second, though, is that the professor for my parallel computing class has re-opened grading on all previous programming assignments—three assignments and six programs, if I’m counting. Of those six programs, precisely one of my previous efforts works to spec. Most of the others are in the state where they work fine on one processor, but blow up when they’re run on multiple processors. (I think at least two of them don’t work particularly well on one processor because I spent so much time trying to make the first part of the assignment work on several.)

Undergraduates worry about failing courses, or about their GPA. Graduate students don’t worry about failing; we worry about getting credit. If I get a sufficiently low grade, I don’t get credit for taking the course. That’s annoying enough considering the time I’ve put into it, but more frustrating is that I’ve carried a full load all this year (and into the summer) largely in order to earn myself some breathing room for next year. Blowing a class would be an unpleasant setback, and this re-submission opportunity could be my chance to save this course.

So I’m returning to some of this semester’s disasters. Let’s see if I’ve learned anything.

Now Playing: A Pagan Place from The Essential Waterboys by The Waterboys