Wow, I can't remember who introduced this to me, but I noticed the link on my side bar and realized that I had completely and totally forgot about its existence! Basically, it's like... Some quirky web simulation where you are the governing power of your own nation, and you are presented with a set of issues that you must choose from a fixed set of responses to resolve the problem (or dismiss the issue, but that's no fun). I had let my nation dissolve, but, surprisingly, the game saves your country and you can have it recovered with a simple form email! So I have resurrected The Republic of Lupantis, formerly The Rogue Nation of Lupantis. (Like, my obsession with wolves and Stargate taken to a whole new level... Lupus and Atlantis. Lupantis! Get it? Hahaha... Yeah, kind of dumb.)

Currently, we're sitting at a lovely 1.091 billion citizens, and my government is considered by the UN to be an "Inoffensive Centrist Democracy". I had completely forgotten! So awesome... I just passed a resolution to increase nuclear weapons development, too, in addition to my government funded research into orbital weapons development. Oh, you better believe it. I haven't even considered joining the United Nations on the simple fact that I'd have to reign in my weapons research. Income tax is astronomically high to fund all this stuff, but everyone seems to be okay. Might have to do something about the crime, though. Maybe encourage a little more corporation activities. Nothing says national stability like a booming economy, which I just don't have, yet. But we'll get there! Oh yes... We'll get there. (And, why yes, that is a custom national flag we have.)

Okay, so midterm is almost here (at least for me) and I've decided to take a peek at my running grades... But I'm having a colossal amount of difficulty figuring it up. You know how assignments have "weight"? Like, you can skip out on some stuff, because it's only 2% of your grade, but the final papers and stuff are 20%, so it'd be really BAD to skip out? Yeah, those... I don't know how to figure it up.

But my Windows classes don't have weights. Erm... Don't ask me why. The sites keep tabs on what your scores are and sometimes project totals. The two Windows classes have no weights, so I guess that means it's a flat-line ratio? If you miss an assignment, that's all the points docked from your grade? I have no idea. But here's a little bit of a run down:

Windows Server 2003: 915 out of 925 points. That's 98.91% which is far above the 90-100% requirement to get an A... All in all, I'm honestly not surprised. Come on! This is Windows... Who doesn't know how to use Windows? (Except maybe someone who... Er, doesn't use Windows.)

Windows Server 2003: 897 out of 890 points... Wait, what? 100.78%? Is this considered an A+?

English Composition: 204 out of 220 points. That's 92.72%, which is an A.

History! This is where it gets funky weird with the weights. Taking it all at face value? 968.4 out of 1,070 points is 90.50%, which is, of course, also an A. However, underneath the point values is something called "Running Weighted Total" which sits at a smug 88.88%, which is a B. This is a bit unsettling to me because I can't understand how they figure this, so I can't project what I'll need to do to get an A. Basically, 12 discussion board assignments are 20% of my grade, my end-of-class paper I'm writing on Martin Luther is 20%, 16 quizzes are 20%, and 4 exams are 40%. Next week is the halfway mark, so I've not nearly finished the class. For my computer classes last year, my midterm grade was an amazingly shocking F, but only because it was a "do it at your own pace" class and I was busy with other things. But, in the end, once all was said and done, I was sitting with a bright, shiny A in all my classes that projects Fs at midterm... So I'm not too upset yet.

On the one hand, I would like to preserve my 4.0 for as long as possible, and I shouldn't have too hard a time doing that with these classes... On the other hand, once the time comes where I may break into a B in a class and my GPA is less than perfect... A lot of people say that once you fall from perfection and trying to live up to perfection, college gets a lot easier. Hmm... I won't try to get a B on purpose, but part of me is saying "hey! it won't be so bad if you do!"

This is me... Nitpicking before my 4pm to 6pm work-and-listen-to-Peter-Heck time.