I took two Engineering courses this semester. We had a 5-unit general Engineering requirement, but I wanted to take a couple of classes that I thought would be somewhat useful (no "Introduction to Civil Engineering" for me!). E28 which is a graphic design class. We used PCs and this ugly CAD software to draw up mechanical designs. We also made engineering drawings and list of materials, things that real engineers do in their jobs. Turns out that this a mostly useless class, though I did get to use ClarisCAD at one point and that was a really nice program. I got an A- in this class.

The other Engineering course was E191A, Social Implications of Technology. Hey, it's Berkeley, you have to be somewhat idealistic, engineers have a responsibility to society, build homes not bombs, whatever. We read about various engineering disasters. That bridge built over a ravine where the wind set up an oscillation that tore it down, the Therac-25 accidents where people were getting radiation overdoses from a routine procedure (a software error, that one), and some other really bad things.

We talked a lot and did some case studies, analyzed some real class projects from another class. We had guest speakers, the only one that I remember off- hand is a guy talking about his team's proposal for an HTS (Highway Transportation System) -- basically intelligent cars that can go really fast and really packed. There were two Professors because this was an interdiscli- plinary class (one Engineering and one from Letters and Science). The Engineering Professor (I'm bad with names) was the head of an Opera company and they were putting on "The Barber of Seville" at a nearby theatre, so we all went to watch it. The only opera I've ever seen. It was pretty good. Since this was a social studies class I only got a B.

The last class I took was Medieval Studies 150. I'm not sure if this satisfied a requirementy. I know I took it just to learn more about a period of history that I tend to game in a lot. I have no idea what we studied in this class. Maybe some of the books I attributed to Classics 34 I read in this class instead. Anyways, I received an A- in this class.

This was also the first year that my sister started attending UC Berkeley. Although she's only two years behind me we have barely been in the same schools at the same time. Two years in grade school. Then I went to middle school which is only 7th and 8th grade so I left when she came in. Then my Junior Year in high school she spent half her time at West Campus (back then West Campus only offered some classes, not PE or English or a lot of other basic classes). Senior Year was the asbestos thing -- the Juniors and Seniors had the school to themselves (studying out of the temporary classrooms) and Stephanie and her class were shipped to another school.

Not that it really matters since there are over 30 000 students at Berkeley and she was in Letters and Science. But it is kind of nice to have a sibling at the same school. It's too bad Chris didn't get into Berkeley.

So that was my Junior Year. Gaming wise I don't remember it at all. At least nothing specific enough to pin it down to a year. We still gamed on campus Saturday mornings and part of the night until we would be kicked out by security. Then we would go to Shannon's and finish gaming there. I was probably in the Friday night games by then. Lots of Ars Magica followed by gaming until dawn. Usually just Eric, Shannon, Woo and I playing these long board games -- BattleTech, some fantasy wargames I don't remember, Fifth Frontier War and others. Good times.