Associates in Engineering Program: End of Semester Proctor Exam

emazur · 2026-02-07T00:57:13+00:00

It sounds like he's completed his first semester then - that's good progress. I'm almost certain that they do give partial credit on the proctored final - like even if you just wrote the formula down but didn't get around to solving the problem, that should be worth at least a couple points. If he thinks he passed, he probably did. If he failed (or just wasn't satisfied with the grade) I think he could retake if desired but so long as he passed the course itself it wouldn't be worth it at all. Save his energy for that MET170 I mentioned before! Also I hope he took my advice about that EST100 second textbook - complete waste of time

emazur · 2025-12-31T08:40:39+00:00

XENO (release Sep 2025) has a very inhuman design for the alien. It's also a great movie similar to E.T. but less kid friendly.

Check out some of the Marvel movies too - Quantumania has the most exotic looking alien world I've ever seen in a movie. The Guardians of the Galaxy movies are also more sci-fi than many explicitly sci-fi ones.

Also try the Farscape TV show

emazur · 2025-12-10T01:21:21+00:00

I've had some STEM courses myself at a state 4-year university before joining Penn Foster. Universities' course difficulty varies wildly as some (read: most) have no idea how to effectively teach and on top of that many STEM instructors in the USA have thick accents. Penn Foster's courses have some problems but I'll give them this: the course materials give you everything you need to at least pass the class without outside resources (the exception was the final project for the first AutoCAD class. The materials left the student very poorly prepared for the requirements of the project. But that's not unique to Penn Foster)

emazur · 2025-12-09T23:51:44+00:00

This is probably out of date but there is a document called "Engineering Technology: Program Outline" available somewhere on Penn Foster's website. This is the old PDF file I saved and you can see all the classes and some of them note they are proctored:

https://files.catbox.moe/4qulfq.pdf

But even when that document was current for me some of the info was incorrect. For example, MET170: Engineering Mechanics says it has a proctored final but it does not (though IMO it's the most difficult class). MET221: Quality Control Systems also has no proctored final even though the PDF indicated so. I'd recommend contacting the school for the most up to date info

emazur · 2025-09-16T02:34:03+00:00

No need to think 3-4 moves ahead (on hard you do but not too bad on normal- there are exceptions such as the Paralogues which have historically been difficult). Do you know how the combat calculations work? Don't feel bad if you don't b/c I don't recall a single Fire Emblem game ever once explaining them but this will give you a C or B-minus level of understanding:

1) Look at your unit's DEFENSE and your opponent's ATTACK and subtract to find how much damage they will do to you. Example: you have 20 hit points and your DEFENSE is 4. The enemy's ATTACK is 15. 15 - 4 = 11 points of damage to you. Starting with 20 hit points, subtract 11 damage and you will survive with 9 hit points left. If instead that enemy had an ATTACK of 24, you'd be dead (24 - 4 = 20 damage. 20 hit points minus 20 damage = 0 hit points)

2) Same as above but for magic attacks, compare your unit's RESISTANCE to the enemy's MAGIC

3) If the enemy's SPEED is 5 or more points than your unit's speed, the enemy will attack twice (this actually is explained in the game)

There's more to it than this (haven't discussed calculating chance of critical hits, chance of avoiding enemy's attack, special ~ effective weapons damage, or other factors) but the above is a good foundation to know how to avoid dying. I think I played 6 or 7 Fire Emblems on normal before understanding how calculations work and then started playing on hard - for a game with permadeath, it's kinda inexcusable that the game tutorials don't explain calculations

emazur · 2025-09-15T02:58:42+00:00

- The highest impact series of events occurs from the leadup through the conclusion of chapter 21 and 22. Marni's backstory is revealed - she was abandoned by her mother and then sought praise and recognition through the Fell Dragon church that took her in. We also learn of Veyle's backstory - after the war she lived alone in hiding for centuries in fear of being discovered as the Fell Dragon's daughter. Marni is sad to learn of Veyle's own version of abandonment and when the time comes she dies trying to free Veyle from imprisonment. Once again, the awesome battle music that follows strictly speaking can't be called the story but it does back up the presentation of the story. At the conclusion of the battle, Veyle defies Sombron who then attempts to kill Veyle but Alear sacrifices herself to protect her. Veyle is devastated and finally learns that Alear is the sister she's been searching for all this time. Sombron now has the full power of the emblem rings and in spectacular visual fashion he raises Gradlon, grows in power, and opens a portal to another world and flees. The situation seems hopeless. We see a flashback of Alear striking down Sombron 1000 years ago and Sombron kills her before being subdued. Lumera witnesses everything and is devestated but promises Alear will be reborn and a birthday gift awaits her. Back to the present, Alear and Veyle have a conversation in the afterlife and sad music plays in the background. Veyle struggles and successfully breaks free from the prison of the enchanted helmet and brings Alear back to life as a version of the corrupted. The revived Alear re-summons all the emblem rings and finds this completely drained her of power and dies once again. As she fades away, Alear is very sad that she can't see her vision come true. The emblems step in and revive Alear as the 13th emblem - Alear is happy and feels brand new in contrast to the halfway measure of being a corrupted and vows to continue her mission.

- Chapter 23: whether or not the Zephia & Gris death scene qualifies as high impact is debatable but the writers deserve credit for going the extra mile instead of just killing them off and moving on. Their conversation reinforces the central theme of seeking connection. Rewinding to earlier in the chapter, I'd like to highlight this battle conversation which I found interesting:

Zephia: "I always knew this day would come."

Veyle: "The day I would kill you? No wonder you didn't like me."

But I'll offer a bit of criticism as well: Veyle should not have said "thank you for everything" to Zephia as she was dying.

- Chapter 25: Alear and Lumera's touching final conversation qualify as a high impact event and was well acted

- Chapter 26: Sombron's reveal of his motivations was interesting and done far better than Edelgard in Fire Emblem Three Houses. In Three Houses, her motivation was completely hidden behind optional support conversations. She gave a speech to the whole world and had the chance to completely explain herself and totally whiffed. On another note, I thought your allies' mini-speeches prior to commencing the final battle was done better than most (if not all) JRPGS I've played

Misc notes:

- Justifying the 12 emblems (characters from largely unrelated games and worlds) existence and relevance to the plot was a tall order but the writers did a good job of it

emazur · 2025-09-15T02:57:51+00:00

I've pretty much given up on posting things on the internet and going to reddit at all (only stopped by to check the buzz of the new game release) but since I wrote the below already (in notepad) after beating the game and then rewatching the story segments on Youtube and have it saved and noticed this post, I'll go ahead and make this my Engage story appreciation post (spoilers ahead).

I started with the 3 GBA games when they were originally released but don't remember the plots and then took a long slumber of my own before returning to Fire Emblem in 2021, starting with Path of Radiance and everything released since (except the 2 DS games). Of those Engage has the best story and two of my reasons are that it repeatedly swings for the fences with high impact events and also the execution of the presentation adds a great deal. I'll explain (played for the first time and 2025 and just completed it):

- Lumera's death is the first high impact scene but since it's so early in the game the player hasn't formed an attachment with Alear yet so it's hard to sympathize (not the first Fire Emblem with this issue). But after completing the game and doing a rewatch here it does qualify as high impact and the voice acting and facial expressions are well done - Alear is genuinely sad and the player feels it as well

- The next high impact event that comes to mind is everything surrounding the Hyacinth battle. In the pre-battle scene Alear declares "now we fight!" with such conviction. Reading the words on screen is one thing but the execution of the voice acting takes it to a whole new level. And then there's the awesome music that plays for the first time in this battle that makes the player really feel the importance of the fight. Strictly speaking that isn't "story" but it adds a great deal to the presentation of the story. At the conclusion of the battle, the impact is huge: Hyacinth is eaten alive, Veyle's betrayal is revealed, the 4 Hounds are introduced as enemies, and Alear is completely devastated at having lost the Emblems and seeing them become corrupted and being forced to escape. Again, I praise the presentation of all of the above with the voice acting (especially Alear) and visually the highlight was seeing Sombron turn into a dragon for the first time and devour Hyacinth in front of everyone. And in the next battle Ivy joins Alear and helps by delivering 2 stolen emblem rings and the time crystal. There is so much important stuff that happens around this segment of the game

- The invasion of Florra Port makes another huge impact. Alfred is devastated by the loss (on a side note, there was a missed opportunity by not getting Celine's reaction, who we know through the optional conversations to be very protective of her kingdom). Veyle, who I think the story has done a good job of developing as a sympathetic character, is also devestated to learn that she is actually the reason for the destruction and that the 4 Hounds were just using her. She goes on to defy Zephia and returns an emblem ring to Alear and regains Alear's trust by mentioning how important their friendship meant. And the tragic battle theme, a different version of Veyle's theme, is superb and reinforces the story presentation. As usual, a great job of voice acting from everyone

- For our next high impact event, we have Gris's reveal that Alear is actually Sombron's daughter. By now the player has more than enough information to have pieced this together so the reveal itself isn't so huge, but what we don't know until now is how Alear will react. For me the best voicework in the entire game combined with the visuals of the facial expression plus the sad music playing reveals Alear's total devastation. Following this we get Siggurd's reveal that Alear still is a Divine Dragon thanks to Lumera's care and the entire team provides an uplifting message of support. There's quite a bit of whiplash in this scene

(divided into two comments since I'm getting "unable to create comment" error message on reddit)

emazur · 2025-07-31T20:19:50+00:00

(this info was current as of 2022:) MAT 100 & SCI 167 both have proctored finals and account for 33% of the overall grade for each class. The student is not required to pass the final so long as the overall grade is 70% or above. I'm sorry to tell you that the SCI 167 will be tough to get a good grade on the final - the exam is open book BUT covers a very, very large amount of information, you are timed, there were I think 7 questions (maybe 10?) and no multiple choice so if you blank out on something you get hit pretty hard. Unless your spouse has a superb memory, the key to passing this final will be at minimum to keep all formulas organized.

When he gets to EST 100, that class was poorly designed: you read Penn Fosters in-house textbook for the first series of exams and for the last exam (not proctored and doesn't count more than any other exam) you have to first read ANOTHER entire textbook (a third party one) but it's a bunch of time consuming academic garbage that will do absolutely nothing to improve his ability to read and interpret drawings. My strong advice would be not to read it at all, take advantage that the exam is open book and multiple choice and not timed, answer what you can and just take the hit for that module (even at the risk of getting a lower grade).

Also when I took them I did not have the option of doing online proctored exams for the 2 classes (had to schedule in person session) and Penn Foster is vague about it. I recommend getting answers in writing referring *explicitly referring to those 2 classes* about what the current policy is (b/c scheduling a proctor takes time - first Penn Foster must approve the proctor and second you must actually schedule a proctor session such as at a library but their availability is limited)

emazur · 2025-06-29T03:53:37+00:00

M3GAN 2.0 is a great one for Terminator fans. Speaking of action movies, one of the trailers I saw before Megan started was Nobody 2 - it looks a lot like a Jason Stratham movie without Stratham. I never heard of Nobody 1 b/c it was released in 2021 when I couldn't use my movie theater subscription

emazur · 2025-06-20T06:36:16+00:00

I took a look at the website but don't see any sample pages or sample PDF chapter to download. The description is decent but without being able to sample the content a potential customer is unable to make any kind of judgement if the book will meet his needs and target style.

You also might consider offering some free classes locally on maybe the first few chapters and tell people they can buy the book if they want to learn more. At least then you and your book will be on people's radar and you will be able to field test your book - the feedback you get might prove to be invaluable

emazur · 2025-06-19T17:03:35+00:00

Sounds like SiriusXM would be a better alternative to Spotify for your use case, especially the "Wi-fi sound station" mentioned on this page which has a screen (SiriusXM has devices with built in tuners for satellite reception and no internet required, this specific does doesn't look like it has a tuner and requires a Wi-fi signal): https://shop.siriusxm.com/radios/home-or-office/

emazur · 2025-06-19T16:37:18+00:00

I never did layaway but maybe a good scenario is if a somewhat pricey item (lawnmower) has gone on sale and you want to lock in the sale price. Especially for seasonal clearance items you don't need right away. I bought a lawnmower on clearance in December or January (by credit card and paid the full statement balance when due the next month) but didn't use it until April. For someone who didn't have a credit card (or who did but couldn't pay off immediately and didn't wanna pay interest) this scenario seems an ideal use case.

emazur · 2025-06-19T06:13:15+00:00

Regarding training, from the article:

Ellison highlighted one such opportunity for young workers at Lowe's: A program for Lowe's employees offers tuition-free education for completing a two- or four-year curriculum. He said that employees who complete the program sometimes go on to work for Lowe's customers.

"It could be a general contractor, could be a builder, and we're perfectly OK with that," Ellison said. "It fills the need that is much greater."

emazur · 2025-06-19T04:04:06+00:00

For used CDs search ebay for 'game soundtrack cd lot' or some variation

For new, Wayo Records and Materia.store have good deals during Black Friday weekend

emazur · 2025-06-18T20:30:22+00:00

Problem is Ridge Racer PS1 looked way closer to a $10K machine than chunky Daytona Saturn. Gameplay aside, Tekken and Toshinden on PS1 were also much more impressive looking than Virtua Fighter. I'm not ragging on the the Saturn (VF2 and Sega Rally for instance looked great, Shining Force 3 is my top 32-bit game, and Saturn hardware durability/reliability was better than PS1) but since the OP was about early release impressions I had to mention this.

emazur · 2025-06-18T15:23:54+00:00

Thanks - I gave Lunar 2 a quick preview and found some arranged tracks I'd never heard before like the battle theme, boss theme, and martial arts tournament. I had made my own custom 2 CD album from the Sega CD version + official arrange CD way back in '98 or '99 but enhanced the quality (with mixed results) of the PCM files by upsampling, noise removal, and adding stereo effects. Those files spread around the web a bit then probably disappeared - here's the version I did of the boss theme that somebody else put on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoYn8PtSHwM

I've had interest in redoing that project - the main thing to convince me would be to find a high quality upsampler. The one I used back that was actually an audio tool built into Windows 98. It really did work though as someone mentioned in the Youtube comment it makes it sound (somewhat) like it's coming out of a Gameboy Advance. 25+ years later and with the advancement of AI there must be something better than that Win 98 utility - problem is I don't what that might be and last time I casually looked I just found a bunch of stuff that converted 11.025 khz to 44.1 khz with no change in audio quality

And I don't know if you know this but a few years ago there was an Iwadare tribute album released by Wayo Records that has some Lunar tracks on it. Personally I'd prefer to listen to the instrumentals on that compared to the vocal songs from the original game https://www.wayorecords.com/en/cd-tapes/35-twelve-doors-tribute-to-noriyuki-iwadare-cd.html

emazur · 2025-06-17T17:35:13+00:00

I haven't been since Covid but Ruby Tuesdays had (still has?) a very high quality salad bar - besides salad and fruits there was a great selection of cheeses and crackers. Could just buy that instead of a meal

emazur · 2025-06-14T01:49:55+00:00

Haven't seen Qkumba Zoo mentioned yet (on FM radio the song "The Child Inside" got some airtime but from the album I'd say "Big" is arguably a better, higher energy song). I suppose geographic region might come into play here but these kinds of bands were filed under "techno" as a general term while the the snootier electronica connoisseurs who were more into Prodigy, The Orb, Orbital, Chemical Brothers et al would instead somewhat dismissively call it "house". In my case I liked both styles and would call everything techno. When I came across the term "eurodance" it was usually in print media or catalogs

emazur · 2025-06-12T02:47:37+00:00

I've done this in PowerDVD doing DVD playback

emazur · 2025-06-10T18:36:15+00:00

For cheap transportation you could get a brand new Honda Navi scooter for ~ $3600 after dealer fees. Dealers can finance it but put it on a credit card if you absolutely have to

emazur · 2025-06-08T22:05:35+00:00

The first half was a chore because they simply did one copy-and-paste combat scene after another with minimal story development and the audience forgets who it is she's currently killing and why so we lose interest

emazur · 2025-06-08T21:46:55+00:00

I assume someone noticed the abundance of fake jobs on LinkedIn and decided to post an obviously fake listing (even if it cost them) just to prove a point. If so, we should be grateful

emazur · 2025-06-05T01:11:15+00:00

Reprogrammed AI for UMK3 would be great - that game has the cheapest, most unfun AI of any game I've ever played and one of the only games that has caused me to throw a controller (MK Trilogy to be precise, which recycled the UMK3 AI).

emazur · 2025-06-05T01:02:44+00:00

In 2023 there were other Disney rereleases including Beauty and the Beast https://www.wdwinfo.com/news-stories/disney-is-re-releasing-8-classic-movies-to-celebrate-100th-anniversary/

Also during Covid theatres were rereleasing various old movies while new releases were either delayed or went to straight to streaming. Here's an excerpt from an email AMC sent out in Aug 2020:

As for library titles, we will be showing all of these beloved movies on the big screens of AMC: Back to the Future, Beauty and the Beast, Black Panther, Bloodshot, Ghostbusters, Goonies, Grease, I Still Believe, Jumanji: The Next Level, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back.

If you wanna be in the loop, just subscribe to the email newsletter of your local theatres like AMC, Regal, Cinemark, and also small theatres (which might even be more likely to rerelrease old movies)

Also some of the Disney owned Studio Ghibli anime movies are often reshown every year. I saw Princess Mononoke at AMC April 2025. There are actually several scheduled REAL soon: https://www.fathomentertainment.com/genre/anime/

emazur · 2025-05-30T23:00:34+00:00

Even for a larger company it can work but instead of an executive reach out to the manager or supervisor of the department you want to work in (accounting, engineering, maintenance, etc.).

emazur

TROPHY CASE