Monday, March 29, 2004
I think this is the longest I've ever gone without updating. Stress levels rose steeply after my last post, but then again, spring break was last week and I didn't say anything during that. Maybe I just don't like my loyal readers. (I can say that, because if they got bored, they're already gone.) Finals were stressful, though I was not as stressed as some of my peers, and possibly not as much as I should have been. I got a 4.0 in my classics class, which is good, because it was a class I had had before, and there were only two multiple choice tests. I got a 3.8 in my math class - this is quite surprising because I got a 3.1 in it the quarter earlier (not the same class, the one before it in the series). So, yeah, looks like my non-computer-science GPA will be higher than my CS GPA. Oh well, I get my choice of which I put down, right'
Finals week finished fairly stress-free after my double-header exams on Monday. These were, of course, the ones I cared the most about and was concerned about my grade in - Math and CSE 322. I had bombed the CSE midterm, and needed to do really well on the final. I didn't do as well in that class as I had hoped. I guess I should have tried some of those bonus problems a lot more than I did. Once all the finals were over, I got to work on my programming project. My current one is an episode guide program. It'll provide a nicer front-end to a database in which episode and series information and meta-data are stored. So far it looks pretty good. It can load episodes and display them. Though it can't update them yet. Soon though, soon.... I left for home on Wednesday after finals week. This gave me a few days in the apartment with Julia then one all alone. It was kinda nice being in here all alone. Don't get me wrong, I love my roommates. It's just an incredible different feeling to be all along in here - such a feeling of freedom. I had to go into work on Monday and Tuesday. That was really irritating. My boss wanted to make a test machine, so I had to back it up, and install Windows 98SE, NT, 2000, and XP. Unfortunately, this turned out to me a lot more frustrating and time consuming than one would expect. Windows 98 does not run on machines with processor speeds in excess of 2GHz. So we couldn't install it then upgrade, we didn't have the upgraded install CD. We tried installing from the hard drive, but stupidly installed to the same drive which contained the install info, thus overriding it when it reformatted. Oh well, I left and came back and everything was fine.
I got into Burbank airport Wednesday night. My family was late picking me up; I had to wait about forty minutes since David had a volleyball game just prior. Interestingly enough, as I stood there, waiting, not knowing when I would be retrieved, I felt happier than I had in a very long time. It's amazing how relaxing it can be standing outside on a cool yet warm night, listening to music, waiting for something that is completely out of your hands. I don't know why, but it was really nice. Not a care in the world was able to manifest itself into a coherent thought during that time. It was lovely.
I took both Jonathan and David out to dinner in turn. They put a Cold Stone's in by my house, so of course we had to buy the world's best ice cream. I saw David's volleyball game on Friday. It was fun, he played well. My parents' anniversary party was nice. My dad made quite a touching toast to his step-dad. There were lots of people there who I didn't know at all. Some relatives I had met a few times, but didn't really know, others I did. And several people who knew me when I was 'this big.' My dad made a timeline of his relationship with my mom. It was wonderful seeing all the pictures of little Alden looking awful. Not that I don't look awful now, but at least I'm responsible for that. Strangely enough, there was no mention of my crazy download habits, and how I downloaded several gigs and burned them on CD before I came back. Yay for TV.
I got to play pool with the guys. That was nice. Of course, what's a visit to Simi without some weird anime movie about robo-assassins (assassins who kill robots, not robots who are assassins) and crazy Adult Swim watching? Who would win: a flying shark (jetpack) or a flying crocodile (wings and hotpants)? Cast your vote on the tagboard. 'Make me a 'sex on the beach.' That is a 'sex on the beach.' Sir, I just saw you open that beer and pour it into a cup, add ice and a little umbrella.' (I'm sure that's not word for word, but if it is, I'm rather impressed with myself.) Sigh, I need to catch up on my Adult Swim, I don't think I've seen any new episodes since January. Oh well, there can't be that many, right'
This quarter I decided to not take any computer science classes. I wanted to have some more time for my private programming projects. Instead I'm taking Phil 240 Intro to Ethics and the English course that (optionally) acompanies it. These seem really interesting. We're covering Utilitarian, Kantianism, and Aristotelian ethics. Hopefully I'll be able to walk away from this with a reason why I'm right and everyone else is wrong. Funny story about my English class. The same course number is linked to different other courses - only one of which is a Phil 240. At 11:30 I walked into my English class. The instructor starts talking about the course, how it's linked with Geography 277 and what that means. Oops, wrong room. Nope, wrong class, I had registered for the wrong one. Fortunately, not only was the class I wanted open, but it's times fit my schedule as well. Pheww. Okay, maybe that wasn't as funny as it could have been. It certainly was something new for me.
Wow, that was a long post. Well, it better be. Long gap to cover.
"Resources exist to be consumed. And consumed they will be, if not by this generation then by some future. By what right does this forgotten future seek to deny us our birthright' None I say! Let us take what is ours, chew and eat our fill."- CEO Nwabudike Morgan, "The Ethics of Greed"
Finals week finished fairly stress-free after my double-header exams on Monday. These were, of course, the ones I cared the most about and was concerned about my grade in - Math and CSE 322. I had bombed the CSE midterm, and needed to do really well on the final. I didn't do as well in that class as I had hoped. I guess I should have tried some of those bonus problems a lot more than I did. Once all the finals were over, I got to work on my programming project. My current one is an episode guide program. It'll provide a nicer front-end to a database in which episode and series information and meta-data are stored. So far it looks pretty good. It can load episodes and display them. Though it can't update them yet. Soon though, soon.... I left for home on Wednesday after finals week. This gave me a few days in the apartment with Julia then one all alone. It was kinda nice being in here all alone. Don't get me wrong, I love my roommates. It's just an incredible different feeling to be all along in here - such a feeling of freedom. I had to go into work on Monday and Tuesday. That was really irritating. My boss wanted to make a test machine, so I had to back it up, and install Windows 98SE, NT, 2000, and XP. Unfortunately, this turned out to me a lot more frustrating and time consuming than one would expect. Windows 98 does not run on machines with processor speeds in excess of 2GHz. So we couldn't install it then upgrade, we didn't have the upgraded install CD. We tried installing from the hard drive, but stupidly installed to the same drive which contained the install info, thus overriding it when it reformatted. Oh well, I left and came back and everything was fine.
I got into Burbank airport Wednesday night. My family was late picking me up; I had to wait about forty minutes since David had a volleyball game just prior. Interestingly enough, as I stood there, waiting, not knowing when I would be retrieved, I felt happier than I had in a very long time. It's amazing how relaxing it can be standing outside on a cool yet warm night, listening to music, waiting for something that is completely out of your hands. I don't know why, but it was really nice. Not a care in the world was able to manifest itself into a coherent thought during that time. It was lovely.
I took both Jonathan and David out to dinner in turn. They put a Cold Stone's in by my house, so of course we had to buy the world's best ice cream. I saw David's volleyball game on Friday. It was fun, he played well. My parents' anniversary party was nice. My dad made quite a touching toast to his step-dad. There were lots of people there who I didn't know at all. Some relatives I had met a few times, but didn't really know, others I did. And several people who knew me when I was
I got to play pool with the guys. That was nice. Of course, what's a visit to Simi without some weird anime movie about robo-assassins (assassins who kill robots, not robots who are assassins) and crazy Adult Swim watching? Who would win: a flying shark (jetpack) or a flying crocodile (wings and hotpants)? Cast your vote on the tagboard. 'Make me a 'sex on the beach.' That is a 'sex on the beach.' Sir, I just saw you open that beer and pour it into a cup, add ice and a little umbrella.' (I'm sure that's not word for word, but if it is, I'm rather impressed with myself.) Sigh, I need to catch up on my Adult Swim, I don't think I've seen any new episodes since January. Oh well, there can't be that many, right'
This quarter I decided to not take any computer science classes. I wanted to have some more time for my private programming projects. Instead I'm taking Phil 240 Intro to Ethics and the English course that (optionally) acompanies it. These seem really interesting. We're covering Utilitarian, Kantianism, and Aristotelian ethics. Hopefully I'll be able to walk away from this with a reason why I'm right and everyone else is wrong. Funny story about my English class. The same course number is linked to different other courses - only one of which is a Phil 240. At 11:30 I walked into my English class. The instructor starts talking about the course, how it's linked with Geography 277 and what that means. Oops, wrong room. Nope, wrong class, I had registered for the wrong one. Fortunately, not only was the class I wanted open, but it's times fit my schedule as well. Pheww. Okay, maybe that wasn't as funny as it could have been. It certainly was something new for me.
Wow, that was a long post. Well, it better be. Long gap to cover.
"Resources exist to be consumed. And consumed they will be, if not by this generation then by some future. By what right does this forgotten future seek to deny us our birthright' None I say! Let us take what is ours, chew and eat our fill."- CEO Nwabudike Morgan, "The Ethics of Greed"
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