Sunday, January 30, 2005
Yaaaaaahoooo! My homework is done! Crazy-freakout time! Wyaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!
Aaaah. Cathartic.
-N
Aaaah. Cathartic.
-N
Some good news:
New best time for my 3-mile run. 31:17. Yeah. You read that right, I just cut nearly two full minutes off my three mile time. Granted, it wasn't an easy run, I had to run through a couple of stitches, but I did it, by gum! By the time the black belt test comes around, I’ll be ready for my 2-Dan examination. Heh. I’m still behind on pushups and situps, but I’ll work on them later. This running thing takes some time.
Some bad news:
I don’t get a weekend; I’ve got too much homework to do. There was a progressive mix-up with the textbook for my adaptive signal processing class, though the class is evidently structured for us to be reading along with the textbook during the classes. Well they didn’t have the textbook available at the bookstore for the past 3 lectures because it went out of print. Doesn’t quite apply to me, because I ordered it online, but it still took me about as long for me to get mine as for USC to get copies available to the on-campus students. But this means that I have 4 chapters of textbook to read this weekend, before I can even start on the homework. I went through ~150 of pure textbook today, which is not conducive to putting me in a good mood. I have to go through another 30 tomorrow, and then I can start on homework. So no weekend for me, just working. Crap.
Hate, hate, hate.
I think I’m going to give up ‘complaining about school’ for lent. And probably all things of an ‘adult’ nature as well. I’ll leave it at that to keep my parents from blushing too hard.
Some good news:
Friday night I spent some hours over at Tarang’s new place with Erin and Walter and a bunch of other work people. We played some Cranium (always a good time) and then sat around and were silly for a while.
And then Saturday, Jimmy, Derek’s old roommate, came down from San Francisco and I got to have dinner with Derek, Angela, Jimmy, and Alex at a Korean BBQ place nearby. Quite good stuff. I had ‘stir fry pork and kimchee’. Very good, a touch spicy, but quite nice. I have enough for lunch and dinner tomorrow, too. Yum.
Some bad news:
Didn’t meet up with Rebekah, again. I’m not too worried, though. She’ll have to see me sometime. And like I said above, I don’t have a lot of spare time this weekend.
So some good stuff, some bad. Though you’ll note I’m pretty easily overshadowed by all the bad stuff. I really do need to stop complaining about school. It might be cathartic, but it might just be me focusing on the negative too much. I enjoy stuff. Like TKD. Good stuff. I get to test for my next belt in a week. See? Good news. Why I gotta be all down on school and the like. Accentuate the positive, something-else-ate the negative. It’s all in the mind.
Other notes: The beard experiments have begun again. I'll post some pics when the current one gestates a little more. I think I need to start shaving more often, once a week just isn't cutting it. 2 or three times would be more better, but shaving a whole head takes time. Course, it'd be easier if I had less hair to shave each time. Just a thought.
Past that, nothing much to report. But if anything neat happens, you'll be sure to read about it here, won't you? Of course you will.
-N
New best time for my 3-mile run. 31:17. Yeah. You read that right, I just cut nearly two full minutes off my three mile time. Granted, it wasn't an easy run, I had to run through a couple of stitches, but I did it, by gum! By the time the black belt test comes around, I’ll be ready for my 2-Dan examination. Heh. I’m still behind on pushups and situps, but I’ll work on them later. This running thing takes some time.
Some bad news:
I don’t get a weekend; I’ve got too much homework to do. There was a progressive mix-up with the textbook for my adaptive signal processing class, though the class is evidently structured for us to be reading along with the textbook during the classes. Well they didn’t have the textbook available at the bookstore for the past 3 lectures because it went out of print. Doesn’t quite apply to me, because I ordered it online, but it still took me about as long for me to get mine as for USC to get copies available to the on-campus students. But this means that I have 4 chapters of textbook to read this weekend, before I can even start on the homework. I went through ~150 of pure textbook today, which is not conducive to putting me in a good mood. I have to go through another 30 tomorrow, and then I can start on homework. So no weekend for me, just working. Crap.
Hate, hate, hate.
I think I’m going to give up ‘complaining about school’ for lent. And probably all things of an ‘adult’ nature as well. I’ll leave it at that to keep my parents from blushing too hard.
Some good news:
Friday night I spent some hours over at Tarang’s new place with Erin and Walter and a bunch of other work people. We played some Cranium (always a good time) and then sat around and were silly for a while.
And then Saturday, Jimmy, Derek’s old roommate, came down from San Francisco and I got to have dinner with Derek, Angela, Jimmy, and Alex at a Korean BBQ place nearby. Quite good stuff. I had ‘stir fry pork and kimchee’. Very good, a touch spicy, but quite nice. I have enough for lunch and dinner tomorrow, too. Yum.
Some bad news:
Didn’t meet up with Rebekah, again. I’m not too worried, though. She’ll have to see me sometime. And like I said above, I don’t have a lot of spare time this weekend.
So some good stuff, some bad. Though you’ll note I’m pretty easily overshadowed by all the bad stuff. I really do need to stop complaining about school. It might be cathartic, but it might just be me focusing on the negative too much. I enjoy stuff. Like TKD. Good stuff. I get to test for my next belt in a week. See? Good news. Why I gotta be all down on school and the like. Accentuate the positive, something-else-ate the negative. It’s all in the mind.
Other notes: The beard experiments have begun again. I'll post some pics when the current one gestates a little more. I think I need to start shaving more often, once a week just isn't cutting it. 2 or three times would be more better, but shaving a whole head takes time. Course, it'd be easier if I had less hair to shave each time. Just a thought.
Past that, nothing much to report. But if anything neat happens, you'll be sure to read about it here, won't you? Of course you will.
-N
Monday, January 24, 2005
Another weeeek!
No longer sick, so that’s good. But nothing really happened this past week. I mean, a few things happened that are notable, but I spent the week pretty much in hermit-mode, mostly just scared by all the schoolwork that I’ll have to do *eventually*, making me to nervous to go out or do stuff. I remember when I used to go out to clubs a lot. I enjoyed that some, but I wonder why I stopped. I’d like to think it was because I got sick to death of all the LA club-scene drama (guest lists, knowing the bouncer, etc…groan) but it might be because I just got too busy. I want to hit Spundae or some other techno venue again. Or perhaps ‘Miss Kitty’s Parlour’. That was fun just for being so different. I’d have to go alone, though. Probably. I should see if there’s anyone freaky enough to go along.
Okay…so…stuff…
Got a top secret clearance. Just means I can have access to…top secret stuff. Don’t ask, I won’t be able to tell you anything about it. Mua ha ha. Seeeecrets.
My air filter continues to suck pretty beefy volumes of particulate matter out of the air. That’s not to say how much is left in the air, or what percentage has been grabbed, or if this even has any effect on my health, but I figure it can’t hurt.
Video games continue to rock my world.
So do the drums.
Work begins on chapter 6, as well as fleshing out the skeleton for the rest of my newest story.
Two more weeks and I can test for my brown belt. And that means I get to move to the advanced class. And that means my schedule shifts all around. And that means I might actually start going in to my Adaptive Signal Processing class. It’s the kind of class that might benefit from actual presence.
Speaking of school, I did my homework this weekend! Endless joy!
I also became totally *rich* when my fellowship stipend, regular paycheck, and reimbursement for a previous class all showed up at the same time. I used the windfall to take a disgustingly large chunk out of my student loan. Bam.
I continue to regard women with…suspicion.
Valentines day is coming up. I hate valentines day for the obvious reason that I am always single on that day. Course, statistically speaking, I’m single on the anniversary of *most* days of the year, but Valentines day gets an extra-special grimace. One of my friends gave me a good idea, though. If you go to a bar on Valentines day and find a girl who is drowning her sorrows on the most romantic day of the year, and if you can get her to laugh, you will be her *hero*. I may try that this year.
Assuming my homework is done…grr.
Yes, I realize I complain about classes a lot. I’m venting.
Mmm, bedtime. I’m going to make a concerted effort to call up all my homeez in Juneau to chat over the next few weeks. Just cause it’s good to do. This will involve finding phone numbers for many of you, so if you would care to chat, e-mail me your numbers. I’m hoping y’all have my e-mail. Cause I ain’t postin’ it here, that’s for sure. Spammers be watching.
Hastabye!
-N
No longer sick, so that’s good. But nothing really happened this past week. I mean, a few things happened that are notable, but I spent the week pretty much in hermit-mode, mostly just scared by all the schoolwork that I’ll have to do *eventually*, making me to nervous to go out or do stuff. I remember when I used to go out to clubs a lot. I enjoyed that some, but I wonder why I stopped. I’d like to think it was because I got sick to death of all the LA club-scene drama (guest lists, knowing the bouncer, etc…groan) but it might be because I just got too busy. I want to hit Spundae or some other techno venue again. Or perhaps ‘Miss Kitty’s Parlour’. That was fun just for being so different. I’d have to go alone, though. Probably. I should see if there’s anyone freaky enough to go along.
Okay…so…stuff…
Got a top secret clearance. Just means I can have access to…top secret stuff. Don’t ask, I won’t be able to tell you anything about it. Mua ha ha. Seeeecrets.
My air filter continues to suck pretty beefy volumes of particulate matter out of the air. That’s not to say how much is left in the air, or what percentage has been grabbed, or if this even has any effect on my health, but I figure it can’t hurt.
Video games continue to rock my world.
So do the drums.
Work begins on chapter 6, as well as fleshing out the skeleton for the rest of my newest story.
Two more weeks and I can test for my brown belt. And that means I get to move to the advanced class. And that means my schedule shifts all around. And that means I might actually start going in to my Adaptive Signal Processing class. It’s the kind of class that might benefit from actual presence.
Speaking of school, I did my homework this weekend! Endless joy!
I also became totally *rich* when my fellowship stipend, regular paycheck, and reimbursement for a previous class all showed up at the same time. I used the windfall to take a disgustingly large chunk out of my student loan. Bam.
I continue to regard women with…suspicion.
Valentines day is coming up. I hate valentines day for the obvious reason that I am always single on that day. Course, statistically speaking, I’m single on the anniversary of *most* days of the year, but Valentines day gets an extra-special grimace. One of my friends gave me a good idea, though. If you go to a bar on Valentines day and find a girl who is drowning her sorrows on the most romantic day of the year, and if you can get her to laugh, you will be her *hero*. I may try that this year.
Assuming my homework is done…grr.
Yes, I realize I complain about classes a lot. I’m venting.
Mmm, bedtime. I’m going to make a concerted effort to call up all my homeez in Juneau to chat over the next few weeks. Just cause it’s good to do. This will involve finding phone numbers for many of you, so if you would care to chat, e-mail me your numbers. I’m hoping y’all have my e-mail. Cause I ain’t postin’ it here, that’s for sure. Spammers be watching.
Hastabye!
-N
Monday, January 17, 2005
Ow. Seriously, ow. I’m in pain, here.
Happy MLK day. Normally I wouldn’t even have today off, cause Raytheon doesn’t give it to me, but I’m home anyway. Know why? Cause I’m sick. Brilliant! Some sort of fever, I suspect, but being as I don’t own a thermometer, I’m kinda guessing. Regardless, though, I have that full-body ache that definitely indicates that one should not be around people. So I’m home. Writing this. Fantastico!
First week of classes: down. It looks like it’s shaping up to be a pretty busy semester, too. Mathematical pattern recognition is a fairly normal class, inasmuch as it’s formatted: ‘learn, midterm, learn, final.’ Bam. No problem. Adaptive signal processing, with Bart Kosko, on the other hand, is going to be significantly more tricky. It has a midterm, but no final. 50% of the class grade rests on a project that we’re supposed to pick and present to the class for ‘hostile review’ or something similar. Basically this just means that we have to have our project locked down so tight that you can’t pick holes in it. If you make an assumption, it’s got to be justified. You developed a model, is it valid? How can you be sure? Like that. I’m a little excited and a little worried about it. I’ve already started looking for project ideas. No way I’m procrastinating on something this big. I’m hitting the ground running.
Well, running gingerly, I suppose, I’m still sick.
Also, video games. Woo! Finished Vampire: The Masquerade, Bloodlines. Great voice acting, fantastic story, horrible gameplay. I’ve also been chipping away at Ninja Gaiden, which is very hard but a lot of fun. And Halo 2, and Crimson Skies, blah blah. I really like my X-box. Lot of fun to be had on that thing.
Well I was supposed to go in and get briefed for a new security clearance today. Probably a Top Secret clearance. Pretty cool. I find it mildly disturbing, however, that I’m not privy to the inner workings of these sort of things. I just got an e-mail a while ago that said ‘come over here to get your clearance.’ And I’m all like: ‘What?’ And they’re all like: ‘Dude’. And I’m all like: ‘No way!’ It’s weird.
Note: I think some Bot somewhere has found my Blog and is posting strange, random comments in the comment section. Lame, thus far, but not harmful. If it starts to get annoying, however, I may have to disable comments. We’ll see.
Well I’m going to continue my epic ‘quest for rest’. Keep it clean, children!
-N
Happy MLK day. Normally I wouldn’t even have today off, cause Raytheon doesn’t give it to me, but I’m home anyway. Know why? Cause I’m sick. Brilliant! Some sort of fever, I suspect, but being as I don’t own a thermometer, I’m kinda guessing. Regardless, though, I have that full-body ache that definitely indicates that one should not be around people. So I’m home. Writing this. Fantastico!
First week of classes: down. It looks like it’s shaping up to be a pretty busy semester, too. Mathematical pattern recognition is a fairly normal class, inasmuch as it’s formatted: ‘learn, midterm, learn, final.’ Bam. No problem. Adaptive signal processing, with Bart Kosko, on the other hand, is going to be significantly more tricky. It has a midterm, but no final. 50% of the class grade rests on a project that we’re supposed to pick and present to the class for ‘hostile review’ or something similar. Basically this just means that we have to have our project locked down so tight that you can’t pick holes in it. If you make an assumption, it’s got to be justified. You developed a model, is it valid? How can you be sure? Like that. I’m a little excited and a little worried about it. I’ve already started looking for project ideas. No way I’m procrastinating on something this big. I’m hitting the ground running.
Well, running gingerly, I suppose, I’m still sick.
Also, video games. Woo! Finished Vampire: The Masquerade, Bloodlines. Great voice acting, fantastic story, horrible gameplay. I’ve also been chipping away at Ninja Gaiden, which is very hard but a lot of fun. And Halo 2, and Crimson Skies, blah blah. I really like my X-box. Lot of fun to be had on that thing.
Well I was supposed to go in and get briefed for a new security clearance today. Probably a Top Secret clearance. Pretty cool. I find it mildly disturbing, however, that I’m not privy to the inner workings of these sort of things. I just got an e-mail a while ago that said ‘come over here to get your clearance.’ And I’m all like: ‘What?’ And they’re all like: ‘Dude’. And I’m all like: ‘No way!’ It’s weird.
Note: I think some Bot somewhere has found my Blog and is posting strange, random comments in the comment section. Lame, thus far, but not harmful. If it starts to get annoying, however, I may have to disable comments. We’ll see.
Well I’m going to continue my epic ‘quest for rest’. Keep it clean, children!
-N
Sunday, January 09, 2005
Tada! New personal best at my 3-mile time. I'm all excited. Especially considering I haven't run in about 3 weeks. Holiday and all. I'm at 33:45, now. Less than 10 minutes away from my goal time. Which sounds like a lot, but considering that I've already trimmed off over 6 minutes from my first runs, I think I'll get there eventually.
I. Am. Terrified. Classes start this week. I believe I've established that I hate my classes, and it's been absolutely wonderful to have all my not-work-time to myself again. But that all ends this week.
Know what I reckon classes to? Hitting yourself in the face for 6 hours every week. Plus homework. 'What? Done with work? Feel like relaxing? Oh, heavens no. You have to do something that you find emotionally draining and physically painful for hours and hours tonight. And as soon as you're done, you get to sleep and then go back to work! Aren't you lucky?' Bloody hell. I hate classes, and now I have to do this fools task once again.
I'm trying to get other people to do classes, too. Know why? Because I hate people, that's why! I want them to share in my mysery! Suffer, all you fools! Know the torment and burden that I have carried all these years. And if you fail, you have to pay for the class! Mua ha ha haaaa! Suffer! Suffer!
Blegh....I feel better.
Well asside from < vomit > classes, it's been all about the video games this past week. I've been playing Vampire: Bloodlines on the PC and I've been getting in my games for the Xbox, too. I'd say the Xbox has a slight edge on the PS2 in graphics, but just by volume, there are a lot more PS2 games I'm glad I've played then there are ones for the Xbox. I bought four games, and that will *certainly* keep me busy at *least* to the end of the semester.
My christmas present to my mom this year was the next two chapters of my story. I'm going to go over and update my webpage with them soon as I'm done here.
Go here for that.
Then pay some bills, start the dishwasher, go to church, and shop for food on the way home. Yeah, I got a plan. I'm all over this.
My ionic filter has been sitting on the floor, near-silently churning through the air for a week now. I wiped it off and...uh...eew. Yeah. Eew. Granted, there wasn't a *ton* of nasty ass black soot all over the rag when I was done, but any volume of that stuff is something I'm glad to see not in my air anymore. Course, this isn't to say that it removed the 'majority' of polutants in the air, but considering that it's been raining all this week, I'm pretty impressed. Besides, any volume of black nasty crap is pretty near the top of my list of 'things I'm glad aren't in my lungs'. This list also includes nicotene, ether, and a hamster.
Need to get some AAA batteries, too. Just a note to myself, I don't expect anyone else to find this fact *riveting.*
And....that's it. Yeah. Go team. Rah.
-N
I. Am. Terrified. Classes start this week. I believe I've established that I hate my classes, and it's been absolutely wonderful to have all my not-work-time to myself again. But that all ends this week.
Know what I reckon classes to? Hitting yourself in the face for 6 hours every week. Plus homework. 'What? Done with work? Feel like relaxing? Oh, heavens no. You have to do something that you find emotionally draining and physically painful for hours and hours tonight. And as soon as you're done, you get to sleep and then go back to work! Aren't you lucky?' Bloody hell. I hate classes, and now I have to do this fools task once again.
I'm trying to get other people to do classes, too. Know why? Because I hate people, that's why! I want them to share in my mysery! Suffer, all you fools! Know the torment and burden that I have carried all these years. And if you fail, you have to pay for the class! Mua ha ha haaaa! Suffer! Suffer!
Blegh....I feel better.
Well asside from < vomit > classes, it's been all about the video games this past week. I've been playing Vampire: Bloodlines on the PC and I've been getting in my games for the Xbox, too. I'd say the Xbox has a slight edge on the PS2 in graphics, but just by volume, there are a lot more PS2 games I'm glad I've played then there are ones for the Xbox. I bought four games, and that will *certainly* keep me busy at *least* to the end of the semester.
My christmas present to my mom this year was the next two chapters of my story. I'm going to go over and update my webpage with them soon as I'm done here.
Go here for that.
Then pay some bills, start the dishwasher, go to church, and shop for food on the way home. Yeah, I got a plan. I'm all over this.
My ionic filter has been sitting on the floor, near-silently churning through the air for a week now. I wiped it off and...uh...eew. Yeah. Eew. Granted, there wasn't a *ton* of nasty ass black soot all over the rag when I was done, but any volume of that stuff is something I'm glad to see not in my air anymore. Course, this isn't to say that it removed the 'majority' of polutants in the air, but considering that it's been raining all this week, I'm pretty impressed. Besides, any volume of black nasty crap is pretty near the top of my list of 'things I'm glad aren't in my lungs'. This list also includes nicotene, ether, and a hamster.
Need to get some AAA batteries, too. Just a note to myself, I don't expect anyone else to find this fact *riveting.*
And....that's it. Yeah. Go team. Rah.
-N
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Aaaah.
Back from vacation, and still feelin' pretty good. Nothing incredibly notable happened, but there were certainly some fun times to be had.
My Christmas present for my mom was the next two chapters of my novel, so I'll hopefully get those up soon, yay for that.
I still haven't managed to see Rebekah yet, and she's booked up solid this weekend, too. I've moved all her stuff into my closet so that I don't have to look at it. I'm not really that bad, but reminding myself that I've lost something isn't particularly good for my mood.
Women look strange to me now. I wish I could say more than that, but that's about as fine a point as I can put on it, and it isn't a very fine point, I'll admit. I just feel like going up to random women and saying 'hey, didn't your gender evoke a different emotional response from me a few weeks ago?' Couldn't say how I feel now, but I'm not particularly good at putting labels on emotions. Moving right along...
Well, if the old adage about not getting something if you’re looking for it (pot-watching, etc…) is true, I should be getting swamped by women any day now. I’ve essentially written the whole prospect off for the time being. School, mostly. I was incredibly lucky to have a schedule as coincidentally busy as Rebekah’s was while we were dating, and that’s not all that likely to happen again, I’m guessing. That and the fact that something just feels off…eh… I’m just not in the mood.
Yeah, I know, it’s odd. Stop gawking.
Who here has donated money to the Tsunami relief efforts. Anyone? Anyone? I’m doing it right soon. Here’s why. In my lifetime I may never again, I should hope, see a time when so much help is needed in the world. Just by sheer numbers. Millions and millions of lives have been affected by this. Many just wiped completely out. If God is found in the least of his creatures, then we have ourselves some serious holy round these parts. Well, round those parts. Amazing that the world is connected so well that when something like this happens everyone just leaps up to help. Freakin’ instantaneously. Egad, yo. That’s the power of the internets.
Lessee…what else…
ARG! My freakin’ program at work isn’t working! I’ve been banging my head against this same bloody thing for the past couple of weeks! I can’t figure out why it’s not working! It should absolutely not be taking this long to get this thing to work. I don’t know if we have a schedule for this, but if we do, I’m dragging it back. Way suck. I’m unhappy about that.
Hey, anyone out there on Xbox live? I haven’t gotten on it yet, but if anyone cares to get a ‘friend list’ thing going, just let me know.
That’ll do for now. Video games, ho!
-N
Back from vacation, and still feelin' pretty good. Nothing incredibly notable happened, but there were certainly some fun times to be had.
My Christmas present for my mom was the next two chapters of my novel, so I'll hopefully get those up soon, yay for that.
I still haven't managed to see Rebekah yet, and she's booked up solid this weekend, too. I've moved all her stuff into my closet so that I don't have to look at it. I'm not really that bad, but reminding myself that I've lost something isn't particularly good for my mood.
Women look strange to me now. I wish I could say more than that, but that's about as fine a point as I can put on it, and it isn't a very fine point, I'll admit. I just feel like going up to random women and saying 'hey, didn't your gender evoke a different emotional response from me a few weeks ago?' Couldn't say how I feel now, but I'm not particularly good at putting labels on emotions. Moving right along...
Well, if the old adage about not getting something if you’re looking for it (pot-watching, etc…) is true, I should be getting swamped by women any day now. I’ve essentially written the whole prospect off for the time being. School, mostly. I was incredibly lucky to have a schedule as coincidentally busy as Rebekah’s was while we were dating, and that’s not all that likely to happen again, I’m guessing. That and the fact that something just feels off…eh… I’m just not in the mood.
Yeah, I know, it’s odd. Stop gawking.
Who here has donated money to the Tsunami relief efforts. Anyone? Anyone? I’m doing it right soon. Here’s why. In my lifetime I may never again, I should hope, see a time when so much help is needed in the world. Just by sheer numbers. Millions and millions of lives have been affected by this. Many just wiped completely out. If God is found in the least of his creatures, then we have ourselves some serious holy round these parts. Well, round those parts. Amazing that the world is connected so well that when something like this happens everyone just leaps up to help. Freakin’ instantaneously. Egad, yo. That’s the power of the internets.
Lessee…what else…
ARG! My freakin’ program at work isn’t working! I’ve been banging my head against this same bloody thing for the past couple of weeks! I can’t figure out why it’s not working! It should absolutely not be taking this long to get this thing to work. I don’t know if we have a schedule for this, but if we do, I’m dragging it back. Way suck. I’m unhappy about that.
Hey, anyone out there on Xbox live? I haven’t gotten on it yet, but if anyone cares to get a ‘friend list’ thing going, just let me know.
That’ll do for now. Video games, ho!
-N
