Monday, March 28, 2005
These are going to be a really short few entries.
I spent all of this weekend doing homework, such is the forecast until April 20. Which, I just realized, is 4-20 day. 4-20! Woo! Woo! Okay, nevermind. But yeah, that’s the plan, a full-bore mad dash to April 20th. If I’m still alive then, I’ll never have to do two classes worth of work again. It’s just pattern recognition until the end of this semester and then summer, one, and then fall, one, and then done. And drunk.
Whew, however, because I did manage to finally get in contact with my expert. He was gone last weekend, but tells me that he should be in town for the next month, which is pretty much all I need from him. I managed to bounce some good questions off him, and he send me some reports n’ stuff that may be useful. It’ll certainly make me look good if I reference them during my project presentation. There’s a few more technical details I have to work out with Professor Kosko, mostly having to deal with the adaptive side of the project, but once those last wrinkles are ironed out, I’ve pretty much got this thing handled, technically. The rest is just, you know, doing it.
And in the ‘more bad news’ department. My other class has a project, too. This is just stupid. It probably won’t be as hard, though, and it sounds like a group project, so…I guess I’ll just have to wait until he tells us what it actually is. I can guess, though, probably some pet project where we have to derive a Basean minimum error classifier from class densities with unknown probability functions, just estimate the functions, create the boundries, and run some tests, which sounds pretty easy, and it kinda is, it’s just more work I don’t want to do. And this is, of course, assuming I’m right about the project.
I didn’t even get to go to Easter mass, which is about par for the course, since I only went to church twice, I think, for all of lent. Lent is supposed to be for preparing, metaphorically, for the coming of Jesus and I, as dumb as this sounds, just didn’t have the time. I tend to put earthly responsibilities above divine ones. Which makes sense to me, because God seems to take a pretty hands-off approach to the world, it seems. You know, not actively wrathing and turning people into pillars of salt and the like. I figure, if God as left us to our own, earthly devices, then that lends a certain importance to those earthly devices. Besides, I said I do it, and I will, because to fail would be to lie. Which is worse, lying or missing church? There’s a philosophical conundrum for you. It’s more justification after the fact, though, I suppose.
I wanted to go to church and, strictly speaking, I probably did have the time, but it’s becoming more and more apparent that there is only so much unpleasant work I can force myself to do in a week, and I am at or above threshold right now. I could continue to push myself, but the ‘return on effort/pain’ ratio starts to bottom out real fast, and I end up making myself miserable and mean and *then* I’m stuck with the choice of either missing church, being a liar, and being mean and rude and nasty to everyone. I’m trying to find a medium here.
Okay, so maybe it’s not so short.
I played some Halo 2 this weekend, which is still lots of fun, so good for that. I haven’t actually gotten on Xbox Live, yet, but I’m told that it’s a magnificent adventure in gaming joy. Yay.
I’m wondering if I should buy a PSP.
I still have my game boy Advance, but the games have started to trickle off. Plus it has that awesome ‘plays music for you’ feature that I so love in my gadgets. And to top it all off, it’s a video game system. If I’m not spending my money on this, what in the world am I going to spend it on.
I’m starting to get in the mode, though, that makes me wonder if I should be having all of this stuff. A lot of people live life like they’re always trying to acquire more. Personally, I’d like to live to require less. Imagine that. You could be happy with less and less and less and finally you’d just be happy with nothing. And then you’d just be happy. Haven’t I written this before?
I should probably go through my stuff and just throw/give stuff away. I’ve got a lot of stuff. I need to make some donations, too. Any suggestions? What do you think, domestic or international? I tend to think ‘international’, but finding reputable methods of getting money to the actual people in some of the worst lands is not an easy prospect. Medical research, perhaps? I’m thinking I should just donate my tax returns. It’s not *huge*, but it’s pretty impressive, and I’m doing all right with money at the moment. Perhaps crank up my 401K? Bah. Questions for later.
Okay. There is love, but it’s buried under all my homework somewhere.
-N
I spent all of this weekend doing homework, such is the forecast until April 20. Which, I just realized, is 4-20 day. 4-20! Woo! Woo! Okay, nevermind. But yeah, that’s the plan, a full-bore mad dash to April 20th. If I’m still alive then, I’ll never have to do two classes worth of work again. It’s just pattern recognition until the end of this semester and then summer, one, and then fall, one, and then done. And drunk.
Whew, however, because I did manage to finally get in contact with my expert. He was gone last weekend, but tells me that he should be in town for the next month, which is pretty much all I need from him. I managed to bounce some good questions off him, and he send me some reports n’ stuff that may be useful. It’ll certainly make me look good if I reference them during my project presentation. There’s a few more technical details I have to work out with Professor Kosko, mostly having to deal with the adaptive side of the project, but once those last wrinkles are ironed out, I’ve pretty much got this thing handled, technically. The rest is just, you know, doing it.
And in the ‘more bad news’ department. My other class has a project, too. This is just stupid. It probably won’t be as hard, though, and it sounds like a group project, so…I guess I’ll just have to wait until he tells us what it actually is. I can guess, though, probably some pet project where we have to derive a Basean minimum error classifier from class densities with unknown probability functions, just estimate the functions, create the boundries, and run some tests, which sounds pretty easy, and it kinda is, it’s just more work I don’t want to do. And this is, of course, assuming I’m right about the project.
I didn’t even get to go to Easter mass, which is about par for the course, since I only went to church twice, I think, for all of lent. Lent is supposed to be for preparing, metaphorically, for the coming of Jesus and I, as dumb as this sounds, just didn’t have the time. I tend to put earthly responsibilities above divine ones. Which makes sense to me, because God seems to take a pretty hands-off approach to the world, it seems. You know, not actively wrathing and turning people into pillars of salt and the like. I figure, if God as left us to our own, earthly devices, then that lends a certain importance to those earthly devices. Besides, I said I do it, and I will, because to fail would be to lie. Which is worse, lying or missing church? There’s a philosophical conundrum for you. It’s more justification after the fact, though, I suppose.
I wanted to go to church and, strictly speaking, I probably did have the time, but it’s becoming more and more apparent that there is only so much unpleasant work I can force myself to do in a week, and I am at or above threshold right now. I could continue to push myself, but the ‘return on effort/pain’ ratio starts to bottom out real fast, and I end up making myself miserable and mean and *then* I’m stuck with the choice of either missing church, being a liar, and being mean and rude and nasty to everyone. I’m trying to find a medium here.
Okay, so maybe it’s not so short.
I played some Halo 2 this weekend, which is still lots of fun, so good for that. I haven’t actually gotten on Xbox Live, yet, but I’m told that it’s a magnificent adventure in gaming joy. Yay.
I’m wondering if I should buy a PSP.
I still have my game boy Advance, but the games have started to trickle off. Plus it has that awesome ‘plays music for you’ feature that I so love in my gadgets. And to top it all off, it’s a video game system. If I’m not spending my money on this, what in the world am I going to spend it on.
I’m starting to get in the mode, though, that makes me wonder if I should be having all of this stuff. A lot of people live life like they’re always trying to acquire more. Personally, I’d like to live to require less. Imagine that. You could be happy with less and less and less and finally you’d just be happy with nothing. And then you’d just be happy. Haven’t I written this before?
I should probably go through my stuff and just throw/give stuff away. I’ve got a lot of stuff. I need to make some donations, too. Any suggestions? What do you think, domestic or international? I tend to think ‘international’, but finding reputable methods of getting money to the actual people in some of the worst lands is not an easy prospect. Medical research, perhaps? I’m thinking I should just donate my tax returns. It’s not *huge*, but it’s pretty impressive, and I’m doing all right with money at the moment. Perhaps crank up my 401K? Bah. Questions for later.
Okay. There is love, but it’s buried under all my homework somewhere.
-N
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Yay spring break! Wooooo!
Okay, *this* weekend was spring break. I got all my homework done last weekend so this weekend I didn’t have anything to do. Yay. It was nice. Did some writing, played the drums, and got in some video-gaming. Aaaaaaah. I could see how one would get bored being home-body-ish like that for weekend after weekend, but it’s nice to be boring every once in a while, and I haven’t had a proper weekend in months. Very nice.
I also managed to get to church for the first time in way too long, Sundays being the homework-fests they are (even when I’ve been starting on Fridays). And I gotta tell ya, I *missed* it. I walked in and it just felt like ‘aaaaah. It’s been too long.’ Course, there were palms. I didn’t get any, though, being as I don’t need anything else to clutter up my space. I probably own too much junk as it is. I should go through and cleanse. Save some space. Keep my room clean. Give me an excuse to go shopping for new clothes. I don’t even *know* when I bought this shirt. I think it might have been back in High school.
So Raytheon was kind enough to send me a plaque-esque thing with a certificate for my ‘R6Sigma’ project that I completed last year. You don’t have to know what R6Sigma is. Just know that it’s one of those annoying corporate fads like ISO 9000 and Pyramid Scams that come along in waves. You have to get pretty high up in the management chain before they pay you enough to fake enthusiasm for it. And the higher up you go, the less you care that everyone below you hates it. You’re freakin’ rich! But yeah, they gave me a plaque. Course, the R6Sigma thingy comes right out, and bachelors degree goes in. I’ll replace it with MS whenever that comes around. (December!)
Also I saw this on campus
It made me giggle, that’s all.
I’m in a conundrum. I *want* to go to Easter Mass, but at the same time, the idea of going to Easter Mass fills me with *dread*. You know how it was impossible to get a seat back in tiny little Juneau, Alaska? A tiny little city with not too many people, really? Immagine trying to do it in LA. I’m afeared! Totally skurred. Why does LA have to have so many bloody people?!? Church just isn’t church when you’re too busy focusing on how miserable you are. Then it’s just going through the motions. That doesn’t do anyone any good.
Got my performance evaluation yesterday. That’s not my raise. It’s not my promoted/not promoted either. I don’t really know what it is, really. It’s a ‘good job, we have officially recognized that you did good. Salutations.’ Nothing dramatic, but it went well.
Also, it looks like Derek’s brother will be getting an internship with Raytheon this summer, which means that he’ll probably be staying with us. Which means he’ll probably be splitting the rent with us, and definitely be playing some serious video-gameage. Good news, that.
-N
Okay, *this* weekend was spring break. I got all my homework done last weekend so this weekend I didn’t have anything to do. Yay. It was nice. Did some writing, played the drums, and got in some video-gaming. Aaaaaaah. I could see how one would get bored being home-body-ish like that for weekend after weekend, but it’s nice to be boring every once in a while, and I haven’t had a proper weekend in months. Very nice.
I also managed to get to church for the first time in way too long, Sundays being the homework-fests they are (even when I’ve been starting on Fridays). And I gotta tell ya, I *missed* it. I walked in and it just felt like ‘aaaaah. It’s been too long.’ Course, there were palms. I didn’t get any, though, being as I don’t need anything else to clutter up my space. I probably own too much junk as it is. I should go through and cleanse. Save some space. Keep my room clean. Give me an excuse to go shopping for new clothes. I don’t even *know* when I bought this shirt. I think it might have been back in High school.
So Raytheon was kind enough to send me a plaque-esque thing with a certificate for my ‘R6Sigma’ project that I completed last year. You don’t have to know what R6Sigma is. Just know that it’s one of those annoying corporate fads like ISO 9000 and Pyramid Scams that come along in waves. You have to get pretty high up in the management chain before they pay you enough to fake enthusiasm for it. And the higher up you go, the less you care that everyone below you hates it. You’re freakin’ rich! But yeah, they gave me a plaque. Course, the R6Sigma thingy comes right out, and bachelors degree goes in. I’ll replace it with MS whenever that comes around. (December!)
Also I saw this on campus
It made me giggle, that’s all.
I’m in a conundrum. I *want* to go to Easter Mass, but at the same time, the idea of going to Easter Mass fills me with *dread*. You know how it was impossible to get a seat back in tiny little Juneau, Alaska? A tiny little city with not too many people, really? Immagine trying to do it in LA. I’m afeared! Totally skurred. Why does LA have to have so many bloody people?!? Church just isn’t church when you’re too busy focusing on how miserable you are. Then it’s just going through the motions. That doesn’t do anyone any good.
Got my performance evaluation yesterday. That’s not my raise. It’s not my promoted/not promoted either. I don’t really know what it is, really. It’s a ‘good job, we have officially recognized that you did good. Salutations.’ Nothing dramatic, but it went well.
Also, it looks like Derek’s brother will be getting an internship with Raytheon this summer, which means that he’ll probably be staying with us. Which means he’ll probably be splitting the rent with us, and definitely be playing some serious video-gameage. Good news, that.
-N
Monday, March 14, 2005
Addendum:
And I don't know why, but my Mathematical Pattern Recognition book smells awful.
-N
And I don't know why, but my Mathematical Pattern Recognition book smells awful.
-N
Ever wonder what engineering homework looks like?
It looks a lot like this.
That's all the stuff I had to do for my take-home midterm. Read at your own risk, your brain may explode. I'm trained to handle that sort of stuff. I've become those weird scientist-types you always saw in far side cartoons, scrawling unintelligable gibberish across blackboards. 'Cept we use white boards now. Less dust.
Also perhaps you'd like to check out my project proposal. It's not in it's final revision, yet, but it'll at least give you a sense of what it is I'm trying to accomplish. A little bit technial, but nothing that'll make your teeth try to turn around and eat your own brain.
The final project report, though, that'll be brain-eating stuff.
-N
It looks a lot like this.
That's all the stuff I had to do for my take-home midterm. Read at your own risk, your brain may explode. I'm trained to handle that sort of stuff. I've become those weird scientist-types you always saw in far side cartoons, scrawling unintelligable gibberish across blackboards. 'Cept we use white boards now. Less dust.
Also perhaps you'd like to check out my project proposal. It's not in it's final revision, yet, but it'll at least give you a sense of what it is I'm trying to accomplish. A little bit technial, but nothing that'll make your teeth try to turn around and eat your own brain.
The final project report, though, that'll be brain-eating stuff.
-N
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Spring break! Spring break! Spring break!
Eh. I’m unimpressed.
Actually, it’s not really spring break yet. Well, it could be. I could have had a perfectly veg-tastic weekend, but I didn’t. Here’s the haps.
Last week was midterms week. Yeah, it went pretty well. I did pretty well, I think, on the take-home midterm. I turned it in early. It was more a function of me not having any more time to work on it than of any hearty self-confidence, but it’s pretty funny nonetheless. Back in high school they would say ‘someday Noel will take over the world. And when he does, he’ll take it over 3 days early.’ It’s true. I do hate me the procrastination. And remember that, I’ll be important in a couple paragraphs.
My other midterm went pretty well, too. I could have been more confident with some of my answers, but I think I got it all pretty much right. I reserve judgment, however, on either/both of my midterms until I see the final curve. I’ve been thrown way too often by the curves on these classes. “I got a 52%, but don’t worry, that’s actually a B+”. Crikey.
So midterms week, highly stressful, is over. And so what do I get? Spring break! Oh, and homework. I get homework too. Stupid classes decide to assign homework even when they know just bloody fine that we’re burned out after midterms and trying to unwind, but they do it anyway. And being as I’m allergic to procrastinating, I did it this weekend. Well, not all of it. Half of it, though. Still, more work than I wanted to do this weekend, that’s for sure.
It’s good, though, because my adaptive signal processing class project starts soon. And of course the class is going to assign homework, because it’s stupid. So I’ll probably want to take this week to get some work done on the project while I’m unimpeded by classes and homework.
*Sigh*. Let’s hear it for spring break. Yippee.
What else…went to McCormic and Schmick, as promised. I did it up really nice, too. Called ahead for reservations, went in my suit, ordered wine. I was playing dress-up, essentially, but it was good fun. “Hello, I’m a very important person and I believe I have a reservation.” Ma ha. Yeah, that’s right. I could probably pull that off.
Also bought Fight Night Round 2. It’s pretty fun, but it’s wearing off pretty quickly. There’s no variety to the fights, that I’ve seen. They just get faster and more powerful step by step by blah blah blah. And Derek has been kicking my rear in that game too. Which is annoying, but valid, cause he’s better at it than I am.
Got in some drum practice this weekend, put in an order for some new sparring gear because the old stuff is starting to wear out, a little writing planning, not much else, really.
Check out the cool links:
Rap dictionary. Just in case you ever wondered what all those number and slang they keep yelling means. I’m a face gator with steez. And I have duckets. Word, propah.
Overheard in New York. Things taken out of context are funny!
There is one thing I have never in my life had enough of. Nail clippers. Back when I had hair it was nail clippers and hairbrushes, we could never find the bloody things. They were always elsewhere, or lost, or in someone elses bedroom. And I can find my nail clippers now. Or they’re getting dull and I need new ones. One day I’m going to have a wall of nail clippers. Five nail clippers in every room in the house. I’ll finally have enough of the dumb things. That’ll feel good.
Eh. I’m unimpressed.
Actually, it’s not really spring break yet. Well, it could be. I could have had a perfectly veg-tastic weekend, but I didn’t. Here’s the haps.
Last week was midterms week. Yeah, it went pretty well. I did pretty well, I think, on the take-home midterm. I turned it in early. It was more a function of me not having any more time to work on it than of any hearty self-confidence, but it’s pretty funny nonetheless. Back in high school they would say ‘someday Noel will take over the world. And when he does, he’ll take it over 3 days early.’ It’s true. I do hate me the procrastination. And remember that, I’ll be important in a couple paragraphs.
My other midterm went pretty well, too. I could have been more confident with some of my answers, but I think I got it all pretty much right. I reserve judgment, however, on either/both of my midterms until I see the final curve. I’ve been thrown way too often by the curves on these classes. “I got a 52%, but don’t worry, that’s actually a B+”. Crikey.
So midterms week, highly stressful, is over. And so what do I get? Spring break! Oh, and homework. I get homework too. Stupid classes decide to assign homework even when they know just bloody fine that we’re burned out after midterms and trying to unwind, but they do it anyway. And being as I’m allergic to procrastinating, I did it this weekend. Well, not all of it. Half of it, though. Still, more work than I wanted to do this weekend, that’s for sure.
It’s good, though, because my adaptive signal processing class project starts soon. And of course the class is going to assign homework, because it’s stupid. So I’ll probably want to take this week to get some work done on the project while I’m unimpeded by classes and homework.
*Sigh*. Let’s hear it for spring break. Yippee.
What else…went to McCormic and Schmick, as promised. I did it up really nice, too. Called ahead for reservations, went in my suit, ordered wine. I was playing dress-up, essentially, but it was good fun. “Hello, I’m a very important person and I believe I have a reservation.” Ma ha. Yeah, that’s right. I could probably pull that off.
Also bought Fight Night Round 2. It’s pretty fun, but it’s wearing off pretty quickly. There’s no variety to the fights, that I’ve seen. They just get faster and more powerful step by step by blah blah blah. And Derek has been kicking my rear in that game too. Which is annoying, but valid, cause he’s better at it than I am.
Got in some drum practice this weekend, put in an order for some new sparring gear because the old stuff is starting to wear out, a little writing planning, not much else, really.
Check out the cool links:
Rap dictionary. Just in case you ever wondered what all those number and slang they keep yelling means. I’m a face gator with steez. And I have duckets. Word, propah.
Overheard in New York. Things taken out of context are funny!
There is one thing I have never in my life had enough of. Nail clippers. Back when I had hair it was nail clippers and hairbrushes, we could never find the bloody things. They were always elsewhere, or lost, or in someone elses bedroom. And I can find my nail clippers now. Or they’re getting dull and I need new ones. One day I’m going to have a wall of nail clippers. Five nail clippers in every room in the house. I’ll finally have enough of the dumb things. That’ll feel good.
Monday, March 07, 2005
Lessee, weekend…
I spent most of Friday and all of Saturday doing my take-home midterm for Adaptive processing. It was a heavy, heavy experience. And by heavy I mean hard. I took some breaks, but it was pretty much Matlab, textbooks, and some lecture-watching the whole way. It was like the Russian bread of academia. Dense. It was, to put it mildly, an unpleasant experience, but I’ll leave the color commentary until after palm Sunday.
Sunday was study day for my other midterm, which takes place tomorrow, Tuesday. I think I’m ready, it’s open ‘all class materials’, and I’m following the material pretty well. He posted an example midterm, which is good, and I need to look it over, because most of the stuff in this class simply can’t be done by hand. They’re computer algorithms. Makes me curious about what he is going to test us on.
Speaking of tomorrow, I’m taking it off. Since I only work 4 days a week, I might as well use the day off to get ready for midterms and put any final touches on my take home midterm that I can. I gave it a look over, though, I think it’s pretty much done.
There comes this weird moment in the life of everyone as adverse to procrastination as I am. It’s this moment before everything is due, before that crush you were trying so hard to avoid, when you realized that you don’t have anything to do. Your stuff isn’t due for days, and it’s already all done. It’s a weird moment. ‘Well,’ say you, ‘I guess I’ll just goof off then.’ It’s a truly surreal moment.
Also of note, since I was expecting to be crunched-busy this weekend, and being as I wasn’t disappointed, I canceled my normally quite healthy eating habits in favor of pigging out all weekend. Felt good. I ate cheesecake and raspberry Danish stuff and cinnamon rolls and a couple of twinkies and…yeah, that was it. Well, I had some fruit, too, just because all that sugar was starting to get to me. Y’know. Fructose to change it up.
I also slipped on one of my Lenten promises. No, not that one, the other one. Yeah, that one. I just needed to blow off steam, relax, something. Nothing was making me happy. I didn’t want to write, I didn’t want to play drums, I didn’t want to play video games. But, and this is the weird part, afterwards, I felt great. I leapt right back into studying and crashed out at 1:00 AM, happy and with my midterm project completed. Which is a very strange thing. If this stuff is supposed to be bad for me, and I’m still maintaining it is, how come it helped out so much. Just bizarre. I’m going to keep on it, though, probably even after lent. Cause it’s bad for me, and so the less, the better. That’s the plan, at least.
Okay, funniest thing I saw today:
I read a website called Fark.com. It’s a load of fun, they catalog weird news stories throughout the day. And then off to the right there are forums to discuss the news stories. Most of them are badly-informed and troll-filled debates about politics and religion, along with naked ladies, photoshop contests, and pretty much anything else under the sun, but occasionally you get something really awesome and absolutely hilarious.
The story:
Funen bakers have taken up the challenge to find a new recipe for communion wafers
For centuries, Danish churchgoers have received the body of Christ in the form of a small, bland communion wafer. Now, competition is on the way.
Ninety master bakers from the island of Funen have taken up the challenge to experiment with new recipes for the holy flesh, daily religious newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad reported on Thursday. ‘We have never tried anything like this before,’ Svendborg baker Gerner Pedersen said. ‘It’s very exciting. I think I will go for a baguette made out of a mixture of wheat and rye flour. That would give a good, strong taste of bread.’
Copenhagen deacon Finn Laugesen said he wished the bakers all the best. ‘But for as long as I have been responsible for the communion wafers, I’ve gone for the most neutral taste I could find,’ he said. ‘After all, the bread should symbolize the body of Jesus, and the wafer shouldn’t be getting all the attention. Just imagine if the pastor at the altar would say ‘This is the body of Jesus Christ. Would you like that with chocolate, vanilla or strawberry taste?’
Better still, the commentary. I’ve chosen my favorites:
--Can they throw some lox and cream cheese on those things? I mean that plain ol' Christ cracker doesn't really compliment the wine all by itself.
--But only true believers get to experience the aftertaste
--Start your day the holy way with Christ Chex! (Actually a quote from Commedian Dane Cook, one of my favorites.)
--Nacho jesus, please!
--Mama mia, thatsa spicy Savior!!!
--Also available in Hellfire BBQ.
--"Jesus Cripes, son of Gosh, born of the holy Moly."
--And coming soon, Atkins-approved 0-carb hosts!
--Jesus in the morning, Jesus in the evening, Jesus at supper time, when Jesus is on a bagel, you can have Jesus anytime!
--Christ, the other white meat.
--Had this been the rural US, the parishoners would have protested at the baker's headquarters holding signs that read GOD HATES FLAVORED JESUS.
--I'm a Christian, he's a Christian, she's a Christian, we're a Christian; wouldn't you like to be a Christian too? Be a Christian, drink Dr. Jesus.
--My Eucharist has a first name; it's J-E-S-U-S. My Eucharist has a second name; it's C-H-R-I-S-T. Oh, I love to eat it every day, and if you ask me why, I'll saaaaaaaaaaay, cause Jesus Christ has a way with E-U-C-H-A-R-I-S-T.
--This would be a great Iron Chef episode, but moved over a few channels to the Jesus channel. It would be something like:
"It appears that Reverend Peterson is kneading an unleavened dough. Tomiko?"
"Yes, Aki-san, he is kneading an unleavened dough. Tee hee!"
"And I see eggs. Are those eggs? OHH! He's looking through his New Testament. Are eggs accepted?"
"Aki-san!! I just heard that eggs are NOT accepted. The recipe allows only flour and water!"
And the best one of all…
--I'm coo-coo for Cocoa Christ!
Ma ha ha ha haaaaaaaa ha ha ha haaaaa! Good grief! Whoo! Aaaah. Good stuff.
-N
I spent most of Friday and all of Saturday doing my take-home midterm for Adaptive processing. It was a heavy, heavy experience. And by heavy I mean hard. I took some breaks, but it was pretty much Matlab, textbooks, and some lecture-watching the whole way. It was like the Russian bread of academia. Dense. It was, to put it mildly, an unpleasant experience, but I’ll leave the color commentary until after palm Sunday.
Sunday was study day for my other midterm, which takes place tomorrow, Tuesday. I think I’m ready, it’s open ‘all class materials’, and I’m following the material pretty well. He posted an example midterm, which is good, and I need to look it over, because most of the stuff in this class simply can’t be done by hand. They’re computer algorithms. Makes me curious about what he is going to test us on.
Speaking of tomorrow, I’m taking it off. Since I only work 4 days a week, I might as well use the day off to get ready for midterms and put any final touches on my take home midterm that I can. I gave it a look over, though, I think it’s pretty much done.
There comes this weird moment in the life of everyone as adverse to procrastination as I am. It’s this moment before everything is due, before that crush you were trying so hard to avoid, when you realized that you don’t have anything to do. Your stuff isn’t due for days, and it’s already all done. It’s a weird moment. ‘Well,’ say you, ‘I guess I’ll just goof off then.’ It’s a truly surreal moment.
Also of note, since I was expecting to be crunched-busy this weekend, and being as I wasn’t disappointed, I canceled my normally quite healthy eating habits in favor of pigging out all weekend. Felt good. I ate cheesecake and raspberry Danish stuff and cinnamon rolls and a couple of twinkies and…yeah, that was it. Well, I had some fruit, too, just because all that sugar was starting to get to me. Y’know. Fructose to change it up.
I also slipped on one of my Lenten promises. No, not that one, the other one. Yeah, that one. I just needed to blow off steam, relax, something. Nothing was making me happy. I didn’t want to write, I didn’t want to play drums, I didn’t want to play video games. But, and this is the weird part, afterwards, I felt great. I leapt right back into studying and crashed out at 1:00 AM, happy and with my midterm project completed. Which is a very strange thing. If this stuff is supposed to be bad for me, and I’m still maintaining it is, how come it helped out so much. Just bizarre. I’m going to keep on it, though, probably even after lent. Cause it’s bad for me, and so the less, the better. That’s the plan, at least.
Okay, funniest thing I saw today:
I read a website called Fark.com. It’s a load of fun, they catalog weird news stories throughout the day. And then off to the right there are forums to discuss the news stories. Most of them are badly-informed and troll-filled debates about politics and religion, along with naked ladies, photoshop contests, and pretty much anything else under the sun, but occasionally you get something really awesome and absolutely hilarious.
The story:
Funen bakers have taken up the challenge to find a new recipe for communion wafers
For centuries, Danish churchgoers have received the body of Christ in the form of a small, bland communion wafer. Now, competition is on the way.
Ninety master bakers from the island of Funen have taken up the challenge to experiment with new recipes for the holy flesh, daily religious newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad reported on Thursday. ‘We have never tried anything like this before,’ Svendborg baker Gerner Pedersen said. ‘It’s very exciting. I think I will go for a baguette made out of a mixture of wheat and rye flour. That would give a good, strong taste of bread.’
Copenhagen deacon Finn Laugesen said he wished the bakers all the best. ‘But for as long as I have been responsible for the communion wafers, I’ve gone for the most neutral taste I could find,’ he said. ‘After all, the bread should symbolize the body of Jesus, and the wafer shouldn’t be getting all the attention. Just imagine if the pastor at the altar would say ‘This is the body of Jesus Christ. Would you like that with chocolate, vanilla or strawberry taste?’
Better still, the commentary. I’ve chosen my favorites:
--Can they throw some lox and cream cheese on those things? I mean that plain ol' Christ cracker doesn't really compliment the wine all by itself.
--But only true believers get to experience the aftertaste
--Start your day the holy way with Christ Chex! (Actually a quote from Commedian Dane Cook, one of my favorites.)
--Nacho jesus, please!
--Mama mia, thatsa spicy Savior!!!
--Also available in Hellfire BBQ.
--"Jesus Cripes, son of Gosh, born of the holy Moly."
--And coming soon, Atkins-approved 0-carb hosts!
--Jesus in the morning, Jesus in the evening, Jesus at supper time, when Jesus is on a bagel, you can have Jesus anytime!
--Christ, the other white meat.
--Had this been the rural US, the parishoners would have protested at the baker's headquarters holding signs that read GOD HATES FLAVORED JESUS.
--I'm a Christian, he's a Christian, she's a Christian, we're a Christian; wouldn't you like to be a Christian too? Be a Christian, drink Dr. Jesus.
--My Eucharist has a first name; it's J-E-S-U-S. My Eucharist has a second name; it's C-H-R-I-S-T. Oh, I love to eat it every day, and if you ask me why, I'll saaaaaaaaaaay, cause Jesus Christ has a way with E-U-C-H-A-R-I-S-T.
--This would be a great Iron Chef episode, but moved over a few channels to the Jesus channel. It would be something like:
"It appears that Reverend Peterson is kneading an unleavened dough. Tomiko?"
"Yes, Aki-san, he is kneading an unleavened dough. Tee hee!"
"And I see eggs. Are those eggs? OHH! He's looking through his New Testament. Are eggs accepted?"
"Aki-san!! I just heard that eggs are NOT accepted. The recipe allows only flour and water!"
And the best one of all…
--I'm coo-coo for Cocoa Christ!
Ma ha ha ha haaaaaaaa ha ha ha haaaaa! Good grief! Whoo! Aaaah. Good stuff.
-N
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
I've got some good news about school.
...
Wait, that must have been a typo. Let me try that again. I have some good news about school.
What? You crazy? Good news? Oh, well I *have* to put this up on the blog. I've been trying to line up a project for myself for my Adaptive Signal Processing class. It has to be a *real* project. It has to have real data, it has to involve a real problem, it has to be an actual task. No making something up. Real. Really real. So for real.
I've made a step down the appropriate path, now, too. I finally managed to get in touch with someone at the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles. They do cochlear implants. It's techy stuff! I should be able to get a project out of it! I'm going up on friday to meet with the good doctor and discuss the possibilities. I should dress up nice.
So, yeah, that's good news.
TKD sparring night again, went pretty well. I'm trying to use my right leg more and stay in my 'left-handed fighter' stance more. This means I need to do more 'fake and back-leg kick' stuff, work on my spinning hook kick, get some combos going, the usual stuff. I'm definitely thinking more training is needed, overall, but that'll wait until school steps down a bit.
This is going to be a tough upcoming week. I have to do my take-home midterm for adaptive processing *and* study for my pattern recognition class. [restraint] This will be a difficult task. [/restraint] Pattern recognition is open everything, though, which is good in this particular instance, but I don't like so much overall. I like cheat sheets. Writing everything down is good study methodology. Usually I don't even use most of the cheat sheet. But in this case, when we have so many equations (and I have so little time to study) I support this selection wholeheartedly.
March 11th. Over christmas break I flew around a bunch, and Alaska Airlines was giving away free gift certificates to eat at McCormick and Schmicks on every flight that was late. I got two of them. I gave one away a while ago, cause I'm a pushover, and because I didn't think I'd use both, but I still have one left, and it expires March 16th. March 11th will be my day off after both my midterms. I'm going to McCormick and Schmick on the 11th. The only thing that can concievably deter me from that goal is if something cooler happens that day. Perhaps I'll even go watch a movie. Like Hitch, perhaps.
Speaking of being a pushover and dating...actually, nevermind. That's a *much* larger blog entry than I have time for right now.
March 18th, YESNet is having a huge awesome event. YESNet is Young Engineers and Scientists Network, which is basically 'kids at Rayteon'. Heh. They're having a grand gathering at Dave and Busters, which is like an Arcade, but they serve Booze too. I think I want to go. Should be fun.
I hop around the net, on occasion, and I pick up some really neat links. Y'all should check these out. They're pretty cool.
Baby Name Voyager
Is your name among the top 1000? When was it most popular? How long has it been since anyone named their kid 'Horace'? Or just click wierd names and explore.
Banksy
He's a grafitti artist, but he's a really *good* grafitti artist.
How to Destroy the Earth
A comparative study.
Lost America
Pictures of old abandoned roadside...uh...stuff.
Ugh...I'd write more, but my eyes are starting to wig out. Enjoy.
-N
...
Wait, that must have been a typo. Let me try that again. I have some good news about school.
What? You crazy? Good news? Oh, well I *have* to put this up on the blog. I've been trying to line up a project for myself for my Adaptive Signal Processing class. It has to be a *real* project. It has to have real data, it has to involve a real problem, it has to be an actual task. No making something up. Real. Really real. So for real.
I've made a step down the appropriate path, now, too. I finally managed to get in touch with someone at the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles. They do cochlear implants. It's techy stuff! I should be able to get a project out of it! I'm going up on friday to meet with the good doctor and discuss the possibilities. I should dress up nice.
So, yeah, that's good news.
TKD sparring night again, went pretty well. I'm trying to use my right leg more and stay in my 'left-handed fighter' stance more. This means I need to do more 'fake and back-leg kick' stuff, work on my spinning hook kick, get some combos going, the usual stuff. I'm definitely thinking more training is needed, overall, but that'll wait until school steps down a bit.
This is going to be a tough upcoming week. I have to do my take-home midterm for adaptive processing *and* study for my pattern recognition class. [restraint] This will be a difficult task. [/restraint] Pattern recognition is open everything, though, which is good in this particular instance, but I don't like so much overall. I like cheat sheets. Writing everything down is good study methodology. Usually I don't even use most of the cheat sheet. But in this case, when we have so many equations (and I have so little time to study) I support this selection wholeheartedly.
March 11th. Over christmas break I flew around a bunch, and Alaska Airlines was giving away free gift certificates to eat at McCormick and Schmicks on every flight that was late. I got two of them. I gave one away a while ago, cause I'm a pushover, and because I didn't think I'd use both, but I still have one left, and it expires March 16th. March 11th will be my day off after both my midterms. I'm going to McCormick and Schmick on the 11th. The only thing that can concievably deter me from that goal is if something cooler happens that day. Perhaps I'll even go watch a movie. Like Hitch, perhaps.
Speaking of being a pushover and dating...actually, nevermind. That's a *much* larger blog entry than I have time for right now.
March 18th, YESNet is having a huge awesome event. YESNet is Young Engineers and Scientists Network, which is basically 'kids at Rayteon'. Heh. They're having a grand gathering at Dave and Busters, which is like an Arcade, but they serve Booze too. I think I want to go. Should be fun.
I hop around the net, on occasion, and I pick up some really neat links. Y'all should check these out. They're pretty cool.
Baby Name Voyager
Is your name among the top 1000? When was it most popular? How long has it been since anyone named their kid 'Horace'? Or just click wierd names and explore.
Banksy
He's a grafitti artist, but he's a really *good* grafitti artist.
How to Destroy the Earth
A comparative study.
Lost America
Pictures of old abandoned roadside...uh...stuff.
Ugh...I'd write more, but my eyes are starting to wig out. Enjoy.
-N
