Well.
I've had an interesting few days. Had a pretty good birthday: saw Shanghai Knights, had cake and ice cream, all the assorted things which people expect from birthdays. My mom even called and had all my 9 siblings sing 'Happy Birthday' into the phone. The usual disappointment has set in, however; I don't feel much older, even though I am 20. Oh, well. Such is life.
I spent the whole next day studying for the Circuits II final. And while I did considerably better than I would have otherwise, I'm pretty sure I didn't make the 100 which would have made me truly happy. It seems I have to look elsewhere for happiness.
And then there was today. It would have been fairly normal and uneventful were it not for the fact that various assorted people and their cohorts decided to give me a late birthday present. A very wet one, indeed. At least I can now say I have been formally introduced to the great LU tradition of 'ponding'. It's all good fun, though. I feel very loved. *grin*
Anyway, one final and the whole packing-up process to go. Looks like I need to break down and be productive one of these days.
I have added two more pins to my new favorite pin cushion: one for each of the finals I have to take tomorrow, on my birthday. Hey, there's one for each decade I'll be old! Must be a sign from God.
Oooh, reminds me. I really need to start packing up my stuff soon. And yet, I know I won't really start *that* job until Wednesday or Thursday. I'm such a slacker. *grin*
Wellll... it seems I know good destinations for spring break; the latest hit from Google I got was for:
god where should I go for spring break next
I kid you not.
Hmmm... Yet More Signs Ardith Is A Total Geek
- I was so happy that my dad sent me a power cable with the box of food from home that my roomie has a picture of me with it.
- I can reset the root password on a Linux box with access to the floppy drive and the reset button.
- I spent a large part of this evening with my head buried in smb.conf.
- Despite the fact that I'm not doing anything with it, the other box is turned on right now in order to increase its uptime.
- I am at the moment contemplating ruining this uptime in order to see if I can overclock the processor.
*sigh*
Actually...
*contented sigh*
I wouldn't have it any other way.
It's an H. P. Lovecraft story. I think.
Anyway, after much thoughtful and studious pondering, I have deduced the moral of the story:
In the end, it all comes down to how rich the villain is.
While hunting through my stack of random papers for something else, I came across something unexpected: a sheet of notes for That Class. It gives a bit of a look into my head when I'm starting to get annoyed with a class.
This is semi-valuable computer architecture info. Do not crumple, tear, mutilate, or spindle.
Apparently I might forget and do something nasty to this piece of paper...
Oh, yeah, switch statement. Oops.
And all the poor blighters who had to get up at 7 said: "Ugghhh... are you sure it's morning? It's still dark outside."
By this time I've quit even pretending to take notes...
The interesting thing about writing notes, is that you can look incredibly stupid, while making fun of people, in writing, all at the same time.
No, that doesn't make much sense to me either. It was an 8:00 class, after all.
Top 10 ways to stay awake in an 8:00 class
- Invent appropriate nicknames for all classmates
- Reinterpret the notes on the blackboard
- Practice mind-reading techniques
- Calculate height of all desks stacked on each other
- *snore*
-
No, it's not pretty, but it is fairly accurate.
Well, seeing as how I'm posting like mad today in an effort to put off writing the paper that's due tonight, here's a repository of deathless quotes by everybody's favorite mouthpiece.
Sample quote:
"I can say, and I am responsible for what I am saying, that they have started to commit suicide under the walls of Baghdad. We will encourage them to commit more suicides quickly."
--Iraqi Information Minister
I'd almost forgotten. I turn 20 in one week.
...
Excuse me while I go curl up in a corner and shake uncontrollably. Surely I can't be done with my teenage years already, can I?
And today's latest link to the past, brought to you by Slashdot and the Classic Computer Magazine Archive:
Tandy Computer Whiz Kids Comics!
Join the cute little kids with freckles as they race to stop crime with their Tandy Model 100's and acoustic couplers! Learn facts about computers with which to amaze your friends and astound your enemies! Observe and conduct research on the marketing propaganda of the 1984 computing industry! Become indoctrinated and rush out to buy your own Model 100 and a copy of Scriptsit! Sigh for the glory days of word processors which presented you with a completely blank screen on which to write!
Quite amusing, really.
If God had intended for us to be sane and healthy, he wouldn't have created mental hospitals and electro-shock therapy.
If we were intended to actually succeed in our classes, there would be no such thing as finals and projects.
If I was intended to sleep, I would never have been introduced to the Internet.
I don't understand. How does searching for moving_to_Bagdad on MSN Search come up with my site?
I'd look through my archives to see if I used that spelling of the city somewhere, except that almost all my archives have disappeared. It's obviously all a terrorist plot.
Reasons why today has been good to me so far:
1. My Historiography paper is done and turned in. I can now proceed to find the floor under the pile of printed-out sources, and clean out my bookmark menu.
2. I went to bed at 10:30 last night.
3. I've decided not to do the I&M homework that's due today.
4. I found an interesting new blog, The Adventures of AccordianGuy in the 21st Century. I'd recommend the story about New Girl, even if it will give some people new ammunition.
5. And that led to ESR's blog, which led to this one. If only I could spend all day with this...
6. I went in to register for next semester, and there was no line. Nada. If *that* doesn't make for a good day, I don't know what does.
7. Something I posted here today showed up instantly on my site. Unlike the usual 6-8 hour wait.
Hmmm... not to ten yet. The day's only half over, though. I'll have to add things if the afternoon lives up to the morning's promise.
It seems it also changes the URL when I post. And, I've noticed there are no archives on the mirror/real site.
For the curious, the real URL is http://pack.soksok.jp/y/.rjde
After noticing that my blog has finally been crawled by Google, I came across something rather interesting. Apparently my site is mirrored at this site, which is somewhere in Japan.
I'm assuming for the moment that it mirrors all the blogspot sites or something. Anyway, the really thought-provoking thing is that this mirror is updated before my site is. Unless that site is the real thing, and mine is just the mirror...
There's got to be a good conspiracy theory in there somewhere.
Here's something highly amusing. Either people were a lot braver 30 years ago, or a lot stupider. I haven't decided which.
Oh, and I have a new anger-management therapy. An unsuspecting friend from home sent me an annoyingly cute little round pink plastic pig with a huge grin. Sort of like a super-ball with ears and a snout. Anyway, I've been amusing myself turning it into a pincushion. It looks highly disturbing, so I've put it on top of my monitor where everyone can see it. Great fun.
I walked unsuspectingly up to my classroom for Fatness today. Scholl pulls out whatever foam-covered piece of PVC pipe he's carrying at the moment and promptly hits me on the head with it. Usually, there's a least some warning, but not this time. The ungrateful wretch. I stay up until 4:30 working to make sure he has a forum he can use for his chauvinistic mumblings and insults, and all I get is a whack on the head. Then to top it all off, I sit through class and end up almost stabbing Moore in the back with my pencil because he's showing clear signs of being around Scholl too much. Something to do with calling female athletes 'almost criminal' or something. I don't remember. At any rate, there's a big-headed idiot out there with a cloak who needs taken down a peg or five. Donations to the cause can be sent to CPO #357. Weapons and explosives will be accepted also, although they'll have to be smuggled on campus.
Once again, it's after four and I'm posting to my blog. I seriously need to get my sleep schedule back on track. But at least tonight it's not my fault; had to mess with the forums due to unplanned pruning. Most things are back now. I'm going to go to bed and see what it looks like in the morning.
Yeah, it's really late on a Saturday night, and no, I'm not going to church in the morning. I'm evil, evil person.
Anyway, today we have Yet More Proof That Life Sucks. Or at least as far as my roommate is concerned. It hurts me to see her all torn up about this guy; they're both in full agreement about their feelings for each other, yet they have decided it just won't work to be 'together' right now. Which brings up another point. Would somebody please give me the definition of 'together'? I would dearly love to know.
Other than that, life's been fairly decent the past few days. Hootenanny was great; I definitely enjoyed it. Although, seeing Amelio in a dress is something that will haunt me for years to come. Deeply disturbing. Quite amusing, though.
You know, this is all a fairly good example of my life here at college. Incredible towering heights of emotion, which only serve to contrast more with the depths that come before and after. If I wanted to show off my geekiness, I could draw you the graph of the first 20 years of my emotional life. I could probably even express it with a function. It would be fairly flat up until I came here to school, then all of a sudden it starts oscillating wildly. There's probably some deep, complicated mental theory to explain this; lucky for me, I don't study psychology, so I'll never know what it is. Maybe Sheltered-Childhood-Syndrome with a little Christian-Fundamentalist-Education-Syndrome. Not that those are bad in themselves, but they sure make for an exciting contrast when I get out even this little way into the world. Life sure is a lot more interesting now.