Tomorrow's Activities

I stopped by Future Shop to see what time they open early tomorrow morning and there were already 5 people camped outside drinking mini-shot bottles of Jack Daniels and playing Magic: TG hudling together for warmth. They were camped out with lawn chairs and a small camping table, one of them had been there since 3pm Christmas afternoon.

I'll be there tomorrow to make a purchase. I'm buying that P4 2.8GHz system. They've dropped the price another hundred dollars (from $1599) to $1399 and upped the video card capacity from 64 MB ATI Radeon 9000 mobile to a 128 MB ATI Radeon 9000 mobile. I had bought it online today, actually, but thought better of waiting the 3 weeks for it to come in by mail; I cancelled the order just after I got a confirmation. So I'm going to try my luck at buying it in store at 6am tomorrow morning so I can get home and format it (who wants a computer registered with the name "Future" anyway?) . My machines have manly names like "Goober" and "Baggy" (not really, but they rhyme with it).

I'll be up at 4:30am tomorrow, about 4 hours before my girlfriend wakes up to go to work.

-Dropping large wads of cash

Portable Computation

How does this nice little lappy grab ya? It'd come out to just over $1.5k, of course I don't have the money, and would be sweeeet. I've never done the Pentium thing, I've always stuck with AMD (and my Duron 750). So Pentium IV 2.8GHz, 512 DDR, 60GB HDD, 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 GPU ooooooooh. I almost walked out of the store with it yesterday.

Christmas Partying

Tonight is the Eve before Christmas and the same as every year before is a family Christmas party. Yet another excuse for friends and family to get together and drink themselves stupid (and drive home afterward :P dumbasses) but to eat and visit as well.

I've a couple more presents to wrap in preparation for tomorrow; I've got to dig out the stockings and lay them across the couch with care. And make a (hopefully) quick stop by the post office to pick up my parcel which came in JIT (just in time, like the Java compiler).

-I'll keep ya posted with Christmas goodies

School's out and it is proven

I'm at the University right now, monitoring the Library information commons area. Usually on a Monday at this time, I'd have had enough with the students requesting my help. Not so much that I don't like helping, it's the repetitiveness. However, I digress; Today it is eerily quiet. There 6 students sitting down at any of the 40 computers in this area of the Library, meanwhile the other part of the commons area is closed. It's so quiet in here, I'm almost falling asleep.

-Deitel Java Swing

Programming Knowledge

I've written all my exams so they are out of my hands. Only 6 days to Christmas, wow. That's getting close. My birthday coming up here fairly soon, too. So now that the semester is over and the holidays are here I've found time to relax and do my own thing.

I've been playing with SuSE on my home computer. I've played through the original Half-Life and am now 3/4 the way through the addon, OpForce and will be playing through Blue Shift as well.

I'm also coding a toolkit for the game I'd been programming off and on since last year. I'd recently rewritten it with my knowledge of data structures and a new resolve. I read about serialization a couple days ago, combined the two and viola I can create my own database. I have tools that allow me to graphically create objects in my game.

-Knowledge is power

Wandering around in my head

3 hours and counting down until my third exam. I'm feeling alright about the test, really, I'm not feeling alright knowing that no matter how much I've studied the professor is still going to give me a bare pass. Like the post recently on Slashdot this professor has high expectations. The class is titled "Data Structures" but I call it, and appropriately so, "Introduction to Mark Allen Weiss". The prof doesn't grade fairly on knowledge and concept, no. He grades on how accurate your code is to the author of the book. Wrote some code that works as well or better than the example in the book? Well, if it were in the lab and it works, congratulations you've just earned yourself a grade of 2/2; however if it was on the exam and the prof actually has to look at your code and analyze it... I'm sorry, you've earned 0 out of 0.5 and there's nothing you can do to argue the grade.

-Reasons tenure is crap

Exams

Oh what fun, I've written two exams. I've two more left. One tomorrow and another the day after. Data Structures and Statistics to go, Digital Logic/PC Hardware and Principles of Computer Science/Scheme are finished. I wrote that last one today, and was it ever tough. The first question was worth 43% of the exam grade, I did my best.

I've installed SuSE 9.1 pro on my computer. So now I can dual boot WinXP/SuSE 9.1 ! w00t. I've yet to configure my 'net in SuSE but that's just a few moments time.

Now, Half-Life 2. I want it. I really want it. However, to play HL2 I need a computer that can run HL2. The closest I'm going to get to a computer that can run HL2 is the laptop I'm about to buy. I'm waiting for Christmas and my birthday to come and go so I can put as much money into it as I can. Hopefully that includes a video card and wireless g card as well. Mmmm,

-technology

When Small becomes Medium

Some guys could only hope this happens to them, if you know what I mean. But this isn't a tale of growth in size, though it is about inflation. Tim Hortons, over the past year and a half, has undergone a total transformation. It started with their donuts; they stopped making them fresh in store and started bringing them in frozen. I stopped ordering their apple fritters when they started that. Next was their tea. It used to be that you could order any sized tea for $1, which made sense as you are paying for the tea bag, getting the hot water (any size) gratis. Since then, you are now charged per size; they claim they 'steep' their tea. Crap. And I've since stopped ordering their tea. Tonight, however, has struck me as the last straw. I walked into Tim Hortons craving timbits (donut holes). I ordered a 20 pack, a small pack of timbits. When asked to pay for the order, I gave the cashier $2. However the cashier informed me that it was not enough money. I look at the sign and it says 10 pack: $1.50, 20 pack $2.50 sooo WTF!?! When does a small pack become a medium? I'm sorry Tim Hortons, you'll only be seeing me in passing.

-Kreamy, Krispy Kreamy

OKLUG

Linux Users Group meeting tonight, I'm going to try to learn something. Last month, a retired professor from Waterloo attended. He'd been using Linux for a month at that point. He and a few other of the attendees got into a conversation of slide rules, and how the slide rule was his preferred method of calculation at the University (you see, he is a retired Mathematics professor). The meeting will be split into two sessions, one for new users and another that focuses on a specific area. This months 'specific area' is network security, which leads into hacking, etc. Last month I learned how to use the wget command, a very nice command to know.

Meetings
*I'd really like to attend a 2600 chapter meeting. As far as I know, there are none in the area. According to the 2600 site, the closest one is about 4 hours from where I live and I can't drive that just for a 2 hour meeting.
*I'd like to start a MUD meeting. I could call it the MMM for MUD Monthly Meeting. Or maybe Medievia Monthly Meeting. I dunno, but it'd be nice if there were people I knew who played the game.

-indeed

It's Christmas Time, again

I'm not being cynical, people wouldn't like that. I like the holidays. I love the holidays. My family throws a huge Christmas party every year, I go for the food and company. There are staff Christmas parties to attend; I have no idea if I actually have a staff party, but my girlfriend has one. And hers is going to rawk. Everything is paid for, there's no fee for bringing a guest (me) along. 2 drinks are paid for and a free taxi ride home, not to mention the buffet and 2 hours free use of pool tables.

I added a Tamagotchi to my Christmas list. I'd never had one before, so I thought it might be fun to try it out. They've got infrared technology now, so one "giga-pet" can talk to another and exchange gifts. Or if they are really compatible, they may have an egg together.

And books, I'm a fan of books. I've requested "The Looking Glass Wars" which is a look at the twisted world of Alice in Wonderland.

Speaking of Alice, I'd completed the story last week. I can remember how the first book ended, but I can't remember how the second, "Through the Looking Glass" ends.

-snow flakes cold

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland phase I

I've finished AA and have moved on to "Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There". I had no idea how 'together' the two books were. I had long known of Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, but did you know they don't make an appearance until book 2? And how about the Walrus and the Carpenter? Book 2 again!

I'm quite intrigued to play American McGee's Alice now. I can pick it up for under $10 at Future Shop in town, or at Electronic Boutique in the mall. I may have to do that. And the live-action movie of Alice remade in the late 90s as well, I've got to make time to watch that. I've had it for months but never looked at it.

-a classic

Chilling at work

Lab monitoring in the school's library Information Commons area, trying to find something useful to do. People speaking to me from across the desk, they are standing at the printer, I'm on the other side at my computer. The printer is acting up, forgetting print-jobs, etc. I'm trying to entertain myself, I've got 'The Annotated Alice' hardcover beside me. I'm half done that, I could finish the other half before I get out of here at 5. No, I've got two midterms this week. One tomorrow, another the day after.

The students are looking at the printer with an inquisitive kink in their neck. Like a bird trying to look straight up, it has to turn it's head 90* to the left or right so its eye is pointed in the right direction. A printer is out of paper, I get up to refill the tray. Something to do, I got my excercise.

-Someone complains they've printed twice and there's nothing happening... yet

Knowledge

Knowledge is power. I realized this yesterday morning, that knowledge -- to know -- is a better quality to possess than general intelligence. I don't have facts or figures to back this up, it just hit me that in order to be successfull in studies you must in the end possess the knowledge you are attempting to learn. Maybe intelligence and knowledge are the same thing, I don't know as I haven't though of it.

I was just browsing the bit bucket at dev/null and found an interesting read on liberty and freedom of knowledge, aka hackerism. They quote a founding father of America:

"The spirit of resistance to government," Jefferson wrote, "is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive."

-That makes sense to me

Just noticed

MSN Hotmail has increased storage capacity. They now allow 250MB of storage per user for a base account, and their plus offers 2GB of storage. Meh, I've already got gMail so I've no use for MSN plus.

On a side note, my girlfriend is driving a sexy Toyota Echo Hatchback with a spoiler et al.

-Schmoove

Circus Freak

Balancing act. Get it? Clowns in a circus sometimes balance things, like plates, on big sticks. Balancing act... circus... clowns.

So I feel like a jackass. My girlfriend has been great to me only deserving of praise, and behold! she reads a blog from September 21 that had me venting my frustration about the two of us. I'd since forgotten about it; I'm sure anyone reading this and familiar with blogs can understand how it feels to write something down and get the frustration off your chest. It was history to me, just a record of what happened and now in the past. She was hurt by it, and rightfully so. I had written some pretty harsh stuff.
But the thing is, it means nothing to me now. I'm feeling good, she was feeling good. Now I'm feeling pretty bad because what I had written really hurt her. So for that, hun, I'm sorry. I'll be careful with what I write and I'll come to you if I have any serious problems, rather than turning to my blog and broadcasting it to the world.

-Don't go looking for it, I've removed the post

What's going on?

My girlfriend has an appointment (or something to do) tomorrow at 10:15am and when I asked, curiously, what it was she said she couldn't tell me. Weird. I try to ask her again, she says she'll tell me later. Odd behaviour. She got mad, thought I had snooped around in her papers and stuff trying to find out what is going on tomorrow. I've got no idea; after getting slightly irritated I decided that 'what the hell', if she doesn't want to tell me then she has her reason. Maybe it's something that will benefit me in a pleasurable way?

I'd been reminded, through this situation, that things aren't always what they seem. You see, I'd received my 'Zen Flesh Zen Bones' book and thought of one of the quips I'd read today. It was of a painter who charged an exhorbitant fee for his paintings. A geisha had hired him to paint something and said she'd pay any price. The man charged her the most he'd ever, which she did actually pay to the man. She commented to her friend that the man cared only for money and asked for another painting. Again, the man asked for a large sum, which he was paid. Unbeknowest to everyone that the man used the money to stock-pile grain for the village he was from. The village was frequently struck with plague and famine for which the man freely gave away the grain. As well, the man's master never saw the realization of his dream of a temple completed. The painter used the rest of the money to construct the temple. After doing so, the man never touched a paint brush again.

-Puts things in perspective

Wonder of books

I love books. If I had an easily replenishable source of currency I'd be buying books. I'd ordered a text book online, for school, at the beginning of September. I got the book the day before the class started; the book came in mint condition and I bought it used! I had such a great experience (it was my first time every buying something online) that I bought another book through the same retailer. I got my "Schematics of Computation" book in record time, so I ordered "Zen Flesh Zen Bones -- 1968 edition" soon after. The description was "like new" so we'll see when it gets here. I paid $1.44 for it plus shipping and handling which brought the book to just over $10 and the import fee I'll have to undoubtedly pay as it's coming from Michigan.

It's addicting, I really want to buy more online. I was thinking a RubicsCube from Ebay or something... but I need to know when to stop. I could buy a RubicsCube at Toys'r'us only 5 minutes from here, and that comes with a Rubics study guide to help solve the cube.

Work starts tomorrow. I'd finished my summer research project and took a couple weeks to relax before school. Now in addition to continuing my research, I'm working as a lab monitor around campus as well. My first shift is a three hour shift tomorrow that ends at 5pm. You know I'm just going to be sitting in front of a computer playing Medievia (Arrecobn of Crimson Rose, Town 2) trying to get someone to walk me through the catacombs so I can get my 38 comb eggs and level to 28. I've been ready to level for almost a week now.

I cooked an awesome dinner tonight. Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches. My girlfriend was very pleased, and I was pleased to see that she was pleased. Godamn I need to get that Zen book and fast. "Expect Nothing" is the motto I'm trying to grind into myself. Oh, road trip this Thursday. I'm skipping Thursday to Monday to drive 10 hours to a wedding for my girlfriend. She's the maid of honor, she's got to be there. So I'm going to try to make the best of it.

-Another time I should be in bed but I can't bring myself to lay there right now

School Ties

It's the day after Labor Day and you know what that means: Back to school today, except I don't really have to go. My first class (and only class) starts at 2:30, ending at 3:50 but today is 'orientation day' meaning if you're not a first year student then don't show up because you already know what the hell you are doing. I've got to go to campus today to fill out some paperwork so they can start paying me for my services to the school, ie, lab monitoring. I've got two shifts a week (Monday and Tuesday) for a total of 5 hours. On top of that I can put in a maximum 15 hours a week working on my moth project for my calculus prof.

-Meet you at the quad

Fsck the System

I had borrowed 4 library books from the regional library a few weeks ago. Yesterday they were due back, so I renewed them all. All except one, it had a hold on it. Fair enough, I thought. It's late, I'll bring it in and pay the late fee. Well, I drop it off, returning it. I then wander the library trying to find something that might interest me. Know what I found on the shelf? The same book that I couldn't renew because it had a hold on it. The book was returned late and I was being fined meanwhile the book they wanted was already in store and on their shelf. Know what else? When I asked "Could you remove that late charge, please?" with an explanation they gave me a venerable "fsck you and have a good day".

-Some people's children with mullets

Working Late

I slacked a bit today at work, but never fear because I am working late. I've just finished my rough presentation for the UBC seminar this Wednesday. I've got to polish it up some tomorrow in front of my fellow students and professor.

*Sidenote* Hehehe, one of my cats was just sneaking along the heater that runs along the floor on the wall. The cat was sneaking around behind the entertainment centre, which I didn't like. I stuck my head down there trying to get her out but she wasn't budging. So I blew at her, which she didn't like, I guess. It scared the piss out of her and she booked it out the other side. I think she may be staying away from there from now on.

So my girlfriend just started a new job, congratulations to her. The downside to that, I leave tomorrow at 4pm and she doesn't get off work until 5pm. The job she works at restricts her from seeing me, so I won't get to see her again until I get home Wednesday (or Thursday) evening. G'night to you all.

-Wish me luck

Sleeplessness (forced)

It's 12:40 am and I'm out of bed. I spent the last 40 minutes reading D.B. Weiss' novel Lucky Wander Boy. I'm tired, and I should be in bed. I've got another day of work ahead of me tomorrow.

As per usual, I tell you when I've started playing Medievia again. I ditched my mage, Cimn, choosing to start over as a cleric, Arrecobn. I play it at work, and it does prove to be a distraction at times. Which leads me to my next topic.

Work; I'm tired of it now. I'm stressed by it. I've got 3 days of actual work left before I'm finished for the summer. The other two days are reserved for my seminar at UBC and the drive home the day after. I'm stressed because I've got so much work to do and no time to do it. My professor hired me for my programming skills and at different times along the way she took it upon herself to add activities and responsibilities to my workload. Now I'm expected to write a report (approx. 5-8 pages) on my findings thus far, as well as the short speech to give at UBC.

However, this is not the most stressful part of my job. No, I've also got to use the program I've created to cultivate data. On top of that, I'm also the one who analyzes the data. I think this should be left in the hands of my professor as she's the mathematician. She knows Matlab, the program used to analyze the data; I, however, do not.

Today (Thursday) I was supposed to run the program 100 times with 500 moths each time and 5 traps, using a different seed every session. To do that would have taken 8 hours 20 minutes alone. A bash script was written to run the 100 sessions automatically/consecutively so I could play Medievia. My work day is 7 hours long, so I didn't get any work done today. Now I'm stressing that I'm going to get in shit for that when I get in to work and she sees what was done. Maybe I won't tell her about the script.

-And I should sleep or I'm going to be mean tomorrow