November Rant Archives

Well, you asked for it, and I delivered... all the Daily Rants for the month of November. There are quite a few days missing from this month, due to Thanksgiving break and a couple all-nighters. Tune in next month for the December Rant Archives.

Many Miles to Go Before I Sleep
November 30th, 2001 - 1:11 AM
So, I was up until 6:30 this morning working on my AI paper, which is not an experience I'd like to repeat. I had to get up again at like 11:30 so I could meet with Neevred and hand the darn thing in, so I'm running on about five hours of sleep. That wouldn't be a big deal, except that I also had tons of things to do today. After presenting my program with Neevred and grabbing some lunch, I headed back to my dorm to do some laundry. I worked on Greek while my clothes were getting their clean on, and it actually wasn't too bad. By the time I finished folding all of my clothes, it was after 5:00, and Esor was bugging me to go to dinner. There was important television to watch after dinner, so I basically did nothing else until 9:00. Then it was time to head to the HUB where I met a friend to work on some Digital Systems homework. It took three hours to complete, which is quite a big longer than I was willing to spend. Now I'm writing this rant before I start studying for my Greek quiz tomorrow. I've also got an exam in Digital Systems tomorrow, but I should be able to take care of that between classes.

Sorry about the lack of update yesterday, but by the time I finished my paper, ranting about my life was the last thing on my mind. I seriously can't wait until I'm done with classes tomorrow. I have some calculus homework to do over the weekend, but besides that my schedule should be completely filled with video games for two day straight. Of course, I'll still hang out with my friends and go to Dudes, but there will be a whole lot of video game playing. Anyway, I can barely keep my eyes open right now, and it will be even worse after I've studied Greek for about an hour, so I'm going to call it a night.

Currently Listening to: Police - Message in a Bottle
This is one of my favorite Police songs, which isn't saying too much, because I tend to like every song on my playlist. I distinctly remember listening to this song in my Dad's stereo room, singing "Sending out an SOS" over and over again. Those were good times.

When Will I Ever Learn?
November 28th, 2001 - 1:45 AM
Well, apparently I won't learn anytime soon, because my AI paper is due in less than 36 hours, and I still haven't started writing yet. To be fair though, I have taken about half of my notes, and I have a pretty good sense of what I'm going to talk about. And even though I'm a little out of practice, I should be able to write a four-page paper in about two hours, provided that my notes are good. So all is not lost really, though it seems that way right now. Neevred and I worked on the program for a few more hours today, and though we fixed a whole bunch of gigantic errors, we still have a little ways to go. Our program does its thing for a few minutes, but the final result looks totally random, which is not what we're going for. But I figure we're due for a good grade, even if our program doesn't get much better by Thursday. We've got the general ideas right, and our task was pretty ambitious in the first place. But once Thursday rolls around, it won't really matter, since the program will be handed in for good. Unfortunately my post-Thursday workload isn't as small as I'd originally hoped. I've got a Greek quiz and a Discrete Math exam, in addition to a Logic Design homework. But after Friday, it's smooth sailing until finals week... I hope. In related news, it's hot as monkeys in my room right now. Like I've mentioned before, the valve on our radiator doesn't work, so the damn thing spews out hot air 24 hours a day. It's actually not too bad when we have the door open, since we get some air circulation. But it's considered rude to play music with your door open at 2:00 AM, so I'm suffocating right now. Maybe I could just sleep outside or something...

Currently Listening to: Del Amitri - Roll to Me
This is a cool little song I used to see on VH1 a few years back, though I've never heard another song by them. It's a nice, upbeat song, and even though it's just over two minutes long, I'm rather fond of it. Ordinarily I'm annoyed by short songs, because as soon as you get into the music, the darned thing's over. Also, the video features a bunch of babies with adult heads, which is always amusing, if slightly disturbing.

I've Only One Regret
November 27th, 2001 - 12:11 AM
Actually, I've got a lot more regrets than that, but my biggest one lately is taking Artificial Intelligence. I just spent three hours over at Neevred's, and even though he actually did most of the programming tonight, that's three hours too many. I'm heading over there again tomorrow after dinner, and we'd best finish then. And if that weren't bad enough, I still have that paper to write. I've got a pretty good idea on what to write about, but I could definitely use another week or two to get my thoughts organized. But I should be fine if I just abstain from video games for a while, and my weekend will be that much better. Concerning today’s Haiku, I was doing homework in the HUB today, right next to two trash cans clearly marked "Newspaper" and "Plastic." I don't know about you, but neither of those words is spelled anything like "Trash." This didn't stop my fellow college students from throwing their half-eaten hamburgers and pizza crusts into them though. Even employees ignored the labels, which I found surprising. Don't people know how to read anymore? Not much else to say, since I really didn't do anything of interest today, and I've got an early class tomorrow, so I should be sleeping right now. Maybe when I'm done with all this AI crap, I'll actually do a little work on the site... don't count on it though.

Currently Listening to: Information Society - What's On Your Mind
Back in the day, one of my biggest pet peeves was songs that have spoken word in the middle of them. I've since gotten over that, and it's a good thing too, since this song's got plenty of it. Right now the only thing that really bugs me is when an artist mentions their name in their songs. This is a pretty cool song, one of my favorites from the fantastic decade known as the 80's. Think what you will of it, but it spawned many a single that are good for enjoyable listening.

It's More of a Tease Than Anything Else
November 26th, 2001 - 12:59 AM
Just got back from Thanksgiving break today, and boy are my arms tired! I know that doesn't make any sense at all, but I just had an urge to mention that. If any of you loyal fans out there noticed that there wasn't a new rant Wednesday morning, I applaud you for your observation skills. And if you're wondering, my Haiku up there isn't sarcastic in the least. I'm actually looking forward to Christmas break, since I'll have both my computer and my PlayStation 2 at home. I was up until about 3:00 getting sources for my AI paper, and since I had to be at Greek at 10 the next morning, I decided to go to sleep rather than make a post. Unfortunately, getting sources was as far as I got on the paper, since I didn't even look at my backpack over the weekend, much less remove items and begin working with them. I did play a lot of Super Monkey Ball though, which is a great game, despite what Samoht says. I also started playing Valkyrie Profile for the PS1, which adds yet another game to distract me from my studies. Between EverQuest, Valkyrie Profile, and Lost Vikings, I'm not even going to have time for Civilization III. I'm being pulled in four different directions here, so homework is the last thing on my mind. Actually, besides that paper due on Thursday I probably will be able to dedicate some time to all of these games, so all is not lost.

I didn't eat too much turkey on Thursday, but I did have a lot of mashed potatoes. My mom was embarrassed by the huge quantities of starch I was consuming, but I ate everything I took, so all was not lost. They weren't quite lumpy enough for my tastes, but the gravy was good, as was everything else. I had to heat up a can of corn myself though, which was the extent of the cooking I did for the day. And of course, I finished the meal with a slice of Grasshopper pie, a dessert my mom has been making for years. In fact, it's gotten to the point where my relatives demand it whenever there's a special occasion. My grandparents would literally break into tears if she forgot to make it one year. Well, maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but everybody does look forward to it. Besides the eating and the Super Monkey Ball, all I really did was sleep. I hung out with Samoht a bit, and I saw Elocina once or twice, but besides that I mostly lounged around the house, occasionally reading The Hobbit or watching TV. The real highlight of my weekend was Saturday, when Samhot, Edmij, and I headed to the Regal Cinema over on Oaks to see The One, which is a pretty good action movie, if chock full of plot holes. With stadium seating and 24 screens, I'm definitely going to head over to Oaks over Christmas break. After the movie we headed back to Samoht's to play some Grand Theft Auto 3. I've never played any of the other GTA games, but I had a lot of fun with this one. Edmij, Samhot, and I basically spent the whole time trying to steal FBI cars. Depending on how many innocent people or cops you kill, you get a wanted rating. When you hit 3 stars, the cops send a chopper after you. At five stars the FBI starts hunting you down in their snooty black cars, and at six stars, I've been told they send the army after you. Try as we might, we could never get all the way up to six stars. We did manage to cruise around in the FBI cars though, at least until we got blown up.

Currently Listening to: Billy Joel - Keeping the Faith
This is from Billy Joel's Greatest Hits Volume 3, which I actually own, along with his first two. His Greatest Hits along comprise more songs than Ace of Base has ever released. It's some pretty good stuff though, and while I haven't really gotten a chance to hear any of his albums, I'm sure I'd like them a bit. But the fifty odd songs on the CDs I do have should satisfy all of my Billy Joel needs for a long time.

Thanksgiving Can't Come Soon Enough
November 20th, 2001 - 12:35 AM
I programmed for another three hours or so today, though it's actually not as bad as my constant complaining would indicate. I'd much rather program for three hours than say, do statistics for three hours. And that's pretty impressive, since this program isn't the most interesting thing in the world. It's the most complicated thing I've ever done by far, but I'd much rather be doing a game or something. I mean, working on Quintessence last semester was awesome, even if we got screwed out of entering the competition. We didn't know how to make the program into an executable, so the people over at Microsoft probably couldn't judge it. I figure that's got to be the case, because if they saw our incredibly original game, they never would have awarded the cash prize to a Nibblers clone... I still can't believe that. We'll probably program for a good seven hours tomorrow, during which we hope to finish the assignment. I'm slightly less hopeful than Neevred is, though I do hope to get almost all of it done. I've already got one gigantic AI assignment to worry about over Thanksgiving break... I don't need another.

Apparently I didn't get enough sleep last night, because I was dozing off in three of my four classes. One of them was Greek, which I hardly ever fall asleep in. Hopefully the teacher won't take off any points or anything, since 25% of our grade is attendance and participation. I’ve never missed a day of class, and I rarely ever fall asleep. Plus, I ask tons of questions, and so far she hasn't complained about their irrelevance yet. I've only got three more classes that I have to go to this week, since calculus is optional tomorrow, and everything but Greek is cancelled on Wednesday. I'll be done classes at about 11:00, then I've got four hours to eat, do my Greek homework, and find five sources for my AI paper. I hope to be over at Neevred's by 3:00, where I'll probably stay until 11:00 PM or later. Both the paper and the project are due next Wednesday, and then it's smooth sailing until finals week, which will give me plenty of time to play EverQuest and Civ III. I can't wait.

Currently Listening to: Aphex Twin - Wax the Nip
Whenever I hear the name Aphex Twin, I always assume it's a musical group, but it turns out to be just one guy. Llahned brought a bunch of his stuff over last year, and it doesn't bother me enough to get rid of it. Some of the songs are really cool, though this one is mediocre at best. The song titled "4" is featured in one of those stupid AntiDrug commercials. Don't get me wrong, I'm totally against drugs, but I'm also against incredibly lame commercials. But I guess commercials work subconsciously anyway, so they're having some positive benefit...

As If Yesterday Wasn't Enough...
November 19th, 2001 - 12:27 AM
Yep, today was a repeat of yesterday in every sense of the word. I woke up at about 11:30, took a shower, and headed over to Neevred's room. He and Llon joined me for brunch, where we sat with Nostre and two of her friends that I've never met before. I knew their names at one point, but with all the stress of my day, I seem to have forgotten them. Of course, I rarely see one of Nostre's friends more than once, so it's likely that nobody will be the wiser. We had some interesting conversation, I suppose, though we basically just reaffirmed that I'm a total poser when it comes to all things Star Wars. Neevred and I headed back to his room to program after brunch, while Llon headed over to a study lounge to work on some EE homework. I programmed for about four hours straight, completing three or four functions, and having one nervous breakdown. About one hour into my work for the day, I realized that I was doing everything wrong. I can't stand it when I waste time like that, especially when we don't have much to spare. Neevred assures me that this sort of thing always happens when you make big programs though, and all you can do is plan things out more carefully. And just because I didn't get enough excitement today and yesterday, I get to do even more programming tomorrow after dinner... and Tuesday after lunch.

After my programming adventure, I headed back to my room to do some Greek homework. It didn't take too long, which is good, because I desperately needed some Civ III time. I played for about three hours, and at the end of the day, I've decided to start over. It turns out that I was doing tons of things wrong, mostly because I haven't learned all of the new rules yet. The game is very similar to Civ II, which I played a few years ago, and for that reason, I'm having trouble understanding the differences there are. I must have wasted twenty turns or so because I didn't know how to give my cities access to iron, which is needed to make all the really cool units of the ancient era. Interesting story, which I almost forgot about... on Friday night, we got quite a treat in front of the bathroom around the corner. Somebody had obviously had too much to drink, and puked all over the floor. Just three more steps and they would have been safely inside the bathroom, but I guess they weren't up for the challenge. Fortunately somebody applied something to take the stank away, so it was only a nauseating sight visually. And even that only lasted until the next morning when one of our wonderful housing ladies took care of it. Also, there won't be any updates to my site during Thanksgiving break, since I'm leaving my computer here for the weekend. I know you'll all be terribly disappointed...

Currently Listening to: The annoying high-pitched screech of Leah's monitor
His stupid monitor started screeching sometime last semester, and I haven't been able to figure out why. It comes and goes at random, and the only way to prevent it is to turn the monitor off. I've got no qualms turning it off when he's not using it, but it becomes rather difficult when he's trying to do something on it. Oh well, I guess it's building up my tolerance for annoying things, which is always good.

Four Hours of Programming... Wheee!
November 18th, 2001 - 1:21 AM
Remember that AI project that I've been mentioning quite frequently? Well, it's due a week from Thursday, and our program really doesn't do all that much. After eating brunch by myself, I headed over to Neevred's to get some work done. I stayed until dinner, which was about 4 1/2 hours later. We got a lot of stuff done, but not as much as we had hoped to. We're planning on doing the same thing tomorrow, but with even more programming time. We'd like to get it done before Thanksgiving break, because that's when I have to write my term paper. Curse Schafer for having such a deceptively easy class. There was no homework for the entire semester, and the only exam we had was 40 questions and quite easy. Suddenly we have two projects due, each with 25% of our grade. Well, it's not really all that sudden, since we knew about them on the first day of class, and we were giving official instructions after about the first month. But Neevred's had lots of stuff due for other classes, and I had important things like EverQuest to attend to. I'm just glad that neither of us have much homework to do this weekend, or we'd be in serious trouble.

I headed back to my room after dinner, to play a little Civ III. I haven't played any of Sid Meier's stuff for over a year, which has apparently made me rusty. I started a random map with seven enemy civilizations, and I was getting totally creamed. I guess I've forgotten all of the strategies I developed while playing Civ II and Alpha Centauri. The real problem is that I started the game on a rather small continent with four other civilizations. I usually play a conservative game, and I flounder when I don't have much room to expand in the beginning. And when your enemies are sitting inside a city behind walls, it takes a whole lot of archers to get them out of there. I'm going to try again tomorrow, this time with only four enemy civilizations. That should make thing a lot easier. After I had given up on ruling the world, Neevred gave me a call. All the TV lounges were being used, so he and Llon needed to borrow my room for their Bad Movie Night. We watched Ice Pirates and Deathwish III, both of which were very, very bad. They were quite entertaining though, which I something, I suppose. One of these days I'll convince them to have a Good Movie Night, though probably not anytime soon.

Currently Listening to: Genesis - That's All
Genesis is one of my favorite bands, and my love for them also extends to Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel, who coincidently appear right next to each other on my play list. Anyway, I picked up Genesis' Greatest Hits CD a few years ago, and it has served me well. My favorite Genesis song would have to be "Land of Confusion," though there are plenty of other good songs. I'll have to listen to more of their stuff when I get a chance... I'm sure my dad owns most, if not all of it.

Stupid Lousy Harry Potter
November 17th, 2001 - 2:23 AM
Why does that stupid jerk have to so darn popular? After my Stats class today, I figured I'd treat myself to 152 minutes of children's book wonderful. But it was not to be. I hopped on the bus at 3:50 to catch the 4:45 showing. The bus dropped me off at the mall at about 4:20, and then it was a quick hop across the street to the movie theater. On the way out of the mall parking lot, I came across a fellow college student going the same direction. I asked him where he was heading to, and he said the movie theater. After comparing theatrical tastes, we found we were both heading to the same show. Imagine out chagrin when upon arriving at the ticket booth, we found that not only was our desired showing sold out, but every single one from here until tomorrow... I should have expected it, since every single kid in the country loves those books, but I'm just not intelligent enough to call ahead for things like this. Anyway, we ended up seeing Monster's Inc, which was very funny, but not what I was hoping for. John Goodman and Billy Crystal are always fun to watch, and the little girl in the movie was the most adorable animated two-year-old I have ever seen, bar none. It's some of the best computer animation I've ever seen, second only to Final Fantasy. To help improve my spirits after having my cinematic dreams crushed, I picked up Civilization III at the local mall. I was originally going to ask for it as a Christmas present, but I guess I won't have to any more. I was obsessed with Civ II when I got it like five years ago, and this is going to be just as bad. Winter break can't come soon enough for me. Unfortunately, I won't be brining my computer home during Thanksgiving break. This will give me ample time to finish the AI paper that's due the week after break... which I haven't even started yet.

Dudes was very fun today, even though I got there a little late. As soon as I got there, this adorable little girl ran up to me. She yelled "Josh!" and jumped into my arms for a hug. This was terribly cute, but unfortunately my name is not Josh. But since she's only five, I didn't hold it against her. Another little girl was shocked when I told her I was nineteen, since she figured I was at least thirty. Once I convinced her properly, she spent the whole evening finding people older than me. This wasn’t a very difficult task, since there are a lot of people that are either 20 or 21 in the program. She also told me that my curly hair makes me look like a girl, but I think she's full of it. But even if it does, I think my beard sways my gender back towards the masculine side. She's probably only like six though, so I suppose her judgment could be flawed.

Currently Listening to: REM - How the West was Won and Where it Got Us
The fact that REM came up today isn't surprising, since I'm listening to my REM playlist. This is from one of the CD's Llon let me rip, and it's pretty cool. It's got some weird high-pitched noises going on in it, but I like it just the same. Really long title though...

Somebody Please Kill Me Now
November 16th, 2001 - 2:28 AM
Except for the occasional Bust-A-Move break, I've been doing homework for the last five hours. First it was statistics, where I only was able to solve three of the five problems. I'll have some time to finish them up tomorrow, but I'm not too hopeful. The two I was forced to skip are im-freaking-possible. After the statistics, I finished up a Digital Systems quiz for a while, then proceeded to do some Greek homework. And once I finished the Greek homework, it was time to study for my Greek quiz taking place tomorrow morning. Now, five hours of homework wouldn't have been too bad, if I had started before 9:00. If I had about two more hours of energy, I could probably finish it off. But there's no way that I'm staying up until 4 AM when I have a class at 9 tomorrow. Luckily I had the sweet rhythms of REM to keep me company during my scholarly adventures.

I'm seeing Harry Potter at 10:30 tomorrow, come Hell or high water. My current plans are to see it with Esor and Akira, but Llon tells me that they might be going back home with Leah tomorrow for the weekend. If that's the case, I'll just have to put out a general call to all of my friends to join me. This shouldn't take too long, since I've only got about four of them. Interesting EverQuest story: In order to purchase ore for blacksmithing, my shaman was forced to travel to Erudin, city of the Erudites. The Erudites are a race of supposedly evolved humans, and they consider themselves to be far superior to lowly Barbarians like myself. Whenever I try to engage them in conversation, they're like, "Oh, a talking pile of refuse. How novel!" or "I don't speak to Shamans like you, much less sell to them." Very aggravating... To make things better, I've been walking around killing things that the Erudites don't like. It will take a while, but after slaying about 300 kobolds, maybe one of them will give me the time of day. Snooty bastards. Anyway, it's way past my bed time, and my back really hurts from doing homework on my bed, so I'm gonna get going.

Currently Listeing to: Alphaville - Forever Young
Not to be confused with the Rod Stewart song with the same title, Alphaville's musical stylings are rarely matched, let alone exceeded. Actually, "Forever Young" is just another sappy 80's song, but I'm rather fond of it. It's been immortalized in one of my burned CDs, entitled "VF Mix Volume II: Songs to Peel Signs By."

I'm So Awesome it Hurts
November 15th, 2001 - 12:32 AM
Yep, I'm fantastic... wanna know why? It's because I got a 90% on my second Greek exam, and an 88% on my second Digital Systems exam. Not only is this keeping up my streak of good-but-not-excellent exam scores, it also means my first A. It's an A-, and if you want to get technical, I only really scored an 89.7, but it's an A all the same. I seriously have a good shot at getting an A in Greek this semester, which would totally rock. Today I asked my teacher what the Greek word for satyr was, and I was very disappointed to learn that it doesn't derive from the Greek word for goat. She explained that as far as the Greeks were concerned, satyrs were far better known for their sexual promiscuity than their half-goat bodies... who knew? And I'm totally not expecting the Greek word for centaur to look anything like the word for horse... but it probably will, just to piss me off. Stats was very boring today, even though I got some excellent news. I aced the extra credit assignment he gave us, which means my 72% on the last exam has turned into a perfect. Of course, this really only serves as a buffer against my upcoming bad homework grades. Since Xof has decided to shun me or something, I'm forced to work alone. And that's bad news. Now, I'm not totally sure Xof is out to get me, but get this... I got up to get a drink during Statistics, and when I got back, all the lead was missing from my mechanical pencil. Not too bothered by it, I simply refilled my pencil with the lead I keep in my backpack. But it was really, really weird. The next time Xof's back is turned... bam... his writing utensils are toast. Besides that, I think I did really well on my Discrete Math quiz today... or I failed it. I wasn't really sure about one of the concepts, and I'm too tired to look it up. Hope for the best.

I played a lot of EverQuest today, and I feel sort of bad. I mean, I've got a really hard Statistics assignment due on Friday that I haven't even started yet. But it's been a while since I traveled the world of Norrath, so I figured I was due. My shaman just scored level 11 today, which is pretty cool, but what I'm really waiting for is level 14. That's when I get all new spells, which is the coolest thing that can happen to a shaman. I could have sworn I read somewhere that the plural form of shaman is shamen… but after looking around on the internet, I’m not so sure. The world may never know. I've been killing gnolls lately, which would normally be no problem, except that I've been doing it in their home city. There were two or three times tonight were I was almost over come by six or twelve of the little buggers. Well, I've gotta get to sleep now, or I'll never be able to oversleep for AI in time.

Currently Listening to: No Doubt - Don't Speak
I got this CD from BMG a few years ago, which makes it one of the first CDs I ever owned. I used to like it a whole lot, but after a while I got sick of it. For some reason I decided to sell it to Cash Converters, which was the biggest mistake of my life. I only got like $1.00 for it, if that, and now that it's gone, I miss Tragic Kingdom terribly. Luckily I've got my mp3 collection to make the hurting stop.

And the Survey Says...
November 14th, 2001 - 1:28 AM
I don't care what you heathens think... Louie Anderson is the best host of Family Feud... ever. Anyway, I really just want to let you know about this survey I just finished filling out. I received it in an e-mail, but as a cheap ploy to get more hits, I've decided to put it on my website. It's pretty amusing, if I do say so myself... and I do. Today was a pretty good day, even though I slept through AI for the first time in weeks. Neevred assures me that we did nothing productive, though I did miss Mendel being made fun of by the teacher. Greek was good as usual, as I continued my campaign to ask questions constantly. So far they've all been relevant though, and the teacher hasn't yelled at me yet. Plus I'm more likely to remember something if it's the answer to a question I asked. Calculus was boring, though I actually understood the notes for once. In fact, I stopped playing EverQuest this afternoon, because I had a sudden urge to finish the assignment that's due on Thursday. I also finished The World of Tiers, and started reading The Hobbit. I'd like to at least get through Fellowship of the Rings by the time the movie comes out.

I had another encounter with Nostre today. If you're wondering, Nostre used to be called TGWFUA, but we both agreed that was a pretty lame alias... and it sounds nothing like nostril... Anyway, today at dinner I was joined by Llon, Akira, and Esor. About ten minutes into our meal, Nostre showed up with a friend of hers. I actually remember her name, but I'm too lazy to give her an alias. We chatted for a while, until my original three companions peaced out. A few minutes after they left, Neevred showed up. I had already finished eating a long time ago, but I stuck around because I'm lame like that. After Neevred had been around for a while, one of Nostre's friends who works at the dining commons joined us. He was eating an illegal meal while on the clock, and it was my duty to keep his manager from seeing him. I did an excellent job, if you're wondering, but he still refuses to pay for my ticket to the Harry Potter movie. Anyway, Nostre's friends were really cool, even if they do like physics... I guess nobody's perfect. And yes, I know that I say "anyway" far too often, but I really don't know any more good transitional phrases. Since I spent so much time at dinner, I had to skip my Christian Student Fellowship meeting. I feel kinda bad about it, but I'll be sure to attend next week. I also missed out on a free candy bar, because the dining commons was closed before everybody finished eating.

Currently Listening to: Moody Blues - The Voice
This is another one of my favorite Moody Blues songs, also pilfered from my dad's Time Traveler box set. It's got a cool little beat, and it reminds me of Master of Orion 2 whenever I hear it... what more could you ask for?

Just Another Manic Monday
November 13th, 2001 - 12:22 AM
I knew I'd quote the Bangles for one of my rant titles, I just didn't know it would take so long. Today actually wasn't very manic as far as days go, but it wasn't very depressing either. I woke up at 8:35, and after taking a shower and catching up on my webcomics, I actually went to all of my classes. I know it's unprecedented, but I figured with less than four weeks of classes left, I can afford to put some effort into my studies. Plus I should be getting my Greek and Digital Systems exams back soon, and I'm anxious to see how I did. Lunch was excellent today, because of a wonderful deal that the sub shop in the HUB is having. To celebrate JoePa's 324th victory a couple weeks ago, they're selling any sub, a large drink, and a bag of chips for just $3.24. After my 10% student discount, that's less than three dollars... quite a bargain. I elected to get some pretzels instead of chips though, and since pretzels last so darned long, it's like two meals in one. Also, I got a Buy One, Get One Free offer from a bottle of Mountain Dew. Unfortunately, this means I'll have to scrounge up the money to buy the first one...

The rest of my day went pretty well. I talked to Neevred a little about our AI project, and he informed me that he'll never be able to work on it... ever. Apparently all of his classes have elected to assign impossible programs for the next few weeks. But the program isn't due until after Thanksgiving break, so we have a little time still. I actually didn't get any reading today, which is very disappointing, since the book is getting quite interesting. I did sew 114 hats though, out of polar bear, snow leopard, and white wolf skins. I'm taking about EverQuest, if you haven't already guessed, and though I turned a small profit, it was quite boring. Luckily Leah was watching Ally McBeal at the time, so I had something to keep me distracted. Ordinarily I wouldn't consider watching Ally McBeal to be lucky, but I actually enjoy the courtroom scenes. Well, I've got to get to sleep since I have an early class tomorrow. Sorry for the boring post... I'll try to do something interesting tomorrow.

Currently Listeing to: Enya - Only If
Sweet! Enya comes up on the playlist again... this must be a sign. Anyway, "Only If" is one of the two new songs that came with her greatest hits album, Paint the Sky with Stars. The other new song was called "Paint the Sky with Stars," interestingly enough, and I didn't like it all that much. Of course, I recently decided that I love Enya, so maybe I'll download it in the near future.

Biggest Slacker in the World
November 12th, 2001 - 12:58 AM
I woke up this afternoon fully intending to get some things done today. But unfortunately, the combined lore of EverQuest and World of Tiers distracted me once again. I've really been plowing through this book lately, and I expect to finish it in the next few days. And there are worse things to spend your free time on than reading. And speaking of worse things, I actually didn't play EverQuest all that much today... maybe two or three hours. That may not seem like a little bit, but I could have played a lot more, I assure you. I was going to try and get most of my Calculus homework done today, but I quickly changed my mind and started to read instead. Finally guilt got the better of me, and I worked on it for about 45 minutes. The assignment isn't due until Thursday, so I'm not too worried. Neevred and I both had plans to work on our AI program today, but I got distracted by other things, and he had some exam to study for or something. I did make a list of every song The Cranberries ever released, if the official website is to be believed. I've only gotten around to downloading a few of them, but I hope to one day have them all on my computer. And another day, far in the future, I hope to own all of their albums. The only other thing of interest I did today was to watch the first six episodes of Edward the Less, a bizarre animated series by the stars of MST3K. Edward the Less basically pokes fun at Tolkien, but it's also pretty funny on its own merit.

Currently Listening to: Weird Al - The Saga Begins
I mentioned this song a week or so ago, when the original song happened to come up on my 52-hour playlist. I consider my self a pretty big fan of Weird Al, and this song is great, because it's funny on two different levels. It's making fun of The Phantom Menace at the same time it pokes fun at "The Day the Music Died" by Don McLean. "Amish Paradise" would still have to be my favorite Weird Al song, if only because a local radio station once played it for 3 hours straight. Plus, while wearing Trenchie and Commodore Mel, I've often been told I look Amish... or Jewish.

At Least I Got Some Reading Done
November 11th, 2001 - 2:34 AM
Since I haven't been playing on my PlayStation lately, all of my free time has been going towards EverQuest. But even EQ gets boring after a while, and when that happens, I turn to my books. I spent about $200 on books over the summer, because I joined the Science Fiction Book Club. A lot of the books are slightly smaller in size than their retail counterparts, which I don't mind at all. It actually makes them easier to carry, and when you walk and read like I do, you don't want a heavy book weighing down your wrists. As long as all the books in a series are the same size, I don't care how big they are. Anyway, I've been reading Philip Jose Farmer's World of Tiers lately, and it's pretty good. It has to do with some super-powerful Lords and the pocket universes they create for themselves. I've got the whole five-book set in one volume, and I just finished the fourth book today. I should have it finished inside a week, and then it's off to read Lord of the Rings in preparation for the first movie coming out this Christmas. I first read that series a few summers ago, and I found it to be a little slow at points. But I figure I owe it to Tolkien to give them another try... he did help create my favorite genre of literature after all.

Llahned invited called me up today to tell me that his roommate was in the Magic Club, and they were putting on a show at the HUB. I laughed when I heard this, because the concept of a Magic Club is pretty absurd to me. It's also amusing because his roommate is involved in every club known to man. Sort of the like Max J. Fischer, the main character from Rushmore. Great movie by the way... reminds me of a two hour long Pete & Pete episode, but I might just be weird like that. And I know it doesn't make much sense to provide an imdb link for Pete & Pete, but I didn't fell like searching out a good fan site. Maybe I'll throw one up if I ever flesh out my TV & Movies section. Anyway, back to the Magic Club... Llahned and I went to the HUB to check out the show, but to no avail. Instead of witnessing feats of legerdemain and prestidigitation, we were forced to watch some sort of bizarre color guard twirl flags around. None of them were very good at it, so I have to assume they were trainees or something. After the flags came rifles, which was actually pretty cool to watch. We waited for nearly an hour for our promised Magic Show before giving up on it. After having our hopes and dreams shattered by a delinquent Magic Club, we headed back to my room to finish watching Record of Lodoss War, which was actually pretty good. The only thing we really objected to was the ludicrous clothing of this one female dark elf, who we nicknamed SCW (Scantily Clad Woman). Of course, it could have been a lot worse... most of the female characters in this Anime had realistic clothing and proportions. And they were nothing compared to the sorceress from Gauntlet: Dark Legacy.

Currently Listening to: Sting - Seven Days
This is another track from Ten Summoner's Tales, which is the only Sting CD I own. It's pretty mediocre compared to some of the other ones of the album, but I like it. Nothing can really compare to "Shape of My Heart" though...

Only Eighteen More Days of Classes
November 10th, 2001 - 2:15 AM
Just a few short months ago, I was anxious to get back to college as soon as possible. After being here for a while, and realizing that I actually have work to do, I'm anxious to get back home. Luckily, the rapid advance of the holiday season is happy to help. There's only a week and a half of classes before Thanksgiving, and two weeks of classes afterwards. Then it's just fourteen short days until finals week, which marks the end of my third semester of college. I should be able to score a pretty good GPA this semester, but as usual, it all depends on the final exams. Speaking of exams, my Greek one went pretty well this morning. Quite an impressive feat, considering that I kept falling asleep while trying to study this morning. Unless I screw up the final, I've got a pretty good shot at an A in that class, which would be excellent. If I get an A in Greek, I can get straight B's everywhere else and still keep up my grade point average. Cause if I drop below 3.2, the college takes away some of my scholarships. And that is not a good thing.

I watched some News Radio today, and I've decided it's my second favorite sitcom, right behind Frasier. News Radio airs at 6:30 on A&E if you're interested. I don't really know why it's on A&E, but it's a nice change from Biography. They've got something going on with Billy Joel at 9:00 on Sunday, which I might decide to watch, but probably wont. Sunday is traditionally the day of homework, and lately I've been putting it off as late as possible. After enjoying the comedy stylings of Dave Foley and Phil Hartman, Llon, Akira and I headed over to West Halls to watch Rat Race, which I enjoyed more than my companions, but that's because I've liked all movies lately. It was a very funny movie, though very ludicrous at times. The only thing that really bugged me was that the trailers ruined a lot of the best jokes. But I guess that's all there really is to a comedy. It was like they got a bunch of celebrities together and said "Okay, what can we have them do now?" If you're hesitant about seeing this movie, I have five words for you: "Seth Green" and "Cuba Gooding Junior." And with a name like Cuba, it has to be good. After Rat Race, Llon, Neevred, Llahned, and I played another mediocre game of Illuminati. We've really got to get back into the groove with that game... it just hasn't been fun lately. Maybe we need a break...

Currently Listening to: Ace of Base - I Pray
I may have mentioned it before, but Ace of Base is my all-time favorite band, though R.E.M and The Cranberries aren't far behind. Ace of Base's first album was huge all over the world, but they've been going straight down in popularity since that one. Their greatest hits album was a total waste in the US, but I hear it did pretty well in other countries. Believe it or not, they are currently working on their fourth album, and it's due to come out early 2002. I'm actually going to make an exception to my no-CD rule and pick this one up as soon as it hits the record stores. As for the song, "I Pray" was never released on an American album, but with a little help from my friend Napster, I was able to pick it up last year. I'm more than willing to support my favorite band, but I won't buy imports and singles just for the B-sides...

It's Greek to Me
November 9th, 2001 - 2:25 AM
The title of this rant is one of the two things we are never allowed to say in my Greek class. The other thing is any joke comparing Homer the epic poet to Homer Simpson. If we break either of those rules, we don't fail necessarily, but we'll get yelled at for quite some time. Of course, Llon and Neevred make up for the fact that I can't say, "It's Greek to me," by saying it themselves every time I breech the subject. And it gets funnier every time. Besides the three hours of mind-numbing studying, today was actually pretty enjoyable. After doing decently on my calculus quiz, I came back to the room and got level 9 in EverQuest. I don't how many of you play EverQuest, but if you're a shaman, level 9 is a good place to be. After that I took a nap, read World of Tiers for a little while, and went to dinner. After dinner I studied for Greek, worked on my AI Project for about 20 minutes, and watched television. TV was quite good tonight, as I saw the season premiere of The Family Guy and the series premiere of The Tick. The Family guy was amusing as usual, though a little ludicrous at times. It did feature the voice of the Sicilian from The Princess Bride though, which is always a plus. The Tick wasn't as good as the cartoon, but was pretty good. Apparently due to copyright issues, the lesser superheroes from the show can't be in the live-action version. So no American Maid, and no Sewer Urchin. I'm sorely disappointed, as I'm sure you are.

After the kickin' TV action, I programmed a little (very little) more, took my nightly walk, and went back to study some more Greek. While I was busy trying to program, I learned a few fun facts about Enya, my favorite Irish songstress. Enya was on Jay Leno recently, but I missed it, because if I'm ever watching late night talk shows at 11:30, I'm tuned into Letterman, not Leno. Also, it seems that Enya has done two songs for the first Lord of the Rings movie, which I was going to see anyway, but now have more incentive to. Plus it's got Liv Tyler in it, which is the only good thing to come out of Aerosmith. And my favorite Enya Fun Fact is that she lives in a castle. It's called Ayesha Castle, and she bought it for 2.5 million pounds in 1996. I'm pretty sure a pound is worth slightly more than a dollar, and $3 million is a small price to pay for a castle. If I ever get a few million in the bank, I'm definitely getting myself a castle. To tide me over until I acquire the funds, Leah has drawn me a piss-poor rendition of Castle Anthrax on a pink post-it note. And if you don't know what Castle Anthrax is, I applaud you for having never wasted your time watching that Holy Grail movie. It's got a lot of good quotable lines, but I fall asleep every time I watch it. You'd be better off to find a fan site and laugh at the one-liners than try to suffer through the film. Well, I'm going to go to sleep now, and I'm gonna try to wake up again in 5 hours to do some more studying... fat chance.

Currently Listening to: The Minus 5 - Thirsty Bird
This is a song from one of the CDs Llon lent me a while ago. It's a pretty stupid song, and it's safe to say it's my least favorite from either The Minus 5 or the Young Fresh Fellows, which both have the same lead singer. I mean it... this song is wretched... even worse than some of the crap that They Might Be Giants puts out. I like a lot of TMBG stuff, but I also dislike a lot of it. And speaking of Enya (as we were a paragraph ago), I'm more currently listening to "Lazy Days" from her newest album, A Day Without Rain.

I Should Be Sleeping Already
November 8th, 2001 - 1:15 AM
I know that my recent rantings have been preoccupied with sleep, but lately sleeping has been the most interesting aspect of my life. Well, that's not true at all, but it seems that way right now. Even though I took a small nap this morning, I'm quite tired right now. And I've got my 8:00 class tomorrow morning, so I should have been in bed 20 minutes ago. But I made the decision to say awake when I elected to slay a few more leopards in EverQuest. I'm about halfway to level 9, and once I get my new spells, nobody will be able to stop me! On the reality side of things, I had my second Digital Systems midterm today, in the same room I had my CSF meeting in last night. It actually went pretty well, but I almost showed up 30 minutes late. I thought the exam started at 8:30, but it actually started at 8:15. Luckily I had decided to get there early for a little last minute studying. Unfortunately, they started handing out the tests as soon as I got in my seat. Despite being deprived of my frantic cramming, I think I did pretty well on the exam. It was out of 90 points, which 5 points of extra credit. Assuming that I didn't get any extra credit (not a bad assumption), and that everything I was sure about was right, I'm expecting about a B+. It would be nice to ace the test, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

Currently Listening to: Don McLean - The Day the Music Died
I wasn't a huge fan of this eight-minute monstrosity when I first heard it, but it sort of grew on me. It rhymes a lot, which appeals to the Dr. Seuss fan in me. I'm also a fan of the Weird Al parody "The Saga Begins," but I'm not a fan of the Madonna remake. I've got a friend that swears by the Madonna version, but he's prone to silly opinions like that one.

Naps Ruin My Life Again
November 7th, 2001 - 1:32 AM
I was falling asleep in my classes this morning, which is not a good thing if you're wondering. I was even dozing off in Greek, where I usually stay awake most easily. So I decided to take a nap during Calculus, instead of trying to fight sleep at my desk. We've got a quiz coming up on Thursday, but as long as I study the sections before class, I'll be fine. I don't think it's possible to convey in words how much I loathe calculus. Back when I was a kid, I rocked at math. I could add, subtract, multiply, you name it. But if you ask me to evaluate a double integral with inverse harmonic functions, I'm useless. But I've only got to deal with calculus for two more semesters, counting this one. Of course, I also have to consider all the other classes I take that already assume I know everything there is to know about calculus... like Statistics. The nap was great, except that it lasted three hours instead of one. I can't stand sleeping longer than I planned to, under any circumstances. I just feel bad the whole day, because I wasted valuable time.

Besides my nap, my afternoon was actually pretty productive. I spent two hours planning out functions for our AI project, and one hour working on my EverQuest character. Polar bears and snow orc troopers are no match for my awesome shaman skills. After EQ came dinner, where Neevred, Llon, and I ran into TGWFUA and her roommate. We had basically finished eating by the time they sat down, but we stayed until they finished since we were having interesting conversation. Unfortunately, neither of them are fans of Gilmore Girls, which is a sad, sad thing indeed. I've actually forgotten TGWUFA's roommate's name already, but I suspect it begins with an "M". I do remember HPMF's name, which is pretty impressive, since I've only seen him once. The CSF meeting was pretty mediocre tonight. I actually don't mind the singing at all, which is a big improvement on my part, but all we did today was to pray for Christians being persecuted around the world. There were five different stories, and all of them were touching and important to hear. But we prayed for each one individually. It was good, since we were able to consider each case by itself, but it had a downside. I don't know about the other people at the meeting, but I basically tended to repeat myself a lot. At the beginning I was genuinely praying, but by the end it became more of a chore, and I just rambled. So all in all, I think it was a good thing to do, just a tad over done. Maybe we should have prayed for a different case each week for five weeks. Anyway, besides that, the meeting was pretty fun, and I got to hang out with some of the people I know from Dudes. Besides CSF, I watched Gilmore Girls and The Simpsons tonight, both of which were highly amusing. The Simpsons has been going downhill lately, but the Halloween special, though six days late, was very funny. Currently Listening to: Leah talking to one of his friends on the phone. It happens to be his best friend, but they never actually met in person. I had an internet friend once, but it didn't go well...

Is an A on an Exam Too Much to Ask?
November 6th, 2001 - 12:30 AM
Well, apparently it is, because I've yet to achieve one. I got my Statistics and Discrete Math exams back today, scoring a 72% and an 84%, respectively. The averages were 65% and 72%, so I did pretty well on both when you look at it that way. But get this... today Babu gave us a ludicrous extra credit assignment. We can use the extra credit to replace one of our midterms, which makes me highly suspicious, to say the least. Doing this assignment would turn my 72% into a 100%, giving me a very good shot at an A for the semester. But like I said before, I'm quite skeptical about the whole thing. We've got to get a program (any program) to generate 100,000 normal curves with values between 0 and 1. Then we have to calculate some summary statistic that I don't quite understand. The assignment is due on Monday, so I'm definitely going to give it a shot this weekend. It would be really awesome if I somehow figured it out, but I might actually end up feeling a little guilty... nah.

I started going on nightly walks again, and it's actually quite refreshing. Forty-five minutes in the cool night air, listening to CDs I haven't even looked at in months. I know it's a pretty poor excuse for exercise, but it's the only thing I have the motivation to do. Plus it gives me time to contemplate things. Of course, I spend most of the time silently singing along to whatever song happens to be playing on my discman. But I like to pretend I'm thinking about programming assignments or new features for the site. I played a bit of EverQuest today, more than I should have I'm sure, and I just got level eight! This may not seem exciting to you, but I assure you it's the greatest thing to happen since I started this character. I won't bore you with the details, but level eight equals meditation, which makes me regain mana faster. And that means less down time between battles. The only downside to this is that I'll get less reading done...

Currently Listening to: Eve 6 - Here's to the Night
I was actually listening to "Smashing Young Man," by Collective Soul, but they came up on October 16th... what are the odds? Anyway, I had heard this song all over the place last semester, but I had no idea who sang it, and I couldn’t remember many of the lyrics. This made downloading the song from Napster rather difficult, but in the end I prevailed. This song hangs out with "Inside Out," which is the only other song by them I have. One Eve 6 song per album... that's what I always say.

My Right Ear is Killing Me
November 5th, 2001 - 12:09 AM
Yep, my right ear is a throbbing bundle of pain right now, and I have no idea why. I mean, I prefer a dull ache to a sharp pain any day of the week, but no pain at all would be even better. At least my eye isn't twitching right now. That would really be annoying. I really didn't get much done today. I tried to do some programming over at Neevred's place, but he's got tons of stuff to do this weekend, so I didn't have much luck. He'll be free to work about Wednesday, when I've got to be studying for my next two finals. I should be able to get a bit of work done over the next few days though, so all is not lost. This program is due in like four weeks, but we'd like to get it done in two, so that we can focus on writing our papers. I only got an 81% on the midterm for that class, which was slightly above the average, but worse than I expected to do. I'll just blame my mediocre grade on the multiple choice format. Man, I hate multiple choice.

The sad thing is, I didn't even play any video games today. I tried to play a little EverQuest after brunch, but the stupid server kept crashing on me. So I did some Greek homework instead. After that I read The World of Tiers a little bit, then headed to dinner. After dinner I watched America's Sweethearts in the HUB, which was actually quite good, even more so because it was free. I'll be writing a review for that some day soon, but I'm kind of worn out from yesterday's review right now. Besides, I have to do some Digital Systems homework that I forgot about until just now.

Currently Listening to: Cake - Sheep Go to Heaven
Yep, sheep go to heaven, and goats go to hell. That's basically the main theme of this song, and unless I'm missing something, it makes no sense whatsoever. I don't actually own any Cake CDs, and I only have three of their songs on my computer, but they're a decent band, I suppose. The name is easy to remember, at least.

Bingo is Quickly Losing its Charm
November 4th, 2001 - 1:31 AM
I played Bingo with Llahned tonight, as is our wont, but I didn't win anything, so it was boring. I've vowed that I'll never miss a week since winning the Game Boy, but it would be nice to win another DVD or something. I came pretty close a few times, but unfortunately, pretty close doesn't bring in the movies. Before Bingo, Llahned, Neevred and I watched the first seven episodes of Record of Lodoss War, which is an Anime series that I ordered in August. It's pretty stereotypical D&D stuff, but I enjoyed it. I'm not sure if Neevred or Llahned liked it or not... I'm afraid to ask them. Before dinner I played some EverQuest, where I successfully killed snow leopards and polar bears for a while. After two hours though, my luck ran out, and I died twice in a row. I played a little Xenogears before engaging in EverQuest, but as you can see from my Haiku, I quickly became annoyed with it. I have no idea why this paragraph is in reverse chronological order, but it certainly spices things up.

Oh, I have an interesting story to tell from dinner tonight. Remember that girl I mentioned a few days ago? The one that was terribly amused by the conversation Neevred and I were having? Well, we saw her again at dinner today, and Neevred struck up a conversation. She invited us to sit with her and a friend, an invitation which we immediately accepted. In the process, we abandoned Esor and Akira, but hopefully they understand. I don't really have any aliases for these people, since I don't know them yet... so lets call them The Girl Who Finds Us Amusing (TGWFUA) and Her Psychology Major Friend (HPMF). Yeah, these are terribly uninspired names, but what are you going to do? Anyway, TGWFUA is really, really cool, and HPMF is pretty awesome himself. We had about half an hour of good conversation, mostly initiated by me, since I'm so much wittier than Neevred. The real reason of course, is that I talk more than him in general... Anyway, it turns out I've had a few classes with TGWFUA, and I feel really bad for not recognizing her. She had Science Fiction with Neevred and I last fall, and last spring I had Astronomy with her, which was terribly boring. She actually remembered my name, from class I suppose, and in gratitude, I forgot her name 15 seconds after she told it to me. I've really got to work on that. So anyway, we're definitely going to sit down with TGWFUA and HPMF if we see them sitting alone or in a small group, and maybe next time we'll bring Esor and Akira over. If we're lucky, we might have made a couple new friends, which is always nice. And on a completely unrelated note, I added a review of Maverick to the Movie Reviews page, so check it out under the "TV & Movies" category.

Currently Listening to: New Order - Temptation
This song is from New Order's Substance - 1987 anthology, which I picked up a few years ago. It's a two CD set, though the second CD is mostly just weird remixes of other songs. My favorite song from the collection would have to be "True Faith", which is a really excellent song if you've never heard it before. Apparently they released a new CD in 2001, which I'll definitely have to check out. The sad thing is, I'm too lazy to even download music, much less get a job to pay for new CDs.

Hell has Frozen Over, and Pigs are Flying
November 3rd, 2001 - 1:46 AM
It's only about 1:30 right now, and Leah is already in bed. Not only is this the only time he's gone to bed before 2:00 in a long while, I'm pretty sure it's the first time he ever went to sleep before me. He has to be up at 8:00 tomorrow morning for some chorus or band thing (I'm assuming), and he wisely decided not to pull an all-nighter. I'm doing him the same courtesy that he does me, in that I've turned the lights off, and I'm wearing my headphones. Unfortunately, the way we have the room set up, my computer faces his bed and vice versa. Hopefully he's fallen asleep by now, despite the warm glow of my monitor, but I'm certainly not going to ask him. Neevred, Llahned and I played Illuminati tonight, be we didn't even get halfway through the game we were playing. We just added a bunch of new rules, so we had to spend about an hour learning all of the nuances. By the time we got started, it was almost 11:00, and Neevred wanted to be in bed by 1:00. I think the problem is that we're getting disenchanted with the whole Illuminati concept. We've decided that we won't play more than one game a week, and I think that we could even move to playing every other Saturday, as long as we freed up a lot of time, and convinced Llon to play. I really can't foresee any of our games taking less than three hours anymore. And that's a huge investment. I started playing Xenogears today, which is a SquareSoft RPG from 1998. I didn't play too much, and haven't even left the first town, much to the dismay of Llahned, who was watching me play for a few minutes before the game. But I'm an RPG veteran, and I know it's very important to talk to every person, fight every battle, and examine every bookshelf. Llahned assures me that the game has an excellent storyline, but I've already been comparing it to Lunar 2, which isn't fair, because I adore that game above all others.

And just to make this entry as boring as possible, I'm going to talk about school. My Greek quiz went very well this morning, and there's a pretty good chance I aced it. Of course, I probably made a few silly mistakes, but I got an A for sure. My Stats exam was an entirely different matter. There were seven questions, and we had to choose five to answer. Of the ones I chose, I was almost positive about three of them, pretty sure about another, and pretty much clueless on the last one. Suffice it to say, I was completely clueless about the two I skipped. I'm expecting about a 70% or so, which isn't too bad, since I'm doing well on the homework, and I beat the average on the last one. I just hope I can beat the average on this one. I've only got two more midterms left, then it's smooth sailing until finals week. Of course, this wasn't any more true when I said it last night... I've still got those AI projects to work on. But I really shouldn't complain. The programming assignment looks like it's going to be kind of fun. It's just the paper that I'm worried about. Well, that's what Thanksgiving break is for...

Currently Listening to: Dido - Here with Me
This is Dido's first single from her first CD, No Angel. Leah got this CD sometime last semester, and I immediately gave it a listen. I found five of the songs very much to my liking, so I snagged them from Napster. For some reason, people tend to associate Dido with the Cranberries, or at least two people have. To celebrate this face, I'm currently jamming to my Cranberries / 10,000 Maniacs / Dido playlist. Apparently Dido has a new album coming out relatively soon, which I'll probably download. I swear that when I get a steady job (probably after graduation) I'll start buying this stuff...

Friday Just Isn't Friday Without a Greek Quiz
November 2nd, 2001 - 12:34 AM
Yep, I've got my weekly Greek quiz tomorrow, but this week it's the least of my worries. The test is going to be on participles and verb forms. The verb forms are easy, since I've learned most of the verbs for previous weeks, and participles are just verb-noun hybrids. Apparently using them in sentences can be quite difficult, but listing their forms is surprisingly easy. The thing I'm really dreading is my second Stats midterm at 1:25 tomorrow. They way I see it, my Stats grade has less than 13 hours to live. I've probably got an A- in that class right now, but I have a feeling this test will knock me back into the B range where I belong. I'm planning on studying for it a little more, but I'm just having trouble understanding the concepts. Well, as long as I beat the average, I'll be alright. After tomorrow I'll be more than halfway done my second round of midterms. And after next Friday, I'll have no more tests until finals week. Of course, I've got two huge AI assignments to fill that little void.

I managed to finish my Digital Systems today, no thanks to the teacher... I went to his supposed office hours at the specified time, and he was nowhere to be found. I might have lost a few points on the assignment, but it's graded out of 130 points, so I can afford to lose quite a few. So, I talked to the TV repair people today, who had both good news and bad news for me. The good news is that they're tracked down all the problems, and will be able to fix them all without increasing my estimate. The bad news is that the picture tube Sharp sent turned out to be defective. Even when they take eight weeks, they can't get it right. So I'll have to wait another six to eight weeks or so for the new one to come in. If I'm extremely lucky, I'll have my television back before winter break. I'm not counting on getting it until spring semester though. Of course, it's not like I'll be using it much during the break... it would just sit in my dorm room, contemplating suicide. I'll walk in, and there will be a little note on the table, TV in pieces on the floor. But like I've said so many times before, at least I've got Leah's TV to use. It's not as good as the one I used to have, but it's a heck of a lot better than nothing. Well, I've got to get back to studying, because that's just the kind of guy I am.

Currently Listening to: Newsboys - Boycott Hell
Even if you didn't know the Newsboys were a Christian band, this song would give it all away. The lyrics of this song are pretty lame, especially since one of the lyrics is "the tune's okay, but the words are getting lamer." I like a self-mocking attitude as much as the next guy, but not in a song. Of course, pleasing Mecherath probably isn't one of the Newsboys' top priorities. And for the record, I think I prefer Jars of Clay to these guys... as if it matters.

I've Sunk to a New Low
November 1st, 2001 - 12:31 AM
So I'm going to go to office hours for Digital Systems. I usually never resort to such tactics, but since I don't really know anybody in my class, it's either go to office hours, or take a chance that Llon or Xof remember the material. Luckily my teacher holds office hours every day, and they start right after my Calculus class tomorrow. The thing is though, I've actually been going to class lately. I should know how to do all this stuff, but it's just a little too confusing. The on-line notes are pretty good, but they're not good enough. And not having a textbook isn't really helping either. Oh well... the assignment's due Friday, so I should have plenty of time to work on it tomorrow. And Xof and Llon are viable options, especially since I'll be meeting with Xof to work on Statistics and Greek tomorrow night. We have to make formula sheets for the Stats exam, and review verb forms for the Greek quiz. This has been a wonderful week... But I have an early class tomorrow, so I have to get to bed. I'd really like to rant about non-school things, but I've been too busy lately to make witty observations.

And of course, I just reminded myself of one. Neevred and I were in line at dinner today, just having a regular conversation. This girl standing in front of us was terribly amused, and pretty much laughed at all of our jokes. After a while she said that she wished she could have our conversation on tape, because we were that funny. I don't know about you, but telling me I'm amusing is one of the best compliments you can give me. Yeah, it's pretty sad that my life can be boiled down to trying to amuse people, but that's basically the long and the short of it. I may not be much to look at, but I can strike up a good conversation... at least I hope so.

Currently Listening to: Moody Blues - I Know You're Out There Somewhere
This is my second favorite Moody Blues song, right behind "Your Wildest Dreams." My dad's got this 4-CD set called Time Traveler, which pretty much has all of their stuff. A few summers ago, all I would do is listen to the 4th disc (their most recent stuff) while playing Master of Orion 2. Those were good times.