second time sucks

damnit... this is the second time Im doing this... friggin exit button was awfully tempting.

aww... i dont wanna do this right now! basically... school is hard as of late and two of four professors arent making it any easier. ill try to get around to writing more again tomorrow when i dont have as much of a headache.

=)

if at first you don't succeed...

holy crap, this is the fourth time I have attempted to blog. I've always been interrupted by something important-- power outages, me hitting the X button on my web browser, interruptions, etc. But now, I have all bases covered. I went out and bought a big ass battery backup (APC Back-ups ES 500va (18 mins)), closed the door and strangled my roommate (just kidding... or am I?). I also am writing this in AbiWord which I have set to save every minute-- hmm, I think that pretty much covers my bases.

along with that backup battery, I also bought a Thermaltake Volcano 9 cpu fan to fix my ~51 C cpu temp... seems to have done the job A.O.K.... my cpu temp now hovers around 49/50 C. Spiffy!

well, spring break is officially (for a week) over and I now have Debian installed! Jon and Bailey helped me get Deb on phoenix with a custom version of 2.4.21-pre3-ac4 for my nForce2 motherboard. Here is a screenshot. other than that, my spring break was pretty boring... only to be replaced with an even more boring school schedule.

once I was debian-ized, I was able to download this uber-l33t, or so I thought, program called Rhythmbox. It utilizes an iTunes-ish interface which, after using for a while, is super intuitive. The major downside, and yes... this is major, is that it segfaults (crashes) every time you try to add a song to your library after initially creating it. Thankfully, I was able to create a bugless playlist just today-- life is good.

ah classes-- what fun! its already been two weeks and, surprisingly, classes haven't been any more difficult than the first day *knock on wood*. I suspect not having an honors ICS class --and not having evil professor-- is helping... =). This quarter, I am taking twenty units-- two ICS classes (ICS 51 and 52), Adolescent behavior (Psych 21a) and Physics 20c. Starting from the back, my Physics 20c professor is awesome-- he make jokes, gives cool demos on physics concepts and the class is easy. The rest of my classes I will explain in less detail because I do not want to put myself through even more pain on the weekends. My ICS classes are just plain dirty. My ICS 51 professor treats us like babies (mandatory attendance, participation points, assigned seating, assigned groups), my ICS 52 professor is very corporation-centric and my Psych professor is just okay. on to another subject before I puke...

oh! my site-- thats right! Just recently, I unveiled the new genome software, a project years in the waiting. I'm so stoked to be finished, you have no idea. New features include a generalized project page home to ezPod and of course, Jon's Most Embarassing Photos.

Along with the redesign is my revamped startup page-- my first venture into User Interface Design. After playing with the site for a while, I really enjoyed designing the UI ... I think I might wanna do this for a living.

Well I had dinner with Jon and Bernadeth on Thursday. We went to Olive Garden-- boy, the food was yummy!! I always have fun when I'm with those two... its just like those late night P9 study sessions (less studying, more talking).

I'm sure there will be more soon... after all this, I'm too tired to finish :).

minor updates and fixes for my blog

hey guys... me blogging two days in a row?!! what a shocker!

I just recently fixed a whole bunch of back issues with my blog like horrible, scattered code and replaced it with unified headers and footers. go php! oh and its 100% valid XHTML!!
But I'm sure most of you dont care and thats okay. So, for the apathetic majority, I will tell you a little about my day.

Well, gosh-- Last night, I finished my ICS 51 project (A while loop in assembly) in like 10 minutes. Hurray! This means that I only have one more project to finish-- at least untill my professors assign more projects.

It rained fairly heavily in the morning and into the day today, putting a damper on most people's spirits, me included. I normally enjoy rain, but today's storm was spotty and annoying. If its going to rain, I want to either pour like mad or not rain at all. When rain is spotty, you're not quite sure whether to put away your umbrella or hold it, and, of course, you're always wrong. Other than the rain, classes were easy. Physics was more complicated than normal so I'm praying that he will explain more on another day. The CLEA exercise (a lab project for Phys.) was really easy this time, easier than the first button-clicking assignment, even though it was *supposed* to be fairly challenging. Go figure.

Oh, that reminds me-- I've been meaning to blog about last Thursday's suicide at my old high school. Here we go:

When I first heard about the suicide, the first words to come out of my mouth were "No, not at walnut high...". For the next hour, I was riddled with disbelief, denial and contemplative thought-- Why? What made him do it?, etc, all returning the same answer... I dont know. It is a crime to think that Brandon Flores shot himself just because his girlfriend dumped him (although, it was rumored that he was having family problems also). I know the end of relationships can be life-altering but nothing can be as altering as ending your own life.

Ok, enough with the suicide-- I think most people just want to get on with their lives and so do I.

If heck doesnt freeze over, I might post again tomorrow... or not... who knows? come back tomorrow to find out!

third times a charm

omg... this is the THIRD time ive blogged this week... its so nuts! this is probably a world record or something... =)

So what went on today? Well, I had ICS 51, my kindergarden class... and today it was even more so! She wants us to give feedback on the class so far... but she's making us put our names on the paper! How can she expect an honest answer? Ugh... anyway-- After that was Psych. My Psych professor was a little boring today... im starting to look at the clock more often; normally I start noticing the time about ten minutes before class gets out, but with Psych, im looking at the clock five minutes into lecture! OMG... and that only makes class even more excruciating. I spent tonight at Jon's house working on our physics lab, thats the one class that keeps me sane.

Oh, and I fixed some stuff with my blog... and I wrote a patch for Aaron's blog to allow him to write private blog entries.... my blog isnt completely finished, but soon it will be. =)

hey... check my blog out tomorrow and maybe you'll be suprised with ANOTHER post... upping the world record from three posts in a row to four!... I better hurry, I only have 9 minutes left before its too late!!!

eww...

smoking is such a gross habit. just recently, two people in our dorm decided to pick up smoking, just contributing to the cloud of cigarette smoke from smoker's hill that somehow finds its way right into our room. eww. i'm really surprised at both of them... i'd never fathom either one picking up the habit. lets see, I went to the harrowdale bbq earlier... it was pretty fun, but again, everything college related thats outdoors somehow involves smoking... and lots of it. right now, I reek of burnt cigarettes... i think im starting to get sick... blegh.

oh yeah, and i wrote up some guidelines for myself to be healthier, happier and *hopefully* stop being so negative/depressed. im just going to paste them here because I dont feel like formatting them... gimme a break, its ten minutes till 1. class in 7 hours... yippee!

The 10 Guidelines for
Leading a Happy Life
(No, not commandments... this isn't holy/scared stuff.)

1. Stop eating fatty foods, you fat ass!!
If you don't get on the bandwagon as far as eating healthy goes, they'll be taking you out in a hearse! For the love of Gawd, it wouldn't kill you to eat some friggin' salad once in a while!!! Get your lazy ass out into the park every once in a while... take a jog or something. Its good for you!

2. Find a girl, talk to her, and ask her out!!
If you don't take the initiative, you'll be single for the rest of your fucking life! Oh and don't scare her off! Be suave and debonair... like James Bond! He gets the ladies, right?

3. Stop procrastinating!!
How do you expect to go to graduate school or survive in the godforsaken workplace when you start writing a 15 pg paper the night before its due?

4. Don't be so cocky!!
Your shit stinks. Get over it!

5. Life sucks, so enjoy the little things!!!
Take a big whiff of the air... you're living in one of the best places in the world, so enjoy it!

6. Go to the beach and get a tan!!
Even Casper makes you look pale! And an added bonus... women hang out at the beach =D

7. Get Organized and Be Organized
Your life looks like Trogdor swept through and burninated the womens, the childrens and the thatch-roofed cottages! Do something about it now!

8. Be nice!
Don't be such a tight-ass some times... relax and let your smile show through!

9. Don't drink so much soda!
You spend half your money on stuff thats going to rot your teeth! Try to cut back on this stuff or else you'll have dentures at 20!

And most importantly...
ENJOY LIFE!!!
Don't be a bitter 80 yr old who didn't enjoy life while he had it!

corporate america hates me...

...and I hate corporate america!

bah... I sent out letters to 9 major web design/graphic design companies on April 13th begging for internships, a job or anything that paid $$. A week ago, I got my first reply on April 23rd, 10 days later. Idealab said: "Thank for your interest in Idealab. We are seeking engineering students for summer work." Great... if only I was an engineer. My next reply came today from Highpoint, April 29th, 16 days later, and after a phone call. Highpoint said: "We have just started 2 new staff members, so I am don't think that we can accommodate another new person in the near future." Perfect... out of 9 companies emailed, two responded within 10 days and both were denials. I guess ill take the other 7 companies lack of reply as a no too. So how do I get money for buying stuff? I think ill study botany and genetically mutated plants over the summer... maybe I can start growing money on trees. anyone have a copy of Genetic Engineering for Dummies?

I finally finished my ICS 52 project!!! As usual, I procrastinated until the very last minute and pulled an all-nighter with Jon the night before it was due. Well, to be honest, it wasn't a true all-nighter... I finished at 5 am and was able to get 4 hours of refreshingly beautiful sleep. mmm sleep.

on the brighter side of things, I now have housing next year! ill be living with chris and shiraz from my honors ics classes in a townhouse hopefully close to campus... hurrah!

ewww... www.bonsaikitten.com Don't go there... its too sick. I'm not even going to link you, it so sick.

oh and its midterms week... I can't believe summer is coming so soon! just 5 more weeks till HAWAII!!! that kicks ass. finally, something to look forward to!

ok, off to do some studying... and then maybe ill refocus my chi by reading a few pages of kernel source.