First Good Sleep in a While

Last night I dreamt of the zombie apocalypse.

Me- "I don't think Loki really wants to eat my brains."

Loki- "I think I definately want to eat Jay's brains."

Me- "Oh... Well. Um..."

I've been having a hard time keeping on top of my classes. At some point last week I managed to fall behind the schedule I set out for myself. At that point I believe it was mostly extracurricular stuff, such as my job search, my search for undergrad research opportunities, etc. Over the weekend, however, it seems that I managed to fall behind on my homework, which has kind of thrown me for a loop ever since.

It should be simple enough to work hard for a day to catch up, but I've found that I simply don't have the energy during the day. Because I don't get the work done during the day, I stay up late working on just a little late at night, then get up early in the morning so I feel sleepy for the rest of the day. This is what they call a 'vicious cycle,' but one I think I've found a way to combat.

First and foremost I've decided to crack down on my curfew again. It seems to be vital that I get a good amount of sleep at night, otherwise I'm just too tired during the day to get stuff done, even stuff I enjoy. This is helped by my habit of taking naps during the day as well. Now taking naps and getting stuff done seems to be contradictory, however I've found that taking naps helps keep me awake and energetic during the day. I do, of course, need to keep the two balanced, but once I get through this hump I've made for myself, it shouldn't be so much of an issue.

Unfortunately, my early curfew has meant busy mornings while I try getting HW done before class starts, which has usurped my usual morning workout. I'm happy to say that this morning (even though I slept in for an hour), I managed to cook breakfast, do a bit of pre-class studying AND my morning workout, without having to rush anywhere.

SEVEN HOURS LATER

So while I was writing that last sentence, I realize that it was 9:08 and that I was about to miss my Japanese class... Oops.

Don't worry, I got to class in time.

At any rate, I should probably end this rambling post with the last point I wanted to make (I've been keeping track of these things as I think of them). Chem 106 isn't nearly as bad as I expected. Tuesday's lab was actually really fun. I'm kinda tempted to bring some speakers to the next one and play some music while working. Furthermore, once I finally got into Mastering, the HW wasn't too bad either (though it's still a terrible system).

Anywhoo. I need to salvage the rest of this day and see how many checks I can put into my system before 9 tonight.

Salvage Rights and Why I'm Stressed

I'm going to need to start keeping food in the ASME lounge...

I found a bike.

That's not technically accurate, because it implies that I found a bike just recently, which I did not. In fact, I found it sometime in the year when I started living in my apartment. Really, I shouldn't say I 'found it' either, rather that I 'noticed it,' which is to say that I noticed it over the course of the year that I've been living in my apartment, which is to say that I noticed that it was very clearly abandoned, and took it.

I'm very happy about this particular acquisition. It's in remarkably good shape. Sure the tires are flatter than Hell, the gel pads in the seat are kinda nasty and the shifter is suffering rigor-mortis, but the breaks work, the shifter does work (if you can force it), it IS a REALLY nice bike and all these problems can actually be fixed pretty easily. Plus there are two other abandoned bikes where I found this one that I can steal parts from if I need.

I'm optimistic.

That said, I'm also kinda stressed right now. This year I've decided to be the ubermensch and not only take 18 credits (plus two labs), an officer's position in the ASME, lead an ASME competition team, AND organize two study groups, but I've ALSO decided that I need to get up at 5:30 or 6 every morning to do a quick work out and make breakfast. This combined with some late nights working on catching up with homework have left me somewhat stretched. As such, Mom's been worried that I might be over-stretching myself.

But I'm not, at least not yet, and here's why:

Last year I took a lax approach at the beginning of classes. Classes were easy, homework was easy to do at the last minute, and that became my routine. This year I'm trying to get into the habit of staying on top of things from the get go, and this means being hard on myself BEFORE they get nasty.

I'm not over-stretched, just learning better habits.

Mornings

http://homestuck.bandcamp.com/album/squiddles

Why was this made? Why?

So I've taken up another challenge on top of my ridiculous schedule. Every morning my AWESOME radio alarm clock goes off at 5:30. I've set it to the student radio station, so I listen to some great music for about an hour before getting up at 6:30 when the alarm automatically cuts out. Or at least that's the plan. In reality, the alarm is a little louder than I'd like (the volume slider literally doesn't go down any lower), so I've actually been getting up at closer to 5:45.

As incredible as this is on it's own, I've also taken up a morning workout that I practice while cooking my breakfast. Now that I've started Japanese, I'm also going to have to take up practicing Japanese for two hours as an evening routine.

I'm hopeful that I'll be able to maintain this practice, but we'll see...

Chem 106

The only upside to chem labs is that I can wear my awesome steampunk goggles in a serious context. They're actually WAY better than the terrible plastic ones you can buy here.

I'm up early, so this is going to be short. Last night Clinton had a game night, which I wanted to get to. Unfortunately, I have chem lab then, but NOBODY does lab the first week, right? That'd just be excessive!

I really hate chem lab.

Springier than Spring

I'm attempting to organize a study group with 16 people... Hooboy.

I was walking to the engineering complex today when it dawned on me, I really like this time of the year.

The engineering complex has a big field of grass right in front of it. This area is something of a hub for the various engineering students, and the field of grass was playing host to a bunch of students with theodolites. People were bustling from one place to another, the sun was shining bright, and the new year was full of potential. 'Full of potential' really describes how it felt.

Compare that to spring, however. By the time the sun really starts coming out for spring semester, people are already tired and fed up, they're really only looking forward to summer break, and I usually have a ton of regrets about how I used the year. Right now I still have the energy to get things done.

Full of potential.

A New School Year

Beth pointed out that she only sees me when I'm arriving and when I'm leaving.

So I've arrived back in the GDMMSD, not exactly raring for school, but that's alright. This year is going to be an experience, that's for sure. To start things off, I've got another 18 credit schedule, packed with some pretty damned demanding classes. Here's my schedule:

Physics 2: 8:10 to 9, MWF

Chem. 2: 11:10 to 12, MWF

Dynamics: 12:10 to 1, MWF

Diff. EQ: 1:10 to 2, MWF

Japn. 3: 9:10 to 10, TuWThF

Chem. lab: 6:10 to 9, Tu

Phys. lab: 12:10 to 3, Th

Tuesdays and Thursdays will be reasonably relaxed, which is nice, but the rest of the time I'm going to be pretty busy starting early in the morning. I predict that very quickly I will start getting up half an hour before class and skipping breakfast.

Hopefully not tho.

In addition to this, I've gotta find a job. In addition to that, I've got duties to perform for the ASME.

And adding to the drain on my time, I've also got about a billion side projects I want to take up. I want to revitalize the robotics club, join the hapkido club (or at least think it's hapkido), start working with Kenneth on steampunk stuff, finish drawing a thing for Kyle, learn to program Java and Python, and finally work on my text adventure engine.

I'm probably forgetting something.

At any rate, busy year. To start it off, Thor and Mirra cleaned up the apartment 'cause they're AWESOME! Of course this means that Reilley got a bunch of his stuff just dumped in his room, but then he kinda didn't live up to some of his promises (from what I've heard). In response to that, I cleaned my room!

Starting with my desk:

I came back with about a billion books, which wouldn't fit on that top shelf any longer, so I took all of my comics and stuck them on this little book shelf I found next to the dumpster over the summer:

Right next to it is a pile of all my issues of Make Magazine. For reference, I've place the little duffel bag they used to be kept in, up front:

And after all that was done, I played dress up!

I've seriously been waiting for a week since I got that gas mask to try that. I love my coat. I love my hat. I love my cane (even if it is kinda terrible in ways). I love my army boots and I REALLY LOVE MY GAS MASK!

End of line.

An Unwanted but Appropriate Hiatus

I am sitting in a chair I stole from a dumpster and lugged halfway across campus, on my head, to my apartment. It is glorious.

My last post introduced my Calculus class. I find this appropriate, because it's been kicking my ass ever since. Hence the lack of posts.

THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED IN THE INTERVENING TIME:

Helped Ben move out of his apartment IN ONE NIGHT. Got lots of free stuff, including a bottle of what I've mistakenly been calling Bailey's Irish Cream, but was in fact O'Mara's, and I've been spoiled forever. I said 'was' just then because it is no more. It lasted for three delicious weeks. I would like more when I turn 21.

Molly came over. I really enjoyed having my little cousin over for the weekend after the fourth. I showed her (and a couple other family members who decided to tag along but really aren't very important and really I think we should focus on the real star of the show here) around campus. We had ice cream and swam in the hotel pool quite a bit. Next time I'm going to have to find out how family and the rec center work. Also, we'll have to hit the taxidermy museum here on campus, and hopefully I'll have a key to the ASME lounge as well...

I got the Valve Complete Pack for just over $50. Totally worth it. The water level in Half Life 2 has yet to be topped.

Calculus has been kicking my ass, but don't worry, I've been kicking back. I'm currently getting a low A in this class. This is one of those classes where the really GOOD students get a low A. I'm going to try talking to the teacher, however, because I think his grading system is a little harsh, and he's the kind of teacher who'll listen.

I should prolly tell you about my teacher too! Mr. Lougheed is easily the best math teacher I've had in college, definitely comparable to Mr. Joshi, and I'm tempted to say even better, and in the running for the best teacher I've ever had. His grading can get really harsh (he marks down if people don't include a verb explaining what they're doing, or a variable and an equal sign to show that they're working on a formula), but he's got a strong focus on relating these mathematical tools to real concepts. Not always real world concepts, but something that the students can get a grip on and wrap their heads around. Best yet, he's got experience outside of pure math! If you know me at all, you'll know how much I hate it when math teachers who've never had to understand anything other than context-free math teach pure math to a class filled with engineers and biology students. You'll know how often I preach about the necessity of having outside experience in the APPLICATION of math, before you should even THINK about teaching math. Mr. Lougheed has taught me more linear algebra in four weeks than my linear algebra teacher did in three months.

What else? I baked a cake. It was delicious. I played with kittens. They were adorable, and I think I might kidnap one and keep it in the apartment illegally... (prolly not tho). Saw the last Harry Potter movie. It was awesome. (Nevill x Luna! X3) Started another blog about my current programming project at http://simulatedachievement.blogspot.com/. Hurt my lower back carrying a chair across campus on my head. Need to watch my $$ before winter hits and the electric bill devours all my soul. I think that's it.

Why Hello New Calculus Class!

Reilley found out it was me... It's alright. He's going to keep finding those until the day he moves out (that's not exaggeration. It might actually be an underestimate).

So for the past two weeks I've been watching Reilley get up early to go to his organic chemistry class, while I lounged around till I finally had to leave for my Matlab class at noon. He's been working hard. He even joined a study group and studied diligently for his first quiz for the week before. I've been glad I didn't have to worry about anything like that.

Today was my first day in Calc III. I got up and left at 8:30, instead of my previous 11:30, and one of the first things our professor told us was that we shouldn't be taking any other classes, because we were going to do in six weeks, what we would normally have over two months to do...

So I've joined a study group. I'm currently trying to organize our first meeting over phone.

An Interesting Forty Eight Plus Hours

Reilley thinks it was Thor who hid all those butterscotch candies in various places around his room.

cannot remember how it began, but suddenly we were all heading out to see X-Men: First Class at, what, 6 pm? It was Reilley, Tom (whom we met through Reilley), Thor, Mirra and myself. The whole group agrees that First Class is easily the best X-Men movie that has been produced so far. Reilley loves to mention that it's so good that it actually overwrites the movie cannon established by X-Men III and by that Wolverine movie.

I think it is thoroughly enjoyable by both geeks in love with the comic book as well as laymen, as I'd like to think I fall somewhere between the two. It really is a beautifully well written movie, that puts its attention on the characters more than anything else. If you go and watch it, I recommend that you specifically pay attention to how they deal with Erik Lehnsherr (Magneto) and Charles Xavier (Professor X). They spend their time building up both characters, and then do an amazing job of showing how the two influenced each other. Charles changed Erik from a renegade loner into a leader, while Erik took away some of Charles idealism and gave him a bit of a ruthless bite. I have to stress, that this is all done over the corse of the movie, rather than as a cheesy, sudden realization due to the twist at the end of the movie (which I'm certain we all already know). Rather, the main 'plot' of the movie (which I won't spoil here) is used as a catalyst and a background for the interplay between the characters, and that makes this movie as good as it is. That and Wolverine's scene (but I won't spoil that either).

So that happened, and afterward we all ate a midnight breakfast at Denny's (Reilley also thinks it was the waiter who thought to serve his hamburger, disassembled and on three separate plates. We all tipped well after that). It was three by the time we got back to the apartment. Tom and Reilley stayed up later than I did, but when I woke up (at eleven the next morning, sadly) Tom was asleep on the couch. Then Clinton arrived at our door to tell me that the WSU surplus store was having a patently ridiculous sale on computers, and if we wanted to upgrade our server, we would have to get over there before they closed in an hour. I woke up Thor and Reilley, and we all headed over there (letting Tom continue to sleep on the couch). We ended up getting two $80 computer that had been marked down to $30 each, figuring to split the cost between the three of us. Twenty dollars for two fairly good computers is an extremely good deal, and we plan to network them with our (my) current computer and set up some sort of networked computing dealie to improve our Minecraft server (which we've also set up to work over the internet, so my friends will be able to get on that eventually as well).

By the time we got back Tom was awake (for certain definitions of 'awake'), and was emphasizing the need for pizza. He offered to pay (having been excited about recently getting a job) so we all agreed. Then Reilley got a text asking if we wanted to go to see the Green Lantern movie. Coincidentally, this had been a point of discussion after we saw the trailer for the Green Lantern movie before the X-Men movie came on. Everybody except for Thor and Mira, that is Clinton, Tom, Reilley and I, decided to go.

Reilley made a point to have a pessimistic view. He thought (still does) that the Green Lantern's outfit looked like it was made of green and black bacon. I cannot disagree. He was expecting it to be another expensive movie going for an easy audience that wouldn't really be worth it. He was also unhappy that we were going to watch it in 3-D (he doesn't like how 3-D tends to turn out, and it's more expensive). I don't know how he'd respond if you asked him, but I'd say it was a great movie. He'd probably say it was good, and then go into an explanation as to why, but that doesn't change the fact that during the movie, he was enjoying it as much as I was. It was funny, it made fun of itself and the whole movie genra ("I've known you your whole life! I've seen you naked! Do you think I wouldn't recognize you just because your cheek bones are covered?!"), I NEVER found myself bored or tortured by any of the scenes, and though it was not necessarily faithful to the comic cannon, it WAS faithful to the comic's IDEA, and it felt like a Green Lantern story. It was very well done. Our only complaint about the movie was the teaser at the end of the first credits (before the scrolling credits), but I won't get into that until you've seen it for yourself (even though we all were expecting that particular twist).

So that happened. It was getting late again, but Reilley needed to get his bike back from Tom's place (I recall now that Thor and I had to pick him up from there before going over to the X-Men movie the previous day), so we all walked over there. Once there, Clinton got called back by his girlfriend, and we watched Hero, because Reilley had never seen it before. The last time saw Hero, I couldn't understand what was going on. This time I'm glad to say that I understood it perfectly, but I found myself constantly irritated at it. I cannot recall exactly what it was, but I found the fight scenes patently silly. Yes it's a Chinese kung-fu opera so all the characters are going to be over-the-top with melodrama, ridiculous kung-fu moves and patently stupid mistakes, but I found myself laughing at the characters more than sympathizing with them. It's an amazingly beautiful movie, and the fighting WAS cool (wire-fighting and all), but it was up it's own asshole with melodrama, and the philosophical twist wasn't all that amazing. I know that many people enjoy it immensely for better reasons, but that's my opinion.

So that happened. Afterward, we just kind of hung out and talked for a while, before randomly starting an role play game that Tom ran for Reilley and I. Once that petered out, Reilley and I walked back to the apartment, only to find Zack sitting on our couch playing videogames. Apparently he had gotten off work to start his free day, and headed over here, expecting to find Reilley eventually. When that didn't happen, he just kind of hung out with Thor. By this time it was five in the morning. I realized I should just stay up to reset my sleeping schedule, but I haven't gotten anything worthwhile done in a while, and I've been slipping with my Japanese studies again. I wanted to be productive today, and I realized that if I reset my schedule, I would be a vegetable all day long. So I decided to take a two hour nap, and just keep napping periodically to keep myself productive. Either my alarm didn't go off, or I just slept through it, because when I woke up this morning it was noon again.

It's been a goo two days, but just thinking about it makes me want to just crawl back in bed and go to sleep...

Late Again

I've been planning a few pranks for Reilley. I need to think of some for Thor. More as the situation develops.

We finally learned how to write script in Matlab this week. I'm rather excited because I've got a couple ideas for projects that would work better in Matlab than, say, Grapher. Of course, already I'm mostly ignoring what's going on in class, choosing instead to play around with what we learned in order to glean a better understanding of it. What really irritates me about Matlab right now is how Matlab defaults the working directory to wherever the Matlab app is every time it starts up. I then have to use it's rather poor user interface to pick the folder I WANT it to use every time. So far this hasn't been an issue because we haven't been doing anything that would use it (like logging commands), but it's a little annoying. Still, I'm enjoying the class, and I expect that a number of my daily posts will regard it.

Week Late

If it's only been a week and I'm already late, does that mean I'm ahead of schedule?

So I've successfully moved back into my college apartment. Reilley moved in and Clinton moved out shortly after I left, which worked out well for Reilley as he would otherwise have no place to stay during summer session, but Clinton bemoans the loss of free access to the apartment so he can hang out whenever he likes. Personally, I'm happy with the switch. Reilly is much easier to get to do things like clean up or do dishes, though I realize I've still had to curb my nagging.

It looks like Reilley and I will also be able to figure out a meal plan, mostly because I've figured out how to cook in a way that facilitates this. Unlike me, Reilley tends to eat very little, which does not agree with my previous cooking habits. Originally I would cook a large dish, then proceed to munch on the leftovers (provided I didn't just eat the whole thing that night, which happened often). When I do this with Reilley, however, he tends not to eat the leftovers, and I devour the whole thing in a day's time anyway. Reilley is a much more picky eater than I am, which he is well aware of, so it's sometimes difficult to find things he will eat. The plan that I've adopted is to fry up some chicken, usually with some sort of simple seasoning like chili powder, and then just add some kind of starch and vegetables. This works well, and I think I can come up with enough variety of seasonings or other cooking techniques that it won't get boring too soon.

I've mostly been concerned with productivity this last week. Grannie was right, summer school has a completely different feel to it. I've only got one class, Matlab, and this is really easy, so I've usually got a plethora of free time, and I'm trying to be careful not to let that go to waste, more because doing so drives me crazy than any concrete necessity (I've inherited my mother's psychosis). The problem is that living with my friends, and having so many distractions so close at hand, makes it very easy to waste the day doing nothing but digging virtual holes in Minecraft. Furthermore, I had hoped to do a number of things with Reilley, most notably starting our respective webcomics, but Reilley seems to have no ability to actually buckle down and do the things he and I agreed upon. This has been a problem before we were living together as well, when he would frequently ignore prearranged meetings, without contacting us, because he got distracted by something and didn't feel like it.

As an aside, I realize this is going on the internet, where Reilley can stumble upon it (however unlikely), and I'd like to say that he's a really cool guy to live with, and also more than a little creatively inspiring, but I think he has dependability issues.

So that's life right now, caught up from the last week or so. I still need to call Crissy and talk to her about the HPPV as well as driving lessons (which I have to admit I'm dreading a little), and while I've started studying Japanese a little every day, I haven't started pushing myself regularly, which is the only way I can catch back up. Hopefully I'll also start making quick entires every day, but I'm afraid most of them will start to look a lot alike.

And Everything Was Going So Well Too

Yesterday, the only thing I had to eat were four tuna fish patties. I have gone shopping today.

So I've been pretty damn excited for college this time around. I've started getting up at seven, instead of sleeping in till the last possible moment and being late for class because I insist on flossing and brushing and eating breakfast anyway. Furthermore, I'm trying to start drawing something every day as part of a sort of challenge between me and Arras. So far I'm not doing too well. I wanted to start up a biographical comic, but apparently my inability to quickly spit out a basic comic outline (i.e. what happens in what panel) has made me unable to draw comics in the time I'd like to. I am, however, drawing every day, and that makes me happy. Furthermore, I'm drawing in that little book Mum got me for Christmas, which also makes me happy.

It was, in fact, WHILE I was drawing in that little book, during one of the lulls in my calc 3 class, that I heard the instructor talking about a list of students that, for whatever reason, were deemed unsatisfactory for the pre-requirements for the course. I'm used to this, it happens at the beginning of almost every important class, and I was about to ignore it too, when I happened to look up and see my name sitting at the bottom of this very short list.

Like a jerk.

So apparently I don't satisfy the requirements for the course, which I suspect is due to my VERY low (BUT PASSING) grade for calc 2, last semester. Thing is, I know the material, I was just fantastically stupid last semester and got bad grades, but the confusing thing is that I thought I PASSED that class... So I've shot an e-mail off to the person you're supposed to shoot with e-mails, and I'm hoping she (he? they?) respond soon because I've got till the 14th before I get dropped from the class like a chip you pulled from the bag without looking only to find that it's covered in ants.

Also my tuition is late.

Also I still need to buy books.

New Year 2010-2011

From about 1 to 8 this morning, my friends and I played Super Smash Brothers: Brawl, one hit kill mode. I have not yet actually slept since I got up yesterday at ten.

Friends:
This New Year feels auspicious. My group of friends from AHS is, for lack of a better word, dissolving. This last year, some of us had graduated into college, and already it felt harder to get together and do things. This year even more of us have gone into college, and next year still more will. I remember days when I would see these people every day. We would go to school together,and play robots together. Now it's a scramble to try and meet up, and inevitably not everybody can make it. We're fragmenting. Still, I don't think for a second that we're not going to stick together. Thanks to the internet, we can talk almost no matter where we are. It's just a humbling realization that I used to see these people every single day...

Resolution:
For years, my only struggle with school has been with my organization. The only lesson that I need to learn, that I have fought against for years, is that I need to use my system. Every time I make a new system, it works very well. Things are good, and I get tired of maintaining it, so I stop. I think, I can do this, I've got this under control, but I don't. Every time I drop my system, I end up getting screwed. I did this last semester, and I almost failed most of my classes. This year, I want to learn this lesson once and for all. I want to use my system, and keep using it.

Lessons:
This semester, I learned how to study. I had honestly never studied before, and I only had a vague idea how it worked. I would try over-complicating it, making study-groups and finding excuses not to study when my plans didn't work out. After doing so terribly in all my classes, I realized that I needed desperately to score well on all my finals. To this end, I studied harder than I ever have before. I learned that the only way to study is to do it myself. Study-groups are useful in specific situations, but for studying, I'm better working alone.

Year's summary:
Second semester at WSU. Taking out GERs still. W00t-Stock was amazing. Got stuck in traffic on the way home and missed the first 30 minutes, but the rest was very worth it. Forgot that Kyle wanted to come. Probably shouldn't have rubbed it in his face. He stole my challenge coin to get back at me, with the condition that it would be returned when I got him to W00t-Stock the next year. I know he'll keep it safe, and I'll get him there next year. Wasted another summer. Didn't learn to drive, but got taught a great deal by Aunt Elaine. Going to have to focus on learning to drive next summer. Talked to Kobie Boykins about NASA internships. This is probably the next step for me if I want to build exploratory robots. Need to finish this, but I still havent. I missed the deadline for the spring intern session, which I guess is just as well. Gotta finish this in time for this summer's deadline, because there are apparently a ton of open positions. I'm actually pretty confident in my resume, which is a change. I hate writing answers for the essay questions. Went to Steamcon 2 with Arras, Cole, Kenneth and Kenneth's posse. It was simply amazing. Always remember the Rise of Aester LARP games and Sir Jim Mangewood. Got a ton of steampunk stuff for Christmas. I guess this is officially a thing for us now. How did it take this long? I miss the friends that I no longer talk to, like Miles and Andrew. I could try reconnecting with them, but it wouldn't feel natural to me. There are just some relationships that I simply cannot maintain without seeing the person regularly, and I think this is just a part of myself I need to accept. I've stopped playing games, and started focusing on projects more. This is a good trend and I need to keep working on it. I can do some amazing things if I simply choose to work on them instead of reading web-comics. That said, don't underestimate the value of mindless fun.

Books I need to read:
Roadside Picnic
Dune
the Behemoth series (I think that's the wrong name but whatever)
House of Leaves

Skills I need to pick up:
Unix

Projects I'm working on:
GURPS Dr. Grordbort-style Steampunk mod
GURPS Island survival mod
DnD Spider-People campaign
DnD Epic Trap Dungeon
Mum's imitation Book-Book
Mum's cane
Arduino USB Midi-Guitar
Superhero Robots