Posts from — February 2005

As expected, I’m pretty tired right now. I haven’t started my take home final that’s due tomorrow, but that shouldn’t be too bad. “Due Monday, Do Monday” is the saying, after all.

I went on AIM for a little while tonight, talked to a few people, some of whom I haven’t seen in a long time, which was nice. People keep asking when I’ll “be back”, but I’m still not sure what the answer is. Maybe the start of March is a good milestone to make the switch, maybe wait until after spring break, I dont’ know. There’s something (about myself) I’m looking to change by not being online, but I’m honestly not sure what it is. I’d probably write something that could be easily misinterpreted if I tried to explain it, but if you ask me directly I can try.

March begins in < 24 hours. I’m not sure if I’m ready, but I clearly have no choice. I’m not going to make any silly comments like “well, it can’t be worse than X!”, because it seems that every time I do that it’s like some sort of challenge to God and something ridiculous happens. I’ll just hope March goes well and leave it at that.

It’s 5:30 and I’m still awake. I napped for ~10 minutes today after 5 hrs of sleep last night and I’m still getting things done now somehow. I need to sleep soon, but my coding is going so well I don’t want to stop. I’m physically exhausted but my brain is working nonstop. It’s a good thing I’m not dependent on caffine, this would be an expensive habit.

So I signed back on AIM at 4:30 AM EST, and nobody was awake to greet me. Forget it, I’m signing back off.

I spent ~10 hours tonight working on a new project that I’m really excited about. It’s probably my most impressive web app to date, but I’m not going to advertise it yet since it needs some optimization before more than a couple of people use it. I wish I didn’t need to sleep now, I’m on a roll.

Oh well.

More details will come on the project as it becomes more usable.

This is the first programming binge I’ve had in a long time, I’m really glad that it’s back, I missed these.

Slate has an interesting article about WalMart this week.

For whatever reason, I’m really happy with the most mundane things lately. I haven’t been on AIM in almost a day and a half and I’m enjoying it way more than I ever expected. I’m having trouble even describing it. My life feels so much more in order now… I’ve been getting my work done, my room is clean, the kitchen is clean (though that isn’t because of me, but it does make me feel more at ease). I’m about halfway done with the algorithms homework that is due on FRIDAY. That’s unprecedented for me to even think about this early. I wrote a bunch of emails that I had been meaning to write for a long time. Still some more to do, but maybe I’ll get to that tonight. I spent several hours preparing for tonight’s MC meeting, and I think it went well.

I’m just so elated about how much simpler my life is right now. I do miss chatting with people online, and I’ll probably be back in a day or so, but the good far outweighs the bad for now. Getting off AIM was exactly what I needed and is the best thing I’ve done this year (I can’t think of too many good things I’ve done this year, but whatever). I don’t really promote being off AIM in general, it just depends on your situation. I guess Chris B helped me work up the nerve to try it.

Hopefully this’ll afford me some time to work on all the projects I’ve been neglecting for weeks/months. Feel free to call me cellularly tomorrow if you want to do something, my schedule is generally free and flexible (especially since I’m getting this homework done ahead of time… this is insane!)

Wow, it’s been a whole two days since I last updated.

No progress has been made on my desktop, if I can’t get something working before spring break, I’m going to consider going back to 32 bit. I’ll have more time to put into it in the next week.

I had my math 230 test this morning, it didn’t go too well. I know I got a couple of questions completely wrong, and the prof isn’t too generous with extra credit, though I tried to write as much as I knew. I didn’t study well enough for it.

I got a 95/100 on my algorithms test, which is good especially considering how irresponsible I’ve been in that class. I guess I’m not “having a difficult time this semester” as Munoz predicted. Assistance is mandatory.

I’ve been off AIM for about 18 consecutive hours now, and I must admit that I’m enjoying it. I don’t think about what my away message is, who’s online, what’s in people’s profiles, etc. That let me focus more on studying last night and getting other important things done. Maybe I’ll go back online in the afternoon or later tonight. If anything comes up in the meantime, don’t hesitate to call, I’ll be around pretty much all day. I do miss talking to some people who I don’t see day to day, but right now I need a break from being social, so it’s worth the cost.

I’m finally getting over whatever sickness I’ve had for the last couple of days. I’m not sure what brought it about.. I’ve been sleeping fairly well, exercising, eating vitamins, etc. Maybe I just got worn down or something, lots of people have been sick lately.

As of this writing, it’s 80 degrees F in San Juan.

I’m feeling somewhat sick today, almost didn’t go to cognitive science, but I didn’t want to miss the discussion on the test. I’m not going to happy hour nor symphonic band today because of this, though I’m still holding the MEP meeting for kky since it can’t wait. Hopefully I’ll have a quiet night outside of that.. staying off AIM and getting work done and resting. I think I’ve been resting a fair amount recently, who knows.

I ran to the big, black, out-of-place bethlehem steel building (near 8th street on the north side) yesterday with my new shoes. I still need to adjust to them as they made my shins very tired. It was about 5 miles, I think.
5/80

My parents and brother visited for the weekend, which was fun, I wish I got to see them more in the spring, but the schedule just doesn’t work out that way.

If you have access to the band board, try out the new picture software that I wrote. Still a work in progress, but definitely useable. There’s an announcement on the board. Leave bug reports and feature requests there, or contact me directly.

The manager works in IE6 and firefox, everything else works in any reasonable browser.

I impulse-bought three DVDs at half.com last night:
- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
- The Naked Gun
- The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear

These are three of my favorite movies, and we don’t have them at the house. They weren’t too expensive at half.com ($5-9 ea), so we’ll see how it works out. I’d like to get kill bill on dvd without paying $27 for it (the price on amazon), but I’m not quite sure how well buying dvds on half.com will work, so I’m going to hold off on that.

Some people have asked why I don’t really support Wal-Mart. There’s an article in FastCompany that describes the way Wal-Mart works a bit. It’s not a short read, but if you’re actually interested, it’s worth reading. I don’t boycott Wal-Mart, but I do avoid buying from there when I can. All too often I can’t, though. The picture I used for this icon was taken at Wal-Mart.