March 30, 2006
It's a Barnum and Bailey World
So, the 23rd was technically my first day of Spring Break since my finals were over on Wed, but things never quite work out that way for me. The DARPA Grand Challenge team I'm on spent time getting some crap together on Friday for a display they had to give the next day. This involved a whole lot soldering, wiring, programming, et cetera et cetera, and basically went until 4m Sat. I don't mind too much however, as we did get a reasonable amount of crap done.
I then woke up early-ish on Sat to go tutoring, and of course the student that was scheduled didn't even show. Grah. An aunt of mine I hadn't seen in six years was visiting my grandparents at the time, so my family went over and saw her for the first time in a long while. She showed us some pics of my 22 year old cousin's wedding in Taiwan, which was just a bit weird. I can't even imagine what it would be like to be married at this point in my life; it seems like giving up a whole lot of freedom during the moments of your life at which you are most free.
I also chatted with her about her sons, my cousins, and what they were up to. Sounds like the eldest, the abovementioned and about a year older than me, is doing some work with a professor on voice recognition technology. From what she knew and what she explained to me, it sounds like he's doing a lot of work on making current systems hardware rather than software based and increasing portability and versatility. What exactly he is doing, I really don't know and my aunt wasn't really familiar enough to help me out with that. Or maybe I was just poor at understanding.
I guess my other cousin, maybe a year younger than me, had switched to mechanical engineering. My aunt hypothesized this had no small part to do with my older cousin's wife's influence, as she is also a mechanical engineer. He's young yet though and is only just finishing his sophomore year, so there wasn't all that much to say about him.
After dinner with the family and extended family, my mom decided to pay a visit to my cousin and his new daughter, since they were in the same area. Her name is Kayli, and she's really adorable. I actually got to see her the day after she was born, and it was just ridiculous.
When I first saw her, she was sleepy, small, and red. When we saw her that day, she was still sleepy, still small, but noticeably less red. Her brother, Darin, seemed to like her quite a bit, though I think he was beginning to realize that mom and dad were gonna be paying a lot of attention to her and not to him. At some point he was playing with cars by himself in the kitchen looking very sad, and I went and asked him what was wrong. His reply was that nothing was wrong, but it kinda obvious he was not happy. It's kinda funny, I wonder how my reaction was when my own little brother was born.
We stuck around for a bit and my mom held the baby for a bit until she finally woke up and wanted food. My mom mentioned that like Kayli, I was born with a head full of hair. For me however, all the hair fell out pretty quickly after I was born and I was bald for a good chunk of my young years apparently.
As an aside, I think the next cousin who is going to have kids is going to be my oldest male cousin in Japan. He got married when I went to Japan two years ago, and since him only my father's brother's oldest kid (the abovementioned) has gotten married. Which makes me wonder what the order of marriage is going to be for the next round of kids, since there are about eight of us, probably more, who are unmarried and in the range of sixteen to twenty-six. Scary thoughts.
After getting home from my cousin's, I went and played around with Sean and Ave and Sean's new copy of Tetris DS. It's fun I suppose, but it's really just Tetris. Might be more fun with more people.
The next day saw me getting up at 0400 again for snowboarding and prep and stuff. It was Diana driving me, Ave, and my brother, and Corey, Katie and a friend of Corey's left a bit before us. I bought a pair of snow pants, we got to the mountain about 0930 or so, snowboarded for hella hours, and then went home after the place closed. It was fun and all, but I think that it would have been way more fun if I wasn't so lacking on sleep. The lack of sleep was giving me problems with slower reflexes, less enthusiasm and ability to work past the exhaustion I was feeling, and all in all I just ended up falling a lot. Still, I had fun, though I didn't make runs all the way up until closing; at some point I hurt a thigh muscle something harsh, and so I ended the day a half hour early or so and waited for others to slowly finish up. We made the long drive home, I fell asleep in the car, and went home and crashed out.
On Monday, Misheru was back in town but incapacitated, so Sean, Joanna and I went over and paid her some company. We bought some grub, Sean bought some sort of Starbucks alcohol mixer thinger to experiment with, we rented The Aristocrats and had ourselves a grand old time. The new family dog, Cutter, made a total nuisance of himself. The dog is like two years old or so, eighty pounds, and still thinks he's a puppy. While we were watching the movie, he kept coming over and trying to get us to play with him, so we eventualy resorted to hiding his toys in a filing cabinet so he would leave us alone and instead sit petulantly in front of the filing cabinet waiting for the toys to come out. The movie itself was about what I expected in terms of entertainment value; there was more in the way of history, explanation and theory than I was expecting, and less of the actual telling of the joke, but the directors did a good job of it and it was thoroughly enjoyable.
Tuesday evening, Sean, Joanna and I went out to SF to see Japan Nite 2006. I went not expecting too much, but actually enjoyed myself a whole lot.
There's more to say on this, but long story short, it was an awesome concert, we got back home around three-ish, and I woke up the next morning with my left ear still mildly deaf.
Sean's got some pictures up here, though he only got pics of the first three bands. This is especially sad 'cause the last two bands were really, really good.
Wednesday was the first day of classes for the Spring quarter and because of the lack of sleep of the nights prior, I managed to miss my first class of the last first day of class of my undergraduate career.
Read it a couple times, it'll make sense eventually.
I went into my second class about forty-five minutes late (two hour class) and immediately wished I hadn't gone at all. It's a junior level course and so I'm largely familiar with all the material we're going to be going over. I think I'm going to be spending a lot of time playing my DS in that class.
Went to the bars that night and had a grand ol' time with friends. It was, not too surprisingly, really crowded out. Drivers were designated, drinks were had, random people were met, drunk munchies were sated, and eventually we all went home.
Now, this morning, when I woke up, my eye was all sorts of irritated. I half woke up, popped out my contacts and tossed them, and went back to sleep. When I woke up again later, my eye was really, really irritated. It was red, and tearing and blah blah blah. Through the day it got better, but it kinda fluctuated and now I can still feel that's not very happy. I'm mostly worried because I remember a teacher of mine in HS once ripped a piece out of his cornea or some crap when he had had contacts in for too long or something. I'm hoping this will be better by tomorrow.
Oh, and I also went to some classes : archery, bowling, robotics. Being a senior is awesome.
I'm not entirely sure what the next few days will hold, but it sounds like it should be fun. People are back for break, and we're hopefully getting together and catching up and such. What's also nice is that tomorrow is a holiday so there's no school. What's irritating about that is that if there was only gonna be two days of school this week, why did they even bother bringing us back? They should have just given us the two days off, given us a week long break, and extended the quarter two days later down the road. Oh well.
I then woke up early-ish on Sat to go tutoring, and of course the student that was scheduled didn't even show. Grah. An aunt of mine I hadn't seen in six years was visiting my grandparents at the time, so my family went over and saw her for the first time in a long while. She showed us some pics of my 22 year old cousin's wedding in Taiwan, which was just a bit weird. I can't even imagine what it would be like to be married at this point in my life; it seems like giving up a whole lot of freedom during the moments of your life at which you are most free.
I also chatted with her about her sons, my cousins, and what they were up to. Sounds like the eldest, the abovementioned and about a year older than me, is doing some work with a professor on voice recognition technology. From what she knew and what she explained to me, it sounds like he's doing a lot of work on making current systems hardware rather than software based and increasing portability and versatility. What exactly he is doing, I really don't know and my aunt wasn't really familiar enough to help me out with that. Or maybe I was just poor at understanding.
I guess my other cousin, maybe a year younger than me, had switched to mechanical engineering. My aunt hypothesized this had no small part to do with my older cousin's wife's influence, as she is also a mechanical engineer. He's young yet though and is only just finishing his sophomore year, so there wasn't all that much to say about him.
After dinner with the family and extended family, my mom decided to pay a visit to my cousin and his new daughter, since they were in the same area. Her name is Kayli, and she's really adorable. I actually got to see her the day after she was born, and it was just ridiculous.
When I first saw her, she was sleepy, small, and red. When we saw her that day, she was still sleepy, still small, but noticeably less red. Her brother, Darin, seemed to like her quite a bit, though I think he was beginning to realize that mom and dad were gonna be paying a lot of attention to her and not to him. At some point he was playing with cars by himself in the kitchen looking very sad, and I went and asked him what was wrong. His reply was that nothing was wrong, but it kinda obvious he was not happy. It's kinda funny, I wonder how my reaction was when my own little brother was born.
We stuck around for a bit and my mom held the baby for a bit until she finally woke up and wanted food. My mom mentioned that like Kayli, I was born with a head full of hair. For me however, all the hair fell out pretty quickly after I was born and I was bald for a good chunk of my young years apparently.
As an aside, I think the next cousin who is going to have kids is going to be my oldest male cousin in Japan. He got married when I went to Japan two years ago, and since him only my father's brother's oldest kid (the abovementioned) has gotten married. Which makes me wonder what the order of marriage is going to be for the next round of kids, since there are about eight of us, probably more, who are unmarried and in the range of sixteen to twenty-six. Scary thoughts.
After getting home from my cousin's, I went and played around with Sean and Ave and Sean's new copy of Tetris DS. It's fun I suppose, but it's really just Tetris. Might be more fun with more people.
The next day saw me getting up at 0400 again for snowboarding and prep and stuff. It was Diana driving me, Ave, and my brother, and Corey, Katie and a friend of Corey's left a bit before us. I bought a pair of snow pants, we got to the mountain about 0930 or so, snowboarded for hella hours, and then went home after the place closed. It was fun and all, but I think that it would have been way more fun if I wasn't so lacking on sleep. The lack of sleep was giving me problems with slower reflexes, less enthusiasm and ability to work past the exhaustion I was feeling, and all in all I just ended up falling a lot. Still, I had fun, though I didn't make runs all the way up until closing; at some point I hurt a thigh muscle something harsh, and so I ended the day a half hour early or so and waited for others to slowly finish up. We made the long drive home, I fell asleep in the car, and went home and crashed out.
On Monday, Misheru was back in town but incapacitated, so Sean, Joanna and I went over and paid her some company. We bought some grub, Sean bought some sort of Starbucks alcohol mixer thinger to experiment with, we rented The Aristocrats and had ourselves a grand old time. The new family dog, Cutter, made a total nuisance of himself. The dog is like two years old or so, eighty pounds, and still thinks he's a puppy. While we were watching the movie, he kept coming over and trying to get us to play with him, so we eventualy resorted to hiding his toys in a filing cabinet so he would leave us alone and instead sit petulantly in front of the filing cabinet waiting for the toys to come out. The movie itself was about what I expected in terms of entertainment value; there was more in the way of history, explanation and theory than I was expecting, and less of the actual telling of the joke, but the directors did a good job of it and it was thoroughly enjoyable.
Tuesday evening, Sean, Joanna and I went out to SF to see Japan Nite 2006. I went not expecting too much, but actually enjoyed myself a whole lot.
There's more to say on this, but long story short, it was an awesome concert, we got back home around three-ish, and I woke up the next morning with my left ear still mildly deaf.
Sean's got some pictures up here, though he only got pics of the first three bands. This is especially sad 'cause the last two bands were really, really good.
Wednesday was the first day of classes for the Spring quarter and because of the lack of sleep of the nights prior, I managed to miss my first class of the last first day of class of my undergraduate career.
Read it a couple times, it'll make sense eventually.
I went into my second class about forty-five minutes late (two hour class) and immediately wished I hadn't gone at all. It's a junior level course and so I'm largely familiar with all the material we're going to be going over. I think I'm going to be spending a lot of time playing my DS in that class.
Went to the bars that night and had a grand ol' time with friends. It was, not too surprisingly, really crowded out. Drivers were designated, drinks were had, random people were met, drunk munchies were sated, and eventually we all went home.
Now, this morning, when I woke up, my eye was all sorts of irritated. I half woke up, popped out my contacts and tossed them, and went back to sleep. When I woke up again later, my eye was really, really irritated. It was red, and tearing and blah blah blah. Through the day it got better, but it kinda fluctuated and now I can still feel that's not very happy. I'm mostly worried because I remember a teacher of mine in HS once ripped a piece out of his cornea or some crap when he had had contacts in for too long or something. I'm hoping this will be better by tomorrow.
Oh, and I also went to some classes : archery, bowling, robotics. Being a senior is awesome.
I'm not entirely sure what the next few days will hold, but it sounds like it should be fun. People are back for break, and we're hopefully getting together and catching up and such. What's also nice is that tomorrow is a holiday so there's no school. What's irritating about that is that if there was only gonna be two days of school this week, why did they even bother bringing us back? They should have just given us the two days off, given us a week long break, and extended the quarter two days later down the road. Oh well.
March 27, 2006
Gah
My arms are sore in such a way that it makes it really painful to scratch my back and my back really itches.
It is a very horrible kind of torture.
It is a very horrible kind of torture.
March 23, 2006
Pies on the Carousel, Half a Slice
So. Spring break, woo!
It amuses me that my Spring break is such that I will be in school again this time (Wed) next week.
I gave myself a blister from playing House of the Dead 4 too much today. It's a small blister, but that small blister represents a fair bit of shame, sigh.
Not sure what all I'm going to do during break, but hopefully I can snowboard, airsoft, take a hike, and just spend time with friends. I doubt I'll do all of that, but if I get about half of it done, I'll consider it a break well spent, especially since we have all of six days or whatever.
Anyhow, I'm looking forward to next quarter in some sense. It should be a very relaxed quarter as I really only have one class that's going to be rigorous I think. I do have two papers and big project to do, but hopefully that'll be fun rather than feel like a chore.
For now, I am going to revel in the free time that I have and go to bed tonight without setting an alarm.
It amuses me that my Spring break is such that I will be in school again this time (Wed) next week.
I gave myself a blister from playing House of the Dead 4 too much today. It's a small blister, but that small blister represents a fair bit of shame, sigh.
Not sure what all I'm going to do during break, but hopefully I can snowboard, airsoft, take a hike, and just spend time with friends. I doubt I'll do all of that, but if I get about half of it done, I'll consider it a break well spent, especially since we have all of six days or whatever.
Anyhow, I'm looking forward to next quarter in some sense. It should be a very relaxed quarter as I really only have one class that's going to be rigorous I think. I do have two papers and big project to do, but hopefully that'll be fun rather than feel like a chore.
For now, I am going to revel in the free time that I have and go to bed tonight without setting an alarm.
March 18, 2006
Eyes, Stomachs, et cetera
Went to the Vietnamese sandwich shop place to buy a sammich or two for lunch. With no cash. As it turns out, there's an eight dollar ($8) minimum charge for credit cards and a sandwich is about two to two fifty ($2-$2.50). So, I got four sandwiches.
Let's see how this goes.
Let's see how this goes.
March 17, 2006
It's Three o'Clock in the Morning
Or maybe it's four.
Actually, it is about half past four in the morning and I am wide awake. I ended up sleeping around six this morning because we were working on getting the microcontrollers for the steering control and brake/throttle control board working as well as making sure the boards were doing alright. Woke up again at eleven to start working again, and finally finished all our crap at three fifty. Presented shortly after, and it seems like the prof was more or less satisfied. That concludes the projects I had to finish off in this past week, which included a sixteen page paper on the ethics of the US patent system, a presentation on the same, verifying the equivalence of a microprocessor and the same microprocessor with a scan-chain, a presentation on Catch 22 and the significance of cultural barriers in Catch 22, The Joy Luck Club, and The DaVinci Code.
After presenting, I got some pizza, randomly ran into Joanna, hung out with her for a bit, went to Sean's, got mauled by Rocky, went home, and fell asleep around half past eight. I woke up around midnight, and have been dicking around on the computer and playing games since. I have my first final at one thirty, and I have yet to really start studying.
I suppose I should start now.
Anyway, I saw some ducklings today! I was hoping to see them smaller and fluffier, but it seems I was too late. This bothers me primarily because I went to the arboretum last week with the primary intention of seeing the itty, bitty ducklings and saw nothing. I wonder whether I overlooked them, but I was keeping very aware of the open water at the least, so for sure there weren't any out there. I guess it could be the case that the ducklings were at that time too small, and so were still in nests and hiding from plain sight, though I know absolutely nothing about the growth of baby ducks and so have no clue when they're born, how they grow, or when they leave the nest. All the same, I'm glad I got the chance to see the little ones.
which is kinda funny in some sense, since I typically despise the ducks on campus with a vengeance. But really, the ducklings are just so itty, bitty and awkward and such that they're just too cute to dislike. Look at them!
After that was the hours upon hours of working on the project thinger. That chip there is one of a couple I burned out -_-;. It's not as though it's a huge problem or anything, but I still feel like a total newb for doing it. Luckily though, we did indeed finish everything, as stated above. Altogether, it was something like twenty hours of work spread out over a couple of days or something. Lots of pie, soda, and food was consumed, code was written, boards were soldered, and brains were fried.
The prof SEEMED pleased with the progress we had made, but he's not exactly the most congenial guy. We figure he's not going to fail us at the least, so as long as we keep up the work, we won't be having to stay behind a quarter.
As for the project, word on the street is that the next incarnation of the Challenge is going to be an urban one. DARPA has been sending out e-mails asking questions about the preferred format of the next competition and asking about what teams would like to see. Given that info, we're sorta steering our vehicle's design in that direction, though really the basic framework of the vehicle systems is going to be the same no matter the environment. The fun thing about an urban competition is that it might give us an option to explore ultrasonic sensors instead of just LiDAR, as well as try some other interesting things with the code. I dunno.
For now, I think I am going back to sleep. I've done a bit of tallying, and even with the long-ish nap I just finished I'm still way short on sleep for the past three days. Given that, and that I have a four hour block of finals, I should sleep now so that I don't crash out in the middle of testing.
Actually, it is about half past four in the morning and I am wide awake. I ended up sleeping around six this morning because we were working on getting the microcontrollers for the steering control and brake/throttle control board working as well as making sure the boards were doing alright. Woke up again at eleven to start working again, and finally finished all our crap at three fifty. Presented shortly after, and it seems like the prof was more or less satisfied. That concludes the projects I had to finish off in this past week, which included a sixteen page paper on the ethics of the US patent system, a presentation on the same, verifying the equivalence of a microprocessor and the same microprocessor with a scan-chain, a presentation on Catch 22 and the significance of cultural barriers in Catch 22, The Joy Luck Club, and The DaVinci Code.
After presenting, I got some pizza, randomly ran into Joanna, hung out with her for a bit, went to Sean's, got mauled by Rocky, went home, and fell asleep around half past eight. I woke up around midnight, and have been dicking around on the computer and playing games since. I have my first final at one thirty, and I have yet to really start studying.
I suppose I should start now.
Anyway, I saw some ducklings today! I was hoping to see them smaller and fluffier, but it seems I was too late. This bothers me primarily because I went to the arboretum last week with the primary intention of seeing the itty, bitty ducklings and saw nothing. I wonder whether I overlooked them, but I was keeping very aware of the open water at the least, so for sure there weren't any out there. I guess it could be the case that the ducklings were at that time too small, and so were still in nests and hiding from plain sight, though I know absolutely nothing about the growth of baby ducks and so have no clue when they're born, how they grow, or when they leave the nest. All the same, I'm glad I got the chance to see the little ones.which is kinda funny in some sense, since I typically despise the ducks on campus with a vengeance. But really, the ducklings are just so itty, bitty and awkward and such that they're just too cute to dislike. Look at them!
After that was the hours upon hours of working on the project thinger. That chip there is one of a couple I burned out -_-;. It's not as though it's a huge problem or anything, but I still feel like a total newb for doing it. Luckily though, we did indeed finish everything, as stated above. Altogether, it was something like twenty hours of work spread out over a couple of days or something. Lots of pie, soda, and food was consumed, code was written, boards were soldered, and brains were fried.The prof SEEMED pleased with the progress we had made, but he's not exactly the most congenial guy. We figure he's not going to fail us at the least, so as long as we keep up the work, we won't be having to stay behind a quarter.
As for the project, word on the street is that the next incarnation of the Challenge is going to be an urban one. DARPA has been sending out e-mails asking questions about the preferred format of the next competition and asking about what teams would like to see. Given that info, we're sorta steering our vehicle's design in that direction, though really the basic framework of the vehicle systems is going to be the same no matter the environment. The fun thing about an urban competition is that it might give us an option to explore ultrasonic sensors instead of just LiDAR, as well as try some other interesting things with the code. I dunno.
For now, I think I am going back to sleep. I've done a bit of tallying, and even with the long-ish nap I just finished I'm still way short on sleep for the past three days. Given that, and that I have a four hour block of finals, I should sleep now so that I don't crash out in the middle of testing.
March 16, 2006
Legibility Test
March 12, 2006
To Hear Her Footsteps On My Walkway
Not surprisingly, my two students did not show in the morning; I should've just slept in. It wasn't a total waste though as I did have a chance to shoot the breeze with a co-worker I don't see often anymore. Seems like I don't see anyone much anymore as of late.
Took a walk in the arboretum to pass the time before I had to go to a club meeting. There aren't any ducklings out there yet, but I have high hopes. Even so though, it was just relaxing being in the sun and watching the ducks paddling along slowly in the water. I did of course witness the occasional gang-abuse of a female, but that's par for the course I suppose, crazy ducks.
I also saw a gigantic black duck. I sometimes wonder about the various colors of ducks in the arboretum and what exactly it all means. I mean, I can tell the males from the female, but there are varities even within that I think. Maybe I'll come up with the effort and look into it myself sometime.
Went with club to a pick and pull to find parts for the vehicle. I'd never been, so it was a new experience for me. I spent most of the time wandering around, scavenging for various things on the list, though I did waste a large chunk of time removing a carburetor. It was a waste because after removing it, it was decided we didn't need it after all. Not that I really mind, since I wasn't doing much anyway, but it was somewhat annoying getting my hands ridiculously dirty for nothing much at all.
Also, carrying around a large ball pean hammer in a yard full of junked cars is kinda.., I dunno, tempting. Especially with all the aggression and stress lately. All the same, I limited myself to only hitting one windshield that was already broken.
Swung by Costco on the way home and grabbed some cheap food there. Yum for churros.
Then it was Karla's birthday, whee. Ate at Thai Bistro, hung around, went to Froggy's to wait until Pasta? started dancing. After Pasta? cleared crap up for dancing, we headed over there and got some cheap drinks while we waited for people to actually start dancing. After hanging around there for a bit, swung by Cantina and grooved around some more. Altogether, a good night. I'd kinda forgotten that it can be fun to dance.
Tomorrow looks not so fun, as I have tutoring, then a whole crapload of work to finish before the end of the quarter. I think I can deal with it though after the stress relief that tonight brought. Hopefully I can stay relaxed and cool until Spring break at the least.
Took a walk in the arboretum to pass the time before I had to go to a club meeting. There aren't any ducklings out there yet, but I have high hopes. Even so though, it was just relaxing being in the sun and watching the ducks paddling along slowly in the water. I did of course witness the occasional gang-abuse of a female, but that's par for the course I suppose, crazy ducks.
I also saw a gigantic black duck. I sometimes wonder about the various colors of ducks in the arboretum and what exactly it all means. I mean, I can tell the males from the female, but there are varities even within that I think. Maybe I'll come up with the effort and look into it myself sometime.
Went with club to a pick and pull to find parts for the vehicle. I'd never been, so it was a new experience for me. I spent most of the time wandering around, scavenging for various things on the list, though I did waste a large chunk of time removing a carburetor. It was a waste because after removing it, it was decided we didn't need it after all. Not that I really mind, since I wasn't doing much anyway, but it was somewhat annoying getting my hands ridiculously dirty for nothing much at all.
Also, carrying around a large ball pean hammer in a yard full of junked cars is kinda.., I dunno, tempting. Especially with all the aggression and stress lately. All the same, I limited myself to only hitting one windshield that was already broken.
Swung by Costco on the way home and grabbed some cheap food there. Yum for churros.
Then it was Karla's birthday, whee. Ate at Thai Bistro, hung around, went to Froggy's to wait until Pasta? started dancing. After Pasta? cleared crap up for dancing, we headed over there and got some cheap drinks while we waited for people to actually start dancing. After hanging around there for a bit, swung by Cantina and grooved around some more. Altogether, a good night. I'd kinda forgotten that it can be fun to dance.
Tomorrow looks not so fun, as I have tutoring, then a whole crapload of work to finish before the end of the quarter. I think I can deal with it though after the stress relief that tonight brought. Hopefully I can stay relaxed and cool until Spring break at the least.
March 11, 2006
No Sun Up In The Sky
Jeebus.
I have been working non-stop on homework, projects, and presentations this week and I still have crap to do. An entire week of going pretty much from eight or so each day and not leaving campus 'til ten at the earliest. I will be so happy when this quarter is over. It will be happiness of the nature that you feel when you have been hitting yourself over the head with a hammer a long time and then stop.
Heavenly elation.
NEC has still not called back. I figured they wouldn't call today since the HR director said that if they called me back and gave me a verbal offer, I was to undergo a drug test within 48 hours. If they had called me today, they would have had to find some place in town that would give drug tests over the weekend, which might have been difficult. If they don't call me on Monday, I might just explode of anticipation and angst.
I'm almost finished reading Catch 22 and I really like it. I mean, I already knew I liked it, but I kinda forget just how much I like things sometimes. I think I'm going to try and get my hands on a copy of Closing Time next.
Played the boxing game for Xbox360 today. It was fun and kinda painful to watch actually. The controls are weird but you get sorta used to them after a game or two. Very fun game, very worth playing.
And once again, I'm exhausted. To sleep I go to prepare for the brutal weekend and subsequent half-week of lectures.
Edit! :
People who don't speak their minds bother me. Especially when it comes to dealing with people. Putting on a polite front to someone you don't care for is reasonable, but acting friendly and as though you actually care when you don't give a shit at all is just disingenuous and really irritating. More clarity and ranting on this later, maybe.
Also, it sleeted today. That was a somewhat unexpected surprise for the middle of my presentation.
And lastly, I have to tutor tomorrow morning. These two students are particularly flaky and I really don't feel like waking up early tomorrow. This puts me in a weird situation since they might show up and they might not, and I don't want to be there if they don't show and don't want to be in bed if they do show. Obviously. I wish they would just call in advance to tell me they have to cancel rather than the ten minutes before we are scheduled to meet. Oh well.
I have been working non-stop on homework, projects, and presentations this week and I still have crap to do. An entire week of going pretty much from eight or so each day and not leaving campus 'til ten at the earliest. I will be so happy when this quarter is over. It will be happiness of the nature that you feel when you have been hitting yourself over the head with a hammer a long time and then stop.
Heavenly elation.
NEC has still not called back. I figured they wouldn't call today since the HR director said that if they called me back and gave me a verbal offer, I was to undergo a drug test within 48 hours. If they had called me today, they would have had to find some place in town that would give drug tests over the weekend, which might have been difficult. If they don't call me on Monday, I might just explode of anticipation and angst.
I'm almost finished reading Catch 22 and I really like it. I mean, I already knew I liked it, but I kinda forget just how much I like things sometimes. I think I'm going to try and get my hands on a copy of Closing Time next.
Played the boxing game for Xbox360 today. It was fun and kinda painful to watch actually. The controls are weird but you get sorta used to them after a game or two. Very fun game, very worth playing.
And once again, I'm exhausted. To sleep I go to prepare for the brutal weekend and subsequent half-week of lectures.
Edit! :
People who don't speak their minds bother me. Especially when it comes to dealing with people. Putting on a polite front to someone you don't care for is reasonable, but acting friendly and as though you actually care when you don't give a shit at all is just disingenuous and really irritating. More clarity and ranting on this later, maybe.
Also, it sleeted today. That was a somewhat unexpected surprise for the middle of my presentation.
And lastly, I have to tutor tomorrow morning. These two students are particularly flaky and I really don't feel like waking up early tomorrow. This puts me in a weird situation since they might show up and they might not, and I don't want to be there if they don't show and don't want to be in bed if they do show. Obviously. I wish they would just call in advance to tell me they have to cancel rather than the ten minutes before we are scheduled to meet. Oh well.
March 08, 2006
It Was Just The Season
I have a cavity.
It's on the side of one of my upper left tri-molars or something like that.
It's been there for a couple of years and the doc was watching carefully to make sure it didn't get to this point. Due to my policy of flossing heavily for a period of time after seeing the dentist and then stopping altogether once it got inconvenient, the cavity has finally grown to the point where I now need a filling.
A filling.
I mean, that just seems silly. Only kids get fillings. I haven't gotten a filling since god knows how long.
My appointment is for April sometime.
Sigh.
My interview went okay I think. It went from 0900-1130. Five separate interviewers, five separate, individual interviews, thirty minutes each, one after the other. I met with the two team managers, the department manager (manager of the managers?), the "Principal Equipment Engineer", and the HR consultant. Altogether, I think all of it went well except the manager manager interview.
I got all flustered while explaining the workings of a solenoid 'cause I couldn't remember Maxwell's equation relating current and magnetic field. That just made me kinda on-edge for the rest of the interview, which made me double nervous when he gave me the stupid "What is your greatest strength and your greatest weakness?" question. I answered it in a weird sort of way, and actually, in a moment of unguarded honesty, gave an honest opinion of what one of my greatest weaknesses was. Unfortunately, the weakness I gave had little to nothing to do with the workplace or how I would fare as an employee and I think he was probably thinking something along the lines of "WTF?!" as I explained my weakness and how it helped me grow as a person.
One thing that really bothered me were the technical questions. Only one was an EE question, and it was trivial. It was a 12v battery in parallel with two 1k resistors, and then a 12v batttery in series with two 1k resistors. The question asked me the equivalent resistance for both circuits, the voltage across all resistors, and the current through all resistors.
Trivial.
And after I turned it in, the guy said he was gonna assume I got it right for now, then said that he'd had a few EE majors actually get it wrong. How a fourth year EE major could get such a basic question wrong is kinda mind-boggling.
The other tech questions were of the problem solving kind, although there was one fairly complex mech engineering one : there was a diagram of some sort and some points labelled and the first question asked about point A, "Write Bernoulli's equation for this point". I stopped at that point and kindly informed the interviewer I had no idea what Bernoulli's equation was. He then became confused and asked whether I had taken fluid dynamics before, which I had not and informed him so. So, I got to skip that whole question which was something like five parts.
But yeah, the tech question. There were no difficult EE ones. There were no questions where I could show my analog circuit skillz or digital design abilities, whereas anyone who was familiar with fluid dynamics would have had that entire question, which seemed pretty in-depth, over me. Oh well.
After the interviews, two of the engineers on the team and one of the managers that interviewed me took me out to lunch. This was cool and all, but I was dead tired and more than a bit shell-shocked after the interviews and Kevin, one of the engineers, kept asking me questions. I mean, the questions weren't out of the ordinary, "What do you like doing?", "Do you like this/that?", "What is your dream job?" (that one was kind of a 'wtf?' question), and some other stuff like how my Japanese was and such, but I was so tired I was answering just to answer them and not to continue a conversation. In retrospect, I could have been a bit more congenial, but damn was I tired. After the meal was over, I had regained enough strength to finally hold a conversation with the guys about the job and how they felt about stuff, but I don't know if that was enough to salvage that particular faux pas.
After the meal, Kevin took me on a tour of the plant which was kinda fun.
They said I would hear back in a week. I'm really nervous now. The thing is, there's a lot about this job that really appeals to me, and a lot about this job that I really, really like. I'm hoping fiercely that I get it, but once again I worry that the more I want it, the more likely I am to jinx it. And I'm just nervous in general. And stuff. Augh.
Anyway, things have been blah. Recent interesting events include seeing the Mingus Big Band. That was amazing. Good, live jazz is an amazing experience. I only wish they had had a harmonica, but it was okay 'cause the ringleader had the sweetest tenor sax I have ever heard in person. His blues solo was absolutely amazing; the instrument had an incredible sound and he was able to put so much emotion into the playing, it was all quite awesome. The other band members were also quite good, especially the vocalist. My only problem with live jazz are the excessive, twelve minute long, masturbatory solos. I mean, I like solos and all, but sometimes too much is just too much. Luckily, this was really only a problem in the first couple of songs, and things picked up real quick after that.
I also saw Grupo Corpo: a Brazilian dance group that does, uh, dance stuff. I really haven't the words or jargon to describe what exactly I witnessed, but I do know that it was a lot of fun. The pre-intermission section was largely couples dances; something somewhat in the style of traditional social dance, but with more in the way of ballet-level technical stuff thrown in. Made me wish fiercely that I had continued with dancing. Maybe some other time.
The second half was more in the way of modern dance numbers. It started off with a really good group tap piece, went on to some other stuff, and some other stuff, and then a naked dude, and then some more amazing stuff. I could try to describe them, but as I said, I haven't the jargon and I don't really know how I could do them justice.
Other things include snowboarding, which was sweet. And really.., that's about it I guess. School has been largely dominating my life as of late, and I'm eagerly awaiting the quarter's end. Senioritis has been kicking in and absolutely destroying my productivity. I think being burned out as hell doesn't help much either.
And then I seem to be particularly fixated on the past lately. Events I thought I was long over seem to come back and plague my mind at odd moments. And some things I just don't seem to be getting over at all, and end up dwelling on them for way longer than I should be.
Anyhow, life goes on; I just need to stick it out these last two weeks and then I can go crazy during the Spring break and the subsequent Spring quarter.
It's on the side of one of my upper left tri-molars or something like that.
It's been there for a couple of years and the doc was watching carefully to make sure it didn't get to this point. Due to my policy of flossing heavily for a period of time after seeing the dentist and then stopping altogether once it got inconvenient, the cavity has finally grown to the point where I now need a filling.
A filling.
I mean, that just seems silly. Only kids get fillings. I haven't gotten a filling since god knows how long.
My appointment is for April sometime.
Sigh.
My interview went okay I think. It went from 0900-1130. Five separate interviewers, five separate, individual interviews, thirty minutes each, one after the other. I met with the two team managers, the department manager (manager of the managers?), the "Principal Equipment Engineer", and the HR consultant. Altogether, I think all of it went well except the manager manager interview.
I got all flustered while explaining the workings of a solenoid 'cause I couldn't remember Maxwell's equation relating current and magnetic field. That just made me kinda on-edge for the rest of the interview, which made me double nervous when he gave me the stupid "What is your greatest strength and your greatest weakness?" question. I answered it in a weird sort of way, and actually, in a moment of unguarded honesty, gave an honest opinion of what one of my greatest weaknesses was. Unfortunately, the weakness I gave had little to nothing to do with the workplace or how I would fare as an employee and I think he was probably thinking something along the lines of "WTF?!" as I explained my weakness and how it helped me grow as a person.
One thing that really bothered me were the technical questions. Only one was an EE question, and it was trivial. It was a 12v battery in parallel with two 1k resistors, and then a 12v batttery in series with two 1k resistors. The question asked me the equivalent resistance for both circuits, the voltage across all resistors, and the current through all resistors.
Trivial.
And after I turned it in, the guy said he was gonna assume I got it right for now, then said that he'd had a few EE majors actually get it wrong. How a fourth year EE major could get such a basic question wrong is kinda mind-boggling.
The other tech questions were of the problem solving kind, although there was one fairly complex mech engineering one : there was a diagram of some sort and some points labelled and the first question asked about point A, "Write Bernoulli's equation for this point". I stopped at that point and kindly informed the interviewer I had no idea what Bernoulli's equation was. He then became confused and asked whether I had taken fluid dynamics before, which I had not and informed him so. So, I got to skip that whole question which was something like five parts.
But yeah, the tech question. There were no difficult EE ones. There were no questions where I could show my analog circuit skillz or digital design abilities, whereas anyone who was familiar with fluid dynamics would have had that entire question, which seemed pretty in-depth, over me. Oh well.
After the interviews, two of the engineers on the team and one of the managers that interviewed me took me out to lunch. This was cool and all, but I was dead tired and more than a bit shell-shocked after the interviews and Kevin, one of the engineers, kept asking me questions. I mean, the questions weren't out of the ordinary, "What do you like doing?", "Do you like this/that?", "What is your dream job?" (that one was kind of a 'wtf?' question), and some other stuff like how my Japanese was and such, but I was so tired I was answering just to answer them and not to continue a conversation. In retrospect, I could have been a bit more congenial, but damn was I tired. After the meal was over, I had regained enough strength to finally hold a conversation with the guys about the job and how they felt about stuff, but I don't know if that was enough to salvage that particular faux pas.
After the meal, Kevin took me on a tour of the plant which was kinda fun.
They said I would hear back in a week. I'm really nervous now. The thing is, there's a lot about this job that really appeals to me, and a lot about this job that I really, really like. I'm hoping fiercely that I get it, but once again I worry that the more I want it, the more likely I am to jinx it. And I'm just nervous in general. And stuff. Augh.
Anyway, things have been blah. Recent interesting events include seeing the Mingus Big Band. That was amazing. Good, live jazz is an amazing experience. I only wish they had had a harmonica, but it was okay 'cause the ringleader had the sweetest tenor sax I have ever heard in person. His blues solo was absolutely amazing; the instrument had an incredible sound and he was able to put so much emotion into the playing, it was all quite awesome. The other band members were also quite good, especially the vocalist. My only problem with live jazz are the excessive, twelve minute long, masturbatory solos. I mean, I like solos and all, but sometimes too much is just too much. Luckily, this was really only a problem in the first couple of songs, and things picked up real quick after that.
I also saw Grupo Corpo: a Brazilian dance group that does, uh, dance stuff. I really haven't the words or jargon to describe what exactly I witnessed, but I do know that it was a lot of fun. The pre-intermission section was largely couples dances; something somewhat in the style of traditional social dance, but with more in the way of ballet-level technical stuff thrown in. Made me wish fiercely that I had continued with dancing. Maybe some other time.
The second half was more in the way of modern dance numbers. It started off with a really good group tap piece, went on to some other stuff, and some other stuff, and then a naked dude, and then some more amazing stuff. I could try to describe them, but as I said, I haven't the jargon and I don't really know how I could do them justice.
Other things include snowboarding, which was sweet. And really.., that's about it I guess. School has been largely dominating my life as of late, and I'm eagerly awaiting the quarter's end. Senioritis has been kicking in and absolutely destroying my productivity. I think being burned out as hell doesn't help much either.
And then I seem to be particularly fixated on the past lately. Events I thought I was long over seem to come back and plague my mind at odd moments. And some things I just don't seem to be getting over at all, and end up dwelling on them for way longer than I should be.
Anyhow, life goes on; I just need to stick it out these last two weeks and then I can go crazy during the Spring break and the subsequent Spring quarter.
March 06, 2006
Walk On By
I went by the apartment where I lived for kindergarten and part of first grade today. It was dirtier and dingier than I recalled, and it was now gated closed with gates that didn't close. I wandered in, scared of trespassing into this place where I no longer belonged.
The South entrance. I recalled an apartment on the left side of a building. Upon exiting the apartment, there would be a park to the right. Sean lived just below the park, and he used to have a light-bright set. I always thought his name should have been pronounced "seen". Towards the top of the park was a friend's dad who could breathe smoke from his nose. We would play Captain Planet in the park, though I'd never seen the show.
There was no more park. It was an overgrown isle of grass with a couple of grills. There was no more slide, no more pole, no more bridge; just a few pieces of concrete and a lot of wet grass.
Going more towards the top of the complex, I remembered her. My cousins lived at the top of this part of the complex and I would often go to their house after school so my mom's mom could take care of me. I was expected at a certain time to return to my own apartment so that my dad's mom could take care of me. I would make the long walk down the street and halfway I would duck to the right and into a park with a big round thing, a slide, and a little girl. Megan Garfield. Meghan? Meagan? We would play ninja turtles with her dad, and run around for what seemed like hours. Eventually one of my grandmothers would wander over, scared for their lives I'd been kidnapped or murdered. Upon seeing me running around the park, they would grab me, scold me, and tell my mother what I had done after they'd dragged me back to the apartment.
As I walked towards the top of the complex, I expected to see a small cul-de-sac to my left, with a park and a girl. I wandered all the way up to my cousin's old apartment, right next to the pool, without ever seeing that cul-de-sac the way I remembered. I wandered further up, to the old dumpster where I'd been harassed by the kids, the house of the other kid that liked playing with hot wheels and making them jump, and by the entrance where the ground was made of unevenly leveled stones such that the car shook like crazy when we drove over it. I followed this same path back down and I finally found the cul-de-sac.
It wasn't actually a cul-de-sac at all, just another part of the parking lot. It also was no longer a park, just another overgrown piece of lawn with rocks and concrete strewn about. My grandmothers would not come scold me if I stayed too long, and no longer was there a little blonde girl with her father, waiting for me to play with them.
I lingered, wondering, hoping, but no matter how I stared and no matter how I reasoned, I realized that things were the way they were and things are the way they are, and oft-times these two states are different.
I walked out the same entrance I came in, through this place where I celebrated birthdays and happy playtimes. Past the park that was no longer there, past the home that I no longer lived in, past the friends who had long forgotten and been forgotten. A man was at the gate that didn't close and he yelled at his dog. The dog had pulled the leash from his hand and he called for the dog to return. The dog pretended not to hear at first, and eventually sank low, put its tail down, and crawled back to the man. "Thank you Shiva."
The South entrance. I recalled an apartment on the left side of a building. Upon exiting the apartment, there would be a park to the right. Sean lived just below the park, and he used to have a light-bright set. I always thought his name should have been pronounced "seen". Towards the top of the park was a friend's dad who could breathe smoke from his nose. We would play Captain Planet in the park, though I'd never seen the show.
There was no more park. It was an overgrown isle of grass with a couple of grills. There was no more slide, no more pole, no more bridge; just a few pieces of concrete and a lot of wet grass.
Going more towards the top of the complex, I remembered her. My cousins lived at the top of this part of the complex and I would often go to their house after school so my mom's mom could take care of me. I was expected at a certain time to return to my own apartment so that my dad's mom could take care of me. I would make the long walk down the street and halfway I would duck to the right and into a park with a big round thing, a slide, and a little girl. Megan Garfield. Meghan? Meagan? We would play ninja turtles with her dad, and run around for what seemed like hours. Eventually one of my grandmothers would wander over, scared for their lives I'd been kidnapped or murdered. Upon seeing me running around the park, they would grab me, scold me, and tell my mother what I had done after they'd dragged me back to the apartment.
As I walked towards the top of the complex, I expected to see a small cul-de-sac to my left, with a park and a girl. I wandered all the way up to my cousin's old apartment, right next to the pool, without ever seeing that cul-de-sac the way I remembered. I wandered further up, to the old dumpster where I'd been harassed by the kids, the house of the other kid that liked playing with hot wheels and making them jump, and by the entrance where the ground was made of unevenly leveled stones such that the car shook like crazy when we drove over it. I followed this same path back down and I finally found the cul-de-sac.
It wasn't actually a cul-de-sac at all, just another part of the parking lot. It also was no longer a park, just another overgrown piece of lawn with rocks and concrete strewn about. My grandmothers would not come scold me if I stayed too long, and no longer was there a little blonde girl with her father, waiting for me to play with them.
I lingered, wondering, hoping, but no matter how I stared and no matter how I reasoned, I realized that things were the way they were and things are the way they are, and oft-times these two states are different.
I walked out the same entrance I came in, through this place where I celebrated birthdays and happy playtimes. Past the park that was no longer there, past the home that I no longer lived in, past the friends who had long forgotten and been forgotten. A man was at the gate that didn't close and he yelled at his dog. The dog had pulled the leash from his hand and he called for the dog to return. The dog pretended not to hear at first, and eventually sank low, put its tail down, and crawled back to the man. "Thank you Shiva."
Whispers
"What could you do with a man who looked you squarely in the eye and said he would rather die than be killed in combat, a man who was at least as mature and intelligent as you were and who you had to pretend he was not? What could you say to him?"
"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one...just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."
"He says he drives home from work and sits in his driveway for 20 minutes wishing he had a different life."
"The father continued solemnly with his head lowered. 'When you talk to the man upstairs,' he said, 'I want you to tell Him something for me. Tell Him it ain't right for peopel to die when they're young. I mean it. Tell Him if they got to die at all, they got to die when they're old. I want you to tell him that. I don't think He knows it ain't right, because He's supposed to be good and it's been going on for a long, long time. Okay?'"
"He stretched out his hand desperately as if to snatch only a wisp of air, to save a fragment of the spot that she had made lovely for him. But it was all going by too fast...and he knew that he had lost that part of it, the freshest and the best, forever."
" I remember looking down on him from the attic window, crying, and thinking to myself "Never again". If caring for someone meant that they could hurt me so bad, make me feel so horrible, then I never wanted to let someone do that to me again."
"There was so much unhappiness in the world, he reflected, bowing his head dismally beneath the tragic thought, and there was nothing he could do about anybody's, least of all his own."
"If it's meant to be, you don't have to try."
"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."
"Did you hear about the couple that threw themselves off that bridge? They went up there with their dog. They threw the dog off the bridge first, then jumped off together. What I don't get it, why the dog? I mean, no one else could have taken care of it?"
"I just want to call her. I never wanted to call her before, but now I realize I can't call her."
"Maybe someone will treasure you the way you deserve to be treasured."
"For Chinese New Year, she gave auntie and uncle the equivalent of about $100 American each. They were so touched."
"That's kinda weird. They don't even need the money."
"But her heart was in it. Heart is everything."
"His wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of her dock....his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him."
"Struggling conformity."
"He believed in paradise, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms further... And one fine morning -
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one...just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."
"He says he drives home from work and sits in his driveway for 20 minutes wishing he had a different life."
"The father continued solemnly with his head lowered. 'When you talk to the man upstairs,' he said, 'I want you to tell Him something for me. Tell Him it ain't right for peopel to die when they're young. I mean it. Tell Him if they got to die at all, they got to die when they're old. I want you to tell him that. I don't think He knows it ain't right, because He's supposed to be good and it's been going on for a long, long time. Okay?'"
"He stretched out his hand desperately as if to snatch only a wisp of air, to save a fragment of the spot that she had made lovely for him. But it was all going by too fast...and he knew that he had lost that part of it, the freshest and the best, forever."
" I remember looking down on him from the attic window, crying, and thinking to myself "Never again". If caring for someone meant that they could hurt me so bad, make me feel so horrible, then I never wanted to let someone do that to me again."
"There was so much unhappiness in the world, he reflected, bowing his head dismally beneath the tragic thought, and there was nothing he could do about anybody's, least of all his own."
"If it's meant to be, you don't have to try."
"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."
"Did you hear about the couple that threw themselves off that bridge? They went up there with their dog. They threw the dog off the bridge first, then jumped off together. What I don't get it, why the dog? I mean, no one else could have taken care of it?"
"I just want to call her. I never wanted to call her before, but now I realize I can't call her."
"Maybe someone will treasure you the way you deserve to be treasured."
"For Chinese New Year, she gave auntie and uncle the equivalent of about $100 American each. They were so touched."
"That's kinda weird. They don't even need the money."
"But her heart was in it. Heart is everything."
"His wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of her dock....his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him."
"Struggling conformity."
"He believed in paradise, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter - tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms further... And one fine morning -
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
