20 December 2004

650nm

Our vision project is due at noon, complete with a report and presentation. The code is mostly done, so I've been attempting to write for the past 1.5 hours. Technically, I'm succeeding. In reality, I'm sure that my six pages (and I'm going to be adding at least 3 more) are beyond incoherent. The idea that all will be over and done with in less than five hours still hasn't completely sunk in yet. Either way, I have great plans for ~12:30 - ice cream followed by sleeping until I wake up. With the alarm off. For the first time in weeks.

Side note: I've determined that my frequent headaches are a combination of lack of sleep and dehydration, more towards the dehydration side of things.

Am I in Vegas yet?

11 December 2004

Pronto

Pinnacle is evil. The end.

They are the only place even remotely near campus that serves pasta pizza, which occassionally necessitates going there. Well, today they decided that you not only have to pay more than the pizza is worth to begin with, but you must pay twice. Matt paid. And then I paid. And the fucking moron (who, I might add, has a very limited grasp of the English language) behind the register asked if I was paying for both of us or just me. Confused, I told him just me (after all, Matt had just paid, and I figured the drunk dude behind me could pay for himself). After a few more questions along the same lines, he gave me my change. Then he asked Matt to pay. Well, I'm sure you can guess what happened next. And it's not like the guy behind the register considered for an iota of a second that he was wrong. Even the drunk dude mentioned that he thought Matt paid. So, in light of the fact that I had already paid and that arguing with this guy resulted in him coming around the register, dangerously close to Matt's wallet, to gesticulate in Matt's face and yell more incoherent English (Note: this is quite a large assumption that it was in fact English), Matt, quite disgustedly and in a pissed-off manner, threw a 20 in the general direction of the jackass. In addition, after eating said pizza, I spent the remainder of the evening with a horrible stomach ache. Therefore, Pinnacle is 3\/|1. QED.

w00t extreme blogging!

06 December 2004

Cherry Coke

I dropped graphics so I could have some free time this semester and not be completely bogged down with work. So why am I still working every damn second? And why couldn't the C++ teacher come up with a better assignment than writing a web browser? At least the networks project is almost justifiable....

More importantly, two days ago I developed a craving for cherry coke. Since then, I've bought two bottles, and both times they were the last bottles in the store.

26 November 2004

Tacos

Today a sauce packet confessed it's love for me.

25 November 2004

Enchanted Unicorns

So apparently I suck at the updating regularly thing. Or at least I do when I'm distracted. I'll just ignore the fact that distracted is my normal state of existence....

I managed to fry my switch this weekend. Despite being annoyed at not having a switch for 4 days, this turned out to be a great excuse to get a gigabit switch. I briefly considered wireless, until it occured to me that I have no computers that would benefit from this.

I've decided that Folding@Home is entirely too amusing. Damn you Stanford. Oh, and your admissions deadline is entirely too early.

Sigh. I might go work on crypto now. Or play Halo 2. Nevermind, I will go play Halo, then work on crypto tonight. When I'm less light-headed and dizzy. I hope.

07 November 2004

yawn

I am a delusion.

In other news, I am incredibly unpleased with crypto homework. Amy should stop skipping crypto so she can do the homework for me. Or something.

03 November 2004

Ohio == Evil

Anyone want to move to Canada with me?

19 October 2004

%@#&@#^ Midterms

While studying for today's networks midterm:
"Should we be worried if we're explaining TCP via ThinkGeek tshirts?"

18 October 2004

Why is his sword so big?

Bleach: Nothing with Death Gods could possibly be bad!

03 October 2004

Starbucks

Toaster is a coffee proxy.

30 September 2004

6 Cents Worth

So this is what it feels like to finally be motivated to do homework again. I almost miss not caring.

My new speakers came. Klipsch 2.1 ProMedia. I am quite pleased, ignoring the fact that I exercised restraint and actually go the 2.1 instead of the 5.1. Wow, Filter never sounded so awesome.

Jordan's been around for the past week, and I must admit it's been great seeing him again. My Tennis2k2 skills have atrophied since I last played with him (Dreamcast controllers != SegaSaturn controllers), but whatever. Now if only a certain Batcave attempt had been more successful. Perhaps if we actually bother to get drunk first instead of going to a zombie movie (not that there's anything wrong with going to a zombie movie), we'll actually make it.

Alex has been hanging his clothes in the bathroom on a bungee cord. For some reason this strikes me as being really cool looking, ignoring the fact that wet pajama pants are never cool looking.

Amy has stopped giving me weird looks! Hmmm.... perhaps that should worry me than the weird looks.... yay slumber parties!

And now for a random trip.

NOTE: There was something specific that I wanted to post about, but now I've completely forgotten. I blame vision homework.

24 September 2004

Eco-Drive

So apparently I'm cute when I'm a pyro.

I am no longer a little teapot, but I still am the goddess of tech support.

19 September 2004

Best Greeting Card Ever

The Potato of Doom!

I seemed to have killed gmail. Oops.

15 September 2004

Bad Idea (TM)

Due to Rosh Hashana, yesterday was the last day of classes of the week (for me). So around 1:30 am last night, when a sudden desire for cheesecake appeared, Toaster and I went down to Big Nicks. Mmm... blueberry cheesecake. Not the best cheesecake ever, but certainly quite good for 2am on a Tuesday. More importantly, it was highly amusing.

I'm absolutely dreading next week when I have to start doing real work and can no longer randomly do whatever I happen to feel like at the moment.

12 September 2004

Chii

Coffee hour was the best idea. Ever. On Thursday, Jamie came back at 4pm and immediately made coffee with Baileys and Kahlua. A new tradition was born.

Last night was great. Everybody came over, though people arrived and left at different points, keeping the number of people present at a manageable number. 2014 has been declared the party suite. I have absolutely no problem with this, as long as there aren't weird kinky orgies upstairs on Tuesdays.

I had good intentions of not drinking. That didn't happen. For some reason, I believe the trip to the liquor store (the 6th alcohol run since move in) might have had something to do with this. But we're not alcoholics. No, really.

Today was almost as good. Almost because for some ungodly reason, a URH drone decided that noon on a Sunday was a good time to install mirrors. Evil bastard. Luckily staying in bed until after 3 made up for this attrocity. And the wall scrolls. Four of them. Ah! My Goddess, Trigun, Chobits, and Naruto. Room decor is complete.

Yay amazingly incredible weekend of doing nothing useful! Now if only next weekend could be this fantastic.

09 September 2004

I Found a Zombie!

One week down, 13 more to go.

Prof. Kender of computer vision fame is a zombie! Aside from being amazingly awesome due to his undeadness, he's seems really cool (he uses boolean operators when writing on the board).

The EC toilet paper sucks so much. It should *not* require nearly this much effort to get a decent sized piece. Luckily there are so many things (new furniture and carpet, a/c, kitchen, lights that can be turned off...) that make up for it.

Wheeeeeeeee!

06 September 2004

Blue Monday

After bribing him with sugar cubes, Alex has agreed to be my pony! I absolutely love my suitemates.

Classes start tomorrow. Malibu rum tastes good.

29 August 2004

Sugar

It's never too early in the morning for cotton candy. Never.

26 August 2004

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Yay California, v8.0!

For a family vacation, I did a pretty good job of not spending any time with my (immediate) family. Ah, the benefits of visiting the same place for the nth time; no one expects you to actually visit the same boring touristy places with them again.

Shockingly, my mom was tired about 30 seconds after we got to the hotel on Thursday, so the beach was replaced with the pool. We met up with Sean, Aunt Iris, and Ron for dinner, then brought Brent's to him at Blockbuster.

After dinner, Toaster picked me up at the hotel. Friday we went to Fry's (okay, so I went to an electronics store on vacation just so I could say that I've been to a Fry's), Hollywood (where, oddly enough, I've never been as far as I can remember) and Santa Monica. The carnival at Santa Monica was pretty fawesome, though we failed to win a stuffed dragon at one of those ring toss booths. A second attempt at victory was thwarted by the presence film crew. Saturday I had to play family vacation again for a few hours, so we met up with my mom and Marc at La Brea Tar Pits.

For some reason, my mom thought it would be a better idea to go all the way back to the hotel then go to the beach. That idea didn't kill a couple hours. We did manage to get in a few hours at the beach before certain people (for the record, not me) got cold. For dinner, I went with Sean, Brent, and Francine to a Mexican restaurant. Afterwards went to Tilly's, mostly because it was there. Francine got a purse shaped like a radio, and I was bestowed with two pairs of earrings.

Sunday I went to Knott's with Sean. He picked me up at the hotel, after we took advantage of the free breakfast for guests (and people the guests sneak in). Conveniently, Francine works at Knott's so we were able to jump some of the lines. It's a pretty small park and we finished everything good by 5. Afterwards, Sean and Brent's dad treated everyone to dinner at ESPN Zone. Next came the concert. Of all the bands I've seen live, The Presidents of the United States of America is one of the better ones. Some of their new songs weren't up to par with Lump or Naked and Famous, but I am considering getting their latest album. Especially since Some Postman has been stuck in my head.

On to Monday and Disneyland. It was Disneyland. I got a tiara. And it was the first full day with my mom and Marc. Need I say more?

Tuesday resulted in San Diego. Approximately 80 miles away from the hotel lies the San Diego Zoo. The trip there took 80 minutes (okay, so I had fun driving on 5). It was entirely too hot that day, so we were lazy and took buses and the skyfari everywhere. I hadn't been there in over a decade, so I didn't really remember much going in. The zoo itself was fawesome, partially due to the trained emu. The drive back took slightly over two hours. Damn traffic. We didn't get back in time to have dinner with everyone, but we stopped by Aunt Iris's house for a couple hours. I got to play remove-the-spyware and other exciting games.

We spent about an hour on the beach before leaving on Wednesday. Personally, I would have preferred staying, but that idea didn't fly too well.

The plane back landed twice. The first time we were close enough to the ground such that I could read various airport signs before the pilot changed his mind. Something about there being another plane hanging out on the runway. The second attempt, after about 20 minutes of circling, was much more successful.

LA interstates note: Much better road signs than the pitiful ones along the NJ parkway and turnpike, but much worse traffic during most of the day.

Grad school note: About 12 days ago I finally decided that I'm going to get a master's in cs before moving into the "real world." About 3 days ago I decided this would be accomplished at Caltech.

18 August 2004

SNA

I'm leaving tomorrow morning for California. FYAY! FAREWELL!

16 August 2004

Bubble Wrap

Like all good Columbia students, I had a profound hatred for Citibank and their amazingly annoying ad campaign and business casual dress code. Until yesterday. At the Scarsdale train station, there is an awesome Citibank ad covered in bubble wrap

for the sole purpose of being popped. Of course, I will continue to hate them for everything except this one ad.

12 August 2004

Road Trip!

Arfin and I are planning a road trip to liberate Jess's 1978 Camaro from Hawaii. The current plan is to drive cross country via I-80 and across the Pacific on the back of a gigantic seaturtle. Once we've acquired the vehicle, we're driving to Vegas to elope. We'll get back on I-80 so we can stop at home for sandwiches. Then we'll continue to Grand Cayman via I-95 to get secret offshore bank accounts. Of course, we'll be back in time for the fall semester.

Of course, we're going to need a car to get to Hawaii in the first place. Tomorrow Skarfin's buying a 1996 Saturn and airmailing it to me. Now Jess just needs to fix the suspension before we get there.

Yay road trip!

11 August 2004

MP3 Player

I've been meaning to get an mp3 player all summer, and I'm finally doing it. One that plays oggs would be preferable, though that's not an absolute requirement - any suggestions?

08 August 2004

Turn in your badge and vacate the premises

My intership at Lehman is offically over. As glad as I am to be returning to sleeping until 9 on early days, I have to admit I'm going to miss it. Granted I didn't get the really interesting work until almost a week before it was over (optimization is fun, and yes, I'm a dork), but still. The people there were really awesome. And I like reading slashdot. On the other hand, after the warning about Citigroup Center came out last Sunday, 399 Park (the building directly across the street from Citigroup's main building and which happens to contain Citigroup employees on almost every floor) became really annoying to get in and out of. That and the commute will not be missed in the slightest.

Tonight was dinner at Yuka in honor of Jane's 24th birthday. And in honor of my right hand not being fully functional yet, I attempted to use chopsticks with my left hand. After much trial and even more failure, I gave up and started stabbing food and just ate the rice with my fingers.

In other news, a Victoria's Secret bag, containing a purchase that I never bothered to put away, keeps a certain brother out of my room when left on my bed.

31 July 2004

!broken

I can type at a semi-reasonable speed now, so...

I'M NOT BROKEN! Just lots of pretty soft-tissue damage. Yay!

There's one week of work left, of which only Monday will be an actual full day of work. In less than seven days, I can resume being completely useless and sleeping past 7am on a daily basis. I can hardly wait.

With Sarah gone, George has been upgraded to the position of zombie, but it's not the same.

The new Batmobile has almost none of the charm of the previous versions. Since when did Batman drive an SUV? Blech.

Someone needs to decide for me, because I'm not making any progress by myself - what should I do after I graduate?

I should probably go get dressed, seeing as how Jess will be here in about 20 minutes. Alternatively, I could sit here like a lump for the next 4 hours instead. Shrug.

25 July 2004

Opposable Thumbs are Useful

It's time to learn left-handed dvorak. On Friday, right after leaving work, I was attacked by a subway station. Specifically the wet, unpainted steel escalator. A few stairs later, it was necassary to spend the evening in the emergency room. Luckily, Brian kept me, and my gameboy, company. Final verdict - bad sprain with possibility of fracture. I need to get my hand x-rayed again next Monday just in case. In the mean time, I get to wear a splint made out of plaster, cotton, and an ace bandage. Oh, and hospital strength painkillers are nice.

For those of you who saw I, Robot, was I the only one thinking that Will Smith has automail?

A new hard drive cooler will be easier to get than replacing that damn fan, so a new one will be acquired today.

Typing takes entirely too long now, so I'm done. (This took 20 minutes.)

15 July 2004

6:34 AM

After tomorrow, I will have been commuting for seven weeks. Seven weeks of waking up between 6 and 6:40. Seven weeks of 1 hour train rides, 20 minutes drives to the train station (damn morning traffic), and 10 minutes of being smushed on the E train. For one summer, it's not so bad. Very sleep depriving, but not so bad. Okay, that's a lie. I hate losing 4 hours a day to commuting.

I finished another book today, The Dark Tower VI - Song of Susannah. Quite amusing, though the journal thing at the end was stupid. And Stephen King should not be such an important character in his own book. That just pissed me off, and came close to ruining the whole thing.

C++ libraries suck. SSH keys are awesome. Yay dsa.

Either gmail or outlook sucks. I sent two emails from Lehman to my gmail account today. Only the second one arrived.

http://rockpapersaddam.com/

11 July 2004

Velvet Revolver - Contraband


This CD is protected against unauthorized duplication. It is designed to play on standard playback devices and an appropriately configured computer (see system requirements on back). If you have questions or concerns visit www.sunncomm.com/support/bmg
82876 59794-2

This CD is enhanced with MediaMax software. Windows Compatible Instructions: Insert disk into CD-ROM drive. Software will automatically install. If it doesn't, click on "LaunchCd.exe." Mac OS Instructions: Insert disc into CD-ROM drive. Click on "Start." Usage of the CD on your computer requires your acceptance of the End User License Agreement and installation of specific software contained on the CD. Windows System Requirements: Windows 98/2000/XP, Internet Explorer 5.5 or later, Windows Media Player 7.1 or compatible player. Mac System Requirements: Mac OSX 10.1, Power G3/G4, iMac, eMac, Powerbook G3/G4, iBook with 128Mb of RAM, Windows Media Player 7.1, Internet Explorer 5.2. Monitor capable of displaying 800x600-screen resolution & 256 colors (64K colors recommended). 12x or faster multi-session-enabled CD-ROM drive. Flash PLayer 6. Digital files on this CD will also play on portable devices supporting secure WMA files. Certain computers may not be able to access the enhanced portion of this disc. None of the manufacturer, developer, or distributor makes any representation or warranty, or assumes any responsibility, with respect to the enhanced portion of this disk.

So of course the first thing I did was rip it to ogg.

08 July 2004

Beer-thday

"God is punishing me for not having younger siblings." - Alex, refering to Amy and me. I'm not hyper. Really.

That's probably the best description of last night. The three of us went to a random bar in the village, and I was instructed to drink. And drink I did.

After drinking came cheesecake. And with cheesecake came whipped cream. And with whipped cream came rainbow sprinkles. Perfection was achieved, complements of Big Nicks.

I finally got a new cell phone - Motorola v600. I am immensely pleased. Now if only it came with a belt clip. You'd think they'd spend the extra $1 for a phone this expensive.

Hopefully tomorrow will bring zombies. Lehman definitely needs more zombies.

04 July 2004

from the wish-I-knew-yesterday dept.

Apparently a (prescription) drug that I've been taking increases sensitivity to the sun.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go bang my head against the wall.

27 June 2004

Yogurt Power!

Yogurt covered peanuts are made using yogurt power.

Michael Jackson is the answer to almost every question in Trivial Pursuit. The only exception discovered today was when the answer was Lisa Marie Presley. A dog on rollerskates is also an acceptable guess, though it will never be correct.

Median and mode are not interchangable.

An Australian accent can overcome any other flaws a man might have. Jeansun and Phoebe can give an excellent example of this phenomenon.

And of course, when in doubt, bring your own toilet paper.

Picnic!

23 June 2004

Green and edible

I had Shrek-flavored ice cream! It was surprisingly good.

Why does Contraband have to come with copy protection? It figures - the first cd that I've actually thought about buying in a really long time, and it's filled with evil DRM. Damn you RCA.

19 June 2004

//import com.leh.ebanker.report.utils.*;

37 bottles of beer on the wall
37 bottles of beer
You take one down and pass it around
37 bottles of beer on the wall.

Amy and I never got to 36. This was probably due to our realization that if we kept singing the 63rd verse, eventually Brian would implode. It worked. And yes, we started singing from 99.

More importantly, I saw Batman today! And he came in driving the Batmobile! And he beat up Joker! And there were lots of explosions and fire! Yay Great Adventure!

I really need an mp3 player. My discman has been dead for over a year, and the commute would be much more pleasant with music. Or anything to drown out the yuppies on their cell phones.

In other news, I finally have work to do at Lehman. Granted it's mind-numbing, but at least I feel somewhat useful. Sort of.

Having spent much of the day skipping, I'm really tired. Good night.

15 June 2004

10ms is Entirely Too Long

War has been declared on the sprinkled zombies that intercepted my package of books from bn.com. Hopefully they surrender soon, as I really want to read those books.

A few weeks ago, Brian and I discovered a store in Times Square called Popcorn Indiana. Best popcorn EVER. And its kosher. Tomorrow is Wednesday, which means that Sarah and I are going to trek over during our lunch break. An hour and half lunch, with popcorn. Finally, a reason to get up in the morning.

And now to go to sleep at a quasi-reasonable hour.

11 June 2004

Haunted by Ghosts of Long Dead Cookies

Last night was release night for IBT at Lehman Brothers. We didn't have to show up until 3pm, which was a vast improvement over 9am. However, we did have to stay until 3am, at which point we called for towncars to drive us home (paid for by Lehman). I got the worst driver possible - he missed exit 123, so he proceeded to back up on the New Jersey Parkway despite my loud protests that we could just as easily take exit 117.

Chris (another intern from Columbia in IBT) and I didn't do anything useful, unless you count eating free food and using bandwidth. So I finished American Gods last night. It only took four days (I got the book last time I went to Barnes and Noble, but completely forgot about its existance/couldn't find it). I also played Gradius Galaxies for awhile. The managers and other programmers were equally bored (there's a ridiculous amount of downtime on release nights), so a few of them asked to borrow my GameBoy. Its really nice having so many people in their mid-twenties in the department.

The other interns have to go in today, but Julie (my manager) gave me the day off. Lehman declared today to be a holiday, unless you have pressing business, due to the market being closed. And who said the real world doesn't have three-day weekends?

Today's Amy's birthday, so I'm going into the city tonight anyway. Yesterday on the bus, a woman asked us our ages after guessing about 14. Well, Amy's now officially 22 and I'll be 21 in 26 days (not that I'm counting or anything). I think the fact that we were making faces at eachother had something to do with her guess. I hope.

Maybe the books will arrive tomorrow. I ended up getting The Dark Tower VI, Quicksilver, and For Kings and Planets.

What do I want to do about grad school? These questions and more, on the next edition of Zombies!

07 June 2004

Boredom Partially Alleviated

Proxy set up.

Admin rights obtained.

Unix account obtained.

Laptop can be taken home.

Yay!

04 June 2004

Reading Material

A minimum of $25 is needed for free shipping. My current total is $24.98. Any suggestions for a good book?

Productivity Level

Considering how many sites/ports Lehman Brothers blocks (NYTimes crossword puzzle, aim, etc), I'm surprised that I was able to access this site. I guess "this site has a valid business justification." Shrug.

They didn't bother to block aim.com. I can log into aimexpress, but it doesn't seem to be working properly.

I haven't had much work to do since I got here. The first day was just getting accounts set up and meeting people. The next day was wishing all the accounts had actually been approved, with a little bit of actual work. Day three was cut short for a scavenger hunt, and of course, so we could be paid. Since what little work I had was finished yesterday morning, I haven't really done much of anything today (not including the latimes crossword - they forgot to block that one). Unfortunately, I'm going to have to take a break from my busy schedule for an afternoon out with the department. Community service cleaning up an uptown park, followed by dinner somewhere. So yeah, aside from waking up ridiculously early, it hasn't been bad at all.

I found an actual slashdot subscriber here, which made me feel quite a bit better about myself. Then again, I was the only one who got his joke about nigritude ultramarine....

Back to, um, work?

23 May 2004

*POKE*

Becky poked me.

I'm going to get Gradius Galaxies tomorrow or Tuesday. Then I can play it on Wednesday. Yay!

19 May 2004

42

So apparently I haven't posted any new entries in a while. And it probably would have stayed that way if Phoebe hadn't just pointed this out.

I was supposed to spend the afternoon being useless in Sarah's parents' apartment. However, Quest Diagnostics had other ideas. They made me wait for over two hours just to pee in a cup so Lehman Brothers can have proof that, despite popular opinion, I am not on crack. Once I finally escaped, I barely had time to get pizza with Sarah before I had to make my way back down south. I didn't even have time to stop in the cookie store we passed (huge sugar cookies with sprinkles that were begging to be eaten).

Yesterday I finally got an A07. The cd tray is the width of the entire drive, instead of having the normal centimeter border. Because of this I had to remove the front cover of the computer case so the drive can open. It looks rather ridiculous like this, but the drive is NOT being taken back out.

Despite having put away all of my clothes and books, my room is still somehow a disaster area. At this point it's mostly cd cases and random computer parts. Maybe I'll get one of those cd tower things finally. I have more than enough cds to justify it, though I don't really want to exert the effort. I'm not going to consider the comic books to be part of the mess since they're all bagged and in boxes. If something's organized, its not part of the mess, right?

For three days, seaman resided on my dresser. I already knew that seaman was kind of noisy, but I no longer really notice it. I didn't realize that its also an excellent heater. My room was unbearably warm until I put seaman in the basement. The temperature suddenly dropped to humane levels.

I finally upgraded aim to 5.5. And the only reason was so Evan could send me some songs (Filter, who I've been listening to a lot recently). I wouldn't have bothered otherwise, but he was also able to provide me with a dead aim serial number. I'd been previously using aim+, but that doesn't work past version 4.8 of aim. [update: the serial number didn't work, so I went back to 4.8 after the files were transferred - I missed logging]

Now instead of working on something useful, I think I'll go downstairs. I'm thirsty and Leonard DiCaprio is fighting people (I'm a fan of fighting, not the actor).

08 May 2004

Wolverine II

Wow. Van Helsing was so horrible that it was amazing. This movie was a combination of every genre from vampires to Star Wars to cheesy romance that didn't take itself seriously. Most importantly, Van Helsing did Wolverine! There was even a quasi-zombie! I was incredibly pleased.

Before the movie, Brian was showing me the proper way to kick someone. Until Alex jumped him. And then Dayle insisted that we kill eachother after the movie.

Well, after the movie, skipping was required. Jamie refused to skip though - "Skipping is too faggy . . . I may sleep with other men on occassion, but I have to draw the line somewhere."

In more recent news, Jeansun no longer has arms. She requested that I amputate, but failed to mention which arm. I guessed wrong the first time. Oh well.

It seems I'm supposed to study now. Gah. Maybe someone will remove my arms instead. On second thought, I think I might prefer studying. Might.

07 May 2004

Wolverine!

Tonight is the MAY MOVIE! Van Helsing! Starring Wolverine as an equally cool nonWolverine! And at midnight no less! Yay!

I'm seriously contemplating taking my keyboard apart. Various little pieces of dirt have fallen in over the past two years, and they are refusing to abandon their current home.

I think it's time to unpack my window fan so it's not quite as hot in here. Why did I have to put it behind the bookshelves? Sigh. Maybe Wolverine will get it out for me....

03 May 2004

db homework 5

As per Phoebe's request to post the answers in my livejournal:
1) a) there are no keys
b) how could it be lossless if all the letters are still there?
c) 3NF decomposition - IC ECR EAMIS YUM MY
d) yes

2) Our friend the db designer is nuts. He was completely wrong on
homework 1, he was completely wrong on the midterm, so why should
he suddenly know what he's doing?

3) java.lang.NullPointerException: No textbook found.

desk != bed

I installed firefox today. I hadn't installed any of mozilla's standalone browsets since phoenix, and I must admit, it has improved drastically. There are still some of the original problems that prevented me from switching though - problems with the download manager and lack of easy access to the cookie|password|popup managers. On the other side (literally, on the other side of the window), there is the search bar. You can install plugins for practically any search engine you want. For some reason, no one wrote one for oed.com, so I found it necessary to write my own plugin. Even as I get annoyed by the lack of other features, the search bar is still keeping me quite amused. For now at least.

Oh yeah, I managed to fall asleep on my desk last night. I don't recommend it.

02 May 2004

Théâtre de Film

On Friday night I went with my brother to see Mean Girls. The movie was actually reasonably funny, though it was obviously a toned-version of Heathers (one of the best movies ever). The movie is about a bunch of girls who are essentially idiot clones of eachother - they only pay attention to their hair, makeup, clothes, and who's dating who. Walking out of the theater, I was surrounded by that type of girl, avergae age 15. A couple of them were even talking about how they would never act like that as they checked their hair/makeup with little pocket mirrors. Even Marc (age 11) started laughing.

About 2/3 of the way into the movie, the was some problem in the projection room such that EVERY movie playing stopped. There were police and various other official-type people running around before the movie(s) started again. Apparently Loews didn't want a mob scene, so as everyone left the theater, they handed out free ticket passes. Yay, free movie!

Last night Brian convinced me and Amy to go to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Well, it wasn't so much convince that it was a good movie, but that we would be able to get there in time and that we shouldn't be doing db/ap. And the movie was good - I don't think there's really that much more you can say without spoiling some aspect.

Apparently you're not allowed to drink on the steps past 2:30am. When we got back, we stopped at Milano and decided to sit on those huge slabs with the lightposts in front of Low. The guards didn't say anything until 2:30, when they kicked everyone off of that section of the steps. They didn't even care that we were very obviously drinking.

I bought another box of donuts....

28 April 2004

!donut

For some reason I just ate a bowl of cereal. I'm not sure why, since I wasn't hungry. Considering that I haven't really been eating lately, I guess it's a good thing. I suppose it's an improvement over donuts.

There's a can of air on my desk, just begging to be played with. "Please, pull my trigger and let me expell my pressurized fun." Maybe I should put it where I can't see it if I plan on doing actual work.

Along the same lines, it was probably a bad idea to leave my switch facing me. So many colorful blinking leds under my bed. Pretty. Grrrrr.... pretty is a matlab command. I should be using matlab to do machine learning. Gah.

Maybe some zombies could cheer me up...

27 April 2004

Donuts

7 left

26 April 2004

Impending Doom

Earlier today I was informed that my life was in jeopordy if I didn't update my livejournal. After some deliberations, I decided that I do in fact wish to live.

So now that my life seems to be momentarily safe, I suddenly have a lot of free time. Of course, I could start the db homework due next Monday. Along those same lines, I could throw myself out the window. Unfortunately, the same problem exists for ml, embedded, micro, and econometrics. I am completely useless at the moment. But I still have ten donuts left, so things can't be too bad.

Actually, some can be too bad. The curry in Carlton Lounge leaves behind fluorescent yellow sauce. The secret ingredient is either highlighter or ooze. I recommend that Jeansun eats some.

21 April 2004

Amy is stinky

guArdfanAtik: you have to be STINKY!!
osmodion77: nah
osmodion77: I am not stinky
guArdfanAtik: awwww ::pout::
guArdfanAtik: now i don't have a reason to use the word stinky
osmodion77: you could refer to yourself instead
guArdfanAtik: but it doesn't apply
guArdfanAtik: i am smelly and odiferous, but not stinky
guArdfanAtik: it's in my contract

16 April 2004

Oh yeah....

Forgot to mention:

I survived! I'm still alive! Yay!

Week over.

Full Metal Jacket

SLW55: PRIVATE I BELEIVE YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND ME
SLW55: FUCK
osmodion77: no
osmodion77: I'm refusing that order
SLW55: YA KNOW
osmodion77: on moral grounds
SLW55: MY MOM SHITS ON PEOPLE LIKE YOU
osmodion77: don't be retarded, we all know your mom is dead
SLW55: I BET THAT LAST TIME YOU FUCKED A GUY UP THE ASS, YOU DIDN'T EVEN HAVE THE COURTESY TO GIVE HIM A REACHAROUND
osmodion77: that's because he was too fat - my arms didn't reach
SLW55: oh
SLW55: ok

I should join the army. It'd be fun.

13 April 2004

dinner = bread.pizza();

Pizza! With bread in it! And no matzoh! Yummmmm....

And now back to databases.

12 April 2004

Tentacle Porn

Well, Elliot has no taste in anime. He rented a few episodes from Netflicks based on someone who he can't remember's recommendation. The first "don't let children see this, if you are child watching, stop" warning should have indicated that something was wrong. The second warning, telling us that all the characters depicted are 19 and older definitely should have set off flags. However, we chose to ignore the warnings. And about 10 minutes later, a high school gymnast was discovering just what kind of tentacle monster her math teacher really was. It was entirely unnecessary.

Similarly, eating alfredo sauce from Ferris Booth is unnecessary. For some stupid reason I decided to get some again. Afrer all, I'd eaten it so many times without a problem, so that one instance must have been a fluke. I regretted that decision about 3 hours later when I didn't want to move. I just lied on my bed for awhile, wishing I could reach the tylenol. Glarg.

At the moment we're having a db party in my room. We includes Phoebe, Jeansun, Eddie the panther, Bob the origami crane with laser vision, and me. Unfortunately there's no more ice cream, and I'm probably going to fall asleep on the keyboard soon. But no sleep until this is done. Maybe Phoebe can kick me if I pass out. Then I might fall on the floor head-first, and get a concussion, which would earn me many extensions. Hmmmm... That's probably a bad idea, right?

ZOMBIES!!!

10 April 2004

Hiccups

I have the hiccups.

Oh, and we went to the New York International Auto Show. So, um, who wants to loan me $300,000? I need a Maserati. It's vitally important.

Apparently cars can jump. All it takes is some hydraulics and too much time.

There weren't nearly enough zombies at the show. Ideally, a large public event would have many zombies running around, and perhaps even guarding various food-consumption areas. But alas, there were only three, two of which were just lying there rotting.

The perfect name has been determined: first name Gila, middle name Monster.

Microwaves work because of the little elves running around inside with heating irons.

The enD.

08 April 2004

And let there be light!

Apparently facilities was continuously telling people to replace the bulbs in every room on the 11th floor but mine. However, they finally found me, and I have light again. And now that both bulbs work instead of just one, it's significantly brighter than it's ever been.

As great as that is, I still want to poke out my eyes.

My microecon professor seems to like painting. Herself. Naked.

Maybe getting a new backpack will help me recover.

07 April 2004

Why URH Sucks

Wien in general isn't really that bad. In fact, there are some things about having a sink in my room that I really like. You know what else I like? I'll give you a hint - light. My bulb burned out on Thurday night at around 2am. A few phone calls to the hospitality desk and maintenance requests later, and I'm still living by the warm glow of my moniters. In another few days, I think I'm going to dismiss the no candles rule in favor of the "I'd like to have light" rule. And now I'm going to sleep. In the dark, I might add.

First Post

Okay, I couldn't help it. That had to be the subject of my first entry, mostly since I never get first post on slashdot (not that I've tried, but it still counts...).

So let's see....

1) Apparently Yaniv is Daniel's cousin (and vice versa), which I haven't quite gotten over yet. Hopefully driving ability is not genetic.

2) Sleep has been declared useful.

3) The Washington Monument and the spider are in cahoots. Also, the Washington Monument is a robot.

4) I did not lose to Darth Vader in the cusfs election. I wasn't worried or anything...

5) I miss bread (anyone else enjoying Passover?).