Or so I have been told, by the computer club people. I spent four hours or so working on two half-written java programs, and although it's not as productive as I normally am, I did learn some new things. Like commenting with /** * */ (and more * if necessary) for java docs and using PrintStream to avoid typing out repetitive, long commands.
I also discovered a bunch of really creepy Windows backgrounds, had the most bizarre conversation on pedophilia that I ever have had (to be fair I have not had many of those to begin with), and watched our club presidents get turned into an arbitrary communist government's head officials.
Well, if you ever wanted to be surrounded by weird things at Fish Wings, you know where to go now.
Showing posts with label weird. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weird. Show all posts
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
The Past Few Weeks
I have been going to my classes every other class. Sometimes it is intentional, like today, when I skipped my linear algebra class to attend a soldering tutorial that was probably more informative and productive than any single lecture I have gone to for linalg. (I stripped wires and made pretty twists with them and soldered them together with decent speed! That has to be one of the more productive hours I have ever spent in a long time).
Other times it is accidental, like today (again), when I woke up in the morning and it was 9:45 and my java class started at 9:35, and I was groggy and on the top bunk without any proper outdoors clothes on or any breakfast in my stomach, and the earliest I can have all of that done would be by 10, and then 5-10 minutes of walking to class would leave me with 15 minutes of lecture time left. So I promptly fell back asleep.
I asked Jessica later on about what the prof talked about in class today, and she said, "Calling a private property in another class with a public method." Which is, well, what we learned on Monday. I even have rather nice notes for that day.
I think it was on Monday, too, that I left my java class and, after buying yogurt and granola for breakfast, hurried to my linalg class and read the part in the textbook where I thought we had gone over the class before. And I went into class an hour later and proceeded to hear about the same things I had just read.
As Yuma puts it, "Why are your classes so useless?"
I like to believe that it is only so because I am in this limbo mode right now where I can't actually take the exciting classes. But I do have some neat classes next semester, like intro to computer engineering and engineering economy, as well as differential equations which I've heard is actually tough (or maybe they are making it up just like they are making up how difficult linear algebra was going to be). Also I will have no more English classes next semester and, as long as my 93% fixed schedule (based on rough approximations) is not changed by the higher beings who design the electrical engineering curriculum here, I will never have an official English class again.
Or maybe they do this English thing at grad school too. Who knows. I think they should do it every year but I suppose the workload (essay-writing) does add up.
. . .
I found a couple of tunnels under my school. This would sound so much cooler if I also put in, "I sneaked past -insert integer here- security guards and ducked under the camera and picked the lock on the grate and lowered myself into the tunnels," but alas, that was not the case. These tunnels are university-sanctioned, opened for the special purpose of allowing us to get to our classes without freezing ourselves to death when it is -40 degrees Celsius outside and the snow is piled higher than your head.
On the bright side, some of these are steam tunnels, which means they'll be extra-cozy in winter. On the not so bright side, they have operating hours, unlike the buildings themselves, so any late-night cramming session during finals time will necessarily involve walking through the snow.
I am not sure if our school has drains, which I have heard is also a good place to explore in the winter, but those are definitely not sanctioned and will require a lot of time and effort and luck to discover.
Roofs, however, are open (free?) to people who find the doors open at the right time. It is apparently not a rare occurrence. I have yet to be on a roof but that should be fun too.
. . .
Boys are weird creatures. I am sure this has been stated before (I vaguely remember this particular statement or a variation of it on my blog, and possibly on Kathrya's blog too although I can't remember if either is true), and I am aware it is a gross generalization, so I will restate this. Some of the boys I have encountered lately are weird.
The other day I went to the basement of the math and science building, and these two guys were selling white coffee to fundraise for some student group (I think it was Malaysian or some other Southeast Asian group, the guys told me but I don't quite remember). I asked them what white coffee was, and one of the guys explained (different coffee brewing process + condensed milk), and then took off the "$1" sign and said that they were running low anyway, so he gave me a free sample. Then they packed up so quickly and left the table before I even left.
Today, as I was walking down the escalator, one of the guys in my class walked past me, obviously in a hurry. He then held the door open for me, even though I was not even close to the door, so I half-ran to get the door so he wouldn't wait too long.
Maybe the midterms are addling with their brains.
I would love to extend this to girls too so this doesn't resemble a gender stereotype, but unfortunately I am not meeting enough previously-not-well-known-and-probably-will-never-know-well girls to have any concrete examples.
. . .
Thanksgiving weekend was good. It involved lots of fish (alive, raw, microwaved, hot-potted, stuffed-toy-ified), a trip to the depths of Chinatown, friend-visiting, mall-bridge-hopping, movies (some good, some dreadfully slow), and a variety of other things that may or may not be appropriate to put on here. A blackboard was acquired, kitties were petted, and a bunch of pretty much useless RAMs and hard drives were lugged back up the hill.
I might write about it, but definitely not from my perspective and not with any clear-defined names.
And we can also definitely glaze over the late-night drunk on deliriousness hours of insanity.
It was apparently also Denise's birthday on Thanksgiving weekend. It was a rather sad event for her, at least on the day of her birthday, because none of us were there (Sam went to her cottage, other people were otherwise occupied with their families) and she was sick. To make matters worse she spent the weekend at the studio working on one of her many, many projects.
Sam organized a belated celebration for her by taking her to a dumpling place (and inviting all of us). They were really good dumplings (I haven't really had a vegetarian dumpling in a long while, and the ones there were delicious), and Denise and Sam ate two platefuls. I would have ordered a plate myself, but earlier that day I had gone to the-dorm-with-a-good-caf and had gotten myself onion rings and cheesecake and chicken and noodles and broccoli and iced tea, and normally I could have dealt with the main meal but the combo of onion rings and cheesecake was rather filling already, so I was stuffed by the end of the meal.
So not many dumplings for me. So sad.
. . .
I am really tired now. I slept at 4 in the morning, because I wanted Yuma to read me a chapter from a story and he didn't want to, so I stayed up doing silly things. This is probably directly related to my inability to attend my java class this morning, which apparently was pretty silly too, so it all balances out.
I bought four books from the book fair yesterday, all on math and science, and I can't wait to read them. I also signed up for about a million email lists from various clubs around my school, and plotted them all on my calendar in hopes that by virtue of them being there, I will do them.
So far I have not gone to the computer-recycling club, nor the outdoors excursions club, but I have asked Jessica about the two competitions I was interested in (both require teams).
Maybe if I sleep more...
Other times it is accidental, like today (again), when I woke up in the morning and it was 9:45 and my java class started at 9:35, and I was groggy and on the top bunk without any proper outdoors clothes on or any breakfast in my stomach, and the earliest I can have all of that done would be by 10, and then 5-10 minutes of walking to class would leave me with 15 minutes of lecture time left. So I promptly fell back asleep.
I asked Jessica later on about what the prof talked about in class today, and she said, "Calling a private property in another class with a public method." Which is, well, what we learned on Monday. I even have rather nice notes for that day.
I think it was on Monday, too, that I left my java class and, after buying yogurt and granola for breakfast, hurried to my linalg class and read the part in the textbook where I thought we had gone over the class before. And I went into class an hour later and proceeded to hear about the same things I had just read.
As Yuma puts it, "Why are your classes so useless?"
I like to believe that it is only so because I am in this limbo mode right now where I can't actually take the exciting classes. But I do have some neat classes next semester, like intro to computer engineering and engineering economy, as well as differential equations which I've heard is actually tough (or maybe they are making it up just like they are making up how difficult linear algebra was going to be). Also I will have no more English classes next semester and, as long as my 93% fixed schedule (based on rough approximations) is not changed by the higher beings who design the electrical engineering curriculum here, I will never have an official English class again.
Or maybe they do this English thing at grad school too. Who knows. I think they should do it every year but I suppose the workload (essay-writing) does add up.
. . .
I found a couple of tunnels under my school. This would sound so much cooler if I also put in, "I sneaked past -insert integer here- security guards and ducked under the camera and picked the lock on the grate and lowered myself into the tunnels," but alas, that was not the case. These tunnels are university-sanctioned, opened for the special purpose of allowing us to get to our classes without freezing ourselves to death when it is -40 degrees Celsius outside and the snow is piled higher than your head.
On the bright side, some of these are steam tunnels, which means they'll be extra-cozy in winter. On the not so bright side, they have operating hours, unlike the buildings themselves, so any late-night cramming session during finals time will necessarily involve walking through the snow.
I am not sure if our school has drains, which I have heard is also a good place to explore in the winter, but those are definitely not sanctioned and will require a lot of time and effort and luck to discover.
Roofs, however, are open (free?) to people who find the doors open at the right time. It is apparently not a rare occurrence. I have yet to be on a roof but that should be fun too.
. . .
Boys are weird creatures. I am sure this has been stated before (I vaguely remember this particular statement or a variation of it on my blog, and possibly on Kathrya's blog too although I can't remember if either is true), and I am aware it is a gross generalization, so I will restate this. Some of the boys I have encountered lately are weird.
The other day I went to the basement of the math and science building, and these two guys were selling white coffee to fundraise for some student group (I think it was Malaysian or some other Southeast Asian group, the guys told me but I don't quite remember). I asked them what white coffee was, and one of the guys explained (different coffee brewing process + condensed milk), and then took off the "$1" sign and said that they were running low anyway, so he gave me a free sample. Then they packed up so quickly and left the table before I even left.
Today, as I was walking down the escalator, one of the guys in my class walked past me, obviously in a hurry. He then held the door open for me, even though I was not even close to the door, so I half-ran to get the door so he wouldn't wait too long.
Maybe the midterms are addling with their brains.
I would love to extend this to girls too so this doesn't resemble a gender stereotype, but unfortunately I am not meeting enough previously-not-well-known-and-probably-will-never-know-well girls to have any concrete examples.
. . .
Thanksgiving weekend was good. It involved lots of fish (alive, raw, microwaved, hot-potted, stuffed-toy-ified), a trip to the depths of Chinatown, friend-visiting, mall-bridge-hopping, movies (some good, some dreadfully slow), and a variety of other things that may or may not be appropriate to put on here. A blackboard was acquired, kitties were petted, and a bunch of pretty much useless RAMs and hard drives were lugged back up the hill.
I might write about it, but definitely not from my perspective and not with any clear-defined names.
And we can also definitely glaze over the late-night drunk on deliriousness hours of insanity.
It was apparently also Denise's birthday on Thanksgiving weekend. It was a rather sad event for her, at least on the day of her birthday, because none of us were there (Sam went to her cottage, other people were otherwise occupied with their families) and she was sick. To make matters worse she spent the weekend at the studio working on one of her many, many projects.
Sam organized a belated celebration for her by taking her to a dumpling place (and inviting all of us). They were really good dumplings (I haven't really had a vegetarian dumpling in a long while, and the ones there were delicious), and Denise and Sam ate two platefuls. I would have ordered a plate myself, but earlier that day I had gone to the-dorm-with-a-good-caf and had gotten myself onion rings and cheesecake and chicken and noodles and broccoli and iced tea, and normally I could have dealt with the main meal but the combo of onion rings and cheesecake was rather filling already, so I was stuffed by the end of the meal.
So not many dumplings for me. So sad.
. . .
I am really tired now. I slept at 4 in the morning, because I wanted Yuma to read me a chapter from a story and he didn't want to, so I stayed up doing silly things. This is probably directly related to my inability to attend my java class this morning, which apparently was pretty silly too, so it all balances out.
I bought four books from the book fair yesterday, all on math and science, and I can't wait to read them. I also signed up for about a million email lists from various clubs around my school, and plotted them all on my calendar in hopes that by virtue of them being there, I will do them.
So far I have not gone to the computer-recycling club, nor the outdoors excursions club, but I have asked Jessica about the two competitions I was interested in (both require teams).
Maybe if I sleep more...
Friday, March 26, 2010
On A Good Day
I have been, as of late, really obsessed with OceanLab. I had always liked instrumental and emotional vocal music, so I never paid much attention to specific genres. However, OceanLab—and vocal trance in general—takes my appreciation for heavily vamped music and beautiful lyrics to a whole new level. It's just like when I discovered "Mad World," by Gary Jules.
(I also think that Adam Lambert sings that particular song better, although Jules has a better music video.)
Sometimes, I wonder—do I like a song more because of its lyrics, or because of its sound? I mean, I love "Satellite" mostly because of the line, "You're half a world away, but in my mind I whisper every single word you say." On the other hand, I love Rain's "Love Story" despite not knowing what the lyrics mean. And then there are songs like Enya's "Only Time," which I absolutely love, both lyrically and musically.
(Richard Marx's "Boy Next Door," which I have linked before, is another song with amazing melody and lyrics.)
Maybe I'm just spending too much time on Youtube. I mean, without a "loop" option, I'm constantly tempted to try out new songs, thus increasing the list of songs I like at an alarming rate. Using Pandora when I'm lazy also doesn't help.
Other Odd Happenings (OOHs):
After repeated pleas (from the majority, if not all, of my gym class), our gym teacher has decided to replace the yoga videos with Tae Bo ones instead. So, instead of stretching at almost impossible angles, we have adopted a punching/kicking workout. It's fun—well, until Double Time. That's Blank's term for "do those really complicated moves that I just taught you but in half the time that I took to showed you how to do them."
Really, really fun.
I have to say, this is much better than what would otherwise have been in store for us—more fitness center equipment workouts (or more commonly known as: stick to one equipment and pretend you're doing something). And since this is my last quarter with the physical part of gym (wow, I can't believe it's finally almost over), I (hopefully) won't ever have to go back to the fitness center again.
But with my luck, you can never tell for sure.
Later on, in English, I asked Mogley, "Did lacrosse season start already?"
"Yeah," he said. "Why?"
"Oh, our gym class is in the wrestling room right now, and a lot of people are playing with the lacrosse sticks lying around the room, so I thought that lacrosse season probably started."
"Wait, they're touching the lacrosse sticks?"
"Yeah."
"I spent FOREVER making sure my stick is placed just right," Mogley said. "If anyone moves it, I will hunt them down."
"Well, how will you know who they are?"
"I will lift the fingerprints off and personally hunt them down."
And I thought the weird guys were only limited to Dino and Mario. I shrugged, and as English was the last period today, and the bell had already rung, I got up and left. Mogley stayed behind to finish a 6x6 sudoku.
(Matt, who sits next to me in stat, always brings crossword puzzles and sudoku games to class and does them instead of work. One time, he shared a sudoku with me that he had only filled in a couple of numbers, and I started filling in numbers so fast he couldn't even keep up. Ever since, he's been trying to perfect the art of fast sudoku solving. I think it's been detrimental to his grasp of stat knowledge. I also think that the fact that I use a complicated elimination method to solve sudoku puzzles and that I can scan several lines and be aware of multiple numbers at the same time means I have spent way too much time on this game. I blame Opera Widgets for this entirely.)
Been talking to myself forever, and how I wish I knew me better. Still sitting on a shelf and never never seen the sun shine brighter, and it feels like me on a good day.—"On a Good Day," OceanLab
P.s.: Oh dear, Dino's gaining ground against Argon in the label-war. ("Did I tell you about that time when Argon—yeah, uh... I don't know how he's going to win this.")
