Learning to Fly

Check out my facebook pic. Super sexy, eh?

Analog vs. Digital. Wrote that speech today, about why analog is better. Want to know why? Ask me. I essentially wrote the speech over a series of IMs with people telling me that I'm crazy and ultimately defecting to my cause in the end. I can't lose...I've got Barry on my side (Barry in no way endorses my writing this). It's gonna be interesting trying to sway a room of engineering majors about why I'm right. I'm always up for a challenge.

Hell. So...uh...life sucks? I guess I should just go emo and break out the tight pants. You know when you're not supposed to think about something and it constantly plagues your mind no matter what you do? That's what it's getting like for me. It's actually sucking the fun out of anything that I do, and I can't stop. Alosa's constantly yelling at me for it, and he's got reason to. Things are getting so bad that when I've actually pissed him off upon hearing of my latest escapade. It's affecting my dreams too, meaning I've definitely repressed something...and I wake up feeling like shit. What I need more than anything is to get out of my head. Even when I'm having an amazing time, a thought somehow surfaces and kills my buzz I guess you could say. Kill me now.

Thanksgiving. Yeah...not driving down so, uh...I can't exactly go anywhere. Saves me shitloads of money. So if you get a call from me, know what's coming.

Family Guy. Most amazing episode yet and totally pinned the FCC. Watch it over torrents if you didn't catch it tonight.

I am...STAN OF ARABIA!!!

An Effervescing Elephant
with tiny eyes and great big trunk
once whispered to the tiny ear
the ear of one inferior
that by next June he'd die, oh yeah!
because the tiger would roam.
The little one said: "Oh my goodness I must stay at home!
and every time I hear a growl
I'll know the tiger's on the prowl
and I'll be really safe, you know
the elephant he told me so."
Everyone was nervy, oh yeah!
and the message was spread
to zebra, mongoose, and the dirty hippopotamus
who wallowed in the mud and chewed
his spicy hippo-plankton food
and tended to ignore the word
preferring to survey a herd
of stupid water bison, oh yeah!
And all the jungle took fright,
and ran around for all the day and the night
but all in vain, because, you see,
the tiger came and said: "Who me?!
You know, I wouldn't hurt not one of you.
I'd much prefer something to chew
and you're all to scant." oh yeah!
He ate the Elephant

...talk about a truly ridiculous song. Kudos to whoever can guess who did this (except for Barry 'cause he knows)

Faces come out of the rain.

Nothing to do. Which explains why I'm making this post, since I haven't made one in a long time. And by long time I mean a week or so. I really didn't have much to rant about.

Withering away. I got a "special double issue" of PC Magazine in the mail a couple days ago (yeah, I know...I'm a nerd) and I noticed that the "double issue" was just about as big as the normal-sized issues from 2000 when I started getting that magazine. It's sad to see it go downhill, especially since the content's decreased and the ads have increased. Nonetheless they were celebrating the 20th anniversary of Windows (yay?) and had *exclusive* interviews with the top people of Microsoft touting how they were ripping off App--uh...changing the world by updating Windows. Microsoft fails again. Though I have to admit, the new version of Vista (the October Community Technical Preview...which I got my hands on somehow) looks pretty cool, relatively that is. If you want a good idea of what to expect, go to apple.com and take a look at what they have to say about Tiger (OS X 10.4). It's like that...'cept not as good. They even copied Dashboard...which is this neat little interface that you can drop numerous "widgets" or tiny programs (that do useless things but are totally useful at the same time) on it. Microsoft's version: the Sidebar. Works on entirely the same principle as Dashboard...except it's by Microsoft. I really despise those people that are too biased toward Windows to see otherwise. Get with the program people, Mac is the way to go.

(Non) technical presentations. I'm getting the feeling that I know too much about various things about technology for my own good. For the last two weeks in my SPC 1016 (Fundamentals of Tech Presentations) class, we had to present our speeches (which were explaining a technical object to a non-technical audience...which seems weird when you have to present to a room of engineers. The least-technical person in that room was...the professor. Imagine that.). So with the exception of two or three presentations, I actually knew enough about the topics that everyone presented on to argue how they were wrong. The hot girl in the class (I don't know her name...but you don't need to since she stands out like a sore thumb) did a presentation of the iPod that made me want to kill myself. She confused Apple with Mac (i.e., "Mac invented the Apple iPod") throughout the speech and it didn't really explain anything technical, but was more a catalog of the different iPods that were out there. Whatever. I feel like such a nerd in that class.

Yuri's a genius. He was the one to figure out that you can use thumbtacks as speaker mounts. Saved me $40, he did. So kudos to him. The only problem I see is that they weren't designed to hold speakers...so I've got the sneaking suspicion that they're gonna fall off the wall and hit me on the head when I'm sleeping. Time will tell on that one.

Almost sick again. Studied Thursday night with Melissa from my Discrete Structures class, who was sick. So now I'm starting to get sick. I ran to Walgereens yesterday and got some Airborne. I love that stuff 'cause it's all-natural (keeping with my theme of being healthy) and that with Mucinex takes care of anything that would come my way...as long as I take care of it before it comes my way. That makes sense.

Hurricanes. AGAIN! Wilma...that stupid storm that's stuck in the Yucatan and it's scheduled to hit us (that is Orlando-Palm Beach) sometime Monday-Tuesday. That's like a cable guy window. But whatever. Filled up my car with gas (for $2.67, yay! And that's sad that $2.67/gal is cheap). $3.00/gallon isn't far off, just wait for this storm to hit. Classes might be cancelled Monday-Tuesday...but probably not with my luck.

Transfer? That's been my question lately. Should I transfer to a different school? Barry wants me to go to MIT...which I'd have to figure out how to pay for (if I get in, that is). If I transfer to any other school, it's gonna be far away from here. I called Matt earlier this week to have him yell at me again about how I shouldn't transfer 'cause I'd only be doing it for the prestige, and I'd have to pay for it somehow, and undergraduate studies don't mean shit nowadays anyway. I actually want to know what you guys think on this one. Should I leave UCF for a different school in a different region of the US?

No one remembers your name.

Because when you like nips, it shows. Gotta be the funniest tagline I've ever heard. I'm sitting in my room with all the lights off 'cause I'm supposed to be sleeping right now. I haven't been sleeping well, though I've been going to bed at my normal time of 2am, but can't fall asleep till like 4:30, and I've had to wake up at 8 or 9 the last couple days.

Western Civilizations of the Eastern Hemisphere. Midterm today. Meh. Took too long, and I was the last one to finish. I felt like shit afterward, and decided to go to mealplan and be late to my next class. Whatever. I felt like a zombie walking around. So I got an energy drink at like 5pm. Made me not tired, but not overly energetic.

Strike out. I'm finally getting better at bowling FINALLY. Bowled a 140, 98, and a 173. Why the 98? I decided to run out of steam from that energy drink at the beginning of my second game, and I couldn't focus one bit. I was even more neurotic and jumpy. I need to eat something but the vending machines wouldn't work. So I had a couple glasses of water. Only at a bowling alley does water taste like cigarettes. So now I'm so tired that I can't have my lights on.

Jewy. Yom Kippur tomorrow, hope you all have an easy fast. Why don't Christians have Yom Kippur? 'Cause apparently Jesus went to the "real temple" in heaven and poured blood on the mercy seat (a very old tradition of Hebrew rabbis) atoning for Christian's sins once and for all as well as making Jewish law irrelevant. Crazy religion.

Let's go down the waterfall. I hear Mario 3 calling.

No results found! Crap!!!!!!!!! said that stupid OkCupid dating site.

Apparently there aren't any girls for me on that stupid dating site either. [Sigh].

The Slow Dancer Deliberate Gentle Love Dreamer (DGLDm) Steady, reliable, and cradling her tenderly. Take a deep breath, and let it out real easy...you are The Slow Dancer. Your focus is love, not sex, and for your age, you have average experience. But you're a great, thoughtful guy, and your love life improves every year. There's also a powerful elimination process working in your favor: most Playboy types get stuck raising unwanted kids before you even begin settling down. The women left over will be hot and yours. Your ideal woman is someone intimate, intelligent, and very supportive. Your exact opposite: The Hornivore Random Brutal Sex Master While you're not exactly the life of the party, you do thrive in small groups of smart people. Your circle of friends is extra tight and it's HIGHLY likely they're just like you. You appreciate symmetry in relationships. ALWAYS AVOID: The Battleaxe CONSIDER: The Maid of Honor or The Sonnet

Book. I'd have to say that today went pretty well, especially with my 5 hour nap from 2:30-7:30. Woke up and went from full to really hungry in a period of like 30 seconds, and decided to rush to mealplan, since I didn't feel like cooking. Got there and realized that I didn't have my wallet, so I had to drive back home, and speed back there. Parked my car with 10 minutes before the normal section closed, so I ran from the parking lot by the welcome center to the front entrance in my sandals. Then I raided the salad bar, since I felt like having a salad for dinner. Man I'm a girl.

Constellation. You ever meet someone that you know would be perfect for you but has a boyfriend? It's driving me nuts. I think she likes me back. Too bad nothing will ever come of it.

Cryer. I made up with Emily today, finally. We spent a good two hours on the phone (usin' the minutes) probably more since we talked both before and after my nap. I basically decided to tell her everything that was on my mind, including the things that I'd never planned on saying to her. I'm glad I did. I think things between us are starting to return back to normal. She said it best: "Our lives change, but our relationship never will." And it's true. So I got off the phone with that "mended" feeling inside of me, so I felt great. Hopefully this carries over until tomorrow. I guess it will if I think it will. Damn that optimism.

I jumped into the river. Studying hard for my Western Civ midterm tomorrow. I think no matter what happens I'm gonna fail that thing, though I do have a meeting with my professor tomorrow to discuss it. I've determined that he's a really awesome professor and is really passionate about what he does, and what he teaches. It's really hard to find teachers like that these days. That being said, he's a very weird person and really hard to figure out. He says things just to make you mad and to think for yourself rather than be told what to think. He wants to break us out of that Orwellian mold and have us do things on our own terms. Now to go fail his test.

2 days and counting. Stephen Lynch, UCF arena Thursday 8pm. Go. It's free, unless you don't go to UCF.

DNS Problems. Has this ever happened to you? Half of the websites I tried to go to today couldn't be resolved. I could go to Google and MSN and access AIM, but that was about it. I finally solved the problem by "borrowing" someone's DNS server addresses instead of the shitty ones here that apparently are poorly-configured or keep crashing.

There was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt. Out.

RSS. Did you know my livejournal posts are now available in an RSS feed? Just add them to your existing RSS interpreter (Firefox, or iGoogle, or Internet Explorer 7--if you have it). Check the little satellite or RSS icon at the bottom of your screen there.

New Friends. I'm thinking that I've officially met more girls than guys at UCF, not that there's anything wrong with that, except they all have boyfriends. So my friends list consists of: People from Suncoast abroad, people from Suncoast at UCF, girls with boyfriends, guys, friends in other states, girl (list ordered by quantity not quality). Yay me.

Code Rage. Like the Dilbert comic. Exactly like the Dilbert comic. I spent two agonizing hours today trying to debug my latest COP 3223 (Intro to C) program, which was due yesterday (technically 2 days ago), since it wouldn't compile in their stupid po' ass GCC compiler that's hideously out of date. Luckily I got it to work around 1:45am. I've deduced what's wrong: I needed a } and an f. Took me two hours to figure that out. Damn that programming. I'm gonna do the next assignment early so I won't have to worry about late points or anything. 

New Jersey can suck my dick. Yeah, I said it. Oh, come on, nobody likes New Jersey...or people from it. My roommate Steve and his girlfriend Alexa would be exceptions though, they are very nice--quite a contrast to the typical Jersey attitude (and horrific accents). Their friends that decided to stay for a few days, however, are not. This girl Kelly decided to come into my room and give me some stupid remark about my playing guitar at 2am. Granted, it was 2am, however, she could have said "hey, would you turn it down?" But no she said, "What are you kidding me? You're not impressing anybody." I probably should have told her that I was trying to learn the song I was listening to by ear, and see what she says. Or "oh you want me to impress you with your awesome music that's nothing but distorted power chords? Here's some Green Day for you, bitch." I hope she doesn't like Rap. That'd be a whole other thing: "Go cream your jeans to some shit that took five minutes to write." So I'm gonna take this opportunity and extrapolate her behavior across the entire state of New Jersey, 'cause stereotypes exist for a reason, right?

Echoes. My room is really starting to feel like home now. I bought some posters from the record shop and the book store on campus (blew $50) but got some really nice posters: a Pink Floyd/Wish You Were Here poster (of course), a Beatles poster, a Radiohead/Amnesiac poster, one that says goals with a picture of cleavage on it, and "The Bush Telegraph." And a frame of Homer Simpson doing the Home Alone thing (hands on his face while screaming). I'd say I made out pretty well. That being said, I had no idea at all how big the Radiohead poster was gonna be. Once I started to unroll it and it was like 10 feet long I was like "holy shit." But it's up on the wall nonetheless. My friend Cerissa from my speech class came over to help me put them up, so kudos to her. Saved me about half an hour of agony trying to make sure my posters were level. I hope these posters will soak up some of the sound generated by my stereo.

Ridiculous. I decided to take one of the labels off of Cerissa's label card that came with her VHS tape that we needed to use for her speech today, wrote my name on it, and stuck it on my forehead. She then proceeded to stick the rest of them all over my face in a random assortment of positions. So I decided to see what would happen if I paraded around campus (nothing more than I normally do) with these stickers on my face just to see what people would do. What'd I accomplish? A bunch of random people think I'm an idiot. When they asked me why I was doing it I said "I'm being ridiculous." Well, I kept them on for a good 6 hours.

El Radio. So I got on the student-run radio station here that nobody listens to: Knightcast (www.knightcast.org), and was a co-host of "The Knight Cave." I had to go through the motions of being initiated into their circle. Took it like a man. Which is good. I think next week they're gonna have topless girls shave off my hair, or something like that. I wonder if I'll actually do it. But anyway, to make for a cheap plug for the show, it's on Mondays from 8-10 EST, and you can listen to it anywhere except in your car or on a real radio. But that's a different story. I went on thinking I'd be fine, but turns out I was really nervous and hardly said anything for the first half of the show. By the second half of the show (9pm), I'd warmed up to the mic and contributed more to the conversation. The guys there really liked me and thanked me a lot for putting up with their bullshits. Like I haven't had experience [chuckle]. Oh, so I wore those stickers into the studio, coining my name "Sticker Face." They put me on the webcam, and I actually got more people to tune in because of it. "More people" meaning like 15 in total. I said that if more than 15 people tuned in, I'd remove a sticker for every listener, and when I was done with stickers...move to clothing. [Shifty eyes]. We never got more than 15.

So much for the shorter LJ posts. I'm outta here.