Friday, February 28, 2003

Hah. I now begin to understand why everyone rants and raves about blogger losing what they've written.



So much for modern technology.

Anyhow, I have a question for any smart and intelligent people reading this. I took my calc 3 test today, and there's only one part I don't understand. Anyone who can tell me what z=sqr(x^2 + y^2) is in spherical coordinates is welcome to reveal all. If it's a government secret, I swear I won't tell.

I had a good yak with my brother on IM today. He was telling me all about his new game that he swears he'll finish. I'll admit he's gotten farther than usual, but that doesn't mean anything. Poor blighter. One day he'll wake up and realize that QB should be hung, drawn, and quartered.

And then I got my mail this morning and was gratified to find out that LU is "committed to providing, in any event, the most secure, safe and healthful atmosphere possible." I read a little farther and discovered the phone # for Campus Security so I can contact me in the case of a disaster. Also, SAGA is stocking up healthy food for an emergency. I shall certainly sleep better tonight.

Life's not all food for sarcasm today, though. Dr. Graff passed around his orange marker for everyone to smell in class today. It looks just like your average dry-erase marker, but it smells like orange. There's nothing quite like seeing 30-40 students taking turns sniffing at a marker. There was the expected remark about Dr. Graff getting all his Circuits II students high on markers, and I got enough of a laugh to stay awake for the whole class period. Good fun. =)

I'm now going to select this all and copy it in case I lose such wonderful bits of creativity. No, you're not allowed to pray for my computer to crash. Besides, I'm in Win2K at the moment. That's never supposed to crash, now is it?

Thursday, February 27, 2003

Hey, it's only 2:45 and this has already been a good day!

I'm getting a new computer to play with. :-D Now all I have to do is get my dad to send me one of the numerous unused ISA NIC's we have lying around the house, and I can set up my own little file server. Shouldn't be hard at all to get Debian up and running on the box, and I can probably get one of my suitemates to let me use an open port in their room. Or we could always go for the RJ-45 splitter option. But anyway, I can finally deal with the withdrawal symptoms which go along with my unused screwdrivers.

I also finished the crocheted doily I've been working on for months. It's sitting right next to the DC power supply I built in I&M lab. Which brings me to another topic. I cannot for the life of me figure out how I can go from sitting on the floor with resistors, capacitors, and diodes all spread out around me, stripping wires, to sitting on the couch crocheting like I've turned into a lady from the Victorian era. How can I enjoy doing things which are so completely different from each other? There seems to be a thread of dichotomy which runs through my life. It probably all goes back to my parents, and the fact that they have both influenced me so much.

My mom is a homemaker by trade. That's rather a necessity with 10 kids, but she's done that ever since she got pregnant with me. I really admire her; she does so much that we all take for granted. She taught me to crochet and sew, which eventually led to knitting and tatting. (Look it up. I'm too lazy to explain terms, and since you're obviously online, you have access to a dictionary) My dad on the other hand, started building computers when I was 8 or 9. He's probably the smartest guy I know; taught himself electronics in order to build his own speakers. I watched him all the time; still do when I'm home and he's working on something interesting. As a result, I picked up on everything; how to hook up all the cables, format and partition hard drives, troubleshoot Windows problems, etc. And then he got me to learn what he couldn't teach me by giving me things to do which would make me teach myself, like setting up a Linux file server, gateway, DHCP, DNS, RAID, and what all else. And then I decided to come here and learn more. =)

So, in a sense, my mom is the reason there's a 12'' crocheted doily on my dresser, and my dad is the reason for the adjacent 12V DC power supply. In the end, I really wouldn't have it any other way. It's kind of like being able to enjoy reading both A Tale of Two Cities and The Andromeda Strain. I feel like I get so much out of life since I'm able to really have fun in such a wide range of areas. It's officially a good thing.

Ahhh... much better. I can't stand large fonts.

It's 2:00. I should go to bed. I can see this is going to get really addicting really fast.

Wednesday, February 26, 2003

Yes, due to much peer pressure, I am finally starting this.

I lied. I'm starting it so I can make fun of life in general.

So anyhow, for those who stumbled on this by accident, I'm really, really sorry. Really sorry. I'd do anything I could to make it up to you.

For anybody else; it's all your own fault.

Having started this off, I'm now going to proceed to play with all the pretty options. :-D