Dilligas.com Home

October 2, 2003 - Well jeez

So it turns out that my site's one-year birthday came and went. Since the archives only go back to October of 2002, I assumed the date was somewhere in there. Turns out, I was wrong. Crap. And I had wanted to do some sort of big flashy *something* for the site's birthday. Small loss, I suppose.
The big news for the upcoming weekend is that we're going to get annihilated on the field... But you'll have that, I suppose. Seems like I should also at least give a passing acknowledgement to last week's loss... Though I was not present to see it, it still hurts. Northern Illinois, of all the schools. At least getting destroyed by Oklahoma is ... well ... inevitable. I guess that really doesn't make it any better, does it?
Had my first Computer Engineering test today, and while I don't think it was difficult, I think it was ridiculously vague and unclear at times. Percentages summed to 90%. Four became five halfway through a question. "Draw this," which can be (correctly!) interpreted in about four different ways, wasn't clarified. And the best part is that you can't ask for clarification during the exam. So we will see how that goes.
The first Computer Science test is coming up Monday ... not looking forward to that one. Damn, but I hate that class.
I suppose the site work for tonight will have to suffice with archiving September and touching up my current schedule page. Huttah.

October 5, 2003 - As predicted...

Yep, big surprise, we lost. Big time. But, since everyone's expectations were realistic, no one was crushed.
Not a whole lot to report, really. This weekend was decent - a lot of videogames, and a decent amount of schoolwork, mostly in preparation for tomorrow's upcoming Computer Science test, which I am not looking forward to in the least. Wish me good luck on that one.
My schedule keeps getting worse; both Friday and Saturday night I was up until 5:00 or better, and today I was awakened at 2:00 by my lab partner calling. Meal times are even worse... ~6:00 PM and ~2:00 AM are becoming standard mealtimes for me. I'm certainly glad I'm not at Dining Service anymore, with their restrictive schedules.
Anyhow, I added a weekend countdown to the Flash clock in the upper-right. It seems appropriate somehow. Hope everyone enjoys it.

October 9, 2003 - So I missed a few updates

Back in the old habit of missing updates. So, instead of the largely positive vibes I've been giving off for the past couple days, you get to read this:
Things really aren't that bad right now, but they sure feel like it. And by "they", I mean schoolwork. I have a homework assignment due at 8am tomorrow that I don't even have a clue how to start on. I'm so ridiculously lost in my Electrical Engineering class, it's not even funny. Once I take an hour or two, read the book, and look at the online notes, I should be fine though. This week, I massively failed on my Computer Engineering lab, so I have to find some time between now and Tuesday to go into the lab and (1) find what's wrong with it (2) fix it and (3) get my TA to check it off. And then today, I spent possibly the most worthless three hours of my life in Electrical Engineering lab, staring at these circuits that I am supposed to know about but don't, and my partner wasn't faring much better. So we have to wrap that up too, in the next week. And with additional homework assignments due Tuesday (Computer Engineering, should be challenging) and Wednesday (Computer Science, kill me now)... Well ... I guess I just have to actually do some stuff.
But, aside from schoolwork, I really can't complain. Hopefully I'll update this this weekend, yes?

October 13, 2003 - Monday, how I loathe thee

Right, no weekend update. Whoops.
Well, what happened this weekend, hmm? For one, I replaced my old (and recently broken) Nikon Coolpix 775 digital camera with a shiny new Canon A70. Huge, ridiculously large props to someone for that ... You (or more likely, one of your roommates) know who you are.
What else? Props to Kristi and someone for coming to play DDR with me on Saturday. Robert, Emily, and I went to see the Drummers of West Africa show on Sunday; it was neat, and I'm glad I went, but it was not what I was expecting. Still good to go, though. Next up is The Sound of Music, which I have yet to get tickets for. Hm.
Once I get on the ball, I'll have a nice gallery of fall campus pictures taken by a friend of mine. Once I get on the ball, that is.
I'm also thinking about making a hobbies page, since, as it stands, this whole friggin' site is pretty much about me anyways. Good idea, bad idea? Shout out.
That's about all, aside from the 'Clones getting destroyed again. Here's hoping my two interviews (Union Pacific and Cargill) go well this week; I'll be sure to post about them.

October 16, 2003 - Interviews, interviews, interviews

Just got back from my Union Pacific interview, and since I promised to mention something about this week's interview-ish activities, here goes:

• On Tuesday afternoon, I had my interview with Cargill, for an IT position of some flavor. Keep in mind that this interview was at Jack Trice Stadium, almost literally the furthest on-campus point from me, and I don't have a car, and it's at 4:30, and I have a lab that goes until 4. So I did my lab largely ahead of time (which I don't think you're technically supposed to do), and managed to bust it out pretty quick and get back home by about 3:30. After some furious changing of clothes and re-organization of my not-so-professional-looking Telesciences binder, I stole Ryan's car (huge props!) and hauled down to the stadium to be on time. So, after waiting a solid half-hour, I was finally called itno the room; the interviewer lady was nice, but I feel like I miserably failed the interview itself. There were no 'standard' interview questions (ie, what skills do you have, why are you pursuing this position, etc); instead, it was all "So, tell me about a time where you were pro-active in getting the requirements from a customer, where you went above and beyond to help the project" and "Tell me about a time that you were on a project team with someone who had an opinion different than yours, or maybe made a decision that you didnt agree with. Tell me how you handled that". Since these were questions I was not prepared for and had not thought about, I looked like an idiot as I racked my brain for an example (often not finding one) after each question. Graaa. "We'll be in touch". Yeah, right. But hey, I guess I learned something, right?
• Then Thursday morning I had my interview with Union Pacific. Again, this one came on a tight timeframe, since it was at 9:30, and my 8:00 professor doesn't like to let us go until about 9:23. Fortunately, this one was at Marston, not the stadium, so I made it on time. This also means that I had to get up at about 6:30 to shower and put on decent, non-slept-in clothes. This one seemed to go better, I thought; I seemed to have a better rapport with the interviewer and I think I was quicker on the draw, so to speak. Plus, the questions were more 'normal', which I think helped me a lot also. Unfortunately, I'm not really digging this as a first-choice for a summer thing; it's in Nebraska (yarg), for one thing. Anyhow, the interview itself was sort of uneventful, though I thought it highlighted my strong points much better than the Cargill one. They'll be letting me know in three weeks if I'm of interest to them or not.
• As a sidenote, this whole interview process seems absolutely ludicrous to me. I mean, here I am, getting up early and/or busting my ass to get somewhere by a certain time, taking ridiculous amounts of effort to dress in a completely artifical manner in some vague effort to impress someone I don't know in the hopes of getting a corporate-drone-style job at some company that I have no vested interest in solely to get a paycheck that you end up spending 90% of just to maintain your job. I suppose my ideal of having a job that I enjoy, while learning things, accomplishing actual useful work, and being informal and self-directed isn't exactly realistic, but ... this whole 'real-world' thing just disillusions me from time to time.

October 19, 2003 - Enjoyable weekend

I have to say, this was one of the busier weekends I think I've had of late. Of course, this makes it fun, but it doesn't seem restful. Anyhow:
Friday night, I went to the hockey game with Robert and a couple of his friends, then came back, played a couple videogames, and went outside for the fire alarm at 2:30 AM. Huttah. (Yes, our building is still standing. Think more of an "I'm drunk and stupid" alarm than a "fire" alarm.)
Saturday, I got up at 9 (*gasp*!) to go to the football game, in which we (*gasp*! again) got destroyed 40-19... Though that was a better showing than I was expecting. After that, I came home and worked some with my pictures section ... and by "worked some" I really mean "broke very badly". I broke the first ... several rules of programming (i.e., back things up, have the program tell you what it is going to do before it does it, etc, etc...), and the end result was that I lost about 60 pictures, and screwed up the rest. Fortunately, the fixes were relatively simple, and all the pictures except for Niagara Falls and Crystal Lake frolf are back. In the end, though, this change I'm making will be a good thing; you'll see. Once I restore all the pictures I lost in the first place, that is. Oh, and then in the evening, I went to Ryan's to play some madd videogames, which rocked pretty hard. After that, another impromptu trip to Perkin's, which also rocked pretty hard. A late night, but a fun one.
Which brings us to Sunday. Up late, then watched some football for awhile before my lab partner for Computer Engineering got ahold of me, which led to several hours spent in the labs, working on some ever-so-fun (read: vague and ridiculous) homework. After that, straight to an Eta Kappa Nu meeting (that's an Electrical and Computer Engineering honor society that I am thinking I should join), then straight to The Sound of Music, which was a really great show. Thoroughly enjoyable. Let's hope Kiss Me, Kate is as good.
So yeah, it's been a good weekend. Unfortunately, 'good weekend' is synonymous with 'didn't do much schoolwork', so this next week might be slightly busier than I'd hoped for. We'll see.
Lastly, I went around campus and took some twilight/nighttime pictures, some of which I think turned out really well. Once I get the whole pictures thing squared away, I'll be sure to post them up. I'm thinking I need a decent tripod though... Taking shots from the middle of the sidewalk using my 10-inch tripod just doesn't cut it. :)
Anyhow, hope everyone has a good week!

October 23, 2003 - Missed another update

So I missed another update. Lather, rinse, repeat.
First, site news. I seem to have largely fixed the Photos section. Specifically, the Fall and Winter pictures from last year are restored. I did manage to upload this year's Fall pictures also... but I haven't been able to get captions on them yet, so I'd recommend waiting to see those for just a couple of days. I'll be sure to update as soon as I get them working.
The whole reason that they aren't captioned at the moment has to do with my university sucking. Well, more specifically, our Academic InfoTech department sucks. Apparently it was a Good Idea™ to make the on-campus apartments last in priority for internet access. Which, basically, means that I can work on this site from anywhere except home. Real friggin' helpful.
Anyhow! I'm heading to Pioneer tomorrow, with Ryan, to hopefully talk with an IT-type person there and maybe leverage my prospects for this summer. I'd really love to work there, as it would mean that I could stay in Ames. We'll see how that goes.
I also registered for next semester this morning. For once, I got all the classes I wanted, the first time! And on top of that, my schedule doesn't even suck that bad, despite having 9:00 or 9:30 classes every day. Once I get a spare half-hour, I'll throw together a schedule for your enjoyment.
Big weekend plans include Kiss Me, Kate, some videogames, and a whole lotta sleep. And, of course, whatever else happens to come up.
I have a slew of things I'd like to do to this site in the near future... Among them are finalizing the aforementioned photos, fixing my administrator script, updating my resume, revamping the work and school sections, updating some of my games, and creating a hobbies page. Hopefully I can find time to do some of that, soon-like.

October 27, 2003 - I did stuff!

Yet again, four days sans update. Deal with it.
But, to make up for that in some vague fashion, I actually did stuff! For one thing, I fixed my administrator script, so I can *do* things now. For another, I captioned the most recent fall pictures, so be sure to check those out! I also updated both of my resumes, and added next semester's schedule onto my schedules page. Things left to do include work, school, gaming, some new pictures, and my hobbies page. Look for those ... eventually. Yes, let's go with that.
Tonight, I went to see Kiss Me, Kate over at C.Y. Stephens. I have to say, it was probably my favorite event this year. Although the music and production were better for Sound of Music, and Cats has a certain appeal to it, I was entertained more thoroughly by this presentation than by any other. Good times.
What else? This weekend was amazingly busy, it seemed. Though I did complete a Computer Science assignment, and a Computer Engineering assignment, I managed to fit in about four separate bouts of videogaming. One for DDR, two for Mario Kart 64, and one more for Halo. And I got some quality sleep, and some free food tonight, etc, etc, etc.
Oh yeah, and props to Ryan for taking me down to Pioneer on Friday to talk to some people there. Good times, and more free food!
This week is looking pretty easy, I think. Some activities, but not too much. We'll see how it goes.

October 31, 2003 - Happy Hall

I'm getting really good at this whole updating every four days thing, instead of every two. Go figure.
So yeah. Remember how I said this week looked to be not too busy? (At this point, you should be laughing, because I am.) Well, after the Eta Kappa Nu meeting and quasi-initiation-thing on Monday night, things just went all to hell. I went over to Coover to try and fix my Computer Engineering lab that absolutely refused to work, and ended up spending nigh on two hours staring at it and making changes that only screwed things up worse. Fun times.
(It might help to review my schedule for the rest of the week here.)
Tuesday, I went to class bright and early, then hit the blood drive and donated my fair share. Of course, not having eaten anything in about sixteen hours or so, I didn't exactly feel so well afterwards, but that passed in time for my 12:40 class. This was immediately followed by my Computer Engineering lab, which (miraculously!) worked this week. Then at 7, a SCUBA Club meeting, and at 9, a round of racquetball.
Wednesday was actually fine; Emily came over for lunch, and that was a good time. There was a comedy performance at the Union that I was going to go to, but I elected to sleep from 8-11 instead.
Thursday was an absolute blast. It's a long day anyway, but when Eta Kappa Nu has you volunteer at the blood drive from 10-12, it sort of kills that morning timeslot. So I left the apartment today at 7:45 AM and returned at 6:15 PM. Long day. Oh yeah, and our Electrical Engineering lab completely destroyed both me and my partner; never have we been so clueless. Whee.
Oh yeah. Did I mention that Eta Kappa Nu made me dress up for three days this week? So during those three ridiculously hectic days, I was waltzing around campus in khakis, a dress shirt, tie, and dress shoes. Ugh.
Tomorrow should be allright, I guess, despite having a couple hours reserved for homework. As for what this weekend is going to bring ... aside from a lot of homework and a lot of sleep, who knows? Although, my roommate is gone, so ladies, start filling out those applications.
As for site work, I put up a new program that I wrote (finally!), and I also made a small new photo gallery of a couple campus shots at twilight. I'm hoping to add to this gallery from time to time. Now I just need a better (read: more than eight inches high) tripod.
Anyhow, enjoy that, and Happy Halloween!