Dilligas.com HomeDecember 1, 2003 - Back to the proverbial grind Thanksgiving break was great. It was awesome to head home for a while, see some friends, see some family, eat a lot, sleep a little, and generally not care about school for a little while. Unfortunately, though, that's all over and done with .... welcome back to Ames, and welcome back to the seventeen projects and assignments and other crap hanging over your head. Here's hoping that I can accomplish some or all of it before it's all due, but who really knows, right?
I don't really have much to say at the moment, other than to throw some shout-outs to Peter and Scott for hosting a mini-LAN and a hell of a weekend, respectively. Once I get on a keyboard whose 's' key works, I'll throw November into an archive and do that whole deal. Hooray for our Engineering department and their ever-so-functional keyboards.
December 2, 2003 - Archived, etc So I got around to archiving November, and fixing the typos in the last update. Whee.
Still trying to slog through the week...
December 6, 2003 - Holy hell This week sucked so hard.
On the plus side, our Computer Engineering semester project is done! And I suppose I really can't complain when we end up getting a B+ for a project that doesn't even work like it's supposed to. Huttah. So I basically celebrated the completion of the project all day today by not doing a damn thing. It was awesome. I played some videogames for the first time in forever, then went bowling, which turned into a reunion of sorts between the SCUBA kids whereby we went to a coffee shop until they closed, then cruised around Ames before settling on a movie at Adam's. The part where I inadvertently ditched some other people while this was going on (oops...) notwithstanding, it was a good time.
So with the advent of this project, you'd think that my workload would be over, at least until finals. But boy, would you be wrong. I have one or two assignments due each day next week, all but one of which I have yet to start on. Of course, I only have two finals (!) this semester, which rules, so I guess that makes up for it? At any rate, it'll be back to the workload for me tomorrow. Fun times.
Needless to say, no site work. Oh, and I have heard back from neither Pella nor Pioneer yet. Weak sauce.
December 12, 2003 - So sue me Yes, it's been a week since I've updated this. Yes, I'm comfortable with that.
This past week, being Dead Week (ie, the week before finals, in which classes are still held normally, but there aren't supposed to be large assignments due or tests to be taken), was quite the week. With one or two assignments due every day, I certainly had my work cut out for me over the majority of the week. But since it's all been done, turned in, and already forgotten about, I'm footloose and fancy-free, so to speak.
Which brings us to finals. Astoundingly, this year, finals are being good to me. I only have two: One Tuesday morning at 7:30 (!), and one Wednesday night at 7:00. And since I have long stopped caring enough to study for either of the classes that have a final (Computer Engineering and Computer Science, respectively), I'm pretty much on cruise control from now until January 12th, which is insanely awesome. Video games and sleep await, for the first time in ... ages!
So with all that free time, I actually did a couple of things to the site. (*audience gasps*) The primary change is that i completely redid my school section, to make it more professional, like the work section that I changed not too long ago. Hope everyone enjoys that. Oh, and there's also now a little "what's new" kind of tag on the logo in the upper-left. The goal is that whenever I change something, even as minor as a Quote of the Day change, I will also update this little tag, which will let you see at a glance if there's anything new on the site. I'm hoping it proves helpful.
And now, with my semester (for all practical purposes) complete, I am going to take a long, triumphant sleep. Well, right up until 11:00, when I will get up for our basketball game.
December 16, 2003 - I love finals week Why do I love finals week, you ask? Hmm, maybe it has something to do with me having only two tests. Or maybe it's that I'm not studying for either of them. Perhaps it's finally sleeping for more than eight hours multiple nights in a row. Or it could be the twenty-five-plus hours of Final Fantasy 7 I have played since Friday afternoon. You pick; they're all equally good to me.
Speaking of, one final is in the bag. I took Computer Engineering this morning at the unholy time of 7:30, and while it wasn't exceptional, it wasn't terrible either. I'm glad I didn't spend any time studying for it, though, since it's one of those tests where no matter how much you studied, it really wouldn't have helped. Oh, and it was also awesome how for a comprehensive exam, there was exactly one question on material from the first two-thirds of the year. Next up is Computer Science tomorrow at 7:00 PM, and then I am officially on cruise control until mid-January.
So to celebrate being half-done with finals, I did some 'routine maintenance', if you will, around here. I tweaked the logo in the corner; now the What's New tag gets updated correctly. I made some new graphics (finally!) for the curves, so the sinuous black line that's on every page looks much smoother now. I redid the line itself, also, turning it into a border-line instead of an image. And I made the titles of the gaming, QOTD, and individual photo scripts reflect their content.
So enjoy the new smoothness of the site, and I hope everyone's week is going well!
December 18, 2003 - Done and finished Ohh yes, I am done. Took my last final last night, and it went about like the other one - averagely (?), but since there were 120 points and the test is out of 100, I am not concerned. So as of last night at 8:30 PM, I am offically done. Among other things, this means: - No more English classes, ever.
- No more EE classes, ever.
- Five days of complete freedom await me.
- I still hate CS 311, even though I am done with it.
I cannot describe how great it feels to be done with this semester. Given next semester's much better schedule, I'm thinking that it's going to be a much better semester than this one has been. 19 credits notwithstanding, of course.
Anyhow, I am much looking forward to the relaxation and video games that will comprise this break. Props in advance to Bert and Jody for hosting New Year's at UIUC.
Oh yeah, nearly forgot the awesome story of last night. So, since spring of 2002, it has been a tradition that King (my Computer Engineering lab partner), his roommate Plummer, and I go to Perkins at 4AM sometime during finals week, then ride back with our heads out the window. How this originated is shrouded in mystery, or I can't remember; one of the two. Anyhow, so we went on this adventure last night. We're driving back, and we realize we've lost Plummer, who is driving his own car. Since it's about 5:30 AM, we stop in the middle of the road to wait for him. A car comes from behind, so King starts moving again and I stick my head out the window and start yelling and waving my arms and stuff... As a minivan driven by a seventy-year-old man drives by, looking at me like I'm the craziest thing he has ever seen. We, of course, stop again to wait for Plummer, and as I watch the minivan, he's still looking at us in his rearview mirror as he drives, not paying attention to the road, and he hits the curb and halfway drives into a snowbank on the right side of the road! No harm done though, as he kept right on going.
Later on, I still have my head out the window of the back seat of King's Cavalier, and he's driving with his head out the window. He realizes he can't see anything and tries to come back into the car. On his way in, he bumps the steering wheel,and we go into a very nice slide. It takes him a couple hundred feet to correct it and stop, during which time we were going all over the four-lane road, and nearly hit Plummer stopped at the light ahead of us. Awesome times!
Pictures forthcoming.
December 24, 2003 - Merry Christmas No matter how much it doesn't feel like it, I suppose Christmas is here nonetheless. Here's wishing the best to everyone!
The last several days in Ames rocked. Huge props to Eric for turning 21 on Saturday night! An extremely good time was had by all.
We switched apartments on Monday into Tuesday, now having a four-bedroom setup instead of a two-bedroom. The rest of the apartment is laid out very similarly, though. Pictures will be up once I return.
Oh, and returning implies I am gone, so I suppose I should mention that I am back at home right now, until sometime in early-ish January. So, if you are also home and know of anything happening, be sure to let me know... until then, it's going to be sleep, video games, and maybe a bit of work (!) for a couple of weeks. Awesome.
As for pictures of the crazy Perkins story from the last update... Check out Plummer and myself as we hang out of the windows.
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