Starting Jan 5th

I just got a email from my boss in India (no, I am not going to be working there, she's just visiting family), and everything is a go for Jan 5th. Yay!

Okay, back to cleaning now...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Well, maybe for a BC Christmas... I can't believe how much rain we got! I would have much rather to have gotten snow, but that's just me. It would have made for crappy weather, but if you don't have to travel, I think that's great for Christmas. Just sit around and enjoy the snow and some hot chocolate.

I think that school now is finally, finally done. *knock on wood* Now on to the next great adventure.

I think that this is a time for reflection. There are many things in my life that I would have liked to have done differently, different paths to have taken. But looking at things as they are today, I am really happy with where I am. Now just to enjoy the ride. ;-)

Listening to: Moxy Fr¸vous - hugeluge

SIN is a good sign?

Today my "work" called asking for my SIN number. I was asleep, so I just returned the call and it went directly to voice mail where I left the number and asked to be called back. No one called. So I don't know if that's a good sign or not. Do they want my SIN number just for putting me on file, or does that mean that I am going to start in January?

It looks like SEG 4100 is finally done... no one has time to work on it anymore, and I don't think that anyone wants to anyways. I know that I don't want to spend any more time on it if I don't have to...

Karen pointed me to an additive game from Ryan's site. Karen was actually using strategy, but I found that brute force seems to work quite well... I think that I had 135k score on my first try... I had 12 lines left of level 9. It just started to go too fast...

On another note, if you want to see something really funny and offensive, I found just what you are looking for. Just make sure that your speakers are on and you are ready for a laugh.

Now I just have to get ready for Christmas eve... I'm really excited about this Christmas for a number of reasons... ;-)

Listening to: Jive Bunny - Swing The Mood

Buttoned down and did it.

I finally buttoned down and worked on school stuff that's due at the end of the month. Seesh. You'd have thought that I'd be able to get it done before this, but I think that I really need a deadline to drive me. Sad really, but it's true. So I had to pretend that tonight was the only night that I can work on this (which might be true), so I got it done. *knock on wood*. Now all I have to do is do my Christmas shopping... but that's what tomorrow is for. ;-)

Listening to: Philip Glass - Vessels

ag·gra·vate

Apparently I am the defination of aggravating, acording to my mom at least. My sister was asking what it meant, and my mom's defination included me. Ah well. But I am only aggravating to my little sister, so it's all good. ;-)

Not too much new on my front right now... just working on some Christmas gifts (which I will talk about after they have been given out), cleaning my room, etc. I really wish that I had kept my room more clean durring school. At least that way it would not be such a job doing it. Or maybe just dust it more. I want one of those Tim Allen Man Bedrooms where it would be self cleaning. That would be sweet...

There is a bunch of things on my todo list, but I have not really touched them since 4100 is still hanging over my head. Tonight it the night that I have to get it done or I am sure that people will beat me with a stick, and I'll deserve it. One of the things that I want to do is finally get my Linux box up and working with Peter's help... that's something to do in the new year. That way I'll be able to finally get some of the things that I want: dev box with CVS, something that I can put a dev web server on, have it as a file server, and generally play around with Linux. I'd put an external web / ftp access, but there isn't any point right now while still on dial-up. One day I will have fast access, oh yes, one day...

Listening to: Teitur - To meet you

Cold that cures cancer?

I thought that this article was really interesting. Taking something that many people hate, and using it to fight cancer. Talk about using only your powers for good... wow.

Speaking of powers of good and evil, I saw LotR - Return of the King. As expected, it was great. I won't say too much other than it was more than worth it just seeing it for the visual effects, which were mind blowing. And sometimes they didn't follow the book as closely that I remember, but I have have to keep on reminding myself that it is just an interperation of the book, not the book itself. And there were some things that I took for granted, but had to explain to others who had not finished reading the book yet *cough* Karen *cough*. Easily worth the money. My only complaint was that is was so frigging long... when the dvd extended edition comes out, I think that they will have to put the movie on 3 disks so they can fit in all the different audio tracks. Good times, good times. ;-)

Listening to: Teitur - Let's go dancing

Job unsure (again)

Ya, it looks like my job might be up in the air again because of the new freeze on federal spending. I just hope that the project that I am is under the 5 M $ cut off wire. This will really make Christmas not as much fun if I don't know if I have a job again. And my contact is on vacation till like the 28th of December. Maybe it was all in the plans before the cut was announced, so maybe it's okay. Maybe.

On another note, today Lord of the Rings - Return of the King opens today. Yay! I've been trying to avoid reading about it, and I didn't even buy the sound track yet. I want it to be "just the movie" experience, no songs in my head before I get in there, no reviews in my head, just a blank slate. I figure that I can do that for exams, so how hard should a movie be? ;-)

One thing that has annoyed me is a website that I wanted to check out. It's Teitur.com. I really like his music, but the site is all pop-ups, flash, and badly done at that. Some times I just want to smack people who make pages like that upside the head. Sheesh. Why can't you just pass the user html? It look me a while to figure out that I had to allow pop-ups to see anything. That didn't make me happy. Ah well. At least he has great music. (and LotR's is today!!!! ;-) )

Listening to: Teitur - Rough Around the Edges

M.C.

Apparently what I am suffering from is commonly known as a "Man Cold" (MC). This virus or whatever has the ability of making any adult male act like a little child. Common phrases include: "ugg, it hurts", "wimper", and "could you please get me something so I don't hurt so much?". Doctors are currently looking into cures, but at this time no progress has been made.

On a different note, I know know what I want for Christmas! My very own DNA sequencer!! And for like 80$ american too. I found this really surprising. Has our technology advanced that fast in short a time that they are now kids toys? Sort of scary, and sort of cool at the same time. I think that this would have been a kick-ass thing to have in highschool bio class. Something that was only dreamed of in some labs like 10 years ago, and now it's a kids toy...

I think that I am going to stop using google.ca and start using google's Swedish Chief search page. I mean, how cool is that?

Listening to: Sam Roberts - On The Run

Communication is key (again)

I was talking about communication skills before, and today I am going to talk about presentations. For business students at U of O, they have to do a one credit presentation course, where the whole thing is they they just do about 2-3 presentations (in small groups), and get evaluated for that in a pass / fail way. I think that this would be wonderful for engineers and scientists to do.

For most of the science sort of fields, you will at one point have to present to your peers in a way that they understand. I've sat through some really bad presentations that my fellow students have done, and I have probably given a couple too. My biggest gripes are: way too long (20 min presentation that last 45 min); too much material (TONS of text on a slide); or just not clear. And this doesn't just apply to students, but professors as well.

The reason why I am going off on this today is because I was reading a post on slashdot about them blaming PowerPoint for bad presentations. Yes, I think that sometimes you are limited with what PowerPoint can do, but if you stick within what it was meant to do, you'll be okay. Like any other engineering field, you should the right tool for the job. So don't try and put a whole technical paper into a couple of slides, it just won't work. If the conclusion of the presentation is what it can cost people's lives, have this on one slide by itself in big bold capitical letters. PowerPoint is only to help you make your points, and have a visusal reminder of what you are going to talk about, it is not supposed to be the whole presentation in itself.

If people die because you made a shitty presentation, that's not the tools fault, it is yours.

Listening to: Naughty By Nature - OPP

12th month, 12th day, 12th hour and 12th minute ;-)

Yes, I actually left at 12 minutes after the hour. The exam was about as good as it was going to get, so that's cool with me. It's a pretty significant thing, but I still have a project due for 4100, so until that is done and dead, I am not totally free, but damn close. I can feel the sweet grass of freedom between my toes, but I have not hopped the fence.

James lent the prof his watch because apparently there is no clocks in the sports complex, and neither prof had a watch. I told the prof that a bunch of us were going to be at Zampub for drinks and he was welcome to join us, which he did. I think that was really cool to just sit and chill with a prof having drinks. Overall I think that the exam went well, so it was neither a bang or a wimper.

Even though the prof said that there would not be any info from the projects, there was some on Peter's and Kibee's, but that worked out since it was one of the few presentations that the whole class understood. And the only question that was asked in the review session was one the final.

I always feel like I owe people for helping me get through school. I really don't think that I could have done it by myself. I have no idea how anti-social people do it.

Listening to: Run, Lola, Run - Supermarket [Super Clemek Remix] (Clemek ft. ClÈ)

Now the question is...

The question that remains now is how will I end my undergrad when I write my last exam. Will I go out with a bang or a wimper? Only 18 hours will tell.

Listening to: Nelly Furtado - Baby Girls

It just felt wrong. :-(

It wasn't cheating, but it sure felt like it. I don't know how I felt about that exam. We just used the info that we got from both profs and put it together, it's not like we stole the exam or anything, or went to another one and get it and ran out of the room. Everything that we did was legit.

So why do I feel so bad? :-(

Listening to: The Tragically Hip - Bobcaygeon

*light bulb goes on*

I think that I just got it. Not that I have put too much thought into it in the past, but the thought just clicked. Creationists believe that humans have "instrinsic value" because they are humans. Okay, now I understand their argument better. Okay, back to studying...

Oh, and about 37 hours to go. Or 12 questions if you want to count it that way. ;-)

Listening to: The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night

2 down, 2 to go (59 hours and counting...)

One more hoop jumped through, one less thing in my way and keeping me from graduating. ;-) I just wish that it was a little earlier... getting home at 2335 is a bit too late... and I want to go in tomorrow to study and go to a special review section where we are supposed to have questions ready to ask the prof... but I doubt that anyone will have any. I don't. :-|

Thanks to Peter I have found the perfect gift for everyone this christmas... I mean, it lights up and everything! Who wouldn't want it!?! ;-)

Okay, off to bed for me...

Listening to: Space - Be There

definally not five nines

Sitting here in SITE with the internet going up and down all the time is very frustrating. I have a theory: that the wire is connected to the elevator, and it only works when the elevator is on the third floor. That seems to be a logical explaination to me. :-)

I think that I should have brought a baseball hat today... with it being winter now the sun doesn't rise as high so there is a glare all the time. I am reduced to wearing my touque indoors just to try and shield my eyes somewhat so that I am not squinting all the time.

I've had a breakthrough: it's really hard to study for a class where there doesn't really seem to be right answers, and where the prof / TA can't seem to present answers in a way that makes lots of sense. I'm just going to do my best, but I'm not going to stress if I can't get things... I am looking for the "sweet spot" of the quality for my final. ;-) See! I did learn something in that class! (... that I already knew...)

Listening to: Space - There's No You

Avoiding school work...

Ya, I know, I am doing it again. Still. But how easy is it to avoid doing actual studing? Very.

I was reading the lastest on kibbee's site and thought that *I* had also wanted to talk about Love Actually the other day. I saw this with Laura and it was great. I would say that it is a "chick flick", but not like Bridget Jones is a chick flick... I think that the ottawa film thing describes it best. It got a kibbee 2 thumbs up, and I'll give it the same rating. ;-)

I found a good article the other day about Arthur C. Clarke. I find his thoughts really interesting because he seems to see possibilities before others do. He was one of the first sci-fi writters that really brought me into that type of book. His books usually are more about the science than fiction. No space operas. No cheesy stories, even though I was really disappointed in 3001. I guess that he isn't on top of his game anymore... that sometimes happens when you hit your 80's. :-|

Listening to: Space - We Gotta Get Out Of This Place

One down, 3 to go.

Now let us never speak of that again. One more exam done, 3 to go. Yay! I just need to be more worried about these so that I can actually be modivated enough to study. But Laura pointed out, this was the first of the last exams that I will have to write. That's mostly true. I think that in 12 months I'll try and write the PPE exam for peo. We'll see. ;-)

Listening to: Our Lady Peace - Are You Sad?

Bad info or no info

There was a thread on slashdot the other day (can't find it now) where one of the people commented about whether it is better to have a stopped watch or a slow watch: bad info or no info. This reminded me of something that the 4100 prof talked about with making sure that your process is "in control".

If your watch is inaccurate + - something, than you at least have an idea of how you are doing. Otherwise you are just guessing. Or if it is consistantly slow, you can compensate for that. Otherwise you are just guessing. I guess that it just depends on how much + - your measurements are off.

What happens if you don't have any info? Does that just mean that you work really hard out of fear? Like if the school never told us our grades, would be work harder because we didn't have a clue, compared to getting back 90's all the time and stopping trying? (well, I stop trying, others do not). This is something that I will have to ponder some more.

Listening to: Madonna & Mirwais - Paradise (Angel & Fabian Mix)

Writters block

Ever have a case of writters block? I get it a lot... especially when I have long assignments to do. I don't know what it is, I just can't seem to get my mind around them, no matter how much I want to. What does this mean? Usually that I hide from IM while I try and get my thoughts down, but more importantly that my group members get mad at me. Or maybe just annoyed, I'm not sure.

And it's stupid too because I was the one pushing to get it done early... *sigh* I blame it on me being lazy and having no modivation right now. And it's not really like I am doing anything productive either, which really doesn't help too much. Maybe if I just sleep for a week, it'll all go away. Maybe not. Almost there though... this is the home stretch.

Listening to: Clash - Rock the casbah

Design for maintance too.

After working on my car to get the windshield juicer working again, one of the things that has struck me is that my car isn't designed for maintance. Sure, it's easy to change the lights (tail, turn indicators, ...), but other things are not so easy.

Okay, let me tell you what happened. The other day on my drive in the juicer wasn't working, so on my way home (after letting it sit in the sun all day), I got some -40 juice from crappy tire and filled it up. Still didn't work. I was scared now 'cause I didn't want to replace another part on my car.

So I figured that it wasn't the sprayers that were having trouble, and the motor seemed like it was working, but I couldn't see the container or the pump because they (brilliantly) placed it over the wheel well, and behind the compartment on the car. To change / work on it, you have to take 1) take the tire off, and 2) take the wheel well out. Wonderful. Luckly we were able to just get a hose and pour hot water in it for like 5 minutes till whatever was frozen thawed. Note: start putting blue fluid in your car in September. I'm just lucky that it didn't crack anything. So after that we flushed it out and filled it up again with more -40 juice and everything should be good to go.*knock on wood*

Long story short, I was annoyed at the possibility of having to take apart the front end of my car to fix something stupid. If people are designing systems, they should have maintance in the back of their mind, because systems will always need it, not matter how well you build it. This is another thing that should be kept in mind with software, as well as with other engineering. Mind you, it's harder to think of an example where you have to take apart 1/2 of the system to fix some code, but I am sure that it exists somewhere. ;-)

Listening to: John Fogerty - Centerfield

Validate the input

One of the things that we seemed to have been doing with AudioMan is checking the inputs for functions too much. This might have been a lot of redundant checks, and maybe made the software sighly slower, but I think that this is a good thing. I was talking to my dad the other day about some software that he has to deal with. It's an app written in VB that stores the data in a database, and I don't really have a high opinion of it. Neither does my dad.

One of the things that we was telling me yesterday is about some (all actually) of the input fields. Lets say they allow you to enter in 30 characters. You hit submit. You get a database error. huh? What did you do wrong? Well, max allowed field in the DB is 15. So, they don't do any checking for things like that. I am sure that they don't look for special characters (ctrl-D, ...) or things like that. He was also telling me about how they have double quotes " in the database, but that screws things up because that's a special character for SQL (if I remember correctly). Yikes.

So, your software might work correctly with "good data", but if you don't even check with for bad data, you'll end up having to deal with it no matter what. This is really bad. There are other horror stories, but this is all about checking out the input. I'd give the company some leeway about this, but they are on release 7. There is no excuse for that. They are giving software a bad name, but that is where I think the industry is coming from right now. It's our job to change that.

Listening to: Quartetto Gelato - Espagna Capriccioso

Iron Ring pics and No "door"

Just to clear things up, when I said that I had a "door" in my last post, it's an imaginary door. Just an opening in my cube. But I DO have four walls, which I have not really had before. They are actually going to encourage pair-programming so it's good that the cube isn't tiny... but I don't know if that means I have to move my computer to a straight part of my desk.

As for iron ring pics, I have posted some quickly, and I left them all in... bad pictures and everything... It's just a dir listing now, but I'll make a page later when I am less lazy. Or, if other ppl have some software and would like to do it for me, please go ahead. Note: if you like these pics, you had better get them soon off of this... I am sure that the school will kill my account soon.

Listening to: Philip Glass - The Grid

Everything is an emergancy

I find that during school, with the short schedules always given for what can seem like a lot of work, after 4.5 years of school I think that I need things to be an emergancy for me to work on them. I find it SO much harder to work on things and get them done like a week in advance. Sometimes it doesn't help me that the prof's keep on extending the due dates. Maybe this is just an exercise on modivating myself... probably not.

On another note, I mentioned yesterday that I went into work and saw everyone, including my cube. And it's HUGE. And the place seems quiet. It sure will be nice not bumping chairs with people all the time. Even though my cube is on a corner, it doesn't seem like a busy place, and the "door" is a bit away from my desk. I really like the position of it. I won't feel so guilty when I am reading slashdot because people won't be reading over my shoulder. But I'll still take in music to block out people's conversations and make some white noise. ;-)

Listening to: Philip Glass - Resource

Not just about experience, but communication

After going in to work today to meet the team (who all seem to be wonderful), I found something really surprising. I was told that I "beat out some stiff compantition" the other day. I didn't know that I beat out people with a lot of experience, as much as 14 years. Yikes. It's gotta be pretty tough out there if someone with 14 years experience is going for a junior developer role.

I was told that the thing that got me the job was how much they judged I would fit into the team, but most importantly how when my non-technical interviewer asked me to explain a technical concept, I did it in terms she understood. I keep on hearing that communication and how you work in a team are the key things that bosses look for. It still surprises me everytime. (as a side note, Andrew found a great article to read about communication in the work place)

Listening to: Moxy Fr¸vous - sjohnson

Woo-freaking-hoo

I kicked ass. Yeppers. Ahh, happy day. Now, to recap: in the last four days I 1) Got my iron ring; 2) I became an uncle for another child; and 3) I got a job today. Yay!

Tomorrow I am going to go "see the team" and I guess fill out paper work @ 1400. I start on Jan 5th as a CS-01 at Industy Canada. I might be able to find a different job, but I'd rather get one now an get more experience. I guess in a month it'll be time to update my resumé again. ;-) Yay! Now I can feel better about buying christmas gifts and not worry about totally running out of money.

I am happier about this position after meeting the lead developer. She's really into XP and I'll be doing J2EE using tools like ant and WSAD and some rational tools (read: IBM). I think that it will be good experience for me. Now all I have to do is start saving more money...

Currently I think that it will be a contract for 3 months to end of fisical year (March 31st), with an extension after. I guess it will depend on how much they like me. We'll see. Now all I have to do is just learn what the hell J2EE is.... ;-)

Nicole Olivia Sellers

I'm very happy to announce that birth of Nicole Olivia Sellers. I hope that I have the details correct, but she was born at 1340h yesterday (Nov 29th) and weighed 8 lb 7 oz. Mother and baby are doing well. Adam and Sheryl have asked me to be the god father for this child as well. Yay! ;-)

I believe that brings the kid count up to 4 in 23 months (2 each brther). I have a feeling that there will be a pause now. But the kids are a lot of fun. ;-)

The middle name is after my grandmother Olive, and I think that my grandmother is very happy with that. There always was some tension between Sheryl and my grandmother, so maybe this will help bring things closer. We'll see. I'm just very happy for my bother and Sheryl.

Listening to: Bif Naked - Lucky

Lots of news

I was going to use as a title all of the things that has happened in the last few days, but I have decided to split it up into 2 posts, and there is still too much to say for this one.

1) Note: when going to a job interview and you are going to ride the bus, it's a good idea to bring your wallet that contains all your money, bus pass, bus tickets, ... *sigh* Yes, so the day that I am going to a job interview and do iron ring, I forgot my wallet. That also contained our iron ring tickets. I had to beg people at the park-n-ride to get tickets to get downtown 'cause I couldn't possibly go home and get downtown the the time that I needed to get there. I'm glad that there are some pople that carry tickets and are really nice. (I wasn't going to ask for money)

2) My interview went okay. I am still disappointed that they are even interviewing people instead of just giving me the job, but I guess they have to look out for themselves too. Thanks everyone for your support. I should hear back by the end of next week (right before exams). :-|

3) Robots demo went okay. The thing sort of worked when the TA watched. I think that there is a universal rule that if there is the tinyest possibility of something screwing up, it's going to be when you demo it.

4) Iron ring went okay. It was lots of fun, and I am really glad that I have reached this milestone. I think that it will be harder for software engineers to gain as much credibility as the other engineers at first, but eventually it will become the norm and just like you wouldn't build a bridge or engine without an engineer, you are not going to build software without one.

5) Eggs. Thrown from cars. At people walking down King Edward. Not cool. Some kids were doing that Friday night. I got hit in the arm, and the egg splattered over me and Laura. It's a good thing that my winter coat is so thick and my drunkeness also numbed any pain. I'm just glad that they didn't hit either of us in the face... that would have hurt a lot (espically since they were going like 60 kph toward us when they threw the egg). No harm done though, I just need to wash some clothes now. I know people do stupid stuff, but if you are going to throw eggs from cars, at least throw some bacon and toast too.... I mean really!

6) Not wanting to leave on that note, I just wanted to say that the party was great, and I'll be posting pics soon. Kibbee has posted some pics already, and there is a scarry close up of your's truely. I look trashed, but I am not...

Listening to: Starsailor - Good Souls

Things are looking up

Now that things are drawing to a close, things are looking brighter (even though it's night... I know...). I have an interview tomorrow with an updated resumé (thanks everyone); projects are being handed in, even if not done well, but done; it's my iron ring cermony tomorrow (interesting side article); and most importantly, I have found my watch. Yes, I had thought that I had actually lost something, but alas I did not. Yay!

I have a distinct feeling now that I have found something I am going to lose something now. Maybe just my sanity. Ah well... I wasn't using it anyways. ;-)

Listening to: The Tragically Hip - Freak Turbulence

oh-oh... is it really 80%?

I emailed my possible boss today to see what is happening about a job. She said "I am interviewing for the role of Junior developer"... she indicated before that she wasn't going to do interviews... *sigh* Maybe it's a really good thing that I am trying to keep my options open. I just don't like it when my "backup" becomes upsure. Not cool... ah well. I'll deal with it. :-|

My mom pointed out something. If I finish like 30 minutes early on my last exam I'll be done on the 12th hour of the 12th day of the 12th month. Weird. Will I call it "forgetence day"? (you know... 'cause I don't want to forget all the stress etc. from school...). I mean, what are the chances of that? Like 1/30? Woooah! (hee hee...)

I seem to be having a lot of trouble with my Tripod site lately... It sort of sucks too. I can't FTP in anymore either. For some reason the ls (or LIST) function doesn't work, I am getting proxy errors hitting the files in cgi-bin, ... I guess you get what you pay for eh?

Update: I have an interview on Friday at 9 am. (man, that's going to be a long day...)

Listening to: Collective Soul - Everything

Sometimes I just wonder

There are terms that are used all the time that may not be politically correct anymore. Including some that are used for computer hardware, but does that mean we should ban / change them? Maybe, but to me that is along the same lines as getting rid of knowledge. Do we want to forget what people are capable of doing to each other because it is offensive? Perhaps I am just not in the group of people that would (or should?) be offended, so I just just shut up. Shutting up now.

On a totally different note, if anyone finds a way to spell check text boxes in a browser, please let me know. I'm just too lazy to look right now. I guess I should start putting in the same amount of effort into blogging as I do as emailing. Ah well. :-|

Listening to: The Tragically Hip - Scared

I'm going to miss it, and I am not...

I'm sitting here in SITE thinking about in a little less than 3 weeks I should not really have to sit at school, eating pita pit, drinking Tim's coffee served by staff who are not happy about working, while waiting around for a class that I do not want to go to. And yet, I think that I will miss it. Weird eh? So much has happened to me in the last 4.5 years. Things have changed, and so have I. But, like most things, I still feel mostly the same. I am (hopefully) smarter and a little wiser, more open minded, more accepting. I don't know if I have reached all those goals. I know that my spelling isn't any better. I guess we all have to have those things that never change. ;-)

I really can't believe how much time has gone by. I remember like it was yesterday that I was still in elementary school, highschool, etc. Some people I don't talk to any more, others I am still in close contact with. It's all stages in life I guess. And the weirdest thing, people I know are getting married... people my age are "grown up". Does that mean that I am? Probably yes for the simple fact that I am asking myself that question, instead of being positive of the answer. The more I know, the less that I am sure of. Weird. Oh-oh, time for the class that I don't want to go to. I must say au revoir.

Still smiling

After a trip to the dental sergon I still have all of my teeth. "Painless dentistry" he called it. Painless except for the bill. Ah well. They want to pull my wisedom teeth, but not for 1.5-2 years. Which translates into they still want my money, but they don't need it right now. No, I'm not cynical....

There has been some debate over on kibbee's site about IP. Is stealing software wrong? Is stealing music wrong? Is stealing movies wrong? Is stealing books wrong? Yes. Is there a difference between downloading it and taking it out of a store? Not too much, other than the actual cost incurred by the person you are taking it from, but in theory it is the same. Does this mean that I don't download software, music or movies? No. (well, in thory I would if I had a highspeed connection). But I try not to.

I don't think that it matters *too* much if you do, or do not get property this way. As long as you recognize it for what it is: stealing IP. You can't say that you just steal this one type of IP because you feel that it is over priced, or that you don't use it that much, and that makes it okay. Right or wrong, I don't really care, as long as you call it what it is.

Maybe I totally misinterperated what Kibbee said, and it sort of set me off, but sometimes I just need to rant.

Can you spare some modivation sir?

One thing that I am sort of right now is modivation. I just can't seem to focus on getting my projects and assignments done. It's like pulling teeth, my own. I'll just have to imagine how hard that would be, but after watching Surivor with Tom Hanks, I can guess that it would hurt a lot. That, and I am a big wus.

However, after saying all that, I am going to try and knock off two assignments tonight: security and Parallel. If I can get those done, then I can work on my parallel project for the next couple of days when I don't have family obligations. We'll see how that goes. I'll I have to do now is get rid of this headache.

Listening to: Collective Soul - Collection Of Goods

I can't win

So, I have been having trouble getting to sleep till like 2-3 regularly (and sometimes 5) lately. My dad's big solution: get up earlier will make you more tired and go to sleep earlier. I don't like this for one reason: I get so much work done when everyone else is asleep and the house is so quiet. The dogs don't even bark at this time of day. So not getting to sleep till late has some drawbacks too, but whatever.

Today (I guess it was technically yesterday) I went to bed really early because I had a killer headache and didn't think that I could actually get anything worth while done. While this might have been a good idea at the time, it means that I only slept in to 0130. *sigh* I just can't seem to win.

On the plus side, the house is really quiet* and I'll probably be able to get some work done. (* -> quiet except for my dad's snoring... I got tired of listening to it, hence why I am on the computer now.)

Listening to: Village People - Kung-fu Fighting

About a week left

Yes, I am almost done. And as I think that everyone knows, I am *almost* there. So close... I can almost taste it... (it tastes sweet, with just a hint of lemon). It'll be good to not be in school anymore. I don't think that I will return. In fact, I mean not to.

I just have to get what is left now, a little here, a little there, and I should be home free. I really hope that it snows a lot after the 12th. Just so that I can sit around and enjoy the snow, enjoy the cleanness of it, the brightness, the coldness... I looked out my window this morning and had to make a conscience thought of whether it was spring or fall, because it could be either looking out the window. I knew at that point I should have just gotten back into bed 'cause my brain was only running on like 20%.

When it is all done, I'll have a chance to just read for a bit, just watch some movies, just sit around. Then I'll have to get a job before I am no longer able to make car payments anymore... I should work on my resumé, but I think that I am just going to go to bed (after I work on 4000).

Listening to: Semisonic - Chemistry

Last... midterm... EVER.

Well, having now said that, I am sure that I am going to get a TON of midterms at some future time now... sheesh. But, now that that's over with, now it's just 5 finals (and like 4 projects, 3+ assignments, ...). But small steps. Every thing I do, the closer I get to being finally done.

I love getting things in the mail. Sometimes I even like getting bills. Well, no, that's a lie. But I like opening envolupes. ;-) (and yes, I meant to speel it like that...) I guess that I should start sending more things by mail... other ppl probably like getting things like that. This year I am really going to try to send x-mas cards. Again. I think that I have a chance of getting it done this time though...

Thanks everyone for your feedback about my resumé. It's a great help. I will shortly be over hawling it... I got my dad to look at it, and he totally trashed it. I guess that he's seen a lot of them... I'll have to work with him and get some advice. I guess that it's better to get family to trash your stuff, rather than a potential employer. :-|

Listening to: Rage Against The Machine - I'm Housin'

Resumé

It's way past time that I get my resumé together. I have messed around with Word trying to get something that I like the look of, and I think that I haev finally found something. Could everyone do me a favour and check it out if you have time? I am giving up for tonight 'cause my brain is pretty burnt and Word isn't even able to give me suggestions anymore about how to make my sentences make sense (so I am blogging... hee hee...).

Anyways, check out my posted resumé and give yourself a laugh. Any and all suggestions are welcome. You can either post suggestions or email them to me. ;-) Thanks all. Off to bed for me now...

Update: I changed where my resumé is because Tripod checks the refer, so if you just click on the link, you can't get the doc.

Listening to: Joan Osborne - What if God Was One Of Us?

Two Towers - Extended ed.

Ya, you read that correctly. ;-) At home waiting for me is the boxed set of the LotR - Two Towers Extended ed. Oh ya. :-D And it has "43 minutes of new and extended scenes". Woo-freaking-hoo! But the thing is, I have not even gotten though the Fellowship ex. ed. yet... I will sure have a lot of movie watching to do after the 12th when I finish.

Now I just have to figure out how to get to bed with all this coffee sitting in my gut... *sigh*

Listening to: Johnny Favourite Swing Orchestra - Rootbeer & Licorice

Almost done...

I feel the end drawing near... school is almost done, the labs are closing out, and all we have left seem to be the big projects which are probably going to bite us in the ass. And for some strange reason, I feel like I was productive today because I got one assignment done. I haven't met other deadlines that I set out for myself... for some reason I just couldn't get the modivation up. I need days off once and and a while, and during school I never feel that I really have one off. At least this semister isn't so bad with only 5 courses... it's nice to go out gracefully, rather than with a bang.

The LotR - The Fellowship of the Ring is great. I was watching the extended version again after I watched The Secret of NYMH, which is another great movie. My sister didn't like it as much as Finding Nemo. Blah! I guess the kids of today don't appreachiate classics... Maybe one day she'll like it... some things you need time to really get, like Shakespeare or cottage cheese. (hahaha...)

Listening to: Bif Naked - Sophia

House 2, Trees 0

With all this crazy wind, trees are dropping around my house like flies. The one that we were really concerned about hitting the house has come down, and no damage to the house. In fact, I don't think that we would have been able to make it fall so perfectly if we tried, so I'm happy about that part. As I was in the bathroom I heard another *thump*, and the 20 foot bearch stump that we had holding the bird feeders has come down (and luckly it missed taking out the deck). Ah, more firewood than we know what to do with.

On the drive home I had the shear wind hitting my car sort of sideways, which not only makes it really hard to drive, but it also partially ripped off the heat shield that was between my exhaust and my gas tank. So, off to my brothers to fix that since my other bro. has taken all our ramps etc. That and the fact that my bro has a garage, which really helps in weather like this. Needless to say after all this I have parked my car in the meadow far away from most of the big scary trees.

Listening to: Underworld - Born Slippery

Look Ma! No cavities!

It's been a while (over 2.3 years) since I was last at the dentist. And by luck, nothing wrong. Well, almost. It looks like I have 2 wisdom teeth up, and 2 more on the way. One looks like it is coming in on an angle and it going to hit another tooth. I'll just have to watch. They are setting me up with a specialist and they are going to evaluate it then. If things need to get pulled, I'll either have to get it done after Dec. 12th (I don't want to be writting exams with a painful mouth), or I'll wait till I get a job that actually has benifits. That might be soon after I start, or late, I really don't know how that sort of thing works. I guess that I'll have to figure that out soon since I am almost totally "grown up". I think that I am, but while still living at my folks house, I still feel like a little kid somewhat.

On a different note, I saw a bunch of guys that I have have not seen at the dentist today. It's weird... I don't think that anyone really has changed too much. The guys seem to be still the same. I sort of wish that I had stayed in touch more with some people from highschool, but maybe it's good to just visit sometimes. ;-)

And everyone is talking about how everyone is getting married now... all the people that we know. I guess I am entering in that stage where all my friends are getting spouces instead of just getting boyfriends and girlfriends. Oie. Getting old now... I think that I'll go watch my new Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - Extended version. ;-) hee hee... so happy... ;-)

32 days to go!

It's one of the special days... only 32 days till I am done school (hopefully). Yay! Okay, that's it. I'm out.

Listening to: Presidents of the United States of America - Peaches

Ford Focus != 4x4

To those people that don't know, a Ford Focus is not a 4x4. Who knew? The problem started at the new Eagleson park in ride. It's very dark (at night ;-) ) because they don't have the lights hooked up yet. Well, as I was going to leave with Laura, I decided (I don't know why) that I wanted to go out the other enterence because I thought that it would be more direct. And here is the point of failure: I assumed that the walk ways at the new parking lot would be like the ones at the other. They are not. At the old one they are walk walks that you can easily drive over (I have seen many cops and others do this). At the new one they are not.

Not that would have been such a problem if I hadn't driven onto the freshly seeded mud. I would say ground, but it was just mud. About 8 inchs thick. My little car that was never meant to go off roading suck like a stone into this sticky, wet mud. *sigh* I tried to rock it out before I realized how bad it was, so I just dug myself in. I saw a small board around earlier so I went and got that to try and shove it under the wheel to get some trackion, but that didn't help.

SO, really embarrased and frustrated, I was thinking who in my family I should call. They'd all make fun of me, so it was just a question of who would make the least fun of me. As I was pondering this, a guy about our age pulled up in a Jeep Cherky and asked if we needed help. Apparently he could see the weird angle that I was at from driving by, so he stopped in to help.

I was very, very thankful for this guy. I didn't even have anything that I could be towed out with, but he had just bought a tow strap that day. Sweetness. It took about 3 seconds to pull me out, and that was that. I owe this guy a lot, and I doubt that I'll ever see him again. I guess that I'll just have to pay it forward.

Listening to: John Williams - Confrontation With Count Dooku

That hobbit sure can sing

Well, Laura and I thought that John Mayer looked like a hobbit (sort of) from where we were sitting. Our seats were pretty good if you ask me... nice and close on the side. I'm glad that we were not on the floor, or I'd be standing the whole time. Aside from being lazy and wanting to sit, concerts are one place where I am self-concious about my height. I feel like I am pissing off the people behind me 'cause "now they can't see because the tall guy stood up". I don't want to ruin anyone's concert experience, especially by getting in their line of sight.

The concert was excellent. I would easily go again. The opening act was wonderful. It was just some guy with a couple of guitires and something that looked like an acordian attached to a table. I can't remember his name, but if you know it, please post it in the comments... He had an album for sale, but as soon as it ended the whole place emptied out looking for it... they sold out before we were able to pick up a copy. He said that he would autograph it. I think that he'll be big, so I sort of regret not being able to get it (and signed). It's like seeing 4 guys playing on a roof called the beatles and just walking on 'cause you had somewhere you go... Most of the time you never know when you are in those "important" situations.

John Mayer was awesome. Hands done, no bs. They did solos where he was just playing is guitire for like 5 minutes in the middle of a song. Amazing. I think that the place should have been sold out, but it wasn't. Maybe next time.

Listening to: Robbie Williams - Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me

Ugg...

Threads in java were bad enough, but threads in C are horriable. But I don't think that I can blame it on doing threads, but I will blame it on the language itself. I am SO used to languages like Java that do all sorts of checking for you so that you don't do dumb stuff like exceed your array limits, over write memory of something else, or (AGG!!!) have things declared multiple times and it using the "wrong" one. Oie. I feel like crap doing it because I am totally hacking just to get it done. I don't think that I ever want to see this again. Oh, another thing that I am too used to is exceptions. I'd MUCH rather have an exception be thrown and possibly kill the app compared to having it just fail silently. Grrr... Maybe I just suck, but I totally do not agree with Joel about exceptions. Ah well.

I'll be posting some pictures of my halloween when I get them from my dad (note: one day I will have my own digital camera. It will be mine, oh yes my precious....). Peter showed me a pic of what Andrea looked like at his party. Cool!

I am really looking forward to this week. I seem to only have (right now) two assignments due Monday, with the rest of the week clear. Which is good because I am going to see John Mayer (I hate flash sites) on Tuesday, and see The Matrix on Thursday. I'm going to see it again with Laura (most likely, if she wants to go), so it's all good. I love seeing movies again, which is probably why I like buying them. Already I have planned to see LotR - Return of the King twice. Probably more. You never know... I'll be SO happy when I finish in like 39 days, I'll probably want to see it all the time. I think that for a Christmas gift, I am going to ask for The Fellowship extended edition... they cut out so much, and I want it all!..Bwahahahaha!!

Listening to: Portishead - It Could Be Sweet

me == dumb?

After just going over quickly some of my posts I have noticed a pattern. It looks like I don't proof read my stuff. I do most of the time though. It's just that when it is fresh in my head I can't see the errors. (let's not talk about spelling erros here). I guess that anyone that reads this thinks that it was written by a 10 year old. *sigh* I hope that the people that actually know me know that I am not a total idiot. Just partial.

Listening to: Zwan - Honestly

Halloween

Nothing warms the hearts of my family more than the screams of children on Halloween. As long as they are not too young. This year we had the party at my brother's place in Almonte and it was great. His street is really small (only 7 houses). Four had kick ass sets ups with grave yards, loud music, lots of lights, etc. My brother's neighbour is a DJ so he has all the cool toys, like a smoke machine, tons of flashing lights, great sound system, etc. The guy rented a bunch of scary movies this last week and mixed sounds from those. You should have heard the part of the T-Rex from Jurassic Park. It was great...

My brothers have finally done something that they have been talking about for like 10 years. They took the chain off the chain saw and ran around with it running like the chain saw masicare... SO funny. The only thing is that you have to make sure that there are not really young kids around when you do it. It was so good... he'd hid in the shadows and wait till after the kids got the candy and then scare them.

For a big part of the night Laura was maning the door while I was in the "jail" near the bottom of the stairs. Most people were looking at me as they got close to the door, but then they focused on candy. They did not see the foot peddle by my feet. Bawahahahah!! My brother was really smart. He took of lenght of pipe (about 4 feet) and put some holes in it and hooked it up to the air compressor. So when you hit the peddle the people get a blast of air. If this wasn't enough, they also hooked up the strobe to the same peddle. So you hit the peddle at the right spot, you get a blast of air and a bright flashing light in their face. hee hee... so much fun. SO many teenaged girls screamed. hee hee...

I think that the best part of the night was when like 3 ladies brought up their really small kids. When kids that small came I didn't do the light / air thing, and I took off my mask so that they wouldn't be scared. So the kids when up the stairs and one of the mothers stayed at the bottom. *evil laughter* I hit the peddle at that point I the lady jumped like a foot. I was killing myself laughing, and she was so-of laughing while she was embarrassed that I scared her. She walked over to me and smiled and muttered under her breath shithead. That made my day right there. Ah, I can't wait till next year...

Listening to: Massive Attack - One Love

Interesting wish list

I was just reading on slashdot about a NY Times article called Ideas Unlimited, Built to Order. They asked 11 people what they think would be the best technology to make / have. They got some interesting ideas, but my favourite is from Bill Joy. I'd love to be able block off background noise / other conversations. I'd actually be able to talk / interact with people who I want to in a noisy place rather than just smiling and nodding polietly because I have asked them to repeat something twice and I still couldn't hear them. I usually give up after 3 attempts at most. Most of the time I don't even bother asking once. And it would be great on the bus. While going to school I'd love to block out the annoying chatter of the 17 year olds on the bus. Some of them sound like their age is greater than their IQ, while they never shut up. *sigh*

It seems both of my assignments that were due this week have now been moved to Monday. That'll give me a chance to actually get them done. But somehow, my modivation is gone. I am doing everything half assed and I am still pulling off 80's and 90's. I think that my 4100 prof is correct: fear modivates best.

Well, even though I was bitching before about getting my engine light in my car turned off, my car seems to actually be running better. I guess that sensor actually did something. Today I got an oil chance, tomorrow it's snow tires. Almost 1000 $ in 3 days on my car. Yikes. I guess that's the cost of having a babe mobile (the third). I should go an carve a pumpkin with my sister now... Ah, I love Halloween...

Listening to: Moby - Sleep Alone

Engine light off = 450 $

To turn off an engine light on my car (only a warning one), it cost too much. To fix an o2 sensor too... yikes. I mean, what did this sensor ever do for me? Ah well. THe guys at the dealership pointed out that I need new tires. I knew this. I didn't know that I had a couple of nails in my tires. I think that they must have been there for a long time. Ah well. I think that an oil change somewhere and new tires at frisbee. Maybe. I have to call around and figure out where to get them.

I'm happy tonight because other than the extension to Monday that I got for my security class I also have my books from amazon now. One is a Java XP "cookbook" which seems to be all like "this is your problem, this is how you fix it". Nice. Not too much talk. Easy to find things later. I think that is something important for a tech book: small sections, really good index. Most of the time people don't want to read it like a novel, they just want to flip to a section to refresh their memory (until it gets stuck in there head). *sigh* Now I should get back to my parallel assignment.

Listening to: Soft Cell - Tainted love

I'm S-M-R-T! ;-)

It took me a big chunk of today, but I got the first part of my parallel assignment done. I posted it for those who know where to look. ;-) Anyways, there were two things that helped me get it done: 1) VIM (VI but better... I guess M == better?). I don't have the syntax highlighting working, but it bolds and underlines things, and it actually has code compleate. Yes, code compeate in ssh. I think it's christmas... and 2) The moment that I figured out that using message passing you don't to match blocking and non-blocking methods. You can use a non-blocking send with a blocking receive. Who knew? I don't remember the prof telling us. I don't think that he did. So if anyone wants to compare answers, don't tell me how you did it. I don't want to know. I don't want to work on it anymore.

I don't know if I want to go to bed now or start on the second part. I mean, how hard can writting a parallel program in C (over ssh) that uses threads be when you are tired? ;-P

Listening to: The Beatles - Any Time At All

(cookies && coke) != lunch

Apparently coke and cookies don't make (a good) lunch. I got in trouble about that today. Who knew? They cover all the (student) food groups: sugar, caffeine, chocolate, ... And they come in a form that can be served out of a machine. Speaking of machines, it seems that they have removed all the vending machines and microwave from SITE. Just when I think that they can't piss me off anymore, they find new ways to do it. Ah well. At least I am not stuck in CBY most of the time.

I am trying to figure out what to what to dress for Halloween this year at my brother's place in Almonte. Laura pointed me to a great site that has all these cheap and funny costume ideas. My favourites include a Software Pirate and the Partly Cloudy With A Chance of Showers. I think that the Deviled Egg is really cute, but I think that it is more of a "girl" costume (to be sexist). I think that the best would be the One Night Stand, but I am tired with costumes that I can't sit down in.

I figured out today that my parallel assignment is due on Thursday. I really have to start looking at my planner more. Something is going to come up and bite me in the ass. And you don't know how hard it is to do software engineering if you can't sit down... (because something bit you in the ass... now laugh. Please. Ah, nevermind...)

Listening to: Mussorgsky - Samuel Goldenberg & Schmuyle

Links, comics and books.

Some people don't think that there is too much hope for the high tech industry in Ottawa. I am not sure if this is true or not. I guess that this will mean even more people will try to get into the government then. Or switch to another industry. I hope that I'll be safe, but I am sure that things will work out in the end.

I read an funny comic today. I should probably put up a list of the comics that I read in case anyone is interested... maybe, maybe not. Peter suggested that I make a script / page that just collects all the emails. But I actually like to go to some of the pages to read the write ups, espically if they are web comics. Most of the commerical ones just print them. With thoses, it's pretty much like reading the news paper, but in colour and I get less ink on my hands. ;-)

The other day I bought a couple of books from amazon.ca. The first book is about JSP's, J2EE, etc. Stuff that I felt that I should have learned at my last co-op, but never really got the chance to since I was just doing text changes, mostly to properties files. The second I just thought would be interesting. O'Reilly books are usually pretty good, and this one had an okay pretty good rating, even though it was only by 7 people. And besides, this has a picture of a Buffalo on it! I mean, how could you not get that book! ;-)

Listening to: Howard Shore - The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers - Isengard Unleashed

80 % for sure

I had a conversation with one of the ladies that hired me for my last job. While I was there she moved departments, but was still in the same place. She's looking for a junor developer. Apparently they changed the rules in gov't. She will have to run a nation wide companition unless 1) The person being hired has graduated in the last 4 months 2) They have a degree in a applicable field (i.e. if I did Pol. Sci. I couldn't go for a Engineering job) and 3) that they have worked at the place before. Yay! I fit all three! ;-) The whole conversation was like "this is the job. Are you interested? Okay, I'll start the paper work then." Yay! ;-)

However, there are always things that come in the way. She has to get approval first. So she said that me getting this job was dependant on the budget, and she told me to keep looking, keep my options open.

The job sounded pretty good. There would be no maintenance. Yay!! It would be a really small team (jr. dev. (me), sen. dev., PM (her), a DB person and a part time UI person). J2EE stuff, web applications; the project starting from scratch. If I got hired I'd start as a CS-1, which is what I would expect in this market. If this works out, I should know in < a month. We'll see what happens.

Listening to: Bob Marley - Red Red Wine

One to go

Only one midterm to go now. Ever. Oh ya. I am pretty happy about that. It's Nov 18th, which really means that the prof doesn't understand the expression "mid term". Ah well. I think that sometimes he's a bit slow, he's had to use Excel too much. ;-) This is the same guy that gave us an extension 29 minutes after the assignment was due and the application locked us out. I sent off an email to him complaing about this. I was very, very mad at the time. I tried to word it to be nice though, and I think that the prof agreed because he wrote back (and this is the whole email): "well you try to be nice. A bonus is a good idea,". By the way, I love his email skills. I have not seen anything that beautifully written for a long time. *sniff*

I really love playing cribbage, but it is never one of the games on the computer. So I tried to find one somewhere, without too much success. I really would like a free one. So, I decided to look for an open source one to no avail. I found two projects, but they had not released any code. So then I thought "how to I learn best. By doing", so I decided to start programming a game for myself. I spent about an hour on it and made a couple classes. It'll be really done iteritively. Right now I am just working on doing the logic, and I am doing it in java with JUnit. I might have to switch later (depending what UI I want to put on it). I don't think that I'll do a Swing front end. Maybe SWT or XUL (if they can put Java as the back end). Or I might redo it in C#, but I'd have to get the env. for that first. But I don't really expect to work on it till Late December or January. I'll keep people posted and let you know what is happing if anyone is interested.

Listening to: Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams

Poop report?

Okay, I just can't believe this site. People actually have this domain? Yikes. And they have long discussions about poop? I am sure that I don't want to read any more. In case you are wondering how I got to that site in the first place, I was looking if anyone has fake puke / barf . Peter was telling me how he wanted to get some fake barf that looks like it has a text book in it and hand it in for the exam. I just thought that was really funny. What else do you do in your undergrad when you are at school other than spit back what the prof has said even if you know it to be wrong. Or, if you wanted to use another term than "wrong", we can say different. Like if in every other class that your students get taught, they use one definition, and in 4th year you tell them that it is actually something else. We are not actually apply what we "learn" in the class, we are just going to remember how to pass the exam, and then forget most of it. (mostly the dumb parts, the interesting / useful parts get remembered automatically).

-- Frustrated in Ottawa

Listening to: Survivor - Eye Of The Tiger

Web standards

I know web standards is sort of an oxymoron term. And I know the over used quote "What do I like about standards? That there is so many to choose from". Yes. Har har. Okay, my comment is how some people have set it so when you click on a link it opens a new window. I guess that they don't want you to actally leave their page. I am sure that lots of people love this. I don't. This pisses me off to no end. If I wanted to leave a window / tab open to your page, I'd have done it. Don't make decisions for me. I'm a big boy, really. I don't think that it will happen, but I'd love for pages to get a pass / fail rating from a UI perspective. And everyone would agree on this minimum standard. Even if it included not having spelling errors on your page (I know, I know...). Maybe if google and other search engines ranked you by how usable your site was, people would work harder at it rather than just throwing up crap html with the only critera is that it displays "okay" in IE or Mozilla. Even if there is a system config for this, I still don't think that designers should make that decision for the user. </rant>

I just bought the Two Towers (Special Edition) on dvd tonight. I was actually able to have the will power to hold off buying it (and getting the non-special edition) till now. I am impressed. Maybe it's cause every time I had a craving for Middle Earth I would just throw in the Fellowship of the Ring. Great movies, great books.

I wrote my Robotics midterm on Saturday. It was bad, bad, bad. Not only did I run out of time (as did most of the class), but I answered a question wrong because the prof changed the sub-scipt on a convention and I didn't notice. Yes, because I would normally notice it when you change the letters TRPY around (in a subscript!!). Riiiight. I think that was a dirty trick on the professors part. He should have highlighted it or something. Jerk.

Listening to: Moby - Into The Blue

Not a creature was stirring (because there was no coffee)

The night before my robotics midterm and I should be worried. I am not. Not because I don't have a reason to worry. I'm just not worrying. Let's see if I can sleep at all though, that'll be the real test.

I was happy to see that I am going to make more money than short people. I could use it too. I need a kayak. ;-) Some times I think that those studies are just full of crap though. I don't think that your height has to do with how much money you make anymore than this rock keeps away tigers...

One place I DO see computer software moving is being able to process tons and tons of text though text mining. I think that this will be good (and it's a logical step) to be able to find relivate info. Will google do this? Maybe one day.

Today I got an email from one of the ladies that hired me at my last co-op job. She says that there is an opening in January and she'd like to speak to me about it. Yay! ;-)

And in other news... I was happy to see that they made a sequal to a game that I really liked (playing the demo of). I always liked playing Max Payne (even though I never played the full game). I thought that the bullet time was SO cool, and it had a great dark, moody atmosphere to it, similar to Blade Runner. Which is another great movie. I think that it's based on a novel by Philip K. Dick who wrote short stories that the movies Minority Report and Total Recall. His stories are interesting if you get a chance to read them. I think the collection that I have has a forward that says something like "His stories are characterized by protagonists trying to do better, but almost always doing worse". Interesting and make you think kind of stories. I like Sci Fi. ;-)

Listening to: The Vapors - Turning Japanese

Different backgounds

I can't believe some of the knowledge that I have gotten in the last 4 (5?) years that I just take for granted. I was reading an article about Linus (thanks Ryan) and I was telling Heather about it. She had never even heard of Linux. Woah. Sometimes I just take it for granted that people are big nerds like me, who read slashdot 50 times a day (like keeping a tab open to it in mozilla and just hitting refresh). Does this mean that other people don't count in binary (or hex or oct, ...); think in logic controls (AND, OR, ...) and loop structures; and don't spend most of their free time in front of their computers? I guess that I am just an inside the box kind of guy now. I guess that's one thing about school, they take many different people and end up making them all the same (or damn close).

Listening to: 311 - Amber

Ugg...

Man oh man. I thought that I was so smart there for a second. In our 4th year project we use the Singleton pattern a lot for our code. For the data repository part we also use an interface. The things that implement the interface are singletons (and hence have a static method). Well, I tried to do a cool way to test against the interface, but alas, it cannot be so. Too bad, so sad. And I thought that I was doing a good job. There are other ways (other than cut and paste) that can be done, but we shall see about that. I don't think that I have enough brain power right now to be able to do it. Maybe tomorrow.

Today I wrote my first last midterm. First because it's the first this semister, last because this is my last semister. YAY me! ;-) And it appears that my exam schedule is again posted, and I should go done on the 12th. So that means that my count down has been revised. It looks like me missed another milestone (64 days to go), so I guess we will just have to party when there is 32 days to go. Yes, we are big nerds. ;-)

The wind has been really strong here. I am just glad that it is only rain (for like 5 days straight!) and not snow. Snow would make the driving impossible. As it was I almost got blown off the road (it felt like) at one point. I honestly don't remember ever driving in wind that strong before. It was pretty scary.

Okay, I was going to mention the thing about character sets by Joel that Ryan put in his media blog, but I am not going to. I am much too tired. ;-P

Listening to: Third Eye Blind - Semi-charmed Life

Loosing thoughts

It's really weird, but I think that I am getting dummer every day. I keep on having thoughts and thinking "oh! I must remember that!", but then 20 minutes later (or much less!) it is long gone. *sigh* Ah well. I guess this is one reason why I should make sure that I do lots of "thinking" all the time. Even do things like Math *gasp* just to keep my mind sharp.

I should be able to post some pictures from the weekend at the cottage when my dad gets them off the camera. I'll do that when I have a chance. As it is, I should be going to bed... my brain is a bit burnt, and I have to write a midterm tomorrow. Ah well. ;-)

Listening to: Dirty Vegas - The Brazilian

Troubles with sympatico to hotmail

Yes, as I am sure that you can see from the title, I am having troubles with sending people stuff from sympatico to hotmail accounts. Things are getting there a week late, if at all. I was being some messages from hotmail accounts that never got to me. Other people (like Heather) are having this trouble too, so it's not just me. I'll try and do hotmail to hotmail when I remember, but I am sure that I'll forget. This really sucks, and I have to complain to sympatico and find out what is happening, but I am sure that it'll just be hotmail's fault. ;-)

In other news the Sens won against Montreal last night. They are two of my favourite teams. Which is weird 'cause I don't really like the Leafs that much, and I spent over 1/2 of my life in TO (well, more or less TO). Ah well.

Apparently most people don't know about my school page (it's actual a tripod page where I keep all my school stuff). I guess if people actually read my blog, I should be nice and share things like kibbee. Espically after his last comment. I don't think that anyone cheats now (or I hope not), but we do definally share answers. Which, to some would be the same thing, but to me there is a big difference.

Heather has pointed out some of my spelling errors. That's one thing about a my blog, it's all about the creative spelling. "It is a poor man who can only find one way to spell a word". ;-) So, if you are getting annoyed about my spelling / typo's, that's unfortunate. I'll try my best, but I am not going to spell check everything. This is my creative outlet. ;-)

Listening to: Tragically Hip - The Dire Wolf

A pox on 4100!

It seems that the 4100 assignment has now been delayed till 2300 on the 11th. ;-) Yay! That means that I can put it off for a little while longer. Oh joy! But I still think that the whole class is dumb, but I'm not doing to get into that (again) right now.

The leaves are finally turning colour, and right when it got warm again. Excellent. Perfect for walks outside. I love the cruncyness under my feet as I walk. I think that Fall is the best season, even better than twinky season! ;-)

I have taken to counting again as a way to keep myself calm in class. About 2/3 though my parallel class I had to go get a coke 'cause I wanted to hit Mr. Obvious Man in the head. In case you didn't understand from his name, he litterly just repeats what the prof said, with a pretense that he has a question. The prof sort of sighs when the guy starts to talk. And there are only about 9-10 ppl that show up for the class too. Grrr...

Listening to: Moby - First Cool Hive

Modivation? Fear works best.

I have been trying to work on my SEG 4100 assignment now for about an hour and I have not written anything. I can't seem to actually modivate myself to get it done. Yesterday I wasn't having a problem because it was due today at noon, it has since been pushed back to Friday. I can't understand why I can't get things done early. Why? *sigh* Maybe because the course just seems like a big pile of crap.

The prof has just sent out an email (through WebCT, but let's not go there right now), telling us to buy the book before it gets sent back. It seems that almost no one has bought the book yet. Well, considering that he tries to go through about 150 ppt slides / 3 hour lecture, I am not going to go out and buy a 100 $ book. I have more than enough to read as it is. My brain is overloaded with this crap, and frankly I don't want to add any more anyways. The whole course seems outdated because he is baseing everything on the waterfall method. He keeps on talking about liklyhood of failure etc. And I am sure with most / many sw projects now, if you don't show progress, only documentation, you have a bigger chance of getting canceled. I'm not sure if I am all for XP, but at the very least do iteritve developement, seesh.

Listening to: Robbie Williams - Me And My Shadow

One down, 876,982,150,721 to go...

Well, one more assignment is done. Now I just have to start 4100. Oh well. Every assignment, every character that I type brings me closer to the other side, and at this point, for the first time ever, I truely feel that I am getting there. That I am almost done.

It seems that Peter is having troubles with Windows Explorer. I started it up, and it weighed in at just under 3 Mb. In about 6 minutes it has gained about a Mb, even though I have not touched it. I'll have to keep my eye on it. Maybe the solution to making my computer fast is just to close all MS products that I can. ;-)

Ryan has written about him getting people asking for his resume, which I think is damn cool. In this market, how many people can say that they are getting people that they have never even met ask them to send in their resume? Not me for one. Ryan said that he thought that it was cool that "recruiters use Google" to find people. I am not sure if this was stated in one of the emails, but I wonder if someone working on the team used one of the solutions that Ryan found and passed along the info to the HR person. Interesting... I guess that I'd have to write about technical stuff instead... Naaa... ;-)

Last Friday we handed in all the documentation for M4 for AudioMan, which is our fouth year project. We all hate doing documentation, but it forced us to take a look at our code for some things. We found several things that are not how we thought that our own stuff worked. Which shows how important customer tests are. Unit tests are not everything.

It looks like Thanksgiving is coming up this weekend. My brother and I were going to go to the cottage this Friday, but plans have been moved to Saturday early. My brother is usually at work by 4 am, so we are going to leave my house at 5 am. Oie. I usually come home at that time... I just hope that a hot shower and LOTS of coffee are going to be enough. And I hope that I have enough energy at the end of the weekend to study for all of the upcoming midterm....

Listening to: Space - Tin Planet - Fran in Japan

Almost there...

You know that you have been sitting in front of the computer for a while when you start hearing the same songs when you are listening to your mp3's on "random". Espically when you have like 2300+ songs in your playlist. Oie.

Well, Robotics was done yesterday (with a lot of help from Karen). The programming part of Parallel is done (thanks in a big part to Kibbee). Now all I have to do is finish off the written part of Parallel. Yay! Almost there. But then I have to start on the crazy assignment that our 4100 prof gave us. I emailed him as soon as I saw it because I have some questions about it, but he still has not gotten back to me. *sigh* And he gave us less than a week from when it was posted. Crazy! But whatever. I just need to do enough so that my grades don't drop too much.

This weekend coming up is Thanksgiving, and as always, it's going to be nuts. That and I have 2 midterms the next week, and one after that. Not too bad overall, but I don't know how well I am learning this material. In Parallel, a lot of the time I just sit there and don't have a freaking clue what's going on. We had a "surprise" quiz (it didn't get marked if you didn't want it to be), and I really had no freaking clue at all. If that had been the midterm, even with the redicious questions, I would have been screwed. Robotics on Friday was one of the first ones where thinge really sunk in. I'm pretty good with 3D, but some of the stuff just gives me a headache.

Oie. think that I should go to bed now... I don't do too well on 5 hours of sleep.

Listening to: Howard Shore - The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers - The Passage Of The Marshes

Exams: now you see them, now you don't

So, as it turns out, I don't really know when my exams are going to happen. They had it up on info web, then they took it down. Go figure. Af first when I saw it, it has Dec. 8, 9, 11, 12. (yes, 4 in five days). I know that isn't that bad, and many people are happy with that, but I am not to happy with it. I'd rather have at least a day between exams. More like 2. But, as my dad said, they will be the last exams that I will ever write. I think that he may be wrong, but I am sure that he is close. ;-)

I started to get really down today about everything closing in on me already, but then I got into my car on the way home the the CD that Laura made for me started playing that old song Don't Worry, Be Happy, and I went, ya, I should be. I have no reason NOT to be happy. I have food, a roof over my head, people that love me, and just about every convience there is. Some times I just forget just how lucky I am, and how most of the crap that I stress over every day is just that: crap. When I finish school, most of this will not matter. It won't matter if in a class I get 6 / 10 or 9.9 / 10. I'll sleep soundly either way. It surprises me just how often I lose sight of that. Don't sweat the petty things (and don't pet the sweaty things!)

Listening to: Ben Harper - Strawberry Fields

Grad photos

In case anyone cares, I have posted some of my grad photos. Yes, I look like a total tool, but I guess that's the way it is. But notice the RING. ;-) hee hee...

Listening to: Underworld - Why Why Why

Sunday already?!?

I just don't know how these things happen... somehow I have blown through the last 2 days like they were nothing. At this rate, the whole semister is just going to be a blur.

I finally downloaded bit torrent (which Peter has just mentioned) so that I could get the new Matrix trailer because when ever I tried to download it from the net, the server kept on killing my connection and Mozilla thought that the download was compleate. It seemed to work well, but I didn't like the client at all, so I ended up getting a new one. I think that it just has a different UI on it, and I think that I will be able to put the files together to get it to work. We'll see though.

I tried to help Liz with a scholarship application today, but I am not too sure just how much I helped... but it was another set of eyes, which I think is what she wanted. I hope so at any rate.

One of the coolest things that google does is that it is also a calculator. I saw this before on a slashdot thread. They used it for older conversions too... units that are pretty much in use anymore. So cool.

Listening to: Monolith - No One Lives Forever - Suisse Chalet

feeling the pre-crunch

Not that there has been anything due so far that has made me loose sleep, but I can see it coming. Five courses seemed like a blessing to me before, but I can tell that this is not going to be a cake walk. I had hoped that it would be, but looking back that was a false hope. But alas, there is only 88 days to go, so dispair not!

I got my grad photos done today... the girl taking them had me laughing. Not so much because she was really funny, but because the guys in front of me were. She puts on the iron ring for the photos, and when she did that to one of the guys that went before me, he said "I do". It really freaked her out. But I totally understand why he said it... it was really weird, but it felt right at the same time. Like I said, weird.

Laura ended up dropping by for a surprise visit today since she was on campus. There is nothing like a surprise visit to brighten up my day and generally make it nice. Ah, the weekend doesn't seem so far away anymore. ;-)

Listening to: David Usher - Black Black Heart Version 2

I'm in the dark here!

Well, not really. Only because I have a generator though. This is freaking annoying. 1/2 of Friday without power, most of Saturday, and today for about 3 hours (and counting). Thank goodness for laptop batteries and the generator. I think that that is one thing that I like about laptops, the lower power consumption. That and the LCD, but that is what most ppl are getting for desktops now-a-days. I can see it now, "In my day we had CRT monitors... 14" viewable, big as a beer fridge, and we were glad to have them!".

I think that this Birthday is one of the first that I am starting to feel older. More like an "adult". Maybe it comes from the fact that my friends are getting married, people are talking about buying houses, and talking about getting real jobs. That and I keep on having thoughts run though my head and I go "woah! That's an old-person though!". Weird. That and I seem to be able to fall asleep in mid-sentence now. I'm turning into my dad. Yikes.

Listening to: Rufus Wainright - Across the Universe

WebCT

One of my not so favourte sw programs is WebCT. I used it at Carleton, and now at U of O, and it seems okay, except for how people are using it. Every prof seems to use it in a different way, using different terms and key words. And what I don't like his having to "logout" between different courses in WebCT. How dumb is that? grrr...

I used it to submit my Security assignment. I am quite happy with the electonic submissions... no more going all the way into school just to drop off some paper. I hate killing trees, so this makes me happy. Plus, I bet that the profs can check for cheating a lot easier if it's all soft copy too. Humm....

I've been reading kibbee's blog a lot lately. It's pretty funny most of the time... but it makes me wonder, why do I like reading someone's thoughts in blog-based form rather than talking to them? It is because it can be better formed? Can it be because it is a snapshot of how they are feeling at the time? Or is it just because there doesn't seem to be as much social layers on it most of the time. I don't know. I think that this paragraph is more for me than anyone else.... ah well.

Well, I am going out with a bunch of ppl tomorrow for a drink downtown to celebrate me turning 23 on Sunday. I hear that this is the prime of my life. Prime. Get it? 23 is a prime number? Oh, that's the dummest joke ever, and I still love it. *happy sigh*

Listening to: John Williams - The Patriot Soundtrack - Ann and Gabriel

Kitchen counters suck.

Yes, you heard me. Kitchen counters suck. I am again helping my dad do a product reset for Belanger countertops. They are taking out some products that are not selling too well, and bring in some new colours. It's not how I want to spend my mornings this week, but that's the way things are going to be. It sucks 'cause he is getting me up at 5 am (yes, there is a 5 am now. Who knew?) so we can do it before many customers get to the store. *sigh* I just needed to bitch.

At least this isn't like last time where we started at closing time, and have to move a whole isle including moving all the steel. That time we had a team of about a dozen ppl though. This time it's just my old man and myself. One store down, like 4 to go.

Listening to: Starsailor - Tie Up My Hands

They've stopped laughing

It looks like scientists have stopped laughing at Clark's idea in Fountains of Paradise of building a space elevator. I think that most people loved this idea. Imagine, being able to go to space for about 100 $ / pound.

Currently, the cost of just putting something, anything, including fuel into orbit makes things really expensive. Too expensive for most things other than telecommunication or governments.

I think that this idea has caught the imagination of many other people, including Kim Robinson which had "Clarke elevators" in his (her?) Mars series (red, green, blue). One thing that was done durring a takeover / civial upheaval on Mars was they shot the elevator out of the sky... it's not like it can really dodge or anything. Well, when that thing would come done, it would wrap around the world several times, and lay destruction to anything in it's path. Not cool. That is definally something that would have to be seriously looked at when building something like that.

Some frontiers are still frontiers because of how inaccessable they are. This might just be the door opening that we need to be able to go beyond this rock.

Listening to: The Tragically Hip - Ahead By A Century

Good stuff.

I am happy to see that someone has decided to pay the 2000 $ settlement for file sharing against the 12 year old girl and her mother in public housing. RIAA must be pissed at who ever decided to do that... it has been such bad PR for them, it's not even funny. I think that it great that the P2P community has grabbed this and made it into good PR for themselves. The thing that really surprised me is that it says that she was only sharing 1000 songs, much less than I expected. That worries me 'cause I have many times that amount of music on my computer. Most has been ripped that I have purchased, but some has been, ahh, obtained in other ways. ;-)

Another story that has got me (and I am sure most of the city) pissed is a story about a guy who wanted a bear for a pet, and then kidnapped it from it's mother. He "wore it down" by repeatidly dunking it in water (read: drowning it) till it started to give up. Well, of course the bear was taken away from this nut job, and now released 60 km from where it last saw its mother. Now, most likely it will not surive. Stupid, stupid freaking people. AhhgghH!

Grrr...

Just a quick bitch. I am using trillian which I think is a great IM client. It has been in the "news" that microsoft (and MSN) are going to start blocking any IM clients that use the old protocol and third party ones too. And we have to update. Well, since I really like Trillian, I was getting a little worried 'cause I kept on checking out their main page, and there was no info about it at all. I checked the FAQ. No info. I figured that this would be a big concern for a lot more people other than myself, so I did a search of the forums, and I found that one of the developers has posted a fix. Well, this is great. Things look like they will work fine now. However, they provided really no instructions or anything, so you have a bunch of people that are trying to open a dll file with some application. Now, to me it seemed obvious what to do, but that is more than what the user should be expected to know. Users should not have to guess what to do, not matter how easy the change. And more to the fact, if you have some change that you have to search for through the forums, that just sucks and is poor business. Imagine if every software company only provided info on a forum. Imagine searching MS site for updates that are required to make the sw work? Grrr... it is just such an easy change for them to have done, but they were too lazy to do it. I am just not impressed with that practice at all.

Listening to: Guns N' Roses - Paradise City

Back to the grindstone

Well, it's back to classes. I have almost done a full week of school, and so far I have not resorted to drinking coke. And that's a good thing. I am sure that the time will come soon enough, but I am trying to hold it off. Of course there seem to be weaknesses with the classes... my robotics prof could be better. He keeps on turning down his mike and when I asked him on the first day to turn it up, his brilliant responce was "but I can hear me just fine". Yes, the man has a PhD. *sigh*

I was checking out the AudioMan page today and I think that Pete has done a really nice job. It's his prettyest site yet. If anyone wants to download a copy of the app and play around with it, please go ahead. I think that nightly builds will be coming soon to it. ;-)

I'm going to be going to a semi formal dinner / dance Friday at the NAC. It starts at 6, but I don't get out of class till like 5:20-5:30, so I will have to bring all my stuff and do a super man act just before I go. I have not been to something like this since first year... I just hope that I don't make too big a fool out of myself. Ah well.

They speak English!

Yay! It seems that all my profs (right now) speak passable English. Yay! That makes me happy now. That's always a big concern for me. And, I have learned that the exam schedule only goes to December 22rd, 2003, that means that I have been able to bump up the time line of when I am done school. I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel... I just hope that it's not the light of the oncoming train. ;-)

I went out to the Helsinki Lounge and Disco which was pretty good. Last time I was in there, it was a gay bar, so I am sort of glad that it's changed. Really cool place, but it was a bit expensive. Not somewhere you would go to get really drunk unless you had TONS of cash.

Tomorrow I should be going camping with Laura and her new med friends to Lac Phillippe which should be cool. I love camping... I just have to figure out what sort of food I will need to bring and what-not. I have a feeling that there will not be any boats that we can use at all though, which is a shame, but oh well. ;-)

Listening to: Hams Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard - All That Remains