Date: 2008-05-17 00:49 Subject: Shortness: Excitement and Disappointment Security: Public Tags: anime, boti, crap, manga

I know I'm a little late to the party (by about two months), but I just found out and my inner fanboy was squealing because Bee Train is making a Blade of the Immortal anime. But then I looked up some of the concept art and wow, Bee Train is really not doing Samura's manga justice by a long, long shot.

Date: 2008-03-07 09:58 Subject: I am an idiot Security: Public

It's been forever since I had a caffeinated beverage for any reason other than to support the two all-nighter's I've pulled so far this semester, so I guess it's no surprise that I forgot that Diet Pepsi was caffeinated and drank a ton of it around midnight.

So I pulled an all nighter again, but this time it was by accident and it's going to throw me off big time.

Date: 2008-02-14 11:44 Subject: Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Security: Public

Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni is supposed to be really good, but I only got through one episode before I couldn't stand it the last time I watched it. I have a pretty good idea what it's about, and I'm totally in the mood for something psycho, so I thought I'd give it another shot.

So. Moe-sounding voice actresses. Why the hell do they need to have moe voice actresses!? That's pretty much the entire reason I can't watch a lot of anime now, including Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. The super-girly high pitched squeaky "no one actually talks like this"/"I was molested as a child"/"only a pedophile could love me" voices that moe characters have annoys the shit out of me.

I guess it's not the end of the world. I could always just turn off the sound, since there are subtitles and stuff.

Date: 2008-02-14 01:29 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

I may be the only person in my LJ friends list celebrating as such, but just in case, Happy Singles Awareness Day.

Date: 2008-02-01 12:27 Subject: Surprisingly Busy Security: Public Tags: rambling, slice of life, tldr

So, it's 5 days in to school and I'm already behind on everything. My social life, my academic life, my professional life. I'm totally awesome at this 'life' thing. Fortunately I'm not *much* behind, though. *grin*

So what's going on? Frankly more than should be going on. I'm not going to bore with all the details. And I'm not even going to bore with some of the more interesting details *laugh*. For now, I'll just describe the 18 credit hours of classes that are keeping me so damn busy.

ENGL 391 - Advanced Exposition and Argumentation - Lots and lots of text reading, research, and writing in this class. It looks like it will be fun, though. Everyone in the class is willing to participate, and the teacher is enthusiastic about her subject. Our first paper is a restaurant review. Isn't that cool?

ENGL 371 - Intermediate Short Fiction - Unlike 271, 371 is a tiny class with only 16 people. I'm kind of on the outlying part socially, since at least half of my class, not including me, bonded in the winter session of 271. The net effect is that the class much more intimate and relaxed than 271 was.

CMSC 433 - Scripting Languages - Hood is not the worst professor I've had at UMBC. His style is the standard lecture-project-exam style that I've found unengaging in all my other CMSC courses, but he's a much better lecturer than many professors *coughYeshacough*. The course material itself looks pretty easy, since it seeks to give a baseline proficiency in scripting languages in which I am already baseline proficient. Ben, Ryan, Josh Bass, and Joey all somehow managed to land themselves in the class with me, so there's a good selection of friends for me to sit with *grin*.

CMSC 435 - Computer Graphics - Yeah, I already took this twice. This time I'm going to make sure I actually do the work. On time. I'll skip the praise for Olano, because as amazing as he is, I probably won't spend much time listening to him and more time just doing the projects.

CMSC 451 - Automata Theory - Since this came up a lot in 471 and 473, it'll be nice to get a better base in this theory. It also doesn't seem too hard. Yet. Probably never. The lecture isn't horrible, though I was shocked that Stephens uses overhead slides. ZOMG. I have to take notes!

CMSC 487 - Network Security - Fuck this class. No, really. I think the material of this course would be very good for me professionally, but to say that the professor was unengaging would be an understatement. I spent the class teaching myself cartoon anatomy and then promptly dropped the class...

...and went to CMSC 491W - Wearable Devices - ! Much more interesting to say the least. Anthony put it much better than I could right now. A very cool subject matter, though.

Date: 2007-12-05 10:47 Subject: Not actually true... Security: Public

I'm going to make an operating system and call it PotatOS.

Everyone will want to add the extra E to make it PotatOeS, but that would make them wrong, and I would make fun of them.

On the internet.

Date: 2007-10-26 05:01 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

I'm happy. For the weirdest reason. Because it's so improbable that I could fuck up my life any more than I already have that only thing I can do is maintain status quo or unfuck myself.

I just wrote all the crap I should do on my whiteboard in the sloppiest handwriting I could manage. The weird thing is, when I look at it that way, it seems so manageable! I'm hoping to erase everything on it by Sunday night.

Date: 2007-09-19 13:25 Subject: Pirates vs Ninjas Security: Public

Say what you like, but I don't think that Talk Like a Ninja Day would be as cool as Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Date: 2007-09-11 19:31 Subject: %#%^ Security: Public

I'm going absolutely stir crazy. The only visible evidence that I even have roommates is that I keep finding dirty dishes (sometimes my own dishes made dirty by roommates) left in the sink or on the counter, coleslaw rotting in the drain, full trash bags at my doorstep, and the constant stench of weed wafting from my roommate's door from his late night get-togethers that happen when I'm trying to sleep.

I'm getting seriously pissed. Maybe if I actually saw these guys, I'd at least be able to complain to them about it.

Date: 2007-09-11 10:02 Subject: Thoughts On Angel Season 1 Episode 13 Security: Public

While the cleavage-revealing chainmail bikini concept is unrealistic in that it offers poor protection against attacks, I think people may be underestimating the in-combat benefit of distracting males.

Date: 2007-09-01 14:47 Subject: $#%#$ Security: Public

Last spring I didn't get much biking done because I had a flat tire after my first ride on campus and I didn't really have the money to get the inner tube replaced. Yeah, I've been pretty poor.

So this summer I got my inner tube replaced finally, went riding a bit, no problems. Then first thing I do today is go out for a ride on campus. Everything seemed to be going really well until I noticed that my tire was going flat.

Goddamnit. I have to figure out if this is something that I'm running over on my route or if someone's going around and slashing tires or something. The biggest problem is that I can't think of any better routes that start on campus offhand, in terms of length and hilliness.

Date: 2007-08-25 02:43 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

Normally I check facebook... maybe once every fortnight? I don't know. Maybe just when I get email notifications of something, which isn't that often.

In the past few days I've been compulsively updating facebook for lack of anything better to do (that is to say, when I haven't been working or packing). I'm even responding to Wall messages! Goddamn! I *never* do that!

I think that just means that I'm ready for school to start so I can take back the pathetic excuse for my social life.

Date: 2007-08-20 01:03 Subject: San Francisco Security: Public

I've decided that you can gauge how hip a city is based on how many Thai restaurants you see while touring it. Makes sense, right? If you think about it, though, we should probably have some kind of function to balance the fact that the longer you stay in one place, the more Thai restaurants you'll see from merely having visited more parts of the town. Then again, the longer you stay in one place, the more of the same restaurants you'll see, so the number will assumably grow in a logarithmic fashion.

Here is my proposed formula, off the top of my head, somewhat arbitrarily:

(Number of Thai Restaurants Spotted) / ln(Hours Spent in City)

San Francisco so far earns approximately a 3.34 (11/ln(27)).

If anyone can think of a better logarithmic base, that would be supercool. Of course, I kind of like the idea of rounding off 3.34 to 3.33... and making SF the standard hipness against which all other cities are measured.

Date: 2007-07-19 14:09 Subject: Otakon Again Security: Public

I can't afford to park in baltimore, so I was wondering if there was anyone who needed a ride to Otakon and would be willing to split parking costs with me?

Date: 2007-07-18 12:35 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

Otakon starts in two days! I have an admission pass, but no other money left.

This may not be a good thing.

Date: 2007-07-10 04:19 Subject: I needed to write. Security: Public Tags: 5am, angsty, links, random

So I looked up passive aggression in Wikipedia. Because I vaguely knew what it is beforehand and I was starting to think that the term might apply to me. The first half that defined passive aggression didn't make a lot of sense to me. The second half that described symptoms was basically like a checklist of my life.

Oh. fuck.

So I decided that I need to write more. Even if it's angsty, even if it's boring, even if no one reads it. So expect more livejournal posts. I'll try to keep them short and to the point. I'm not really sure what this has to do with becoming less psycho, but it seems like a good idea.

Date: 2007-05-17 06:11 Subject: omgwtflivejournal Security: Public Location: bed Mood: bored Tags: 5am waxingpoetic

Yet again, I've left my livejournal fallow for far too long. The arrable soil contained herein spreads endless until the boundaries of the horizon. I will not plant seeds of rantiness and long-winded posts tonight. I'm just wondering if I'm the only one who will--for no reason whatsoever--stay up until godaweful times of "night" even knowing full well that I need to be awake in the morning?

So... if I can actually think of stuff to write, maybe I'll actually update this damnable thing in the near future.

Date: 2007-03-02 03:23 Subject: How did I not notice this? Security: Public

I just realized that in 20 hours and 36 minutes that I'm going to turn 22. I don't really have anything planned for my birthday on Saturday, but if anyone wants to pretend that going to see 300 next Friday is a celebration of my birthday that would be cool ^_^;;

On a side note, is anyone knowledgeable enough with the SWT library for Java to give me some help? I'm having a massive failure to understand how to use CTabFolders in GridLayouts and vice versa and how to position Label elements inside of any sort of Composite. Right now I have a psuedo-working absolute-position based system setup that ignores Layouts entirely and will probably break on window resizes.

( You probably don't want to see this ASCII diagram unless you know SWT )

Date: 2007-02-10 02:27 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public Location: Bed Mood: Drunk

It's probably a bad thing that I can't feel my toes. But all things considered, Kalin's party was a total blast! More on that.... probably never. If there is more, it'll be when I'm sober.

Date: 2007-02-04 04:22 Subject: College Scoreboard Security: Public Location: Couch Music: Air Conditioning Unit Tags: academic, lists, medium-angst

I'm one week into college. How is the semester going? Rather than rant at everyone and explore my inner feelings about my academic failure, let me throw this out as a first-week report card.

Sessions Skipped: 1 (Damn you Yesha, damn you Civ IV!)
Classes Added: 1 (Yay ANCS 201)
Classes Dropped: 1 (Boo 7:10pm-8:25pm classes)
Assigned Readings Skipped: 1 (Whoops)
Parties Attended: 0 ( :( )
Parties I Will Attend in the Future: 1 (Yay Kalin!)
Time Spent With My Roommates and Immediate Social Circle: Lots (You guys rock!)
Time Spent Outside My Immediate Social Circle: 0 (I want to see so many people I've practically not seen in the past 2 semesters :( )
New Friends: 0 (I need to expand my social life a bit, so this is kind of important)
Dates: 0 (Why did I even bother pointing this out when it's so obvious?)

So... I guess some of these numbers need to be higher and some of them need to be lower. But what I really want to see at the end of the semester is this:

Average Semester Grade Points: 4