This morning, at precisely 6am, my sleep was interrupted by a series of loud beeps. I was at first disoriented with respect to my environment, but when I regained my senses I assumed the beeping was coming from the garbage trucks that empty the dumpsters outside the apartment building. These garbage trucks are a menace. They come at all hours of day, sometimes twice a day, to empty the two dumpsters by my building. Two dumpsters that have never in the seven weeks I've been here been anywhee near half-full. And they come at all hours of the day, as early as seven in the morning and as late as 2 at night. But it wasn't the back-up alarm of the garbage trucks that woke me up this morning.

The garbage truck beeping is always accompanied by the loud, scratching sound made by the dumpster being dragged across the concrete, and that sound was thankfully absent. But the beeps went on and on. Much longer than the garbage truck beeps usually last. So I finally abandoned my cocoon of blankets and crawled out of bed to investigate the racket. As soon as I got out of my room and into the hall, I realized (as you have probbaly already done) exactly what it was. It was an alarm clock.

It was my roommate Scott's alarm clock. He had gone home the night before (he lives in St. Louis), but had apparently forgotten to turn off his alarm clock. (All of this begs the question, why was his alarm clock set to go off at 6am on a WEEKEND?) I tried to get into his room, but the door was locked. I was freezing cold, so I retreated to my bed to decide what to do next. My first idea was to wait it out. If alarm clocks were intelligent, they would shut themselves off after 15 or 20 minutes, since most people don't sleep through 15 or 20 minutes of loud, piercing beeps (with a few notable exceptions, of course). Then I remembered, alarm clocks aren't intelligent. So it was back to the drawing board.

The second course of action I thought of, and quickly discarded, was to break into Scott's room. As soon as I thought back to my last attempt to break into a room (last spring when I locked myself out of my room), I realized that I lacked the necesary skills to put that plan into motion. But then I had a brainstorm.

Out of the fog of my mind, I recalled seeing an electrical panel in the kitchen. So I again left the comfort of my bed and stumbled into the kitchen (remember, this thing started at 6am, and I was pretty tired). When I got to the kitchen, I looked around for the panel, and at first I had trouble fining it. I thought it was near the back of the room, by the microwave, but it was behind the kitchen table. Once I turned on the lights in the kitchen (another of my brilliant ideas), all of this became clear. So I walked over to it, dragged the table out of the way, and opened the panel. My initial plan had been to cycle through all the low watt circuit breakers (I assumed that the large ones were probably associated with the various kitchen appliances) until I found the one that shut the damn beeping up (you hadn't forgotten about the beeping, had you?). But when I opened up the box I discovered that all the circuit breakers were labelled, including two that said "BED RM RECP," which i interpreted to mean "Ben Room Receptacles." I flipped the first breaker with that label, and I was rewarded with blissful silence. I waited a full minute (out of respect for any computer equipment that might have been shutdown by my actions) and then turned the circuit back on. Again, silence.

I made my way back to my room, checked to see if my clock had lost the time (it hadn't), got back in bed, and went to sleep. Twenty-two minutes later, the garbage truck showed up.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 30 September 2001 at 4:12 PM

Like some other weblogers, I was at tonight's Ben Folds concert. It rocked. He opened by performing a lot of the songs from his new album, and then performed a mixture of new songs and Ben Folds Five songs during his encore. Don't tell anyone, but I stole a poster off the wall. I was going to try to get Ben to sign it, but I got cold waiting for him outside after the concert. And I lost my pen. So I went home.

Tomorrow I'm going tot the Rams game, which will make for a very exciting weekend, but also means that I won't have the chance to get much homework done.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 30 September 2001 at 1:27 AM

I'm tired, so a full-scale review of WILD will have to wait until later, but I will mention that the turnout was better than I expected. There was about 50% of the usual WILD crowd there, which isn't too bad considering the headliner band. Although I think most of the kids there were freshman, which makes sense when you think about it. Those who could get off campus did so, and the freshmen had nothing better to do than go to WILD.

The CEC shuts down during WILD, and that apparently means they turn off their web server. I wanted to work on some graphics tonight, but I can't get to the website to download the assignment. If it isn't back up tomorrow, I'm going to be pretty angry, because the assignment is due on Tuesday.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 29 September 2001 at 1:15 AM

WILD is tonight, but I don't think anyone is going to go. Especially since Reese is their headlining band and kegs have been banned. Who the hell is Reese? I've never heard of him. Team 31 (I would link to them, but they havn't changed their website since last spring) got in excess of $40,000 for this semester's WILD, and the best they can come up with is Reese? I wonder what is going to happen to the rest of their money.

(Also, if Reese is their top-billed band, and they don't have the security guys watching the kegs, why has the cost of a guest ticket gone from $10 to $15 this semester? I find it hard to believe that they have added expenses.)

michael thnks I should stop by WILD tonight and take a headcount, since no one will be there. I'm reluctant to do so, because I don't want to give the impression that I support any of the actions taken by Team 31 this semester, but maybe I'll go there to document the miserable failure that is the Fall 2001 WILD.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 28 September 2001 at 3:16 PM

I mentioned last weekend that Ben Folds was going to be here on Saturday. Today I got an email from a friend who wanted to go see him. This is awesome. If anyone else wants me to pick up a ticket for them, send me an email or IM tonight, because I'm going to the box office tomorrow morning to get the tickets. (Tickets are $20, and I expect to be reimbursed if I buy you a ticket. I'm not that nice.)

In other, not-so-great, news, we have to wait another week for the West Wing premiere. NBC delayed the show so Aaron Sorkin can add something about the WTC bombing to the plot of the opener. You should still watch the West Wing tonight, though. They're showing the show that got me hooked on the series, the first season Christmas show.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 26 September 2001 at 6:04 PM

I've been thinking about the scroll wheels on mice. It's cool that they scroll you along the y-axis, but I want to have more control. I wish doing something like right-clicking and scrolling moved you along the x-axis. And left-clicking and scrolling moved you along the z-axis. That would be cool.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 25 September 2001 at 9:38 AM

michael is upset because ab9online doesn't update anymore. He says ab9 is his favorite weblog, and he wishes Aaron would start posting again. I'm just upset that I have to keep looking up Latin phrases in google every time Aaron changes his splash page.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 25 September 2001 at 1:44 AM

I was going to post about the fact that I need to buy new shoes, but then nickd did that in much greater detail than I was planning on doing, so I'll have to talk about something else. I don't really have much else to talk about, so I'll just shower you with random thoughts, presented in bulleted format in order to look like this is a long and interesting post.

Yesterday, before heading to the riverboat to do some gambling, I watched some MTV2. They were showing an American Hi-Fi concert taped at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. If American Hi-Fi ever comes to St. Louis to do a show, I will not be attending. The lead singer managed to go through all the songs I saw him perform without managing to sing on key once. It was so bad that Chris and I spent most of the time he was on laughing. And we both own their CD, so you could probably classify us as American Hi-Fi fans.

After 13 hours in the CEC this weekend, I finished my graphics lab. It wasn't that bad, but things would have been a lot better if the handouts we'd been given in class had been correct. I've come to expect this in graphics, so i managed to work my way through it.

It's time for bed now, I think. Later.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 24 September 2001 at 12:44 AM

Tom Clancy wrote an interesting opinion piece for the Wall Stret Journal editorial page. It's worth reading the article in its entirety, but here's a short excerpt:

Terrorism is a political act, performed for political objectives. The general aim of terrorism is to force changes in the targeted society through the shock value of the crime committed. Therefore, if we make radical changes in how our country operates, the bad guys win. We do not want that to happen. Whoever planned this operation is watching us right now, and they are probably having a pretty good laugh. We can't stop that. What we can do is to maintain that which they most hate, which is a free society. We've worked too hard to become what we are, and we can't allow a few savages to change it for us.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Call it the law of unintended consequences. The intelligence community was successfully assaulted for actions taken under constitutionally mandated orders, and with nothing left to replace what was smashed, warnings we might have had to prevent this horrid event never came. Of course, neither I nor anyone else can prove that the warnings would have come, and I will not invoke the rhetoric of the political left on so sad an occasion as this.

But the next time America is in a fight, it is well to remember that tying one's own arm is unlikely to assist in preserving, protecting and defending what is ours.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 23 September 2001 at 11:02 AM

A busy day today. I spent seven hours in the CEC working on my graphics lab (it's only half done, so I have to go back tomorrow). Then I spent the evening at the President's Casino off of Laclede's Landing. I ended up down $2. I was $2 ahead, but got more nickels to play with while Chris and Bryan were spending the remains of their change. I lost all that money.

Ben Folds will be at The Pageant this Saturday. Anyone want to go?

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 23 September 2001 at 2:25 AM

Since I lacked any other television viewing choices for a good part of the evening tonight, I saw a bit of the tribute show that was on all the networks. (If you missed it, I think you can catch a webcast of it on http://www.tributetoheroes.org/.) There were some good moments, but I wasn't too impressed by the overall product. Rock isn't that impressive when the performers are trying to be muted and somber, which left their music feeling empty and emotionless. I guess they felt they needed to be restrained out of respect to all the atack victims, but it made the entire show feel. . . depressing, I guess; I can't really put my finger on the tone of the show.

Should I ever express a desire to hear Neal Young sing "Imagine," please hit me on the head. Hearing it once was plenty, I assure you.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 22 September 2001 at 12:58 AM

The TV listing in the paper today says that "The West Wing" and "Law & Order" are reruns this week. I will be upset if this is so, as I've been eagerly waiting for these shows to start.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 19 September 2001 at 2:57 PM

Tonight the season premieres of "The West Wing" and "Law & Order" are on. I expect that they will both be excellent shows, because there are a lot of unanswered questions floating around both shows. Will President Bartlett run for re-election? What will happen to the show now that he has announced to the country that he has MS? Who will replace Angie Harmon on "Law & Order?"

You should defineitely tune in tonight for these shows. They're on NBC at 8pm CDT.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 19 September 2001 at 11:02 AM

Further proof that cell phone use while bicycle riding is increasing (an email I received today):

i ask your forgiveness big D. the other day, when i read your post about cell phones and bikes, i thought... how dumb, i've never seen anyone on a bike using a cell phone at the same time. sure enough, walking to class today, i see some girl riding her bike and carrying on a conversation at the same time... i hate cell phones by the way. i will never own one.

polk

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 18 September 2001 at 9:55 PM

Just a day after I ordered it, my CDRW drive came in the mail today. It kicks ass. It used to take me 45 minutes or so to copy a CD. Now I do it about 5 minutes. I'm still waiting for the black bezel I ordered from ThorTek, but I'm hopinh it gets here tomorrow or Thursday. Before their website stopped responding, they claimed to have shipped it. I also oredered a black floppy drive from ThorTek. I find it amusing that the floppy drive was cheaper than the bezel for my CD drive. One of them actually does something, the other is just a piece of plastic.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 18 September 2001 at 9:46 PM

Well, I was right about my CDRW drive. I tried to burn a CD last night, and ended up wasting three CDR discs and crashing Win2k. That crash was the first time Windows 2000 has crashed on me in the two weeks or so that I've been using it. Anyway, to make a long story short, this morning I ordered a new CDRW drive from buy.com. I'm hoping it gets here soon, because I won't have time this weekend to install it. I have a graphics lab due on next Monday, so I'll be camped out in the CEC working on it all weekend.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 17 September 2001 at 3:54 PM

I think my CD burner may be broken. The audio CDs I burn with it have a lot of static, and when I try to rip CDs from it, it reports a huge number of errors and the ripping takes forever. I'm going to scout around on the Internet this week for a new burner. It needs to have a black bezel to match my case, which will probably limit my choices.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 17 September 2001 at 12:12 AM

There are so many things I could talk about today, but in an effort not to become very angry, I'll discuss one of the lighter items on my list. Cell phones. Or, more specificly, cell phones and bicycles. I've been noticing a trend as of late for people to be permanently attached to their cell phones. No matter where they are or what they're doing, some people seem to feel like they always need to be talking on their cell phones. (Disclosure: although no one knows it, I own a cell phone. It doesn't have any service, and the last time I tried to turn it on, it didn't work, but I do own a cell phone.) The newest trend seems to be riding a bike while talking on a cell phone. I first observed this phenomenon last summer, when I saw someone go biking through my neighborhood with a cell phone held up to her ear. At the time, I thought it was a fluke, since riding a bike with a phone in one hand is, in my opinion, slightly more difficult and dangerous than driving while using a cell phone. However, in the past week I have seen at least five people riding their bikes while talking on their cell phones.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not condeming the use of cell phones. Clearly, the events of the past week have shown how useful they can be. I'm just saying that there are times when their use is inappropriate and/or dangerous, and I think anytime you find yourself on a bike is one of those times.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 16 September 2001 at 11:41 PM

At Tropicana Lanes there was a junky pickup truck in the parking lot with an alarm. When you touched the truck, a voice said "Yo, I know you want to look inside, but I suggest that you just step away from the ride." That and the karaoke at Brentwood Lanes wre the highlights of my evening.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 16 September 2001 at 12:31 AM

Todd called them assholes. I agree.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 14 September 2001 at 7:55 PM

Did you know that Martin Sheen's real name is Ramon Estevez?

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 14 September 2001 at 7:29 PM

I want to buy some CDs today. During the summer, I averaged at least one CD per week, but recently I haven't bought any. All the CDs I play in my car are beginning to sound dated and boring. So tonight I'm going to go get some CDs. Maybe I'll even pick up a few things for the apartment while I'm out (a trashcan would be very nice, for instance).

Then I need to come back and get some homework done, because Saturday and Sunday are going to be pretty busy.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 14 September 2001 at 6:22 PM

michael wants a piece of my candy. I would rather hoarde my candy. But I will put the matter into your hands. If I receive email in the next 30 minutes (before 6:30 pm CDT) from someone who thinks I should share my candy, I will do so. Send your messages to david@negative273.com.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 13 September 2001 at 5:57 PM

Did you know that Beethoven wrote his ninth symphony while deaf?

It's important to keep in mind, especially in light of the events of the past twenty-four hours, that the human race, regardless of the acts of a few fanatics, is capable of great acts of genius. When you contemplate the events in the District of Columbia, New York, or Pennsylvania, you only hope that the legacy you leave helps to offset, at least from history's perspective, the terrible events that you have lived through.

Let us rejoice in life. And celebrate the accomplishments of humanity. No more attention need be paid to those who try to drag us down. Let us rejoice...

O Freunde, nicht diese Töne,

sondern lasst uns angenehmere

anstimmen, und freundenvollere.

Freude, schöner Götterfunken,

Tochter aus Elysium,

wir betreten feuertrunken,

Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!

Deine Zauber binden wieder,

was die Mode streng geteilt:

alle Menschen werden Brüder,

wo dein snafter Flügel weilt.

Wem der grosse Wurf gelungen,

eines Freundes Freund zu sein,

wer ein holdes Weib errungen,

mische seinen Jubel ein!

Ja, wer auch nur eine Seele

sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund!

Und wer's nie gekonnt, der stehle

weinend sich aus diesem Bund!

Freude trinken alle Wesen

an den Brüsten der Natur,

alle Guten, alle Bösen

folgen ihrer Rosenspur.

Küsse gab sie uns und Reben,

einen Freund, geprüft im Tod;

Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben,

und der Cherub steht vor Gott.

Froh, wie seine Sonnen fliegen

durch des Himmels prächt'gen Plan,

laufet, Brüder, eure Bahn,

freudig, wie ein Held zum Siegen!

Freude, schöner Götterfunken,

Tochter aus Elysium,

wir betreten feuertrunken,

Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!

Deine Zauber binden wieder,

was die Mode streng geteilt:

alle Menschen werden Brüder,

wo dein snafter Flügel weilt.

Seid umschlungen, Millionen!

Diesen Kuss der ganzen Welt!

Brüder, überm Sternenzelt

muss ein lieber Vater wohnen.

Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt?

Such ihn überm Sternenzelt!

Über Sternen muss er wohnen.

Freude, schöner Götterfunken,

Tochter aus Elysium,

wir betreten feuertrunken,

Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!

Seid umschlungen, Millionen!

Diesen Kuss der ganzen Welt!

Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen?

Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt?

Such ihn überm Sternenzelt!

Brüder, überm Sternenzelt

muss ein lieber Vater wohnen!

Freude, Tochter aus Elysium,

deine Zauber binden wieder,

was die Mode streng geteilt!

Alle Menschen werden Brüder,

wo dein sanfter Flügel Weilt.

Seid umschlungen, Millionen!

Diesen Kuss der ganzen Welt!

Brüder, überm Sternenzelt

muss ein lieber Vater wohnen.

Freude, schöner Götterfunken,

Tochter aus Elysium,

Freude, schöner Götterfunken!

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 12 September 2001 at 12:18 AM

Many years ago, when I was a freshman in high school, Timothy McVeigh bombed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Everyone was talking about how big a tragedy it was, and I was siting in my seat in Mr. Crawford's English class not really effected by all the news. I feel much the same today. While I have been diligently following the news today, I haven't really been all that caught up in the tragedy.

In fact, I'm more upset by the stupidity of some of the people who have been posting things online or sending things to mailing lists that I am a member of. Let me say this now, I do not think that we need to retaliate within 24 hours of these events (an idea proposed by a gentleman on a mailing list I subscribe to). I would rather hit the correct target than be the first one out of the gate, if you'll allow me to mix metaphors.

To tell the truth, the thing that has me most worried today is Selective Service. The last time an attack of this size was made on the US ("December 7, 1941, a date that will live in infamy"), the attack served as a precursor for the largest military build-up in the history of our country. And one part of that build-up was the draft. I really would prefer not to find myself in the armed services in the foreseeable future, so that's what I've been thinking about today. But I'm rather selfish.

I'm done thinking about this today.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 11 September 2001 at 9:01 PM

Turn on the news. This is very important.

NYC is shut down. The FAA has grounded all planes in the US. Many flights scheduled to go into New York have been diverted to Canada. Both World Trade Center towers were hit by seperate planes, and have collapsed. The Pentagon was struck by a 737. Offices in the District of Columbia have been evacuated.

A national security expert interviewed on NPR said that, in terms of terrorist activity, the only way this could be worse is if chemical or biological weapons had been used. It is important to remember that the United States treats chemical and biological weapons as weapons of mass destruction. It has been the policy of the US to respond to attacks by weapons of mass destruction in kind. And we don't have chemical or biological weapons. Let's just hope the attacks are over.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 11 September 2001 at 10:20 AM

My day: Computer Graphics in the CEC (noon until 5), dinner and TV (5-8pm), half-heartedly working on my Robotics lab report (8-9:30pm), abandoning any pretense of doing work (9:30 until now).

I expected the graphics lab to take a lot longer than it did (I had planned on spending two days on it, but got it finished today), so I'm pretty happy. Once I parsed through and corrected all the errors in the provided code, things went fairly smoothly. As a result of this graphics thing being so easy, I have a lot more free time this weekend. All I need to do tomorrow is finish my robotics lab report and work on some prob stats. Maybe I'll even clean my room and do some laundry.

Remember the contest we had here about a month ago? And how I promised prizes to everyone who participated? And how I then never sent prizes to all those people? Well, the prizes are in the works (i.e., being designed and manufactured) as we speak. I really will send you all something, it just might take a bit longer. Sorry.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 8 September 2001 at 10:37 PM

This makes me reluctant to ever again the fact that I am one of the head TAs for CS101. The sad thing is, the guy who wrote this isn't even a TA for 101. And in the six semesters I've been TAing 101, he's never been a TA.

As if being a CS major wasn't nerdy enough already...

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 7 September 2001 at 5:54 PM

"Where is micahel? Wasn't he supposed to go to Sam's Club with me at 6:30?"

*checks watch*

"Hmm. It seems that it is 6:45. If I don't leave soon, I won't be able to get all the shopping done before the meeting at 8. I guess I should just go ahead and go if he doesn't get here by 6:50."

...

*checks watch*

"6:50. I guess I should go ahead and go without him."

...

"Why have I been talking out loud to myself?"

*leaves*

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 6 September 2001 at 6:49 PM

Someone complained about getting spammed by WU|ACM. He should feel lucky. I got the same email twelve times last night. (It's rather ironic that the WashU Computer Science society can't figure out how to send email, isn't it?)

In personal finance today, Gordinier ranted about taxes for 90 minutes. It was rather amusing to hear him refer to Uncle Sam as a "blood-sucking leech." I don't have much else to write about. Maybe michael will decide to brighten your day with a post, but I doubt it.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 6 September 2001 at 4:51 PM

Once again I find my self sitting in my robotics class bored out of my mind. Which is when I think, "I should write a post for -273 now."

So here I am. I've been in class since 10am, and because I didn't get much sleep last night, I'm pretty tired right now. As an indication of how boring my classes have been today, I wrote a page of notes during my Chief American Writers class that were entirely devoted to what I should post about today. Now I'm sitting in Robotics, typing up a post.

In the previously mentioned Chief American Writers class, we spent at least an hour talking about why, when Coverdale in The Blithedale Romance sayed he "loved" Hollingsworth, he didn't really mean that he was physically attracted to him. I was bored out of my mind. After that discussion, we spent the remaining 30 minutes talking about "love as strangulation." These liberal arts classes are turning out to be very strange.

After a number of emails, I've agreed to go to Sams and generate a budget for the ACM barbeque. I'm not too keen on this, but maybe i can get some of my own grocery shopping done while I'm there.

Back to robotics for a moment. Every few minutes, Dr. Smart touches on a topic that I think might be pretty cool. But as soon as he mentions it, he says "But we'll talk about that later when we discuss [insert name of robot here]." And then he goes back to talking about boring things that are unrelated to the robots we're building in lab. I'm skipping this class on Thursday to go to Happy Hour. I won't miss anything.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 4 September 2001 at 7:16 PM

Today was a pretty good day. I had a great time at Six Flags, even if I did come back a bit sun-burnt and a bit sore. My graphics homework was easier than I thought it would be, and I put some finishing touches on a paper for my English Lit class this evening. Plus, Ben came over and hung for a few hours this evening. But I think he just came to see the video of me at Six Flags.

I'm sure the only question on your mind right now is, "What video of you at SIx Flags?" Well, I don't want to say to much about it, because michael is digitzing it and plans on posting it here, but it involves me making a fool of myself. On a mechanical bull. The select few who have been privileged to see it (Scott, michael, and now Ben) think it is very amusing. I found it somewhat embarrasing.

Well, I am beginning to ramble and my sentences aren't making much sense, so I think I'll head to bed. Hopefully michael will figure out how to convert the tape from VHS to some computer-friendly form tomorrow, and you will be able to laugh at me.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 4 September 2001 at 1:44 AM

michael, Scott, and I are heading for Six Flags in about 20 minutes. While this will be a great deal of fun, it doesn't bode well for the graphics assignment that I need to finish. I guess it will be a long night tonight. And I need to do some grocery shopping as well. That may just have to wait until Tuesday. I don't really need food, do I?

ACM is having this big barbeque on Friday and I volunteered to go to Sam's to buy all the food (to give credit where credit is due, michael and James Brodman agredd to go with me and help with the shopping). Yesterday I got an email from the club president asking me to go to Sam's before Monday (i.e., on Sunday) and find out how much everything is going to cost. I don't really feel like going shopping twice, which is basically what this would amount to, and I don't have the time, so he's just going to have to use last year's expenses to form a budget for this year. Maybe I should mention to him that inflation was around 2% last year.

Well, it's time for me to find my shoes and get ready to go. If you know anything about computer graphics (Chris) I may have some questions for you when I get back this afternoon/evening.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 3 September 2001 at 9:49 AM

I've finally gotten around to adding something to the features section of -273. I haven't finished fine-tuning the pages, but it's pretty neat. From now on, whenever I (and michael, soon) listen to an MP3, a handy little plugin will create an HTML playlist of the last five songs I've listened to and upload it to the site. It's pretty sweet. I'll finish working on it tomorrow, because I'm dead-tired right now.

Link: http://hornygoat.org/webcam/ (it's cool because it has my name on it).

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 2 September 2001 at 12:17 AM

I've been thinking about buying a laptop. I haven't really spent any of the money I got this summer, so I can afford to buy one. And I think I'd like to have one. But I don't know much about laptops (Ive never been in the market for one before, so I haven't ever really studied up on them), so I don't know what features I should look for. Or what brands are the best. If you consider yourself knowledgeable about this subject, please send me some advice.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 1 September 2001 at 10:19 PM

My parents are going to be here in a bit, so I don't have much time (I need to vacuum). Anyway, I went to the Just Add Water show at Mississippi Nights last night. It was really good. The opening acts weren't so hot (well, Children's Audio was alright, but Crushed Blue Velvet sucked), but JAW rocked. If you ever have a chance to see them (they'll be at Riverport this Sunday), you should definitely do so. Also, if you head over to their website, you can listen to a few of their songs.

Interesting Link: http://www.nomoreaolcds.com/

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 1 September 2001 at 11:42 AM

The first ACM meeting of the semester is tonight, and I'm not feeling too enthusiastic about it. I like ACM, but there are a lot of things I need to do, and being an officer of a very unorganized group is getting to be very draining. We're supposedly having a barbeque a week from tomorrow, but we haven't had any meetings about it yet. Which means that no one has done things like rent a grill or do any advertising, which need to be done rather soon. I suspect I'm going to end up being very busy this weekend, and I don't want to get stuck doing all this ACM stuff. Maybe the other officers will step up.

Classes today have been very boring. We talked ad infinitum about Emerson during my English Lit. class. As I've mentioned before, I dislike Ralph Waldo Emerson, so this class was boring. But compared to graphics, where we spent an hour and a half talking about points, vectors, linear combinations, polylines, polygons, and triangles, it was a walk in the park. I'm a bit worried about this graphics class. Yesterday I was talking to a guy who was supposed to graduate last year, but he didn't get his graphics labs finished, so he's back for another semester. He screamed at me to drop the class. If I had another class to switch to, I would.

After lunch, I went to my Personal Finance class. Dr. Gordinear is usually pretty funny when he rants about "Uncle Sam taking all your money" and the "morons" he has as clients in his financial planning company. (Calling Gordinear a fiscal conservative doesn't do him justice. He's the most conservative guy I've met here at WashU by a leaps and bounds.) But today we were talking about the time value of money, which may be very interesting, but this is the fourth class I've had that covers it, so I was againvery bored.

I'm writing this post on my Visor in my final class, Mobile Robotics. The class is pretty cool (we build robots out of Legos), but I wish Dr. Smart would spend a bit more time talking about the robots we are working on in the labs, and a bit less time talking about robots other people have built. It is only the third lecture though. Maybe things will get better.

A disconnect between lectures and labs seems to be the theme for this semester, at least so far. I hope this corrects itself, because the last time that happened to me (CS342 last fall), the classes really sucked.

Assuming the Internet conection in my room is back up, this will be posted as soon as I get back. If it's not back up, I will be very, very upset.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 1 September 2001 at 1:26 AM