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weekend update and whatnot...
Apr. 15th, 2003 05:44 amTonight, I've been working on holyfire (the Big Practicum Project...) and grading. Very exciting stuff. I've realized ... that aside from the actual final exams, there are only two more big things that need doing (and maybe a few homeworks for Combo...) -- just holyfire and the last Systems and Network project...
So it's all almost over :) This will be a) absolutely wonderful for my sanity and health and happiness, and b) probably not the greatest thing that ever happened to my GPA. Eh, it won't be so bad :)
Esther came to visit this past weekend, which was glorious :) She showed up Friday evening, and we had tasty Asian food at three different Asian-food establishments, had an in-room rave, considered going out to a club but opted to stay in and watch Hackers instead, which only gets more hilarious the more times you've seen it, went outside and tossed frisbees and avoided flying softballs, explored Atlanta's lovely Midtown, went shopping at Galyan's and picked up a new pair of running shoes (for her) and some colourful lacrosse balls (for me), processed with palms (*laughs* which is to say that we carried plant matter in a procession -- we didn't use any handheld devices to do computation) at the Heathen Center on Sunday morning, did some homework, talked about stuff, and smooched a bit. Yay :) ... I already miss her again... I'll have to see about showing up in Houston when I'm done, to help pack up... she's going to be gone for a really long time... :-\
I have a hickey again :) I heartily enjoy the process of being given a hickey.
I really should've taken a night last week and just not slept (hrm, or taken ... another night last week and not slept), so that I could've gotten that S&N project properly done. I got bogged down towards the end with stupid bugs and... eh. I spent the weekend with Esther, and that was good, definitely a better use of time in the long term :) After she was safely at the airport, I cranked out some code with those last few hours...
... and then sort of collapsed until this morning. I was really drained after that, for some reason -- it was much more frustrating than it should've been, not getting the S&N done. My anger about that burst out in front of Marty, which felt really strange. I think the harshest thing I've heard him say is "Darn you!", and here I am, upset about a silly program, and I bust out with some expletives and punch a door rather hard...
Lessee... and today, what've I done? ...
I went to Practicum and listened to a very strange lecture in which McCracken talked about eBay and how it's put together... all of which was apparently intended to demonstrate to the class about how the CS department here had thus far taught us all of the Wrong Design Principles. A good chunk of the class left that one muttering (or just complaining) -- it seems like instead of yammering about how we don't know the right design principles, he could teach them to us. That was relegated to about five minutes at the end of the lecture. His main point seemed to be "don't make your program into little chunks and then completely do each chunk before moving on to the next one" ... although we took a very circuitous path to get there, and most of it seemed to be a discussion of the implementation details of eBay and how you'd go about writing a big database system and how silly we undergrad novices are. *shrugs* Almost done with that one. Won't have to deal with him or "Software Engineering" classes after this :)
... and I taught recitation, which is generally entertaining -- I asked what we could do to make the class more exciting, and partially in jest, I asked if I should bring my coffee machine next week. One of the students (Luke -- one of the coolest ones, in fact) thought that was a good idea, so I'm going to do it. I hope they bring cups.
Ah, and I signed up for classes this afternoon! This went down almost exactly as expected. I couldn't get into the Technical Communications Practices (and frankly would rather not take this class at all, but ... eh... I'll take it sometime within the next two years)... but I'm all signed up, for Fall 2003, for:
CS4600: Introduction to Intelligent Systems
CS3210: Design of Operating Systems
CS4001: Computing and Society
MATH3215: Probability and Statistics
SPAN4813: Introduction to Spanish Translation
w00t :) No classes on Friday, and only the OS class happens on M/W. So I think M/W will be my days to catch up on sleeping and do my TA thing, and then on Thursday afternoons... well, I can skip town if I like :)
... so I did that, spoke with my father, took a nap, ate, and shaved off all my hair (with Corey's help -- I'm now completely bald, really for the first time since I've had hair to speak of. It looks pretty good, I'd say), and then worked on stuff, and then wrote an entry. I've been ambiently juggling my new lacrosse balls today, and that's really satisfying -- they're dense and hard and heavy and bounce well and they're the perfect size and shape, and brightly coloured.
It's high time to get some sleep.
Ah, this is one of several wise things my father said when I spoke with him:
"Just go at it hard as you can and finish out the semester."
He also suggested I try to run a bit every day so as not to completely lose it. Very, very good idea.
Peace out, homeslices!!!
So it's all almost over :) This will be a) absolutely wonderful for my sanity and health and happiness, and b) probably not the greatest thing that ever happened to my GPA. Eh, it won't be so bad :)
Esther came to visit this past weekend, which was glorious :) She showed up Friday evening, and we had tasty Asian food at three different Asian-food establishments, had an in-room rave, considered going out to a club but opted to stay in and watch Hackers instead, which only gets more hilarious the more times you've seen it, went outside and tossed frisbees and avoided flying softballs, explored Atlanta's lovely Midtown, went shopping at Galyan's and picked up a new pair of running shoes (for her) and some colourful lacrosse balls (for me), processed with palms (*laughs* which is to say that we carried plant matter in a procession -- we didn't use any handheld devices to do computation) at the Heathen Center on Sunday morning, did some homework, talked about stuff, and smooched a bit. Yay :) ... I already miss her again... I'll have to see about showing up in Houston when I'm done, to help pack up... she's going to be gone for a really long time... :-\
I have a hickey again :) I heartily enjoy the process of being given a hickey.
I really should've taken a night last week and just not slept (hrm, or taken ... another night last week and not slept), so that I could've gotten that S&N project properly done. I got bogged down towards the end with stupid bugs and... eh. I spent the weekend with Esther, and that was good, definitely a better use of time in the long term :) After she was safely at the airport, I cranked out some code with those last few hours...
... and then sort of collapsed until this morning. I was really drained after that, for some reason -- it was much more frustrating than it should've been, not getting the S&N done. My anger about that burst out in front of Marty, which felt really strange. I think the harshest thing I've heard him say is "Darn you!", and here I am, upset about a silly program, and I bust out with some expletives and punch a door rather hard...
Lessee... and today, what've I done? ...
I went to Practicum and listened to a very strange lecture in which McCracken talked about eBay and how it's put together... all of which was apparently intended to demonstrate to the class about how the CS department here had thus far taught us all of the Wrong Design Principles. A good chunk of the class left that one muttering (or just complaining) -- it seems like instead of yammering about how we don't know the right design principles, he could teach them to us. That was relegated to about five minutes at the end of the lecture. His main point seemed to be "don't make your program into little chunks and then completely do each chunk before moving on to the next one" ... although we took a very circuitous path to get there, and most of it seemed to be a discussion of the implementation details of eBay and how you'd go about writing a big database system and how silly we undergrad novices are. *shrugs* Almost done with that one. Won't have to deal with him or "Software Engineering" classes after this :)
... and I taught recitation, which is generally entertaining -- I asked what we could do to make the class more exciting, and partially in jest, I asked if I should bring my coffee machine next week. One of the students (Luke -- one of the coolest ones, in fact) thought that was a good idea, so I'm going to do it. I hope they bring cups.
Ah, and I signed up for classes this afternoon! This went down almost exactly as expected. I couldn't get into the Technical Communications Practices (and frankly would rather not take this class at all, but ... eh... I'll take it sometime within the next two years)... but I'm all signed up, for Fall 2003, for:
CS4600: Introduction to Intelligent Systems
CS3210: Design of Operating Systems
CS4001: Computing and Society
MATH3215: Probability and Statistics
SPAN4813: Introduction to Spanish Translation
w00t :) No classes on Friday, and only the OS class happens on M/W. So I think M/W will be my days to catch up on sleeping and do my TA thing, and then on Thursday afternoons... well, I can skip town if I like :)
... so I did that, spoke with my father, took a nap, ate, and shaved off all my hair (with Corey's help -- I'm now completely bald, really for the first time since I've had hair to speak of. It looks pretty good, I'd say), and then worked on stuff, and then wrote an entry. I've been ambiently juggling my new lacrosse balls today, and that's really satisfying -- they're dense and hard and heavy and bounce well and they're the perfect size and shape, and brightly coloured.
It's high time to get some sleep.
Ah, this is one of several wise things my father said when I spoke with him:
"Just go at it hard as you can and finish out the semester."
He also suggested I try to run a bit every day so as not to completely lose it. Very, very good idea.
Peace out, homeslices!!!
