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Things aren't looking s'bad, at this point... we've got a week left on holyfire, and things are coming along nicely. While the rest of us seem to have taken this weekend to get a little bit of recuperation and S&N in (Will's skipped town with his family), Marty's forging ahead, coding beast that he is.
On Friday, I did my office hours, and as it turned out... one of my students came to me having issues with my personal favourite datastructure, the hash table, so we talked about that for a while, and it felt like it was really and truly helpful, which is a very good feeling. The light of understanding is a good thing :) I also did some grading, and was able to award points where no points had been awarded before, which is also generally pleasant.
Hrm, and I spoke with Esther later that night, and she wasn't having a good day in the slightest :-\ Lotta crap happening, all at once... she doesn't let herself get away with feeling down or with saying "eh, that's a lot of crap, happening to me all at once, and frankly, it upsets me" ... she feels guilty for hurting, I think. Which really just makes it worse, whatever it is that's going on... and I do a very thing to myself, only I'm not doing it now, so I can do a commentary from the outside. Hrmph.
Today has been a really relaxing day :) I'd considered doing the whole Early Riser thing (last year, for example, I would've been able to do this, or at least to make myself do this), hop out of bed at 8:30, go run a few miles, and then help out the 2130 TA staff with interviews for new hire-ees for next year. My alarm went off, and I very calmly, rationally... proceeded to turn it off and then sleep until 1PM.
Not long after that, my mother and sister Natalie showed up, and this was a very happy thing :) We showed them the glorious Hefner 211 (and I was given some really excellent presents from home, like these funky Life Is Good t-shirts and new juggling balls), had some tasty bagels (with Corey and Marty), and then wandered around Piedmont Park with Corey.
This was an excellent way to spend the afternoon -- we tossed disc (which my mother does with great grace, skill, and celerity), walked on the trails, and eventually found this Really Excellent playground area, done in interesting geometric shapes -- we found these tetris-oid blocks that you can climb around on, swings done with strange arcs and squared-off lines, a dome made of rubberized-track material, and a big spiral slide thing. It's quite a playground. There were a bunch of little kids (and some adults) playing there, and we climbed on stuff, and Natalie demonstrated her gymnast-ness on a bar. There was this tiny little girl who wanted to play with us (particularly with myself and my relatives), and her mother was nearby, so it didn't seem too odd to run around with her and climb slides and whatnot. She was polite about it, and afterwards, said "thank you for playing with me!" We slid on the slides for a while, and she got the urge to climb up this big metallic spiral slide thing (climbing up the slide part was the only way to get up -- the stairs on the inside were blocked off), which she'd seen some other kids doing. At her request, I lifted her up on to the slide, and we began our ascent up the slippery slope. Once we got to the top, she decided that she didn't want to slide down (it was kinda wet) and was somewhat afraid to make the walk back down, so after looking for guidance from her mother (still nearby), I ended up suggesting that she ride on my back while I walked down (super-carefully... that could've been bad, otherwise).
Random little kids at playgrounds are cool :) At what point do people stop being that much fun?
So after we went to the park, I went and ran whilst the familials checked into their hotel -- this felt exceedingly good, as I hadn't gone running in about a week. I did sort of an extended Outside Loop -- I went out towards North Avenue, did a lap around the SAC field on the way, swung wide just off the campus, came back towards East Campus, over to the track, where I looped around there for a while, took 10th Street back towards West Campus, and then headed back home in the canonical way. Maybe a bit over four miles. I need to do this sort of thing more often... like Every Day! Faster, and with more mileage! And weight training! (that's for the summer... just a few more days... eh...)
We went to the Disco Diner, the familials and myself, and talked about stuff, then proceeded to drive around Buckhead, and then visit the CoC, just to see what was going on (and so that they could see where my days and nights are often spent)... and now they're back at the hotel, and I'd like to get some inspiration and the right mood to get in on that S&N... which isn't due until Wednesday morning, now :) But it needs to get done this weekend... shouldn't be too bad.
Hey, and at this point... it's now Easter Sunday :) He is risen -- hallelujah!
I've wondered about this, those last few days of Jesus' life. If he knew about what was going to happen... then how could he have kept from laughing at everybody around him? "Well, you don't realize it... but I'm fully aware that I'm going to be killed, more or less by a frightened mob who wants me to be crucified, consisting largely of the same people who loved me a few days ago... and then, I'm going to lay the smackdown on death itself and get back up, and then I'm going to be taken up into heaven." That's completely absurd. That's the weirdest thing. How could he not have laughed, giving such an overwhelming present to people who couldn't possibly grasp what was going on at the time? Maybe it'd be hard to have a detached sense of amusement when you're going to be crucified, but ...
"Here, I'm going to change the rules of life and death for you" ... "hold still -- lemme take away every part of you that sucks"... essentially, "Everything you know and understand is wrong. Things don't work like that at all, but for reasons completely inscrutable to you, I love you so much that you don't have to worry about fading into nothingness." How can you possibly deal with that? It's ... almost like God's into absurdism. What a bad dude.
On a completely unrelated note, I still maintain that "I'm So Afraid" by Fleetwood Mac has the Second Best Guitar Solo Ever in it... right after Metallica's "Master of Puppets".
... okay, I'm going to eat something, and then I'm going to get some more S&N done.
On Friday, I did my office hours, and as it turned out... one of my students came to me having issues with my personal favourite datastructure, the hash table, so we talked about that for a while, and it felt like it was really and truly helpful, which is a very good feeling. The light of understanding is a good thing :) I also did some grading, and was able to award points where no points had been awarded before, which is also generally pleasant.
Hrm, and I spoke with Esther later that night, and she wasn't having a good day in the slightest :-\ Lotta crap happening, all at once... she doesn't let herself get away with feeling down or with saying "eh, that's a lot of crap, happening to me all at once, and frankly, it upsets me" ... she feels guilty for hurting, I think. Which really just makes it worse, whatever it is that's going on... and I do a very thing to myself, only I'm not doing it now, so I can do a commentary from the outside. Hrmph.
Today has been a really relaxing day :) I'd considered doing the whole Early Riser thing (last year, for example, I would've been able to do this, or at least to make myself do this), hop out of bed at 8:30, go run a few miles, and then help out the 2130 TA staff with interviews for new hire-ees for next year. My alarm went off, and I very calmly, rationally... proceeded to turn it off and then sleep until 1PM.
Not long after that, my mother and sister Natalie showed up, and this was a very happy thing :) We showed them the glorious Hefner 211 (and I was given some really excellent presents from home, like these funky Life Is Good t-shirts and new juggling balls), had some tasty bagels (with Corey and Marty), and then wandered around Piedmont Park with Corey.
This was an excellent way to spend the afternoon -- we tossed disc (which my mother does with great grace, skill, and celerity), walked on the trails, and eventually found this Really Excellent playground area, done in interesting geometric shapes -- we found these tetris-oid blocks that you can climb around on, swings done with strange arcs and squared-off lines, a dome made of rubberized-track material, and a big spiral slide thing. It's quite a playground. There were a bunch of little kids (and some adults) playing there, and we climbed on stuff, and Natalie demonstrated her gymnast-ness on a bar. There was this tiny little girl who wanted to play with us (particularly with myself and my relatives), and her mother was nearby, so it didn't seem too odd to run around with her and climb slides and whatnot. She was polite about it, and afterwards, said "thank you for playing with me!" We slid on the slides for a while, and she got the urge to climb up this big metallic spiral slide thing (climbing up the slide part was the only way to get up -- the stairs on the inside were blocked off), which she'd seen some other kids doing. At her request, I lifted her up on to the slide, and we began our ascent up the slippery slope. Once we got to the top, she decided that she didn't want to slide down (it was kinda wet) and was somewhat afraid to make the walk back down, so after looking for guidance from her mother (still nearby), I ended up suggesting that she ride on my back while I walked down (super-carefully... that could've been bad, otherwise).
Random little kids at playgrounds are cool :) At what point do people stop being that much fun?
So after we went to the park, I went and ran whilst the familials checked into their hotel -- this felt exceedingly good, as I hadn't gone running in about a week. I did sort of an extended Outside Loop -- I went out towards North Avenue, did a lap around the SAC field on the way, swung wide just off the campus, came back towards East Campus, over to the track, where I looped around there for a while, took 10th Street back towards West Campus, and then headed back home in the canonical way. Maybe a bit over four miles. I need to do this sort of thing more often... like Every Day! Faster, and with more mileage! And weight training! (that's for the summer... just a few more days... eh...)
We went to the Disco Diner, the familials and myself, and talked about stuff, then proceeded to drive around Buckhead, and then visit the CoC, just to see what was going on (and so that they could see where my days and nights are often spent)... and now they're back at the hotel, and I'd like to get some inspiration and the right mood to get in on that S&N... which isn't due until Wednesday morning, now :) But it needs to get done this weekend... shouldn't be too bad.
Hey, and at this point... it's now Easter Sunday :) He is risen -- hallelujah!
I've wondered about this, those last few days of Jesus' life. If he knew about what was going to happen... then how could he have kept from laughing at everybody around him? "Well, you don't realize it... but I'm fully aware that I'm going to be killed, more or less by a frightened mob who wants me to be crucified, consisting largely of the same people who loved me a few days ago... and then, I'm going to lay the smackdown on death itself and get back up, and then I'm going to be taken up into heaven." That's completely absurd. That's the weirdest thing. How could he not have laughed, giving such an overwhelming present to people who couldn't possibly grasp what was going on at the time? Maybe it'd be hard to have a detached sense of amusement when you're going to be crucified, but ...
"Here, I'm going to change the rules of life and death for you" ... "hold still -- lemme take away every part of you that sucks"... essentially, "Everything you know and understand is wrong. Things don't work like that at all, but for reasons completely inscrutable to you, I love you so much that you don't have to worry about fading into nothingness." How can you possibly deal with that? It's ... almost like God's into absurdism. What a bad dude.
On a completely unrelated note, I still maintain that "I'm So Afraid" by Fleetwood Mac has the Second Best Guitar Solo Ever in it... right after Metallica's "Master of Puppets".
... okay, I'm going to eat something, and then I'm going to get some more S&N done.
