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Date:08/05/10

Bleagh

Well my advisor hasn't had time to meet with me and my new committee member has gone AWOl and my thesis hasn't been up to spec so I won't be graduating until end of fall. BLAH.

Fortunately this doesn't really affect much except dragging it out, since none of my employment in fall is contingent on a diploma. And the goal is still to be mostly-done by end of summer anyway.

Ugh.

Here, have some cheering up, a link from the internets: the case of the 500-mile e-mail :)


Date:08/02/10

Updates indeed

Been a while since an update I guess. Thesis, and then nothing. Now I'm really looking forward to and yet dreading getting my thesis back. It's due this Friday! Zomg.

Also it appears Sally Murphy needs me to teach the MW 8:40AM GS sections. Wah. Well, blah to waking up early, but after some careful analysis I realized I'm already supposed to get up really early on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, so if I also have super early wakeup on MW it should make things a bit more even. It still doesn't make it easy though, especially since going to bed at 11PM is annoying. But, it's worth it I guess. Every man has his price.

Let's see, here, have some little things, I have plenty lying around:

I will endure!


Date:07/14/10

Complexity

It seems the problem of my fall schedule may be NP-complete. I will lay it out here briefly:

Jobs, Tasks and Time Sinks:

The GS timeslots so far seem unobtrusive, with the two sections I know I have on Friday morning and afternoon. I will probably have advising hours, but it sounds like I may be able to do those at night times when most other advisers aren't around.

Concord has basically eaten Tuesday and Thursday. If I want more time then, like late meetings with my CLP students, it will come at the expense of going to JKASV.

The CLP is the big unknown. It seems it will require many flexible hours of the week. Currently Monday and Wednesday have nothing except karate hours, but we will see how CLP hours fit into them. I will probably have timeslots on Friday and possibly the weekend for those.

I will continue puzzling as more information becomes available


Date:07/01/10

Fission Mailed!

I leave home for the airport for Nebraska in 12 hours. I have done all I currently can on my thesis, but unfortunately my first draft was missing a number of key elements. Combine that with my advisor being crazybusy and I still have more work to do while I am in Nebraska.

Fortunately, all is not lost, since I am mostly done, and the rest of the work can be accomplished at Nebraska and sent out by the end of the first week of July (probably sooner). Still, it burns a bit to be behind. Oh well. At least I have demonstrated I can work long and hard and get stuff done quickly.


Date:06/29/10

Crunch time has arrived

Yes my advisor got back to me with comments..... lots of comments.... but it's nothing I can't handle!

And also, announcing the new awesomest thing evar: the Jarritos float! (like your standard root beer float, but instead of root beer, use orange Mexican soda.... mmmmmmm ^_^)


Date:06/26/10

Updates!

It was one week ago that I sent off a draft of my thesis, and since then I have made progress on the game, prepared and taught bio1002, taught karate, and generally been a bum (spent 95% of Thursday working on the game actually....). I feel more relaxed, but I also feel like if I charge back into the thesis now before I get exterior feedback I'll get bogged down. Once my advisor gets back to me I will be in crunch mode, because I hope to get a draft to Professor Inouye by July since her last two weeks of July are booked solid. Bad news for me, but I can handle it.

Also, I finally, finally got around to doing something I should have done a long time ago. I added a mechanism in the game for choosing a new leader, and demoting the current one if s/he is still alive. I was having trouble visualizing it until I realized the blindingly obvious: it should just be a menu option! Menu #1 has plenty of empty number spots still even and it fits perfectly. I was previously toying with the idea of having the game prompt you automatically when the previous leader died but the problem there is what if no one is available? Hypothetically, everyone could be on teams that are on missions, and with no one on defense, research, or academy duty, the game would get you stuck. Making it a menu option turned it into a ten-minute process.


Date:06/17/10

30 pages

Yep. That was what I got last time I pasted everything into one big ol' file, including all the graphs and tables, and made it double spaced. It now exceeds the size of my final draft of my Bachelor's thesis. Woot.

I'm running out of things to add or improve. Of course once someone else looks at it and rips it apart I'll have plenty to do, so I'm thinking I should do that soon lest I waste time being unproductive.

I have gone this entire week without working on the game, or playing it, at all. I'm thinking once I send it off (probably Friday) I will have Saturday totally and utterly free, and I will make a demo version of the game (basicaly duplicate the folder, then go through the main program and delete all the extra options, then delete all the unnecessary functions). Then from that I will make a simple savefile formatter, and once I finish the Rivals portion of the main game, use it as a template and build savefile functionality.

Then I will be DONE. Oh man! Fun. Of course, I won't be done done, since I always think of new things to do, but I will be basically done.

If only dealing with my apartment were this easy. Hrmph.


Date:06/11/10

Whachuwha!

I just cranked out 3 pages in an hour and a half for my thesis. This way is supposed to work well, but my brain fries quickly and I'm taking refuge in working on the game. I think I need some more direction.

On the plus side I pasted all the text into one file and it's 16 pages double spaced now! Yay! It's probably at least 25 if I were to format and paste in all the useful charts and graphs, but I'm saving that for next week.

Ugh. Thesis man. Can't wait to be done.


Date:06/01/10

Humility

This previous weekend, I just had what I am tentatively characterizing as one of the most humbling experiences I've ever had in a positive sense (negative sense is being reserved for rejection from UChicago but that's another story).

Apparently my three most dedicated karate students colluded and designed a surprise birthday party, revealed at weapons class. They brought pizza, soda, cake, and presents, all apparently coordinated and researched ahead of time.

The shirts matched bands I like, and the shoes were my size, and they even had candles representing my new age. Sometime during the little party, I was suddenly struck by a rush of perspective on how important I must be to these three students. Now it's fine for them to say I'm important to them, and another for them to show it by showing up to karate class and tutoring. But for them to, completely of their own drive and even against my own inclinations, go through all this trouble, was somewhat awe-inspiring.

I remember thinking long ago that if someone had to do something, or was expected or obligated or unfailingly inclined to do something, it didn't "count." There was a certain logic, not necessarily sound, but self-consistent in this view. It wasn't that the feelings weren't there, it's just that they weren't necessarily earned. As a good example, it didn't mean anything that my parents cared for me and loved me, because that's what all good parents do and what I was like didn't have much effect on this.

Similarly, if I could make and keep good friends they "counted" in that it meant I was a worthwhile person. However, if they did something all friends are expected to do, this did not count, as all it meant was they were my friend and not that I had earned that particular gesture (except by the longer route of having earned their friendship).

I believe in this unsolicited, untelegraphed, innocent birthday party I have finally seen the final point to this exercise of whether things "count" that has literally ruled my entire social life. Because this birthday party "counts" in every possible way. There is absolutely no explanation in any way for it except that all three of these students value my feelings and the display of them for me higher than they do their own time and money. The only possible conclusion under even the most cynical of logical conditions is that they care about me because I am a worthwhile person to them. I validate their existence by paying attention to them, teaching them something I care about, and care about their progress through college, and that has made me special to them.

One of the karate greats (I believe it was actually Funakoshi) said when a small man (figuratively) is promoted to black belt he shouts for happiness, and as he goes higher he shouts even louder, but when a great man is promoted to black belt he bows his head in humility, and bows lower as he goes on. I wonder if this feeling I have now of bowing my head at the true enormity of what this means is normal.

I have indirectly and often casually made myself partially responsible for the success and failure of these students. Their success will reflect well on me forevermore now, is that really something I can boldly claim? Or will I bow my head and walk so none can stare at me? I guess this is the answer.

Now, and rather insanely, I almost hope no one reads this...


Date:05/31/10

Hmmmmm

Seems there's been an international incident off the coast of Israel. Seems some Turk-originated boats carrying anti-Israel activists tried to run the blockade, Israeli commandos tried to commandeer them back to Turkey, the people became violent, the commandos killed some people, big mess.

I am definitely the opposite of an expert on the history and current politics of that region, so I will defer to the most persuasive of the various articles I've read on what happened: analysis here.

Wild stuff.


Date:05/27/10

Bullet dodged

Roommate has settled her situation without the need for eviction. We'll see how this goes!

Blahhh. Exactly what I needed, stress, and not just stress but unnecessary and pointless stress that went nowhere. Ugh.

I will compensate by coding all of tomorrow! Woo.


Date:05/26/10

Minor update is minor

Sluggishness has been conquered. I think I'm taking it easier when I teach, and eating earlier, so I'm able to go both-barrels at JKASV. Which is good.

Thesis is in progress. I haven't updated my thesis blog in a long time, but that's because the time for pondering and slow progress is past. It's now time for multi-page-per-day writing (I just got through writing 5 pages of background - whew!)

It appears our new roommate is already our ex-roommate, as she has defaulted on her June rent and is moving out. Yikes! I may have to cover her June rent, sadly.

On a lighter note, this makes me lol


Date:04/29/10

Too much?

Today I taught karate. It was Miguel and Rachel, and we were feeling somewhat chill, so there really was only about an hour of hard work involved. However, since it was only Miguel and Rachel, the hard work was pretty hard. I tried to do more correcting than following along, but I was still a bit tired after. Then I went to karate at JKASV a few hours later. I was tired there from the get-go. I felt a bit sluggish and a bit worn.

I find this troubling, because the feeling was familiar. It was during Junior year, when I was doing karate Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday. By Thursday I was never at my best, always worn from the start. I'm troubled that these Tues/Thurs classes are seeing negative effects from my teaching.

I didn't have nearly the same problem when I was teaching Mon/Wed. I think starting next year I will insist on doing Mon/Wed, and if people can't make it I'll have senior students (probably Rachel) teach a Tu/Th class.

On an separate, unrelated issue, I haven't been getting enough thesis done. This might be related to the computer game which is now over 3500 lines of code. If I can finish ALL my data collection and analysis by summer, it's just writing, and I can knuckle down and crank it out somehow.


Date:04/19/10

Big Update Ahead

Like whoa. Okay. Here we go.

Probably the biggest reason I haven't updated (aside from the fact that I'm really busy, but that's not a real reason since I'm always busy) is that I've been working rather relentlessly on the computer game I mentioned before. It's now to the point where you can actually play it! Natalie spent a couple hours playing it yesterday, in fact. Crazy, I know.

Biolab and GS are going well. Concord has been going okay but a few things were lacking and I didn't have the opportunity to replace them all. I am a bit bummed about that and I will be ensuring that the items are ready for next Spring whether I'm doing the setup or someone else.

Karate is going well. I made brown belt at JKASV and I've picked up some new regular beginners at CSUEB. Fun times for all!

Jason has moved out and we are trying to find a replacement. Certainly seems doable since we have had several craigslist responses so far, but I am still a bit unfamiliar with etiquette. Is it first come first serve for looking at the place, or do you just take the deposit of whoever makes that decision first? Is it polite to afford people time to decide before having others look? Hmmm.

Lastly, if laughing at this is wrong, I don't want to be right.


Date:03/31/10

April Fools Day in 15 minutes!

A computer game isn't functional until you can lose it. Well I have finally upgraded my game to the point where it's possible to lose. If you take on no missions and let the game go for 6-8 rounds (months), you run out of money and lose. You're supposed to be able to gain money by doing missions.... that part comes next! Missions are going to be a big production. Once they're done, the game will almost be playable.

In other news, today was a day off. I was supposed to work on my thesis but I didn't. I will do that on Saturday. I hope.........

In yet other news, I am looking forward to weapons class this Saturday. New weapons previewed, and new student to train! Whee!


Date:03/24/10

lolwut

I got bit. By the CODE BUG!

lawl

Anyway, I had an idea last night on the drive back from karate about a fun and simple strategy game. Then I realized why it took up so much space in my brain so quickly, I was tapping into thoughts I'd had when JJ and I were plotting out a video game (which turned out to be too ambitious for us).

I had some more thoughts on it today while walking around taking my thesis data, and when I got home at 3 I went into Code Mode. I blinked, it was 6PM, I had a fully functional name generator and skeleton for the database, and I was hungry. Fortunately I resisted the urge to buy food, instead cooking fried rice which I haven't done in many weeks.

Now it's back to Code Mode! Anyone wanna guess when I snap out of it again? My bet's on midnight XD


Date:03/23/10

The morning report

Was feeling blah yesterday afternoon. The power went out for a while, and even when it came back I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. Didn't want to work, didn't feel like playing, kinda meh.

I was restless so I went to Chipotle for dinner (didn't even have the energy to cook, not a good sign). But while I was at dinner I realized I felt like playing Civ 2 (which I played like a fiend in like high school or something but not really much since). So I promptly came home and played it until about 2AM. I felt much better ^_^

And now I feel like working again, yay


Date:03/20/10

Good mood!

Nothing cheers me up like being effective at something I do for fun.

Lately I have crafted a number of new weapons masterpieces using the belt test money.

Good times! No one else came to weapons class today so I spent a while testing the flail and the 3-section staff out, both are really fun to use.

Also, I had a kyu test today. I feel better about myself than I did before, and worked really hard for it, so I stopped at the Peruvian restaurant in town and bought meself some Inca Kole. Wheeeeee ^_^

And Exalted tomorrow! Wheeeeeee!

Life is good


Date:03/16/10

Ugh

Need to keep focus. Now that my hellish schedule is over it's tempting to just fall over and be accountable to no one for a few days. Unfortunately I still have to finish and turn in grades, as well as keep working on my thesis. Bleargh.

The GS section 9 conundrum is making things worse, and all the impending things for Spring that seemed too far away to even consider are now only two weeks away.

I'm tired, damnit!


Date:03/11/10

Delicious

My delicious cycle: milk and strawberry ice cream, combined to make strawberries & cream shake. Delicious.

It also keeps the milk from going bad, as it has so many times in the past


Date:03/09/10

Just occurred to me

It just occurred to me today: if they DO cancel GS section 9 it would really simplify my life, I mean really.

My spring schedule draft is here (work in progress), though nearly complete. Take a look at Wednesday. Not only does that section blot out my thesis time into two smaller chunks in which less can get done, but on top of that it disrupts my scheduling because the first week of classes has Wednesday off for Cesar Chavez day! I liked CC day a lot more when it meant a day off in the middle of the semester. This first week of the quarter crap is not funny.

Anyway, that GS section is currently scheduled for 4PM, but it's underenrolled, so they're seeing moving it to noon would increase enrollment in it. Which it probably would, but that's not good enough for the individual in charge, who wants to be CERTAIN it will increase enrollment because.... otherwise they'll leave it where it is and it will probably get axed anyway? I don't like her logic (or lack thereof) since it reeks of cowardice, but bowing to her demands I e-mailed all my students seeing if they could switch to section 9 if it were at noon.

But now I'm kind of hoping it will get cancelled, even if it means less moneys for me. Thesis is the higher priority. I must graduate!


Date:03/06/10

A thought

I am not going to let all the trouble I went through to become this awesome go to waste. I'm going to keep being maximally awesome every day. After all, like with most of the best things, it's use it or lose it


Date:03/02/10

That rushing feeling

Man, catastrophe nearly hit me sideways. I was supposed to drive the carpool with Jim to Karate today, but last week he had mentioned he wouldn't be going on Thursday and somehow this got turned around into him not going on Tuesday. This meant I got home from work at like 5:30, started cooking dinner at 5:45, and it was all warm, delicious and ready by 6:10, which is the exact moment when Jim called asking where I was.

Damnit.

Well fortunately I hustled out there and picked him up, and he was gracious enough not to rub it in my face, and when I got home the food microwaved pretty well, so in the end it turned out okay. Plus I'm now having some nostalgia from college: milk in a glass with scoops of strawberry ice cream. Deeelish.

Also Sensei Jon is letting me participate in advanced classes now. Yay! Soon I will be brown, I can feel it. I must work hard to minimize the chances of faceplanting.


Date:02/24/10

Brain dump

Have I mentioned being done with GS is awesome?

Well awesome in the sense that I have time to do stuff now. Much less awesome in the sense that a lot of stuff still needs to be done, and in particular my thesis. Gwagh! I started the greenhouse yesterday, gotta get more counting done tomorrow. Fun times.

I'm starting to be bothered by not having my Spring schedule. Dr. Hedrick (bio dept chair) is waaay behind, probably because of the combination of budget crisis and him teaching for the first time since he's become chair. Fortunately I have already slotted out the most likely jobs I may get, and I don't need to know my office hours for a while. There was also just about zero choice as to when the karate training was scheduled next quarter. Tu/Th form 2-4PM. I really wish it weren't so, because it means I can't go all out, since I go train at JKASV from 7-9 on Tu/Th. I'll just consider it a warmup I guess. It's entirely possible to teach by standing around and making corrections.

I realized recently just how much JKASV has influenced my teaching style. I tend to follow their pattern more, which is often good, but they don't really emphasize teaching kata, and I do, so I have to make some adjustments. It's okay though, there seems to be enough time for everything, somehow.

Next week is week 9, which is the last week of chemistry lab at Concord (week 10 is the lab quiz and locker check), and week 9 of bio is a review week and week 10 is the final. I need to ask Dr. Word whether he wants anything out at all for the final or everything away.

That last week will be pretty easy I suppose! This upcoming Friday will have stuff but the next Friday will be lazy (good thing, since that's when I'm grading portfolios!). I do have to reinventory chemicals to see which ones are in the yellow zone (none are in the red zone yet, needing-more-wise)

And now, off to bed early so I don't feel like stabbing myself in the face when it comes time to work on thesis tomorrow! Whee!


Date:02/16/10

Madness!

No karate tonight, on account of the church room being in use. This means spare time!!!11

Almost too much time it seems. Haven't accomplished a whole lot, mostly blaming Bridget for getting me to watch Probe the TV series on youtube (mercifully only has 7 episodes, but each seems at least an hour). It was definitely ahead of its time, evoking the sensations modern detective shows have. The protagonist is basically one part CSI one-man team and one part L from Death Note, with a shot of The Doctor from Dr. Who. Delicious fun, but I was also hoping to get stuff done tonight.

Well at least my bedtime isn't for another 3 hours.


Date:02/11/10

Home Cooking

I haven't cooked a real meal for myself and eaten it in WEEKS. Oh sure I've made lunch several times, made Mac&cheese for Natalie, and even made rice to go with turkey pot pies. But over a third of my meals for the last few weeks have been restaurant food (Subway, Chipotle, and El Grullense comprise about 90%) because of my insane schedule and specifically the long Concord commute.

But tonight, I got home from thesis work in time to make dinner! I made fried rice with ground beef, egg and veggies (also have barely had any veggies at home except for some broccoli). It's nice to feel accomplished. Also nice to know I've eaten something that isn't expensive *or* bad for me!

This week is about done. This weekend seems to be real busy, and next week the same old grind. Weekend after that looks to be easy though! Yay.

Ok, gonna get ready for karate. Just another day in my 6-karate-classes-per-week schedule! It will probably be more next quarter!

(I don't work hard enough when I teach though. I do try to hold stances and move around as much as possible but the focus isn't on me so it's not the same. Still counts for something though)


Date:02/07/10

Sleep troubles

Been having trouble getting enough sleep this week. It feels like a blast from the past saying that, since I haven't really had severe sleep problems since I was a substitute teacher (and even then, I started adjusting my sleep schedule and it was fine, so really haven't lacked sleep since Mudd).

At least one of the days I know it's my fault, because I was coding. I always lose track of time when coding, and I should know better but I can't seem to stay away from it. I wasn't even coding hardcores see, it was just working on the new karate website. Apparently it was enough to keep me up past 11 without noticing. Whoops.

Anyways, got enough sleep last night and then some, hopefully that will be the end of my sleep troubles for a while.

Working on my thesis a bit. Checked the field plots and I do indeed see some poppy sprouts, which is good news. Too small and few to measure so far, but maybe this week I can go out and do a count.

Also been having fun making stuff for karate, including a paired set of kama. So far I have come to one conclusion: kama are amazingly fun to play with. Seriously.

Next time I get some time I will put together another internet weapons video compilation. Or two. I plan on doing a "soft weapons" one (nunchaku, 3-piece rod, flail, rope dart, kusarigama) and an Okinawan Kobudo (bo, nunchaku, sai, tonfa, kama). Fun times!

For Monday: print out the checklist, try to get the whole thing checked before students come in at 9AM. Will require hustling, but I forgot to do it on Friday (I was busy the entire time anyway) so chopchop!


Date:02/04/10

Spun right round

Man I'm being spun right round by the ridiculous list of things I have to do. And even when I carve some time out I can't seem to get any more done, since I have been trying to write for my thesis since I got home at around 7, and currently have very little to show for it.

I could have even run laundry but I was too busy avoiding my thesis to be productive. Lame I know! Rrrrgh. It's not really like me.

Maybe I've just hit the physical limitation to how much I can work? Doesn't seem likely. Probably has more to do with procrastination and reluctance to face the beast once and for all.

I did receive some decent advice on the topic recently though, so I will see how that goes.


Date:02/02/10

WATCH OUT!

I'm caffeinated!

Well seriously. Check out an old post I made called the Caffeine Conundrum (sadly this was before I added code to put tags on each post to make them individually linkable). The gist of it is I try not to caffeinate constantly so it's more effective when I do.

Well I had a caffeine soda with dinner at about 8PM today, so I'm still up after midnight. Fortunately, I have already gotten a LOT of work done, and am getting more done now, and will until about 1AM when I intend to try and crash and hopefully fasll asleep quickly (since I have to be up by like 9AM....)

Gonna walk to school tomorrow as well, on account of the parking at Cal State gets pretty full by 10AM and I can't afford to be late to class eh.

Okay gonna get more done!! Woowoo


Date:01/22/10

Productive!

Made green nunchucks, a green kodachi, and a target pad tonight (the last of those has a PVC handle, cardboard frame, is filled with styrofoam packing peanuts, and is secured with lots of gray duct tape and has red duct tape bullseyes in the middle). I am very proud of my work!

Being creative is fun when I do it on my own terms. Making things is my favorite hobby (though I'm not terribly good at producing on demand, like for schoolwork, so I've always known I wouldn't be a good artist or engineer for a living). I always take pride in my work. Guess that's just who I am!

I recall when I gave the "Duct Tape Seminar" at East Dorm I felt like I was revealing deep and arcane secrets.... that weren't secret, arcane, or deep at all. It was just stuff that anyone with half a brain and a roll of duct tape could work out on their own, yet it was very well-received. Seriously now, did you need me to tell you all that?

Yet when I think back about what I learned, it does seem a bit like all these details are obvious, but the finished product is a huge mass of little mysteries. How did you get it to do this/that/the other isn't so hard necessarily except if you have zero frame of reference. What's in the core is often the easy way to start the conversation, because people can visualize taking a dowel or a piece of paper or whatever and going from there (which is what I did at first -- people seem startled when I say something is pure duct tape).

With PVC it's much easier to visualize a path of creation, so the details on the foam and so forth aren't as confusing. The drilling holes for nunchaku twine was a bit inspired, I suppose, mostly by the pinframe I made last year. Ah yes, good times.


Date:01/18/10

Avatar

Saw Avatar on Saturday. Highly worthwhile movie, mostly for the visuals and action. It certainly does a good job of drawing one in to feel things as they happen.

Favorite line: Jake Sully describes himself: "I'm a marine.... uh, a warrior, from the Jarhead clan..."

Favorite audience insertion: as the twenty-ton armored animals charge the marine lines, (in Jason's voice) "Y'alls FUCKED NOW!"

Observation: it does in fact follow Pocahontas pretty well, only the difference is it would be perfect if, after Pocahontas's village is destroyed, her people journey far and wide and meet the Aztecs of the desert, the bear-hunting Inuit of the arctic, and the Llama-riders of the Andes to unite the clans into a force that drives all English settlers back to England from whence they came, led by the fearless John Smith riding the legendary Grizzly Bear that has not been ridden in generations.

(Actually that would be a pretty badass movie too.... except that's really really really not how it happened, and also I would have to stab the writers in the face for turning the Inca Empire into Llama-riders)


Date:01/18/10

Scatterthoughts

Nothing makes me feel warm and fuzzy quite like WWII Veterans kicking KKK ass and taking names. The villain of the story, James "Catfish" Cole, tried picking on the Lumbee because his first attempt, against the blacks in the area, went south on account of the NAACP head's house being fortified by WWII vets, and he was lucky to get away with his life.

Good times.

---

MLKJ day off today. Gonna get a lot of things done! I have to say, this morning as I was walking through the stripmall for breakfast and passed the Subway I was startled to see it closed. Then I realized it wasn't even 9AM yet. For some reason, I found this extremely exciting. The whole day was mine and it had barely even started yet.

---

One year ago today I was setting up for my field plots. I believe I will do the same. When I go food shopping I'll also pick up some dowels and saw them on Thursday. Then this upcoming Saturday I can get the whole thing sorted out after weapons class, and grab dinner afterwards. I like this plan.

A good plan makes me feel good. It makes me feel like I'm ready for whatever will happen. I believe it was once said, "Plans are worthless. Planning is priceless". It was in a military context, but it applies to me pretty well I think. I'm always planning, not because I expect the plans to be followed to the letter, but because it makes me ready.

---

Speaking of plans, other things on today's agenda:

---

That was quick.

---

I suppose I'd better get started on that list!


Date:01/13/10

Last Free Wednesday

At least for a bit. See, Wednesday night is my weeknight off, more or less. Tu/Th is karate, Friday I get back late and have early bed, and Monday I have to finish any and all GS prep.

(Un)Fortunately, I have a tutoring gig that starts next week. 7:30 in the evening (so like right after karate with a scant time for dinner) I will be tutoring chem and trigonometry to one SK. Now I wasn't originally planning on taking any tutoring jobs for winter on account of my retarded schedule, but I had several reasons for taking this job:

So there is why starting next Wednesday I'm putting 14-hour workdays into my schedule once again


Date:01/08/10

Badass Scientist

It seems relatively rare that a scientist role in a movie coincides with a badass role in the same movie (and probably just about never if you follow Mike's Rule of One: There can be only one Badass). Scientists are typically portrayed as highly intelligent but with gaping flaws to compensate, often either in their mettle, their forward-thinking or their virtue. And this is discounting their typically being portrayed as quirky and/or socially awkward.

That's why the head scientist in Death Note: L: Change the WorLd was such a treat to watch. Dr. Nikaido is a high-level scientist in the Infectious Disease Center which receives samples of a virus that wiped out a village in Thailand. He busies himself with synthesizing an antidote and succeeds. Discovering foul play (the virus is artificial and was made in the very labs he works at), he send his daughter with a sample of the virus to L.

His traitorous assistant, who conceived the entire plot, brings in her henchmen to collect the antidote from him. They need it in order to unleash the virus on the rest of the world and survive the catastrophe. They find him in the sealed containment room working on something or other. In a normal action movie, they would take the virus, kill him, and leave, and it would be up to the action hero to track them down and stop their fiendish plan.

Instead, Dr. Nikaido figures out their game and promptly autoclaves the antidote. Then when the villains try to stop him by saying they will catch his daughter to force him to stop, he pauses. Oh here we go, I thought to myself, always with the capturing the scientist's daughter, how very bland.

Turns out his hesitation was gathering the strength to rip off his safety suit and inject himself with the virus. He promptly dies a gruesome death, but not before spitting blood at the villainess and telling her she had better incinerate the entire room since the virus will eat through the biofilters. Damn! That's some major balls there. "You can't torture me psychologically by harming my daughter, I'll off myself with the insane virus first!" Pure respect there.

There needs to be more portrayal of scientists as badass. Sewiously.


Date:01/05/10

BEHOLD!

The monstrosity that is my Winter schedule.

A few notes on this schedule:



Date:01/02/10

Break almost over

:( Sadness

Oh well. At least I'm ready for winter. Very ready. Bring it ON!

I need to start adjusting my sleep schedule back from 1AM-10AM where it rests comfortably in winter (summer I get up a lot easier because of the sunlight). Probably should head to bed nowish (11PM) so I can do the same tomorrow night in order to get up at 7AM on Monday (erk)

Also, I'm just about over the whole Kanye West thing, but I do think Taylor Swift should find some opportunity in the future, preferrably when Kanye is accepting an award, to come on and Kanye him back. It would be quite rich.

(And of course, prior to the noted incident, I had never heard of either Kanye West or Taylor Swift. Thoughts like that make me questions how spontaneous it really was)


Date:01/01/10

The Saga of the Concord Campus Lab Manager

I don't know how to do this story justice better than to provide a timeline (all times highly approximate)

Craziness.


Date:01/01/10

Happy New Year Eh

Woo woo.

Last few days off here.

Friday: last-minute e-mails, blackboard work, and WoW
Saturday: Jennifer visits; writing stuff
Sunday: Natalie visits; last-minute panicking

This is the year 2010 (inside joke: the lab I'm going to be setting up is BIOL2010, har har)


Date:12/30/09

Zomg 2010 inc

Coming up on the end of 2009. Crazy! I think 2009 has been a good year, but also a difficult year for me. I've gotten a lot done, and laid the framework for what I intend to be doing in the future, but I've also left a lot on the field.

I suppose I could do one of those "year in review" things that have become so popular lately, but I'm lazy today. Maybe another time.

It does look like I'm going to have to scramble this winter though, more than expected. Turns out there are two sections of chem1602 at the Concord Campus that I'm going to have to be setting up (no one told the chem dept because we didn't know there were chem labs, and since we didn't tell them they didn't know Jacki had quit). The hitch here is that the first 1602 lab is Monday morning at 9:20AM, which gives me extremely little time to set it up (especially since I don't have a key yet). I guess I can hope that the first lab of the quarter is the orientation thing and there's little lab involved, but I'm still concerned, especially since it also seems possible that I will have to be there both Monday and Wednesday mornings to set up. Whoosh!


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