Mind Garten

Death by Programming I spent about 5 hours today trying to complete my Computer Science homework. Most of it was spent hitting my head against the desk trying to figure out how to program the Fast Fourier Transform. What it is, isn't important. What is important, is that it's done ! This my CS teacher, Professor Cull: He's a real crazy guy. In one respect we are kindred souls because we both wear bright hawaiian shirts. He also wears shorts just about every day which is pretty impressive when its cold out. Of course he has a jolly personality and a long beard, so he's a shoe-in for a Santa Claus. Although the beard isn't grey yet, that's nothing that can't be fixed with a little hair dye. He's also a cigar smoker. I sit down in the front row, and every morning he places 3 small cigars on the table. For what reason, I don't know. I know from going to his office that he likes to chew on the cigars without smoking them, but he...

More Cats! I thought I'd talk about the cats at my parents house. Here they are in order of oldest to youngest. Misty Misty is by far our oldest and longest lived cat. She's 12 or 13. She's overweight, partially blind from cataracts, and had a stroke which impaired the effectiveness of her hind legs. Despite all of these setbacks, she's stubbornly outlived 2 of our other cats that we got after her. Misty's story is pretty short. She spends most of her day lying around, napping, and waiting for dinner. It's a big day if she walks up and down the stairs more than once per day. Like all the other cats, she recognizes the familiar sounds of the food dishes when they're going to be fed. But gradually over the years, she's become more and more cautious about immediately running towards the kitchen. You see, we humans are notorious for setting off false alarms just to get them to come to the kitchen so we can ensnare them and apply whateve...

I feel lucky today. Today I found out that I get the 6th highest grade in our Chemistry exam. I also discovered that my computer science assignment is due on Friday instead of tomorrow. Life is good. Well, at least today is. This weekend I went up to Portland to visit my parents. My brother also came up to Portland, so for a while the whole crew was back together again. This is my brother Jerry. He's a firefighter down here in Corvallis and he's also going to school to get a Bachelor's degree. As you can guess, this was taken in Burger King while we were having breakfast. My mom is always saying how we are complete opposites and that she's amazed that we're related. That's generally true since Jerry has always been the active, jovial, sports-oriented tough guy, and I have always been the bookish, cynical, holier-than-thou weakling. I used to be able to beat up on him until he got bigger than me. After that I had to learn to appease him so ...

Well I'm sitting here in my room trying to figure out what needs to be done for this next week. I have a bunch of reading that I need to do, and I have a computer science project and a paper to write by Friday. This is the desk in my room where my computer is. My room is actually pretty desolate. The walls remain bare with no thought of picture frames or newspaper clippings adorning it. All my papers are haphazardly piled up in a corner in an attempt to fence off the chaos and prevent it from spreading. I have very few possessions, relatively speaking. The largest thing I own is my computer, and all the other things I own are out of necessity. Clothing, bedding, school supplies, and a paper bag containing odds and ends that I've found out, every once in a while, that I cannot live without. The whole room looks like I never completely moved in. My socks and undergarments still remain in the paper bags I transported them here in-- the very same bags they were ke...

At our apartment complex, in our next door neighbor's apartment, there's this really funny cat. Half the time I walk by their door, the cat is sitting in the sliding door window looking out. When he sees me, he starts meowing intently at me like he wants something. For several days after I first saw him, I had the suspicion that he was locked in and starving, but I quickly discounted that idea when I saw the light turn on and off and the cat stay just as fat as he'd been over the next several days. So now I know he's just really friendly. Every time he sees me he calls me intently begging for me to come over and pet him. Although I can't pet him, he makes for real great poses. See what I mean?

I can say with confidence that I am completely burned out. It feels like I just got done with Finals week. I had an enormous amount of work to do this week because of 2 midterms and a large assignment due on Wednesday and Friday. I just now got done with all of it, and I am exhausted. My body does weird things when its stressed. I'm generally not stressed at all, but when I am, I can feel it. My muscles start cramping, my back tenses up, and sometimes I get nauseous. Of course this is in extreme conditions since I always put things off to the last minute, and I end up doing them in a frenetic tornado.

Its been pretty busy these past few days. I've had a lot of homework to do and a lot of midterms to study for. But that's no excuse to make excuses for not posting more pictures of cats! I actually have had enough time to take snapshots as I've been walking to and from school. I have a few cats to show you. As I was walking home from school the long way, I saw this kitty out and about looking for something on a hill. I had some really good views of this cat, but it took me several minutes before I realized I had a camera and should be taking pictures of it. By this time, my lingering around had made this furry-orangish cat a little timid, and it sought the safety of the underneath of a Buick. I had to take this picture from quite a distance away or else I would have scared him off. The strange and frustrating thing about taking pictures of cats is that their eyes reflect the flash giving them a possessed look. This effect is exacerbated when its nighttime be...

Cats! I live in an apartment complex that has a lot of cats. Its still winter time, so most of the cats stay inside. In fact, most of them may just be indoor cats. The fun thing is trying to spot all these animals as they peer out the window. What's even more fun is taking pictures of them! I don't know much about this one. I've only seen him once. He happened to be poking his head out the window in an upstairs room, and I happened to have my camera with me. This cat's name is Chelsea. She belongs to one of my neighbors. She's very timid but she relaxes when she's under a chair or sitting on her owner's lap. I think she has beautiful eyes and I'm glad to be able to get such a good picture. Another anonymous kitty. This time this cat was on ground level. You can tell he has a bit of a greyish coat and of course the eyes are illuminated by my camera flash. I'll have more pictures of cats around my apartment complex later!

My roommate recently underwent a transformation. Let me tell you a little about him. His name is Logan and I've been living with him for almost 9 months now, but I lived with him before that too. He's a very agreeable person to get along with. The fact that he's so agreeable is why he's been my roommate for so long. This guy can tolerate my laziness and messiness to an extreme degree that I can't imagine living with anyone else. I've also served as sort of an instructor of common sense to Logan. You see, he has fallen behind a little in that department, so I have been a kind of counterweight in that respect. Of course, I must admit that I haven't always had common sense. I was way behind in this department as well, but I've learned a great deal in the past few years. I'm still not very good at cooking and other mundane everyday activities, but I digress. So what is this transformation that he has undergone? Well this is what he look...

I know I haven't posted in a while. I've been very distracted lately. Mostly because I've come back to Oregon State University. In my last days at work I spent a great deal of time in reverie and cleaning up. I had to pack most of my crap into my car and haul it down to Corvallis, so I had my mind completely occupied during that time. I had to trim the loose ends of my life in Beaverton, so I could leave in good conscience. Now that I'm here, I have a fairly easy curriculum. My courses are mostly bac. core, which means classes like history, philosophy, etc.. Its actually a pleasant change of pace since I don't have to constantly study my entire life. Its a dramatic shift from the technical work of my engineering classes. Although I am taking Chemistry and Analysis of Algorithms, they're fairly easy compared to my older classes. Since I haven't had much time or motivation to do much writing on my blog, I've been keeping an audio journal wit...