BrockLi Soup

Ryan and I left for North Carolina at 6 AM on Friday, just as planned. The trip down went by a lot quicker than I thought it would, and once we got past Pennsylvania, it was smooth sailing. It was pretty shitty through NY and PA, but there was no snow south of Maryland. The traffic wasn’t too bad, so we made it in about 11.5 hours, including a stop for lunch and a quick run into Walmart because I had forgotten to bring shoes.

Not long after we arrived, we went to dinner at a bar and grill called Tyler’s. Apparently, bars have to be members-only if less than 40% of their revenue comes from food or some such. Casey’s boss from the print shop has a membership to a bar here called Orange County Social Club, so we went there with her afterward for some drinks. It was a cool little place, bunch of trendy artsy hipster types.

On Saturday, we were making breakfast when Dan said we should each drink a six pack and make bottle cap coasters like Sharon has. So we went to Michael’s and got some acrylic and each of us picked out a six pack at the grocery stores. Only Dan and I managed to get through them that night, but Ryan and Casey finished up on Sunday, so we’re going to make the coasters tonight.

Yesterday, we made the 300-mile round-trip to the beach. It was freezing and really windy, so we didn’t stick around long, but it was cool because I’ve never been to the ocean. I even saw palm trees! We got some dinner at Cracker Barrel and came back here to watch the Academy Awards.

It’s been a relaxing weekend. We’ve just been hanging out, watching movies and playing with the dogs. I guess Rhubarb and Shane might come down in a day or two; James and Patrick had to back out for some reason, and Shane didn’t come down the other day like he was planning to. I wish they had all come along, but we’ve been having a hell of a time anyway.

The other day, I ordered three 6′ x 18″ rolls of Memoboard dry-erase contact paper. They came this morning, so I stopped by the bookstore and got a roll of 1″ black photo masking tape to make a frame. It was a total pain the ass, but I managed to get it up in the living room. I was going to use all three rolls in there, but decided that a 4.5′ white board would be a little much. It looks pretty good, but there were bumps on the wall that made it a bit lumpy in spots. I’m going to cut the last roll in half and put a 3′ x 3.5′ board on the other wall in my room. Click on the picture for the full-size version (not that there’s much more to see).

Also, you know it’s been a busy week when NetNewsWire reports I have 590 unread items. Seems I have a lot of reading to catch up on. I also grabbed a couple Hunter S. Thompson books at the library when I heard about his death; I figured it was about time I find out what all the fuss is about. I’ve started (but haven’t gotten very far in) Fear and Loathing in America, vol. 2 and also got Kingdom of Fear. Fear and Loathing is a collection of his letters over the years, and a couple of his articles were mentioned. I had some time to kill the other day when I was working in VIA, so I found them on microfilm and printed them out. I scanned them and made PDFs out of them too, but I’m not really sure why. If nothing else, I’ll always have a copy of them somewhere.

Over the past several weeks, I’ve noticed that RIT has been replacing paper towel dispensers and some older hand dryers around campus with these new, high-powered XLERATOR dryers. While I prefer paper towels for my hand-drying needs, these things are way more effective than the paltry dryers of our forefathers.

Somehow, these things came up in conversation the other day with someone (I can’t remember who - maybe Heewa). RIT has been putting stickers on them that say “This dryer has been installed to cut down on waste in support of RIT’s commitment to the environment” or some such. Whoever it was I had been speaking with speculated that the power necessary to run these things just might use up more resources than paper towels would waste. An interesting concern, but I have no idea how one might address it. Lucky for us, their website says they use 80% less energy, so we can all be satiated and content with our hand-drying situation.

Also, I haven’t been able to verify this, but I’ll bet that all the stickers are still on the ones in ladies’ rooms. The dryers come with an arrow-shaped “FEEL THE POWER” sticker on the front that points down at the nozzle. The ones in the men’s rooms quickly disappeared when guys realized that the stickers would be much funnier stuck to the front of their pants.

Fonny had a link to this video (37.3MB) in his away message this afternoon. I was really impressed with how well-made it was (particularly the guys’ accents - it drives me nuts when redneck accents go over the top), and it’s absolutely hilarious. It’s worth the wait to download it.

About a month ago, I discovered the Hipster PDA. The library sells 100-packs of index cards for a quarter each, so I grabbed some loose change and bought a couple hundred. I’d keep a dozen or so loose in my back pocket and jot reminders to myself on them - mostly things I needed to remember to do. A week later, I stopped by the book store and bought a pack of binder clips to keep them together. The finished product can be seen to the right.

43 Folders has since suggested a number of different tips for using the Hipster PDA, most of them focusing on the Getting Things Done system. I only got a few pages into it before I lost interest, so I never became one of the hardcore productivity nuts. Rather than having a systematic method to it, I think it’s nice just to be able to jot down notes when I need to. In any given day, there are dozens of things I think of during class, like project ideas, upcoming seminars, mailing a credit card bill, or making a phone call after class. I’ve been finding more and more that making a quick note is a lot more efficient than just hoping I don’t forget about it. When I come home at the end of the day, I pull out the stack and take care of things I need to do, or put reminders in iCal for things that are coming up. It comes in real handy.

If anyone wants to give it a try, let me know; the binder clips only came in variety packs, so I’ve got 5 or 6 more of them and about 500 index cards.

Until I co-oped at PPG two summers ago, I didn’t know you could make My Documents point somewhere other than the default location, in c:\Documents and Settings\User.

When I bought my current desktop last fall, I figured I’d take advantage of this. Previously, I had a “stuff” folder in my C: drive where I kept most of my media - MP3s, videos, pictures, etc. When I got the desktop, I partitioned it into two drives - 20GB for the OS and program files, and the other 60GB for media.

To redirect My Documents, right click on the icon on the desktop and select Properties. Change the path in the Target box. In my case, I pointed it at D:. By default, this won’t be in your PATH. To change that, right click on My Computer, select Properties, and go to the Advanced tab. Click on Environment Variables, and add your new My Documents path to the value there (make sure you end it with a semicolon).

By default, Windows creates a variety of sub-folders in My Documents, such as My Pictures, My Music, and My Videos. I renamed these to pics, music, and video respectively. Since the directory is in my path, I can enter any of these three names at the Run command to open the folder quickly. I also have a folder called new, where all my downloads go.

Most people that read this blog have probably found a setup that works for them, but if anyone is in the same boat I was two years ago, this might help.

Today was my last day of class for the next (hopefully) six months. It’s nice to know I won’t have to get up early for them or do homework next week, but I’m not out of the woods yet. I’ve still got final projects due in Artificial Intelligence and Genetic Algorithms, along with three finals and a presentation. It will all be over by Wednesday evening.

I know I say it every quarter, but I can’t believe it’s almost over. Not that I’m complaining - this has been, without a doubt, the worst quarter I’ve ever had. AI and GA turned out to be entirely unlike what I expected them to be. It’s not even like I was doing poorly in either of them; they were both so disappointing that I gave up on them halfway through the quarter. As a result of my disgust, this whole quarter has left me with a bad taste in my mouth, despite the fact that Film Arts and Discrete both went really well. I fear that AI may be my first D ever - I did pretty bad on the quizzes we took, I’m way behind on the project that’s due Sunday night, and I can’t imagine I’m going to ace the final next week. Every time I start worrying about it, I have a quick, 15-second anxiety attack about all the work I have left and how poorly I’m probably going to do. Then I think, “Man, I usually only get this stressed over money!” And then I start thinking about how financially screwed I am, and REALLY start to panic.

And then I remember that everything has always worked out OK in the past, and I get back to reading blogs in NetNewsWire, or writing here, or watching The Simpsons (my soup du jour this month).

I’m not going to do great this quarter, but I’m OK with it. Neither AI nor GA is going to factor into my GPA, with the switch to IT, so it’s hard to get too worked up about it. I’d rather keep from stressing myself into an ulcer and just make it to Wednesday alive.

I just talked to Dave over at the College of Business, and I got the job! You’re looking (kinda) at the new Systems Administrator Assistant!

Man, saying that out loud makes me feel terribly under-qualified.

I’m so glad I can stop worrying about this. No more worries about loans, or what classes I’ll take (assuming they even let me register), and I can start paying back some debts. This is a huge weight off my shoulders.

Plus, I can finally get some shit done. I never have time for my own projects when I’ve got a ton of crap to do for classes. On co-op, the day ends at 5 (or in this case, 10, I think). I can come home and read, or watch movies, or finish countless projects that have been CSH Done for years. On top of that, I’m going to learn a lot on the job.

It’s going to be a good quarter.

This just in - you can get fired for your blog. Thank God CNN is there to spread the news.

Seriously, if you don’t know this by now, you shouldn’t be blogging. At least this one doesn’t mention Heather (see also, dooced).

…the graffiti in the Library bathroom attempts to prove that 1 = 2. And someone else has tried to correct it. And they’ve corrected the wrong part.

For a while, I was convinced, but then I read more carefully and found a gaping hole in the theory. Unfortunately, no one else had noticed said error, but had incorrectly identified three other ones that were actually legitimate steps.

These punks totally stole my idea. Some of you may remember the keyboard I painted blue my freshman year (the link on that page is dead). It looked really cool, but at the time, I didn’t consider the implications of a solid blue keyboard. It did keep me from sending drunk IMs most of the time, though.

At any rate, I heard back from DSS yesterday - no dice. I started panicking. What if I don’t get the CoB co-op? Will I be able to take classes? Will I have to take a leave of absence? WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN?!

Thankfully, apathy quickly set in and all was not lost. I made an appointment with a Financial Aid advisor this afternoon, and it turns out I won’t be totally SOL if I wind up taking classes. I’ll get around $3000 in scholarships and grants, but none of the federal loans I usually get. Since I’ll be paying those back later on anyway, it would cost me the same thing in the long run to take a loan out from the bank to cover the rest.

That’s my backup plan; I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that. When Fonny got home this evening, he found a message on his answering machin from Dave, asking me to give him a call. I don’t want to get my hopes up, but it seems like he would have just said it in the message or sent me an e-mail if they had hired someone else. Since I didn’t get the message till after 7, I’m going to call him in the morning, and we’ll see what happens.

In the meantime, I have more programming than I can shake a stick at, and I’m an accomplished stick-shaker.

…someone in your Genetic Algorithms class evolves the best dance pattern for Dance Dance Revolution. And when he shows a demo, someone else in the class asks what song it was. And instead of naming a common DDR song so all the geeks can nod in approval, he names a Final Fantasy song that he made up his own dance for, eliciting even more approving nods.

I may be proud to be a geek, but some of these guys are ridiculous.

In the past couple weeks, I’ve sent resumes to a number of on-campus departments for various co-ops. Without a car, my options are limited to campus and close to my parents’ house in Buffalo. I certainly don’t want to leave behind all my friends here for another 3 months, so I’m focusing my efforts on jobs here.

I only heard back on two of the resumes I sent in, and both interviews were on Tuesday. The first was for a Systems Administrator Assistant in the College of Business (the job Joanna currently holds, and Nik had before her). I checked my e-mail shortly before the interview to make sure I had the right room, and noticed a line I had missed before - “Please bring a list of references.”

I quickly whipped up a list and frantically tried to print it. I couldn’t get my printer to work, so I stopped into the lab in CoB, but only business students are allowed to print there. I pulled out my laptop (thanks again, Apple) and e-mailed it to the guy I was interviewing with, hoping that would be OK.

As it turns out, that was OK, but I was so flustered that I didn’t do very well in the interview. On top of that, I had been sick for a few days already and always feel out of it. I had to keep reminding myself to pay attention to what we were talking about and make sure my eyes were in focus. The interview only lasted 10 or 15 minutes, so I don’t think I really had time to convince them I’d be good at it. Both of the guys I met with were really friendly though, and I think they’d be cool to work with if I did get the job. I think they said they had interviews through part of next week, so it might be a while before I find out.

Half an hour later, I had the interview for the Evening Operations Assistant at DSS. I got there 5 or 10 minutes early and sat down to wait. Shortly after my 3:30 appointment time, the girl working there mentioned that the previous interview had started 10 minutes early and was running late - not a good sign for me. As it turns out, the guy before me was Vicki’s little brother Bill. I haven’t seen him since we spent the weekend in Corning two and a half years ago, and I wouldn’t have recognized him if he hadn’t added me on thefacebook a couple weeks ago.

Anyway, the interview lasted about 45 minutes, and was with two women that manage the labs and two guys who have done the job before. This one went better, because I had more time to get over the initial nervousness and be myself. I should have prepared better for the interview, though; I should have considered answers for standard questions like describing a conflict I’ve had with a customer before and how I dealt with it. I had thought of things to say when they asked me to tell them about myself, but I hadn’t really thought about customer service type questions. They had interviews scheduled until today or tomorrow, and the position starts right after finals, so I should know soon one way or the other.

The other problem I have in interviews is that I’m not sure how to act. My interview at Tech Crew three years ago was very laid back; it was four or five of the student supervisors and me, just kind of hanging out so they could get to know me and find out what I’m capable of. In an environment like CoB or DSS, it’s obviously more professional, so I act accordingly. At the same, I don’t want to seem too stuffy and boring if it turns out their office is as relaxed as Tech Crew or the library. I’m certainly not trying to act like someone else in the interview, but you need have an appropriate manner for the situation, and I’m never quite sure what that is.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do if I don’t get one of these two. I don’t have any financial aid left for the year, so I can’t take classes unless I take a huge student loan to cover them. I was considering that as Plan B. If I did, I would do a co-op sometime next year instead of classes and therefore need a smaller loan for the year, and it should all even out. However, since I’ll only be taking 2 quarters of classes in the 2005-06 school year, I’ll be pretty well off if my financial aid stays the same as it usually does.

But I suppose I’ll worry about that if I don’t get a co-op.

“Will, the pneumonia patient - I got him to quit smoking.” “Forever? No ‘last one’? ‘Cause the last ones are better than sex. Trust me, I’ve had about a thousand of them.”

I don’t know why I ever smoked a second cigarette; hell, I don’t know why anyone does. Your first smoke tastes like burning dirt, it makes you smell bad, and you cough violently through the entire experience. So why does anyone ever try a second one?

Part of the reason I started was (ironically) the smell. I loved the smell of my dad’s cheap cigarettes on a cold winter morning. I always liked the smell of his pipe when he smoked it, but cigarettes only smelled good on cold mornings. By the time he quit smoking, I was 16 and had started in on it myself.

I’ve only recently discovered that smoking is an acquired taste - for me, anyway. I learned early on that beer is an acquired taste (my older cousins have taught me more than I’ll ever realize), and cigars are a taste I never cared to acquire. Similarly, you start to enjoy the taste of cigarettes after a while. But, like all things we enjoy, you start to take it for granted sooner or later. I usually smoke 3 or 4 cigarettes a day, aside from a pack-a-day stint I did for a week last fall (this is obviously not the recommended serving size). Last week sometime, I was out of money and on my way home from work sometime around midnight. As I smoked my last Camel, I realized how wonderful it tasted. Knowing that it was the last of the pack and I didn’t have money for more made it all the better. Unfortunately, I managed to get another pack shortly after. Fortunately, I got to savor that last cigarette again, twenty smokes later.

I think it’s time for another break from smoking. I’m not going to say I’m quitting, because we all know that never works out. For the time being, though, I’m done. I should have stopped months ago, before hockey ended - I could have been twice as good if my bursts of speed weren’t stopped short by the inability to breathe. Now, the months of accumulated smoke since the last time I “quit” are taking their toll, and I find myself again battling the unending sore throat. It’s time for a break, and if I can hold out long enough, maybe I can kick it for good.

And if not, I’ll get to enjoy that last cigarette again some other time.

Before I tell this story, let me be clear: I am not a pothead. I’ve smoked pot about a dozen times over the course of a couple years, and not in the past several months.

The first quarter of my freshman year here, I used to stand outside and smoke with my buddy M all the time. He introduced me to Camel Wide Gauges, which are still my favorite kind of cigarettes. At some point I mentioned that I wanted to try pot while I had the chance to be irresponsible in college, and he immediately offered to provide. I had heard that you won’t get high the first time you smoked, so we agreed that we should just smoke a lot of it.

That weekend, the two of us went out to B lot and moved his little 1986 VW Jetta to the back row, and smoked three bowls in a matter of 15 minutes. The tiny car was hazy with smoke. M was obviously affected by it, because when it came time to tap out the bowl, he did it into his hand. The ash - and with it, the cherry - landed in his palm and burned his hand. His door was closed, so he didn’t know what to do with it and started tossing it back and forth, hot potato style. I laughed so hard I nearly pissed myself; I actually had to get out and pee in the woods because I was honestly afraid I was going to piss.

We walked back to the dorms and stopped into the Corner Store. I was still convinced that I was sober, because no one gets stoned the first time they smoke, right? I bought a liter of Mountain Dew and a box of Little Debbie Star Cakes, M got a drink and a box of some kind of Little Debbies, and went up to hang out in his room. For the next two hours, I laughed more than I had in weeks, drained the soda, and finished off the box of Star Cakes. They tasted so good I couldn’t stop eating them. I was convinced I didn’t get stoned, but I have never known munchies like that.

M left RIT after winter quarter, and I haven’t seen him since. I’ve smoked with a handful of different people since then, but I don’t think I’ve ever had as much fun with it as I did that night. He gave me a chance to try something new, and that’s what I came to college for.