Research: A. Senior Project: B. Terrorism: B. Video Game Design: B. Networking: D. Probability and Statistics: F.

Well, who wants to graduate anyway.

All of my classwork is finally over for the semester. My internet is now supposedly fixed. I’ve got two finals: one tomorrow and one thursday, and then I’m free! Lots of studying to do for now, though. More to come soon.

Sisters can be so nosy. Sometimes I wonder how I ever survived (and continue to survive now) living in such close proximity to these people. Only 2 weeks left in the semester, just gotta hold on a little longer.

Today I registered for the last classes I’ll have to take in my undergraduate career, assuming that I don’t fail anything. That puts me on schedule to graduate in 174 days 21 hours 8 minutes. I’m pretty excited about it. One of my professors sat me down today and spent about 20 minutes explaining to me why he thought I should be a Marine instead of an Air Force officer. Much to think about. Current classes are going ok. I think I’m going to pass everything. Lots of stuff left to do and only about 4 weeks to do it in. Next week is playtesting for my cell phone video game (promo poster) (commercial), and I also have to finish up my research paper on Cyber Targets of Terrorism, not to mention we still have a lot to do on our senior design video editor project. And of course I still have to keep up with networking and probstat. So much to keep track of! Back to work, more to come soon.

Sorry for the longish gap in posting. The last post sort of wore me out. I’ve been hard at work, trying to pass things. For my video game design class, we had to make a sort trailer/commercial video. Check it out here. It took me about 30 hours to do all the capturing and editing, and I’m still not thrilled with it, but I think it’s ok. Now I just have to finish writing the game, write 20 pages for my terrorism class, finish the video editing program I’m writing for senior design, do my research credit and pass Networking 2. Oh, and probability and statistics. What was I thinking when I signed up for all this? More to come soon (haha, if I have time).

Three very strange and wholey unprecidented things happened yesterday. First, I spent the better part of the day in a tuxedo, including tie and jacket shiny shoes and no hat. Second, I danced with 6 different girls, only two of whom I was related to. Third, Nathan got married. I’m not sure how all this came to be, but it involved lots of running around. Outside. In 80 degree heat. At twilight. Yes, you read that right, no hat. And dancing. Reports are coming in of record lows in hell. More to come soon.

This semester is going to be the heaviest load I’ve ever taken... but it is so exciting! On the one hand, I’m taking Networking II, in which I have to develop an orderable reliable network protocol. Networking happens to be my emphasis, so obviously I’m happy about getting to do such a cool project. Then there’s my Terrorism class, where I get to do a bunch of research into the different types of attacks that have been used so far, target selection, organizations, media coverage, and just about anything else related to the topic. That class gets a term paper. Then there’s my Senior Design Project, wherein I’ll be working with a small team to develop a video editing template program. It’s kinda hard to explain, but it’ll be a fun little project and will look good on my resumé. And then for desert, in my Video Game Design class I’m working with another group to develop a cell phone-based multiplayer video game, and the icing on that cake is that it’s turning into a research project as well, and it’s likely that we’ll be spending time with the embedded systems lab playing with cell phones donated by Cingular. As if that weren’t cool enough, if the research looks promising we may get a grant and do a mini-term graduate research course tacked on to the end of my time at Tech. And then I’m also taking some stupid math class that I don’t like. But the code!! The beautiful code! Ah, this is what college was supposed to be! Lots of hacking! More to come soon.

I know this won’t make sense to most of you, but I just got my C+Java combination computer program to compile in linux and windows and behave the same way. I’m pretty happy about it. The program allows me access to the SDL sound functionality, so now I can use high-quality music and sound effects for the video game I’ll be writing this fall. What fun! Don’t forget the upcoming LAN party coming up in just 11 days! More to come soon.

Well, it’s not like it was totally unexpected. I failed combinatorics. Again. This means I get to take it during my last semester of college. At least I hope it’ll be my last. Sigh. 22 whole days until school starts back. Maybe I’ll get my act together.

On another note, LAN party on August 20th!! More to come soon.

Another one bites the dust. Microeconomics final is over, and I’m almost positive I passed the stupid class. Now I just have to pass combinatorics and I’ll be set. More to come soon.

The concert was increadible, both nights. The LAN party was tons of fun. The company I work for, Radius3, just moved into a new facility, so I’ve been working hard to get the network and all the servers configured properly. I’m coming up on the end of my microeconomics class this week. Keeping up with school is always a struggle, but I think it’ll end up ok. After econ is over, I’ll just have combinatorics to worry about. And to top it all off, I’m moving to my parents house, starting right after my economics final. So much to do! More to come soon.

The concert occured. There were 2 songs played that I’d never heard before, one because it hasn’t been released yet and one because I’ve never played Final Fantasy XI. The rest I’d heard before, but heard tonight for the first time, as it were, especially To Zanarkand and You’re Not Alone, which happen to be two of my favorite pieces. Heh, just like all the other ones. It was so excellent, and the crowed was so excited and happy and impressed and so on, that they had to play the encore piece twice. I’m going to try to get them to do more when I go to see it again tomorrow night, after the LAN party. This ranks as one of the best nights of my life. More to come soon.

On tuesday morning, I was woken by the sound of two of my harddrives going KACHUNK! over and over, ruining themselves. It’s now friday night and I’m just now finally getting things back in order. I’m glad this nightmare is finally over. I rescued most of my data, thankfully. Two drives, on the same day at the same time. That’s just sad.

On the other hand, things are really starting to spin up for this Final Fantasy concert next weekend. My mom is singing in the chorus, which will be singing in 2 of the pieces, and since she’s in the chorus I get discounted tickets. And so do my friends. All 12 of us. So friday night I’m going to see it with my dad, and then saturday morning we’re going to have a LAN party for a few hours and then me and 11 of my merry friends are going to see it. And, to top it all off, we got the best seats in the house both nights. But it gets weireder!

A guy called me up this afternoon who works for the Atlanta Journal Constition, the local Atlanta newspaper. He has a friend in the chorus my mom sings in, and he’s writing an article about the Final Fantasy games and their music, and so tomorrow afternoon he’s going to come visit me at the lab (aka my room) and watch me play for a while and talk about it. Such oddness and excitement! More to come soon.

Well, I felt mostly prepaired for the two tests I had today, but I still had this sense of “Utter, Impending Doom.” But once I got there and sat down, things settled down some. I think I did ok on my combinatorics test, and my economics midterm was much easier than I was expecting. They weren’t supposed to be that easy. Now I’m not sure if I’m just smarter than I thought I was, or if the tests were hard and I screwed up while taking them. Yet another mini-LAN party this weekend. More to come soon.

I didn’t realize I was starting so many of these blog entries with “Well,” so I’m not going to this time. Monotony is the spice of life, but I don’t like spicy food much. In case you hadn’t noticed, a bit more of my Japan trip is posted, and I added a nice “anime” theme (available from the dropdown, then hit Try). School is pretty rough, but I think I’ll pull through. Work is steady. I’m going to be moving in with my parents in August for financial reasons, which is a semi-bummer. LAN party this weekend for my birthday (Friday), updates as they occur. And I found my drill!!!! More to come soon.

Well, over the weekend I went with some friends up to Nashville to see other friends graduate college. We had a lot of fun. I feel a little left behind, as it’ll be another year before I graduate, but I’m really proud of them. Classes start back tomorrow. Woopeee. More to come soon.

Well, my grades for this past semester finally came in. And the results: C in networking, B in databases, and a VERY SURPRISING B IN CALCULUS. I have no idea how I got a B in calculus, or why I got a C in networking, but I’m very happy to not have to take any of the classes again. 5 more days of non-schoolitude before summer classes start. I’m working hard (or hardly working?) so time is flying. More to come soon.

Well, that’s done! No more school for..... a few days! <Sarcasm>Yay!</Sarcasm> Maybe one of these days I’ll actually get around to graduating and it’ll be years off from school instead of days. More to come soon, maybe with actual grades.

Well, according to my algebra and confirmed by the professor, I am guarenteed a D (as in DONE) for calclus 3, regardless of what I get on the final exam. I’m still going to do my best on it though. Databases is over. I just sat down to start studying for my networking final, starting off with taking the practice exam, and I got an 80 on it. Still lots of studying to do though. Tuesday afternoon there will be much rejoicing. More to come soon.

Well, ladies and gentlmen, it’s been a fun semester, but now it’s drawing to a close. Yesterday I had my final database project demo, all possible points, therefore no final exam to take in that class. Yay. In calculus yesterday I demo’d my last project, a spinning cube. All possible points. Now I just have to make a 40 on the calc final and that’ll be over. That just leaves networking, but as that’s my specialty, I don’t think it’ll be too much trouble. 4 days to study! I got advised too, to top off the day, and I am confirmed as on target to graduate May 5th, 2006. Just one more year. More to come soon.

Calculus test on friday. Yay. I actually don’t think it’s going to be too too bad, since it’s just plugging numbers into stupid formulae and doesn’t require much thinking, just remembering the formulae. I’m close enough to the end of the semester where I’m pulling out my calculator and figuring out what kind of grades I have to get on my finals to pass the classes because I don’t want to study unduely hard and give myself an anyurism. Cause that would be bad. Soon I will get my blissful 1.5 weeks off, during which I will hopefully working a bunch to beef up petty cash for when my truck explodes. Oh and of course a trip to Nashville to see people graduate. More to come soon.

Another not so great test, this time in databases.

<rant>I am really frustrated with how little the lectures and homeworks and projects and practice tests do to prepare students for the actual exam. It may as well have been over cooking for how it related to what we’ve been learning. I really wish they would just give me the stupid piece of paper that says I know what I know so I can get on with USING my knowledge, instead of “learning” what I learned 5 years ago.</rant>

That said, 2 more weeks of class and I’m on to the summer. Where I’ll be taking.... classes. Ugh. More to come soon.

That means summer break, which for me is going to translate into about 2 weeks since I’m taking summer classes. I just finished registering for combinatorics and microeconomics to take this summer. These aren’t fun classes, but at least they’ll be out of the way. The scheduling works out much better than it has before; this way I only have to go downtown 3 days a week instead of all 5, saving me about 5 hours of driving time. Still working out, amazingling, and I can actually get close do doing a real workout. Work is going well. I’m pretty sure I failed my calculus test Friday, but I was kind of expecting that, and the projects I’m working on replace the grade so it doesn’t really matter much. Supposedly the rest of the class is easy. More to come soon.

I’ve stuck to my self-designed “workout” schedule for an entire week. I think this may be a first. Workout is in quotes because it doesn’t entail the amount of exertion normally associated with the term. The reason for this is my total lack of in-shape-ness. But after a week I can honestly say I can tell a difference. I just feel... stronger. Pretty cool. I’ve officially got a job with Radius3, a web application company (sort of). The main problem I have with it is the office is an hour away from my house, but I’m working on setting up some software so I can work on my laptop from home or school, instead of having to go in to the office all the time. I tossed up another day on my Japan page. Don’t whine about it being short; it was a travel day. I added a map to each of the travel days, highlighting where we traveled to and from, so be sure to check them out. More to come soon.

My parents “strongly encouraged” me to look for a job, either something part-time that I could handle with school, or something full-time to do over the summer and delay my graduation. I’ve been in contact with a programming company I heard about from a friend at school, and I think I’ll probably end up working there doing some part-time programming work. Since I’ve been on break, I’ve been taking some time to think over “the future,” and I find myself considering military service. Those of you who know me somewhat (and why else would you be reading this garbage?) know that I like computers, guns and going fast, and the military, specifically the Air Force, would allow me to have all of those incorperated into my every-day life. So, I consider. LAN party was awesome, break is fun, more to come soon.

Alas, all good things must come to an end. This morning I drove to Marietta and removed the carputer from my dead '92 Toyota Corolla, and signed the title over to the dealership at which it sat. At least I didn’t wreak this one. New truck is doing ok, but is lacking in technological sophistication. I have a plan to fix that, of course, but it requires a source of funding, which I hope to secure in the near future on a part-time basis. Too bad life didn’t come with a hint guide or something. Oh, and FFX-2 is awesome, and LAN party Saturday. More to come soon.

I love coding. I can’t imagine doing anything else as a career. I wish I could start my career already but I have to finish up school first. And to that end, I just basically finished a 4000-line java program for my database class. Just a little touching up left to do. I’m also really looking forward to the LAN party coming up, even if only a few people show up, it’ll be a lot of fun. More to come soon.

80 on my database test. The test I thought I had today I didn’t. The proffesor said something along the lines of “in writing up this test, I realized how much material in this section is left to cover, so I’m postponing the test until 2 weeks after spring break.” Such is life. LAN party March 19th!! More to come soon.

Beyond the Clouds is one of the best anime movies ever. That is all.

98 on my networking program, 90 on my networking homework, 105 on my first calc program, 100 on my second calc program, 92 on the first phase of my database project. This may just be the best semester I’ve had yet, gradewise. Still lots of stuff I can screw up though. As for other updates, I tossed another page onto my Japan trip, including the pics of Universal Studios Osaka. I also updated my firewall rules today. More to come soon.

Oops, I mean 1996. Updated my aircrack patch to include the rewrite I just finished so it uses threads instead of processes. According to my benchmarks, my patch decreases total run time by about 30%. Good times. Networking test today. At some point I need to get rid of my old car. Yeah. More to come soon.

Well, I now own a 1994 Mazda pickup truck. Not my first choice, but a good deal, and hopefully it’ll serve my needs. I’m very releaved and thankful. More to come soon.

Still no car. I’ll be looking heavily for a car this weekend. Since the bike belongs to a friend, I’m spending a very small amount of cash on fixing the cheap stuff, so if I end up buying it it will need less to get it ridable and if not, my friend gets cool stuff. The “ups” part refers to the B I got on my calculus test. I am ecstatic. Even though I somehow thought that dividing by 4 was dividing by 2, I still got a B. I’m really happy about that. Thanks James! More to come soon.

On my way to chattanooga saturday, the transmission broke in my car. Broke solidly into pieces too small to be put back together, even by toyota-certified technicians. So I’m now faced with the choice of getting a new transmission for $3400, getting a “used” non-warranty transmission installed for goodness knows how much so it will “hang on another year” or I can get a new vehicle. As the car has 200,000 miles on it, I’m leaning heavily towards the last option. I spent most of this morning carshopping, but sadly found nothing. One guy even laughed in my face and then slammed the door in it. Maybe I’ll get a motorcycle? If you have any leads on a vehicle for me, let me know. More to come soon.

Well I had my first calculus test yesterday. It didn’t go as well as I’d hoped, mostly because I forgot how to do basic triganomatry. I understood all of the calculus involved though, and I hope that shows in the work I did on the wrong trig, allowing me to get a grade of at least a C. The professor also changed the number of problems on the test from 5 to 8 without extending the time, which was unfortunate, so I felt a bit rushed. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. In other news, the lan party consisted of Kevin coming over and us playing for a few hours, then Mike and Katrina coming to visit and us going to Frys and dinner. Sadly about normal, but still fun. More to come soon.

Well, my hands really aren’t very idle these days. I’ve got this calculus business that I’m trying to take care of. I picked up some side work writing web applications, which has been taking up some of my free time (what little there is). Then there’s the database project that got assigned today, which I’m supposed to work on with 3 people for 3 months, but instead am working on by myself and am about a fourth done with. Did I mention my networking project which I had two weeks to do? It’s done. I am in a coding mood. More to come soon.

Well, today I ended up dropping my Japanese minor to dedicate more time to actually passing classes required for me to graduate. Calculus 3 is harder than I thought it would be. While unfortunate, this doesn’t mean that I’ve given up studying the language, it just means I will no longer do it in a formal setting. It also means I cut about 94 days off my time-til-graduation. It probably means I won’t be going to Japan in the summer though. More to come soon.

Well, today was the first day of class. As usual, there were unexpected details that cropped up that needed to be dealt with, like an unexpected No Left Turn sign on your way to your wedding or something. Maybe not that drastic. In my case it’s a slight scheduling conflict. I’d originally given myself half an hour to get home to attend my online Japanese class (or more accurately, I gave no thought whatsoever to the travel time), but when I timed it today it was over an hour. After conferring with my professor, I am going to use the language lab computers if they’re not in use, and if they are, I’ve procured internet access through the nearby residence of my good friend and Japan travel companion, Kevin. Kevin had jaw surgery and looks like a whale, I’m told. LAN party was awesome, if slightly few-numbered as half the people that said “probably” ended up saying “no.” Class is going to be rough this semester, check back weekly for whining. More to come soon.

Well, here I am again, less than a week before the new semester starts. It’s been pretty breaklike, with the exception of things like Opthomologist appointments and work. I’m really looking forward to this LAN Party coming up on Saturday. It will most assuradely be good times. More to come soon.