Linkstew

So last Thursday I had my second math midterm. This could have proven fatal...

But I did really well. The sick and twisted guy that he was, the professor was distributing solutions to the test outside after the test. And unless I made a careless mistake or overlooked something, I got all of the first five right, and the sixth, which was a terribly subjective question, I hopefully got at least partially correct. Woohoo!

And I got a fucking A on my Art History Midterm, and a fucking B on my paper. This fucking pisses me off.

You see, both the paper and the midterm happened before the deadline to change my fucking grading option from fucking pass no fucking pass to graded. And I thought I did poorly on the fucking test and the fucking paper, so I left the fucking grading option as pass no fucking pass. And I got the fucking paper and test back after the fucking deadline to change, so I'm stuck with pass no fucking pass in a class I could have gotten an A in with just a little bit of fucking work (as opposed to no fucking work, which is how much I was putting into it before).

And I have yet to find out in any way, shape or form what I got on my EE test from about three weeks ago. Maybe it was two. Whenever it was my Palm died.

So for Halloween, Pi and I went and saw Spike & Mike's Sick and Twisted Animation Festival. It was... Sick. And Twisted. And sick and twisted. Some of it was just off the deep-end, though, and were just things I never needed to see, and could have died happy without seeing. I enjoyed it on the whole, though, and I'll probably go back next year.

The three high points, off the top of my head, were the malevolent balloons, the fwoomp-ing rodent, and the teletubbie destruction. Fun stuff.

So, what is the Mean Time to Failure for Windows 9X?

One day I was sitting in class, and I was bored, and for some reason I had "Meet James Ensor" stuck in my head, and this is what came of it.

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Long Tall Weekend
to the tune of "Meet James Ensor," by They Might Be Giants

Long Tall Weekend
the Giants' latest album
Download it and listen now
Appreciate the Johns

Before there was Damage
Before it was made
They recorded some songs Elektra didn't use
That album was transformed...
Now fans gather round
Listened to the net-cast so they could be the first

To get Long Tall Weekend
the Giants' latest album
Download it and sit and stare
We all love the Johns

They lost all those discs
They didn't need those discs
They lived out in Brooklyn then uploaded themselves
The world has forgotten
The world moved along
The Giants were the first to use only bits

Long Tall Weekend
Long Tall Weekend
the Giants' latest ablum
Download it and listen now
Please support the Johns

"If you're in the wrong class, just pretend like you're going to the bathroom or something." --Kenji Tierney, Anthro TA

"Sumo is a big tradition... in many senses." --Kenji Tierney, Anthro TA

After about 30 seconds of an amusing pager song playing, Dittmer (Asian Studies) asked completely seriously, "What's that?"

The Palm V is very excellent. It's a pity I couldn't afford the Vx, because it's amazing how little 2megs of RAM is when you start adding a lot of software. Luckily there's this amazing app called FlashPro from TRG that allows me to store things in the Flash Memory of my Palm, giving me access to about 650k beyond the 2 megs. It's a program DEFINITELY worth buying if your Palm supports it. (Yes, I know the page advertises 800k+ that will be reclaimed, but I think PalmOS 3.3 is bigger than 3.1 was, limiting how much Flash is free)

The size of the Palm V is beautiful, I love the metal case, and the re-chargeable battery is the best thing. And while I've heard a lot of people complain about the inverse backlight on the V, I actually like it a lot better than the backlight on the older models. It just seems to work better, and it's not nearly as bright, drawing less attention to it.

The hardcase is also very very nice. It'll keep my Palm snuggly protected, and it's much better than the flimsy cover that comes with the Palm V by default. It's also better than the cover of the III series, etc. There are two flaws, though. The first is that it can only go in one way, even though the Palm V should be able to support going in both ways. I didn't explain that very well, but I'm not sure that I can do better. The point is, if you're left handed, this case is going to be difficult for you to deal with. The second issue is that in order to put the Palm V in the cradle, you either have to remove the case, or open the case flat, put the Palm V perpendicular to the case, and then hang the case over the edge of the table while the Palm V sits in the cradle, which is kind of precarious. However, it's definitely, as advertised, a hard case, which is exactly why I bought it. Get it if you want to protect your Palm, because the standard cover just won't cut it.

Amazon.com, versus Value America. So I ordered my Palm V on Wednesday the 13th, and I got it on Thursday the 21st. They claimed they had it in stock when I ordered it. They charged me $10 for shipping. I ordered my Palm V hardcase on Saturday the 23rd, and I got my Palm V hardcase on Monday the 25th. They didn't claim one way or the other whether they had it in stock. They charged me $4.95 for shipping.

Let's think about this for a second...

Granted, I got $100 off from Value America, making my Palm V a lot cheaper than it would have been from Amazon, but other than that, why would I ever order from Value America again given this track record?

So there are two halves to my Art History class, taught by two different lecturers. We're now on to the second half, and thus the second lecturer, who is, by leaps and bounds, worse than the previous lecturer (The fact that the name of the previous lecturer was Stewart has nothing to do with it).

At any rate, the new lecturer is very difficult to deal with, and I've noticed that I've gotten into the bad habit of writing something like "and then blah blah blah..." in my notes.

Blah Blah Blah. That's about all there is to it, though. The old lecturer was quite a lot better. My TA even said so, though not in that many words... However, she agreed with my section when several people started complaining...

But then again, I ain't gonna say they ain't. State Songs came out today. Get it.

I like it a lot, even if I do have a few minor complaints, which I won't get too deeply into right now. I'll probably be writing a longer review of this one in the next month, though.

My first big issue with the Album is that the sticker on the front of the package and the seal at the top of the jewel case said "John Linnell from They Might Be Giants." This isn't really that evil, and granted, not too many non-tmbg fans probably have a clue who John Linnell is... But I know a number of people who won't touch this album, simply because it is now associated with They Might Be Giants. I know people who would probably wouldn't like this album because it associated with They Might Be Giants, because those people think They are this 80's pop band, or a kids band, and so on. So it has been labelled before it was given a chance. On multiple levels. Ah well, so it goes. Hopefully John's lovely creation will go forth and sell a few copies.

The second major issue I have is that Nevada has been changed quite a bit. Before, the only part of Nevada that I liked was the first couple of minutes with the lyrics. Now, the lyrics have mostly been changed, and I don't even like them anymore. In other words, Nevada went from a song with two minutes of tolerable content to a song that I don't like at all. Pity, really.

I've got my second Math Midterm on Thursday, and I've already started studying at least a little. I'll study a lot more once I finish reading 1984 for English. I've also got to write a summary of Hamlet in 250 words for English by Thursday, and the usual EE homework on Wednesday and Math homework on Monday.

Hopefully I'll get the Math and EE homework, along with 1984, done this weekend, so that the rest of the time can be devoted to studying for Math, and writing my Hamlet Precis once I get my 500 word version back Tuesday.

I got my Palm V on Thursday. It's Shiny, it's new to me, and I like it. My only complaint is that it took Value America a week and a day to get the thing to me. And they sent it in a huge box.

But asside from that, I've got my Palm V, and I like it a lot. I downloaded most of the programs that I used to have on my Palm III, and I bought a couple of super useful programs that I'd been admiring, including a vastly improved DateBook and a program which gives me access to a significant amount of Flash Memory. Very worth the few bucks they cost.

So I had to cope for over a week without a Pilot, and I went totally nuts during that time. I had no idea what time it was, I had no where to keep track of my assignments, and I was generally lost. It was unpleseant.

But all of that is over now, as Thursday I got my Palm V.