Linkstew

In a vain effort to do anything but think after finishing turning in my compiler last night, I just spent four hours cleaning up my apartment. I scrubbed the kitchen and bathroom counters, cleaned off the surface of the stove, swept the floor, cleaned the sinks, and even worked at the mold on my bathroom ceiling a little, because nothing has been done about any of that in like, four or five months. I've just been too busy to think about it. But now, with my compiler turned in, all I've got left this semester is a homework assignment and four finals. Unless we decide to try to write an optimizing compiler... But at the moment, the thought sends me into a fit of mad laughter.

It's a good thing I decided to have some pork chops along with my artichoke for dinner. I think my definitions of "small artichoke" and "goes all the way down easy" are significantly different from Learn2's definitions, and I ended up with an undercooked artichoke. Ah well, that's the way the pile of artichoke leaves tumble into the trash, I guess.

I'm having an artichoke for dinner tonight, but I needed to remind myself how to cook an artichoke. And Ask Your Neighbor.com seems to have had the answer to my question.

I'm really just posting this banal detail to test some backend stuff on the site, though I am having an artichoke for dinner. Have a nice evening!

Tonight wasn't an extraordinary evening. It didn't involve a car chase or anything. Most of the evening was pretty boring, in fact. The programmer team brainstormed at the office for a long time,I went home, put in a tape to record Ed, took a shower, and then my mom got home.

When I started doing dishes, though, suddenly things got kind of interesting. When I was about halfway through Keith and Michael showed up, so in the background they were moving things in and I was listening to my mom talk to them while I realized that the pipe under my sink was dripping and making a puddle on the kitchen floor, so I had to clean that up. Then I felt the urge to straighten things up in an apartment that has 5 people sleeping in it tonight and a lot of unpacked boxes.

And now I'm sitting here writing this instead of working on my parser for my CS project. See, Mundanely Exciting. I told you.

I know it's not news, but it feels like news to me this year. I was going through my todo list tonight, and I came across something that needed to be done by the second of March. "Hmm, today's the 28th, it needs to be done by the 2nd? No problem, I've got like 5 days to do that!"

And then cold hard reality hit me and I realized that the 2nd is the day after tomorrow. Which means that I have to go to Sproul Hall to get this thing done tomorrow.

Incidentally, now that I'm thinking about dates around the beginning of March... Lang's Birthday is March 3rd. Which is also the birthday of one of my bosses.

I love my job. The office is located relatively close to campus, and is a place for employees to go and hang out (And sometimes work) between classes. I spend a lot of time there, whether I'm working or not. It's such a social place that we've even got our own office jukebox server. Normally none of this phases me. I'm able to shut things out of my attention as necessary.

Today I was sitting in the office trying to work on writing the parser for my compiler class. I was also occasionally answering questions for a co-worker who I'm working on a project with. At first I wasn't having much of a problem, but after about an hour I couldn't concentrate on anything. I couldn't think about my parser, and I had to have my co-worker repeat his xsl questions multiple times. It was maddening.

Finally, I rushed from the office. I couldn't take the bustle of the office any longer. I walked home and plopped down to play more of Star Wars Starfighter, and I was able to beat the mission I got stuck on last night with one try.

A piece of a baguette. A salad with cucumbers, carrots, and, well, lettuce. Some mozzarella cheese. And a glass of pink lemondate.

That was my dinner. It was reasonably good, and I was full when I finished, but when I was done, I still felt... unfillfulled. I can't explain it. Though I was full, I didn't feel done. I guess I shouldn't have just a salad for dinner, eh? Well, and cheese and bread. And pink lemonade. Can't forget that pink lemonade.

Today is my dad's birthday, and for dinner they're having chinese food from the restaurant whose food is my prototype for chinese food. For years and years it was my only experience of chinese food. So, needless to say, I'm a little jealous, and when I heard what they were having I became very hungry. And leave it to my dad to taunt me by inviting me (320 miles) to dinner. Argh.

So I came home and did the dishes, which left me in no real mood to cook and make dishes dirty again. So I grabbed the last of the microwavable meals that my mom bought when she was visiting out of my freezer. After 7 minutes, I looked at the "Cheese Enchilada Meal" before, stirred it up with a spoon, and dug in. You see, I've endured three of these things already, so I already knew that they were the most bland thing I've ever eaten. I just stirred everything together, because that way I didn't have to worry about having part of it left over that I didn't want to eat. At least this way, the texture was consistant throughout. The only things I wouldn't have eaten would have been things with a texture I didn't like, since it all tasted like nothing. Banquet Microwavable Cheese Enchilada Meals are definately to be avoided. Blah.

Merry belated Christmas. I asked people not to give me anything, but I got stuff anyway. You see, I agreed with this years South Park Christmas episode, which pointed out that Christmas is what supports our economy. It's too true! There are companies which take losses three quarters of the year merely because they make enough money off of Xmas to survive for the rest of the year. Most companies make more at Christmas anyway, and I wouldn't be surpised if any company in that situation takes that into account when they're plotting world domination from high atop their towers of power.

But that's enough about that, because I'm sure you're dying to hear that I got an AM/FM radio shaped like a computer, complete with monitor shaped speaker, mouse shaped control, and keyboard shaped waste of plastic. I also got clothes, which is fine, because they're actually useful. Oh, and a blender, which there's no way I'll be able to carry back to Berkeley on the train, so my parents will have to send it to me. I don't think I've actually used a blender for anything ever, but I'm sure I can think of something. Hmmm... Potato Milkshake? There were a few other things, like a book, Titan AE on DVD (if you're even thinking about buying me a movie, go DVD), and something else.

Oh, and I got cell phone, though, thanks mom, I get to pay for the service!

I'm now in Wofford Heights, place of family, et cetera. I spent Friday night in Bakersfield and drove up here on Saturday. Pretty easy drive, with no real dorks on the road, which was nice. Bakersfield holiday traffic was very hectic, though. I'm glad I didn't go to the Valley Plaza, as it was probably packed.

I spent a lot of today playing Final Fantasy IX, and I'm still enjoying it. I'm not sure how people can find this game tiresome. Sure, the game play might be more of the same, but it's high quality game play, and I really like the story. My rear is sore now from sitting down so long, though. Actually, it's numb, but I know it'd be sore if I could feel it.

Who knows when I'll update. It's very hard to get computer access in my house, because my brother sits online and IMs all the time. Anytime before midnight, and frequently after, our phone line is tied up. I don't know when he gets up, but it's irrelevant to me since I sleep so late. I'll probably post a very article about my impressions of Final Fantasy IX. At this point, I'd estimate completion sometime on Monday. And then I'll start in on completing Chrono Cross. Yeah, now this is a vacation!

I'm planning on taking some pictures tomorrow, but to do that I first had to copy the old pictures off of my camera. When I did that, I discovered that I hadn't copied any pictures off the camera since I'd put together Behind The Stew for the Behind The Curtain project back in September. In retrospect, behind the stew turned out better than I felt it had at the time. The pictures did a pretty job of capturing that pretty silly day, I think.

But none of that's the point. I found a picture of Alert's and my Halloween Costumes. In case you can't tell, we're supposed to be The Avengers.

I don't want to over load you with pictures, so I'll post a picture or so a day until I clean out my backlog of pictures.

In short, I won't be updating much the next two weeks. Why? The end of the semester is rearing it's ugly head. Here's the run down: Tomorrow I have japanese homework due. Wednesday, I have a draft of my cog sci term paper due, my last cog sci short report, a japanese vocab quiz, and I have to give a presentation on australia for geography. Thursday I have my last philosophy paper due, and friday I have more japanese homework due.

Then, next week: Monday I have more japanese homework due. Monday Tuesday or Wednesday I have my japanese oral interview. Thursday and Friday I have my Japanese Final, and Thursday I have my Geography final. Friday, my cog sci term paper is due. And all throughout I've got work work to do.

After then, however, it's all over except for two finals. These next two weeks are the tough two.