The Status of Things to Come

Out With the Old...

2009-07-13T05:19:02Z

So, that behind the scenes stuff I referred to last week was switching blog hosting to my own domain.

Update your RSS feeds and your bookmarks. The new address is http://www.benmsmith.com. See you there.

Hierarchy

2009-07-05T07:32:23Z

So, I can't sleep, I have stuff I've been meaning to blog about, and it seems like as good a time as any to do this.

I haven't forgotten about this blog, by the way. I've got some behind the scenes stuff that's in process for (hopefully) later this summer.

I'm pretty sure the dentist is the one doctor one can leave feeling worse than when one came in. I don't have a problem with the profession, it's just that every dentist I've been to has been a smug asshole who despite my open admittance that I don't take as good a care of my teeth as they'd like, feels the need to lecture me for 5 minutes and ultimately make me feel like shit. The problem with this is that in making me feel like this, they make me want to visit them even less frequently, meaning when I do go, I get lectured because things are worse making me not want to go. Lather rinse repeat. I'm glad I didn't drive myself to the visit--instead of making the two further appointments I need to deal with cavities I would have driven home under the pretense of needing to "check my availability".

Work continues to be awesome. I'm happy with what I'm doing this summer. For the last week or so, I've been working on a larger task that I've been slightly apprehensive about because it's a lot of responsibility, but I know the end results are going to be great and they're only going to benefit the company, so I'm pumped. There's also the fact that Nick reminds me how awesome I am and how much of an impact I'm having, which only builds my morale. The two times I've worked on a team with him (371 and now), I've really been inspired to follow his example of leadership when it comes to heading up a team, and I hope to keep what I've learned in mind as I go into this next year.

That said, we had a real asshole customer this last week. While not entirely out of the question to expect an email from me relatively shortly following my receiving your request, it is presumptuous that when you email close to the end of day for both Nick or myself to assume you will receive a response within 8 hours, especially when you barely give me anything to work from requirements-wise. Heads up, Guy Who Did This, you're a dick. Fuck you, we didn't need your business anyways. At least we discovered you were an asshole now instead of midway through the project. Good Riddance.

Well, that's all for now. Like I said, big things are happening behind the scenes. See you next time.

mst

On the Run

2009-06-14T05:55:22Z

Things are starting to fall into place, work- and other-wise.

I officially have a car now! While I've had my license for a few years now, I haven't driven a lot, mostly due to the fact that I didn't have a car that was fully mine at home or at school. I've been going off on errands by myself on at least an every other day basis since I've been home to re-acclimate myself and so I don't have the nervous feeling I've had the first few times it was just me in the car. The small steps I'm taking will come in handy when I have to take the long drive at the end of August. My car is old enough to have a tape deck as its only source of media input. This is a problem, as all of my music is in CD/digital form. Or at least was. Thanks to the magic of eBay, I now have the coldplay discography, a couple ELO albums, and a KT tunstall album on cassette, along with a cassette tape adapter for my iPod. Hooray for cheap tapes from Malaysia indeed.

Work's been a little slower these first two weeks, but Nick and I are still trying to figure out how much work to give me. As it turns out, I need more than I've currently been given lately. Thesefirst few weeks have been pretty impressive, though--I've created requirements documents for 4 clients, created a template for requirements and a guide to wordpress elements. I'm feeling pretty accomplished already, and we're only a couple weeks into the summer. Nick's a great boss and a great friend. Here's hoping the rest of this job feels as enjoyable as these first few weeks have been.

While working for Nick is my primary source of income this summer, I've got a few sideprojects that are also bringing in the money. I went through the collection of books I have at home, removing the ones which I haven't read in a while (and probably wouldn't read again) and put them up on Amazon along with a few textbooks I won't need again. I wasn't expecting any of the textbooks to sell until August when everyone was heading back to school, but they're some of the first things that sold. I'm floored by how well things have gone these two weeks (over 200 dollars so far), and it's psyched me up for attempting this with my friend's books that I was going to do this as well. I sold a few things on eBay as well--all in all, this has gone extremely well.

The Ze Frank thing is still going, and one of my ideas has seemed to catch on -- 8 bit Mario Paint Composer competition. If you see it later this summer, remember: it was my idea. I've got a couple more videos from late-night downtime at the bottom of the post. More Coldplay and for a change of pace, some Keane.

Well, I'm officially 21. We'll see if this "drinking" thing ever happens--I'm mostly looking forward to being able to buy wine for cooking from Trader Joe's and going to Cold Drinks with Cool Profs in the fall over the actual drinking itself. Which is perhaps how it should be. For as much as I rail on David's juvenile proclivity for children's movies, I am somewhat of a hypocrite--I celebrated with family by going to see Pixar's "UP". I argue this is different--for one, I wanted to choose something more family friendly (My mom was all for going to see The Hangover, but I didn't feel it was right for my sister to go--less about content and more about how I didn't get to see an R-rated movie until I was 16). For another, there is a difference between seeing a Pixar movie the second weekend it's out and going to the first available showing of the freaking Veggie Tales movie IN THEATERS and being EXCITED about going. Afterwards, there was awesome barbeque from a new place that opened 5 minutes from my house (will be checking them out again) and key lime pie for all (I don't do cake on my birthday, for the most part--we got a small one for my sister, who does not like key lime pie). A good day. My present was the car (and Rock Band 2, which I puchased for myself off of eBay so I can buy the Beatles edition this fall and not have to buy the instruments as well, awesome as they are).

Life is good right now. Hopefully it stays this way.

All for now.

In a clear sign that having actual work to do will only be a benefit...

2009-06-01T02:54:43Z

Lately I've been playing around with mario paint composer to pass the time last week and this weekend. I've been working from sheet music to create fairly accurate versions of coldplay songs. Here's what I've completed--two of them have gotten comments, one from all the way in the Netherlands.

I've stuck with lesser done tracks and b-side so that I'm not cluttering Youtube with more crap. Here they are:

Sometimes We Start Over

2009-05-31T05:25:50Z

...and go solo.

So, it's about time I update here. A proper update, not the lists I've been condensing my thoughts to the past quarter. I've been riding a fairly positive wave the last few months--things seem to be coming together.

Joining Twitter may have helped, somewhat. Some of the first people I added were my friends Eric and Nick, as well as one of my favorite internet people (in terms of what he's done for collaborative projects), Ze Frank. I also added a few Rose profs, but the important parts of the people I added were two of those first three.

I still hadn't gotten any offers from companies I had applied to for internships this summer. I think it's because while I'm a good candidate, I'm not the best candidate for the positions I'm applying for. Since at least March, I've had a plan B floating in the back of my head. At times, it seemed like it might just be better (and possibly more fun) to go with it, I wanted to hold out for an actual internship on the off chance it was meant to be by waiting until May to line plan B up.

Even with a couple positively received applications (and follow-ups) near the end of April, I didn't hear anything back. I started setting things in motion. My friend (although I use the term loosely with him lately--there's a growing divide between us) SD's mom has been clearing out their stuff-filled home in preparation for a move to Michigan at some point in the future. I had helped them appraise some books online over spring break (since SD's mom caught wind of my mom getting ~$300 for some of her nursing textbooks and somehow translated this as getting close to full price for all her non-textbooks) and sent her a message on Facebook offering to continue to do this as well as sell some of the nicer condition books on eBay for them. After she agreed (and how could you not when offered someone willing to help with this) I decided to get a couple other things set up as well.

Nick had contacted me with a possible work opportunity during Winter quarter, but things fell through and nothing came of it. I knew he was still interested in having me work for him, so I sent him a quick tweet seeing if I could be of service this summer. I got a positive response, as well as some questions. After sending answers by email (there are some things 140 characters are too few for), we set up a date to talk on the phone about further possibilities. After discussing it and reaching an agreement, I had a definite summer job (and with two weeks of the quarter left). That was a satisfying feeling--when someone asked what my summer plans were, I had an answer this time. I was thrilled.

I didn't stop there, though, like I did last year with Mental Floss (I should've followed up on a couple part-time positions I applied for before getting the MF e-mail). I was going to apply for a position with io9 last year, but at the time I was in PLC and didn't have the time to develop 3 writing samples. This year, when the call rolled around, I had a portfolio to choose from, which made things easier. The position is unpaid this year (and may have been last year--I'm not entirely sure), which was a little disappointing, but I didn't care at this point--I already had a paying gig, and this could be a way to stretch my more creative side. I made the shortlist of candidates with my application (which, like last year's MF app, included something about awful movie The Apple--maybe that's my good luck charm?) and even got interviewed by phone a weekend ago by a Scotsman (really, the British spelling of Graeme and the last name of McMillan in the emails asking for a good time to call should have been a giveaway of a possible accent). I haven't heard back yet (and I expect I will--after an initial mixup where I was sent a "sorry" and "congrats" email at the same time, it seems the candidate pool is small enough to email everyone), but I feel positively about how things went. Whichever way things go, I'll be happy--I at least made an impression with my application.

update (5/31/09 9:46 pm): heard back, didn't get the position, but made an impression and may still get a recommendation for my resume out of all this. Woo!

I still haven't mentioned where Ze Frank fits in with all this. Well, to be honest, he didn't, initially. Twitter was a convenient way of contacting Nick, but it was how I got an opportunity to work with Ze Frank. Last summer he did something called Color Wars (that looked like a lot of fun), so when he sent out the call for designers/coders/brainstormers, I responded (expressing a preference more for design/brainstorming than programming for the purposes of Color Wars 09). To my surprise, I got a response a couple days later promising a link. I'm now helping to brainstorm activities for this year's edition. We'll see what else comes of this.

It's looking to be an exciting summer. Building my own internship is looking to be more fun than if I had gotten one of the many I applied for. I'll talk more about Puzzlehunt (and the 6 foot trophy) and other stuff another night. I need to get some sleep for now.

mst3kjunkie @ 2009-05-17T02:11:00

2009-05-17T07:00:46Z

So, as it turns out, it gets calm just before the storm hits again. At some point I will tak about the remarkable streak of luck I've had lately (hopefully in some sort of detail), but for now, just take my word that it's a good time for me even though it's stressful right now.

I now have a six foot tall trophy in my room from Skinnerfest.
As it turns out, building your own "internship" is awesome.
The end of project time cannot come sooner. Especially PLC.
I have a music review in the Thorn! Link once it's up.
Eurovision is even more crazy than The Apple made it out to be. I'll be watching again next year for sure.

Here's the week's video clip/music stuffs:

All for now.

A Video

2009-05-15T15:24:59Z

I finally captured another one of my favorite local ads:

Saturday Night

2009-05-10T06:06:00Z

I'm tired (mostly from my workload this past week) and feel like the radio show this week, a couple big things that happened, summer-wise, and formal deserve a full writeup rather than the list I usually put here. I'll write things up/post pictures/etc. tomorrow. In the interim, here's the opener from the show, a short, sweetly-voiced song filled with the vitriol of a relationship gone bad:

Light Through the Veins

2009-05-03T06:16:58Z

So, as I've had a video/audio clip in my posts lately, here's this week's. It's a B-Side from Coldplay's latest single (which is itself a B-side from Viva La Vida) called "The Goldrush". It's definately a little rough in the beginning, but I really like where it goes for a short little ditty about mining.

The perfect place to come into listening to someone else's argument after a long night: "You DON'T throw urine on someone! It's not ok!"
I have caved in and joined Twitter. If I haven't added you already (a likely probability, as I'm still going through my contact list) and you want to follow me, my name on there is BenMSmith (I was surprised I got that one, but I think the combination of capitals worked in my favor)
Despite some hesitations about a suitemate (which are disappearing the more I learn to deal with him), I'm really looking forward to living in the apartments next year.
When you're a member of a group where you come from a different discipline than the rest of the group members, it would be nice if you didn't go completely against every suggestion the experienced member of the group makes. I"m not saying I'm right on everything, but the constant challenging/bickering/swearing is not making a good impression on me.
Mom's day was awesome. Particularly getting BBQ the night before and having my uncle get to see why I love RHIT so much by visiting
Roommate: Just because my family and I chose to just "hang out" and tour campus and do whatever rather than going to the planned events the school offered does like your family did not mean that I had any less fun of a time.
No matter how bad the projects get during the week, things will get resolved by the end of the week. Mostly.
Deflating the couch: fun.

Formal next weekend, so you know what that means: pictures! and dressing up. And possible walmart afterwards (because Walmart is somehow more fun when formally dressed in the wee morning hours)

all for now.

Capture the Spirit

2009-04-26T06:55:55Z

First, an awesome rendition of Radiohead's "Nude" by a variety of old electronics (and an array of hard drives):

Editing the CSSE Newsletter looked to be easy until I got to the 1200-word article that didn't talk about its relation to RHIT until 2/3rds of the way in. It is a beast I will need to continue to tame.
A project group that I thought was going to be rough (and possibly a disaster) is slowly shaping up now that people are listening to the experience I have with writing documentation and developing media library systems. Thanks for the encouraging words and compliments this week, Nick and Sriram--they kept me going when I didn't necessarily want to.
My sister's presence on Facebook now means I have a greater awareness of how many inanimate objects have Facebook fan pages (Olive Garden breadsticks? really? I like them, but I don't want to be Facebook friends with them)
Contemplating Twitter. Not sure if I would use it, but I've been following a couple recently.
My t-shirt design for WMHD got chosen! Totally surprised by the reception it got.
Internship search continues. Additional 2 applications made this week (Atama Group and Meebo) will be followed up on next week, as I think they've got promise. Gizmodo said they're looking for (blogging) interns for the summer soon--may follow that up when it gets posted)
Pleasantly surprised by the movie "Happy-Go-Lucky". 4/5 stars.
Hitchhiker's Guide TV series was perfect blend of funny and cheesy (Doctor Who has given me a particular affinity for the this-is-really-high-tech-for-the-time charm of 70s/80s TV special effects.). Made me want to read the 2nd and 3rd books again.
PLC: still amazed at how I'm doing. Whatever switch finally clicked last term that's made putting in the effort feel (somehow) effortless continues to bring me success.
Best parts of last night's show: "Mini Mountain Queen" reminding me of gnomes and the accidental death block (talking about particularly odd murder Dan read about on Yahoo!, then playing "Weapon of Choice", "A View to a Kill", and "To Lose My Life", realizing midway through the last one what we had done)
Looking forward to Mom's weekend in a week.

all for now.

Such a Rush to Get Nowhere at All

2009-04-19T05:57:45Z

Bought 80s Hitchhiker's Guide series due to Borders sale. Will report back on quality/cheesiness.
I now officially have a full-time car. May have to scour eBay for cassette tapes to play in it.
Everytime I think I'm done applying for internships, another handful pop up.
I am the least packed/ready to go that I have ever been (I blame the dryer)
As funny as it seems like it would be to play George Carlin on my last trip to/from TH with roommate, I don't really feel like walking part of the way to campus
I have two new cousins, born a day apart to two seperate cousins. Impromptu visit to see one today was awesome
This is the brownie pan of the gods, and it is mine:

Your Protector

2009-04-05T07:00:30Z

What goes up must come down.
Although a bit awkward at first, I can run the radio show by myself
Usability testing is fun when there is an actual lab to do it in
The person you need to talk to is usually never there when it's convenient for you
"This sounds like something you'd listen to" can seem like an insult
A break is needed, even if not how I initially hoped it'd go.
I miss the late nights of last quarter (and hate waking up for first hour)
Hearing that the position you applied for has been cut because of a "business decision" is still hearing back. This is better than not hearing anything.
"Business decision" means the economy.
This is probably the last post until after break.

Not What I Was Last September

2009-03-29T06:21:02Z

I have made it through PLC boot camp with 97%. Holy crap.
I made Dean's List for the first time since coming to Rose. More incentive to keep up the good work.
Attention David: just because your family apparently doesn't argue/bicker does not mean this true for all families.(this is to Rachel Getting Married as discussing parent age ranges is to Whoopi Goldberg)
"POS" in SoftArch stands for point-of-sale, regardless of the other meaning that acronym has.
If you can't remember the reference, don't make it.
Plans for spring break have fallen through. I am okay with this.
Despite my hypothesis (after a discussion with co-DJ), my music library actually has more male singers/bands than female ones.

Currently digging this song. Their cover of "While You Were Young" is pretty decent too.

all for now. Be sure to tune in to the radio show next Friday...we've got a surprise planned.

Stars of Leo

2009-03-22T05:47:31Z

It's easier in the deep end when you have a semblance of how to swim.
It is possible to get to 8 AM class from a deep sleep within 7 minutes.
Trader Joe's makes a decent Chicken Tikka sauce
Cooking for friends is awesome. I should do it more often.

and to close, an awesome bonus comic from Toothpaste for Dinner:

Make It Mine

2009-03-15T06:09:53Z

PLC is better the second time around
The C in PLC (the jokey expansion of that acronym) is important
it feels good to know that housing is (99.9%) a sure thing
2 weeks away from the booth is apparently enough to become "rusty"
Music directing, yes; Music reviewing, possibly not
SAD II is going to be about as SAD as SAD I was.
Walmart sells Basmati rice.
Waking up at 7 is hard after a quarter of waking up at 8:30-9 on a regular basis
Records the station doesn't have (part of a continuing series): Slippery When Wet, Back in Black
Invasion of the Body Snatchers: classic sci-fi

This is What I Had to Do For Class

2009-03-12T01:55:06Z

One more blog post this week? What strange thing is this?

As part of a course this term (those of you who've been through it will know which one), we've been asked to watch a film by the start of next week. (My words right now may seem strange, but if you watch this, you may learn why) It's a great talk by Guy Steele, on how to grow the vocabulary (that is, a set of words) of a language (a vocabulary and rules for what a string of words might mean) in a way that makes sense for those who use the language. Even if you aren't in the field which looks at this sort of thing, check it out (if you have the time)

New Header

2009-03-11T04:23:25Z

It is spring, after all.

For those who are feedreader-based:

The Remedy

2009-03-08T07:03:29Z

I'm back. Well, sort of.

I worked harder than I ever had before last quarter to get things done to the quality I wanted them to be, and a funny thing happened: things, for the most part, paid off. I didn't manage to maintain all of the A's I had at midterm, but I still managed to do really well in final grades, and I'm proud of all the work I did. I liked the feeling I got from all those late nights, and I want to keep that feeling this next term.

I think the secret to maintaining my sanity during a quarter when anyone else would have been losing it was breaking things down. A week at a time, a day at a time. What is due tomorrow? The next day? By focusing like this, I felt much more at ease than I had. I lost a lot of sleep, sure, but I still felt really good about the work I was doing. How this gets modified for a schedule which includes an 8 AM class will be interesting, to say the least, but I think this strategy will serve me well.

That said, I think I'm going to cut back on blogging. Not the frequency with which I post--once a week is good for me, it's a chance to reflect on things before diving into the next week's work. But for the time being, I'm going to be a little less verbose. I'll probably stick with the list format I used a couple weeks ago--I liked it. Plus, I have a couple other projects this next term (CSSE Newsletter, possible newspaper thing) that I want to focus my writing abilities on.

So, here's break:

The chiropractor re-aligning the damage you did from 8 weeks of hunching over a desk doing various homework feels really good.
It is harder to resell non-textbooks; 20/250 will have some value
The Joy of Cooking and Mastering the Art of French Cooking make kick-ass weekend reading
The Mall of America is paradoxically huge and not huge.
The loose tea store is kind of amazing
PLC is less scary the second time around (at least the preparation for it has been)
The grade preview hack on Banner makes for uplifting news
The email back from the HSS department leting you know the Study Abroad program you were looking at won't translate the way you need does not
Filling out the FAFSA gets easier with time
The french name for food processor, Robot Culinaire, is awesome and has usurped the original name as far as I am concerned

I think that's all for now. See you when I get back on campus!

oh, quick reminder: The Night Shift starts up again this Friday, 11 PM. B-Side and Crazy Wayne are back!

In Repair

2009-02-27T06:40:46Z

"Too many shadows in my room
Too many hours in this midnight
Too many corners in my mind
So much to do to set my heart right
Oh it's taking so long
I could be wrong, I could be ready
Oh, but if i take my heart's advice
I should assume it's still unsteady"

It's break. You know the drill. Content if I feel like it.

I look forward to sleeping and reading non-textbooks for a week.

Say What You Need to Say

2009-02-22T07:40:44Z

10th week is a bitch.
It is possible to draw celery in Maple
If I have been awake past 3 for four days in a row, you are not allowed to complain about how tired you are from being up until 3 for one night. Nor are you allowed to be offended when I say "kiss my ass" in response.
It is apparently possible to run on nothing but tea and the occasional 4-hour nap
Doing a radio show when really tired is not as fun as doing one when only moderately tired
2 finals stand between me and a week-long break from David
I need to get more of this series of books, as the first chapter (all I've had time to read so far) of the C# one already has me excited to try coding in the language
Conan's last show was amazing
I'm ready for this quarter to be over.

all for now. check out Night Shift Radio for past eps. of the show.

It Hurts but it May Be the Only Way // Sleep All Day

2009-02-15T08:33:55Z

This quarter’s attempts to break me are done, I think. I’ve pushed harder than I can ever remember pushing myself academically this term, and the results I’ve been getting back have only fueled this behavior more. All of the major projects this term are done, only requiring reflection/presentation at this point.

The software architecture project (or as I began referring to it due to its ridiculous structuring and general suckiness as Steaming Pile of Failureproject), in all its hideousness, is done. Sean and I pulled it together, although we didn’t get as much done as we wanted. The implementer side of things didn’t get done as far as initially discussed (the design team expected too much of us, and we promised too much when we discussed things, but we reached an agreeable compromise) and then we finished the designer side of things as wel, producing something where the backened was better than the frontend. At the end of all this, all we got was a “I’ll buy it” from Steve (really? Because I certainly wouldn’t buy the half-assed job we did slapping this thing together.) and a (presumably) good grade on the documentation that went along with it. Now all that remains is talking about what we learned in all three of our project roles. Goody.

On the flip side of things, the databases project has gone amazingly well. Like “Best project outside of 371” well. I want to think the leadership I provided was part of what’s helped it go so well, but I mostly think the three members of our group are just hard-working, competent people who want to do well on this. The one member of my team who’s done most of the stored procedures has basically rocked all of them out in record time, and the guy doing the GUI side of things has done an amazing job of translating my whiteboard sketches into actual design. I wish I could say I’ve done more on the code side myself other than offer an occasional “Have you checked what order you’re pulling the values in from?”, but my work actually leading the design decisions/writing a lot of the docs/setting up the backend has made up for it, I think. We’re essentially done with the code side of things unless we want to add additional features, but there’s still a final demo/presentation left. The hardest part is over, now the slow ride down to the finish can begin.

David and I’s relationship as roommates is really starting to strain—I was hesitant about living with him this year (even though I knew that for all my complaining he’s a decent guy who puts up with all my crap), and I know I won’t be choosing to live with him next year. I think I’ve found the reason I don’t go to IV like I used to—a lot of the people remind me of David—juvenile and unquestioning. I can handle a maximum of two Davids—three or more and I start to feel awkward. There was an incident where he was sitting at dinner with a large group of IV people and Dan and I were sitting nearby at a separate table when we began hearing a loud clanging of glasses. It was the IV table fooling around. I’m all for being young at heart, but there’s a difference between that and being just plain immature. David needs to grow up, but I think he needs to do that when he’s ready—it’s not really my territory. Although, whatever family member gave him the book “The Encylopedia of Immaturity” for Christmas this last year is not helping things at all. He does not need encouragement.

The only thing that’s really suffered this term is my social life—if it was diminished in general it’s practically flatlining at this point, outside of the radio show, which isn’t particularly social. I haven’t hung out much with anyone this term (I think Katie put it best when she said “I’ve seen more of your blog than I have of you”—and that was during the two-week hiatus I took), which is a shame. I shall try to rectify this next term for certain—I need to re-aquaint myself with Rock Band if we’re doing the endless setlist at the end of the year again.

A couple more things, in brief (since it’s almost 4 and I need more sleep):

Considering a summer study abroad program instead of an internship—haven’t heard back favorably from anything and wouldn’t mind picking up a few extra credits. Plus, the possibility of Australia.
I need to shave. It’s getting to that point in the term where I look semi-homeless if I haven’t shaved and my hair has its usual will of its own in the back. This is not a good look for me.
Ordered book on C#. I’ve heard favorable things about it, I’ll have to check these out for myself
David is slowly learning that criticizing my sleeping habits this term does nothing/leads to less than pleasant results

All for now. Only a couple weeks to go and I’m home free. Frankly, I can’t wait. It’s been a particularly long quarter.

1 New Blog / 25 Things / 30 Songs

2009-02-08T07:51:38Z

Okay, it's been a couple weeks, project work has been done, but more's still needed. In the mean time, here's a few quick things to provide at least some content for this blog (I don't want it to go completely dead)

First off, I've got another blog, this time one shared with my fellow DJ, Crazy Wayne. It's just links to the online recordings of our radio shows at the moment, but we plan to add more about how we feel each show went in the future. Check it out here. New episodes should go up on a (mostly) weekly basis

Next, I've finally been tagged on one of those "25 things" things on Facebook. I figure I should contribute one of these as well. We'll see if this gets crossposted to facebook. Anyway, here goes:

I've got third degree burns on my left shoulder from when I was three. In attempting to climb onto a kitchen counter I pulled a fresh pot of coffee down on myself. They're harder to notice than they once were, but they're still a part of me.
I have the tendency to sit and absorb the conversation around me rather than contribute to it in large group settings.
The only televised sports events I tend to actually care about are the Superbowl and the Olympics.
I love humanities classes at Rose--they're a great excuse to read books other than textbooks, and they help keep my courseload somewhat balanced.
In my family, I tend to be the more mathematically/scientifically gifted one, and my sister's the more artistic one (she's amazing at drawing). We seem to intersect musically--both of us are reasonably talented there
It scares me how much random knowledge my brain retains
I think about everything, to a fault. What I Say, what a decision's effects will be, etc.
I've never been out of the United States. This may change if I decide to do a summer study abroad thing.
I have a first-degree black belt in karate.
I've found that completely transplanting myself into a new situation (private-->public school, MN-->IN) has had the most profound effects on my personal growth. (this means I'm less introverted than I used to be)
I have learned from watching enough bad movies how to appreciate good movies
I'm better at sports than I think I am. (Note: this does not mean I'm good, just that I'm better than I think I am)
My facial hair is partially red, thanks to my genetics.
I love having a radio show. I'm still a little nervous when in the booth, but it's a lot of fun and I'm glad I went through the training
Despite having grown up with it all my life, I'm mostly indifferent towards snow.
I am the sole reason my roommate knows anything about (an admittedly nerdy subsection of) pop culture
I hate not having a plan when it comes to travel/big projects
College was the first time I had lived anywhere except MN
Although it's how I defined myself in highschool, I'm not sure I'd consider myself a "nerd" now.
I spend far too much time reading blogs.
I love cooking, but I don't do it as often because I hate using the communal dorm kitchen.
While I don't hate it, pizza is never my go-to weekend meal option. Working at Pizza Hut during high school did not change this opinion.
There is a pineapple sticker on my room's ceiling. I did not put it there.
I miss my Rose friends when I'm at home more than I miss my home friends when I'm at Rose
Doctor Who made me like sci-fi again.

And to close things out for the week, instead of listing songs as I've done in the past, I'm doing another faebook thing, the "name these songs based off of first lines" game. This one will definately be cross-posted. These 30 songs were taken when I set iTunes to play on random (I used each artist only once--some skipping was involved, but only because I set iTunes to play the same artist more often than not). Name them and they'll be bolded.

You can say that I'm the one curly fry in the box of the regular
Want her, Have her
I know your eyes in the morning sun
Thursday night, everything's fine, except you've got that look in your eye
I've seen it with my own eyes
I left the house left the room with the foxy on my back
I'm holding on your rope
The city streets are empty now
Staying home alone on a Friday
Well, she was just 17
This was a triumph
Can anybody fly this thing?
Friday night I'm going nowhere
You must think I'm a fool
Charades, pop skill
I'm serving time
I was happy in my harbor
Climbing up on [title of song]
It's a shoreline
From the moment the lights went off
Well I'm standing on the corner
I was following the pack
Dont get too tired for love
And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
If I don't say this now
I'm not aware of too many things
My eyes burn, everybody smokes
I can sense it
Don't hold yourself like that
I'm feeling rough, I'm feeling raw, I'm in the prime of my life.

all for now.

See You Soon

2009-01-25T06:28:16Z

So, I think I'm going to take a week off to focus on getting some major classwork/projects done. Maybe two. See you then.

Maybe I'm Amazed

2009-01-18T07:40:33Z

You know when you have one of those moments where everything seems to just be falling into place? I think I'm having one of those.

Second radio show went better than the first one--I wasn't nervous behind the mic at all, we had requests, and the music flowed fairly well (there's always a few disjoint jumps). Dan and I have an interesting show, musically. It's reflective of both of our tastes, with a strong focus on rock/pop/alternative, but there's also an experimental side of "let's try this" to it. It make me glad I went through the process.

Advisor meeting--finally he knows my name when I go to his office (if nothing else, I gain that from Software Architecture). I'm on track to graduate on time next year, and I even get to have two quarters of only three courses each, which I"m going to take advantage of. Pre-meeting, I planned out how the next 1 and 1/3 years are going to look. Here's the breakdown:

Spring 2009	Fall 2009	Winter 2009-2010	Spring 2010
Programming Language Concepts	Senior Project I	Senior Project II	Senior Project III
Software Arch. & Design II	HSS Elective	Operating Systems	Formal Methods
Software Quality Assurance	HSS Elective	HSS Elective	Software Construction and Evolution
	Free Elective	HSS Elective

I chose to use my two terms of 3 to focus on my core SE courses--those need to be passed to graduate (especially PLC). and it'll give me some free time this spring to focus on other projects (DJing, possibly writing music reviews for the paper, etc.)

Along with advisor meetings come midterm reports. For the first time in my college career, I think, I have almost all As (and would have had all As were it not for a test grade in Numerical Analysis). I'm pumped, to say the least--as I've said in a couple blog posts, I feel this quarter is the hardest I've worked as a student, and it feels really good to get this sort of confirmation. It only inspires me to keep up the good work.

My SoftArch project is going surprisingly well for doing things mostly by myself. The only thing we're behind on is code, but we've got grace on that between Dr. Chenoweth's understanding of the situation I'm in and the customer's team's shared sense of apathy and understanding towards the project. This is seriously the best customer team I've worked with, and I want to keep them in mind when I have to pick a team for senior project. My partner (nicknamed "surgery boy" when discussing with David to distinguish from other project groups) is flaking out on me again this coming week to go and see the inaguration, so we've planned to meet and code, and I'm making him do more of the coding since he's leaving--I'm getting tired of being left high and dry in class. I'm understanding of situations like the previous two, but this one almost made me hit the roof. It's all worked out, though, so things should be fine.

Despite my best efforts to present something feasible but boring in comparison to other projects, my project idea was chosen for databases. Yay, another team to lead! (note: this is sarcasm, internet. this is sarcasm.) At least people seem to have ideas on how to take my initial concept and make it better and a fairly even distribution of work spread amongst the team. Fingers crossed I haven't been stuck with a lemon.

And, to close, brief reviews of Less-Than-Horrible films, since it hasn't been done in a while (November, at least.). The flow of movies has slowed down due to breaks, but there's still a lot I haven't talked about.

Doctor Who: City of Death-- The Doctor in Paris! Fairly good ep, I'm really liking the Tom Baker eps. 3.5/5
Time Bandits--This movie had a lot of great ideas that could have been tied together better and slightly more excitingly. 3/5
Theater of Blood--I expected this one to be schlockier, but it turned out to be a surprisingly good movie. Everyone is killed in a shakesperean manner (and Vincent Price and ~~Mrs. Peel~~ Diana Rigg are in it. 4/5
Doctor Who: The Robots of Death--You can't go wrong with a title like this. A solid episode 4/5
2001: A Space Odyssey--Visually stunning, but it was really slow in places (I expected slow, but not as slow as it sometimes got). 3/5
The Man Who Fell to Earth--I honestly couldn't get through this one. It needed to skip some of the ancillary plot details and get to the main action. I got about an hour into it before giving up. Perhaps I'll try again another time. I for Incomplete
Doctor Who: The Talons of Weng-Chiang--Good old fashioned racism, Doctor Who style. Once you got past the fact that someone was doing a horrible job of yellowface, it was a fairly good episode. 3.5/5
Logan's Run--My favorite kind of sci-fi. Dated, but still intriguing. 3/5
Grey Gardens--I had heard good things about this documentary. It's an interesting picture of two individuals living in the past while the present decays around them. It got a little boring in places. 3/5.

Next up is another Doctor Who, Robot.

See you next week. All for now.

The Night Shift

2009-01-11T07:02:17Z

So, I'm going to take it easy this week and focus on recovering from whatever's currently got me sick. Plus, last week's entry was about three times the size of a normal entry, so I'll let you continue working through that. In the meantime, here's a shameless plug for my new Friday night gig:

B-Side and Crazy Wayne are burning the midnight oil to bring you some great late night tunes. Excite your Friday night!

When: Fridays, 11PM-1AM EST
Where: WMHD 90.7FM Terre Haute, "The Monkey", or through online streaming here.

Check us out! The first show went pretty well, and we'd love to get some requests so we're not running around the studio scrambling to figure out something to play next.

also, fun fact: The cube featured two or so entries ago is no more. Apparently the housekeeper thought it was trash (I had taken it down so it wouldn't fall over break) or something similar. Oh well. C'est la vie, I suppose.

all for now.