Currently Reading Who Is Fourier?: A Mathematical Adventure By Transnational College of Lex Tokyo, Yo Sakakibara, Alan Gleason, Transnational College of LEX see related

Oh no... he's not serious is he? C'mon it's been a whole semester! No...no... oh snap...

Greetings from the land of infinite sleep! Yeah, you thought it was over, Box was done w/ the Xanga shiznit. No dice boys and girls; I'm bored and I'm tired of reading. Oh yes, that's right... I'm reading a fucking math book over break! What a huge nerd...

Ok so what have I been doing since you last heard of my existance? "So yeah... I carried a lot of furnature" "There were some parties" "Lots of classes... fucking long-ass compiler" "Ssue, waahhhh! There's ssue everywhere! whee~" "Oh yeah, and we can't forget about the shenanigans"

Well, glad we got last semester out of the way, now for winter break... sike! More semester!  So I'm enjoying the house a lot. I was thinking about how good a deal we got for it just now. Cheaper than the dorms, bigger, and about as far away as I was last year. Classes were alright. I took comp sci and math to see if I'd go any further in the subjects and I'm glad I've got it figured out now. I'm done w/ comp sci for at least another year. I mean I'd like to take some more if I had the time, but I realized I wouldn't want to be doing it in addition to the stuff I'm interested in since it can get pretty time consuming. Math I ended up dropping right after the first prelim. A bad string of not knowing assignments were due coupled w/ not really being that good a proofs and the general pwnz of 400-level math taught by a scary Russian man caused me to just say "No, this is too much w/ everything else I'm taking... oh yeah, and the prelim was yesterday... dropped like a stone I don't wanna be holding!" Japanese was a lot more work than freshman year so I didn't get up to the pwnz until the last few tests and such, but the new senseis were cool, especially Ichikawa - she's insane. Let's see... oh, physics wasn't that good. The teacher was alright, the subject matter was vaguely interesting (thermo was good though), but our waves book was awful. I think the point of the course was to get ppl ready for quantum so I'll see if it was worth it this semester. Lastly psych was awesome. I really enjoyed the lectures and book and will forever feel guilty for not getting enough sleep. Oh, take the free A+ all you S/U wusses.

Lineup for next semester:

Phys 316 - The class. Modern Physics I = Intro to Quantum Physics. This is it, nowhere to hide prof, you can't use the "ummm well, you kind of have to just take my word for this, you need quantum to understand it..."

Japan 242 - More Japanese... a lot more.

Math 311 - Intro to Analysis. The non-honors version of 413 where they actually teach you proofs. Also the book is suppposed to be really good, actually written for sciencey people who are starting with pure math.

Govt 161 - Intro to Political Philosophy. Interesting stuff, supposed to be a good class with a good professor. I actually read a book by him over the summer and was surprised to see him on the roster.

Astro 290 - Relativity and Astrophysics. First Astro course I'm taking here. Should be a good refresher of special relativity (perhaps it will sink in this time ) and a nice intro to general relativity (the scary stuff).

Yeah, so I'm looking foreward to all my classes next semester. I'm glad I have no classes w/ big projects, just like 3 prob sets a week. Wo0o0o, I actually get to work in the library again, no endless comp sci projects!

Oh man, way more I wanted to talk about... Going back to Cornell this Monday, can't wait to see Ssue and everyone else. I'm sick of being home, and I need some Hot Truck

Currently Playing Train of Thought By Dream Theater see related

Werd up, a quick post before I go to bed...

Hmmm... there's a strange-looking woman that sounds like a man who's reading a horse's passport on NBC... and people say I'm crazy .

Well, I've been home for about a week and I'm glad to be going back. Of course it's nice to be home and chill with the old crew. I got to eat some kimbob @ the house of Faust, played a frisbee game w/ the goon squad, had a night of antics and galavanting w/ the Fro and crew, and of course slept a lot. Today I am woken up by an orthodontist appointment @ 1:30 in which they take the same 2 x-rays of my face 8(!) times since the retarded technician can't seem to get the settings right. So, between that and my dentist appt. the previous day, my head has been thoroughly irradiated . After that it was off to Delaware to buy a rain jacket (finally found one to replace the awesome one I've been using for like 8 years) and some sunglasses. Then back to Media to stock up on asian food and such from Trader Joe's. Delaware was returned to for some dinnerage @ La Tolteca and now I sit here...

I've done a little packing, but most've it's been done since I've never really unpacked from when I moved out of the dorms in May. I can't really believe it's been a whole year since I was doing this for the first time. Getting ready for my first days at college and all that shazz. Sooo much has happened in the first year, it's ridiculous. But I can still remember the first day of college like it was yesterday. The first few days of college, meeting literally of hundreds of people every day and wondering who among them, if any, will become your good friends in the coming months. I must say, Cornell looked totally different for the first few days I was there compared with how I perceive it now. Probably because I was seeing North for the first time and now I'm as used to it as I am my hometown. Well, once again I'm moving; this time to collegetown and staying there for a while.

Now, of course, I can't wait to get to "emilyHOUSE" and catch up w/ the new crew. Hopefully we'll have internet set up by Wednesday (we'll have like 3-4 computer geeks in the house by then, so it should go pretty smoothly) .

My eyes hurt and I need to get up @ like 8 or something tomorrow to start loading up the car. To the sleepage w/ me!

Currently Playing Awake By Dream Theater see related

Yarrr children, gather around and I'll tell ye a tale. Well, not really a tale, but still gather around. C'mon, I'll give you some pi...

So we just finished beating FFX and I was thinking about some of the blatant RPG stereotypes that are out there. For example, main character walks into new town and hears that an invincible monster whom noone has been able to kill has been terrorizing the countryside. It's been there for years, and countless brave warriors have fallen before its power. Of course, however, your scrappy bunch of preteen adventurers are able to defeat it armed with nothing more than some cracked sashes and short swords. You know what I speak of... Anyway, I need to make an RPG where this is different. When the villagers tell you of an invincible monster that lives in that cave over there, he means an invincible monster. That thing will fuck you up. Not only that, but he will be called the Erase-Game Monster. If you have the balls to think that your band of misfits can kick his ass you are in for something else. The signature tactic of the Erase-Game Monster is of course, erasing your game, then proceeding to destroy you with its unholy strength. And yes, he really will be invincible, he'll laugh as you slash at him with your daggers and will toss your corpses aside along with the countless others who have not heeded the villagers warnings. Ahhh, I can just see the FAQs now: "For god's sake, don't fight the Erase-Game Monster, he'll really erase your game and he's really inincible! Oh the humanity~!!!"

Well, that 294 final is in about 29hrs and I haven't really started studying for it. Although it is easy, there's a lot of material to know. I'll prolly study most of tomorrow... I swears it . Hopefully I won't get too distracted by my new game.

So I procured a copy of Doom 3 yesterday, and I must say, that game is crizzity-crazy . I'll basically echo the reviewers in saying it easily has the best graphics and presentation of any game I've ever played. However underneath that, it's a pretty basic shooter. All your weapons are typical of shooters eg. pistol, shotgun, machine gun, rocket launcher, etc. Also, the game is really really dark. Like a lot of the rooms you can't see wtf's going on w/o your trusty flashlight. Now, although you may thing that the 22nd century is the future, it appears that either weapon technology has devolved or your marine is just plain retarded because you can't use a flashlight and a weapon at the same time. Emile suggested that maybe the marine has one arm, maybe it's unfair to make fun of the handicapped marine's inability to dual weild a flashlight. But still, couldn't they just have used guns that have lights mounted on them, I mean those have existed for a long time. I guess only girly-men need to see their enemies though, I'm just being a pussy. Anyway, cool game that I'll have to beat after I pwn this final.

Alright, It be late, and I be tired. Off to bed, fewls.

Currently Playing Cyber Trance Presents: Ayu Trance By Ayumi Hamasaki see related

So, once again much time has passed in the realm of Box with people wondering, "what is that strange parallelpiped up to?". Well fear not, updateage is here!

Today we played Monopoly. See Emile's post for details, it was a silly game involving me being poor and homeless...

Right now I should be doing homework for 294, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I'll prolly do a section or two after I finish this entry, but you see, this class is so ridiculous. So ridiculous in fact that after another stint of not studying for my prelim I pulled another 100, and this time the mean was "only" an 80. Do you see what's happening now? Dave isn't here, and without his dark powers of knowledge-leeching, everyone has gotten smarter. Well, everyone except Emile. He can no longer speak coherent English. Go ahead and IM him to see for yousrself. He'll probably mention how he'd like to drink the sky and try and send you some weird anime...

In addition to dispensing the 0wnage I have also gotten sort of addicted to Diablo II again. After I lost my old two accounts due to not playing the game for a few months, I gave up on it for a while. I had been away too long, and that's the kind of game where they completely change the system around every few months so you have to make new builds all the time. I already have a nice character though and several rich mules, but I'm afraid it won't last through the semester. There's no way I can be playing a game like that and trying to pass college at the same time. DDR, Halo, Poker, etc. are fine, but Diablo II will ruin me, it's ridiculous.

Yes, I have also procured a copy of Halo and have been playing that extensively. Due to the questionable legality of my CD key, online play is intermittent at best though. Perhaps one day I'll buy it, oh wait I'm almost broke, maybe I'll eat instead. And by eat, I mean make Sue buy me food, lots of delicious food, mwahahahaha...

I've also been doing a lot of reading, watching the old Red vs. Blue episodes, procuring high-quality rips of all sorts of music (just burned a 320kbps CD a few days ago and it's a-mazing). I really should start going over some Japanese soon before classes start so I don't completely forget everything. My plan to learn all sorts of kanji has been severely delayed if not an outright failure. Hey, I can still do some now, I swears it .

Oh yeah, and Emile and I are beating Matt's FFX for him. It's funny how I remember so little of the details in that game even though I only played it like two years ago, but I can remember just about every little thing from FFVII even though I haven't played that in at least 4-5 years. Oh well, just goes to show you how much I played that game.

Hmmm... was that really anything new? Haha, well it's what's going on fewls, the same old shazz. It'll be good to get the rest of the crew here in a few weeks. Can't wait for that shazz, especially moving into the hizouse. Aite, off to do some h-work, and by h-work I mean procrastinate heavily...

Currently Playing Mer de Noms By A Perfect Circle see related

- - - -

Yeah, I'm still alive...

So, as I sit here in my room, listening to some good music, I realize I haven't updated this shazz, despite the profuse amounts of free time I have. Well, if you hadn't heard, I'm back in Ithaca taking 294. I've been here for almost two weeks, but haven't been spending much time on North until the Sue left on Sunday. I'm living in ILC (Low Rise 8) which is a lot like Low Rise 6 except for a few slightly less ghetto aspects seeing as how it's an actual program house rather than *just* a shitty dorm left over from the 70s. The building seems to have more lounges, has carpet everywhere, and actually had laundry on the ground floor. Of course, the best part about it is that I have a super-single . I even had to register for housing when I got here, and they put me in a double which never got anyone else. So now I'm (well, my parents I guess) paying less for a bigger room. It's like almost as big as my room @ home, very spacious. I'm debating actually moving shazz around since I don't know how much time I'll be spending up here. Anyway, the living conditions are good, as is North in general, albeit a tad deserted...

So, this class is the easiest thing in all existence I have met @ Cornell. I guess linear algebra is a pretty easy subject itself since I've heard the same from other ppl who've taken classes elsewhere. Everyone seems to find it pretty easy. I remember one of my high school teachers complaining that the hardest class she ever took in college was linear algebra. I'm afraid she is retarded. Yeah, so Dave was right, it requires no work and all you ppl taking it next semester can enjoy a free A or whatever, w00t...

I've been spending a lot of time in collegetown since I got here, since that's where everyone else is. The official list of ppl that are/were here is: Sue (for a little bit), Matt, Emile, Jeff, Jeannie, EmChen, Allen (for like 3 days), and Ankor (who's been here the whole time, but I've only seen him like twice... bum ). Like everyone lives in Eddygate, which is honestly like 20-30 minutes from my dorm so I tend to stay there once I get there . The first few weeks we'd usually all eat some sort of stuff together whether it was frozen pizza/hot dogs or out @ Plum Tree, Eat Dessert First, Peace, or one of the other many asian restaurants. Yes, that's right, there are only asian restaurants in collegetown, and oh man, so0o0o many. But hey, I love asian food so it's all good, I don't mind eating good Udon, Sushi, and Lo Mien multiple times a week. Unfortunately, my efforts to find a job have failed, and I'm not sure I'll be able to get something this late that's summer only (pretty sure next semester will be far too crazy to work). So, the fact that the dining halls were closed for the first 2 weeks ('cept Trillium for lunch) means that I am now a poor man. Oh well, I guess I'll have to go begging to the parents for some more cash...

The hanging out has also been good. Most nights we'll just sit in someone's apt talking and uhhh... such. When we celebrated Sue's birthday, we stayed down @ EmChen's till like 5am where I had the pleasure to hear all the drama that's been going on. It was still fun being w/ everyone though and overall summer's been very relaxing. We haven't done much else. We've gone to the mall, some Pump has been played, saw the Terminal (actually decent), played LazerTag a few days ago. Yes, that's right; Ithaca actually has a LazerTag place like down in the commons, it's rather silly. Not as silly as the little kid we saw playing House of the Dead 3 though. Now, as you may or may not know, House of the Dead 3 has big fucking guns. No, I'm not talking about Coleman (oh man, only like 6 ppl ever are going to get that... but I must! ), I mean like huge sawed off shotguns that you pump to reload. This kid, who was prolly somewhere between 10 and 13 years old and almost as big as the guns himself, walked up and decided he shall be a badass and use both guns at the same time like Schwarzenegger in T2 style. Needless to say, it was the fastest way to lose a dollar next to going to Co'nell. His lanky arms just couldn't control the aim and he eventually ended up leaning on the cabinet with his remaining life trying to stabilize his gun. Of course, being the huge geeks we are, this became a topic of dinner table discussion a few days later @ the table w/ Emile and Matt. What exactly is the best way to dual wield two pump action shotties? You could go T2 style and jerk them at the ground to reload, you could balance one on the other for aiming and hope that two guns full of ammo would be enough for most groups of baddies, yes children, the possibilities are endless...

So today, after class, doing my homework, and lunch I came back to my room to find that my shitty-quality cam-pirated version of Fahrenheit 9/11 had finished downloading on BitTorrent. I had to see that movie, and I doubt it's coming out in Ithaca, although I'm sure it'd do well here. I thought it was quite well done, albeit quite biased. Of course, it's hard not to be biased against Bush after all he's done so although the theme of the film was clearly anti-Bush, Moore seemed to let the facts speak for themselves. I would have liked to see at least some people who agreed with Bush get interviewed, much like Hesston was in Bowling for Columbine. However, the bias didn't take away much from the film (partly because I agree w/ Moore's obvious perspective on many of the issues presented) and I highly recommend it no matter what your political views, very informative and really makes you think about what the Bush administration has done to our country...

Yeah, so I should go now, gonna do some work and then it's down to Ctown for dinner tonight. Quite a long entry, but nothing compared to Emily recent Behemoth of Infinite Longness (o0o0o, sounds like Shogun , haha, I'll read that soon, I swear). Peace out and werd down...

Oh, btw, stolen from Billy Yau: