A Typically Boring Day

Today I am sitting in my room. It kind of sucks. I have a bunch of paperwork and homework to get caught up on. I'm also doing some laundry, and I printed out some results from my research project. Last night I was sick or something, which wasn't terribly fun. But anyway, today is not a very exciting day for me.

However, tomorrow should be more interesting. I get to start out the day by dealing with the Housing and Food Services people, which is always great. I need them to tell me a couple things, and hopefully they will actually know the answers. Then I get to go to a meeting about my research project. Actually, I am looking forward to that, since I've made some progress in modeling my planets. After that, I will probably try to go talk to my marching band director about the Japan trip. Then I have to sit through three hours of class, playing with computer-simulations of mirrors and lenses. And finally, then I get to (hopefully) go to a marching band meeting/rehearsal, which should be fun. Anyway, if we're lucky maybe I'll tell you about stuff that is non-boring tomorrow. If not, well, boredom is fun.

Concerts and Summer

Tonight was the last concert of the school year for me. Actually, it went rather well. The group I played clarinet with did way better than we did at the last concert, which was nice. And the band that I played horn in also did really well (they even said that our horn section sounded really good!). So it was cool. Anyway, this means that I'm now officially half way through my college music career.

The only other thing today I did was talk to some people about stuff. I worked on my research project for a while and we figured out what stuff I need to get done before the end of the quarter. I also contacted the people at Bechtel. It looks like I do indeed have my summer job all lined up...Which means that 2005 will be the first year since 2000 that I didn't work for the library. And finally, I found out that something cool is going to happen in a week. But I'll talk about it later. So anyway, life is good. Especially when I hit the super-high horn riffs in Profanation (well, actually I did miss a few notes...).

The quarter system is cool....in August

I have come to the conclusion that this quarter should just hurry up and end already. I'd be more than happy to just take my finals tomorrow, so I can leave. But sadly, I have to stay here and do a bunch of crap. I'm sure that if you're one of those people who are on semesters, you're laughing at me right now. Well, we'll see who's laughing at the end of the summer...

Today we finally figured out what was wrong with my code for my research project. Apparently when we sent the test input file by e-mail it added some invisible characters, which when replaced by the same invisible characters, caused it to work properly. Yes, I realize that it doesn't really make sense. But it works now. Anyway, this means that after like 5 weeks of trying to get a simulation to work, I can actually do something now! Of course, the downside is that now I have a lot of work to do, but it should be fun.

And, that is about the only exciting event in my life that has transpired since my last post. I know, that is sort of pathetic. But get used to it.

Supernovae and White Dwarfs

Today I didn't really do a whole lot, so instead I will rant about the state of the science fiction world, and also reminisce. Back when I was in middle school, there were two popular customizable card games made by Decipher, one based on the Star Wars movies and the other drawing from the 700+ hours of Star Trek (actually, there was less than that at the time). Naturally, as a true geek, I collected cards from both of them, and in particular I got very into playing Star Wars (although my tournament record still sucked). Anyway, since both franchises are undergoing major changes this month, I took a moment to look back upon the "good old days" of sci-fi. You know, before Lucas made Episode I and before Berman took over Star Trek. Actually, Berman isn't that bad. But anyway, here it goes...

When I was a kid, we had several video tapes, but the ones that we watched by far the most often were the original Star Wars trilogy. Sure, there is some cheesy dialogue (and Ewoks), but overall those three movies are rather good. As I noted above, I became addicted to the Star Wars CCG...If I had saved all of the money I spent on cards over the years, I could own a brand new trumpet right now (or a lot of Star Trek DVDs). Not to mention the countless hours spent at tournaments. But it was a lot of fun, at the time. Anyway, now all of the prequels have been released, and Star Wars has gone "supernova" (my way of saying that it went out with a bang). I just hope that they stop making that television series now, before it disappoints me...

As cool as Star Wars was/is, first and foremost I have always been a Trekkie. The first episode I saw was TNG's "Brothers," and soon I became a huge fan of the show. In elementary school, whenever I had to write a story, I almost always wrote about Star Trek (or something similar). When the Next Generation had its series finale, you wouldn't believe how excited I was. Since then, I continued to follow DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise. I used to possess an encyclopedic knowledge of Star Trek trivia (which is slowly atrophying away). And I highly doubt that it is a mere coincidence that I am majoring in physics and astronomy. Anyway, the point is that Star Trek has had a huge impact on my life. Which is why I'm sad to see it go. And instead of going out strong, Enterprise died with barely a whimper...hence the "white dwarf" in the title. Well, I suppose I should just be happy with what I got (18 continuous years of new Trek) and not wish for what might have been (television networks being sensible)...But it still is not cool.

Anyway, what does this all mean? I don't know, but I guess I might have to find a new TV franchise to follow. One that isn't based off of Star Wars. Seriously, is it just me, or is that Star Wars show the worst idea ever? For it to be good, it will have to completely ignore continuity, which will make me hate it... Well, that's enough of my semi-sentimental ranting for today.

Boringness

Today was not very exciting. I got up. I sat around at my computer, playing some games. I did some homework. I practiced my French horn. I was going to go get a haircut, but there were lots of people in my way, so I left. I guess I'll do that tomorrow. Now I get to go work on my research project in the physics/astronomy building. Basically, today either it will work really well or else it will suck and my fortran program won't do anything. Hopefully it will work though. Alright, I thought I would share that stuff with all of you so that you can see that I am, in fact, actually boring. I realize my last post almost made it sound like I might have a life, and I just wanted to set the record straight. And if you haven't seen Star Wars yet, why are you still sitting here reading this? Go! Now!

Clone Wars and Dead French Mathematicians

Greetings, humans. I actually have been having a life lately (a temporary condition, I'm sure) but anyway that is my excuse for not posting. Yesterday I went to see the third Star Wars movie. It was actually better than I was expecting...in fact, I dare say that it was almost good. Well, some of it anyway. The point is that if you have not yet seen it, you are lamer and uncooler than I am. So go see it. It's just wrong if I'm cooler than someone...Seriously, I am really geeky. I was just at my friend's birthday party, and a grad student let us play with liquid nitrogen in the astronomy "reading room." So we froze stuff. And it was quite fun. I'm wondering which of the various items we froze will remelt. I'll find out when I go to the physics building tomorrow to work on my research project.

The other major event in my life besides Star Wars was a physics midterm. I actually think I did well, but I made some dumb mistakes. Did you know that cosine is different than sine, which is, incidentally, different than 0? Apparantly I don't. But that is okay, I should still be alright. The "Dead French Mathematicians" in the title of my post refers to the material on the test (FOURIER series, FOURIER integral transforms, LAPLACE transforms, CAUCHY-RIEMANN theorem, and LEGENDRE polynomials). Actually, some of them aren't French I think, but close enough. So that sucked, but I survived. Only two more tests left this quarter, and I can go home and play with rocks. Anyway, I will stop talking now, because I've probably bored all of you to tears by now.

I post, therefore I am

Welcome to the land of Boron, which exists only in my mind. Anyway, in case any of you care, there are three reasons why I have decided to create a blog. First of all, I can use this site to ramble on about whatever I want, and nobody can tell me to shut up. Secondly, there are actually some people out there (although admittedly rather few) who care what I do in my everyday life. This blog allows me to inform them of stuff without actually having to talk to them. And finally, it is possible that some day there may exist someone who just likes listening to me talk. Any such individual would have to be completely insane, so this blog also serves as a distraction, protecting me from direct interaction with the crazy people.

Okay, so admittedly I just got bored and wanted something to do. But you never know, perhaps some day there will be an organization dedicated to stalking me and listening to me talk. And getting this blog would then prove to have been a wise and productive decision... Right...

Alright, I suppose that will have to suffice for now.