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BLOG OF POOTENHEIMER... Fear it, Love it
20040331
 
Working strenuously
It's quite late. Or early, I should say. But I'll also say this. I started coding earlier today to get started on programming my algorithm. And now it's finished. Yes, I am THAT GOOD. It's nasty stuff, but I have it working. Almost perfectly. There's one or two little tweaks I have left to take care of, but for the most part, it does what it's supposed to. A little slower than I had hoped, but I may be able to optimize it a bit further. We'll see. And oh dear, the sun is rising. Yes, I should probably stop, for now.

So now I shall try to get some rest, and continue with this program in the time that follows my awakening. I have a random link, that someone WANTED me to place on the blog. I normally don't take requests, but this one time, I am weak (probably from over twelve hours of uninterrupted continuous work), and shall. So here's someone else's random link. Only it's not so random. And apparently important, to some people.
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20040330
 
Can't talk - writing
Yeah, working on the thesis. It's pretty much going to eat me, or I'm going to eat it. Neither of those sound good, but I'll come out of it somehow. I'll just say I talked to my advisor and he seemed to have doubts on whether or not I could pull off having a thesis finished by the proper time. I'll just have to take that as a challenge. I did take his advice seriously, though - he told me if I wanted to have a chance, I'd have to give up pretty much everything else and just lock myself away in my room, work on nothing but the thesis. So that's the plan. I managed to write around seven more pages tonight, of solid stuff. Mainly about my algorithm. I formed as much of a formula out of it as I could. The grand total, so far, is around 17 pages, not counting title page, bibliography, table of contents, etc. And I'm figuring I'm only about halfway through, and the code will probably be placed in an appendix. We'll see what happens.

So I'm off to do more work on the paper! I do have a random link, still. There was someone I talked to a few weeks ago who never heard of this, which shocked me. Everyone should know about this.
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20040329
 
Not so much insomnia now
I'll be crashing soon, I think. Super long weekend. Too much happened. Even just Friday. Friday, goodness! I woke up earlier, took care of the car, finally. Had it towed, went to Hibdon's. When we got there, the tow truck broke some sort of seal and was spewing hydraulic fluid all over the place. So HE had to have somebody come help him out. Thankfully, my car was actually down and at Hibdon's before that happened. Otherwise, might have been a little more insane than normal. And after that, I found out my tire didn't just have a little hole. Oh no - that would be too easy. Somehow the side was completely worn. I think I'm lucky the tire didn't burst on me while I was driving. So yeah, purchase of an extra tire, not cheap.

I got that taken care of, then went and did Senior Salute day! Which is basically the "get ready for graduation" thing they have for you. So I got all my papers, although I only got a tassel, because they didn't have robes. I'll get mine later. And I still have my cap, I think. Doesn't matter, 'cause it's free. I do get a nifty extra layer to wear, since I'm a fancy schmancy graduate student. So that's cool. AND I bought a ring! I don't really wear jewelry (not even a watch, which may explain some things), but having a class ring is nice. Since I didn't get one as an undergrad, I thought it'd be good to get one for my graduate graduation, so I have something. And while I was at Senior Salute day (I feel like there should be some sort of fanfare accompanying that), I found out stuff about thesis requirements. Apparently I was listed as non-thesis. Which meant they never sent me the IMPORTANT STUFF I needed to know. Like needing the thesis finished if I want to graduate or even walk in May. And that I have until mid-April to finish EVERYTHING. Which means I don't have a lot of time left. So as soon as I left I called my advisor. He didn't sound too negative on the possibilities, so I've got hope. I can do it!

Yeah, the thesis is going to hit HARD these next couple of weeks. I told my advisor I'd have a preliminary draft of the paper on Monday. Then that night I realized I had a retreat I had voluteered to help at on Saturday. ALL day. From 8 to 11. So that killed my Saturday thesis work plans. But the retreat was sweet! It's called ERIS, part of the Newman Center collection of selfless activities. It's a Catholic retreat for middle schoolers, and it was a lot of fun. We broke into three groups, color-coded. The whole thing was set up in a military fashion, so we had a general, and captains, and commanders, and all the other leaders were sergeants. The kids were all corporals. (We couldn't call them privates for a variety of reasons.) Anyway, we had our three major groups. Ours was the red group, also known as the Charlie company. We were the Charlie's Chaplins! There were a lot of contests, competitions, some of them ended up being musical. Our company ended up winning! Yay! We had an awesome final contest entry, but I have to say it was thanks to effort from everyone. Really, everyone had something to add, and that's what made it work. Good stuff. What? Okay.

In addition to all the crazy school and retreat stuff, there is work. So the magical new set of hours I got to work fits exactly with the time I have to do my thesis. Isn't that splendid? Things couldn't have worked any other way! Which means I may not be able to help finish the work project completely on time. Which makes me sad. It's still Lent. But on the other hand, even if that doesn't pan out, I got a completely random job offer from some friends who I've known for years. They started their own company and it's been working for them rather well. Apparently they're going to need a Java telecom/security specialist, and I just happen to fit that mold. So they asked me - nine months, good work, probably good pay. I just love it when good things land on me. Which doesn't happen TOO often, so I do appreciate it VERY much. I'll meet with them this week sometime, find out the details. We'll see what happens.

Ah, but today it's been super busy with thesis stuff. Trying to write a paper. Mission Improbable. I'm up to eleven pages, and I'll probably have at least four more by the time I meet with my advisor. So that's not TOO shabby, I think. I'm looking forward to the coding part. It's in C! Well, C++. I like C++. It's fast. And complicated enough to make you feel accomplished when you write something functional and efficient. So I'll be writing lots of code. Yay! (If doing the gruntwork of your major/degree makes you say "Yay", then you're probably on the right track.) Do you want to learn more about C++? Need a reference, perhaps?

Ugh. All thesis means none of anything else. No work, no kung fu... it's like a vacation, except it's FULL of WORK. So it's not really like a vacation AT ALL. Eh, oh well. And I need some sleep, so I'm going to get it. And you need a random link. Something I was pointed to a while ago was an interesting page. Although it's not always nice or polite, so you've been warned.
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20040326
 
Insomniac AGAIN
I caught up on my sleep. Which may not be good. It means I'm still kinda awake. I'll have to get up earlier just to offset it. Yes, I was asleep quite late. Which meant I got up and didn't have time for my errands, but that's okay. I DID, however, manage to talk to my employers, and I'm signed on for another forty hours. Which will cover a month of bills, so that's good. I start next week. So there's that.

I also hadn't gone to kung fu all week, AND I didn't have time to change my tire today (sleeping in does have its downsides), so I got a friend who hadn't seen the academy yet to give me a ride. It was good to get back to it. Class was fun, and sparring was good, as always. A new guy sparred tonight, and he was eager to get a taste of me, for some reason. For some reason everyone there wants a piece of me. And we had an extra fun change in sparring tonight - three on one. Yes, three people against one poor person. When you get hit, you're out, regardless of if you're the single person or one of the three. And there's no rule against ganging up on the person. It's not easy. Most people get out pretty quick, especially if they're novice to the idea. The first couple were quite new to it, and Sifu decided I was one of the three attackers. So I hung back and only rushed them if they left themselves blatantly open. For the most part, the other two people gave them enough trouble even without a third. So two people went through and found defeat at the hands of the other three. Usually all three were still in, although there were three rounds, and during a couple of rounds, the solo person managed to take one of the three out. I think in one case, they even took two.

Anyway (if you haven't noticed, I like starting my new paragraphs with the word ANYWAY), the third person is up, and it's me! So I get to take on one of the more advanced students (although she's rather slow, not one of the crazier sparrers), a medium student who's pretty tough at sparring (he's bloodied my nose before), and the new guy. First round I take out the woman, and go for a while against the other two. I really don't remember if I took out one of them or not, but they tagged me. So second round is up, and I take the woman out again, then I'm up against the guys. They're both rushing me, I'm blocking furiously, and then I tag the tougher one in the head, although he doesn't notice, SOMEHOW. Sifu does, and he's out. So it's me and the new guy. And it turns out he's pretty good. He's quick on his feet, and he moves fast. Quickly. As in quickly AWAY from me when I'm attacking. So we're going for a while, and once I lose my balance and tumble backwards. He should have had me, but he didn't, so I do a backwards roll and spring back up, then rush him, and it's over! I am victorious. Over THREE PEOPLE at ONCE. But I'm very tired, and the third round is over quickly, with the tough guy popping me nicely in the belly almost immediately. I didn't mind. I could use the rest. But I did manage to win one of the rounds, which doesn't happen often for me. Or anyone, actually. It was the only round that night that anyone beat their three opponents. Woo! Although it also may have been due to the fact that Justin (Mr. Senior Student) was put in as one of the other three for the rest of the matches. And that he wasn't put in as the single guy for the evening. He's the one person who regularly can pull off beating three people simultaneously. But not tonight! It was MY night, tonight.

So that was fun. And after class, the new guy wants MORE of me, so I humor him (even though it means I'm extra late to choir practice). I think he'll be quite good. I'll learn from him, which is good. I realized only after class that I was still too tight the whole night. I FORGOT to loosen up. It makes me slower. So maybe I could have done better. Well, you live, you learn. All that.

And then choir practice, with a new instrument added. A violin! And the violinist is quite good. She's new to the choir, so we'll see how things turn out. It was kind of crazy, though - three instruments, four vocalists. And the vocalists weren't very loud in comparison. So hopefully we can get more people to offset that for the real deal on Sunday.

And then more of Splinter Cell... so luscious. It's quite like a movie. I try to play it in a non-violent fashion. Even though you're given a silenced pistol and sometimes a LARGE fully automatic gun, I try to keep my opponents alive, although incapacitated. Or if I'm really good and can find another way, alive and just ignorant. Like trying to sneak through a city in Jerusalem at night. With police patrolling the area, and some civilians up late with open doors... you have to stay sneaky, in the shadows, and quiet. It was especially hard to get through one very open area containing one officer and two (what looked like) rabbis. They were standing and chatting, and the officer doing rounds. So my first successful attempt consisted of waiting until the officer patrolled the deadly shadows, and klunking him in the head, so he was out. Then shooting out a light that was brightly illuminating the area, which got the attention of one of the rabbis, who stood up and looked to see what had happened. So I wait until HE walks into the deadly shadows, and KLUNK he's out, too. I felt bad for smacking a rabbi unconscious, but not bad enough that I didn't do it to the second one, who didn't even realize anything was wrong until it was TOO LATE. But then I got spotted by an officer later and had to start over, so it was all for naught. Then my truly successful time through I manage to wait until everyone's back is turned and then nonchalantly walk (even through the LIGHT) out of the area. Without having to klunk anybody. I liked that one better. At any rate, it's a lot of fun. I like being sneaky.

So I did that, and then it was time for another "episode" of the UFC. I've been hooked on watching them lately. They're very violent, though, but I've been learning a bit about full contact fighting. It's good to be educated. Even if you never use some of your education. In this case, I'd be fine with that. Those are some tough hombres that go to the UFC. It's crazy.

And that's enough. I need to get SOME rest. So here's your random link. I found some other "normal" people's music available for download, and since mp3.com is pretty much dead, there are some alternatives. Yes, you have to sign up for it, but that's not so bad. I'm thinking about putting up some of my music for the general public to have access to it, and see what kind of responses I get. Maybe you should, too!
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20040325
 
Some good, some bad
A very full day. Began by getting up (against all my better judgement) at 8:30 in the freakin' morning. And not only that, but to go to the dentist! Yes. And the drill was whirring, and I could feel enamel lightly tapping the inside of my cheek, in teensy pieces. Unnerving. Although I was completely numb. From the anaesthetic. Which is also unnerving. (Har, har.) But being numb, in its own way, was rather cool. It was enough of that special juice that a lot of my face stayed numb afterwards for around three hours, including the inner part of my right ear. Yeah - so I got a filling. That technique seems to me like it's going to eventually be one of the things people look back on (in our bright advanced future) and say, "They did THAT?" Kind of like how we now look back on the original dentists. Which pulled teeth as a side job, their primary one being the much more important CUTTING of HAIR. Yeah. And my dentist mentioned he saw a dentist chair in a museum that required the "dentist" to pedal in order to get the drill spinning. It makes my tooth hurt just imagining what that would be like. "Don't complain - I carved the drill bit myself!" Yeah. So it's not THAT bad, but I still don't like the idea of power tools being used inside my mouth, with purely destructive purposes.

Anyway, I have a new filling now. Woo! Now I'll just have to pass all my Pepsi over just that tooth when I drink it. Ah... and after that, it was time to pay bills AND deposit some money. Both of which are good things to do. I personally prefer the deposit thing. And then I went to the mall, in an EFFORT to eat, although I decided to just get it to go after trying to get through some food and not being sure if I was chewing my food or just the inside of my cheek. Yes, they're both delicious, but I prefer to be productive in my masticatory tendencies. It was okay, though, because I then went to Gamestop (previously known as Software Etc. (previously known as Babbage's)), for GOOD THINGS. Since I had deposited money, I had to spend some. Naturally. Actually, one of my reservations came in! It's SO GOOD. Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. An excellent game. I've played a bit of it, and it's quite entertaining. Built with a ton of "cool factor" into it. A secret agent who's extremely covert and a badass to boot. With a lot of fun toys he can use. Some of which fire out of his VERY cool gun. It's good stuff. That, and I picked up Metal Gear: Twin Snakes, which is a remake of both Metal Gear Solids. For a reasonable price. Still one of the best movie-theme like games I've ever played (the first MGS). I think Splinter Cell had a lot of inspiration from MGS.

ANYway. Yeah, I played some of that. Then talked to my employer people, and it looks like I'll be jumping back on the bandwagon of getting PAID pretty soon again. I hope it turns out okay. It'd be good to have a full time job when I finish this semester, since there's a decent chance I won't finish my freakin' THESIS before official graduation. So I'd have to move, pay lots of NEW bills, and without a new degree yet. Eh, one degree is still okay. So close, though... so close.

And I've been missing kung fu. Because I haven't been able to go. (Double meaning there. But typing this here makes the efficiency of two meanings in a small set of words all shot to hell.) Because I STILL have a flat. I tried changing it today, and I got all the way to the part where you take the tire off by removing these lug nut things. And they wouldn't budge at all. And everyone's probably thinking, "Did you really try that hard?" And SECRETLY thinking, "I'm stronger that you, I bet I could have done it." Well, NO. You couldn't have done it. And you might actually not be stronger than me. I have secret powers. I called AAA and had them come by to change the tire, since I couldn't do it, and the guy that came couldn't do it, either. Even with his different, FANCY tire iron. He said the nuts were pretty much rock solid. So I have a flat, STILL, and I'm going to just have them tow it tomorrow morning (perhaps afternoon) to a tire place, where they have 20,000 horsepower machines that can unscrew the TRUNK off a car. And then things will be good. I do have to say thank you to a good friend who was nice enough to take me to the places I needed to go. (Thank you!)

So that's most of it. And now I'm getting sleepy, since I still haven't recovered sleep, and had to get up earlier than I sometimes go to BED. So I think with that, I shall random link you. (Isn't English cool? Where any word can be a verb? I verbed it!) This is something that someone sent me. I rather like enjoying my movies, becoming immersed, escaping reality for ninety to two hundred minutes. So this kind of ruins that illusion for some. But then again, what people like is often capable of being understood only by them.
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20040324
 
Addiction can be good
And now I am addicted to improving my program. Man. Keep making it nicer and nicer and NICER. I have successfully added a full calculation of all the checksums for the IP, ICMP, TCP, and UDP headers. If you don't understand what I just said, maybe you're not a computer scientist. It's too bad! Doesn't that sound like FUN? Eh, I have to drop it, now that it's a smooth-running machine. And move on to the next project. A signature-based IDS with IP packet reassembly support. Something about this tells me it'll be a teensy bit harder. Maybe more than two days required to get it done.

But maybe I'll wait until tomorrow to start. Since I have my dentist appointment in the MORNING. At 9. Ugh. Both getting up early and getting a drill in the mouth. You know, I'm not sure which is worse. Wouldn't it be nice to have choices for the pains in your life? "So what'll it be today, huh? A weird rash, a massive spill in the kitchen, tripping over yourself in front of a hundred people, or four hours of sleep over two days?" "Hmm, well, I like sleeping in, and I don't like public humiliation - I'll take the massive spill." Yeah. With the weirdness in my life, I might actually GET a massive spill in the kitchen. If so, I'll know what other things I was thankfully saved from.

I slept today. During the day. I like naps. Although I hardly ever take them. 'Cause I'm busy. But it was good. I slept through part of kung fu (called in time to let 'em know they were going to be missing my presence), so I ended up watching American Idol. I voted! Yay! It makes me think of my own personal singing career. Or lack of it. And how it'd be cool to have an audience like that. That's what I think of when I watch American Idol, anyway. That, and now attractive Paula Abdul still looks, even though her "prime" was the eighties.

I did get my free lunch, though. PF Chang's. Quite good. It was my first time there! I heard somewhere that Tulsa's got some sort of freakish restaurant per capita. Which means you could probably go to a new place every day and not run out for a very long time. Maybe EVER, since new places always seem to be opening. That, and the other guy I met was funny. He's a big nerd, maybe even a little more than ME. He likes video games (who'd like those things?), and he's actually played Quake against John Romero, in person. FYI, John Romero is someone who was very big in the game industry, until he was deluded into thinking that programming skill is secondary to plot ideas. That, and deluded in thinking his plot ideas were good... (cough, cough - DAIKATANA - cough) Anyway, this guy also has a nice big widescreen HDTV (who'd buy something like that?) and likes programming. He was interesting.

And now it's time for another random picture. This is one I took a long time ago. It's what I would call somewhat artsy. Maybe YOU wouldn't, but I'm not a professional photographer, which apparently YOU are.

Random!


Lovely. Okay, now it's time for sleep. To get ready for pain. Of waking up early. Oh, that, and the dentist. Here's your random link! Something I've been looking into a little bit, lately. Although I'm not actually considering PARTICIPATING. Probably not. Maybe. Anyway.
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20040323
 
It's been a long day
A very long day. I was awake at 9, having gone to sleep at about 7 or so. That's not a lot of sleep. Why I'm still awake, I don't know.

But I did finish my project! And it's a thing of beauty. The capabilities it has are absolutely scary. Basically, it captures packets being sent through the network. So I can see anything flying by, snag it, and then look at it in all sorts of intelligent ways. I can see anyone in the local network browsing the web, or checking their mail, or so forth. Like I said, scary. But cool.

And it's done! I did the project, did the paper for it, and still had time to walk to class. No, I didn't change the tire yet. And I didn't go to the dentist, either. I changed the appointment date. I figured it'd be good to keep some of my sanity. Enough with lack of sleep, I didn't need to be drugged up, numb and in pain on top of it. Dentist time later this week. As well as a ton of stuff else. Senior Salute Day is Thursday and Friday! Goodness. I get to go pick up cap and gown and invitations and all that. Makes the end seem a lot closer. That's scary, too.

And NOW I'm getting tired enough where I'm starting to see things spinning. Maybe I should sleep. I have a busy day tomorrow, with my choice of free lunches and all. I think I'll take the PF Chang choice, since it's work related. Yes, work. My true love. I shall embrace it again. Hopefully pay lots of bills with it. That's important. So now, sleep time for me.

But for you, Faithful Reader, I shall give a random link. It's rather random, and I'm tired. So here you go. My favorite e-mail program. The best EVER.
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20040322
 
Can't talk, working
Sadly, the blog tonight will not be full. I have work to do, still! And sleep. Let's just say tomorrow will be rough. I get my filling at 10 AM, before which I have to change my tire, after which I have to finish testing my project. And writing the paper for it. Which won't be too bad. But I have to finish! So more blog, later. But not tonight.

I'll still leave you with the random link, though. It's what I've been using a lot of lately. If you ever code in Java, you'll need this.
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20040321
 
What? I'm posting early in the morning?
Yes, yes, early in the morning. Seems like it's my time. I OWN it. Not like anybody else wants it.

Speaking of - last night and today were kind of sucky because our A/C went OUT. And with all the electronic paraphernalia we have here, the apartment got rather warm. As in eighty degrees (Fahrenheit) warm. I don't like sleeping when it's too warm. When it's cold, that's okay. You can bundle up, wear more clothes, and there's something about that that's just nice. I like wrapping up in stuff when I sleep. But when it's HOT - you can get naked, and it's still not going to fix it. That, and filling the tub with ice and then putting a sleeping bag on that isn't very efficient. It's rather hopeless, which makes me mad. Because there's NOTHING YOU CAN DO. That's the type of thing that makes me mad. When there's something horribly wrong, and there's nothing that can be done to change it. But it's cooler tonight, so I can bundle up and be okay. And not have freaky dreams, like I think I did last night.

So I woke up, and my battle scars have already started healing. Darn. Oh well, I'll get some more soon enough, I'm sure. But waking up after sleeping in HEAT makes one cranky. Bleah. I got up, though, got some food. And then... I WORKED. Amazingly enough, that's what I've done for most of the day. Working on the impossible project. I did approximately 85% of it today. Woo! I have all of tomorrow and lots of Monday to finish the last bits, test it, and then write the little paper to accompany it. Mission impossible... now looks only potentially improbable. Is that an oxymoron? Anyway, what a fun way to spend my Saturday night. Coding in Java. Silly Java. Always making people work for things that should already be part of the language. What? You have no unsigned bytes? There's no easy way to convert byte arrays into strings? Of course not! What was I thinking? Here, I shall leave you with a chunk of code I wrote so you can see what bliss it is.

// Freakin' pain in the butt Java doesn't have unsigned bytes. So that's what the & 0xff
// is for. Otherwise we get negative values. Now you must live through the pain I did,
// in the form of trying to understand the next line.
str = str.concat(new BigInteger(String.valueOf(new BigInteger(tmpb).intValue() & 0xff)).divide(new BigInteger("16")).toString(16));


Isn't it pretty? And that comment above it really is in my code. Yeah. I'm up to about five hundred lines. Who knows, it may expand to twice that. No big deal.

I did squeeze in a little rest time. To eat more p'zone with Pepsi and even a movie. Which movie? A little semi-film called Drumline. It wasn't too bad! Something about rhythm has a big effect on things. It made the climax of the film work very well. If you were in band in high school (or heaven forbid, in band camp), you might like this movie quite a bit.

And in contrast with the violent imagery (both verbal and photographic) I've been providing recently, I think this time I shall give you a pleasant image. This is something I took (yes, ME) from an airplane. Managed to have the luck to have a window seat on the east side of the plane as the sun rose. Which made up for the fact that I was actually AWAKE when the sun was rising. And not from staying up. Here! I hope you like it.



And with that, I'll close the blog session for today. But not before a random link. Sometimes I use BIG WORDS. And sometimes I use more complicated multisyllabic words, as opposed to purely capitalized words. So for those times when you feel like you need to use crazy vocabulary, here you go.
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20040320
 
Craziness
It's been a crazy day. Yes, a crazy day. A lot happened! Except for work. I'm good like that. I did sleep in a bit. Which was so nice. I slept HARD. With crazy dreams. I think they may have been ninja-induced. But it was okay. I woke up, and found that I had some wrestling to watch! I managed to find some on the web. Ooh, it was lovely. So I watched some of that, then it was time for kung fu.

But as I was leaving, I remembered my car had been pulling to the right the day before, so I thought I'd better check the tire. Lo and behold, it was FLAT. Doh! Sucky POOH. So I had to find someone to give me a ride. Thankfully, I found someone who was willing and able rather quickly, so I made it to kung fu! I didn't think anyone would be there, because Fridays are lighter nights. We just practice, no official class. And most of the heavyweights (more advanced students) were away at a tournament, which I couldn't do because I knew I'd be busy working on school projects. Which I will be. Eventually. So anyway - there I was, a few minutes late, and Nick, one of the more senior students was there. He's usually there, because he's been working on a mural on the wall. But I turn the corner to put my stuff down, and someone else is there! Someone rather special. It's a guy named Shannon, who is the previous senior student. He was senior when he left, to go to Norman and work on many more degrees. He should have a doctorate by the end of this semester. Anyway, when he left, he was pretty much top notch man at the school. And he's now got approximately ten years of kung fu under his belt, which is more than even Justin (the current senior student). He comes to visit on occasion, and this was one of those occasions. So we both worked out a bit, practiced some forms, and then I talked to him about sparring. Apparently, he was told by Sifu and Justin that he was to leave some bruises on me before he left. I didn't have my pads, but that wasn't going to stop me.

So I managed to find some spare gloves, and he had his, so we used just gloves, but went ahead and got into some full sparring. Also, there were two witnesses there - one, the friend who gave me the ride, and another friend (name of Josh, who I'm currently working with to impart some basic sparring knowledge) who happened to live close by. So you can ask him about it. But it was a sight to see! We started moderately light, and then got progressively more ferocious. You see, Shannon was probably one of the most aggressive sparrers in the kwoon (kwoon = dojo but cooler). He, and another guy named Mike (who I've sparred in the past). The two of them sparred hard enough together that sometimes people would walk into the academy, see them going at it, and then turn around and leave. It was freakin' scary to see them wail on each other.

So yeah, I'm sparring Shannon this time. I have before, but I've gotten more aggressive myself since the last time (ahem, unless taking people out of commission on a regular basis isn't considered aggressive). And the fight was on! We traded punches, although I'll admit he landed quite a few more than I landed on him. I was grateful he was experienced - only an experienced person can manage to still be wearing sneakers and only tap you on the side of your jaw, instead of dislocating it. He did lay into me nicely with his punches, though. So he popped me in the nose a few times (miraculously, no blood came forth), rather HARD, and a few in the side of the head, in addition to several nice kicks to my stomach and chest. And coming close to nailing the solar plexus (with a sun punch, ironically). But I did smack him pretty hard in the side of the head, and bloodied his lip, and racked him slightly (he was doing a double kick, I snuck a snap in between them). And leaving a nice swelling on his arm from my infamous shin. Plus getting some nice kicks in. It was something to see! You should have been there. But since you couldn't - I'll give you pictures. Woo!

Okay, here you go. The first is one from a pretty solid kick he landed.


And my left arm. This came from blocks, intercepting a few different attacks.


And my right arm. Same type of thing.


And you can guess what this is. He popped it nicely - I think his knuckles came out a bit from the glove, because I definitely felt them.


So there's some picture proof for you. For all of you who think I just like making up crazy kung fu stories. I like kung fu. Ahhh.

And THEN! Finished off my wrestling extravaganza, plus some ice cream and Pepsi (not at the same time), and all was good. And now it's time to sleep. So I hope you enjoyed all my fun kung fu storytime goodness. And here's your random link! I will give you a warning, it's got some crazy stuff in there. But since I'm still in college, as are the people who submit to this, I think it's valid random link material.
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20040319
 
Ninjas!
And yes, I fell victim to being swooned by the lure of ninjas. But no fear! For I have DEFEATED all the ninjas! And then some! Yes, that is correct, I have finished the game. It was rather difficult, but it was doable. The ended is luscious. As are the bonus items you get when you finish the game. I think I may have to play through it a second time. Although probably not until I'm done with school. Bleah.

So I didn't do a TON of work, but I did some. I also scheduled a meeting with some people next week to handle future employment, which is always good. It's nice to make money. If it works as planned, then I might actually have a decent position ready for me when I graduate. Yay! We'll see. I won't assume anything yet.

I also saw a movie this evening, which my roommate selected. Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Many famous actors in it, when they were very, very young. It's a decently entertaining movie. Although it has naughty things in it. Like sex, and drugs, and other stuff. Even though it's about high school. But it's okay - I'm old enough to watch movies like that.

All right, I need to get to sleep a little earlier. I go full bore into procrastination panic mode tomorrow, so I'll need the rest. But for you - a random link. There ARE other blogs out there, some of them actually interesting. There's one that I found especially interesting.
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20040318
 
Another morning post
Full day today. Full of NOTHING. Well, not so much. I did do some productive stuff. I worked on my thesis, even! Not as much as I should have. But I did. So I have something to show. Then I got my p'zone supply refilled, did some more ninja action, learned how to play some AC/DC (good stuff) on guitar, went to a friend's to help her with ninja action (because she's not so good at it), then another friend's to watch Bourne Identity and eat more pizza, then to another friend's to chat some hours away she had to work doing a bunch of nothing at a hall desk. So yes! A full day.

Why am I such a procrastinator? What makes a person so procrastinatory? Is it built in? Is it because I like the challenge? I've realized I am very uninclined to leave comfortable areas. It applies to all areas of life. This includes the bed and the shower. Which is why I LOVE sleeping in, and am mad we only get eight minutes of hot water (although it's up to fifteen during break - woo!). I tend to think this also explains my procrastination. If I'm more comfortable NOT doing work, then why mess up a good thing? Entering my ninja zone is not uncomfortable, so I'm fine with that. I suppose I just need to find the comfortable area for me that produces income. When I can do that, I'll be set. Oh, and how getting into ferocious physical confrontations is comfortable for me, I'll never know. Perhaps I'm simply masochistic. But only in physical areas.

So tomorrow I'll have to postpone thesis work (sadly, it may have to be finished over the summer), so I can work on my OTHER projects. One first, then the other. I've heard from at least one person it's the hardest project he ever did. Which means it might take me more than a day to finish. Alas. Hopefully I'll get flashes of brilliance. Multiple flashes. Either that, or I'll get hot flashes as I near the deadline without a completed project. Not quite the same thing, but sometimes you have to take what you can get.

But for this morning, I shall lay down and fall unconscious, and set NO alarm, and it shall be good. So good. Unless someone calls. Or knocks on the door. Or calls AND knocks on the door. Then it won't be so good. And I will awaken, angry at the fool who dares interrupt my luscious sleep! And I shall stumble to the medium through which I will communicate with my unwitting annoyance, be it telephone or doorframe, and give them a piece of my mind. A small piece, since most of it will still prefer to remain at a more subconscious level. Kind of like now, where I seem to have some sort of mystical connection established between my subconscious and my conscious (i.e., phalanges) and can stream my consciousness directly to the keyboard. It's nice and scary at the same time. Possibly a bit dangerous.

But for now, I will let it be. And extinguish the electrical illuminations that are my current apartment companion. But not until... the random link! I'm sure you know who Strong Bad is. But this is a special occasion! Be sure to check for all seven special links at the end of this one.
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20040317
 
Oh well, too much fun
Yeah, I kind of spent the whole day on BREAK. It was awesome. I slept in very late, then got up to play a little, take a shower, eat, play some more, then go to kung fu. And I didn't really hurt anybody in kung fu today! Yay! Although I did knock the wind out of one of the students, during sparring. It's getting better.

Alas, I do need to do some work. Well, no kung fu tomorrow, so I can actually spend a lot of the day doing my projects. Maybe, just maybe I can finish both of them! That'd be sweet. So sweet. We'll have to see.

And I watched Die Hard tonight! Such a good movie. The epitome of action flicks. It started everything - made in 1988. It was good because the good guy wasn't invincible. He was believable. Which made you root for him even more. And the bad guy was a very good bad guy. The tension is quite tangible. And tasty.

So, me being lazy makes for BORING BLOGS. Sorry about that. I don't have any very interesting experiences when I'm just sitting on my ass all day. And let that be a lesson to you all! But it is nice. Luscious, even. I did get to get farther in Ninja Gaiden, which is sort of productive. Crazy stuff has started happening. Yup. I can't ruin it for you, so that's all I can say. It's secret.

And my random link! Today it's definitely random. It's someone you might know! The best page EVAR.
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20040316
 
And the break officially begins!
Yaaay! I began it with a day of sleeping IN, working, and then polishing off with some kung fu. The work thing was kinda rough. I didn't actually get any food in me until around 7 PM. (My secret to staying thin, I suppose.) Then I came back and watched Matchstick Men, which was interesting. But work makes me nervous - the project is ALMOST ready to go, but I got a cease and desist thing from the bosses which means I may not be able to do the last hour or so necessary to finish the project. Doh. We'll see.

I was thinking some more about the Sunday Full Moon show, and Ben Kilgore. He's quite good. Matt Fisher (on guitar) is quite good, too. Matt uses some excellent effects, does it well. His chops are pretty good, but nothing extraordinary. He'd be fun to play next to. And Ben has an impressive voice. The volume he put out (and kept it consistent) impressed me. Especially his ability to scream in tone and not tear up his voice. If only I could be Ben! Then I wouldn't be ME, which I much prefer, so I'm happy with things the way they are.

And it's quiet here, now. Roommate's gone, so are a lot of the neighbors. It's nice. In kind of an Omega Man kind of way. I'm going to stay UP late and sleep IN late and then get up, eat some leftover p'zone and Pepsi, maybe be a Ninja for a while, and then do some work. Bleah. Work. Maybe it'll be fun, though, since it's programming. Although programming in JAVA. Silly Java. Why can't you be more like C? C is so much faster! Although it's not platform independent. But I don't NEED it to be platform independent. Just seems like it's somehow more attractive. Oh well. Game programming is still in C. Game programmers know what's up.

I wish spring break was eighteen weeks long. And I could live for free. So I could record music stuff. Maybe someday I will be a musician! On the side. Since I need to make some money to record all the CRAP I'm sure I won't be able to sell. I do love music, though, I've realized. But I'm happy not doing it for a living. I think when you have a dependency on something, it makes its luster lessen somewhat. That goes for pretty much anything. So I won't depend on music! I'll just do it for the funsies. I've been recording more stuff, but nothing good yet. Not good enough for YOU, at least, Faithful Reader. I do get pickier and picker as I get more experience with the recording stuff, though. So tracks I keep will be fewer and fewer until I have a platinum album.

And now, it's time for a random link. This one fits with the topics of conversation. I like guitars.
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20040315
 
Maybe a little too late, maybe a little too early
Too early in the morning, that is. The weekend is over, but BREAK is beginning. Which means I get to work. Oh well, I thought I'd enjoy the weekend while I could. Slept a ton on Saturday night, after watching Leon (The Professional) again. Excellent movie. Just make sure you get the proper version, which is titled Leon, not The Professional. See, the American version has a lot of rather crucial scenes cut out. One of my favorite films, though.

That, and then church. Lighter crowd, although half of them showed up in the last three minutes, so it looked at first like it was going to be a lot lighter, and then not so much. The choir had all of five people, one of which wasn't there the whole time (he had other duties). Which meant I was the only male voice in the choir. I think I did okay, seems like people could hear me. That, and we had to stretch one of the songs a bit, but that turned out not too bad, either. Made me slightly nervous to be the only guy up there for some of the songs. Just me and two women for vocals. The other guitarist and the pianist sang a little, but they're not very audible (yet) since they're quite focused on their instrument. Silly me, focusing on more than one thing at once.

Speaking of guitar and singing, after church was over, I went out to Full Moon to see Ben Kilgore (of Hero Factor). I found out tonight we graduated high school the same year, just him from Union. Myself, I graduated in a massive class of 86 or so, from a little place called Cascia Hall. He's not too bad - he has an impressive vocal ability, which includes being able to scream a bit, and still keep a clean tone when he needs it. I do need to work on my vocal skills. Perhaps he'll be a bit of an inspiration. I went up and talked to the two guys on their break, they seem quite mellow. I went ahead and bought their album, since the money goes directly to them. Independent artist support, all that. Maybe someday I'll be in the same place.

And THEN the thing that kept me up all night long. Something quite luscious. What you're thinking of right now probably says something about you as a person. At any rate, it was NINJA time. I plowed further through Ninja Gaiden, although it was ludicrously hard. I did pass a level, after getting through a few quite difficult battles. So I feel accomplished, and I will have sweet dreams of vanquishing mighty foes. Perhaps that will map into the defeat of enemies in some of my actual upcoming struggles. Such as two projects and a thesis. Freakin' thesis.

I've fallen into the BitTorrent trap again. This time, I got an episode of American Idol. Whee! The Best of the Worst type of thing. I guess it's that type of morbid curiosity, the thing that makes people want to watch horrible accidents, that keeps me interested in things like that. Some of the moments in that episode truly are horrific. I only hope I can let them escape my memory.

And I'm sleepy. Sleep is still one of the great mysteries of human nature. What are dreams? Why do some people remember them, and some don't? Does everyone dream, even if they don't remember them? How are dreams actually related to waking life? I think there's more to it than people realize. The whole thing with people dreaming things that actually happen, either simultaneously, or before the event occurs. I myself have had such an experience. I had a dream that my girlfriend at the time bought me an office chair for Christmas. I remember in the dream that she bought it, it was in a large box, and she put it in the porch closet outside of her apartment. Turns out that exactly that happened. It was even black, from in my dream. I told her about the dream before she gave it to me, it kind of freaked her out. I still wonder if she believed I actually dreamt it or if she thought I saw her somehow. But yeah, it was all true. I'm sitting in the chair now. Dreams are funky things. I'll soon dive into that mystical world, because I'm SLEEPY.

So now that it's time for me to sleep, it's also time for a random link. I don't know how many people have HDTVs at the moment (not too many college students do - I guess you'd have to be a FOOL to buy one in college), but if you have one or get one before May, you might be interested in taking advantage of it.
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20040313
 
Spring break is here
So I took Friday off from blog writing. Friday was okay, though. Got me some hair chopped (that's so none of you smartasses pull the, "Oh, you got A hair cut?" line), then did some remote work. And then kung fu. Yes, all kung fu, all the time, seems like. It was cool, though. Definitely a decent number of guys to show up, and the topic of conditioning came up. I helped one guy condition his arms, and I found out his left arm was a little different. Basically, he had no bone between his wrist and his elbow. It was all titanium. He's a skater, and he's been in a few accidents. He told me the severe one was when he got up, looked down, and the edges of both bones in his forearm were actually poking out to say hello. He saw those and then passed out. He had some very nice scars to show for it. As far as conditioning - I have no idea how that's going to affect him. Maybe he'll just toughen up them muscle, then anything he blocks will be instant pain for the other person. Who knows.

Yeah, so we talked a lot of guy talk, about Jet Li, reminiscing about Justin's poked eye (I'll never hear the end of it). Justin actually showed up, and he had no marks at all - only a very slight discoloration of the skin underneath his eye. Other than that, he looked fine. So I felt a little better. And before everyone left, they wanted to see what full arm conditioning looked like, between me and Justin. So we showed them. There's something satisfying when you smack arms with someone else and it sounds like hands clapping. I already have bruises from that. I think Justin might even have a couple, himself. It was good stuff.

I DID have to get up super early in the morning to take some friends to the airport, which was both cool and sucky at the same time. Cool because I like helping friends, but sucky because it was at freakin' 7:30 in the morning. Yeah. The sun is barely up at that time. But it was okay, I came back and passed out for a bit longer.

The other interesting thing was that I got to meet up with a friend who's a third (I believe) degree black belt in taekwondo, and we sparred a little. Mainly me just blocking, to see what techniques they had. I have decided that I like kung fu much more than taekwondo. Taekwondo has this set of rules. Basically, it means you get about a foot and a half of area you can attack, but you'd better not touch them, because you might HURT somebody. Oh, and if you're going to block, it has to be only with your arms. Because blocking with legs might HURT somebody. Oh yeah, and you can only punch to the body, not the head. You might HURT them. No sweeps, no groin shots, no takedowns, no face shots, no grabbing, no touching, no bad words, no frowny faces, nope. Taekwondo rules SUCK, I have decided. It's made for tournaments. It'd be like playing a specialized game of chess where you can only use bishops. If you played like that all the time, it might be okay, because you don't know any better. But when you actually played CHESS, and then go to that method... well, you'd be upset, too. "But look! I have a QUEEN I can use! I'd obliterate you!" "No, you can't, you might HURT somebody." Anyway, I think I left some bruises from sparring. I didn't get any, but I left some, even though I only blocked. With my arms. Maybe they wouldn't let me block if I took Taekwondo. Because I'd HURT somebody.

And now it's time for the weekend. I think I'm going to try to do a lot of NOTHING. It might be hard, but I'll keep trying.

Okay, random link time. I don't know if this is true, but if it is, that'd be very interesting.
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20040312
 
Too much lost sleep
I've had to get up a little bit earlier every day than normal, but my bedtime hasn't moved a whole lot. So I'm getting kinda tired. But it's Friday! Before Spring Break! Although I think my Spring Break will be more of a work break than R&R. All my slouching has to take a rest this next week, when I actually do a few projects. Then school will start up again, and I can go back to my slouchy ways.

Yeah, I had an orthodontist appointment this morning. I got a weird kind of hook on one of my teeth, to hook a rubber band around, which in turn attaches to the braces. It's to move just one of the teeth. A little different. Although it wasn't bad, my orthodontist is cool. And then off to Golden Gate! The best Chinese place in town. Go there! Try it out! Brandon is a great guy. (It's at about 27th or so and Harvard, across from the BA East entrance.) Today Jimbo started working there again. He's a crazy guy who speaks kinda bad English really loudly. He just came back from China, so he was still out of it. I think it was busy, I felt bad for Brandon. One guy had the lunch buffet, and took his plate up for a refill. Brandon was filling it up, and he looked at me, saying, "Was that it?" in kind of a rhetorical way. I told him, "He also wanted Lo Mein and extra sweet and sour sauce." So Brandon smiled and told me I was hired. I'd eat there a lot even if the food wasn't so good. That, and they give you TONS of it. Go there! You can tell Brandon I sent you. If there's any question about me, just mention Kung Fu. He'll know who I am.

Then it was time to do a bit of work. Not a whole lot. And I tried doing some real school work, but somehow I just couldn't motivate myself. I did manage to write my name and a title. Which is a start. But then I got distracted. And then I fell asleep in my chair. Which was also a little distracting. So it still needs to be done. Bleah.

Choir practice tonight was a little sad. Only THREE people showed up. And only two and a half people sang. Yes, the pianist doesn't really sing everything. So she's a half. As far as vocals go. Although she does play the piano. So maybe that covers the other half okay. Hmm... I'm really starting to get tired, and I'm a little worried about what I might start saying. Possibly stuff about badgers. Who knows.

But I did finish off the evening with some Jet Li. Kiss of the Dragon. Oh, it's good. Very violent, has sex and drugs and rap music (all equivalent with EVIL, for some people). But the fight scenes are exquisite. Gets my adrenaline all rushing. It's a good drug, that adrenaline. All natural. But it feels so GOOD. That, and it helps prevent pain in certain events. Like, say, when you're sparring and you end up doing something that will hurt a lot later. At the moment, good ol' adrenaline keeps you blissfully ignorant. Mmm, good.

And I'm tired, so I think I shall put up my random link. This one is something I used to visit a lot. If you've ever been on IRC, you'll recognize a lot of it. If not - basically, it's online chat stuff. Some of it is pretty freakin' funny.
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20040311
 
I am updating my blog yet again
What a day. Busy day. Woke up to get dressed and immediately take off to go to Hooters. Yes, Hooters. No, I don't go regularly. It was my first time, actually. Yes, really. My first time. Interesting place. I went to meet some guys about making a game. But I was late. So I arrived to find a note that said, "You're late no food 4 u". On a napkin. And the waitress had to give me lots of trouble about it. But I managed to snarf down a grilled cheese sandwich before leaving.

And from there I had to go to help Sifu with a women's self-defense class. At TCC West. But I had no idea where TCC West was. So I called a friend, who told me roughly how to get there. And I started on my way. And then I couldn't find the exit. So I called again, and she looked it up, and found the street name was a little different. It was 51. Which I figured was the BA, which is ALSO 51. But NOOO. It wasn't the BA. I checked. For an hour. It wasn't there. I finally called the guy who was supposed to help out at the class with Sifu also, but he wasn't there. Because his car had crazy problems. And HE had no idea how to get there, either. So he gave me the phone number there, and I called them. They told me 244 W, keep going until 51st Street. I tried that, but it didn't work so well. So I finally said screw it, and just found 41st (which I knew it was on) and just headed west. I finally found out, only being an hour late. But I still managed to get in on some action by having Sifu and another guy helping (who bounces) use me for demonstration. You know, the kind of demonstration where all the women cringe and go "Ooh!" and "Ow!" and "Oh!" as they wince. And I wince, too. A little.

Anyway, that was probably as painful for you to read about as it was for me to experience. Just a long crazy drive all over the place. I did get to see new parts of west Tulsa, which was interesting. Although I'm perfectly content to stay over here. A bit more east.

So that's how the day began, and then it was time for class, which was uneventful. And I was supposed to help my friend with another sparring session, but that didn't work out because he never called. Maybe it's okay, because my armpit has a weird pain, but I'm thinking it's from being a test dummy at the self-defense class. But then my friend Sean from out of town visited! He's cool. He came over, we chilled a bit. And THEN it was time for ninjas. Much slashing was done. And then Sean tried it out, to see the beauty of the slashing and the beheading, and he did pretty well. But then the man with nunchaku kicked his booty. All in all, it was fairly entertaining.

And my blog today is quite meandering. Wandering in no real focused direction. And I keep putting "And" in front of my sentences. And I'm sure that's annoying. But I can't help it. And I'm sad that it's Lent.

ANYWAY. After all that, we went to view the TU spectacle known as the Hotty Body competition. The end of it. Enough time to see three guys in a dance off... it was like some sort of twisted fairy tale. There were three guys: the big one, with many muscles, the middle one, who wasn't too bulky but also had many muscles, and the wee little one, who was a good foot or more shorter than the other two guys, probably about eighty pounds less, and might have had muscles, but nobody knew, since he kept his clothes mostly on. Except for his pants. Yes, much pants removal was done. And the other two guys removed shirts, and gyrations were occuring. Now, usually, I don't get into this sort of thing unless the shirt removal with the gyrations are occuring with a female. But it became much more entertaining when Big and Little started bumping chests. Little really didn't move Big a whole lot, but Big moved Little quite a bit. Until he almost lost it off the stage. Then the next logical thing to do, naturally, was for Little to leap upon Big like some kind of monkey jumping a man. It was pretty funny. Big and Little ended up tying for second place, and Middle hung his head in shame.

Then Sean and I did some jamming with guitar and piano, although it was pretty mellow jamming, since it was mostly church music. He used to be the choir director. Didn't sound too bad, though. Fun stuff.

SO... big day, yes. Reminds me of my old days. When I had to schedule time to go to the bathroom. You think I'm kidding, but I really was that busy, and I'm not kidding about the bathroom thing. It came down to a decision, sometimes. Bathroom time? Or a very quick dinner? I had to choose wisely. I like the change to my current schedule okay.

And I think that's enough of my blathering on about this and that and the other and Big and Little and monkeys. And kung fu. But hey! I didn't talk about guitars! Although I did talk about ninjas. And now I must random link. I was amused by this person's particular sense of foolishness.
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20040310
 
Injuries aplenty
Yet another night of sparring in kung fu. And yet another set of people I've put out of commission. It really isn't good. Although in some twisted way I feel more manly for it. Yeah. It began with just sparring a little bit lightly, warming up with Justin (senior student), and after that, moving to the guy I gave the bloody nose to a few weeks ago. He was anxious to spar me again (he didn't last week, forgot his gear). So he came at me pretty hard. His kicks were rather fierce. And I ended up checking his leg - yes, shin to shin. He made a slight face, then kept going. For about ten seconds. Then he realized how much it hurt and I asked him if he needed to take a break. With a grimace on his face, he nodded and limped off to tend to his wound. It actually left a bruise on my leg, which means it'll be much worse for him. By the end of class, his bruise had risen a good half an inch. I kid you not. And it was a good couple of inches long on his shin.

Oh, but that wasn't it. Of course not. The last match I was in was against Justin. It really seemed like the rest of the room paused to view us. We'd set up, and you could feel the tension between us. Something big was going to happen. And then we'd unleash! There was a little back and forth. Some decent impacts happening. And then... I threw a palm strike against his cheek, and it would have just glanced off his cheek, but no! Somehow my fingernail got lodged right underneath his eyebrow. Which stopped my hand right there. And physics says that a body in motion must stay in motion, so since my hand couldn't move up anymore, it moved forward. Yes, right into his eye. I basically pushed his eye out of socket. (Or would that be into socket?) That stopped the match right there, and we were both done for the night. Sifu came back and checked him, his eye was still not pointing the right way (kinda freaky), so he pushed on his temples in some proper way, and his eye popped back into place. With some pain. There was blood coming from his tear ducts. It wasn't pretty, and I felt really, really bad. But they all told me, "It happens." By the end of class, though, it was almost looking back to normal. So his eyelid wasn't half-covering his eye quite as much. I left a nice cut on the underside of his brow, and a minor cut somehow under his eye, on the white of it. It wasn't pretty, but I think it'll all be okay.

Yeah, I'm wondering if I should spar next week. Seems like I keep hurting people. Maybe it's just TOO MUCH kung fu. I'm turning into some sort of deadly machine, with powers beyond my control. Eh, yeah, right. Hopefully if I ever actually need it (to protect loved ones or perhaps even myself), I'll be able to pull out the death machine mode then.

Work was interesting. I was given twenty-four hours to finish the project before they yoinked me from the job. And it's coming down to the last few. I don't know if it'll be able to be pulled off the ground in that time, but I'm hoping. If it works out, he'll hire me on full-time, and I might possibly make some serious dinero. Hopefully it will.

And more ninjas! I got farther. It got harder. I'm fighting all sorts of strange beings now. And I got into a fight with some sort of evil woman who looks a little too sexual for her own good. That, and she had a super-cheap move that made me MAD because I didn't have any healing potion thingies. So her cheap move would take off a little more than HALF my energy. And if she did it again, I was dead. There was no way to block, you just had to use your ESP to know she was about to do it, and run the hell away. I finally said screw it, and went back to a few saves before that, where I got a bunch of health potions. And managed to get back to the same point without using all of them. So then I went back to her, I was all ready. My battle cry was fierce! "What's up? Bring it!" And I died again. But the SECOND time I fought her with all my health stuff I beat her. And it was good.

And that's really been about it for today. Tomorrow (technically, today) is going to be very busy. But I'll tell you more about that later. For now - random link! This one came from a friend. It's quite random. A piece of news. Gotta love the variety of human nature on this planet.
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20040308
 
Time for ninjas!
Ninja Gaiden is far too enjoyable. I don't even spend a whole lot of time playing it, I just think about ninja action more than normal in my spare time. Ninjas! With the swords, and the shuriken, and the luscious ladies in the background. The game is exquisitely balanced, so as you progress, you're getting good enough to just make it through the next section. So you might think your badass skills with the sword are getting up to the point that nobody can handle you, and then five SPECIAL ninjas come and say hello. And then you have to start polishing your skills up a little more to get through them. It's an excellent adventure.

I didn't get time to talk about it, but the weather this weekend was SO GOOD. (Cue up Teen Girl Squad.) It was just right. The balance of sun, and wind, and clouds... ahhh. So good. I decided on Saturday to take advantage of such a nice day, so me and Jordan went out on the U and sat in front of the library, by the stairs. I took the good ol' twelve-string and some Pepsi, he had chocolate. We sat there, relaxing, me playing some tunes and singing badly, drinking some cold ones and watching the people go by. We sat out as the sun set behind the city skyline. It was a very good way to spend the day. I think I shall do it AGAIN. It's not the first time I've done it...

Although they didn't spell my NAME right the first time. Ugh. Oh well, maybe next time.

And today was a good day. I got some work done, went to class, and was a ninja for a little while. And ALSO... I bought some plane tickets! I'm going to Seattle at the end of May. Woohoo! Going with Justin (Mr. Senior Student from kung fu), and we're picking up a convertible automobile there and driving to Vancouver. For what, you're asking? There's a worldwide gathering of martial artists (of the Chinese variety, I believe) getting together there. Apparently, they're ranking all the instructors on a scale from 1 to 10 to give them some sort of certification. It'll be awesome to be there. I'll have to remember my camera. Sadly, I have a good friend visiting that same weekend, arriving the day we leave, leaving the day we get back. Coincidence can sure suck sometimes. That, and some friends of mine are getting married, that Saturday. Why couldn't everybody change their schedules to fit ME? Eh, in my dreams, things will work out just fine. At least there's some definite coolness happening, even with the bad coincidence.

Oh! And I got my Ainjel CD! It's SO GOOD. Really, she has an awesome voice, and it's easy to listen to. Some of the songs are quite repeatable. I've only really listened to it all the way through once, so I'll need some more time with it, but I think it'll do good for my musical composition inspiration.

Yes, my posting is early today, but I had lots to say. It's time for the random link. Ever had the need to insult somebody? For no good reason? But didn't have the insult? Well, let me help you.
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The weekend has ended... TOO early
I wish there were more of the weekend. But it's gotta end sometime. I did make use of it. I managed to clean some. Take out trash, do some dishes, that type of thing. And Saturday I went out to do something VERY important. Pick up two things - Rise to Honor and Ninja Gaiden. Rise to Honor has Jet Li - automatic cool points. Which makes up some for the lack of actual gaming prowess the software has. It's still kind of fun, built a lot like an interactive movie. Slow motion for some moments, that type of thing.

Ninja Gaiden, however... that merits a new paragraph. It is GOOD. Very good. It's not easy, at all, but it's not too hard. Which means you might have to try a couple of times sometimes, but you can do it. It's beautiful, that's for sure. And FUN. It's easy enough to control, but it's not pure button-mashing. Knowing the manuvers can allow you to pull off some pretty slick-looking moves. It's very enjoyable.

So I'll be putting some time into that. And tonight I I tried helping someone with their Calc 3 homework. I realized how long ago it was that I did it previously. Makes me feel old. EIGHT YEARS. Yeah, I did it in high school. Calc 1, 2, 3, Differential Equations... all before even getting to college. I like math. But tonight - I just couldn't remember enough. Which made me sad. Alas, I'll have to catch up, I suppose.

And now it's time to watch some Animatrix with my roomie, so I must away. I may come back, later. But I'll leave you with a random link, still. I try to be consistent. This one is totally random. I don't advocate it, but it's another school with some DIFFERENT kung fu.
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20040306
 
Too many things interest me
If I had perhaps sixty-eight hours a day, I'd be all right. Alas, only twenty-four, and of those, I need at least eight for sleep. That's not enough time. I need more time! To train fully in kung fu, and to write and record music, and to watch cool movies, and play a game or two, and maybe if time is left over, finish my thesis and do the class project. Maybe someday, during my lifetime, we'll establish a colony on another planet where the planet rotates a little slower. And I can get my sixty-plus hour day. Patience, patience...

I was a little irresponsible today. I really didn't want to go in to work, because I'd have to come back pretty soon, to potentially host some people. Well, I didn't go to work, and I didn't host people. Because nobody came. And I'm sad that it's Lent. Actually, ONE person came, so we watched one of the manliest movies of ALL TIME. Yes, it's Road House. I personally like the movie a lot. Even though it isn't a high quality movie, I get some twisted pleasure from the testosterone that oozes from it. That, and I did laundry, too. So it wasn't all pure unadulterated aversion of responsibility.

Oh, I've gotten at least a couple of people who were wondering about the last song I posted. YES, that's me playing, and YES, it's me singing. While I was sick. It was all done in one track, on a microphone. Not the fine-tuned recording machine that I used for some of the other songs, but hey, it worked okay. I did use some reverb, but that was about it. I need to record a good rock song sometime soon. I've been experimenting with some ideas, but nothing solid yet. Sorry. No download action today.

Ah - there was one other responsible thing that happened today, and I should enlighten you all. All of the undergraduate folk, especially. If you decide to continue school after getting ONE degree (like some silly people do), make sure any school loans you have get deferred immediately, or else start paying them immediately. I found out recently that the reason by credit is HORRID AWFUL WOW is because the loan "authority" did not know I was still in school. And started billing me. And I didn't know until it was ninety days too late. And being delinquent on student loans isn't good for your credit. Not good at all. So watch out for that. I think I'll get it all sorted out and be able to get a credit card limit above the price of a semester's worth of books. Hopefully.

Random link! It's somebody's fiftieth birthday. You should pay them a visit.
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20040305
 
Time to post AGAIN
Hey there. You know, my blog gets visited on a moderately decent frequency. In fact, let me show you.

Isn't it nice? Some days more than others, but thanks for the attention. It's good to get attention. Sometimes. Oh, and that's unique IP addresses hitting the blog. Except for that thirty-something, I think it broke that day. So somebody checking the page twice in a day doesn't increase it crazy-like.

Speaking of images... here! I like this one!

Isn't it spiffy? Yes, so nice.

And today was just sleep. And work. And choir practice. And watching School of Rock. Excellent movie. I still love it. I think I'm definitely a rock and roll type of guy. The only thing missing is my BAND MEMBERS. When I find them, then I'll be a superstar. Working on writing our songs for now.

Speaking of which, I don't have any new songs now. Although I do have something else. And I've mortified to put this up, but I'm going to go ahead. It's a song I did for a friend. A cover of a particular Radiohead song. Although I needed to get it to my friend in time for a birthday, so I had to record it immediately. Meaning I was SICK when I recorded it. As in coughing and sneezing and blowing of the nose. And my voice was pretty shot, and you could hear the stuffiness in my "n"s. But I went ahead! Moved on! And recorded this. Listen, only if you're brave. The falsetto section hurts me a little. Perhaps I'll re-record it with a proper voice.

I do need to record a song of my OWN writing with vocals sometime. I'm still kinda nervous to cross that line. I think I can sing okay... but still, recording it is nervewracking. If you have any suggestions or recommendations, let me know. Please.

And that's all I have for now. Random link! Now, I don't go TOO much into astrology, but if you're curious on how close the stars can predict you, check this out.
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20040304
 
What a rainy day
It was raining today. If you didn't know. Yep. I had a dentist appointment to get my lovely filling. I was so looking forward to it, but the rain was coming down in a WALL that was too thick to see more than twenty feet through. So the twenty or so miles it takes to get to my dentist's office ended up taking a very long time. So long, that I got there quite late. And had to reschedule. Sadly, I have no new fillings yet. I'll have to wait for the needle and drill for another day.

Yeah, it rained a LOT. I slept nicely through some of it. But then woke up, did the fruitless dentist trip, then went to class. Class! Class was okay. Although my test was not as awesome as I had hoped. Even though I knew the material, I was missing some key words my prof wanted. So even though I knew what I was talking about, I didn't say the magic phrase to get all the bonus points. Apparently school is like an adventure through some sort of mystical forest. You have to find the magic words! And if you go to the wizard and don't recite all the proper words, he shall strike you with a large red brush. Which everyone will see. FOREVER. And I'm sad that it's Lent.

And kung fu again tonight. Lots of fun. Nothing overly exciting tonight. Just standard stuff. But after that, I got to spar with a friend who wanted to learn a bit about the nature of fighting. I'll admit, it was rather fun. We kept it limited to hand techniques, with gloves. No kicking, no grappling or takedowns. But it was an excellent workout. I had heard a lot of people wanted to view the spectacle of our match. But they couldn't make it. So hopefully my friend will relay the immense level of skill I displayed that they missed out on. Or lack of. We'll see. The sparring lessons will continue in the future, it should be interesting.

Ooh! I think it's time for another song. I didn't give you one yesterday. Hey now, full bands take a YEAR to write a full album. So I can't do a song every day. So I'll give you a good one today. This one I think is probably my favorite composition so far. It's a little sad, but not too much. I call it Apart. I hope you like it.

And I watched a Monty Python movie tonight. The Meaning of Life. I've seen it before, but it's been a while. It's a rather strange movie. Although it has an excellent death penalty scene. Ooh, slow motion can be nice sometimes. That's all I have to say on that.

I have a cool random link for you today. It's something I stumbled across. Music related. Check out her "listen" section. I liked it enough that I had to purchase the album. Worth checking out.
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20040303
 
Ahhh and I feel better
I'm a bit better now. I went to kung fu and released a lot of pent-up frustration. And NO, it's not sexual frustration. Sicko. I just had a very rough 20 hours. Starting with my blog last night going AWOL on me. Yes, it started with that, which made me very MAD. So I got through that. And then this morning people kept waking me up. Maintenance had to replace the batteries in the fire alarms, as well as the A/C filter. So there was that. Then I woke up, went to lunch. Lunch was actually good, even though I didn't have time to shower first. Which made me frustrated. I like being clean. Even if my room isn't always the same. So I did lunch.

And I stayed there for a long time! Chatting with people, chillin'. So nice. It was better. Then from there, took a friend home, then off to work! And I worked quite rigorously. Although it got a little uncomfortable when the boss started cussing out one of the employees. Apparently upset at a possible bending/breaking of the law he was about to do. So there was shouting, it was rather stressful. I finished at work, then went home through CRAZY traffic. Apparently somebody decided to break down in the middle of an intersection. It sucked. So that took a lot of time. Then I finally got home, and tried doing some stuff online, but for some reason IE decided to STOP WORKING. I started getting quite upset and shouting. I don't shout normally, but this time I was. I'm still not sure what was wrong, but it's better now. Although I've quit using IE. It's bad. I'm now using Mozilla Firefox. It's quite nice.

At any rate, I was mad at it taking FOREVER. I don't have that much time. I had places to be. Things to do. People to beat up. So I cooked some quick food, just grabbed it and ran. Ate on the road, whilst avoiding the horrid, horrid drivers.

So I get to kung fu. And ahhh... it makes things better. I helped Sifu with computer stuff, which was good. And then on to class. I talked to the guy I conditioned arms with a week ago. Apparently he didn't come in the next day because his arms were completely swollen. He said they were basically completely covered in bruises and had swollen to the point he couldn't bend them easily. They still hadn't completely healed. I think he felt a little bit better when I told him I bruised, too. Yeah, it was one on one arm and two on the other, and they were the size of quarters, and they were gone in a day, but still.

And then it was sparring time! My pent-up rage found its outlet! Woo! I sparred one of the students who's been there about as long as me. Except he has ten years previous experience. I don't think it helped him tonight. I was nice and didn't lay into him TOO much. Although I had a nice kick where he almost tasted my toe. I pulled it, though - I'm still not fully confident in my ability to pull high kicks properly. That means kick somebody with impact, but without taking out their teeth or breaking stuff. Then it was off to spar two lower ranked students, which I went easier on. Although it was entertaining watching them re-adjust their headgear every few seconds. Ahh, and I'm better now. Ooh, that, and I got a new set of pants! Yay!

And that's been most of it. I'm going to just relax now for a bit. Yes. Maybe more later. But I'll still leave you with... a random link. Found this one on Slashdot. Something weird about money.
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20040302
 
DAMMIT I WROTE A BLOG AND IT GOT DELETED
I am quite irritated. I had lots of good stuff I wrote, too. Normally I copy, just in case. But apparently, Blogger noticed I didn't this time, and DELETED ALL MY STUFF. I am quite pissed.

I had a lot of interesting things I put. About music. And movies. Sadly, all of this is GONE NOW. I'll just say it had to do with movie music, and a mention of the Mexican Hat Dance. And how I've been responsible. But now I'm just filled with rage. So I won't put any of that again. On top of my nice long WinAmp list being deleted on accident. GRR.

But I will share one of my songs with you, before I go. SO MAD. Here, this is something I wrote that's fun and a little more rockin'. Some goofy guitar licks, but I like it a lot. I hope you kinda like it, too.

Apparently I get itchy when I'm really frustrated and ANGRY. Because I'm very itchy all of a sudden. OOOH I'M SO FREAKIN' MAD! Imagine putting down effort and having cool intelligent creative things to share and then having them all TAKEN AWAY FROM YOU. Hopefully you won't have to experience that. My rage is seething. If I could hit the blogger, I'd be very tempted to.

Okay, I'm going to stop now and go away from this damn blog thing for the moment. So I don't get even more mad. But I'll leave you with a random link, still. Do you know what BitTorrent is? If you do, you might like this. If you don't, then stay away. It takes lots of time and hard disk space.
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20040301
 
Weekend hath ended
It's late Sunday/early Monday. I actually had a really good day. Helped lead a retreat with high schoolers, for confirmation. Met somebody new that I've actually been around for years without realizing, so it was cool to actually meet them. The music at church went well, except my voice CRACKED while we were singing one of the songs. I'm not sure anyone actually noticed, though, so it wasn't too bad. I slept very hard last night, and wasn't quite ready to get up, so I'm quite tired now.

For some reason, though, I feel really sad. No good reason for it. I wonder sometimes if we're all connected to each other. And if something massive happens in someplace, if its emotional effect can be transferred to other people without the people ever actually seeing each other. If that's true, maybe this is the cause of my emotional issue. I can imagine it affecting a lot of people in a major way. So I'm sitting here, listening to sad music, writing in my blog, wondering about writing new music to express emotions. If you don't play an instrument, one good reason (if you don't have any other good reasons) is that playing music is an incredible emotional outlet. I highly recommend it.

I saw the end of the Oscars tonight. It's all over the news, so I'll go ahead and spread the news some more. LOTR won 11 oscars. Including best director and picture. I actually think that's okay. It IS, as a matter of fact, an incredible film. I'll be buying the Special Extended Limited Director's Cut Happy Fun Ball version of the movie. The extended versions are both (so far) better than the originals, if you haven't seen them, you SHOULD.

Anyway, my blogspeak isn't as humorous as it normally is (I think) tonight, so I'm sorry. Maybe it's because it's Lent. And I'm sad. I'm sad that it's Lent. To fit with the mood, though, I'll give you another one of my compositions. This one is pretty lethargic. Not too much to it. Although it uses the same drum track as the last song - but hey! It's a good drum track. I call it Drifting. It works for calmer moods. Or even to fall asleep to.

I think I'm going to go watch a sad movie. Since it's still early. But for you - you must have a random link! Some people don't like this, but I LOVE it.
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as of 10/23/03

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