June 1 I would say that I spent the day on my paper. But given that my "day" started around 11AM, and ended at 1AM, I'm not sure how accurate a statement that is. Spent a little time on gcc bugzilla, it looks like we've managed to work through almost all of the bugs in the UNCONFIRMED category. Whew.
June 2 Monday and the grind continues. Spent the morning tidying up a few things, and much of the midafternoon reading. I was so wrapped up, that I almost missed flute choir, which given tomorrow night's consider, would not have been a good thing. Debated as to whether to try to stay up all night and finish my PWR paper. The compromise: to sleep at 4PM and up at 10 the next morning. Whew.
June 3 Busy today. The PWR portfolio was completed, but only about 10 minutes before the deadline. Since all our coursework must be posted online for the class, naturally when I tried to post it, the server went down. Charming. E-mailed it to the instructor instead. Discovered in class that 10 other people had the same problem. Went back to the dorm, and relaxed, not realizing I had to be at the recital hall by 6:30. Made it on time, though without the shower I'd been hoping for. The performance was... interesting. On the bright side, my unintended solo in Moldau worked out fine (unintended, because the others playing the same part failed to join at that point). We hit a few rocky spots, but overall it worked. The audience seemed quite thrilled, and for the first time this year, we had more than 50% occupancy. Not bad...
June 4 Last day of classes. Went to math lecture. Enjoyed and understood it. Mostly. I refuse to comment on the previous half-dozen lectures I missed... IHUM section was actually a celebration of the end of the quarter. Some edibles, some music, and our TF singing Johnny Cash while playing the guitar. Some moments are priceless. Began reviewing for math midterm in the afternoon.
June 5 Spent my morning in the practice rooms. I really can't say it was all that exciting, but that's probably due at least in part to the damn cork they insist on using to muffle sound. Makes me sound even worse than I actually am. In the afternoon, worked on the wonders of Jordan Normal form. Shades of last year (Math 52H). Hopefully second time's the charm. In the evening went home for my father's birthday. Happy Birthday, Papa! It was nice to sleep at home...
June 6 Returned to school early. 8:30AM early. Went to breakfast, and had one of the more pleasant mealtime chats of the quarter. Realized that there are a good number of interesting folk in the dorm. Sadly enough, I seem to have missed my opportunity to get to know them. Afternoon was spent going through the last two chapters of the math book, namely the chapters which I missed the lectures for. Now I know why that was a mistake: the professor is far more understandable than the book. Went into the test feeling reasonably confident. Left feeling... a lot less confident. Yay physics tomorrow. Time to start studying.
June 7 Despite my intense aversion to the class, realized that studying for the final was probably a Good Thing (tm). So off to library, and reading the last quarter's worth of notes and textbook. Made it through, but not much more. Ate a good lunch for once. Test was not nearly as bad as it could have been, but could certainly have been better too. Still, it looks like I won't have to retake this next year, which is a definite relief. Only one final left. Spent the afternoon going through gcc's bugzilla in search of easy prey. It's amazing to realize that in one month, the number of open bugs has dropped by 200 net, to just over 1500. This, mostly the result of the excellent work of volunteers. I hope I helped at least a bit too :-)
June 8 Ah Sunday. Where hast thou gone? The Bible calls it a day of rest, and for once, I'm forced to concur. Nothing quite like 10 hours of sleep! Made a pleasant walk up to the radar dish, and took a look at some bugs too. I should've been reading Fanon, but I didn't quite manage to.
June 9 Spent far too much of today on Command & Conquer. No, not Generals: the original. Made ample use of the sandbag bug. Finally started readings for IHUM too, beginning with Vaclav Havel and the Charter '77 movement. All I can say is he didn't idolize the west any more than the east. "Post-totalitarian" is the phrase he chose for Czechoslovakia, but there are indications that "post-democratic" would just as easily fit the west.
June 10 I've seen a fair bit of music, but the 3rd movement of Poulenc's Sonata just confuses me. I can understand the notes, and the rhythms, but I can't understand what it is that he's trying to do. Ah well. Feverishly read Havel and Fanon during the afternoon. I didn't manage to finish in time for the exam, but I definitely got a good bit done. Much to my relief, the essay questions were quite broad. I chose to write on critics of European civilization: Karl Marx, Joseph Conrad and Vaclav Havel. The point, that I may not have quite made successfully, is that these men all centered their criticisms around the hypocrisy of the status quo in which they found themselves. Marx contrasts liberal democratic ideals of freedom with the realities of industrial wage-slavery, Conrad shows the "civilizing" efforts of Europe for the brutal campaign of pillage and conquest that they really were, and Havel points out the emptiness of promises made, both east and west, to citizens. Well... we'll see how I did.
June 11 Well how did I do? A lot better than I deserved in physics. The good news is: it's over, and will remain so for the forseeable future. Hallelujah. Spent the morning beginning to clean out my room. On observation: too much stuff. Way too much. Don't know how I managed to pick up all this stuff! Had pizza for lunch, for the umpteenth day in a row. It was special pizza though, at special Palo Alto prices, in celebration of the end of the quarter. All afternoon was spent packing up. Had to also help other people pack up too, and saw off, one by one, 3 of the clique. Thought I'd never say it, but I'm gonna some things about the dorm. Damn change, I'm not a wet baby. In the evening, did a number of paper airplane flying experiments before heading home for the night. Freshman year is finished. Guess I managed to finish it before it finished me.
June 12 Went up to my former high school in the morning. What a difference. Not so long ago, I was bursting with eagerness to leave. Now I look back almost fondly... Saw a number of former teachers, and learned, much to my astonishment, that a large number of them are retiring. Looks like I went through HMBHS at a good time. Before all the experienced teachers started to disappear... Had a very political lunch with my history teacher where we discussed all manner of things. Went home and was about to unpack when I discovered one of my friends was bored. Took advantage of this to drive back to Stanford and pick up some odds and ends while showing them the stripped dorm room. After a quietish evening of unpacking, I can almost walk from front door to my bed without tripping.
June 13 Hey what happened? Slept in, and spent an inordinate amount of the rest of the day on gcc stuff. Don't really know what happened to my day. In the afternoon, visited a friend for a rousing game of Risk. Nothing like invading Mongolia to make for an exciting day! Took advantage of an evening trip to purloin a road sign. No I will not say which one. The Matrix Reloaded was showing as an IMAX movie in S.F., so of course we had to go and see that. Made for a rather tired me, but after seeing it on the big screen, I doubt I'll see it again. Parts of it were definitely quite amazing.
June 14 Yawn. I like not doing too much. Succeeded admirably today, with a mixture of room-cleaning, bugzilla, and general assorted miscellany. Other than that, I did get together with friends in the afternoon and went out to dinner (more pizza). Spicy Italian sausage is, well, spicy. Don't know why that's coming as a surprise to me... To bed at a decent hour.
June 15 Finally got in a little physical activity today. Went over to Purrisima for a noon hike that took us to Skyline and back. Was actually a remarkably nice day for a hike, not too hot, but reasonably clear. On the way up, encountered a surprisingly large number of puddles for this time of year. Green's my favorite color though, so I make no complaint. In the evening, had my first haircut in quite a while, and got together with friends for some Risk and the like.
June 16 Didn't do much during the morning. However, I can be excused on the grounds that I made up for it, starting at around 4PM. I went back to Stanford then to help a friend switch dorms (he's spending the summer). As might be imagined, it was an involved undertaking. First of course, I spent $130 on textbooks. Yes, they were used. Then we spent almost an hour trying to hide 3 enormous road-signs we'd borrowed err... found during the year. Not an easy fit. We also had to clean up the room, and say bye to 112 Junipero. After spending 40 minutes with the ineffectual vacuum cleaner the dorms have, I was more than a little deaf. Next there was the issue of the car. The car I drive is a compact, 4 door sedan. Needless to say, we packed things twice. So it was with no rear visibility (and tires 15 psi over the max!) that we finally made it to Flo-Mo where my friend is staying. Pulling up to the back of Flo-Mo wasn't hay either, since a woman in an SUV decided that backing out was too complicated for her, and demanded I back out instead. After another trip, with help, we finally managed to close out 112 Junipero, and went for a late dinner, before calling it a night. I certainly did get to work on upper body strength though. Never underestimate the weight of a year's worth of schoolbooks.
June 17 Making up for last night's productivity, I slept and played games for the morning. In the afternoon though, I managed to dig my flute out from underneath a year's supply of phone bills, and did a bit of practicing. I had a flute lesson in the evening, which went well, save for an unfortunate tendency for my fingers to tangle up, given the slightest provocation. Following the lesson, I promptly returned home. I seem to respond adversely to most hot, sunny environment's and San Mateo today was no exception.
June 18 Yuck. I hate sore throats. Seems like I always manage to get sick right around the start of summer (check last year's journal for corroboration). In the morning, I actually did a little bit of reading, for the first time in quite a while. Not quality material, I admit, but fantasy worlds can be nice too in their own right. I have a soft spot for David Edding's Belgariad and Malloreon series. How can you not like books where one of the main characters is a professional thief, spy, and liar, as well as a merchant who's nearly the richest man in the world? Oh, and he gives bad guys flying lessons from mountains.
June 19 Well, I guess I really am sick. Sore throat stayed, and nose started running. Fun. Spent today sleeping, reading, and trying to debug a bizarre computer problems. Finally reinstalled cvs to get around strange problems with fink. Listened to NPR in the evening, which only had the result of making me quite angry. More on that later.
June 20 Intended to go out today, but cough and runny nose convinced me that immobility was a better idea. Began re-reading Robert Jordan's The Fires of Heaven book 5 of the Wheel of Time series. Suggestion: don't read this series unless you like waiting. A lot. After 10 books and almost 8,000 pages, he's still not done. Still his earlier works have some charm, and provide a good opportunity for diversion. More bugzilla in the evening. I think we're below 1500 bugs finally! Wow.
June 21 Long day. Got up feeling all right. After breakfast, went over the hill to pick up my friend from Stanford. Intended to show him HMB. However, I was also invited to the graduation celebration (from high school) of a friend of mine. Had fun exchanging tales of high school, college, and whatnot. Also saw a number of folk I hadn't seen in quite a while. My, how the world does change. In the process though, I lost my voice rather badly (shouting over ceiling fans can do that). Showed my friend the beach and my house, but my voice stayed away the rest of the evening. Got together with a number of friends to go see a movie. Unfortunately someone had the bright idea to try a new theater, which we hadn't been to. Bottom line was that finding the theater took almost an hour, and tickets were sold out. Drove my friend back to Stanford, and witnessed the closure of 4 blocks of University Avenue. Still not sure why. Ah well. Sleep is good.
June 22 My voice is still gone. Something from yesterday, either the shouting, or the Thai food, or the search for the movie, has left me sounding like a bad imitation of Henry Kissinger. Well, my North Dakota accent isn't so great either... Spent much of the day trying to install Linux on a Compaq Evo laptop. Hint of the day: for new hardware, use new OSes. RedHat 7.3 just doesn't cut it on newish Pentium IV laptops. Managed to install both Windows and Linux despite Win2K's preference for crashing on boot. This is one fast laptop. Manages to build gcc faster than the dual P-III 733. No fair.
June 23 Plans to go out today (and pay my university bill) were scuttled thanks to sore throat and tiredness. Runny nose and slight headache didn't help. Either bugzilla, or sitting in my chair made my headache significantly worse. I tried reading in the afternoon, but even that became intolerable, and I ended up just going to bed early. I did listen to a cassette though which proved rather surreal. "The Bush administration accused Iraq of having an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction capable of causing immense damage to the United States..." December, 2002. Facts are funny things aren't they?.
June 24 First day of school! Really. Summer school that is. Off to Stanford in the morning. Discovered my bike just where I left it (and more importantly, still intact, with seat and wheels!). Went to class early to see my math professor from the previous quarter. He's teaching the same math class I took from him last quarter. Maybe I should retake, given my less than stellar performance. Well, I guess not. Sat through both Math 53 (Diff Eqs) and Math 103 (Linear Algebra). Rather than eat lunch, I spent the noon hour trying to both avoid the sun and straighten out my class schedule. That is to say, remember what classes I signed up for, and check where they meet. Made it to CS 106X (Intro. to Programming) on time, and became very aggravated when the professor (looked like a grad student to me) spent half the class on administrativia. Call me impatient but... Then came Math 115 (Functions of Real Variable). Hooray, I understood the first day's lecture. Now if only I understand the homework too...
June 25 How quickly we adjust. Up early, since my dad had a meeting to make. Spent the extra time in the morning reading up on math. I think I have inductive proofs straightened out. Hey, they look like more fun than induced electricity! Attended Math 103. Reached Reduced-Row-Echelon-Form by the end of class. Maybe something new tomorrow? Maybe? Had lunch, and tried to stay out of the sun. Headache proved fitful, but didn't return in force. CS 106X was quite a bit more interesting. Learned all manner of strange C++-specific extensions. C is a lot more straightforward. Especially if you've already learned it! Afternoon math was a bit disjointed, but we got a nice bit of history thrown in for good measure, which I didn't mind. Spent the rest of the afternoon reading. Started the CS problem set when I got home. My very first graphical program, and my first graphics bug. Hopefully that's been worked out now...
June 26 Hot day. Math professor suggested the day's high at about 104 degrees F. Or as he put it, Austin, TX type weather. Without the air-conditioning. Math 53 ended with a demonstration of "spin" through the use of a trackball. Did the demo outside, unlike last quarter, so no windows were broken, nor were any students injured. Classes were productive, if uneventful, and I spent most of the afternoon, trying to stay cool, avoid coughing fits, and figure out how to draw a flower petal (on computer). Succeeded on the last item, but not on the former 2. In the evening went to do laundry. I accumulated a lot in the last month or two. During the wash cycle, went to Kepler's books (Menlo Park) and stumbled on a reading of Funny in Farsi. Culture shock can definitely be entertaining.
June 27 Ah Friday. Time for everything? Well, maybe not. I did manage breakfast, bugzilla, and some reading. Peter Fleming's Brazilian Adventure is a rather curious tale of trying to track down a vanished explorer under... well... unusual circumstances. True story though. Made the mistake of pulling out the C+C CD as well, which resulted in a 2 hour campaign in the Ukraine. And no, for the record, I did not invade in winter.
June 28 Aherm. Well I know I did something today, by the fact that bugzilla's bug count has mysteriously dipped below the 1,400 mark. Couldn't tell you the specifics though. I'd have to kill you if I did. Well, actually, I can't remember either, so its kind of a moot point. Listened to far to much They Might Be Giants for my own good. Almost succeeded in getting a grip on the math assignment, but found myself making a circular proof of the binomial theorem. I don't think that's what was intended.
June 29 Ah yes, Sunday. Part of the disadvantage of getting up late is that you hit the trail late. That is to say, if you were planning on a morning hike, as I was. Instead it was much more of a morning/afternoon hike, and I even managed a slight case of sunburn thanks to the clear weather. Went to Purrisima this time, and did the Purrisima Creek-Soda Gulch-Harkins Ridge loop. Would probably have gone further, but not bringing lunch has its disadvantages. Instead went home for lunch, and spent the rest of the afternoon on one random project after another. Oh, for a little focus.
June 30 Quilt continues to materialize. No not the one on my bed which likes to fall off around 4AM, I mean the CS 106X project due Wed. My quilt "screensaver" has now reached 600 lines of code. I finally discovered something almost as annoying as debugging: trying to invent decent variable names. What's wrong with temp anyways? But I digress.... Temperature here have stabilized in the "reasonable but irritating category." Life goes on. Learning all manner of C++ oddities. Not that I object to having reference parameters et al (pointers can be nasty) but sometimes C++ just seems like a random grab-bag of feature additions to C. Useful in many cases to be sure, but nonetheless arbitrary. Enough programming talk...
