Brian's World

Spring Break

Today is Monday, the first “official” day of my Spring Break. I’m not sure why its called Spring, its not very spring-like out here but its a pleasent break. I’m taking today very slow and boring, there are a few little things I could be doing but some of them are tricky without a vehicle, Kevin has it at school today.

Tomorrow I have an interview with the Elms College regarding summer work, I hope all goes well. I’m not really sure what this summer holds but I hope it can be moderately interesting and sucessful. Last summer was mediocre. My summers have never been filled with partying, crazy activies, or wild adventures… usually I.. well what do I do? Stare at a computer screen and code my own party. I don’t know… Summer is far away though, tomorrow is not. Hopefully my speech stays intack and I don’t studder or get lost for words. I’ve never had an official interview before, my past work has been arranged otherways.

What else do I have planned for the week, not very much. I have Computer Science homework that will take 12 minutes, a little work on Digitial Signage, and maybe some Brispace initiatives, I may do some research on the RPI TV capital improvement plan.

Around the house I’m going to be continuing my fight with surround sound, I’m going to try to hook up the surround sound downstairs, even though its older than me and I’ll try to extend the cabling in the family room. Nothing exciting at all.

Too bad there aren’t many good TV shows on after lunchtime, I’m learning about bricks right now. Wow.

Speaking of televison, I’ve just discovered all of these hidden “HD” tv channels, I’m not sure if they’re really HD, but they are like 57-1, 57-2, 57-2, etc. I’m intrigued by them, they weren’t here the last time I went that high up in the numbers.

I think I’m going to go do something more eventful..

Exploding Brain

Wierd title I know. I didn’t know what to call it, nor do I want to think to much at the moment.

Right now I just finished my Differential Equations homework due tomorrow, I generally understand the first half of the problems, and then my understanding goes downhill from there. The book and the professors examples aren’t very helpful unless you already know what you’re doing, which I sometimes don’t. So I invent my own math that resembles something and gets me to the answer.

I have a CS project due Thursday that isn’t cooperating, and Prof. Stewart hasn’t posted the lab yet so I can’t get a head start on that. Diff Eq test on Thursday, major studying required. Then I am home for vacation. It is well needed for me.

Sometimes I get very busy and I know my time management skills vary, some days are better than others, some weeks are better than others, etc etc. I’m not 100% sure what it depends on, but I think a lot of it is my mindset going into things. If I think that task X will be grueling and take a long time it will, whereas if I’m excited in task Y I will get it done fast.

I’ve also got a backlog of other tasks that are going on, some of which I’m excited for, some of which I’m not. Digitial Signage is interesting, I was originally very excited for the project but lately there has been a lull, development has slowed a little not because of roadblocks, but because I haven’t seen much other code submitted yet. Monday I discovered another project which I’ve been working with, it give me results fast.

Am I really trying? I certainly think I am. I’ve been up and moving from 8:00 until 6:00 and it seems no one can cut me any slack for that, take out one hour from 1-2 for lunch. Its constantly assumed I have it significantly easier or less stressful or simplier. I’m not sure, I think everyone has different challenges, and its important to support people regardless of the challenge they face. It may seem silly, but for someone math homework isn’t as straightforward. I’ve always tried to support others no matter what they do, willing to help on demand, being there needed but how often does the favor get returned to me? I find that even when I myself could use a little slack, a little leeway, a little help, pulls just get tighter and tighter.

I’m sorry I’m busy, I’m sorry I’m trying to be involved, I’m sorry I’m doing things, but for me thats what its always been about. I know I can’t really go out and socialize or hang out and make friends, but I can work, and its something I can do moderately well. Sometimes I even pretend that work creates sudo-friends, more like work associates. People who might care only if it interfered with the job.

I also have to understand I’m still trying to figure this whole thing out, its barely my first year here and I’m still very confused and lost in some ways.

Too Long

Its been too long since my last update. Almost two weeks! No, I haven’t died. I’m not 100% sure why I haven’t been able to update. I know I continue to get spam comments which is uncool so I keep on deleting them.

I think I’m experiencing mid-semester boredum. I find my classes very boring, and the material relatively useless. Computer Science continues to be nothing of importance. I’ve tried to supplement this with RPI TV and a Digital Signage system programming project, unfortunately these have not filled the gap quickly. The Digital Signage code is slow, I can finish my weeks assignment in a day or two… very unsatisfying,, no real challenges or learning occurs. RPI TV is moving very slowly.. where are they moving? I have no clue. I’m not sure its the right direction, but movement is better than nothing at all. I’m still definately feeling the freshmen feeling of inability to really do anything, but thats just the way things go I guess.

I’m not sure how I feel about spring break being next week, I just want to do something helpful and useful but over spring break the likelyhood is low of that happening. I would consider volunteering at the schools but since I’ve been excommunicated I think its best I not. Grr to certain people, I almost feel like saying I toldya so.

My last project before I was excommunicated was a “yesterday” folder, a complete backup of the yesterday as it was yesterday. This project didn’t get very far.. but what’s interesting is I heard that a hard drive failed, and the entire graphical arts portion of the network was lost. I used to run the graphics drive on a 233mhz P1 with Windows 2000 Server and RAID-5. It wasn’t superspeed, but it wasn’t gonna break.

Continuing the computer news, Vista and Cisco VPN are not friends.. I’ve found that connectivity is harder than I would find bench pressing 200lbs. Yuck. I just found a new beta version to install, maybe I’ll be more lucky. Of course I can’t download the latest versions myself, that would require a SMARTnet ID or something.

RPI’s shuttle tracking system is yucky as well. It uses java to update a static image. Someone is very dumb. I would use the google map API and have a usable system within a day. And it might work without having to load java.

Speaking of the region, there is an interesting contest going on at a local radio station, Fly 92.3’s contest to find “The Shadow” which is a regular guy (ok, he’s kinda creepy) who lives in the Capital District and has provided several clues to his whereabouts. I know he wasn’t at the Burger King or McDonalds when I was there, rats. Oh, by the way.. if you find him you get $10,000. Yea.

I just got an idea…. decomplile .class here I Come