This is a blog.

I don't really have anything to say, but it's been over a year, so I'm just going to post something anyway.

Winter break is almost over. I am, in theory, half done with college. Eek. I'm finally officially declared and am going to be taking upper division classes next semester. Not a lot else going on school-wise.

I wish I had more stuff to do. There's just nothing to do. I mean, it's nice being off school of course, but I just don't have anywhere to go or anything to do. Thinking about going to the zoo on Sunday...and finally went to the Grove for the first time on Wednesday.

I'm also on my Cr-48 right now. I'm not much of a review person, but my impressions are just sort of "eh". Useful because of the long battery life and convenience of a quick start-up and stuff. But then it can't do the majority of things I need to do, so it's definitely not going to be able to replace my laptop. I think I might use it for taking notes in class, though, because it's nicer than my netbook.

This isn't terribly relevant, but I'm very glad to be in an apartment and out of the dorms. I might still be sharing a room and without a car, but having our own kitchen and bathroom, as well as being so much closer to campus, is very nice. But every time I come home, now, it just reminds me how much I would really love to have a car. But it's okay, only another year and a a half until I can have a normal, non-student life!

Speaking of non-student life, I'm not sure what I want to do. Programming, of course, but I don't know what kind. There's your standard programming for a big company (like Google), and then there's working for a smaller company (like the company I'm doing my summer internship with). And then there's algorithms, graphic design, ...stuff. I don't know what I'm interested in yet...but I guess that's what the next three semesters are for.

Anyway, guess that'll be the end of this. I think I might start to do the "take a picture every day for a year" thing, but not sure I can keep up with it. Most of my life is going to class and studying, not a lot of time for anything different or even...anything different. In general, my life stays pretty much the same when I'm at school.

Reflections

So it's been two and a half months. And I've just been wondering if I've changed at all.

The only thing I've really noticed is a new dislike for excessive self-pity. I've noticed a lot of my acquaintances blogging about how terrible their lives (or bits of them) are, and...I just haven't got patience anymore. Maybe my life has just improved, or maybe I've changed. I'm not sure. Certainly my life isn't fantastic...I spend most of my time studying or in class. But at least I'm sort of free now. I like living alone. And I don't have that terrible loneliness I always hated before, since there's always someone around.

Truthfully, though, I haven't really made many good friends, ones that will last. I've met lots of people and for this year that's certainly enough. I'm just not sure what I'll do next year once I move out of the dorms. Maybe I'll find I won't need that kind of social life for now, since I will be so busy? I don't know.

Other than that...the speaker at atheist club last night was talking about how everyone holds incorrect beliefs, and these tend to be the ones we arrived at by something other than logical rationality. This is certainly true. As much as I value logic, I am aware that emotion (non-logic) does play a large part in my beliefs. I couldn't have opinions without it, only (supposedly) factual beliefs.

...I sort of got distracted here, so I suppose I'll just post this as it is.

Saturday! I slept for ten hours last night--rare for me. (I usually can only sleep eight, although that's been changing because I've been getting less most nights.)

Well, somehow at the moment, I feel like I'm sort of in control of my workload at the moment. I'm not overwhelmed! I've turned in my comp sci homework three days before it was due (rather than the night before, as usual). I've already started on a project that's not due till next Monday. Although, I am still concerned about my midterms--haven't studied for the next couple yet. Plus, there is math homework to be done. Still, though, not as bad as usual.

It's simultaneously cloudy and sunny today. I wish the weather here would make up its mind! Hot or cold, please, not both. I don't know how to dress--I always end up being freezing at one point and really hot at another. Frustrating. I know, I know, I'm talking about the weather of all things!

Not a lot else has happened. My roommates were both gone last night. I stayed in and talked on Skype. My life does feel sort of empty. I'm really just trying to get through this year...or should I say the next three. I feel like college is just sort of unreal--I'm here to learn what I need to know, then it won't make much difference for the rest of my life. I just want the degree, really. So I'm not that concerned about making friends or anything; if anything, I'd rather just make industry connections, since those are much more useful and more likely to last. If I meet people here and move back down to LA, I'll never see or talk to most of them again...so it's sort of useless.

Anyway. I haven't got a lot else to say. Bye!

Edit:
That was an...experience. I stepped out of my room to go to the bathroom, and my floormate was sitting on the floor outside her room (across from mine). She told me she got locked out, so I took her in to try to find her roommate's phone number online. Failed, so she asked me to go down to the mail area with her to get a temporary key.....they don't give keys on weekends, so they told us to call the lockout number. We called it...twice...waited fifteen minutes, and the RA finally came and let her into her room. This entire incident took about an hour. ...interesting.



I just want to note the truth of this.

From here.

I hate it when a day is just Bad. Everything tends to build up and it just becomes miserable.

Today started off fine. Woke up late, sat around and did nothing. Roommate was gone, so I enjoyed being alone for the first time in several weeks. (Not that they're not nice, but...) There's a football game tonight. Homecoming. I felt obligated to go, since I bought season tickets. Of course, I did so before realizing that I do not, in fact, like football. Unfortunate.

Anyway, I made plans to go with a couple girls on my floor. That...didn't happen. I assume they just left without me. I desperately did not want to go alone, since I did last time, and it was kind of miserable. So I decided not to go.

My roommate had been on the phone for quite a while and it was tiring to listen to, so I went to the common room (study lounge), but it was too cold, so I came back. Tried to talk to Alex, but he...had better things to do. Getting very irritated then, between the football game and the phone call and being ignored. Listened to some Amanda Palmer and Dresden Dolls...and read MLIA. Unfortunately, didn't make me feel better.

So, here I am. Signed off of Pidgin (my IM client). Not really sure what to do.

So be it. Tomorrow will be better.

Hi domain!

I've set up a subdomain of one of my domains (http://blog.templeofanubis.info) to forward here, since I have nothing else to do with it! But that means I probably ought to actually post here. Maybe I'll try chronicling my days, at least for a little while.

Woke up at 8:00. Slept on and off until 8:20. Got up and showered. Used the big shower for the first time--not so different from the others.

Went to my ethnic studies discussion. It essentially got cancelled, since our GSI (graduate student instructor) decided just to collect our papers and let us go. Nice, although...this makes me feel bad about wasting an hour on that pointless discussion every week. I am not a fan of humanities, particularly ethnic studies. It's just a waste of time to me.

I like science. I like astrophysics and I like particle physics. I like evolutionary biology and immunology. I like chemistry. Science. I like science. Unfortunately, I haven't had great experiences in science classes. I would love to be an EECS (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) major, but it's basically all science and EE classes, and I'm afraid I wouldn't do well in them. So instead I'm taking humanities classes, along with CS (my major is still computer science, just not in EECS). Oh well.

Anyway, came back to the dorm then. Sat around and ate that terrible veggie tempura sushi for lunch for about the twentieth time in a month and a half. Better than nothing. I also almost finished my comp sci homework, yay!

I sometimes forget how important music is to me. I base my mood on what I'm listening to. So not listening to music for long periods of time is sort of like emotional drought. Anyway, I listened to The Cure today, which made me sort of sad:

Tonight I'm feeling like an animal
Tonight I'm howling inside
Tonight I'm feeling like an animal
Tonight I'm going wild

And all I want is to be with you again
And all I want is to hold you like a doll
And all I want is to be with you again
With you again
Just to hold you like a doll

Tonight I'm screaming like an animal
Tonight I'm losing control
Tonight I'm screaming like an animal
Tonight oh I'm getting so low

And all I want is to be with you again
And all I want is to hold you like a doll
And all I want is to be with you again
With you again
Just to hold you like a doll
That's all I want

"All I Want" - The Cure

=( Well, anyway...

Comp sci lecture after that. First half was boring--just more explanation of an example. Second half was questions, much better. At least I stopped nearly falling asleep then. We also got out six minutes early...because clearly it matters.

Came back to the dorm again and did nothing, really. Went to eat dinner--the food was decent tonight! Exciting! I've been eating less and less as the food gets worse and worse. Being vegetarian is hard when you have extremely limited choices. Had frozen yogurt...again. Should probably stop eating it so often.

And now I'm here. Talked to Alex. Random stuff. Sad again. Sleep so early. Oh well.

Tomorrow is the homecoming game. Truthfully, I don't really want to go. It's not fun standing up for three hours, and students aren't "allowed" to sit down (they'll chant "freshman stand up" at you if you do). At least I hopefully won't be going alone this time...














All right, well, that's that for tonight! I'd like to start doing videos and pictures too. For now, here's a picture of me drinking an apple juice box!

I'll be out of Los Angeles in less than 24 hours. That's unbelievable.

I'll be meeting the people I'm spending the next 9 months with in about 36 hours. I know almost nothing about them. The internet is surprisingly unhelpful in these matters.

I have 10 boxes of stuff that I'm bringing...along with about five more boxes that weren't purchased with those. I've obviously got way too many things. No possible chance it will all fit in my tiny (but wildly expensive) dorm room...which I'm sharing with two other people.

I'll be in class again in about 131 hours. Calculus, 8:00 Wednesday morning. Oh my. Possibly a bad way to start off after a summer of letting my brain melt in front of the TV and computer.

In case it matters, I am taking:
Ethnic Studies 41AC: Protest movements throughout the past 50 or so years.
Computer Science 61A: Introductory computer science course for computer science majors.
Math 1B: Second-level calculus, equivalent to AP Calculus BC. I could have opted out thanks to the AP, but I'm not.
Near Eastern Studies 24: Basic Egyptology class. It's a seminar, so it's very simple and only once per week.
English 98: Actually, just one section of this class--it's a Decal, meaning student-taught. It's about philosophy in Harry Potter.

Well, that's what I'll be doing for the next four months! I guess I'll post again in a few days--once I get internet again!

Testing!