Fear the Crab

Went with Maile to LCC as she took a Psychology test. I spent the idle time studying for my 211 quiz that’s coming up Thursday. There was the very rancid smell of manure towards the back of the campus, and I thought some toilet had overflowed because I only smelled it when I went past the bathrooms to get something to drink. Maile told me afterward that was the Agriculture department. I guess they have a full garden/crop field or something. There’s a lot of brush behind the campus, so it’s plausible that it’s back there.

Keoni irritates me to no end. Perhaps I’m making too big a deal of this, but there are just things people do that piss me off. One such thing is saying, “I going take some cigarettes, okay?” To me, that is the rudest thing you could say to someone. The polite thing to say is, “May I have some cigarettes?” or something to that extent, where the request is actually a request. A question, if you will. Not some statement of what you’re going to do. That’s just assuming the other person will be okay with it.

Not to mention, he took over half of her pack.

Learned about Vectors in 211 today. Vectors are cool data structures that can hold any sort of Object (that’s a programming-related term) and can expand itself if more information is stored.

I had an interesting discussion with Maile a little while ago. She mentioned how there are times when she is tired that she has a bit of a problem listening to people talk. My theory behind that can be explained with a bit of imagery:

When someone starts talking to you, engaging in some intellectual dialogue, your mind forms a box inside your head. This box is empty. As the person speaks, what they say is stored by you into this box. You use this box to hold whatever is spoken, and you constantly refer back to the box’s contents to discuss particular topics. This constant referencing and sorting and scanning of the box’s contents is a tremendous drain on one’s intellectual energy. On a normal day, a person can manage this energy loss and feel no ill effects. However, when a person is tired, there is simply too much energy to spend on the sorting of your mind-box, and instead that box becomes a garbage can. As the person speaks (blah blah blah) it gets dumped into the garbage can and some imaginary garbageman comes along and removes it. You no longer contain what that person was talking about, and if you try to concentrate it seems like your brain just became fuzzy, and as a result people think you just aren’t listening.

I’ll bet you’re not listening now.

Since you’re not listening, I will end this by saying Fairuza Balk is one hot woman. Just thinking about her is enough to make me drool.

Blah. Work was blah. At least I sold a Bvlgari watch. It was only $945, but that’s more than what I have in my bank accounts.

Visited Maile for a couple of hours after work. I ate two grilled cheese sandwiches and some bacon. I first felt like eating fried rice, but easily changed my mind to grilled cheese. I’m easy to please, that way. The bacon was thrown in because it was offered, and I am not one to turn down food.

I’m feeling rather awake right now, which is bad, because it’s another school night.

I somewhat finished my applet for ICS 211. Fixed a bug involving the deletion of pets. If there were two pets of the same name, and you wanted to delete the second one, the program would only attempt to delete the first, and never move on to the second. I fixed it by requiring not only the pet’s name, but the owner’s name. Unfortunately, I haven’t solved this other glitch where the program accepts duplicate entries. I used to have a check that ran to see if a pet’s name and owner’s name were already in the database, but when I converted the program to an applet, it didn’t seem to work. At least I have a whole week to ask for help.

Today I wore one pair of those women’s hiking socks. They fit well, as expected, and were a bit more comfortable than what I used to wear. Shoes are shoes, though, and when standing around all day, feet hurt no matter what you wear. When I got home my feet had an imprinted pattern on the top. That’s what happens when you wear socks like that.

Today I kept craving a cigarette. My mind tried to justify the craving, but thankfully the mere thought of having to shell out $6 kept it to a minimum. Maile said my mind is not ready to quit smoking, and I believe her. I just feel I should “get a head start” on quitting, and now is as good a time as any. I must maintain my discipline, and hopefully this discipline will spill over to other areas, such as car maintenance and my homework.

Woke up early and went down the street to vote. Stupidly enough, there was a chicken sale going on at the same time at the same location, so the parking lot was jammed full of people trying to pick up their chicken and trying to vote.

I bought some socks and shorts at Sports Authority, afterward. I ended up getting women’s socks because they had no men’s socks in my size. I wanted some lightweight hiking socks, the kind that wick away moisture or whatever it is they are supposed to do, and the women’s socks were the only ones in my size. So long as they fit, there’s no problem, and it’s not like the fashion police will come breaking down my door. I think.

I then went to the DFS car wash. I figured that soon, that car will be traded in, so it wouldn’t hurt to get it cleaned up, at least on the outside. Oddly enough, when I left my car didn’t look any different.

Work was dreadfully dreadfully slow. I think were it not for the toothpick in my mouth I would have gone insane.

On a happy note, I finished my applet program. There are a few bugs left, and there are probably a million ways I could have made it more effective, but those things can wait until I return to class and ask questions.

I woke up late in the morning, at around 1030 hours. I was feeling a bit peckish, so I paged Maile and asked her to lunch. I first wanted to go to Anna Millier’s, because I wanted breakfast food, but Maile wanted to go to Denny’s. It made no difference to me, so we parked across from Denny’s and crossed the street, only to find out they were closed for renovations! Since that was a no-go, we tried Anna Miller’s, but the parking was terrible. All the stalls were filled and there were cars waiting in line. We got out, and went to Ronnie’s across the street. It’s an ice-cream parlor/burger place, which reminds me of a place long ago that had the same atmosphere, whose name eludes me right now. I’m sure there are people out there that can remember the long-ago place I am talking about.

At Ronnie’s, I had the Byron’s Bacon Cheeseburger and Maile had the Leonard’s Grilled Mahi Sandwich. Even though I originally wanted breakfast food, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have a good burger. Maile had a 22 oz fruit punch, while I had a 22 oz Buzzing Benny, which is nothing more than a chocolate and coffee milkshake. After that meal the two of us were very full.

After lunch at Ronnie’s, I smoked my last cigarette. I had told myself that after this particular pack, I would quit and try to make it stick this time. The last cigarette in the pack came and went, and I went the rest of the night without a drag. I’ve been using toothpicks whenever the urge hits me, but it hasn’t even been 24 hours yet, so I can’t tell if I’m going into withdrawal or not. So far the toothpicks have been working, and I have not yet given in to temptation.

Irene called me up at midnight this morning, and wanted to know about some unemployment papers she got after reapplying (or extending) her benefits. I confirmed that she only needed to send the checklist if the information listed was incorrect. She also asked if I sent in my tax forms for unemployment, but I had to admit to her that I did not receive such documents, and thus could not help her. I did refer her to George, though, because I believe he had received said items.

Then she asked me if I had been sleeping, and to that I responded that yes, I had been alseep since 2100 hours. She was very apologetic, because she had thought I got off of work at 2315, when I had the early shift and wanted to get a full night’s sleep for school.

As it turned out, it was all for naught. After the phone call I couldn’t go back to sleep. Everytime I tried to close my eyes, they’d pop back open again. The weather was muggy and warm, too, which made it uncomfortable. I decided to just stay up, and now my mind and body is paying for it.

It is interesting to note that when Irene called, I saw her name and number on my caller ID. As I picked up the phone, I had momentarily thought my voice would sound sleepy-like and groggy, but instead I probably had the most pleasant-sounding voice I ever had. I still must have sounded sleepy, because Irene picked up on it. And Maile has seen and heard a difference when I speak on the phone to people, depending on their gender.

Today was a blur, no doubt because of my sleep-deprivation. I do remember that in 241, after four weeks of instruction, I got one of the in-class examples correct, without help. Of course, next week’s notes will likely revert me back to square one.

In 211, I earned an audience participation point. My exact words to earn that point were, “Uh… yes.”

I went on a DVD buying spree today, which I shouldn’t have done really, since I have that truck coming in. However, I can justify these purchases by thinking that these are things I would watch over and over again. What did I get?

Forrest Gump
Joy Luck Club, The
Monsters, Inc.
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth
Pulp Fiction
Reservoir Dogs
Rurouni Kenshin: Soulless Knights
Rurouni Kenshin: A Shinobi’s Love
Tenchi the Movie 2

Actually, Pulp Fiction and Soulless Knights I bought a couple days ago, but I thought to put them in here since it’s still so new and all.

I must remember to also buy The End of Evangelion, the so-called “sad” ending of the series. Death and Rebirth is merely an elaborated end in the series, sort of like a drawn-out and detailed rendition of what was shown on TV. End of Evangelion is supposed to be released on the 24th, so I’ll be waiting for that eagerly.

Tonight’s an early night; gotta wake up and get to school, where I’ll no doubt fuzzy my brain with gobble

We’re still learning probability in 241. I understand the concept, but when presented with a problem I have trouble figuring out the different details and what’s expected of me. I suppose this is the same as how some people can’t stand word problems; perhaps it’s a failure to understand and notate the different variables.

In 211 we’re going to convert our big programming assignment into an Applet, and run it off the web. I already started trying out the code, but the GUI isn’t what I thought it would look like. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m forgetting something, or some of my parameters are off. For example, I wanted a text field that was 80 characters long, flanked by a label and a button. Instead I got a big label, text field of 20 characters long, and a big button. Perhaps in class Thursday we’ll find out how to adjust these things. We still haven’t learned how to make the buttons and stuff do anything; right now we’re simply designing the layout.

If the Applet thing works out, I’m going to post my JavaQuest game on my web page. Unfortunately, whoever plays it won’t be able to save their game. I can’t save it on their machine, and I sure as hell don’t want them to save it on mine! Still, it’d be an experience to do that, and I can leave it on my page for no other reason than to brag.

I took a two-hour nap, so now I’m awake. This might not be so good, because I have to wake up early and go to work for an extra day tomorrow. If I stay up late I’ll be very surly in the morning.

I found out a few things one should know about new cars, particularly the break-in period. It’s good information to know. I learned that for the first thousand miles, I should take it easy, don’t speed or otherwise overwork the engine. And as soon as the thousand-mile mark is reached, I should change the oil. There was some talk about the purchase of a car cover, where to go, how much it would be. Then there came the topic of spraying the belts and hoses with silicone. It’s supposed to prolong the life of said parts, and it’s supposed to be very simple to do. Min recommended I spray a cloth first then wipe down the parts, as silicone may get all over everything if sprayed directly, and it attracts dirt. That got us into the topic of washing cars, and since I will be getting a black car, I’m going to have to be diligent in its appearance. Since I’m going to be training my discipline for quitting smoking, I think it may be possible for me to use that discipline for my car.

I think I’m going to change my own oil from now on, simply because I want to have a hand in my car’s care. I really should start becoming more responsible as far as maintenance, of course only limiting myself to those areas that I can handle. But I think it would be good practice for when I start to have a family of my own.

Now if I could only do that for cooking…