Fear the Crab

Today I got my truck windows tinted. Just the two front doors, since the back already has what they call “privacy glass” which is just a dealer-fancy word for dark tint. There is a slight difference between the front and rear windows, only because the law states that the front must be 35%. I say there’s a slight difference because from afar it looks the same all around. I think only when you inspect real close and the light is just right can you tell the difference. Now I must remember to not lower the windows anytime soon, to let the tint have time to cure.

I finished my 3D tic tac toe game. It’s not required for class or anything; I just did it to see if I could. It works through the command line interface, basically meaning that it runs strictly on my computer and uses a DOS window. My next step will be a highly ambitious project of converting the code to run as an Applet, so that it can work on the internet. If I succeed, I’ll post it on my web page. So far I’ve managed to design the layout and implement a few workable buttons. Later I will work on getting the code to understand when someone actually wins the game.

So I wake up at the usual 4 in the morning, and I do the usual school thing. Only instead of going home and relaxing afterward, I get ready for work and go in for the night shift. I am never, never doing that again. My body and mind kept zoning into daydream, except I wasn’t daydreaming about anything. I didn’t think I would make it through the entire night, but after talking to Maile on my break, I seemed to have pepped up a little. It’s amazing what a short 15 minute talk can do for you.

Of course, having eaten a few chocolate covered espresso beans before work probably helped, too.

I went to Costco and bought a spindle of 100 CD-Rs. It was uber cheap, considering the sheer amount of disks. I would have preferred CD-RW, the kind that you can rewrite to (I’m not entirely sure if you can erase, but it must be possible), but the only pack they had there was a 20-pack for about $25. It wouldn’t have mattered either way, because this time around I managed to burn two disks in three tries, and the wasted disk was only because I had forgotten that I only needed one disk burnt, not two. This time, on the advice of Kyrol, I set the recorder to a lower speed. It took longer, but the results far outweigh any time inconvenience. There were no problems this time, so I guess the speed of the recorder makes a big difference.

I washed my truck today. It hasn’t been a week yet, but today is pretty much the only day out of the week that I have a lot of free time. It was worth it, too, because at the same time I washed Maile’s car. We put Rain-X on both vehicles, too.

And because I washed my car, it rained. It’s still raining now. I must remember to buy a chamois cloth when next I get a chance. I searched for the one we had at home, but my dad informed me that it was pretty much deteriorated beyond help. While I’m at it, I may as well buy one of those sponge mitts that you put over your hand. I didn’t wax my car this time because it still has that factory wax, and people generally recommend I wax it once a month.

I managed to actually reverse into a stall at the UH parking garage. It took me a while, but not as long as I thought it would. And it turned out okay, too. School itself was an ordinary school day, though my stomach was churning the entire time and it hurt.

I talked to Maile for a little bit, but she seemed a bit preoccupied, probably with the amount of homework she has to do. Now I know how she felt a long time ago, when I did the same thing to her. That makes me feel sad.

Min took a look at my truck’s engine, and offered some advice regarding its maintenance. Basically he told me to always warm up supercharged engines. It’s something I must keep in mind, in addition to all the other tidbits of car care floating around in my head. Before I used to think it was pretty simple taking care of a car; now it seems the newer the car, the more you have to do.

I’m going to take my truck in on Friday to get the two front windows tinted. It’ll be interesting to see how I manage parking at work afterward, since they say you can’t roll down your windows for several weeks.

Tomorrow will be the first time I park my truck at UH’s garage, and I’m kinda nervous about that. I predict it’ll take me at least 5 minutes to even line up the vehicle in the stall.

I think I’m getting better at handling the truck, though it’s obviously too early to tell. I still haven’t done much cornering nor have I reversed anywhere, so the true test of my driving skill has yet to come. I think I would feel much better about it if someone else were in the truck to help me figure out its exact dimensions from inside. I plan to give George a ride home tomorrow; perhaps then.

I spoke to Maile for a bit today, but she was exhausted from having to go out and about with her mom. On top of that, she still has some homework to catch up on, so by the time I was able to call her, she was about ready to fall asleep. I’m not complaining, though; having the chance to talk, even if for only a short while, is still meaningful and highly appreciated.

Drove my truck around for the first time today. It was both exciting and nerve-racking at the same time. I was excited because it was a new truck and it was all mine. It was nervous because I had never driven a truck before and the perspective is so different from my previous Corolla. I’m higher up off the ground, and the dimensions of the vehicle take some getting used to. I haven’t tried reversing into parking stalls, nor the dreaded parallel parking yet. Strangely enough, I haven’t done much parallel parking in quite a while, even when I still had my old car. I guess the places I went and the times I got there didn’t call for much of that.

I let Maile drive it around, and she seemed to fall in love with it as much as I did. We even went to Wal-Mart so I could buy a sun shield, and she drove it back to her house. I think as the day ends I can say I’m comfortable with the car on highway and city streets, but I still need to get used to handling the truck as a truck, rather than as a car. The turning radius, for one thing, is much bigger than a sedan. And since the truck is taller, I have a difficult time (right now) of judging just how close or how far I am away from things. So far, so good, and so long as I keep up the safe driving, I should be okay.

I must seriously look into a car cover. I have two places I can go to; Dashcovers and Ron’s Auto Parts and Performance. Both places are close by, but after talking with a neighbor who tried both places, it seems like Ron’s would be the better place to go. It seems the fit of the covers is better with those offered by Ron’s. I’m still going to Dashcovers for, obviously, a dashboard cover.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words…

Toyota Tacoma Prerunner Double Cab
(Just imagine it in black)
This picture © Toyota

EDIT: Picture from Toyota no longer available, but it’s the 2003 model.

Today was an ordinary day at work. Finally was able to give George his Kikaida DVD, and now we both can’t wait for the 2nd disc to be released.

My cough has gotten better, though I am still prone to fits now and then. I don’t cough very well and it always feels terrible in my chest and my throat. Sometimes I even bring myself to tears when I cough like this.

UH athletics had a big day today. The volleyball Wahine swept Fresno State in 3 games, and the football Warriors went into the 4th quarter against Fresno State down 21 to 9, and came back to win it 31 to 21. A very big game for the football team, since they played in Fresno, probably one of the most hostile environments to play in. The Warriors showed great poise and concentration, stringing together some fantastic plays and never giving up. This game was televised nationally on ESPN2, so it’s great exposure for the program, especially with a win on the road. Not to take away from the volleyball game, who haven’t lost a single set since September (I forget the number of consecutive sets), but everyone already knows how good the volleyball team is. They’re number 2 in the country! So the football team proved themselves to many critics tonight.

I talked with Maile a bit tonight, casual conversation like we are wont to do on those days when we don’t get to see each other. It’s been over a week since I last saw her, and Maile mentioned that it almost feels like we’re in a long-distance relationship. I don’t like long-distance relationships. Still, our daily schedules hardly match nowadays, and since I was sick this past week, it’s easy to see why we’re hardly around. I hope to change that soon.

I don’t feel as sick as I used to, though I am still prone to coughing fits. I should be well enough to go to work tomorrow.

School was its normal self today. I learned things, I did homework, I ate breakfast consisting of two bowls of cereal (Corn Flakes and Special K). Then I went home and did more homework, specifically the new programming assignment that’ll be due next week. Already it seems I’ve completed most of it, and just in time by the look of things. The professor said that next week we’ll be going over different material and no longer concentrating on what the assignment entails, so it’s good that I got the majority of the work out of the way early. It’ll give me more focus towards concentrating on this new stuff (stacks and queues on Tuesday, double linked lists on Thursday).

Still, there are a few weird things going on with my program. It’s a bit complicated to explain, especially since I don’t completely understand it myself. Suffice to say, it “seems” to do the job, but it does it in a rather quirky manner. I suppose so long as it fulfills the requirements I shouldn’t complain, and anything more I want to have would just be cosmetic.