Fear the Crab

I went to bed at 2100 hours, but I kept waking up. The first time I woke up was an hour later, then again about an hour after that. Now it’s midnight and I’m awake again. I don’t know if it’s because I have something on my mind (like my upcoming exams) or something else all together. I had a few dreams in the meantime, but at this point of waking and sleeping, I’ve forgotten them all. I just hope this doesn’t affect me later on in the day.

Irene mentioned that she’s never been in a Corolla with power anything. I gave her a ride to her training class because I was off work and heading home, and she had to head out at the same time to attend. She also mentioned something about my car smelling good, but that’s only because her brother’s Corolla smelling like “a gym locker.” She must lead a very sheltered life, to not have experienced a ride in a Corolla before. Of course, she’s normally been exposed only to Hondas.

I may get a chance to deliver some dinner to Maile tomorrow. She mentioned that she was going to stay on campus to study because she has an exam coming up. Normally during her break she goes home to eat, since it’s only 5 minutes away. I asked her what she wanted, and as of now she wants a burger, maybe something from McDonald’s. I’m thinking that whatever she gets, I’ll get one, too, and maybe we’ll eat together.

My parents leave for CA Wednesday, to visit my brother. That means I’ll have the entire house to myself until the following Monday. It doesn’t mean that I’ll be able to have parties or whatnot, since most of my time will be spent at school or work. It also means that I’ll have to find my own food, but that shouldn’t be a problem.

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 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.

Spent much of the day in school, as is the usual for a Thursday. I managed to debug my Java program, so now it completely works and fulfills the requirements stated in the assignment. There are probably a million ways I could have made the program better, but now is not the time to think of them. I’d say I don’t even know half of Java’s capabilities.

Ate at Kyoya for dinner, with the family. I had the sashimi teishoku with an appetizer of hamachi sashimi, and a bottle of hot sake. I actually ate the hamachi for “dessert,” saving it for last because it’s my favorite.

I talked to Maile tonight and we gossiped about our day in school and the various events that took place. Maile knows some interesting people in her classes, more than myself, though it’s likely because she is taking core requirements that apply to everyone, rather than what I am taking; specialized fields. In my classes, everyone seems pretty “normal” to me, that is to say, they don’t seem too much crazier than I could hope to be.

If none of this makes any sense, I apologize. The mind does not function properly after it’s been awake for 22 hours.

It’s odd how the day works. I went to bed last night at 2130 hours, hoping to get at least 7 hours of sleep before 0400. Yet it was at 0330 that I awoke, and since I was already up (and leery of challenging the alarm clock) I got out of bed and made a pot of coffee. I spent the next hour trying to figure out some of the Java code that’s due for homework, then got ready and left for school.

It only took me 20 minutes to get to campus and find a parking stall. That just gave me more time to work on that code. Unfortunately, the progress I had made earlier in the morning did little to further my efforts. I went to my math class, and spent that hour teetering on the edge of understanding and confusion. Probability seems very easy to grasp, but something in the back of my head is shorting out as it tries to comprehend other problems involving probability.

I ate breakfast at Paradise Palms; the usual fare of fried rice, scrambled eggs, portuguese sausage, and spam. Since I was eating, I didn’t want to work on my code, and since it’s not due until next Monday, I figured I had plenty of time. That time certainly came into play early, as I browsed onto Microsoft’s Windows Update page, and found a service pack for XP. That bloke took me nearly an hour to download, then another 15 minutes to install. I just hope it was worth it.

I managed to talk to one of my classmates, and together we looked at the code we programmed for ICS 211. Much kudos to him, because he was able to help me get past a few hurdles I couldn’t get around. Thanks to his help, I can now say that I’m finished with the assignment, and I have already turned it in. The big question is whether or not the program will run on a UNIX machine, since that’s what the TAs and professor will be testing it on. I FTPd the assignment into my UHUnix account, and did some test runs, and did not come across anything different or explosive. Instead of being satisfied, I’m worried that something else will happen that I was unable to foresee and ruin my grade. My goal over the next several days is to log on and try as many test cases as I can think of to “break” the code and discover any bugs. Perhaps a fresh night’s sleep will help clear the mind.

I must also remember to begin work on my math assignments. It’s not due for another two weeks, but it’s best to get an early start, especially with my brain’s inability to function properly in times of crises.

On a side note: A bottle of whiskey is $10. The whiskey itself is $9 more than the bottle. How much is the bottle?

Today was a normal day at school, except for the fact that I found out the Legislature has cut the budget for the ICS department, meaning that there will be less professors and less classes for me to take. Considering the amount of students already in the program (and likely entering the program in the future), the chances aren’t looking good for me to get into a class. Compound that with the fact that I register last, and there’s a problem. I won’t know the full extent of this problem until next semester, though.

Feeling particularly tired, likely due to the constant early rises I’ve had to endure these past two weeks. Four to six hours of sleep aren’t enough to someone used to a full eight. At least today I cut back on the coffee and instead loaded up on energy via orange juice and breakfast food from the school cafeteria. Their scrambled eggs were very fluffy and delicious, and of course a breakfast meal can’t be complete without fried rice, portuguese sausage and spam.

Narrowed my choices down to either the Toyota Tacoma or the Nissan Frontier. Both are comparable in terms of quality and maintenance, with some differences in power and handling. I think it will eventually boil down to how much all those extra options will raise the price. Now the research turns to finding out those facts.

Started off the day on four hours of sleep. That’s what happens when I get off of work at 2315 and turn off the lights at 0000, only to wake up at 0400 to get ready for school. The waking up wasn’t too bad, actually. I think the primary motivation is that I really need to attend every class, and can’t write it off like how I did in my younger years.

One cup of coffee in the morning, followed by a cafe mocha at 0700. Another cafe mocha at 0900, and by 1100 I had to pee like I could see through time. I actually felt my body shrink after using the bathroom for the fourth consecutive time, and whoever said eating asparagus made it stink has never drunk three cups of coffee. All that caffeine can’t be doing good things for my body, but at least I stayed awake through all my classes.

When I got home I immediately came down from that high. It was not pleasant. I was barely coherent and all my thoughts were jumbled and garbled like encrypted packets sent through a 28.8 modem. I apologize for the computer reference, but after a full day of nothing but, it’s understandable that it’s all I can think of right now.

A bit of good news, though; I finally managed to find that one song that had eluded me for years. I hear it on commercials, in movies, and every which way I turn. It sounds cool, but I never knew the name nor the composer until today. The song I was looking for all this time was “O Fortuna,” from Carmina Burana, composed by someone named Carl Orff. I actually don’t know if Carmina Burana is an opera or somesuch, as different locations would list different things and not in any clear manner. It also appears there is a band (or another song) named O Fortuna, but I avoided those links. After years of searching, I’ve finally found what I’ve been looking for, and now I feel highly accomplished.

The Toyota Tacoma is looking rather expensive. As an alternative, I may research the Nissan Frontier. I’ll have to see what the reviews say; it may not be worth it to go the cheap route, especially if it only hampers me down the road with repairs.

I’m going to turn in early tonight. Regardless of whether or not I’ve said that already, it only lends more evidence to support that decision.

I dreamt of this food product that looked like a cross between cookie dough and butter. The odd thing about this product was that you could eat it by itself, or use it as the foundation for another dish. For example, add more butter to the mixture, and you get cookies. Throw in some vegetables, and you get stir fry. Methinks some of that recursive math has gotten to my head.

I don’t remember too much, except that Maile and I were working for a syndicate whose boss was John Travolta, and he assigned me to scoop four different cereals into a mixture of what looked ranch dressing. The four cereals were Rice Crispies, Cocoa Crispies, Raisin Bran, and I think Cocoa Pebbles. I needed to take one tablespoon of each and dump it into the mixture, until the bowl was filled. Surprisingly, the four bags of cereal turned into women, whose hair was the color of the cereal I was scooping up. What was even more strange was that I would continue scooping, and this time I would scoop into their hair and come out with cereal. It seemed like they were prisoners of Travolta, and they tried to talk to me and get me to release them, but I kept scooping cereal because I didn’t want to get Travolta mad at me, not to mention I had no idea where Maile had gone off to, and I was worried that if I did something bad, something worse would happen to her.

Maile came to visit me at work today, and that was a most pleasant surprise. She had just finished dinner with Lori at a restaurant called Buca de Beppo (sp?), an Italian place at the Ward Entertainment Center. I had paged Maile during their dinner, and since they were in the neighborhood, they both decided to drop in and see how I was doing. It made the rest of work more bearable, especially since I was able to meet Maile at Zippy’s for a quick bite to eat. Maile just had a chocolate shake, while I had a hot cake sandwich.

I told Maile that the next time she visits, she has to bring Titan. We both had a big laugh about that, because he’d probably freak out the whole of Waikiki. In any case, I can still see him when I drop by her house, so it’s no big loss for me.