Fear the Crab

Work was okay, but nothing very interesting happened.

I found out that my original programming endeavor is not valid. This means I’ll have to rework my entire code to meet the requirements of the assignment. It seems my week will be quite a busy one.

Tomorrow I will get my hair cut. A simple shave of the sides and back, a trim of the top, and I think I’ll be good to go. I would have preferred an appointment on my day off, but I discovered that my aunt (who normally cuts my hair) will be out of town and the only available time is Monday morning. The appointment is for 1030, and I don’t start work until 1315, so I’ll have some time to kill. At first I thought that I’d be uber bored, but the recent development in my homework means I’ll have something to do during the break inbetween my schedule. I just have to remember to bring my computer with me.

Maile said she would be getting her Christmas tree today, but I forgot to ask if she did that. She’s trying to get a small tree, maybe a 5-footer, because the clean-up afterward is just too much of a hassle with a big tree.

I worked eight hours today, and I managed to make it through without going insane. It’s been quite a long time since I’ve had a full day of work; for the past year or so I’ve had 4 to 5 hour days. What helped me get through was the time I spent trying to figure out my homework assignment, even though I’m not supposed to be doing such things while on the clock. In the end, all that coding may be for naught, as one of the requirements for the assignment was that “no other data structures are allowed to manipulate data.” I found it easier to use one kind of data structure, but I’m not entirely sure if it’s allowed. As I think about it more and more, it’s probably not allowed. Which means I’ll have to redo my entire code, and redo it in a more complicated and difficult manner. I sent an email to my professor regarding that requirement, but I can’t expect a reply until Monday. I also sent an email to one of my classmates because he has access to codes from previous years, and hopefully one of those codes will contain an outline of what I need to finish this assignment. However, as before I may have to wait until Monday.

I ate at Anna Miller’s for dinner, because I wasn’t sure if there was anything in the fridge at home for me to eat and I didn’t want to go home to find out and have to drive off again. I figured that if there was something to eat, it can wait for tomorrow’s lunch or dinner. At Anna Miller’s I had the pancake sandwich, which is just two pancakes, an egg, and two strips of bacon or links of sausage (I chose the sausage). It didn’t bother me that I was eating by myself, though some company would have been nice.

Sunday was a work day. I went to Maile’s house afterwards and hung out for a bit. We watched a documentary on sex changes, and saw a man trying to learn how to cross his legs like a woman. I never even knew there was a technique to it.

Monday was another work day. I talked to Maile for a bit afterwards on the phone, but as I had also taken a dose of NyQuil I soon got sleepy. Which in the end was proper, because I had to wake up early for school the next day.

Today was a school day. Attended 241 and learned about language structure. In a sense, using math to figure out a language. Had a 211 midterm today, and I am already anxious to know what my score was. There were two parts to it, basically; a technical part and a coding part. The technical part I think I did well on. At least, all the questions were pretty straight forward and I believe I answered them all correctly. The coding part is where I want to know my score. We were given a bit of code, then asked to write a class to provide functionality to that bit. I’m anxious to know if I got anything wrong, because I spent a lot of time writing out the code and so far that I could perceive, it should work. Still, it would be my luck to forget some aspect, some part in my programming that would crash the whole thing. That programming part had a major chunk of points, too.

I seem to have a relapse of my sinus cold. At least, it is much more apparent to others now than it was before. I bought some NyQuil so it can knock me out when I sleep, and I took it early so that it wouldn’t impact my awakening to do chores.

There was a brief power outage at work, which scared the bejeezus out of everyone. A complete and total blackout that even shut down the registers. However, it only lasted as long as it took me to find the flashlight.

I can’t wait for tomorrow. I will wash my car and wash my dad’s car, and do other car-related things, but the real fun will take place in the evening, when I attend Maile’s Xmas party. It’s going to be at a restaurant in Waikiki, I think the Oceanarium at the Pacific Beach Hotel. I’m not entirely sure, since Maile has all the details and that’s good enough for me. I just need to be aware of what time it starts, which is 1830 hours. Although, I wonder if we need to bring a grab bag gift…

It occurred to me that I hadn’t posted in a while, so I will play catch-up now.

Monday was a typical work day. I was assigned to Sunglasses, as per the norm on those days I work the swing shift. While that in itself automatically means it’s boring, at least George was around to talk story, and later Min started work so it was, overall, a good day. I stopped by Maile’s house for a little bit to hang out.

Tuesday there was a dam leak in my nose, as it just kept dripping snot like a leaky diaper. That made it a bit difficult to focus during school, but I still managed to attend. I fucked up on my 211 quiz because I mistakenly believed the correct procedure for an inorder traversal of a binary tree meant I print the internal vertex on the second pass. But the right subtree only had right children, so instead of listing them correctly from top to bottom, I went bottom to top. Later that night I slept over at Maile’s house.

Wednesday (yesterday) I felt very lazy, and the fact that my nose was all clogged up didn’t help. I wanted to wash and wax my car, but I just couldn’t find the energy. I stayed in bed all day while Maile was at work, though Titan kept me company. I discovered that I actually didn’t do too badly on my 211 quiz as they only removed 5 points, though I will check again to make sure. I also received a new homework assignment, but I didn’t start on it because, as stated before, I was feeling lazy. Maile gave me some “body toddy” for my head cold, which I am mainly supposed to gargle with, and it’s supposed to lessen the duration of said cold. It tastes like fermented lemon juice, for lack of a better description, but it does make me feel a bit better after gargling with it. I am left with the decision of whether or not to attend the 241 class on Thursday, as they have an exam and, while I want to take it, since I have a slight cold I am debating whether or not that will be a good idea.

It is now Thursday morning, and I am at school, well in time to attend the 241 class, but I have decided not to. I reasoned that since I have a bit of a cold (still present, obviously), it wouldn’t do to have my sniffling and sneezing distracting those still enrolled in the class, whose grades are dependent on their performance. Instead I will hang out in the computer lab and work on my 211 assignment until it is time for that class.

I plan to wash and wax my car on Saturday, because I have vacation and will have the time. Since I will be at home, I will see if my dad wants the van washed as well. Hopefully such tasks won’t tire me out before Maile’s Christmas party later that evening, but perhaps if I have time for a nap it won’t be so bad.

Uber boring. I was in a bit of a bad mood, too, because some of my co-workers are idiots. I shan’t get into the details because that will only serve to make me more upset, but suffice to say that some people only seem to be able to do one thing in life, and they can’t even do that well.

There was redemption afterward, however. I stopped by Maile’s house to visit her, and a hug from her made everything go away. So much so that I’m actually awake and chipper like a good little boy, and I have Maile to thank.

Tomorrow bodes to be a better day, I think.

Thankfully it wasn’t boring, but that’s only because I was able to talk to Min about trucks and finances, and I was able to talk to Maile on my break. I did get into a bit of an argument with Takashi, who was going off about Christianity imposing itself on other religions, specifically Islam, and the modern-day relations between the US and Israel and why that is damaging the mid east. There were many flaws in his argument, some of which I pointed out to him, but it remains unknown whether or not it sank in. So many flaws, in fact, that I would find it hard to repeat them here with any semblance of clarity, and therefore I won’t do them any justification.

My vacation request for the 23rd was approved, so that means I will be able to accompany Maile to her company Xmas party.

…as usual.

I talked to Maile for a bit on my break, and we made some plans to attend her company’s Christmas party on the 23rd of this month. If it seems early for a party, it is, but it has some practical applications, too. For starters, the company gets 2 weeks vacation towards the end of the year, so no one will be around to have a party. Secondly, Maile’s best friend is due to give birth to her second child near that time, so planning the party for the end of this month is common sense to those in the know. I put in a vacation request so that I can accompany Maile to the party, and hopefully my request will be honored. I don’t know where the party will be, but I remember one year it was at the Hawaii Prince Hotel. I think last year it was at the Waikiki Parc Hotel, but I could be wrong.

I’m still creeped out from The Ring. Every little noise, every little shadow in the house makes me nervous. People will laugh, and have laughed at my condition, and I can laugh, too. But only in the daytime.

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.

Today was an okay day at work, though everyone seemed to be grossed out by my bug-in-the-ear story.

Finished working on the next batch of Maile’s notes, rewording them so they don’t resemble the book too closely. Maile also finished the rest of her book, enabling her to write her summary paper for history. Good progress, I must say.