Entries tagged “allen hall”

So yesterday I went to my cousin's engagement party and hung out with Egypt, Su', Tina, Leena, Aradhana, Shiela, and whomever else. It was pretty fun, I guess. Err.. maybe. Tina, Leena, Su' and Aradhana had a real good dance (albeit there was a technical difficulty). Towards the latter part of the night there was dancing, and I hate dancing, but everyone, including my uncle pushed me to go on stage and I made a fool of myself since I have no talent in dancing at all. Odd that I listen to so much electronica and techno music.

Afterwards I was conned into going to Woodbury in a van that had way too many people in it. We (Tina, Leena, Aradhana, Titu, Sunita, &c) stayed at Tina and Leena's main floor. We stayed up till 5:30 AM or 6:00 AM just chatting watching half of Austin Powers, etc. It was fun It was nice to hang out with people that I hadn't hung with since oh, I dunno... hmm OSA which was in July. It was also neat meeting someone who's visited my school all the way from Milwaukee twice who is also a clone of Su'. I learned at 3:00 AM you get hungry and late at night everybody becomes like me... crazy. That, and people have wierd sleeping habbits, from kicking to enpillowing to talking. Quite amusing.

I left around noon. It was a nice break from being at home and not doing anything substantial. It's also nice to be with friends that I've known almost all my life.

Anyway... today Molly and I saw Patch Adams. I am definitely looking forward to the real Hunter "Patch" Adams visiting Allen Hall in February. My uncle and his family are coming over tonight. My little cousin, Joshna is very adorable. I saw her yesterday, although I never talk to my cousins. I feel bad, because soon they will be Germans.

I don't feel like writing much more tonight. So bye-bye.

"So the guy gave me a piece of paper and he said that you drop it. Then the walls started to melt. Then I started to melt."

Once I dreamt of a city of gold (earlier today), and then I realized why it could not exist. If portions of the city were gilded, people would start mining the city. So the gold would have a negative effect, because people will be hasty when they mine the gold. The gold will be a catalyst in ruining the city. Similarly copper is quite valuable. In China copper telephone lines were dug up and sold on the black market. To rememdy this, China just advanced it's technology and started using fiber optics (Negroponte). Technology makes things cheap. So, I'm sure I could come up with something better than a city made of gold. I could probably figure out some aesthetically pleasant design that doesn't have this yellowy sparkle that people all love to steal. It will also be cheaper. This will be the city of cheap technology. It will be guarded by the Technobots. With their gestalt technology they can merge and form the mighty Computron. Computron will be the most powerful thinking machine in the world, and the mayor.

My roommate was a sexfiend.

Yesterday I ate at Subway. I tried the Parmesan Chicken Wrap. It's not that great. Here's why. Subway makes good sandwhiches. Their employees aren't trained well to make wraps, since mine had a tear in it. They make very good sandwhiches and they taste better than their wraps. It was better than school food though. School food today wasn't bad. It was edible.

Fort Max - poking into God's territory for over 100 years.

Cool Info is moving to pair networks. I will be working on a news article entry system that mimics what I use right now. I'll work on it over break.

I use my workstation as a development machine for my web pages via Front Page and the Personal Web Server. The root page used to be an old web site that I had for Fort Max that I only developed on my computer and uploaded to the Internet. It was very corporate sounding, back when I cared about that stuff for ftmax.com. It never occuured to me that if CCSO did a scan of my computer, they would notice that my workstation is the host of a corporate web site. Here is some mail:

Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1998 08:48:01 -0600 (CST)
From: CCSO Security 
Reply-To: security@uiuc.edu
To: davedash@uiuc.edu
Subject: dorm room connection


I have noticed that the machine 130.126.72.54 has a web page for a commercial
entity. This is strictly in violation of university policy and state law.

If this page is not removed immediately, your network connection will be 
disabled and student discipline charges filed.

-- 

 [      Security Officer                |       CCSO/University of Illinois   ]
 [      security@uiuc.edu               |       1304 West Springfield         ]
 [      (217) 265-0000                  |       Urbana, Illinois   61801      ]

I finished reading Xenocide. Very Deux Ex Machina, I've heard bad things about Children of the Mind as well. I can imagine why. I will, however, finish reading the series as I am curious as to what Mr. Card is trying to achieve. I did like the book. I read at least over 100 pages on one day.

The Onion will have an MTV Christmas Special supposedly. This should be interesting, hopefully someone will record this for me. It's funny, Onion is one of the better sources of humour, we need more things like that on TV. Canadian TV has funny stuff that crosses the line, as does British TV. It's in our best interest to mimic these, instead of remaining prudish about our humour. Damn you America for spawning crap like SNL and MAD TV.

Since I have no original ideas, here's my Christ Day wish list:

1. Sony Netman or Diamond Rio PMP300
2. PCS Cellular phone with cellular service for one year (so next year someone else can get me a year of service)
3. IBM Laptop SCSI whatever you can or a DELL Inspirion must have DVD support
4. SGI 1600SW with Number Nine card
5. SONY DCR-PC10
6. Soundblaster Live
7. UMAX PowerLook 3000
8. Lego Mindworks
9. Something with a pretty LCD screen that goes on my computer.
10. A ray gun.

I ate at Burger King yesterday. It was very good after a disconcerting school dinner. I shall eat out more often. I will try to avoid Burger King for a while. Their sandwhiches are good, but they are the kind that make you not want to eat their for a few months.

"They're after me!"

So I was reading this astrological reading...

VIRGO (Aug. 24-Sept. 23): If you want something enough you will eventually get it. Your heart tells you that is true even if your head says it is illogical. Of course, if the something you want is something you were destined to have, it could arrive any time - like today, for instance.

I really love this journal thing. It's an excuse to not talk to people individually. Why bother? Most people are bound to not give a care about one or two (at least) of the things I talk about. Why risk having one of your ideas ignored? So I have this journal system. I can post any damn idea I have that I feel needs to be shared. If someone's interested and they read it, they can talk to me about it more. If they aren't interested they just skip over it and I don't feel like an idea of mine has been ignored or not understood.

I think I know why I dislike my roommate. He's inconsiderate. I'm currently working on my final paper for speech and he's currently watching Street Fighter videos with a friend. He could have asked. It's blatantly obvious that I'm working on a paper. I'm not going to make a situation awkward and ask him to not watch this. It is his room too, I just wish he's be a bit considerate.

Ugh, I was a bit foolish to eat a Chicken Cordon Bleu for dinner. Not only do I remove the ham inside it, but the cheese that's in it doesn't agree with me. It's a pity that the insides of me are so much like my brother (lactose intollerant). One day they'll synthetically make food that tastes good.

"White tornado my foot. That's a real tornado!"

Xenocide... I read the back of the book and it sounds silly. 592 pages... a normal sized book, after reading Dune books. I'll order Children of the Mind sometime this week. Maybe tonight.

This link's for Yishan and others with laser pointers.

Little to say these days. I have a lot of tests this week and next week and then finals the week after that. Then I go home... I'll update the Calendar.

Stinky will not be present in my life until 29 November 1998.

Clinton recieving instructions from the mother-computer via an old-fashioned radio.

My dorm light went good-bye. I work in darkness now. Actually I work in the bask of a florescent study lamp from Jack's desk which is adequate for computer work. What errors I encounter will be adjusted through corrective surgery...

By the way, the song that I said was really cool is actually Jeane Michael Jarre's Oxygene 16 performed live in Moscow... I found most of the concert live, but only this track was 128/44 (and mislabled). I've uploaded all my stuff to the MP3 server. I've listened to a few of his other works and they are okay, but none were as impressive as this. Of course this is also the only good MP3 I could find of him (a mislabeled one at that).

There exists a World Jewish Congres... WJC... hmm... interesting. Sounds a little too much like World Wide Jewsih Conspiracy to me.

I've noticed a lot of people on my dorm leave their TV on, and don't actually watch it. It might be laziness or it might be some type of "security" that they get from the TV being on. I know that the TV gives me "company" when I eat alone at home, but I rarely do that anymore. This might be for the same reason. So I ask:

A lot of my friends here on campus have older computers that require non-SDRAM, either EDO or the "other kind." If someone can point me in the direction of how to distinguish between the types of RAM, that'd be great. Also, if any of you have this type of RAM lying around, please give it to me.

Now you may be thinking, "Dave, you're all the way in Urbana." I'm coming back Tuesday and their is a Thanksgiving Party at my house this Friday. All are welcome, just email me so I know you're coming. It's best to let me know if you're coming by Tuesday night for sure. If you've already told me that you are coming, then don't worry. Thanks a lot. Hope to see you soon. And to all my friends living on the east and west coasts, hope to see many of you during Winter Break. Unless I hate you. Email me if you want to know if I hate you.

"Whee!" Soaring through space, Stinky's PSX will never be seen in Urbana-Champaign for a very long time.

I hit the jackpot for MP3s. I've found all these neat live Aphex Twin and Orbital songs. The only difference from a studio and live cut is an audience and it sounds different slightly. Sometimes the sound is a little low quality, due to who recorded it, etc. The Orbital songs from Birmingham tend to have too much bass... that forces me to have to deal with Winamp's equalizer. The song of the week is an Orb song. Supposedly it's Toxygene live in Moscow, but it sounds nothing like the two other versions of Toxygene that I have. It's very space-future sounding. I've listened to it so much that I can't place it with another song that I've heard, becuase it's too familiar. The other two Toxygenic songs are mass-media-future sounding. Like something we'd have sometime soon. Supposedly the new Winamp (2.04+) are supposed to get rid of skips and stuff, but that's not happening. Oh well. I'll try to get my latest collection to the MP3 server in the sky before I leave. I'll at least start uploading by Sunday. I'd hate to go home and find myself musicless... although my CD-player supposedly works... and I could go CD shopping with my Jewish friend.

I'm really being pushed I guess. My Thanksgiving break will be relaxing, but I fear I'll be spending a lot of time composing a rough draft for my speech on an inclusive education model. Dammit, I need a day. Not just a day where I have no obligations, but a day where I have no future obligations to worry about. I have an outline due Friday, stuff to read, a paper due next week, a speech in a few weeks, end of the quarter soon, immunization tests that need be done, credits that need to be transferred propperly, class registration that needs to be propperly done.

Stinky made a stink tonight. I have witnesses, Neal, Mike, and anyone else who was unfortunate to walk by my room. I had to leave my room and go talk to the Katie with the red hair. Eventually the stink faded away. I don't want to sound like I'm exaggerating, but it was really bad. Mothballs and open windows should cure the room.

I heard Stinky talking to Josh in the hallway and I asked Josh in ICQ what Stinky said about the PSX (PlayStation):

You'll be really happy...he said he's not bringing it back after Thanksgiving...cuz he's gonna have to study for finals...Don't celebrate TOO loudly...:):)

I'm reading some news off the AP wire. Xis Vwj is pronounced "See Voo." In one light, that's pretty cool. On the otherhand, who the hell is responsible for translating Hmong (I think) to English?

This if from the AFP:

WASHINGTON, Nov 9 (AFP) - Inspired by the victory in the Minnesota governor's race of former pro wrestler Jesse Ventura, another veteran of the sport, Hulk Hogan, plans to run for president in 2000, Time magazine says.
"When Jesse won, I said to my wife, 'I'm 10 times more popular than him,'" Hogan told Time.
"People know Hulk Hogan like they know McDonald's and Chevrolet."
The weekly said Hogan planned to approach billionaire Ross Perot, CNN founder Ted Turner and talk show queen Oprah Winfrey as possible running mates.
Asked of a possible political contest against Ventura, Hogan said, "I'd like to get him into the ring and basically stomp on him."

I finished I, Robot some time ago. It's a childrens novel. Well it seems like one. The future it portrays is interesting and their are portions that are probable. I, personally, think that we will have powerful thinking machines far sooner than actual robots.

I have begun reading Ender's Game. I understand why Adam liked it so much. This summer I worked with gifted (well if not gifted, talented) children in a mathematics program with Molly. You could always single out that even among these there is still the quiet ones and the smart ones and the quiet and smart ones. I also like how it reminds me of my childhood.

Stinky has over six hours of video of the #2 Street Fighter player in the world. He watches it intently. I came back from the library to see him and Stephan watching it as if it were a good movie. I've heard at least two or three people come in here and just get disgusted with Stinky watching it. Stinky attempted to exclaim how cool it was by saying that this was the number 2 player. My friend, Tim, responded with "So?" So remember, if you are doing something that's really silly and stupid assigning a rank doesn't make it better.

Fashion is just one of the many uses of duct tape.

For fear that my floor may come off, I started duct-taping it. This duct-tape exo-floor should be more durable and less likely to come off. That's right people... I'm still strange. Actually I'm not going to tape my entire floor lest I incur the wrath of some building inspectors.

I'm experiencing another joyous no-Stinky weekend. With Stinky gone, I decided to fix the biggify thing so it prompts you and stores it as a cookie propperly. Previously it was using someone elses code that I slightly modified. Now a more modified code that makes more sense to me. I love programming.

"There are some things I wouldn't want to recieve as a gift." "Like what?" "Herpes."

Thanks to Tuesday morning's wind dynamics that I don't quite understand in Allen Hall the doors here keep making noises, as if someone were pushing and pulling on them. I think I fixed it in my room by applying poster tack.

For those of you who want ICQ 99a, you can get it here at least temporarily.

Umm... looks like I fixed the biggify button on the left. There is now a "debiggify." I finally found the phrase that I was missing from my Javascript at cnn.com. Speaking of CNN. CNN's custom news sucks, it gives you less information. I found more things that interest me on the regular cnn page.

Download this Ventura clip. A singing, rocking and rolling governor...

Not much is happening. This week I am a good chemist and no the entire weeks worth of chemistry. Unfortunately that doesn't help me with my pending assignments. Damn! I have math homework... and math class!

I started to work on this stupid, useless project of the Hindu Mandir registry/address book type thing (again). I doubt anybody will make propper use of it, I'll see. If I do anything tonight it will be a new project for Med Rx using this.

"Moving the journal over here was a great idea. I just hope the users don't mind that we reuse old graphics, woman."

I heard the KQRS apology regarding the comments made regarding the Hmong. The result is that they have given in to Citizens Against Racism. There will be no more Talk with Tak, featuring Tak the person from Grand Forks with an accent that's surprisingly Oriental sounding. I guess not stating his race does not matter. I think KQ should make up a new character with an accent that can't quite be traced. :) I'm interested in what others think of Talk with Tak or what you think would define something as being racist.

Jesse the Body was on KQ. He also made the front page of the Daily Illini (not the feature article, but the front page nonetheless). Most of my news that I throw at you is usually computer stuff, so here's something from Maximum PC that mentions "the wrestler."

McJorgenson sent me this link.

Apple has a new deal where you can Rent-to-Own an iMac for $30 a month. Sure, it sounds like a good deal. Only a little bit more than unlimited Internet access... except you realize that this is for 67 months. After the first year or two you'll feel like your machine is really out-dated. Then you realize that you are paying $30 for the next 43 months for an outdated computer that, from many peoples view points, wasn't very good computer brand new.

Matt Sundberg graduated from High School today. Slacker.

Anybody who uses the mega-gigantic dryers in Allen Hall should not leave their laundry in their for more than 10-15 minutes. It's really annoying, because if you don't use those and have a decent ammount of laundry, you have to run your load a few times.

The 52 lbs. package has been spotted in Cach, IL at 9:47 PM today. It should be expected to arrive tomorrow or Monday. The last time I saw something at Cach, IL I got it the next day or the day after. That was of course in MN, but now that I live in IL, it should be here sooner. That's right, I live in IL. I am IL.

I wonder if I've regained control of my will power. Jack's Taco Bell poster finally fell. Jack missed two classes today because he went to sleep at six in the morning.

I took my second math test. It hurt.

I love this song. "Give it to me, baby!"

"I feel like a diabetic kid in the sugar free section of Mr. Bulky."

ICQ 99a is in limited beta (i.e. you cannot download it). It's cooler than all hell. I've had one major problem with ICQ. My list had too many people, and I wanted to organize them. The other thing that was a wish was to get rid of those stupid headings that say "Online" and "Offline" these are now offable. So here's a list of new things.

Features I like
• Groups - You can organize people on your contact list in groups (reshall, friends, family etc.) The groups are collapsable for those of you who have a ton of contacts.
• Global Online Alert - When a user logs online there will be a knocking sound, an icon will flash in your system tray and the user's name will flash in on your list. You can configure this. I have it so it makes no sound, but the contact list (which I keep open at all times) will have the persons name flash a little. It can also flash to notify you if someone's come out of away.
• key shortcuts
• (just found this out) When you get a message and have no clue what it's about, you hit "History" and the message box gets bigger and you can read the history and reply at the same time all in one window.
Otherthings that are new.
• Annoying typewriter sounds when you compose a message. (Easily disabled).
• Colored Messages - You can color your messages so the recipient will get a colorful notice from you.
• Reminders - Set ICQ to remind you of future events and activities. open in new browser

There's a 52 pound package coming from a warehouse in NY. It was last seen in Island City. Hopefully here by Monday.

The Chem test today was bad. It's okay. I understand the subject material. They ask a lot on tests. I think my problem is I learn certain things just to be familiar with them, not to answer all the questions on a test. I should learn differently.

Jack's posters fall. Not the Taco Bell poster though. I wish that would fall. His other posters fall though. I think it's annoying. My posters don't fall. I have six. One is on the ceiling. Heck, a CD I stuck on the ceiling hasn't fallen yet either.

Jack's not used to my being used to coldness. Like my room is cold now. (Same temperature as my basement normally is.) I like it that way. It's like free airconditioning. Actually now that I think about it, it is cold. But I just hate climbing the stairs where it's burning hot and then getting into a burning hot room with Glade Plugins which are being used to mask dorm room smells. I need constant cold fresh air to flush my room out. Maybe I'll shut the window tonight.

HDTV is now available at an alarming price. Most people don't need it. In fact most people are better off throwing their damn TVs out the window, but that's another story. You see, people could care less if their TV looks sharper or not. For the most part, it's not that big of a deal. It's nice when watching a full screen movie, but that's about it. Nicholas Negroponte wrote an article (which you can find on his page) about why HDTV is a waste. He basically says TV is crap with euphemisms.

My eye is severely red. I think I need a new one.

I went to a loveline-type thing at Allen Hall. It was very amusing and interesting. Much better than the real "loveline" on MTV and Westwood 1 Radio Network (or whoever puts out Loveline).

"That's a great plan, we'll just steal some of Yishan's ideas."

I like how the results graph doesn't show the entries that weren't voted for. I'll impliment this change sometime. I'm very busy this week. I've got a test tomorrow night and the night after and an essay due Friday. The Thursday test is horrid Graph Theory.

Holly crap, Caroline is a cool person, more of this model of human should be created for future generations... hmm I'm becoming Bene Gesserit like in my thinking. Yes, we should keep an eye on this line. This update is for you, because you asked for it. I'd have probably updated anyway because of the elections. I just think her web page is really neat, and she was in Newsweek.

We've been having November Rain in Urbana. Very annoying and very cold. However, my Jacket, which bundles me up more than Kenny's has nifty anti-weather mechanisms build into it.

I'm now reading i, robot from some guy named Asimov. There's a small story that takes place in 1998. The development in robotics/computers in the book is far different than what it will be in this universe.

These are links concerning the KQRS Morning Show. They are interesting. They are also biased because the Star and KQ are enemies. [Link 1] [Link 2] [Link 3] [Link 4]

I voted using an IBM Votomatic! I voted mostly all democratic, just because I wasn't up to speed on all the issues of all the candidates in all the races I had to vote for. Ryan (R) beat Poshard (D) for Gubenautical race. Moseley-Braun (D) is behind by 100K votes v. Fitzgerald (R) for the Senatorical race. I also think incumbent, E-wing (R) creamed Prussing 63 to 37 percent. Then there is Minnesota... all I can say is good luck Jesse, who just won.

Meijer is really annoying. They often change their prices every week, thus causing confusion on how much you are paying. Like I paid almost $8 for a 24 pack of Lipton - almost as bad as a vending machine, but not quite. Yesterday Mike (my neighbor) and I went to Meijer, and since I was there I felt compelled to buy something. So I bought a some Frappuccino, I ended up paying $4.80. WTF. Meijer also doesn't price all their products on the shelves. That's the most annoying thing in the world. Of course, I wasn't doing my part in asking for a price check, but really, $1.20 for some fancy yuppie drink? You've got to be kidding me. I may have to go shop at Target for more stuff.

Mike and I noticed a Perpetual Dawn (sorry, it's a song from Orb) yesterday. It looked like it was 6AM, 7AM and then 7PM at various periods during the day. In otherwords, no day yesterday. No day today either, although I was never outside. It has been cold, but I have to tolerate it. I think Jack starts to smell after some time in the morning, so I keep my window open and my door open to bring fresh air into the room.

If you step into my hall you can smell the boo-puke left by somebody who didn't know his boo-beer tolerance this Halloween. Drinking to the point that you are going to vomit is stupid. Vomiting in the hallway is stupid. Stupidity doesn't belong in Allen Hall.

I guess my neighbor had a talk with Jack and pointed out that we don't get along. Jack and I had a talk. I hate having talks with Jack. I mean, I don't mind talking to Jack, but addressing issues is really annoying. Mainly because it deals with a lot of judgement. I suppose it's something I should get used to. I guess both of us just get "pissed-off" at each other and need to tell each other when this occurs. I suppose it's a good thing. I went into this whole roommate business negatively to begin with. I will still make fun of Jack and post updates that are demeaning, because Jack is wierd. He admits it. I am also going to have to find a clever way of recording him on my computer, Cooledit is too big. Okay, I just found some shortcuts... :)

Laurel Prussing When asked to indicate which principles she supports concerning education in a survey from Project Votesmart said, "Give children vouchers to choose their parents." Perhaps a typo, I like it anyway. I decided instead of seeing whether I like Ewing or Prussing (for House of Representatives) to screw it. My vote goes to Prussing, because she seems like she'll support the things I like. I'll make up my own arguments for not choosing Ewing. "Ewing is the demon-seed spawn of the devil. His last term in congress brought the devil one step closer to taking away everything in which you believe. This Novermber when you vote, don't vote for evil, vote for non-evil, vote for Laurel Prusssing. Laurel Prussing lets kids choose their parents."

Sounds like India has it's own "religious right," known as the Vidya Bharati, making educational demands. They want to ban certain poems and stories. Schools shouldn't teach the young "graphically about the female body and her emotions."

Our school has this cool thing. Let's say you are going to a web site. If it's busy or down or just hard to connect to, this webcache system (128.174.0.245 or webcache.gw.uiuc.edu) takes up the task of trying to connect to the site for you (I'm assuming that's it's only task, so it's faster). I also think that it just serves you frequently vistied pages. So if you go to Yahoo, and someone else does, it's their right away, and the webcache thing just gives you what it has. That is kick-ass.

Little things

• Today we can celebrate the fall of the Ottoman Empire (1922).
• Jack got a "Yo Quiero Taco Bell" poster Friday and put it up Saturday. It's scary.
• I've cleaned up my new "better-than Adam's loft" desk. There;s a lot of space to work with. Of course that space may change in a week or two.
  Read full post

Adam Engelhart, reputed for having his own domain name states on his web site that he has a loft. He goes on and on about how great his loft is... well guess what Adam? I have cool stuff too! Basically every student is at the University of Illinois Residence Halls is given a 2'x3.5' desk and a 1.5'x2' dresser that are of equal height. So today I went to Menards (goddammit, if I hyper link it, you probably wouldn't go there... I mean it's Menards... what are they going to have on the damn site?) and bought a nice laminated piece of wood that just barely fits in my room that now sits between my desk and my dresser. So I have a big L-shaped desk. I also have my fridge and microwave right under it. So there.

Check this out.

This may be a bit boring, so it's marked optional. I've decided to put all my one-liner things at the bottom all in one paragraph. Otherwise I have three or four paragraphs of little tidbits and that gets annoying.

Tuesday night, Jack ordered a pizza from Dining Services. Jack doesn't understand that chewing with your mouth open is rude. "Jack," I say, "chew with your mouth closed." Jack wonders with a confused half grin, "Why?" Oh, ignorant ignorant Jack, do you not know? "I don't like to hear you chew." Jack still confused, thinking it's some quirk with me. I help him out and explain, "It's impolite." Jack struggles to chew with his mouth closed, but at least he tries and at leasts I don't hear a bunch of chewing noises. Silly China-man, will you ever learn our ways? I suppose college is the only time he'd ever learn things like manners, etc.

This may or may not be out of context. From Kay's page: "Robocop and I went to bed." Oh boy, another soap-opera that I can twist.

Okay, for anybody who was wondering what Aural Stimulation was, Dimension Music cites somebody (probably from Winamp), "aural stimulation adds some high frequencies to the output, so that the ear hears high frequencies with the music. This tricks the ear into thinking that the recording is crisper, because mp3 tends to filter out most high frequency stuff, so the presence of incorrect (but unobtrusive) high frequencies makes it sound better." So it is not what I expected it to be, which would explain the unfamiliar name.

Looks like I save $299 by not buying a Matrox Marvel. No drivers for Windows NT. I'll just wait till Windows 2000 comes out. I wish Adobe would create Photoshop for Linux.

And now for the tidbits of information:

• I woke Jack yesterday with Logon Rock Witch... oops, oh well... that's what happens when you have stupid sleeping habbits. Mr. I have one class on Wednesdays.
• I've decided that I should use the computer lab in our basement more often. It's quieter at many times and there is no Jack and no PlayStation.
• Woo-hoo! I passed my fire safety inspection test... hopefully it's not the only test I pass.
• Ever wonder who hacks the hackers?
• Download this. If I choose to use this as my default laugh and laugh at more things, I think Jack will be scared of me:)

I'm afraid of bees and any bugs that can be mistaken as bees. Lots of bugs crossed my path yesterday. Urbana-Champaign decided to be warm this week. MTV took over a small sector of campus today. I managed to get a free demo CD from Intel and lemonaide form Old Navy who were assisting MTV. The lemonaide made me have a strong affinity to Old Navy jeans. This is why I love Molly, because she wears Old Navy jeans.... I think.

Okay, I'm up early, Jack is making all these wierd noises in his sleep. Like drooly sucky noises. This is disturbing. It's the kind of thing that makes you want to kill him. Why can't he sleep normal?!? Thanks to the structure of my room, my open window doesn't make it cold unless the door is open as well (so the air can flow somewhere). I left the door open when I brushed my teeth. Jack is now covered in his blanket. Okay, Jack tosses and turns in his bed. This time he hit his leg against something, and he spoke, "shit." It's amusing.

Take this Sagan! (sarcasm). What horrible people will we become. Nicholas Negroponte in Being Digital states something along the lines that we must not use "ether" as much as we do. It must not be the main transmitter of bits. We should come up with local systems that transmit mobile data to cable outposts which retransmit via wired to anything else (unless it's a mobile device, then it uses a local transmitter). We have the know how. Unfortunately it's not cheap to impliment. That's why I want an army of men and women ages 19-35 to join my industrial sabotage group. We will disable all inefficient corporate projects and integrate newere better designs that are designed with longevity and efficiency in mind, not some made up fairytale thing which we call money.

Speaking of science... look what the Danish have done. I could wait for an upgrade:) Imagine the impact. Technology like that, once it can be easily replicated will enable people to have nearly unlimited storage and memory. This enables us to do so much. Unfortunately science takes its time when it snuggles its way into technology. I want to see Micron eating this technology up:)

There's a new version of litestep (b24). If you want your computer to look pretty, get this. It's real easy to install and should work pretty fine. I don't use it because I like my IE4 shell as it is.

Oh yeah, NT 5.0 to be named Windows 2000. It seems logical as the Win95-98 continuation is being absorbed by the NT 4.0 progression. I guess I'll be using the same OS as you (probably) will be. Of course, that depends on the state of Linux next year. It seems to be gaining a lot of popularity this year. It's become easier to use. And then there is Corel! Most of the stuff I do right now in excel, etc can be replicated using web-based interfaces, etc. So I shouldn't care too much. I'm thinking of buying a new CD-ROM for my old computer and slapping on Red Hat. Maybe next year if I get a laptop it will be a Linux and NT machine... of course.

Sorry I've been away from humanity too long. I have too much computer stuff on my mind. The RIAA ban on Rio has been lifted. Rio is the handheld MP3 player.

Ooh, non-computer: This is for all you people who are sick of those motivational posters.

And, Molly and I by the end of the year hopefully will be both on the NetCam Network thanks to ZDTV who deemed both Molly and I as winners of NetCam devices. I decided to go the ultralegal route and have my mom sign it for me (since I'm under 21). And then I'll send it in later this week hopefully.

Am I being too mean to Jack?

I have a short term memory. I noticed this last year when I started using ICQ heavily. I'd message people and they'd reply and I would have to constantly look at my message history to figure out what they were replying to. This happens less and less, but it was disturbing dealing with such a short term memory. I've started to notice it elsewhere as well. I can't pay much attention in class because taking notes is difficult and keeping a lecture together in my head is hard. When I read a book I often miss important details. This happens especially if the subject matter isn't filled with vivid description or interesting.

I've started taking it easy instead of constantly being stresse over work. It's helped. It's funny my hobby is web site development and I chose the school that created graphical web browsing. It's fun to go to Help|About Internet Explorer if you use MSIE. If you like space, you'll like this. Our school has crappy Pizza delivery. It's just Totino's party pizza. It's nasty. If you go to UIUC, eat dinner, don't get the pizza from URH, if you must spend $5 and order pizza.

Winamp 2.04 has Aural Stimulation support for MP3s. I hope this is what I think it is. In other MP3 news, I just found a bunch of new MP3s from Aphex Twin, Tangerine Dream, Orb (an awesome live Toxygene), Orbital (as if I didn't have enough), Skinny Puppy and Underworld to name a few. I should be set for a while.

The Simpsons yesterday lacked some intelligence that the older Tree House of Horror's had.

Jack is back today. He woke up early (a few minutes after my final awakening). He's awake now.

I found a link here and here referring to the shooting. Apparently they had the wrong guy.

It's a bout time that somebody came out with a phone that hooks up to your PC. Unfortunately you can't use this with talking over the Internet. It wouldn't be that hard. Just make it a USB device that doubles as a microphone/speaker and you could talk to people via netmeeting with a phone.

Friday Night I watched Omen IV with some friends. It's actually the second time I saw the movie. It's very funny. Watch it with girls. There was a seen where snakes bit people and Cheryl, a friend of mine, screamed a little too much. I'm not implying that all girls will scream, there are probably quite a few exceptions. One exception, I think, is Molly. I can't picture her screaming out of fear of a movie. Or having any fear of something in a movie. That's why I love her.

Looks like Windows NT 5.0 Beta 3 and subsequent 5.0 releases will not have as cool of an active directory interface as I thought. Originally it was to be a type of metadirectory where virtual links could be made, similar to Unix type systems where you can type "ln -s" to create a symbolic link. Oh well. One day I hope to be running this. Probably a legal copy too. My friend Chris has gotten me into this legal kick.

Crack.com is folding over supposedly because of lack of funds. They made cool Linux games. One game Golgotha has great music. I remember Tom playing a song, Meathook when it came out, it's now called Munich Germany. You can get these of the MP3 Server. These are, by the way, legal MP3s. All the legal MP3s I have are pretty cool.

Also on the MP3 server is an mp3 of Jack, my roommate. It's in Chinese. It's his mom calling about the shooting that happened. I have a translation available too. It's under \D\Dave's Roommate, Jack Lin\.

I shaved yesterday. I look a lot less credible, but I also look like I'm not fresh off the boat. I also noticed that some of my hair has a copper color. I think it would be cool to have more uniform copper hairs.

I've noticed that it only takes me a small amount of time to set up a web site. Here is one for Millenium 3. It's our team that's competing in a robot design competition. The sad thing is, if Peter were in the competition, he'd beat everyone's ass.

Again, I wake up and no Jack. The difference? I woke up at 7PM (naturally with no alarm clock). He came back within a half hour or an hour.

Here's the funny thing Jack did. When you read it you will know the what the funny thing Jack did was. Today, I've motivated myself to go researching after dinner and when I came back around 8PM. Jack wakes up when I enter the room and turn on the light. There were 6 identical phone numbers on the Caller ID display and another that was from out of town. I'm assuming from the phone outside Allen Hall/Unit One Housingplex (sounds better than Residence Hall). I check my messages. Jack realizes the time and waits until I finish my message check and he checks his messages. Then he says, "Bullshit... my mom called at 7:34 PM." Well actually his Mom called at 7:34, 7:38, 7:51, 7:54, 8:00, 8:16. He slept through all six phone rings. He asked, "Where were you?" I told him I was at the library until now (then sometime after 8:16PM).

As the Chick tracts would say, "Poor stupid Jack, you'll never get into heaven if you sleep all day." Well Jack is finally gone. Not forever, but for the rest of the week.

Here is a quote to motivate "all y'all:"

We have now progressed in our thinking about giftedness and realise the static nature of our previous approach. Giftedness does not refer to something that is fixed for life but, rather, to a dynamic quality that is influenced over time. We do not seek to identify a fixed reservoir of ability and to calculate an ability score but rather to nurture and develop abilities to a higher level of performance.

-Eddie J. Braggettof Charles Sturt University: in "a developmental concept of giftedness: implications for the regular classroom"

I went to a GLBT issues thing at Allen Hall (which cleverly hid under the facade of a sex discussion with free pizza). Obviously the pizza lured me in, as I don't have time to do anything. It was actually interesting to listen to the people with their voices. GLBTphobia is one of those things that I don't like dealing with because it's one of the flaws of society along with racism and other types of prejudice. It makes me think, "Gee humanity, you can't accept gays? What's wrong with you, we need to make the future now. Nobody cares whether your gay in the future." That's just me. I think humanity needs to advance out of these pidly issues. Stop being homophobic and racist. It's just pointless at the root level. People mentioned that most of this homophobia comes out of fear. At least that is what the speaker said. I was too shy to actually argue with her and say that it's not fear all the time. It may be fear for a lot of the people. It was fear for me when I was younger and didn't really think about homosexuality. For the people who act out, its not necessarily fear, but personality. Humans love to point out the flaws in others. They love making themselves look perfect and the others look flawed. For example: We hate blacks. We don't fear them. We just hate them. They are different, and we are not them. Thus we are better. There maybe an underlying fear at the rootlevel now that I think about it. Why else would people undermine others? If we undermine others in efforts to bring some change in others, that is one thing. If we undermine others just for the sake of undermining... well we don't achieve anything, but maybe we feel a little better? But why? Why weren't we feeling better leaving these groups alone? We fear them because we don't understand them? We're not used to it? Maybe.

I admittedly undermine people all the time. Sometimes it's a joke, sometimes seriously. I don't do this when I'm serious by using a group of some sort as the basis for undermining people. It's usually something they've done. It, however, is the wrong way to go about solving a problem. People get resentful when you make them feel like less of a person. I try to stop. Maybe one day I'll succeed.

Then again there's Jack. I'll upload an MP3 to the MP3 server. It's very Jorgenson like. Details will be posted later. (If you do not know what MP3 server to which I refer, you can ask me. I don't want to publicize details.)

Check this out. A lot of talk about it in our halls. Not something you expect in a small town like C-U.

Seagate is horking me a new drive today! It's bein sent by Airborne Express's 2nd Day Air. Which is very nice. I'm happy. You see my current drive is being crowded. I also want ample space to rip CDs. Allen Hall's library has been touting their ample collection of CDs and they have stuff that's interested be, such as Moby. They also have Chemical Brothers and Nursat Fateh Ali Kahn. Well maybe not all in Allen Hall, but somewhere in the hall libraries.

I guess somehow we are going to get a lot of Transformer episodes among the minions of Allen Hall.

I saw Jack going smokey-smokey. I read a web page that talked about things you should not do in an online Journal, one was to refer to people by name unless you knew it was okay. I don't think this counts. I'm a bad bad man.

No humorous things to document today. Jack was normal. Studied. Played a few games (not more than an hour while I was around). You know... normal college stuff. We got pizza... I am stuffed.

People, this Thanksgiving, go see Bugs from Pixar. It may look a lot like Antz from DreamWorks, but it should be a lot different. Pixar has had this planned at least since Toy Story came out. Peter Docter (story writer and supervising animator of Toy Story) wrote this when I asked about his involvement in the new movie, "I've done only bits of work on Bugs (about 4 mo.s worth) but rest assured it looks pretty awesome." I just thought the 4 months being "only bits" as being very funny. 3D animation is just so cool. That's why I like Molly Swanson, because one day she will make really cool 3D stuff.

 7:10 PM: Alan came into my room and told Jack to stop playing video
          games and to do his work.  Jack asked,  "Why?  I don't want
          to be a nerd."
 7:11 PM: Alan asks about my waveform and explain that it's a pattern
          I can lock onto rather than video game noises.  Alan laughs.
          Jack stops game and leaves room.
 7:13 PM: Jack returns and does something at his desk.  May be a form
          of studying.
 7:16 PM: Jack makes phone calls.
 7:18 PM: Jack is speaking Chinese to someone.  Outside room.  Cannot
          capture easily.
 7:21 PM: Jack is off the phone.  Back to desk.
 7:30 PM: Jack dons the headphones and listens to groovey music.
          Possibly Chinese in origin, or maybe Aerosmith.
 8:02 PM: Jack goes out of the room.  Curious about something.  Asks
          if someone is having a party.
 8:14 PM: Jack hears TV.  Turns his TV on and watches what the other
          TV has on.  Then turns his TV off.
 8:16 PM: Jack was called "Twinkle Toes" by Eric.  Jack goes outside
          and talks to him for a bit and returns all in the same 
          minute.
 8:23 PM: TV on to same show again.  I guess he needs the TV on to
          function.  Funny.  He isn't even looking at it half the
          time.  I think Aaron Engelhart may have clued me in as to
          why TV is so addicting.
 8:30 PM: TV off.
 He left for a while...
 8:58 PM: Back to TV and Video Games.
 9:02 PM: I was going to mention he kept the volume quiet, but no...
          sure enough he just turned up the volume.
 9:10 PM: White noise with only an alpha wave sync... umm turning that
          on at a low volume made him change his volume... lower I
          think.
 9:49 PM: TV off.
 9:50 PM: Out the door.
10:29 PM: I came back into my room after taking a Hot cocoa break.
          Someone smells smokey-smokey...
10:31 PM: Back onto the playstation.  SF probably.

I can't write poetry unless I'm in an angry mood. Maybe because when I'm angry, I have nothing better to do, or I'm trying to pour out all my thoughts.

I decided I'm going to rev-up some of the links on my site, before it dies.

I thought it'd be fun to document Jack's life. Jack for those of you who don't know is my roommate. Here is what he did last night:

 8:44 PM: Jack has been playing a football video game
          for at least a few hours.
 9:51 PM: Jack finishes video game.  Jack is watching 
          some sports show, probably on  ESPN.  Surfing 
          channels occasionally.
 9:54 PM: Jack's work out: He lifts the TV onto my bed 
          so he can see it better.  (Will return it 
          back in an hour, he says).
 9:54 PM: Jack leaves the room.
 9:55 PM: Jack returns.
 9:56 PM: Flipping channels on his TV.  Watching some 
          football thing.
 9:59 PM: Also reading some ESPN book.  Watching 
          SportsCenter on ESPN.
10:51 PM: Jack hears a noise and looks outside.  
          Perhaps wanting to see what it is.  TV is 
          left on, meaning he probably will re enter 
          the room.
10:53 PM: Jack returns... leaves door open.  Inquires 
          about my waveform generations (pink noise 
          synchronized with alpha/theta waves 
          synchronized with alpha waves).
10:59 PM: Minimize this window and keep it so when 
          people are in the room.
11:01 PM: Jack leaves the room.  TV still on.
11:03 PM: Jack returns.  Closes door slightly.  I like 
          that, because the outside noises add to my 
          mental interference.
11:04 PM: Jack puts in a video game in his PlayStation 
          and starts playing.  I think it's in the 
          Street Fighter genre.
12:24 AM: Stops playing Street Fighter.  Completes 
          workout by putting TV back in it's place.  
          30 minutes behind schedule.
12:25 AM: Jack leaves the room.
12:27 AM: Returns puts on shoes.
12:29 AM: Leaves again, possibly for a smokey-smokey.

Oh my.. Lobster night at UIUC. Most of the residence halls server Lobster. It was mildly incredible. I didn't eat any because lobster looks disgusting and I don't like sea food too much. Some people went a little overboard. One person was about to eat ten lobsters. For some reason all seafood disgusts me. No wonder why the Jews don't eat most sea food. They secretly want me on their team.

Contact paper is neat. I bought a roll from Meijer's and covered most of the front of my door with it. I think I will cover the back of the door later. The nice thing is that it's open doors on Tuesday so my door will look pretty. I think Frank Herbert has really neat ideas about leadership. I shall strive to be more like his ideal (Leto Atreides I).

This Saturday I had a talk with my roommate Jack about his Street Fighter addiction. During lunch he asked, "You think that I don't have a life because I play Street Fighter all day?" After a while human conversations become very silly because people tend to think a like. I answered, "Yes." I anticipated that he would try to find a similar flaw in me, due to the nature of his question. "Well I can say that you have no life also, since you are in front of the computer all day. At least that's what I see." I replied calmly, "Yes, but I study using my computer." I guess Jack is open to the fact that he has a severe video game addiction. His main excuse is that this December there is a Street Fighter cometition in Chicago. I hope he'll get wasted.

Anyway, Jack is getting less annoying, it's just that he needs discipline. Like there is this towel that I think he uses for showering, and he leaves it on his chair all day. That has to go.

Saturday my meal plan ran up, so I ate at BW-3. They have them in MN, WI, IL, OH, and PA. I found out about them from Shang who went with me (he's from Ohio). The food is good and very affordable. I think that will be my Saturday dinner every week since wings are only $.25 on Saturday nights.

TMBG coming soon... I'm so busy, someone's gotta remind me.

Today I have two meetingish things. I have a pre-lab for chem due tomorrow so I have to do that tonight. I have to read some Chemistry. I also have to write out my speech outline for the speech I am giving on Wednesday. I have to have a quiz in Chemistry on wed. Thursday is catch up on everything day. Friday I have a presentation and my math is due. I also am doing poorly in my math class. Just barely racking more than 50% in graded homework. Take the hardest UMTYMP take-home tests and assign the six problems that are proofs. Choose four of those each week and that's what my assignments are like. I have to try to do harder in this course. I think after my September Cycle finishes I'll have catch-up time so I can read stuff for that class. I have a test soon for that class too.

I am caught in what I call the September Cycle. It's when all the first major assignments are due. I have a speech due next week and a presentation due next week. Nothing really exciting will happen to me for most of the month, so the updates will be sparse for the next week or so. I ate at FAR's Pizza Parlor. It took a few hours to get our food and finish it, but it was worth it. Best meal I've had from this campus. The Pizza was mediocre, but the salad was nice.

This Thursday I had the pleasure of having Dan, Amy and Molly stop by for the rest of the week. We had a great time. We mostly hung out. Yesterday we went to Chicago to hang out with my friend Sunita, visit the Sears Tower and eat pizza at Lou Malnati's.

They left. I think I will miss them, because despite the heat level in my room, they added something here that was nice. However, right now I don't feel that loss. I believe I am still in the same mode of not feeling loss, becuase it is interfering. I think if I had nothing to do today I would feel very sad. I however have lots to do, I have to clean this mess-of-a-room for one thing. I have an assortment of documents to organize. I have several homework assignments to begin or at least preview. By keeping myself busy I don't feel lonely. Except now I have two bottles of Frapaccino's that Molly was supposed to take with her that will linger there for a while. Perhaps late at night when it gets hot I will try to finish them.

My brother and sister-in-law bought a Saab recently. Dan Lavenda and I can hardly wait to see it. My brother is going to make an effort to visit me either this month or next, which will be nice. Well I am off to cleaning my room.

Which reminds me I got a few gifts for my brithday. My mom and dad bought me a real nice Columbia Jacket and nice gloves (which are a tad too small) and I think my mom got me some Toblerone from her trip to India. Molly got a plant for me. Her parents got me some hot cocoa that they had sitting around and Molly gave me two of her brother's CDs (one of which I already have). Katie sent me a beanbag which is on loan, which I think is a great thing because I was complaining to my mom and Molly how I wanted a bean bag or something becuase I like to sit somewhere else other than my bed or my chair to read. Marc got me HUGBEES! Thanks again everybody.

Oh yeah, on Thursday I bought my ticket for They Might Be Giants. I am sitting in Section three (of four) in Row C in seat 7. So it's a good seat:) Unfortunately I'm going Solo to it, but that's okay... Also I may be going to see Moxy Fruvous next month.

People are so dumb. Mistake 1. One of the admins at Unit One sent an email to everybody with everyone's name (like everyone from Allen Hall) in to "To" field. Normally this is to be put in the BCC field so people do not accidentally reply to all and so people do not have to scroll through so many names. Mistakes 2 and onward were people replying to all. So my UIUC mailbox was filled with all this crap, just because of Mistake 1. Grr... I am getting a gift from Minnesota. Right now the gift is in Wisconsin.

After a week of classes and a couple weeks of living here, I've recognized that UI is actually Dune. That's right. I'm taking the ficition that I've been reading and applying it to the real world where it doesn't belong.

I was brought up in Minnesota, where you'd get the most unexpected weather. It was generally cold. I have grown accustomed to cold weather. I long for cold weather to come. During the summer in Minnesota it gets quite hot, so we retreat to our Air Conditioned hideaways.

Now my home for the greater part the year is Urbana, Illinois. It's hot here. Retreating to airconditioning is not an option. It's deathly hot, but you get used to it. When I moved here, I had to get acquainted with the fre(sh)man. I had to become a fre(sh)man. I have ridden the great busses which travel at great speeds. But I prefer walking. The real comparison is that Urbana is a training ground for me. I am to be educated here, but I don't think the classes will be the only thing that shape me here. I think the environment will force me to be more adapted to different places.

You start to learn things. You are forced to be organized. You are forced to explore. When I walk from Allen Hall to the Quad, I take a short cut, or sometimes it's a long-cut through another building that is Air Conditioned. I learn lots of silly things here.

I don't know why I'm going off on such a strange tangent. I got a new desk from the Residence Halls. This one allows me to put my large computer monitor on the desk and my tower case without wasting too much space.

All of the above was pre-written yesterday. Today I got speakers from my neighbor and they are large. I don't know if I like them. I got my new telephone. I think there's a link in a previous entry to it. I love it already. I should run a wire to a friend's room and thus have a second phone line.

Hey, thanks to silly American holidays like Labor Day, I have no roommate this weekend! My parents are coming to visit. It would mean something if I missed them, well wait it does mean something. I guess I do miss them, but I'm just not realizing it. Hopefully I'll have fun with them.

Email is great. I think it strengthens my friendships. I ramble so I'll be quiet.

I've decided that I love this University. Not because it is anything special, but because I think that's how the University wants me to feel. No wait what the hell am I saying. No the University of Illinois is a very decent school. I don't know why I like it, but I do for some reason. Maybe the good balance with academics and cultural diversity, etc. I dunno. Probably because it has a large library. A library that gives away good cookies.

Well speaking of, thanks to the Residence Hall Interlibrary system, I have Heretics of Dune.

My class schedule is slowly getting smaller and it looks like school will suck only once in a while instead of twice. The food service in Allen is poor. Today I had snickers ice cream from Edy's that was good. It was bad when the machine didn't work during dinner time. Grr. The food was bad for dinner, I didn't eat much. The hot cocoa machine still does not work. Woe is me.

Unit One is really cool. This week we have Barbara Trent, Oscar award winner of The Panama Deception. I went to a talk yesterday and she talked about all these cool programs she was involved with. She talked about how she fled from the FBI. She talked about how she made movies that exposed the government. Yesterday I watched some of her other movie, Cover Up: Behind The Iran Contra Affair. I watched some of it because it was too cold for me in the main hall. Today I will dress appropriately and watch the Panama Deception and hopefully stay for discussion. The fact that I can do this in my own hall is just so neat. I mean talking about all these cool issues with some person who has a shiny award that sits at the Front Desk of our hall and stuff. Wow, Allen Hall is cool.

My best friend in the whole wide world got her ICQ password today.

Why does he leave the TV on when he's doing his homework? What the heck is wrong with this kid?

Well the library does not have me listed and won't for a few days nor do they have Heretics of Dune. However ISR (a local res-hall) has it and they will loan it to me tomorrow as long as they have it unchecked out. They probably do since nobody likes to read.

I hate people who smoke. Especially if I see them smoke. I hope my roommmate gets cancer and dies. I hope he gets it while watching football. No I hope he's at a football game and a football hits him in the face while he smokes and it shoves the cigarette into his throat and then he dies.

That's my rant for right now. I may regret saying that, but if I do, I'll just delete that part of the entry. The general idea is, don't smoke around me, or don't let me know you smoke. Especially if I have to live with you.

Well you know you're in college when you here things like this in the hall:

Boy: "Can I lick your dirty cunt?"
Girl: "You'll lick my dirty cunt and you'll like it! You'll love it!"

I talked to her again... luckily we are so techno-savvy that we will find a way not to spend nearly as much money as Dan and Amy do on long distance.

Brimful of Asha is a great song. I think I like it a lot just because the one guy from the band is from India, and thus there are a ton of Indian references.

Today Heather, Brian and I went on a Hot Air Balloon ride. It was mostly going up ten feet and coming down. It wasn't all that great.

Molly should be returning to the camp today and reading my letter. She probably is having more fun than I, since she is not sick (and doesn't have classes tomorrow). Right now I have a sore throat, which seems to be going away. Unfortunately iced tea has been sold out. My neighbor, Brian (pre med), told me to not take orange juice as it will make my throat worse, and suggested iced tea as a friendly substitute.

I skipped out on Quad Day today, and will review some of the stuff that Heather picked up. I'll also talk to some of the Indian people I know and ask them what they are going to join if anything.

I went to First Year Impact. It seems like a good leadership program. My room is a god-awful mess. I just have too much everywhere. I have begun posting my Geometry Center posters everywhere. It looks neat.

The cooling problem in my room is being improved with a box fan that I purchased. My roommate, Jack, will be getting another fan this Friday when he goes to the mall. I am thinking about getting a new phone.

We had the Late Nighter today. It was pretty fun. We saw a very good improv group among other things. I got tired so headed back before 2AM (and half the floor did the same so we walked back together).

I had a cold, and still do. I helped Heather hook up a network card (3COM, like me) and then sat in her room which has 2 window fans. Then I went into my room and then went downstairs. The heat in my room was unbearable. Several people downstairs were doing likewise. I met an interesting group of people too. They were like the discussionist arm of Walking Fish. I walked outside with them too, they are all very interesting. Once again, I love my hall.

Thursday I could really tell that I had friends. Adam helped me the whole day with packing. Mike Jorgenson and Marc helped me throughout the day by keeping me company and Katie joined us for dinner. We marveled at how neat it was that we made a very good meal buy ourselves (well actually Marc and Katie made a good meal).

So I ended my traditional life as a Minnesotan resident that night. I barely slept. Tried to catch up on reading and packing. We left at about six in the morning on Friday. The ride was pretty fast. We made a slight mistake that cost us 20 miles or so. We arrived at Allen Hall at 3 PM.

My brother and I with some help quickly loaded my boxes of stuff into my room. We went shopping for a refrigerator and a microwave. Then we ate food at a Steak and Shake. We came to my room and loaded all my new stuff inside. We set up everything as much as we could and then my brother left. It's was disconcerting to part with the one person who was always looking out for your best interests for your entire life.

I went to the orientation night activities. It was there that I met Heather, my neighbor who lives down the hall. She's a cool person who hails from Omaha, Nebraska. I skipped out on the movie and decided to hang out with Heather, and explain to her some things about her computer. I felt very Adamish. I talked her into housing my IBC rootbeer collection for the night as well.

I found some guy who knows as much about computers as I do who was also the network guy for our hall. Luckily he's on my floor. He picked up the cable I needed to connect to the Ethernet. Unfortunately I was too incompetent to get DHCP up until Saturday (Day 26) afternoon. I also met Brian, my neighbor who doesn't like to walk.

I woke up in the middle of the night and decided to sleep on the bottom bunk since my roommate is not yet here. That worked. I woke up and had enough time to get ready before day orientation stuff started but had to skip out on breakfast. I met Stefan Pfister during lunch. Stefan went to my Jr. High and Highschool. We ate lunch and went to a bunch of orientation sessions together. We later met up with Heather and went book shopping. Books are expensive.

Stefan and I went to eat at the Luau but ate inside instead of outside, since the inside has AC. We skipped the rest of it, because weren't into dancing and stuff. We hung out watched south park I saw his room. I later went to my room and attempted to sleep or clean up my room or something.

9 PM rolled along and when I popped downstairs Stefan caught me and asked me if I wanted to see Blade. I ran upstairs and got Brian and we all saw it. The movie was very cool. Oh yeah, sometime that day I gained a roommate.

I had a tremendous sleep-deprived headache which is still persisting. I had trouble sleeping more than a few hours last night as well. I have to talk my roommate into reconfiguring the air flow of this room. I ended up showering and going to the basement where it's cooler and hung out. I later decided hanging out won't cut it. I slept. Some janitor guy pitied me.

I went upstairs and decideded to finish some things. Then I went downstairs for brunch with Brian. We met this girl Mary who has a baton. She's one of those people who fares well solo.

Brian and I made an excursion to Walgreens and some other place to get some stuff we needed. It was hot and annoying outside.

Not much else has happened today. This weekend has been pretty good so far. I like it. I just need a new telephone and a large fan. I should shave my head and put heatsinks on it. It's neat being from anywhere other than Chicago, or for that matter any place not Illinois.

Since many of you are going to college soon, you may need to arm yourself with this pieces of scripture:

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

-Mathew 6:5-6

Today I got a card stating that I've been accepted into the University of Illinois' First Year Impact program. Yay?

Actually, now I have a new NIC card and 128MB more memory... hmm that brings me to 192MB of Memory. 64MB was manageable, 128 is comfortable and 192 is luxury for me, but memory was cheap enough for me to go for this.

I broke one of our casarole dishes today. I don't know exactly how it fell, but it did. We have so many, I doubt my mom will notice.

I got a call from my roommate today. He seems really cool. He's bringing a TV/VCR and a play station. I don't require any of these things, but it's nice to know it's there. I guess we're getting a microwave/fridge. This is good... oh yeah, I can drink hot cocoa in the winter now... I can even steal food from the cafeteria!

It's my sister-in-law's birthday today. We took Kelly to Buca to eat. The food was very good. I don't think I'll eat for a while.

Wanna know something neat? Well upsetting too, I guess.

On Thursday night, July 30th, the facility that hosts Merriam-Webster's Web site was burglarized and its servers were stolen. We've managed to restore limited capacity, but we need to obtain new hardware from our suppliers before we can return to full service. We hope to have the entire site active again in a few days. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope you will bear with us as we deal with the situation.

Thank you for your patience.

--The Merriam-Webster Web Team

Mail is coming late again today.

I went to see Saving Private Ryan. If you like to watch serious movies, I recommend it. It's a bit gory, but every movie that you have seen that involves gore has been preparing you for this movie. The violence and cruelty in this movie strengthens may hatred of war. It's not just the destruction of resources, but the humanity. This was a good movie, but not something that I could see another time.

Whopping out my schedule...

Day 1:
I ate breakfast. It was bad. I went to take tests. I did unusually well. I am normally nervous during tests and do very very average. Then we went to the Kranner Center for the opening ceremonies. Krannert Center is a Transformer. It turns into a giant monster and eats families. It follows the quota system. The rest of the day was mediocre. The campus issues at the Krannert Center was reminiscint of High School politically correct skits. We had ones on getting drunk, getting raped, getting assaulted and getting a lesbian roommate that is black. Afterwards the kids got to discuss this and make posters. Very High School like.

Day 2
This was the good day because it went fast. Breakfast was okay, they have waffle irons there. The Personal Safety issues sucked and I left when they started to talk about the World Wide Web (wasn't safetry related... but...). I went to some success oriented things and then... hmm I went to a special interest session on Unit one/Allen Hall which is my dorm this fall. That was cool. Helped me as far as signing up for classes goes. Then I ate lunch and then got my ID card... (I look like a dork) and then signed up for classes. My schedule is:

Comparative Literature of Non-Western Civilization
Intro to CS
Chemistry
What is College
Graph Theory
hopefully more...

Umm then I went home.

Oh yeah, I've e-dopted Sunita as my e-sister. She's cool.

Some people died for something. Which means this weekend we catch up on stuff we haven't gotten around to doing.

I was accepted into Unit 1 today! Friday we went to see Godzilla (or Gozira). It was a very good movie if you expect an action movie. After that we went to Tanya's and played Boggle. That night or maybe the next morning I stumbled upon a good game web site.

Saturday Adam came over. I got my hair cut and I thought I looked a lot like my brother (it's all spiked), but no, today my brother cut his hair too and it's really short. Adam and I started moving stuff around my room. If you've ever been in here, I changed the desks around again. It's very spacious in here if you are working on office stuff.

We were midway moving stuff and Molly came over and we went to Hyland Park in Bloomington (based on my directions). We played Tag, it was fun. Yishan had some ailment that caused him to be lying on a picnic table while people poked him with ray guns.

After that Adam and I moved more stuff then went to Arby's with Marc, Mike and Molly. After that Adam and I moved the rest of the stuff and everyone else played Dr. Mario. At midnight everyone left. Adam Marc and I stayed up until 2 and then we slept woke up around 8. Adam and Marc picked up some pancake stuff and they made pancakes while I finished cleaning my room.

A lot of people went to Taylor Falls. I don't have rock climbing gear and wouldn't feel comfortable going rock climbing with all these people who are probably many times better than I.

I went to a Barbecue with my brother, sister-in-law, Mom2, Mandy and a few other people. The food was good.

Now I will learn how to do some stupid programming project.