trisweb.com

Warning: very nerdy post follows.

I spent today installing Gentoo Linux (don’t worry, I did other things too), and might I say that it’s gotten better since the last time I tried it, especially the installation manual—the best I’ve ever seen—and it needs it. It probably also helps that I took a class on machine structures, and now understand what’s happening when I say “emerge gnome” and it takes 28 hours compiling the entire thing from source code. Okay, so I didn’t do that. I used the precompiled packages… from a stage 3 install… I might try stage 1 someday if I’m really bored (Stage 3 is mostly compiled, and takes less time; Stage 1 is completely uncompiled (as in, you have to compile the compiler first) and takes forever and a day and a half to install).

Let me just say, for those of you who decided to skip the last paragraph, that watching lines of code fly by a screen with no graphics makes me feel the most nerdy I’ve felt in a long time. ::

It’s been summer for two days (horray!), and already I can feel the laziness setting in. My sleep schedule is not good; I wonder where the days go, because morning has become afternoon and afternoon is night. I need to shift my schedule back 5 hours. Needless to say, I’m feeling pretty useless.

Cooking has been fun, though. We went grocery shopping yesterday, the first time I’ve ever bought groceries solely for myself. I know, I’m spoiled. Also, being broke, I was very frugal, and heavy on the frozen foods and claiming what food was left in the house. I’m living the life of a normal college student now! It’s not bad.

The “war” has been bothering me lately, and I’m glad to see the president’s ratings dropping. I’ve read discussions on message boards recently (debating Bush vs. Kerry), and I am scared by otherwise smart people, democrats even, who say they will be voting for Bush. I could get into this, but I hate politics. I say just put a decently intelligent person in office, and even if he is corrupted and convoluted (like any politician), he’d be ten times better than what we’re stuck with now.

Been working on the Cal Band redesign. Looks like it’s on schedule with the previous estimate (mid-summer). You may check out the working design, which is of course subject to change. Please compare it to the current site. ::

Going along with everyone else’s May refreshes, I have begun (in the break time between finals) to redesign trisweblog. I think I’ll make it the root page too, at www.trisweb.com, and integrate it with what used to be the old web site. Here’s a preview:

Frankly, I’m sick of the current design (which is overwhelmingly tan and crowded), mainly because of the readability of the text and the fact that it looks like crap. I’ve learned a lot about design in the short time between now and the last redesign, and hopefully this one will be at least presentable. ::

Update: If you haven’t noticed, I scrapped this design. Good thing too, it was pretty weird looking. I think this one should last me the year at least, so I can focus on other things.

The site of the day is the Caedes desktop wallpaper community. I don’t normally participate in message boards or online communities for long, but I’ve been a member of this one for quite some time, because the focus is really on the images instead of the community. You can find almost any kind of photograph or image or computer-generated wallpaper you can think of and have a different beautiful image on your desktop every day. Definately makes computing more enjoyable.

Finals update: finished math 55 half an hour ago. I always hate leaving early, but when I’m done with a test my brain shuts off and I really have to force myself to look over it 4 or 5 times before turning it in. I finished, took a ten-minute nap, looked over it 4 or 5 times, turned it in, and got coffee. The test itself was surprisingly straightforward; I’m guaranteed to get full credit on 2 of the 5 problems, probably get about 75% on 2, and I don’t know about the 5th but I’d say about half credit if I’m lucky. I forgot a formula, so I put a blank box where the answer was supposed to be and wrote a plea: “All I need is this one closed summation form!” We’ll see. In any case, better than either midterm, so this’ll probably decide my grade (Ahh!).

Speaking of tests, I spent a good three hours after I was done studying talking with friends about the ideal college… we decided that there would be no grades, no tests, no red tape, no administrivia, only a whole bunch of people who know a whole lot about stuff and want to share it with a whole bunch of students who just want to learn. “Classes” would be held outside whenever possible and would have very few people in them, and the only requirement of students would be to go to school (any classes you want) for a few (flexible) hours a day, and a project / paper / something to demonstrate what you’ve learned per semester. It would be ideal, and, of course, insanely unrealistic. ::

Breaking my blogging rule #2, I will now talk about all the little insignificant things that 99.99999999% of the internet does not care about. But you might, so it’s okay.

Finals start tomorrow, and as per my usual luck, I have one on the first day. I’ve been studying “hard” for the last 48 hours, and by that I mean studying in a comfortable way that does not stress me out or overload my brain, taking lots of breaks, scheduling my time, and generally not worrying so much. This seems to be working well. I have done enough problems (the final is discrete math and probability) that I am actually confident that I can do quite well on the test. I’m not done yet, of course, but I’m building confidence with each problem I get right.

The final could be worth 80% of my grade, technically, if I do better than I did on both my midterms, which is definitely possible (heh). Kind of a scary thought. Fortunately it’s “only” worth 40% if I bomb it. Also kind of scary. That’s always bothered me about college—you get one chance, or two or three if you’re lucky, to show you get it. And if you fail, do you really not understand any of it, or are you just bad at tests?

That’s why I like Computer Science classes. Lots of projects, not so many tests. Wish me luck, even though it has nothing to do with it. ::

I remember in high school how cool the last day of school was… perhaps because it actually was the last day of school, unlike in college when the last day of classes just means you need to study non-stop for finals. So, really, I have 2 more weeks of school.

But no class is a very good thing. Very good.

On a quick more interresting side note, the Cal Band web site redesign will be up within the month. The CSS has finally been finished and it looks great, just like a perfectly accessible standards-based web site should.

On to Math review! Honestly though, I am going to beat these finals down. It will be short and painless. ::

I remember thinking about doing one of these a really long time ago…

Some of the vehicles look really cool. Always fun to look at.

“Everything is more important than everything else.”
~Me

This is a true statement for me. I am conflicted. ::