Just one of those days

when you don't wanna wake up
everything is fucked
everybody sucks

^^ From Mr. Durst's pen to my blog. Not that it's been a terrible day or anything, just one of those days. The good news is that I can definitively pinpoint quite a few things I learned today. Let's go chronologically:

8:37 AM - University of Dayton will come into your apartment when they damn well please. I was awoken at this hour by a middle aged bald guy unlocking and busting through our back door (which, incidentally, opens to my bedroom) to make sure the furnace wasn't going to burn the place down once it went on. I think he was probably the more shocked of the two of us, since three times already this year I have been awoken by the cable/AC/repair guys in the same fashion. Good thing I haven't been sleeping naked any of these times. This time I just said "Cool" and went back to sleep. He can figure out where the fuck the furnace is himself, then he can look at the thermostat and realize we've had the heat on already this year. Pwn'd.

11:30 AM - Fluid Mechanics is probably something that I should learn. Something about, oh I don't know, every field of engineering I'm interested in using it as the basis for pretty much everything. The good news is that I think this is possible.

4:20 PM - Phone interviews are pretty awkward. Given the choice between the two, I would definitely take face-to-face interviews from here on out if possible. I'm glad I got to experience one though, and even more glad that I think it went well. Not that I'm particularly antsy with my current situation, but options are always great to have. Especially if it means going out and seeing something new while I'm basically the most un-tied-down I'll ever be (.....I hope).

8:00 PM - I love decorating for Christmas. Early you say? It's never too early I respond. I'm still in the planning stages this year but I'm thinking a wrapping-paper wallpaper job would be classy. I also need to go get my mini-tree (aptly dubbed by my dad the Charlie Brown Tree) because that's all the apartment will hold. I kicked it off today though with a packet of those scented pine cones; it serves the dual purpose of being festive and getting the bacon smell out of our living room.

1:14 AM - I procrastinate like it's my job, but it's cool because IB English prepped me for this. Also, the keys on my new laptop (the old one died a couple weeks ago) squeak if not pressed perfectly straight down. This could be massively annoying in the coming years. Hopefully it's just a little bit of new car smell.

The answer to "Why do we have history class?"

So you don't look like a complete moran in front of the entire internets like this guy:

Wait... shit

Know your history.

A not-so-original idea

I want someone to make a website for me. The problem is, that this is a lot more than a website... let me explain.

I love criticker. The premise isn't too hard to grasp. Basically, you go in, they list a bunch of movies, and you rate them all on (at most) a 1-100 scale. I say at most because the algorithm they use is pretty ingenius. Basically, it then takes all your ratings and weights them based on their percentile in your entire collection of rated movies. So, if you felt like being a big doushebag, you could rate them all 1-10, the system would adjust accordingly over time (At least i think so...). But I digress.

Criticker then takes all of your comparisions, and puts it up against the rest of the user database. Through some intense comparision stuff (which I'm thinking is roughly the math equvilant to shining two scantrons up against a light to check for differences) you are then matched with both other users who have the same taste as you and movies that said users like, the theory being that you would in turn dig them.

It's also a fun to see how much your tastes differ with your girlfriend's taste. Seriously, I'm terrible to go to Blockbuster with. But again I digress.



I want a music site that does this same thing. Before you all start linking Pandora, I'm not talking the same thing. Pandora is great if I want to sit down and listen to music that eventually, with a lot of thumb up/down action, I may like.

I want a website that will:
1.) Not require me (but certainly have the capability) to listen to new bands. I'm thinking more text based.
2.) Show me artists, not songs, that match my taste (Pandora falls short here, darn copyright laws).
3.) Allow me to compare my artist ratings with other users. Enter the "my girlfriend has a terrible taste in music" argument :)
4.) Do these three things really well, like criticker.



I'm thinking this equation would be something like

[Allmusic.com + criticker.com + (.5*Pandora.com)]/3



It really isn't that hard. The grunt work has already been laid out, someone just needs to put it all together.

And let me know. :)

mini-Jolts

Sit down and think for a second. Think about everything you have ever learned. All the way from birth to now, at this exact moment, sitting in front of your computer. I'm going to make a safe bet that if anyone reading my blog really really thought about it, the amount of stuff would be staggering. Shit, think of how much stuff you have probably forgotten even. Now of all that stuff, how much of these morsels of wisdom were discovered in your lifetime. I know for me that accounts for easily less than 5%.

In that little thought occured my "mini-Jolt" as I have come to call them. That is my term for those little thoughts (that for some reason I'm having a lot of lately) that make you go wow, we really are specks in time. We live 60, 70, 80 years for the fortunate ones. 100 is a miracle. There could even be a strong argument made that the first 19 years of my life (25% of it if I'm fortunate) have essentially been lived for me by the institutions that be. Not that I'm complaining, I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to figure out how to read or write on my own. And oh the things I have already learned (and forgotten). What I'm trying to get to here is, holy crap the train has been moving to that big brick wall for 19 years and I haven't ever given it a serious thought. Scary stuff.

Or exciting stuff. I was browsing the good-ole Sundance on Demand tonight and came across a great philosophy of the massively interesting broski Deepak Chopra," I start my day by saying to myself 'I hope today is even more uncertain than yesterday.'" Hear hear.

I have been in the state of mind that for the next month-ish I can in theory do whatever the hell I want. So far that has consisted of sleeping until 12, saving virtual worlds and winning virtual national championships, and surfing the 'tube. Pretty fun but rapidly losing excitement. That WILL change from here on out. Everyday I'm going to do something I didn't plan on doing waking up that morning (which, by the way, will be much, much earlier than 12). In the short term, that sounds like a great goal.

Long term though (since that is essentially what this post is about) what will this all mean? My best guess right now is that I will have beaten the system. Being a member of the rebellion at heart (had to get a Star Wars reference on meetnewschool eventually) beating systems is what I live for. I want to live more of a life than what my little speck was meant to live. I wonder if Mother Theresa, or Robin Williams, or even Hitler ever had this same thought. I wonder if Patches ever had this thought.

Early New Year Resolutions (cause its 365 days, why not have more than one friggin goal?)

1. Never plan a day sunrise to sunset.
2. Actually see a few sunrises.
3. Do.
4. Are you satisfied? You better not be.

Note to self:

• Research papers are best when research is done.
• It's probably impossible to pass MTH-169-xx if you don't know what the funky looking "E" means.
• Wind increases with altitude.
• Your dorm is on the top of a hill.
• Fast, cold wind hurts.
• It's probably time to upgrade from a hoodie to, I dunno, a coat.
• Only one more day this semester of waking up at 8.
• Exams suck.
• SANTA IS COMING!!!!!!

Dinner bell is ringing!

Behold, my complete ineptness at the art of the microwave meal:

If that doesn't get your stomach a rumblin...

Back to paper (if you can even call it that...)

Opera is snazzy.

That's it. I've had it. No more constant freezing from Internet Explorer. Not on MY watch.

I've never had a problem on any desktops, but IE 7 on laptops (see: mine) is horrendous. NO I do not want to send an error report! I want to surf the internet.

And in an effort to not be a conforming anti-Microsoft protester, I searched the options to go to something a little more snazzy than Firefox. Admittedly, I had a picture in my mind of what I wanted.

Opera roxors my nerdburger  soxors. (As a side note, Nintendo agrees). 

For one, it has a password storing feature, THAT ACTUALLY WORKS (take note, Bill, or, whoever). I would liken it more to the Google Autofill feature more than IE's sick excuse. All I do is double-tap (yes, because I'm cooler than you) my wand and BLAMO! I'm logged in. No need to autofill then tap somewhere else. It all goes for you.

And if you're like me, you really only go to about ten websites (if that) regularly anyways. Opera understands my needs (it's not you IE, it's me. Well acutally, yea, it is you.). Speed Dial is the best idea since bookmarks.

Tabbed browsing? Check. Cool-Firefox-type-addons? Check. Feeling of superiority to those around you? Double-check.

Oh, and it loads pages faster (youTube marathon away), so stick that up your pipe...

Laundry day is such a downer

The entire wardrobe, in three (probably unsafe in terms of color leakage) piles: $12.00 (Maybe $16.00, $24.00.... I forget, it's been a while since I've even DONE laundry)

AND on a rainy day. Yeesh. At least its almost the weekend. Oh, and for the maybe two people that would really care, notice the picture on the upper-left, right next to the Play Like a Champion sign. No, I don't hit it before I leave, losers.

Note to self: Don't piss off University Police

Especially if a presidental candidate (former, only?) is in the same room.

I have a few questions about the whole thing. Most importantly, what is it about tasers that make it so newsworthy when people misuse the things?! For the record, all those linked articles were uploaded to google news (which pretty much gets them as soon as they are published) within the past nine FREAKIN HOURS.

Whew, now the next thing. "A university spokesman said campus police cut the microphone and removed Meyer because he had overstayed his allotted time to question the senator." What? So then he doesn't leave, sooooo you pull out our ole' trusty friend. Riiiiight. Heck, if anything taser the guy cause it was a stupid freakin' question.

Which brings me to my final (more lighthearted) point... did Kerry then actually answer the question? If either him or Bush were in the skull and crossbones, that would be sweet...

Moral:

+ +

=

No I will not join your spam group.

I don't care if it IS to:

- Break a Guiness [sic] word record

-Fund for a free mamogram

- Get someone to streak at the last Red Sox/Yankees game

- Legally change your name to [fill in the blank]

- Support [x] rights

- Lower the age to do [x] to [y]

Because, A) It just pisses me off. I think I'm taking the vegetarian approach to this ordeal where maybe if I don't join these groups, people will maybe eventually take a hint. B) I really don't care about most of them. Call me apathetic, I would rather not think that I am defined by the buttons I click, even though some conspiracy theorists say I am.