Sleep didn’t work well last night, and because of that, I am rather beat this morning. I tweaked the journal’s style a bit yesterday to improve the appearance of the new music/mood metadata that livejournal provides. I am not done working on it, but it doesn’t look so ass anymore.
whining
It’s hard to look through a telescope when it is covered by a tarp.
Stellafane was somewhat of a bust, all things considered. While it was great to see Dad, Chuck, and Johnny again, the weather was less than savory. I would say that Stellafane is much less fun when you spend most of it under a tarp.
Friday night was fairly clear until 1am, which provided some nice viewing, but Saturday was overcast most of the day, and towards the end of the day it poured, which really sucked. I ended up going to bed at 9pm just to get out of the rain.
Oh, did I fail to mention that my car still overheats?!?!? Most of the way up and all the way back I had to stop every 50 miles or so to let the car cool off for awhile. That’s 3 times that Mr. Joe Legno told me the same problem was fixed and it hasn’t been… He will be hearing from me. :)
Chuck started back for NJ a little while ago, which is why I am into work so early today. The office is VERY hot this morning, I pressed the override button for the thermostat, hopefully it will cool down soon. I suspect that the cooling is just busted, and it will probably take weeks to fix.
My roommate, Jon Parise is allegedly visiting today, for a week or so, which is way-cool. It is always fun to geek-out with Jon, and it will be nice to get to hang out with him without the pressures of classes getting in the way.
Your Mind Belongs to the State
My parents left this afternoon, after a nice breakfast at the Highland Park Diner (the closest thing I have found to a real diner here in Rochester).
I have to say that Rochester is really grating on me lately, I guess it is simply all the recent negativity in my life compounded, and Rochester doesn’t provide anything to counter that, especially during the summer. I feel really lonely, but I have quite a few people around me… I can’t really figure it out….
I have to burn a few MP3 cd’s to use on the trip to Vermont on Friday. I don’t know when I am going to do this, because it takes quite awhile to rip, encode, and burn the discs.
The Gentle Art of Making Enemies
Actual exchange with Professor:
S) Hi, I had a question about problem blah.
T) We covered that in class, perhaps you should review your notes.
S) But I did and I still have trouble understanding it.
T) Well, perhaps you should review the chapter.
S) . o O ( Like I wouldn’t have thought of that, dumbass )
S) I did.
T) Well perhaps you should try these problems in the back of the book
(note: one of the problems he recommended was _THE_ question i was asking for help with).
Take a guess as to whether I dropped the course or not.
Slowly Recovering
Things are slowly starting to balance out in my life. I still will probably have to widthdraw from Calculus, and I am still very depressed re: that, but so it goes. Chuck visited me this weekend, which was very well-timed on his part. Chuck always does a wonderful job of helping me forget all my worldly troubles and simply making me laugh. Chuck has been my best friend since High School, and I treasure that.
Chuck rides trials, which is a cousin of mountain biking where you hop and ride over all kinds of obstacles. Anyway, Chuck was interested in making a short video of his riding while he was in Rochester. He brought a MiniDV camera, which have restored my faith in videocameras. We probably got down like 45 minutes of footage, which will probably distill into 15-20 minutes once all the bloopers are edited out. He said he was going to continue shooting when he got home too.
Friday night we went to go see “Scary Movie”, which was entertaining. Many of you know that I am a ‘movie guy’, and that I watch alot of horror movies too… This film wasn’t exactly a parody of horror movies in general, instead focusing on “Scream”, “I Know What You Did…”, etc (which were parodies in themselves, to a degree). I guess I enjoyed “Scary Movie”, but a parody of a parody can only go so far.
I also replaced the two blown speakers with a pair of Definitive Technologies satellites, which sound extrodinary. They were much larger (and heavier) than the JBLs that they replaced, but they will also handle the power the Amplifer is tossing out more better. I look forward to settling down a bit so I can really go crazy with my Home Theater setup… :P
Jon (my roommate during the school year) is going to be in Rochester for a one-night limited engagement, this evening. He is up for the Computer Science House orientation party, which I will also be attending tonight. It will be good to see him, but unfortunately he has to go back to NJ tomorrow. He will be coming back later this summer, however, which is cool.
So yeah, while I haven’t yet returned to level, the angle of my life is no longer threatening to dump me off the side. Let’s hope things continue that way.
Sigh…
Didja ever have one of those days?
I go to Calc yesterday, and find out I tanked the Calc 3 exam… I am considering dropping the class now; After seeing the profs grading style (very little partial credit), and talking with him a few times, I don’t see myself eeking through the course. I am going to talk with him again on Monday, and ask him whether or not I should continue. Hopefully he can provide insight, although he has been pretty useless in the ‘advice and help’ department up through now.
I get home from class, and there is nothing to eat, so I go to Wegmans. I decide on Cheese Steaks, and purchase all the necessary items. When I go to get rolls, there are no Sub rolls, no Sausage rolls, hell, no hotdog rolls. So I reluctantly purchased hamburger rolls to fit the bill…
When I get home from Wegmans, (roommate James) tells me “Sean, Bad News: Just after you left before, I heard this god-awful noise. The stereo turned itself up to 80 and it sounds like your two front speakers are hosed”. And, they are hosed.
Just when you think things can’t get worse, they always do. I am the first to admit I haven’t been very chipper this summer, but stuff like this isn’t making things any better. I usually have a very positive outlook on things in my life, but this whole Calculus thing really has me feeling like a failure. Why is it that a non-major course is the one that is giving me the most trouble?
Music Rant
Was pop music always so shitty? I remember the 80s being vain and thin, but 80s “new wave” was also so self-cynical and ‘glossy with a purpose’. Today’s pop music scene seems to be filled with boy/girl bands (like brit-ney), neo-metal garbage (korn, limp bizkit, et. al.), and rap has been replaced by this bogus gangsta rap. When gangsta rap meant NWA, it meant something, I didn’t necessarily go crazy for it, but I felt emotion in it. Today’s gangsta rap has as much in common with boy/girl bands it isn’t funny. Appealing to the same demographic (namely, children), using violence to attract instead of sexual innuendo. Sigh…..
In a perfect universe, experimental artists (the likes of Autechre, Squarepusher, John Zorn, Mr. Bungle, etc…) would be truly successful. The ones that are actually pushing the envelope. Experimental music isn’t always good, don’t get me wrong, but you can usually bank on it at least being interesting…
MTV needs a revolution….. MTV needs to play music…. We _all_ realized that MTV was simply commercials for music ‘back in the day’, we accepted and loved it. Music has taken the back seat at MTV; It is now the soundtrack to whatever fad MTV is pushing at the time. MTV isn’t necessarily _good_ for music, but it could do a good job of bringing new music to the masses. Unfortunately MTV (and big radio) is under the powerful influence (mostly monetary) of the labels.
I don’t expect a sea-change, but why not start small. Your homework assignment is to go to a record shop and buy something at random. Feel free to narrow it to a genre, but try and pick a cd you have never heard of. You might like it…