snipermav's corner

LOL

2006-11-01T21:05:00.000-08:00

LAWLERSKATES

I'm tired

2006-01-19T07:03:00.000-08:00

I'm not really sure what got a hold of me, but I'm trying to get off my lazy ass at 7 every morning to go work out. I basically want to try and lose about 25 pounds within the next year or so, so it's not completely unrealistic, it's just going to be a lot of work. This is only my third day of doing it, and I feel like I did in high school, when I got up at 4:45 to go swim before school: tired and sleepy.

School has been pretty boring so far. I have 4 EE classes this semester, and I have no idea why I decided to do that to myself. At least one of my profs comes in drunk every class period. He just babbles on about the most pointless stuff, tries to crack these really cheesy jokes, and halfway answers 3 or 4 questions at the same time.

blahblahblahblah

Hrm

2005-11-28T22:32:00.000-08:00

It's pretty pointless to try and keep this thing updated anymore. I only find myself even thinking about my blog every couple of weeks or so, and even then I don't have much to say. Hence the reason why I haven't updated in 2 months.

Nothing exciting has happened at all.

So...is that like an amp?

2005-09-28T21:18:00.000-07:00

Well, the first round of testing is nearly over. One more test this Friday will wrap it up (Linear systems). I managed to get lucky on my Electronics test, considering I thought I failed it, I ended up with a 79, which isn't good at all, but it's not nearly as bad as I thought. Got an 83 in electromagnetics and a 94 in linear algebra, so I could definetly be doing better, but there's still lots of time to catch up.

Everything else seems to be going okay. I'm not really getting into too much trouble. It does really suck that I can't be with Jennifer more than once a week, but I guess I don't really have a choice. In 2 years, we won't have to worry about that anymore. Jazz band seems to be going pretty well. We actually have some decent sax players in my section, but like usual, no one has really shown me that they can improvise. I dunno, maybe because they're new they get intimidated by everything going on around them...

I have nothing left to say.

Skool

2005-08-31T19:22:00.000-07:00

Wow, I never update this thing anymore. So much has happened since I last updated. I'm now back at Rolla for my Junior year, below is my list of classes:

EE 253 - Electronics 1
EE 255 - Electronics 1 lab
EE 265 - Linear Systems 1
EE 266 - Linear Systems 1 lab
EE 271 - Electromagnetics
EE 272 - Electromagnetics lab
Math 208 - Linear Algebra
Eng 160 - Technical Communication

Yeah so it's going to be such a long semester. Right now it looks like my linear algebra class will be pretty easy. Electromagnetics is going to be a pain in the ass, especially since so much of it is vector calculus revisited. We did a lot of similar things in my Physics 2 class my sophomore year, but now we're doing things in three dimensions, which means multiple integrals, partial derivatives, divergence theorem, stokes' theorem, etc. The other classes shouldn't be too terribly difficult.

In three years or so, Jennifer Warren will be my wife. I gave her a promise ring about a week before I left and she accepted. I can't put in words how much I love her, and both of us are so excited to be spending the rest of our lives with each other.

Apartment life is so much better than dorm life, I can't stress that enough. Not having loud neighbors or stupid people walking in for no reason is pretty nice.

Okay bye

LAWLlerskates

2005-07-25T09:58:00.000-07:00

I sit here at my desk at work, with three more weeks remaining. I suppose I'm ready to resume school again, although I'm not really looking forward to the rapage that this semester will provide me with. Honestly I don't think it'll be that bad, I mean, how hard could a technical writing class be? I'm fully expecting rapage in my 3 EE classes, but the other 2 should be good.

The only really fun thing I've done this summer is go to a Cardinals game. Carpenter threw a 3 hit shutout against the Astros, in a game that only lasted 2 hours. I'll be going back in a couple of weeks with my Jennifer, so it's all good. I've been playing clarinet in a show called "Vaudeville...again" nearly 3 times a weekend since the beginning of July, and while it's been fun, I'm ready for that to be over.

Speaking of Jennifer, her and I just seem to keep getting closer and closer, despite her being away from me at the moment. She's only got 2 more weeks of school, then she's got that Master's degree. Then I'll be the one leaving. I've got a little surprise for her before I go though..:)

Weekends feel so good when they get here. Me being able to get about 9 hours of sleep feels so great. It would be better if we weren't in this massive drought right now though. It's probably about 105°F outside right now, and I think we've only had rain once in the last 6 weeks.

It should be really nice living in an apartment in ROLLAWL next year. No more late nights waiting for neighbors to stoofoo.

I've managed to maintain my weight over the past 3 months. I may have lost a couple of pounds even, but I'm starting to get muscle mass back. I know that when I get back to ROLLAWL I'm going to get a membership to the Centre, which is kinda like a private gym type thing. I really don't enjoy working out at the UMR rec center.

My collection of random thoughts for the day.

OMGWTFBBQGRASS

Meeeeehhh

2005-06-30T10:20:00.000-07:00

mmeeeeeeehhhhhhh

Summertime, and the livin is easy

2005-05-26T07:35:00.000-07:00

Well it's been an awful long time since I've last written. I'm on break at work right now, so I figured I'd update while I had a couple minutes to spare. So what has happened to me recently...well, I shaved my head again, so it's back to the old days of short and worry-free hair. Kinda makes me feel like I'm in swim season all over again, haha. I've set a goal to lose 10 pounds over the summer, so hopefully I can stay motivated enough to work out a decent number of times each week. Got my grades, and I got another 4.0 this semester, which brings my cumulative GPA up to 3.9. My mom was saying if I graduated Summa Cum Laude (cutoff is 3.76 I believe), then she'd buy me a new saxophone, which I desperately need. I just bought a new power supply today, I know that's only exciting for me, but still, I'm excited and I thought I'd share. Haha, after I ordered that this morning, I'll have like $90 in my bank account. No biggie though, since I'll be depositing around $500 tomorrow. It's an OCZ Powerstream 520, and it's sexy. Not as sexy as my Jennifer, who is in New Jersey at the moment visiting her parents there for the last time in a while. They are finally moving back to Hannibal in June. Work has been pretty boring so far, I've just been gathering and organizing data for a huge analysis project. Other than that, I'm just taking it easy, playing games, and spending what time I can with Jennifer. Back later.

I wish I could play better...

2005-04-28T07:33:00.000-07:00

Man, it's 9:30 AM on a Thursday morning, and I just got back from a little gig at St. James high school. Yes, the leader of The Project (a combo at UMR focused on writing/arranging) is also the director of the St. James bands, so he thought it would be cool if we went out there and played for them. Yeah, it wasn't so much fun getting up at 6:45 to get ready to go, but we got free breakfast at this nice little diner courtesy of my director. It also happens that the piano player from our combo didn't show up, so the guy from the high school jazz band filled in for him. What a fucking badass, I don't know how else to say it. Here we were, throwing music that he'd never seen before at him (although most were just standards, so nothing terribly difficult), and he plays solos over a couple of the tunes and just rocks my face off. Yes, I had heard about this kid earlier, my director said at the beginning of the year that he was a freak, a guy that sat in the same sax section with me 2 years ago went to All State with that same guy, and he said that he was a freak, and now I'm calling him a freak. At the high school level, you NEVER expect to hear someone that good...even at All State competitions or what not. My director said that the kid could probably go out to New York and make a living right now, and I'd believe it. Seeing that kid tear everything up kinda made me feel bad inside though, like I should be better than how I am now. Granted, I played pretty horribly this morning, and the students at the high school probably thought I sucked, but the times when I do feel good about what I play are so few and far between. What else can I do to make myself better? Not that I plan on going out and becoming a pro like that kid will very soon, but I feel like I can do so much more...It's times like this where I really start to wonder what would've happened if I had gone into music.

Wow it's been way too long

2005-04-14T21:01:00.000-07:00

It's been nearly a month since I last posted here. Crazy to think, but nothing exciting has really been going on around here. Just school like always. I've got my final speech and a compE test next Tuesday, then I finally get to go home and see my beautiful girlfriend. After that, there's only 2 more weeks until the end of the semester, which i'm awfully excited about.

I played in an intramurals doubles tennis tournament last weekend with a friend. It was okay, we got 4th place which isn't too bad, but last year we destroyed everyone. It was completely different this year though, since the ex Tennis players were allowed to play (yes, this school did have a tennis program), the field was way stronger.

I was all excited about getting my tax return (about $550) that I spent it before blinking. Heh, I bought a 60 gig iPod photo, and a new contour design case and Sony EX81 earbuds are on the way. Not to mention that I also bought a new set of headphones for my computer (Sennheiser HD497). So yeah, basically that money I got back is all gone. But hey, as soon as I get back to school I start work again, so I'm not too worried.

I guess that's really it for now. Maybe I'll actually post more than once a month.

Why isn't it May yet?

2005-03-17T12:44:00.000-08:00

Well I'm sitting here in my girlfriend's apartment at the wonderful University of Illinois in Champaign, and I thought I'd do a little writing. Not too much has been going on since I last posted on here. It's St. Patrick's Day, is everyone wearing their green? I'm sure that Rolla is a pretty crazy place right now, but I'd rather get away from all the drinking and partying and just be here with my significant other. Hopefully I'll be able to enjoy this nice long 4 day weekend, instead of worrying about my speech, DiffEQ test, and Circuits 2 test I have next week. I did have a dynamics test on Tuesday, and I got a 95 on it, which is okay I guess. I always mess up some mundane detail...There was this one angle that I had to find on this parabolic projectile path, and I forgot to differentiate the path equation before I put in the value of X to get Y. So stupid. Ah well, I should be happy with what I got I guess, but I'm a perfectionist, and I can't tolerate that kind of stupid mistake.

I think somehow I've developed seasonal allergies over the last 2 years. When I came up here about this exact same time last year, I got pink eye. Now my eyes are all itchy and watery again, and I'm really hoping that it doesn't happen again. I've flushed my eye out like 5 times since I've been here, so I'm trying to be as careful as I can be with it.

It's crazy to think that in only 2 months, I'll be back at home for a 3 month break to work. This year has just seemed to go by so incredibly quickly. I guess it can't come quick enough, not when I have all of this stuff that I have to get done.

Minor update

2005-03-09T21:40:00.000-08:00

Things are getting better, slowly. My friend Jeff and I signed a lease for an apartment which is right across the street from the Electrical Engineering building on Monday, so at least that's off of my chest for the rest of the summer. Classes have been going relatively well recently, except for my speech class which I thought would be a complete blowoff. I'm making like a 88% in there right now, so I really need to nail this informative speech that I'm giving in 2 weeks. I got my Circuits 2 test back on Monday, and the whole class's performance was absolutely horrendous. The average was a 61/100, and I managed to get an 85. Oddly enough, the top score was the 85 that I got, and my professor curved an A all the way down to a 77. Hey, if I have to benefit from the rest of the class royally screwing up like that, I'll take it. I got a 96 on my Circuits 2 lab formal report, so that's kinda nice. Other than that, I feel like I've just been doing a lot of busy work. I have a dynamics test next Tuesday, but it should be extremely easy. I mean, it really seems like Engineering Physics 1 all over again, since it's a lot of the same formulas and stuff, but I guess there are a couple new things added onto it.

Besides school, I've been getting an awful lot of music recently. I just feel like the more new stuff that I listen to, the more inspired I'll be when I write. Oh and get this, Wynton Marsalis is coming to Rolla next Monday. Public tickets were given out last Monday starting at 9 AM, so I showed up to the ticket booth at about 8:30, and picked out my number in line, which sadly enough was already down to #122. So I waited in line until about 9:50, which means I completely missed my Differential Equations class. Yeah, they definetly ran out of tickets at about #95 since most people that went before me took 2 tickets. So I waited all that time in line to get the 27th spot on the waiting list. I'm not even going to try and show up for that. Those asshats. You know that there are people who took 2 just because they could, and what's even more frustrating is that the majority of the people standing in that line probably didn't give a shit about jazz anyway. It's so stupid, I mean they probably just want to go because it's free. Whatever, I saw Kenny Garrett last month and I know that this won't be better. Plus, it's not going to be a very exciting environment to listen to jazz in. You want to go to a place where people are as into the music as you are, bouncing around, shouting, taking it all in. Wynton is going to be in an auditorium with a whole lot of old people in it, and they'd probably look at me as if I was nuts if I did some of the stuff that I did at that Kenny Garrett concert.

I've also been spending a lot of time with that Gamecube I bought about a month and a half ago. Man that thing is so addicting. I'm totally consumed by Zelda: Windwaker right now, and I'm going to be getting into Resident Evil 4 pretty soon.

Well it's now official that my girlfriend and I are back together. We both went home last weekend and had the most incredible time together. We basically spent the whole weekend with each other, mostly just relaxing together, but we did get some stuff done productivity wise. I think we did about 8 loads of laundry combined, haha.

Hrm, this turned out to be a little longer than a minor update, but oh well.

...

2005-02-22T21:15:00.000-08:00

I'm really getting sick and tired of numerous people.
I'm getting extremely sick of this fucking dorm.
Why do things seem to be going wrong, when in reality everything is going right?

Words Can't Possibly Describe That Concert

2005-02-16T23:11:00.000-08:00

Wow. It's 1:15 AM and I've got one of the biggest tests of the year tomorrow. Instead of going to bed however, I thought I would share with all of you my experience at the Kenny Garrett concert that I just got back from. If you don't know who Kenny Garrett is (not to be confused with Kenny G..ugh..), he's one of my biggest influences on saxophone.

The members of his quartet that played tonight are Carlos McKinney on piano, Kris Funn on Bass, and Ronald Bruner on Drums. Although I'd never heard any of those names before, I'll most definetly be searching for them in the future. Kris layed down some remarkable time, I mean it was pretty unwavering. His improvisation was very impressive technically speaking, and he could just play at blazing speeds for such long periods of time. Carlos was a very punctual improviser, he layed down the chords really well and liked to play out of meter, creating different feels for the bass and drums to follow him in. His improv was very personal and really made you feel good, hard to explain. Ronald, that guy was a freaking monster. Everytime him and Kenny traded off, wow. I mean, everything that he played was so technically phenomenal and executed to the finest degree. Even when he wasn't soloing, he was always listening real hard, popping good-feeling figures and driving that time forward.

Now we get to the man I came to see, Kenny Garrett. His tone is far different than any other alto player I've ever heard, and he's always twisting and augmenting his improvisation in ways that make him so incredibly unique and fascinating. If you ever need to look for someone to model the extended solo, he would be it. It just seemed like he couldn't play a wrong note, like every single line he played had huge amounts of meaning to everything.

The group opened with probably the most popular song from Kenny's newest CD Standard of Language, the song being Chief Backwater. Kenny took like a 15 minute solo, followed by a piano solo, bass solo, and sax/drum exchanges. Immediately after that, they went into a burning version of the great Coltrane tune, Giant Steps. I mean, there was literally no break in between songs. Not to mention, Kenny took about a 15 min unaccompanied solo, no rhythm section at all. And that was just the beginning. The only other song that I recognized was Wayne's Thang...I think a lot of the other songs they played were either on albums I didn't have yet or weren't recorded at all.

That's just a small sample of what was at that concert. I really wish I could describe what I felt during those 2 hours, because that was one of the greatest experiences I've ever had in my life.

Wow, I need to write more

2005-02-11T06:10:00.000-08:00

Haha, it's been like a month since I last wrote here, and here I was saying that I would try to keep up with the journal more often. Not too much has been going on honestly. I seem to be kinda sucking at classes this semester, considering I haven't gotten above a 90 on any of my tests so far (although I should get a 100 on my Statics test from yesterday), and I got a 77 on my lone Digital Design quiz for the semester, which turns out to 5% of my overall grade in that class. Oh well, the only think I can do is to own the test that's coming up next thursday. My prof in that class is notorious for giving exams where the average is like 50-60, but he curves like a mofo. Yeah so next week will suck, a Digital Design test on Thursday and a DiffEQ test the day before, not to mention that I have to start my 8-10 page formal report over creating DC power supplies using half wave rectifiers, full wave rectifiers, and full wave rectifiers + zener diode.

Music is really starting to get interesting, in particular Jazz. My jazz director has started this thing called "The Project", which is just really a jazz combo but we're attempting to write our own music. I did this pretty basic arrangement of Impressions, and it wasn't too bad, but I feel like I can do so much more. I've got ideas bouncing all over my head, but I don't have the time to just sit down and organize them.

I met a pretty cool guy down here, who we'll call Heat, and I've been hanging out with him a lot recently. We had a couple of classes together before this semester, but for some reason we never talked much. We like to pull the Pure Pwnage thing with each other.

Everything else is just fine I suppose. I'm going to see my significant other this weekend, and I'll spend all of tonight and tomorrow with her. Of course I've been looking forward to that all week long.

Okay that's all I have. And remember, "if you do not smoke this, we have a problem."

Just another day

2005-01-20T06:51:00.000-08:00

Man, have I been doing a horrible job of writing frequently or what? Most of the time I'm too lazy, and I think about other things that I need to be doing, most likely homework or gaming. Such is the reason why I haven't written in about 2 weeks. Really, nothing exciting is going on right now. I mean, I have classes, and it turns out that I'm going to have tons of homework this semester. I knew that it would be worse than last semester, but I didn't know how much worse...It's probably about twice to three times the amount. Digital Design, Statics and Dynamics, and DiffEQ probably demand the most work, although Circuits 2 also requires a lot of homework as well. May as well get used to it, I guess it's not going to get any easier from here.

On the gaming side of things, I've been fairly busy with a mix of things. I just bought a gamecube from someone here at Rolla, 2 controllers, the system, and Mario Kart for $80. I bough Halo 2 about 2 weeks ago, and I bought Battle For Middle Earth around then also. Haven't played much of BFME honestly...but I am about 3/4 done with Halo 2. I've really been messing around with the new CS: Source bots. My roommate and I have had plenty of interesting experiences with those things.

That's all from me for now.

Back at school...sigh

2005-01-09T20:21:00.000-08:00

Well the second semester officially begins tomorrow. I can say that I had a pretty nice break, spent a lot of time with people that I wanted to see badly and worked full time for 3 weeks. Even though my job isn't terribly exciting, I did get about $650 for 11 days of work. Yes, my schedule really sucks this semester. Differential equations, Digital Design, Circuits 2, Statics and Dynamics, and Speech.

I did get to spend a whole lot of time with Jennifer over break, and we've gotten so much closer. I wish I could put into words how much I love spending time with her and being with her. We really didn't do anything too fancy, just mostly hang out, watched the entire LOTR Extended trilogy, and just kept each other company. I did take her out to dinner one night though...I can only hope for the best.

Now that I'm back to broadband, hopefully I'll write a bit more than I have been.

Straight As w00t

2004-12-24T07:44:00.000-08:00

Well, I haven't written in a while, but I finally have a chance to tell everyone what's going on right now, so I shall. It is official that I got straight A's this semester, which now bumps my cumulative GPA up to 3.855. Yes, if I were to graduate now...I would get Summa Cum Laude, but I've got a long way to go before that. Not much else has been going on honestly. I started going back to work again, where I'll only be there 2 more weeks. It'll be a nice injection of money into my bank account, one that I'll really need. I still have a couple of things that I want for myself, I was hopeing to be able to get some of them with my money, but I'm not so sure anymore. I need a new 19" CRT monitor, I'd like to get all 3 of the LOTR extended editions, a digital camera, an iPod, a nice Italian suit or equivalent, and I can't think of anything else right now. Jeez, I'm so spoiled...not like I'm going to get those things anyway, so I may as well dream.

Well anyway, happy holidays to everyone and safe travel if you're going places.

Woohoo! It's over!

2004-12-16T14:20:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm finally home. After a long semester, it feels good to finally have a break. It's strange though, because even though I felt like I worked so hard this semester, the time just seemed to fly by. My circuits final was mediocre. I'm very sure that I got a 70.5% or higher (which was what I needed to keep an A), but I know that I didn't get an A on the final, which kinda sucks because I'm proud of how well I did in that class, and to end on a note like that just kinda sucks. My calc final was the one I just took this morning, and I really feel pretty good about it. I needed a 77% on that one to keep my A in that class, so I'm really hoping that I did alright on it. The most exciting part about me being done of course is the fact that I don't have to live with my roommate anymore! You know, I've been kinda harsh on him all along. Sure, he doesn't have a life or any friends that I know of, but you know, I guess that's his business and not mine. Yes he did do things that irritated me, but I'm sure that I did things that irritated him too, like my Vantec Tornado on full blast throughout the whole day (56 decibels baby!). Oh well, it's all over, and next semester looks like it'll be more challenging and more interesting, especially since my new roommate is almost the complete opposite of my former one.

But for now, it's time to spend time with my ex, earn a couple bucks from three weeks of work, and enjoy my break.

Happy holidays everyone.

Jazz jazz jazz

2004-12-09T07:48:00.000-08:00

I've got 3 paying gigs and a concert this weekend. Won't that be rather nice? The combo I'm in has had maybe 3 gigs up to this point the entire semester, and now we're getting 3 of them in one sweep. It'll be a nice little source of income, seeing as how I've spent a little bit more over the last couple of weeks than I should have. Anyway, I'm kind of looking forward to this concert, and I'm kind of dreading it. I'm really looking forward to it because it gives our combo a nice audience that actually came to hear jazz, so maybe they'll be a little more appreciative of what we play. It may be interesting though, since we're starting right off with JuJu, a Wayne Shorter tune that's heavily based on an augmented dominant seventh chord, or whole tone if you prefer to call it that. It's very strange, and the structure of the chord progression really allows you to stretch out and explore. I'm just not sure that the audience will be ready for something that far out as our first song. I've decided that JuJu is probably my favorite song to play over at the moment, so I'm going to light it up. The combo is also playing Footprints and Caravan. Interesting isn't it, two Wayne Shorter tunes and Caravan...I dunno, I just thought it was interesting.

One of the paying gigs is a Christmas party for Brewer Science, with an audience of about 600. Yes, I did say 600. I'm sure it'll be a bit intimidating, since we did need to learn a couple of Christmas songs for it, so basically we'll be sightreading on the spot. It's really kind of strange improvising over a Christmas tune too...I think we went over "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", and we had solos in double time, which was alright I guess...The chords are so cheesy though, and they hardly change at all. It'll probably be like that for any Christmas song we play.

One more week and I'm out of here. I'm getting extremely sick of my roommate at this point, so the break will do me some good. Time off of school => Time at work => Money. Also, I'll be able to spend about half of break with my ex, who I really enjoy being with.

Almost there...

Wow, things are looking better.

2004-12-06T11:32:00.000-08:00

I can't believe what just happened to me today. I got my calc 3 test back, the one that I was sure that I would get a 40-50% on. Turns out that I got 86/100, and with the curve ultimately a 93/100! I guess I halfway knew what I was doing after all. I know that my teacher grades terribly easy though, so I don't deserve that much credit. After all, I did sum up 3 integrals like this: 3dt + 0dt + 5dt, and I put down 9. I'm such a moron. I can't even add 3 + 0 + 5. But I guess he understood that I usually wouldn't make that kind of mistake, and he took no points off for that. There was one that I wasn't even close to the right answer, but I got half credit anyway just for trying.

On top of that, I got a 93/100 on my Circuits test too. It would've been an 83 if he hadn't have put 10 extra points on the test. Now my lowest score prior to this test was a 98, so I was kind of disappointed that I didn't do better, especially since you follow the same procedure over and over for these type of problems. But I definetly wasn't that sharp that morning, and I just made all kinds of silly algebra errors. I'll take a 93 though...I'm still making a 98% in the class, and I would need to get below a 70.5% on the final to lose my A. Of course, you have to get above a 70% on the final in Circuits anyway to pass the class, so it's either get an A or take the course over again.

This past weekend was probably one of the greatest times of my life, driving a total of about 8.5 hours to spend time with my ex. She's celebrating her birthday today, so I figured that I would want to spend a little bit of time with her to celebrate. Happy birthday pez, I know you'll read this eventually. She's just one of the most fun people to be around, such a sweet and caring person. She is definetly my best friend, the one person that I can talk to for absolutely anything. I feel like this weekend we've gotten closer than we have been in the last couple of months, so who knows? I'd sure love it if we get back together, I mean, I never stopped loving her in the first place.

So yeah, things have just turned around for the best. I feel like I'm on top of the world right now. Watch the two finals I have next week knock me off of my podium...

Wake up call

2004-12-02T11:14:00.000-08:00

Well I'm a complete failure. I guess Calc 3 tests tend to make people feel like that. And yes it is my fault, not caring about the class, thinking that I know the material. I tried to study last night, tried to pound this vector calculus into my head. It's not an easy thing to understand you know? Why is it that I understand everything that my teacher does in class, yet as soon as I leave the room I don't have a clue what I'm doing? Why is it that I have no motivation for math anymore, especially since it had been my favorite subject for so long? I guess it's not fun anymore when you don't understand what's going on. I'm estimating that I got about 40-50 points out of 100 on that test I just got back from. But you know, maybe this is just what I needed. I had that "I just don't care" attitude about this test last night, and look what happened. Never again shall I think that way.

Light at the end of the tunnel

2004-12-01T21:45:00.000-08:00

Well, this week has started off very nicely. I got 198/200 on my Physics test, which in effect means that I am officially rid of that class and walking away with an A. I just finished Half Life 2, and despite my frustration at the ending, it was well worth it and an experience that I'm sure I'll enjoy many times again. In 48 hours I will be in the wonderful company of my ex-girlfriend, who's birthday is coming up soon. I am through with my circuits lab formal report, which even though turned out to be 17 pages long, still feels like I hardly wrote anything. I have a calc 3 test tomorrow which I don't really feel prepared for, but I kind of don't care at the moment, and a circuits test on friday which I should do well on. I'm almost home free.

3 more weeks of hell

2004-11-28T15:22:00.000-08:00

Well Thanksgiving break is officially over, and unfortunately it seemed like it didn't even exist. I'm already back in the hole that is rolla, already being annoyed by my stupid roommate and already dreading the week ahead. I have 3, yes 3, tests this week and a 7-9 page formal report due. I guess it'll be alright after that though, especially if I get an A on my Physics test on Tuesday. If that happens, no Physics final for me! Everything else though, yeah it's going to suck. At least I can look forward to a great weekend, weather permitting.

I'm going up to Champaign to see my ex-girlfriend for her birthday. Should be a great time, since I always love spending time with her. Even though she'll be incredibly busy, it's going to be nice just being around her. I did get to see her a lot over this break, since she came down to visit me and a friend who also goes to school here. I kind of feel like we're getting closer, but yet again, it's hard for me to ask. I can't express in words how much I miss her and think about her...I guess I'll have a talk with her this weekend.

One of my best friends over the last 10 years of my life just kind of ditched me this weekend. We were supposed to get together for a little LAN party, but again, he called me and gave me several reasons why he couldn't come. I don't know, I guess I should be used to it by now. It seems like everytime we attempt to get together, it's always the exact same scenario. I call him, he gives some reason why he wants to postpone, and we finally end up getting together only after my numerous attempts to remind him. And even when we do agree on a time, he's always like 15-30 minutes late, every single time. I just don't know what to do, I've tried telling him about this. I specifically said to him, "Don't tell me that you're sure you want to do something if you aren't sure in the first place." And yet it still happens. Whatever, I'm still his friend, and I guess no matter how much it bothers me, I still have to keep trying.

I thought about being nice to my roommate when I got back from break this weekend, you know, asking how his break was and everything. Guess I just let it get away from me. Oh well, only a little longer with this loser, and I'll be free of him and never have to be associated with him again.

My sister, brother-in-law and niece/goddaughter came home for the holidays, and it sure was nice having them around. My niece is absolutely adorable, 5 months old now and huge, plump cheeks. I'm sure that I'll spoil that kid when she gets older, as if she won't get spoiled enough by her grandparents. My mom is a baby freak, like she has to have her fix every couple of weeks before she goes crazy.

Anyway, back to the grind. Too much work to do.

The last full day

2004-11-22T05:33:00.000-08:00

Well here we are, the last full day of class before my Thanksgiving break. I can honestly say that whatever break that I take over this week, I've earned. Not only that, but I feel like I'll need it to get ready for the week after...ugh, I won't even talk about that yet. Anyway, not much has happened since then. It seems like everyone I've talked to has already finished Half Life 2, and I don't even think I'm halfway done yet.

I've been pretty preoccupied this weekend with my ex-girlfriend coming down here to visit. Haha, that actually sounds kind of bad, but we haven't "done anything" *winkwink*. Friday and Saturday nights I went over to a friend's house to play some cards and basically hang out with her. I always love spending every minute that I can with her, she's such a special person to me and of course I still have a strong bond with her. Again, like I've said before, feelings that you've had for 4 and a half years just don't go away...ah well, what can you do? I had a concert yesterday afternoon that went pretty well, although I could hear a couple of people around me having some miscues. I just love how sounds that you've never heard before always seem to appear during a concert. Oh well, it was all good.

We had a makeshift Thanksgiving dinner last night at the same said friends house. It was just the three of us, and I must say that it was a very fine meal. I tried to help out...I just didn't end up contributing that much. So I do have them to thank for the great meal.

So now all that stands in the way of freedom is the typical monday, chock full of classes and ending with a lab that gets out at about 4. It's been pretty difficult for me to say something nice about my roommate and the situation that I'm in right now, so I'll just not say anything at all. Not that he's done anything out of the ordinary ever since the first day, but it seems like the little things that really bother me about him are getting worse and worse by the minute. I suppose it will make moving out at semester that much sweeter.

Well, there's my collection of random thoughts from last week. I'll try to write a bit over break, but with going back to my horrible dial-up at home, no promises.

Half Life 2 is here!!!!!11!!ONE!!

2004-11-16T08:25:00.000-08:00

Well, the day has finally come. After several months of waiting, this highly anticipated work of art has graced itself upon my hard drive. Over the last 2 months, Steam account users have been able to preload chunks of the game, so that when the release date came, we could unlock the game and play it right away. Well, these last two months, those files have been taking up precious hard drive space and been sitting there tempting me, like a virgin with a chastity belt on...But that day is finally here.

Other than the release of what should probably be Game of the Year, nothing else is really going on. I took a Circuits test on Friday, and we got them back yesterday. Our class average was 60. 60 out of 100. That's not so good. Some people got scores below 20. Anyway, I studied for a couple hours with a friend last Thursday night, and we both shared the top score of 98. So yeah we're pretty heroic.

Anyway, I've got to finish writing my C++ lab program so I can get out early this afternoon. HL2 is calling for me.

Boring weekend

2004-11-14T16:38:00.000-08:00

Well, I just got back from my weekend at home. Besides having a fun friday night, I did absolutely nothing the rest of the weekend. Oh well, I guess it was my own choice to come home. My parents went up to see my sister and my 5 month old niece, and I agreed to come home and take care of the pets. I also came home to go to a jam session at a coffee shop there, which wasn't too bad, but there weren't very many people there. I spent all of Saturday lying in my favorite recliner watching TV, mainly watching Celebrity Poker Showdown. I also watched a bit of Law and Order, and saw The Matrix Revolutions.

Yay.

I spent an awful lot of time complaining to everyone about how lonely I was, partially because one reason I came home was to spend time with a friend who was occupied all weekend. I guess I need more than 2 reasons to go home, huh? So now I have a pounding headache, and my sinuses are going crazy. I'm starting to get sick, and I've only got one and a half weeks to go before Thanksgiving Break. Not to mention that I've got a C++ test that I must get a high A on to clinch an A in the class.

Ahh, life is good.

Incompotent fools...

2004-11-11T06:14:00.000-08:00

Someone decided to be ever so kind last night at 12:15 and pull the fire alarms. Not only did I just get in bed, and not only was I starting to fall asleep, I was standing outside in the low 40s with ice cold rain. Thankfully there's a tunnel that we walk through every morning, so pretty much everyone went in there. Of course, I couldn't see how many people we fit in there since I didn't have contacts in, but I'm guessing that there was at least 500 people in there.

Yay for stupid people.

At least the little crusade prompted conversation from my roommate, which shocked me to say the least.

"Were you as pissed as I was about our little exodus?"

I replied, "Nah, not really. I'm just a bit wet though, but it's no big deal."

And then reality set back in, and those will probably be the only words we say to each other for the rest of the semester.

Stress Buildup

2004-11-10T20:21:00.000-08:00

Gahh, things have been rather interesting today. I found out that I got an 81% on my physics test that I expected to get an easy A on, and circuits homework is just piling up every second. I have a test in there on Friday over stuff like unit step, Euler's Identity, and solving first order RC and RL circuits. Yay for doing differential equations before I've even had the actual class on them. Oh well, what can you do? I guess it's just that time of year, when everything starts coming to an end, and everything starts getting piled up on top of each other.

I had a very lengthy conversation with my ex-girlfriend last night. You know, despite what people think about it being weird that I still talk to her everyday, I still do. Of course it's very hard sometimes. I think about her all the time, I miss her company and compassion. You don't just stop caring for someone who you were deeply in love with for 4 and a half years. But you know, we are each other's pleasure and each other's pain. We make each other so happy, yet make each other so sad. I do believe that the happiness outweighs the sadness though, which of course is why I'm still staying so close to her. So many people that I know look down on how we're both handling the situation, so many people think that we should just never talk again I guess. To those people, I say this. Not only was she the one I loved most, but she was and still is my best friend. How can you just stop talking to your best friend? I still love her, and I always will. The both of us firmly believe that if we're truely meant to be together, then we will be.

OMG tests!!!!

2004-11-09T08:32:00.000-08:00

Blah, it feels like all I ever do these days is take tests. And honestly, aside from the occasional fragging of d3bruts1d in Source, that's pretty much all I do. So I have a Physics test in about 6 hours, and I'm really crossing my fingers that I'll do well on it. If I have an A locked up before the final exam, then I won't have to take it. Throw on top of that a Circuits test on Friday, and we're all set to get fried. The circuits stuff is killing me too, since I know how to do it, I know the whole process and everything, but it seems like everytime I try to do a problem I make the smallest little mistake that throws a wrench in everything. Plus, we're working with imaginary and complex numbers, which isn't my favorite thing in the world.

So I've come to the conclusion that I have a slight spending problem. I've always wanted to buy the best stuff, always wanted to have a large quantity of it, then I get sick of it and don't use it anymore. I just spent another $40 on my computer, so I'm guessing I've probably spent around $2000 total on it over the past year. I used to be somewhat big into Magic: The Gathering. I probably have like 1500 cards, now I don't play it anymore. I bought a blowgun with tons of darts and paintballs, and a friend and I would sometimes square off against each other (with the paintballs, not darts), but now it's just collecting dust. At least I can feel somewhat good about spending on my computer since I use it everyday.

Anyway, off to Calc 3. As my Calc 3 teacher says, "You aren't cool unless you know how to do the line integral." Hope everyone that reads this can do that, otherwise you aren't cool to me. :P

Yay, seems that my hard work paid off for that Calc 3 test last weekend. Got a 94%.

I hate my roommate

2004-11-08T21:56:00.000-08:00

So anyway, I really hate my roommate. He doesn't smell that great, showers like once a week, never studies, and doesn't talk to me at all. Which is fine, whatever, since I don't want to talk to him anyway. Seriously, the only time he ever leaves his room is when he has class, which amazes me that he even goes because I never see him do any homework! Now the school I go to isn't exactly the easiest place in the world either, since it is at least 75% engineering students. So how could he possibly be passing all of his classes if he's not doing the work??? And it's not like he does the work outside of class either, since I know his schedule every day and I know when he's going to walk in that door. I mean, I have at least 2 hours of homework every night, and here I look behind me and see him reading on fanfiction.net for 8 hours straight EVERY SINGLE DAY. And on top of that, he has horrible communication skills. Before I left for home one weekend, I said to him, "Have a good weekend," and the response I got was, "eh." That's it. Those were the only words exchanged between us for 2 weeks! I think that's the last time that I actually said anything to him, and that was 3 weeks ago! It doesn't matter anyway, I'm getting out of this room in one month and moving in with a much better friend of mine. I couldn't bear to take another semester of this.

What's up?

2004-11-08T20:35:00.000-08:00

Well here we go. I tried this journal thing once before, and I didn't keep up with it that often, so let's see if I can do better. This wasn't really a good time to start this thing either, since I have a Physics test tomorrow, but what can you do? I guess I'm just procrastinating like always. Anyway, for those of you who don't know me, I come from a small town in Northeast Missouri called Hannibal, about 17,500 people live there. I'm a sophomore in college right now, going to the University of Missouri Rolla and majoring in Electrical Engineering. Not to be boastful or anything, but I used to be a hell of an athlete. I swam competitively for 10 years and played tennis for 8 years. Swimming in high school, I was a state qualifier for 4 years and earned All-State honors my Junior and Senior years (8th place in the 200 IM both years). I still love to do those things, but I'm not anywhere close to the level I was 2 years ago. I'm pretty involved with music, especially jazz, I've been playing Clarinet and Saxophones for 8 years now. Other than that, I'm an extremely busy person with a lot to complain about. So sit back, relax, and hear my ranting and raving about the world and its inhabitants.