dpk’s weblog

Fill to the top? More like FAIL to the top, am I right?

Esther and I have moved to Kirkland, in to the first apartment we’ve picked together. I grew up in Kirkland, so I feel pretty familiar with it. We’re in a nice area, surrounded by trees and near a state park, and across the street from a bowling alley, a grocery store, and a few other small businesses (ok, so it’s kind of a strip mall, but the grocery store is nice!)

The awesome: The apartment has a washer and dryer inside it. No more having to hunt down quarters. The not as awesome: It is further from my work, although once I start taking the bus it won’t be so bad, especially if I can get a seat.

The break between Summer and Fall quarters is the longest of them all. This year, Summer ended August 14th, and Fall began September 22nd. That coupled with the fact that both courses I took for the Summer were online led me to forget a whole lot about scheduling time for classes, or what you should have in your backpack in order to attend class. For example, a pencil. And paper. And the specific schedule showing what dates and times you should be in class. (A required class to take alongside Calculus is CSC 102Q, a 1 credit “how to use Mathematica” course. The class doesn’t start at the same time, however, so I was a week early.)

I think the Microeconomics class is going to be the toughest, by far. (I switched from SOC to ECON to fulfill a minor degree requirement.) The teacher has made it clear that he wants to hear no student opinions, only pure economic statements. The required literature is filled with opinions and facts that are not (and perhaps can not be) backed up. As the teacher is a contributor to the book, I am not exactly sure what to expect. Probably a few low grades on homework as I get in to my groove. Another factor concerning me is that the students have been split in to two groups for some assignments. From what I am told and have read, working in groups in school is a sure path to failure. Either some participants contribute nothing, ever, or those that claim parts of the project back out at the last minute without a word, or what they do bring to the table is insufficient. I’m hoping this is just overblown and that things will go smoothly.

I expect that the Java class will go pretty smooth. It will give me a chance to delve deep in to object oriented programming. Most of the development I’ve done lately is in PHP4, which as you may know is one of the least strict languages out there. It supports OO concepts, but because you don’t have to use them, it ends up feeling like “too much” structure for many projects. And I admit, I am kind of lazy at times. (Although I am pretty proud of a OO-structured library I wrote a month or two back, that someone else was able to extend later. Woo.)

Calculus is going to be review for the first week or two. I’m definitely looking forward to this class: I hope to be able to apply what I learn here, somehow, to the numbers I work with every day. Even if they don’t end up making any more sense than they do now. (Statistics might be a more appropriate class to take.)

Boldtext Pew Bible: King James Version

This book should never be left where it could fall into the hands of children. Recurrent themes of bloody violence, murder, racism, incest and rape are dealt with extremely irresponsibly. Horrific events are presented as justified by circumstances and as solutions to petty wrongs.

I thought the anti-DRM reviews about Spore were a problem because it was clear that most of the people posting had never played the game, or at least never planned to publicly admit they’ve purchased it, and therefore they were being at least somewhat dishonest. However, this reviewer has clearly closely studied the Bible prior to making the post.

Goatseasaurus was once here, but Google “did evil” and took it down. Anyone happen to know where else it goes? I wonder if Spore can be easily hacked to upload videos to non-YouTube sites.

McCain Photoshop Contest

My favorites: Clayton and Ethan.

Aka MMO expansions in a nutshell.

Every so often I get a spam from a company that handles some sort of CMMI High-end KPO services. Naturally, I do not respond to the spam. Emphasis mine:

I hope you are doing great. My name is Sandra and I am with Company, Inc. We got your reference from the Internet. I wanted to check your availability for a meeting with our AVP Sales, Mr. Sam Alva who is scheduled to be in Seattle, WA tentatively on 2nd and 3rd of October.

Mr. Sam Alva? THE Mr. Sam Alva is coming to town? I receive this email and multiple followups whenever The Mr. Sam Alva is thinking about planning to come to town. “I hope you are doing great” is a recurring theme. Every time I get these emails I think about that XKCD strip: I’m here from the Internet.

The email always includes this parenthetical at the end:

(This email has been created specifically for you by visiting your web site, and has been sent individually. We regret any inconvenience caused. If this email bothers you, kindly let us know and we will ensure that we do not contact you again using such emails.)

I don’t even know where to begin with this part.