Today is work all day, so like the last blog entry I will just fill you all in on Friday. The day started out well and ended well, but everything in between was less than fantastic. It was mostly school. And that was the irritating portion. Allow me to elaborate:
Calculus III- The quiz results came back and they were acceptable. What is unacceptable is the test I have next week. Only a couple of weeks after the last one we have another, and all on material that is relatively new, so one can not merely ‘brush-up’ on it, I have to sit and study. The sitting and studying I do not mind so much, it’s just the horrendous hours that this bit is going to take. The entire time I will be cursing the professor’s name because of the lack of notice.
Modern Optics I & II- this course is going relatively ok. The ‘relatively’ in that last sentence, and the doubt in the truthfulness it brings, stems from the lab section. The lectures are good, even fun sometimes. The lab is an entirely different story. Be prepared everyone, this is going to be a venting of an other-worldly scale: I hate the lab, and I know hate is a strong word, but it is a little to watered down for the detest I have for the doddering old skeleton with skin and his half-assed written lab manual. This is more that a ‘hate’ ladies and gentlemen. This is 101 proof aggravation from a frustration beyond any other that I have known in years. I challenge the history books to find a better example, save a world war or something of the like. ‘Why would you dislike that so much?’ you might ask of me. Well, the lab manual as mentioned above is terribly written. The description of the experiments is so bad that after you read it, you have no idea what you are supposed to do. No idea how to set up the equipment, no idea how to use some of the equipment (there are portions that say: see page “blank” for instructions, then I turn to said page only to find something completely different. I ask the TA where to find the information and it’s some where else entirely), and when the whole class has the same problem with the equipment, they just say “start over”. Which means that you have just wasted about a third of your time.
Now I’m tired of complaining, so how about we take a look at the news to see the reason why we’re all going to Hell in a Hand-basket this time. Here are two stories I found interesting:
Sex-Ed and then some- The AP press did a story on how our public schools are plagued with sexual predators. The problem is that the instances are rarely reported, and the teachers that are committing these crimes are only dismissed from their positions- and take up teaching jobs elsewhere only to propagate the problem. The entire report was lengthy, and rather boring. However it does not surprise me, because there were stories of such events even when I was a wee lad and in the high school. You can check out the story here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071020/ap_on_re_us/teacher_sex_abuse;_ylt=ApttwlZNl3NS9Kk3N8pLfp6s0NUE
Dumbledore is a wizard and a fairy? J.K. Rowling pushed the wizard teacher out of the closet during a Q&A session with some of her fans. Apparently she was asked “Will Dumbledore ever find true love?” and the author replied: “Dumbledore is gay.” That is an odd response I think. Does she mean that gay people never find true love? Or was she waiting for some one to ask the question regarding the old fart’s orientation, didn’t get the desired inquiry, and was trying to throw the ‘queer’ bit of information out there by any means? And she later said that he had apparently killed him earlier or something to that effect. I honestly could never get into the books or movies. "Out-us Closet-us!"-haha (c'mon you knew that was coming). You can check out the story here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071020/ap_on_en_ot/books_harry_potter;_ylt=AocxX3VGzLPYK6p0oDpHvy2s0NUE
On another note: isn’t it odd that these two stories came out at the same time? Is it a coincidence? Or is Dumbledore a ‘fan’ of Harry Potter as well? Makes you think a bit doesn’t it (Is a wizard considered clergy? Because that would just make things worse). Or maybe you know that I juxtaposed the both of them for a laughable bit of reading.
Happy weekend everyone.
T
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Busy Days and Bad Television.
Honestly I really can’t think of any thing to blog about today. It’s mostly been work. In fact today I will be here for a total of about 12 and a half hours. And I’m pretty sure you all don’t want to hear about that. In fact I find it rather boring myself.
Let’s talk about yesterday then. All that studying paid off in the quiz that I took in calculus. Then in optics it was more of the same, energy amplitudes and polarization of light waves. After that I went to the doctor’s office for a quick check up, then home for a nap. When I woke up, had some food, started my laundry and quickly zipped over to Graywhale CD Excange because they had an album on hold for me and if I had waited any longer it would have been put out on the shelf to disappear quickly. From Russia with Love came by after her rehearsal and we spent the evening exercising and watching T.V.
The program that I had taped for her was really disappointing. We watched Bionic Woman, the re-do of the old series with all new special effects and higher tech buzz words. The acting was terrible, plot predictable, dialogue laughable, inaccuracy’s abundant and special effects mediocre at best. Yeah, there was lots of cool CGI stuff going on, but the ‘blur’ to let us all know she is running fast? C’mon, that’s just tacky and lazy folks. Mostly I felt sorry for From Russia with Love, because she had been looking forward to that show for a while and seemed to be more disappointed and irritated by the poor filmmaking than myself. To me there is only one Bionic Anyone, and that is Inspector Gadget. He could whoop her butt any day of the week. Here are my reasons why he is better that Bionic Woman:
Bionic Woman: ‘shady government agency’ team-mates.
Inspector Gadget: smart kid and cool dog side-kicks.
Bionic Woman: digital scanner eye thing.
Inspector Gadget: Swiss-army knife and then some, all in one finger.
Bionic Woman: can run really fast.
Inspector Gadget: helicopter in his hat.
Bionic Woman: regular transportation.
Inspector Gadget: his own ‘mobile’.
Bionic Woman: nemesis- various social mis-doers.
Inspector Gadget: nemesis- Dr. Claw, head of the MAD organization.
Bionic Woman: absent ‘talented’ (shameful).
Inspector Gadget: absent minded (hilarious).
Bionic Woman: boring (shameful).
Inspector Gadget: bumbling (hilarious).
Bionic Woman: catch phrase-“Whaaah, whaaah, I’m confused (morally and intellectually), and I’m not the 7 million dollar woman, I’m 50 million dollars!”
Inspector Gadget: catch phrase- “Go-go-gadget (whatever you want- he’s got it)”
Bionic Woman: dramatic and serious (done badly).
Inspector Gadget: funny and silly (done well).
In conclusion, animation takes dominance on live action in this case. The bumbling cartoon detective is pretty much better than her in every way. So every one, let’s hear it: “Go-go-gadget good T.V. show!”
That’s all I can muster tonight folks. Go-go-gadget get work done!
T
Let’s talk about yesterday then. All that studying paid off in the quiz that I took in calculus. Then in optics it was more of the same, energy amplitudes and polarization of light waves. After that I went to the doctor’s office for a quick check up, then home for a nap. When I woke up, had some food, started my laundry and quickly zipped over to Graywhale CD Excange because they had an album on hold for me and if I had waited any longer it would have been put out on the shelf to disappear quickly. From Russia with Love came by after her rehearsal and we spent the evening exercising and watching T.V.
The program that I had taped for her was really disappointing. We watched Bionic Woman, the re-do of the old series with all new special effects and higher tech buzz words. The acting was terrible, plot predictable, dialogue laughable, inaccuracy’s abundant and special effects mediocre at best. Yeah, there was lots of cool CGI stuff going on, but the ‘blur’ to let us all know she is running fast? C’mon, that’s just tacky and lazy folks. Mostly I felt sorry for From Russia with Love, because she had been looking forward to that show for a while and seemed to be more disappointed and irritated by the poor filmmaking than myself. To me there is only one Bionic Anyone, and that is Inspector Gadget. He could whoop her butt any day of the week. Here are my reasons why he is better that Bionic Woman:
V.S.
V.S.
Bionic Woman: ‘shady government agency’ team-mates.
Inspector Gadget: smart kid and cool dog side-kicks.
Bionic Woman: digital scanner eye thing.
Inspector Gadget: Swiss-army knife and then some, all in one finger.
Bionic Woman: can run really fast.
Inspector Gadget: helicopter in his hat.
Bionic Woman: regular transportation.
Inspector Gadget: his own ‘mobile’.
Bionic Woman: nemesis- various social mis-doers.
Inspector Gadget: nemesis- Dr. Claw, head of the MAD organization.
Bionic Woman: absent ‘talented’ (shameful).
Inspector Gadget: absent minded (hilarious).
Bionic Woman: boring (shameful).
Inspector Gadget: bumbling (hilarious).
Bionic Woman: catch phrase-“Whaaah, whaaah, I’m confused (morally and intellectually), and I’m not the 7 million dollar woman, I’m 50 million dollars!”
Inspector Gadget: catch phrase- “Go-go-gadget (whatever you want- he’s got it)”
Bionic Woman: dramatic and serious (done badly).
Inspector Gadget: funny and silly (done well).
In conclusion, animation takes dominance on live action in this case. The bumbling cartoon detective is pretty much better than her in every way. So every one, let’s hear it: “Go-go-gadget good T.V. show!”
That’s all I can muster tonight folks. Go-go-gadget get work done!
T
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
The Homework has Come-eth, with a Vengance
Today is busy. School went from 10:30 to 3:00, then work from 4:30 to 1:00. Last week being fall break I did not have any classes, and the classes seemed slower than usual right before. And now I know why. The professors (in all of my classes) did not want to start the new (and harder) material and then have all of us go away for a week. Now that classes are back in, they (the professors) are a week behind from where they wanted to be. Needless to say, when it rains it pours. Last week I got so bored I almost couldn’t see straight, and now I’m into homework up to my eyeballs. Either way my sight is compromised, so please pardon my white academic cane. And last night when I had copious amounts of time to do most of this homework, the professor didn’t post the stuff online like he said he would, so now I have to do most of it while I am here at work till 1am. It’s irritating, and believe you me I will leave a very poor review of the course when the time for feedback comes. Other than that all I can do is 'just do it'. Here is the lowdown on school the last couple of days:
Modern Optics I & II- a hard shift of gears, we are moving from Geometrical Optics to Physical Optics. The major difference between the two is how you treat light. In Geometrical Optics it is treated simply as a ray, which makes optical systems much easier to deal with, especially when you only have to deal with a few lines on the optical path length. Physical Optics is the study of the wave-like nature of light, and the different applications of. When you have harmonic waves with the electrical and magnetic fields coming out in different ways (all orthogonal to each other and the optical path length) it allows you to study effects like polarization in great detail. However, if you had this treatment of light in Geometrical Optics, you would easily have a seizure.
Calculus III- Linear differential approximations, tangent planes to surfaces with gradients and higher order Taylor polynomial approximations in multi-variables. (I know, that’s what I thought too, we’ll skip this for now and save it for another day)
Lab for Physics for Scientists and Engineers II- well, I think my competent lab partner has departed the course (withdrew), so for the time being I am stuck with the same jackass as before (remember the one that argued with the TA over a simple calculation error for TWO hours?). His name is John Paul Something-or-other. Sounds like a Pope right? So I have dubbed him Pud John Paul Jackass. Fitting I think. He wasn’t as bad today, but I was able to do almost the entire second section of the lab by myself, in the time it took him to do one simple equation. I also encouraged him to ask people around us if he had a question rather that engage the TA in another pissing match. He would ask me a question, I would answer, and of course my answer had to be wrong (it was not) and we would ask around, get the same answer, then finally bitch at the TA because ‘it didn’t seem right to him’. Beating my head against a wall would be a more productive few hours, or in a way that’s kind-of what the class has become with him around.
Music of the day- more like the last couple of days, the song “Brick Windows” by Ministry (honestly it’s been that song pretty much over and over), mixed with some KMFDM. It’s kinda hit my mood just in that perfect way. Nothing more than aimless acoustic aggression, or an industrial, politically motivated sexually charged booty shakin’ head bangin’ good time. Aah, toe-tappin’ violence is usually the best way to work your way through a bad mood in my opinion. You might have other ways I’m sure, so to each his/her own.
I would love to vent and/or write more- but I really have to get to work and study. Good night and a pleasant tomorrow every one.
T
Modern Optics I & II- a hard shift of gears, we are moving from Geometrical Optics to Physical Optics. The major difference between the two is how you treat light. In Geometrical Optics it is treated simply as a ray, which makes optical systems much easier to deal with, especially when you only have to deal with a few lines on the optical path length. Physical Optics is the study of the wave-like nature of light, and the different applications of. When you have harmonic waves with the electrical and magnetic fields coming out in different ways (all orthogonal to each other and the optical path length) it allows you to study effects like polarization in great detail. However, if you had this treatment of light in Geometrical Optics, you would easily have a seizure.
Calculus III- Linear differential approximations, tangent planes to surfaces with gradients and higher order Taylor polynomial approximations in multi-variables. (I know, that’s what I thought too, we’ll skip this for now and save it for another day)
Lab for Physics for Scientists and Engineers II- well, I think my competent lab partner has departed the course (withdrew), so for the time being I am stuck with the same jackass as before (remember the one that argued with the TA over a simple calculation error for TWO hours?). His name is John Paul Something-or-other. Sounds like a Pope right? So I have dubbed him Pud John Paul Jackass. Fitting I think. He wasn’t as bad today, but I was able to do almost the entire second section of the lab by myself, in the time it took him to do one simple equation. I also encouraged him to ask people around us if he had a question rather that engage the TA in another pissing match. He would ask me a question, I would answer, and of course my answer had to be wrong (it was not) and we would ask around, get the same answer, then finally bitch at the TA because ‘it didn’t seem right to him’. Beating my head against a wall would be a more productive few hours, or in a way that’s kind-of what the class has become with him around.
Music of the day- more like the last couple of days, the song “Brick Windows” by Ministry (honestly it’s been that song pretty much over and over), mixed with some KMFDM. It’s kinda hit my mood just in that perfect way. Nothing more than aimless acoustic aggression, or an industrial, politically motivated sexually charged booty shakin’ head bangin’ good time. Aah, toe-tappin’ violence is usually the best way to work your way through a bad mood in my opinion. You might have other ways I’m sure, so to each his/her own.
I would love to vent and/or write more- but I really have to get to work and study. Good night and a pleasant tomorrow every one.
T
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Tales From The Lagoon
Today wasn’t much fun. Just worked. So let’s fill in everyone on yesterday. From Russia with Love and I went to Lagoon. It was packed solid, nothing but wall to wall people. We didn’t think that it would be that crowded, especially on a cloudy and cold October afternoon. We got in a total of 6 rides in 6 and a half hours. The lines for even the stupidest rides were snaked across the park. The new ride ‘Wicked’ was fun at least. Well, sort of fun. The ride has a fun point (the first point) where you go straight up, curve around, then go straight down. That was cool, but that was all it really had to offer. The rest was just a regular (and very short, the ride was supposed to be 2 minutes, but it was a grand total of ‘over before it started’) roller-coaster that the park has too many of already, and all of them very much the same. They would be better off spending the money on fixing the crap they already have. We also went through the haunted house, which has very fun. I love haunted houses.
Even though we paid about $25 to stand around for 6 hours, it was nice spending all that time together, which we don’t get to do much of these days. The people watching was excellent- it was like a cast party for the freaks of The Hills Have Eyes. My favorite was a toothless mullett bleached platinum blonde in a bandana and crappy leather jacket. Classic.
And I also got to make a guy so mad I thought he was simply going to pop. We decided to get some ice cream, so we went to the concession stand (which was void of people behind us at first) and ordered a twist on a waffle cone. Neither one of us had any cash, but they do take cards. Here comes the hilarious part- the girl didn’t know how to work the card-swiper machine. The line behind us began to grow as the look on her face became more and more befuddled. At first she thought that it was my card so she gave it back to me and that’s when the doofus behind me let out one of those irritated ‘grunts followed by a sigh’ that I hate so much, and obviously loud enough intended for me to hear. So what did I do? Made the process take as long as possible, and loud enough intended for him to hear. And I made my enjoyment obvious enough, also intended for him to notice. As his face grew redder and redder, veins bulging from everywhere that they could and then some, I thought “screw rides, I could do this to him for a few hours and walk from the gates of the park in a euphoric trance”. Ahh, good times.
We went back to my house, then to Village Inn for some food and called it a night.
Tomorrow school starts up again, so I will keep you all posted on how that goes.
T
Even though we paid about $25 to stand around for 6 hours, it was nice spending all that time together, which we don’t get to do much of these days. The people watching was excellent- it was like a cast party for the freaks of The Hills Have Eyes. My favorite was a toothless mullett bleached platinum blonde in a bandana and crappy leather jacket. Classic.
And I also got to make a guy so mad I thought he was simply going to pop. We decided to get some ice cream, so we went to the concession stand (which was void of people behind us at first) and ordered a twist on a waffle cone. Neither one of us had any cash, but they do take cards. Here comes the hilarious part- the girl didn’t know how to work the card-swiper machine. The line behind us began to grow as the look on her face became more and more befuddled. At first she thought that it was my card so she gave it back to me and that’s when the doofus behind me let out one of those irritated ‘grunts followed by a sigh’ that I hate so much, and obviously loud enough intended for me to hear. So what did I do? Made the process take as long as possible, and loud enough intended for him to hear. And I made my enjoyment obvious enough, also intended for him to notice. As his face grew redder and redder, veins bulging from everywhere that they could and then some, I thought “screw rides, I could do this to him for a few hours and walk from the gates of the park in a euphoric trance”. Ahh, good times.
We went back to my house, then to Village Inn for some food and called it a night.
Tomorrow school starts up again, so I will keep you all posted on how that goes.
T
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