Adam Hinz: The Blog
Again with the plt
On 2008-09-07 at 9/07/2008 12:58:00 AM...
Jens Lekman - Black CabI'm back with this PLT Scheme web server. I had a few hiccups, which are now somewhat ironed out.
First, I found out that I was actually using an old version. PLT is up to 4.1, but Ubuntu's repository is still at 3.5 something. I've got 64 bit Ubuntu, and I ended up download the version here: http://download.plt-scheme.org/drscheme/plt-4-1-bin-x86_64-linux-f7-sh.html.
The 32-bit installed fine, but it wouldn't cooperate with the mysql shared library files.
Mysql. Ugh.
Lucky for me, someone already wrote wrappers for interacting with it. I got them here: http://software.pupeno.com/mr-mysql. It needs to load libmysqlclient.so, which exists on my machine as libmysqlclient.so.15.0.0 (not sure why), but a symbolic link fixed that.
Next problem was actually spitting out the content from the database. Getting the data was easy enough with the mysql library, but the web server insisted on escape my html. That is, every > was turned into an >, etc. Kind of annoying. Finally, I found this page that offered a solution: http://www.cs.brown.edu/pipermail/plt-scheme/2006-March/012349.html. Throw in a (require xml) at the top of your module and wrap your data with (make-cdata data) and you're all set.
"Will! Grab me a continuation!"
On 2008-09-02 at 9/02/2008 12:31:00 AM...
Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling StoneIt's very lonely in my apartment, but I find ways to cope with it. Like right now, I'm feeding my old interest in continuation-based web development. I've heard about it for a couple years now, mainly that Paul Graham used it in his million dollar online store thing, but I honestly had no idea what it is.
So I explored. This is more or less a log for myself to look back on in case of schemnesia (I should copyright that...).
I have only worked inside of Petite Chez Scheme (and Chez Scheme, when it was available on IU's computers), so learning a new implementation was a bit of an adventure.
PLT-Scheme seems to be the current leader in this. From what I gather, PLT-scheme has these three parts.
1) Mzscheme - the main scheme implementation. Has a command-line interface.
2) DrScheme - GUI for building modules/programs. Apparently you can draw little squares and circles, too.
3) PLaneT - repository for scheme code. You can browse it, copy a line of code, and the library will be downloaded and loaded in for you.
Installation was easy enough with Ubuntu's Synaptic package manager.
To get started, you need to start the web server.
> sudo plt-web-server
I think the sudo is necessary in order to write to the log files (since PLT was installed under sudo). I haven't confirm this, but when run without sudo, it spits out a bunch of crap about "can't write to [blah]."
The files you'll be working all sit here:
/usr/lib/plt/collects/web-server/default-web-root
Take a look at the example servlets (a servlet is simply a web application). These sit in the above directory under servlets/examples. The add.ss is pretty easy to work through.
(module add mzscheme
(require (lib "servlet.ss" "web-server"))
(provide (all-defined))
(define interface-version 'v1)
(define timeout +inf.0)
; request-number : str -> num
(define (request-number which-number)
(string->number
(extract-binding/single
'number
(request-bindings (send/suspend (build-request-page which-number))))))
; build-request-page : str -> str -> response
(define (build-request-page which-number)
(lambda (k-url)
`(html (head (title "Enter a Number to Add"))
(body ([bgcolor "white"])
(form ([action ,k-url] [method "post"])
"Enter the " ,which-number " number to add: "
(input ([type "text"] [name "number"] [value ""]))
(input ([type "submit"] [name "enter"] [value "Enter"])))))))
(define (start initial-request)
`(html (head (title "Sum"))
(body ([bgcolor "white"])
(p "The sum is "
,(number->string (+ (request-number "first") (request-number "second"))))))))
The coolest thing here is send/suspend. It's kind of a call/cc for web programming. It takes one argument, which is a procedure taking one argument (k-url) representing the next url (the continuation url, so to speak). k-url is used as the action of the form.
The rest of the things here are just handy procedures for grabbing variables from the form, which relieves a lot of the annoyingness of other languages. This immediately grabs me as really, really cool. My intuition says that I would be writing an application in reverse. That is, assuming I have all the data, I would figure out what to I do with it. Then, I would work out how to get the data. In the mean time, gluing all the steps together comes for free.
From what I've read, the real beauty of it has to do with the user's browser actions. If they are working through a web form, open a new window with the same page, and submit both forms, they will continue without noticing each other. In php or python, you would have to deal with session variables interfering with each other. Here, a new browser starts a new instance of the continuation, and any new variables assigned are saved only in the scope of that continuation.
blog day
On 2008-04-21 at 4/21/2008 02:16:00 PM...
"What was that weird look about?"
"I realized that I wasn't actually listening. Then I had to replay what you had said in my head and come up with a response. It happens a lot."
I'm ready, are you?
On 2008-02-27 at 2/27/2008 06:53:00 PM...
Kimya Dawson - SleepHere's how this post is going to go. I'll start off writing about how great college has been to me, how I feel like I had an all-around good 4-year experience, and how I have never been more ready than now to graduate and move on. After that, I'll transition into a pesky rant about my roommates. Hopefully I'll feel better after this. I hear it's not emotionally healthy to bottle things. Shaquille "Kazaam" O'Neal knows what I'm talking about.
But first, I'll lighten the mood with an idea I had last night:
"I wish I could hypnotize people. After hypnotizing someone, I would command them to hypnotize everybody else. Eventually we'll have a world of walking zombie people mindlessly wandering around."
I'm graduating this May1, and my whole attitude has changed since around Christmas break. Before Christmas, I absolutely loved school. I could see myself staying in academia, filling myself with interesting facts and knowledge for the rest of life. Sounds pretty great (minus the tuition). In that frame of thought, grad school seemed like the logical thing to do. I could keep on going to school and keep on living the college lifestyle.
Like I said, my attitude has changed. I feel like I have outgrown the life of a college student. I know longer feel the urge to drink until passing out. Playing games like beer pong and Kings bore me. I don't like to go to the bars unless they have a good pool table or the Big Ten Network.
I was completely conscious of the change in outlook. I've talked to one of my roommates about it, and he can relate. He went to school here, and then went home to help take care of his family. Now he's back in Bloomington working two jobs. He told me how strange it was to come back to Bloomington. He said it was almost as if nothing had changed; he just threw himself back into the life of college kids (to a lesser extent, mind you). He says my whole deal is can probably be attributed to reaching a new level of maturity. Great, exactly what I was afraid of.
The bottom line is that I am very much ready to graduate and start my real life. It's a bit weird. I used to be afraid of starting real life, but now I can't wait to complete this part. I'm not even afraid, either. I'm confident that I can find a good job in a great place. I'm not afraid of moving to some other part of the country and starting fresh. Actually, I'm very much looking forward to it. At the career fair a few weeks ago, a company representative asked how I felt about relocation. I said, "That's one of the reasons I'm talking to you in the first place."
I feel like a part of it is due my friends here. Everybody is still so involved with the college life. I absolutely do not hold it against them. As stated above, that used to be me. I'm just ready to move on, or at least channel my energy elsewhere. I think even my roommates contribute to a bit of it in part. I spoke with one earlier today, saying, "Hey, haven't seen you in a while. Seems like you spend all your time in your room. Are you feeling ok?" He responded with, "Oh, you know, sitting in my room playing video games, trying to figure out what to do with my life." How am I supposed to respond to that? I think I just walked away.
At this point, I was originally going to rant about how nobody in my house does anything about dirty dishes. We just bought a "new" dishwasher, but apparently it had gone unnoticed because of the stack of dirty dishes in the sink. I complained a bit to one of my roommates yesterday, and since then they've been cleaned. That was going to be my rant, but since I started writing this entry last night, it seems kind of pointless now. I'll just finish with the a thought I've written on here before: sometimes I feel like the mother of the house, and that sucks. That's another thing contributing to my urgency to graduate and move on/move out. I'm sure t here's a parable2 about this somewhere.
That's more than enough for one entry. Who wants to read my whining anyway?
1. Reminds me of a joke my Dad told me once. I was working on a vocab test for English class in elementary school, and I asked him what "dismay" meant. He told me, "Well, this May we're going to Atlanta, and next May we'll be staying home."
2. Reminds me of another joke my Dad told once. My little brother was working on a vocab test in elementary school, and he asked what a "parables" are. He said, "It's when you have a bowl here and another bowl here. It's a pair of bowls. Or, it's when you have Michael Jordan and Scotty Pippen. You've got a pair of bulls."
I was attacked by a spork bomb.
On 2008-01-17 at 1/17/2008 12:36:00 PM...
Kimya Dawson Loose LipsJoe: What are you doing?
Me: Reading Slashdot
Joe: I hate Slashdot. It is such a waste of time.
Me: Isn't that the point?
4 guys 20 cups
On 2008-01-09 at 1/09/2008 11:03:00 PM...
Watching the Daily ShowLast night, my roommate Dave and I won seven straight games of beer pong. It was a pretty memorable night. I've never played that many games in one night, and of course have never -won- that many in one night. Around midnight, however, the news came in, and we lost for the rest of the night.
Hillary and McCain won New Hampshire.
We lost the next two games horribly. My concentration was gone, and so was my game. You know what else was gone? My hope for America.
At least Jon Stewart is back.
Stereotypical Bitch Blog Post
On 2008-01-04 at 1/04/2008 05:03:00 PM...
My phone broke again. I'm on a family plan with Cingular (The NEW!!! AT&T), and we just reactivated our plan in April. We also got new phones. I picked the Sony Ericsson Z525.
In September (just five months with my new phone), the display died. All that showed up was a solid white screen. The phone still worked; I could make and receive calls, but I had no idea if I had a missed call or who was calling. And, of course, my address book was completely useless.
It was still under warranty, so ordering a replacement was easy enough. Life carried on.
Well, while in Arizona over break camping out before the IU bowl game, the display died again. Exact same thing as before.
I called Cingular (the NEW!! AT&T), and after waiting on hold for 3 minutes of going through the system, 5 minutes of waiting for an operator, being transferred, going through the system again, 5 minutes of waiting, one minute of dialing which went to a busy tony, redialing the number, through the system again, and 6 minutes of waiting, I finally reached an operator.
I'm still under warranty, so I will be getting a new phone. Actually, it's a refurbished phone of the same model. I asked if I could get a different model, because this is obviously a recurring problem, but they said I have to go through three (3) warranty phones before I can change models. By my calculations, this phone will die in 4 months, just in time for my 1 year warranty to expire, and the phone company will screw me over.
All I can hope for is that my POS phone dies before April.
Silly Windows
On 2007-12-18 at 12/18/2007 02:38:00 AM...
Beta Band - The House SongI just fixed my IP problem.
When I ran ipconfig /renew I got the following error:
An error occured while renewing interface local area connection 3 : The system cannot find the file specified
Microsoft's solution was to run:
netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt
And if that didn't work, do a repair install of XP (what I just did).
Google's second result was much better:
Get to the computer manager (right-click My Computer->Manage->Services)
Make sure DHCP client starts automatically.
Start the client if it hasn't already.
Turns out the DHCP client wasn't even on. Silly Windows.
The next thing I did was unplug the ethernet cable. Since I repaired windows with a SP1 version of XP, I have hereby declared this computer unfit for Internet usage. Hopefully it can survive just long enough to backup whatever hasn't been backed up already, then I can just format this beast. It needs it; my brother has lots of crap on here that's bogging it down.
Just when you think you know it all
On ...
Brendan Benson - Just Like MeIf there's one truth about going home, it's that computer problems await me. I'm our family's resident techy guy, and it usually results in at least one call a week from my Mom.
A couple weeks ago she called about her computer not booting up. She described a screwey screen with jumbled letters (which we reproduced tonight, here:
)Luckily, I was able to boot into safe mode, so the first thing I did was back all her pictures, documents, and emails. Next, I tried a repair install. I've never done this before, but how hard could it be?
About halfway through it complained about not finding a file on the cd: licwmi.dl_ (even though there was a licwmi.dll right in the root directory). A little google work got me to this:
http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread51919.html
and son of a gun it worked. The steps are reproduced here for my own sake:
"So, here's the solution: I did this based off of http://support.microsoft.com/kb/818464. I rebooted off the Windows install CD, and hit R to go to the repair console. I then proceeded to delete c:\windows\security\edb.log. Then I rebooted the computer without going into the CD, and let the Windows installer continue (where in previous reboots it complained of not being able to copy files again). Once the installer loaded up, and before it could complain of not copying (which it would take about 5 minutes to get to), I hit Shift + F10. In the command prompt, I typed "esentutl /p c:\windows\security\database\secedit.sdb". And then I deleted c:\windows\security\edb0000x.log. And this time, there was no complaint of inability to copy files. Yay!"
The only thing I didn't do was delete the edb0000x.log file because it didn't exist.
So now I'm running a newly installed and barely-usably slow XP Home on the machine.
Now for some reason it can't grab an ip. Stay tuned!
anything python can do, scheme can do better
On 2007-12-16 at 12/16/2007 10:07:00 PM...
Jens Lekman - A Man Walks Into a BarI started learning Python today just for the hell of it, and I found out you can access the last items in a list with a negative index. I thought, "shit, I bet Scheme can do that just fine," and here's my solution:
(define list-ref-a
(lambda (ols n)
(letrec ([list-ref-n-help
(lambda (ls count k)
(cond
[(and (null? ls) (> (- n) count))
(error 'list-ref "index ~s is out of range for list ~s"
n ols)]
[(null? ls) 0]
[else (let ([res
(add1
(list-ref-n-help (cdr ls) (add1 count) k))])
(cond
[(= n (- res)) (k (car ls))]
[else res]))]))])
(cond
[(>= n 0) (list-ref ols n)]
[else (call/cc (lambda (k) (list-ref-n-help ols 0 k)))]))))
i want mo motown
On 2007-12-12 at 12/12/2007 04:08:00 AM...
Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through the GrapevineAfter running a software update, Firefox started crapping out. It would freeze and turn completely grey, but after a minute or two it would return to normal.
My guess was that it had something to do with Flash. I (mistakenly) used this script to install it:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=476924
It was a mistake because I got my names mixed up (I thought 7.10 was Feisty Fawn). Therefore i ran the script, telling it that I was running Feisty Fawn. After that, Flash worked great in Firefox.
Later, Ubuntu tells me that nspluginwrapper is out of date. After updating that, I started getting the grey out that people have talked about.
My solution was to remove nspluginwrapper with Synaptic (and probably any other flash-related packages installed) and run the script in the thread above. Then, avoid the new update for that damn plugin wrapper
Flash Gordon
On ...
The Temptation - My GirlThanks to the great Ubuntu people, I now have Flash working for Firefox. The Automatix version didn't work at all (a known issue, probably should be fixed).
At the forums, someone made a script to install everything:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=476924
And the video I watched to test it: The Temptation - My Girl
i play in the river
On ...
Credence Clearwater Revival - Bad Moon RisingAs expected my Iriver works great in Ubuntu. That firmware upgrade just might be the greatest thing ever (except sex).
ubuntu x64 pt 2
On ...
Conan O'Brian and some annoying animal kidAfter restarting, ndiswrapper apparently did not start automatically. I re-ran these two commands, and hopefully I won't have to do it again:
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
sudo ndiswrapper -m
I might have had a typo on the second command the first time (I think I typed a instead of m. I should sleep).
Holy crap, this animal kid on Conan has a little baby two-headed turtle.
Back to the story.
Next, I installed Automatix. It was absolutely as easy as could be. I found lots of fun stuff to install with that.
After that, Ubuntu told me it had updates to download and install, and that took about 15 minutes.
Next, I'm installed gnome-compiz-manager from synaptic. Now I have more control over some of the fun gnome stuff, though I still think wobbly windows is annoying. It gives me a headache. I do like the rotating cube.
Ubuntu x64 pt I Section A v. 1
On ...
I installed Ubuntu x64 on my new desktop today, and so far so good.
I installed drivers my Netgear WG311v3 wireless card first. It was pretty easy because I already had the windows drivers. I followed these directions exactly:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Device/Netgear_WG311_v3
I was sure to grab the 64 bit version of ndiswrapper.
Wireless worked immediately. This was so much easier than my old d-link card.
Next, I wanted to install the drivers for my Nvidia card. Ubuntu makes this easy with their restricted drivers menu option. Unfortunately it didn't work the first time. It complained about not having nvidia-glx-new enabled. I figured it wasn't even on here, but it should be in the repository. The solution was to enabled the restricted repositories in Synaptic. Then, in the restricted drivers window, hitting "enable" downloaded the packaged and installed.
Now all I have to do is restart. Be back soon.
em pee tree pwayer
On 2007-12-10 at 12/10/2007 10:25:00 PM...
Jens Lekman - Pocketful of MoneyIn my continuing saga with XP x64, I present my most excellent solution on how to get my iriver ifp-890 mp3 player to work.
I was still using the original firmware that came with it (part of the "if it ain't broke" mentality). Unfortunately, the drivers from the website did not agree with my fresh new 64 bit operating system.
I rad read some time earlier about someone who hacked this mp3 player to make it appear as any other usb storage device. Turns out it wasn't a hack at all, but instead a firmware upgrade from iriver.
Lucky for me, I still have my laptop which works (if I didn't have that, I'd probably fail miserable at getting anything working). I downloaded the firmware here:
http://www.iriver.com/support/down_view.asp?idx=832
and followed their instructions here:
http://www.iriver.com/support/faq_view.asp?idx=252
It was almost too easy. Now my mp3 player shows up as any other usb storage device, and I can drag and drop files right inside of explorer. Plus, this as the added benefit of most likely working with Ubuntu right out of the box.
I got 64-bit problems but a bitch ain't one
On 2007-12-08 at 12/08/2007 08:56:00 PM...
I just built a new computer. My old one was, well, getting old, and I need a new project to work on. I ordered everything off of newegg.com (I'm reusing my hard drives, monitor, and wireless card). Here's a quick rundown of the setup:
Intel Core 2 Duo
2 GB RAM
ASUS P5N-E SLI Motherboard
Nvidia 512 MB something-or-other
black case with a bug honkin' fan
First things first, I had to backup my main hard drive. I've done this a couple times in the past, and luckily I've adopted the habit of saving everything personal in My Documents. That helped. Using my old hard drive, I was able to boot into Ubuntu (but not XP), and backup worked fine after remounting my hard drives.
Next I restarted and popped in my XP cd. It installed no problem, but when I tried installing my Dlink 520e wireless card, it complained about a memory conflict. My best guess was that with 2 GB of ram and 512 MB memory card, XP might be having trouble allocating memory address to everything. The only thing I knew to do was try out some 64 bit operating systems.
Lucky for me, IU's CS department has an awesome deal with Microsoft that lets me download tons of software for free. It's called the MSDN Academic Alliance, and through that I downloaded XP 64-bit version.
I burnt it to a cd and booted up, but I ran into another problem. When the XP installer tried to format my hard drive, it game me this error:
Setup Cannot Format the Partition
Your computer may not have enough memory to examine the drives, or your windows CD may contain some corrupted files.
Well crap. About an hour of Googling found me this site:
http://www.planetamd64.com/index.php?showtopic=8567
Apparantely this cd doesn't always work on CD-RW drives, but it will work fine in DVD drives. I popped the cd in my DVD-RW drive, changed my boot order, and lo-and-behold it worked.
Install went fine, and soon enough I was running XP x64. I ran into some problems with the cd my motherboard came with. The autorun program would crash when I ran it. Instead, I browsed the cd and ran the installers manually.
Next I tried installing my Dlink wireless card. The installer ran fine, but the drivers did not work. Turns out this card is just old enough for Dlink to not care about writing 64 bit drivers for. Seems my only solution was to buy a new wireless card (no reason to go back to 32 bit now because I'll probably run into the same problem).
I ran to Best Buy after watching IU kill Kentucky. I found on Best Buy's website a Dlink card that definitely had 64 bit drivers (and worked automatically in Ubuntu!), but of course the store did not have it in stock. I took a gamble on the cheapest Netgear ($45) and ran home. Just my luck, Netgear doesn't like 64 bit either. Lucky for me, planetamd64.com came through again:
http://www.planetamd64.com/lofiversion/index.php?t28765.html
Turns out the chip manufacturer for Netgear is nicer than Netgear, and after downloading this driver, it worked just fine:
1. Go to:
http://www.skd.de/e_en/support/driver_searchresults.html?navanchor=&term=typ.treiber+produkt.SK-54C1&produkt=produkt.SK-54C1&typ=typ.treiber&system=
2. Click on "Download" for "SK-54C1 Windows XP and 2000 x64 driver".
3. Accept, download, extract.
4. Install Driver.
5. "Continue Anyways"
6. It Works!
With wireless, I can finally start downloading Windows updates. I'm currently grabbing SP2 (I downloaded it on my laptop while running other updates, because I'm fast like that).
This is more of a note to myself, because I will likely have to do this again some time in the future. Let me know if any of this info was helpful.
After XP is fine and happy, I'll start working on Ubuntu (64-bit baby!)
more on time
On 2007-11-19 at 11/19/2007 02:05:00 PM...
I've always thought that the line between excessive laziness and brilliant efficiency is very thin. Wow, that's about as cliche of an introduction as I can think of, but it'll have to work for now. Block's a bitch.Last night, I had the worst temporary case of ADD ever. I absolutely could not concentrate. Part of it was due to the events of the past week (which I will hold off on writing about for a little bit), and part of it was just finally having some time to myself to do what I want (play guitar, watch the The Office and Scrubs).
The plan was pretty simple: study for about an hour for my midterm, make my cheat sheet, go to bed and get some much-needed sleep. The actual night was equally simple: play guitar, watch those TV episodes, play more guitar, read some stuff online, IM a little bit, drive Tony home, finally study for about an hour, decide "screw it, I can finish tomorrow."
The funny thing is, I really could finish it the next day. I knew I had time after my MIDI quiz (for which I quickly learned the material 1 minute before the quiz) because after the quiz we can leave class. And it was perfect. I found a seat in the library jotted down the notes from the assignment, and went on to my Hendrix class.
Even in my Hendrix class, I further used my time efficiently by asking a neighbor for the notes from last week.
I feel like this whole college thing is too easy. It's all just a system of tricks and a little time management, and it's no longer a challenge.
I guess it's a good thing, because I can start doing the things I really want to do.
O(n^3) wtf
On 2007-10-19 at 10/19/2007 12:39:00 AM...
On Wednesday, I experienced matrix-matrix multiplication three times. First, I continued work on my MPI implementation of this algorithm. Next, for my database class, I implemented a PL/SQL script to perform matrix-matrix multiplication on a database table. Finally, I went to a lecture my friend Sarah gave on her summer research, which involved (you guessed it) a faster algorithm for matrix-matrix multiplication based on Strassen's method.
I could do this stuff in my sleep
"It's easy to play crappy blues."
On 2007-10-15 at 10/15/2007 01:12:00 AM...
Jens Lekman - Your Arms Around MeNo good story doesn't have a conclusion (except the Sopranos), so let's wrap things up.
Mr. T finally came home on Thursday, and that night we settled everything bill wise. I somehow figured out all the numbers of what was paid and what wasn't. Now I can sleep at night.
We also talked about the transfer of bill paying; that is, I will now be responsible for all utility bills. We're doing that stuff on Monday.
I am so relieve to have worked all of this out. After our conversation, everything seemed so much less tense. I feel like a weight of unknown happenings has been lifted and destroyed. This whole bill business didn't come up for the rest of the weekend (and it didn't have to).
This story ends here. Everything is wrapped up, straightened out, and squared away.
Until next story, a trailing comma
You only give me your funny paper.
On 2007-10-08 at 10/08/2007 10:36:00 AM...
Sigur Ros - Svefn-G-EnglarThe fastest way to end a friendship with me is to let money get in the way. Case in point: current roommate situation. One of my roommates (who shall rename anonymous on these Internet airwaves; let's call him Mr. T.) has done almost as much as he can to make bill payments as difficult as possible lately.
The friction started at about the time of my last entry, when our power got shut off because of a late payment. You can understand how annoying it can be to go without power (especially when you've got homework to do and tests to study for). If this sounds like petty whining, just wait. It gets better.
As of last month, we now have to make our rent payment as a single check (as opposed to five individual checks, like we've done for the past year). I don't want to sound insolent, but I don't want to depend on my roommates to write a check that big on time every month. Therefore, I volunteered to write the check. I realize that this means I might go a few days without a good sum of my money, but I trust my roommates to pay me back.
Meanwhile, Mr. T. told each of us the amount we owed for this month's utilities. Maybe a day later he had to leave to New Mexico to help his brother move. The day before he left, he asked each of us for a check for the utilities. That same day, I asked for a check for the rent. Let me put it this way: we all payed him what we owed, and I got jack shit.
In addition, Mr. T. still owed me a couple hundred bucks for when the gas was shut off and we had to pay a huge deposit.
Mr. T. has been gone for about 10 days now, and on Saturday in the mail I got two disconnection notices. Apparently both the cable and water bill have not been paid. I tried calling Mr. T., but he didn't pick up his phone. He also never called back after leaving a voice mail. All I wanted to know was what bills were paid and what weren't. I was especially worried because getting either service shut off means an additional charge for turning it back on.
This morning I went to both the water office and cable office, found out that the ballances I had were correct, and paid them off.
I'm so frustrated right now. I hate what happens when you trust somebody and they let you down. Right now, I feel like I'm the only one who's doing anything responsible, but I'm also the one getting screwed over financially.
Like I said: the easiest way to end a friendship with me is to let money get in the way.
Life Update
On 2007-09-26 at 9/26/2007 05:27:00 PM...
It's been an eventful week or so, and we're only at Wednesday.Yesterday I picked up my bike from ye olde bike shoppe on Kirkwood (that's not the name, but Sam should get a good laugh). The Cassette on the rear wheel was shit after sitting a couple years in the rain, and finally got to the point where it didn't even spin. The guy estimated the repair to be about $70 ($25 for new cassette, $20 labor, $15 for new chain (if necessary), $20 labor). I thought it was a little high, but I've had the bike for so long I didn't mind. I picked it up Tuesday, and it is great. Plus, it didn't need a new chain, so it only cost $35. That's a steal if you ask me. I'm very happy with this place.
I stayed at clusterfuck challenge until about 8:45pm then rode home on my newly repaired bike. When I got home, all the lights in the house were out (which is weird because in a house of 5 people, usually at least one person is home). I walked in and candles were lit on the kitchen table. I thought someone was trying to pull some sleazy seduction thing on somebody, but turns out it was because the power is out. Not surprising, considering we had a storm come through today. But wait, the neighbors' lights are on. Uh oh.
Turns out my roommate who's in charge of the bills didn't get a payment in on time, and today they came buy to shut us off. Talk about suckage. I still had about 50 assignments to grade by the next morning, so Brandon and I went over to Sam's and camped out in her living room to do homework. The power company was supposed to come by today and turn us back on, but I just tried pinging my router without any luck.
Oh well, at least I have a new-feeling bike to ride to campus on. I rode to the Union to get some breakfast (I'm afraid to open any of the refrigerators in our house right now), and when I used my key open my bike lock from the handlebars, the damn key broke right off. The teeth of the key was still in the lock, and I couldn't get it out. Instead of leaving it there, I took my bike to my shared Lindley Hall office for safe keeping.
Breakfast, last bit of grading, class, class.
After class, I returned to Lindley, handled a few business things concerning basketball tickets, and rode over to the same bike shop on Kirkwood. I asked if they could break the lock on my bike, and the said no problem. It was great! He just pulled out these huge pliers and cut it right off. Plus, I was already at the bike shop, so I bought a new lock right there ($15).
I had about an hour to kill, so I caught up on some reading for my Hendrix class, then went over to the RITS office. I told them I needed to stop working until at least January because I need more time for preparing for grad school. My boss was fine with it and understood completely, but I still have to give a 2 weeks notice (starting today). This extra time on Mondays and Wednesday will be great to have. Rather than not getting home until 7:30, I will be getting home at 2:30. It's the right move.
Ok, that covers everything. I am free of self-information.
constructor invocation, what's your method
On 2007-07-13 at 7/13/2007 11:54:00 PM...
Snow Patrol - How to be DeadI love it when I learn new things.
A couple weeks ago I discovered Java's Class, Method, and Constructor classes. I didn't have any use for them at the time, but I lodged them into the back right corner of my mind.
Tonight, I was trying to think of a better way to deal with the 'phantom' data for my layout manager. Basically, a phantom is a string assigned to a GUI object that tells it how wide to be. If a text field was to accept a phone number, you might give it a phantom of "555-555-5555", and the width of the field would be wide enough to hold exactly that many characters.
The code is enough. Grab the original text, set the text to the phantom, calculate the size, restore the original text. The problem is with Java's type system. Before calling getText or setText, you have to cast it. The original code (before I arrived) had a series of else-if statements for all the different types that we might want to use phantoms on. I originally did it this way for ease and laziness, but it always kind of bugged me.
Well, today I fixed it all up, and the result is pretty slick.
- try{
- try{
- size = child.computeSize(SWT.DEFAULT, SWT.DEFAULT, flushCache);
- }
- }
It still uses exceptions, which I try to avoid, but there's no way around it this time.
new wave rock
On 2007-06-30 at 6/30/2007 06:20:00 AM...
Stevie Wonder - For Once in my LifeNew haircut, new design. It feels very clean.
Here's the source (it's worth taking a quick look at):
main.ss
All the other files can be found from this main file.
first.fm?
On 2007-06-26 at 6/26/2007 02:25:00 PM...
The Shins - Weird DivideIt's funny how with Last.fm, you can't listen to your own station, yet you can listen to anyone else's station. The simplest solution? Log out and start listening.
Hit with a car mirror
On 2007-06-09 at 6/09/2007 05:28:00 PM...
Stephen Malkmus - 1% of OneSeriously, dogs are the most annoying animals alive. Our neighbor's dog has been barking at absolutely nothing for the past hour and a half.
This is NOT what macros are for
On 2007-04-03 at 4/03/2007 06:06:00 PM...
#define ONE 2
IU beat Illinois
On 2007-02-10 at 2/10/2007 03:35:00 PM...
Fancis Dunnery - Good LifeYesterday (Friday) was an amazingly good example of great day engineering. What is day engineering, exactly? It's the perfect planning and execution of a day.
It went down something like this.
9-11am teach c211 lab
11:15-11:45 run at hper
11:45-noon lunch at union
noon-2pm grading c211 notebooks
2-3 study group for b401
3:30-5:30 stupid rits meeting
5:30-6 finish grading
went home
6:30-9:30 nap
10-2am hung out with some friends at the house
2-4am watched "walk the line" and finished compilers assignment
It was just a beautifully executed day. I had actually made a list of all the things to do that day, and one by one, in the exact order, everything got crossed off.
Here's to a beautifully lazy Saturday.
The D-Bags among us
On 2007-02-08 at 2/08/2007 07:23:00 PM...
The Arcade Fire - InterventionThe Douchbag of the Week Award goes to: annoying kid in my compilers class.
The highest of high honor is awarded to this slugmanhorse for publicly announcing his douchbaginess to the class not once but twice this week.
Exhibit A: The P423 message board. One student posted a clever pseudo-scheme program asking where the professor was after nobody showed up after 20 minutes; he even managed to pay homage to some of the greats in the cs department. Enter DOTW. He replied to this message with the following:
Your code will error... "variable loction is unbound" line 26 *or 26 newline characters down*
He obviously didn't get the joke.
Exhibit B: Thursday's lecture. After posting to the message board again asking if the assignment is still due on Sunday (to which no one had replied), he came to class to ask the same question. Dybvig answered straight-forwardly "yes," and this douchkanouch cockily said "ok!" and immediately got up and left the room. I don't have a problem with people leaving early, but the way this terdnugget did it was both rude and annoying.
So that's why this fagrabbit wins the award this week.
Procrastinator's Dilimma
On 2007-01-29 at 1/29/2007 09:48:00 PM...
Phantom Planet - Nobody's FaultSo, you just realized that the assignment you're reading up on is due two days later than you previously thought. Do you continue reading it so you'll have more time to study, or do you blow it off until the night before?
Well, I AM at a laundromat, so I guess I'll keep reading.
The toner's, they are a-changin'
On 2007-01-28 at 1/28/2007 07:58:00 PM...
I am officially calling it right now. I am in a groove.A what?
To me, a groove is when you can accomplish multiple critical tasks in a timely and effecient manor. I am like a well oiled machine churning out homework, teaching classes, running miles, hosting movie marathons, and shooting hoops. And I'm not slipping.
However, getting in this kind of groove is impossible if you're not ridiculously busy. It's harder than ever to find time for myself when homework partners and study groups are relying on your participation. No bother though. As long as I get a few minutes here and there to relax and play guitar, I am absolutely fine.
It's a groove. You dig?
subtitle
On 2007-01-17 at 1/17/2007 05:30:00 PM...
I think teaching is just a very grand way of saying "I know more than you do."The Ralph Waldo Emerson of Party Rock
On 2006-12-05 at 12/05/2006 12:34:00 PM...
David Gray - White LadderWithin the last two days (ending last night before midnight) I spent a total of 12 hours working on an assignment. That's 12 hours within a 27 hour period. It went down like this:
Sunday
9:30pm Walk into the Burrow at Lindley and begin work. No previous work has been put into the assignment.
Monday
4:30am Leave Lindley and drive home
5:30am Go to bed
12:00pm Wake up for class
1:25pm-2:15pm Physics
2:30pm-3:45pm OS
4pm-5pm AI meeting
Dinner
5:45pm-7pm Design Patterns
7pm-11:30pm Final run wit the assignment.
It was quite an endeavor.
I think this assignment is the best C programming I've ever done, and I'm very proud of it. I feel like I've never been this good at C before (although why would I know yes...).
I'm pretty much done with the semester. That was the last big assignment, and it's pretty much free-riding until Finals.
supid fears
On 2006-11-27 at 11/27/2006 01:01:00 PM...
Dandy Warhols - SolidI went to my old high school today to see two of my old math teachers.
It's strange, that even after leaving high school, I still get a little scared walking around the halls without a hall pass.
adjust my monitor
On 2006-11-21 at 11/21/2006 02:46:00 AM...
Pete Yorn - AliveI just finished writing a paper about the anti-mafia pool led by Falcone in 1983, and it prompted me to look up the definition of 'pool.'
My dictionary (WordWeb) listed eleven (11) definitions for pool:
Nouns:
1. An excavation that is (usually) filled with water
2. A small lake
3. An organization of people or resources that can be shared
4. An association of companies for some definite purpose
5. Any communal combination of funds
6. A small body of standing water (rainwater) or other liquid
7. The combined stakes of the betters
8. Something resembling a pool of liquid
9. Any of various games played on a pool table having 6 pockets
Verbs:
1. Combine into a common fund
2. Add together, as of resources
Anyway, I thought it was interesting how one word can have so many different meanings. It's a little lame, I know.
Thinking about the future when I look back
On 2006-11-20 at 11/20/2006 04:38:00 AM...
Radiohead - Paranoid AndroidWhile spending 8 hours in the Burrow coding may seem like a long time, I think looking back they will be some of my most memorable moments at IU.
late night post with Conan O'Brien
On 2006-11-17 at 11/17/2006 04:45:00 AM...
The Beatles - Oh DarlingAnother late night. I've been having trouble sleeping lately, and I'm in a generally down mood. But this is normal for this time of year; as the weather changes and it gets colder, so do I (wow, that was a little too emo). However, these slumps usually pass after a coule days. Thanksgiving is going to be great.
Anyway, time for a story.
People who know me well enough to know me know that I tend to take a somewhat arrogant posession of musical tastes. While I think that is kind of a harsh statement, there is some truth to it. For example, I tend to think less of somebody if they regularly listen to, say, the new Justin Timberlake CD (sorry Josh), or if they regularly listen to music that put you in a loving trance that make it possible for all white boys to dance, (techno, not ben folds, sorry Kolski), or if they regularly listen to super heavy metal based around 3 power chords (sorry Brandon), or if they listen to, oh hell, Dave's musical tastes are perfect.
So yeah, call me elitist. It's my flaw, I'll hold it.
Well, last week at the beginning of my physics class, I heard two people talking about what one guy called "progressive rock." I think Dave is the only one who will find the humor behind the term "progressive." The other asked him what he meant by "progressive rock," and his response was "Pink Floyd," or the song "Baba O'Riley," or "The Shins." This is a class that I prefer to lay anonymous, so I just sat pretending to read the paper and continued to listen.
The guy explained that progressive rock is music that tries to stray away from the mainstream. He also gratefully explained that any music that is mainstream, that follows the normal mainstream formula, is utter crap and should not be given any consideration whatsoever. The other asked something along the lines of "what if an indie band becomes popular. Would you still listen to it if it's in the mainstream?" His response was that he would if he started listening to it before it was popular.
Class begins, end of discussion.
The thing that kills me about this conversation is that I know for a fact that I have had this about a hundred times. And everytime I am the arrogant snobbish ass who is telling everybody else that their music sucks and mine is the best.
I think hearing the conversation from a third person's perspective in turn put the whole idea of musical eliteness into a new perspective. What is that perspective? That it's retarded.
Stop being a music snob. Nobody likes you.
night
-adam
¿Dónde is it?
On 2006-11-01 at 11/01/2006 04:46:00 AM...
[music] Belle and Sebastian - Stars of Track and Field4.5 hours, two mountains dews, and a handful of java, and I'm done for the night. Unfortunately, I may have overshot it with the caffeine, so I'll be up reading for a while.
Happy All Saint's Day! ?
new designs, "eat it, Al Gore!"
On 2006-10-30 at 10/30/2006 11:48:00 PM...
[music] The Beatles - Oh DarlingNew design! Whenever I get tired of doing "real" programming (read: Fluency), it's surprisingly relaxing to design a website. Plus, this is probably the best css design I've ever done, if that means anything.
Whenever I do this, I always think about how I'd want to write my own CMS, written in Scheme of course. Lame, probably.
Continuing with continuations
On 2006-06-24 at 6/24/2006 01:52:00 AM...
[music] The Beatles - Kansas City (Hey Hey Hey Hey)My Awesome function of the day:
(define until
(lambda (in c k)
(cond
[(null? in) (cons (k '()) '())]
[(equal? (car in) c) (cons (k '()) (cdr in))]
[else (until (cdr in) c (lambda (v) (k (cons (car in) v))))])))
(until '(#\a #\b #\d #\& #\c a b c) #\& (lambda (v) v))
=> ((#\a #\b #\d) #\c a b c)
Hinzy out
That's like saying "you don't like apples, so you don't like any fruit at all."
On 2006-06-22 at 6/22/2006 04:29:00 AM...
Scheme/JS interpreter news: I think the bottleneck is in my read function. I forgot how deeply recursive that thing is, and javascript just cannot do it (apparantely, this is especially true in IE).Ideas:
1. CPS the read function? Then maybe trampoline it. I really don't want to do that.
2. I could also try and write an imperative version of it. That's actually how I originally tried to tackle it, but it didn't work so well.
3. Snakes on the plane?
In other news, I've been thinking about the relationship between xml and a scheme list. I was thinking that you could easily represent xml structures as scheme lists. Turns out the people at LAML already did that, but I thought "what the hell" and quickly made my own brief version. I'm not going to upload it now. But I will later.
Anyway, in addition to my summer research project, I've been thinking about programming for the web in a functional language, like Scheme, and right now it seems like it would make a lot of sense. Thankfully, other people seem to think so too (read: paul graham). Also I think that LAML implementation has a cgi module for running Scheme programs through a web server. I think I will attempt that next week.
The Great and the Typical
On 2006-06-19 at 6/19/2006 05:33:00 PM...
[music] Caesars - Out Ther'eMy new favorite place to get any work done is at the Union in a room I call the "Grandeur Living Space." It's one of the quietest places I've found, with the exception of a trashcan being pushed by a janitor every 15 minutes.
It also has a whole slew of couches, chairs, and (get this) desks! Some of the desks even have lamps.
The couches are arranged in "meeting formation," that is, they are facing each other, so if a group project was the goal, it could be accommated (assuming a low noise volume).
It's a very fancy room. There are picture frames on the wall, mini-chandeliers, and grand arched windows. The walls are hard-wood with designs in them. One of my favorite areas, the part with the working fireplace, is actually walled with limestone.
The white baby grand piano is also a nice touch of elegance.
As I said before, I like this room. It's very fancy, air-conditioned, and most of all, it's very, very quiet. That's why I was surprised today by the huge number of people congregating here today.
Did I say people? What I meant to say was old people.
What's so bad about old people? After all, they are the "Greatest Generation." When I think of old people, I think of my grandma quietly sitting in front of the TV watching Columbo (at an inaudible level) and quietly doing a crossword people. I swear I have never heard her raise her voice louder than, say, 60 dB (not that I measure that or anything).
That's why I was surprised to find myself trying to drown out the small talk of 50 congregating old people in the library-like atmosphere.
Actually, the sound didn't bother me. I can usually find a way to ignore what's going on around me (headphones, fox news). However there's one thing that cannot be avoided: Interaction.
I have to admit, I was a bit surprised when one of these old people tapped me on the shoulder to ask me what I was doing. I may have even jumped.
"What's that you're studying?" inquired the curios old guy.
"Oh, I'm just doing some reading," a typical vague answer for me, but in this case it was true. I was reading about poison ivy. Did you know scratching it doesn't actually make it spread because the urushiol is already embedded in your skin. Scratching does cause to you run the risk of infection, however.
"Are you taking classes for the summer?"
"Actually I'm doing research for a professor...(insert my generic description of what I'm doing, even though I know he's already disinterested)."
"Now what are you studying?"
"Here? Computer science."
"I see. Are you taking any classes?"
"No, just the research."
"And where are you from?"
What is with this guy and all questions? Why can't he mingle amongst his fellow old people?
After an awkward silence or two, he wandered away. Good. I can now return to whatever it was I was working on. What was it? Poison ivy, that's right. I wish that old guy would get poison ivy. Did you know if you eat it, you could get a rash inside your throat and die?
A few minutes later, wouldn't you know it, the guy reterned. I hesitantly pull off my headphones and give him my attention.
"Do you know who this guy is?" he said, pointing to a head-statue of Wendell Lewis Willkie.
"No..." I said, with a slight laugh.
Cue old-person-behavior.
"It fascinates me how much there is to know. Whatever it is you're researching...computer...that you can do this research here and not know the history of this place."
Um.
He continued, "Willkie ran for president. Did you know that? He ran for president against Franklin Deleno Roosevelt in, well, I don't remember the year. He was a lawyer, had a Phd in law, or something."
Another awkward silence. This seems to be my best defense.
"Well, good luck."
At this point, all the old people in the room start filing away into a sideroom in the adjacent hallway.
Within two mintues, my favorite room is restored to its peace and tranquility, quietly waiting to house another army of old people.
Unplug the revolving fan
On 2006-06-02 at 6/02/2006 09:50:00 PM...
[music] Belle and Sebastian - A Century of FakersIn my elementary school health class, I was promised broad shoulders when I got older. Did I miss something?
Although, shoulders can be too broad. I once saw a guy with square shoulders. I wouldn't want to be that guy.
A bitchin' song?
On 2006-05-16 at 5/16/2006 01:26:00 AM...
[music] some bitchin' song on WIUXa quote:
Hey Adam,
I saw that you called, and I'm sorry I haven't reached you. Here's the deal. My mom has all of a sudden become concerned about me living with a boy for the summer, and I'm having a pretty serious battle with her about this. I want to live with you guys, and I've got nowhere else figured out. I'm sorry that this has only now become an issue, and I'm trying my best to convince her to let me live there. Gah. I'll let you know ASAP when more happens.
(name removed to protect the innocent*)
P.S. How much do I need to pay you?
And that's the last I've heard from her. Apparantely it's un-hip to return calls these days. It's so difficult to keep up with the latest phone-etiquette trends. I guess anybody living in the "too cool for school" Collins is able to keep up with these kinds of things.
The issue isn't even about the money. Yes, the money is important, but what bothers me more is the let down of someone I thougt was a friend. You think you know somebody...
Well, it's also about the money. Let's just say there's two sides to this coin.
The most interesting parts of the story have yet to happen. Honestly, I'm looking forward to awkwardly bumping into her at the library. Of course, the only reason for this is because I feel I have the upper hand, and frankly, I never knowingly have the upper hand.
What will I say to her? "Hey, you remember that one time," as too many of my dialoges begin, "You remember that one time when you backed out of a living arrangement a week before you were supposed to move in, leaving me with no time to find a roommate, and making me and my brother pay for an empty room in our house?" Awkward silence, then my all too natural ability to change the subject, "What's that you're reading? Emily Brontë? How very hip."
But then what would she say to me? I'm sure an attempt at an apology would occur. I'm not so sure how it would be received. It depends on how good it is (insincere? maybe, but I'm upset).
Forgiveness comes to mind at this point. Whether or not I'll forgive her is still up in the air. I'm usually pretty big on forgiving people, and I don't normally hold a grudge. For some reason that's not the case here.
Our friendship is up in the air as well. It doesn't make sense to remain friends with someone who one day talks to you and the next day doesn't, leaving you to wonder what went wrong.
What have I learned? Apparantely, nobody can be trusted. Not even "friends."
I never thought friends needed to sign contracts.
What an innocent thing to do.
Adam
*from here on the word "innocent" shall be used in place of "bitch"
Who am I kidding? Socks are hilarious
On 2006-05-02 at 5/02/2006 04:08:00 AM...
[music] Wir Sind Helden - Wenn Es PassiertI'm proud to announce progress on my scheme/js interpreter. Go me!
Biggest step: Applications of more than one argument. That's right. Kick ass. I know. I've been thinking about how to do this for, I don't know, about 4 weeks, maybe? So you can imagine the feeling. Whew.
With that working, I started thinking about the built-in procedures, and I decided rather than write them all myself, I'll make a program to make them for me. So I wrote a small scheme program that takes a scheme define expression and generates the javascript necessary to create it. That only took about 10 minutes (I even changed it from printing to the standard out to return a string--all within that 10 minutes, yes, I certainly do rock).
Give it a try, but be patient. I'm still disappointed with the speed. What the hell?
-adam
p.s. is it 4am?
progress and congress
On 2006-04-19 at 4/19/2006 10:03:00 PM...
[music] Sigur Ros - HoppipollaRather than do the things I should be doing (homework, grading homework, reading...), I decided to put some more work into my Scheme/JS interpreter. And wouldn't you know it, I made reached 3 or so milestones.
First, I added define. That's a big step, as recursive programs are now possible for people like me who don't understand poor-man's recursion.
Second, I add +, -, and *. What made this unusually difficult? They can take an arbitrary number of arguments. yay!
Third, while writing +, I think I came up with an idea to handle lambdas of more than 1 argument.
How about that?
-adam
We might as well
On ...
Imagine you are watching someone who doesn't know you're watching. Now imagine someone doing the same thing to you.Eleven dollar shoes
On 2006-04-17 at 4/17/2006 02:35:00 AM...
[music] Whiskeytown - Not Home AnymoreI wish I went by a name that was actually a shorter version of my real name, like Dan is short for Daniel. Names like these are useful because it enables the person to add an extra layer of sophistation to his identity.
For example, my brother's name is Andrew, but he always goes by Andy. If he wishes, he could start going by Andrew, and I guarantee people would respect him that much more.
Going by your longer name also adds an extra level of maturity to your character. Take Dan from above, for instance. As a kid, he went by Danny, then in middle school he prefered to be called Dan, and now he's working at some big corporation and he's Daniel, director of ad sales in the lower midwest.
Thanks to my parents, I don't have this option. Adam is not short or long for anything. Adam is as mature as I'm ever going to get.
I talked to my parents about it today, hoping for a bit of sympathy for giving me such an unchangeable name. My Mom suggested I start going by Adam Jeffrey or A. Jeffrey, just for a little change. I wan't too impressed with her idea, and after thinking about it, she told me not to do it.
So I guess I'm stuck with what I got. Like I said, this is as mature as I'm going to get.
Productivity is a math term
On 2006-04-13 at 4/13/2006 01:18:00 AM...
[music] none, that's strangeMy ultra-productive mode continues this week for a record-breaking 9 days in a row.
Today I read the chapters of Wuthering Heights that I have to have read by Friday, and I finished my 343 assignment that is due Tuesday. What is the deal?
Right now I'm wondering how much longer I will be in the zone. There's only 2 and a half weeks of school left, and things are looking pretty damn good.
Socks? Those are easy.
On 2006-04-11 at 4/11/2006 01:35:00 AM...
[music] Ben Folds Five - UndergroundCheck it out. Did you notice the new design? I finally made the move to actually learn a bit of css, and do my best at this whole content/design separation model. I guess it works out fine. Hopefully everything loads faster.
It all feels very trendy. I think it's the most trendyesque site I've ever made. I dare not say the W 2 word, but with all the white/green/bluespace and the freaking huge letters, I feel I've succombed to the bowels of another buzzword. Next thing you know I'll have tags, mashups, ajax, and whatever the hell else is trendy.
cheerio,
-adam
Empty Shoelace
On ...
[music] Coldplay - We Never ChangeAhhh...I feel so fresh.
I thought I would stretch my CSS muscle and redesign this thing. Whaddaya think?
I have new bodywash that makes me smell like green apples.
"Silly geese."
On 2006-02-17 at 2/17/2006 01:04:00 AM...
[music] Beck - Go It AloneSo much for updating this more often. Just want to make a quick comment.
I think it's interesting how self-conscious I was as a kid. I remember one time my Aunt Carol found out I peed without lifting the middle lid, and she was telling me that when girls go they have to sit down. I wanted to say that I sat down to, but only when I pooped. But then I thought that if she knew that, she wouldn't make the comment in the first place, so I started to question myself. Am I supposed to sit when I poop? Am I doing it right? How could I know?
And for my sake,
ARBOR-trary trees.
I should be writing my paper
On 2006-01-25 at 1/25/2006 02:57:00 PM...
Just a little update.I'm going full throttle into spring sophomore semester. I think this is going to be a good semester, although last semester was pretty good too. I know a lot more people in my CS classes, so I think I'm more likely to speak up with questions/comments.
I made up my 2 missed finals last week, and I think I did really well. I'm still waiting on those other grades.
On an obscure note, I hate people who say they listen to "pretty much anything." That is wrong. I know I sometimes (often) act like a music elitist asshole, but people who say they listen to "pretty much anything" are wrong. Chances are, they like pop and hip-hop. Before anyone says to me "yeah and I bet you say you like pretty much anything" I will stop you right there. There is a shitload of music out there I cannot stand and will not listen to, but I suppose that comes with the territory of being a music elitist...asshole.
-Adam
Playing with Ketchup
On ...
[music] The New Radicals - Someday We'll KnowSo I'm looking at my last post and realizing I haven't chronicled my adventure in this blog yet. So a copy from my livejournal again becomes necessary.
Originally posted December 28th
greetings from Paris...still
I'm sure most of you knew that I was spending my 3-week vacation on a tran-Europe site-seeing beer-drinking extravaganza, but I'm sure none of you know how my trip is going. So here is an update.
(brief)
You probably knew that the week before the trip I was feeling like a lot of crap. I had seriously bad abdominal pain and even more serious diarrhea (I always imagined a coal loader dumping coal onto a train, or the levee breaking in New Orleans). I struggled through my first final monday morning (only doing about 3/5 of it), but by Tuesday I felt better and took 2 more finals. By Tuesday night I was sick again and Wednesday was spent either in bed or on the toilet. Thursday morning I went to the IU med center, and they said it was most likely my appendix. I went to a surgeon who confirmed it (he was so sure, a CT scan wasn't even necessary). My appendix was taken out Thursday afternoon and I was home by Friday afternoon. I was feeling fine as my doctor had prescribed codine for the pain, and he said there was no need to cancel my trip. Great news! He also recommended the American Hospital in Paris if I had any problems. So I packed and left for Europe.
I won't go into all the details yet, because there are a lot, but I will give you the jist.
We got to London Sunday morning and found out my luggage was still in Chicago thanks to a strike from the United workers. We took the chunnel to Paris that day and checked into the hostel at about 9pm. We went out to find food, but I was not too hungry.
The next day we were all set to explore Paris. We went to the Louvre, which is very amazing and very very huge. After about an hour at the Louvre, I got the exact same symptoms I had before trip. I was more than a little concerned. I ended up going back to the hostel before everyone else and slept/pooped. At around 5am I went downstairs to buy some water (my diarrhea made me dehydrated to serious conditions). The guy downstairs said I should probably go the hospital, and I agreed.
So we took a taxi to the American Hospital, where they said I probably had a gastro infection. I would have to stay for at least a few days so they can pump antibiotics into me. They didn't know exactly what it was, so they give me a general gastro antibiotic. After 2 days there was little improvement. Two stool samples, a rectal exam (yes, a rectal exam, but it gets better), and a CT scan later and they tell me I may have Crohn's disease. At the time I didn't know what it was but, it is a very very serious disease. I would have probably had to change my diet for the rest of my life.
They were still not sure, but they decided the next course of action was a colonoscopy. For those of you back home who don't know what a colonoscopy is, it's when they stick a camera right up your ass and look inside you. My parents told me that back in the states they always give you a little anestesia so you don't have to deal so much with the pain of a metal rod up you butt. Apparantely in Paris they don't. Instead, they gave me a cube of sugar to bite on. That's right. A sugar cube. I bit the bullet, and it was sweet.
Aside from the constant excrutiating pain of the colonoscopy, it was still pretty cool watching the monitor. I seriously could see inside my bowel. I also saw them take a biopsy from inside me. Attached to the camera is a little claw, and you can see it shoot out and pinch off a little sample of tissue. And yes, it hurt.
The good news is that thanks to the colonoscopy, they made a great diagnosis. Clostridium Difficile, or C-Diff. Right after I type this out I will look it up on Wikipidea. I'm still not sure of the exact details, but I think clostridium is a bacteria in your bowels that helps digest food, and I either had too much or too little (probably too little). More research is still needed. The great news is that it is totally treatable. I took 4 Flaxyl antibiotics a day (plus 2 potassium tablets to make me more healthy), and a constant IV pumped the nutrients I wasn't getting, and within 3 or 4 days I was feeling fine.
I just got out of the hospital today. I stayed a total of 8 days there. My friends stayed an extra 1 or 2 days in Paris, then flew to Barcelona (I was not upset, I would have done the same. Also my the exact details of what happened on what day are a little hazy). Plus, on Christmas I got probably the best present I could have asked for (other than a fun eurotrip). My parents managed to fly here to Paris to help me out. I'm sure it is costing them a hell of a lot (not to mention the hospital bills, thank God our insurance covered most of it). Just knowing they were coming helped me eat at least 3 more bites of food (that was another symptom, no appetite. I probably had eated a total of 6 meals during finals weeks).
So my trip is a bit of a bust, but at least I am now healthy. I asked the doctor how serious it could have been if they did not catch it, and he said they would have to do surgery to cut away the linings of my bowels. They were very very thick.
I'm coming home early, but not without seeing a few more sites with my parents. I still hate travelling with my parents (my dad gets upset too easily, and they both like to shop), but I am extremely glad they are here. They rescheduled my flight back home, found me a flight to London, and just having them be here with me means more than I could every say.
And so, I hope all of you had a better Christmas than I had, and hopefully we can meet up before school starts again. I'm flying home the 30th, and I'll be back in Anderson the 31st.
So long! See you soon! Auvoir! and MERCI for reading
Adam
"It's kind of folky."
On 2005-12-12 at 12/12/2005 10:57:00 PM...
[music] Old 97's - Designs on YouAdam's 24-hour West Nile Avian Monkey Flu Story
Ahh...finals week. I love finals week. Well, obviously I don't love finals week, but there are certain things I do like about it, such as only having to be in a class room 5 times this week. However, a little sickness can really put a damper on what would otherwise be a splendid week of testing.
And so the story begins...
Yesterday at approximately 5pm, I started to feel a little ill. I felt like my stomach was being squeezed, and I was suffering from diarrhea about every 10 minutes. It felt better to lie down, and I ended up sleeping until 8pm. Then I woke up, pooped some more, and went back to sleep until 10. By that point I knew I was pretty sick. I didn't have a fever, however. Andy gave me some Immodium, and I went with Sharon to Kroger to get some sprite. After getting back around 12:30 I went back to sleep, but not for long. I woke at least 5 times in that 6 hours of sleep. I even woke up at 4am just as Andy was getting out of the shower (he was working a promotion in indy). I took my temperature at about 5am and it was at about 99.6. Just under a fever. I slept until 7:15 with my light on (don't know exactly why), then woke up for my 8am final.
This final sucked. Three times during the test I got up and went to the bathroom. The teacher asked if I was ok, I simply said no. I managed to answer all but the last question, and by the 3rd trip I'd decided I was done. I turned in my test and went home.
I was also supposed to help proctor the c211 exam, but I emailed in to say I was sick. She understood.
I pretty much slept form 11 to 6. I watch several episodes of "Home Movies" and one episode of "David the Gnome." Sharon and I also watched an episode of "Scrubs." By about 8pm I started to feel better. Now, it's past 11 and I can feel myself getting better. I have to finals tomorrow, but I should be ok. In astronomy, I think I have a 93 even if I don't take the final, and Beatles will be easy.
That will do it for me.
So long and happy poops!
-adam
"She's so heavy."
On 2005-12-07 at 12/07/2005 11:53:00 PM...
[music] The Beatles - Here Comes the Sunfuck computer science.
I'm going to be an artist.
Communist Optometrist
On 2005-12-05 at 12/05/2005 12:49:00 PM...
[music] King Harvest - Dancing in the MoonlightIt's 27 degrees outside, and there's a little ice on the ground, but other than that it's a beautiful day!
I've been kinda down the past week, but I'm much better now. I'm excited for a good party this Saturday (4 december birthdays), and I'm even more excited for the Euro trip. 2 weeks! I can't wait.
I believe that is all for now.
So long!
Adam
p.s. I love picking the right music for the day: King Harvest - Dancing in the Moonlight, Sublime - What I Got, Phish - The Connection, Sgt. Pepper's, White Album (disc 2), The Band - Music From Big Pink, and Snow Patrol.
On 2005-11-18 at 11/18/2005 10:34:00 AM...
[music] noneThis is actually a continuation of my post from Tuesday.
I took my calc3 test, and it went really well. After that was astronomy, which was a bore. Then I went into the computer lab to work on my programming assignment. Before I even start, someone comes in and says there is a tornado warning, and we all had to cross over to Swain. That lasted about 15 minutes, and after that I came back and finished up my lab (completely, yay!). Then it was Beatles class, which was a amazing as always. We started talking about the White Album. After that, I walked over to Penn Station and finished off the day with a cheese steak.
The end.
-adam
"Rock on...anybody."
On 2005-11-15 at 11/15/2005 12:09:00 PM...
[music] Iggy & The Stooges - Search and Destroy (from the Life Aquatic Soundtrack)How about an update, hmm?
I tend to write in this blog whenever I feel significantly well or significantly crappy. Lately I've been very near the middle. Kind of an emotional purgatory, which I'm fine with. Hence the lack of updating (and my overall laziness). Well today has started out crappy, and in the interest of recording any significant feelings I have, I'm going to write about it. Enjoy!
I have a calc3 test in about an hour, and as is typical test behavior there is a sequence of events I must take in order to achieve success. I have a plan, and if this plan is interrupted, I shall become crappy.
First step: lucky shirt. Ben Folds t-shirt. On. Check.
Second step: eat breakfast. Choice? Cereal. But wait, there are no bowls. Although I've become the only one to do dishes (as I washed several pans yesterday), no one bothered to clean any bowls. I wouldn't have minded on any other day, but I have a test today. Things must go right.
Third step: don't rain. Well, not much control over that one. It's raining like a mother.
Fourth step: carry an umbrella. We only have 2 umbrellas here for 3 people, and Andy left literally 4 minutes before I did. Slightly pissing me off.
Fifth step: go to 211 meeting. Well, I got there (in the rain) and nobody else is there. I mean nobody. Out of like 8 people, I was the only one there. So I'm like fuck this and come home.
Sixth step: well...I guess that was all the steps.
But 1/5 isn't a good sign. Luckily I'm not terribly worried about the test. It's just memorizing a few formulas. But still...
I blame the rain most of all. Makes me miserable
|-----------------------|
In other news, last Monday I "pulled or strained a rib muscle" while running. I went to a med-check center and now I'm on some muscle rebuilding/steroid medicine for 2 weeks. Also, I can't drink alcohol, but worst of all I can't run. This is fine, as I probably need a break (from both), but not 2 weeks of break. I'm just hoping there's no permanent damage. I will probably not do 10 mile runs for a while.
that's my news
so long!
Adam
pee
On 2005-10-23 at 10/23/2005 08:47:00 PM...
Sharon is a poop mouth"Just let me know."
On 2005-10-05 at 10/05/2005 12:12:00 PM...
[music] Bob Dylan - A Hard Rain's A-Gonna FallUsually I don't notice things. I mean all the time. My roommate Sharon talk about the kind of impression certain people make on her, like first impressions, that I for the most part didn't even notice. I don't know...I can't think of an example. I think I'm just too naive to notice lots of things (naivity is a common and overly used word used when describing myself). Well, today I noticed something.
I don't know...maybe that paragraph had nothign to do with what I saw, but I'd like to write about it anyway.
I was walking about to cross a street, and a car stopped and waved for me to pass. Common practice. Well, as I'm about halfway across the street, and a car on the street on which I am parallel runs straight through the stop sign. No one was in the street, no one hit or anything, but I was just thinking that if I hadn't crossed the street, that car probably would have pulled out and been hit by the stop sign-running car.
I just thought it was interesting. I can't help but think of it spiritually, that something made me cross the street at the perfect time to prevent and accident. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but maybe not. In a way, it was kind of uplifting, and I could tell my test-induced-quasi-depression was slightly uplifted, which is good.
I should be studying.
So long!
Adam
"It's $1 pint night at Bear's...I'm usually very against drinking before class, but it's Beatles." - Acupicture2! Updated
On 2005-10-04 at 10/04/2005 11:31:00 PM...
[music] Radiohead - Talk Show HostSomewhat of a crappy day, leading into an even worse week, and then into an excellent weekend.
I had my calc 3 test today. It wasn't that it was had, but it was way too long. Luckily the teacher recognized it, and said we can depend on a nice curve. That's good, but I was still rushed. I'm not sure how well I did. We'll see.
Tomorrow I have my c241 (Discrete math) test, and that will no doubt be a bitch. Average will probably 60%...it will suck
Then on Thursday I've got an astronomy test. It shouldn't be too hard, because most of it can be deduced logically (hopefully), but I will no doubt have to study like a bitch.
I've also got office hours tomorrow, adn i haven't even looked at the assignment I'm supposed to be helping them with.
With all that out and out of the way...last weekend was great. Saturday I went to Dave's, and Sharon came along, which was great. A good time was had by all. And that's all I'll say about that.
This weekend Dave's throwing another party, then Sharon, Andy, and I are going to to Winimac for the weekend (Sharon's home). We may stop at Indy or Purdue Saturday night.
So that's it!
So long!
Adam
"Are you watching? Are you?"
On 2005-09-26 at 9/26/2005 11:06:00 AM...
[music] Old 97's - King of All the WorldEvery once in a while you have a week that is unbelievable, where you can't believe you did as much as you did, and what you did. I believe last week was one of those unbelievable weeks.
This entry will be in reverse chronological order, and organized by day, sort of.
Sunday
I woke up Sunday morning on Kolski's futon with marker all over my body and my shoes off. Bryan and I had brunch at collins compliments of Morgan, and then we headed home. Bryan soon left, and I attempted to install the msp430 compiler on my laptop, failing. Sharon and I did our homework from probably 9pm until 2am, and then I went to bed.
Saturday
I ran the Hoosiers Outrun Cancer 5k race with Kolski and Ed. My time was 26:30, which I was happy with. After that I ate at Taco Bell to celebrate my good health.
Bryan and I ate at Laughing Planet, where I had an amazing quesadilla. We rode bikes around campus, and found free ice cream in front of the chemistry building, a latino festival, and a guy with a large soviet symbol on his bag.
That night Kolski's threw another party. I was sort of a "greatest hits" of the night before; all the people who didn't suck came back. I had 3 beers with Andy before leaving. Once there I had 2 more beers, 2 or 3 cups of jungle juice, half a beer, bonged the second half, threw up a little, drink another beer, had 2 shots of tequila, and spent about the next 20 minutes puking. Then I went to bed on the futon.
Friday
Bryan came down from Anderson to party for the weekend. Kolski/Clint threw a beach party at their house. I decided not to drink because I wanted to do well in the race on Saturday. I also was able to drive people home. There were a few girls from Purdue there, but they were being bitches to a few of my friends, so that was no fun. Meghan from Anderson showed up because she is friends with Kolski (I didn't know that), so that was both fun and exciting. Dave got a lapdance.
Wednesday
Andy, Morgan, and I drove to Chicago to see Sigur Ros. Amazing. I loved it. The music was outstanding; it's amazing that they can make it sound as good live as they do on recording. The only problem was that the audience totally sucked. There were always people getting up, and so when the entire row had to stand up. Plus, we were in the back near the door, so I was distracted everytime it was opened. The very worst part about the audience was during Vioar Vel Til Loftarosa. In the middle of the song the entire band and singer got completely silent. For about 4 seconds there was not a sound in the whole place. Then some asshole yells "yeeeaaaah!," and people dropped cups, and everyone was like "goddammit" and pissed. However, the shit audience failed to make me not enjoy the concert. I drove home.
Monday
Sharon and I drove down to Louisville to see her cousin Anna. There was an accident on I65, so we got off at this small town called Austin. It was seriously bumber to bumper traffic through this town, and all these people got out of their houses to watch the cars. It was really funny to see guys sitting in their yard drinking beer and watching the cars.
We had pizza with Anna and went to see "Transporter 2." Apparantely Sharon and Anna had to see it together. It ended up being a really fun quasi-road-trip. I drove home. It rained.
Looks like that's all. Long ass post due to me not wanting to write it.
So long!
Adam
On 2005-09-20 at 9/20/2005 03:24:00 PM...
[music] Astronomy teacherLast night sharon and I drove to Louisville to watch a movie with her cousin, and this Wednesday I'm going to Chicago to see Sigur Ros. cool? you bet
"Fire safety is not a laughing matter." Acupicture2! updated
On 2005-09-10 at 9/10/2005 04:56:00 PM...
[music] Oasis - Don't Look Back In Angerhmmmm
last night was a lot of fun. Dave, Josh, and Ed (Silas too, but he wasn't there (and Ed left early cos he's a douchbag (Well it was a funny story: "I was just talking with some people and next thing I know I'm in a car headed to taco bell."))) threw a party at their *posh* apartment. Was it good? Yes, it was good. Lots of beer, spode punch, and jello shots. yes, quite well. Most of hershey 3 was there, as well as plenty of other people. i ended up spending the night on the floor, which was planned. Around 5am the fire alarm went off for the entire apartment complex. Oh my god talk about the most annoying fire alarm. This real loud voice comes over the apartment "This is an emergency. Please evacuate the premises." Then loud blaring. So we drunkenly walked down 5 flights and outside with everyone else. So enough about that.
Oh one more thing: we went to waffle house at 3am. wasn't too bad
I remember there was soemthign else I meant to write in here.
well shit.
ok, that's all for now. No hangover today!
So long!
Adam
"Yeah, but can you play Day Tripper backwards? I can"
On 2005-09-02 at 9/02/2005 06:44:00 PM...
[music] Beatles - Day Tripper take 1(also in my lj)
Astronomy 100 - The Solar System
First off, I love astronomy. i'm not sure how many of you folks know that, but I like it a lot and have read a lot too. Anyways, I think I'm gonna like this class because number one: i like the subject adn number two: it's really easy. There's like no math at all. I probably won't even study for the tests. it's a big (and crowded) class, which sucks a little, but I can deal with it. So plus!
Music z-401 - The music of the Beatles
OH MY FREAKING GOD. This has to be the greatest class I have (and probably will) taken (ever take) (¿comprende?). Firt off, Beatles: all time favorite band. I grew up listening to them all the time. I remember my brother Aaron saying "man...have you listened to this one" and he hands my Abbey Road, or the White Album (I really do consciously remember him doing that, for both albums, on 2 separate occasions. brilliant). So of course I'm gonna love the class. Second, the teacher, Glenn Gass, is freaking amazing. I can't even begin to describe it. So I won't. maybe later
a few other notes, i suppose. I skipped my c241 class wednesday to see Coldplay in Columbus, OH. I drove with Ed, Dave, adn Josh, and was a blast. Hah! we left bloomington around 3pm thinkign the show started at 7:30, and about 20 minutes into the drive Josh realizes that Ohio is an hour ahead, so it's more like 6:30. I drove 85/90 the whole way. fucking A!
that's all for now. so long!
Adam
Snapping my fingers does not make me think faster
On 2005-08-29 at 8/29/2005 04:50:00 PM...
[music] The Beatles - Hey JudeSo I just got done with my first day of classes, again (you know, I'm no longer of freshman status). Unfortunately I can't say i'm as happy as I was last semester, or the one before, but more on that later.
South Carolina was alright, but there wasn't a lot to do because my cousin had to work every day. The last day we finally went to the beach (Isle of Palms, aka IOS). We played catch and I got a bad sunburn.
The flight home went without a hitch, despite the mechanics strike. In fact, I gave up my seat on an overbooked flight and got a voucher for a free roundtrip plane ticket. And I got home just an hour later. cool? I thought so.
Mom picked me up and we went straight to Bloomington because we had packed a lot of my stuff ahead of time. Unloaded it, got a suburban-load of stuff from storage to the house, then Mom and I went home. Next day loaded up the rest of my stuff and we moved everything into our new house (btw new house = excellent). 'Nuff 'bout dat, yo.
First week in Bloomington: great. Partied at Kolski's twice, drink some at teh house, and drank at Andy and Sharon's friend's house, even though he wasn't there, so we played poker with his roommate. Won $8!
Now for class summary:
C335 - Computer Structures
I can already tell this class is going to be great. The class is about the way computers process code, and it is centered around Goofy Giggles. cool? i thought so. Looks very promising. The worst part about the class is it's in the business school, a nice 25 minute walk to get me up for a 9:30 class. Oh well, can't complain to much. The lab is in one of the UNIX labs in Lindley. I think I'm actually at a little advantages thanks to robotics.
M311 - Calculus 3
OH CRAP! I already don't like this teacher. I guess he's new to IU, new to the midwest, and he talks with a lisp, which drives me crazy. He kinda doesn't seem to have a clear plan on how to teach the class. Also i think that he thinks we're all idiots, which if you're stupid enough to take Calc 3 you're probably pretty smart. We'll just have to see how this goes. The good news is we don't have class on friday, although it's on the schedule like that.
C241 - Discrete Math
OH CRAP AGAIN! The prof basically spent an hour and a half on a mix between topics covered and whhhhhyyyyy it's important to cs majors. I think he's really full of himself. Also, he plugged his 400-level class like 3 times on the first day. lame! The good thing is that friday discussions are not required. yay!
So that's all for now. I will try to update this mor often now that summer is over. Oh! I am a UI for C211, meaning I will be grading lab notebooks and holding office hours. Office hours!! how cool is that?
Adam's office hours
Wednesday 4pm-6pm
Lindley Hall Rm 112
so long!
Adam
wuh oh
On 2005-08-20 at 8/20/2005 12:30:00 AM...
[music] ConanSo the mechanics at Northwest Airlines went on strike, meaning I can expect delays coming home on Monday...well either delays or cancellations.
We'll see how that all turns out. Should be lots of fun
tiny update
On 2005-08-18 at 8/18/2005 11:59:00 PM...
[music] Roast of Pamela Anderson / Snow Patrol - Spitting GamesJust a small update on my SC trip...
Flying went very well. I had a slight delay on both flights (Indy->Detroit, Detroit->Charleston), but nothing major at all.
The detroit airport has a tunnel to get from Terminal A to B and C; it's less of a tunnel and more of a laser-light show. I'll put up a picture when I get home.
I fell asleep on the Charleston flight while we were taxying, and I woke up when we were in the air. That was weird. Enough about the flights...
First few days have been a little boring. Ryan works every day I'm here. Tonight we played basketball, which was fun. And in a few days we're going to a keggar/wrestle-madia watching party. I will be partaking in the keg more than the wrestle, which will make it fun.
That's all for now.
So long!
Adam