#politics Republicans have good ideas too. 14 October 1998

Read this. I am going to have to side with the "evil" Republicans on this one. School districts should be allowed to put money where they want it. Local schools cater to different people with different demands. They also are paying specific focus to special education... oh crap. Special education usually means the mentally retarded not the gifted. Well who knows, they might mean gifted.

This is a mistake.

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#computers In my time of need it comes to me, I call it Seagate! 14 October 1998

Seagate is horking me a new drive today! It's bein sent by Airborne Express's 2nd Day Air. Which is very nice. I'm happy. You see my current drive is being crowded. I also want ample space to rip CDs. Allen Hall's library has been touting their ample collection of CDs and they have stuff that's interested be, such as Moby. They also have Chemical Brothers and Nursat Fateh Ali Kahn. Well maybe not all in Allen Hall, but somewhere in the hall libraries.

I guess somehow we are going to get a lot of Transformer episodes among the minions of Allen Hall.

I saw Jack going smokey-smokey. I read a web page that talked about things you should not do in an online Journal, one was to refer to people by name unless you knew it was okay. I don't think this counts. I'm a bad bad man.

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#movies Hmm... 13 October 1998

No humorous things to document today. Jack was normal. Studied. Played a few games (not more than an hour while I was around). You know... normal college stuff. We got pizza... I am stuffed.

People, this Thanksgiving, go see Bugs from Pixar. It may look a lot like Antz from DreamWorks, but it should be a lot different. Pixar has had this planned at least since Toy Story came out. Peter Docter (story writer and supervising animator of Toy Story) wrote this when I asked about his involvement in the new movie, "I've done only bits of work on Bugs (about 4 mo.s worth) but rest assured it looks pretty awesome." I just thought the 4 months being "only bits" as being very funny. 3D animation is just so cool. That's why I like Molly Swanson, because one day she will make really cool 3D stuff.

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#friends More fun... 12 October 1998

 7:10 PM: Alan came into my room and told Jack to stop playing video
          games and to do his work.  Jack asked,  "Why?  I don't want
          to be a nerd."
 7:11 PM: Alan asks about my waveform and explain that it's a pattern
          I can lock onto rather than video game noises.  Alan laughs.
          Jack stops game and leaves room.
 7:13 PM: Jack returns and does something at his desk.  May be a form
          of studying.
 7:16 PM: Jack makes phone calls.
 7:18 PM: Jack is speaking Chinese to someone.  Outside room.  Cannot
          capture easily.
 7:21 PM: Jack is off the phone.  Back to desk.
 7:30 PM: Jack dons the headphones and listens to groovey music.
          Possibly Chinese in origin, or maybe Aerosmith.
 8:02 PM: Jack goes out of the room.  Curious about something.  Asks
          if someone is having a party.
 8:14 PM: Jack hears TV.  Turns his TV on and watches what the other
          TV has on.  Then turns his TV off.
 8:16 PM: Jack was called "Twinkle Toes" by Eric.  Jack goes outside
          and talks to him for a bit and returns all in the same 
          minute.
 8:23 PM: TV on to same show again.  I guess he needs the TV on to
          function.  Funny.  He isn't even looking at it half the
          time.  I think Aaron Engelhart may have clued me in as to
          why TV is so addicting.
 8:30 PM: TV off.
 He left for a while...
 8:58 PM: Back to TV and Video Games.
 9:02 PM: I was going to mention he kept the volume quiet, but no...
          sure enough he just turned up the volume.
 9:10 PM: White noise with only an alpha wave sync... umm turning that
          on at a low volume made him change his volume... lower I
          think.
 9:49 PM: TV off.
 9:50 PM: Out the door.
10:29 PM: I came back into my room after taking a Hot cocoa break.
          Someone smells smokey-smokey...
10:31 PM: Back onto the playstation.  SF probably.

One day he'll find these logs, and I will pay. Oh will I pay. Until then, I will enjoy this as much as possible.

I can't write poetry unless I'm in an angry mood. Maybe because when I'm angry, I have nothing better to do, or I'm trying to pour out all my thoughts.

I decided I'm going to rev-up some of the links on my site, before it dies.

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#computers Jack-log 11 October 1998

I thought it'd be fun to document Jack's life. Jack for those of you who don't know is my roommate. Here is what he did last night:

 8:44 PM: Jack has been playing a football video game
          for at least a few hours.
 9:51 PM: Jack finishes video game.  Jack is watching 
          some sports show, probably on  ESPN.  Surfing 
          channels occasionally.
 9:54 PM: Jack's work out: He lifts the TV onto my bed 
          so he can see it better.  (Will return it 
          back in an hour, he says).
 9:54 PM: Jack leaves the room.
 9:55 PM: Jack returns.
 9:56 PM: Flipping channels on his TV.  Watching some 
          football thing.
 9:59 PM: Also reading some ESPN book.  Watching 
          SportsCenter on ESPN.
10:51 PM: Jack hears a noise and looks outside.  
          Perhaps wanting to see what it is.  TV is 
          left on, meaning he probably will re enter 
          the room.
10:53 PM: Jack returns... leaves door open.  Inquires 
          about my waveform generations (pink noise 
          synchronized with alpha/theta waves 
          synchronized with alpha waves).
10:59 PM: Minimize this window and keep it so when 
          people are in the room.
11:01 PM: Jack leaves the room.  TV still on.
11:03 PM: Jack returns.  Closes door slightly.  I like 
          that, because the outside noises add to my 
          mental interference.
11:04 PM: Jack puts in a video game in his PlayStation 
          and starts playing.  I think it's in the 
          Street Fighter genre.
12:24 AM: Stops playing Street Fighter.  Completes 
          workout by putting TV back in it's place.  
          30 minutes behind schedule.
12:25 AM: Jack leaves the room.
12:27 AM: Returns puts on shoes.
12:29 AM: Leaves again, possibly for a smokey-smokey.

Oh yeah, Litestep is cool. Makes Windows NT look neat. Only problem is in NT it disables my Windows Key shortcuts, however it doesn't in Windows 95/98.

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#books Thus concludes the Dune Chronicles 9 October 1998

The Dune Chronicles have been read. It's probably been one of the most interesting series I have ever read. It wasn't just science fiction, and that's what made it a great book. I think now I will take a break from reading books for a while. The problem with reading a good series is that you start looking for more and more information on that universe.

There are things I did not like about Dune. Despite the Butlerian Jihad, much of the technology did not match what we have had for years. Most of this is due to the fact that it was written in the past. Another problem was the progress of technology was a bit strange. The Ancestral Memory and the preborn were another problem I had. Those concepts did not seem like something that could work. There were other little things that I disliked that would reveal too much of the book as well.

Despite all of these things I was captivated enough by the series, especially the final book, Chapterhouse: Dune. I have to say that the final book is my absolute favorite. I don't really have an order of preferance.

I guess the next series I'll tackle is Ender's Game...

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#general Graph Theory 8 October 1998

Oh yeah, I had a test a few nights ago (tuesday) from like 7 PM to 10 PM on Graph Theory. I think I may have passed. The test seemed remarkably like UMTYMP. 8 problems choose 6. You are in a classroom with mounted desk/chairs and it's up to three hours long:) Show all your work.

Tonight I got my haircut obscenely short. I think it's cool.

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#web development web work 7 October 1998

Well I've decided that I need to get back into doing web work again... Right now I am in the middle of this long, tedious project that I may have mentioned earlier. The Hindu Mandir Email Database. Here is what needs to be done:

• Create a script to parse the form and insert it into the database.
• Create a form that lets you edit your entry.
  • Write a new database that keeps track of users online, their IP addresses, the last time they were on
  • the form disallows people with an incorrect username, pw or who haven't done anything from their IP in the last half hour. This is the same method I used for my journal.
• Create a parser script to parse the edits. I particularly hate doing this part. It's somethign I need to do, but I never like doing it. It's so boring. I'll explain below...
• Create a script that sorts people based on their last name.
• Create a script that finds entries that are searched for.
• Create a form that allows people to email others.
• Create a bulliten board.

That's a lot of work. The outcome is going to be very neat though. The reason I dislike this is long forms take a very long time to create. After creating the form it takes a while to write something that parses it and shoves it into a database. Then you have to do pretty much make a brand new form that lets you update whatever data is in the database. It's a lot of time taking stuff that you do not get to see "evolve" until you finish.

When I design a web page, I make several sketches and then whip out the ol' drawing program and make the images and lay them out on the web page where I think they should go. It's very easy and you can see this pretty little thing you just made. This is why I am yearning to work on a real web site. I'll probably ask Med-Rx if I can update their site. It's been a while since I last did anything. May 1997... wow, I usually say stuff needs updating (at least minor) at least once a year.

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#web development Personal web site 7 October 1998

Wow, my personal web site is really messed up. Either nobody visits my site, or nobody cares. But in the "web sites" category under projects it says something no, wait, it doesn't pop into a new window... I think it should. Fix it dave.

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