Yes?

I ran 5 miles today in just under 50 minutes..it was kind of boring, but I got into a rhythm...

I etched some more PCBs last night and I drilled all the holes today...using my dremel copy works a LOT better than a battery powered drill...a lot better control. I didn't break a single bit and I drilled way more holes than last time (when I broke, like, 3). However, I realized that the pcb layout for 2 of my boards was backwards. I really hope I can just populate the wrong side of the board okay......damnit.

Bed time? Maybe.

Update

I'd like to try to update more frequently, but I just have so little interest...I think because I don't spend so much time sitting around on the instant messenger like I did in high school.

I've been keeping up with my working out schedule pretty well. I suppose I can see results...so that's good. I upped my running to 3 miles in just under 30 minutes last Thursday...I don't know that I could do more than 3, just because it's so goddamn boring. The weights have done what I wanted; I built a little muscle, but it's more of a toning thing.

I'm probably going to be working at AMD part time during my last semester. It seems like everyone at this site really wants me to stay...it'll just be a matter of them convincing the HR people that I should stay...

Erin and I have our anniversary this Friday...five years. It's kind of nuts...we've been together almost a quarter of my life. We're not doing anything super special for it; going out to eat, probably...but we're not terribly interested in the gift-giving stuff.

We bought plane tickets to go visit Omar in Washington state in early January (spend my birthday there). We'll be there for 5 nights, so it should be fun. I haven't seen Omar in a really long time, so it will be really nice.

Erin and I are going to part of Thanksgiving day with her family and part of it with mine, then come back to Austin for the night...it'll be loads of driving, but less awkward family stuff.

I'm waiting on some components to arrive in the mail...I am really excited about the stuff I'm about to build. I put that synth I built into the case from our busted VCR...it looks pretty sweet, too. I'm not 100% certain what I'll build these modules into, but I know I need to find out soon(or plan to use some sort of harnesses to make wiring cleaner)...maybe I'll buy another VCR at goodwill or something...

Christmas

My mom wants to know what I want for Christmas...somehow I don't think she considers a vasectomy as a serious gift....maybe I should tell her I want this.

bleh

I just got back from exercising. I decided I'd start something semi-structured today and see how long I can keep up with it. Basically, my exercise will go as follows:
20-25 minutes of weights (3 sets of 15 reps of whatever I do that day)
20-25 minutes of running

I'm going to try to keep track of how heavy the weights are and try to adjust accordingly...meh. Whatever. I hate exercising.

For other stuff:
I've been on my own at work this week. The guy I work closest with has been out of town and he left me with some pretty important tasks...I haven't screwed anything up yet, and I only have tomorrow left...yesss!

My classes for my next (and final) semester are all on Tuesday/Thursday...in a tragic turn of events, my co-op semesters won't count toward my degree at all....which is a shame. However, that just means I need to take a class I wanted to take anyway. I'll have Digital Circuits from 9:30-11, VHDL from 11-12:30 and Senior Design from 3:30-5:00 (I think...that's off the top of my head)

I talked to the guy I work with about these classes because he went to UT...he asked when they met and stuff and recommended that I work MWF at AMD...when he gets back, I'm going to let him know that I'm interested in doing that. I'm used to working when I'm in school anyway...so I don't think it'll be that big of a deal.

I've been working with my synth quite a lot lately. I'm trying to get it to function as a two-instrument drum trigger....we'll just see how that goes. I may have to settle for a single instrument drum trigger...but that's okay, because I wanted to build a devoted snare synth anyhow...

In other musical news, I played drums with Kerstan in Katy 2 weeks ago. It was the first time I'd played in a long time...we worked on some stuff he's got kicking around in his head. We might record it and try to play some shows...really neat sound though. Kerstan will be playing the acoustic guitar (sort of furious John Darnielle style) I'll be playing a VERY minimal drum kit (snare, bass drum and MAYBE a hi-hat) and Kerstan will be singing, but sort of calmly...it should be sweet

I've heard The Octopus Project's newest album, "Hello, Avalanche" and it is really good. I hope I'll be able to see them next month when they play at Emo's...their shows are always really good.

Happy Birthday Elliott

I normally don't make happy birthday posts, but I'll make an exception because Elliott's going away for a while.

I hope you've had a great birthday, whatever you're doing. I don't know if you remember making those graham crackers with reese's cups melted on them last year around your birthday, but I thought of those today....what the hell were we thinking? .....we did weird stuff like that almost every day...

Gentoo

I've been installing Gentoo on my laptop lately. It's a Linux distro built around a pretty neat concept: everything is compiled on my machine...most distros use binaries to install packages, which means they are generalized to work on the most machines...I've noticed a very large performance gain from using this...it's just a lot harder to set up.

I learned on Sunday that I can apparently do a backflip off of a rock into the water...also learned why frontflips are done much less....you wind up with welts on your back =\ Meh...whatever, it was a lot of fun. I somehow wound up with some pretty ridiculous bruises on both shins...I don't know how that happened. While we were riding some rapids in some inflatable boats, I capsized and smashed my hip on a rock...that's a pretty rough bruise too...fuck that.

I've been working out lately...apparently I weigh about 175, which isn't too bad. I'd like to get in slightly better shape (just really burn some of the fat) but that's such a tedious process...we'll see if I lose my motivation or not.

Other than that stuff, I haven't been up to much at all...just around. Playing some guitar here and there...hoping to get better at that. Kerstan and I are entertaining the thought of trying to record an album and play some shows afterward...I don't know when we'd start that or anything, though.

I don't feel like dancin'

I got a B in my History class, but I got an A in my Gov't. I took a break from my blog because, in my gov't class, I was required to keep a blog. I only did 3 of the 4 assignments, and still got an A, though. Screw that. I just didn't have the motivation to blog my own stuff while being forced to blog current events.

Erin and I went to Hamilton Pool a few weeks back. It was really neat. I want to go back sometime with a snorkel and try to reach the bottom...but I don't know how deep it is. Kerstan and I have still been hiking every Sunday. We went to San Marcos to swim in the river a few weeks ago and that was sweet too. Last Sunday, we went to the lower leg of Barton Creek and had a great time. We even climbed some rocks so that we could jump off about 12 feet. We're probably going back this next Sunday with a flashlight to explore this neat cave we found...maybe we'll bring towels and park a second vehicle so we don't have to walk 2 miles down Lamar back to our car =\

Lately, I've mostly just been working. That's about it.

sony esp car discman

Elliott's going away party was Saturday. I think it's finally dawning on me, though...not just Elliott, but everyone. Amber's in the Houston area, Emily's in California, Omar is in Washington state, Lauren is still here for the time being. Kerstan moved up to Austin (he starts at UT this Fall) so that's one in the + column. I just hope that everyone is happy with where they are in life. I am content, but I worry/wonder about everyone else.

The party was fun. I mostly just chatted with Amber, Lauren and Beth, though...some crazy guy yelled at Lauren, and the police showed up after everyone left...kind of hilarious.

Sunday, Kerstan and I went hiking. I love the outdoors, and I'm glad he likes the hiking stuff, too. We did some of Bull Creek. Hopefully we can make this a pretty frequent thing. Erin might come along, too, sometimes.

I've ordered parts to build a fairly simple analog synthesizer. I ordered extra parts to build a couple other projects and it all totaled something like $50 + supplies to etch the circuit board. If that works out pretty well, I may toy around with more advanced circuits and patch together my own...also, the x0xb0x project looks really cool...but I imagine I'll work it together on my own, rather than paying $330 for the kit. Also, I think I want to build these neat firefly jar things I saw on instructables...I'm just feeling electrical.

I finished my history summer school course. I will wind up with a B in the class because I didn't have time/the initiative to do a 12 page research paper....screw that in the first place. It's a distance learning class and I work 40 hours a week...and the class was 5.5 weeks long. No way. Sucks that I have an A average, but get a B...feel like I worked too hard.

I've meant to post for a while

Grades: Yeah, I know it doesn't matter now, but I made all As last semester.

Couch: Erin and I bought a new couch. It's really sweet. It's the Tysoland from Ikea...a loveseat on one side and a chaise lounge on the other...a seude-like tan fabric covering. It really makes our living room feel more...livable.

I started painting a fender strat body that Artie had given to me kind of a long time ago...I got the basecoat on, and it looks really good. I need to put the clear top-coat on it now. So far, the paint is really good, and the color is so sweet. I'm wondering now if I can actually mount a neck on it well enough to make it playable (the person who had it before Artie really wallowed out the neck...for some reason)

I'm finally going to get into making some circuit boards. I've wanted to do this for a long time, but just never got into it. The first things I'm going to try to make are electronics equipment...synth, maybe a mixer...analog stuff. I'd like to just learn more about that stuff.

Kersten moved to Austin, and I've hung out with him a couple times now. He's into the same music equipment stuff as I am, so I will probably be doing a lot of the construction at his apartment (at least silk-screening the layouts onto the boards)...

I'm working again now, and I like it. The worst part is when there isn't a lot for me to do....I just sit around and try to kill time...like now.

Oh, Magnolia Electric Co's disk Nashville Moon is really really really good.

283 infringements floating in a summer sky

And Erin said she was happy to be using Linux because she didn't like using illegally obtained software....whoops!

As many of you know, I use a Linux-based OS (Fedora 7, these days, although I was a fan of Ubuntu for a long time). Erin's computer is also set up with a Linux based OS (Ubuntu on hers). I like it for many reasons, including stability, security and manageability, to name a few. Microsoft has, for a couple months, been on the warpath claiming that "Linux infringes on a bunch of our patents" and whatnot...The Linux community responded with a petition that basically said, "Tell us which ones. Either you're lying, or we'll fix it"...now Microsoft replies with some study group saying Linux potentially violates 283 patents, but they STILL haven't listed which patents.

In the community, we refer to this as FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt). Basically, they realize that Vista is, for the most part, a piece of steaming crap; It isn't selling the way they want it to and Linux is getting to be more accessible (Dell will sell Ubuntu-loaded desktops and laptops starting soon). The hardest hurdle to jump when making the switch is the installation of the OS (which many users have no clue on how to perform this task); by having it done for them, it should be a much easier switch. Back to the point; Microsoft is upset about all of this, so they want to steer the gullible bitches of the world away from what is, in effect, an amazing alternative by spreading the idea that, by buying into Linux, you will be no better than a software pirate. Ubuntu comes pre-loaded with Open Office (which is, in my experiences, just as functional as MS Office, minus the ridiculous price-tag), Firefox, and a slew of other software.

This update sucked, I'm sorry.

Grades update

History: A
Gov't: A
Distributed and Concurrent Systems: A
Computer-aided Integrated Circuit Design: A [unconfirmed](I got a freakin' 98.67, how can it NOT be an A?)
Digital Signal Processing: B [unconfirmed](The professor gave out a preliminary "non-binding" grade assignment and I was .79 points away from an A =\ maybe he'll lump me in?)

I'm pretty disappointed I wasn't able to pull that .79 points off in DSP...this would have been my first all As semester...and would have felt REALLY good given the drastic amount of work I did for my classes...

ach schade.

School's out.

I'm incredibly happy this semester is over. It was just a lot of work. The last Thursday of classes, I spent, literally, 18 hours in the 5th floor lab working on a project. I didn't go home that night, I presented the project on Friday in the same clothes I wore to class Tuesday morning. I had been on campus for almost 33 hours, by the time I got to go home...

As far as grades go:
History: A
Government: A
VLSI: A (I ended up with a 98.67 in the class...supposed to be one of the tougher subjects in school)
Concurrent and Distributed Systems: unknown - I had a final in there, but it hasn't been graded, neither has the project I spent 18 hours in the lab on...
Digital Signal Processing: unknown, but probably a B. The prof gave tentative grade outlines and the cutoff for an A was set at 81...I have an 80.21 =\

The semester was so hectic because VLSI had REALLY long labs, Concurrent and Distributed Systems had very involved and incredibly poorly explained projects and Digital Signal Processing was a sequel to the class at UT that I've hated the most, subject-wise. History and Government were just busy-work classes.

I go back to work on the 21st and I'm working straight through to December. I hope I perform well there (and they offer me a job for after school). I only have one more semester (sorry Emily, for not seeing the comment) and I'll be doing that next Spring. I will be taking 2 classes via correspondence over the summer (but through ACC) to get the gov't and history requirements out of the way; my last semester will actually only be 2 classes. YESSS!

Wednesday, Erin and I are going to go buy a couch. I'm excited to get rid of the one I have (it's falling apart)

end transmission

Hooray!

So, I won't be going to school next semester. I'll be working...unless I REALLY screw something up this summer.

I've spent a little time lately fixing up my xbox even further...I have finally gotten around to configuring an snes emulator, a Gameboy/Gameboy Advance emulator, a playstation emulator and an n64 emulator (the last two struggle a little with performance...they need some more tweaking, I think). I have some sweet media center capabilities and loads of games on the harddrive...Considering that I didn't like the xbox as a console for such a long time, I'm surprised at how much I really enjoy it now. (Although, I guess, in terms of functionality, I really only use it as an xbox...almost never)

I've also been playing guitar a lot more lately. I've been improving enough that it is obviously noticeable, but I'm nowhere near where I'd like to be. More practice! I also still need to buy a replacement pot for it...one of them is totally shot.

School

I'm pretty stressed right now. My classes (which I've meant to post about, by the way) have been rough lately.

VLSI - This is my favorite class. It relates very closely to the things I worked with at AMD. The labs for this class are pretty long (my report for the second one was like, 80 pages) but there are only 3 for the whole semester...plus, I have a pretty fun time working on them.
Concurrent and Distributed Programming - This class's homework assignments (programming labs) are a pain in the ass. The assignments are just so poorly laid out that one of the 4 assignments wasn't finished being defined until AFTER the initial deadline (there was an extension).
Digital Signal Processing - This class isn't very fun because it's a continuation of the only EE class I've had that I can say I hated. The professor for this one is a lot better than my other prof, but the material is just not interesting to me. The labs were pretty easy, but they got hard, just recently.
History - Erin and I are in this class together. It's not too bad. Professor is pretty decent (read: not boring). We do have kind of large reading assignments (sometimes about shit that I don't think relates) but I think that's to be expected.
Government - I had a different professor, but he wanted us to subscribe to the New York Times, which I didn't feel (I don't have that kind of money, asshole!) so I changed my class...the professor I ended up having was about 99,000x better than the previous one...he's actually interesting. The tests are multiple choice and I always lose exactly 10 points (about 4-5 questions) because I just forget some detail.

I might not be going to school next semester (I return to AMD for the summer and might be able to work all through next semester as well).

Home life -
My parents have custody of my 2 half-nephews (my dad's daughter from a previous marriage has two kids...well, Georgia took them away from her...and in the end, my parents wound up with them). I don't mind too much, because I don't have to go to Katy that often...but they're pretty loud when I do go back =\

I've been playing the guitar a lot more lately. The Bb and B chords are still kind of tough to play for me. My fingers are just kind of big and cramming three fingers into such a small proximity is a little tough.

I had been using Ubuntu (Linux for Human Beings) for about a year, but I got really tired of the community and upset with the fact that the project seems to have lost their initial goals; I moved to Fedora. I like it better, actually. The OS is, for the most part, a lot easier to configure (although it takes some more knowledge to start with) and it runs faster.

Erin and I are doing pretty well. We've had to carpool pretty much the entire semester because Erin's mom sent the Civic (Erin's mom's car) to Erin's brother at Tech...and Erin and her mom have been sharing the station wagon (Erin gets it usually one day a week)....but now Erin's mom just bought a new car, so the last 2 weeks or so of school will be a bit nicer, I guess.

It's weird that my friends are graduating this semester...I honestly don't even really want to leave school just yet (I'd really like to go to grad school) but I need to make some money before I can do that.

This blog may or may not die just like the old one.....oh well.

Template

Well, if I'm going to start posting here, I need to have a nice template. This one seems a bit hard on load times, but I think it looks pretty rad.

I might be moving my blog over to here...but I'm not certain. Place holder post!