2004-06-25 - 9:17 PM

Some people don't update for a while because they're too busy enjoying life. Sometimes because they're so depressed. Others just stop feeling like it. Me? I just really didn't have anything much to say.

Some chick IM'd me yesterday commanding me to update. So I had to hold off an extra day. It's a compulsory need of mine to occasionally establish myself, especially when being told to do something I'm going to do anyway. Not in the "I don't haveta if i don't wanna" way, but more like, "Just because you're walking in front of me, doesn't mean I'm following you."

The truth is the past week or so has been pretty dull. Between 5 and 8 hours in the computer lab a day. My partner David and I started out with a very methodical "We'll get this working today, that tomorrow, that by thursday." By the end of the third day it was simple. We went in and coded until we simply couldn't think in C any longer. Phase 1 was synchronization and CPU dispatch based on priority. Phase 2, messaging. Phase 3 will me semaphores and quite possibly device drivers. OS is the geek equivalent of growing hair on your chest. Wednesday I wrote up on the lab's whiteboard, "If you don't debug a function, but nothing calls it yet and it compiles... Does it work?" A day later I came back and under it in emphatic letters were the words "If it's not in a test case... does it matter?"

It really is like being home.

We eat at Gentle Ben's every day. This being the end of the third week, the waitresses know us by name and have a smile for us when we walk in, because we tip well and talk with them. It's a genuine smile, too, you can tell because it's not as "clap on, clap off" and lasts just a second longer. They have good pasta. Good burgers. Free refills on hard caffeine.

I whored myself over at gmailswap for a coveted gmail account. I offered to build two Six Degrees links using the person's favorite actors/actresses, using the rules agreed upon between myself and Billy. Namely, only actual characters (no extras), and only movies that have played in a theater. No straight to video crap. I got two responses, absorbed one, and gave the other to the most readily available geek, Lissa, as a small thank-you for the hitchhiker's template she made for me back when I didn't know how to anything in this diary besides click "add entry" and just go.

In about a month I'm moving in with the Andrews. One of them is moving out, so it's going to be just me, the remaining 2, and whoever ends up filling up the fourth room. Slightly farther from campus, but I get to live with geeks. I'm going to miss the insanity that I'm certain only comes about because I lived with Matt for 4 years (pizza morphine naked, Dave and his dancing girls), but the Andrews are good people, the kind you click with and find yourself going "Hey. Yeah." a lot in the presence of. They're eccentric and all, but in a very comfortable way that makes a lot of sense.

We watched Dressed to Kill a few days ago because none of them had yet, and like Elena and Amanda, I'm out to convert the world. It's amazing when you think about it, he can be taken out of context and applied to just about anything. For instance:
Eddie Izzard on debugging C code: "Do you have a flag?"
Eddie Izzard on home safety: "Did I leave the gas on?"
Eddie Izzard on World Events: "Death, death, death, death, death... lunch..."

I'm just sayin'.

I went on another ring-tone binge last night, absorbing into my repertoire the following:
Clerks cartoon theme music (Billy, no worries, it's yours)
Dangermouse Theme Song(goes to Upgrade, because she's my superhero)
The Muppet Show Theme Song(went to Cat, because she hates the Muppets, but I want her to know that they still love her)
Mega Man 3
The Mario Paint Theme Song

I'm also on a mad quest to find the Southern Front Porch Whistler, and a couple of the tunes from Robin Hood (Disney version) in MIDI form, because, well... I grabbed a couple Robin Hood MP3's recently and listened to them, and they spoke to me. I guess I don't have a better explanation than that.

And... yeah. That's where I've been.

-Alex

Robin hood and Little John walkin' thru the forest,
laughin' back and forth at what the other'un has to say.
Reminiscin' this'n that'n havin' such a good time.
Oo-de-lally, Hoo-de-lally, golly what a day!
Never ever thinkin' there was danger in the water they were
dinkin' they just guzzled it down. Never dreamin' that a
schemin' sheriff and his posse was a watchin' them and gatherin'
all around.
Robin Hood and Little John runnin' thru the forest,
jumpin' fences dodgin' trees and tryin' to get away.
Contemplatin' nothin' but escape and fin'ly makin' it
Oo-de-lally, Hoo-de-lally, golly what a day!
Oo-de-lally, Hoo-de-lally, golly what a day!

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