Dreaming

A few nights ago I had a dream about dad trying to wake me up. He used to employ all sorts of bizarre methods that went as far as beating the bottom of my bed with a hammer. Jarring. At any rate, he was not beyond hauling me out of bed by my feet, pouring water on me, or balancing hot coffee on my forehead until I woke up.

I had gone to bed sort of late the night before, and so my brain must have been really out of it by the time I started dreaming at 5:40 ish AM. In my dream dad was doing his level best to wake me up, and he finally pulled it off. I awoke and all I could hear was my brain screaming "psyche!" and cackling at me.

On that note, family/party gets in Friday. 

Drugged up

I just watched Korn rock out on youtube, and I had a moment where I was convinced I was there. Not because the quality of the video was awesome, or I was watching full screen or anything, I just all of a sudden understood where they were coming from. Bodies racked by dying drug highs, clammy and shivering, rough long sleeve shirts, not washed for the last two days on the road. Rocking out in front of fanatic fans, headbanging because your job depends on it, even though the beat is old. Sick of your own music, you know you aren't really the greatest musicians ever, extensive vamping and some pro mixers and speakers that go louder than the audience can take are keeping your show on the road. Tired, sleep is paramount in your thoughts, you regret the high this morning, it left you too tired to really face the day well, and you know you should have held off on it until after the show. You shuffle tiredly off stage, sign a few tshirts, album covers, posters, images of yourself. With the help of a few enthusiastic careless roadies, you get your gig loaded, and you shuffle off to your next high and sleep after that. You will eat in the morning, you promise yourself, and then maybe write a few lyrics to a new song while on the road in your old van to your next show.

I could almost do it. I think I might be able to take it. A life with my instrument, life, a stale, old, ruined life on the road with a worn guitar and battered car. 

Bikeless

So nothing permanent happened, just a flat tire. The world, however, seems to be conspiring against me to keep it flat. Somehow everything but fixing a flat has happened. I got a job,  I restrung my guitar, I lost a game of soccer, I beat Guild Wars, I did homework, I finished my computer program that is due in over a week, and I studied. I have the tools, the knowledge, and the love of grease that the job requires, it just doesn't seem to want to get done, and I don't know why. I love my bike, I like working on it, and walking to class is painfully slow. I guess my life is going well if the best thing I can write about is a flat tire, eh?

Switching web browsers

I'm now using Apple Safari to surf the web. Its cause Internet explorer is this huge gargantuan thing with a RAM footprint over three times as big as Safari. As a result, my computer can sling it around a ton faster, and the idiotic purdue webpage goes through its browser check tons faster every time I open it. Now I have to set up all my home pages again. Oh well. It's gonna be worth it if its gonna be this much faster. My next computer is going to be a bootcamped Apple. Period. See below for a less nerdy post.

things happenig

So aside from listening to Pandora, I have been talking with friends, and swing dancing is sounding awesome. youtube it sometime. There are some cool flips and stuff if you watch the right vids. I might pick it up and take lessons. Depends on what some family members say about it, Namely dad. I know I need the exercise, and this might be a good way to get it.

I got my bike back from down south last week. It needs air in its rear tire, but I know a guy with a nice pump in my building, so I should be able to borrow one from him. We had our first game of ultimate Frisbee this year on Saturday this last week. I love that game. Patrick Hart tore some turf up. The guy is a Frisbee beast.

So my life isn't all just sports and dancing right now, I also have other things to worry about. Like my test tomorrow and 4 page paper due the same evening that I should be writing now. So only a few more weeks to Summer from here. I'm freaking out. I don't think I will do worse than a C in any of my classes though, which I figure is pretty good. My last two tests were an A and a B, so that's all good. I got a perfect score on my last English paper. I wrote that in the afternoon, I write this after midnight, which usually causes a change in the quality of a post... goodnight.

Music Mapped

So I was shown a wonderful and beautiful thing today. Pandora.com is an amazing online radio that has a huge and complex system that analyzes every aspect of music and then finds other music like it so that you can listen to any genre and discover new bands and new... stuff. If you like music, you have to try it. It is free, no spam, Its beautiful, elegant, easy to use, easy to find things, essentially everything a good website should be, and then it plays the most amazing music. There are also links to discussions about music, talks about the intricacies of music, how to record music, what makes a song a song, and I'm excited and I'm going to go back and fool with it for hours before I go to bed. Its the most amazing thing that has happened to me in a long time. I don't just throw those type of comments around either. This is fantastic stuff. You have got to try it. I don't think I have ever advertised so vehemently for anything ever before in my life. You gotta try it.

The TCK Experience

Here you can see that I really do live in two worlds, and I can't have both halves at once. Sucks to be me. This picture was generated for me by the facebook application friend wheel. Cool, huh? If you click on the picture it will take you to a much larger picture where you can see everything a little more clearly. Really shows the value of family. They are the only ones that bridge the gap.

Some weird stuff

That last post was 12^2 posts. Exciting.

At the moment I've just gotten back from a confusing computer science lab where I had to figure out how to do address passing between the main and sub main functions. This is after I had already solved the problem.

I'm playing Evanescence on an R&B equalizer setting, which is interesting. Brings it out somehow. I guess there are good things about R&B: they have good EQ settings. Fun.

I have a thought for a deep post, but it involves finding my phone cable and uploading pictures and stuff and I'm supposed to be writing an English paper.

pickups and tuning forks

Did you know that if you bang a tuning fork and hold it up to the pickups of an electric guitar it will make an interesting noise? Just so you know...

Freaking Busy!

Some post huh? Its just huge. I'm reading papers by people who claimed to be second in their class and ranted for nine pages about how they were better than the other guy. Juvenile...?

I'm 19 now. My birthday sucked. I spent five hours writing computer programs that didn't work, and took a physics test that decided to not like me. Nuff said.

Blindside is random. The music goes up, the music goes down, and there is no telling which way it will go next. Its like the author took a pgp key generator, converted the whole thing to binary and then worked out an algorithm to convert ones to possitive note frequency shifts, zeros to negative shifts. Then did it again with timing. Then started screaming.

I have to get back to explaining why my revisions are as crazy as they are so that I won't be persecuted by this person for the rest of my life. I'm crazy? Maybe.

Well, I'm evil. I don't post in forever and then this is all I get out. The problem with blogging is that the more things you have to blog about, the less time you have to do it.

And the spell checker isn't working anymore.

For Those Who Stayed up with me....

my bird did come. At 2:45 sharp. We may actually be able to board by 3:15AM, and be off the ground by 4:00 AM. Remarkable. I have really enjoyed this Internet connection, definitely worth the 7 bucks I had to put into it to make it work. I got several hours of entertainment out of it as well as a good long conversation with various family members. I can't wait to see them, I'm only hours away now!

Santa Clause and Anti Clause

Well, I just finished reshuffling my suitcases for my flight back to Yemen. Royal Jordanian is a mess. Yes, they may be cheap, no, you don't really want to fly on them because they have had numerous flight schedule changes, and I have no idea how much it costs to be over weight. So I had to go under the weight limit, and Seeing as I am carrying gifts from two sets of grandparents, an aunt and a family member for Christmas, I felt a good deal like Santa. Unfortunately, due to all the stuff I was trying to get rid of my clothes and other "essentials" before I had to become Anti Clause and start leaving gifts behind. Fortunately I managed to get everything in and situated... Mostly... Minus three or four books, one pair of shoes, two sets of my clothes, my backpack, my guitar amplifier, and a ton of other useless stuff. I think I forgot one of my gifts in my closet in my dorm, and as I am now in Columbus, I can't just pull it out and stuff it in. All the gifts are in at any rate, and I think I managed to get some stuff that will make people happy. It is nice to be able to bring special stuff from overseas, and it does make shopping for gifts a bit easier.

At any rate, I should go spend time with grandparents. Pray for a smooth flight and no random security checks.

WOOT!

I finished my first semester of University. I just have to hold out for another day. I think I have the books, video games and empty pieces of paper to keep my mind off of all this glorious free time. I haven't been this high since... uh... um... A while. (That's sad Graham. I know, but you can shut up. No, you. Go away, there is only supposed to be one personality going on here. What? Why? Just because the semester ended doesn't mean you can utterly loose it. Since when have I lost it? Just now! What? Yes! I'm me, what does that have to do with loosing it? Uh... Only everything? Oh...yeah...about that...forgot... heh, sorry me. So, now that we are done arguing with myself, we can continue our blog.) I now feel the delirium of nearly pure bliss. The only two things disturbing my inner peace (shaky as it is) is the fact that I have to wait a whole week to get on an airplane to go home, and the second is the simple fact that I have a good solid another 7 semesters to go, and they probably only get harder. Oh well, I have a month off now. Time to destroy something.

Life and then the lack there of

A lot has happened in these last few weeks. Classes have been winding down, Tomorrow I pack up my chemistry lab drawer for the year. In ways I feel more alive than ever before, This Christmas I go back to Yemen and party out with my family (odd, no?) as well as a good number of friends that I wasn't entirely sure I would see again. Friends that I might not ever really run into again include the Wrights, Stephen Whitson, the Powers...

Despite all this, there are many things that make weeks very fun. I have been eating breakfast a few days a week with an interesting fellow, very intelligent but bellow par social skills. I think that contributes to us getting along as well as we do. Running into new music has also been a true pleasure. Before the year started I hadn't really heard of Within Temptation, Demons & Wizards, Deathstars, Guano Apes, Rage Against the Machine, Incubus, and Lordi. Half of it is so over the top that its just crazy and funny to listen too, others are more serious and have some good talent like Within Temptation. Others just sort of mesh with my style. Like Demons & Wizards. Its like a nerd group that worked out, and I have the yelling from their rip off of Led Zeppelins Immigrant song echoing in my head. They use a lot more reverb on it and that really worked out for me. When it all comes down to the end of the day, I just gotta go for some good old Kernkraft 400 by Zombie Nation. Making music has been a blast. One evening after a Purdue CORPS rally I hung out with three guitars and two friends and just made some music. In my life, I find very little indeed that is more gratifying than making music with a few friends, and in general, the larger the instrument, the more fun. Pipe organs rock. I should learn the Tuba. Actually, my amp is about that size, I'll just stick with it. Lunch with Andrew has been a blast, wandering through new video games here and there, making a few comics to one side or the other, learning how to integrate (cosx/sinx)dx, exploring the nanoscopic worlds of crystalline structures, getting huge speech assignments out of the way, designing 10000 USD sound systems complete with dual FBX and FBQ (same thing really) three power amplifiers, and a few other good fun things.

The few things that I wish were different about the situation is I wish my family was a little more accessible. Skype has been a blessing, but there isn't anything like actually looking at a face not just a digitized on screen version of a face if even that. Another disappointment has been my bike. I wrecked it once, and I'm up to having it simply fall apart twice now. Both times it was the rear derailleur. The first time it just popped open and I lost the first gear but I managed to find it. So I took out some chain links and converted it to a single speed. It works. Then the derailleur continued to fall apart. Both times it fell apart, it was dark out, and the second time I was in the middle of an intersection. Needless to say I'm missing a few pieces and I'm not sure where I'm going to get them. I found one days latter in slightly flatter condition than it fell off my bike in. The rest are probably stuck in tires somewhere or in the gutter or down the road. More than ever now I want sky runners. For sheer coolness factor, those take it all the way. The great thing is that they are small, they can be thrown in a closet somewhere when the world is iced over like it is now, and they don't have as many movable parts as bikes. Less stuff to break. Other bad things include the fact that I'm sick now, I should be able to finish up classes and stuff, its just going to be more miserable now. Its also cold. I am really looking forwards to my trip to the beach here.

To Keep You Entertained

Just a little something. http://boredanarchist.blogspot.com Hope you like it. If that gets dull (and it probably will, its not very long) check out http://www.xkcd.com for more amusement.

Engineering and America

Why is it that a student in a top range mechanical engineering school isn't expected to be able to fix his own bike? To me this seems utterly stupid. Yes there are things that they might not know about, but the whole reason that they are in university is to develop a mind that can solve problems. Besides, in university, the marvel that is the Internet is accelerated into a beast that has all knowledge. You want to know how to weave spokes? Look it up. Same thing goes for adjusting breaks, raising the seat, changing the rims, anything. So. Bike was wrecked, bike is now unwrecked, and you have no idea how wonderful having a bike is. Especially one as nice as mine. It's got its problems, but all in all, she is a perfect bike for me. Tough enough to deal with curbs, but a little bit of road bike in her as well. Ideal for all the pavement: the narrow tires (one of which is 50% brand new. Thought I couldn't true a wheel, didja Christina?) don't produce nearly as much drag as the standard mountain bike. Anywayz, I'm back in business. With wheels. Rock on.

The Happy Friday Guy

As requested, here is a picture of the Happy Friday Guy. The picture is terrible. I will try to get a better one of him sometime, but for now, this will give you an idea of whats going on. Part of the reason it is so bad is because I took it at fairly long range and then used photoshop to sort of zoom in on him while maintaining some semblance of resolution, and the other reason was that I was in a hurry. Anyways, there is always more time to take pictures. I think this is a phenomenon that will last the semester at least. Winter could get interesting...

Something Learned in Uni...

All this money has not completely gone to waste. I have just figured out why its really bad to burn plastic: most plastics are sort of modified hydrocarbon chains. Hydrocarbon chains are what you put in your fuel tank of your car. They burn. Quite nicely. Good fun. Only problem is that plastics and nylons and Teflons and all this stuff are very similar chemically. Difference: when you burn hydrocarbons you release carbon and hydrogen and bond them with oxygen to release copious amounts of heat, water, and carbon dioxide. All good fun. Useful for exploding things. (and transport.) Plastics and such though. Different story: Carbon and something else entirely than hydrogen. Say Florine. Or chlorine. Or almost anything else. Or a combination of things. I think good old Styrofoam is chlorine... and when that burns... I'm not sure what comes off of that, carbon dioxide and something else, and its going to be one of three things: worst case scenario: chlorine gas. Used in world war II to wipe out soldiers in trenches. Not good. that or dichlorineoxide... actually, make that four things: dichloro-oxide or hexachloro-oxide, or any combination of the above. I have no idea what dichloro-oxide is, nor do I want to know what it does to a human body. Suffice that burning plastics and breathing the smoke is not a good idea. Nuff said.

Random things you see around campus

The happy Friday guy: skintight suit, underwear as outerwear, a mask, a cape, either a scooter or a bike, and a spirit of happiness and Fridayness. I have seen this dude several times. last week he nearly caused a riot in our chem lecture on Friday. I hope he doesn't stop, cause I get a kick out of it.

The gorilla on a bike: man dressed in gorilla suit, riding a bike. Go figure.

The breakfast club: Be ye spartan from 300 or be ye... rock star, drink ye and stagger to the game. I don't get this. Why wake up early just to get drunk? Why? There are greater pleasures in life. Such as making fun of them.

The frats throwing things at passers by. Including footballs, at people, including me, while riding a bike.

A guy on a unicycle. Welcome to the circus everyone!

guys tight rope walking between trees: This place takes a circus and makes it look quite tame, really.

The punks, the weirdos, the afro men, the hippies, and the rest of the psych department: Enough said.

Math

Is trying to kill me. Its not hard, I just don't get it, if that makes any sense to you at all. It makes sense to me though. I may need to see a head shrinker some time soon. I keep making realizations about related rates that should be totally obvious, but that I have somehow missed. Bizarre. and I have a test in 36 minutes. I think I'll take a nap. Or play Jetman. Fizzle.