Living the SLO Life

I have only a couple of things to go over tonight...after which I must be off to bed so I'm awake for my midterm tomorrow (only one this time).

This is random...but I meant to mention it earlier: both of the ASI referenda failed to pass last week. Hooray! The one about the minor ASI fee increase was close...I think it was defeated by a margin of 75 votes. The second - and (to me) more important - measure about the rather large UU fee increase was shot down by a much larger percentage: 67% voted against it. So that makes me a little happier.

I'm still in the market for a piano teacher. I finally got something on the phone other than an answering machine; unfortunately, she was too busy to take on more students. She did, however, give me a few more numbers to try. Long story short: I've set up an interview with this one lady to see if we're "a good match." I'm kinda thinking that we're not. Why? For one, she lives in Arroyo Grande, a good twenty minute drive from SLO. Two, she costs a crapload of money. And three, she seemed a little to intense for me. I mean, I want someone who will push me a little bit (how else can I expect to improve at all?) but she was talking about how she "let a few students go" because they didn't meet her standards. I want to work at piano, but it still needs to fall into the "leisure" category. It's a hobby, not a job. Also, Courtney's roommate (who grew up in SLO) says she knows of a local teacher...so I'll investigate that and see what comes of it.

There was a phat thunderstorm last night. We lost power for a good couple of hours. I don't have a backup battery in my alarm clock, so you'd think I'd have been late for my first class or something...but no. Why? Because the sound of the lights turning off woke me up. Sigh...I set the alarm on my watch for 6:30 so I could wake Kevin up in case his alarm didn't go off for his 7:00 class. And it worked like a charm. Hooary. It was quite an exciting ordeal, though...while I was awake during the storm I decided to go to the bathroom. There were lights on in the common room (running on some kind of backup power) but the bathroom was completely dark. It creeped me out! There aren't switches in the bathroom; the light is always on. Man, it was a little unnerving to pee in the dark. Who knows what kind of aliens hide in dark bathrooms!?

Kelly Mahon came up to SLO today to pick up Steve Barr. They're driving back down to San Diego this weekend for Steve's birthday. Woot. I entertained Kelly for an hour while Steve was taking a midterm...that was interesting. We went to the Avenue; I bought Kelly a chili dog with my excess of plu$ dollars. Oh the excitement. Whatever...it's always good to see people from home.

There was a marching band meeting today, the purpose of which was to start discussing some of what we plan to do for next year. MB doesn't officially meet during spring quarter, so these meetings are pretty much the only form of organization we have as a group. We weren't required to attend, but I was actually very excited to do so. I've decided that I'd really like a leadership position next year...I'm hoping for historian, but I told Lizz that I'd take anything that was open (which could turn out to be uniform manager, personnel manager, or equipment manager). I'd be very excited to do any of these things...the Mustang Band is very much more of a student-run organization than was the Royal Regiment and I'd feel pretty darned good about myself if I could devote some of my time to it. Remember all of my posts about my not being able to find a passion? Well, Mustang Band is it.

And that's it. These are the things of interest that have happened to me over the past few days. Utterly fascinating, I know. As much as I am enjoying writing right now, I must cease to do so. So goodbye for now.

Who needs seamless transitions and fancy titles?
Josh

mood: good...I'm happy that I don't have all that much homework this weekend.
music: "She Loves You" by the Beatles
location: empty dormroom...don't know where Kevin is...

My midterms on Friday all went fine. They had their minor hiccups, but on the whole I did well. Here’s a quick rundown:
--Calculus IV: I knew how to do every one of the six problems. Unfortunately, I misplaced a two in one of the equations at the beginning of the last problem, and it totally screwed up my answer. I understand the complicated calculus concepts, but of course I screw up in the seventh-grade algebra simplification. Darn it! I figured my teacher wouldn’t take off a whole lot of points since I understood the underlying concepts of the problem (seeing as how I solve my incorrect equation correctly). If he didn’t give me some partial credit, I had a whole speech worked out to argue my case. But long story short, I ended up not losing any points at all for that problem. Why? It turns out Dr. Jimenez decided that the problem was unfair for some reason, so he just threw the entire problem out for everybody. Haha…I’m quite amused at my luck. Final score: 49/50.
--Digital Design: This one was fine. There wasn’t anything I know I did wrong, but there is a high potential for error on this one. When you’re given a function that you need to implicate in circuit form, there are pretty much an infinite number of ways to do it. I’m supposed to find the most efficient circuit, but there’s no way to know when you’ve got that. All you can do is try different circuits until you get bored and then pick the best one out of the ones you tried. Yes…it’s a brilliant process. Final score: unknown as of right now.
--Linear Analysis: No explanation needed: I rocked this exam. Final score: 50/50.

There isn’t really any other academic news to report tonight…I’ll move right into my weekend.

I had the best weekend ever!! Courtney came over on Friday evening. We played a game of Monopoly and then ordered pizza to be delivered (which I've had the ability to do with my meal plan all year but hadn't yet actually done). After the pizza we went over to Courtney's and watched Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. (Check!) It was a most exciting night.

Courtney and I had breakfast at Light House on Saturday morning. I LOVE Light House breakfast! I spent the greater part of Saturday afternoon doing my math homework, and then doing my other math homework. I found (to my frustration) that the first problem of my calculus homework (which was assigned on Thursday) was the very same problem that I screwed up on the midterm. Grumble grumble...it turned out not to matter, but still! Grumble...

Courtney and I went to the chop (trumpet) party on Saturday night. There was quite a movement for me to attend this one, which was part of the reason that I ended up going. The other part was that everyone seems to enjoy parties; I should give them a chance. So yeah. The chops hadn't had a party in a pretty long time, so everyone got pretty darned plastered pretty darned quick. (According to Courtney, it usually isn't "that bad.") Courtney and I had ginger ale to drink, so we could play along with all of their drinking games. I felt pretty welcome at the party, but somehow I still felt out of place. Part of it was all the drinking (I'm not opposed to drinking...I just don't personally ever want to be drunk) and part of it was just being there with all the people (we all know my issues with socializing with more than one unfamiliar person at a time). I spent a large part of the night twiddling my thumbs...but having Courtney there made it infinitely easier. She and I left earlier than most -- about midnight or a little while after. I wasn't feeling too good about the whole ordeal, but Courtney cheered me up. In time I will probably be able to be more comfortable in a setting such as the chop party, but for the time being I guess it's okay that I'm not. Many thanks are in order for Courtney; I could not have made it through the evening without her. She is -- in a word (or two) -- absolutely wonderful.

Sunday morning was spent at mass and at Vista Grande brunch. While beckoning the waiter for some hot chocolate, I thoroughly entertained Jenn with my mannerisms. Apparently, I'm "a billboard waiting to happen." She insisted that I strike the pose so that she could take a picture and then work some Photoshop magic on it. Here are the fruits of her labor:



Sunday afternoon was spent with Bloomie, Margaret, Jenn, and Courtney playing another game of Monopoly. I happened to roll into a monopoly on the yellow properties by pure luck, and although it was slow progress I eventually ended up with all of everything. (This should explain the second of Jenn's billboards.) It was thoroughly enjoyable. Jenn had to go to some meeting after a few hours so we called it quits, and I spent the rest of the evening doing some more homework and eating dinner. I went over to Courtney's at ten or eleven or so, and we ended up talking until after midnight.

And that was my weekend. Yes, it was full of time spent with Courtney...I'm not sure if you're all tired of hearing about her. But if you are then you're either going to need to get over it or you're going to need to stop reading this blog. I couldn't be happier with my relationship with her; you'll have to forgive me if she's on my mind a lot.

There has been an interesting development or two recently, but I'll save that for another night. Kevin has gone to sleep and I don't want to stay up in here typing. So I'm off to bed.

$1200 please,
Josh

mood: satisfied with things as of late
music: "Costa del Sol" -- a piano piece on a CD borrowed from Courtney
location: dorm

I should most definitely be asleep right now...but screw that!

I spent about an hour each studying for my three midterms tomorrow. I feel like this is an adequate amount. I'm sure I've reviewed everything my teachers can possibly ask me tomorrow. I'm actually feeling very good about all three tests...my teachers aren't the greatest, and usually I walk away from class not completely understanding everything. But going through all of my notes at once in addition to reading through the textbook really does clarify a lot of things. So hooray! I'm back to learning the logic behind the formulas in lieu of just memorizing them.

So I had that internshippy thing today. Yeah...complete waste of my time. It turns out that it was a summer internship for the Southwestern Company, which is this company that sells these educational aid book things that are supposed to help parents help their kids from kindergarten through high school. My job would be (from what it sounded like) going door to door trying to sell these books for hundreds of dollars, and I'd be working on commission. It did actually seem like a good program...for a business major. The guy who was talking to me did a pretty good job of connecting the program to engineering majors ("engineers sell ideas...which is much easier if they have experience selling products") but I still think it's a stretch to say that this internship would really get me started down my career path. He also tried to sway me with all sorts of statistics of how the average first-year student makes over $8,000 in a summer. That's great...except that they expect me to work 75 hours a week. I could make eight grand doing a lot of different things if I wanted to work 75 hours a week! Whatever...I didn't mind losing that hour. At least I tried, right? My only problem with the whole thing was how I was misled in the beginning. The guy who called me on the phone made it sound like he was part of a Cal Poly-sponsored program that helped students find internships. He also was "too busy" to give me the specifics of the program over the phone. Sigh. At least I tried.

There were a couple of things that I forgot to mention yesterday...I'll get into those now.

The Cal Poly student body voted yesterday and today on two different measures proposed by ASI (our student government). One of them was an increase of the yearly ASI fee by something in the neighborhood of $40 over the next few years. The money wasn't earmarked for anything specific; there was lots of talk about how ASI would give it to campus clubs. The other measure was an increase in the yearly university union fee of about $6oo over the next five or so years. With this money, ASI would completely revamp our university union. In addition to this, a new UU-type complex would be constructed on the other side of campus. Fascinating, huh? But here's the good part: I actually had an opinion on these referenda. A strong opinion! I voted NO on both of them. I voted against the ASI fee increase simply because ASI couldn't really justify needing the money. $40 isn't a huge deal...but it all adds up, and if the money isn't needed then I don't see why we should charge students. I was even more opposed to the UU fee increase. I am quite pleased with our UU the way it is currently. Sure, I would enjoy new facilities...but the ones we have now are adequate. $600 actually is a huge deal when you consider that tuition is only about $3,500 for in-state students. Cal Poly isn't the best school out there, but when you factor in cost of attendance Cal Poly becomes a damn good value. I hardly think a student is going to choose to come to SLO because of a new UU complex. Low cost is one of the best things Cal Poly has going for it...we don't need to be increasing the cost of attendance by 17%. I also found it amusing that one of the chief arguments presented by the proponents of this measure was that the opposition's only argument was that increased fees were bad. Well DUH! Hell yeah I'd be in favor of this if it didn't cost us anything. While we're at it, why don't we hire the staff of Stanford for nothing to come down here and teach classes? I also think it would be nice if they could build a new housing complex so that I can have my own room. Really? There's a buttload of stuff that would be nice...but we just can't blow the money on it.

See? Aren't you all proud of me? Half of you are...the other half of you are grumbling into your keyboards right now because you disagree with me. But that's okay...it's the risk I take when I form opinions. Woot! One more point before I move off of this topic: ASI bugged me in the way they pushed their agenda on us. They were strictly in favor of both referenda (obviously), and they used their power to blanket the school in propaganda. All of ASI's employees - who work at a bunch of the on-campus stores - have been wearing tshirts in favor of the measures. The digital marquees on campus have displayed messages telling us all to vote yes. ASI has hosted "info sessions" on the issues. There have been campus-wide emails sent out. All the on-campus residents had "vote yes!" postcards put into out mailboxes...postage free. The opposition to the referenda hardly have the power to do any of these things. I suppose that's just straight bad luck...but I still don't think this really constitutes a fair election.

One more thing for me to talk about: Courtney has decided to quit WOW. (A big "welcome" to the readers of Courtney's blog who now read Living the SLO Life in order to keep up with Courtney's day-to-day activities.) It turns out that there are one too many people signed up to lead a band WOW group, and as Courtney had thought for a while that she wouldn't be able to do the program due to a scheduling conflict, she has last priority to get a WOW leader spot. There are other reasons behind her decision, but long story short: she's not going to continue with the training. I'm happy for her, actually. She really has been horribly busy, and dropping WOW gives her an extra three hours every week, plus the time she would spend at all of the retreats and things. She would have enjoyed being a WOW leader, but this training didn't seem to be tickling her fancy. So I'm glad that she'll have more time...maybe she won't be as overworked as she has been. (DISCLAIMER: the above paragraph is what I personally have come to understand of the situation. Do not take it as gospel. If you want Courtney's true opinions, you'll have to ask her for them.)

And it is on that note that I shall terminate this entry. Good night, and wish me luck on my midterms tomorrow.

My candle is only lit at one end,
Josh

mood: good...I am glad to understand the last four weeks' worth of education
music: "Hollywood Nocturne" by the Brian Setzer Orchestra
location: dorm

Quoted Randomness:
"By kick, I meant push gently...with a swiftly moving foot."
--Dave Bloomquist

Yeah, so I've got three midterms on Friday. But am I studying? No, of course not! Gah...I really should be, but I really really don't want to right now. I've been doing better in my math classes and I've pretty much understood digital design from the beginning, so I think I'm pretty well set. I'll have lots of time tomorrow to study as well, so I should be good. This is the beauty of my math-based classes. Instead of learning a ton of facts, I learn a few concepts/methods that I spend a lot of time practicing. Thus, the stuff I've done this quarter is firmly etched into my memory and I don't have to worry so much about cramming. All I need to do is look over my notes and review a few different types of problems, and I'm covered for anything that could be on the test. This is quite different from, say, biology majors. I could never stuff that much info into my head and expect to remember it all...I have a great respect for the people who excel in fields like that.

Hmmm...what else is new? Oh! I went to the gym today. I haven't been in a while...I know I haven't been since WSS started. When I have gone in the last few months, I've done stuff like run or bike...not so much of lifting weights. But, as we've discovered is stronger than me, I've decided that I can stand to bulk up a little. So I went today in my break between class and windO. Holy cow! I really haven't been to the gym in a while! I'm going to be so sore tomorrow. Although, that's probably more because I pushed myself harder this time than I have in the past. The reason behind this was that I spent March through August going to the gym two out of every three days and didn't really accomplish anything, and I figure it's because I didn't work hard enough in the time that I did spend lifting weights. So if I'm going to take the time to go to the gym again, I darn well better get something done. And I'm pretty sure I accomplished something today. It'll suck tomorrow, but I'll reap my rewards the day after that! Hahaha!

In other news, a farmer in our area was found to have taken two small wooden figurines out into a rice field and to have savagely beaten them. Police said it was the first case of a knick knack patty whack seen in SLO county in over ten years. Da doom chhhhh!

In other actual news, I have this business meeting dealy to go to tomorrow morning. I received a call from Keith with some "Southwestern" program; apparently they help students find internships...I don't know for sure because he didn't have time to explain it to me fully over the phone. But tomorrow is an info session. I'm supposed to dress in "casual business attire" and bring my resume...it's kind of scary, but also kind of exciting! It'd be pretty awesome if I found some job at home for the summer that would actually get me started down my career path. We'll see...

Okay...if I want my eight hours I'd better start getting ready for bed. I shall talk to you all soon.

The limit of the negative natural logarithm of x as x approaches zero,
Josh

mood: fine
music: John Kander's "New York, New York"
location: dorm

Well I had quite the busy weekend. I got up bright and early on Saturday to make it down to the band room by 8:15. The open house parade started around 9:00...the Mustang Band had had three rehearsals prior to the parade but somehow we never got around to practicing the rolloff and...well...we managed to fall apart before we even started playing. Now most bands would be in a panic right about then, but we - of course - found it hilarious. Hooray. The rest of the morning was tons of fun: lots of music and dancing and even a free Krispy Kreme donut. I miss marching band so much!

The rest of the weekend was spent on WSS. Five performance between Thursday and Sunday. The last two went really well; I was actually quite proud of us. Both Saturday and Sunday's performances were standing room only, too. So exciting! All in all, it was quite an experience, and I enjoyed it immensely. Plus, I'm $300 richer now. Fo rizzle.

Courtney was also very busy this weekend. I don't remember if I mentioned this earlier, but KKY hosted a festival/concert thing where a bunch of high school musicians came up here for the weekend, had a bunch of rehearsals, and gave a performance. So, needless to say, Courtney had all sorts of things she needed to do, which I guess worked out pretty well because I spent the majority of the weekend in Atascadero. We did find time, however, to be together after all of her/my stuff had ended...usually at about 11:00. I was actually kind of proud of myself because I stayed up until 3:00 three nights in a row, including on a school night with class at nine the next day. Haha! I feel like such a college student! See? I live life on occasion...

Not much else to report...I called the lady at Dioptics to see about the job. She said she hadn't gotten around to sorting through the resumes she had received, but since I was already on the phone she dug mine out and asked me a few questions. I figure that'll give me an edge. Anyway, the job seems like something that I might enjoy...basically taking and entering customer orders. I know...not overly glamorous or fulfilling...but doable. I was disappointed to find out that they aren't open on weekends which is when I have the bulk of my free time...but if I do get the job I can rearrange my homework schedule to do as much of it as I can on Saturday and Sunday so I have more free time during the week. Whatever...if it's meant to be then I'm sure I'll get the job.

And yeah. That's it. I guess I'll also mention that Courtney and I have been dating for a month today...so that makes me happy.

For now, I'm going to bed so I can get up earlier than usual to go to the gym.

Funky Chicken!
Josh

mood: nothing specific
music: Win Ben Stein's Money is on in the background
location: dorm

I carried through with my resolution! I found a bunch of piano teachers in the area and called some of them, and I went to the career center to find a job. It turns out that there are plenty of employment opportunities in the area, so I picked one that I thought sounded good and I applied! It's a "data entry" position at this company called Dioptics that makes sunglasses...they want 8-16 hours a week, and they're flexible with their schedule. And they're paying nine bucks an hour! I was astounded that there are so many jobs around here for so much more than minimum wage. Hooray! I haven't heard back from the people yet, so keep your fingers crossed...

Anyway, I wanted to let you all know that I meant what I said in the last entry. I have had a wonderful past couple of days because I've taken initiative to live my own life (as cliche as that sounds). I searched out stuff to occupy my time; I haven't felt this productive in a very long time. So, for at least a couple of days, life is good.

For now, I must go to bed. Tomorrow is the open house parade, then WSS matinee, then an evening show. That's right...another trumpetalicious weekend. But that's okay, cuz I'm having fun with all of it. Plus, I'm getting paid on Sunday! Woot!

Good night, and sleep well.

I took my medicine,
Josh

mood: content
music: "L-O-V-E" by Nat King Cole
location: dorm

I refuse to write a long entry tonight. Why? Because I've spent the entire day doing absolutely nothing. I got up at 8:45 even though I was awake by 8:00. I sat through class, staring blankly at my teachers writing examples up on the board. I then proceeded to kill an entire four hours of my time. I took a nap out of boredom, for Christ's sake! UGGHH! I'm sick of this...so very sick of this. So tomorrow, I'm going to class, I'm coming home and doing my linear analysis homework, I'm going to digital design lab, and then when that gets out around 3:00 I'm going to go over to the music department office and find once and for all a private piano instructor. When I'm done there, I'm going over to the career center to try to find a job. I'm sick of my free time; I'm sick of waiting for others to not be busy. I need to occupy my own time, and I'm going to start tomorrow. Just wait and see.

Here a Lee, there a Lee,
Josh

mood: determined (duh)
music: none, Kevin's sleeping (as I soon will be)
location: dorm

Yes...I know what you're thinking. The aliens are watching you. But no, that's not what I meant. I'm not sure how many of you have seen this, but Kevin made me aware of this phenomenon tonight. Go to http://maps.google.com and click on "satellite" in the upper-right corner. Then type your home address in the search bar, and prepare to be freaked out! I'm very impressed with this mapping software...I'll have to switch over from mapquest.

Anywho, I thought that was an interesting little way to kill a few minutes. Kind of like the rest of my day, actually...

Class was good today. I had only math, and I stayed after in both classes to pick my professors' brains in an effort to understand stuff, and I think it kind of worked. I also had a quiz in linear analysis that I'm sure I did well on. So hooray.

I met Courtney and a bunch of MB people for lunch. We went to the Avenue, but as it was so overcrowded we took our food outside and ate on the grass next to Building 52. It was lots of fun...

After more class I met Courtney for dinner; we went to Back Stage. I was only with her for twenty minutes or so before she had to go to WOW training, but I thoroughly enjoyed the time. The company? Superb. The pizza? Marginal.

I spent at least a couple of hours on my digital design homework. I very much like the class, but the homework is enough to drive anyone crazy. Here's an example for you: say you have a function F that is only true (i.e. it's a 1, not a 0) when the input is 2 or 3, and is false when the input is 0 or 1. So, F is true when the input is 2 or 3. You could also say F is false when the input is 0 or 1. Simple, right? Sure...but you also could say that the opposite of F is true when the input is 0 or 1, or that the opposite of F is false when the input is 2 or 3. All four of these statements say the exact same thing, but I have to write them all out. I know it doesn't sound like that much of a pain, but imagine that you can have 16 or 32 different inputs, and you have to account for them all. And you can't say "6"; you have to say "1010". Trust me, it's tedious. But it's finished.

The only other thing I did of interest today was to switch back from iTunes to Windows Media Player. iTunes is great and all, but Media Player has the same features, plus some extra things that iTunes doesn't have. Namely, Media Player minimizes into my taskbar in a handy little mini player that I enjoy quite a bit. Blah blah blah go all the Mac users out there; I'll fight with you about it some other time. Anyway, I spent about an hour reorganizing all of my music.

Can you tell I'm less busy this week? It's nice...without all the dress rehearsals I'm able to stay on top of all my homework. Life is so much better when I don't have pending assignments hovering over me all day...

Okay, well I should go because Kevin has attempted to go to bed. I'll talk to you later.

Under constant surveillance,
Josh

PS - I'm getting the feeling that not a whole lot of people are reading this blog anymore. If you do still read it, please leave me a comment so I'll know. It may affect how often I update if I know how many people still read this. Thanks.

mood: restless...I've been inside for too long
music: the overture to West Side Story...again
location: dorm

I woke up this morning to Kevin's alarm, as usual. I was amused rather than annoyed at the amount of times Kevin walked in and out of the room in the hour that we was getting ready to go to class. At 8:00 he walked out the door with backpack and all; I assumed he was off to class for good. A couple of minutes later, however, he burst through the door again. He took three steps into the room, pivoted 180 degrees, and walked back out the door. I couldn't figure out why he did this...maybe he forgot something? But he didn't even hesitate when he turned around and left again. I don't know...the whole episode was funny more than anything.

Class today was fine...fine meaning normal. My teachers still bug me slightly in their inability to help me understand the material fully. I was telling Alena yesterday that I'm pretty sure that the quality of the teachers is what makes a good college a good college. Sigh. I guess I'm in for a quarter of book learning.

In my break between class and windO, I drank a smoothie, took a nap, and finished my lab report for circuit analysis lab tomorrow. Oh the excitement.

WindO was okay. Did I mention that we're only playing two pieces for the entire quarter? Actually, the brass is playing a third piece without the woodwinds...and the trumpets are playing a fourth piece with the wind ensemble. But the woodwinds are going to be so bored. Sucks for them, I guess. J sent the woodwinds home about fifteen minutes early today so he could work with the brass on our piece...we played through about half of it before J stopped us. He asked how many people had practiced it over the weekend and only one person raised his hand, so J threw a little tantrum and sent us all home. Golly gee...I feel so bad about not practicing. Cough. (I actually played very well today, which makes sense considering playing trumpet was pretty much my only activity of interest over the weekend.)

After windO I met up with Courtney and helped her and Brian take all the pictures off of the bulletin boards in the band room. It was a job that KKY needed to have done for some reason; I figured it wouldn't hurt my chances of getting in to the fraternity next year if I helped out. So I did. Anywho, Courtney and I went to Light House afterwards to catch up with Rosalie, Heather, Scott, Ted, and Betsy. Outside of Light House, though, we ran into a whole group of MB people, who all went in with us. The bunch of us all ended up at one long table, and I found it very amusing to play connect the dots with the relationships at the table. You know...Scott to Rosalie to me to Courtney to Jenn to Sandra. Hooray for separated groups of friends.

I've spent the rest of my night beating myself over the head with partial derivatives and gradients, which I thoroughly hope we're not through with yet in lecture because I have not yet come to fully understand them. Oh well...I've got numbers on the page for each of my homework problems...

For now, I think I'll go to bed. It's early enough where I might get up earlier than usual to get a head start on tomorrow's homework. Maybe.

Forever free of spyware,
Josh

PS - Kevin talked me into switching to the Firefox web browser today. It's pretty dang fancy...hopefully my computer will be more secure now. I do have one question: I used to be able to hit ctrl+u to underline text in Internet Explorer, but apparently in Firefox that's a keyboard shortcut that shows me the source code to the webpage I'm currently at. Does anybody know how to turn off that shortcut or override it or something? Because that's the only way I know how to underline stuff in this blog.

mood: decent
music: the overture to West Side Story by Bernstein
location: dorm

Quoted Randomness:
[not intended to be funny...just insightful]
"You don't have to love the sin, but love the sinner."
--Jenna Santy

"When taking measurements, never touch the circuit with your fingers, elbow, or tongue."
--circuit analysis lab manual excerpt

So yeah, I meant to finish the previous post sooner than this...but I've had things to do...you all understand. Anyway, here's how Courtney's day actually went, from my perspective:

I got up at 6:45 (after having stayed up until nearly 1:00) to go and deliver the balloon and first note to Courtney's door. A moment of panic soon hit me: it was raining outside! The whole meeting-in-garden-with-flowers and dinner-on-beach was going to be ruined. I thought about changing to a different meeting place, but after checking the weather I decided to chance it. Fingers crossed, I walked over to Courtney's hall. Muir was still locked down for the night, so I called Jamie - who lives on Courtney's floor - to let me in. I quietly left the stuff at her door and made my way back home.

After a shower, I headed over to the music building to stash another note and the jar of jelly beans. From there I went to Sandwich Factory to enjoy a nice cup of coffee and a doughnut, a breakfast that I have come to fully appreciate. Upon my return home I had some time to kill, so I decided to check my friends' blogs. Courtney's had a new post from the night before: she planned to get up early to go to work. Get up early?! It was possible that she had left before I got there. I called Jamie to ask her to check of the balloon was still in the hallway, but she assured me that Courtney had found it. So hooray.

After my first class, I went to Science North to hide the rest of the notes and the picture frame. As I walked back to Yosemite from there I thought it a good idea to take the music building route so that I could check if Courtney had found the second note. When I arrived there, the note was still taped to the wall. I figured she had just missed it; I went home to have lunch without much worry.

When I returned to the music building on my way to digital analysis lab, all was well: the note was gone. Yay! And to make a long story short, I stopped throughout the day at all the other places I had hidden things, and one by one I found that they had been collected.

When I went to meet Courtney at the garden, the weather had cleared up. Woot! Her phone was on silent so I couldn't call her to distract her, so she saw me coming from a pretty good ways away. She ran up and hugged/kissed me, which was simply wonderful. She seemed very pleased with her day, so I guess it was a success.

From there we drove to Pismo beach to enjoy our dinner. It was a tad bit windy (we were attacked by sand on more than one occasion) but was otherwise fun. We were only there for maybe a half an hour; I had dress rehearsal that night. When I came home we spent another couple of hours together. All in all, I had lots of fun administrating the whole thing, and I think Courtney had a great day. (If you want to hear the story from Courtney's perspective, you'll have to read it in her blog.)

In other news, West Side Story has been going fairly well. We aren't Broadway, but we're adequate. The kids are good actors and are decent singers. Our largest problem is that they don't know when to come in/they don't know how long to hold notes, so very often the singers get separated from the orchestra. The conductor frequently has to call out measure numbers and we all have to jump forward or backward so that we're in sync with the actors again. Usually, it works. Today, though, was a different story. Something happened in "Something's Coming." It's a song that's in a very fast three but that sounds like it could be in two; it's easy to get lost if you don't know it...anyway, Tony either accidentally repeated a verse or accidentally skipped one, because somehow he was completely off from where we were, and we couldn't figure out where he was. The conductor had to cut us off at the end and Tony had to sing the last few notes a capella...oh well...most people probably didn't notice...maybe.

Just one more story: the lead trumpet player got lost in "The Rumble." Instead of trying to figure out where we were, he put his trumpet down and sat out the rest of the song, arms crossed. Professional players should not throw temper tantrums when they screw up! Sigh...he's an interesting fellow. He tends to curse quite audibly when he makes a mistake. Oh well. He hits the high notes...what else do you need?

Okay, I'm done. Sorry if the second description of Courtney's birthday was repetitive...but I enjoyed writing about it. I realize that this hasn't been the most eloquent entry, but I'm tired, and I'm watching Friends in the background. You all understand, I'm sure.

Blah blah blah conclusion blah.

This blog will self-destruct in five seconds,
Josh

mood: just okay...I'm not feeling so great about this entry
music: watching Friends
location: dorm

Quoted Randomness:
[an insight into the genius that is my neighbor]
"They should officially change 'chemistry' to 'gay-mistry.' "
--Phil with the big-ass subwoofer

[in a description of what's to be learned in linear analysis]
"We learned how to determine if a particular set of equations is in the realm of the magical kingdom of the tenth dimension."
--Me

[after a comment that the NRA should clear the pigeons out of the performance room]
"The NRA doesn't have time to deal with our pigeons. They're too busy shooting condors...and minorities."
--Robert, first trumpet guy

Courtney's birthday celebration was a complete success! Haha!

What birthday surprise, you ask? Why, the one I've been planning for the last week, of course! Every comment about "secret stuff" was in reference to this, which I'm sure doesn't come as a surprise to any of you who know me well enough. But yeah...I put lots of effort into this and I'm happy to say that it paid off.

Here's how it was supposed to go from Courtney's perspective:

She gets up for her 9:30 class, and when she opens her door there's a balloon and a note that wishes her a happy birthday et al and that tells her to look out for more notes throughout the day. (I know...if you knew me my sophomore year in high school than this will all sound vaguely familiar.) So she goes on her merry way to music theory, where she finds another note taped to the wall just outside of her classroom. This one tells her two things: one, that she should look for another clue in her bio lab, and two, that she go to a specific room on campus and look for something. What she's supposed to be looking for is left to the imagination, but which room on campus is specified...in binary code. Courtney doesn't know binary but pretty much all of her friends are computer geeks, so she finds someone to help her decode the note. When she does, she finds that she is directed to go to one of the practice rooms in the music building. Arriving there, she finds a jar of Starburst jelly beans in a jar stashed behind a piano. Woot. Courtney loves Starburst jelly beans.

A little later in the day, Courtney finds another note pinned to a bulletin board just outside of her bio class in Science North. This note again tells her two things: one, to look for another note somewhere in her last class of the day, and two, to stop by the College of Science and Math Advising Center to check if they have anything for her. After her bio lab, she walks upstairs and is given another gift: an empty picture frame, with a note attached instructing her to find a picture that makes her happy to put inside of it. Hooray.

In her last class - chemistry lecture - she sees the last note pinned to a bulletin board inside the classroom, but can't get it until the end of lecture. This note tells her to go to the garden near Sandwich Factory, adjacent to Building 52. She arrives there and searches around for a while. After a bit, her phone rings...I instruct her to stand in the middle of the garden and look out over Engineering East. As she does, I surprise her from behind with a bouquet of flowers (keeping in mind that Courtney has never before received flowers from anyone). Courtney is happy! I then tell her that I lied about having to go to rehearsal an hour early (yes...the last entry in this blog was a complete load of crap.) and instead I've packed a picnic dinner, which we'll be enjoying on Pismo Beach. So off we go, and we have a great time.

Good, huh? Not entirely original, but I was so happy to do it for her. Courtney is not a very material person, and as such there isn't really anything I could have bought for her that would make her horribly happy. I knew she would enjoy me making a big deal out of her birthday much more than anything else I could have done. So yeah...she seemed overjoyed, and that makes me happy.

But right now I have to go eat and take my laundry out of the dryer, and then go to the opening of West Side Story. So woot. I'll finish this story later.

dum dum da da dum........dooowaaaaaaahhhhhhh,
Josh

mood: hungry and excited for opening night!
music: "Horse With No Name" by America
location: dorm...with Danielle visiting me and Kevin still at class

Hey there. I have very little time to write right now. I arguably shouldn't be writing at all...but I need a break from homework. So here we go.

This week has turned out to be the busiest of the year. Having a three-hour rehearsal every night for West Side Story really takes a chunk out of my free time. Plus, it's at least a twenty-minute drive each way. So yeah...this week has been all about class, homework, and trumpeting, which leaves little time for much else.

But here's the worst part...Courtney's birthday is tomorrow. Great, right? Well...no...not really. The kids in West Side Story have been having trouble staying together with the orchestra, so our conductor decided that we (the orchestra) should get there an hour earlier tomorrow so that we can rehearse some of the toughest songs with a few of the lead parts. Technically, I don't have to go...but I feel obligated to since they're paying me so much and since I made the commitment to be there for every rehearsal and performance. So, unfortunately, I probably won't have more than a few minutes for Courtney tomorrow. She says not to worry about it and that we can celebrate her birthday some other day in the near future...but I still feel bad. Not guilty or anything...I just really wanted to be with her tomorrow.

Anyway, that's what's on my mind right now. There is, of course, more that has happened since Monday, but I don't have time to write about that right now. I've wasted enough time as it is...heh heh. So for now, I'll leave it at "I'll talk to you later."

I'll invert YOUR matrix,
Josh

mood: stressed
music: "Barbara Ann" by the Beach Boys
location: dorm

Kevin has class an hour earlier than I do on Mondays, and although I had slept about 7.5 hours when his alarm went off I was still completely out of it. Seriously, I couldn't figure out what was going on. It was soooo hard to get out of bed! And although I had nearly eight hours of sleep last night, I've been a little sleepy all day. Hmmmm...but of course now that it's time to go to bed, I'm wide awake and writing in my blog. Go figure.

Class today was pretty much standard. I can definitely tell how much longer the four hours of lecture seems when I'm not fully awake for it. Oh well...I got through it without much struggle. It helps that I like the third and fourth classes the most, particularly digital design. We designed a circuit today that detected if an input was greater than four. It sounds simple enough, but I'd like to see you all piece together some transistors that would do the same. Anyway, I had fun.

I had a four-hour break between class and band; I used it to eat lunch (roast beef and swiss on wheat from Sandwich Factory...maybe I'll have to give you all that point back on the quiz) and to do my digital design homework. I spent about two hours converting numbers to different bases and adding and subtracting numbers in different systems (you can't take three from two, two is less than three, so you look at the four in the eight's place...and so forth). I enjoy the stuff, but it took waaayy too long. I didn't have time to get to my calculus homework, which is just as well because I had forgotten all about it at that point. I'll do it tomorrow morning...

WindO went well, too. The pieces we're playing are challenging...but only technically, and not range-wise. May the heavens bless Eric Ewazen for not ending his pieces on a high C. Hooray for that.

From there I went immediately to Atascadero for my first West Side Story dress rehearsal. The play is being performed in "the Armory" which is a big empty gym-like room that is in some way affiliated with the armed forces. I don't know...but the setup is quite strange. The stage is in the middle of the room, and from what I can tell the audience surrounds it on three sides. The orchestra sits behind it. Weird. As far as the acting goes, it doesn't seem to be too great or too horrible...it's about what I might expect from a high school group. However, I'd advise pretty much all of my friends not to come see the play, especially those who'd be doing it just to make me happy. Everything is fine, it's just that the Armory is the most acoustically atrocious room you've ever been in. I couldn't hear a word of dialogue all night. The drama lady (who, by the way, is exceptionally tense...she screamed at some kid from all the way across the room for at least a minute because she said he was talking) called the Armory "the echo chamber from Hades." So there you go. Also, the sound crew hadn't yet mastered the microphones, so pretty much every song was blanketed in feedback. Oh well...we've got three more rehearsals to perfect this thing.

And that was my day. Pretty exciting, huh? Well, fine then...but no one's forcing you to read any of these entries, so you have no one to blame for your boredom than yourself! I kid, I kid...but yeah, I've no more to write. So it's off to bed.

ECHO ECHO Echo echo echo echo,
Josh

mood: quite good, actually...I had a good day
music: "A Little Night Music" played by the Boston Pops
location: a darkened room, as Kevin has gone to bed because he has 7:00 class...bleh

Quoted Randomness:
[on the subject of Boole's novel number system]
"People are worried about how to get a ship from Boston to San Diego without dying, and this guy's creating a two-valued number system."
--Jeff Gerfen, digital design instructor

I had called Rosalie yesterday to see if she wanted to go with me to mass. She said she did, but that she wanted to go to the 7:00 service. Heh heh...right. We decided that we'd catch up with each other later in the day.

I woke up this morning at 8:30 to my cell phone blasting the theme from I Love Lucy. It was Rosalie calling to say that they were going to the 9:00 mass instead and to ask if I wanted to join them. I had to tell her that I was still more or less asleep and that I wasn't able to get ready for and drive to church in a half an hour. I felt a little guilty...but I got to sleep for an extra hour, and to be honest that felt really good.

When I did finally get up and go to mass, I ended up having a good time. These five Scottish priests were there today, celebrating their 40th year of priesthood. They were a lot of fun. There was also a baptism...these aren't too horribly exciting but it is something out of the ordinary. Anyway, mass was entertaining in that it strayed from the norm, so I had fun. Woot.

As for the rest of the day, there isn't too much to report. Errands, homework, racquetball with Heather, dinner with Rosalie, Heather, and Scott at Light House, and some secret stuff that I won't be able to share with you all for a little while. And there you have it. I know...this weekend wasn't the most exciting. But I will say that I never was bored. I was relaxed, but I had stuff to do. And weekends like that aren't bad.

For now, I think I might watch an episode of Friends before going to bed.

Aye laddie,
Josh

mood: piccadilly, and happy that I get to see Courtney tomorrow
music: "Letter from Home" by Aaron Copland
location: dorm, this time being shared with Kevin

Quoted Randomness:
[seen on a coffee mug in Campus Market]
"To do is to be." --Plato
"To be is to do." --Socrates
"DoBeDoBeDo" --Sinatra

I slept in quite late this morning, which was wonderful. When Kevin is home he almost always sets his alarm for 9:00 or so and then turns on his computer and puts on a CD (without headphones), but as he's out of town this weekend it was a nice change to sleep in as late as I darn well pleased. I was also very excited that I remembered to shut off his alarm, because whenever he doesn't sleep in our room he always leaves his alarm on and it always goes off at some horribly early time, and yet I never remember to shut it off before I go to bed. But not this time! Ha! So the point is, I'm up late because I had a good night's sleep.

However, we lose an hour to daylight savings tonight, and as such it would be best for me to get to bed pretty soon so I can get up for church. I'll give you a brief rundown of the day's events.

I woke up and spent some time tweaking my blog a little more. From there I went to the gym for a while. As I had absolutely nothing scheduled today, I took my sweet time doing everything; as a result it was almost 1:00 before I was dressed and ready to go to Light House for breakfast. (Yes, I said breakfast. I had cereal and eggs and cream of wheat and a part of a waffle and an english muffin...what can you call that meal other than breakfast?) I played some video games back at my room while digesting my meal, and then it was off to the music building to spend a couple of hours practicing trumpet (West Side Story, of course) and a little piano. While I was there, Nate called and invited me to go with them to Firestone Grill for dinner. So, at 7:00 I met him, Ben, Jenn, and Sandra and it was off to downtown SLO.

When we returned, I waited patiently for Ben and Nate to accomplish whatever they said they needed to accomplish in World of Warcraft. We then watched Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. I understand why people say Monty Python is an acquired taste...everyone in the room was in stitches while I stared blankly at the screen. I can see where it might be funny to some, but I was only mildly entertained. Oh well. I was very thankful that I was able to avoid spending the entire day completely by myself.

As for tomorrow, I've got church, brunch, a little homework, maybe racquetball, and maybe some shopping/planning for someone's upcoming birthday. I think it shall be a glorious day. But for now...I'm off to bed. Good night.

Losing an hour,
Josh

mood: relaxed after my leisurely day
music: "All Glory Told" composed by James Swearingen
location: dorm, again by myself.

PS - I forgot to mention that I wore my Hawaiian shirt today for the first time in at least a year. I couldn't decide if I looked like a dork in the shirt or not, but it was such a nice day out that I couldn't resist. So hooray. Hawaiian shirts make me happy :-)

Welcome to the new and improved Living the SLO Life. You have no idea how long it took me to change the color scheme from orange to green. Every single text field, background, and border line has a different number in the coding that needed to be changed to achieve my goal...and it took forEVER. But it is finished, and I'm mostly content with it. I can't figure out how to change the archives; they're all still orange. I'm hoping that April's archive will be in the new colors, but we won't find out until after I post this entry. Regardless, I like what I did...so hooray.

This week has gone well. Although I'm still not confident in my math teachers' ability to convey the material, I have come to understand the stuff through the textbook...so I guess I'm feeling a little better about that. I'm also finished with most of my homework, and I'm pretty sure this will be the case for most weekends. My classes are such that homework is assigned frequently enough and is therefore done mostly during the week. I have no long-term projects or anything, so my weekends are left open.

That said, I'm not really sure what I'm going to do this weekend. Courtney is in Tucson for the KKY western district convention...so boohoo for that. But I'm happy for her, because she adores KKY and I know she'll have an unbelievable time. She's actually got me thinking about joining KKY...not because she's been trying to talk me into it or anything, but just because I see that she always has so much fun at everything the band fraternity does. And the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of joining. KKY's purpose is to promote the band (from what I understand, at least) and band is just about the only thing I've found here that I have a passion for. Cal Poly's chapter also seems to be very well organized...apparently they recently won an award for leadership that was only presented to eleven other chapters around the country. The western district of KKY is also completely dry, another thing that appeals to me. So...yeah. It's on my mind, which is a good place for it for now. Come next fall, I can decide to try to join if I receive an invitation. So we'll see.

Wow, that was a tangent. Oh well. Stream of consciousness, right? I don't really feel like summarizing the past few days, so I'm not going to. Instead, I'll just give you a couple of highlights.

--I was crapped upon by a bird...I think. I was walking by the administration building to deliver my housing payment for next year when I felt something hit my head. My initial thought was that the wind had blown some tree particles off of a tree, but when I looked down I saw a whole lot of bird poop around me on the ground. I ran my fingers through my hair and could find nothing...so I don't really know what happens. Regardless, being pooped on is not a good feeling. You walk around for the rest of the day wondering what it is you did to piss off the birds. Oh well. I've showered...it's fine.

--In celebration of April Fool's Day, someone found it amusing to completely deflate the tires on my bike. Now I don't ride my bike to class anymore, but of course today was the one day out of the last couple of weeks that I was late enough to class to warrant riding my bike there. Sigh. I ended up having to walk quickly down to building 38, arriving a couple of minutes late. Danielle (who lives on my floor) had a air pump that she let me borrow upon my return to Yosemite...so all is well again. But curse the man who deflated my tires!

And that's it. I think it's high time to go to bed, so I'm going to hit the hay.

April fools,
Josh

mood: a little contemplative, a little relaxed, and a little missing Courtney
music: "This Ol' House" by The Brian Setzer Orchestra
location: alone in my room (Kevin's gone this weekend)

PS - To kick off my weekend of killing time, I created a quiz of random facts about myself. Feel free to take it here. (I'd like to point out that I did spend an hour playing Super Smash Brothers with Danielle and Danny from my tower, and I spent another ninety minutes playing racquetball with Danielle. See? I'm not completely antisocial when Courtney isn't around...)