Living the SLO Life

Hi de ho, everybody. I'm back from quite the weekend. I did all sorts of fun stuff and didn't do all sorts of homework (the advantage of having three midterms on one day), so woot. I think I'll go back to Stacie's patented bullet format for this entry...

--Took Heather to her dance class off of South Higuera, as I do every Friday. This time, though, I decided to go to Owen's Music Shop to browse the piano sheet music. I ended up buying a huge book of Joplin rags, and the music for "Clair de Lune."

--Brass ensemble concert on Friday night, which was held at St. Timothy's Catholic Church up in Morro Bay. Every group that played was pretty awesome (minus a trumpet player who was required to play a tad bit too much at once and started to...erm...not play so well towards the end. But hey...we've all been there). My favorite was the trombone choir's rendition of "When I'm Sixty-Four," which is always a classic. So that was fun.

--Late morning on Saturday, only starting around ten when Courtney called to see if I wanted to go to breakfast. So I showered and it was off to Light House for some cheese eggs and "little smokies."

--Trip to Rite Aid for some deodorant and shaving supplies. Jenn and Courtney came along, which added quite a bit of variety to the trip. I can't remember ever having stood for so long in the feminine hygiene aisle...

--Baseball Game: UC Riverside vs. Cal Poly. My step-brother Drew was playing third base for the Highlanders; he hit a double (I think...I can't quite recall) that advanced the runner ahead of him to third so that he could eventually score. Courtney, Brian, and I left after the seventh inning stretch, at which point UCR was up four to zip. I'm going to have to go to more baseball games in the future. It's free, and we actually have a nice stadium (despite it only being able to contain a few hundred people or so).

--Horn party on Saturday night. Eight of us showed up at Krysta's house for some carnitas and margaritas. (I personally had half of a strawberry margarita...so hooray for the running gag of "gee, Josh, did you wake up with a hangover?") We also watched American Wedding...which wasn't the best of movies, but it had its moments. I enjoyed this party (or I guess "small gathering" would be a better way to describe it) much more than the chop party, probably because this party had a purpose other than to get totally smashed.

--Church Sunday, then breakfast with Courtney at Light House (where I found some sort of insect in my cheese).

--Trumpet sectional at 5:00 that evening, which went a little over an hour.

--Family Guy being preempted by Star Wars: Episode II on Sunday night. Grumble grumble. I can't catch it next week, either, because Fox is airing some Nascar thingy. So no Family Guy for two more weeks. Sigh. Oh how I miss the hilarity.

--I got my calculus and circuit analysis midterms back today, and it turns out that I did considerably well on both. I was actually pretty worried about circuit analysis; I forgot to divide by 2a when using the quadratic formula (which I've been using for how long? Oh, that's right...seventh grade!) but I luckily caught the mistake and changed my answer accordingly. (I did not, however, have time to change all of my work, so I wrote Dr. Zhang a note that explained why the answer I got didn't match the work that I did to get the answer.) I also didn't have time to finish the last part of the last problem. Oh well...it all worked out.

--Courtney and I had a chat today that resolved some issues that arose over past week. These issues relate back to the minor religious confusion of sorts that I've been experiencing recently. So yeah, Courtney and I went through an awkward part of our relationship this weekend, but after having come out if it it really was for the better. Courtney and I are good again, and I'm feeling a lot more confident with my religious/moral beliefs. And this is good.

And that's about all there is to discuss. As always, I think I'll go to bed now. But thanks for reading.

Fo rizzle,
Josh

Quoted Randomness:
[referring to the physical appearance of a girl at the next table
"She's Barbie, in a physiological do-able sense."
--Jenn Tan

"My armpits smell like mangos!"
--Jenn Tan

Hey there, loyal readers. I trust that you all have been well? I hope so. Many of you to whom I have talked have seemed at least mildly stressed, but then who isn't, right? The year is winding down...so let's all try to enjoy it while we can. I'm pretty sure I've been doing a pretty good job of that...

My appointment with Dr. Harris at the health center went very well. He confirmed what Dr. Ascoli said about it being excess wax that my body is producing. He also seemed to think that I have nothing to worry about. What's even better is that Dr. Harris thinks a biopsy to remove a sample to have analyzed is a completely unnecessary procedure, so no numbing and cutting for me! His only recommendation was to see a dermatologist who would have a better chance of diagnosing it for sure (as Dr. Harris is only a general practice physician and has only general knowledge on the subject). He said even this would only be for my peace of mind. So see? I'm fine, no worries.

I received an email the other day from the EE department asking me what classes I'm planning to take next year. I've been very impressed with the EE department in that they ask the EE/CPE/CSC student body what classes they plan on taking so that they know how many sections of everything to open up. Now, though, they're only going to run this survey once a year, and as a result they want my best guess now of what I'll be taking between now and the end of next spring. How the heck do I know?! I have a schedule for all four years worked out, but it's only an estimate. The largest problem I face here, though, is that I can't decide if I want to go for the computer science minor or not. I'm not sure how much good the minor would do me, although it certainly wouldn't hurt to have it. I guess it's more of just something in which I have a mild interest. I do need to find something to do my senior year (be it classes or a job/internship or otherwise) because as it stands I only have about eight units per quarter that I need to take to graduate (hooray for AP credit!). I suppose I could take random classes that seem like fun - like bowling - except that the college of engineering has this annoying rule that says that I'm not allowed to take more than four units per quarter of coursework that's outside of my degree requirements. As I'm taking two to four units of band per quarter, I would have to go badger the EE department for permission to take more classes (or I would have to be placed on administrative probation). So yeah...I don't know what I want to do. I should probably just kick myself in the butt and go for the minor...

Remember how I mentioned that I was trying to get a leadership position in MB next year? Well, Tyson sent out an email last night asking if anyone wanted to be his co-librarian next year to help him organize/maintain the music library. I replied last night, and this morning he had emailed me back to say that I was in. Woot! I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for historian, although it seems like a lot of the positions I've been inquiring about are being awarded to others who have "shown more interest." Grumble...I'll save you the grief of having to read through a rant about that right now. But hey, at least I'm co-librarian! Hooray.

So does anybody know what today is? That's okay...I'd have been surprised if any of you knew (but hooray for you if you did!). Courtney and I have been dating for two months today (actually, pretty much exactly to the minute as I'm writing this sentence). She and I went to the Farmer's Market to celebrate. We enjoyed some tri-tip kabob from F. McLintock's and then some goodies from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. (Courtney had fudge, and I had an apple pie caramel apple that was absolutely delicious. She actually had a bite of mine, and didn't die from her fruit allergies, so that's all well and good.) So yeah, that was lots of fun. I should go down to Farmer's more often. It really is quite the spectacle here in SLO...all sorts of stands/carts/booths set up on Higuera Street downtown, and all sorts of people roaming around buying fresh produce and flowers and BBQ and crafts and anything else they can discover...it has such a wonderful summery feeling to it. Yes, I need to go back there.

So I spent the last couple of hours studying for my midterms tomorrow. I'm not too worried about digital design. I took a sample midterm and knew how to do everything. It's also going to be open book and open note, so I'll have all my examples and homework solutions to see how to do the problems. Circuit analysis will be a little more challenging. I know how to do the problems, but I've found that I'm awfully prone to making little mistakes in my work. So who knows? Still, it shouldn't be all that bad. And then there's calculus...I've found that there really is a heck of a lot that I can't quite remember. I know the stuff we've done recently, so I think I'm more or less set for the exam tomorrow. But I'm going to need a good while to prepare for the final in a few weeks.

For now, I think it's best that I start thinking about getting to sleep. Wish me luck tomorrow...I wish I could say that I knew I didn't need it. I don't know when I'll get to writing next; this weekend could turn out to be pretty busy. Brass concert tomorrow, a baseball game vs. UC Riverside and my stepbrother Drew on Saturday afternoon, a horn party Saturday night, trumpet sectional Sunday, and all the homework I didn't do yesterday or today in favor of studying for my midterms. Yeah...it should be a good weekend. I'll write about it soon enough!

Good night, all.

dy dx dz,
Josh

mood: eager to have midterms behind me
music: "Festivity" by James Curnow
location: empty dormroom (don't know where Kevin is)

I have some homework I could be doing right now, but I just can't force myself to do it. So here I am, writing an entry that has been a long time in the making. I think I'll steal Stacie's lovely bullet format to summarize the last week...

--Do you all remember my writing about my inability to understand negative logic in digital design? Well, I went to a couple more office hours in addition to reading through the book and beating myself over the head with some homework problems for a few hours, and after all of the work it has all finally become clear to me. Crystal. Ahhhhhh...such a relief! It's actually quite exciting. Both my lecture and lab instructors will admit that they're a little fuzzy on the topic. When Dr. Mealy asked if I had come to understand negative logic and I told him I had, he asked what it was that made it so clear to me, and long story short it turned into a half-hour discussion of the topic. We disagreed on a few points, but I'm certain that I proved I knew what I was talking about. It was so much fun...it was my first full-blown academic discussion! I was all making points and backing them up with examples and stuff. We ended on Dr. Mealy wanting to think about what I had said, so I guess we'll have a continuation of the debate sometime later. But anyway, I am thrilled to have this thing that was causing me so much grief to become something that I actually enjoy thinking about and working with.

--I have a rash on me in a place that isn't really visually accessible to anyone but myself; I went to the health center on Thursday to have it checked out. I've actually had this for a long time...I don't notice it at all because it isn't painful in the slightest. I only actually went to the health center after Courtney convinced me it was for the best. Anyway, after some oh-so-pleasurable examination, Dr. Ascoli said that he thought it was my body producing excess keratin, which is a wax that our skin naturally produces. He said that his guess was that it is nothing to worry about, so hooray. He did admit, however, that he couldn't say for sure one way or the other, so he gave me some recommendations. The first thing he wanted to do was test me for all sorts of STDs, but we avoided any worry over that after I updated him on the status of my sex life. (This part was actually very comical. The doc didn't really seem to believe that I'm not sexually active...he sprinkled his explanations with things like "well IF that's the truth" and "if you REALLY haven't had sex," which I found amusing. He admitted that he operates on the assumption that all of his patients have had sex.) So now I'm left with three options. The first is to get a second opinion. The second is to do nothing. And the third (my personal favorite) is to remove a sample of the rash and have it analyzed, which involves numbing the area and cutting down to the bottom layer of skin, a process which will leave a scar, which carries the risk of infection, and which costs $180. So what am I going to do? Seeing as how a visit to the health center doesn't cost me squat, I'm going with the second opinion plan. I have an appointment tomorrow.

--I had a midterm on Friday in linear analysis. I elected on Thursday to spend the evening with Courtney instead of studying, so I went into the midterm only with some glances through my notes in the three classes immediately preceding the exam. This was a reasoned decision; I spent a long time over last weekend doing a buttload of homework for this class, and I was able to get through all of it with a good understanding of the material. (You all know that I wouldn't blow off studying for a midterm if I didn't think I was ready for it.) So anyway, I got the midterm back yesterday: 60/60! Oh fo rizzle! I'm very proud of myself after this...not so much because I did well, but because this doesn't seem like something I would normally do. Spending an hour or two reviewing would be the safe thing to do. But I was fairly confident that I was going to do well, so I took a little bit of a risk. And that's why I'm proud. I've felt lately that I'm living my life a little too fearfully, which I think has a lot to do with watching how Courtney lives her life. As I believe I put it a few days ago, Courtney has done all of the things that I've wanted to do but have been too afraid to try. I feel like I've taken a step in a new direction...a direction that I actually like. I didn't know whether I would do exceptionally well or not, but I was able to accept that if I didn't do well then it wouldn't be the end of the world.

--Relay for Life was an absolute blast!! I had so much fun! I got there at about 9:30ish on Saturday morning. The event kicked off at 10:00, and everyone on team Accelerando Georged the first lap. From then on, we had at least one person on the track for the next 24 hours. I personally walked for probably about 3.5 to 4 hours, in one-hourish shifts. I often had someone with me to chat with, and this was what I enjoyed the most. I got to know a few people who I had previously never really talked to...and I found that they're all exceptionally friendly. (See? There are more people than just Courtney in KKPsi. (I've been told that it's technically not correct to write "KKY," so "KKPsi" it shall be. (and sorry about the nested parenthesis))) When I had no one to accompany me on the walk, I carried my trusty mp3 player. The part of the day not walking was spent conversing, playing Taboo, playing hearts, trying not to be attacked by people with super soakers, and watching various forms of entertainment (including the swing and salsa clubs, the juggling club, and a hypnotist). I had to leave at 3:00 pm to find my keys (which I had left in my room) in order to get to my 4:00 sectional (which Singh let me know about on Friday...grumble grumble) on time. I came back by 5:30 and was at the Relay until two in the morning, at which point I went home to get some sleep. (I had no sleeping bag, and we all know it would have been pointless for me to try to sleep through the ruckus of the event.) I dragged my butt out of bed at 5:30 to get down to Dexter Lawn by 6:00 to start my last walking shift of the event. I hung out down there until it ended at 10:00, at which point we went over to JD's house for some delicious pancakes (with homemade syrup!). All in all, I had a great time. I'm still a little tired, and I'm still a tad bit behind on homework...but it was worth it. Oh and about the finances: our team raised over $1300, of which $370 was collected by yours truly. The event as a whole raised over $41,000 for ACS. So hooray.

Some choice pictures:
Huddle under the blanket (and yes, that's Amanda Witko in the upper right):

Luminarias:

The survivors of the event:


And those are the major things that I feel are worthy of mention. I will now either watch an episode of Friends or will study for my Friday midterms...hmmm...not sure. But I don't have class until ten tomorrow, so I can stay up slightly later than usual. Good night, all. I wish you all the most pleasant dreams.

To be the man who falls down at your door,
Josh

mood: eh...all right
music: none because I was having trouble concentrating on what I was writing (my attention span drops when I'm tired)
location: dorm

Quoted Randomness:
[a reaction to the undercooked tri-tip served to us at VG's]
"It's...like...still mooing!"
--Courtney von Bergen

See? I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth. You can all stop losing sleep over it.

However, I don't really have time to write right now. I'm still trying to catch up on sleep and on homework after the weekend. But I wanted to let everyone know that everything has been going well, and I haven't written only because I've been busy. So yeah.

I should have some time to write a good entry tomorrow. No promises though. I will say that I'll get around to it soon enough.

For now, I want to sleep. My bed is soooooo comfy...

Stay tuned,
Josh

mood: mostly content, very slightly stressed, and quite tired
music: none
location: dorm

Today was a long day. It wasn't too bad...it was just filled with a bunch of little things that made me wish a little bit more that the end of the day was nearer. I'll take it from the top...

Class is tedious. I'm learning the exact same thing in both circuit analysis and linear analysis. (Differential equations apply to RLC circuits, so I have to derive the equations in BOTH classes. Gah!) Calculus is going well, I'm just a little tired of it. We've gotten into triple integrals now; if you don't know what those are, they're basically exactly what you might assume they are from they're name: three integrals built into one problem. After you finish the first integration, you're only one-third of the way there. Sigh. Digital design is interesting, but we've gotten into negative logic signals, the conventions of which are exceptionally confusing. Analogy: imagine taking a word in English and attaching to it every prefix you can come up with that means "not": un-anti-im-non-dis-in-de-ir-word. It's a frickin' octuple-negative! This is a pretty hairy topic, so much so that my professor admits that even he isn't completely clear on it. I won't get into the details of the hassle I've gone through to try to understand it, but suffice it to say that it's a continuing epic adventure.

Speaking of digital design, I got in a little bit of trouble in class today. Margaret is in this class with me, and we were talking and laughing in the couple of minutes before Dr. Gerfen started his lecture. Long story short, Dr. Gerfen started teaching right after the punchline of my/Margaret's conversation, and we evidently pissed him off a tad bit because we were laughing while he was trying to lecture. He said that he often hears "giggling" from about where Margaret and I sit, and that normally he's a nice guy but if the giggling continues he would start to kick people out of the class. Whoops...I really didn't think Margaret and I had done anything worthy of a reprimand. Honestly, we were in the process of halting our conversation when Dr. Gerfen started talking. Oh well...I can't do anything about it now.

I drove all the way down to Arroyo Grande (a healthy twenty-minute trip) to meet with Leigh Kaplan, a piano instructor who teaches out of her home. She was intimidating when I talked to her on the phone a couple of weeks ago, but in person she turned out to be a perfectly friendly woman; I liked her a lot. I was very impressed by her accomplishments: Bachelor's/Master's in music from USC, teaching at Cal State Dominguez Hills, written books, recorded CDs, and even performed with John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra. Quite the pianist! I would jump at the chance to take lessons with her except that she lives over twenty minutes away, and she's slightly pricey at $55/hour. I told her that I was still looking to see what teachers were out there, and we left it at that.

I spent the rest of my afternoon struggling with digital design homework.

WindO was fine. There were no incidents to report, although I am a little tired of the music. We're still only playing two pieces - neither of which do I care for much - and a bugle call thing that goes with a piece being played by WindE. So WindO wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. What made it slightly crappy was that when I was walking from the back row to the front (for the bugle call rehearsal) I accidentally kicked over a clarinet's drinking glass, full of water, that she had made that day at the craft center. Didn't I feel awful?! But to make it worse, she cut her finger on the shards of glass as she tried to clean it up. I tried to help her clean it up but she sent me away because I needed to get ready for the bugle rehearsal. So all I could to was watch her clean it up and feel like a horrible person. Sigh.

I had dinner with Courtney, Ted, and Rosalie & Co., which was certainly the highlight of my day. Friendly faces were refreshing after today. After dinner, I walked Courtney home and then spent the rest of the evening on digital design and calculus homework. A big woohoo for that.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do now. Kevin is still up, so I might stay awake a little longer to finish my circuit analysis lab that's due tomorrow afternoon. I'll probably go to bed as soon as Kevin does, though. So, once again, good night. I'll talk to you later.

End of the line,
Josh

mood: not looking forward to class tomorrow (a la last night)
music: "Once in a Lifetime" by the Goo Goo Dolls, and Kevin's music which I hear over my headphones
location: dorm

Here are the pictures from the dance that I forgot to post yesterday:




That last one there is a picture of Mike (not Courtney) and me. Mike went to Poway High (booooooo!); he's in MB, windE, and KKY now. He's also in one of my math classes, so I've gotten to know him through our mutual dislike for linear analysis. He's pretty awesome...I'm glad to have gotten to know him this quarter.

Anyway, I don't feel like writing much right now. I didn't do anything entirely noteworthy today. I'll mention that I watched Family Guy (new episodes of which are finally being produced by Fox) tonight with Courtney and was, sadly, quite disappointed. The plot was lacking, and the jokes were predictable and/or entirely too crude. We also watched American Dad, which is a new show on Fox; this one was even less satisfying. (It's pretty much Family Guy with slightly different characters.) I'm actually kind of happy to not be finding anything worth my time on TV...I would, however, like one show to watch. You know, something that I set aside a half an hour for once a week. I was hoping Family Guy would be that, but the new episodes (two so far) are leaving much to be desired. Sigh...

I also talked to Joanna for about an hour, which made me happy. I hadn't talked to her in a great while, so it was good catching up.

Oh! I suppose you're wondering about my bet with Courtney. Well, just in case I'll tell you anyway. KKY had a beach day this weekend, and they had planned a fundraiser in which you could pay a few bucks to hit someone (of your choice) with a pie. Courtney was confident that she wasn't "on anyone's bad list," but I was pretty sure just about anyone would pay money to be able to throw something at Courtney's face. (If you haven't known her long enough to find the hilarity in her facial expressions, you are sorely missing out. Seriously...did you look at the third picture above?) We were both fairly confident in our opinions, so we decided on the following: if someone did hit Courtney with a pie, then I win. (What do I win? Pride. Darn this one-sided bet!) But if Courtney didn't get hit, then she would get to hit me with a pie. (It seemed like a good idea at the time...I knew I was going to win...) Well, it turned out that no one decided to throw a pie at Courtney...but that was only because they never got around to actually doing the fundraiser on Saturday. So technically I lost (because I didn't specify that the event had to take place) but we both agreed that that was crap. So I guess it was a draw. Yeah, I know...sorry the outcome isn't the most exciting...but I'm certainly relieved. So woot.

Okay, I should be off to bed. Bleh...Monday tomorrow....bleh.

Do you get the most out of your dining plan?
Josh

mood: not wanting to go to school tomorrow
music: "Kronos Unveiled" from The Incredibles soundtrack
location: dorm

This is a continuation of the post appearing immediately below this one.

Last night was the musician's ball, put on (of course) by KKY. The theme was "Jungle Boogie," and they did a really good job with it. It was held in the PAC Pavilion, and they created a great jungle atmosphere. The lighting in the room was phenomenal; they had somehow cut stencils or something to put over all of the green lights in the room so that they shined silhouettes of palm trees and bamboo and other jungle flora on the walls. They also had bananas and pineapples (to Courtney's delight) on each of the tables. It was pretty fancy! Atmosphere aside, though, the dance itself was so much fun! Gone are the days of dancing awkwardly in a circle of twenty people. Apparently, adults dance with each other. Crazy, huh? Now, I'm not saying I wasn't a complete awkward spaz...but I was a hell of a lot more comfortable there then I've been at any other dance. I particularly enjoyed the first half, when they played lots of hits from the seventies and also a few songs that we play in pep band. The second half of the dance leaned more to the present-day side of music...I got to hear "How can you NOT know this song?!" multiple times. Yeah...that got a little old. It's easier to dance when you know the music; it's harder to dance when you don't know the music but everyone else does. Sigh. Oh well, it was uncomfortable for me for only a short while, and it quickly got back to being fun. Plus, I had Courtney with me the whole time; she always helps me get through situations such as this. On the whole, I had a lot of fun. I will most certainly go to next year's musician's ball. So that's that.

Upon returning to Yosemite after the dance (at about 2:00 in the morning) I found Danielle and Danny sitting in the common room. I ended up talking with them for a full hour; that made me happy. A few of the people in this tower drive me insane, but most of them are good people, and I'm even going to miss a few of them next year. Danielle and Danny are two of those...I am glad that I've gotten to know them this year.

I was thrilled this morning to be able to sleep in. Kevin usually sets his alarm for between 8:00 and 9:00, regardless of how late he decides to stay up the night before. So, as a general rule, I can't plan to sleep in later than that. But Kevin must have been tired, because we both slept in until 10:30. Woot!

Today was low-key, as weekends tend to be for me. I went to the gym, did some homework, wrote a partial blog entry, had lunch with Courtney, did some more homework (with Rosalie and Heather), had dinner with Courtney, and practiced piano. It may seem like a mundane day to the reader of this blog, but I actually am enjoying myself. I'm certainly not bored; I have come across enough to do to keep me occupied. I am very content with things right now.

As for tonight, I plan on watching Ghostbusters (check!) with Courtney. Tomorrow will be spent going to church, doing more homework, and practicing more piano. (Don't worry...I'll have time left over to have some fun.) Goodbye for now.

Jungle Boogie diddly-uh diddly-uh,
Josh

mood: very content
music: none except for what's emanating from the concert taking place in the main lounge
location: dorm, with Courtney sitting on my bed studying bio

Quoted Randomness:
[This one is more fun when I don't explain it.]
"They're like f***ing bumpers!"
--Jenn Tan

It's pronounced "funk."

This week worked out such that I had time to write the day after I posted the last entry (at a time when not much had happened) and I had no time to write later (when I actually had stuff about which to write). Oh well...but what could I do? I would gladly take having stuff about which to write and no time to write it than the other way around. It's interesting, though...I'm often thinking about what I plan to write in my next post here. Whenever something of interest happens, I store it in memory (RAM) so that I'll remember to tell you all about it. I was thinking about this process, though, and it occurred to me that when I go a few days without writing and then come back to summarize, the emotions that I was felt at the time the events occurred are so much stronger than what I feel about them now, days later. Hmmm...well, there's not much I can do about that. So just keep in mind that when I'm writing about, say, the musician's ball, the entry that would be written an hour following the event would be very much different from the entry that would be written the next day.

Anywho, I've had a pretty darned good few days. I've been quite successful in getting people to donate to the American Cancer Society. I've raised over two hundred dollars since Wednesday! I've gone to five of my teachers' (both past and present) office hours, and four of them have given me money. I feel pretty bad about asking them to donate, though. You know...nobody really likes telemarketers or those people who badger you outside of grocery stores to donate, and I feel bad about barging in on my professors' office hours to harass them. But I've made it a point to make them feel like they could say no to me without a problem. Plus, this is a good cause, and as long as I'm not in there next week asking them to donate again then I don't really feel all that guilty. All that aside, I really have enjoyed raising money for ACS. There are so many people who are so darned inconsiderate and who drive me absolutely insane...it has been really wonderful to find that so many people are so giving. I truly did not expect the response that I've received. I know, it's probably not an entirely significant occurrence, but it has given me some more confidence in the human race (if that doesn't sound too ridiculous). So hooray.

While we're on the topic: many thanks to both my mom and to Jenna, who both donated to the cause.

----------------

Okay...Courtney just called to see if I wanted to go to lunch with her, so I'm going to go do that. I shall finish this post at some time in the near future.

To be continued,
Josh

mood: a little "eh" cuz I've been sitting at my desk for too long
music: none
location: dorm

Hello, all. I just finished officially signing up to be on the Relay for Life team. The American Cancer Society has a very impressive website; if you'd like to donate to our cause then the easiest way to do so would be to go to my personal ACS website and use your credit card. If you don't want to do that, I'd still be happy to front the money for anyone who wants to give to our cause.

Again, I do believe this is a very good cause and I would be thrilled if I could get some donations. Pretty pretty pretty please....

Thanks bunches,
Josh

PS - If you don't know what I'm talking about, read the post below this one. If you still don't know what I'm talking about, ask me.

I meant to write yesterday, but I spent far too much time at Rosalie's helping her with math. (Coincidentally, I spent far too much time helping her with chemistry tonight...but I don't have class until 10:00 tomorrow.) So we'll start with the stuff I meant to get through yesterday.

Happy Birthday Dad! Monday was Dad's 50th birthday. He called me Sunday afternoon. Where was he? Houston. Why? He was catching a connecting flight to Paris. Why was he going to Paris? Because his train to Germany leaves from Paris. Why is he going to Germany? Because he can. Uncle Roland is in Munich on business, so Dad used his fly-for-free pass from my cousin Adam (who is a pilot for Continental) to get to Germany. I'm very happy that Dad is able to do this...Dad has always said that his birthday doesn't mean as much to him as the day just preceding it: his last day at a certain age. Well, Sunday was Dad's last day in his forties, and he spent his final hours of his fourth decade over the Atlantic. I think there's some poetic justice in this...but then what the heck do I know about that? The point is, Dad has been finding time to go on these mini vacations, and I'm happy that he seems to be enjoying himself.

I got both of my midterms back. I made a couple of stupid mistakes on my digital design test; these cost me a few points. Final score: 71/76. Stupid mistakes are the best kind, because they mean that I could have done the problem had I had a little more time or had I paid a little more attention to what I was doing. I understand the concepts, and that's what's important to me. But then maybe I'm just justifying those five points...whatever. It's still an A! In circuit analysis, I did lose some credit as a result of the mistake I told you about. She did see my second answer, though, so I got most of the credit. Final score: 24.5/25. Fo rizzle! I also got my quizzes back for each of my math classes; I did well on both of them. So long story short, Monday was a very good day as far as academics go.

I guess those were the only two things I wanted to mention yesterday...I can't remember anything else. Let's move on to today...

I walked into my calculus class today (my first class) and was surprised to find the teacher of my other math class sitting at one of the desks and looking at me as I came through the door. I had been daydreaming and was therefore on autopilot as I walked to class. Why is my other math teacher in this class? Is this the right room? Which class am I supposed to have first? What day is today? I was quite confounded but I hesitantly took a seat in the back nonetheless. It turns out Dr. Gu was there to observe the class for some reason; I guess he's just brushing up on his calculus. Understandable...it just threw me a curve ball...curve balls are bad when I'm on autopilot...

After all of my classes and homework were said and done, I decided to catch up with two of my very good friends from home: Alena and Jenna. I hadn't talked to either of them in a good while, so it was high time that I called them. I spent over an hour and a half on the phone, and the conversations I had put me in a good mood. I've felt like I'm drifting away from my friends from home, and I now feel a little less that that's the case. Yay!

Speaking of friends from home, national college choice deadline day passed over the weekend. Here is my knowledge of the choices my c/0 2005 comrades have made:

UCLA: Ashley, Sara
Notre Dame: Kate
U. of Illinois: Lauren
UC Davis: everybody and their grandmother (specifically: Jenna, Alena, Mitchell, Emily)
Cal Poly: Brig, Renee

Congratulations to all of you for finally making a decision. I'm sure you'll all be happy where you end up. Good job in particular to Brig and Renee for making the right decision. (Kidding! Only kidding! Different schools for different people, of course...) Also, woot for Ashley for being the only one that I know of to be in the marching band! People in marching band are, simply, frickin' awesome.

One last thing before I go: the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life is taking place May 14-15 here at Cal Poly. If you've never heard of it/don't know much about it, it's basically a fundraiser for ACS. I won't get into the specifics of it here (but if you're interested, ask me...or Courtney). Long story short, I'm helping to collect donations to further ACS's cause. If anyone reading this can spare a few bucks (I'll take anything!) then please let me know. Seriously, no donation is too small. And hey, I'll even pay for you and y'all can just pay me back next time you see me. See? I'm so generous! But yeah, it would make me (and lots of other people) really happy if you could donate some of your spare change...

Okay, I must sign off now. I'm getting up a little earlier than usual tomorrow so I can go to a couple of my teacher's office hours to see if I can't get them to donate. Wish me luck!

Ride high you [school mascot],
Josh

mood: better than earlier today
music: Kevin's renaissance delight
location: dorm

PS - Remind me this weekend to tell you about the wager Courtney and I have going on.

Quoted Randomness:
[headline on a newspapaer in American Dad]
"Stuff happens as wave of ambiguity spreads."

I had a very good weekend. I didn't do a whole heck of a lot that warrants a mention in this blog, but I did thoroughly enjoy myself. This works out perfectly for me right about now, because I want to get through everything but I'm also fairly tired and I would like to get to bed soon. See? Meant to be.

I woke up on Friday and found the following to greet me in the common room and bathroom:


Sigh. It's not the immaturity that bothers me, or the damage fees I'm sure to be charged. It's the fact that the people who are responsible for the damages probably don't live on my floor and therefore won't be charged. The entire tower has access to my common room and bathroom; it's even assumed that the first floor uses our common room because they don't have one of their own. But only the second floor will be charged for the common damages, not the tower. Grumble grumble...oh well...it is only five or ten bucks I'll be losing. It's just that five or ten bucks is about fifty to a hundred times what other people I know are likely to be paying. Grumble again...

The rest of Friday turned out peachy keen. I had a midterm in circuit analysis. I pretty much figured everything out...but of course I made a stupid mistake in one of the problems. It wasn't a mistake in the circuit analysis, or the calculus. No, of course it wouldn't be. I misplaced a factor of "t" in one of my equations. Sound vaguely familiar? Yeah...oh well. I found the mistake with a little time left to spare and did my best to correct it. It's possible (though highly unlikely) that I earned full credit on that one. My work, however, was very messy as a result of the mistake; I sent my professor an email that tried to explain to her which boxed answers should be considered and which should be ignored. I know...that's a little obsessive...but hey, I'm more likely to get points when I argue my case. We'll probably find out how I did tomorrow.

Friday night was awesome. The University Jazz Band held a swing dance concert; KKY helped set up, sell tickets/watch the door, and tear down. Courtney had volunteered for the event, so I spent the evening with her at the dance. For most of the evening, Courtney was seated at the door managing the inflow of admission fees and I was at a nearby table in the UU helping Rosalie with math. But we did manage to both get into the free hour-long swing dance lesson. It was so much fun! We were both a little clumsy, but I think we were doing pretty well for beginners. Towards the end of the night we found some time to go in and dance to the last couple of numbers; my dancing skills hadn't improved since the lesson but I had fun nonetheless. After the dance, I spent an hour helping the seven or eight KKY members who had shown up to help tear down. And that was fun. I think I hurt my lower back lifting something, though...I'm such an old man! (Actually, I think I've hurt my back earlier and I just aggravated it further on Friday. I've felt a pain in the same area before. I really need to get that looked at...)

Not much to report on Saturday...sleep in, breakfast with Courtney at Light House, homework, Star Wars: Episode I with Courtney, back to sleep. Oh, and I dropped the L-Bomb on Saturday morning. (No, I'm not going to explain that.)

Today wasn't a whole lot more exciting...I got up for church, had brunch with Courtney and Ben, did some homework (I attempted to, at least. Curse the math department for picking our textbooks based on them being written by Cal Poly faculty and not based on them being helpful textbooks!) went to Campus market to buy $45 of groceries in order to spend some of my meal plan money before it expires at the end of the quarter, did some more homework, had dinner with Courtney at Light House, baked brownies, watched the season premiere of Family Guy while enjoying the brownies, and went over to Rosalie's for a few minutes to see if she could explain a problem in my linear analysis class to me. (I sincerely dislike the textbook for this class. A typical example in the text begins with a statement of the problem. Then the phrase "using methods explained in previous sections we can solve to obtain:" precedes the answer. They don't show the work! What the heck is the point of the example if they're not going to show the work?!) And that was Sunday.

So there you have it: my weekend in a nutshell. I'm sure I did nothing that was too horribly exciting to read about, but I personally had a great time over the past few days. So hooray! Now, though, I'm going to go to bed (and hope that Kevin will, too).

His big nose in their business,
Josh

mood: content
music: none
location: a non-darkened dormroom...please go to sleep soon, Kevin...