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BSG Finale: Bob Dylan’s a Cylon!!!

Oh. My. Gods.  I watched the season finale of Battlestar Galactica last night and I’m still in awe.  Honestly, the writers of the show really know how to frack with your head.

If you don’t watch the show… start watching it cause you have 3 whole seasons of goodness to catch up on.  If you already do watch the show then I feel sorry for you, because it’s a LONG 9 month wait until the 4th season starts up in January 2008.

I’ve got Battlestar blue balls in a really really bad way

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I have a Weekend!

Yes, I have a weekend… and it’s amazing!

My two assignments this weekend/upcoming week were short and sweet.  Normally I would’ve been holed up in the lab working on them, but not this week.  The only thing really on my plate in terms of school is my term paper due in 2 weeks, which I’ve sorta researched a bit already so I’m not overly worried.

Last night, being a Friday, I was in the lab with my newfound friend Ryan.  We’ve been plugging away at the lab assignments together this term.  When I first met him, I thought he was a scary crazy dude.  If you saw him, you’d understand.

He’s a husky 300 pounds of bearded, metal loving, camo wearing, biker looking dude.  Mothers always push their children off to the side upon seeing him come down the street.  Old ladies grip their purses as he walks by.  Despite his crazy biker intimidating appearances, he’s one of the nicest guys I’ve met in comp sci.

Anyways, we were working in the lab last night and managed to finish super early.  The assignment was so convoluted that the TA just simply gave us the answers.  We’ll take it!

I managed to round up Thea and some of her friends, and we all hung out at Uncle Glen’s (a shitty sports pub) for some beer and pizza.  I haven’t seen her in weeks, and I had a great time telling stories and shooting the shit.  *Sigh* Hanging out with non-comp sci people is really a breath of fresh air.

I dunno, it made me feel just alive to go out and be with people again.  It also made me regret neglecting my friends and the fact that I became a hermit in my last year of Uni.  There is still a whole month left of school, and the CS grad banquet is coming up.  I’ve decided that I’m going to round up a few friends and attempt to have a campfire party out in Elk Island, the nearby national park.

Anyways, back to my “free” weekend

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Busy As Always

It seems that I’m busy as ever lately. Mostly due to more of the same old: school. My classes are going “okay”. I’m not doing as well as I had expected.

I recall at the beginning of the term saying that I wanted to finish my degree with a bang, well it seems like that won’t really happen. I am lacking the tools for the courses I’m taking. At the rate I’m going, I’ll probably finish with a B+ or so average this term. Which really isn’t so bad.

The good part in all this is that I am learning a lot of cool things, and I’m learning a lot. Both of my Computing courses are very math oriented, and so I’m forced to learn and apply a lot of math that I otherwise wouldn’t have touched. I’m certain that the math component is what’s really holding me back in both courses, as it’s always been my weakness. So it really has made me confront the beast.

If I had a time machine I’d travel back 5 years and tell my younger self: “Take all that boring math shit seriously… I know there seems like no real reason you’re learning all this, but it will eventually come back to haunt you.” I was fairly strong in math up until university. Things started spinning off the rails though when I felt that the math I was forced to take had no real relevance in Computing Science, and that I’d never use it. It was a terrible oversight on my part. At the same time, I wish my profs would somehow make the link between math and computing more visible to keep us motivated and to let us know that YES, this stuff is practical.

Anyhow, after midterms, assignments, and non-stop labs these past two weeks I got the chance finally for a break. I finished my graphics lab early (I made a 3D pacman style game… it’s actually pretty spiffy) on Thursday so I’ve had the last 2 days to just relax and balance other aspects of my life.

Last night, my friends and I stayed up lanning it up. I had a blast to say the least, and it was great to just let loose and forget about school and my other projects. Today I even got around to cleaning up my room :-o, and I went for a swim at the pool.

I really cannot remember the last time I had a good chunk of exercise. I feel weak and flabby, and I haven’t felt this out of shape in forever… a total contrast from last August when I probably was the fittest I’ve ever been (all mostly due to my girlfriend and all the crazy adventures/sports we played). Yes, us CS geeks need to keep our soft bodies from melting once in awhile too.

At any rate, at this very moment there’s nothing pressing in terms of deadlines. So I’m going to spoil myself and enjoy my weekend free from my scholastic duties. Ah… this is what it feels like to breathe again.

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Slowly Fading Magic

There was a moment in my life that I always look to fondly, and it was back in 1st year University.  I remember falling in love for the first time with this wonderful girl, and we used to roam around the city aimlessly having fun.  Just living in the moment and breathing in the simplicity that life had to offer.

Yet at the same time, there seemed to be so much to see and do, and the world seemed so magical.  I guess that’s part of the naivity of that age, but I miss it in a lot of ways.  There was a freedom to go and do whatever we wanted, without worrying about things.

I wonder if I can still keep the world “magical” as I get older… or if I’ll continue to slide into the mundane like I am now. I find myself thinking more conservatively, and more “responsibly” with things constantly on my mind.  My mind is always darting from one thing to the next, from school to my career to business ideas.  It’s just more constant… and when I have free time to myself I have a sense of urgency in the back of my head telling me that I should be doing something productive.

What’s the point of life if one can’t even enjoy the present moment?  Everyone’s gotta work, but we work to live and not live to work.  I guess this’ll bother me more the closer to graduation I get. School represents that youthful freedom in so many ways… though I can’t wait to finish I know I’ll miss being a student.

I think I’m getting old :-/

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Back to the Grind

Reading week was a really nice getaway and a great time to recuperate from all the stresses of midterms.  After spending a lovely week with Renata in Ottawa, I came back to Edmonton feeling refreshed and refocused.

The grind is back however, although now it doesn’t feel nearly as overwhelming as midterm week. My graphics class is still as hardcore as ever, but luckily I didn’t completely bomb my final exam.  I got class average on the midterm, which is not really always a good thing but expecting a complete failure I’ll settle for class average anytime.

I am finding the course interesting though, and even my numerical methods class is starting to become interesting to me. Yes, Math can be fun if it’s repeatedly bashed into my skull with a blunt tool. Oddly enough, my Tibetan Buddhism course has started to become less interesting.  At least, this week we’ve been covering some pretty dry material… so I only hope things get a lot cooler once the prof explains all the wierd and mystical things he encountered in his travels there.

I’m looking forward to this weekend.  Mylore’s swinging by for another codejam.  We’re going to port over last term’s web application project so that it runs on my webserver. That way everyone can see it, and it’ll be a great way to create a portfolio for the job search.  I may even port over the online poker program I worked on last year and make it public. Yes… I am looking forward to coding :-p

Anyways, just thought I’d write something as I haven’t updated here in a long time.  Here’s to hoping I can maintain my focus on school and my side projects.

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