It was only 4:55

I went to the office for the College of Arts and Sciences today to confirm that I only needed one more class for my Communications Minor. I figured I would need to make an appointment, so I just wanted to do it in person. So I showed up, only to find the door locked. When the secretary opened the door, she said they were closed at 5. I asked if I could just quickly make an appointment for tomorrow. She hesistated, gave me a look like she didn't want to and told me to come back tomorrow in the morning. I said ok and left.

While walking back to the elevators, I noticed the clock. The little hand pointed to 11 and the big hand pointed to not-quite-five. It was only 4:55 pm. Those administrative bastards had closed early.

That's pretty sad if you think about it. Even the people who work at the mall don't close early if someone walks in five minutes before closing. Sure, they might give you a dirty look, but they'll wait. Someone might say to you that they're about to close in order to hurry you, but they don't just say no, we're closed, come back tomorrow.

So why is it that Drexel gets paid alot of our money to close early and deny us the service that we already paid for? Could you imagine what would happen if some rich dude's maid or butler said they were off for the night and told their master to come back tomorrow? They'd get fired.

I'm not saying Drexel is my maid or butler, but they could at least be as hospitable as a mall store. A little angry, a little annoyed, but still realize they get paid with our money.

My last new class of the week

I don't want to badmouth the teacher, because he seemed really cool, but god damn it, he said that he decided not to do a WebCT site for us because he had to do it in internet explorer and he was getting obscene pop ups. The way he sounded made it seem like he blamed Drexel. So you're trying to tell me that a college professor who is an avid fan of open source programs doesn't realize his computer is infected with adware and doesn't know how to clean it up?

He's also like 4 years older than me. I'm not exactly sure I can look up to him. He might know alot more than I do, but uh, he sure didn't prove that today.

Seems like a fun class though, I'm willing to reserve judgement until next time.

Umbrellas don't work

The rain came down in sheets. Oh, it wasn't so bad when the day started, it was sort of a heavy drizzle but bareable. After my first class though, it didn't even matter if you had an umbrella or not. For me, who had an umbrella, it's really hard to block rain that falls sideways. My shoes were soaked after half a block. I shrugged it off, that was pretty normal. Then my pants, then my tshirt, and then my face. Not only was the umbrella useless by that point, but I assumed the mini hurricane like winds would destroy my umbrella. I just closed the umbrella and sneered all the way home.

My first class was interesting. Apparently Drexel has decided that regular desks aren't good enough for students, instead, they implemented these hard wood metal caged row seats that suck so much. You're pretty much forced to sit up straight because your legs can't move more then two inches. If someone is sitting in the middle of the row, everyone else has to get up to let them out. There's no other way.

The teacher is rather interesting too. The first thing I keyed in on him saying was that this comp sci class is not coding oriented. I cheered silently to myself. He proceeded to talk in the most cryptic way possible. I cryed silently to myself. Then I just phased out, my A.D.D. taking over and my thoughts drifted to about how I have A.D.D.

My night class was just as interesting. Again, the same prison like row seating was implemented in the classroom. This time it was worse though, because the class was literally full, every seat was taken. I had to get up about 8 times to let people come in and out.

Since it's a software engineering class, we spent most of the time talking about way the design process is important and relating it to real life job examples. I found the professor's tales amusing. After three internships, I could relate his stories to my own.

Blah blah blah, the segue from rain to class didn't work, did it?

First day of classes

When I look at the freshman walking around--and they're really easy to spot, they're the ones that look confused as hell--I can't help but be intimidated. They look so old, but yet, they're freshman. I remember my freshman year, I looked at my classmates and I went, wow, everyone looks so old, I guess I look old now too. But four years later, they still look so old, and they're all younger then me.

I wonder then, do they look at me and go, wow, he must be an upperclassman, he looks so old. So really, it would be me looking at them looking at me and both of us think each other as old. Except, they're right and i'm just retarded. That's kind of depressing.

My first class of this term was Japanese 102. It is pretty much picking up exactly where it left off last term. I am in the same classroom with the same teacher and the same timeslot with 2 out of my 3 classmates from last term. Sure, there's a couple extra people now, but i imagine that my two classmates, like me, are pretending the new kids aren't there. We definately are joking around in class and being playful with each other and the teacher while the new guys are just sitting there. I think they're intimidated by the friendly atmosphere. Hopefully they'll loosen up when they become more comfortable with us.

My second class was my first night class. I dropped the class during spring, and let me tell you, it's way easier now that I understand Java (and have gone through some other courses). But I sat in class looking at everyone else. I kept seeing dorkier versions of my friends. Everyone looked like someone I knew... except, dorkier. I don't know how else to describe it.

Surprisingly, there is a few girls in the class. None of them are ugly by my standards and for them to be in the course means that they're definately comp sci majors. It's not a course that you take as an elective (It's a class that would make you want to kill yourself), so that's my only conclusion. So i'm a little impressed right now by them being there.

We'll see if tomorrow will be as interesting.

I chose my college because...

With the incoming freshman class settled in and prancing around campus like a bunch of 6 year olds hopped up on a mixture of Jolt Cola and Red Bull, It was still rather refreshing to see campus alive. I got to talk to a few of them and through casual conversation, I thought about the reasons why they chose this school instead of some other place.

I came here because my friend(s) did.

It was the only college that accepted me.

I heard good things about the school from classmates or teachers.

I wanted to go to a school far away.

I wanted to go to a school that was close.

I wanted to go to a school that was different from where everyone else goes.

I chose the school that everyone else went to.

The school has a good reputation for doing *blank*.

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

Me personally, I chose Drexel because my friend did, because teachers told me to, because I didn't want to go to the same college that everyone else ended up going to (rutgers), and because it was suppose to be a good school for computer science. Not that I even like computer science anymore. argh.

It could have been completely different.

As much as I hate Drexel, I love it. The other school that I could have went to was University of Maryland, College Park. But really, if I had went there, there's so many people that wouldn't be in my life right now. Actually, no, I can pretty safely say that everyone that I associate with right now on a daily basis, I would probably hardly ever talk to them, let alone have ever met them in the first place.

So maybe it was the right thing to do. Maybe. Maybe it could have been better down there. Maybe. I dunno, but somehow, I want to doubt that and say I made the right choice.

Yea, I did.

Vague Random Thoughts

I drove way too much this past week. About 1000 miles.

Still amazed that a 100 watt lightbulb is brighter then two 60 watts.

This school year is going to be really interesting.

Sometimes I catch myself starting to talk like a techy geek, but the words just come out and I can't stop.

My room is a freakin mess, there's boxes everywhere.

Having two cars is really convenient, I highly recommend it.

More interesting posts will come with school starting.

All sorts of lost

So I drove to Allentown today.. and on my way back, I couldn't find the road that led back onto the PA Turnpike. I decided to just drive, I figured the worst I could do is get lost.

Well, that wasn't the worst I could do. The worst that I did was get lost, and then forty minutes later, end back where I started in Allentown. No, literally, I passed by the road where I first left to go home. The sad part is that I still couldn't find the way onto the turnpike.

After some calls on the cellphone to my local NavStar service center (aka, the friend who looked up where I was on mapquest), I found an alternate route home.

Lost here too

I finally finished building my new computer. Everything is working great except ONE thing. File transfers from the computer are really really slow... and since the whole point of building this computer was to use it as a server box with shared drives, it pretty much defeats the whole purpose.

Here's the problem, maybe somebody who reads this can help me find an answer: Computer A is my regular computer. Computer B is my new computer with all the harddrives shared.

Computer A has all of Computer B's drives mapped on the network. If A copies, say, a 200 mb file to the mapped drive, it will copy over in about 15 seconds. If A tries to copy that same 200 mb file on the mapped drive back to A's own harddrive, it will take 100 minutes. Explain that one to me, tech gods.

Argh, says the pirate.

It's good to be the birthday person.

Alright, let me explain the situation. The situation which could have ended potentially bad.

Let's say you spent ten hours putting together a present, you know, all the little intricacies like the present idea brainstorming, the order of presentation, the card prepping, the photoshopping, and all that fun stuff. It's one of those presents where the payoff is when you get to see the expression on the person's face. You know, that mix of oh my god, what is this mixed with wow you're so great for actually putting your heart into the present.

Let's say also that you drove all the way to Maryland the day before the party, and pretty much only came back to Philly to go to this person's party to see this person's face as this person opens their present.

Knowing that, it'd pretty safe to say that it would be a messed up thing to do to open the present when the gift giver (ME) wasn't there. Wouldn't it? You know, me, the person who spent all that time figuring out the present, setting it up, making sure to be there on the birthday day. The person who wanted to see your initial facial expression. The person who if he knew that would have happened, he would have just stayed in Maryland and given you the present later. Why put all that effort into making your birthday special?

So for me to walk out of said person's birthday wasn't exactly unjustified. The other option was to take out their birthday cake and just start eating it. What? Why not? They started on my present when I wasn't there, I think it's only fair to start on the cake when they're not their too.

Bottom line, I give good presents and I want to be there when they're opened. If you can't respect that, I'm going to eat your cake. And in the future, expect to only get my shit in a box with a little flag that says, "You fucked it up for yourself." That's if you're even worth the time anymore.

In the end, said person is lucky it was their birthday and that I decided to come back to be there for the rest of that birthday. Don't mean i'm not pissed, just means that there's a grace period.

Don't think you got away with it.

Pontiac Rocks. Fuck Oprah.

Pontiac gave away 276 G6's on the season opening of Oprah. Apparently, this is old news, but I just came across it.

Here's a link to the article on MSN

And for those too lazy to click, an excerpt:
CHICAGO - Oprah Winfrey celebrated the premiere of her 19th season by surprising each of her 276 audience members with a new car.
...
The cars, which retail for $28,000, were donated by Pontiac.
“A little idea grew into a big idea,” Mary Henige of Pontiac told The Associated Press.
She added that Pontiac will pay for the taxes and the customizing of the cars.

What's a Pontiac G6? One of the nicest lookin Pontiacs to date.


Sure, it's not the fastest or anything, but shoot. I wouldn't complain about getting a 28,000 dollar car for free.

The sad part is, Oprah is going to gobble up all the publicity for this. "Did you hear Oprah gave away 276 cars?" is all that everyone will say. Really though, they should be saying "Did you hear that Pontiac gave away 276 cars on the Oprah show?"

Fuck Oprah, she gained her wealth by taking advantage of self loathing house wives that had nothing better to do then watch day time television. Sure, in the beginning it probably was a good thing, but how much of it is real now? Is it all just to get herself more fame, more popularity, and ultimately, more money?

Not like she even invested any money into this publicity stunt. In all her power, she just had to invite Pontiac to do it, and they did it. Who'd pass up the opportunity to have Oprah endorse their product? And Oprah gets to take all the credit for it and show herself as this geniunely generous person.

Alright, i don't really hate Oprah. I'm just bitter.

But until I get a new car too or I forget about it a week from now... fuck Oprah.

I had a dream, her name was Anna.

I just woke up. I guess i'm not nocturnal anymore, i would be the opposite of nocturnal. I think they're called Farmers. Or early birds. Or white people. Or something.

But anyways, I just had a really weird dream. I was in a bar. I think most of my asian friends were there--well, the asian friends I know that would actually go to a bar. There we met up with a group of asian girls, half of them I already knew, the other half I didn't. The rest of the bar is foggy, my guy friends all disappear, so i'm just at this table with a bunch of girls. So far, perfect night.

We go to sit down at a table, and I end up sitting next to this gorgeous girl. I start talking to her, and I'm being totally suave. You know, i'm complimenting her on how beautiful she is, I make her laugh, and all those other things I want to do in real life but I can't (which explains why it was so perfect in my dreams). I end up asking for her number, and I get it.

Then, because it's a dream, everything goes all random from there. Some reason we're fleeing from an army and she ends up being the Empress of some country. She takes her commanding position, and she gives me a look like she's sorry she lied to me. Of course, I'm in shock on the outside (and loving it on the inside). She tries to explain that she didn't mean to keep it a secret and that she was just afraid i'd treat her differently if I knew. I don't say anything.

The army comes and the Empress can't find her elite retinue of bodyguards. She asks her people "Who will defend me?" and everyone is fleeing for their lives. Suddenly, I pick up a spear and stand in front of her. In third person, I see her looking at me with eyes of admiration. I stand completely somber, ready for the enemy's charge.

Then I wake up. Yea, it ended kind of anti climatically. But seriously. If anyone knows an Anna or someone like that, please let me know. Not because she was a really beautiful girl, but because if I don't meet her, an army is going to attack her and nobody will be there to defend her.

She needs me.

The Day After

So two days later--I mean, I think it's two days later.. I only slept twice since it happened. So two days later, I have come to grasps with destroying my hard drive and losing all my information. The only thing I'm still really troubled about is losing all of my pictures. I'm thinking about starting a gmail account, a webspace of sorts, so that all of my friends can donate pictures to me. What do you think? Please post comments if you're willing to send me pics.

Go find pics for me, ok?

Goodbye, memories.

I'm in a state of shock right now. I don't even know if what I'll be typing is coherent.

To make a long story short, while trying to install a new hard drive on my computer, I manhandled my current one, breaking off a resistor or capacitor or something. The drive is dead. Three years of my life is gone.

Gone are the three years worth of pictures I've taken. Gone are the late night deep meaningful aim conversations that I saved. Gone are my writings, my schoolwork, my web designs, and other personal works.

Sure, I could have probably taken it to some tech place which would have been able to open up the hard drive and retrieve my data, but from some quick research online, I found out that it costs a great deal. Now, I know that my memories are priceless, but my wallet bank account isn't. I dunno, I have a habit of randomly archiving things on cd's, i'm hoping most of the stuff is around somewhere, in some form or another. I am pretty sure I can find archives of everything... everything except for my pictures. I can't remember ever archiving those, and even if i did, it's probably only from the first year or so.

It's shitty how a little piece of metal/silicon broken off can eradicate the last three years of my life. I'm numb. I've been numb. I was numb sitting there, staring at the dead hard drive. I was numb as I plugged it, and unplugged it, and replugged it, hoping, just maybe, the drive would revive from the dead just long enough for me to pull things off of it.

All is not lost though, I did manage to salvage the drive by getting it replaced. Thank you Office Depot. You deserve a plug just for existing.

But now it's really gone, I don't have the drive anymore. So seriously, even if you did know a way to salvage the data, don't tell me, cuz it's totally impossible now.

I'm just going to accept it, move on, and create new memories.

The Invitation

Alright, the following is starting to become a pet peeve of mine. I've been getting called on it more then a few times this past month or so, and I just want to explain myself.

When someone invites someone, makes plans, or even talks about doing something together, to me, there is an assuption that they will be GOING together. To me, that's the whole reason you discuss with your group of friends ahead of time--before the event.

If that were not the case, then planning to do something before is no different then getting in your car, starting to drive, and when you're about to reach your destination, calling your friends and saying, hey! i'm about to arrive at *destination* why don't you come and meet up with me?

So what is my point? If you plan something ahead of time, then the assuption is that you will be going together. The purpose of planning ahead of time is to figure out who picks up who, who should drive to who's house, where do you want to meet up before going to your destination, and all those sorts of details. Don't invite me to go somewhere, and when I call you later, tell me that you're already on your way there and I should just meet up with you inside.

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. If i live so far out of the way that I know i'll inconvenience you to come pick me up, i will drive to your house or somewhere inbetween where we can then figure out who will drive. But even then, we are still going together.

If I know that I will be late or something is holding me up, I will tell everyone to go there first and I will meet up with you when I can.

If I am inviting other people and I know my car will be filled, thus defeating the carpool, I will either volunteer to meet up and drive there together, or to just meet you there. (This doesn't work in reverse.. if the inviter fills up his car and asks you to drive by yourself because he filled up his car, he is fucked up and should die.)

So rule of thumb, if you're driving by yourself or walking by yourself to go to the place that you all previously decided to go to, and the above reasons do not quality, then you got fuckin jipped. I see no sane reason why anyone would call me up and tell me to meet up with them when I was invited to come along beforehand. That's just dumb and I will refuse to go.

So it was written.

Food for Thought

Finally finished finals. I decided to go to Sue's Little Lunchbox, one of my favorite lunch trucks, and order me some victory breakfast.

Let me tell you, when an ugly fat lady--who looks like she ate an ugly skinny lady--orders a pork roll sandwich at 9:45 in the morning, you can't help but laugh.

My order was taking way too long too, it was starting to piss me off when I realized there was only one other person who ordered before I got there. He must have ordered like 10 things from the way the truck dude was packing all sorts of bags for him.

Then I heard his scottish accent. It was great. He looked like what I think a middle age scottish person who wanted to wear a kilt, but couldn't because he decided to go to school in Philadelphia would look like. I was so expecting him to bust out an "Aye, lass!" Or start talking about football... you know, the fake football where people aren't being tackled.

Yup, been awake for two hours and all sorts of interesting stuff has happened.

The Most Addicting Game Ever

So everyone has played those stupid little addicting games online. You know, the flash games, the snood, the candystand games.. we've all been there. Well, today I want to share with you what I think is the most addicting game ever.


click here to play it!

Alright, so that screenshot is a little hectic. That was done with about 10 minutes of non-stop clicking.

Basically, the concept of the game is that you are raising fish. You feed the fish, they get bigger, they give you money. You use the money to buy more fish, better fish food, etc. Sounds boring right?

Well, for every stage that you complete, you get a new creature for your fish tank. For example, the clam will give you pearls which equal more money, and the snail will help you pick up money. Still sounds boring?

While trying to do all this, you have to fight aliens (as seen on the screenshot) that want to eat your fish.

Trust me, it's a very fun game. I'm so very impressed by it.

Seriously. Play it here.

I'm as slow as drexel construction

My blog has finally gotten a fresh look, one that matches the rest of my (unupdated) website. Blogger did something that really pissed me off though. They stopped supporting an archive-index page. They believe it's more convenient to have archive files listed directly on the main blog index.

Alright, that's all well and good for now. I'm also long winded enough where my blog posts will always be longer then my archive file listing. But what if, just what if, by chance I decide to post one liners for seven days in a row? Then what would happen?

Or maybe, in ten years, when I have 150 months worth of archives, what will happen?

Come on blogger, you have to admit it that your decision to not support archive index pages anymore is somewhat ridiculous. Why couldn't you just leave it up to the user? Why take away something that worked?

Of course, this little tiny problem is not enough to turn me away from blogging here. I appreciate the fact that the last three years of my life have been archived in a safe place.

Alright, now i'm going to sit back and continue staring at my new look. I mean, it's not a new look.. but.. it's new.

I know you know what i mean.