MIT Mayhem

Wow! It's February already. Classes have started up once more, and I'm already behind in my assigned reading. Typical. *sigh* Well, so far, I'm rather enjoying 6.170 - my Lab in Software Engineering. Our p-sets consist of writing Java programs, and I'm really excited by that. I've already spent quite a bit of time on the first one, and yeah, it's taking me a long time because I'm stupid. I'm so stupid sometimes, it scares me! Yeah. But the p-sets are hard too. I can't imagine taking this class without knowing Java beforehand (like Sarah - I feel really bad for her) - we've even got Iterators on the first p-set, which confused me when I first learned about them during my summer Java class. Man, I'm glad I know the basics of Java, but there's still a ton of stuff that I don't know about. It's a little bit frightening. Organic chemistry is scary too. The first p-set is all on hybridization and resonance - two of my least favorite chemistry topics. *shudders* Haven't really started that yet - it's not due 'til Thursday. Actually, everything is due on Thursday this semester. That includes 6.170 p-sets, 5.12 p-sets, and 6.004 labs. Aargh! How annoying. Guess that means I can't leave everything until the night before it's due. Ha. 6.004 is boring so far. It's been basically a review of 6.002, only less specific and more dull. I hope it gets interesting soon - it's supposed to, at least. I guess we start our first lab for that class next week or something. Wonder what it's about. Bah. Classes are so annoying to have to refer to by name. It's so much faster to use the numbers... So hm, I guess I'll just stick with that. If you're confused, I'm sure I detailed stuff in earlier posts. I'd add a link, but I don't really know how to do that, and I'm too lazy to try to figure it out right now. o_o; Ah, it was the post before this one. Ha. Go find it yourself. Japanese is scary - we're moving really quickly and the sentences suddenly got really long. Plus it sounds like we're actually going to have homework this term, but I don't know what that entails. Guess I'll just have to wait and see.

I'm so thrilled to actually be able to spend time in my room. Last semester, I spent a lot of time downstairs because we all had to work together on our homework. And IAP was just ridiculous. I spent more time in the 6.270 lab than anywhere else. So tonight I celebrated my evening in by properly hanging my paper lantern (finally!). It looks good as long as you don't look at all the packing tape that's holding it up to the ceiling. ^_^; I did some of my p-set tonight, but then I decided to take a break and try playing Majora's Mask for a bit - I beat Ocarina of Time yesterday. I was so sad, it was such a great game! But I was all excited at the prospect of another Zelda game... I ran into a bit of a problem though - I can't access any of the items in the item menu, so I only got a few minutes into the game, where I had to get an item out of my inventory to give to someone, and I couldn't reach it! Aargh! I was so upset that I set off to make my new PSX emulator work. No luck though - it's alternatively too fast and then too slow, and the sound quality is hideous. So that was a disappointment - I wasted more than two hours on that. Plus, my BitTorrenting ability has been severely crippled because everytime I try to torrent something, MITnet kicks me off the network. I'm not sure if it's MITnet or my computer that's at fault. DeadAIM has been giving me some trouble recently, so I'm wondering if something's up with my poor laptop. Hm. That's pretty sad.

I downloaded 1000 mp3s the other day. *gets pounced on by the RIAA* But they were all game remixes from OCRemix, so they're not exactly 'mainstream'... I've tossed out more than 50 so far, but I've probably listened to nearly 150, so that's not such a great space-saver. Thing is, so many of those songs are so good! I'm really impressed. ^_^ Plus, I'm not going to run out of new music to listen to for quite some time. I just wish I had an mp3 player so I could take them to work with me. Yes, I'm still working at the library, and I even took more hours than last semester so I get to spend even more time barcoding! Heh, at least I get paid more... And it's easy work. Except for reshelving. I hate reshelving with a passion. It really strains my eyes - the lighting's really bad in places, plus I'm always staring at all the ID numbers as I walk along so I get dizzy. Sad, isn't it?

Mike's birthday was a few days ago (Happy birthday! :P) and he and some of his friends are going to the Boston Museum of Science tomorrow... Which is within walking distance! So... It looks like I'm going to wander over there tomorrow and try to say 'hi' to him. Hm, what a weird concept. And I forgot that there's a house meeting tomorrow and that I ought to be present because they're doing budget allocations and I requested some money as the dish closet chair. Aargh. Might not work out. I feel a little bit annoyed that the dragon I was going to give to Mike is stuck back at my house... But who ever thought he'd come down here? Hm. Inconvenient it is. I just mailed his birthday present the other day too. I could've waited and saved $4 postage, darnit! Oh well. Too late now. I just hope the mail system doesn't screw up with it... My my... Me going to try to meet up with a bunch of middle-schoolers. This has got to be one of the strangest things that I've ever set out to do. But hey, I managed to manage a New York trip, right? This is going to be a million times easiers. Just gotta remember to charge up my CD player batteries so I can keep myself entertained on the walk. It's a good thing that MIT students get free admission to the museum too. It'll be nice to head over there - I last went last IAP, so it's been a while. I used to go there all the time when I was in middle school, heh. It was a popular place! Guess it still is for the middle school crowd. <_<; I'll bring my sketchbook too. I need to draw again. I've actually been working on the MIT seal parody - it's starting to look really nice. I'm almost done, actually. Not sure what to do with it though - the t-shirt debate died down long ago, and I don't think I want to stir it up again. It might make a nice submission to the club newsletter though...

Interesting bit of news - LSC is having Fred Gallagher from MegaTokyo come speak here at MIT sometime later in the semester (March? April?). It sounds interesting - I'll definitely have to remember to go!

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: Perfect Blue - Ai no Tenshi (Whoa! I thought I'd never find a copy of this song. o__o;)
Current mood: A little bit frustrated