April Showers...

Woohoo! I am so happy! For Software Engineering lab (6.170), we have to build this graph thing, and we have to build the Nantucket graph in under 10 seconds. Mine was taking 20, and it was so sad. But I commented out this horrible iterator edge-checking thing and now it loads in less than a second! I am dizzy with joy. Now, if only I had managed to get this all sorted out earlier. Sigh. I must be a masochist or something.

So today was a bit of a mess - it started raining yesterday afternoon and it's still raining now. They talk about April showers, but this is ridiculous. You know it's been raining too much when Killian Court is populated by ducks instead of pigeons. I'm serious! Man, I lead such a healthy lifestyle - I walk everywhere. But that was bad today because I'd go outside and my pants would get soaked because umbrellas are sad like that. Then I'd sit down for lecture for a couple of hours, or go to work for a while... And when everything was nice and dry again, I'd have to go back outside again! So annoying! My tennis shoes got really wet because I was stupid and didn't wear boots.

Ah, yesterday my 6.170 team sat down to choose our final project. We discussed it over McC dining, couldn't decide, and continued later in an AOL chat. :P It's decided though, thank goodness, and we'll be working on Antichess, which sounds like a lot of fun. It's where you play chess, but you try to lose all your pieces first. It involves building an AI, which sounds scary, but I think it'll be really interesting. Goodness knows I need something to look forward to. The other option was Gizmoball, which is something like pinball, but it didn't sound as mind-engaging - it's more about the graphics. And physics. Yuck. Oh well. Both sound hard, but I hope it'll be fun.

And now, for the highlight of the evening.... Fred Gallagher (the Megatokyo guy) gave a talk this evening and I went! It was great - he rambled quite a bit, but it was all very interesting. He spent a lot of time talking about his college days and the advent of the internet. It was funny just to think back to how old I was then - this was all stuff that happened during grade school for me. He also talked about how he started with an online art website, and has had no formal art training. He's developed a great style on his own, that's for sure. As he answered questions, he drew a picture of Kimiko. It was neat. I really admire his hatching skills. He pointed out that in the anime style, if you have a head, depending on where you place the eyes, nose, and mouth, that can totally change a character's facial expression, and I was amused because that is totally true and I've noticed that myself. He also says that starting with the outline of the face is something of an unusual way to draw, but I'm not sure if I agree with him on that. I mean, we draw the same way - facial outline, hair, facial features. It's kind of interesting that I've noticed the same things that he has - I often fiddle with the mouth when I'm drawing because even subtle changes can make a big difference overall. So yes, Fred is very cool, even if he tends to mumble a bit. I was really glad that I went. He's quite the popular guy too - quite a few people showed up, and that was painfully evident when the talk ended and everyone surged down to the front of the lecture hall to get autographs. I brought my MT book 1 along for him to sign, but I had to wait nearly an hour. Fortunately, it wasn't time wasted because I got to study my next Japanese lesson. Aaaah! It's soooo difficult! *ahem* Yaaay! Since Fred was doing doodles, I asked for a sketch of Piro smiling because he totally doesn't smile enough. It's so cute! I love it! And I was a bum and didn't ask him to sign a poster for Vikki. I totally should have... and asked him to draw pretty-boy Ed, because that would be the worst thing in the world. And by worst, I mean best. As in, I would laugh for forever. But no, I felt spiteful and tired, so I just ran off. Lalala.... But Vikki, you do not have permission to hurt me because you didn't give me a book for me to ask him to sign or anything. In fact, I haven't heard from you all day so I didn't know what was going on. Blah. Anyway, I need to get back to work, and stop staring at my Piro sketch. Aaaah!

- Flykyr Skysong

Current song: Motoi Sakuraba - Super Mario Bros. (a most interesting arrangement)
Current mood: Yay. ^_^