chaz720.net - journal

November 07, 2001

Hey ho, let's go. Hey ho, let's go. They're forming in straight line. They're going through a tight wind. The kids are losing their minds The Blitzkrieg Bop. They're piling in the back seat. They're generating steam heat. Pulsating to the back beats. The Blitzkrieg Bop. Hey ho, let's go. Shoot'em in the back now. What they want, I don't know. They're all reved up and ready to go. They're forming in straight line. They're going through a tight wind. The kids are losing their minds. The Blitzkrieg Bop. They're piling in the back seat. They're generating steam heat. Pulsating to the back beats. The Blitzkrieg Bop. Hey ho, let's go. Shoot'em in the back now. What they want, I don't know. They're all reved up and ready to go. They're forming in straight line. They're going through a tight wind. The kids are losing their minds. The Blitzkrieg Bop. They're piling in the back seat. They're generating steam heat. Pulsating to the back beats. The Blitzkrieg Bop. Hey ho, let's go Hey ho, let's go.

yep, it's that song from Tony Hawk III

Welcome to November, I hope everyone reading is still alive after the long haul through October. If not well then you have my condolences. It happens every semester and you agknowledge it at the time but never before hand, it is drawing to a close and you just now realize that all that crap you have been writing in your notebook when you go to class (which everyone in college does religiously) is actually going to be on a test sometime in the immediate present. And they might actually expect you to know some of it. But no really I kid, this semester has flown by but it hasn't been because I was sleeping the whole time, no, it's been because it was pretty easy going. Not trivial really, but easy going. No classes presented the kind of workload or material that lended itself to piling up so try as I might procrastination was futile.

Next semester might be a little different though as I hear I'm taking one of the hardest classes that the ECE department has to offer and every ece major has to take, and that is ece210 (analog circuits). Although I read the course description and it sounds like the stuff you learn about is interesting and the applications are comprehendible enough to the point where the courseload is justified. Hopefully it will be something like ece290 for me. Where although I admit it was a difficult class and there was quite a bit of work what with web homework, written homework, and labs, what we learned was cool enough to feel like I wasn't getting screwed over by the people who pull the strings on the graduation requirements. Well altogether I'm taking the following

ECE 210 - yup, analog circuits, fun stuff
ECE 313 - this is an engineering probability class, which is essentially the math behind trying to figure out if the piece of crap you just made is going to work or not, not really sure why I'm taking this and not the STAT equivilant, I just like taking an extra 300 level ECE class to make myself sound more intellegent than I actually am
PHYSC 113/114 - for some reason they split this class into two courses, so that when signed up for together they make one class that is roughly equivilant to one of the other two big physics courses (111 and 112). I guess this is one of those sure fire signs that what you are going to be taking is very specific to freaks like you that for some reason want to learn about it. So specific, in fact, that they split the class up into two courses so that people who only really needed the one could be shilded from the torture that is the other. I can't wait personally.
MUSIC 133 - Introduction to world music... yes, yes, I know you don't have to tell me. But it was a non-western and I need a non-western
CS 173 - this is more of an afterthought and I haven't signed up for it yet but I'm thinking it might not be a bad idea if I want to take some more CS later on I'm going to need this class and there is really no sense in wasting a semester of CS to take a 2 hour class. So I figure tacking it on here shouldn't be so bad. Judging by the amount of work the require Hans to put into it, I don't think it's going to be some straw that breaks the camel's back. Listen to me bitch about possibly bumping my schedule up to a whopping 16 hours...

Well I did it this semester, and I figured I'd do it again next semester, and that is (for those of you who don't believe in clicking links) make a table so you can see when my classes are. This is more for my parents so they know when they can best get a hold of me, and also for me because I always manage to lose my schedule that I draw out and rather than decypher it in the retarded format that UofI gives it to me in I'd like to just go to my site and print it out. Since I made them both semesters this year I figure for continuity's sake I'd go make last year's schedules in the same format. And in making the fall 2000 schedule it took me about 5 minutes to piece together just when all my classes were and plop them into my little table. But for some reason when I first tried to remember my schedule for last semester I drew a complete blank. Sure I could remember what classes I had, but I guess my schedule for last semester was just put together so retardedly that upon my attempt to reconstruct it I was just completely lost. I mean for god sake's, look at my tuesdays and fridays as compared to mondays and wednesdays. What the hell was I thinking?

I posted it on my front page but it was probably lost to some of you somewhere in the ongoing xBox / GameCube / Playstation 2 debate, I took a drawing I made about a week or so ago of Lain, brought it into photoshop, and came up with this color version. I really learned quite a bit about photoshop in making it, and I have Dhabih Eng to thank for that. Please do visit his site he's got a lot of awesome drawings there and a real simple tutorial on how he creates his images with seemingly more patience than artistic talent (both of which he seems to have in spades) and if you like the lain image that I made in photoshop, I'll have you know that took about 45 minutes to make from my original drawing. This whole thing is making me really want to buy a Wacom drawing tablet, so that I can draw directly onto the tablet and have the image appear in photoshop. And then obviously you can use it for things like the dodge and burn tools which are key in shading areas of color to provide depth. The only problem is that if you are going to buy one that is big enough and does what you want, then you are also going to spend about 300 bucks in the process. And we'll see how much my artisitic ego is willing to suffer for the sake of 300 bucks.

This weekend Hans took a train down to Louisiana, and when he came back up he arrived here in Champaign around 8-8:30 monday morning, and he brought with him the remains of a dozen Krispe Kreme doughnuts. Well, he decided to take a little nap after his trip. I was waking up for class right around then and saw the doughnuts and that he had a bunch of chocolate sprinkled ones, so I figured he wouldn't miss one. So I get to class and I'm sitting there for about 10 minutes, and I get a little growl in my stomach. After about 15 minutes I just picked up my stuff and walked out of class right then and there. And in my walking home I felt my skin turn pale, and I just kept saying to myself, it's only a few blocks, it's only a few blocks. But that wasn't working so I started trying to notice little things around me, like the beautiful job the people did trimming the hedges outside the Henrey Admin building, and tried to count leaves on the sidewalk, anything to keep my mind occupied while I walked briskly back home. Well anyway I got home and was sick for about 2 hours (I'll spare you the details) and then I laid cold and shivering in my bed for a couple more hours before getting up and going on with things. Later I stopped by McKinley and the gave me the once over and said it was probably just a bad reaction with the doughnut and that there was no signs that I was dying or anything. Well I was kind enough to tell the others and the other doughnuts were desposed of (it's sad to see them go like that, I know, but at that point, it was personal)

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