Talk about an emotional rollercoaster... this week is definitely going to be one, and has been already.
Last night was Camera Capers. Suffice for now to say that 2A is nothing if not creative this year. I swear...
But it's all part of the fun/insanity. I can't wait until Friday. My life starts settling down then, and I can just look forward to enjoying Saturday. Because I know I will; I'm going to Fall Fest with one of the greatest guys I know, and believe it or not, there's going to be far less pressure than there ever was before.
But until then, life is crazy.
I'm leaving in an hour or so for Tulsa; the funeral is tomorrow morning. It's going to be rough. He's in Heaven now, but we're all going to miss him so much. I'll be back Wednesday night or Thursday morning.
This just really hasn't been my year, or something.
One of my uncles died yesterday; we weren't expecting it at all. His oldest son goes to school here. I'd imagine he's back in Tulsa by now.
This uncle gave me my first pocketknife. He was my dad's brother; one of seven children. They're all really close.
He left behind three sons and wife. They all loved him very much, and I don't know how they're going to deal with him being gone.
He was one of the greatest Christian examples I've known.
I'm tired of missing people.
Ok, so maybe it's not quite so bad after all.
I just got chosen as 2A's fall fest queen.
I feel special.
*grin*
Ah, yes. More details.
I got up on Saturday morning at the ungodly hour of 6 am. The idea being that we would be all packed and on our way to Arkansas at 7.
Obviously, we didn't leave until 8am.
After much driving and lunch at Fazoli's, we got to the campsite. Being very sick and tired of sitting still, I went hiking for most of the afternoon. I crawled into a couple of caves, watched the guys push very large rocks over, scraped myself up some, and generally wore myself out. It was very enjoyable. There's nothing quite like crawling into a warm sleeping bag when it's cold outside and you've done more in one day than you ever even thought about doing during the past two months.
We spent the whole next day canoeing. The scenery was gorgeous, and so was the day; in fact, the weather was gorgeous for the whole weekend. The water was lovely, the cliffs were awe-inspiring, and I had more fun outdoors than I've had in a very long time. We had eight or nine canoes, with two people in each canoe. It's amusing to watch the dynamics of a group like that; there are the guys who go along and try to flip over every last canoe, the girls who'll do anything to keep from getting wet, the girls who'll go cliff-jumping with the guys, and the couples who can't decide whether they are couples or not. It all makes for great people-watching.
After we got back and ate astronomical numbers of burgers, we all sat around the campfire for hours, talking and goofing off. I had no idea I knew so many pyros. And people call me frightening at times.
The next day we had breakfast from about 9:30 to 11:30. Pancakes, bacon, eggs, more pancakes, and more pancakes. People just kept getting up and wanting food. Then those who had eaten first wanted more food, and the cycle repeated again. Many amazing pancake-flipping incidents, and much laughter all around. Incidentally, I heard the term 'wench' used many times that morning. It happened to be the lowest rank in the system we had set up for grading the cooks. Vaguely disturbing, but very amusing nonetheless.
When we finally finished breakfast/lunch, we tore down camp and headed out. My roommate and 7 others went to a concert in Tulsa, while the rest of us headed home via Hot Springs. We stopped there for a couple of hours to eat supper, and the guys had to have a contest to see who could hold their arm in the hot water the longest. The ride back was fun; although riding in a nice car and not being able to drive it comes close to torture at times. Oh, well. Such is my life.
We got back around 10:30, and I was incredibly hyper, so I went out and goofed off with a few other disreputable people for awhile. Then I went to bed at 4am, having done nothing productive the whole weekend long. It was great.
So. I went camping over the weekend.
I had a good time, got very sore from hiking and canoeing, and decided that I need to drive a manual very, very badly very, very soon.
And now it's off to bed. Maybe more details later.
No, I'm not dead. And yeah, I haven't posted for a week. Ah, well. I've had to learn to live with the fact that school *is* my life.
Anyway, I was sitting in one of my classes the other day, and started writing this. Extra points if you can figure out the class and professor. Extra points * 10 if you're not a CS person and know what class and professor I'm talking about.
Look around. It's rather large, as CS classses go. Mostly guys, but that's pretty much a given. The three girls in attendance are all in a row, smack in the middle of the room. Many types of people; the CSE's, CS, & CSMA people tend to be the most geeky-looking. But, like any sweeping generalization, it's not entirely true. I'm in the class, after all. There are also a few CIS/MIS types. Short people, tall people, young precocious students, adult students. They all have one thing in common. They are bored out of their minds.
When I talk with the guys after class, we compare ways and means of staying awake and entertaining ourselves in class. Some, like me, write beginnings of stories and doodle in the notebook margins. I've also been known to cover my desk with pencil sketches for the amusement of poor blighters in other classes. Some read, some do homework for the next class or lab. One guy was told to put away the funny papers a few minutes ago.
Meanwhile, the professor continues attempting to teach a class in which most of the real work consists of design. There are many vague mutterings about resumes, important aspects of the CS program, real-world experience, and the like.
Hmmm... he's just informed us of the fact that he is a control freak, and thus we should all be thankful that we don't have him as a team leader in our separate groups. This adds to the previously-mentioned vacts that he is confident (said several times, and not at all confidently), he likes analysis and design better than programming, and that he has trouble relating to people.
It's really quite amazing how much time he can spend explaining nothing. It's not from lack of trying; he's just not the professorial type. He always gives the impression that he would be much more comfortable sitting in a cubicle generating code or something. To make it all worse, he doesn't even have the redeeming virtue of knowing lots of arcane knowledge. Instead, he asks questions of students about .NET architecture.
We must all be aware that at the beginning of this project, the focus is on analysis and design, while at the end, it will be on coding. Which is all very well and good, except for the fact that he has taken 10 minutes to explain this at least 5 different times today and last week.
*takes short break to see if the prof is saying anything useful about classes*
No, not really. Fortunately, there's only a half hour of class left. It's kind of sad how many people are still attempting to pay attention.
*starts reading stuff not erased from whiteboard*
"Show me a sane man and I will cure him."
I like that one. There are also various announcements for TI sessions. Everything from College Algebra to Calc II.
This is about the point where I started swinging my feet and kicking the desk in front of me. Because I'm short, and I can. You know it's bad when even I am having trouble sitting still.
Oooh. He just said he was dull and boring. Maybe he does have some knowledge of what's really going on, after all. Nah...
Ah. That was exciting. He just took time out from lecturing to put several groups on the spot. It looks to me like most of the rest of this semester will be spent making various diagrams. Oh, joy. My cup runneth over, and my excitement knows no bounds. May I always be fortunate enough to have such stimulating and challenging classes. And may all my professors be as competent and as well-versed in their material.
I ain't bitter at all.
I'd really love to see a search engine like this
amusing. I would laugh.
Oh, and Software Systems is officially the most pointless waste of time
for the entire semester.
For the first time in a few days, I have a couple of hours all to myself. What's more, I'm not even going to use them for sleeping. Instead, I'm going to watch ancient Star Trek episodes, continue my webcomic archiving process, and try to decide what I'm doing for fall break. I may just stay here and attempt to be productive. Or maybe I'll just stay here and watch movies and play computer games for four days straight. That would probably be just as good for my sanity.
Because life is insane. I've lost all hope of it ever being anything but; chances are it'll be just as insane after I graduate. I can't imagine how, but I'm sure it will be nonetheless.
It's been a rather good weekend, all in all. I got to watch a lot of movies, and I even got in a few chances to be productive. Or at least I looked like I was being productive. And in the end, sometimes that's all that counts.
I've spent a lot more time with people this semester than I ever did before. Some of this is due to my roommate; some of this is due to various subversive groups that I hang out with. It's a lot more fun, but I get a lot less homework done. And a lot less sleep. Thus, I am once again up at 2am, trying to get a little more work done before I collapse on my bed. My roommate's still up; she's playing solitare and yakking with some of her many IM buddies. I think she'll be asleep before long, though.
Speaking of sleep, I need to get more. And I need to get it at night, instead of random hours during the day. You know it's getting bad when you're not even tired until 2:30 or 3:00 in the morning.
There's a common thread running through this post. I think I need to invest in some more caffeine.
I learned something new today. One of the best places to hear amusing conversations is sitting in the reserve room at the library. You can hear every word said at the front desk, but this is apparently not very obvious from aforementioned front desk.