Author Archives: Alan V

Stuff foo

Posted on by

Ev came over and we did some shooting in the shooting studio tonight. I always love shooting in the studio… I dunno. I guess the pictures didn’t come out too amazing, but we had fun shooting (and oh god, sexy strobe light!)…

More pictars can be found at http://art.alanv.org

Last night was the Mid-Autumn Festival, and Christina and Lulu had a dinner party thing full of tons of yummy Chinese food. I ate too much…. mmm. I should eventually post pictures from that.

Earlier today, Ben and I played ITG and Student Wars. I set a new #1 record on KeeL Over (beating my old #1 record) and took the record for Spaceman Hard Doubles (93.80% I think). Whee.

Homework’s coming along slowly. I need to finish up graphics and analysis tomorrow, and then go to office hours for algo on Monday so I can do the last problem I’m stuck on. Blah. At least I’m doing the work now, which is an improvement over where I was a few days ago.

Also, happy happies! :D

Fire escapes

Posted on by

This amused me…

From: Elizabeth Vaughan <***@andrew.cmu.edu>
To: Fairfax-Residents@***.cmu.edu
Subject: use of fire escapes

Hello Fairfaxers,

I hope that your semester is going along well and that you have been
enjoying your time in Fairfax thus far.

Fairfax Management and other Fairfax residents have noticed that
someone has been using the fire escapes as a way to exit the building
rather than taking the elevator or stairs to the main exits.
Utilizing the fire escapes in this way is dangerous because
passers-by can be caught unawares by the stairs coming down quickly
and without notice and there is a strong possibility that someone
could be injured in this scenario. Please only utilize the fire
escapes as an emergency exit in case of fire or other emergency
evacuation.

Have a great weekend,
Your Housefellow,
Liz

…
Yay CMU students?

That is all.

Class apathy

Posted on by

Let’s do something different this time and start out with photos.

I think it’s bizarre that the backgrounds to either side of him are different colors… that was not photoshopped, the picture actually came out like that (in fact, the entire series of ~15 images I snapped of him came out like that). I also just like the picture in general, I don’t know why.

This is an old one (from when Ev and I went photoing downtown; scanned from film), but I like it, and it’s not posted in art, so meh.

So I’ve been feeling this complete apathy towards my non-photo classes lately. I’m not doing as well in algo as I’d like, and instead of trying hard on this homework assignment or making sure I’m understanding the concepts well, I’m just ignoring the problem. I already managed to fail the quiz that we took last week (fail as in <60% fail, not just the "Oh noes I got a B!!!" fail). How long until I start failing homeworks? In graphics, I have a lab due on Tuesday and is only about half complete, yet I don't care enough to work on it... not even the thought of failing the class seems to be able to motivate me to do the work. I dunno. I just find the material completely uninteresting, the lectures completely bland, and the class in general to suck. As far as my math courses, I still dislike numerical methods, but whatever... I'm apparently doing well in the class. We have an exam in analysis tomorrow that counts for $large_percentage of our final grade, yet I'm sitting here not studying and not feeling guilty for doing so. I don't know. I failed the first homework for the class (<60% of the points), yet I still don't particularly care. This is a very bad thing. I think I'm going to be in for some rude awakenings when I get midterm grades this semester. Meh. I dunno. Maybe I should go study for my exam now... and then tomorrow I can work on numerical methods and algo and graphics so I'm not screwed... and then Saturday I get to shoot photos with Everett again, which I think is the only thing I'm ever interested in anymore (photographing). Blah. Edit: Okay, so writing this entry seems to have made me care a bit. I don’t want to fail out this semester. I don’t even want to fail a single class. Blah.
*goes to study and do homework*

Lots of foo

Posted on by

Lots of stuff, whee.

Today’s algo lecture was among one of the most interesting lectures I’ve ever been to. The professor started out a little shaky, and then got completely confused in notation and in his explanation and stopped… and then tried to recover, and got even more lost… and it was actually kind of funny. I feel a little bad for him, but meh… I doubt this is his first time lecturing, so I don’t know.

Also, apparently junior year is the time for major angst, so let me join in the fun. Lately, I’ve been doubting more and more that CS is the right major for me. That said, I have no desire to change my major since the thing that I’d rather do is photography, and besides the fact that I don’t have the skills to be a photo/art major (and that CMU doesn’t have a photo major), I’m also not talented enough to make a living off of photography. In any case, I’m apparently good (enough) at CS that I can graduate and get a good job… and I don’t completely hate it (I just don’t enjoy it nearly as much as photography).
I dunno… the past few weekends I’ve found myself in my room huddled over math proofs for my various courses, and it’s just not at all enjoyable for me. I’ve also procrastinated like hell on my latest graphics project (build a roller coaster and animate a first-person view of riding it) because it’s just seemed completely uninteresting to me. The fact that graphics is my only programming course this semester, and that it’s the only course I’m seriously considering dropping, doesn’t forbode well for other CS courses.
Instead, I’ve been going out and shooting massive amounts of film and digitals and then spending time in the darkroom/lab working on prints… and the more I do it, the more I realize that it’s really what I love to do. I really, really want to be a photo major.
So yeah, I dunno. I do enjoy my major though, even if I don’t particularly enjoy the classes (at least when compared to photo courses).
Wheee.

Today was our photo crit in color photography (for our artificial lighting project). I shot formal portraiture, student life, and music for the assignment. They came out very nicely, and Dylan apparently liked them, so yay. I think I’ve found my niche in portraiture, so that makes me happy. Time to start experimenting with it.

Relatedly, you should go to http://art.alanv.org and look at some of (what I consider) my best photography. Whee.

In the world of ITG, I definetly see myself improving.
Got an S+ (#1 machine record) on KeeL Over (marathon course)

Also starred (#1 machine record) Infection normal doubles (only a 6-foot, but meh… I’ll take my victories where I can get them)

Yayzor?

Pseudocode++

Posted on by

I should just walk away. Walk away and never look back.
But I can’t, and I won’t. Oh well.
Someone told me that the failures are just as important as the successes. Given that this still has the potential to be either, and that both are equally important, I think it’d be good to just let go and see what comes of it.
And, I mean, either way… things are good. Mars made a comment last night that (since things started) I’ve seemed happier than I’ve seemed in a long time, and that makes her happy. And you know what? That’s true. I am happy… and it’s been far too long since I’ve managed to feel that way.
…
Thank you.

Life is good.

On the more geeky side… don’t you love when you find it easier to write pseudocode to explain your solution to a problem than to explain it with words? I just finished one of my algo questions that wanted me to explain a method for doing something with BSTs. I started writing out an explanation, and then realized it would be clearer to write out the actual code… so I did, and it’s a lot shorter than it would have been (as far as character count, not page length, since code rarely takes up a whole line).
Yay for being such a CS major… code is just so elegant in ways that a (human) language never could be.

Today I must get my photos developed (went to CVS this morning at 9 AM only to find that the photo area didn’t open until 11, so I have to go back in a little while) and scanned… and then get a lot done on my graphics program. Blah at homework.

I’ll probably edit this post later to share some of the photos… there are a few I think should come out really well.