First off, Ben, I wish I knew what to say. You’ve had by far the shittiest week imaginable, and I really hope things look up. If you ever need to talk to someone, you should IM me or call me (whatever time it is).
:-\
If you’re in the mood sometime, we should hit up ITG (my treat) and play Paranoia Survivor :-P Mwahaha.

Relationships are the strangest things ever. How can something that feels like it should be so much work be so incredibly relaxing and make everything seem less overwhelming?
Human emotion is such a paradox. I’ll never fail to be surprised by my own emotions and how they make me act.
I also never fail to be amazed at how comfortable I feel… I never thought I could be so open or vulnerable with someone, especially given that I’ve gotten myself hurt before trying.
I guess I’m just lucky. :)

Um… so, updates about life.
Graphics makes me want to die or kill something… and never write or look at another line of code ever. It’s not even necessarily the material. We’re writing a ray tracer for this assignment. That’s one of the most awesome things ever. Yet… the teacher and the TAs and the material manage to make me dread the class more than anything ever. I don’t even know what it is specifically I hate, I just know I hate it.
I talked to Mark, and he suggested that I either convert it to pass/fail (and so the work I’ve done so far isn’t wasted) or just tough it out, because he has no doubt that I can do it… it’s just that I’m not happy doing it. We’ll see how this lab goes… and then decide whether to convert it (I’m basically guaranteed to pass the class at this point) or just continue (and likely end up with a B, which isn’t bad at all).

This is basically the schedule I want next semester. It’s still up in the air whether or not I’ll be able to get graph theory (since it’s Mackey graph theory and everyone wants to take it), but it seems like an awesome schedule… 60 units of pure happiness (except maybe Networks, but that’s required, so meh). The other courses shouldn’t be a problem to register, but meh. I really should find an alternative for graph theory.

Photo is going decently. I kinda want to do another random “get people in the studio and see what happens” shoot, since the last one was incredibly enjoyable. I feel like Dylan wasn’t too thrilled with the results (the crit didn’t go too well), but meh. I enjoyed it, and when it comes down to it, I’m doing photography because it’s fun, not because I want to impress people with it.
So I guess… open call…
Is anyone interested in being photographed (again)? May or may not involve random clothes removal (obviously optional).

Other classes are going great. Algo is amazing. This homework assignment basically involves using network flow to model different problems. It’s so amazing to see all these different problem types being represented with network flow graphs… and it’s all really intuitive too, once you see it. Whee!

Alternate photo is completely perfect. We’re making gum bichromate prints, and I really like the way mine are coming out. I really should post pictures of my pictures sometime.

Analysis is awesome. Today we basically spent 30 minutes proving that the integral of x^3 from 0 to 1 is defined, and it’s 1/4. We basically showed that integration works. We’ve come so far from the first week when we proved that numbers exist and are defined.

Besides that, and besides me being stressed because of graphics, life is going very well. I’ll probably be whiny again once I tackle my graphics program and want to die, but right now, I’m happy with things.
Wheeeee.

I.
Hate.
Graphics.

Yeah, I should probably update.

I went to the Carnegie art and natural history museums with Ben and Ev on Sunday. It was awesome. I need to go back and look at more of the abstract/modern art… a lot of it is quite impressive. The Tiffany exhibit was also awesome. The Amazon exhibit notsomuch. It was a nice break from work though.

I am eating apple pie ice cream… not apple pie with ice cream, but actually apple pie flavored ice cream. It is yummy. I made a chocolate pudding pie yesterday that was also yummy.

Today was my interview with Endeca. I feel like I got their question fairly well, except I failed at analyzing the runtime of my algorithm. Meh. I guess that’s not the most important part though. Whee. I think this might be the first local interview in which I’m satisfied with my performance (the only other one being with Fog Creek in New York). Whee.

Our huge shipment of .hack cards came in. I have modified my lizard/snake deck into a pure lizard deck of awesome, changed my ghost/undead deck into a(n almost entirely) undead deck, and built a new alien deck. Wheee. People should play with me. Cheap card games FTW.

Midterm grades came out. Can’t complain about any of them… won’t make dean’s list this semester, but I don’t care. I’m doing the best I can, and that’s all that really matters.

Why is life so amazingly happy right now? I’m (mostly) enjoying my classes… I’m not too stressed out… I have someone to look forward to on weekends (who makes me happy during the week as well)… I’m doing a lot of photography… I have amazing friends to spend time with…
I honestly can’t think of anything that’s wrong right now in my life (with the exception of things with my dad, but meh, that’s not something anyone can do anything about :-\)
That’s a nice feeling. I should enjoy it while I can and before adult responsibilities kill all my joy :-P

Ahhh it’s an Al-Tim!

Life is an (awesome) adventure. You should come exploring with me.

I have never been so stressed in my life.

…

I think I should drop Graphics.