Category Archives: Activities

Stuff foo

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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

Lots of foo

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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?

ITG, Photography, KoL, and life

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Meh, I don’t really know why I continue to post here when it’s obvious that no one cares (I mean, hell, I wouldn’t read my own blog… never anything interesting in it). I guess it’s nice to have a record of things for the future though.

Today was a great day ITG-wise. Accomplishments…
-First star (96.82%) on Infection Hard
-Second star (97.16%) on Infection Hard
-New personal records on Mellow Hard (95.78%), Dawn Expert (91.89%), Land of the Rising Sun Hard (~94%), and The Game Expert (95.23%)
-Third star (~96.5%) on Birdie Expert (my first time playing the song)
-Broke 1000 combo
-Broke 2000 combo
-Currently at 2850 combo (may break 3000 the next time I play)

Also, some amazing players came to play at our machine (one was apparently the best player in PA) and set 5 #1 records in their first 6 songs. It’s amazing to watch people who consistently get fantastics and consistently full-excellent-combo a song (with single-digit excellents).
Jason doing Disconnected Disco Expert Doubles (which makes you crawl across the entire pad)

Um yeah, in the world of photography… I have Van Dyke prints.
Here are Van Dyke prints…

I’m really happy with the way this series (photographers) turned out… this one is printed on a single strip of flower-petal paper (5″ tall) and designed to be placed on top of a table or dresser or something.

These were printed on thick white fiber paper (5″ X 5″ each) and are designed to be wall-mounted together as shown. I’m probably going to mount them together on some thicker paper so it’s easier to manage them.

I also printed an ITG series of prints in Van Dyke, which you probably aren’t interested in seeing (it didn’t come out nearly as well as this one).

I’m quite unhappy with the way my photos turned out for my color photo class… want to reshoot them this weekend.

In the world of KoL, I managed my first 10 day ascension a few days ago (Disco Bandit, sub-1200 turns). Currently on day 2 of a hco tt run to perm astral shell (although I might change my mind and go sauceror to perm its elemental saucesphere instead next run, since tt have so many other useful skills and I’ve been meaning to do a hct sauceror ascension anyway).

As far as other stuff goes, life has been the same, which I guess isn’t a bad thing. Tons of homework for my tons of classes, as always. Todo list for myself for this weekend, in order of importance
-Reshoot film for Color Photography
-Graphics written homework #1
-Numerical Methods homework #3
-Analysis homework #1
-Algo homework #2
So weird to refer to my classes by their names instead of numbers. Meh.

Food/ITG

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I made fresh garlic mashed redskin potatoes tonight. They were yummy. I put them over pasta, so they were kinda like inside-out perogies. Mmmmm.

In ITG news… passed Energizer Hard today (the 10-foot). Also came close to my first star… 95.88% on Pandemonium Medium. Set new personal records on Infection Hard (94.29%) and Utopia Hard (90.68%) as well. The other day, I also improved my score on Charlene Expert (up to a ~67.5%) and passed Driven (a marathon course). Yay for ITG funness. I’m also playing some doubles now, and I can pass 7s. Haven’t yet attempted an 8, because I’m still having trouble recognizing the patterns in the steps and locating myself on the two pads.

Today was the Fairfax BBQ, and there was lots of food and yummyness as well.

There are now pictures of me playing ITG, thanks to Ben.

So I’ve been avoiding large groups of people lately, and it’s working out well. I’m just so much happier when it’s just me and one other person, or a couple other people. I dunno… it’s kinda a complete change from where I was (used to seek out huge groups on purpose), but I kinda like it better this way. I’m never invited to events and foo anyway, and no one tells me about parties that are happening, so meh.

Got my graphics homework mostly done. I was getting hung up on the stupidest thing… apparently OpenGL processes transformation commands backwards, since it sticks them on a stack and pulls them out. I spent the longest time figuring out why my “translate to (0,0) and then rotate” wasn’t working properly. Reversed the order of all my function calls, and everything worked perfectly. Bleh.

Tour

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There was an Underground Tour tonight.
There will be pictures of that and of yesterday’s activities fair online either later tonight or tomorrow (I’ll edit this post once I’ve uploaded them).

I haven’t eaten for the past 24 hours, just because I’ve forgotten to. Got up around 10, had a meeting with Judith about the website at 11, then had class, then worked on my graphics program for 2 hours, then had class, then went to play ITG around 4:30. Played until around 7:00, then stopped home briefly to do stuff before heading to the underground tour at 8:00. The tour just finished about 15 minutes ago, so now I’m home, and I really should eat something. Meh.

So what happens to the people after they finish walking to the sky?

They fall.

Now I should go eat, finish algo homework, shower, and sleep.

Edit: Photos posted here.
Also, I passed my first 11-foot song today

My next goal is to pass the 10-foot Energizer.