Picturepost

In the world of ITG…
I think I could star this. The two misses were stupid.

Doubles, no bar… starred it.

Been trying to star this one for months, and finally got it.

I’m definetly getting better. That makes me happy.

Um, yeah.

Last night we played hide and seek. I haven’t played that game in forever, and it was nice to be a kid again, even if only for an hour or so. I’m still amazed that I was able to fit in the cabinet under the sink and under Dan’s bed. Whee.
Ian was the best at hiding. I had *no* idea where he was! I mean, who would’ve thought he would be mimicing a lamp on the table? I certainly wouldn’t have. And I certainly wasn’t able to find him.

XD

Last night I also shot Ben in the shooting studio. The pictures didn’t come out as good as I would have liked, mainly because I couldn’t use the strobes (there was no hotshoe sync cable) with my digital camera, and instead had to use studio lights, and hence got quite a bit of blur in the photos. Oh well.
Some of the best ones can be found at http://art.alanv.org/011.html or below:


Margaret wants me to post more pictures of Ev. Um… okay.

Yeah… apologies to people on dialup :-P Meh. I think I enjoy taking photos a little *too* much.

And I’m in the mood to shoot people again. Meh. But no… today is homework and more homework. Whee.

Foo

I feel like I should write something on here, but I’m not quite sure what.

Yesterday was Everett’s birthday. Happy (belated) birthday, Ev!

The graphics midterm wasn’t as terrible as I was expecting… but I still don’t think I did well on it. Meh. We’ll see what my midsemester grade is. If it’s a C or below, I’ll probably end up dropping the class (just because I hate it so much).
The algo midterm wasn’t bad. I scored below average on it… but given that the average was 87%, I didn’t do badly at all. This pretty much solidifies by B for midsemester, which makes me really happy given that it’s algo and I find the class rather difficult.

The only midsemester grade I have so far is analysis, and it’s a B (as expected). That makes me happy.
If I had to guess on the other ones…
Algo: B; Graphics: B-; Alt. Photo: A; Color Photo: A-; Numerical Methods: A
Yay for relatively good grades?

It’s nice having midsemester break and not much homework to do, especially after last Tuesday’s OMG STRESS AHHH foo. I need to do numerical methods and to finish up algo, but besides that, the weekend is mine. I think I’m going to work on a small set of promos for Student Wars (since I want to get cards for Everett and Ben done, and I doubt I’ll finish Internships anytime soon).

I keep having the weirdest dreams. Last night, one dream involved various things on the purity test… and me doing them. -_-
I don’t think I’ve ever had such a disturbing dream. I don’t really want to elaborate. *shudders*
(By the way, I’m about 80.8% pure right now)
Another dream involved me getting back my graphics midterm with a big red X over every problem, and 0/100 points. Meh. At least that made me decision to drop the class easier :-P

Mike freestyled Butterfly yesterday. Managed to get an S- and perfect combo without ever looking at the screen and otherwise jumping around the pad. It was all sorts of awesome to watch.

My life has been amazingly happy lately.
Know how, in your mind, you have this idea of what the perfect guy/girl/robot for you is like… and how they’d act and look and what they’d be like?
This is nothing like what I ever imagined it would be like.

And that’s part of what makes it so perfect.
It’s nice to finally realize that a relationship is not the end-all solution to all your problems… because it’s not, and if you’re using it as such, I feel really bad for your significant other. At the same time, it really is nice to have someone to spend time with and to always have that feeling of being cared for.
This was completely unexpected, things just kinda happened. I didn’t have any expectations for this going in, and I still don’t have any.
And you know what? I feel like that’s the way it should be. Relationships should be something that just happens between you and a friend. If you’re actively seeking out relationships, sure you might find one, and sure it might work out… but more often than not you’ll be disappointed, and you’re probably expecting too much from them if they do happen. I think I realize this now.
^_^

One thing I’m curious about: Is it weird that we dated only after entering a relationship? I mean, usually dating comes first… but I’ve always said I wouldn’t date anyone I couldn’t see myself in a relationship with… and I wouldn’t enter a relationship with anyone I couldn’t see myself in a long-term relationship with… so, to a certain extent, they’re synonomous to me.
I guess that’s why, for the longest time, I was confused about Facebook having separate things for “Looking for: Dating, A Relationship.”
Mrrr

Endeca wants me to interview with them. Yay.
*signs up for a slot*

This evening is ITG with Ben, and then shooting studio foo. Huzzah!

I’ve been playing too much ITG lately. Oh well. It’s the only exercise I get :-P

Life makes me happy.
*gives out bundles of happy to everyone else angsting over grades or various life foo*

Stuff foo

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

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

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.