procrastination nation

been putting off working on the paper for my senior project for long enough this weekend. I started working on it about an hour ago and am taking a "small" break to post to my blog.

So here's the most recent news concerning my vespa. I ordered a new front axle, and it finally arrived earlier this week. I took apart my front wheel assembly. I pulled out the old wheel bearings and axle. I cleaned out the housing, the bearings, and miscellaneous other parts, repacked them with new grease, and then tried to reassemble with the new axle. The new axle didn't fit!

I made it a point when I ordered the part to ask the vendor if I was ordering the correct part. I informed them of the year and model of my scooter, of the fact that it is now on 10 inch wheels instead of 8 inch and that their shop had done the restoration of it! The shop emailed me and said that "yes it is the correct part". Well, obviously it is not. I don't have the time to deal with the shop before graduation, so I'll have to put it off until I move down to my parents for my post-graduation break. I had really been looking forward to getting it back on the road.

This doesn't feel like a weekend.

I was up until 2am working on my senior project. I crashed from 2-8:30am and then got up and got ready to go do my _required_ "habitat enhancement project". Yep, that's right, I decided to just suck it up and do it. So I met with my class and pulled hemlock and ivy in a creek bed from 10-12. That really sucked.

After I finished with that, I ran a few errands, got some lunch, and started working on my senior project again. And here I am at 10:30pm on Saturday night still working on it. I've taken a few small breaks, but I've been working on it pretty much all day.

Tomorrow I'll be meeting with my partner to install code, configure devices, and do some integration testing. Does all of this sound like a weekend to you? The good thing is that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. My implementation for my senior project is due on Tuesday (thus the mad rush to finish) and my paper is due a week from Tuesday. After that, any minor changes that need to be made and a final in my Political Science class and I AM OUT OF HERE!

HOORAY FOR ME!

Oh, yeah, speaking of graduating and stuff, I just found out that if I had paid a little more attention to my transcript/records over the last couple quarters, I could have graduated with a 3.81 cumulative which would have been Magna Cum Laude. As it is, I am graduating with 3.61 (Cum Laude). It's all because of my first matriculated quarter at Poly in Fall of '94. I attended for one quarter (actually about 1/2 a quarter), failed all my classes, and subsequently dropped out of school for 4 years. So those F's from my first quarter drop my cumulative gpa by an entire 0.2 grade points. If I had realized this before this quarter started, I would have re-taken Calculus I and found something to replace the Biology class I took (I already replaced the comp sci class). As it is, I'm going to see if I can find some loop-hole that will allow me to graduate Magna Cum Laude. I'll try to keep the blog up to date on my pursuits.

Well, time to get back to the senior project. It's amazing how often I post to this thing when I really have more important things to do, and how infrequently when I have nothing better to do.

And so begins the long arduous journey that is...

... this weekend. Woke up at about 9:00am this morning. Just got back from a quick errand to school (which incidentally included getting a large coffee). Will need to go back @ ~1pm to pick up a laptop. I'm taking a few minutes to check email and write this post, and then it's chug time for ye' olde senior project.

Watch, with my luck I'm going to finally receive the vespa part that I've been waiting for to fix my scoot today. That'll be distracting me all day long. No, I really can't let it distract me. I already have a CSC awards banquet I'm supposed to go to at 6:30pm today. Oh yeah, I also found out what a "Habitat Enhancement Project" is. It is manual labor! :P I'm supposed to be working in a creek bed tomorrow pulling weeds and stuff. I'm considering not doing it at all. We'll see.

Next stop, Graduation

So I bought my cap and gown and paid for commencement fees today. $60 total. I'm graduating with honors, so they threw in yellow cords to boot. That reminded me that I need to order my cords from Golden Key, and my cords and stole from Upsilon Pi Epsilon (no, not a fraternity, a computer science honor society).

Today's free stuff was burgers and a movie at the local drive-in. Too far out of the way so I didn't make it. Tomorrow's is free hot dog's, and I think it's during UU hour, which means I won't get any because I have a Computer Science Department Student Fee Committee meeting I have to go to then. Oh well, at least I got free pancakes!

This is going to be a _VERY_ busy weekend for me. I have to have my implementation and testing for my senior project done by Tuesday. Then the paper is due a week later. Plus I've got a "Habitat Enhancement Project" for my Political Science class on Saturday as well as a paper to write. What exactly a "Habitat Enhancement Project" is I don't rightly know. I should look into it. Hopefully it's not manual labor :p.

Well, my roommate just finished making fried chicken and mashed potatoes, so it's about time for me to go. Till next time, alskjdf

10 minute break

I've got about 10 before my bowling class starts, so I figured I could squeeze in a quick post. This week is designated as "A Week Of Leaving" (or AWOL) here at Poly, and is supposed to be like an inversion of WOW (Week of Welcome). What exactly WOW is will have to be saved for some other time. What it means to me is that I get free food! Today was a free pancake breakfast on Dexter Lawn. It also means I have to pay my commencement fees and order my cap and gown.

At one point I was planning on trying to grow a mohawk before graduation, but I ended up forgetting and chopping off my hair. I wanted to cut holes in the top of my graduation cap and pull bright red mohawk spikes through the holes. Now I'll just have to settle with red hair and chops. Oh well, cest la vie (? on sp). Well, off to bowling, gotta try and bring up my score. It's been declining steadily over the last couple of weeks.

A Blog/Week is better than A Blog/Month, no?

Well, I'm sitting here in the Cal Poly library listening to some cd's of Rebecca's. Mom found 'em lying around the house and asked if they were mine. I figured that she (Rebecca) wouldn't be using them any time soon ;) so I borrowed them and brought them up to SLO when I returned from my trip to SB. Speaking of my trip to SB, it was fun. Amtrak is definitely much better to ride than Greyhound, and as I mentioned earlier, also cheaper. Got to spend Saturday afternoon/evening with my mom & dad, grabbed dinner at Mongolian BBQ and caught Kill Bill: Vol. 2. Second time for me, first for the parents (watching Vol. 2 that is). Also got to have breakfast with mom & dad on Mother's day morning before dad & I took off for the Laker game.

The game was awesome. Lakers played like they should have been all series. Brought a digital camera and took some pictures. The camera has like a 2 second delay from when you press the button and when it actually captures the image, so it was difficult to get any good shots of people in the act of shooting. I got a few good ones though, and one really good one of Shaq dunking.

Got back to SLO at about 12 midnight and hoofed it home. It was a nice night and I enjoyed the walk. A short nights sleep and here I am hitting the proverbial books again. I've got a mid-term on Thursday to study for so I'm gonna get going, but I'll try to post more often than once a week, really!

Two Entries in One Day!!!

Wow, I didn't realize how little I like writing anything more than snippets of stuff using my pda. I haven't used the different sip's (soft input method) available in pocketPC enough to decide which one I like the best. The transcriber is nice sometimes, but doesn't recognize my writing very well (most humans don't either). I mostly use the keyboard because of that. (the other two forms are similar to the block recognition on the palm os).

I think I might spend some time looking in to the things that can be done with web design to allow for different form factors (i.e. screen size/resolution/graphical capabilities). Mostly I'm talking about dealing with different mobile devices with limited screen real estate and resolution, not complete lack of graphical capabilities (yeah, yeah, I know, we've got to be nice to those lynx old-timers too;) We'll see if I can find the time. Staying pretty busy with the senior project still. Making good progress though.

I'll probably borrow a laptop from school again this weekend and take it home with me. I'm gonna head down to San Bernardino for the weekend. I'll be able to see my mom on mother's day weekend and I'll be able to catch the Laker game on Sunday with my dad. I'm gonna take amtrak this time instead of greyhound. I think I've had enough of greyhound for awhile. Greyhound's never been a good experience, and I've ridden it at least 10 or 15 times throughout the years since 1994. Sometimes the schedules of Amtrak won't accomodate though. Luckily they will this weekend. It's even cheaper to take Amtrak than it is to take Greyhound. I took Greyhound a couple weeks ago and it cost me over $100 round trip. I'm taking Amtrak and it's costing me just ~$61. Granted, it's dropping me in Riverside instead of San Bernardino, and I'm taking it from LA to SLO on Sunday instead of Riverside to SLO. However the difference in price to have gone from Riverside was just another $9. So I save ~$30, but have to get someone to pick me up and drop me off in Riverside. Sounds like a good deal to me.

Yeah, I know, it's been awhile.

so, this is my first post using my PocketPC. that being said, it will probably be ashort post, and rife with spelling errors.
I signed up for the beta of gmail today. Although 1--m still not too sure how I feel about an instance of their ad-sense rifling through my email content. I mean, it's obvious that it's a big privacy issue. It'S one thing togive my consent for my outgoing mail to be datamined (Not that I'm ok with that.-,). it's another thing entirely for them to mine my incoming mail.I mean, the people who write me didn't give their Consent
I'm still interested to give it a whirl. It's gOt some nifty features that I'm looking forward to checking out.
Well, I guess it's getting Kind of late (or early as the case May be)so I shoald get going and get Some shut-efl. Nighty-night allI!