The Merc248

Yep... I'm heading out for the Philippines early tomorrow for two weeks. I haven't been down there in ages. :x

So yeah, that's why I won't be posting for a whole two weeks. ;p

I got a job!! Fuck. Yes. :D I'm going to be a computer help desk support jockey at Seattle University. :D

I'm going to start probably a week before school starts... so yeah, I'm looking forward to that for sure.

I also finally paid that damned UW tuition off in full just now... they were threatening to sic the collection agencies on me, so yeah, I'm relieved that's taken care of as well.

Fuck yes.

I ended up getting a 3.3 in Linear Algebra, and a 3.9 in Multivariable Calculus. Phew. I'm relieved. ;p I seriously thought I was going to screw up in Linear Algebra.

G-G-G-G-G-Neeeiigggh

http://www.google.com/talk/

New IM application for those who have GMail accounts. ;o

Picture is clickable, by the way. ;p

Past Life Diagnosis:

I don't know how you feel about it, but you were female in your last earthly incarnation.
You were born somewhere in the territory of modern Yukon around the year 1200.
Your profession was that of a philosopher and thinker.Your brief psychological profile in your past life:
Timid, constrained, quiet person. You had creative talents, which waited until this life to be liberated. Sometimes your environment considered you strange.The lesson that your last past life brought to your present incarnation:
It always seemed to you that your perceptions of the world are somewhat different. Your lesson is to trust your intuition as your best guide in your present life. Do you remember now?

...

HOLY SHIT, I WAS A FEMALE. D:

Nine more days until I depart for the good old Philippines. Haven't been there in nearly ten years. :x

Hahah... man, my brother and I are trying to find different stuff to play for the 14 hour trip. We're probably going to bring our laptops and play a bunch of multiplayer games over a crossover ethernet cable, like Jedi Knight, Rise of Nations, etc.

Might even play a few games of Advance Wars... which is quite the awesome Gameboy Advance game. :p

Finally done with indentured slavery... now moving on to flailing arms around for no real reason

ARRRRRrrrghhhh

V for Vendetta delayed until March 2006! :(

EMO... HAIR... NOOOOO

I just remembered: I saw a van practically explode along the right hand shoulder of a San Francisco highway last weekend.

A family of five most likely lost their only mode of transportation. :/

Okay okay, here is more random stuff:

I'm getting more and more frustrated with these damn classes, especially since finals are within a mere two days. It's a wonder why I haven't jumped off a cliff yet...

Oh yeah, Mac OSX for x86 based computers (in laymans terms, computers that can run Windows) has been leaked out to the general public. Although it has various countermeasures to prevent it from running on different hardware (along with an explicit check for a chip that exists only on Macs), they have been removed by various software hackers so the operating system can run on most other computers. It's still a bitch and a half to install, however. ;p

And... here's a completely off-topic question: is "chivalry" dead? ;\

http://www.rebellionmod.net:8000

I run a music stream from time to time on that server; check it out between 4:00 PM PST and 3 AM PST. :D

Hop on irc.gamesurge.net #merccast as well with either mIRC or X-Chat. :D

San Francisco was alright. Felt like Seattle, except with insane drivers, a way better Chinatown, and more noteworthy tourist attractions. I'd like to live down there sometime though. :p

Oh yeah, the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) is scary shit. :D High pitched screetching noises throughout the tunnel = suck.

For you non-Seattle dwelling infidels:

KEXP RADIO

Best music radio station, ever. Alternate music all around from hip-hop to prog rock.

Yay. Leaving on Thursday for San Francisco for the entire weekend. :D

Bad news: I have homework due on Monday, I need to study for finals coming up next week, and I need to research more for my project... and I think bringing my textbooks along with me during the trip will be lame as hell. Eh, I'll see.

Haven't even packed anything up yet for the trip. Doh!

Oh yeah, there's a chance of me being gone for around three weeks at the end of this month; I might be heading back to the Philippines. :D If not, I'm definitely going this December, which was the original plan.

---

Roasted marshmellows and hot chocolate are the fucking best.

That's all

I think I went way over my head with my linear algebra project. :p

I picked 3D graphics for my topic since, well, I'm interested in game programming and I thought that 3D graphics would be a wonderful resource for all things linear algebra. And well, this shit confuses me completely. ;p I have some of my paper already written, but I've had to gloss over quite a few topics with phrases like, "this topic will not be covered in any detail, due to the material being beyond the course coverage" or by not even considering the topic at all.

I mean, the most elementary operations are covered by "affine transformations," which quite frankly confuses the hell out of me in terms of computational details (the concept is pretty easy to understand... I guess :p).

So yeah. Hopefully I can crap out a paper and sound like I know something about "affine transformations" and whatnot. ;p

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide, No escape from reality
Open your eyes, Look up to the skies and see,
I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy
Because I'm easy come, easy go, Little high, little low
Any way the wind blows doesn't really matter to me, to me

Mama, just killed a man, Put a gun against his head
Pulled my trigger, now he's dead
Mama, life had just begun
But now I've gone and thrown it all away
Mama, ooh, Didn't mean to make you cry
If I'm not back again this time tomorrow
carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters

Too late, my time has come
Sends shivers down my spine, body's aching all the time
Goodbye, ev'rybody, I've got to go
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth
Mama, ooh, I don't want to die
I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all

I see a little silhouetto of a man
Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango
Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very fright'ning me
(Galileo.) Galileo. (Galileo.) Galileo, Galileo figaro
Magnifico. I'm just a poor boy and nobody loves me
He's just a poor boy from a poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity
Easy come, easy go, will you let me go
Bismillah! No, we will not let you go
(Let him go!) Bismillah! We will not let you go
(Let him go!) Bismillah! We will not let you go
(Let me go.) Will not let you go
(Let me go.) Will not let you go. (Let me go.) Ah
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
(Oh mama mia, mama mia.) Mama mia, let me go
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me

So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye
So you think you can love me and leave me to die
Oh, baby, can't do this to me, baby
Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here

Nothing really matters, Anyone can see
Nothing really matters
Nothing really matters to me

Any way the wind blows

I need to inspire myself to actually sit down and think about what sort of program I should write. I've been thinking about writing a text based RPG for a while, but the more that I think about it, the more I feel I'm going to be way over my head, mostly due to the thought of implementing statistic checks in the game, combat, etc.. I'm probably going to look at what I have written down for the design thing so far and revamp the entire approach to make it a lot simpler.

I was also thinking about just reducing the game to a mere text based adventure game, which I think would be good too.

Going way off topic, I just watched "Super Size Me" tonight. I don't think I'd be able to stomach McDonalds again. ;
Shit, now I'm reminiscing about my almost daily visits to IHOP during finals week last quarter. Jesus, those German pancakes were good.

Mannn... one more week until my REAL summer vacation starts. :p Can't wait.

I somewhat like taking classes during the summer, though. I'm probably going to continue the tradition next year as well.

Oh yeah, I started playing Ultima Online with one of my friends. Well, not on the official servers though, but rather on various free servers (or "shards"). The one I usually play on is called "Obsidian," which seems pretty good. I'm starting to like UO even if it's pretty outdated; it reminds me a lot of the greatness that is Ultima 7. ;p

I could go for a tasty burger right now.

I must get this shirt.

"I HAVE 1,000 YEARS OF POWER. COME AND GET ME!"

Holy shit. This guy is fucking savage. You must admit though, tasering a guy decked out in full chainmail armor is a bit unfair. ;p

As a point of comparison:

Liam Neeson:



Crazy Asshole:

For those interested in academia and whatnot, MIT OpenCourseWare is a damn good resource. I'm checking out the video lectures on linear algebra for review, and it's helped quite a bit.

It's great for those who are into self-learning as well.

This is the real ghetto shit right here, fo sho.