My first Java Application in 2 Years

Beautiful, isn't it? =)

Aside from the 3-hour nights I had to put up with for the past week, getting back into the programming groove was actually a lot of fun. If you want to see what were my instructions, click here.

In short, I have to translate Assembly Code into 1's and 0's, and vice versa.

This semester is a lot harder than it needs to be

...but I'm lovin it anyway.

I probably could graduate with just 12 hours for the next three semesters, instead I have one of my toughest semesters yet. I'm looking forward to all my classes though, and I actually enjoy doing the homework (which is a good thing, because there's a hella lot of it) . I'm taking a honors history class for absolutely no good reason ( a regular history class would have sufficed) but that has been one of the highlights of my schedule so far, and I'm comfortable with that decision.

There are two things you can get out of a University- a degree or an education. If you're just looking for a degree then the right thing to do is to take the easy way out. If you're looking for an education- taking 18 hours of classes when it costs the same as 12 just makes sense

Jet Lag...

My sleep schedule at the moment is from 6pm to 12 midnight, and then 5am to 7am.

In a lot of ways this isn't a bad schedule. I have the early morning hours to do homework uninterrupted, and I still am wide awake during class.

The downside is that I miss out on playing Wii golf with my suitemates.

Room Photos

My parents have been bugging me for photos of my dorm for a while,
so here they are:

Like last year, my room is next to the trash room

Common living area- 40-inch flat screen and a Wii =)

Bathroom door

We collect bottlecaps for reasons beyond my understanding

My room.

Good programmers are like bad gamblers....

...they don't quit until they win.- Dr Antonio Sanchez

Second semester Java will be interesting. I took the first semester class two full years ago, and I haven't so much as touched a compiler since then.

It's not that programming is difficult (especially for a math major) it's that programming is really annoying. The only thing I remember about first semester Java is staying up 'till 4 in the morning hunting for stray semicolons like Ahab hunts for white whales. IProgramming requires a crazy amount of patience and persistence (hence the quote from class today)

Still, this semester's class will be less about user interface (how the program/applet looks, is it easy and intuitive to use etc.) and more about the nuts and bolts, so I think it will be a more enjoyable class than last time.

Here's hoping

I survived a 16-hour flight!

Air travel was the coolest thing in the world when I was 6. Dad would make us dress up, and we would go to the airport early so I could stand, face pressed against the window of the departure terminal looking at planes take off and land. At that time, airlines used to give goodies to little kids, and I could ask for stuff like playing cards, or small jigsaw puzzles. You had to ask for them, though, so my parents used those in-flight goodies as an early lesson in being assertive. I remember being disappointed every time we approached the destination airport- I wanted the trip to last forever. I remember my first long-haul flight at 13, a trip to California being so exciting that I didn't sleep a wink- or feel tired the day after.

I was on that same flight yesterday, and boy it was hell. I couldn't stand the food, I couldn't stand the inflight entertainment, I couldn't get any sleep because I felt too cramped, I was held back for two hours by LAX immigration. Funny that I had the same food, the same two-hour delay at immigration, and better inflight entertainment than on that 2000 trip that I liked so much.

The one thing I admire most about children is their ability to make the mundane things magical. I wish I could see things through those eyes again, and really appreciate once more the wonder of being propelled through space in a glorified aluminum can.

I'm getting old =(