Things I’m thankful for at this moment (not a complete list, just a snapshot of my current mindset):
Kristin, for allowing me to wake her up at home this morning to talk about the same grades-and-problem-set crap I’ve been talking about for the entire past school year. And for allowing the now-annual anniversary/birthday postponement.
Kanye West, for making a bunch of awesome songs about drug dealing and hating college. These work very well as morale boosters when looking at maximum shear stresses in torsional helical springs. I want one of those College Drop Out shirts.
Diet Coke, for giving the same caffeine boost (and caffeine-withdrawal headache avoidance) as Coke with no calories.
Neverwinter Nights, for giving me a good potential way to waste my time when all this is over. Shadows of Undrentide is pretty easy at level 17.
Cingular, for giving me unlimited minutes in-network.
Gamble & Gamble, for an inexpensive communications textbook that looks more and more like kindling every day. Can’t wait to get matches and a trashcan… When giving a speech, make sure to get your audience to do the Nazi salute…good idea.
Blogger, for a good way to waste time now, instead of studying for tests I’m already prepared for.
Formula sheets, for taking the sting off of tests over half of a large textbook.
85% cutoffs to make an A in the hard classes, for letting me get 50%’s on some finals without worry.
Spike TV. MXC and Star Trek TNG. No explanation necessary.
Parents, for taking calls like Kristin does all the time.
Maybe more later, maybe not. We’ll see how the welds and springs go.
If you want to develop Neverwinter modules, don’t even wait to read the end of this blog. Just download this. It’s AutoDesk’s 3D engine (read the fine print on the About… page). AutoDesk makes AutoCAD, etc. Only…this software allows you to edit Neverwinter placeables and create new creatures/items/etc. So awesome. Complicated, but awesome.
MXC is a deliberately mistranslated Japanese competition show. Is it possible that the English pseudo-version of MXC could be re-translated into Japanese?
Current Music: Incubus – Pardon Me (Live Acoustic) Current Mood: Fusion of pissed, tired, and kind of hyper Current Task: 12 page paper about a jar opener
Well, tons of grades came back today and things look good. So, Neverwinter was attempted. I finally crawled out of Chapter 2 (they’re lucky I didn’t quit before I could drudge through that whole tower). Chapter 3 seems pretty lame, but equipment upgrades and level ups keep things interesting (and way unbalanced).
Don’t you hate it when professors: tell you all the grades but one were really bad, then hold the grades back until the end of a 75 minute class? It’s like playing Russian Roulette with academic performance.
I think this is the first day all semester I will be able to sleep in (i.e., not wake up at 7:30). Awesome. I love it when labs get finished 4 weeks too early.
Burnout videos. Ha! I can’t win. You know what I really like? SADOMASOCHISTIC ACCESSORIES at LOW PRICES. CHEAP. BUY ONLINE. ONLINE SHOPPING. FREE. DEMO. VIDEOS. Let’s see what that does.
Funny story: Kristin and I were driving and a guy was riding in his girlfriend’s car next to us. She was driving like a total idiot (anyone surprised?), and the guy looked out the open passenger-side window and mouthed “Sorry.” while pointing to his girlfriend.
POWER USER OBSERVATION #2:
Most people do not really know how to use computers. If you are fooled by the term “computer literate” and how it is thrown around, you are in for big surprises.
People treat computers like toasters, or what cars are today. “I turned the key and it didn’t start. Do you think it’s my muffler?” Seriously, with computer literacy classes at the secondary school level being basically glorified typing classes (and barely that), how do we expect as a society to be able to deal with problems that are as advanced as the Blaster worm?
I don’t even exactly know how RPC works. How many people even know what it stands for? I wouldn’t, except that MSDN is so damn hard to navigate I always get misdirected into stuff about it!
Anyway, cool down. Alright.
I can’t wait to start designing Neverwinter areas. Dialog(ue) takes so long.
Dang us programmers and our shortening of words. I can’t bear to write “dialogue” out. I feel like I’m French. Same with “catalogue.” In the good ol’ days, my 32 kb (oh yeah, KILObyte) memory Apple IIe used “CATALOG” as the equivalent to the DOS “dir” command. I’m screwed for life. I was somewhere around 5 or 6 years old, so I sang a song to remember how to spell it. You should have seen me try to remember how to spell “possessions” in KQ3 (come back, Sierra!). Of course, I later realize that I’m a total moron and I could have used “things” instead of “possessions.”
Stupid wizards and their instant killings for having contraband! I’m still bitter about falling off that stupid cliff so many times.
hide things under bed
hide possessions under bed
p-o-s-s-e-s-s-i-o-n-s
How many times did I type that?
I also never could beat “The Black Cauldron.” Well, I beat it, but only by jumping into the Cauldron, which was a viable, yet foolish, way to win.
Eco-Quest was easy. I guess making an environmentally-driven game impossible would not be a good PR move.
Stupid Aribeth and her betrayal of Neverwinter. Teach me to trust a White Knight.
Oh well, I guess I should stop writing all this nonsense. Off to bed.
