First Days of Winter Break

It's been an interesting few days back home for me. Portland was extremely foggy when I flew in, and it was just as wet as I remember it being. My transitions between Chicago and Portland have been seamless. When I left Portland it was raining and in the 60s. When I got to Chicago it was raining and in the 60s. When I left Chicago it was rainy and in the 40s. In Portland it was raining and in the 40s. Amazing!

It is pretty cold in Portland, and colder than Chicago right now, which is pretty weird. But thankfully I'm bundled under blankets in my room. I should probably eat breakfast, but I've found that after 12 weeks of college breakfast can be overrated.

I've started up with my programming again, making basic functions in Python. There is a great iTunes U MIT class on python programming. Though I don't have access to the assignments to work through, there is no textbook for the class, meaning that everything they cover in class is all they cover. This is much better for me than a textbook-oriented class where I don't have the textbook.

I've been solving some cubes recently, but haven't had any really satisfying times. I'm thinking about ignoring speed and going for straight ZBLL, but that might be too much. My 2x2x2 times are improving, but that's to be expected. The biggest problem with solving cubes at home is that my parents don't particularly like it. My mom gets really irritated with all the clicking and sliding noises.

Speaking of noise, I've been working on my music collection. You never know when you're going to want old Serbian rock or traditional Zimbabwean songs. So it's all going on my computer. The iTunes rippers leaves something to be desired, so I've started using XLD. Max is also a good option, as is the upgrade to Max, Rip. With any of these you're better off than the iTunes ripper, especially if you want to encode your music in MP3 format. The LAME encoder is so much better than the iTunes one. But I don't have to worry about that because I rip in lossless ALAC. Still, the iTunes ripper falls behind because it does a very poor job of dealing with issues in the CDs.

It's amazing to have a free schedule for once. I don't have to do homework, and I certainly don't have to wake up early. I'm still recovering from school, but so far I've woken up at 10:30, 6:30, and 9:30. That's still earlier than most of my friends. The quarter system is a bit weird, though, because many of my friends are still off at school. It's kind of strange to realize that I start later and end earlier than everyone else in the fall. But in the spring it's reversed: we jam two quarters into one semester, and so we start earlier and end later. Bleh. I'm going to be playing a lot of board games over break to make up for that.

On a side note, my grades still aren't online. GRRR!!!!