A Full Night of Board Games!

I've lost a staggering amount of weight this holiday season. Well, about a pound a day, which I'm very happy about. I can still only do 20 or so jump squats before I get tired, but I'll work up that number slowly. Until last week, when I put back on a few. Still, it's nice to see progress and it should only get better when I can start using the stationary bikes at school (it's wet enough here I'm afraid to run on the hills).

But, more importantly, tonight is a night for celebration. Tonight we enter into a new year. And I am going into the new year like I never have before: by playing board games all night in Seattle! Usually my parents go to sleep at 10 or 11 and then I stay up till midnight and immediately crash after that. Not today. Today I get to go to a proper nerd festival and stay up nerding out till 3 in the morning. I'm super excited.

Have a great New Year's party/entrance, everybody!

Shameless Self-Promotion

I finally got my bacon video done last week, and it's now live on my food blog (check out the tab under the blog title). It was a pretty interesting experiment, and through it I've determined that bacon is good with literally every other food I like. So go check it out! Yes, it's a long video, but it's well worth the educational value.

In other news, I am entering the new year at a board game party in Seattle. It's been a down year for playing board games (mostly because people in my dorm don't like to play that much) so it should be lots of fun. And since classes don't start till the 7th this year, I can afford a little sleep deprivation around the holiday season.

Not So Early Morning Student

I have now been home for a full week (plus a little) and have realized that waking up early just isn't working. I don't know what it is, but I'm waking up at 10:30 regardless of when I go to sleep. I've tried setting my alarm for 8 and have been going to sleep between 9 and 11, so I'm getting tons of sleep, but I just can't function that early for whatever reason. I've also had quite a few days where it feels like my eyes did some serious workouts while I was unconscious, leading to me being uncomfortable and irritable all day.

But, that's not to say I haven't been productive. In fact, I've been very productive! Every day I get in about an hour of exercise and probably 30 minutes of stretching, which is better than I expected. Because of this (and improved eating habits) I've already lost close to 15 pounds. I'm still not very close to where I want to be, but it's a definite improvement and hopefully I can add some muscle before baseball season starts. It seems my ankle will be a nagging problem for a while (maybe even a lifetime, as I was told this summer), but my elbow and wrist are in great shape and my shoulder is stronger and more flexible than ever. I still need to start throwing again, but that shouldn't take too long. It's like riding a bike, right?

My progress through Python has been pretty successful. Using lecture notes from class last year, Google Code University's short Python tutorial, and Learn Python the Hard Way, I've made significant progress through the language. Clearly I'm not an expert yet, but I do enjoy coding in Python more than I enjoyed Haskell, though I still really like Haskell. Maybe at some point I'll write down my thoughts on the pros and cons of Haskell, but my main thought on it is that it is a fantastic introductory language. The strict type system makes you understand what you're doing, and I'm a big fan of error messages telling you what line is messed up. Hopefully I'll be able to use Python for some web scripting I have planned before fantasy baseball really gets going.

Lastly, I finally upgraded my hard drive from a 500 GB, 5400 RPM HDD that my computer had in it to a 256 GB OCZ Vertex 4. My computer cold boots faster than it used to wake up from sleeping. I haven't tested the battery yet but there doesn't seem to be a significant increase in life there. But I love how quickly I can open files and applications. Maybe I'll have to upgrade the RAM later. The best news: I now have a 500 GB bootable external hard drive ready to go. I still need to transfer over some key files (my music, for example), but I have to take care of some basic things first, like getting my bashrc aliases back for my Terminal and fine tuning some folder behaviors. It feels good to have the smallest and fastest Mac in the house.

Happy holidays, everyone! Hope your weather isn't as dreary as it is in Portland right now.

Winter Break

I'm not really sure how that math final went. I know I got the last question wrong. Otherwise, I just don't know.

On the bright side, I'm done for the quarter! I already have my SOSC grade, I have my raw grade for computer science, and I have no idea what's happening with math or history. On the plus side, I get to go home and forget about it all.

I need this break. With school there's been little time to work out, and even the time I set aside for going to the gym just isn't enough. I'm going to be hitting the gym hard this break. My wrist has started bothering me again (and I can't figure out why) and my ankle makes these great cracking noises sometimes, but I think I'm mostly recovered from whatever was bothering me before. So I can start running, jumping, and lifting. Of course I won't push it too hard, but I think I need to get something done.

I also want to learn Python over break. Not all of it, of course, but a good deal of it. The debate was Java, C, or Python, and since we're doing C and Python in class next quarter, I figured I'd get started on one of them early. I decided to go with Python because it's supposed to be simpler. And most people recommend Python over other languages for beginners. Surprisingly, I've come to really like Haskell as a language. But as someone with very little experience in other languages, I can't really say anything worth listening to, and I should probably learn another one soon.

I also want to learn some math over break. This quarter was really a struggle for me, so I need to get as much of a head start as possible on the next quarter.

Finals Week Student

It's the holiday season, and I'm in my room studying.

That's good thing, by the way. Studying is good, especially when I have finals coming up. My schedule for the week is very front-loaded. Computer science 8 AM Monday, SOSC paper due Tuesday by 5 PM, and a history paper that I must complete in 24 hours (have to check it out) due before Thursday at 4 PM. So in all likelihood: computer science studying tomorrow (probably not any more today), writing SOSC paper right after exam, check out history paper right after SOSC paper gets turned in. Then I have my math final Friday at 10:30, and fly out later that day.

The bad news: I can't watch the Hobbit. I really, really, really wanted to see the midnight opening. But it's during finals, and I will be responsible with my sleep. In fact, I usually sleep more during finals than at any other time. Might not be a good idea, but it keeps me sane. Missing the Hobbit in Chicago means that when I get back to Portland I will be going with a gang of my high school friends. Should be fun.

I got a new hard drive. 256 Agility 4. I have a case ready to go for the one I'm currently working on. But... I don't have time to replace it. And I don't want to risk anything going bad right as I'm about to write a paper. So after I turn in my history essay I might make the switch. But I also have to finish a food video (filmed before I came to college... ouch). So I will put it in my computer before the 30 day money back guarantee to make sure it works, but it won't get a full spin-up till after I get back to Portland.

So that's my life right now. My ankle has been making popping/snapping noises but a quick internet search has told me that it's alright. I'm still worried (and the little fucker still hurts at the edges of its mobility), but I think it'll be alright. I have some ambitious goals for over winter break for both my mental and physical self, so we'll see how far I get.

Before I forget: I've been waking up close to 7 every morning. Though it's always cloudy these days, I'm up before the sun. What a great feeling.

In the meantime, keep your stick on the ice!

On the Subject of Infinite Work

It's that time of season here in Chicago. The leaves have left the trees. The temperature has dropped. The days are shorter. And UChicago students huddle down in preparation for finals and midterms.

I, for one, embrace the new weather. It gives me the chance to sit my butt down and get some work done. But the problem is that our professors also think like this. And so we, the students, are left with almost infinite work. Now, it's not that bad. I could stay up all night tonight and tomorrow and the day after and have a chance at getting all my work done, but that won't happen. Instead I'll have to half-ass it because the quarter just goes by too fast.

I really wanted to get in a workout a day. But that just won't happen. I've come up with a pretty good modification that makes it work: every night that I go to sleep before midnight, I'll wake up at 7 for a workout. At this point, that means I won't ever be working out. But I won't feel so bad about it either.

I have to finish this 6 page essay tonight. Then I have a math problem set due Wednesday. Also on Wednesday is a math midterm. Wednesday at midnight I have computer science lab due. Next monday I have a book review due on a book I haven't started yet because I've been working on other assignments. Thankfully the libraries are open late.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yeah, that's about it for now. I need to go make some pie.

Workout Regimen

Yeah, not a great update, but whatever. I've decided to work out every weekday morning. Not a big deal, but because I've written it on the internet I have to follow through.

Goals: get in shape. I have to recover from my injuries (ankle still not at 100% yet) so this isn't as trivial of a task as it sounds.

Schedule: 7:00-8:00 at least, every day before class. This includes stretching, meaning I will almost certainly go past 8:00. That's fine, but I want an hour workout a day to be a minimum.

Following my rough workout schedule from high school, and based on which classes I'm willing to be tired in, I have constructed the following workout plan:

Monday: core/arms. Why not start the week with something lighter? Core can mean a lot, and this gives me a chance to start the week however I feel that day. Arms mostly because I need to do them some day.

Tuesday: baseball activities. I will split up this into two categories: throwing and general. Tuesdays will probably be throwing focused. I need to re-learn how to throw. This is a pretty light workout but a very important one, so I'm putting it on my longest day of the week (with computer science lab due at midnight and math due the next day) to make sure I can focus through the whole day.

Wednesday: back/shoulders. Tuesdays are long nights, so I'll go for a little lighter of a workout. Also makes me reinforce my baseball exercises and builds up throwing strength.

Thursday: baseball activities. Focused on whatever I want to do that day. Hitting and throwing are the only two I can think of right now, though.

Friday: legs. Again, reinforcing my baseball exercises with muscle workouts the next day. I'm not the guy who can do legs forever, so this will include a lot of running/biking/box jumps.

We'll see how long I can keep up this regimen. I might have to update to keep myself motivated.

Good Day Yesterday

First, if anyone reading this knows Haskell and would like to explain why my program doesn't work, that would be much appreciated.

Yesterday was a pretty good day. Class was meh but done by 10:30. I got a lot of work done and studied pretty effectively for my computer science midterm today. My math problem set looks really easy. I even got a reasonable amount of sleep.

But there are two big reasons why yesterday was a good day. The first is that I ordered a new phone and signed up for a new service. If you don't know about it, I really recommend checking out republic wireless. Basically, if you're willing to go for a weaker, older Android phone but want to save a bunch of money, this is the thing to do. I ordered the single-band version because I don't want to wait for the double-band, despite the greater coverage. Anyway, I've been on the waitlist for a while and it feels good to finally place my order.

The other good thing was that Barack Obama was just reelected to be President of the United States. I can't say I'm really into politics like some people, but I was very surprised that the election was decided in one night. I thought it would be closer (aka I thought Romney would win Ohio + Florida and there would be a recount). I'm just glad that nightmare is over and I can get back to watching football without the annoying political ads.

Need to Stop Procrastinating

Says the kid writing up a blog post...

But actually my procrastination has gotten pretty bad recently. This is exactly the time when I don't want to be procrastinating. I have a big paper due on Monday that I haven't even started and a midterm on Friday that I'm not prepared for at all. Analysis is only getting harder and harder and I don't know if I can keep with with my SOSC reading with all of this going on. To top it all off I've gotten really stressed about my future in the past week.

It's not a good feeling at all. The worst part: I'm perpetually tired. And not even from a lack of sleep. I've been sleeping plenty. I've been getting some exercise. I've done most of my work. And except for my recent surge in self-resentment and worrying I've been a pretty happy person. I've even been healthy and avoided getting sick. But if left to my own devices I would probably sleep for about 10 hours every night if I could.

In short, I'm not happy with myself. With Fall Formal tomorrow night and a football game on Saturday I have no time to waste. I can't imagine what life will be like when baseball starts up. Maybe then I'll convince myself to go into the library and actually get work done. Instead of blogging and spending all my time thinking of ways to procrastinate.

The Studious Student

So now that I'm done suffering through midterms (well, the first round), I feel it's appropriate to look both forward and back at what's happening in the world around me. This will relate almost entirely to schoolwork, but it may drift here and there. Basically, I'm in the library right now trying desperately to not start my computer science lab.

First off: my SOSC paper was fantastic. To everyone who hasn't had the experience of writing a paper a few days before it's due, I have to recommend it. This might have been the first time that I actually finished the paper with more than a day to spare. I wrote most of it over the weekend and then finished it off Monday. So I guess I didn't really finish with more than a day to go (it was due Tuesday morning), but the fact that I had almost everything prepared before Sunday night was a huge weight off my shoulders. It was also the first paper for the class, meaning it was the most important paper for the class. Even though it was only worth something like 10% of my grade, it both gave me a confidence boost and a chance to see how my professor grades. Both of these are very important, especially when other classes are pulling your grades down.

Speaking of grades, my math midterm went horribly. I could switch down into a lower section of my class, but I don't think I can make it work for my schedule. My midterm was on the last day to add or drop classes and without a grade I didn't feel I could judge my position in the class. Now I can't drop any class that I might need to move around. It looks like I'll just have to tough it out. Was it really horrible? No, I wouldn't say really horrible. But I did do substantially worse than the average student in that class. So I'll just be studying my ass off from here on out. That's the good (and terrifying) thing about having your final be worth 50% of your total grade. Personally I'd prefer that the homework be worth that much (I'm good at homework!) but no such luck.

For both computer science and history, I haven't yet had a good check-in of my position in the class. The first assignment for history is a book review, but it's only due in 2 weeks. Computer science has daily homeworks (that take forever) and weekly labs that I've done well on so far, but none of these have had any time constraints on them. I'm actually frightened about the midterm that I have coming up.

So that's where I am right now. The near future involves a lot of reading for history, a lot of working trying to get into the right place in math, a lot of typing for computer science (not good for my nerve damage), and a lot of reading for SOSC. I'm going to a Notre Dame game for my friend's birthday next weekend, meaning my time will be even less than it is now, and I'm also stressing about how fall formal tickets sold out in 2 days. That's life.

So I'm stressed about math. Especially as a potential math major, that was a pretty big blow. Not quite as bad as my first midterm last year, but still bad. The fact that I actually cannot switch down is sort of a problem. I guess I'll just be spending a lot of time in this library...

Midterms Have Started

And I'm already behind on my sleep. Honestly I didn't think a class could be so much work. But computer science eats away at my time like a fat man at the hot dog eating contest: passionately and without remorse until he throws up all over the place and is disqualified. That pretty much sums up my quarter so far. I'm constantly behind in my work and I don't think I'll ever catch up.

My first paper for SOSC (Classics of Social and Political Thought) was due on Tuesday. That ate up quite a bit of my time that I could have spent working on math homework or my computer science lab. Staying up late working on those has caused me to fall behind on my studying for my math final, which is now infringed upon by my daily computer science homework and rather insane amount of reading.

Some of my reading I know I can't do, but I've been trying my hardest to get all my SOSC done. I want to read Plato and be able to say that I've read Plato, but so far I've managed only about 5 out of the 8 books of the Republic that I was supposed to read. Now let's see if I can get my math done in time for me to get some sleep.

Oh, yeah, and fall baseball has started up.

Bonding over Video Games

It's a strange thing, but my GameCube really brought the 4th floor together yesterday. We played Super Smash Bros. Melee and really got to know each other. It was a great time and we were warned several times to keep the shouting and cheering to a minimum by my RA. That's how you know we had a good time. I also broke out 007 Nightfire and we all enjoyed the difficulty of the game. Unlike modern shooters, the controls for Nightfire are almost impossible to handle. Yet somehow that was also a ton of fun. Strange, strange stuff.

Orientation Rage

I've been manning orientation week (O-Week) here for the past few days, and I have to say that it's been a great time. But there is one group of people that I can't stand. And those people are driving me up the wall.

It's the parents. Now, I realize that not all parents are like this. But it's a sizable portion and it's those that I'm complaining about. They just don't realize that we host orientation for the students, not for them and however many family members they want to bring with them (I directed a group of 14 the other day). Orientation is meant to make students comfortable with their new environment and get them acclimated to each other. Our goal is to separate them quickly from their parents to make sure they have enough time to get used to their new community. But when parents demand to eat lunch with their kids, try to make friends for them, and decide what the student is going to do in their first year, it takes away from the student's ability to join a new community.

Personally, I have to act differently around my parents that I do around my friends (though that's slowly changing). So when a parent hangs around their kid for their entire stay we don't get to know who the student really is.

But as someone who has to direct traffic and just be generally helpful, parents drive me up the wall. Students usually know what to do. They are happy to join their new friends and go places (for the most part). They want to explore. But when there are parents, it becomes the mommy or daddy show. They need to protect poor, little Jonny from the temptations of the outside world. And if anything is wrong they must address it to some sort of authority instead of realizing that I, as a volunteer, can't really do anything but give encouragement and directions. And then I get yelled at.

In short, I hate parents right now. What's even worse is that they're still around. Convocation was supposed to be the last time I had to deal with them. Nope. Still here, still taking over their kid's life, still being incompetent with basic directions and instructions.

But otherwise O-Week has been great. I love hanging out with the new people and I really like seeing my old friends. I even like setting things up. Makes me feel productive. It's been a great time except for the parents.

Back on Campus

So I've actually been back on campus since Tuesday. But I just haven't had the time to write anything down. Also, not much has happened. It's been an unfortunately boring time in my last few days in Portland, and my time here in Chicago has just been a lot of training for meetings that haven't yet happened. My new room is finally put away and cleaned, which is always great news, but classes haven't started and I'm feeling really, really unmotivated to do anything. It's really strange for me. I want to go out and get my textbooks, but I really don't want to have to work. This is especially true after today, where I first lugged a couple hundred pounds of furniture up and down stairs and then stood and handed out wallets for a good 6 hours total. My feet are hurting a little and my bad ankle is crying out in pain. Actually, my wrist is also acting up. It's just been too much stress on my body so far today, and I still have to finish preparing for a meeting tomorrow with the first years. That is then followed by walking around downtown until the wee hours of the morning. I'll probably write about that, but currently I just need to take a nap.

Some Lessons from Physical Therapy

So I really don't like physical therapy, as I've probably made clear. But I've come to realize that I've actually learned a lot from physical therapy. It really is strange to learn something from an activity that I despite so much.

First my injuries. Yes, I will bother you with the details this time. My ankle is easy: last fall before I left for school I was using a tree branch to boost myself onto the sidewalk. I had taken a shortcut up a small hill to get to a friends house. The branch was only about 2 feet off the ground, but just as I put all my weight on my left foot (on the branch), it snapped, and I landed in a not so pleasant position. Really I just fell straight down, but it was painful. I iced, and the pain went away till about March. That's when baseball started, and that's when I started running on uneven ground again. It was excruciating at times. So I went to a doctor. I have tendonitis, a weak muscle, and maybe some bruised cartilage.

My elbow is more complicated. Junior year of high school I probably threw to 1 batter too many one game (gave up a home run, whodathunkit). My arm felt awful for the rest of that week. Like couldn't straighten it at all. I have now learned that I probably hyperextended the joint. Went away eventually. I've had some arm issues here and there since then, but those have all been muscle related. Now I've found out that the hyperextension probably damaged my nerves all down my arm. I've also had to compensate for some unhappiness in my elbow and now cannot straighten it. When I first went to physical therapy they measured my maximum extension as being at a 12 degree angle from straight. 12 degrees is a lot, and means that I never got the extension I needed while throwing. Because of that I relied heavily on my tricep to power through, and so my shoulder fell behind. It's a fucked up situation in my arm right now, but currently it looks like in a few months I'll be back to normal.

The Lessons
1. Ice. It's always good to ice, and now I have to ice pretty much my whole body every day. Not so fun. Should have iced more aggressively earlier.
2. Be in shape. My shoulder is in no shape to throw as hard as I do, and I don't throw very hard. All my power comes from my legs, core, and tricep right now. That's kind of impressive, but not good.
3. See a doctor. I hate doctors. I'm the hypochondriac who would rather complain than actually go see a doctor. But they help. Even though I don't like shelling out $20 per visit, they really help.

Update to my ZBLL Algorithms

I made a silly mistake and put in the COLL picture of the 2GLL Sune case instead of the CO picture. Oops. Regardless, that gives me a chance to shamelessly showcase my document again. So, here it is, version 3.01 of my speedsolving-oriented ZBLL algorithms:

ZBLL Algorithms 3.01.pdf

Memory and Passwords

I used to be the person who only used one password. It was created way back in the day for when I needed at least 6 characters for a Runescape account (which I think I used 3 times total). It was exactly 6 characters, and when I created my first passwords for my email and forums, it was always the same one. At some point they required that I needed passwords longer than 8 characters. I came up with one that was 13 characters long, and that became my new default.

Now I'm a little smarter. I will shun modesty and say that I'm very good and memorizing strings of letters and numbers. So I have no problem going to WolframAlpha and typing in "16 character password" when I need to create a new account. I still have some of my old passwords around on stuff that doesn't matter at all (mostly forums that I rarely or never visit anymore).

Recently I've seen a few posts about password length. It started with someone at work noticing this article (which I personally find incredibly interesting):
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/133067-unbreakable-crypto-store-a-30-character-password-in-your-brains-subconscious-memory
Now there is also the xkcd approach, which can be found here: http://xkcd.com/936/.

So I got to thinking (again shunning modesty): I memorized 50 digits of pi in less than 5 minutes to win a T-shirt. I was in 3rd grade then. I can solve a Rubik's cube blindfolded in about 3 minutes or so, memorizing and double checking 16-20 piece movements in around 90 seconds. I can surely handle some obscenely long password, right?

The answer is no. I can remember bits and pieces of some of them but not enough for anything useful to get done. So I took the time and memorized my new email password and came up with the best way of storing passwords: replying to the password change email with my new username and password. I guess if someone gets into my email all my information is compromised, but I trust Google. And if someone breaks through a password with more than 300 bits of entropy, I wouldn't be very mad. I would congratulate them. That's some dedication.

Pretty useless post, but it is the best way of storing passwords for recalling later. Just search the name of the site that the password is from and look for your reply.

Physical Therapy Sucks

I've had some issues with my ankle and elbow recently (being in the last year). So I finally got a doctor to look at it. Turns out I needed physical therapy. I won't bore you with the details, but I've recently come to the realization that physical therapy sucks. My ankle hurts like hell and my elbow is now just irritated to the point where I don't know if something is serious wrong or healing. I keep being told that it's all expected, and that within a year I will be completely healed. So I might not even be allowed to play baseball this year. But I'm not sure I believe what they say about it being gone in a year. At this rate I will have pain for the rest of my life.

This is particularly annoying because I just spent an hour working out my ankle and shoulder (apparently it's causing some elbow problems). They now hurt. And they will hurt tomorrow. They will also be sore tomorrow and it will then seem like I have sand in my vagina.

Upping the Ante

I've been going on as close to 8 hours of sleep as I can for quite a while now. And it's been working out great! My weekend "sleep till I wake" strategy has done a wonderful job of making up for hours or half-hours that I didn't get on sleep. On days like today, where I stayed up extra late but didn't have any other sleep to catch up on, I slept almost exactly 8.5 hours. That feels pretty good.

So I've decided to try and get my sleep down to between 7 and 7.5 hours a night using the same strategy. As I've said several times before, my goal is to cut down on the total time that I waste sleeping, no matter how good it may feel. I think 7 should be achievable, especially with my weekend budget. Still, it won't be pleasant for a while, but at this point I'm getting used to that transition period. I can't decide if this means that I'll be going to sleep later or waking up earlier. At school my girlfriend prefers to stay up later, so I'm pretty certain that's the way it will work out.

Some other cool stuff has happened recently. First off, I started my Pokemon Crystal nuzlocke run. You can click on the tab titled "My YouTube Channel" to see the videos that I've done so far.

My friend Cole just got back in town, and we've made up for some lost time by cramming in some board game time. He recently purchased Eclipse (no, not the Twilight movie) for over $100. I love me a good board game, but I can't imagine shelling out that kind of money just yet. We're also working hard on making bad food a reality. I won't give away too much but let's just say it'll be big.

Finally, my love of MST3K took me to a movie in the park last night. And it was fantastic. They showed Gamera vs. Zigra. A classic tale of terror and heroics, it kept me laughing to the end. The best part was that they had a live orchestra, live voice actors, and even live sound effects right there. Unfortunately I didn't get any video of it, but these guys come out and dub old foreign films for fun. It's not quite MST3K because they actually stick to the script, but it was amazing. Cole and I both wanted to get the guys from MST3K and have a live riff track also. The way they had it all set up the silhouettes could even show up! It's been a great time having Cole back in town, even though our schedules don't always line up the best.

Here is the website for that movie group. If you have the chance give them some support! http://filmusik.com

Things I Wish Apple would Bring Back

I'm not going to do a full review of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion yet, mostly because I just haven't had the time to sit behind my computer recently. I'm currently serving on a grand jury, and as you can imagine, that takes up quite a bit of time. Also, I am just not used to sitting still for 8 hours a day. The worst part? It doesn't start till Wednesday. I only got picked today and was twitching like crazy after about 2 hours. It does not bode well.

But I do feel like I need to put this out there to people who would actually care. Most of my coworkers are big enough nerds that they use some Linux distribution, and then Windows for their gaming needs. I'm actually the resident Mac expert and sometimes have to assist coworkers trying to use Final Cut Pro for their work (the public Mac is right next to me on the same desk). I think I've taught them well, but I'm concerned about how they'll do while I'm out deciding cases.

The big thing that I really, really don't like about Apple is unavoidable. The fanboys came from iOS. To be the hipster, I've been using a Mac at home exclusively since 2000. And before that I can't remember because I was never on the computer, but I do know we had one. My dad uses a Windows machine because of his work and has a personal MacBook. My family has just been running on Macs my whole life. And even before: my parents used the old Lisa.

The change that I want fixed comes from the last properly stable version of OS X: Snow Leopard. 10.6.8 was amazing. Lion was Apple's Vista. It was buggy as all hell and changed too much. All I can describe it as is "candified." It was ugly. The "natural" scrolling or whatever bullshit they tried to sell us on is only useful for one thing: figuring out who starting using a Mac through iOS (aka fanboy) and who actually uses a computer. Launchpad is just atrocious and should be banned. Personally I open every application from the Terminal or Spotlight. Before I knew how to do that the Applications tab in Finder was more than easy enough to find. But what really killed the experience for me was Mission Control.

I could rant about the App Store for days, but I do appreciate the Apple's new target audience just doesn't care. But Mission Control replaced one of the greatest parts of owning a Mac for me: Spaces and Expose. I don't want to be restricted to only one dimensional movement between desktops. In fact, I prefer to have my Desktops stacked and not lined up. I get that Apple didn't want to figure out how to deal with fullscreen apps in multiple dimensions, but they could have just taken a page out of Microsoft's book and done something like the F11 trick: that window gets fullscreened but otherwise acts normal. Brilliant.

But Apple changed the way the entire system worked and now I am significantly slowed down as I try to work. I actually use my old Snow Leopard machine to work whenever possible (even though I can no longer use the internet on it) because it's just so much nicer. Expose makes life so much easier than Mission Control ever could. And Expose was the best thing out there. Now it's just shit with lace on top.

What also bugs me about Apple's operating system as it moves "forward" is how little choice the user actually gets when they try to do things. Menu items that used to be optional in System Preferences are now just gone. Apple even tried to hide ~/Library (thankfully its godawfully easy to get there) to prevent fanboys from messing anything up. I hate it personally, but it works out alright because I don't like using the mouse and so the Terminal (or other place where I don't have to lift my hands from the keys) does most of my talking.

Finally, just a little things that makes me freak out. I don't actually know when this was introduced. I just know that when I used to hide Applications, they would disappear and become the last option in the Command-Tab menu. That makes sense: I hid the little fucker because I didn't want to see him for a while. Now it stays in the same place that it would it you just changed applications to the next one. Pointless. Absolutely pointless.

But this post won't be entirely negative: I really like that Apple has finally integrate iChat and iMessage into Messages. I think the icon should be the same as the iOS one (they changed all the other ones...) but it works out alright. It also means that as I get a text (well, iMessage) from my girlfriend I don't have to lift my hands from the keyboard to respond. Which makes her a whole lot happier, because as I've pointed out, I don't like taking my hands off the keys.

I might do an actual in-depth review at some point, but I'm just very frustrated with Apple's decision making right now and the internet was the only place I could think to rant.

Till next time.

Sleep Schedule Update

So it's been a little while for me on this sleep experiment and I have to say it's been working out very well. Getting myself to sleep is the hardest part of all of this: I always feel like I could stay up later and do more with my day. For the most part, though, I manage to stay on schedule.

Waking up is a breeze now. I wake up on my own roughly when the alarm goes off feeling great most of the time. A few times it's been tough to get up and once I woke up with a headache, but other than that it's been very smooth sailing. The problem lies on the weekends when I don't set my alarm. I know I should sleep a little extra but my body won't let me do it, no matter how bad I feel. I still can't tell if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but it's been working out great so far.

I've made some progress on my nuzlocke run so go check it out sometime. 8 badges down, 5 big battles to go!

The New Sleep Schedule

So work has been keeping me busy but I have managed to start a new sleep schedule. It's working out very well so far so I thought I could update the world on what's happening. I am attempting to sleep as close to 8 hours as possible every night while going to sleep and waking up at the same time every night. I want to measure how long it takes before I can tell it's time to go to sleep without looking at a clock and when I start waking up without an alarm.

Of course there are some variables that have to be taken into account. My uncle visited recently and I was up after my bedtime a few times because of that. And on weekends and holidays I am letting myself sleep in. This is not just to catch up on any sleep that I might need (I find that I sleep a lot in the summer) but also serves as a gauge as to how I am progressing. After only 5 nights of going to sleep at 11 and waking up at 7 I found that I was awake at 7 on the weekend. But I felt like shit so I just went back to sleep. Still, I woke up at 7 all on my own. Pretty good for only a work week of practice.

So that's what I'm up to. I had some X-rays done on my ankle and elbow and have to schedule an appointment with the sports medicine people here. Gonna be fun on a bun. I might shift my schedule to 10-6 so that I have more time in the morning. And I really don't do anything after 10 so there's no point in waiting for 11. Maybe then I can keep going on my nuzlocke run. Speaking of which, I'm making pretty good progress. You can trace back all my progress from the video above.

Till next time.

Back in the USA!

So finals ended and I went to Slovenia. That's basically what's happened for the past few weeks. Nothing really happened there out of the ordinary: my grandma tried to get me to drink heavily and I only drank a little. The farm is no longer a farm out there because there are no cows, pigs, or fields of grains. Instead its just chickens and cats and a field of grass. Still, it was really nice to see the family again.

But now I'm back. And I'm ready to roll! I start work on Monday and couldn't be happier. As strange as it sounds I like doing work. I can't really explain it, but it's something that I've always had. Also, I'm getting a head start on my computer science class for next year. Why? Because I can. And because I realize that without some serious prior knowledge I will have close to zero free time next year. I also kind of want to read back up on my early American history for my early American history class (wow, so similar!) but that may or may not happen.

But what is definitely happening is that I am finishing up my goal of completing a nuzlocke run of at least the first 3 pokemon generations. I decided that I never really liked the newer generations, nor have I ever really played them, so I'll put that project on hold for now. But for those of you wondering, I now have close to 20 videos up. Start with the one in the previous post and keep clicking the annotations to move to the next one. I try to be entertaining, but you can only do so much.

And, finally, I need to give a shout-out to my amazing Audio Technica ATH-AD700 headphones. After using in-ears for the plane trip and all my train trips around Slovenia I had forgotten what it was like to listen to clean, crisp, lossless sounds (I encode to 256 kbps for my mobile listening because of space constraints). I had always forgotten what it was like to hear music mixed with the sounds of the outside world. Oh, how I've missed my real headphones...

Yellow Nuzlocke Part 1

Soooo I decided to start anyways. It only took about 10 minutes of my life so it wasn't a huge time suck, but we'll see how it progresses later. Anyways, enjoy!

Summer Preparations

Well, it's a little early to be thinking about summer, but that's just what I'm doing. From Chicago I will fly directly to Slovenia to visit with my family there for something like 10 days. It's one of the shortest trips I will ever take there. Usually I go with one of my parents for about 3 weeks. This year I'll be all alone. I'm looking forward to seeing the little ones again and talking to my relatives again.

When I get back to Portland I have a little less than a week to adjust to the time difference (not a problem for the early morning student, though) and then I'm off to my 9-5 job as a software tester. This will be my 4th consecutive summer working for Elemental Technologies, and I couldn't be happier. I hear they moved offices right after my spring break, so this will be my first time in the new office space.

My plans for personal time this summer is a bit ambitious. I am going to try and finally take the time to become adequate as a Python programmer in preparation for my honors computer science class next fall. The class uses Haskell but I have reasons for starting with Python. And I'm told that once you learn one language it becomes easier to learn others. I just hope that what they say is true.

My other major goal is to become stronger. My baseball season was mostly spent on the bench or warming up pitchers in the bullpen. During fall ball I could rely on my changeup to get the rusty batters out. During our winter practices it was clear that as the batters warmed up, my pitching was not going to be enough. So it is perfectly understandable that I rode the pine, er, aluminum, all spring. But I did get much more flexible over the course of the season, and slightly stronger. On our final day of practice we had an inner-sqaud practice game. Though I couldn't get anyone to swing and miss at anything, I was locating pitches much better than I had in the fall and my new pitch, a frisbee-slider (yeah, I would prefer if it dropped some, but what can I do?) worked well enough to get me back to my high school formula. My formula for getting batters out in high school was simple: I threw just hard enough that they couldn't make solid contact with my fastball but slow enough that they could actually hit it. I had an average curveball and a good changeup. If I threw the ball in the strike zone I could count on 2 things. (1) It would be a strike and (2) if they hit it the ball wouldn't go anywhere. I averaged something absurd at 10.6 pitches per inning. I threw to contact and they couldn't hit it. With my stuff at our last practice I followed this exact approach, except I was a little more careful with my pitch placement. I feel like if I get stronger and more flexible I have a serious chance at getting into games next year.

Finally, my personal goal to end all personal goals: I want to do a video series of me nuzlocke running every pokemon generation. For those of you not familiar with how the nuzlocke challenge works, the rules are simple:
1. If a pokemon faints it is considered dead. You can never use it again. No ifs, ands, or buts.
2. You can only catch the first pokemon you encounter in an area. If it flees or faints, tough.
3. You are strongly encouraged to nickname your pokemon in order to build stronger bonds with them.
I've already started setting up my pokemon yellow for recording. I might try my hand at drawings so I could make a comic or something but I imagine it would only turn into stick figures (which might still be cool, I guess). Anyway, my summer would be: Yellow, Crystal, Emerald, Emerald randomizer, and Platinum. I doubt I can get all the way to the end, but I really want to get through as many of these as I can.

Anyways, just 2 more weeks of school! Everybody get pumped!

Hell Week is Over!

Yes, hell week is over. The papers got done (eventually), the midterms got done, and now I prepare for the scavenger hunt! I missed out on quite a bit of sleep last week and will miss out on quite a bit this week but I think it will all be worth it in the end.

The midterms did not go as well as I would have liked. Calculus just beat me. I'm not sure there's any other way to say it. Last quarter I understood what was going on. First quarter I had a decent idea but couldn't put it into words. This quarter I knew nothing of what was going on but had the words to fake it. I'm not sure that I'm thankful that we've switched into linear algebra. I think I understand it more than the last part of calculus, but it's very different territory and I'm not really comfortable with it yet. Oh, well.

Physics midterm went decently, but I ran out of time. I find that to be the most frustrating thing about my midterms in the physics department. I can do all the problems, but I need about 10 minutes more than is allotted. This time I had to scratch in equations to pull off partial credit on the last 2 problems. Pretty frustrating.

But it's all good. Because Scav is coming! I don't know how much I will remember or how much I will actually participate, but I'm really excited.

Happy Monday Student

Unlike my childhood hero, Garfield the cat, I love Mondays. Or at least most Mondays. This Monday was a good Monday. Classes were interesting, food at the dining halls was good, I've finally gotten rid of my cough, and I found out how to (possibly illegally) get my old GameBoy games onto my computer. Not that I really have time to play them right now, but I certainly look forward to having some free time. Whenever that may be.

A few things have happened in my life recently. First, I joined a fantasy baseball league. It's just an in-dorm league so we're pretty casual about it, but it forces me to follow baseball like I haven't for many years. I remember when I would open every morning with the daily Garfield and a scan of the baseball box scores. Those were the good old days: I was far too young to worry about the world and was able to just sit around the house listening to the radio and reading. Now I go to the internet for my daily source of news thanks to resources like Reddit and Google Reader. More and more often I find myself looking back at my days regretting not being more productive.

I only have to look back about 12 months to see myself as the hyper-productive person that I wish I could be now. With Constitution Team finishing up its preparations for nationals and baseball in full swing (not to mention preparations for AP tests and the end of high school) I was busy somewhere between 15 and 18 hours a day. Somehow I managed the sleep and still have time to plow through every Mystery Science Theater ever made in about 5 months, though I fully admit to a large crash in the summer. Even more amazing was that this wasn't my busiest time of the year; it's just the most recent example.

Though I've recovered from my polyphasic experiment and look forward to attempting it again soon, I am having issues sleeping. It seems my body just doesn't want to sleep the correct amount: I either sleep too little and feel miserable all day or sleep far too much and am restless all day. Today was a good day in part because I slept just the right amount.

And as a result, I am a very happy Monday student! The baseball team also did well this weekend down in St. Louis, which means that we theoretically have a shot at the postseason now (however slim those chances may be). Next week will be difficult with a calculus midterm on Monday, and humanities paper due Wednesday, and a physics midterm on Friday. But the week after is the great University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt, and that's enough to bring up anyone's spirits.

Happy Easter (Student)!

I don't really know what to say here. It's been a long time since my last update and this update will not be particularly long. Baseball eats away my free time like no other. It's a lot of fun to be at the games, but sometimes it's just too much to do anything else. Still, the fun outweighs everything else, and soon the traveling team will be taking off and I will have free days. Not sure if I'm looking forward to that or not. The team has done pretty well so far, but defense has been something of an issue for us. In that way games proceed very similarly to the way that they did in high school. Except that in high school I was good enough to get on the field.

My sleep, despite my busy schedule, has skyrocketed. I'm getting a full 7-8 hours of sleep every night. Honestly I don't know how to feel about that. I would love to sleep less, but with my slight temperature all of last week and baseball I try to max out my sleep. However, I am on an early riser program, which for me means that I get up at 6:28 AM whenever I can. Reason for that time? Well, 6 is the first perfect number and 28 is the next. What better way to start the day than perfectly? What is unfortunate is that the dining hall is not open that early, so I don't have as much motivation to get up as I would like. I like the schedule, though, as it keeps me on top of my work (what else am I going to do that early?).

Speaking of work, I'm not sure what to think of it. There's as much of it as I want there to be, I guess. Which is a fair bit, but I leave time to work on learning Python. It's going fairly well, but not as well as I would like. The hope is to take some computer science classes next year, and I want some programming background for that (and other things, but that's my short-term rationale).

And in weird people news, I turned 1 kiloweek old yesterday. 7 kilodays. 70 hectadays. 700 dekadays. 7000 days. 1000 weeks. And I still got it.

That Rough Finals Week

So the polyphasic sleep is no longer a thing. And even if it was, finals would have messed that up horribly. Finals were really rough this quarter. I can't really describe it other than to say that by the time physics rolled around Friday morning I was checked out. Right now I'm just recovering here in Portland (also, snow in Portland!) learning TeX (because my mom refuses to use LaTeX like the rest of the world).

Having a friend in town during finals was interesting. It most likely helped keep me energized, simply because there was a new person around to be peppy and try to get me to do things. Still, it was such a rough week that I will not be taking 4 classes next quarter (unless something REALLY interesting pops up) and will be dropping my civilization studies class. With baseball season, this might have been necessary anyways.

I have a couple of goals for me spring break. First, I want to go back to high school baseball practice. I am going to try and learn some TeX and maybe get paid a little to type up my mom's notes for some class (I think she said real analysis). I want to start back up my GameCube a little for some Super Smash Bros. Melee. Hopefully I'll have time to visit some old high school friends down in Eugene and Salem. And then I want to catch up on sleep. I think all of this is easily attainable.

Cheers for now. Thoughts on polyphasic some other time.

First Baseball Game Cancelled

It's a sad day in Simonland. Our first baseball games down in Springfield were cancelled due to inclement weather. Though this really frees up my schedule, I wanted to play, regardless of the weather. Living in Portland makes you very tolerant of the rain (and that brings some judgment when I walk across wet grass going to class) and I'm a little disappointed that these Midwesterners melt in the rain. Oh, well...

Taxes(!) and Other

So my last stressful week came and went, and now I can prepare for finals. Or I can take some time for myself. The latter sounds so much more attractive right now. But taxes are worse than either option. Easily. My parents just shipped me my tax information. Whee! Ideologically, I love taxes. Government can't run without money. But in practice I hate taxes. Thankfully my dad's around to help me figure it all out, but in general it is just a giant pain in the rear. Last year I ended up paying a grand total of $8 in taxes. What's even the point of me giving money? It probably cost the country more than $8 to have someone look over my information. But taxes have to get done. So that's what I'm doing tonight.

In some other news, I've become a huge fan of Led Zeppelin recently. And by huge fan, I mean that I am listening to Led Zeppelin IV over and over. I appreciate their other stuff, but when it comes to choosing songs, there is no competition (except for maybe Kashmir).

I've registered for classes next quarter. It looks like they'll be almost exactly the same as this quarter. But there's a class on baseball that I would like to take if at all possible. We'll see how that works out. Based on what others have told me, lots of people are trying to take that class. Oh, well. There's only so much I can do about that: I can try to register for the class and that's it.

Speaking of baseball, Saturday is our first game! It looks like the whole team is going down to Springfield for a doubleheader for a day trip. I'm looking forward to it. Considering I probably won't be playing, I look forward to warming up pitchers in the bullpen and keeping score. If I'm lucky, I'll get to take a bunch of pictures, but that could be a bit optimistic. Regardless, I'm really excited.

And finally, though I haven't been playing board games or solving cubes at all recently, I have rediscovered my 8th and 9th grade obsession with Super Smash Bros. Melee. This could be a problem, but thankfully I don't have constant access to a GameCube here (yet). I played something like 40 hours a week in my prime and showed some withdrawal symptoms when I forced myself to stop. I got pretty good at it and I wonder if my fingers can keep up with what my brain wants it to do. Way back when I could almost do this (separately, no problem; put together as a smooth string of attacks, difficult): How Fast is Melee?. I'm reading up on frame data right now because I don't want to do taxes yet...

Saturday Morning Practice (Student)

Here it is, ladies and gentlemen! The last stressful week before finals week!

This post is titled in honor of the brutally early Saturday morning practices we have for baseball. Actually, I don't mind, but the rest of the team looks like their really suffering out there. I just do a bike workout (and get soaked in sweat), throw a 25 pitch bullpen session (learned how to throw a slider today), and usually get out early, so I don't mind at all. But the idea of 8 AM practice is not a fun one.

Monday involves a presentation on Thomas Nast cartoons in my America in World Civilization class and a midterm on RC circuits in physics. Friday involves a short paper depicting a debate between John Locke and Rene Descartes. After that I have two weeks to study for finals (which are going to be very long, but oh, well). Other than that I have some important announcements for the world to hear!

First off, I hope everyone had a fantastic Valentine's Day. I, for one, am not a fan of such "holidays" (I mean, we don't even get a day off!) but understand when people need excuses to go out and buy things for each other.

Next, my high school's team for the We the People competition we chosen as one of the wildcard teams to go to the national-level competition in Washington, D.C. in early May. Last year I got to go and it was one of the greatest times I have ever had in my life. I have tried to be at least semi-active in helping out this year's team and I'm really proud of the hard work they put in. Constitution Team (or Con Team, as we call it) is the only activity in my four years of high school that inspired any sort of school spirit in me. I wish them the best of luck in May!

Finally, I have a friend from last year's Con Team coming to visit me during finals week! She will split time between myself and our friend at Northwestern, but it'll be great to catch up, even if it is finals week. I feel a little weird saying this, but I really can't wait for finals to come!

And in completely unrelated news, formatting USB memory sticks sucks. Especially when you have to set them back up afterwards. Ugh!

Suicide Prevention Day!

Technically it's called 'College Break Day,' but it's more fun to call it suicide prevention day. Call it what you want; I call it a day off.

This week was pretty rough. Monday was my birthday, and even though I don't like celebrating them, I was still unhappy to have to take a calculus midterm on my cakeday. The next day involved a physics quiz, and then Thursday I had a 1500 word dialogue due for my humanities class. I know I'm not getting much sleep anyways, but this week involved even less sleep than normal.

I needed today. And so far it's going well. Baseball practice is already over (I got to catch for a bit today!), meaning I have the whole day to relax now. And what better way to relax than to go through 12 glorious hours of Lord of the Rings? You really can't do much better than that.

Super Sleepy Student

So it's been a little while since I've updated here. This week was not particularly stressful, but for some reason I had issues falling asleep, and as a result I'm very tired. More than half of my 20-minute naps involved no sleep, and twice I woke up after 2 hours in my core nap. On the other side, Tuesday was a bad day, and I missed my morning alarm and my alarm for my mid-afternoon nap, giving me a total of 9 hours of sleep.

It's fascinating how well people can function on very little sleep. I also find it interesting that sometimes we feel more tired after a long rest than a short one. But the purpose of my little self-experiment is to see if polyphasic sleep schedules are sustainable for normal people. There are people out there who do not need to sleep very much at all. This is a very brief article on people like this. Currently I have not found any accounts of normal people sustaining polyphasic sleep for more than a few months. There are several reasons for quitting the cycle. One is that it is simply too much work to keep up. The covers are so warm and cozy. Why would anyone want to leave them. Finding the time to nap can also get very tedious, especially when the rest of the world operates on monophasic cycles. This is especially true for people working. I've put in some thought about how I'll be able to work this in over the summer, and so far I don't have an answer. I guess I could sleep in the server room... So far at school I've managed to allocate time to nap every day (except this Thursday when physics lab went long).

Baseball, while giving me a schedule, does not provide me with much of a break. At this point I am just hoping to adjust. It's better than last week, but I'm worried about the sleep. I'm coming up on 7 weeks of polyphasic sleep here. It's been tough at times (Tuesday mornings are the worst), and even though I'm pretty tired I have settled into a rhythm. I know my tolerance for missing naps (not high) and I also know that if I just let myself sleep I will be asleep for a very long time (yes, 9 hours is a very, very long time). My goal right now is to finish the quarter like this, but we'll see how that works out.

First Baseball Practice!

I'll try to stay on just one topic, but I know how that turns out most of the time. I think the title says it all: today was my first ever baseball practice in college. Yes, I know, it's quite exciting. Though it was only 2 hours, and was mostly just to get us organized, it was still good to have it out of the way. It was almost exciting, though. I forgot my shoes on my way to the field house. That involved a rather panicked run back to my dorm, but it ended up being just fine. After that exciting start, everything settled down and baseball proceeded as usual. Anyways, very excited for the season to start!

Healthy Thursday Student

So I got sick less on Tuesday. There is some 24-hour bug going around my dorm and I managed to catch it. I really don't want to go into details, but it was really bad. Also, never look up symptoms on Google unless you want to be scared for your life. I thought I had cholera for about an hour, though that could be because I read the Ghost Map last year (fantastic book, but a little gross at times). Anyways, I was out and about like a normal human being today after sheltering myself for all of Tuesday and as much of yesterday as I could. But now it is (well, 3 AM means that technically it was) Thursday, and all is better.

In a way it was the best time to get sick: though I had physics homework, calculus homework, and a 2-page paper due yesterday, this could have been much worse. It might have been during midterm season, which starts up next week. And baseball starts up on Monday. This was the last week where I could afford to be sick. And I took full advantage of it!

But the thing that I'm really worried about is the effect that this illness had on my sleep schedule. I was unable to sleep more than a few minutes Tuesday night because of constant trips to and from the bathroom. Then I slept for as much as possible Tuesday and Wednesday. So while I might be very well rested, my cycles have almost certainly been shifted. Today was a little bit tough, actually, but I'm looking forward to my 3 hour sleep coming up.

I still find the best thing about polyphasic sleep is that I go to sleep after everybody else, eliminating distractions and leading to a very productive Simon. Then I wake up before everybody else, eliminating distractions and leading to a very productive Simon. I am no longer stressed about long homework assignments. Even when I was sick I was never hit with the panic of it's-due-tomorrow-oh-no!-itis. I am able to free up pretty much the entirety of my day to whatever I feel like doing, whether it be getting a head start on homework, socializing, or just vegetating. Of course there are tradeoffs to each option, and I have to find time to nap every day (which is hard when socializing seems like a better idea) but I think it's paying off. We'll see if I can properly readjust after this stomach bug.

Also, for those of you who don't know, it's getting cold in Chicago.

Dat Donut

My dorm decided to celebrate the day off by getting donuts from Dat Donut. I think the picture speak for themselves. Basically, these donuts are huge!

The Three Day Weekend

So it doesn't happen very often, but we got a three day weekend because of Martin Luther King, Jr. day. Actually, it happens once per year. But having the three day weekend feels like it only happens once in a lifetime. Still, it has been an interesting past few days.

First off, we got our first significant snowfall of the year! It wasn't too much, but it's still on the ground so it does the job. This led to a few interesting developments. The first was Sno-BQ. Snell and Hitchcock houses have a tradition of a barbecue on the first significant snow of the year, which happened to be on Thursday. I might have taken it a little too seriously, but I figured I should go in appropriate barbecue clothing. And what do you wear to a barbecue? Shorts, Hawaiian shirt, flip flops, baseball cap, and sunglasses. Right? Well, it was about 25 degrees out and pretty windy. It got a little chilly there at the end, but overall wasn't too bad. I just hung out near the fire and stayed warm like that. I apologize for the picture quality, but with the lighting that's probably the best we could pull off. Yup, that's how I roll.

Also, the NFL playoffs are pretty ridiculous right now. Mostly blowouts, but some are really interesting games. Tebow over the Steelers last week was pretty impressive. But Alex Smith and the 49ers taking on the Saints like that was absolutely incredible. The last 5 minutes of that game involved almost continuous shouting and screaming in the rec room.

But more important than all of that is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. There is a generational gap now: we weren't born in the 60's or 70's. My generation can't appreciate all that he did. It is something that we will never fully understand, but we can continue to honor him. And I hope people don't forget that while, yes, this does mean a day off of school, it also means something much than just a day to sleep in.

My Other Blog

Yes, I keep two blogs. One of them is a joint blog with my friend Cole Perkinson back in Portland. Cole and I live very close to each other and have spent a lot of time hanging out. He is probably the source of my passion for board games, my tennis buddy, and the one who introduced me to B movies (most notably Mystery Science Theater).

He and I have another passion: food. More specifically, we like to play with our food. We don't make shapes, we don't cook elaborate meals, but we do make gross things. Our game is simple: if you like food A, and you like food B, you should like food A+B. We got serious about proving this false, and started a blog:

ifyoulikea.wordpress.com

Yes, I promote shamelessly. But you can deal with it. In fact, I think you'll like the blog. It's a great game to play, and you'll find it's often difficult to come up with something you actively dislike. People in the dining halls here have complained about how disgusting warm ice cream is. Really? Get over it. It still tastes like ice cream. I have had foods your feeble little mind couldn't comprehend. Well, you could. In fact, many of you have probably thought about mixing them, but didn't have the nards to do so. Well, we're here to provide you with a pair.

Enjoy!

The Productive Student

This won't be a very long entry, but I feel like I have to write it out. Knowing me, 10000 words will follow...

The sleep schedule might have adjusted itself. Today I woke up on my own after about 3 hours instead of my alarmed 4 hour setting. My naps were significantly shorter than 20 minutes each. After my mid-afternoon nap went for only 7 minutes (between peeking at the clock, so closer to 5), but I was so awake and ready to go that I just got up. This is polyphasic sleep at its best: super productive, boosted energy, and, most importantly, more time to do other things. I knocked out all my hum and civ reading for the rest of week, and I might start on my calculus homework after I'm done with this entry. Everybody in my dorm is asleep right now. At home that seems normal to me: in high school I was consistently up later than everybody else by a rather significant margin. But here it's bizarre. The tea room (the name of the common room) is always occupied when I'm awake, except occasionally in the morning. But that was last quarter's data. This quarter it seems to be empty for quite a few of my waking hours.

So what am I doing with all this time? I went to a Chicago Bulls game, of course. The dorm got tickets for cheap, and so some friends and I decided to go. It was a good game until about halfway through the 4th quarter, when Chicago pulled ahead of the Pistons and ended up winning but a pretty significant margin. The most memorable moment for me happened during the entirety of the 2nd quarter. Two drunk girls showed up late and took the seats next to me.

These girls came to the game drunk and managed to fall down trying to get themselves to their seats. It would have been really funny if they hadn't been holding (more) beer. It was a little messy. Then one of them started dropping her camera. I say started because in the span of about 5 minutes she had dropped it twice under the seat of the man in front of us, causing a huge commotion to get it back. She kept offering me her beer because she couldn't remember that I was underage. Coupled with some rather awkward conversations about college life (they had just graduated) and how it is perfectly normal to get hammered on weeknights (sooooo many details) I had a very entertaining quarter. However, they didn't come back after the half. I have two theories: they were escorted off the premises or decided to go somewhere else to drink some more. Great times.

First Week Back

The most important thing that I've had to deal with this week involves sleep. I was sort of expecting this, but it's still pretty tough. Thinking is hard work. Going to class, taking notes, working out, homeworking, socializing, etc. It's tough. Getting the schedule down at home was pretty easy. I could do nothing if I wanted (though I tried to avoid that). Here I'm always doing something and my sleep schedule is taking a hit. I added an hour to my core nap and adjusted my naps to 30 minutes instead of 20. Even though I usually wake up before my nap alarm explodes, I need that extra time in my core. So my sleep time per day is still a respectable 5-5.5 hours, but not where I want to be. My goal is still 4 hours per day, and I'm sure I'll adjust. I'm not going to force anything right now, though: baseball starts up in 2 weeks and would only make me adjust again.

Also, I've noticed that it takes quite a bit of effort for me to take my nap. The decision is always between socializing and napping, and socializing seems so much more interesting. I always get them in, but I don't really look forward to them anymore and just kind of accept them as an inevitability. Schedules like this rely not just on the hours but on your mentality towards what you're doing. My mom tried very briefly to stay up with me, but ended up failing after only a few days. She didn't seem very tired, but couldn't accept that she needed so little sleep. I just had to look to first semester of senior year of high school (when I first got interested in alternate sleep patterns) when, according to my sleep journal, I averaged just over 3.5 hours of sleep per weeknight (and about 10 per weekend). I had some health complications after about 2 months of this, but until then it was a perfectly sustainable schedule. I actually think I could deal with even less sleep than 4, but I'm in an adjustment period right now so I'll play it safe.

Life here at UChicago has picked up exactly where it left off: physics homework every Wednesday, calculus homework on Mondays (instead of Fridays), civ reading Monday and Wednesday, and HUM reading Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm going to try very hard to get on my ideal work schedule now that I've caught up with all my reading for next week. Last quarter I didn't hold up too well, but I hope to finish (or at least take out a significant chunk of) my homework on the day it is assigned. For reading this really isn't a problem. I can just crack out the book when everyone else has gone to sleep and read a couple hundred pages. Physics will be interesting because we usually only get the material covered the class before it's due, so we'll see how that works out. Calculus shouldn't be too bad. But the really difficult thing will be papers. I have my first paper due Friday, and I haven't started yet. I should probably be doing that instead of posting this, but it's been a while since I entered anything. Anyways, this homework strategy should work out pretty well and leave my weekends pretty free.

I waste a little too much of my free time. 'Waste' actually isn't the right word, but I can't think of another one. I've spent quite a bit of time working on my cubes. I'm starting to really like my Dayan Zhanchi and my color scheme. I still can't decide what to do about ZBLL. On one hand, it has been my goal since sophomore year of high school. On the other, that means I would have to memorize and recognize 501 distinct cases. That's a lot of work. I'll figure it out.

I've also been watching a lot of movies. Well, technically it's a TV show. Those of you familiar with Mystery Science Theater 3000 will know all about this technicality. When I've re-watched all the episodes I'll do a list of my favorite episodes. Puma Man already has the #1 spot in my heart. Last night I watched it with some people in the common room and it was very well received. We then tried to watch Hercules and the Captive Women, but the drunk people started coming back from their parties and made too much noise. Still, good times. Also, a picture from last night. How exactly is Hercules steering?

I've also gotten really into my jazz collection, despite its rather small size. I guess I've eliminated it down to things that I really like. My iTunes now has a "Jazz Favorites" and "Study Music" playlist, and they've worked out well so far. I've also found that when I'm programming I work better to music. On homework, though I'm more motivated, it's a little distracting, hence the study-style music in a playlist. Also, if people know how to install Python modules, please let me know. My system protests whenever I try to get one up and running.

Well, that's about it. I had Harold's Fried Chicken yesterday for the first time. It was AMAZING. Everyone told me it would be meh, so I didn't have very high expectations. But three of us split 21 wings and fries and it was delicious. People propped up the Thai food here but I didn't find it that incredible. Still good, but not great. Harold's was great. And it only cost us about $7 each.

For those of you wondering, my new schedule is very similar to last quarter. With baseball it gets a little more exciting:

Happy New Year Student

The title makes sense. Deal with it.

I stopped keeping a daily journal of my sleep but instead just kind of went with the flow. Still, I have some things to report and a few things that can keep people going for the long haul on a sleep pattern like this.

Firstly, if you're anything like me, putting your core sleep early in the morning is a bad idea. It takes me a while to get fully functional, so I have resorted to taking my core sleep from 1-4 in the morning and then my 20 minute nap right before class. When I had my first nap only in the late afternoon, I found I was counting down the hours to my next sleep. With my first nap before classes start I not only add some flexibility as to when I can take it (baseball practice sometimes starts at 8 on Saturdays) but also allow myself a few hours to get properly awake. Some people like to wake up from their core nap later, but I just couldn't do it.

Secondly, sleeping with the lights on is a great way to prevent oversleeping. For the core sleep that isn't a problem: I'm very rested anyways. But from the naps it can be challenging, and that little extra motivation from the lights makes a big difference. Also, make sure you're downstairs when you wake up: I fell down the stairs at least twice during the zombie mode days.

Finally: be honest with yourself. If it just isn't working for you, stop. The world around us is monophasic. Being polyphasic can cause some issues, especially when scheduling parties and such. Missing a 20 minute nap for me is pretty tough and takes a cycle or two to fully recover. From what I've heard, sneaking in an extra 20 minute nap every once in a while is fine if you really need it. And you're still sleeping significantly less than the average adult.

We'll see how this schedule continues here in Chicago. Yes, I'm back. It was an exciting plane ride over: the Rose Bowl was on, and the people in front of me chose to pay the $6 to watch it. That meant I got to watch for free! Naturally, I'm an Oregon fan, so I was very pleased they won. Taking my nap in the plane was pretty tough, though. I'm too tall to fit comfortably in any seat and my neck is still a bit stiff, but I got it worked out.

I'm really looking forward to this quarter. Last quarter I was a little confused, and there was some leftover senioritis (probably because it was so late in showing up) but I made it through just fine. I'm going to be on top of things this quarter from the get-go. My reasons aren't entirely pure, though. There's a chance some old high school friends could be in Chicago during their spring break, which happens to line up with my finals week. I don't want to be cramming for anything this time and so I need to get things done sooner rather than later. I'm off to a good start in that regard: all my reading for the rest of this week is done!

That's about it for now. I'm still unsure of this sleep pattern. Sometimes it feels like too much sleep, and other times I'm clearly not getting enough. I'll figure it out eventually.