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.