Schooool's Out For the Winter

It's official: I am done with school for the semester. I finished up my last final (physics--it was awful) at 5:00. My travelling buddy very generously offered to drive the whole way home (we usually make a snack stop about halfway and switch drivers) so I basked in my freedom and passengerdom by sleeping off a physics induced headache. Now I'm just waiting, impatiently I might add, to get my grades, and depending on them, I will either have a very pleasant month off or a slightly-less-pleasant-but-still-a-bazillion-times-better-than-being-in-school month off.

Bzzz!

I made my first ever B as a final grade yesterday. It was in Calculus. I had an A going into the final, but the day before the test instead of studying I had a really long lunch with some friends I hadn't seen since last semester, and after that I had an adventure with 2 more friends trying to find Columbus from Starkville. I have come to the conclusion that online maps hate me. When I typed in Columbus, MS show times, Google gave me directions to the theater, and they were to the correct address, just on 45-Alt instead of 45, so we ended up in the middle of nowhere, and after much driving around and calling of various acquaintances who might possibly give us correct directions, finally found the theater right as the movie was starting even though we'd left 45 minutes before. Columbus and Starkville are not that far away. Anyway, the point of all this was that I probably should have studied more, but if I go through all four years of college with a perfect 4.0 but have no new friends and no adventures to speak of, what is it all worth? And afterall a 3.9 isn't that much different. Now the only question is, do I really believe all this or am I just trying to console myself? I guess it has to be a little of both because friends and adventures are important, but I have honestly never made a B before. I was the only person in my graduating class with a 4.0. I made a C in middle school band once (I didn't even know that was possible) but middle school doesn't count, and plus we're talking about B's, not C's. At least it was in Honors Cal III instead of something like Music Appreciation. I at least have a dignified B.

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Good Night

The last 2 and a half years of my life have been consumed by Calculus tests, Calculus homework, and Calculus projects, but as of about 30 minutes ago, I am completely finished. No more derivatives. No more anti-derivatives. No more graphing polar coordinates or approximating power series. It's over. I couldn't be more thrilled. Of course this is all assuming that I didn't do so horribly on the final that I have to retake the class. I don't think that will happen though. I might not get my A but as long as I'm done and my gpa doesn't fall so much that I lose my scholarships and have to get a--dare I say it--(wince and sharp intake of breath) job, I don't really care. I can finally sell my Calculus book back to the book store!

Jumbo Shrimp

Did you know that the word oxymoron is itself an oxymoron? It's taken from the Greek oxy which means sharp and moros which means dull. Amazing, huh?

See Ya MWF!

Today is the last day of Monday Wednesday Friday classes for this semester. This means that I just finished my last day of Intro to Meteorology (which is sad because I absolutely love the teacher), but it is also my last day of Physics (not in the least bit sad. In fact, this couldn't have come soon enough.) and Cal III (somewhat sad because I love the teacher and my classmates, but the point of infinite series completely escapes me). Although I go to French today, it is not my last day (which is rather sad because I'm ready for that class to be over. We don't learn much and I am called not by my name but by the name of my home town, and it's not even me individually. A friend from home is also in the class, so we are referred to as a collective unit, as if we don't have identities outside of each other. Talk about demeaning. There is a bright side though: if I don't know an answer and he calls on us, I can just assume he was talking about D.J. and not bother to say anything. This aside was really long. I apologize. I will now take you back to the original thought.) Foreign language classes are 4 days a week. This is completely idiotic if you ask me. It throws off scheduling for other classes and it only counts as 3 hours even though it's 4. Anyway, now I just have one more day of class (the last French class and Comp II which will only consist of a quiz so it shouldn't take long) and then "Reading Day" and then exams and then HOME! Yay!

By the way, I got a Nintendo DS for my birthday and the game Brain Age. The first day my brain age was in the 70's and lingered there for a while, but today it was 32! I'm getting younger by the minute!

Okolona! Where the wind goes sweeping through the atmosphere?

I assume everyone knows what I'm talking about when I say radar. Not just the images they show on TV, but the actual instrument. Big, white, round thing on a tower. Usually at airports. Kind of looks like a volley ball. If you're still clueless, here's a picture: Anyway, the ones that they use for the images on TV do not point up. The ones that are pointed directly upward just measure the wind speeds and directions up in the atmosphere. This is pretty handy for forecasting; however, the state of Mississippi only has one that does this and it is located in Okolona. Why, I ask you?

Haircuts?

I was walking past the cafeteria today when I saw a table set up on the sidewalk that was sporting a poster advertising free haircuts. Sure enough, a girl was standing behind the table with a squirt bottle and a pair of scissors, about to work her magic on some guy's head. I wouldn't have a problem with this except for the fact that it's been super windy all day. Why would she pick the windiest day in quite a while to be the day she gives free haircuts outside? They can't turn out well. And there was a pretty long line stretched out beside the table. I, for one, would never in a million years let some random girl with a sloppy poster set up on the sidewalk touch my hair with scissors, and certainly not when it's windy, and I discourage anyone else from doing it either. The results will most likely be disastrous. Not to mention, she was going to town with the squirt bottle. I'm surprised the guy's head didn't turn into a giant icecube.

The End of an Era

I am currently about halfway through the last day of my teenage years. It's really kind of sad. I am celebrating by going to see Twilight at the midnight premiere. I hope they don't screw it up, but even if they do, it's semi-excusable because a friend of mine is paying for my ticket. Hooray for birthdays!

Brrr!

Why would an institution keep the air conditioning on in the common areas of a dorm when the temperature outside (according to my Weather Channel desktop) is 35 degrees? I just walked down the hall and almost got frostbite on all of my toes. I felt like I should be shoveling through a mountain of snow instead of walking to my room. It seems like an awful waste of energy if you ask me. This is coming from the university that runs the sprinklers during the rain though, so I suppose I shouldn't be that surprised.

Hazardous Dreams

I woke up this morning and went to the bathroom to begin my daily getting ready ritual. When I looked in the mirror, I noticed a long scratch down my cheek. Since I don't remember getting in any catfights, I can only assume that I had a particularly rough night's sleep last night. I suppose it could have been a lot worse; I mean I could have woken up with a black eye. I wonder what I was dreaming about that made me lash out at myself. Maybe I was dreaming that a giant octopus had one of his suckers on my face, and i was trying to pry it off. Or maybe I was dreaming that I was the guy in Poltergeist that claws his face off. Whatever it was, I hope I don't dream it again. I don't enjoy being a hazard to myself.

Nothing in Particular

I just recalled that I haven't posted in over a week. This was unintentional. I've sat down at my computer several times and started to type out a post, but got called away to do something else halfway through. By the time I got back around to it, whatever it was I had planned to say was already irrelevant.

Unfortunately, I do not have anything particularly profound to say at the moment. I just figured I'd post something so you wouldn't all think I had been kidnapped. I assure you, I have not. I am safe and sound in my dorm room watching CSI reruns on Spike. The current episode is "Toe Tags" just in case you were wondering. I've seen it at least two times before.

Ooh! I just remembered that I have Dove chocolates in my freezer. I'll catch you later...

20/20

It's the first day of my favorite month. November! I will be 20 in 20 days. Pretty neat huh?

Anyway, we played Kentucky today. The score is not important. What is important is our new screen is now operational! Our team may not be that great, but at least we have the biggest screen east of the Mississippi!

(This is for my mother)

Old and busted. _________________New hotness.

Here are a few more pictures from the game.


Parachuters left and right!

Go State!!!

Bonne Halloween!

For the past two days, French class has been dedicated solely to Halloween. Yesterday we were given a list of French Halloweeny words and told to pair up and write a Halloween story. D.J.'s and mine was about a witch (une sorciere) named Miranda that got drunk on pumpkin beer (citrouille biere) one night and fell off her broom (balai) into a cemetery (cimetiere) and died (mort). She is now a ghost (fantome).

Today we were given this worksheet (<-- look left) and told to complete it. It was incredibly difficult, I assure you. Especially with the answer so cleverly marked out at the bottom ( look right --> and down v (I have no down arrow so a "v" will have to suffice)). We were then given very Halloweeny orange fortune cookies (that were even nastier than regular fortune cookies if that is at all possible) with French Halloween fortunes inside. Mine said, "Passe une belle Halloween! Bonne chasse aux friandises!" It means, "Have a great Halloween! Happy trick-or-treating!"

Here are a few more of the fortunes. Consider them my Halloween gift to you (since cyber candy isn't very tasty). You can use them to impress all your non-French friends.

Bonne Halloween! C'est un jour EPATANT!
Je le sens jusque dans mes os!
(Happy Halloween! It's a scary day! I feel it in my bones!)

L'Halloween, c'est l'occasion de changer
d'apparence et de hanter la nuit.
(Halloween is the occasion to change your
appearance and haunt the night.)

Offre-toi un plaisir MONSTRE pour l'Halloween!
(Have yourself a monstrously pleasant Halloween!)

Drunken Ghosts

In each of the halls of the building that I live in there is a bulletin board. The R.A. that lives on each hall is responsible for the decoration of their hall's board. At the beginning of the year, each board has welcome notices, helpful tips for campus living, directions to different restaurants, and lots of that sort of thing. A month or so into the semester, the boards start changing. On D.J.'s hall the board has different optical illusions. On another boys' hall there are "You know you're in college when..." jokes. (I read a few. They're all dumb.) On another of the girls' halls the board is pink and has a big breast cancer ribbon, a sharpie marker, and an invitation to share the breast cancer stories of loved ones that have been affected. The board on my hall kept it's welcome message until about 2 weeks ago. When the welcome message was taken off, a black background and Halloween border was put up around the edges. Other than the border, the board was completely blank for a little over a week. One day late last week, I came in to find it completed, and quite frankly I liked it better blank. Now I suppose the idea behind it was good. It's nice to remind those who are underage of the dangers of alcohol, I suppose. However, the whole thing is just a little goofy. There are smiling ghosts all over it. What do smiling ghosts have to do with alcohol? I guess they go with the whole Halloween theme, but the pumpkins contain supposedly scary facts, so if it was up to me, the ghosts would be a little less happy. Or maybe they're excited about all the people that are apparently going to die from alcohol consumption and add to their numbers. If I don't understand the happy ghosts, I definitely don't understand the drunk ghost. First of all, everyone knows that ghosts can't eat or drink therefore they can't get drunk. Secondly, supposing they could drink, I don't think they would suddenly become filled with cotton balls. Maybe they'd fly a little crooked, but they wouldn't get fluffy. The caption also cracks me up. The message "Looks a little funny, huh?" referring to a tipsy, cotton filled ghost is supposed to convince me not to consume alcoholic beverages? Mission accomplished! If I'm going to turn into a giant cotton ball the second I get drunk, I will most definitely refrain. The eyes in the middle of the board are also a little weird. Who do they belong to? What are they looking at? What is their purpose in the grand scheme of things? Are they just there to fill in a blank spot? If that's the case, and I suspect it is, why not just use another happy little ghost?

I hope my R.A. never reads this...

Take that Physics and Calculus!

I got my calculus test back today and (drum roll please........) I made an A!!!! I haven't gotten the physics test back yet, and I'm thinking it won't be quite as high as the cal grade, but who knows? I'll keep you posted.

<--This is my grade.

And this is me excited about my grade. And strangely neckless. -->

Conspiracy

I am convinced that my calculus teacher and physics teacher are out to get me. They found out somehow that I have one of them at 11 and the other at 12 and have made it their job in life to make my life a living hell. It wasn't enough for them that it's already hard for me to switch gears between the two classes to understand the lecture. They had to get together and schedule tests on the same day, too. My second test in both classes is tomorrow. One right after the other. For the second time. Coincidence? I think not! And they're always on Mondays so my whole weekend is shot because I'm shut up in my room for hours on end finding the dot product of vectors for calculus and calculating the sum of forces for physics. And I don't even have time in between classes to relearn formulas or anything. Oh for tomorrow to be over...

This is my poor desk completely covered with equation sheets, books, and scrap papers.

This is random jibberish I'm supposed to understand.

This is me having a nervous breakdown.

Template Change...Again

I warned you that I was not completely satisfied with the last template, and now that I know how to change it, it is subject to change at any time. I rather like the current one, my only real problem is that there is a random link at the bottom in another language. I don't suppose that really matters though. I never go to the bottom of my page.

Everytime I change a template, all of the widgits are deleted and I have to add them again. I keep putting in a welcome, but I can never remember what I've said the previous time, so I've probably welcomed you all at least 4 different ways. I apologize. Maybe I should start writing them down.

On a completely untemplately note: we proofread the first draft of our papers today in Comp II. We're supposed to write a literary analysis of one of the short stories on our syllabus. Basically, we just pick a "theme" and write about it, backing it up with some academic's ideas. I have issues with these types of assignments. I think the term "theme" was invented by someone determined to give English teachers jobs after about 4th grade when grammar is pretty much mastered. (No offense if you're an English teacher. I have nothing against them. In fact, some of my favorite teachers have been English teachers.) I do not think that authors put nearly as much thought into their compositions as English professors think they do. Granted, there has to be some thought behind why they say what they say, but honestly, every little word does not have to have a secret meaning. Maybe I just feel this way because I have never been good at picking out themes. I read for the enjoyment of reading, not to pick out every detail. I like to get lost in the story, not preoccupied with so called literary elements.

Now what point was I trying to make? Oh yes, I was talking about proofreading. The teacher assigned us partners and we were instructed to read our papers aloud to our partners, the reasoning being that we can hear our own errors if we read them aloud. Next, the paper was to be turned over to the partner who would give it a good silent reading and fill out a form that is supposed to help the writer with revision. My partner, bless his heart, apparently completely misunderstood the assignment. He picked a story and wrote about the setting, but he failed to include any sources whatsoever. He did have one quote, but it had no quotation marks and no citation. It was something like, "Sugar quoted [insert quote of your choice here]." Not even a comma to separate the lead-in from the quote. On top of his inability to quote, he had atrocious grammar. My 6th grade sister can probably construct better sentences. When he gave me his paper, I got right to work. I wrote all over it, and I know I didn't get all of the mistakes. After tearing his work to pieces, I gave him a detailed description of how to properly quote sources and walked him step-by-step through accessing the library's database so he could find sources. I only hope I helped a little. He certainly needed it. He didn't even get the name of the story right. It wasn't the story I was writing about, and in fact, it's probably my least favorite of all the ones we've read, but I still knew the title and fixed it for him. It's really kind of sad. How do people manage to make it through 13 years of school and at least a year of college and still not know how to write a simple paper? Our school system obviously has some very serious flaws.

Great News!

I have officially figured out how to use one of the millions of pre-made templates that can be found online. Unless you are completely blind, you can see this already. I'm not sure if I'm completely satisfied with this particular one, but it doesn't really matter because I know how now!!!

Turtle Kiss

I bought a bag of Goldfish Crackers today and was just about to open it up and munch on a few when I happened to glance at the back of the bag. On it there were a few pictures and these instructions: "What do you see? There's always more than one way to look at something. Seeing things in DIFFERENT ways can be HELPFUL when trying to solve problems. WHAT DO YOU SEE BELOW? The answer isn't always what it seems!" Below was the picture that I have placed above and to the right. According to the small, upside down print at the bottom of the bag, this can be two Goldfish Crackers, a dog with floppy ears, or two turtles kissing. I see the goldfish; the dog is a bit of a stretch because of the size of the cheeks, but I can see it; the turtles, on the other hand, are waaaaay too much of a stretch. I agree that they might be turtles. Legless, shell-less turtles that are really more like frogs, but that's not the point. There is no way on earth that said turtles are doing anything resembling a kiss. They look like snapping turtles that are trying to snap each others' heads off, or maybe they have the little hangy thing like turkeys. I don't know what it's called. They're not kissing though.

HOLD IT! I just had a breakthrough. The part of the turtle that I thought was a lower jaw might in fact be a leg. Now the turtles are no longer legless, and they sort of look like they might be kissing, but since when to turtles kiss anyway? And how is seeing turtles shaped like Goldfish Crackers going to help anyone solve any real problems? How do they come up with this stuff?

Haffle Wouse

I just (Well not exactly just because I played Rock Band for a while before I got on here.) got back from Waffle House, or as D.J. refers to it, Haffle Wouse. If you've never called it that, you definitely should because it's much more fun than the actual name, but I digress. We entered said restaurant around 6:45 (We would have gone sooner but the Cowboys game went into overtime. Sadly, they lost, but I digress again.) and spent 5 minutes trying to find a place to sit. It's not that the restaurant was crowded. In fact, we were the only people there but the tables that weren't completely covered with dirty dishes were soaking wet from being cleaned right before we got there. We finally settled on a wet table and had just gotten it mostly dried off with a handful of napkins snagged from another table when the waitress appeared out of nowhere and slapped a soaking wet towel down on the table and got it just as wet as it was before.

When the waitress came back to take our order, I told her what I wanted then told her again because she didn't hear. It went like this all around the table. Nothing like a waitress that doesn't pay attention. We got our food, bits at a time, but that's not really a surprise because they always give it to you in bits at Waffle House (or Haffle Wouse) but it seemed to take forever for the waffles to get there. This didn't really matter to me because I didn't get a waffle, but it's still part of the story. When the waffles did finally arrive, they came with no syrup and no butter. A few minutes of everyone just sitting there not eating their waffles went by before the waitress walked back by. By this time one of my friends had run out of Coke. She got the waitress's attention and asked for butter, syrup, and more Coke. The waitress muttered something unintelligible and wandered off. After messing around at the other end of the restaurant doing who knows what, she came back with syrup and butter, no Coke.

My friend, who likes syrup and had smothered her waffle with it, soon became desperate for more Coke, and understandably judging from the amount of syrup on her plate. Unfortunately for her, our waitress had apparently disappeared into a black hole because she was nowhere to be found. Eventually she got the attention of the sole cook, who was busy with a few other people that had come in by that time, and asked if she could get another drink. The kind cook obliged and my very grateful friend downed most of the drink in one gulp.

As we were eating, our wonderful waitress (Who had magically reappeared by this time.) only stopped by our table once to check on us. It normally annoys me when waitresses constantly check up on you while you're eating, but the one time she stopped by, she asked if she could take any of our plates (They always give you way too many plates at Waffle House and the tables are small and get cramped easily.). We said yes and indicated the plates she should take. She looked at us like we were idiots and walked off.

Once we had finally finished our meals, conserving our drinks because of our knowledge of how difficult it is to get a refill, we sat and waited for the waitress to bring the check. She never came. We sat until 8:00 (recall we arrived at 6:45 and were most likely done eating by 7:15) without the waitress so much as looking in our direction. Finally D.J. got up and and found her to ask her for the check. She brought it and looked annoyed that we had bothered her, even though she had left us mostly alone for over an hour. Between the 4 of us, we left $2 for a tip and got up to pay. I was first in line at the register but had to wait several minutes while she flopped her soaking wet towel down on some counter that didn't need cleaning, and took her time doing it, too. When she finally got to me, she once again gave me the annoyed look and halfway through swiping my card stopped to have a discussion about A-1 sauce with a random guy sitting near by. Waffle House doesn't even have A-1 sauce. According to my friends, she was even ruder to them than she was to me. Once of them even told her to have a good night and she stared like that was the most idiotic thing on the planet to say and remained silent.

And that is the story of my awful trip to Waffle House. It took forever to tell because I bought When Harry Met Sally the other day and decided to put it on. It keeps distracting me. I started typing this at the beginning of the movie and now Harry and Sally are aruging in the kitchen at Marie and Jess's wedding. And in the time it took to find a picture that I wanted, Sally is at the New Year's Eve party and Harry is catching up on his window shopping. If there was a job where you could make a living wasting time, I would be perfect for it.

Squash and Smithereens

I just got back from spending a long weekend at home, so I haven't been grocery shopping in a while. I wanted something to snack on, but the only thing in my fridge was the remnants of a bag of grapes I bought at some point either last week or the week before. Why is it that when you get down to the bottom of a bag of grapes, they're all squashy? I abhor all squashy foods, especially squashy grapes. When grapes are nice and firm, they are the best thing in the world. When they get even a little bit on the mushy side, they suddenly become quite the opposite. It is most depressing. Oh well...

I was reading in 2 Kings the other day and came across this verse: "The king smashed all the altars to smithereens—the altar on the roof shrine of Ahaz, the various altars the kings of Judah had made, the altars of Manasseh that littered the courtyard of The Temple—he smashed them all, pulverized the fragments, and scattered their dust in the Valley of Kidron." 2 Kings 23:12
I have heard the word smithereens all my life, but never thought it was an actual word. I figured it was just another one of those words that every one knows what it means, but no one knows where it came from because it's not a real word. However, it's printed in the Bible. I guess that means it's real.

Hello October

Fall officially starts in September, but it doesn't really feel like fall to me until October. It can be 90 degrees outside, but if I know it's October, somehow it still feels like fall. Today was a nice first day of October. It actually wasn't 90 degrees. Only like 77. That's still pretty warm to be considered fall, but any temperature that doesn't have me pouring sweat by the time I get to class is fine by me.

One thing that did mar my lovely October day was my ridiculous Mathematica project. I'm beginning to wish that the teacher that I was so happy with for giving me a second chance had just given me a low grade and let that be the end of it. I'm so tired of being cooped up in a computer lab for countless hours. Tomorrow will be the last day of it though. It has to be because the project is due (for the second time) on Friday. Then only one more project (he claims the second one is easier) and Mathematica will be a thing of my past. Hopefully...

As my partner and I were leaving the computer lab today, we passed by a friend of hers who was also working on a Mathematica project. We are in Honors Cal III and he is in regular Cal III. Our project involved animating 3D locks and shooting projectiles of off towers factoring in not one, but two gravitational pulls. His project involved making graphs of letters of the alphabet. He was on C as we were leaving. I think I want to puke. Why, oh why did I decide to use Cal III as my one honors class this year? Why could I not have done like I did last year and taken something like Honors Intro to Theater? We took like one test in there. It was on Hamlet, which I also read in high school. It had questions like, "What country does Hamlet take place in?" and "What is the name of Hamlet's girlfriend?" I hate my life! Just kidding.

On a lighter note, my Comp II class is cancelled tomorrow. On a darker (Can you use darker? Everone always just uses lighter.) note, I do not get to enjoy this at all because I will once again be in the computer lab burning brain cells by staring at a computer screen and getting absolutely nowhere. On another lighter note, I was planning on working on the project from 11:00 until 2:00 since my 12:30 class was cancelled, but instead I get to quit early. On another darker note, the reason I'm leaving early is because I have a French test at 2:00 that I'm probably going to fail if I don't leave early so I can go study. School is the pits. I'm ready for the weekend. Fall break, baby! Four blissful days of absolutely no school work...except for the fact that I have online physics and Cal III homework due. Fall break is the pits.

Rock Band...

...Is a must have for every person with any kind of game console that they make it for. Just so you know.

I bought it today (not exactly on a whim, but pretty close to it), and I must say it was totally worth however much it ended up costing. The only thing that stinks is I don't personally own a game console, so I had to buy it for D.J.'s Xbox360. However, I have been promised the Xbox over Christmas break since he has another one at home. In the meantime, I'll just pester him to death by never leaving his room.

Tag! You're It!

Tagged by my mom.

* Grab the nearest book.
* Open the book to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post the text of the next two to five sentences in your blog along with these instructions.
* Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.
* Tag five other people to do the same.

"Why do we turn to literature, if not for arguments that tell us how to live? What does a work of literature offer us? Consider this comment by Salman Rushdie: 'The liveliness of literature lies in its exceptionality, in being the individual, idiosyncratic vision of one human being in which, to our delight and great surprise, we may find our own vision reflected.'"

It was actually a tie for closest book and the other book had a boring sentence, so I used this one. It's from one of my text books: Literature for Composition. The fact that it's close makes it sound like I'm a good student that actually reads my text books. Don't be misled.

Also, I'm cheating because I don't know anyone on here (other than Mrs. Jones) that hasn't been tagged already, so if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged.

Tiger Bait

I got back from Baton Rouge yesterday afternoon where I spent the weekend with some friends at LSU. We drove down to go watch our team lose to the tigers. We knew we were going to lose. It's inevitable. It's still fun to go to the games though, and it was nice to see some people I haven't seen in a while. I did take a picture of the scoreboard the one time we were ahead. It was not even two minutes into the first quarter and we promptly lost that lead as soon as LSU got the ball. Oh well...

Our tickets (due to one LSU friend waiting until the last minute to look for better ones) were in the nosebleed section. It is adequately named because on our way off campus, D.J. got an awful nosebleed. Naturally there was no Kleenex or anything resembling Kleenex in the car so he had to just pinch his nose and hope it stopped. He made me take pictures so he could pretend he got in a fight (guys are so weird). I'd put them on here, but they're pretty gory.

Before the game started, we had to walk to the library with our LSU hosts so they could print out their tickets. On the way there, we had to walk along a sidewalk that was lined on either side with tailgaters. We were assaulted on both sides with screams of "Tiger bait!" so we were glad when we finally made it into the library. However, it provided no relief. Immediately upon entering, we walked past a line of computers. One of the users turned around and whispered (we were in the library afterall), "Tiger bait." He then proceeded to follow us to a different part of the library and ask us, none too politely, what on earth we were doing in the library because we really didn't have an excuse. I mean, we couldn't possibly be studying. Our friends came to the rescue (the stalker hadn't realized they were there) and explained that we were with them. The guy walked off sheepishly. While I didn't really mind his curiosity, what kind of a person follows someone through the library just to find out what they're doing? For all he knew, we could be LSU students that just happen to be State fans. Or we could be hot. The library is air conditioned. Or we could be with friends (which we were). He had no business telling us that we had no business being where we were. The nerve of some people!

Anyway, I have good news. We got our math projects (the one from the previous post) back today. My partner and I got full credit on the spherical lock problem, even though I know we didn't do it completely right. You couldn't tell from the print out of the graph though, and apparently the teacher didn't look closely at the commands we typed in. Also, on the problem about launching projectiles from a tower on a hill, we were completely off, but instead of giving us no credit, he walked us through the problem, emailed a version of the walk through to us, and is giving us until Friday to rework it. What did I tell you about his grading technique? I love this teacher!

Brain Aches

I just spent the majority of my day sitting in front of a computer screen trying to do a math project on an absolutely ridiculous program known as Mathematica. Actually, the program itself is pretty cool, but neither my partner nor I really knew what on Earth we were doing. We were given a packet of problems to work and basically set loose to work them how we pleased. The first several problems were pretty straight forward, but the second to last was just a series of 3D graphs of what they called a spherical lock. Basically it was two domes that we had to animate to close simultaneously, one right outside the other. No numbers or anything. We were just given the pictures and told to replicate them. We looked up the equation for a sphere (hooray for Wikipedia!) and then cut the intervals in half to make our domes. Now the problem was how to animate them. We tried about a million different things until suddenly I stumbled upon a way to combine 4 different half domes to get the 2 domes we needed. The only problem was, they didn't combine into 2 domes until halfway through the animation. To make it look like we had it right all along, we just changed the animation so it would start in the middle and go to the end, so no one ever has to know that we didn't really do it right. Our teacher will probably realize this, but he's more of a set you free then when you inevitably do it wrong, he'll just explain it and give you an A for effort kind of teacher.

The problem after the lock problem was all about launching projectiles off of a tower on a hill, and I won't even get into that. We stared at it until we got kicked out of the computer lab in the math building because they were closing. We relocated to the library and stared at it some more. Finally, we made up some stuff that seemed at least halfway right and called it a day. We have one more Mathematica project this semester. I am looking forward to the future when Mathematica will be a thing of my past.

P.S. I was trying to find a picture similar to the spherical lock we were animating to give you a better idea of what we were doing, but instead of locks coming up in Google images when I typed in spherical lock, this picture came up instead. Go figure.

P.P.S. What were they thinking?

P.P.P.S. I wonder how much that cost...

A Cowbell for Colin

Colin Powell was at State tonight to speak in a leadership conference. Some friends of mine were going to get bonus points for a class, so I decided I would go as well. I mean, how many times in your life do you get to see Colin Powell in person? (I suppose if you're the president or a foreign diplomat or his wife that answer would be a lot, but forget about all those people.) Before he began his speech our interim president stepped up to the podium and said (in the most southern southern drawl I've ever heard), "How many of y'all out there are Bulldawgs?" I don't suppose I've ever actually seen this guy before, but he is a perfect president for our school. He could be an actual bulldog. If Mississippi State was Hogwarts, he would be an Animagus, and his animal would be a bulldog. If you don't believe me, just look at him. He even has a slightly bulldogish name: Vance.

After our Animagus president spoke, Sylvester spoke, and then it was time for the man of the hour: General Colin L. Powell, himself. I was afraid that he was going to be a little dull, and the most I would get out of it would be the ability to say I'd seen him in person. I was completely wrong. He's a pretty funny guy. He said the thing he misses most about being Secretary of State is the jet. Shortly after he retired, he had to fly somewhere, so a friend had to talk him through how normal people get plane tickets. You have to park your car in the garage, walk to the airport, buy your ticket and then go find the correct terminal. They do not roll out a red carpet for ordinary people. Once he had his instructions, he said he followed them very carefully, only he made three mistakes: he was running late, he paid in cash, and he had no luggage. He very shortly found himself surrounded by security personnel doing a very thorough job of searching every inch of him. He said he was bewildered and slightly annoyed until he realized that he had helped put those procedures in place.

I had no idea that Colin Powell is as old as he is. He is 71. He doesn't look it at all. According to Time magazine he is one of the top 5 gracefully aging men. He's actually number two, right in front of Robert Redford. I didn't think Robert Redford was aging that gracefully (I mean have you seen his skin? It looks like it's made from leather that came off of someone's very well worn cowboy boots.), so I don't know if it's a compliment to be only one in front of him, but anyway, the point was Colin Powell doesn't seem like a 71 year old. He recently bought a Corvette and says he recommends them to everyone. The police in his town were not that happy with his decision, but he enjoys every minute of it.

Now I don't want to give the wrong impression. The conference wasn't all fun and games. We really learned a lot. For instance, I bet you didn't know that the prime minister of Japan is an Elvis fan, did you? He is also a big fan of the New York Yankees.

After Mr. Powell was done speaking, Vance the Bulldog came back up to the podium and presented him with his very own engraved cowbell, which he proceeded to ring, although you couldn't hear it over the whistles and screams from the crowd. Hooray for Colin Powell and Bulldawgs everywhere!

P.S. I figured I'd leave you with one last picture (now that I know how). Colin Powell isn't the only famous MSU cowbell ringer. Apparently William Wallace/Mel Gibson has one too!

World Domination

I recently bought the game Risk for my dad as a birthday present. I'd never actually sat down and played a full game before. I'd just always assumed I wouldn't like it. I was wrong. We played the night my dad opened the game, and I lost, but I fell in love...with taking over the world. I bought my own copy of the game yesterday and have since succeeded in getting my little group hooked.

I sometimes wonder if I'm missing out on college experiences because I don't go to all the parties, concerts, and clubs, but I really don't think I am. Most people when looking back at school can only reminisce the good old days of getting drunk at every sporting event. I can look back and smile at how many times I controlled the Western Hemisphere or took over Asia and all the strategy discussions between games. Who cares if I'm not a sorority sister with 20 dates? I have achieved world domination.

I Forget...

Have you ever thought of a great idea for a blog post (I mean a blow-your-mind-knock-your-socks-off-absolutely-amazing blog post) and by the time you sat down at your computer to type it out, you'd forgotten what your super awesome idea was? I have.

Shortcomings

I have decided that computer programming is not my thing.  One would think that when one downloads a template to use on one's blog that all one would have to do is copy and paste into one's edit html tab.  Not so.  The problem is I have no clue what is required so unless I have a breakthrough and become suddenly fluent in html or xml or whatever it is, my blog will be forced to keep its current template.  This would not be so bad except now that I know there is a whole world of amazing templates out there that are off limits to me simply because of my technology shortcomings, I know I will not be satisfied.  Oh to be a tech nerd!

Titling

My mom and best friend have fairly recently gotten into the whole blogging thing and have been trying to get me to join in for a while. I may be just now starting to post, but I have a confession to make: I have had a profile on here for quite some time, I just never could come up with a good name. I kept putting off creating the actual blog because I didn't want to just type in some dumb name that I'd eventually either be embarrassed by or get tired of. I wanted it to be catchy, clever, and memorable. As you can see, I gave up.