campus roll

i just woke up from a crazy dream in which most of the real content online had been practically obliterated by seos and shameless marketing / sales departments.
in the end, i broke down and attempted to get something published, but wasn't prepared to play the game and so lost my voice

[written after my earlier nap, not now :P]

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another two days down. this living and surviving thing's a bit rough.

on arriving at the security check for the university, the guard and i had a little misunderstanding: he was expressing genuine interest by exclaiming that this was something he'd never seen before, and i mistook his words ("this is something i haven't allowed in") to mean that he wasn't planning on giving me entry.

boy, did i feel silly when my breathless defense of inline skating was received with confusion and an explanation. nice guy, pity he picked the non-native speaker to converse with...

as is sadly normal for most forms of exercise, i only really began to sweat once i'd stopped. it was a beautiful morning and i had some time, so i could sit in the shade behind the arts building sipping water until i felt less offensive.

our first class was in a classic, enormous lecture theatre. i parked my blades on the other side of the steps from my person - the seats themselves don't have enough room for blades and bags - and they attracted a fair amount of *blush* praise. i was surprised that in general they received such a lot of positive response... the weekly groups have turned them into a normal mode of transportation and i'm not so weird anymore (my first degree was filled with "what the hell are you doing on wheels?!").
we're progressing :)

that first class was terrifying. i've been informed since that it's not as bad as it sounds, but the explanation of what's expected of us for our midterm brought me mentally to my knees - i can't remember all the names and authors and interesting info on every piece we've studied... can i? to the extent that i can be given an extract from anything and asked on it and its history? why do i feel overwhelmed? it's not like i've had to "skim" anything due to time constraints...

on a more mundane note: the cold got to me, even in such a large theatre. and apparently not to anybody else. i wonder if that was the flu shot getting to work?

i finally got a student kiosk to work for me - not without bringing one of the administrators to stand and watch it fail, as it had at the previous attempt. it's like bug-hunting - everything works perfectly until there's a witness :/

i took my usual lunch hunched over my netbook; reading a poem about niagara had me hurriedly churning out a response. i'm beginning to put together a collection of mad ramblings that highly amuse me - to the point where i'm considering opening up a sister blog to include all the stuff i've published here and all these other strange things...

niagara
his crashing majesty
with high mists and sunny disposition
i cannot tear my eyes away
watching the ferries
in and out
dry, then drenched
i cannot tear my eyes away
because they'll fall
on the ugliness
that's grown up behind me

i introduced our class of disbelievers to panic ensemble (sadly, only the cover and lyrics) and our professor to memetics - an interesting debate over the difference between memes and "discourse" ensued. the philosophy student who's joined us turned out to be a software consultant, so i took the card he offered when i told him what i've done (and asked if he could help out)...

i walked downstairs to the chocolate vending machine, then back upstairs for coffee and to pick up my blades which i'd forgotten. not having single shekel coins makes me purchase stuff i don't need in order to get cheap coffee... and it's still cheaper than buying coffee anywhere else :P

we studied emily dickenson - i don't know why i thought of doing it, but much madness still makes a sort of sense if you take the initial words of each row to make a first row, then the second words of each row to make a second, etc.

after meeting with spider to discuss programming technique and a decidedly intriguing possibility of spending a year at CERN (naaah, i probably won't), i went to upgrade my phone.

i now possess an iphone (3G) and a sense of having betrayed a faithful digital buddy. not unlike my last upgrade. only this one comes with a painful point - the camera's not as good.

getting used to the iphone is going to take a while.

blading to work seemed a bit dangerous. i happened past a young lad (teenager) and his friend, who felt it imperative to shout his proficiency with a fair number of musical instruments at me.
no, i don't understand it either.

i spent a couple of hours at work, and then returned home enjoying a smooth, traffic-free run. after a quick shower i went to pg's, and when she went to bed i returned home to play with my iphone and install an antivirus.

i could've just slept.

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i arrived precisely on time for the interview today - pre-breakfast? i shouldn't have made my usual comment about "inhuman" hours, because the team leader who interviewed me is apparently more comfortable getting in to work before 8am...

the interview was great! it was comfortable. i'm interested in the product and in its challenges. i'm amused by the solution to the problem thrown at me - even though i felt like she was leading me she told me she's never heard of a solution quite like it... i don't know if that was a standard answer, or even a positive one.

[a supermarket with X products wants to know which combination of any two products appears in the most receipts. if we create an array of X integers, one for each product, then every type of receipt (we don't care about quantities) can be assigned a number from 1 to 2^X.
we can then sum up all the columns with each pair of products by using a mask.

the solution kind of presented itself, i wasn't really actively solving anything :P]

everything was "great!" right until the final moments. then something got dark. awkward, not so friendly. i hope it's not burned, it really sounds like a fantastic environment to work in!

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i returned to cafesito to sit and play with my iphone, installing apps while enjoying their breakfast. i feel sorry for coffeeholic - i did want a beef parisian, but i didn't want to sit there. it's just not as friendly. as it were, even while playing unsociably i was offered the use of someone's "basic french" books :)

i was annoyed with the pdflite app - i wasn't prepared to pay to view pdf files. now i understand that ibooks can handle them, but only if i've transferred them from my pc... oh, well.

hyperviper informs me that noddie just got married - the great weirdness prevents me from sending him congratulations. it may not have anything to do with me, but i can't respect someone who can do that to his best friend.

i spent the afternoon context switching - moving from issue to issue and trying to stay focused. by the end of the day things were much clearer, though, and i think it counts as fairly productive.

the marvel comics app is cool. their free content - not so much. i don't really have time for that right now anyway :P

my insurance company's lack of professionalism worries me. this is the second time they've contacted me to make sure that they have the correct contact information, and their rep was with me two weeks ago... wtf?!

speaking of professionalism, our QA team leader's lack of responsiveness is not heartening. much like our tech team, i feel like we're playing for different teams :(

on my way home, one of emily dickinson's poems struck home:
every now and again, i fall into the trap that everybody else keeps falling into - by forgetting... that i am everybody else

i took a strangely familiar nap, began posting and made my first kindle purchase, then joined pg and her mum and bladed to the group. the course was really good tonight, i feel exercised and i enjoyed the time spent chatting and debating (primarily with pg). we finished the evening with ice-creams, lending a certain prophetic edge to a poem i once wrote...

Temptress

Carnal Pleasure
True Beauty
Seductiveness
Sincerity
Chocolate Drips
From Tender Lips
Softly Kissing Mine

i've now spent far too long playing with my iphone and windows installation instead of studying. this is ridiculous - i have tons of freud to go over, and i'm not overly fond of him. (that being said, i do respect him for the monstrous quantity of important contributions)

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there really isn't.
also - it's unhealthy, be aware that the vegan propaganda is not 100% accurate. [meta-link]
also - not consuming animals isn't making farmers treat them better. find a better way to help the animals, and not just your ego.

finally - i have a couple more words to add:
naytheist
phallusophy
(please vote for them if you appreciate them)