Closing Down

Well, tomorrow's my one-year anniversary of blogging, and it all started here. (Admittedly I was going to call it "Glowing Ember," but times change.)

Anyway, come tomorrow I won't be posting here. I'm dropping this blog and posting exclusively to my LiveJournal. This is for a variety of reasons, some of which are readily apparent, some not so much.

Human readers (if any) of this page and/or feed should be able to find my LJ fairly easily from this page, so I won't post a link in this entry and fall prey to the roaming ad-scum of cyberspace. My LJ also has newsfeeds which can be easily found. If you use Firefox, look in the lower-right corner in the status bar. There's a newsfeed thing. I'll post links on my LJ too, after I do some long-due rearranging.

It's been great, more or less, and I hope it continues to be so. "See" you around!

Enlightenment DR17

Well, here it is, the promised Enlightenment DR17 desktop screenshot.

The thing on the right is GKrellM, not a part of Enlightenment, but it's a cool system monitor nevertheless. (Even checks my mail!)

In the lower left is my desktop switcher. You can see I was running Firefox in one of the desktops when I took this. To the right of that is my dock-type thing, called the IBar.

The thermometer in the right-hand corner reports the processor temperature (weather is in the lower left area).

The shadowed thing just above the IBar is an RSS reader, although it's not entirely functional. I wish I could selectively remove the drop shadow from it, but I can't. I have to use a fake transparency hack for it as well, but it's still cool.

The thing above it is the menu. I got it by just left-clicking on the desktop. It allows me to enable and configure things on the desktop, lanuch applications, etc.

Oh yes, and a nice clock in the upper right.

Well, hope you liked it. I'm definitely looking forward to an official stable release.

Shaky

Sorry for the spam, just a quick note after last night. As I mentioned earlier, I went and visited the library.

K.C. was there, although she was rather busy so we didn't talk too much. I...I made the mistake of bringing up the topic of the aforementioned away message. Now, I knew how I should've presented it to her, but for some reason I botched it up pretty badly and she asked which of the possibilities was real, but I...I couldn't tell her the truth.

I left shortly after that, partly because the conversation seemed to have died (and she had work to do anyway), also because it's hard to study Hebrew when the page seems to waver. (Yes, it was late for me.)

Whipped myself into a pretty strong emotional turmoil (which was also why I left), although the night and the hour might have had a part in that. I know I was a real internal mess by the time I got back to the dorm. I've got something scribbled on my notepad here, I think maybe it was meant to be an away message or something? "LIAR! you couldn't say it COULDN'T SAY IT! spun some sugary falsehood FILTH! gutless worthless NOTHING you walk the path of the DEAD in the REALM OF THE LIVING vanish VANISH as if you never were GONE where are they now NOW?" Obviously I was kinda messed up.

I think I got a better grip, now. Didn't realize I'd mess myself up so much. Still kinda shaky, but I think I'm more or less okay now.

Right. Medication time.

Edit: I'm turning off comments on this entry because I've gotten like 5 spam messages in five minutes. Any human with a relevant comment can find me again with a minimum of effort. Look at the page carefully, or search.

Thinking about Her

Well, pretty normal day today. Greek first thing in the morning, obviously. We had a quiz over the alphabet and the like. I think I did okay. Then it was off to CS 257 where we were assigned another project, seeing as how the current one is due tonight at midnight.

Speaking of the current project, apparently one of the guys in my group worked out the bugs, although I broke it briefly before he fixed it again. So I added the documentation and dumped it to my account, where hopefully the professor's script will gather it. (That reminds me, I should probably e-mail him a copy like he requested.)

After CS 257 I went back to the dorm and worked on the code a bit as I mentioned above. In the middle of that, Clark (the guy who fixed it) IMs me on—get this—my "lingapp" AIM screenname. He says he saw on a webpage somewhere that it was me, but he couldn't remember where. I couldn't find anything with Google, so I'll have to keep an eye out. Anyway, he was responding to the away message that I've had for a couple days now. ("Funny thing life, huh? You don't DARE tell her how you feel about her, but you can't live with yourself if you don't. Do you wait and hope she says something, or what?") It was, of course, in reference to K.C., although he didn't know that (unless he's been reading this blog, of course). Anyway, he was of the opinion that I should just tell her, at which point I asked how he can morally justify such a traumatization. He's still chewing on that one. Of course, I could always point out that (a) I don't have the requisite social skills, (b) I could be observing someone else's relationship, and (c) I'm trying to poke hints at K.C. (It's (c) by the way, although (a) is very much true also.)

After all that it was time for CC class, which was uneventful. Went to lunch with Jeff after that, where we complained about clueless computer users and whatnot. Then I went back to the dorm intending to work on some of my homework, but I wound up talking with my roommate a lot; just a couple of things about how I wouldn't like it if he had his girlfriend room here for the weekend like last year and whatnot. He seems better than last year's roommate. We also talked about bits of high school.

Around suppertime I remembered that, it being Tuesday, I had to upload this week's first comic, which I did. I have a story worked out for the next one I need to draw, but I only got one frame done before going to the CC picnic. That's mostly to welcome new freshmen to Christ College, thought they'll serve any CC student. Free food is good, obviously. Thought maybe I'd see K.C. there, but I realized rather quickly that I was just being social deadwood and escaped/left after half an hour.

Worked on the first panel of comic 11 after I got back, then took my medication at 7:00. After that headed to the library and studied Hebrew like there's no tomorrow, hoping to catch K.C. No luck, though. Either she's working evenings later than I expect, or I misunderstood the days of the week (or both). Then back here.

Um...y'know what, I'm gonna go try the library one more time, just for kicks and giggles. But for now, g'night.

Got a Job

Whee, busy day. Also Murphy's Monday. I had a horribly runny nose most of the day, probably because they were cutting the grass...although it could have been any one of a myriad of things.

Anyway, Greek this morning where he once again forgot to ask us for our schedules. This was followed by CS 257, also rather uneventful.

After a brief break where I poked around at some systems stuff, I attended CS 365 with an incredibly runny nose. Talked to Professor Glass about the job he'd mentioned working to help set up the new computer lab upstairs in Gellersen. Turns out I was supposed to apply as as a Teaching Assistant, and the deadline was Friday. Oops. He went off to see about it with the department head while I went to lunch.

Came back from lunch about 1:15 and found a summons to the math/CS office. Filled out the paperwork there, then high-tailed it over to Kretzmann. Got to the Kretzmann human resources office and realized I'd need some bank account info. The paper on the door said that my bank account statements would work, so I went back to Wehrenberg to get them, then went back to Kretzmann. Turned out, though, that I needed to have a voided check specifically, so after filling out the paperwork it was back to 'Berg again, then back to Kretzmann, then back to 'Berg.

After that it was over to Mueller to meet with Professor Olmsted. Got my research paper back from last May (also K.C.'s, gotta get that to her), plus talked with him about dropping Christ College. Then back to the dorm to shower before going to supper, then heading to the meeting with my CS group.

We made some progress on the CS assignment. That is to say, it evaluates any expression without parentheses; basically, with the +, -, *, /, and ^ symbols (add, subtract, multiply, divide, and exponent respectively). We also added a "spork" operator which does the same thing as multiply, just because we wanted to. Having a lot of trouble with processing the parentheses, though.

After that I went over to the library for a bit to study Hebrew, then back here. And I'm dead beat; Greek tomorrow. G'night.

Mundane and Arcane

Not much to report today. First off was church, obviously, at 8:30. I got there a little earlier than I usually did, because I didn't have far to walk. Unfortunately I didn't realize that there was going to be a baptism, which was at the back end of the main chapel, but one of the...um...acolytes or whoever told me. Anyway, went back and was present as three little ones from the same family (two of them twins) were baptized. The rest of the service was more or less normal.

Late this afternoon I worked on the CS project with the other two guys in my group. Gellersen was locked, so we both came up to my dorm and worked on it from here. It isn't functional, unfortunately, but we're closer.

I was able to eat supper with all the guys tonight, though I arrived a little late on account of the group project. Mostly technical talk and discussion about EIS and campus network philosophy. Very mundane and arcane, don't ask.

Most of the rest of the day I played RuneScape. I got my attack, strength, and defense up to 51, 50, and 50 respectively. I also got my crafting up to 34, so I was finally able to cut that ruby in my bank account. Also made a few amulets, some of which I enchanted and some of which I sold to the jeweler for a tidy sum.

I also got my prayer level up to 43, finally! Now I can use "protect from melee!" Woohoo! I'm also sick of hill giants at this point.

Oh yes, and the Fedora Core 4 Enlightenment RPMs were updated today, so I went and downloaded them and installed them. Haven't noticed any differences yet, aside from the menu generator (not that I'd expected much).

Anyway, bedtime for me. Got Greek and my two CS classes tomorrow, plus a CS project to work on. G'night.

Comic Talk

Well, interesting day today.

First off, I did my laundry this morning while almost everyone else was still asleep. The machines were different, but not very difficult to operate. I read the reading assignment for CC 205 while in there. After I put my laundry away I took my trash down to the dumpster; oddly, there doesn't seem to be any provision for bottle recycling, just boxes.

Spent the rest of the morning playing RuneScape. I got my crafting level up to 32, but then it got too crowded to mine silver. So I went and beat up on some hill giants instead. Also did that a bit this evening. Worked through a goodly portion of my remaining tuna (I'm down to seven now), getting my hitpoints up to 52, my attack up to 50, and my defense up to 49. Also got my prayer up to level 42...one level away from being able to use "protect from melee."

I posted another Outpost comic around suppertime. I think I can afford to go twice a week with those, so this was the first week I did so. Tuesday and Saturday, which I think will be my schedule from now on, barring the unexpected. I intended to work out another one this afternoon, but I got distracted reading GPF Comics and wound up doing it early this evening. I shouldn't be in too much trouble if I can at least draw a comic the same day I post one, even if I'm drawing a little ahead of what's been released.

Anyway, drew the tenth strip today, which I think is second-to-last of the storyline that just got started (the galactic holoprojector). Also finally figured out a way to draw a decent-looking galaxy, though it's still difficult and mediocre-looking. At least I can do shapes now, though.

Anyway, church tomorrow. I also need to print out a copy of my schedule for my Greek teacher. G'night.

Today was a Big

Well, fun day today.

First off was Greek, of course. We learned about accent and breathing marks. I'm not quite sure why there are three marks (acute, grave, and circumflex) to indicate the same thing (stress this syllable), but there are. Breathing marks are more like indicators of the "h" sound. "Hear" as opposed to "ear," for instance. They'd be spelled the same way, but in Greek there'd be a breathing mark over the "e" to make it "hear" instead of "ear."

In CS 257 Professor Hume added a bit to the assignment program. I have to meet with the other two guys in my group on Sunday afternoon at 3:00 to work on it. We have to handle exponents and parentheses now.

In CS 365 we discussed transformation matrices for scaling, rotating, and shearing about the origin. That was rather interesting, though I need to refresh my memory on matrix multiplication.

This afternoon I went to the bookstore and bought a fourth CD clam, so now I can store Fedora in the CD clams. (Before I'd only had three, which worked for the 3-disk Mandrake, but not for the 4-disk Fedora.) I also played RuneScape a bit, working my range level up to 30 and eating some of the tuna out of my bank. Also got an uncut ruby, but can't cut it yet, so next project is to gain another four levels of crafting.

Speaking of levels, you can see mine here. That'll work for anybody, just take "Ahnotahm" out of the URL and replace it with a different player's name. Granted, it only works if you're listed in the high score for that category (which requires at least level 30), but there it is. And with that, I think all my free-player levels are at 30 or above. Also got teleported to the maze at one point, and found in a chest a two-dose potion of strength. I didn't even know that free players could get those.

Oh yes, much coolness today in the software area. I'd had Xine for a few days because its libraries were required by something else. Today, however, I downloaded some codecs for proprietary formats like WMV (Windows Media Video or some such), MOV (QuickTime), and others like commercial DVDs. I don't need to convert junk to Bink anymore! Much awesomeness! I sat and watched a bit of I, Robot simply because I could. Also reviewed a lot of clips from my D'ni folder and whatnot (including Sehv Tsahno and Ilathid trailers).

Talked with K.C. a bit today, after we arranged a bit of time to meet together face-to-face via IM. Sat in the library foyer this evening and talked. I asked her advice on whether or not to drop Christ College, when factoring in the social aspects. Certainly gave me a lot to think about.

I'll need to talk with Professors Olmsted and Huelin too, at least. Professor Olmsted I think will be able to offer some guidance, and I expect Professor Huelin will try to talk me into staying, something I'll have to face if/when I officially drop it. Won't be until the end of the term at least, though.

Anyway, bedtime for me. I have to get up early tomorrow and do my laundry, as we have a smaller laundromat here (one on each floor), and the machines were all occupied this evening (except the busted one). I should also probably get around to posting that screenshot of Enlightenment I mentioned.

Okay, g'night.

Lord of the Keys

Well, busy day today.

First thing off was Greek at 8:00 AM again. We went over the alphabet in class, which was really easy for me because I already know it. Our homework was to learn the letter names and sounds and to practice writing the letters. I was done in like three minutes. It was interesting to learn where I'd been right and wrong about the types of sounds the letters make. For example, Zeta (like a capital Z) actually makes a "dz" sound like in "adze." I'd always thought it was just a "z" sound. Also, upsilon makes an "oo" type sound (or u-with-uumlauts from German), not "uh" like I'd previously assumed. ("Oop-silon," not "Up-silon")

After Greek it was back to the dorm for a bit, then CC class where we discussed Plato(n)'s Republic. That was actually an easier text to read than Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics, which was accumulated lecture notes rather than a finished text. Still not doing too well with that kind of stuff, though.

I suppose I'd better say it. I'm thinking of dropping Christ College. I don't think I belong there academically. But...I don't know. I'm planning to discuss it with a few people, then (if I decide to) drop it at the end of the semester, my usual quiet vanishing trick.

I didn't mention it yesterday because it slipped my mind, but we've got a new card-swipe lock at the bottom of the main stairwell now in Wehrenberg. So, a recap: one key for the room door, one key for the outside and stairwell doors, one key for the mailbox (which doesn't work), one key for I-don't-know-what (probably the elevator), and now a card swipe.

One key for the main-door under the sky,
One for the stairwell in the halls of stone,
One for the mailbox doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Berg of Wehren where the Shadows lie.
One Key to open all, One Key to find them,
One Ring to hold them all and in the darkness bind them.
In the Berg of Wehren where the Shadows lie.

[overly cheery voice] Welcome to Wehrenberg State Penitentiary, formerly Wehrenberg Residential Hall for upperclassmen and lucky, scamming sophomores. Please remember that the locks engage precisely at 7:00 PM and are there for your protection. Enjoy your visit, and have a nice day!

Anyway, that was random.

CC Symposium this evening, which was just a welcome and introduction type thingy by Dean Piehl. (I swear that guy never stops smiling; he just changes its intensity. It's creepy.) Symposium is required for all non-freshmen in CC. After that all four Word and Image (CC 205) classes met for a plenary session. (That was mostly sophomores.) I had to take my medication along and take it in the middle of Dean Piehl's speech; luckily I was in the back.

Oh, and early this morning I got a script set up that queries the wallpaper currently being used by Enlightenment, then sets the root background to a similar image file in order to perform the fake-transparency trick used by Eterm and Erss. Tomorrow I should probably expand it so it can generate the appropriate image file if it isn't already there. (Or maybe I could just make it do that all the time? Hmm...)

Anyway, bedtime for me. G'night.