Checksum Arcanius

I skipped out of work early today after Dan Marsh called to inform me he had an extra ticket to a French Comedy movie at the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF). Since SIFF started during the end of spring quarter and finals, I never got my act together to get tickets, so this was my first movie of the festival. Dan told me that he had heard good things about the movie, and since I thoroughly enjoyed the last French comedy I saw, I thought I would give this one a shot.

As it turns out, what Dan had heard was right — the movie, OSS 117: Cairo – Nest of Spies, a spoof of a Jame Bond-esque spy series, was a great deal of fun. As an extra treat, the director and the beautiful lead actress, Berenice Bejo, showed up as well. Their english was not excellent, but it was good enough and, well, she didn’t need to speak much if you know what I mean :-D.

This gets a solid 4.0 on the Ryan Rating, and is deservedly reccomended.

After a lazy morning wake up and watching some soccer, housemates Adrien, Kunlun, and I went out for a Sunday bike ride. We headed down to the Burke-Gilman Trail, which we took to Gasworks Park, only two miles away (and mostly downhill at that). There, I ate a peanut butter sandwich and some chips with salsa. After enjoying the view for a while longer, we decided to head into Ballard and ended up at the Ballard locks. It has been quite a long time since I was last there, and it was a lot of fun to see them in action again.

After the locks, we headed back, then jumped in Kunlun’s car to hit up the food and fine women at an open house potluck for the graduating Patricia, a family friend. After a good time was had by all, we headed to my parent’s place for a walk and chilling out before arriving back here. In all, it was quite a good amount of biking with lots of good food and a few fine women.

Met up with Shai tonight (and missed Brian, but saw Dan) to watch Pixar’s latest offering, Cars. I laughed, I (almost) cried, and I enjoyed myself thoroughly while leaning back into some of the finest movie theater chairs ever created at Bellevue’s Lincoln Square Cinemas. While Cars was not as deeply layered as The Incredibles, the movie still really worked for me. Definitely the best I’ve seen in a while.

In thanks for lending her my camera for the duration of her Photography class, Maria took me to Cirque du Soleil‘s Varekai Friday night. The show was great — but I couldn’t help but feel that it wasn’t quite up to the standard that I’m used to from the other Cirque performances I have attended. The juggling, while innovative, was mistake-ridden. The stunts, while impressive, were not spetacular. The music, while powerful, was not breathtaking. Nevertheless, I did enjoy myself, and would watch it again if anyone else wants to borrow my camera… :-) Thanks Maria!

This morning, I walked out of the CSE 341 final a little bit early. I was done. Free. It was strangely devoid of the giddiness I was expecting. I suspect that the fires of freedom were tempered by another sub par performance in too many of my classes.

On the other hand, I did finish strong — among others receiving the same grade as me in my Statistics class, I had the highest final score, by far (and, accordingly the lowest homework score). Those who got the same grade as me on the final earned grades ranging from a high of 3.9 to a low of 2.4 (me). What a difference a little bit of homework can make.

I am not one to decry the grading system. While I did not find this professor’s lectures partcularly useful, nor did I find the book a particularly good reference, grades still ultimately are very good measures of a student’s ability and willingness to conform to the system imposed by various teachers — and thereby are a very good indication of a student’s versatility, as well as decent measures of a student’s dedication and intelligence. I am not about to believe that I lack the ability, so it must be the willingness. This is something that I will work on. Mark these words.

Another boyfriend.

All was going well on the Bioengineering midterm this morning until another page showed up, half way thorugh the test. Literally. Among our three teachers, one of them had missed a page, which for me happened to be the hardest. I didn’t quite finish that last page, but the rest I feel pretty good about. with it out of the way, all that stands between me and freedom (for a week) is one more 8:30 am Final; this one on ML, Scheme, and Squeak. Then I get to go back to work. Yay.