Checksum Arcanius

Via Carrotlife, go check out my Johari Window — a reflection of what I think of myself versus what others think of me.

Once You Go Brown…

Welcome to the club, Manizzle!!!

Yup… it was Courtney’s birthday, so after dinner at Wild Ginger in downtown Seattle, and a brief hiatus for the girls to sleep and for me to design a robot with Dan, I headed back to Courtney’s where I met up with Nick (Courtney’s boyfriend), Ann (whom I’ve mentioned before), and of course Courtney. After wandering around Seattle for a while, we ended up at Belltown Billiards, where there were indeed billiards, though we never got closer than about 25 feet from the tables. Instead, my three companions got some alcohol and I got a cranberry juice (courtesy of Courtney — what a babe). After sipping and chatting (aka yelling in each other’s ears) for a while, we decided to hit the dance floor. I’m not a big fan of dancing usually, but I decided I wouldn’t let that stop me from having a good time. Sure enough I ended up enjoying it even if I never took my eye off of sportscenter for more than a few minutes at a time (which time was mostly spent making funny faces at Courtney or checking out the other girls there). Not that I’m itching to go again right away, but it certainly wasn’t a wasted $5 cover either.

Woke up late after talking long into the night with Scott Marsh about Mag Lev trains. Next, I wandered off to work for several hours as there is a test currently going on that I am monitoring. After finishing up, I made contact with Scott Torborg and Courtney. I dropped off Courtney’s Christmas gift (finally) and ate a little bit at Thai Ginger in Factoria with her group, which included her boyfriend, Ann, and another friend (an attractive vegetarian Indian girl). I guess I have to hang out with Courtney more often, as the food was good and the company too. After this, I returned home, got stuff ready, and then met Torborg at the Marshes, where we ate good food and had good times.

Eventually, Jonathan arrived and we headed to Seattle where we met with Beth and a friend of hers, Shai, Greg, and Katie and Mike. Beth, Shai, Greg and I took off just before midnight to watch the fireworks off of the Space Needle, which was fun. We then stayed up late having a pretty good time. I then returned home to see a new (loaner) TV, so I ha to watch a movie, which ended up being the always enjoying Pirates of the Caribbean. Then it was now. I think instead of sleep I’ll power thorugh today, which includes church (gotta meet Breein’s lucky guy), perhaps Seahawks with Dan, a short stint at work to replace batteries, and the last TRC leadership meeting before the 2006 FIRST Robotics Kickoff Event.

UPDATE: Well, that plan didn’t work.

Ryan the revisionist historian shouts out to his wonderful, artistic, inspiring, historic brother.

                                             YYYY            YY
HHHHH         HHHHH                             YYY          YYYY
HHHHH         HHHHH                  PP PPPPPP   YYY         YYY
  HHH         HHH                     PPP    PP   YYY       YYY
  HHH         HHH    AAAAA  PP PPPPPP  PP    PP    YYY     YYY
  HHH         HHH   AAAAAAA  PPP    PP PP    PP     YYY   YYY
  HHH         HHH  AA     AA  PP    PP PP    PP      YYY YYY
  HHH         HHH  AA     AA  PP    PP PPPPPPP        YYYYY
  HHHHHHHHHHHHHHH  AA     AA  PP    PP PP             YYYY
  HHHHHHHHHHHHHHH  AA     AA  PPPPPPP  PP            YYYY   -------
  HHHHHHHHHHHHHHH  AAAAAAAAA  PP       PP           YYYY    -------
  HHH         HHH  AAAAAAAAA  PP       PP          YYYY     -------
  HHH         HHH  AA     AA  PP       PP         YYYY
  HHH         HHH  AA     AA  PP       PP        YYYY
  HHH         HHH  AA     AA  PP       PP      YYYYYY
  HHH         HHH  AA     AA  PP       PP     YYYYYYY
  HHH         HHH             PP       PP    YYYYYYY
HHHHH         HHHHH           PP       PP   YYYYYYY
HHHHH         HHHHH           PP       PP  YYYYYYY
                                            YYYYY
BBBBBBBBBBBBB                                YYY
BBBBBBBBBBBBBB                                Y
 BBBB       BBB    II                                   YYY             YYY
  BB         BB    II               DDDDDDDDDDDDD       YYYY           YYYY
  BB         BB                     DDDDDDDDDDDDDD        YY            YY
  BB         BB   III  RRR RRRR        DDD      DDD      A YY          YY
  BB         BB    II   RRRR  RR       DDD      DDD     AAA YY        YY
  BB        BBB    II    RRR           DDD      DDD    AAAAA YY      YY
  BBB     BBBB     II    RR            DDD      DDD   AAAAAAA YY    YY
  BBBBBBBBBBB      II    RR            DDD      DDD  AA     AA YY  YY
  BBBBBBBBB        II    RR            DDD      DDD  AA     AA  YYYY
  BBBBBBBBBBB      II    RR            DDD      DDD  AAAAAAAAA   YYY
  BBB     BBBB    IIII  RRRR           DDD      DDD  AAAAAAAAA   YYY
  BB        BBB             HHH        DDD      DDD  AA     AA   YYY
  BB         BBB    TT     HHHH        DDD      DDD  AA     AA   YYY
  BB         BBB    TT     HH          DDD      DDD  AA     AA   YYY
  BB          BBB TTTTTT   HH          DDD      DDD  AA     AA   YYY
  BB          BBB   TT     HH          DDD      DDD              YYY
  BB          BBB   TT     HHHHHHHH  DDDDDDDDDDDDD               YYY
  BB         BBB    TT     HH     HH DDDDDDDDDDDD               YYYY
 BBBB       BBBB    TT     HH     HH                           YYYY
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBB     TT  TT HH     HH    YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
BBBBBBBBBBBBBB       TTTT  HH     HH    YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
                          HHHH   HHHH   YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Sometimes I have been described by associates in the past as having a “bias for action” — a tendency to choose action over inaction. I find this description to be true of many parts of my life, at least when I am thinking rationally. My “whats the worst that could happen” sort of mentality combined with a life experience of nothing that bad ever happening may be responsbile. Or maybe I just like to live life to its fullest, and inaction is not well correlated with fullness. At any rate, this so-called bias for action has tended to serve me well over the years — it is largely responsbile for the outrageously successful Road Trip of 2003, for a slew of road-less-traveled honors courses both in high school and in college that have all paid dividends, for a robotics club that went to the national competition its first year, and for a few speeding tickets as well. Certainly, looking back at my life, just as in looking back at that list, the good has far outweighed the bad.

Unfortunately, this action bias often fails me in two areas. The first is associated primarily with schoolwork — I find myself procrastinating its completion far too often. The bigger the assignment, the more I put it off, only making the problem worse, leading to more procrastination. Of course, usually things eventually reach a tipping point where the rapidly increasing completion panic energy overcomes the negative potential well of procrastination, and I get to work. Unfortunately, this usually means late nights, all-nighters, and substandard product. Of course, as we have seen, my substandard is sometimes somewhat better than average. This, of course, only served to reinforce the acceptability of the process, which has repeated itself many times for many papers and assignments throughout the history of Ryan.

But all of this is just a precursor. This post is not about schoolwork procrastination. This is about my other action-bias failue: namely, anything involving women.

As with most of my posts, there is a recent occurence to illustrate the point particularly well. It all began in my Math 324 class (see previous post to see the Chemistry Library building where I go for this class…). The course title is “Advanced Multivariable Calculus.” Only a few majors recognize it, and fewer yet require it. So basically, you’re either a math major/minor or pretty smart if you’re taking the class. To say it like a crass Yoda, dumb people here, there are not. The point here is that any girl in this class that happens to catch my eye is not only good looking, but she is intelligent as well. Hot and smart. Is there anything better than that? I didn’t think so.

Which brings me to Marissa. After I started having attendance issues in my other “early” (11:30 am) class Math class, I stopped sitting in the front, because I was often coming in late. This put me usually on the second-to-last row, right behind her. Always carrying her decorative coffee cup and taking notes in an artist’s sketchpad, we occasionally exchanged niceties, but never really talked. We were both always late, and she must have had a class right afterwards, as she never stuck around. Until today, that is. And today, we actually talked. Briefly, it is true, but it was good. At the time, I should have been considering, more or less, the following facts:

• She is hot
• She is smart
• Today is the last day I will see her before the final
• I could really use some motivation in studying for the final
• I could really use a date to the company Christmas party

Unfortunately, I was apparently only considering the following facts:

So, as the class and conversation ended, this is what came out: “Well, good luck on the final. See you on Wednesday.” And then it was over.

I didn’t even recover enough from the blank mind to kick myself for a good ten minutes.

So now, I either rely on some sort of serendipity, find some way to talk to her before/during/after the final, or give up all hope. And considering past experience, I’m leaning towards the latter.

For those of us out there that like to come in first, Bernie has decided to let us in on his Googlescious secrets. Leading the fray, he suggests lots of machine-readable links and generous use of the title attribute. From his prominence on topics such as The difference between Grey and Gray, it seems to have worked for him. In his famous style (at least its famous around here), Bernie has subtitled his post “Part I” — which of course promises more juicy secrets yet to come.