Checksum Arcanius

The circuits midterm I just finished was not as bad as everyone made it seem by staying, to a person, until the end of class. The last midterm saw people walking out halfway through the period; there was no equivalent for this one. While I too was pushed to the brink and in fact did not finish the last problem, I am convinced I could have, if only I hadn’t messed up on each of the first three problems, only to catch myself later and return to fix the error. In short, I could have aced it, but I didn’t because of the dumb little things. I’m disappointed, because I don’t get bitten this way too often, but it is still better than I probably would have done, had I not had a gestalt about second order differential equations after lunch today. So overall, I am pleased. We shall see how I feel on Monday, when the test is returned.

Stress can be a great motivator that causes me to accomplish tasks. However, introspection has led me to the conclusion that I usually respond badly to stress and that I have very poor stress management techniques. This comes somewhat as a surrpise, because I tend to think of myself as a mostly calm and collected individual. I now believe this calm under fire to be mostly a facade. For example, I now believe that my episode of insomnia leading up to the 2005 FIRST Robotics Competition Championship is an indication of my unhealthy response to stress.

Insomnia alone is not to bad. However, when stressed, I find that I often fall into a rut and spend vast amounts of time going down paths that lead nowhere. The two most common ruts seem to be compulsive Counter-Strike playing and mindless internet surfing through online forums, news, porn, humor sites, and other dubiously useful information. These episodes are not short-lived either. I have spent hours in these ruts, going nowhere, but going there quickly.

I believe that it would be highly beneficial to me to retrain myself so that my response to stress is an immediate and direct response to the stressor, or at the very least, a healthy coping technique such as running, as opposed to my current techniques which make me feel bad about myself and get nothing useful done. If only self-mastery were a pill I could swallow. Instead, it is a process that only the dedicated few can truly harness.

Here’s to not giving up.

Recent events

85/100 on Circuits test… Not exactly what I would have hoped for, but better than I was expecting after I screwed up the op-amps. I’ve gotta kick it into a higher gear here soon, if I want to pull out of the mid-B rut that I’ve gotten myself into in the class.

Started building an ROV with Dan Marsh and the TRC. For more, see Dan’s post about it.

Collecting parts for a future SRS Robo-Magellan entry. Recently picked up a GPS reciever module (thanks to Dan for the tip). The module requires an active antenna, so I went looking for a good one, and settled on the Mighty Mouse II, a high gain, low power active antenna that rocks my socks. An especially big shout out to Tri-M Systems for working with me to help get the unit from Canada to the TRC quickly and efficiently. Go buy their stuff, yo!

Saw Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy twice in two days. Once was plenty, but a combination of circumstance and commitment led me to watching it a second time. Suffice it to say that it’s not one of those movies that gets better the second time through. I didn’t hate it the first time, though, and the second time, though not anywhere near wonderful, was not bad, and the company (Shai and Beth) was good too.

Installed a 9-in-4 card reader in my desktop computer. The unit was recieved from Dan along with a wired USB optical mouse in exchange for a Microsoft Wireless Intellimouse Explorer that wasn’t well-suited for gaming due to miniscule but noticable start-up lag times, and wasn’t well suited for a laptop due to its battery requirements. I think the trade was mutually beneficial. Everyone shoudl trade more, its good for everyone involved (but if I went too much further down this line of thought, I’d have to add this to the political category as well).

Began helping Erik set up his new dedicated server. Debian Linux is a good distro. It should go back to #1, yo. Silverfir.net, and perhaps TitanRobotics.net, will host some of their websites on the new server as well. The server is from ServerPronto, and its a good price for a dedicated server with the specs it boasts. We’ll see how it holds up once Erik’s proxy servers get going.

Played Ultimate Frisbee at the UW’s intramural field 1 on Friday with the team of Bobby, Jake, Joe, and others. We lost by a point to an evenly matched team, which seems to be the story of my ultimate life. It was good fun, however. Afterwards, we hung out at the UW until seeing Hitchhiker’s for the first time.

Went to a doctor Thursday morning. I have low blood pressure. Nothing too serious, though, apparently. I can eat more salt. Is this a good thing?

Talked to Scott about the upcoming bike trip.

After completing a group project at BCC where one of the group members was a mysterious no-show, I ate at a church and then travelled to the UW to play a practice ultimate game with the team of Ananth, Bobby, Jacob, and others. While we started out strong, we faded quickly and eventually lost to another team that was practicing.

After the game, we headed to the dorm to drink powerade and watch the Sonics take a 3-1 series lead over the Kings. Ray Allen is clutch, Rashard Lewis needs to step it up a few notches after this series, and James in on fire. It was a fun game to watch – the Sonic never let it get as far out of hand as it did in game 3, although the first quarter ended terribly. But they stepped it up in the fourth and the Kings couldn’t match. I know its not over yet, but I’m feeling confident that the Sonics are on to round 2.

Today, I submitted my transfer application for admission the the University of Washington for Autumn 2005. Yeah, its almost two months late, but an application with a plea is better than no application at all, as I see it.

Next step is to apply to the BioEngineering department, my first choice major. Apparently, besides being the #1 program in the nation, it is also the most competitive at the UW. Good times.

Scott is back; hiked Tiger Mt; only one small bird at top.

I am sitting in my Philosophy of Science class listening to my teacher pontificate about how government programs really are more efficient and accountable than those in the private sector.

 

 

 

 

 
Oh

 

 

 

 

 
My

 

 

 

 

 
Goodness

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Read the rest of this entry »