Checksum Arcanius

I went to classes, just calc and photograph today. Between classes, I read more of Timeline. I need to get cracking in math to really stay ahead. In photography, we went into the darkroom and made photograms, which consists of placing objects on photographic paper and using an enlarger to expose the paper. Next, we develop the paper, and images more or less magicly appear. Its quite fun and exciting to see the images appear on the paper – and mostly they look quite good too. I’m liking my photography class, even if the professor doesn’t know the science behind the art. After school, I updated some programs for my mom at her office, then I went home and ate some food, watched some TV, and played some CS until 11:00. Then I got into Timeline and read until 1:30. Saturday is the FIRST Robotics Competion Kickoff, starting at 7:00. It will be a long day.

Today was a good day, but I suppose I am being repetitive. I arrived late to my tennis class due to the parking issues at BCC. I will have to find some way to avoid these problems in the future. The instructor, it turns out, was (is?) a room service employee at the Bellevue Club – a fun coincidence. After the short intro to the tennis class, I read more of Michael Chighton’s book Timeline – its a good read, even if I’m not convinced by the science. Next, I went to Math, sat next to Rich, had a good lecture and discussion, then returned home. I applied for work at the Bellevue Club again – it was a nice place to wrok, and as long as its not my attempted source of advancement, just something to do to make money, I’m sure I’ll be alright with it. Otherwise, its back to Blockbuster and applying to Fry’s Electronics. After I rested a little, I called up Maneesh, and we hung out and talked for hours, stopping by Chilli’s for some grub. After I dropped him back home, I returned home and did some photography, some Counterstrike, and now here I am. Time does fly, but it was good.

Among other things, I read a Blog of a colleague that he started on Monday. It is nice to see how carefully it is written. Something like this one was when I started it, if I remember correctly (although I am too lazy to go back and check; someone please let me know if I was always this lax with my writing). Maybe his attention to detail is why he actually gets comments on his blog. Or maybe he just knows a lot of nerds.

I would wax reminiscent right now, except that I don’t want to write all that much – once again, I’m too lazy. I’ll try to get over it soon and share some deep thoughts. Oh, check out the new pictures to the left!

BCC daytime classes were cancelled again today; at least this time they announced it before I arrived for my first class. Right now I am reading chapter three of my photography book – it is quite good and has many excellent pictures. As for the rest of the day, I think I’ll try get ahead in my calculus class, become employed again, and have some fun.

Today was the first day of classes at BCC. I had Calculus of Several Variables (Multivar) at 10:30 and Photography at 12:30. Both classes went well – and I have a friend in each. My other class, Tennis, starts tomorrow. It is interesting going back to school, but it was an easy transition, even if things aren’t as familiar as they would be at BYU. At least there is snow-covered grass and contruction to make me feel at home.

Multivar is going to be a real class, I have some brush up on Calc I and II that I’ll need to do if I want to get a jump start in that class. Photography should be relatively easy since I already know most of everything there is to know about the camera side of things. I’ll still have a lot to learn about what happens after the camera, but thats why took the class, so I should enjoy it.

After the photography class, Dan, my friend in the class, and I went to Glazer’s Photography in Seattle where we together purchased 10 rolls of Ilford HP5 Plus 400 – Black and White film, 36 exposures each roll, 100 sheets of Ilford photographic paper, and some plastic sheet negative protectors. We then went to Vetco where I was once again surprised at how expensive easy-to-use ethernet jacks are. With cable modem being installed tomorrow, 100 meters of cat 5 (or is it 6?) cable sitting in the living room, the jacks and wall plates are all that really stand between me and having my own dedicated 1.5 Mbps connection to the internet. I must thank the kind neighbors for all the internet I have borrowed over the months since I learned about Wi-Fi.

In computer-land, I was disappointed with PHP homepage. It parses very slowly on silverfir. Even a faster machine, performance wouldn’t be stellar and there were no particular features I needed. I still plan on a major overhaul of arcanius.silverfir.net at some point, turning it into a more full-featured website instead of just a weblog, but with the ‘blog as the main updated component. This is mainly so I have a better way to display my photos.

Today, I went with my dad to take the truck to the shop to replace brakes and other maintenance issues.I then dropped my dad off at work. Next I went to Davis Optical, but they didn’t open until 9:30, so I went to BCC to be advised. After standing around for 10 minutes, I got some materials and settled in for a longer wait. A pretty girl started standing around too; I told her that I hadn’t had much luck and when she asked for a map of the campus, I tore the one out of the class schdule I had, since I had just noticed one in there. She thanked me, then we both ended up in advisement at the same time, albeit with different advisors. At advisement, I learned that I need to take the assessment tests again (last time was 1999) and I got information on how I might be able to get into the two other classes I want – C++ and Video Production.

After advisement, I returned to Davis Optical right as it was opening, picked up my contacts, then realized that I had finished all my plans in a much shorter time than I had imagined. So I returned home, folded clothes, had a good lunch, and got a better wireless internet setup hooked up. This time I have an extremely strong link, and from all I’ve learned about mounting, I’m pretty sure it will be fairly permanent.

Next came the TRC meeting. Not much happened there, excpet Chris actually seemed to be on top on things, just not the forums. Hester, Bob, Dan, and I threw the frisbee around until about 4 after that, then I took them all home, before returning home. Then I realized that I had lots of film to take to Costco (10 rolls!), so I did that, and looked around Costco for gift ideas. I’m still awaiting lists from my family members, and I really haven’t gotten any shopping done yet. My list is pretty much complete, I will be distributing that here soon.

I then got my mom a belated birthday present, came home and started dinner, then found out that my parents weren’t really coming home at 7:00 (why do I keep falling for that one), so I had some dinner myself, then went and helped set up for a church Christmas party. After that, I returned, had a little more dinner, then played counterstrike and generally enjoyed the revived internet connection.

Thats a wrap!