Todd's Journal

I am pretty awful at updating this blog. It's not entirely from lack of time (though that does seem to be in short supply lately) and it's certainly not from lack of subject material (I don't think I've had a dull day since the term started); I think the issue is that writing hasn't been as much fun as it once was. Maybe I can blame my camera. I've been pretty good about bringing it most everywhere, and my Flickr account can prove it. Twinkle just picked up a new Digital Rebel, so there will have to be some photo adventures about town over the break.

Term ends tomorrow. I've one presentation to give this afternoon, and one final tomorrow. At 7:30. In the morning. I have no idea how I'm going to even make it there, let alone be cognizant of my surroundings. Bleh. At least the unpleasantness will be over quickly, and the drinking can commence by 9:30. With luck, I may even pass the course; that would be extra nice.

Last night I finished off my TA work. I have a whole new level of respect for the poor saps who graded my exams in undergrad--muddling through handwritten code is something less than enjoyable. There's the constant doubt that maybe their technique will work, but I've never seen it before and it's nothing at all like my solution, and you can only type things into a compiler so many times to test it before realizing that the exams will never be graded if you do this for each one, so... let flow the red ink. The students seem to have done pretty well overall though, so that's encouraging. I'll be TA'ing the same course next term, and I'm looking forward to it. At the very least, I'll be a world more helpful next time around.

Last night I worked out an... interesting... cover of The Capricorn's New York is Burning. The tune's been ringing in my head for days and seemed too emotional to not take a stab at an acoustic version. Today I've spent a lot of time wandering about town, and snatches of verse and melody keep cropping up in my mind. Maybe the change of scenery was exactly what I needed to get writing again. Pity my neighbors--the walls of my new apartment seem impressively thin.

I've become involved with a gender HCI study our group is planning. This seems to be the most interesting of all the different research areas my adviser is working on, and I'm feeling pretty lucky to be included. On the downside, it feels like my workload just increased exponentially. Terms here are short (10 weeks!), which seems to make everything a bit hurried. Only five more weeks until finals--my programming course is going well, but I'm beyond hopelessly lost in Algorithms and need to find a way to get back on track for the midterm next week. Fifty minutes to take an exam seems ridiculous, especially given that each homework problem takes around two hours to complete, not counting time spent thinking over *how* to solve it. Next week is going to suck.

All that said, I'm really falling in love with this area. Leslie said the town has a hippie-ish quality, which I can't deny, but that doesn't encompass the general atmosphere. Suffice to say, I'm glad I came. And I'm not just saying that because my runner-up is currently encircled by wildfires.

Only two weeks into the term, but I'm already feeling myself adjust back to a collegiate lifestyle. Beyond the obvious awesomeness of not waking up at 6:30, there are so many intricacies of a non-corporate schedule which I'd forgotten I missed: the freedom to work on my own time, having a gorgeous campus to explore, sitting beneath a tree to read and people watch... *le sigh*. Talking to Les today, she mentioned that she's glad to have spent some time working rather than going straight to grad school. I can at least agree that it makes me so very much aware of the differences--even with a crazy homework load, I still find myself constantly thinking, "this is not a bad day." On the other hand, I sort of feel like I wasted a couple of years; I mean, I could already be done with my MS if I hadn't hung around for an extra semester of undergrad and actually gotten off my ass and taken the GRE while I was still in school. Not that anything can be done about it, obviously, but I don't want to say I'm glad of the way I did something when the facts of the situation were that I was lazy and comfortable, and a little frightened of rocking the boat.

Anyway, I've been so busy with classes and research that I've been ignoring a few things I really wanted to focus on out here. My camera hasn't left its shelf in over two weeks, and this needs to change. At the very least, I need a new Facebook profile shot. I've been playing guitar fairly regularly, but I still can't seem to get any coherent thoughts to shape themselves into tunes. At least I've added a couple new covers to my repertoire. And of course, I need more Day of Defeat time. If any of you play, you can usually find me on Snowbridge with the nick 'Toddler'. I suck beyond all explanation, so enjoy the easy target and inflate your stats.

Just gave my first two recitations at OSU. The first one was big and generally messy--I've never taught a class before. At least I didn't completely freeze up and start crying. The second went *much* smoother. Almost enjoyable, one could say. Here's hoping this TA gig goes well.

Because I know some of you reading this are history junkies: you probably already know, but PBS is airing Ken Burns' recent WWII documentary in seven two-hour installments all week long. After watching the first two, I have to say it's probably the finest documentary I've ever seen. He interviews a great selection of people and masterfully meshes their words with the global events occurring around them. OPB is airing it nightly at 8, and the full list of times is at PBS' website.

Rock on, finally braved the Corvallis bus system. Coming from metro Detroit, where mass transit equates to having a passenger (maybe two!) in your H3 Humvee, this is pretty new. I totally missed by intended stop because I had no idea you had to notify the driver you want to, you know, get off. Sheepishly I trailed someone out at the next stop, then walked the half-mile back to campus. On the ride home, thankfully, I noticed the bell. Success!

Wow. There's a mini fridge in our office that had a gallon of milk, half-empty, growing a bacteria colony the size of Tokyo since last spring. Other finds include an unlabeled container of either fresh mustard or old mayonnaise, and a forgotten fast-food hamburger which had fossilized. Poor Chris is trying to get rid of the rankness now, but I think it might be a lost cause.

Not sure how this happened, but Comcast seems to have enabled *everything* on my new cable box. I was just trying to get NBC in HD (new episodes of the Office in less than one month!); now I've got the entire bloody lineup. Pity I don't really watch TV :p

Went for a bike ride this morning, camera in tow. I can't recall the last time I went biking with any sort of bag or pack, so having the camera banging at my side was a bit distracting. There has to be a better way to carry that around. Anyway, while coasting down a park trail, I saw this little fuzzy curled up on the side of the path:



I hopped down off the bike, expecting her to run like hell for the trees, but no; she stretched and walked over to my outstretched hand. Miss kitty was in good shape, but collarless and definitely in need of some attention. She snaked her way between my shoes, rubbed up against the bike, then rolled over so that *someone* would scratch her tummy. I obliged, and showered her with attention for 20 minutes. After a while she seemed satisfied, and went back to sunning herself on the asphalt.

Half-tempted to take her home with me (finally! a friend!) I started walking my bike slowly down the path, checking behind to see if she'd follow. She'd already turned her head in the opposite direction, hoping the next passer-by would be carrying catnip.

Made it. I'm pretty amazed by the local weather radar--25 years of staring at a geographical mitten will do that to you. I'd love to have something substantial to write, but I don't. The drive was long but fun. Now I'm pretty tired. There's a lot of shopping to do. I still feel like I'm on vacation, like in a couple of days I'll head back to Detroit and see everyone again. "Not this time," I think to myself, and then wonder, "how weird?"

I'm in Evanston, Wyoming, about to get back on the road. Two more days of driving+detours should get us to Corvallis. So far we seem to have threaded through cracks in the crazy weather systems moving across the country--aside from some hail yesterday, we've managed to avoid the storms sweeping over the great plains. Photos are up on Flickr. The scenery has been fantastic, so much so that three days of driving still hasn't tired me out.

It took a while, but I finally signed up for a Flickr account. One of my goals as I move west is to gather a nice visual collage. Watch the fun unfold at flickr.com/photos/toddler.

Today's my last day with Takata. I can still remember how much I was dreading my first day at a corporate job, four years ago. Soon after I started, one of my coworkers confided that for his first week, he'd pause outside the door to our area (back when we had our own area!) and think to himself, "No, I just won't do it. You can't me go in there! I don't want to!" before finally screwing up the courage to make it to his desk. Knowing that [at least some of] the other people there went through the same thing helped a bit, and it wasn't long before I was very *nearly* looking forward to work the next day. OK, maybe a better way to phrase that would be that I liked all of my coworkers, so I didn't mind waking up freakishly early because there were cool people to see and, more often than not, interesting problems to solve. Still, in four years, I've never gotten used to being in the office at 7:30am. *That* I will not miss. The people here, however, will be hard to say goodbye to.

Last week I began sorting through the apartment, filling up bag after bag with junk I know I don't need. While not as bad as I used to be, I still hold on to things far too long. Seriously, there were video cards from 1996 stashed under my bed, *just in case*. The AD&D rule books which I haven't cracked since middle-school are finally gone, along with a horde of old musical equipment which probably hadn't worked in years but I was too lazy to test properly. Everything was sorted into three piles; the first (and largest by far) was for the trash bin. A smaller pile of cheap stuff in good shape is marked for donation, and the smallest lot of all is awaiting eBay listings. Part of me would love to be able to move westward with nothing more than a backpack of clothing slung on one shoulder, a messenger bag replete with camera and notebook on the other, and a guitar case in hand. I know I won't be able to cut quite that many cords at once, though.

As if any proof of my materialistic leanings were actually needed: I'm selling my PowerBook, as a MacBook Pro is on its way to my door. Apple's running too many specials right now--$200 of an iPod and $800 off Photoshop CS3, plus the regular academic discounts, convinced me to buy the new machine a couple of months ahead of schedule. New toys, exactly what I need to distract me from what will likely be my last summer in Michigan. Kerouac, I am not.

The content of this article was such a let-down: FBI tries to fight zombie hordes

Also, obviously, I'm still alive--just haven't updated in a while. Still meaning to fix that.

Kurt Vonnegut - 1922-2007

:(

At long last, Etch has been officially released! Time for some server upgrades this week...

Well the job situation just took a hit in the form of a delayed annual raise... delayed to about one month after I leave for Oregon. It's cool, though. I picked up some Rilo Kiley albums off of iTunes this afternoon and the Jenny Lewis lyrics are far too perfect to remain upset through.

So over the past month I've had one friend leave for Paris, one join the Peace Corps, and learned that two others are moving to Chicago and California come August. I'm not 100% positive yet, but it looks like I'll be joining their exodus and heading to Oregon around that time. I'd relegated myself to funding graduate studies at the University of Michigan solely via student loans, but last week Oregon State offered me a position as a research assistant with full tuition, health care, and a stipend for living expenses. Plus, I'll be working on human-computer interaction research, which meshes well with my previous coding experience and academic interests. I need to make the final decision next week, and I'm strongly leaning towards spending the next couple of years in Corvallis. I'll be 25 at that point, and it feels like my life is finally heading in the direction I always hoped it would: west.

It's cliched, I know, but it's going to be hard saying goodbye to Michigan. I have a decent job, and just before receiving the offer from OSU I interviewed for what seems to be a better one. Today they called my references, and if I get an offer, I'm not sure how to tell them I'll be leaving in August. I've finally been seeing some friends around town who I've been neglecting for far too long. And even though we broke up, I hate the thought of leaving Les behind. Things are comfortable here, and part of me is terrified to rock the boat.

Gah. This is shaping up to be one hell of a summer.

PS - Rock star ambitions are temporarily on hold. After many ill-founded chord progressions and crumpled pages of lyrics, it seems a song-smith I am not.

Some time ago a friend pointed me to http://www.knitemare.org/cats/, wherein were found dozens of photos of cats with cute taglines related to video games and Internet memes. Last week the owner publicly asked for a new home for the page, as it was proving too much of a drain on his web server. Thus, the cat page has moved to dropline.net! This gives me an excuse to start playing around with AJAX to get a rating system put together, plus whatever other cool bits can be hacked onto a page full of kittens!

I got in.

Update: Twelve hours later, I got a letter from Oregon State. I'm in there, too.

Because reality has a well-known liberal bias: http://www.conservapedia.com/Main_Page

Quotes from the main page:

Conservapedia is an online resource and meeting place where we favor Christianity and America. Conservapedia has easy-to-use indexes to facilitate review of topics. You will much prefer using Conservapedia compared to Wikipedia if you want concise answers free of "political correctness".

And:
Did you know that faith is a uniquely Christian concept? Add to the explanation of what it means, and how it does not exist on other religions.

It seems so over-the-top that it might be a parody page, but still an amusing read.

After a morning of hitting up iTrackr and making phone calls to all of the local Gamestops, Scot and I finally tracked down a Target in Southfield which had Wiis in-stock. One two-hour lunch and a combined $500 later, we each have a Wii sitting on our respective desks.

Ben, you are free to pick up your Wii at any time, since I finally have my own!

So I'm still a couple of songs behind if I want to hit 14 for the month of February, but I finished track #2 tonight and am feeling pretty good about it. The hardest bit seems to be that opening line; once past, tunes seem to flow rather freely and [almost] naturally. It feels good to be finding my voice.