I came across this guide (via blogdex) on how to change the graphics on your iPod. I decided to try it out and spent the afternoon making a Sanrio theme for my iPod mini. I uploaded the new firmware and was disappointed to see that the dang startup apple logo won't go away (despite having replaced every instance of the logo with a Hello Kitty). In fact, it seems the only change of any significance was on the "Do not disconnect" graphic. Oh well, better than nothing, I suppose. Now I've got Pochacco instead of the typical circle with a slash through it.

*Yesterday...

Cali: wat r u gonan do this afternoon?
Me: haven't figured it out yet
Me: i guess it'll just happen, then afterwards, i'll think about what i did, and i'll have sat in front of my comp for 4 hours

...man, sometimes it seems like that's how every day of my life is passed. =/

I finished reading Neil Gaiman's American Gods today. An amusing book. It's kinda about what happens to gods when people stop worshipping them. In the book, the American "gods" are stuff like tv, where we sacrifice stuff like our time. The new gods duke it out with the old gods and makes for an interesting story. I think polytheistic religions make for more entertaining stories; stuff is less black and white in terms of good/evil. I also find it fascinating how each religion that replaces another kinda vilifies or at least warps the previous and its beliefs. For instance, Easter was originally like a pagan god/holiday for spring.

Some classes I think the University should offer:

~Introductory Blacksmithing - final project: make your own medieval weapon
~Intro to Butchery - cows and pigs, chickens if time permits
~Intro to Lumberjacking - traditional and underhand chopping, axe throwing, logrolling
~Intro to Falconry & Animal Taming
~Intro to Whaling
~Intro to Bartending
~Stunt Driving 101
~Lockpicking 101
~Shinobi 102 - prerequisite: martial arts proficiency; bring own shurikens
~Intermediate Rodeo - prerequisite: lasso and horseback riding proficiency
~How to be a Southern Gentleman
~Advanced Origami
~Buffalo Wings Appreciation
~Bowhunting skills, Nunchuck skills, Computer Hacking skills - to impress the ladies of course, hahaha

...some of those more serious than others, haha. Any other suggestions?

I finished up exams this past Friday, but I had to stick around to finish up a project. But man, on my propulsion test on Friday, my calculator nearly died on me. I was soooo scared, haha. You know how graphing calculators always pop up that low battery warning on you? Well, from past experience, that message has always been kinda like the boy who cried wolf: you've heard it so many times without it coming true that you just stop believing it. Well, during my test, the calculator worked okay for the first hour or so, then it auto-shut off, and I didn't think anything of it at the time, cuz that's just what it does, right? Well then when I needed it again, I hit the on button and it wouldn't turn on! I must have pressed the on button like 50 times. I felt like a soldier pounding on the chest of a fallen comrade- Nooo, don't die on me now! Hang in there, don't leave me, I need you! I made a promise to my calculator then and there that if it would just stick with me till end of the test, I'd change its batteries first thing after the test. I sat there looking at the blank screen for 30 fear-filled seconds before it slowly crept back to life. *whew* It lasted till the end and has new batteries now, haha. What a trooper, heh.

The project however, was a disaster. It was originally due on Friday afternoon, but I got an extension on it till Monday morning. And as expected, I didn't work on it till Sunday, hahaha. Bad idea though. I pulled an all-nighter and still didn't finish. It was modeling how satellite orbits are affected by the moon's gravity. (It's a lot more complicated than it sounds; the equations of motion can't be solved in closed form.) Well, I couldn't get the dang thing to work- I spent 10 hours alone trying to debug it, with no success. According to my MATLAB results, the effect of the moon is to cause earth-orbiting satellites to warp into another dimension, hahaha (if that's the physical interpretation of imaginary xy-coordinates). I ended up turning in a write-up for a miserable failure of a project, but I was so sleep deprived that I didn't care. Whatever. If nothing else, this 1-hour course single-handedly made me decide that I don't wanna pursue the space option of the aerospace degree anymore. Looks like I'm sticking with planes from here on out. =/

I had an oral exam in finite elements class today, but the professor went easy on me cuz I was the only undergrad in the class. It was basically like: "Soooo... did you learn anything in my class?" *I reply* "Got any suggestions for next year?" *I reply* "Ok, well, I don't mean to hurt your feelings, but you get a B. That's all." Hahaha, that last one was like verbatim. So yea, wasted time studying for that class.

Then in structural dynamics (the class I registered for as a grad), I got owned horrendously. The professor pulled a fast one and put something on the test that I completely wasn't expecting and didn't cover on my cheat sheet. The exam was 3 problems in three hours. I spent about an hour and a half on the first problem (the only one I really knew how to do), 30 minutes on the second, 30 minutes on the third, and the rest of the time was spent in sheer shock because I had no more BS that even remotely resembled an answer, hahaha. Left in a complete daze.

Man, every year around this time, I think to myself, if I'd only known a couple days earlier how screwed I am now, SURELY I would have started studying sooner. Well, year in and year out, I'm always screwed come test time, yet I never learn my lesson. So I've come to realize that as much as I tell myself I'll be different next time, I really am quite incorrigible about these dang study habits. =/

I attended two house parties this weekend. (I find myself going to house parties a lot more than the clubs this year.) They were ok I guess; nothing special. I dunno, the party scene has just really changed a lot since freshman year. Not many of the old party crew from back in the day still go to parties. (Same thing with school organizations I guess; all the old faces that used to fill the clubs start graduating, and you're left wondering, who ARE all these ppl in the club?) But yea, it's so sad going to parties and not seeing many of the ol' party regulars anymore. And the ones that are left, when you make eye-contact in the crowd, you smile and exhange that knowing look that's like, yup, we're the unfortunate souls that are gonna be single forever, hahaha. *siiiiigh* Oh well- where there's firewater, there's a way to forget. =/

So I tried to give myself a haircut tonight. I didn’t get one over Thanksgiving break cuz I figgered it was only like 2 more weeks till I went home again, and I thought I could tough it out. But apparently I couldn’t; my hair was really starting to irritate me. I hate when the trimmed sides of your hair are getting long and stick out farther than the top part but isn’t quite long enough to lay down on its own. It’s like if you were to make a plot of hair length vs. satisfaction, the plot (neglecting boundaries) would be fairly constant except for this one part where your satisfaction level just plunges- that’s where my hair was.

So anyways, I’d bought myself the Norelco Coolskin razor a little while back, and it shaves great and all, but it also came with a hair trimmer accessory that I’d never tried out. Well, in one of those classic moments of brilliance, I decided it’d be fun to give it a whirl. Dude, they should put like a disclaimer on it that’s like: “We are in no way responsible for whatever monstrosity of a haircut you may inflict upon yourself.” I dunno, I guess it didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped, but it certainly wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I didn’t really stop when I was done; more like when I got bored of cutting, hahaha.

Ennnhh, well, I’ve always been something of a hair pioneer I guess. I’ve sported some pretty avant-garde hairdos in my day, but I think there’s a limit after which it’s pretty obvious that you just messed up while cutting it, hahaha. It reminds me of that episode of Hanging with Mr. Cooper, where he’s like confessing about his cooking and is like: “Yea, all those times I said it was Cajun style? It was really just burnt.”