November 2002 Archives

What does one do when one is trying to read one's Algorithms and Data Structures in C++ book while studying in the library with noisy friends? Write haiku, of course!

You make too much noise.
One studies quietly here.
Yes, this is haiku.

Birds whisper softly.
Like cherry blossoms on snow.
Your shoes do not.

I'm such a nerd. And, of course, said friends respond in kind:

Sensitivity—
Aversion to the rhythm
Aliotsy has.

I convinced my friend Nathan to start a blog, since he always has humorous observations on life. Dark humor, but REALLY funny stuff. Worth checking out. I wrote another haiku in homage to his last entry.

Blast this cursed wind.
Like many winged demons
Here to thwart my way.

Ok, enough of that. Version 2 is coming (look for obnoxious Flash intro to hail it's coming in a few days), but I'm still tripping up on an annoying Javascript bug in IE6. Made a major breakthrough a few days ago, but I still need to find time to sit down and make a fix. I've got a whole lot of belated link-ups due, but I'm not gonna post them till II launches...they'll be part of a new section I'm introducing.

I'm a little queasy about bringing this up, but I can't ignore it: a girl was kidnapped and raped today on campus. Needless to say, right now I'm VERY concerned for the safety of all the women I know on campus.

So a friend said today that I couldn't be very gentlemanly because I'm not an English major.

Ouch.

I mean, she was joking and all, and my peers in engineering aren't typically associated with the finer points of civility, but still...

Ouch.

Coffee, I've decided, is the life blood of college life. The Israelites had manna; the Olympians had nectar and ambrosia; college students have the precious "Brown Gold," the "Star of the Arabica Bean," the "Sweet Maiden of Caffeinia." Aye, coffee, I do love thee.

Some people say that the purpose of college is the pursuit of higher education; I would like to assert that it in fact is the pursuit of a really good French Roast.

Alas, though indeed a "sweet maiden," a "friend of the procrastinator," a "colleague of the 8am lecture attendee," coffee is also a harsh, unforgiving mistress who demands your time and money (or just money, if you are one of the unfortunate masses without a coffee maker). Yes, caffeine addiction is not a pretty sight, folks.

The trick, I assert, is to treat coffee like the "should-be-regulated" drug that it is. At the beginning of the academic quarter, take it easy—try drinking tea or coacoa, only resort to coffee when in dire need of a buzz. Throughout the quarter, dull the effects of caffeine by adding mountains of sugar and truckloads of milk, diluting your lift, so to speak.

Why this lily-livered coffee drinking you ask? Because you will need the full power of raw caffeine come finals week...take it black, maybe even without sugar. Heck, be adventurous and take it Navy style—no milk, with a pinch of salt.

Or...maybe not. I'm trying to think of a way to close this entry, but unfortunately, my thoughts are fixated on a large cup of Hazelnut in the ASUCD Coffeehouse.

Mmmmm...hazelnut....

"Excellent paper, on the whole."

It's an ungodly hour, I should be sleeping, yet...this thought compelled me to get out of bed, turn on my computer, and write.

I'm staring at the English paper I just got back. I'm enrolled in ENL 122: Milton—a class that I'd been warned about, a class that others said would not be good for my GPA, a class that even English majors avoid, a class that a potential English minor like myself would not need to take.

I have a 100% quiz average. My first paper was a 93%. I'm expecting a B+ as the lowest possible grade on my midterm.

And yet...

...And yet, I'm not satisfied. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad about my grade, and what it will do to my battered GPA.

But 93%? This paper was hardly worthy of the grade. I cobbled it together on in a few hours' work after even fewer hours of sleep, an afterthought in a week dominated by a looming math midterm. The ideas may have had some merit, but the writing...the writing was abstract, wandering, unfocused, unrefined.

"Eloquent and generally correct."

The lack of challenge bothers me. I want to progress, to grow, to be a better writer in December than I was in September. I envy, in a sense, those in my class who struggle, who work to earn A's—a sense of accomplishment rewards their efforts, while emptiness greets my own half-hearted work.

I want a challenge, a class that forces me to write and rewrite and rewrite again, a class where I can throw my writing into a furnace and burn away the dross, forging something strong and refined and beautiful.

Nine quarters in college, and I've yet to find such a class.

Maybe I'm too hard on myself. Or maybe I'm a whining braggart trying to show some pretense of humility in light of (what we presume may be) a talent for the written word. But I see and read the likes of Hannah and Alex and Zach and I perceive a clarity and wit and depth far beyond my grasp, tantalizing and distant as the winter sun and I wonder—without the constant challenge to hone my craft, will I ever reach higher, or will I find contentment grounded in mediocrity?

A pox on thee, oh foul Nelly of the St. Lunatics, for belaboring the common utterance "It's getting hot in here" with truly sordid and unsavory connotations, inviting ridicule for the poor unwary soul on whose lips the once innocent words may pass.

Incidentally, Nelly has inspired me.

Gotta love referrer logs. A thread on a Chinese web design forum includes TheThousand.net and my other personal site, the d/votional project in a list of very prominent sites in the web design world. Apparently, someone thinks I'm talented.

I'm not worthy. Personally, I think someone grabbed the link off of someone else's site (I'm guessing Dan Hunter's site) and didn't bother to look at the sites themselves...I don't belong on that list. Hehe. Anyways, it's still nice to see that this site is getting hits from all over the world. Thanks for the link-up!

If anyone who can read simplified Chinese can give me a clearer idea about what the site and the thread are about, I'd be very appreciative.