Dan Dickinson: The Primary Vivid Weblog

Today, I realized what is going to be the toughest non-essential decision of the semester; which teacher on Tuesday/Thursday is funnier? Professor Mosse, who teaches CS414, is a very wacky Brazilian type, who cracks one joke every 3 minutes. Even his bad jokes are good. On the other hand, Michael Spivey, who teaches COG 101, made a very strong leap for the lead today. In the past, his only truly wacky trait was using a sword as a pointer for his slides. But while explaining “combinational explosions” with regards to logic (lots of variables = huge truth tables), he said “Now while I don’t have any video of a combinational explosion, I do have video of a combine explosion”. He then proceeded to play (I Am Not Making This Up) a 90 second clip of him playing Carmageddon 2 and smashing other cars, people, and then finally, the combine car in the game. Such creative use of video games, let alone Carma 2, is amazing. I’m contemplating setting up a subpage for tracking all their wacky exploits this semester. It will be a tough call, I’m sure.

Well, after a whopping two days of classes, I’ve hit my first weekend. I’ll try to keep away from those evil bullets for this update. Classes – ORIE350 (Financial and Managerial Accounting) looks to be interesting, and the prof seems to know what he’s doing AND keep it interesting. CS414 (Operating Systems) is taught by an extremely hilarious Brazillian, and looks to be a lot of fun. PSYCH 102 (Intro to Cog. Studies) is taught by an extremely interesting character who uses a broadsword to point at his lecture slides. CS381(Theory Of Computing) is taught by the Evil Sergei Artemov. As for ENGRD264, I’ve only heard good things about it – first class in on Monday. Extra-Curricular – I get to go out chalking today for CCC, woohoo! Our first meeting is next week, for those of you curious. Outside of that, really nothing else school-related is going on. Life – it’s just wacky as usual. The Fab Four have their cable modem running now, as does the Gillian Daniel House. Ben Land Land is still connection-less. Over in Sheldon, we had our first floor meeting last night with the extra-perky Rachel. Our room seems to have some power issues which will hopefully be resolved soon enough. Oh, and I picked up Chrono Cross – plus some more DVDs (Brazil Criteron, Beyond The Mat) are on the way. Cube: The Cube is at about 70% where I’d like it to be. The software is mostly all set up, although most of my new games won’t run till I get my Huge Stick O’ Ram on Monday. The Palm is back up, and my printer will be set this evening. It’s pretty much all good, although there’s a bizarre DVD-speaker-bug-thing that I need to ask around about. Random other thoughts: Sapporo Ichiban Ramen is 10x higher qualited than Mauchan (sp?). Wegman’s Dr. Pepper knock-off is very good, and the cream soda is decent. I gashed my Achilles tendon last night on the ultra-sharp bed post – not too deep, but enough to keep it bleeding for 5 minutes or so. Cornell Dining won’t let me put on Big Red Bucks without going onto meal plan, so I must go onto meal plan once more. Netscape continues to baffle me at how bad their CSS implementation is. I think that’s all. Reach me via the usual mechanisms.

And it’s as wonderful as I had hoped. The two minor problems I was having fixed themselves. I am completely satisifed. Thanks to everyone at the Campus Store for putting up with me for the past week.

As usual, here’s what has been happening in my life in a nice bulleted list. - I still do not have my Cube. John Chiment has been gone from the store for the past two days, and everyone else at the store seems to be unable to check the Apple status page. I’m crossing my fingers that it’ll show up tomorrow, but I’m starting to doubt even that. - Everyone from ’22 last year has moved back in. The Steinberg/Heidt/Marcus/Friedland Compound has digital cable (as will we), and the Ben Land Fortress is set with a surround-sound DVD setup. The Gillian Daniel House is a nice change from all this modern crap, and the APO house, home of Emily and Alissa, is nice in a frat-housey sort of way. - As for our room – the TV/PSX/N64 is here, so now I can occupy myself until my Cube arrives. Huzzah. We have a very nice setup – those of you on campus should feel free to swing by any time. - I’ve purchased books for one class; two more tomorrow, last one on Friday. Classes start Thursday, for those of you keeping track. - I keep running into people from last year, which is very nice. Hi to all of you re-visiting my page. - Courtney O’Malley is a stupid fuck; you would think he would ERASE the West Campus list from LAST YEAR. But no, he has to spam us all. Go Cornell! You hire the brightest cookies. - I talked to John Weissman today from CCC; the words “Guster and Moby” were spoke. More details after I find them out. - As usual, the Cornell administration is covered in Big Red Tape. I have yet to get my Big Red Bucks because the Dining Office is fubar. And you already know my take on the Campus Store. - Sam Goody may be the bane of my existance this year. I shall make an effort to shop elsewhere, and save lots of precious cash. - My sister passed her Course 2 Regents at long last with a 70. Nice work, Ellen. I think that’s everything. I will hopefully have a domain name soon, so that family members who don’t bookmark my site will be able to remember it easily. Until then, mail me or whatever.

Cross and I did a little room re-arrangement, and the room has gone from suck-ass to whomp-ass. I’ll get some pictures taken as soon as I get a chance. It still is a little small, but everything is nicely spaced and there’s still room to manuver. And now something for all the Cornell friends from Class of ’22 last year who are reading this page – I am planning a welcome-back dinner, Wednesday Night (time TBA) at Billy Bob Jack’s 1, out by the mall. I obviously need people to drive as well. BBJ is a great barbecue place, and I can assure you the main restaurant is better than the one in C-Town. RSVP in this phorum thread. And please do RSVP, so we don’t have to negotiate people 2 hours before we go.

Apple didn’t give the store a tracking number, so while we know the Cubes are on the way, we don’t know where the hell it is. Monday is the new date I’ve been quoted. On the other hand, the tryout for the Apple Campus Rep job went very well. I think I sold about 4 machines, which was more than I expected to do. One amusing note was that a grad student who I had helped find Goldwyn Smith earlier in the day was one of the people looking for help - I think she’s getting a Powerbook. :) This weekend, I’m hacking together a new news script. So hopefully this front page will get a little better.

This morning, I stopped into Sheldon Court to get my keys and check out my room. Here are the pros and cons that I have discovered. Pros: - Great location – and you really don’t here the street noise unless the window is open. - Friendly staff - Good quality chairs, bookshelves (huge!), and lights (the room is actually FULLY ILLUMINATED! Someone notify West Campus!) - Some interesting storage space spots. Cons: - It’s small. - It’s really small. - It’s smaller than ANY ROOM I HAVE LIVED IN TO DATE. Take the room Neil was in last year, make it longer and bit wider, and that’s our room. It seems like about half the size of the room I was in last year. - The beds are bunked and I have no idea how we’re going to unbunk them and still have room to live. This is going to take some very creative redecorating.

News blips and bleeps that showed up on my radar today: - My sister was in the emergency room of the Cayuga Medical Center tonight due to her having serious trouble breathing and a fever of over 102. She’s out now, and seems to be okay. - My Cube is 95% likely to come in tomorrow, it having shipped today via the fastest shipping methods possible. Monday at the latest. So if it’s here tomorrow, I’ll move back on campus on Sunday; otherwise, probably Monday. - The magnificent Quotefile has been reset for the new school year, mostly because I had a wonderful quote from Colin at Freeverse where he was extremely jealous over my Cube. Tee-hee. The old quotefile is linked from the new one, so if you need to get all retro, check there. - I’m working on a Software page that lists various software I use; this will be useful for all those lovely people I’ve been converting to the Macintosh as of late. Speaking of which, Audion is having a birthday party today, where you can order it for $9.95 until the end of the day. I registered, and you should too, just because it’s so damn swank. - Aspyr sent me an invitation to their Press Event in October, along with a nifty hat – unfortunately, it’s looking like travel will be too expensive for me. Oh well, I couldn’t win the Porsche anyhow. Feel free to discuss in the forums.

My ever exciting schedule for the fall semester is up in the usual spot. Enjoy.

Lots of little junk today, some of which I had forgotten previously. Here goes nothing: - My Cube has gotten pushed back a few days; latest date is now the 22nd. Gah. - On the other hand, I get to work at the Campus Store Friday helping out with the Computer Fair. If I get over enough, I have the Apple Campus rep job. Cross your fingers for me. - I probably didn’t mention this to anyone, but Sam Goody has re-opened in its old location in C-Town. Amazingly quick construction! - Some of my relatives will be around Wednesday-Friday, so I may be a little hard to get a hold of when not at work on those days. - I am semi-officially now the FV Webmaster, since Steve seems to want to throw the job over to me so he can just be the art guy. More later on this. - Best wishes to Kate’s best friend Tracy who was in a nasty car accident last week – thankfully, she’s okay. Hope everything works out, Trace. - Software related – Audion is an awesome MP3 player. And Aspyr rocks too, for even thinking to invite me to their press event in October. - I’m moving back on campus…sometime. I have honestly no idea when. I get my keys on Friday, and my stuff will slowly be migrating. The computer delays are my primary concern. And now you know….the rest of the story.