I'm writing this at quarter to six in the morning. While I often like staying up late, I have to admit that the last few days I've been running short on sleep, and thus, apologies if this entry is slightly incoherent.
The bread crumbs pointing to my TAing OS next semester are becoming more and more. I just got an email from Peter Lee confirming with Kesden that I'm one of the TAs next semester (the other three being Cory Williams, Jason Liszka, and Georgios Markakis, none of whom I know. Oh well, it's good to meet new people, and this is a pretty good situation in which to meet them...) The one thing that makes me nervous / uncertain is that Kesden told me he'd give preference to people who were already TAing, and he didn't know how many of them were sticking around (there are currently 5 TAs for OS). None of those four people (including me :-) appear to be current OS TAs, so it's possible that nobody from the current cast wanted to stay, but I'm not sure... I think I should get in anyway assuming that everybody doesn't decide to stay or something, though.
I badly need to work on bunches of stuff. In the next couple of weeks I have a major OS project due, an OS homework assignment, an Ancient Philosophy paper I have yet to seriously start, and four finals (two of which I think have take-home components, one of which is entirely take-home.) I'd really rather do a paper for Minds, Machines and Knowledge than the take-home final (it's a choice), but realistically I may get crunched and have to make the tough choice (which Mark has already made). On the plus side, Mark and I did really start implementing our filesystem; design is done unless there are mistakes in it (which there definitely were in the kernel, but none that were too difficult to iron out.)
I've got Nanase Aikawa's Yumemiru Shoujo ja Irarenai badly stuck in my head. Okay, so that tends to happen when you listen to a song 30 or 40 times in a day. It took me by surprise when I realized how similar it is to Bang's Shooting Star, one of my favorite songs. Though the first is rock and the second techno, they both have strong female vocals with continuous driving energy and a certain emotional "feel" that's very hard to put into words. Do yourself a favor and listen to both of them, I think there's a good chance you'll like them.
Lastly, Brasseye is hilarious. It's a British spoof of a weekly news show. Slashdot had a story about it a long time back; very quickly after that it was pulled from the site that had been distributing it, I'm not sure why. Anyway, the one episode I have deals with pedophilia in a very humorous / over-the-top fashion. There are at least six episodes since this one is the sixth - I wish it were easy to find the rest, but actually it was quite difficult to even find this one. Actually, if you have any idea how to get your hands on the rest of the episodes, could you do me a favor and let me know?
I thought it was Wednesday. I went around telling people that my filesystem was due in 55 hours and so on. Then I realized that I had had Arlo-Costa's class today (in fact, I had a nice little conversation with him after class). So then for a few panicked minutes I thought it was Thursday, which would have been really bad. Then I finally realized it was Tuesday, meaning we have a little longer than I thought.
I'm definitely TAing OS next semester. What I didn't realize about Kesden's offer to his current TAs is that only one of them has ever accepted. He's even looking for one more person - he asked the class on Monday if anyone wanted to. The class Monday was very small, due no doubt to the filesystem project. Our project is finally starting to move along, and while we may not have time to iron out all of the bugs or get the performance to where we'd like, we should have something okay to turn in, at least.
Da... Da... Da... Daa-daa!
For those who have difficult hearing melodies through text, that was the first few notes of Also Sprach Zarathustra, which you may be more familiar with as the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey (which I've never seen). It's also the first few notes of Space Odyssey by Vinylgroover & Trixxy, the sounds of which greeted me by choice when my filesystem had made its first file - a zero-byter known as "grapefruit".
Yes, we've (mostly) done it again - despite starting our assignment far too late, we're actually going to turn something halfway decent in. Right now all features have been implemented (although with a few known bugs) and a lot of testing is still needed. The filesystem is due in 17 hours. We have no late days left.
While listening to that music I decided that I needed to go for a walk, so I copied the remainder of the CD (Happy 2b Hardcore Volume 4) onto Robert Jr. and took a walk through CMU's campus. I thought about a lot of things. Some locations on campus trigger memories or thoughts that I'd rather not have, but at the time I was triumphant and didn't give a damn.
I can't get away from the message of Shooting Star. I'm really going to discover what living that is like next semester, as I push myself further than I ever have before. I may drop a class, I may bend, but I will not break. I'll show the world - and myself - what I can do if I try.
Normally after turning in an assignment you feel less nervous. No such luck this time. The version of the filesystem project we turned in had seriously broken symlinks. Mark had been looking for what was wrong with them for hours beforehand while I tested and debugged other things, and packaged up the files (they had tons of debugging stuff in them which neeced to be stripped out). But I wouldn't give up. Within three hours after the deadline I had fixed symlinks to the point where they basically worked.
Unfortunately we had no late days left. So I sent an email with a patch (only about 7 lines actually changed) to the 15-412 staff mailing list, telling them that it would be fair for them to ignore it, but to possibly consider what I had done. It could make a substantial difference to our grade. I got back a response from Kesden within 15 minutes saying that he would make sure the grader at least took a look at the patch, but that he couldn't commit to anything one way or the other. While I think that's perfectly fair (and I probably would have done the same thing had I been running the course), it means that now I have to see how things turn out. This could easily mean the difference between reasonably being able to get an A in the course (maintaining my 4.0 in-major GPA) and a B (which would make me very unhappy). Sigh...
The last two days I've gone to sleep some time after most people have probably already waken up (well, maybe not on weekends, but still) and woken up after 17:00. I really need to stop doing that... I've also been sleeping much more than normal. I guess the past week burned me out - understandable, since I think I was writing code at twice the estimated average coding speed of 100 lines per day.
I can't remember the last time I was on a normal (or sane) sleep schedule, but I also can't remember the last time I was up for over 22 hours straight - before today, that is. Well, technically I dozed off for a few minutes while studying for the Ancient Philosophy exam I didn't know I had until less than 6 hours before I had to take it, but we won't count that, will we? Mark ICQed me, having accidentally found out about it on the course Blackboard site. The scary thing is that we easily could have both not known about it at all and walked into class not expecting anything. (And not done too well, since I did actually read a substantial chunk of the material, despite my tiredness, to better prepare for the exam.) The joys of college...
I like TV. Well, perhaps it's one of those cases where the less exposure you have to something, the better it seems, but I like the shows I watch. Yesterday I watched the tail-end of The Simpsons (I forgot about the beginning), Malcolm in the Middle and The X-Files. There was a period where I was tired of The X-Files, but I got over it, and now I like it again. And tonight, if there's any way I can be awake then (yeah, right), I'll watch Ally McBeal.
As to what else I've been doing in the past day, there are some things you don't want to tell the world. I wish I could write stuff only I can read... oh wait, I can. <invisible-ink> </invisible-ink> Umm, long story short: me and Alison are on speaking terms again, I guess.
I'm too sleepy to write more this minute...
The last few days have been a test run for next semester. I've slept about 13 hours out of the past 55. Yesterday I helped Priya out with SML, I've had a ton of logic to do (I still have one problem which I just can't figure out), I haven't missed any classes this week and I have a lot on my mind. But as I said in an email I sent today:
And I must say that in a deep sense there's nothing more satisfying than testing my limits and finding out that I can go farther than I ever thought possible.
I'm really looking forward to next semester. It's my first chance to push beyond a lot of things that have held me back and to test my limits. And the opportunity is mine both to create and to take advantage of. Despite my sleep deprivation I feel driven to attempt whatever comes my way.
This evening I went to the Almost Midnight Breakfast. The food was decent (far better than the can of lentil soup I wasn't able to force myself to finish) and I ran into Ed and Priya (separately). It wasn't terribly exciting, honestly, but it was decent.
My OS demo is on Saturday. Kesden decided to drop one homework, so I've got a bit more of a buffer as far as grading to still get an A in the course. Still, I'm going to need a bit of luck both on the filesystem and on the final exam to pull it off. Wish me luck. :-)
I'm posting this from a tent by the Fence as it rains outside. Only in CMU can you be in a tent in the middle of a field and still have wireless ethernet and power. The SDC Primal Scream barbeque was a success, although there weren't any streakers (unless they show up at the very last minute...) The number of people visiting my webpage due to a simple post to misc.market was enormous - more traffic in the past day than in the entire preceeding month. Robert Jr. is providing the music (Astral Projection at the moment) as I write.
I had a veggie burger which was one of the best I've ever had, not so much because it was excellent as because veggie burgers usually suck. Also, I was very hungry, not having eaten much in the past day. My sleep schedule is still very erratic and I'm still in a state where stuff seems to be magical. I'm greatly looking forward to next semester. I suppose maybe I should be more worried about my finals and my Ancient Philosophy paper, but I'm not. Somehow I know everything will work out in the end.
Maybe not of particular interest to you, but it is to me: I'm getting a new (80G) hard drive and selling one of my old ones (17G) to Chris Gessner since he has a computer that can't take a big one. We split the cost of overnight shipping to make sure it gets here before I leave. My current (45G) drive was actually starting to fill up. My download rate must be accelerating or something, cause I've never needed a new drive quite this soon before... oh well.
My logic and Ancient Philosophy finals were yesterday. They both went reasonably well - I think I aced the logic (as I should have), and as far as the Ancient Philosophy, the first two (of three) questions were very long but answerable. The third I didn't really know the material for, but managed to crank out something anyway. My OS final (the last one I actually have to be here to do) is in an hour from now.
My new 80G hard drive also arrived yesterday. I love Linux. Install the drive, ( cd / ; tar clSvf - . ) | ( cd mnt/new ; tar xSf - ), wait four or five hours (it takes a long time to copy 40G or so), reboot with a SuSE install floppy, choose "boot installed system", rerun LILO, and voila, old system on new drive. I really was starting to run out of space on the old one, and Chris Gessner asked to buy the really old one because he has a couple of computers he's putting together that won't take drives bigger than 32G. So we had a couple of hard drives shipped overnight here.
I had a spontaneous urge to hear the Ivory Tower theme song (I'm in a reminiscent / emotional mode), but the original version, not the techno remix on the Neverending Story soundtrack. So I went on Gnutella, not really expecting anything. Imagine my surprise when someone had apparently had exactly the same thought as me and had recorded it directly off the videotape. It had a little bit of voice in it, but that was okay. People can be so good sometimes... I wish I could say that it made me hopeful for all of humanity, but at least I believe I'll be able to find a niche where I'll be respected, maybe even understood. That's probably too much to ask, but I'm going to hold this mood for as long as I possible can. It's been longer than I can remember since I've been this deeply optimistic.
If you see me next semester, remind me to eat. I will forget. Bring me food, if you're feeling generous. Don't worry about it, though. All part of the master plan. :-)
Hmm. I was getting into a rhythm of daily updates, and then I got out of it. Oh well. My updates will be much less frequent over vacation, although Ragnar is staying here and I will still try to do them. I'll be working for the DMV again, this time installing computers (joy, I know, but it pays). My dad arrives later today (hard to believe) and we leave Monday.
My OS exam was on Friday. Though I didn't have a feeling of absolute mastery over the material, that's hard to get when two of the three questions you answer are design questions (the essay questions of computer science). I attempted the problem which upon talking with Kesden the TAs had apparently unanimously decided was the problem they wouldn't have answered if they were taking the exam (you had to do 3 out of 4 of them). My demo is later today, and I guess I'll just have to see how that goes. I think I have a good shot at an A in the course, though it's not a foregone conclusion. I really want that A.
My philosophy paper has finally gotten started... sigh. I was actually able to find a couple of "e-books" about my topic (Aristotelian science) without even leaving my dorm, so that's good. Having only one day to write the entire paper, on the other hand, is not so good. But I've always managed before and I can't stop now.
I'm on a totally inverted sleep schedule - going to bed at 13:00, getting up around 21:00. This will be a problem for my OS demo, but again, I'll make it somehow. Amp maybe. (That stuff is magic.)
Vacation looks to be slow and boring. At least it should be relaxing, and I will make myself get around to playing Final Fantasy 9 and Chrono Cross. And then prepare for the semester from Hell. Heh.
Well, first the obvious: Ragnar's down (I think some idiot maintenance person probably turned him off), so no one but me will see this update for quite some time. Oh well.
On Monday I finished up my philosophy paper in the very early hours of the morning. I slept about 2 hours that night, and the paper totally sucked, but it did get done. I slept most of the drive back (and didn't drive at all). Almost all of Tuesday and Wednesday were spent doing my Minds, Machines and Knowledge final. It was tough and made me actually read the papers for the class. :-) I only had to answer 4 of the 8 questions, but I answered 6 since we were able to do extras for extra credit. I would have done the last two, but they involved a paper which was 500 miles away at the time.
Thursday I started work at the DMV. They have a variety of things for me to do this vacation. My workstation doesn't appear to have internet access, but the server (Hydra) does (how the DMV makes these decisions I'll never know) and I have administrator access to it now, so it's all good. I've been reorganizing some files for their migration from the old server (Appdevsrv) to Hydra, and writing a VB wrapper for a DLL they have so far.
Most of Friday was spent writing a story. I started it a long time ago, but I actually had to finish it for a very important reason. I'll post it on the site, probably by the time this update actually goes up, and hopefully along with a few other stories I've written and never posted. I'm hardly a professional writer, but I like to think that my fiction is halfway decent.
Now I'm at the Hamm family Christmas celebration. My family is interesting... they're not so bad. Earlier this morning I finally did some Christmas shopping. I got some hats for my dad, a cookie cutter and an ornament for my mom, some Zim t-shirts and stickers for Mark and Mitch, and a CD/MP3 player for my sister (which cost a bit more than I was expecting to spend on a present for her, but I was feeling generous). I also found a bunch of stuff that I might want for me, but I decided to wait on that until after Christmas, when maybe some of it will go on sale or I won't want it any more.
Well, I guess that's about all for now...
My Christmas was nice. I pretty much got what I expected - cash and gift certificates mostly (I did actually make a Christmas list this year, but it was a little too late for people to actually buy things on it in time for Christmas, so I guess it becomes my birthday list instead). My combo DVD/CD-RW drive (hard to believe I've been without a burner all these years, isn't it?) did arrive and my mom managed to keep it a secret (and was lucky that I didn't check the tracking that Fedex does on packages), so that was a surprise (not the drive, just the fact that it was already here). Now I get to figure out how to watch DVDs in Linux. (More software to poke around with :-)
Sunday I restarted Final Fantasy 9 (for the 3rd time). I actually intend to finish it this time. On Monday and today, though, I was at my mom's house, and that didn't feel like an ideal environment for playing, for various reasons. I would actually play some right now, except that I'm a bit tired and have to get up for work tomorrow.
My sister and I decided to get my mother a cream and sugar set she had been asking for. Unfortunately we picked out the wrong one, but fortunately we found that out very early, so Vic was able to pick up the right one for us on the way home from work. The "right" one is pewter and my mom is very pleased with it.
Today we opened presents. Then my paternal grandparents came up to visit. My mom had a nice breakfast made for them and us. (Well, actually she had to make it after they arrived, but I was doing random computer stuff and didn't really worry about that too much.) This evening, after everything else was over, we watched It's a Wonderful Life. It was a quite good movie and didn't feel "murky" and unfocused like so many black-and-white movies that I've usually only seen snippets of, but the ending was to me slightly unsatisfying - I wanted to see Mr. Potter get it, not just for George to be okay (of course, the latter was expected, since I knew the premise before seeing it).
Setting up DVD playing in Linux was easy. So easy, in fact, that I feel slightly cheated. I wanted that feeling of accomplishment from messing around with something for several hours getting it to work :-) The player I'm using is Ogle, apparently the first DVD player for Linux to support menus, and they work beautifully in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (also a Christmas present).
The Final Fantasy DVD is very, very cool. Besides the movie it includes two sets of commentary, English and French soundtracks and subtitles, an isolated score with commentary, a second video track with storyboards and working versions of the renders, and a second disk with a making-of documentary and lots of other special stuff. I can only hope other DVDs come with anywhere near as much stuff, although of course the pristine video production alone is valuable.
Burning took a bit longer to set up (and I still haven't tested it) even though I've done it before - I thought I still had my old setup left, but I didn't. I would have been totally lost without the CD Writing Howto, which goes step by step through how to set up burning under Linux. The main things that's left is to see if it works with DMA on (I hope so, but Mark said he had problems with it.) Anyway, I'm very pleased with the drive's hardware and with it's support under Linux (though I never would have installed Windows to get it to work - I would have played around with it in Linux until it worked come hell or high water).
Other than that the past couple days have been relatively quiet. Adam (my supervisor) is out on vacation, so I'm working unsupervised, but have still managed to get a surprising amount of the VB DLL wrapper I'm working on written. I'm looking forward to the weekend, when I should have lots of free time to play FF9.
I'm a little freaked out right now. See, I just watched eXistenZ, a reality bender (for lack of a better term; it's a sub-genre of fiction, the most popular example of which is The Matrix), and it ended totally without resolution. Then I was watching the credits, and seemed to be noticing a lot of names I knew... and then there was a Kenn. My first name (spelled correctly) is very uncommon - I don't know that I've ever met someone who shares it in person. So, that was more than a little weird...
I've played about 18 hours of Final Fantasy 9 in the past three days. It's a damn fun game, and reminds me more of Final Fantasy 6 than it does the other two Playstation Final Fantasies. Unfortunately it won't be possible to beat the game this year, but I will probably beat it before going back to school.
This has not been my week for physical objects. First I broke my watch for good while trying to replace the battery (though it might have already been broken). Then my new VCR didn't seem to quite be put together right - some of the connectors on the back are misplaced and one of them is badly bent. We're exchanging it some time later this week. Then I managed to step on my glasses this morning and bend the frames badly enough that I needed to tape the lenses into them to still use them at all. I wasn't planning to get a new pair, but the insurance is ready to give them to me, so I guess I will be. The lenses from my old ones are fine, but the frames probably aren't salvagable.
Kenn Hamm
For copyright and other information, click here.
Last modified: Sun Jan 13 17:43:47 2002