<journal>

Monday, December 2, 2002 at 05:43 p.m.
It's that time of the month again!

Page archived on Monday December the Second of the year Two-Thousand and Two | See Current Entries | View All Archives

Monday, December 2, 2002 at 05:13 p.m.
Okay, more. :-)

Where has everyone gone? My room is empty... oh well. More time to write and listen to my music. And maybe I'll do some math when I'm done with this. We're finding volumes of rotated solids by complex Riemann sums and Integration... childs play, really.

So... Thanksgiving was quite good. In the span of four days, I had three huge dinners -- first, the Thanksgiving feast here at TH, then Thanksgiving, and then the traditional Second Thanksgiving (comprised of the one-day-old leftovers, which actually get better).

I also got to see two of my friends again... we went to coffee and then a movie: James Bond - Die Another Day. It was an excellent Bond movie as I believe I said after the first time I saw it. It was still good the 2nd time. ((Dear Santa, I would like only one thing this christmas: an invisible car with homing missiles and auto-targeting machine guns. Thank you.)) I had a little bit of an ordeal getting home and back, but it all worked out in the end (Thank you thank you thank you!!! (you know who you are ;-)).

It was good to be home again for just a little while... it felt like home still... with my junk still in the same places (except for my desk), my brother's messy room, the dogs (who I missed the most ;-), the TV (which was weird... I don't really watch TV anymore), the backyard, the little town (which hasn't changed much), my family and friends (of course), and everything else... it was nice.

One thing that did bug me was the lack of decent audio anywhere to be found in our house. My laptop speakers were nothing, the in-wall house speakers lacked power and low end, and even my Dad's new Panasonic Noise Cancelling headphones were not to my liking sound-wise. Maybe I'm too picky. But I do like the Bose/Yamaha combo we've got here in my room. It's very good sounding, everything is clear, from the lowest basses (down to 17Hz and farther) to the absolute upper-limit treble (I found out I can hear 22KHz :-). And everything in between just sounds great. Ahh! I don't want to be an audiophile! What will I do with my MP3 collection??? Ehh. I don't care that much (yet). I just encode at 128Kbps WMA 9 (since they claim 48Kbps is "CD quality") and download everything above 160Kbps MP3 if possible. It's not hard to hear the difference. I'm mainly concerned with the speakers, really. Actually, I'm mainly concerned with school. Speakers are just a free-time thing. Heh heh...

Yeah, so I finally finished re-rating my music collection in Windows Media Player 9. Didn't take that long. And now I have all the cool auto-playlist functionallity that's soooo cool.

Okay, dinnertime. ::

Monday, December 2, 2002 at 01:52 p.m.
Woah... it's been a long time...

And I have only 7 minutes to think of something interesting...

Oh! So I went home for thanksgiving... that was fun. More on that later.

I updated the Windows Media Player "9 Series" player from the Beta version to the first Release Canidate (RC1). And, of course, Microsoft doesn't think to keep all the ratings from the previous version... so I lost all my music ratings on both my laptop and desktop. I have all my music stored on both my Laptop and Desktop... with about 1.2 GB more of techno and dance and hip-hop on my laptop from my DJ experience. I'll just keep it there. I still have 9 GB free. On my desktop, however, I only have 900 MB free on my 6.4GB music-only D drive. Plus 15GB free on my C drive. So no real worries there. Anyway, the point is, I take my music everywhere with me, but also have redundancy in case either system somehow loses all data... It's good to have the laptop to backup stuff with. :-)

Anyway, class... more later... so, yeah. ::

Tuesday, November 26, 2002 at 12:28 p.m.
Cosmology

Space is fun. Especially when you bend it in weird shapes and defy the apparent laws of mathematics. This is what we did in Astro lab today. We made small cylindrical universes, and then the GSI told us to draw a triangle with three 90 degree angles on them. I had the answer before we were even finished making our universe -- and I did it in simulated 3D on a 2D plane... not even simulated 4D on a 3D plane, which is what the paper cylinder universe was for. I like this kind of stuff. Here's an example: Take a sheet of paper and draw a 3 dimensional cube on it. Imagine that is your universe -- it has three dimensions, just like you're used to. You can walk around in it in the xy directions and also move in the z direction. Okay, now take a pen, and place it perpendicular to the paper, right on top of your 3D cube universe -- from the cube universe, where is the pen?

Cool stuff. :-) ::

Monday, November 25, 2002 at 06:52 p.m.
Stuff

Okay, it's been a while, so here we go. First of all, the thing I didn't want to talk about didn't really amount to much. We were playing with little toy pellet guns downstairs in the basement, and I set off the fire sprinkler, which flooded the basement (a.k.a. soaked the couches and drenched the electronics -- the floor is cement), and set off the alarm, and called the fire department, etc. etc. So I was pissed off at that last Thursday, when I felt pretty guilty and sucky. It turned out, however, that the couches dried well, all the electronics (despite being drenched with water) still worked, and, uh, the cement was fine. Apparently, basement floods are a fairly frequent occurance here at TH. There have been 3 in the past 2 years.

So that was alright.

Then there was Big Game. Now, that was awesome. We won 30-7, and the ensuing mob that took over the field tore down the goalposts. When we (the band) started leaving the stands to play postgame, the announcer said "The Band is attempting to take the field, please proceed off the field" as if he was wishing us luck. That was fun. The whole game. And then I went to dinner with my parents and brother and my aunt, which was very nice. I miss them sometimes ;-). And I am going home (finally) this Wednesday for Thanksgiving.

So, after parents left for home that night, I went to see the James Bond movie (Die Another Day) with some friends. It was pretty good. Lots of explosions and girls and guns.

When we returned at about 1:25 AM, we saw a creepy skinhead prowling around the TH parking lot, and another suspicious guy on the other side of the street. Not cool. In hindsight, we should have called the police right then. But we didn't. Figured they were just out to steal some car sterios, and they had gotten two blocks down in a matter of seconds, so, seeing that they had not succeeded, we just went inside, kinda scared actually.

Sunday morning, I found out from someone in the bathroom that a girl's laptop had been stolen right from her room while she and her two roomates were asleep. I thought "Thank God none of my stuff was stolen" after I checked my laptop in my desk drawer. Later, I heard that two people had seen strange people in the hallways around 1 in the morning, and that the door to the bike/practice room in the basement was unlocked that morning.

So I went about my business. Until tonight. Matt, Misha and I were in the basement putting the last batch of pillows back on one of the couches. Matt found something on the floor -- "Hey tristan -- isn't this a part of your telescope?" Where is it? We look everywhere. Gone. Just the fine azimuth adjusting arm left... and just now, as I spin it around in my hands, I think "Fingerprints!" which, of course, are all erased by my own now. Stupid. Oh well. Damn you, whoever you are. I wish I could do to your eyes what I did to the sprinkler. Well, in any case... it is a pretty rare telescope to find -- not Meade or Celestron, who make millions of 60mm refractors, but Parks Optical, who makes maybe thousands, and the likelihood of more than one being in Berkeley is low. We shall see.

Interestingly enough, this thief left calling cards -- he left Lydia's mouse, and (most definately delibrately, this thing won't just fall off) my adjustor knob. I hope they catch him. And my telescope, and Lydia's iBook.

Ohhhh... it makes me angry. It really sucks. Though I feel more sorry for Lydia than myself -- she lost all her files, her data, her computer... I couldn't live... I keep backups, but still... all my music (ironically also "stolen"), games, little quirky hard-to-find utilities, everything I've ever downloaded in the last 2 years, videos, simpsons episodes, schoolwork, memories, pictures... must I continue? I think I'll backup my computer now.

Indeed I will. This gave me a real taste of city life... nothing like this would ever happen in little Ojai. Now I lock my doors, and live with a somewhat heightened level of fear... it sucks. ::

Thursday, November 21, 2002 at 03:11 a.m.


"We get distracted by dreams of our own
But nobody's happy while feeling alone
And knowing how hard it hurts when we fall
We lean another ladder against the wrong wall"

Wednesday, November 20, 2002 at 09:04 p.m.
Today sucked. Email me to find out more. I don't want to talk about it here.

Sunday, November 17, 2002 at 10:31 a.m.
I got my wish!!!

Amazing... absolutely amazing...

Let me first explain the sequence of events that led to my surprisingly interesting day.

First: Matt brings Sony sterio reciever and tiny little technics speakers to TH, not knowing that they would be required for a certain occurence in the future...

Second: We find a beautiful pair of Bose 601 6-way floor speakers at a thrift store for $20. We immediately buy them.

Third: The Room 5 Sound System (R5-SS) begins to take shape....   A corner of John's desk is donated to the amplifier, and the new speakers are placed on either side of the amp. Tristan gives up his own amp to add his (quite good sounding) Yamaha bookshelf speakers to the system. Matt's technics are mounted in sterio above the couch. Tristan runs long extention cables from his computer for (a) music and sound, and (b) video. We now have a DVD system with theater-like sound. We then mount metal road signs all the way around the couch to create a sound-reflecting "room" directly in front of the TV. The little Technics speakers are mounted facing the corners for a more balanced reflected sound, and all is well. Then Matt's computer speakers break. He takes apart his subwoofer, cuts open the couch, and attaches it inside. We now have a bass shaker in our couch. And this is the current R5-SS.

Four: Angela hears the R5-SS, and remarks in passing that "you guys could DJ for the parties! you've got the equipment!" And we tell her, "yeah right."

Five: Yesterday. Tristan comes out of the shower, and is brushing his teeth. Angela and Matt come bursting into the bathroom (co-ed bathrooms, btw, in case you're confused) a half-hour before the party and tell me that the DJ has had to cancel on us because "all his equipment was stolen."

Six: R5-SS is moved downstairs to the dining room (dance floor at parties) and set up with TH's small Sony amp. Not enough power. Set up with our Sony amp: more than enough power. The music was all digital, from my laptop, and I was the DJ.

Now, you must understand that I didn't listen to much Hip-Hop or techno or dance mixes or anything like that until just recently. I knew some stuff, most of the popular stuff, but not a lot. So it was an adventure... Aaron kept bringing me CDs of MP3's, and I just looked for stuff I knew, and constantly asked people for help, for requests, "is this song ok?" etc. etc. If I had known I would be doing this, I would have listened to dance music for a week straight beforehand.

Man, it was fun. I would definately do that again, now that I have the collection, and know most of it (I learned a lot last night :-). So I got what I asked for -- something interesting. Very interesting... it was all coincidence. Every bit of it. I didn't do a thing. Amazing...

On another note (hehe... note), I went to the first Big Game week SHB this morning. Pretty early -- 9AM -- but it was pretty painless. Just a swim meet. But I did only get about 6 hours of sleep. Maybe I'll take a nap this afternoon. But now, I'll go eat breakfast. :-) ::

Friday, November 15, 2002 at 10:17 p.m.
I think I already posted today... ah, well...

There is a lot to say, always. I could write constantly-- if I could simultaneously live out a completely normal life-- and I would never run out of things to write about. So I do this instead. It works.

Some more things I've been thinking about:

Music... ahh yes, music... I haven't played any really good jazz in a long time. Eddie said that after Big Game, we could have all the jam sessions we wanted, because he has a midterm in his Jazz theory class, and he didn't want to build bad habits by playing how he wanted before the final. So I look forward to that.     I did get this program called "Band-in-a-Box" that's pretty cool -- it's basically an accompianament program for jazz. It's nice to play along with, though generally prety straight and unfeeling. It also 'calculates' solos based on like 200 styles of famous musicians. It generally does a pretty good job. Amazing. But still not real. I like the feeling of really playing with other people and real music. I crave it now, and I have since the last time I did play, which was over two months ago. Man... it's indescribable, the kind of expression this is... you have to play to know...

Speaking of music, I have addressed Big Game week in my previous entry. Yes. Well, I think I'm going to be overwhelmed. People do say it's crazy. And I'm going to try to actually keep up in school at the same time... maybe I'm crazy. It's just a week, though... I'm sure I'll be able to manage. I always do. And it should be a lot of fun... there's lots of stuff to do, and no sleep is always fun...

And more music... Tomorrow is a game, and I'm not mentally ready. I know everything -- music, charts, the routine -- I know it all perfectly. It's like I've done it a million times before. But I don't feel like it for some reason at this moment tonight. I'm sure I'll be fine in the morning. Sleep does that. It's a nice way of getting rid of feelings you don't really want, and starting things new for a new 10-hour 180-degree period of terrestrial rotation. It's amazing how relative everything is... example: what if we were nocturnal?     Well, in any case, I still must wake up at 6 AM tomorrow and get up, get dressed, stress out for a few minutes thinking of everything I might forget, leave for the field, run back and get the thing I forgot, run back, stuff a donut in my face just three seconds before Jon Stan blows the whistle, practice, run to Sproul plaza to get a mediocre lunch quicker than anyone else (making it somewhat more satisfying), have a grape fight on the steps, walk back to BRH, put on my uniform, have sectional in the plaza, listen to Jon Stan's speech (newmen in front), run up to Sproul Steps, play the noon concert, walk calmly down to parade block under Sather Gate, march up, get to the tunnel, fight thrugh the crowds to get the water, wait around for a half-hour trying to find interesting things to talk about, get into Tunnel formation, full-hog out into initial wedge, big C - sons - jonah - fight - america - banner - jog off, walk up to the stands (tempted by the cups of gatorade sitting there for the players), watch the first half, play halftime (I could describe every move, but I won't), watch the second half, play postgame, march down, listen to Jon Stan's final speech (which I won't be able to hear because I'm standing behind him), play fight, trudge back to BRH, get out of my uniform and back into real clothes (thankful that I brought pants this time), walk back to TH (yelling "TH! TH!" at the doors to BRH), call my dad on the way home, get out my key after someone yells "newman get the door," run up the stairs two steps at a time (except the last ones -- there are 9 steps to the landing and 7 to the 2nd floor), plop down in my chair, turn on my computer, check my e-mail, turn on some music, write here a little, have dinner (after I hear the bell at 6:42, always slightly late), laugh at Matt and Misha at the table, have dessert, run back upstairs, play some computer games, maybe do a little math, wait for the party to start, go down a couple of times and sit on the couch with sober-comm and eat chex-mix, relax, and wait for the party to finish, and when it does, clean up (I'm on clean up...), and, sleep.

Wake to sleep, that is exactly how it will be. Exactly. The only uncertainties were the score of the game, and whether or not I will do a little math after dinner. But I'll say anyway: the score, 31 - 14, Cal wins. And the math: I'll do some. If I'm right on either of those, I'll be justafiably surprised.

I wish just once that something makes tomorrow interesting. Really truly interesting. Or any day, for that matter, any day from now till forever. Every day would be nice, too... every day interesting, indeed, that would be nice. But unlikely. Thus is the folly of routine. I must live in it, because I myself cannot change the routine. I am stuck in it, as we all must be in some way. We have breaks every so often, definately, but it always returns to us.

Oh, what am I saying? So pessimistic, Tristan... cheer up! Live your routine, and appreciate it, cherish it. It comprises the majority of our time on this earth, and it, too, is a beautiful thing. And change it, if you wish. Make things interesting. Nothing says you can't.

Such profound thoughts. Routine thoughts, fortunately... ;-). Have an interesting day everyone.

~::

Friday, November 15, 2002 at 11:22 a.m.
Awesome stuff and sucky stuff...

CS3 midterm: 51/50. That's a perfect score plus one. Booyah. Take that triple-midterm-day. Fate and bad-luck thought they really got me this time, but I showed them. Hehehe. How'd I get the extra point? Wrote my name on each page ;-)

CS3 project: finished part II one week ahead of schedule to allow for big game week madness. Fairly easy project. Testing has been good, with no errors/bugs yet encountered. My partner is very good (one of the other perfect score + 1's on the midterm).

Big Game SHBs: I have signed up for 10 total SHBs in the 6 days of Big Game Week. I have decided that the only classes I need to go to are math discussions and lectures (more on math coming up), and my ESPM seminar on Friday. I also need to get my Astro labs done by Friday, which will probably involve several hours of work on Sunday (after the first SHB). I have already done most of the observations I need for the 3 labs, and the others I can interpolate using my handy dandy star chart program. Yay. One of them is (conveniently) the Leonid meteor shower, which peaks Tuesday morning (Nov. 19th) at 2:30 am, which is when the clarinet section will be guarding BRH all night. So I've invited people to observe with me for a half-hour or so. Should be fun. One of the other labs is a "Celestial objects viewed through a telescope" lab. I've done plenty of deep-space observations (Saturn, Jupiter, Andromeda (finally), M6/M7, M22 (globular in Sag), and lots of others.) I only need three, so I'll be fine. It's just a short write-up for that one. So I'm set for that. :-)

On Mathematics: I have missed too many math lectures after the midterm... and I need to catch up. So I'll be going to all things math (unfortunately) during Big Game week. It's for the best. I am getting most of the stuff now... after I actually looked at what we were studying... yeah.

Saw Nathan today walking home from turning in Astro homework. We had a nice talk (he had just failed his math midterm :-( He's not going to be in Ojai Thanksgiving day, so I'm on my own for that. Get those plane tickets I guess, Dad.

::

Wednesday, November 13, 2002 at 08:39 p.m.
Life is good once again. :-)

Midterms are over, regardless of scores... I find out the last one (cs3) tomorrow. I am confident that I did well on it. Professor Dan said that it was the best test this class has ever had, making us the best class yet on average. There were 30 perfect scores, and I hope to be one of them. But I'm expecting something more modest, just so I don't get let down ;-).

I finished phase one of my cs3 project today... it's pretty easy. We don't actually have to program an entire game, we just have to make a module for a game program called gamesman. Not too hard at all. All the functions are specified with specifications and everything and we just have to write them. So it's more fun that way.

There's a fall formal at TH in 3 weeks, so they have these formal rules and stuff... this saturday starts the "three week rule" for asking people. It is the only valid time to do so, just to make it "fair." I haven't thought of anyone yet, but maybe I will.

I'm really getting CS really well. I like it, too. Fun stuff. And I'm signing up for spring semester classes today, or I did just a few minutes ago. So far: Wind ensemble, Introduction to the study of Poetry (feel like taking an english class... I can always change it later), and CS61A. I need one more 4 unit class to make things complete, and that'll probably be Math 1B. But that can wait until phase II.

Our show is going well. I can't believe that we actually learned all 4 million stuntsheets or whatever. And it looks good. Next up: BIG GAME! GO BEARS! BEAT STANFURD! I can't wait. It's supposed to be a lot of fun :-) ::

Sunday, November 10, 2002 at 10:54 p.m.
Someplace besides Berkeley

That's right folks, I'm not in my room for one night. It's a three day weekend, so I decided to visit relatives in San Jose. The BART trip was good, actually. I got to the station right on time, right after buying a ticket and walking down the stairs, there was my train. Pretty lucky, actually. I would have had to wait another 20 minutes otherwise. But I did arrive well, laptop and all (could you tell?) and was promptly picked up at the station at 2.

These particular relatives (aunt, uncle, and two little cousins to be spectific) have a particularly large house. It is very nice, though it reminds me of a pre-fabricated model home. And that's probably because it is. But still, it is huge and nice, so that certainly makes up for it. The landscaping needs work, but they're working on that. Their internet is conveniently distributed throughout the house via 802.11b WiFi, which I reccomended. It seems only fair that I take advantage of it now :-). I am very dissapointed with the speed, however. I believe that it is only a 384k connection. Not that they would need any more, but still... I do... blah. I hate when the internet is slower than the stuff I complain about at TH. But it is wireless, and that's something. So I'm sitting in bed here typing -- it's quite nice. I wish some people were online that I could talk to... it's only 11... geez. Oh well. The music is good. I love taking my entire music collection with me when I go places :-). Listening to Beth Orton right now -- "Thinking About Tomorrow" -- great song. I've listened to it for the last ten minutes, and it's only a 6 minute song. I'll have to buy the CD if I find any more good tracks on it.

Well, not much else is up at the moment. Just relaxing for the next day. I'll be back in Berkeley early Tuesday morning, with plenty of time to get to class. For now, I have nothing I need to do, so I'll just listen to music and wait for some people to sign on. :-) Laters. ::

Saturday, November 9, 2002 at 02:52 a.m.
Sunday afternoon...

Right. Forgot that.

Sunday afternoon I'll be going to my Aunt and Uncle's house for a couple days to catch up and possibly have dinner with grandparents :-).

Which reminds me, I have to check the BART schedule ... ::

Saturday, November 9, 2002 at 02:19 a.m.
Ramblings at 2 AM

Ahh, these are indeed the joys of careless Friday evenings-- Staying up late, playing computer games, watching movies... just being lazy. You know this is your one chance in the week to put your worries and obligations ahead to Monday, and just relax. Sometimes you can't, and that really sucks. And then sometimes, it's just not worth it. You do nothing for no reason. That was tonight. There was a Volleyball SHB, but I was tired and lazy, so I didn't go. I just did laundry and waited for my laundry to finish by reading magazines. A waste of a good Saturday if you ask me. No one was here. The house felt empty, and it was. Many people are on the ASU road trip; others have gone home. I have nowhere to go until tomorrow afternoon, which I will discuss momentarily.

Listening to some old music at the moment. Nanci Griffith -- One Fair Summer Evening. It's folk, and it sounds too much like country for me to put it on the speakers, so I am satisfied with my headphones. It reminds me of so many things, this album -- long car trips to Yosemite, where I sat in the back seat of the pickup truck driving through the Mojave with a home-made swamp cooler; some sunny perfect-teperature spring day in our old house with our old sterio playing this very music. Yes, this was music of my childhood-- This and David Wilcox, among others. It's no wonder that it comforts me now. And it's good, too. I have always loved the truth and simple beauty of folk music. But I do love all music. I can still bump a techno or rave mix and quite enjoy it, though for many different reasons. The same is true for Jazz, and pop, and classical, and rock... I have no favorite. It's all good.

The point, you ask? Well, I'm just rambling, as I said. Just writing. I miss it. I miss a lot of things. But then again, there are things that I wouldn't give up now that I have them. :-)

One last thing: An interesting article appeared on Yahoo today -- apparently Mars is reaching its closest point to Earth in 75000 years. In August of 2003, it will appear 85 times brighter than it does currently. Very interesting... Read it. ::

Friday, November 8, 2002 at 11:49 a.m.
Okay, I'm slightly better now. From what, you ask?

Well, I'll just have right at it here. As I'm sure you know, I had three midterms in one day on Wednesday this week. Well, I'm getting them back in the same order I took them. Astro wasn't terrible, though I expected much much better. Damn multiple choice tests. This morning I got my math test back. And then I prayed to the God of the Internet that my third test would be good. Now, I'm not a religious person, so you must understand how desperate I must have been. I failed the math test. I don't fail tests. But I knew that I had, the minute after I turned it in. I don't fail tests. Something inside maybe thought that I could have passed it by luck -- what if those last few scrawled answers were right? But I DON'T FAIL TESTS! And I failed that one. Some major psychological conflict going on there.

So I felt horrible for the entire hour of math, and walked home slower than I ever had before, not particularly wanting to go, or to be, anywhere. I got home, checked the CS3 site to see if grades were posted, and immediately grabbed my clarinet and went downstairs to relieve my stress. Music is truly a great thing. I played for an hour or so, and now I feel much better.

Don't worry Dad, I'll still pass the class. There is still the final, which counts as one of the midterms if it's higher than it. And I think I can get more than half the points on the final. I'll study like mad-- not like this time, where I studied like I didn't think I needed to-- but really, truly, for the sake of my career as a student, I will study like a madman for the dead week (= week between when classes end and finals begin).

But for now, please let me get a good grade on the CS3 midterm... ;-) ::

Friday, November 8, 2002 at 11:09 a.m.


Dear God, Please make my CS3 midterm good. Please... please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease.... ..............gf;kjdgk ::

Tuesday, November 5, 2002 at 12:29 a.m.
New music, more studying, more stuff.

I stayed up late last night studying math... actually got a lot done, but still, 2:30 AM is too late for a 10 AM class. Well, I don't have class today until 11, but still, I'll be sleeping within the hour. I am quite tired. Too much math!

Well, at least the background music sounds awesome. I hooked up my Yamaha's onto Matt's amp's C channel (we have two small 4" Technics (which are also quite nice) in the back behind the couch for a surround-like effect (even though it's just dual sterio). I'll post a positioning layout and some speaker pics on my web site sometime :-). Anyway, only 2 channels can be on simultaneously, which works fine for us -- the Bose 601's are on all the time (obviously) and we add the Yamaha's for everything but movies, and we use the Technics for movies alone. Everything sounds excellent. So, the total "speaker count" now: (1 pair) Bose 601 Series II 6-way direct-reflecting floor speakers. (1 pair) Yamaha DX-3 2-way Bookshelf speakers. (1 Pair) Technics mid-range (4") woofers. Yay. That's a lot of speakers (8 total drivers, 10 total tweeters). And it's beautiful; even quiet, even loud, even the treble, especially the bass... it's all beautiful sound. Relatives must hear the awesome power of the Room 5 Sound System (R5-SS) when in town. We should hold celebrity parties... It should be designated a historical site! Well... you get the idea.

Studying is going well. In fact, I believe that the new sound system is helping me relax and study more efficiently with better audio fidelity. My brain doesn't take kindly to poor sound reproduction, you know.

Oh, yeah... and I got some Nickel Creek songs, and some Beth Orton. I like both. Dad, you must send me that Nickel Creek CD. Or I'll get it at Thanksgiving :-). Well, anyway, as I said, I am tired. ::

Monday, November 4, 2002 at 12:17 a.m.
Speakers that make me drool.

Bose Series 601 Model II. $20. Thrift store. Not out of my wallet = not mine... damn you matt... grrrrr...

Well, at least they'll be in my room for the rest of the year. :-) The sound out of these surpasses everything I have ever heard ever out of any speaker system or single speaker... ever! And they were built in 1977! That's probably why, actually. Bose apparently made some excellent speakers back in the day. Each unit has two (count 'em -- 2) 8" woofers and four (4!) 3" tweeters. That adds up to a total of 12 speakers in the pair... plus two small Technics speakers we mounted hanging from my bed, right above the couch... plus my Yamaha speakers, which will be mounted in either corner of the room, near the roof... oh man, this is going to be an awesome system. Plus matt brought (from home) quite a nice (yet old) sterio reciever that has more power than my Yamaha. Plus it works. That helps. Mine has tons and tons of problems unfortunately. But fortunately, I don't have to use it anymore. Man, listening to these things right now, they fill the room with sound no matter where you are. The whole room is the sweet spot. Ahhhhh...

Well, you probably thing that just because I spent a whole bunch of time on these speakers means that I didn't get any studying done... well, no. That's not true at all. I did a lot of math... and that's about it. Pretty boring and repetitive, but it's not that bad. I enjoy doing the ones that I can actually do... and that's quite a few actually... and I still have 3 more days to work out kinks. Yay. Okay, now I'm going to sleep. ::

Saturday, November 2, 2002 at 03:40 a.m.
Good Morning World.

Well, just finished cleaning up everything from the Halloween party, mainly the Haunted House. :-) It was excellent. You should have heard some of the shreiks we got from some people with our crazy mirror tricks and fly-by-wire ghosts on fishing line. Woohoo! It was amazing how many hours went into making the structure and the props and all those miles of duct tape... almost... and the plastic trash bag walls and stuff.. and getting it just right, and wiring the lights and switches, and coming up with ideas for stuff, and using up every square foot economically, and everything else. Sooo much time. Yet it all came down in a matter of seconds -- then or twelve maybe... amazing...

Well, the whole thing was great fun, and a good worthwhile project and use of social funds. Yay. And now I will sleep, and I may not wake until Sunday. Or, at least sometime really really late tomorrow. ;-) ::