Same to you, bucko.

I haven't posted in a long, long time. I could give you the normal excuse of not having enough time and so forth. The real reason is I haven't had much outside of school and work that's work talking about. So no real insights here. Not surprising, eh?

Saturday I took a midterm and royally messed it up. I absolutely could not get problem #2 to work out. Well guess what? I figured it out Sunday morning. All it took was a bowl of sugary cereal. Let's hope he's a lenient grader and I didn't mess up any other problems. Well, at least the cereal was tasty.

This Saturday, I have 3 homework sets due, a quiz, a project, and 3 chapters of material to get ahead on. The good news is I finished 2 homework sets yesterday (except they need to be checked over), started in on the third, and the project is already half done. The bad news is I only slept about 3 hours last night. The rest of the time I spent listening to the A/C. At about 1:00, I'd had enough, switched it off, and tossed and turned for another hour as the room got warmer and warmer. Then I woke up again at 3:00 when the fan switched off.

I am this close to sleeping with a bag of ice tonight.

Same to you, bucko.

I haven't posted in a long, long time. I could give you the normal excuse of not having enough time and so forth. The real reason is I haven't had much outside of school and work that's work talking about. So no real insights here. Not surprising, eh?

Saturday I took a midterm and royally messed it up. I absolutely could not get problem #2 to work out. Well guess what? I figured it out Sunday morning. All it took was a bowl of sugary cereal. Let's hope he's a lenient grader and I didn't mess up any other problems. Well, at least the cereal was tasty.

This Saturday, I have 3 homework sets due, a quiz, a project, and 3 chapters of material to get ahead on. The good news is I finished 2 homework sets yesterday (except they need to be checked over), started in on the third, and the project is already half done. The bad news is I only slept about 3 hours last night. The rest of the time I spent listening to the A/C. At about 1:00, I'd had enough, switched it off, and tossed and turned for another hour as the room got warmer and warmer. Then I woke up again at 3:00 when the fan switched off.

I am this close to sleeping with a bag of ice tonight.

Bummed Out

The SUP Bookstore in Milpitas is gone! It will be replaced by a karaoke lounge. Now how will I get my magazine fix?

I want I want I want

I've decided on my next toy. Assuming I can clear enough space in the freezer, it will be an ice cream machine. I hope to be freed from the tyrrany of having to wait for Haagen-Dazs to go on sale and their staunch refusal to sell their burnt caramel flavor in the United States.

Who keeps salt on hand, anyways?

Courtesy of the Toronto Star: if you don't happen to have curry powder on hand, you can substitute 3 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander, 2 1/2 teaspoons ground turmeric, 1 teaspoon each ground cumin and crushed fenugreek seeds, 1/2 teaspoon each ground pepper, mustard powder and ground allspice, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne and salt to taste.

It wouldn't be faster to run down to the grocery store? I mean, who keeps things like "salt" on hand, anyways?

The insanity continues, even after finals.

It's amazing how a gift certificate can burn a hole in your pocket in a way unattainable by, say, a dollar bill you inadvertently let through the wash.

There are two problems with the mango splitter. First, it's not so good for your health to eat too many mangoes (they are heating and will cause breakouts). Second, I question the durability of the blade because it has to flex to accommodate the mango pit. In which case it would turn out not to be a cheap whim.

The problem with the citrus squeezer is the distinct possibility that I might not have the arm strength to use it effectively. Or rather, use it to squeeze more than a couple oranges. There is also the distinct possibility that, slob that I am, the squeezer would cause me to squirt juice all over the floor.

The problem with the microplane grater is it doesn't seem to qualify for free shipping.

The problem with the CD I want is it installs insidious copy-protection software when played on a PC. The software can be removed, but it's the principle of the matter.

The problem with the magazine subscription is twofold. First, it would have to be ordered along with other things. Second, ordering it would give the publisher yet another e-mail address to spam.

The problem with books is I no longer have any spare time to do much reading for fun. The to-read pile is getting larger.

The problem with the ice cream machine is the canister may not fit in my freezer. I plan to measure the freezer tonight.

The problem with the gift certificate in the first place is it's like cash, but not at all. It's insidious.

Kids These Days

Sometimes it's really depressing, like when they talk about weighing your kids at school while shortening recess, eliminating gym class, and moving the lunch hour to peculiar times. And when they talk about salad bars as being novel and having carrot parties.

If I've understood carrot parties correctly, then they are a lot like what we used to do in grade school. Namely, we would have a cupcake party when it was somebody's birthday. We'd eat cupcakes, maybe have a little punch, and sing songs to the birthday kid. In a carrot party as I understand it, instead of cupcakes, you have carrots (which should be in your lunch anyway), and instead of being somebody's birthday, they're teaching you to appreciate carrots.

It reminds me of my second all-time favorite ham sandwich, the one where they substituted lettuce for the bread, and tomatoes, olives, and cheese for the ham. It looked and tasted a lot like a salad.

Then, sometimes, kids these days are really entertaining and it's all worthwhile. Witness 巴士阿叔。 Not 阿叔, the other guy.

The Insanity of Finals.

I have this incredible urge to buy something frivolous. This is probably a direct result of impending finals.

For now, I have narrowed it down to a mango slicer, a citrus squeezer, an ice cream machine, or a portable barbecue grill. I am now trying to decide which subset of these options will bring the most long-term happiness.

Another solution.

Don't clean at all.

The "date".

To those of you who wish to set me up with other people: Please screen prospective candidates a little more carefully.

To those of you who get set up with me: I prefer two-sided conversations. One-sided just doesn't cut it.

A walk on the wild side, comparatively speaking.

Tomorrow evening, I am dining with my Chinese teacher and a couple of her other students. She didn't tell me who they were until she confirmed the location and time. I smell a setup.

I have a midterm Saturday, and I'm already not studying for that tonight (Chinese class). So I will lose one more night of study to go on what could very well be a blind date. Or dates (plural), since there are two other students.

My feeling is that normal people with truly healthy social lives wouldn't expend very many brain cells pondering this. I've suspected this all along, that I am not at all normal.

Worrying about losing that night of study time already...

Random silly thought.

When cows get mad, do they get even?

In a snit.

There continues to be violence in the Middle East. The skies are becoming ever more polluted. The ice caps are melting. Public grade-school education in this country is of horribly uneven quality and declining in many places. Thousands of people across this county are going to bed hungry and barely able to pay the rent. Traffic is a mess around here. We barely have a public transportation system. Spyware, viruses, and phishing are rampant, as is identity theft.

I say this because I know there are many important things to be concerned about, and the very reason I'm in a snit is going to come off as incredibly petty and insignificant.

My laptop died yesterday. More accurately, it stopped displaying anything. The disk drive is fine. Therefore the solution was to swap the disk into a new chassis. (It's not a personal machine.)

Trouble is, the new chassis is only new to me. It's in worse condition than the one I turned in (ignorning the display problem). Here is what is what I have discovered so far:

• The previous owner is bald and had a love for flaky pastries. I have come to this conclusion based on the large number of hairs and sticky crumbs I have found lodged in the keyboard. (The alternative is he/she is bald and has an advanced case of dandruff. Yeah. Humor me.)
• The previous owner has sweaty hands. I spent way too much time with a disinfecting wipe trying to clean out the worn spots on the keyboard.
• The previous owner is a meeting warrior. The battery was in terrible shape for the number of cycles on it. My old battery (which got transplanted into the new unit) has quite a few cycles too, but is still in good health.
• The unit has been dropped several times. Far more times and far harder than I ever dropped mine. This is because the plastic around the external monitor port is chipped away.
• The alt key is coming off. Of course, attempting to vacuum out the crumbs (humor me) and hairs didn't help at all, but the other keys stayed in place, so the alt key was loose to begin with.
• The fan is running hot.
• The unit appears to be having trouble shutting down properly. Of course, I don't have the patience to resolve this in one day. Only time will tell.

Only after this unit breaks down entirely can I go back and request a new one.

It should just work.

When you buy a car, it just works. You put the key in the ignition, fill it up with gas once in a while, and it goes. The manual, which you're supposed to read anyway, tells you what service you need for it and when you need to do it. When you take the thing to your dealer/service center, they can tell you if anything else is wrong. It doesn't matter if you opted for the sunroof or not, or if you added special seat covers or things like that. If you tinkered with the exhaust or something, they could probably partially diagnose problems. But for the most part, it's pretty tough to make serious changes, and if you don't, most of the time folks can tell you what is wrong.

The same can't be said about computers. It's really easy to gum up the works without trying. On top of this, when you buy a computer, you're supposed to know about anti-virus programs, spyware, the relative merits of IE vs. Firefox...and make the programs you really want, work. Oh sure, some of this comes pre-installed for a fee. Or you get trials or sample versions. You get samples of 3 different ISPs' software when all you really wanted to do was go to the Internet. Your anti-virus software expires after a time.

Funny, huh? Not that this is an original sentiment or anything.

Mark Bittman was right.

If you haven't done so already, you must try your hand at making caramel. It is more exciting than watching muffins bake (and I already think watching muffins bake is very exciting). It's really quite magical to watch the sugar transform from simple syrup to golden brown, then to a milky amber as you add the cream and butter. The element of danger makes it all the more fun. Knowing the stuff will be like liquid napalm when spilled on your arm makes stirring it in short sleeves an adventure.

Design this.

A solar-powered 20-second countdown timer to be installed on public restroom soap dispensers. Getting a squirt of soap starts the timer.

Goodbye, Slim.

You have been a fixture for the past 5 years. You were always there, although sometimes you were so skinny you managed to hide in assorted nooks and crannies. Somehow I always managed to find you.

I hope you're in a better place now. Perhaps somebody walked by and claimed you as their own. I wouldn't blame them if they did--you were extraordinarily sleek and endowed with rugged good looks. Perhaps you got swept off the table in a freak dusting accident. Or maybe you got fed up with the clutter and left.

Perhaps you decided it was Mattie's turn to be the favored one. Farewell.

Dear Phishers,

Real credit card companies do not use the word "earnest". Better luck next time.

Love,

It's a great day.

J's birthday present is mailed out. On time, to boot, for the first time in maybe a decade.

The taxes are done.

The rebate for the tax software is done.

The weather is downright balmy. A little soggy, I'll give you that, but I won't melt if you won't.

Now that we're on daylight savings time, we finally get more daylight at the end of the day and it's finally starting to feel like spring.

They plan to release "The Simpsons" movie before the end of the series. Therefore the movie won't automatically mean the end of the series. Therefore, they could plausibly extend the series beyond two more years. Hope springs eternal.

They're going to rerun "Monty Python" on the local PBS station.

It's a great day.

An idea for a TV show.

"It Takes a Thief", but for computers. Instead of giving homeowners advice on how to lock down their houses, give computer owners practical advice on how to keep their computers spyware-free.

You're welcome.