Fall '07 Semester Starting Soon

I'm about to start my next semester at DeVry University - Irving.

According to my tentative schedule, I'll be taking MATHLAB (online math curriculum from Pearson Education <http://www.coursecompass.com> | <http://www.mathxl.com>), Advanced Composition, and Routing fundamentals.

Let's see, I'm going to be 20 years old on the 13th of November, so that'll be how many days?

I don't know off the top of my head, and I'm a little old to spend time calculating things like that, so I guess I won't start a count down.

I know what I want for my birthday, but it is quite unlikely that I will get any of the items on the list.


For example:

1. A new Toshiba or HP Laptop, midrange+, fully Linux-compatible
   
2. A midrange digital camera that is known for Linux compatibility
3. An upper midrange (musical) keyboard to go with the laptop, with Rosegarden (A professional audio and MIDI sequencer, score editor, and general-purpose music composition and editing environment. Rosegarden is an easy-to-learn, attractive application that runs on Linux, ideal for composers, musicians, music students, and small studio or home recording environments.) in mind, and finally, but not least importantly,
   
4. nice pants that fit

Well, so much for that.

I might be able to summon enough collective holiday credit to at least get some decent clothes, and I'd be happy with that.

[for those who know me:]
I wear:

Pants: 36W/34L
Shirt: L
Shoes: 11 (1/2)
Colors: blue, red, purple, jewel green, (I'd stick with blues. If you can get a brilliant blue-violet shirt, that would be great.

Anyway, gotta go. My access is going out the window.

I heard this growing up, too.

Greenday's Boulevard of Broken Dreams

I Hear this song everywhere, though it's not my favorite.

Creed's "One Last Breath"

Almost a Universial Song for anyone not over 50 years old.

Linkin Parks's "Numb"

Macarena

Dance to this, and send me a video.

Imperial March (Rage Mix), by Force Commander

This one is neat.

Metallica Imperial March

Imagine Bush Baby Playing This....

Nah, he wouldn't be that smart.

Richard Should be Graduating Soon

Richard Arthur Maurin, I think, should be graduating this year, unless he has been flunked a grade.

I wonder if he'll be able to find this Blog before he gets kicked out of Care, or gets sucked into an Adult Institution he may never get out of.

I hope he does find this, and know I care about his well-being.

I may not have shown it, but I do care.

...

I need to go!


Class is going to start soon!


Chao!

I Can't Believe Summer's Over, but I Should

I never really did get to enjoy the Summer fully, as I didn't participate in a big splashing swim party. I don't think I ever was aware one existed nearby that I could attend.

It may not help that I think Splash War is a fun game (I'm damnably good at it, you see,) and tend to aggravate those who want to touch as little water as possible while still qualifying as "in the pool."

[mock whiny voice]

No-one wants to play with me!

[return to semi-normal]

But I did get to work my butt off doing schoolwork, while making time to familiarize myself with the joys of Anne McKaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series, which lives up to it's reputation.

I've read "Dragonflight," "Dragonquest," "The White Dragon," and have just started on "Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern." All previous three were excellent, and surprisingly, Jaxom was quite plausible as a young male character, even though written by a mature woman. If she didn't emply ghostwriters, that is an achievment all by itself in my book.

I recently reviewed my grades and was reassured by the A/B grades.

I want a good cumulative GPA as much as the next college student, and I like that my GPA is now getting up there to the 3.x range. Last semester it was 3-dot-something, and hopefully it'll stay that way.

I'm semi-secretly planning to buy, or at least have bought a nice set of Expo Dry Erase markers for all of my favorite professors, Including Prof. Gabriel Bonner, Prof. Rusty Meadows, and Prof. Rajim Koonjbeary. I'm going to do this close to Chistmas, so that I can claim I gave them all gifts for Christmas. My memory may be pretty faulty, but I usually remember those people that actually went out of their way to make things doable for me, that didn't try to hinder me, or watched passively as I failed at something or things.

Anyway, things are going great at my end so far, and hopefully will continue doing so.

Chao!

Time Sure Went By, Didn't It?

I'm now taking NETW202 "Intro to Networking," BUSN115 "Intro to Business," and MATHLAB.

I am planning on taking on Mandarin Chinese, that should be interesting.

I've gotten a 107% (Curved) on one of my more major Networking exams, not Cisco Netacad, but a written exam for an associated class.

Gotta go, classwork to be done.

Chao!

Summer Semester #2

I have been spending a significant amount of time playing "Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos" on my Laptop against my Mom, who has lately been kicking my hiney, and our mutual friend, Dickey (who is an actual person). He doesn't have the time to really practice, but since we have invested so much time and money into it, I supposed he ahs decided to attept to leatl how to play.

I have played some on battle.net, but I'm still in noob territory, and I haven't completed the Campaign, yet. (That would be the single player storyline mode.)

I have developed some interesting maps via the included World Editor.

I'll include one, for those of you who happen to have a copy.

Chat Module follows:
There's no password, enter your first name as nick, and accept the room ID.

That's it!
(from freeJavaChat.com)


This application requires Java suport.
This server also available via IRC at:
irc://irc.ircstorm.net:6667/

Update for Summer Semester #1

I know I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I'd make it up to you guys by posting a really long one.

I have thought up some really neat ideas, ones I wished stuck with me, but I can say it would have made any book I wrote including those ideas quite deep.

I have pondered many things, some of which I will share with you.

I have thought about death, and how it affects people.

One of the ironies of life, said a friend at church, was that without death, there would be no time for "repentance."

I'm a Mormon, to some extent, or at least I'm born into a Mormon family, so I am familiar with a lot of Mormon ideology.

I have a brought-up-Neopegan bookworm (whom I wouldn't trade for the world) for a mom, and a sociopathic idiot who absurdly calls himself a Mormon for a would-be dad.

I love my mother, could care less about the other freak.

I have, as you guys probably figured out, been from public institution to public institution. Most of those were "residential treatment facilities," meaning I stayed there long-term, and got lots of head doctor attention. Mostly, I just had a bunch of orderlies look out for me, but there were a few guys and gals that were more than faceless "direct care personnel," or however they put the title. Some were true (or as close to true as you can get in a place like that) friends.

I especially honor Mrs. Williams-Coleman, in that she went (as far as I knew) beyond her duties, and actually took us under her wing as would a mother hen.

I really appreciate that.

Dr. Jack Charles Hinds is a great guy. He may have not been there every day, but over time, what I got to know of him showed that he was (and is) a quality guy.

There are others in similar facilities that I knew, Mr. Aaron from Meadow Pines RTC, as well as "Sphincter Woman," I called her that because I was "Sphincter Man" to her. It was an inside joke, obviously.

Also obvious, was that I couldn't come up with a better comeback quickly enough. I can do so now.

I went to the Angelika Film Center in Dallas for the first time. I watched "Paprika (2006)," a Japanese anime, which I enjoyed.


I will keep you posted!

-- Alex Maurin