I apparently have issues with this whole "using LiveJournal regularly" thing. I do want to use LJ more frequently in shorter bursts instead of very infrequently in long bursts.

So, things of interest in no particular order:

• I'm currently up in McLean, Virginia (outside of Washington DC) staying with my grandmother for a week. I've been doing this for a couple of years, and it's a good tradition--I don't see my grandmother very often, and spending some low-key time with her is nicer than the crazy high-tension Thanksgivings when we all got together (which don't even happen anymore


• My cousin (who lives next to my grandmother) is having her Bat Mitzvah this weekend, so the family will be assembling this weekend up here and celebrating--I just got a bit of a head start on the visit.


• I took the train up--it's pretty convenient for me, since there's a train station right in Cary which'll take me up to Alexandria in a mere six hours. Dirt cheap now (about $35 one-way). You have to have a physical ticket mailed to you in the mail, which is ridiculous, and there's normal power plugs for each seat in the train, which is great. Due to construction, the only train left at 6:15am. Fun times.


• Instead of sleeping like any sane person on the train, I instead took this opportunity to catch up on some podcasts, in particular, the Dungeons & Dragons Penny Arcade / PvP podcast series, where the authors of the comics Penny Arcade and PvP come together (one for the first time) to play DnD, and you can hear their game-playing session in a series of podcasts (and a second set, airing now, with Wil Wheaton added in the mix). This is my first real experience to DnD, which is something I've always wanted to do but have never really been able to. If anyone knows of local DMs / local game stores or whatnot please tell me, 'cause I'm interested in a game.


• Spring break was supposed to be my time to catch up on everything as well as recover from my crazy life at school. Those two goals are somewhat at odds with each other. What have I done so far? Done all my family's taxes, started looking into the investments my grandparents gave me when I was boring (there's some spare money that snuck out of portfolios which I want to reinvest), traveled up to DC, did some homework, am slowly working on closing all my Safari tabs (current count: 30, down from 50), am choosing next semester's courses (see below). Still need to do lots more homework, reply to a bajillion emails, etc.


• Saw Entre les murs (The Class), the new French film. Won the Palme d'Or (first French film in 21 years to do so) at Cannes, already nominated for "Best Foreign Film" at next year's Oscars, and a really good film about a teacher of kids in a racially-mixed Paris middle school. Semi-autobiographical, based on a book (the main character, the teacher, is the writer of the book), the other kids and teachers are actual kids and teachers.


• While it is totally awesome that my grandmother has wireless internet, her Verizon DSL modem + wireless router is pretty bad. Its built-in DNS server is pretty screwed up, and prevented me from doing my 431 DNS-sniffing assignment easily because it just flat out ignores NS and MX DNS requests and has set this lovely "domain_not_set.invalid" search domain automatically for me which screws with external DNS requests. The rest of the router isn't particularly better--it only does WEP encryption wirelessly, and frankly, the Internet acts a little funky but I don't want to try upgrading firmware and messing with DNS in case something horribly breaks.


• I do like my job with ResNET a lot--I really truly helping people with their computers. I've also helped out a few of the OAs, RAs, and the CD, and I keep the printer well-stocked, so as a result the Cobb Housing staff likes me too, which is great. I do my job well and offer useful suggestions, so ResNET management likes me. Good situation all around.

Seems like a good list for right now. I really should post these as I think of them and not in long lists, but I'm working on it.

I use twitter, linked with my facebook status, as a mini-blogging / announcement platform (which you can also see on my website, which is newly redesigned with better colors!).

So, my current tentative / hopeful schedule for next semester:
COMP 530 Operating Systems (MWF 2:00-3:15, Jeffay, 4 credit hours)
COMP 550 Algorithm Analysis (TR 11:00-12:15pm, Lin, 3 credit hours)
HNRS 325 Dunlevie Honors Junior Colloquium (W 6:30-9:00pm, Kendall, 1 credit hour)
PHYS 116 Mechanics (TR 8:00-9:15am + lab + recitation TBD, Karwowski, 4 credit hours) (has turned back into "staff", and told I couldn't get into it anyway by Maggie)
Possibly replaced with: MATH 547 Linear Algebra for Applications (MWF 9:00-9:50am Adalsteinsson)
FREN 300 Review Grammar and Composition (MWF 9:00-9:50am Jarausch or (if I take 547) TR 12:30-1:45pm Noblitt, 3 credit hours)

At first I was looking at a fifth course, but it conflicts with OS, and then I was wondering "should I really only take four real courses"? Frankly, I've always taken five but OS is going to be killer, Algorithms will be hard but great, and Mechanics will probably be hard/time-consuming but great, so I think I can keep myself busy, and I'll still have 15 credit hours. :)

I finally sprung for PickAProf because I was trying to determine whether any of the Math teachers are any good. If the teachers for MATH 547 (Rozansky, Adalsteinsson), MATH 566 (Mitran), STOR 435 (Ji) or STOR 455 (Sen) are particuarly good, let me know and I might switch out French. Karwowski is supposed to be really good, so I'll stop putting off Physics.