Journal Entries
(2/23/03)
Posted Feb 24, 2003
A few months ago, I built a computer for my dad. Unfortunately, I didn't have any operating system to install on it, so I left it up to my dad to do all the software setup. My dad, being the lazy guy he is, got as far as installing Windows 2000 and decided that trying to set anything else up was too much work, so he gave the computer back to me to set up.
I bought a KVM switch, put the computer on my desk next to my old computer, and got to work. A KVM switch, for anyone who doesn't know, is a switch that allows one to switch between two computers with one video monitor, keyboard, and mouse without having to unplug any wires. Right now, I've got one monitor/keyboard/mouse controlling the two computers. I find this ironic, because I've been wanting to set up a system with two monitors attached to one computer. Instead I've got one monitor for two computers. Hmm.
My roommate's el cheapo computer had its power supply fail the other day. He's without computer right now, and when he heard about my dual computer setup, he immediately asked to borrow my dad's computer. 
...yeah...I'm going to have to go with a large, resounding "NO" for that one.
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Latest reply: Feb 24, 2003
(2/18/03) Nerds? Unpopular? Inconceivable!!
Posted Feb 18, 2003
http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html
I found out about this essay today. I read through it, and I have a few comments:
-I am a nerd. We'll get that point out of the way right away.
-My adolescence wasn't as painful as this article makes it out to be. The article says that nerds are tormented and relegated to the bottom of the social heap, and wish that they were popular. I had a real distaste for popular people, and I never really thought that being popular would make happy. The only thing I wish I had that popularity would have brought me was mating opportunities. And I lusted after a girl who didn't like popular people, anyway.
-I didn't spend a great deal of time making myself smart. I was far too lazy for that sort of thing. Instead, I spent a lot of time playing video games. I suppose if I put as much effort into being popular as I had put into rescuing Zelda, killing Kilrathi, and beating the big uglies in The Guardian Legend, I would have been among the upper crust of high school society.
-I didn't think of schoolwork as useless until I started looking back at it after I had gotten into college. Most everything I was forced to do in junior high and high school was under the rationalization of "it'll look good on your college application, and help you get into a good college." Only after I got into college did I stop to wonder how doing community service helped me get into college, when they didn't even ask whether I did any or not during the entry process. Also, I found out that kids who wonder how knowing this fact or that will help them later in life are correct; knowing the three causes of the Franco-Prussian war is completely useless unless you go on to be a European History scholar, in which case they'll go over it again for you.
-A lot of my "friends" at the end of high school were people who this article calls "freaks." People who "deliberately opt out because they are disgusted with the whole process." Despite what this article says, it was my friends who went on to serve me pizza and man the counter at the video store after high school. The "popular" people disappeared off the face of the earth. I, of course, went straight through college to get a well-paying job. If the best revenge is living well, then I've got a lot of revenge-dealing to do when the 10-year reunion rolls around.
-Myself notwithstanding, the really smart people at my school were not ridiculed. They were so smart that everyone else was afraid of them. The average student at my school couldn't make fun of the really smart person, because no one understood what the smart people spent their time doing. Most of them were girls, so guys tended to lust after them; they might not have been the best looking girls around, but a guy could do worse than to end up with the smartest girl in school. And just for the record, the smartest girl in school was named Julie Ishida, and she often asked me for help in physics and calculus. She scored higher than me on the Advanced Placement exams for these subjects, but I was the only one to attempt those tests without a graphing calculator.
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Latest reply: Feb 18, 2003
(2/12/03) Various news bits...
Posted Feb 12, 2003
-I've taken the first step towards getting a new place. I've answered an ad in the newspaper and I'm going to visit the person today. We'll see if anything pans out.
-I looked into starting a new martial art yesterday. I went and talked to a local instructor of wing chun kung fu, and observed a lesson. It's not as exciting as my last martial art, but perhaps when I start doing it, I'll understand better. The instructor, at least, made me feel very welcome to his studio (which is actually his garage). My last martial arts instructor gave me some low-grade hazing when I started with him, and never really gave me any encouragement.
-The roommates appear to be trying to hook me up with someone from the next town over. They're not looking at anyone in particular; rather, they're trying to invite girls from the bars over there to our house. None have been over yet, but I'm keeping an escape route open just in case.
-It's raining. A lot. More today than the rest of the rain season so far put together.
-No news about Heather. None expected.
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Latest reply: Feb 12, 2003
(2/9/03) Still more whining about girls...
Posted Feb 9, 2003
That's it. I'm through with pining for Heather. Last night I talked to her on the phone, and I happened to ask when we might be able to hang out again. I know she's past some big test of hers, and she's done with her job, so all she's got is her school and student teaching. You'd think that would mean she would allocate some time for me, but no.
She tells me about her plans for her birthday. Apparently, she was supposed to have some nice camping/drinking trip with her girlfriends, but that fell through. She had no plans for a while, and then just suddenly got the opportunity to go on a weekend trip with another friend of hers.
And then the following weekend she has other plans to go hang out with another group of friends. What angers me is that in the midst of all this planning, she hasn't made any effort to put aside time for me and her to hang out. Between her telling me how busy she is all the time, and then telling me that she's hanging out with friends every weekend, I have to conclude that I'm pretty far down on her priorities list.
I've deleted all contact information I have for her. I'm not going to call, IM, e-mail, or snail mail her any more. Next time she calls, I'm going to be too busy to talk to her. F$#@ her.
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Latest reply: Feb 9, 2003
(2/7/03) Ho hum...
Posted Feb 7, 2003
Bored at w*rk. 
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Latest reply: Feb 7, 2003
Wampus
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