Howard's Lernen Journal

and i kicked it's ass.

it was two questions, both worth 10 points


Im in class right now. i took these pics with my cell phone and uploaded them so i can post them here now. thats how much attention i pay in this class.

for angelina

sometime last week I had a dream.  I dont remember what it was about, but i remember in it that I was in my bathroom about to put on deoderant.  Just like in my real bathroom right now, I have two sticks.  I was going to put on the one I always put on, but it was out.. like totally empty, so i put on the crappy second deoderant I have.

So I wake up, and when I get to the point when I put on my deoderant, I used the crappy second deoderant, because in my head, the other one is empty.  I just though about it yesterday, and realized that my deoderant was only gone in the dream.  So I go and check, and of course the deoderant is still there. 

So I used my crappy deoderant for a week based on a dream. 

just copy it and post it in a comment, with x's in the spots.





1) What is your age range? (please mark one)
        ___ 18-25        ____ 26-40
        ___ 41-60        ____ 61 or older
       
2) What is your gender?
        ___ Male
        ___ Female

3) How many hours a day do you spend in the kitchen?
        ___ less than 1 hour
        ___ 1-2 hours
        ___ 2-4 hours
        ___ more than 4 hours
       
4) Do you mostly cook for yourself, or others?
        ___ myself
        ___ others
        ___ about evenly split
       
5) How often do you have company over?
        ___ more than a few times a week
        ___ a few times a month
        ___ about once a month
        ___ less often that once a month
       
6) Do you purchase ice?
        ___ yes
        ___ no
       
7) Do you regularly make your own ice?
        ___ yes
        ___ no
       
8) How much free counterspace is in your kitchen?
        ___ my counters are pretty crowded
        ___ maybe a little bit of free space
        ___ there is alot of free space

9) Would you say on average your refridgerator has free space?
        ___ there is alot free space in my refridgerator
        ___ there is some free space in my refridgerator
        ___ there is no free space in my refridgerator
        ___ I do not have a refridgerator
       
10) How much are you willing to spend on a new kitchen appliance
        ___ less that $100
        ___ $100-$150
        ___ $150-$200
        ___ $200-$300

FTW!

This quarter is pretty relaxing so far. only having main classes on tuesdays and thursdays is alot more fun that i thought it would be. 

So the main stuff im excited about is this:

Oscar told me about this place in orange county were we can play some music in a studio setting.  for only 13 bucks an hour.  We're gonna take chris with us, and have a mini band jam session, with drums and everything.  Hopefully we produce some good musics.  I go through phases where I play, then I dont play.  right now is one of the up moments. 

I just finished this series called Spaced today.  Its from the creators of shaun of the dead, and its equally as great.  Very entertaining, very well shot and well written.  It inspires me, and I want more of it. 

School right now is kinda disorganized.  the TAs for my classes seem to get off to a slow start, and sort of get things started without thinking them through, or explaining them too clearly.  Im not going to give any examples right now, but just know its happening.

Man, my writing is horrible right now.

Speaking of disorganized school... In one of my classes, cs180 - software engineering, we have to get into groups, and name ourselves.  Me and my partner couldnt think of a good name, so i used the name I always fall back on... Team Discovery Channel, which is a very obscure simpsons reference (almost as obscure as purple monkey dishwasher).  On Tuesday we go into the class, and they tell us that another team signed up with the same name.  what the freak?!? what are the odds of that.

well.. thats it. 
Oh, and Daisy's new name is Sandra 2. 
peace

according to Josh

starting thursday, heres where i'll be at these times:

keep kicking ass.

for those of you who want a little bit of christmas cheer in their lives, ive done something incredible:

Here's some music for you... http://www.sendspace.com/file/dvzk0b

Its the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack, by The Vince Guaraldi Trio.  Its not only my favorite christmas music, but its some of my favorite music in general. 

So, download it and listen and enjoy =)

I think I've honestly spent more time playing my bass these past few days than i have studied.  Not saying that I havent been studying, but just that I've just played alot of bass.  The RIAA or someone like that has started to sue guitar tab sites over copyright issues or something.  Its impossible to find tabs for any good songs now... so I started to figure them out myself.. which in turn leads to inspiration.  I wrote a crappy little song earlier, and put bongos too it.  Only one other human is allowed to hear it, and thats my musical partner-in-crime Oscar. 

I'm lacking energy to finish studying for my math 46 test, which is tomorrow morning.  I'm hoping a shower and a change of location will help, because thats whats going to happen.

I'm sure I'm probably the only person that thinks this, but finals week can be fun.  You just have to be in the right mindset.  And it also helps if you actually do good on your finals, but thats besides the point.  Whats frustrating is actually getting in the mood to study.  But once you're there, its smooth sailing.

I usually go through this ritual where I feel the need to take care of chores before I do any work.  So before I have a big test or something, i'll do all my laundry, clean all the rooms in the apartment, dust, vaccum, put all my books and dvds and cds whre they should be, take out the trash.... I'll shower and shave and clean my ears. 

Then, I'll treat myself to something, sort of as a bribe to myself to get me to study.  Usually, its buying a drink from Starbucks or Jamba Juice (today, though, I'm going with boba). 

After all of that is done, I can sit down and study.  Although, it usually only lasts for like an hour.  But at least its something. 

Well, have fun studying everyone

So the day is over. the test was easy and the project is done.  I just got home around 11:15, which is a hella late time to get home from school. 

In case you wanted to see what i was working on.. here it is:



this may not look like much, but it took alot of effort.  this is all made from scratch.  every single triangle (thats what each shape is.. a triangle) i generated according to points that i got out of a formula.  Then the triangles are *ray traced* and the color at each point on them is determined by its position relative to a light point, and if there is other polygons in between the lightsorce and the point or not (if you cant tell, the picture is in 3d, the spot under the top surface on the bottom surface is in shadow... trust me its less trivial than it seems).

The really important thing to pull from all of this is something that i think alot of people overlook (with good reason):  This whole thing is just numbers.  none of it really exists besides numbers which tell the screen which pixel to to color which color. 

This was the first step in my program.  The second was to *smooth shade* it.  Which means.. make it look smooth.  to get rid of the rough edges by around each polygon.  A ton of calculations later, this is the result:

It's finally the last day of school. On most last days im sitting on campus in commons just doing nothing, but this quarter i'm really busy.  I have a midterm in 45 minutes, and a project due tonight a midnight.  The project was the one thing i was actually stressing about, until i sat down yesterday and realized it wasnt that bad, that i could get it done on time.  I woke up this morning and went to the computer lab (the one for the class which i have the test in... not the project one.... confusing i know), and worked on my project instead of stuff for that class. I'd say the time was better spent that way, because its almost done. 

Over the whole corse of the quarter.. i'd say i've spent about an hour before today studying for cs 152(the class with the test today..), and I've done pretty good.  After today, my total studies hours have gone up to an hour and 45 minutes.  I feel like I'm too confident about this test in proportion to the effort I used on this class. 

But we're almost done guys.  We're almost there.

In movie news, I'm watching the Bourne movies.  Identity was really good.  I was hooked from the moment it started.  Supremacy is sitting here on my desk right now, waiting for the weekend.  Tomorrow, a documentary about wal-mart is coming from netflix, which should be interesting.  Also, for my birthday, Shant bought me An Evening With Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder, and suprisingly, watching it made me want to watch Jersey Girl again. 

My current music list is getting pretty long, so im gonna stop. 

Well i havent updated here in a while, and i dont have class for another 15 minutes, so here we are!

Not too much has happend since the last update.  I've watched a bunch of movies, but i forgot which ones.  Im going through a woody allen phase again, and the last two ones... 'Crimes and Mistorminers' and 'Melinda and Melinda' ... werent that good.  which is a first for me to say, actually. out of the like... 10-15 woody allen movies ive seen, these were my two least favorite.  I guess I shouldnt trust movies with titles of the form 'A and B.'  I have another WA movie sitting on my monitor right now.. Small Time Crooks.. which seems like it'll be pretty fun.  Hopefully he'll redeem himself. 

Also, a week ago today was my 21st birthday.  So if you want me to buy you alcohol, all... three of you who are under 21... just call me.  But dont leave a comment saying so.. the feds are reading and I dont want to go to jail. 

I guess thats it for now.  Im sorry it wasnt too interesting, but I have class...

Also, livejournal should have space to enter more than one song title.. cause i usually listen to like 5 songs while i type... so I'm gonna put them in anyways...

Four Rooms was greatness.  I watched it on the first day of school, and it was the perfect ending to my day.  i especially liked Rober Rodriges' part, with the kids, and of corse Quentin's part.  It made me want to see more of his acting. 

Read Or Die is the first anime i rented from netflix.. i saw most of it on cartoon network last year, but i fell asleep before it was over.  so I watched the whole thing, this time in japanese with subtitles, and its good stuff. its a little weird and makes little sense.. but its fun.  The main character can control paper. what kind of power is that? but its cool seeing the kind of stuff she does... like throwing a ribbon to the ground and using it like an anchor... or making a sword out of dollar bills... creative stuff.

on Thursday Angelina and I watched Bottle Rocket, and Shant was right.. owen wilson is great in it.  The story didnt really go anywhere, but it was fun to watch. the heist at the end was great. i like the old indian guy.. at least i think he was indian..

then on Friday, I watched Rushmore all by myself, which was great.  the indian guy was in that too, at the end, and he was still great.  Rushmore was more Wes Andersonish than bottle rocket.. which doesnt make sense because he made both, so how could one be more?  Max Fisher was a really good character though, and I guess I was inspired by the movie.  You know you're inspred by a movie when you watch it then you're in a weird mood after. 

For the past few days, my mom comes home and mentions how orange the sky is, due to some huge fire i heard about while flipping channels. if you go outside and look northeast, the sky is blue like it should be. if you look southwest, its orange and grey. Other than that, it looks and feels like fall, which is really refreshing. Yesterday I wore a sweater while the sun was out! I guess that means its time for school to start.

So, I guess I'm behind on my movie reviews.
Monty Python's Life of Brian: I tried watching it two times. the first time i fell asleep, and the second time i just got bored. there were some funny scenes, but the story wasnt interesting enough. It was basically a bunch of skits on a similar topic strung together. It was the first movie from netflix that I couldnt get through.

Manhattan: I really enjoyed. I've seen part of it before, but not very much. I loved all the shots of the city used. also the fact that Woody Allen dates a 17 year old, i thought that was pretty bold. What I like about Woody is his characters and his dialouge. It may not always be realistic, but he has his own unique style.. In the same way that Kevin Smith's characters have a unique style and you know when you hear it. Thats what I like.

Match Point: Another Woody Allen movie, this time without the Woody Allen humor. This is the first non comedy Woody movie i've seen, and I think it works great. People said it wasnt that great, but i really liked it alot... and watching two movies in a row by the same director automatically makes that guy your favorite director (its common knowledge).

Good Will Hunting: After watching, leni asked me if it deserved the oscar... and I said yes. I love robin williams in non comedy roles. Also Ben Affleck had his moments. I kind of want him to be a good actor, I dont really know why. so when hes bad, its sad, but when hes good hes good. I guess thats all i really have to say about that.

Run Lola Run was really good, but it felt really short. I know it was just the same thing three times, but still... entertaining. I was always interested in the whole "butterfly effect" thing.. not in the movie, the theory.

The Usual Suspects... all i have to say is this: Best Ending Ever. I definatly want to see more Spacey movies after seeing him in Superman and in this.

So school has started for most people, which means the summer tv schedules are over. and that means at 11am on weekdays, the only thing on is Gilmore Girls. which in turn means at 11am on weekdays, if I'm awake, I'm watching Gilmore Girls. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about it yet. I only chuckle at certain lines that are unusually weird. And the acting isn't that great. But the girls are cute, and isn't that all that really matters?

Summer vacation is almost over, which means I wont have the weekly saturday night poker games to look forward to. But since shant's summer vacation is already over, his work schedule is different, which means he cant make it to the weekly saturday night poker game. So, this might become the weekly thursday night poker game. But thats not the point. The point is I need people to play poker with in Riverside. So far theres Chris, and thats it. If any of you read this, and you're gonna be in riverside, and you play texas hold 'em, or you want learn to texas hold 'em, hit me up.

I havent written here in a really long time.. for a number of reasons. One is that everyone who reads this (well now that i think about it, maybe not everyone...) I talk to on a fairly regular basis anyway, and you'll hear the stories or opinions I share sooner or later. The second reason is there havent been any memories that I feel I need to write down to remember. Not because memories weren't memorable, but I have faith in my memory. Third reason is not that much stuff has been happening, or maybe stuff has been happening that I dont wish to share.

Well.. entertainment wise, I think the biggest thing that happend was Snakes on a Plane, as predicted. Everyone who saw it, and wanted to saw it, liked it.. except for Scott Chung, who is the last person who i thought would NOT like the movie.. I mean he hung out with me for most of high school, he has to have my sense of humor right? I'm not gonna talk about the movie, cause thats old news. It was good though. Other than that, I've seen a bunch of movies, heard a bunch of music.. I watched all of Azumanga Daioh, which I think at max 2 of you care about or even know what Im talking about. I just signed up for netflix last thursday, and I was thinking about reviewing every movie that I watch on here.. but whenever i make a commitment like that i never keep it, so I'll just talk about the movies if i feel like it.. and right now I do!

So the first two movies in my queue were Garden State and The Incredibles, and I really liked both of them. Garden State made me wish I had a girl like Natalie Portman.. she was so cute in the movie! And the Incredibles made me wish that my family had super powers. And we fought crime together. I guess those are my reviews. Stay tuned for my next two reviews...

Ive been typing for like.. 40 minutes and I forgot what I had in mind when I started this, so this is now a question post!! ask me anything you want and i'll answer! go!