Sunday, 2/18/01

Three day weekend! No school tomorrow! Oh, wait. That means absolutely nothing to me, because I never go in to school anyway. Man. That's what sucks about a life of complete luxury and sloth. I can no longer derive joy and relief from a break in the daily routine. As my father wisely told me, "the clouds can never part if the sky is clear all day". Well, that's not true. I can't even imagine him saying that. But he did, however, teach me various obscenities in Spanish, and for that, if nothing else, I am a better person. My little comics page seems to have a bug or two in the routines that figure out the date of each comic. Thus, the comic strips appear to be from "February 78" and "December 0" and other such amusing points in time. My program is evidently using a rather unorthodox calendar system. I'll fix the bug soon, but I'm not in any rush since, well, it's pretty funny. Seeing that a cartoon is from the year "-1" is sometimes funnier than reading the cartoon itself. Now, what does that say about the maturity of my sense of humor? So, this weekend. I saw Wayne Brady at the Warfield and that was fun, although I'm still not clear on how a live show is any different than watching on TV. Other than the traffic, parking, and crowds. Band practice was also fun, and is getting more fun with each iteration, so that's a good trend. It's just a matter of getting accustomed to a new situation, I guess. I got to spend some time with the Shumparents, always fun as well. Mr. Shumway (Papa Shummingway?) seemed to think that my current "research" is significant and worthwhile, and wanted a draft of my paper to take back to the boys at the lab. He also became person #5 or so to ask about me getting a patent on it. I guess my work sounds impressive or something. On the other hand, Mr. Shumway told me an unflattering "an engineer, a physicist, and a mathematician walk into a bar"-style joke, following it up with, "So, did you get your Bachelors in physics or mathematics?" Hmph. That's almost as insulting as being called a CS major. Truly, EE is the only honorable trade among men of learning. :) Seriously, I have nothing against any technical discipline (though "philosophy of science" is a little questionable), but I think I personally am EE through-and-through. If there were anything that I was "meant to be", that would be it. There was a point freshman year at Caltech when I really felt like I found my calling, and following that up to graduate as an EE is literally one of the best things I've ever done. I realize that many people (most, maybe?) go through their lives and never experience this feeling. So for that, I am grateful. That, and the Spanish swear words. Hasta, pendejo.