Halloween at CMU

Walking out of Hammerschlag, I saw an orange ghost chasing after Pac-Man. Only here. I will try to snag a picture.

Spring 2007

Yeah next semester's schedule

Luckily for me, there is a course called Physics of Musical Sound which will count as my last science requirement and I won't have to take some boring general science course like Chemistry or Biology. Bad part: 213 starts at 9 in the morning. I am already starting to miss/skip Stats at 9:30, I think I will be late/absent for a lot of those lectures...

Everything

USC loses! This makes me happy because they are done for the season as far as a championship is concerned. However, the BCS can still explode. Suppose West Viriginia runs the table, but say after the Michigan/Ohio State game those two teams are still #1 and #2? Kaboom! I don't think it's fair, but I am sure rooting for it so that the NCAA and the major conferences get a clue, and I'm sure they would want to change it when they see all that money will go to the Big Ten!

The Carolina Panthers... they gave the game away, but anyone who watched the game knows it was closer than that final score. I stopped watching after Delhomme throws a pick down 21-14, then heard the final score and ESPN calling it a savage beatdown. Regardless, the Panthers need to figure it out soon: Atlanta looks GREAT and New Orleans is pretty darn good.

I went to Competition Programming on Sunday morning with a major headache, to see that the two other alternates that make up our practice team did not show up. What do I proceed to do? Solve three problems by myself, where the two main teams of three solve 4 and 5. I felt pretty good, but I wonder how much terminal time I used. You only get 5 man-hours total coding, so that's 37.5 minutes per problem coding if you do all eight problems. I definitely spent more than that, but considering the most solved was 5, an hour a problem sounds more like what I did. Even though I won't get to actually compete unless someone oversleeps, the practices are fun and valuable.

My 212 program is now due on Sunday night, so I won't be working on that until Friday. I have an interview with Apple on Friday about a summer internship. It's my first real interview, so I have a very vague idea of what to expect. Hopefully I won't be throwing myself into the lion's den if it's as rigorous as a Microsoft interview with hits like:

You have two pieces of string that burn non-uniformly for 1 hour each. How would you burn them and measure 45 minutes? (Light both ends of one of the strings and one end of the other. When the string with both ends lit burns out (30 min.), light the second end of the remaining string. Fifteen minutes later, that string will burn out.

Or...

Explain an algorithm to detect a cycle in a linked list in O(1) space. (Floyd's trick: put two pointers on a linked list and have them traverse the list at different speeds. If there is a cycle in the linked list, they must eventually meet somewhere in the loop.)

Albeit, I have heard/been taught these. I'm not sure how I would do in a real setting with new problems, although from what I hear, if you know things like tries and dynamic programming, they will love you.

"I mentioned dynamic programming in a job interview and he thought it was some software engineering buzzword like 'extreme programming'." - a grad student

death.doc strikes again!

Okay, this is ridiculous:

Su Oct 29 – competition programming 10:30am
We Nov 1 – competition programming 5:30am
Th Nov 2 – 15-354 HW due
Th Nov 2 Apple talk 6:30-8:30 Wean 7500
Fr Nov 3 – 36-225 HW due
Fr Nov 3 – 15-113 lab due
Fr Nov 3 – 73-100 Problems Set 5, Ch 12 & 13
Fr Nov 3 – 15-393 program #4 due
Fr Nov 3 – 15-212 program #5 due
Sa Nov 4 – competition programming 10:30am

So instead of joining my friends in recycling and saving the environment on Friday and Saturday night, I'm programming. SWEET.

Peace & Quiet

We had Competition Programming from 5:30-10:30 (actually about 11 since we started late). My trio is getting our asses handed to us. The two other teams solved 6 and 5 problems. How many did we solve? 2. :[

I guess the other teams are doing the homework for 6-units. I, for one, do not want to make the time to do an extra 3 hours of homework a week. Not good for my mental stability. But I am not saving face in this class. Kesden will take two teams of four (3 + an alternate). I'm pretty sure I know who 7 are, I don't even know that there is an 8th available, but I'd like it to be me.

Tomorrow, if I finish my homework, I'm locking myself in a room, or a carrel, somewhere and solving these damn problems I can't do. I hate not knowing algorithms and implementations and not being able to just do it. If I can carry the team on Friday and do like, 3 or 4 problems myself, I can turn a head or two.

Speaking of locking myself in a room, as soon as I got back home, I took my laptop and headed back to school so that I could find a hiding spot to finish 354. Left my cellphone at home too so that I can't be bothered. So often it happens that I try to do work in the evening, I get bothered by floormates coming in and out and watching TV and talking while I'm trying to concentrate. It's usually not until my roommate goes to bed (like now) that I can do a lot of work (or blog :).

I feel like this is how I'm going to have to do it to be productive: live at school, come home to eat and sleep. I wish I had an office on campus where I could lock myself in and work!!!

Bunting out at North Carolina

Hallelujah! John Bunting will be leaving after this season.

"I am disappointed and of course I don't agree with the decision, but I know I must accept it," Bunting said. "My love for this great university has not and never will waver. I am proud of the many great things we have accomplished over the past six years. We simply have not won enough games this year."

I suppose there is one thing to be proud of: we're not Miami.

Any teams we can beat left on the schedule? Probably not! Wake Forest, at Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, NC State, then at Duke. I don't know what it's like at Duke when they actually win a football game, never mind win a football game over North Carolina. I'd expect the goalposts to come down, but nothing crazy. After all, UNC and Duke don't do football. (Three weeks until basketball season!)

I hate Facebook

Recently I've been getting a lot of event invitations on Facebook. I would be a little flattered, except these are people from NORTH CAROLINA. I think Facebook should implement away to filter in and out friends from different schools for mass messaging like this so I don't have to read useless invitations in my mailbox.

I think everyone in the country wanted Miami to lose to Duke, and they came close. I still find it unbelievable that FIU suspended players indefinitely and kicked people off the team, and Miami only suspended players for the game against Duke. I honestly thought they would have been justified in cancelling their season, but money talks in Division I.

Switching over to the FAR superior division of the NCAA (DIII, of course!), CMU put up a shutout on UChicago 27-0, so we got to do the Shutout Cheer. ("Give it up, give it up; no one scores at CMU!") We have one more game left in two weeks, and I'm glad it's going to be over. For reasons I didn't expect would arise in Kiltie Band, it's irritating me. (More on this on LJ.)

Tigers in 5

Well, midterm has passed. I did well on CDM and expect an A at midterm for that, as well as Econ and Stats. I think I will get an A in Music Systems, but I did crummy on a couple homeworks, so that's a little bit in the air. I think that I ROCKED 212 yesterday, hopefully I will get a very high A in there.

Tigers in 5 to win the series, I say.

"The Bears are who we thought they were!"

If you haven't watched ESPN at all today, then you've probably missed watching Dennis Green lose it:


I don't think anyone blames him. I'd be pissed too if my OFFENSE squandered a 20 point lead. I'd probably fire the offensive coordinator immediately. OH WAIT.

So I've had two midterms. The first one, in Music Systems, was pretty good. Not studying would have definitely been bad because I wouldn't know what articles to find the answers in.

Today, Computational Discrete Math, was alright. I think I got all the answers except a question about LOOP-computability. How do you compute n^3 with LOOP-depth 2? Thinking there was a closed form like there is with the squares (n^2 is the sum of the the nth and the n-1th triangular numbers), I wrote "From 251, there is some closed form that is trivially written in a LOOP-2 program." Yeah, that's 20 points I will not be receiving. But the rest of the exam I think I nailed.

I have 212 left on Thursday to finish my week. I think I have a good approach to doing these kinds of functional reasoning problems, but that's no reason not to study and to practice. If only they would release past exams with AND without the answers to practice the timing. Speaking with a few people about their midterms this week, timing is crucial.

Meltdown in Arizona

"If you are a sports columnist, it will be hard to write your column tomorrow without using 'Arizona' and 'choke' in the opening sentence." - Tony Kornheiser

Technically I just did, but he is right. That was the biggest meltdown I have ever seen in any game. They were studs in the first half. "Da Bears" were awful. Hell, Rex Grossman NEVER figured it out tonight. But Arizona decides to not operate like they did in the first half after halftime, and the Bears defense came alive to, with no help from the offense, go to 6-0.

Embarassment. Sheer embarassment. The Cardinals may just be the new Lions. Granted, Leinart's better than Harrington, but if he can't bring this team out of the doldrums in the next few years, he may want out. It isn't even halfway through his rookie year, but this may be a preview of things to come.

Coker must go

Miami suspended 13 players for one game because of the brawl from this past weekend. What game will they be missing? Miami vs. DUKE. This is unacceptable. A professional football player got suspended for 5 games without pay for an equally brutal act, and these kids miss a game against Duke?

I don't understand these programs. Or maybe I do. What gets a player suspended at one school would get a few stadium step runs at places like Miami and Florida State. These coaches are not trying to educate, they are earning money for their university.

Lou Holtz on Mike & Mike on ESPN Radio called for Larry Coker's job this morning, and I think I would have to agree. Look at all this (AP)

-- Several Miami players fought with LSU players following the Tigers' 40-3 Peach Bowl win.

-- Shortly before the Miami-Louisville game Sept. 16, virtually the entire Hurricanes' roster jumped on the Cardinals logo at midfield, an act widely viewed as a taunting gesture. Afterward, some Miami players chided teammates for that incident.

-- A Miami player, Willie Cooper, was shot outside his home shortly before training camp began in what players contend was a robbery attempt. Meriweather returned fire; police said he acted legally.

-- Wide receiver Ryan Moore, who was suspended for the Peach Bowl for violating team rules, then suspended again for other infractions, is expected to be charged this week with misdemeanors stemming from an August fight with a woman. He hasn't played this season.

Yes, you are quite the teacher, Mr. Coker.

In drum corps, if you mess up, you're getting sent home, even if it's Finals night. BD 2000, Phantom 2003. Not in college sports, because there are alterior motives.

Pathetic fallacy?

I truly hate the weather in this city. The past couple of days have been COLD. I swear it must have been about 30 degrees, some told me it was actually only in the 40's, and the "natives" donning shorts didn't know what I was bitching about.

The forecast for the next week, however, confuses me. High of low 60's a low of high 40's to low 50's? Surely this isn't what is has been all week. Even worse, with midterms inching closer? RAIN, all week. An omen of bad things to come.

More from the dreadful Atlantic Coast

Miami-FIU brawl results in 13 ejections

Miami beat Florida International 35-0 Saturday night in a game marred by a wild brawl in the third quarter that had fists flying, helmets swinging and even crutches being used as weapons.

In all, 13 players were ejected -- eight from FIU, five from Miami, and each will likely face a minimum of one-game suspensions. Officials from both conferences, the Atlantic Coast and Sun Belt, are expected to review the game tape to determine if additional sanctions are necessary.

Does it even matter what the circumstances are? Why weren't Miami players classy enough to not engage in a fight with freaking Florida International (anyone heard of this school, anyone?), especially when you are beating them that badly? I mean, stand up for your guy if they are attacked, but really, just think about the scoreboard, or better yet, just think about who you are and who they are.

And UNC has (wait for it) LOST AGAIN! Only 92 yards of passing will do that for you. The only reason why Carolina is not at the bottom of the standing is that other team about 30 miles down the road, Duke. Because we beat a I-AA school. Barely. I really can't wait for these two teams to meet, although it likely does not matter who wins, they both have a lot to be disappointed about.

Southern Cal

It seems like no matter how many close games USC almost loses, once again they will be playing in the national championship pretty much no matter what. Florida lost, and who knows, they may lose another in the loaded SEC. The winner of Michigan/Ohio State will go to the championship while the other is playing likely whatever mediocre team comes out of the ACC in another BCS game. And neither West Virigina nor Louisville can be considered above USC, no matter which of those team wins the Big East, because that conference is pretty bad too.

The last three games USC has not won by more of a touchdown. In such a terrible conference and to be the second best team in the country, that is awful. They would definitely lose at least 2 games in the SEC.

USC will probably win out since Oregon and Cal perenially choke against the Trojans and Notre Dame has proven to be VERY overhyped. The SEC champion will not get into the championship because computers and voters don't think a team with 2 or even just 1 loss in THE BEST CONFERENCE IN FOOTBALL is better than USC. One of the two best teams in the nation in Ohio State and Michigan will get snubbed out of the national championship. West Virginia can forget about it even if they run the table.

But unfortunately, there's no SC in "playoff", but there is one in BCS.

Wow

Jack: "Hey Alex, how was your mom?"
Alex: "She took longer than I expected."

"And to cheer you up, here's a colorful picture."

I've just got to comment out my 212 program, because I got owned on the last one for insufficient documentation (hard to catch when you didn't get your first program graded until after turning the second one in), document a couple other programs, and I'm done with homework for the week. Then it's headlong into midterms. I've got Discrete Math homework this week due on the exam day for that. So death.doc is looking something like:

Mo - 15-393 exam
Tu - 15-354 exam
Tu - 15-354 hw due
We - 73-100 hw due
Th - 15-212 exam

We got this.

On Saturday next week (during break) there's a freeroll Smash tournament at OGS for raffle tickets for a Wii. Since I won't have anything better to do that day, I think I'm gonna play. I'll have Thursday and Friday to really prepare, and whenever I need to recharge from studying this week too. I feel like there won't be anyone really good except for us, so I think my Peach will frustrate a LOT of people there.

The SCS Dean's List "dinner" is today, and if it's like last semesters Dean's List dinner, it's just pizza and wings, as opposed to CIT's Dean's List dinner, which is almost business casual and fully catered. SCS needs to figure it out.

From the National Weather Service

You have got to be kidding me, it is OCTOBER.

Thursday Night: A chance of rain showers, mixing with snow after 4am. Cloudy, with a low around 31. West wind between 9 and 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%.

Friday: A slight chance of snow showers before 10am, then a slight chance of rain showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 45. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Google buys YouTube, the end of the world may commence now

Google is buying YouTube for $1.6 billion. Google now owns more of everyone's soul, but at least whoever made YouTube is really freaking rich now. To get your site bought out for that much is every nerd's dream, I think.

Report: Kids need more time for play

(from CNN)

Sounds like many people from home that were, of a certain descent shall we say. Not only will your kids grow up to be very uninteresting and unmotivated (in the sense that someone always does the motivating for them), they could get FAT, and that would totally go against parents' plans for successful children. Fat fat fatty.

No matter how hard you try, you can't make people smarter.

Travesty

So I've thrown away my pick sheet for this week's football pool, but I have done horrendously. I'm down about 60 points out of 115 this week, so probably no cash for me this week. I think I have one more week until I am at even for the year, so maybe I won't do this anymore. Depends on how close I am to the total year lead.

I'm watching Baltimore vs. Denver. It's 3-3 right now, and I wouldn't really be surprised if they didn't score another point. Hey, as long as Baltimore covers the 3-1/2 point spread.

Homework, the fall of the Evil Empire, Tennessee-Georgia, NFL Week 5

Wow, all I've done this weekend is homework. I need to practice more Stats, 'cause I didn't do very well on the practice exam. I have Econ on Wednesday which I have not started studying for. I have 212 due on Wednesday which is currently kicking my butt. And then midterms next week. Yeah, I kinda want to get as far ahead as possible before the weekend.

I watched the Detroit Tigers finish of the Yankees. Jim Leiland is quite a manager for turning that team around (they nearly had the worst season is baseball history two years ago!) and I guess you could say I'm on the Tigers feelgood bandwagon. As for the Yankees, ARod must go. They can't pay him that much money to implode in October. The Empire is also about to fire Joe Torre, which may be justified. Ever since they started putting together the monster All-Star lineups, well, they haven't performed. But consider the beginning of the dynasty when Torre was new and they had some rookie named Derek Jeter: they didn't have nearly the star power they have now. Maybe the rumors are true: the kind of lineup they have now just can't respond to Torre's managing.

I think the Cardinals will still win their series, so my predictions now are Detroit beats Oakland, Mets beat the Cards, and Detroit beats New York in 7.

On Saturday night while working on 212, I watched pretty much all of the Tennessee vs. Georgia game. Don't know why, but I found myself rooting for Tennessee, and I couldn't believe how they came back in the second half. Their quarterback is something.

I'm watching GameTracker right now, and it looks like about half of the eight games going on right now I will lose. Chicago is blowing out Buffalo (didn't think they would cover), Miami is keeping it close (I just need a New England touchdown), Detroit is routing Minnesota (wtf), and St. Loius is up by 1 and they are currently in the red zone. Indianapolis is STRUGGLING against Tennessee, and I know there will be a few people who will get owned for thinking there's no way Tennessee would come within 18 of the Colts.

No, I'm REALLY happy you could join me and listen to great classical music

I'm pretty much done with all my homework for the week, which feels great. Here's what death.doc on my desktop says now:

Mo Oct 9 - 36-225 exam

We Oct 11 - 73-100 exam

We Oct 11 - 15-212 due

Fr Oct 13 - 15-395 due

Mo Oct 16 - 15-395 midterm

Tu Oct 17 - 15-354 midterm

Th Oct 19 - 15-212 midterm

Delicious, what can I say.

I figured out how to listen to WCPE again. I'm listening to Bizet's Carmen suite, it is BA.

I'm about to go to bed, because I NEED to.

Indianapolis is much better than Pasadena, anyway

I just met with my advisor. I've committed myself to finishing my degree in three years. What this means is I will not be marching Carolina Crown this summer; instead, I will be doing some internship somewhere. But if all goes well I can march my age-out in 2008 after I graduate and begin "real life" when I return.

I would have loved to march this summer, but the possibility of cutting a year off school, to me, justifies everything. An equivalent of $30,000 a year in tuition feels a lot better than $40,000. Plus, I'm sure I will earn enough money for that tour, maybe even for plane tickets so I can go to more than couple camps.

Yeah, I have the drum corps itch, but let me tell you, it is nowhere as bad as it was last year when I decided that I would do drum corps.

One thing drum corps taught me was that there is at any moment always something productive to be done, and it's been rare for me to waste days without doing anything when I could be getting ahead on work. I used to do that all the time last year and just play Smash for 6 hours straight. I think this newfound (or "refined" as Bob Medworth described it) work ethic will help me through this.

So I'm sorry to my band of brothers that I will not be riding with to Pasadena this summer. I hope they will still accept me for my age-out, if I can pull it, and I hope they will respect my decision. Carolina Crown has changed me for the better. "Something that I have come to find I'll never behind.

"Yes I'm goin' to Carolina in mind."

So I feel like I have to make a decision soon about marching this summer. Before it was simply to attend the January and March camps, and march unless I got a really good internship offer. But now graduating in three years just seems so alluring!

I think if I choose to work this summer and I actually pull off finishing my degree, I could march the following summer (MY AGEOUT) and get a job afterward. Of course, could I attend enough (if any) camps in 2007-08 if my courseload is that heavy/difficult? And of course, I think it wouldn't take much to get my parent's blessing on this one. (Save a year off college? Hell yes!)

Or maybe not quite like that. (You're 21 and still doing this "band" shit?)

I think I need to talk to my advisor about all this.

Exhaustion

I gave blood today, and afterwards I just felt like crap the rest of the day, as in out of breath and really tired. Maybe it's completely unrelated, but I was exhausted.

I won the football pool this week, $20 for me. I got worried that Philly wouldn't pull it out.

I am almost done with all my homework this week, which is great because I can start reviewing lecture material that just goes straight over my head, and prepare for my two exams next week. If I come out of mid-semester with straight A's, I think I feel pretty confident that I could handle the workload of getting out of here next year.

October

It's getting really cold, and it's October, so you know what that means... MARCHING BAAAAAAAAND!

Like last year, I am totally missing Saturday competititons, even moreso after drum corps. I wish I were back home so I could get myself involved with a band and get back into it. (Maybe not with Enloe, I think they have some things to figure out.) Or I wish there were a band in Pittsburgh that were competitive; Central Catholic is on my block, but they are not a competitive corps-style band.

I'd be really happy if anyone told me what was going on with marching band throughout the season.