So, I went full authoritarian dictator on my group to get my project done. Suffice it to say none of them like me very much after it, but I don't think that will matter when we get our B or A and move on from each others lives. These are the types of things that exhaust me. In other news, I actually got into a really interesting discussion on the self with a good friend of mine that stemmed from the IRC chat we all had it was pretty cool to get their perspective on the matter. This probably doesn't interest many, but I noticed a bad? trend that has been growing in the gaming community. Fallout 4 is this huge game, and one of my friends beat it in like two days. When I talked to him about it he seemed lukewarm about the game. I have this other friend who works and goes to school who only plays like an hour a day or so. His reaction to the game is incredible makes me want to go out and get it. It's crazy how my generation has become so caught up with the rapid consumption of content, but at the same time it is to our detriment because we miss out on what makes that content worthwhile. This could of course be expanded beyond just games, but I thought it was an interesting observation.
That's an interesting observation about fallout. The weird one that I noticed was people getting upset about the radiant quests piling up in their quest log. I'm not sure, but it feels like they're saying they can't cope with having something on their to-do list that won't get done. I understand the desire for a clean interface, but I also think it says something about the mindset of players to want to be able to check everything off.
I think in a way that feeds into my perspective on the community. This incessant need to just complete everything, and just consume it for the sake of being able to say you completed everything. The second friend I mentioned literally spent a day messing with the rag doll mechanics by setting up mines and blowing himself half way across the map haha. Has that sense of completion in games become too large of a focus that we are beginning to miss out on the enjoyment of the game?
My hunch is that it all hinged on minecraft. With minecraft there came an entire genre of true sandbox games that didn't have stories or missions or any real goals outside of creating. As that niche grew, we started to see games as true sandbox games and story games. Sandbox games don't have a real point other than to play for pleasure, story games have a narrative drive. I think fallout was trying to blend the two. So you have this sandbox in settlements and with the modding community, and there's a story that you can follow, but the point isn't to focus on one or the other. The point is to try to blend the story into the sandbox so that you can mess with your environment through physical building or emotional interaction. It's not the best game ever, but after playing Ark and Rust and a couple other building games that don't have real stories, I think it blends the two in a really novel way.Has that sense of completion in games become too large of a focus?
10th day on. 6am call. Assistant director reamed us for not being ready for something unscheduled 5 miles away. We were there in 10 minutes, a full half hour before they were ready for us. I'm ready to choke a bitch. That isn't prejudice, he has a big manly beard. And no chin. Going home tonight. Hugging my kid, cuddling with my wife. It'll take everything i have to come back, despite the fact that lasting until the union comes carries a $4k bonus on what I've already worked. At least my fingerprints no longer hurt. We had a guy up here to help with the antennae. Old salt. Called this the most dangerous set he's ever been on. We have a pool as to whether or not we'll have a stop-down injury before the 2nd episode gets finished. One of our cast missed filming today because she's too frostbitten to put on a sock.
I have a job! I've started running sound for events around Colgate, which happens to be the highest-paying job on campus. It also entails 75% sitting around-- the typical job is set up, mix a little, wait 2 hours, tear down. And I'm getting paid for it! And I even enjoy the parts that are actual work! It's great. (I'm literally writing this while on the job, running sound for a production of the Nutcracker-- i.e. babysitting their laptop to make sure the backing track doesn't break.) kleinbl00 E: Aw, they thanked the tech guys! That never happens :)
My job right now is building a website. I let it get to my head that it had to "look great" and "be flashier" after getting some feedback from higher ups who have no knowledge of understanding of my project. They got to me and I spent weeks trying to figure out how to make this damn thing look good, and I did. But when I showed it to my boss this Monday she pointed out that while it looked nice, it didn't have any content. What's worse, my design was pretty but rigid, so adding content broke everything. Monday night, at home after that meeting, I scrapped everything I have design wise. Now I'm just cranking out good content and slotting it into a mediocre, but navigable, design. It's not pretty, but it's so much better. Outside of that, I've been lurking a lot. I'm trying to pay a lot more attention to the conversations that happen around me in media and what I'm absorbing. I'm also trying to think more before I speak. It's kind of amazing how many places I go to interact are just ignorant shouting matches. Haven't really learned too much from this experiment yet, but it's been interesting.
I'm tired pubski. I feel like I've taken a very big bite of the world and my jaws are struggling to close around it. I'm starting to reach the tipping point where I have to make a decision about grad school. Do I want to take another year to get more experience in the field? Or try to shift directly back into academia? Do I stay in the states or pursue my international options? Not to be too crunchy granola about it I need to do a lot of soul searching very quickly.
How about an ask hubski post to help you decide. Ask: Why did you go to graduate school? What's a good reason to go to graduate school? What's bad reason to go to graduate school? (Answer: to make your parents happy, because your parents told you to, etc along those lines.) What's the best state of mind to start grad school? The tag could be #gradschool. I know why I went. Why do you want to go?
Go to grad school ASAP unless your daily routine is more intense than the worst crunchtime you remember from undergraduate.
In addition, grad school is much harder after you've gotten used to being able to negotiate or flat out refuse when your work load gets excessive. There aren't many perks to industry over academia, but being able to say "this is bullshit, I need to sleep sometime" is a big one.
Some of the discussion we had the other night on IRC (during which I was somewhat drunk and more conversational than usual) encouraged me to apply to an online workshop with my poetry idol Danez Smith. It's technically a queer workshop and I eternally feel I am not "queer enough" to jockey for a place in situations such as these, but I guess we were talking about bodies, queer-ness, and other similar linked things on IRC and I decided, "What the hell, if I'm not queer enough for this workshop, they can be the ones to tell me after I apply - instead of me just not trying." In my application they asked me to write about what "queer writing" meant to me and I discussed the disconnect I often feel between my body and what my body tells the world, and the part of me that lives inside that body and how it feels like people see my outside and make judgments about "who I am/who I am supposed to be" while my insides usually tend, and certainly always feel, to me, to be very different from that. So I guess I took the concept of "queer" and broadened it into "a feeling of otherness," perhaps. It might not be a valid interpretation but I thought it was a lot better than trying to lean on the three lesbian poems that were published in a journal I don't think even exists any more. And maybe it is a valid interpretation. What is queer if not saying "I may look like a certain gender but that's not how I feel about myself" ? What is identity but the struggle between who other people think and expect you to be, and who you want to be or think you are? Idk, some stoner thoughts there, far too navel-gazey. I did also confess to them that my primary reason for wanting to do the workshop was the guy running it, that could go in my favor or not I guess.
The deadline for application is Nov 20th, so I know it's got to be after that, but I don't know much more about when. It's $50 but I figured I could afford that to work with one of my idols. I really have been following his poetry for a few years at this point, and I have a signed book by him, and once I got him to like a photo I put up on Instagram. (My photo for one publication is of me reading his book. And yeah, I tagged him when I put the photo on Insta. C'mon, a girl has to pathetically try to get a little attention at least sometimes, right?) The workshop is the last week of December, so I guess I'll find out by then.
My car was totaled in an accident last week. Thanks to engineers who are better at math and physics than I, all that I am suffering is a broken left wrist, which I got when the airbag slammed mt arm into the steering wheel. Car shopping sucks under the best of circumstances, but in a bit of a rush like I am now? Terri-bad. Fortunately the sales guy is a nerd into space and knows his shit, and I am getting more than I thought I'd receive for the carcass I leave in the scrap yard.
I remember you were looking at cars in the same category as me, and I'm definitely interested in what you settle on and any initial experiences. So sorry for the circumstances. Was the wrist break pretty clean? Are you able to get around OK with whatever cast or brace is on it?
Simple radial fracture, but a full arm cast to immobilize the wrist. Sucks ass, but glad that it was not worse. 3 weeks in a full cast, then 3-6 weeks in either a sling or brace and therapy. I've put in an order for a Subaru Crosstrek; same frame and engine as the Impreza wagon, but will fit an 18" telescope down the road.
Written by a friend of mine, in response to me ranting much less eloquently about MBAs being a blight on the world:The MBA is the academic equivalent of those fungi that control ants
And all the other ants see the mba ant behaving erratically and carry it away from the colony before it can start sporating buzzwords
Left to their own devices the infected parties migrate to corner offices and large conferences
They seek high places and then stay utterly still.
I told a teacher of mine - a university teacher, that is - how much was she full of shit. Left her classes. Best thing I did so far. Here's the backstory. When I started this year, I was in the group 501. A month later, due to the obvious imbalance of skill - I study English linguistics - between me and my peers, I transferred to the group 502, which had (mostly) its own set of teachers. One of them - the English grammar one - is a bitch, though I'd lie if I say I've never seen anyone like her. She's selfish and painfully insecure, which represented itself as her lashing out at us in the subtle yet painful for the smallest imperfection in the class. By the time I've met the teacher, I've had already quite enough of the bullshit. I grew up with it, my first girlfriend sunk me into it head-first, my first good friend was working me about that for long enough... After all that I managed to grow up emotionally thanks to all the time I had to spend on my own, in my own hands in a different city. At first, though, I decided to not go to her lessons since I didn't feel like I have the strength to confront her. At about the same time I started reading Vladimir Pozner's Parting with Illusions where he speaks his mind on a lot of things, and the way he says what he thinks - even if it's not all well thought out, true or wise - made an impression on me. I've always wanted to live like that, and I guess something clicked in me at some point. I realized that by doing nothing - nothing, that is, that I find worthy or right - I make myself into nothing, the nothing I came to be so tired of people manipulating all the time for their own selfish causes. So, I decided to speak my mind at the lesson, in front of the whole class. I was, at the same time, very afraid of doing it - I had a rush of fear right before starting to talk, and it felt like my legs might have let go if I'd let it - and wanting to do it - it felt right. One thing that kept me going through the rant was my groupmate - a girl who seems to click with me on a friendly level - smiling as she heard me speak (which the teacher could not have seen, so it was only directed at me). I didn't manage to speak my mind fully at the rant because I was still pressured by the teacher's defensive maneuvers (which, too, I recognize way too well), but still, I told a lot of stuff I couldn't bring myself to say at any earlier time in my life - about her acting like an insecure child lashing out at the defenseless students while supposed to be being an authority to us, for example - and I'm very proud of it. My groupmates seem to have gained a respect for me after the incident, which is noticable considering I rarely ever had any good conversations with them before, and we talk almost always between the classes. I feel more free and capable around all people, not just my groupmates, afterwards, which, too, is noticable and proudmaking. Makes me feel worthy, good enough despite my flaws. Now, I'm trying to path a way for myself to gain the semester mark from another grammar teacher (whom I've studied under before transferring to another group); there seems to be a good chance that it will work out fine, though it's not yet defined. At the same time, I've started coding my first incremental game based on the idea of "happening" of language. Small steps every day, and by now I already have the base of the engine ready. Cooking, washing dishes and all the other stuff don't seem to be so hard now, either. It's like I'm learning to care about myself. That's my "holy shit" week for you.
Javascript, with a pinch of jQuery for DOM control (even though I barely need it so far). It's meant to be web-based and quite simple. I'd like to touch CoffeeScript sometime in the future, but I'm very used to the vanilla JS. Not sure if I'm going to touch other languages in the foreseeable future for the same reason. Do you have any experience with switching between programming languages (from the one you know to the one you don't)?
Nice. I've never used CoffeeScript but I hear it's good. That's how I learn :D I started out with JS, I barely knew it properly, then I did a free C course and I loved it, I manically constructed a 3000+ line text explorer using a giant IF tree and hundreds of variables. Then I found a tutorial for making 2D graphics in Java, again, I had no idea what I was doing but I kept modifying it until I did. I did hardly any Java tutorials actually, I just searched "whatever was wrong" + java + stackoverflow, which I would recommend because it's a lot of fun but also recommend you still look through more official documentation so you learn the terminology. Kotlin can work alongside Java(Not in the same file, but Kotlin files can interact with Java classes and vica versa), so switching current projects from Java is easy(IntelliJ IDEA 15 also provides a "convert Java to Kotlin" function. Apparently it can also compile to Javascript, I'm not sure how that works but next time I do Javascript I will try Kotlin instead because the only good IDE for JavaScript I know is PhpStorm, and it's not free. What text editor/IDE do you use?Do you have any experience with switching between programming languages (from the one you know to the one you don't)?
That's quite a programming journey you've had. Let me ask you a few questions, if you don't mind. If I were to build a small app - something like "act as a clock and tell me when an hour since I've launched the app has passed" - would it be quicker for me to do it in C or in Java? What are C and Java generally used for? Is there anything one's better for than the other? Keep in mind: I have no experience in either, or in programming apps for a PC. Brackets, and loving it. What amazes me is that Brackets itself is written with JS while acting as a Win application - the only thing giving it away was error logs: something in there implied of its nature pretty clearly to me. It allows for good project management - both inside the project and between several of them - which is good for me since I can easily look up previous projects I did and copy/learn from how I solved the problem encountered previously. Instant testing - "live preview", they call it - is what I enjoy very well: it allows for instant checking and correcting whatever error I may have made or changing the style that didn't work out so well. Good stuff, and I'm enjoying it. Can't see a reason to switch off to anything else.What text editor/IDE do you use?
Assuming I understand what you mean, here's how you'd do it in C: #include <windows.h> #include <stdio.h> int main() { Sleep( 3000 ); // sleep three seconds printf( "sleep ended\n" ); And this is how you would do it in Java package ... public class SleepExample{ System.out.println("Starting to sleep"); try{ Thread.sleep(1000); // Sleep 3 seconds }catch(InterruptedException e){ e.printStackTrace(); } System.out.println("Sleep ended"); } As you can see, Java's is bigger, but I've made a shitty gifv to demonstrate that it's not really a problem when you're using an IDE like IntelliJ IDEA http://i.imgur.com/XUPWXeb.gifv Edit: The program actually sleeps 1 second because I'm an idiot Another thing to note is If you want to make an alarm that's actually useful, with a GUI etc. Java is defintely the way to go out of the two languages, there's no argument. C is pretty old, it's very fast and very low-level, which will mean you will need to reinvent the wheel pretty often, but also you're not limited(Very rarely a concern, but you will know when it will be). C is better for a few very specific tasks, but that's about it. However, the answer to that question when it isn't limited to just Java and C will depend on who you ask. Personally, I'm conflicted on Java or C# (Leaning slightly toward Java because the JVM is full of potential and mono is pretty slow) Brackets sounds cool. It's always good to look out for better things though, I was happy using Eclipse and so regret being lazy and not checking out IntelliJ IDEA sooner. Plus, if you're looking for a job, it's good to at least know the basics of an IDE you're likely to use if you get hired.
} printf( "starting to sleep...\n" ); public static void main(String[] args){#include <windows.h>
in the C version, this code would only work on Windows(Someone correct me if I'm wrong) and you'd need different implementations for different operating systems, optimized for different CPUs...
I am being pursued for a job at Boston Scientific. Today I witnessed 5 surgeries. The most exciting was an EMR:
Friday early I'm flying to DC to see Okkervil River play all of Black Sheep Boy. It's the album's 10 year anniversary, and it's one of my favorite albums of all time. I have a cat sitter coming to check on my cats Friday and Saturday, but I still feel really bad leaving them. They're both really attached to me, and I don't have any way to explain why there isn't a warm body to curl up with at night or the lap cuddles that have become a morning fixture. But I have to get used to it, because I'm spending a week in the Adirondacks in December to do some snowshoeing. I've been glued to the weather forecasts and snow cover maps. It's early in the season, but I'm pretty optimistic. I bought a new alpine backpack and winter hiking boots at REI's fall sale. I picked up an ice axe online, too. A few times last winter I should have had a way of self arresting, even on a short slide. Most of my butt sliding ended in a poof when the trail leveled out ten vertical feet down, but one ended in a tree. More gear means more weight, but I think it's worth it. I also have a mental plan for doing some bigger trips. 2016 will be extending my range and ability to take gear up elevations (meaning more overnights in the Adirondacks), then 2017 I want to do a guided beginner glacier climb, probably something in the Cascades like Mount Baker. 2018 maybe extend that to Mount Rainer, and 2019 do something like Kilimanjaro or a trek to Mount Everest base camp.
Life has been a bit tough lately, though I'm thankful not as tough as some people on here have been having it. Today has been productive though. Now I'm gonna make the rest of it a "Me" day and relax. I think I'll play Fallout: New Vegas for a couple of hours, then switch to watching either Wilfred or The Dick Van Dyke show on Netflix for a few episodes. I gotta find my happy place.
Saturday: went to a party and drank a lot of beer and listened to good music. Sunday: went to a market, got great coffee, went to a great concert at an all ages, very much DIY venue. Monday: finished reading a book. Tuesday: went to a panel comprised of the people who run Kill Rock Stars, K Records, and one of the local community stations that I'm starting to get involved with, about making equitable music. Turns out their person who's in charge of recruiting went to another college in the city I went to college in and was involved with their station and we have mutual connections. Also turns out they recently lost their Development Director, which was my position for 3 years of college. I want to be in the right place at the right time. I have so much more passion for these kinds of things than my job or anything else. Planning out gear purchases for recording too. Wednesday: debating going to a Modern Baseball / Jeff Rosenstock concert in Seattle after work and dealing with a 12 hour shift tomorrow on maybe 3.5 hours of sleep. Help.
I walked into Front Bottoms by myself the other day and went to the bar, there was no one else there I said what the fuck, the bartender said "everyone here is 18." I said... I think I muttered something got my beer and went to huddle for comfort in the bathroom.
Found out this week that I need to work on an major AP Government paper on a president (U.S. Grant) and a term paper for my advanced writing class. Luckily I have winter break for the Gov paper. So, I'll be researching for both and then writing at the same time. Thank God for caffeine. Rest of my life ain't half bad though, so I can't really complain.
I had a good Netflix binge last night. I watched 3 episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show, 3 episodes of The Andy Griffith Show, and 2 episodes of Wilfred (which is a very, very weird show). I'm really enjoying the hell out of The Dick Van Dyke Show on Netflix. Every episode you watch, you can tell that everyone is enjoying the hell out of what they're doing, Dick Van Dyke especially. They bleed with enthusiasm and when they laugh on screen you can tell it's genuine. I know it's a different era and all, but you don't really see that on modern TV, with everyone being so focused on a perfect delivery. I'm not saying one is better than the other, just that it's refreshing. I'm actually thinking of writing a letter to Netflix, letting them know that I'm excited that they're showing classic TV shows such as Dick Van Dyke, Andy Griffith, M.A.S.H., and The Twilight Zone. I figure on letting them know I'd love to see more classic shows, such as The Flintstones, I Dream of Genie, the Adam West Batman series, Bonanza, and anything else from back when. They're all good, honest fun.