I was in the Library this morning and some kid was wearing a t-shirt that said “Property of Abercrombie and Fitch.” I thought it was ironic.
I am writing this from one of the lecture halls in the Chemistry Building. I have to be back in St. Mark’s for the Collegium concert in twenty minutes or so. We had a pretty good pre-concert rehearsal. About as good as one could hope for. So hopefully the concert will go well to. The last one did, after all. I just need to sing through the lines with good word stress and listen to the rest of the group so that I blend well. Hopefully my voice will be in a right place as well.
Turvey wasn’t in today for office hours. He wasn’t at school at all. I was totally aware of this and yet I sat outside his office for fifteen minutes before one of the other idiots realized. Wasn’t a total waste, though. I talked with John a bit about the material and read a good deal. I’ve now made a first pass at all four learning questions and a few of the memory questions too. Need to keep this momentum.
Talked to Professor Michel this morning. He’s a fun guy to talk to. Very knowledgable about Computer Science stuff. He helped me understand a few things on the project. I think the recipe for getting this thing done will be:
- A few hours of head scratching
- Go talk to the Professor and get straightened out
- Go home and implement until I get stuck
Rinse and repeat.
Just did a little more poking around with the Programming Languages project. Wrote a crappy typing function that matches the definition he gave us, which is a start. It doesn’t seem to do anything, though. I’ll go pick his brain tomorrow morning.
Dinner with the family was nice. Good food, nice to see them. Collegium rehearsal went OK. Rough going, but I think things will come together for tomorrow. Mark is going to sing the Absolon Fili with us, which is awesome. He’s singing my part, which makes it easy for me. I can just tune to him and follow his dynamics. Makes it easier somehow.
Well, off to bed.
Got in about 2½ hours of reading this morning for my Learning final exam. Got through about half of one question out of 12. The easy half. Probably one of the more time consuming in terms of research though, so hopefully next session I can get two done. Had lunch at The Buck (it was open by then) and then practiced some Collegium stuff for about an hour and fifteen minutes at the practice rooms which are conveniently between The Buck and here. I have to remember to bring Kyle his book some time I am over there.
Going to work on Programming Languages now. Hopefully I can get to the point where I have some code written by four, when I head home for easter supper. We’ll see.
Just got back from my run, had a shower, heading to breafast at The Buck. This place is really a ghost town this morning. I was running along Alumni road (or whatever road Gampel is on) and I could look either way all the way down the road without a car in sight. Wierd.
I wore my short shorts today. I don’t know why I bought those. If I still had my beard I’d be a dead ringer for marathon Forrest Gump, they’re that short.
Just finished a first reading of “Cognitive Wheels: The Frame Problem of AI”, an essay out of Daniel Dennett’s Brainchildren: Essays on Designing Minds. I’m quite certain that I don’t understand the Frame Problem to any degree just yet, but I do get the sense that he strayed from McCarthy and Hayes. I need to read this thing again.
Today was probably the most productive Saturday of my life. I can’t really think of anything close. That’s a wierd feeling. I made forward progress on a lot of hard problems: I started tackling the architecture of my proposed software for my Modality[1] project, I actually read through my Programming Languages project assignment and started to tackle the background reading for it. I even got the project files to compile. I did some reading for both of my Learning projects and I got my Design Lab project to the point where I’m in the neighborhood of satisfying my responsibilities to my group.
And there it is. 11:30 and I’m going to bed. Maybe tomorrow will be another productive day. While reading just now, I jotted down a thought:
Solving some of these problems will be more valuable in the long run than short term successes.
That is, if I can overcome some of the personal issues and shortcomings I am struggling with, it won’t matter if my GPA isn’t wonderful and Turvey decides I’m a loser. What I am learning now will be very valuable tools wherever I end up.
…
[1] I should stop calling it that. I couldn’t think of a reasonable name when I started the project, so I called it “Modality/Context Switching/Centricity Project”, which was shortened to “Modality Project” because I’ve been keeping my papers and whatnot for that project in ~/Project/Modality. But really it should probably be called “Context Switching Project” or something similar.
Holy shit, this project is going to be tough. One week. Damn.
Well, I read the article on Guthrie. Unfortunately because I’m so behind, that’s all I’m going to do today for the “normal” part of my Learning course. I might have some honors conversion stuff penciled in for later. We’ll see if I get to it.
Ah yes. I’m supposed to read the paper on the abduction problem at 9:00 tonight. And between now and then I am supposed to spent three hours each on:
- Programming Languages Huge-Project-Which-Won’t-Be-Done-On-Time
- Honors thesis
- Modality paper/Independent Study thingy
Yeah, 3 items x 3 hours = 9 hours of work between 4:30 and 9:00. And dinner in there too. That’s going to happen. I think my revised schedule is to spend about two hours on Programming Languages, then dinner, then about two hours on the Modality paper and then read about abduction. Honors thesis can wait.
Been going pretty hardcore since yesterday morning. Woke up yesterday around 8:00 and worked on the study questions until noon, at which time I went to Turvey’s office and talked with him about them for 50 minutes. Turns out I was working on the questions we hadn’t even covered in class yet. The thing is, I feel like most of the questions we haven’t event covered in class. I felt that way before the last exam. Regardless, it was probably a waste of his time, and I felt like an ass. I got some direction from the experience though.
After Learning at 1:00 I drove up to Boston. Chatted with the Daily Jolt folk for an hour or two. Had some cookies Ron’s girlfriend baked. Drove back down, which took a long time. Stopped for Pizza on the way. Got back home around 9:00. Chatted with Mom and Dad until about 10:30. Came back to the dorm and worked on Senk until 1:30. I was supposed to have that done for Midnight. That didn’t happen. Woke up at 9:00 this morning and worked on it until 1:30. Had enough to send the other guys on the team at that point. So I sent that off and had some lunch with Ben.
I am going to work on the Study questions until 4:00 I guess. Even though I was supposed to be done with that at noon today. So something won’t get done tonight. Probably my thesis.
Busy.
Got up at 7:30 today, went for a run. Had a shower, couldn’t find Niamh anywhere. Turns out she was on the phone calling realtors to make appointments to see apartments in College Town, PA on Friday. She didn’t have time to go to breakfast, so I went to the dining hall and made us some egg sandwiches. Brought them back to her room and we had a little picnic. Was nice.
Been reading Slashdot this morning (I know, bad Erik.) Apparently, some students have discovered a mess of exploits for their campus card system. Slashdot is hardly a fountain of journalistic integrity, but the article mentions that OneCard systems. Hmm…. we have one of those.
I’ve been getting good sleep lately, and I even started running yesterday. I have a lot to do in the next two weeks and in the following two weeks, but I just haven’t gotten to the point where I feel like I’m getting a lot done. I still feel like there’s way more to do than I have time.
But, I just have to bite of small pieces, I suppose. This weekend is Spring Weekend, so there’s a lot to do for the Daily Jolt. We just accepted two new Jolters onto the team, and will be taking on probably one or two more for the fall. I want to get them started now so they can see how things can move and so they’ll get excited about traffic and whatnot.
But that’s not for now. Must finish Parallel Systems homework. Blech.
There was a time in my life when I thought it was important for me to know the words to “Come On Eileen”.