I haven't made a post in a while, so I figure I should rectify that.

I've been keeping busy at work, we're moving into slight crunch mode right now, so I've been in on the weekend once or twice. Nothing too bad yet, so I'm not terribly stressed out or anything, but I can see a bigger crunch coming down the road. It happens and as long as it's not too long I don't mind.

I've been programming at home again for the first time in a LONG time. I'm not just starting something and then getting frustrated with it and putting it down either. I've made a lot of progress on my configuration utility so far, which excites me quite a bit. Unfortunately, I've run into a weird issue with visual studio in which if you do a pre-build event (run the configuration utility), it won't allow the state of the build to change. In essence, I can't change the files and expect it to rebuild if the thing changing the files is part of the pre-build step. Lame. I've found a supposed workaround which is to have project A depend on project B and then have project B do the pre-build step for project A, which seems to work. The weird thing is that if I run it, std::ofstream claims it can't open the file to write it. I searched for a while to figure out if it can possibly give an error code as to why this is, but it doesn't seem like there is one. It sets a fail bit, but that doesn't tell me a damn thing. Lame. Hopefully once Habib gets back to me about how he managed to do it in Bossinabox (I can't figure out how he managed to do it even though I have the source code), I'll be able to get past that little problem. The weirdest part is if I run it from the command line (or anywhere else for that matter), it works fine... just not as a pre-build or post-build step.

I've been cooking much more lately, having made ratatouille, enchiladas, chile, and a quinoa casserole. I've been enjoying it much more since having gotten a bunch of vegetarian cook books from my parents for my birthday. I've been doing the cook on Thursday thing for the house again, which is nice. It gets me to try other stuff, especially since I've been letting them choose the meal instead of me picking it.

Climbing is going well; I can't wait for summer to come so I can go outdoors more. It's going to be fantastic.

Saw Say Anything in concert yesterday at Neumos, which was REALLY good. The bands before them were all just ok, but they really played well. I didn't care for their new stuff as much (probably because I don't know it nearly as well), but their older stuff was fantastic.

Tags: life

I've been playing poker online lately and it's weird that luck seems to come into play more than you would think. People make bad decisions online and some of the times it affects me in a negative fashion. Say I have KK pre-flop, raise it up quite a bit and get one caller. On the flop comes AAK giving me a boat. The only way someone could be beating me right now is if they have AA or AK, neither of which is super likely, especially considering the board and my hand. On the turn comes a 5, and on the river is some other nondescript card. I end up all in and it turns out the guy has A5 giving him a higher boat than mine. Not only did he call my initial raise on the flop, but he gets trips and then a boat on the turn. He received one of four cards that could possibly help him against my hand after the flop and he manages to catch one of them (The last A or 3 of the 5's in the deck). I lost quite a bit on this hand, and I shrugged it off thinking that it happens to everyone... but jeez. It's happened several times in the last two days to the point where I'm about to take a break from it because I'm getting frustrated and that's no way to play. I'm happy I can at least walk away from it, but regardless, it still sucks.

I'm also wondering if this is one of those cases where there are so many times when it doesn't happen and they don't catch something (and I don't get to see their cards) that I just don't realize it and discount it as never happening.

I'm actually posting this from work right now because I came in to fix the project that I've been working on for six weeks. It's run over two weeks (mostly because no one could guess correctly how long it would actually take), but it's annoying the hell out of me. There's a problem right now where it works fine on one mode, but doesn't in another even though it uses the exact same code. I'm trying to debug that right now but debug mode is slooooooooow on a project this massive. It's kind of strange being here on a Sunday since only one other person is here, but I kind of like it. No distractions and I feel as if I'm getting more work done than on a normal day because I can concentrate a little bit better.

Last night I finished the book I've been reading lately. It's written accounts of lectures from the Dalai Lama about all sorts of things from Buddhism to thoughts on Jesus' teachings, to the mind, to religions in general, etc. It's helped me a lot and given me new insights into life and how I plan to live it. I know that sounds cheesy and corny, but it's pretty much true. I've been thinking a lot about how I want to spend my life regarding helping people primarily and I think that I want to travel and help people from cultures that aren't as well off as ours is at some point. I have no idea when I'll actually be able to do it, but I'd like to, and if this summer is any indication of me fulfilling what I want to do, it'll probably happen.

Tags: life, poker, work

Forgive me if I've not talked to you for a while. I've been essentially off the radar to everyone but my housemates, family, and Lauren (who is pretty much family at this point). I haven't touched AIM in over a month and it feels kind of nice.

I got a new job at Surreal Software and started it a couple of weeks ago. It's absolutely fantastic. I love the company, the people, and everything surrounding it. I play quake 3 dm at lunch, Fridays are free food and beer days, I went to a Mariner's game last Wednesday with the company, and it's just awesome in general.

I am now a vegetarian (no meat, fish, or animal products except dairy and eggs). It was something I've always wanted to try since I was a kid and I felt now would be a good time to do it. It's more an experiment along the lines of what Gandhi used to do than anything environmentally related, but that's definitely a bonus regardless. There's no set time limit for how long I want to try this, but I'd at least like to go a month, preferably a year.

I'm not drinking anymore except on special occasions (defined by me). I felt it was doing me more harm than good and so also feel this is a good idea.

I'm actually keeping track of all my finances now. It's strangely liberating since I can see exactly how long it's going to take to pay back my credit card and be free again. The loans I don't mind so much, but good god credit card debt while in college sucks balls. I also opened up an amazon.com credit card so that I can earn points towards buying free stuff (every 2500 points earns me a $25 gift certificate). I'll be signing up for my 401k account this week.

I got Washington license plates and need to get a Washington license next week. I guess I'm officially living here now instead of just going to school here. It's strange. I still consider myself a Californian though.

I set up a wiki on my website for keeping track of random stuff. I like it and it's weird and fun to work on. I can finally edit stuff easily without having to manually edit stupid html. Thank god. It was kind of a pain to set up (since I had to set up the subdomain and messed up the initial installation), but it's simple now.

I've been playing a lot of video games and reading again lately. I love it and missed it tremendously while in school. I've already beaten Puzzle Quest, Minish Cap, am almost done with Shadow of the Colossus, and have a ton lined up to play still. I read Gandhi's autobiography (which made me want to better myself like I'm trying to do now), and am currently reading the Dalai Lama's essential writings.

I've started gardening. It's crazy considering I used to hate doing it. Now, I don't mind so much. Our yard is getting cleaned up from all the weeds and overgrown bushes that have taken over the yard. We regularly have too much yard waste for the bin that we have (sometimes over two times the amount). Slowly we'll get to the point when we don't need that much anymore, but for now all those weeds take up a LOT of space. I've pulled weeds that are somewhere around four feet high and have a root system over a foot wide. Our yard looks so much better.

Life is pretty good right now for the most part. Much better than it was when I was still in school. Thank god it's over. I love not having any homework anymore and having free time to myself.

Tags: life

I've been in a writing mood lately, and I'm not quite sure why. I'm sitting downstairs, alone in the house on a rare occasion, watching a climbing video and typing on my laptop. I should really be working on some of my school projects, but last night and today have been a relaxing break from the mayhem I've put myself through the last couple of weeks. It's been nice, but I need to jump back on the wagon. A scant four weeks and one day until I graduate. I can't wait.

It's an interesting feeling to be so close to finishing DigiPen. I would considering this one of the best experiences of my life, but also the most draining. I've put more effort into this school than almost any other activity I've done. So much blood and sweat has gone towards finishing this place that it's incredible. I would have never imagined it to be this hard had you told me before I came here. It's interesting because I've been talking to a lot of prospective freshmen and also the freshmen/sophomore level students that are where I was 2+ years ago. It seems like such a lifetime ago.

I've taken four years of my life and put them into this school. I'm ready for the next part of my life.

Tags: life, school

I turned 26 a couple of days ago. I didn't really get to celebrate as I've been busting my ass working lately, but it was still fun to go out to dinner with all my friends. My mom and Don had no idea what to get me for my birthday, so they just gave me some cash and I finally settled on this classic shaving set. I've been looking at getting into this for a while and from everything I've read and seen it's light years better than the crappy plastic/metal triple/quadruple bladed ones you can buy from the supermarket. Also, you can pick up 20 or so blades for $5 as opposed to like $30. It's an investment as I see it. I'll certainly make back the money I would have if I were to have kept buying the shit blades at the grocery store.

I had originally thought of getting a good electric razor since mine is now 10 years old and pretty busted. I decided on this because a bunch of people on Shacknews were raving about it saying it's the best thing since sliced bread. I certainly hope so. I'm really excited to get it and try it for the first time.

I just started lifting weights again yesterday for the first time since I've gotten back and I'm glad to see that I didn't completely lose my strength I had built up last semester. I'm definitely not as strong as I was, but it's ok. Climbing has been a blast again, especially because I'm almost where I was last semester and I don't feel terribly weak like I did when we first started.

I haven't been playing many video games lately, but that's to be expected. I've been working on my website, working on schoolwork, and watching tv shows every once in a while. Life is good right now, but I certainly can't wait to get a job and get the hell out of this school. It's really fun seeing everyone around me get jobs as I'm going to be applying this weekend to a bunch of places. Wish me luck.

Tags: life