About my life:

blah blah school blah blah tests, blah late nights, blah same-old-same-old. (I did ace my last Calc midterm though)

Just recently revisited integrals and derivatives evaluated as limits and sums, and I must say that it was a much more pleasant experience the second time around. I have come to the conclusion that I actually enjoy math for math's sake. I never would have thought this could happen, as I've never enjoyed learning math. I've always felt math classes were simply tortures that must be endured. However as I've been progressing through these higher math courses, my perception of them has slowly changed. Now I see them as battles that must be fought, with ample spoils to be enjoyed after. I don't know if the process of learning math will ever be enjoyable for me, but at the same time there's this point where you "get" it, that makes all the frustration worthwhile.
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In other news: My computer is still broken, so I'm not around much. As a result my deviations and messages are piling up. I've been somewhat reluctant to fix it, as I've found I have more time for schoolwork without it.

If you have time and interest, take a look at what this Stanford team is doing: [link]

Somehow my "Fantasy Landscapes" collection made it to the front page of "Most popular last 24 hours" in collections. I have received a bunch of faves on it which for some reason are not showing up on the collections page itself...


This is the first time I've made it on to the front page of anything, so it calls for a celebration. (Chocolate Milk! w00t!) It'll probably be gone tomorrow, but the 24 hours of Semi-Almost-Fame felt good, even if I only learned about it an hour ago.

You can check out the collection here:
[link]

In other computer related news, I verified the hard drive was indeed broken (Check disk at BIOS level told me right out to replace it). I bought a new hard drive, installed it, and tried to restore it using the recovery discs. Nothing. Contacted HP tech support, and after a bit of back and forth try-this-and-that, we determined the recovery discs were bad, and I'll need to order new ones from HP. End result I'll be out an extra 16 bucks (Three days of food!), and without a computer for another week at least. To say I am peeved at Geek Squad would be an understatement.

Warning! Anti-Geek Squad rant below:

This would not be terribly vexing, if I had not PAID Best Buy's Geek Squad to make my recovery disks so I would be sure they worked if something like this happened. I found out later that I could have burned my own recovery discs, which Geek Squad conveniently did not mention when I bought the computer. Next time they offer me any of their services, I shall politely inform them that I won't been needing them, as I've not heard of any snowball fights in Hades recently. I shall then inform them that if they are desperate for my business, they might try cranking up the air conditioning in the store and buying a snow machine.

Actually, I probably won't say any of that, but it felt good to type it... I'd also like to take this opportunity to say I had a most pleasant experience with HP tech support, they answered my Emails in most cases within the hour, even though I was no longer under warranty.

Really though, this is somewhat of a blessing in disguise, as I have a bunch of midterms next week and I don't need a computer to study for them, so it's probably for the best I won't have it as a distraction. At least that's what I keep telling myself.

Apologies for not getting to all the messages and deviations piling up. I haven't deleted any yet, but I have over a thousand to go through. Please bear with me.

Yes, it's true. My laptop is now a rather inconveniently sized paperweight. I suspect a hard drive problem, but am not certain of that fact. I'm still looking in to it. I'm rather frustrated as I did not need the added stress now of all times. I've been a good boy and have been backing up my data regularly, meaning I am not going to lose anything crucial, but it is still a big headache.

Since I have your attention, let me implore you to back up your data regularly. Had my data not been backed up, this would be far worse than just a big headache. (Seriously, go back up your data right now!)

In other news I ended up dropping my art class. I really loved it, but I was spending far too much time on it, and not enough time on math and physics, and my grades were really starting to slip. I'm rather bummed out about it, but at least I have a bunch of art supplies I got for the class to play around with.

One last thing, I attended Geek Kon last Saturday, and had quite a bit of fun. I played games, watched Anime, hung around the dealers room and the Artist's Ally. If any of you are in the market for Anime DVDs, let me plug Anime Pavilion:



One of the things I did there was meet up with the president of our Anime club to shop for prizes for our annual Halloween Costume Contest. For first prize we try to get a season of some show or another, and Anime Pavilion gave us a very nice discount. I'd like to return the favor, so please consider using their store if you want to buy DVDs, Manga, or merchandise.

Thanks for reading!

My Math Teachers:
By the way class, you have an exam next week. Judging from your vacant confused looks as I've been explaining integration by partial fractions in class, this exam will be a lot of fun for me to write. If past trends are any indication most of you will do very badly. Oh, and here are 50+ homework problems, due the day before the exam. Have a good weekend.

Me:


_{Portions paraphrased and exaggerated for comedic effect, but essentially true.}

So much for catching up on sleep this weekend...

I fear I am running out of creative journal titles, I must be getting old and boring...

Good news for the three bacteria and the cockroach who still watch this account for the art: I'm taking an art class. Aside from the obvious chance to improve due to the constant practice, I'll also have access to a real live art teacher! Woohoo! Look forward to new art from me all throughout the semester.

Calc 2 is going to be a challenging class. I walk into lecture and the professor says (Paraphrased for comedic purposes) "People say this is the hardest math class in the UW system, but I don't think that's true. Oh, by the way, you have 42 calculus problems due in 6 days. Hope you wern't planning on doing anything Labor Day weekend." Eesh... (For comparison, last year you could expect about 10 to 12 homework problems)