Yesterday was very nice, very relaxing. I watched all of Shogun, ate tasty food I made and bassically just hung out all day. The only thing that was strange was to realize that I hadn't spoke the entire day, infact I hadn't spoken since Thursday evening around 11, and I didn't open my mouth again to speak until just this morning at Church. How strange indeed.

I just got word today that my partner, and friend, Martin is leaving Dancris and San Luis Obispo much sooner than I expected. Sadness. Since we've started off on such a great little note, I may as well make this the "depression" entry. It's been a while, no? Life is good right now, but holidays always make me feel this way. I don't know if its the gifts, the tinsel, the crappy music, or just the blank look in the eyes of shoppers. It just gets me down. I guess mostly because it reveals to me how shallow most of the relationships in my life are. I see those "Kodak Families" with faces aglow with the wonder of the season, and I wonder "is it real?". I of course would love to believe it is, and I think it probably is in most cases. My family seems to be the exception, and I don't know why. We're just all islands unto ourselves. Yet it doesn't make sense to me. We a decent amount of time together, I mean I go down for every birthday and holiday... so why don't we have the kind of wild ruckus at holiday times that other families seem to experience? I dunno. Maybe it's 'cause we're white.

Well, I guess I've had enough of that. The words don't come readily to my fingertips, so I can't really describe to you exactly what I feel. How was Christmas? It was fine. Vegas was a blast, I'm glad we got the chance to go. It really makes me want to go and see more of this country... I'm thinking a long road trip this summer might be fun. 3 weeks in September? It could totally work out... but it's a long way to go before then. So for now, I'll just dream. Per average, I was gifted money. I already have plans for it... exciting, exciting things. Insurance payments and credit card debt... woo. Actually, I did splurge a bit today. I purchased Apple Care (extended warranty for my laptop) and the Indiana Jones DVD set, as well as the Shogun mini-series which recently came out on DVD. So that'll keep me busy for a bit. I also got a new mascot for my car to replace the sumo wrestlers that were melted: a scale die-cast 'mech from Mechwarrior. It's quite a bit bigger than the sumo, but it adds that "Golly you're a huge dork" factor that my car couldn't muster from just an apple sticker.

This town is so nice when no one is in it. I wish Cal Poly would go away sometimes, but then I'd never graduate, and I wouldn't have any reason to stay here... so I guess Poly can stay and I'll just enjoy the quiet times that quarter breaks bring. Right now there are no more than 5 cars in the parking lot. Downtown isn't much different, and the normal loud friday parties are no more. Breaks are great.

Merry Christmas! Ho ho ho, etc. etc. Got back from Vegas last night, that was a fun, fun trip. We got to go see Mystere at the Treasure Island, and that was a frickin' awesome show. Beyond that lots of shopping, little buying. Just telling you all I live still. Yup... later.

Lalala, been a few days since I blogged. Not much exciting is going on, but that's fine. LOTR:ROTK was awesome. Um... beyond that nothing really new. My perl study is going well, I've got a script going now that automatically emails things via sendmail. That's nifty. And, well... nothing else really. Finally talked to Jenn for the first time since she left the other day, she's back on AIM for a little while. We'll see if she goes back off when school gets back in. I would imagine she will. Oh, I got my grades. Did pretty well this quarter, almost broke that elusive 3.0 barrier. Not quite, I got a C+ in EE, but that was better than I was expecting so I'm not complaining. Beyond that life is slow, and good. My routine is all screwed up now though, that's my one complaint. I had a nice steady pace going this quarter, it's gone now. That's a minor complaint though, I'll get back into it once school starts again. Yup. That's it.

Just got back from Return of the King. Kick ass. I'll write more later. All I can really say is DUDE.

Few things anger me... flakiness is one of them. Mostly because I see it in myself, and in my family. When other people flake out it pisses me off even more. Please don't flake on me.

Yes, it's very real. Is it not the greatest logo ever? Beyond finding that gem, today was standard. I'm beginning to learn perl, which is fun... although not exactly what I expected from the way it is talked about. They say "You just talk to it, and it works"... the neglected to mention such things as required braces on if statements, and other little idiosyncrasies like that. Oh well, I finished my first little script that lets me juggle some files around on our network, which will make my life a little easier. Yeah, I'm glad to be done... but it is actually sort of boring. As much as I hate school-work... I miss school. I'm sure I'll regret saying that in about 3 weeks =P

Wooo! Like I said I would eventually, the "Should Lyle Go Out With Me?" Quiz is now online! You can view it at http://www.omphaloskepsis.org/quiz/quiz.html or at the links menu on the left. Enjoy!

Woo, I'm done for the quarter, and it's only Tuesday. That feels pretty damn good. It means I get only a few days short of a month for Christmas Break. Oh yeah! So this little entry is really going to about why I love my iBook. I know you're all aware of how pleased I am with it, but I'm not sure you realize why. It is sexy, and it is very portable. These are both prime reason why I like it so much, but today I'm reminded of yet another reason. Simply put, the warranty service is superb. I've only ever had two problems with it. First, the back-light on the screen went out. That was annoying, but the repaired it very quickly at no cost to myself. The second problem was more recent, my power adapter simply stopped working. It also made funny noises, but I think the wire in the cable just got broken from common use. Thankfully, Apple warranties the adapter. All I had to do was go in and say it was broken, and within 15 minutes I had a new one and was out of there. That's awesome! If I had had to buy a new one it would have cost more than $80... but I walked in and walked out with no cost to me at all. If there was ever a doubt in my mind, I am buying Apple Care. All this is making me turn my eyes towards Mac desktops... but I doubt that'll happen. I wouldn't have the same PC power to upgrade at will. Yet I am finding that is less and less of an importance. I use my computers now, whereas before I just played with them. It's really a mute point, seeing as I have no money. But, someday in the future maybe.

Oh, and you PC people, don't get all scared that you've lost one of your own. I have a great respect for PCs and Macs alike. I consider myself a computer user, and am not in either camp.

I changed my archives to monthly, since that list was getting pretty damn long. The pages still don't generate quite correctly, but that's an issue for after my final (that occurs in 40 minutes)

Tami Stronach is HOT

Just a reminder for those that didn't read my blog 8 months ago. Sorry, she's the girl from the end of The Neverending Story. You know which one; the child-like empress. I had the biggest crush on her when I was a kid. So sad that she didn't do any other movies. Damn parents. I do suppose it would have made her all stuck up... but who knows. Maybe she is stuck up now. There is so little info about her on the net. So sad, so sad. Someone should offer her a movie deal. I'm sure I'm not the only one that had a crush on her. They are capitalizing on ALF now, so why not on the child-like empress in Neverending Story: the College Years?!

Well, two down and just one to go. A fairly easy one even. CPE wasn't too bad, and EE was okay. I don't think I got an A+ on either, but I'm 97% positive I didn't fail either. EE was fairly difficult, but I think I did pretty well (amazingly enough). Big thumbs up to God for helping out on that one. As for CPE it was just the same thing as usual ony longer. *shrug*

I'm glad the quarter is almost over, but it really amazes me that vacation is here so fast. It's like we've barely even gotten into the subject matter in my classes. I know there is a ton more to learn in C, and you could spend a lifetime learning the subtleties of UNIX. As for History, Prof. Valent is so hillarious, and generally fun to be around that I wish I didn't have to leave at all. I think Tim has him next quarter for the witch hunt class. Lucky bastard. Prof. Ring (David? Not sure what to call him) is equally hillarious, and I'm sad he isn't teaching EE 212. I did hear a rumor that he is teaching a lab section on Wednesdays (when my lab section is next quarter) so perhaps I'll have him then. I do know that I'll be on the lookout for his classes in the future. I placed my trust well when Trevor told me he was a good teacher. All in all, this quarter has actually been a lot of fun. In fact, I'd almost venture to say course-wise this was my favorite quarter so far.

School aside, how is the old personal life? It's fine. We (lots of people: Tim, Brion, Holly, Jenn, Myles, Kim, Kenny, Martin, Luella, Trevor, Phillip, Joe, Lilly, Nick, and many, many others) went and saw The Last Samurai on Friday. It was excellent. There are very few 'actiony' type movies that I would say that about, and I look forward to owning this particular incarnation of it. It also makes me want to finish Shogun, which I started reading oh-so-long ago. I'll have to dig them out of wherever they are at. Everything is going pretty well right now. I really don't have anything to complain about. I'm content.

FINALS START TOMORROW

Not looking forward to EE at all. Something weird though. My EE professor is married to the professor I had for chemistry. What's weirder? I had forgotten her name (Sorry Dr. Clemens), but she remembered me... perfectly. She was like "You're Lyle right? You worked at Victoria's Secret". How did she remember? It was a long time ago, and that class had more that 60 students in it, plus I'm fairly certain that she had more than one section. I'm sure she's taught since then... does she remember all her students? If so: impressive! Even if not, I'm amazed she remembered me. Well, I better study... (or sleep) because if I don't I'll fail. If I fail those two will have a kid, and he'll be my professor because it'll take me that much longer to graduate. *sob*

Good Luck on Finals Everyone!!

BU website is back up. I've been so busy I haven't had time to move my blog to the cocksnsocks.com server. I did tonight, along with the BU site. So Holly your posts will work now. Woo.

Welcome to the eye of the storm. Today is nice. I am sitting here, just listening to music with nothing really to do. A preview of my winter vacation if you will. On a crappy note, my throat hurts. That doesn't bode well for the concert on Saturday, but it feels much better than it did this morning, and singing was no problem today.

It is official, all my finals are on Monday and Tuesday. Sux0r. Oh, speaking of uxor means wife in latin. Your trivia for the day. So, yeah. I had so many good thoughts for blog entries all day, now I've forgotten them all. I was thinking in the car about something. Oh yes, the differnce between "being addicted" and "being accustomed". Looking at those, they sound very different don't they? I think the difference is very subtle though. It seems to me that being addicted to something involves an active pursuit of the substance in question on a regular basis, and an inability to function without it. Being accustomed to something is simply using something everyday to some ends. Addiction is active, being accustomed is passive. For example: air. I am not addicted to air, I do not fiend for it daily or go out seeking it. I am however very accustomed to it. If air were to go away, I would be very sad... for about 3 minutes as I suffocated. I think that addiction is being over-accustomed to something, being so accustomed to it that we wouldn't be able to stop using it. Hm... maybe I am addicted to air. I dunno. My random thoughts for the day.

Gah! STRESS!! I have a lot to do, and no time to do it. I though I made good progress this weekend by finishing my CSC program.. wrong. I was testing it in lab today, and it wasn't working correctly... which means I have to spend time debugging it. How long will that take? If I'm lucky two minutes... if I'm not... several hours. Do I have several hours? No. Why not? I have an EE project also due on Weds, along with a HW assignment that will kick my ass. Compound that with a 3 hour choir practice tomorrow night... and, well. You see where I'm going: CRAZY. I'll probably skip work on Wednesday, unless of course a miracle happens and I finish everything tonight (not likely). On the upside, I do have all the problems for my EE project set up. I just have to figure out how to make them do what I want them to. Gah... I hate dead week.

Next week I have finals to look forward to. Oh boy. The best part? I know at least two of them are on Monday. I'll find out tomorrow when the third one is. It really doesn't matter though, the third one is history and that one is practically in the bag. I feel confident there, discussing events is easy for me... it's the right/wrong pass/fail mentality of EE and CSC that worry me... geh.

On a lighter note.. it's almost over! That makes me happy. A few weeks of doing nothing but going to work will be very nice. It also appears I'm going to Vegas for the few days before Christmas, so that should be fun as well. Further, Tim and I are going to attempt to play through a couple of FF games, for old times sake. Man... I wish it were break now.