Archive for October, 2003
I felt like I was back in grade school, staring at the clock, waiting for 3 PM. Today, however, that time would mean a different kind of release for it was a deadline as well. Until that time it was nose to the grindstone material. I only half-paid attention in databases lecture while I tried to squeeze a little more partial credit out of combinatorics homework that had been neglected in favor of more urgent tasks throughout the week. Being Halloween, Dr. Schimmel brought candy for those who attended VLSI lecture. Sadly, none of my professors dressed up or did anything amusing. I still remember how Bill Leahy, my former CS 2130 professor, came in on Halloween a year ago dressed as a pirate and he made the infamous “Argh-V!” joke. Good times.
After classes were over, I worked in the VLSI lab until about half-past three. One of the TAs agreed to take the projects later than expected which was nice. I didn’t finish and even getting all the printouts of what I did have took longer than expected. The class mandates color plots of all designs and the color printers we have are slow and few in number. Take into consideration the number of students in the class (between 60 and 80 by my estimates), and the printers quickly become a severe bottleneck. In truth, I’ve been given fair warning concerning this class from many different sources. They all said, “Start early,” in more or less words, but old habits will die hard and it’s not always as practical as I might like.
For the remainder of the day I took a welcome break and did unimportant stuff. Titus and I watched the remainder of the .hack//SIGN DVD. I meant to go shopping to treat myself to something on Halloween but I lost track of the time. I’ll go tomorrow instead.
I left for school early in hopes of picking up my third statistics exam. It turns out I was a little too early so I went to the student center to satisfy my annoyingly persistent need for food. The choices for dining on campus are very limited and I’m at the point now where I’m not in the mood for any of it, so having to eat when I’m on campus seems more like a chore than any kind of enjoyable outing like it should be. It’s a serious roadblock during my VLSI design marathons; if I go too long I start getting headaches. I picked up my exam after partaking of some breadsticks from Pizza Hut (they’re cheap, if nothing else).
I was pleasantly surprised with my grade because I was expecting much less after seeing the exam solutions. After this it was straight to the third-floor ECE lab. I would emerge only to go to my one lecture of the day at 3 PM. I called it a day shortly after 10 PM and headed home. I have a working shift register and adder now. Tomorrow I will resume work on the product registers and print everything that I have out. I am certain I will not be totally finished but I’m not direly concerned either. The professor already stated that the milestone was in place primarly to deliver feedback. For better or worse, it will all be over at 3 PM tomorrow.
The highlight of the day was receiving a package from Mom and a homemade card from my Aunt Kathy. It’s nice to find something other than the usual junk in our mailbox, especially during a week where it feels like I’m working 12 hours a day. Titus and I watched .hack//SIGN episode 3 and snacked on oven-baked french fries in the evening.
With Friday closing in, I set about another day of classes. The first order of business was my third quiz in databases. I felt pretty good about it overall but I have a feeling that I missed at least one of the functional dependency questions. It’s one less thing to worry about but it’s not the load off my shoulders that finishing my VLSI project will be. My remaining classes were unremarkable except for the fact that one of my professors was about ten minutes late.
Titus attended the early VLSI lecture so we got lunch at Junior’s per the usual routine. He also needed to work on VLSI so we departed for the College of Computer, third floor, after lunch. What followed was a seven hour design marathon; progress was achived, but completion was not. The task will carry over another day. I would estimate that I’ve spent about 13 hours in the lab this week.
When I got home I prepared macaroni and cheese and watched Wolf’s Rain episode 24 alone. It’s now looking like the series will get pretty dark before the end. After Titus got home we watched .hack//SIGN episode 2. I’ve already seen the entire first DVD but it’s worth watching again. I’ve noticed that the series has particularly good music.
Despite having only one class, this proved to be a distressingly long day. In the morning I finished covering material for databases. After taking the sample exam I decided I was well prepared for anything except functional dependencies. Nicky had the day off so we picked up lunch at Checkers. After lunch I worked on combinatorics for a while before I had to leave for class.
After sitting through another unengaging statistics lecture—an occasion improved only by the presence of that really cute foreign girl who always sits near the front—I began my first serious effort on the first part of the VLSI project. In retrospect I probably should have started earlier as it took me several hours just to figure out what I needed to do. At least now I have a good idea. I made layouts for a basic inverter and transparent latch. I also split some pizzas with Titus and Chris who were also putting in a late night for the same reasons; it was unusual in that we had them delivered to the College of Computing. That building has quite the night life. Tomorrow the quest for a working shift register will continue.
I watched Wolf’s Rain #23 over lunch. The series has really begun to shine in the later episodes. It’s interesting to see how many of the characters have vastly different backgrounds and motivations yet they are finally starting to work together towards their common goal. This is probably glossing over things a bit.
With yesterday’s realization that this week will be much busier than anticipated, I set about trying to clear combinatorics out of the way for the impending VLSI marathon at the end of the week. I ended up spending the better part of six hours in the library following classes and I’m only about half way there. I’ve noticed that I have a tendency to start daydreaming when I hit snags even if I pick the most isolated study locations with the fewest distractions.
The good news is that my VLSI test got moved back a week to 11/14; it had previously been scheduled on the same day as my Combinatorics midterm, which would likely have proved painful. As it is they may still prove to be troublesome. The bad news is that the professor went ahead and scheduled two more homeworks between now and the test, the first of which is due this coming Monday, which is right after this project milestone is due. Thanks, Dr. Schimmel!
I watched the first episode of I My Me! Strawberry Eggs this evening with Titus. Appearances suggest that it’s a light-hearted comedy with a touch of fanservice, if that’s your thing. We’re jumping between series lately due to a couple gaping holes in my D.N.Angel set.
Titus, Nicky, and I all played some Soul Calibur II versus battles in the evening. It’s a rare event anymore for the three of us to do something as a group.
