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Hmmm… So I’m hearing that Bush vs. Gore recount-the-first by a Florida publication reports no change in the ultimate result. Interesting. I like this answer, because it mirrors what happened, thereby making everything much easier. And easy is what we should all be working toward.

I got my changes made… I’m now listed as a double Bachelor of Arts, English and Anthropology. My English will be completely done at the end of this semester. Anthropology will finish after summer. Then I’m in some serious shit… What do I do with myself then?

People who can’t separate their politics from other aspects of their life (i.e. films, books, food, dates) really piss me off. Maybe it’s time I become an anti-activist activist. Death to the idealogues!

Okay.

Okay.

I have lots of money.

I owe lots of taxes.

I have no money.

Plugging along…

An exam I thought I had to take was postponed. Cool.

My thoughts are with you, Carlos. It’s hard now, but it’ll work out. You’ll see. Life has a way of doing that sort of thing.

Just at that moment when you start to think you’re immune… That is when you’re most vulnerable… and you start to wish and wonder.

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!

I worked two days straight on an exam for my Egyptology class and now, when it’s due, right before class, I can’t get there! My car needs a new water pump and everyone’s taken every other car that lives here!

I hope to God that Dr. Ewa accepts the exam I just sent her by e-mail, otherwise I am screwed. Dammit. I hate situations like this.

What the hell do I care?

I don’t.

Anyway, sun’s out.

I’m so damn tired of studying for this exam… As if I haven’t had enough Chaucer already in my educational life. *grrr*

Still, there are some moments:

Taak fir and beer in the derkeste hous
Betwixe this and the Mount of Caucasus
And lat men shette the dores and go thenne,
Yit wol the fir as faire lye and brenne
As twenty thousand men mighte it biholde:
His office natureel ay wol it holde,
Up peril of my lif, til that it die.
Heer may ye see wel how that genterye
Is nat annexed to possessioun,
Sith folk ne doon hir operacioun
Alway, as dooth the fir, lo, in his kinde.

Or is it just a lot of moralizing shit? I can never tell…

The international conception and defense of intellectual property must be radically altered or abolished. If not, we are entering the most intellectually oppressive age in the history of humanity, in which what you think — your ideas — will be controlled (literally) and even owned by large corporations. This is not good.

Meanwhile…

Book is done. Completely. Who-pee.

Re-clocked my Thunderbird again. Now doing 133×7.0 (933 MHz, but now with a 266 frontside). Nice memory throughput increase. Meanwhile, I’ve just discovered that if you accidentally misplace your left hand when typing, “diary” can become “fisty” instead.

These are the joys of life.

Not much is worse than an asshole professor. I hand in a completed paper on time and what does he say? “Yeah right. Try coming to class for a change.” Before he even looks at it. I’m not 18 and clueless anymore; if I don’t come to class, I’ve decided not to come to class and that’s that. What’s more, I’m paying for this guy’s briefs when I write that tuition check. It’s my prerogative to use what I’ve bought or to waste it as I see fit. It’s his prerogative to give me the grade he thinks I deserve. Lack of manners, however, are not a part of the deal. He needs to shut up and get humble. The world is full of half-ass state school professors. There are more of them than there are really skilled mechanics.

After class , I yanked out my Thunderbird CPU and used the pencil-unlock trick to crank it to 950 MHz. Couldn’t get that last 50 to 1GHz, though, and I’m not hardcore enough to waste more time on it. Also tried running Sandra under VMware. Interesting results.

Green tea is good and Earl Grey tea is also good. So now at the grocer I find a box of “Earl Green” tea. What the hell!? I buy it and it’s actually very good, though it makes my head fall to one side each time I taste it…

Had a very strange dream about Jennie last night. She’d moved to London (!?) and I flew over to visit her for old times’ sake after she’d bugged me by telephone for a while to do so. So, after dropping the cash and flying there to see her at her work, she basically treats me like shit, not even really talking to me — until I’m tired of seeing her and thinking it’s time to go (happens pretty quick). So, I just grin, think about how badly she still acts, and start toward my rented car, but I get lost in her damn biology lab building and end up having to ask directions from these two guys with a cat. Because I’m wearing shorts , the cat scratches up my legs horribly. Even so, the guys turn out to be decent sorts and we go out for a drink and sing a few bar songs. The two guys ask me about my books and degree plans and later on tell me that they think Jennie’s pretty unstable and I’m lucky to be rid of her.

Interesting. If for no other reason, interesting because I almost never dream in any way that I remember later on.

Looked at Win4Lin and VMWare again last night. Looks like I’m going to be grabbing VMWare express. Why? VMWare will run both VirtualDub and Tsunami, while Win4Lin won’t. Sad, too, ’cause Win4Lin is much faster. I wish Wine was more ready or Plex86 was working at a reasonable level, or even better, that the authors of VirtualDub and Tsunami would release @(#*&^ Linux versions.

Oh well. That’s life.

Better go. Got a paper to write on Méerimée’s Lokis that’s due tomorrow. I hate school. I just want to play.

I’ve been working for about two weeks now to perfect the process of making ‘Super VideoCD’ disks with the intent of copying important things to CD for my DVD player. First bit of mastered film: me and my family in San Francisco during the closing months of 1986. Next videos to be mastered to disk: my Fawlty Towers box set. No joke.

Tip for anyone making VideoCDs… See, I could never get a good image. It took me about 60 burns, but I finally found the answer. Use VirtualDub and Tsunami for NTSC SVCD. But be sure to re-render input AVIs in VirtualDub with the following four filters: deinterlace , resize to 480×480 , sharpen [40-50] and dynamic noise reduction [16 or so]. Then encode with Tsunami for interlaced NTSC with block softening of 60 or so. Complex and it makes for a film-like result instead of a TV-like result, but it works and image quality is good.

Yeah, yeah, tech shit again. Only it’s getting fun again, ’cause it’s not my job, dammit!

Damn it, another empty month file in my diary. Very spartan indeed…

After talking to the lovely counselor in the Anthropology department, my academic schedule may have changed slightly. Looks like instead of graduating after Spring 2001, I will instead graduate after Summer 2001. What will this get me?

A surprise double-major. By graduating three months later, I will have a BA in both English and Anthropology (double) instead of just a BA in English. Suddenly, all of those extra years in school become worthwhile.

Cool. Two degrees and two books and I’m feeling pretty hardcore.

I still can’t afford the nice brand of socks, though.

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