I love how I have accomplished more on my computer graphics project in the last five hours than in the last five days.

I’m on a roll! Like butter.

All those going to the Gaiman/Hodgman thing tonight, HAVE CRAZY FUN! Try to have a bit of surplus fun to send to me, if possible. Anyone that hooks me up with audio and/or video footage gets a virtual kiss on the mouth.

To my great joy, a split second after I posted this entry, I just got an email from the TAs, saying the the Computer Graphics project is now due on Tuesday. This would technically give me the opportunity to see the Hodgneil thing if I wished. Interesting. Now that I’m actually making the choice not to go rather than being forced into not going by circumstances out of my control, I feel much better about missing it. Anyway, I look forward to seeing John Hodgman on the 5th!

(Answer to the previous question? House.)

Observation: I use really big, obscure words when I write when I’m exceptionally tired. Skimming through my Piano paper, I have found instances of “ostensibly”, “tempestuous”, “indelibly”, “indissolubly”, “perfidy”, “imbue”, “permeates”, “innumerable”, and my personal favourite, “homonymic.” All this in just five pages.

I am such a dweeb. XD

I spent the first hour of Computer Graphics class struggling to stay awake. I would nod off for a second or two, then jerk back to consciousness, seriously unsettling the guy sitting next to me. I talked to Norm after class, and he said that he would be very understanding about the homework assignment, as it took so long for so many of the students to get the platform to work correctly, before we could even start coding. That’s a relief.

Now I must decide how best to recharge my batteries. Nap or House?

I’m knocking down pins left and right! This morning, I just finished my Film Analysis paper on The Piano and the “Bluebeard” story, and though I might tweak it a bit before I turn it in tomorrow (I’m going to ask my Fairytales professor to look over it after class tonight), it’s in a state that I’d feel good about turning in.

The Physics quiz is over with, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t get *all* of the questions wrong! I actually feel pretty good about the way I set up the problems, but I’m sure I had some major screwups when it came to combining powers of ten and whatnot. Not bad for a couple hours’ studying to catch up with three weeks of “huh?”

Last night, I finished reading White as Snow for my Fairytales class, so go me. I know next week we’re doing “Little Red Riding Hood,” but I’m feeling like I could sleep for a hundred years.

My computer graphics assignment is still daunting as all get-out. As daunting as a near-totally blank screen can be. I talked to the TAs and they gave me a few suggestions for where I should look for tutorials and whatnot, and they recommended a book, which I just picked up at the store. I’m going to talk to my professor during his office hours this afternoon and get his signoff for me to get a tutor, and possibly an extension.

And I have a math exam Tuesday, proving that IT DOESN’T END.

PHEW! I just had a shock of horror as I observed that my Physics exam on October 5th was the same night as John Hodgman’s appearance in Philly. Fortunately, my professor told the class that the exam should be over before 6, giving me an hour to get to the Free Library before John arrives at 7. Close call!

The season premiere of Veronica Mars was supposed to premiere online tomorrow, a week before it aired. But lo and behold, it got leaked today! Three cheers, for the “frak” will go some way in making up for me not watching Battlestar Galactica! (I am SO GLAD Psych, Doctor Who, and The Dresden Files don’t start up until this stupid semester is over.) Though I’m really not digging the new credits. Don’t mess with my Dandy Warhols, yo.

Studio 60? Love. Though like The West Wing before it, it makes me wish real life was more like the show.

In other TV news, Tim Minear has joined Standoff as a consulting producer. First Gina, now Tim? I guess this makes one more show I’ll have to catch on DVD. Provided it goes to DVD, of course. With Tim’s track record, I doubt it’ll last fourteen episodes. :D And not to worry, Drive is still a midseason contender.

Internet Celebrities talk dance about Net Neutrality. Hilarious! Though don’t let the humor of their presentation undermine their message. Net Neutrality must be preserved. Take action and call your congressman!

Moviewise, we’ve got a bunch of high-res images from Order of the Phoenix! Umbridge is perfect, but oh DanRad, what have you done to your hair? Luna’s eyes are so very Luna, but Neville looks unsettlingly like Hitler shaved his moustache.

We now also have got a (teaser?) poster for Hogfather. Good thing it’s slated for Christmas and the 3D Nightmare Before Christmas re-release is in October. We don’t want to oversaturate the “skeletons playing Santa” market. :D

And finally, aww! James Marsters is going to be in a real movie! And James, “P.S. I Love You”? The initials thing is way too obvious. I know you love me, but darling, you’re twice my age. It would never work. :D

I just totally PWNED my math quiz. It was like “I have Gaussian elimination and inverted matrices and Cramer’s rule and determinants!” and I was like, “But I have a FLAG!”

It was pretty much over from there.

Academic Depression + Eating Dessert Before Dinner = Slightly Less Academic Depression, At Least For The Moment. And Ben & Jerry’s widely-sold “American Pie” is close enough to my lusted-for “Appley Ever After” that an outpouring of singing and dancing may be expected as soon as I rid myself of this excessive quantity of homework.

Anyway, I’ve already cancelled on Tuesday’s SIGGRAPH mini-lecture, and unless I make some major headway in my computer science project in the next few days, I’ve decided not to attend the Gaiman/Hodgman event in New York this Thursday. The stress it will create far outweighs the fanglee. Besides, John Hodgman is coming to Philadelphia October 5th, and I’ve already met Neil twice. It would have been fun, but it just wasn’t to be. I might also drop Battlestar Galactica this semester, if time remains tight. Nightly viewings of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are already gone.

An academic update:

After working on Math for about 6-7 hours yesterday, I’ve finished two of the four sections due on Monday. Hurrah! I’ve emailed my TA, asking if these past two weeks are indicative of the workload we can expect throughout the semester, because it’s frankly ridiculous. His response? No, it’s not indicative. The course may actually speed up. Excuse me as I rend my hair and garments and pierce my throat with a wail of agony. I’m definitely going have a chat with the professor after class on Tuesday. [Edit: As of approximately midnight, I’m done! I also sent my professor an email. Jolly good.]

After a couple hours of banging my head against the wall yesterday trying to get the latest release of JOGL (a system that allows one to use Java with OpenGL) to work, a fellow student advised me to try the 2003 release. Yay, the test code actually compiles! Now I only have to learn an entire programming language in a week and implement an architectural layout system! Norm may be a great guy, but he has no grip on what a person can sanely ask of his students.

I finished my bulk-pack reading for my Fairytales class, and I’m half-done reading White as Snow. I’ve scratched the surface of my Film readings, but they’re a lower priority. My film paper is looking promising, but I’ll be seriously hard-pressed to keep it under 6 pages.

And Physics? I haven’t even cracked the book this weekend. I am so far behind it’s ridiculous, and it will be interesting to see if I can cram enough knowledge to not fail Wednesday’s quiz, as I failed the two before. They only drop our three lowest quiz scores, so I need to get my act together, STAT. Now if only there were enough hours in the day that this was physically possible while still allowing me time to sleep, so that I might recover from my cold.

Woah. An unconfirmed French intelligence report is claiming Bin Laden has died of Typhoid fever.

(Also, he tried to ford a river, but his oxen died.)

I wouldn’t be surprised if he was dead. He’s reportedly been in awful shape these past years. And I’d be delighted to see him die in a way that doesn’t make him a martyr. But I was kind of hoping the U.S. would get the chance to kick the SOB’s evil, psycho, genocidal, pansy ass, you know?