The endgame

It's March, and that means it's time to start picking classes for next fall. People who plan to take classes over the summer also pick them during this time. This year, I am one of those people.

If I'm going to graduate next spring as planned, I'll have to take summer classes to catch up. That means I won't be able to do America with my friends, but there are few other downsides. I would be home for the rest of the summer. That's how I spent the summer of 2008. It was kind of boring.

The College of Engineering requires its students to meet with an advisor before registering for classes. So, on Thursday, I made the most important advising visit of my college career: the one in which all of my remaining questions would be answered. I had come with a long list of questions about the classes I would have to take in order to graduate, many of which are high-level electives. The advisor answered them with ease, and now I have a list of summer and fall classes to sign up for, as well as an idea of what my spring schedule will be like.

I had been hoping to take an elective called Programming Using C over the summer, but the advisor said it wouldn't count toward my degree because I had taken too many programming language classes previously (two of them, both Java classes). It's kind of a shame because I'd really like to learn what is probably the most widely used and influential programming language ever, especially since another class I'll be taking over the summer sort of requires it. I guess I'll just have to try to do it myself.

I'd also really like to take an elective called Unix System Administration, but they haven't offered it recently and aren't doing so in the foreseeable future. This sucks because I think I've finally decided What I Want To Be When I Grow Up™: a Unix system administrator.

For a long time, I wanted to be a programmer, but I wasn't exactly raking in the necessary experience. I've never done any real programming, like in a big "open source" project. The thought overwhelms me; there's so much I don't know that it's hard to get started. I have a class now where we're starting to develop a program collaboratively, but I can hardly get interested in it since I have so little experience with anything (and because it's a program I'll never use in real life). It seems more like a nightmare than a fun challenge. My fun challenges are dinky little scripts I hammer out from time to time. I can't get paid to write those.

There are also ideological roadblocks. I believe in the ideals of free software, which state that people are essentially free to do whatever they wish with their software. This idea isn't extremely popular in the corporate world, and I doubt I could get paid to write such software or even maintain it (one of my professors says that everyone who starts out in the software business is tasked not with writing new programs but instead with being a "software archaeologist").

Meanwhile, my webmaster job has opened me up to the world of system administration. I'm in charge of web sites, which reside on servers, which need care and feeding. Now, it's not actually my job to make sure that the servers are secure and up to date, but I don't think I'd mind doing it. The thought of being in charge of a network of computers at some organization—a virtual catcher in the rye, if you will—kind of fascinates me. The servers at work run FreeBSD, which is basically similar to Ubuntu, the OS I use on my own computer, so I know my way around. Those and many other Unix-like operating systems are free-as-in-freedom software, and they're widely used on web servers everywhere.

Interestingly, it was the summer of 2008 when I wrote, "I've decided that working on software would be pretty cool.... I don't want to be a sysadmin." People change.

I think that's enough for now. The point is that I'm planning to bring my college studies to an end and that I'm thinking about what I want to do after that. It feels good to have some sort of idea.

I haven't tried these out, but they may be worthwhile: tips for Reducing Junk Mail.

Here are some interesting maps made out of NASA's topographic data: Reading the World in Braille. As a topographic anomaly, the garbage dump near my house gets a shout-out.

Tons of vintage ads arranged by category and decade: Vintage Ad Browser. (Via Lifehacker)

School's out forever

Whenever I come home from college, I easily fall back into the social life I had before I left. It's mostly based around St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church, which I attended from the ages of 4 to 16, and the associated St. Elizabeth-St. Joseph Catholic School, which I attended for much of that time. My parents still go to the church and are friends with some of the parishioners, many of whom they know as my classmates' parents. I've been kept in the loop about what's going on at the church and school.

On Tuesday night, I was at my friend's house when his mom came with bad news. The pastor had just announced at a meeting that this year would be the last for St. Elizabeth-St. Joseph Catholic School. The school's home page now has nothing but a link to a letter by the the pastor. He explains how the archdiocese can no longer afford to subsidize the school, and with enrollment down 70% since the 2003-04 year, the school will be about $1.3 million in debt when it closes its doors for the last time.

Even though I'm now a cranky atheist who complains about everything, I can't help but get sentimental. I was a student at St. Elizabeth of Hungary (as the school was known until recently) from kindergarten through eighth grade—formative years indeed. Many of my friends, including most of the people I spend time with when I'm home and some others I see less often, were my classmates at St. E's. I contributed to the school's time capsule that was to be opened this year. I spoke at our graduation. And it wasn't that long ago; I started this web site while I was a student there.

I've been trying to dig up some news articles to get some more insight about the closing. The archdiocese has an article that provides some context. A local news station's article (with an unrelated stock photo) interviewed some students' parents, including a Mr. Chaiken, who blamed the closing on the church's previous pastor:

"The previous priest that was here got rid of a long-time, popular principal," Chaiken said. "She was here 25 years or more, everything was running great."

...except that she was using the school's money for her own purposes.

This was a big controversy a few years ago. The then-pastor accused the then-principal of using the school's money for her own purposes, but neither of them would show the public that they were right. Parishioners and parents were left to pick sides based on their own prejudices and suspicions. They tore each other apart. Basically, it was a massive farce all around that could have easily been prevented if everyone hadn't been such an idiot.

Anyway, the pastor turned out to be right, and the principal (who had quit by then) apologized in writing. Apparently some people still have their heads up their asses and think she didn't do anything wrong even though she admitted to it. I wonder how many other parishioners are still living in this fantasy world of Mr. Chaiken's. I suspect that most of them have long since taken their worshiping elsewhere.

As you might imagine, the damage had been done. Over the next few years, more and more parents pulled their kids out of the school. Then the economy went kablooie, accelerating the trend until the school became a shadow of its former self. Now we have the end of St. Elizabeth's. The school has coexisted with the church for 49 years; without it, the church will never be the same.

So, you see, my rosy memories have been tarnished a bit. I was saddened to find out that the financial scandal had become a nail in the school's coffin, but I hope this teaches everyone a lesson: honesty is the best policy. Without openness, there is drama, which can only lead to bad things.

In slightly better news, an environmental project at my university is in the running to win $5,000, and you can help. They're in second place right now. All you have to do is sign up and use your three votes to help put Neutral Gator ahead. Voting ends on Monday.

Pictures of old photos being held up in the locations where they were taken: Looking at the Past. (Via J-Walk Blog)

And finally, a list: 16 Anti-Theft Gadgets and Designs to Deter Thieves. Wait, Nick Cannon writes about this stuff? (Via Wise Bread)

This is different

The UF police department shot a student last week. I was immediately reminded of this, which happened during my first month as a student. As you hopefully don't remember, I took part in the ensuing protests, which I soon realized was an idiotic thing to do. Since then I've been wary of appearing to stand up for crazy jerks or people who just happen to have done crazy, jerky things.

The Sun and the Alligator have provided an overview of last week's incident. To make a long story short, the student had been threatening people and was getting violent, so the police shot him in the head with an assault rifle after other attempts to subdue him failed. I'm not going to pass judgment on this one for fear of coming up on the wrong side of public opinion. I just hope it gets resolved before it can tarnish the value of my yet-to-be-earned degree.

I went in for an eye exam on Monday. I had been scheduled for one over the summer, but I missed it due to my trip to Europe, so I was overdue. The last time I went, the doctor said I was slightly farsighted and wrote me a prescription for glasses in case I felt I would need them. I knew my vision could only get worse, so I wasn't looking forward to this visit.

Imagine my surprise when the doctor said that my farsightedness had corrected itself. Apparently that's possible at my age. Another crisis averted... for now.

For your viewing pleasure, here's the archetypal Academy Award-Winning movie trailer. (Via waxy.org)

I had no idea that our governor was such a jerk. Here's how Charlie Crist deals with atheists. (Via Pharyngula)

Enter a number, and Number Gossip will tell you some fun facts about it. (Via J-Walk Blog)

Freein' them PCs

This week, I helped install antivirus and free software for students as part of Florida Free Culture's semiannual Free Your PC event. We got an unusual amount of journalistic attention and, despite that, an unusually low turnout.

We usually pick three consecutive days for Free Your PC, but there was a scheduling conflict, so we picked Monday, Tuesday, and today. On Tuesday, a guy who I think was from the Alligator asked Mark and me some questions about our club and what we were doing. (They haven't published an article about us, but if they do, it will probably be tomorrow.) Today, my friend Roxy, a journalism student, came to interview some of our members for an assignment, and I think at least one other journalism student did as well.

Also, both Tuesday and today, a photographer from the university's news bureau, which I had never heard of, came around to take lots of pictures of us helping out with people's computers. He said that one of his photos would end up on their web site with an informative caption. He was also interested in the club; he spent some time checking out our swag and asking questions. And, sure enough, I'm in today's photo of the day.

The first day is always the slowest because that's when people see the event going on and make a mental note to bring their computers the next day. On Monday, I think we maybe got one person during the four hours that we were out there. Tuesday was better. I expected us to be slammed on Thursday due to that article that hasn't been published yet, but it hadn't been published yet. Also, it was very cold today, and it's almost spring break. That could be why not as many people came out.

For this Free Your PC, I continued a tradition that I started last semester by making a CD of some of my favorite Creative Commons-licensed music. I think I burned 12 or 14 discs, and we gave out most of them. In case you're interested, here are the track listings and download links for both CDs.

Well, it's almost spring break. I'll be home soon, and then I get a week to max 'n' relax.

Really amazing statistics in video form: The State of the Internet. (Via Lifehacker)

The New York Times has an article on how Restaurants Use Menu Psychology to Entice Diners Trick You Into Buying Tons of Crap Food That You Otherwise Wouldn't Want. (Via Lifehacker)

Finally, more statistics and a vaguely spring-break-themed link: it's an infographic that's basically about how dumb we college students all are and how much money we're wasting going to college.

Git-r-carded

For those of you who don't know, I volunteer with Get Carded, a student group that promotes organ and tissue donation. (The name comes from the organ donor cards we used to hand out, but these days there's an online database for that sort of thing.)

Anyway, I've always been good about going to their events until recently, so when they asked for volunteers for their next event, I obliged. With this one, they decided to branch out from their usual target group of students at the university. Instead, they were going to have a table at a charity concert in Levy County.

Today, three of us went out to Bronson (which, despite having less than 1,000 residents at the last census, is the county seat). The concert was the third annual "Bark-N-Purr" Charity Concert, put on by the county humane society on some field. We had received a map showing us where exactly to set up. We were shown on the map as "Get Corded!" In fact, the letter and everything else they sent were made out to "Get Corded!", including the exclamation mark.

It was raining a bit, and we didn't have our tent, so we called one of the co-directors of the group and asked him to bring it. He did after a little while, but he didn't stay. Then we set up. We were near booths for the Army, the Future Farmers of America, and a John Deere dealer. We were next to the Tupperware booth.

In general, there was a carnival-like atmosphere, with some bounce houses for kids, a sort of choo-choo train, and a few games. There was also a stage that had been set up, for the actual concert. They started with a prayer, I think, and then the national anthem.

Oh, and there was food. Hamburgers, hot dogs, corn dogs, wings, pulled pork sandwiches, french fries, other kinds of french fries, and... fried Oreos. I had to try some. They were surprisingly delicious: warm and breaded, with the Oreo inside kind of melted. I liked them so much that I got some more. That wasn't actually a good idea.

I spent most of the time manning the booth. The other two spent some time checking out some dogs that they had doing tricks in an area near the stage. The police also showed off their dogs, apparently. I didn't see. Ironically for a concert to benefit animals, pets weren't allowed, but I could see where they were coming from. I wouldn't want to have to clean up the field.

What we were really there to do was to talk to the people about organ donation. They were people with trucks, people wearing various types of camouflage, people with Confederate flags, people with American flags sticking out of their pockets. They were old, middle-aged, and young. One was even a beauty queen, the Clay County Miss Outstanding Teen or something like that. (She had a sash thing and a tiara.) They were also nice, for the most part (the Tupperware man helped us set up our tent).

We ended up giving out lots of swag. We even gave some to the Future Farmers of America for them to use as a door prize at their upcoming dinner. And before the headliner, some country singer, came on, we packed up and left.

I had been thinking of staying here after I graduate, but I'll have to think about it some more.

With Google phasing out support for the horrible Internet Explorer 6, a mock funeral is planned for Thursday. (Via Lifehacker).

Yahoo! Answers is full of stupid people asking stupid questions. Here are 20 of the dumbest. (Via J-Walk Blog)

And finally, a parody of Rachel Ray's show 30 Minute Meals.

No place to study (except in the study area and everywhere else)

It's student election time again. In the spring, we vote for Student Body President, Vice President, and Treasurer, along with representatives for freshmen, sophomores, colleges, and grad students. Sound exciting? Oh, it is.

At UF, one political party controls most of Student Government. It's the party that all of the fraternities and sororities happen to support, and these days it's known as the Unite Party. They always win.

There's also one or several opposition parties. The past few semesters, there have been the Orange & Blue Party and the Progress Party, but after cannibalizing each other's votes last semester, they've decided to (ahem) unite as the Student Alliance. Their presidential candidate is Ben Cavataro, whom I mentioned around this time last year. He used to represent my dorm in Student Government, and I have a high opinion of him.

One of the big issues this semester is the student union. The university wants to increase tuition so it can raise funds to expand the building. The majority party, which basically always does whatever the university administration wants, supports the plan. The issue is now on the ballot for students to vote on (albeit in a non-binding manner).

This week, I've seen official-looking signs posted in the student union that list so-called problems with the current building and the benefits of jacking up our tuition to fix them. One of the "problems" is that the building has "no place to study," even though a large study area was just built about a year ago. Today (well, yesterday, since I'm writing this after midnight), I wrote a letter to a student newspaper expressing my outrage at the university for creating these signs with false statements.

Then I read today's issue of the paper and found out that the signs had been created by a student-run campaign, not the university. Oops. By the time I was able to send a correction to the newspaper, they told me that my letter had already gone to press. Tomorrow, a lot of people might realize that I'm not technically right. Boo.

In my defense, the signs were misleading and were placed very prominently, as if the university had endorsed their message. In fact, that's actually likely because I've never seen any other student group's signs placed at the entrances of the building for all to see. As if that weren't enough, some university departments actually have officially endorsed the campaign.

Also, my letter can pretty much be read as though I'm criticizing the university for allowing the signs to be put up, so all in all, I guess I'm still right. I just hope no one nitpicks.

Here's an old video about how they make food look good for TV commercials. (Via The Presurfer)

This compact calendar is pretty clever. (Via Lifehacker)

I knew I'd seen this cliché in about a million TV shows and movies: Let's Enhance. (Via waxy.org)

Cheap books are OK

So, yeah. I got back to Gainesville on Monday, and the first day of classes was Tuesday. This week's been pretty good so far except for the cold weather, which I'm not too fond of. It's supposed to rain tomorrow and Saturday, and apparently people have heard that there's a very slight chance of snow flurries and are blowing it out of proportion. In Florida, we get excited about the possibility of snow.

My classes are all okay so far because I haven't done too much in them yet. Two of my four classes are taught by professors whose classes I've had before. Neither of them are really great, but I'd rather have a mediocre professor than one who might be terrible. I am risk-averse.

I'm not sure why, but I wasn't allotted any textbook money from the great State of Florida this semester, so I had to fend for myself. Buying my books from the university bookstore would have set me back $500, even if I got as many of them used as possible. Fortunately, I found much better deals online with Book Burro.

The books I did get were so cheap because they're all international editions. Apparently textbook companies sell identical copies of their books for lower prices in South and Southeast Asia. They all have warnings on them saying they're not authorized for sale outside those regions. For example:

If you purchased this book within the United States or Canada you should be aware that it has been wrongfully imported without the approval of the Publisher or the Author. [emphasis added]

"Wrongfully," in the eyes of the publisher, but not illegally. The first-sale doctrine prevents from publishers from dictating how their books can be sold after they are sold for the first time. This is why secondhand bookstores exist. The publishers would shut them all down in an instant if they could, but they can't, and the rest of us are better off for it.

Tomorrow Katja will be coming to Gainesville. I've been looking forward to this day for a while now, so I'm pretty excited. I've made a list of some things that we can do here in town, but it seems that she'll want to do a lot of relaxing. I'm good for that, too. It makes things less hectic for me. But who knows when I'll have time to blog next? Hopefully soon, but not too soon.

Peter over at Greatplay.net explains Why 2012 Will Not Be The End of the World.

Quizipedia is a fill-in-the-blank game with sentences taken from Wikipedia articles. (Via J-Walk Blog)

The visitor

I survived Finals Week '09. Well, Finals Week Fall '09, to be exact. And, presumably, every previous one. (T-shirt idea: "I survived the first x years of my life.")

Now, have I really not mentioned Katja here since the summer? It seems that I haven't. This must be corrected.

I met her at an Esperanto event in Slovakia. She's Russian. Rather than communicating in English or Russian (the latter of which I don't know—ФЯ DФ I ИФШ?—eh, no, I don't), we used Esperanto. Her name is Ekaterina, which is Russian for Catherine, and her nickname is Katya. In Esperanto that's spelled Katja, and when speaking English, she goes by Kate.

Since meeting over the summer, we've stayed in touch, still writing to each other in Esperanto. (You may recognize Kate as the author of some recent comments on this here blog.) And as it happens, she had been planning to come to the States, so she's going to drop by when she's here early next year, i.e., in a few weeks. And no, it really isn't just to see me; she had been planning the trip before we met. Even so, it'll be really cool to have someone visit me from so far away.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to having her as a guest here in Gainesville (and at my home in South Florida, since we'll have a three-day weekend).

Stay tuned, because more exciting Europe '09 follow-ups are on the horizon. But first, I'm heading home for winter break. Yeeeaah!

Need to know how to pronounce a famous (or currently newsworthy) person's name? The Name Engine has got you covered. I had been wondering about Ndamukong Suh. And hey, it looks like their whole directory of sound files is accidentally browsable. (Via J-Walk Blog)

A graph: A Graphic History of Newspaper Circulation Over the Last Two Decades. (Via waxy.org)

Exams are exciting

Busy times again. Yesterday was the last day of classes. Some professors decide to have their final exams on the last day instead of during exam week, so I had two exams yesterday. I had studied a lot for them the day before, so they weren't too hard. I already know that I got an A in Statistics, which I thought would be impossible.

It kind of puzzles me that I'm still having to take classes like Statistics that really have nothing to do with my major. I tell people who go to other universities the kinds of classes I'm taking, and they're also puzzled, which in turn makes me mad. I don't want anyone to think I'm getting a bad education. I think I've touched on this theme before, but I'm too lazy to find the link.

The professor of my Data Structures and Algorithms class (the most important class I'm taking) says they don't have time to teach us computer science and computer engineering majors everything, especially when it comes to programming languages. He suggests that we go off and learn some languages on our own. It's not a bad idea, but I'd like to learn more than one language in school.

Isn't it obvious why there's no time? It's because the university, or whoever tells them what they have to teach, insists that students have well-rounded college education. The Dutch sisters I met on the train from Venice to Zagreb this summer were puzzled by that idea. I could see their point. If I wanted to have a well-rounded education, I would have gone to high school. Oh, wait, I already did!

Sure, it would reflect well on me to learn programming languages by myself (as I actually have). And sure, it's not the worst thing in the world to write essays about the spice trade on the Indian Ocean during the Middle Ages and early modern period (as I also have). But I daresay that time spent doing the latter when I should be concentrating on the former is not time well spent. And they wonder why they can't teach us enough of what we need to know...

Anyway, I have an exam on Saturday and my last one on Tuesday. I'm not sure exactly when I'll be going home yet.

Joshua reports on abuse of authority and endorsement of religion at California public school. He's started a letter-writing campaign to stop the injustice. I've been too busy to write a letter, but I hope to get to that soon if it's still necessary.

And here's A Flowchart to Determine What Religion You Should Follow. (Via Pharyngula)

Some weather

The winners never say "It's only a game..."

Remember how college football equals epic drama?

In September of last year, the Florida Gators suffered an embarrassing loss to Ole Miss at home. After the game, Tim Tebow, the Gators' star quarterback, promised that no one would work harder than he would for the rest of the season. The Gators went on to win every game, including their conference championship and the national championship. The words of "The Promise" were etched onto a plaque outside the stadium. Tebow led the Gators through this season undefeated as well, for a total of 22 victories in a row.

The fun came to an end tonight as Alabama crushed Florida to win the conference championship.

I was watching at my friend Andrea's apartment. All of us—she, her boyfriend, her other friends, and I—were on edge the whole time. The Gators never led in the game. A comeback looked less and less likely. Finally, the score was 32-13 in the fourth quarter, and the announcers were declaring it over. Alabama had possession and took a knee. Tim Tebow cried. He had already played the last home game of his career. The team's hopes for a repeat national title were ruined.

A lot of thoughts were going around in my mind. I was tense. I could feel my heart beating in my stomach. I hadn't felt like this in a long time, and I have had some pretty bad times. I thought about how I could cheer myself up. If I had a bottle, I would drink. If I had a girl, I would kiss her. But there was nothing I could do. I wondered if I was the only person in the room who felt this way. Everyone else seemed to be laughing it off. Maybe they were just coping better.

Rather than sticking around to watch more TV, we went out. I kept my sweater on over my Gators shirt. We went to the mall, where I couldn't help but see tons of Gators merchandise for sale. We walked around for a little bit, I guess to get some milkshakes. I got one. Then we went to Target, where there was also tons of Gators merchandise in view. Andrea and some of the others bought cases of Dr Pepper, which happened to be the main sponsor of tonight's game.

I felt like it was letting it get to me too much, but I didn't want to say that because then everyone else would know it was getting to me too much. I think they all could tell, anyway. (If not, I've just blown my cover.) They took me back to my apartment, and to my dismay, I realized it was only nine o'clock. I had been counting on plopping right into bed, but it was too early. Oh, the world can be cruel sometimes.

I know, I know. This is a ridiculous thing to get worked up about. It is only a game. It's an hour of bulky sociology majors trying to move an oddly-shaped ball from one end of a field to the other in short bursts. It's not politics. It's not love. It's not like anyone died.

This is where I would rebut those potential criticisms and point out why it is in fact important, but I'm coming up short. All I know is that a lot of people had their hopes riding on this season, and that everyone who hates the Gators will have a field day. Actually, thanks to the magic of Facebook, I can tell that they already are. I guess that's the worst part for me since I have thin skin. Being a loser isn't fun.

Yes, this post is going to look stupid in the distant or not-so-distant future. But I don't know which is worse: feeling sad about this or knowing that it doesn't matter. When I'm feeling down about something, I want it to believe it's important, so I'd rather not hear optimistic words of wisdom, even though they often are true.

Meanwhile, the struggle between emotion and reason goes on. So, in spite of myself, I'd like to offer the following. Feel free to hold hands with the people next to you and sing along.

We are the boys from old Florida,
F-L-O-R-I-D-A,
Where the girls are the fairest,
The boys are the squarest
Of any old state down our way.

We are all strong for old Florida,
Down where the old Gators play.
In all kinds of weather,
We'll all stick together
For F-L-O-R-I-D-A.

Here's something few people will be interested in: A Literary Appreciation of the Olson/zoneinfo/tz Database. (Via waxy.org)

Watch old movies you've never heard of at Classic Cinema Online. (Via Lifehacker)