Memorable

Yesterday I was at Turlington Plaza on campus, signing some petition, when one of the guys behind the table said he recognized me. He said he’d taken a class with me, a biology class a few years ago, and pointed in the general direction of the building where the class met. I didn’t recognize him at all, but he had to be right. I’ve only taken one biology class; it was BSC 2008 in Spring 2008. I was dumbfounded: How could anyone have remembered me, especially after all this time?

“I remember everyone I’ve ever had a class with,” he said.

Psh. I sure don’t. Even though our class wasn’t very large (or not many people showed up every day, I can’t remember which), I only remember two of my classmates because they were, well, memorable. One was a big guy who, with his Southern accent and ever-present baseball cap, would contribute to class discussions by mentioning something vaguely relevant about his family’s fish-farming operation. The other was a olive-skinned, short-haired brunette who would smile at me whenever our eyes met in class. She looked a few years older than me, so I feel like she should have graduated by now, but I swear I saw her pass by me on her bike a few months ago, and I think she even said hi.

That’s not what this post is about.

Today, I was eating lunch outside the library when a guy sitting nearby struck up a conversation with me. Using my name.

He said he remembered my name and face from this web site, which he had found while looking for information on how to connect to popular IRC servers from the dorms. (I used to have a small collection of information on the subject, but I took it offline because I thought no one cared. I was wrong!) He even remembered the URL, which he proved by showing me my home page on his iPad.

We started talking about my site, blogging, computers, clubs, and classes. We seemed to get along well. All the while, I was amazed. Sure, this kind of thing has happened before, but it still knocks my socks off. I’ve always dreamed of being a blogging celebrity, or blogebrity, and if a few people on this campus of 50,000 students know who I am because of this site, then who knows how many others recognize me but don’t bother to tell me?

And why does this happen? I guess I’m just a memorable-looking guy with a memorable name and a memorable web site that also has a memorable name. Like Southern Fish Guy and the girl I never talked to, I am memorable in my own way. That’s the only explanation that makes any sense.

Apparently it’s pretty common for college students to cheat by ordering custom-written essays on the Internet. One writer in the biz pseudonymously spills the beans about his shady profession, with details changed to protect the guilty.

First of all, I’d like to thank you for this opportunity…

One of the classes I’m taking is called Legal and Social Issues in Computing. I have to take it for my major, but it’s actually pretty interesting. For example, we’ve watched relevant clips from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report as well as a presentation by my dawg, Lawrence Lessig.

Lately, we’ve been having debates in class. We’ve had to pick a debate topic (and position) from a list. The debates have to do with legal and social issues in computing, if you can believe it. The topic I chose was “Whether people who would never consider shoplifting a music CD from a store are correct when they argue that there is difference between that and downloading the same material for free off a P2P network.”

The fun part is that the debates, for the most part, have two people to a side. My debate was yesterday, so I e-mailed my debate partner beforehand for some ideas about how to argue our position. My main idea was that downloading isn’t stealing because it doesn’t deprive the owner of the original, and my partner had the really ingenious idea of arguing that they aren’t the same because the law gives (vastly) different penalties for each.

I started by making my point, and our opponents countered that downloading should be considered stealing because you’re enjoying the music without paying the author what he or she requires. I had anticipated this response, so I laid out the point that downloads are not equal to lost sales. Or, as I have often seen it said, downloads != lost sales. (It’s a geek thing, really.) My partner also offered her argument.

I thought we were doing pretty well, but our opponents had found that the definition of stealing in the law included using someone’s copyright or something of that nature (I don’t have the exact wording). I couldn’t think of anything to say to that, but by then, the audience (the rest of the class) was busy berating our opponents over some obscure point they had made about RIAA settlement fees.

That was it, really. I think the professor preferred our opponents’ argument, so I consider us to have lost. Still, I feel like we did a pretty good job. I had never been in a debate before, so it was kind of fun.

A Facebook-related link: If Historical Events Had Facebook Statuses.

Ugh, why is Jordon writing about football???

October is a busy month. It’s the middle of the semester, so I’ve have a lot of exams and projects and such for my classes. My last hurdle is a paper that’s due on Tuesday, and then I should be less busy for a little while. I hope.

As usual, I’ve been following the football team with interest. It figures that the only year I enter the student football ticket lottery is arguably the Florida Gators’ worst in many years (because why else do people enter the lottery if not to sell their tickets?). Early in the season, I went to the games against South Florida and Kentucky, both decisive victories. Then the team went to Alabama, the top-ranked squad in the nation, and lost—no surprise there. Next, the Gators played Louisiana State at home. I went to that one, but I wish I hadn’t; LSU ended up scoring the game-winning touchdown in the final seconds. What a nail-biter that was. The next week was the homecoming game against Mississippi State—and we dropped that one too. I’m glad I wasn’t there; I listened to it on the radio.

So, the Gators lost three games in a row for the first time since 1999 and lost three regular-season games in a row for the first time since 1988. Fortunately, they had last weekend off. Everyone hoped that they would come out of their bye week with a win. And today, they did, by beating Georgia in overtime. I had never seen a college football game go into overtime, so it was interesting to watch. Of course, it was a nail-biter as well.

It’s just football, you might say. Yeah, I know. But I figured I should mention this stuff so I could put it in 2010: The Year in Review.

I will try to bury this post with other stuff soon.

On Kickstarter: a project to hide corporate logos from your videos. If you like it, you can help fund the project. My favorite feature: replacing a company’s logo with its CEO’s face.

The firestorm

Even though the Alligator has already published one of my letters to the editor this week, I felt compelled to write another one. As you’ve probably heard, the pastor of a small church here in Gainesville has been planning to burn the Koran on September 11. He’s been waffling a lot in the past day or so, so no one knows what will actually happen, but on Wednesday I sent in the following. They haven’t printed it, so they probably won’t now.

The Dove World Outreach Center has drawn an enormous amount of criticism from around the world for its plan to burn copies of the Koran on Sept. 11. I encourage everyone who has taken part in this debate to remember that at the heart of the controversy lies the freedom that we as Americans hold dearest: freedom of speech.

Speech is the only noble weapon in a democratic society, and it is one that all citizens have the right and responsibility to use. That’s why I applaud the groups in our community that are organizing peaceful protests instead of calling for violence. Though we may not agree with the message that Pastor Terry Jones is sending, we must acknowledge that freedom of speech necessarily extends to all opinions, even the most unpopular ones.

There’s going to be heightened security at tomorrow’s football game, but nothing is expected to happen there. I’m not worried for my safety; I’m just looking forward to having a good time at the game.

Till then, enjoy reading about the prop newspaper that appears everywhere in movies and TV shows. (Via waxy.org)

Intermission

Aaaand we’re back. I’ll continue talking about my adventures with Kate soon (probably interspersed with other posts), but it’s been a long time since I’ve talked about anything else, so I thought I’d fill you in. (Funny how that happens, isn’t it? I get lazy for a few days, and then I’m finally ready to write something but I’m just too dang busy to do it.)

The first day of classes was August 23. This semester has been pretty good so far. My classes aren’t too bad. I’m taking four classes, as usual, and my course load actually seems lighter than it was over the second half of the summer, when I took two classes.

As for socializing, I’ve been spending a lot of time with my friend Andrea, which is good because I didn’t see her very much for a while. I’ve also been getting to know my new roommates, whom I’ll talk about more later. And, of course, I’ve been hanging out with Andy, who’s still one of my roommates.

I entered the football ticket lottery this year, and I won, so I have tickets to all of the home games. I really should have entered the lottery in years past, but I just never felt like doing it. It’s a great way to make money: just go to the games you want to go to and sell the rest of your tickets to other people to make an overall profit.

I didn’t go to last week’s game, which was the season opener against Miami (Ohio) (I believe “Ohio” is supposed to be whispered; read it again and see if it sounds better.) I sold my ticket instead. But I plan to go to this week’s game against USF with my sister and a bunch of her friends. It should be fun. I haven’t been to any football games since I was a freshman (this was my last one), and since it’s my final year, I feel like I need to get some more of those experiences in.

Last week, I wrote a letter to the editor of the Alligator about a column titled “Christian Philosophies Shaped America.” They ran my letter yesterday, and you can read it online as well (but probably not for long since their links die after a certain amount of time.) This is my third letter that the Alligator has printed; the previous ones were from October and February.

One link today: Google Scribe, an apparently new toy that offers autocomplete suggestions for everything you type. (Via Andy Biao of waxy.org, who suggests, “for fun, try typing any word and hit enter repeatedly.”)

Get carded

As you may know, my parents have sold our house, and last weekend, I went there for the last time. When I wasn’t attending the Red Bull Flugtag, I was in my room, going through all my things and deciding whether to pack them, sell them, or throw them out. One of the things I came across was a brochure called “Legal Guide for New Adults,” produced by the state bar association. It consisted mainly of questions and answers such as (paraphrased):

Q: Why is the drinking age 21 and not 18?

A: The Florida Legislature has the power to set the drinking age, and that’s what they’ve decided is appropriate.

In other words, the classic because-we-said-so argument with which we are all familiar. (For the real answer, read about the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. The history of alcohol purchase age limits by state is also interesting.)

Anyway, Tuesday was my 21st birthday. After I wrote my birthday blog post, I continued studying until the exam (except for a brief study break at Taco Bell). I was gradually joined with other people in my class, and we all sort of ended up commiserating. That’s always fun. The exam itself was pretty challenging, but I don’t think it was harder than the last one, which I got a pretty good grade on, all things considered.

By the time I was done with my exam, it was already 9:30. Andy picked me up, and we went to Gainesville Ale House on Archer Road. Andrea met us there. I picked the place because it was one of the only restaurants in town I’d ever been to that was open after 11 PM (the others being the Original Pizza Palace and Chili’s). Plus, there would be a wide variety of alcoholic drinks to choose from if I so desired.

I so desired. I needed to unwind after that exam. After much deliberation, I decided to get a whiskey and soda (Jack and Pepsi, to be exact). I almost thought the waitress wasn’t going to card me, but she did. To eat, of course, I got a burger. Since this establishment was half-bar, they had a trivia contest going on, with the questions and answers being announced over the speakers. The three of us put our heads together and got most of the questions right, although we didn’t actually participate.

Andrea had the audacity to ask the waitress whether I would get a free desert. She said I could get a free slice of ice cream cake and brought one out. The three of us enjoyed it together. Andy covered my part of the check since he owed me money (it’s a good thing he remembered because I didn’t). Then, Andy and I went back to our apartment, where Andy had decorated the living room with balloons and other birthday decorations as a surprise. We threw the balloons around for a little while. After midnight had passed, I started working on homework.

I report my music listening habits to last.fm because I enjoy seeing the statistics. Here are some more statistics for last.fm users: The Obscurometer tells you how obscure your musical tastes are compared to others’. Apparently, my obscurity level is 30.1%, and my musical tastes are more obscure than 27.9% of all users.

This article does a great job of explaining how The RIAA and MPAA Have Failed to Understand a Cultural Shift. Everyone who doesn’t understand why the RIAA and MPAA’s tactics are wrong should read it.

Birthday

Yesterday was my friend Andrea’s 21st birthday. She had a little get-together at her apartment with her parents, her boyfriend, a couple of other friends, and me. One of the gifts she opened was a diary her grandmother had been keeping since she was born. She read from it for about an hour. I thought it was interesting to listen to since I haven’t known her for very much of her life. After that, we went to a Cajun-type restaurant downtown, where Andrea ordered her first drink. We returned to her apartment for cake and ice cream (but of course!) and then went our separate ways.

And today it’s my 21st birthday. I went to work in the morning, and now I’m taking a quick break from studying for the Operating Systems exam I have tonight. Yes, when I decided to take summer classes, I expected that I would have class on my birthday, but the reality was far worse. After the exam, I’m going out to dinner with a couple of friends. And after that, I have to do Operating Systems homework, which I’ll probably have to pull an all-nighter to finish. Yay…

(I know, I know, I have to update my age on the sidebar and the bio and everything. It’s not like I forgot, but I’m really, really, really, really, really, really, really busy.)

This link goes out to all my friends who misspell “a lot”: The Alot Is Better Than You at Everything.

How the classes are going

Two summers ago, I stayed home and hung out with friends. Last summer, I went to Europe. But if I want to graduate in Spring 2011 while taking a relatively light course load along the way (which I do), then I have to take a summer semester (which I am doing now).

Here at old Florida, there are three summer semesters. Summer A is six weeks long. Summer B, which follows Summer A, is also six weeks long. Summer C spans both Summer A and Summer B. I took Intro to Public Speaking during Summer A, and during Summer C, I’m taking Operating Systems and Finance. Summer A has ended, so the latter two classes are the ones I have left.

Summer course offerings are more limited than during the Spring or Fall semesters, so for my computer science major, I had no choice but to take Operating Systems with one of the department’s more infamous professors. He claims that the average score on his exams is 60%, which includes 20% extra credit. He also gives lots of homework, and he’s just assigned the term project.

The flipside, as I’ve been told by my friends who have survived his classes, is that you learn a lot from him. And I seem to be doing just that. I didn’t think I would do very well on the first exam, but I got a 77 (which I first misread as 11, my mind precluding the possibility of such a “high” grade). The next exam is on Tuesday night, which also happens to be my birthday. I hope the exam makes it a good one.

The other class I’m taking right now is for my business administration minor. It’s Finance (properly, Business Finance), and it’s one of the classes that the business college has done a great job with. They record the lectures and post them online, so there’s no need to actually attend class. Instead, I download the lectures and watch them at my leisure. The quizzes are also online (but the exams, alas, are not).

I chose to be a business minor because it would give me valuable skills (and because my major requires me to take a minor, but never mind), and this class hasn’t disappointed me. I’ve learned, among other things, the importance of saving for retirement. Plus, I’ve been doing very well in the class. The way things are going, I could end up with an A. Yay.

I was actually very worried that I wouldn’t do well in either of these classes (Finance is said to be the hardest class in the business minor), but I’ve been busting my hump for them, and it shows. I just hope I can keep up the good work.

I’ve been linking to a lot of infographics lately, some good, some not so good. Here’s a parody of pointless infographics. (Via waxy.org)

Another one of those montages of clips from movies and TV shows: We’ve Got Company! I first saw this before watching Avatar and groaned upon hearing the line in the movie. (Via The Presurfer)

Stupid Fight compares the spelling and grammar of celebrity Twitterers’ fans to see whose are dumber. (Via waxy.org)

Yo dawg, we heard you like interest so we put interest on your interest so you can get money while you get money

I’m taking a finance class, and it’s been reasonably interesting so far. The professor has told us young persons how important it is to save for our retirement: we’re not likely to have Social Security or a pension to help us out. He said we should start investing in the stock market. If the average annual return on stocks is 10% (which supposedly it is), and you invest $1,000 per year for 40 years, you should end up with something like $487,851.81. A penny saved is a dollar earned.

I’ve always thought of the stock market as something that would do me more harm than good if I tried to mess with it. Several times in school, when I was too young to care about these things, we would have to invest imaginary money in real stocks, and whoever had the most imaginary money at the end would win. I lost an incredible amount of imaginary money in these things. I just didn’t get it, and I’m still not sure that I do.

Now that my finance class has taught me a little more about investing, I’d be interested in putting my money in stocks if only I could wade through all the acronyms and jargon and figure out how to get started. Two of my professors now have recommended Burton Malkiel’s A Random Walk Down Wall Street in class, so that might be a good place to start. Or maybe I need Investing for College Students Who Know Essentially Nothing About These Things and Just Want Straight Answers.

I don’t doubt that a lot of you readers have investments and know your stuff. What do you recommend for me?

For today’s cool link of the day, I give you Lemonade and Other Things, a new blog by my friend Andrea. She’s already written a lot of posts on various subjects, and I’ve found them pretty interesting. Let’s hope she keeps up the good work.

If I had $100

In order to graduate with a computer science degree, I have to take a communication class of some kind. I figured it would be easiest to get it over with during the summer, but my options would be more limited. Actually, my only choice was Intro to Public Speaking.

I have done a bit of public speaking already. When I went to a Catholic school, they would make me do readings in church all the time. I would be given a photocopied passage, usually a letter from Paul to some guys. There were slashes inserted between every few words; that was where I was supposed to pause. And then there was a reminder to count to three or five or something between finishing the reading and saying “The Word of the Lord.” My parents say I was great at it, but I was just following the directions. I never knew what I was actually saying. Nobody told me what it meant.

I was also asked to give a speech at my graduation from that school and again at my high-school graduation. I happily obliged in both cases. (Public speaking is nice when you know what you’re talking about.) And in college, I’ve already had to take a technical writing class, and the one I picked involved a fair amount of speaking, so I thought I had already met the communication requirement. But nopers.

So, I took Intro to Public Speaking during the Summer A semester, meaning I had class Monday through Friday for six weeks. We gave speeches every week. For our first assignment, which wasn’t for a grade, we had to interview a fellow student and present them to the class. Next, we were going to do impromptu speeches, in which we would select a topic and take a few minutes to prepare a short speech. The teacher wanted us to get a lot of practice, so first we did some impromptu speeches that didn’t count. He made us pick topics from the news. Mine went terribly.

For my actual impromptu speech, the one that counted for a grade, we submitted quotations and then we would each have to pick one and offer our reaction to it. I mentioned that one already.

After that, we had to give a speech demonstrating a process. I learned quite a bit from other people’s speeches: how to make a cookie cake, how to give a headlock in jujitsu, how to save gas. I talked about how to write a song. I was going to play a sample from a song I had recorded, but the audio wasn’t working, so the teacher made me sing it. And you thought speaking to people was scary…

Our next assignment was to give a persuasive speech. We would have to persuade the class that a law should be changed. Most people talked about the hard-hitting, life-or-death, hot-button social issues, but I talked about why copyright terms, which are the longest they’ve ever been, should be shortened. I thought I did a pretty good job on that one. The teacher thought the class as a whole didn’t have a lot of enthusiasm, so for the last assignment, he made us do persuasive speeches again.

This time, he said he had $100, and we were supposed to try to convince the class how he should spend the money. Then we would have a vote, and the winner would have the $100 spent on their idea, and they would get an A in the class.

I skipped the first two days of speeches because I was studying for my other classes, and I wanted to be ready for my speech. I thought a lot about what I would want the $100 to go to; I have a lot of pet issues that no one cares about. But then I remembered organ donation awareness, so I tried to persuade the class that the $100 should go to the organ donation awareness group I volunteer with.

I didn’t win—the winning idea was to have a class dance party—but I was glad to get my speech over with. And now the class is done, and I’m home for a week. Yesterday I went to a wedding, and today I’m about to pick up my friend Natasha for the airport. Fun times ahead!

It seems there are always tour groups going around campus—year-round, rain or shine. I’ve wondered how the weather might affect people’s perceptions of my fair university, and I assumed that bad weather would show the school in an unflattering light. Apparently, research shows that the opposite is true.