mmmm... more papery goodness

November 24, 2002 by Eric Richardson

Now it's 3:30. I've got four full pages, and have written about the first two points on my outline (of four). I'm still not sure what's going to get me to the 10 page mark. Something new is definitely going to have to find its way into my paper. I just have to think of it first. I can see getting 8 pages right now, so I'm going in the right direction at least.

mmmm... papery goodness

November 24, 2002 by Eric Richardson

So it's 12:45 and I've got two pages. I've managed to find my source in the course reader, so I've got that obligation taken care of. I can see this shaping up very nicely as a 5 - 6 page paper. Unfortunately, it has to be 10 - 12. I'm not exactly sure how that's going to work. More later.

getting down to writing

November 24, 2002 by Eric Richardson

So I'm at the point where I finally have to sit down and write the paper I figured out a topic for about a month ago. I hate that transition to actually writing. And more than that, I hate the thought of actually writing 10 - 12 pages right now. It'll be a long night.

one week of working

November 22, 2002 by Eric Richardson

So after one week I think I've almost got all the institutional stuff that I had to get up to speed on out of the way. I have voicemail, know how to send mail, and got my first timecard in. I also did 180 miles or so in four days of commuting (six roundtrips USC - Pasadena). Before I started I didn't know if it would be better to live around campus and commute to work or live in Pasadena and commute to school. At this point I can officially answer that: I like the way I've got it. Each morning I watch the snarled traffic on the 110 southbound into town and smile. I've also decided that with light traffic, the 110 into Pasadena is the most fun freeway to drive. 60mph has never felt so fast as it does going around some of those curves.

i'm employed

November 18, 2002 by Eric Richardson

I went to orientation this morning, so I think it's finally time to talk about the fact that I am once again employed. I am now a rocket scientist. Well... I do work for NASA, sort of (more about the technicalities of that later). I'll be working for the International GPS Service Central Bureau doing server administration and Perl programming. I'm excited. I start for real tomorrow morning at 8am, which I'm less excited about. I'm just glad to be working again, though. I've missed it. And to be working with Perl? Muah haha...

stupid web reg

November 13, 2002 by Eric Richardson

So you would think that web registration would mean you could register whenever. But no. Only until 10pm, and only mon - fri. What good does that do me right now? I want to register. Ridiculous. Luckily none of my classes are in any danger of filling up.

still working

November 12, 2002 by Eric Richardson

I could really use more sources for this paper. I'm not finding them right now, though. Books are the real problem, I'm not finding much and what I am is already checked out. Time to source for the prospectus and conquer the battle of finding the books later... One book I'd really like to use hasn't come out yet, so that's a totally different problem.

the joys of research in the night

November 12, 2002 by Eric Richardson

So normally I really don't like coming to the labs to do research. I can never really concentrate on what I'm doing with people sitting right next to me. I always feel like they're looking at my screen, or that they're about to askme what I'm doing. When I'm researching I like my privacy. That's why I've decided that all my research needs to be done at 2:40 in the morning. There are probably 10 people in here for 100 computers. I feel alone again. This is good, maybe this time I'll actually find something.

maturing code

November 11, 2002 by Eric Richardson

It's funny looking back on the different levels of coding style I've been at throughout the years. Today in some work I was doing in eThreads I ran across this gem:

${${$g}[1]}{title}

Yeah... That's readable... From inside to out, a ref to an array whose element contains a ref to hash that has an element named title. Of course, the proper way to write that is:

$g->[1]->{title}

Obviously I did not know this at the time.

raining....

November 08, 2002 by Eric Richardson

So it's raining in LA. That means basically that I don't go outside. Anywhere else I wouldn't care, but here in LA the rain seems so much worse because of its abnormality. It's a good day to stay indoors. Unfortunately I need to make a run for Ralphs sometime.

fun with doctors

November 07, 2002 by Eric Richardson

So yesterday I finally got around to taking my arm to the health center. They fussed at me for not having it there earlier, but checked it out and didn't find anything more than some possible tearing in the muscle. The tendon's fine, though, and everything tracks right, so it's nothing a little ibuprofen won't fix. My arm is definitely a nice shade of green and yellow today.

weekend roundup

November 04, 2002 by Eric Richardson

Yeah... So... I've been doing stuff. This weekend I was in San Diego for a waterski tournament, and managed to come really close to seriously messing up my arm by finding a way to fall and get a handle around my bicep. As it was, I just ended up with a nice bruise. We launched the trojan waterski site on Thursday, though, so that's cool. Tomorrow morning I'm driving to Palm Springs to see Colby golf. He had a rough first day, but he is Conference USA Co-Golfer of the Month.