stuck

December 10, 2003 by Eric Richardson

These days I get stuck on the last page of papers. I don't think it matters how long they are, just that I won't be able to resolve the ending in a satisfactory manner. That last page keeps me up. That last page holds itself away from me. Tonight is no different. One more page and I would be sleeping. But no... It hides. And I sit here, waiting for it.

visual words

December 10, 2003 by Eric Richardson

I feel literary today. In the past few days I've read more than I think I must have in the last year. First it was Beloved, by Toni Morrison. Then yesterday I started White Noise, by Don DeLillo. Today I finished it. 320+ pages in maybe 5 hours.

I'm not sure what it was that engrossed me so in White Noise. It felt like I was watching a movie. This movie was subtitled, and the words didn't really match up with what you know the characters were saying. Yet, the words you're reading on the screen touch you more than those you know are being said. They sound wrong, but they work beautifully.

Now I'm going to do a quick read of The Great Gatsby and then write a paper. The prompt: "Write a short and coherent essay to show how the first-person narrators in the fiction of Fitzgerald and DeLillo serve as a vehicle for romantic displacement and/or a disguise for paranoia." I'm looking for a spark.

talking about music

December 08, 2003 by Eric Richardson

Saturday a friend and I were talking about music at a party. We were asking about different bands we thought each other might have heard of or might like, and the process involved a lot of "have you heard of xxxxx? no." In the end we agreed to make sampler cds to exchange, to more adequately reflect what it was that we each listen to. Today while taking a break from reading I put a little time into putting mine together. I really enjoy the process of selecting songs, balancing out not only the songs that are favorites of mine, but also the ones that accurately portray the musician. Click to find out what ended up on my cd... — Continue Reading...

the long arm of the internet

December 02, 2003 by Eric Richardson

I'm sitting in a discussion section for my cinema class, bored as he rehashes the lecture. My roommate, D4, is giving me a hard time about not using this time to buy Lord of the Rings tickets. I shut him up by ssh'ing to my machine and starting a simpsons episode. Just like a baby with his mobile... Muah hahaha...

It is freaky when all of a sudden a passive computer starts playing something.

mmmm... wireless

December 02, 2003 by Eric Richardson

One of the things that spurred my to get a laptop, as I've mentioned before, was USC's installation of a wireless network on campus (big, but cool, coverage map). I love the idea of working anywhere on campus, free from the restraints of my apartment or a computer lab. Today I feel like I finally sort of got a piece of that. I've been on campus since 9:30am. In that time I've been online in Doheny Library, sitting in a hallway in a hallway in Annenberg, in an Annenberg classroom, back in Doheny (where this time I found a power outlet), and now outside, sitting by a fountain. That's really cool to me.

My laptop battery's been a champ, too. In general I can expect a good 3 hours out of it, a little more if I really crank down power usage. If I got a second battery, I think this thing could really last me all day without having to carry around a cord. I'm fascinated by watching my power usage. Right now ACPI says I'm using 1.1A, which isn't that bad. I can squeeze it to about 0.8A if I'm not using wireless and have the screen brightness down low.