Subscribe to my 
unc
Why is my generation so messed up? I’m referencing the latest incident at NIU, found here.
But seriously, my generation is the one that threatened (or actually followed through with those threats) schools with guns and bomb. However, I was never actually affected much by this because thankfully we only received bomb threats when I was in high school and nothing any more serious.
Now that my generation is growing up, some of the ticking time bombs (of people) are still continuing to diffuse, just later than sooner. We had the graduate student wacko that tried to run people over in the pit but ultimately (and again, thankfully) failed to do much harm. I still can’t believe that I actually saw the guy before it even happened, but who is to think much about a car driving slowly on campus other than it probably being some constructor worker’s vehicle (they used to park in the weirdest places) leaving work? We never had anything of such a magnitude happen on our campus.
Then VTech happened. A rinse and repeat of high school, but just on a bigger playground.
Now NIU happened. I see a cycle approaching.
But the real question is: What about UNC? What about X college? What can be done to prevent this? How safe are we, really?
The answer: It is just a shame that we even have to think about this. It is a shame that it only takes a few, or even just one, to ruin the whole.
My answer: I feel pretty safe here. I don’t think anything would happen here (not that me saying that means much). I’m feeling encouraged by that notion that UNC is trying to do something by at least implementing an alert system (via e-mail, text message, and audible sirens/broadcast). But I do wish they’d at least test it once, period, if not once a year/semester such that we all know that it works and that we are receiving the alerts that we may one day need. Beyond the alert system, I do not know what else could be done. It is rather difficult to predict people’s actions without a mind reading device.
Posted in unc | No Comments »
2/6/08: UNC vs Duke, shot from the “Gerald Henderson Nosebleeds.” Three shots put together via Autostich. I have a high quality if anyone wants it, but the only thing I don’t like about this picture is the glare from the court that I couldn’t adjust.
The Clemson game was probably the most exciting game I have ever been to in quite awhile! 53 straight wins at home versus Clemson, which sets an NCAA record for the longest home winning streak against one opponent.
Posted in unc | 1 Comment »My AJ-baby has gotten sick. He slept (or stayed in bed) for about um, 16 hours yesterday (Thursday). I don’t blame him, if I was as sick as he is, I wouldn’t want to get up either. I just hope it isn’t contagious (and that he gets better).
Super Bowl weekend, yeah! Jenn is coming up today to stay for the weekend and re-stock me on some supplies courtesy of my mom. I think we’ll end up watching the game at Stephen Hoyle’s house like we did last year (great food, great friends, and football).
I’ve finally managed to crack up my R.A Salvatore books. I just started The Thousand Orcs this week and have already gotten about 100 pages in. It has more or less become a “bathroom reader” but I’ve been making progress! I forgot how much I loved these books since I haven’t read one of his books in at least a couple of years.
I’m also hooked on The Office. It started out as a fascination via Hulu. Then I went to the community office and rented Season 1. It was short and quickly finished. And we just finished Season 2 tonight. My prediction? Season 3 will be done today or Saturday. You absolutely must watch this show if you’ve never seen it. It is so awkward, but that is what makes it so great. Plus, Jenna Fischer is pretty cute even if she is 33.
I have so much homework to do. The thing is, I’ve been doing it all since Monday! My Adv WWW program is taking forever to complete phase 2, but I got a 10/10 on the first part. But the TA apparently doesn’t like my Carolina blue on darker blue color scheme. He said it is “hard to read” but I always thought the two colors contrasted pretty well. What do you think? Does my website make you go blind by trying to read it (since this site uses the same colors)?
I still have Models hw, Stat hw, Network hw (almost done with it!) that I want to get done, preferably by tomorrow such that I can enjoy the weekend freely.
p.s. We beat Boston College, but I was really hoping that State would have beaten Duke. They were leading at half time, but the end of the 2nd half they got creamed.
Posted in unc | 4 Comments »Sitterson almost blew up yesterday. Well, not really, but there was a gas leak right outside the building and I had to take an alternate exit to leave the building because of it.
Actually, construction around Sitterson has finally creeped up to blocking off 7/8 of the sidewalk between Sitterson and Phillips, in addition to blocking off the same exit/entrance to building mentioned above. I swear, every semester there is some new obstacle of construction to navigate through between my path from Joyner to Sitterson.
However, this isn’t the main point of my entry. All I really wanted to say is that I did some calculating (and if it is 100% correct) then I only need to take 8 classes next semester. 2 Comps, 1 humanity/fine art elective, 1 non-cs/math/stats elective, and 4 free electives of my choosing. That is super awesome, because I originally thought I was going to have to take 5 classes one semester and 4 the next. Now I’ll finally get to have an “easier” year courseload-wise. I still have to figure out what classes I’m going to take, in particular all of the electives. I’ll probably end up taking more comp classes for free electives and I hope to maybe get Patterson, Jamie and Steven to take a class together with me (I guess it doesn’t matter what it is). We’ll see soon enough.
And speaking of graduation requirements, apparently the CS department wants to change a few things. In particular they want to drop us needing to take Spanish 4 and allow us take PHYS 116 and our choice of a CHEM/BIO class instead of just PHYS 117. Guess it isn’t going to affect me since I’ve already done both. 
I just wanted to say that it is (finally) snowing in Chapel Hill! And sticking!
I foresee some snowball fights really soon!
Posted in unc | No Comments »Soci 431 – Aging taught by Peter Uhlenberg: I think this will be a fun “easy” class so long as I stay up with the reading (not too bad). Pretty interesting really. And the prof apparently has 14 children. 2 are his, and the other 12 are adopted (various races, genders, and even handicap disabilities). I already have to write a short (3-4 page) essay by Tuesday, but there are only three of these plus two exams plus the final. It’ll be more relaxing than my comp classes.
Stor 435 – Introduction to Probability taught by Andrew Nobel: I wasn’t quite sure about this class walking in, but I really love the aura around this guy. I think as a professor he is going to be pretty awesome and he seems to teach pretty well. We’ll just have to see how the HW and exams are, but I felt pretty comfortable in this class today (although there are quite a few people taking this class).
Since today is my “Friday” I think I’m going to take the night off and relax. But come tomorrow, I’m going to try and knock as many things as I can in one day (short essay paper, network programming assignment, stor hw, etc.).
I also heard that Jenn has messed up her ankle. I know that it stinks that she can’t get around or do much until it heals. Bummer! And I’m not there to take care of her! Bleh.
Well, time to play some GH:3 or Zelda!
p.s. I also got my 10′ VGA cable in today, so now I can use my TV as a second monitor, or clone what is displayed on my monitor (for watching videos or whatever). Pretty sweet, and it wasn’t too expensive ($12 + s/h).
Posted in unc | No Comments »This is really for myself, but you can check these things out too:
Comp 431 -Internet Services & Protocols taught by Jasleen Kaur: I’ve really been wanting to take this class, it looks like it might be a little challenging and will require some outside programming (mainly making a SMTP program and a relay for it [read: e-mail programs])
Comp 455 – Models of Languages and Computation taught by Sanjoy Baruah: I have no idea how this class is going to go because we had a sub teach for it today. And apparently I have bought the wrong book, the book list on student stores is wrong (probably because of the prof change). So I’m going to have to return the book and find the other one somewhere.
Comp 426 – Advanced WWW Programming taught by John Smith: This class is going to be a lot of programming. Therefore 80% of the grade is on programming assignments alone. But at the same time, I don’t think it’ll be too hard and I should learn a lot of awesome higher-level (frameworks and whatnot) web programming.
Time to update my calendar with important dates…. alas, I already have some homework to do!
Posted in unc | No Comments »I’m back in good ol’ Chapel Hill now as of yesterday afternoon. I’m looking forward to this semester and things are going to be quiet different. As I’ve mentioned before, I have a new roommate for the semester (AJ Sams) because Steven is going off to France for this semester. Steven leaves in about a week or so, and plans on visiting us before he goes off. Jamie is also going to be gone for the semester as she is going to “study abroad” in Washington D.C. I don’t know if Patterson is going to have a new roommate or not, but I suspect she’ll be around Joyner some more this semester.
I’m also really excited about having no Friday classes this semester (I am stoked!), although I’m going to have busy MWs as my classes run from 9:30am to 12:15pm back to back to back.
I also bought a new 32″ widescreen LCD HD TV for school as I had originally planned since last semester. I bought this one from Sams Club. And apparently I bought it at a good time because the price was $542, now it has jumped to $599! I still need to purchase a male to male VGA cable (10′ or so) such that I can hook up my PC to the TV and also HD cables for the Wii for some video quality improvement. I found both on Newegg, but the Wii cables are currently out of stock.
On a less happy note, I just got back from the Tarheel Book Store on Franklin St. and burned $350 on four used books for my classes. What a rip! Textbook stores make a killing off of used books. Anyways, my Computer Networking textbook looks pretty interesting, and I really can’t wait to dig in on that class- I’ve been wanting to take it for about a year now.
Other things of interest since Christmas:
- We spent New Years at Uncle Donnie’s house and watched a few movies (Underdog, Evan Almighty and Spiderman 3).
- My dad also turned old with the new year. Happy birthday to him!
- Jenn should be getting her other Christmas present this coming week (I got her a couples ring).
- I got to see Steven the other night. He came over to my house and we watched Next. I liked the movie, but not so much the ending since it left the movie “hanging”.
- Steven also got me a cooling pad for my hot Averatec laptop. It sucks air in from the sides and shoots it straight up through two fans. So far it has kept the laptop very cool and it runs off of USB power! How awesome is that?
- Carolina basketball last night was INTENSE. It was a close game versus Clemson the entire time, and we won by a THREE point shot in the last 10 seconds of the game. Sean and I were screaming our heads off at the end of that game.
Well, now that I’m all comfortable and organized in my room, it is time to chill and enjoy my two days off before I go back to the school work grindstone.
Posted in unc | No Comments »I almost forgot, my grades for the semester (I’m not ashamed to share!):
As in WWW Programming, Algorithms and Analysis, Intro to Geology, and Marching Band.
B in History (20th Century Europe). I don’t care about history as much, so I’m happy with this grade.
C in Linear Algebra (!!!). This one came as a surprise, I guess I didn’t do as well on the final as I thought I did, because all my other grades were B-range in that class.
Although I had such a crunch with Linear Algebra, overall I’m rather pleased and happy that I’ll be making Dean’s List again. I may not be the best student out there with top-notch grades (*cough* Jamie Hester *cough*), but I’m still doing my best and that is all that matters to me!
Posted in unc | No Comments »I would like to take this moment and express how much I hate doing History IDs. FIRST you have to look up all relevant information on the ID (Who/what/when/where/historical significance), THEN you get to actually memorize them! I’ve spent all day today (a good 8 hours or so) doing this and have only gotten about 2/3 the way through my 68 IDs. Arrghh! I wouldn’t complain so much if it just wasn’t for the fact that IDs are only one part with three other parts (question on the movie, random quotes we have to identify [?!?!?!?!], and an essay question [related to our other book readings]) of the exam! I’ll probably spend more time studying for this exam than any other exam, but make a lesser grade because the amount of studying required is ridiculous. Hence why I’m not a history major (nor do I have much passion for the subject).
Well, I’m stopping for now. Going to go watch 3:10 to Yuma in the Student Union and maybe call it a night. Tomorrow will be more History IDs, some Geology studying, and possibly cracking open my math book. One week to freedom!
Posted in unc | 2 Comments »
