Disorientation

In the past week, I've been oriented twice and gone to three classes. However, I still feel somewhat out of place. I don't know enough people yet. I don't know my way around yet. This time around feels different than last time (i.e. starting as a freshmen). Maybe it was I had a week before classes then. Maybe the rec room provided a better location for meeting lots of people. Maybe I met mostly freshmen in that first week.

Here, Discovery Days took all of three days, and I was only really here for one and a half of them. There isn't much of a location to meet people, and the neighbors seem pretty big on partying. And I don't even know what school a person I meet is attending, let alone, their grade.

Oh well, I'll find my niche somehow. Just gotta be more active in meeting people, I guess.

Poll Time

What sounds better: isignum or jsignum?

First and Ten

It feels a bit late to make thought-provoking comments, so I'll just talk about football. Cal football to be exact. And for those who don't understand what that means: the currently 10th ranked Division I-A football team of the University of California, Berkeley. Also, if you admit to me to needed that line, you're dead to me, and I don't want to speak to you again.

I admit it's early in the season, but the team has a phenomenal job against it's opponents. The way they are playing, only USC seems to be standing in the way of a perfect season, though Arizona State may pose a challenge. Fortunately that is a home game. And you can never count out Stanford... wait, yes you can. HAHAHA!

Alright, less talking, more sleeping. Dang! No battle of golden mascots on Thursday (click the title link).

Polish the trumpets

I may have killed my computer. I had two Linux installations that I never used, so I wrote over them to the dismay of LILO boot (Linux's boot table). Thus I tried all repairs, and boot sector repair, and finally the MBR repair. That replaced LILO with MBR, but the other stuff might have broken things. But one last repair effort, before I'll be forced to raise it from it's ashes (i.e. backup, format, reinstall).

UCSB ECE is not as generous as UCB EECS... i.e. there are no loaner laptops. Guess I'll need to look into getting my own: the sturdy IBM T42, or the elegant 12" Powerbook. Hmmm.... On the other hand, bussing is free with the UCSB ID.

Lemmings

I've realized that I'm slowly moving closer and closer to the ocean. From desert to a few miles from the bay to right on the ocean. Logically, the next step is to live on a boat. Who wants to live on a boat with me?

I've been spending the last few days look for housing, and the housing market is very much like Berkeley in price, and to some extent in character. There's a noisy college oriented locality. There's a quiet neighborhood farther away. A difference is that the the quiet neighborhood is not right next to campus, as the Santa Barbara Airport blocks lots of development possibilities. Also, everything is stretched-out further because bicycling is so prevelant. Many listings say 2 or 3 or even 4 miles are "withing biking distance." Well, I haven't ridden a bike in a long time, I'm sure I'd wreck one if I had to bike 3 miles. I think I'll have to get a bike anyway, regardless of where I live; how else will I get around!? The bus perhaps.... (I hate waiting for busses.)