7-8 hours on the road today.

Fun...

I got music. I got audio book. I'll be fine.

I'll probably leave by 9:30, but I'm doing this now cause I'm about to unplug my computer.

See ya in a few!

Eric: 1
Mysterious Illness: 0

Well, as best I can tell, I'm not sick anymore!

YAY!

Now I'm just really hungry :).

Basically what happened yesterday is after I took my final I spent the entire day in bed reading my notes and sleeping. Sleeping allows your body to fight disease much better than if you were awake. And now I feel much better.

However, I didn't eat at all yesterday, so I'm gonna have to get a huge breakfast now.

Oh, and this is the best thing ever :) :

How the Internet Made My Life Better

Okay, I did not get a flu shot.

I'm sorry, Dad.

Problem is, when I woke up on Monday, I found out that I was a bit ill. Not quite I'm hurling up my breakfast, but certaintly feeling a bit sluggish. And today I was much more ill. Still not that sick, but I'm starting to feel my throat rebel against me...

Here's how the logic went in my sluggish brain:

Since a flu vaccine is basically a weakened flu itself, its gonna get you sick, however not sick enough that you will be in bed for the next few weeks.

However, if you are already sick, getting the flu vaccine will make you even more sick, as your immune system will have to fight yet another virus when its busy fighting another one.

Joy.

Anyway, I felt that it would be safer in the short term (aka the next few days) if I did not get a flu shot, so that I was still somewhat healthy for the finals.

Even so, I was a bit sluggish for my first final, but I still managed to slog my way through it. Its just that I wasn't thinking as fast, and I had to take more time.

Don't worry, dad. In order to get a 90%, I'm guessing it'll take a 75% on the final. And I KNOW I didn't do that badly :).

Anyway, I got an 8 AM final tomorrow.

Setting my alarm clocks NOW for 7 AM.

Just need a script to play an annoying noies on my computer to make another alarm...

*more whimpering*

Enrollment...

Now, first off, the fact I'm making an entire entry on this is a bad sign in of itself...

Optimistically, enrolling in your classes should take you 15 minutes, max. Especially when you spent a half hour the previous day picking your classes and their times.

I just finished, and I was doing it for 45 minutes...

My original classes were gonna be these:

ICS H22 (honors Java programming)
Math 6B (Boolean Algebra/Logic)
Phyiscs 7B (Classic Physics, part deux)
Writing 39B (initial Writing class for those competent)

Well, the ICS and Math classes went off without a hitch. Yay.

Then comes the fun.

All of the writing classes were filled up, but there were a few on waitlist. So I went after one of the waitlisted ones and I'm fourth in line on the waitlist. I'm not optimistic about my chances of getting into it.

Then I look at the Physics class (I was checking on these before I was able to sign up). I find out that there are plenty of slots remaining on my lecture, something like 50.

Then I look at the lab. The labs are separate from the actual Physics class, btw.

All of the labs are either waitlisted or full, except for one that I can't use thanks to my ICS lab (which can't be moved). WHY they would have an unequal number of lecture and lab slots is beyond me.

Physics is only gonna be a breadth requirement, so I'm not in real trouble. So I start to look around for another class to fill its slot. I have a sheet with me that shows all of the breadth requirement classes at UCI. Its a 4 page document (2 pages front and back), and I start to look around for something I can take.

Now, I avoid the upper-division classes, as I don't want to try one of them quite yet. Maybe next quarter, or next year.

I can't find squat. And I have to have another class.

You see, I can't depend on that I'll get into the writing class I have waitlisted. And ICS and Math only give me 10 units, which is 2 less than I need to be a full time student.

Eventually, after finding out that half of the classes on the sheet are major only, and about two-thirds of them require pre-reqs that I can't take yet, and almost all the rest are either filled up or are during another time, I find Sociology 63, race and ethnicity.

I'm desperate.

I believe my exact words were "Why not?"

So I signed up, and now I'm all ready for the winter quarter, with these classes:

ICS H22
Math 6B
Writing 39B (maybe...)
Sociology 63

Oh, yeah, finals are next week.

*whimper*

Penny Arcade's Child's Play info
Main Child's Play site

This a program that Penny Arcade, the biggest webcomic out there with about 150,000 readers, is putting on.

Here's the initial letter:

---------------------------

Here's the deal.

If you are like me, every time you see an article like this one - where the author claims that video games are training our nations youth to kill - you get angry. The media seems intent on perpetuating the myth that gamers are ticking time bombs just waiting to go off. I know for a fact that gamers are good people. I have had the opportunity on multiple occasions to meet hundreds of you at conventions all over the country. We are just regular people who happen to love video games.

With that in mind we have put together a little something we like to call “Child’s Play.” Penny Arcade is working with the Seattle Children’s Hospital and Amazon.com to make this Christmas really special for a lot of very sick kids. With the help of the Children’s Hospital we have created an Amazon Wish List for the kids. It’s full of video games, movies and toys. Some of these kids are in pretty bad shape and just having a Game Boy would really raise their spirits.

Please take some time to browse the Wish List. Maybe all you can afford is a package of batteries or maybe you want to go in with your entire office and get the kids a GameCube. Every single contribution will help out the Children’s Hospital and the 190,000 kids they treat each year.

All the toys and games will be delivered to us and we will in turn deliver them to the Children’s Hospital. As soon as the toys start arriving I’ll set up a web site and post as many pictures as I can. We will be making a trip over to one of the hospitals next week and we’ll bring you back stories from some of the kids along with more pictures.

Penny Arcade has a readership of something like 150,000 gamers across the world. We are arguably the largest community of gamers on the internet. The important word there being community. This isn’t IGN, this isn’t Gamespy, we are not a faceless corporation, you are not just a number tracked by a database and then relayed to hungry advertisers. You guys have proven yourselves to be a powerful force when stirred into action. Here is your opportunity to use that power to do some real good.

Let’s give these kids the Christmas that they deserve and let’s give the news papers a different kind of story to write about gamers.

-Gabe out

-----------------------

This is just great. I mean really great. So far they've gotten $30,000 worth of stuff, including at least (judging by the pictures) 5 X-boxes, 9 Gamecubes, 1 PS2, 6 DVD players, 17 Gameboys, and only god knows how many legos.

I really suggust spreading the word about this. This is a great effort by Gabe and Tycho of PA, as well as all of their readers. Take a look, and maybe help out a bit.

Preliminary Christmas List:

Rather Expensive Stuff:

(Translation: Watch as I ask for stuff that I have almost no hope of getting but I want anyway :).)

TV (I... need... a... TV...)
Game Console (X-box preferably)

Stuff that would need to be ordered soon:

Web-comic merchandising from any of the following webcomics:

Real Life
Megatokyo
Stubble
Sinfest
PvP Online

Web-Comic Printed-Archives from the following webcomics:

GPF
Exploitation Now
RPG World (go here)
Sinfest

Other Stuff:

Books/Music/Graphic Novels/Games (etc...) that I would like.
Something that I would need...

Yeah, uhh, I'll add more if I think of it :).