Sick Day

Bleh. Sick Days sux0r. When my alarm went off this morning, my head felt like a rotten watermelon: heavy, squishy, and stuffed full of uncomfortable goo. I decided that I should prolly sleep it off and opt against classes... now I've slept to the point that my body doesn't want to sleep anymore and am bored +2. I'm hepped up on allergy prescription stuff, and am trying to be outside... I've heard that sometimes sunlight helps to break up congestion, so I'm posting live from my deck. Speaking of the deck, I don't think I've ranted about my apartment yet. I love it. I'm fairly close to school (5-10 min drive in heay traffic) yet far enough away that I feel like it's actually my home. We have about 1000 sq. feet here, split between myself and my roommate. We spent a little extra money when we were furnishing it to make it a very comfortable place to exist. Maybe I'll get some pictures and post them here... Anyhoos, I was going to talk about my work on the PocketPC--- I need a hammock. I wonder how much they cost? The deck faces to the north and is covered so its a nice shady place to relax, a hammock here would be perfect. What was I saying? Oh yes, the pocketPC. My attention span is shorter than usual... I think the alergy stuff is making me drowsy... sleep sounds good... *ahem* Yes, on the PocketPC I formatted it again but this time I decided to try out "Opie," the qt-based palmtop environment that is an option wen installing Familiar (the linux distribution for the Ipaq). This is even better than "GPE," (the gnome-based environment I was using) It's far prettier as far as eye-candy goes, quite a bit more robust, and still linux. I've also spent time messing around with the infrared ports both on the Ipaq and the slacktop (my laptop). I haven't been able to get them to notice each other yet, but with a little bit of time, I can now control TV's, VCR's and the like from the comfort of either the Ipaq or Slacktop. This new wave of automation is inspiring new and silly ideas about voice-controlled homes. I had a shady version of voice control working before, and I am aware of various (more advanced) projects that exist seeking the same end. If I could hook up an infrared transmitter on the muzakbox (the old machine I threw together to hook up to the TV so we could get my 400Watt THX certified speaker set working with movies...) and get voice control working properly, we could start the tv and other various things by vocal commands... That would be cool. But not right now... I'm thnking of slinking back to sleep before Marching Band. I should be fine to march later, not that I really want to stomp around in my current state, but we have a lot of work to do for the next two weekends and while I can handle missing classes and forcing myself to play catch-up, we have a trumpet sectional tonight and I don't want to let down the entire section. So I'm going. Whee. I've been promising screenshots of things, so here you go. This is the current set-up on the slacktop. I'm currently using EvilWM as my windowmanager of choice. ...OK. Maybe not... this doesn't seem to want to work with me right now. I'll get them up somehow... later. -Dave.

Etc.

So the semester is begining to even out. Trumpet lessons are going forward, My relationship is going through a positive "re-gearing" process, and I joined choir to satiate my desire to perform with more ensembles. I just needed (and still need) to slow down and re-evaluate everything. Figure out exactly where I stand and how I'm doing. With everything on an upward swing I've been messing around with the Ipaq some more... In case you didn't know, (or in case I never mentioned it here) I recently became the owner of a PocketPC. Appearently my mother purchased it a while ago and loved it. Unfortunately, her old desktop bit the big one and she had to get a new computer, this time settling on a laptop. Well, long story short, the laptop does everything she used her Ipaq to do, so the PPC sat dormant in a drawer for a few months. Enter Dave, the poor college student with an eye for hardware to dink around with., here I ask to mess around with it and my Mom grants me the ability to do whatever I want wit it this semester, and then she'll decide whether or not to let me keep it. So, I spent some time messing around with WinCE. (pronounced "wince," if you've used it you'd understand...) A couple of hours later I decided to put linux on it and since that point I've been pushing various ideas and uses for it. It's quite versatile; it has a 207Mhz ARM processor, 32MB of Flash, and 64MB of RAM. I tossed in a 256MB flash SD card for extra tastiness, and now have a variety of uses for it including, but not limited to: -Everything the WinCE platform allowed it to do (PIM, Web Browser, Etc) -A _real_ file system. -USB Networking -Doom. (Yes, Doom. It runs amazingly well) -A Gameboy Emulator (Huzzah!) -an MP3 Player (a la SD card) -...and a working copy of VLC. There's more to it, and I'll grab some screenshots and post them later. As for now, I'm off to sleepland. -Dave

Long Time, No See!

Well, it has been a very long time since I last posted... There's a fair deal of stuff that's been going on on this end, including the start of classes. I also managed to get myself into an apartment... which I am quite proud of. Not only is it large, decenty/well furnished, it's also clean. (Those who know me are aware of the fact that the usual level of cleanliness of my room/living area makes navigation so difficult that oyu need a machete and an Indian guide to find my bed) I'm also the section leader for the trumpets here at EMU (with my Co-Section Leader Jayme Travis). I also managed to get my computer up and running last week, using a power supply from an old dual PIII system. Unfortunately, not all things are going as well as I had thought... My trumpet playing, I felt, was as good as its ever been. I was certain about the outcome of the auditions that are held at the beginning of the year (at Eastern, there are two ensembles, Symhpony Band and Wind Symphony. The Winds being the premeire group). I had been the principal player in the Symph. band for the entire previous year, and there were three players in Winds that weren't returning, so I figured I was a shoe in. Well, I was very wrong. They decided to fill in only one of the Winds trumpet holes and selected a player who's a year behind me to fill it. To add salt to my open wounds, I didn't even maintain my principal position, losing it to a freshman who isn't even a music major. So, I thought my playing was fantastic, I guess I was wrong. As I mentioned, I'm one of the two trumpet section leaders in Marching Band, and am quite proud of that fact. I have been working hard to make MB be an enjoyable experience for everyone involved, taking time to get to know the people who are new to the organization and what not. As a whole, the section leaders have been drawing a noticable amount of compliments from the staff this year in regards to our work and how that band is doing well. I thought that I was a fine example of a good section leader, and that my affinity for musicality (I know it sounds pompous, but that's what I thought I had) would shine through in our section rehearsals. Then, yesterday, Mr. Boerma (Director of Bands) told me he wanted to speak with me. As it turns out, people have been approaching him with qualms about my behaviour and how I conduct myself as a role model for newer members. Someone even referred to our sectional rehearsal as haphazard. I thought I was doing well as a Section Leader and that I was contributing to the band. I guess I was wrong. Last night my Girlfriend (of slightly less than a year) and I got together and it became appearant that she was under the impression that the way to keep me entertained was through a more physical affection. (even if that's not what she wanted) I thought our relationship was well balanced and didn't revolve around the physical aspects.... but I guess I was wrong. I've been facing some pretty discouraging realizations, and I'm not certain on what to do from here. I thought I was on the right track with most everything in my life, but it turns out I just have to work harder in order to pull things together. I've been perceiving things wrong, and now I'm at a low. Oh fun. Well, I'm off to napland. Who knows, mebe I'll get whiny and start posting more... We'll just have to wait and see. -Me