Quote of the Day:
"For every giant walking clown, there's always a giant custard pie waiting around the corner!"
-- Professor Geoffry Spedding

Event of the Day:
After spending countless hours last night trying to fix the problems with my computer and resisting to chuck it off the balcony, I finally got everything to work properly again this morning with just enough time to do my homework.

Proud Moment of the Day:
While stopping in the Music Department today I saw a clipped news article from our Disney Hall performance. According to the article, our choir had a wonderful "...French inflection...." (Be proud of me Rachel!)

Soup of the Day:
Pasta E Fagioli
(Soup kit courtesy of Cost Plus)
Delicious!

Word of the Day:
opprobrium (\uh-PRO-bree-uhm\), noun:
1. Disgrace; infamy; reproach mingled with contempt.
2. A cause or object of reproach or disgrace.

"Typically academic," they disdainfully observed about many university press books--"too dry, too specialized, too self-absorbed for us." In their world, the word "academic" was as much a term of opprobrium as the word "middlebrow" was in mine.
--Janice A. Radway, A Feeling for Books

Horoscope of the Day:
Try to pay attention to your gut instincts today, Chris. The energy of the day could heighten your natural intuition. You may find that certain impressions just come to you, broadcast directly through your nervous system. You could pick up on someone's emotions or figure out their true motives. Your psychic radar will be especially strong, so don't ignore it! Your instincts could bring you some important guidance now.

(I knew I had intuition somewhere! Aside from what I pay the school that is.)

Picture of the Day:


Website of the Day:
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~rjh9u/hellthrm.html

For all you Macintosh lovers and haters out there!

"The Greek alphabet system is there for us to impress our non-Engineering friends. It's like someone saying A-natural!" --Professor Ronney

I think I was the only student in class to get that joke. I find it amusing that most of the students here learn the Greek alphabet from the fraternities and the sororities, whereas us engineers learn them primarily from our classes. Not only that, but they have a completely different meaning to us than other people. Especially the Greeks!

As I was walking back from class today I noticed that the same exact shoes I was wearing were in somone's car sitting on their dashboard. The only difference between the two pair was that their shoes were baby shoes. Yah, that's a way to boost my self-confidence!

I finally found a way for people to leave comments to each entry, so feel free to speak your mind and I'll get back to you as soon as humanly possible.

More to come, so stick around and don't touch that dial!

Tonight I had my first lab for my Robotics class and I soon realized that the problem with working with Legos is that instead of doing work, I'd rather be playing with the Legos. And there were so many Legos! I'm going to have to practice a lot of self-control in that lab.

ANALOGY GONE AWRY:

"I'm a womanizer! Wait... scratch that."

-My technical writing Professor on ethics

Alright, quick entry before I go to bed. Saturday night I spent the evening with Natalie and Rachel at Rachel's new apartment! We ate out at an Indian restaurant (where we were the only ones there) and had a nice time hanging out. I had my last Berlioz performance today in Disney Hall and once again it was an amazing performance. The audience loved us and I managed to get a program to remember the occasion. I just spent 4 hours in the computer lab working on my design homework and am now ready for bed!

Until we meet again....

Nate: It got two thumbs up.
Me: Out of how many?
*Pause*
Me: Wait, don't answer that!

See what school does to me! *SIGH*

Like I've said before, Disney Hall is amazing and in that same fashion our performance Thursday night was wonderful! As a choir it was the best we had sounded, not only were we comfortable with the notes and the cues, but we were also comfortable with the French. The second movement of our second song has only females singing so it gave me a chance to just listen to the music being made. Beautiful, absolutely beautiful! The only bad thing about the hall, is that not only can everyone hear the performers, but the performers can also hear everyone. I cannot tell you how distracting several people coughing during the performance became. Then towards the end of our last song, someone decided to get up and walk out into the lobby during a really soft part, so all I heard (and other members of the choir) was CLIP CLOP CLIP CLOP.Very annoying, but despite this and some coughing, the performance was wonderful. Surely these minor things didn't detract from our performance.

On a final, brief sidenote, the conductor of the L.A. Philharmonic is so amusing to watch conduct. Never have I seen someone flail their arms with so much control! His arms and hands are like noodles, but he has perfect and exact control of each of their movements. It's also amusing because he sucks his cheeks in like a fish face while he conducts. Very amusing!

Still one more performance tomorrow, and hopefully it'll be another wonderful performance! Only one way to find out....

Amusing event of the day:

In the middle of my Heat Transfer class, with no warning or provoking, an alarm started to go off in only our room. Apparently the computer system in there claimed that the locked cabinets were "unlocked". Not only was an alarm going off, but apparently the computer was also telling the professor that the room was now "armed" and a humming noise started to resonate throughout the room. Then the lights started to dim and go off, then undim. We later found out that the professor had done that amidst his random button pushing to disengage the system. After trying everything, he decided to ignore it and go back to teaching and within three minutes, the alarm turned itself off and everything went back to normal. Now that's one way to get your class's attention!

Tomorrow I will recount my first performance experience from Disney Hall. It's too late and I'm too tired to write and think that much. That and I'm lazy.....

Until then....

Let's try this again:

100 Greatest Simpson's Sports Moments

One of these days I swear the formulas and derivations on the chalkboards in my classes will relay a secret message to me. I'm just going to be sitting there and then I'll suddenly the board will speak to me and tell me what to do. Sometimes it does feel like I'm deciphering codes from formulas (especially when trying to re-read my classnotes).

So Disney Hall....

If you ever get a chance to see/hear a performance there, whether it's next month, next year, or twenty years from now, I suggest going. Not only is it architecturally captivating, the sound acoustics are absolutely astounding! And performing with the L.A. Philharmonic is beyond words! They sound so good, and don't even really need us for these performances. It's such an honor to be asked to perform alongside such amazing musicians.

As for the concert itself, we'll be singing two Berlioz pieces now. At yesterday's rehearsal they sprang another song on us to sing that we hadn't rehearsed at all, but fortunately it's mostly us shouting "Italie!" then doing a little "Oh-Ah-Oh-Ah". Easy enough to manage. I found out that towards the end of the third movement of Berlioz's Tristia a gun is supposed to be fired. So we have a shotgun with a blank that will be shot towards the audience! I can't help but wonder if shotguns are a common French musical instrument. Are there traditionally parts written for Shotgun? Could you get them to fire in different keys? And how do you tune a "musical shotgun"? *Sigh* So many shotgun questions to be left unanswered. They gave us all earplugs to protect us from the sound, but fortunately it isn't all that loud, despite the acoustics. I think it would be amusing to be the guy who gets to use the musical shotgun. Those percussion people sometimes get to have all the fun.

For tonight's concert I decided to look my best, which includes "de-hairing" myself. I haven't had a haircut in over 3 months and haven't shaved for almost 3 weeks. So needless to say I was very hairy! Don't worry though! It's all been taken care of.

Tune in tomorrow for my musical review of Berlioz at Disney Hall!

"It's back to that classic, age-old struggle of Swing Dancing versus Lego. And I have to ask myself, which makes me more content. And the answer is both!"

That fairly highlights my dilemma this semester. Unfortunately I won't be able to take my swing classes this semester because of a Tuesday night Robotics lab. So I'll be sacrificing Swing Dancing to build a Lego, robot car, which in my mind is a pretty fair trade-off and I'll have to find other ways to get my weekly Swing fix. Hopefully it works for the best!

I think I've mentioned this to some people, but for everyone else this Thursday and Sunday I will be performing with the LA Philharmonic at the new Disney Center with my choir. Needless to say I'm thrilled to participate in such an awesome event and it will be interesting to see and perform in. The event has been sold out for months now (so no hope in finding tickets) for both shows. We'll be performing Berlioz's Tristia which has three parts to it and is all in French. I've come to realize how much I dislike singing in French. Compared to the other languages we sing, French is in a league of it's own. But fortunately it's not a very long nor difficult piece. We're having our first dress rehersal there tomorrow and after the performances I'll recount all the details for you.

On a closing note, I've found that my dreams have been very random and disjointed recently. Last night was a great example of the randomness of my thoughts. In most of my dreams, dialogue doesn't really exist. There are times when I speak or people speak, but they are so much words as they are meanings that get conveyed. I don't hear someone talk about a particular subject, rather I see their mouth move and inherently know the purpose behind it. (Hopefully that didn't confuse too many of you) Last night, however, I heard one particular line of dialogue that was so random and off the wall that nothing made me forget about it (I'm one of those people who forget their dreams the instant they wake up). So to conclude today's entry, is an honest-for-real line from my dream:

"I’m going to go home and yogurt myself!"

Goodnight folks!

"You are all bastard-people!"
-Waiting for Guffman

As you might tell from the past few entries, my life this past weekend has consisted primarily of watching movies. For some unknown reason, our cable is suddenly picking up the HBO channels now. This is quite a distraction and I've seen clips from so many movies it's hard to recount all of them. And aside from what's on TV, I have my own personal DVD collection to help pass the time. This weekend has sort of been a time for me to bask in the idleness that is the first week of classes, coupled with a 3-day weekend as well. I love the time where labs have yet to begin and papers haven't had time to be assigned, and when not enough material has been covered for a problem set to be given. This is a time without expectations, and a time without judgements. This is the most peculiar time where all of us have straight A's in our classes (well, most of us anyhow). And it only comes twice a year! So I've dedicated my weekend to revel in the fact that I have no assignments!*

*Note to readers: I do have some "readings" to look over, but I hardly consider them homework assignments. Rather they are merely suggestions to better understand the material. I never quite understood why I should read my Heat Transfer textbook when the professor is doing a perfectly good job explaining equations and processes in class. Thus, I won't consider my readings homework as of now.

Unfortunately the fairy-tale ends tomorrow, and the rest of the week will be busy in preparation for my concert at Disney Hall. More details will follow during the week.

Until then....

A penny for your thoughts,
A dime for your dreams,
Would a shiny new quarter,
Buy a peek at your schemes.

And when you are away,
So far from my side,
I will cherish my penny's worth,
Till at last i'm your bride.

Penny for your thoughts,
Let's call it a deal,
I don't have any secrets,
You know how i feel.

A penny for your thoughts,
It's settled and done,
I have offered a million,
I have done it for none.

I reckon we're in love,
And married we'll be,
And all for a penny,
A bright copper penny,
A penny that brought you to me.

-Waiting for Guffman

"You mean...."
"Yes! This entire murder has been… catered."


"Alright we’ll take turns. You look over the first dead naked body that we find and I’ll look over the second."


"Man who argue with cow-on-wall is like train with no wheels, very soon get nowhere."
"Oh be quiet I’m sick of your fortune cookies!"
"Man who is sick of fortune cookies been to too many Chinese restaurants."


"I’m not a Frenchy! I’m a Belgiey!"


--Murder By Death

"...it could even be (Furlong^2)/Fortnight!" - Prof. Ronney, my Heat Transfer teacher.

So, yah.... I've come to the realization that even the slightest, lamest things amuse me in my classes. And it seems to me that ever since high school, classes aren't quite the same in college. Everything becomes so serious and formal because professor's are under the notion that we want to further our education and become "professionals". Hence, whenever a professor makes a joke (or attempts to make a joke for that matter) or says something slightly amusing, I become slightly amused. I even become amused at times when they are serious, like when my Robotics teacher was reassuring the class (comprised mostly of CS majors) after telling us that we would have to remember Trigonometry! I was trying to hide a smile as he was 'hyping up' math I learned in high school and imagining perhaps some CS students shocked by the fact that sines and cosines were to be used (no offense Rob). Or even a tangent!

Speaking of tangents, my Heat Transfer professor apparently teaches another class that some of my engineering friends are also in and gave the same speech about problem solving in both classes. Erin complained of this fact today as the teacher rambled on so I turned to her and said, "Don't you see? You can now predict the future! Assuming things continue on a perfectly normal course, for the next several minutes you have become a seer or an oracle!" ...or something along those lines.

See! Amusing things, however slight (like my prof. from England; English accents, very amusing!), are what keep me sane. Or rather, they provide a little insanity to the sanity of class. Eventually I'll lose all interest in higher education learning and I will simply go to class to be amused. That or to color in my activity book! Hoorah for crayons!

~Sincerely yours,

This week's random fact:

In order for a person of average human bulk to walk on water, they would need feet more than a mile long and one-third of a mile wide!

Only in LA would you have 80 degree weather in January!

I've finally done it!

After months of reading other peoples weblogs and being goaded by some friends, I have decided to create my own online account. I have joined the ranks of my fellow bloggers in order to retell the lame and pathetic details of my life. At least this way I can sort of keep up with people and let you all know what I'm really going through this semester. Besides, I have to share some of the slightly amusing things I see/hear around campus.

Let me first start off with a brief overview of my Winter Break. I had a great, relaxing time and spent a lot of time at home with family and friends. I played several board games from Clue to Trivial Pursuit to Movie Trivia and saw four films in the theaters: Return of the King, Peter Pan, Mona Lisa Smile, and Big Fish, in that order. I went to the beach in Cambria for a couple days (after the earthquake) with family and some friends and had a wonderful time, only to return home just in time for a New Year's Party at my house. I saw a lot of great football games over break, "Fight On!", and this past week went skiing with Robert's family and some other friends up at Mammoth. So all in all an excellent break from school filled with lots of activity to counter-balance the inactivity. And one couldn't forget the crochetting frenzy that occurred over the second half of the break!

Now it's back to school and the daily regime of classes and professor's expectations. If I were to rate my semester by my first impressions of all my classes, I'd say that it's going to be a terribly busy semester, but also a fun semester with good teachers. I figure once per semester I'm granted one class that I end up not liking primarily because of the teacher and the way they manage the class. So far I have yet to discover which class that is this semester, and with any luck, that won't happen. I will be spending several hours in the computer lab, as it seems; however, to make up for that I will get to play with Legos in one class. Once again the universe balances out.

We'll both have to wait and see about my upcoming life this semester.