State of Me, Sunday, 27 January, 2013

Hi all.

I'm doing about as well as I usually am, which means a lot of things.

I'm dead tired, and not seeing any extra sleep for a few months in to the future.

I'm hating some of my classes, and loving others.

I've worked through 8 weeks of the History class book, and I took one test last week, and passed, and intend to take the second one tomorrow. Let me tell you, learning 4 weeks worth of history in a single day can fry your brain... just a little.

I've had about the usual amount of work in all of my other classes. I have one more week before all of the tests hit. I'm not intending to study any more history next week, as I'll have 4 other tests coming up right after that.

I am intending to continue my writing and ricing (That's a word now.) every day, even if it means getting next to no sleep. I'm keeping this short because I still need to read an entire chapter in my government book tonight as well.

I broke the 300k mark with my Rice, which is awesome. I also broke rank 2000 and, today, made it to rank 1991, the year I was born.

Rice:

Jan 20, 2013	293,860	2026	168	1,500	7	214.3	1011.5	Yes.	30	1,984
Jan 21, 2013	294,990	2015	167	1,130	11	102.7	1012.3	Yes.	31	2,015
Jan 22, 2013	296,520	2014	167	1,530	1	1530.0	1015.4	Yes.	32	2,047
Jan 23, 2013	297,670	2011	167	1,150	3	383.3	1016.2	Yes.	33	2,080
Jan 24, 2013	298,950	2004	166	1,280	7	182.9	1017.8	Yes.	34	2,114
Jan 25, 2013	300,010	1999	166	1,060	5	212.0	1018.0	Yes.	35	2,149
Jan 26, 2013	301,110	1995	166	1,100	4	275.0	1018.5	Yes.	36	2,185
Jan 27, 2013	302,610	1991	165	1,500	4	375.0	1021.4	Yes.	37	2,222

No major milestones in my writing, but I am quite happy with writing every day. (Yes, I will write today.) Some time this coming week, I will celebrate 30k words.

Writing:

Jan 20, 2013	26,602	402	26,450	373.3	Yes	11	67
Jan 21, 2013	27,005	403	26,852	375.3	Yes	12	79
Jan 22, 2013	27,293	288	27,255	369.8	Yes	13	92
Jan 23, 2013	27,666	373	27,543	370.0	Yes	14	106
Jan 24, 2013	28,086	420	27,916	372.8	Yes	15	121
Jan 25, 2013	28,503	417	28,336	375.1	Yes	16	137
Jan 26, 2013	29,036	533	28,753	383.0	Yes	17	154
Jan 27, 2013	29,036	0	29,286	364.8	No	0	154

Peace all. Until next week.

SmartPhone, Part 2

So, last week, I talked about phones and devices and other things mine has replaced.

In summary, phone, alarm clock, pocket calendar, camera.

This week, I take a look at some of my other apps, some of which are more specialized.

Flashlight. This one is a bit odd, as there is no built in flashlight on the phone. It actually uses the camera flash, and simply turns it on constantly, which is really awesome. It can also do flash patterns, including morse code, if I need to use that, because I don't actually know how to use it. (SOS is built in.)

My phone has replaced my watch, and that's even without unlocking the phone. I also tend to check the phone about three times some days, before I actually see what time it is. Note: This feature is readily available on non-smart phones, too.

The clock app has also replaced the stopwatch feature, which I usually argued with and sometimes got to work on my watch. Now, it's really nice, and being able to set timer with Siri is incredibly useful. The clocks also make it really easy to see what time it is else-where in the world. I have gaming friends in other countries, and I can now easily check what time it is for them. I can also change the time quickly (or it changes for me) when I am traveling across time zones.

iPod. I know this one is a bit of a no-brainer, but my phone has replaced my iPod as well, and can store and play all of my music (with better headphones, the play-pause button is very nice.). It also plays podcasts, which aren't really replacing anything, they're just awesome. (Writing Excuses all the way!)

The one comic strip that I read, Schlock Mercenary by Howard Tayler, is available as an app that I have, and so I can read them on my phone, and don't have to rely on my computer. (The bookmarking and whatnot makes it more convenient than my computer, too.)

I can view photos on my phone, and not just photos taken with my camera. I can take other pictures that I like on my computer, and store them on my phone, which can be handy if I want to show something to someone.

I have an app called LogMeIn. It allows me to remote access my computer, which means that, when I'm at school, I can access and do pretty much anything on my computer that I could do if I was physically sitting in front of it. This has been an amazing help, in large part because I can access all of the files stored on my computer, and I can set things up, and do things that only my computer can do, like using mathematica to do some really complicated calculations to check my math homework.

I can check the weather, and be prepared for the day (usually.).

I play games. Lots of games. Puzzle games, adventure games, just plain fun, time-wasting games. SmartPhones really are the new gaming platform, the one that everyone has. And there's a lot of really good games out there, many of them for free.

In addition to the messenger and facebook messenger apps, I have the regular facebook app (generally only used to accept someone's friend request immediately. I also have the Skype app. While it hasn't been incredibly useful on my phone, it is still quite handy to have, as I tutor over Skype, and people know they can get ahold of me there. In a pinch, thanks to the really nice camera on my phone, I could tutor over Skype with just my phone, without too many problems.

Calculator. No, it hasn't replaced my graphing calculator. I don't think it ever will, if only for the reason that I'm not allowed to use a phone calculator on a test, for obvious reasons. But they are handy in a pinch, and much more readily available than my regular calculator, which lives in my backpack. I have the default calculator app, a basic graphing calculator, one that takes written input (on the touch screen), and the wolfram alpha app, which is so much more than just a calculator, it's not even funny. For those who don't know, check out the wolfram alpha website; the app can do everything that the website can, and it's nice and easy to use on the phone.

Flash cards. I can enter these on the computer, or even use pre-made decks that other people have created, and study them on my phone. These have saved my life in several classes already.

Spanish. I have a verb conjugator, that can tell me if a verb is regular or irregular, and how exactly it is conjugated. It can also take a conjugated verb and tell me which form it is in, and what that means. I also have the Google Translate app, which I use for other Spanish words. It's incredibly useful, even if the voice feature is rubbish.

Lastly for today, I have the BlackBoard mobile app. This allows me to check my grades and assignments due, as well as other messages my teachers may have posted. I also do things like stalk the class roster ahead of time, to know exactly who is going to be in my classes. It's very useful, even though ACC is lame and only allows me to check things on it if I'm on a Wi-Fi connection.

I should be able to sum up the rest of the apps that I use in one more post, to come next week.

State of Me, Sunday, 20 January, 2013

So, it's been the first week of school. I'm already dreading my finals.

I don't know if I've talked about my class set-up for the semester yet; if I have, this is a re-hashing.

I'm taking 6 classes.

1 hour a week of private guitar lessons, with the goal of playing about an hour recital at the end of the semester. 2 credit hours.

Online, distance learning history class, U.S. History II, Emphasis on African Americans. This is with the teacher that I had last semester, and the requirements are trivial. Unless I'm misunderstanding, I need to get a 70% on each of 4 multiple choice tests (30 questions each), write a book report, and a 2000 word research paper. I am aiming to take the first test this week -tomorrow will be my study day for it, since I have the day off from classes - and the second test next week - I should have time for that one this weekend, since I don't have my Monday classes to give homework.

Right, my Monday Classes. Differential Equations and Calculus IV. I have the same teacher this semester that I had last semester for Calculus III. He's totally awesome. He also assigns a good amount of homework, and I typically do twice what is assigned (He assigns 1-35 odds, I do 1-36 all). These classes are actually Monday and Wednesday. 4 credit hours each; the first week's homework took 20 pages of notebook paper, filled up front and back. These are going to be a lot of work this semester. However, except maybe my guitar lessons, I am looking forward to them more than my other classes. I finished my homework first for these classes this week because I honestly enjoy it.

U.S. Government. Shoot me please? I just finished spending 5-6 hours today reading up on much of my government material. However, I'm not worried about this class. I have had the teacher before, and his tests, while not easy, are easy to study for. Also, there are supplemental study sessions taught by one of his former students, twice a week, at a time that I can attend. Because I'm going to be at all of these, I should be getting something close to 30 points of extra credit added on to my test grades. Also, tests make up only 50% of the overall grade; the other 50% is blog posts (on a separate political blog), and participation posts in a forum. That part is basically guaranteed, I simply have to do the work. But still, government. Shoot me.

And... Physics 2. I'll talk more about this one later. Let's just say, for now, that it'll be better than Physics 1 for several reasons, but I still probably won't enjoy it very much.

So yeah. 20 credit hours. I'm glad I'm already insane, or else I would be going insane right now.

You might be asking how the rest of my life is going.

I have a rest of my life?

Heh, yeah. Most of that is going by the wayside for another several months.

I did go to a guitar concert yesterday. It was 2011's GFA winner, Vladimir Gorbach. He played a beautiful and energetic concert, and I really enjoyed it. There was a very nice mix of music that I was familiar with (including one piece that I tried to play a few years ago), and new and interesting pieces. The one that struck me most was his encore piece. Many performers that I have seen play some bit of fluff for their encore. There have been a few that have played fun pieces. Gorbach played a piece called "Carillon", by Benvenuto Terzi. I had never heard of it before, and after asking around, I don't think that any of the local undergraduate and graduate students at U.T. Austin had either. I asked Gorbach to write the name of the piece down for me, because I enjoyed it, and his performance so much, and I found the sheet music today. I'm now trying to learn it, because I obviously don't have anything better to be doing with my time.

The regular stuff? I have been keeping up with writing and rice, like a good boy. Also, Mur Lafferty, host of the I Should Be Writing podcast, one of my regular listens (That's another post for some month. :P) has put up her Magic Spreadsheet, which is what I based my spreadsheet and data that I post here off of. (I added the points retroactively to the rice sheet, where I had simply been recording my totals) She also invited others to put their word counts up on it, which I have done. I am rows 94-96 in January. So, you can monitor me there, more often than these posts will come up.

Writing this week was really hard.

On Wednesday, I had a really rough day, and several things that I had been trying to do didn't happen. However, I looked at my sheet, and it made me write. Because I am determined to write this thing, every day. Period. And thus, I forced myself to write. Late at night, after when I usually went to bed. I found it very relaxing, and I think I went to sleep easier, and woke up much more rested than I would have otherwise.

Writing on Saturday was hard too. I, for some reason, am tending to do my writing at night, last thing before I go to bed. After the concert and second dinner, it was after 11 when I got home. I usually go to bed at 10. I nevertheless forced myself to write, and ignore the voices (mom) telling me to just go to bed. Again, I found it very soothing. These two nights, hard as they have been, have re-enforced my drive to write every night.

And with that, I'm going to post up my rice and writing numbers for the past week, and go write (don't worry, I will get my words for today). Because I should be in bed soon. Even though I don't have class tomorrow, I have 3 chapters of history to read, and an entire test to study for in a single day.

Rice:

Jan 13, 2013	284,030	2084	173	2,700	18	150.0	993.9	Yes.	23	1,795
Jan 14, 2013	286,650	2070	172	2,620	14	187.1	1004.3	Yes.	24	1,819
Jan 15, 2013	287,720	2061	171	1,070	9	118.9	1004.7	Yes.	25	1,844
Jan 16, 2013	288,890	2049	170	1,170	12	97.5	1005.7	Yes.	26	1,870
Jan 17, 2013	289,940	2047	170	1,050	2	525.0	1006.0	Yes.	27	1,897
Jan 18, 2013	291,170	2042	170	1,230	5	246.0	1007.4	Yes.	28	1,925
Jan 19, 2013	292,360	2033	169	1,190	9	132.2	1008.5	Yes.	29	1,954
Jan 20, 2013	293,860	2026	168	1,500	7	214.3	1011.5	Yes.	30	1,984

Writing:

Jan 13, 2013	23,544	351	23,443	309.7	Yes	4	11
Jan 14, 2013	23,815	271	23,794	304.9	Yes	5	16
Jan 15, 2013	24,174	359	24,065	310.9	Yes	6	22
Jan 16, 2013	24,564	390	24,424	318.8	Yes	7	29
Jan 17, 2013	25,127	563	24,814	341.0	Yes	8	37
Jan 18, 2013	25,728	601	25,377	362.7	Yes	9	46
Jan 19, 2013	26,200	472	25,978	371.1	Yes	10	56
Jan 20, 2013	26,200	0	26,450	344.6	No	0	56