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Binaryfusion on location! I'm writing this (and uploading it 2 days later) as I sit outside in 45 degree weather camping out for the UF-Kentucky basketball game. For some reason my laptop doesn't get wireless, otherwise I'd be uploading it now, but it'll have to wait until I get back to my apartment. I'm the only one up right now, as everyone else has fallen asleep even though it's only 3:30 in the morning. I can never sleep in line for some reason, so here I am typing away while my fingers get cold and listening to music on my mp3 player.
This night has been the most interesting camping out experience yet, in all my (3) years of camping out for Florida basketball games. Matt Walsh, came by to drop off some pizza to some of the people waiting in line. He's already my favorite player because he's a great basketball player and always gives everything he has. If you see someone running into a cameraman or crashing over the scorers table, odds are it's Walsh going after a ball other players would have just watched go out of bounds. Which is also why he's the most hated player in the SEC. Well that and his curly fro which other fans find easy to make fun of. Anyways, he brings us free pizza which is always a cool thing. Also my friends got together, and via a very overloaded extension cord, managed to hook up a TV, a Gamecube, and an XBox so that we're camping out in style. Lots of Mario Kart goodness was had. And of course we ordered some pizza on our own, since it's a standard rite of passage to eat pizza waiting in line for Gator basketball games.
And yes, I had a blast in New Orleans over spring break. I don't have all the pictures yet since I still have to get some from my friend, but there'll be a big update in a day or so all about the best spring break I've ever been on.
The world's very first image put on the World Wide Web. It's of this cool geek girl band that sings about nerd guys. The lyrics to their songs are awesome!
Ever wondered where your city's 3 letter airport code came from? A guy wrote a great piece on the history of airport codes, and for example why Chicago's O Hare airport's call letters are ORD.
Are you not satisfied with the size of objects in your life? Well the Internet can solve that problem and give you giagantic everyday objects to use or just amuse yourself with. I've always wanted to show up to a test and use one of those gigantic pencils and see if the professor would say anything about it or not.
The New Orleans update took a little longer to make than I had thought, partly due to the fact that I've been so busy doing stuff on campus the last few days, including two days where I spent over 12 straight hours on campus. At least it was doing neat and random stuff instead of homework. Sometimes I really wish I still lived in the dorms, since I could go back home for those 30-45 minute breaks. A brief recap:
Tuesday: ACM Meeting where a Microsoft guy did a pretty fair comparison on Windows versus Linux. It was really interesting.
Wednesday: Left the apartment around 10:30, then class, class, watched the student government presidential candidate debates while eating Taco Bell and found out I really like the Progress Party and that the Gator Party is so Greek it hurts. I'm also probably the only non-Greek or non-SG person who cares about student government elections, but they do dole out 11 million dollars a year, and I use their services all the time, so it affects me quite a bit. Then more class, then went to a guest math lecture talk about the history of the WZ Theory. The speaker was the Z part of WZ, and I swear that guy has to be an insane genius. I was told he'd be entertaining which is why I went, and it didn't disappoint, even if a fair chunk of the math went right over my head. Then I worked on more code for my software engineering class, then went to a senior event the Alumni association was throwing graduating seniors and got some free dinner. Then I went to hear a speaker about the Iraq war who did the press conferences for the last 2 years over there. So very pro-war, but he knew his stuff. Then I snagged some free pizza from another student group, checked out the Swing club, and then saw a movie at the student union, and finally got home around 1 AM.
Thursday: Went to see Reel Big Fish in a really awesome concert for free at the O'Dome.
But now, after long last, the New Orleans pictures. I took a total of about 280, but after getting rid of all the bad one's and duplicates (since I'll often take pictures of an object twice to make sure at least one of them comes out) it still only narrowed it down to about 200. But then when wittling down to the "interesting" one's, there's only about 40. I don't know what I'd do without my digital camera. Other than waste tons of money on film processing.
Here's the tl;dr (Too long, didn't read) version of my trip. Me and my friend Cathy left on Sunday and checked into our awesomely cheap but yet good hotel with no fuss, which was also right on the route of a main St. Charles trolley line. Monday was spent touring the French Quarter and walking a whole bunch, and then seeing a very awesome jazz band that evening. Tuesday we took a tour of the cemeteries and then checked out the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the adjacent scupture garden. Getting back to the Quarter was a bit of an adventure since the Canal street trolley's broke down due to electrical failure, but after an almost 3 hour ordeal, we were able to catch a bus back to the general vicinity of the Quarter. Wednesday we took a free tour put on by the National Park service (yay taxdollars) and went shopping and tried to see everything in the quarter we didn't get a chance to on Monday. Then we hit Bourbon street more that evening, and listened to the live music while going down the street. Thursday was our last day, and was spent wandering aroud the Garden District before heading back on the 8 hour drive to Gainesville. Best Spring Break I'd ever been on, and I'd love to go back again. It was also my first "real" (ie booking hotel) vacation I'd done on just my own planning.
UF is SEC basketball champions! We won our very first SEC championship Sunday by beating (actually more like destroying) Kentucky yet again in the final game. Sunday was also the day they announced the seeding, and Florida managed to get a #4 seed since they've been playing the best basketball of the season the last few days. March Madness is my favorite 3 weeks of the sports year, especially this first weekend where it's wall to wall basketball coverage for four straight days. I'm going with Illinois to win it all.
Yesterday was Pi Day (3.14, get it?) There was a Pi Day Pi Drop online, and it's also Einstein's birthday.
I also finally figured out my grad school situation. And while I got my official acceptance letter to UT yesterday, I'm going to be staying at Florida. Why? Lots and lots of fellowship money. So I'll be a graduate student focusing on computer architecture in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department in the Fall, which includes being a TA in some of the labs. And depending on how it goes, I should have my Masters by the end of next Summer. Then I might actually have to leave college. Not looking forward to that quite yet.
Google just isn't as good as it used to be.
Happy Easter and Happy Holi!
What the heck is Holi? It's an Indian celebration of colour and the arrival of spring. Which means throwing coloured flour and water balloons at each other and generally causing a great ruckus!
Nice and clean
A lot more colourful now
We're actually "clean" compared to most
I like it!
I also went swing dancing this weekend, as part of a whole weekend full of swing that the UF Swing club put on. I had a blast as usual, and it was a really fun night with a bunch of friends.
Yes, the girls in the front wore all red on purpose
Women love the Swing!
So many girls, so few songs
Swingin'
I also made some Easter eggs (my 3 are the weird looking non-cute one's) yesterday, which I haven't done in years and years. My fingers were multiple colours for a while then as well (it's been a colourful weekend all in all actually) but we were evntually able to get it all off. And apparently nail polish is the greatest repulsive force in the universe as my friend's nails weren't affected at all.
And a very Happy Belated Birthday to Jenny!
The Gators are out in the first weekend yet again, for the 5th year in a row. And one would think beating Kentucky twice might actually mean something. The tourny has been really good this year though, and my bracket is actually doing semi-well for once.
The movie You Got Served could be used as a documentary in ebonics. The dancing is pretty good (though it's the kind that only looks cool when done as a group. If done by yourself it just looks silly), but the dialogue makes my ears hurt.
Some scientists have discovered that falling droplets don't splash if the surrounding pressure if low enough. The PDF file includes some really cool looking pictures of alcohol droplets hitting a smooth glass surface.
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