I have had the most difficult time trying to set up my housing arrangements for next year and next semester.
Next Semester
A while back I decided that I might want to live at Allen Hall for next semester. My friend's room mate is going to be studying abroad so I thought that I might live with him as the space was opening. A few months ago I filled out a room change request form in order to transfer. The weeks flew past and I received no feed back from my RA or my RD. I started to get concerned so I tried to see my RD in person to discuss the subject. I tried twice and on neither occasion was she available. On the second visit, I left a message with someone for her to email me. A week went by and I received no email. I then emailed her. She informed me that she had sent the form over to Allen. That was much harder than it needed to be, but ok.
This Allen RD is EXTREMELY elusive. I tried to visit him once and he was NOT in his office. I've now sent him two emails, neither of which have I received a reply to.
Next Year
So I started out by trying to make arrangements to live on the corner of Busey and Oregon. The number was good but the arrangment wasn't. I basically got an -ill call you back when I get more info. Of course there was no call back. After explaining to this woman on a second call that I needed to quickly firm up my arrangements, she was not able to help. She wanted the tenants to find each other, as apposed to her making a list and bringing them together.
Now I'm looking at this other place a little further south on Busey. Ive called a number twice and left two messages including my cell phone number and have gotten no reply. The real estate business it looking like a good one to be in right now.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Pandora Vs Last.fm
Ive always been a hardcore fan of last.fm. <--(that looks awkward) For years Ive enjoyed the idea of submitting tracks which I listen to, to the central server, in order to understand my musical taste. Ive learned a lot about new bands and what I like and such. What is particularly awesome also is the fact that you can listen to an individual's "radio" or a bands "radio" or tag "radio" or your neighborhood "radio." While this has been a lot of fun over the years, I have found at least two things to not work so well with last.fm.
First, the radio tends to cut in and out. When listening to these different radios, music is streamed to your computer. Streaming creates situations where a fragile break in your connection may lead to music stoppage. This especially becomes problematic when streaming over wireless networks where connections are susceptible to high frequency noise IE microwaves and portable phones. The other thing which I suspect might be the case is that last.fm makes streaming problematic in order to get people to subscribe and receive priority treatment. Its a known fact that non subscribers can get bumped.
The other problem with last.fm is the way in which artist radios are compiled can lead to rather vanilla results. The songs which are associated with artists, and played on their radio are determed by "similar artists." The way in which the similar artists are determined is nothing but a popularity contest. These artists are determined by finding similar artists among users who all listen to the artist in question. This "common denominator" method can become very predictable. For example, Every time I listen to 311 radio I end up hearing a lot of Incubus and Sublime. However, when I listen to Incubus radio, I hear little 311 because Incubus is more of a mainstream band.
It appears that the folks at Pandora have, to some extent, solved this problem. They use a complicated system of about 16 fields to compare music styles. The disadvantage of this system is that this data has to be entered by hand, limiting the hypothetical amount of artists in the system. But when you think about how with last.fm you would never hear an obscure artist listening to artist radio, it seems a trivial sacrifice. The disadvantage of Pandora is that it has no apparent track logging system so you can't collect your listening data.
OK ive about written a book but this topic is very interesting to me :)
So this morning a found a really cool website which is sort of the best of both worlds. Its called http://pandorafm.real-ity.com/. Its a huge hack where you enter your last fm password, but you can listen to music on the pandora network and still log it into last.fm. VERY EXCITING !!!
The other benefit of Pandora is that the Radio plays more cleanly because songs appear to download entirely before they are played, as apposed to last.fm streaming.
First, the radio tends to cut in and out. When listening to these different radios, music is streamed to your computer. Streaming creates situations where a fragile break in your connection may lead to music stoppage. This especially becomes problematic when streaming over wireless networks where connections are susceptible to high frequency noise IE microwaves and portable phones. The other thing which I suspect might be the case is that last.fm makes streaming problematic in order to get people to subscribe and receive priority treatment. Its a known fact that non subscribers can get bumped.
The other problem with last.fm is the way in which artist radios are compiled can lead to rather vanilla results. The songs which are associated with artists, and played on their radio are determed by "similar artists." The way in which the similar artists are determined is nothing but a popularity contest. These artists are determined by finding similar artists among users who all listen to the artist in question. This "common denominator" method can become very predictable. For example, Every time I listen to 311 radio I end up hearing a lot of Incubus and Sublime. However, when I listen to Incubus radio, I hear little 311 because Incubus is more of a mainstream band.
It appears that the folks at Pandora have, to some extent, solved this problem. They use a complicated system of about 16 fields to compare music styles. The disadvantage of this system is that this data has to be entered by hand, limiting the hypothetical amount of artists in the system. But when you think about how with last.fm you would never hear an obscure artist listening to artist radio, it seems a trivial sacrifice. The disadvantage of Pandora is that it has no apparent track logging system so you can't collect your listening data.
OK ive about written a book but this topic is very interesting to me :)
So this morning a found a really cool website which is sort of the best of both worlds. Its called http://pandorafm.real-ity.com/. Its a huge hack where you enter your last fm password, but you can listen to music on the pandora network and still log it into last.fm. VERY EXCITING !!!
The other benefit of Pandora is that the Radio plays more cleanly because songs appear to download entirely before they are played, as apposed to last.fm streaming.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Memories of Linus the Bike
The Summer before my senior year of High School I bought my first nice bike, a Trek 7.2 Hybrid FX. It looks a lot like this guy right here, just a pinch darker in color.
It cost $340 and I was very proud of it. One of the main reasons why I bought it was so that I could go on bike rides with my former girlfriend, Kenzie. I used to ride it summer school, and I loved it dearly. Whenever I locked it up I always tried to protect it from the rain by putting it under a covered area. I also frequently used two locks to prevent the wheels from getting stolen, while still offering the security of a D lock.
Its a pretty solid bike. The wheels are not as wide as a mountain bike's, but much wider than a road bike's wheels. I had a cyclocomputer hooked up to it so I could tell you that I usually went around 13 or 14 on it when I was going. It has a rugged mountain bike shifting system, and the brakes are extremely effective.
This bike has been with me to the south, Park Forest, to the West, Frankfort, and to the east, Lansing. Its taken me to work, school, and on some great rides. Ive put well over 1000 miles on it, and its never needed new tires.
My most disasterous memory on the bike was when Kenzie put a stick into the spokes and sent me flying over the handlebars :). Luckily I was fine, but the front wheel needed a new spoke. Another time, the chain somehow got wedged between the Chainring on the Chainstay, and left a huge gouge on the frame.
The reason why I mention all this right now is because I'm taking my bike to UIUC with me today. Its kind of sad because the bike will never look as flashy as it did because, I always kept it indoors, now I will not be able to. In a lot of ways though, the bike is symbolic of a different part of my life.
A time when caring and love was easily found and given, when goals and ambitions were fairly clear, and when career choices involved getting enough loops to return. Now the bicycle will collect some rust, but time can't stop and neither can I.
It cost $340 and I was very proud of it. One of the main reasons why I bought it was so that I could go on bike rides with my former girlfriend, Kenzie. I used to ride it summer school, and I loved it dearly. Whenever I locked it up I always tried to protect it from the rain by putting it under a covered area. I also frequently used two locks to prevent the wheels from getting stolen, while still offering the security of a D lock.
Its a pretty solid bike. The wheels are not as wide as a mountain bike's, but much wider than a road bike's wheels. I had a cyclocomputer hooked up to it so I could tell you that I usually went around 13 or 14 on it when I was going. It has a rugged mountain bike shifting system, and the brakes are extremely effective.
This bike has been with me to the south, Park Forest, to the West, Frankfort, and to the east, Lansing. Its taken me to work, school, and on some great rides. Ive put well over 1000 miles on it, and its never needed new tires.
My most disasterous memory on the bike was when Kenzie put a stick into the spokes and sent me flying over the handlebars :). Luckily I was fine, but the front wheel needed a new spoke. Another time, the chain somehow got wedged between the Chainring on the Chainstay, and left a huge gouge on the frame.
The reason why I mention all this right now is because I'm taking my bike to UIUC with me today. Its kind of sad because the bike will never look as flashy as it did because, I always kept it indoors, now I will not be able to. In a lot of ways though, the bike is symbolic of a different part of my life.
A time when caring and love was easily found and given, when goals and ambitions were fairly clear, and when career choices involved getting enough loops to return. Now the bicycle will collect some rust, but time can't stop and neither can I.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Good Names
Marble would be a good name for a dog, cat, or fish.
Orville and Vincent are both good names for people.
Orville and Vincent are both good names for people.
Talkers and Teachers
I think that something very difficult about determining credibility
in casual conversations is the confidence factor. As people we tend to
trust those who seem to think that they know what is right, regardless
of weather or not they do. Often a reel talker may come off as confident
and assuring. What further complicates this matter is how if we disagree
we risk a possible fight or emotional conundrum. What is worse,
often these talkers may even think that they know what is right, though
they don't.
If talking is a way to establish confidence, and listening
is a way to learn, I think that its good to have a healthy balance of
both. We should listen enough to learn, and talk enough to teach.
in casual conversations is the confidence factor. As people we tend to
trust those who seem to think that they know what is right, regardless
of weather or not they do. Often a reel talker may come off as confident
and assuring. What further complicates this matter is how if we disagree
we risk a possible fight or emotional conundrum. What is worse,
often these talkers may even think that they know what is right, though
they don't.
If talking is a way to establish confidence, and listening
is a way to learn, I think that its good to have a healthy balance of
both. We should listen enough to learn, and talk enough to teach.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Small World
In fact it is!
Last weekend when I was visiting Lincoln Park I ran into no one other than Stephanie S., David Albrecht's GF!
Later that Day, I might as well have run into my Father, Mother, and Sister as they were in Evanston and I was in Evanston.
Fun stuff
Last weekend when I was visiting Lincoln Park I ran into no one other than Stephanie S., David Albrecht's GF!
Later that Day, I might as well have run into my Father, Mother, and Sister as they were in Evanston and I was in Evanston.
Fun stuff
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Frugal Google
How do you manage the worlds largest company (by market capital, not part of the Dow Jones)? Answer: You don't
Its a well known fact that Google is great. What is much less known is the fact that the company achieves much of this success by cutting corners some more serious than others.
Have you ever gotten this little message tacked onto an email which you receive?
Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure, or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message.
If you are using gmail and are in fact the wrong recipient-good luck trying to delete that message. Actually, even if you delete mail in gmail Google can not guarantee that the message is removed from their servers for maybe a year. Think about that next time you find it important to shred a document.
Its a well known fact that Google is great. What is much less known is the fact that the company achieves much of this success by cutting corners some more serious than others.
Have you ever gotten this little message tacked onto an email which you receive?
Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure, or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message.
If you are using gmail and are in fact the wrong recipient-good luck trying to delete that message. Actually, even if you delete mail in gmail Google can not guarantee that the message is removed from their servers for maybe a year. Think about that next time you find it important to shred a document.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
FAR LIFE Volume: DOOMED
Notice anything a little fishy about this picture?
There is a HAZE in this room. To be quite precise, there has been a HAZE in the upper levels of Trelease hall on and off for the entire day. Now, Im no health expert but I think getting out of my room would be beneficial right now. I hope you enjoy this post because my LIFE IS ON THE LINE!!!!!
Well not really. Earlier today when I woke up this haze was around and the fire department came around 8:15. When I came back for lunch it was gone. Ive heard that this smoke has something to do with the Heating/ventilation system, so the smoke is being superficially blown around. In any case, this si bad business, maybe I will sleep in the main stacks tonight.
There is a HAZE in this room. To be quite precise, there has been a HAZE in the upper levels of Trelease hall on and off for the entire day. Now, Im no health expert but I think getting out of my room would be beneficial right now. I hope you enjoy this post because my LIFE IS ON THE LINE!!!!!
Well not really. Earlier today when I woke up this haze was around and the fire department came around 8:15. When I came back for lunch it was gone. Ive heard that this smoke has something to do with the Heating/ventilation system, so the smoke is being superficially blown around. In any case, this si bad business, maybe I will sleep in the main stacks tonight.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Wikipedia that Shit
Or don't?
When dealing with the issue of assimilating information there are basically two schools of though.
This little diagram represents the spectrum of the two ideas.
(Wikipedia that shit)---------------(Memorize or get Beaten by Nuns)
Over the past 30 to 40 years education has been shifting strongly to the left. We don't emphasize memorization as much as understanding how to utilize our surroundings to find the things that we need. But there are at least two possibly reasons why memorization is important.
1. Memorizing things makes information have a value. When you work to gain knowledge it has some inherent meaning to you. XKCD author Randall Monroe brought this topic up when he visited U of I as part of the Reflections Projections Conference. He made a comment that when you have to dig through a physical encyclopedia to find an entry, you really work to read it and understand it when you finally get there.
2. Memorization brings information to your fingertips. Sure we have access to everything, but we choose to bring certain things closer. For example you don't go to the store everyday buy, a shirt, and then return it. We keep things in our close surroundings which have meaning to us. The fact is, the closer something is to you either physically or mentally, the more effect it is going to have on your life.
When dealing with the issue of assimilating information there are basically two schools of though.
This little diagram represents the spectrum of the two ideas.
(Wikipedia that shit)---------------(Memorize or get Beaten by Nuns)
Over the past 30 to 40 years education has been shifting strongly to the left. We don't emphasize memorization as much as understanding how to utilize our surroundings to find the things that we need. But there are at least two possibly reasons why memorization is important.
1. Memorizing things makes information have a value. When you work to gain knowledge it has some inherent meaning to you. XKCD author Randall Monroe brought this topic up when he visited U of I as part of the Reflections Projections Conference. He made a comment that when you have to dig through a physical encyclopedia to find an entry, you really work to read it and understand it when you finally get there.
2. Memorization brings information to your fingertips. Sure we have access to everything, but we choose to bring certain things closer. For example you don't go to the store everyday buy, a shirt, and then return it. We keep things in our close surroundings which have meaning to us. The fact is, the closer something is to you either physically or mentally, the more effect it is going to have on your life.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba
Tapas?
The word is Spanish, and roughly translates to the term appetizer. Each Tapas is served on a small plate. Each person may order several Tapas, and share them with their neighbors, forming an entire meal. Unlike typical appetizers, the preparation and presentation of Tapas may be very elaborate. Also Tapas are frequently served warm, and frequently contain meat.
The word is Spanish, and roughly translates to the term appetizer. Each Tapas is served on a small plate. Each person may order several Tapas, and share them with their neighbors, forming an entire meal. Unlike typical appetizers, the preparation and presentation of Tapas may be very elaborate. Also Tapas are frequently served warm, and frequently contain meat.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Light Covering
This is a pretty good way of dealing with dorm room lighting. I could have done a better job of hanging the blanket.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Squirrel Noises
It came to my attention a couple of weeks ago that squirrels are capable of making vocal noise!!! As I was locking my bike up I heard this periodic cry which sounded like a combination of a meow and a chirp! Initially I brushed it off as some loud dumb bird. But it was too loud and abnoctious. I looked up and there was a lone squirrel, with a big acorn. He was doing an alternating munch, meow pattern while balancing on his back feet, eating his lunch.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Burak
Burak was an awesome Calc 2 TA. He was not my TA but I frequented his office hours like no other. His demeanor was generally a little cranky, but he was really nice once you got down to work. There are a couple of stories I remember about him very well because they are so.
1. His english was pretty good but he had a pretty hefty accent. We suspect he has lived in Turkey for some time, but no one knew for sure. What we were fairly certain of was that he practiced Islam. His skin was slightly dark, but his facial structure appeared western. He had jet black hair and, now that I think about, may have slightly resembled snape from Harry Potter, only because of his dark eyes and hair. He really liked fine rugs.
2. He had an astonishingly terrible smoking habit. He was a pretty nervous guy. The hours ran from 2-5 and he was likely to "take a break", "smoke one", or "be back" about once every 30 minutes.
3. He always called people Buck or Bucko when he didn't know their name. I don't think he ever learned mine. He always used to term folks when referring to larger amounts of people.
4. He was kind of easy to annoy and had a sort of frailty about him, as if one wrong move would make him whisk away. He really didn't get angry just tired.
5. He gave a great effort to accommodate whoever came to see him. Frequently he had other friends who would help student when he was inundated. He was the only TA do have review sessions for all of the exams.
He was an awesome person and if I ever see him again, I will tell him that.
1. His english was pretty good but he had a pretty hefty accent. We suspect he has lived in Turkey for some time, but no one knew for sure. What we were fairly certain of was that he practiced Islam. His skin was slightly dark, but his facial structure appeared western. He had jet black hair and, now that I think about, may have slightly resembled snape from Harry Potter, only because of his dark eyes and hair. He really liked fine rugs.
2. He had an astonishingly terrible smoking habit. He was a pretty nervous guy. The hours ran from 2-5 and he was likely to "take a break", "smoke one", or "be back" about once every 30 minutes.
3. He always called people Buck or Bucko when he didn't know their name. I don't think he ever learned mine. He always used to term folks when referring to larger amounts of people.
4. He was kind of easy to annoy and had a sort of frailty about him, as if one wrong move would make him whisk away. He really didn't get angry just tired.
5. He gave a great effort to accommodate whoever came to see him. Frequently he had other friends who would help student when he was inundated. He was the only TA do have review sessions for all of the exams.
He was an awesome person and if I ever see him again, I will tell him that.
An Original and Amazing Idea
I spend a lot of time on facebook and I think a lot of people have this same problem. Ive considered changing my facebook, ditching my facebook, and I have tried to avoid conditions conducive to fb browsing. None of this seems all that practical, but I've come up with something that does.
What if we had a facebook application which would display, boldly on your facebook page how much time you had spent on Myface !?!?!?!?! That way you would be quite sensitive to how much you were on.
What if it was tweaked even further to not allow you to LOG IN IF YOU HAD PASSED YOUR QUOTA!!??
The idea could use some tweaking, but could definitely work. Don't even think about claiming this idea as your own.
What if we had a facebook application which would display, boldly on your facebook page how much time you had spent on Myface !?!?!?!?! That way you would be quite sensitive to how much you were on.
What if it was tweaked even further to not allow you to LOG IN IF YOU HAD PASSED YOUR QUOTA!!??
The idea could use some tweaking, but could definitely work. Don't even think about claiming this idea as your own.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Bad Experience at the Under Grad with a single glimmer of Sunshine
Two nights ago I went to the Undergrad Library to do some research for a Rhet 233 paper I am doing on the topic of New Urbanism. The idea of New Urbanism is how does one plan to make a community a beautiful place to live in while still adhering to the demands and restraints of a capitalistic economy. In theory, each community would be much like a college campus; productive, walkable, safe, and beautiful. The problem with this is that college economics do not reflect real world economics. In order to maintain these things, students get funding from parents with real jobs, or take out loans. anyway
So I had to get two periodical sources for my bibliography. What the hell is a periodical anyway? To the best of my understanding, its an archived magazine, newspaper, journal, or any source of media which has some type of subscriber base. The way which the undergrad does this is by archiving selected articles from periodicals into huge bound books in the southwest corner of the second level under ground. This little token of knowledge came at a steep price. The person at the main desk told me to ask a librarian downstairs how to get to the periodicals. But where was this librarian? There is no desk Downstairs clown!!! Luckily I ran into a guy who looked like a librarian who was reshelving some DVDs.
So i had found two separate periodical listings which looked interesting, via library.uiuc.edu. I had found the librarian and I had my call numbers, but keep your pants on!!! This story is just getting started.
We went to try to find these listings, but apparently the periodicals are not arranged by call number but by subject heading... or was it publication title? I never quite figured that out. We managed to find one "periodical" which turned out to be some visitors guide to new york.... exactly what I was looking for. except not.
By the time I was done all I had succeeded to do was have a nice aim conversation, accidentally steal a library book, and learn that undergrad sells cool looking ear bud style headphones for $1 only.
So I had to get two periodical sources for my bibliography. What the hell is a periodical anyway? To the best of my understanding, its an archived magazine, newspaper, journal, or any source of media which has some type of subscriber base. The way which the undergrad does this is by archiving selected articles from periodicals into huge bound books in the southwest corner of the second level under ground. This little token of knowledge came at a steep price. The person at the main desk told me to ask a librarian downstairs how to get to the periodicals. But where was this librarian? There is no desk Downstairs clown!!! Luckily I ran into a guy who looked like a librarian who was reshelving some DVDs.
So i had found two separate periodical listings which looked interesting, via library.uiuc.edu. I had found the librarian and I had my call numbers, but keep your pants on!!! This story is just getting started.
We went to try to find these listings, but apparently the periodicals are not arranged by call number but by subject heading... or was it publication title? I never quite figured that out. We managed to find one "periodical" which turned out to be some visitors guide to new york.... exactly what I was looking for. except not.
By the time I was done all I had succeeded to do was have a nice aim conversation, accidentally steal a library book, and learn that undergrad sells cool looking ear bud style headphones for $1 only.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
