Wasn't on my computer much Sunday, forgot to post this. But here it is now :P
Monday, November 15, 2010
- If you get some sort of prompting or “personal commandment” as it were that doesn’t really apply to everyone, it’s harder to get feedback from people about it.
- I never really knew what the difference between patents and copyrights was. I got a decent explanation today. Basically, concepts are patentable, implementations are copyrightable. Implementation being the actual method of applying the concept.
- Why do sneezes usually come in at least sets of 2?
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
- So most people learn on a rewards system naturally. When they get what they want they continue to do things that way, when they don’t get what they want they tend to rethink. Well, not at first, but eventually. And I guess often the rethink is more often “I’m just not going to associate with them anymore” than it is “I’m going to try associating with them differently.” Anyway, I decided Jason doesn’t have this system functioning very well. We’re terribly blunt with things we like and dislike. Not that everyone should be subject to others likes and dislikes… but anyway, as far as I can tell, Jason just wants to be validated.
One way to validate him is to respond to his pointless questions. The problem is even if you validate him for a while he isn’t satisfied and keeps wanting more, that’s a different topic… anyway the original catalyst of this post is I decided I’m going to be extra blunt with him. IE: yesterday I’m eating, Jason asks “what are you doing?” I respond “eating.” Jason says “why would you do that?” I respond “that’s a stupid question and I’m not going to respond.” To which he says “I’ll kill you Corby, it’ll happen, just you wait” (which he also says 300-400 times a day, and we also discourage verbally.) anyway, I give a clear verbal unambiguous “no.”
Later, when he asked “how should I cook my eggs Corby?” I respond “poached.” I’m not really sure what poached eggs are actually, but the point is I responded to his question instead of telling him it was dumb, because although it’s still an unimportant question, at least it’s not “do I feel like conquering china or watching anime Corby?” or “why would you do that?” or “Corby, your death will come.” Ugh. Let’s see if he learns!
- I’m a big fan of the head nod. It’s really nice to have some means of saying “hey friend, I see you’re in a hurry, so I won’t make you wait for me to come all the way over there just to say hi. Instead, I’ll acknowledge your presence from here without even moving my arms.” Or even “hello fellow classmate whom I recognize is a classmate but I don’t even know your name. Let’s share this moment of joint recognition with a head nod.”
- Some lady just stopped in the hall, pointed at my arm rest, and said “I like your tray”. I said “thanks”, but… random.
- Found out today I actually can graduate this semester still. Uhhh…
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
- a van just pulled up next to mine, apparently unaware I'm in mine. The van has similar modifications so a quad can drive it, but the wheelchair-bound fellow was in the passenger seat position, and someone else was driving, and was pushing the wheelchair when they left. I'm thankful for my independence :)
- I’m procrastinating right now, upon saying the above to Amelia the following followed
Amelia: I'm astounded at how independent you are. Honestly. The way you figure out a way to conquer any obstacle amazes me
Corby: Which makes my inability to write a stupid industry profile even more astounding.
Amelia: psh! It's not the lack of ability, it's the lack of motivation
Corby: I'd argue that's the case for most things people fail to do.
True?...
- One of my high school friends changed his relationship status yesterday to "Married to Home Work"
So I sent Home Work the following
"I can't believe you've been leading me on Homework. After all the time we've spent together? I thought we were something special. But here, I find out you've been dating Jon behind my back? AND you're engaged?! Not to mention I found this out over Facebook!
I'm shocked, hurt, and heartbroken.
~Corby"
And she responded
"Um no, you've got it all wrong. I'm not engaged to Jon. We're married.
Of course you're finding out through Facebook, I knew what a scene you'd make at the wedding.
~Homework"
Awesome.
- If I ever want to learn something interesting, all I need to do is find an XKCD comic I don’t understand and learn why it’s funny.
- “In a pedestrian setting, running into someone is a good thing; in a car, not so much.” (Here Comes Everyone Pg 201) Although funny, this has a very valid message. Neighborhoods used to be close because people would run into each other at the market, or talk to each other as they were out doing yard work. Today it’s different, usually someone gets straight into their solitary car without even going outdoors to run errands, and at any given supermarket the chances of running into someone they know is quite low. I think Facebook might be somewhat turning this back around, for those who leave the chat option on anyway. Facebook chat provides a way to “run into someone” digitally and strike up a conversation they might not have had otherwise.
- biting my nails was suddenly elevated to very high priority tonight. Weird.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
- I still have a lot to learn about communication. With the help of this blog to write down ideas I’ve had, I tend to have ideas more often. I feel like lately when I hang out with women I talk too much though. Although I’ve mentioned so and apologized, the girls always say it wasn’t the case, but still… I just had the thought maybe bringing up neat ah-ha’s I’ve had isn’t always the best idea in casual lunch date style conversation. I’m not bringing up things like CS principles or anything, they’re things that as near as I can tell they do genuinely find interesting. But even if they do find it interesting, they’re just barely being exposed to this angle whereas I’ve had tons of time to think about it, so I’m still in control of driving the topic. I’m not very good at useless small talk though, and I’m not terribly clear what the middle ground topics are. Oh well.
- If you just feel like writing, write a rant about the effect of society objectifying women.
Friday, November 19, 2010
- This book talks a lot about social tools like blogging and meetup.com. Note to self: if you’re married with young kids and you’re looking to find them playmates, check meetup.com or similar networking tools.
- I like that I seem to have a decent capacity of abridging and communicating ideas. However, I’m sometimes saddened to do so. Sometimes I want to say “just go read the chapter!” Yes I can convey the idea, but if I’m explaining a 30 minute video lecture to you in 3 minutes, you won’t be getting nearly the depth. It’s like watching the movie vs reading the book. Someone gets a sense of the main characters and the idea of the plot. But they don’t have a nearly as good of a sense of what the characters went through, or how it felt, or how impactful the events were.
- So I have my standard parking spot at my apartment, part of the benefit of being able to park in handicapped parking at a complex that’s vastly populated with people under 21… and next to in a normal parking spot there’s a guy who saves his parking every day by rotating between his Grand Cherokee and his motorcycle. Whichever one he’s not using he leaves the other there so he can save his space right next to the door. I just had a thought how dumb this is. I don’t think he saves any time by doing so. If he’s saving the spot with his motorcycle he has to get out of his truck, move the cycle, park the truck, and move the motorcycle back. Wouldn’t it be just as easy to park 150 feet further and walk?... oh well.
- “Any new claim on someone's time must obviously offer some value, but more important, it must offer some value higher than something else she already does, or she won't free up the time.” Here comes everyone 262
- “Arguments about whether new forms of sharing or collaboration are, on balance, good or bad reveal more about the speaker than the subject.” P 297. I actually think this can be generalized to be more like “Arguments about whether anything is good or bad reveal more about the speaker than the subject.”
- So if I’m taking a homework break to get food, I prefer to bring female companionship. However, I’ve found that the success rate of texting/calling girls and asking “hey can you get food RIGHT NOW?” is less than 10%, and as I usually don’t have 10 different girls to call, I don’t succeed every time… I was thinking today on my way to Wendys (having failed to find companionship even when giving a 90 minute notice) it would be nice if there some sort of social tool that you could set yourself to “available to do something”. I think it’s likely someone I’d like to hang out with was sitting around at their place or could also use a homework break, but I had no way of knowing without calling everyone individually. Oh well.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
- “Material objectives consume too much of our attention. The struggle for what we need or for more than we need exhausts our time and energy. We pursue pleasure or entertainment, or become overinvolved in associations or civic matters. Of course, people need recreation, need to be achieving, need to contribute; but if these come at the cost of friendship with Christ, the price is much too high.” – Marion D. Hanks
- I have a ridiculous social urge this morning, it doesn’t make doing homework easy.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
- So we were up playing halo at 1 AM and the fire alarm went off. Apparently it was caused by some dofusi (yeah, plural for dofus right? Actually I looked it up, and the plural for dofus is dofus… anyway) who were playing with a bouncy-ball or something and hit the fire sprinkler. It ruined their 4th floor room and the thirds floor as well leaked in the first floor. Yikes. Random fact, in my bedroom there used to be this plastic dome case set over the sprinkler and we had no idea why. If the sprinkler went off it would focus all the water out a hole in the bottom. However! That case would have prevented such an accident haha. The sad part of this story is, we figured this was a false alarm and just kept playing Halo. Lucky for us we were right, but how often do you think somebody gets hurt because of the same assumption?... what is the point of the alarms if everyone ignores them? I think they still serve some purpose, they at least put everyone on guard so they’re considering running if needed. Or if someone came to the door and said “the building is on fire! You have to get out!” while the fire alarm was going on, people are more likely to believe it.
- hmm, so for the most part I like teaching, but sometimes I feel like I’m terrible and some days I do great, and it largely depends on the material I’m trying to teach that week, which I have limited control over. I mean, I can tell my own stories and what not, but then I may not really cover the stuff in the manual, which is in there for a reason. The best I can do is just try to go by the spirit I know, but I don’t always feel like have that. Today as a lesson on adversity with Jeremiah. I was trying to tell his stories and follow the lesson pretty well, but I could tell the class was bored and I wasn’t flowing at all. So I switched over to telling my Twilight Zone and Evan Almighty stories, and it went well… Good thing I’m actually Sunday school pres right now and don’t need to teach regularly.
