10,000!!!

Amazing, utterly amazing. Today, I crossed the mark of 10,000 visits to my blog since I started tracking them in April. Most of that traffic is for the M4 review, but I’d say that about 30% of my visitors are people who actually know me.

As I was studying for 2 of my 4 big exams last week, I noticed just how technologically complex my world has gotten and had to get a picture of it. To set the scene; I was studying for my exam on the Boeing 727 Electrical System and my Middle Ages through the Baroque Period Music Appreciation exam, both of which were on Tuesday. So, Tuesday morning, I was multitasking by studying for the systems exam while listening to the compositions for the music exam at the AvTech Library.
What you see here is the M4 Tablet PC on the center of the table (with a scan of the study sheet questions on the left side of the screen and my handwritten answers on the right; perfect evidence of why the high-resolution screen is so worthwhile for me), a handmade protective sleeve for my M4's optical drive (made in true college form of cardboard, foam, and duct tape, lots of duct tape) propping up the M4 for a better viewing angle, my MP3 player to the left of the M4 hooked up to my headphones and playing Bach, my cell phone to the right of the M4, my folder with the music listening guide under a printout of the digital picture I'd made of the electrical section of the 727 Flight Engineer's control panel, my backpack on the upper right, and the Music textbook on the far right of the table. By contrast, just think of how much stuff I'd have to have to study all this without the Tablet: notebooks for each class, CopyMat packets of professor's Powerpoints printed out, the very-heavy Ryan Airlines 727 manual (or at least the Electrical section), etc.


In other news, I just got back from October Break, which is the first of our two breaks during the Fall semester at Purdue (the other is Thanksgiving). I went home Saturday morning, spent the afternoon visiting my brother at Trinity International University (the undergrad counterpart of the seminary my parents met at). Personally, I think his dorm looks like a cell block, but he's adamant that it doesn't. What do you think? Can't you just see this space enclosed with bars instead of doors at each room?

While I was there I was able to meet some of his suitemates (and prank several of their computers) and get a tour of the campus. Sadly, we stopped by the football game to find that Trinity was being absolutely pummeled by the visiting team (I have no idea who they were). Saturday evening I went home to have a home-cooked meal with my parents, and then hung out with Jake, Natalie, Toby, and Melissa at Steak 'n Shake.

Sunday we went to church and then picked up Scott to go to Bob Chin's Crab House for lunch (one of our family's favorite restaurants ever, but we don't go there often because it's a long drive to Wheeling and expensive). That evening I had Jake and Taira over to hang out and play some Halo. They both knew of my reputation as an evil genius, so by the end of the night they were bidding to try to get me to team up with them to help prank the other one. Naturally, it was my plan to cancel on them both and go solo against them both, but circumstances prevented that (more on that later).

Monday was a relatively relaxing day wherein I spent most of the morning/early afternoon running errands with my Mom and getting a MUCH-needed adjustment from the chiropractor. Monday night I bought a cheap, beat-up used bike to use on campus and not worry about rusting out or being stolen and then hung out with Jake and Taira again, eventually helping Jake saran-wrap her car after we'd "left," then coming back to get her to go prank him. Sadly, due to a glitch with her cell phone, we weren't able to meet up, so I went solo and saran-wrapped his car as well (actually, that's fairly difficult to do by oneself; I had to employ a couple of tricks to pull it off). I was originally going to get some of that washable window paint they use on cars at a wedding and butter (to smear inside the driver's side door handle), but time/distance issues made getting the extra supplies impractical. The most ironic thing about the whole incident is that Jake went home paranoid after helping me with her car, so he waited by his window (which is directly over where he parks his illuminated-by-floodlights car) for 45 minutes watching for me, then I show up just a few minutes after he gave up and went to bed (concluding he was safe). Needless to say, he was in for a surprise when he woke up and looked out the window; I believe his phone call to me right afterwards started off to the effect of "You punk!..."

Tuesday was spent packing, doing laundry, pulling out the winter clothes, and trying to figure out how to mount the bike rack on my car. Eventually, once I left home 1.5 hours later than I'd originally planned (I was trying to get back for something at 7), it turned into a Murphy's Law day. I had to stop for two long trains crossing the road I was on, but they were going in opposite directions in just such a way that the second one didn't start crossing the street until the first one had just finished on the parallel track (right when you think the wait's finally over). Then the pump at the Jewel-Osco gas station didn't print me a receipt and it took the guy behind the counter about 5 minutes to coax the computer into making one. Things made a turn for the better when I was able to stop by the Snow's house for about 20 minutes and visit with them. Then I hit the road and came back to Purdue, making the trip from the Snow's Wheaton home to Purdue in just over 3 hours (really good time) because 294 had very little traffic and I bypassed the I80/I94 multi-decade construction nightmare to get to Indiana. The rest of the ride was uneventful and I got here right about 7pm.

In other news, it looks like the now-dormant Perelandra project might be revived in the near future. It's too early to say anything for sure yet, but we might have a lead on a new band (no, not like a musical band, think like a TV channel) to try to establish contact on. Again, it's too early to say anything for sure, but I figured I'd at least mention it for those following the research.

Finally, one last note before I sign off for the night; I just got back my score on the big exam in 727 Operations on Friday (the hardest of the 4 exams last week). I was expecting to either do really well or flunk it, and I guess the two bonus questions must have worked to my advantage because I got a 100%! My average score in the class (coming from all quizzes, homework, and this test) just jumped from 80% to 94.29%! If you can't already tell, I'm happy about this, very happy.