Well, it has certainly been much harder to deal with than I originally expected. Who'd've thought 20hrs/wk TAing, 30hrs/wk with GenUX, and 8 units would be too much to handle... well it is... I've just taken on too much, and that's not good. I talked with La Shanna today, and she said that I can't go below the 8 unit minimum, but I could do research units instead of a class, and that would actually work out well if I can get Dan to give me 2 research units for designing the graphics class instead of doing it in 302. 302 is great, but it's too fast paced for a sequence class like this.

So I got an email from James O'Brien yesterday saying, "If you get a letter from the department asking about your laptop preferences, I suggest the PowerBook option." Well, I haven't gotten the letter from the department yet, but it seems I may be getting a laptop =). I should've waited for the G5 laptops to come out before going to grad school... dang...

Well, I finally got a break... a short one atleast... so I figured I'd come and provide a "What's up" LJ entry...

Life has been hectic these past few weeks. I've pretty much averaged 3-4 hours of sleep per night since the 11th. It seems everything happened at once: I've become the head of both the sound and peer-2-peer networking groups at Gentoo. I took on 2 new tech support clients. I've been contracted to build a new linux server for a web-hosting company (IBM Netfinity... pretty nice). I had to rewrite the online quiz code and autograder suite for CS61c, deal with students, and somehow find time to prep for class (I wish TAs actually got paid for how much time gets put into a class.) And on top of that, I still had to find time to do stuff for my own classes... which has been quite the challenge...

So the spring semester is finally underway. This is looking to be my most "different" semester. I'm taking 2 art classes, a PE class, 4 RSF classes, and one self paced CS class to get above the unit requirement... I hope there are actually tutors available for 9b...

I was originally going to take an international studies class, CS 160, and the 2 art classes (on top of the RSF/PE stuff) for a total of 14.5 units, but the teacher for the intl. studies class was... well... psycho... so I'm not going back there again... and I was able to petition to use one of my Art classes to fulfill my CS requirements, so that clears up a bunch of time for me... but I'm now working 30+ hours a week between teaching 61c and Gentoo related stuff.

Well it's official, our deadline has been pushed back another 2 weeks to the 'Brick Wall' deadline of October 3. This makes it very difficult for me to take off for a 2 week vacation because I want to be here for my birthday, my mom's birthday, and the release... so maybe I can go on vacation in November... like Nov 12-25... hmm... ok, so it's not as bad as I thought...

Also, I'm reading 'The Power of Myth' for English 1A, and it's really driving me crazy. I'm only 40 pages into it (20 of it was introduction), and I want to retort just about everything I come across. It's really frustrating.

So tomorrow I am taking my last final of the year. I am so stressed/anxious about it that I can't get to sleep. I was supposed to take it earlier this week, but I couldn't because of the Pink Eye, so I had two options: take an oral exam tomorrow or take an I-grade and take the final next spring... well I really don't know what to expect out of an oral math final... wish me luck... now if I could just get to sleep...

Well, it's not so much that the essay is "done" as it is that I am fed up with dealing with it. I'm sure I'll do another edit tomorrow, but for now I'm considering this the final project... I think that's how a lot of my projects get their "final" designation... completion by apathy...

Anyways, I told some people I'd put it online, so here it is. Thanks to everyone who helped me edit, and I would definately appreciate feedback and further comments.

So last night I REALLY started working on my global warming term paper. I've been reading reports, articles, and doing research for a little while now, but yesterday I finally got into productive mode and started writing. The paper is to be 5-7 pages on the topic "Is global warming happening? Are the culprits? What should we do about it?" The answers to the first question is a very solid yes. Anybody who thinks it's not is crazy. In 1996, the IPCC concluded that humans ARE causing climate change, and numerous plans have been put forward to reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases over the next 250 years. The problem is our government works on a 4 year cycle, and they care more about what will happen in 2 years than what NEEDS to happen now to prevent disaster over the next century... plus it doesn't help matters that we have a gut slingin' republican in there... grr...