codergeek42

Tim: I win, it seems! ~_^

According to the great grep and wc utilities, my CS final project consists of 600 lines of comments and 964 lines of 80x86 assembler source. (Including nearly 300 blank lines! I guess I am a bit of a whitespace fanatic, but it makes the code so much more readable.)

! I rather enjoyed that, actually .Even though some of the interrupt code was a complain in the arse, it was quite interesting and some of the most frustrating (and therefore, oddly enjoyable) code debugging sessions I’ve had in a long time. I just wish I had more time to get some of the extra-credit components of it working. Alas...

But, now the semester has officially ended. I suppose I should start looking for a summer job. But in the meantime, I shall go get Fedora 9. I have also made it my personal goal over the summer to master a handful of Kanji every week from my Japanese I workbook practice pages.

Maybe I’ll go see Iron Man tomorrow. Yes. That would be a excellent way to begin the summer, methinks.

Eric Christensen asks, "What [new] language should I learn?" I’ll throw in my two cents...or in this case, my two foreign languages. :)

As a good half of my family (maternal side) are of Spanish descent, it was only practical that I [formally] studied it for four years of high school. Actually, Spanish was my first language; but then I started going to school for more than a a decade in English-only and the Spanish stuff apparently bitrotted into the back of my brain somewhere. I spent the first semester of high school basically remembering instead of learning new material, which started soon thereafter.

Then again, the simple fact that I did have so much available practice outside of school is certainly responsible, if at least indirectly, for why I was able to learn so much of it relatively quickly.

Now, though, I’m extremely comfortable with it and aside from some regional-/cultural-specific vocabulary quirks, I can (and do) happily hold verbal and written conversations with those for whom it is their native - or sometimes - only language.

Spanish is an extremely practical language to learn if you do a lot of international traveling, as well. According to Wikipedia’s entry, Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, the second most widely used language in the United States, and the third most common language worldwide (both on the Internet and by speaking population). Granted, there are a variety of dialects to it, as there are most (all?) other languages; but their differences tend to be minor, with the same essential grammar and phonetic usage, usually just differing in some specific vocabulary.

Thanks to its Latin-based etymological roots as a romance language, it becomes significantly simpler to learn to communicate in other similar languages (such as French, Italian, et al.) once you master the essentials of Spanish.

The writing system is all phonetic, too; and is not very difficult to learn since it is essentially a superset of the Latin/Roman alphabet: some vowels get the acute accent diacritic (´), and there is the ñ ("eñe") character. That’s about it. ;-)

(Okay, okay...technically there are also the "ch" and "ll" digraphs; but those are treated as letter pairs for collation and other purposes.)

If you’re wanting to learn a language just for the fun and interest of it, however, I recommend you stretch your mind of its comfort zone. Try Japanese! I’m currently taking an introductory course and while I can’t honestly say that it is easy, I can promise that I am enjoying it greatly. Its writing system (Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji) and grammar (with which culture is intertwined quite heavily) are so vastly different from English and other Romance/European languages that it forces one to think more abstractly and not just translating words and grammar; but translating the raw intention or meaning of it.

The two sets of Kana (entirely phonetic) are rather simple, actually. It just takes a lot of patience and even more practice. The Kanji, on the other hand, often have complex stroke patterns and - more often than not - many possible pronunciations (so-called "readings"). Even these are not difficult with diligent study, however! (I find flash-cards for these to be INCREDIBLY helpful.) Normally these readings are based upon usage of the Kanji.

For example, the character 人 is pronounced ひと ("hito") when simply being used as “person;” but is read as じん ("jin") when being used to describe nationality, and as にん ("nin") when being used as a counter for numbers of people.

• あの人（ひと）…
  (Romaji: "ano hito...")
  That person...


• 私はアメリカ人（じん）です。
  (Romaji: "watashi wa amerika-jin desu.")
  I am an American.


• そこに三人（さんにん）がいます。
  (Romaji: "soko ni san-nin ga imasu.")
  Three people are there (lit., exist in that place).

Also, Japanese grammar is, as far as we’ve learned, extremely regular. One does not need to be concerned with gender- or subject-based conjugation as with other languages; and there are essentially three categories of verb conjugation: "-ru" （〜る）verbs, "-u"（〜う）verbs, and "-suru" （〜する）verbs. Then there is 来る ("kuru," to come [towards]) which is otherwise the only irregular verb in the entire language. Quite pragmatic.

It’s definitely a bit odd at first that there are specific conjugations and inflections for cultural aspects (e.g., polite/formal vs. plain form), and there are some exceptions to most things (for example, 二人 is read ふたり, "futari" instead of ににん, "ni-nin") but they tend to be few and far between, and all-in-all (from what I’ve learned so far) it’s quite an interesting language!

I suppose Mandarin Chinese, with its similar writing system and tone colors in pronunciation would also be an interesting venture; but I think Japanese is more practical because then one can watch anime and read manga more readily.

I now will retire to my email-checking. I bid you adieux...

For some reason my blogging pattern and its frequency tend to follow a sine wave-like pattern: I blog a lot regularly, then stop for a time, then start back up, etc. Ugh. I really should stop that and just make it linear!

As to Fedora, a lot of really cool stuff has happened recently, including the gLabels 2.1.5 bump and the inclusion of WebKit into Fedora proper.

Also, classes have adjourned for the semester; and so far as I can tell it's half-As, half-Bs for the final grades. I'm quite pleased with these results. That introductory music theory class was incredibly fun, surprisingly enough; and now I want to take more music classes (which I really should have started with far earlier in life...). But, alas, Computer Science is a very high-unit major, so I won't have room in my schedule in the coming semester. Maybe a relaxing music class over the summer? I think I'd like that.

Next semester I'm taking 4 classes again but they're all a bit higher-unit, so it ends up being 17 units total. I'm taking the following classes:

• Graph Theory and Linear Algebra
• Computer Organization (Assembly Language)
• Elementary Japanese I
• Intermediate Calculus

It seems difficult at first glance, but as they are all classes I will no doubt enjoy (and mostly with teachers I've had in previous semesters whom I know are quite capable and friendly), they shouldn't be hard so long as I put in the effort. Thankfully I'm nearly done with my GE classes, too. Just some Chemistry stuff to take in the coming semesters... :)

On a final note, my close friend sciathan_file is returning from Ireland today. Have a safe and pleasant journey, Ally! =)

Come to think of it, that was far less than I had intended to write. I think I should go get some more caffeine....

As I was heading to my music theory class this morning, I found an older-model red Lexar USB memory stick (128 MiB) on the walkway between the music and administrative buildings. It, unfortunately, had no name or identifying information on its casing. (It was one of those older models with the rubber casing, very similar to this one from Amazon.)

So, if you lost your thumbdrive today, please stop by the Public Safety building and pick it up from their Lost & Found. Thanks.

(This post brought to you by the letters U, S, and B, and the number 2.)

"I don't like this class."
"I'm going to fail; I just know it."
"Oh, I'm doing really bad [sic] in this class!."
"I'm never going to get it!"
"This is going to hurt."

These are only some of the things I've heard fellow classmates say in various situations: some before an exam, others after taking notes in lecture, yet more in lab/discussion for courses which have these separate. Yet, I can't for the life of me fathom any possible reason for this thinking. I keep trying to reassure people of this and explain it to them, but no one seems to understand: It's all psychological. Your thoughts and feelings about a class will significantly push your grade in one direction - be it positive or negative.

If you truly believe that you will fail a class, then guess what? You will fail it. Telling yourself that you are not good at such a subject will serve only to reinforce your failure. Believing that you will fail makes you susceptible to remember less of what you have studied, not completing your assignments on time, et al.; but on the other hand, if you truly believe that you will do well, you'll be apt to study more, remember in clearer detail what it is you've studied, put more effort into homework and other assignments.

Secondly, if you're taking a class, you should at least put a lot of effort into it. Are you taking the class to kill a few hours every week? Are you taking the class to be with a significant other who is registered for it? Are you taking the class simply to say you took it? I surely hope the answer to these is a resounding "No;" but I perpetually find that the opposite holds true for far too many people. (One is too many.) So many students are simply not trying. Whether or not you are good at the subject; heedless of your studies skills and natural talents - if you never TRY, you will inevitably fail. There is no question about it.

I've done it before (and nearly failed a course in high school because of it); and I see it now in the introductory Music Theory course that I'm taking, as prevalently as it was when I first started my collegiate studies and as prevalently as it has stayed throughout nearly all of my classes. For example, according to a poll taken on the session by the professor, about one third or so of our class has a year or more of formal musical training (in theory, instruments, or some other aspect). Yet, many of these people continually say that they will do horribly, or that they will fail. Many of them simply do not try to participate in class or do practice assignments or other homework. Is it really all that surprising to them, then, when their scores on exams are lower than simple guessing might statistically give them? (I'm not exaggerating on this one, either...)

Likewise, the other two-thirds of our class have no real formal musical background, yet enjoy it and endeavor to do well. We study harder; we participate in class more; we do more practice problems from the book and in the computer labs; we ask questions. Is it not surprising that most, if not all, of these people fare significantly more successful than those with prior musical training who simply do not apply the the effort?

I still cannot find even one iota of understanding or reasoning for it. Why do students put themselves through a class without effort and without faith in their own abilities, then become frustrated when they end up failing the class or otherwise obtaining a horrible mark for it? I'm stunned at the sheer lack of will power people have to studying. Sure, some - perhaps many - classes are boring. I will absolutely ascertain the validity of that statement without question. But, as any senior student will tell you, it's better to just take it with stride and strive to do your best. Do well in a boring class once, and you can rid your mind of it afterward. If you can't learn to overcome these things in academia, especially as an undergraduate student or before, then you will not be able to overcome them later on in life, when their ill effects are far more cataclysmic to your well-being.

That said, once you've overcome it, the time comes to learn how you learn. (Bare with me, this will all make sense momentarily.) Some, as I am, are very visual people. For instance, when dealing with mathematics, I write down everything and draw graphs or simple figures to illustrate the problem any time I possibly can. In my studies of music, I've come to always have an mental image of the grand staff and the basic piano keyboard as applicable and how the notes in question relate to each other on both. Studying Biology, I make diagrams for myself of the process(es) in question. Even when taking notes, I do this. My notes tend to be much more like a flowchart or brainstorm than simple lists of points as are given to us in the lecture slides of the professor: arrows going every which way, having more important or relevant items in larger text size, etc.

Some might learn more suitably through audio (reading the text aloud, recording and replaying the professor's lecture, et al.) or various other methods. Find the way that you learn the best, and if you can adapt yourself to that method, your learning will be more efficient - your notes will be more easily studied, you'll probably remember a lot more of what it is you study for the exams and whatnot, etc.

Now that my rant is done, I'd like to add that I've amended my old Blog's configuration with some Apache Redirect-fu, so if all goes well any links to my old feed should point to that of this LiveJournal, and stuff should (hopefully) stay unbroken with that. :)