all things me

Phew… I got results from the dreaded Prolog course. In most of the assignments I was clueless (I got them to work though… cluelessness has never stopped me from getting programs to work) and I worked on the final assignment — adventure game — for a looooooong time (to wee hours) and there was a pretty bad X-Files expert system too (2nd last assignment). Bad in the way that if you didn’t know how to answer (it was trying to recognise episodes based on various information) you’d get “No such episode!” (or whatever I had there…) in the end. I still got 2.5.

Today I’ve been coding (in Perl) a “Terminator” Actually, it’s a script that picks terms from the ontology I’ve made and formats them nicely in an XML file (for XSL transformations for example).
*lamp blinks above*
I just thought of an improvement…
*goes back to coding*

Updates: Notes on Carrie in TGWLSK
I started playing Unreal II after I got stuck in an annoying place in Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness (if you’ve played it: I’m stuck at the Ghost part… not because of the ghost but because of the damn picture…). TRAOD is a good game adventure wise (lots to play) but very bad quality wise. It has lots of bugs, suddenly Lara’s leg disappears and is replaced by a funny line that goes diagonally from her waist to the ground (I should take a screenshot the next time that happens…) or she shakes uncontrollably when she’s crawling under something (or running/walking up/down the stairs in a not straight line). Also, she goes nuts when she has a gun drawn (and there’s an enemy nearby) — automatic aim is not always a good thing I’ve noticed. Especially when it’s badly done. It’s VERY annoying when the enemy is somewhere below you… And, of course — there was the chipmunk + Lara thing (speech going too fast) which I got fixed though (by tinkering with the DirectX settings.
As I told a friend of mine, the game designers were probably concentrating on something else than the overall quality of the game (namely, the jeans-covered quality of Lara’s behind…).

STILL listening: Maroon 5 This Love

Last night I dreamt that we got a new dog — a white poodle that I suggested we’d name Simone (I just realized… it’s almost like Simon (name of my computer)). Dad’s been telling how he’s seen very cute bichon frishés; one of his colleagues (at least) has bichons and sometimes they visit the office — I saw one last summer.

Grhm… and I was going to refrain from babbling… (at first there *was* only that line about the update)

[edit]
@ 20:55
Updates: Fanlisting check and I joined Brad Pitt fanlisting; I’m a real convert. I used to think he was only a pretty face along with Johnny Depp (and he’s really good too!) and Tom Cruise (still can’t stand *him*…) but he’s REALLY GOOD! Especially when he has to fake an accent. I mean *act* an accent.

I’ve also started liking Kiefer Sutherland because of 24 (2nd season)…

Dear Constant Reader,
Song of Susannah came out yesterday!! Not in Finland though, I presume.

Didn’t update (i.e. go online) today; I was playing Tomb Raider AOD all night… whoops. Addictive, especially cause I’m doing so well
Anyway, I had a dream about a flying squirrel that kept flying (or gliding) around and landing on people’s heads. It was a cute creature though. [Note to self: look for a picture]

Oh yeah, Hmph, some people (I sent myself notes on email from work about that dream and this)
I know my, let’s say, “formal restrictions” (I’m formally challenged in politically correct terms) and I dress accordingly. Not some people… noooo. There’s this girl whom I’ve seen at the bus stop a few times now, and she wears a pretty short college shirt and her belly shows from under it. You know, sagging from under it. You get the picture. And if you don’t, be glad about it.

Day 17 without my TV: BUT I got it back! And it seems to work! *hugs* ahh… smells good. TVs have a strangely good smell about them… maybe it’s all the dust and electricity and components. I don’t know. Anyway, yay! \o/

A bee got in while Dad was carrying the TV from the car. It (the bee) bumped into me even though I tried to shut the door quickly (but the wind/pressure change sucked the bee inside). Scared the bejesus out of me. (I’ve never been stung by a bee, and I’m not planning to be.) Funny, I had just read Man in the Black Suit (Everything’s Eventual) on the way home.

Yesterday I almost got photographed at work; they insisted there should be a photo of me outside the project’s room as there’s a photo of the others (but it’s so nicely arranged now that there’s 6 people, 3 pictures in a row). Well, as one of them said on the day I “moved in”, I would be teased They “threatened” to take a surprise shot one day.

Today at work I was invited to the coffee clique so tomorrow I’ll take my “Toxic Waste” coffee mug with me and leave it there for the time being. *gasp* What if someone steals it?!

Still listening: Maroon 5 This Love

Talking about listening… Today I took some CDs with me to work meaning to listen to them in the quiet hours (I’m there around 8:30am, others come around noon, they’re working part-time). Well, I did the necessary Linux stuff to get the CD working, plugged in my headphones — they were broken the other earpiece didn’t work at all, and the other made a crackling sound and only worked when I held the cord. Well, I went to ask if there’d be earphones to borrow and it started a Key Hunt. It was embarrassing!! The computer guy went to ask for keys from the office and the lady there (our other computer person) didn’t find them and kept looking everywhere. I kept saying it’s not so big a deal but they wouldn’t listen. Well, finally they gave up and I retreated to my corner. Luckily he/they didn’t appear with the headphones later in the day. Hopefully they’ve forgotten about it. Tomorrow I’m taking my other headphones which actually work.

Eh… it’s only 9th and I’ve produced this much cr….text. Do I have to start archiving semi-monthly? This text is already longer than the left side column… And me complaining about it only adds to the length Nitenite.

While I wait for the Agency to start on tv (oh yeah… Day 15 without my TV — I need a countUP) and listen to Maroon5 This Love (groovay!):
Every time I have a summer job, I wonder if should take up smoking (if you know me, you know that’s the last thing I’d do — and if you don’t know me, I’m telling you, I would never ever ever start smoking)… at least it would be a good excuse to take a break. But me, what would I do on a break? Suddenly stop working and start reading? I’m entitled to two 12,5-minute breaks a day plus at least a 30-minute lunch break. So far, I’ve picked up a glass of water every now and then and the other day I visited the library (at the dept., on the same floor even — and it was a book I used in the ontology-making). Oh, I did go to lunch when I was invited, on Tue and Wed last week.
Perhaps I could take a Virtual Smoke Break.
Anyway, now it’s time for the Agency, then Harsh Realm and then reading… I have to take Carrie [Eng] back on Friday. Luckily it’s a thin book.

Updates: those very cool underlinings for blog’s dates.

Doing the new website project. It’s almost done layout wise but not even started content wise.

Went shopping today with Dad. Clothes this time. I found a nice shirt (sleeveless, black, cotton).

There was the cutest little hedgehog running around in our front yard this afternoon. S/he was carrying branches and making a nest under our neighbours’ stairs.

Hedgehog picture from Nature Lover Gifts

Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh! DT5 finished in a horrible cliffhanger!! I can’t wait to read Song of Susannah! (it has to come out first (on Tue), and then arrive in Finland)
The series just keeps getting better and better (I didn’t think that was even possible…)

I missed my May book (A Year of Reading clique) but I’ll just have to read a few extra in June.

Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh! Day 12 without my TV xD
Went to watch Bachelorette on Dad’s tv but it started flickering (on/off, not just simply bad picture) so I went to the livingroom. Mum said I was just being paranoid, that the tv worked fine. I told Dad that I must have some sort of magnetic field around me that destroys TVs… But it DID flicker!

Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh! Meredith chose Ian. What happened?! Maybe Matthew will be the next Bachelor then…

Updates: Apart from updating the fact that I’ve read DT5 (booklog, King site), I went back to the tiny text. Sorry to say, I like it.

Oh yeah, I moved to a new room today, the project’s room (i.e. where all the students are crammed). Hopefully I returned the correct key…. you see, I had two while I was moving the computer from one room to another.

I have a new website project in mind… *mwahahahahaaa*

I’m living in yesterday… Anywhooo.

Updates: FINALLY a Splinter Cell Fanlisting; I was this –> <– close to starting my own…

Been very tired today. Slow start in the morning. Don’t know why though cause I slept perhaps for… about 6 hours. Maybe it’s the sleep deficiency from the beginning of the week.

Oy vey! A tv critic claimed in the newspaper today that the Sleepwalkers is based on a Stephen King book that “experts say is thicker than Xmas ham”. And what book might that be, Mr. Critic?

Started playing Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness today because my sister stole the Morrowind…….. I had problems with the sound though (think of chipmunks and Lara…) but I found a tip how to fix that so I’ll try with better luck tomorrow or w/end.

Tomorrow I’ll be moving to a new desk at work. I’ve been separated from the other people working on the same project so I’m really out of the loop. I mean, they should be telling me what they need from the ontology. I’ll also get my hands on the parser soon.
Hopefully my lunchbuddies will remember me even though I won’t be on their way… If they don’t, I’ll be eating 1 choco cookie per day for lunch…

Announcement: Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah out in 5 days (June 8)! And DT VII: The Dark Tower is coming out on September 21 — King’s birthday

If Meredith chooses Ian tomorrow in the Bachelorette, I’m going to cry! Not of happiness!

Updates: Been organizing this exponentially grown blog I’ll have each month’s entries on one page. I was planning on having only the newest entries on this page, but it looked silly because of that looooooong column on the left. You can see how silly it looks now that there’s only 2 entries on the page. Maybe I should make the font another step bigger
Also, added a little Me paragraph [right column]

Whee! I got 3 for Structured Document Fundamentals (HTML, XML, XHTML, LaTeX, XSLT, XSL-FO, SVG — that sort of stuff). (grades are 1-3, at least for the time being…)

My chocolate chip cookies are useless… at least for now. I’ve actually had a real lunch break. To be honest, it’s nice to have people drag you out of your room every once in a while…

Today we student employees had a meeting; because of me! I’m the newest one so I don’t know what they need me to do. So, today I got a little more info on that. (*being as vague as possible — for a reason* I’m actually a secret agent woman…) I would’ve gone to talk to the professor (whose project I’m working in/on) about a parser I’m going to tweak (so I heard) but he wasn’t around.

Been ashamed: I broke someone’s pen today… the clip thing… I hate when people do that to my pens and now I did it. I feel awful
Been fighting with: table cell heights in IE and Mozilla

[edit; “big” means this size, I changed it back to small afterwards] This big text annoys me… but I’m torn. I can read the tiny text, but can you? Should you? [/edit]
[edit] And now I don’t have to worry about font size issues anymore because WordPress has pretty big fonts as a default and they don’t look too bad [/edit]

Bummer, May without reading a book. Not properly at least. I’m so CLOSE to finishing DT5 that I ought to be ashamed (of not finishing it). But school (and sleep) and work have to be prioritized, I’m sorry to say. And I have. Very much so. Very bonkers-goingly so. I have, however, almost-read Carrie and Everything’s Eventual. And pages and pages of my own scribble and to be exact nine of my peers’ too! (bachelor’s theses — still have that to revise).
But now (after DT5) I’m going to read Carrie (1st read [noun] ever!) and maybe in Finnish too (although the translation is paiiiin paiiin paiiiin — bad in other words). But I’m definitely going to read Everything’s Eventual in Finnish. It was such an ordeal to get it an’ I ain’t givin it up so easy. (I know the correct grammar, so clam it!)

Anyway, printing out the [translation study paper] 16 pages (hurry up!) now so I can go to sleep. Have to find a used envelope for the teacher (yup, strict orders). Up again in less than 5 hours. And work till 5 pm. But on the way back from handing-in-the-paper I’m going to go buy some nice cookies for faint-prevention (I won’t bother going to eat, there’s no Unicafe within stone’s throw). Maybe chocolate chip.

Day 6 without my TV: Nothing on TV! Nothing must-see anyway. Dad said he’ll call the repair shop on Monday unless they call because they’d told it takes a week.

Today was sister’s junior high graduation (I guess… 9th grade anyhow; and mandatory school is now over and the kids can do whatever they want, or not do) and I was the invited “parent.” I wanted to go cause many of my old teachers were still there and she had been talking to them about me and they had been asking about me (I had to go and set the record straight naaah, it was just nice to see them and they like to hear what “their kids” have become).
I had to wake up at 7 am, after 3–4 hours of sleep. I wasn’t tired though; quite the opposite… hysterical. My sister was too so I’m not the only one to blame.
First my German teacher spotted me (before the whole “ceremony”) and we talked a little (had to explain what I study and it’s never an easy job… I *have* to learn some kind of a “sales pitch” by heart…); then after the dances and songs (horrible songs) and diplomas, my handicrafts (? I mean the subject where you make things out of fabric…) teacher spotted me and we chatted — had to explain what I study. She told me she’d seen me walking to the train station many mornings and the next time a tiny red car drives by and honks, it’s her. Then I talked with my English teacher (about dictionaries and thesauri and translating — what else?!) and I had to explain what I study. My maths teacher was always my favourite but I was afraid she wouldn’t remember me. My sister dragged me to see her and she did remember me Had to explain again what I study… Well, actually she asked what I had done after leaving that school so I told about senior high (grades 10-12) too.
That was that. When we left it was pouring rain (not as hard as yesterday but not nice in tiny shoes (no boots! ) and “better clothes.” I also had to go via the kiosk to get myself 2 months’ bus ticket¹ cause Monday morning I don’t want to think about the ticket (1st day at work).

Now, sauna time. To be continued.

I left in such a hurry that I forgot my coffee… (only ½ a mug though)
Anyway, after we’d got home, (we watched CSI:Miami, ate, watched the beginning of another CSI, the good ol’) Dad and I went shopping! I bought a Memento DVD and Dad got ink cartridges for his new toy. We were also looking for a non-amplifying indoor antenna (for Dad’s digi-tv cause amplifier makes the picture worse) but didn’t find one in the first store so went to another. From there we found an antenna and left. This was also a sort of “scouting” trip cause we hadn’t been to those gigantic stores before.

Updates: sliced and diced — the blog

1. We have bus cards (like credit cards) where you can either load money or “time.” With “time” you just show the card to the reader in the bus/train/tram/subway, with money you also select the type of ticket you need (tram [valid for only that one ride] / inner city / inter cities [those 2 are valid for 1 hour]).