all things me

(sorry, I’m not very good at [spelling] English interjections, hopefully you get the point)
It’s amazing how one person can produce so much suffocating stench. I don’t remember one single morning recently that there hasn’t been a smelly hobo/drunk on the tram stop or in the tram. *Outside*, at the stop, one can smell them from 5 meters away (!!) and when they get on the tram the smell soon spreads to every corner.

After yesterday’s hacking-hacking I decided to make a new category for posts called Tweaks. I’ll try to document what I’ve had to do to make the blog the way I want it to be — as a reference to myself mostly so that I can re-do them if something happens (or when I update WP etc. and all my hard work will be copied over (or whichever operation the update requires)).

Crazy language + statistics note:
I seem to favour 3 same-letter variations of different interjections. For example: awww, ewww, and phoooweee as in the title of this post. Language Log had a wonderful post (called Aw+ ) on the subject. Apparently, I’m following the hordes. Unintentionally!

Why I think I use three letters? It’s the shortest ungrammatical cluster of same letter. So, it stands out (well, at least somewhat, compared to cluster of one or two) and is economical.

Oooh… I almost slipped an eggcorn (I’ve read WAY too much LL). I first wrote “hoards” instead of “hordes” but luckily checked it.

Regular expressions are nifty. I just wrote in an *informal* report on “what on earth I’ve been doing all summer” and when I would’ve had to write “subdirectories and subdirectories’ subdirectories” (or “subsubdirectories”) I simply put (sub)+directories which my professor will surely understand (the + is a Kleene plus meaning >1, a Kleene star * would be >0)

The cleaning lady had brought me a waste-paper basket. Very kind. Too bad I’m finishing work on Monday…

The corner of my mouth still twitches when I think my professor just said that if there’s an emergency (something doesn’t work, I don’t understand something…) it might be more practical for me to text him than send an email. Text! Apparently he is comfortable with the additional features cell phones offer nowadays (additional to just using it as a phone). I am not planning to disturb his vacation, however.

Another thing, I was just told (not 100% sure) that the structure <possessive pronoun> + <uninflected noun> is nowadays *allowed* in Finnish. Damn those allowances (hey, I thought that was a “word play” but it does mean “act of allowing” too… super). Soon we’ll be talking merely in uninflected words cause everyone’s too damn lazy to inflect.

Inflect, people!

This morning when I came to work, our servers were down. Luckily Windows worked. Now, at 10 am one of the project people arrived and the servers were still down. She had only Linux on the computer so she decided to leave because she would’ve had to leave early anyway. Almost instantly after she had left, I noticed the servers were back up.
I should’ve just kept my mouth shut (I told her the servers were down) so maybe she would’ve taken enough time to settle down and the servers would’ve started working by then.

@ 12:25
New word (I knew it before but didn’t know how it’s spelled): brouhaha — uproar

A professor just asked someone if they knew Windows well and when he said no, the prof said “or at least you’re not going to admit it” …

Everybody always trashes Windows and Bill Gates. I wonder why. Who would be using computers today if it wasn’t for Windows? The nerds. And would there be nerds if they weren’t introduced to computers via Windows or similar easily graspable systems at an early age? The graphic interface allows lay(wo)men to use the computer without having to know dozens of different commands and their usage. And when they realise and learn that there could be a better OS than Windows (better in the areas they appreciate), they get interested in others.

OK, I don’t know if that’s what happens, but I like Windows and I’m not afraid to admit it. I don’t know if I would like computers if I had to stare at the light blue text on blue screen of a Commodore 64 or the black screen of DOS all day (I know they can be customised… but you get the point), or type commands and check how the arguments had to be written again.

And besides, games work on Windows.

And Bill Gates. It’s not like he keeps all the money he’s made to himself. He and his wife have foundations. I think they contributed money even to the Finnish libraries for the exceptional work they’ve (the libraries) done to give public access to computers and the Internet.

@ 12:38
I’m hungry so I could’ve gone to eat to an actual Unicafe, but… there are two cafes close by, one is closed for the summer and the other one had only steak and omelette. I don’t eat eggs and I’m pretty sure the steak would be pork, which I don’t eat either. Lucky me.
So, cheese rice cake it is…
I could go … no, shoot … Mum just baked yesterday (or the day before that) I would’ve gone via some bakery on my way home and buy something really really good for coffee.

Ehm… a dictionary claims that “hard cheese” means “bad luck” … does it? I can’t find anything for or against. And I don’t have my Idiom dictionary with me.

@ 13:22
* singing *
Should I stay or should I go now…. if I stay it will be trouble, if I leave it will be double. Or the other way round. I really don’t remember the lyrics…

It feels like everybody’s leaving… I’m afraid I will be locked in. Actually I *was* locked in A girl who left the “sub-room” (a tiny room where you have to go to through this one) closed the door (to this room) and after a while she came back and opened it.

I’ll leave at 14. Forgive me, for I’ll sin. (I should be here till 16)

Finally the professor came by. I got the parser and he explained it a bit. Now my job is to try to understand and test it. And make bug reports.

Ah… one more day left this week and then it’s looooong 3-day weekend. I wonder if I’ll be the only one here tomorrow…

40 minutes to go…

The prof had a summer beard….

I got a berry pie! (or a muffin… a hybrid) This guy (heh, I’m just trying to not name names) gave me a muffin. He told me that he has so much food that’s going old soon (and it’s a long weekend ahead) so he asked if I wanted one. Gladly Yum… Maybe I’ll get through the day with this and don’t have to eat one of those cheese rice cakes. Don’t get me wrong, they’re good. But a bit… boring.

Oh yeah…
*brag warning*
I got 3- for Open Source Methods for Language Technology (best grade in the course) and 3- for Context-Free Parsing Methods (there were a couple of other 3-‘s)
*brag danger over*

I was trying to print my bachelor’s thesis but the printer went nuts. I don’t know if it was because of me (or actually, because of printing a .pdf file) or what, but it printed out pages after pages after pages (far more than the 21 of my work) of unintelligible codes.

I sent my work on .pdf to the professor even though yesterday he said that it’d be safest to return the work both on paper and on a file. The file will have to do. I’m not risking another heap of useless paper out of the printer (well, useful as sketch paper). Or, I’ll print it out at home (which in turn will waste my ink and my paper).

Hmm… I was going to write about something… oh well.

I forgot my key this morning (the key to the room here at work) because I had taken it off that thing, that loop thing on trousers to slip the belt through. What is it? I don’t even know it in Finnish (at least not right now). Anyway, luckily there was a cleaning lady (the same that said good morning to me the other day) around so I asked her to open the door for me.

There’s this man (I think he’s Indian, but that’s not the point) who hands out free magazines every morning (or how could I know, he could be there all day). He says “have a nice day” in a high-pitched, monotonous voice to every single person (almost). And he chases you!! Almost forces you to take the magazine (I usually just shake my head). Also, when he sees someone running to a tram he pushes the button to open the door and holds it open until the person has reached the tram. So, then the person must take the magazine cause the man has been so kind. The “have a nice day” is a sneaky way too cause who can say no to that? Well… after a while and too many unnecessary magazines, I could.

Talking about monotonous… there’s a monotonous drilling going on somewhere in the building. Agh. *drrr drrr drrr* *drrrrrrrr*

Hehey, the next entry (if it’s not today’s) will cause the 1st entry to scroll off this page. Exciting!!

Can’t wait to get home (have to go via the library, I’m taking Carrie and the two translation studies books back) and start playing Conflict Desert Storm II (I stole it from Dad cause he’s playing Hitman II at the moment, and very well too) with my brand new graphics card. I could play Tomb Raider too but I’m in an annoying place and my switch-target key doesn’t work! It’s the same key as roll (I’ve changed it to Alt) and it should work when the gun is drawn but Kurtis just ROLLS! No “typo” there, I do mean Kurtis. Uh oh… a spoiler. I think the problem is that the roll key should be tapped and my Alt is a bit sticky. I have to change it to Ctrl or something and try again cause I’m not giving up now!

My new Radeon works!! The service pack fixed whatever needed fixing (mother board’s support for AGP 3.0 perhaps) and when I turned on the computer after the card had been attached, it didn’t start beeping like yesterday and it works! Works! Works!

Sooo… today I’ve been (apart from admiring the view…) updating the “About me” page (there’s stuff about Simon too, you see) and, well, I did a new button and changed an old one a little and made some new pages.

I’ve done actually something important too… I revised my bachelor’s thesis cause I have to hand it in next week (the professor leaves for holiday on Friday). I’ll just need to ask him how he wants it, on paper or electronically.

We had a 2-hour project meeting (a nice way to kill time, actually. What would I’ve done otherwise — the parser’s still not in my hands).

I made coffee.
I carried and set up the dishes.
(Then there was the meeting.)
I carried the dishes to the kitchen (in that I had help).
I washed the dishes.
I sure took a mug of coffee (with milk AND sugar) as a compensation afterwards.

I’ve been busy as a bee (with catering…) so that’s why I’m energized.

Now then, the odd people. At the meeting people argued (“Let’s not argue *again*”). Argued! And some talked with their hands (I don’t mean sign-language) so fiercely that I was afraid they’d fall off the chair (or start flying).

Don’t get me wrong, it was nice, entertaining and — above all — interesting.