The Misadventures of Dan
Peer into the mind of Dan as he tries to build an MP3 Player for his PDA and searches for the next thing in his life be it an electrical engineering job or graduate school.
Saturday, January 25, 2003
.:1:31:54 AM:.
According to some stats I received, most of you are using a screen with a resolution of 800x600-I've been toying with the idea of making an 800x600 friendlier site so hopefully the next stylesheet will come out better.
This new friend of mine and I are planning on entering a 10 Mile run in our home city. This is part of a whole bunch of fitness-Dan endeavours. It all sort of started with a half-hazard remark about the sister of a friend of mine wanting to run a marathon. Or at least I thought it was a marathon-she was looking for people to train with and I said sure. It turns out that it's half a marathon which is I guess half of 26.2 miles. This is 13.1 miles which is about 20 something kilometres. So I started to do my old cardio regiment, stairs (real stairs, not those fancy machines), running (k I have to use a treadmill cuz these snowshoes... they ain't made for sprinting :P) and biking (ditto about the snowshoe comment). I'm not saying I'm fit, nor am I anywhere near it, but I think I'm starting to get the feeling. I went running yesterday with one of my other friends for the first time and I guess if you're not used to it-it'll totall knock you on your feet (or off). Its partially my fault for not explaining better what I meant by "running and doing stairs".
I did it!! yep! On Wednesday I got so... blah! about it that I finally picked up the phone and dialed and I actually got through! And now we have this thing set up and everything else!!! In many ways I'm happy, in other ways I feel so dumb, I could have done that any time, I just needed to get my mind over it. Its weird most of the time I know I can do it or come close but it just never happens. I have to stop this procrastination and fear of the unknown. It doesn't work, in fact its anti-work, its destroying what I'm trying to do.
Wednesday, January 22, 2003
.:12:03:43 AM:.
OHHHH when you check letters you must check with a simple apostrophe as in 'single quotes' not a "double quotes"... silly me what was I thinking there goes 15 minutes.
Tuesday, January 21, 2003
.:9:02:50 PM:.
Its so cold today! I went to go workout and then return (reluctantly) Banana Boys to the Libary. Let me tell you walking from Rutherford to ETLC in very cold weather is not my idea of a DDR dance (i.e. fun:P). Today was the first day I had to go to two labs at once. Thankfully my lab partner for my first lab was pretty understanding so it was all good for me to leave in the middle of my IC layout lab and head to my programming lab. I thought I was going to be late when it turns out that it wasn't even mandatory (or at least the TA didn't think so) for us to be there. He was just there to help us out. Between the combination of not needing to be there, having another lab, and the fact that I can't connect onto the Internet-just made my exit all the more speedy :)
I finally think I fixed the problem with the database I created for my mom. Unfortunately her office is still using Office 97, so everything is pretty antiquated. Access has this thing where you can convert a database to a previous version. Unfortunately that means people with newer versions cannot edit the database without converting it back up. The problem seemed to be with a form that the database thought existed but never did in the first place (curious no?). After a bit of tinkering I just rebuilt the presentation and crossed my fingers. It worked and I'm relieved. I'm always worried about what people will think of my work. Criticizing is ok cause then I can make it better or at least try and make a point but if they completely hate it... I don't know. Perhaps its a bit of the perfectionist in me.
So back to this thing. It never seems like the right time! argh! Every time I try, I can't hook up. I have the other number but... I have my doubts and I guess everyone does. I see people around and they seem happy. On the one hand, anything worth anything requires effort and work, but perhaps the effort is being misplaced. Maybe its just not right and I'm just trying to rush things. Maybe. Is it known? There's a jazz thing this weekend, and then there's Hero, there's movies that sounds good, exhibits to see-tons of stuff I can think of-yet I can't take the first step! Why not? Its funny because if you were to ask me "Dan, I need something to do to take a girl to," I can probably name at least two or three things but ask me to bring someone and I get all dumbfounded.
Monday, January 20, 2003
.:5:02:10 PM:.
Some of you may be wondering what happened to Dan this past week-well from an online perspective anyways. It's snowing!! Running has taken its toll in making my mind pretty clear for my classes and yet mush for any post midnight writing on ye weblog. Posting should not be that difficult, in fact the whole point is to simply type in what you think about. The problem perhaps may be that I save up too much. I keep on thinking-yeah I could write about _____, or yeah I should totally write _____ down. By the time night comes around, I feel either I have too much to write about or its just so late!
Weekend went good, we had a "discussion" on Media and Christianity. Where should you, as a Christian draw the line. There are the "obvious" choices such as pornography and such but what about other shows like The Simpson's, or Malcolm In The Middle. It can depend on your background and what you're used to. Some of us have been desensitized to the whole Simpson's humour. The way everything is criticized and yet there are other people who have not been. I can understand how it may be found offensive or even shocking. So should we give it up? One part would say yes, give it all up: junk in, junk out others may not. To those who choose to not watch, it is commendable. I admit that I watch a few program's (Simpson's for one, I don't really watch Malcolm In The Middle, nor Friends, nor a lot of other shows) purely for entertainment. Sometimes it feels good to just shut the brain off and watch an episode of Junkyard Wars or Iron Chef. I know I can be reading more classics or more importantly the Bible. Yet sometimes there's this fear that if I stop watching I'll alienate myself from people-from not being able to talk about certain topics because I flat out refuse to watch _____.
People should see a difference between a Christian and a non-Christian. In fact usually you should see a difference between beliefs and values. So where should the line be drawn? At what point do we say that this is what separates me from you, and will people around take notice? Is that the way to do it?
