Friday, June 19, 2009
Santa Cruzin
Heyo! I'm living in and around Santa Cruz now! I've been camping around forests and friends, and will soon settle into classes. My bike will finally be fix0rd for riding on tuesday. More to write later!
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Spring Semester
Hello, I finished my last semester of community college 2 weeks ago. I just got my grades back..
English 101 READING AND COMPOSITION : A
English 205 CRITICL THINKNG/INTRMD COMPSTN : A
PHYE 149 SOCCER : A
MUSI 115A CLASS PIANO I : A
MATH 245 DISCRETE MATHEMATICS : A
MATH 254 INTRO TO LINEAR ALGEBRA : B
Woot! This gives me a 3.6 gpa for my lower division work, let's see if I can keep it up for the next two years ;]
I am going to be visiting friends and family over the next couple weeks, and then I'll be heading up to santa cruz for classes starting June 22. More to write later! Ciao!
English 101 READING AND COMPOSITION : A
English 205 CRITICL THINKNG/INTRMD COMPSTN : A
PHYE 149 SOCCER : A
MUSI 115A CLASS PIANO I : A
MATH 245 DISCRETE MATHEMATICS : A
MATH 254 INTRO TO LINEAR ALGEBRA : B
Woot! This gives me a 3.6 gpa for my lower division work, let's see if I can keep it up for the next two years ;]
I am going to be visiting friends and family over the next couple weeks, and then I'll be heading up to santa cruz for classes starting June 22. More to write later! Ciao!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Ludum Dare 14
Ludum Dare 14 was 2.5 weeks ago, on the weekend of 4/18. Ludum Dare is the triannual 48 hour game development competition I've done several times before. The theme was 'Advancing Wall of Doom' and I made a space shooting game which had enemy ships with equations written on them which you would shoot with the correct answers by pressing the numbers on your keyboard. It turned out a fun and challenging game which I was happy with.
The game is available at the website where I publish my games: www.originowl.com
After the 48 hours of programming, everyone who makes a game has 2 weeks (2.5 weeks this time) to play and judge everyone else's games. The games are rated in many categories on a 1-5 scale (5 best). The results just came out and I did okay. My game was up against 123 other games.
Overall: 20th (3.61)
Fun: 15th (3.71)
Innovation: 16th (3.76)
Humor: 25th (3.47)
Sound: 26th (3.44)
Not great placement, but the scores came out good. It was a fun experience, and inspirational as always. The games by the winners are all nice little games that I would recommend playing.
If you want to find me in the results, I'm 'greencow'.
[Ludum Dare 14 full results]
The game is available at the website where I publish my games: www.originowl.com
After the 48 hours of programming, everyone who makes a game has 2 weeks (2.5 weeks this time) to play and judge everyone else's games. The games are rated in many categories on a 1-5 scale (5 best). The results just came out and I did okay. My game was up against 123 other games.
Overall: 20th (3.61)
Fun: 15th (3.71)
Innovation: 16th (3.76)
Humor: 25th (3.47)
Sound: 26th (3.44)
Not great placement, but the scores came out good. It was a fun experience, and inspirational as always. The games by the winners are all nice little games that I would recommend playing.
If you want to find me in the results, I'm 'greencow'.
[Ludum Dare 14 full results]
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Tecolate adventures
Hiya friends, I haven't updated in a while, but things have been pretty routine lately. I've been biking about 10 miles through tecolate canyon, 3-4 days a week. Sometimes I take roads if I'm in a rush. I found a way through the golf course that was previously impeding my path, removing a hill and some roads from my commute. It's a nice and challenging ride, there are many streams to cross surrounded with patches of baby heads (tons of smooth round rocks of varying sizes from golf balls to footballs that often slip and create traction hell) and steep slopes, some features I have only been able to bike through after weeks of attempts.
I've put a new back tire on, my previous was a 1.95" kenda nevagal which had a hole in the side and worn down treads. My 2.3" nevagal up front is still sittin pretty, joined by a maxxis high roller 2.1" in a reversed tread pattern for extra traction. Seems fine so far! I've also put on the SRAM pc-991 chain that I bought for grenadine like 2 years ago, but I didn't change the rear casette, which has created some gear skipping, but only in the highest rear gears. So now I ride with the rear in the center gear and mostly go up and down using the front 3 gears, dropping the back when the front is low for granny gear and raising the back when the front is high for top speed. This seems a better way to run the gears overall, so I'm glad I ran into the gear skipping issue.
All this biking up hills (along with 2 hours of soccer every friday) has been creating new visible muscle groups in my legs. I had heard about pro cyclists having enormous legs, and now I'm starting to see it. Mostly, I'm enjoying the ease and speed with which I climb hills now. I spend much more time in high gear lately so I'm going faster overall. I've been tracking my routes and stats with my google phone gps.
Four weeks of class left in this semester eeee! I am going nuts. I have already registered for cmps 101 at UCSC, class begins June 22.
English 205 has been interesting, our curriculum for this 8 week class includes dawn of the dead (2004), fear and loathing in las vegas (the book and the movie), and fight club. The theme is: the american dream. I'll post some essays out of that sometime. I had fun with the dawn of the dead essay.
Linear algebra and discrete math have both been very theoretical and difficult to use. There are no formula sheets or calculators, just lots of proofs and operations that don't connect with anything real. It helps to think of them as puzzles. Otherwise the lack of application makes it hard to keep motivated, but I know linear algebra has many great applications to come, and discrete math is forming a strong theoretical basis for applications of logic. They have had about the same test schedule throughout the semester, which is nice after the tests to be able to relax, but it kinda doubles the stress before the tests. Last week was a test week, and I believe that I did very well, which is a big relief because I was a bit worried about passing Linear Algebra for a couple weeks.
Today I ate 9 homemade vegan tacos! And that was my adventure of the day
Oh, last weekend was Ludum Dare 14, the theme was 'advancing wall of doom' and I completed another game. The game is called 'advancing wall of math' (math on the brain much?). I've been posting my games to my new site: http://www.originowl.com
I've put a new back tire on, my previous was a 1.95" kenda nevagal which had a hole in the side and worn down treads. My 2.3" nevagal up front is still sittin pretty, joined by a maxxis high roller 2.1" in a reversed tread pattern for extra traction. Seems fine so far! I've also put on the SRAM pc-991 chain that I bought for grenadine like 2 years ago, but I didn't change the rear casette, which has created some gear skipping, but only in the highest rear gears. So now I ride with the rear in the center gear and mostly go up and down using the front 3 gears, dropping the back when the front is low for granny gear and raising the back when the front is high for top speed. This seems a better way to run the gears overall, so I'm glad I ran into the gear skipping issue.
All this biking up hills (along with 2 hours of soccer every friday) has been creating new visible muscle groups in my legs. I had heard about pro cyclists having enormous legs, and now I'm starting to see it. Mostly, I'm enjoying the ease and speed with which I climb hills now. I spend much more time in high gear lately so I'm going faster overall. I've been tracking my routes and stats with my google phone gps.
Four weeks of class left in this semester eeee! I am going nuts. I have already registered for cmps 101 at UCSC, class begins June 22.
English 205 has been interesting, our curriculum for this 8 week class includes dawn of the dead (2004), fear and loathing in las vegas (the book and the movie), and fight club. The theme is: the american dream. I'll post some essays out of that sometime. I had fun with the dawn of the dead essay.
Linear algebra and discrete math have both been very theoretical and difficult to use. There are no formula sheets or calculators, just lots of proofs and operations that don't connect with anything real. It helps to think of them as puzzles. Otherwise the lack of application makes it hard to keep motivated, but I know linear algebra has many great applications to come, and discrete math is forming a strong theoretical basis for applications of logic. They have had about the same test schedule throughout the semester, which is nice after the tests to be able to relax, but it kinda doubles the stress before the tests. Last week was a test week, and I believe that I did very well, which is a big relief because I was a bit worried about passing Linear Algebra for a couple weeks.
Today I ate 9 homemade vegan tacos! And that was my adventure of the day
Oh, last weekend was Ludum Dare 14, the theme was 'advancing wall of doom' and I completed another game. The game is called 'advancing wall of math' (math on the brain much?). I've been posting my games to my new site: http://www.originowl.com
Monday, February 23, 2009
Biked to school
Monday, 2009 Feb 23, Biked from Gila to Mesa College via Tecolate Canyon.
Trailhead at balboa & clairemont dr, biked south into canyon, a bit rutted in parts, could use bridges (esp close to mesa college). Encountered a rattlesnake on the trail, it rattled loudly as i cast sticks upon it, nearly missing. The snake slithered off continuing to rattle as I rattled on by. Harrowing.
At the Mt Arcadia road crossing, I entered the golf course, inquiring within I was unable to access a trail. Golf has failed me, building a golf course in my canyon without so much as building a small bridge to the trail that runs on the side of the golf course.
So, I bike up the road, up a long slow hill, instead of riding in my canyon, I get to the top, make a few rights and then I'm back in the canyon, only at the high part, so I have this steep descent in, it's very steep and swooshy, not the kind of danger I prefer on my commute to school. SOon I'm in the bottom of the canyon and there's about 4 spots that I had to disembike to ford.
Overall it wasn't great and took an hour, but it will be faster as I cut out dead ends, and there's lots of side trails and options to explore when I have extra time.
I biked home by roads. The hills around here are a good workout.
Trailhead at balboa & clairemont dr, biked south into canyon, a bit rutted in parts, could use bridges (esp close to mesa college). Encountered a rattlesnake on the trail, it rattled loudly as i cast sticks upon it, nearly missing. The snake slithered off continuing to rattle as I rattled on by. Harrowing.
At the Mt Arcadia road crossing, I entered the golf course, inquiring within I was unable to access a trail. Golf has failed me, building a golf course in my canyon without so much as building a small bridge to the trail that runs on the side of the golf course.
So, I bike up the road, up a long slow hill, instead of riding in my canyon, I get to the top, make a few rights and then I'm back in the canyon, only at the high part, so I have this steep descent in, it's very steep and swooshy, not the kind of danger I prefer on my commute to school. SOon I'm in the bottom of the canyon and there's about 4 spots that I had to disembike to ford.
Overall it wasn't great and took an hour, but it will be faster as I cut out dead ends, and there's lots of side trails and options to explore when I have extra time.
I biked home by roads. The hills around here are a good workout.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Multigrain goodness
Hiya =]
Well, I know last week I said I was living in my van, which was true, but then I found a nice room for rent near my school, and decided to move into a more traditional living situation. I have moved in with an older Indian gentleman who goes by Kris (ala Krishna) and it's been nice. The room came furnished and there's like 15 fruit trees around the house. There's also two other people renting rooms attached to the house. Having a kitchen, fridge, and a private bathroom are certainly niceties I have missed. Not worrying about getting a ticket for camping in my van is nice too. I found out about tickets for street camping when I was awoken one morning by police officers =P.
This will be my pad for the next 3 months, then I will return to van life when I move up to UC Santa Cruz.
School has been getting busier, Linear Algebra is quite difficult and English has taken much time.
TaTaForNow
-Bryan=]
Well, I know last week I said I was living in my van, which was true, but then I found a nice room for rent near my school, and decided to move into a more traditional living situation. I have moved in with an older Indian gentleman who goes by Kris (ala Krishna) and it's been nice. The room came furnished and there's like 15 fruit trees around the house. There's also two other people renting rooms attached to the house. Having a kitchen, fridge, and a private bathroom are certainly niceties I have missed. Not worrying about getting a ticket for camping in my van is nice too. I found out about tickets for street camping when I was awoken one morning by police officers =P.
This will be my pad for the next 3 months, then I will return to van life when I move up to UC Santa Cruz.
School has been getting busier, Linear Algebra is quite difficult and English has taken much time.
TaTaForNow
-Bryan=]
Sunday, February 8, 2009
goings ons going on
> So the spring has sprung and it's still winter. Living
> in my van again has
> been a new experience during this wet time of year. Rain is
> lovely, although
> the musky smell in the van requires a dose of air to keep
> under control. So
> far so good.
>
> I am going to san diego mesa college this semester m-th. It
> is a really nice
> campus, much bigger and more populated. I'm glad to be
> attending a new
> campus, new architecture and style to appreciate.
> There's a beautiful
> building there I will post pics of soon. The only trouble
> so far has been
> parking and the many stairs between the parking and class.
> Parking should
> get easier as I arrive earlier and people drop their
> classes.
>
> It has been many weeks since a bike ride. My legs are sad
> pandas. I was
> almost ready to go when it started to rain again. Well I
> should use this
> downtime to get my bike tuned up. Mesa college is right in
> tecolate canyon,
> so I will be traversing that when the trails dry up.
>
> Last weekend I went to los angeles for the first global
> game jam. It's a 48
> hour game development competition, but in locations all
> over the world, and
> with teams. I arrived late, traffic, so I missed my chance
> to pitch a game,
> I got on a team making a flash game, flash isn't
> something I have developed
> with in many years, so I was only on game design duty,
> which is fun, but
> design doesn't take much of 48 hours, so I got bored
> and left early. The
> team still finished the game, and apparently ranked 2nd at
> our location.
> Good times.
>
> I will try to write weekly or so, this is coming from my
> phone, which I can
> type fairly quickly on now.
>
> Love,
> -Bryan=)
> in my van again has
> been a new experience during this wet time of year. Rain is
> lovely, although
> the musky smell in the van requires a dose of air to keep
> under control. So
> far so good.
>
> I am going to san diego mesa college this semester m-th. It
> is a really nice
> campus, much bigger and more populated. I'm glad to be
> attending a new
> campus, new architecture and style to appreciate.
> There's a beautiful
> building there I will post pics of soon. The only trouble
> so far has been
> parking and the many stairs between the parking and class.
> Parking should
> get easier as I arrive earlier and people drop their
> classes.
>
> It has been many weeks since a bike ride. My legs are sad
> pandas. I was
> almost ready to go when it started to rain again. Well I
> should use this
> downtime to get my bike tuned up. Mesa college is right in
> tecolate canyon,
> so I will be traversing that when the trails dry up.
>
> Last weekend I went to los angeles for the first global
> game jam. It's a 48
> hour game development competition, but in locations all
> over the world, and
> with teams. I arrived late, traffic, so I missed my chance
> to pitch a game,
> I got on a team making a flash game, flash isn't
> something I have developed
> with in many years, so I was only on game design duty,
> which is fun, but
> design doesn't take much of 48 hours, so I got bored
> and left early. The
> team still finished the game, and apparently ranked 2nd at
> our location.
> Good times.
>
> I will try to write weekly or so, this is coming from my
> phone, which I can
> type fairly quickly on now.
>
> Love,
> -Bryan=)
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