Hiya everyone =] Things have been going well, been busy busy with school, I've got less than two weeks left in this fall semester and so it's even busier now.
Well, my big news is that I've been accepted into the Computer Science: Computer Game Design program at UC Santa Cruz in Fall 2009! This is a selective major and it's taken a long time to get here, I'm up to 8 years of community college. (most of those years spent working) I've already looked at the curriculum and courses at UCSC, and I'll be in classes like: Game AI (artificial intelligence), interactive storytelling, game theory, many graphics/animation programming courses, and 3d/digital media art courses. My last three quarters will have game studios where the team based game development projects will happen. I should be finishing at the end of spring (June) of 2011 and will have my first graduation evar! (I accidentally dropped out of high school) After that I'll be considering graduate programs in computer science.
So yeah, fun stuff, as for what I'm up to currently:
Calculus 2 has proven to be my most difficult class evar. On ther other hand,
Physics: Mechanics has been the most fun class evar! We've had labs with ball shooters and fan cars and the stuff is all really interesting and useful for game programming. It helps to have a great physics teacher, she's really into it and gets us to exploring concepts in depth.
Economics online consists of three tests and two essays over 16 weeks, there's no discussion, no incremental progress, and no incentive for me to read the book, I just pop open the book for the tests and hardly learn anything from it. It's pretty boring stuff anyway. The final economics research paper is going to take up some good time soon.
Computer Science: Data Structures is a class I took in high school, and it's just 10 programs to write, no tests, so it's nice and easy. The final project coming up is to convert the midterm project into binary tree storage. The midterm is a contact book. Simple stuff.
Next semester I've got English 101 and 205 in 8 week sessions, and Discrete Math (for when you don't want people to know you're doing math i guess), and compsci: assembly programming, which will be new to me. I also need to take Linear Algebra in either Spring or Summer, it seems like it might be too much to add on to my spring schedule, but it'd be nice to have all my community college work done this spring. I've considered going to UCSC for a class in the summer, would help my schedule along, although it's costly. hmm.
This weekend (Dec 5-7) I've got a Ludum Dare 48 hour game development competition. Always a blast.
The garden is growing, many broccoli and cauliflower and swiss chard and peas and some nice looking winter squash have been vining up a tomato cage very quickly. There's other stuff too, will post about the winter crop soon.
Will write more later, ciao!
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Burning man 2008 videos
Hiya =] Just uploaded two videos I took at the burn this year.
The Temple: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53LRCU5OwFQ
A look around at night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0MBZxRvlAQ
The Temple: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53LRCU5OwFQ
A look around at night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0MBZxRvlAQ
Burning Man 2008 photos
Hiya =] Guess what? The camera has been found! Yay! I've uploaded photos from our trip to Burning Man, including stops at Mono Lake and Lake Tahoe. Ciao!
http://picasaweb.google.com/greencow/BurningMan2008?authkey=Ge44YOxrQPY#
http://picasaweb.google.com/greencow/BurningMan2008?authkey=Ge44YOxrQPY#
Friday, September 5, 2008
Burner back
Hiya =]
So, Maia and I made it to Burning Man and back again. We left friday evening, camped two nights on the way up, arrived in the line of cars at midnight as the event started, spent 6 hours waiting/sleeping before getting in, 6 days on the playa, left before dawn after the burn, and camped out one night on the way back.
We went straight up the 395. First night camped in Mojave. Next day, stopped by Lake Mono and dabbed our feet in this alkaline lake, it's a strange place, at lake's edge there is this carpet of flies, which range from buzzing near water, to corpses a couple feet inland. Seagulls would just walk along with their mouths open, taking in swarms of flies. Pillars of rock formation rise up to where the lake level was before the water that feeds the lake had been diverted for human use. Very strange place.
That night we detoured through monitor pass towards Lake Tahoe, we camped out at Grover hot springs. The next morning we went to the spring filled pools, but the hot pool was empty. They had found a dead bird in the water and had to sanitize the pool. We swam in the cold pool surrounded by mountains and pine trees, very nice. We drove to Lake Tahoe and walked in the lake for a while. Continuing to Reno for supplies, and finally arriving in sight of Black Rock City (our great city, built and burned in one week each year) at midnight when the gates opened.
We camped at burning man with some of Maia's fellow chemists from ucsd at Mad Flava. We were located right behind the pancake playhouse (sister camp) in the 9 o'clock plaza, a nice central location. The playa floor was very sandy this year, little rain through the year means no hard packed ground, which means very difficult to bike on. The city was laid out much larger this year too, so getting around was a trek. With almost no moon all week it was almost like some sort of Star Trek.
This was Maia's first burn, and my fourth. On the first day we arrived, Monday, there was a gnarly dust storm. Intense wind blowing dust so fast it seems to penetrate your skin. Everyone goggled and dust masked up like the apocalypse was upon us, which it was. I got a bad headache that day. Tuesday through Friday were all beautiful days, no dust, not too hot at day or cold at night. We explored the art projects, climbed the 4 story tower that held the Man and the 8 story steel tower of babylon farther out. The temple was a steampunk paradise of recycled scrap. We did yoga 4 afternoons, including a faux man chu'd kung fu yoga class before the burn. Each night someone from camp made dinner for everyone, Tuesday was our night, and we had Taco Tuesday, with glasses of our Ombrew organic pale ale for our campmates. It was superb. The burn was not the best part as it has been in years past for me. We were planning to leave pre-dawn so I wasn't going all out as usual. There was the marching band that I usually followed in circles around the man for the hours after the burn, but it seemed somehow more crowded and we weren't marching. The procession of music and fire spiraling ever closer to a shrinking flame has been the most purifying aspect to mark the end of another year. It was still fun though, I enjoyed myself all week (except the headache), so I've gotta say, best burningman ever!
Departing at 4am, the sun just beginning to cast hope over the horizon, we exodized without the usual line, a boon I would not exchange for a better burn in future years. We travelled to Lake June for some showers, and camped free at a nearby rest stop. Drove all the next day through the eastern sierra valley, sighting Mt Whitney, and finally arriving back in San Diego.
I wish I could share pictures now, as we took many pictures and videos, but it seems that we lost the camera. =[ It may yet turn up somewhere in the van, or on the lost & found forums. We'll just have to use our imagination!
So the day after arriving back from the burn I was right back to busy. Tuesday began the second week of classes, I missed the first, after some changes, I'm now taking: Physics 195: Mechanics, Math 151: Calculus 2, and Economics 120. These are all key classes for my plan to get into the UC Santa Cruz Computer Science/Game Design program next year. Physics is going to be fun, yesterday we were using fan powered cars with motion sensors and laptops to make lots of pretty graphs. The teacher and students are all excited to be here. Calc 2 isn't quite as exciting so far, but finding new ways to work with numbers is always interesting.
Speaking of which, I've got lots of homework to catch up on this weekend, so I'll just be getting back to it. Seeya soon =]
So, Maia and I made it to Burning Man and back again. We left friday evening, camped two nights on the way up, arrived in the line of cars at midnight as the event started, spent 6 hours waiting/sleeping before getting in, 6 days on the playa, left before dawn after the burn, and camped out one night on the way back.
We went straight up the 395. First night camped in Mojave. Next day, stopped by Lake Mono and dabbed our feet in this alkaline lake, it's a strange place, at lake's edge there is this carpet of flies, which range from buzzing near water, to corpses a couple feet inland. Seagulls would just walk along with their mouths open, taking in swarms of flies. Pillars of rock formation rise up to where the lake level was before the water that feeds the lake had been diverted for human use. Very strange place.
That night we detoured through monitor pass towards Lake Tahoe, we camped out at Grover hot springs. The next morning we went to the spring filled pools, but the hot pool was empty. They had found a dead bird in the water and had to sanitize the pool. We swam in the cold pool surrounded by mountains and pine trees, very nice. We drove to Lake Tahoe and walked in the lake for a while. Continuing to Reno for supplies, and finally arriving in sight of Black Rock City (our great city, built and burned in one week each year) at midnight when the gates opened.
We camped at burning man with some of Maia's fellow chemists from ucsd at Mad Flava. We were located right behind the pancake playhouse (sister camp) in the 9 o'clock plaza, a nice central location. The playa floor was very sandy this year, little rain through the year means no hard packed ground, which means very difficult to bike on. The city was laid out much larger this year too, so getting around was a trek. With almost no moon all week it was almost like some sort of Star Trek.
This was Maia's first burn, and my fourth. On the first day we arrived, Monday, there was a gnarly dust storm. Intense wind blowing dust so fast it seems to penetrate your skin. Everyone goggled and dust masked up like the apocalypse was upon us, which it was. I got a bad headache that day. Tuesday through Friday were all beautiful days, no dust, not too hot at day or cold at night. We explored the art projects, climbed the 4 story tower that held the Man and the 8 story steel tower of babylon farther out. The temple was a steampunk paradise of recycled scrap. We did yoga 4 afternoons, including a faux man chu'd kung fu yoga class before the burn. Each night someone from camp made dinner for everyone, Tuesday was our night, and we had Taco Tuesday, with glasses of our Ombrew organic pale ale for our campmates. It was superb. The burn was not the best part as it has been in years past for me. We were planning to leave pre-dawn so I wasn't going all out as usual. There was the marching band that I usually followed in circles around the man for the hours after the burn, but it seemed somehow more crowded and we weren't marching. The procession of music and fire spiraling ever closer to a shrinking flame has been the most purifying aspect to mark the end of another year. It was still fun though, I enjoyed myself all week (except the headache), so I've gotta say, best burningman ever!
Departing at 4am, the sun just beginning to cast hope over the horizon, we exodized without the usual line, a boon I would not exchange for a better burn in future years. We travelled to Lake June for some showers, and camped free at a nearby rest stop. Drove all the next day through the eastern sierra valley, sighting Mt Whitney, and finally arriving back in San Diego.
I wish I could share pictures now, as we took many pictures and videos, but it seems that we lost the camera. =[ It may yet turn up somewhere in the van, or on the lost & found forums. We'll just have to use our imagination!
So the day after arriving back from the burn I was right back to busy. Tuesday began the second week of classes, I missed the first, after some changes, I'm now taking: Physics 195: Mechanics, Math 151: Calculus 2, and Economics 120. These are all key classes for my plan to get into the UC Santa Cruz Computer Science/Game Design program next year. Physics is going to be fun, yesterday we were using fan powered cars with motion sensors and laptops to make lots of pretty graphs. The teacher and students are all excited to be here. Calc 2 isn't quite as exciting so far, but finding new ways to work with numbers is always interesting.
Speaking of which, I've got lots of homework to catch up on this weekend, so I'll just be getting back to it. Seeya soon =]
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Greetings
Hello =] Long time no post.
It's been a busy summer, I was taking two classes online: Environmental Biology, and Calculus 1. Last week I took the finals and I earned an A in both classes! Woot! Calculus is pretty neat, I've been using it to calculate rates of change, like if you're filling up a balloon with 100 cubic cm of air per second, how fast is the radius of the ballon changing at 5 seconds, and for calculating area and volume between curves, taking a curve on a 2d plane and revolving it around an axis to create a 3d object and finding it's volume was particularly fun. Drawing the objects and visualizing them made it a more creative task than most math can be.
Just a few hours after taking the finals, the Ludum Dare 48 hour game programming competition started. This was LD 12, and the theme was 'The Tower'. I wasn't too hot on the theme and was a bit mentally exhausted from the tests, so I didn't spend much time on it in the first half, and almost quit, but in the end I finished a game! This one is actually pretty challenging, it's a tetris clone with numbers and math operators in the blocks, so the object is to form equations. I posted the game here:
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2008/08/10/teenage-mathant-ninja-tower/
Well, I've got a couple weeks to relax now, I'll do some biking. Maia and I are going to Burning Man in a couple weeks, this is her first time and we're very excited, we're going to be camping with some other UCSD burners at Mad Flava.
After burning man, I'll be coming right back to classes, I've got calculus 2, physics:mechanics, economics, piano and yoga.
Oh, and I didn't mention this before, but a few weeks ago, Maia and I brewed up 5 gallons of beer! It's been fermenting, and two nights ago we had our first homebrew. It's good! This is the first of our Ombrew Organic, and is specifically a Pale Ale. It was a fun experience, and we'll be making a Red Ale in September.
The other growth in our lives, our garden of eating, is also doing well. We applied compost and mulch covering to the plants a couple weeks ago, and we've been getting many tomatoes, zuccini, jalapenos and kidney beans. We also got our first japanese eggplant (or ichiban) and some onions, which appeared quite randomly, are almost ready.
Alright, I've got 57 Ludum Dare games to judge (as all entrants do), back to the grind! Ciao!
It's been a busy summer, I was taking two classes online: Environmental Biology, and Calculus 1. Last week I took the finals and I earned an A in both classes! Woot! Calculus is pretty neat, I've been using it to calculate rates of change, like if you're filling up a balloon with 100 cubic cm of air per second, how fast is the radius of the ballon changing at 5 seconds, and for calculating area and volume between curves, taking a curve on a 2d plane and revolving it around an axis to create a 3d object and finding it's volume was particularly fun. Drawing the objects and visualizing them made it a more creative task than most math can be.
Just a few hours after taking the finals, the Ludum Dare 48 hour game programming competition started. This was LD 12, and the theme was 'The Tower'. I wasn't too hot on the theme and was a bit mentally exhausted from the tests, so I didn't spend much time on it in the first half, and almost quit, but in the end I finished a game! This one is actually pretty challenging, it's a tetris clone with numbers and math operators in the blocks, so the object is to form equations. I posted the game here:
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2008/08/10/teenage-mathant-ninja-tower/
Well, I've got a couple weeks to relax now, I'll do some biking. Maia and I are going to Burning Man in a couple weeks, this is her first time and we're very excited, we're going to be camping with some other UCSD burners at Mad Flava.
After burning man, I'll be coming right back to classes, I've got calculus 2, physics:mechanics, economics, piano and yoga.
Oh, and I didn't mention this before, but a few weeks ago, Maia and I brewed up 5 gallons of beer! It's been fermenting, and two nights ago we had our first homebrew. It's good! This is the first of our Ombrew Organic, and is specifically a Pale Ale. It was a fun experience, and we'll be making a Red Ale in September.
The other growth in our lives, our garden of eating, is also doing well. We applied compost and mulch covering to the plants a couple weeks ago, and we've been getting many tomatoes, zuccini, jalapenos and kidney beans. We also got our first japanese eggplant (or ichiban) and some onions, which appeared quite randomly, are almost ready.
Alright, I've got 57 Ludum Dare games to judge (as all entrants do), back to the grind! Ciao!
Monday, June 2, 2008
Semester is ova!
Hola, I have been quite busy for the past 5 weeks. 5 weeks ago is when I scored a 32% on my 2nd precalculus test and suddenly realized the value of doing homework. I was making up past homework while doing the current. I was getting my biking in by going to and from college through Penasquitos canyon.
So I got my grades for the semester:
whew! I was getting worried about passing precalc.
In 2 weeks I'll be back in college for 8 weeks of Calculus, Physical Geography, and an environmental biology class.
So I've got some time again, time to update the resume and work on some java programs of my own.
So I got my grades for the semester:
| MATH 141 | PRECALCULUS | 5.00 | C | Miramar |
| PSYC 101 | GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY | 3.00 | A | Miramar |
| CISC 190 | JAVA PROGRAMMING | 4.00 | A | Miramar |
In 2 weeks I'll be back in college for 8 weeks of Calculus, Physical Geography, and an environmental biology class.
So I've got some time again, time to update the resume and work on some java programs of my own.
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