Fireman's Carnival

Tonight was the first night of the local fireman's carnival. My sister was begging me to take her, so I conceded and we went for a couple of hours. As soon as we arrived, she split off with her friends, leaving me alone.
I headed over to the bingo table, where I found a chair and put down a dollar for a card. I ended up winning on my second round, earning more than I managed to spend in the subsequent rounds of bingo and for my "dinner" (french fries and a watermelon snow cone, heh). I thought I'd spend most of my money, but I came out with more than I had going in :)
I didn't ride any rides because I didn't have anyone to ride with. I didn't play any games because the aquarium game (where you toss ping pong balls into tiny fishbowls and win a prize--I was glad to see that they've stopped the awful practice of giving away live fish to people who are just going to let them die) didn't have any stuffed lobsters like they've had for the past two or three years. I'm pretty good at the aquarium game, so I've gotten quite a collection of lobsters. I just ate and played bingo.
I did see Drew and Cassie. Cassie reminded me that I have to go to her grandma's house to help get the 4-H yard sale ready. Drew gave me his new phone number and updated me on his life; we haven't seen one another in a while. I saw a lot of people that I recognized from when I was in high school, but I didn't talk to most of them. I didn't care to talk to most of them.

Yes.

I'm feeling quite content right about now. A little unnerved in a few areas, but still content.
I just got my Calculus I grade. I got my A, alright :) I got a 93.96%, which I round up to a 94. The college is on a 10-point scale, so I didn't "just" make it, either. I just hope it transfers to UMW easily! I posted something on my Facebook status about my success in Calculus--"...swore she wouldn't take math in college, got an A in Calculus I, and can't wait for Calculus II." Mrs. Weddle "liked" my status. I miss her so much. I wish I could send her an e-mail telling her that I'd declared myself an English major (so many of her other students have), but she would be disappointed in me knowing that I hadn't followed my dream. In my senior yearbook, she gave me my "final" homework assignment. I have to go out into the world and make a difference. I haven't failed to complete a single homework assignment for her yet, and I hope to keep my record clean.
I've been thinking about what I want to accomplish in this coming school year. I want to start using a planner. I've never bothered to use one because I've always been pretty good at keeping track of assignments and dates in my head. I just feel like I should start, though. I want to stay fairly organized. My side of the dorm room was always clean, as in my clothes were in the hamper and my dishes were washed on a daily basis. My desk, however, was a mountain of papers, books, and art supplies just begging to be stapled or otherwise contained. I'd like to improve on that. I want to get out and be more social. If nothing else, I really want that. I've come to realize that socializing with people and making contacts is going to be one of the most beneficial things I can do in college, even though it's proving to be quite difficult for me. I'm just naturally quiet; I don't assume that people want to talk to me and hear what I have to say. I hate that aspect of myself and I hope to continue working on it for the next few years. I want to go to all of the department picnics, all of the department parties, all of the random department activities (even the Video Game Olympics, even though I'd just make a fool of myself when I have to play Guitar Hero on easy), and all of the guest lectures. I would really like to see if there are any professors (particularly Stephen, because he's so nice and I think he's into artificial intelligence) who would be willing to let me help them do some research. It would be a lot of fun, and it'll be a big bonus on my resume if I decide to apply for graduate school. I want to join PERL, the computer science club, and I want to work really hard as one of the co-presidents of GALL.
Speaking of GALL, I made a pretty sweet slideshow about all of our activities from last year. I gathered up all of the pictures I'd saved on my computer and I snitched a few from the club's Photobucket account. For the background of each of the title slides, I used a photo that I took in the library of a sign that asks library patrons to report any "disruptive" or "suspicious" activity to the front desk. I thought it was appropriate :) The first title slide says "THIS IS GALL," then there's a gorgeous picture of the campus that I took from the balcony of the gym early one morning, and then it starts into the other events--Bottlecap Bead Curtain, Masky Flashmobby, Body Canvas, "Anatomical" Origami, Live Snake, Lightbulb Garden, Wacky Warnings, and Happy April Fools' Day. To top it all off, the whole seven minutes and 33 seconds is set to the equally-long "Corona Radiata," by Nine Inch Nails of course :) "Corona Radiata" is a spine-tingling industrial instrumental piece, and I thought the creepy-yet-beautiful feel of the piece reminded me a lot of GALL. I still don't know if I'll upload it on Youtube, but I might put in on Facebook. I didn't take all of the pictures (maybe 93%, but still). I heard that "Corona Radiata" is free for our use because Trent Reznor gave out free downloads of "The Slip," the album that the piece is on, and he's no longer on a big label. I dunno, maybe I'll put it on Facebook first and then put it on Youtube. I'm very proud of it, after all.

Scammer Grammar

I checked my school e-mail today, hoping to hear more about my housing, something from my roommate, perhaps a scholarship or something fun from GALL or the CompSci department. I didn't get any of those, but I did get a good laugh from an e-mail that I received from the "help desk." It said that the message contained "urgent information" in the title, so I opened it up to take a peek.
They asked for my password, so I immediately took it as a scam. Come on, guys. Not only did I grow up using computers and protecting my own personal information, but I also happen to have some common sense. And the spelling and grammatical errors in the body--oooooh, they drive me absolutely insane!

Here are the winners from this particular message--

"You are adviced to send us your account details." -- "Adviced." Really, if you're going to try to scam passwords off of people, then at least have the decency to spell-check your stupid little e-mail that everyone laughs at and deletes (and possibly takes the time to blog about).

"All Staff/Student" -- "Staff" is plural. "Student" is not. Seriously.

"Further more be informed that we will not hesitate to delete all email accounts that are not functioning, to create more space for new user." -- "User" should be plural. Furthermore, "furthermore" is one word. I won't even get into comma placement...

"After upgrading, a password reset link will be sent to your email for new
password." -- First of all, that's just strange. And the latter half of that sentence is also strange.

"Once it is confirmed you will have no problem signing into your account." -- I just find this one hysterical because, well...if you fall for this scam, you WILL have a problem signing into your account.

"This is a scheduled maintenance period that will be occuring each month, due to the amount of junk email our staff/student are receiving." -- It's "occurring." Getting people to reset their passwords each month would be ridiculously inconvenient. And they made the "staff/student" error AGAIN. And...okay, I said I wouldn't start with the commas... :P

I'm not normally the kind of person who will call someone out for their poor grammar and spelling (even though it eats me up on the inside), but I'm willing to make exceptions for the idiots out there who make a poor attempt at scamming uninformed people out of their passwords. I just wonder if the people who write these types of e-mails are actually stupid or if they're just lazy.
I also have to admit that I've always wanted to respond to one of these e-mails with a fake username and password that are completely vulgar and disturbing, just for laughs. That's my sense of humor for you.
In case you didn't know and didn't figure it out from reading this, an e-mail asking for your password is a scam. I can't think of a single situation where it wouldn't be. Although the e-mail looks legit, it's NOT. There's a way to make a sender's plain old free e-mail account look like a university or company e-mail. Yes, the message is going to tell you that your account is going to be deleted and whatnot. Don't worry about it. I've gotten literally dozens of these e-mails throughout my life--haven't responded to a single one--and I haven't had a single account deleted yet. If you do respond to the message and share your account details, the person who sent the e-mail will have complete control over your account and any personal information that comes with it. And the first thing those people do when they access your account? Change the password so that YOU can't get in. So treat your password like your toothbrush and don't share it with anyone. And change it every few months. :P :P :P

Latin, Linguistics, and Computer Science

I've been doing some hard thinking for the past few days. I don't know what I should do. I've been thinking for a while now about ultimately working in the field of artificial intelligence. It certainly sounds like an ideal career path for me. I'm interested in computer science, language, and the human mind. It would be fun!
With those thoughts came the idea of a major in Linguistics. The university that I attend doesn't offer a Linguistics major, but there are several linguistics courses offered that go along with the English and Communications majors. The university also offers the opportunity to design a special major that includes courses from two or more disciplines. I don't want to drop my Latin major completely. Rather, I'd like to create a hybrid Latin/Linguistics major that will give me a leg-up in a future career and excuse me from all of the mythology and Roman history courses that I don't really want to take. The school's "special major" page on their site even suggested combining linguistics courses with a language to form the Linguistics major. I think they were hoping students would choose a modern foreign language to create their own Linguistics major, but the only good language is a dead language :) (Programming languages are good too, but my favorite shirt doesn't agree.)
I think that creating the Latin/Linguistics major will help me graduate on time. I also think I'll be happier. I love Latin, but I love the language. I've always been into grammar and language over analyzing literature, studying mythology, and learning about history.
This isn't set in stone yet, but it's definitely something I'm thinking about. The only thing is that I feel like a bad Latin student for not pursuing the major in its entirety. But I'm silly, I guess.
In other news, I e-mailed my roommate for the coming year. Her name is Jasmine, and she sounds very nice and interesting. She told me that she likes animals, which is always a winner with me. She also doesn't smoke or drink, which also makes me happy. We share a few interests so far, and I'm really excited to hear more from her. The information that I got tells me that we're still in hotel housing, so we may not be together at all. They might find space for us on campus, which means they'll stick us wherever there are two open spots, together or not. I would love a great roommate, but I also really want to be on campus. I don't know, and I'm not going to worry about it. If we're together, great. Jasmine sounds wonderful. If we're not, so it goes. It's always nice to meet people to have as friends.
I also got an e-mail from Mike, the current president of GALL. He's graduating in the coming year, so he sent out a message to all of the current members of GALL asking for someone who is willing to be trained as his replacement. I hesitated to respond because I figured that someone else would want to take the three open positions, but I was worried that, if no one else responded either, GALL would die. I sent Mike a response telling him that I'd take a position if one still needed to be filled, and he told me that a co-presidency seemed to be forming and that I was welcome to be a part of it. I honestly love the idea, partly because I think it suits GALL more, and partly because I was worried that Mike's response was going to be something along the lines of, "No one responded, so you get to be president by yourself."
I've been trying to be more social and get myself out there a little more, and volunteering to help lead GALL seemed like a good way to take a few steps. It'll require me to get out and talk to people in order to get some great stuff done--and getting great stuff done with GALL is definitely worth it.

Mm, slushies.

So, 7-11 was giving out free slushies today. I was really excited and all. I think they're great, especially that weird Mutant Berry stuff. I stopped in one of the stores and made a beeline for the slushie station, where I grabbed a cup and examined my options. There was a Coke slushie--yummy, but rather boring. There was a cherry slushie, but artificial cherry flavoring is disgusting. There were two orange slushies, but they were both diet. Diet slushies (and drinks in general) are completely undrinkable under normal circumstances. There was a watermelon slushie, which instantly attracted me.
I waited in the long line with my paper cup and purple straw in hand while people made their decisions and filled their cups with frosty goodness. I noticed that a few people were having trouble getting the watermelon slushie dispenser to work, and I was very worried that I'd have to settle for a Coke slushie.
I decided that I wasn't going to settle for a Coke slushie, however. I placed my cup down under the dispenser and turned the knob. Nothing came out. I was irked, but I held up the line and kept on trying. I really wanted the watermelon slushie. I pushed and pulled and forced and slammed on the little lever-knob to make the slushie come out, and, man, did it come out! Suddenly, the dam (probably a chunk of ice) broke and a cold, pink flood exploded out on everything in the vicinity.
The floor was splattered with little piles of slushie. My small slushie cup was overflowing, and the overflow catcher thing was, well, overflowing. There were streaks of reddish-pink running down my arms because I was holding the cup when the thing let loose. I even had some on my face and shirt. The two people who happened to be behind me just stared--didn't even crack a smile!--but I couldn't do anything but laugh hysterically as I carried my dripping mess over to the nearest napkin container and tried to clean up the mess. I did, in fact, clean myself, the cup, and the floor thoroughly before leaving the store.
The slushie was very good and totally worth being all sticky and cleaning up such a big mess. I didn't even get a brain freeze! I wonder if they'll dare to offer free slushies again next year. I wonder if they'll let me have one. Because I am SO ready if they are :)

Visiting Robert

I talked to Robert last night. He suggested that we do a Free Hugs kind of thing at the next farmer's market, which is August 1st. The idea immediately took my interest; I do love stuff like that :) Hopefully his idea will be very successful!
I also went to go visit Robert tonight. We were going to go canoeing, but the marina was closed by the time I was able to come to his house after I'd finished all of my work at the barn. We played Guitar Hero instead, which was a lot of fun. I'd only played guitar and bass, never vocals.
I usually don't sing in front of other people. I sang for Mac right before he died. Sometimes I sing for Stella. I sing in the car sometimes. I do quite well singing with Morrissey, even though I can't always hit the high notes with him. I attempt to sing with Mr. Reznor, but I'm not very good at it. Usually, I'll get halfway through a NIN song and burst into laughter because I know I must sound ridiculous. Most people probably think that I'm completely incapable of yelling, yet I'm driving down the road screaming the lyrics of "Gave Up" at the top of my lungs. Sometimes I sing with the radio, but most of the time my car won't pick up any good stations and I have to stick with CDs.
For a while, Robert and I switched between guitar and bass. The bass was a lot easier for me to play (I still need to play on the easy level, but Robert plays on the expert level.), so I mostly did that. Then, Robert got me to sing while he continued with the guitar. I was completely unfamiliar with all of the songs I had to sing, which made the task very difficult. Being unable to see the tiny print also increased the level of difficulty... I really needed my glasses. I couldn't get the hang of it and it was very embarrassing, but it was still pretty fun. Robert also had his turn at the microphone. Despite his assertion that he sucks at doing the vocals, I thought his singing voice was quite nice.
It was really late by the time we decided that we'd had enough. I met Robert's cat, Karuna, and she is gorgeous. Then I went out onto the porch and almost fell flat on my face because I couldn't judge distances in the dark. Hehehe.
I have other stuff to write about, but I'm really tired and I think I should go to bed.

Reese's for breakfast!

I woke up late this morning. I really just needed the extra sleep, so even when I woke up at 6:30 and started to climb out of bed, I made myself lie back down. I noticed that I was very distracted and weaved a lot when I was driving yesterday, and I really don't want to do something dangerous like that again. I eventually woke up at 9:00 and decided that I'd had enough.
I almost always have to have breakfast right after I wake up. Of course, I didn't do that on Monday. I had a small bag of peanuts and a can of Mountain Dew from the vending machines when I was working on the calculus project with Joshua, and that was after noon. Before that, I didn't have anything to eat or drink :( Ah, but I digress...
I had Reese's for breakfast. While I was rooting around in the box (I like my cereal dry.) for each handful, I looked at the back of the box. This box had a list of "18 Things To Do Before You're 18". Since I'm 19, I've kinda lost my chance at completing the list. But...what have I done?

#1. Ride the world's biggest rollercoaster.
I've been on some rollercoasters, yes. I've been on ones with loops. I've been on some really fast ones, ones with fairly large drops, all sorts of stuff. I'll get on just about anything as long as it has a sitting car. I've seen some of them let you hang, and the thought of that just freaks me out. I usually do close my eyes and hang on, though. I'm terribly scared of heights :)
I googled the "world's biggest rollercoaster" and didn't find anything useful. What makes it the "biggest"? Length? Height? Something else? I don't know. But maybe I'll get up the gall to go on one of those hanging roller coasters now that I've thought about it

#2. Bungee jump.
Uh...NO. Never. I'd bungee jump before I tried skydiving, but...no.

#3. Score the winning goal/basket.
Is the equestrian equivalent winning a blue ribbon? If so, I've got this one completed. I was usually picked last in gym class because I'm pathetic when it comes to all of those sports :P

#4. Win an award, trophy, or prize.
I got a certificate for a high score on the National Latin Exam twice (and I've taken the test twice). I won the "word processing award" in high school for being the only person who ever got my stuff done. I've won classes and prizes at horse shows. Yay me?

#5. Learn an instrument.
I attempted this one. I really did. But I can't help it that my middle school music teacher taught us how to play chess (I'm forever grateful.) instead of teaching us how to read sheet music. I attempted to learn to play the piano, and I can play a couple of things. I figured out the presidential march thing all by myself. I can play part of "Teardrop" by Massive Attack (Think of the "House" theme.) and the very beginning of "Blue" by Eiffel 65. I can play parts of "Something I Can Never Have," "The Frail," "Zero Sum," and a handful of other Nine Inch Nails songs. I have a very, very hard time playing with both hands, however, and I don't think I'll ever be a successful musician.

#6. Go backstage at a gig.
Let's work on "go to first major concert" first, and then we'll try this one. I've been to small concerts with local bands at school, but that's all. I would LOVE to go to a NIN concert one day, mostly because it's my favorite band that's still together. After all, Morrissey isn't as great without Marr by his side :(

#7. Meet your idol.
My idol? No clue. There are lots of people I'd love to meet, though. Most of them are dead. So it goes.

#8. Play a part in your favorite TV show.
I do play a part in "House." I try to analyze medical symptoms and make a diagnosis before the great Dr. Gregory House does. Hahaha. I also do that when my mom and I watch medical shows on the Discovery Health channel.

#9. Meet someone with your own name.
According to a Facebook application that I tried a few weeks ago, I'm the only person in the world with my first and last name and that there are probably around 100 people in the world with my last name. My dad and I have the same middle and last name, though, so I guess that's as close as I'll get.

#10. Make a discovery.
Hmmmm...

#11. Get away with the perfect practical joke.
I've pulled lots of fun practical jokes, both on friends and the general public. I plan to get away with lots more. I do love a good practical joke.
I don't think I ever revealed what I did on April Fool's Day this year. I cut lots of circles out of fluorescent copy paper, and then I taped them to the walls of the elevator in my favorite academic building. I figured that it would brighten everyone's dull elevator ride (The walls are an ugly, puke-y pink color.) and make people wonder who the perpetrator was (It did--someone actually asked me if I did it.), and it made for a fun, harmless thing to do on such a wonderful day.

#12. Own a pointless collection.
I collect...er, what do I collect? I could say that I collect pictures and video that I've taken. Is that pointless? Maybe.

#13. Invent a word that makes it into the dictionary.
When "wootle" makes it into the Merriam-Webster's, I'll let you guys know. But we need a definition for it, first.

#14. Conquer your biggest fear.
In some ways, I've definitely worked on it. As I said, I've gone on lots of roller coasters, and I actually like the view as long as I'm sitting securely and sure that I won't fall. A few months ago, I climbed up into the tree stand in the back field behind the barn. It was twenty feet or so off the ground and I was scared to death, but the view was great. I also helped Larry, my riding instructor, work when I was on winter break. I accepted the job offer on the condition that I would only be picking up the old shingles that he threw on the ground, but then Larry needed help with something on the roof. He knew that I was scared of heights, but he really needed me and called me to climb up the ladder. I freaked out but did it anyway. I think I would've been okay if I'd been on a flat roof, but the steep slope made me feel like I was going to fall. I did survive, however, and I guess I'm a little less afraid of heights because of it.

#15. Raise money for charity.
I've done lots of work for charity. I love to help the local therapeutic riding school. I judged a class for them at a local horse show about two weeks ago. I've helped them with their student horse show, and I've cleaned stalls for them. I haven't really given money to any charities, though. Maybe I'll do something one day...

#16. Pass your driving test the first time.
I actually did, believe it or not. I passed the learner's and license tests the first time around.

#17. Complete a road trip coast to coast.
I flew. Check.

#18. Reach 18 years of age--yes!!!
The cereal says that I'm old.

Food for thought. Yummy. I guess that's all for today.

Project Calculus

I've been working hard at this calculus stuff, and it's paying off. I've got an 86 average, and I think I can get it up to an A by the end of the semester if I study a little harder. Perhaps if I'd known that we were actually supposed to submit our worksheets, I'd already have that A. Ah, so it goes :)
I still don't know whether this class will count as Calculus I and II or just the first one. At this point, I'm no longer afraid of Calculus II. My issues with math from high school math are fading away and, well, I actually smiled today when my professor was explaining a difficult problem to my group in her office.
Our big class project is due tomorrow, but we managed to turn it in this afternoon. The professor divided the class into groups. She put me in a group with a girl named Rachel and a guy named Josh. Rachel and Josh met a few days ago, and Josh and I met today. Josh worked on the first problem while I worked on the second. Mrs. Lee, our professor, came to her office for a while, so we ambushed her and asked her for a little help. The second problem was significantly more difficult than the first (The concept was actually a little easier for me to understand, but the numbers were terribly difficult to manipulate.), so I ultimately had to go to the office three or four times. We worked on the final part of the first problem together. Josh was surprised when he used my calculator and it gave him an answer in scientific notation. He knew what it was, he was just taken aback for a few seconds. Talking about scientific notation sent me into chemistry mode. The question had something to do with profit, and when we got one of several answers Mrs. Lee asked us how many decimal places the answer would have. I started mumbling out loud about sig figs, and then Mrs. Lee smiled and reminded me that we were talking about money. She has a degree in chemistry, so she definitely knew what I was talking about. I was a little red in the face, but I still thought that my cross-discipline blunder was very amusing.
We were in the library for about three hours when Josh finally finished and decided he was going home. I walked down to the student lounge and got myself some breakfast and lunch--a Mountain Dew and a small bag of peanuts. I've been running on a few hours of sleep each night since Wednesday because I've been off at a horse show, and I woke up at 4:30 AM this morning to work on some calculus. I needed the caffeine...
After a ridonkulously long time in the library, I was ready to head home. I need to study for my test tomorrow, but instead I'm listening to Nine Inch Nails (as I often do) and typing this (as I often do when I'm at school).
I guess I'd better get started.