Blahhhhhh. Good blahhhhhh.

I am absolutely dead. Today was brutal.
I woke up at 6 AM today to translate a whole bunch of screwy Latin because I still hadn't finished it. The "passages" were scattered throughout a nine-page packet that was typed in ridiculously small print. To make matters worse, the Latin that I had to translate was mixed with lines of English and German. And to make matters even worse, it was super-archaic Latin and I couldn't recognize half of the words--neither could the dictionary. My only consolation was that I finished a lot of it and everyone else in the class told me that they had had a terrible time with it too. I felt really dumb at first, but I was so glad to hear that I wasn't the only person who thought that the assignment was ridiculously hard.
I also had my computer science class this morning. It was a lot of fun again. We learned about Unix commands. Stephen already taught us a whole lot of really cool ones last semester, as well as many of the ones we learned about today. I did learn a lot of new ones, though, and I didn't even mind that the class is about two hours long. Normally I hate classes that run longer than an hour because my attention gradually starts to decline.
Dr. Zaidman was talking about how we should save important things in two different locations. She gave an example of keeping a copy of a term paper saved on our hard drive and on a jump drive, but she told us that we don't have to do that for "trivial things," such as a letter to our parents. I couldn't help it. I started laughing, which made the guy behind me start laughing too. Dr. Zaidman smiled and told us that she didn't mean that sending a letter to our parents is a trivial matter. I know what she meant, but I still found it very amusing :D
I don't know if she likes me or not yet, but I hope that she does. Life is so much easier when your professors like you (or at least don't hate you). I also think she was talking to me when she stopped in the middle of the lecture and said, "You look very thoughtful and focused," or something like that. I was in my normal "Thinker" pose, with my chin nestled in my fingers and hand and my brow furrowed because of all the stuff bumping around in my brain. I was most certainly paying attention, so she wasn't being sarcastic. It didn't sound sarcastic anyway. I guess it was a compliment...?
Discrete math was a real treat last night. We started out by learning about binary, octal, and hexadecimal numbers. I knew that all three of them existed, and I already knew how to go from binary to decimal. I also knew how to go from decimal to binary, but I only knew the slow way. We learned the dividing by two method, and life is so much easier now. Did I ever mention that I think binary numbers are beautiful? There's just something very aesthetically pleasing about rows upon rows of ones and zeros. I know I'm weird, but I like to think that I'm capable of seeing beauty in lots of places, things, and events that most people don't notice.
I don't know why I just started to discuss discrete math when I haven't even finished writing about my hectic day yet. Sorry?
So, after Latin, I went to my first riding class of the semester. It was great except for the fact that I nearly passed out from heat exhaustion. I don't drink much. I'm also hypotensive. The two are a dangerous combination, particularly in the heat or during most postural changes. Sometimes when I stand up, there's an overwhelming pressure in my head. My vision blacks out, I lose my balance, I have to support myself on any nearby objects, and sometimes my whole body goes numb. I've fallen down because of it and I've even had some sort of weird spasm because of it. I understand that the pressure comes from the constriction of blood vessels (an attempt to raise my blood pressure when it plummets), and I want to think that my vision blacks out because the blood wants to rush where it's more necessary--my brain instead of my eyes. I'm not sure if that's true, but it makes sense to me. Is there a casual reader who wants to confirm or correct this in the comments?
I went in the barn and chugged water from the hose until I nearly felt sick from binge drinking :P Then I went back outside and finished riding.
As soon as I got back on campus from riding, I went out to the club carnival to make sure that someone had taken over the GALL table--or that there was even a GALL table. Sure enough, a few members had already put out our flyers and a poster. They were holding their own, so I browsed the other tables for a bit. I hadn't been in the middle of the mayhem for more than a few seconds when I was accosted by two random computer science majors who were representing the campus chapter of ACM (Association for Computing Machinery). They were just bothering random people in hopes that some idiot would at least sign up (and never come), so they were extremely surprised when I told them that I'm a CS major. They informed me that I was practically required to put my name on their list after revealing that interesting fact, and they told me that Stephen would love me. I laughed at them too. They were funny guys.
I also found the PERL table, which was where I also signed up for the "girls' computer science club." I guess I'll make it to one or the other, perhaps both if I'm really lucky. I just can't miss GALL or any of my night classes (more on that later), and I don't know when they meet yet.
After I signed up for a few new clubs, I went to the GALL table to see if they needed any help. Sure enough, everyone who was there had other tables to tend, so I took over for an hour or so. It was fun to have people come over and ask me what GALL does. I gave them vivid descriptions of our most exciting projects. A couple of people asked me if GALL is like Improv Everywhere. It is; in fact, it's basically a local chapter of Improv Everywhere. Plenty of people asked me about guerrilla art, so I did my best to explain our activities to them. One girl approached and asked me what we do, but she stopped me after I described our April Fools' Day prank. She said that she didn't need to hear anything else because she was definitely in. One girl saw me in my riding clothes and asked if GALL is about riding. I told her that it isn't, but I gave her a lot of information about the riding classes at the school. She was very grateful for the information because she told me that she'd really love to ride one day. I was glad to help. Shanita, a wonderful girl who went to high school with me, even stopped by the table to talk to me. I asked her if she wanted to join GALL, but she told me that she doesn't do art anymore. She learned to dislike art in high school, which is a shame because she's an absolutely brilliant painter. I told her that she might like GALL because it's the kind of art we never would have done in high school. I gave her a pamphlet and I sure hope she comes :) I'm not much into drawing and painting anymore, but GALL makes me happy.
Shin splints, on the other hand, do not make me happy. I've been walking a whole lot. I didn't even wear my knee braces one day. Yeah. I've got shin splints now. It sucks because the fronts and sides of my calves hurt. I get shin splints pretty easily; I read somewhere that people whose ankles roll inward tend to get them more often. The chiropractor told me that mine do that a little, which is why my knees are so screwed up. I don't have an arch in my foot, which is why I need to wear supports in my shoes too. Hah, I wasn't sorry!
So...
After doing my duty for GALL, I rushed to the Intro to Linguistics class that I was hoping to get into. The professor told us in the beginning of the class that she doesn't normally do force-adds, so several people got up and left. I stayed, however. I figured I could at least enjoy the class and perhaps chat with her about a possible Linguistics/Latin special major. I'm so glad I did.
After the class was over, I approached the professor by telling her that I was hoping to create a major. She told me that she would be glad to help me. Then, she asked the obligatory year and credits question. I told her that I'm a sophomore and that I'm already declared Computer Science and Latin. She thought I was interested in combining computer science and linguistics for a Computational Linguistics major, but I quickly told her that I want to combine Latin with linguistics for a Linguistics/Latin (That title is actually short enough, so I'm either going to go with that or simply call it Linguistics.) major. The professor told me to come back next week--it's only on Wednesday nights, once a week--to sit in on the class and she'd know by then whether she could let me in or not. She told me that it was likely considering two people didn't show up for the first class meeting and no other students had approached her to force-add (read: She got all of the non-serious ones to leave and the stubborn one stayed.).
All in all, it was an exhausting but excellent day. I also got my Calculus I class approved--YES!--and I think I'm going to go to the class tomorrow and get the professor to add me even though the class is technically not on my transcripts yet. He was actually the one who approved the class since he's the one who teaches it, and he'd probably let me in if I just talk to him. Wooooooo :) I'm excited for this semester.