Intermission

So, despite the fact that in the end of the semester I have been about as busy as normal (i.e. very busy), I have kindled an unusual amount of thought toward things I don't normally think about. Got a lot of time dedicated to reflection and evaluation lately. There are reasons for it that I know, and others that I suspect, but in general I think it is good.

Been going on for probably a few weeks now, but this morning I wrote down a list of things which I would like to dedicate myself to more, and I think I can actually do them. Two different levels of them, the first being things that actually drive and affect me strongly, and the second tier being things which I would mainly like to revive from their long-dormant rest.

There is never a good time to enact changes to your normal way of doing things that drastic, but I think I am going to try for this summer. I need to reach out and find new places and resources for some of them, but it only requires the dedication and motive. I am definitely willing to dedicate the time, but I am again faltering on the likelihood that I'll have have it free to dedicate.

Even when the semester ends, work will pick up full-force, summer classes and other engagements, as well as all those wants lower on the list are going to be fighting for my time, because they are quicker and easier to get to. I may have to focus myself a bit more to stay on track, even though I'd like to just relax too.

Hehe. These conflicting goals, sound so much like engineering trade-offs. It always comes back to those one way or another. Oh well. I'll have to write up a program to optimize them. :P I guess we'll see, in the end. But I'll be keeping at it, and hopefully at least get some of them together.

Valete!
Alex

A little bit too much of everything

I like to push myself and see where my bounds are, but it seems that in this past week, the last semester has finally broken me. There is so much going on at any particular moment, even though I do actually get some sleep at times, I haven't felt rested in at least over 15 weeks. Even as I cross large and many projects off the list, the workload is no less imminent or massive. One of those weird cases where you take things away, but the burden just keeps growing. O.O

Not really to complain, as I am never really unhappy with being busy or having lots to do, but I am unhappy about not being able to get it all done. Time is my indefatigable opponent, and though I fight it hard, it will always best me at the end of the day. Unfortunately, as things are starting to slip by and stack up in a pile of unfinished work, it becomes very difficult to keep focused on doing the new ones while the old has been lost.

I don't mean just projects and classes, though certainly those two take up the majority of my labors. Included are all the sorts of daily rigors that can be avoided, but only for so long, and other life events that get added to the list. I have no hope of being able to, nor want to think of beginning to list these tasks. But, added above even the things that need to get done, my want to break the cycle and focus on separate projects or personal goals is what really gets neglected, and probably leaves me the most disappointed. I won't even begin to list those ambitions either, but amongst them this blog is at least one little release for tonight.

I notice that it is at times like these that in order to remain functional, one must simply focus on one thing at a time, and try to plan that schedule into the future without getting caught up in the enormity of the undertaking ahead. Primarily, even though there is by no-means a real break after the semester is over, I see it as a goal after which I will gain at least some measure of time back. I grind onward towards it with the knowing that I'll make it there, eventually. My trusty friend of time ensures that, and our love-hate relationship continues. :)

Just a short note while other things finish up in the background, but then I am off to sleep for what will grant me at least enough mental clarity to complete tomorrow. Hehe.

Valete,

Alex

528%

The annual interest rate of a cash loan place next to Hobby Town in Boise. Pretty amazing. Check out the stats:

Borrow $1000, continuously compounding interest:
$1000 * pow( math.e , (1 + 5.28) t )...

t = (1 day) = 1/365 --> $1017.35

t = (1 week) = 7/365 --> $1127.99

t = (1 month) = ~30.416/365 OR 1/12 --> $1687.64

t2x = $2000 @ ~40.29 days

That is crazy. Or, if you get halfway to the door and come back deciding that you didn't want the money anyway:

t = (30 seconds) = (0.5/525600...yes this is another memorized statistic) = $1000.01

You would already owe them an extra cent.

If you can't make fat bucks as a loan shark on that deal, there is clearly something wrong.

In other thoughts, the other day, while I was taking down our family's Christmas tree, I noticed how it seems that Christmas light strings behave very much like branched-chain polymers. Being primarily that they are very hard to untangle, once they have reached that condition; their movement typically bound at the branching sections. And I think that if any of you have tried to untangle a mass of Christmas lights and a mass of branched-chain polymers, you would agree it is a frustrating proposition.

I am also excited by the possibilities of being the first to tread snowtracks down any particular patch of fresh snow, and of an entire half-isle dedicated to solvents of all kinds in pretty little tins at Home Depot. Acetone, isopropanol, methyl ethyl ketone, and denatured alcohol? Yeah...how many things could I dissolve? :)

Right. Well, it is past 10 at night again, and I'm still in the lab. This time my excuse is that the internet is down at our apartment, meaning that here is my only real link to what must be the other half of my life, and we've got an awesome music system here too, which I make sure to use.

Looks like I'm done again, for now. Valete,
~TT