wind up for the wind down.

So its been ages since i blogged (well, i posted twice today, but before that). The school years almost over and theres a huge gap in what i've done. Latin got a lot easier after first semester when we finished wheelock. It may teach latin but i will forever hate that book. In any case, when we got into translating texts instead of dreary textbook work, it turns out im not really the bottom of the class, actually i can read most the texts we've done this semester in real time. I also had a decent time writing my latin paper, which i might just put up as its own post.

Augustin's "Confessions" is my favorite nonfiction book of all time. its absolutely amazing. I wont even try to explain it. just read it, its well worth while.

My other classes have been pretty much the same. good. as always.

I bolted after seminar last week to go see a yellowcard concert in ventura. They had a cello, voilin, and two classical guitars. Other than that they sound like jimmy eat world. (well, they do live, i have heard them on CD since and they just dont sound as good that way).

The above led to the amusing event of telling my prefect that i broke curfew (which aparently does not happen very often because he almost fell over.) as i knew i would, i got to return to my job in the kitchen for an hour (joy.) it was worth it though, as i knew it would be when i decided to go.

There is a play tonight. Shakespear's as you like it. I plan on going.

I also have a philosophy paper to write. due in 8 days. and after that there are just two short weeks to finals. ill be home sometime around may 10th.

I still stay up at night dreaming of virtual reality displays. the company that i was ranting about (Icuiti) last year has renamed itself "Vuzix". Their displays remain largely unchanged (though they now offer vision enhancement units for the visually impaired) Someday i will have $400 to spend on an absolutely awesome toy like that.

Here is the deal with GPUs

OK, another out of place post, this is for my gaming friends. It's not said very clearly so ill put it here. When it comes down to it a midrange card with 512MB memory will MAX the graphics on everything but crysis. Were talking the sub $200: the 9600, 8800gt, 3870 or OCed 3850s. The only reason for more memory, a faster clock, or SLI/crossfire is to put out huge resolutions (which wont do you a lick of good unless you have a monitor that supports them). So there you have it.

Oh, and AMD's 5000+ black edition is more CPU power than we really need for gaming (over clocked to 3.2gzh of course, which is a piece of cake since it has an unlocked multiplier.) all that at sub 100$ too.

Basically, this is the first time that i can remember when its really not that attractive to dump more than $500 into a computer, you just wouldn't notice.

Thats a bit different

Odd first post in months i know, but I'm just shocked. Some of AMD's top brass said that their company was employing too many unneeded people, he said they were gonna make cut backs, then they fired themselves. That makes their opinion ever so much more believable.

a spree of blogs

I figure if I post a bunch of posts while I'm sitting here it will look like I've been posting more regularly. So here is the update on all things TAC:

*latin and math are still hard. latin is really hard.

*Annie hurt her back, she has been in a wheelchair for a week now. Jack pushes her to all her classes.

* we get the day after holloween off! (all saints day)

*did i mention latin is really hard?


*we start discussing predestination in theology this week so i expect that to be interesting.

* latin is really hard.


thats about it. thanks to all the people who left comments, thats what got these posts up here.

P.s. Good luck to anybody near a fire, i know its late but i hope the smoke didnt get to any of you too badly and that everybody is safe.

The golden compass

I hear the movie is watered down. I hear the books are outright anti God. I see a problem.

I hate it when people take things on hearsay. Yah, I know its probably better safe than sorry. When I hear thousands of people who have never read the books complaining about the problems with harry potter it just bothers me.

Thats just the beginning though. Heres a bigger problem with this movie (the golden compass). I really believe its linked with principles i strongly detest. How can i both boycott it and be well informed at the same time? theres no way on earth i can be qualified to renounce this movie without seeing it. and if i see it then i add one more number to there opening box office total. even if i just rent it i later i still boost there ratings.

I have a way around this, i wont mention it here but most of you will figure it out. its still a problem though.

another problem is how much attention even a boycott gets something like this. take harry potter for example again. i never would have known what it was till people started complaining about how bad it was. then i read it.... i still cant see the problem. i might be able too. if somebody who had read it was willing to explain it to me. but all the people who would like to explain how evil it is to me havnt actualy read it.

bottom line is... i wish people wouldn't try to be knowledgeable on things they havn't seen, maybe urge caution, but don't try to announce to the world what you shouldn't see it. just send them all to go see Bella.

Please Turn Left at the blog.

Thats a picture of my in my holloween costume. total time invested 10 minutes. $0

I Blog, Therefore (my family knows how) I am

Hi,

So I didn't blog for a while. Most of that time was due to my laptop being broken (because i dropped it and the hard drive crashed) [luckily hard drives have good warranties that say something along the lines of "impacts of less than 50G should not break this drive" and therefore it was replaced with a net expenditure of 2.32$ shipping and handling for me.] I finally got it working again last Thursday. Since that time i have been either traveling too or from san diego, at san diego, or trying to catch up on the homework that i didnt get done due to going to san diego (which i have almost done) [ok, actualy i was behind before i left].

For those of you who haven't heard my tale of woe. Don't let the following mislead you, going home was, and always is, a blast. I forget how much i miss everybody until i see them again. However, the train ride there..... well..... heres a timeline:

4:15 Left campus
5:00 Arrived and bought ticket for 5:20 train
5:50 train actual arrival time
6:15 Conductor announces that a train is stuck on the tracks ahead of us
9:00 train is finaly cleared and we begin to move (yes, almost 3 hours)
9:20 Rail switch is broken, frustrated conductor "fixes" it with a sledge hammer
1:20 Power is out for a stretch of track, lack of visibility forces us to slow down
2:00 Arrive at san diego station on the 10:20 arrival train.

As mentioned above though, San Diego was a blast. My trip was scheduled around Nicole's birthday (and the 3 day weekend for Columbus day). I went with Nicole and her family to see The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. I was shocked to see how small the scrolls were, but the exhibit was really interesting. Other than that I ate alot and saw Nicole alot and went to church with my family and in general it was a very good trip. Even got my seminar reading done (on duties by Cicero)

Anyhow, I should at least be posting on the weekends from now on, I'm going to be more careful with my laptop. Remember, i dont know you were here unless you leave a comment. At some point i will figure out a How-To on having atomizer email you when i post so my irregular postings wont leave you checking endlessly with no updates. Thanks for reading!

-Patrick Shechet