post number 2^8

First day of classes today. Electronics seems alright except a bunch of my ex-students are in it as well, which makes it weird. Double weird since one of the undergrad TA's worked with me as a TA for some classes last year. Some other grads are supposed to be in there but they were taking quals today. I don't have to.

Vincent has a dartboard in his office now, so we played with that for a while. I should have moved into his office when I had the chance, I spend way more time in there than in my own office anyway. My own office also has new accessories, most notably a rocket launcher. It looks like a fake AK-47 made out of PVC and wood but it can apparently fire Estes rocket engines. It was burned inside the barrel so I take their word for it.

Then it was over to the new engineering building for semiconductor devices. This is my first class over there because I had to crash an engineers-only course. My first impression of the classroom was that it was like something the UN would have. Engineering classrooms are nicer than physics ones. The old asshole prof is out and the new prof seems like a good guy, so I'm hoping that will be a good class.

I also had a bunch of TA stuff today, which was more backwards zaniness. Last year I was the most junior person involved and now I've somehow been promoted to the most veteran member of the team - the other two TA's are first years (seem like OK guys) and the prof isn't the same one as last year and hasn't taught this course in 10 years. So they all look to me as if I know how this class should be run. I don't think they liked my ominous warnings about how hard the prelabs will get. The prof also teaches my electronics class, so I'm both his student and TA.

I ended up having to pull lab duty already. There are so many students enrolled in 211 that there's a new Monday 6PM section of lab. Today I had to hand out clicker things used for in-class quizzes. I brought my Pontiac brochure and ogled a G6 GTP sedan in Electric Blue Metallic while waiting for students to turn up.

Also, more of my neighbors are moving out. This time the ones with the god damned Doberman. Good times.

If last term's overall theme was 'bad profs', it's looking like this term's theme is just the weird role reversals and juxtapositions. I'll have to see how the rest of my new classes go though.

1111111

It's Friday night and I am cruising an obscure corner of the internet. I have been searching high and low for the original score to the movie Pi. I have the album, which contains bits of the score and is great in itself, but the score is really very powerful and I'd like to get my hands on it. One problem - it's unreleased. However, in the composer's online forum he posted:

"It's the 10th anniversary of π next year and there have been some rumblings about what to do to mark such an event. Over the next month or so Tezzer and myself will be launching www.clintmansell.com and by that time a few plans should be in place - and the release of the π score is on the 'to do' list."

That would be awesome.

I saw Fearless tonight and I have to say it was stunning. I didn't come out of it feeling slightly let down like I did with Hero. Better than Fist of Legend I don't know, I have to let it sink in. And maybe see it a couple more times. Definitely a good movie for Jet Li to go out on.

your world is different from mine

It rained today. That's as sure a sign as any that fall is here. Only a little over a week until classes start up again. Kind of exciting that this is my last year of school though...and not even a full academic year of classes.

Yesterday was a very car-focused day. I bought the new issues of Top Gear and Motor Trend. MT's cover story is about how GM might import another Holden, this time as the Grand Prix. It looks quite interesting. MT also had the Solstice GXP and the Aura, so I had to check it out.

I also went and test drove a Pontiac G6 GT, and I think I like it more than the Aura. I have been avoiding the G6 because I was annoyed it looked like every other Pontiac, but I found out the 2007 models are going to have GM's new six-speed automatic transmission and I've really pulled a 180. The G6 GTP is the one I really want of course. The dealer didn't have any of those, but he said there are some new ones coming. So in a few weeks it will be more test driving, Aura XR vs. G6 GTP.

I played through Command & Conquer: Red Alert. I may have only beaten the Soviet campaign once before, and I know this is my first time beating the Allied campaign. I've been playing through the whole series and the early ones are definitely harder. I never noticed before how bad the acting in Red Alert is.

Also: The MSU Physics Shirts are coming back for a third run. I know this is the third time I've claimed this, but I swear it's going to happen this time because I'm not the one handling it. My brother is looking at doing a run as part of the new improved SPS that actually does things. So if you're interested, either let Jim or me know. Not taking orders just yet though.

cutting the voltage to your powerlines

I went up to Salem a couple days ago and test drove a Saturn Aura. The dealer only had one, an XE model with no options, so there weren't any toys to play with. It was pretty nice except the steering wheel kind of hit my knees and I couldn't see out of the thing as well as my Malibu, although the stupid sticker on the windshield may have been part of the problem. The salesman said he was getting some XR models (what I'm interested in) in a few weeks. The Aura XR has the same engine as the Cadillac CTS and a six-speed semiautomatic gearbox. (Those are good things.)

In other news life has pretty much been jury duty and screwing around, with a little bit of getting important stuff done. School doesn't start for another three weeks so this is a good time to take care of stuff before I get bogged down with classes. Now that my fall schedule is done, all I have to do is work out a student loan and then I can focus on finding an internship for spring.

Guess what, more jury duty tomorrow.