3:27 am
MOOD: retrospective?
MUSIC: the music from the game Donkey Kong Country, that my roommate is playing here..

What have i been up to this last week?
a lot of it has been something like building a clock out of Java, man let me tell you, that was a learning experience, all of us CS 112 people got to know each other pretty quick due to us being in close quarters for hours, during the project..
David likes techno, and hehe, he liked the Newsboys Remixed CD that was featured in article 6643.. Mbong liked that one 'mix' CD from way back, that was the precursor to the "Aaron's Mix 2"... back when my burning software still worked, grr.. Jon is a big fan of LOTR music, hehe, you can't get much better than the hobbit theme on that one :-P
We had so much fun with the projector that one day.. MSPaint can be a beautiful thing sometimes :-D

In essence, that was my week. A lot of clock-making. And random cool things that happened in that lab. But TODAY, eggnoggin played their final performance at Gillies, it was the first time i heard them play, i was pretty bummed, they were pretty good. Apparantly Ben Murray knows one of them! And Gro too. that's cool.

Lots of good things happened at random: I pulled off (surprisingly easily) a 5.5 minute mile today.. that threw me off guard. Oh well. You can't be slow all the time :-D
Also the results are in, Chelsea Clarke is the up-and-coming RA of McInnis, and Tiffany Dyess is the up-and-coming RA of Conrad! Rock on, you two!
Katie sent me these whole big folders of Ben Folds music, that was cool, i never knew i liked his stuff, but hey i do, it's all piano-ey, and i like healthy portions of piano-ey in my music :-P
The family back home got in a car wreck just recently, but thank God, everyone's doing fine! That ice was the factor.. drive safely everybody!

Man, all these late nights are taking their toll..(yet do i go to bed? no i finish this article like a good boy :-P)
Grant and I just banter aimlessly about the stupidest things when we get into a sleep-deprived state.. I shouldnt be telling people this, but the other night we were talking about something like.. how people should floss their eyes.. what would happen if one eye got the floss all stuck behind it.. and flintstones.. why does Barney have dots for eyes, and not Betty, but Fred doesn't, but Wilma does? We couldn't figure out the significance.. and what about Pebbles, or Bam Bam? Is 'eyes with white in them' a dominant genetic trait?
We were even making shadow puppets.. bunnies and eagles, and i even made a parrot, and i think godzilla? i dont remember.. Don't tell anyone i said this though. It's totally true.

So glasses? Tomorrow.. i mean today later.. I may post an article about my new glasses. I've been wearing Bohall's all this time, since article 6704.. and i finally went to the eye doctor's today. I got the eyes all measured up. Apparantly my left eye improved by 25 in 'sphere', but it turned like 45 degrees and worsened by like 50 in 'cylinder'. Those are optometry terms. Apparantly the lady at the receptionist desk had graduated from Gordon in 97! I called the desk and was like, 'how do i get to Parelli Optical from Grapevine Road?' and she told me, but then when i got there, she was like 'Are you from Gordon? oh how cool, i am too, et cetera,' and she was nice. But more to the point, i get my new glasses tomorrow.. today sometime actually. And i left my bookbag there, thoughtless me.. I'll have to pick it up.

And now for something out of the ordinary, or maybe not: a little excerpt from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, which can be found in the first chapter of the second book, "Many Meetings." Ladies and Gentlemen: Bilbo's song about E�rendil:

E�rendil was a mariner that tarried in Arvernien;
he built a boat of timber felled in Nimbrethil to journey in;
her sails he wove of silver fair, of silver were her lanterns made,
her prow was fashioned like a swan, and light upon her banners laid.

In panoply of ancient kings, in chain�d rings he armoured him;
his shining shield was scorned with runes to ward all wounds and harm from him;
his bow was made of dragon-horn, his arrows shorn of ebony,
of silver was his habergeon, his scabbard of chalcedony;
his sword of steel was valiant, of adamant his helmet tall,
an eagle-plume upon his crest, upon his breast an emerald.

Beneath the Moon and under star he wandered far from northern strands,
bewildered on enchanted ways beyond the days of mortal lands.
From gnashing of the Narrow Ice where shadow lies on frozen hills,
from nether heats and burning waste he turned in haste, and roving still
on starless waters far astray at last he came to Night of Naught,
and passed, and never sight he saw of shining shore nor light he sought.
The winds of wrath came driving him, and blindly in the foam he fled
from west to east and errandless, unheralded he homeward sped.

There flying Elwing came to him, and flame was in the darkness lit;
more bright the light of diamond the light upon her carcanet.
The Silmaril she bound on him and crowned him with the living light
and dauntless then with burning brow he turned his prow; and in the night
from Otherworld beyond the Sea there strong and free a storm arose,
a wind of power in Tarmenel; by paths that seldom mortal goes
his boat it bore with biting breath as might of death across the grey
and long-forsaken seas distressed: from east to west he passed away.

Through Evernight he back was borne on black and roaring waves that ran
o'er leagues unlit and foundered shores that drowned before the Days began,
until he heard on strands of pearl where ends the world the music long,
where ever-foaming billows roll the yellow gold and jewels wan.

He saw the mountains silent rise where twilight lies upon the knees
of Valinor, and Eldamar beheld afar beyond the seas.
A wanderer escaped from night to haven white he came at last,
to Elvenhome the green and fair where keen the air, where pale as glass
beneath the Hill of Ilmarin a-glimmer in a valley sheer
the lamplit towers of Tirion are mirrored on the Shadowmere.

He tarried there from errantry, and melodies they taught to him,
and sages old him marvels told, and harps of gold they brought to him.
They clothed him then in elven-white, and seven lights before him sent,
as through the Calacirian to hidden land forlorn he went.
He came into the timeless halls where shining fall the countless years,
and endless reigns the Elder King in Ilmarin on Mountain sheer;
and words unheard were spoken then of folk of Men and Elven-kin,
beyond the world wre visions showed forbid to those that dwell therein.

A ship then new they built for him of mithril and of elven-glass
with shining prow; no shaven oar nor sail she bore on silver mast:
the Silmaril as lantern light and banner bright with living flame
to gleam thereon by Elbereth herself was set, who thither came
and wings immortal made for him, and laid on him undying doom,
to sail the shoreless skies and come behind the Sun and light of Moon.

From Evereven's lofty hills where softly silver fountains fall
his wings him bore, a wandering light, beyond the mighty Mountain Wall.
From World's End then he turned away, and yearned again to find afar
his home through shadows journeying, and burning as an island star
on high above the mists he came, a distant flame before the Sun,
a wonder ere the waking dawn where grey the Norland waters run.

And over Middle-earth he passed and heard at last the weeping sore
of women and of elven-maids in Elder Days, in years of yore.
But on him mighty doom was laid, till Moon should fade, an orb�d star
to pass and never tarry more on Hither Shores where mortals are;
for ever still a herald on an errand that should never rest
to bear his shining lamp afar, the Flammifer of Westernesse.

12:05 pm
MOOD: i kind of feel like whipping out some tunes on a keyboard..
oh wait i can't play (YET).
MUSIC: Zak and Sara (Ben Folds)

Stay up late, get up early, live off of mountain dew ;-) I swear that is the last time i play a video game past midnight.. Sonic the Hedgehog even. You know what stinks!? That math homework, that integration-by-partial-fractions bit, that wan't terribly hard, but took a while to do.. I LEFT IT IN MY BOOKBAG WHICH IS AT PERELLI OPTICAL >:-O I wanna kick myself, seriously. Actually i got over it rather quickly. And no more typing. I have a CS test in an hour.

So i took my test, and by gosh, i better have gotten a darn good score, i knew like every answer except about 3.. the object diagrams threw me off; i hate those, they're so irrelevant to my life.

Then Donald took me to Perelli Optical, and i picked up my bag, yep, the homework was there, grrr.. and they had my glasses but they couldn't bill my dad, and i didnt have a checkbook with me, and NO ONE i could get the number to would pick up the phone, so i couldn't reach Dad on his cell, then it just got too late and i had to go to work. Oh well. Tomorrow I will go back. At least I got the bag.