Russian president Vladimir Putin fired his entire cabinet staff on Tuesday, February 24, in a live television broadcast. The move, which came as a surprise to nearly all Russian political observers, is believed to have been Putin’s way of removing Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov. The Russian constitution provides a way for the president to ask for the resignation of his entire cabinet, but not for a single member of it. Kasyanov, who was Prime Minister under previous Russian president Boris Yeltsin, was known to not be well-liked by Putin, though most analysts believed no action would be taken against him until after the Russian election in March.

An explosion ripped through the Solid Propellant Rocket Booster Plant at the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, India, on Monday, February 23, killing at least six workers. The chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), S. K. Dar, believes that a test propellant segment caught fire while being prepared for transport, and caused extensive damage to the plant, which makes the solid fuel necessary for rocket boosters. The segment that exploded was part of a test, and will not have any adverse effect on ISRO launch programs, though some launches may be delayed, according to Dar.

An earthquake registering 6.5 on the Richter scale struck the African nation of Morocco on Tuesday, February 24. The quake, which struck in the early morning hours, destroyed homes up to twenty miles from the epicenter. By current estimates, between 300 and 450 people were killed and another 250 injured. The death toll may rise, however, as rescue efforts in some of the more remote areas were hampered by aftershocks, rain, and lack of equipment.

The rebels leading a coup against Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide have rejected a proposed power-sharing plan and claim to be gaining more and more support. Both the US and British governments have issued warnings to their citizens in Haiti, urging them to leave the country as soon as possible. Several US marines arrived in Haiti, not to assist in putting down the rebellion but to secure the US embassy in the capital city.

Pakistani troops launched an operation to track down al Qaeda and Taliban militants along the border with Afghanistan on Tuesday, February 24. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad reports that between 15 and 20 people were arrested in the first part of the offensive, which involved house-to-house searches in the Waziristan region. The Pakistani government reportedly received a tip-off about the presence of militants in the area, and set a February 20 deadline for surrender.

Two large fires, one at a shopping mall and the other at a temple, were responsible for 92 deaths and approximately 70 injures on Sunday, February 15. The causes of the two blazes remain under investigation. These fires have come at a time when the Chinese government is being criticized for not strictly enforcing construction safety rules and regulations.

A glass roof over a pool at the Transvaal water park in Moscow collapsed on Sunday, February 15, killing at least 26 people inside. Fifteen others are still missing, and although rescuers continue to search, hope for finding them is fading. The collapse was caused by one of the support columns giving way, setting off a chain reaction culminating in the collapse of the domed roof. It is believed that the column collapse was the result of poor construction standards, though the possibility of an explosion has not yet been ruled out.

Haitian rebels, led by a member of a previous dictatorship, seized control of the city of Hinche on Monday, February 16. President Jean-Bertrand Aristide called for "technical assistance" in putting down the revolt, and Prime Minister Yvon Neptune asked the international community to show "it really wants peace and stability in Haiti." The UN has announced its plans to send a humanitarian team to study the crisis, and France is considering the possibility of sending peacekeepers from nearby Caribbean territories. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said "there is frankly no enthusiasm" for sending peacekeepers to Haiti, and the US ambassador to Haiti, James Foley, called on Haitian leaders to resolve the conflict through negotiations. More than 50 people have been killed in the fighting so far.

Outbreaks of the 'bird flu' were reported in Japan on Monday, February 16. The flu, which has been responsible for at least 20 human deaths in Vietnam and Thailand, may be something "that the sector has to learn to live with," according to the director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's animal health department. World Health Organization spokesman Peter Cordingley said that to declare victory over the virus too soon was to "risk a recurrence every flu season."

India and Pakistan have agreed to an aggressive schedule for peace talks concerning a number of issues, most notably the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir and the countries' nuclear arsenals. The talks, announced on Tuesday, February 17, will take place following the Indian elections in April and will run until August. These countries have fought three wars since 1947, and nearly fought the first war between nuclear powers in 2002.

Russian presidential candidate Ivan Rybkin was reported missing by friends and family on Sunday, February 8. Rybkin, who missed a news conference and the official registration for the Russian election, was found to have spent four days in Ukraine, out of contact with his wife and his campaign staff. He expressed surprise at the volume of media coverage and attention being directed at him, as he had only "decided to go to Kiev to visit friends." His disappearance ignited a flurry of rumors in Russian political circles, ranging from a staged plot to skew popular opinion to an assassination by Russian security services.

A week after narrowly winning the Oklahoma primary, retired Gen. Wesley Clark announced that he was ending his campaign for the Democratic Presidential Nomination. A latecomer to the race, entering the race over the summer, Clark cited poor showing in the southern states and fund-raising troubles as the primary reasons for ending the campaign. John Kerry, the democratic frontrunner, further solidified his position with victories in Virginia, Tennessee and Maine.

An Iranian airline crashed on approach to Sharjah Airport on Tuesday, February 10. Of the 46 people aboard the flight, 43 were killed, and the survivors remain hospitalized. No distress call was received from the plane, an 11-year old Fokker-50. The plane's 'black boxes', the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, were successfully recovered from the scene. A cause for the crash could not be immediately determined.

A letter intercepted by US intelligence alleges that al Qaeda is making plans to incite a civil war in Iraq. The letter reportedly outlines a strategy for infiltrating Iraq and attacking US and Iraqi forces. The US has cited the letter as the impetus for a recent increase in attacks against soldiers and Iraqi police forces.

The lower house of the French parliament passed a law on Tuesday, February 10, banning the display of any conspicuous religious insignia, such as the traditional Muslim headscarf, in public schools. This has caused an outrage in the Muslim community of France, who believe the ban will "negatively affect the attitudes of Arabs and Muslims with respect to France and the French government." The anger stems from the fact that among Muslims, wearing the "veil is an obligation in the Islamic faith."

Spurred into action by Jeremy's update, and whatever you want to call Jay's mention, I shall present my version of the events occurring both before and during a spontaneous road trip to Boston.

On the weekend in question, I had resolved myself to accomplish those things that has been put off during the week. This was a doomed plan from the start though, as a late-night gaming session and trip to Johnny Rockets quickly wasted away the most productive hours of a Friday night. Upon returning to my room, I found Jay in the process of trying to convice Jeremy to take a trip to Boston, motivated my the presence of Mr. Mikola's vehicle in the Eighth Street parking lot of Stevens. Naturally, Jay proceeded to try and involve me in the operation, to strengthen the case he was making to Jeremy. I was initially reluctant, but a scant few minutes were enough to have me berating Jeremy for his choice not to go.

After taking care of a few technical issues (namely, the condition of Jeremy's engine and some semblance of directions) and adding Mike to the list of those attending, we set off. Jeremy decided we should take the scenic route, and that the George Washington and Tappan Zee bridges were one and the same. It is for those reasons that we found ourself heading west on Route 17, backing up off-ramps to return to the highway and making a cut across three lanes while braking hard, only to once again utilize the Reverse gear and exit to the Turnpike entrance. The NJ Turnpike was then followed for several miles, eventually leading us south to exit 16W and onto Route 3 west.

It was during this period of travel that we came upon a vehicle clearly designed to amuse and entertain passengers of other vehices...a car with small LCD screens installed in several locations, namely the front visors and in the center console. These LCDs were hooked up to a DVD player, and following a good deal of signaling by Jay and Krup (I was on the wrong side of the vehicle for this) the driver of that car began playing a movie, identified as either 'definitely Bad Boys 1' or 'maybe it's Bad Boys 2'. In any case, we instructed Jeremy to keep his car slightly behind the entertainment-mobile, so that we could partake. To make a long story short, we found the Parkway, saw SARS (a Sears warehouse where the 'E' on the sign was out), got on the NY Thruway, ended up at the Palisades Mall, over the Tappan Zee bridge, and into Tarrytown, where we stopped at a 7-11 to stock up on food for the trip. A short while later we were at the home of Mr. Moiron, a small yet cozy residence on a small street in the town of Sleepy Hollow (yes, that Sleepy Hollow, for those who don't realize *cough*Jeremy*cough*).

After admiring the master craftsmanship of Jay's father, we 'borrowed' a 12-pack of Coke and piled in to Jay's Honda and the trip began anew. Following an unsuccessful attempt to find an open gas station in the area, we began heading north on the Saw Mill Parkway. A decidedly unremarkable road at night, its hideousness would soon be revealed on the return trip.

From the SMP, we exited onto northbound Interstate 684, which then exited onto eastbound Interstate 84. After spending far too much time traversing Connecticut (which, despite Jeremy's claims, is NOT 500 miles long), we came up to Interstate 90, the Massachusetts Turnpike. This renewed the vigor we felt at beginning the trip, as it meant our destination was close at hand. Less than an hour later, after enduring a brief but non-noteworthy snowfall, we arrived in Boston.

A first look at Boston is amazing. The area we entered consisted almost entirely of old brownstones, even as part of the campuses of the colleges we passed. The architecture of the city is amazing; the street planning, however, is not. None of the highways signs in Boston have any meaning anymore, since nearly every road and highway entrance is diverted to somewhere else because of the massive amount of construction taking place. Needless to say, Boston would be confusing enough even with a map or directions, neither of which we were in possession of.

After driving around for nearly 45 minutes, the decision was made to just park the car in a garage near the Quincy Market, a place held in high regard by both Krup and an anonymous driver who we questioned as to dining establishments. Quincy Market itself is an old building stuck inside a new one, likely designed to protect the old building from the elements. Inside are a number of vendors and food-court style food retailers. Despite the time being 9am, the local 'Boston Chowda Co' was open for business, fortunate for us because we were seeking some authentic New England clam 'chowda'. And let me tell you, it was the best damn clam chowder I've ever had.

But the hour grew late; Jeremy's need to return to Stevens by 3pm meant we had to leave. So without spending any more time, we got back in Jay's car and sought the entrance to I-90 south. With a newfound crappy brochure map in hand, I directed Jay through the sprawling streets of Boston, and in a matter of minutes we were out past the Boston city limits. From here, there is little else about which to write. We returned at approximately 3:30pm, bring our 4-state venture for soup to a close after 12 hours.

Traces of the deadly toxin ricin were found on Monday, February 2 in the mailroom of Senator Bill Frist in Washington, DC. Ricin, a white powder similar in appearance to anthrax, can be just as fatal, though none of Sen. Frists' aides who might have been exposed have shown any sign of illness. The Senate offices were quickly reopened, and no further incidents or traces of the toxin have been reported.

Three British Airways and two Air France flights were canceled on Friday, January 30, in the interest of 'security concerns.' The flights, bound for Washington, DC, Miami, and an "unspecified US city," were supposedly potential targets for al Quaeda members seeking to attack the United States. No further details were provided by officials in any of the involved airlines or governments.

Democratic presidential hopefuls John Kerry, John Edwards and Wesley Clark each won victories in the primaries held on Tuesday, February 3. Kerry, who has previously won in Iowa and New Hampshire, was the big winner of the day, taking Arizona, Delaware, Missouri, New Mexico, and North Dakota. Edwards won in his home state of South Carolina, and General Clark edged out Edwards to win in Oklahoma. Joe Lieberman dropped out the race after not winning a single victory thus far.

Kamel Morjane, Assistant UN High Commissioner for Refugees, warned on Wednesday, February 4 of a refugee crisis in Colombia. The country, gripped in a civil war that has been going on for nearly 40 years, has caused between two and three million people to be forced from their homes. The Colombian refugee crisis is being called "one of, if not the worst humanitarian crisis in the western hemisphere."

A new bird flu epidemic is spreading through Asia, killing thousands of chickens and ducks, and causing 10 human deaths. China has decided to kill all livestock and birds in a two-mile radius of any identified infected case. However, Indonesia is declining to take such action, even in the face of a WHO recommendation. The disease has a higher mortality rate than that of SARS, and is immune to one of the two main drugs used to fight the flu.

After months of waiting and weeks of speculation, Lord Hutton has released a report on his inquiry into the suicide of scientist David Kelly. The report clears the British government and Prime Minister Tony Blair of any wrongdoing in Kelly's death. The report also refutes claims that members of the British government exaggerated claims regarding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Hutton blames the BBC for not properly checking facts prior to reports made about the WMD claim.

Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry surprised many when he won both the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire Primary. Kerry's victories upset fellow candidate Howard Dean, who was widely expected to easily win in both states. All the candidates remain optimistic as a busy week of primaries approaches, with seven states holding elections on Tuesday, February 3.

In the last month, NASA's twin Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, ended their interplanetary voyages with successful landings on the red planet. The rovers will explore the Martian surface to help detail the history of Mars, and perhaps determine if the planet was once home to life. The European Space Agency's Beagle 2 rover, which arrived on December 25, is believed to have suffered an unrecoverable system failure and mission controllers have been unable to communicate with it.

What's the significance of a new year? For many, it's regarded as a time for a new start, as though the beginning of a new year is the beginning of a new life. To that end, people make New Year's resolutions, goals they set for themselves, things they hope to accomplish during the 360+ days before repeating it again on the next Dec. 31.

But what is a year now than just an convenient way of expressing a time? Sure, there are those for whom the length of a year means something, but even for those whose well-being depends on seasonal things (like the weather), this isn't determined by a calendar year. The seasons come and go as they please, with no regard to what we have printed on a calendar somewhere.

And what about those for whom a year is just a convenient way of measuring time? Many seem to have the idea that somehow, the start of a new year is the best place to decide to change something, or to start something, or to stop something. But what makes January 1st a better day than, say, March 25th, or July 17th? It's not as though the passage of another year changes people, or changes situations; the world on December 31st of one year is by and large the same world that emerges on January 1st.

The only thing that the first of January truly represents is the completion of another revolution around the sun. A complete revolution that began at a completely arbitrary point in our orbit. A year is completely arbitrary, just a division of time people find convenient and haven't had any real reason to change.

But this still doesn't answer the question of what makes January 1st so special; what makes it such a 'good' place for a new start, a new way of life. New Years Resolutions are made; things people want to accomplish in the new year. But why wait until January 1st to decide to start something new, or quit something, or change something? Starting something on Jan. 1 isn't going to increase the chance of succeeding just by virtue of it being the first day of a new year, just as starting any other day isn't going to lessen the chance of succeeding by it's not being the first day of a new year. But then, isn't every day the first day of a new year? 366 days from now (it being a leap year and all), it'll be January 7th again, a period of one year; what makes the period of January 1st to December 31st any more special?

As December, and with it the year 2003, started rolling to close, I considered a number of things I might try and do differently in the new year. And then I realized that it wasn't going to help anything to force something to start on a certain date; some things will happen when they happen, you can't force them, no matter how much you want to. I can't even guarantee that the things I want to do will be done in the 366 days before the next January 1st. So why should I try and predict things beyond my control, and instead just set general goals whenever I feel like it, to accomplish when an opportunity arises?

Take this new year and shove it.

So I've been gone from here nearly 2 months, and here was gone for nearly a month of it's own. Why? Because stuff happens. Just what it was doesn't matter, as the important thing should be the fact that both I and the site have returned.

And yet I must ask why. Despite the long absence from any sort of updates here, I haven't felt any sense of loss. It didn't bother me that I didn't say anything, mostly because there wasn't anything to be said. And to a large extent, that's still the case. I'm going to try and update more often, but I'm not going to make any promises. I write when I feel like it, and it's not something that's been near the top of my list lately.

I've reached the point where I've basically turned to just expressing facts here, and as has been pointed out, it gets boring after a while. And with that in mind, and no idea of how to make it more interesting, writing took a sharp dive on my list of priorities. I'll probably end up playing around with the site in the near future, with a new layout virtually assured and a change in format likely to accompany it. Just what any of that means is something everyone (myself included) will find out in due time.

In the meantime, thought, I'll try and update this thing every once in a while (more often than I've been of late), but I'm not making any promises about that.

On November 13, Senator Diane Feinstein (D, CA) (in conjunction with Senators John Cornyn (R, TX), Orrin Hatch (R, UT) and Bob Graham (D, FL)) announced the Artist's Rights and Theft Prevention (ART) Act. This act would make recording a movie in a theater a felony with up to a 5-year sentence, and would make it a felony to make available any unreleased movie or other such work.

The anti-recording provision is similar to that found in ACCOPS, a House bill introduced a few months back. It's the other provision that I take serious issue to, that simply making a copy of an unreleased work available is equivalent to 10 counts of copyright infringement carrying damages of $2,500 each.

As I address in letters to Senators Corzine and Lautenberg, our country has generally operated on a principle of 'innocent until proven guilty'; that is, until you were found guilty of a crime, you were to be treated as innocent. This bill would automatically assume that anyone guilty of making a copy of an unreleased work available is also engaging in at least 10 counts of copyright infringement, which I find absurd.

Another effect of the bill is to dramatically lower the burden of proof for establishing violations. As the law stands now, a copyright holder must establish at least 10 instances of copyright infringement, or $2,500 worth of damages for such a crime to be a felony. This requires proof that not only was such material made available, it was illegally downloaded at least 10 times. If ART were to become law, a copyright holder then need only establish that the material was made available, which, as the RIAA has shown, cannot always accurately be determined.

If a file is simply made available, no harm is done to anyone. It's when the file is downloaded that you can begin to establish harm. And we already have plenty of laws that cover actual copyright infringement, and plenty of cases pending that pertain to infringement via sharing (but they all involve downloading the material in question).

In the wake of a recent study that found 77% of all movies being traded on the Internet were initially released by insiders in the movie business, is making sharing these movies a felony the right thing to do? Rather than attack the problem at its source (those leaking the films in the first place), the MPAA seems to want to attack the edges (those sharing the films), which is the wrong approach to take. If one person leaks the movie, and 10 people download and begin sharing it (and the initial person stops sharing), then that person will almost certainly not be discovered or prosecuted, and be at virtually no risk to continue such behavior, as it's people down the line who'll get prosecuted. While that may deter some people, there are those outside the US that already and will continue to share these movies, and they will likely continue to have a source.

So why criminalize a harmless act?

November 7 was probably just like any other day for the students of Stratford High School in Goose Creek, South Carolina. At least, until more than a dozen police officers stormed in, guns drawn, and started ordering students to get on the floor. Why the need for such force? Evidence of "drug activity" obtained from the school's closed circuit TV system, which the school's principal had been monitoring regularly. Police claim to have "observed consistent, organized drug activity" in the school hallways.

As the 107 students in the hallway at the time were kept sitting up against the walls, a canine unit was called in to sniff students' bags for drugs. Twelve bags were singled out by the dogs, and were then searched by members of the school administration. Their findings? Nothing. One hundred seven students were forced up against the walls of a school hallway by police with their guns drawn, for no good reason.

Is it worth putting high school students at such risk to stop the (potential) problem of a little marijuana? Considering that the officers found nothing, I would say no. What if one of the students were shot during the course of the search by a trigger-happy police officer? If you said it was worth the risk before, would you still find it acceptable to have an innocent student shot during a search that found nothing?

I had summer internship a few years back, working in the Education Department at the Garden State Youth Correctional Facility. The inmates in there were around my age, and nearly all those I spoke to were in for some drug-related charge. These were otherwise good people, who hadn't hurt anyone, who were spending three years of their life in prison.

At what point did drugs become such a problem to society that anyone caught using drugs needed to be arrested? Nearly one-quarter of America's prison population is inmates convicted of a drug-related offense. Drug-related charges are the most rapidly increasing class of crime in the country, putting an extra and unsustainable burden on the both the court and prison systems and costing taxpayers close to $3 billion per year.

When did it become wrong to make a choice that only affects yourself? A person chooses to use drugs, and that only affects them. If they should then commit some crime, they're guilty of that crime, but should drugs automatically be cited as the cause? Should they be outlawed as a result? Anger can be a cause of crimes, but there isn't a clamor to make it illegal for someone to be angry. Being drunk can lead to committing other crimes, so why isn't it illegal to possess alcohol, or to consume it? Just what makes drugs like marijuana different enough that they need to be illegal?

Note: This article was originally written for The Stute.

The Library Of Congress has just published 4 new exemptions to the DMCA's Section 1201 anti-circumvention protections.

For those of you who have no idea why I'm talking about this, these determinations mark the end of the comment/reply/hearing periods, during which I testified to the LOC in support of an exemption for viewing CSS-encrypted DVDs on alternative operating systems (ones without licensed DVD playback software). This class of work was not exempted, as the LOC believes the piracy risk outweighs a consumer's right to watch a DVD he/she purchased.

While most of the proposed classes were denied exemptions, four were granted. Censorware lists are probably the most notable, as a few months back there was the case of Edelman vs. N2H2, where Ben Edelman sued N2H2 to prevent them from suing him for compiling a list of sites blocked by N2H2's software. He didn't win the case, but he was won this exemption, and can proceed with the law on his side.

It's a shame that a list of URLs is copyrightable in the first place, considering that copyright is/was designed to protected creative works (music, art, books, etc), not a list of facts, which would seem to fall completely outside the realm of copyright.

The other exemptions that were granted are for software protected by a dongle, when the dongle is obsolete/damaged/malfunctioning, ebooks, when all electronic versions of the book are protected and prohibit read-aloud or viewing in a specialized format, and old video games and computer software only available on obsolete hardware or media. This last one might just pave the way for ROMs to gain legal acceptance, at least for old systems that you can't find anymore.

If you feel so inclined, I suggest reading the actual ruling [PDF] and the recommendations of Marybeth Peters (the Register of Copyrights) regarding the exemptions.

In the words of Lord Omlette, "it's usually a momentous occasion" "when pgengler updates". I'm not sure if I should feel privileged or insulted. While I'm mentioning Amit, I shall briefly mention that there was an AI midterm yesterday, which I took, and which Mr. Jain proctored. Having mentioned this solely to satisy the ego of Lord Omlette, I will move on to other things.

Jay has a new layout for his site, among his other accomplishments of late (his recent 'pwnage' of cut/copy/paste springs to mind). Which sure as hells put me to shame, because despite my massive To Do lists and the large amount of items crossed off due to completion, I haven't felt like I've accomplished anything this week. With the recent extension to the graphics homework, there hasn't been a pressing need to work on anything. I want to redesign this site, I want to make some progress on my myriad of other projects, I want to feel some sense of accomplishment. But I can never get myself to work on anything when I have the time, and when I'm ready to get working, I don't have the time.

So as not to be dismissed as a Jessica Blumberg, here's an abridged version of my todo:
* Write a script to provide easy access to ASP book inventory
* Work on CGI functions for C
* Work on Todo script (cross between Bugzilla and a to-do list)
* Graphics homework
* AI homework
* OS homework
* Graphics, OS, Comp Arch midterms
* Organize business closet
* Work through reading list (consisting of Neuromancer, Dune, The Great Hunt, Intent To Harm, and Hearts In Atlantis, not to mention Jay's collection or any other books that make their way into my life)

Depending on my progress tomorrow (assuming anything gets done), the most I will have gotten done this week woill be this update. Perhaps the addition of a bunch of new songs to the secretive lyric repository I threw together some time ago, but nothing of substance. No new version numbers, that's for damn sure. The weekend holds even less productivity, with Talisman (aka heavy drinking) tomorrow night, a night of standup with Dave Attel & Lewis Black Saturday, and the purchase of new sneakers (along with a viewing of Kill Bill: Vol. 1) on either Saturday or Sunday, and the requisite amount of sleeping for a weekend. And just to keep this update in line with my progress for the week, this is the end.

Earlier today, Jay recanted a strange dream of his which he had while taking a nap. As he explained the dream, it occurred to me that I haven't had any dreams that I can remember (or even remember having) in a long time. And as I was strolling down Washington St. not 15 minutes ago, it hit me that while I hadn't had any dreams in the sense of sensory hallucinations while sleeping, I also don't have any dreams. Not as in hallucinations, but dreams as in aspirations for life.

It's a very sobering experience to realize that you don't have the slightest idea what the future will bring, or even what you want the future to bring. I have goals, sure; graduating Stevens, getting a job. One of the most vague things one could bring to mind when contemplating the future. A job. Where? Doing what? I thought about it, and realized I didn't have an answer. Not because I told myself the future is uncertain, and it's best not to hope for something, because it rarely happens, but because I don't even have anything to hope for.

I've always considered myself a man without a past; it's something behind me that I rarely think about, because there's hardly anything worth remembering. This never bothered me, because what's happened has happened, and there's no way to change any of that; I always tried to focus on the now and the future. To realize that you have no plan for the future, no ideas of what you want to do, no hopes, no dreams, no aspirations can make you feel very empty and alone. I imagine that a more normal person would think back to their past, and see something there that would reassure them, remind them that the future can be bright, that good things can happen. I don't have that. I look back to my past and I see failure, I see pain; it's not the sort of thing that bodes well for the future.

So, without a past to turn to, the next logical thing is to look at the present. As having overcome the past, having turned things around. Sure, some things have changed, but plenty haven't. And some never will. The things that have changed are superficial at best, and it's not like the 'now' is any better for me than my past has been. The only things missing are the failures, and they've mostly been replaced by the fact that I never work on anything long enough to fail at it, I just give up instead.

No past, no present, no future. What a way to live.

I never really understood how it made sense to hear 'cold as hell' and 'hot as hell' both used to describe temperatures in the same day. It's possible for the outside temperature to be 'cold as hell', while if the heat is too high inside it's 'hot as hell'. Two very different temperatures, yet each is equated (by the same person in some cases) with that of hell, oft believed to be a place of fire and intense heat.

So what does that side trip have to do with anything? 'Cold as hell' is my reaction to the sharp decline in temperature of late. Despite a high temperature of 81 of our Fahrenheit degrees on Saturday, current highs are as low as 68 degrees, with overnight temps in the low 50s. This is the expected behavior of days on the far side of the autumnal equinox, but unfortunately means that the too short summer of 2003 has officially come to an end. Not that it's stopped me from strolling around in short sleeves, shorts, and sandals, but that was as much a holdout until October as it was appropriate attire for the current climatic conditions.

As the temperature drops, my belief that I am cold-blooded is reaffirmed by the lack of energy and motivation that's fallen over me lately. I manage to get enough done to get by, but I don't have the motivation to work on any of my myriad of non-assignment programming projects, or anything else that's not part of a homework assignment. I'm hoping that adding some of this stuff to my weekly to-do list will force me to get some of them done, and it seems to be working, since writing this update was one of the things added to that list.

So if I haven't been accomplishing anything lately, just what have I been doing? The answer is a simple one, and is the same as 2/3 of the other Room 3 residents (though for different reasons): gaming. While perusing SuprNova a few weeks back, I came across an SDL port of the classic shooter Raptor: Call of the Shadows for Linux. Having been an addict of this game in my youth, I couldn't resist the temptation to download this. After opening a .tar.gz inside a .zip inside a .tgz, I came across a 9 meg shell script, which after a quick glance didn't appear to try and wipe out my computer, I ran. Since then, I've torn through the game, completing all 3 sectors (this was the full game, much to my delight; I'd previously only had the shareware version and one sector). Mindlessly shooting stuff is like instant stress relief, though when you're relieving the stress of not getting anything done by wasting more time, it's bittersweet.

My musical leanings of late have been towards the wonderful band Boston, in particular the Third Stage album, which is one of, if not the, best album (as in the whole experience, not just a collection of songs) that I've ever heard. Having first come across Hollyann via random selection of a full XMMS playlist, I chose to listen to the whole album, and it was one of the best decisions I've ever made (which doesn't say much for the quality of my decisions). Amanda is a beautiful song, which for me brings back memories of a situation to which the lyrics have a personal touch. We're Ready just has something about it I can't describe, but it sticks in my head until I put it on. The Launch is an excellent lyric-less track, flowing right into Cool The Engines, which seems to get better every time I listen to it. Then things slow down a bit for My Destination, A New World, and To Be A Man, picking back up with I Think I Like It. From there, we have Can'tcha Say/Still In Love, another one of those songs that has a personal touch with me, but is damn good anyway. The album ends with Hollyann, another great song, much like Amanda. It's like the musical equivalent of The God Of Small Things in that it's so good you don't want it to end.

Now that I've written more about a 17-year old album than I have about any other things that's happened in the more recent era, I've come to realize that I don't have a whole lot to say. Or rather, not a whole lot to say that anyone would find the least bit interesting to worth reading. Not like that has stopped a certain individual, but I like to think I'm better than that.

Before I end up droning on, and in the tradition started with my last update, a random away message of mine from earlier in the week: "no matter what, make sure you avoid the purple jackrabbit".

It's been far too long since I've written anything here. Mostly because I'd been trying to keep the front page for stuff about issues that I felt mattered, and tried to keep personal stuff (other than my opinion) on the issue off the site. This seemed to work, until I reached a point at which it no longer became worth it to write anything. It's fairly easy to predict where I stand on the sort of issues that I'd write about, and of late, my posts were less about my opinion (which was obvious) and more about propagating links and facts from other sites. I came to realize there were a ton of other sites who did the same thing, only better, and so I didn't add anything over here.

For now, I'm going to remove the separation between what you knew (the issues/facts/etc) and a weblog-ish sort of thing, which I should have a much easier time updating with stuff. Not because I feel I need to have something (though there are pressures to provide content of any sort), but because I just have things to say about the events which take place during the everyday course of my life. Whether anyone cares is not something I'm really concerned with, but daily recaps of even the most boring days seems to be working well for Lord Omlette.

And now, without further ado, I present to you, new words:

Significant progress has been made on the Graphics assignment; prior to last night, my program was capable of parsing the input file and opening a window. As of late last night, raycasting sort-of works. By sort-of, I mean, it almost displays a triangle. Instead, a 3-sided figure with subtly curved edges is presented to me (screenshot). This puts me somewhat behind Jay (whose program successfully displays shapes that don't have mismatched z-coords) but some steps ahead of Jeremy, who is yet to write a single line of code for this assignment. So with the onset of free time tonight comes bug hunting for what's virtually assured to me a very subtle and hard-to-find bug. Then comes the addition of lighting, with the possibility for multiple light sources and shadow.

Room 3 has become a markedly different place from what it was over the summer; the Daily Show, once a staple of weeknight TV viewing, has all but been phased out from memory. The most TV I watch anymore is catching half an episode of Star Trek on Spike TV when Joe (should I even bother linking to this page anymore? it's not like it's been updated at all in nearly 5 months) lounges on the couch and wastes his time with TV instead of video games.

It's a surprise to many that The Bet has gone on this far. Not that it's making a whole lot of difference, Joe is still on the '7 days off a week' plan for academics, choosing to fill his free time with watching TV and anime instead of playing video games. It wouldn't shock me to hear that Joe still hasn't attended a single lecture for CS-383; last I heard, he hasn't been any. Time-wasting will find a way, I suppose.

Having lost my train of thought due to a long sequence of dizzying events, I leave you with this: Nuke the unborn gay female whales for Jesus (courtesy of fortune).