Alone in the Dark

This morning I woke up with some lines from Tristan & Isolde in my head for no known reason. Here is my thought process:

1. Tristan is a pretty cool name.
2. However, Alexander might be one of the coolest names of all time.
3. That being said, I would also like a kid to have the name Kyle.
4. If I name a kid Alexander Kyle Sparks, his initials would be AKS!
5. If he sins, he would embody the three-way handshake!
6. SYN, SYN + ACK, ACK!

This is one more testament to why I should never be left alone in an apartment by myself for an entire three-day weekend.

My Network

I spent most of my free time in the last week setting up computers the way I want them with some new technology. I had been eying the ideas for a while, but school had kept me too busy. I decided to write-up my current setup, and then I will extrapolate on each individual system in due time. Anyways, here is the general rundown on my network.

Trogdor (Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop Edition)
The computer I am on the most is my laptop. I use it as my workstation. All my regular applications are run on it. These include Pidgin (instant messenger), Thunderbird (email), Firefox (web browser), Eclipse (IDE), Spaz (Twitter) and Open Office (documents). Eclipse handles all my software development from C++ to PHP to database design. I also run a local LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) server on Trogdor for easy testing of any web development.

Ellinore (Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop Edition 64-Bit)
Ellinore is my file server for the most part, but it is gaining an emphasis as a media server. She is hooked up to my tv allowing for easy playing of videos. Also is running Mediatomb, a streaming media server, to allow me to play music and videos on my Playstation 3.

The Beast (Ubuntu 8.04 Server Minimal Install)
This is a very old computer I managed to pick up from my parents for free. It essentially amounts to my sandbox. I configure various services on it to get a feel for them. I will also see what it takes to hack them just to get an idea for how secure a configuration really is.

Playstation 3 (N/A)
My Playstation 3 has no other operating system on it. I use it simply for playing videogames as well as watching videos or playing music. Some day I may put another OS on it, but for the time being, it is just there for pure enjoyment.

Linksys WRT54GL Router (Tomato firmware)
My router is a nice Linksys router with A/B/G wireless coverage and four 100mbps ports. I have the Beast, Ellinore, and the PS3 wired to it and connect to it over wireless with Trogdor. It is currently running Tomato rather than the Linksys default.

Rise or Fall

I turned twenty-two today. My Ancient Near East professor jokingly asked our class what we had done with our lives when talking about Alexander the Great. The man was twenty years old when his father, King Philip II, was assassinated, most likely in a plot formed by Alexander himself. By the age of twenty-two, he was invading the Persian Empire and Asia. People always talk about turning over the reins of control to the next generation. I am seven months out from my collegiate graduation. I watch the fate of today on the news. I think about the fate of tomorrow when I go to bed. I have spent the last 17 years of my life studying in school for the day when I will look down and see the fate of the world in the palms of my hands. You can call me arrogant for thinking I will have such importance when that day comes. I will call you ignorant for not realizing the weight which rests on your shoulders. It is not about you or me. It is about us. The choices we make as individuals affect us on a whole. Whether we like it or not, we are in this together. Remember those classes in school when you were assigned a group to complete a project? It is time to pull those skills down off the shelf and dust them off. You are on this planet with the rest of us and we have to find a way to make it work. You can stand in the corner uncertain of what to do. If you do, I will climb up on the table and start to direct you. We might do everything wrong. Maybe we will do everything right. I am guessing we will make some mistakes along the way, but we will also get a lot of things right. However, in the end, rise or fall, I am determined to make it one hell of a story. Regardless, get involved. I do not care where or with what, but do your share to make a difference.

The Finals Dance

I am currently in the middle of my finals week. I had my easiest test Monday night which I got a B+ on. All I had to get on it was a C or so to maintain an A- overall in the class, and it was impossible for me to get an A overall so the test was pretty pointless. That was for Personal Wellness, a class which is two-thirds pointless; hence, my lower grade in it. I do not do well with pointless schoolwork. I never have.

I spent the vast majority of today studying as I have my three hardest tests tomorrow: Ancient Near East, History of Ireland, and the dreaded Perspectives on Death & Dying. I have to get a B on my Death & Dying test to pass the class since I need an overall C to have it count for a major requirement. It will be my lowest grade ever largely due to difficult content, busy work which I also do not do well on since I see it as pointless, being in the thick of my mono during the first test, an overwhelmingly busy semester anyways, and all topped off by the fact that my professor and I do not see eye to eye. The class and his test questions are all highly philosophical with no single correct answer. Unfortunately, the only answer he accepts is his. I tend to be too stubborn to go along with such games, and it gets me into trouble.

As for the other two classes, my Ancient Near East test will be fine since that professor and I get along great as far as class content is concerned. This is my third time having him. I got an A- and an A in the previous two classes with him. The only reason I got an A- in the first class, Ancient Greece, was because I was not quite sure what to expect of him in regards to his tests and paper right away. His classes are just tough enough that it cost me an A. The second class, Ancient Rome, I passed with flying colors. I expect the same for this class. History of Ireland will be difficult, but I should do alright on it. I am expecting somewhere in the B+ to A range overall in the class.

My last final is a presentation for my Translation of Programming Languages class. It will simply be a demonstration of our semester long project, the language we designed, and our compiler for it. Our compiler still needs some serious work to be ready for this; not to mention, we have some documentation to write up as well. My last final tomorrow ends at 7pm. After that, I will grab some "Vitamin C", Skittles, and prepare to go to work. I expect to pull the stereotypical CS all-nighter to complete as much of the compiler as possible. I have to take a break at 10am on Thursday to go into work to have a meeting with my boss and Jess who is filling my position over the summer. The meeting will be rather simple and straightforward to get Jess caught up on anything and everything she needs to know to pick up where I have left off. After all of that, it is time to hit the parties Thursday night and catch some undergraduate research presentations on Friday morning.

Right now my latest tweet on Twitter is "am in the calm before the storm." In a very sick and morbid way, finals week is kind of fun for me. It is stressful due to the importance of it along with the amount of work to be done. Yet at the same time, there is a lot of fun to be had in destressing and taking breaks from studying. This has been one of the busier finals weeks for me due to the difficulty of my classes, the business of my semester, and the lateness in the week of my actual test times. Normally, I have bought a new videogame as a sort of destressor. This year I have simply made good use of my NHL 08 videogame while watching the Stanley Cup Playoffs on television. Attempting to balance the work and play gets interesting. In some ways, it becomes like a dance as the two play off each other. The harder you work, the harder you need to play to make up for it. Every once in a while, there is a chance to sleep. I guess you could say the expression "work hard, play hard" could not be more fitting. I normally prefer the altered phrase "work hard, play harder" but it just does not always work that way during finals week alone. The week following is another story...