Tuesday – Day 225
March 16, 2013
Things this week just got better and better from then on. Though I was pretty tired today and the project still was not out, there was only good to come! Once I made it through Physics and too my singing lesson, I was excited by the new Jazz pieces I was working on, along with figuring out a little more of how to sing in secondo passagio (higher part of my voice). This was also the first week this semester that I self accompanied, and while it wasn’t perfect, it was a start. Misty by Errol Garner and Over the Rainbow from the Wizard of Oz. Great fun!
In the afternoon I had an interview with a certain renowned social networking firm (more on that to come results dependant) that went splendidly. I was interviewed by a really awesome engineer and tackled an interesting problem!
In the evening, I went to hear Dr. Richard Dawkins speak, and while he was interesting, he wasn’t fascinating. The usual barbs directed at theists, along with some interesting biology. Riled up a few people and that was amusing. The Q&A session was awful, mostly full of people saying “but what do you do without god?” to which his answers were both predictable, wry and somewhat amusing.
Rehearsal afterwards ran really late, but we’re singing some fantastic stuff at the moment, Beibl’s Ave Maria and more! If you’re in Pennsylvania come hear us and the Harvard Glee Club at 8:00PM this Saturday night!
Monday – Day 224
March 14, 2013
Surprisingly today worked out pretty well. Though I only got to bed at 5AM, I was up early, 3 hours later, for physics recitation! Not fun. However, it went decently well, material was understandable. Next was a few hours of work on the project, multitasking with completing all the rest of my homework due the same day. Thankfully, due to a few last minutes saves on my behalf, I rescued the security project from utter disaster.
Just in time made it to networking (where I promptly fell asleep), and security, which was now on the science of crypto. Following that, I had a phone conversation with a company for whom I may be working with over the US summer and the hastily prepared my lab. The lab itself went fine today, nothing special though and it felt a little underwhelming. I’ll need to correct that for next time.
Rehearsal for Glee had me pretty drained, and even though I was late it seemed to run for ages. Choral society pushed me even further, and I seriously considered leaving half way. Brahm’s Requiem just barely kept me going. Trying to get the project out took me another few hours and it was 3AM by the time I got to bed.
Friday/Shabbat/Sunday – Days 221/222/223
March 13, 2013
This post concludes the rather uninteresting series of posts on my Spring break, but had I known how quickly my workload would ramp up, I would’ve opted for another few days of the mundane.
Friday was a day of physics, which I’m pleased to say, is clicking a little more for me. I’m still a little worried about my outcome in the class but I think I can cope with it. Thinking I had a little time on my hands, it being break and all, I played some Mass Effect 3. This poor usage of time would later prove to be a large mistake. Hillel being closed for Shabbat again meant I was once again alone cooking myself a little home meal, in this case, instant chicken soup, a little challah and some sushi. Not a bad meal, but it was missing something. Perhaps the lack of Aviva, Michal and Ariella was taking its toll.
Shabbat was even quieter, I slept most of the day, did a little reading of a newly acquired book by the ever eloquent and mysterious Douglas Hofstader (of Godel Escher Bach fame) and after nightfall, watched ‘The Bourne Supremacy’ (not bad, standard action film) and worked more on CIS 121.
The next day was also the birthday of two people very dear to me, Adi my brother and another close friend from Penn (who I know is reading this!). Calls and cards were in order, but unfortunately I saw neither of them that day.
Sunday I toiled away on Networking with my team, finding a few more holes in our implementation, worked on trying to finish up the 121 project (that didn’t happen) and then at around midnight, started on 551 which I thought was due Wednesday. At around 2AM on of my teammates for the project was getting pretty depressed, I asked him why he was so down about the project. It was then I learnt it was due at 1PM the same day. So much for getting a little extra sleep that night. I was up till 4AM coding. Engineering Hell. And the project still wasn’t in working condition.
Uncompleted tasks due Monday as of 4AM that day:
- Finish Algorithms Project
- Finish Networking Project
- Finish Security Project
- Finish Physics Project
- Prepare Algorithms Lab
- Start Networking Homework
One of life’s more difficult moments.