Computer science is alright

I wonder if I should have been a computer science major. It seems like that might have been a better fit for me. Well, too late now, I guess...or is it?

Y2K survival guide

I remember before the year 2000, some people were making a big deal of it and stocking up on bottled water and corn nog, but I figured nothing would happen. And, I was right; the only consequence of the year 2000 that I encountered was that once I got a receipt from K-Mart that had the year 1900 on it.

Unlike me, though, Bruce F. Webster wrote a 544 page, 1.5" thick book about it, which my friend bought from his college library for 50 cents. The author warns, "Self-reliance, social cohesion, and leadership are the most important factors in getting through Y2K" and he also predicted that "At least one (non-U.S.) government, probably in a developing country, will collapse or be overthrown beause of Y2K". Actually, "doing nothing" was the most valuable factor for me getting through Y2K, and I don't believe Y2K really had any significant impact on any nation.

It's kind of funny that such a big deal was made and some people actually read this book and did all this contingency planning for this complete non-event. This book is now on my shelf, so anyone is free to read it.

"Search this blog" works

The "search this blog" feature on the top of my blog finally seems to work. So, now you can use that box if you ever want to search for something that I've written in the past.

The crazy things you see at college

I'm really glad nobody saw me take a picture of this:

Hey, I'm walkin' here

People who walk together like to walk side-by-side, but this is problematic when, say, they're on a sidewalk and I'm going the other way. I don't want to have to walk in the grass or mud so that these people can continue using the whole sidewalk. It's simple courtesy that they should allow me enough room when I'm passing, right? Am I right? Next time this happens, I'm going to get out a bullhorn and tell people to get out of my way.

I worked out today

I've never gone to work out at a gym voluntarily. But, my school recently opened a new recreation center, and I had been wanting to get in slightly better shape, so I bought some exercise shorts last weekend and today I went to the recreation center for the first time. I used an elliptical trainer for 25 minutes and it wasn't too bad. I'm going to try to make it a habit to work out a couple times per week.

Ethnicity-based Senate Seats

Seats on my university's student senate are apportioned based on school - there are two seats for the school of engineering, two seats for the business school, etc. - and there are also special interest seats - one for hispanics, one for Asians, and other ethnicities, except for caucasians. A group on campus is currently having a petition drive to get these special interest seats removed.

I'm almost certain that I eagerly would have signed a petition like this when I first came to school, but I'm unsure of whether I'll sign it now. I oppose ethnicity-based quotas and the like, but I still conflicted about this issue. I oppose giving certain groups more representation than they would otherwise deserve. So, for example, I oppose giving two U.S. Senate seats to the state of Montana. But, in our current Senate system, both federal and collegiate, Senators are chosen to be representative of certain groups.

Theoretically, the engineering students have different concerns than the business students, so they each have two senators. Similarly, students of different ethnicities also have different concerns, so they might also deserve their own Senators. So in that case, why don't we have special interests seats in the U.S. senate for citizens of certain ethnic groups? And why don't we have special interest seats for homosexuals? Or disabled people? Or fat people?

If we are to provide special interest seats, the special interests must be limited to only a select few - different ethnic groups, at my university. But, how do we determine which few special interest groups to select? Why does my university include only ethnicity and not sexual orientation or disabilities? Instead, perhaps senate seats should only be apportioned based on affiliation to a group of one's choosing - one's major at school, or one's residence in the case of the U.S. Senate.

So, to be consistent with the U.S. Senate and the fact that the school does not apportion senate seats to the homosexual or the disabled, as well as my opposition to the continued segregation of society in any form based on ethnicity, I should be in favor of eliminating these seats. However, to be consistent with the Senate's purpose of representing various groups, I should be in favor of these seats. So, now I'm even more conflicted. To help sort this out, in my typical Troy manner, here's a poll:

Should ethnicity-based special interest seats on SMU's student senate be removed?

Yes, there should not be individual seats for different ethnicities.
No, there should be seats for all ethnicities.
No, there should also be seats for other special interest groups, like homosexuals or the obese.
No, it's fine as it is.




Current Results
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Poll results: Word verification

To comment on my blog you have to type in a word. This is a measure to deter spammers and thus far has been 100% effective. I asked people how they feel about the word verification and the results were split. Word verification makes my job easier, so I'll keep the word verification indefinitely.

Where your taxes go

Here's an excellent analysis of changes in federal spending. It shows graphs of how spending has increased, where the money is going, and forecasts of what we'll have to pay for in the future. There is also a list of many items that should be cut from the budget.

The War on Small Talk

I've talked before about how small talk is overrated. Finally, someone is declaring a war on small talk.

I've slowly been waging a secret war. But this is a war of only words. Well, and possibly a bat if I have to hear these words for too long.

I'm talking about the war on small talk.

Progressive flat tax

I'm in favor of simplifying taxes, but I haven't been convinced that a flat tax is the answer. However, here's a flat tax that is more progressive and simpler than our current tax structure.

People used to go to school here

This building looks impressive, it's too bad that it's fallen into disrepair. On either side of the stairs there is a bluish post with something on it, but I don't know what it is, There is a light rail station in front of this school that always seems to be infested with vagrants, but today it wasn't so bad.

SMU radio broadcast

Here's the radio broadcast from SMU's last second defeat of UAB. I'm posting this because it's cool that we won and also because the announcers are very enthusiastic, though the microphone doesn't explode this time.

Previous post here.

Update: Video can be seen at SMUmustangs.com.

Afternoon in Downtown Dallas

I wanted to spend today in Dallas doing something fun that I wouldn't normally do. I didn't know what I would do, but thought about going to White Rock Lake or going downtown or going to a museum or driving somewhere neat. The weather was comfortable - overcast and humid but cool. A friend recommended the Trammell Crow Asian Art Collection downtown, so I decided to go there. I took the light rail downtown and walked around a bit, taking pictures of various things. I found the art collection, which was free and small enough to not be very time consuming. The intricate details carved on many of the art pieces were amazing. I especially enjoyed some intricate wood carvings. I was also impressed by the detail on some of the vases.

After I was done there, I thought about going to another museum while I was downtown, but I felt that I might enjoy the art more at another time. So, I just walked around downtown for a while, with no particular purpose, enjoying the day and some of Dallas' many downtown sculptures. Fort Worth could sure use some more art downtown. The clouds eventually thinned enough for the sun to come out and it started getting warmer, so I decided to head back to school, and somehow it was raining by the time I got to my room. Anyway, that was fun, maybe some other time when I get a chance, I'll go to some more museums or go to the lake or something.

10,000 pictures

Today I took my 10,000th picture with my camera. 10,000 pictures in 432 days of camera ownership. This is also significant because my camera has now started renumbering pictures from 0001.

Eagles vs. Cowboys review

Cowboys won 33-10
Record: 3-2
Next opponent: NY Giants

The Cowboys kicked a lot of ass. Few things are better than routing the Eagles. I'm glad the Cowboys came out aggressively, if only they would do that more often, but I fear they won't. Overall, the team played great, hopefully the Cowboys can play this well next week against the Giants. I had written more but I lost it and I don't feel like rewriting it. Go to Cowboys Blog for more about the game.

SMU drives 80 yards in 23 seconds to win

The SMU football team hasn't been very good for more than a decade and hasn't won more than two games in a season since I've been attending. The team hasn't played very well this year, except for the shocking defeat of then-ranked TCU, but SMU somehow was able to defeat the University of Alabama at Birmingham this weekend. UAB was favored to beat us by 20 points, so when I was lying in bed and I saw on the ESPN ticker that we won the game, 28 to 27, I bolted up in shock. I read in the paper the next day that, with 23 seconds remaining in the game, our team won by driving 80 yards to score a touchdown. Heck, for our team to drive 80 yards at any time of the game gainst any team is a huge accomplishment, so it's amazing that our team did it under these circumstances. It's also amazing that our normally impotent offense had 333 passing yards, more than twice their normal average during a game. Anyway, it's not like we're going to a bowl game any time soon, and we might not win another game this year, but it's still astounding that we were able to win a game like this.

Here I post a link to the radio broadcast.

I missed several rides this weekend

I don't have school Monday or Tuesday of this week, so I figured I would go home for the weekend and could ride the train (whereas I usually can't, since it doesn't run on Sunday). So, Friday afternoon I was relaxing at school, taking my time to enjoy the nice weather and get a few things done that I wanted to do, in no hurry to get on the train and get back home. Then, after a short walk around campus, I decided that I ought to go ahead and go home since I didn't have much left to do and I didn't really want to have to take the later train. So, I got back to my room and checked the departure times for the bus (which would take me to the light rail station), the light rail (which would take me to the train), and the train (which would take me to Fort Worth).

I realized that the next bus arrived in 10 minutes and that if I didn't catch that one, I'd have to wait around 45 minutes. So, I packed my two bags quickly and hurried to leave my room. I saw the bus, but it left the stop about 15 seconds before I got there. So, not wanting to turn around and wait 45 minutes, I walked toward the light rail station, which is about a 20 minute walk away. I hurried, even jogging at times, though walking most of the time because I was carrying two bags. I got to the light rail station, but about a minute after the light rail I needed to catch had left.

Fortunately, another light rail car would arrive in about 10 minutes, though I wasn't sure that it would get to the train station early enough to get on the train before it left. Nevertheless, I got on the light rail. The trip was fraught with delays. We stayed at one stop for a couple minutes for some reason, and for some also-unknown reason, DART light rail cars have to stop at some intersections while cars cross (rather than making the cars stop while the train goes) and at one intersection a car was in the way and had to back up before we could proceed. When we arrived at the train station, I, along with several other passengers, bounded from the light rail car and onto the train, just in time.

On Monday night, I intended to take the 8:55 train back to Dallas, but it was delayed for 30 minutes, according to the dynamic lighted display. So, rather than wait in the train station for 30 minutes, I returned to my girlfriend's car to wait, only to see the train arrive a couple minutes after it was supposed to. Then, before I could go back to the train station, the train left. My girlfriend had to drive and drop me off at the next train station, where I boarded the train.

Interesting trip on train

Tonight I took the light rail back to school and the train was rather full at first. A guy with very bloodshot eyes lifted is bag out of the seat next to him, as if to make room for me to sit next to him, but I just remained standing at the front of the car.

At the next stop, a few people left and I sat down. Then, an old guy with a beard got on the train and literally stomped to his seat. After he sat down, he loudly (and almost unintelligibly) complained that his arm was broken and that he was in pain. He then lit a cigarette (of tobacco) and smoked it. Yes, smoking is prohibited, but drunk people with broken arms can't be bothered with rules. The guy continued talking loudly to nobody in particular, talking about his broken arm and he said a couple times, "you have to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em." Then the drunk guy started to hassle someone who sat down in front of him and was reading a Spanish-language newspaper. The newspaper reader told the drunk guy to leave him alone, and then the drunk guy asked to have his horoscope read. Shortly thereafter, two security officers removed the drunk guy from the train.

Anyway, that was definitely the most interesting time I've had on local mass transit. Incidents like that are why some people don't like public transit, but it's no big deal to me, it was kind of entertaining.