The Topic of Great Randomness

[Wolf]

Happy birthday to eveeeerybody!!! ^_^

I am not having such happy days, though. School kinda uber sucks here, even though I basically had two snow days in a row. Tuesday night was fun (the night where I came back and wrote my run-on sentence!), Wednesday it was snowing too hard for me to even want to go outside... and today I just sat around and then went into work. I know there's Science homework I should've done, and more homework I should be doing, but I'm not sure how much I care at the moment cuz I'm just in a bad mood. >_<

On the bright side, I made money tonight and Spring Break is less than a month away! And I'm gonna see if I can go home next weekend. I was gonna go home THIS weekend, but my boss asked if I could work Saturday (again!) and I don't really want anyone driving up here right after two big snow storms.

So here I sit, no friends to speak of (except you awesome virtual buddies!! ) and I know eventually I'll have to do homework. But tonight I think I'll just go to bed super early.

Tomorrow I'm going to actually start reading HW so I can participate in our group discussion! I brought the darn thing with me, I'm obligated to read it.

[Lazy Leopard]

Time to throw in some technical randomness... Recently my intermittent interest in amateur radio has been re-kindled. I've booked a place on a UK Foundation Licence course, and the course materials I'd ordered were waiting for me when I got home after the Con last weekend, so I did a bit of reading, and then I poked a discussion on my local astronomical society's forum about the tracking of high altitude balloon experiments. The responses, which included a note that there was a launch planned for this Saturday, prompted me to download, and then build from source (because the available OS X binary was for Leopard, and I'm running Tiger) a modified version of a digital amateur radio program, dl-fldigi. By just after midnight on Thursday I'd got a working version of the program, and by lunch time I'd figured out enough to know it worked.

Someone pointed out I'd need a radio receiver capable of picking up the amateur 70cm band, so as soon as I'd finished lunch I set off for deepest Essex to visit the nearest place likely to stock the right kind of equipment and possibly have staff who knew enough to provide half-way sensible guidance. I went with a recommendation or two from the ballooning crowd, but kept that information a secret from the sales folks. However, the radio the ballooning folk seemed to favour also came out well in discussions at the shop, and it offered a bit more than just the 70cm band, and it was small, self-contained and portable, so I spent my money and came home with one, and a couple of antennae, and some co-ax cable and appropriate connectors. I spent the rest of Thursday and Friday morning learning a bit about the receiver, and proving that I could get a signal from it into the program concerned.

On Saturday morning I slept late, and then dashed out after a quick breakfast to get bits to keep myself fed and to allow me to point the 70cm yagi antenna at the balloon, if it launched as planned. There was quite a buzz in the #highaltitude IRC channel, and the balloon did launch, but didn't, for some reason, get quite enough lift to clear the trees near the launch site. So I didn't get to track anything, but it was an interesting experience, and next time I should be able to set things up more quickly, assuming the next attempt isn't on one of the days I'm taking the foundation licence course...

[SilveredBlue]

Hey, that seems like fun, Rick! Deepest Essex- lol.

Wow, I haven't made (comparitively) very many posts at all this past week. And it's all Kathy's fault.

Know why? Because now I'm addicted to anime. Yes, the awful truth comes out- I hadn't watched one jot before I joined YW Forum, but then I clicked on the link to Yumerio Patissere in Kathy's post and since that fateful click have been using my computer time to troll around crunchyroll.com like the very shiniest of newbies.

See, you guys have corrupted me. First Dr. Who, then Star Trek, and now anime. What is the internet coming to??

[Lazy Leopard]

Oh. I figure that bit of Essex is definitely bandit country. Mind, I've got cousins who live in a dark corner of the South Downs, and they reckon I live in bandit country, so I guess it's all a question of perception... or something.

...and yes, someimes things like anime can pull you in, and the Net's, well, a net for catching the unwary.

[NickRyan]

So today I saw Percy Jackson and the Olympians The Lightning Thief. I suggest not seeing it if you have read the books and don't like movies that don't follow the book. I have also read all five of the books so the movie made me mad when they excluded or changed major parts for no apparent reason. If they ever make a YW movie they better not do stuff like that.

I have been watching some of the Olympics on tv. They are so fun to watch I'm glad the Canadians finally won a gold in Canada. Is anyone on the forums there?

[EricG1793]

Nice to see you back, jwiz!

I was really frustrated with the big, bad snow storm that we were *supposed* to get. We barely got an inch, and they canceled school because of it, and the snow didn't start at all until about 11:30, so we could have at least had a half day easily! Now, our exam days are being pushed back to a Friday and a Monday!

We're going to get some snow tonight, and showers tomorrow and Wednesday. Let's see how much we actually get this time.

Wolf, you used the word "uber" in a post a while back. Thanks, because now I know what it means! There's a poster in the technology office in my school that says "Uber Geek" on it, and now I know it means that the lady is calling herself geeky to an extreme!

[estar9821]

Well, I'm definitely a sheltered girl. I recently rode the bus home with a friend who doesn't live in the nicest neighborhood, and I was freaked out by these threatening girls in the back who cursed every two words. We were forced to sit near them in the back because everywhere else was full.

I agree, SilveredBlue! The forums have gotten me into Star Trek. I've been watching it on the SyFy channel. Why do they spell that channel funny? Isn't it Sci-Fi?

[Lazy Leopard]

It's no fun travelling on public transport when there are aggressive or otherwise overbearing fellow passengers on board.

The "SyFy" thing was all about trademarks, I think. Sounds the same but looks distinct. "Sci-Fi" has been in use for far too long for the channel to trademark it, but with "SyFy" they can put the magic (tm) or (r) symbol after it, and sue anyone else who tries to copy them.

[crazy_bookworm]

NickRyan: What do you mean by "is anyone on the forums there"?

I live in Canada, but I haven't been watching any of the Olympics, and I don't live anywhere close to Vancouver. I'm relying on one of my friends on Facebook posting whenever we've won a medal, lol. I think we've won something like four, maybe? One gold and three silver. I'm glad we're doing well, and I don't think we've received anything lower than silver, but I don't know for sure. But I love the fact Canada kicks butt in the Winter Olympics. It says a lot about our climate and history when we can clean up so easily compared to the Summer Olympics when we do slightly horribly, or at least don't get as many medals. Times like these makes me proud to be Canadian. I might watch the hockey games, though, and see if Canada still has the magic touch.

[EricG1793]

Estar, you can download a free bridge building program for your computer. We used it in 8th grade when we did our bridge building unit. I can't remember the name right now.... Hmm.... I had it on my computer once, but I reformatted the hard drive since then! *Pounds head* *Goes upstairs to 8th grade school materials* *Remembers halfway up the stairs* West Point Bridge Design! I used the 2007 version, but you can download the 2010 version here.

On a somewhat-related note, I wonder why Firefox calls installation files binary files.

[estar9821]

Awesome, Eric. Thanks, I think I'll download it.

I wasn't taking public transportation, I was taking a school bus. So now I feel sorry for my friend who rides on it and has to put up with those girls every day. She says the bus driver does nothing about it.

[SilveredBlue]

Wow, everyone's talking about snow and yesterday it was 89 degrees here.
Today is slightly cooler-but not a lot. I wish our neighborhood pool was open in February, because if it was I'd go now. *is hot*

I really prefer the cold, I truly do!

Eric: Binary files? That's...odd. Well, everything's in binary, I guess, but why would it say that?

...and yes, someimes things like anime can pull you in, and the Net's, well, a net for catching the unwary.

*blushes* I'm not THAT naive, I hope. I was just teasing. The newness has already mostly worn off of anime anyway, partly because I don't like manga and it's frustrating to have the anime leave the end of the story to the manga.

For some odd reason, my Net phishing filter won't let me access the YW forum from my laptop! Why would it change all of a sudden? Ah well, gotta adjust it again...

[96bookworms]

So today I saw Percy Jackson and the Olympians The Lightning Thief. I suggest not seeing it if you have read the books and don't like movies that don't follow the book. I have also read all five of the books so the movie made me mad when they excluded or changed major parts for no apparent reason.

ARGH!! I saw that movie on Friday with my friends, and I was sooooo frustrated with it! THey ruined almost everything! *goes on long rant about how much the movie sucked* Well, it wasn"t entirely bad, but it's obvious that they're not going to make another movie out of it. What was really frustrating is that the Director?/ other important person, was the same Director?/ other important person who did Harry Potter. Thats sorta sad. I really hated how annabeth looked though, it was jut weird.

[EricG1793]

Let me know how it goes, Estar!

As of today, I have all of my "vacation" homework done. I had to do flash cards and a worksheet for Spanish, read 3 chapters of The Lord of the Flies and definine vocabulary and answer questions for English, and a current event article summary thingy and a lab report for Biology. I got the Spanish done on Friday after school, the reading throughout the weekend, the current even yesterday, and the lab report today, which means that it's Thursday and I have ALL of my work done and I can enjoy my Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in peace! Usually I have at least one thing to do on Sunday nights.

We got about 5 more inches of snow the past couple days, but it was about 40 degrees today! And because it was warm outside, yet the sun is still so low and shining in the massive amount of glass, it was 75 degrees in this oven of a house... and we keep our thermostat at 66!

[estar9821]

On the bright side, I FINALLY finished my science project! It was very nervewracking, because at the last minute my team realized that our project might not fit in with the project rules and then we would get a failing grade, but everything turned out alright in the end. So I am very relieved, and, like Eric, looking forward to relaxing this weekend.