Still Alive

Yes, everything is well and good here in India. I'm sitting in my cousin's cyber cafe in Virar, a town outside my family's village. Besides the air and crowded everything, I'm having a great time. People here are so nice and caring, I'm really mad at myself for not having come here in the past eleven years. I'm coming home on new year's day, so until then, hope everything is good stateside.

Wired

I managed to stay busy for most of today, which is a feat in itself. After sleeping in til around 10 (that's the latest I've slept in a very long time), I left for Farmington Hills. First up, my drug test- because of my impeccable timing, I got there during the lab's lunch hour, so I moved on to my next stop: visiting some of the folks at work.

I showed up there, and everything just seemed different. There were completely foreign faces, and only after hearing all the shouts in the conference room did I find the familiar faces. I hung around for a bit and caught up with Kaitlyn and Katie, and then left to grab lunch with Andrea.

After enjoying a deliciously overpriced beef kabob and some hummous with Andrea, who by the way gave me a very nice card, I went back to Canton and stopped at the Secretary of State to renew my license. I think my new license picture is going to make me look like an idiot, but I guess I'll find out.

I Now Love Naomi Watts

My God, is she gorgeous. We went and saw King Kong tonight, and now we're in love. Well, she doesn't know it yet, but she will. The movie was pretty good too.

Lions lost today, again. This was the first Sunday in a while that I didn't watch the whole game. I gave up around the second half. Final score: Cincy 41, Detroit 17. The only great part was the pregame, in which they showed lots of Lions fans protesting Matt Millen stil being the GM. I completely agreed.

These next few days are going to be a complete whirlwind. I'm going back up to East Lansing to grab more things I either forgot or needed to get, and to say goodbye to the couple people I didn't say goodbye to. Not too many people realize that I'm not coming back next semester, and I really only told the people I talked to on a near daily basis. After all, if I went a while without seeing someone, would they even care if I were gone? Probably not. No difference, I've learned to get over that stuff fairly quickly.

Between visiting family, goodbyes to friends, and packing, I'm going to have very little time to do much of anything else. I'm sure I'll still find time to post- it's not like I sleep or anything. Not with so much on my mind.

Kinda Wished I Stayed In East Lansing

I got back to Canton around 1 this afternoon. After unpacking and eating and more unpacking, I relaxed for a little while. Alright, a long while. The house was so empty, so quiet, I had no idea what to do. After watching an episode of Family Guy and doing some drawing, I decided to watch Closer. Not a bad movie, but it's definitely going to need a second viewing.

I went over to my uncle's house in Rochester Hills for the evening, which was pretty nice. Honestly, I have a great family, a very strong, supportive family, and I should be more thankful for that. I got to know a family friend even better, and learned that I've got to strike while the iron's hot. Stupid cliches.

I can't wait to be in India. Home is nice, but it's cold and lonely- don't get me wrong, I enjoy some solo time, but it'd be nice to get out and do stuff with the friend(s) I've missed all semester. Maybe tomorrow.

Friday's Top Five: Places I Want To Travel

5. Australia
4. Italy
3. France
2. Mexico
1. The Vabbinfaru Islands

So Much To Pack, Too Lazy To Do It

Well, this semester's officially over. Let's recap:

The Good:
A possibility of making the Dean's List for the first time in my 3 years here
Meeting a few great people
The Toyota job
Catching up with old friends
Finally accepting who I am

The Bad:
Just one regret.

Usually, anytime the Good outweighs the Bad, I'm happy, but not in this case. Hopefully that one regret doesn't weigh on me for too long. I guess we'll find out.

I'm going home tomorrow, and then the next few days will just be a whirlwind of catching up with family, packing, and spending whatever else time I have left with the few friends that mean the most to me. The more I think about it, the more I realize how much I'm going to miss Michigan. A fresh start never hurt anyone though, and I welcome that.

Friday 3 PM Can't Get Here Soon Enough

The fact that I've got a 7:45am Programming final tomorrow and a Calc final at 12:45 is not really fazing me yet. I'm surprised I haven't crashed yet, seeing as how Kristin and I put in around 7 hours of studying (truthfully, like 4 hours of studying and 3 hours of straight up lollygagging). I haven't studied too much for Calc, but a 77% will still net me a 4.0 in the class, so I'm not too worried. Oh yeah, and we get 3 index cards. Haha, I love progressive teachers. They know we'll be able to use books at work and won't have to rely on our pitiful knowledge.

And God Bless my Stats professor, who gave me a 4.0 for my 90.4%. That definitely put me in a good mood, a good enough mood to pay a visit to Burger King and even give those odd Chicken Fries a try.

I'm not going back home until Saturday afternoon. Hard to believe this semester's come to an end so fast, and for once, I actually wish I was coming back here in January. Unfortunately, new opportunities beckon, and who am I to deny those opportunities?

EDIT: By the way, this Finals beard-turned Fu Manchu-turned handlebar mustache idea has been a bad one. I can't wait to shave tomorrow. That's what I meant by the whole 3PM not getting here soon enough.

Halfway Done

With two finals done and out of the way, all that's left is CSE 231 and MTH 235 on Friday, which kind of sucks. Tomorrow's going to be a study day, but tonight I'm just watching the Pistons game and maybe The 40 Year Old Virgin, which I happened to buy.

I left today's Econ final feeling a little confused. I was the first one to finish, which usually never happens. This means one of two things, or some weird combination of the both: 1) I actually knew my stuff and studying paid off; or 2) I got every question wrong in the worst possible way. I really don't think it was the second one, so hopefully I get a decent grade back on that one.

Stats was a little harder than I thought it would be; after all, we did get to use like 5 pages of cheat sheets. I ended up getting an 90% on it, which really pissed me off. A 4.0 in the class is a 91%, and I'm sitting around a 90.4%. I don't know how nice the professor would be in rounding that up.

Ah, who am I kidding? I'm turning into those whiny little bitches in high school that complained about their grade not being close enough to an A+. You know who you are. So stop it.

Studious Monday

I've never spent more time studying a single subject than I did today. Economics alone is a pretty boring class, but add in a twist of Calculus and you've just got a twist of boredom.

Econ is probably my most worrisome final out of the four, but if I manage to 3.0 the class I'll be really surprised/pleased. It's important that I leave this semester with the best possible grades, since Toyota will be (I think?) requesting my transcript.

My parents called from India today; they're doing well, and everyone is excited and waiting for me and my brother to get there. It's going to be odd seeing cousins I've never met before, but I'm up for it. Travel is always fun, never hurts to broaden your borders and see what else is out there in the world.

I should already be asleep right now, as tomorrow only has more studying in store for me, but there's more than a few things gnawing away at my mind. Relationships never come easy, and you have to put in the time if you want to make it work. If that time isn't there, then what's the point? At times I've wished that I wasn't going to Kentucky next semester, all because of a girl. Hard to believe, I know. And the strange thing is I don't even know what she's thinking- I suck at reading girls. That's what happens when you have next to no experience in the department. The best thing I can do right now is push forward, focus on school, and worry about girls later on. I've learned my lesson, and that's the fact that a girl can just be a huge distraction, as I (and my grades) found out the first two years of college. Who would have thought that my mom would actually be right about that?

Finals Aren't Stressing Me- At All

Honestly, I must be one of the very few people that doesn't get stressed around finals. You've got the library open 24 hours and people always in there. I'll take a good night's sleep over going on Red Bull overload and pulling an all-nighter. I guess that's why I've always had a different college experience from everyone else.

I studied for my CSE 231 final a little bit with Kristin today; there's still a lot of stuff that I'm not clear on, so hopefully the prof will hold a review session.

Tomorrow I'm heading up to the library to study Econ and Stats, and maybe a little more C++ stuff. My first final, STT 351 (Stats) isn't until Tuesday night, and I'm not too worried about that. The professor actually made us a 3 page cheat sheet to use, so I'll just spend some time adding in examples and learning the last few sections, seeing as how I didn't pay any attention the last couple lectures. Last Thursday a few of us spent most of class trying to figure out a Sudoku, but couldn't get it.

Well, time for the Lions (Sunday Night Football, what a joke) and the Pistons game later on. That just means no more studying tonight. Oh well, I'll be fine.

Friday's Top Five: Movies

I did one of these a while back, and then just stopped. So without further ado:

5. Fargo
4. American Beauty
3. Fight Club
2. Unbreakable
1. The Shawshank Redemption

No comedies on this list, these are the movies that I could just sit at home, all alone, and watch. Of course, company is always appreciated.

The Blizzard of 05!!!!

I don't think this qualified as a blizzard, but from I could see from outside the window this morning, we got around 7 inches of snow.

Just as we were going to sleep around 1:30 last night, Josh had the genius idea to go outside and walk in the snow. Here's the parking lot, to the left.







Michigan Avenue- the streets weren't plowed, and while we were walking around, the few people driving gave us some weird looks. All I have to say is that I wish I wore a pair of tube socks, because plenty of snow got in my boots.

Once we came back, I ended up playing some PS2, and finally called it a night around 3. Can't wait to go outside today.

First Picture (That I Wanted On Here)

Of course it's going to be of the Sparty statue! Anyway, it's snowing pretty decently right now, and we're supposed to get as much as 7 inches overnight, so that means plenty of winter pics tomorrow. If you're interested enough in snow. Which you're probably not.

I Should Probably Be Studying

After all, finals are next week. I also have a Stats quiz in the evening, but for some reason, I can never get going on this whole "grind out the last two weeks of the semester" deal. I wouldn't say I've run out of gas, I think I've just stopped caring, more or less. I've got to fix that.

I got my camera today, a PowerShot A610. Hopefully that means more pictures coming up in entries- we'll see.

Last night, I almost suffered mightily because MSU's server was seemingly down. No MSU-related sites could be accessed, and I was starting to freak out because I hadn't handed in my final programming code, the code that I put almost 24 hours into. Thankfully, the server came back up around 11 and I was able to submit my file.

I think I'm going to head to the library and get some studying done there- I'm more worried about my Econ final than anything else, so the plan is to study the Macroeconomics section at least 2 hours each night until next Wednesday. I just read that to myself, and realized there's no way I can work with Econ for more than 30 minutes at a time. Three cheers for short attention spans and boring curriculum!

I Woke Up at 7:30....

....And didn't come back to my apartment til around 6:30 today. I had class from 8:30 to 10, and then after meeting with my professor for the whole "cheating" thing, I worked on programming with Kristin and a couple other people (although I doubt Art is much help at all) from 11 to 4. Of course, there was that little lunch break (Mediterranean Chicken Wrap & Hummus from Woody's Oasis, good stuff), but that just counts as work time too.

Then there was the co-op seminar from 4-5, and Stats from 5:30-6; I left early, went back to the apartment, grabbed my laptop, and drove back to the Engineering Building, where I was until 8:30. I think I've put in around 15 hours on this damn project, and there's probably around 2 or 3 more hours of work to do. I can't wait til it's over. The project part at least, I will miss the class.

Geez, Justin's Got A Lot Of Free Time

You know what? I'll let that one slide, but only because it's true.

I was at the Engineering Building from 3-7:30 today, working on an absolutely frustrating and ever-complicated project. I'm glad it's due Wednesday night, because I don't want to spend more than 5 hours working on it tomorrow.

And apparently my programming code from one of my projects got flagged for being too similar to another student's work:

For Computer Project #9, your solutions were identified as being essentially
the same. That is not acceptable, since the computer projects are
individual assignments.

Excellent. Awesome. I'm not stressing out over it because I know it's just a simple misunderstanding. I still have to talk to the Professor about it tomorrow morning after class. He's a pretty good guy, so I'm sure we'll be able to clear it up.

It snowed for most of today, but I couldn't tell if it actually added up to the four inches we got over the weekend. All I know is that my pants were soaked for most of the day.

My parents are leaving for India tomorrow evening; my brother and I aren't leaving until the 22nd, which sucks. I'm now old enough that I can actually appreciate traveling to another country, and this time around I only get to spend a week there. As much as I'd love to sightsee this time around, it'll be more of a family trip, seeing as how I haven't been there since the fourth grade. There's so many cousins I've never met before, and obviously that's going to be a little strange. Still, I'm excited to go.

At the time of this posting, Blogger was down or something, because no one could access any blogs on blogger. Hopefully this gets fixed, otherwise I could save the typing and just talk to myself. Which I do anyway. Sometimes.

Thanks to Horst, or Hans, or Franz

This big burly German feller came into class today, huffing and puffing, and with a strange smile on his face and in a loud booming voice, announced that our class was cancelled for today. "So you are free to do whatever you please!" I said thanks and left Wells Hall immediately. What a waste of time to walk there and back. And now I've got to head back out to the Engineering Building to work on my last programming project of the semester.

I ordered a camera over the weekend, the Canon Powershot A610. Cost me around $200, and wow, is that going to hurt even more when the credit card bill comes. I wanted a nice camera to take to India so I can take as many photos as possible. Hopefully I'll be able to post some up here and let you know what I'm up to there.

Well, back out into the cold I go. Not cool. Well, it is, but it's not cool in the sense that it's awesome. Because it sucks. It sucks royal blue monkey nuts.

It's 2 A.M., I Must Be Lonely

If you know the Matchbox 20 song, it's 3 a.m. But I don't feel like staying up another hour, even though I'm not tired at all. I know I'm just going to hit the wall around 12:30 tomorrow afternoon.

After watching most of the Pistons game tonight, I headed over to Cedar Village to hang out with Jess, Andrea, and a bunch of other people. Since I drove, I didn't drink, just relaxed, met some new people, played a little foosball and caught up with some friends.

Funny Drunk Interaction of The Night:

(Random guy on couch, after seeing my watch)
Random guy: Dude, that's like some kind of James Bond shit, that watch!
Me: Yeah, it's pretty sweet (I push the button to show him the digital readout). The digital's helpful, I can't read those hands.
Random guy: Really? I'm just the opposite, I can't read digital!
Me: Are you serious?
Random guy: Hahahaha no man, I'm just shittin ya! I pulled that same thing with my mom and she fell for it too!

December? Already?

What in the hell is happening to time? November came and went just as fast as October, and I don't even remember September. Might as well bring on December.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but my Stats professor loves integrating current events and politics into his examples. Actually, I have mentioned this. I'm pretty sure. Anyway, today, his example about Tests Concerning Hypotheses (exciting, I know), brought about another tie into something we might be able to relate to.

Professor: "So, do you guys remember the O.J. Simpson trial? You might not, it happened a long time ago and most of you are too young to remember (No one answered mostly because we were tired, we just smiled and let him go on). Anyway, it was a very long trial for the murder of his wife, Nicole Simpson---Nicole Brown Simpson, and her..... friend, Ron Goldman."

Then he went into his example, which I won't bother with here, because honestly, I don't remember it. The good news is that I got the whole crossword done.

One more week of class, and then I'm done, for a little while. I can't believe it. I'm definitely going to miss my friends, especially a few of the ones I made this semester. No worries, I'm sure I'll be visiting East Lansing a couple times.

Lucky = Break Even

After the first quarter of the Pistons game last night, Josh and I made a quick run up to Kroger for more of those delicious donuts. I swear, they lace them with crack or something, because between the two of us, we've eaten like 10 or 12 of those boxes in the past 3 weeks.

On the way out, I saw the instant ticket machine- I had been feeling lucky all day for some reason, so I decided to get one of the $1 tickets. As lucky as I may have felt, all I did was get $1.00 3 straight times. I'll take a break-even and buy another ticket, why the hell not? Would've been nice to win a little bit more, but oh well.

This apartment search thing in Kentucky is getting a little hectic. They don't have any furnished apartments available, so we're probably going to end up renting some furniture, because I don't feel like dragging a couch and desk and other crap 340 miles. Hopefully everything works out smoothly.

And it's becoming more apparent that I most likely won't be able to celebrate my 21st birthday up here; I start working on the 9th, and the 7th is a Saturday. I want to be here with the few friends I have, not down in Lexington. I'll have to save the celebration for another weekend I guess.

Well, seeing as how I skipped my programming lecture this morning, I'm going to try and be productive the rest of the day. Probably not.