RyanHarne.com

My alarm clock has a strict 6-minute snooze so as to not allow me a chance to fully reach deep sleep between intervals. Desipte my well-tuned and calculated snooze programming, obviously a sign I want the best possible relationship with this particular bedroom component, my alarm clock still hates me.

The alarm went off precisely an hour late this morning, leaving me just enough time to panic-shower, make an iced latte, and set a stride to campus. Throughout all of this, I didn’t doubt the veracity of my alarm clock but of the time itself. I double-checked my cellphone (daylight savings enabled) for clarity. “Spring forward, Fall back, Summer… sideways?” The confusion was heightened due to my rush. (I mean, I like to be calm and focused when I make myself a latte; I almost spilled the espresso this morning, too).

Apparently, the good people of RCA included special un-advertised features into their alarm clock line like “Spontaneous Inabilities to Keep Time” and “Flickering LED Display - Now with More Flicker”.

As with all apparent disasters, there is a calm after the storm. This calm says I’ve decided to devote some time to Semapedia.org.

Thanks to the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Public Library System ::vigorously inhale for next phrase:: I have been reading through Brian Greene’s The Fabric of the Cosmos. Our common human experiences tell us to consider life on the surface scale, the eyelevel-only arena. Compared to reading his first book, The Elegant Universer, I am far more actively thinking about things both great big and great small when away from this book. And furthermore, watching Powers of Ten by the Eames’ is incredibly impressing for my thoughts. It makes me think of the pull-away shot from Contact (plus, its reverse).

And the VT library system has agreed to order Neubau Welt for me. Why? Because I asked. A librarian at the circulation desk had told me about their system for requesting books, CDs, DVDs, magazines, whatever. I submitted my request at 11am Friday and by 2pm I had received an email saying it was ordered. Just be on the lookout for silhouette graphics.

Or any graphics actually. Summer Session One 2006! has been more intense than I was expecting. I haven’t once sat down to calmly work on a new header. (But learning German is Spaß auch).

There is a reason I try and keep away from the internet during homework sessions. I start checking eBay items of possible interest. I read articles related to the interests of Apple Computer, Inc. I actually open iChat and begin talking to people. My homework session turns into an impromptu, full-out internet adventure.

Oh, yeah. And I start blogging.

BUT! today was a good impromptu internet endeavor.

Thanks, Jeremiah, for a wondeful belated birthday gift.

Can the Internet possibly make more fun of me?

Well…. yes.

I found out that the address at my apartment that I was told is the address to my apartment is not the address to my apartment. If anyone has attempted to send stuff to me (postcards, carefully packaged packages, anything that would require a stamp to be sent first-class), I apologize if you have had it sent back to you with the USPS message, “We don’t feel like deducing that 401 M is equivalent to 401 Apt. M.”

Brian Greene’s The Fabric of the Cosmos is really neat. But, so far the first five chapters are identical to what he wrote in The Elegant Universe. Granted, the material is so closely related that the same background material must be referenced once again. Yet, I am haphazardly racing through it with the expectation that thar be more gold to uncovrrrrr.

I had a four-hour nap this evening and it was fun. Now, I am finishing up a report for my Vibrations class that includes very neat graphs like this bumpy thing, this bumpy thing, and this twirly thing.

For the past week, every time I look outside it appears like it is about to rain. Merkwüdig.

While I wait for MATLAB for calculate some 250,000 numbers as a check the consistency of a few plots of incredible importance for a Vibrations course project, I think I should provide an update. You know, for record purposes when I’m putting together my memoirs and autobiography. I like to have records of things that happen. It makes me know what really happened. From my perspective (which is the best perspective for an autobiography).

I worked almost a double tonight since someone called in (again) saying they couldn’t work. It was the most exhausting night of my Summer Session One 2006!. Perhaps understandably, I listen to “heavy rock music” when I get this stressed. There is a reason why I have the full Chevelle catalogue in my iTunes library.

I haven’t cleaned the apartment since the first days of my move-in almost a month ago. It bothers me. I will eat a piece of a muffin while laying down on my bed (of course, with a napkin or paper towel to catch crumbs), but inevitably I locate stray pieces of the foodstuff on the sheets when I get back up. And (I’m totally admitting to it), I just brush them on the floor. I really need to vacuum. Or, have someone else vacuum for me. (I will make you dinner).

This was supposed to be a pretty fun day, with only an afternoon shift (maybe even evening time to vacuum… maybe not). But things led to things led to not a pretty fun day. Oh well.

MATLAB is not a multi-threaded application and this saddens me. I guess 250,000 is a larger value than I realized. I am wondering how long I will actually watch this thing calculate decimal values. It’s somewhat hypnotic.

Either returning from campus or Bollo’s, I usually end up taking a walk pretty late back to my place. In some instances, late enough to catch up with the local nocturnals. No, not the derelicts or prowling architecture students, but the local nocturnal animal chapter. A few days ago, I was returning to the apartment when an owl met me along the way. My eyes were sufficiently adjusted to the lack of light that I could make out a few features - grey feathers, 10ish inches long, cautious blinks. It flew right into my path and landed on the sidewalk in front of me, contributing no audible sound to its presence apart from the swift movement of air prior to its touchdown. We stared each other down for almost a minute before I motionlessly approached it. Eventually, it got tired of my game, opened wide its wings, and flew into the yard beside me. A beautiful, gorgeous creature. No less.

Last night, I heard it hooting when I was coming back from campus. I stopped walking, the hooting stopped - I didn’t feel like waiting for a visit, so I kept to my path, and, of course, the hooting returned.

This morning, on the way to an exciting test, I saw the owl. However, it was out in broad daylight, in an inanimate state, laying face down in the ground. The owl certainly did not look up in age when I first met it, so I have ruled the elderly, natural death out.

So what option remains for this owl’s unprecedented demise?

Fowl play.

That was so not funny, though. The bird was beautiful, like I said, and my encounter with it was a wonderful nighttime event. I only wish there is another one to take its place, something else for me to frequently keep touch with on my walks back. Anything really. Anything that is not the opossum I met a week ago.