Needless to say, I think this has been the best course that I’ve ever taken at school. At least, so far. I honestly feel as if I could build a very simple calculator from scratch if given the appropriate tools. And you know what? I probably could. Giving me transistors alone would be tedious, and I would have one very large calculator on my hands. But, I would still be able to build it. In fact, you can make transistors on your own out of pretty simple things, but they would be pretty large. Which means that I would be able to build a very simple calculator out of nothing (provided that I know how to make my own transistors consistently). And that excites me. I feel like I’m learning something useful. It’s wonderful.

But my example of a simple calculator doesn’t even compare to a computer’s processor. No sir. In fact, even talking about it doesn’t do it justice. There is so much that goes on that it’s mind blowing. So I’m going to stop here. It’s very humbling to know how far we’ve gone as a race, and I can think of no better example than the computer’s processor as a testament to our achievements.

If that isn’t enough, there are even talks of quantum computing. What’s that? Well, I’ll explain it in a nutshell. You know all those 1s and 0s that your computer understands? You’ve probably seen it in movies, or heard of it being referred to as binary. In any case, binary only has two states. 1 or 0. On or off. What quantum computing does is add a third state. Both on and off at the same time. I tried thinking about this and only found that if I kept at it long enough my head would start to hurt.

Technology is amazing.

Anyhoo, forgetting that I have back-to-back 2 hour lectures, I think my Mondays in first semester are going to be all right. I’m really looking forward to the software development course. Stuff like version control, SSH, build tools and vi (bonus! take that emacs!) are finally going to be covered. I’ve wanted to be an Ubuntu MOTU for quite a while now, and I feel that after this semester I can finally ease into the transition of becoming one. What else? Oh yeah, the CSC258 course is going to be pretty sweet. It has a pretty awesome prof, and it’s all about computer hardware, logic circuits, and other related stuff. In other words, a continuation of high school computer engineering. Fun.

Oh, and the other courses aren’t worth mentioning, so I won’t. Maybe it was me being tired that made me extremely drowsy in these classes, or maybe it was that it was well…for lack of a better word: boring. Ah well, it’s the first day of school. Can’t expect to much from a course on the first day.

But yeah, it’s a wonder I’m even still typing. I made a pact with one of my friends that we’d hit the haystack before midnight every school night. I wonder how long that will last, haha. 34 more minutes and I break that pact. God damn…

All in all, I’m going to be very busy this semester. Three math courses and three computer science courses are enough to drive any person insane. I’ve also restricted the amount of hobbies this semester. I’m going to actually have to try for once in my life. I look forward to seeing what I can accomplish when I actually give it my best.

Good night!

And even my good eye is slightly far sighted! The nice Vietnamese lady told me that there is no point in getting glasses now since I’ve made it this far in life without them. But eventually, I will need them. I told her that I wouldn’t mind wearing glasses, so she brought out a pair of experimental glasses. The kind that look like a big pair of evil robot eyes with removable lenses. Tried a few of the lenses on and found out that they actually helped. And they felt kinda relaxing for my eyes, as well. So I’ve decided that I will get glasses. I could do without them. Really, I could. I mean, my good eye is pulling the weight for both my eyes, but how long can he keep it up?

But yes. I really can’t read at all with my left eye. Even now, as I type this I’m covering my right eye and trying to read what’s on the screen. I can sorta make out the letters, but I wouldn’t be able to read them coherently. And it’s worse the more I move back. Meh, it looks like I’m going to be completing the geek stereotype once I get my glasses. Thank goodness I already went through the braces phase. Fear of the sun can’t be too far behind, though.

I’ve been told by some of my closer friends that I’m getting ahead of myself. Which in the past has proved to be true. I must have started dozens of projects in the past. All of which I haven’t finished. But this time it’s different! I swear! I have a story, a drawing style, a few panels ready, and some pretty good ideas. So even if I don’t continue this project, I will have at least accomplished something this time around. Actually, I don’t even wanna talk about not completing this project. I don’t want to jinx it.
But anyways, I’ve learned a lot from previous projects, which is why I think this webcomic will be a blast. For one, at the beginning I won’t have a scheduled release date for updates. I generally find that when people set absolute dates, they almost never get anything done. Especially when they don’t have to, and especially when they set these dates themselves. Which seems weird, but I guess that’s just how we work. Or maybe, I’m just describing myself. Anyways, so I won’t have a scheduled release date, but that doesn’t mean I’ll update it once a month. A few times a week seems reasonable.

The second thing I wanted to talk about was other people. I wouldn’t mind having a partner in crime. Really. I’m a friendly guy, and the more the merrier. In fact, I wouldn’t mind having a bunch of people drawing comics. This just means more updates. So, everyone wins! But yes, we’ll see how that goes. I also wouldn’t mind working alone, but if I’m deprived of human contact I may become rabid.

And finally, I’ve said all that without even mentioning what the comic is about! Well, just like the post title suggests, the comic is epic. It’s about your average programmer, living an average life. However, one day (and I won’t mention how) he finds himself in another world. A world filled with castles, dragons, honour, pride, knights and all things epic. That’s gist of it. It’s meant to be humorous, and fun. I’ll also diverge from the story with random fillers that aren’t part of anything. Maybe combining a lolcat and a lolrus? We’ll see.

Well, that’s about it. Bye for now! Видимо се! じゃまた。

The biggest change has been to the blog categories. If you take a look to the right, you’ll notice that I’m not using a drop down box to maintain categories anymore. Instead, it’s an expandable menu now. Currently, there are 32 categories, including parent categories, and many more to be added as I increase the breadth of my postings. With that came a complete tagging of all my posts, and an updating of how titles were handled. So yes, from now on, everything will be much more organized.

Along with that update, a minor error was also fixed. When clicking “view previous posts” or something to that effect, a 404 was thrown. I have updated permalinks and changed around some of the page code so that it works like a charm now.

The next and final website update is the addition of random quotes! They’re right under the title. Currently there are 4 witty quotes from pretty famous people. The best part of all the quotes is that they make you think. Because, in my opinion if a quote doesn’t make you think, it’s a pretty useless quote. If you refresh the page a little, you’ll no doubt encounter them all.

All righty. Now onto my life. The biggest change, and the only one really, is that I’ve finally devoted myself to a martial art. I will be starting aikido in a few weeks. Currently, I’m strength training, and running a lot to get in better shape. I haven’t even started aikido yet, and my life has already taken a turn for the better. I have a daily routine now, and I feel great. I find that doing all of your training in the morning is a lot better than doing it later in the day. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the getting-it-over mentality I have while doing. Maybe. But I don’t do it because I think I have to. I do it because I enjoy it, and I really think it’s having a good impact on my life.

I wasn’t lying. That was the only update to my life. But I’d like to further digress on why I chose aikido over another martial art. I think the explanation is pretty interesting from my standpoint, but that’s just me. Ever since I was very little, I’ve always wanted to do something like karate. So this ambition to do some sort of martial art has been manifested in me since I was very small. But why aikido now? Well, almost like any Japanese martial art, there isn’t just a physical component, there is also a mental component. The mental aspect of aikido strongly appeals to me.

From wikipedia: Aikido is a Japanese martial art developed by Morihei Ueshiba as a synthesis of his martial studies, philosophy, and religious beliefs. The religious beliefs don’t apply to me, being an atheist and all. Not that O’Sensei (Morihei Ueshiba) had Christianity, Islam or Judaism in mind while creating aikido. The religious aspects were centered around ki/life force and extending love and compassion. Life force. The way I interpret this “life force” is as the spark of life. The willingness to live life. If the ki is weak, then your willingness to go on, and understand the things around you are low. However, if your ki is high, then the exact opposite is true, and you see beauty in living and in the things around you. You don’t really need ki for this interpretation, since one can live life like this anyway, but it certainly helps define what I believe the religious aspects to be. At least for me.

The philosophical side is even more interesting. Ueshiba’s goal was to create an art that practitioners could use to defend themselves while also protecting their attacker from injury. Which relates to the religious aspect, but this is a lot more practical. I don’t think I need to elaborate on the benefits of this, as any half-wit would be able to see them. But yes, this is why aikido seems so appealing to me.

I will not stop my training here, though. I intend to practice jujutsu and kenjutsu some time in the very near future. I want to be well versed in all of these arts.

Ah well, this post is getting long enough. I’ll see you all later. Take care.

Edit: After posting this, I realized that just a wikipedia link to aikido didn’t make me happy. So here is a video I just found that can help some people see what aikido looks like.

However, the service is now called Vreel. Don’t worry, it’s just a new name. I have no qualms with that, after all, Stage 6 was a pretty weird name itself. Regardless, the same service will be back. High definition DivX streaming! Woot! It won’t be the same as Stage 6, but it’ll be pretty damn similar! You can see Vreel here.

The only reason I didn’t start it earlier was because I have this thing about unfinished anime. Unfinished anything, for that matter. You see, Bleach is still being aired in Japan, so the anime is still far from complete. When I watch something, I like to know what happens next. Having to wait for episodes makes me kinda mad. This is one of the many reasons I can’t stand watching some of the shows on TV today.

But there is good news. Bleach has over 170 episodes! A new one is released every week. So it’ll be a while until I finally catch up. To be honest, I’m also kind of happy it hasn’t finished. I’ve only seen the first 10 episodes and I secretly want it to go on forever. However, like all good things it will end some day. But at least that won’t happen for a while!

As for the anime itself: it’s top notch. Superb story, wonderful world mechanics (meaning that the world makes sense), and great characters. Also, I must say that the funny parts are actually funny. Ichigo’s father cracks me up whenever he opens his mouth, or moves for that matter. In the first episode alone, he and his son got into a pretty funny fight. Ichigo walks into his house, and the first thing his father does is kick him in the gut. It was so random, but so great.
But the world is also pretty serious. I’m not going to elaborate too much on it, any case you haven’t seen Bleach, but trust me, it’s really good. It makes for a fantastic story.

One final note. I don’t want to speculate too much on this, but I feel some romantic tension between Ichigo and Rukia. Hopefully they hook up. In fact, I’m actually counting on it. No one better give me a spoiler…I’ll seriously be mad, lol. Also, she is my favourite character <3

But yes, that’s all I have to say for now. On a random note, I think I’ll be updating my blog categories really soon. They’re a mess. Go to the right and click on the drop-down menu yourself. Everything is all over the place.