I am still not in the mood to do any more programming today… Bleh

In shopping news, the Discovery store is having a sale on DVDs. If watching Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman on the Discovery channel isn’t enough, you can get your fix of Mythbusters on sale! Go forth my people and shop.

This may get a little geeky/technical for some folks, sorry.

My last programming assignment was a little tough. My partner and I were having a terrible time getting things to work the way we wanted them to. The task was to write a program that would computer the cheapest route to different cities based on the file with cities and values given to us. We also had to use Dijkstra’s algorithm to do it. It was nearly identical to my assignment for my networking class (we had to write it in c to update routing tables). My problem was that I was reading in city names this time. I couldn’t for the life of me think of a way to keep the names, and node numbers associated with them, sorted and manageable while still working.

Eventually I did exactly what I did for my networking assignment with the added fun of a couple of arrays and an arraylists for the names. It may have been redundant and could have been coded better, but I didn’t realize until about two hours before the deadline that we had to sort our results alphabetically. I didn’t want to have to completely rewrite sections of code, so I threw my print statement in a loop. My loop passed my arraylist into a new array and then sorted the array of names. which then properly printed everything in alpha order! Go me! In hindsight, I see where it would have been smarter to move a few things out of my loop. However, I got it working and needed to get it ready to submit, so I didn’t see it at the time.

So now I am doing something almost exactly the same using Kruskal’s algorithm. However, I am just way too burned out to work on anything. Not to mention that I have an exam on Thursday and this program is due Friday night. I wish we were doing something different, something fun. Maybe then I would be motivated.

It gets frustrating sometimes going over theory and rarely getting to gui related programming. Both are rather necessary in today’s java programming world. /sigh I suppose if I wanted to do that, I could go into the Media Design something major. That is mostly for video game development. I could contribute to the dumbing down of society! Maybe not.

Due to my horribly hectic schedule this week, I won’t be seeing the latest Harry Potter film on opening night. Instead, I am hoping that Josh and I can see it this weekend or early next week. Ideally I would like for us to see it in IMAX: 3D. I can hope, right? It is the fight scene towards the end that I believe is in 3D. You Potter fans know which one I am talking about. I hope it is because that would be lovely.

So, with that, I continue on dealing with my hectic schedule. I will read all of the tales of the wonderful movie but I will not have seen it yet. I will survive.

I just started watching the episode of the Simpsons where Marge enters the realm of online gaming. I’ve never seen this episode! It’s great!

Pardon me while I rant for a bit. The so-called new seven wonders of the world suck. I don’t consider them wonders at all. I consider them freaking tourist sites. Well except Petra, that’s always been awesome, but has sort of become touristy.

Thank goodness UNESCO has some common sense.

Brittany and I went to the Orlando Science Center and saw the Our Bodies exhibit. We saw almost everything. We chose not to see the pre-natal section (children and fetuses with deformities) and the um, private parts section. Brittany wasn’t really interested in either and neither was I.

We spent most of the time looking at the organs and the veins/arteries etc. The presentations of the bodies themselves seemed to be more for shock value than scientific purposes. It was kind of sad. Though it was quite informative in regards to the organs etc.

If you are squeamish, I wouldn’t go see it. I would have been fine with just seeing the organs and systems than seeing the “bodies” the way they were presented. Josh says the presentation was probably due to someone’s desire to make it an artistic endeavour as well as scientific. Or something like that. I’m tired, you get the idea.

The rest of the Science center is great for kids under 10. Brittany and I played with some of the things and had fun, but I think it will be really good for the other youngins.

After we finished at the science center, mini-me needed a dose of Starbucks. She’s only slightly addicted.

Tomorrow I am taking mini-me to see Our Body: The Universe Within at the science center. I told her I would take her for her birthday. Every time we tried to go, something came up. My class for tomorrow as cancelled, so I figured it was probably the best time to do it. I had scheduled myself to be busy tomorrow, so it works out fine. If I had known they were open today, I would have gone today. Oh well.

So, I am hoping they let us take pictures within the exhibit. I haven’t been to this science center in nearly 15 years. I know tons of stuff has changed. It should be fun!

I generally try to get on campus by 7:30am. Today I was running late. I got here around 8am. 8am is the time I used to get here, but I have realized I get bored at home, so I leave earlier now since I am already awake. Today my usual parking lot was full. My classes are in the same building. I only need to leave he building for non vending machine food. My usual parking lot is adjacent to this building. I was not a happy camper when I had to find somewhere else to park today. The garage was already insanely full, but I found a parking lot that had a few spaces left. So, more than likely I will get soaked today, but I brought a golf umbrella, so that might help.

OK, off to work on another program. Must finish this crap.

Oh.. not getting the Masala today. It was hard enough to find the spot I did, I’m not risking losing it. It is raining so I can’t walk over there. It is across the street from the main entrance to campus, not too far.

OK. I don’t have any garam masala. That is somewhat essential. Josh and I tried the lentils without it and it was really lacking. I also think I need a garlic press as well. I may hit the middle eastern market tomorrow before classes. I don’t know what time they open though. Argh, that could be an issue.

I’m experimenting with lentils right now. I’m attempting to make some daal soup. I’m using a mix of a couple or recipes and my own memory. This one from Route79.com* has some of the ingredients I remember. Josh has a beer brewing book that also has some of the ingredients. I know the ingredients I need, it is the quantity of them that I can’t remember. I’m trying to remember all of the times I have watched my dad make it and I think this will be a lot of trial and error. Josh and I have a huge pot of them to eat, even if we don’t like them. /gulp

I will post the taste results either tonight or tomorrow. Once the recipe is refined enough, I’ll post it in the recipes section.

*I saw the Aloo Gobi link and just had one of those moments. Yumm.