Geez it’s been a long day. I’m very tired. I have a lot to do before going to Chicago: three tests to take and an art project to finish. Oh well. I don’t have enough dress pants to take with me. Maybe I can get Mom to spring for a new pair of khakis. I miss the money I got from tutoring, but there is no way I could have worked this semester while maintaining this pace. Seems like I never get caught up. Ce la vie!

I got to see my cat when I went home a couple weeks ago. She has grown so much and can now inflict serious damage with one quick bite. Mean little beast. As long as you feed her, she won’t attack. If boredom sets in, though, it’s all she wrote. I miss my cat. I think playing with her would help me wind down from this super-long day.

I redesigned the site once again. I know, I know. You’re probably thinking “Gee Trav, got too much time on your hands?” Well, the answer is a resounding, “No!” There are two reasons why I’m always monkeying with my site: I love web design and designing a new page is just good practice. Because I took the time to set the site up to be as dynamic as possible (ala using a database to generate pages), I can plop down a new user interface frontend in about 2 hours, which was the case today. I added weather and the external links panel on the right. Anyway, look for other little tidbits in the coming weeks.

Life boils down to a series of associations. The world around me is like a living memory. Smells, sounds, and sensations all drum up some past memory. Everyone experiences this, but sometimes I think I have a higher affinity for it because it’s hard for me to look out the window without reliving something in my mind. The odd thing about many of the associations I have is that many of them are not based on anything particuarily rememberable or tragic. The most mundane things are linked to certain songs I hear. Because of this, I have a fairly detailed bank of memories that depict everyday life that most people would probably lose in the sands of time. I don’t really think that makes me special but instead different.

I have two tests and two quizzes today, back-to-back-to-back. That’s not so bad. I think I’m prepared for them all. The problem is that I’m very sleepy, and sleep deprivation generally leads to stupid mistakes and errors. I can handle just totally getting something wrong on a test but I can’t stand missing something because I did something stupid. It’s the same as losing a basketball game by one point. Oh well.

I am currently living from weekend to weekend. The constant barrage of projects and homework is aggrevating, mostly because the majority of it is meaningless. If I understand a concept, leave me alone about it. Don’t make me do a ton of stuff to prove I know this stuff. I read the material before class as I am supposed to, and, oddly enough, I think about the stuff I just read. I’m a Senior: I wish I were being treated like it.

I took this computer art class as one of my two electives. It’s computer art and we use Photoshop and Illustrator on Macs. I like the computer part, but when we done with a project, we have to mount it on matboard. For those of you who don’t know, matboard is like very thick, stiff posterboard. Cutting this stuff with an X-acto knife or anything else is difficult. For whatever reason, I have always had a hard time cutting straight lines. Cutting a straight line on this matboard has proven a near impossiblility. I can’t practice with the stuff because it’s $5 a sheet and I really don’t have the money to go nuts and experiment. The mounting process has taken all the joy out of what would otherwise be a very enjoyable class. Welcome to Senior year I guess.

So Friends premiered its 10^th and final season last night. While I did laugh, I cannot say it was a memmorable opener. The show, as bad as I hate to say it, is tired. The writers have ran out of ideas and I feel the cast is so ready to move on that they just don’t care anymore. I just hope all involved can pull it together to give the show the awesome ending it deserves.

ER premiered also with pretty much the same story. It wasn’t bad but it didn’t leave me with my mouth opened like last year’s. The underlying thread that the season will follow was not introduced. On a brigther note, a new med student was introduced that should prove quite interesting.

The new show Coupling also made its first appearance. I give the show no more than five episodes. The show tried so hard to freak me out with its toilet humor. I guess the writers wanted me to say, “Oh my God! They can’t say that!” The truth is that we have had far too much South Park, The Shield, and Nip/Tuck to think that now. Cable TV isn’t that far from HBO now. The creators of Coupling obviously haven’t been watching enough TV lately.

I’m sitting here studying for the Econ 300 test tomorrow. I actually think I’ll be ok if the quiz questions we’ve seen so far are anything like the test. I’ll probably study about 3 more hours tonight and then some in the morning. I honestly don’t think studying a lot for this kinda stuff matters much once you get in there. You know the formulas and the process or you don’t.

I was thinking today about how scared I was during much of my childhood during all the surgeries and whatnot. Then I thought of the Jews during the Holocaust. I cannot, based on my past, imagine how horrid it must have been for them. I faced pain, but it was under controlled conditions, and Mom and Dad were always there to watch out for and take care of me. The poor Jewish kids had no one to watch out for them since they were tore from the arms of their parents. That’s just horrible. I don’t really know why I thought of that, but I did. I guess the Jews that survived that are proof that humans are made of tougher stuff than it would seem.

Senior Year is shaping up exactly as I thought it would: I’m incredibly busy and time seems to be flying by. My horrid math class is going OK so far, but I’m saying that before we’ve had our first test. I’ve done good on the quizzes, but those questions are usually just a taste of what you see on the tests. The wierd part is that I do very well on the Calculus and higher math, but the Algebra always gets me. Oh well.

I’m off to get a haircut in a minute or so. I decided I don’t like shaved-head Trav so much. So I’m going back to regular-hair Trav with Kung-Fu Grip™.

Today ends the second week of classes. My first impression is that I’m not going to have too many problems. My Econ 300 class is going to require a lot of studying, but other than that, I dont’ think I’ll have to work too much.

I have an art class that’s really interesting. It’s an art & computer class. All of our work is done either in Illustrator or Photoshop AND on a Mac. So far, I really prefer my PC over the cutesy, slow machine from Steve Jobs & company.

I have been playing Star Wars Galaxies for about a week and have managed to achieve the title of Master Artisan. I have never played a massively multiplayer online game that allows you to gain a useful position in the society so fast. Some sociologists should study the dynamics of these kinds of games. There is a lot of player interaction.

I’ll head off to my first class here in about 15 minutes…I slept good last night, which is a first for me on a night before classes begin. It’s amazing how confident I am…Not a care in the world really. I guess it should be that way after 17 years of the first day of class. I’m going to break this semester in half!!! The marathon is almost over. As tempting as it would be to get my masters now, I just don’t think I want to. Trying to do something academically without doing it wholeheartedly is stupid, so, I’m going to jump straight into the job market. Carpe Dium!