[Giving a damn]

The weekend went fairly well. I spent most of it reading about 80 pages of statistics, which (thankfully) is the 2nd biggest reading chunk I'll have for the course this semester. It's very interesting stuff by and large, where basically you are looking at one measure (e.g. number of publications) and seeing how the value of another variable (e.g. salary) can be predicted because of that first variable. So basically you can ask, "What kinda salary will I have if I've gotten 10, 20, or 30 publications?" and get an answer. I have 7 more pages to go for today, most of which involve how to graphically display different aspects of your data, see if there are glaring errors in how it "behaves", stuff like that.

I also just got an e-mail from the brain damage prof. about getting the articles for our 2nd class. I downloaded them, printed them out, and in total it's only 20-25 pages. I haven't read them yet, but to me that's fairly light. I can do that and stats today no problem, I figure.

The only thing annoying me is my advisor's reticence on sending in our procedure/protocol for our experiment. He feels we should wait until March. I think we should send it in in February. As some of you might recall my bitching, the animal research committee and Mt. St. University was a pack of conservative boulder people, delighting in stopping progress for alot of minor bureaucratic questions. I expect that the animal research committee here will be just as stingy as bastardly, so I wanna fight the bastards as soon as possible--even if our lab is turning in another protocol for review that's kinda controversial. I'm used to arguing with these sorts of people. Hell, I revel in it--so bring that shit ASAP is what I say.

But I'm not gonna wait any longer than necessary to start my research. There are people who've started theirs back in the fall semester. Frankly I feel foolish not even having the experiments officially approved yet. True, most psych. people work with humans and that's a HELL of alot easier than animals...but I am getting impatient.

Soundtrack: New Radicals, "Dreamer's Disease"

On the social front, nothing amazing or unexpected. There are several people who haven't returned my e-mails or messages, but I'll give it time. I either don't immediately need the money or I simply expect silence. Either way, status quo.

I'm enjoying the usual dynamic of studying most of the day. I have a little more free time than I'm comfortable with, but I think that'll change when the stats class starts to have homework, expects a segment of the semester project to be turned in, etc. So for now it's easier than last semester. I can live with that. I don't expect that to be the case for all of it, especially toward the end, but it is a nice transition from vacation.

On that note I might have some free time today to finish more of the demo dialogues for U9R. This is a fan-based remake of the last game in the "Ultima" series that Origin produced. The original one was a huge disappointment to most people, so we decided to create something that'd offer a better sense of closure. I've been doing this off and on for about two years. I am geek, hear me code.

The whole process has been rocky as hell:

*We had a decent team set up, but then the leader suddenly left without a trace, completely wiped our FTP database (and destroyed a good year or two of work), then was uncontactable.

*We slowly recovered, but some people dropped out, the two co-leaders got bored, and the project was in danger of death.

*All of the sudden another team headed by a german dude came in and said we should combine our resources. It's been kinda sorta smooth sailing ever since.

The fan base seems content for the moment, but I know they want a playable demo sometime soon. It's a cool thought, I think: over 1,500 people, maybe more, will be able to enjoy the characters I've crafted. It's an odd way to publish some creative writing, but I've always wanted to be involved in making a game ever since I was a kid.

I'm the only person doing the writing for the one town we have in the playable demo. Basically, then, it gets released when I'm done. I think I have 4-6 more characters to write up, but half of them are already completed.

I don't know if the full version of the game will ever be released, considering we're in dire need of some 2D and 3D artists, but at least the demo will get a shot--and really, I just want to know how people like what I've created, even if it's a smidge.

Guess that goes for all art, really.

And so I'll head over to Mao's coffee (no, not its actual name) across the street, read awhile, drink the best hot chai this city has to offer, and contemplate time, stats, water and ionic imbalances found after accute and chronic brain damage, the universe, stuff.

Mostly brain damage and stuff.

[/Damn]

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