Arizona - 1

It's been a long time since I updated this. Sorry, Eponymous. I'm in Arizona right now! ^^ I has a kitty sleeping next to me and I should probably start copying it. So I'm just going to do a short rundown of whats been going on today. I got here yesterday, but nothing really interesting happened. R and I looked (I assume you can figure out who R is, yes?) at my DLSR that was acting funny, so far it looks like it was the cards and my computer mucking them up or something. They have as many cats as I do, three chickens, and a gecko, by the way. :D I learned how to spin yarn, so much more fun than you'd think. X3 I'm still not very good, but I'm a newb. Then... lesseee... R and I went to "The Fortress" in downtown Phoenix, it's kinda in a ghetto area, it was creepy quite, but apparently crowded compared to what he usually sees. (It was quiet, but there were lots of people around, and about 3 ice cream trucks, kinda hard to explain) It really is a fortress, bars on the windows of the house, and the garage (which used to be a car place before the previous owners got it and fixed the place up, would've been cool for all the VW buses and all) had wood over all the windows and a solid metal door. That, and it was so full of stuff you'd have trouble taking things out without 20 or so people. The window had to be fixed (didn't know about that til we got there) and there was a letter in the mail because there was graffiti that needed to be painted over (thus why we were there).
I didn't think I'd get to go to a LAN party before the end of the year because I missed OTC's December one, but R was invited to a "Microsoft event" and brought me along. Played Halo 3 on the X-box the whole time. My best score was 13, my worst -2. I fell into a waterfall that I didn't know was gonna kill me and there was this thing that launches one across this big gap that had worked fine twice, but decided to only send me halfway accross. I hate that map. (It had a bridge, and we were like, 5 versus one 13 year old with l33t skillz).
I was about to finish up, but remembered one last thing, after the (okay, two last things) event, which was in a high rise building, we went to look out the window at night-Phoenix (yays, pretty) and I noticed this table with a screen with a picture of like, water and lily pads on it. It was Microsoft's Surface. We got to play with it a bit, no real(-life, useful) functions, but it was really fun. I'll tell you more later if you want. I didn't think I'd really see one for a long time. Oh, and I know Bill Gates after... 1... 2... 3... 4...? I think it might be four people. So you know him after five. Though, you'd probably want to know Steve Jobs by only a few people, ne? The other thing I remembered was that when we were out of the building we started taking pictures of their Christmas lights when security came over and chased us off. ._. That was the first time it'd ever happened to me. Apparently not so for R. I wonder if photography and computers are hereditary? :p
:O It's raining. Omg, not expected.
:/ It says 'Draft saved at 4:05 AM' but it's only 2:06 now.

Of Eeks and Languages

Bonjour!
I've discovered podcasts. Oh noes. I've already downloaded over three and a half gigs. ;.; Most of them are about learning a language. I don't want to get too far ahead in Japanese again because then I'll be bored and my mom will bug me about how bored I look. I'm listening to other languages instead. As I type this, it's 'Coffee Break French', obviously teaching French. I've subscribed to 24 language podcasts, not counting the two English ones, which covers 14 languages. O.o Eeks, I didn't realize it was that much until I went and counted. I don't really get what lesson three is talking about. O.O I just gained another gig. O.M.G. no wai. I think I'm gonna need a bigger hard drive...  (I had a little over 3.5 gigs when I got on the computer today, when I was typing this I had 4.5 or so)
On another note, I got to go to a fair with my friends, one of whom is currently about too many miles away. It was fun. I didn't ride many rides, but still. I guess that's what happens when you see a bunch of people you actually like after seeing no one for weeks. The picture I posted to my blog was from the top of the Ferris wheel, which cost four bucks. Luckily one of my friends somehow ended up with an extra ticket and gave it to me. (I only bought six tickets and rode the 'scrambler' which used up the last three of everyone else's tickets) I didn't know that it was going to take so long. o.o; I spent the whole time clinging to the bar in front of me with my left hand (and going Eeep!!! every time it moved to let the next people on XD ) and taking pictures with my phone in my right hand. :p I may have taken a bit of a hiatus with taking photos, but I'm not done being a photographer yet it seems. ^^
Hmm... what else... I hate my CIS 1100 class. I'm not even that sure what it is I hate. I just do. Though the teacher doesn't explain things that well, so what she expects us to do is kind of vague. There are some people who know what manga is in the class, the guy next to me reads Naruto, and the guy in the row in front of me reads Bleach. Yay. I'm doing pretty well in my other classes, which is good. (Eeks, I need to do my Japanese homework, it's due tomorrow)
Au revoir!

College, forgetting things, and (Other People) With Asperger's Syndrome, oh yeah, did I mention forgetting things?

I've got no intern3ts again, because I'm at my mom's work right now. As of yesterday [Sept. 4th, '08] I finished my first week of college. Japanese looks like it's going to be fun. My mom is taking it with me. The first lesson was boring me out of my skull, though, I think at least half of the class probably was. It looks like a lot of people already knew a bit before. Someone who works at OCC said that everyone who takes it is already interested in it. Funny thing is, there was this guy my mom and I recognized and I was about to ask when my mom asks if he looks familiar and we both can't remember. Then the teacher calls on him and I thought I had an idea of who he was, but I didn't want to talk or pass notes to my mom because I thought she'd go 'don't do that' >o or something. A few minutes later she writes on her notebook who she thinks he is. (same person I was thinking of) XD At the end of class he came over and talked to my mom (I was busy talking to the high schooler that's even younger than eponymous cowherd [My solitary commenter]) and gave her his contact info. I wrote about this guy once before: it can be found over at my old livejournal. And I thought I'd never see him again. :p
My Office '07 class doesn't look too hard. We don't meet in a room with computers, which is strange. The one who designed the book for this class was an idiot. It's spiral bound, soft cover, and about an inch and a half thick. The thing is really flimsy and heavy which makes it feel like it's going to collapse in on it self and make a black hole. \o/ Oh noes.
Information systems looks... bothersome. I have to make a blog and blab about some computery thing or something and there's a final paper and case studies and grar. I dun wanna write a paper. They always fall apart about a quarter of the way in. Even when I think I know what I'm going to be talking about. The teacher said something about trying to figure out an alternative project, but I have no idea what I could do yet.
I've forgotten what the other thing I was going to type about was. :/ Now I've got another hour and a quarter to kill before my mom can even hope to get off. She never gets off at four when they close. Always after four. Usually after five or six. No wonder she's only memorized the first few hiragana. I'm practicing katakana and hiragana with a game and listening to The Beatles. You can get the game at lrnj.com. [Darn. I just lost the game. You has a hour? half hour? whatever. anyways- you have some time to forget about it before you can lose the game. No clue what I'm talking about? Google it. Darn it. Read this later and lost again.]
I've come back to this post on the eighth and have forgotten the numerous things I was going to originally put in here and kept putting off. Oh yeah, if you notice some sort of grammar/spelling/whatever mistake in this would you please point it out? My English has been going down hill for awhile now without any corrections being made by anyone but myself and my computer.
I recently came across an article (I lost the link, sorry) about how ADHD and sleep deprivation have similar symptoms and that doctors don't take that into account often enough. It makes me wonder if I really have ADD or if I just couldn't focus because I stayed up late all the time. I still do [stay up], obviously. I read some things about Asperger's Syndrome too, and the people whose kids were supposedly diagnosed with it sounded like they were obsessive compulsive to me. [I really wish I could find my hard copy of the DSV-IV criteria for it.] I was under the impression that it has more to do with social interaction than routines and memory. Though I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't common for people with AS to have other things going on and I've heard about how ADD/ADHD and Asperger's patients can be really smart or remember certain things well. I think I read some one saying they couldn't believe their kid had it because he was so smart or something. It's Attention Deficit Disorder (or one of the others I mentioned), Not stupidity disease. Anyways... I didn't look very hard, but I only heard about people who had little kids (2-3 year olds) diagnosed with AS, not teenagers or adults. One lady did submit a comment to one of the articles about her husband who was diagnosed in his twenties. She talks about how they 'lived hour by hour' not 'day by day' and how he had a fear of finding the milk in a different place. She also mentions how "And other times, he just forgets to look up, probably because whatever he is doing is mere ritual and makes no sense to him at all." Like does things without knowing the reason At All. I find it hard to believe he's managed to be school teacher and can't figure out why he does certain things. Another thing is that she thinks (Note: this is her ex-husband, I'm kinda hard pressed to take her word on it) he feels all superior to everyone around him and I get the impression that she attributes this to the AS. I could be interpreting what she's saying wrong though. Wait, no, she actually is. (I'm reading it as I type.) "People with AP have a superiority complex. It was almost as if he knew something that the rest of us didn’t and he was tormented by the secret." I'm pretty sure she means AS when she says AP, btw.
The story about the lady whose kid I think sounded like he had ocd to me is at http://www.epinions.com/content_3082133636 and the comment I'm talking about is by owtnursnarown on this page: http://www.epinions.com/content_3082133636/show_~allcom
My impression of Asperger's is more like what's described on aspergers.com. [http://www.aspergers.com/aspclin.htm] It talks about social isolation, peculiar speech patterns and inflection, and a small area of interest. I felt that the article partly glossed over the isolation. It talks about how he acts around the parents and strangers, but doesn't say a word about his friends or lack thereof. This is something I think has a lot to do with it, social interaction that isn't forced, like family, relatives, and the people he works with and who have to work with him in return. The comment talked about this quite a bit. [At first I didn't really see it until I was saying it didn't] There's a definite lack of eye contact and an inability to read other's emotions (according to the writer, I find it very possible he does understand, but might not know how to react or show that he does). She only makes mention of herself and his family, so no input into the subject of friends there either. The two pieces do cover the last one well. The boy has his movies and the man has numbers.
Also, the mother talks about how delayed her son's speech was when, the DSM-IV (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, it's used to diagnose AS) it specifically states "D. There is no clinically significant general delay in language (e.g., single words used by age 2 years, communicative phrases used by age 3 years)" [http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/aswhatisit.html] I wonder if the doctor even read the criteria, I doubt it's common enough for them to remember it off the top of their head.
Oops. Y'know how I said that the routine thing sounded like OCD? The DSV-IM (same link, udel.edu) part B: "2. apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals".
I think that wasn't what I wanted to say, but it's so long that I'm gonna just post this monster.

Playing with Picasa~

I've been playing with the online version of picasa and decided to get the program. I had it on my old computer, but there were so many pictures that it was always importing stuff and I didn't want it to. This time I told it to only look in a few places instead of everywhere. I was looking at the little 'collage' option with some images I've sized for a calendar on deviantart. I messed with some contrast and stuff and this is how it turned out. I've got a longer post about school and stuff that I'm planning on posting sometime today or tomorrow. Let's hope I remember.

Woke up earlier and I feel even more tired than before. The sky looks amazing. Too bad I left my camera behind. :o I hear music.

It's 1:01 and I'm between Rose city and Mio. I just got a really good look at bald eagle. \o/

Blarg.

I’m going to college and am taking Beginning Japanese I, Information Systems, and MS-Office '07. Tomorrow is my first day. I'm going to be going Tuesday through Thursday 6-10 PM. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. My mom thinks I'm going to get sick of it, but my tendency to stay up all night leads me to think I wont mind much. I'm more worried about the homework. Awhile back I did lesson one of my Japanese workbook and it took me three hours. ._. Eeks. I have no idea what my computer classes are going to be like.
Over the summer I've done absolutely nothing. None of my friends, but one, have contacted me. One has gone off to college already and I've no clue about the rest of them. Most never even showed an interest in talking to me outside of school and its kind of depressing. I have some of their phone numbers from the school trips, but to call would be so full of awkward it's not even funny. I've found some of them on those social networking sites, but I feel awkward about talking to them on that too. I don't know what I'd say. When I start IM conversations they usually go down hill fast.
Been putting off any blog stuffs since the beginning of August. I totally forgot that I had a dream at three AM on the tenth that was really long and vivid, so I got up, hopped on my laptop, and started typing it up. I was originally going to make that it's own post, but I think I'm going to just shove it into this one. When I write in the middle of the night I have this weird thing about putting what time it is. You can ignore those if you want, 'cause I'm not removing them.
[] - My little time notations.
() - My comments and clarifications. Added as I was typing it up.
{} - Stuff added now. Well after the fact.

[3:00AM approx.]I just woke up from one of the longest, strangest dreams I’ve had in a while. It starts off with some axe- and cable-wielding murderer, who attempts to murder Cammy(dwah!?), who seems to alternate between human and cat. The earliest event I remember is two girls in a forest or someplace dark. They’re definitely outside at night somewhere. I have no clues to where this part takes place. Ones sitting down, on some unknown object, totally benign and I think probably just- I think I’m making assumptions about my dream that may or may not be what actually happened. {I wish I could remember what I was originally thinking here, I think I stopped and went back to sleep after awhile.}
Then it jumps to Mexico. I’m with my dad and he’s driving to some country that (in my dream) Britain hates and he ends up driving through an abandoned house (on the Mexico side) that’s really amazing on the side of the hated country and backwards along this really tall cliff. Then he makes some sort of transaction, I think. [3:11AM] After that he drives forward along that same path, back to Mexico. The dream makes a random jump at this point to my house, which is the same as the one I’m in now, but I think it must have been moved, because the guys my dad was talking to were there. One was near the door and Bob, the cat, was hovering near by. I made a stupid comment about him wanting out when the guy asked if he was ok, so the guy opens the door and he [Bob] runs out. Somehow Bob And Tabitha get out, she just kinda appeared. I was able to grab Tab easily- she was just on the first step of the porch. When I picked her up though it was like on a computer when you go to move the window, but while the original moves it also leaves an after image there. Bob was under the grills farther away, My Dad was telling me to say something about challenging him (was that it? It’s fuzzy.) and to “hurry up.” That was the end as far as I can remember. I woke up to find Bob, Tab, and Whitey sleeping at my feet. :-) [3:19, end. Making edits.]

Note: cross posted to my many blogs across the 'net.

Cats and Plants Will Never, Ever Mix

I can't have ANY plants in my house except for my room because within five minutes the cats WILL be chewing on it. I got a succulant from Trader Joe's today that had a little flower bud coming up. I set it on the stove so I could clean the pot off before taking it to my room. I was only away for ten or fifteen minutes and I came back and the bud was sitting next to the pot. Of course. Darn cats. >.<

I finally saw 21 today. Yay! It was free too, my mom happened to find some old coupons. I liked it. If I hadn't been in a theatre at the time I would have said 'squee' when You Can't Always Get What You Want started to play. The entire time at TJ's I had it stuck in my head (which isn't a bad thing). I'd write more about the actual movie but I don't remember anything that anyone would want to read.

The Secretary of State needs to get a more efficient system for calling people up. I applied for a state ID. Yay. Its to come in two weeks... (Lets see if anyone can find the significance of this fact) I still have not gotten my Voters registration. I'm not sure how long ago it was that I applied for that though.

A teacher of mine has me making an informational website for her. I hope its up to her standards. I'm to the point that I just have to do a bunch of data entry and cleaning up the html. My web design class ironically isn't helping much with this. And if anyone knows how to get PHP to add an entry to a table in MySQL for my personal site, it'd be really awesome of you to tell me how. I try and it doesn't want to work when I use my own variables.

At OTC we've started actually working on the computers that are going to be donated to the little kids, but some of the stuff Mr. L has us doing seems kinda pointless and we didn't have to it last year. Like cleaning the case, monitor, mouse, and keyboards out. I can kinda see cleaning the monitor and mouse, but not the rest. The way keyboards are made they aren't hindered by dust so this an entirely cosmetic action. The monitor needs to be clean so you can see and if the mouse is gunked up it wont work right. Chances are none of the others bothered to clean the rollers inside the mouse well and I don't think the teacher would appreciate us rinsing off the dust on the ball nor would he have a lint free cloth to dry it with (I've found the best way to remove dust from something waterproof is to put it under a faucet.)
And I'm still really, really behind on getting my Net+ cert. If I had been given the list of labs to skip I'd be fine, but nooo they Forgot about me because I'm the only AM student taking it. Augh. I'm also the only BPA member in the morning, so I have to wonder if I'm missing any information about that too.
I still think it odd that so few know what a tilde (~) is and that my teacher called an asterisk (*) an ampersand (&). No idea what he called the ampersand.

Reno Here I come!

Yay! I get to go to Reno, NV for the national BPA conference. ^^ And the schools paying for the plane tickets and hotel too! *Happy* I'm attempting to look up exactly when it is, but the website doesn't want to work for me at the moment. >.< Of course...
Ah! The pdf with a bunch of info loaded. May 7-9. Woo. I can't wait.
Neat, it says on the site that if I get 1st in PC Troubleshooting I can get 500 for college. (psh, like that'll happen)

Edit 4/18/08:It turns out I had the wrong info. Its actually from May 7-11. And I leave 7:00am on the 6th.