failing like never before

26Sep/083

Crazy Linux Man

Large college campuses seem to attract radical street-corner speakers in the same way free food attracts college students. I've gotten pretty used to the badly-dressed ranters that like to bother students on their way to class, so I took almost no notice of a particular one that I saw today. But as I walked past him, I noticed that he had a white towl slung across his back, and written on the towel were the words "GNU/LINUX IS COOL."

I've seen and heard a lot of crazy street-corner speakers, but never have they stayed from the time-tested topics of social, political, racial, religious, or economic issues. Never have I heard one of them harangue the multitudes about operating systems. While there does tend to be a light strife over the superiority  of operating systems, I don't think I've ever seen someone so inflamed over an operating system (except possibly Richard Stallman, whom I have never actually seen in the flesh).

I was briefly stunned when I realized that the scruffy screamer was actually talking about GNU/Linux, but my shock quickly turned to disappointment. Because I didn't have a camera (This is why I need a camera phone with good resolution!) and everyone knows that if you don't have pictures, then the event never happened.

Deciding that I wanted to find out more about the Crazy Linux Man (whom I shall now call CLM, for short) I walked over and struck up a conversation. I'm a little vague as to how exactly it went, but it was a little something like this;

Me: So you're a Linux user, huh?

CLM: Well I'd like to be a Linux kernel hacker.

Me: Oh, really? Thats cool.

CLM: Yeah, I'd like to get into the code for the kernel and really find out how that stuff works.

Me: Yeah, thats cool>

--- Some ramble babbling went on here, most of it unimportant.

CLM: I could show people how to make really stuff, not like stupid useless things, but cool stuff like 3D games.

Me: (And then I thought: Sheesh, then you should probably go bother the engineering and science students, and not the little high school children taking tours.)  Thats cool... Well have, I have to go, but good luck to you.

CLM: Thanks.

So CLM really was quite crazy and fairly incoherent. And talking to him just left me more confused as to his intentions and purpose.

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25Jun/080

College Killed the High School Star

I was fairly smart and successful in high school. Albeit, I wasn't the best in my class, but I was within spitting range. When I was sixteen, I had a really nice internship that payed much more then minimum wage, and when I was seventeen, I had another really nice internship that payed slightly less but offered full medical coverage. I was the president of the Robotics team, vice-president of the Academic Decathlon team, a section leader in the jazz band, and was in so many clubs that I often had to chose between which meeting I would attend.

Now I go to a university that is recognized world wide for its academic excellence, and I'm pretty sure I've gotten dumber. Living up to my blog's name, I'm failing like I never have before.

In high school the lowest grade that I ever received was a B+, but in my past year of college I have managed to get two Cs. My grasp on Ampere's Law is rather tenuous, and my understanding of multivariable vector calculus weaker still. During the school year, I stopped attending church regularly and fell away from God. Unlike in high school, the only group that I'm still active in is marching band. This summer, I was not able to secure a high paying internship so I'll be settling for a minimum wage job and the few bucks I get for managing the marching band website.