Matt’s News / Blog

Last night I had a nightmare, of sorts. Basically in my dream I was trying to figure out how the simple processor (MARIE) we are studying in Computer Organization works. In the processor there are all sorts of registers and I was trying to figure out which registers are used with which commands. To say the least, you can’t figure this kind of thing out in your sleep. So after awhile of tossing and turning I finely woke up. Went and got a drink of water and went to the bathroom before going back to sleep. The rest of the sleep wasn’t hunted by graphs of processor registers.

I’ve had this sort of nightmare before, but with different classes. Last fall, I tried to figure out VB.NET for Software Engineering in my sleep. Earlier this year, I was trying to figure out how to represent number in different binary forms in my sleep.

This goes to show that you shouldn’t think about programming or computers before you go to bed!

I have been blogging for over 6 months now. Wow. Time sure flies by. I thought I’d take this opportunity to reflect a little on blogs. In general, I’m becoming a huge blog fan. But there are some down sides.

This summer, I went to Indy with Steve and Dan for a Library meeting. One the way back we were trying to talk about things, but we kept cutting each other short with ‘I read that in your blog’. It was funny at the time, but could over blogging hinder real personal interaction? I think there is a balance between posting too much so it isn’t redundant for the people you talk to on a regular basis and not enough for people that keep up with your busy life by reading about it on a website.

Blogs can also be useful for work. I now read/contribute to four blogs for my library job. Maybe it’s just our obsessions at work, since my boss and coworker are both avid bloggers.

Blogs are also handy for people to keep up with each other. But I think it’s important not to let the Blog replace real interaction with the person you are keeping up with. Unless, you want to keep up with them from afar, but that’s kinda stalking .

Often times, I find that blogs serve as an outlet. Sometimes, I don’t have anyone to talk to in particular, so I’ll just tell everyone that stops by my site.

Megan won’t visit my blog if I don’t post enough

Well, that’s about all the thoughts about blogs I have now. 6 months down, hopefully many more to come…

Oh and I’m very happy with the way the photos came out in the Echo today.

I had a new first today (and probably the only time it will happen). I withdrew from a class. I signed up for Current Issues in the Election last spring thinking, “I have time for that”, but I have so many other things going on that something needs to go. I can still come to the class to listen/participate, but I won’t have to do any of the work or worry about attendance (and not get credit for it). The class only meets once a week and doesn?t have much outside work. Now I have one less thing to worry about.

Things I’m doing this semester:

Classes:
Computer Organization
Modeling and Simulation
Computer Ethics
Current Literature Survey (computer literature)
Mass Communications Media Lab (see Echo)

Jobs:
Echo: Photo Editor, Online Editor
Zondervan Library: web application programming,
  other various web and
  technology related projects

Other:
Church: ?
Small Group Leader
Part of the dorm community
Part of the Taylor community
Blogger

My eyes are fine but my drives are not. My CD-RW drive does not want to read/write some CD-Rs (mainly the spindle I just bought). The ‘belt’ in my DVD drive that opens and closes the tray is broken. I am trying to fix it. And the CD-ROM drive in my Linux box doesn’t want to boot CDs (which is a bad thing for all of you non techie people on in Internet land ). I guess this is an excuse to get that new DVD burner .

Yesterday, I went to Upland United Methodist Church. This past Sunday was their 100th year anniversary. Even though it was my first time going to that church, it was neat to see how God worked in the church over the past 100 years. The theme of the service was “The Light Shines On”. It seemed to tie in well with their anniversary. The service reminded me of camp. This past year was the 135 year that camp meeting has been held on the camp grounds. I think that in the American-Evangelical world we tend to forget about the years in between the end of Acts and now on a practical level. Sure, we know who Luther, Augustine and Aquinas are but don’t look at the common people and how God worked in their life. The story that sticks out in my mind that was told in church on Sunday was of a man who was known as a thief around Upland circa 1904. In the midst of a revival that was going on in Upland, he went to a service at Upland UMC. After the service, he was convicted and went to the people he stole from and repaid them. How often do we hear stories of how God works in the lives of the everyday person from 100, 200, or even 1000 years ago?

Last night I went over to Ashley’s apartment and we watched Ying xiong (Hero). It was a very well done movie. There were a few parts were the subtitles went by very quickly. I really liked the use of color and music. I didn’t like the end of the movie, but it makes sense inlight of Eastern culture.

The other night at the weekly Echo meeting, we were noticing that there are a lot of sexual connotations with Taylor terms. We are the Trojans, I was in a PROBE group, not they are called O groups, and now the new radio station is call ‘The Seed’. I know that almost any thing can be turned into sexual, but it seems like we could pick better names for things. Maybe it’s all of the Jay Kesler talks in Chapel.

Many of you know that Wednesday before the Freshman came, I did a not-so-brilliant thing and jumped off my bed. I landed wrong and bruised my heal-bone. Today I manage to walk fairly normally around campus taking photos of various sporting events without much pain and without the 600mg ibuprofen the Health Center gave me.