Numb3rs!

“We all use math everyday. To forecast weather, to tell time, to handle money. We also use math to analyze crime, reveal patterns, predict behaviors. Using numbers we can solve the biggest mysteries we know.”

After I had seen all of its released episodes, I became very motivated in my feelings towards Math.

Tomorrow, Math will use me.

Very Ludicrous..

Last Wednesday was such a fascinating one. During my free time staying at the UPCC Dilnet Helpdesk, I was assigned a task to install Linux for the UPD PH (or something like that) with 2 other SA applicants.. And what kind of Linux was it? Mandrake!, the distro that I somewhat hated (a view expected from a Fedora-Redhat loyalist).

Since it was really my first time to install Mandrake, I was very clueless about it… There was no SA that will accompany us. Therefore, I had to take the initiative to lead my highschool-mates (they were a batch lower/younger than me) despite the fact that I didn’t knew where the location of the office was.

Finally, we had managed to locate the destination and started to work it out. At first, the Processing Unit had messed up because of Power problems. We even had the hardware opened to examine if the boards were really working but there was not a sign of flowing electricity. So I had suggested to try another unit again, and it worked! Next problem was the monitor but it didn’t took that long to solve the problem. The real one was when I had had moved on with Mandrake’s installation, after finishing the packages and a reboot, Mandrake showed me a tty or terminal login instead of the graphical boot/login that I expected. I tried running some startx but it won’t budge, even the combo keys didn’t work too. After a maximum of 5 trials, I finally realized that I haven’t set the graphical  or monitor stuffs properly. Why? IMO, Mandrake was not that user-friendly for if it was, I wouldn’t have any problems at all. But this one really depends on perspective – “A Linux distribution is like a religion.”

At least, the SA applicants with me already knew what to look forward in case they will encounter some similar problems that we had that time.

Talked about shitty firsts..

Hmm, pano ko nga ba sisimulan ‘to,…

Well, I had a 7 am class in Math 55 that I had rushed to by simple walking since there were no TOKI jeeps roaming the campus some time between 6 to 6:45 in the morning AFAIK. There was nothing new with the scenery – from bored students waiting for their profs and friends by the start of the class to active students hardly waiting for profs to accept them through prerogs. The grading was somewhat cool.. why? the passing is based on the highest score in the class. Passing homeworks were not required too.. (I really hated assignments during summer). The first session was a good one, my prof had refreshed our memories and I could say that he’s a lot better than my previous prof in Math 54 for now (obviously). After some short lectures, he dismissed the class sometime about 3-5 minutes before 9am, which was also the start of my Bio 1 class. The thing was.. I was late for the class since there was no faster way to get to that building except by walking for TOKI jeeps were not readily available compared to normal semesters.. Upon entering the room, obviously it was somehow filled already… Not knowing where to sit since I was a newcomer, I preferred to be sitted on the front row on the left side for that row was available and also AFAIK I heard the prof announced that for those students who had no class cards yet, they should sit in front row on the right side. But knowing that the left side was not taken yet and there was no available seat behind the front row of seats on the right side, I had chosen the left side. As I had sit on a chair on that row, the prof began asking me.. “are you a cardinal?”.. I was shocked to hear that question.. why? It’s like.. why ask that question? Some problem of language game? Then he asked again.. “do you know what a cardinal is?” I recalled that the term ‘cardinal’ was a term in the conclave or vatican stuff..it was also a term in mathematics..and a term or a name for a species of a bird. So.. what’s the big deal? (I asked myself or I should’ve asked this one to that prof) The prof even wrote ‘cardinal’ on the board thinking that I really didn’t know that word.. Well, obviously he was definitely wrong! After that, he told me to sit somewhere else.. tsk tsk.. That prof was somewhat having an OC behavior..

After recovering from that sucky first session in Bio through a lunch, I had gone to UPCC to continue being an SA volunteer.. I had even made a tech in which the problem was Out of Bounds for the problem or issue was about fibres and backbones in which I and my friend had no idea.. We then resulted to communicating with the office’s technician and managed resolve it by instructing him to contact the UPCC if the problem persists.. Arriving at the DILNET headquarters, we knew that the problem was fixed maybe during the time of walking we had upon returning.. It was great indeed.

…and that’s why I love and hate Firsts..

Vengeance is near.. [grin]

At last, and so it is..

And so it is, just like God said it should be..

Finally, my Eng 12 classcard had been released 3 days ago. Getting that very last card was very heart-thumping…Why? Before that time, I had been very clueless if i’ll gonna pass or fail. There was even an item in one of his take-home exams that talked about the dilemma or a choice of a professor in passing or failing one of his students, and we should answer the question by picking one from the personalities of the characters in the readings we had discussed during his lectures. The moment I received my sentence, i was so shocked about the result. Neither did I got a 5.0 or even a 3.0! It was a lot higher than what I had expected. It’s just that in most of my not-so-lucky experiences, I was always in the worst section, schedule and professor. The returns were great but oftentimes there were some regrets. *Sigh*

Anyway, at least I didn’t create another instance of an INC, I had also completed my MP before the end of last week. The result was also a lot higher than what I had expected.

There had been lotsa change of plans.. I’ll be trying to get a foreign language this coming first semester (hoping to have an easy one), and there would not be any instance of a subject outside my curriculum like CS12 or Math54. Maybe I’ll try to get some of those kinds of subjects again by second semester. I’m also on-training for an internetwork-based helpdesk while taking up summer classes. It’s gonna be a very, very exciting challenge for me.

Hmm.. (poses like “The Thinker”)

Installing Dilemma 0.9X

Fantastic! I have just made an upgrade on my system and it was now already running kernel 2.6-11 from its previous 2.6-9, skipping the upgrade of kernel 2.6-10 since the latest kernel was already in the updates-released list of the Red Hat Network, or should I say Fedora Community. Last night, i came across a How-To containing a batch install of LAMP (which i had difficulty compiling it earlier).. and knowing that graphical install version looks kinda hell lot easier, I had a dilemma of removing the present configuration and deleting everything or just to stay with my compiled setup and move on compiling other packages to work with it as well. I had also discovered how to use RSS feeds but I don't have idea yet on how to make one except for the fact that i knew it contained HTML-like tags, etc.. Or maybe I should just grab a RSS creator. I had seen Sage on LXer, which was my present homepage and did some tests and RTFMs, and POOF! I had a feed reader installed! (Very happy)For the meantime, I am presently developing a new template for my resource site. I'm tired of seeing blogs the usual way and I'm also thinking of using Mambo CMS instead. Well, the system is great only ignoring the setup process that it requires like AFAIK, the LAMP setup which I had a dilemma before. I'm also thinking of making or looking for a random color generator since I want my fonts to be appealing to the eye or somewhat unique instead of redundant ones; obviously, I can't use dark colors on this template.

On the bright side, Fedora Core 4 will be released this June containing the upcoming Open Office 2 which is now on version 1.9X. I wondering how that setup would work plus the fact that it might be easier to upgrade from 1.9X to 2.0 because of easy-reference repositories and a YUM Extender, a graphical version of YUM added with some utilities like listing the latest packages on different repos and fixing dependencies in case of problems with application dependency and it can even install or remove kernel with ease. I hope that my upgrade with FC4 will be painless.

Finding Neverland Closer…

Finding Neverland was great… i mean, the movie was fantastic – it was magical and it showed the creativity of “Barrie”, the creator of Peter Pan. Well, it was fun, but I just hated the ending, the same way with Closer.

But I kinda liked some stuffs in Closer… the song at the very beginning.. and the theme “If you believe in love at first sight, you never stop looking.”

Well, maybe it was true… but it happened in the opposite way yesterday. Was it love? I don’t think so. Infatuation? Inspiration!

Anyway, the bottom line was: BE INSPIRED.

Tired of Weaving Dreams?

dream (n.) – a series of thoughts, images, or emotions occurring during sleep..

Isang malagim at nakakatakot na panaginip ang aking naranasan kahapon. Sabi sa aking panaginip, ako raw ay na-5.0 sa Geology 1. Ako ay natakot dahil sa iyon ang unang beses na ako’y nagkaroon ng singko. Ang malabo dun, tinignan ko ang aking final exam – at nakita ko na ang test I ay multiple choice kung saan ang pagpipilian lamang ay 1 – true, 2 – false. Ang ipinagtataka ko lamang ay kung bakit ang sagot ko mula 1 hanggang 50, lahat ay 1! Wari’y isang kababalaghan o isang kasinungalingan ang eksamen na yun. Iniisip ko tuloy na meron nagbago ng aking mga sagot dahil lapis lang ang aking ginamit sa pagsusulit na yaon. At dahil nga sa bagsak ako, ang removals ko daw ay kunin na lamang ulet ang final exam bilang removal exam. Sa susunod na araw na lamang ipasa ang sagot. Ako ay nangamba.. bakit? Nakatulog ako at hindi nagawa ang eksamen! Matapos maibigay ang papel ng eksamen na hindi natapos sa propesor ko, ako ay namulat at nagising sa realidad.

Isang malagim na panaginip na kakaiba dahil sa ang aking karanasan sa Geology 1 sa tunay na buhay ay maganda – ako ay naexempt sa final exam. Tapos ang istorya.

Bakit nga ba napanaginipan ko yun? Malalaman naten ngayong araw na ito.

Mga bagong-habing pangarap.. sana’y matupad upang makatulong sa ating bansang naghihirap.

Peace and Holiness

The Pope died in peace at the age of 84… and i think that was the moment after an early night’s sleep when the air of sadness is travelling.. But it wasn’t sadness that filled the community, peace and holiness – how the Pope lived his life is a great achievement as well as a model to everyone. May He rest in peace.

“Peace, peace, peace be with you.. as the Father has sent Me, so I’m sending you.”
*****

Well, other news… my Gmail is 2GB already! And i am shocked to see that Ragnarok Online is already on the gold list of WINE.. thought about returning to work after retirement from the addictive game that started from buying gametime cards and shifting to free international private servers. For the meantime.. hmm…