sounds easy, but never is

i keep getting caught up in the little things while i'm working. what is the best possible variable name, what name will be easy to guess in the future when i need to remember it and i don't want to scroll around looking, what name will make whoever reads this code understand exactly what the variable is used for just by seeing the variable name and no context.
bash scripting is very promising. but i am new at it. right now it probably makes me spend more time than i normally would to get a task done. i converted all the jpg files from some test runs into ppm files. that was easy enough. now i'm trying to have it work with my ppm analyzing program written in c.
i spent a lot of time not knowing why it does not work. i have narrowed down the problem quite a bit though. right now i'm fairly certain the problem is that the original jpgs have errors, so the converted ppms have errors, and my code assumes that the ppms will have no errors. but i spent a lot of time thinking it was the bash script and that something was wrong with it. eventually i found that there was a typo. a typo had me frustrated for literally hours. in that time i learned a better way to do a directory listing.

i just remembered i need to get to campus. bye.

beach study room door is closed

the beach conference room door is closed. that's where i've been studying if i can for the last few days. today i'll have to find a different room. for now, i've found a power outlet outside the room. i can hear the ocean quite well. it's relaxing. i can also see a way to climb on to a platform. an extension cord would be useful right now. there's some tables to my right with a view around the corner to the ocean, but i can't sit there and be plugged in at the same time. still, the sound of the ocean reaches me. the extension cord would help if i climbed up on that platform. i'd want to do the climbing part as little as possible. less chance of getting caught. there are some offices that might have a view of the platform, which would also make it a bad place to study. break is a good time to investigate.

as far as i have investigated, there are no open rooms. the only rooftops to get to are visible from too many places. it's possible that from them i'd be able to get to a hidden area, but i'm not willing to take the risk right now. later.

VAR parameters in oberon

VAR parameters are like pointers.
i'm thinking i'll just always send the pointer, and then if it's not a VAR, i'll copy the contents pointed to by that address to that parameter. that way i don't have to know at the time of the function call if a parameter is a VAR or not. but then again, back in the calling area, i should have the ProcSTO of the procedure/function being called.
that seems a little better. like all the stuff required for setting up the call of the function and getting it function the right arguments is done in the calling frame, and nothing is left over to the callee. that separates concerns better. i think i'll do that. then when i'm in the callee procedure, i know which params are supposed to be VARs and i will treat them accordingly. i will probably have to change the load(STO src, Register dest); function a little.

i have a habit of hitting (ctrl+s) now because i've been using eclipse and i want to avoid the annoying "HEY, YOU WANNA SAVE?!" dialog. it's not that bad in any particular instance. it just grinds on you after a while. ALL RIGHT.

i'm hungry. i want to go get food, but if i do, i won't be able to get back into this awesome coding spot. i'm in a conference room in Scripps.

earlier today while i was coding, some graduate students came in. they have a weekly gathering for eating cookies and drinking tea. right now as i type i'm looking out the window at a sunset. there are painted clouds in the sky with easy blue, pink, and gray. birds fly across but i can't watch as they pass the sun. the sky doesn't move much. i know it's changing because it's darker than it was five minutes ago, but i can't identify anything immediately. the ocean is moving a lot. waves crashing. surfers still out there. people have been surfing all day.

why do i get this? what have i done to deserve it? palm trees, evergreen, ocean, clouds, sky, sunset, i'm hungry and there's food nearby that i know i can get, birds, laptop, birds, quiet place to study. i'm coming here again. wireless, large table, many chairs.

and now the sun is further down. i must bring my webcam next time to share this with everyone. i'm watching the sunset through a tree. how cool is that!?

back to coding. i wish there was some way i could mark the changes i do right now and after the quarter is over have those changes linked to from here. that way i could come back later and see what kind of code i write, and i wouldn't have to worry about academic integrity.

i have decided to expel dexter from the entire perfect school system

but mr. kirk, dexter is in school.
i'm afraid he's not, mrs. fischbourne
mad coding style now. i have been simply writing and writing. the more i write the more stuff starts working. stuff breaks, stuff stumps me for a bit, but writing more leads to more functionality. it's not pretty, it's not optimized or generic, but i no longer care. i just want to get the assignment done and spend time with friends. i want to spend time writing code that i find interesting. i can write about this compilers project on my resume, but they aren't going to see the code ever.
resume, interview, DECaF. IBM never got back to me. guess they don't like my resume, or they will get back later. i need to get my transcript from de anza into the office at UCSD. i should find out from serge what kind of classes are heavy on the maths. i need to take math 20E.
how can i be so lucky? the most fortunate thing is that i realize how lucky i am. i think that's better by far than simply having a good life. realizing how good it is, that's key.
ryan and i talked some more about god. i don't know how he can believe so strongly in god without having put thought into some of the questions i asked. he's not me, that's for sure. i asked him if it was immoral not to believe in god. he said he'd have to get back to me. that was understandable, that's not a question i have had for long. i asked him what parts of me was god directly responsible for, because he said that yes god created me, but humans also have free will. there's a lot more to the conversation than what i've written so far. this is just a memory dump. i still need to email that guy from large group with these questions.
start over with the ryan episode:
i recounted a joke i'd heard recently: "god made me an atheist, who are you to question his wisdom?". i think it's a fair question, but ryan's response surprised me. apparently being an atheist is a choice in his opinion(when i say "atheist", i mean someone who doesn't believe in god and not 'someone who believes in the lack of god or gods'. ryan knows what i mean when i say "atheist"). i believe he is totally wrong. i explained that i am simply not convinced by any argument, evidence or experience of any kind that god exists. he questioned the meaning of "convinced". i didn't really have a good definition with which to respond. but in a similar vein: i don't decide what songs i like. i can't say right now "i decide that i will like the next song that comes on the radio." and have it be true. that just doesn't make sense. at the time i didn't give this analogy at the time, but i did explain that i felt that belief in god is not a choice, that it is outside the realm of choosing.
though if it is a choice, that makes the question "is it immoral not to believe in god" more interesting. i asked the question because i get the feeling that most religious people would say "yes", but i don't really know why. from my point of view before talking with ryan, it was perplexing to think that someone could be condemned to hell simply for not proclaiming the right religion, or some low level of heaven for proclaiming a near relative of the right religion. heaven and hell. weird.
pink floyd is very awesome for listening pleasure. i enjoy their music in a way that's hard to express in words. i can't choose to feel this way. i'm glad i can and do, but it's not a choice. if it were, i'd choose it more often. if i could choose to believe in god, i would. the downside would be that i'd have to ... i'm not sure what would be different, actually. certainly it depends on which god i chose to believe in. for the sake of following this train of thought, let's just say i go with the christian god that most of my religious friends believe in. the differences: i'd go to large group more often. i'd get different stuff out of it. i'd probably do religious stuff on sundays more often, like going to church. i could bond with religious friends in more ways, because we'd be able to relate more closely on religious issues. family gatherings would no longer have the uncomfortable religious times, instead they would just be religious times, probably comforting religious times. prayer before meals would not be awkward. maybe i'd try to show people how awesome god is. i would probably read the bible more.
how could i be happy in heaven when i know that people i know are in hell, or will be when they die? sure i didn't personally send them there, but i know those people, i know they are human just like me. they have feelings, thoughts, live and breath. how can i ignore that? is heaven like a drug that makes me forget about bad things? surely it's something other than that because that sounds pretty bad in itself.

and now i've cut a bit too far into my sleeping time. goodnight.