Well I finally made the switch (kinda) to linux. I formatted my old laptop (in the process losing the Go game I’d been working on for my hiptop for months…) and installed the latest version of ubuntu for fun. I spent a long time last night getting familiar with the command line and finding my way around X. I tried to get my wifi adapter working using ndiswrapper but I couldn’t get it. I did however get a VNC server running, but since I’m behind a router on both laptops it doesn’t do me that much good.

I really should be working on some kind of homework right now, this week should be pretty busy. On Friday I did my Thermodynamics homework and worked out in advance the quiz I have on Tuesday, that was a good start. Yesterday I did nothing but mess around with ubuntu all day. Today I need to finish my Optical Micrometer lab that is due on Tuesday. I basically have a few calculations left to do and then a formal write up of the procedures, measurements, etc. On Wednesday I have homework due in Classical Mechanics, it’s only 6 or 7 problems but they each require an hour or so. They really make you think, until you see the teacher work them out the next day… then everything is so obviously clear. Also on Wednesday I have some Differential Equation homework due, that should take a couple of hours. Then on Friday I have a rough draft due in IAH. I’d like to get the draft finished early so I can have it looked over by the professor, but the odds are slim of that. Same goes for getting the C.M. homework done early, to have that prof look at it. So you can see my dilemma, I have so much to do, and so much time to do it in, I just can’t figure out where to begin.

It’s official, LEGO is introducing a new Mindstorm update called NXT. All the pertinent info is available here. What I’m really excited about is the way they went about developing the new system. There’s a nice write up of that here. I’m already signed up as a prospective developer, hopefully I can be selected to hack around with a set a few months before any one else :)

Well after a little over a week in Florida I’m back home. My parents and I drove down to Orlando a few days prior to Christmas to see my brother and his wife and my nephew. My parents then left for Bradenton while I stayed to wait for my other brother to arrive from New York. I thought it’d be nice to see both my brothers at the time, and it was for the first few days. That is until we got to discussing the ‘gold standard’. Things went awry pretty quickly as I enjoy slapping my brother(s) when agitated. It was all in fun though, Todd just likes to think he’s the best econom-ist in all the land.

The next day (a few days after christmas) we went on a deep sea fishing charter. We’ve been doing this for the last few years and they’re usually pretty exciting if you can hold off motion sickness. The captain drives for about 2 hours into the Gulf of Mexico, so after a bit the waves can get to you. Luckily it was calm and the fish were biting pretty good. Nothing extraordinary happened til we got back to the docks, 9 hours after leaving there at 6:30am. We saw some dophins playing near a bridge which was pretty neat. While the fish were being cleaned my brothers watched in horror as I attempted to feed a bird a french fry. It was in vain of course, after the bird tried to attack me I quit.

There wasn’t much fun to speak of until the day of Todd’s depature, that day we took my nephew to Chuck E. Cheese’s and had a blast. It was fun trying to show a 2 year old the intricasies of launching a skee ball. After that day we hung out back in Orlando for a few days and then left for home. All in all it was a great trip, I had a lot of fun seeing everybody again.

As far as presents go I got; Feynman Lectures on Physics (3 volume set), QED (another Feynman book), Elegant Universe DVDs, a Nintendo DS case, and Parallel Worlds (a Michio Kaku book). On the way home I picked up Run Ronnie Run and then ordered five (5) more Feynman books. I understand that I have a problem, it’s just that I can’t get enough books by or about Richard Feynman. He was an incredible man and obviously a brilliant genius. His outlook on life is unique and inspiring. Plus the money I spent on those 5 books is much less than even one $50 video game. I think I’ll go finish QED right now….

Christmas pictures here, fishing pictures here.

Shouldn’t swamp thing Jesus be added to the list?