Garrett M. Vonk

I am moving completely out today. It’s kinda lame. Anyway, my computer will be for the most part, packed up until August 10th, when we move into the new place. See you then!

If I drink Breakfast Blend Coffee from Starbucks in the morning, but I haven’t gone to bed yet, will I trick my body? I hope so. I need to.

So, as I have complained before, Gateway kinda sucks at getting the right product out to me. I am on my third laptop from them since I ordered my system in May, and now I just noticed a bad pixel on the third one. So, they are going to have to send me a new system again, and I’ll just pop out the hard drive again and stick it in the new one… I mean, it’s just a little tiring. Not that I am complaining. The one thing that they are good at is sending me new systems, so whatever :).

Now I am off to do my CSCI Assignment for the week.

Here’s some shots from today at WDW. Good thing I got to come down here! There’s work to do, but Disney World is very nice.

Us at Disney-MGM Studios this morning.

Heather Miller and Patricia in line for a roller coaster.

Heather and her sister.

And of course, the obligatory shot in front of the castle, shot from my extended arm, got it on the first try.

We’re having a good time.

Today, I am moving out of my apartment. Well, it’s not just today. I am moving today and every day until basically August 15th or so. Here’s the deal: I can’t move into my new apartment until August 10th. I have to be out of my current apartment July 31st. Therefore, I need to store my stuff, ALL of it, elsewhere until the 10th. (Actually like the 12th or 13th since we will be cleaning out the new place before we move into it.) So, that’s the deal.
Now we just need to find a truck for moving day(s).

So, if anyone is still wondering if it is a bad thing that we are now engaged in a conflict on the other side of the world, it really ISN’T!

“One of the uncomfortable realities of the war on terrorism is that we Americans have killed many more people in Afghanistan than died in the attack on the World Trade Center,” Nicholas Kristof wrote in an op-ed ["A Merciful War," February 1, 2002] in the New York Times. Kristof estimates that between 8,000 and 12,000 Taliban fighters and about 1,000 Afghan civilians were killed. “[But in] each of the last few years… 225,000 children died in Afghanistan before the age of five, along with 15,000 women who died during pregnancy or childbirth. There was no way to save those lives under the Taliban.” UNICEF was able to vaccinate 734,000 children in the two months after the fall of the Taliban, “in a country where virtually no one had been vaccinated against the disease in the previous 10 years. Because measles often led to death in Afghanistan, the vaccination campaign will save at least 35,000 children’s lives each year.” In the case of Afghanistan, Kristof concludes, “[War] can serve the most humanitarian of goals.”

This is what we’re up against these days, and it depresses this Gore voter past the point of despair to write this… but… uh… the recently unveiled Bush Doctrine (rough translation: If we think you’re coming after us next Tuesday, we’ll be bombing your ass flat this Tuesday) is a necessary evil. Ask yourself this question and answer it honestly: If it was within your power in August of last year to order a pre-emptive strike that would’ve prevented the attacks of September 11, would you have done it? Of course you would. That’s the Bush Doctrine. And the Bush Doctrine’s first smackdown is going to be Saddam Hussein, who has to be removed from power before he kills thousands (or tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands) of American citizens in a major American city.

Yes, yes: Taking out Saddam Hussein means war, and war is bad for children and other living things. I went to grade school in the 1970s, and I recall the poster. But there are times when war is not only a tragic and unavoidable necessity, but also good for children and other living things.

Here’s the rest of the article…

I am glad someone is saying it, and I am shocked that it’s a liberal like Dan Savage.

I looked up a word today:
Main Entry: tau·tol·o·gy
Pronunciation: to-’tä-l&-jE
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -gies
Etymology: Late Latin tautologia, from Greek, from tautologos
Date: 1574
1 a : needless repetition of an idea, statement, or word

And the way it was used, it made sense. It would be a tautology to say “This almanac is just full of facts!” because the intrinsic “Almanac-ness” (Almanicity?) of the book makes it so without saying.

Cool.

I am back from Chicago today; I visited my parents for a spell, and fun times were had by all. Heather accompanied me and we were treated to a good time, both in the city and out.

Now I am back here doing schoolwork all night.
Advice: If you are listening to MP3s while you do work, it doesn’t help your concentration to have a new Winamp visualization running also. I must have watched that thing for a half-hour, entranced, getting no work done at all.

Well, if you know me, you know I have a bit of a penchant for food. My concomitant affection for Tiramisu may not be obvious, but it’s there. That’s why when Heather’s parents gave me an entire Cheesecake Factory Tiramisu Cheesecake, I was more than happy to accept it.
And eat it.
The whole thing.
It’s so good.
Yes.

From their website:
Tiramisu Cheesecake:
a delicate coffee flavored cheesecake baked with Italian ladyfingers dipped in liqueur and espresso, topped with cocoa powder and finished with fresh whipped cream rosettes. All on a layer of white cake soaked in coffee liqueur.

I am having a slice now.

So, had a Programming Midterm this morning. Think I did OK.
“Exams” and “Midterms” are scary names, especially when you consider that they are just tests. I mean, if professors are kind enough to rename the little bitty tests quizzes, they should be considerate enough to just call the “exams” “Tests.” Maybe capitalize Test if it is a Big Test.
In the same vein, a “Midterm” during a summer class doesn’t hold the same magnitude as during a regular semester.
Regardless of the intent and hard work of the professor, you’re NOT going to do the same amount of work in a summer class or cover the same amount of material. Thus, the midterm is over much less information.

Anyway.