Poland Photos (First Set)

What can I say? iPhoto is so wonderful. I have downloaded the first two days worth of photos from the digital camera and then loaded them up to the CS web server for your viewing pleasure. Both of these sets of pictures are from Warsaw. We are staying the night in Polzan and then heading deeper intro the country tomorrow. I will post more pictures as I get them. Enjoy!

Day 1
Day 2

More Warsaw

We had another great day in Warsaw. I took some great pictures. Well, great is relative. The history of Warsaw (and Poland in general) is very sad. So, it was very difficult to hear some of the things. Our tour guide was really quite something. He took around Mrs. Jacqueline Onassis when she came to Warsaw for a funeral in the 60s and was responsible for feeding news to NBC during the Pope's visit in 1979.

Tomorrow we are off to the countryside. I will post pictures as soon as I get them. I would write more, but the Internet time is ticking away.

Live Blog in Poland

Good day.

We are here in Poland safely. The flight was quite long, and without the amenities you would expect from an international flight. However, I did get to watch Spanglish during the trip -- I realized it sucked without wasting any extra time!

We are in Warsaw for a few days. It's quite the city. Apparently it was completely rebuilt after WWII. You can tell. The architecture is modern and the infrastructure is excellent. The roads are in great shape and there is TONS of US influence. As a matter of fact, I timed how long it took me to see a McDonald's after leaving the airport -- 14min. Not bad!

Now, if they would only tell me how far things are in feet and how much it costs in USD (not PLN), I would be all set.

I will send along more updates once I find a place where the Internet access is cheaper!

Have a safe trip to California you two.

PS: IMLU AFR (unscramble it!)

One of the worst articles ever

Usually people who blog share articles that are interesting, useful, insightful or otherwise worthwhile. Today, however, I will share an article that is not interesting, not useful, not insightful and otherwise worthless. This article just made me cringe. Enjoy! ;-)

http://www.forbes.com/business/2005/05/25/cz_dl_0525linux.html

Ironman Photos

http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~whh8b/blog_photos/ironman

Check them out! When I exported them, I made them a little too small. I will try to change that.

What great photography by one Amanda F!

Florida Half Ironman Update

Good afternoon.

Sorry for not posting recently. I have been in Florida preparing for the 1/2 ironman. It is now only about 1 day away. I am terribly nervous. Just thinking about it causes my hands to shake.

The weather down here is hot, as expected. We are supposed to have thunderstorms on Sunday (race day) so that should add an element of intrigue. Tomorrow we will head into Orlando and I will complete registration and store my bike in the transition area. That should be a big step and will give me the opportunity to see the lake where I'll swim. I won't look for too long ;-)

But, I was writing mostly to say thanks to everyone who has helped to take care of my office space during my trip. Such a bad time to put carpeting down.

I will keep everyone posted as to the outcome of the race and will be back and ready for a lunch on Tuesday!

PS: This post is from Panera. That was mentioned for obvious reasons!

Further Friday Facts

Alliteration!

Well, what can I say? Friday is over. Today was quite interesting and definitely revolved around food. For lunch the gang went to Panera. I actually tried something a little different -- I had the bean chili soup instead of the chicken noodle. I am such a rebel.

Later in the afternoon, the CS department had a cookout on the steps of our office. I just love the smell of a grill when burgers and hot dogs are being served up. Its definitely a smell that I associate with summer and we all know how summer is my favorite season!

Wasting no time, we all departed for a Happy Hour at Milan. Surprisingly enough, I found out the best way to limit your intake at such great restuarants: order off the kid's menu. It was the perfect portion and included french fries, which I had been craving. The only downside was that the waiter brought the dish and gazed at everyone at the table trying to figure out where we hid the child. Obviously, the kid-at-heart cannot be recognized by a waiter.

There was one event today that did not revolve around food -- our research group meeting. While there, we got some interesting news. I am not sure exactly how much I am allowed to say, so if you want to hear a good story, just ask me in person (one to one email is also acceptable). I think this story is worth it!

8 days and counting -- I am getting awfully nervous.

A Poem!

_Stool Softener_
Oh medicine, you soften my stool.
To the bathroom I flee
In such a rush I look like a fool.
Upon arrival, the poop feels like pee.

Seriously, what did you expect me to rhyme with "flee"?

AIM Trouble

Uhoh!

I just got an email from my advisor. It would appear that his schedule is quite busy tomorrow but he wants to take some time to work on a paper that is due this weekend. So, he suggested that we do a remote teleconference. He actually suggested that we use "yahoo chat" which, as we all know, is roughly equivalent to AIM.

I hope that this isn't going to be the end of my no-AIM lifestyle.

Early Morning Colloquiums

Hello!

Just wanted to let everyone know that Dan and I braved the early morning (about 9am -- that's hella early if you are a grad student!) to head to a CS department colloquium.

Besides getting up early, Dan and I were lost as to where the talk was being given. That ended up being a very good thing. In getting lost, we actually found a hallway where refreshments were being served for free. Like Columbus who thought that he actually arrived in India, we dug in thinking that the refreshments were for the presentation (as advertised). It turns out that we were in the wrong spot, but were incredibly lucky! Dan grabbed a few free brownies and I grabbed (double-fisted) some coffee.

Once we arrived at the real talk, the refreshment setup was terribly dissapointing -- cheap coffee and wimpy doughnuts. I can imagine that's how Amerigo Vespucci felt when he discovered America (I'll let the interested reader draw their own conclusion as to how Amerigo actually felt). What great luck that we happened on the better snacks even if we did have trouble tracking down the speaker.

Dave Matthews Band

Well, here's the deal.

The last time that the Dave Matthews Band released an album, I was really excited. The Busted Stuff album was going to be the first DMB album that I bought. I wanted to buy it because, well, you know, I like a good bandwagon. In all seriousness, my roommate had downloaded some of the Lily White Sessions and I really enjoyed them. I heard that Busted Stuff was going to be based upon that material. So, I was excited. As it turned out, they are very different. And, with the exception of Gray Street, I did not particularly enjoy the Busted Stuff album.

But, like the sucker I am, I have heard that the new album is really good. EW actually gave it an A- (but, who really cares what the critics have to say -- its all about what you enjoy!). So, I am going to give it a shot. I figure that with the $15 gift card that we won at the trivia contest, it won't be a huge loss if I don't enjoy it.

Also coming soon on the musical docket is Jason Mraz's second mainstream release. It is expected in late July and I am really pumped about it. I loved the Waiting for my Rocket to Come album. I can listen to that every day and never get sick of it. I like Jason Mraz even more after my trip (with my best friend) to a county fair to hear him.

I guess the bottom line (or middle C, if you are reading Treble cleff) is this: its going to be a big summer for me and CDs!

In other news, after correcting all blog entries with the incorrect spelling of Lord Hardwicke's I managed to drop significantly in the Google rankings. However, I have struggled back with the help of a recrawl by the Google spider. A search for "Lord Hardwicke's Charlottesville" will send you to the Real Waste of Time on the second page of results.

I figure that the more times I can say Lord Hardwicke's on this page legitimately, the higher my ranking will go. Lord Ha... okay, that's enough!

Feeding Harry and Tony Danza News

Good evening.

I just wanted to let you know that I fed Harry this evening. Per's the ER docs suggestion, I have starting feeding Harry with the stool softener. I am sure that you all wanted to hear that. The message on the bottle said that I would be "ready" in between 12 to 72 hrs. I started the clock and it only took about 15 minutes. That placebo effect is incredible!

Anyways, in the coming days, you'll have to forgive me if I rush to the facilities!

Now, to the more important part of this post:
An interested reader emailed me this bit earlier today: http://my.aol.com/news/news_story.psp?type=4&cat=0809&id=2005050916210001638882

It would appear that Tony Danza was flipped while racing NASCAR star Rusty Wallace. You know what they say? Rubbing is racing!

Can't wait to see you at lunch!
Will

Hernia. Oh my.

Alright, alright, alright.

I went to the ER yesterday morning. I was having some numbness in my groin and could notice a slight bulge. Putting two and two together, the doctors diagnosed me with a hernia. For those of you not familiar, let me describe a hernia like this: Normally, the small intestine is held in solitary confinement within a muscular pouch. There are two small areas weak areas in this wall in everyone. Some people's are weaker than others. In a person with a hernia, the small intestine has managed to dig through this wall and is trying to make a getaway into the scrotum. Many people develop this condition, but that doesn't do anything to lessen the disgusting visualization of what is actually happening.

The doctors told me that the best way to get rid of the problem is to have elective surgery. In this surgery they place a mesh material over the weak spot for reinforcement. Unfortunately, I can't have this surgery until later this summer. This means that I will be competing in the triatlon with my hernia.

I've decided to name it. I'll call it Harry (the Hernia). In all conversations, please refer to him as Harry -- he hates being called names.

Waiting for dinner

Good afternoon.

I am just sitting here waiting to head out to dinner. Its Lord Hardwicke's time (as I mentioned in a previous post). I decided to take today easy. Only 1/2 of a workout. I will do the remainder of what was supposed to be done today on Sunday then do Sunday's workout on Monday.

As I mentioned earlier, I am getting very nervous about the race. It would really be incredibly sucky if I didn't finish after training for all this time. I'm still trying to psyche myself up mentally. I am really starting to think that is the key.

I made it to Java Java earlier today. Without any planning at all I was joined by Julie and Nolan. That was quite nice because I was feeling kinda lonely.

While at the coffee shop I asked a guy about his headphones. He told me that they were from Shure and were incredible. Having worked as a professional audio technician (way back in my high school days), I can certainly believe that. Our company swore by any Shure product. This was not the first guy that I have asked about his headphones. But, every time I ask, the answer is the same: They're Shure and they're great. So, perhaps it is about time for me to pick up a pair.

In other news, my parents brought my tax refunds. Once those babies get deposited, the Mac Mini will be ordered. Once the Mini is running instead of this clunker desktop, I hope to have my energy bills reduced. That would sure (not SHURE!) be nice!

Hopefully I will see everyone tonight at Orbitz!

Cheesecake Factory

Just wanted to say that I had a blast tonight at the Factory. I had a mini crisis before I left, but everything worked out in the end. Tomorrow it's Lord Hardwicke's with my parents and then pool! I can't wait!

See you there!

Rough Day

Well, today was a pretty bad day.

Everything started out fine. I finished up the Theory test (as posted about earlier) and got some Subway. Things continued okay during basketball. I played for about 2 hours and had a great time. Its so funny that I am stereotypically caucasian on the basketball court. If it can be done while standing flat-footed then I am in!

Things turned ugly when I got in the pool. I realized that I am not where I want to be in terms of swim strength for my race. I was so nervous that I considered cancelling. As a matter of fact, I still am considering it. I just cannot even imagine swimming a mile. I do not think that it is a good mindset to have going in. If you can't picture yourself doing it, then its just not going to happen. I want to picture myself getting out of the water, transitioning to the bike and forgetting about swimming for a long time. However, that's just not happening. I really don't know what to do. Amanda offered me very kind words and that helped. She also told me something that my dad said about me to her (can you follow that?) and it helped too. I am just scared. Very scared. I thought that I was going to fail at the Marathon that I did in the fall, but thankfully we made it through that. Having Ben with me during it really helped and made it lots of fun. Its just that at some point I have to start being right about not being able to do things.

Sorry about the rant there. I keep these sorts of things bottled up inside until the point that my anger and disappointment with myself locks me up physically.

The day did end very well. We had an excellent trip to the IHOP ("They give you a hoddle of coffee -- you think somebody's coming, but I don't know who!). Afterwards, work on the OS project was progressing quite well. Then, we got word that it is not due tomorrow. Work promptly stopped! :-)

Okay, its time for an apple and some canteloupe and then bed! Here's to hoping that tomorrow's swim workout is much more productive and positive than today's.

Get Off Me CS660

Hey!

Just wanted to apologize for not posting a nightly update this past evening! I was working hard (hardly working) on the CS660 final. Its done now and that's all I have to say about it. Hopefully wit will follow in this space later tonight.

Keep up the hard work during finals. We'll be on the summer schedule soon!

The Dollar is Trying to Tell Me Something

I overheard this choice quotation while reading a paper tonight. As it happens, this juicy line is uttered by none other than Nick Cage in National Treasure. This only makes me want to see the movie more.

Tonight's post will be a potpouri.

First things first -- grass roots mobilization is a great way to make the man change. Having said that, when you know the "man", there's no need to be antagonistic.

Have you ever really hated someone and yet been odly in awe of them at the same time? That's the way I remember a former boss. When I was between High School and College, I worked as a Perl programmer for the summer. I worked for a company called Peet Consulting. The owner, and my boss, was Kelly Peet. This was during the .com heyday and we were employed by Thinkronize.com. The money was fat. However, I wasn't seeing any of it. In any case, I was being given crappy assignments and I got fed up. I emailed him and told him that I could be making more money working at McDonald's and that I didn't need this any more. So, with that triumphant email, I quit. He didn't protest -- his opinion of me was obviously quite low. Anyways, to this day, I oddly admire his skills as a technology consultant and Perl programmer. (Please, no cracks about Perl -- this was 6 years ago!). A few years later I was in a situation where I had to recall some esoteric piece of mod_perl knowledge that he taught me. So, I emailed him to say thanks -- it really saved me. I get an email back and the only text was: "I bet you couldn't have learned that at McDonald's." And I was trying to be nice!

Random side note: I used to have a section of my website called "Email Loser". This was a place where I posted break up emails. Surprisingly, I have received quite a few of these. Anyways, one of my professors happened on to my website. While I was in his office one day for help he informed me that he loved the "Email Loser" section. He claimed that if email had been around when he was my age, he certainly would have had such a section.

Back to the present day. I was watching the Seinfeld pilot episode tonight. In the first few episodes, George and Jerry had a very different relationship with the coffee shop staff than they do in later episodes. For instance, the waitress knew both their names and was able to joke with them. I thought that "professional waitress" character would have been interesting later in the series. I wonder why they didn't pursue that further. George is also a very different character during the early episodes. Later in the series, George became quite a loser and pretty one dimensional (although still very funny!). In the first few episodes, George was actually intelligent (claiming valid, expert knowledge on the signals of women) and showed compassion and courage during one episode. Quite different from the character who pushed down a grandma to flee a barely burning stove. I guess that his character changed because it wasn't different enough from Jerry. Which did you like better? Early characterizations or later?

This wouldn't be a blog if I didn't post on today's events. Today was the final day of classes for this academic year. Things had just settled down into a nice routine. I do love a good routine. However, having class for three hours a day was getting quite old. I will enjoy the additional free time. There are so many things that I want to do -- scat (that is pronounced ess-cat), to name but one. Oddly enough the conclusion to the first year of graduate school was almost as uneventful as the first day of graduate school. I guess that as I get older, the various milestones are going to seem more and more "every day". Its not that I mind. I enjoy things that aren't surprising. I really like to know what is going to happen -- determinism is the name of the game. Would you agree with this? Do you think that milestones get less and less eventful as we endure them more and more? Do you enjoy surprises or do you like to know what's going to happen?

Sorry for the rambling. If I knew what self indulgent means, I would probably describe this post as such. Please, no links to dictionary.com in the comments -- I know how to use the .com! ;-)

Survey time!

Julie forwarded me a survey. Normally I don't do these things, but she guilted me into it (by including me in a few of her answers!). So, gladly I will do this! Feel free to use the comments to respond to my answers or to post your own!

Three names you go by:
1. Will
2. William
3. Wills

Three screen names you have had
1. willatfurman
2. ohsitonit
3. sandbaggerfour

Three physical things you like about yourself
(this one is really, really hard!)
1. ankles
2. wrists
3. calfs

Three physical things you hate about yourself
1. NOSE
2. Chin (lack thereof)
3. Chest

Three parts of your heritage
1. Polish
2. White trash
3. Methodist

Three things that scare you
1. Any kind of insect
2. Infinite (also finite -- you'll have to ask me how those correspond if you really want to know!)
3. Being "found out" as someone who doesn't belong in a graduate school as good as this one
4. Losing my best friend (I had to include four -- I mean, of the tons of things that scare me, I figured 4 instead of three was okay!)

Three of your everyday essentials
1. Bob and Tom
2. Cell Phone
3. Caffeine

Three things you are wearing right now
1. Furman University tshirt
2. Livestrong
3. Watch
(you'd like to know if I was wearing more!)

Three musical artist or bands
1. Jason Mraz
2. Bare Naked Ladies
3. Live

Three favorite songs
1. American Pie
2. Subterranean Homesick Blues
3. Hallelujiah (Jeff Buckeley)

Three things I want in a relationship
1. Humour
2. Honesty
3. Faithfulness

Two truths one lie
1. I am addicted to coffee
2. I love my friends and family
3. I have self confidence

Three things about the opposite sex that appeals to you
1. Smile
2. Humour
3. Athleticism

Three favorite hobbies
1. Training
2. Studying (reading)
3. Planning group outings (read: lunch!)

Three things you want to do badly right now
1. My race
2. Sleep
3. Buy a mac mini

Three careers you have considered
1. Bike messenger
2. Live Tv producer
3. ER Doctor

Three places you want to go on vacation to
(nice dangling preposition -- the person who wrote this must be from Ohio!)
1. London, England
2. Hollywood, CA
3. Greenville, SC

Three kids names you really like
1. Apple
2. Seven
3. Trey

Three things you want to do before you die
1. Cycle across the country
2. Volunteer in Africa
3. Fly a helicopter

Three people you want to take this survey
1. Dan
2. Amanda
3. Loyal "waste of time" readers!

This was much harder than I imagined. Some of these items simply cannot be contained in just three items. For instance, the number of things that scare me are infinite, basically. The list of jobs that I would like to try is also quite lengthy (paparazzi -- I had to include that one!). But, this was fun.

Maybe the next time one of these floats around, I won't be so reluctant to partake!

I await your response!

OpenOffice 2.0 Beta

I was talking with Dan earlier today about OpenOffice. As it turns out, I had occasion to spend some quality time with OpenOffice after that conversation.

Dan had asked about a few things concerning the new beta version -- 2.0 beta. Of course, we all know what beta means: "You 'beta' fix the errors". But, in this case, things seems fairly stable and after using Writer for about an hour tonight, I feel more confident about answering Dan's questions. So, I will do so here.

Dan had expressed concern about the look and feel of 1.x OpenOffice. I agree that those versions look almost as awful as KDE (;-)). It looks all boxy and 1980s. However, the new beta shows promise. The icons are slick and the splash screen is cool. Overall, there is an improved level of "polish".

Dan also asked about speed. We all know that OpenOffice 1.x was more bloated than me after eating Papa John's. It was slow and there was lots of lag when simply clicking menus and even just typing text. In the beta, things are much different. Startup is not much faster, but menu response is better and there is no lag when simply entering text. These observations are made on my computer, a lowly 933Mhz with 256mb ram.

Coupling the new UI scheme with the speed improvements and OpenOffice 2.0 may start to be a viable Office alternative.

That's for you, Dan!

Debugging

Normally, debugging isn't bad. However, debugging a kernel module is awful! Everytime you make a change and want to test, the system must be rebooted. I suppose if I had vmware this wouldn't be a problem!

Ah yes, the infinite budget!

More Blog Updates

Hello!

Thanks to a concerned reader for pointing that I should start to use RSS (atom) feeds. It would appear that I do have atom feed enabled. The url is http://hawkinsw.blogspot.com/atom.xml. If someone tries to use this and it doesn't work, please let me know.

Another great night of Karaoke tonight. Jeremy really wowed everyone with a great rendition of "I Shot the Sheriff". Speigel also rocked it out with the "If I had $1000000". That song always brings up great memories of a friend from high school. He was a pleasantly plump young man and always claimed that the lyrics went something like this:
"If I had $1000000, I'd buy lunch."
That always brought us to the floor in laughter. I know that he has asked to be mentioned in this blog before, so there it is.

Also, we fielded an excellent photo hunt team tonight. As a matter of fact, Dan, Pete, Julie, Wei and I make an excellent team. If anyone isn't familiar with photo hunt, come find me and we'll chat about it. Its slightly more than addictive.

The only thing missing from tonight was Juan. Although, I've heard that he was banned. Maybe Ron Mexico can bring him out of retirement.

I hope that the weather is great for tomorrow's GBBQ and that everyone has a great time.

We'll see you there!

PS: I deleted a comment attached to the previous post -- it was more than likely spam. We don't need that.