there’s something wrong with my left breast. it feels like my nipple is about to pop off and the creature from alien is going to burst forth into the world. yes, boys and girls, hormones are more fun than a sackful of angry weasels!
my prediction: this semester is going to kick my ass. the instructor and teaching assistant both seem very knowledgable, personable and helpful, which is good. the amount of work there is to be done is overwhelming. again, 65% of the final grade is based on exams. we even had a pre-test for the instructor to get a “feeling” for each student’s knowledge/understanding. i think i did okay. considering i haven’t even thought about C in seven weeks, i don’t believe i broke my algorithm too badly.
the best part, and the bit which just might save my sanity this term, is that shane (not cute guy from class shane who came over and i kissed & stuff with — shane from php & xml who is really good at logical problem solving) is in this class with me! i was sitting there, looking at all the people i recognized from last term, futzing about on the computer and i heard this soft “hi heather” from my left. i looked up, saw shane and i just beamed.
that was one of the worst things about last term, not having anyone to talk to. shane made a point about the instructor (who he’d had last year) overwhelming the class with his big voice and lively manner. it made a lot of sense. already, i’ve talked to more people in this class than i did in last semester’s entirety. things are looking up! now if we could only do something about those exams.
by the way, in case you’re new to the program or haven’t quite gotten around to it, i’ll remind you all that my site (and pretty much everything else) looks so much better if you have your fonts set to cleartype. of course, this only applies if you’re using windows xp. if you’re on a mac, things already look great and if you’re using *nix, well, you’ll have to ask jeremy how to make that shit pretty.
because i’m such a helpful soul, i’ll even give you the directions again:
click “Properties”
select the “Appearance” tab
click “Effects…”
click the checkbox beside “Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts”
then select “ClearType” from the drop-down box
things might look a little fuzzy for the first couple of hours, but once you get used to it, you’ll wonder why you didn’t switch sooner! trust me.
You know, I just tried that ClearType setting, and it’s not doing much for me. I’ve got a high-end video card and flat-screen monitor, but it just seemed to make all of the text less crisp.
i just didn’t even know you could do that (mind you, i’ve also only had xp for just over a month now). amazing! thanks for the tip.
btw, your pictures lately have been really great. keep them coming! i know you’re a bit hesitant to take pics in public, but just keep snapping and it’ll get easier.
I love the snow/moon picture! Just excellent.
Darren: As I replied to you via email, the anti-aliasing takes a little bit to get used to, but I believe it does make readability of almost everything much higher. Give it a shot. You might just like it. (This reply was properly capitalized just to make you feel more comfortable.)
julie: you’re welcome and thank you for the lovely compliment. as i’m sure i’ve expressed before, to have you, whose standard of photography i can only hope to one day aspire to, compliment mine is huge. and, yes, i do need to get over my public photo-making phobia. it’s just that people *look* at you when you’re taking pictures. you can just hear them thinking “what’s she looking at?”
erika: thank you, too! i hate to break it to you, but that’s actually a streetlamp, not the moon. although, maybe i shouldn’t have said anything. oops. too late now.
Damn you Win2000Pro. DAMN YOU!!!!!
(anyone got an XP upgrade disk I can rip?)
nice pic. I just updated my little picture and I had just taken some nice streetlight in fog shots. I swear I put that up before I saw yours! No snow here.. just fog.
I don’t worry so much about people staring at me less than I do about cops hassling me.
ooo pretty text! what font are you using? because other sites look normal (i.e. mine) and i wouldnt mind em all looking this pretty. I like the fuzzy/clear hehe. Maybe you could email me about it?
there’s a similar function in win98, in display properties –> effects, font smoothing, which isn’t on by default.