14 / 12 / 2008 -- No Such Luck This Time

Greetings.

Phew...a very up and down week. Let's do this...

Final exams for the semester were this past week. I am reasonably confident in my performance, given that two of four were in my chosen field of study and one of the other two was non-cumulative. The last one was...difficult, though not impossible. All things considered, I think I am safe in assuming that I managed at least an AB average (3.5 GPA, for those who like numbers) for the entire semester. Not bad, not bad at all.

But...I do have some bad news. About mid-way through the week, I accidentally spilled some water on my laptop while it was running. I made all due haste to shut it down, unplug it, and remove the battery, though I fear my speed was not enough. Long story short, it no longer powers on. The hard drive is fine, so I didn't lose any data, and I can still salvage the memory from it, as well.

I am not in a good mood from this, as it was a rather pricey piece of equipment. It just goes to show you that years of caution and careful maintenance can be destroyed by a single stupid mistake. I'm taking it in to a repair shop to get it looked at tomorrow (free inspection, thankfully), but honestly, I don't hold out much hope for it.

I had planned to give it at least another couple years of solid use before getting a new machine, but this may have to accelerate my plans a bit. I am still a poor college student, so I have to be extra-careful about financial decisions, even without a bad turn of luck like this happening. Somehow, though, it will work out.

So, despite a significant loss in hardware, it's not the end of the world. My secondary laptop is running well, and Project Omega will continue unhindered. I feel as if this might actually help my concentration, as now I really don't have the hardware to play any serious PC games instead of working on my myriad of projects.

*Le sigh* Although, I really don't need the extra stress. Despite the considerable semester break looming ahead, I have my time all but packed already. Winter-een-mas is approaching, and tradition dictates that I have a new mix CD ready to go by the end of January.

Come Hell or high water, I plan to fulfill that tradition in grand style - in my opinion, each mix CD has been better than the last; far be it from me to break that streak. Luckily, the break between Phase II and Phase III of Project Omega will occur while I am home for semester break. Excellent timing!

Speaking of Project Omega, Week XI is complete, and along with it comes a fairly comprehensive database design document. I have literally spent the last four hours working on it, since, thanks to finals, I had almost zero time to spend on anything but cramming.

Week XII will see the formalization of most of the documentation produced during Phase II. Much of it is already included in the database design document; ergo, despite Phase II producing more documentation than Phase I, there is less individual formalization to be done than before.

Phase III will consist of interface design. In other words, take Phase II and multiply the workload by about three or four. Add to that my mediocrity as a graphic designer, and we've got ourselves one hell of a Phase coming up.

One more thing: I've been giving some thought to releasing some of the documentation for Project Omega to the public. Originally, I planned to hang on to it all myself and let the finished product do the talking, but it may be good to let everyone see solid proof that work is indeed being done. I'll have to review all of the documentation so far, but my plan is to "declassify" (heh) each Phase's final documentation after the next Phase in sequence is completed - i.e., Phase I will be declassified after Phase II is done, Phase II after Phase III, et cetera. I'd wager a guess and say about 80 percent of the documentation so far is safe to release, from a security standpoint.

Mr. Bond, signing off.