My todo list grew threefold today [He means yesterday. -ed.]. It was bound to happen. I got a short, unexpected break over the weekend and now the wave is cresting once more.
I expected to be programming all weekend. We had to do some multithreaded interprocess remote procedure calls for the latest OS project, and I had not started to any meaningful extent until Friday afternoon. I was not worried. From classmates I knew I could get it done in two days. I put programming aside on Friday night and went bowling underneath the Union with , Mel, and a girl named Jennifer whom I have not mentioned here before. I bowled the worst two games of my life then hung out with Jennifer for the rest of the evening.
On Saturday I got a pleasant surprise when the project started working after only three hours and two earnest tries. Suddenly I had an afternoon and Sunday free. I should have driven home Saturday night for Easter. It did not occur to me that without programming I no longer needed to stay. Sorry, Dad. Sorry, Sue.
My Easter consisted of surfing, , a , and some personal programming. College students must make the most of these lulls in work, and I certainly did my best.
I knew Monday would be tough. I had two project meetings after classes and no chance to go home until after 7. The first meeting was for the research project. I have built the language parser; now we need to make all the internals needed to make it draw things. Four weeks? We can do it. A paper explaining the thinking behind it? Sure.
The second meeting was for the mock mutual fund in my Economics class. The professor has been telling us about this project since the beginning of the semester but only now decided to assign groups and a due date. At the meeting we delegated the required tasks to each of the six team members. I am writing the fund's objective, philosophy, and assesment of risks. It went surprisingly well for having so many people. Two of my teammates were especially on the ball, bringing some actual mutual fund literature from their own financial advisors.
Somewhere in there I also went to the engineering library to get some sources for this semester's history paper. I am starting earlier than I did last semster. My topic right now is the history of machine tools. I find the evolution of precision and the inventiveness of the early innovators like and interesting. However, the writing on machine tools is very dry and filled with tiny, incremental changes that do not lend themselves well to a general term paper. I may change topics within the next day or two.
So in the next month before finals I have: a research project (language + paper), a mutual fund prospectus, a 15+ page term paper, one or two more OS projects, a string of exams, and my normal homework.
[Brett has curled up into the foetal position and is whimpered quietly to himself. -ed.]