Two Dozen

That's right: Two whole dozen years.  Appropriate enough for the year twenty-dozen, but that particular happenstance is more a function of mathematics than anything particularly cosmic.

Today went really well, actually, what with it being the first day back to classes (which I realize I still haven't written about).  My first class was actually quite engaging and I'm looking forward to the future lectures already.  My other class first meets tomorrow morning.

And although I don't necessarily hold the number 24 in quite as high regard as the number 23, it's already growing on me.  Embarking on a relatively new chapter of my life is leaving me with much the same "anything-can-happen feeling" I described last year, and I'm pleased to report that it's actually lasted all day!  I have a feeling it'll last for quite a while longer, too.

The only (minor) damper was that the local Arby's appears to have discontinued jalapeño poppers.  If you know me well, you know that this is a big deal.  But I had a birthday coupon for a free shake, so it was all good.  And besides, I got jalapeño coins on my burger at my birthday dinner at Red Robin, where I was joined by all sorts of friends and family from the area.

All in all, a good day.  And a great start to my twenty-fifth year on earth.  Soon enough, I'll be a member of the quarter-century club!

2012

Time for another New Year's Day doodle to get me revved up for the year ahead: Twenty-dozen..., er, -twelve.  This one was done a bit simpler, since I had to do it in Photoshop on my father's computer (which crashed three times in the process of making this), but I feel it encapsulates the emotion (or "artistic vision") that I'm trying to convey.  Or something like that.

Last year, I'd said that the blank slate that 2011 held was both "refreshingly inspiring" and "paralyzingly daunting."  Well, I obviously got through it alright.  Now, for 2012, I've at least got some sort of plan... now I just have to execute it well in order to make this the best year it can possibly be.  Talk about potentially daunting!  But I'm up for the challenge!

Currently, I'm packing up my stuff to head back to Pittsburgh tomorrow morning for the new semester which begins on Wednesday 4 January.  Thankfully, I was able to get this done in between other tasks.  But it also means you'll have to wait a bit longer for "real" stuff.

Oh, well.  I think you'll be fine.

A High-Velocity Year

Ah, 31 December: The last day of the year.  Time for reflections on the past, New Year's Eve Nachos, and OHMIGOD has it been five MONTHS since I've written on my blog??!?!!?

Well... the best explanation for why it's been so long since I've written here is because, simply, I have way more interesting thoughts than I have time to write any of them here.  This may be some form of the proverbial "good problem to have," but really, I'm not sure.  I find it nearly impossible to bookmark or backtrack to a thought for long enough to write about it, as my thoughts are constantly moving forward.  I think they call this phenomenon "stream-of-consciousness."

Anyway, the thought-time imbalance is caused mostly by the fact that one can think from anywhere, in parallel with performing other tasks, while writing here requires being at a computer and not being busy doing other things.  Most of the time, I have one of these, but rarely do I seem to have both.

But enough of this meta-blogging nonsense.  I find that too often I set out to write something novel here only to end up writing ever-longer diatribes about why I haven't written anything novel here for ages, and it just spoils everything for everyone.  Why should I write about writing, and specifically about not doing it, when I could just be doing it instead?  Who could possibly care enough to read what I have to write about (not) writing?

Crap.  Now I'm meta-meta-blogging.

Anyways, onto the "meat" of this post, which is primarily on the topic of the year that we've just been through (twenty-eleven, for those keeping score) having reached its inevitable ending.

As you've no doubt guessed by now, the reason I've been so busy this year has been due to the immense amount of change that has been going on in my life... and the high velocity with which it has happened.  While at home earlier this year after graduating, I struggled to figure out what my next steps in life should be.  Through February and March, I studied for the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam, the first step toward professional licensure for engineers, which I took (and passed!) in April.

Then, in May, a lightbulb went off in my head that, academically, computer science was the missing key.  So I signed up to take the GRE in June, began making arrangements in July to take courses, and headed back to Pittsburgh in August.  And now I'm a student again!

Obviously, it wasn't quite that simple, and there's a lot more to explain... but as has become as much of a tradition as writing these year-end posts, I'm writing a good deal of this in the last several minutes of the year while also trying to do other things simultaneously.  As such, I'll be cutting this short but intend to continue in the near future (ha!).  Nevertheless, I'm pleased to report that my first semester of courses in the CS department went exceedingly well, and I have high hopes for the future.

I wasn't lying 364 days ago when I said that I had no idea what 2011 would bring.  It certainly didn't fail to bring me, and I can't wait to see what 2012 will bring.

Random tangents:

• Oh, and the computer issues from July are issues no longer; as a computer science student, I was more or less forced to get a new computer in September, the arrival of which was very welcome.  The only reason I mention it is because the aforementioned issues were featured in the post adorning the frontpage of this blog for the last five months.
• As with last year, we're watching Carson Daly on NBC tonight.  We're quite the anti-Seacrest family now.

Computer Issues

Well, I knew this day would come. I was just hoping it wouldn't for a few more months.

A few weeks ago, I was just looking at a few low-cost replacement parts for my laptop, like a new bezel and hinges for the monitor. Now, I'm considering getting a new computer altogether.

About a week ago, some mysterious vertical lines started appearing on my screen near the cursor. Then they started appearing all over the screen. Then the computer started hanging when it came out of hibernate. Then it started crashing more frequently.

After a good round of diagnosing, I'm pretty confident it's my graphics card. So now I'm faced trying to decide whether I want to:

• buy a refurbished replacement card for around $150–250 and hope it works,
• buy a new replacement card for around $450–600 but only get a few months' use out of it, or
  
• buy a whole new computer right now for... well, a bit more than that.
  

Each option has its pros and cons and none is terribly desirable. Decisions, decisions!