You do it to yourself...

This past week I have been pretty much unable to do anything...

However, that was not a real option, so in actuality I have:
Given a lecture on the boundaries of computer science
Attended most of my classes
Went to Taiji (our trainer just had his 3d child, by the way)
Went to the dancing course
Finished writing the Sharemind protocols paper (we found an inconsistency at the last minute)
Went to see a performance by two of my friends
Learned a new song on the bass
Had a band practice
Finalized my planning for the Japan trip
Made provisions for my lectures and tutorials next week.
Created two versions of a Test in programming course.

And Im probably forgetting a few things.

I started packing my bag today at 9. At about 9.30 I realized that I will probably also need my Passport to get to Japan... And I had no clue where it could be. I did finally find it, at 10.00 - which meant I was 10 minutes late to the tutorial session I had this morning with the programming students. Only 10 of the 30 were present, though, so that ended a bit early, allowing me to get my first cup of coffee before going to manage the Intro. to Informatics course lecture...

If I weren't so tired, I would be loving all of this. But for now, I would just like to sleep for... a week?

Maybe after Japan

Update:
After the lecture today, I realized I had lost my keys... or rather forgot them at my own room, which had since then been locked by someone else.

Why I love my job

I gave a lecture this morning, (Monday) at 8.15. On theoretical computer science. Half of it was set theory, the other half computability and complexity theory. Complicated stuff by most first year's standards.

And the students actually liked it!!!! Most of the feedback (that actually contained anything) was positive! They thought the stuff I explained was cool... and they seemed to understand it.

Disturbed

I just watched the first movie where the happy ending would have been three people committing suicide.

Thankfully, it did end that way.

Just REALLY glad I did not watch it alone.

Dancing

Introduction to Computer Science course began this week - at 8.15 on Monday morning, to be precise. Promises to be a pretty good year - students were fairly responsive, both to jokes and to questions, even despite the early morning. From the feedback, it also seems that both "Teeviit" and the open doors days do pay off in terms of luring students to study at UT - as quite a few marked one of these as one of the reasons for choosing Tartu.

About a week ago, I decided I would like to go to a beginners dancing course.. (well, actually, I had that planned in the summer already, but I finally realized that if I want to do it this semester, I better start now). So I went and hanged a few ads on notice boards, saying a Young man is looking for someone to go dancing with. No takers, for a week, and I had nearly given up..

This is, until I got an e-mail today. From L. (yet another one, third, I think, although I confess I have lost count) - asking about it and claiming she would be interested. I met her for a coffee just an hour before the course begun.. and very quickly decided she would be just perfect. She is a first year veterinary science student. Very cute.

And just the right amount of attractive - you know, too much and things can get very complicated very fast. And too little - well, the problem there is also pretty obvious - as dancing is something pretty intimate and the course is pretty long...

Anyways - shes a pretty quick learner.. but still has some trouble with sensing the rythm of the songs and staying on beat. To a smaller degree, so do I. The fact that I have mainly been doing rythm exercises with my bass for the past two weeks helps. Immensely. Seriously, I would not want to know what would be happening if I had not. Better keep that up too.

The course seems to be at just the right pace -- at least for a total beginner like me. The first lesson was a tad too slow, but I am guessing they will speed things up a bit at which point it will be exactly right. Teachers are quite ok - although, since there are so many couples (around 15), they do not really have time to correct anything but the coarsest mistakes... Then again, just starting out, it may actually be better, as it is already enough work to get the movements right, even without worrying about posture or the exact step length.

Anyways, I thoroughly enjoyed the first lesson. Looking forward to the next one.

Ow yes. And I shaved.

Day off

I finally had one full day off from.. well, everything. So, what did I do?

Woke up (around noon).
Played American McGee's Alice
Played Guitar Hero Drums
Watched Dr. Who
Prepared dinner
Watched Outer Limits
Played More guitar Hero
Went for a walk (it was at 2 a clock in the night at this point)
Watched more Outer limits.
Went to sleep.

Considering I can allow myself maybe one day like that every two months, I actually consider it well spent. I do need to be alone every now and then.. and if I have more free time, I would probably start to read books at some point. But currently, my brain is just too tired to enjoy that so I needed and did more brain-dead stuff.

The night before was also quite fun. I was almost ready to spend that alone too, until I ran across V. on my way home. Since I hadn't seen him for over two months, I asked him over to my place, where he (as usual) showed me some very disturbing videos.. after persuading me to vote for the Reform Party.

Or well, one candidate of theirs, Silver Meikar, who is pretty much the only politician who actually cares about human rights (i.e. in N. Korea, Tibet, Georgia,...), as he explained. I'm normally leftist, but all things considered, I think I will actually vote for this guy during these elections.

At some point, I asked A. when she would be returning my guitar hero set.. and she said she could drop it off in the late evening. So she did. We then played Guitar Hero III with V. for a little... But then R. and K. knocked on the window... so I made them tea and talked, until they had to leave too.. But by then it was already pretty late anyways so I set off to bed as well.

Tomorrow, I have to wake up at 6, because I have a lecture at 8. At least I am pretty well rested. Still considering whether I should bring coffee to the students... Guess Ill figure it out tomorrow morning.

Decompression period

I think I'm finally done with the Sharemind division protocol. Fixed a memory leak today and also finished explaining how it works to my co-author. Hopefully, no further problems arise and I can concentrate on other stuff now.

A traffic textbook problem arose today, when I was at a 4-way intersection with a car having stopped on all other three directions. Right hand rule would lead to a deadlock, since everyone has someone on the right. There is a solution for this, though?

Well, me, not knowing what it is, and being as suicidal as I am, just drove on.. and was not too far off from being run over.. Thankfully, cars do not accelerate instantaneously.

Old wounds

Two of them got torn open today.

But in both cases, I actually realized something. I am stronger than I was before. Stronger in the sense of better adapted. Stronger in the sense that I have more self-respect. And it is good to know that I still stand by the decisions I made.

Not that it doesn't hurt. It does. But that will pass. And that pain is necessary.

"And the scars remind us, that the past is real" - Papa Roach