the P.Pole

So, my last exam of this spring/summer term is tomorrow.

Soon, soon my lovely little periwinkles, I will be free of this.

5 things I still want to do before summer ends:

• rock out with Adwin and Stephen (and Melissa too, I guess, but she’s a girl so she doesn’t count)
• head down to Burrito Boyz for lunch with the 1990 guys and back to Rafael’s place for gaming
• find a way to play “Wings of Liberty” Starcraft 2 campaign on Mac or PC
• go on a variety of dates
• see a yet-to-be determined concert

Oh yeah, Linear Optimization. Time to get back on that before day dreaming of dates and video games.

The P.Pole has a new-ish face! Freshly polished and adorned for your enjoyment! For future reference, here’s what I’m looking at:

I’ve grabbed some comics to read, and have been reading through Marvel’s “Siege” storyline (January to May 2010), which, as far as  I’ve gotten, deals with Thor and the Asgardians (I think it’s pronounced ”az-guardians”, not “ass-guardians”).

Anyway, Thor has this totally badass hammer, named Mjöllnir. Here is an excerpt (taken completely out of context) from the Wikipedia page:

At a banquet Þrymr holds in honor of the impending union, Þrymr takes the bait. Unable to contain his passion for his new maiden with long, blond locks (and broad shoulders), as Þrymr approaches the bride by placing Mjöllnir on “her” lap, Thor rips off his disguise and destroys Þrymr and his giant cohorts.

Read more about Mjöllnir here.

Update: Here’s a video of me, making a Chibi-Mjolnir:

Whether you’ve been here the past few days or if you subscribed to me via RSS, you may have noticed that, since the 25th of July, 2010, this site had previously been pointed to one of those domain squatter’s pages (see here for an example).

Apparently, my claim on the domain had expired on the 25th but the notifications were never received by me. The WhoIs information was never changed with respect to my email address. To make things worse, I had assumed I was on an automatic renewal setup, so I never bothered to check when my lease expired.

You can imagine the shock I had when I went to make a post last night (probably about how much Statistics I’ve been doing over the week—a lot) and instead found a squatter on my page, with links redirecting to pole dancing lessons and pole barns. When I ran a WhoIs check, it said the “people” at Enom.com had swooped in and gobbled up my domain. I went there, and test-registered the domain. They wanted me to pay the $69 for something intangible that I owned a few days ago.

I asked a few people who’d know about this sort of thing (thanks Tim, Adwin, Stephen, and David) and the general consensus was that I was not getting my domain back. I contacted Hostgator about the problem, sort of in a panic, and the helpful support guy told me he’d do his best to snag it back on my behalf, and all I have to do is pay for the renewal for the coming year (since after all my lease did expire). So, $15 and one night’s worth of sleep later, www.the-ppole.com is back in my rightful possession, with all the WordPress installation + databases intact (I checked first thing this morning when I woke up).

Let this mark the start of a new age, where domain squatting bastards like Enom Inc. can cram it with their business model.

Re: Amy – The squatters’ asses have been soundly kicked.

My three final exams:

• Statistics on August 3rd
• Business Law on August 5th
• Linear Optimization on August 12th

All in all, this has been a breezy summer term for me. That’s not to say that the courses have all been easy,  I’ve just been going at them as if they were. I should probably be spending all of the coming week reviewing for Stats and Law, and then spending the week leading up to Linear Optimization on that… But, there is Disgaea 3 and my Hi-Capa to play with, so I don’t know how well this will work out.

Note: Managerial Accounting, my fourth course, has no final exam this term. In its place is a group case presentation, and a report due on the same case. Not only am I only responsible for four courses this term, but only three final exams! Win.

5 things that kept me distracted this week:

• Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice (PS3)
• Tokyo Marui Hi-Capa 5.1 (still needing a name for her)
• Ridge Racer 7 (PS3)
• Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (PS3)
• Syncing “Avatar: The Last Airbender” (cartoon) with Amy

Now back to the distractions!

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Feel you’re different, glowing like a spark I felt before.
You’re like a wide-eyed wanderer.
How could I want you more?

This is the start of something new and different.
I’m feeling everything I should have felt before.

Open canvas, stroke you with the paint of innocence.
You see the whole sky unfold, and share the view without the tint.

This is the start of something new and different.
I’m seeing everything I should have seen before.

I’ve been dreaming of love. Where did you go?
I’ve been dreaming of love. Where did you go?
There’s no time to stop now. You’ve gotta let it all go.
I’ve been dreaming of love. Where is your…

Heart wide open, flowing through the hole of vivid dreams.
You can feel the destination,
But it’s the voyage that you seek.

This is the start of something new and different.
I’m chasing everything I should have chased before.
Before…

I’ve been dreaming of love. Where did you go?
In this feeling of love, where did you go?

We gotta change. The souls arise,
No ground applies and I want in.

I’ve been dreaming in love.
- Lights Resolve, Dreaming of Love