Vitaly McLain's Journal

Vitaly McLain's Journal

Vitaly McLain

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New blog	[23 Jan 2007\|09:02pm]
Woah, I still remember my password after all these years. This is a blog from HIGH SCHOOL, stop reading it. ;) New blog (mostly about infosec): http://vmclain.org
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Note	[06 Mar 2005\|10:49pm]
Going back through this journal, I noticed people still visit it, for whatever reason. If you are trying to contact me, use: vmclain[at]purdue.edu
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Hiatus.	[12 Jul 2002\|05:29pm]
I've been working, working, then working. I'll post more around the end of July/beginning of August.
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YamsYamsYamsYams.

[20 Jun 2002|08:55pm]

[

mood

exhausted

]

This week has been exhausting, but that's alright. One more day to go. Next week I work on Monday, then fejjy comes.

My schedule for the Fall semester at Purdue should have already been avalible, but there is a conflict between two activities which happen on the Sunday before classes begin. My academic advisor sent me this e-mail:

For those of you that have already checked your schedules on SSINFO you will
see that you are in schedule conflict.
The problem...Yes there is a problem...it seems that in their wisdom, the
Registrar scheduled a conflict between two
activities that they are responsible for...they should be getting it cleared
up ASAP, so check SSINFO again on Saturday...
welcome to Purdue!!!

So, I'll wait and see. I just hope I don't get any 7:30s. Heh.

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Quick update!	[16 Jun 2002\|09:36pm]
I don't have the desire to update today, ergo, quick update: -- Graduated. It was bittersweet, but I am glad HS is over. -- Went to Purdue's Day on Campus. Went to Knoy Hall (home of the School of Technology) Listened to a presentation all about my major -- Computer Technology (CPT) -- and about my "concentration" in Telecommunications and Networking Technology. -- Saw a sample dorm room at Tarkington Hall, where I'll be living next year. Not too bad, as far as small dorm rooms go. Signed up for the ethernet/Internet; $50 is a pretty hefty amount to pay for access to a network. -- Sat around the house, relaxed, shopped for components for a new PC. -- Work tomorrow. -- fejjy is coming next week.
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sigh	[06 Jun 2002\|01:40pm]
First it was Joey, now it is Dee Dee. Dee Dee Ramone is dead. Unlike Joey, this might have been an overdose. People really need to learn some self-control.
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It's over. Almost.	[03 Jun 2002\|05:02pm]
Well, three finals, graduation practice and graduation day left. I am glad to be done with high school, but I will miss some of my teachers, friends and maybe even that predictability of everyday high school that allowed me to coast through it half asleep. I've known some of my friends for 7 years or so, so it'll be weird to not be around them anymore. Eh, anyway, I'll write more when I'm less tired.
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Wind down, wind down.

[29 May 2002|11:01pm]

[

mood

okay

]

Yeah, things are winding down, but school won't be over until June 9th, the day I graduate. Between then and now, I have a few assignments, including a math project, I have to do 2 pieces of research for debate (nationals -- a tournament I am not going to), I have to take a few finals (one important), I have to practice the graduating process, and last, but definitely not least, I get to actually graduate. Wow, even talking about all the things to be done makes me depressed. Then, it's summer, which means work.

For graduation, I am getting some cash to put towards building a brand new machine. This means this current machine, an AMD-based 400mhz beast (well, the old, heading-towards-retirement kind of beast), will become Linux-only. I am also considering getting more hard drive space for it -- 8.4Gb just doesn't cut it anymore. It now has 192mb of RAM, which is just fine.

The other machine will be, yes, all Windows. At least Purdue is in bed with Microsoft, and I can by WinXP Pro (software I still do not want to touch with a 10 foot pole, but might end up trying) and Office 2002 for $5 each. I don't have to even wait until fall -- I can get it during "Day on Campus", which for me is June 14th.

Since I somehow transformed myself into more of a gamer than I ever was before, I am pretty excited about the possibilities here. The new machine means Half-Life goodness -- Counter-Strike will look much better, Day of Defeat will run faster than a snail on downers, as it does now. And then there are all those other games I've been meaning to try. I might skip Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and wait for Battleground: 1942, which looks uberultramazing^2. Did I mention Counter-Strike: Condition Zero yet? I would linkify all these names, but I haven't the time. Oh yeah, and then there are the non-FPS games. WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos is coming out, which I've been really anticipating as of late, and maybe, just maybe I'll dump some money on an RPG/Diablo-like game such as Neverwinter Nights or Icewind Dale 2. Not sure when those come out, but I'll keep my eye on them. Mmm. Games.

I just have to be careful to not sacrifice the precious few bits of social life I have to playing these games, but that hasn't yet been a problem.

I need to go catch up on some reading -- Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being -- and go to sleep. I got about 2 1/2 hours last night, which is not enough to function during the school day.

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Still got it.	[27 May 2002\|11:05pm]
I hope LiveJournal stays up long enough for me to post this. Editing my last post was absolute, sheer hell. Anyway, I must say I am really proud of my mom. She has not played chess for 23 years, not even computer games or the like. She had to quit back in the day due to health problems, mainly asthma triggered by nerves. This past weekend she entered the Chicago Open in the "unrated" category, and, despite playing against people who routinely play in chess clubs, managed to tie for 1st place with two other people. The only game she lost was to a guy who was the Chess Champion of Nigeria; she lost accidentally, and even he said that if she would have offered him a draw during a game, he would have accepted it.
3 opinions \| post comment

More like...not-so-alive journal. *ahem*

[27 May 2002|09:41pm]

[

mood

okay

]

Well, with the Memorial Day extended weekend being over, it's time to head back to school. The past few weeks -- basically, the post-AP-test period -- have been one large wind down. But not so this week, because:

a) my psuedo-AP stats class (we took the AP test, but it is an accelerated class) is doing projects. This is fine, they are "free points" and require no homework. But also, in the same class, she finally told us what stuff we didn't turn into her, so I actually have to do math homework. On top of that, I actually have to get a C+ on the final to pass the class. I hate that class, not because I am not good at math, but because of the way it was taught.

b) I'm in a Sociology class, where there is a Sociology project due. It's due Wednesday, but I've been ignoring it, mainly because that class pisses me off. I guess Stats and Soc. are the two classes I didn't like this year. Whereas I hate Stats., this class just annoys me -- mostly because of how dumbed down it is, including the fact that 90% of the students in it might as well be staring at a blank wall and drooling. You know what I mean. The type of people that laugh when someone uses the term "global replacement rate" (too complicated of a term, I guess.)

Bitch, moan, repeat.

I am done with that, because I had meant to make a positive post.

Classes are over after this week + next Monday, then finals (I only care about the Stats final), then graduation on June 9th, then summer. It's not summer I am looking forward to, it is being done with some of the bullshit I have had to put up with at school lately. I have good friends, mostly good teachers, I don't mind my schedule, but I am ready to be done with it.

Recent events? Well, yesterday (Sunday), me and my friends Megan and Ed went to a show at the semi-local Knights of Columbus hall. The genre of music can be described as metalcore and tough-guy hardcore. Ed introduced me to the crowd there. I met a few cool people, chatted with one of the guys from In Pieces (who weren't even playing the show!), met the guys from the local band Payback, and had an overall neat time. Thrash dancing is amusing to watch. I broke a light with my head. Whoops.

Am I done boring you? I think so.

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Another Friday.	[24 May 2002\|05:33pm]
One more week of school. I'm getting a neat toy today (computer) -- I'll post more later if it comes through. The only "personality quiz" worth taking: See which Requiem for a Dream Character you are.
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Woo.	[15 May 2002\|09:16pm]
Done with AP tests. For life. Sleep?
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Fiercely indifferent.	[10 May 2002\|10:26pm]
Well, I really wanted to write in my LJ today, but I'm really tired and sick. I'm also thinking, when I get some free time, to slightly change the format of my LJ to make it more conducive to discussing news/issues/etc rather than just the daily events of my boring life. Basically, more of a blog than a diary. Anyway, for now, I have some things which I should write down before I forget: Associated Press Reports on Star Wars II bootlegs on the Net Quote: "Both were distributed via Internet Relay Chat, a computer protocol that allows users to copy files at high speed from other computers on different networks." sigh Fiercely Independent MSNBC has been running ads -- sometimes back-to-back -- which proclaim all their anchors are "fiercely independent." Isn't that like saying "definitely maybe"? I guess the "liberal media" label has gotten to them. It is very amusing to hear them apply this label to Brian Williams, who is a news reporter who doesn't have a chance to interject with his own politics. They're also trying to apply it to Chris Matthews. Matthews is politically-neutral? Could've fooled me -- I somehow got the feeling he didn't like Clinton very much. Who are they going to attach the tag to next, Alan Keys? Furthermore, who watches Alan Keys Is Making Very Little Sense? 85% of the show is him rambling. Argh. I'm done for today. Need sleep + coherent thought.
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What's the difference between acne and a Catholic priest?	[04 May 2002\|07:03pm]
Heh. I guess things are getting less shitty, although now I am sure no one reads my journal. School is winding down, in a way. It'll be over in 4 weeks, but (get ready for an unnecessary T.S Eliot reference), it'll be over with a bang, not a whimper (you see, I reversed Eliot; clever, right? right?) I have 4 AP Exams coming up. Exam number one is bright and early (7:45am) on Monday -- AP Themes in World Lit. I am studying, but it's basically a) review poetry terms b) review lit. terms c) review at least 5 books so that "open ended" essay will be easier. I hope the "open ended" essay (the third one, after 4 hours of testing) has something to do with an existentialist theme. Absurdity, the search for something, disorder, characters on a journey -- whatever. I've been on such an existentialist kick lately, that it will at least be an interesting essay to write. On top of that, I've been reading No Exit and Three Other Plays by Jean-Paul Sartre, and that will definitely help on an essay like that (on top of all the existentialism and psuedo-existensialism we've read in class -- Albert Camus' The Stranger, Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground, Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, Sam Beckett's Waiting for Godot, Jean-Paul Sartre's The Wall.) I've been playing a lot of Team Fortress Classic (Half-Life style) lately. I'm much better at TF than Counter-Strike, but my offer to play someone still stands at anything Half-Life-based. It's fun throwing MIRV grenades at friends. Ahem. I'll post more later if I get such an inclination.
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The return.	[24 Apr 2002\|03:36am]
I will return to regular posting soon. No, really. I just need to get to a less stressful part of the school year (sometime this week.)
1 opinion \| post comment

I scream!	[14 Apr 2002\|04:34pm]
Well, I'm sitting here, thinking about the immense amount of shit I have to do not to fail this "6 weeks", listening to Tori Amos' cover of Slayer's Raining Blood, when I hear something I haven't heard in a long time. THERE'S AN ICE CREAM TRUCK OUTSIDE! WOO! You know, I don't really like summer (except the whole vacation thing), but I like ice cream trucks. I don't know why. Maybe because they're part of Americana that survived when Milk Men and door-to-door salespeople disappeared; maybe because they remind me of the carefree time of being 8 years old and playing at Indian Boundary Park; maybe because it's just such a bizarre concept now, a truck playing a repetitious loop of music, which everyone instantly recognizes. Yeah. Wow. I've never ranted like that before. That's defiantly going into my Creative Writing journal.
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Well, I wouldn't say I've been MISSING it...

[13 Apr 2002|08:50pm]

[

mood

discontent

]

Peter Gibbons: So I was sitting in my cubicle today, and I realized, ever since I started working, every single day of my life has been worse than the day before it. So that means that every single day that you see me, that's on the worst day of my life.
Therapist: What about today? Is today the worst day of your life?
Peter Gibbons: Yeah.
Therapist: Wow, that's messed up!

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Spring forward.	[06 Apr 2002\|11:41pm]
For anyone who actually still reads my journal (I'll start updating again, soon, I promise -- haven't had any time lately!), and lives in the US (except parts of Indiana, all of Arizona and anywhere else where the government chose to leave time alone), remember to set your clocks ahead one hour. Otherwise you will be very confused and miss a very heartwarming episode of Touched by a Priest erm I mean, Angel, Touched by Angel. cough
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Back.	[02 Apr 2002\|07:21pm]
Just got back from France. Due to the jet lag, I don't have much energy to post much else. School tomorrow. This means an essay test on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and a test on the government of Russia. sigh
1 opinion \| post comment

Au revoir.	[23 Mar 2002\|03:12am]
I haven't been around lately because life has been stressful. This is partly my fault (I've been so damn lazy), but also stress coming from getting all sorts of crap piled on me at school from missing two days last week for a debate tournament and Tuesday (March 19th) to be an Election Judge for the Illinois primaries. Today is the beginning of Spring Break, and since my mom has insatiable appetite for travel, we're going to France. I should be very excited, but once again, I don't have time for any homework, I'm missing two days of school on the tail end of vacation, and I am getting pretty sick of being dragged around by mom around Europe all the time. It'd be fun with friends. Heh. Anyway, it shouldn't be too bad. We're flying American Airlines there and back. It's Economy class, but at least AA has more leg room than others do.
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