Entries this day: Dream Obfusticator Today

Dream

10:20am JST Thursday 20 January 2005

Drove from NJ to somewhere. Was lost, trying to find my way home. I didn't feel comfortable asking anyone; my Japanese experience had made me shy. Then I realized this was a different area, and they spoke my language here.

I talked to someone who told me to wait here for someone who knew where I could sleep. I was sitting on a chair in front of some kids who were ignoring me as the new strange guy, but then I started relaxing and acting a bit silly so they liked me.

Jen came looking for me to make sure I was okay, but then it was time to parade all the kids out in three different groups to go caroling. They had a tradition of singing in the street, even though it wasn't a holiday season. So many people were part of this, and it was beautiful and moved me to tears; I wanted to be a part of it.

The music included long hovering tones, extended like only an angelic choir could achieve.

I woke up when they stopped abruptly. Their music was a guy cutting through tile in the construction across the street.

Obfusticator

Code stolen from http://www.u.arizona.edu/~trw/spam/spam.htm.

Today

6:42pm JST Thursday 20 January 2005

Was woken up by Riho; I forgot our lesson again. Went over there and chatted a bit and helped her with pronunciation of English words. I don't want to study Chinese right now, so it's no longer an exchange, but just me giving her a couple free lessons cause I forgot twice. Last week she called me and I was like, "ferget it," and didn't go.

I don't know if she will pay me for lessons after next lesson; it seems weird to switch from language exchange to money exchange, but hey.

- - - -

Came back home and studied a bit, but primarily took a phat nap and then chatted on AIM with Fred and worked on my days_old counter; he gave me some ideas on how to add predictive calculations. I've written a basic version of that interface, but it doesn't do the calculations yet.

- - - -

Right now I'm at Starbucks in Shibuya waiting for Takako for our lesson. I only had about 150 yen so I couldn't buy a drink, but they still let me come in and take up a chair even though they are crowded. oops. Sorry, Starbucks, but I'm sure you can afford it.

- - - -

I'll sketch out the logic for the date calculator:

if ($predict = 'predict' paramter) {
    $addYears = trunc($predict / $avg_num_days_in_a_year);
    $monthsremain = $predict % $avg_num_days_in_a_year;

    $addMonths = trunc ($remain * $avg_num_days_in_a_month);
    $daysremain = $months_remain % (crap this is not going to work);
    # I need to have a better way to get the quotient and divisor
    # if that is what they are called.

    $guess_End_Date = $startDate + $daysremain;
}

Hmmmm. That's getting messy. I'm going to try a different way.

# $predict_days is the days old date they want to know
if ($predict_days = 'predict' paramter) {  

    $guessDate = $startDate   # start guessing here

    while ($predict_days > $daysInYear($guessYear + 1)) {
	$predict_days -= $daysInYear($guessYear + 1);
	$guessYear += 1;
    }
    while ($predict_days > $daysInMonth($guessMonth + 1)) {
	$predict_days -= $daysInMonth($guessMonth + 1);
	$guessMonth += 1;
    }
    $guessDate += $predict_days;
}

Oooh; I think that will work, and it's way cleaner. And probably faster!

7:12pm

Where is Takako????

Fuckfuckfuck fuck. I didn't write down in my book that she couldn't meet today. Crap. Forgot a lesson that was scheduled, and went to a lesson that was not.