Senior Exit Exams

So the friendly rivalry between the CS and CSA students at my university is quite hilarious at times. I'm currently taking the senior class all seniors are required to take in our school of computing. It just so happens that we've naturally segregated each other to where the CS students are sitting on one side and the CSA students on the other. I think this is due to the fact that we are generally better friends with each other from our respective majors from having taken a lot of classes together and less because we don't like each other.

So yesterday our professor is telling us about our exit exams we're required to take before we graduate. He first shifts his gaze to our, CS, side of the class and starts telling us what our test is. It's going to be the Computer Science major field test, which is a national standardized test...blah blah blah. I'd heard about it before so I wasn't paying attention. Instead I was scheming.

I saw that in a few seconds he was about to start talking about the CSA exam and though this was a great opportunity to make a great stab. So I thought for a moment and it clicked. I had the greatest joke ever!

So he's done talking to us and shifts his gaze over to the other side. He starts out with "And for the CSA exam...". Then he places a pause at the perfect time. So not wasting a moment I jump in with "Yeah, you can pick up your coloring books in the office!!" Not that this was funny enough, but the guy behind me was planning the exact same thing with "A review of kindergarten".

This might not seem as funny written in a blog post, but having been there, I was crying and the class was laughing pretty hard for a few minutes. Both sides thought it funny, that's the great part, the CSA guys take it pretty well. They've just decided it's generally hopeless, and take it like men. I'm so proud of them ;)

EDIT: I guess they were kinda ticked after all. Oh well, sniff sniff.

Dream Monads

So I was sleeping the other night and had one of these weird dreaming/coding experiences. Then a thought came to my mind, either while sleeping or while awake. Is dreaming a Monad? Then I got to thinking some more, and I think I've concluded that yes it is.

It maps objects and operations from life into this new context of a dream. The structure of a dream is nearly isomorphic to life except for those special flying powers you get from time to time. So structure is preserved. Thus, I think it fair to call it a functor.

Since it allows you to lift objects from life into this context it has unit. And since a dream in a dream is really just a dream also, we have join. So being a functor with unit and join, we can conclude it's a Monad.

Now, deciding it's a Monad, what other properties of Monads can we infer onto dreams that we haven't though of before?

Nested Where's

I've been discussing with someone how I thought this type of code required a nested where. This code compiled and ran fine for me. I guess it's ok!

foo = foldl step 0
  where
    step = f
    f acc x = acc + x

Drug Doubts: Final

Well, I was about to start writing something my first day, but there wasn't much to comment on. I didn't feel much different. I didn't notice a change much. My poison ivy was kinda getting better, but it really took a few days to get better. The question was then, "Well, are the drugs helping, or is the ivy getting better?" After being off the drugs for about 5 days now, I get random itching from time to time still. For the most part I'd say it's all gone.

On side note, I have a friend who's on oxycotton and percocet. Those might be more fun to try! Just kidding. Addictions to those types of drugs is not something I'm really interested in. Though it would make for an interesting blog series. I'll leave that for someone else.

Drug Doubts: Day 0

Over the years I have never overcome my doubt in the power of drugs. Though, my brief encounter with THC has been an exception. Nontheless, for years I've had headaches and despite my attempts to change my diet, sleep patterns, and an array of other lifestyle patterns, the only thing that has ever done anything for them has been Excedrine. Despite this, I still have my doubts and think that it's just a placebo effect. My headache goes away because I think the medicine is helping me. So I've decided to journal my soon use of steroids and their effects on me.

A week or so ago I had an unfortunate encounter with poison ivy which has left me riddled with pruritus. So today I got a prescription for methylprednisolone, which is a 6 day steriod pack. We'll see what that does for me.