Pinging Knight

It's been an extremely hectic quarter so far, and probably will continue to be so. Never again will I take three CSE courses at the same time. I love the subject, and all three courses have been fascinating. However, it seems to require me to pull an all-nighter about once a week and work past 1am otherwise. With an 8:30 class in the morning, this isn't really ideal.

Still, learning computer science to me is like learning magic. I should make another entry to elaborate on that. For now, suffice it to say that it feels very cool.

The lack of sleep is definite badness; I belong in the camp that firmly believes sleep deprivation does long-term damage. Furthermore, I simply don't work very well while tired. I have been napping when I feel utterly unmotivated to work in attempt to catch up, and weekends are godsends. I am hesistant to drop a class, however, since so much effort has been invested already and my grades aren't too bad, I hope. I also feel that I am getting better in managing the workflow. Now you know why I have not been blogging very often, though. I've been napping through most spare chances that I get.

This week saw two midterms and a corresponding reduction in homework. Hopefully I will have more time to sleep and write now that I feel caught up and am more used to things. The work has been getting more difficult as well, but… one can hope.

On an unrelated note, I was excited to hear that Lawrence Lessig appeared on a recent episode of West Wing, protrayed by Christopher Lloyd. Professor Lessig is actually a real person and even keeps a blog. He is one of the most well-known defenders of digital freedom against oppresive laws. As a programmer, you can imagine that I am quite interested in maintaining digital freedom. It's great that he is becoming more well known. Though the West Wing episode highlighted more of his experience in constitutional law, it did plug his most recent book about the digital world: The Future of Ideas. Here's an excerpt of his own commentary of the episode:

Two things about the episode did, however, make me very happy. First, that it showed that at least some law students escape the trap that the top law schools have created -- the path to a tedious and unrewarding practice that few seem capable of avoiding. And second, that it captured beautifully the single most important thing that I learned from my years working on "constitutionalism" in Eastern Europe: That 90% of the challenge is to build a culture that respects the rule of law, and that practices it. A document doesn't build that culture. And no one has a formula—either for building it, or preserving it.