So I just set up Alpine for my multiple Gmail accounts with this guide. It works perfectly. (I first tried setting up mutt, but it was a huge pain, and confusing as well.)

Oh, and I also installed mpd and ncmpcpp . I really like ncmpcpp — it’s so easy to learn with the built-in help system. I like having a simple music player client, without all the cover/album art features that most people care about these days. And the memory footprint of mpd + ncmcpp is very, very, very low. Just the way I like it!

I finally got around to installing Arch on my desktop yesterday. At first I installed XFCE, and then Xmonad, and then I decided to dump XFCE altogether and just use Xmonad for all my computing needs. Xmonad is tricky to configure, so I only have a very basic xmonad.hs file (it’s the template config file found on the Xmonad wiki pages, minus the parts that give me errors on Xmonad 0.8.1).

I think tiling window managers like Xmonad are really the only way to go. I was getting sick of doing ALT+MOUSE2 to resize my windows to make most of my screen real estate on XFCE. I really like how my windows perfectly line up into neat groups. I haven’t even touched any of the great extensions out there for Xmonad yet.

In other news: I started using vimperator. It’s really neat once you spend 1 day with it. The biggest advantage for me: I don’t have to click on History -> Recently closed tabs -> tab to open up a tab I accidentally deleted. All I do instead now is just type ‘u’! And I don’t do CTRL+T, CTRL+K to do my searches — instead it’s now just ‘t searchterm’ or ‘t a packagename’ (where the ‘a’ is a keyword for the Arch Package Repository search engine). Woohoo!

I’ve done a few things here and there this winter break. My law school career is coming to an end — I’ve just 1 more semester to go! Anyway, you can tell from this blog’s evolution that that I like to blog mostly about techie/geeky/nerd things like computer programming, linux, and the like. So that’s what I’ve been doing these days — my most precious, last real “winter break” before getting a job in the real world. Yes, I could work for someone — but I’m going to be working the rest of my life!

Some things I’ve done recently, or am getting into:

• I got rid of Xubuntu (gasp!) on my old laptop, and replaced it with Arch Linux, after hearing one rave review of it after another. This is the distro that has slowly and steadily climed up in popularity on DistroWatch, enough to rival and surpass Gentoo, while being similarly focused on simplicity and end-user configuration (not “factory defaults” like Ubuntu or Mint). The install and setup wasn’t so smooth, as the wikis and beginner guides were, though highly informative, not really comprehensive. But after I got it running — I too have been generally impressed with Arch, and the whole Arch community, and its pacman packaging system, along with the ABS/AUR duality for getting packages.
• I started learning text-based (aka “console” or CLI for command line interface) clients for many common things I do on the computer. So far I’ve managed to use and configure irssi for IRC, and I also use aria2 for bittorrent. I want to look into tmux (replacement for GNU Screen), alpine (email client), bitlbee (for AIM, MSN messaging from inside irssi), and clex (file manager). Why a sudden emphasis on console clients, instead of graphical ones based on GTK or KDE? Well, for one, text-based ones run faster, and are more stable. And once you set up text-based clients and have them configured properly, they are easier to use and are much more efficient time-wise to get the same thing done.
• I switched my default shell from bash to zsh. The tab-completion feature alone makes the switch worth it, in my opinion, as well as the somewhat-difficult-but-doable themeing of the prompt. There are tons and tons of features in zsh that are customizable (the man page for zsh is broken up into 17 sections!), that I will slowly start to learn as I get more and more into programming as a hobby (shell programming, to be more exact).
• I stopped using xfce4-terminal (aka “Terminal” in the XFCE desktop environment) because of its poor color support (it only has 16? colors) and, after a series of changes, finally settled on a custom, AUR-based package of urxvt (rxvt-unicode) that supports 256 colors. Now my vim looks virtually the same as my gvim using the zenburn theme. Yay!
• I started exploring other programming languages a little bit. So far, I’ve decided to get more into Haskell and Factor. Haskell has a reputation for being rock solid, from what I can glean from the blogs and news sites out there, while Factor is cute and interesting with its stack programming model. I also want to ditch Ruby and get into Python (I’m tired of writing “end” over and over again), so I’ll look into that more in the future (although, this would mean that I would have to rewrite my custom Rails app that I made last year using Django or something else, even — but I think the sacrifice would be worth it).
• I got back into practicing the guitar again — but this time focusing only on my classical guitar and playing older songs (not modern ones from rock bands) like the short pieces by Carcassi.

I’ll probably write the obligatory Arch Linux “first impressions” review in the future, from my unique experience of having switched from Linux Mint to Xubuntu to Arch Linux in the course of about 1 year, never having used Linux in the past. Was the switch to Arch worth it? Yes. I’ll explain as much as I can, and why you should also switch, in the review.

All right, I have to admit I sort of forgot about this website after the hectic schedule I had during late summer/internship. And I have to say this about this experiment: it was too intense, at least for me. Yes, I’ve read around on the internet that you need to keep up the schedule consistently for at least two weeks, but I couldn’t make it. So I switched back to monophasic.

But I felt guilty, so I started recording the total number of hours I slept each day for about two months afterwards. I found out that my average daily sleeping hours, under the old monophasic way, was 7.28 for August 2007 and 7.6 for September 2007. Keep in mind that this is with crazy schedules like 3 hours for one night and 11 for another. It’s amazing how the body adjusts itself to that optimum sleeping time of about 7.5 hours. From this I realized that yes, since 7.5 is a product divisible by 1.5 (the 90 minute sleeping cycle discussed earlier in my remarks about the biphasic sleep experiment), I went through 5 cycles each day (5 x 1.5 = 7.5). Now if I can just cut down to 4 cycles a day, and I would be very very happy…

It has been some time since my last entry. Here are several developments:

• My Spring semester grades were a disappointment. Generally, in those classes where I did poorly in the midterm, I got poor grades. I suppose everyone studied harder than me. What does this mean? I have to study more to raise my GPA. I might even consider studying with other people in study groups, but I am not sure. The upcoming fall semester will prove to be even more important.
• I’ve moved to a new residence, one with bigger rooms. I still have my own room, and I even have my own bathroom now. It feels much like living in a hotel, since the apartment complex is newly built and rather large.
• I purchased computer parts and built my own computer, with my Dad’s help. I have 2 LCD monitors instead of 1 giant CRT. It feels so much better, and I have a lot more space on my desk. Anyway, this new setup (considering that I used my previous setup for about 7 years) will probably keep me happy well after I graduate from law school in 2009.
• The summer internship I have is turning out to be very enjoyable. My boss is very energetic and keeps me on my toes.

Also, I have read for a couple hours on polyphasic sleep and also an article about sleep cycles, and how to systematically sleep less than the average adult sleep period of 7-8 hours. To this end, I have constructed a sleep cycle schedule and will begin to try to adjust to this new schedule of 3 hr “core” sleep followed by a 1.5 hr nap in a 24-hour period–a.k.a. “biphasic” sleep. Apparently, it takes a few weeks to fully adjust to this new schedule, to “train the body” to this regimen, so if I start tonight then I will have enough time to adjust before the beginning of Fall semester.

I will post updates about this (permanent) sleep experiment on a regular basis.

OK, I know you’ve all  been worrying about my existence, so here’s an update:

• I did not get the job I mentioned in the previous post.
• Instead, I got a job at virtually the same location (a block away) at an employment law office. The attorney there is more experienced than the first one I interviewed for, so I’m really happy about this. I start working about 20 hrs/week starting next week.
• I will be moving to a new apartment complex! It’s great. It’s much closer to the supermarket and shopping centers around here, so I will be able to walk to places.
• I finished Spring Semester with a much better feeling about grades than Fall. I predict that my GPA will go up.

I’ll type more later. As an FYI, I have a real diary I write into with an ink pen, which is why I don’t write as often on here as I like to (I tend to write important things into my diary; I only like to write important things–I rarely rant; and I despise writing things twice.)

Until next time!

I recently got a call from a solo practitioner for a summer internship, and interviewed with him at his office. I found him surprisingly amiable, and he seems to be a nice person. The position is unpaid, but I’ll be working 9 to 5 for some heavy duty litigation. He’s going to make a decision soon, and as there are several other candidates fighting for this position, I’m hoping for the best.

Oh, and no, this is not a last-minute April Fool’s joke.

I know, it’s been several months since my last entry. So, here are some quick updates in my life:

• My fall semester grades were a hodgepodge mix. All in all, I was still able to fit into the top half of my class, which I think is a good thing.
• I began writing my resume and cover letters for prospective employers for this summer, but found out that I really need to up my pace in the work/outside-school area to impress employers. I might end up doing pure volunteer work this summer just to build up my resume. My advice to those who are aspiring to join the law school lifestyle: get a job/internship/volunteer position NOW!
• I have a ton of work to do in my classes right now, but I find myself putting things off until the last minute. Oh, that’s me since kindergarten. Still getting used to doing things BEFORE they are due. I went to a top-25 college for undergrad, and let me tell you: once, I was able to study a mere 4 HOURS TOTAL on the DAY OF THE FINAL EXAM for a history class, and still receive a B+ in the course. Law school is much, much different. You really can’t cram here. So the bottom line is: I’m having trouble stopping my old procrastination habits. Any tips to help me combat this?
• I came across a job info site that ranked the 50 best jobs in the country, and ranked at #37 was “Lawyer.” The bad news is, it had the worst ratings in terms of flexibility, creativity, stress, etc. Hmm, I’m really starting to wonder how bad a job as an attorney can really be. Don’t attorneys work less hours than a med school grad doing his residency at a hospital?

So that’s that. I’ll try to post more things as my life becomes ever so intertwined with the law.

Finals are over! I’m really hoping for some ripe apples. I’ve never complained about bananas before, though. Bananas give you hope. I hate cats. Dogs and frogs are not very good company. OK this plant and animal kingdom metaphor is going out of hand… I’ll stop.

Anyway–I got nothing planned for winter break. Nothing! I did start playing video games again. I don’t think my generation will ever be able to quit. I guess it’s like smoking. Like any obsession, you can only replace it with some other new obsession in order to quit. Until I find that new obsession, I probably won’t–oh wait, I already do have a newfound obsession. The study of law!!! Of course! How could I overlook the progress of my life so obtusely? I admit though, whenever I get a chance to see some courtroom action–or even bits of law-related movies (I watched a bit of “The Firm” today)–I hesitate to switch channels. It’s been ages since I’ve watched television. I can spend hours on it, though, now that I have no obligations until January!

I’m supposed to be researching prospective employers and start thinking about specializing in certain areas of law. But isn’t it a little bit early? Seriously, I still have 5 semesters of law to go through. I’ll ignore the law career workshop emails for now. For some reason the holiday spirit and law employment research just doesn’t seem to mix very well, at least not right now with me. I probably won’t post something until I get some GREAT news about my fantastic grades. I’m not superstitious, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Take a look at http://typewriter.wordpress.com/constructive-anonymity/

If you know who I am, then unless there is some future change in the nature of this blog, please refrain from leaving comments that in any way reveal my true identity.