school, bleach, etc.

I've got two exams next week: distributed computing and algorithms (or rather, "computability, complexity, and algorithms"). I did well on the first algorithms midterm, but the current unit (computability and complexity) seems just a bit too arcane for comfort. I mean, I do like Turing Machines and all that, and Professor V. did a marvelous job teaching that stuff in undergrad, but something tells me this exam isn't going to be as easy as all that. We were made to stand up and read excerpts from a seminal 1972 research paper (Richard Karp) on NP-Complete problems in the last lecture, and the professor smilingly admitted that it was going to be just like grade school. And so it was. And here we are. Distributed computing, on the other hand, may prove to be the thing that curtails my upward journey to the immortal Wikipedia archives. We have to study 17 freaking full-length research papers, if Nicky's figure is correct. I'm going to sue someone if after this I'm not considered an authority on distributed systems. Incidentally, I downloaded all the papers we'd be reading throughout this course yesterday, and the number came to 47. Forty-seven. 40 + 7. 17 + 30. I don't think my head ever literally reeled at anything before this. We always jokingly called the professor a friendly ghost, but I'm beginning to suspect that he just might be a ghost in reality. Such nefariousness can only come from beyond the grave.

All this memorization is reminding me a bit too vividly of 10th grade ICSE. Think history/civics and geography, in which we had to read/study/memorize (those words can be used interchangeably in this context) 30 chapters each for the Boards. I'm amazed at myself for doing as well as I did, but I suspect that my memorization neurons were KIA, and they won't be there for me this time around. I'm gazing at the two sets of printouts we made of all the papers for this class, and the sheer number of pages would put Ayn Rand to shame. (Incidentally, I came up with the title for a fictitious book written by Ayn Rand: Shit Happens. Now that's inspired.) It's one of those endeavors that discourage you from even starting on them. If the Gates of Hell were replaced by these two sets of printouts, I imagine the Divine Comedy would be a far less substantial work than it is. (One pictures Dante turning to Virgil, and saying, "No way, dude.")

Now to Bleach. Spoilers abound. Bleach has really taken off since that writer's block Titkubs suffered that made him write the Fullbring Arc. Now it appears as though Kyoraku is going to reveal his full power against that odious shooter Quincy "X-Axis", or whatever. I think these little battles have gone on long enough, and it's time to bring out the big guns, as it were. I'm also pleased that I can't remember when we last saw Ichigo and Co. That said, I wouldn't mind learning what Grimmjow and Aizen have been up to since we last saw them. They're the guys we should really be looking at.