Finished my last exam yesterday! Yippee!!! I still can't beleive how easy it was. Physics is by far not the easiest subject (I'm really bad at optics, for instance), but I knew almost every answer. I almost didn't need to use the (legal) cheat sheet I made. We may put whatever we want in our TI83, so I put a summary of all five books in it. I had to search for the Wien formula, but that was all. Now I can finally start bryceing like a madman again. I'm going to pick up my toonstreet project again.

Glad ta have ya back, witha brain pan like that you could be developing this software too. Good luck on the exam.

Already finished it. Now that you talk about developing software like this. I've once been working on a 3D wire-frame engine with a friend. He was waiting for his old computer to be repaired, but there was a little disagreement about the warranty and he had no computer to work with for weeks. So to keep him from getting bored we started to program a 3D-engine for his graphic calculator. It was great fun, but we never got much further then rendering a cube and dragging the corners around through the virtual 3D-space. We spend most time optimizing the code to make it faster and smaller, and then we tested it by rendering a cube. In theory we could have made every other object we wanted, but that involved programming all the polygons in a seperate file. We never made modelling tools of a nice interface, so a cube was the easiest solution. The engine did support correct perspective algorithms and ajustable POV and FOV.

I'm a bit jealous about your free time.... but I'm happy because we will see beautiful images! good luck with your software!

Rayraz I guess you are in the land of bliss now that all your exams are over. So do you have any plans as to where you'll go from here or are you going to take a year out before continuing your studies?? Whatever you decide and where ever you go I'm sure you'll do well and I wish you success for your future. 8) Catlin

I've tried to get an animation-course, I got through the first selections, but not through the 2nd round. So I had to find something else. I've now signed up for an 'Interactive media' course, but that's a numerux fixus, so I've got an 'Informatica' course as back-up.

Maybe you could reapply for the animation course at a later date. Since you've already experience the selections board you should now know what they're looking for and be able to succeed if you applied again. Never say never...........8) Catlin

I'll defenitely try again next year.

BTW now that the summer vacation is getting nearer. Are any of you planning to visit the Netherlands? It would be nice to meet some of my 'Rosity bryce hero's and heroine's in person. And for the UK-people; pot is sort of legal here *)

You never know Rayraz. As I told you before my cousin lives just outside Amsterdam and she's always asking me to come over so I might just do that this summer. And as for your "pot" remark all I can say is..........LOL 8D Catlin

I have been in several country's (Belgium, Germany, France, Denmark(sp?)) for weeks without anyone asking for drugs. But in the one single week I ever spend in the UK there where 3 people trying to sell me drugs and 7 trying to buy it. They heard I spoke dutch, so they thought I used drugs. So far I haven't used, had, bought or sold it, but I found it very striking. That's why I still make jokes about it sometimes.

Glad that your exams went well, Ray! Welcome back!

Lucky you!! Wish I had some time for Brycing. My life is in an upheavel right now. LOL, I haven't smoked pot since before you were born, hehe. And I'm too damn afraid of flying and way to poor to travel unfortunately, to go to Europe. I'd Love to take the QE2 over but no time and money. I've got a daughter going to college this fall and my husband just moved out of the house and into a trailer with his girlfriend he met at his job. So I'm offically flirt material if anyone cares to IM me. :) Oh and as far as not needing to use the cheat sheet, I think that allowing them is the best way to get students to learn the material. I've had the same experience. I remember so much more at exam time after having spent days writing up a cheatsheet and I end up hardly needing it at all. I envy you your summer freedom, hope you have a good time! And I look forward to seeing what you come up with. Ang

Rayraz, Great! Take a week or so and get away from it all! I was thinking I was gonna take a couple of days and head for the hills but I wrenched my back installing a sound card and re-stacking some wood for a friend a couple of days ago (or maybe it was lifting all them heavy beers afterward)- so that's out for me for a week or two - but you should try to get a change of scenery while you can. Glad you did well, - TJ

Ang you are a lucky girl that the Bryster isn't here to hear you say you are flirt material you know what he's like. Mind you I may tell him this when he gets back, it could take the pressure of of me...........LOL 8) Hope life gets better for you soon and you know you don't need a man who's a scoundrel, you are too good for him and he doesn't deserve you. Best wishes Catlin

Great Rayraz! Congrats, now you will be back with your images, I can only be glad for it! Ang, I too am flirt material. I got dumped just recently :) S.

Awe, this is turning into heartbreak hotel. Two wonderful people with two rotten partners, this world is just so unfair. Better luck next time you two. Catlin

Thanks Catlin for your support. I have an unusual amount of support. In fact my in-laws are still talking to me and are very nice to me. I was with him for 20 yrs and he just up and left me for a co-worker, I'll get by without him. I didn't make him happy and there's no point in keeping a relationship going if you have to be phoney to make the other person happy. I'm getting counseling too so I'll be just fine without him. And to think just a month ago I was being all proper and not flirting, sheesh. Stefano, anytime you want to flirt with an older woman, just let me know. (that would be me, the older woman) Catlin, sure I'll help flirt with the Bryster, just so damn rusty I'll need to warm up to it. Oh won't he be happy.:)

Ang, most of us men are like busses - picking up everything we can and giving you all a rough ride. Sorry to hear it. - TJ

Ang, I wonder how old you think I am... LOL, I'm on my way to 37, there's not much difference between us, I think ;) Whoa, 20 years, this is a long time. Sorry to hear that, I'm sure it's difficult. Not my case: they usually dump me after some months :) Flirting is wonderful... I'm here, in the heat of the Italian night, and at last the hated supporters of Milan's other (secondary) soccer team stopped honking like bastards in the streets... the suckers just won the Champions League. If you want to shake the "rust" from your flirting techniques, I'm here, darling :) S.

Wow, you look so much younger. And a Hot Italian too! I'm way out in the countryside of New York (no where near the City) and the only honking would be at stray cows or sheep. Oh and I honk at the deer, ever since one of them put a nasty dent in my car. I don't know what happened to the deer, when I finally stopped shaking and went back to see if I killed it, it was nowhere to be seen. Well reading back over this, my flirt skills are truely poor. Will try to get better at it. (goes off to review some of Catlin and Brysters old posts)...And you are younger than me but not by so much. Although, I'm not fussy about age. Thanks TJ for the analogy. I wouldn't have thought of you guys as buses but now.... hmmm. might explain the high maintenance costs. :-D

I'm defenitely getting away from it a little. I've been to The matrix reloaded. And yesterday I went to Disneyland Paris and went in the rollercoasters untill my head started to hurt. If you ever go there, you have to try the Indiana Jones. It's a wooden coaster, but it goes backwards, so you don't see where you're going. That's really cool during the looping. And friday I'm going to make some music with the coolest girl of the orchestra. And I'm also busy trying to get a date with her too (I'm also still flirt material :)). Last time I asked she wanted too, but already she had something else planned. Now we know each other a little better, so this eighth try I feel like I might finally hit the jackpot.

BTW, I don't know if I really am like a bus. I'm far to loyal, helpfull and friendly to be a bus. Plus I'm almost never too late.

Good luck!!! And not all men are like buses. Glad to hear you're not one of them. Sounds like some fun, riding a coster backwards. I prefer rides that stay near the ground and just twirl you around. I have a fear of heights. Well really a fear of falling which can't happen if you stay low to the ground. Sounds like you've been traveling quite a bit lately, don't know how far the UK and Paris are from the Netherlands. My geography sucks. I live probably 16 to 24 hrs drive from the nearest Disneyland. And I've never been there either. Hey, so let us know how your eighth attempt goes. Ang

Ang darling, yes I know, this was always a problem for me: when I was 25, people thought I was 18 and this unnerved me a lot. Now that I'm 37 and people think I'm 25, I must admit that the feeling is quite the opposite... :) IMO, you should have fun and relax to divert your thoughts from what happened: what about a vacation in Italy? Here's my plan: visit to all the wonderful cities we have here, plus sea and Alps, my big apartment in the Old Side of Milan, concerts and, why not?, cohoperative Bryce fun (I have two PCs at home)... :) S.

I don't feel like a bus either... more like a Dune Buggy. Fun to ride for a couple of months on the sand, but very unconfortable in the ordinary city traffic...

The bus analogy works for lots of things - for example: ... Women are like buses; if you cross 'em they'll run you over. ... bosses are like buses; loud and full of gas. ... Bryce is like a bus; slow moving but eventually you get where you're going. I'm sure you can come up with your own bus analogies too. Just figure out what is bugging you and why it's like a bus. My favorite redneck jokes: If you mow your lawn and find a car ... you might be a redneck If you get married three times without changing your inlaws... you might be a redneck If you've ever been too drunk to fish ... you might be a redneck - redneck jokes from jeff foxworthy

The Netherlands are directly on the right side of the UK at the other side of the sea. It's also located left of Germany and north of Belgium. France is located under Belgium. Disneyland is approximately 7 hours traveling by bus. Don't know how long the trip to london took though. I've been in Italy once. When I was 1.5 years old. I don't remember a thing about it. When I went to the 2nd year of secondary school I had the oppertunity to take gymnasium and I decided to try it, because all gymnasium students would go to Rome in the 5th year. After the 3rd year I had to give up though, because I was getting really bad grades. My latin and greek grammar was just no good at all. That's why I went to London instead. But I still would like to go to Italy once. I have to admit London is a very nice city. The streets where always clean, no rubbish to be found on the street unlike any city I've ever been (Don't know how they do that, because there was absolutely no waste-basket to be found when you needed one), and the Metro-system actually worked. And there where lot's of interesting musea.

Apparently your latin wasn't so bad, Rayraz, because I notice that you used the correct latin plural "musea" instead of "museums" :-D I've never been in the Netherlands, would love to. Personally, I think Paris is the most beautiful city I ever visited, beats even Rome and Venice, maybe on the same level with Florence and Palermo in my personal hit-parade :) S.

In dutch it's also 'musea'. We never made our own word for it since the Romans left. We dutch people are lazy when it comes to languages. If a new word comes by we just 'steal' it from another language.

That sounds very much like English Rayraz. In reality there are no English they are all foreign. Now the Celts, we are totally different..........NOT......we are part northern Indian, part ancient Britton and part Viking, we are all mongral breeds. Catlin

Let me know if you come to the Netherlands Catlin. I've got a concert with my orchestra in june. At the longest day of the year (23rd or 26th or something). Would be nice if you could come and listen. I also play a solo then. The one with the cool girl :) As for the 8th attempt: She said yes (Woohoo). She was still very busy wit school, lot's of assignments and deadlines, but as soon as she has a little time we'll go see a movie. Probably next weekend or something.

Glad for you, RR! I always liked Netherlands orchestra, specially the Concertgebouw. It has one of the most valuable Mahler's traditions in the whole world. I think it's due of the fact that Mahler himself directed it at the beginning of the 1900. Is still my "paisano" Chailly the musical director?

Attached Link: http://www.concertgebouworkest.nl/uk/index.html

Thanx a lot for the link, RR! Wow! It should be a real emotion to play in there. I still remember clearly my first time at La Scala here in Milan (as spectator, of course), I was a kid and it was just incredible! S.

Yeah. I must admit I'm still depressed about the fact I couldn't play there. Even though the auditions where months ago. I know I would have gotten through the auditions, because they had very little good viola's available. I don't have exams next year (if everything went well this year), so there has to be something really important to keep me from trying next year.

I just bought their Shostakovich Movie CD. It's marvelous.