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South Mountain is a city park, though it’s more of a nature preserve. Hiking and biking trails are everywhere. Mom and I didn’t do much hiking because of the heat, but we drove to the lookout point at the top and I took some pictures.

The stone building is for visitors to look out of and get some shade. Or that’s what I assume, anyway. Hundreds of people have written their names on the rocks inside, professing love or that they “were here.”

On the way out we looked all over the place for a flowering cactus I could take …

I’m a day late, but so it goes when you’re on vacation. The Japanese Friendship Garden was gorgeous. They’ve kept it true to customs, including the rule that you can’t see everything from the entrance–instead you continuously discover different areas.

They let you feed the koi fish, so they came right up to me when I took pictures. I didn’t even have to use food, they just thought I had some (sorry, fish). There were so many of them, in so many different colors.

The heat’s been intense, but bearable. Today we’re going swimming at a friend’s pool, which will …

Yesterday morning, mom and I went on a walk to Dreamy Draw, a local park and hiking/biking path. I particularly liked this cactus. It’s been very hot and is getting hotter, with tomorrow’s forecasted high at 100F/38C. Thankfully that looks like the highest it will get, as it will start cooling down after that. Our plan is to hang out in the mall and movie theater all day and take advantage of the AC.

My mom’s reasons for moving to Arizona were in no small part influenced by the weather. In Washington she started getting tired of the wet and …

The last leg of my flight to AZ was an interesting one. Almost the entire time I could look out my window and see distant lightning in the clouds. The turbulence was a little intense at times as well. And seeing Phoenix from the air was amazing, lights as far as the eye can see. Apparently it’s the second most populated city in the US.

My first day in AZ was fun. Brunch at a nice cafe where I got an “Egg Sammie,” or eggs (I chose scrambled) with my choice of other things, of which I chose provolone, ham, …

I’m now at Philadelphia Airport, finishing my first ever Philly cheesesteak. I feel a bit sick, though it tasted good. The first thing I noticed after leaving the plane was the humidity, despite the temperature not being that high. This didn’t make the coffee I got at the cheesesteak place any more enjoyable. I maybe should have bought a cold drink.

The flight was long but not horrible. I got very few hours of sleep last night so I kept dozing off… only to be repeatedly woken up by flight attendants asking me if I wanted a drink or a …

Exams are over. It’s a strange feeling, since I’ve felt the burden of either assignments, dissertation writing, or exam studying since September. So strange, in fact, that I had to start working on something again. I chose to start reviewing the C++ programming language since I’ll probably be using it in my internship in a couple of weeks.

I’m reviewing it using the problems on Project Euler. It’s a set of math-based problems that are too complex to easily solve on paper or with a simple calculator, and so programming is the best way to go about solving them. …

In 17 hours, I’ll be done with my exams. Yes, I have a countdown. I’ve studied everything at least vaguely, and feel moderately confident about my last exam. I could be wrong, but we’ll see tomorrow. So I’m going to focus on the fun stuff.

Right after the exam, partying will be had, all night. Not sure where or doing what yet but the day will be epic fun. Which means I may have to skip the blog tomorrow if I don’t end up by a computer. Sunday, off to AZ for sun and red rock and reading and writing. …

Intense exam today. Probably got my worst score yet, just because the questions were about such obscure things and didn’t really test us on our overall understanding of the course. Bright side, only one more exam, the day after tomorrow.

I don’t write that much about video games, as I’m afraid it will alienate some of my audience. I’m suddenly inspired to though, from a Kirby pin (which I got at the PAX gaming convention in Seattle last fall) on my bulletin board. I should write about games more often though, since I enjoy them. If you play video games …

Finally, one of my three last exams done. Next one tomorrow morning, a day break, and then the last one. Studying has been intense, but stressing even more so. I’m bad for that.

I can’t really be bothered thinking of a proper blog topic. It’s late, and I want to play a game to de-stress before bed. Maybe Team Fortress 2. Found it fun a month or two ago, but haven’t really played it since I started playing League of Legends. Which is rather addicting, even though it only has one map for 5v5 and one for 3v3. Apparently another …

Item #3 is my mobile phone. It’s a T-Mobile G1, which I got for Christmas last year. It has many defects, for a few reasons. One, it was bought slightly used online, so I had to buy a new battery to replace the old bloated one. Then about a week after I got the …