What What

Feeling: Meh
Now Playing: "Anna Molly"- Incubus


It's almost Thanksgiving. Tonight's dinner at Hillenbrand was fairly fullfilling. Apart from waiting in line and in the rain, the dinning hall treated me to a Thanksgiving dinner. Although it's only dinning hall quality, it reminded me of how much I enjoy fluffy warm cornbread stuffing and apple roasted turkey with cranberry sauce. So yes, that's what I'm thankful for. I'm looking forward to the food, maybe minus the making food all morning part. Aside from the food, I could use the break, although I'm not looking forward to the English project and math homework due when classes resumes. I haven't enjoyed English since we started White Noise. I liked the book, but I don't know why class is going downhill. The project is a group effort, and it doesn't really help when your group members are dumb. I probably could do better on this by myself even if there is a lot more work involved.

It has been raining for two days straight.

----

Last weekend I was back in Michigan again and drove up with Ian. The motive was the last Broken Social Scene show of their tour (and indefinite hiatus), which I've been looking forward to for a few month. (Although I'm still bitter about Vouge in Indy being a 21+ venue) Of course, I was visiting Clif too, who bought me the tickets, even though I was in Ann Arbor the weekend before.
I was fairly tired on friday, the day we left, for various reasons but mainly a lack of sleep. When I took the wheels for the latter half of the trip, I was trying so hard to stay awake...it sucked, and was a lot of effort. It was just a weird state to be in drifting in and out of sleep. Vision obscured, mind unfocused, time passing slowly, etc. I tried eating and drank the sip of what was left of the coke. Somehow, with whatever it is I did, I was able to "wake up" and drive normally for awhile... until I felt tired again. Then, with whatever I did to make myself stay awake, I drove normally again... it's a vicious cycle.
I made it into town safely and got lost again. The rest of the story isn't very exciting, so I'll just omit that.

After resting for an hour or so, Clif, his roommate and roommate's friend, Ian, and I set out for the My Brightest Diamond concert in the basement of East-Quad, which is one of the dorms. After wondering for half an hour in the basement, we finally found the room. The room was surprisingly small, and the turn-out at the time was low. (20-30 people) Opener Annie Palmer, Pedestrian (whom I looked forward to seeing, and it turned out to be a good set), etc.

After My Brightest Diamond came out and a couple songs later, I was pretty tired. I closed my eyes and kind of drifted into that half asleep state again. Actually, that seems to happen whenever I take naps and listen to music. The music sounds different somehow in this state when I zone in and out. It also makes the time go by slower, which is good in this context. Anyways, I enjoyed her performance even under my condition and the not so cool crowd.

Onwards with Broken Social Scene.

I was pretty excited about the show. The inside of Michigan theater looked rather lavish, but it was flooded by drunk indie fags. (That was probably an over statement.) The opener Do Make Say Think was alright but not the best post rock band out there. Their sound is quite unique from other post rock bands. To sum up the BSS concert, it was great. Although I can't say it was the best concert I've been too. The highlight was dancing momentarily on stage with BSS during "Hotel". ( I think...). The set ended up being over 2 hours, and it was getting close to the curfew. They played some Canadian cover that the hometown fans went crazy over.

Hello Pink eye

Feeling: Sick in more than one way
Now Playing: The Latest Dart- Ted Leo/Rx

Having conjunctivitis sucks. I was hoping to start the post today with something else, but this just made headlines. I woke up this morning with tons of "gunk" in my left eye. It took awhile to clear out, and my eye was a bit sore. Hoping the minor pain would go away as time progresses, I didn't think much of it. By noon, the situation was not getting any better. I feared that my eye will probably swell up, since this has happened once before, but I did not expect the white pus that mysteriously excretes out of my eye. It's abit annoying, not only the constant cleaning I have to do but also the clouding/irritation in my eye where I can't see very well. After doing some wiking, I found that I have conjunctivitis, of the bacterial kind to my belief. Unfortunately he swelling and redness has gotten progressively worse since then, but I'm hoping the situation ease by tomorrow before I have to visit the school clinic.

In other news, the past week had been excellent setting aside academic. Last Wednesday was the Wilco show tha I've been looking forward to ever since I found out I got into the Student Concert Committee. From the moment I entered backstage at 9:30 in the morning to the time I stepped off the dock around midnight, the experience was wondrous. The whole day was fairly laid back as we just sat backstage for the majority of time after finishing our tasks. It was around 5 that we started watching the upstairs dressing rooms for "unauthorized personnels". At one point, a guy walked up , said hi, and continued up the stairs. It was after a minute or so before I started to think, "wait, that guy looked really familiar..snap, that's the bassist of Wilco." I was confused as to why he didn't go into the dressing rooms, but probably because he got lost. That was a weird first encounter as I had no idea the band was here yet. One by one they came up, including Jeff Tweedy the lead. Seeing him in person gave me a weird feeling that's hard to describe, but kind of excited and nervous at the same time. He looked rather apathetic, and gave a quick monotoned hi without turning his head as he walked up the stairs.
The rest of the time before the show went by slowly. I wondered around and listened to sound checks from Wilco and the opening band Early Day Miners; both sounded very good even though the sound quality from backstage sucked. After having Mad Mushroom pizza for dinner, I went out to the front lobby to help the merchandise guy sell things. That was around 7 when people were beginning to swarming in. Naturally the tshirts, poster, and what not are overly priced, but people still buy them.($25 for a tshirt? lame) Unfortunately, I missed most of the opening act and only caught the last song. As much as I like post-rock, Elliott isn't the best venue for it. Wilco did not come on stage till 8:45. After Ian and Sam left me for Lost soon after, I moved up to the very front, where surprisingly no security guards lurked. Obviously that made the experience exponentially better, and I was able to really enjoy the music.
After the show, I helped to sell more merchandises and conversed with the opening band as they were sitting at their product table next to me. When the lobby cleared, I went back stage to see what's up with SCC. Evidently the band members were outside talking to a small crowd of fans, so I joined the party and got a few autographs. After that died out, the SCC crew cleaned up the dressing rooms and left for our respective homes. I walked back to the dorms feeling pretty happy. The night had been great.

--------

As if that's not enough excitement for one week, I went up to Ann Arbor with Ian over the weekend (October break) to visit Clif. The drive wasn't as bad as I had imagined. We split up the drive, and I ended up with the latter half of 3 hours, including the times I spent wondering around Ann Arbor. Downtown looked pretty cool, which made me wish West Lafayette had one.
I suppose the highlight of the trip would be going disc golfing, the free Ok Go concert for MSU/U-M football game, free food, and other things. I didn't get to go around town/campus that much, but I'm sure I'll get another chance too.
Also, I'm not very good with directions.
I left Monday afternoon and spent an hour trying to get out of the town. In my defense, it was mostly Ian's fault. Apart from that, the drive was the same 5 hours. After getting back to my dorm, I stayed up pretty late even though I was tired. I thought that might have resulted in my irritated left eye the next morning, but maybe not. Sucks.
-----

Last night was the SCC dinner at Arni's. I didn't pick the best entree, but everything on the menu looked/sounded tasty. We went over some meeting business with future concert plans, but majority of the time was spent socializing. Interestingly, Brian, a fellow new member, was also at Ann Arbor last weekend for the game, but he didn't know about the Ok Go concert. After dinner, we reconvened at Mallory, the president's house. Most people didn't show up till late, so the beginning was slow as the 3 of us just played pool for awhile. By 10 or so, the party was well off. Overall, I had a good time and got to know everyone better, especially the old members who I though had their own clique going on already. That was the first night I've really partied on a weekday, but I don't feel too guilty about it since I didn't have any work that had to be done.

One Moore Week

Feeling: tired
Now Playing: "To our unborn daughters"- Rx Bandits

I told myself that I would immediately pass out after getting back to the dorms today, but somehow I made my way to here. Perhaps I had the urge to write since I know I'll be automating homework later in the night.My eyes don't hurt as much as they did 20 minutes ago, but I can't blame them for failing for only getting 2 hours of rest in the past 24 hour. I stayed up till 5 last night/this morning to finish my poorly written english paper. I worked in the dorm lounge for the majority of the time. There were people I knew that came in and out randomly through out the night, but apart from them there were the 2 people that's always playing World of Warcraft and another couple that was literally making out from 1:00AM to the time I left. As if it weren't awkward enough, they sat in the couch 15 ft. in front of me. By 4AM, it was just me and them in the silent lounge. I had also given up on my paper by that time and left with what I had. I went back up to my room and laid on my bed for 2 hours before my 7:30 english. I was tempted to take a nap after class until calculus at 11:30, but I was afraid that I won't be able to wake up. Being a nice and sunny morning, I fought my lethargy and made my way to Starbucks at the Union to work on math with Brendon. The assigment took way longer than it should have, and I became frustated at numerous ocassions, because the professor never talked about the last section of the homework. I ended up working on math for 2 hours before going to the class itself. I did not finish 2 problems from said section but soon found out it was not being collected "because the professor never talked about the last section"...great. I also got back my exam score, and that was a low part of my day. Speaking of which:

High and Lows of Last Week
High:

• Being selected as part of the Student Concert Committee
• Finishing my draft for English at 3AM Friday morning and watching lost until 7AM, thereafter going to 7:30 English to turn in draft and returning to sleep until 5 PM
• Having a fairly entertaining weekend
  
• (today)Picking up my free tshirt and tickets to the Wilco concert this Wed.
• Drinking coffee for the first time in awhile
  

Low:

• Tedious interview process for SCC
  
• Studying for Thursday night math exam and not doing so well on it due to dumb mistakes
  
• Missing 3 classes due to oversleepage which resulted in not turning in 1 math homework
• Missing buses, because I fail at reading time charts
  
• Lack of sleep
  

Apart from being loaded academically, I would say the week went well.

---------------
I had an odd dream some nights ago that was probably a result of not turning in that math assignment. In the dream, I rode my bike to math class, and got into the building at a reasonable time. Upon walking into the classroom, I realized it was a Chem115 class.(no idea why, I don't even take that class) I turned back and went into an adjacent building and realized I was in the complete wrong end of campus. By this time, class would have started by now, so I hurried onto a bus to save time. Somehow, the bus did not stop at where I wanted and ended up taking me back to my dorm/Purdue West.
Frustrated, I rode my bike back onto campus again. There was a shopping mall next to the math building, so I decided to cut through the mall as a shortcut. Not surprisingly, I got lost again. The mall was crowded, so I morphed my bike into a Segway for easier navigation. I got onto an elevator, which I thought took me to the outside, except it lead into a bus that I was forced to get on. I ended up at my dorm again, and I was 15 minutes late by that point. I gave up and woke up or something to that effect.
-----

Regarding the title: I unconciously typed in 2 o's for "more". Thinking about it, I typed a lot of "Moore"'s last night/this morning because he was the author for the book I was analyzing for my paper (V for Vendetta). Kind of funny...I think. (And of course, fall break is in a week)

Gender-Swapping Pop Stars

What is wrong with people these days.
(click on title)

=|

Movie Review: Lupin III

The Castle of Cagliostro (Lupin the III) - Special Edition (1979)

I was asked to review the recent remastered edition of the movie. I'm a respected fan of Studio Ghibli/Hayao Mayzai. I've never been too big on "old-school" animes, but the Ghibli classics can keep me entertained hours on end.
Unlike many Ghibli films, Lupin is a more comedic movie rather than a serious moral filled animation like "Princess Mononoke. Being said, Lupin should be enjoyed on a purely entertaiment level. The animation is fresh and withlack of better words, makes me feel light headed and happy while watching it. (The remastered edition does offer more vibrant colors)
I'm not going to lie and say that I prefer the serious productions such as Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, and I never was that big of a fan of Lupin the series, so I might be bias about not finding that much in Caglistro. But I will always be in love with Myazaki's stype, from the cute but not overly anime eyes to the excited floating hair.
As far as plot is concerned, Lupin the master thief joins his gang on a wild adventure to uncover a "lost fortune" from Cagliostro, a small European country. ninjas, scubba divers, vilians, and the princess. All and all, a movie worth adventure.

Lupin is a good film to pick up on those friday nights by yourself or with friends. So please, skip those horrible horror flicks.

Do you have stairs in your house?

Feeling: Less sick
What's on: "Winter Must Be Cold"- The Apples in Stereo

Week three. I had my first "stay up late and write paper" experience last Thursday night. I procrastinated/got distracted as usual and ended up finish around 4 AM. I was actually content with the ideas I began with, but things started to fall apart when I started writing the analysis. My English class was 7:30 the next morning, and I woke up at 7:30 the next morning. Needless to say, I didn't show up to class and just emailed my professor the paper. I still felt uneasy all weekend because the final paper was due today, and we didn't have classes on Tuesday. I was overstressed about the whole thing, bu when I talked to my professor on Tuesday, I found out things were not as distressing as I had imagined. Meaning, I basically already had the paper done in my draft. That look a lot off of my mind afterwards, and I enjoyed a nice Tuesday morning stroll along the memorial mall.
So I guess that was my first minor screw-up. English has involved a lot of writing thus far, not really something I enjoy doing. Calculus reminds me of the everyday learning experience back in the days i.e. Klumpe's classroom. Chemistry has been a joke thus far; too bad there's still work involved.
Not much happened over labor day weekend apart from disc golf, ice cream cake for Govind's Birthday, pseudo Asian party, "Beerfest",going home, getting yelled at by my mom, sleep, and lazy Sunday. Beerfest was surprisingly decent with an engaging story line and funny mishaps.

Last Wednesday was free burrito day at Chipotle's for its grand opening.(Do we really need 2 more "Mexican gourmet fast food" at Chauncey?) I'm not a big fan of burritos, and the thought of the long line wasn't making me lone for the gourmet burritos. The temptation of getting free things and curiosity finally got to me in the afternoon when I needed dinner. I made John drive me, and we got into the line that ran all the way around the block to Vienna. John didn't really talk, so I awkwardly put on music and prepared to wait for an hour. Sam came around the 50 mins. point and lightened up the scene abit. I talked to him for the rest of the time while we both stood awkwardly beside John who still wasn't saying anything. It rained on and off, but we were in the entertainment of the "sitar man" and friends. I've seen him around the village often with his guitar, and he actually sat in front of me on the bus once...not sure what he was doing there. An hour and 20 minutes later, I walked away from the register with my steak fajita burrito...it tasted, good. I don't know if I need to say much more.

The highlight of last night was the ping-pong tournament held at my dorm. I signed up at the last minute figuring I'm at least decent at an Asian sport and can take on the mediocre whities. I arrived at the "recreation room" which consisted of one ping-pong and foosball table and signed in with the referees. I was the only girl present and felt a bit out of place. Luckily, I knew at least one person there(Josh) and sat by him. The matches started, and the players seemed to know what they were doing. There were a few that just sucked, and made me feel better for not sucking. It was finally my match about 30 minutes into the tournament. My opponent's name was Jared, and Josh informed me that he was pretty good. I had confident in my skills but at the same time nervous for not having played in awhile. I ended up losing the match mainly due to my mistake of being too offensive and hitting out too many serves. Jared wasn't bad, but he wasn't like an Asian mind blowing ping-pong master either.(And I do add, there was one entered in the tournament) I was disappointed for not doing as good as I could have, but at least it was an interesting experience.

Today was a downer. I was looking forward to an easy day of turning in English paper and going to math to end the day. I took a nap before the 11:30 calc and overslept. I rushed out of my dorm to catch the 11:15 bus and made it to class just in time. The problem was, I couldn't find my iPod nano when I got back. I actually realized that it wasn't in my pocket half way to the bus stop on my way to math. I thought it might have fell out along the way so I hasty backtracked a bit. I tried to remember what I did with it from the time I left my room to where I was then, but I could only remember that I put the sleeves back onto the ipod. Hoping for the best, I assumed that I didn't take it out of my room and hurried back to the bus stop. Unfortunately, I was wrong. the nano was not to be found in my room and I have no idea where I lost it or if it's even lost at all. I felt pretty miserable for the whole afternoon and couldn't focus on my homework. I ended up taking a 4 hour nap before waking up for dinner.
In a way, I'm hoping that my ipod would turn up somehow, but the chances of that is unlikely, just like how my "misplaced" 1G Cruzer never turned up---- People like to have nice things. Because this is a $250 device, I figured some effort is necessary even though I technically got the ipod for $50 with my MacBook purchase. I made some flyers to stick in the elevators ,because that's all I could think of doing for now. Under best case scenario, someone will call me within the next few days and tell me that they picked up my nano when they were walking down the stairs. Under worse case scenario, someone is enjoying their free nano right now. I suppose I feel somewhat better than before, but still, this sucks. =
One last thing on my mind... I don't know why everyone is complaining about the new mini-feed from Facebook. Sure I wasn't ecstatics when I first saw the feature, but I don't loath it either. Honestly, is it really necessary to have 200 some anti-feed groups, petitions, and a Facebook boycott day? The argument is clear: too much info/invasion of privacy. I say, people are dumb; everything that is being feed is already available to your friends just not in a collective manner. If you don't want to them to see what you're doing or see what they're doing, why are you even friends with them in the first place?

Stop Making Sense

Feeling: content
What's on: "Long Line of Cars"- Cake


I was hoping that I would make a post after China, but somehow it didn't happen. (Not surprisingly...) It's been a week since college had started. I was looking forward to moving in but not so much the 7:30 classes every morning. Having already experienced 6 days of classes, I can't say leaning feels too different from HS. College is a lot more effort though: getting to classes, time management, strict policies, keeping track of homework, etc. Even eating is hard. Tthe food is good, but the wait/line, at dinners especially, is a real discouragement for eating. Nonetheless, the college life has been decent thus far. The days still feel longer even though most of my classes end at 12:20. Everyday seems like the weekend, except not. I guess since I don't have parents to keep me from going out during the weekdays, I lose attention span doing homework fairly quick. Although I have gone out for most of the nights during the past week, mostly to hang out with friends still have yet to leave for colleges that are not Purdue. I have been able to mingle academic works at the same time. I'm not sure if finishing assignments the day before it's due is a good idea, but it has worked out well thus far. For my 1st weekend, I was also fortunate enough to experience the typical college weekend, maybe not quite playing the normal role .

Today I hung out with Anna since she will be leaving for Wisconsin tomorrow. She treated me to a Loveshack meal that she had promised a while back as part of my birthday present. Ian tagged along, and we went back to his dorm afterwards to kill some time before disc golf. Like most guys’ dorm rooms, his was the same dark, dirty, and unorganized place he called home with awkwardly placed furnitures/appliances. We played old school Mortal Combat for a while before meeting up with Sam and Govind outside. It has been cloudy/drizzling all day, and Govind seemed rather concerned about rain for reasons I dd not know. Luckily, it did not start pouring while we were out there, and we managed to play through 9-holes and skipping a few losing-discs-here-will-suck holes.
I got back to my dorm around 9 and have been doing random interneting and partially working on writing assignments. (I do note they are not due tomorrow) I'm glad I took the time to post even though I've had my share of writing for the day. I suppose I'll continue documenting my college life and perhaps laugh upon it someday.
(How I end a blog entry...)

Remember that time in Ctown?

I guess I lied about not being able to post/login. Buuut, I'm right about not being able to view the blog. Still, it's for the better.
I had a late flight in contrast to last year's, where I just ended up staying up all night. My parents and I left the house at 11, abit early in my opinion, since our flight was 3 PM central time. I offered to drive but got turned down; It's raining, my mom said...whatever. I drifted in and out of sleep on the way as the heavy rain poured down, making for a good car wash. The traffic flow increased as we got onto 94, and my dad rear-ended a car. How did it happen? I witnessed the whole thing... My mom always gets tense and start scolding my dad whenever he gets too close to cars on the highway; This was just another one of those times. Our car was awfully close, and the car in front of us breaked. My dad slowed down, but then realized the car wasn't breaking fast enough. He slammed on it as the tired screeched, but it was to late. I was rather surprised that the break failed. Why did it happen? None of us are sure. My parents blamed it on the break being lose going down hills. The car was an Acura, and the driver looked like a mob character; he wasn't looking to happy either. After some exchange of conversation, we headed off again. I believe the guy tried asking for $250 to take care of the deal, but my dad refused.

to be continued...

Vacation Time

Feeling: drained
What's on: "Swimmer"-Broken Social Scene

Two weeks of summer has past by. Rather slowly, but still productive. I suppose the quantity and qualities of my activities have been better compared to last summer, where my days were consisted of tv dinner/ramen, tv/movie/anime,internet,games, and sleep. For the most part, my sleeping schedule hasn't varied from last summer: go to bed around 3-4 AM and wake up around 1-2 PM. But instead of sitting at home all summer, I've been getting out and enjoying the great outdoors. Much of it thus far consisted of disc golf/frsibee. It's been pretty enjoyable and relaxing.
I don't really have much to say, even though I could be saying much. I guess I could say that I'm flying out of Chicago in 11 hours or so. It's highly probably that I won't post anything until I get back due to the censorship crap in China, at least that's how it was last summer. I'll try to enjoy myself, and until then, later kids.

Hurray for miracles...sort of

Feeling: Accomplished
What's on:"Walking Away"- Streetlight Manifesto


Last night, I had an epiphany. As I laid in bed, I began thinking about my mp3 player. I've previously stated that I had "misplaced" a connector that's used for updating/charging the player. It's been at least 4 month since the unfortunate displacement, and I haven't used my player since. It hasn't proved to be too much of a problem except for one or two incidents, but I really didn't want to go on vacation for a month with out my music. I guess before I dive into the story, I should note what's going on with the rest of the summer. As of two days ago, my parents had stated that we're leaving for China on the 18th. There were some problems: My "Day on Campus" was the 23rd. They thought about leaving after that and coming back later, around mid Aug. I rejected that idea, because I really didn't want to miss anymore concerts. So to compromise, sort of, I'll leave on the 18th and returning on the 26th of July. As for Day on Campus, I had scheduled an appointment with my Purdue Advisor yesterday afternoon and registered for classes. I think my classes are pretty messed up, so I'll probably end up changing it when I get back.
Now, going back to last night. I thought about all those hours I will end up spending in a plane, bus, car, boat, or whatever. It was boring enough even with my music last summer, so I can't imagine how it would be with out it. I frowned and thought, "that's really going to suck." At some point in the past, I thought about just ordering a new one. That never happened, because I didn't see any for sale, and I was sure it would just appear one day. Well, my days are running short, so it was time to take some initiatives. I was 90% sure that it's hidden in my living room somewhere, but I have been unsuccessful in the past at finding it. While lying in bed, I postulated possible places that I needed to look. I was going to wait until the morning to do the search, but I had this feeling that I will find it and need to take care of it now.
I reluctantly got up and headed downstairs. First I turned the drawers of my coffee tables inside out; no luck. I dived into the couches there after. Then, under the crack, I found a relieving sign---- I haven't been so excited in a long time. I did check the couches the last time I tried looking for the connector, but I guess I wasn't thorough enough then.
My intention of sleeping has now changed to the excitement of updating my player again. Unfortunately, I had some networking problems with the laptop, so I ended up uploading facebook pictures. I got it to work the next day, and now I'm happy to be with my Walkman once again.

What's up snail mail

Why has stamp prices gone up so much in the past few years? Sure it's to compensate for the hard working laborers, but at this rate, the postal service's future is looking bleak. You would think more money means better service, but no, it still takes the same amount of time, if not slower, for mails to get to places. 39 cents... that's almost half a dollar. I can buy a lot of things with half a dollar money; a nice 32 oz. from Loveshack for instance. If people need to send many letters, those stamp prices adds up like crazy. For instance, what if I need to mail out 30 thank you cards? That's $11.70! I don't need to go on about the possibilities with that much money.
The main reason I wanted to rant about this is because I found a pre postaged postcard from 1995 and a stamp from 2002. Respectively, the stamp rates were 20 and 23 cents. That means stamp prices has more than doubled in a mere 4 years, and the rate of increase has tripled, and... [insert more statistics here]. Shame on you USPS, shame on you.

Hollister has just became 10x cooler

Feeling: Bloated..too much soda
What's on: "Swimmers"- Broken Social Scene

It's only the 3rd day of summer, and I've already begun to get bored. I hate sleeping in my room during the summer, because it's like an oven when it's sunny out. I usually began sweating and tossing and turning around 10. Somehow I manage to fall back asleep or pretend to sleep until the afternoon, but it's still very uncomfortable.
I didn't have much to do after I woke up today. I sat around my computer for awhile and decided to put on a movie; North by Northwest was soon playing on the upstairs TV while I ate my chicken pot pie. After the movie ended, I was out of ideas again. Usually when that happens, sleep always seems to be a good plan. I played my PSP for awhile but couldn't get a good game going now that I'm done with Earthbound.
I did nothing for about an hour and ate dinner. My night plans were somehow resolved by tagging along with Anna to the mall. We were there for only half an hour since it closes at 9, but progress was still made. As Anna was proceeding to check-out at Hollister, she walked up to a LCD panel on the wall and said something along the lines of "let's play a song". "What?" I replied, and she then explained how customers can pick songs to be played over the intercom/speakers in the store; so basically, it was like a free jukebox. Amazed, I dashed over to see the selections. Surprisingly, there was a good collection of albums, some of my favorites were in the pool too. I began to compile a playlist of songs even though the store was closing in 5 minutes. Nonetheless, I was pretty content since I got to play Phantom Planet, and that's really all I needed to hear.
After getting out of Hollister, we dropped by Dick's Sporting Goods. I walked past the Frisbee discs and stopped to browse the discs. Apparently, Anna thought disc golf was just a made up sport by Ian to get out of swimming, and she was amazed at the number of different types of discs there were. A clerk also came up to her and commented, "If you need help with disc golf, talk to the guy at costumer service, he is amazing." Somehow that just sounds kind of funny.
Afterwards, I convinced her to goto Love Shack instead of Vienna, because I was craving cheese sticks. Actually, the first time I visited that place was with her, but she hasn't frequented it as much as I have since. Coincidentally, Ian walked in right as we were leaving and conversations about disc golf soon resulted.

That's pretty much my 3rd night of summer. I'm a tad surprised that I have gone out 3 consecutive nights already, thought that consecution might be ending pretty soon.(ie. tomorrow night) I really should figure out plans; I'm running out of things to do already.

So it ends.

Feeling: Sweaty
What's on: "Jumping Fences"-The Olivia Tremor Control

The past week has been hectic, yet it passed by so fast. My finals studying time has digressed one year after another. I pseudo studied for most of my exams the day before/of. For the most part, I thought I did fairly well with the lack of studying. Calc was really easy, I ended up with a 94, but still short of an A for the semester. I wonder if Klumpe would be nice enough to give me an A since he's leaving after this year. My last final was Thursday morning French. I sort of passed out studying after not being home for the entire afternoon. (Disc golf, dinner, lost finale...) I probably would have done better on the final if I was sure about what verb tense to use for what, but oh well.
After that was over, I didn't quite have the "I'm done feeling" like I've had...not really sure why. After taking the 2 hour Purdue placement test, I went to play disc golf again. Sam kept on commenting about how the dark clouds were coming in very fast and will hit us soon; it didn't till we got home. Dinner was taken care of at Clif's. We had a cookout with pork chops, hot dogs, and burgers. I really enjoyed the first time when we did that, so I thought it would be nice to have another before he left. Few more people showed up, and they decided to go bowling. I parted my way to JooJoo's for some good Ol Karaoke fun with the Asians to celebrate Jennifer's Bday.
Friday was more Disc Golf and the beginning of Grad parties. parties continued through Saturday, starting early at noon and ended at 8. Clif and I went over to Sam's afterwards to watch "Pom Poko", a studio Ghibli film about Raccoon's and certain parts of their anatomy that can shapeshift. Cynthia, who came up with the idea, was also there along with Alex and Jonesy. It was fairly interesting, but long, so we ended up fast forwarding to the good parts.
---

Commencement Sunday wasn't as interesting as everything thinks. So we hear speeches, go up and get our diplomas, move our tassels, and throw our caps..so what? If I had a choice of not going, then I probably wouldn't. I would rather have spent my Sunday doing more productive things. Afterwards, it was more Grad parties. I have been doing fairly well at not becoming sick or throwing up, even though Saturday came close.
Later that night, I hung out at Graham's house with people and said bye to Clif as he's taking off for NM for the summer.
Speaking of summer, I should really plan things out instead of sitting home all day and watching TV. This might be my last summer to really do whatever I want, so I should make good use of it. I suppose today was my first real day of summer. I was mostly asleep till 3 and decided I should really do something. I ended up party hoping with Rachana and played basketball for awhile with Sam O. and gang.
I think the next few days will consist of much sleep as I'm in need of some. After that, we'll see.

After the Storm

There is less than 2 weeks left in my k-12 career. School has actually been slowly lately, leaving me with little to do at night. I'm pretty sure my grades have declined dramatically as of last semester, and my parents will probably scorn me when the time comes. But hey, I'm pretty damn proud of my last semester report card---not that it really matters now---and I deserve the room to slack off.

It's been raining for the past week or so. I don't dislike it in particular, but days after days of continuous rain does get you feeling abit down.
Today was the last tennis match of the season. In all honesty, I wasn't too enthusiastic about playing. I haven't played for a week. Thursday's match was canceled, and Monday's was rescheduled for today.
After a short glimpse of the sun, rain moved in about 30 minutes into warm-ups. In the cold rain,the team stood by the fence while Tim arranged new plans over his cell.
Our match was relocated indoors, meaning more time had to be wasted in transportation. Since it was Senior Night, Tim already stated that all the seniors get to play. (The seniors also received roses and had a printed name sign made for each. I thought the whole thing was kind of excessive, but the flower was a nice gift)I really didn't want to drive 30 minutes to the East side just for a "senior" match playing JV against a crappy team. I could go into details about how I think Tim doesn't know jack about sentiments, but I'm feeling too lazy.

Arg! May update: robo, AP, prom, and other

Feeling: slightly accomplished
What's on: "Are You There?"- Mono

I've told myself for the past 2 weeks to update, but...yeah, I've been busy. Much has happened since my last post, and I'll probably be missing some good details due to my bad memory retention rate .

To start of, Robotics nationals at Atlanta, Apr 27-29.
I wasn't too looking forward to the trip/apathetic, mostly because of the 10+ hours of bus ride and Comfort Inn as opposed to 2 hour plane ride and Hyatt. Turns out, neither transportation nor rooming was as bad as I have expected. What I have expected though, was the turn out of our robot. Although I did want to be optimistic about competition, we're really a long shot from winning/perform outstandingly. In all, there weren't much interesting events apart from the drama between certain figures that exploded in my room on Friday night. I was just an observer in the whole incident, but I find it interesting and almost funny to be watching this made-for-tv scene. As far as I know, the situation has been resolved for the most part.
Overall, the trip was mediocre. Even though we did win the national award for the website, I still enjoyed Buckeye better (maybe because we did surprisingly well there, or maybe not). Either way, it wasn't a terrible way to end the season.
The Banquet was held last Wed. at school. Before the banquet, the team was suppose to give a presentation to the School Board. This is the part that I can't comprehend: In the announcement that day it read

"All robotics members should meet at the Jr. High Gym at 5:30 for the School Board Presentation; Wear yellow Jerseys."

So okay, I wore my jersey and brought clothe to change into for the Banquet. Somehow, all the guys failed to bring a change of clothing. I debated with the guys, noting it's a norm to dress up for Banquets. Some said that they thought the jersey was for the Banquet---they're dumb for not knowing how to read; others argued along the lines of not needing to/it's stupid, which I deduced to be the fact that changing in between events is not very manly.
Boys.

------

Last week was AP testing. I had Comp Sci o Tueday. and Calc Wednsday. I didn't feel too confident coming out of either (mostly due to poor performance on free-responses), but I don't think more studying would have helped. When I resumed to normal school schedules on Thursday, I felt abit out of place; Perhaps because being finished with testing gets me in the mind set of breakage.I know for sure that I'm ready for HS to be over with. I'm really tired of sitting through tedious French and boring Band when I could be making more productive use of the time. For instance, skipping band on Tues. allowed me to studying for Calc for a good 2 hours; Skipping band on Friday made the day not suck. I convinced DK to skip with me, and Christine tagged alone. As we were walking to my car on Forest Hill, Ang drove past us, and we stopped her. "Take us out to lunch," I said, and soon after we hopped into her car and headed for Pizza Express in Chauncey. We saw many other West Side kids walking around.
On our ride back, Christine got to see her loverboy walking on the streets. Ironically, she failed at catching him last time when we skipped band, when we even exerted the effort to drive around Purdue West trying to spot him. Even more, she claimed that during her lunch prayer that day, she prayed to be able to see him. Oh irony.
To finish out the thus far good school day, we watched "We were Soldiers" in IR and played Trivia in Government, where I received 10 bonus points with the help of Namisha. I left school in a good mood, and prom was another event to look forward to that day...

Prom
Unfortunately being a repeat from last year, I was the last one to arrive at the picture party at Kelly's. I guess I miss allocated some time and ended up running late. I wasn't too content with my rushed hairdo, but at least everything else went smoothly.
Dinner was good, though I'm beginning to think that I should stop going to Heisei's. (Friday marked my 6th appearence there) Ian "accidentally" ordered and extra set of sushi, and his bill ended up being $60 ish, gg.
The rest of the night went well. I really wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out for the better. Clif and I were late again getting to the Union since I had to run home and grab clothe for later. Our group proposed bowling before going to the ballroom, but that never happened, and I gained the pleasure of having a pair of sock in my purse the entire night...
Midnight: Time passed by fast as expected. We left and semi-regrouped at after prom. This year wasn't as boring as last; food was a contributing factor. I tried being more strategic in my winning-raffle-plan this year, but it kind of failed. I ended up "buying" a shoe rack, a keychain flash light, some candies, and 2 gift certificates.

Saturday
I originally planned on going to Chicago with Clif, but that plan was scrapped due to poor planning and tireness. We went to see MI:3 instead in the afternoon. A lot of people commented on it being good; I thought it was mediocre. We met up with people afterwards trying to figure out activities. We started out at Vienna, then Loveshack, Patrick's, BWWs, Payless, and eventually ende up at Ian's for a really poor round of Trivia Pursuit.

Finally getting back to present time...

Today was another Monday, signaling yet another week of school. Fortunately there're only a few more left in my HS career, but the prospect is also abit scary. Tennis resumed for me today; It's been almost 1.5 week since I last played. (Skipped out last week on Mon and Tues due to Calc review afterschool; banquet on Wed; match on Thurs. which I didn't play in) There's only a week of tennis left, but conditioning will probably be tougher till then. Today wasn't too bad apart from scrapping my knees and hurting my arm.

So yes, this post is the most work I've done since AP...I should probably feel guilty for slacking. I don't have any insightful comments to end this post, so goodbye and good night.

Post Pittsburgh

Feeling: Regret
Now Playing: "Empty"- Metric

I don't recall ever going on vacation with my parents without getting lost. Rest assure, it took us awhile to find our hotel in the outskirts of Pittsburgh. The drive wasn't very interesting except it was raining like crazy for majority of the time; abit scary actually. I wanted to sleep for the most part but failed. It seems though whenever I do drift off, we end up stopping or reaching our destination, and I can't fall back asleep again.
The town we stayed in was called Carnegie, located on a mountain. We finally found Radisson on top of a hill and got into our room around 11. I made some tea and watched Letterman for awhile before my dad turned it off. I had a hard time falling asleep; my parents' snoring being a major cause. After talking on the phone and putting on some music, I was finally able to sleep; by that time, it was probably 3 already.

I woke up at 9 the next morning. After checking out, we headed into Pittsburgh for an exciting day under the rain. We drove down Forbe Ave. and passed University of Pittsburgh and its famous Tower of Learning, the Andy Warhol Museum, Carnegie Hall, and finally Carnegie Mellon itself.
The building looked janky and was an unpleasant beige color with green trim things. The insides weren't better off either. Pittsburgh, being an old mining town, might contribute to why the insides of CMU looked like the inside of an old factory.
The only good building was the Social Science building, which had nice aesthetic appeals and could pass off as a museum. The recreation/food hall wasn't too bad either. I really liked the wall mural on the 2nd floor, which was an aerial view of Pittsburgh drawn in pencil that extended across the entire sets of walls. Around 12, We had brunch at the 2nd floor dining room; it was quite tasty, but probably because I was starving at that point from not having had any food all day.
Afterwards, we continued our tour of the campus. My dad wanted to go into every building and check out the class rooms. That became very tedious and boring after a certain point, but fortunately the campus was fairly small, and we actually covered all the grounds by the afternoon.
The most depressing moment of the day happened in the dining hall. On my way out after lunch, I picked up a student publication to discover the saddening news:

Friday April 21
concert: Phantom Planet & The Secret Machines, CFA Lawn, 7:30 pm,
FREE!

I've been wanting to see Phantom Planet for awhile, and I probably missed my most perfect chance. Secret Machines is a decent band too for the most part, I probably would have enjoyed them also. But no, life has to be hard.

I was pretty tired by the afternoon; it seemed as though I've been walking around forever. On our way out of the campus, we passed by the Conservatory and decided to stop by since there was an orchid show going on. Walking through the green house and taking pictures of flowers made me feel relaxed and happy. This was probably the best part of the day. Afterwards, we drove into the city and walked around before it started raining again. The rain was a killer, killing off our motivation to do anymore exploring; Off we went, good bye Pittsburgh. I'm not sure if I would be back ever again, but the experience hasn't been too terrible.

The Man The King The Girl The Spider

Mood:discouraged
What's on: "Take Me Out"- Franz Ferdinand

I really should be sleeping. I've been meaning to post after the match I was so looking forward to playing in. I lost, 1-8. The team lost, 0-5. I felt pretty down afterwards and for the rest of the day even though our performance wasn't too bad. I guess losing is pretty bitter regardless. I lied to Tim about leaving for Pittsburgh early so I could skip practice. I do feel guilty, but I wasn't in a mood to play tennis again.
I wasn't in a mood to go to school either. I skipped band on Wed., because I've been meaning to do so. I dislike all the music we're playing right now. The contest prep has been extremely redundant and boring, and I'm not even going to it. Since I didn't really have a good place to go, I went home and told my parents I wasn't feeling well from eating too many Bremer Cookies (from tennis treat bag). After a bit of nap and food, I returned for international Relations. Diplomacy finally ended after a really long and dumb negotiation. We got the day to rant about the whole ordeal.

Thursday was 4/20, and of course everyone was making lame jokes about it. I skipped tennis practice that afternoon and grabbed food with Clif at Loveshack. It was empty as usual, probably because none can afford the $6 calzones. The weird part was when the manager was dealing business in the table beside us with some food retailer I take it. Doesn't he have an office to do that?
Friday was skip day. I mentioned that I haven't been in a mood to go to school, so I wanted to skip Friday, since I'm leaving for Pittsburgh later and there wasn't much I would have missed. My parents were surprisingly okay with it, so that was a go. I ended up going to 3rd and 4th period, mainly for the calc check. Christine decided to skip band, and we ate at McDonald's before proceeding to drive around campus/Purdue west because she was hoping to catch her college Korean mad crush on the streets---unfortunately, the plan failed.

I spent the afternoon at the library finishing up a government worksheet, which is sad since that's what I would have been doing in class anyways.I didn't get home till 4, which is sad considering that's when I usually get home. So basically, I'm not very good at skipping school. My dad complained about me getting back so late when he never specified what time he wanted me to be back. I took a few minutes to pack for the 2 day trip and headed out: 7 hours of on the road goodness.

To be Continued... (because I really want to sleep now)

Tennis practice gone good?

Mood: no idea
What's on: "Badd Business"-Phantom Planet

I see Wednsdays as a checkpoint of the week. So far, I'm relieved that I didn't fail my calc test, but doing poorly on the Government test probably cancels that out. Calc is still not exciting as we've moved on to estimating functions with poly. Diplomacy is about the same: bad. Even though we managed to win last week, things are going poorly with the point distribution part of the game as everyone is hating on our coalition. I really want to stop caring and let the rest of my group handle it, but I don't know if that's the best approach to keep the winning title.
I haven't been looking forward to tennis thus far this week. I think I speak for most of our team that running miles suck. With out any warning last week, Tim made us run 2 miles on the hottest day yet during practice. He mentioned the next day that we'll be running again this week. Luckily, we haven't had to yet. Practice today was actually quite enjoyable. JV did 12 min. Round Robin matches for seeding of tomorrow's match against Carmel, apparently a formidable opponent that we're playing for the first time. I played doubles with Christine, and our only real challenge was against Liz and Hannah. As our round began, they got up to 4-0 fairly easily and were quite excited. Christine and I eventually got up and we kept a tight score through out the round. The score would tie, and they would get nervous; they would lead by 1, and start cheering hoping the time was up: It was 10 all, and they gained a point to 11. Tim called time after Liz's failed 1st serve. We had to finish out the point, so this was critical. Alas, 11-11. Best part yet, it was my turn to serve, and I haven't been confident/displeased with my serves lately, especially during the Terra Haute North match that we lost to. Keeping under the pressure, I got a nice and light 2nd serve over, which Liz proceeded to hit out. 12-11, we won.
I could tell they were pretty bitter afterwards, but hey, step aside Freshmen.
I played with my dad for awhile around 8. I wanted to work on some returns, but it was more so that I didn't have anything else to do. I'm actually looking forward to the match tomorrow even though Varsity will probably lose...I can still redeem myself by winning.

Really, it's an educational trip: reflection and other

Mood: Tired
What's on: "What Does Your Soul Look Like(Part 1)"-DJ Shadow


Spring break part 2 has ended. My overall attitude is positive.
College anxiety is over for the most part. (Still waiting for some financial packets, if that counts). Not surprisingly, Upenn rejected me. I was half expecting that after getting deferred from ED and didn't really bother sending them financial info (I ran out of space on the FAFSA anyways). So, no hard feelings on that. I was surprised that I got waitlisted at Cornell as opposed to being rejected. I figured getting only 2 emails from the time I sent in my application to the time I got my decision was a good indication that they didn't like me. I do note that I procrastinated the longest with Cornell's app, submitting the barely finished not proof-read supplement essays a minute before the deadline. So, I guess I didn't screw up that much.
The only college left was NYU, and I noticed the opened packet along with the rest of my mail. I don't know exactly how I feel about going there. NYC would be an awesome place to live at but intimidating at the same time.

Looking at tasks to be done this month, I would say I'm going to be busy. More days of school are going to be missed for Robotics, not to mention that it is going to be crazy. Though not finalized, I should probably make some college visits now that I have a few more options.Along with that, deciding a college is going to be the biggest task and challenge. I would rather not think about it now, but I'll have to decide soon enough. I guess the contributing factor for my general apathy in the whole process is the lack of "real" incentive.

really, it's an educational trip

Mood: nonchalant
What's on: "A Certain Romance"- Arctic Monkeys

But really, it's another spring break. The band and orchestra will be leaving for Myrtle Beach tomorrow afternoon. I'm fairly indifferent about it at the moment, but things will probably start looking better soon enough. After hitting the beach, the bus ride will seem like nothing.
Today has been slow and still is. Sorting and packing doesn't seem very appealing, nor is homework and other work, so I'm here blogging.

Diplomacy is international Relations started a few days ago, and things have already begun to heat up. Maybe it's just me, but the situations have been the most problematic for us, Italy. I guess 2 days away from might be a good therapy, everyone is already stressing out; I know I am.

Because I feel bad for forgetting to post before Cleveland, I leave you all with this and part deux. Enjoy it.

Bazz' Album 05 (Part 2)

(Con't from part 1)

So, 4 month later, it's here. After getting bored of writing reviews, I left this post for awhile and came back ever so often to work on it.
A lot of what I've listened to in the past year has been "indie". It's hard to define the genre since it's very broad. But for the most part, I see experimentation as a key feature in indie music. Through out the year, there has been some really weird albums produced that I can't even began to comprehend let along appreciate. So I guess those fall under the extreme indie genre that I will not touch.
I kind of tried to pick albums from different sub-genre. These aren't in any orders.

(links are good for a week)

Indie love

Worlds Apart
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead
Track Pick-"Will You Smile Again for Me?" (6:50)

The band name might suggest an equipment-destroying, I-hate-god-and-you, heavy metal band, but Trail of Dead is considered an indie rock band. Instrumentals, meter and style variations, vocals are among the things that shines throughout this album. The band's sound has toned down a lot since their debut and is more experimental now. There is a pure instrumental waltz track in the middle of the album that makes me a happy panda.

How Strange, Innocence
Explosions in the Sky
Track Pick-"A Song for Our Fathers" (5:44)

This album doesn't fail to captivate me every time I listen to it. Technically, this was first released in 2001 as a limited debut album. Because of the demands, it was remastered/re-released this year. (So, it's still legitimate for me to include this) EITS is a post-rock band. The overall sound is more mellow/emo than their others, but doesn't fall short of the essential dramatic elements that defines the band and the genre.

Broken Social Scene
Broken Social Scene
Track Pick- "7/4 (Shoreline)" (4:53)

The Canadians are fighting back. BSC is a project-esque band formed by some major indie names in Canada (Metric & Feist to name 2). This was a new band I heard this year that made its mark. There're a lot of depth to each song. Not limited to sound/instruments/effects, but also lyrics. Personally, not as good as their last album, but still grabbed my interest in the band.

Underwater Cinematographer
The Most Serene Republic
Track Pick-"King of No One" (2:26)

Toronto based indie group that shares similar sound with Broken Social Scenes but with less synth and more mello(both are under the same label actually). Because of that, I might've been abit bias judging. Nonetheless, a good post-rock album that's definitely better than some other indie bands. (Reminds me a little of the Postal Service)
More worthwhile bands from Arts and Crafts (the label): Stars, Broken Social Scene, Feist, Apostle of Hustle

Black Mountain
Black Mountain
Track Pick-"Druganaut" (3:47)

More Canadian debut goodness. At first, the name suggested to me a folk band. The vocals do somewhat reflect that, but the sound itself is a rollercoaster ride through sax rips, bass rifts, lyrical rhymes, and experimentation party. Majority of songs are over 6 mins long and does take awhile to develop. Give it some patience, it pays off in the end.

Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus
Cloud Cult
Track Pick-"You Got Your Bones to Make a Beat" (3:02)

These guys are a bunch of hippies. Nonetheless they make some awesome music. I love this album because it's highly experimental. The 25 tracks are all fairly short and displays a distinct style in each one that'll entertain most ADD people.

Akron/Family
Akron/Family
Track Pick-"Lumen" (5:30)

This would be my pick for a top acoustic/indie album. The melodies and vocal are both very soothing, and drove me to sleep when I neared the end of the album.(I'm saying that as a good thing).But under the acoustic guitar, there is more. Afterall, aren't indie music suppose to be out of the norm? Many of the tracks are dubbed with random background effects( bird chirps, sea waves,clicking, etc) The most random has to be the 2 min. track of pure noise/hisses right after a wonderful ballad. I wasn't a big fan of that, but it doesn't deteriorate the album at all.

The Runners Four
Deerhoof
Track pick-"Midnight Bicycle Mystery" (1:59)

12 bars blue, acoustic, distortion, synth, experimental under a hat. First thing anyone notices about this band is the probably the vocalist, who happens to be a jap bass playing chick. (Snap, Asian) It has enough cuteness to shame generic jpop singers, and enough accent to add that edge to the vocal. Just a fun album overall. But wait, for more "jap bass playing girl in indie band", check out....

Lost Marbles and Exploded Evidence
Enon
Track Pick-"Knock That Door" (2:53)

(I wonder if it really is a coincident?) This album is a collection of singles and Bsides, which display a range of styles from the band.The same description can be applied here from Deerhoof, though I like the vocals more here. (Because all the tracks sound unique, it was hard to just pick one, but I couldn't help but feature the cute vocal)

Silent Alarm
Block Party
Track Pick-"Banquet" (3:21)

I have to give props to the Brits for their new wave of indie artists. Silent Alarm has a unique sound that's catchy and makes it stand out from the rest. I don't believe the band has made it big in US yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did soon. The remix album released soon afterwards was some what of a disappointment, even though most of the tracks were remixed by some good big time artists.

Justamustache
Thunderbirds Are Now!
Track Pick-"This World is Made of Paper...Held Together by a Stapler" (3:33)

Garage rock with synth/electronics. I guess there aren't many similar bands, so this gets some recognition. Reminds me abet of Bloc Party, especially some of the riffs. (I also like the covers of not just this, but all of their albums)

That's 3 down

Mood:Pleased
What's on:"Australasia"-Pelican

School is slowly getting back to normal. I always feel like I have some mass amount of projects/homework due tomorrow or tests to study for, but right now, the only thing I have tomorrow is a calc test and a French assignment. There is like a void, and I try to convince myself that I probably missed something. Of course, I'm not complaining.
The past weeks has been pretty hectic: Robotics, tennis, band, make-up works, end of quarter, etc.
3 days of missed school and I already feel very behind. This might sound wrong, but I would rather have gone to school on Wendsday than gone to the Lawrence Central band festival in Indy. Calc is really the only thing that gets screwed over (besides tests) when I miss school. During the 2 days I missed in Cleveland, we started discussing limits and L'hopital's rule. Reading the book didn't help much (or rather, I was too lazy to look into it), and I ended up giving up on the homework assigned over break.
I was fairly worried about the test yesterday, since I didn't know how to do half of the problems and is not a big fan of limits. But after some mass homeworkage and help from Klumpe, I think I'll do decent, or at least good enough to raise my grade a point or two.

--------------

I didn't get home till 6:30 today even though tennis ended at 5:15 for me. I guess there was miscommunication between me and my mom (I still blame her), which ended with me unintentionally leaving my car at school. I bummed a ride off of Connie to tennis, where we played challenge matches again. The girl I was up against was some Freshman named Hanna. I was already prewarned by Christine, who played her yesterday. And to quote, "Hanna is a byotch."
So the match commenced. I noticed her extreme apathy pretty early on in the game. Later when her friend Katie walked in, she started whining endlessly about how cold it was, or how she wanted to go home, or how much this sucked. She got pretty pissed off when the score evened out to 7-7 after 4 rounds of deuces (though I was positive the score was 8-6) . On the last game, she stopped caring completely and smashed every shot to random places.
It didn't bother me so much that she didn't compliment and was emotionless---the reasons why Christine didn't like her, but the fact that she acted like she didn't give a damn is annoying. It's as if she went out of her way to make sure that I knew that she didn't care. That to me, is some shitty sportsmanship.
After my match was over, I phoned home to find out that my dad was going to be out till late entertaining guests; I then called up Clif to make him take me to school. He was coming back from playing Frisbee golf, so I started hitting with Christine and Connie after their matches were over. It was enjoyable, as we didn't have to care about the team, tim, scores, or anything. Only if the season was like that, then I would like it so much more.


When I got home, I noticed a thick opened envelope from Carnegie Mellon that read "Official Fat Letter". Usually when you receive a "fat" admissions envelope, it's a good indication that you've been accepted: Alas, the congratulation letter. As I sifted through rest of the mail, I saw a regular sized envelope from "Admissions:NYU". Hoping that it's not a rejection letter, I opened it to find it being some crap about National Merit Finalists that was completely irrelevant for me. Relief, at least.

As far as college goes, I'm still indifferent. I haven't looked at half of the stuff Purdue sent me, let along Michigan. I found out a few days ago that I got put on the waiting list for Washington University, undoubtedly my #1 choice. Though it is far less painful then getting rejected, there's really not much of a chance of me going there anymore.
I guess we'll see how things go. There are still a few colleges left to be heard from. I'm not expecting miracle, but hopefully expected outcomes.

So it ends. 1 week of what?

Mood: blank
Now playing: "Teardrop"-Massive Attack

How spring break ended. It's a shame really, I haven't even begun doing everything that needs to be done, and the prospect of school makes me want to cry.

Robotics were another 3 tiresome days. We didn't do as well as Cleveland, but I half expected that.

On top of robotics, tennis, sleep, and movies, I haven't really done much. I went out most of the nights, and by Saturday, I was bored with the idea and just wanted to go home and sleep (which I did, around 9). There's been some ups and downs, but overall, things went well. Tennis was not as bad as I expected, though I'm still not looking forward to after school practices.

Another short one I guess. Sleeping and not doing calc sounds good for now.

not a very creative title

Mood: Meh
What's on: "Legs of Bees"- Fruit Bats

I'm in the usual lack of motivation for blogging, so this will be unfortunately short even though I do have many things I can elaborate on.
Cleveland was a fun experience, thought I can't say it was the best way to start off spring break. (For some reason, it just didn't feel right) Speaking of which, it has been an "odd" week thus far. My general apathy and laziness has prevented me from doing anything productive. I'm still upset about my "missing" 1 gig cruizer and mp3 usb port, which is preventing me from uploading music, and better yet, charging the player. On top of that, my phone is still half broken. I did finally talk to a Cingular rep and got a number to call but haven't gotten around doing so.
The mentioning of school makes my head hurt. I try my best to not think about it, but that's becoming harder now that I'm worrying about my non-existent java project.

Moral: School is going to suck hard next week.

Tomorrow is the start of more robotic goodness on campus. I'm looking forward to it minus the getting up early part.

It's almost time

Days are going by at an alarming rate. I can still remember the procrastination of college apps, and now apr 1st is not that far away. It's been 8 weeks since the semester started, yet I have less than 5 pages of notes in International relations.

I'm leaving for Cleaveland tomorrow right after school. It's finally time to the hours paying of on the robot and the website (hopefully). I guess there's more team spirit this year, perhaps because half of the team is consist of seniors, or perhaps because our robot might not suck this year. Either way, I'm looking forward to the competition even though I won't be able to slack off this year.
Cynthia made fealt costumes for people. (Including Navid's pimp hat and cane, X's pirate hat, Ian's 461 cape, and my Alien hat) Some how people have managed/are starting to bleach their hair for Cleaveland, and color dye for the week after; posing off of the swimmers--- I guess that makes me a possuer too.
I asked Ang to help me with the process last night. we went to pick out dye from Wal-Mart where upon I spent over 30 mins trying to figure out what to get. I settled with a box of blond bleach and deep red dye, which I'm now having seconds thoughts on.
Actually, I haven't gotten the consent of my parents, so I wasn't really sure how they would've felt. but hey, it's for a good cause, so they shouldn't disapprove of.

Time management

Feeling: intrigued
What's on: "It's a Curse"- Wolf Parade

My goal of being more productive has been failing thus far. Even though I have more free hours now that Robotic is over, I've been using those times to catch up on sleep. The most productive thing(in my opinion) that I have done thus far was retagging my music collection over a period of 3 days, spending 5 hours or so total. Hooray.


Today's sleeping schedule sort of deviated from the "norm". I was working on calc around midnight and decided to rest for awhile, even though I figured I would fall asleep and wake up around 2, by which the time lost all motivation to continue calc and thus continue sleeping. I ended up waking up at 3, which surprised me a little. Regardless, I followed my plan and passed out again.

Band hasn't been very fun lately as we've began drilling music for contest. We had sectionals for the first half of class in which the time was spent with our section complaining and Christine braiding my hair. At some point, Keith started mocking Mr. C's Anger management problems; 10 seconds later, Mr. C walked into the room to check up on things.Everyone tried to keep a straight face as Keith saved himself by a change in topic with a "can you help us with this part?"
Much needed entertainment for that hour.

I took the bus home today for the first time in a few month. I always disliked riding it because it's always crowded, and the people are usually not very smart/idiots. Apparently, a 2nd bus was just added today, so the ride wasn't bad at all. When I got home, the weather impelled me to go for a run, which I've been meaning to do for a long time. Though the reason why I haven't been is out of sheer laziness, exhaustion overtook me this time, and I took a nap infront of my computer...

When I woke up, my first instinct was to check my watch-- 6:27. Crap, how did it get to be morning already. After taking in the situation, I double checked the time and thought about how will fail at school today: IR test, Calc homework, French homework. Great, it's looking up to be another craptastic day. Although on the brightside, I still had an hour before school and could at least finish French that's due 1st hour.

I got up and headed towards my room to change. All of a sudden, I heard my mom yelling for my name from downstairs. This really threw me off, since she never gets up this early. Even though she did start work this week I was still confused as to why she's up or knew that I was up too. I answered, and she yelled for me to come and eat. I guess she made me breakfast really early in the morning?
I sat back down in front of my computer, and it hit me: I'm retarded. As I had double checked the time when I woke up, it clearly displayed 6:27 PM on the monitor, yet my brain was obviously not functioning when I concluded my computer was wrong, and I was right.
I walked downstairs and ate dinner.

In my defense, I lack the sense of time when I wake up, and it looked like dusk outside; although it is sad that it took me 10 mins to realize it's actually dawn.
This is the first time that I confused day with night. I have to say that I'm pretty proud of this feat.

Friday to look forward to

Feeling: content
What's on: "Superman"-Stereophonics

I almost forgot that it is Friday. When I looked in my docket during 2nd hour, I realized today was not Thursday; and it made me feel relieved. This week has gone by fairly quick, as the usual robotic business and sleep deprivation kept me busy every night.

I made the mistake of passing out on weds. right after I got home from robotics. I figured I could manage my take home test from comp sci and homeworks in school the next day, so I didn't bother opening my backpack and headed straight for bed...

Wendsay was one of the worst days I've had in awhile.
For one, I didn't manage to finish that test in class, and ended up getting around 60% for it.(...at least I still have an A in the class) I went home during lunch to pick up a financial aid letter that was due that day, but lunch ended up being my mom yelling at me. The thing was, my dad was suppose to make a photocopy of my green card, but I didn't know that he had a class that day, and I couldn't get in contact with him until he got off, which was around 6. My mom complained about how I always have to wait till the last moment to do things (ie. college apps/scholarships ), and if I would just have prepared in advance, none of these problems would have appeared. So, whatever, I stopped by the post office after school and mailed what I had.
I'm pretty sure there were other things that added to the lameness of the day, but I can't remember.

Thursday:
Ian jone's toga legacy
Recycling truck's ownage on Alex V.'s car

I don't need to say more.

------

Today has gone by fairly well. I'm still wary about the calc test,and that has been my response after the past 2. I probably should start worrying, but really, I don't feel that sense of urgency. I got out pretty lucky last semester, but it might not be the case on this one.
The tennis team callout announcement appeared out of nowhere today. Surprisingly, many new faces showed up. Actually, I delegated the task of signing up to someone else, but I walked past the lecture hall on my way out to my car and decided to drop in.
Tim is still the same, and he went over the same stuff I've heard last year...except, he's cutting people this year, and by people, I meant the Juniors and Seniors.
As the situation currently stands, I'm seeing the seniors as the ones being cut, considering there were only 4 or so Juniors on the team last year.
Now, I consider myself to be a fairly good player, at least above the average. I don't see how Tim is justifying this action. I'm pretty sure even the worse players of these 2 classes are going to be better than some of the new underclassmen. Sure they have time to grow, but still. Asian consipracy theory: Tim is racist; he is out to cut all the asians.
I guess we'll see how things go, I'll probably be abit nervous going into challenge matches starting on Spring break.

After school, I went to get gas since my parents mentioned recently that the price has gone down. Much to my surprise, it was $1.99; and not to my surprise, there was a mob of cars hungry for a pump. I decided to get in on the fun and drove around in circles until I got a station, which happened about 10 mins later. I'm pretty sure at least 2 pumps went out of service/out of gas, which is kind of sad.

Around 7:30, Connie came to take me to Vienna. Oddly, it was very much deprived of people. After watching her work on scholarship essays, we headed for the Union at 8:30. There was a beach party event going on along with Bean Cellar, so twice the fun in one night. Somehow Clif, Govind, and Ian appeared later, but just in time for the opening band that kind of sucked.(Their groupies were pretty bad at doing their job too) Sadly that went on for almost an hour. By that time, Govind, Connie, and I were the only ones left, until more random people showed up coming from the basketball game.
"No Reasons Given" were on next, and things picked up as the crowd was so much better this time---moshing soon ensued (Oh Ska kids). It's hard to describe everything that went on, but there were some good moments.
After the set ended, everything died down for awhile. We went back to our table and ate the rest of the food from the "beach party", and I lost a fish race against Connie. (though she let me have the fishes) We left when the 3rd band started playing.
It's been so long since my last Bean Cellar, so the night provided to be entertaining. =)

Now Playing: Bleeding Power-Ted Leo and the Pharmicists


The week has been alright in retrospect. School is the same, but right now, all the classes are going downhill on the fun factor.

There was no school on Wendsday, but I ended up spending most of that time at school anyways. I probably should've used the opportunity to catch up on some sleep, but I stayed up around the general 2 am bedtime again. I woke up to the sound of my alarm at 8 the next morning. Anna and I had made plans to eat breakfast at IHOP, but I was still half asleep. I dialed her up and requested to move the time to 9; she reluctantly refused. I gave in and got up-- it was for my own benefit anyways.
After some problem and confusion with her parents and the car, she picked me up around 8:45, and we got to IHOP, along with Dasha, 40 mins later.
The tech girls (Wallace, Akey, and Pluck) were already there looking awake. I ordered coffee, pancakes,eggs, and hash browns. It was the first time in awhile that I had an actual breakfast, so the meal was very fulfilling even though it left me 8 dollars poorer. After finishing, Anna dropped me off home so I can drive my car to robotics for a fun day of work.

Not that many people showed up that afternoon, but the peace was kind of nice.

to be continued...

Regret

I often find myself in this state of feeling, more than the normal or healthy level. It has hit me time after time, yet I still can't help but let it take over. I know of the problems, but my attempts to overcome it often fails.
I tell myself, "this is what you're going to do. This, and that.." the plan seems to be perfect, but the execution never seem to happen.

I can think of so many action I've regretted doing or not doing. What would my life be like if I had done this or that..? I still have clear recollection of an event in 4th grade where I regretted not answering to my truest feelings, because I was afraid. 4th grade... I honestly believe my life would be different now if I had taken the other path back then.

But in actuality, I could be regretting taking the other path, but I would never know now; It's a complex cycle.

Bazz' album 05 (part 1)

I've been meaning write this for a long time but haven't quite listened to all the albums I wanted when 05 ended. Though, I guess now is a fitting time since the Grammy's is coming up later.

Obviously, there're still many albums I've missed, and probably some good ones in the pool too. But from what I have heard and liked, here goes some.

Not really in any order, but then again, it might.

------------
Beat Me

Push the Button
The Chemical Brothers
Track Pick- "Believe feat. Kele Okereke" [guitarist/vocalist of Bloc Party]
Not their best album, but a better electronic of the year. Unlike other albums of the same genre, nothing was redundant, and I did not skip through any tracks midway. There're also some nice collab tracks, so check it out.

Lcd Soundsystem
Lcd Soundsystem
Track Pick-"Movement"

A 2 disc side project from producer James Murphey. I would say the album is more funk/rock than purely electronic, something I'm fond of. Along with Push the Button, this album is a Grammy nominee for the best dance/electronic album of the year. I have good hopes for it, but Demon Days might be sweeping the competition. :shrug: guess we'll see.


Before the Dawn Heals Us
M83
Track Pick- "Team Angst"

This album is different from the others in its genre in that it is much more mellow and almost depression, in a beautiful sense (If that even made any sense) This album became more enjoyable after a few listens as I adapted to the slow pace. (The title is also very fitting)


Kasabian
Kasabian
Track Pick- "U Boat"

A good debut album from the Brits. I debated on whether to throw this in here or under indie since it's a bit of both. The sound is not particularly unique(ie. genre defining), but nonetheless different from some other debut bands.


---------------
RockAlties
I wasn't impressed with a lot of alternative albums released last year. Sure there was the Killers, the Gorillaz, the White Stripe, Coldplay, and others, but the albums were not as good as I expected.


Frances the Mute
The Mars Volta
Track Pick-"Cygnus...Vismund Cygnus"

I've only started listening to the band some month ago, but the style is unlike much I've heard before. The album starts off with a beautiful guitar and vocal and rips to the band's progressive rock riffs that fades in and out and eventually dies after the 13 min. first track . There're a lot of style variations through out the album that keeps it fresh.

Guero
Beck
Track Pick-"Got it Alone"

Beck is back with twice the fun. Lots of great remix elements are put into the tracks. Guerolito was also released this year, a remix on this album.


Extraordinary Machine
Fiona Apple
Track pick- "Extraordinary Machine"

I love orchestrated music, and I heart artists who incorporates it with vocals and . Apple has a decent voice, but not the best I've heard. Apparently there were a lot of drama going into the production of this album, which was delayed for a long time I think. Nonetheless, an interesting album.

Oh hoy

Feeling: Weary
Now Playing:"Ready"- Peluka

Greetings from BN. Since I haven't updated in a long time, I thought about actually letting that interval be a month, but it's probably not a record I'm most enthused about setting. I meant to finish this post on Super Bowl Sunday, but I had to fulfill my standing duty as a student and finish my homework and get "proper" sleep. (Sorry to disappoint you DK, but this blog is still alive and well..maybe )

I have spent about the last hour typing out a coherent page of current thoughts and standings, but Blogger seems to hate me and deleted that entire portion, because it thought the text was in an html tag. It makes me want to cut myself...really.
I don't feel like retyping, so going on with other business and perhaps ranting about things another time.

1) Super Bowl is getting less and less exciting. I made the decision to watch the game even though I really wanted to sleep. There was a recurring theme of black people in the pre-game, but I guess it is black history month and all. But what was up with the anthem? That's probably the saddest woman-man vocal I've ever heard.(What's more sad is that it was a black man)

I was surprised to hear Bitter Sweet Symphony being played as Seattle came out of the tunnel. It's pretty ironic now since they got owned in the end.
With commercials, I wasn't very impressed. Beer commercials have always been good, and Budlight did some great ones this year. The weirdest commercial involved a robot and a Godzilla like creature falling in love while obliterating a city. The two soon had a baby, which was a red Hummer, ie. "little monster."

2) New phone is the way to be. Though I got my Walkman about 2 weeks ago, I still have to give it some glory.
I had the legitimate reason of asking for one since my old one refused to display anything. Actually, my dad offered to buy me a new phone, so I couldn't complain much. I mentioned to him vaguely that I wanted an Ericsson, and was kind of surprised that he bought it, since he had his own pick on phones.
I realized awhile back that most of my stuff happens to be Sony. Now, a new member has been admitted. I decided to compile a list and see how the numbers added up...

Updated family tree:
Ericsson Walkman
PSP
Walkman NW-HD3 (mp3 player)

House collection:
old school VAIO desktop (have been mine for 7 or so years)
TV & HDTV
Cybershot Camcorder
PSX

relocated to a better home/place:
Cybershot Camera
VAIO Laptop
PS2

Why isn't it Sony?
Casio EX600 (Digital Camera)

moral: sony dominates..for good or bad

3) School is getting more and more tiring.
4) Luckily there's Wendsday off to catch up on sleep.
5) Great things to come.
6) Conciseness=good :: Sleeping=good++
7) This post ended poorly.

First day of school all over

Mood: Tired (yeah what's new)
What's on: "Extraordinary Machine"- Fiona Apple


Today didn't turn out as bad as I had imagined, but still boringly long. I left my house around 7:50; the usual; I got the school a little after the first bell. As I stood in front of my locker, I completely forgot my combo. Great, but I should be able to manage French without my book... Granted, I left my locker and headed into first hour..

French
Our class now has 14 people compared to 24 some from last semester---oh what a surprise. Fortunately, there was an anecdote today to the usual boring class: As we worked in groups to learn vocabs of random products Eagin gave us, Timmerman decided take a match from the "une boite d'allumettes " and lit it after much disclaimer from the rest of our group. Rest assure, the potassium chlorate made its mark. As he tried to fan away and disperse the odor, Madame walked over to check on our progress. I'm pretty sure she was really bad at realizing a match was just lit. But Maria, from the table next to us, was smart enough to state, "Okay...who lit the matches?" Thanks Maria, you're really smart. Madam ended up confiscating the matches with a dumbfound smile on her face.

I was smart enough to find the slip of paper with my locker combo printed on it, which saved me a trip to the office.

Film Lit.
There're a bunch of random people in my class, none I'm really acquainted with. The class felt long even though we watched clips from movies with Shaffer's lens commentaries in the background. I'm hoping the class will go well for the rest of the year. I truly do enjoy directing and filming, so I want to make the best experience out of this class.

Computer Science
I was fairly content with my final and semester grades. We're starting a crazy Marine Biology study project soon, so not really looking forward to that. Oh, facebook was finally blocked under the school network; Sad I know.

Calculus
4th hour is not where all the cool kids are at. Apparently, all the other classes hates/hated our period. A lot of my friends switched out of the class, so it's not as exciting as it used to be. The class itself is getting more and more boring. I had begun to doze off during Klumpe's lectures about 4 weeks ago. I guess I'm not particularly fond of what we're learning right now, but I suspect Sodoku has something to do with it too.(Somehow they make you sleepy?) As for the good new, I aced the final and made the cut for a borderline A for the semester. 2 down, 3 to go.

Band
I have to say, the new band room is pretty slick. Mr. C gave us a tour of all the "hidden rooms" spread out around the main area. There are actually 2 well hidden doors that leads to the outside, but the school was smart enough to install alarms and surveillances on them. Weak.

International Relations
So I can't really draw a conclusion as to whether if painting was worth dropping for this class. Mr. Meister seems okay so far, apart from talking in the whispering range. This class is again a conglomerate of random people, but luckily with more I know this time.

Government
Why does class sizes keep on surprisingly me today? Government: 17. Pretty astonishing for a social study class if I may say. Again, random people I don't know.
Nonetheless, I am glad to be in Pugh's class again after my short stay in his World History class 2 years ago. He's the usual sarcastic, ADD, and anal-about-plagiarism kind of guy. For some reason, I remember his questioning on the autheticity of my Punic War paper out of all the other "memorable" moments from World History. Basically, he was like: 'your ending to this paper sounds too cool thus probably plagiarized'. So me: "Um..no."
What can I say, my awesome writing skillz from 2 years ago.