Robo and school

Mood: =/
What's on:"Howl"- Black Rebel Motorcycle Club


It's somewhat hard to believe that school is tomorrow. Winter break has been a pleasantly good experience even with college applications. (But seriously, I will never be done with them) The past week has gone by relatively fast, mostly because my afternoons were nonexistent due to my extensive hours of sleep. Friday was about the first time I've woken up before noon becayse of my doctor's appointment at 1 for sitch removal. The day was also long as I only spent 10% of the day, excluding sleep,at my house. The day included a series of unfortunate and fortunate events. But fortunately, the latter out weighted the former.

Saturday
Oh kick-off. I can't say I was very excited about a new season of Robotics due to my general dissatisfaction with the team--- IT in particular. I left my house around 9:20 AM and spent nearly 30 mins trying to find the CL50 building on campus. But I didn't miss much, since the broadcast didn't commence till 10.
Overall, I came out of it feeling more or less apathetic. Could be because I was tired (excuse for everything), but I do like this year's game more than last year's. After a few hours of discussion, I got home around 1; It was only 1 in the afternoon, but it was feeling like a long day already...sadly.

I was looking through the robotics website today as I spent nearly 7 hours working on a new layout. I found the article I wrote about last year's kick-off. It was not surprisingly apathetic and made some good laugh. As quoted by Emil: "Wow, did I not proof read this? This is definately not in the spirit of FIRST."
Snap, no wonder we didn't win.

The 2005 kick-off: a rookie perspective by Elaine L.
A first-hand account of the robot kickoff

9:00 AM- I woke up this morning to the sound of my usual alarm. It was January eight, the date for the F.I.R.S.T. robotics kick-off of the new season. I was debating whether I should go. After all, was it really necessary for me to attend, considering I’m on IT? Besides, the snowstorm from the night before has left the whole town in a white oblivion. How many people would actually go?
I convinced myself to leave the confinement of my bed and headed to the meeting. This is my first year on team 461, and I wanted to do my best as a rookie.

9:45 AM- There weren’t many people when I arrived at school, but it was still early. Team 1555(North White, Pulse) and Team 1646 (Jefferson, Boiler Precision Guessworks) had arrived to watch the broadcast with us. Our meeting room seemed incredibly crowded as the people filed in around ten o’clock. We tuned in to a local channel, which was suppose to broadcast the kick-off, and waited eagerly for it to start.

10:15 AM- Everyone’s patience was running low; the show had yet to begin. Was this going to be a repeat from last year, when broadcast was delayed and later cut off by another program? Indeed, it was the same this year, except the broadcast never made it into our TV. We resorted to watching the stream video from the FIRST website…

10:30 AM- We tuned in to see Mr. Abele delivering his speech in a high school gymnasium. For me, this was very different from what I had in mind for kick-offs. When I think about the word “kick-off”, I imagine a big celebration party with balloons, ribbons, and cheers. I was also thinking of a sunny outdoors setting, but these imaginings were just the opposite of this kick-off.

Unfortunately, stream video doesn’t have the best graphics. Many times during the broadcast, the video would stalls for as long as half a minute. This became a nuisance after awhile. Unfortunately, the video would often stop right before the speaker announced something important. This always was followed by heavy sighs and jeers from the room. We did get to watch the revealing of this year’s game.

Impressions on the Kick-off

It’s hard to describe my first hand experience. I was somewhat excited to learn what new concept F.I.R.S.T. could come up with, but I’m sure the Tech people were a lot more enthusiastic then I.
We spent the rest of the morning and afternoon discussing the game and dissecting the game play. To be honest, it wasn’t exactly the best three hours talking about something that really doesn’t concern me. So what if I know how the game works? So what if I know our strategies? Does it benefit me to benefit the team later on? I still don’t know the answer, but hopefully it’s there within my grasp once the season ends.

Pretty much. My awesome writting skillz from a year ago.

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So to not elaborate on ranting, school is going to suck.

2006

Mood: Content
What's on: "Ladies and Gentlemen"- Hot Hot Heat

The past week has gone by slow yet fast. My recollection of my days were spent in bed with my laptop. Often the hours would pass quickly due to various distractions and food breaks, but in some cases it did not as I painfully tried to squeeze words out of my already dried-up brain. The only time this week I found myself actually semily enjoying writing essays was when I was at Vienna's. Unfortunately Connie provided to be a source of distraction, and I only worked for about an hour.
Though the majority of my application has been submitted, I don't feel much accomplished largely due to my dissatisfaction with my cornell essays. Then again, I can't really expect too much for putting them off till the last moment and rushing to meet the midnight deadline.

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I was woken up today at 2 PM by a call from Connie: She wanted to play tennis at 3 because it was warm outside. I reluctantly agreed despite laziness, because it has been awhile since I last played. Though I should have gotten up to get ready, I stayed in bed and started playing MG Acid. About 30 mins later, Kevin called me to play Halo2 with the guys. After a few phone exchanged between him and Connie, tennis was postponed till tomorrow due to rain ( it did start raining at 3), and I headed out to Kevin's after finishing up a mission on MGA.
After I arrived, I watched the guys play Soul Caliber for awhile, then we headed out to the Purdue Math lab for CS after a quick food stop at Taco Bell's. We had a 2 on 2 lan for about two hours. I can't even recall when was the last time I touched the game , or PC games in general due to studying, so the lan was a refreshing and enjoyable experience. I returned home at 6 for dinner and headed into my study afterwards as usual. I spent the rest of the night "looking" for music + various other activities; Nothing exciting, but effortless.

I was asked about my New Year's resolution today, and I realized I haven't really thought about it. New years went by this year just like Christmas, as in not being very significant. I spent eve abit different this year. I'm definitely glad it wasn't like 2 years ago (see entry), but not so much approve of some parts either. Thinking back to resolutions, I don't have anything in particular. But for one, I probably should be more diligent/procrastinate less. I also feel like I'm losing interest in a lot things I enjoy doing. The cause is most likely college apps, but I hope to get back on track now that apps are being finished up. Oh and lastly, I really need to get a job.

Ski adventure #1

I woke up with my arms in pain, my nose congested, and my throat burning--typical I would say...
I slept for a good 12 hours today, because I can. I'm surprised that my legs are perfectly fine,while my arms are sore. I think I caught a cold, but it seems to be minor so far. Overall, the ski trip turned out to be okay with few setbacks. Even though I was apathetic the whole day due to the lack of sleep, I now have a better appreciation and liking for "snow sports". I wondered why I couldn't have grown up with these sports. I imagined myself attending college in the North and recreate weekly, while hanging out with a gang of hobo snowboarders to throw fits about tourists. (Oh the influence of media)

So, here's a review of how I spent 2005 Christmas Day.

7:45- My mom woke me up from my 4 hours of slumber. I dragged myself out of bed and wondered why I have to go through this. My parents didn't tell me much about the trip except for "we're going skiing...in Michigan. It's 3 hours away". I found out in the morning that we're not spending the night as originally planned, and instead of it being a "family vacation", it was an "azn mob skiing day"(ie. our neighbors consisting of 25 Asians ) I was too tired to argue or complain, so I got into the car and slept.

11:15-We arrived at Swiss Alley in Jones, Michigan. The sky has been gloomy since morning, and it started to snow once we got there.. It wasn't very cold thankfully, so I only wore a Tshirt under my jacket as I changed into my ski gear. The mob congested inside the lodge and waited for our instructor to show up. Once he arrived, he lead us to the ski rental building where he explained to us the proper way to put on the bulky shoes. Those shoes actually gave me bruises after the trip, but part of it was probably that I got the wrong size and was too lazy to exchange.

We walked outside to the "Ski School" area where the lesson began. We started getting use to moving ,turning, sliding with one ski, then two. After an hour or so, the mob populated the beginner's area to practice on the hill with "the rope". I've never seem the towing system before, so it appeared to be pretty neat. It took awhile before we actually got to try out the rope. Because, well, we were the Asian mob. The adults were pretty ADD and weren't all listening to what the instructor was saying. They were randomly falling, sliding, and laughing like idiots. I could tell that all the "kids" were getting impatient and annoyed;so was the instructor.
Finally after spending an hour listening to him, we were free to roam by ourselves. I took the tow to the very top of the hill and was ready to attempt my very first ski-down-the-hill. I was nervous at the speed I was going as I stepped off, and I haven't really learned how to stop either. But the feeling was enjoyably refreshing, and I made it down without crash into anything/anyone or hurting myself.

2:30-As I skied down the hill more and more, the speed seemed to have gotten slower and slower. (marginal utility I guess) I was getting bored already, and I wondered if this was all that we're doing for the rest of the day. The adults decided to take a break and eat in the cafeteria. I ate a little bit of what my parents brought and laid my head down to rest for awhile.

3:30- My dad and I headed out to the intermediate hill by the rental building along with some others who were also looking for more adventure. The hill was definitely a lot steeper and longer. We got to use poles now(I really don't know why they don't allow them on the beginner's hill),but they were pretty useless. Oddly, I wasn't very nervous about going down, perhaps I had confidence in my so called skiing skills even though I still sucked at stopping. I stepped off with my dad, and he wiped out 5 seconds later. I laughed and went around him, stopping safely at the base.
Score.

It took a long time to get back to the top with the lift going slow and the occasional stops because people keep--- it made things less fun and the process tedious. I spent a lot of time taking pictures and observing others: there were a lot of snowboarders present, some pretty good and others just lame. I really wanted to try out snowboarding, and probably would have if we had stayed for another day. =
After 3 runs of the hill, I got bored again.
So I think I'm reasonably good at skiing now, why not advance? The next step was the 2nd intermediate hill next to the first one. It looked steeper by comparison but smoother. I took the lonely ride up the hill, staring at the back of some guy and his 2 sons in front of me.(to this point, my dad hasn't succeeded in going down the first hill without falling, so he gave up and went back to the beginner's hill). The top offered a nice view of the entire area. To the left I could see the "terrain park", which offered man-made hills/obstacles for tricks and other things. I actually thought about trying them out, but that would probably be pushing my luck too far. For the time being, I stuck with intermediate.
I crept up to the edge of the hill and looked down. This should be fun...

to be continued.
(because I'm really too lazy to finish this in one sitting)

Xmas Cheers

I'm not really sure how to describe this week. A lot of things had happened, yet I'm too lazy/don't care enough to elaborate on everything.

Finals went reasonably well. I probably could have studied more on some and less on others, but overall I came out feeling good about them. (Actually that's what I said last time, but they didn't turn out very well...) Thursday was theoretically the last day of school for the year, but I wasn't feeling the christmas cheers at all. I didn't want to feel miserable and bored on the first day of break (even though I should be worrying about my colleges applications that are due in a week), so I went to see King Kong:
Kong was a lot different than I imagined it to be. It was a decently good film, though Peter Jackson has his ways of making things overly dramatic and long...

On Friday, I reluctantly woke up at 10:30 for an appointment to the dermatologist. His name was Dr. Kuwahara, and the first thing he did was ask me about my "future"; I said I wasn't sure. He then went on assuming that I was going to be an engineer major at Purdue. I tried to say I haven't decided but gave in after awhile as he wasn't really listening. He then went on at showing me 2 magic tricks: one involving a quarter and the other a dollar bill; But I do say that kept me entertained.
"I like showing these tricks to engineers because they're logical thinkers."
I sort of just nodded and followed along.
When he finally checked up on the mole on my right arm, he said it had to go. So I plopped onto the surgery bed and watched him work his magic. The needle was the most painful part of the procedure.I couldn't get a very good view of my arm as I laid there, but I did catch a glimpse of the inch deep pink flesh being pulled out of my arm..fun.
The doc stitched me up afterwards. I felt really uneasy because..well, I couldn't feel anything at all. The last time I had stitches was when I was around 5: I busted my forehead on the edge of the bed headboard when I was jumping on the bed and slipped; I was rushed to the hospital to get stitches. They didn't use anesthetics, and I recall crying from the pain. Good times...

After my arm was taking care of, the doc proceeded to examine the birthmark on my back. The problem with it was the size: it's about 3 inches long. The doc said I have to get it removed by a surgeon. He ended up cutting out a spot of it for testing purposes; more needle fun on my back. The pain from the "surgery" kicked in after an hour or so. Both areas felt sore , and I ended up not doing anything productive for the afternoon.
I have to wait 2 weeks before getting the stitches removed. Theoretically, I'm not suppose to get the area wet before then, but I don't think not showering for 2 weeks is a good option.
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Friday nights have been the same for the past few weeks. I wonder if I should be afraid that it might be becoming a norm. I pondered through many things over the course of the night: People's actions and decisions. It also triggered thoughts concerning my own actions and decisions I did/made in the past, and how it affected others. There were 2 things that really bothered me as I thought more and more about them, which probably deducted most of the fun from the night, but then again I can't say there were much fun to deduce from...


So today is Christmas eve, but I honestly thought that was yesterday...(Just to show how much Christmas love is around here). I guess my family is getting lazier about the whole christmas tradition. We sort of stopped buying trees a year ago. (A plus for me, since I'm the one who has to decorate) It doesn't bother me that much, because Christmas doesn't mean as much to me as it does for other people.
I'm spending christmas eve in my room working on blog entry and hopefully applications later.(Maybe colleges will pity and accept me because I spend my christmas eve doing apps?) Some of our neighbors came over for dinner; I got some chocolate and money from them, so it's all good.


I'm thinking back about my past Christmas eves. Last year was normal,and I refreshed my memory about 2 years ago through my past entries. (Amazing how I've forgotten everything that has happened).It was definately a lot more eventful then, and I wish I was reliving those moments now. I'm going skiing tomorrow, if that can constitute as "fun". I would be my first time, but I'm not looking forward to it extremely much.

As a closing note, Merry Christmas..oh wait, I meant Happy Holidays everyone! But you're pretty lame for reading my blog on Christmas eve.