Category: high school

Mysterious Expectations

Prom was a lot more fun and a bit less special than I’d expected.

Dressing up and such is terribly fun, and it’s neat just to chill around with four hundred other people all in nice clothes, too. The excessive heat wasn’t quite as rockin’, and the musical selection was a little lame, but dancing for two hours was a lot more enjoyable than I would have expected. I pray nobody was actually paying attention to what I was doing, because I’m pretty confident that I looked retarded, but one must start somewhere in these things.

Watching people hump each other in psuedo-time to the music wasn’t quite a treat to the eyes, either, but after a while you just get used to looking at the pretty lights above.

Oh, to be young again…

Session Start (AIM – Steak220:Lemonadeyeti): Sat May 08 23:00:30 2004
[23:00:30] Lemonadeyeti: woo
[23:05:22] Steak220: woo
[23:05:25] Steak220: new RvB
[23:05:28] Steak220: if you care
[23:05:29] Steak220: at all
[23:05:33] Steak220: about the world
[23:05:37] Steak220: and all that is holy
[23:05:40] Steak220: and motherly
[23:05:51] Lemonadeyeti: why don’t you give me your shovel before you dig yourself any deeper
[23:06:07] Steak220: ….dig myself into what?
[23:06:29] Lemonadeyeti: a hole… that’s where most people dig themselves to
[23:06:37] Steak220: …
[23:06:41] Steak220: generally that’s a metaphor
[23:06:56] Lemonadeyeti: generally there’s a snake in my boot
[23:07:01] Lemonadeyeti: but
[23:07:03] Lemonadeyeti: not right now
[23:07:06] Steak220: …
[23:07:08] Steak220: wow
[23:07:11] Steak220: that made no sense
[23:07:14] Steak220: whatsoever
[23:07:15] Lemonadeyeti: somebody poisoned the waterhole!
[23:07:24] Steak220: you watched toy story, didn’t you?
[23:07:30] Lemonadeyeti: not recently
[23:07:34] Lemonadeyeti: just watched indy jones
[23:07:38] Steak220: oooh
[23:07:51] Lemonadeyeti: first one
[23:07:54] Lemonadeyeti: raiders of the lost arc
[23:08:02] Lemonadeyeti: ark
[23:08:03] Steak220: that one’s good
[23:08:09] Lemonadeyeti: not the best
[23:08:17] Steak220: i liked the 3rd one best
[23:08:20] Lemonadeyeti: it was the best
[23:08:23] Lemonadeyeti: we couldn’t find it though
[23:08:25] Steak220: tscha
[23:10:13] Lemonadeyeti: la la la laaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
[23:10:15] Lemonadeyeti: la la la
[23:10:17] Steak220: no.
[23:10:18] Lemonadeyeti: la la la laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
[23:10:22] Lemonadeyeti: la la laaaaa laaaaa laaaaaaa
[23:10:23] Steak220: NO.
[23:10:29] Lemonadeyeti: i love teh muzak
[23:10:35] Steak220: what muzak?
[23:10:36] Lemonadeyeti: of teh indi
[23:10:41] Lemonadeyeti: joens
[23:10:45] Steak220: oooh
[23:10:48] Steak220: yeah
[23:10:53] Steak220: john williams is nifty
[23:10:56] Lemonadeyeti: when we bought our old jeep in like 1992
[23:10:59] Lemonadeyeti: it came with a CD
[23:11:02] Lemonadeyeti: that had that music on it
[23:11:09] Lemonadeyeti: but it got all scratched up
[23:11:11] Lemonadeyeti: like 10 years ago
[23:11:13] Steak220: A CD WITH MUSIC ON IT?!?
[23:11:18] Steak220: STOP THE PRESSES.
[23:11:20] Steak220: ahem.
[23:11:24] Lemonadeyeti: CONSIDER THEM STOPPED
[23:11:28] Lemonadeyeti: …and restarted.

[23:48:35] Steak220: processor is inpervertable, though
[23:48:43] Lemonadeyeti: hmm
[23:48:46] Lemonadeyeti: i know i can do this…
[23:49:04] Lemonadeyeti: “want to start up my processor?”
[23:49:07] Lemonadeyeti: that’s not good
[23:49:09] Steak220: ……
[23:49:11] Steak220: no it’s not
[23:49:14] Lemonadeyeti: hm
[23:49:25] Lemonadeyeti: “i could process you all night long”
[23:49:28] Steak220: “wanna be my HSF?”
[23:49:56] Steak220: there must be a way!
[23:50:13] Lemonadeyeti: we may have found gold
[23:50:17] Steak220: indeed
[23:51:18] Steak220: dang
[23:51:23] Steak220: i can’t think of anything
[23:51:36] Lemonadeyeti: where there’s a will, there’s a way!
[23:51:49] Lemonadeyeti: which is why i need a friend named will
[23:51:53] Lemonadeyeti: just to mock
[23:52:14] Steak220: ah
[23:53:24] Steak220: zach says it’s inpervertable, too
[23:53:26] Lemonadeyeti: yeah
[23:53:27] Lemonadeyeti: heh
[23:53:29] Lemonadeyeti: i just asked him
[23:53:31] Steak220: ha
[23:54:01] Lemonadeyeti: well write it down and frame it
[23:54:11] Lemonadeyeti: a challenge before the whole human race
[23:54:20] Steak220: hmmm
[23:54:28] Steak220: how would you broadcast a question like that?
[23:54:50] Steak220: find a way to pervert the word “processor”?
[23:55:07] Steak220: extract a sexual situation using the word “processor”!
[23:55:12] Steak220: or maybe
[23:55:18] Lemonadeyeti: it’d have to be on the howard stern show or something
[23:55:23] Steak220: hahaha
[23:55:28] Steak220: they could do it
[23:55:33] Steak220: they’re about that low
[23:55:38] Lemonadeyeti: all the people with those mind-types listen to it
[23:55:44] Steak220: and call in
[23:55:50] Lemonadeyeti: yes
[23:59:44] Steak220: hmm
[23:59:48] Steak220: like nobody is online
[23:59:51] Steak220: this is depressing
[23:59:54] Lemonadeyeti: well
[23:59:59] Steak220: such a phenomal question to ask
[00:00:02] Steak220: so few to ask it to
[00:00:14] Lemonadeyeti: asdfjkl;
[00:00:16] Lemonadeyeti: wooo
[00:00:19] Lemonadeyeti: indeed
[00:00:27] Lemonadeyeti: if eels could talk..
[00:00:38] Steak220: …
[00:00:42] Steak220: we don’t live in the ocean.
[00:01:10] Lemonadeyeti: if they could talk, they’d tell people that they’d be fine without water, they just need wagons and people to pull them around in
[00:01:31] Steak220: that’s why eels don’t talk
[00:01:37] Steak220: because in the beginning
[00:01:38] Steak220: they did
[00:01:44] Steak220: and they controlled humans
[00:01:52] Steak220: and had them pull them around in wagons
[00:01:54] Lemonadeyeti: what’s weird is test tube babies
[00:01:56] Lemonadeyeti: don’t have navels
[00:01:57] Steak220: but there was a revolution
[00:01:58] Lemonadeyeti: isn’t that weird?
[00:02:06] Steak220: and the humans
[00:02:14] Steak220: removed all the eels voice boxes
[00:02:16] Steak220: and yes
[00:02:19] Steak220: that is weird
[00:02:38] Steak220: wow
[00:02:41] Steak220: that would be awful
[00:02:44] Steak220: going through life
[00:02:46] Steak220: without a navel
[00:02:53] Lemonadeyeti: people would look at you and be all disgusted
[00:02:58] Lemonadeyeti: and you’d never have children
[00:03:15] Steak220: yeah
[00:06:06] Steak220: man…no navel..
[00:06:12] Steak220: moving on
[00:06:14] Lemonadeyeti: ok
[00:06:43] Lemonadeyeti: this conversation sucks so much
[00:06:45] Lemonadeyeti: i’m going to sleep
[00:06:48] Steak220: me too
[00:06:51] Lemonadeyeti: woo
[00:06:55] Steak220: you too
[00:06:56] Steak220: …
[00:07:01] Steak220: something like that
[00:07:08] Lemonadeyeti: let’s not talk
[00:07:19] Lemonadeyeti: show your silence with dots
[00:07:20] Lemonadeyeti: …
[00:07:23] Steak220: …
[00:07:26] Lemonadeyeti: …
[00:07:30] Steak220: …….
[00:07:36] Lemonadeyeti: ………
[00:07:39] Steak220: .
[00:07:43] Lemonadeyeti: …?
[00:08:00] Steak220: … !!
[00:08:32] Lemonadeyeti: …
[00:08:36] *** Lemonadeyeti signed off at Sun May 09 00:08:36 2004.

Suite

Tuxedo shopping is more than a little fun. If you haven’t tried it, I’d strongly reccommend it. John, the short guy that outfitted the three of us (Paul, Ben) was hilarious.

“You look good, my friend, you look good!” x50
“You got it, man(g), you got it.” x25

I’m looking forward to prom, even if a date doesn’t present itself.

Fading

Music has always held a strange place in my head. You know that I have strange listening habits – a look at my last.fm tells you that I’ve listened to the same ten songs almost ten-thousand times. Some of them are short, some of them aren’t. I listen to one song on repeat until it no longer matches my mood. On other days, whatever I’m listening to carves my mood.

This is one of those days. I woke up late again, after not doing a pile of homework that was due, I sat in the shower and stared at the wall for thirty minutes before fumbling my way back downstairs and laying on my bed for four hours. There’s a sense of hopelessness that takes over, and the word ‘worthless’ kept running through my head all day. I know it’s not true, but a quick, objective examination of my life over the past year doesn’t warm my soul too much. I want a lot of things taken care of, for me. I want to be done with school, to forget it and move on. I want a job, truly and earnestly – I want to be doing something productive and I want to be compensated for it. I don’t enjoy generalizing my accomplishments in my head, repeating past victories in my head to console a bruised ego.

But that’s what the word ‘worthless’ is about. High school has been, on the whole, about losing my ego. That’s a good thing. Yet alongside that, I’ve stopped expecting anything of myself, because I have no pride to defend. I fantasize about having a job that I’ll enjoy in five (mayhaps seven) years, about some day being in good shape physically, mentally, and emotionally. I yearn for independance, the ability to stand on my own two feet. Some mock the idea of humans being independant, for we’re dependant creatures, but I think you (yes, you) know what I mean.

My one comfort in this is that I can look at past versions of my self (with a space) and know that I’m building up, not down. I might be lazy, unreliable, and apathetic, but I know I’ve grown, somewhere in there. I’m just not doing that growth any justice. It deserves better than this.

Translucent

(edit: a disclaimer – I will be poking with the template, but because Blogger’s tossed in a lot of new features, I’ll be starting from their template and going on. things might look terribly cookie-cutter or just terrible, so don’t whine at me)

I haven’t posted for several months. Where to start?

A redesign is high on the mind-priority, you might say. I find the current incarnation to be increasingly stale, like crackers with too many years behind them, and perhaps too many ahead of them. The long delays haven’t been the product of any lack of desire or motivation – really, I don’t know why I haven’t come back here in so long. I love my blog, I love the little microcosm I created on this series of tubes. Why I would ever consider giving it up, I cannot know. I only know that this isn’t an isolated problem.

Why haven’t I been running in two months? Why did I skip school for eight full days (thirteen for poor first period Math)? Why am I at home now? Why is my life so hard to manage when there is so very little to be managed?

No, no, I’m not in a state of distress, I’m just in a void, of sorts. I’m displeased knowing that a year from now, I’ll probably be sitting in this same chair, in the same place of this blasted yellow box called my bedroom. I’m going to TC3 (though I have yet to fill out the application), I don’t know what I’ll study, I don’t know where I’ll work in the mean-time (though I do know where I’ll be living – for some kind of fee, I’ll be remaining at home, as it’s the best option, even if it’s closer in proximity to my parents than I would prefer). I’m taking my driver’s test in twenty-two days. Life moves, but it moves like a sloth. I’m impatient for graduation to come, and yet I know that there are other features of this life that are passing by, that I’m missing.

SK has claimed 1825 hours, but I’m on the brink of quitting. No, I’m not addicted (nor was I ever).

Some day, I think I might try and build a strong reputation. I dislike having none – I don’t mind implications of stupidity among friends and acquaintences, I know they’re nothing more than a jest, but my insecurities lead such comments to strike more deeply at home than they might appear.

I don’t think I’ll make a post this insightful for a while. It feels wrong, and probably is. I’ll try and keep up with posting. No promises, though (not that anyone would take my word on such a thing).

Hmmm.

You have played 1132 hour(s) so far.

1132 hours / 26 weeks (approx. age of character) = 43.5385 hours per week
43.5385 hours / 7 days = 6.2198 hours per day.

Anyways. Fragmented post today.

After I made the previous post, I started feeling the pain. I got this silly idea to stop taking the massive ibuprofen they gave me (600 freaking mg) because it was making me sleep, hoo was that dumb. Had I kept taking it, I’m sure I woulda been fine. The day I came to school on my last few Vicodin was exceedingly fun, albeit bloody. The holes have sealed themselves up, which is kind of a weird feeling.

What was weirdest, though, was people telling me (and I got this from at least half a dozen people) that I was abnormally hilarious while on the Vicodin.

I don’t feel like making a generic stuff-I-got-for-Christmas list because my Christmas SUCKED BALLS.

New years wasn’t bad, I went around to a few houses and had awkward small talk with old people, and beat half of Gears of War at Daniel’s house. I had fully intended to go to J-man Schultz’s shindig, but totally forgot about it. For the lose.

Robotics starts today, meaning I have to somehow squeeze in sleep, school, robotics, and SK. For the curious, the game we’re designing the robot for can be seen here. Looks like it’s gonna be an interesting season.

My brothers moved back into my house, for a minimum of 3 weeks.

More comprehensive and interest posts to come later.

Supply is in Demand

Increasingly consumed by the Internet, I find myself tracking daily fads and phenomonon instead of going to school. SK, YTMND, and Zefrank are the name of the game, with some occasional lawn mowing, running, and attic improvements.

Instead of going to school like every other decent human being, I slept in and had lunch with Karel today, after which I sat on my butt, mowed lawns, left the lawn mower in the middle of the garage, and let dad run over it. Apologies to the woman whose lawn is quite literally half-mowed, but in rock-paper-scissors, a one-ton vehicle wins over a fifty pound motor with wheels. On the bright side, Karel and I installed a new receiver in the attic, resulting in a fairly wonderful improvement in the quality and quantity of sound available, as well as vastly improving the video arrangement. The receiver was courtesy of Greg, who was also generous enough to provide an AM/FM tuner, a VHS player (which is an incredible improvement over the RF Modulator I’d been using), three new signs, and yet more. I hope things go well for you in DC.

I’ve got funds appropriated for the upcoming release of the Wii. This includes multiple controllers, multiple games, and a TV. This will probably be the last recreational purchase I make (with the possible exception of a laptop) before shoving myself into the real world, where things like food and cars will try and take priority. It is ominous to think in such a way, but it is the harsh reality of life that I cannot and will not live in my parent’s basement for any longer than financially necessary. The idea of leaving Ithaca has become far more sensible on multiple levels. It will be a significant amount of time before this vision reaches fruition; indeed, the time required to purchase a car and the means to support said car and myself as well as finish off this silly high school business, is considerable.

I would so rather be running right now, but tonight’s my bi-monthly laundry gauntlet. Current attire is jeans, but who knows, I may get antsy enough and run anyways.

I Overslept, Again

Had a great conversation with my guidance counselor today. He gets a little too philosophical sometimes, but he put my inclination to drop Precalc in a very nice light. As I’d told him, it’s not a problem with the teacher or the class, it’s that it’s an inconvenience that I’m not sure I want right now. He, instead, placed as a challenge to improve myself for once.

I’ve been running and walking constantly. I’ve got a neat little blister on my foot from the day I ran eight (maybe seven) miles. Monday night, I ran four, stayed up all night playing SK and doing my econ paper, left home at 7:45, made it to school at 8:01 (it’s a pain, running with a backpack on. i have to jam my left arm behind the strap to keep the backpack from bouncing too much, even with the straps fully tightened and whatnot), and then layed on the bench in the Quad and watched myself steam for twenty minutes. It was, to say the least, a little trippy, watching the leaves sway behind a layer of my own steam, as I continued to listen to this great remix artist I found recently. Then, I ran home (my heart was going to explode about halfway up Gun Hill), and promptly thrust myself into a gigantic controversy in SK.

In any case, I’ve got to get some work done on a website I’m helping with. I’ve put it off too long.

Yogurt Burst Cheerios

Life is weird.

Norly.

I’ve been seriously considering moving out of the house. To do this, of course, I need (in order of importance) a driver’s license, and a job. My sources tell me a one-bedroom apartment would set me back 500 a month, in Ithaca. That’s just not doing it for me. The solution?

Who needs Ithaca?

Run with my thoughts here. Even with three full periods less than last year, school sucks. I hate it just as much as I did last year. Not even hate, really. I enjoy certain portions, I suppose, but I keep wanting it to be college, and it’s not. I hate being hounded by teachers because they don’t like the way I do things. Things, as in, not come to school or do homework. In my eyes, homework is a responsibility to yourself, not the teacher. If I don’t want to do right by my education, for the love of all that is good and holy, let me! I don’t care what you want, I learn on my own terms.

In the end, I just want to be able to do what I want and not constantly take crap for it. Moving out seems like a really big step towards that.

Living on my own sets some precedent for college. I’ve resigned myself (a poor phrasing, in some respects) to going to TC3, which will make for an interesting financial situation, depending on what job I would get. Not sure what I would do, really, but surely there’s a half-way decent job from 2:30 – whatever at night.

I don’t care.

I need out of this house.

Edit: You have played 597 hour(s) so far.

Gasp!

Revamped schedule:

1. Precalc AB – McMahon
2. a) PE / free b) free
3. AP Geography – Powers
4. a) Government – Augustine b) Eng 12 Semester – Pickins
5. a) Health – Parker b) Eng 12 Semester – Pickins
6. a) Economics – Strippel b) PE / free

Oh, look at that. No 7th and 8th period! The wonder of it all.

Course analysis!

1. Precalc AB – McMahon

Good teacher, possibly interesting course material, but McMahon doesn’t like me. He’s got that instinct for slackers, and he’s caught my scent (doing 1/4 homework assignments is a big tip), and he’s being a pain about it. He’s the kind of teacher that stops class to note the fact that you are late, and regardless of whose fault it is, will blame you and threaten you in order to remedy the problem. It doesn’t help being first period, because as some of you may recall, I had 48 absences and some obscene amount of tardies in my first period class last year.

3. AP Geography – Powers

So far, this has been a little worse than expected. The students in the class suck – they talk more than they did in USH, and it’s an AP class, so, what gives? It would probably be more fun if Powers didn’t have to spend so much time doing managerial stuff, providing more time for the good class discussion he fostered in USH last year, as well as more of his fun stories. The course material is pretty excessively easy – it’s basically common knowledge with formal names tacked on. Ideally it will improve, but I’m not dropping it.

4. Participation in Government – Augustine

Sucks. Teacher sucks, students suck, course material sucks. She’s like Brofenbrenner, but slightly less inane. Students are jockular or dumb-tastic, and the course material is designed to cater to that.

5. Health – Parker

Sucks. I honestly could teach this class – that’s how lame it is. But you knew that.

6. Economics – Strippel

Really great. The teacher knows exactly how to foster good discussion, and guides it effectively to explain the material. It’s the kind of class where you want to do the homework so that you can participate, and she’s the kind of teacher that you actually want respect from. Interesting course material, too.

I dropped AP Stats, along with Graphic Tech and Fractals & Chaos. AP Stats wasn’t bad, the teacher was good, the class was okay, and the course material was sub-meh, but the biggest motivation to dropping was that it was 8th period. I’ve been laying the law down – if I’m doubting anything at this point, down it goes. I’m not going through a repeat of last year. That was a nightmare.

Life’s generally progressing well. The mode of things has been to go to school, come home, play SK, sleep, maybe do some homework, and that’s that. I’ve been pretty reclusive – I’ve found myself listening to music as often as possible in school and preferring to walk home alone so that I can continue to listen to music. I’ve gotten obnoxious with the listening to music while people talk to me, too. I’m not sure what it is, really.

You have played 521 hour(s) so far.

Sense of Smell

I think America takes the nose for granted. I’m thinking about this because my sense of smell is entirely shot. I’ve not moved out of this chair (with the one exception being to go to Chinese Buffet) in well nigh two weeks, and I’ve finally started understanding why Coke tastes better after a good run. Consistent exposure to diverse environments activates the nose! And, as we all know, smelling is more than half of our ability to taste. Technically I pulled that number out of my butt, but it’s a healthy percentage.

Regardless, it’s been a good summer. I’ve not done much of anything, and that’s what I wanted. I think I’m ready to take on school, although I’m not exactly please about its arrival. I’ve decided to dump AP Stats for Health, leaving a fairly healthy schedule, in my opinion. I’m really looking forward to AP Lang, although I’ve yet to do the prerequisite work. That’s what these last seven days are for.

WTB ‘Free Periods’ PST

1. H-Precalc AB – McMahon
2a. PE
2b. Fractals & Chaos – Drix
3. AP-Geography – Powers
4a. Government – Augustine
5b. Graphic Tech – Cowell
6a. Economics – Strippel
6b. PE
7. AP Lang – Anderson
8. AP Stats – Kalman

Subject to removal: Graphic Tech and AP Stats. I was expecting Krywe for Graphic Tech, not the new guy. And Stats, because I’m not a huge fan of stats, and I may be lazy enough as is.

Subject to change: 1st period math. That is not working for me at all. Oy.

My free periods, as you may have noticed, are off-kilter. I get one, every other day, for the first semester 2nd period, and for the second semester 6th period. I get the 2nd semester of 4th period of, and finally the 1st semester of 5th period off. It’s basically two, but more retarded than normal.

The Chaos Regime

As I continue to swim through my seas of self-doubt to try and figure out what exactly I want to do with my life, I consistently find myself in love with the internet. I can’t make a living out of loving the internet, though, and this is what concerns me.

I’m not as naturally brilliant as I’m used to convincing myself that I am. A 1930 on the SAT, a 4 on my APCS exam, and a 2.7 GPA this year just aren’t validating my continually waning superiority complex, although this is most certainly not the case when it comes to Halo. So, the reality here is, what do I do? The world isn’t gonna keep giving me credit for my stunning good looks and liquid-smooth voice. Teh possibilities, they are teh endless.

A prime element confounding this is the confusion of my natural preferences and tendencies with my bad habits and moods. For example: do I just not like working under other people, or am I really freakin’ lazy? Or both? I’m certainly at least somewhat lazy. But the pattern has been that when I’m working for my own benefit, and not my superior’s, I work faster and with greater quality. At least, I think. I’m not speaking on solid terms here.

The concept of running my own business doesn’t sound bad. In this way, I wish I were more artistic, as there are generally a lot of avenues for the artistic ones among us when it comes to self-management. I’m not entirely forgetting my love for writing here, but I don’t think I’m an author at heart. Journalism is still an option, of course, (even Photojournalism, as my mother suggested), but I have it on the sidelines for the moment. I could see myself running a little computer repair shop, really. It’d be a nice mix of interaction with people as well as doing something that I enjoy. A few months ago, I did make a big ‘revelation’ about how I thought I was wrong about my love for computers, and I’m not sure I was entirely wrong. However, I would be foolish to abandom them entirely (career-wise), especially considering I have been enjoying my work with Christopher at GNS.

I don’t expect to find concrete answers any time soon, but sorting things out through these posts has been quite productive overall, however moody it may make me seem. Patience in all things.

Jenn ate two pairs of my headphones (both were pairs I use for running, the earbud kind) this week, so I’m biking over to Best Buy tomorrow to get another pair, using the money Mom and Dad left for food (which I haven’t used yet, I’m getting pretty hungry). Being home alone is fun.

[edit]

Just curious, how many of y’all were aware that North Korea fired 5 non-nuclear warheads at the US and Japan? I hadn’t heard about this until two days ago. WW3 ftw? Especially considering how nobody likes eachother down there in the first place, I see bad things happening.

[/edit]

You’ll Disagree

No, really, you will.

BOONDOCK SAINTS SUCKED!

AHH!

Rantzor! Why does everyone think this movie is good? Even people with good taste in movies have fallen prey to this load of crap! I’m not alone in my feelings here; my brothers are with me on this. It’s insane. The straw that broke the matephorical camel’s back was Paul and Karen. Technically two straws. Shut that face of yours.

On track here. I could go on and on about how disgustingly self-righteous and vaguely blasphemous the movie was. It’s like X3, though; the movie sucks, but it appeals directly to 90% of the movie-watching populations, and that’s all that matters. It has the goods – violence, Irish accents (or in X3’s case, Hugh Jackman), and pseudo-reflective quotes involving God and guns. Heck, the movie has a freakin 20% on Rotten Tomatoes, this SAYS something! That’s not stopping them from making a sequel, though.

Life continues on in its general stride. I managed to get to Judo for the first time in two months, and I feel so utterly hardcore. No, really. I ran a mile (okay, maybe 3/4..) with my gi in tow (in a backpack, not wearing it) to Barton Hall, did that Judo thang, ran home, ate, ran another three miles, and here we are. Can you tell I feel like showing off? HAH! I can’t tell whether it’s the running I enjoy, or the running to techno. I’d do it more often if it weren’t for that, you know, muscle damage thing, being human and all. I feel great as is, though, I think I’m gonna try and do this a few times a day. It’s not as if I’ve got better things to be doing.

I suppose the only other piece of news is that my house will be entirely empty by Friday. Hayden, Ana, Jonathan, Mom, and Dad are all gonna be gone. Hayden and Ana back to El Paso, Jonathan to California, and Mom and Dad to….honestly, I’ve not a clue. I’ve never really been home alone for several (I believe I’m alone for three full days) days in a row before (never more than 2 full days), and I’m excited. No, I’m not holding a sexy party (queue Stewie clip), it’s just the thought of going out and buying my own food, and then cooking it, and then nobody else will eat it but me, and it’ll be up to me to stick it in the fridge. And when I wake up the next morning none will be gone, because no one else will be there to eat it. Ahem.

Hope you’re all enjoying teh summar. I sure am.

Stage One: Complete

The attic has completed its first stage of awesome. I’ve attempted to capture the results.

The main area of attraction:
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I’m planning on putting a quilt over the window to keep bugs out and provide ever greater privacy. It’s the same thing that’s on the opposite window, seen momentarily. Note the fridge in the bottom left (barely visible).

The stuff:
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The fridge is off the screen to the left. On the left is the subwoofer, then I’ve got about ~800 CDs of music in those booklets. To the right I’ve got all my N64 and SNES games. The baskets contain the various game systems and peripherals. To the right of the TV you can see my MP3 player and the jack – I’ve set it up so you can put whatever audio device with a headphone output up to the system, although it only outputs to 3.1 speakers. I also brought up my brother’s collection of DVDs (after taking the picture), so there’s a decent selection of movies up there as well. This is where bigger TVs are needed.

Oh, and that big black thing is a VCR. You wouldn’t believe how many people asked what that was.

The other side:
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That’s where I need more rugs/carpeting.

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The stairwell:
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I switched out the single rung of colored lights with white lights, as well as the hanging lights. This works a lot better – those lights are good for (a) finding the lightswitch when the lights are off and (b) finding/navigating the stairs when the lights are off, so it’s better to go with the more simplistic colored ones. But, fear not, the colored lights are not out of the picture.

The whole room:
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The roof:
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I would have preferred the disco ball over the blacklight, but the disco ball decided that it no longer wants to provide its disco-tastic light anymore, which may or may not be fixable. All of these lights and the fridge came from Ben, and a few new posters came from Zach (most notably the Ocarina of Time poster, visible in the first picture). So, basically all we need now is more posters, more TVs, more rugs, and then it’s truly where I want it to be. I’m gonna see if I can get my old computer up there (Christopher has it right now, I don’t think he’s using it), and then hopefully I’ll be able to connect to our wireless network, or drag this 50ft ethernet cable from the house to the attic to get connectivity. That would be beyond hot.

My hopes are high.

Super Duper Attic Time

So, the attic is fixed again, after my brothers and father ripped it apart (I still haven’t received any kind of apology). The stereo system works (with surround, although the source must be designated for 5.1 to work fully), and I got it hooked up to any gaming system I have up there (currently I have my Xbox, PS1, N64, and SNES up there).

Basically, we need stuff. We (Benjamin, Emma, Daniel and Kylie, and later Paul and Ben) pulled a ton of empty boxes out and made lots of space throughout the garage, and now we need to fill that space. Let me list what we have now (bulleted list!!1).

  • One TV (25″)
  • One Xbox, One PS1, One N64, One SNES, One VCR
  • One stereo system (4.1)
  • One good couch, one bad couch, one recliner
  • One coffee table
  • One Ping Pong Table, One Foosball table
  • Various assortment of various signs + posters
  • One small disco ball
  • One blacklight
  • One very old vacuum cleaner
  • One very old microwave

What we NEED is a pretty hefty list.

  • TVs, preferably large (>= 27″)
  • Fridges (small fridges only)
  • Games + game systems (not necessarily current – Sega varieties, original Nintendo, Atari are all fine)
  • Furniture (Bookshelves are of high value, but tables are also quite wonderful, as well as couches and chairs – MUST be fluffy/comfy)
  • Posters (movie posters, anything interesting/amusing that’s clean – e.g. not pron)
  • Colorful/flashy things (Christmas lights are great, but lava lamps, anything that doesn’t make noise and isn’t annoying)

Those are the basics we need to make it go from really makeshift to an actual worthwhile place to spend many hours of time. As is, it’s nice, but it’s not comfortable enough to spend hours upon hours in. Part of this is mere cleanliness – I still need to add some bugproofing measures, and clean it up some more, but that’s not a lot. The walls are mostly barren and the corners are filled with boxes and fiberglass.

If we ever get all of the aforementioned stuff, there’s still more to do to improve things. I highly doubt any of the following will happen, but it’s nice to think about them.

  • Floor-to-floor carpeting. I don’t know how we’d do this, but the wood in there is not nice. We’ve got rugs, but rugs are only good to an extent.
  • Pool table. Pool is infinitely superior to Foosball and Pingpong.
  • Paint the walls. Drywall is the ugly.
  • Cable TV and/or Internet connectivity. Need I say more?

If you think of more stuff that is WITHIN REASON, please do let me know. A lot of this is gonna have to come from garage sales, most certainly always second-hand. If you buy something for this, I’m not gonna reimburse you. If you bring me something, remember that this is intended for use by multiple people, and accidents happen. Nothing’s gonna get stolen (the last robbery in my neighborhood was like 20 years ago), and as I improve the attic, it’s gonna get more well established (and therefore safer). DON’T just show up at my house with large crap. Tell me first. Organization ftw.

Anyways, if none of you feel like doing anything, that’s fine. I’m just throwing this out there. We’ll see what happens.

Because I Feel Like It

I’m on the verge of finishing this school year, and by that, of course, I mean my English portfolio.

I hate writing reflections. I do them occasionally here, except they’re on things that matter. I honestly could not care less about which piece of writing I think is best, and I hate having to go through the process of explaining that I learned absolutely nothing this year. It’s a complicated explanation, one that requires a complex series of sub-explanations to ensure that I’m not insulting the teacher, but still getting the point across that I’ve done less in the past two years than I did my in my freshman year, which was a freaking semester course.

The results are almost in: I’m guaranteed at least one F this quarter (in English – I never handed in that paper I was always talking about). I don’t even want to care, I just want to move on. I just hope they don’t pull me out of AP Lang (I got in, btw) because of this. The test for that was way fun.

Unrelated: I’ve been running a lot recently, generally about 2 or 3 miles a night. It’s a lot of fun running with music, but it’s starting to hurt because my shoes are so bad (they’re like two years old, at least). I’ve got the money for new clothes and whatnot (and man do I need them), I just have to get to the store. Salvation Army FTW!

Facts, Generically

I’m going to make a pseudo-prediction of my SAT scores, based on how well I think I did. I’m really hoping I did as well as I think I did, because that test was long. Really, really long.

Reading: 725-760
Writing: 735-775
Math: 625-650
Essay: 9

I only omitted three or four questions, all of those being math. I managed to fully finish each section, so I didn’t have to omit any on account of not having enough time. The essay wasn’t as hard as I expected it to be, but it came out a lot more disorganized than I wanted it to be – I had the right ideas, but it lacked drive/purpose. We’ll see how much they care in the two minutes they grade the thing. Scores come out June 26, so I’ve got a while to wait. I sent scores to CMU, RPI, and IC. Honestly, I don’t know if I want to go to any of those – CMU is probably out of my grade range, RPI might be cool, and IC has the benefit of being free (parental employee benefits ftw), but I don’t want to stay in Ithaca. Basically I just sent them out because it’s something you’re supposed to do, I guess.

I added some new pictures that I took on Saturday, some of which I like, but they’re generally the same as the others. I handed in this set of pictures for my travel project, along with a reflection on the pictures and the general focus of them. I felt okay about it, although she didn’t seem super happy about having to download each one of them at a time (apparantly she’d not seen a .rar before, which I should have accounted for). Oh well.

Other stuff – I finished Kare Kano and Fruits Basket, and started on Fushugi Yuugi. Both Kare Kano and Fruits Basket were good, and Fushugi Yuugi seems alright. Ranma’s still downloading, along with season 5 of 24, which will be followed by the episodes of Lost that I haven’t seen (about half of season 2).

And now, a shower.