Almost There...

I'm Back Now

2009-07-13T19:12:00.002-04:00

Yeah, so I finally reaslised yesterday that I didn't really leave anyone in that polite a manner recently, SoOOoOOo I'm back. For now at least, and I might have goodies...later...But to those just tuning in, allow me to explain...

Aloha. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm DPS. I'm a Sophomore at an undisclosed college (not really undisclosed, you can find out more in old posts, pre-seal posts if you're that curious. I'm majoring in Electrical Engineering with minors in Philosophy and East Asian Studies. I started keeping this blog as a bit of a vent and out of hopes that if I got into MIT, it might just help me getting a blogging position on the admissions page. Fate had different plans for me, and I'm at a local state school, and honestly couldn't be much happier. But I have become just as bored as I was in high school, so I've returned. There, short, sweet, and to the point.

That's all for now. Maybe more later.

Finally, Home?

2008-08-15T22:39:00.001-04:00

Uploaded by www.cellspin.net

Random Car Thoughts

2008-08-15T15:29:00.001-04:00

Well, I'm blogging now from my dad's TrailBlazer, sitting in the only fouth of a backseat left after the horror that was called "packing" last night. I can barely move. I apologise for the lack of posts, I had a couple of filler posts planned, but I kind of decided that my last week would be with family instead of the Internet, so I neglected the blog with my bored tired missions trip post. But that won't matter in five hours because I'll be in Clemson ready for move-in insanity tomorrow at 8 in the morning. It's really something to know that college is less than a week away.

I'd also like to apologise for the tone of my post now, because my mind is wandering for numerous reasons, and I don't like going back to re-write something on CellSpin, my iPhone blogging app. It's good, but they need to make a couple of updates to it. It's still the best on iTunes for Blogger blogs though. [Pardon the random comment but I just saw gas for $3.37 a gallon, we're stopping to get gas now.].

I'd like to make a remark about packing for college students or future college students. SpaceBags. If you've seen them on TV or somewhere, and wondered if they work, they do. We got some last night because my clothes and I wouldn't fit in the car together, so after a trip to Wal•Mart [no local Target] we had four Space Bags. For those who don't know what they do, SpaceBags store your clothes, blankets, comforters so that you don't waste untold amounts of space by allowing you to suck the air out with a standard vacuum. Very fun to watch. They're definitely a lifesaver when car space or general space is limited.

I probably have more suggestions, anecdotes, comments, etc in my head, but now I'm tired and learning again why I hate my father's driving [I'm not allowed by parents to have my truck *sigh*]. Oh well. Jya mata for now.

Bored On A Missions Trip

2008-08-05T20:35:00.001-04:00

So I'm writing right now from a couch surrounded by people watching some army movie, tired out of my mind. I'm a bit bored because I could be watching Monty Python. I'm tired because we've been working on a house in a remote location near Charleston, SC. The essentials of our job is paint a hot tin roof with a thick paint-like substance called Hydro-Stop, then laying a mesh over the hopefully still wet Hydro-Stop, and then repainting another layer of Hydro-Stop. It's rough, but I'm glad that we can do it. It's very hot. That's the only problem. Heat advisories, tin rooves, unstable scaffolding, huzzah! We've gotten the chance to meet the people who live there this time too [we couldn't meet the people on last year's trip].

I can't believe we're watching this instead of Monty Python. I'm bored. Sorry for the meaningless post but I haven't posted in a while and I figured I wouldn't "leave ya'll hanging" like that. Oh well I'll have a college related post soon, or one with actual content. In more unrelated news, I've got a new awesome item from my favourite electronics maker.

Tasting the Orange and Purple [and a Little Red]

2008-07-17T19:36:00.004-04:00

So, I'm not dead. I spent the weekend before last at Clemson for orientation, and I've been...recovering since. It was definitely a trip, and Clemson is a beautiful place. I've found out my roommate, my house assignment, and I get started making my list of things to pack/buy for my room today. I'm warming up to everything up there, but it'll take some time get fully adjusted. Sadly, orientation for me was a good bit boring. We started off by going to a bunch of meetings to tell us a bunch of stuff that we knew from prior mailings and web searches. Then lunch, and then after that more meetings. Second day, I finally got to register for classes, after everyone else [engineering students got second to last dibs at classes]. So, after getting all happy about my crashing spaceship/Conway's Game of Life reject schedule, my hopes were quickly dashed to the rocks when I actually did register. Now, my schedule looks...schedulish. It doesn't really have much of a distinct look to it.

Before:

After:

But c'est la vie. As for my language course, YUP! I'm taking Chinese. I even checked for Spanish for my parents, but it was all booked up from 101 to 30*. I can't wait for Chinese 101. I really want to get started digging into the courses like I never have, and I can't wait for all the new opportunities college has to offer [forgive me if it sounds dorky]. School starts in 28 days, wooo!

In other news, I got to tour my "local" Honda plant last weekend. They don't make cars, but they do produce ATV's from top to bottom and assemble and ship PWC's. Getting to tour the plant was awesome, and I definitely learned a lot about mass production while I was there. It did leave me with a bunch of questions that a bunch of people were unable to answer, so I'm going to be doing all sorts of research on behalf of these questions. I even got the opportunity to talk the Assistant Manager, and, after talking a while, I may get the chance to have a co-op there next year! lol I'd love to be the one to test the vehicles. The machines, the harmony of the mechanisms, the robots, it all was crazy interesting. Most of the robots weren't performing their day-to-day tasks though, most were doing the equivalency of side show tricks. One robot was programmed to dance to the Cha Cha Slide, for example. I have pictures, but I was spoiled by the memory card slot on my old laptop, and I don't know where my cord is for my camera. I promise I'll search for it in the coming weeks.

I'm out of topics and with no pics so that's enough for tonight. Jya' Ne and happy trails.

P.S. - Guys, if I'm to trust my map of places my readers come from...some of you guys/gals are from all sorts of places. Canada, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Spain, Britain, India, Germany, Indonesia, China, Denmark, and even the U.A.E. if I'm not mistaken. Awesome guys! How's it going? What's up? Also, ummm...how did ya'll hear about my blog [this question goes for a good bit of the Americans too]. I mean, seriously, I have a good idea about a couple of ya'll, but seriously, how'd ya'll find me, and if ya'll came with some questions about my college searches, college choices, or anything else, don't be afraid to ask. Just leave a comment, I respond, seriously.

Printers, Cars, and the Chinese?

2008-07-05T21:05:00.000-04:00

OK, I want to first apologise for my little tirade on grammar. I've thought it over, and I will be proofing and correcting myself from now on. I realise that it does make it difficult to read and understand, so I'll try to do better, promise. I'm also trying to keep things flowing better, so I hope to update more frequently now. I'll try my best.

So now for content. I GOT A GOOD PRINTER!!! I now never have to worry about another horrid Lexmark ink cartridge, scanner, or printer. Now I have an HP Photosmart C4385. It's got wireless printing, a scanner, a printer, memory card slots, and all sorts of fancy stuff. I recommend it to everyone. Just check it out. It's decently priced, cheap but good ink, and works good. It's great.

I had an HP in the beginning, but it was just a printer, a good printer, but just a printer. When I got my HP laptop, it had Vista, and thus couldn't use it with my little HP XP-only printer. The computer came with a Lexmark All-in-One though, so I figured, "Hey, free all-in-one, this is awesome." Or so I thought. The printer was fine at first, but after a while, the problems began. I could print 1 to 2 page documents with ummmm.... decent ease, and most things would be of good quality. One thing with which I didn't have ease with was printing large documents. Anything over 3 or 4 pages made me want to rip my fingers off for even daring to click "Print." It would print one or two pages and then boom, it'd stop. This is annoying, especially when ye have a 12 page paper to print, and you need to have it before midnight because SOME people don't understand that ye're printer loves to watch you suffer. My angst towards Lexmark remains to this day (btw, don't even try their customer service lines).

In other news, I think I've made my final tweaks to the design on my electric vehicle, and I'm hoping to get started on it soon. It's actually too bad I've started this late. I just found information about something called the Progressive Auto X Prize. I KNOW! An X Prize, that's for new vehicle designs and ideas! *bli* But the final competition is in 2009, which means I'd probably have to get this thing built in 6 months when one of my components hasn't even been released (meaning I have no clue how it will work in my design), and my amount of funds for other materials is a strong bit lacking. BAH. I've thought about finding sponsors, but I wouldn't even know how to start that, and who would want to help fund some whim idea that I had?

I have had a good bit of fun going to car dealerships though. It's been really interesting. The reactions of some of the dealers and just seeing the "help" that they've provided is hilarious. I've even had a bunch of my thoughts and ideas on some companies helped and hurt so far. I asked the people simple questions: "Does your company have any electric or hybrid vehicles for sale?" "Do ye have any brochures about your company's electric/hybrid vehicles or what your company is doing to help the environment?" and then for the ones able to answer, "May I take a look at some of your hybrids?"

The only thing that I didn't tell them was that I'd already knew most of this information. Most of the dealers did ok with the second question. I got a good stack of brochures, but a couple were VERY disappointing [I'm looking at you Ford, Mitsubishi, and Honda *gives mean look*]. I was very impressed with the detail of Chevy's, Nissan's, and Toyota's info, however. It really seems like these guys cared about you buying their stuff, and wanted to make sure you had a good or at least decent idea of what ye were getting. The people at the Chevy and Toyota places were also nicer, more knowledgeable, and way more helpful than those at the Ford, Jeep, Honda, Mitsubishi, Saturn, Acura, Buick, Cadillac, Chrysler, Dodge, GMC, Pontiac, Suburu, and Mercury [i.e. Every car dealership within a 30-40 mile radius of my home] dealerships.

The first and third question is where I lost a couple of the dealers. Some knew all about the vehicles that had come out from their companies, and were able to fill me in on some information that actually helped [TOYOTA]. Some, however, didn't even say a word about the vehicles that had actually come out. Ford with the Escape and Focus, Honda with the Civic [which I can say I got a full HALF A PAGE about by accident], GMC with the Sierra, Dodge with the Durango, Mercury with the Mariner, Chrysler with the Aspen, and Cadillac with the Escalade.

No lie, the people didn't even say a word about any of these vehicles when I was posing as the unchaperoned out-of-school college student looking for a new hybrid/electric car/truck/SUV. These are out, and they should know about it. Maybe it's a dealer thing, but I know most hybrids aren't cheap, so I'd have thought they'd want to sell me one. Who knows. Chevy and Toyota really impressed me though. The people were very knowledgeable about their vehicles, knew what stuff they had, if they could get it, where I could get it [at times], and were able to give me proper information about their vehicles. The only turn-offs to these two were that no one at the Chevy place knew about the upcoming Silverado hybrid, and I was mistaken again for being Hispanic [again] at the Toyota place. Otherwise these guys were great. If ye're in South Carolina and want a Toyota vehicle, look me up, I'll give ye the name of the awesome guy at the Toyota place I talked to.

In other news, after tinkering with Clemson's Demo Class Registration program, I think I know what my schedule is going to look like next semester. Elementary Chinese, General Chemistry, Engineering Disciplines and Skills, Calculus of One Variable I, and Accelerated Composition. All my classes before 2:30 too [save for the obligatory spoil sport {chemistry lab}]. Yatta! I hate late classes, because my concentration seems to go into a downward spiral after lunch, and if I can get this schedule, it'd leave my entire rest of day clear! *is crossing fingers hoping to get this schedule*

Is it just me or does it remind you of a Game of Life? Maybe it just looks like a rocket slamming into a wall, either way, I like it, and it'll give me 2 more hours than I need for first semester. I've gotten into a couple of arguments with my parents over my decision to take Elementary Chinese though.

For those of ya'll not familiar with Clemson's first year General Engineering path, ye're required to take General Chemistry, Engineering Disciplines and Skills, Calculus of One Variable I, and Accelerated Composition. Ye're then required to take one social science or arts and humanities class, kinda like the HASS requirement at MIT I'm assuming. This narrows my choices of extra class a good bit, but as some readers know, I have a strong affinity for languages, which is why I wanted to use a language for my SS/A&H requirement. My parents understood this, and I immediately looked at the languages I could take at Clemson. American Sign Language [*bli*], Arabic [*bli*], Chinese [*unsure bli*], French [*bli*], German, Italian, Japanese [*major bli*], Russian, and Spanish. I immediately checked Japanese and ..."SCHEDULE CONFLICT." After a couple words I'm not proud of I decided that I could enjoy other languages, and went to American Sign Language..."SCHEDULE CONFLICT." After my eye began to twitch a bit in anger, I re-checked the forced classes to see if they could be moved, but alas they were set in stone, so I continued. Arabic ..."SCHEDULE CONFLICT"... French ... "SCHEDULE CONFLICT" ... [At this point I got perturbed, and just checked every foreign language remaining]. EVERY bloody language except for Chinese and Spanish was conflicting! So, I went with my favourite, Chinese......[Before I go on let me first tell of my history with Chinese. I've loved Asian culture since childhood. At age 6 or 7 I started learning Mandarin Chinese on my own, but my uncle's ******* bird decided that my book'd make a delicious treat, and on my 6-7 year old salary, I wasn't going to buy a new one any time soon. My interest later developed into me starting to learn Japanese, but the desire to learn Chinese was still there.] Well, I made out the fake prep schedule with the Elementary Chinese and Elementary Chinese Lab on it and showed my parents what it'd look like. For some reason, my decision for Chinese over Spanish shocked them, which surprises me since I knew most Chinese history by age 11, with the help of their watchful eyes.

My parents, however, have gone out on this Spanish, and have done their twenty questions method to try and convince me into it. But I think that I have won out this time. I have no concern with learning Spanish, and no offense to Spanish people, but I find the Chinese language and culture more interesting. Not that Spanish lang/cult isn't interesting, it's just I like Chinese better. But who knows, knowing my luck, I probably will end up getting majorly screwed when I actually register and end up getting Spanish, but if things go right, it's Chinese for me.

In other news, I got to go to my second movie in a month [Truly a feat for me]. It was hilarious, and you should all go and see it...after you see WALL-E, that is. What movie was it?

Get Smart. Definitely a good movie, I just enjoyed WALL-E better. I'm thinking about going to see Kung-Fu Panda during Orientation [that'd be like three in a time-span of four weeks *half faints*]. I'm not sure what's going to go on at Orientation though, so I'm not holding my breath. Also, I've got Orientation in 1 day! That means college is like 40 days away! That's 40 days left to play Wii before I'm forced to be separated from it for a semester! That also means 18 days of concrete and work! Wow, this summer has shot by, hasn't it? In less than two months, after works over, after my mission trip, and after my last week living in the same house and always being less than an hour from my parents, I'll be in college. It's a bit overwhelming at times really.

Oh well, enough mushy stuff, I've got to go pack for Orientation. Jya' ne and aloha everyone!

New Stuff and I'm Changing Colour

2008-06-27T21:49:00.009-04:00

So, I think Karen said it best when she said, "I'm not dead, just boring." I've been working for three weeks now, and can officially state that I hate concrete. Not joking. Once ye've seen as much concrete get poured as I have this summer, ye'll know how I feel. So, besides concrete, what else have I been up to? Well, I've got a new computer!

Isn't it awesome! I finally got my MacBook Pro! It's so beautiful and sleek and aluminiumy [yeah, I know it's not a real word]. I also got a free nano, because I didn't really want the Touch. I can't get over how nano the nano really is. It's terrifyingly small, and the ability to put it in a pair of shorts without dropping trow [sp?] is helpful. It's small, thin, square, closest to cardinal red I could find, and part of the money spent on it [technically none, but hey, I'm perfectly fine with sneaking a way to just force Apple donate money to charity] is donated to help women and children afflicted by HIV/AIDS in Africa. But wait! That's not all! Along with this nice little package, I also got Adobe CS3 Web Premium for $1300 LESS THAN its original price.

It has Dreamweaver CS3, Flash CS3 Professional, Photoshop CS3 Extended, Illustrator CS3, Fireworks CS3, Acrobat 8 Professional, Contribute CS3, extra stuff, AND video workshops. Awesome huh? I thought so. Either way, it's done now, so I'm forced to like it. I actually haven't even put it on the computer yet though. Why? Because of this!

Yes, my own [current] university! No matter what I do between now and the next ohhh.... 7 or 8 days doesn't matter because my hard drive will be wiped. I have no way to back it up, which is why I have an intense desire to obtain a Time Capsule. It bites that I'll have to re-put everything on, but I guess it's fine, since I think that I get all sorts of software whenever I get to Clemson. So now it's just a waiting game, a waiting game with copious amounts of concrete in between now and then.

As I look at all the awesome stuff out there now, I see more and more stuff I want, which is both sad and pathetic. Take for example, Wacom's Graphire Tablet. I've wanted a tablet for a while, and it'd be an awesome addition to my computer, I'm just not sure if it falls into my need category or not. I've also thought about getting VMWare Fusion or Parallels along with an Uber cheap Windows XP/Vista cd because there are about two programs on my computer that only run on Windows and I "can't live without them." Already got a sweet printer. But that's enough about my new stuff.

So, let's see, New stuff...check, college/computer frustration...check, ahhh here we are, My New Colour. What does this mean exactly, you may ask? Well, as you know from my previous Uberpost, I was bliing about the new television channel, Planet Green. Though I had been looking into going green for a while, it wasn't until the launch that I really knew about all the green things that are available out there. Well, I've officially gone green. Yup yup yup, whether it's my new green apparel made of organic cotton, my new computer explained here, or my new project, I'm slowly getting greener, and it feels good.

I'm really excited about my new project, but I'm supposed to keep it under wraps for a little while, but it involves an electric vehicle. I'm so ready to start on it, but I've got to rely on research for now. If it's not properly planned it won't work properly. Doesn't that bite?

Speaking of green, I want to remark on a movie I saw this weekend.

First of all, IT WAS AMAZING!!!! I mean this thing rocked. And, had I a really cool nerdy girlfriend, it would have been the perfect nerd date movie. The story of WALL-E was brilliant, not only was it cute [yeah take that, I don't care saying I liked a movie because it was cute!], but also because of the message that it sent. The message of "Let's not get here, because if we keep going the way we are, that's exactly where we're headed you bloody idiots," really got to me, and it really exemplified the Green message. It was also a great story of love, robots, and a 2001: A Space Odyssey reference [Ya'll should know by now that I'm a sucker for them]. I definitely recommend going to watch this immediately, because it is a wonderful movie.

But moving on, I'd like to discuss one more thing before I finish this post.

My English.

OK, now first of all, let me say this. The grammar on this blog bites. It straight out sucks. This is not how I talk normally, and for blogs, I pretty well much write things as they come to me, so please bear with me if it's hard to read at times. lol I don't have bad grammar, I'm just lazy. I rarely proofread this stuff, and I know how stupid I must sound when I do actually read it. Once again, just too lazy to go back and correct it. If ya'll ever don't understand something, ya'll know how to comment, and I'm more about getting the message across, than making the message technically correct and unintelligible.

Oh well, better get going. Jya' Ne and Aloha guys and gals.

UBERPOST

2008-05-26T21:14:00.009-04:00

SOOOOO, as I'm sure ye all already know, we have a new American Idol [*didn't watch, but is glad David C. won despite any Facebook wall posts people may see*], a new Dancing With The Stars champion [*doesn't watch, but good for her*], an official Democratic nominee [*Yatta, one step closer to winning my bet*], other new presidential candidates [*that you've most likely neever heard of*], an Olympic shortlist for 2016 [*loves it, but was a little sad because of Doha*], a new eco channel [*weeee*], and a new Eurovision champion [*watched but isn't satisfied with winner*]. All of this, however has nothing to do with UBERPOST [though I'll probably address them anyway at the end]. UBERPOST consists of all that's been happening with me recently so that ya'll can understand why I've neglected ye so much. So, to start...

Georgia Tech View Day:
So, here's what happened. My father and I scheduled trip on some kind of Georgia Tech view day that was especially for accepted students. Hooray for us. *sarcasm intended* To make the trip even more fun, dad got awesome tickets to the Braves game. I was ready. My first college choice [of the accepted ones, that is], awesome Braves tickets, and family bonding. Well, turns out, this view day stuff was on the EXACT day as prom. Yep, my senior prom. The one that everyone fought for. The one that was banned! The one that we complained into existence. So, of course, the first thing, Prom or Georgia Tech, right? Wrong! Yes, thanks to my father's awesome ability to do awesome things, I got to go to Ga. Tech, the Braves game for...most of it, AND prom! Awesome right? But how did it go, you may ask.

Well, we drove up there early the day before the meeting, stopped at a little hotel on our way there, and then went straight to Atlanta. When we got there, we had no clue where to park, and after a bunch of searching, dad and I finally took the initiative...to ask someone for help. The police officer who told us where to park [they had a special parking lot], and even drove to where we were supposed to go. Later, Dad and I joked about having a police escort to Ga. Tech. We then went to the meetings and on the tour. Did you know that the Ga. Tech cafeteria's serve Waffle House breakfasts? mmm...

I for one, loved it. I didn't really care for our tour guide that much, but other than that, it was awesome. Dad, however, didn't get the spark needed to get behind it. To respond to a previous commenter, my parents' opinion on Ga. Tech was my dad's. Maybe to put it into perspective from him though, money for us is tight. I mean, yes, we have enough to be loose at a median amount of times, but twice the amount of the in-state school is a big thing, not just a few loose moments. Had I gone to Ga. Tech, just like with my favourite, MIT [had I been accepted] it would have put a big financial strain on my family. They had agreed after the trip to visit MIT that they would assume that financial strain if I got accepted to MIT. As ya'll know, that didn't work out this time, so now, we had to look at Ga. Tech. Essentially, for my parents to agree with it, the Ga. Tech experience had to match up to the MIT experience.

As I'm sure ya'll can expect from my announcement that I'll be a tiger next year instead of a yellow jacket, the two experiences just didn't match up. I guess I agree with him that the people at MIT were much more open and friendly, like they'd be willing to talk to you if you were that one kid off alone. They gave you a sense of, "Hey, you are welcomed here, and we want you to know it." Georgia Tech was a bit more like, "Hey, welcome, we have many places where we're sure that you'll find a place to be." MIT was a place you didn't want to leave, because it felt like a dream, and Georgia Tech was the place you were at that would be fun for a while. But, that's an assumption. They just knew that Georgia Tech didn't impress them enough to where they would assume that financial strain unless something big happened.

In the end, I'm fine. You gotta know when to fight and when to bend. When what may be good for you may not be best for someone else. In the end, I know that Clemson will be the best for my parents, so I'm fine. I mean, maybe in a year, if I really love it or if the transfer happens and I'm able to get some scholarships, it won't be just for my parents anymore, but we'll just have to see what happens. May the chips fall where they must.

Prom:
So, after all the Atlanta fun was over, Dad and I drove like we've never drove before [not really, Dad always drives too fast for my taste, but we weren't pulled so I'm assuming it was all legal] and I got changed into my nice suit and pants, and was adequately dolled up for prom. Though I was criticised for my choice of sandals [I left my dressy shoes at home], prom rocked. I did feel a bit disappointed that I left my date alone for so long, but she was a chaperone so she didn't mind. [Yeah just so ya'll don't get all "JERK HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO YOUR DATE!?!" my "date" was my AP Biology teacher Mrs. ***** We decided to be official dates because I knew that I wouldn't be able to be polite to an actual date because I'd be late. We also did it to make a remark about the dating process at my school. Seriously, there's a date confirmation from the head, a dress approval committee {which my "date" was on *snickers*}, and a bunch of other stuff, I'll have to explain sometime. She knew I would be late, and actually didn't even think I'd come because of the Ga. Tech stuff. I didn't ditch my prom date I promise.]

Despite my choice of footwear, everyone just laughed it off, and everyone was happy. My cousin was crowned prom king, I got to dance with my date, cheese cubes were in abundance, we started a conga line, good times...gooood times. [Aren't I cute? ^_^']

Prom Campout:
After prom, the senior class [all but two out of the twenty-two of us] went to my cousin's uncle's lake to camp-out. There were tents, car wrecks, wienie roasts, pirate attacks, theft of booty, and all sorts of other stuff. I'm not going to post any photos from this, just one of me having fun in a tent. There are others on Facebook if ye want to see them.

Class Trip:
About a week after the camp-out and prom, we went on our senior trip to Orlando. What brought us to Orlando, ye might ask? The Universal Studios Senior Night! Yup a night where Universal Studios is open to ONLY seniors in high school. There were rides, churros, TONS of people, balloon animal making giant pirates, and Hellogoodbye and Rihanna. We then went the next day to Universal again to re enjoy everything. We had a decent time. We enjoyed food at nice restaurants. Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, Margaritaville, and....other places I can't remember. We had a good time and I was able to get some pictures of people on the rides. Then, last day, we went to Wet & Wild Water Park. Nyeh right? Just a water park? NO! It was probably the best part of the trip. Other than the whole class bonding and the party shrimp, it was awesome. The rides were amazing, everyone had fun. I really recommend Wet & Wild if you go to Orlando. Go there. Also, the night before, my class surprised me by us all going to see 21!!! I love my class. lol They were all talking about how they wanted to go to MIT after the movie.
Also, WE SAW SUPER-TARGET [I'll have to explain my love of Target sometime, but I love it, it pwns Wal-mart in so many ways]AP Tests:
AP Tests. I took two of them. I was pwnd. They mentally violated me in sooo many ways. I don't want to see the scores.

Spanish III Trip:
OMG I love the Spanish III Missions Trip. Yes, I am a Christian, and I do missions trips, and this was one I really looked forward to. Each year we go to Atlanta to a Hispanic community where we play with kids and hold little events for them. Nothing big, but it's very fun. I love getting to have so much fun with the kids. They will tire you out! We went last year and it was fun, and this year we went all the way to where we would stay, and then someone got sick. Oh well, just a small mishap, right? No, then FIVE to SIX other people got sick!!! We had just enough time to play with the young kids and make little crafts. We then shipped back to home the next morning after quarantining EVERYTHING we could find. There were also a lot of weird things where we stayed. I'll maybe put a link or post some of my videos of where we stayed later. But I'll leave you with my picture of an oddity. If you have an explanation, I'll give you major kudos. Maybe something on Facebook, but I really would love to know what the meaning behind it is.

That is indeed a piece of toast nailed to the door frame.

Graduation:
I'm Graduated *wooooo!* It was fun, I did my devotion [once again, I go to a Christian school so we have the devotion and val/sal speeches but that's it] and I got graduated. IT WAS BLOODY HOT IN THERE! It was burning up. You look out and you see fanning programs everywhere. Then there was the technical difficulties. Our mic didn't work...any. But it's over I got my stuff and was out quick. It was fun. HERE I COME CLEMSON!

Job:
Before I get to Clemson though, I've got to work through the summer. A *normally* 8 to 5 job for the summer where I get to work with civil engineers, contractors, and other people Oh My! It's fun, I've probably learned more about concrete than I ever will, but that's fine. I'm getting good experience for engineering world and I'm preparing for the future!

--------------------------NON ME STUFF--------------------------
So, I mentioned some things earlier that I'd like to re-address.

Democratic Nomination:
We now have a Democratic Nominee. Monsieur Obama. Cheers to him. I still would have liked to have seen Al Gore, but oh well, Maybe an Obama/Gore ticket??? Yeah I doubt it too, I don't know who to vote for. I don't like Obama and I don't like McCain, which leads me to my next point.

Third Party Candidates:
So we have...
Republican: McCain/???
Democrat: Obama/???
Independent: Nader/Gonzalez
Prohibitionist: Amondson/Pletten
Socialist: Moore/Alexander
Socialist Worker: Calero/Kennedy

But now we can add two more sets to that list:
Constitution: Baldwin/Castle
Libertarian: Barr/Root

So now, all we have to do is hear from the Green Party, which I will put a good dollar on a bet that Madame McKinny will get the nomination. So we now have eight official or nine candidates to choose from, all of which I don't particularly like. *sigh* I know I'm going to have to bite the bullet, but it's going to be tough. Oh well, we'll see. It's going to take a whole lot of research, and a whole lot of time, but I'm going to choose someone. Mark my words.

Olympic Shortlist:
*sighs* OK. Ya'll remember my post about the Olympic bids? It's here. So, the seven candidate field was chopped to four. Three cities were declined. The cities that will not be hosting next year are Prague, Baku, and Doha. I'm understanding about Prague and Baku. They knew this year was a developing year, and they knew they needed to wait. Baku, however, was disappointing. I loved Baku's bid, and a Baku 2016 would have been awesome. But, we have four bids now to choose from. I still stand behind my disapproval of Madrid for now, but I am now having even more difficulty choosing from the final three. So, what do ya'll think?

Planet Green:
Yay Eco-channel is up! Check it out. Lots of new ideas on how to go green.

Eurovision:
Just watched my first Eurovision. Loved lots of the singers, and liked it much MUCH more than watching American Idol, but I was disappointed with the decision that Russia should win. Bah. They were OK, crazy [They had an ice skater for crying out loud!] but only OK. Israel's song was amazing. Portugal was also really REALLY good. Either way, I think Greece did better than Russia. Oh well, I'm not Europe.

And thus with that last little giblet of information and mindless banter, I do so end the UBERPOST. Oh well. Guess it's time to go.

Jya' Ne.

Explanation Shrimp

2008-05-06T23:18:00.001-04:00

On the back of a bus with a guy named Guillermo

2008-04-26T06:32:00.002-04:00

Ok, Blogger isn't that iPhone friendly, so for the next four days, I'd like to direct you to my temporary kinda Liveblog thing. It is very plain, and I'vebe already fiddled a bit with it, but it is pretty straightforward. depetagmasaru.tumblr.com

Quick

2008-04-23T23:37:00.002-04:00

OK as the title implies, this is going to be just a quick, short, sweet, and to the point post to let ya'll know that I'm not dead, and really care about my blog.

News:
1 Blog's one year old, and this makes my technical 50th post [Woo!]
2 I'm 18 now, everyone said, "Oh now you can buy cigarettes and lottery tickets." My response, "Oh, I guess. The first thing that came to my mind was that now I could call in on commercials when it says you must be 18 years or older to call."
3 Though I struggled to get Georgia Tech considered, it got tossed on its rear by my parents. [they say that they just didn't like the atmosphere/people/blah when they went there] [MIT pwns Ga. Tech, confirmed by my dad]
4 I'm going to Clemson next year. I hear from the Honours College about acceptance in n days.
5 I'm allowed three transfer apps next year if I really want them.
6 Three days until Senior Trip!!!!!!1one!!!!
7 36 'til Graduation!
8 Soccer's almost over!?!?!?!? FOREVER?
9 Ya'll get to learn lots of new fun stuff about Clemson in the next year on my blog ^_^' lol if ya'll decide to keep reading
10 I'm getting a Mac!!!! [waiting until June though]
11 It's fun to say "Popodopolis's bubbly schisms."
12 I'm kind of running out of news [if ye haven't already noticed]
13 Webcomic of the week: garfield minus garfield
14 I've got a summer job...WORKING WITH ENGINEERS!
15 Sleep is a lie, just like cake.
16 Sociology 101 is almost over with [I'll have to explain this, but I LOATHE SOC 101]
17 I'm learning ASL in free time since muscle memory is easier at the moment than mental memory
18 I'm going to bed, Jya' Ne and Good night wherever ye are.

Settling + Ades = Evil

2008-03-22T23:14:00.003-04:00

Well guys/gals, I got my official letter this week. I am not accepted to MIT, it wasn't just a computer thing [OK, yeah I know it was stupid but I had in the back of my mind, "Oh, well, what if it was just a computer mixup."] I've moved on a bit though and yes, I do know that the last post that I had [that I deleted] I was a good bit miffed and got a bit snippy. I was told that my final two choices will be Georgia Tech or Clemson. I was told that N.C. State's out of the question [lol but since I may be able to snag a full ride {minus transportation} to Hawai'i, it's still somewhat of an option]. I figured the other day that I'm just gonna let things go as they may, even though I want to be going to Georgia Tech for possibility of a better chance of transfer, and because I like the campus better. I'll still settle for Clemson, but that's the thing. I don't want to just "settle" for a college, because to me, it's like just "settling" for a job you don't want, or just settling down and not enjoying life. Now, I don't want this to sound immature, but I've always had something against the word settle. Settling has always meant becoming stagnant. But enough of this, all decisions will come on April 1 when I hear about Fin Aid from Ga Tech.

I'd also like to bring up a few things mentioned in the comments:

Kate: Why? First of all, IT'S JUST THE MOST AMAZING DRINK EVER! OK, actual explanation, I've always loved grape juice, something about the twang or something, I dunno, but it's always tasted a little flat [stagnant maybe?]. So, when I tasted some of Welch's juice, I was in love. It's quickly become one of my most expected gifts, whether it be birthday [one a year], other holiday [also once a time], and Christmas [one bottle last year, FOUR this year]. It's delicious, seriously, if you've never tried it, go, buy a bottle, and enjoy. I like the red better than the white, but that's just me. Also, I'll probably put a post about why I love Calvin Coolidge later. Then again, I've been promising a rant or two for a while as well, so maybe I'll put it in a combo pack. Also, I just decided that I'd rather have Calvin Coolidge since the Republicans keep shouting off about being the next Reagan and the Democrats want to be the next Kennedy, but honestly, I liked Coolidge better than any of them, and reincarnation isn't Frankenstein, it's Dalai Lama. ^_^

Snively: Yeah, I had heard that too, but from what I hear, N.C. State does too. I haven't heard anything about Hawai'i or Clemson's housing though, so I'm not sure. Also, thanks for the mention on the MIT blog, it made me feel all fuzzy inside. Seriously, it's really something to know that I had people pulling for me, [that goes for you too Paul!]. GT may kick me on my rear after a year, but...THEY'VE GOT A WATER SLIDE!

Paul: Thanks man. Snively and you both [and Piper] have really made me feel welcomed in applying to MIT. I'm really grateful for the best wishes for transfer, I'm gonna try my best both for transfer and to have fun in either Clemson or Georgia Tech [even though I'm told GT and Notre Dame have a bit of a rivalry ^_^ still friends though, right? lol] I look forward to keeping in touch too.

José P.: YATTA!

Karen: Mahalo! lol I'd gone through Snively's CPW blog so much, a few [or a bunch of] new fresh images would be awesome. Mahalo for the well-wishes in transfer too. Also, facebook? Yes, no, maybe, rather not say?

Isshak: No worries man, I'm pulling for ye, and will be refreshing my Internet like crazy in May to find out that ye got in!

SBTVD: Uhhh......Mahalo? ^_^'

Hmmmm, OK, enough answers and responses for now. I'm currently watching Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and wondering what ever happened to Gene Wilder, and I can't help but think that choosing Johnny Depp was a horrible mistake, and that Robin Williams would have been better, but that's just my opinion. I've always been fond of Williams. He's cool. Deep Roy did pwn as an Oompa Loompa though. Rock on Deep Roy. Also, until just a few days ago, I HAD NEVER NOTICED THE AMAZING 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY REFERENCE IN Charlie & The Chocolate Factory!!!

R.I.P. Arthur C. Clarke [I even mentioned him in my MIT essay]

Also I've learned something. NEVER drink any Ade, whether it be Gator or Power. I had a grape Power-ade before yesterday's soccer game, and it honestly tasted like I had chugged a thing of Flintstone's Chewable vitamins. OMG, it was horrible. We won though, so I'm good. Well, it's getting a tad late, soooooooo......

Jya' Ne

P.S. TO those of ye wondering about my Facebook stati, it was a play on words from when someone pointed out that MIT was essentially like a drug to me. There were absolutely NO drugs or anything involved. I have never taken nor been addicted to actual drugs lol I was just joking about how I was "under the influence of MIT".

So, What Happened?

2008-03-15T20:46:00.002-04:00

Well, this morning, I was up. I only had three hours of sleep all day, and I went straight to the Methodist Men's Breakfast at the church where the lock-in was. I scarfed down a plate of eggs, sausage, and a biscuit, and listened to the speaker intently. Then I was reminded by the whole Key Club Golf Tournament at 12:00. So, I was faced with a decision: A. Go home, sit with parents, and prepare OR B. Go to the tournament, help out the local Kiwanis, and check when I got home at FOUR!!! I went with B, and had fun at the tourney [even though I was constantly having to keep myself from typing decisions.mit.edu into my iPhone]. Well, I got home, tired and pollen-coated, and grabbed my laptop. My parents and I sat down on the couch, and I read what most people read today. "Dear Walt......I'm so sorry......unable to offer......I'm very sorry."

Sadly, there will be no CPW fun for me this year. No liquid nitrogen ice cream with sprinkles, no trying out for the varsity blogging team, no trying out for any Engineers sports team, no bouncy balls, no Simmons, no Random, no Great Dome, no Infinite Corridor, no IH[L]TFP, or to summarise, no MIT [or at least this year]. I now must choose between Ga. Tech, Hawai'i, Clemson, and N.C. State, and honestly I have no bloody clue what I'm going to do. I had prepared for this, and I feared it would happen, so I have somewhat of a plan, but mainly, I'm lost.

It's truly been a ride, and, as hinted at earlier, one that I plan to take again. I've discussed it with my family, and we've talked a bit about trying for transfer admissions[Aye I know the odds there too ^_^']. Though I'm going to try my hardest for transfer, I'm definitely going to make the best out of wherever I end up next year, whether it be studying next to Pierre De Coubertin's statue in Atlanta, laying on the beach in Hawai'i, rushing the field at Death Valley, or......doing whatever N.C. State students do. Plus, this may be a good thing if I can defeat the odds and get in on transfer. I mean, seriously, how many transfer students blog? I could be the first, and show that there are such things as transfers into MIT!

Oh well, we'll have to just wait and see right? I'm glad to see that some of the fellow pre-MIT bloggers got in [or at least waitlisted], and I wish you all godspeed at MIT, and to those of you who didn't get in, no worries. I guess it's like what I've been hearing a lot of lately. If it's really in us, we will make the difference in the world that we want to make, no matter where we go. If we were able to even consider MIT as a college choice, we have the ability to truly change the world. Let's not let this get to us much. Yes, it is hard to get over. It's rejection in any sense. Human nature doesn't take well to rejection, but we grow and we get over it. We grow, and we become stronger through our rejection. We remain resilient and refuse to give up our cause. But OH WELL...

So, I guess, status of the blog, hmmm, I'll keep it until I get a second rejection/first acceptance from MIT. *raises glass of Welch's Sparkling Red Grape Juice* To the future.

Until later...

Quick Update Semi-live Blog

2008-03-15T04:02:00.003-04:00

So, I'm currently blogging fromok my phone, watching The Guardian, so this'll be short. Monday and Tuesday's conference went splendidly and we won second in the annual vollyball tourney. Wednesday was uneventful. We lost the game on Thursday [horribly] but we won today [I guess yesterday now. Final decisions come out in about 8 hours, and once normal people start waking up, I go to breakfast, then church clean-up, and then possibly helping out at a local golf tourney. Will I find out with the rest of the world at 12:00? No clue. Either way, I'll let yehe know how things go. Jya' ne.

The Numbers

2008-03-09T13:47:00.002-04:00

I'm currently watching a countdown like it's about to explode and shower me with candy, video games, random electronical devices, the knowledge of all things language, the knowledge of all things chocolatey, and numerous amounts of Pocky. The countdown however doesn't care and just looks at me, silently laughing. OK maybe I'm getting a bit too paranoid, but as everyone knows [or everyone associated with MIT/not yet associated with MIT knows] DECISIONS COME OUT ON SATURDAY!!!!! I'm about to go crazy, like everyone else, but I'm trying to remain calm.

I'm also without the all loved Brawl today because I did not pre-order, sadly. I'm going to wait, and hopefully get it later [Got a b-day coming up soon]. This week's going to be an interesting one. I'm going to be at a conference until Tuesday, then on Wednesday Youth, Soccer Thursday, Soccer Friday, Youth Lock-in Friday night, and then Saturday. lol OOOOOOHHHHH Saturday. We'll just wait and see. I never know what to say on the MIT blogs so I'll say it here. Good luck to any who applied. I wish ya'll the best, and congratulate you if you get in. [Yes I know I've rammed everything together in this post, but just tolerate it for now.]

This will be the last post until Saturday when I may give ya'll a recap. I'm still debating on if I should wait for snail-mail or if I should just check it on the Internet on Saturday. Oh well.

Jya Ne'

It's A Three Ring Circus...Kinda

2008-03-04T21:41:00.008-05:00

Well, this month's been crazy so far, and while the storm swirls around me [seriously, it's coming down out there], I figured I'd blog. Football [soccer] games have started. I was able to go to the circus [during school]. AND I watched a house burn down across the road from my home.

I guess I should explain for the last two.

So, every year, my school's headmaster sets it up for an unnamed circus to come and entertain us for one period. It's nice. The team sets up in the gym, we get a show, and everyone has a decent time. There's always a talk about some of the costumes, and some repetition in acts, and increases of prices, but still it's a decent way to take a break from two periods.

As for the house, it was just an unoccupied very old house that had started to break down. Looked decent on the outside, but on the inside was horrible. The owners of the land were going to demolish it, but someone had the idea to torch it, and that's exactly what they did.

Also, MIT decisions come out in on an unknown date this month, and it could or could not be either 10 or 17 days away from now......Yeah...That close. Well needless to say it's hit me pretty hard, and I'm about to go out of my bloody mind. I know that I should be prepared for anything [especially the worse, as someone actually told me yesterday {I love the support I've got}] and I feel like I'm at least decently prepared, even though I have absolutely no idea what to do if the worse does happen. It's a bit like the doctor off of Courage The Cowardly Dog. [referencing the quote, "There is nothing, absolutely nooooothing to worry about, but there's nothing I can do."] I have nothing to be worried about because I've got a pretty decent system of safety nets going, but there's absolutely nothing I can do about it now, and I have absolutely no clue about what to do if the worse happens.

This week is also going to be wild. I've got to interview a WWII teenager, soccer [I'm going to refer to it as soccer because of enough people lecturing me about this whole "being in America" stuff] practice along with a game [or two], and goodness knows what else. One thing I don't have to worry about is my English IV honours work though. I've read all of Night by Elie Weisel [and will recommend it to everyone] and all that's left is a bunch of annoying questions due in, oh say, a week or two. And scholarship stuff, don't even get me started on that. But, to quote the Nader campaign, "Onward."

Speaking of campaigns, John McCain's campaign won big tonight, having successfully nailed the Republican's nomination. So!!! Now we have a field that looks like this:

Republican: John McCain [Oh my we really are fudged now aren't we?]
Democrat: Barack Obama [I'm pretty sure he'll have the Dem. nomination, and already have a...let's say, bet, that he'll become President Obama {it's against my dad so it's not that bad} by November]
Independent: Ralph Nader [Isn't he cute, going out, giving it one more try, lol, all I can do is laugh and wish him the best] [He's already got a VP too, MATT GONZALEZ]
Green: Cynthia McKinney [The Greens think Nader's a "sell-out" so I guess he's like the Green Ron Paul, so Madame McKinney has this nomination down]
Libertarian: Oh wait, Ron Paul's not running for Libertarian......blast...uhhh...maybe that Root guy? [Actually I'd like to see Monsieur Imperato get this nomination, I dunno if he'd get my vote, but why the heck not?]
Constitution: uhhh....Alan Keyes >_>' maybe? [Well they haven't made a decision, but right now, depending on how the candidates decide, the frontrunners are either Monsieur Keyes or Judge Roy Moore]

[There's also the Amondson/Pletten ticket for the Prohibitionist, Moore/Alexander for the Socialist, or Calero/Kennedy for the Socialist WORKER in you.

So now ye're either bored out of you're mind because ye don't care or ye're wondering who the devil these people are. Well, two of these candidates have already debated each other before. I'll let ye search for THAT one. My candidate [ONCE AGAIN] has been knocked out, AND!!! Domo-kun is still awesome.

So, since I'm now going to have to choose between one of these "highly-qualified" and "truly amazing" candidates to give my vote to, I'll be blunt about who I had supported. I have a list.

TEH List:
the reincarnation of Calvin Coolidge
Al Gore
Ron Paul
Steven Colbert
Joe Biden
Sam Brownback

Crazy isn't it? Yeah, I know it has a bunch of different ones on there but sure enough, yeah, they all dropped out. The first three are in order of my votes, but the others are just kind of random. Oh well, enough of the little window into my opinions. It's late, and since I've already moved into the politics area, I'll end with this nice little political nugget...

BYAH!

Hmmmm...

2008-02-19T21:22:00.013-05:00

Well, I'm back, and after a good bit of thinking, I've decided on a couple of things.

1. Political Blog will be merged into this one.

2. I still have a grudge against CNN, Fox News, and most media in general.

3. Domo-kun and I are still cool.

4. I'd have preferred Athens, but I can get behind Singapore better than Moscow.

5. Lists get things across nicely.

6. I want a DSLR camera...and an Apple MacBook...and a thick package from MIT...

7. Scholarships have essentially scraped me to the bone and it hurts.

8. Possibililties about what might happen terrify the mess out of me.

9. Honolulu and Atlanta are looking a lot nicer than Clemson and Raleigh.

10. You can loop the 1:50 minutes before getting to my grandma's house to Also Sprach Zarathustra perfectly.
11. I want to be the next Jon Stewart/Steven Colbert.

But now for the actual content. So, what have I been doing recently? Well, as ye can see from number 7 on the list, I've been working on scholarship essays. But wait, that's not all! I've also been working on assignments from my teachers, because they all decided to give us stuff on the same day/week. I'm about to reach my max on scholarships, and I feel as if I've been mentally violated these last couple of months. I've put myself on the line for almost eight/nine months now, and I'm tired. Also, I'm playing football [soccer] this year. Also, there's a bunch of other things I'm doing. Crazy, huh? Social suicide? Yes. Worth it? We'll find out soon. MIT releases decisions in less than a month.

The Political Blog. Yes, I know I never really got much on it, but that's good, it means the merger will be quicker and easier. It also means that through loophole I can violate my terms to never say on here who I publicly support. Either way, I'd feel bad by violating my own rule, so I'll just slip in in somewhere [keep on watch]. Also, ya'll on Facebook already know, and no, it's not Daft Punk. Actually, most of my candidates actually dropped out, especially considering that I still think all of them are a bunch of...well "if ye can't say anything nice" I guess. I'll bring the photos from my Barack trip soon along with my story about all the fun happenings there, along with my Obama dance. So, I'll put a bunch of photos and political stuff up soon, so I apologise if ya'll don't wanna hear about it. I'll also have stuff about third parties, so ya'll just might learn something new. I will also be posting a bit about my favourite President [President Coolidge] a bit too.

Olympics. Well, even though I didn't enjoy the idea at first and was about to mark a loss for Monsieur Rogge, after a lot of investigating, I'm proud to say I'll support the Youth Olympic Games. The IOC announced on Friday that Singapore would be the host of the inaugural Youth Olympic Summer Games in 2010. Honestly, I wasn't pleased with the short list of Singapore and Moscow, [I wanted Athens to get it] but out of the two, I'm IMMENSELY glad that Singapore beat Moscow. No offence Moscow, but Russia's already got Sochi [which has me perturbed, but I'm going to stay quiet and trust the IOC] and I didn't think they needed to get Moscow 2010 too. I like Singapore, it's just I wanted them to maybe get the SECOND Youth Olympic Games. I mean, Athens had the first Olympic Games why not the first Youth Olympic Games? I guess I can understand the reason why they didn't make the short list though [Wikipedia says that it was because of too high of a budget].

Also, we have the upcoming election for the 2016 games. I'm still trying to figure out who I want to win this. I'm trying to decide between Chicago, Rio, Doha, and Tokyo, and I'll go ahead and tell ye, if Madrid, Prague, or even Baku get it, I'll be even more perturbed with the IOC than I was when Sochi was chosen. But why?

Madrid. I'd love to support Madrid, but I can't for the life of me. Madrid had an amazing bid in 2012 and if they have a better one in 2016 I'll be sad since I can't support them. Why can't I support them? Mainly because of all the Europe Games that have happened so far. Think about it, 2014 [Sochi], 2012 [London], 2006 [Turin], and 2004 [Athens]. Four in ten years followed by another two years later? *sigh* Sadly, this is why I can't support Prague or Baku either. I love the idea of Baku and Prague [even Madrid], just NOT YET. Baku is amazing because it would be great for the nation of Azerbaijan, and perfect for tourism there, but it's too close to Europe for now, I want this to be their developing bid. Prague would also be superb, but I'd like to see them go Winter Olympics instead. Prague would also just be best later. They've tried a lot, but I'd like them to just hold off a bit. Wait one election, then go.

As for the ones I like, Chicago, Rio, Doha, and Tokyo, I'm torn. Firstly, I want Chicago because it's American, and would be uber easier for me to actually go to. I don't think I'd like to see it before I would see a Rio or a Doha 2016, but I'd like to see it so I can go, and to boost American activity in the Olympics. As for Tokyo, I like their bid go through because, I like the bid. It's very nice. But then we look at the past and BAM! 2008 in Beijing. Now I know that's a good eight years, but really, we have two other areas who've never EVER hosted an Olympics. Spread the love, right? So, I'm kinda leaning toward Rio over Doha, because the bid's nicer, and I'd fear to large an uprising over Doha with the small mindedness of the world today. [Doha is in Qatar fyi] I think Rio'd be amazing because OMG, it's RIO. Not that Doha isn't beautiful, but South America has NEVER had one. Oh well, I'll decide later.

I'll post a rant about my dealings with CNN/Fox/TEH Media later. I will also include a rant about my dealings with the sheer stupidity and annoyance of some of humanity's speed bumps too. Oh well, got to go. Have fun. Also, check out 21-movie.com. It looks to be interesting, I've looked at reading the book, just haven't gotten the chance to read it yet.

Night!

throws ninja needles at blogs

2008-02-04T20:40:00.000-05:00

So why did I just attack my blog? Well, I'm mad. Mad at CNN, mad at prejudiced idiots, and mad at Domo-kun! No, wait, I can't be mad at Domo-kun. It's just everything's crazy right now, and I'm about to go NSEIN [purposely misspelled].

Come 15 February, you will definitely see stuff here and in my political blog. Ye'll see awards, at least one candidate review [my personal favourite], and info from my trip to see Barack Obama. As for the blog here, ye can look forward to info about what is going on with me [real interesting huh?], a rant [actually coming, I've promised a lot in the past but this one's coming because it's coming {doesn't make sense, but wtf,r?}] and the honourable mentions to my Ourtube post [will include the most depressing video ever, the stupidest video ever, and well honourable mentions]. Oh well, enjoy the break. I won't lol. Jya' Ne

OurTube

2008-01-26T21:25:00.000-05:00

Well, as promised, I have indeed compiled a list of my Top Ten YouTube videos of last year. Now I know that some are older than last year, but if I saw them last year, then they're considered. Simple as that. One main thing that was required, I had to find them through my own search, someone personally showing me, or some other form of viral method. To me, this does NOT count blogs. This means many of the videos seen on Snively's and other's blogs weren't considered unless they had been introduced at some time in any other method to me. They were ranked on lots of things, but it all came down to my own opinions. So, without further ado [sp.?], I give you, my Top Ten.

10. Chris Crocker's Classic, "LEAVE BRINEY ALONE!" [LANGUAGE WARNING]

Ahh, what can I say about Monsieur Crocker. Honestly, I could say a lot, but I'm not going to. I don't like him. period. He's...ugh...I guess it's like Grandma used to say, "If ye can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." So I'm shutting up, and just saying that this was a I guess ye could call popular video, but not popular like the good popular, more like the, "Ohhh, that's the guy who kicked Oprah," popular. [No, no one's kicked Oprah to my knowledge, but wouldn't we all know who did it and dislike them intensely for it if someone had?] It's been placed in movies, had spoofs coming out of the bum, and the rest of Monsieur Crocker's vids are also pretty insane. Oh well, He gets a 10 from me for his own doofiness.

9. LEEROY JENKINS!

Sigh. No, I have never played WoW, but I've heard that it's fun...If ye like MMORPGs, which are OK I guess. The sheer randomness of this is hilarious, and it has given rise to the catchphrase of "Leeroy Jenkins" to people everywhere. It's been on Jeopardy, and on Snively's Blog. A true classic.

8. Nutrigrain Ad

After watching this, I and many people at my school had only one thing to say. "I feel great." One of the greatest things about this video is the hilarious looks on the ladies face. Seriously she looks crazy, and the stuff that the people say is great. It's been remade with other people, my classmates and I, and even Naruto, and is still awesome.

7. The Stick Figures on Crack Trilogy [1, 1's remake, 2, & 3] [LANGUAGE WARNING on 3]

Coming in at number seven is probably one of the stupidest, most random, insane, and crazy videos that includes stick figure slapstick. [and that's saying something] Each has it's good parts, and it's bad parts, and it's WTF!? parts, but that's what makes it fun. There's a whole story behind PivotMasterDX, the creator of these videos, but I don't feel like telling it to you, but if ye want to find out about it, just YouTube search his name, and enjoy the drama. Ahh, the random, it's almost like eating too much cake. Cake is amazing, but too much makes you ugh. Enjoy.

6. Miss Teen South Carolina

Alas, I had to. I hate that she had to completely and utterly humiliate herself, but it was a definite "viral video." She did get a chance to redeem herself, but still kinda went roundabout. I just think she's a bit camera shy, and it comes out whoosh. She makes me want to make a "Leave Miss Teen South Carolina Alone!" video. She really seems nice, and I'm pretty sure everyone can agree she's not a ditz. It was just nerves. Oh well, it was also made into an admittedly funny spoof. Oh well, *raises glass of Welch's Sparkling Red Grape Juice* Cheers to you, Ms. South Carolina.

5. Spiders On Drugs [LANGUAGE WARNING {only two words near the end though}] [Also not good for arachnophobia sufferers]

What more can you say? I saw this early in 2007, and it's stuck with me throughout the year. Very nicely made, and actually looks like a real somewhat documentary. And if that's what happens in spiders, just imagine what it does to humans.

4. Kiwi!

No language, nothing bad, just a Kiwi bird. From what I hear about MIT, this might be how it is, but even if it is, I wouldn't care. Ahh, I love the Kiwi, it's just so [forgive me if this sounds odd] admittedly cute. How could you not like kiwi birds? A good watch from beginning to end, and a five star. Tell your friends of Kiwi! Wish I could give him a higher rating.

3. The Evolution Of Dance

My views on evolution may be meh, but my views on the Evolution of Dance are seriously something. I mean, the guy can dance, and being the most watched video on YouTube of all things, is DEFINITELY saying something. I mean, an average of 6-7 average human life spans have been wasted watching just this video? Oh yeah, that's something.

2. Dramatic Prairie Dog

The best five seconds on YouTube. period. Also, it was once a gift on Facebook. Very nice accomplishment.

AND FINALLY, MY NUMBER ONE VIDEO IS...
1. Zombie Kid Likes Turtles

This is the best thing to cheer someone up. He's just so obliviously random that it's awesome. He gets brownie points for life for this.

Now, I also have some HM's, and some that were purposely left out, so I'll put them in an update later, cause I'm tired now. Jya' Ne, and enjoy.

P.S. Watch my politics blog, will have some more pics from a different event up soon, will be spotlighting the candidate of the week, my "dirty little secret," and will be giving some awards.

That's MIT[T] With Two T's

2008-01-19T17:35:00.000-05:00

Ahhh, well, in the spirit of the recent primary in my state, I figured I'd share with ya'll an experience that I had recently. Since good ole' South Carolina had their Republican primary...today, we had a lot of candidates coming through the states bli'ing and blahing about what they think and why we should vote for them. It's been a ride, in more ways than one, and I've been able to learn more now than I ever have about candidates. Even though I won't be able to go to the Democratic Debate in Myrtle Beach because I only have one ticket and dad said that he'd be taking it [BLAST!], I'm cool, it's fine, and I'll just stick to the internet for my information and I'll be able to watch it on CNN. [HE GETS TO GO TO THE BIG PARTY AFTERWARDS THOUGH!] Bah.

Well, I've rambled a bit [As usual, right?] but let me tell ye about my experience. I constantly look at the candidates' websites to see if they'll be in my areas so that I can go listen, talk, and see if I can get an autograph. Most came during school, so I was pretty well SOL for them, but luckily one candidate did show during an acceptable time at a place about 30 to 45 minutes away. So, I jumped in the car with dad, and we headed off to see.....Mitt Romney! As for the amount of people, it wasn't that big of a deal, but it was awesome because I snagged untold amounts of signs [I'll explain the importance of this later], two autographs, and pictures. He was interesting too, and all-in-all, I think that it was good. If you hear that a candidate is coming to your area, I really recommend that you go, because somehow, seeing them in person is different than seeing them on TV or YouTube.

One part that I enjoyed was the accidental MIT/Mitt references that I got all that day from people there who accidentally forgot that Monsieur Romney spells his name with two T's. Now I knew most people realised that it was just a coincidence, but some honestly thought my MIT hoodie was really something for the Romney campaign. [I brought them to the side to ask for sure, to give them the benifit of the doubt]. My favourite quote came from one of the ladies who was working for the Romney campaign in the area.

[To my dad] Well I was going to give him a Mitt sticker, but he already has a Mitt/MIT hoodie.
[To me] Where did you get that nice hoodie?

Aye, after talking to her and telling her that it was for the college I wanted to go to, she wiped her face, admitted that she thought that it was some kind of campaign and "actually wondered what the seal and colour was for." She wasn't alone though, so it was cool, and I had planned on taping another "T" just for the devil of it before going, but forgot the tape at home. Well, that's enough for now I guess, I'll post some pictures and be off.

Also, in the next post:
My top 10 YouTube Videos

Enjoy and Jya' Ne.

Not that big a crowd

[It wasn't Romney country, he got trounced]

[Ok, there's so a story to this guy, but I'm still miffed at him so I'm not gonna tell it]

[So many kids who could care less]

[Monsieur Romney and his grandson]

[Yup, he can talk]

[-_-' Dad can't take pictures with my camera for anything]

[Dude behind me was evil! No, not Romney, the bodyguard whatnot behind him]

[*Batman theme* THE MITT MOBILE]

The Politics Roo [A bit of how I feel]

2008-01-17T23:59:00.000-05:00

So, Aloha!

First of all, This post does include certain opinions that are maybe patriotic and if ye're already as sick of the election blah as most, don't read. Secondly, I haven't blogged much this year, so I figured I'd open with something I was shown this summer, The Geek Hierarchy.
[Click to see it completely]

Hmmm, but to regular viewers of my blog, ye've noticed the lovely little roo up at the top of my blog. It looks like the GOP Elephant and the Dem Donkey, I know, and it is indeed there to symbolise my avid interest in the obvious election this year. Being my first year, I'm pumped to vote, and with my ability to look up people, ask unknown people random questions, and question people I know on what they think, I'm ready to be an educated voter [even though it's a love/hate relationship, and I end up angry with the electoral college because Oh wait, I'll save that for my other blog]. Also, being the critical skeptic I am, I tend to look at things pretty closely and try my best to remain observant, understanding, and open-minded. So, I started a politics blog. [Also to anyone wondering, I'm Independent, will stay that way, and will not post who I vote for on this blog {maybe the other, but I'm not entirely sure} EVER].

But now for the roo. Why isn't it the stereotypical red and blue? Why is it a roo? And most of all, why the heck does it have a hurricane symbol on it's belly? Well for the first question, it is not bright red or bright blue. It is a maroon and teal colour, and it has a reason for this. I chose the maroon to symbolise the blood shed by our soldiers and veterans. It also is there for power, to represent that I'm wanting the leaders who will allow our nation to remain/become strong. The teal represents my beliefs for the nation, and since teal is a mixture of blue and green, my opinions on the environment. The white stripe in the middle is to represent unity, purity, how we all should attempt to come together for the good of man and all that blah blah blah [i do actually care about all that blah, blah, blah, it's just I'm probably losing you and blahing is easier than finding a vid of a dancing monkey to explain this]. The stars, merely patriotic stuff, and also a representation of my love for astronomy.

Now for question two. The roo. Why? Well, roos rock. Also, there's a story that made me consider the roo.

Mascot: The Beaver

MIT's mascot is the beaver - nature's engineer.

In 1913, a group of MIT alumni came together to brainstorm ideas for a sentimental mascot for the Institute. On January 14, 1914, the group formally presented the beaver mascot to MIT's President, Richard Maclaurin. This is what Lester Gardner 1897, chairman of the group, reported:

We first thought of the kangaroo, which like Tech goes forward by leaps and bounds and like you comes from Australia. Then we considered the elephant. He is wise, patient, strong, hard working and like all men who graduate from Tech [MIT], has a good tough hide.

But neither of these were American animals. We turned to Mr. Hornaday's book on the Animals of North America and instantly chose the Beaver. As you will see the Beaver not only typifies the Tech man but his habits are peculiarly our own. Mr. Hornaday say, "Of all the animals of the world, the beaver is noted for his engineering and mechanical skill and habits of industry. His habits are nocturnal, he does his best work in the dark."

The beaver has since been named TIM. TIM frequently will appear at important MIT events, posing for pictures and generally providing joy and mirth to all those who see him.

So, elephants have so been done before, and beavers [tasty though they may be{long story}] would be going to far into my lovable MIT obsession. So, loving the awesome nature of most Aussies, I chose the roo. For the reasons listed above as well.

Now, the hurricane. It's actually supposed to be a galaxy, but a simple picture of a galaxy that'd be quick enough to superimpose on a roos hide was hard to find. So it ends up symbolising my love for science as well as my Southern heritage.

But what's going on now, you ask? Well, MIT did their early admit telethon today which has me a tad down because it was kind of like someone saying not yet, and then hitting me with the world's largest wet noodle. But it was a bit worse than that because I'm not sure if the noodler was saying not yet or no. We'll all find out in March though, and I'm about to go insane. Also, school work. We have lots of it, see?
That's a comparison of the book we read and the work we have a week to accomplish. Also, no school on Monday, which rox, but still no ice or snow stickage as the thermometer tempts me like a stranger with candy or electronic goods. Also, though I'm bli'ing like a rabbit's nose in a paint shaker about the upcoming decisions for MIT, I'm also going crazy over the recent Apple Keynote from the awesome Steve Jobs [AND THE TOY STORY GUY AT THE END]! Three groups, companies, non-individuals [meaning one person here] that I support fully: MIT, Nintendo, and Apple. Apple released the announcement for its brand new laptop the other day, and it is AWESOME! The Macbook Air.
I would list everything awesome about it, but I'm tired, so I'll leave that to ya'll. Also, the next post may contain a rant, and I'm gonna ask a question for the heck of it. Are YOU ready for the presidential election, or just ready for it to be over? Also, what would your political animal be/look like? Have fun, and Jya' Ne.

A Look To the Past, Present(s), and Future

2008-01-01T21:28:00.000-05:00

Aloha,

Well, as I sit here watching the Allstate Sugar Bowl, pulling for my Hawai'i Warriors, I continue the first thought session of 2008. As I type, I have three college acceptance letters staring at me. All of which are nice, but while I look at them, directly to the right, I have my deferral letter, making every thought I have lose credibility because of what might happen. Though I've heard of, known, and considered each of the three schools that have said yes so far, it's a bit unnerving. I'm blessed to have these, but I don't particularly want any of them. It's kind of like asking for a specific item for Christmas, and though you know your family means the best of intentions, they get you the wrong thing every time. But I digress.

As I said, I've heard from all the universities on my tree, and at the moment, I'm somewhat honestly considering [*sigh* if MIT does say "no"] becoming a Warrior. It'd be better financially for my family, they have an amazing East Asian Studies program, and Hawai'i is a beautiful place from what I hear. I just don't know about their Engineering program, and can only look up information because I doubt I'll be able to see first hand about it. Also Hawai'i is the home of the infamous Keck Observatory. ALSO after being told an emphatic "NO" by my parents about applying to WUStL, Duke, and that liberal arts school in Cambridge, I only have three decisions to learn of this spring, one which I am looking forward to with a passion[73 - 80 days left], one which I could care less about because the school doesn't have my major [and am only doing because my father asked me to], and one that I just don't know about.

Now that I've updated ye on how my college experience is going [also, Hawai'i is currently losing horribly if ye're wondering 3-17], I'll tell you about my holidays. To those who don't know, I celebrate Christmas with my family, and other holidays with friends. This year was pretty quiet though, and I was only able to celebrate Christmas with my family and friends this year. [3-24 now] As for gifts, I did get an iPhone, which I have helped my parents pay for because I didn't want them to put that much into a gift, Wii Play, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, something to play my iPod in my truck, a Rubik's Revolution [not as fun as actual cube, but fun with family around], clothes, my annual Guinness World Record book, and four bottles of Welches' Sparkling Red Grape Juice [mmmm]. This was a great year, and I'm glad that I was able to spend a lot of it with my family.

I enjoy the holidays because of the spiritual aspects of them, the wonderful opportunity to bring family and friends together, and the fact that I get a small break. I always get happy around this time and usually enter Uber mode [kinda like a runner's high], but come 1 January, I'm pretty beat, I've got a headache, and from what I hear it's almost equivalent to a hangover [I don't drink, so I don't know]. Though I now have the aformentioned holiday hangover, I have enjoyed some things recently that have helped me to ease it. First of all, this news story made me happy. Nintendo Australia grants Christmas wish with Wii Nintendo is awesome, and this is why I love them. Period.

Also during the holidays, I found something at MIT that was interesting [OK I always find interesting things at MIT but this one stood out]. I watch the Science Channel on TV, and I love it [Yesterday they had a special marathon of a show called Mars Rising which was awesome, narrated by William Shatner and included MIT research]. On the Science Channel, there's a show called Beyond Tomorrow which displays how people are putting engineering knowledge into items that will benefit us in the future. On the show, they had a segment about the Australian Institute of Sport. I had never heard of this place, and it seemed interesting, so I checked it out. One thing led to another, and as usual, I found myself at a MIT related website. I was at the website of Sports Innovation @ MIT. This place intrigued me, but sadly the website hasn't answered enough for me, and I want to know more [any MIT student reading know anything more?]. One thing I did find out about them, however, was that you can do UROPs with them! Needless to say, I may be looking into this place if I get a good response from MIT this March.

In other news, the Patriots were awesome, as ye can tell from my previous post and I've downloaded something recently blogged about by Snively [and am loving it]. Also to answer a couple of questions, asked by some people who don't comment but read and still ask me questions *gives looks* [Ya'll know who ye are] I'm pulling for Ohio State in the BCS Championship, mainly because I've had better experiences with the people there. As for the Wii situation, I did not get a Wii for Christmas. It would have been redundant, because I stood in line the day it came out because I had planned for it like I've planned for MIT decisions dates [If there would be a way to stand in line for it, I would be doing it]. Hope that answers any questions, and next time, just comment >.> It makes posting answers easier for me, and who knows, others may be wondering.

Well, the game is in halftime and is still 3-24, -_-' Hawai'i is losing, and this year's definitely going to be eventful. Whatever happens I encourage all of you, let's make 2008 great, and remember others while we go through it. I hope you all had a great time this 2007 and wish you all the best in 2008. Jya' ne and mahalo.

P.S. For those who want visual stuff, I thought this was cool maybe ya'll will too...

UPDATE [1:20 AM]: Hawai'i lost 10 - 41 -_-' Oh well...

16-0!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-12-29T23:26:00.000-05:00

OH YEAH, PATRIOTS WIN!!! 16-0!!!! RECORDS BROKEN!! ACTUALL POST LATER!Just let me enjoy the win for now.

Poor Mars

2007-12-23T20:35:00.000-05:00

Well, they took out Pluto, Eris, and even Ceres, but now, going after Mars? Oh well, here's a good read.

Asteroid May Smash Into Mars

True Believers Only

2007-12-23T13:54:00.000-05:00

OK, By reading the title of this post, ya'll might expect me to go into some long angry post about religion, but guess what!?!?! This is for the other kind of believers.

Yup this is for the kid-at-heart Santa believers. This post is mainly for a website that's fun for anyone [but especially if you have siblings, family members, or younger friends that still stay true to the man in red {non-believers can enjoy it too^_^}]. Now, when I was a kid [I was brought up with Santa, I'm not sure about any other readers, if you didn't hear about Santa, I'm sorry, I was, and this post may not interest you at all unless you know of someone] I was always told that I needed to be in bed [preferably asleep] on Christmas Eve as soon as possible so that Santa would come. I did [being the resourceful child that I was, I even set up a camera] and the presents and tape proved it, and I was happy with Santa. One year after my camera escapade [I did video Santa for those of ya'll wondering ^_^>] my father found this website.

Now, I had never heard about NORAD or anything else dealing with it, but I knew that these people somehow were tracking Santa, so I tried to find out as much as possible. Sure enough, I found out who NORAD was, and their story seemed to stand up. So, every year, I would run to the family desktop and watch to see when would be the prime time to go to sleep. Even now, it's a tradition I keep.

Well, I'd love to say more, but I gotta go celebrate Christmas, wrap my gifts, and celebrate Christmas for the reasons I celebrate it.

Merry Christmas, and Happy Holiday of Your Choosing.
DPS

Early Christmas, brought to you by Nintendo

2007-12-20T14:21:00.000-05:00

Well, on both ends of the emotional spectrum, my official deferral letter came in today, and I'm perfectly fine with that [the Internet one seen below {yes it is edited at the name and it didn't really say "Man of Mystery"}]. I still have hope, so I'm going to grab onto that hope and most likely strangle it nearly to death until 15 or 22 March. But while I'm bear-hugging my hopes, I'm doing work at school, work and apps [and app supplements] at home, and playing with my Wii.

*sigh*

This year, Nintendo treated me to an early Christmas by FINALLY sending my brand new straps and Wiimote covers. To anyone who bought one after all the recalls on straps and additions happened, ye don't have to worry about any of this because ye've been spoiled by getting the new straps and the covers along with your system. Those of us who stood in line, pre-ordered, or bought one before the new stuff came out, received no covers and the "dangerous" straps that snap at the drunken throws of people everywhere. I mean, seriously [not really], what were they thinking? People actually playing games sober? Please. [OK, maybe I should lay off the sarcasm] The new accessories are a good improvement over what I had though, so it's really nice. I never had problems with the old stuff though, and the only slightly negative thing was that I nailed my cat during a game of Wii bowling, but in the end, he knew it was his fault because he saw my warnings, but came anyway. [I guess I should have made more warnings, but it was mainly his fault.] Either way, I will still pwn anyone at Wii tennis, and my cat should pay attention more. [Oh yeah, harmless cool website plug, check it out, Wii Have A Problem]

[We don't get along, so I love this picture because of how much he hates that sweater]

The new accessories are nice either way. The covers are comfortable, and have padding around the front end [maybe good for my cat], and are a nice clear colour so I can enjoy the modern white of the Wiimote. They are also made for quicker battery changes too, so I love them. The straps are also nice, one of my favourite features is the clip feature. Since it snaps it closed, it holds it in place, which I like. The string on the end of the strap looks like Nintendo put it on steroids, and even though the pictures are hard to see, the difference is crazy. To those of ya'll who haven't already put your orders in, I recommend that ya'll do it soon. Nintendo will ship for free, and they're very nice accessories to have. And seriously, who ever wants to pass up free stuff?

I love Nintendo. They're just so nice and awesome [like a certain institvte I know of]. OK well, that's enough for this post. My next one may be a bit more uhh... angry and rantish? Also, I've finally updated my blog to Eastern Standard Time. lol for some reason, I was still posting on Pacific time.

Have fun, and happy Christmas.

Just For Now

2007-12-19T21:58:00.000-05:00

Well guys and gals, I have two actual posts in the works, but they aren't done yet, so I'll give you an update real quick. Well, as you can see, my colours haven't changed, and they won't until 15/22 March for Regular Decisions, even if I may be a deferred admit, I still have a chance. As Ben Jones said in one of his past MIT Admissions posts, "Deferral is not rejection."

Also as a quick update, I'm considering adding another language to my repertoire, but I don't want to add a normal one. I am really wanting to learn a dying or small language because there is something important in learning something that's dying or slowly growing out of use, and by losing something as important as a language loses a culture. So, if ya'll [which I now hear is supposed to be y'all] would like to help suggest one or comment one the ones I'm thinking about, I'm open to everything.

My current ideas:
1. Hawaiian - I've always loved the Hawaiian culture and the language is truly a beautiful one. My dad was born in Hawai'i and I love learning about its history and people.

2. Inuktitut - OK, I have absolutely no relation to the Inuit people or their language [besides Nunavut being one of my favourite Canadian territories], but the culture is also one of sheer intrigue and is really interesting.

3. Cherokee or Lumbee- I lived in North Carolina for a long time, like a good 70%, at least. I've always enjoyed the cultures, mythology, and history of American tribes, and learning the language of one from North Carolina would be awesome.

Also, SAT scores come out tomorrow, and ACT may have come out tonight, but I'm going to wait and check both at the same time.

Well, I got to go work on the rest of my letter to MIT. Talk to ya'll later.

DEFERRED

2007-12-15T12:25:00.000-05:00

Well, I've found another box and switch. I've also hit the wall, but I'm not unconscious yet. Here I come Regular Action!!

A Couple More...

2007-12-15T11:32:00.000-05:00

...as I move into the less than thirty minutes left mark. I don't like the third one much, but it came to me, so what the heck?

Applying to MIT is like searching through a box in the attic, three things can happen:

1. You open the box only to find tons of cool stuff like old comic books, cards, or all that other cool stuff. [Acceptance]
2. You open the box only to find that a family of spiders have made it their home, and you just tried out their new home security system. [Rejection]
3. You open the box to find...what?...ANOTHER BOX?!?! [Deferral]

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

Applying to MIT is like looking into a flashlight, one of three things can happen:

1. The batteries have died, you live to see another day. [Acceptance]
2. %$&#! One of those LED flashlights blinded ye. [Rejection]
3. You cut it on, and it's bright [What'd you expect you turned on a flashlight?], but what's this? There's another switch? [Deferral]

As I Sit...

2007-12-14T23:04:00.000-05:00

As I sit here thinking about different ways to describe MIT applications, one thing keeps coming to mind, so as I sit, slowly entering the 12 hours left stage, I'm going to share them with you all at random [meaning that I'm just going to post ones that come to me as separate posts until the big decision]. [Note: Comparisons don't provide options for transfer, though that is always an option, and if worse comes to worse, it will be an option I pursue to the fullest.]

Applying to MIT is like running headlong into a brick wall. When it finally comes time to hit it, three things can happen.
1. You can hit it only to find out the bricks are child bricks of cardboard, and they all fall down, and you realise you had nothing to worry about all along. [Acceptance]
2. You hit it and get knocked unconscious, never to think of the brick wall again. [Rejection]
3. You hit it, nothing happens, you walk back to the start, and run again. [Deferral]

Pi Sin

2007-12-11T21:12:00.000-05:00

OK, guys, I was driving home from school the other day, and as I scan the area around the road, BAM, I see this. One of my friends was with me, and as I start laughing and enjoying the fact that the sign is 3.14 acres, my friend shot me one of those, "You haven't snapped, have you?" looks, and asks me what the devil I was laughing at. Also, If you get a good look at the picture, I love the way it labels one of the roads as "DIRT ROAD." Well, gtg, enjoy the sign.

[3 days 14 hours 35 minutes]

OMG WE HAVE A DATE

2007-12-10T15:32:00.000-05:00

12:00:00 PM EST on 15 December 2007!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111!!!!!!!!1111ONEONEone!!!!!!11!!!!!!!!!exclamationpoint!!

[Big smile, eye twitch, drop books]

Blog Colours

2007-12-07T21:46:00.000-05:00

Hey guys, as ya'll know, I read Snively's Blog [I check it everyday]. Being the investigative guy that I am [and one who is a tad overly obsessed with MIT] I looked back at Snively's December 2006 posts. I knew that he was accepted early, and I wanted to see "The tube" so I went to the beginning, and read. I found all I was looking for and more. I also found this post. So, I figured since he did it, and got the aforementioned tube, it wouldn't hurt me that much to try it as well ^_^> So, in tradition, I've changed my blog's colours to commemorate MIT soon to be announced Early Admissions. Enjoy, and wish me luck ^_^> [I'll need it]

Not The Best Princess

2007-12-07T21:31:00.000-05:00

Aloha all!

Well guys, it’s finally over...kinda. I HAVE indeed taken my last SAT. Last Saturday was the big day, and come this Saturday, the ACT will also be a thing of the past. If my assumptions are right, MIT’s big day, the Acceptance Day is within a WEEK!!! According to the CollegeBoard, it is within a week, but the big guys and gals haven’t said anything official yet. College apps are also going...decent. Though it’s mainly over, I still have three [maybe four] more to do, but they aren’t fully due until January or February for some. What has caused my pain lately, scholarships. I mean some of them are lengthier than college apps. But, oh well, it’ll all be over soon.

As I sat here thinking about what to blog about, since nothing’s really going on, except for the obvious lol, so I’ve decided to explain the title of the post.

lol I’m talking about the recent Powderpuff Football Game at our school. To those who don’t know what this is, or have this at their school, a Powderpuff Football game is a football game where the Senior and Junior girls battle it out on the football field, the Senior and Junior guys are dolled up, taught cheers, and made cheerleaders, the student council makes money, and the Senior guys compete for “Powderpuff Queen,” which is voted on by the student body [K5 – 12^th]. All in all, it’s fun, the girls get to finally release the stress that they’ve built up against the Juniors, the Senior guys get to attack the Junior guys [even though we look crazy], and the little ones will constantly get laughs. Since we have a small Senior class, we have very few guys, about seven. Three of these guys took the easy route and grabbed the “coach” spots, leaving the other four of us as cheerleaders. One of the cheerleaders didn’t show, and the people bringing the stuff only brought one wig. Guess who was chosen to wear it...

There is no way to explain this picture >.< [I wasn't happy]

The cheerleaders...

Me cheering...

Yup, me. But I took my lot with grace and donned the wig, make-up, and balloons, and cheered my wig off. In the end, I won "Powderpuff Princess" [I hate that title] and got most likely a year's worth of jokes to live down. But oh well, the little ones laughed their heads off, Seniors won 14-0 and exams are approaching, so I'm good. For those of ya'll who know me on Facebook, ya'll can probably navigate your way around to finding the other pics >.<

Later all, and happy fourth day of Chanukkah!

The Beowulf Club

2007-12-05T22:42:00.001-05:00

Aloha all and Happy Chanukkah everyone! Since I haven't posted much in a while, and I know that some people tend to post papers and stuff on here, I'm going to post a recent review that I made on Beowulf the movie [Warning, if you liked the movie to a strong degree or simply a normal degree, DON'T READ THIS. I didn't like it, and I feel that there are better movies out there. Also, If you hate a little bit of scrappy English, I'd recommend ye not read this either as it gets choppy in certain parts.]

I recently received the opportunity this Saturday to waste a full two hours of my busy day. What gave me this pleasure, you may ask? Beowulf, the 2007 edition. I guess just telling you that the movie stunk isn’t good enough, so let me give you my gist of the thing first. Beowulf consisted of one of the most forced amalgamations of poor writing, “Hollywood-izing” of a book, and brilliant 3D animation this reviewer has ever seen.

Beowulf is based on the epic poem of the same name and revolves around the egotistical main character, Beowulf. The condensed form of the story is: man cheats on wife with demon, gets cursed, becomes king, and later gets drunk, drunken merriment angers illegitimate demon child, child attacks, kills, and destroys, Mr. Ego comes, shouts his name a bit, kills illegitimate child, more shouting, repeat steps one through four, another illegitimate child is born[this time a dragon], name shouting again, dragon’s death, finally the ultimate end to the shouting as Mr. Ego gets permanently silenced, and then nothing. The ending was near senseless, pathetic, and a definite let down. Seriously, what better way is there to end a movie than by having the title character kill himself and putting his best friend face-to-face with his demon lover [note the sarcasm]?

Before I get into the actual movie, let me first mention what was good about it. The 3D was indeed superb, and no doubts the best that I’ve seen in a while. The end. That was the only good aspect about it. The 3D would honestly be the only reason one should watch this movie, and even it was drawn out tighter than a bridge cable by the time the movie was over. The stereotypical events where it was apparent that Zemeckis wanted to show off the revolutionary 3D where the obvious spear “comes” out of the screen along with the other annoying attempts to say, “Hey we have pretty 3D animation,” got so annoying that by the third time it happened, I considered doing what exactly one fourth of the audience did after the first ten to twenty minutes, and leave.

Since I’ve already started with the negative points of the movie, I’ll continue. Beowulf as a piece of art was generally good, but as a cinematic piece, Beowulf came up rather short. The movie itself somewhat reminded me of one of those toys we play with as a child where the square blocks go into the square holes, the circle blocks go into the circle holes, etc. The movie, however, seemed like the game with only square blocks with circle holes. The movie as a whole seemed rather forced as if Zemeckis was trying to “dumb down” the poem for the least attentive of the audience. If this was the case, I believe he hit the target, and kept going a few hundred kilometres. The movie was filled with yelling, and though I understand that the characters are Vikings and thus expected to yell, I believe they brought that screaming to too high of a degree. Beowulf’s own love of himself, also expected, seemed to go a bit too far as well as almost every other five minutes, he was shouting his own name, like the audience had fallen asleep and apparently forgotten who he was.

Before I end, I’d also like to make a couple of statements about the more controversial issues of the movie. The “pornography” that many people talked about was less porn and more of an annoyance. I mean if someone really had a fetish for Barbie dolls and/or gold paint, then yes, it would definitely be pornographic, but to those who are mature enough to understand that she’s a demon, it’s all computer animated, and it wasn’t meant to arouse, there shouldn’t be any problem. The partial nudity that got on my nerves the most was Beowulf’s rather than Grendel’s mother’s, and it surprised me how they censor Beowulf every chance they get to the point where you can predict the times that a “hidden” “area” censor will come up, whereas with Grendel’s mother, the censors could care less about coming up and the gold whatever liquid quickly drips off as if Zimeckis wanted to cause an uproar. As for the off-hand references to Christianity, I noted them pretty soon when we are confronted with someone sharing Christianity at what is essentially a urinal at the beginning. The second blast came when the essential village idiot of the movie, Unferth, becomes the village’s only monk. It makes one wonder, should religious zealots really focus on movies such as The Golden Compass when movies such as this insult Christianity more blatantly?

In the end, I’d definitely say that I wouldn’t recommend this movie to anyone except to maybe 3D animators, and even then, I’d only tell them to do it if they had some money they really wanted to waste, though burning it would be quicker and a lot more fun. I wouldn’t send my senior class to see it because of the sheer quality of the movie’s direction, its hopeful discontinuity with the book, and the fact that I’d doubt most of the people are mature enough to get through it without laughing their heads off or saying “Ewww,” every chance they got. The movie itself didn’t give me the feeling that I had watched something dirty, so I doubt that I’d consider it pornographic or bad in that sense, but in the end, it was simply a waste of money and time, though I did score some extra credit for it. The movie itself was decent, but for those who have grown up with good movies with full, well defined plots and at least decent artistic design, watching Beowulf will feel like a punch in the gut. Now don’t get me wrong, it’ll be a pretty, well-exectuted punch in the gut, but at the end of the day you’ll still be walking funny.

Yes dear Zero Punctuation fans, I did get a couple quotes from dear old Yahtzee [or at least modded them] and for the whiners about my little stab [not really a stab but like a friendly nudge] at The Golden Compass, might I say, I could care less about the "Atheistic" parts of it, or at least I'll determine whether I care about that after the movie. I'm going against a couple of my teacher's wishes by watching it, but I could kinda care less. Enjoy my scratchy, a bit angry review. Jya Ne.

Catsup......

2007-11-11T01:50:00.000-05:00

or Ketchup as we say down here [Get it, catch up?]

Hey guys and gals,

Wow, I really haven’t blogged lately have I? I wouldn’t want to let my devoted readers down though, so I figured that I’d write a little bit about how things have been going and some things that I’ve run across over the week. As for updates, I’m going to be opening up maybe my site again for a comic that I draw for friends. I’m hoping to get it running well by the end of the month so that it’s up by Christmas/Winter Solstice/Chanukah/Eid al-Adha/Boxing Day [take ye’re pick]. The name of the comic is Sugoi Jinsei, which if I’m not mistaken means, Awesome Life in Japanese. As I mentioned, I draw it frequently for friends, and have just decided to make it public I guess one could say. I figured I’d start ya’ll off with a sketch that I modified in the good ole’ Gimp. It’ll be up soon, or ye can find it right at the bottom of the blog. The summary and a link to my sugoi blog will be up soon as well.

In other news, I have gotten my Christmas tree up [In all honesty, it was up before mid-October] and have it decorated for the moment as my “College Tree.” “Now DPS,” ye’re asking, “What the devil is a ‘College Tree’”? Well, a college tree is essentially a small artificial pine tree [anything artificial is not a Christmas tree in my book] that I have decided to decorate with the mascots, symbols, or memorabilia of the college’s to which I’ve applied.

Notice a beaver [MIT], tiger tail [Clemson], NC State Wolfpack football helmet antennae thing, and Hawaiian lei [U of H: Manoa]. The tree is missing at least two or three other colleges, but hopefully will have them up soon, depending on what I decide. Since the tree is for the colleges that I’ve applied to, I don’t know if I feel OK about adding ones that I’m not sure about applying to. Considering the price for admissions, I don’t know if I’d feel comfortable about asking my parents to pay $180 for JUST applications [that’s not including the ones I’ve already applied to].

But I assume that those are my problems and ya’ll don’t want to hear about my problems or constant whining; you want to hear about actual blog-worthy stuff and not the blathering of some neurotic twit. What's Going on? SAT, School, and umm...blah is what’s going on.

SAT. Rofl, I could go on and on about my Subject scores. “That good?” you wonder? No, that bad. I’m almost sure that a trained dog with a bowl of kibble and a pencil taped to his paw could have done better than my Physics score, but going into a test of more than just mechanics and only knowing mechanics because ye got a basic book because ye didn’t know what the devil to buy, I think I did about as good as I could’ve done. I’ve also bought a better book/books. Two of them to be in fact for a sweet $66.66. I’ve checked, only like two to four chapters are devoted to mechanics, so I’ll get a more rounded education. The others were decent to say the least [which I will]. Also, remember this post? Turns out I lied. I’m going to be taking the tests [Reasoning {depending on what happens with Nov. Scores this 20^th} and ACT] this December. This will hopefully be my last ones,so that I can put the bloody things behind me.

Now for school. Prom may be returning [“Official Study is still in progress], I’ve somehow become yearbook co-editor, and I’m going to try to get my peers to help join in a charity that I learned about at College Experience Program #1. Now Invisible Children is a great charity to be apart of, and I suggest anyone who can help with it, but my school has a bad habit of, oh how do you say......not giving a flying dingo about others needs. Now we do the annual can food drive, heart walk every now and then, and a couple of other things here and there, but when it comes to charities in other places of the world, they kind of just shut off [save for the Operation Christmas Child one, which many do simply for the extra credit some teachers give for it]. I’m not saying that they’re evil or anything, it’s just that they tend to not know how truly awful these people are, so they just don't do anything. Hopefully the DVD I’m going to show them from Invisible Children will help them understand, and help our school to do something beneficial for an actual reason.

Finally, the blah. I’ve currently rediscovered my love for Celtic music [along with my love to talk with random accents], found an awesome TV show at a pretty easy to watch slot, AND FINALLY MIT RELEASES DECISIONS FROM EARLY ADMISSION IN LESS THAN ONE MONTH [counting February][I think]!!!!1one! Music: I discovered I enjoyed Celtic music early in life, and this summer, a concert reminded me of that love. It recently returned when I watched a video recommended by the Ninja Consultants as one of the top five best AMV’s [I tended to agree more with Erin than Noah]

Awesome isn’t it? Combined with the fact that pretty well any Ghibli movie roxor, I liked it. As for TV, the show is called The Big Bang Theory. It comes on CBS at 8:30 EST. It combines nerdiness with comedy which usually can never go wrong. I’m not sure about its airing other than in the USA, but I do know it can be bought in the iTunes store for $1.99 an episode [completely worth it]. As for the major thing I mentioned [the thing in all caps], I’m assuming that it happens on 8 December of this year. I’d soooooooooooooo [o {not zero} x infinity] love to get accepted and get the well-known tube, but that’s up to the Admissions Staff [^_^ = Big smile]. Blast while typing, I just realised that I mentioned my blog zilch in my app. -_-‘ Oh well, maybe it’ll go well anyway[hopefully]. If I get deferred, I can easily expect about a 100 day wait which would no doubt eat me from the inside like something from a Studio Ghibli film [Ashitaka's curse, dont know who or what that is? Rent the movie and find out! Ye'll love it! I promise!]. Nonetheless, I’m pushing forward to my destination, wherever it may be, and all is well and busy.

Also for those of you who remember me talking about MIT Gridiron, they finished their season last week, 2 wins – 7 losses -_-‘ Oh well, there’s always next year. Talk to ye later, and Jya’ Ne.

Quick Check-in

2007-10-11T19:53:00.000-04:00

Well, I'll make a serious post soon, but I wanted to share this. Have ye ever been so tired that you just start laughing uncontrollably at something that was meant to be funny, but not entirely THAT funny whether it be from being extremely tired or extremely out of it? Here was mine for today.

Little Bobby Tables

Also, three cheers for Sonic and Snake coming to Smash Bros. BRAWL!!!!

Later

Slipstick, Sliderule, M.I.T!!!!

2007-09-18T22:45:00.001-04:00

HEY GUYS!!!! YA MISSED ME!?!?

*crickets*

-_-' yeah I was scared of that......

Oh well, it's time for me to blog again anyway, because I have time to spare! I will tell you know that it's going to be a long one though.

Well, first things first, I've applied to my first college! Sadly, however, it's not MIT, as was hoped. This is simply because...my interview STILL has not been processed. *twitch* I know that the guy may be busy and all, but seriously, I had my interview in the second week of August, and it's been terrifying. I'm honest guys; this MIT app is my MOST important. I'm going to be taking action either today or tomorrow.

As I went to my MIT account last night, I noticed that MIT was repairing it last night. I figured that well, this is normal, who doesn't update their site regularly? It was then I noticed an odd link on the site.

Yes guys and gals, MIT links to The Impossible Quiz whenever they're doing repairs. I've only done it a bit, but otherwise, am not too familiar with it. I keep telling myself that whenever I get the chance to practice the art of punting.

As I mentioned above, I have already applied to one college so far. This college is my second choice, and sadly the only in-state college to which I'm applying [unless I get waivers from a bunch and can find a whole lot of time just lying around.] They've been very kind lately, almost to the point of annoyance, and my father has been stressing how nice it is, failing to remember his own rave reviews on how nice MIT was. I do understand why he's pushing it though, it's just it's getting a good bit annoying. Oh yeah, I've forgotten to tell you who the school is. It's Clemson University. To help cultivate a growing love for Clemson, my father has encouraged numerous trips to the campus for football games, both of which, Clemson's won.

As I'm sure all of ya'll know IT'S [American] FOOTBALL SEASON!!! I'm pumped, because I love gridiron. So far I've been to two Clemson games and one UNC-Pembroke game, but sadly, I have missed a lot of my high school's games, which bites since I'm the head photographer for our yearbook [despite my horridly blurred shots above]. I have a lot of nicer pics, but I'm working on fixing them to look a lot nicer. I might post a link to them, but I've been told to put watermarks on some of them. ^_^> Well, as expected, Clemson's football team is doing spectacular, but as for MIT [whom I've been watching very closely] hasn't done as great as I've hoped [0-2]. I do hope that they'll be able to pick it up later [they play Nichols College this Saturday]. I've actually been watching MIT football for about a year, and I have been thinking about participating in MIT varsity football/fencing/swimming/crew if accepted. [I doubt I'd get the chance at Clemson lol] I'm definitely interested in MIT Athletics, and actually pull for them more than Clemson/Duke/N.C. State/Hawai'i. I even know the cheer:

ONE PERSON: I'm a Beaver!

TEAM (answering): You're a Beaver!

ALL: We are Beavers all,
And when we get together we do the Beaver call:
e to the u du dx.
e to the x dx.
Cosine, secant, tangent, sine,
3.14159.
Intregral, radical, mu dv,
Slipstick, sliderule, MIT!

But here's something that really miffed me off recently!!! As I'm sure ya'll know, the 2008 Olympics are going to be held in Beijing. Before every modern day Olympics [or at least since 1936 but that's a story for another time]. OK they have recently begun searching for torchbearers for the Games. I LOVE the 2008 torch, along with any other torch since Barcelona/Albertville. 2008, however means a lot to me. These will be my first 18+ Olympic Games [I've secretly been plotting the purchase of tickets]. They're also in China, one of the most culturally rich nations in the entire world. I want to be part of that torch relay more than almost anything [maybe save for an MIT admission] So as I'm browsing Gamesbids.com, I notice this link: 'New Thinkers' can win a chance to run the Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch Relay in China*. You can imagine the bleeing that proceeded from that moment until I got home. When I got to an internet connection, I went straight to signing up until I realized that you had to be OVER 21 TO DO IT!!!!!!!ONEONEONE!!!111!! I was crushed and now I am miffed off with Lenovo for tricking me.

Now for what I promised Kate a while ago. My interview. My interviewer and I met at a local Books-a-million where the interview in its entirety was held. He seemed very comfortable, and the entire interview seemed like a semi-casual conversation. He asked me questions about my school, my SAT scores, my wants and dreams for the future, why I want to go to MIT, my leadership skills, etc. Basically put yourself in their shoes. Assume that you are the interviewer, and no matter how insane you may feel, interview yourself [out loud]. It will do wonders. Get one of your parents or friends to interview you as well, usually, they can be just as, if not more, honest than you can be. Other than this I can't really tell you much. Show up on time [and have their contact info at all times in case they don't show], have your info in line, and just be honest.

Oh well, time for bed.

Jya' Ne

A Sign of Things To Come

2007-09-17T21:47:00.000-04:00

Hey guys, it's just going to be a quick one here to tell ya'll what to expect. Info about my trips to college #2 and my feelings about it, college football, a weird MIT link, the weather, my MIT interview, why I currently dislike Lenovo, books I'm reading, school in general, THE OLYMPICS!!!, Christmas, senior stuff, and whatever happens to fall at my fingertips as I type.

Breaking it with a Blog

2007-08-28T20:35:00.000-04:00

Well guys, I'm on a bit of a break today since I've gotten most of my homework done, and I figured I'd post an entry about some things I've found interesting or been thinking about lately. The first thing is this:
Now, for ya'll BIG fans of my blog, or those with good memories, this sign has been featured here once before. If you remember, I blogged about my trip to the Final Four, where I watched all but the Championship game because of it being ON A SCHOOL NIGHT O_O *twitch*. I also talked about my huge misprint that I discovered after I had finished it, and was holding it up at the games [It was supposed to read, MIT PWNS, but I just wasn't of my senses at the time I guess]. I also blogged about my trip to the other eastern coast tech. You know, the one with the yellow jackets or something like that [please note the sarcasm]. [BTW, Click the original picture at the Georgia Tech sign, and notice the phrase in chalk above my head. My father and I noticed it when we were checking how the picture turned out, and it just worked out perfectly lol]

After the trip, my mother asked me, "What's that thing for?" I politely responded that, "Its there to spread my message to the world." She consented and let the poster stay in the den for
a while. After about two weeks though, it went missing. [She hid it.] During a recent clean-up at my house it resurfaced [a sign maybe???]. Either way, now it's in my room! and I'm displaying it PROUDLY!

Currently, my interview still has yet to appear on my Online App Tracker, but I guess it's OK, because if I'm not mistaken, my interviewer was going on vacation last week anyway. I'm still worried, but I'm keeping my hopes high, and my dreams higher ^_^>. Well, my Frankenstein book's giving me a weird look, and is mysteriously on my bed now [was under my pillow] so I believe that my break is over. Kate sorry for no response to the stuff on comments in this one. I promise, responses will be in one of the next two posts.

The Countdown's Begun

2007-08-25T12:05:00.000-04:00

OK, If I get screwed over by Blogger again, I'm moving to a different blogging site. I wrote an entry, and then went to upload pics. After uploading, I lost the biggest paragraph entirely. I did copy the entry in its entirety before the destruction. Here it is in picture form, ye'll have to click it, it's unreadable otherwise [unless ye wanna read the tiny writing]

BAH!!!

2007-08-12T20:17:00.000-04:00

Well guys, I'm pretty sure gridiron is over. After a long discussion with arguments, yelling, and stuff galore, my family and I have decided that I will not be playing it this school year. -_-' I am still going to do football [soccer] though, so that's good. I guess it's all for the best in the end since it'll give me more time to focus on academics and stuff. In other, more brighter, news, I'm going to be going to school in two weeks. Now those of you who aren't seniors, or actually like your high school won't understand why I'm excited to go to school. I do like to learn......a lot, but I mainly am ready to go to school because IT WILL BE OVER EVEN SOONER!!! All I've got to worry about is getting through safely [grades that is]. But now, I've gotta go.

Answers & Light Shedding Info Galore

2007-07-27T16:41:00.000-04:00

HELLO EVRYONE'!!!!! Yes, I'm happy to be blogging again, since I haven't done it in......uhhh......a long time -_-' But I'm sure my numerous *cough* readers already know that. It's time now to answer the question that I posed in the previous post. Where was I? BOSTON/CAMBRIDGE!!!one!1one11! Yes, and believe it or not, I actually got to go to MIT. Honestly the only way to describe it is, 「すごい　です」. If I'm not mistaken, that means it was awesome......in Japanese. It was amazing lol I think i got a bunch of looks because I kept touching everything, but I honestly couldn't help it. It's like whenever you see all these pictures of awesome things like a huge roller coaster, an amazing computer, or really big shrimp, and then, you actually get to see, ride, or eat it! [even though I don't eat shrimp].

I got a LOT of pictures, but since they were on bloody disposable cameras, they were all horrible. I mean seriously, I went against a LOT of my purchasing morals on this trip. We got to be at MIT for a whole day!!! I saw the Great Dome [which is a lot bigger than it looks in pictures], walk the Infinite Corridor [they mean infinite......have a map], pick up an application!!!ONE11!, look around in Lobby 7, go on a tour, and even talk to a V.I.P. on campus. It was all definitely a top three on my summer event list. I've already filled out most of my application, and all I have left is my essays, interview, and SAT Subject Tests. I'm terrified of this physics one, but I'm learning, and I feel a tad confident about it. I hope I'll be ready.

Another big thing about my trip was my two hour long trip to Boston! My first time EVER on a plane, and it was awesome. I actually brought all my study materials with me, like my physics book, my Japanese workbook, and my copy of the 2007 MIT Admissions application, but I never got to any of it -_-' Maybe it was the hopeless romantic in me, or the simple desire to procrastinate, but I watched outside the window at all times. -_-' There and back......

In other news, I'VE GOT A BRAND NEW COMPUTER!!11!!!!ONE! Yes, it is nice. Not an Apple -_-' but nice nonetheless. I've also been at gridiron camp. Which was loooooong......very very LONG! Either way, I'm through with most everything......except for this one mission trip that I'm gonna be on until next Saturday ^_^> Luckily I think I'll get rest for one week before school starts [and when I say rest, I mean tons of studying and writing], but it's all good, because I know that on 24 August, I'm gonna be sitting in a movie theatre watching Mr. Bean's Vacation on the big screen. I'm soooo ready for it. I loved Mr. Bean when it came on TV, and the whole thing's just hilarious. Even better than ANY of those other movies. bah, I can't wait. Well, I'm gonna be leaving in about thirty minutes, so I'm gonna head off, and I'll try to post again when I return. Who knows, maybe I'll post some of those pics I keep mentioning. [Yes, I did indeed take a couple of stereotypical pictures in front of the Great Dome] Jya Ne

o.o I'm in where???

2007-07-23T20:22:00.000-04:00

Ok. Blogger's corny. I just wrote an ENTIRE post, and it didn't save a bloody word of it. I'm gonna actually write it, and then maybe I'll try re-posting it. Now I'll just say, today's a day for vapor-trails. Later.

Cicadas, Squirrels, and Moon Rocks, Oh My

2007-07-05T22:26:00.000-04:00

Well, it's the last day of my educational enrichment program, and I've had a pretty memorable time in the past month. The fourth was very active. The first thing was an attack by a squirrel. First of all, I DID NOT provoke the squirrel, unless it didn't like me looking at it. Second, it shouldn't have made noises like it did to begin with. Either way, he chased me for a little while, but I lost him. After losing him, sure enow, a cicada [or at least something that looked near-exactly like one] jumped up and flew straight at me. I dodged the buzzing bullet of terror, and it hit a tree as I continued on to my room.

Animal attacks aside, I also achieved complete happiness. Yes, it has finally happened. I was mistaken for someone not from America. *inner bli* Yes, sure enow, while I was looking around in Millennium Music, I was confronted by a reporter from the local ABC News. He confronted me, and informed me that they were doing a report about people coming to America to work and study, and was wondering if I had had a hard time as a student coming to *insert the name of college where experience program was held* as an international student. I was very tempted to make up stuff [and I mean VERRRRRRRY tempted], but sadly I just told him that I wasn't a college student, and he said OK, and walked away in search of someone else. -_-' Man, I wanted to be on that interview. Either way, that's done with.

In other news......
YUP!!! Sochi, Russia was awarded the 2014 Winter Olympics. My first choice of cities, PyeongChang, Republic of Korea, wasn't chosen, but they got second, and according to GamesBids, they have a good shot for 2018. Either way, I just hope they get it soon. I mean, they've been going for it for two Winter Olympic elections so far, and I'd way rather them get it than Salzburg [also been going for it for two elections]. Now that I am home for a week, before science camp, I am reviewing every video presentation that the cites gave for the IOC, like I've done since 2005 [Yes, I know that's only one election other than this, but they just started in 2005, and it's kinda a tradition].

I have now shifted my attention to 2016 since Sochi has officialised 2014. Lets see, so far only three cities have officially sent something for 2016, and no more can apply as of 13 September. Then on 2 October 2009, we will all know where 2016 will be held. You can count on it, I'll be there either way. So far, Chicago, Tokyo, and Madrid have sent a bid in, and, even though Madrid's bid for 2012 was AMAZING, if the IOC awards them the Games in 2016, I will be forced to send angry letters to Monsieur Rogge and the fine people at the IOC. Seriously though, Madrid is awesome, and has amazing plans, but we have London with 2012 and now Sochi in 2014 [no matter what ye say, Sochi is in Europe, deal with it]. I would be very distraught to see Europe get three games in a row. That's not right.

I am also trying to find out information about how to be a torchbearer for Beijing 2008. Ohhh I'd love to be one, and get to hold that B.E.A.U.tiful torch. I'd consider buying one off of eBay like I will do in the future with the others. Yeah, I like the torches from the Games. I've always wanted to collect the ones from 1992 and up. That's a post for another time though.

Now, I've got a chance to play an online game that I kinda help moderate, practice gridiron, and sort through 100+ pictures from my program. I may post some with their stories, but right now, don't expect much. Have a nice day/night/morning. Jya' Ne.

Miffed Off, But Moving On

2007-06-27T15:40:00.000-04:00

Well, it's over. I've taken all my SAT's, except for the Subject Tests in October. The results, I practically wasted my parent's money on the June SAT. I didn't do anything, except raise my score in Critical Reading by 40, but either way it's not that great for MIT. I have already told them that I cannot allow them to pay for anymore tests; so from now on, I will, indeed, be paying for my own SAT's from now on. I plan on taking it again in November, to maybe help my app while it's at MIT, but otherwise, by October, it's very near to over.

While at my college program, I've met so many people I envy. My suitemate had perfect math and near perfect critical reading. -_-' I've bought a $15 iTunes card, and I'm going to buy the Kaplan's SAT Prep game either at home or if my dad lets me while I'm here. "Don't worry about that stuff while you're there, he says." Apparently, he hasn't had to apply to go to school at one of the world's most highly selective institutes. Either way, I'm going to try not to worry about this thing. If MIT wants me, they'll take me [I'll just keep applying there until I'm not allowed to apply anymore].

On the lighter side, I have downloaded what has to be the UBER best internet browser in the world. Better looking than Firefox! Faster than IE! It's......APPLE SAFARI!!! Seriously though, if you want to have a reallllllllllllly nice browser, dl Safari. But I'm just an Apple fan, so don't mind me.

Hmmm, I don't really have much to say at the moment, and my camera is not "with" me at the moment. Jya' Ne.

It's Not The Heat, It's The...

2007-06-18T11:21:00.000-04:00

water leak in the upstairs room of your suite.

Yes, I'll explain the title later for those of you who don't understand it [hopefully all of you]. Well, I've officially been at my first college experience program for a good week now, and I guess you could say I'm trying to make the most out of it. It's pretty fun so far, considering I get to READ COMICS for homework in one class [about graphic novels] and get to look up tons of information about countries in the other [also just as fun, believe it or not]. We got there the first day, and I immediately had nothing to do [it was a weekend so no class]. I got moved in to my suite/dorm/whatnot, and met my new roommates, and got that horrid eerie silence thing out of the way. After we get all settled, we got our welcome, met people, made appliances out of ourselves, you know the normal things people do when they come together.

We were all fine and dandy in our suite, and decided, "Hey why not go get some food." Because you know, my friends and I are average humans who like food. Well we go, eat some awesome sandwiches, and then return to our suite. As I opened the door, I immediately stepped in, and found my foot to be wet! I look up and down, and there is water pouring from my roof, onto the floor, and truly flooding the entire suite's first floor. In return, we were not so swiftly removed and placed in a more "habitable" suite......it had carpet. We've been in there since, living it up, and enjoying our college experience, expect for me.

Why, you may ask? As you know by now if you read my blog, I am dreaming of a future at the best most awesomest school in the universe. What is this school? MIT. But as I was saying, I've taken the SAT with a pretty good return most of the time. Not exactly MIT good, but good to say the least. Since I hadn't even thought about knowing physics, I decided that instead of going for the subject test in June, I'd take the SAT Reasoning Test instead. Needless to say, the scores are posted Thursday. THURSDAY! and don't even get me started on the ACT [also coming out this week!!!!!!!!11one]

Either way, I am enjoying it here. Even though I have absolutely no desire, motive, or reason to attend the college I'm at for these three more weeks, it is very interesting and fun. I'm taking an awesome graphic novel course taught by an amazing professor, and get to read and draw comic books for homework. I mean, seriously, can it get any better? I've also got a couple of reading suggestions as well, for any graphic novel readers. Superman: Red Son [a story about if Superman had crashed in the U.S.S.R. instead of Kansas] and Persepolis [autobiography of Marjane Satrapi] are the two best at the moment. I also have an awesome global issues class too. We're doing one of my favorite things at the moment. Researching countries, and learning more about them. Seriously, it may sound stupid or wierd or whatever, but I love learning as much as possible about new cultures. Plus, the professor's cool too.

This year's program has seemed fun, but I can't help but feel jealous of last year's group. They were allowed a Java course [I SO WANT THAT COURSE] and to boot, a featured speaker was the awesome MIT renowned Daniel Barkowitz...Daniel T. Barkowitz, the Director of Student Financial Aid and Student Employment at MIT. I'd soooooo love to be able to talk with him about college and financial aid, but I'm enjoying the lady that we have had this year. Since my school has no guidence counselor, I soak up useful information like a sponge, and become a bit of a leach to those who have it and are willing to help [a strong curse]. Mrs. ________ has been VERY understanding and has done more in a week than I've gotten in two years though, so that's awesome. I will be talking to a professor who used to go to MIT, and be speaking with a physicist soon, so all I can do is sit back, think of questions, do homework, and blog at the moment. I've got to do the third of these at the moment though, so talk to ye later. Jya' Ne.

Wow, Longer Than I Expected

2007-06-07T09:31:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm back, and only 54 more days until late July!!! [for any MIT prospect, yeah that's when the applications come out {or so they say}] So far, my summer's gone uber slow, and I'm about fed up with it already. I really need some Christmas music. Oh well, to update ya'll on how things are going so far, I've got about a day or two until my first physics test [Chapter 3: Motion in One Dimension], about two days until my FINAL ACT [!!!!11!1one], and about three days until I probably forget my blog for a month while I'm at the first of many college experience programs, and I haven't even started packing. So I'll blog now about what's been going on.

SAT: I took my last ever SAT Reasoning Test last Saturday. I was excited until I started thinking about my score, and now I'm just ready for them to post the bloody thing so I can get it over with. I've done well enow so far to get highest score in my class, but low compared to MIT standards, so I'm ready to see how I matched up.

Gridiron: Yes, I've taken on another endeavor for next year, and will indeed be playing gridiron next year. Fun: hopefully. Interesting: definitely. Who knows, if I play my cards right, I might be playing gridiron for the Engineers! rofl yeah right.

College: Yup, I can already blog about college, since I was admitted to my first last week. It is most likely the best engineering college in my state [but if ye compare it to other engineering programs, it's probably uber lacking]. Yup, I got my letter the other day, and now all I got to do is fill out the application for next year.

College Experience Program #1: Yup, since I haven't mentioned yet what state I live in, I'm not going to tell you the CEP I'll be participating in. I can tell you it's a MONTH long! I love the whole experience thing, but a month! bah, I'll just have to suffer, and I'm only taking two courses anyway lol. Journalism and the Graphic Novel. woooooooooo. Both were my last choices, and I don't really see much coming from them. I like anime/manga so I suppose that the Graphic Novel would be cool, and if I get my hands on a camera, I'd be an awesome video journalist, but otherwise, that's about it.

Computers: I'm miffed. My computer [an DECREPIT Toshiba laptop] is evil. I severely despise it, and am ready to get rid of it. My family has already discussed this topic for a good year now, but get this, we haven't done anything. I've got my dream computer already made, and all we have to do is purchase it, but I have to consider when I buy it. Here's the deal. I can buy it in December of this year, and get an amazing laptop will the biggest specs that I can place on it, or I can get it in June of next year, and get a FREE iPod Nano!one11!! For those of ye who don't know the problems with my computer [which should be all of ye, unless ye play a certain video game, or go to my school] it has a habit of cutting off when I least expect it. For example, it's probably cut off once...at least, while I'm typing this post. When I play games online, it really cuts off a lot, and they say it's due to overheating. Soo, I bought a $30 "cooling pad." Guess what, it didn't work. My best option is an ice pack that I got for free that I put in the freezer everyday that I have to put under my laptop. Surprisingly, it works.

The New London 2012 Olympic Logo: OK, I'm an Olympics fanboy. I hate to say fanboy, but it's true. I've watched them ever since Atlanta '96 and will watch them till the day I die.

Well, the LOCOG [London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games] announced their latest design for the London 2012 Olympic Games logo. Their decision is below.
Yup, it's......AWESOME ISN'T IT!?!? Yeah, I hated it at first, but now I love it. If you're like I was at the beginning, and can't see what it is, it's a stylised 2012. The only thing I don't really care for is the colours. Also, I kinda still like the candidature logo... [seen below]
See? It looked good to begin with. Oh well. Oh yeah, lol, the new logo has received a good bit of umm... negative criticism. An ad with a blinking logo also caused seizures in about 12 people I think an article said. People are now calling the LOCOG to change the logo, but honestly they don't have any credibility to begin with [yeah, I saw the other designs you Brits came up with]. The new one is nice, and a great design in my opinion. The whole seizure thing is stupid to begin with. Yes, I know it's a medical condition, and I know thousands of people suffer from it daily, but honestly, do you really think that it's just this logo that'd cause it? I mean, have you seen those old MTV commercials??? Yeah, they changed due to time, and I'm sure after 2013 ya'll won't have to worry about it.

2014: Yeah, the decision about the 2014 Winter Olympics comes out on July 4th. I'm gonna be begging for the internet or television that week and the week of SAT releases so that I can check my scores, and watch the announcement of who the games were awarded to. I'm honestly pulling for PyeongChang, Republic of Korea, but I'm scared that Sochi might end up getting it since Russia hasn't hosted an Olympics since 1980 and that Europe just had the 2006 Olympics, and will get the 2012. But then again, Austria hasn't hosted an Olympics since 1976 [also a Winter Olympiad], and Asia is getting the 2008 Olympics, so Salzburg might stand a good chance as well. Guess we'll just have to wait ^_^>.

AND FINALLY!! I've just read a post from a fellow blogger about nerds and geeks, and I have to say that I believe the complete opposite of Snively, if you read what was written, switch the words geek and nerd and you have probably a close approximation of what I think about it. I do agree with, "Nerds play Dungeons and Dragons, read fantasy books." That is true. I've always considered myself a nerd, even though I don't really play D&D, but I still believe that nerd culture is richer than geek culture. Plus, the way they sound does seem to make it go right. Nerd sounds awesome. Bluegirl likened it to the candy, which was also my first thought. It's kinda a way to say nerds are cool, we come in different shapes and sizes, and at times we can be either sweet or tart depending on when you try us. Geek......BAH! Honestly, it sounds like something you'd find on the bottom of your shoe, like seriously, can't you just hear, "Awww man, I stepped in some geek, hold on let me wipe it off." I'd take the time to write things about me, but I've been writing for uhhh... a little while and I'm a bit hungry and I need to make a trip to Wally's World, so I'm gonna say that I so disagree with the whole "I will school you in Wii tennis," stuff is so false. I so pwn when it comes to the Wii lol ^_^ v Well, time to go. Jya' Ne

Preview of Summer and a Rant

2007-05-30T15:56:00.000-04:00

Well, I've begun summer. Yeah, it pretty well much ends at that. I'm sitting down with a Physics book on one leg, a Japanese book on the other, a learn Greek website open, and the TV running full blast. It's summer all right. I have, however, taken breaks to explore as much stuff as possible while I wait for the college applications to come out in July. I'm not even gonna check on Ga Tech or Clemson's applications yet. Taking all this into consideration, I've visited my extreme nemesis College Confidential. dot com. For those of ya'll unfamiliar with College Confidential, I'll go ahead and warn you, it's the spawn of Satan. Well, it and Myspace. Though there are a few people on there that truly know what's right, the majority of them are pure idiots.

But wait, you may be thinking, "Oh Walt, you're over exaggerating." pfft I'll be over exaggerating when I truly think that they are all truly deserving of all that they really think they deserve. The MIT section of CC has been filled with mindless drones who think that their stats and "amazing personality" will grab them the perfect spot, that random people on a random website will tell them if they can get into MIT, and those who think that trolling will get them true happiness.

I've also noticed that a good number are asking about "Why should I apply to MIT?" No, seriously, do you know how angry this makes me? Imagine a cat, now slap it around a bit, now pour ice water on it, now pull it's tail, and finally, drop it in a pool full of puppies and ice water. This is about 1/10 of how angry these posts make me. I know a lot of people aren't sure about what college to choose, and I know that MIT's not the college for everyone. These are the exact reason why they make me mad. MIT is a place where if you truly want to go to it, by simply reading stuff from the blogs, or the site, you should just have everything click. Seriously, if you're a match there, I think things would seriously click. Now I've not been accepted, and have strong doubts about my acceptance, and have talked to people who have, indeed, had things click, and then got rejected. Even so, I go by the belief that you don't go to college to get a degree. You don't go so you can brag later about "Oh yeah, I went to Fill in Name of Uber College. It's stupid to do that. Seriously, do you know how purely horrible that is? You don't go anywhere to do THAT!!! College is made to TEACH!!! AND YOU GO TO LEARN!!! YOU LEARN SO THAT YOU CAN HELP HUMANITY!!!

OK, yeah, I know this rant may sound a bit on the corny side, but seriously!!! Bah even so, I think I've used up my rants for today, and either way, youth group's about to start, so I've gotta go. I have another post in the works about the news from yesterday. enjoy my rant. Jya' Ne.

IT'S ALL OVER!!!

2007-05-24T23:22:00.000-04:00

OH YEAH!!! WE ARE DONE!!! FINALLY I'M A SENIOR! BLI BLI BLI!!! UBER BLI!!! OK, that's over with. Well, not really, but then again, yeah it is. Well, if you haven't caught the drift yet, I'm out of school, and officially a SENIOR! and at the end of July, MIT releases their applications for Freshman Admission. *bli faints* Here's a quick review of my summer though. June, six days free, then the rest is at a college experience thing. July, first ten days, I'm still at college experience thing, then I have a free week, then science camp, then free week to bli over MIT's newly released application. August, trip to CAMBRIDGE [WOO!], then Habitat for Humanity, then a week, then SENIOR YEAR BABY!

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! During this entire summer, I have to teach myself Physics for the SAT Physics Subject Test, teach myself basic Japanese [and hopefully Greek{already started a bit}] So, what do ya think? Can I do it? ^_^ Oh well, I can at least try, right? Well, besides that, I'm also miffed off because my chairs got destroyed [Oh sorry, I'll make sure I write about this, it was boredom fun {what's more fun than boredom fun, seriously?}] I gtg now, cause I'm gonna be helping my grandma clean up uhh today. Jya' Ne all.

Like A Top That Never Stops Spinning WOO!

2007-05-18T22:13:00.000-04:00

BACK!!!, well only kinda. I figured I'd jam pack this one with pics and info galore, but I'm not sure right now, I guess we'll find out at the end. OK, from last time, A few weeks ago, I went to my first prom.

[Bah, horrid prom pictures]

Well, the prom itself was awesome, even though our DJ was either not up-to-date with good ole' old skool music or just didn't want to play what I requested [I clearly said "Lean On Me" not Lean With It, Rock With It"] Everyone enjoyed themselves and I was able to become Limbo King! Turns out, it's a good thing that everyone had a good time, because the next day, we were informed that we would no longer be having proms at our school any more until our school does an "Official Study" into how proms are conducted. They banned them because they did not like the bumoing and grinding going on on the dance floor. "Like sex with clothes on" I believe our Spanish teacher described it as. [For those who're wondering, no, I only slow-danced]. The Friday before prom, I also became student body president, which is pretty kool, even though I uber miffed off my opponent. In essence, our school's final prom was a truly awesome one [we even had a limo...that got in a wreck!].

Our school even went to the State Soccer Tournament as well, and even though we lost, the ride there was truly awesome. I took a bunch of pictures for ya'll to enjoy as well. ^_^ v Most of the pictures are a tad, ummm, satirical? I know that there are probably truly reasonable explanations for most of them, but some things in life just make ya laugh sometimes. [Photos will be posted soon.]

BTW, as for school, IT'S ALMOST OVER!!!! My friends and I followed up by celebrating the first day of exams which signaled one more week on Friday by going fishing and riding ATV's immediately after school. It was, as you can imagine, amazing, and I also took a bunch of random vids today as well. [Yes vids, I'm moving on up in this blogging thing, now all I have to do is figure out how to post them]. As for now? yeah, I'm just postponing studying for my LAST JUNIOR EXAM!!! -_-> Yeah, I know, a bunch of ya'll are "been there, done that," but this is awesome for me because it means that I'm almost away from Fill in School's name here Ahh, just a couple more days/hours. Also, I've decided to add something to the side that posts fellow MIT hopefuls blogs too. If I put it up and ya'll don't want me to put it up, tell me, I'll drop it [WARNING: HORRID POP CULTURE REFERENCE] like it's hot. Bah I hate that song. Oh well, Have a nice day/night/morn. Jya' Ne.

BRB

2007-05-12T09:21:00.000-04:00

Well, I haven't been able to blog lately due to an enormous amount of work [two weeks before school gets out, and they pile work on us!]. Because of all this, I won't be blogging until the 15th or later. But while I'm gone I'll leave you with this vid... Enjoy.

An Even Quicker Vent

2007-05-08T23:34:00.000-04:00

ARG, why can't I get time to post... New post will come soon [Things to watch for: Last prom, my first name, an alligator with a flag, the Squat and Gobble II, and a big fish.]

...... AND Why does Photobucket only take 1024 x 768 images or less!?!?!?!?!?!

A Quick Vent

2007-05-05T13:36:00.000-04:00

OK guys, I've been silent for a while but now I'm miffed, and have decided to postpone my Honors work while I vent a bit. If anyone's watching MIT, they know what has happened with the Dean of Admissions. I've read the stories, thought about the situation, and will be sending the MIT Admissions Office an e-mail with my complete thoughts tonight. I am however following the blogs, and the comments on the blogs. One of these is the new Dir. of Admissions, Stu Schmill. I opened the good ole' laptop the other day to find out that the blogs and comments had been re-opened, and that the first post was by Stu himself. The comments made were mostly expected, but then around 12:50, someone begins posting idiotic comments such as "Read the News." They then proceed with different names to insert the exact same thing into the comments, and/or to insult Mrs. Marilee. I'll say now I don't know Marilee, nor do I know anyone at the admissions office, but it's people who make comments like the following that make me mad. I'll post some and then respond:

"Please read the news:

Marilee Jones falsely bolstered her credentials to get a job with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and over the course of her career claimed to have earned degrees from three schools. MIT officials say now they have no evidence she ever graduated from college at all.

The school announced Thursday that Jones had resigned after acknowledging she had misrepresented her education when she started working at the university 28 years ago, and declined to correct multiple incorrect claims since then.

A senior MIT official said that by claiming degrees she had never earned, Jones could no longer lead an admissions office that occasionally rescinds the acceptance letters sent to applicants who are untruthful about their own accomplishments.

Jones was asked to resign because her actions go "against her being a model for integrity that an admissions director sets," Clay said. "It represents a very, very long deception, when there were opportunities to correct the record. This is not a mistake or an accident or an oversight."

_________________________________________________

Details:

MIT dean resigns over misrepresented credentials
POSTED: 12:15 p.m. EDT, April 27, 2007
AP) -- To stressed-out parents and students, MIT admissions dean Marilee Jones was a rare voice of reason in the high-pressure world of college admissions. With colleges demanding kids who play sports, run student government and take the heaviest course load they can, Jones shouted back the opposite: daydream, stay healthy, and don't worry so much about building a resume just to impress an elite college.

Yet it turns out that Jones was susceptible to pressure herself. She falsely bolstered her credentials to get a job with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and over the course of her career claimed to have earned degrees from three schools. MIT officials say now they have no evidence she ever graduated from college at all.

The school announced Thursday that Jones had resigned after acknowledging she had misrepresented her education when she started working at the university 28 years ago, and declined to correct multiple incorrect claims since then.

A senior MIT official said that by claiming degrees she had never earned, Jones could no longer lead an admissions office that occasionally rescinds the acceptance letters sent to applicants who are untruthful about their own accomplishments.

"We have to uphold the integrity of the institution, because that's what we've been trying to sell and she's our chief spokesperson on that," MIT Chancellor Phil Clay said. It's "regrettable, ironic, sad, but that's where we are."

Jones had become one of the most public voices urging parents, students and especially colleges themselves to "lower the flame" surrounding college admissions. She made the cause her own after growing alarmed at the increase in stress-related health problems among young people and has become a much-in-demand speaker at admissions events.

Last year, she co-authored a book: "Less Stress, More Success: A New Approach to Guiding Your Teen Through College Admissions and Beyond."

"We're raising a generation of kids trained to please adults," Jones told The Associated Press in an extensive interview last year. "Every day kids should have time when they're doing something where they're not being judged. That's the big difference with this generation. They're being judged and graded and analyzed and assessed at every turn. It's too much pressure for them."

On Thursday, MIT released a short statement from Jones in which she said she was "deeply sorry for this and for disappointing so many in the MIT community and beyond who supported me, believed in me, and who have given me extraordinary opportunities."

Clay said MIT was alerted to questions about Jones' credentials in a phone call, from someone he declined to identify, to another dean. An inquiry determined Jones had at various points claimed degrees from Union College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Albany Medical College, all in New York, but in fact had no degrees from any of those institutions. Clay said MIT was not aware of Jones having any undergraduate or graduate degree.

Jones was confronted on Monday, acknowledged the misrepresentations and accepted a request to resign, Clay said.

Jason Gorss, a spokesman for RPI, said Jones attended that university as a part-time, non-matriculating student in 1974 and 1975 but did not receive a degree. Officials at the other two schools said she had never been a student there.

A number of people in the college admissions field said they were saddened by the news and hoped Jones would find another venue for continuing her cause.

"She's been such a high impact and good influence on all of these admissions conversations," said Bruce Poch, dean of admissions at Pomona College in California, who knows Jones well. "This hurts."

Clay said MIT now checks credentials of new hires but did not generally do so when Jones first applied to work there. The first job she applied for, as an administrative assistant, did not require a college degree, but Clay said Jones claimed to have one. He said she did not correct that claim during her appointment process as dean in 1997.

Jones was asked to resign because her actions go "against her being a model for integrity that an admissions director sets," Clay said. "It represents a very, very long deception, when there were opportunities to correct the record. This is not a mistake or an accident or an oversight."

Lloyd Thacker, the founder of the Education Conservancy, a group also trying to tone down the admissions process, said Jones "has had a very positive impact on the lives of many students and families and has brought inspiration to the professions." Her resignation "in no way discredits the value of her work," he said.

Posted by: Read the News on May 5, 2007 12:50 PM

HIGHER EDUCATION
MIT admissions dean resigns amid scandal

After admitting to falsifying her academic credentials, MIT Dean of Admissions Marilee Jones resigned yesterday.

"I misrepresented my academic degrees when I first applied to MIT 28 years ago and did not have the courage to correct my resume when I applied for my current job or at any time since," she said in a statement posted on MIT's website.

Throughout her time at MIT, Jones was believed to have received degrees from Albany Medical College, Union College and Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), when in fact none of the three institutions had conferred a degree on her, MIT Chancellor Phillip Clay explained in a statement.

An RPI official confirmed that Jones had been a part-time student at the Troy, N.Y., school during the 1974-75 academic year, though she did not officially matriculate. Albany Medical College and Union College had no records in her name.

Jones started work in the MIT admissions office in an entry-level position that did not require a college degree, Clay said. By the time she was under consideration for the position of dean of admissions, Jones had already become a central figure in the office, holding the positions of assistant dean and associate dean. Thus, MIT did not make any effort to check her credentials at that time.

About a week and a half ago, however, MIT received information that threw Jones' credentials into question. Several days of investigation were enough for the institution to ask for her resignation Monday.

Posted by: News from Princeton on May 5, 2007 12:57 PM

I found this on MIT web site last Saturday.
It is a joke that Marilee Jones claimed herself to be a scientist ...

____________________________________________

Marilee Jones is Dean of Admissions at MIT. A scientist by training, she joined the MIT Admissions Office in 1979 to lead the recruitment efforts for women.

Source: www.mitadmissions.org/Marilee.shtml ·

Posted by: A Joke on May 5, 2007 01:01 PM

Dear news guys and jokers, I'm pretty sure that we've all read the news by now, and have been reading this stuff for the past week that we have known about this. How about respecting the feelings of the MIT staff, current students, and prospective students by just dropping it and letting them move forward like they are trying to do. We know what's happened and is happening, and it has taken bravery for MIT to be so open about all of this. Allow them at least a bit of peace as they are trying to move along. They're proving themselves strong in a time of trial, can you say that you could do that?

Posted by: De Petagma Saru on May 5, 2007 01:05 PM

Yes. I agree:

"It represents a very, very long deception, when there were opportunities to correct the record. This is not a mistake or an accident or an oversight."

Throughout her time at MIT, Jones was believed to have received degrees from Albany Medical College, Union College and Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), when in fact none of the three institutions had conferred a degree on her, MIT Chancellor Phillip Clay explained in a statement.

An RPI official confirmed that Jones had been a part-time student at the Troy, N.Y., school during the 1974-75 academic year, though she did not officially matriculate. Albany Medical College and Union College had no records in her name.

Posted by: Opinion on May 5, 2007 01:11 PM

We are in America! We have the freedom to express our opinion.

We are upset at Marilee Jones, not MIT's admission office or students. As a matter of fact, MIT is the victim of Jones' deception.

Posted by: A Joke on May 5, 2007 01:21 PM"

Notice the genius double-post. This is very annoying. It's idiots like these that make America a horrible place at times. There's "A Joke" who'd probably yell "Bomb" in a classroom to express his "free speech" who apparently has forgotten that Marilee doesn't work at MIT anymore, hence the word "resigned," and continues to post insults to her which extend to those who feel for her, and who are her friends. Then there's the News boy, and Opinion man [who I assume are the same person, and the same as A Joke {all that he truly is}] who apparently aren't smart enough to stop parroting themselves, or others. Baka. I'm assuming they're mad because they are students who weren't admitted [let's all feel pity for the idiot who didn't get admitted]. To them now, I say, "IDIOTS! YOU ARE A FARCE TO ALL PEOPLE WHO HAVE EVER APPLIED TO MIT, AND I AM GLAD THAT YOU WERE DENIED, BECAUSE WITH THAT FORM OF REACTION TO ADVERSITY, YOU DON'T BELONG THERE ANYWAY!!!" OK, now I shouldn't talk, because I'm a backwoods redneck, applying to MIT with a hope and a dream, and compared to people I know, I probably don't stand a chance of admission, but I feel I have a pretty OK character, and I can at least understand the general concept of compassion for others in a time of need. MIT has been strong and brave to be so open about all this, and if A Joke, News guy, and Opinion boy are so mad, they should go whine to someone who cares. MIT is moving forward, with or without their idiotic and impolite comments whether they want them to or not. If ya'll are still reading this post, thanks ^_^ v I'll probably update every now and then. Jya' Ne all.

A Birthday, An Answer, and A Break?

2007-04-09T20:33:00.000-04:00

Well, it's the first day of spring break here for my school, and I am ready to do absolutely nothing! Sadly though, I won't. Sure enow, I have history honors. Basically, I will be writing seven to eight near one-page papers on seven to eight USA TODAY newspaper articles. Luckily, I only have seven to eight articles. It started at a good, healthy TWENTY-SEVEN articles. Then it kindly fell to twelve, and I was able to finish four and half of one already, so, now I only have seven >_> or eight left. I had the chance to go to the beach, and all sorts of other stuff, but sadly, my spring break is consisting solely of these bloody articles. More of that, "You see what I do for ye MIT!" stuff. I did get to enjoy my birthday so far though. So far, I got about $90, three shirts, a 2 GB memory card for my camera, and a 2 GB USB memory thing. Ahh, seventeen finally. I can legally drive anytime......yeah that's about it...hmm...well, there's only one and a half more years 'til college too. MIT seems to be playing games with me,

"The deadline to apply for freshman admission to MIT has passed for entry year 2007. The online application for entry year 2008 will be available in late summer."

Bah, I'm still kinda pulling for May 2 to see it come out, but I don't think I'll see that happening soon, so I'm posing a question to anyone from MIT to answer. When was the soonest you remember the online application being ready to fill in? Because as it is, I will most likely refresh every hour of every day starting on May 2 until it comes out. Arg. Now for an answer for MY FIRST RESPONDER [rofl, OK ya'll have to understand, I never thought anyone would care enow to read this] and they're from MIT too!!

Tuan writes:

"Hi there! I was reading the comments left on one of the MIT student blogs and I noticed that you found out about MIT through an anime. I sort of did too actually! Hahahahahaha. What a coincidence. The anime influenced me somewhat, and I ended applying to MIT during my senior year just because. Sort of like, "oh hey, let's just apply to MIT." I didn't even really intend to until two months before the application due date. And now, I'm a student here. Hahahahaha. Anyway, I just thought it was funny that you found out about MIT through an anime too. I hope you get in next year. If you have questions about anything concerning MIT, I'll be glad to answer them, or at least try to. Hahaha.

Btw, was the anime Gundam Seed?"

Actually I heard about MIT through the anime podcast known as The NinjaConsultants Podcast [linked to site on side]. Episode 22B was a discussion about some things at the AnimeBoston anime convention, and one of the hosts, Noah, discusses MIT, and some MIT anime club members for about five minutes from the 15th minute to the 20th. Even though it was five minutes, it really made me wonder about this awesome "MIT" that was referenced. I ended up searching for it, found the MIT/MIT Undergrad admissions site [the first version], and later ended up realizing that it was truly my perfect match. As for being exposed to MIT, I had actually been exposed early in my life. When I was younger, I used to watch a show called Tenchi Muyo! One of the characters was called Washu. Now Washu was one of these, not-so-evil, mad-scientist gals, and she was cool. Well after the show went into like its third or fourth spin-off, I didn't watch it as much and Cartoon Network soon dropped it. But on to the focus of this, Washu. Turns out, Washu [Reminder: Washu is a fictional character in an awesome anime] graduated from MIT when she was 11. Hmmm...if only.

As for the whole, "oh hey, let's just apply to MIT," all I can honestly say is O_O!!!!! I wish I could just go "Oh yeah, let's just do it for the fun of it," ROFL, I love your hmmm... spontaneousness [there could most likely be a better word here], but still, all I can say is WOW. Thanks for being my first response and for the well wishes on my road to Cambridge [mentioned in tonight's Jeopardy episode]. I wish everyone well, and my computer's still messing up. Hope I can post again soon. Jya' Ne.

Blessings From A Stranger, A Campus Tour, and Spanish MIT

2007-04-03T19:57:00.000-04:00

Well guys, I just got back from my school's soccer game [we won! {bli bli bli, OK that's over}], and I decided to go ahead and finish the post from yesterday. OK, yesterday I forgot to tell ya'll this, but I received a stranger's blessing at the games Saturday from an awesome Ohio State fan. We were talking about a sign that I had been holding up during the game, and he said, "So you want to go there?" and I said, "Ohhhhh yeah." And for some random reason, he said, "Don't worry about it, I'm sure you'll get in." Then I go "O_O" and say thanks and bli on the inside. But enough about my wonderful well wishes from awesome OSU fans. Time for the real post. First, some pics I forgot to post yesterday though.

[Picture of me standing next to one of my other {less favorite} college choices]

[Zoomed picture of the court]

[Some Florida folk bringing in their team]

Now to the rest of my trip. Well, after all the fun at the Georgia Dome, my dad and I then went on to Georgia Tech [one of the colleges on my list, but MIT's still my number one]. Before we went on our way, we decided to walk around a bit, to simply enjoy the city, since we figured we wouldn't be back for a good long while. We saw some awesome sights, but my battery was dying. There was an awesome house near the place we walked, but I forgot to get a name or anything, nice looking though. We then passed what was some kind of art school, but I forgot to jot its name down.

[The nice house, actually in the city!]

[The man made out of men]

After we finally went off to Georgia Tech, we viewed the campus, and it was actually nicer than I had expected, even though I still like MIT better, I seriously think that I might consider Ga. Tech as a possible second or third choice. The campus is truly beautiful, and if you study by meditating in a peaceful, quiet place that's surrounded by nature in general, I seriously believe that this is a definite thing to consider here. We then went to the hotel, and took a good rest. The next day, however, was also awesome since Dad and I went to the huge mall at Lenox Square, and I got to go to my first ever APPLE STORE! We also ate at what is definitely one of the best food establishments in Atlanta.

But enow about the weekend, On To The NOW! As ya'll know, I'm now home, and at my good 'ole hard-headed constantly infuriating school. Ya'll also know, even from the last post, that I really, REALLY, REALLY want to go to MIT. Sure enow, guess what I found while I was searching through my Spanish II book. MIT! Right there near the middle of the book, like a sign! [pic is so included, I took like ten, lol] I guess all there is left is to wait until the admissions staff puts up the next application/MyMIT application. Well, night's falling so I'll post some quick pics, and send ye off. Jya Ne.

[Me next to a Georgia Tech sign, notice the poster {supposed to be pwns instead of rules}{Notice chalk message on sign(Written when I got there)}]

[A building with a funny sign, as seen below]

[Seriously, am I the only one who gets it? A French building?]

[Georgia Tech]

[Centennial Olympic Park, ya'll will soon learn I'm an uber Olympics fan]

[MIT!!! IN MY SPANISH BOOK!!! OH THE BLI'ING!!! {Reminder to self: Don't bli in Spanish class}]

A Trip To Atlanta, My First Subway, and the Picture Test

2007-04-02T21:09:00.000-04:00

Well guys, I'm writing this post as I sit in my sleeping bag, watching The National Championship for college basketball [Division 1] on CBS. As I sit, it all comes to me that...I SO COULD'VE GONE TO THAT!!! But no, I decided to go to school, not like it's a big event or anything. Do ye see what I'm doing for ye MIT? Oh well, it's too late now. But as I was saying, my father and I both had tickets, but due to the fact that my school has not yet gotten out for spring break yet, I'd have to miss at most a full day of school to go. Now even though I was blessed enow to be able to go to the Final Four this weekend, and enjoy this wonderful view, I'm still a bit disappointed that I missed the final game. I guess it's good anyway since I can't really decide who I'm pulling for. Now that I've told ye where I was this weekend, I'll go ahead and tell ye a bit more about my weekend trip to Atlanta. Well we left right after my school's soccer game [7-5 2OT+PK shootout...we lost -_-'], and I immediately died right in Dad's car as we hit the road, we stopped at a nice hotel which overlooked the roof of a Waffle House [Dad wouldn't let me jump on the roof] for the night, and in the morning began the trip to Atlanta. Upon reaching Atlanta, we soon saw this, and knew we were in the right spot.
Well, after we enjoyed the view we then realized that we needed to get to the hotel, because driving in Atlanta? Please be serious. Well, we got to the hotel fine and even though there wasn't a Waffle House under it, we did have an awesome view of a brick wall with some windows in it [sorry, no pics, too beautiful for cameras *cough*]. It did have a kitchen however, which is AWESOME considering I've never actually seen a hotel room with what seemed to be rooms in it. Amazingly comfortable bed also, even though I slept on the floor most of the time. After the hotel fun was over we left the hotel and searched for a mysterious Hyatt hotel [the likes of which Dad kept pronouncing the Height Hotel, darn you Southern accent] which we were told had tons of awesome free Final Four stuff, needless to say we walked a good few miles, but never found this hotel. We then decided to go check out the fun over at Hoop City, which was indeed awesome. I made a sign [included in later photo], drank some nasty Enviga, and then enjoyed all the swag that came with the visit.
To get to all the fun though, since we were going to protect our environment by not driving the car, we decided to use the subway. Now for those who constantly ride the subway, have always ridden the subway, etc. you might not understand my feelings. The only thing I knew of subways were rats [which I saw four of], the Hey Arnold! episode where Arnold and the gang get stuck in the subway, and that they make awesome subs, no matter what the Quizno's commercials say. As for the ride, I immediately got a headache, but got over it, and ended up usually enjoying the experience except for the wait, the crowds, and the crazy people who could possibly blow up on me at anytime for "F#*$&%*# looking at them." Kinda like waiting in line at an amusement park for a corny ride. I did, however, notice a large number of awesome carving into the walls and ceilings of the subway concourse.

I was later scolded by a security lady for taking pictures. *Insert corny photo analogy here* She then didn't accept the given apology which miffed me off, but hey, life goes on, and there's thousands of security ladies in America, I'm sure. Well, needless to say, we went to the game, of which I took no pictures due to my quickly dying battery. Well, it's getting a bit late, Florida's won, and I'm tired, so I'll tell ya'll about the more serious yet still fun side of my trip tomorrow, or whenever I get the chance... Later.

A Beginning Of Chaos

2007-04-01T22:00:00.001-04:00

"Η περιέργεια είναι η αρχή της σοφίας" -- Greek proverb meaning "Wonder is the beginning of wisdom."

Well, since this will be the first "official" post of my new blog, I figured I'd start off with the quote from the first school post that I made. Since I'm assuming that anyone, except for my one school blog post reader have no clue who I am, I'll go ahead and introduce myself. My name is Walt, Jason, Art, De Petagma Saru, or even MIT. Whichever ye want to call me, don't worry, I've been called worse. I'm a junior in high school this year and currently to say that my college plans are high hopes would be less than an understatement. As you can tell from the fifth name I listed, I'm HOPING to go to MIT. lol Not much of anything, right? Just average college plans, correct? -_-' Yeah, sarcasm bites doesn't it? Other things about me are that I'm from the South, enow south to probably be called a redneck, but nerdy enow in the south to not be called a redneck. I'm just your average Southern nerd looking to get into MIT that has a demon Toshiba laptop which works like crap. I don't want this blog to become much of a place where I go just to bli over things, but either way, I'm sure it'll be a bit entertaining either way. Enjoy, and until next post, Jya Ne.