Monday 13 July 2009

I'm Back Now

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.

Friday 15 August 2008

Finally, Home?

Uploaded by www.cellspin.net

Random Car Thoughts

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.

Tuesday 5 August 2008

Bored On A Missions Trip

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.

Thursday 17 July 2008

Tasting the Orange and Purple [and a Little Red]

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.

Saturday 5 July 2008

Printers, Cars, and the Chinese?

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!

Friday 27 June 2008

New Stuff and I'm Changing Colour

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.

Monday 26 May 2008

UBERPOST

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.