So, here's how it works:
1. Open your music library
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
Opening Credits: This Velvet Glove - Red Hot Chili Peppers
First Day of School: Videotape - Radiohead
Falling in Love: Every Word Is A Knife In My Ear - The Bravery
First Song: Everybody Clap - Dispatch
Fight Song: No Bravery - James Blunt
Breaking Up: Down On The Corner - CCR
Prom: Working Man - Rush
Life: Yahweh - U2
Mental Breakdown: Vincent - Don McClean
Driving: We Can Work It Out - The Beatles
Flashback: Welcome To The Jungle - Guns 'N Roses
Getting Back Together: It Won't Be Long - Across the Universe
Wedding: Stand Up - Flobots
Birth of A Child: Cemeteries Of London - Coldplay
Passion: Settle For Nothing - Rage Against the Machine
Final Battle: Anne Bordon - Flobots
Death Scene: Exit - U2
Funeral Song: Gone - Switchfoot
End Credits: Make War - Bright Eyes
2.06.2010
3.31.2009
March
March is basically over and I haven't blogged. So I suppose I'd better do that, huh?
Guitar lessons are better now that we're actually doing things that are useful to me (i.e. speed studies with scales, arpeggios focusing on right hand technique, etc.), but they're still pretty slow.
Other school stuff is fine. Nothing too eventful. Comp Sci is the same as ever (finish one project, start the next), Psych is interesting but obvious, and Music and Politics is starting to wind down.
I've recently gotten back into Starcraft. I downloaded it from the Blizzard website and I'm halfway through the Zerg campaign (on the original, not the expansion). I'm aiming to finish it by summer so that I can get Starcraft 2 and know what the hell's going on. Don't know if that will happen though. I've also been playing Resident Evil 5. It's basically amazing. Graphics: amazing. Gameplay: amazing. Characters: amazing (Wesker's still the most badass villain of any game ever... ever). I'm a little over halfway through that.
So me and two friends are gonna try to room in the college leased appartments next semester. We shouldn't have a hard time getting a room, cuz they usually don't fill up until around the end of the sophomore time period of housing selection, and one of the guys has a time slot in the middle. If we get it, it would be awesome. We'd have a living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom. Far better than a dorm.
My laptop has a connection problem to the monitor, so it's really difficult to get it to display a picture. The LCD screen stays on fine, but the picture itself flickers out every now and then. I would take a look at it myself, but I don't really know what I'm doing with monitors, so I could accidentally void the warranty. I can't send it in yet though because I need it for school. So I ordered a DVI to HDMI cable to output the display to my TV, but they sent me the wrong cable, and now I have to wait for them to ship the right one. It's rather frustrating cuz the problem gets worse every day. I can hardly get it to display anything at all anymore.
Guess that's it. 'Til next month.
Guitar lessons are better now that we're actually doing things that are useful to me (i.e. speed studies with scales, arpeggios focusing on right hand technique, etc.), but they're still pretty slow.
Other school stuff is fine. Nothing too eventful. Comp Sci is the same as ever (finish one project, start the next), Psych is interesting but obvious, and Music and Politics is starting to wind down.
I've recently gotten back into Starcraft. I downloaded it from the Blizzard website and I'm halfway through the Zerg campaign (on the original, not the expansion). I'm aiming to finish it by summer so that I can get Starcraft 2 and know what the hell's going on. Don't know if that will happen though. I've also been playing Resident Evil 5. It's basically amazing. Graphics: amazing. Gameplay: amazing. Characters: amazing (Wesker's still the most badass villain of any game ever... ever). I'm a little over halfway through that.
So me and two friends are gonna try to room in the college leased appartments next semester. We shouldn't have a hard time getting a room, cuz they usually don't fill up until around the end of the sophomore time period of housing selection, and one of the guys has a time slot in the middle. If we get it, it would be awesome. We'd have a living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom. Far better than a dorm.
My laptop has a connection problem to the monitor, so it's really difficult to get it to display a picture. The LCD screen stays on fine, but the picture itself flickers out every now and then. I would take a look at it myself, but I don't really know what I'm doing with monitors, so I could accidentally void the warranty. I can't send it in yet though because I need it for school. So I ordered a DVI to HDMI cable to output the display to my TV, but they sent me the wrong cable, and now I have to wait for them to ship the right one. It's rather frustrating cuz the problem gets worse every day. I can hardly get it to display anything at all anymore.
Guess that's it. 'Til next month.
2.21.2009
Long Ass Post
Here's the February post, as (sort of) promised.
Minor news: Classes are going fine. Nothing great, nothing terrible. I have my first calc test next week, so we'll see how that goes. I think I'll do okay, but I'm really bad at making myself study. Hopefully I can get together with some other calc kids. Just finished the first Comp Sci project, which was hella easy. We basically filled in an interface for an array list class. None of the methods were much longer than like, 5 lines, and plenty of them were fewer. I'm partering up with a guy this semester for the projects. So far I've done all the coding. Usually I'm typing, but when I'm not at the keyboard, I basically have to tell him what to write. He understands the concepts and stuff, but only after I remind him of them. So that's probably gonna get annoying by the end of the semester. But at least he'll probably help motivate me to actually work on projects instead of waiting until the day before. Music & Politics is whatever. Our discussions are usually pretty good. I just gone done with an uber-bibliography assignment for our end of semester research paper. We had to find 10 sources, 5 of which were scholarly, 1 of which was from the library and unavailable online, then we had to "annotate" (in quotes because it's not actually annotation, my professor just thinks it is) them all in 150-300 words. So my bibliography assignment ended up with a greater word count than my final paper will have (it'll be 3000 words, and my "bibliography" was around 3,200). Psych is going pretty well. My professor had hip surgery, so we've had 3 guest lectures and 1 day off. The material is really interesting. I'm a bit worried about the exams though. There are only three, and I've heard my professor's exams are usually less than easy. We'll see how things go. Guitar lessons are finally going somewhere. I'm learning right hand technique, which is what I need to work on most. It's really hard to make myself play in the proper classical position because my muscle memory tells me to do it how I've always done it. But that's less conducive to efficient playing, so I guess I should re-train myself. Speaking of which, I haven't practiced all week...
Major news: I got a PS3. Which the "major news" category will be devoted to (because, obviously, PS3s are more important than education). It is, quite frankly, badass. Better than an Xbox because of its exclusives, its Blu-Ray, its free online service, its quietness, and its reliability. The only thing I like more about the Xbox is the controller. And I grew up with PS1 and PS2, so I'm definitely okay with the DualShock. First off: graphics. Fucking. Amazing. Somehow, my PS3 upscales my 19" 720p LCD TV output to 1080p. I assume it's not true 1080p, cuz that wouldn't make sense, but I don't know the intricacies of how HD works, so I don't know if it's actually 1080p or not. Either way, it looks better than the Xbox (though only slightly). With it I got Call of Duty: World at War, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, and LittleBig Planet. The first two I'm quite enthusiastic about, the last not so much. I heard such good things about it, and it got such good reviews, but I really don't feel much desire at all to play it... Maybe I haven't given it a fair chance. Anyway, COD is great, as usual. I prefer COD4 because it seems like going back to WWII technology is a step in the wrong direction. It's still loads of fun though. Easily the best WWII COD game. The COD4 multiplayer pretty much pwns WaW's, but WaW's is still a lot of fun. Metal Gear Solid 4 is basically one of the most badass games of all time, mostly due to the awesomeness of the Metal Gear series in general. I haven't played through a lot of it (just recently completed Act 1), but so far it's pretty kick ass. I've heard there is like, over 24 hours of cutscene time throughout the game. Which is fucking ridiculous. But it adds a lot to the story (most of the time), so I guess it's okay. Just yesterday I got Uncharted: Drake's Fortune from Amazon. I was skeptical about this game when I saw the previews for it. It looked a little too lighthearted for the type of game it is. But the demo pretty much removed all doubt as to whether it was gonna be good or not. The graphics are incredible. There are so many colors and the textures are incredibly realistic. The biggest downside: It's short as hell. I've beaten it twice now. I got it yesterday. First time through probably took around 6 hours. The story is such that it would have been difficult for them to drag it out much longer. But 6 hours is still excessively short for a purely single player game. Second time took around 4 and a half, maybe 5. COD got some flak for its short campaign, but it was at least 10 hours long, and there's practically infinite replay value because of the kick ass multiplayer. I still think it's an awesome game, though. I'm going through it on Crushing difficulty now. It's a Naughty Dog game (they always put out hyper-playable, fluid games), and like the Jak and Daxter series there are unlockables. You do stuff, gain points, and once you reach a certain point level, you unlock stuff. Stuff like concept art and making-of videos, but also in-game stuff like new "outfits" (either the main character wears different clothes, or you become another character entirely) and the ability to choose whatever weapon you want. That feature gives it a decent amount of replay value, especially for a single player game. Anyway, enough ranting about video games.
tl;dr - Classes are okay, PS3 kicks ass.
That's it for February. Time to go practice guitar.
P.S. Zach, are you still interested in buying my Xbox?
Minor news: Classes are going fine. Nothing great, nothing terrible. I have my first calc test next week, so we'll see how that goes. I think I'll do okay, but I'm really bad at making myself study. Hopefully I can get together with some other calc kids. Just finished the first Comp Sci project, which was hella easy. We basically filled in an interface for an array list class. None of the methods were much longer than like, 5 lines, and plenty of them were fewer. I'm partering up with a guy this semester for the projects. So far I've done all the coding. Usually I'm typing, but when I'm not at the keyboard, I basically have to tell him what to write. He understands the concepts and stuff, but only after I remind him of them. So that's probably gonna get annoying by the end of the semester. But at least he'll probably help motivate me to actually work on projects instead of waiting until the day before. Music & Politics is whatever. Our discussions are usually pretty good. I just gone done with an uber-bibliography assignment for our end of semester research paper. We had to find 10 sources, 5 of which were scholarly, 1 of which was from the library and unavailable online, then we had to "annotate" (in quotes because it's not actually annotation, my professor just thinks it is) them all in 150-300 words. So my bibliography assignment ended up with a greater word count than my final paper will have (it'll be 3000 words, and my "bibliography" was around 3,200). Psych is going pretty well. My professor had hip surgery, so we've had 3 guest lectures and 1 day off. The material is really interesting. I'm a bit worried about the exams though. There are only three, and I've heard my professor's exams are usually less than easy. We'll see how things go. Guitar lessons are finally going somewhere. I'm learning right hand technique, which is what I need to work on most. It's really hard to make myself play in the proper classical position because my muscle memory tells me to do it how I've always done it. But that's less conducive to efficient playing, so I guess I should re-train myself. Speaking of which, I haven't practiced all week...
Major news: I got a PS3. Which the "major news" category will be devoted to (because, obviously, PS3s are more important than education). It is, quite frankly, badass. Better than an Xbox because of its exclusives, its Blu-Ray, its free online service, its quietness, and its reliability. The only thing I like more about the Xbox is the controller. And I grew up with PS1 and PS2, so I'm definitely okay with the DualShock. First off: graphics. Fucking. Amazing. Somehow, my PS3 upscales my 19" 720p LCD TV output to 1080p. I assume it's not true 1080p, cuz that wouldn't make sense, but I don't know the intricacies of how HD works, so I don't know if it's actually 1080p or not. Either way, it looks better than the Xbox (though only slightly). With it I got Call of Duty: World at War, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, and LittleBig Planet. The first two I'm quite enthusiastic about, the last not so much. I heard such good things about it, and it got such good reviews, but I really don't feel much desire at all to play it... Maybe I haven't given it a fair chance. Anyway, COD is great, as usual. I prefer COD4 because it seems like going back to WWII technology is a step in the wrong direction. It's still loads of fun though. Easily the best WWII COD game. The COD4 multiplayer pretty much pwns WaW's, but WaW's is still a lot of fun. Metal Gear Solid 4 is basically one of the most badass games of all time, mostly due to the awesomeness of the Metal Gear series in general. I haven't played through a lot of it (just recently completed Act 1), but so far it's pretty kick ass. I've heard there is like, over 24 hours of cutscene time throughout the game. Which is fucking ridiculous. But it adds a lot to the story (most of the time), so I guess it's okay. Just yesterday I got Uncharted: Drake's Fortune from Amazon. I was skeptical about this game when I saw the previews for it. It looked a little too lighthearted for the type of game it is. But the demo pretty much removed all doubt as to whether it was gonna be good or not. The graphics are incredible. There are so many colors and the textures are incredibly realistic. The biggest downside: It's short as hell. I've beaten it twice now. I got it yesterday. First time through probably took around 6 hours. The story is such that it would have been difficult for them to drag it out much longer. But 6 hours is still excessively short for a purely single player game. Second time took around 4 and a half, maybe 5. COD got some flak for its short campaign, but it was at least 10 hours long, and there's practically infinite replay value because of the kick ass multiplayer. I still think it's an awesome game, though. I'm going through it on Crushing difficulty now. It's a Naughty Dog game (they always put out hyper-playable, fluid games), and like the Jak and Daxter series there are unlockables. You do stuff, gain points, and once you reach a certain point level, you unlock stuff. Stuff like concept art and making-of videos, but also in-game stuff like new "outfits" (either the main character wears different clothes, or you become another character entirely) and the ability to choose whatever weapon you want. That feature gives it a decent amount of replay value, especially for a single player game. Anyway, enough ranting about video games.
tl;dr - Classes are okay, PS3 kicks ass.
That's it for February. Time to go practice guitar.
P.S. Zach, are you still interested in buying my Xbox?
1.28.2009
Rambling
I should be reading for Psych. But I can do that later...
This will probably surprise most of you (though "most" in this case, if one is referring to the majority of my readers, is like 2 people). I hadn't planned to blog until next month. But I'm bored, and my Xbox is broken.
Soooo... Let's talk about classes. Here's what I'm taking:
Calculus II
Psychology as a Social Science
Data Structures in Java
Music and Politics
Guitar Lessons
I'm pretty happy with my schedule this semester. My classes start at 11 every day, so it's nice not to have to go to bed too early. Especially considering my roommate's sleeping habits. Calc has actually been fairly enjoyable so far. Homework isn't collected, and my professor is far better this semester than last. Plus I already went over most of the stuff in Calc II in high school, so it's basically a semester-long review.
Psych is cool too. There's a shit ton of reading to do, but my professor is pretty kick ass, and the material is interesting (so far). I have heard his tests are usually pretty rough though. So we'll see how that goes.
Data Structures is fun as well. The prof is awesome, unlike last semester. Noonan was a terrible teacher. But this guy actually teaches us how to understand stuff, not just how to write the code for it. So far we're just examining algorithm efficiency, and that's pretty easy to grasp. I guess I finally see how calculus relates to comp sci, but I still don't think it should be a requirement for a major to take so many math classes. Oh well.
Music and Politics is pretty cool. I have the same instructor as I had for Worlds of Music last semester, and I like him. We have a long ass research paper to do, but we basically start it at the beginning of the semester, so hopefully it won't be too bad. We're supposed to pick a piece of music and analyze it's relationship to "politics" (quotes cuz it doesn't mean conventional politics, it's more of a broader definition which includes basically all relationships between people and other people...). I think I'm gonna use "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" by Serj Tankian. That one should be easy.
Haven't had any guitar lessons yet, so nothing to talk about there.
My Xbox 360 suffered the fatal RRoD a few days ago. I'm really pissed about it. I haven't even had it for a year. 360s have a 30% failure rate. 30%! That's absurd. I'm very very seriously considering getting a PS3. Here's what I think I'll do: I'll send my Xbox in to Microsoft to be replaced, then when I get a new one from them I'll sell it and most/all of my games, controllers, and accesories. Then I should have enough to buy a console. That plus birthday money gives me enough for another controller and a couple of games without having to spend any of the money already in my bank account. I'm also contemplating trying this site and seeing how that goes. Now I know most people look at sites like that and immediately think "scam", but I did get a free Xbox 360 from one of these so-called "scam" sites. So I know they can be legitimate, I just don't know anything about this one in particular. We'll see how that goes.
Anyway, I don't have much else to talk about, so... until next month I suppose.
This will probably surprise most of you (though "most" in this case, if one is referring to the majority of my readers, is like 2 people). I hadn't planned to blog until next month. But I'm bored, and my Xbox is broken.
Soooo... Let's talk about classes. Here's what I'm taking:
Calculus II
Psychology as a Social Science
Data Structures in Java
Music and Politics
Guitar Lessons
I'm pretty happy with my schedule this semester. My classes start at 11 every day, so it's nice not to have to go to bed too early. Especially considering my roommate's sleeping habits. Calc has actually been fairly enjoyable so far. Homework isn't collected, and my professor is far better this semester than last. Plus I already went over most of the stuff in Calc II in high school, so it's basically a semester-long review.
Psych is cool too. There's a shit ton of reading to do, but my professor is pretty kick ass, and the material is interesting (so far). I have heard his tests are usually pretty rough though. So we'll see how that goes.
Data Structures is fun as well. The prof is awesome, unlike last semester. Noonan was a terrible teacher. But this guy actually teaches us how to understand stuff, not just how to write the code for it. So far we're just examining algorithm efficiency, and that's pretty easy to grasp. I guess I finally see how calculus relates to comp sci, but I still don't think it should be a requirement for a major to take so many math classes. Oh well.
Music and Politics is pretty cool. I have the same instructor as I had for Worlds of Music last semester, and I like him. We have a long ass research paper to do, but we basically start it at the beginning of the semester, so hopefully it won't be too bad. We're supposed to pick a piece of music and analyze it's relationship to "politics" (quotes cuz it doesn't mean conventional politics, it's more of a broader definition which includes basically all relationships between people and other people...). I think I'm gonna use "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" by Serj Tankian. That one should be easy.
Haven't had any guitar lessons yet, so nothing to talk about there.
My Xbox 360 suffered the fatal RRoD a few days ago. I'm really pissed about it. I haven't even had it for a year. 360s have a 30% failure rate. 30%! That's absurd. I'm very very seriously considering getting a PS3. Here's what I think I'll do: I'll send my Xbox in to Microsoft to be replaced, then when I get a new one from them I'll sell it and most/all of my games, controllers, and accesories. Then I should have enough to buy a console. That plus birthday money gives me enough for another controller and a couple of games without having to spend any of the money already in my bank account. I'm also contemplating trying this site and seeing how that goes. Now I know most people look at sites like that and immediately think "scam", but I did get a free Xbox 360 from one of these so-called "scam" sites. So I know they can be legitimate, I just don't know anything about this one in particular. We'll see how that goes.
Anyway, I don't have much else to talk about, so... until next month I suppose.
11.05.2008
Once a month
I'll do my best.
Okay, so... Obama won the election. He's gonna save the universe. Just as soon as he jacks in and beats Smith. Wait, wrong The One.
But seriously. I'm rather happy he's gonna be our president. We've got a majority in Congress too. We'll see, but I'm looking forward to a good 4 (or 8) years. I voted for the first time on Tuesday. It was exciting. I shuttled over with some friends and stood in line for like 10 minutes I got to the front. The lines were really short at 2:30 or so. After we all voted, everyone was like "fuck, what if I accidentally voted wrong, or what if I filled in the bubble wrong, or what if..." which was ridiculous, but entertaining. Then Katie was majorly stressing out for the rest of the day. She kept freaking out, saying "I know he's SUPPOSED to win, but what if he DOESN'T!?" And when Kentucky came in she was like "NO, HE'S AHEAD!" It was terrible. Most people in the lounge watched Stewart and Colbert's Indecision special, which was hilarious. After Virginia went blue, but before they told us, Stewart segued into it by mentioning that he went to William and Mary, and the lounge went crazy. It only got louder when we found out we went blue. Then Tom used it as an excuse to get hugs from girls. Fuckin' creeper. He's convinced everyone loves him and desperately desires his company, when in reality, almost everyone in the building can't stand him. Bleh, he's so annoying. Oh well.
Let's see... what else is important. Not much. I've got a Worlds of Music exam to study for, and it's driving me crazy. I just finished the study guide, and I've been working on it since 5. Next semester I'm taking Psych as a Social Science, Calc 2, Data Structures, and Music and Politics. I'm gonna have classes starting at 11 every day of the week. It's gonna suck. I love my sleeping in :D. But I'll live (I guess... maybe). I've taken to doing homework in comp sci instead of spacing out. Far more productive. Definitely no need to pay attention though. ESPECIALLY when talking about exceptions AFTER doing the lab on it. Her organizational skills are just incredible.
Matt's band Chase the Fall is playing at Virginia Beach next weekend. I've heard them play acoustically and without drums, and their sound is good, but their lyrics are baaaaad. Like, I listen to it, and I just can't believe my ears. I've only heard them play once, so I can't remember specific examples. But it's basically the most cliche generic lyrics you can imagine. Whenver I here them play, I think about how entertaining it would be to listen to with Aleina. She's tear them apart. Oooh, I just remembered something the lead singer said (wasn't in the song, but it was still really funny). He introduced their song, something about a looking glass, and he was like "This song is about looking at yourself in the mirror, examining yourself, about self-inflection." And Sean was like "That's like, the pronounciation of the word 'self'." He went on to sing a song about different ways to pronounce "self". It was hilarious.
I need to get back to studying. Here's November. You should probably remind me at the beginning of December, because I may forget if you don't.
Okay, so... Obama won the election. He's gonna save the universe. Just as soon as he jacks in and beats Smith. Wait, wrong The One.
But seriously. I'm rather happy he's gonna be our president. We've got a majority in Congress too. We'll see, but I'm looking forward to a good 4 (or 8) years. I voted for the first time on Tuesday. It was exciting. I shuttled over with some friends and stood in line for like 10 minutes I got to the front. The lines were really short at 2:30 or so. After we all voted, everyone was like "fuck, what if I accidentally voted wrong, or what if I filled in the bubble wrong, or what if..." which was ridiculous, but entertaining. Then Katie was majorly stressing out for the rest of the day. She kept freaking out, saying "I know he's SUPPOSED to win, but what if he DOESN'T!?" And when Kentucky came in she was like "NO, HE'S AHEAD!" It was terrible. Most people in the lounge watched Stewart and Colbert's Indecision special, which was hilarious. After Virginia went blue, but before they told us, Stewart segued into it by mentioning that he went to William and Mary, and the lounge went crazy. It only got louder when we found out we went blue. Then Tom used it as an excuse to get hugs from girls. Fuckin' creeper. He's convinced everyone loves him and desperately desires his company, when in reality, almost everyone in the building can't stand him. Bleh, he's so annoying. Oh well.
Let's see... what else is important. Not much. I've got a Worlds of Music exam to study for, and it's driving me crazy. I just finished the study guide, and I've been working on it since 5. Next semester I'm taking Psych as a Social Science, Calc 2, Data Structures, and Music and Politics. I'm gonna have classes starting at 11 every day of the week. It's gonna suck. I love my sleeping in :D. But I'll live (I guess... maybe). I've taken to doing homework in comp sci instead of spacing out. Far more productive. Definitely no need to pay attention though. ESPECIALLY when talking about exceptions AFTER doing the lab on it. Her organizational skills are just incredible.
Matt's band Chase the Fall is playing at Virginia Beach next weekend. I've heard them play acoustically and without drums, and their sound is good, but their lyrics are baaaaad. Like, I listen to it, and I just can't believe my ears. I've only heard them play once, so I can't remember specific examples. But it's basically the most cliche generic lyrics you can imagine. Whenver I here them play, I think about how entertaining it would be to listen to with Aleina. She's tear them apart. Oooh, I just remembered something the lead singer said (wasn't in the song, but it was still really funny). He introduced their song, something about a looking glass, and he was like "This song is about looking at yourself in the mirror, examining yourself, about self-inflection." And Sean was like "That's like, the pronounciation of the word 'self'." He went on to sing a song about different ways to pronounce "self". It was hilarious.
I need to get back to studying. Here's November. You should probably remind me at the beginning of December, because I may forget if you don't.
9.04.2008
College
Here you go.
So college. Pretty awesome. Orientation was kinda lame, but cool at the same time. I like that we got to know our hall really well, cuz I'm in the best hall of W&M. We're awesome. But he had to do a bunch of mixers, which were usually really lame. We basically met up with other groups and they forced us to be social, which is all well and good, except that my hall is social enough that the stupid activities we did were totally unnecessary. The first mixer we did was with 2nd upper, and they're pretty awesome. We escorted the ladies to the president's house, where the whole freshman class sang the Alma Mater. Since there are more girls on 2nd upper than guys on 2nd lower, two guys escorted two girls. My roomate and I were those guys. It was pretty cool. We got all dressed up. I was definitely the most classy. But then we had to stand and wait forever for the rest of the freshmen to get there, and for the president to actually come out of his house. So that was really boring. But it was okay. The second mixer was with 3rd upper I think. I don't remember for sure. But all we did with them was take them to lunch at the SC. But there wasn't a whole lot of mixing after we got there. Oh well. The third mixer was with some girls from Dupont. We paired up and each got an egg. Then we used markers to make our egg a person, and made up some facts about him/her. Dory and my egg was named Dwight. He was from the office and liked cheese and haikus. We then proceeded to egg toss our precious babies. They all died. The last mixed was with some Yates girls (Yates sucks by the way. Filled with obnoxious jocks. The girls are tolerable though). We each had a name of a famous person paper clipped to the back or our shirt, and we had to figure out who we were by asking questions. And once we figured it out, we had to find the person we were dating/married to/go with in some other way. I was Ben Affleck. Which was pretty cool, cuz Jennifer Garner is pretty hot. I'm glad I wasn't John Smith or something, cuz Pocahontas was ugly as fuck. And that was it for the mixers.
My class schedule is pretty fuckin' sweet. No classes before noon. Ever. Today my first and only class started at 2. And I have no homework that is due before Monday. It's amazing. But once lessons, quartet, and ultimate club pick up it'll be a little worse. Still very manageable I imagine. Everyone on the ultimate team is ridiculous. It's crazy. I still can't even throw a flick very well. There's a lot that I never knew I was supposed to be doing while playing. I've never counted stalls. I've never stacked. I've never played in shoes... XD. But it's gonna be awesome. They're taking 15 or so for the A team, but everyone gets on B team, so I'm cool with that. I pulled my quad just a little bit into the first practice though, so that sucked. I couldn't do anything other than the throwing drill for the rest of practice. Then today was better, but I tried to sprint and that hurt like hell, so I was really slow the whole time. I got to scrimmage though. Touched the disc twice. But I was only on for 2 or 3 points.
I feel like I'm one of those guys who stays in his dorm most of the day. I go into the lounge and I get comments like "Ben, where have you been? I haven't seen you in forever?" And I'm just like "yeah..." cuz I could go down there more often, but it's usually just people doing work, watching something random on TV, and playing the worst table tennis I've ever seen in my life. Ever. Like, most of them bounce the ball on the table before they hit it for their serve. It's stupid how against the rules that is. There are some good guys though. I do get out a bit though. On weekends most everyone goes over to the frats. One of my OAs is in Kappa Delta Rho, and that's a pretty awesome frat, so I usually go there. He's got like a 40 inch TV in his dorm room. It's ridiculous. Everyone goes to dance parties afterwords though, and that's lame. I don't want to display to the college how white I am. I also don't want some drunk chick's ass all over me. So I usually leave then.
Anyway, this isn't holding my attention anymore. I'm all gross from Ultimate. I don't want to shower though. I think I'll just change and put on some more deoderant. Don't expect frequent posts, even if you bug me about it. But I'll do my best.
So college. Pretty awesome. Orientation was kinda lame, but cool at the same time. I like that we got to know our hall really well, cuz I'm in the best hall of W&M. We're awesome. But he had to do a bunch of mixers, which were usually really lame. We basically met up with other groups and they forced us to be social, which is all well and good, except that my hall is social enough that the stupid activities we did were totally unnecessary. The first mixer we did was with 2nd upper, and they're pretty awesome. We escorted the ladies to the president's house, where the whole freshman class sang the Alma Mater. Since there are more girls on 2nd upper than guys on 2nd lower, two guys escorted two girls. My roomate and I were those guys. It was pretty cool. We got all dressed up. I was definitely the most classy. But then we had to stand and wait forever for the rest of the freshmen to get there, and for the president to actually come out of his house. So that was really boring. But it was okay. The second mixer was with 3rd upper I think. I don't remember for sure. But all we did with them was take them to lunch at the SC. But there wasn't a whole lot of mixing after we got there. Oh well. The third mixer was with some girls from Dupont. We paired up and each got an egg. Then we used markers to make our egg a person, and made up some facts about him/her. Dory and my egg was named Dwight. He was from the office and liked cheese and haikus. We then proceeded to egg toss our precious babies. They all died. The last mixed was with some Yates girls (Yates sucks by the way. Filled with obnoxious jocks. The girls are tolerable though). We each had a name of a famous person paper clipped to the back or our shirt, and we had to figure out who we were by asking questions. And once we figured it out, we had to find the person we were dating/married to/go with in some other way. I was Ben Affleck. Which was pretty cool, cuz Jennifer Garner is pretty hot. I'm glad I wasn't John Smith or something, cuz Pocahontas was ugly as fuck. And that was it for the mixers.
My class schedule is pretty fuckin' sweet. No classes before noon. Ever. Today my first and only class started at 2. And I have no homework that is due before Monday. It's amazing. But once lessons, quartet, and ultimate club pick up it'll be a little worse. Still very manageable I imagine. Everyone on the ultimate team is ridiculous. It's crazy. I still can't even throw a flick very well. There's a lot that I never knew I was supposed to be doing while playing. I've never counted stalls. I've never stacked. I've never played in shoes... XD. But it's gonna be awesome. They're taking 15 or so for the A team, but everyone gets on B team, so I'm cool with that. I pulled my quad just a little bit into the first practice though, so that sucked. I couldn't do anything other than the throwing drill for the rest of practice. Then today was better, but I tried to sprint and that hurt like hell, so I was really slow the whole time. I got to scrimmage though. Touched the disc twice. But I was only on for 2 or 3 points.
I feel like I'm one of those guys who stays in his dorm most of the day. I go into the lounge and I get comments like "Ben, where have you been? I haven't seen you in forever?" And I'm just like "yeah..." cuz I could go down there more often, but it's usually just people doing work, watching something random on TV, and playing the worst table tennis I've ever seen in my life. Ever. Like, most of them bounce the ball on the table before they hit it for their serve. It's stupid how against the rules that is. There are some good guys though. I do get out a bit though. On weekends most everyone goes over to the frats. One of my OAs is in Kappa Delta Rho, and that's a pretty awesome frat, so I usually go there. He's got like a 40 inch TV in his dorm room. It's ridiculous. Everyone goes to dance parties afterwords though, and that's lame. I don't want to display to the college how white I am. I also don't want some drunk chick's ass all over me. So I usually leave then.
Anyway, this isn't holding my attention anymore. I'm all gross from Ultimate. I don't want to shower though. I think I'll just change and put on some more deoderant. Don't expect frequent posts, even if you bug me about it. But I'll do my best.
6.06.2008
Blaaah
I'm uber bored, and really don't feel like doing anything, so I'm posting. Don't get your hopes up for more in the near future.
So anyway, I feel relatively shitty at the moment. I'm completely physically drained, even though I got 10 hours of sleep. I have a headache for some reason. I've got a fever. It's like 3000 degrees outside, but right now I'm wearing jeans, my hoodie, and am covered in a blanket because I'm freezing and I was shivering like crazy. I asked my mom what was up (she's a microbiologist and all that jazz, so I figured she'd know if it was anything I had to worry about), and she said it's probably just the meningitis vaccine I got yesterday, which makes perfect sense, but still doesn't make me feel any better. But at least that means that's probably why I'm so tired. It sucks feeling so exhausted as soon as I wake up.
On a (somewhat) happier note, this is my last day of "school". Tomorrow I graduate with a bunch of other homeschooled kids in Richmond, then on Sunday is my grad party, then I'll be free. The problem is the only thing I'm motivated to do right now is sit and do nothing. It's balls. But I'll make myself finish everything once I post.
I have to go take senior pictures today. Not looking forward to that. I've already got senior pictures. "But these will be much better. More professional" so my mom says. Still, it's like an hour and a half and I'm not feeling well, so I'd rather just stay home. But oh well. I'll live.
Anyway, that's all I got right now. Sorry it wasn't the most cheery of posts, but I'll do my best to post more often (don't hold your breath for too long though).
So anyway, I feel relatively shitty at the moment. I'm completely physically drained, even though I got 10 hours of sleep. I have a headache for some reason. I've got a fever. It's like 3000 degrees outside, but right now I'm wearing jeans, my hoodie, and am covered in a blanket because I'm freezing and I was shivering like crazy. I asked my mom what was up (she's a microbiologist and all that jazz, so I figured she'd know if it was anything I had to worry about), and she said it's probably just the meningitis vaccine I got yesterday, which makes perfect sense, but still doesn't make me feel any better. But at least that means that's probably why I'm so tired. It sucks feeling so exhausted as soon as I wake up.
On a (somewhat) happier note, this is my last day of "school". Tomorrow I graduate with a bunch of other homeschooled kids in Richmond, then on Sunday is my grad party, then I'll be free. The problem is the only thing I'm motivated to do right now is sit and do nothing. It's balls. But I'll make myself finish everything once I post.
I have to go take senior pictures today. Not looking forward to that. I've already got senior pictures. "But these will be much better. More professional" so my mom says. Still, it's like an hour and a half and I'm not feeling well, so I'd rather just stay home. But oh well. I'll live.
Anyway, that's all I got right now. Sorry it wasn't the most cheery of posts, but I'll do my best to post more often (don't hold your breath for too long though).
4.20.2008
OMG NEW POST :-O
Yep... I'm bored. And I'm procrastinating.
So remember that post way back when? A whole two posts down? About the free Xbox 360? Well I got it. Yep. For free. Well, all-in-all I paid about $50. I'd still say it's a good deal. Thanks to ALL of you who were willing to help (Matt) even if you weren't able to do it in the end (stupid lazy parents).
Anyway, after the 360 I was like "Well why stop now? This is AMERICA. And in America, we like to get new shit." So now I have a laptop for college :). It's niiice. And pretty. Prettier than your laptop. Or yours. I didn't really have any particular people/laptops in mind there, by the way, but I can guarantee mine's prettier. Okay, enough of that.
My parents are pretty enthusiastic about this "turn off the TV week" or whatever (I'll bet only one of you knows what the hell I'm talking about). They've taken it as far as to say "No TV, or computer, or screens of any kind for the whole week". Fuck that. I don't feel the need to prove to myself that I don't need TV or a computer or video games. I hardly have time for any of that as it is. So giving it up for a week would be dumb.
Umm... Spanish proyecto. Sucks. Gotta give it a week from tomorrow, and my group is just getting past the writing part. I'm not all that good at memorizing lines either. We're allowed to use note cards though, so that's good. Our project is gonna kick ass.
Web design is pretty easy though. Last exam (not really the final exam though, because the final "exam" is really just a presentation of our final project) is tomorrow. Multiple choice. Shouldn't be hard. Gotta practice my table and form code today though. Or maybe I'll do it tomorrow after Spanish. We've got a long but really awesome final project. No html (thank you). It's all CSS. I just have to make the page pretty. There are a shit load of divs and classes though, so it'll take awhile. But it'll be fun. If I ever get around to starting it.
Anyway. Gotta go get ready to teach. Fun.
So remember that post way back when? A whole two posts down? About the free Xbox 360? Well I got it. Yep. For free. Well, all-in-all I paid about $50. I'd still say it's a good deal. Thanks to ALL of you who were willing to help (Matt) even if you weren't able to do it in the end (stupid lazy parents).
Anyway, after the 360 I was like "Well why stop now? This is AMERICA. And in America, we like to get new shit." So now I have a laptop for college :). It's niiice. And pretty. Prettier than your laptop. Or yours. I didn't really have any particular people/laptops in mind there, by the way, but I can guarantee mine's prettier. Okay, enough of that.
My parents are pretty enthusiastic about this "turn off the TV week" or whatever (I'll bet only one of you knows what the hell I'm talking about). They've taken it as far as to say "No TV, or computer, or screens of any kind for the whole week". Fuck that. I don't feel the need to prove to myself that I don't need TV or a computer or video games. I hardly have time for any of that as it is. So giving it up for a week would be dumb.
Umm... Spanish proyecto. Sucks. Gotta give it a week from tomorrow, and my group is just getting past the writing part. I'm not all that good at memorizing lines either. We're allowed to use note cards though, so that's good. Our project is gonna kick ass.
Web design is pretty easy though. Last exam (not really the final exam though, because the final "exam" is really just a presentation of our final project) is tomorrow. Multiple choice. Shouldn't be hard. Gotta practice my table and form code today though. Or maybe I'll do it tomorrow after Spanish. We've got a long but really awesome final project. No html (thank you). It's all CSS. I just have to make the page pretty. There are a shit load of divs and classes though, so it'll take awhile. But it'll be fun. If I ever get around to starting it.
Anyway. Gotta go get ready to teach. Fun.
3.18.2008
Senioritis
I has it.
It's pretty bad too. I'm supposed to finish the Great Gatsby today. I haven't started it. I'm also supposed to be going through an AP World History review book. I should be on page 75 or something. Haven't started it either. I'm keeping up with Math, cuz that's easier for mom to check, but I'm looking at the answers the whole way. Physics is so easy I don't really have to do anything anyway... So the only thing I'm actually doing is reading the AP World textbook and doing my BRCC work...
I got a 4-year $8,000 scholarship to Maryland. Too bad I don't wanna go there. It would still be really expensive. I just want to get a decent scholarship to JMU, so I can "decide" formally and give certain people a reason that's acceptable to them.
I don't blog much. Have you noticed? But now that I'm uber-procrastinating, I'm bored and had a random urge to blog. Still don't count on consistent posts though.
I'm in a weird mood (it's not the good kind of weird, unfortunately). There's an epic battle raging in my mind (okay, it's not really that epic...). So far the logical side is probably ahead a little. The logical side is far more reasonable (go figure), but the faulty reasoning and indecisive side isn't out yet. That side isn't as well formed though. Lots of desperate, obviously incorrect assumptions/excuses. But it's still annoyingly present in there, trying its best to convince. And I'm tuning it out, but it's still putting me in a weird mood. I overthink things WAY too much. Meh, I'll get over it.
Joseph and I beat the story mode of Super Smash Bros Brawl on Intense difficulty last night. A total of 12 or so hours of gameplay. Took us 3 days. Yeah. We're awesome. Now I don't have any games to beat though... maybe I'll be motivated to read Great Gatsby tonight since I won't be hanging out. We'll see.
Okay, that's all for my semi-scattered thoughts. I guess I'll go read AP.
It's pretty bad too. I'm supposed to finish the Great Gatsby today. I haven't started it. I'm also supposed to be going through an AP World History review book. I should be on page 75 or something. Haven't started it either. I'm keeping up with Math, cuz that's easier for mom to check, but I'm looking at the answers the whole way. Physics is so easy I don't really have to do anything anyway... So the only thing I'm actually doing is reading the AP World textbook and doing my BRCC work...
I got a 4-year $8,000 scholarship to Maryland. Too bad I don't wanna go there. It would still be really expensive. I just want to get a decent scholarship to JMU, so I can "decide" formally and give certain people a reason that's acceptable to them.
I don't blog much. Have you noticed? But now that I'm uber-procrastinating, I'm bored and had a random urge to blog. Still don't count on consistent posts though.
I'm in a weird mood (it's not the good kind of weird, unfortunately). There's an epic battle raging in my mind (okay, it's not really that epic...). So far the logical side is probably ahead a little. The logical side is far more reasonable (go figure), but the faulty reasoning and indecisive side isn't out yet. That side isn't as well formed though. Lots of desperate, obviously incorrect assumptions/excuses. But it's still annoyingly present in there, trying its best to convince. And I'm tuning it out, but it's still putting me in a weird mood. I overthink things WAY too much. Meh, I'll get over it.
Joseph and I beat the story mode of Super Smash Bros Brawl on Intense difficulty last night. A total of 12 or so hours of gameplay. Took us 3 days. Yeah. We're awesome. Now I don't have any games to beat though... maybe I'll be motivated to read Great Gatsby tonight since I won't be hanging out. We'll see.
Okay, that's all for my semi-scattered thoughts. I guess I'll go read AP.
2.24.2008
Don't get too excited about this one
I am trying oh so hard to get a free Xbox 360 from this site. Basically I have to refer 9 people, who then complete an offer from the site sponsors (signing up for a trial membership for something usually). The advertisers pay the site, and the site buys whatever it is that you want, then ship it to you (I've researched it enough to know it's legitimate, so that's not my concern right now). SO. If any of you are feeling particularly nice or helpful, or if you have some free time and don't mind spending 5-10 minutes helping me out here, here's what I'd like you to do. Also if you want to get an Xbox 360 for free, you can sign up under my link and start getting your own refs. Follow the link that I'll post at the end of the thread. Sign up for the site after following that link (this entails entering your name, email address, and mailing address) and complete one of the offers. The Stamps.com offer on page 5 is free, but you'll need a credit card, and you'll need to be sure to cancel ONLY AFTER 21 days. Another good one is the Yahoo Success Center on, also on page 5 (this one requires a credit card and cost $1.95). If you complete an offer and I get credit for it, I'll pay you the cost of the offer, unless it's an offer you actually want to try. What you need to make sure to do if any of you actually decide to do this (I'd reeeeally appreciate it...) then be sure to use Internet Explorer, clear your cookies before you do the offer, set your internet settings to "accept all cookies", don't navigate away from the offer page until it has been completed, and when you've finished the offer, wait a few minutes on the final page before you close it. Here's the link: http://www.360Elite4free.com/index.php?ref=4722988
So much for a blog post huh *rolleyes*
Oh, also, if you decide to help me out, make sure you comment me and let me know. I have to keep track of it all.
P.S. You can also use a debit card if you have one of those and you can't use your parents' credit card. And there very well might be offers you are interested in too (they have magazine subscriptions, Netflix, Gamefly, a coffee company, etc.). So if you can find one of those, all the better for you.
So much for a blog post huh *rolleyes*
Oh, also, if you decide to help me out, make sure you comment me and let me know. I have to keep track of it all.
P.S. You can also use a debit card if you have one of those and you can't use your parents' credit card. And there very well might be offers you are interested in too (they have magazine subscriptions, Netflix, Gamefly, a coffee company, etc.). So if you can find one of those, all the better for you.
1.17.2008
I just uploaded a video to youtube. Check it out and tell me what you think.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VJlu2WB6j7E
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VJlu2WB6j7E
1.15.2008
Fine!
How long has it been? Doesn't matter.
This'll be short, cuz I is tired.
Since I last blogged I've done/gone to things that I was like "hey, maybe I should blog about this." Then I was like "nah." So now that those things have passed, I really don't have a whole lot to say. School is starting to kick a larger portion of my ass now. It kinda sucks. And after sparknotesing Moby Dick all the way through, I feel like I have a bunch more to do now that I'm actually reading Huck Finn. Spanish isn't as bad as I thought it would be though, and Web Design kicks ass.
I have a really bad problem with NOT practicing. I really really need to practice viola more. I put in an hour on guitar today. Didn't practice viola at all. I just don't like to practice it that much. I like to play, but not to practice. I dunno why... I've got college auditions coming up and I'm not nearly as prepared as I should be. At least I'm not majoring in music.
I also need to practice electric more, but I just don't have time for that.
Anyway, like I said, short. Don't expect much more, but I'll probably post slightly more frequently than I have been.
This'll be short, cuz I is tired.
Since I last blogged I've done/gone to things that I was like "hey, maybe I should blog about this." Then I was like "nah." So now that those things have passed, I really don't have a whole lot to say. School is starting to kick a larger portion of my ass now. It kinda sucks. And after sparknotesing Moby Dick all the way through, I feel like I have a bunch more to do now that I'm actually reading Huck Finn. Spanish isn't as bad as I thought it would be though, and Web Design kicks ass.
I have a really bad problem with NOT practicing. I really really need to practice viola more. I put in an hour on guitar today. Didn't practice viola at all. I just don't like to practice it that much. I like to play, but not to practice. I dunno why... I've got college auditions coming up and I'm not nearly as prepared as I should be. At least I'm not majoring in music.
I also need to practice electric more, but I just don't have time for that.
Anyway, like I said, short. Don't expect much more, but I'll probably post slightly more frequently than I have been.
8.19.2007
Catch Up Time
Yeah, it's been awhile...
I guess we'll start with Chicago. It was pretty good. A little too Jesusy for me, but it was a good time. I finished HP7 while I was there. I have multiple issues with the book, but mostly I enjoyed it. Anyway, back on topic: The stuff we did for people was pretty cool, and it gave me a nice sense of fulfillment. I didn't really like the evening activities at the church though (except Brenda Matthews, the big hilarious black woman), because they were usually just typical annoying "reaching out to the youth" sermons, and I've heard all those before and they're not convincing. Other than that though, it was a good time.
Next we have the beach. The beach. I wanna go back... Really bad. I love the beach so much. It's always the highlight of my summer. When I get really rich and famous, I'm gonna buy me an island and live on the beach for the rest of my life. Sound good? mmkay. That's after we move to Ireland and tour Europe though (of course). You really fit in with my family too, so it wasn't awkward or anything, which was good. I want a peach shake...
I think I'll bitch about Harry Potter now, so watch out for those SPOILERS:
First of all, wtf@Harry shooting random gold glowy stuff at Voldy. I mean, it's all well and good, up until Dumblydoor explains it as Voldemort's magic that got infused with Harry's wand. Stupid. Let's see... Harry=horcrux. Retarded. I mean, sure, it's dramatic, it adds a "twist" to the last book in the series, but come on. Okay, so, horcruxes are made with ADVANCED dark magic. Voldemort kills people, his soul tears apart, he infuses that piece of soul with an object of some sort with ADVANCED dark magic. "Advanced" means "hard to do," or in other words, "not possible by accident." But if Harry is a horcrux, it had to be an accident that Voldemort made a horcrux. He killed Lily and James, and therefor couldn't kill Harry, but somehow managed to accidentally create a horcrux? I think not. I'm sure there are gaping holes in my argument there, but I'm not gonna go looking for them. What else... I feel like Rowling got to a point at which she was just killing off characters for dramatic effect. Mainly Lupin and Tonks, and a little with Fred. Hedwig was like the kickoff in the book that said "shit is gonna happen" to alert us that people will die. Moody I thought was a good decision. Dobby was disappointing, but that worked cuz he was saving Harry from a knife. Fred just died randomly. The wall exploded. I dunno, I guess I can live with that one, but it seems like she went over the top a little with Lupin and Tonks. She didn't even tell us how they died. She told us later that Rookwood killed Lupin and Bellatrix killed Tonks, but it just seemed a little unnecessary to me. I suppose it's supposed to show the "horrors of war" or something. Close friends, brothers, and new parents die. But still. Oh well. I'll get over it.
I can't think of anything else to blog about, so there you go. You'll probably have to wait another few months for the next one, cuz I never get around to blogging.
I guess we'll start with Chicago. It was pretty good. A little too Jesusy for me, but it was a good time. I finished HP7 while I was there. I have multiple issues with the book, but mostly I enjoyed it. Anyway, back on topic: The stuff we did for people was pretty cool, and it gave me a nice sense of fulfillment. I didn't really like the evening activities at the church though (except Brenda Matthews, the big hilarious black woman), because they were usually just typical annoying "reaching out to the youth" sermons, and I've heard all those before and they're not convincing. Other than that though, it was a good time.
Next we have the beach. The beach. I wanna go back... Really bad. I love the beach so much. It's always the highlight of my summer. When I get really rich and famous, I'm gonna buy me an island and live on the beach for the rest of my life. Sound good? mmkay. That's after we move to Ireland and tour Europe though (of course). You really fit in with my family too, so it wasn't awkward or anything, which was good. I want a peach shake...
I think I'll bitch about Harry Potter now, so watch out for those SPOILERS:
First of all, wtf@Harry shooting random gold glowy stuff at Voldy. I mean, it's all well and good, up until Dumblydoor explains it as Voldemort's magic that got infused with Harry's wand. Stupid. Let's see... Harry=horcrux. Retarded. I mean, sure, it's dramatic, it adds a "twist" to the last book in the series, but come on. Okay, so, horcruxes are made with ADVANCED dark magic. Voldemort kills people, his soul tears apart, he infuses that piece of soul with an object of some sort with ADVANCED dark magic. "Advanced" means "hard to do," or in other words, "not possible by accident." But if Harry is a horcrux, it had to be an accident that Voldemort made a horcrux. He killed Lily and James, and therefor couldn't kill Harry, but somehow managed to accidentally create a horcrux? I think not. I'm sure there are gaping holes in my argument there, but I'm not gonna go looking for them. What else... I feel like Rowling got to a point at which she was just killing off characters for dramatic effect. Mainly Lupin and Tonks, and a little with Fred. Hedwig was like the kickoff in the book that said "shit is gonna happen" to alert us that people will die. Moody I thought was a good decision. Dobby was disappointing, but that worked cuz he was saving Harry from a knife. Fred just died randomly. The wall exploded. I dunno, I guess I can live with that one, but it seems like she went over the top a little with Lupin and Tonks. She didn't even tell us how they died. She told us later that Rookwood killed Lupin and Bellatrix killed Tonks, but it just seemed a little unnecessary to me. I suppose it's supposed to show the "horrors of war" or something. Close friends, brothers, and new parents die. But still. Oh well. I'll get over it.
I can't think of anything else to blog about, so there you go. You'll probably have to wait another few months for the next one, cuz I never get around to blogging.
7.12.2007
Here You Go
I told you I wouldn't post very much. But it's been awhile and I'm bored, so here you go.
Let's see, what is there to blog about... I guess I'll start with camp. Camp was amazing. To a ridiculous extent, camp was amazing. But only because of the people there (mainly the people in my dorm and hallway). The camp itself (meaning the organization and the activities and whatnot) was nothing special, even quite poor at times, but the people there were incredible. Of course there were those that were douchebags and those that were whiny little rich kids, but most were really cool. Andrew's metal guitar skills, Matt's ungodly intelligence and Plankton impersonation, Greg's never-ending hilarity, and James' quiet nature and passion for the cello, to name just a few. Yes, I'll miss these guys a lot. Maybe we can all reunite next year and have another fantastic two weeks. I certainly hope so. Anyway, on to what we actually did at camp. Months before camp started, everyone made an audition tape of about 10 minutes and mailed it in so that a group of judges could place everyone in an appropriate orchestra. Apparently my tape was the best they received out of the violists, so I was top chair in the top orchestra. Out conductor, Mr. Hong, was phenomenal. He is by far the best conductor I've ever worked with. Not only did he have a deep understanding of the music, he connected with each individual member of the orchestra on a much more personal level (and I think that greatly increased our playing potential). We played the Mendelssohn Octet (not that any of you know what that is), which is amazing. Aside from orchestra, some of us signed up for chamber music groups. At the first chamber music day, the horrid organization skills of the staff became apparent. We were waiting for nearly 45 minutes of out 2 hours to find out which groups we were in. Then, after supposedly getting everything settled, on the second day my group was informed that we would be gaining another cello (and therefor that all our work from the previous day was absolutely pointless). However, we played the Schubert quintet, which is a gorgeous piece, so I'm not complaining. Although I suspect none of you really care about the details of my camp days, I'm already typing, and you asked for a post, so too bad. Each day we were supposed to wake up and eat breakfast at 8 (which I rarely did). Then at 8:45 there was always a "mandatory" camp meeting (three of which I attended). After the meeting was orchestra rehearsal for 3 hours, followed by lunch. From 1 to 2 we went to our chosen "electives" (sight reading for me). After that we had an hour to practice by ourselves before leaving for chamber music at 3:15. Chamber music went until 5:15, at which time we left to eat dinner. Each day ended with a concert or event of some sort at 7. There were a few exceptions to this general day, but most of them looked like that. So the week went on, and blah blah blah lots of stuff happened blah blah blah, and then there were the concerts. I had a solo concert in the middle somewhere, which went pretty well. The chamber concert was the tough one. We had rehearsed and rehearsed, and we were good. God we were good. It sounded amazing on our last day of rehearsing, and we were psyched for the concert. However, nerves are also a factor in concerts, and they took their toll on our quintet. Matt was the most talented musician in our group, but unfortunately he was also the most nervous. Our first cellist Meredith missed a turn she had been a little shaky on, and that threw the rhythm off. It just kinda spiraled down from there. The piece wasn't a total disaster, but it was far less than we were capable of and was very disappointing. The orchestra concert was far better though. We did incredibly well, and I could tell we made Mr. Hong proud. So that's pretty much the gist of what happened at camp. On to something else.
Let's see... Well, I'll just cram whatever comes to mind into this last paragraph. We're going to Chicago in about a week and a half. I'm excited, though slightly less so than I would be if more of my friends were going. Sebby's in Europe, Nathan's in... somewhere (probably Nicaragua), and Hannah is away with LEAP. I don't know if Michael is coming, but I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't. So that leaves me with the sophomores and the seniors (though the seniors probably won't be there either), which will still be loads of fun, but I'd still like for all my friends to be there. At least I'll have two weeks straight with you. THE BEACH! Goin' to tha beach. EXCITED! Oh my God excited! I can't believe they agreed, they said you could come with me, but they did, and I am VERY happy about that. Mmm... peach shakes and hand and foot and salt water and spades and walks on the beach and sand and aahhhh... I can't wait for the beach.
Well, that's it for another profound, deeply moving installment of Ben's blog. Hope you enjoyed. I'm off to get my teeth violated by a man in a white coat.
Let's see, what is there to blog about... I guess I'll start with camp. Camp was amazing. To a ridiculous extent, camp was amazing. But only because of the people there (mainly the people in my dorm and hallway). The camp itself (meaning the organization and the activities and whatnot) was nothing special, even quite poor at times, but the people there were incredible. Of course there were those that were douchebags and those that were whiny little rich kids, but most were really cool. Andrew's metal guitar skills, Matt's ungodly intelligence and Plankton impersonation, Greg's never-ending hilarity, and James' quiet nature and passion for the cello, to name just a few. Yes, I'll miss these guys a lot. Maybe we can all reunite next year and have another fantastic two weeks. I certainly hope so. Anyway, on to what we actually did at camp. Months before camp started, everyone made an audition tape of about 10 minutes and mailed it in so that a group of judges could place everyone in an appropriate orchestra. Apparently my tape was the best they received out of the violists, so I was top chair in the top orchestra. Out conductor, Mr. Hong, was phenomenal. He is by far the best conductor I've ever worked with. Not only did he have a deep understanding of the music, he connected with each individual member of the orchestra on a much more personal level (and I think that greatly increased our playing potential). We played the Mendelssohn Octet (not that any of you know what that is), which is amazing. Aside from orchestra, some of us signed up for chamber music groups. At the first chamber music day, the horrid organization skills of the staff became apparent. We were waiting for nearly 45 minutes of out 2 hours to find out which groups we were in. Then, after supposedly getting everything settled, on the second day my group was informed that we would be gaining another cello (and therefor that all our work from the previous day was absolutely pointless). However, we played the Schubert quintet, which is a gorgeous piece, so I'm not complaining. Although I suspect none of you really care about the details of my camp days, I'm already typing, and you asked for a post, so too bad. Each day we were supposed to wake up and eat breakfast at 8 (which I rarely did). Then at 8:45 there was always a "mandatory" camp meeting (three of which I attended). After the meeting was orchestra rehearsal for 3 hours, followed by lunch. From 1 to 2 we went to our chosen "electives" (sight reading for me). After that we had an hour to practice by ourselves before leaving for chamber music at 3:15. Chamber music went until 5:15, at which time we left to eat dinner. Each day ended with a concert or event of some sort at 7. There were a few exceptions to this general day, but most of them looked like that. So the week went on, and blah blah blah lots of stuff happened blah blah blah, and then there were the concerts. I had a solo concert in the middle somewhere, which went pretty well. The chamber concert was the tough one. We had rehearsed and rehearsed, and we were good. God we were good. It sounded amazing on our last day of rehearsing, and we were psyched for the concert. However, nerves are also a factor in concerts, and they took their toll on our quintet. Matt was the most talented musician in our group, but unfortunately he was also the most nervous. Our first cellist Meredith missed a turn she had been a little shaky on, and that threw the rhythm off. It just kinda spiraled down from there. The piece wasn't a total disaster, but it was far less than we were capable of and was very disappointing. The orchestra concert was far better though. We did incredibly well, and I could tell we made Mr. Hong proud. So that's pretty much the gist of what happened at camp. On to something else.
Let's see... Well, I'll just cram whatever comes to mind into this last paragraph. We're going to Chicago in about a week and a half. I'm excited, though slightly less so than I would be if more of my friends were going. Sebby's in Europe, Nathan's in... somewhere (probably Nicaragua), and Hannah is away with LEAP. I don't know if Michael is coming, but I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't. So that leaves me with the sophomores and the seniors (though the seniors probably won't be there either), which will still be loads of fun, but I'd still like for all my friends to be there. At least I'll have two weeks straight with you. THE BEACH! Goin' to tha beach. EXCITED! Oh my God excited! I can't believe they agreed, they said you could come with me, but they did, and I am VERY happy about that. Mmm... peach shakes and hand and foot and salt water and spades and walks on the beach and sand and aahhhh... I can't wait for the beach.
Well, that's it for another profound, deeply moving installment of Ben's blog. Hope you enjoyed. I'm off to get my teeth violated by a man in a white coat.
6.09.2007
183rd
is what I placed in a 2,700 person poker tournament. Unfortunately only the top 27 get paid (and first only gets $15), but it's free to enter, so I usually play it. And that's how I spent the past 2 and a half hours.
More importantly, I got a cell phone a few days ago (though the people who read this probably already know that). I'm not gonna post the number here, but I'll give it to you if you ask for it. It's a silver razor. I would have gotten black, but they only had silver and pink on sale (does anyone even like the pink ones? even girls? they look like shit). I did order a skin for it though. It has a yin yang design on it. I might not even use it though. We'll see.
I jammed with Zach again yesterday, which was awesome. I feel like we get a lot better just in the span of time we play together. It's awesome. Then later we picked up Aleina and Tory, and after that Andy came over and we lit fireworks and laid around. It was a helluva time.
Then I went to the HHS graduation ceremony this morning. It was shorter than usual, which is good. I saw Tory and Amanda afterwards, but I didn't really get to talk to them cuz my parents were like "we're gonna take some pictures and leave." I also saw some other people I knew who graduated. Yikes. I'm a senior. Scary.
What else... oh! I'm going to camp on Wednesday. I'll be there for two and a half weeks. Its a music camp up near Philadelphia. I'm thinkin it will probably be pretty cool (lets hope so, I'll be there for a while). Maybe I can eat me a genuine philly cheese steak while I'm there. Mmmm...
That's it. Thank you for your time. Come again.
More importantly, I got a cell phone a few days ago (though the people who read this probably already know that). I'm not gonna post the number here, but I'll give it to you if you ask for it. It's a silver razor. I would have gotten black, but they only had silver and pink on sale (does anyone even like the pink ones? even girls? they look like shit). I did order a skin for it though. It has a yin yang design on it. I might not even use it though. We'll see.
I jammed with Zach again yesterday, which was awesome. I feel like we get a lot better just in the span of time we play together. It's awesome. Then later we picked up Aleina and Tory, and after that Andy came over and we lit fireworks and laid around. It was a helluva time.
Then I went to the HHS graduation ceremony this morning. It was shorter than usual, which is good. I saw Tory and Amanda afterwards, but I didn't really get to talk to them cuz my parents were like "we're gonna take some pictures and leave." I also saw some other people I knew who graduated. Yikes. I'm a senior. Scary.
What else... oh! I'm going to camp on Wednesday. I'll be there for two and a half weeks. Its a music camp up near Philadelphia. I'm thinkin it will probably be pretty cool (lets hope so, I'll be there for a while). Maybe I can eat me a genuine philly cheese steak while I'm there. Mmmm...
That's it. Thank you for your time. Come again.
6.02.2007
SAT
Today is Saturday. Today I woke up at 6:30. That should not happen.
But it did, because I had to go take the SAT. I was at HHS from 7:50-1:00. That also should not happen (especially on a Saturday [in the morning]). Anyway, I think I did pretty well on the test, so that's good. My essay wasn't very good, but I hold my essays to a pretty high standard just because I always get good grades on essays, so it was probably fine. The rest of the test was okay. For the most part, I slaughtered the math sections, also destroyed the grammar sections, but only did kind of well on the vocab. I was never any good at vocab. I am eager to get my scores though (even though I'm not sure what's good anymore now that they've changed a bunch of stuff).
I was about to mow the lawn a little while ago, cuz mom asked me too. It looked like it was gonna rain, so I asked if she thought I should mow later, but she said "no, maybe you can mow before it starts raining." So I started mowing. After about a minute and a half, it started pouring, which was fine by me, but now I don't get my ten bucks until Monday. I like the rain. Especially on days like this. It's definitely a good day for rain. But now my hair is wet, and I'm dripping on the keyboard. And I need to pack up the Wii because Lizzy wants me to bring it to her house for the party, which is gonna be cool, but also long (because my family is going at 4, even though the party starts at 7, because my grandpa is gonna be there and we want to visit).
So anyway... I am finished with school for the rest of the summer... ahhh
But it did, because I had to go take the SAT. I was at HHS from 7:50-1:00. That also should not happen (especially on a Saturday [in the morning]). Anyway, I think I did pretty well on the test, so that's good. My essay wasn't very good, but I hold my essays to a pretty high standard just because I always get good grades on essays, so it was probably fine. The rest of the test was okay. For the most part, I slaughtered the math sections, also destroyed the grammar sections, but only did kind of well on the vocab. I was never any good at vocab. I am eager to get my scores though (even though I'm not sure what's good anymore now that they've changed a bunch of stuff).
I was about to mow the lawn a little while ago, cuz mom asked me too. It looked like it was gonna rain, so I asked if she thought I should mow later, but she said "no, maybe you can mow before it starts raining." So I started mowing. After about a minute and a half, it started pouring, which was fine by me, but now I don't get my ten bucks until Monday. I like the rain. Especially on days like this. It's definitely a good day for rain. But now my hair is wet, and I'm dripping on the keyboard. And I need to pack up the Wii because Lizzy wants me to bring it to her house for the party, which is gonna be cool, but also long (because my family is going at 4, even though the party starts at 7, because my grandpa is gonna be there and we want to visit).
So anyway... I am finished with school for the rest of the summer... ahhh
5.31.2007
Post the first
So... I finally succumbed to the temptation that is blogging. I held out for quite a while, though. I'm proud of myself. First of all, don't expect frequent posts from me, because I just had the random urge to make a blog tonight, but I feel like I probably won't have that urge very often. I'll shoot for around one post a week though (and hey, it's better than Chu).
Anyway, to start of my first blog post ever, I'll go ahead and say I've had a pretty awesome day. This whole week has been amazing because I've been able to sleep in 'til around 10 every morning. This is the last week of school. Oh em gee. Excited? I think yes.
I got my hair cut today, though I don't think anyone noticed. Nobody ever notices when I get my hair cut though, because I never cut much of it off. I also got my glasses today, which I'm wearing now. They're very convenient for late night time-wasting when my contacts get really dry and irritating. (And they're Converse brand, which I find highly amusing).
And then, of course, there was Ultimate (NOT ultimate frisbee, because "frisbee" is a brand. Therefor, it is simply "ultimate" [and you play it with a disk, not a frisbee]). Ultimate, quite frankly, is the most amazing sport ever invented. We played with MYF at Purcell Park. Unfortunately, my team suffered a casualty early on when Nathan wailed Aleina in the eye with the disk (not frisbee). I felt bad because we don't play ultimate very often, and the one chance we get, she only gets to play for like 5 minutes. But we're trying to reinstate the Sunday afternoon games, so hopefully we'll have a summer full of ultimate (I still think we should start a church league). I just realized that Sebby never commented on the ring I'm wearing ("hey Ben, where'd you get that ring, the toilet store?"). Of course, that one would be easy to turn around on him ("my girlfriend gave it to me. Do you have one of those? No?").
So there you have it, my first blog post of all time. The only first blog post I'll ever make (ever). And it's 1:30. And I should be asleep.
Anyway, to start of my first blog post ever, I'll go ahead and say I've had a pretty awesome day. This whole week has been amazing because I've been able to sleep in 'til around 10 every morning. This is the last week of school. Oh em gee. Excited? I think yes.
I got my hair cut today, though I don't think anyone noticed. Nobody ever notices when I get my hair cut though, because I never cut much of it off. I also got my glasses today, which I'm wearing now. They're very convenient for late night time-wasting when my contacts get really dry and irritating. (And they're Converse brand, which I find highly amusing).
And then, of course, there was Ultimate (NOT ultimate frisbee, because "frisbee" is a brand. Therefor, it is simply "ultimate" [and you play it with a disk, not a frisbee]). Ultimate, quite frankly, is the most amazing sport ever invented. We played with MYF at Purcell Park. Unfortunately, my team suffered a casualty early on when Nathan wailed Aleina in the eye with the disk (not frisbee). I felt bad because we don't play ultimate very often, and the one chance we get, she only gets to play for like 5 minutes. But we're trying to reinstate the Sunday afternoon games, so hopefully we'll have a summer full of ultimate (I still think we should start a church league). I just realized that Sebby never commented on the ring I'm wearing ("hey Ben, where'd you get that ring, the toilet store?"). Of course, that one would be easy to turn around on him ("my girlfriend gave it to me. Do you have one of those? No?").
So there you have it, my first blog post of all time. The only first blog post I'll ever make (ever). And it's 1:30. And I should be asleep.
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