Der Wille zur Macht :)

Well, it's a bit past 1:00 AM and I have work tomorrow. So that dual blog on Cowboy Bebop the Movie and the On the Bricks concert will have to wait until later.

Alright. I spent this morning checking out cars so when I went shopping I could have what I wanted already in mind. The key issue to remember is that I want to spend only $2k on the computer and ~$10k on the car, since my Bass is upwards of $5k. Anyways, I first checked out the Chrysler/Plymouth/Jeep dealership where I learned that the PT Cruiser doesn't have enough headroom and that the Jeep Liberty, while accomodating head and legs, has absolutely crappy gas mileage. The Seabring didn't even come close. I then checked out the Honda dealership and found that neither the Accord nor the Civic had a deep enough trunk to accomodate my Bass (the bridge is too high for the depth that the trunk allows), I didn't attempt the Element because it is so God awfully ugly but I did try out the CRV. The 2003 was very very nice, though the folding/unfolding cup holders between the front seats was terrible, and the older CRV's (aka: those closer to my price range) were good as well, not as fun and still a bit short on the legs, but that's my problem. Then we went across the street to the Toyota dealership and checked things out. The Corolla was absolutely too small and the new Camry wasn't managing either, though the older has a larger trunk so I'll have to test it out sometime. The Toyota Matrix, while kinda short on the legs, was a good car and has a built in Subwoofer (a large built in subwoofer). The Rav4 was slightly smaller, but did manage to accomodate the Bass, even if it did get in the way moreso than in the Matrix. Dragging my bass around did get a ton of comments, the most from the Toyota people, slightly less from the Honda people, and nearly none from the Dodge people. It was annoying to say the least.

So, the total learning comes to this. I really want a new 2003 Toyota Spyder, but there's no way in hell the bass would ever fit or that I'd ever afford that for a college car. But it's so very very nice.

"The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things. Of shoes and ships and ceiling wax, of carpenters and kings. Of why the sea is boiling hot and whether pigs have wings."

Anyways, speaking of the coming of time, this is my request to all my computer literate allies, I need to decide what I want my college computer to be, so do please aid me in this. And keep in mine, I don't need any complex video editing equipment, just the basics for gameplay: So a vid card, processor, and little else needs to be very end of the line. Sound isn't a big issue for me, but it's always nice, and I'd love to finally be able to play D2 w/o Winamp being distorted.

NPR was worrying me again. On "Marketplace" they did the numbers segment and immediately began playing the song "We're in the Money" (instrumental only, but still).

Today wasn't good. Was woken at 7:13 because I had managed to sleep through my alarm (apparently someone had set the volume to near subharmonic levels). Got to the orthodontist and recieved 5 spacers in the back of my mouth which are currently driving me insane. This coupled with the fact that my allergies have decided to spring up this morning in the form of a very sore throat does not make for a good day.

Work wasn't bad though. Be thankful for the small things I guess.

My Orthodontist is beginning to worry me.

Him(Dr. Mach)- I wonder if I could put some brackets around those teeth.
Me-*Unable to speak with his hands in my mouth*
Him-Sounds like a plan *Takes hands out*
Me- Wouldn't I have to pre-med for that?
Him- Oh yeah. We'll do it next time.
Him- Actually, keeping 3 groups would be kinda hard *calls over a nurse* instead of doing the 5, 6, 7 binding, lets get some spacers in so we can bind his 5's and 6's.
Nurse-What about his 7's?
Him-They aren't large enough, plus they are 8's, not 7's.

At least I know what all that means, but it was still really odd at the time.

The Adult Swim summer stuff is really great. I'm enjoying it too much I think.

Well, I wrote 6 of the Thank You notes, I don't have an address for the other so it doesn't matter yet. I did sign up for G-Tech, made second session. But no, I didn't teach Jeff anything in Brood today. Yesterday, however, I extolled the virtues of Attack-Move and taught him the important a least 1 miner per mineral patch (he wasn't always using them all), so hopefully we'll be able to graduate to 2 vs 3 games.

I managed to watch Oh Brother Where Art Thou without developing a southern drawl, which yes, is actually an accomplishment for me. Great movie though, and anyone who hasn't seen it certainly needs to.

Anyways. Time to make some goals for the summer I guess. There are of course only a small portion of the grand scale of things, and actually only some of the smaller items, but that's nothing new.

Goal: Learn HTML and various graphic artistry tools to the extent that I can add animations to the Blog. Learn to rip Sprites so I have a basis for said animations (since I can only find really really good Megaman stuff and not anything for Valkyrie Profile. I guess I'll have to harass AlienInfection and Dr.Lucent for stuff (15 points each for anyone who knows who either is. Jeff is not allowed to answer on the AI topic, which might give it away, but oh well). The end result being that I'd love to have a Valkyrie Profile hero and Zero dancing in opposite corners of my Blog. On a related note, since I technically only own my PS and a SNES, I need to spend some hard earned cash purchasing some older RPGs (Valkyrie Profile being among them).

Goal: Get a better car. Currently I'm open to suggestions. The major issue is I have to fit and my bass has to fit as well. So I'm open to any suggestions. I'm sure you'll figure out how to get in contact with me without my aid.

I've finally reached the point of having three seperate folders for my webcomics. 1 is the commonly updated and the creme de la creme; 2 is the good comics, if a bit slow; 3 is all the finished, the extraordinarily slow, or those that I don't even know why I still have on my list. Kinda a frightening thing.

To do List:

*Finish writing thank you notes (only 7 left to go)
*Choose my day for G-Tech Orientation.
*Stop merely playing Brood Wars with Jeff and start actually trying to improve his mistakes. I'm actually starting to micro, kinda scary. I still play with a zerg mentality 24-7 though. If my troops die it's just less supply I need.

Perhaps sleeping from 9:00 PM to 11:00 AM is a bit excessive, but 14 hours is a good compensation for not sleeping the night before (even if there was a 4 hour nap during the next day as well).

Today was devoted to mass D&D which went over just about as well as could normally be expected. Nothing of great note to post. Oh well.

Alright, Jiaz covered all the important stuff, just replace his time playing in the Casino with a game of Spades where Kyle and I triumphed over Tim and Edmund. The question is indeed "Was Project Graduation worth it?" and my answer is a resounding, "Meh". Yeah, I'd most likely do it again, but there weren't any singularily fantastic moments the entire night. The whole thing fluxuated between too many people and too few. I could have done Magic or Mao or Spades anytime of day anywhere else and what little I did see of the Casino falls into the same category of activity. I didn't attempt the obstance course or the bull and don't feel bad for either. Obstacles courses tend to enjoy areas of clearance much lower than Colin is tall, and this one was no exception. It was certainly good seeing all those people who are going off to the far reaches of the United States next year and that alone is probably the main reason why I would do it again. It was enjoyable jousting, earning some beads from Jeff the hard way, and exploiting my dress socks for some very very smooth and slick dancing on the gym floor.

I don't know why Mardi Gras was the theme, nor even why the event had a theme, but most of the decorations were simply annoying and ugly. The DJ did absolutely suck, but I've begun to think that of most any DJ these days, I guess I don't like most of today's "popular" music.

In general though, there simply wasn't enough reminiscing and that was mostly what I expected.

In summation, no I'm not miffed that I didn't win a door prize, no it doesn't matter that we were originally promised that everyone would win one, and yeah, I guess I might do it again. I wouldn't do the same things, but yeah, I'd do it again.

Since I arrived late (a bit past 9:30) to Graduation, I didn't get to rehearse on stage so I had my Bass with me until we got on stage. So, to occupy my attentions I started playing a G major arpeggio followed by a descending run: (G up to B up to D up to G then descending from the high G as F E D C and then starting over. It sounded pretty good).

Anyways, Stony River was vastly unimpressive. I had Unsweet Tea which was Luisanne (not a brand that I'm favoring). I should have realized the mistake when upon my ordering went something like this:
Server: What would you like?
Me: Unsweet Tea
Server: Right, Sweet Tea
Me: UNSweet Tea.

Repeat this process replacing me with David, because it happened like with him immediately beyond me. But I still had the tea and was incredibly unimpressed. I added lemon to help it and instead got cold lemon flavored substance with an awful aftertaste.

I ordered a steak which comes with their seasoning meant to "enhance the flavor and tenderize the meat without being spicy." After the server walked away to allow us time to think David immediately asked aloud how a seasoning could tenderize meat whereas I pondered how you could have no spicy seasoning (it seems to defeat the point of the seasoning). Apparently it was a lie though, and as near as I can tell ever chef there was a reject for an Emmeril teaching school. Which Emmeril kicks it up a notch, these people made the notch the level of the food. The fries tasted like seasoning with an odd texture (because herbs usually don't have the texture of french fries) and the steak was definately reduced in greatness by the over flavoring brought on by the seasoning. Overall I'd much rather go to Hops and save the cash and enjoy my house brewed Root Beer and better food.

Nothing really momentus to say about Graduation except that anyone who drove in the far right lane and then merged deserves to be shot. It took me 40 minutes to get to Mount Pisgah because I was driving lawfully, and upon getting here I proceeded to scratch the truck next to me with my front fender, so I got to walk into the church behind a family I didn't know, the father of which was quite angry at me (his damn truck was too far right).

Anyways. Anyone want to tell me the odds that I'd end up walking out next to Dunn (who apparently had issues crossing the stage, but I'll openly admit that I wasn't watching. Sitting at the extreme right relative to the stage really hindered my view of any but those about to cross.

Ok, time for the random congradulations: Kudos to everyone who sang, especially the soloists (Chloe, Laura, Kate, and Joe) and to everyone who gave speeches, mostly Royal and Edmund though. Points to Charlene for losing her hat and to Alex Liss for not understanding when I tried to convince her to straiten out her honor cords (I thought I did a fairly good wordless demonstration).

Glad to know that all the Orchestra people were told to be Alpha for practice, all sat on the Alpha side of Graduation, and then they put our diplomas in Omegazone, way to go school!

Alright. Apparently crossing my fingers really didn't help. I did manage to play several hands of spades though. Why did we have to read everyone's name? Was there a practical application to that action? Anyways, in case you haven't noticed this is yesterday's overdue blog. I got kinda busy and naver managed to get to a computer. So, after Grad practice I went with D'Oraz to turn his AP Calc practice book into Bolt and on the way back got accosted by both Duncan and Burke for still being at school (wow, I never realized it was such a crime to hang around), so I lied that I was on my way home and went over to the Orchestra room where I played random music with Keith and Fu until it was time for rehearsal. So, I went to the Band room, got my copy of the slide show from the concert (which I have not yet had time to look at), said my final orchestra good byes to all the people I'm really going to miss: Louise, Christine, Christina, Christine, Yichen, Sonica, and played my way through a quarter of a hour of Pomp and Circumstance. ((Damn, time for photos, I'll have to finish this...crap...looks like tomorrow cause I think photos will lead into dinner into Project Graduation...okay, until I return this'll have to be unfinished. So much to say, so little time today)). Yay! Another few moments of spare time! Okay. So after Orch finished for the Seniors (cause we didn't have to play the Rondeau (The Masterpiece Theater Song)) I talked with John fora bit and decided that invading his house sounded like a good way to spend the rest of my day. So I called home and David reminded me that I needed to get an application for him and I remembered that I needed to pickup my paycheck. So, I went over to the UPS Store and found Joe packing 3 printers, 2 computers (sans monitors), a scanner, and a few other miscellaneous electronic components. I proptly joined in (I'd say I rolled up my sleeves, but wearing my Black Fila T-Shirt I didn't have long enouh sleeves to roll at all) and after a good half an hour of work managed to get out of the store (and net an hour worth of pay). I got out to my car to find it claiming 2 missed calls so I checked it out and discovered that my mother wanted me to drop the graduation tickets at home so she could take them to my grandparents so they wouldn't have to rally to my house. So, I detoured from my intended path and took a turn into my neighborhood, immediately getting caught behind the Elementary School Bus. Which sucked because we have lots of little kids and it was the last day of school so the air was filled with pre-adolescent attempts at singing songs no one knew the lyrics to and the bus's ponderous pace was slowed by all the parents and children saying goodbye to the driver. So, after traveling 80 ft in the course of 5 minutes, I handed the tickets to my mother and turned around and headed for John's. I gave him a call to warn him I was on my way and began to regret not going home to change out of a black shirt and jeans. I got to Compton's and we started hurling his Aerobie back and forth (that's the hollow frisbee thing, if you didn't know). Then, after Royal's older sister arrived to see Katie Compton (John's elder sister who is also back from college), John and I went inside and watched some Black Adder (British Comedy is rather predictable these days). After about 4 episodes of that Compton and I beat Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and then I went home, had some dinner, and went out to escape the incoming of David's friends.

*Crosses fingers hoping that graduation practice won't suck*

Actually, that's all I really had to post, did close to nothing today. But then again, how's that a change from the norm?

Not having to go to school is fun. I woke up at about 9:30. Actually got up an hour later. Showered and then crawled Infoc for anything fun to read. Didn't find much, though I've resolved I need to get either "Benthis" or "Miranda" into the RPG Forum (yes, those are names of my invented story characters who don't have a story yet). Anyways, after David came home I ate lunch and went to work at about 2:00 PM. I was at 4554 which is the former corperate store setup across the street from the main store (the one that was setup specifically cause the main store as an MBE was doing so well). It's a rather unique place since it has 6 stations where people can enter their own info, a conveyor belt, 3 shipping stations. It's a pure self-service shipping center and good at it. The packing area seems rather lacking on supplies, but that only matters if you want to send something fragile (speaking of which, I was playing soccer with boxes while loading the UPS trailer, it was fun). At the store are the two UPS employees (well, there are 4 but only 2 today) Frank and Chris. They all have jobs until next Friday and all have been paid as such. Frank is probably 40-50 ish, a short Black man, and funny. He wears an apron which contains perhaps everything you could possibly need to pack something (usually multiples of item, and oftentimes the phone too, though he fails to realize this until the third ring). Chris is younger, likely 25-30ish and slightly taller (though both are shorter than me). Chris is more serious, but today was really really slow and under the "watchful" (umm...right) eye of Bill so more serious wasn't really saying much. My day was spent enjoying their antics, learning how to do things on their systems, and changing prices over to the UPS Store level as opposed to the UPS Store level (yeah, that's the whole truth and not a typo). I was using a Stylus double ended for awhile in the process of changing price settings on the computer, it was kinda scary. That went on until 7:20 ish when we had the store closed down and were finially deciding how we needed to change things. The place is much larger than it looks form the outside, but very inefficient with most of that space. The "gate" for locking the store is a series of $5k glass panels depicting the globe with the words UPS in the center, it was disconcerting to say the least.

Today's French lession shall be idiomatic expressions involving the verb Avoir, but first we'll have to learn to conjugate Avoir in the present, here goes:
j'ai / tu as / il a / nous avons / vous avez / ils ont

Just for the record, Avoir means "to have."

All of these go Subject + Appropriate Avoir form + Situation Word (you'll see)
Faim (Hunger), Soif (Thirst), Tort (Wrong), Raison (Right), Sommeil (Sleepy).

So, I'm hungry is "J'ai faim". They are wrong is "Ils ont tort". You get the idea.

Apparently Katie has joined the ranks of the Christine-ists. How sad.

Current Song: Final Fantasy X - Symphonic Suite.

X-2 Time, since hopefully Netscape will stop it with those stupid illegal operations and random crashes so I can actually get the post finished this time. This might be a little detailed in a roundabout way because I don't want to spoil anything, but I do want to cover some issues, and I have way too much knowledge about X-Men as a comic that it'll all come through.

I saw X-2 at roughly 5 previews past 10:05. Finding Nemo and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen both look like they'll be worth watching. Now whether or not they'll be worth paying to see in theaters is another story, though if Pixar is true to course the short before Finding Nemo should be worth my $6.50. Anyways. The theatre contained Kyle, David, Nick, Steve Trantor, Nick and Steve's friend whose name I don't recall offhand, myself, and a whopping six other people. It was really really empty, I like my movies like that.

Anyways, the quality of the movie was good, fantastic special effects. I didn't like the way Kurt Wagner looked, but that cannot be helped, because beyond his actual appearance (the face wasn't right) he was exactly the personality he should have been, a bit more combatative, but that's not suprising, and German is such a fun language.

Pyro is developped very well, which I believe is the general idea. But he isn't developped enough to justify his actions either. David doesn't think the Brotherhood is going to appear, but I think the stage is pretty much set, but that could just be me.

The pace moves fast enough, though all the damn kids are once again faces in the crowd without using powers save for one of them, who was much younger than he should be, but that's a different matter. Some of the concepts are rather contrived, but you've got to get things done somehow. The foreshadowing is nice, is blatent to someone with any knowledge of the storyline of X-Men. There are some fun little issues thrown in for fans, Beast for example. But the violence is too bloodless given what actually occurs. Tons of fatalities and not much actual blood to show for it. Point blank grenades would make a mess.

Of course the movie still lacks several characters, but that's really a whole different world of a complaint. So, it's time for the lightning round:

1)What character, linked in Storm's past and just above Magneto in the mutant database is missing?

2)What character, who is, to quote Mutant Genesis the "resident psionic japanese-by-the-way-of-britain ninja warrior" also needs to make at least a child appearance?

3)Who is the all too Asian mutant in the last scene? Hint: The earrings are a dead giveaway.

4)Two characters aren't wearing enough green, one is rogue, the other is foreshadowing, who?

That'll do it for now, I need to go pickup David in a bit, then eat some Lunch, and then go to earn some cash

Or David will take the bus home so he doesn't get rained on...oh well.

5)What doesn't Cyclops do, it might be at the end of the credits, for once I didn't stay for them? Hint: The answer is not something, although that is quite true.

Blogger is being very bad so we'll have to discuss X-2 later. *Looks at his copy of X-Men Mutant Genesis* <---Great comic book.

Since it seems to be the thing to do...I'm in.

last cigarette: Haven't touched the stuff yet
last kiss: Haven't felt the need to
last good cry: Last time I had tears was Fantasia 2000, couldn't tell you why though. Dunno.
last library book checked out: Umm... Running with the Demon
last movie seen: X-2
last book read: I think I read all of Murder in the Cathedral
last cuss word uttered: Fscking, in reference to X-2, in a good way.
last beverage consumed: A Caffine-free Coke
last food consumed: Microwaved Calzone (Pepperoni and 4 cheeses)
last crush: Beck was the last crush, but I'm past silly things like crushes now.
last phone call: Kyle so he could drag me to see a movie.
last tv show watched: Ummm...Hey! Trigun's on!
last time showered: This Morning.
last shoes worn: Slippers preceeded by Sandals preceeded by my Addidas sneakers.
last cd played: I guess it was Jesus Christ Superstar: Disc One.
last item bought: Mine and David's Movie Tickets, I don't buy stuff often, last thing I bought before that was dinner at Prom, just to give you an idea of how rare my purchasing is.
last downloaded: Tsuneo Imahori - People Everyday (yes, that's a Trigun song)
last annoyance: Work, people at work, and my low pay-scale considering the opportunity costs.
last disappointment: Still disappointed in Judas's actions.
last soda drunk: Same as my last beverage.
last thing written: Infoceptor post.
last key used: Start up my van.
last word spoken: See my last cuss.
last sleep: Last Night
last im: Well, I had messages from Jeff and Cindy when I go back from away, haven't talekd since then.
last sexual fantasy: Sexual Fantasy? I write fantasies and there's no sex in them.
last weird encounter: Depends on how you define weird. Ran into Nick and Steve at X-2.
last ice cream eaten: I don't recall. I'd presume it was some Black Jack Cherry at least a month ago.
last time amused: X-2. Cause David and I know too much about it.
last time wanting to die: Wanting to die? See last disappointment.
last time in love: My secret, but my last crush says most of it.
last time hugged: I think Becca ambushed me a week ago, but I don't really count that.
last time scolded: Bad grades in Calc.
last time resentful: ...Don't care.
last chair sat in: Computer rolling chair. I ought to pull the other over, I like it more.
last lipstick used: Anti-Prom Junior year. You'd have to ask Lulu if she remembers.
last underwear worn: Current, your generic stuff.
last bra worn: Anti-Prom again I belive, though I could be wrong.
last shirt worn: My 2001 Savannah Sinfonia shirt, currently not wearing one though.
last time dancing: Prom
last poster looked at: Umm...Whichever poster is on the first on the way out of the left wing of Regal.
last show attended: Yes and ASO, which was a good while ago.
last webpage visited: I have Jeff's Blog (where I stole this), my Blog, and Infoc open. Take your pick.

1 MINUTE AGO: Doing this survey
1 HOUR AGO: Physics
1 DAY AGO: Threatening Kyle with "Concussion"
1 WEEK AGO: At this time on AP week? Either sleeping or posting.
1 YEAR AGO: Sleeping
I HURT: Currently? My wrists could use some advil.
I FEAR: Letting Judas make decisions again.
I HOPE: I get to smile more
I FEEL: Oddly discontent.
I HIDE: Everything. Nothing is more fun.
I DRIVE: '89 Minivan until work coughs up enough cash for me to get something nicer.
I MISS: See "I HOPE" and "I FEEL"
I LEARNED: The truth about Beck.
I THINK: That I need to focus more often.

current clothes: Khaki Jeans, white socks, and a pair of black slippers.
current mood: See "I FEEL"
current music: Tesla - Song and Emotion (though too soft for me to hear cause I'm ignoring Winamp) now Therion - Invocation of Naamah.
current taste: I didn't drink enough water today.
current annoyance: This chair is itchy and I'm thirsty.
current smell: Thanks to allergies there isn't one.
current thing i should be doing: There isn't one, save for maybe sleeping.
current desktop picture: Random Biohazard logo David put on here from Digital Paradox.
current refreshment: Ought to get some water, but I'll likely have chocolate milk before sleeping.

PERSONAL STUFF
Name: Colin William Webster
Nicknames: There was a whole post on it, check it out yourself.
Address: Alpharetta, Ga
College Plans: G Tech: Some form of engineering.
Birthday: 10/12/84
Birthplace: Atlanta
Siblings: David and Ian
Parents: Clive and Valerie
Pets: 2 cats and a dwindling number of fish.
Hair Color: Dark dark brown.
Eye Color: Varies with my surrondings (that's fun to say), hazel by default I think.
Height: 6'4" roughly when I try.
Piercings: None yet, though I have thought about it.
Righty, Lefty, or Ambidextrous?: Right and while I love to work my left hand to write as well, my handwriting is bad enough with my good hand.
What's your most comfortable piece of clothing?: Jeans, my slippers, and the black Fila shirt seem to work best. Though tux pants with an open dress shirt and my rockports is fun too.
Goal in Life: At present, to figure out my goal.

SOCIAL LIFE
Where can you usually be found?: Wandering used to be my answer. H117 when not in class, else at home or in class.
Who would you be with?: Usually solitary
What's your idea of a dream date?: I'm a romantic who's trying to deal with realities.
Are you timely or always late?: Often late, but I try very hard not to be.
Whats your biggest turn off in the opposite sex?: Someone who can't appreciate music.

FAVORITES
Color: I don't do favorite colors
Book: Hitchhiker's
Food: Whatever tastes good.
Restaurant: At present, Hops.
TV show: i try and avoid TV. I've seen most of the good stuff it bothers showing.
Movie: Fight Club cause I haven't seen it recently.
Song: Rhapsody- Soul Miner's Daughter and REM - Nightswimming
Sport: I don't play any. Most are fun to watch.
Holiday: Columbus Day cause it's my birthday and underapprectiated.
Month: September, when Fall gets into swing.
Season: See above
Flower: I'm not good with flowers.
Vacation: The beach. You can meet neat people there and watch them get bowled over by waves chest high on me.
School Subject: I really like doing French when I'm actually doing French
Radio Station: NPR after Midnight.
Soda: Hops' Root Beer, Barq's Red Cream Soda, any Ginger Ale, and IBC's Cherry Limeaide.

Today was well, we'll do this the quick way:
Morning/1st/2nd/3rd/4th/5th/Lunch/6th/7th/Work/Dinner/Now

Turned in a good student form to lower insurance costs (reading this D'Oraz?), got the library to show I had no fines (since I've never checked out a book I'd better not)/played spades/TGC +21/Played Liar's Poker/Played Fool and got Lakly's to sign my yearbook, sang to Ian/Got Scher's signature in my yearbook, forgot to pickup my good student form, watched marching bands/Talked about kitchen impliments/Watched Kathrine and Dan continue a nearly neverending game of war from last period which Dan won, played Hearts/Hah! I didn't have 7th period/Worked, blah. Decided that I would work tomorrow.

And Now Kyle's decided I'm going to go watch X-2 in less than 30 mins.

Today's basic French lesson is the greeting.

Salut (Informal Greeting), Bonjour (More formal Hello)
Ca va? (How are things or How is it going)
Ca va bien (Things are going well)
Ca va mal (Things are going poorly)
Ca va comme ci comme ca (Things are going so-so)
Oui, ca va (Things are going (similar to so-so, neither a good nor bad))

Je m'applle (I call myself) ____________ (Name here)

Tomorrow we'll see about some basic verbs.

Worked concession stand today, ah the joys of working the final day (hint: there are none), for the freaking Blue and Gold game (yes, that right, I sold food to the fools moronic enough to come watch Chattahoochee play against Chattahoochee). But, we'll not speak of that any longer.

Today was absolutely boring. Orchestra was yearbook signing and creating a French essay (hehe, that won't be pretty) where I realized the impending dilemma. Orchestra tuxes need to be dry cleaned and returned before the end of the week (in theory), but we're playing Graduation and everyone but Seniors need to wear Tuxes, thus the conflict of intrest. French wasn't anything. We rewatched the end of a movie we'd already finished and that was really just about it. Econ was the final (50 questions in 20 minutes? Yeah, that easy) and then more yearbook signing and some Spades (is it bad if I'm getting sick of most card games by now?). Lit was our presentation and we'll leave it at that. Then we...wait...we did something after the presentation? I sure as hell didn't. Abso-fscking-lutely nothing. Homeroom was one yearbook sig and then random chatting. Lunch was lunch, with Compton showing up for slightly altered conversation. Calculus I played solitaire and then Chinese Poker with myself. I had meant to do some reading, but Legally Blonde was too noisy. Stupid movies. Chang Theory lacked both the Chang and the Theory, so we watched the beginning to Titan A.E. Then I got my Monday dose of chatting with Compton after school and then it was the concession stand.

Just for the record, and cause it's more fun the fewer people that understand it, TGC +7 today.

Writing Thank You notes is not my strength , and I like it less when I'm expected to have produced a nice, personalized note, less than 4 hours after recieving the sealed envelope.

It's time for today's lesson in basic French because some of us need not to forget it and others need to relearn some of it. The rest of ya'll are just victims of them I guess.

Subjects:
je (I), tu (you), il (he or a masculine object), elle (she or a feminine object), on (it or one), nous (we), vous (you, plural or formal), ils (they, having at least one masculine member), elles (they, having only feminine members).

Today was, alright I guess, nothing fantastic. I mean, I enjoyed it once I actually got around to it. Played a decent 2 hours of Suikoden (damn Mathiu's father), about to reobtain the caste (though the damn Dragon killed me the first time by doubling up on it's breath. I have no idea why Claude (main character's name this time around) takes 1/2 to 1/3 as much damage as everyone else (that'd be good if he didn't deal out a similar amount less damage). So, I'm currently saved at the top, I'll have to strike him down tomorrow (or today if you care for the technicalities of time).

Speaking of time, since my Car decided not to work my clock is totally off, it's fun telling time with 9:34 PM being the default (Ie: 9:34 PM equals 0:00/12:00/24:00 (depending oh how you think), meaning that 9:35 PM is 12:01 by my car). It's actually kinda frightening how quickly my mind translates the numbers though.

At about 3:00 I went over to John's for a good 5 and a half hours of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. Basically it's what you'd get if you took Gauntlet's style meshed to the workings of Dungeon Siege in the world of Baldur's Gate (same voices I swear), all to the tune of 3rd edition rules (heavily altered, but hey). Only 3 classes at start: Human Archer, Dwarven Fighter, and Elven Sorceress. I don't know why I bother with the details, but I will anyways. As far as stats go it's every two points past 10 equals another bonus (precisely how 3rd Edition works it, though the bonuses are different). Strength yields +1 to hit and +1 to damage, Constitution = +1 hp per level, Dexterity = +1 AC (which still counts upward. Ie: Studded Leather is + AC 12, my fighter had some odd 60 AC when we stopped), Intelligence = More mana (+3 I think), Wisdom = +3% Exp, Charisma = +5% Sale Price -5% Sales Price (fun fun fun). Every 4 levels you get to increase a stat one point. Also at every level you get a number of skill points equal to the level you just graduated from (ie: 1 at level 2, 2 at level 3, etc.) For a fighter the highest cost is 10 for a hammer slam attack to all nearby enemies). The highest cost for a Sorc was Meteor Swarm at 21 (for the first rank at least). Anyways, John chose the Sorceress so I got to see 1st level Burning Hands (Diablo 2's inferno), Magic Missle (only one rank, but extra missle every to levels, very fun to look at), Mordakainen's Sword (Think a fast moving D2 scimitar that attacks enemies) and Ball Lightning (if you were to make Frozen Orb alot smaller and deal lighting damage (with animation being a bolt of lightning just arcing to the target continously while target was in range) this would the that). I didn't see Lightning, Meteor Swarm, Fireball, or Fire Shield. The Fighter, my choice since archery is very hard from a top down view, has mostly passives (Increase Attack Speed, Increase Critical Chance, Increase Critical Damage, Improved Attack and Damage, Improved AC, +3 Hp, Improve AC with Shield, Use weapon as a shield) but I opted instead to focus on Intestinal Fortitude (Life Regen skill) and Bull Rush (think Charge) which was very fun. I did get whirlwind but getting that many enemies around you simply isn't safe to begin with so it wasn't a very good choice.

At Kyle's I did a decent amount of DDR (nothing too insane) and managed to get in 4 random team 2v2 Random race games of Frozen Throne. I pulled off victory with Night Elf twice, Orc once, and Undead once. The best moment was my reaction to my ally getting mashed by mass steam tanks (we were both NE that game). I simply produced 4 ballistas and built a PotM with true shot to stand by and laugh as they tried for my bridge (A bridge too near).

In thinking about it, I've decided that it's not so much that tomorrow is going to be taken away by recital (2 hours tops) and Bachaluareate (2 hours tops as well), but that the timing for the two leaves me very little time in between so my day will be shot save for the morning (when I imagine I'll be sleeping) and the evening (and no one ever does anything Sunday evenings, so it'll be time for reading, Suikoden, Brood Wars with Jeff perhaps, and doing my French essay).

Why is the "non-storyline" Life of Riley more than a dozen strips ahead of the main page? Is there something that I'm missing about this?

Senior Field Day was good, even if I did get scorched around my neck despite my attempts. I had my depraved moment of the day at rockclimbing (actually, it wasn't really that depraved since I was kidding), if you really need to know what it was talk to D'Oraz, he was there. I honestly don't think we should have done Bohemian Rhapsody (though I know no one's asking) but the very high score awarded to Sherief and Chad Chambers (who is black btw...I forget who's that is addressed to) was really scary (4, 4, 5, I think, perhaps 2 5's) was kinda frightening. On the other hand, I do have a totally instrumental version of Bohemian that would have been perfect for showcasing the talent Chloe has (Karoke to the song w/o the words done well is really incredible). Today's lessons include the facts that Colin sucks at running, current music (though I did nail Jackass on 2 notes, not that I'm proud), and is still pretty weak. I need to work out. I should've been able to crush Jeff a bit faster.

The orchestra concert was unique. I'm not a big fan of the American theme, but the Beethoven, American in Paris, and American Frontier were all great songs. THe rest were just, eh, in my opinion (not how we played them, just my opinion of them as songs...I really prefer a good Adagio/Dirge/Adagietto to Hymn to the Fallen). Broadway theme would've been nicer. Or at least Duel of the Fates with Chorus instead. Hopefully the orchestra will do full Rodeo next year, cause although it's hard it sounds so good. Kudos to all the night's soloists: Sarah, Jackie, Helen, Edmund (who looked really generic asian in his red white and blue clothes w/o glasses and with a baseball cap), Compton, Zack, Andrew, Steve (kickass job on Beethoven for only his second time through it), the poor Oboe player (I've already forgotten her name), Kyle and Ian (Hymn sounded alot better on the concert guys, yay). No Matrix though... my mind is too wasted to even attempt.

I have Cherry Limeaide by IBC as my beverage for dinner. I didn't even know they made such thing, but the Cherry really overpowered the Lime. At my father's old job (random college job) they used to make Key Lime pie by dying lemon filling green (apparently you cannot synthesize the flavor of a lemon, go figure). David has berry cream (a flourescent blue liquid), very aromatic.

Heh, I wonder if they'll notice that it's just script A.Lakly in black on my senior excemption form whereas every other one turned in is a cursive Lakly in blue felt-tipped pen. Hope that's not an issue, though I do have another Exemption form witha more authentic sig...ought to be fine. Normally post orchestra concert I'd read the entire yearbook (mainly every Senior Ad and Senior Quote) but not today. Too fried. If I had the mindpower to do that I'd have gone to Matrix.

Song of the Moment: Kamelot - Don't you cry.

I'm going to have to create a third sub-directory if I keep this up. Added All My Nightcrawlers , Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal , and Warp 9 to Hell to my comics list. I can't really give good reviews being not very far into any of them, but oh well.

Orchestra Concert Friday Night at 7:30, it's going to be very good. Not a very good selection of standard orchestral songs, but the Symphony really makes up for that, absolutely incredible. And just so I can get it out of the way now, instead of post-concert and Senior Field Day and possibly Matrix (wow will I be tired) the Band is very very awesome for us. They deserve much credit. So many solos for them all (which happens alot when you're at most 4 in a section) and the vast majority are played very well (very well coming from a discerning ear). Downside to the damn concert is we're not wearing Tuxes, which I don't like because I really prefer the diginifed look. Costume is nice and all, but there's just something better about being in black regalia (quick, someone mention the cute asians in the silky black orchestra dresses).

Rehearsal today went well, although I'm thinking a regular concert without all the extras is nicer. Sure it'll look great, blend well, but I'm not for the over-the-top approach. Getting home took forever because my car decided to die on me. It's alive again though, hurrah for jumper cables, I need to smack some sense into it though. I would've been home much earlier, but I instead had to wait on my mother, who managed at least 4 major conversations on her way out (all the while carrying a large glass pot full of taco meat). Jin showed up, gave me the standard derogatory remarks that he always does (it's a Jin thing) and Nick was there as well (but he's been around pretty frequently cause classes are out for him) and apparently he played with the Chorus, though I didn't attend so I don't know what he did. I don't think I'll have that kind of legacy next year though I might manage to find some reason to come back...maybe. For Gray and Scher definately, but beyond that there's only perhaps Chang and maybe Bolt of Calc gets some cool rising Seniors in it.

i have no idea if I have orchestra rehearsal tomorrow. I'm assuming yes because somewhere along the lines I'd love to hear Beethoven sound somewhat decent before we perform it (heh, that's what I get for missing Orch for AP's I guess) and I think we've got an hour or so alloted sometime tomorrow, hoping that I don't get burned by the sun.

Current Graduation Tally, 2 congradulations totalling $75, wow. Those Announcements really are useful.

Mmmm.... Lunar Eclipses are cool, though damaging to look at, although I think 3 comics at once did worse.

No Post.

Did Trigun just end? I mean, I wasn't counting, but I think it's finished. Yay for Trigun anyways.

Alright, onto slightly more serious topics (I did have something planned, though I've now completely let it slip my mind. What a pity). Err...ummm....Damn. Okay. Random stuff instead.

Ahh! Piano recital this Sunday! Yeah I'll do fine cause I'm playing uber easy stuff (So should have focused and chosen something else, oh well. My loss). No, ya'll aren't invited (hey, I didn't use ain't, what a pity) cause I don't want anyone to see how much better the little kids are than me.

Orchestra Concert this Friday 7:30. It's going to be good, that goes without saying, and the music is nice. Good theme, but I think the focus on having a theme is actually kinda stupid.

I added two more online comics today: Uncanny X-Sprites (Megaman sprites pretending to be X-Men, so far as I can tell, not very far yet) and Hello Cthulhu (Cute looking Cthulhu and friends plus Sanrio characters).

Ron is now a married man, which is kinda a creepy thought, but not really. I think the creepier thought is knowing that all of my managers/owners have divorced once. He had wedding pictures from his wife's video camera so I saw those a couple times (When Matt arrived and when Big Joe arrived, etc.). Ron still looks like Ron when in a tux, but a very stylish Ron.

It cannot be only Tuesday, it just cannot. I'm already so brain dead from doing absolutely nothing. Getting plenty of time to read my book at least, which is cool because I like it alot, very good. Mr. Pullman writes very well. Locked my keys in my car today, I really have to keep my mind from wandering so often, just not good for me. Oh well. I guess I should be doing some work, but today is soo totally dead. I've been given a random promotional shirt and sent a fax and some Delivery Confirmation Mail and that's it. In the course of an hour and fifteen minutes that's all I've done.

Alright. Not much to say, but that's okay. Today was another one of those blah days. Orchestra wasn't anything exceptional. French was a new movie, this one is based on the premise of a knight and his servant getting sent 900 years into the future where he meets his descendant (although the reason he'd travelled through time in first place (meant to go backwards) was to stop himself from killing his wife-to-be's father and thus ending his chances at having descendants), as if that plot hasn't been done to death. Econ was yearbook signing time, which equated to me doing basically nothing. Lit was a presentation and then eating, nothing fantastic there. Homeroom was random yearbook discussion with Jessie and D'Andrea. Calc was an empty class (read: something like 10 students and Bolt) awhere we did essentially nothing since Bolt wasn't in a Mao mood (likely because Burke had come in 1st period to give someone an award while the class was playing Bond on the PS2, or just over partied or something) so I got some reading done, a process I continued in Music Theory since Chang wasn't here today.

I did manage to get myself a graduation gown, but just a gown. I haven't found the cap yet, but at least the price was right: Free.

On the topic of family togetherness, we showed Prom photos to my Grandmother. Her impressions were (and I would like to note I do not necessarily endorse all of these views) as follows: She liked Nani's dress the best, Jia Jia is obvious destined for success, Leo is obviously not, and John seems like a Bill Cook to her (which, going by the Bill Cook model, would mean 20 years of indecisive college followed by working for NASA).

I think Ed and I's signatures in Pair's yearbook might be a bit too similar (the same general false thank you, etc. except I added Micro to his Marco statement in my signature).

Family togetherness will drive me insane one of these days I figure. I want to know why I'm screwing over my eating schedule so much. In addition to the 11 hours from the last post, I went until 2:00 PM today before eating my first meal, which makes a full 23 hours of fasting for no real reason.

Well, no major events for today so no major Blog. Maybe next week will hold something.

Not a day for the record books. Just the standard chauffering with various miscellaneous gaming thrown in for the mix. I've just realized that it's been a good 11 hours since I last ate. Oh well, no harm done, we'll get to that when I awake. Sleepy time now.

Well. Today was one of those mixed days. Orchestra was alright (I don't love all the songs, but that's okay, it's still a fun thing with great people), French was a funny movie and Madame just kept feeding us (even if I did choke on the powdered sugar on more than one occasion), Econ was playing Fool with Kevin, Ed, and James and showing them my masterful card skills at random games, Lit was Mao cause I've decided that I'll do the forced one on one evening with Jiaz, seems the wisest choice...silly Lakly giving post AP Test assignments, Homeroom was a waste - I should've started reading the book, Calc was just extended Mao (very fun, cool rules, and 3 from me), and Music Theory was combo Family Guy and Spaceballs.

I had meant to watch either Mulan or Kiki's Delivery Service this afternoon but those plans were pleasantly disrupted.

I'm getting frighteningly better at DDR. I still wouldn't call myself good or balanced, but I have the rudimentary skills to keep myself afloat in most situations. I started messing with the options to see what happens. Note to all: Stealth plus Boost plus Shuffle on a fast song = no chance.

Here's to a great weekend everyone, may all things be great and wonderful.

Infoc has taken a much appreciated turn for the better. It might not have been too serious but I've gotten a few allies in the forum and I have a wonderful 3 debates in Serious Discussion forum to read. SeanG and Dr. Pangloss are spectacular to witness.

Current Mood: Sleepy and smiling (the way I like life)
Current Music: Hunting down a song that I've never heard without looking, we'll see what comes of it.

Today's unsafe household activity: Buying Animal Crossing. Owning your own Real World is kinda disturbing. Especially when everyone but your mother does it.

My mother worries me. This was our conversation at the concert:
(Colin's mother makes some comment about Colin never being informed)
(Colin agrees)
(Colin's mother tells him to find an organized girlfriend and then)
"Marry a rich girl."
"Why?"
"Because it's just as easy to marry a rich girl as it is to marry a poor one and a rich girl is much easier to take care of."

Wow...that still seems uber cynical.

The thursday that by all means should have been a Friday.

Okay, my day. Start to Finish. I had a slow start, and despite this fact I decided to be nice and wait on my brother (as opposed to Monday when I left barely after he'd woken up) which was a big mistake because that meant that I aws obligated not only to wait for him but to pick up Jenn as well. I rushed David and therefore got out quickly enough not to be stuck behind a school bus. Instead I ended up behind some freak who made school buses look swift. Anyways, I got to school and found that my mind was again undoing itself for the BC Calc test. Anyways, I did very well on the calculator part (which says something considering I was using the schools Ghetto TI-82) but left 3 blank on the non-calc multiple choice and definately did not get all the rest correct. I eventually managed to figure out all the free-responses, but getting through the ends of #'s two and three didn't happen until after I had put my calculator away. The test wasn't made too much easier by my memory, which came to me at about the start of the free response when I thought to myself "Oh crap, I have a concert today" and then "Oh crap, I left my work clothes at home." But, anyways, I prevailed and hopefully got a 5.

Mao in 6th was pretty fantastic. Then I bailed out on 7th, with Chang's permission, (Note: I owe Cal one) and checked out the AP Art presentation and then played some more Mao and got Jiaz and my research paper back 192/200...not bad. Lakly said to look over her comments carefully, but her 3 criticisms were a comma splice, a lacking transition, and a usage of "it is" and the rest was "good quote" and smiley faces.

Work was, interesting. Intensive packing jobs suck. Today's helpful UPS Store note: Weekends are not shipping days. If you want to get something there by Mother's Day and it's the Thursday before, your only option is a Next Day Air shipment, which is very costly. Ron actually used the phrase "Shits and giggles" and then he said the exact same sentence but used "bullshitting around" instead. I survived though, got home, changed, and then got back to school for Jazz Band and Regular Band concert. It went rather well, although of the 9 songs I have (out of 20 total the whole year) in the Jazz Band's repetoire, we only played 6 songs and only 2 were mine :(. Anyways, Kyle showed up and threw me a curve ball. He wanted me to drive him down to his sister's housing near Tech to pickup his mother's car. Naturally I refused, since I'm tired, hungry, and not a good navigator so I hate driving too far. I later made the mistake of telling my mother about this request, who then offered her services, which I then relayed to Kyle, who accepted, and then of course I got dragged along: and therefore away from my late-night AIM convos (including one I'd just begun with Sean, NYLC asian friend who's going to UCLA and lives in CA, which really irks me) and Infoceptor (which we'll get to later) and lost the ~1h10 (I left close to 10:30, got back at 11:40) that I would have otherwise had. And of course David had been using the cpu for god knows what, but of course that means that my away messages were lost (guess I'll have to talk to Sean again later) and now Winamp was having critical errors whenever I started it up, forcing a restart (which also sucks due to the amount of crap on my cpu). Jiaz, I'd appreciate if you could tell me what Episode of Trigun I missed so I can d/l it.

Anyways. I've decided I don't like immature people. Especially pathological liars on forums. And definately those who can't even notice simple facts. @ Infoc they have a Art forum story they are working on, so naturally I decided to help edit. I asked the head honcho and he said sure, but go ahead and formally apply at the appropriate Thread. So I applied, waited a week and then went ahead and posted my edits. Immediately the lead editor responded, telling me 1) that he was impressed at the things I caught that he didn't. 2) That about 75% of it was actual error the others just stylistic aspects that clashed with me. and 3) that he was glad for any help. About a week later than that Elfdude posts to tell me how to properly use the quote function (Which makes a 1 line quote into 5 lines of quote graphics and text and I therefore consider stupid since I'd be making some odd 5-10 different ones anyways) and to warn me that if I'm not approved by the headhoncho my suggestions won't be taken seriously (and yes, the main editor's post was the one immediately before this one) *Sigh*

Okay, I refuse to stop posting since I really am quite angry about getting dragged by my mother, no anger at Kyle though...he does need the car. So, we have analyzing Colin lessons # 1 and # 2:
Lesson 1) If Colin isn't smiling he's either tired or pissed off. If he's tired, he can either be the "let me sleep" kind where he's pretty much a pushover or the "I've had it" tired where he'll become pissed very very quickly.
Lesson 2) If Colin adjusts his rearview mirror his mood has changed. Since the level of straitness which Colin's spine assumes is a general function of his mood, an adjuctment of his mood is reflected in his posture when causes him to have to manipulate the mirror.

The Band concert sounded good, even the singing. My major issues are that A) I really can't praise anyone/ any section because all Brass sound generally the same (Except when a Trombone has slides) and same with woodwinds. Moreover, you really can't see breath so you can't prove when they are playing sometimes. With Strings it is fairly obvious who is playing and when. A moving bow is a fairly decent indicator. Moreover then moreover, I prefer the orchestra's having all sections represented the in front row (so much cooler then mass flutes I think) and the Basses elevated by stools are standing so you can see them as well. Visablity is cool. Okay, I guess we'll have to do some actual congrats. A generic followed by a kudos to the Concert Lead Saxaphone and then props to Claire (whose little sister looks just like her) and Mimi and Derek (for good posture, good playing, and being all around cool for Juniors). I also had the privledge of shouting the word "Canopy" at Chang. How's that for something you don't do every day.

I'm going to be doing nothing in any class except Orchestra and Econ tomorrow and it's not like I'm not already vindictively sarcastic around Palmer and have stopped caring about Econ anyways.

Today's unsafe household activity: Microwaving Helium Balloons.

Deep apologies to anyone I missed on AIM.

Heh. I doubt I'll be posting anything today. Nothing too special happened and I need to get some Calc studying done. Until I again feel inspired.

Well, Change of plans. I think I'm about as studied as I can possibly get, or at least as I care to get. It ought to be a nice 5 on Calc unless they pull something really evil upon. If someone has an extra Ti-Series Calc could they bring it? Mine's dead in the water (I guess batteries would cool too, but I doubt I remember to bring my adding machine). Just came from getting my ass handed to me in Marvel vs. Capcom 2. 13 strait losses to David's team of Chun-Li, Sakura, and Magneto. I want to know what the hell his "easy" setting versus my "normal" does for him. He seems to pull of his safety rolls (Ie: the crap that lets him avoid a jump-in combo -though I'm too anti-cheapness to use them anyways) and all the other special function attacks much easier. Oh well, just not my game I guess. Technically I'm better, but I care not to be cheap too much. Oh well, I'm going to go sleep and read, probablly in reverse order. So much for watching Trigun. Aw well, that's how life works sometimes.

I'd better get a 5 on Calc. I know what I'm doing for the most part (I just always screw up the second fundamental theorem of Calc, have this last second forgotten Arc Lenth for regular graphs, and can feel my knowledge of Series falling out of my mind (but at least those I can derive), and I still suck at any test that's not ratio), I feel confident, I have plenty of sleep. Guess I'll try and give those topics a perusal, though I hate looking at them through the book, but my notes are insufficient.

My Washington State (just location origin) package came in today :). I'd say what was inside but I'll be fairly obvious methinks since I've even made several comments about it.

Kyle pretty much covered it, but I'm going to get it out of myself anyways. But that doesn't matter because this post isn't going to start a the end of my school day, cause the beginning was fun as well.

Alright, I got to school at roughly 7:53, which is pretty crappy considering I left my house at 7:30, but I was hampered by David (2 mins), Jenn (2 mins), and a very very slow school bus and the usual stupid traffic. I got to school to find the room divided into the test taking guy's room and the back room, so I went out wandering to find Chang and figure out what I needed to know for the Jazz Band concert ("No T-shirts, no Jeans, no sneaks" were his actual words). Then I was told by Cathrine to go get my Calc test, and proceeded to pass Bolt in the hallway so I had to wait outside for a decent length of time. Did eventually get my test, an 83 (though I completely missed the stupid g(x)=fnint f(t),x,0,x (sorry for the calculator terms, but I have no decent way to make an intergral sign). In Orchestra Palmer basically yelled at us (though he didn't yell of course) for having AP classes (and therefore missing Orchestra) and told us that our lower Orchestra (Sinfonetta) could easy pull off the concert today (implying that we did not meet that level, which is true, but only because he gave us a new piece today! And not just any piece, a severely difficult Beethoven of which we had not nearly enough copies (I didn't even have the first page...though I did have 2 third pages).

Econ was...well, you can see how much I did in there by the fact that I posted, read every single Mac Hall I.O.T.M. and even checked most of my major comics. Apparently I'm now passing the class (I have a 70 now, with a 79 on the last test apparently). Lakly's class was planning for the dinner skit thing and my lunch period before the real meat of my day. AP French Lang.

The French Lang Test is the ultimate in evil. It has listening comprehension, listening passages, reading passages, insert the appropriate preposition/article/pronoun, conjugate the verb, an essay, and an oral section (one with a multi-image series, and one single image). We started the madness and found that Rollot's room had 18 tape recorders for 24 people (even basic math says that is not a good thing). Anyways, we started the test under Karpel's direction (yes she did leave, yes she was back, and yes she had a cane). We got through the 40 total listening questions and had gotten roughly 25 minutes into our 55 minutes of time on the reading comprehension when the Tornado Drill went off. So we had someone call the College Board (a counselor) to see if we would be allowed to continue after such a disturbance. Our class (despite the fact that Rollot's room has no windows) got moved to the other end of the E-hall to a room full of yappy Freshmen language arts students. We were told that so long as we finished the test before 5:30 we were okay (go figure how that makes things standardized). So, Karpel gave us 39 minutes to finish our last 30 minutes of the reading (Someone has poor math skills). The reading passages were on, in no particular order: The Importance of Hair as a sign of political and social standing (citing specifically Samson and French Wigs), some small town Picasso lived and painted in at some point (including how he painted his wife and some other woman to make the perfect "neoclassical woman," A passage talking about the chain of discoveries regarding atoms (from electrons to x-rays to Madame Curie), one about Chinese medicine and it's effectiveness (acupuncture, yin and yang), and one more concerning how driving while low on sleep is similar to driving while drunk. We then took our break and then did our Words, Verbs, and Essay (see Kyle's blog for the specifics on the essay). After finishing that we moved next door to Kolesky's room and did the oral. Except the tapes make a very loud and low noise when they are rewinding that aroused far more humor in some of our classmates than it should have. We're not certain how well any of it recorded, and we do have reasons to doubt it...but that's life. Poor Marianna and Whitney's didn't seem to work at all (though I think they did, just didn't get done quite as well, but whatever) so they had to do the 15 min oral section after the rest of us (who got out at fscking 5:45!) So Kyle and I proceed to call the seperate stores where we were supposed to have been working today and asked if they wanted us to actually come in. Neither Ron nor Joe said it would be worth it (with all the rain it had been a slow day at both stores) but Ron did inform me that my mother had called looking for me some 25 minutes ago and that the big tree out in front of the store had been shredded by a lightning bolt. I got off the phone and called my mother to tell her about the delay and that I wasn't working. She told me that the Jazz band concert (as well as everything else) had been cancelled, and that the school had called to inform her that I had skipped 6th period both yesterday and today. Whereupon I screamed "God Fucking Damnit" across the parking lot. Sometimes I wonder how the school manages to get anything done.

I took to the road with Kyle and headed to check out the tree (which wasn't quite split, but was in bad shape) and get some gas at the Kroger Station off of Douglass Road ($1.20). Then I took Kyle back to his house where we had a chat (45 minutes, about low/medium length as far as my chats go) about various subjects. Therefore I was slightly late to dinner, but that's not a major issue in the scope of the rest of the day. Well, that's my freaking day. At least French is over, totally. All I have to say.

Current Music: Jesus Christ Superstar Disc One - 15. Blood Money

Okay. Today will be the evil evil evil French Lang test, then straight to Work, followed by the Jazz Band concert (7:00 PM tonight). It won't be too fabulous, but I'd love to have any of ya'll out there in the audience just for fun if you've nothing else to do.

Current Music: Trigun - Not an Angel (Aren't instrumental songs great?)

Well, my piano lesson was informative. Apparently my teacher's husband's standard for the "goodness" (for lack of a better word) of a dance is how many shirts you go through. Not saying that I agree totally, but it's not a bad indicator.

Apparently Tech Greek life involves formal dances about once or twice a year, and we're talking getting two buses and driving off to South Carolina, or New Orleans, or the beach. Well, you learn something every day I guess.

AP Testing.

Holy hell do I feel drained. I think I took a slightly different approach than most on my essays. For the compared poems I called the first one critical and related the Greek title and the language to Robert Bridges' belief that Eros as a view of love was outdated and archaic (or however that is spelled) because Eros was nothing more than a cruel temptor who knows nothing of love. his "un-[somethinged] lips." And I called the second poem praising of a God so dedicated to the cause of love that he accepts the blows that love throws rather than stepping out of the ring and letting love get lost or fade away. The second essay became Colin trying to remember most of Harbinger's comments because they all held true and writing a basic, straight to the point, no fluff essay. The third one I fell back to my classical form of writing about Creon (and everyone says that nothing good came out of Marcy's class, pah).

Btw: Today's "Pearl before Swine", the comic in the AJC, is fantastic.

Prom:

Alright, I started my day bright and early with a 10:00 AM haircut and then a visit to the bank to cash my latest paycheck. Then Kyle and Nani invaded for lunch followed by a meeting with Nani's friends at Starbucks which got relocated when others nearby broke out cigarettes so we went to the park on Buice Road where I went and brought Vicky back to her house and then David and I went home and I showered and shaved and got dressed. Then we went to Katie's where her father and I had to find an old wedding picture to decide where the boutanier went. Then we took some photos and headed off for Kyles where you can refer to Jiaz's blog for any of the info about that. After the limos moved we went to Schmidt's house and arrived about 8 minutes late, had some quick pictures, and then got rolling. We had six people in a six person limo so things worked out well. It was Erin (Katie's friend and a violinist) and Schmidt (a bass player), Katie (violin turned bass) and myself (bass players) and Dimitri (Trombone) and his date, who I believe was named Rachel, but it might have been something else. Anyways, Rachel had the CD control so we listened to popular demi-rock (Sum41, Blink 182, Offspring, etc.) but never actually finished any songs and a lot of Rap ("Baby got Back" and an Eminem song included). We didn't bother even trying the televisions. The ride involved a lot of Dimitri bashing, mostly because it's so easy, and had it been the first time he and Rachel had met I would have thought I was getting along better with her than he was without trying. Anyways, we arrived at Aqua Blue a bit late, but there was room anyways. We got seated in a back corner, and our menu was a colorful piece of paper with graphic art of little balloons and streamers drawn on it [sarcasm] obviously crafed at with great expense and care[/sarcasm]. The menu was a salad followed by our choice of fillet mignon, grilled salmon, or a vegetarian plate (which no one had), and then a desert of a chocolate moose bomb (the first word I saw on the menu being "bomb") for each couple. It wasn't very large, but that's okay because I didn't want to eat much anyways. After finishing we paid and had to wait as a bunch of other people came in, including Meredith Powers, Megan McCormick, Rick, Tina, Derek, Christina, Ashley Clark, Brent Cirilli, and Mark Chilla, and a ton of others. I forgot to put my Tux over the chair facing back, so I just avoided leaning back the whole time to protect my boutanier. We got in the limo and arrived at Fernback at 7:30. We decided that was way to early and told the driver to keep going. Then we told our driver Brian to get us back there at 8:20 (Rachel wanted 8:30, the rest wanted 8:15, so we compromised). We had a debate about rap music's origins and after Schmidt had seemed to have severely trounced Dimitri, Brian chimed in with a fact that defeat Schmidt, but didn't help Dimitri any so I gave the win to Brian. We got back at 8:20 and went in, all passed the breathalizer, and started saying hi to people and then got to dancing after wandering around a bit. I never took of my jacket because I knew I'd have had the hardest time finding it again with my memory, so we took to dancing. I won't go into specifics about that, but here are some items of note.
I danced with Katie tons, Lulu once when I grabbed her into the circle with me for a forced impromptu waltz dance, once with D'Oraz when I jumped in the circle to dance with Dunn and he backed out, at least twice with Nick plus a three-way booty dance with Nick, Schmidt, and myself. I tried to get a dance with Sam, but Amy stole him back, though they and us did share a random four person sqaure waltz for about a minute. I also did a dance with Katie and Rachel at the same time.
I think the AP tests will be murder simply because my legs and knees are still protesting my actions from the dance.
The song with dance commands was too unclear to be cool, but at NYLC it had been absolutely wonderful. The DJ's total playlist was rather pitiful since I feel in love with Wu Tang Clan at NYLC and we didn't have any great songs that I could hear/relate to.

On a tangent, I have to say that Prom did let me down in the aspect that it was too single-partner oriented event. But that's only because the last dance I went to was the NYLC and we didn't have partners. So on that note; "M", Mona, Steve, Joanna, Karen, Cammy: I miss you all.

After-Prom report.

Jiaz summed it up best: "We expected Prom to be okay and After-Prom to be great, but the result turned out to be the opposite."

I didn't really eat much at after-Prom, which was definately a mistake because my nourishment cycle is still heavy unbalanced at the moment.

The range of activities, which included watching a movie I've already seen many many times (Monty Python...) and a movie I had no major intrest in seeing (Close Encounters...) didn't do anything great for me. The massive DDR setup also held no allure because Katie and I had simply danced as hard as well could the entire time we were at Prom. I know because I'm stilll feeling it and because I've already recieved half a dozen comment without even having gone back to school.

The best part of after-Prom, besides a very tasty Shirley Temple, was definately the long chat upstairs, which is why I'm very glad I'll have those people with me at college. Those people without whom I think I'd very likely loose my mind.

After Katie woke up at 7:00 I took her home and got back to my place at about 7:30. I got the paper for my parents, checked out the news at Infoceptors forums and went to sleep. I was asleep until 11:00, where I woke up, looked at the clock, and went straight back to sleep. Then I was roused at 4:30 so I could get up and shower and go to the Orchestra Banquet, then I came home and started this blog. Damn, I really shouldn't still feel tired after a 9 hour nap.

To those who missed the Orchestra Banquet, I have two more I'd like to throw out. Elizabeth doesn't get her own because her's is exactly what I gave Sophia, they were supposed to split it.

Anyways (which I'm well aware is not actually a word) here goes:

Sarah, I give you a replacement soul (not mine, because mine isn't held by me) since I'm convinced you must've traded yours for you Violin skills and your great appearance which certainly lit up Prom.

Fu, I offer nothing to you besides all sorts of memories. To the word I offer and apology for the day when another violinist joined the word of violas.

Well, since it stands freshest in my memory at the moment I shall attempt to reproduce my Orchestra Senior Will for my own purposes. So, in no particular order.

To Edmund I bequeath myriad memories: All Night Bomberman and the Piano in Savannah.
Sophia All the time I've ever wasted because I know she could use it.
Jordan: I think you should steal Sophia's award (Most Likely to be the next Gap model) on the way out.
Becca: I think you should have gotten the powderpuff award.
Christine: All those great Guys and Dolls memories.
Johnathan Shaw: All of Tim's responsabilities and duties, whatever they might have been and the task of bringing Albert to all the concerts so everyone can go "awww, how cute."
Tim:No. Just No. I'll see you at Tech anyways.
Christine and Christina: Just remember, I always knew which was which.
Kasey:You get nothing because you took Nick to Prom and you've already had everything.
Helen: My hopes that you do better than a mere 1440 on your Sat's and a better than a 98 in your classes.
Mike: A rhyming dictionary so you won't have to revolve all your songs about Cletus the fetus.
Jackie: A regular dictionary so you can find a wider variety of things to say.
Yichen: The greatest Chinese Chess player I've ever seen, you played one game and you won it.
Katie: I hope your next two Proms are at least as good.
Lindsay: See that Katie stays out of trouble.
Kathleen: The great and terrible responsability of leading the Bass section.
Nikhil: Actually, this is from the school, they want your school spirit back, they think it'll be empty without it.
Becca: I think you should have gotten the powerpuff award.
Schimidt: A plea from Chang that you join Jazz Band and a bottle of Tylenol to help you cope with Kathleen.
Keith: My ability to not only lock my roommates out, but to sleep through all their attempts to wake me up so I could let them in.
Sonica The pride of being a Sinfonia celloist and keep Keith out of trouble.
Hannah Hi Helen.

Alright. I was discussing with my father my theory that the combined blast radii of all the world's current nuclear weapons would be, at best, just barely enough to eliminate Australia. I finished by saying "excluding radiation or nuclear winter" whereupon he quickly responded "just remember, if it's nuclear winter there, it's nuclear summer here."

Anyways, Palmer is a paranoid person. I mean I understand where he's coming from and all, but since he'll be out for All-State today (check post time) and tomorrow anyone who misses first period and comes to school later in the day will lose a letter grade unless we have a doctor's note or he calls home and talks to our parents, not that my parents would mind lying, but that's a totally different story.

Anyways. The Red Cross has started to worry me. Firstly, they tracked me down at work to schedule an appointment, which was just really eerie. Anyways, they've streamlined the process so that instead of handing you the questionnaire they pull you out of a database (so you don't have to fill out your Name, Race, Sex, Address, Phone #, Age, DOB, and SSN everytime) and then read you the 31 questions instead of making you circle them (btw, it's required that you circle each one individually. Even if the answer for 1-27 is no, you can't just make one big circle, you have to have 27 little circles). Anyways, my "nurse"/screener was an african american with a thick accent (well, not accent, he was just hard to understand) and he read every single question including the ones beginning "Are you a woman who..." I answered the first one of those "Are you a woman who has had sex with a man who has had sex, even once, with another man?" with a no and the "Are you a woman who is or has been pregnant in the past 6 months?" with an 'I hope not' which prompted my screener to go off on a tangent about the movie "Junior"...I hope I don't have nightmares. Some of the questions seem really repetitive, here's some examples: "Do you have AIDS","Have you been diagnosed with AIDS?" Or the spree of "Have you ever taken drugs or money in exchange for sex?" "Have you ever given drugs or money in exchange for sex?" "Have you ever had sex with anyone, even once, who has ever given drugs or money in exchange for sex?" "Have you ever had sex with anyone, even who, who has ever taken drugs or money in exchange for sex?" That sort of thing.

I got to ride in the 2003 Accord. Very nice. 2.153 K miles exactly, 6 speed, pretty, fast, good sound system with 6 dics changer and steering wheel controls, a bit short, but oh well.