"A lot of computer science majors seem to like that class..." Hell, I barely even let her finish the sentence before I decided that I was gonna enroll. Besides, had she--my advisor--not told me, chances are I still would've found it. What the heck am I talking about? Probably one of my favorite classes that is not complete bulls*beep*. And ironically enough, it just so happens to be one of the less certain branches of "science": philosophy!
To be exact, the class is called Philosophy 1204, Knowledge and Reality. Again, you may be sitting there wondering what exactly I just accomplished; what is the class about? I'd respond by simply stating, "Philosophy." Haha, man I love being vague. No, but in all seriousness, when I first walked into the large lecture room (comfortably sits 200) I really had no clue of how the class would be. It's been about five weeks or so--technically we're on the sixth, but who's keeping track?--and I'd say that I have a decent idea... even if I don't know how to get a good grade in it ^^;
The basic schedule for class breaks down like this:
1. Read a piece (as of now it's been either a story from our Science Fiction Hall of Fame book or one of Descartes Meditations)
2. Go to class and have a big discussion (I mean big, remember how the room holds 200?)
3. Take notes on anything important the teacher says (oh, there are so many interesting things!)
4. Once a week go to recitation to have a more intimate discussion (...unfortunately mine sucks. A lot.)
5. Once every month or so, write a position paper (more on those later)
It's actually quite a simple class, as you may be able to tell, that involves a very small amount of work. However, that doesn't mean that it's boring! Oh no, unlike the majority of my other classes, I am actually learning extremely interesting things in class. Not only am I a huge philosophy lover (remind me to tell you some of the thought-provoking discussions I've been pondering about) but the class teaches you how to formulate a good argument about more or less anything! No, it really does. Since it's philosophy and we're trying to convince others why we're right on a topic that is more or less incapable of being proven, you have to learn how to write and speak well. Oh, I guess your ideas have to be somewhat good also, but we all remember the old saying, "A good argument can convince a penguin to buy sun tan lotion." ... or something like that.
But yeah, you all get the point. While arguing logically is a good skill to acquire, the real fun comes from the different topics we end up talking about in class. The existence of God, what is intelligence, what is knowledge, the existence of God, plain regular existence, what defines a human, the existence of God, and--not necessarily most important, but it's up there--the existence of God.
Actually I'm just kidding, the existence of God isn't the only topic we cover. It just so happens that Descartes, in his fun meditations, likes to give proofs as to why God exists. So we discuss those pretty often, usually pointing out flaws in his theory or things that he flat-out skips over and assumes. Really, the most interesting topics and theories are brought up on the days in which we read those short stories in the "Hall of Fame." Hell, there have been times when people have brought up some of the most random things--one example being the anime Ghost in the Shell. Fun fun!
Mmmm, now, there is one thing that makes this class hard. That is the papers and how they are graded. If you give it a quick thought, how many freshmen college students have ever written a philosophy paper before? I'd say maybe a handful (a handful being equivalent to a baker's dozenth of a Brittish bushel... sad part is that the engineering class has taught me how to calculate that there).
So it comes down to one simple thing: the C+ I just got on my paper. Sure, a C+ ain't that bad, but I really would've liked a B. But, thankfully, the professor is giving us another chance at writing the papers. This is especially good since we can fully utilize the comments we recieved from the TA's in order to score slightly to significantly higher. And reading through the comments I got, I think I could pull the latter. The only down side is that I'll have to rewrite it from scratch in order to fit it all on the two page limit. Bummer.
But yeah, very fun class, just a bit difficult when it comes to the papers. Hopefully, though, by the end of the semester I will have gotten a lot better at it. We'll see, neh? I do believe that's the majority of what I wanted to say. If ever you wanna strike up a conversation just e-mail me or AIM me or something. I think one of those is on here >.>;
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Lone Excitement
(Quick Notice: All these times are relative to the 21st of September when I began writing the blog.)
Hahaha, ok ok, get this: today I had two tests. Yesterday I thought that I would be failing one of the two and pulling a not-too-good grade on the other. Today I have been proven wrong to a great degree. Really, after having taken the two, I'm tempted to ask... is college supposed to be hard?
About a week ago my chemistry teacher announced that our first test would be held today. So, at first, I thought that I'd have to study a lot and prepare for a very had test. Buuut then I thought it over and realize that, no, I probably would not have to do much work to get a decent grade on the test. While I had not learned the material that well when I had the course back in high school, I at least got to see it. Then, when we took the test in class, I relied mostly on my knowledge from 11th grade chemistry and I believe that I did quite well. Of the twenty-five questions--all multiple choice too--there were only a couple that I had any sort of doubt. Piece of cake. *EDIT: I found out that I got a 92, so not bad... though I should've done better*
The engineering test, on the other hand, had a huge buildup. There was all this negative hype (mostly from my sophomore friends) where people said how hard it would be and that we'd all fail it in the end. Well, while I didn't do as well as I hoped, I am quite certain that I did not fail. In fact, I would venture to say that most people did not fail. Even further, I'd go as far as to say that I did relatively well--the hubris! Sitting in the room right before the test was handed out, I expected some ridiculously hard questions, but they were so easy that I ended up finishing in half the time given. *EDIT: Ok, so I know now that I made a lot stupid mistakes. Let's just hope that it doesn't hurt my grade too badly.*
Right, so that's enough about school for now. Another--I guess good?--thing happened today: finally got a job interview set up. I mean, it's cool that I'll finally have an income once more and be able to afford the things I really want (like that trip to PR during winter break), but I as I sit here I can only wonder... is it worth the price I'm paying? See, I've done the one thing that I always said I would not. I entered the food industry. Oh the shame!
Yeah, that is correct. Soon enough I will be employed by Sbarro (or whatever company owns them). I mean, it seems like an ok job, right? Free pizza every shift? Well, I can't stand eating pizza that often, so most likely a lot of the free food will go to my friends. *deep sigh* there goes one perk. Haha, nah, the real perk will be the freedom to get whatever games I want (oh, and eventually all of Scrubs on DVD). That and not worry too much about using text messages and such. I just hope that selling my soul for the chance of some money won't come back to haunt me. What am I saying? Of course it will, it's fast food! ... double shame.
*returns after 4 hours of bathing* Now that I am slightly cleaned up, we can continue.
Well, now this'll seem kinda random, but I need to rant somewhere. Where else better than the blog? It's not necessarily a hard thing to talk about, just hard to put in to words let alone even figure out where to begin (insert there like five people telling me "from the beginning").
I dunno, as of late I'm getting slightly homesick and feeling extremely detached--for having so many people I know here that is. Really, homesick enough to just want to go back home and sleep in my bed all day. Hell, I'm even wanting to just be with my parents or something. Sadly enough, these feelings come in waves to the point that I seem bipolar to myself. It's not like I'm constantly sad and down and "emo," but when contrasted to how quickly I switch from sheer ecstasy to this, my previous statement does seem slightly valid.
Mmm, well there are multiple reasons why I'm feeling homesick and detached. Actually, it all adds up to a feeling of loneliness; being stuck here at Tech with no one to be with or no group to hang with. Over the summer I had a lot of friends and was constantly--for the most part--doing something with someone. Guess it all comes with adjusting to college life *deep sigh* ohs wells.
I'm off for the day then. Oh, check me dA sometime soon cause I'll be posting new things soon. Maybe written, maybe photographed, maybe Photoshopped?
Hahaha, ok ok, get this: today I had two tests. Yesterday I thought that I would be failing one of the two and pulling a not-too-good grade on the other. Today I have been proven wrong to a great degree. Really, after having taken the two, I'm tempted to ask... is college supposed to be hard?
About a week ago my chemistry teacher announced that our first test would be held today. So, at first, I thought that I'd have to study a lot and prepare for a very had test. Buuut then I thought it over and realize that, no, I probably would not have to do much work to get a decent grade on the test. While I had not learned the material that well when I had the course back in high school, I at least got to see it. Then, when we took the test in class, I relied mostly on my knowledge from 11th grade chemistry and I believe that I did quite well. Of the twenty-five questions--all multiple choice too--there were only a couple that I had any sort of doubt. Piece of cake. *EDIT: I found out that I got a 92, so not bad... though I should've done better*
The engineering test, on the other hand, had a huge buildup. There was all this negative hype (mostly from my sophomore friends) where people said how hard it would be and that we'd all fail it in the end. Well, while I didn't do as well as I hoped, I am quite certain that I did not fail. In fact, I would venture to say that most people did not fail. Even further, I'd go as far as to say that I did relatively well--the hubris! Sitting in the room right before the test was handed out, I expected some ridiculously hard questions, but they were so easy that I ended up finishing in half the time given. *EDIT: Ok, so I know now that I made a lot stupid mistakes. Let's just hope that it doesn't hurt my grade too badly.*
Right, so that's enough about school for now. Another--I guess good?--thing happened today: finally got a job interview set up. I mean, it's cool that I'll finally have an income once more and be able to afford the things I really want (like that trip to PR during winter break), but I as I sit here I can only wonder... is it worth the price I'm paying? See, I've done the one thing that I always said I would not. I entered the food industry. Oh the shame!
Yeah, that is correct. Soon enough I will be employed by Sbarro (or whatever company owns them). I mean, it seems like an ok job, right? Free pizza every shift? Well, I can't stand eating pizza that often, so most likely a lot of the free food will go to my friends. *deep sigh* there goes one perk. Haha, nah, the real perk will be the freedom to get whatever games I want (oh, and eventually all of Scrubs on DVD). That and not worry too much about using text messages and such. I just hope that selling my soul for the chance of some money won't come back to haunt me. What am I saying? Of course it will, it's fast food! ... double shame.
*returns after 4 hours of bathing* Now that I am slightly cleaned up, we can continue.
Well, now this'll seem kinda random, but I need to rant somewhere. Where else better than the blog? It's not necessarily a hard thing to talk about, just hard to put in to words let alone even figure out where to begin (insert there like five people telling me "from the beginning").
I dunno, as of late I'm getting slightly homesick and feeling extremely detached--for having so many people I know here that is. Really, homesick enough to just want to go back home and sleep in my bed all day. Hell, I'm even wanting to just be with my parents or something. Sadly enough, these feelings come in waves to the point that I seem bipolar to myself. It's not like I'm constantly sad and down and "emo," but when contrasted to how quickly I switch from sheer ecstasy to this, my previous statement does seem slightly valid.
Mmm, well there are multiple reasons why I'm feeling homesick and detached. Actually, it all adds up to a feeling of loneliness; being stuck here at Tech with no one to be with or no group to hang with. Over the summer I had a lot of friends and was constantly--for the most part--doing something with someone. Guess it all comes with adjusting to college life *deep sigh* ohs wells.
I'm off for the day then. Oh, check me dA sometime soon cause I'll be posting new things soon. Maybe written, maybe photographed, maybe Photoshopped?
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Geekin' It Up
As of late, I feel a lot more like a nerd than ever before. (Quick clarification: I've been much more nerdier in the past, just I never actually thought myself as such in those scenarios. Now I do think that the things I am doing deserve to rank me in the "nerd" category.)
First of all, I've gotten back into my webcomic reading, IGN surfing, anime watching self once more (only took me a month to get back into it). Of course, ever since summer--after Europe mostly--I got off this trend and instead did many other things. However, as I have stated before, things have yet to go as I wanted them to so far here at Tech. That means that I've had a good amount of free time to sit around and do said activities. Buuuut, that should all change soon-ish (at least I hope). Wait, I need to keep things organized, more on the change later.
Another thing that has me feeling really, really geeky is the fact that I participated in a programming contest a few weeks ago. Even worse is that afterwards I was invited to join the programming team here... and accepted. Yup, let the laughs begin >.< *readies self*
Actually, I don't really care what anyone thinks about that. I have fun with it, plus the problems are so hard--not to mention the other team members so experienced--that I learn a bunch of new things. Compared to the problems we tackle at the programming team my computer science class is a breeze. Near no work for me. So, while it is the ultimate nerd-fest (ok, get this. When I said that Microsoft coded God once, everyone laughed... So creepy), in the end being on the team will dramatically help me, both knowledge-wise and resume-wise.
Hmmm, well that sorta covers the title of the post. What to talk about... oh, right! The "changes." Well, like always, I'm working on meeting new people here. That's the on-going change that, if successful, will lead to quite a happy time here at Tech. Other than that, today I finally got around to applying to yet another job. My first attempt was at the library right as school began, but they never called back. So this time I applied to the dining services who will, with some luck, call me and eventually hire me. As much as I've always dreaded the fact of working in the food industry, there are more important things at stake (and the fact that they pay $7.50 starting ain't too bad either)! It'd definitely be nifty if they hired me since 1. I'd be making money again (Wii here I come!) and 2. I would have less free time and thus would make good use of it--in the procrastinator's way.
What else? Well, unfortunately, I've yet to get around to posting anything else on dA. I have been ridiculously inspired at times (now being one of those times) and I have a few plans of things to do. I just have to find some free time and be efficient about it. But tomorrow I've got two tests so I'm off to study. Wish me luck!
First of all, I've gotten back into my webcomic reading, IGN surfing, anime watching self once more (only took me a month to get back into it). Of course, ever since summer--after Europe mostly--I got off this trend and instead did many other things. However, as I have stated before, things have yet to go as I wanted them to so far here at Tech. That means that I've had a good amount of free time to sit around and do said activities. Buuuut, that should all change soon-ish (at least I hope). Wait, I need to keep things organized, more on the change later.
Another thing that has me feeling really, really geeky is the fact that I participated in a programming contest a few weeks ago. Even worse is that afterwards I was invited to join the programming team here... and accepted. Yup, let the laughs begin >.< *readies self*
Actually, I don't really care what anyone thinks about that. I have fun with it, plus the problems are so hard--not to mention the other team members so experienced--that I learn a bunch of new things. Compared to the problems we tackle at the programming team my computer science class is a breeze. Near no work for me. So, while it is the ultimate nerd-fest (ok, get this. When I said that Microsoft coded God once, everyone laughed... So creepy), in the end being on the team will dramatically help me, both knowledge-wise and resume-wise.
Hmmm, well that sorta covers the title of the post. What to talk about... oh, right! The "changes." Well, like always, I'm working on meeting new people here. That's the on-going change that, if successful, will lead to quite a happy time here at Tech. Other than that, today I finally got around to applying to yet another job. My first attempt was at the library right as school began, but they never called back. So this time I applied to the dining services who will, with some luck, call me and eventually hire me. As much as I've always dreaded the fact of working in the food industry, there are more important things at stake (and the fact that they pay $7.50 starting ain't too bad either)! It'd definitely be nifty if they hired me since 1. I'd be making money again (Wii here I come!) and 2. I would have less free time and thus would make good use of it--in the procrastinator's way.
What else? Well, unfortunately, I've yet to get around to posting anything else on dA. I have been ridiculously inspired at times (now being one of those times) and I have a few plans of things to do. I just have to find some free time and be efficient about it. But tomorrow I've got two tests so I'm off to study. Wish me luck!
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Trip Down in the Caribbean (Part 3)
Picking up from where we last left our heroes... stranded on a tropical paradise, what will happen?!
Mmmm, crap. This ain't good. After such a long time, I have a poor memory of the things that happened in Puerto Rico. Plus my sister's blog has little to offer for these next few days >.<; Ack, well I'll at least attempt to speak in length about Wednesday, as that was one of the two memorable days of the trip for me.
Tuesday: Really, I think my sister spoke well in her blog for this day (and Thursday, but that's coming up): nothing did happen on Tuesday. For the most part, we were hearing a lot of that Chris storm that could supposedly keep us stuck in the house for a while, but my parents weren't too worried. Instead we just went to the store, got some food and water and such, and just stayed in the house for the rest of the day. Bo-oring.
Oh, almost forgot. Yes, since Wednesday was the planned bowling day, I had to ask and convince my parents to let me go (even though there was a tropical storm *ooooh*). Actually, that wasn't too hard. I told them I had a friend who invited me to go bowling, told them the place where it was at, and they said they'd drive me over as they visited a family friend around the same area (aren't I vague?). Yup, it was that simple. I had something to look forward to and a whole day of sitting around and reading to do so.
Wednesday(!): So this was the big-ish day. Man, and how.
As excited as I was, I had to wait a bit since the bowling thing was not 'til 4:30. So I just woke up at my usual time--10 or 11 ^^--and hung around the house doing nothing, as per usual. There wasn't much to do there other than read and listen to music. Yeah, that was it. Pretty boring. Luckily for me, while time did slow down as it tends to, it did not stop altogether. We ended up leaving the house around 1 since A: it was far (by Puerto Rico standards) and B: my friend wanted me to go a little early.
About an hour or so later my parents, my sister and I arrived in front of me friend's house. Formalities were exchanged and a few minutes later I was inside already laughing for one reason or another. That's right, though I had never met this person in my life, there was absolutely no awkwardness at all. I have to say that she's the quickest friend I've ever made.
Needless to say, things went great. We hung out for a few hours at her house (bad memory means I can't remember specifically what we did 'sides talk and laugh) and eventually headed over to the bowling alley. Although we were supposed to meet up with everyone there at 4:30, that just didn't happen. See, there's this little thing about Puerto Rican culture--a lot of hispanic cultures actually--is that you never show up on time anywhere. Well, as long as it's something informal that is. But yeah, you always show up casually late. ... no, later than that. Around an hour later.
Luckily for us there was an arcade in the bowling alley, a nice one at that. It had just about every game I'd want to play; which really just means it had DDR and air hockey. No, but as cool as it was to be in a good arcade for once, I preferred to just hang with all the people that slowly arrived. Man, so much hilarity took place there. And for once I felt quite at home, even though there was that language barrier and even though I had never met these people before. I dunno, must be something about starting anew. Who knows?
The night really did end too fast. We began bowling around 5:30 and played two games. However, these games took a while since we had about fifteen people spread over two lanes. But it was still fun, even if I do suck at bowling and got my ass kicked ^^; Plus, we got to go to Wendys afterwards! If that's not incentive for a fun night, I don't know what is.
Unfortunately, I had to say goodbye to everybody--especially my friend--and had to go back to the house in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone reception. Quite a bummer. But, what I didn't know was that I was in for a surprise. Mmmm, now that I think about it, that's a lie. I had an idea, but just had no clue if it would come true or not. Before I left, my friend had told me that she wanted to invite me to a friend's birthday party or at least something else before I left a few days later. So I had that to look forward to ^_^ And look forward I did because the next day was more or less a repeat of Tuesday.
Thursday: (See Tuesday, but change around the vague specifics and add a lot more rain.)
More to come with the family fight, another outing with friends, family reunion, and the final dramatic conclusion to our tale!
Mmmm, crap. This ain't good. After such a long time, I have a poor memory of the things that happened in Puerto Rico. Plus my sister's blog has little to offer for these next few days >.<; Ack, well I'll at least attempt to speak in length about Wednesday, as that was one of the two memorable days of the trip for me.
Tuesday: Really, I think my sister spoke well in her blog for this day (and Thursday, but that's coming up): nothing did happen on Tuesday. For the most part, we were hearing a lot of that Chris storm that could supposedly keep us stuck in the house for a while, but my parents weren't too worried. Instead we just went to the store, got some food and water and such, and just stayed in the house for the rest of the day. Bo-oring.
Oh, almost forgot. Yes, since Wednesday was the planned bowling day, I had to ask and convince my parents to let me go (even though there was a tropical storm *ooooh*). Actually, that wasn't too hard. I told them I had a friend who invited me to go bowling, told them the place where it was at, and they said they'd drive me over as they visited a family friend around the same area (aren't I vague?). Yup, it was that simple. I had something to look forward to and a whole day of sitting around and reading to do so.
Wednesday(!): So this was the big-ish day. Man, and how.
As excited as I was, I had to wait a bit since the bowling thing was not 'til 4:30. So I just woke up at my usual time--10 or 11 ^^--and hung around the house doing nothing, as per usual. There wasn't much to do there other than read and listen to music. Yeah, that was it. Pretty boring. Luckily for me, while time did slow down as it tends to, it did not stop altogether. We ended up leaving the house around 1 since A: it was far (by Puerto Rico standards) and B: my friend wanted me to go a little early.
About an hour or so later my parents, my sister and I arrived in front of me friend's house. Formalities were exchanged and a few minutes later I was inside already laughing for one reason or another. That's right, though I had never met this person in my life, there was absolutely no awkwardness at all. I have to say that she's the quickest friend I've ever made.
Needless to say, things went great. We hung out for a few hours at her house (bad memory means I can't remember specifically what we did 'sides talk and laugh) and eventually headed over to the bowling alley. Although we were supposed to meet up with everyone there at 4:30, that just didn't happen. See, there's this little thing about Puerto Rican culture--a lot of hispanic cultures actually--is that you never show up on time anywhere. Well, as long as it's something informal that is. But yeah, you always show up casually late. ... no, later than that. Around an hour later.
Luckily for us there was an arcade in the bowling alley, a nice one at that. It had just about every game I'd want to play; which really just means it had DDR and air hockey. No, but as cool as it was to be in a good arcade for once, I preferred to just hang with all the people that slowly arrived. Man, so much hilarity took place there. And for once I felt quite at home, even though there was that language barrier and even though I had never met these people before. I dunno, must be something about starting anew. Who knows?
The night really did end too fast. We began bowling around 5:30 and played two games. However, these games took a while since we had about fifteen people spread over two lanes. But it was still fun, even if I do suck at bowling and got my ass kicked ^^; Plus, we got to go to Wendys afterwards! If that's not incentive for a fun night, I don't know what is.
Unfortunately, I had to say goodbye to everybody--especially my friend--and had to go back to the house in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone reception. Quite a bummer. But, what I didn't know was that I was in for a surprise. Mmmm, now that I think about it, that's a lie. I had an idea, but just had no clue if it would come true or not. Before I left, my friend had told me that she wanted to invite me to a friend's birthday party or at least something else before I left a few days later. So I had that to look forward to ^_^ And look forward I did because the next day was more or less a repeat of Tuesday.
Thursday: (See Tuesday, but change around the vague specifics and add a lot more rain.)
More to come with the family fight, another outing with friends, family reunion, and the final dramatic conclusion to our tale!
Saturday, September 16, 2006
This One Time, At Band Camp
So we went camping a while back (real camping, no instruments involved whatsoever), 'bout a week before I left for Tech I want to say. Yes, it was fun and yes I want to do it again. But... I think it'll be a tad too cold during my winter break ^^;
As I mentioned earlier--or at least I think I did--the whole idea started while I was over in Puerto Rico. Kish, James, Cathryn, Vince, and Ted all decided to go camping at Bull Run (a nice place around 30 minutes from my house that I have both camped at and ran a cross country race at) one day. So they went. I heard about this when I returned and immediately said, "We need to go again!" Of course, Kish reminded me that I had not gone the first time, but he agreed, we would go camping before we left for college. And this time we'd try to invite more people to the crazy party.
In the end the three of us, throw John in the mix, decided upon a day to go and began calling people. Who'd we invite? Same people we always do... proceed to the Europe Contact List!!! Like I said in a previous post--and I know that I did this time--this was the list I created from the many numbers and e-mails and sn's, etc, etc, that I received on the plane trip back from Germany. Every time that we had those little "reunions" we relied on this list to call everybody and inform them of the day, time, and place of said reunion. It worked throughout the summer, quite well in fact. This time people were somewhat busy and weren't really able to go. We got a few maybes--from Vince and Martin--but in the end we had a totally different group from the last time: me, Kish, James (the only two returning members), John, Janet, and Anna.
The day of the trip we all met up at the Giant parking lot in Ashburn so that we could buy the necessary materials for our little campout. Really I just sat there with Anna while John, Kish, and James went in and got everything. Anna, apparently an avid camper, already had her car stuffed full of more or less anything you could ever need for camping--somewhat convenient. So finally "the guys" come back armed with chips, marshmallows, graham crackers, chocolate, and sticks to use for the makin' of smores. Then, after a few more minutes of waiting, Janet arrives and we're prepped to set off. ... and set off we did.
When we arrived we checked in and headed to our nice little plots of soil and trees. We got two of them, since we had six people, each with a fire pit and a couple of tent spots. It was actually quite nice except for the fact that we could hear every gunshot from the firing range. Yeah... luckily that died out as the night progressed, not that we were going to sleep at any decent hour.
Really, everything was fine and dandy--setting up the tents and just chilling--until about the time it began to darken. See, we needed a fire. While we did have James, our boyscout, to tend the fire and Kish actually brought some nice wood, we had nothing to start the fire with. Actually, we did have Anna's starter log thing, but that just didn't want to work well for us. But eventually, after an hour of worrying over the fire, it began burning on its own and we could finally rest. That means it was time to sit down and sing some campfire songs! John pulled out his guitbox and serenaded the rest of us as we made smores and hot dogs that Anna just so happened to have in her car (what'd I say?). Quite an enjoyable time to say the least. Especially the part where Kish's stick burned and both our hot dogs fell in the fire. I have to say, though: hot dogs covered in ash are delicious.
Slowly things wound down--mostly after that last little spout on the table--and we cleaned up. Then we all got in Anna's huge--and I mean big--tent. No really, it's big. The six of us fit comfortably inside. Know what we did? ... no, no orgies. Instead we all sat around and pulled out glow sticks and raved. Obviously to the best of our raving abilities. Yeah, we do suck at raving, but it was still fun. Music blaring from my tiny headphones whilst we shook our heads in ecstasy... err, yeah. But after a bit, since Janet had to get up early for work the next morning, John and Janet headed off to their tent on the other side of our plot. We, on the other hand, still had a few more hours left before sleep came.
Another funny story from that night. Raccoons. We all know that if you leave food out that raccoons will most likely find it and eat. Well, this holds true especially when you leave food out on purpose. While we were in the tent we heard some noises coming from outside. Kish took a quick look and--surprise surprise--spotted the little guys. Oh, but the story gets better. James, who the last time had slept outside on the bench, decided to once more sleep on the bench. So he leaves and things quiet down for about twenty minutes, but only twenty minutes. That's when we hear James scream, "Oh shit!" What happened, you may ask? After he ran over to tell us, we found out that he had been trying to sleep, only to open his eyes and find a raccoon on his leg. Yes, this is our boyscout. Hahaha, oh man what fun.
That just about wrapped up the night. We slept around 4 in the morning and woke around 9 (once more to the gunshots). The trip was most definitely worth taking, both for the laughs and interesting conversations held in Anna's tent. Like I said--again... ^^;--I wouldn't mind going camping once more. S'long as James watches out for the raccoons I think it'd all be cool.
As I mentioned earlier--or at least I think I did--the whole idea started while I was over in Puerto Rico. Kish, James, Cathryn, Vince, and Ted all decided to go camping at Bull Run (a nice place around 30 minutes from my house that I have both camped at and ran a cross country race at) one day. So they went. I heard about this when I returned and immediately said, "We need to go again!" Of course, Kish reminded me that I had not gone the first time, but he agreed, we would go camping before we left for college. And this time we'd try to invite more people to the crazy party.
In the end the three of us, throw John in the mix, decided upon a day to go and began calling people. Who'd we invite? Same people we always do... proceed to the Europe Contact List!!! Like I said in a previous post--and I know that I did this time--this was the list I created from the many numbers and e-mails and sn's, etc, etc, that I received on the plane trip back from Germany. Every time that we had those little "reunions" we relied on this list to call everybody and inform them of the day, time, and place of said reunion. It worked throughout the summer, quite well in fact. This time people were somewhat busy and weren't really able to go. We got a few maybes--from Vince and Martin--but in the end we had a totally different group from the last time: me, Kish, James (the only two returning members), John, Janet, and Anna.
The day of the trip we all met up at the Giant parking lot in Ashburn so that we could buy the necessary materials for our little campout. Really I just sat there with Anna while John, Kish, and James went in and got everything. Anna, apparently an avid camper, already had her car stuffed full of more or less anything you could ever need for camping--somewhat convenient. So finally "the guys" come back armed with chips, marshmallows, graham crackers, chocolate, and sticks to use for the makin' of smores. Then, after a few more minutes of waiting, Janet arrives and we're prepped to set off. ... and set off we did.
Really, everything was fine and dandy--setting up the tents and just chilling--until about the time it began to darken. See, we needed a fire. While we did have James, our boyscout, to tend the fire and Kish actually brought some nice wood, we had nothing to start the fire with. Actually, we did have Anna's starter log thing, but that just didn't want to work well for us. But eventually, after an hour of worrying over the fire, it began burning on its own and we could finally rest. That means it was time to sit down and sing some campfire songs! John pulled out his guitbox and serenaded the rest of us as we made smores and hot dogs that Anna just so happened to have in her car (what'd I say?). Quite an enjoyable time to say the least. Especially the part where Kish's stick burned and both our hot dogs fell in the fire. I have to say, though: hot dogs covered in ash are delicious.
Slowly things wound down--mostly after that last little spout on the table--and we cleaned up. Then we all got in Anna's huge--and I mean big--tent. No really, it's big. The six of us fit comfortably inside. Know what we did? ... no, no orgies. Instead we all sat around and pulled out glow sticks and raved. Obviously to the best of our raving abilities. Yeah, we do suck at raving, but it was still fun. Music blaring from my tiny headphones whilst we shook our heads in ecstasy... err, yeah.
Another funny story from that night. Raccoons. We all know that if you leave food out that raccoons will most likely find it and eat. Well, this holds true especially when you leave food out on purpose. While we were in the tent we heard some noises coming from outside. Kish took a quick look and--surprise surprise--spotted the little guys. Oh, but the story gets better. James, who the last time had slept outside on the bench, decided to once more sleep on the bench. So he leaves and things quiet down for about twenty minutes, but only twenty minutes. That's when we hear James scream, "Oh shit!" What happened, you may ask? After he ran over to tell us, we found out that he had been trying to sleep, only to open his eyes and find a raccoon on his leg. Yes, this is our boyscout. Hahaha, oh man what fun.
That just about wrapped up the night. We slept around 4 in the morning and woke around 9 (once more to the gunshots). The trip was most definitely worth taking, both for the laughs and interesting conversations held in Anna's tent. Like I said--again... ^^;--I wouldn't mind going camping once more. S'long as James watches out for the raccoons I think it'd all be cool.
Monday, September 11, 2006
Zomg!
Yeah, I really have no idea why I did it, but lately I've been feeling way too inspired to not have some outlet (besides this that is). That's right, you guessed it (don't worry, I know you didn't, just go along with me): I started a deviantART account.
If you want, you can find that here. Oh, by the way, in one of my journal entries on dA is the explanation of why I chose to start one in the first place. It's not that long if you want to pore over it.
That's actually more or less all I wanted to say here. If you have the time, (ok, I know that if there's anyone reading this that they have free time) then just check it out every once in a while. I'm gonna make a good attempt at actually posting real writing on it. Mebbe even the spare picture--artistic picture--here and there. We'll see won't we?
If you want, you can find that here. Oh, by the way, in one of my journal entries on dA is the explanation of why I chose to start one in the first place. It's not that long if you want to pore over it.
That's actually more or less all I wanted to say here. If you have the time, (ok, I know that if there's anyone reading this that they have free time) then just check it out every once in a while. I'm gonna make a good attempt at actually posting real writing on it. Mebbe even the spare picture--artistic picture--here and there. We'll see won't we?
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Random Thoughts
Yup, so I've just been writing about the past mostly as of late. So I thought that it was about time to get some catch up here. You know, about the recent times.
(Oh, and if you're curious, yes, I do have a paper to type. This is called procrastination, and I am pulling it to the best of my ability right now.)
College life has been chilling down to a reasonable level--a bit too slow for my tastes, but that's a whole 'nother story. Things are becoming slightly routine, which is why I want to do something to get rid of that feeling. Routine usually means boredom and nothing new, so I need to get off my butt to change that! I want a continuation of my crazy summer where I met a bunch of new people and made a bunch of new friends. Considering that Virginia Tech has around twenty-five thousand people, I'd say that it's quite feasible.
So my plan of action consists of this:
1. Meet someone new and befriend.
2. Get cell phone number.
3. When bored call said person and set up "hang time."
4. During hang time, get to know them better and meet their friends.
5. Rinse (thoroughly) and repeat.
This way it's like one of those exponential things. And, considering the fact that I have already gotten a good amount of numbers, it seems like I'm off to a good start already! ...isn't it sad that I numerize these things and then compliment myself? Man, my whole methodology is probably way off, but you know what, I'mma make it work.
So enough about my Friend-making Techniques™. Really, another reason that I'm bored is the lack of interesting work to do. I mean, ideally we wouldn't get any work and I'd just be free to do whatever I wanted all of the time, but that's just one of those dreams that's not gonna happen in the real world. Instead, I am stuck taking math courses three levels below what I've already done, engineering courses that are true bs in the full sense of the word, and... well that's about it. My other classes have so much potential to be fun and educational (yes, educational), still, they must be taking their time or something because I have yet to spot either.
Yeah, that's about all that's been going on. Not much for the most part. Oooh, one more thing before I call it a night: I was hanging with Bhanu, a friend of mine who's a year older, yesterday and heard that he was gonna be starting muy thai with a few of his friends. Now, I don't know about you, but I think that's downright awesome. I'd do TKD or something, but it always seems to conflict with my schedule (what am I saying... engineering's schedule -_-). But, for now I think I'll be satisfied with some mutai and learning random aikido from Sahil.
(Oh, and if you're curious, yes, I do have a paper to type. This is called procrastination, and I am pulling it to the best of my ability right now.)
College life has been chilling down to a reasonable level--a bit too slow for my tastes, but that's a whole 'nother story. Things are becoming slightly routine, which is why I want to do something to get rid of that feeling. Routine usually means boredom and nothing new, so I need to get off my butt to change that! I want a continuation of my crazy summer where I met a bunch of new people and made a bunch of new friends. Considering that Virginia Tech has around twenty-five thousand people, I'd say that it's quite feasible.
So my plan of action consists of this:
1. Meet someone new and befriend.
2. Get cell phone number.
3. When bored call said person and set up "hang time."
4. During hang time, get to know them better and meet their friends.
5. Rinse (thoroughly) and repeat.
This way it's like one of those exponential things. And, considering the fact that I have already gotten a good amount of numbers, it seems like I'm off to a good start already! ...isn't it sad that I numerize these things and then compliment myself? Man, my whole methodology is probably way off, but you know what, I'mma make it work.
So enough about my Friend-making Techniques™. Really, another reason that I'm bored is the lack of interesting work to do. I mean, ideally we wouldn't get any work and I'd just be free to do whatever I wanted all of the time, but that's just one of those dreams that's not gonna happen in the real world. Instead, I am stuck taking math courses three levels below what I've already done, engineering courses that are true bs in the full sense of the word, and... well that's about it. My other classes have so much potential to be fun and educational (yes, educational), still, they must be taking their time or something because I have yet to spot either.
Yeah, that's about all that's been going on. Not much for the most part. Oooh, one more thing before I call it a night: I was hanging with Bhanu, a friend of mine who's a year older, yesterday and heard that he was gonna be starting muy thai with a few of his friends. Now, I don't know about you, but I think that's downright awesome. I'd do TKD or something, but it always seems to conflict with my schedule (what am I saying... engineering's schedule -_-). But, for now I think I'll be satisfied with some mutai and learning random aikido from Sahil.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Party A'hoy!
(Just so you know, I had this post halfway written for a week and a half before I sat down and finished it. So in reality, the party took place over two weeks ago.)
Yup, you read that right, moi first partay. It may have been a week into school already, but you know what they say, better late than never.
So, 'twas a lazy Friday evening when I got an invitation to walk on over to Vince and Ted's room... from Sanjeev of course. I've never spoken of any of these people--go me!--so I'll give a quick description of each.
Vince is Ted's roommate. He's also one of the coolest people in the world. Well, actually, I don't know him that well, I just say that cause he's a cool guy to hang with. It's only recently, now that we live down the hall from each other, that I've begun to hang with him. Oh, and he's the most finely-dressed straight man I know.
Ted is Vince's roommate. Again, one of the coolest people in the world. And again, don't really know him. He seems like a conundrum wrapped in an enigma of a shell. Um... that made no sense (after having used dictionary.com to help me figure out what I just said), but give me another chance here to explain. Basically, he's one of the most outgoing guys I know, yet who plays video games avidly and knows computers. But not many people know this, because he's not a nerd at all. It's... weird, but cool. I wouldn't mind getting to know him better.
Sanjeev is Sandeep's twin. However, he really can't take advantage of this anymore since his brother's over at the grape (yes... UVA). However, this doesn't mean that he's not cool. He's actually very cool. Yup. Lot's of funny stories--most of which I just heard a few hours ago--to tell about him, so mebbe they'll slip out here and there in my posts. We'll see.
Ok, back to the topic at hand. So, I arrive at Vince's room to find him, Jeev, and John sitting and just hanging. Within about half an hour, the room had filled with at least twice as many girls (I know a few of them, but it's not worth going into detail since I've only seem them once since coming to Tech). That's how good Vince can be at times. As he says, they were our key to entering any party we wanted. Easily.
Well, eventually we headed out after hanging in their room for another half hour or so. Out we went to a party which we supposedly had directions to--of course they were horrible directions and we actually ended up going to a totally different one. Go figure. However, in the process of getting to our final destination, we turned around at least twice and took around an hour to even find the place. When we first saw the frat house we were headed to everything looked empty so we just sat around thinking of what went wrong. Soon enough, though, we learned that the party was in the back (I was wondering why there were so many cars parked at a place with no party in sight). And, like Vince had mentioned, the girls got our whole group in just a few minutes before they closed off the entrance.
Ok, one thing I have to make clear. At first, I was intimidated by the sheer number of people at the party. I'd guess that around one to two hundred people were in the backyard of the small frat house. But I really did not want to spend a few hours cramped together with like seven people at once. Luckily for me, we immediately walked into the cellar of the house where we spent the rest of our time there. Now this place sucked... bad. You could literally smell the moisture that accumulated in the basement, along with the sweat and heat from the many people packed inside (it was still better than outside). Just a tad--no reference to that kid from Europe intended--disgusting. In a few minutes, though, the horrendous conditions didn't matter anymore. I'm pretty sure you all know why. No real reason to say it. Just know that around fifteen minutes later, Vince was inebriated.
So yeah, the party was nothing like I expected it to be. Well, that's a lie. A blatant one at that. If you have no expectations, then how can it turn out different from them? In all reality I didn't know what to think. I've seen those movies with crazy frat parties in them, but I knew that they just exaggerate the truth a wee bit. Actually, our huge group just hung out in the basement of the place for a few hours. It was so much fun, for the most part watching Vince and Sanjeev. When drunk the two of them do some funny things (ooh! I gotta remember to talk about Jeev's pointless vandalism, but mebbe in another post). Now that I think about it, Jeev is the funniest drunk guy. He's been known to fix things, do calculus, and urinate on objects of all kinds. Yeah, I'll have to expand more on that. Hell, his drunk doings deserve a post of their own, haha.
After a couple of hours, a random guy--his name escapes me--approached us (again, becasue of our group of girls) and told us about his house that was really close. Most everyone too drunk to care that he is just that, a random guy, so me and John, the soberest ones, had to walk everyone over there. Man, that was lame. Once we got there, a thought immediately popped into my head. "Houses can be dirtier than dorms?" It was bad.
We spent around fifteen minutes in that house, if even. The girls were getting tired, so--again--me and John had to walk everyone, back to campus this time. It wasn't so bad, mostly funny, but we had a bit of trouble keeping everyone's voices down (mostly Jeev... go figure, hehe). We made it back safely, though, and the night came to an abrupt end. While the party was fun, I'd say that deciding to go to that guy's house just ruined things. Oh well, this is me hoping that there are many other fun nights in store sometime in the near to very near future. 'Sides, I gotta make up for lost time.
Yup, you read that right, moi first partay. It may have been a week into school already, but you know what they say, better late than never.
So, 'twas a lazy Friday evening when I got an invitation to walk on over to Vince and Ted's room... from Sanjeev of course. I've never spoken of any of these people--go me!--so I'll give a quick description of each.
Vince is Ted's roommate. He's also one of the coolest people in the world. Well, actually, I don't know him that well, I just say that cause he's a cool guy to hang with. It's only recently, now that we live down the hall from each other, that I've begun to hang with him. Oh, and he's the most finely-dressed straight man I know.
Ted is Vince's roommate. Again, one of the coolest people in the world. And again, don't really know him. He seems like a conundrum wrapped in an enigma of a shell. Um... that made no sense (after having used dictionary.com to help me figure out what I just said), but give me another chance here to explain. Basically, he's one of the most outgoing guys I know, yet who plays video games avidly and knows computers. But not many people know this, because he's not a nerd at all. It's... weird, but cool. I wouldn't mind getting to know him better.
Sanjeev is Sandeep's twin. However, he really can't take advantage of this anymore since his brother's over at the grape (yes... UVA). However, this doesn't mean that he's not cool. He's actually very cool. Yup. Lot's of funny stories--most of which I just heard a few hours ago--to tell about him, so mebbe they'll slip out here and there in my posts. We'll see.
Ok, back to the topic at hand. So, I arrive at Vince's room to find him, Jeev, and John sitting and just hanging. Within about half an hour, the room had filled with at least twice as many girls (I know a few of them, but it's not worth going into detail since I've only seem them once since coming to Tech). That's how good Vince can be at times. As he says, they were our key to entering any party we wanted. Easily.
Well, eventually we headed out after hanging in their room for another half hour or so. Out we went to a party which we supposedly had directions to--of course they were horrible directions and we actually ended up going to a totally different one. Go figure. However, in the process of getting to our final destination, we turned around at least twice and took around an hour to even find the place. When we first saw the frat house we were headed to everything looked empty so we just sat around thinking of what went wrong. Soon enough, though, we learned that the party was in the back (I was wondering why there were so many cars parked at a place with no party in sight). And, like Vince had mentioned, the girls got our whole group in just a few minutes before they closed off the entrance.
Ok, one thing I have to make clear. At first, I was intimidated by the sheer number of people at the party. I'd guess that around one to two hundred people were in the backyard of the small frat house. But I really did not want to spend a few hours cramped together with like seven people at once. Luckily for me, we immediately walked into the cellar of the house where we spent the rest of our time there. Now this place sucked... bad. You could literally smell the moisture that accumulated in the basement, along with the sweat and heat from the many people packed inside (it was still better than outside). Just a tad--no reference to that kid from Europe intended--disgusting. In a few minutes, though, the horrendous conditions didn't matter anymore. I'm pretty sure you all know why. No real reason to say it. Just know that around fifteen minutes later, Vince was inebriated.
So yeah, the party was nothing like I expected it to be. Well, that's a lie. A blatant one at that. If you have no expectations, then how can it turn out different from them? In all reality I didn't know what to think. I've seen those movies with crazy frat parties in them, but I knew that they just exaggerate the truth a wee bit. Actually, our huge group just hung out in the basement of the place for a few hours. It was so much fun, for the most part watching Vince and Sanjeev. When drunk the two of them do some funny things (ooh! I gotta remember to talk about Jeev's pointless vandalism, but mebbe in another post). Now that I think about it, Jeev is the funniest drunk guy. He's been known to fix things, do calculus, and urinate on objects of all kinds. Yeah, I'll have to expand more on that. Hell, his drunk doings deserve a post of their own, haha.
After a couple of hours, a random guy--his name escapes me--approached us (again, becasue of our group of girls) and told us about his house that was really close. Most everyone too drunk to care that he is just that, a random guy, so me and John, the soberest ones, had to walk everyone over there. Man, that was lame. Once we got there, a thought immediately popped into my head. "Houses can be dirtier than dorms?" It was bad.
We spent around fifteen minutes in that house, if even. The girls were getting tired, so--again--me and John had to walk everyone, back to campus this time. It wasn't so bad, mostly funny, but we had a bit of trouble keeping everyone's voices down (mostly Jeev... go figure, hehe). We made it back safely, though, and the night came to an abrupt end. While the party was fun, I'd say that deciding to go to that guy's house just ruined things. Oh well, this is me hoping that there are many other fun nights in store sometime in the near to very near future. 'Sides, I gotta make up for lost time.
Monday, September 04, 2006
Ultrazone!
Yeah... it's been a while since I promised this, but here it is:
Beating small children is a great power trip for all ages! Erm... I mean beat as in beating at a video game or in a game of basketball (sadly enough, it's actually much closer to basketball than video games in this case).
Around the time that high school was drawing to a close, me, James, Kish, DeMartino, and John were all sitting in James's living room bored out of our minds. Of course, this was a Saturday, so there must've been something for all of us to do. Sadly enough (again...), we didn't get anywhere on finding exactly what to do. We were actually pretty desperate for anything.
I'm not one hundred percent sure who the hell suggested it, but about an hour after our original boredom was found, we ended up at Ultrazone. I think it's a chain, but then again I may be wrong. So, I'll just assume nobody knows what Ultrazone actually is. Simply, it's laser tag. Or lazer tag... blazer tag. Erm, yeah. Oddly enough none of us had been there in four or five years. Yet, we were there. At Ultrazone. Ready to have the time of our lives! Um, sorta.
Once I got over the fact that we were at one of the kiddiest places around, I actually started remembering all the fun times I had had there back in the day. At least two of my friends had birthday parties there, inviting like twenty kids, and there was so much to do. Actually, not really, but an arcade is good enough to entertain us during the time between games. Too bad that now they got rid of one of the best arcade games ever: House of the Dead 2. That was the game to play when we were young. You'd go to Ultrazone and immediately get in line--yup, it was that popular--to play it while your mom or dad or friend's parental unit went and got wristbands for the actual laser tag game. Then you'd play the game and get back in line afterwards. Rinse and repeat. Unfortunately, there being a line and all, some kids were forced to play other arcade games. Don't get me wrong, games like Ms. Pacman can be fun... but not like House of the Dead was.
*clears throat* right, enough reminiscing. Today, attempting to fill the void in all our hearts from missing HotD2, we like to play Time Crisis 3. It's the same sort of gig, just not as fun cause there aren't any zombies and crazy killer undead things jumping out at you. However, John's pretty good at the game, un-Johnly good. Just kinda weird since I always believed him to hate all video games, arcade games included. Guess there are some people who just hide those kinds of things.
Okay, back to the actual playing of laser tag. On that first Saturday, it wasn't too great actually. It was crowded and the little kids were too easy to beat. Plus, we only got to play two games before we called it a day (at 7 bucks a game, it gets quite pricey). But, we did remember one thing when we went there. Friday and Saturday nights, from 8 PM to 1 AM, all you have to do is pay 11 dollars and you get unlimited play. That's right, you crazy trigger-happy people can get your laser tag fix at a cheap rate for a period of five mind-numbing hours. Oh, and I say mind-numbing not in the bad "boring" way, but in the "this is so freaking awesome that I can't think of anything but laser tag for the next few hours" way. Just thought I'd be clear about it.
Mmm, but yeah, really, it was the next two weeks that we went that made Ultrazone a memorable experience. Oh! Especially... "The Apple Pie Incident." Hahahahaha, YES! That was great. But first, let's chat about the actual game.
Well, as you could probably guess by now, the next few times we went to Ultrazone, we decided to go during the 8-1 pay once period. Thing is that not just little elementary school children go during that time. Nope, there are even adults who sometimes come in big groups (a bit like the birthday party groups, but just for no reason). In other words, it means that we had some competition. I swear, some of them must have done paintball or something along those lines; they had ridiculous scores! At one point, there were these two groups that were having a war against each other. Basically, one was the Green Team, one the Red, and me, my friends, and anybody else in that round, were left to fend for ourselves on the Yellow team. That was quite challenging, but fun. (Yeah, that means we lost every round -_-)
I learned one lesson from all of this. Two really. 1. The strangest people go to Ultrazone during the all-you-can-play time. And 2. Never let DeMartino have some vending machine apple pie and then play laser tag. Never.
Number one is explained quite simply--okay, this one time there was a group of like thirty people. ... that's obviously not the strange part. This is a group of adults, probably 25+, who were all dressed like... I really don't know how to explain it. Something like... goth? Avril Lavignes? Basically, they were all in black, had punk-ish get ups, and some had ties and top hats. So weird, but cool at the same time. But, there's more! They were also ridiculously loud--they made the day crowd, which consisted of hyped-up kids, sound quiet--and told some of the worst jokes. "So there were three tomatoes..."
Onto number two. I leave this last because it was so freaking crazy and seemingly out of nowhere. I'd say that in between the second and third game (on a good night we'd get through six or seven games) DeMartino told us he was hungry and proceeded to the nearest vending machine. He bought, as I have mentioned, a pre-packaged apple pie and a Pepsi. He devoured the two ravenously and we continued on our merry way to making kids there cry and watching peeps suck at arcade games. Things were as normal as ever until we ended up leaving. By that point (1 AM mind you), me and Kish were hungry so we planned on getting something from the Taco Bell right outside. On our walk over to the car, DeMar suddenly began burping... violently. This was followed by his complaint of, "I don't feel too good guys." Geez, we had no clue (sarcasm intended).
I can't vouch for John or Kish, but I've never met anyone else who goes in a frenzy like that when sick to their stomach. DeMar was jumping in the back of Kish's pickup and off while we were moving and screaming and just being obnoxious overall. At one point he even opens the passenger door while we're driving down a road at 50 miles an hour. Of course we all yelled at him instantly to shut the door, especially since we thought we'd just seen a cop drive by. However, about two minutes after this incident, he was fast asleep. Just like that, sleeping like a baby. He went from bouncing off the walls and almost throwing up in Kish's car to resting quietly. Now, though multiple analogies were given, I think John had one of the best: "He was like a candle just before going out." Sorta makes you think.
So yes, that will forever be known as "The Apple Pie Incident" and forever be stuck in all of our memories. Just remember kids, never eat vending machine apple pie; I mean, it could've been there for years by the time you get it!
Beating small children is a great power trip for all ages! Erm... I mean beat as in beating at a video game or in a game of basketball (sadly enough, it's actually much closer to basketball than video games in this case).
Around the time that high school was drawing to a close, me, James, Kish, DeMartino, and John were all sitting in James's living room bored out of our minds. Of course, this was a Saturday, so there must've been something for all of us to do. Sadly enough (again...), we didn't get anywhere on finding exactly what to do. We were actually pretty desperate for anything.
I'm not one hundred percent sure who the hell suggested it, but about an hour after our original boredom was found, we ended up at Ultrazone. I think it's a chain, but then again I may be wrong. So, I'll just assume nobody knows what Ultrazone actually is. Simply, it's laser tag. Or lazer tag... blazer tag. Erm, yeah. Oddly enough none of us had been there in four or five years. Yet, we were there. At Ultrazone. Ready to have the time of our lives! Um, sorta.
Once I got over the fact that we were at one of the kiddiest places around, I actually started remembering all the fun times I had had there back in the day. At least two of my friends had birthday parties there, inviting like twenty kids, and there was so much to do. Actually, not really, but an arcade is good enough to entertain us during the time between games. Too bad that now they got rid of one of the best arcade games ever: House of the Dead 2. That was the game to play when we were young. You'd go to Ultrazone and immediately get in line--yup, it was that popular--to play it while your mom or dad or friend's parental unit went and got wristbands for the actual laser tag game. Then you'd play the game and get back in line afterwards. Rinse and repeat. Unfortunately, there being a line and all, some kids were forced to play other arcade games. Don't get me wrong, games like Ms. Pacman can be fun... but not like House of the Dead was.
*clears throat* right, enough reminiscing. Today, attempting to fill the void in all our hearts from missing HotD2, we like to play Time Crisis 3. It's the same sort of gig, just not as fun cause there aren't any zombies and crazy killer undead things jumping out at you. However, John's pretty good at the game, un-Johnly good. Just kinda weird since I always believed him to hate all video games, arcade games included. Guess there are some people who just hide those kinds of things.
Okay, back to the actual playing of laser tag. On that first Saturday, it wasn't too great actually. It was crowded and the little kids were too easy to beat. Plus, we only got to play two games before we called it a day (at 7 bucks a game, it gets quite pricey). But, we did remember one thing when we went there. Friday and Saturday nights, from 8 PM to 1 AM, all you have to do is pay 11 dollars and you get unlimited play. That's right, you crazy trigger-happy people can get your laser tag fix at a cheap rate for a period of five mind-numbing hours. Oh, and I say mind-numbing not in the bad "boring" way, but in the "this is so freaking awesome that I can't think of anything but laser tag for the next few hours" way. Just thought I'd be clear about it.
Mmm, but yeah, really, it was the next two weeks that we went that made Ultrazone a memorable experience. Oh! Especially... "The Apple Pie Incident." Hahahahaha, YES! That was great. But first, let's chat about the actual game.
Well, as you could probably guess by now, the next few times we went to Ultrazone, we decided to go during the 8-1 pay once period. Thing is that not just little elementary school children go during that time. Nope, there are even adults who sometimes come in big groups (a bit like the birthday party groups, but just for no reason). In other words, it means that we had some competition. I swear, some of them must have done paintball or something along those lines; they had ridiculous scores! At one point, there were these two groups that were having a war against each other. Basically, one was the Green Team, one the Red, and me, my friends, and anybody else in that round, were left to fend for ourselves on the Yellow team. That was quite challenging, but fun. (Yeah, that means we lost every round -_-)
I learned one lesson from all of this. Two really. 1. The strangest people go to Ultrazone during the all-you-can-play time. And 2. Never let DeMartino have some vending machine apple pie and then play laser tag. Never.
Number one is explained quite simply--okay, this one time there was a group of like thirty people. ... that's obviously not the strange part. This is a group of adults, probably 25+, who were all dressed like... I really don't know how to explain it. Something like... goth? Avril Lavignes? Basically, they were all in black, had punk-ish get ups, and some had ties and top hats. So weird, but cool at the same time. But, there's more! They were also ridiculously loud--they made the day crowd, which consisted of hyped-up kids, sound quiet--and told some of the worst jokes. "So there were three tomatoes..."
Onto number two. I leave this last because it was so freaking crazy and seemingly out of nowhere. I'd say that in between the second and third game (on a good night we'd get through six or seven games) DeMartino told us he was hungry and proceeded to the nearest vending machine. He bought, as I have mentioned, a pre-packaged apple pie and a Pepsi. He devoured the two ravenously and we continued on our merry way to making kids there cry and watching peeps suck at arcade games. Things were as normal as ever until we ended up leaving. By that point (1 AM mind you), me and Kish were hungry so we planned on getting something from the Taco Bell right outside. On our walk over to the car, DeMar suddenly began burping... violently. This was followed by his complaint of, "I don't feel too good guys." Geez, we had no clue (sarcasm intended).
I can't vouch for John or Kish, but I've never met anyone else who goes in a frenzy like that when sick to their stomach. DeMar was jumping in the back of Kish's pickup and off while we were moving and screaming and just being obnoxious overall. At one point he even opens the passenger door while we're driving down a road at 50 miles an hour. Of course we all yelled at him instantly to shut the door, especially since we thought we'd just seen a cop drive by. However, about two minutes after this incident, he was fast asleep. Just like that, sleeping like a baby. He went from bouncing off the walls and almost throwing up in Kish's car to resting quietly. Now, though multiple analogies were given, I think John had one of the best: "He was like a candle just before going out." Sorta makes you think.
So yes, that will forever be known as "The Apple Pie Incident" and forever be stuck in all of our memories. Just remember kids, never eat vending machine apple pie; I mean, it could've been there for years by the time you get it!
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