"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!
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Trip Down in the Caribbean (Part 2)
It's like Pirates of the Caribbean, but not!
Picking up from where I left off, so let's describe the house a bit. It was called Casa Picaflores (for my non-Spanish-speaking friends, picaflores means hummingbird. If you don't know what casa means, I pity you), and was actually quite nice. The fact that it was literally in the middle of a rainforest--middle of nowhere sounded mean, though it works just as well--with no cell phone reception was somewhat abated by the hominess of the place. Three bedrooms, one with air conditioning, a kitchen, sitting area, and *gasps* a TV with DirecTV! Oh wait, I really don't like watching television anyways.. oh well. Maybe one of the best parts was the bookshelf on which it sat. There were definitely over one hundred books filling the shelf, which filled the entire wall on its own. Now, I never actually read any of the books, but nevertheless it's niftiness was not dampened one bit. (If you're actually interested in the "drama" that occurred at the house, read my sister's version).
Sunday: Since we had just arrived a day earlier, we were all pretty wiped from travel and such. Actually, my parents were the most tired since the night before they went to a high school reunion that went late into the morning (ahhh, what a nice oxymoron that is. Late into the morning...). But yeah, anyways, we spent the majority of the day doing nothing. I took advantage of this and sat around reading for a long time. Course I was reading a book titled The Elegant Universe which, while really awesome, was ridiculously complicated and confusing at times. In other words, I didn't get very far.
Other than lazing around the house, I had a chance to explore around the area, which was basically a tropical rainforest (quick geography lesson. Puerto Rico is a tropical island with a large chunk of it being a rainforest. One such area is called El Yunque, which is the mountainous region of the forest. That is where we were staying). Me and my dad went out behind the owner's house--it was just up the street from the guest house we stayed in--and hiked on a small path that had been carved out by feet and maybe a machete. It was pretty nice, but like I said (or at least I think I said), as much as I enjoy being in nature, there are things which I can't stand. Being trapped in a random guest house in a place very far from civilization with my family and no friends whatsoever to talk to makes me a bit... not.. happy. Yeah... Plus, the path didn't lead anywhere exciting or breathtaking or anything (don't get me wrong, there are tons of other parts of the rainforest I absolutely adore).
Yup, that just about sums up the day, 'cept for one more thing... As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had been in touch with a friend who lives in PR for a day or two since before we arrived. Throughout the trip, the day and a half I'd been there, I had tried to keep in touch with her. This day I got to talk to her and recieved an invitation to go bowling on Wednesday. I was ecstatic (I don't sound it, but I really was): not only would I get to meet her, but I'd get to meet a good amount of her friends as well. Really, there was just one problem in this whole situation. Would my parents let me go?
*Edit: after reading through the post, I have no idea where this came from, but just go with it.*
In reality, the reason I say I dislike vacations and traveling sometimes is because I am always forced to go with my parents (obviously, since they pay for everything >.>). When one is forced, even the most breath-taking and relaxing places can become a boring eyesore. Usually this happens since you can't see things at your own pace or do the things you'd prefer to do. As a kid it was much worse--I wasn't allowed to do anything without them--though I can say I am happy that I got to travel period. As much as I can't stand "family" vacations, I love to travel, see new places, meet new people. Trust me, I can gaurantee that it will be one of the things I spend the most money on. Screw nice cars or items for the house or whatever rich people buy. I want to travel. Experience is worth more than anything man has made. *coughs* Erm.. yeah ^^; Sorry, tangent there.
Continuing now! Well actually, that just about sums up Sunday. That night I went back to my small cot (it was just the couch in the living area with sheets and crap thrown on top) excited for Wednesday, but with little idea of how to convince my parents. 'Course, sitting in bed is one of the best ways to think, and think I did.
Monday: *reads sister's post* Ahhh, ok. So we went to Vieques on Monday. Yup, that's where we were at. We got up all early since the drive was far--about half an hour (ok, another thing about PR. Its dimensions are 100xx25 miles. Half an hour is far)--and we had to get tickets to take the ferry over to the place. Oh, right, gotta explain that. Simply put, Vieques is a small(-er) island off the coast of Puerto Rico that's almost uninhabited, meaning that it's very nice--beaches and such.
The actual ferry ride was quite nice. Almost every time I'm on some sort of short boat ride I am overcome with sleep, so I rested my eyes and attempted to do so. However, I can't really pull off the whole "sleep wherever I feel like" thing, so it was more of just resting.
Once we arrived, we took a taxi over to one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. Not only that, but it was more or less one of those secluded (now I'm just bragging) beaches. Before heading out to frollick through the sand and water, we found ourselves a nice restaurant to eat lunch at. Unfortunately for us, this was a Monday. I'm not entirely sure why, but for the most part every local shop was closed. Also unfortunate for me was the fact that this was my first time to Vieques, since I can't tell if it is something that happens every Monday or what. Oh well, what're we supposed to do?
All in all, the day was quite fun: got to enjoy the sun, the sand, and most importantly, the water. The day ended with me sleeping on that uncomfortable excuse for a bed, dilly dallying into my dreams... Heh, I like that phrase. I have no idea if it makes any sense whatsoever, but it sounded cool. Oh, right, but yeah. I didn't bother to ask my parents about bowling yet; instead I decided to wait on it at least another day. You know, you can never go wrong with procrastination.
(To be continued...)
Picking up from where I left off, so let's describe the house a bit. It was called Casa Picaflores (for my non-Spanish-speaking friends, picaflores means hummingbird. If you don't know what casa means, I pity you), and was actually quite nice. The fact that it was literally in the middle of a rainforest--middle of nowhere sounded mean, though it works just as well--with no cell phone reception was somewhat abated by the hominess of the place. Three bedrooms, one with air conditioning, a kitchen, sitting area, and *gasps* a TV with DirecTV! Oh wait, I really don't like watching television anyways.. oh well. Maybe one of the best parts was the bookshelf on which it sat. There were definitely over one hundred books filling the shelf, which filled the entire wall on its own. Now, I never actually read any of the books, but nevertheless it's niftiness was not dampened one bit. (If you're actually interested in the "drama" that occurred at the house, read my sister's version).
Sunday: Since we had just arrived a day earlier, we were all pretty wiped from travel and such. Actually, my parents were the most tired since the night before they went to a high school reunion that went late into the morning (ahhh, what a nice oxymoron that is. Late into the morning...). But yeah, anyways, we spent the majority of the day doing nothing. I took advantage of this and sat around reading for a long time. Course I was reading a book titled The Elegant Universe which, while really awesome, was ridiculously complicated and confusing at times. In other words, I didn't get very far.
Other than lazing around the house, I had a chance to explore around the area, which was basically a tropical rainforest (quick geography lesson. Puerto Rico is a tropical island with a large chunk of it being a rainforest. One such area is called El Yunque, which is the mountainous region of the forest. That is where we were staying). Me and my dad went out behind the owner's house--it was just up the street from the guest house we stayed in--and hiked on a small path that had been carved out by feet and maybe a machete. It was pretty nice, but like I said (or at least I think I said), as much as I enjoy being in nature, there are things which I can't stand. Being trapped in a random guest house in a place very far from civilization with my family and no friends whatsoever to talk to makes me a bit... not.. happy. Yeah... Plus, the path didn't lead anywhere exciting or breathtaking or anything (don't get me wrong, there are tons of other parts of the rainforest I absolutely adore).
Yup, that just about sums up the day, 'cept for one more thing... As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had been in touch with a friend who lives in PR for a day or two since before we arrived. Throughout the trip, the day and a half I'd been there, I had tried to keep in touch with her. This day I got to talk to her and recieved an invitation to go bowling on Wednesday. I was ecstatic (I don't sound it, but I really was): not only would I get to meet her, but I'd get to meet a good amount of her friends as well. Really, there was just one problem in this whole situation. Would my parents let me go?
*Edit: after reading through the post, I have no idea where this came from, but just go with it.*
In reality, the reason I say I dislike vacations and traveling sometimes is because I am always forced to go with my parents (obviously, since they pay for everything >.>). When one is forced, even the most breath-taking and relaxing places can become a boring eyesore. Usually this happens since you can't see things at your own pace or do the things you'd prefer to do. As a kid it was much worse--I wasn't allowed to do anything without them--though I can say I am happy that I got to travel period. As much as I can't stand "family" vacations, I love to travel, see new places, meet new people. Trust me, I can gaurantee that it will be one of the things I spend the most money on. Screw nice cars or items for the house or whatever rich people buy. I want to travel. Experience is worth more than anything man has made. *coughs* Erm.. yeah ^^; Sorry, tangent there.
Continuing now! Well actually, that just about sums up Sunday. That night I went back to my small cot (it was just the couch in the living area with sheets and crap thrown on top) excited for Wednesday, but with little idea of how to convince my parents. 'Course, sitting in bed is one of the best ways to think, and think I did.
Monday: *reads sister's post* Ahhh, ok. So we went to Vieques on Monday. Yup, that's where we were at. We got up all early since the drive was far--about half an hour (ok, another thing about PR. Its dimensions are 100xx25 miles. Half an hour is far)--and we had to get tickets to take the ferry over to the place. Oh, right, gotta explain that. Simply put, Vieques is a small(-er) island off the coast of Puerto Rico that's almost uninhabited, meaning that it's very nice--beaches and such.
The actual ferry ride was quite nice. Almost every time I'm on some sort of short boat ride I am overcome with sleep, so I rested my eyes and attempted to do so. However, I can't really pull off the whole "sleep wherever I feel like" thing, so it was more of just resting.
Once we arrived, we took a taxi over to one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. Not only that, but it was more or less one of those secluded (now I'm just bragging) beaches. Before heading out to frollick through the sand and water, we found ourselves a nice restaurant to eat lunch at. Unfortunately for us, this was a Monday. I'm not entirely sure why, but for the most part every local shop was closed. Also unfortunate for me was the fact that this was my first time to Vieques, since I can't tell if it is something that happens every Monday or what. Oh well, what're we supposed to do?
All in all, the day was quite fun: got to enjoy the sun, the sand, and most importantly, the water. The day ended with me sleeping on that uncomfortable excuse for a bed, dilly dallying into my dreams... Heh, I like that phrase. I have no idea if it makes any sense whatsoever, but it sounded cool. Oh, right, but yeah. I didn't bother to ask my parents about bowling yet; instead I decided to wait on it at least another day. You know, you can never go wrong with procrastination.
(To be continued...)
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Have You Heard of a JR?
No, really, have you? I'm not sure about other schools, but a JR here stands for Judicial Referral. What does that mean? Basically, it means that if you get one that in a few weeks you will be in front of a court of your peers trying to defend yourself from some charge pinned on you for once reason or another. There are a lot of ways to get a JR (drinking, fighting, etc.) and, while a lot of them are serious, there are some silly ways to get one.
Present, Exhibit A: One such method of attaining a JR is to not read the handbook thing with all the rules ever invented on the face of Tech history (actually, I have no idea what it has in it, hell, I have no idea where to find it). More specifically, in my case, there is a clause--or statement or whatever--that says that we are not allowed to have pets in the dorms except for fish. If you know me or are psychic, you know that I brought along with me a gerbil. I don't want to get too technical, but simple biology teaches us that a gerbil is not scaled, finned, gilled, or any of the other traits that define it as a species of fish. Whoops, my bad. (Did I mention that I have some of the most whimsical stories to tell?)
So in the end, I walked out of Jay's, my resident advisor, room having signed a nice sheet of paper accusing me of a violation. He's a cool guy so I don't hold anything against him (technically this really is my fault), plus he mentioned that if it were up to him, he wouldn't even file a JR on me. Heh, ohs well, at least my first (I guess hopefully last?) one was for something silly like this. At this rate, the courts won't even be contacting me until a week or two after my little gerbil's been back home. Man, isn't the legal system great?
Well, I'm done with that, just thought I'd throw out another funny part of my life here. It's kinda sad really, since JR's are supposed to be really serious and can get you suspended or expelled at times. Mmm, that's about all I've got to say about this topic. Laters.
Present, Exhibit A: One such method of attaining a JR is to not read the handbook thing with all the rules ever invented on the face of Tech history (actually, I have no idea what it has in it, hell, I have no idea where to find it). More specifically, in my case, there is a clause--or statement or whatever--that says that we are not allowed to have pets in the dorms except for fish. If you know me or are psychic, you know that I brought along with me a gerbil. I don't want to get too technical, but simple biology teaches us that a gerbil is not scaled, finned, gilled, or any of the other traits that define it as a species of fish. Whoops, my bad. (Did I mention that I have some of the most whimsical stories to tell?)
So in the end, I walked out of Jay's, my resident advisor, room having signed a nice sheet of paper accusing me of a violation. He's a cool guy so I don't hold anything against him (technically this really is my fault), plus he mentioned that if it were up to him, he wouldn't even file a JR on me. Heh, ohs well, at least my first (I guess hopefully last?) one was for something silly like this. At this rate, the courts won't even be contacting me until a week or two after my little gerbil's been back home. Man, isn't the legal system great?
Well, I'm done with that, just thought I'd throw out another funny part of my life here. It's kinda sad really, since JR's are supposed to be really serious and can get you suspended or expelled at times. Mmm, that's about all I've got to say about this topic. Laters.
Monday, August 28, 2006
The LAST Summer in Review
Well, considering that my last summer has probably been the most event-filled and "life-changing" summer I've ever had, I believe that I should devote some time for the background tale.
* Ideally, you would know a bit more about me before you read this, but instead I'll let you think what you want. Who knows, you may even turn out to be right.
My last year of high school, at Broad Run no less, had just ended, and thus it was obviously summer. Graduation, Project Graduation, a few days off, trip to Europe, more time off, mebbe even a job somewhere. That was basically the summer I was expecting on the last day of school. Boy was I wrong... or mostly misinformed.
Well, for the most part, graduation was just as I expected it to be. We had our little (but not really... it lasted three hours) "graduation practice" the day before actual graduation so we would be ready for it. Not hard at all, but there was one good reason to go. Well, two actually, one being that we couldn't walk without having gone, and two being that we got our yearbooks. Not exactly the best thing ever--the yearbook that is--but it's something to just remember Broad Run with. After the summer, I've moved on so much that it's hard to recall having attended high school at all ^^;
Now Project Graduation was more fun than I thought it'd be. Oooh, that and we got the "comfy chair" for our dorm! Man, it was fun. The night was full of random games, gambling, scary beauty contests, more gambling, and sleep deprivation (ooh, fun)! The random games included big glove boxing (yes... like sock 'em boppers or whatever they were called), mechanical bull riding (which I did awesome at!), and food! Erm, well I know that food isn't really a game, but it was good, and free which is something you can never deny. The gambling was awesome too. It's how we ended up getting the comfy chair in the first place. Basically everyone got a bunch of fake money to go cash in for chips to play with at the fake casino. With enough fake money, you could go to the gym and get awesome prizes like a TV, some CDs, and... *drum roll* a comfy chair!!! That's what we went for and, after a lot of cheating and stealing of people's money, we actually had enough Monopoly money to buy it (ok, it wasn't Monopoly money, but it was fake and colorful, like the rest of the world's currency*. I mean, what else am I supposed to call it).
After they closed down the gambling, which was around the time that everybody was ridiculously tired, they herded those who stayed the night into the gym. This must have been the worst part of the entire night--though it was disturbingly funny. Apparently the people running the entire thing had gotten some of the those there to take part in a contest of sorts... a beauty contest. Thing is, like always, there was a spin to it. No girls. Even worse was that we were forced to watch a bunch of guys dressed up like girls try to win a beauty pageant. Quite a painful moment, but at least it only lasted half an hour or so and then we got to go home and rest our eyes.
Once that crazy night ended, I had a few days until I left for Europe. Now to keep things somewhat short, I'm going to write a separate entry for it, but I will mention that it was awesome and so worth going to. Oh, interesting story I can tell here. In order to go on the trip you had to have been invited by the two teachers who were acting as chaperones. I did not know either and had never had either as a teacher. But, I did have a lot of friends who were going--including Sahil, Kish, John, Martin, etc.--so I wanted to go obviously. To do so I pulled the whole "friend of many good people going whom the teachers liked" card and asked if I could go along. It all ended well and, of course, I found myself on that Lufthansa flight over to Frankfurt. Fun times ^_^
After Europe, and many many new friends later ^^, on the flight back, I was smart enough to get a list of people's contact information. At the time there was one main reason that I was doing this--one person really, but it's all old news--however, things turned out to be very good for me when I did this. To sum it up, I got to plan a good amount of the small "reunions" that we had once we were back home. All, or most of us really, were good friends and so we wanted to meet up again to hang out and have fun times like we did in Europe. Thus we did.
Some weeks passed--mostly uneventful except for those night drives and reunions--and I had orientation down here at Tech. It was fun and I was so excited during that time until I found out that I was being forced to go to Puerto Rico with my family two weeks later. Now that threw me off balance. I had many things in the process of being planned--not to mention the large amount of fun we, the Europe group, had been having. After that, for the tumultuous time that passed, I was in a very pouty mood. However, that was soon to pass and be replaced by the well-known--at least in today's day and age--mood known as "emo." No, I didn't get a new haircut or cut myself or anything characteristically emo. I was just really really down, for reasons my friends know, though even that didn't last long. Actually, instead of being emo about things, I decided to make the best of the situation which I had been thrown into.
How did I pull it off? Well, I'd say a few days before we left, I decided to ask one of my friends in PR for her number. Long story of how I met her (actually, never in person, I just knew her through my godfather's son, who just so happens to be a good friend of mine), but basically I thought it was time that the two of us met (see, we'd been friends online for a while and had wanted to meet in person, but every time I went to PR with my family before that time she was off on vacation). (Wow, that somewhat easily and painlessly just explained the whole situation) So, I may not have been able to stay at home and enjoy the week with my friends, but instead I traded that for meeting and making new friends. And, it worked out as I will recount when I get to it in my telling of my time in PR.
When we finally returned from Puerto Rico I was in a ridiculously blissful mood. Oddly enough, I had pulled a complete 180 in a little over a week. This was good. For the rest of the summer, the precious couple of weeks left, I more or less got to continue what I had been doing before leaving: hanging with friends, reunions, and more night drives (a lot more). Apparently, while I was gone, James and Kish had gone on drives more or less every single night. Also one day, the two of them, Vince, Cathryn (Vince's girlfriend), and Ted had all gone camping--hehe, that always makes me think of You, Me, and Dupree. Well obviously this made me want to go, so before I left for Tech there were three very important things left to do:
1. Go camping.
2. Plan one big "summer's over" Europe reunion.
3. ... uh, pack >.<;
Camping's gonna get it's own post, so not much to say on that right now. Packing and the reunion, while fun--I mean the reunion--were mostly uneventful. Other than the fact that the last Europe get-together was a real success, there truly is little to say about it. The most noteworthy part about it was seeing how so many things had changed in such a short span of time (the few weeks of summer) for me and my friends--both old and new. Soooo, in summary: Kish drives like a maniac after so many night drives, James is a hermit who cries during chick flicks, Sahil's still Indian, John has a girlfriend, and I have more friends than I ever thought I would and had the best time of my life this past summer. Sa-weet.
Ending on that note I shall say goodnight to you all. This post has taken me forever long to type, but I think it was worth it (especially since now I have like three or four other spin-off posts to get to work on). Expect more updates in the near future!
* God damn, the intraweb is full of so many idiots that I am forced to do this. It's not that I have gotten complaints, or because of the chance that I will get any, but just to prove that I am not one of those ignorant bloggers. This is what we call--in the business... which, coincidentally, I do not belong to--humor. Not good humor, but just something that makes me chuckle lightly at 4 AM.
* Ideally, you would know a bit more about me before you read this, but instead I'll let you think what you want. Who knows, you may even turn out to be right.
My last year of high school, at Broad Run no less, had just ended, and thus it was obviously summer. Graduation, Project Graduation, a few days off, trip to Europe, more time off, mebbe even a job somewhere. That was basically the summer I was expecting on the last day of school. Boy was I wrong... or mostly misinformed.
Well, for the most part, graduation was just as I expected it to be. We had our little (but not really... it lasted three hours) "graduation practice" the day before actual graduation so we would be ready for it. Not hard at all, but there was one good reason to go. Well, two actually, one being that we couldn't walk without having gone, and two being that we got our yearbooks. Not exactly the best thing ever--the yearbook that is--but it's something to just remember Broad Run with. After the summer, I've moved on so much that it's hard to recall having attended high school at all ^^;
Now Project Graduation was more fun than I thought it'd be. Oooh, that and we got the "comfy chair" for our dorm! Man, it was fun. The night was full of random games, gambling, scary beauty contests, more gambling, and sleep deprivation (ooh, fun)! The random games included big glove boxing (yes... like sock 'em boppers or whatever they were called), mechanical bull riding (which I did awesome at!), and food! Erm, well I know that food isn't really a game, but it was good, and free which is something you can never deny. The gambling was awesome too. It's how we ended up getting the comfy chair in the first place. Basically everyone got a bunch of fake money to go cash in for chips to play with at the fake casino. With enough fake money, you could go to the gym and get awesome prizes like a TV, some CDs, and... *drum roll* a comfy chair!!! That's what we went for and, after a lot of cheating and stealing of people's money, we actually had enough Monopoly money to buy it (ok, it wasn't Monopoly money, but it was fake and colorful, like the rest of the world's currency*. I mean, what else am I supposed to call it).
After they closed down the gambling, which was around the time that everybody was ridiculously tired, they herded those who stayed the night into the gym. This must have been the worst part of the entire night--though it was disturbingly funny. Apparently the people running the entire thing had gotten some of the those there to take part in a contest of sorts... a beauty contest. Thing is, like always, there was a spin to it. No girls. Even worse was that we were forced to watch a bunch of guys dressed up like girls try to win a beauty pageant. Quite a painful moment, but at least it only lasted half an hour or so and then we got to go home and rest our eyes.
Once that crazy night ended, I had a few days until I left for Europe. Now to keep things somewhat short, I'm going to write a separate entry for it, but I will mention that it was awesome and so worth going to. Oh, interesting story I can tell here. In order to go on the trip you had to have been invited by the two teachers who were acting as chaperones. I did not know either and had never had either as a teacher. But, I did have a lot of friends who were going--including Sahil, Kish, John, Martin, etc.--so I wanted to go obviously. To do so I pulled the whole "friend of many good people going whom the teachers liked" card and asked if I could go along. It all ended well and, of course, I found myself on that Lufthansa flight over to Frankfurt. Fun times ^_^
After Europe, and many many new friends later ^^, on the flight back, I was smart enough to get a list of people's contact information. At the time there was one main reason that I was doing this--one person really, but it's all old news--however, things turned out to be very good for me when I did this. To sum it up, I got to plan a good amount of the small "reunions" that we had once we were back home. All, or most of us really, were good friends and so we wanted to meet up again to hang out and have fun times like we did in Europe. Thus we did.
Some weeks passed--mostly uneventful except for those night drives and reunions--and I had orientation down here at Tech. It was fun and I was so excited during that time until I found out that I was being forced to go to Puerto Rico with my family two weeks later. Now that threw me off balance. I had many things in the process of being planned--not to mention the large amount of fun we, the Europe group, had been having. After that, for the tumultuous time that passed, I was in a very pouty mood. However, that was soon to pass and be replaced by the well-known--at least in today's day and age--mood known as "emo." No, I didn't get a new haircut or cut myself or anything characteristically emo. I was just really really down, for reasons my friends know, though even that didn't last long. Actually, instead of being emo about things, I decided to make the best of the situation which I had been thrown into.
How did I pull it off? Well, I'd say a few days before we left, I decided to ask one of my friends in PR for her number. Long story of how I met her (actually, never in person, I just knew her through my godfather's son, who just so happens to be a good friend of mine), but basically I thought it was time that the two of us met (see, we'd been friends online for a while and had wanted to meet in person, but every time I went to PR with my family before that time she was off on vacation). (Wow, that somewhat easily and painlessly just explained the whole situation) So, I may not have been able to stay at home and enjoy the week with my friends, but instead I traded that for meeting and making new friends. And, it worked out as I will recount when I get to it in my telling of my time in PR.
When we finally returned from Puerto Rico I was in a ridiculously blissful mood. Oddly enough, I had pulled a complete 180 in a little over a week. This was good. For the rest of the summer, the precious couple of weeks left, I more or less got to continue what I had been doing before leaving: hanging with friends, reunions, and more night drives (a lot more). Apparently, while I was gone, James and Kish had gone on drives more or less every single night. Also one day, the two of them, Vince, Cathryn (Vince's girlfriend), and Ted had all gone camping--hehe, that always makes me think of You, Me, and Dupree. Well obviously this made me want to go, so before I left for Tech there were three very important things left to do:
1. Go camping.
2. Plan one big "summer's over" Europe reunion.
3. ... uh, pack >.<;
Camping's gonna get it's own post, so not much to say on that right now. Packing and the reunion, while fun--I mean the reunion--were mostly uneventful. Other than the fact that the last Europe get-together was a real success, there truly is little to say about it. The most noteworthy part about it was seeing how so many things had changed in such a short span of time (the few weeks of summer) for me and my friends--both old and new. Soooo, in summary: Kish drives like a maniac after so many night drives, James is a hermit who cries during chick flicks, Sahil's still Indian, John has a girlfriend, and I have more friends than I ever thought I would and had the best time of my life this past summer. Sa-weet.
Ending on that note I shall say goodnight to you all. This post has taken me forever long to type, but I think it was worth it (especially since now I have like three or four other spin-off posts to get to work on). Expect more updates in the near future!
* God damn, the intraweb is full of so many idiots that I am forced to do this. It's not that I have gotten complaints, or because of the chance that I will get any, but just to prove that I am not one of those ignorant bloggers. This is what we call--in the business... which, coincidentally, I do not belong to--humor. Not good humor, but just something that makes me chuckle lightly at 4 AM.
Friday, August 25, 2006
The First Week Draws to a Close
.. and how. It's been an awesome first week of college (as you could have gathered from my few postings throughout the week). So far it's been mostly "studying"--not really, just not crazy partying yet--and calm with a few classes everyday. Overall I like my classes, especially when compared to those which I was forced to take at Broad Run, but there are some that just make me want to take a fork and stab away at my sensitive eye tissue.
For example: both of the math classes that I am enrolled in. This includes Vector Geometry and Elementary Linear Algebra. Now probably to most non-college students these sound like crazy hard classes. Trust me, they're not. If you can do basic Algebra and Geometry--go figure--then you can easily learn and ace each of the classes. Sadly enough, Virginia Tech knows this because both of them are more or less online classes with teachers that just help students out. Every week we're expected to go down to the Math Emporium (a few miles away in the University Mall) and take a quiz on material we basically tought ourselves. Whee (with excitement of course)...
Righto. Well other than those two classes that insult eveyrone's intelligence, the rest of my classes seem to be all right. The lab portion of computer science seems like it's gonna be a real bitch to get anything done in, but that's the one class that I really want to do well in so I'd say things will turn out okay.
Mmm, so I'm quite pleased that Friday has come. Before, in high school that is, weekdays meant a full day of class but it wasn't like they were hard. Also, you got to see your friends everyday at school. Here, class isn't the best of time to chat with people. This means that when weekends come, people have to use every minute to its fullest to have fun. Oh, and study... I guess ^^; But, you know, who's keeping track? Really? Nobody of course. So fun comes on weekends. All I gotta do is keep up with the work I've been assigned (which for the most part I think I can take care of).
There is one thing that I've been looking forward to doing here: joining clubs. There are a crap load of clubs here at Tech. If anyone has ever had the thought, "Hmmm, there should be a club for*insert name of club or activity here*," then there is most likely a club made for that already. If on the rare occassion there isn't, then, like always, anybody can easily start said club. Personally, I'd like to join some sort of martial arts club--remember, I did Tae Kwon Do--and the frisbee club would be awsome (though I suck compared to all the people I've seen). Other than that, any club that has some fun thing to do and fun people in it would be worth joining. Clubs demand very little time and are more for social purposes--a lot like those political groups we learned about in government last year... yeah.
Well, on that note I think I'll be seeing you all later. Yes, all negative two of you. I don't forget, I write this blog just for you! *clears throat* Right, back to serious matters. I'm done here for the day. Take care and enjoy your day. I'mma go find something to do, laters.
For example: both of the math classes that I am enrolled in. This includes Vector Geometry and Elementary Linear Algebra. Now probably to most non-college students these sound like crazy hard classes. Trust me, they're not. If you can do basic Algebra and Geometry--go figure--then you can easily learn and ace each of the classes. Sadly enough, Virginia Tech knows this because both of them are more or less online classes with teachers that just help students out. Every week we're expected to go down to the Math Emporium (a few miles away in the University Mall) and take a quiz on material we basically tought ourselves. Whee (with excitement of course)...
Mmm, so I'm quite pleased that Friday has come. Before, in high school that is, weekdays meant a full day of class but it wasn't like they were hard. Also, you got to see your friends everyday at school. Here, class isn't the best of time to chat with people. This means that when weekends come, people have to use every minute to its fullest to have fun. Oh, and study... I guess ^^; But, you know, who's keeping track? Really? Nobody of course. So fun comes on weekends. All I gotta do is keep up with the work I've been assigned (which for the most part I think I can take care of).
There is one thing that I've been looking forward to doing here: joining clubs. There are a crap load of clubs here at Tech. If anyone has ever had the thought, "Hmmm, there should be a club for
Well, on that note I think I'll be seeing you all later. Yes, all negative two of you. I don't forget, I write this blog just for you! *clears throat* Right, back to serious matters. I'm done here for the day. Take care and enjoy your day. I'mma go find something to do, laters.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
I...
Yup, I saw this originally at my friend's Deviant Art page and immediately wanted to do one myself. Here it is:
I Live... one minute at a time.
I Work... even if I don't want to.
I Talk... seldomly, but with meaning.
I Met... a lot of good souls.
I Wish... moments could be relived.
I Enjoy... good company over everything else.
I Look... for the best in every situation.
I Find... beauty in the world around.
I Smell... the moist grass.
I Listen... with my whole being.
I Hide... behind many masks.
I Walk... when I can't run.
I Write... for myself.
I See... little without "correction."
I Sing... when I'm alone.
I Laugh... near endlessly.
I Can... do anything in the right mindset.
I Watch... the sky quite often.
I Learned... that happiness comes from within.
I Dream... and I thank God for it.
I Want... to travel throughout the entire globe.
I Cry... but don't bawl.
I Burn... the evil I see.
I Read... to escape from as well as delve into the world.
I Love... I really do.
I Sometimes... question existence.
I Hurt... although not as often as before.
I Fear... everyone'll leave me.
I Hope... this will never end.
I Break... God's heart.
I Eat... ramen becauase I'm poor.
I Quit... caring a long time ago.
I Drink... water mostly.
I Save... for what I really want.
I Hug... from my heart.
I Meditate... with music and a good book.
I Play... most anything with most anyone.
I Miss... one person, a lot.
I Hold... those in need.
I Forgive... always.
I Drive... though they shouldn't let me.
I Have... so many awesome memories.
I Don't... curse often.
I Made... someone cry once.
I Believe... in people more than anything.
I Feel... perpetual déjà vu.
I Know... too many things, yet not enough.
I Wonder... if all stories have happy endings.
I Think... in that introspective way.
I Am... insignificant, but irreplaceable.
I Live... one minute at a time.
I Work... even if I don't want to.
I Talk... seldomly, but with meaning.
I Met... a lot of good souls.
I Wish... moments could be relived.
I Enjoy... good company over everything else.
I Look... for the best in every situation.
I Find... beauty in the world around.
I Smell... the moist grass.
I Listen... with my whole being.
I Hide... behind many masks.
I Walk... when I can't run.
I Write... for myself.
I See... little without "correction."
I Sing... when I'm alone.
I Laugh... near endlessly.
I Can... do anything in the right mindset.
I Watch... the sky quite often.
I Learned... that happiness comes from within.
I Dream... and I thank God for it.
I Want... to travel throughout the entire globe.
I Cry... but don't bawl.
I Burn... the evil I see.
I Read... to escape from as well as delve into the world.
I Love... I really do.
I Sometimes... question existence.
I Hurt... although not as often as before.
I Fear... everyone'll leave me.
I Hope... this will never end.
I Break... God's heart.
I Eat... ramen becauase I'm poor.
I Quit... caring a long time ago.
I Drink... water mostly.
I Save... for what I really want.
I Hug... from my heart.
I Meditate... with music and a good book.
I Play... most anything with most anyone.
I Miss... one person, a lot.
I Hold... those in need.
I Forgive... always.
I Drive... though they shouldn't let me.
I Have... so many awesome memories.
I Don't... curse often.
I Made... someone cry once.
I Believe... in people more than anything.
I Feel... perpetual déjà vu.
I Know... too many things, yet not enough.
I Wonder... if all stories have happy endings.
I Think... in that introspective way.
I Am... insignificant, but irreplaceable.
Yay, It's Me Day of Birth!
Another blunt, yet extremely true, title.
Yes, please, send me your well-wishes for it is customary to do as such. No really, if you want, it'd be cool. ... no? Oh, ok, that's cool too.
... bastards :P
So yeah, today was my birthday. Rather uneventful for the most part 'cept for the fact that I got to attend more than one class. Oddly enough, class was actually kinda fun (I know I'll be regretting that in a few days, but humor me for once) and I'm looking forward to attending the rest of them. I've still got Vector Geometry--yeah, and I'm looking forward to it, aren't I weird?--and the chemistry lab left. Well, I guess technically I also have the lecture portion of Engineering Exploration--sounds nifty--but that's just cause of what happened on Monday.
Well, so far the classes have gone rather well: we haven't done anything, which means I really can't complain yet. But then again it means that my homework load is near minimal. In a few weeks it's gonna suck... bad. For now let's just hope that things will continue going at the same laid-back pace of the last few days. Course, chances are that I'm just setting up lofty dreams by saying that. Oh well.
Today, in summary, was somewhat disappointing (can you tell that I did the ghetto-edit there?). For once I was underwhelmed by the food at D2, while at the same time there was nothing to do. Me, John, and Vince spent most of the afternoon waltzing around campus just trying to find something. Eventually, after a few hours, we went to play pool--I just got back--at the game lounge on our floor here in Pritchard. However, the best part of this afternoon was just sitting, actually more like laying down, on the drillfield and watching people walk around to wherever the hell they were headed. Quite a nice day once the sun calmed down, should've taken a picture.
I do believe, though, that I will end this day with a bit of studying and then watch one of my favorite movies... Garden State! Thus, not all will have been lost. Well, that's mostly if I do indeed end up studying, otherwise... best not talk about such bad things. Mmm, I have an 8 o'clock in the morning class tomorrow--though most of the rest of the day off, score!--so I'll be logging for now. Ja to all you crazy folks!
Yes, please, send me your well-wishes for it is customary to do as such. No really, if you want, it'd be cool. ... no? Oh, ok, that's cool too.
... bastards :P
So yeah, today was my birthday. Rather uneventful for the most part 'cept for the fact that I got to attend more than one class. Oddly enough, class was actually kinda fun (I know I'll be regretting that in a few days, but humor me for once) and I'm looking forward to attending the rest of them. I've still got Vector Geometry--yeah, and I'm looking forward to it, aren't I weird?--and the chemistry lab left. Well, I guess technically I also have the lecture portion of Engineering Exploration--sounds nifty--but that's just cause of what happened on Monday.
Well, so far the classes have gone rather well: we haven't done anything, which means I really can't complain yet. But then again it means that my homework load is near minimal. In a few weeks it's gonna suck... bad. For now let's just hope that things will continue going at the same laid-back pace of the last few days. Course, chances are that I'm just setting up lofty dreams by saying that. Oh well.
Today, in summary, was somewhat disappointing (can you tell that I did the ghetto-edit there?). For once I was underwhelmed by the food at D2, while at the same time there was nothing to do. Me, John, and Vince spent most of the afternoon waltzing around campus just trying to find something. Eventually, after a few hours, we went to play pool--I just got back--at the game lounge on our floor here in Pritchard. However, the best part of this afternoon was just sitting, actually more like laying down, on the drillfield and watching people walk around to wherever the hell they were headed. Quite a nice day once the sun calmed down, should've taken a picture.
I do believe, though, that I will end this day with a bit of studying and then watch one of my favorite movies... Garden State! Thus, not all will have been lost. Well, that's mostly if I do indeed end up studying, otherwise... best not talk about such bad things. Mmm, I have an 8 o'clock in the morning class tomorrow--though most of the rest of the day off, score!--so I'll be logging for now. Ja to all you crazy folks!
Monday, August 21, 2006
"First Day of Classes!" ... or "Murderer On the Loose At Tech"
Yup, the title of this post just about covers things. I was somewhat excited and looking forward to attending class today--first class at 11 on Mondays, not bad. But, of course, I didn't actually get to attend, and won't be able to go to, any classes today. Bummer... sorta.
Well, the reason as to why classes all over Virginia Tech are cancelled is the second title to today's post. There's a guy who escaped from prison who has, since running off, killed a number of people already. Not cool. Thus the whole campus is closed--except for food, thankfully--and us students are highly encouraged to stay in our dorms. But I'm a bit hungry, so I may get going in a bit to grab some food (yes, the same food that I bragged about in my previous post... still awesome).
While it is a bit annoying that classes were cancelled--I really wanted to know what they'd be about and who was in them...--at least I get to have an extended weekend.
*ghetto edit* (I'll explain what that is in a bit)
So yeah, they caught the guy. Chances are if you watch the news--it was on CNN--or just read the newspaper that you can hear all about it. They had told us to not leave our dorms, but really for a lot of people it wasn't a big deal. For example, my roommate had gone to his first class at Squires Student Center, where moments later there was a reported "spotting" of the guy, but was evacuated out halfway through. Funny enough, again, if you had watched CNN, he actually was on tv for a few seconds in the shots where the whole building was cleared. However, finally getting back to my point, even though he had been "at the scene," John never really freaked out. When we went to get food he was cool with it. Hell, after food we went outside and played some frisbee, eventually getting into this huge--literally an hour and a half of it--game of ultimate frisbee. At the time none of use knew if the guy had been caught yet, but we were all outside enjoying ourselves... blissfully unaware of the danger that didn't appear.
Now, I don't mean to make it sound like everything was happy nilly (wow... that's probably one of the worst expressions that I've ever used), far from it actually. Most people weren't talking about the two cops who had been shot, but obviously it was on everyone's mind. The guy was armed and dangerous, which was why a few of the people I know down here were a bit scared to leave their dorms. Thankfully he's been caught and classes can (hopefully... I think) go on as scheduled.
So, these four days at Tech have been filled with a lot of interesting events. There've been the "normal" moving-in things, adjusting to college life and such, and then things like the escaped prisoner. Hehe, then just two days ago, during the first lightning storm I've been through here, the power went out for a good chunk of the dorms. Fun times, neh?
Well, I'm out, it's been another long day, and I have to get up somewhat early tomorrow, so I'll be seeing you all later. Bai bai!
PS: Oh, right. Ghetto edit. Basically, I am so ADD at times that I just leave posts half-written (this one I left in the middle of a sentence actually). What I'll do is just save the post as a "draft"--nifty little Blogger feature--and just get back to it later. There are times that I have three or four of those half-written posts.. go me! But yeah, when I want to work on them I just click edit and then I can publish the posts afterwards. That's what I did for this one, wrote some then later in the day finished it up.
Well, the reason as to why classes all over Virginia Tech are cancelled is the second title to today's post. There's a guy who escaped from prison who has, since running off, killed a number of people already. Not cool. Thus the whole campus is closed--except for food, thankfully--and us students are highly encouraged to stay in our dorms. But I'm a bit hungry, so I may get going in a bit to grab some food (yes, the same food that I bragged about in my previous post... still awesome).
While it is a bit annoying that classes were cancelled--I really wanted to know what they'd be about and who was in them...--at least I get to have an extended weekend.
*ghetto edit* (I'll explain what that is in a bit)
So yeah, they caught the guy. Chances are if you watch the news--it was on CNN--or just read the newspaper that you can hear all about it. They had told us to not leave our dorms, but really for a lot of people it wasn't a big deal. For example, my roommate had gone to his first class at Squires Student Center, where moments later there was a reported "spotting" of the guy, but was evacuated out halfway through. Funny enough, again, if you had watched CNN, he actually was on tv for a few seconds in the shots where the whole building was cleared. However, finally getting back to my point, even though he had been "at the scene," John never really freaked out. When we went to get food he was cool with it. Hell, after food we went outside and played some frisbee, eventually getting into this huge--literally an hour and a half of it--game of ultimate frisbee. At the time none of use knew if the guy had been caught yet, but we were all outside enjoying ourselves... blissfully unaware of the danger that didn't appear.
Now, I don't mean to make it sound like everything was happy nilly (wow... that's probably one of the worst expressions that I've ever used), far from it actually. Most people weren't talking about the two cops who had been shot, but obviously it was on everyone's mind. The guy was armed and dangerous, which was why a few of the people I know down here were a bit scared to leave their dorms. Thankfully he's been caught and classes can (hopefully... I think) go on as scheduled.
So, these four days at Tech have been filled with a lot of interesting events. There've been the "normal" moving-in things, adjusting to college life and such, and then things like the escaped prisoner. Hehe, then just two days ago, during the first lightning storm I've been through here, the power went out for a good chunk of the dorms. Fun times, neh?
Well, I'm out, it's been another long day, and I have to get up somewhat early tomorrow, so I'll be seeing you all later. Bai bai!
PS: Oh, right. Ghetto edit. Basically, I am so ADD at times that I just leave posts half-written (this one I left in the middle of a sentence actually). What I'll do is just save the post as a "draft"--nifty little Blogger feature--and just get back to it later. There are times that I have three or four of those half-written posts.. go me! But yeah, when I want to work on them I just click edit and then I can publish the posts afterwards. That's what I did for this one, wrote some then later in the day finished it up.
Friday, August 18, 2006
Ohs ma gawd! College!
So, today, Friday August 18th, 2006, was the day that I, Gabriel E. Martinez, moved into room 3045 of West Pritchard at the fine college known as Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. You know what this means? Par-tee? No, not yet, there's way too much crap left to do, and I'm slightly tired from what I already had to do.
Surprise, surprise, I had an early morning today--had to get up at 5. Of course, because of my nasty little habit, I slept around midnight or so, mostly due to all of the last-minute packing I had to take care of. Unlike my friends who also had to wake up early, however, I had to drive for half the trip on the way down. That's a two and a half hour trip with only five-ish hours of sleep. ... not the best of circumstances, especially since I'm one of the least attentive drivers to ever hit the road. Oh well, we all lived, right?
Eventually we arrived at the big VT (VPI, Hokieland, etc). Thus the gargantuan task of unpacking began... and ended in about fifteen minutes. Really, the fact that I packed maybe a third of what my sister packed her first year (it took so long.. so many good men gave their lives) and that John, my roomy and life partner, and his parents helped me out definitely sped up things. So I got settled in, though it took a few more hours of random unpacking to actually finish, and things were looking pretty nice. You walk into our room, the spacious 12x14 area, and can see the bunk beds--yes!--desks, random school supplies, and the sort strewn throughout the room. All in all, it's not too shabby.
Afterwards, down to Deitrick (spelling?) we went to have a bite to eat. This place is freaking (yes, freaking) awesome! Basically you pay about three bucks and get to eat all you want. All-you-can-eat places rarely attract me, but even for a guy with a small appetite like me D2 is still a great place to eat. Depending on when you go (breakfast, lunch, dinner) there are things like fresh omelettes, burgers, pizza, tacos, all more or less right in front of you. Only three bucks!!!
... ok, enough ranting about the food--there are actually even more places just as awesome around campus--let's move on to the rest of the day.
Oddly enough, the initial shock of being in college really never hit me all at once. Instead it came slowly in short spurts. One such moment occurred at the University Bookstore where, obviously, we bought the books for our classes. How glad I am that I didn't have to pay for those. Not only would I have a large hole burnt in my pocket, I would have had to live with the fact that they were best used as weights. Other than that, there were no truly memorable moments. At times, while me and Sahil and John all sat in one of our rooms, I'd randomly get that strange feeling that I was out of my parents' house for good. Just one of those "things are changing" type of feeling.
Well, it's somewhat late-ish and I feel tired so I'm gonna go sleep. I have a ton of things to do (including that University Honors project...meh) so tomorrow will be a long and busy and, hopefully, productive day. Til next time then!
Surprise, surprise, I had an early morning today--had to get up at 5. Of course, because of my nasty little habit, I slept around midnight or so, mostly due to all of the last-minute packing I had to take care of. Unlike my friends who also had to wake up early, however, I had to drive for half the trip on the way down. That's a two and a half hour trip with only five-ish hours of sleep. ... not the best of circumstances, especially since I'm one of the least attentive drivers to ever hit the road. Oh well, we all lived, right?
Eventually we arrived at the big VT (VPI, Hokieland, etc). Thus the gargantuan task of unpacking began... and ended in about fifteen minutes. Really, the fact that I packed maybe a third of what my sister packed her first year (it took so long.. so many good men gave their lives) and that John, my roomy and life partner, and his parents helped me out definitely sped up things. So I got settled in, though it took a few more hours of random unpacking to actually finish, and things were looking pretty nice. You walk into our room, the spacious 12x14 area, and can see the bunk beds--yes!--desks, random school supplies, and the sort strewn throughout the room. All in all, it's not too shabby.
Afterwards, down to Deitrick (spelling?) we went to have a bite to eat. This place is freaking (yes, freaking) awesome! Basically you pay about three bucks and get to eat all you want. All-you-can-eat places rarely attract me, but even for a guy with a small appetite like me D2 is still a great place to eat. Depending on when you go (breakfast, lunch, dinner) there are things like fresh omelettes, burgers, pizza, tacos, all more or less right in front of you. Only three bucks!!!
... ok, enough ranting about the food--there are actually even more places just as awesome around campus--let's move on to the rest of the day.
Oddly enough, the initial shock of being in college really never hit me all at once. Instead it came slowly in short spurts. One such moment occurred at the University Bookstore where, obviously, we bought the books for our classes. How glad I am that I didn't have to pay for those. Not only would I have a large hole burnt in my pocket, I would have had to live with the fact that they were best used as weights. Other than that, there were no truly memorable moments. At times, while me and Sahil and John all sat in one of our rooms, I'd randomly get that strange feeling that I was out of my parents' house for good. Just one of those "things are changing" type of feeling.
Well, it's somewhat late-ish and I feel tired so I'm gonna go sleep. I have a ton of things to do (including that University Honors project...meh) so tomorrow will be a long and busy and, hopefully, productive day. Til next time then!
Thursday, August 17, 2006
*Hiccups*
Soooo, I got some funny, weird, quirky thing that sorta makes me laugh which I'm gonna talk about this fine night/morning. Basically, probably around the time that summer started, I got this eye twitch thing. I really have no idea why it started at all--maybe all that time spent in Ultrazone?--but it was kinda annoying and funny at the same time. For the most part it would just randomly kick in once in a while for a couple of seconds, I think on the left eye.
Now, that probably sounds weird enough on its own, but obviously I wouldn't devote a whole post for just something as silly as that (well, I am blatantly lying, but just let me off the hook this one time). The eye twitch turned into something different after a bit. This new "phase" began while we were over in Europe, close to the end of the trip. Eventually, after like two or three weeks, the eye twitch just stopped occurring, so I was mostly happy to have it gone. However, by the last few days of the trip, I developed a sort of nose twitch. So, instead of my eye twitching randomly for a few seconds, my nose would do the twitching--yeah, I have a very strange... I'm weird, ok?
Well, the nose twitching thing wasn't as annoying as when my eye was doing it, so I didn't mind too much. But soon enough that stopped also and turned into something totally different. What exactly? Hiccups.
To explain this part of my story fully, I have to delve into another little side story of sorts. See, I have a friend who has a weird little thing, a bit like what I have now (though one can never be sure). At seemingly random times she'll just hiccup. One thing you have to understand is that these hiccups aren't like the regular kind people get once in a while. Regular hiccups keep on going for a bit of time, few minutes or so at times, but keep happening at regular intervals. This is entirely random, just a spurt out of nowhere.
When I first found out about her hiccup thing, I didn't think it weird, just funny and kinda cool. I now think otherwise. Well, actually, sorta otherwise. Now that the nose twitching stopped and was replaced by strange hiccups, I find them kind of annoying. Buuut, that's only when it happens to me. Watching it happen to anybody else would be, and is, quite funny still ^^;
Wow, reading over this it seems like a truly pointless post. Oh well, it's something weird and funny that I just felt like commenting on. Maybe later I'll post something good, like talk about Ultrazone! Yeah, I think I'll do that, so come on back in a few and read about how me and my friends make small children cry!
Later~
Now, that probably sounds weird enough on its own, but obviously I wouldn't devote a whole post for just something as silly as that (well, I am blatantly lying, but just let me off the hook this one time). The eye twitch turned into something different after a bit. This new "phase" began while we were over in Europe, close to the end of the trip. Eventually, after like two or three weeks, the eye twitch just stopped occurring, so I was mostly happy to have it gone. However, by the last few days of the trip, I developed a sort of nose twitch. So, instead of my eye twitching randomly for a few seconds, my nose would do the twitching--yeah, I have a very strange... I'm weird, ok?
Well, the nose twitching thing wasn't as annoying as when my eye was doing it, so I didn't mind too much. But soon enough that stopped also and turned into something totally different. What exactly? Hiccups.
To explain this part of my story fully, I have to delve into another little side story of sorts. See, I have a friend who has a weird little thing, a bit like what I have now (though one can never be sure). At seemingly random times she'll just hiccup. One thing you have to understand is that these hiccups aren't like the regular kind people get once in a while. Regular hiccups keep on going for a bit of time, few minutes or so at times, but keep happening at regular intervals. This is entirely random, just a spurt out of nowhere.
When I first found out about her hiccup thing, I didn't think it weird, just funny and kinda cool. I now think otherwise. Well, actually, sorta otherwise. Now that the nose twitching stopped and was replaced by strange hiccups, I find them kind of annoying. Buuut, that's only when it happens to me. Watching it happen to anybody else would be, and is, quite funny still ^^;
Wow, reading over this it seems like a truly pointless post. Oh well, it's something weird and funny that I just felt like commenting on. Maybe later I'll post something good, like talk about Ultrazone! Yeah, I think I'll do that, so come on back in a few and read about how me and my friends make small children cry!
Later~
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Trip Down in the Caribbean (Part 1)
... Puerto Rico to be specific.
Now for all of you who don't know, I was born in Puerto Rico and lived there 'til I was six years old. Though I've lived here (Ashburn) for over ten years, me and my family like to visit back "home" every so often. So this is a short recounting, a summary even, of the shenanigans that went down in the beautiful paradise of PR.
For the most part I'll be using this (my sister's telling of the trip) to help me in remembering things that happened, so feel free to skim it beforehand or whatever.
Saturday: So, this is the first day of the trip, the one that involves a lot of traveling, and thus we had to get up... early. How early? Well somewhere around 5AM. Thing is that I had arrived back home around midnight, after one of me and my friends' "night drives," and then had to begin the arduous task of packing. If you knew me, you'd know that my awesome procrastination usually tells me to do one thing over work always: sleep. Basically, I tried to pack, but gave up after gathering the required items (it was only a week, so not too bad). In the end I slept round 1:30 and set my alarm for 5... but not. At 5:30 my dad was yelling at me to wake up.
Fun, fun. Rushed packing and then heading over to the airport for an 8AM flight is a great way to start any morning. Mmm, boring details ensued and four hours later we found ourselves in Puerto Rico. However, after sitting by the least entertainig rotating object (otherwise known as the baggage claim) for about an hour, I realized that we had lost something. Namely my suitcase. Now, I don't mean to criticize US Airways, but how do you lose a suitcase in a non-stop, direct flight? I have no clue and, apparently, neither did their representative... great way to start things.
Mmm, so we left and drove through the ridiculous PR traffic over to my grandma's (who, as my sister tells, is an awesome cook) house. I love my grandma to death, but visiting her house is boring to no ends. It's mostly due to the fact that all my friends who used to live around there have already moved away, and that there is literally nothing to do ('cept eat of course). Eventually, we set out to where we were staying: Casa Picaflores. Now this was one hell of a trip. First we drove down the eastern side of PR and began to head into the rainforest. These are, of course, the best streets on the whole island. They're poorly, if even, paved, at times covered in inches of water, about the width of two small European cars, and filled with the worst drivers in the world. Sweet!
Yes, we lived. Unlike my sister I don't get dizzy--I rather enjoy crazy roads--so when we finally got there I was slightly disappointed... Oh, so besides the tarantula, the rest of the day was quite uneventful.
I'll talk about the actual house and such on the next update, so just stick around.. or something!
Now for all of you who don't know, I was born in Puerto Rico and lived there 'til I was six years old. Though I've lived here (Ashburn) for over ten years, me and my family like to visit back "home" every so often. So this is a short recounting, a summary even, of the shenanigans that went down in the beautiful paradise of PR.
For the most part I'll be using this (my sister's telling of the trip) to help me in remembering things that happened, so feel free to skim it beforehand or whatever.
Saturday: So, this is the first day of the trip, the one that involves a lot of traveling, and thus we had to get up... early. How early? Well somewhere around 5AM. Thing is that I had arrived back home around midnight, after one of me and my friends' "night drives," and then had to begin the arduous task of packing. If you knew me, you'd know that my awesome procrastination usually tells me to do one thing over work always: sleep. Basically, I tried to pack, but gave up after gathering the required items (it was only a week, so not too bad). In the end I slept round 1:30 and set my alarm for 5... but not. At 5:30 my dad was yelling at me to wake up.
Fun, fun. Rushed packing and then heading over to the airport for an 8AM flight is a great way to start any morning. Mmm, boring details ensued and four hours later we found ourselves in Puerto Rico. However, after sitting by the least entertainig rotating object (otherwise known as the baggage claim) for about an hour, I realized that we had lost something. Namely my suitcase. Now, I don't mean to criticize US Airways, but how do you lose a suitcase in a non-stop, direct flight? I have no clue and, apparently, neither did their representative... great way to start things.
Mmm, so we left and drove through the ridiculous PR traffic over to my grandma's (who, as my sister tells, is an awesome cook) house. I love my grandma to death, but visiting her house is boring to no ends. It's mostly due to the fact that all my friends who used to live around there have already moved away, and that there is literally nothing to do ('cept eat of course). Eventually, we set out to where we were staying: Casa Picaflores. Now this was one hell of a trip. First we drove down the eastern side of PR and began to head into the rainforest. These are, of course, the best streets on the whole island. They're poorly, if even, paved, at times covered in inches of water, about the width of two small European cars, and filled with the worst drivers in the world. Sweet!
Yes, we lived. Unlike my sister I don't get dizzy--I rather enjoy crazy roads--so when we finally got there I was slightly disappointed... Oh, so besides the tarantula, the rest of the day was quite uneventful.
I'll talk about the actual house and such on the next update, so just stick around.. or something!
Monday, August 14, 2006
Night Drives and Insomnia
"Insomnia is just an addiction to sleep deprivation."
As I'm starting to write this (no idea when I'll finish, but we'll see), it's almost midnight here in Ashburn. And this is probably the first night that I have bailed out on my friends early in quite a while. "Why tonight?", you may ask. ... patience, I'm getting to it!
This is summer. Originally, I had planned on getting a job somewhere, but that plan fell through almost immediately. With the trips I was taking, there were too many holes in these few weeks before college, so no job for me. This is both good and bad. Bad: no money. Good: lots of free time... a little too much free time. Free time that was for the most part packed during the daytime. I'm pretty sure there isn't much to say about how much daytime with no car sucks for someone of my age. Let's just say that the days can be quite boring. Ergo I did what any bored teenager does. I became a night person.
Ahhh, the many wonders of the night life. It's like being in Vegas, but not really, cause we're stuck in Cashburn (see, see, aren't I witty?). Nick (from now on and forever to be referred to as Kish) tends to have car access much more than me and we abused that privledge to no ends. This is how our "night drives" began. Basically, neither of us wanted to be home after like 9, so we drove... and drove some more. Kish drove the two of us all around Ashburn and to parts which were previously unknown to the both of us. Now, sometimes we'd be more productive than others--for one, calling people for our Europe reunions that everyone's so fond of--but for the most part we just chilled with music and the endless circles of the routes we took. As most anybody could have guessed, eventually we dragged more friends along who were also in our bored stupor and thus the tradition was set in motion.
After these multiple weeks of long nights--out 'til 1 or 2 in the morning and sleeping around 3 or 4--followed by early-ish mornings--getting up at 9 most days--a sort of artificial insomnia is born (a lot like the kind most of us experienced in Europe, but that's another story). Now, even though I feel kinda mean, I'm going to force you to scroll up and read that quote again. John, my roommate-to-be in college, was the one who originally introduced me to the concept, and I so totally agree--like yeah! Before the last month or so of school, I always slept 8-10 hours a night. That's a ridiculous amount of sleep. My theory in this is that I had nothing to do after 10-11, so I got tired. Well, that's kind of obvious, but like the quote explains, it can become addicting. Never before would I have been up at this time (it's 1 now) blogging. Up for the sake of being up.
But yeah, this leads me back to my original point (with all 'em twists and turns getting here, reminds me of the mighty Mississippi...). I'm home early tonight because we were watching movies--just saw Snatch and that was deliciously good. However, when I'm this tired, dark rooms with comfy carpeting and a pillow tend to make me fall asleep, which I promptly proceeded to do. So, I guess there is a limit to this fake insomnia... oh well, I milked it a whole bunch.
With that, I am off to sleep and get a full night's rest for the first time in a while. Then perchance I can get back on my fun schedule of sleep-deprivation. I'll see ya all later.
As I'm starting to write this (no idea when I'll finish, but we'll see), it's almost midnight here in Ashburn. And this is probably the first night that I have bailed out on my friends early in quite a while. "Why tonight?", you may ask. ... patience, I'm getting to it!
This is summer. Originally, I had planned on getting a job somewhere, but that plan fell through almost immediately. With the trips I was taking, there were too many holes in these few weeks before college, so no job for me. This is both good and bad. Bad: no money. Good: lots of free time... a little too much free time. Free time that was for the most part packed during the daytime. I'm pretty sure there isn't much to say about how much daytime with no car sucks for someone of my age. Let's just say that the days can be quite boring. Ergo I did what any bored teenager does. I became a night person.
Ahhh, the many wonders of the night life. It's like being in Vegas, but not really, cause we're stuck in Cashburn (see, see, aren't I witty?). Nick (from now on and forever to be referred to as Kish) tends to have car access much more than me and we abused that privledge to no ends. This is how our "night drives" began. Basically, neither of us wanted to be home after like 9, so we drove... and drove some more. Kish drove the two of us all around Ashburn and to parts which were previously unknown to the both of us. Now, sometimes we'd be more productive than others--for one, calling people for our Europe reunions that everyone's so fond of--but for the most part we just chilled with music and the endless circles of the routes we took. As most anybody could have guessed, eventually we dragged more friends along who were also in our bored stupor and thus the tradition was set in motion.
After these multiple weeks of long nights--out 'til 1 or 2 in the morning and sleeping around 3 or 4--followed by early-ish mornings--getting up at 9 most days--a sort of artificial insomnia is born (a lot like the kind most of us experienced in Europe, but that's another story). Now, even though I feel kinda mean, I'm going to force you to scroll up and read that quote again. John, my roommate-to-be in college, was the one who originally introduced me to the concept, and I so totally agree--like yeah! Before the last month or so of school, I always slept 8-10 hours a night. That's a ridiculous amount of sleep. My theory in this is that I had nothing to do after 10-11, so I got tired. Well, that's kind of obvious, but like the quote explains, it can become addicting. Never before would I have been up at this time (it's 1 now) blogging. Up for the sake of being up.
But yeah, this leads me back to my original point (with all 'em twists and turns getting here, reminds me of the mighty Mississippi...). I'm home early tonight because we were watching movies--just saw Snatch and that was deliciously good. However, when I'm this tired, dark rooms with comfy carpeting and a pillow tend to make me fall asleep, which I promptly proceeded to do. So, I guess there is a limit to this fake insomnia... oh well, I milked it a whole bunch.
With that, I am off to sleep and get a full night's rest for the first time in a while. Then perchance I can get back on my fun schedule of sleep-deprivation. I'll see ya all later.
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