Ok. First off, this is for a bet, who knows what Double Dragon is?

Also, gooood dealio here. I don't have a version of windows installed yet so I can't get it D: So here's the deal Bioshock on steam for $15. O how I wish I could get it :( If someone gets it and copies for me.... :D

Also, can someone help me with finding a good version of XP/Vista to install with parallels on my mac? David? I keep finding ones that require you to already have windows...

Turritopsis Nutricula. It can live forever. It is an organically immortal organism. Natural death is not a possibility. It doesn't even need the unlimited whatever chains that would theoretically be needed for physical immortality. Instead, it lives forever by reverting back to its sexually immature state after some time in its mature state. Insannnne. If you don't trust wiki, google it.

This is more a post for the sake of posts. So I will leave you with one more random tidbit of fun. Greg and I are working on a song dedicated to Mr. Surace and sung to the tune of "Hands Down" by the wondrous Dashboard Confessional, also known as the irresistible Chris Carrabba. *swoon* Anyways. We are gonna need some buddies to help us. We don't have anything planned yet, but I am thinking that a whole bunch of Surace fans should meet up somewhere and brainstorm on this, k? Then we need to get a bunch of people to perform it with us :D. Also, anyone who wants to play a 2nd guitar part and wants to tab that part out can do that too. I can't find any good tabs for the 2nd guitar in the acoustic version. Would be great if we could have 2 guitars. It really adds a nice touch to the song. Especially in the chorus. Alright. Let's do this!

AP scores. Don't panic. They arrived.
English Language / Composition: 5
European History: 4
Calculus AB: 5
Music Theory: 5
Physics B: 3 (I didn't take an AP class. As a matter of fact, none of my classes were AP.)
Spanish: score delayed? meh.

I really don't know why I took 6 exams. I didn't even study for any of them. I'm just hoping I might pass out of a few 100-level classes.

So, on a lighter note, The Dark Knight premier tonight! I am ready for my socks to be rocked and my mind to be blown. The last one was very good, and I hear this one's even better, so I hope not to be disappointed.

Right now, I'm working on college apps, training for cross country, and practicing piano/voice. It's pretty fun. No job for me this summer--just taking an extended break so I can do college stuff and have the fall open for school stuff. Oh, and I got a job at VA Opera in the adult chorus for Elixir of Love, so all of you had better come see me this fall! How about the rest of you? What keeps you busy this summer?

SO HOW ARE THOSE AP SCORES!?!?!?

mine=
Eng Lang/Comp: 3
Latin - Lit: 3 [whew]
Psychology: 4 [not a 5 :(]




Btw Greg you don't owe me $30, just $23.

So I didn't really quite how much things would change when I went off to Cornell's Summer College. For one, its July 14, the middle of summer, and I'm studying for two midterms tomorrow. Yeah. I'm studying. In July. Kinda sucks. What's worse is that the courses I'm taking here are a full semester's worth of material (about 15 weeks) crammed down into six weeks. So the work load is kinda killer. But you also realize how much they weren't kidding when they say that IB prepares you for college. You see people freaking out about a 1-page double spaced paper due for a class and you can't help but think how you pulled off two WL papers in one night. And from taking Calculus here, in case you haven't known already, you realize that Surace is totally the man. His quotient rule rap still permeates throughout my dreams.

It's also true that you meet new people and make friends without even trying. And it's also not true that all the people at rich colleges are complete douches, although they certainly exist. And I hate to say that by observing them, I find myself turning into one of them. This one kid who is a complete stuck-up (you know... the kind that interrupts a movie with his own anecdote that is completely useless ("that's a weird name!") (he did that)) was twirling his keys around his finger, and I do the exact same thing. Right then I realized how annoying it was and vowed to never twirl my keys again if just to disassociate myself from him, but hopefully to be less annoying to others. I'm also going to try to be less condescending towards others, cause it's kinda annoying. Knowing you have a problem.

But not everyone is like that. Possibly one of my closest friends here had a wardrobe composed of 90% Threadless shirts. Needless to say I was in awe and admiration. Also one of the RA's here is quite possibly the coolest college student I've ever met. He moved from Korea last year (he's a rising sophomore at Cornell) and last week he arranged a Starcraft tournament. Words cannot describe how amazing that was. He has Starcraft/Warcraft/tons of others on his thumbdrive and just hands out copies. He regularly just chills with us high school kids playing games or eating lunch or something. Awesome.

And soon you realize that things aren't that much different in "college life" than in high school - although there is still that one year of age difference. The same drama, the same "hanging out" at the mall, the same its all still there. And let me tell you about the mall. If you like the big city (say, Virginia Beach), Ithaca is not for you. The food court at the mall has like four restaurants and because they couldn't find anywhere else to put them, Target, Best Buy, Borders, and Dick's are all attached to the mall. I don't think they have a Wal-Mart here. Once we literally spent 3 hours at the mall just bumming around thinking of things to do. Half of that was complaining how there's nothing to do.

But I'll complain about that some more some other time. If I update again. Which. I will. But for now I leave you some Dailies.

• [VIDEO] Dark Knight trailer spoof - I for one cannot wait until this comes out, it'll probably beat out Iron Man for the best movies I've seen this summer. I've seen the trailer tons of times and this reenactment is worth a watch.


• [ARTICLE] Why San Francisco is No. 1 - This is why I want to live there when I grow up.


• [WEBSITE] Orisinal - I'm not sure if this has been posted before, but this site has so many games to keep you busy. Most of them of the... "cute" variety. But they're addicting, especially the third one (Winterbells). Although probably nothing can beat Boobah.

I... don't got them.

But it seems that you guys do.

So have a blast.

So much for a competition for first post.

I don't know about you, but

I've been

pretty fucking

bored.

I've honestly run out of things to do on the internet.
Not so much that there is literally nothing left to do,
but instead there is nothing I bloody want to do.

I am tired
of looking at clothes
Digg still bores me
The good webcomics hardly update
Too lazy to watch anime
Manga comes out only once a week - takes about 5 minutes to read
I am home too much for any blogs I read to entertain me for long. I am at the point where there is only one new post for me to read every time I check. Boing boing, destructoid, we make money not art, etc.

In a nutshell: I am bored as fuck.

Although,
every eon or so, I stumble upon something interesting. So, just in case you guys were suffering like me, maybe this fun little thing will help.
To be honest, it's the only thing that's kept me entertained for more than 20 minutes today.
I tried all sorts of things:
hublog/Hublog/HuBlog = bloody
AVA = gay
Blink = unfit :(
blink = idiot D:
btd = odd
My favorite is:
Gatsby = Bloody.

Anyways.
Have fun.



Also, for those still lurking around hublog/theblacktop nowadays. You never really answered my question: What kind of deodorant do homosexuals wear?

So I thought it was about time for a new post. This is because this is probably the first day all summer I have not left my house and allowed boredom to consume my soul. So I shall provide a post of the great things the internet has to offer to battle this summer boredom.

First, I present to you a video that is the product of all the fun and wit found in the International Baccalaureate program. IB 300
Damn I hope Latin convention is this fun. I would love to battle those kids from TJ.

The internet provides everyone with endless amounts of entertainment in every form possible. Funny videos, blogs, news, funny pictures, cartoons, and of course prawn.
btw that's salmon hentai. Hentai being anime/manga porn and salmon being a common name for several species of fish of the family Salmonidae and is enjoyed by many for nourishment. Or hentai if you're Japanese.
Don't worry. It's SFW. It's probably not what you think it is. It is definitely nothing like Japanese eel porn.

Wow. I swear, there has to be a hardcore underground league for this kind of thing.

Weeeeeeeee.

In the butt.
Is it just me or can you imagine Anthony Nobles behind the camera too?
This video starts a bit slow, but then it just gets better and better.

Hey quick little question here:
What kind of deodorant do homosexuals wear? Do gay guys wear perfume? Do lesbians wear AXE? Or is it still the same?

And for the big finish:
What's more expensive, this or a reusable girlfriend?
Btw. I found that link through a completely innocent process. I swear.




Anyone else remember thlinking?

I feel odd. Indescribable. Being stuck here has its detriments, alright.

To pass the time here, I've started working out at a gym here with a trainer for about an hour a day. I'd go into detail about how ridiculously gay boxing is (theres a lot of pelvic movement involved) or other ridiculously gay things (they involve a fitness ball), but I won't. I've been there for about a week now and today I met one of his other students who is in Beijing on break from school. He was born in Beijing but just graduated from UWarwick in England. He'll be attending grad school at Oxford in the fall. Its good to talk to someone. In English. Not Chinese. Broken Chinese.

I want to get away. It'll be awesome to go to school ("Uni") in England, wouldn't it? But I've had my eyes set on Berkeley for a while now and that's not going to change. California is far enough. Although Stanford would be ideal... sadly my GPA would not allow that. Coming up on our Junior year, where do you want to go?

• Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch station - And be sure not to miss Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu hill.


• Why women rule the world - A clever trick. I guess they train them well, even at an early age.


• Wrong ball, coach! - If only PA's team were so clever...

I've had little to do here in Beijing so I've started going through a bunch of my old music files I wrote for Black Top Drove, and I'm discovering that a lot of them actually aren't that bad. Some of them are naturally quite amateur and hideous, but a lot of them actually quite musically advanced. I've actually found that turning all the tracks into piano tracks make them sound better than the band tracks. A bunch of MIDI pianos sound a whole lot better than a bunch of MIDI band instruments.

Promises is one of those tracks I converted. Some of the guitar solo (converted to a piano track) sounds out of place due to the bends, but it still works pretty well. The voice seems to stand out clearer in this version of the song as well. Some of you may remember it. It had powerful lyrics, I imagine, and the music is still as powerful as ever. It was a song about promises that were made and not kept. I am practically killing myself to remember the lyrics. I've been thinking them over and over for the past few days. I wrote them down along time ago on a piece of paper back home and have lost it since then. Its not in any of my Hublog archives, either. "There were promises made and not held through..." or something like that was how it went. I think I may have once sent a copy of the lyrics to someone... if you have them, let me know.

• LOST Orientation Film - A special sneak peak from season 4. Don't you just love it how they never seem to fully answer one mystery and they pop up with six more?


• Unfortunate (sexual) things about being a man - So true. And that last study is simply fascinating.


• Exclusive Rowling interview - For all of those done with the seventh book (i just finished it last night... after a week of reading. shameful? maybe.), this is for you. It goes into greater detail of what happens after the series ended. Major spoilers.

Bestiality indeed.
I think the creation of the internet pretty much killed the cause.

Slap!
Fun. Jabba the Hutt is particularly difficult.

GRENDEL!!!!!
Well, I haven't watched the video, so no idea if there is any inclusion of one of our favorite monsters from an epic poem. So :\ you tell me.

Leaving in five hours. See you all later. Post any gift requests; otherwise we're just coming back with ensymada.




[01:34] Xeno12527: 'sunnyyyy, you make me funnyyyyy...in my pants'




Going to california with an aching in my heart.
Someone told me theres a girl out there
With love in her eyes and flowers in her hair.

Something happened to me last night that totally pissed me off. I don't know if it this city that renders your body incapable of feeling emotions or if its just me getting pissed off. What pissed me off? This guy I don't even know. I didn't meet him, I've never spoke to him, but I did see him. Prejudiced? Well, yeah. But something about him, the aura he was emitting, got to me. Maybe it was the smug look on his face.

Anyway, he was this American (i know he was american because of his american eagle tshirt and columbia sports backpack and ipod - prejudiced? yeah) in this bright green striped shirt, rugged backpack, shorts, and a look on his face that just says "i'm better than these people and i know it." He was walking down this lane outside our hotel where a lot of poor street vendors hang out. This guy looked insanely proud and his chest was about as high as I have ever seen one. There were two white earbuds coming from here ears extending all the way down to an ipod (it was a thick one, so it must have been the most expensive model available when he bought it) covered with a black leather cover. He had brown hair. He was about a head and a half taller than me. I can probably go on and on describing this fellow I saw for no more than three seconds walking down the street. And he was walking fast.

I realize now I'm rambling on and on about nothing. I don't know what it is about this guy that got to me. I see white people here all the time and I usually go out of my way to find an opportunity to speak English when I'm around them just to show that I'm not apart of the culture here. Not that I don't want to be, its just that I feel I can connect with them more. But this guy was different. I have really no idea why I was taken aback this way. I hope I can meet the guy again, sit down, and talk to him to learn how much of a cool guy he really is.

I'll update more about other things later, I just had to get this out.

• HEY! I'm your kid too! - Pay attention to the bird being squashed. His expression pretty much sums everything up. I can't view flickr in China, but hopefully this is the right one.


• Election '08 for the lazy - Simply fill out your opinions about the following issues and it'll spit back out who your best match is. Like I expected, I got Kucinich as my best match. He is by far the most "liberal" in the traditional sense in his views. He doesn't have to worry about reaching out to the moderates because he has no chance to get elected, so thats why he can opine the way he does. My second match was Obama, who differs from Kucinich in ways including his opposition to same-sex marriage (unions OK) and his support of a border fence (WTF?).


• Super Megason IV!!! - OMG YES.

Sometimes, I worry about Nik.

[22:56] McLetdown: there's this guy tim
[22:56] McLetdown: and everytime there's a party
[22:56] McLetdown: we act homo
[22:56] McLetdown: haha
[22:56] McLetdown: its crazy good
[22:56] Xeno12527: ..hah..
[22:56] Xeno12527: its good?
[22:56] Xeno12527: how good?
[22:56] Xeno12527: how good does it feel, nik?
[22:56] McLetdown: better than WOMEN
[22:56] McLetdown: haha
[22:56] McLetdown: he's rough but its alright
[22:56] McLetdown: i like it like that

[23:03] McLetdown: bull is the male stripper i see every night
[23:03] McLetdown: i dont know what ur talking about
[23:03] McLetdown: girls right?

[23:06] McLetdown: chris brown is great yo
[23:06] Xeno12527: i saw it on youtube
[23:06] Xeno12527: damn
[23:06] McLetdown: and his dancing is hawwt
[23:06] McLetdown: but dude
[23:06] Xeno12527: ..

He did redeem himself, though.

[23:59] McLetdown: DUDE
[00:00] McLetdown: 2 MORE MINUTES
[00:00] McLetdown: TILL 12
[00:00] McLetdown: AND
[00:00] McLetdown: ON
[00:00] McLetdown: JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE
[00:00] McLetdown: AT CHANNEL 13
[00:00] McLetdown: ITS GONNA BE
[00:00] Xeno12527: ?
[00:00] McLetdown: VANNESA
[00:00] McLetdown: ANNE
[00:00] McLetdown: HUDGENS
[00:00] McLetdown: ON
[00:00] McLetdown: OMG
[00:00] Xeno12527: whoa.
[00:00] Xeno12527: do you have her cd?
[00:00] McLetdown: IM IN LOVE YO
[00:00] McLetdown: DUDE
[00:00] McLetdown: HELL YEAH
[00:00] Xeno12527: lol
[00:00] McLetdown: AND I GOT A PICTURE OF HER
[00:00] Xeno12527: i dont like her as much as you do
[00:00] McLetdown: IN MY ROOM
[00:00] McLetdown: DUDE

Like David, im taking requests for my trip. For all those who dont know, im going cross-country with my family from saturday to august 11th. Ill probably post once more before we leave.

Ive been watching Mean Girls lately. Cute. Mainly because my sister has been playing it on my playstation 2. Double composition lessons this week because of our absence next week. So thats what im trying to do right now. But im on the fritz, and so is my computer. I want to do missionary work next year for like two weeks. I never knew that Tina Fey wrote the script for Mean Girls until like the fourth time watching it. She is NOT taking twelfth grade calculus. She's taking pre-calculus..

And this bird youll never change.
And this bird you can not change.
Lord knows, I cant change.
Lord help me, I cant change.

Usually I am not a person to judge people or things by sight; however, sometimes it is just damn hard to fight off prejudice views when there is so much evidence supporting it. If you make a comment about how African Americans have no grasp on the English language, you're called a racist, but how can you not say something like that? 90% of African American's I encounter on a day to day basis have no grasp on English, whether it be grammar or pronunciation. Although these statistics are true for me, I still try not to judge a black man before I even meet him. This however is not the case for shoes. I used to always give shoes a chance. I was never too prejudiced toward them and always spent some time with them before I judged them. This has all changed. No matter how hard I try, those bastards just keep pushing me. This change of heart all started at the Warped Tour on Tuesday, July 24th. Alex and I were minding our own business walking around, enjoying the music, and losing our hearing. Our good times took a turn for the worse when we were watching Funeral for a Friend perform. We were in front of the outdoor stage in a huge crowd just enjoying ourselves when out of nowhere a size 9 comes flying out of nowhere and kicks us in the head. I mean, what the hell. At first I just thought "Whatever, that crowd surfer's shoes are just assholes." and we went on enjoying the wonderful tunes of Funeral for a Friend. This did not last long when about 20 minutes later, another shoes assaults us. I started getting pissed off, but I played it off as another isolated case. I mean, with such a huge amount of people, there must be a large amount of assholes. Well either all those assholes hung around me, or I was wrong. As the day went on, we found ourselves pummeled in the head by the shoes of crowd surfers. I even got kicked in the face and chest a couple of times. That's when I figured, I was wrong about shoes. When I thought things couldn't get worse, I found out the half-ies are also genetically predisposed to being assholes. No sandals/flip-flops/thongs, you don't get off clean. All because you aren't 100% shoes, it doesn't mean you aren't as bad as them. Half-black kids get just as much racism as full black kids do [well the dark ones], so the same goes for you. So after getting kicked in the chest 5 times, in the face 3 times, and in the head 6 times, I pretty much hate shoes. They don't deserve any place in society above the dirt on the ground. I also hate bottles. How can they expect any respect when they don't give any!?

In conclusion, if you are crowd surfing, or know somebody that is, please, for the sake of everyone in the crowd, please take your shoes off. Also, fat people, please don't try to crowd surf. It makes life harder for everyone, especially the people you fall on [like me]. And don't throw fucking bottles at people. Throwing them way high up is ok since everyone can see them, but chucking them straight across the crowd is not so fun for the receiving end.

Sonia, I can now empathize with your pain and suffering at the hands of shoes.

O yeah, some damn flip flops also tripped me while I was running down Mount Trashmore today. That was one painful fall. Slavery is all those bastards deserve.

What is this panda thinking? He looks kinda depressed, don't he?



"The thing I miss most about her? Probably the sex."

I finished Deathly Hallows at 4am this morning. Good stuff. It was an ending fit for such a great story.
Well, time for a break from Harry Potter related things.

Thank you guys for the help on that whole AP vs IB psych situation.. Very helpful stuff. Reading your comments, I have decided to stick with AP psychology.

So I guess none of you are going to the warped tour?
:(

Watch out for these. Studies show that they may possibly be harmful to monkeys.

I was wondering, is an extra IB certificate significant in any way? If it is worth it, I might switch back to IB Psych just for the extra certificate, but if not, then I'll stay with AP. I recently told Mrs. Cox that I wanted to switch to AP psychology since I did not need any more IB classes. I have been ambivalent on the topic but chose to do AP at the time because there is no summer homework for AP psychology. I am still not sure if I want to switch back to IB for that extra certificate though. I want to know if it is worth taking IB psychology [since everyone says the teacher is bad blah blah blah] just for one extra certificate. Help me. plzthx.

July 21st, 2007. 18:38 Beijing o'clock.

I fear that if I lay down on my bed and watch TV, I will fall asleep. My body feels the same as if it were living off of coffee - like when you feel when caffeine is the only thing keeping you awake at 4am in the morning. But I haven't had any coffee since this morning. Something else is keeping me awake, something else is making my leg shake. Something else is sending me tingling feelings through my arms and legs, making me make more typoies than I usually do.

There is something strange about my stay here. Something odd, that I can't quite pin point. Maybe its because I am going to be cooped up in a hotel all day, like a hen. Maybe its something else. Maybe I'm just strange. Something odd.

I went and got the new Harry Potter book today, its the British Bloomsbury version. It's a lot smaller and tighter than the Scholastic ones, and I definitely like the texture of the book better. It almost has the feel of an adult novel, not a novel tailored to little 11 year olds. In addition to the smoother feel, it has also some of British colloquialisms. Although I can't exactly find any or name any right now. Overall, the release happened here to little fanfare. I actually got my book in a school bookstore, along with a assload of SAT practice tests. At least I'll have something to do then, hmm?

Now, as I sit here writing this, my dad is unknowingly snoring away on his bed with his laptop in his lap. I think he's supposed to be doing work or something.

I hope he wakes up in time for dinner.


July 22nd, 2007. 8:29 Beijing o'clock

Only now do I realize how jetlagged I really am. I woke up today at around 6am after falling asleep at at around 1:30. I fear today I'm going to collapse in the street. But at least I can properly adjust my time this way, right? Right?

The reason I stayed up that late was because we (my dad and company) got back from watching a late movie. Thats right, I watched a movie. Here, in Beijing. Want to know what it was? Transformers. Dubbed. I didn't see the American version but I was able to get enough plot out of this version to safely say that its pretty much Transformers but all CG'ed. And Optimus Prime sounded pretty much like... a Chinese Optimus Prime would. I even got some of the jokes.

There is something about walking in the streets of Beijing that I really hate. I mean, hate. It seems like I transform into a different person. Its like waking up cranky, but constantly all the time when you're walking. Maybe its the smells.

Or maybe its just the people I'm with.

Or maybe its me. Strange. Odd.

I just got back from Barnes and Noble with the LAST HARRY POTTER BOOK OMG. ok. Well yeah, I plan to read it tomorrow. Woot. The experience of going to Barnes and Noble was quite interesting, but more on that [maybe] after I sleep.

July 20th, 2007. 17:03 Beijing o'clock.

There is something about spending 24 hours in transit that is both appealing and horrendous. It is appealing that you are able to brag to your friends (as I am now) that you have just spent the last 24 hours (thats a full day, mind you) en route to your current destination. Somehow, this is supposed to make them jealous or something. It is also appealing that

...

Okay, so the bragging is about it. Everything else sucks. I could bore you guys with mundane details about my journey here such as how I almost had my whole row to myself on my plane until some old couple stole the last two seats and that A&W is quite possibly one of the worst places to have breakfast in Norfolk's Airport. But I won't.

And before I forget, a bit of irony struck me as I was riding in the cab to my hotel. My dad and I conversed in English for a bit in the cab, which intrigued the driver. Beijing is mandating that all taxi drivers must be able to speak proficient English by the time the '08 Olympics comes around. And lets say that this taxi driver isn't very good at memorizing things. So, in an instance of pure irony, I started teaching this man English. I am afraid that I might not get to teach English formally to students here in China, but at least I helped this guy learn "traffic jam."


21:12 Beijing o'clock

Its kinda late. Its only 9 but it feels like I haven't slept in a day. Oh wait. I haven't. (there's that bragging again)

There is something about this city that I never liked. Never mine the ridiculous traffic or the constant dust-cloud that hangs over the city. Just something about it makes me not like it.

But then again, I really do like it here. Or maybe its just cause I'm typing this in a nice air-conditioned hotel. Not in the 90+ degrees frying pan they call the sidewalk.

I saw a Chinese guy and a white girl check in at my hotel today. That's a kind of relationship you never see these days. I should have taken a picture. Then again, they might not have even been a couple. The woman looked like a lesbian.

There is something about these short blurbs that I like. Can't exactly pin point it. It might be from all the Handmaid's Tale I've been reading. More likely though, its the corn juice I had for dinner.

This post, along with my heart is dedicated entirely to the sexy Russian most oftentimes known as Gregory Karpov.

So, I was having this friendly conversation with an old friend of mine, Gregory Karpov, and we talked about many things. We talked about current events, our favorite works of art, fine dining, why I am idle on AIM, and our favorite porn stars. Well partways into our discussion we stumbled upon the topic of our love lives. As we pondered over this topic, an idea struck us like a mallet strikes a croquet ball. Well, my mind has been a bit dry on things to write about for quite a while and dear Gregory wanted me to write a new hublog post. So after some deep cognitive thinking, we put two and two together and decided I should post something new on hublog about my love life. So how has my love life been? Boring.

I accidently submitted this post before I wanted to. Luckily, I am the owner of Hublog and can delete my mistakes. Har har.

I'm leaving my house at 4am tomorrow for a 6am flight to Newark where I'll be having a 5-hour layover. What fun. Then a ridiculously long flight straight to Beijing. So basically, in 12 hours, I'll be in New Jersey (again, the same city for the 2nd time in a few days). In 24 hours, I'll be in China. Theres a 12-hour time difference between here and Beijing, so expect all my posts to be like at 11am and stuff local time.

Its almost 11 and I still haven't fully packed yet. Oh dear. I guess I'll just have to stay up the whole night.

• Hey,Look - This author documents his teen years with what he thought people were saying about him. My favorite is probably the one from when he's 16.


• Rose&Camellia - Pretty straightforward flash game. Well, as straightforward as you can get with a crazy Japanese game like this. This would make a killer game on the DS.


• 6 Questions the Last Harry Potter Book Had Better F#@king Answer - Terrific article that goes over just some of the "dangling plot threads" left over from the previous books in the series. I for one hope that they all get answered. And that Harry dies.

And now I, as a public service, after getting the idea from digg, am forbidding anyone from revealing spoilers on this site about the last book. Its rude and everyone'll probably hate you for it. No discussion about it until the end of August, when most everyone would have read it. Or until we have reached a general consensus that everyone on the site has read it. Since this is a quasi-democratic site (or at least i try to make it be), what's your take? Is this a good idea?

For all my fans out there, I just wanted to let you guys know that I am alive. It's just been busy and I haven't gotten much time to post anything for a while. So yes.

I would write a whole novel on my trip at P.I., but I don't have much time. All I can say is that it was a really different experience-- living in houses with two rooms, where everyone slept in one room. I never really appreciated the things I have back in VA until I saw how my cousins live everyday.

I've never lived like this before. It was such a contrast to the daily life in VA that it took some time before I got comfortable to the lifestyle in PI. The places I went to were filled with people living in the street, beggars, little children carrying sacks of rice for money, and street vendors selling anything they could sell for a profit. It's tough just trying to survive in PI.

Also, it's always hot there. Easy way to lose weight if you ask me.

Also, it's way too polluted in some of the places in PI. The streets of Baguio were filled with tons of cars, jeepneys, and taxis that when I thought I saw a cloud was actually a large heap of pollution. The funny thing was that the welcome sign to the city states, "Welcome to the cleanest city in the Philippines!"

For all you game nerds, I got a PS2, 15 (bootleg) games, a PS2 bag, V-stand, a cooling fan, two controllers, and a memory card for the very, very low price of 180 dollars. Everything. is. cheap. in. the. Philippines.

After coming back to VA, it felt a bit weird coming back and going back to the daily routine of summer. Staying at home to babysit my sister. Now that I think about it, I miss the Philippines a lot. I miss the people. I miss the familiar language. I miss the closeness of the whole family, including the cousins. Besides the bug bites, the weather, and the pollution, I miss it all.

Eh, I said I didn't want to write a whole novel, and I didn't. There are too many things I left out. But, I think this will suffice.

So I got back from New York late last night after driving 6-7 hours down. Intense. Both ways, I almost fell asleep behind the wheel. Its tiring. I had to put ice in my head to stay awake.

Traffic is pretty terrible as well. People are crazy drivers. I almost died a couple of times. I also went 90 on the highway. That is pretty exhilarating. I thought, "Yeah, I'll make it... I'm gonna make it!" and started inching faster and faster but traffic slowed down. When it picked back up, I floored it so I wouldn't miss another opportunity. So what's the fastest that you've driven, eh?

I'm leaving for China in three days, Thursday morning. Dead morning as well. Gotta take a cab from my house at like 4am. I probably just won't sleep that night. Want anything? Give me a shout in the comments.

If you would notice in the mood for my post, its a bit different than the usual "schm':(((((" pattern, which I used basically out of habit. I'm a bit bummed because I found out that I might not be teaching English over the summer in China after all. Before, I had to teaching gigs lined up over the next year - teaching English this summer and teaching theory over the course of the first semester next year. Apparently, I may not be able to do the first. I really looked forward to it.

Instead, I might take one of those crazy intense SAT prep courses in China. Actually, I'll probably do that regardless, presuming they teach the courses in English. The school is supposed to be really good, they construct their prep course by studying the people that make the test, not just the tests themselves. I'm pretty sure they have drawers and drawers of cabinets of cabinets full of information about each member of the committee that makes the tests. Creepy.

• ITS A PRAIRIE DOG! - Wait... maybe it is a chipmunk... NO!!


• How Gullible Are We? - I remember Borgerding (or was it McGrath?) talking about this. Its actually pretty sad at how poor our science education is that people are able to be influenced simply by flashy words and fear tactics. I guess thats why many Americans choose their political candidates simply based off the fact of whether or not they "look presidential." Its also quite sad that people couldn't figure out something as simple as dihydrogen monoxide.


• Town baffled by penis-looking things - I mean, despite how perverse I am, I wouldn't necessarily notice the connection unless mentioned to me. But really. "Retrofitting these posts with metal collars" -- ??? Yeah, like that'll solve the problem.

Who's going to the Warped Tour? The only person that I know that is going is Alex Ung.

So, who's going? And if you aren't, why not? Go.

Tomorrow I'm gong up to NYC to "stress test" my car or something. But its also a convenient excuse to just get out of here for a while. Although its a shame that its on the last weekend before I leave for China next Thursday...

And don't forget to post your AP scores on the official score post place. If you want to.

Here's your last chance to let me know if you want anything from NYC - just drop a line in the comments. Preferably before 630am tomorrow.

• Bush's sarcastic response to question sends girl into tears - A shy little 11-year-old girl asked the president a question on immigration (whoa... digest that for a minute. 11 year olds and concerned about immigration... "plant," anyone?) to which the president quipped back a sarcastic "yeah thanks," which sends the girl into tears. I guess props to the girl for being educated on current affairs, eh? I doubt if she were as scared as she was, she wouldn't have been a plant. Or a good one, at least. Maybe the Dems are getting desperate.


• Touch-screen iPods due out in August - Reliable sources say that say that the supplier of the touch-screen panels will begin shipping them to factories in the second half of '07. Finally, an iPhone that I want. The kind without the phone.


• FRIDAY BONUS: New dictionary includes "ginormous" - Ahem. Cough.


• FRIDAY BONUS-ER: You may suffer from a cute attack - No idea why, but I probably watched this three times in a row. Not really funny or anything. But I at least understand the Chinese.


• Answering your phone when a string quintet is playing - There are so many times that I wish I could have the power to do something like this.

Post 'em if you got 'em.

Government - 5

Virgil - 3

I had my meeting with mrs. cox today. Before i delve into my personal situation, i'll tell you about her fifteen minute rant. She asked me how i did, and i said that i felt i did horrible. Then she went onto this rant about how she's pissed off so much that the sophomore teachers don't have their act together and that, to quote her perfectly, "I won't have that program ruin my diploma program." She had had a meeting with mr. jackson earlier in the day. Besides the around twenty people that dropped out this year, she doesn't want people like me telling my kemps landing sibling to not go to princess anne.

I am borrowing one of my dad's keyboards purely for the shift key. It makes tagging just a tiny bit easier. Although the space gets caught sometimes, along with the control.

Now, i could pretend that all this myp stuff was the cause of my bad grades, but then we have people like david and mike, who still pulled off a 3.8 or better. Nevertheless, she still said i could claim that 'the new program caused me distress.'

Speaking of which, i seem to have hurt myself this year on the standardized test scores. I have always checked the other bubble in the ethnicity section. This year, thinking i was smart, i checked asian. But, stupid me, i was reminded by mrs. cox that there are a lot of asian kids who are doing extremely well, so i should just check other. Which is what i plan on doing junior year.

Still speaking about stress, i finally finished downloading wtc ii, and good lord. I've seen videos of Glenn Gould online, but i didnt think he'd do it on a recording. I'm not saying that he's bad, i'm just saying that his humming is annoying as hell. When he plays a fugue, he takes it upon himself to add another 'voca' (his own) via the vibrating of his vocal cords. Thankfully, he's usually drowned out for the middle section of the fugue.

There's only so much i can do in a year. Which is all the time i have left before college. Coming out of sophomore year with a cumulative gpa of 3.1098 and being ranked 143/471, the best case scenario (a perfect 4.4) will only get me up to around a 3.5. Not to abandon all hope, though. It really makes me realize that i've got to figure out this future thing right quick. There's the ideologue in me, who wants to attend law school and then make a difference by eliminating the world of filth either as a politician, lawyer, or prosecutor. Then there's the emotive, social side of me that wants to go to med school and become either a dermatologist or allergist. Or, there's always the off chance that i'll completely screw up even more in the next two years and i'll end up doing something completely suited to the kind of person i'd be. Regardless of what i do, i know that i want a bosendorfer grand piano when i'm older.

I guess i should make public the fact that we're meeting at 1 pm on friday for lunch or whatever and are planning to see the 2:30 showing of harry potter. Also, im going to busch gardens on saturday. Lastly, im pretty sure that im going to the midnight magic party at the barnes and noble by the school. Im not entirely sure if im going to dress up. Ill probably at least wear a hat.

Just got back from watching the new Harry Potter movie. More on that later, but for now:
-Cho could have been hotter :\
-A bit like Spiderman 3 [hero gets emotional and pushes away those close to him for a bit]
-Amazing how they managed to actually fit the whole book that well in under 3 hours. [Movie was around 2.5 hours]
-I like silent scenes. They can be great stuff [see: Akira ("TESTSUO!!!!!")]
-I wish I had an awesome British accent
-Ah the dramatic irony of the whole movie is painful. This book was just one of the ones where the 2nd time through is so much harder. Sirius constantly talking about "We can finally be a family." and stuff, but but but you know what's really going to happen D:
-Umbridge reminds me of some people/programs I have met/attended in my life.

Anybody use these? Skype and Twitter. I've had both for a while now, but I'm going to try to use my Twitter more often. My last (and only) update was way back in May when I was doing Latin homework, apparently. Get one, and try it out yourself. And yes, the entire point of Twitter is to make big deals out of mundane everything happenings. Much like Facebook's status updates. Would I now use both? Who knows.

Also, my Skype ID is "dococtopi," for anyone who uses it. I'll be leaving for China on the 19th and Skype could come in handy. I might just bust out my wallet and get SkypeIn/SkypeOut. Although I think I keep it on now just cause the green Skype logo looks cool in my menu bar. Hmm, maybe I should change my Adium one around just for kicks. And giggles.

I'm also going to New York City this weekend, so if anyone wants something, drop me a line in the comments.

And Emma Watson is on David Letterman, Ch. 3, tomorrow. Can't think of anything else to say but "!!!!"

• When not to hyphenate your name in the wedding - "Wang-Holder." Yet another great reason for Asians not to marry interracially. "Yu-Wang" sounds so much better, eh?


• Michael Moore SLAMS CNN - I saw this live on CNN. Oh, was it exhilarating. To see a left wing anchor get pounced on by an even more left wing film maker. There is a must-read article by Moore and an even more must-see video.


• Religious Bookseller Struck By Lightning - Oh God. Oh God. The irony.

I'm having trouble starting this post. I don't know what to write. I guess my mind is just preoccupied with other things. I just can't get my mind off her. Damn, Emma Watson is smoking hot. Watching a bunch of Harry Potter previews doesn't help, either.

I've started work on a side project, which I can hopefully release in time for it to be useful. I've probably talked to some of you people about this in the past, but this time I've actually sat down and done something. I'm actually pretty far - I've got a login system implemented and I must say, its pretty sweet. Expect a release mid-August.

If my server can handle it, that is. This site seems to go down almost daily. Remember, if its down, IM me or something.

• Post-It Note prank - That's a Jaguar underneath, by the way.


• The worst-looking site on the internet - Oh God, it burns. As a web developer, this is what my nightmares look like. The nightmares I have when I'm not being eaten by spiders. I don't really like spiders.


• Retro Encabulator - A device has been engineered that would not only provide inverse reactive current, but would also be capable of automatically synchronizing cardinal grammeters. This is pretty old, many of you may have seen it, but I rediscovered it the other day and laughed pretty hard. I guess gibberish is funny. This is based off an original by Daimler-Chrysler. Background information is also available.

Yeah!
What!?
This!
You don't have to be a Halo fan to look at those pictures and say to yourself "niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice." Bungie has also released some in-game campaign screen shots, but I don't want to flood this post with links.

r.o.t.f.l.sux.2.b.u

Revamped PS2's got cheaper. Well, at target anyways.

Giann and I encountered some pretty dense people at the mall yesterday. There were a group of girls walking by the movie theater and one of them dropped a pen so a guy proceeded to tell her:
"Hey, you dropped your pen."
Then she responded with:
"O, sorry"
then just kept on walking.
Yes. Really.

Today is the auspicious 7/7/7. [You are supposed to ignore the 0 in 07.] It is supposed to be the luckiest day of our lifetime. Craploads of people are getting married and having c-sections so that their kids can be born today. What a superstitious bunch we are. Too bad that the very next Friday is THE THIRTEENTH. O SHIIIIIIIIIIIIT.




btw. Life Free Die Hard is a great movie.

My ears have been ringing a bit more than usual lately, and thanks to my unhealthy obsession of reading Wikipedia I know this resembles tinnitus. Oh dear. Maybe its not such a good idea to listen to your ipod to fall asleep, eh? Although its hard to avoid turning the thing up to full blast while on a noisy bus or on an even noisier plane.

In recent days, Hublog has been going down sporadically for reasons unbeknownst to me. I have to restart the server/service running the site every few days. So if it goes down, you get a "Bad Gateway" error, or general 500 error, IM me or email me or something to let me know about it as soon as you can.

Ironically, the site went down as I was writing this. This might be a more serious problem than I thought.

• The most trusted lawyer in the Midwest - I mean, come on. Who can say no to that face?


• What do teachers make? - This much. Apparently, they make a lot.


• Ten Politically Incorrect Truths about Human Nature - A very interesting article exploring the biological and scientific reasons behind phenomena such as men being attracted to blonds more and the reason why most suicide bombers are Muslim (hint: its not the Quran). Much of this focuses on sex and the mid-life crisis exploration is especially interesting. It is a real eye-opener of an article that you really ought to read.

I just got back not too long ago from watching the Transformers movie. I can sum it up in two words: fucking awesome. It was a great blend of humor, drama, suspense, and of course, action. It was just sooooo well balanced and made. Great movie. I give it 6 out of 5 stars. When I found out that the Transformers would be able to talk I thought that it might get a bit lame. It didn't. With all the hardcore adrenaline-pumping action going on, I thought they would leave out any of the deep, insightful speeches by the big OP himself. Well they didn't, and it actually mixed in well. [Optimus Prime ftw] They didn't just randomly stick in a deep line by OP, making it seem cheesy and lame, but instead it just fit in with the movie so well. [Optimus Prime always has some of the greatest things to say. EVER.] I also give the makers bonus points for having the guy who did the original voice for Optimus Prime reprise his role. He still has it in him. I was watching an interview with him about the movie and he was going over some of his favorite OP lines. All great stuff. About the action. Intense as hell. It was really well done. The battle scenes were full blown and turned up to 11. They were exquisitely executed by the animators. Almost every animated scene had some thing that just captivated me, whether it be the camera angle or the wonderful use of slow motion. Good stuff.

Well, I could rant on and on about how great the movie was, but I won't. I will however tell you about what I didn't like too much. These were small things, but they got to me. At some points in the movie [very few] I felt that the camera work could have been done better. IMO, some scenes were a bit overly shaky. Another thing is the soundtrack. It isn't a really big thing, but movie soundtracks almost always have a HUGE influence on me either liking or disliking a movie. Some of the music was just "meh." The music would fit the scene mood-wise, but it just didn't do it well. There was one time I liked the music. It was near the end with a battle involving Bumblebee [Bee-otch!] and Blackout in the city.

In a nutshell: Spielberg movie + Michael Bay action = awesome. Music could have been better, but no big deal. GO WATCH IT. NOW.



btw. I don't know if I have posted this video yet, but enjoy.

How can we win when fools can be kings?

When it comes down to banging, who's usually on top? I'll tell you. The Mexicans. Today, Mexicans banged and banged and banged on top of our house. We're getting a new roof installed and I couldn't concentrate on doing anything today due to the banging. And ripping. And tearing. And buzzing. And other ungraceful noises. And we were dumb enough to park our cars inside our garage, so we were stuck at home the entire day. And now they're gone, but their truck o' supplies is still outside. Grr.

Guild tomorrow. Grr.

I'll be gone from July 19th to August 25th. I'll be in China. Leave a comment if you want me to get your something. Shoes, bootlegs, turtles, whatever. I'll try to see if I can't find them.

• The Divine Comedy? - What a good book. Say, is that you, Snake? Snake? SNAAAAAAAAAAKE??


• Powerthirst - Only for those who need GRATUITOUS AMOUNTS OF ENERGY. But beware, you'll be UNCOMFORTABLY ENERGETIC.


• ¡ʍou ʇɥbıɹ ¡uʍop ǝpısdn ʇıɥs ǝʇıɹʍ - Yep. Even you can master the world of the uoısuǝɯıp ɹǝɥʇo.

With super jet lag, I am back.

I woke up at 7 p.m. today. Slept for about 16 hours.

I wonder how I'm gonna get some sleep tonight.

Went to Busch Gardens yesterday. Instead of waiting for you to ask, I'll tell you how Griffon was. In a word: itcouldbelonger. Four words, no spaces, actually. Its probably not worth the 45-minute-to-one-hour wait you will most likely encounter when you go (unless its like 11am on a wednesday), but thats probably not going to keep you from riding it. Ride it and make your own judgments. I just wish it were longer. I wanted to get a keychain yesterday as well. I didn't. They were out of the ones I wanted.

I left early at 5 to go to Matt's party. Its a 50-minute drive, tops. Almost took me 2 and a half hours. For half an hour, I put my car in park with the e-brake on, thats how jammed it was. Intense.

• Denied - No Stairway. Denied! Well, this store takes the initiative and adds a few more songs to the banned list of infamous melodies.


• Barbie Girl Cello Suite - What does it sound like? Barbie Girl arranged for a classical cello quartet. Awesome. Kinda reminds me of the Britney Spears fugue.


• List of iPhone disappointments - I've never believed in the hype. And this goes to show, although the iPhone delivers a remarkable user interface and design, it lacks even some basic functions that free phones currently on the market posses, such as a "zoom" button while taking pictures, video, and one-touch dial.

So let me tell you how I almost died. Well first, I'm probably risking my life by typing this on my knee. Or not really on my knee but I can't really describe the position I'm in. Consult Sutra. Anyway. So my aunt and uncle nicely took me out today to this local CD/DVD/whatever media shop for me to grab some DVD's. Unofficial DVD's. Anyway this burning laptop is actually causing my stomach to ache a little. Random interjection. Two-word setences. Really weird. Any ways. We were on our way and like I've stated before, traffic here is really kinda bad. I dunno really how else to describe it. Theres this kinda six-way interesection with a four-way-intersection light system. Anyway, it was past that where I was walking and this motorbike, well, not really motorbike. Not a motorcycle like they have in the states where its engines make a lot of noise, the ones here aren't like that and are pretty quiet. Anyway, one of those comes from behind me and literally comes inches away from my body, less than 3 inches, I would say. He was going pretty fast too. He didn't beep or anything. Usually they beep. There so many horns honking here. So this bike practically scrapes my body and I was scared jizzpissless. I could practically feel bike. It was insane. Or insanity. Depending on the adjective-verb agreement of the previous sentence. Well, previous two sentences. Now three. Four.
I didn't really find any of the movies I wanted (da vinci+pirates2) but hey they were a buck so I got a couple. I'm probably gonna watch some parts of Tokyo Drift again for that crazy Japanese song and then I'll probably watch Syriana or something. I'm prety bored here. I'd read the Aeneid but... nah. I've already read the Catcher in the Rye and I feel pretty proud. Don't wanna ruin my streak.

1. Mel Gibson arrested and curses up a storm - To summarize the article, Gibson, the venerable creator of the Passion of the Christ, was arrested under DUI charges. Thats not the bad part. Hey, lets face it, people get drunk. Even though I imagine its unholy to do so. During his arrest, he was not cuffed at first but after refusing to get into the officer's patrol car and running back to his own, he was cuffed. Thats not the bad part. Hey, lets face it, people don't want to be arrested. And the officer should not have been enough of a dumbass to not cuff a criminal just because he's a star (almost reminds you of a sort of illegal immigration situation someewhere in the world today, this letting criminals off thing). Then after being put into the car, he did what you see everyday on Cops. He started jumping around in the back, cussing out the officer with such remarks as, "You mother f****r. I'm going to f*** you. [sic]" Thats right. Mel Gibson told a male officer that he was going to f*** him, or, more frankly, have sex with him. I'm sure thats not what he meant but its still funny what drunk people do. But thats not the bad part. Hey, lets face it, he's a megastar. He deserves to swear officers out and offer sex to them. Would this count as prostitution? I'm sure thats in the Bible somewhere... Then Mr. Gibson "launched into a barrage of anti-Semetic statements," including, "F*****g Jews... The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," and "Are you a Jew?" But thats not the bad part...? Hey, lets face it? Jews started all the wars? Really? Oh then all those skirmishes in the 1400s must have been the Jews. Then in the office, Mel saw a female officer and called her "sugar tits." But thats not the bad part. Hey, lets face it. Her breasts were covered in sucrose. Then the Deputy wrote an 8-page report that detailed his actions and words. The the people higher up told him to write a new report leaving the details out, citing it would be "inflammatory." The new report would be released the public, and the detailed report will be locked up. Thats the bad part. As if Jews already don't hate Mel Gibson. And don't tell me they don't because you might as well say we should teach Creationism alongside Evolution and Buddhism all in the same textbook. If someone does something, we ought to know about it. The officals make the case that Passion created a flurry of Jewish hate and that a drunken arrest wasn't worth re-igniting all that hate. Well Jews or no Jews Mel Gibson should not be given special treatment. I'm sure if it were Jon Stewart (a jew) talking trash in a drunken rage about Christianity (not a jew) it would hit the press in a second. [via digg]


2. Evangelical pastor says that the Church should stay out of politics - Well now that we're knee-deep in religion, lets keep it going. Reverend Greg Boyd is a pastor in Minnesota that does not favor political endorsements, butting in on gay marriage, preaching against abortion, or acknowledging a politician in attendence. With the line of the religion Christianity and the "Godded: The Church of Republicanism" blurring, its nice to see people who have common sense and say that people should stick to what they do best. In his case, its spread the word of God. In the case of Republicans, its stressing fiscal conservatism and responsibility, capitalism, lessening Washington's power, and creating a good foriegn policy yet poor domestic policy. In the case of Democrats, its not stressing fiscal conservatism, but stressing more liberal-yet-not-quite-Socialist economic ideals, strengthening Washington's power, and creating a poor foriegn policy yet good domestic policy. None of them involve Christianity. I'd hate to see the day when we have a black Hindu woman as a president. Cause if I do, I'd be over 400 years old and probably a vegetable in some hospital with Congress holding a emergency session deciding my life for me. [via digg]


3. Diggnation video podcast - Good God. When you think of the word "podcast," you probably think of some dorks sitting around a table talking about how cool their new Blackberry is or an old guy at a mic talking about week-old news. But man. This is one hell of a podcast. Its the founder of digg and another quasi-famous tech pundit basically getting drunk and talking about stuff on digg. The audiences in these shows go wild. Last episode they had around one beer, two beer samples, and three shots. All while talking about news. Thats my kinda news program.

Its a bummer I don't have the proper tools to create good music here, namely a keyboard and proper software. I totally wanted this trip to be a kind of a composing frenzy. But it seems its not. Bummer. I wrote a little baroque-ish thing to put up today, only to find out that the software I have does not include a MIDI export =x. If I find Steven online (actually shouldn't be too hard) I'll try to get him to convert it for me and put it online sometime next week. =\.
So what else have I been doing here? Well, not much actually. What can I do when I sleep in til like 11 when everyone else wakes up at around 8? And takes afternoon naps? Nothing much. Except maybe watch online videos. At incredibly slow download rates. That and play Tekken/Byte Hell. But I'm even getting a bit tired of those.

1. Apple Bluetooth Mighty Mouse - Its a shame that its freaking $70 and that retailers here for Apple products aren't really that cheap. I'd totally get one. Although I'm curious to know the student discount rates here.


2. Scientist whose data is "against global warming" says its not - Peter Doran's study of Antarctica's climate has been used in books such as "State of Fear" and "Godless: The Church of Liberalism" as evidence suggesting global warming is false because the Antarctic seems to be cooling. However, Doran now says he is not a global warming skeptic and his data has been misrepresented and has not been taken into context with other scientific studies - including one that states the continent is warming. "Unbiased reporting would acknowledge differences of scientific opinion." [via digg]


3. Darth Vader being a smartass - Funny video clip edited from I believe Star Wars V. [via digg]

I don't know where the title fits into the song but, Following you blah blah blah Gazing at you blah blah blah. Good song.

Antonio and I are at an internet cafe right now. Pretty insane. 90% of the people here look like they are high or do drugs, then you realize that that's not the case, instead they just spend way too much time on the computer. Like half the people here have red eyes and it scares the shit out of me when they look at me. Well I have not been at a computer in 1-2 weeks so yea. Sorry. I don't really know what to say. O. Frenchies take forever to do anything. One day, Eric, Antonio, Albert [our newfound Canadian homie from Vancouver], and I were going to go out with the Frenchies [the guys] and so we got ready. Then like 30 minutes later we were like "Yo, where the hell are those Frenchies?" Then Albert says they are still getting ready and shit. I think it took them an hour, I don't know though, because Eric, Antonio, and I left later. Also, yesterday, Antonio and I hung out with 3 Kounsoulerz, some lady, and 6 Frenchies. Insane. The 3 Counzoluaewrkerz were girls and the whole time they were like "Dang, these guys take forever." It was a very tiring trip yesterday. But it was cool hanging out with the chounzulurz. I still cannot spell that word and I am too lazy to look it up. O another thing, French girls really do have hairy armpits. Not insanely hairy, more like peachfuzz, but nonetheless, they have hair under their arms, well their shoulders. Nothing really notable has really happened that I can think of right now, so I shall stop here so I don't have to keep typing on this nasty ass keyboard.

Is divergent even a word? Oh well. I've had no one to speak English to for quite a while. I actually haven't spoken very much at all in the past few days. I even forget if I have a stutter or not. Maybe not talking much will cure it?
I've really had all the time in the world the last couple of days to update and I really should have except internet here is so damn slow. Usually back in the 'States (is an apostrophe needed?) I'll spend quite a long time on digg (something i encourage everyone here to do) and then I'll update for the day or something. But right now loading digg and reading articles from there is taking the whole day. Kinda sucks. Don't it?
I have to vent a little, though. Living here is an entirely awkward experience for me. Actually, awkward doesn't do it justice. I don't speak the language, I can hardly understand it (i understand mandarin fine - but my grandparents here speak a weird mountain dialect) (oh, fyi, theres probably going to be a break in the thought process from here on - i've been asked to play mah jong), and I'm basically secluded from everyone else. Okay actually, it was a little more than Mah Jong; we went out to eat afterwards. So I'll finish this rant either.
Actually "divergent thoughts" makes more and more sense now. I randomly thought of the title but now I think it fits.
I have to say that it is so freaking hot in China. However, my room has just gotten a bit worse because I think the air is broke in my room. I'm practically sweating right now.
So what do you do when you're hot and trying to sleep? Don't sleep with covers on, of course. And you know what? I got bitten about 6 or 7 times by the same damn mosquito in around 5 minutes or so. So then, at 2:30 in the morning, I get up, turn on the lights, and wait to kill it. I sat there for around half an hour. I almost had it once, but it wouldn't die. Seriously.
So I told that story to my dad and he told my grandparents and they give me this big-ass electric flyswatter. I mean, damn. It looks like a tennis racket. Hold on. Let me take a picture. There. The picture you see in the post now is a picture of the flyswatter. I'm actually kinda scared to use it. I don't even want to touch the wires or tubes or whatever on it. I might get a hefty electrical zapping =x.
I find that I am angry here a lot, especially at the dinner table. Where I'm sure if some of you reading this saw the people I saw eat, you wouldn't hesitate to use the word "pig" to describe them, but I don't. Its not really like that but I can see how some people certainly can view it as. And it is not just that that is causing little bits of frustration or anger to arise in me. Just being treated as if I were 10, getting played down by my dad, and other stuff like that. I half blame it on the book The Cather in the Rye. I read the bulk of it in Chicago's O'Hare airport and on the plane to Tokyo. But I finished it on the plane here and in my room here. I actually have to say that is actually not that bad of a book. Although I certainly find it humorous that a person like Matt is in the pickle. One book choice is about a Jew, and the other book choice has a lot of blasphemous thoughts by this kid, and even takes a whole page with his thoughts on Catholism, which leads to him discussing grouping or clanning. Which makes total sense. But anyway. I really liked the book. Half the time after I finished reading it, I found myself thinking like him. I really did. No kidding. But that boy was pretty angry in that novel so maybe thats why I was? I dunno. I guess I'm using a scapegoat. I hate that word.
I've also been reading The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. I two of his books, that and Blink for cheap in Beijing. Tipping Point is about the point where a product or idea "tips," or suddenly becomes hot and such. He gives examples like Hush Puppies (the shoes), a sudden crime rate drop in New York over a ridiculously short period of time, an explosion of syphilis in Bostom over another ridiculously short period of time, and stuff like that. I haven't read it all. Its a shame that the book was written before the ipod phenomenon, which is a classic example of tipping. Remember when you didn't even know what an ipod was? Then all of a sudden everyone had an ipod. It tipped. Thats what the book is about. The tipping point. Clever, huh? Blink is about "thinking without thinking," or using your instincts. I've only read the intro but he talks about how many sculpture inspectors hired by a museum reviewed and inspected a sculpture and found it to be authentic, but an art expert, in "a blink of the eye," so to speak, noted that it was a fake. The power of thinking without thinking. Don't get me to take Psychology because I'm reading these.
I'll have a little song planned for tomorrow, nothing much. I don't expect it to exceed thirty measures. I'm not done writing it yet, but I'll finish it up and do what little editing I can with Finale Notepad. Since I don't have Guitar Pro 5 for Mac =x. I'm gonna grab a copy of Windows, though, and install Boot Camp probably.
Between trying to get digg to load and maybe working on the song, I've been playing a lot of PSP, actually. I didn't touch that thing for a couple of months cause I didn't have anything to play but I got Byte Hell, Tekken, and the Loco Roco demo for it now. Eric, get BH/Tekken. That Chinese girl in that game is still damn sexy. But I digress.
Or do I diverge?
nt?
Digervent. ? What?

ARARAGAH!! I think a mosquito just flew past my face. Where's the flyswatter?

Sorry about the lack of updates, I know its a bit ironic (not hypocritical, though) that I've been harping on everyone else to make updates but I don't myself. But I have an excuse. I'm away. Although I'm at the computer quite often cause I have nothing else to do =x.
What have I been up to? Well, I visited Beijing for a while and such, looked all around. Got a new Razr there for about half off which is a pretty sweet deal. But I won't bore you with boring stuff like that.
I do want to talk about my trip to the Beijing Military Museum, though. They called it the "Museum of Chinese People's Revolution," and basically, its just Red propaganda sponsored by the Party. I can't use any words here that might be read or censored. Head to my flickr to see some images. Flickr has been frustrating me lately because my internet connection here is on/off and everytime I try to upload a batch of about 30 photos, it always d/cs in the middle. It doesn't help that connecting to US sites here is so slow, either. I should have about 80 photos of the trip up, I have less than that. I dunno if i'll upload them all again, it takes forever to add titles, witty descriptions, and stuff like that. I'll put the f00ny ones up though. Or ones that are just interesting.
China is still incredibly smelly though. You cannot escape it. Sometimes its not that the smell is "bad," its more like its "different" than back home. And in this case, "different" is never good. A lot of times it smells bad, though.
Its also very noisy. One day here when I woke up, there were people hammering random things apparently next door and there were cars honking and then, to top it off, people on trucks with bullhorns ride around all day shouting random stuff. My dad says its advertising, I say haven't they heard of the TV?
I had a lot of other things to say but I can't seem to remember them at the moment, but I'm sure I'll think of them later. The picture is of a KFC-sponsered Wangfujing St. tour bus. Just shows how deep commercialism and capitalism has penetrated. Although this country is still more Red than I thought. The Military Museum proved that to me.
On a more personal note, I dunno if I can get used to things here. Its like I'm always being treated years younger than I am. Especially at the dinner table. If I'm having trouble using chopsticks or something, everyone'll stop and just watch. Then after I'd get the item, they'd go back to their little conversation. Or something randomly they'll just interject "wow! he's sooo good at chopsticks!" like I'm a damn 4 year old or something. Or when theres this dish remotely far away, say, about a foot away, they'll move it closer to me and say "wow he really likes that dish" even though I only had it once. I actually get pretty frustrated and a bit angry at the dinner table. Although I can't say anything. I just kinda stay quiet in my own little corner. I kinda like it that way.
On a more public note, funny story about my Macbook. Its got a magsafe adaptor or whatever you call it which is supposed to stop your laptop from breaking when you step on the cord because it makes the adaptor fall out of the laptop, not dragging it down to the floor. So I stepped on the cord. But the magsafe didn't pop out or anything, the AC adaptor on the wall fell down.
In a more darker tone, haven't really had the time (or resources) to write much these days, but there should be a new music Sunday this week.
On a more personal note, so if I could sum up my life in China so far with one word, what would it be? "Chinese."

Jekaupa Diena ("Jacob's day") was a festival held on July 24. It was the start of the harvesting season. The townsfolk held feasts from their freshly harvested grain and gave neighbors gifts of bread. Weddings were lucky if held on this day. A bright sun was also lucky; a cloudy day was a portent of snow; rain caused a low harvest yield. Unless it was a new moon, old seeds had to be sown. It was unlucky to walk through cabbage fields; if the cabbage heads hadn't appeared yet, they would not. Hay could not be brought into a barn, or risk the wrath of Perkons. Alternative names include Jekaba Diena.



so the other day at the store, sundip is cleaning out the water bins below the coolers when he sees a sponge. he picks it up in his cup and it crawls out, as it is a big spider. i think it was as big as the spider discussed in davids history of his porch. nevertheless, rakesh told me to get a net, which i did, then he picked it up. then, he started chasing the two of us around, because he knew we didnt like it. so then rakesh drops it around my register. so he gets on his hands and knees and gets it, then drops it off outside around the sewer. i then inquired and found otu that the store has a history of mice, rats, roaches, spiders, elephants, ants, hippogriffs, and rattlesnakes.

on saturday i had to work to cover for this guy who was coming in late because it was his birthday. afterwards, mrs shah took me, preet, and his friend kernal to their house because my mom was going to pick me up there. they ate lunch, and mrs shah forced some indian food on me. i had yellow rice, bread, and a salad type thing. oh, and i gues they have this universal yogurt/sour cream dip. the taste was not bad, but im still having gas, and ill leave it at that.

if i havent told you, we're moving this saturday(six days from yesterday). no, not to the ukraine, but to rolling wood, which is right across from kellam high. today i have to pack my room, which means going into my closet, which means confronting a few of gods creatures. then i have to do the summer homework...maybe i can get out of it because im moving. mindy pulled that card on rust back in 8th grade and it worked for a time...

i was reading the old testament today. it was just now that i realized that samson and delilah is in the bible..i always thought it was just the opera by saints-saenz. also, i didnt know there was another set of commandments, the ritual ..something something. its for jews though, i think.

next time i see any of you, remind me to play mao with you. its an incredibly fun game which ive been torturing my siblings with for the past few hours.

All of you
Is more than enough for
All of me
For every thirst and
Every need
You satisfy me
With your love
And all i have in you
Is more than enough

A few thoughts about Beijing.

1. It is incredibly dusty. I dunno if dusty is the appropiate word, but the level of sanitation here is undescribable. In fact, its probably so bad that there isn't even a word in the dictionary that would do it justice. So I'll invent a word. Its fuxingmen dirty.


2. Fuxingmen. Thats a road and a subway stop in Beijing. The next stop is Fuchenmen. I nearly almost busted out laughing. But. I controlled it. The proper pingying divisions are fu-xing-men and fu-chen-men I believe but Fuxing Men is just as funny.


3. The traffic here is terrible. It took us over an hour and a half to get from out hotel to Tian'anmnen. I dunno if teh g0vz0r here will block the real word in liu of a certain incident I'm not obliged to talk about. They need to fix the traffic problems. Its worse than Boston. The entire city is literally a giant parking lot.


4. Law enforcement, especially traffic laws, are another problem - the main reason for the traffic jams. People just don't care about what "don't cross" means. In Beijing, if you are a pedestrian, basically ignore all signs or signals. Do whatever you want. Besides, all you'll get is a car swerving a few inches (literally an inch or so) from your leg and a few honks.


5. That said, the taxi drivers and drivers in general are the most proficient drivers I've ever seen in my life. My dad's friend can drive in a crowded interestion (yes, crowded interestion. of cars. people turn left when the "don't turn left" sign is on) and be just a few inches in all directions from like 4 or 5 cars yet still make it out without a dent.


6. Its noisy. People honk their horns. You hope you don't get a broken leg or something


7. THERES TOO MANY PEOPLE!!!

Hai. Aloha. I think thats what they say here. I would tell a little white lie and say that I've been saying that to people 'round these parts, but, eh. I'd be lying. I'm typing this up at 9:54PM Tokyo time on TextEdit on my laptop. The hotel here in Tokyo does not have wifi, even though it costs more than the Holiday Inn we stayed at on the NYC trip that had wifi. I also gotta say that this room is incredibly small. Really freaking small. Theres two single beds with about two feet of space in between, and probably not even that. And they're both touching the wall. Yeah. I couldn't even lay two of myself foot to head horizontally. Actually, having said that, everything here is small. Its like them trying to be totally ironic about how small Japanese people and Asians in general are. I would have made a lame wiener joke there but I'm a bit lazy and tired right now. If I jumped, I could hit my head on the doorway to my hotel. There was this one subway station where when I stretched my hand, I could touch the ceiling. Granted, that was only a certain spot of the subway but I'd hate to see 6'4" Caucasians trying to deal with that.
I'll try not to bore you guys too much with a crazyass long update but I have some time to kill. I should actually probably be sleeping because I'm tired from the long day I had, but that thought hasn't occurred to me. Hmm. I dunno where to start.
I guess a fun game to play on a plane is try to guess how fast the plane is going during take off. "Okay , tis is about 5mph... 10... 15... 20... 40... 80... 120... Jesus." Yeah. It was amusing.
One thing I do have to say about Japan though is that everybody here freaking looks young. I mean really. The girls here. You could look at them and think they're like 16 or something but they'd actually be 30-something. Thats insane. At least they shave their 'pits. =\. I have a funny story to tell about that. But I won't. Haha. sux2bu =\.
We went around town today and I'm trying to think of interesting things to say. Nothings really coming to mind except how freaking awesome it is to go to an Apple store in Japanese and how theres this huge discount electronics store with everything you could imagine. On the top floor (8th floor) there was a Tower Records music shop (didn't they have one of those in the trump tower in nyc?) and they had signs in Japanese that said basically "rest in peace, Syd Barrett," it was pretty cool. I couldn't say what it said, but it had his birthdate-2006 on it so I was assuming. And they had this sale on the Pulse DVD. 3600yen or something which roughly equivilates to maybe about 40$. Which is why I didn't care about buying it. =\.
But yeah, 8th floor. Americans reading this might be a bit shocked but I'm pretty sure that people like Eric know what I'm talking about. One of those huge buildings with massive floors with specialties in each. We went to a "discount" store in the electronic corridor (it was practically everything at retail price - but i guess that cheap for jap standards) and the layout basically was computers/cellphones on the 1st floor, software/peripherals on the 2nd, something weird on the 3rd, TVs, DVD players, etc, on the 4th, Appliances and watches and such on the 5th, toys and games on the 6th, something else non-memorable on the 7th (i was hungry at this point), and the 8th floor had the Tower Records store and a book store. The 9th floor was basically a food court. And this is the same for all places like this. We went into a mall-like place to get currency exchanged and it was multi-storied as well and had Gucci/Lois Vutton (sp?) places like that. Crazy. But its standard in Asia.
I can't think of anymore to write. I'll write more later. Holy crap I just came to the realization this may be a huge Japan update. =x. You'll probably be reading this after I'm in Beijing.
Oh and before I forget, if the brand of water O^2 (thats O-2 or O squared) with Lemon makes it to America, never, never drink it. Ever. I am confident to say that it is the worst drink in the entire world. I can qualify that because I came across half the globe. And this is the worst thing I've drank in my life. Well, I had that yesterday. We have this weird 7-11 type place outside our hotel (although there are 7-11's here. some of them are 7-11, some of them are 7-i, with the emphasis on the i. i dunno why. corporate, maybe? is 7-11 owned by 7-i? okay it just occurred to me that probably stands for international.) and me and my dad have just been trying drinks. He had a black coffee yesterday (he didn't know what it was, it just said "BLACK") and today hes having a beer. How do I know that this is whats going to come up the most in the comments?

-

Okay, now I'm in Beijing writing this in my hotel. Just have to wrap up a few thoughts about Tokyo, namely how they put all their pornographic magazines right next to the music magazines. And oh crap I just forgot Nik wanted hentai and there was literally an entire bookshelf full of them. Whoops. I guess I forgot. I was too busy looking at. The music magazines.
The flight to Beijing wasn't so bad, but once you hit China, you totally know that you're not in Kansas anymore. Or Japan. The odor, the people, the spit on the floor, the dirt, everything. Is totally unlike Japan. Its incredibly noisy as well, as most Chinese people are. The horns I can here from my hotel is crazy. Here. I'll time a minute and I'll mark every horn I hear with a *. Starting now. ******* * *(long one) ******* **. Thats how many horn blarings I hear in a minute. They're starting up again. Thats. Crazy. I don't even wanna think about driving here. A student of my dad's here was hit by a car coming to greet us. We had dinner with a student at Beijing University last night, one that my dad's kinda "mentoring" I guess. He was pretty cool. A bit skinny and short though, although he's a real crazy worker-outer. He does Kung Fu and goes to the whatever place for hours a day and just basically works out. Anyway. He got hit by a car. =\.
Anyway, I think thats about it for now; I'm gonna be in Beijing for about three more days and I'll be in my grandparent's home town from then on, save a trip to Shanghai or the like.
Anythings you guys want? I already bought some weirdass things from Tokyo (although i lost one of the most weirdest!! well my dad did; look for pictures on flickr in maybe a few minutes or tonight - depending on when i upload them) such as toilet paper. Its weird.

Damn I did this over a few days and it turns out to be a huge entry.

So, work. i work the morning shift with deevas mom and her son, then at twelve they leave and two indian guys replace them, sun-dip and rakesh. they're fun, so the afternoon shift goes by pretty fast. we work at the shahs convenience/tshirt store on 28th street. they also rent out bikes, which bring in a lot of money. you know, those big bikes with covers on them. and today i learned how to press tshirts, or at least make logoed tshirts. the press smells funny.

other than that, i couldnt find hublog for a few days, so. the search feature at the bottom of the screen is interesting. thats about it for now..

Is anyone else having connection problems to theblacktop.com? If you're reading this, please drop me a comment that you are not. I think its cause I'm on an imac in an Apple store in Tokyo but maybe I'm wrong. Go to nine.theblacktop.com if the normal one is having troubles.
Hows the new design been so far?

I freaking lost my entire last entry. I hit a weird button (the keyboards here are japanese. i have to hit shift-2 to get ""s. but i can do ¥¥¥¥¥ and ^-^-^ very easily. But I had a list of things I thought on the trip. I will recall what I can.

1. Tokyo is freaking hot


2. What is it about this city that makes me think, "Damn. I need some Caucasian."


3. You never ask yourself, "Hmm. Korean Air. I wonder where their final destination is."


4. Can anyone behind me understand any of this? Practically everyone here is on a Japanese site.


5. This white-looking guy just sat beside me so I'm gonna do a lot of enters to cover this up





















6. Okay.


7. Mighty Mouses rule.


8. Everyone here looks really young. I have some stories but I don't think this is the place to tell them.

Ok. Well a lot of stuff has happened. We stayed up late again. This time playing PS2 and watching Ichi the Killer. If you don't know what that is, then look it up. I saw the trailer a while back when it came out. Yea. Messed up stuff. Anyways some people wanted to watch and one of the counsoulerrz [can't spell] suggested it too. Well this group wanted to watch it so we finished up our PS2 game of NBA 2K6 [they have Soul Calibur III here too. It is a copy of course, but is it even out yet?]. Then I asked the girl who was waiting to put it in if she was sure if they wanted to watch it. She asked if it was scary and I said "Well... it is not as much scary as it is really messed up. First of all, it's from Japan. Second of all, it's called Ichi the Killer. Finally, look at the guy on the front." Anyways. We watch it anyways, after much tampering with the glitched TV and DVD player. The TV's sound sometimes goes really soft, then comes back. Usually you have to turn it off and turn it back on. Sometimes also the TV just turns off randomly and comes back on. Usually at least 3 times in a row. One time we tried to fix the volume, and the "hot guy" [as Jessica calls him. I call him Sasha Cohen, the big collared shirt guy. He seems pretty cool though. He also has some quite amusing mannerisms while in class.] turned off the TV and turned it back on then it went off and on for like a minute until we decided to turn it off then leave it and turn it back on. Quite funny. Anyways. Amusing movie. Hilarious at parts, but very, very twisted. Anyways, that one guys mouth is pretty cool. Reminds me of Venom from Spiderman. Except Venom wasn't totally a human and didn't have to hold his mouth together with piercings, nor did he cut off like half his own tounge, nor killed people with needles, nor use scissors to mutilate some guy's.... yea. Friend. His little friend. Anyways. Our Kownsulers are pretty cool. Well anyways, finished the movie a bit after 3. Brushed teeth. Then slept. Well yesterday was a kick ass day. Cancelled classes. Shabu Shabu. PS2. Movie. Anyways, speakin of PS2's and Soul Calibur 3, does N3 [or is it 3N] come out in the US? Ninty Nine Nights. If it does. I would get an Xbox 360 just to play that game. I am not sure if I have written about that before though. Unable to look back on previous entries. I hope you read the collaboration entry between Eric