PS3 News

Do you remember back when people were shooting each other in order to get a PS3? Waiting for weeks in line? Crushing others in the rush to get in the store? Seems like just yesterday!!!

Of course, people only waited a day in line for the Wii, nobody was shot, and people actually kept the Wii to play at home. There were plenty more Wiis than PS3's, yet the Wii sold out just as fast. Here's the difference. . . the Wii is still selling out. Nintendo has produced 5 times as many Wiis as PS3's, yet you still CAN NOT get a Wii unless you're really lucky or you manage to get news of a second launch (stores sometimes horde consoles until they have a bunch and then release them on a set date).

"But PS3's are impossible to find! They're selling on ebay for hundreds above sticker price!" Um, no and no. Don't believe me?





Huh? 4 PS3's? Just sitting there? According to the guy working there they had been sitting there all day. Of course, there were no Wiis to be seen, still selling out. PS3'? 2 60 Gigs and 2 20 Gigs. Unsold. Unwanted. A guy actually came up to the cabinet when he saw them, here's what I heard:

Guy: Good Lord! PS3's! I need to buy one!
Guy (after approaching the case and seeing the price): *groan* No way! (walks away)

Here's the Ebay listings for a few PS3's. I boxed the ones of interest with red and then put the retail price to the right. Some are earning a couple of bucks, others are selling for less than retail! Sorry Sony, you just can't cut it. Nintendo Pwns!

The Pursuit of Happyness

I saw a great movie the other day, it was called "The Pursuit of Happyness". No, I didn't misspell "Happiness", that's how the movie's title is spelled. Anyway, it has Will Smith in it and is definitely a feel good movie. Here's why I mention it (other than urging you to go see it). Will Smith has to solve a Rubik's Cube in the movie. In fact, it plays a quite important role in the film. Now, not only was I wearing my Rubik's Cube shirt at the theater, but I was also fully expecting the whole Rubik's Cube thing to be somewhat of a joke, I didn't expect him to actually solve it. I thought he'd twist it for a bit and then all of a sudden the scene would cut and then it would cut back and he'd finish up. Nope! Apparently Will Smith actually learned how to solve a Rubik's Cube for the movie and can solve it in about 2 and a half minutes. That's not too bad! There were two things that really impressed me about the cube in the movie:

1) The movie was set in the 80's, right when the Rubik's Cube came out. Whoever was in charge of props actually took the time to go out and buy an original, 1981 Rubik's Cube with the original logo in the center white square. Kudos to that person, give them a raise producer peoples!

2) I was watching the method he was using to solve it and recognized it! Will Smith solves the cube the SAME EXACT WAY I do! That means, he went to the same website I did to learn! Which website is that? Do you really want to be as cool as Will Smith and Michael Snively? If you want to be able to solve the cube the same as both of us, go here. Enjoy!

Ssee the movie, solve the cube, have a nice day!

Saddam's Full Execution Video

Here it is guys, the whole thing on video. Enjoy!

Death

Good Riddance

DRAG Paper

This post is essentially a post-mortem on something that died a fiery, painful, exceptionally delightful death in June of last year. It's called the DRAG paper. DRAG isn't an acronym, it's simply a description of the paper itself. . . . It's a DRAG. Many people believe it should be called the "This motherf---ing son of a B---- piece of s--- paper sucks and I hate it with the relentless loathing that not even the most crazy psychopathic killer could hate his worst enemy", but TMSOABPOFPSAIHIWTRLTNETMCPK is a really long acronym that's too hard to remember and swearing isn't allowed at school. So, we stick with DRAG.

Allow me to explain: There is a class at my school called American Humanities. It meets every day for an hour and a half and last year had 63 students in it. The curriculum is split between two classes: Honors American Literature and AP US History. The AP US History class has the AP test as its major project for the year. Honors American Literature (abbreviated as HAMLIT by the nerdy "I can easily get an A in this class because I'm a suckup" people) has the DRAG paper, which was invented back when the class was first began. It's a 4, almost 5 month long research paper on a book that is decided upon by the teacher. Our teacher decided that the book would be The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. We were to spend 2 months researching a thesis that we developed and then 2 more months constructing the paper. We were to have, if I remember correctly, at least 15-20 sources, endless amounts of note cards, and in the end, a finished paper.

So, from the beginning now. This was our teacher's first year teaching this particular class so she was inexperienced with the DRAG, ergo, she decided to restructure the entire thing and make it up as she went. That turned out to be a very bad idea. Ask us to do something that, when we asked clarifying questions, resulted in her saying "I don't know, let me think about it" and then never getting back to us.

The first step was to create a thesis. Simple enough! What should my paper be about? Well, unfortunately, this was the thesis from hell. It consisted of two parts: the "observation" and the "importance" (holy cow, just typing this entry is bringing back very bad memories). The observation is simply something you noticed in the novel. The importance is some contrived and philosophical meaning that this detail in the novel had. Once you had your two parts of the thesis, you had to word you thesis in such a way that it made sense. Nobody could. I kid you not, more than half of the 63 students were still rewording their thisis in the days leading up to the due date, even though they had written the thesis 4 months earlier. In order to get an acceptable thesis it was almost mandatory to go in after school and have a one on one session with the teacher. I opted out, there was no way I was going to go in after school in order to succeed, school is for school time. It's not like I missed class and had to make something up, she was essentially extending class time into the afternoon. Not ok. Anyway, the thesis sucked. End of thesis story.

Then we got the format for our paper. In Oregon schools we have this thing called the "Five paragraph essay". I don't know if that's standard everywhere, if it is then you know what I'm talking about. Basically, the paragraphs are 1) Intro, 2-4) Body paragraphs, 5) Conclusion. Well, I seem to remember this conversation happening:

Teacher: I've decided on a format for our "research paper" (she hated the name DRAG) that I think will work well for us.
Students: *Brace themselves*
Teacher: I think we need 8 paragraphs.
Students: *groan, gasp, pound fists on tables, yell "what?!", "No!"*
Teacher: Now hold on! It'll be ok! Your just replacing your normal body paragraph with two, one for your observation and one for your importance!
Students: *GAAAAAH! Some students are startled when they actually see flames dancing in the eyes of the students sitting across from them*

This was the day when everybody in the class began to hate the words "Observation" and "Importance".

Now since our teacher was developing this entirely new way of constructing the paper, she needed to give us examples of what to do. So, she decided to write portions of a mock DRAG paper as an example. Her thesis was something along the lines of "Mark Twain depicts Huck as a vampire in order to symbolize the way slaves were mistreated in the South before the Civil War". It was a lot more wordy and fluid, but that was the jist of it. Ridiculous, right? Well, most examples, in any class, are kind of "out there" and unrealistic, just so that kids can get an idea for the format and not any ideas for the paper itself. Well, here's the crappy part. We all felt like garbage every time we learned something new because we couldn't, for the lives of us, construct a paragraph that made sense or find the right quotes in the novel to support our thisis, yet she would just up-and-write a masterful chunk of DRAG and actually prove that Huck was a vampire. We had no excuse then! If she could prove that Huck was a vampire then we were expected to prove anything! It sucked. . . gauranteed failure.

So, the research began. Libraries, online databases, novels, blogs, anything under the sun! I read countless pages of literature on Huck Finn. Countless. TONS! Hundreds, I kid you not, of pages, all about a novel that I didn't even really enjoy. I took all my sources and put them in a zip folder so I could share them with you.

http://jzzsxm.googlepages.com/Research.zip

Go ahead, download it. Open it up, look inside, maybe even open a file or two! I read all of it. Multiple times. Some of the files are upwards of 50 pages. Booooo! Anyway, research began and digging out sources started. I'd have to say that was the easiest part was simply finding tons of crap and reading it all.

Then came the actual writing. Ever just sat down and written something? Then, looking back, thought "Wow, that was really good!" because it showed character and was actually fun to read? That's how I feel about my blog. . . if I'm bored I'll go back and actually read entries I wrote because I enjoy them. Well, this paper was not like that. It was the most structured, unforgiving thing in the world. Every word had to be carefully planned. Every sentence needed a transistion word into another sentence (transistion words were given to us in a huge list), each sentence needed a certain amount of analysis and a certain word order. No sentences could have "to be" verbs (the words "is am are was were be being been has have had do does did shall will should would may might must can could"), nothing could be in passive tense, and on top of all of this, we were supposed to use style that would make our paper interesting to read and convince our readers that our thesis was true. In other words, we were supposed to bore people whilst entertaining them and prove that we were right while not sounding like egoists. Not possible.

Each paragraph, when the structure was followed correctly, ended up being about a page and a half to two pages, normally closer to two pages. The writing continued, on and on. We would turn in chunks at a time and we would get them back graded. We'd cry for a little bit, compare the notes we got on our papers and laugh at how much we sucked, and then rewrite the whole thing again. One of my favorite comments I got on my paper was when my teacher circled an entire paragraph and wrote in capital letters "NEVER!" Yeah, that was my favorite. Another was when she circled my thesis and wrote "This makes no sense at all. Come see me." There were a lot like that. Anyway, everytime I submitted my thesis it always came back as wrong, so I just kept rewriting it until the paper was due.

So, finally, after all the dust had settled, we'd written our papers. Each person's research paper (with citations) was about 20 pages long. 63 kids in the class. 1260 pieces of paper. Throw in the staple in each bundle and the pile of papers was about 2 feet tall, no joke. We were all kind of hoping that our teacher would try to pick up the stack and hurt her back, but she didn't.

So that was it, the DRAG paper was finally done. . . or so we thought! Oh no, there was more! Two weeks later our teacher dropped this little beauty:

Teacher: So I have some news on your "reasearch paper"s.
Students: *Would've braced except that they were tired of bracing and just decided to take it in the gut*
Teacher: I'm going to need photocopies of all your sources stapled and highlited. They'll be due on Monday of next week (it was Thursday).
Students: (There really aren't words to describe the reactions of everybody in the class. Honestly, I'm not even going to try to make up an analogy. Instead, I'll just post a snippet of a conversation I had with Truman where we were griping about it. Enjoy!)

SwingWitDaBlues: i think the photocopy bit was the straw that broke the camel's back
SwingWitDaBlues: and by break I mean turned it to dust in the most horrifically painful way imaginable
DinjackPD: hahaha
DinjackPD: I keep looking back on that day and kind of wishing we'd all had rotten fruit and vegetables
DinjackPD: or torches and pitchforks
SwingWitDaBlues: omg, we would've used them!
DinjackPD: or a gigantic rail on which to ride her out of town on
SwingWitDaBlues: it was one of those "just sit and laugh in disbelief at how much it sucks" moments
DinjackPD: I wish I would've yelled 'Oh, that is BULLSHIT!'
SwingWitDaBlues: all of us, at the same time
DinjackPD: even Melissa Schutz and Emily
SwingWitDaBlues: yep!
DinjackPD: ah, god
DinjackPD: man, that class blew goats

Get the picture? That was a rough day. Very rough. Terrible in fact. Yes, quite terrible.

Here's the fun part! After I had turned my paper I went home and shot my copy of Huck Finn with a BB gun repeatedly (at least 200 rounds). Then I taped bottled rockets to it and blew it up. Then I burned it. It was dead. Of course, that was before I knew I was going to need photocopies from it, that exact edition so that the page numbers would match my bibliography. Of course that wasn't the edition the school had. It was the edition that the bookstore had run out of and that I had to drive an hour to a different city to purchase for $15, only so that I could photocopy 6 pages and then never use it again. GAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!

All in all, the DRAG paper sucked. Here's a link to my final paper.

http://jzzsxm.googlepages.com/DRAG.doc

I got an A, thank god, but it wasn't a high A, but it was an A. The paper was an entire semester's grade. That's half the year. I needed an A. I leave you now, with some parting words from me and Truman:

SwingWitDaBlues: we should make a facebook group
DinjackPD: there's already a group I've seen called 'APUSH Sucks' or something
SwingWitDaBlues: but it wasn't called "Honors American Literature with McElliott, the scariest woman ever, sucks!"
DinjackPD: I wouldn't call her scary
DinjackPD: unless you mean scary as in 'child with a loaded gun' scary
SwingWitDaBlues: yeah, that one!
DinjackPD: her childishness being her lack of knowledge of how to teach the class
DinjackPD: and the loaded gun being the drag
SwingWitDaBlues: :)
SwingWitDaBlues: we're the dead little brother
DinjackPD: hahahha
DinjackPD: she shot all 63 of us
SwingWitDaBlues: with one bullet
SwingWitDaBlues: through and through
SwingWitDaBlues: in fact, it turned in mid-air and came back through our bodies a second time

Hope you enjoyed!

Guitar Hero

The latest craze sweeping the Xbox360 and PS2 circuit is a game called "Guitar Hero". The game consists of playing a guitar controller in a similar fashion to the way the dance mat is used in the game "Dance Dance Revolution". 5 different colored buttons on the guitar correspond to different colored prompts on the screen that are to be "played" in time with music. Having a hard time understanding? Well, just go to Wal*Mart, they have a playable demo you can try out. Anyway, here's why I mention all of this.

The company that produces Guitar Hero was founded by an MIT alum. MIT is everywhere people, just to let you know. It has even invaded one of the most popular video games everywhere, so there!

Legends of the Hidden Temple

I think we all remember this show from Nickelodeon. The kids were on different teams and at the end of the show the winning team had to run through a temple to get to an artifact and return it to the host? Well, recent events have made me remember aspects of the show that I haven't thought about in a long time. The first is a rant I found on facebook about the shrine of the silver monkey. Profanity has been edited:

Every 10 year-old dreamed of being on "Legends of the Hidden Temple," making it to the Temple Run and winning the coveted trip to Space Camp--even if it meant having a 17% chance of being called a purple parrot.

.

But how PISSED OFF did you get when kids--who are CLEARLY less worthy of lmec's time than you--struggled for a large portion of the allotted three minutes rying to put together the Shrine of the Silver Monkey???

IT'S ONLY MADE UP OF THREE F---ING PIECES!!!! HOW UNINTELLIGENT, IGNORANT, AND SILLY ARE THESE KIDS???

.

I scream a lot at the television for various reasons—poor playcalls, bad moves by anagers—but I have NEVER, EVER screamed as much as I do when those f---ing ids CANT PUT THE F---ING MONKEY TOGETHER!

.

It’s bad enough when the b--ch in the temple can’t climb ladders, jump, crawl, or do anything that involves athletic ability. Or when the guy is so retarded he gets stuck in the caves. But with a minute to go, somehow they still have a chance…then the kid gets to the shrine. It’s over. “uhhhh…what do I do? What do I do, Kirk?” WHAT THE F--- DO YOU THINK YOU DO!! PUT THE F---ING MONKEY TOGETHER!

.

If you’ve ever suffered a coronary over this disgusting lack of coordination and intelligence, you know where I’m coming from.

The second is a conversation that I had with a friend of mine whom I co-author another blog with (http://leftatheistrightatheist.blogspot.com). I found it funny enough to get blogged! If you prefer to see the original conversation, go here: http://jzzsxm.googlepages.com/legendsoftemple.htm

.

DinjackPD: I'm in
DinjackPD: and watching videos from the show on YouTube
DinjackPD: good christ, did these kids ever even WATCH the show before they went on?
SwingWitDaBlues: you know what it's talking about, yes? (refferring to the Shrine of the Silver Monkey)
DinjackPD: if I got on I'd be in the hotel with a VHS player, watching tapes and training nonstop
SwingWitDaBlues: lol
SwingWitDaBlues: they are so clueless about the monkey
SwingWitDaBlues: that's the one thing that always bugged me about the show
DinjackPD: yeah, I know all about the monkey
DinjackPD: I'm watching a video right now
DinjackPD: the damn kid can't seem to find the button to push to get out of the Pit of Despair

DinjackPD: and the host keeps going 'YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO PUSH THE BUTTON IM... YOU'RE GOING- KIM, YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO PUSH THE BUTTON! THE BUTTON, KIM!'
SwingWitDaBlues: lol!

SwingWitDaBlues: yeah, he had to scream at the kids a lot
DinjackPD: fo' sho
DinjackPD: I mean, god
SwingWitDaBlues: lol
DinjackPD: she's stuck in the shrine now trying to figure out which button to push SwingWitDaBlues: stupid kids
DinjackPD: I swear, I should count how many times the host tells her she needs to find a button
DinjackPD: for god's sake
DinjackPD: she is just standing there! SwingWitDaBlues: truman, relax

DinjackPD: oh good god
DinjackPD: one of the native people just grabbed her
SwingWitDaBlues: truman
SwingWitDaBlues: are you calm?
DinjackPD: hell yes I'm calm, she's out now
DinjackPD: and her partner went in after her to continue in her place
DinjackPD: and man, let me tell you
DinjackPD: this kid is a regular pimp
DinjackPD: he's done his homework
DinjackPD: he blazed through the whole damn thing
SwingWitDaBlues: did they win?
DinjackPD: no, sadly
SwingWitDaBlues: too bad
DinjackPD: he lost a lot of time in the spider web room
DinjackPD: he was trying to climb up to the top level, but eventually gave up and went along the ground
DinjackPD: if he'd just gone through there he could've made it
DinjackPD: he wound up in the mine shaft
SwingWitDaBlues: bummer
SwingWitDaBlues: well
SwingWitDaBlues: not everybody is a winner
DinjackPD: I'm wtching a YouTube video now which is enthusiastically labeled 'one of the most incredible temple runs EVER'
DinjackPD: "Amazing effort and probably the best post-game celebration I've ever seen!"
SwingWitDaBlues: lol
SwingWitDaBlues: merry christmas

.

Here is the YouTube video that accompanies this conversation:

LOL

I was all done blogging for the night, I swear! There's only an hour left until tomorrow and I was going to just surf facebook for the rest of today. Honestly! But, when one comes across a picture that actually makes them laugh out loud, it begs posting. There's a story behind this picture.

Last year I was in Honors Physics. It was a standard physics class, with friction, mass, acceleration, magnets, all that jazz. It also came pre-fabbed with the worst text book ever! With the worst chapter questions ever! Ever! This made for some very frustrating physics class periods and even more frustrating physics tests. Many of us just got so helplessly lost and confused that we started laughing at the pure hilarity of it all. There was no hope, and we didn't care. I think the pinnacle was either when after hours of work on a mousetrap car somebody backed over it on their way to school, or when somebody else brought a home-made rocket (black powder included) to class. It was one of those two moments, not sure which, that pretty much made me realize that physics was no longer physics. I, in my mind, re-christened it "Survival Class". If you make it out of the class alive with all limbs/mousetrap cars intact, you win.

That being said, the following picture struck a chord with me. It reminds me of almost every test I took in that class. I wish I were creative enough to do this on a test, because I would have had I thought of it. I'm glad somebody did though! Enjoy, don't try to contain the laughter. I know that if you were in my physics class, you will be laughing after seeing this picture:

Amazing LineRider

Remember that LineRider game I posted earlier? Have any of you done anything this narly on it yet?

Night at the Museum

I saw "Night at the Museum" (Ben Stiller) last night and definitely urge you to see it. Very very funny, good times. It also introduced me to my new favorite movie character. My previous favorite was Mongo from "Shrek 2". This character is similar, but better. Meet "Easter Island Statue" (aka Dum-Dum, but not really):

Granted, this isn't a picture of the actual character from the movie because the movie just came out yesterday and there are no screenshots online yet, but it looks exactly the same. Allow me to describe what makes "Easter Island Statue" so cool. . .

a) He talks

b) He speaks in a very simple, yet condescending tone

c) He loves "Gum-Gum" (bubble gum)

d) He can blow a bubble that's like 6 feet in diameter!

e) When it pops on his face he doesn't have hands to get it off, so he just kind of groans

If for no other reason, see this movie so that you can see "Easter Island Statue" because he is the best movie character ever.

Christmas Carols

Merry Christmas! Here's a little Christmas goody for ya! Enjoy. . .

Duck + Cannon

Played with my pneumatic cannon today. Decided to shoot the Aflac Duck!


I can practically hear him scream as he flies through the air! Here's the video:



Notice that he flies. . . bounces. . . hurdles through the air. . . and lands in a flower bed (sans flowers). Here's how he landed:

Fairly anticlimactic, but just try to picture the screaming as he tumbles through the air at 8 million mph.

Cool Website of the Day

I've been hearing a lot of buzz about this game online called Linerider, so I decided to check it out. Couldn't have anything to do with the fact that Nintendo just bought the rights to it and is going to publish it on Wii and DS, nope, has nothing to do with that! Anyway, I enjoyed it, so you should too! Give it a try, please?

Click the Pic to Play the Game!

[Update] Pi. . .or is it?

Ok, the pi question has been answered. Ready for it? Here's the e-mail I got in reply:

Michael Snively,

Your comments on pi were passed on to me from customer service. Others have pointed this out as well. The artist is not a mathematician and mistakenly took selected pages from a book of pi, resulting in the error. His concept was to intentionally depart from standard kinds of time line facts and the pi was one among many pieces of somewhat random and quirky pieces of information intended to give a sense of scale to geologic time. I hope you were able to enjoy the piece despite the error and appreciate you taking the time to write.

Sincerely,
Mary Priester

So there you have it, artists have no mathematical abilities at all. Although it was nice to get a reply, I was left feeling incomplete. Which book wrote pi like that? Was it an early approximation? Who's approximation?

I did some more digging and found this website:

http://www.o4r.org/publications/pf_v4n3/PiUnderground.htm

This website was MUCH more helpful in describing the discrepancy. I've highlighted the important bits on the following website:

http://jzzsxm.googlepages.com/O4RUndergroundPi.htm

Don't understand the thing about alcohol at the bottom? Well, you're not g33ky enough I guess. I'll give you a hint, look at the number of letters in each word. . .

MIT Class of 2011 Profile

There's a fancy little guestbook for all of the admitted students at MIT. I kind of obsess over it because I like numbers and data, so I of course made a spreadsheet. This post probably is of no interest at all to my regular blog readers, but that's because I'm putting it online for people that want MIT numbers/data that don't have access to the guestbook. I've compiled it into a spreadsheet for y'all, feel free to mess around with it and sort/calculate whatever you want. I've removed first and last names from it for privacy's sake. Note: These are only 252 of the 390 admitted since only 252 have signed the guestbook.

http://jzzsxm.googlepages.com/MITData.xls

Enjoy!

[Update] Pi. . . or is it?

I sent a question to the TriMet: MAX place, here's what I said:

I'm from Salem and don't normally ride MAX. That being said, when I went to Zoo Lights on MAX I was very excited to see a certain mathematical number etched into the wall at the underground stop right by the zoo. Forgive me, I don't know the official number/name of this stop except that it's right next to the entrance of the zoo. Here's my concern. A number that appears to be Pi is etched into the wall. It begins: 3.1415926535 -- which is correct, however the next 8 lines aren't contained anywhere within even the first 200 million digits of pi, either as a group of 8 lines or as individual rows. Here's a picture so that you can verify this:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOaKstZ4eZlY6Sci1X6gNONWP8FvQsFQU1lofe6qBEYhxkzBZoBgC2f-H1qA3N9EzzfoyNIHfPxhSc4qB5vGjosmXem3_WcYp3fkBA_9Jjk0E9TBnUrhGCmwPaWUzrrZWoHIirwL9l53Pf/s400/Pi.jpg


Here's the website I used to check for the wall-number's inclusion in the actual value of pi:

http://www.angio.net/pi/piquery


Why spend so much time etching a number into a wall only to get the first line correct? I really want to know why, please respond!

-Michael Snively

Bored in Calc: Part [however many calculus stories I've told]

It seems like I'm always telling stories about stuff that happens in calculus other than calculus. Trust me, I do learn stuff in that class, it's just never as interesting as the other stuff that happens. Take for instance, what happened recently when my teacher passed out holiday pencils for everybody. My friend (applying to MIT regular decision) was feeling creative and decided that instead of using his pencil for its intended purpose, he would (logically) build a trebuchet. So. . . .he did. It was made out of pencils and electrical tape and flings the roll of electrical tape about 6 feet. Quite impressive if I do say so myself. I did not donate my pencil to the cause, I instead decided to color an entire piece of binder paper black. It was beautiful. Oh, here's a pic of the trebuchet. It didn't have a counterweight because nothing was dense enough to do it, so where his finger is at is where you push down in order to launch the tape.

Pi. . . or is it?

I was in Portland the other day waiting for the Max train. It was a tunnel one, so I had to wait. . . in a tunnel (go figure). Well, on the wall, lo and behold, was pi! I quick snapped a pic on my camera phone before I had to hurry off and join my group. This morning I was all excited to blog my pi adventure so I uploaded the picture to my computer and looked at it. To my shock/amazement/horror/disgust, only the first line is pi! The other lines have nothing whatsoever to do with pi! WTF?!?!?!? I'm going to write a letter to the Max train people and pursue it, I'll keep you updated. . .

Snowflake

Got a letter from MIT today in the mail. It was very nice, a snowflake card signed by all the admissions staff. Signed, not copied digitally. Awww. . . they really go to great lengths to make ya feel welcome. I'm not sure any of the other colleges I was going to apply to would have done stuff like this. Something I didn't mention earlier is that every official admissions decision letter has a hand-written note at the bottom from an admissions person. They're really into making the admissions process personal, it's very nice. Kudos MIT!

CalTech

Mmmmmm, CalTech decision came back today. Deferred. Eh, w/e, I'm going to MIT! W00t!

The Tube

Some colleges are lame and just send you a letter if you get accepted. MIT rocks because they send you "The Tube". If you get "The Tube" then basically MIT is giving you permission to freak out and run around with said tube while either hugging it or caressing it because it's so awesome! Here's what the tube looks like (note the dancing penguin in the background):

Inside the tube was a variety of things. The first thing was confetti, lots of confetti! You empty the tube out and it's like a small party!

The next thing is the MIT Poster. It's different every year, customized for each class. This year's looked like thus:

It's a very sexy blue and has a picture of the great dome. In the background is a campus map while in the foreground you can find a submarine and some people rowing crew, as well as the year "2011" (my graduation year!).

Other goodies in the tube include my official acceptance letter, my fancy acceptance certificate, a magnet, and a coupon for 10% off my purchase at the MIT store (the coop). I plan on using that really soon! I'm buying MIT gear baby! Finally, there was a letter from the president trying to persuade me to attend (just because I am admitted, they can't assume I'll attend, they're still recruiting) and a letter from the financial aid director. Those are the boring papers. I'm partial to the poster and the glitter!

There you have it, a glimpse inside "The Tube".

O Holy NIIIIIGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHTTTTTTT!!!! *croak*

Here's the story. After school I walked into the band room only to be greeted by the sound of a cat being run over by a car. Horrified, I looked around only to see everybody in the room laughing hysterically! I couldn't believe it! Then, to my horror, I realized that the noise was not a nearly deceased feline but somebody's voice! "O Holy Night" was being played on the sterio and I kid you not, it was the most God-awful thing I'd ever heard ever. So what did I do? I e-mailed it to myself so that I could publish it on my blog. Now, rumour has it that Marilyn Manson is doing the singing, but I don't listen to Marilyn Manson normally, so I can't confirm this. Nor do I even know how to spell his/her/it's name, so "Marilyn Manson" may not be right, sorry. What I do know is that although when listening to this song, you may at first be horrified. Give it a sec, soon you'll be laughing so hard that it hurts and you'll think you ruptured your pancreas. I've got it in two file formats, one for iTunes and one for any other type of mp3 player. Enjoy (if that's the right word to use)!

iTunes (m4a): http://jzzsxm.googlepages.com/01OHolyNight.m4a
Windows Media (mp3): http://jzzsxm.googlepages.com/01OHolyNight.mp3

Geeks

I feel like I should blog something not MIT related, because beating dead horses is bad (I may come back and take a whack or two though). So, here's a copy of another paper I wrote for college writing, this time about "Geeks"

Geeks

People develop the traits they will maintain for much of their adult lives during their time in high school. As such, it is often times appropriate to use groups of students in high schools to generalize about an entire population. While most groups are understood for what they are, the high school geeks are often unfairly judged as social outcasts while they should be considered powerful tools. No longer the starched shirt, slicked hair, black dress shoe sporting, female repellers of old -- geeks have come a full π radians to take the high school culture by storm. Although many forms of geeks appear to exist, whether theater geeks or band geeks, in reality there is only one true form of geek. A true geek is something special, but often underappreciated, sometimes even labeled a “nerd”. Although they used to share similar definitions, the nerds have ceased to evolve to the highly advanced state the geeks have achieved.

Students who show a slight over-devotion towards a particular activity are often referred to as geeks. Spend every waking moment in a particular music room? Often found quoting Tolkien? Memorized the periodic table? All very impressive feats indeed, and performing such actions may get one labeled a geek, but only superficially. An often misleading definition of “geek” allows anybody who spends excessive amounts of time devoted to an activity to be a geek. This definition, therefore, allows multiple geek subsets. At first this may seem to bolster the way of the geek because there is power in numbers, but in reality it tarnishes the image of the geek. A real geek does not hear a perfect fifth or a minor third. A real geek doesn’t know Frodo’s middle name. A real geek doesn’t know the Latin name for iron. When copious amounts of individuals are all brought together under the label “geek”, chances are that some are social outcasts, stupid, or just plain irritating. One renegade from some geek subset can destroy the reputation of a true geek.

So what makes a true geek? The two most important aspects of a true geek are an interest in computers and math. If you know nothing about computers and/or math, you are not a geek. End of story. A true geek is the one that has no games on their calculator, only programs they wrote. A true geek is the one who not only can recite pi but can also derive it and explain why it is important. A true geek is the one who scoffs at school firewalls and simply uses a proxy to anonymize their IP address, or better yet, simply disables the firewall on the computer they happen to be using! Geeks can convert any situation into a joke about math, computers, or HTML. Geeks know what HTTP stands for, not just that it goes in front of Amazon in that little bar thing above where the pictures show up on that computer thing. Geeks interpret statements differently than non-geeks. For example, when a non-geek hears somebody say “I can’t find that sweater I want online!”, they think “That’s too bad, do you think they’ve tried ebay yet?”, whereas a geek hears “~~~~irritating noise~~~~” and then continues hacking away at websites that think they’re protected. Geeks know that the real 2 is 10. Geeks see a shape and can name the equation of the curve that matches the shape. Geeks know what happens on the last level of pacman. Geeks know what happens when “Hidden Test” is typed while playing pinball on Windows. Geeks know what the degauss button on the computer monitor does. Geeks understand the circle and line that appear on every power button ever created.

Geek or nerd? The easiest way to pick out the difference between a geek and a nerd is the outfit. A nerd’s shirt will be tucked in, their pants will be ironed, their hair will be slicked, and they will more than likely be walking with their head down to their next class, in rare occasions running and darting through the halls. Geeks, on the other hand, wear blue jeans, rarely ironed, and most likely tennis shoes. A geek’s t-shirt will often contain a math joke, computer joke, or some other type of humor that is unlikely to be understood by others. Nerds play Dungeons and Dragons, read fantasy books, think they know a lot, but never know when to say it. Nerds believe they are funny but oftentimes simply create awkward situations for themselves. Nerds have very little friends outside of their D&D groups and absolutely do not have a girlfriend. Geeks on the other hand, impress the opposite sex with their creative application of math and computer skills. They don’t waste time with foolish endeavors such as pretend and reading, instead preferring to find an interesting new website or some neat opensource code. Nerds never read the news online and don’t know what a blog is. Nerds have Myspaces in an attempt to gain friends. Geeks read blogs and publish their own as well. Geeks realize Myspace for what it truly is and constantly plot ways to bring it to its knees. A geek knows when to shut up, can tell good jokes, and is accepted by society as a powerful asset. A nerd is shunned, only to be called upon by the geeks to do the grunt work.

The next time somebody mentions offhand that somebody is a geek, do not take their word for it. Consider the context, is the person in question a geek or in a subset? Are they actually a nerd? Most importantly, do they have a girlfriend? Yes? Definitely not a nerd. Don’t casually throw around the word “geek” or “nerd”, you never know who you’ll insult.

Acceptance Letter

So, here's how this worked. This morning I woke up at about 8 am. I wandered downstairs and Jake had spent the night. He was playing wii and I meandered over to the computer to hop online and wait for an MIT decision. At 8:47, even though the decision was supposed to be anounced at 9:00, when I refreshed my screen, something different than "Decisions will be released later" popped up. Here's what it was:

http://jzzsxm.googlepages.com/MITOnlineDecisionNotification.htm

I read the first line and then freaked out. The first thing I said was "I GOT IN!" and then my mom came screaming running into the living room and Jake had no idea what to do with himself, it was all really happy. We then proceeded to call everybody we know, even people we hadn't talked to in years. My dad got home about a minute and a half later and started to actually cry when he found out. My mom had to go get her nails done but when she came back she brought the MIT shirt I have after having "Accepted" emblazened on the back. I'll wear it on Monday. Now I have to leave the house and run errands with my MIT shirt on, my mom wants to show me off. I'll blog again later! Ciao! (today is a good day! sorry that the formatting on my blog is screwy, it's because of the color change, I'll change it back when the excitement has died down a bit!)

MIT Class of 2011

I am officially attending MIT for college. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blog Colors

My blog colors have changed in honor of the fact that today the MIT Early Action decisions are being released. Believe me, I will post if I get in. Until then, just enjoy reading my blog and enjoy the new colors, hopefully the colors of my future school! 9 hours ladies and gents. It's midnight right now, so just 9 more hours!

If Only It Were REAL!!!!

A friend sent me this video. At first I thought it was real, but as you watch you'll realize that it's impossible. Too bad! Just enjoy it I guess, would be my advice, don't try to analyze it, and pretend it's real.

PS3s are easy to get!

Here's a story to make any PS3 fanboy cringe. It's completely true, so no complaining about it being fake you losers.

A friend of mine has a father. That father went to Best Buy the other day to just kinda look around/shop. This was about noon or one in the afternoon. As he was finishing up, he went up to the counter. The following occurred:

Dad: "You guys have any PS3s in stock?"
BestBuy: "Sure"
Dad: "60 Gig?"
BestBuy: "Yep"
Dad: "Ok, I'll take one."
BestBuy: "Anything else?"
Dad: "No, that's ok."

Boom! In, out, and PS3-laiden. So, for all you guys that decided to get shot or trampled for a week before the PS3 launch, yall just got pwnd by a dad who walked into BestBuy at noon and bought something for his son. HA!

Site Counter

I have just installed a hit counter on my blog. . . w00t.

In the right margin you will see a Rubik's cube and a number. Keep in mind, the number isn't entirely accurate because my blog has existed for over a year without a hit counter. Meh, now's as good a time as any to get one. So, come to my blog a lot and make the number bigger!

Pancreas

Weird Al has many interesting songs. I've been listening to his "Straight Out of Lynwood" album for a while now, and one particular song intrigued me. It's called "Pancreas", and is basically a love song from a man to his pancreas. Even for Weird Al, this is a stretch, and I realized this when I listened to the lyrics. Allow me to demonstrate why I believe Weird Al is strapped for lyrics. The following is the equation for Gravitational force:

The M's stand for the masses of the two objects. The "d" stands for the distance between the objects.

The following link is a quick bite from the pancreas song. It's not high quality, I had to compress it, but it shouldn't be TOO painful to listen to (dial-up friendly).

http://jzzsxm.googlepages.com/Pancreas.wav

Notice something? Did Weird Al actually work in the equation for how his pancreas is gravitationally attracted to every other pancreas? Does this seem weird to anybody else but me?

Luigi A Fake?

A copy of an article I found on another blog:


Employees at Japanese store Akiba Yodobashi mistook one excited Nintendo fan, dressed in an incredibly accurate and high quality Luigi suit as an actual Nintendo representative. He was invited up onto a stage and conducted the opening ceremonies - handing the first Wii console to the first customer.

Shortly after the opening ceremony, store employees realised the Luigi was in fact not from Nintendo and just an eccentric cosplayer - at this point he was whisked away out of the store.


Better than shootings, that's for sure.



Snively speaking now, here's the sad part about all of this. I watched a news broadcast online covering the Japanese Wii launch and saw this Luigi handing out the Wii and hamming for the camera and doing all sorts of promotional stuff. The next day at school I mentioned to a friend that it was kind of weird that it was Luigi and Mario was nowhere to be seen. It would just figure that the Luigi I saw was a fake, just goes to show how plugged into the video game news world I am!

Timothy

All comments left by Timothy and all comments in reply to Timothy have been deleted.

This is my blog and I am the boss.

Picture from the Wii Saturday

So I mentioned that Lacey and I made a pizza on Saturday. Well, buried in the deep and scary recesses of my digital camera, I found a couple of pictures of us making said pizza. Unfortunately my blog software is being particularly retarded today and will not allow me to upload OR embed a picture from elsewhere on the interweb, so I have to just give you a link, is that ok? I'll try embedding the picture later!

http://jzzsxm.googlepages.com/PB190001.JPG

Early Christmas Present

I got an early Christmas present today, and I liked it so much that I made a video of it to share with you. Here's why I love it:

a) It's a penguin.
b) It sings Sleigh Ride.
c) It hops!

Chuck Norris

While doing research for a College Writing paper, I stumbled upon some Chuck Norris jokes. I also stumbled upon a list of Chuck Norris's favorite Chuck Norris jokes, so I will post those. I had never heard many of these, and all of them are very high quality, picked by the man himself. Enjoy!

~When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.
~Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.
~There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live.
~Outer space exists because it's afraid to be on the same planet with Chuck Norris.
~Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.
~Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs.
~Chuck Norris is the reason why Waldo is hiding.
~Chuck Norris counted to infinity - twice.
~There is no chin behind Chuck Norris’ beard. There is only another fist.
~When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn’t lifting himself up, he’s pushing the Earth down.
~Chuck Norris is so fast, he can run around the world and punch himself in the back of the head.
~Chuck Norris’ hand is the only hand that can beat a Royal Flush.
~There is no such thing as global warming. Chuck Norris was cold, so he turned the sun up.
~Chuck Norris can lead a horse to water AND make it drink.
~Chuck Norris doesn’t wear a watch, HE decides what time it is.
~Chuck Norris gave Mona Lisa that smile.
~Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.
~Chuck Norris does not get frostbite. Chuck Norris bites frost
~Remember the Soviet Union? They decided to quit after watching a DeltaForce marathon on Satellite TV.
~Contrary to popular belief, America is not a democracy, it is a Chucktatorship.

Steven Colbert

So, Steven Colbert got himself a Wii. What did he do with it? Just check the video. . .

SNOW!

I live in Oregon so here, snow is a big deal. It simply doesn't snow as often as we'd all like, but this week we were graced with the fluffy white stuff so much so that I am writing this particular entry while enjoying a 2 hour delay before I have to go to school. I have two stories to tell. The first is from calculus class. We were all sitting peacefully, working on homework, when all of a sudden somebody opens the classroom door. Now, since the door was open, a person in my class had an opportunity to lean back in his chair and look out the door and down the hallway. . .

"Look at all that snow! It's snowing so hard!"

*VWOOM!* Half the class leaps out of their chairs and runs to the door. No exaggeration, we jumped up and ran. Once we got to the door and saw the snow it was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened. One brave student made a run for it, out the door and into the snow. We looked at each other nervously. Another made a break for it. After that it was everybody for themselves as we stormed from the classroom and outside into the snow. Snowballs were thrown, snowflakes were caught on tongues, it was a happy moment. Unfortunately, our teacher ran after us and made us come back in, but it was a happy escape from calculus for a little bit.

Ok, second story, this one with pictures. After school I went outside to walk home and the principle's car was parked right by the door I was exiting. Somebody had built a snowman on the hood of her car! Not a big one, just a small snowman. I found this fascinating, and began the construction of more snowmen. Soon I had a small crew of people helping me and eventually we had constructed no less than 10 small snowmen all over the principle's Mercedes Benz. We then proceeded to create a big snowman right in front of her door so that she couldn't gain entry into her car. It was all rather exciting. Snow brings out the best in people me thinks. Here are some camera phone pics of the car, not the greatest quality, but you'll get the idea!

Wii Bowling

My Wii Experience

So, Saturday and Sunday came, and went. I haven't had time to blog my experience up until now, sorry. Here it is, my version of the Wii Epic:

Saturday began with me waking up at about 9:30 am. I wandered around the house for about an hour, leisurely cleaning and picking things up for when Lacey came over. She was due to show up at about noon, but she ended up arriving at 1:45, apparently they were running late, not quite sure how they could run THAT late, but eh, it gave me time to relax and watch the U of O game (the ducks are quite poor at defense). She soon arrived and when she came inside we made our pizza. We discovered that rolling pizza dough into a circle is very difficult because it seems to like the shape it is, always reverting back to a ball no matter how hard you roll it. We managed to conquer the beast, however, and soon enough we had a quite tasty pizza ready for the eating. I put Swedish Fish on mine, it tasted quite good, but Lacey preferred the Swedish Fish separately. We watched a little tv and then started a movie but never got to finish it. Instead, we decided to start our Wii adventure at 5:00. We loaded up chairs, hot chocolate, cards, soda, sushi, books, warm clothes, and all the necessities, and headed out.

Our first stop was the mall so that I could pay off the balance on my Wii. Easy enough, no problem, all payed off. We wandered the mall and explored a little bit, and then left for WalMart. On the way to Wally World we stopped at Fred Meyer to explore, check out the Wii line, and buy some energy drinks. There were a bunch of people in line, but it was obvious that more could still join and safely get a Wii. We left Fred Meyer in favor of WalMart, and arrived at our destination shortly after leaving Freddy's.

When we got to WalMart we carted all of our stuff over to the line and sat at the end. We were number 24. After calling and going in, we were assured that there would be 26 consoles, so we could even buy one if we wanted. Alas, we were there simply for a controller, so it didn't matter. We began waiting in line at 7:00.

Line Stories

>Patrick<
So there's a kid in my clarinet section, a freshman, named Patrick. Patrick wanted a Wii too, but not having a pre-order somewhere, was forced into line waiting. He took it in stride though, and managed to get spot #1. He got in line at 9 in the morning and had been there all day. Patrick basically rocks. He came down and chatted with us for a while, kept me and Lacey entertained.

>Liz and Brady<
Soon enough, Liz (buffalo wings girl) and Brady (some other freshman) show up outside of WalMart after having done some shopping and could not believe that Patrick and I were actually in line (they had thought we were joking about doing it, shows how much they know). They chatted with us for a little bit and then took off.

>Pop Cans and Cars<
About 2 hours into our wait, the end of the line started to get slightly restless, so we developed a game. Place a popcan in the street and see if a car smashes it. At first we didn't have much success, but we developed a system after a while. Place the can such that a car turning from one row of the parking lot to another is forced to smash it due to their turning radius. We smashed 2 cans this way. We got another when a minivan lined up at one end of the parking lot and actually gunned it towards the popcan. He hit it at probably 35 mph, it was amazing.

>PS3 Guy<
At one point, a guy showed up to stand in line for the Wii, and after talking for a bit, we discovered that he had waited 38 hours for a PS3 as well. He had scored 3 of the 4 WalMart had sold, so he said he was going to sell 2 and keep one. He showed me a picture on his camera phone, he wasn't lying. He hopped in line for the Wii with a buddy, numbers 25 and 26. The line was now full. >Manager< At about 9 o'clock I went inside the store and inquired as to the availability of controllers, since that was the only reason I was there. The managers assured me that they had controllers and that they were going to go back and start looking for the huge pallete of accessories.

>Tickets<
At 10 o'clock they came out to distribute tickets. Here's what we heard:
"Alright, we're handing out tickets now. We have 20."

TWENTY?!?!?! All day you've been saying 26! Needless to say, number 21 in line was a little upset. But, the irony of it all is slightly amusing, so I'll share. His name is Ben, he goes to my high school. It was his birthday (irony #1), he was number 21 in line (irony #2) and he had also been number 5 in line for the 4 PS3's WalMart had (irony #3). All in all, it was a bad day to be Ben. They passed out the tickets and everybody after number 20 left, except for me and Lacey. By this time, Lacey is wrapped in countless numbers of warm things and trying to sleep.

They let everybody get out of line since all the tickets were out, but we had to stay on the property or in the store. We all retreated to the store to stay warm. We spent about an hour inside WalMart, hanging out with Patrick, until I found the manager again and asked about the controllers.

"Right, about the controllers, we can't find them"
The smile instantly disappeared from my face
"What?"
"Well, we can't seem to find the palette of controllers, so we aren't going to sell them tonight."
"I've been in line since 7 for controllers you guys promised me and now you aren't going to sell them?!?!"
"Nope, sorry"
"I'll help you look for them!"
"No"

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lacey and I ditched the WalMart scene. We headed over to Fred Meyer where there were about 60 people in line for 54 consoles. Tickets were out and everybody was just waiting until midnight. I saw a bunch of people from my school there and we chatted for a bit, but ended up leaving and driving around downtown for a while just because the car was warm. We got back to Fred Meyer at about 11:45, just in time for the launch. We gave $60 to some kid that was 4th in line so that he could buy me a controller, and he did. He went in, and then came back out with a Wii and a bag full of accessories, some for me! I officially had a Wiimote. YAY! SUCK IT WALMART!

Lacey and I took off for the mall next. We arrived, walked in, picked up the system, and then left. Very anti-climactic, except for the fact that I HAD A WII! We hopped in the car and then drove to my house.

When we got home we unloaded all of our line-waiting things from the car and went inside. Lacey changed into PJ's while I set everything up. There was A LOT of plastic and tape and padding in that box, it looked like an entire family's worth of Christmas wrapping paper all over the floor. But, we waded through the foam and pushed the power button. The Wii glowed to life. It was beautiful.

In popped Wii Sports and we were off. First game on the Wii, Tennis. AMAZING! Lacey and I had a blast! Next we bowled a bit and then golfed. All were amazing! By this time it's 2:30 in the morning and Lacey is exhausted. She lays on the couch and tries to fall asleep while I sit at the end of the couch, acting as a foot rest, playing Rayman Raving Rabbids. Another amazing game. She watched for a while and eventually fell asleep. I played for about 2 hours before getting tired myself, so I just kinda shifted around on the couch and ended up falling asleep using Lacey as a pillow while holding the Wiimote. Romantic or sad? I'll let you decide. . .

At 6:30 we woke up played some bowling. Lacey kicked my butt, it wasn't even a contest. While I showered and got ready for work she played some baseball, which she said was quite fun as well. With my Wii I got an iron-on shirt decal, a temporary tattoo, and a pen, all with Wii stamped all over them. I did my iron on before heading off to work. Lacey and I got coffee at Starbucks and then my mom took her home while I spent all day at work swinging the controller around like a madman! After work I rushed to the mall, bought the guide to Zelda: Twilight Princess, and then rushed home. I got home at 6 o'clock, and Jake came over.

Jake and I played Wii boxing. Never again. Ever. I'm still sore, and I got so tired that I had to just lay on the ground. Boo! lol We also bowled a few frames and Jake got 5 strikes in a row! It was quite a feat. Soon, Greg showed up, just in time to catch some bunny shooting action in Rayman. Shortly after that, Patrick and Kehl (Patrick from the line, Kehl being another freshman in my section) came over with 2 more controllers and Red Steel. 4 player tennis and Red Steel action baby! Oh, and sorry for smacking you in the back during tennis Patrick, I got a little into it, my bad!

After our gaming session (in which Greg pwned us all at Red Steel), everybody left and I went to bed. It had been a long day.

The next day at school I wore my Wii shirt and put my temporary tattoo on my face. It was the day of the Wii. Fortunately, some of the guys outside of Fred Meyer brought two controllers to school, so during speech team we hooked up the Wii to our teacher's projector and played it on the wall. TENNIS! Our teacher got so into it, I think he may buy one. I took it to school the next day as well, hooking it up to the projector in my CAD class. We only got to play during lunch, but it was still fun!

That is the Wii epic up until this point. This blog entry is long enough, so I'll end it here. The Wii is everything it was cracked up to be, and all of the non-gamers that I let play it have all really enjoyed it, Nintendo succeeded. Lacey will be buying one and having a Wii birthday party coming up and I'm going to keep buying games and controllers. I bought an aluminum briefcase the other day to store it, so I'll let you know when that project is complete. Until later, cheerio, and I hope you buy a Wii.

MIT Wii

I will do a full coverage blog about my Wii experience (yes, I got one, yes, it's amazing) later, but right now I have something to share quickly before I go to bed.

I MUST GO TO MIT.

On the release date of the Wii, of course MIT got hacked, a DOME hack no less! Those amazing techers put a FREAKING TRIFORCE ON THE FREAKING DOME! I cried.

HA!

HA! PWNED!

SATURDAY!

This entry isn’t about something neat on the internet, sorry. Here’s the premise: I am excited for Saturday. So excited that I am writing a blog entry about how amazing Saturday is going to be, detailing all of my adventures for you. Ready? Here we go!



WORD VERSION:
The day will begin just as every Saturday begins, with me waking up and taking a shower, but instead of sweatpants and a shirt, I get to dress nicely because at noon Lacey is coming over! Yay! Lacey and I are going to watch movies, swing dance, and generally have a good time. I am going shopping tomorrow and buying all the ingredients necessary to make a pizza, so for lunch Lacey and I are going to attempt to create our own pizza, crust and all. Wish us luck! Oh, and I’m buying Swedish fish because I love them. After that we are going to head over to the mall and pay off the balance on my Wii preorder, then hot-foot it over to Wal-Mart to wait in line for their midnight launch of the Wii. We hope to get there at about 8 pm and wait. I’m only trying to get a controller, so hopefully it’s not that big of a deal, but I’ll be calling throughout the day to make sure the line doesn’t get out of control or anything. I need that controller, I really do! At midnight we will buy the controller from Wal-Mart and then head back over to the mall for their midnight release, where I have my actual system preordered. I’ll pick that up and then Lacey and I will head back to my house. Once at my house we will set up the Wii and engage in fierce competition (meaning we’ll play Wii Golf until our arms are numb). After that we leave at 6:00 am in order to get Lacey home in time for me to go to work (where I will probably be completely useless because I will be exhausted and really just wanting to go home and play Wii.) Sorry, we’re into Sunday now, but I’m going to keep going. . . . Sunday evening after work, Trevor and Jake are coming over at about 6:30. We will then Wii until 8:30, at which point they will go home and I will continue to Wii until about 11:00 at night.

In a nutshell, I won’t be sleeping this weekend, at all. It’s all about the Wii baby! And of course Lacey, wouldn’t rather have anybody else with me during these amazing times!



PICTURE VERSION:


It's All About:

and




First Stop of the Evening:



Next Stop:

Then Back To:

After Which We go Home to:

Awesome Hotel Room

In Berlin there is a hotel that has each of its rooms designed by a different artist. This is my favorite out of all of them:

It's Cell Shaded!!! It's like walking into a cartoon! There are no photo tricks, this is simply a snapshot taken of the room, amazing, huh? I would definitely stay here. . .

Senior Advisory

My College Writing Paper:

Charles A. Sprague High School is a unique school, in that it sports many attributes that are completely useless and/or ridiculous. Some of these qualities are trivial and acceptable. So what if the room numbers skip from 114 to 170 and then back again to 115? So what if the color of our water matches our walls? So what if our mascot is a Greek Olympian yet we have a Pantheon? These mere trifles are nothing if not amusing when compared to the relatively recent travesty that now graces the schedules of all Olympians, but only totally destroys the lives of the Senior Olympians. Sprague has a block schedule, which does enough to confuse students that are barely awake enough to figure out what their first period class is. Now Sprague’s schedule is so confusing that there isn’t really an accurate term to describe it! Instead of simply switching classes every day, every Tuesday all class periods are shortened and a new class is shoved unwillingly in. . .Advisory. It sounds helpful, perhaps advice is given! No.

The advisory class was designed and voted into being by a board of individuals that haven’t stepped foot into a high school in 20 years. The theory behind the advisory is to divide each class, freshmen through seniors, into small groups of about 20 and distribute them around the school and leave them in the charge of random teachers for 36 minutes. For those 36 minutes, the freshmen, sophomores, and juniors gain important knowledge about the SAT’s, scheduling, and earning requirements to graduate. The seniors, on the other hand, are handed “the folder”, full of either paperwork that we all filled out in our freshman health classes or paperwork that is completely foreign and confusing. We are then told “Go! Oh, and if you do it wrong you won’t graduate.” Do what?

“The folder”, the central focus of the advisory class, is somewhat of a curious oddity. It contains calendars, checklists, resumé building tips, and a variety of other unimportant looking documents, all of which are more colorful than the pile of vomit any senior would spew if they hear the word “CIS” or “CIM” ever again. Many of these papers look as if they could be useful, if they were needed for something other than toilet paper, but it appears that “the folder” is aimed at students that are completely helpless and will never get jobs, ever. “The folder” contains an immense amount of material and the less-than-immense amount of instructions on how to use said materials.

Teachers of the senior advisory classes are ill-prepared and uninformed. No need to beat around the bush, they simply have no idea what the seniors are supposed to be doing. They simply tell the seniors to fill out the folders.

“How?”

“I don’t know, ask Carlotta.”

“Ok,” *forgets/doesn’t care* It’s not that the teachers don’t care (perhaps), but that they were simply never told what to do. That’s fitting, create a brand new and confusing GRADUATION REQUIREMENT that nobody is qualified to administor, then punish students for not caring about material in a folder that doesn’t apply to their lives.

When the actual, physical folder is examined, one will find a series of lists, checkboxes, and blank spaces for signatures. The meaning/use of these markings is currently unknown, but many seniors believe that at one point they will need to get signatures for something. Nobody knows what the signatures mean, or if they’re part of the graduation requirement, but that’s typical in senior advisory. When one attempts to read the folder, they discover that every other word is an acronym, standing for God knows what, but still requiring a signature.

“What does ‘AJEBN’ stand for and why do I have to do it for five hours?”

“I don’t know, ask Carlotta.”

“Ok,” *forgets/doesn’t care* Of course, all of this is immaterial, because at the end of the typical senior’s 36 minutes of mind-numbing advisory hell, the folders go into a filing drawer, not to be seen again until the next week. “The folder” isn’t allowed out of the classroom, so they will never be signed, ever.

Advisor class is the epitomy of the useless Sprague attribute. It is a confusing waste of time that makes seniors almost more willing to not graduate than complete “the folder”. Should the seniors be worried about graduating? Shouldn’t they be actively researching what they need to complete “the folder”? Eh, who cares.

Speech Team Joke

So, today in speech team, we were all just kinda chillin'. Not much was going on, we were recovering from a tournament last weekend, so in theory we were supposed to be doing homework we couldn't do during the tournament. Well, during a lively discussion, I slammed my fist down on my table, which happened to have a water bottle sitting on it. The water bottle jumped straight up about a half inch and then fell back down again. This was absolutely amazing to me, and to Truman. Well, I happened to have a slide rule on my desk (don't ask), so Truman picked it up and decided to test his reaction time. I would pound the table and he would try to stick the slide rule under the bottle while it was in the air. This is all fine and dandy, and our speech team coach even looked across the room at us to see what we were doing. In fact, the room was very quiet as Truman an I focused on our "Smash the table and get the slide rule under the bottle" game. After succeeding several times, Truman then graduated to the "Smash the table and get the slide rule under the bottle and then pull it out from under the bottle" game. Well, when our coach saw this, he became a skeptic. The following course of dialogue was so fluid and perfect, it was astounding. Everybody in the classroom starting crying they were laughing so hard, everybody, no exceptions. It was a good 3 minutes before we could regain control.

*I slam table and Truman unsuccessfully removes the slide rule from under the bottle*
Teacher: Were you actually expecting to pull that out?
Truman: That's what SHE said!
*Cue shocked/well-deserved laughter*

That is what happens in speech team, folks, amazing things. Amazing things.

A conversation between fanboys. . .

I had a conversation with a fellow Wii Fanboy today. Here's that conversation. We're obsessed. The only way to really share that conversation with you involves you clicking the following link.

Please click this link.

Please.

You will enjoy it, I promise!

http://jzzsxm.googlepages.com/Fanboy.htm

Swing Dancing

Yes, I went swing dancing. Amazing, huh? Michael, the "I don't dance" king of the world finally just bit his lip and stepped out of his comfort zone last night. How did this happen? Well. . .

Yesterday (Friday) I was text-messaging Lacey when she mentioned she was going swing dancing that evening. I mentioned that it sounded like she'd have a good time. Next thing I know, my phone rings.

"Hey Michael, want to come swing dancing tonight?"
"Uh, I don't actually know how to swing dance."
"They do a quick class beforehand and then I'll help you!"
"Alright, sure."

I changed into my "spiffy" outfit (Black shoes and pants, silver collared shirt) and got all ready to go.

An hour later my dad and I met Lacey at the Woodburn outlet mall and I hopped into their car. Eventually, we made it to the dance studio, but here's the catch. It was pouring outside and it was dark, so the car ride took much longer than expected, ie, we missed the quick class beforehand. Actually, that's not entirely true, we caught the last ten minutes of it, which only proved to about half the people there that I was a complete n00b. We had a big circle with two layers, girls on the inside, guys on the outside, and the guys were rotating every minute or so. I hadn't even learned the basic footwork yet, so I was pretty much useless during the class. After the class they turned the lights down and people actually started dancing, that was about 8:00.

I'm not gonna lie, the first hour was rough. Remember, I am so far outside my comfort zone at this point that I'm about 2 seconds from just running away, but I forced myself to stay and learn. The problem was, there was nobody there to teach me. You see, the guy leads, and so whenever I was dancing with Lacey, I was supposed to do all the stuff. I asked her what I was suppsoed to do for each "move" and she didn't know because she never had to do it. This was a problem, so what ended up happening was that for a while, she danced with a bunch of other people and I watched and learned as fast as I can. I'll tell you right now, that is a hard thing to do.

Eventually, I pretty much got the footwork down, which was nice because then I could actually start to focus on the spinning and what-not. Towards the end I was nowhere near good, but I was much better, better than a lot of the people there. Lacey's feet started to hurt towards the end and we had to sit for a while, but there were a couple of songs there that, had an inexperienced person watched, they would have thought that we both knew what we were doing.

The only big "oops" that happened was Lacey decided that at the end of the song she was going to do a dip. Um, coulda told the guy that's been swing dancing for a grand old total of 45 minutes! I'll spare you the gory details, but it ended up with us on the ground. I think I would have been more emberassed except that it wasn't a crash or anything, it was a gradual descent to the ground (that almost resulted in me breaking my ankle). Other than that, the evening went swimmingly. Oh, and the music was almost distracting because I realized that for every single song, I'd either a) played it or b) owned a CD with it on it. I own a lot of swing.

At 11:30 we finished up and took off. We drove down to my house, Lacey was completely exhausted, she'd been up since 6 am. We got to my house, she came inside and said goodnight to Quincy, we hugged, and then she took off to go sleep. I got home at about 1 am. I stayed up until she got home to make sure she made it safely, and then I went to sleep.

That was my evening last night. Impromptu swing dancing! Totally outside my comfort zone, some very awkward "Why am I here", "Can I just cry", "I really don't like this", moments, but as I got more comfortable I actually started to have a good time. Swing dancing is really fun, I recommend it. Definitely catch the ENTIRE class before the dancing starts, it makes life easier. I'll probably continue to swing dance, believe it or not, I'd like to learn to be pretty good so I don't make an idiot of myself if ever I need dance. Alright, that's it, the Snively Swing experience. Sorry, no pictures, camera was out of batteries and I was dancing. Ciao!

Swing Dancing

I'm going swing dancing tonight, I'll let you know how it goes. w00t.

SOMB Awards

Last night, 11/9/06, were the 2006 Sprague Olympian Marching Band Awards. It was a very exciting evening, so I've decided to blog it. Allow me to give you a play by play. . .

The presentation was begun by Jacob Pratt. He introduced himself as band council president and then led into the awards ceremony. The awards ceremony consisted of section leaders giving out awards to outstanding individuals, and here's a recap. I couldn't remember all of the awards given, but I did my best. If you remember one, please leave it in a comment so I can add it!

Brass (Presented by Truman Capps):
Outstanding Veteran -- Truman Capps
Outstanding Rookie -- Shequana Smith
Most Improved Rookie -- Nick Geiger
Most Improved Vet -- Margaret

Woodwinds (Presented by Michael Snively):
Outstanding Veteran -- Christy Baggett
Outstanding Rookie -- Ethan Alano
Most Improved Rookie -- Erin Kahn
Most Improved Vet -- Steven Ponec

Drumline (Presented by Joe Lipscomb):
Outstanding Veteran -- Joe Lipscomb
Outstanding Rookie -- Austin Baker
Most Improved Rookie -- Logan
Most Improved Vet -- Justin Cothran

Front Ensemble (Presented by Trenton Young):
Most Outstanding -- Trenton Young
Most Improved -- Drew Harker

Color Guard (Presented by Analisa Reyna):
Outstanding Veteran -- Analisa
Outstanding Rookie -- [Can't Remember]
Most Improved Rookie -- [Can't Remember]
Most Improved Vet -- [Can't Remember]

Spirit Award (Presented by Alyssa Valdez):
Male -- Trevor Nelson
Female -- Margaret

Class Awards (Presented by Alyssa Valdez):
Most Outstanding Freshman -- Brady McCulley
Most Outstanding Sophomore -- Nick Ogle
Most Outstanding Junior -- Brandon Haley
Most Outstanding Senior -- Michael Snively

Kevin Alano came up, talked a bit about the band boosters and thanked the parents for their help with the season.

We took a break from awards for a bit to watch our Finals performance at PCI. I was on tech support, so it was my job to make sure the movie played without a hitch. It played without a hitch. I don't have a video of it online, but DVD's are available for purchase, just get in touch with me (comment).

After the video, we continued with some awards. The funny awards were presented

Funny Awards (Presented by Jacob Pratt):
Hottie Award -- Nick Ogle
"Sorry, Your Name isn't Andrew" Award -- Tom
"Do you have a question" Award -- Analisa
"Kid at heart and most likely to be mistaken for a student" Award -- Mr. Such
"Best Impressions and most likely to not be himself" Award -- Mr. Howard

After all the awards had been given out, Mr. Such and Mr. Howard both gave speeches. Both speeches were very nice. After their speeches, Jake and I gave out one final award to Katie Such, for coordinating PCI and making it amazing. She got a trophy.

To finish off the evening, the slideshow. Regular readers of my blog know that I am the one in charge of creating the slideshow, and that I was very excited about it for some reason, but I WOULDN'T TELL YOU WHY! Well, last night the secret came out, and just as I predicted, it was very well received. Here's the story:

This being my senior year, I wanted this slideshow to be absolutely amazing. In order to be amazing, it had to have a certain element to it that no other slideshow has ever had. Well, I thought of that element, but it was going to be hard to attain. If you've ever seen a movie trailer, you've heard a particular man's voice. You know, that deep gravelly "In a world, where . . ." voice that's in every movie trailer ever, the movie voice guy. He was in a Geico commercial recently as well. His name is Don LaFontaine, and I decided to e-mail him, so I went to his website, got his e-mail address, and wrote him an e-mail. I explained that I was the historian for my band and that I was wondering if he would be willing to do a short soundbite for my slideshow. The next day I got an e-mail back. It said "Sure, I'd be happy to -- no charge -- my pleasure. I'll e-mail it to you on Monday". This coming from the man that gets paid thousands of dollars to speak. On Monday, sure enough, I received the e-mail with the MP3. He did two takes, for a total of ten seconds of audio, worth thousands of dollars.

Since the beginning of band camp, our director has used the phrase "In the beginning, there was rhythm" as a constant reminder that we need to internalize pulse. Well, this seemed catchphrasey enough, so this is what I asked Don LaFontaine to say. So, as you watch the following slideshow and hear that voice in the beginning, remember this:

Yes, that is the movie trailer voice guy.
No, no other slideshow has his voice in it.
Yes, although the tone of this blog entry is very reserved, I was uber excited when I found out he'd help me!

Here's the slideshow, enjoy. Turn your speakers on!



As you can see, the slideshow was uploaded to YouTube. I have also uploaded it to Google Videos, where you can actually download it as an MP4 file. The links are below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8Nt-sjt-7U
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2546356929785449331&hl=en


The slideshow was a huge success. It seemed as though everybody really enjoyed it, based on how many hands I shook afterwards and how many copies were requested. I'm glad everybody liked it, I hope I can make the spring slideshow just as good!

That concludes awards night, it was a very nice evening. I felt satisfied when I went home and I hope others did as well. Not everybody gets awards, so no worries everybody! This year was the first year for me to get an award since freshman year, and my freshman year practically everybody got an award. They're harder to get now, much fewer of them. So be happy for others, there is always next year, and remember that Marching Band is supposed to be fun, not a competition.


(just a reminder, if you can remember who else got awards, please comment)