Fortunate Son

yeaaaaaaaa!

2005-10-03T03:20:06Z

anticipation is killer. it's sorta like being paralyzed. i can't do anyhting. but in a good way.

he takes off her dress now

2005-09-21T01:26:54Z

let me go.

school was fine. i have to say i hate unmoderated debates. the 'discussion' in euro today was really lame. some of the comments... i'm just like uhhhh stfu. they make no sense. on both sides of whatever arguement there is.

work was aite. busy like fuck. stayed till 7:30. then i went home. and realized i had to go to the robo parent meeting. so i sped there. and it was enjoyable as usual. the majority of the meeting consists of nitpicking the most minor detaisl of teh club. that really really don't matter. they wanted to limit the duel trip to 20 students. i couldn't create a fair list of 20. so i worked the o and z into letting me get all 21 of my kids on it. damn straight! and nationals. i'm working really really hard on getting that accepted. why? because that's my job. to make this team fun. and win.

my mom's book club is over right now. and they're discussing of mice and men. and they asked me my opinion. and i bullshitted something about teh book. ihaven't read it since summer frosh year. i don't even remember if i actually read it. nevertheless, they were impressed.

yeaaa i really gotta go burn some cds. i need some for my car, and more importantly, one for kelli.

tomorrow should be the shit.

i never use those lj emoticons, but i am feeling particularly optimistic right now. maybe it's just the country music getting to me.

later.

conversion, trendiness, hiphop

2005-09-15T20:34:58Z

Interesting developments.

I went to St. Joe's to 'convert' so that i could be on the CYO team. It was quite possibly the most awkward situation i have ever been in. I went with dom and kevin. So i walk in and tell some guy i want to join. A litany of questions follow.

Why do you want to join?
Well... I've never been part of a church before.. and i want to.
Are you catholic?
umm my dad is.
Have you been baptized?
i... think so.
Confirmation or communion?
ummm no.
So... why are you joining again?
ummmmmmmmmm. because i want to.

kevin yu had it easy and just said he was switching from another church. in the end, there wasn't any damn forms to even fill out! they just said show up! it was so awkward!!!

my ezra fitch jeans came in the mail today. they are the most trendy things i have ever seen in my life. i will wear them tomorrow. that will be interesting.

there was some kid in gym yesterday who could make hip hop beats with his mouth. this kid was so damn cool. it sounded just like the songs! he did ying yang twin's whisper.

i'm passing all of my classes one week in. and we had a robotics meeting. which we probably didn't need. but at least everyone is on the same page. duel on the delaware should be good.

you. keep me up at night.

later!

av11d @ 2005-09-13T18:31:00

2005-09-14T02:02:40Z

I've had weird run-ins with school discipline over the years. The 2nd grade suspension. Which made no sense. I was deifnetly the most passive 2nd grader ever. Then the detention sophmore year for being 1 minute late. The detention was actually a lot of fun, i sat next to this hot girl and watched UPN for 25 minutes. It was quite a trip. But this is by far the most ridiculous punishment doled out to me.

I have a court date of 10/04/05. I drove my mom's car to school, instead of my car. Apparently this is reason enough to give me a parking ticket. wtf!? I'm not paying the ridiculous fine. I'm pleading not guilty in court. I know people that illegaly park at the high school all the time and get warnings. Yet, I who have a legal parking permit, am given a ticket?! Chief Justice Roberts, I hope your're ready.

on a seperate note..

life
is
weird
but
cool

i figure. i gotta let all my inhibitions down. and then everything will drop down into place. like a 5-line tetris. when you consider life through the narrow view of a game, everything seems a lot better. not that anything is really that bad right now. it's enjoyable.

ANDY DOUGLAS GOT A HAIRCUT.

there's so much i long to do

2005-09-13T02:45:38Z

i don't see
how you could ever be
anything but mine.

but i should probably get used to it. bah. not yet duch! i just talked to myself in an online journal. weird.

soo. hm. kyle horst ruined my brand new shirt. too depressing to talk about.

chris house bought an ipod nano. someone bought a brand new apple product before i did. this is a first.

pennington better get his act together. the giants tho! crazy.

it's 11 o clock september 12th and i still haven't finished a single one of my summer gov papers. but that's okay. i spent the afternoon listening to a lot of good country music. contemporary country is a lot of fun. i finally got around to listening to the new franz ferdinand album. it was better than i expected. kelli sent me some near-pornographic european techno music video. dem freaky euro muscians!

i've been thinking about my doorbell. when you gonna ring it? when you gonna ring it?

work tomorrow. then work with dale on wednesday. nice. then robotics meeting on thursday to talk about recruiting and what not. then friday and weeeeeeeeeee partaaaaaaaaaayyy. becasue that's all that's on a 17-year old's mind! unless you're some smart college-bound yuppie.

just.. if the answer is no.. can i change your mind?

av11d @ 2005-09-10T21:48:00

2005-09-11T05:30:46Z

it's been a while since i last updated.

school + work has been keeping me busy. i worked every day this week after labor day. gov and euro seem like a lot of work. but easy material. so it should all be good. my classes:

1. ap lit. keck is interesting, sorta cool. big, annoying class. yawn.
2. adv video and film. mr ardnt is awesome. awesome class.
3. gym. no one in it except apostolos, bocra, and pepe. i swear, no one.
4. lunch. a lot of kids
5/6. gov. fenster is cool. the class is cool. i dig it.
7/8. accounting. nap time.
9. euro. don't like herman. but i like euro. and the class is decent.
10. calc. dom and nick in the back of the class mocking me all year. salz is awkward, but cool.

i sit two seats away from kelli in 3 out of my 4 final classes. it's a sign of god! still trying to decipher it though. yeaaa kelli!

sooo. we had a car wash. raised over a 1000. yeaaaaauh! it was okay i guess. i hung out with kev for a little bit. then lisa for the rest of the time pretty much. i left at one for work. then kelli decided to bring munchkins to the car wash AFTER i left :) . anyway, workin with this new guy ryan. who's pretty chill.

at the car wash. this guy comes up to me and says: "i have to go over to the pop warner game behind the building. i parked my car here. can you drive it through the car wash for me?" At this point he tosses me a pair of cadillac keys. ooohhh yeaaaaaaaaaaaa. it was a nice ass car and he had a blink 182 cd in the car haha! that was highlight of the carwash.

went to the borders to buy a book for class. stopped by the mall to pick up a few things. still waiting for those ezra fitch jeans to arrive. then houses for some old school halo! fun fun. then we played some two-hand touch foortball at annvan around 11. fun stuff.

oh wait i skipped friday. uhh got home. went to work. went to the football game. went to houses. playing with cats doesn't do it for me, so stoddard, blondie, pepe and i took a walk to annvan to meet matt. who was leaving anyway. and that was pretty much it.

JETS TOMORROW. as well as a ridiculous amount of gov work.

later.

av11d @ 2005-09-05T21:49:00

2005-09-06T05:41:35Z

you're gonna bring yourself down. the cold-hearted boy i used to be. all these things that i've done.

my killers tickets came in the mail. i'm sending them out tomorrow.

summer-work seems impossible to finish.

this may make me sound like fag, but i've definetly said gayer things, but i think it would be really cool to wear eyeliner. not a lot, just a little bit like brandon flowers: http://photobucket.com/albums/a359/rah_126/Brandon%20Flowers%20and%20The%20Killers/?action=view¤t=Spiffy2.jpg
it definetly looks cool to have all that darkness around the eyes.

i don't understand. i'm really bored. things that used to excite me, don't. this is not necessarily a bad thing. it seems to make me bolder and little bit more arrogant.

i really want to create a electorock band. light synths, heavy ambient guitars. crisp vocals. fast live drums. heavy bass. i'd really like to get a good keyboard.

Every time you close your eyes. Lies. Lies.

kno what's weird. if you wanted to make me smile, you used to have to put me in a car by myself and have me drive and sing at the top of my lungs. like everyone else. but now. once i step outside. and the sun is shining. it's enough. i don't need music or the wind blowing in my face. just standing there, somewhere between the manmade pavement and universe's beautiful sun. it's like, wow this world is amazing. and the sky. holy shit it looks good at dusk. did it really take me 17 1/2 years to appreciate what has been there all along? whaaaaaaaaaa

it's just a shimmy and a shake of hope. we're on top. this katrina thing. every time there is a natural disaster. or manmade disaster. or some article about people dying in africa. or some textbook talking about various genocides. everyoneeeeeeeeeeee yes everyoneeeeeeee starts saying how lucky they are and that others should stop complaining about the little things. honestly, people, COMPLAIN AWAY. what the hells is re-affirming you incredible luckiness in avoiding said disaster going to do???

and they say how everyone is ignorant of what is around them blaaaaaaaah blah blah. and someone comes along and says osmething to the affect of 'stop talking and do something about it!' and then usually someone will make some sort of contribution (donation) and delicately mention it at some point. it's the same thing everytime. it's not bad, it's just ... so predicatable! ah human nature, how i love you.

i read something somewhere that stated something along the lines of there is a porn epidemic in this country. probably on some right-wing christian site. i find this to be very true. i'd say... 100% of anyoen i've ever bothered to ask if they watch porn admitted to it. (keep in mind, i would only ever ask guys). so now listen, if 100% of this country is watching fucking porn, it's obviously just human fucking nature. okay, and the 18-years or older law to view porn. that law makes absolutely no sense. what are we protecting children from? naked people?? EVIL masterbation?? most kids have engaged in some sort of sexual activity before being of legal age to watch a fucking porno!! i know porn is one of those taboo subjects one shouldn't really bring up in a public journal, but i just find the whole situation EXTREMELY amusing.

SuMM3R 05 oMG LOLZ best SUMMER 3VAR!!! LET get CRunKED. friendz 4ever! DRINKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK.
erroneous guida-style parody of teenage society. felt like throwing it in there.

av11d @ 2005-09-02T22:44:00

2005-09-03T06:38:18Z

the problems with this country seem more apparent everyday. if you really look, it's amazing how much racism is still present in this country. what's funny, i always wanted power. i thought i wanted it because i wanted a power-trip and luxuries. but now i realize i wanted power because i want to change what's wrong.

i always thought man was evil by nature. i didn't deduce this from the actions of others, such as seeing assholes daily and reading biographies of hitlers. i came to that conclusion by looking within and seeing what my own feelings were. i saw all the evil thoughts i was thinking, how dark and greedy i was. but despite the selfish thoughts, i always did good.... not because i wanted to... but because i HATED evil and sin. i can't stand hate. it drives me crazy when i see unconstructive critcism. so my conculsion? man is selfish by nature, but not hateful. i stand by that as being the case of all men throughout the history of the world.

whatelsewhatelse. i've been listening to a lot of PUNK music. the kind of PUNK music that's not PUNK music according to fenster. and a lot of pop rock. i'm really liking the Better Than Ezra "A Lifetime" song.

and you were standing on the hood of the car
singing out loud
till the sun came up

i know it wasn't right
but it felt so good

Sseeeeeeeeeee ya.

av11d @ 2005-09-01T21:41:00

2005-09-02T04:57:41Z

it's getting difficult to even turn off the news. what they're showing is just shocking. a complete failure on the part of the local, state and national government to save the city and evacuate those trapped. is this really happening in the united states?

well i'm tired. i can't believe i haven't finished the euro work yet.

we have a robotics car wash saturday after next. and mrs. z wants a meeting next thursday. SECOND day of school. yeaaaaaaaaaaaa okay. not to mention everyone is so bent on raising money for katrina. i want to raise money. but i'm busy enough with just getting ready for school; i don't have time to plan a fundraiser. if it's gonna happen, the chairman's team is going to have come through.

i really like this band called long-view. i'm not sure if their album was released stateside yet.. you might have to pick up an imported version. two of their better songs:
Further
When You Sleep
not sure if those links will work. and pick up the jack's mannequin cd too.

ahhh fuck FUCK fuck fuck fuck i'm not happy. fucking trapped. help me out

goodnight.

school!!

2005-09-01T04:42:07Z

it's september. i'm looking forward to school. it'll be a nice break from all this summer work.

a combination of tiredness and people being lazy and not calling me has meant that i haven't gone out at night in the past 5 days. i guess i should stay online. i've also been ridiculously tired so going out at night doesn't really seem appealing. i'm kind of partied/summer-ed out. too much soda, junk food, sleep deprivation, and generally abusing my body. i need some time to recover.

i finally got a haircut. it's different from what i usually get and i like it.

today, andy douglas, b toth, kevin yu, and I disassembled the old crate in the electrical closet. Mr. Dixon is on vacation so we just kind of left all the wood there for him to take care of when he gets back. and then we brought the 04 bot to andy's house. so now it's sitting in the douglas' basement. it's gonna smell like cat litter when we take it back. and then we just showed up the czernikowskis unannounced to drop off their carpet. they're entire family (including grandparents or something) were home so that was .. interesting heh.

work has been keeping me busy.

i've had a number of robotics sponsorship meetings over the past few weeks. the most successful one being the one with summit associates. basically, they're going to give us an even bigger warehouse for even longer this year. hott! My own executive office? hehe.

i finally put my killers tickets on ebay. but! i'm seeing foo fighters/weezer with nick and that's gonna be a really cool concert.

i hardly EVER bring up politics or current events in my blog. but i must send out my condelences to all those affected by Katrina. it's absolutely mind-boggling to think that almost 50% of a major US city is just.. gone. 80% of the city of New Orleans is underwater. It's just unbelievable. They're STILL evacuating people.

goodnight

the list!

2005-08-27T04:27:21Z

August is ending... and i think i finally have my college list. I will be majoring in Management Information Systems. So I will be applying to the business schools. Here is the list:

1. UPENN (Wharton) - Reach (Early Decision)
2. NYU (Stern) - Match/Reach
3. BU - Match
UMD (Smith) - Match (Early Action)
UT Austin (McCombs) - Match/Reach (out of stater)
6. Northeastern - Safety
7. Rutgers - Safety.

If I get into either UPENN or NYU my decision will be extremely easy (assuming they present a feasible aid package). If I don't, I have some decisions to make. I love BU. However, it's business school just okay. Top 50 in the country.. but still not terrific. UMD has a TERRIFIC program for Management Information Systems. Suburban campus? eh. UT Austin also has a terrfic MIS program. Texas is a little far though. If all else fails, there is Northeastern or Rutgers. I don't think that will happen though.

My ranking doesn't consider money at all. Obviously that will be a huge factor.

I compared my academic profile (top 10%, 2110 sat) to the class profiles on all of the colleges to figure out what's a reach and whatnot. I'm hoping my few solid extracurriculars bode well for me. Maybe they will be impressed with gSearch? hehe.

Okay, now that i have my mind clear.. no more college posting for at least a 4 months!

Where is she?

2005-08-24T04:21:45Z

fukc.

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah my life blah blah.

no matter what i do. no matter how many rules i break or how much freedom i attain, i still get bored. i just want to like... leave. i'm not really bored. plenty of things to do. plenty of ppl to hang with. plenty of shit. but all of it just gets boring. it's not that "i hate this town" or "my friends suck" or anything like that. All of that couldn't be farther from the truth. I like hillsborugh. my friends are cool. and i do a lot, shore nyc basketball poker w/e. but its just... the sameeeeeeeeeeeeee

i'd kind of like to meet someone who is gonna blow my mind. "where is she?" -- a killers song (b-side).

soooooooooooo here i fucking go.peace

av11d @ 2005-08-22T21:32:00

2005-08-23T04:42:16Z

yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

blondie's shore house was kickass. i wish i could have stayed a lot longer. like a week. i'm too tired to go into details but it was just awesome. then i came back. and played basketball all night. and then i saw lem brown at mcdonalds. and he reminded me how he is moving to fucking washington state in two weeks. it's kind of hard to imagine. i've known lem since sixth grade. and even though we haven't been super close throughout high school, he's just one of those kids i've always known and liked. yea lem!

today was a long day of work. and then i watched sandlot at daves. and now i'm fucking tired. and i have to wake up early tomorrow for some robo sponsorship meeting. then another 7-hour day at work. then basketball at 9. then the next morning ANOTHER sponsorship meeting with summit associates at 9:30am. then work again. then out. then maryland on thursday. then work friday. fuck being busy.

i'm kind of in the mood to do something terrific.

someone want to just love?

oh yea and hopefully i will be seeing foo fighters/weezer in two months. hottt

i want to show you how
sweet thing --The Killers

rigie found this really cool quote:

"The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be"

true that.

later.

av11d @ 2005-08-19T21:29:00

2005-08-20T04:43:00Z

I downloaded a lot of The Killer's unreleased demo songs and live unreleased songs. First of all, go buy Hot Fuss (Deluxe Edition) becuase the extra three songs are kickass. Under The Gun is awesome. Also seach p2p apps for Show You How and Who Let You Go and Waiting for Love. Three of their better songs. Live versions of All The Pretty Faces and Where Is She are also out there. Grab 'em. Or i'll host 'em and you can dl them.

Hmm wwwwwhatttt else. 4h is finally finally over. work was okay. poker was okay. met up wit paul on my way home. now i'm going to bed. because i have work tomorrow. then i'm driving down the shore. and staying over at BLONDIES. dammnn. this wil be good.

i'm feeling kind of fucked up right now. not suree why.. ? i've been thinking. i need to change. just a little. because i'm kind of bored again.

out of here.
peace

Hm

2005-08-19T03:32:31Z

So okay. I'm not one to regret much, but I realized what I could have had over the past few days. "And now that it's gone it's like it wasn't there at all / And here i rest where disappointment and regret collide." Something like that gibbard.

I won't dwell on it. The 4h demos have been going pretty smoothly. Robo is always interesting. Heh. Today I was ridiculously busy between 4h and running misc. errands. I was so wiped after dinner I passed up both a party and playing basketball tonight. Yerp. I opted for just crashing and going to sleep.

Tomorrow is the last day of 4h. Then I have work. Then I'm not sure. Then work saturday and then heading down to cav's shorehouse. Anyone need a ride? It's gonna be awesome. I'll be back sometime late Sunday.

We got our schedules today. exactly what i expected. in order: ap lit, adv vid and film, gym, lunch, ap gov, accounting, ap euro, ap calc. No french or science! YEAAAAAAAAAAAaaa. the first half of my day is really kickass. the only drawback to my schedule is i have no labs. So I actually have to go to gym 5 days a week. wow.

i really need to get a haircut.

bye.

An Odd time to Update

2005-08-16T17:27:31Z

I never usually update at 1PM. But I'm gonna be pretty busy for the next 24 hours so I might as well.

Matt, being the cocky boss that he is, insisted that shop rite opened after 1988. I insisted his he was wrong. We disagreed so much on this that we decided to wager 1/2 hour of work. Long story short, I was right. It opened in 1986 or 85. So I won myself a few extra bucks on my paycheck this week.

After work, dave came over. We chilled for a bit. It was a really normal night. Which is kind of nice after my crazy schedule.

I also found out today that a picture I took at Warp Tour with my camera phone was selected as an editor's pick on textamerica. Basically this just means my image is featured on the front page of textamerica.com. It's pretty cool actually. Anyway here is the picture if you're curious:
http://av11d.textamerica.com/details/?r=3086938

I have work in a little bit. Then i need to tie up a few robotics loose ends before the 'leadership' dinner tomorrow. Then there's basketball tonight which i'm definitely looking forward to. Then in two days the damn 4h fair. I haven't done a robo demo in a few months so it'll be nice to get back in the swing of things. then i'll probably be going to pauls thing on friday. then to cavs shorehouse for the weekend on satuday. back monday and right back to a long day of work! yea!!

peace

IM HARDCORE

2005-08-15T04:49:50Z

ok i'm not hardcore. but warped tour was still awesome.

we got a late start and didn't leave till 10:45 or so. we got stuck in traffic for THREE HOURS. the traffic getting into this place was TERRIBLE. once we got in though, it was awesome.

caught the tail end of my chemical romance. and then saw the starting line. they were awesome. then chung and i decided that we wanted to be in the front for one show. so relient k is about to come on and we make our way to second row dead center. and then it gets fucking crazy. mashing. the people being tossed toward the front of the stage. screaming the lyrics at the top of your lungs. i was dreanched in my own sweat, other's peoples sweat, and random liquids that were tossed in the air. it was a "no way in hell i'm doing this again for at least a year" kind of thing. it was a hell of a lot of fun though. i saw a lot of other awesome bands too.

i ran into chris romano and apostolos there also. and went to teh grease trucks on the way home.

anyway. i'm wiped. things not to look forward to: work and ap work. things to be ambivalent about: robo leadership dinner, robo 4h fair, hanbook and website stuff. things to look forward to: pauls thing, shorehouse with cav, basketball, etc.

Bitchin'

2005-08-14T04:26:14Z

The last 36 hours or so have been pretty bitchin. here's a quick recap.

i had work til 7 yesterday
i went straight to the godspell performance to do my thang
i went to the cast party afterwards, ate some pizza, lost in monopoly
after a few hours there, i went straight to ANP at cavanaghs
we played poker for a few hours til about 5am
at around 5 we went to teh boro diner (10 of us)
they accidently made extra food, so we got a lot of free food
at around 7:30am i went home
i slept til 9:30am and then woke up and got dressed again
i was at work by 11am and stayed til 5am. matt told me some funny shit.
after work i stopped home and ate some dinner
i went to godspell aroudnd 6. i did my thing for the final time. the shitty equipment was especially problematic
afterwards i went straight to joshs cast party. hit the hot tub. was fun.
left around midnight to go home.
i typed this entry up
i will be going to the warp concert in about 9 hours

next week is actually looking ridiculously hot too. and i mean that in so many ways. parties, cav's shorehouse, poker. oh it's gonna be kickin'.

peace.

Atlanta Summary

2005-04-25T03:42:46Z

aitte, jus got back from atlanta. i'll type this all now before i forget everything.

i don't know where to begin really. how about wednesday. so we leave school; get JAMMED on a single bus because the second bus never came. holy shit it was crowded. get to the airport. go through security. we have like two hours to kill so i go to fridays with paul katie lisa (we'll use the acronym pkl from now on since i'll probably mention them again). so we boarded the plane.. assigned seats but i ended up next to paul and jason anyway. got to alanta. took the MARTA system aka a subway system to our hotel. hotel was niceeee. got room keys and headed up to the room with kevin yu chris chung keith chen (we can use the acronym kkc for those three). alright so then me + paul + kkc were hungry and went out lookin' for food. the food court downstairs was closed. shit. so we see Mr. Olkowski and he tells us there is a diner a few blocks away. so curfew is at 11 and it' like 10:30 right now. but we're with a teacher so it shouldn't matter, right? so me, paul, kkc, and mr. O go to the diner. i call mr. G and tell him we're gonna be a few minutes late but we're with mr. O. okay, so we get back to the hotel at 11:20 or so. Mr. G goes crazzzzzeeee and tells us that we should have been back by curfew even thought it was impossible. long story short: mr. g says we're grounded for the next day and locked in our rooms; i call mrs. z into my room to explain why this is unfair; it tell her i want mr. G to come back to our room to give an explanation; mr. g comes back to our room at 1AM; i tell him off (but in a really smooth smart way); he understands our point; he ungrounds us. it was actually really interesting; you can ask kkc or myself about it.

okay so thursday. wake up at like 5am.. head down to the food court with kkc to grab some breakfast. meet up with rest of team. we head over the arena. pit and drive crew go to the pits. pits are actually pretty nice. the rest of the team goes to the stands in the georgia dome. about a 8 minute walk between the pits and the dome. thursday we basically ran some practice matches. alright so then we have like three options after the competition. option one is go to atlanta underground. option two is chill in the hotel. option three is autodesk show. i didn't have any options because i had to go to some real lame drivers meeting at the dome. anyway, so once that's finished i catch up with the rest of team and we take the subway to the hard rock cafe. we get there pretty early so i walk around with pkl for a bit. go in, get a seat with pkl + lenny. it was actually pretty fun. yea so the hardrock was good. get back to the hotel around 11 and basically go to sleep.

friday. woke up early. won our first three matches. doing really well. find out we lost animation and inventor awards. we had good submissions for both though. then i eat lunch and we lose our 2nd two matches. good times at the competition. umm so then some of us go back to the hotel; we get chinese at the food court and go eat it up in pauls room 'cause there are no open tables in the court. listened to some rap while watching the relaxation channel. chilled with pkl for a bit in kl's room. eventually paul goes with 25 i think and then a lot of people come to my room and we start watching i, robot. but it suckksss sooo much 'cause it's an illegal copy. i don't remember what happened after that. i think i fell asleep and then fell off the bed in front of like 15 kids. so then pkl and i was gonna go to the pool with 25 but it kinda sucked so nah. i think that's it for friday.

saturday. woke up crazy early. the usual morning routine. go to the stadium. i walk around the pits with lisa for a while, do some autonomous testing on the practice field, and check out the gift shop and whatever. then later we won our last two matches to finish up with a qualifying match record of 5-2-0 and 17th out of 80th seeded (in our division). then alliance pairing came around we didn't get picked. shittt. fuck. shittt. fuck. okay, so w/e move on. we get our team picture outside. MOE 365 gives us this awesome Team Spirit Award. Oh, and we're on teh frontpage of the Atltanta-Journal (the largest atlanta paper). we're front and center. so awesome. i'll get pics up eventually. so then everyone heads over to the dome to watch finals and the closing ceremonies. finals were really good. bound brook got 2nd. they had an awesome robot. there were speeches made by dean kamen, woodie flowers, larry paige (Google CEO), and the undersecretary of commerce. didn't win any awards --wasn't expecting to win any really. so then we go to the team wrapup. it was fun. i grabbed some food with lisa 'cause pk disappeared. then we played some lame games and went on the SCREAMER. which was a 15ft blow up slide haha. then saw some other robo kids and i raced L in some obstacle course. then i raced ANDY DOUGLAS. AD vs. AD. i had him till the last stretch but then he beat me. lol. then i supposedly missed a really good boxing or something matching between Andy and Mr. G. then lisa and i realized we had to get back so we went back to the hotel. met up with everyone and then they had fireworks. then we went upstairs and katie ironed my shirt so that i can look cool on the way home sunday. nothing really happened the rest of the night. pk called me a wuss 'cause i stayed on the elevator. dumb side story i'll tell y'all some time. i retired to bed with kkc.

so sunday i woke up. got breakfast with pkl because kkc woke up SO LATE. then went on the CNN tour. eh. the building is so nice but the tour was oh-kay. oh and i found 20 bucks on the floor. i asked everyone around the register where i found it if it was theres. nope. anyway an hour later somehow katie hears someone talking about how they lost 20 bucks. doing the upstanding and moral thing she says i have it and i return it. then we headed to the airport. at which point i got really *sigh* emo. you know like when you expect something and then it doesn't happen you're dissapointed. kind of in that mood for awhile. yea w/e so i get on the plane and i get the seat next to mrs. z. hahaahah. wow. alright. so i talk to her about robotics for like an hour. and it's funny at this point because you know i hear her out and then i get off the plane and hear petey's ideas for next year out. and then pk's ideas. and i always listen to everyone. and it's weird 'cause i could honestly agree with pk's vision and mrs. z's vision even though they were totally conflicting. yea, i'll talk about that some other time. umm so then we get on the bus (two busses this time). and i chill with pete and pk. and we take the funniest pictures. then a cop pulls us over. wtf who pulls over a bus. it takes a while and we get back to the school eventually.

alright so that's a pretty detailed account of the trip. now for some more general stuff below.

the easiest topic to discuss i think is retrospectively looking at the discussion i made a few months ago to make the trip to atlanta include 36 students. originally, it was like 12 students. but i kept thinking, no no, the more kids the better... i love these kids they deserve to have some fun and it's a great experience. so one day into the trip i'm like shit horrible decision because there are so many rules and shit. whereas if we had 12 students we'd have much more freedom and less chaperones. but then at the end of the trip. i saw everyone talking about how much fun it was and how we can improve next year. and i'm like, yo, this worked. i got these kids excited about robotics. they finally UNDERSTAND FIRST. that made me happy. and even better i got to see ppl like mrs. z and mr. g finally understand what the hell FIRST is about. and they got to talk to other mentors and found out why the program is so important and why they're involved and how we cna improve. and so now i don't regret one bit the decision to include so many students in the trip even though i had to make a lot of freedom sacrifices. i got my favorite frosh like kl, lenny and andy to go! hehe.

hmm you want me to talk about girls? so lemme just talk really briefly and generally about this. i thought i might have actually fallen for someone for a few brief hours on one of the nights. then once i woke up with a clear head i realized nope. and i think in a girl i want her to be fun, but i really need her to be mature and have a serious side. so even though certain friends scold me for being so careless/wimpy with girls i really don't have the time to actively seek them out. i like my friends and i just don't have time. once the summer comes again i'll probably start to actually care again. but for now i'm chill.

alright so robotics elections are coming up. i could write a novel on what the future of the team should be. and how interesting and dynamic everything is right now. but i'm getting tired so i won't. i really try to be set an example for everyone in robotics. i try my best to be the best person i can be. polite, respectful, attentive, understanding, and i always throw away the god damn trash ppl leave. i really do like these kids and i try my best to get to know them. and i'll run for captain again but if i don't win i'll still be there. and i guess i can only try my best.

atlanta summary: fun, emotional, chill, and crazy.

now i'm going to click submit without even proofreading..

goodnight form your friend duch.

Where are the old posts?

2005-03-30T04:39:07Z

You can only see this post and my latest post from now on. All old posts have been set to private. It's in the interest of everyone. Thanks.