Today is Monday, August 9, 2010.

So it's August now and that means school is starting soon. I always view this as "hooray I get to see friends weekly again" and "at least I won't have to find something to do with half my day" and "ugh I actually have to do school and homework regularly" (and I still have summer assignments to do; aren't I a good planner?)

But that's 13-14 days away, so let's try not to worry about that too much for now.

Today there was some band-freshman-icebreaker-meeting-thing. Considering I'm not a freshman I didn't think much about it. But someone I know is, and they wanted me to come join them.

Based on fact that the temperature at 1:30 PM must have been something ridiculously high to go biking in and the location (literally the highest hill within a couple miles radius) and the fact that I had just taken a shower and didn't want to be all sweaty from biking around and being outside, I shouldn't have gone.

But considering the fact that I wanted to meet some people and the fact that my friend said please combined with the fact that I'm a really nice guy who finds biking at inappropriate times perfectly normal, I went.

The one thing I hated was the fact that my destination was much higher in elevation in relation to my house. I mean, there are some occasional downhill-sloping roads on the route I chose, but it's still mainly uphill. Lugging a bike up a 45 degree incline is not fun.

Once I made it to the top I rode my bike around and waited in the shade till an appropriate time to show up presented itself (Considering I wasn't explicitly supposed to be there and it was odd for me to show up 2/3rds into the whole thing)

I was subsequently entered into the icebreaking ceremonies (really just talking in sections) , got to meet another member of my section, a tenor-sax named Claire (who coincidentally happens to be the sister of one of my friends) , and got to play capture the flag.

Now, considering the fact that I don't participate in any sports, I'm a pretty good sprinter. I'm also very competitive, so something like capture the flag I took seriously (despite it being a friendly competition meant to break the ice). These two things combined resulted in some very interesting gameplay.

Contrary to my usual strategy, I tried to go for the flag, due to the fact that ~2/3rds of the other team was on our side, and that the flag guards were sitting down. Even though it failed, it was interesting. It seemed like I inspired some of my team members to go for the flag as well.

Long story short, the team I was on lost. But it was only after a long fight (read: the other team on offense the entire time) that we lost. I was certainly a good defender, though.

Hmm it's getting late and I'm forgetting stuff so I'll cut this short

So after everything was done I rode my bike home. The one upside to traveling all uphill to get to your destination is the fact that the return trip is all downhill. Bike suspension is pretty interesting at high speeds.

I stopped by a lemonade stand when I neared my house, and got a cup for $0.25. There was a lot of satisfaction in being the first sale, considering lemonade stand customers are rare. I just hope it turned out well for them.

I know there's some other stuff that should go here as well but it's late and I'm forgetful so oh well. Read about it when I remember it.

Another Test

Woo.

Today is Saturday, July 24, 2010.

oh god it feels like I've been walking all day...

...oh wait, I have.

For my nephew's birthday he and his parents (plus or minus a few friends) go to LEGOLAND California and spend the day there, ending it with the summer fireworks.

I had the pleasure of joining them.

The first thing we did was head to the new waterpark addition, where I donned my swimming attire and did a bit of swimming. And by swimming, I mean being knee-deep in water for a while. That included floating around the "Lazy River" and going down a waterslide.

The most interesting part of that escapade, I would say, was the Duplo-block-water-table-things. Essentially, a fountain with trays where you could attach blocks to. Apparently, building dams was a very popular thing. It was certainly fun to see more than half the water going into the table overflowing and pouring out the sides rather than heading down the table.

After that we went to the Mindstorms building, where I completed some easy tasks while battling a dying battery. That was not interesting.

Across the way, though, the "Build and Test" building was quite a show.

Essentially, you build a car, place it in a starting position behind a gate (similar to Pine Wood Derby, maybe) and wait until the gate drops. The Differences are: Legos instead of wood, no separated tracks, and no rules (besides using an actual car, not touching it to start, and not touching anyone elses' car).

To spare you the boring details and build logs (which never existed), I ended up with the most diabolical of race-winning devices.

Essentially, it was a large cross, wider than it was taller, like this: -+-

At the bottom point was a hinge, which sat in the starting bay and was held down by me. At the tip sat my car. The cross was supported by the starting gate, holding it at a 20 degree angle.

So there was my car, 3 inches above the track and 10 inches ahead of everyone and in front of a wide bar that spanned the entire width of the track. Can you see where this is going?

I don't have any video, unfortunately, but it's not very different than saying, my car was launched ahead of everyone elses' while everyone else was stopped by the bar.

It was a big hit for most of the older people (like, teenagers (like me) and parents (specifically one dad)), but not so much for the younger kids. One even looked at me like he was going to hurt me because I had made him lose. Seriously.

- - - - - - - - - -

Since I'm pressed for time, I'll outline the more interesting parts:

• look for pictures of everything, maybe, later.
• we won the fireman thing because we were awesome and so was our effort
• fireworks are distracting, especially at the end and if that the only part you get to say
• short, young, kids are easy to bump into

I think that's it.

And of course, my APEC estimate: ~40 pages (80 sides) left, so, 10 pages (20 sides) per day and I'll make it. Woo.

Today is Thursday, July 22, 2010.

Okay wow I just had the weirdest dream ever. I have to hurry and write it down before it gets corrupted.

Key:

If it's normal text like this, it's what I know I remember.

[if it's in brackets, then it's made up based on what I remember.]

(If it's in parentheses, then it's probably to explain something.)

Any names of real people used in this dream are purely coincidental. I am not using your name to mean anything, it's just what I remember.

- - - - - - - - - - Begin Dream. - - - - - - - - - -

[This apparently takes place on a military base, where we are fighting some kind of war against an alien race. (Think, War of the Worlds tripod monsters, except half-size, they aren't getting sick, and with no shields, so we actually have a chance, and it's not just a waiting game)]

The first thing I remember was that I was sitting in an [auditorium]. I was taking to some girls who were sitting next to me; we were exchanging cell phone numbers. I remember I was having a hard time since my phone was acting up because of a weird screen resolution or theme that wouldn't let me get to the phone book. I had taken too long so the girl in the purple shirt next to me had left while I was getting the girl in front of me's number. What she actually had given me was a [website link], and it directed me to some art page where she was.

The next thing that happened was that someone gave me a radio of sorts; someone was trying to talk to me, so I pointed it around looking for a signal. [I don't remember the conversation] but he was asking for me by name. I walked in that direction out of the auditorium and continued to talk.

[Somehow] I ended up in a [war-zone] of sorts; there were men lying down in a barricade/camouflage line thing. [The man who had given me the radio directed me to] climb into an open slot, and so I did. [I continued to talk to the radio] We were given the signal to pack it up so I did what everyone else was: I got up, folded the camouflage in half and zipped it up (maybe you can visualize that). I turned around to see [Anne Marie (or/and someone else I knew, but I think it was her) ]. Someone commented on how the [previously occupied] slots looked like [an engine?], how the places where people had been were the hottest/red colored, and the places where no-one had been were cold/blue, [and where I had been was] orange, [sort of in the middle]. (I don't understand how any of this would be possible because those colors correspond to what you would be seeing through a heat sensing camera, but we were seeing it with our own eyes)

The men who had packed up moved to an area behind the barrier, so I followed. [I didn't see where they went, but] there was an open shipping container (the big long metal ones with corrugated sides) and people [(maybe the people I was talking about before?)] were going in so I followed. [What surprised me was that] it didn't end in a blocked door; it exited into a warehouse, where food was being kept. [(If you can imagine Costco, it's be just like that, with towering shelves with crates of food and no clothing)] [something else happened here] I saw a line or people forming, and it seemed to be for food, so I walked up [and apparently I was with someone (who I knew?), I don't remember who]. There was a man standing near the opening or another shipping container, with three bowls at his feet, one in his hand, and he said, "The noodle line starts here". The only indication of noodles I was were inside the shipping container, except they were like, pasta "elbows" 2-3" across/in diameter. [My friend/]the person next to me began talking to him, [apparently to distract him] because he slowly started stepping onto the bowls on the ground. At some point the man noticed, looked down, displayed disappointment and disgust,[ threw the bowl he was holding to the ground,] and walked away. The person next to me then picked up some green something out of one of the bowls, wiped it off on his shirt, and ate it. I walked away after that.

He walked into another area [(The shipping container seemed to divide the warehouse in different sections)] where I saw Some more stuff. Down one isle, an old woman with a shopping cart slowly picking out bits of food. In another area a bunch of people fighting over food. The first was a two men talking about watermelons, which erupted into a brawl. [The watermelons were overhead], so I tried to stop it. The just told me to but out. Another group of people were fighting, but this time it was some kind of purple fruit (maybe plums?). I yelled "STOP!" as loud as I could, but the only people who turned were the ones not fighting. I watched the plums get dumped into the fight. The fruit was then smashed.

I had ended up in the isle where the lady's cart was, but she wasn't there. I turned and saw Chris Mallec doing a "shot-put"-type spinny-throw with a watermelon, aimed directly at me. I dodged, and wondered what he was doing. He continued to throw other items at me, one of which was a container of round, yellow candy. This spread over the floor, blocking me from running away. I took cover behind the shopping cart, and began to push it forward. He somehow managed to hit me with some mangoes even though I was behind the cart (curveballs? or should I saw "curvemangoes"...). I also remember catching some round container of candy and trying to use it to deflect more candy back at him; I missed. When he stopped firing, I yelled "Why are you doing this?". He put a hand to his face and pulled off this yellow-rubber like stuff. Underneath the mask was the "Noodle Line" man from before. I yelled "I didn't do anything" and he walked off.

- - - - - - - - - - End dream. - - - - - - - - - -

At this point, either I woke up, or I can't remember anything afterwards.

And now back to your regularly scheduled normal blog post:

So yesterday I returned a book to my friend's house. She lives 4.4 or 3.2 miles away, depending on which route you take. I took both! On a bike! Hooray 7.6 miles of biking!

Speaking of that book, I finally read the entire MeruPuri Manga series. Hooray. And that's enough of that.

Stupid APEC. I figure, if I do 5 pages (10 sides) every day until the 29th, I'll make it. (And yet here I am writing a blog post)

It's 8:47 AM or something and I want breakfast. Bye now.

Today is Tuesday, July 13th, 2010. (Oh wait it's Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 now)

oh my it's a blog post with no capitals

all the strike through happens when you start writing 5 minutes before midnight

so many of you don't know this, but i actually had homework this summer. boo. so yeah, one of them is for apec, or advanced placement european civilizations with is this really hard class and i'm taking it so that i'm with my friends even though i don't need it for college (and apparently you don't get college credits for it) so yeah

there's this big (5% isn't big, is it?) assignment due on the 30th and i did like 1/56th of it and i only have two days left till my personal deadline. you can all tell how well my plan (which you don't know either, huh...long story short, i was trying to motivate myself to get it done early) worked. luckily i still have 17 16 days to do it and i've actually started so yeah

of course there's the two other ap subjects i have to do, so yeah.

so a few days ago i went over to my friend adam's house and we exchanged information and looked at some stuff. then we discovered how to make an ipod stylus. we discovered how to make an ipod stylus and for all you non-tech people that is a great achievement for people like us. [as a side note: it seems like all our/my awesome developments happen right when i/we are/am out of time...that's a problem...]

anyways i made one with some foil, wire, foam, and a pen. it works, but i assume it gets less reliable with use; maybe we'll/i'll make a revision to increase its useable life.

oh, and something about today yesterday: looks like adam's ipod (and now maybe mine) are being hit with a lagginess-virus (not really a virus) that makes certain actions slow so yeah if you know how to fix it help

oh, so today yesterday when i should've been trying to do apec i hacked an old cordless 12v drill apart and tried to use it with a computer power supply (c-pss). for those of you who don't know, c-pss don't like current spikes; they shut off. not good for a motor that draws many amps to start and many amps to run. so yeah maybe i'll get that to work somehow

there's probably some big project that i have yet to think of but i got parts for it today yesterday (but of course i forgot some stuff so now i have to go back)

i can't think of anything else to put on here. what i do know is that there's something that should be here but isn't. so hopefully it'll get on here next post (whenever that is)

whatever it's past midnight now so i'm going to go brush my teeth and sleep bye now

Testing, testing...

Hey look, a post from my iPod through email.

Sent from my iPod

Today is (still) Saturday, July 10th, 2010.

hey, look, an app for blogging from an iPod.

I figured I'd blog from my iPod since it'll probably mean I can write more often and forget less.

Too bad this app is stupid and won't let my use the landscape keyboard. maybe I'll use the "blog from email" thing that they (Blogger) do too.

Meh I hate this app so I'm going to stop here and continue later. Take that Sahil.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]