Playing Ketchup
I know, I know. It's been a while since I last updated. That's because I had a lot of work to do, getting back into the groove for school. Now it's time to catch up on all the stuff from the past week and a half.

Let's see... Wedneday the 8th was the first day of school.... It was only a half day, with 20 minute periods, though. I was home before 12:30 pm. I can't remember what I did, but I think it was just my usual computer stuff....

Thursday the 9th I had a guidance appointment to see what I could do with my schedule (mainly, those large spaces in it for second semester). As of now, I am now taking sequel to the photography and videography class 8th period (I think) during second semester. I was not able to switch my schedule around to fit in Networking or everyday lunch. All because of my stupid social studies class that I hate even more now. (But no, Casey, I will not switch into Regents!)

Friday the 10th was more school, bla bla bla. But after school started the CMSform^E Conference 2004. It went until midnight Sunday. There wasn't a huge turnout, but there were a few people who stopped by. I guess I should put the transcripts online, huh? See here for the schedule and more information, as we are still having the conference.

That's pretty much what I did all weekend... you know, computer stuff. On Sunday night, I had a bunch of homework to do (yes, I had had it Friday and Saturday too... shut up!), plus I watched... let's see... Jack & Bobby, Surreal Life 2, Bands Reunited, and I think the Partridge Family remake thing was on that night, too. Sunday night into Monday morning was all screwed up because of that, and I only had 45 minutes of sleep that night. I had a couple of other sleep-related problems this past week and a half, but I can't remember which days, and they're not really that important anyway....

Let's see... Monday the 13th began the 3-day week (more on that later), with the beginning of a group project in English. Well, it wasn't really a project, it was just a packet that had to be completed by the group—the catch was that he would collect one packet from each group, at random. Which means they all had to be the same. We worked fairly well that first day. (The group consisted of myself, Elana Taubman, Danny Rozen, Sara Donnelly, and Alex Gialanze, for those who care.)

Tuesday the 14th was more group work in English, and I think we re-learned the metric system (the SI standards) in Chemistry... gotta love those moles, amperes, and candelas.... Back to the group work, it wasn't much group work. Elana and Sara were basically coming up with all the answers between themselves, and with my sitting towards the outer edge of the "circle" coupled with Sara's low voice, I could barely hear what they were saying. Instead, I pretty much copied what Alex had written, as she was closer to the two of them. And, of course, Danny sits in the corner being quiet the whole time....

Wednesday the 15th wasn't the greatest of days. It started off with oral presentations in Spanish first period. Now, Spanish is hard enough to learn first period, but when you also have to speak it, and in front of the class, it becomes a bit dreadful. I mean, come on, no one wants to know about me... and especially not in Spanish! Public speaking is not my strong suit, and it's even worse when it'd be painfully obvious if what I was saying was wrong. It's much easier when I know I know what I'm talking about. I was the last to go, as the period ended right after I finished. There are still a few people who will have to go on Monday, but oh well.

Being the psychic that I am, I knew that just because that was over didn't mean the day would get better. I knew something else would happen. And, in Social Studies 4th period, it did. It was bad enough I have to be in that class, but now it was time for more group work. Whoopee! She made us line up birthday to pair (well, actually, there were four people in most groups) us up. Now, I don't know about you, but I feel funny saying my name or my birthday aloud. I can type it all you want me to without feeling a thing, but speaking it gives me an odd feeling.... (Does anyone else feel the same way?) Anyway, she split us into our groups. Our assignment was to make a skit about philosophers and some king or something. I hadn't really been listening when she explained it. Mainly because I hate Social Studies and I hate her. So, our group consisted of myself, Elana Taubman (again), Rebecca Sanger, and Jake Asher. It would take forever for me to explain the whole thing, but basically Elana was being obnoxious (the funny kind, not the mean kind), and Rebecca was flipping out while trying to stay calm. I, of course, tried to be somewhere in between. I laughed at whatever Elana was doing, but I also tried to get her to stop. (I'm used to her acting like that, though, so that probably helped....) We actually did manage to get stuff accomplished, but, like everyone else, we'll have to finish on Monday. The thing is, English is right after Social Studies, so it was two straight periods of working with Elana. Oddly enough, she had calmed down entirely by the time we got into our groups in English. We finished that packet fairly early, and basically had a conversation or two with The Teacher. (It's easier to type it that way than to spell out each teacher's name. Besides, what does it matter?) He wasted our time, though, when he did things that he could have done earlier, like collect the packet or give out the homework. That's basically what happened that day, except that the second session of CMSform^E Conference 2004 started that afternoon.

Actually, I just remembered, Wednesday was a busy night, as was Saturday (I think). See, my grandparents came up from Florida on Friday because one of the hurricanes (I think it was Frances) left them with no power. And they actually took a plane, which they never do. Anyway, on Saturday (if that was the day), we played cards. I didn't do so great this time, like I had in Colorado, because my parents are more experienced players than the people we played there. I only won one hand, which was one that I dealed, and was the last game of the night. My favorite game would be Baseball, no peeky, 3s and 9s are wild, 4 is an extra card, usually with 8 cards per player. (Scroll down a bit to find it—it's the 6th point on the list.) On Wednesday, we went out to dinner, because they were leaving Thursday morning. Before they went back to their hotel room (which they insisted on having, instead of staying here), we went over to my aunt's house across the street and joked about Irene and the rest of the wonderful trip we had in Canada (which reminds me, I still have to get those pictures online...). I was laughing so hard that I was crying, which was kinda of unusual, considering we were mostly just repeating stories that we'd already told other people. After they left, I stayed at my aunt's for a little while, discussing yet another business that she decided to start. But that's an entry for another day (like, when I get more information).

OK, so that leaves Thursday through now. We had Thursday and Friday off because of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Which means a four-day weekend. Yay! I didn't do a whole lot during those days, but I can proudly tell you that I finished my homework during them. Which means that, everything that's due Monday is finished. I have one assignment due Tuesday (that I currently know of), and I just might do that before the weekend's over. This is important because, as you know (no matter who you are), I am a procrastinator to the utmost degree, and this doesn't happen very often. Hopefully that will change. (Not that being a procrastinator is a bad thing. In fact, it's very enjoyable—until you are actually right on top of the deadline, in which case you lose sleep and must work hard and fast. Though that tends to produce very nice work, which I know from experience.)

And now, it's Saturday. For the most part, I slept the day through. Before I went to bed, however, I was working on setting up Music-HQ.net Tabs, which will be a place where you can find tabs from "over 300 million artists on over 450,000 instruments", as that page says (assuming they've been written). That means that you are not limited to the Guitar, Bass, and Drums that most tab sites have. I pretty much have the database structure set up and am working on the actuall PHP code for the web interface. Most of the work will be done on my home computer before uploaded to the web, though, so there won't be much development online for a while. Also before I went to bed, my mom went to the bank to deposit some more money into my savings account. Originally, it was at Emigrant Savings Bank, but we're now moving over to Commerce Bank. Originally, she deposited the $400+ USD from my checks into my newly opened account. Today, she withdrew the money from the old account (which I had been sharing with my sister), split it in half, and deposited my have into my new account, along with $100+ USD more cash that I had lying around. So, now, I have $1100+ USD in my bank account, which I had not planned on. I now have to make a decision as to whether I should go ahead with the music purchases, or save up a bit more to get that laptop I had my eye on. (Of course, not buying the music-related stuff automatically makes me save up for the laptop....)

So, I think that's all I have to say (as if that wasn't enough). Until next time.

Time Now: 8:55 PM
Posted by Gordon P. Hemsley @ 9/18/2004 07:29:00 PM [ 2 comments ] - Related Link

 
Round Robin
I've tried to start this entry a couple of times already, but I always got sidetracked and never finished. Each time I only got as far as the title: Round Robin. I originally picked it because it was my first entry since returning from my trip to Pennsylvania, then Upstate New York, and back home.

But now that it's the night before school starts, the title takes on a whole new meaning. Every year, school starts in September. Holidays pop up every now and then, but usually Monday through Friday, 6:00 am through 3:00 pm, and after, is entirely devoted to school. Even Saturdays and Sundays and holidays can be occupied by schoolwork. Rarely is there ever time to do anything else. Every year, this goes on for nine months. Every year, we all complain about having to to do. And yet, every year, we do it. We finish it. And summer comes. Summer—the time when we all plan to do the things we had no time for during the schoolyear. Usually, though, those things never get done. Three months go by, and then school starts again.

For 13 years of our life, it's a never-ending, and vicious, cycle. Hopefully, all of this work will be worth it. But right now, it really is just a waste of time. Most of it has nothing to do with any of our interests. Do we really need to know about the people of Rome that have been dead for over 2,500 years? And Shakespeare? Does it really matter that people in the 1600s go through many of the same things we go through now? The answer: not really. Unless you get some obscure job, none of this information will ever be relevant. Even the teachers know it. They're all about concepts. Except, they could easily teach concepts with subject matter that we are interested in and can relate to. Or maybe they can't. Many teachers are unfamiliar with the current technology, or simply have interests that differ from ours (though they don't seem to realize that). Those that are familiar with the current technology and our interests can't take advantage of that, as they're restricted by the curriculum. Life is full of circles. Round Robin.

But wait! That was just a rant to start of the article. I'm really only half-way through. And I promise to lose the "High School Graduation" mood for the rest. Let's move on.

The bike ride last Tuesday was a blast (for lack of a better term)! Even though I almost died on the way back to City Hall and got sunburn on my arms and hands until they were raw, I still had a great time (probably more than I had on my vacation). The one thing I regret about the day that was entirely my fault was the fact that I didn't put sunscreen on before I left the house. As a result, my arms and hands got burnt. It was worse for my hands, though, because they were never burnt before. They're still discolored a week later. The majority of my burns were first degree ("normal" sunburn—the kind that's red and feels hot), but I did get a miniscule amount of second degree burns (the kind that's worst than first degree, because it blisters the skin) thanks to the sun reflecting off of one of the metal buttons on my watch. I didn't discover that until after we got back from vacation.

There are two other things that I regret. One is the fact that I had to rush home so that I could take a shower before we left for Pennsylvania. That wasn't really my fault. At least I was able to do more than I had originally planned after the ride, seeing as how I was to have left in the middle. My completing the entire 27 miles is a big feat because of that reason, among others. The other thing I regret, which really wasn't my fault at all, was the fact that there were only two water stops. Or, more specifically, there wasn't a water stop between Knights of Columbus in the West End on the way out to Point Lookout and Casey's house on the way back from Point Lookout. That's probably at least 15 miles between. Had I had water in between, I probably wouldn't have almost-died on the way back to City Hall. (Granted, I probably should have had ice cream when everyone else did, but that's a different story.)

By the time we got to the second water stop at Casey's house, I had gone from being way in the front to being the last person in the procession. And it didn't get any better on the way to City Hall. By that time, I was aching so much that I could barely stand, and I couldn't even drink one bottle of water while we were at the stop. (At the first water stop, I had drunk two bottles compared to most other people's one.) After we got back to City Hall at the end of the ride, many of us hung around for a little while and a few people (read: girls) went in the fountain to cool off.

It took me a little longer than normal to get home from City Hall, thanks to my aches and pains, but after a shower, I felt a lot better. (Not to mention that I took some pills and a nap in the car on the way to Pennsylvania.) By the time we got to where we were going, the only pain I had was from my sunburn.

Which leads me to my trip (don't you worry, there's plenty more to this article!). Our first stop was Pennsylvania. We didn't do a whole lot on the first day (Tuesday), because it was around 7:00 pm by the time we got there. On the next day, though, we took a motorboat out on the man-made Lake Wallunpaupack (I think that's how you spell it...). We also rented a tube, so we all (minus my dad) got a chance to ride behind the boat in a big rubber tube, with water rushing past, and all of us pretty much coming really close to falling out. The next day we headed out to Scranton, whose only tourist claim to fame is a Houdini museum. There was a live magic show, of which I became a part. It was pretty much involuntary, as the magician (world famous[?] Dorothy Dietrich) was looking exactly for me to come up. (Their website, http://www.houdini.org/, isn't that great, by the way.) It wasn't a whole lot of fun, that show, because I knew how most of the tricks were done from my past magic experience. (If you're curious about that, you can ask me about it via IM, or in person.) And so that was pretty much our vacation to Pennsylvania.

The day after (I think it was Friday, but I'm not positive), we headed to Lake George, NY. For Friday evening and Saturday, we went into town and did some stuff that you always do when you go to Lake George. Haunted houses and ice cream and games and stuff. There was a highlight moment at the arcade when this kid was playing Dance Dance Revolution. He was really good, and after we stopped to watch, so did another family (or at least, a group of people). Then this girl walked up, and started doing the same moves as the kid playing the game. It was fun to watch, as they were usually very synchronized. They apparently knew each other (possibly brother and sister), as she asked him where someone was, or something to that effect. There was one other event, but seeing as how I'm all ranted out, let's just say that you don't close an ice cream store in a tourist town at 9:30 pm on the Friday of Labor Day weekend.

Originally, we were supposed to go home on Monday, but by Sunday we had run out of cash, and there really wasn't anything left to do in Lake George that we hadn't already done, either during this trip or in previous visits. So, on Sunday morning, we checked out by 11:00 am, ate the breakfast buffet at Howard Johnson's (our ritual for leaving Lake George), and then played 3 games of bowling before hitting the road.

Well, I think I've finally said all that I've got to say, so apologies for the long entry. Oh wait, late-breaking news: the CMSform^E conference may get a changed or extended schedule, due to holidays coming up. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go watch the Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien that I've been deprived of for the past three weeks, either due to the Olympics or going to sleep too early (or the fact that Conan likes to take 3-day weekends). Please note that over the course of writing this entry, I watched Jeopardy!, Last Comic Standing, and Scrubs, and took a shower, so the neither time below is really relevant.

Time Now: 11:33 PM
Posted by Gordon P. Hemsley @ 9/07/2004 06:36:00 PM [ 3 comments ]