"Man, what's with those jerks who check out the books from the library that everyone needs for reference (i.e. photocopy)?"
I was at the library with some friends of mine today (unable to find any of the books we wanted), so I asked one of them (Mike) that question. He responded by telling me that he had done that last year. Man, I swear, it's KARMA!!!

ARRRGGG!!! I've been shafted! I recently ordered 3 pairs of (Samba Classic) shoes online, but the UPS guy only delivered 1. This woulen't be so bad, but they still billed me for 3 pairs. geez... now I gotta make a long distance phone call to their office in New York to figure out what happened. grrr...

I just got back from kung fu. Man, I must have had some bad chicken or something- my stomach hurt like crazy for the entire class. I felt like I was gonna keel over and die or something (do those 2 mean the same thing? Is that like saying 'I'm gonna kill you 'til you're dead'?)

I was just thinking about the (theoretical) Higgs particle- the particle predicted by the Electroweak theory that's supposed to give everything mass (scientists haven't proved its existence yet). Well, anyway, I was thinking about it at lunch today, and I just thought that if somehow you could (magically) strip the Higgs particles off of an object at the quark/lepton level, it would then be possible to do some pretty amazing stuff. For instance, a massless object could be accelerated to the speed of light, you could undo the effects of inertia/momentum, and we could finally create true "hover" vehicles. I dunno if all this is even possible though... probably not, haha. If I ever study quantum physics in the future, I'll probably look back on this idea and laugh at how absurd it is...

ok, so everyone can stop asking me, here's my schedule for next year:

1 - AP Calculus BC
2 - AP Economics/Government
3 - AP Computer Science 2
4 - Lunch
5 - AP Statistics
6 - AP Physics C
7 - AP English 4

...but I'm going to drop AP English for Honors, so it might change a little after school starts.

I was gonna watch Planet of the Apes with some friends like just a sec ago, but it took me forever to find a parking space (at Stonebriar) so I got in really late and they were sold out. That sucks... man, and one of them is moving to Hong Kong tomorrow, so I probably won't get a chance to see him again... DANG! =(

Then I dropped off some film to get developed. It was one of those disposable cameras. The thing is, it said that the recommended develop by date was 11/00... haha, i hope it still works. There were still like 5 shots left on the camera, and I was gonna use them to take the pictures of the group today, but I didn't end up meeting up with any of them, so I got to the parking lot of Walgreen's and I was just like shooting random pictures- kinda gay. Oh well... oh yea, and I remember I've walked through an airport metal detector with that camera and set it off, hahaha, even more reason why it wouldn't develop properly. Ehh, I guess I just have to wait and see.

k is a pretty odd letter if you think about it. It's like an x raising its hand. =P

I just got back from UT (the Honors Colloquium). I gotta say, the A&M invitational was a lot more fun... but I'll probably end up going to UT anyway, so I guess it doesn't really matter. Here are my many thoughts (3 days worth):

Thursday- I checked into Jester some time after lunch. I hate the dorms there, the rooms look like prison cells without the bars. Oh yea, and I'm not a big fan of the communal shower- ecchhh!!! There was a mini-reception, and I met up with several of my friends. Then we went on a tour of the campus- nothing special (I'm not too keen on the Spanish-influenced deco); afterwards, we had dinner. I was so psyched about the all-you-can-eat food at the dorm- hahahaha, what a sucker I was, haha!!! Then we attended a welcoming speech. Man, like half of it was slamming A&M and saying how UT was better, haha. Then they had a guy talk to us about "Computer Modeling of Human Movement." It was pretty boring up until the part where he told us about cutting open cadavers to get the data (he had pictures too!). Oh yea, then when I was taking a shower, I used the towels that they provided us. I had wiped down my entire body and was about to wipe my face when I took a whiff of the towel- oh man! it smelled rancid. Then it was like, dang, wasted shower...

Friday- Went to breakfast hoping that maybe it'd be a little better than dinner... nope! hahah. Yea, actually, the sausage must have been bad or something. Like me and all my friends all had upset stomach the whole day. Oh yea, that was one of the few time I ever go into public without my hair done... and wearing SHORTS too! If you know me, you probably know that I like never wear shorts. It was really cold, haha.
After that, we attended like mock lectures, uggghhhh, soooo boring! The 3 I attend were: "Engineering for Extraterrestrail Environments," "How Fast Can You Compute?" (about computer algorithms), and "What is Scientific Understanding?" The first one was ok I guess. The second one made me decide that I definitely DON'T wanna study computer science. I was so lost. She talked about like exponential and polynomial computing or something like that; I had no idea what she was talking about. The only stuff I managed to catch was some stuff about the Euler tour and the Hamiltonian cycle. The third one was really stupid; it was supposed to be a philosophical lecture, but the guy just talked about like proofs and use of deductive reasoning to explain this thing about ice cubes melting- pretty gay (too simple).
Oh yea, at lunch, they talked about how UT ranked higher than A&M in a bunch of stuff. Nothing special about dinner. After that, we checked out the gym. The A&M gym was like 10 times better. Some of the university clubs did some demos. I was so excited about seeing the UT wushu club perform- man, what a DISAPPOINTMENT. Their moves were WEAK!!! Even I could show those guys up! One guy had a pretty nice butterfly kick, but that was about it. Their moves were so SLOPPY and UNREFINED. Man, seeing that performance made me wanna join the taekwondo club instead- yea, it was that bad. (hahaha, no offense to the taekwondo guys, of course.) I played cards with my friends after that. I suck pretty bad at spoons, haha.

Saturday- I attended a "Physics Circus" today. It was really fun. These professors did a bunch of "tricks" and proved wrong several of my general assumptions about the way the world works- it was really cool. That was like the highlight of my trip. After that was the closing ceremony- just a bunch more UT propaganda. Then I had lunch then left. Man, my parents called me on my cell phone like 4 times within a span of 10 minutes, it got pretty annoying- geez... they shoulda just gotten me a walkie-talkie instead.

Random Thoughts- I don't like the drinking fountains at UT, they're too close to the wall for my big hairstyle, haha. I talked with some of the people in my "cohort" (that's what they called our groups) and found out that one of 'em draws comics. I haven't gotten a chance to check it out yet though. Oh yea, I also met someone in person that I'd been talking to online (Ruth). She reminds me of another friend of mine (my homecoming date '00)- mannerisms, general physical appearance, and everything; the resemblance is CRAZY!!! Oh yea, then, at the gym, they had a room going as like a mini-party, and she was trying to get me to dance... it was like de ja vu all over again. =( Bitterly ironic... "dancing." (*writhing in pain at the thought*) The one plus-side to dorm dining was the popsicles. I didn't find out about 'em till I almost had to leave. Man, I swear, if I lived on campus I'd eat entire meals of popsicles, haha. =P

*an interesting little sidenote: in the UK, popsicles are referred to as "iced lollies," nifty huh? haha

I'm leaving to go to UT for the Honors Colloquium tomorrow. It should be really fun; there's actually people I know going this time. Oh yea, but my parents want me to go to schedule pickup at like the crack of dawn before heading down to Austin though. Man, my hair still looks funny, I dunno if I wanna go have my picture taken for the student ID card. Oh yea, that reminds me, I still haven't called that studio to have my picture taken for the yearbook. Ugghhh... so much stuff to do.

Oh yea, I talked with my brother about dropping AP English 4 today. He said that dropping down to honors was one of the best decisions he made during his senior year. He says that according to his friends, AP English was the course that required the most work (, or maybe it tied with AP government). And he said that it's possible to get an A in AP only if you're willing to work your butt off, and that for the 6 weeks tests in AP, you have to know quotes from books verbatim. The biggest selling point for AP thus far was the possibility of a higher GPA; he said that it's pretty easy to get a 4.5 (highest GPA for an honors class) in honors, but that the same amount of effort would only get you about a 4.0 in AP (out of a possible 5.0). Another big thing that made me want to be in AP was the books that they "get" to read. They [the books] are classics, which I would probably want to read anyway (if I had the time), even if I weren't required to. He said that in honors, the only difference is that you listen to the books on tape or read abridged versions- I guess that's not too bad. So, I'm 99% sure I'm going to drop AP English for honors next year... So much for the glory... =/

Man, I'm pissed at my science fair mentor. He cancelled on me again. Now he says that the new fiscal year begins in September- so yea, I DID waste my entire summer waiting for it. Man, I coulda gotten another job if I'd known. geez... getting my hopes up for nothing. I didn't even ask to be paid in the first place, I just want to start my freakin' experiment. If he'd just get me some dang sludge-amended soils, I could do like the first couple months worth of work myself. He says I have to be on the payroll to use their lab; then how come I was able to do my experiment last year without being on the payroll? Man, what gives?

ARRRGGG!!! I was just reading the e-mail from my (science fair) mentor that my partner just forwarded to me, and it turns out he wants a typed-up rough procedure for our meeting tomorrow. There's a document that had a procedure I wanted to mimick, but my partner has it. So here I am at 2:00AM trying to figure out the order of chemicals to use in performing a sequential extraction of soil, and which soil fractions are most relevant in determining metal behavior in sludge-treated soils (this choice influences the first one).

Man, and I checked another e-mail that he sent me, and it turns out that he's only giving our mentor like 24 hours notice for our meetings. Now I don't know if it's my mentor I should be pissed at or my partner. I swear, I float him so much. I don't make him think at all. I did all data analysis myself and wrote all of the papers for our presentation last year. But at the same time, I need him because the team category of science fair is easier to win than individual... quite the dilemma. =/

"...These scientists reject the argument that the slow mineralization of organic matter in sludge could release metals into more soluble forms, often termed the sludge time bomb hypothesis. Instead, they argue that the residuum of sludge decomposition can perpetually maintain heavy metal solubilities at very low levels... the chemical nature of sludges needs to be better described before predictions about long-term fate of heavy metals are possible... The important question that needs an answer before the USEPA (503) limits can be considered environmentally and agriculturally acceptable is: What happens to toxic metals over the very long-term following the cessation of sludge application?"
~topic for my science fair project 2001-2002. Excerpted from an article by M.B. McBride
(note the use of the word "my")

I'm going in to A&M (Dallas) again tomorrow; at least that's what's supposed to happen. Man, I've been waiting for this job all summer. I expected to get hired in early June and work through my summer vacation. Early June, my mentor says that he wants to wait until the end of the fiscal year in July, so he'd hire me (and my science fair partner) after the 4th of July. After that, we tried to schedule another meeting, but our mentor cancelled on us again and put it off for a couple more weeks. Then he says that the fiscal year ends in August, so he can't hire us yet. So, I basically wasted my summer waiting to start a job that wasn't even a possibility. GRRRR!!! I'm pretty pissed. You're supposed to make yourself look all busy and everything the summer after your junior year (to look good for colleges). Man, my mentor screwed me over pretty badly I think. Geez, I better hope I pull off some kinda miracle score on the SAT 2's and make National Merit then...

Man, I'm stressing out over school starting in like a week... I'm nowhere close to finishing my summer reading. I haven't even started A Prayer for Owen Meany (like 500 pages). Maybe I should forget about reading that (for AP English) and just drop down to honors (and read Frankenstein instead).

hmmm... my brother didn't take AP English 4, so I don't feel particularly compelled to do so either. You can still take the AP test if you take honors, and I've heard so many people tell me that honors is easy and that AP is hard. hmm, for only a 0.5 GPA difference in a single class... is it worth it? *sigh* decisions, decisions...

I just woke up from a nap where I was dreaming about sharks. I had slept in such a way that my right leg had gone numb; I was like freaking out for like 5 seconds before I realized it was a dream and my leg was still there. Man, I don't think I'll be swimming any time soon...

ARRRRGGGGG!!!! shoot! I missed the first episode of the Mobile Suit Gundam series on Cartoon Network! =( arg... I missed the first episode of Gundam Wing when that aired also, grrr...

man, my kung fu is getting worse and worse. I'm such a disgrace...

I've been doing some thinking about the english words that are used to describe the chinese martial arts. Nowadays, when people say "wushu," what they really mean is contemporary wushu, and when they say "kung fu," what they mean is wushu in general. "Kung fu" technically means something like 'hard work'... so there was some confusion when I told my aunt in Taiwan that I was taking 'kung fu.'

...how I feel, every single day...

I just keep telling myself, "You wouldn't worry so much what people thought about you if you knew how rarely they actually did."

Joined Nien's blogging team today. I rarely have enough to say for my own blog, much less for someone else's. Well, I'll post there when I think of something pertinent to say.

I added a Links page to my site. I titled it "My Posse". haha, "Posse"... that's such a fun word to say. What's the plural of posse anyway? "Possi"?

My parents got me a cell phone today. =) Actually, they hadn't originally intended to do so, but an extra phone with the family plan that they bought was pretty cheap- so now I have a cell phone. Since I don't wanna put my number up on the internet for the wackos to find, let me know if you want it.

*After thinking about that last sentence some more, I guess that might pose a problem to those people who don't yet have any means of contacting me. hmmm... well, I guess you have to do some creative problem solving then...


My cousin and I dyed our hair today. We were trying to turn it like bright clown red (think 'Kenshin'). It proved a lot harder than expected though- he lost the instructions sheet. Most of the time, when I use hair dye, there are only 2 chemicals that need to be mixed together. This time, there were 4 (I guess since the box actually said 'highlights' instead of 'dye'); I had to use some guesswork. I guess it turned out okay... not too hideous. =P

I had a Red Bull (energy drink) today for the first time. It wasn't bad, but it was nothing like what I expected. I expected it to taste something like a combination of sawdust and Slim-Fast (seriously). To my surprise, it tasted kinda like, salty/sour soda. It's like a "salty lemonade" (Sprite + lemon juice, i think). Not the tastiest thing in the world, but if it does what it says it does in the commercials, I guess I don't mind drinking it.

I went to the optometrist today; not much to talk about there. They measured my blood pressure, and it was like 120/76... that's like the lowest I've ever seen it! I went home and played Diablo 2 for a couple hours afterwards.

At kung fu, we had a work out class- kinda stupid if you ask me. After class, we were messing around, and we decided to take turns running around the parking lot while carrying a punching bag over a shoulder. We said we were practicing to be firemen (rescuing someone from a burning building); it was pretty fun(ny), haha.

I've picked up the habit/silly superstition of knocking on wood. And it's not just when I say something that might be unlucky, it's when I think it. If you've got a sadistic mind, this would pose quite a problem- you'd be knocking on wood like every 5 minutes. I'm kinda obsessive compulsive, so I'm like powerless to stop myself; I know it's stupid but I can't help but do it. And, I mean, while I've been knocking on wood, none of the bad stuff I've envisioned has happened, which makes it even harder to kick the habit because my subconscious thinks it's working and if I stop, bad stuff might start happening! Arrrrgggg... it's probably just a phase...

"I've never had to knock on wood
But I know someone who has
Which makes me wonder if I could
It makes me wonder if I've never had to knock on wood
And I'm glad I haven't yet
Because I'm sure it isn't good
That's the the impression that I get."
~Mighty Mighty Bosstones "The Impression That I Get"

I just got back from my trip about an hour ago. Here are my thoughts & impressions: (yea, I know it's long; it's 3 days worth of blogs!)

Monday- The first thing I remember is being unbelieveably hot- hot and sticky. After the basic welcome speech and everything, the group split up to visit the separate colleges; I went to the Engineering one. The college session was a lot of fun: we had a competition to build straw bridges and an egg drop device. It was a lot like what I did in physics class last school year, except harder. The materials we got to use were worse (bridge building- 20 straws, 10 paper clips, 10 rubber bands; egg drop- 6 sheets of newspaper, 5 rubber bands, drop from 3rd floor), and we only had 30 minutes to work on each. My team of 3 got first (out of like 15) in both events; for that, I got a calculator and a flashlight.
Oh yea, some time around dinner, I realized that that was the largest group of "gifted" black people I'd ever seen. I remember having to walk a lot, and at the end of the day, I had the worst wedgie ever! When I showered that night, I noticed that the water was really soft (, or is it hard? whichever is the one where the water won't wash the soap off of your body); I usually spend about 30 minutes in the shower, if I went there, I'd spend an eternity just to take a bath- I guess I'd have perpetually pruney skin. =/

Tuesday- After breakfast, we went on our choice of "special tours"; I wanted to go see the nuclear reactor, but I guess that was full, so I went on the computer engineering exhibit. It really didn't have all that much to do with computer engineering, or any engineering for that matter, except for the fact that the guy whipped up a couple of drawings in AutoCAD. Then he just showed us a bunch of 3D animation stuff that his students had made; I did leave the tour wanting to study computer animation though. After that, we did some boring stuff, then had lunch. One of the computer science professors came and sat with me and a couple of other guys. We talked about technology in modern society and then he taught us a little about quantum computing and programming. After that, they had a professor of neuroscience give us a lecture. It was supposed to be about The Matrix, but something got messed up and he talked about dreams instead (, which was rather ironic, because about 1/3 of the people fell asleep during his lecture). I thought it was pretty interesting (, I'll write about it some other time). Not much else happened at A&M after that. My dad picked me up, and we (me, my dad, grandpa, aunt, and 2 cousins) just drove around somewhat aimlessly all over Houston and Galveston.

Wednesday- We went deep sea fishing today. It kinda sucked because no one caught anything, at least no one in my family. Someone caught a huge sting ray though, it woulda been pretty cool... if that someone were me, haha. After that, we dropped my aunt and cousins off in Houston and drove back to Dallas. I drove for like 100 miles on Interstate- 45; man, soooo boring! Note to self: scrap plans to become a truck driver when I grow up. =P We stopped off at AwShuck's for dinner; funny, we don't eat any seafood in Galveston, but instead, we wait until we're back in Dallas to do so.

A&M Revelations- I had a chance to talk to several of the students there, and it actually made me start to consider Texas A&M as a serious choice for college. Before, it was like, "A&M? hyea right!" Now, I'm thinking about swapping it for UT as my safety school. I became aware of several opportunities/pros during this visit, and unless UT can match or beat 'em (at their honors program tour), I might go to A&M instead. I went there with the impression that A&M was smack in the middle of Hick-town. They told me that that stereotype was overrated, and even though they all go around saying, "Howdy!" to everyone, it wasn't as bad as other places... At least they didn't have the accent. =/ Also, I had the idea that there wasn't anything in the town outside of the campus (, heck, the town's called College Station). They said that it's just like a big city, except scaled down... a lot; you can still go to clubs, and movies, and all that in town.
The honors students get to be in small classes taught by head honchos at the university; I know Plan II at UT gives similar treatment, but I dunno about regular honors. One of the major selling points of A&M was the research opportunities; if you know me, then you know I'm big on research. Also, we got to visit their recreation center; it was reeeeeeaaaaally nice (it was humongous and had lots of cool stuff). Their facilities were nice also, like the computer labs and stuff. They also told us about how A&M has such a "sense of community"; from what I saw, this looked pretty true- the people we saw all interacted kinda like a team and stuff (, of course they were probably trained to behave that way in front of the prospective students, hahah).
Oh yea, a MAJOR selling point for A&M is how "cheap" it is. A guy came and talked to us about how with in-state tuition and a scholarship here and there, you (could) actually get paid to attend college. I dunno, it's probably the same with UT, but it sounded really cool when he said it. Nowadays, I'm pretty sure I could get into a good college out-of-state, but I don't want to bankrupt my parents in the process, that's why I've been taking a closer look at Texas schools recently.

"Not Sweet"- But, of course, there was some NOT so cool stuff about A&M also. First and foremost is all the TRADITION! I'm not too fond of "yell practice", or saying "Howdy" all the time, or standing up for an entire football game. And also, I didn't get the whole "whooping" thing when you call your class the "Fighting Class of ____". Oh yea, I didn't see very many Asians there either- not cool.

man... gotta go to A&M - College Station tomorrow. I have to wake up at like 6:00 or something tomorrow morning. uggghhh, that's gonna be tough. Then after a day and a half on the campus, my dad wants to stop by Houston and Galveston. We're supposed to go deep sea fishing in Galveston (, well, obviously not in Galveston, but off the coast). I got kinda sea sick last time. I actually felt more queasy AFTER we got back from sea, so I guess I technically got "land sick". Oh well, we'll see what happens.

I spent most of the night watching internet films. The Dancing Cow... hahahahah. Oh yea, The Killer Bean 2 is awesome also.

I'm making a Diablo 2 comeback. Since all my friends are sick of it now, I asked around and managed to get all the stuff from their characters. My list of donors so far includes: Danny, Philemon, and Kevin Lu. Mike was gonna give me his stuff too, but he forgot his account password... or so he says. I've found out that he's quite the liar, actually. It's like after you're done joking around and are like, "hey, no, seriously," he'll still lie to your face. He's kinda like Kevin (Huang) now that I think about it.

man, couldn't find anywhere to go tonight. i'm not used to staying home on saturday nights any more. maybe i'm finally getting a "life"! hahaha... what are the odds?

Jason's asking me to play Starcraft with him now. I just remembered that I had a dream this afternoon where you could enable an option (in SC) that prevents "rushing". Hahaha, I always get killed by rushing (like 2 out of 3 times).

I was driving back to the kung fu school after teaching the kids' class at the community center, and i was drinking a pearl tea. Being a "good driver" and keeping my eyes on the road and all, I hadn't noticed that it was leaking all over my jacket. Jason and Mike (who were riding along) started cracking up like crazy... JERKS! =P Well, then Mike choked on a pearl and started making these really funny gagging sounds, hahaha... serves him right!

I went to see The Score last night with Nien, Liz, and some other friends; I gotta say, the ladies looked stunning, heheh... Nien knows what I mean. =P Haha, yea, but anyways, the movie was better than I expected; I expected it to be rather boring, but it was pretty good actually. I'd give it a rating of Standard MLA Sweetness on the "Sweet-o-Meter" (inside joke).

We went to Java & Cha afterwards like we always do. One of the guys (James) didn't go there very often, so he didn't know what to order. I told him just to get a pearl latte, and he asks me what flavor. Well, normally I don't specify any particular flavor, so I didn't know what to say. He ended up ordering an orange pearl latte... it was the nastiest thing ever, haha. He takes one sip and decides to go to the bathroom to dump the rest. Maybe I better order for him next time, haha.

I just got back from the doctor a sec ago. My blood pressure is down to 130/80!!! Yea, yea, I know, that's still not awesome for someone my age, but at least it's back in the "normal" category now.

AAAAGGGHHHH... kung fu training... useless... can't think fast enough!!! Test your reflexes. When I relax like they tell us to in kung fu, I can only get 0.33 seconds, but when I concentrate I get 0.22 (s). I managed to get 0.06 (s) by guessing; I got called a cheater 5 times in the process though. There's a similar game at http://www.spikything.com.

Whenever I take off my socks and expect to go somewhere later in the day, I place my socks in such a way that I can tell which one I was wearing on the left and right. My dad saw me doing this today and said it was the silliest (read: "dumbest") thing ever. But for real, like after you've worn a sock on your right foot all day, it feels kinda funny when you slip it on your left foot. Is it just me? maybe I just have sensitive feet or something...

I went and saw Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within today. It was pretty good. You forget it's computer animated sometimes. I think the ending kinda just leaves you hanging though. And even though it doesn't have any references to the game series (other than "Sid"), it's got like such a stereotypical FF-style plot... which is a good thing if you ask me. A lot more people ended up dying than is normal in FF though; haha, the only black guy always dies in like EVERY movie, haha. Their technology in the movie is so cool. I wish I lived in the future.

Oh yea, but I couldn't concentrate on the movie for the last like 30 minutes cuz I had to pee soooooo bad. I was like crossing my legs, squirming in my chair, and everything. As soon as the words of the final credits popped up, I was like RUNNING towards the bathroom. That was like the longest [urination] in my life- i musta been going for almost a minute straight! I must have like some crazy disease where my bladder mysteriously shrinks every time I watch a movie, haha. =P Man, I swear, movies need to have like a mini- count down thing in the corner that says how much time is left in the movie.

...went to Java afterwards.

Man, I don't know what to do about college any more. I've always wanted to go far far away, but now I dunno. I recently found out that my family's not as loaded as I had previously thought. Maybe I'll save my parents a buck and just go in-state... UT wouldn't be that bad I guess. =/

I've got a pimple on my stomach... it hurts. =( I hate getting pimples on my face, but I think I hate it even more when they're in weird spots like this.

Stuffing myself. Regaining all the calories I just burned off at kung fu. I had like a huge wad of roast beef, some caviar (not the really expensive kind), and a root beer float. So much for getting thin through kung fu, haha.

I went and got a haircut today- waaaaaaayyy too short. It won't stay down. It's like a mini 'fro when I don't put anything on it. Maybe I'll revert back to spikes until it grows out a bit. =/

Oh yea, after I got my haircut, I wanted to buy some new shoes for kung fu. I always wear indoor soccer shoes nowadays. But man, like NO place carries 'em anymore. What's with this? Even a store called Total Soccer didn't have the kind I wanted (at least not in my size), that's just crazy... grrrr... I need new shoes =(

my brother's been different ever since he graduated. like, he's a lot nicer to me nowadays, at least in the small stuff. it's pleasant, but kinda freaky... =/

tonight was my first time back at kung fu in about a month. (ended my boycott- too little support, so I had do cave, ya know?) uggghhhh, i felt like i was gonna faint... or die... or both, haha. but seriously, my pulse was through the roof, and my chest started hurting pretty bad. I wonder if that's what a heart attack feels like...

I was trying to explain to a (female) friend what Starcraft was, since she didn't know. I tried to make a comparison based on a game she'd already played before; this is the best i could do:

"how about this: it's kinda like Oregon Trail, except a lot more killing, less thinking... and throw in some aliens"; "or maybe SC's more like Logowriter, except the turtle goes around killing stuff... now imagine [turtle1 and turtle2] fighting with [turtle3 and turtle4]... and u've got something like Starcraft."

man, i haven't played either of those games in ages. i used to be the Logowriter MASTER!!! =P

My results for the belief-o-matic test:

1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2. Theravada Buddhism (87%)
3. Liberal Quaker (82%)
4. Liberal Protestant (79%)
5. Secular Humanism (78%)
6. Mahayana Buddhism (66%)
7. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (58%)
8. Neo-Paganism (58%)
9. Taoism (53%)
10. Bahá'í (51%)
* * *

I tried it again afterwards, putting in lot of different stuff, and it always seemed to give 100% for Unitarian Universalism, which leads me to believe that it's one big propaganda scheme for the Unitarian Universalists... I could be a Quaker... AHAHAHAHA! Surprisingly though, Atheism/Agnosticism was a lot lower on the list than I'd expected, considering the fact that i'm Agnostic 6 out of 7 days of the week. =P

*Note: I tried again later, and managed to get only 62% for Unitarian Universalism, and therefore withdraw my earlier comment. (Maybe my browser was messed up and I was really just looking at the same results over and over again without realizing it... ehhh, what are the odds?)

*sigh* the future worries me...

and i don't mean that in some crazy prophetic kinda way. I just get depressed or frustrated whenever i think about the obstacles that lie in the path of life.

Man, i'm supposed to go to the Texas A&M Honors Invitational Program (HIP) next week (July 16-17), but i dunno if i wanna go any more. Take a look at this picture from last year's HIP; that just about says it all.

I did some researching online, and it turns out that the engineering program at UT has gotten better than the one at A&M; that doesn't leave a whole lot of reasons to go to A&M. And plus, A&M is in hick-ville, or so i've heard. So now, i reckon if i decide to go to college in-state, i'll just go to UT like everyone else. Oh yea, and is anyone else thinking about doing the Plan II Honors thing at UT?

Ken said he wanted me to play Starcraft on Battle.net with him, so i did. man, i spent the first 3 games wondering why we kept losing, and i just figured he was really unlucky. Then on the 4th game, i see him building like 20 (Terran) turrets in the opening to his base before making any troops- and i'm just like, "IDIOT!!!" No wonder we kept losing... I bet he'd never even played before. geez... what a waste of an afternoon.

my cousins (and aunt + uncle) came to visit yesterday and today. i realized once again, that there is absolutely nothing of interest in DFW. We took a bunch of pictures of nothing, they went to South Fork and took some more pictures, and went downtown and... took more pictures.

well, at least we ate well while they were here. For dinner last night, we went to III Forks; very nice steaks, but i think they're kinda overpriced (i've tasted better anyway). And i was thinking, how come they call it "3 Forks" if they only give you 2 forks to eat your meal?
Then, we ate at Osaka Sushi for lunch. good stuff, but i don't understand why people would want to eat shabu shabu in the summer.

oh yea, my dad kinda got lost on the highway or something trying to show my relatives the general direction of Houston. so it took us like an extra hour to get home.

on & off sleeping until about 4:00 today. it seems like after you pass a certain point, the more you sleep, the more tired you get.

well, my dad & grandpa come back from my cousin's wedding in L.A. tonight. I really should have gone- not like i did anything this whole week anyways. =/

went and saw Scary Movie 2 today with some friends. i originally didn't feel like going (and i turned down an opportunity to go with a different group), but then i got bored... so i went. pretty crude humor, but not bad i guess... i never saw the first one- i'd probably be a little more prepared for what i saw if i had.

well, that was my first time out of the house since Saturday night (06-30-01), well, unless you count going to get the mail. haha, man, i'm like living in my pajamas nowadays. ugghh... for real, i can't wait for my A&M research thing to get started.

"I wish life had multiple save points like games do. It'd be easier to go back and fix major screwups. I'd just have to remember to 'save' every five minutes."
~Piro http://www.megatokyo.com/

ONE-PLY TOILET PAPER IS THE WORK OF THE DEVIL!!!

AAAGGGHHHHH!!!! I was playing FF9 again today, and I had been leveling up for about 45 minutes (without saving) and i accidentally yanked out the power cord with my foot!! grrr.... 45 minutes down the drain! =(

man, i've got a craving for some babyback ribs right now... the way they do them at Tony Roma's. I wish they'd hurry and invent those food synthesizer things from Star Trek. That'd be the bomb... i'd put one in my bedroom so i could have breakfast in bed every day. =)

i've spent a lot of time today reading stories from http://fray.com/ today; they're really good short stories. My favorites so far: big brother, burnt popcorn, my stupid childhood.

criminal - big brother
"My happy memories
of my brother are,
I suspect, not really
my memories at all."

wow, i really liked this story. I can really relate to the narrator, even if my brother wasn't quite that evil. The illustrations even look like my style of art! =) Check it out; it's very simple reading with a message that all younger siblings can sympathize with.

Got a new network adapter today. yay! That's all that I can remember that happened today... hmmmm, i can't seem to account for where all my time is going this summer. weird.