I went and saw "Les Miserables" the musical today. I'd never seen a real Broadway (-style) musical before; well, unless you count "STOMP." But anyways, I loved it- the music was really moving. And we're studying operas in my music class, and I guess musicals are like the modern, understandable versions of opera. They chopped out a lot of the storyline, but I guess they had to otherwise it'd take forever. But yea... I found the musical to be infinitely more entertaining than the book, heheh.

I attended the very last performance in Austin cuz that was the discount showing for UT students. I got killer seats- I was in the fifth row; it was awesome. On the stage, they had like this giant revolving platform that they used to help in scene changes. Some of the stuff they did with it was hilarious- heh, you had to be there.

I hadn't heard of it before, but apparently the main singers have "understudies" that I suppose fill in for them when their voices start giving out. I guess that makes sense; when the starting line-up gets tired, you send in the second string. Hah, yea, so we got the bench-warmer Jean Valjean and Fantine. But they sang wonderfully nonetheless.

"Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?"
~Finale

Don't you hate when you're going down the stairs and you think there's more stairs, but then you hit the end and it's like what the...???

Man, college living sure ain't a walk in the park. You learn pretty quickly that if you ever want to get to class on time, "WALK" and a red flashing "DONT WALK" are actually synonymous. Walking across campus is a huge pain- they need to get some moving walkways here, seriously, like Jetson-style, heheh.

Oh, and I find myself eating a lot of popsicles these days. Like, I think I'd average about 3 a day. And they've got like the cheesiest jokes known to man printed on the sticks, but I read them anyways. Good thing they repeat the jokes, otherwise I'd be eating a lot more popsicles, heheh. But yea, one thing I've noticed is that I've got this habit of gnawing on the stick after I finish off a popsicle. I guess it's kinda like how some people chew on a bone to get out the marrow flavor- so I guess I'm chewing for flavor seeped into the wood or something, haha.

Ummm, also, my left forearm has been feeling numb since Tuesday. It's weird; it feels more asleep than sore. Hmmmm... I can't think what might have happened to it. The only thing I can think of is maybe I hurt it in judo, but that doesn't seem very likely. And today, it started hurting after I rubbed it. Auughhhh... DNG.

Maaaaaaaan, I've been feeling progressively dumber and dumber. I've scored lower than I expected on the only 2 examinations I've taken since I got here. And I'm really starting to suck it up in calc; geez... and I used to think I was pretty good at math. =/ Bleeehhhhh... And today, I had a hell of a time in drafting, which I usually think of as my easiest class (well, other than judo). I was like among the last people in the class to finish my CAD drawings. Man, dang it, who woulda thought it'd be so freaking hard to make a 3D model of a screw?? Ugggghhhhh, yea... screw drafting! (pun intended) It took me so long that I missed a club meeting that I had planned to attend. =( *sigh* I'm not feeling very L33t recently. =/

Well, I got rejected for the UT web journal project. =/ Quite disappointing, cuz I made like the first cut & went in for an interview and everything.

In other news, The engineering school held a job fair (expo) today, and I volunteered to work as a liaison (for a free t-shirt =P). It was pretty boring; it was basically getting the recruiters drinks and then walking around pointlessly for 2 hours. Anyways, I wasn't looking too seriously for a job since I'm only a freshman, but I checked out most of the aerospace companies. Boeing was kinda anal, like "if you're not an upperclassman, don't waste our time." Air Force civilian branch got me interested by saying how there's a high chance of them sending their employees to grad school & paying for them. Raytheon was really nice, and I chatted with one of the recruiters for quite awhile. Lockheed Martin got my attention the most though- they said they're looking for summer interns especially for positions in the Dallas area. And I also chatted with some companies I'd never heard of.

I thought I'd made a pretty good round until I came home and saw the complete list of companies and was like, aww crap, I missed all these good companies!! Like NASA and the JPL. Grrrrrrrr...

*And I finally got my scholarship check from Engineering. With everything totalled together, (and with the Texas Tomorrow Fund working in my favor,) I think I'm making somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 to 3000 a semester coming to UT. Not bad... but I gotta keep up the GPA to keep the dollars rolling in.

(I'm writing this too late after the temp date, so I can't remember half the stuff I was going to say...)

Today, I went with Nien & some of his family friends to get dim sum. Man, that's probably the best eating I've had since school started.

*Tonight was also the Mid-Autumn Festival. I found a spot outside to gaze at the moon while eating a late dinner by myself. There was also a football game going on in the stadium on the other side of campus, and I heard the sound of cheers all the way from my dorm.

I just got back from a chemistry review, and I asked some questions that made the TA think. I hope that made a good impression; I'm sure now he thinks either hey, that's a pretty smart kid OR that kid's a real smart-aleck. Hah, let's hope it's the former.

Man, arrrrgggg... I spent 3 hours on aerospace hw last night, and went to class this morning and found out that I got every single problem wrong! Bleeehhhhh... Well, at least now I know that Taylor series are actually used in the real world. Speaking of which, today, in math class, the professor also said that Taylor series are one of the most important concepts of calculus. Hmmm... dang it, shoulda paid more attention in high school. =/

Oh yea, and I got a response for my writing submission (see previous entry), and I'm going in for an interview tomorrow afternoon. This should be interesting...

*I found out later that I actually got one of the aerospace problems right. The teacher made a mistake solving it.

I got a letter a couple days ago from the Freshman Admissions Center inviting me to participate in a web journal project following the experiences of 6 entering freshmen. I was kinda skeptical at first, cuz I didn't really wanna waste my time if it wasn't a very exclusive invitation. Well, I decided what the hell... and I sent in a writing sample to be considered. I dunno, I figger I'm gonna write about my experiences anyways, and if they wanna use 'em, that's cool.

But yea, once I got to writing, I realized that I still kinda hafta censor my thoughts a little- I don't think it would be in my best interests to express certain ideas. To put it another way: if it weren't for the administrative audience, the essay would read a lot more negatively. And there's a word limit too, so I can't just rant on and on. Well, anyways, here's what I sent in for my writing sample:

"Man, whoever said college was easy must have been a business major! (*1) I came to college with the picture in my head that campus life was laid back with plenty of free time. Geez, was I sorely mistaken- the homework piles up seemingly overnight. With freedom comes responsibility, and I'm finding it harder than I imagined adjusting to college life. It feels so different from life at home. (*2) There are a bunch of little annoyances that add up to big stress. (*3) Sometimes it's a battle just getting up in the morning and facing the new day. (*4) It's definitely a struggle, but I'm determined to make it- I just need to take these four years one challenge at a time. (*5)"

Footnotes (not included in my submission):
*1 - I was talking with Emily the other day, saying how absolutely stressed out I was by school. Emily (a business student) was like, "what stress? College is like summer camp!" Aauuuggghhhh... that's the difference between engineering & business at college, folks.
*2 - The campus (physical campus & student body) is so much bigger than I had imagined. It's like I'm lost in a crowd. I feel like I'm lacking a sense of identity here. Everything feels so impersonal. And I'm not good with new people, and you don't see new people often enough for them to become old people.
"The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough."
~Ezra Pound "In a Station of the Metro"
*3 - Laundry is now an all day experience. The fact that the nearest restroom is about 5 times farther than I'm used to. Lugging all my shower stuff back & forth. Pants with no pockets... a severe nuisance. The card swiper that takes like 5 tries... uggghhh, the list of annoyances goes on & on...
*4 - This is a drastic understatement! I'll sit in my dorm doing nothing in the morning but think about how I don't wanna go through the day. I find myself up late at night, not wanting to sleep- fearing the arrival of the morrow. *sigh* Days feel so long and torturous here... =/ It's gonna be a looooooong 4 years
*5 - All y'all who know me should know I would probably never end a passage like this. Hah, a slight bit on the tacky side.

...in memory...

hey, sorry for the severe lack of posts recently, guys. The new computer I got isn't functional (long story) and the computer lab hours don't coincide with my typical online time (very late at night), so I can't get internet access very often these days. Yea, but once things get settled down, rest assured that updates will be on the way.