Thursday, October 31, 2002--
HALLOWEEN!!!--Today's halloween! Here's a picture of me in my costume in the parking lot at Leland (Franklin took this photo sitting atop my car):
Click here for the picture.
No one could recognize me, except by my voice. Today, before class, I had a run-in with Claire. I stopped her, silently, and on her face there was this expression of absolute fear over her face as I simply smiled at her. Then, I said, "Hi, Claire," and she gave a sigh of relief, and said, "Oh, it's only you, Dwayne!"
I also saw a person dressed as Yuna from Final Fantasy X.
In the Library at first period, I snuck up on Nadia from behind and covered her face with my claw, and she kind of freaked out. (I later learned in 4th period that she hella likes Reese's, but I digress.)
Apparently, Stacie and Stephanie dressed up as twins today, with the same clothes and the same hairstyle, but I could still tell them apart by their eyes. "But, you already are twins!" I said to Stacie. Oh, and we listened to some pretty cool music today in 2nd period and watched scenes from Fantasia 2002.
In 3rd period government, Amy was "Amy" and Stephanie was "Stephanie", but Yily was just "a student." Okay, whatever.
During 4th period, I tried to attack Iwen with my claw. I got within an inch of her eyes, and she didn't even flinch. Damn, I bet I could have poked her eyes out, and she still wouldn't have paid any attention to me.
During lunch, I scared Cindy with the sneak-up-behind-and-put-claw-to-face technique. I also tried to sneak up on Tifa Wang, but she saw me coming, so I just said, "Hello, do you recognize me?" She replied, "I do now." But, I couldn't eat without getting black face paint in my stomach. That sucked.
I wanted to attack Diane with my claw today, but I didn't even get the chance to try. *shrug*
5th period, I lunged with my claw at Linh Nguyen, and freaked her out. Haha! Halloween is fun!
I saw Sarah in the parking lot after school. I wanted to claw her, but I had to go. Damnit!
Why did my parents have to schedule a dental appointment ON Halloween? What the heck?
But other than that, I had fun, somewhat, giving candy to kids who trick or treated at our house. I even scared the shit out of Franklin's ladyfriend Jenny Shieh with my claw lunge.
Oh, also Franklin got us some candy. We split it 35/35 and the remaining 30 Franklin would give away to his friends. I stuffed my candy into my glove, the Candy Hand:
Click here for the picture.
I wish...
Damnit!
*teardrop*...
Wednesday, October 30, 2002--Today in government class, Mrs. Bergantz is talking about Saddam Hussein, but she pronounces "Saddam" with the stress on the first syllable instead, to which Justin says, "Heheh, SADDam (sodom(y))!" Thanks to his "7069", the whole class burst into laughter. "It's pronounced saDDAM, not SADDam." Stupid 7069.
Later, Justin was saying to...I forget who, about how people who are Asian (yellow) on the outside and white on the inside are called "bananas". Likewise, people who are black on the outside, but white on the inside are "oreos." I said, "Hey, I'm a banana and I'm proud of it!"
During lunch, I walk into Miss Yamamoto's room to deliver the CAMLs, but they're having an MAH intramural. Big mistake. I HATE SOPHOMORES!!! AUUGGHH!!!
[Addendum 8/24/2005] Wow, I must have really hated the sophomores back then. Kinda ironic given the circumstances today.
Well, I have my Halloween costume for school ready tomorroq. It consists of a big black cloak & hood, clawed gloves (see below), and black and white face paint. I'm not sure what it is, but I think its Undead. Ryan says I'm a Lich. Justin says I'm Tichondrius with a cloak. Whatever.
I ought to go to sleep now.
Good night!
*sigh* I think I'm falling in with . . . Hey! This is big enough to read! I'm not going to blurt it out for the whole world to know . . . *sigh*
Tuesday, October 29, 2002--Woke up early for the CAML today. When I got to the room, my first thought was, "Oh, crap! What's she doing here?" Why does Little Rabbit always have to sit right there so that she's the first thing I see when I enter Mr. Shelton's room? Other than that, it was packed full of people, more than we expected. I spent the whole 30 minutes trying to solve the last problem (I already solved the other 5 easy problems) and failed miserably. It turns out no one got that one right. *shrig*
Heh, today in 2nd period Music class, Stacie had to help her little sister (little by 1 minute) Stephanie every 3 minutes. And they're twins!
At lunch, I wandered around the school looking for stuff. I recall seeing a warning sign saying, "Warning! Open Trench." So, I say to Jaylum, "Do you see an open trench around here?" Of course there wasn't.
(BTW, Alan, at lunch we were also talking about Ihui (pronounced Ee-hwei, give or take a H's).)
Today in 6th period, some guys were playing with magnetic words and making sentences about "blowing enormous sausages." Tiff Hung says to her friend, "Don't read them. They're making some really bad sentences." Miss Koyanagi says, "You better not be making bad sentences on my cabinet." I say, "They're not wrong grammatically, just content-wise."
At the Math Team Meeting, Justin was complaining about being hungry because he had to do the CAML at lunch. Mr. Yim says to bring lunch to the CAML. I mention that it sounds like the "Camel" is our god and that we're feeding the "Camel". The whole class burst into laughter. I didn't think it was THAT funny.
So, other than that, my mom is helping to sew up my cloak & hood. I might give you a sneak peak later, but for now, I'm saying "Good night!"
I'll be thinking of you, Miss [censored to protect the identity of the girl who's name would otherwise be here].
Monday, October 28, 2002--I'm feeling absolutely rejuvenated today for absolutely no reason! Okay, maybe there is a reason, but I don't know it.
Well, today in 6th period, I showed Miss Koyanagi the printout of that episode of
8-bit Theater with "Jabberwocky". She thought it was funny.
Afterwards, the class was looking over sample essays in groups, so our group turned our chairs to form a triangle (you can't form a circle with 3 people), and I looked behind me and noticed that Tiff Hung is RIGHT BEHIND ME. So, I ask her, "Am I too close?" Immediately, she replies, "Yes." Well, some girls are like that. *shrig*
The essay our group was reading had handwriting so bad, not even I could read it. It also had some really screwy word choices. For example, "As the ship increased, the iceberg increased with it." How do you increase a ship or an iceberg? *shrig* #2
snip, snip--has been cut out due to chaos and confusion.
In any case, I plan on attending the CAML (California Math League) Contest #1 for this year, so I really should get some sleep. Ironically, I stayed up pretty late surfing the web. Heh, I hope the end of Daylight Savings Time helps me wake up tomorrow morning.
Good knight!
Sunday, October 27, 2002--Where were you at 1am this morning? Both of them?
Yes, there were two 1am. Daylight Savings Time ended today. We got an extra hour.
So...
Boring day...
Did lots of meticulous things.
I think I'll go get some sleep, now. See you tomorrow! Good night!
Saturday, October 26, 2002--Homecoming's today, but I'm not going. I did go to Leland for Chinese School, though. During break, a bunch of little sophomores came by riding in the truck carrying their float. I flipped them off.
Upon coming home, I finished up
Dark Fiends Chapter III and prepared it to be uploaded. (I uploaded it later that night.)
After that, I started working on my Halloween costume. I already have the black cloth for the hooded-cloak (it's actually a black bedsheet) and my mom's going to buy the face paint soon. But, I made my clawed gloves today. Take a look:
Click here for the picture.
And that brings me up to the now. So, I'll just end this entry and say "Good night!" If anything happens between now and the end of the day, I'll post an addendum.
Friday, October 25, 2002--It's getting
co-o-old! *shiver* *shiver* *shiver*
During 2nd period, I made another song on Sheet Music. It's
The Tragedy of Viltris - Theme of Sorrow. Wow... Once I learned all the tricks and tools of Sibelius, it becomes pretty easy to churn out sheet music. You can get it on the
Music Page.
Later, at Lunch's Math Club meeting, the Math Club room was packed full of sophomores and 9th-graders. I didn't realize Math Club was THAT popular. (In retrospect, they were probably only there for the Kristi Kreme Donut order forms.)
In 6th period English class, I found out that the poem from
8-bit Theater Episode 173 ("Thank you, Mr. Carroll") is a real poem. It's "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll (and it's on p. 669 in the book for you guys in Leland's English AP class). I
still don't know how to pronounce "manxome". When I got home, I found this comic and printed out a copy so that I could bring it to show Miss Koyanagi.
After that, I did some stuff at home and went to sleep.
Good night to thee, reader.
Thursday, October 24, 2002--First thing's first... *takes a deep breath*
Happy 17th Birthday, Cindy!!!
Thank you! I'm feeling MUCH better now.
In any case, as you can see, it's Cindy's birthday today.
In any case, before school, little Rabbit single-handedly kept me out of the library by looking at me as I tried to approach. I was like, "Oh, shit! It's her!" And I promptly left. Pathetic, aren't I? Well, you'd be scared of little Rabbit, too, if she looked at you like that.
During 2nd period Electronic Music class, I finished the
sheet music for my Original/Double Piece, courtesy of Sibelius. Rather than printing it or leaving it in the Sibelius format, which most people don't have the application to read, I saved it as a black & white bitmap, which is actually pretty small.
In 3rd Bergantz' class, she gave us a really, really old
Upfront (so old, it's from back when it was called
Update). We've done this one before, 2 years ago, in sophomore year. It's the one with the little Thai child prostitute girl. I know that Alan Watson's gonna remember her.
In 4th period Chemistry AP, Mr. "Sacrifice-my-life" was harassing little Nadia exactly the same way Justin was harassing Jaylum last year: by asking questions such as "Who would you rather sleep with...?" Then, Justin joined in and started harassing Nadia. I was like, "Oh, god! Not this again." So, I stayed out of it. I feel sorry for poor little Nadia. She has to take all that trash from Justin and "Sacrifice-my-life".
In 5th period, I looked at my bitmaps, then realized the Sibelius, a European program, uses a European standard of 116 dots per inch (dpi) for monitor display while the American standard is only 96 dpi. Thus, I found that my sheet music pages were slightly (ok, MUCH) bigger than a standard 8.5x11 in. sheet of paper. Well, I'll have to resize it at home, I thought.
In 6th period English AP, we had a timed writing on a poem about the sinking of the Titanic. It was the best essay I've ever written in that class.
Upon arriving home, I started playing with the sheet music, because I had to be able to have it available in the size of a 8.5x11 inch sheet of paper. Unfortunately, if I try to resize the bitmap, since every thing is so small, it'll distort the sheet music. I tried converting to GIF's, but GIF's don't resize well, either. I tried JPEG, but a JPEG of this kind of object is just too large. Finally, while playing with Adobe Photoshop, I discovered that I could convert to PDF's. PDF's resize flawlessly, and are a very generic file format on the internet. My problem has been solved! All the user has to do is tell Acrobat Reader to print so that it fits on a single page. Unfortunately, with Photoshop, you can only make single page PDF's. You need Adobe Acrobat (NOT Adobe Acrobat
Reader) in order to make multiple page PDF's. Oh, well. Putting my score on 5 pages is good enough. If you want the sheet music to Original/Double Piece, click
here. BUT, if you want to play this song for a performance, please get my permission and invite me to the performance. (Even if I can't go, I would still prefer the invitation, so I know I'm welcome.) I am the composer, after all. (NOTE: There was not meant to be any arrogance in that last remark.)
Whoa! Haven't had a post this long since October 10th.
I wonder if Cindy liked my card?
Good night, milady!
Wednesday, October 23, 2002--Damn, all I can think of is that I aced the English poetic devices test today. *shrig*
Oh, and I also attended the poll worker training class. It was... slightly amusing.
After that, I did lots of minor stuffs and caught some Z's.
You know, I wonder if Cynth will like the birthday card I might give her...
*sigh* Good night.
Tuesday, October 22, 2002--I finally learned from the Electronic Music teacher how to use Sibelius. Now, that piece of trash is actually becoming quite useful. (The instruction manual and help files don't tell you jack shit.)
Instead of 3rd and 4th period today, we seniors got to go to an Assembly, where this Brad Henning (?) guy gave us a lecture (amusing, though) about relationships, the differences between guys and girls, and how sex destroys relationships. Wait... He had 3 points, but I already forgot one of them. Oh, well.
Reading through the Upfront that Mrs. Bergantz assigned us, I came across the name "Tiffany Wang" of Palo Alto. Scary coincidence...
And then, tonight, not much happened.
Good night, darling!
Monday, October 21, 2002--*yawn* These days keep getting boringer and boringer, don't they? (Is
boringer a word? No, I think I'm looking for
more boring.)
Well, I DID go the SJYS rehearsal today...
Other than that, it's a boring day. Good night!
Sunday, October 20, 2002--We went to
Jasmine Alley yet again for lunch, and we saw one of Franklin's friends.
Then, later that day, after doing some college application stuff, I went to Alan's birthday party, where we mostly screwed around.
Then, after staying up late doing homework, I updated my website and went to sleep. (Although most don't consider midnight to be late at all...)
Yet another short journal entry.
*shrig* Good night!
Saturday, October 19, 2002--Chinese school today... that's all.
I played lots of video games, the details of which aren't all that important.
Oh, and I uploaded
The Legend of the Dark Fiends Chapter 2.
And this journal entry takes the record for being second shortest, I think.
Well, whatever, good night!
Friday, October 18, 2002--No school today. Other than that, today was a really boring day.
This entry takes the record for shortest entry, I'm sure.
Thursday, October 17, 2002--Today, while I was trying to finish the Upfront Magazine Assignment in the Library during 1st period, Mrs. Bergantz (the teacher who assigns the Upfronts) came up to me and asked me for some help just as a finished. Good thing I finished when I did. In any case, I helped her with grades, but I am sworn to secrecy as to what I saw and heard.
Oh, yes, Math Club Kristi Kreme Fundraiser unofficially began today. I grabbed 7 order forms...
Apparently, there's no school tomorrow, so today is, in effect, Friday. Yay!
I played some Warcraft III against my bro, but he had to leave for tennis and the saving mechanism screwed up. We don't know who would have won. We both had a pretty good army (I knocked down his air force, he knocked down my Banshee battalion). It was Undead vs Undead.
We also tried WarChasers, which might be fun if it weren't so damn hard.
Then, we tried SquareSoft BattleArena, which ain't that good.
Also, Frankie and I rented some games from Blockbuster. We tried
Robotech: Battlecry, which was actually pretty fun, albeit simplistic.
Well, that was my day... I think...
Good night!
Wednesday, October 16, 2002--Today was Alan's birthday. I gave him the card. 8 people signed it: Me, Justin, Frankie, Ryan, Sarah, and Claire. I tried to get Nadia to sign it, but she utterly refused. I tried to get Maria to sign it, but I couldn't find her. Oh, well. It would only have increased the card's likeability by 2.76% anyway. (BTW, unless otherwise stated, assume random numbers such as 2.76 is completely made up.)
We did a lab in Chem AP today. Ken Elkabany and I did most of the measuring. Nadia did most of the washing. "Women clean things better than men do," she says. Well, I don't mind, as long as they actually DO all the cleaning. Just kidding. I hope I didn't offend any feminists out there. I did my share of the washing and wiping. (Justin and "Sacrifice-my-life" Guy were there only for moral support, but later Justin did do some of the thermometer work.) While wiping the table, I accidentally knocked down and broke a 100 mL graduated cylinder. I was so scared that Mr. Roske would flunk me, but all he did was give me a brief lecture on how he can't afford to lose any more 100 mL cylinders--our class had broken two already in that one class period alone--and made me clean up the glass shards.
Other than that, I think we're pretty much done for today. Good night! Audience dismissed!
Tuesday, October 15, 2002--Unlike popular belief, the people in
Dark Fiends do NOT parallel real people. The only exception is Mr. Kurczek...
The juniors, sophomores, and half the freshmen took PSATs today, so I, being a senior, got to stay home until 11 am.
Also, in the morning today, I made Alan's "crappy" birthday card (it's his birthday tomorrow). I signed it, Ryan signed it, and Justin signed it. Somehow, I even got little Rodent to sign it.
Before 2nd period, I asked Maria and Claire to sign Alan's card. Both of them said "later", but I never saw Maria again that day...
Today in 3rd period Gov't Honors, Andrew, aka "Hobbes", also our class timekeeper, told Mrs. Bergantz that we had pi/2 radians on the clock left (which is a quarter turn, or 15 minutes). No one got it except me and Justin, so he decided never to do it again.
In 4th period Chem AP, Mr. Roske scrambled our seats. I ended up sitting across the table from Nadia and almost back to back with Iwen. Well, at least I almost got little Nadia to sign Alan's card. There's always tomorrow. I'm probably not even going to see Alan until lunch, or possibly the passing period between 5th and 6th period.
At the Math meeting today, I got Claire and Franklin to sign Alan's card.
Well, that's all. These days keep getting boringer and boringer, do they?
Or am I getting lazier?
Whatever, good night!
Monday, October 14, 2002--Uneventful day, today...
The only interesting thing that happened at school was that in 6th period English AP, we had to grade 2 essays each. The first essay I graded was Tiffany Hung's. The second was Tiffany Wang's. The two Tiffanies again...
SJYS Rehearsal today. I think the people are getting suspicious...
Maybe not, who knows. And that as they say is that. (FFX Quote) Good night!
Sunday, October 13, 2002--Some people don't realize that I shrig instead of shrug on purpose. What originated as a typo on AIM has become one of my trademarks.
Returned Justin's Warcraft III CD today. That tall guy made me return it before 12 o'clock noon today or he'd fine me $60. Well, at least there was no rental fee.
While driving to lunch, I saw a flock of birds flying in formation around a traffic light. It was funny. I wanted to take a picture, but I didn't have a camera.
For lunch, we went to a Chinese restaurant called "Jasmine Alley." The service wasn't the best (although they promise to get better after they get used to the newness...), but what bothered me the most was the name of the restaurant, and for personal reasons...
In any case, I found a trick to Warcraft III. Apparently, the CD is only needed to install and start the game. Once you're in the game, you don't need the CD at all. I just removed it and the program didn't complain. Using this trick, I ran Warcraft III on 2 comps simultaneously with only 1 CD. I also played a few games with my bro. The comp isn't all that hard... I'll post screenshots of the game probably next week, since you guys really want more pics on the site.
Also, I finally finished the first chapter of my weekly online adventure story (which might not be weekly due to lack of time, but hey, I can write half a chapter in an hour or 2, so maybe...) It'll be posted shortly after I'm done updating this jounral.
Well, this Sunday sure was more eventful than the last.
Good night, my dear...
Saturday, October 12, 2002--Sorry, but there will be a few slight delays in the start of my weekly online adventure story due to . . . college essays.
In any case, today's Chinese school class was like yesterday's Math 73 class. Half the class was at the SATs, so we didn't really do anything today.
In any case, it was Justin's birthday party today. I printed a card and gave him a $20. Also, we brought some games and Alan brought the PS2, so we played some Smackdown (which Justin enjoyed) and some GTA3 (which Justin DIDN'T enjoy). Also, I borrowed Justin's Warcraft III CD and proved that it wasn't my CD that was defective, but something else. Ryan thinks some other software is interfering with the patch installation, but we've gone over much of what our 2 computers that can't run Warcraft III have in common, and we haven't found anything.
I've lost my insanity. I talked to little Rabbit today. Actually, it wasn't all that bad. She was being rather nice . . . for about 5 minutes. Then, she made some bullshit excuse that she had to leave, and then blocked me. Still though, I don't think she really hates me.
I'll try to get some sleep tonite. I promise.
Friday, October 11, 2002--Today is Justin's birthday. Thus, I had previously made a deal with the Family (formerly the UTA) for balloon service for Justin. (It cost me the last of my money as of this moment.) So, thus, while I was rendezvousing (is that a word?) with Shawn in the parking lot for the ballons--the "really gay" ballons--I absent-mindedly walk into an empty parking space and almost got ran over by Tiffany Wang. That's really ironic, considering that it's TIFFANY WANG! (Never mind.)
In anycase, Justin took the balloons. Apparently, Shawn had already spoiled the surprise for him.
Half the class didn't show up to Math 73 today, so Mr. Langlois lectured for about half an hour and promptly left. Nadia complained, "What am I supposed to do now? I only came here so early for Math 73?" Tiffany Wang borrowed my US Gov't Notes.
Later that day, at 6th period...
Me: Hi, Tiffany.
Tiffany: Hi, Dwayne.
A pause.
Me: Are you done with my notes?
Tiffany: Oh, I'm sorry, I completely forget.
Me: It's okay.
Tiffany: Here you go.
(hands back the notes).
Me: Thanks.
Interesting...
After school, I needed to take care of college application business and National Merit business. I had a run-in with Diane Ko in the office. The way that girl looks at me...it's unnerving...and that's the irony of it all.
Also, who would have thought that the CalTech essay would be so damn hard. I need to get some sleep now...
Thursday, October 10, 2002 - Addendum--My brother challenged me for the unlimited right to borrow my Yugioh cards. I told him that he had to beat me in a best 2 out of 3 match of Yugioh Duels, and he had to play on my terms: meaning I get to shuffle his deck at the beginning of every game, so that he can't cheat.
During the first round, early on, he played his "Toll" card, a permanent Magic Card which requires any attacker to pay 500 Life in order to attack. I didn't know how to handle it, so I kept attacking Franklin's defensive cards until I had about 700 life left. In the mean time, I had only done enough damage to bring him down to 6650 Life. I stopped attacking, realizing that anymore would mean my death. I had the Swordstalker (Level 5, 2000 attack) on the field. After a few turns, I drew De-spell, a magic card that could destroy any magic card on the field, such as Toll. So, I did. Then, I unleashed the fury of my Swordstalker. Unfortunately for me, Franklin sacrificed a monster to play the Summoned Skull (Level 6, 2500 attack), which he had recently drawn. He used it to attack my Swordstalker. I played Reinforcements, a trap card that gives my monster 500 more attack for 1 turn. Franklin countered with his own Reinforcements, this killing my Swordstalker and reducing my Life to 200.
Looking back on the game, Franklin had, at the same time, a Giant Soldier of Stone (Level 4, 800 attack, 2000 defense, I believe) in defense mode on the field. He could have, and should have, flipped it to attack mode and used it to kill me, but he overlooked this. It took only a few turns for him to realize his mistake. Fortunately, I had a Dark Hole, so, on my turn, I promptly played it, then played one of my monsters with 1500 attack and attacked Franklin for direct damage, bringing him down to 5150 Life. On Franklin's next turn, he was out of monsters, so, on my turn, I played another monster with 1500 attack and attacked with both of them for a combined direct damage of 3000, bringing Franklin down to 2150. On his turn, Franklin drew the Great White (Level 4, 1600 attack), which he promptly played and used it to kill on of my 1500 monsters, bringing me down to a mere 100 Life.
Franklin also had the card "Stim Packs" in his hand, which increases a monster's attack by 700, but then reduces it by 200 per turn after that. He was about to equip it on his Great White, but decided aginst it. He realized at the end of the game that if he had played it, he would have killed me. On my turn, I sacrificed a monster to play Gyakutenno Megami (Level 6, 1800 attack, 2000 defense), which I used to kill Franklin's Great White, bringing him down to 1950 Life. On Franklin's next turn, he played Chain Energy, a permanent Magic Card that requires players to pay 500 Life to play another card. Luckily for me, he had no monsters to play. At this point, knowing full well that I had but 100 Life, I put my hand aside and used Megami to attack for direct damage of 1800, bringing Franklin down to 150 Life.
At this point, Franklin realized his 3rd and final mistake. Although he had a monster in his hand which, combined with Stim Packs, could have saved him, when he played Chain Energy, he pretty much slit his own throat. He had no monsters on the field, and now, he couldn't play any monsters on the field without killing himself. Thus, on my next turn, I finished Franklin off for the win.
It was a match that Franklin should have won, given his Toll card and my failure to overcome it for such a long time. Unfortunately, his first 2 mistakes delayed his victory long enough for me to make a comeback, and his final mistake sealed his fate. The final score, in a duel Franklin should have won, was 100-0.
In the second round, Franklin played much more aggressively, determined not to let me win again. He easily beat me. However, something interesting did happen in this duel. I played La Jinn (Level 4, 1800 attack). Franklin played the Bistro Butcher (Level 4, 1800 attack) and used it to attack La Jinn, destroying them both. Later in the duel, Franklin revived Bistro and I revived La Jinn. I was hoping to use a combo of Block Attack on Bistro to change him into defense mode so that I could kill him with La Jinn, trying to prevent Franklin's double KO maneuver from repeating. Unfortunately, he played Waboku, which protected him (and his Bistro) for a turn, and he, on his next turn, pulled off a repeat of the Bistro-La Jinn double KO. He then used his 2 other monsters (I was completely defenseless) to kill me off for the victory.
It came down to the third round. In my first draw, I had the Swamp Battleguard and the Lava Battleguard, a pair of monsters that are extremely strong when both are played at the same time. I also had the Lord of D (used for summoning Blue Eyes with the Flute) and Jirai Gumo (Level 4, 2200 attack, 100 defense, but, if I attack with it, there's a 50% chance I lose half my Life). I had first turn, so I played Jirai, hoping to be able to get both of my Battleguards onto the field. Franklin played a card in defense mode. Then, I drew none other than the Blue Eyes. At this point, I was somewhat reluctant to play Lord of D, knowing full well that all I needed was the Flute to summon Blue Eyes, but I wanted to get my Battleguards on the field, so I played Lord of D face down. Whether I chose Blue Eyes or my pair of Battleguards, I would need to sacrifice a total of 2 monsters to play either combo. I'm not sure what happened next, but Franklin managed to hold off my summoning of the Battleguards or Blue Eyes. In a turn or 2, he managed to play the Dark Magician and equipped him with the Sword of Deap-Seated, a Magic Card that increases a monster's attack and defense by 500 points, and, if the Sword were destroyed, he could put it on top of his deck, returning it to play. With this combo, Franklin easily slaughtered me for the victory. I had a a pair of Battleguards and a Blue Eyes I never got to play.
Because he won 2 out of 3, he won the challenge and the unlimited right to borrow my cards. As expected, among the cards he chose to borrow were Blue Eyes, the Battle Ox (Level 4, 1700 attack), La Jinn, Bistro, Judge man (Level 5, 2200 attack), and the Princess of Tsurugi (weak in battle, but has a power that allows you to deal 500 damage per Magic or Trap Card that opponent has on the field when the Princess is flipped), which were some of my best monsters.
On a side-note, I've begun a project to make myself a halloween costume. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I have a vision and it sure looks like something undead.
In any case, good night, and this time, it's for real!
Thursday, October 10, 2002--Who the Heaven is "muahaha" in my ghostbook?
Between 2nd and 3rd period, I was called to the office for a meeting that never took place. No one showed up (except me and Tiffany Hung, who was also called to the office)... Hmm... I just walked away and was late to 3rd period.
Earthquake drill, today. Justin got to be flag carrier because he was really tall. Mrs. Bergantz asked, "In an emergency, do you know what saves lives?" Somebody (I think it was Justin) yelled out, "Tall people!" I forgot what the real answer was. In any case, Justin had to carry the flag a la the Blademaster from Warcraft III, and Mrs. Bergantz told him to "rally everyone" with his flag. So Justin got to be a rally point today...
Tiffany Wang was absent today, so our group was down one character. I suggested that one of us call her tonight to try to get the stuff from her, but none of us knew her phone number. So then Omar asks Tiffany Hung for Tiffany Wang's phone number. Well, I guess you can trust Tiffany to know Tiffany, even if they are different Tiffanies.
Speaking of which, what's the plural for "Tiffany"? Is it "Tiffanies" or "Tiffanys". I'm leaning toward the "ies" ending, for some odd reason.
This question actually originated in junior year, "What's the plural of Cindy? Is it Cindies or Cindys?" Nadia's very not helpful response was, "Who's Cindy? Are you going to ask her to Junior Prom? Did she say yes? Oh, how sweet." And I didn't even say anything. What the Heaven?
I slept like a . . . thing that sleeps today upon coming home. For the first time this week, I have the ENERGY!
And then I did my homework, updated my website, and went to sleep. Good night!
Wednesday, October 9, 2002--I have an addendum to yesterday. It's in
green.
The last ever Math Team meeting for T-period... Well, goodbye T-period. In any case, it seems that Stephanie Yaung and Joanna Chen are my two best students at the Math Team, with Lei Huang close behind them.
In 4th period Chemistry, I overheard Nadia say that she "loves Mongolian Barbeque"...
In 6th period English, we've been watching
Death of a Salesman for the last 3 days, finishing it today. Tiffany Hung asks me what colleges I applied to. That was random. I work with Tiffany Wang in a group to present a portion of the play, a portion that I haven't read yet. Whatever...
Franklin got a new Yugioh card. It's called the Sword of Deep-Seated. It can be equipped on any monster, increasing their attack and defense by 500. When it's sent to the Graveyard, he can place it onto the top of his deck. It's not as good as the Malevolent Nuzzler (which I don't have but have seen) which increases attack and defense by
700, but costs 500 Life to return from the Graveyard.
In any case, Franklin and I dueled. I easily won the first 2 games, but then, during the 3rd game, when he finally got to play the Sword, playing it on the already extremely strong Summoned Skull, he kicked my ass.
Oh, well. Good night, that's all.
Tuesday, October 8, 2002--I had an interesting conversation today with Ke and Linda 1st period at the school library. Too bad I forgot what it was about...
2nd period today, apparently Stephanie was looking at something on her computer, when suddenly she screamed, real loud. After that everyone was staring at her and Stacie went over to see what it was. After she came back, I asked, "What's going on?" She replied, "Just some ghost thing. It's not scary at all." It's amazing how different those twins are.
4th period, there was this really hard problem in last night's homework. I told Roske that I solved it, and he asked me how. I told him that I used a Physics formula, and he replied, "Oh, is it something Woytek taught you?" Immediately the whole class burst into laughter. Actually, no matter which way you look at it, Woytek didn't teach fluid dynamics to me. He assigned it as reading during the summer between Physics Honors and Physics AP. I learned and review it on my own, independent even from good old Dr. Goodstein--who, from what I've been told, still teaches at CalTech by showing his own videos.
5th period today, while grading quizzes for Mr. Peterson, while I was grading Stacie's paper, it paper-cutted me. It's interesting how those junior girls can still smite you even if they're not around.
Also, at today's Math Team meeting, Franklin and Justin (mostly Franklin), with a little help from Joanna Chen, solved the entire packet of 10 probability problems on the board, with explanations, in about 30 minutes. That's pretty damn good!
Last, but not least, I found Diane Ko's website last night, and I left something on her ghostbook. It's amazing how powerful Google.com is. Enter anyone's name (in quotes) and, if there are webpages about that person or people with that name, Google will find it. Don't ask why I was searching "Diane Ko" on Google.com. I think I was bored and I had already searched everyone else's name...
Oh, also, I saw this girl on one of my parents Chinese TV series that looks exactly like Claire, except Claire's cuter...
Have you ever been so tired that you just wanted to go to sleep and never wake up? I felt like that today...
*yawn* Good night...
Monday, October 7, 2002--Apparently, our school's Assistant Principle of Guidance was rather misguided when he gave us faulty instructions on how to apply for National Merit Scholarships. Therefore, through no fault of my own, I have to redo the darned application and get a recommendation letter.
I finally got down to doing the last half of the Math 73 problem set. It was easy, simple, and straightforward, albeit time-consuming. (Why do people think difficult, complicated, and time-consuming mean the same thing? They are three related but completely different things.) I did half of the remaining half I needed to do in 1.5 hours, all the while listening to Mr. Langlois' lecture.
Today's Chem Test was easy. It was all homework questions. I swear to god (F~~~ you, god) if people actually DID THEIR OWN HOMEWORK, there's a chance they would actually KNOW how to do the problems ON THE TEST. Lesson learned, don't let people copy your homework, unless you really wanna screw them over on tests. Letting people copy your homework is like anti-teaching.
*yawn* Why do some people have to be so implicit in the way they talk. I prefer complete, blunt honesty over bullshit.
Today, I went to the SJYS rehearsal, this time at the Civic, aka "Far away place." The Civic probably has a longer more specific name, but, in my ignorance, I don't know it. Castillero (Middle School) is closer, but it's so cramped in there. I honestly don't know which I like better.
snip, snip--has been cut out due to chaos and confusion.
Oh, well...
*shr
ig* Good night!
Sunday, October 6, 2002--I watched
The Tuxedo today. It was pretty good, I guess. Jackie Chan's character reminded me of me.
Also, today, I visted the Leland Leviathan Message Board and found out they had 92 messages. Being the confused moron I am, I started complaining, until I realized that the message board has been around since July. *shrug* Whatever...
*yawn* Why are Sundays so boring?
In any case, good night.
Saturday, October 5, 2002--Our first Saturday morning together...
In any case, every Saturday morning, I always wake up early and watch the Saturday morning cartoons. Hey, what's wrong with Saturday morning cartoons? Just because they're "childish" doesn't mean they aren't entertaining. In fact, it's BECAUSE they're childish that they're entertaining. The best way to relax is to get in touch with your inner child. That's what I believe.
In any case, I had Saturday school to go to. No, I did NOT get into any kind of detention. On Saturdays, I have to go to the San Jose Chinese School, which, starting this year, is held at Leland High School, which is my regular school. Why are they always having football games at the same time as Chinese School? Oh, well. Whatever.
After class, she waved at me... :D
After lunch, I was playing around with stuff at home. Today, I came up with
"I worship Lunar, the Silver Dragon of the Ether.", because I do. I have a tendency to make up gods and goddesses and worship them until I get bored of them. My mind is a shrine to the gods that dwell in my imagination.
Also, while playing with Warcraft 3 World Editor (just because the actual game doesn't work doesn't mean I can't have fun with it...), I made a special unit that was actually a double sized Abomination. The condamned thing was HUGE. Here's a screenshot:
Click here for the picture.
Well, after that, I updated my website, so that's really all for tonight.
Friday, October 4, 2002--Today at lunch, I found out that fellow Math Teammate Fei Jiang has a twin sister. I met her at Math Club. I was like, "Is that Fei? I swear, she's already INSIDE." Her name is Fang. I wonder why she isn't also on the Math Team. Maybe they thought that 1 twin on the Math Team is enough. That way, they (or at least her DNA) can be in 2 places at once.
Also, after school, while trying to get Warcraft III to work, I asked Windows to update my Video Drivers, and it picked a friggin' VGA driver. That means Low Resolution and 16 colors. AIM looked really funny under those conditions. Good thing I fixed it. BTW, this is what it looked like:
Click here for the picture.
It's shrunken down to fit within the page, but the real thing took up the whole monitor. Can you imagine that?
Heh, I showed Alex my website today. He doesn't believe I'm a "Dark Fiend". He thinks that it's all a facade put up to deceive others. Well, if it is a facade, it must be a good one because it certainly deceives me. He doesn't even know what the "Dark Fiend" really is.
Thursday, October 3, 2002--In second period, Mr. Peterson, the Computer/Music teacher has a new TA (Teacher's Assistant). His name is Wayne Feng, as opposed to me (Dwayne Jeng) who is TA 5th period. Unfortunately, I'm the only TA who knows music well, so I still have to grade all the music related worksheets. Damn, now I know how teachers feel.
Today, in Gov't Honors, while talking about the Declaration of Independence, Mrs. Bergantz went off on a tangent (or so it seemed at the time) about falling in love, breaking up, and getting back together with your significant other. Originally, she was asking students to share their experiences, and Justin kept poking me. I was like, "Justin, stop poking me," and Mrs. Bergants was like, "Justin, stop poking Dwayne." Then, when Justin gave an example, he said, "My computer once broke down for a week. I felt lost without the love of my life, until I figured out that her memory chip was screwed." So, I say to Justin, "She said 'break UP,' not 'break DOWN'." Naturally, the whole class was laughing.
At lunch, I was talking to Alan, when suddenly, I noticed that the students were playing one of Nelly's crappy songs in the quad. I stopped mid-word, walked all the way across campus to my brother (who, incidentally, was being forced fed by Sarah "Lulu" Lu and one of her friends--they promptly dropped him when they saw me) and yelled at him, "What the hell is that music? What is it doing HERE?!?" Apparently, what they say that the music you listen to when you're 12 years old is the music you're stuck with forever.
Upon arriving at home, Franklin wanted to duel me with his
Yu-gi-oh cards. He wanted to try out his Great Moth. Unfortunately, of the 10 or so games I played with him, I either prevented his Petit Moth from evolving into the Great Moth causing him to forfeit (in one of those games, I killed the Great Moth in the first turn) or I beat him outright. Actually, the 2nd game we played, he beat me, but he said he wanted to use his Great Moth, so we played again. Finally, after losing to me 8 times, he managed to bring out his Great Moth, while backing it up with his Dark Magician. Lucky for me, I had the Lord of D and the Flute of Summoning Dragon in my hand, and I just drew the Blue Eyes White Dragon, so I played the Lord of D with the Flute of Summoning Dragon to summon Blue Eyes for free. Unfortunately, Franklin had the Waboku Card, which makes him invincible for one turn only, and, unfortunately for me, it was just enough time for him to play the Earth Lord Milus Radiant, using it to power up his Great Moth so that it would overpower my Blue Eyes so he could kill it. Then, he attacked me directly with his Dark Magician, bringing me down to 700 life points, as opposed to his 5000 or so. At that point, I used Monster Reborn to revive my Blue Eyes and killed off Milus Radiant so that Blue Eyes would once again reign supreme as the strongest of monsters. Then, Franklin just HAD TO draw Tremendous Fire, dealing 1000 damage to me (and 500 irrelevant damage to himself), killing me. I don't know about you, but I thought that was an amazing match. Both of us managed to bring out our strongest cards...
On an unrelated note, I hope I can go to Homecoming. She's such a nice, pretty girl...
That's all for today. Good night!
Wednesday, October 2, 2002--Today is another first for our little journal. At my school (Leland High School), we have this thing on Wednesday called T-period, which is basically a half hour "tutorial period" between 2nd and 3rd period. Unfortunately, it's been announced that T-period is going to be cancelled next week. The thing is, most students use it as a break, and the T-period counts as instructional minutes. You can't be giving students a break during instructional time. We used to think we could trick the administration by loading their "T-period Attendance Sheet" with names, but that obviously didn't work. Thus, if the administration wants to take away T-period, they are justified, and I have no right to complain. What I propose instead is that you add the time "lost" through T-period to all of the days, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. T-period is only 30 minutes a week. In our school day, there are 6 periods a day, 5 days a week, therefore, we only have to add a single minute to the end of each period everyday. Seriously, we can handle 1 minute per period of extra time, can we? I'm gonna write an article about this and submit it to the
Charger Account or the
Leland Leviathan (our 2 school newspapers, the former is school-run, the latter is student-run).
In any case, during T-period, I played 2 games of the
Yu-gi-oh card game against one of my brother's freshman friends. Hey, the
Yu-gi-oh TV show isn't that bad. It's at least better than Pokemon and Sailor Moon (and a lot of other "good" animes that I've seen that I thought were crappy *cough*Child's Toy*cough*Dragon Half*cough*), and it's not as depressing as most serious animes. And the card game's even better than the show. Better than the Pokemon card game, at least. In any case, I lost both duels, due to extremely bad luck. I got the
Blue Eyes White Dragon (one of the strongest monsters in the game) in my first draw BOTH TIMES, but the thing is, you can't play Blue Eyes (and other Level 8 monsters) unless you sacrifice 2 weaker monsters, and I had no weaker monsters to play, let alone sacrifice. So, thus, I was totally defenseless and I got killed. Don't even blame my deck, 'cause I can beat my bro 40% of the time nowadays, and he's a pretty good player. (Then, he got some new, really good cards, so...)
The philosopher debate continues... We answered some more questions, and then we voted to see which philosopher's form of government we wanted to live in. Justin was the only one who picked Hobbes tyrannical absolute government world, but only because he wanted to be the tyrant, not the subject.
On Wednesdays, I have Viola Lessons. I really should practice more.
*yawn*
Good night!
Tuesday, October 1, 2002--
FIRST DAY OF OCTOBER
As I told you yesterday, I only have 1st period math on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, which means, today, I got to woke up just a little bit later. However, I still had to drive to school at 7:35 just to make sure I get a somewhat-good parking space. You know, I guess I COULD go to school a little later...
The philosopher debate continues in Government class. Today, I did MUCH better than yesterday, probably because today we only answered questions from our audience. I kept making forward references to "Thomas Jefferson," who was born after Locke (my character) died, but our Rousseau always said, "Who's Jefferson?" Amy asked me a question I couldn't answer: "What if the will of the people is divided?" I should have said, "Compromise."
Later that day, Hobbes asked me, "How do you determine if the government is oppressive? What if there's only a small handful of people who think they need to overthrow the government while the rest of the people think the government's okay?" I said, "Well, if you get enough people to be able to successfully overthrow the government, then the government's probably oppressive." Hobbes replies, "So, it's decided by force then. But what if there's only 1 person with lots and lots of guns?" Damn, there's one I REALLY can't answer. Research time, if I get time, which I didn't.
Also, I told you in my Bio (assuming you read it) that I was on the Leland Math Team, the Radicalz. Well, we have meetings Tuesdays after school. For some unusual reason, I did REALLY, REALLY badly on the practice CAML. (CAML is one of the "easier" math contests.) Only 3 out of 6. And I'm the Captain. I'm in charge of TEACHING the kids about math. Oh, well. At least I still did a good job of teaching.
At home tonight, I finished up the National Merit stuff. Then, I made the birthday card for Cynth. I hope she likes it, but if she doesn't... whatever... at least she liked my rose on last year's Valentine's Day.
