Online Journal

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Sunday, February 29, 2004--Happy Leap Years' Day!

A Year Ago Today: ...hey, wait a minute...

Anyways, today, after eating brunch at the Crossroads, I caught up with the Journal entries that I was supposed to catch up with, which is a good thing. Then, I tried to install Diablo II, but there was something wrong with B.Net, so it took me forever to download. Now, I could have gotten it in 10 minutes if I were patient, but I wasn't, so I spent 20 minutes searching a website where I could download the patch fast. Then, I decided to go eat dinner.

Coming back from the Crossroads, I played with Solar Vengeance and tried out those suggestions that Comet made. Although one of them was reasonable, in the end, it really made no difference.

Then, I went and looked at some Xangas and shit. Oh, I have a new forum! It's at http://viltris.proboards28.com/. It's the successor to the shittier Bravenet version.

Then, I realized that my computer had been set to 10 Mbps, which greatly slowed down my Internet. I then went through the Ethernet Adapter configuration and got it set to 100 Mbps. Now, my Internet is fixed. Either that, or I'm in high risk of shorting out my Ethernet adapter... but I doubt that. I'm pretty sure the spec of the card allows 100 Mbps, hence the name of the card, something something 100 Mbps. If anything, the speed of Berkeley's network will keep my connection within reasonable limits.

Anyways, no dice roll tonight because there was no dice roll yesterday or Friday night, so it wouldn't be fair to have them. Otherwise, Good Night!

It's Limerick Time!
I get to make a rhyme.
They're fun to make,
To burn and to bake,
And to drink up with lemon-lime.

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Global Update--Entries for February 18 through February 27 have been added below.

An addendum for February 19 has been added in green.

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Saturday, February 28, 2004--I know this is going kind of out of order, but I decided that this entry was more important than any of those entries coming before... so, without further ado...


Since I'm a Novice, I obviously opted to fence Novice foil.

My pool was pretty tough. There was only one other Cal fencer, Ron Kall, and he was one of the best of the Cal fencers still fencing Novice.

I rememeber one of my biggest mistakes was when I got up to 4 points, I started getting over-confident and started losing touches. Against Sharghi, I was up 4 to 3. Then, I got over-confident and he got the next two touches, and I lost 4 to 5.

Luckily, against Martin, I won 5-4, and against Cardines, I won 5-2. It's strange. After one of my early bouts against Cardines, I told him that his en garde was very low. After beating him, he raised his en garde and started kicking ass. Hmm...

Also, my first bout as against Aden. He was hella skilled--the only fencer that day to beat me 5-0 and the only fencer to beat Ron in pools--and he even made it to the semi-finals (which he, from what I heard, lost).

I fenced a guy named Saltenberger who went really aggressive against me and overwhelmed me, and won. However, I didn't see the same aggression in any other bouts. Perhaps he simply saw that I was the type of fencer that could be overwhelmed by an extremely aggressive attack and took advantage? Hmm...

I also fenced Ron, and it was the dreaded Cal VS Cal mirror match, which Ron easily won, but I got in two touches, so I supposed I didn't do too bad.

I like it when I lunge low-line and get the perfect touch right at the guy's waist and I just hold it there, as if to say to everyone, "This is my touch. I get a point. Don't call it wrong now."

The fencing started at about 10am and went until 12:30pm, after which we had a 2 hours break while they seeded everyone for the elimination rounds. However, at 2:20, they realized they had made a mistake, and everyone would have to be re-seeded, so that was bad. I then ate some Nutri-grain bars to keep me energized.

Finally, at 3:30, everything was sorted out, and I went up against a guy named Feng, who took advantage of my big parries by attacking right in between my parries--too high for a low-line parry, but too low for an upper-line parry. As a result, I spent a lot of time that bout backing up and flailing around his balde. Well, at least I'm backing up a lot more now. Dodging people's blades is a good thing.

In any case, I was seeded 45. He was seeded 20. It doesn't take a genius to conclude who won. But I got him 3 to 5, so at least I put up a good fight.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how I did. Last time, in pools, I had a record of 0-5. This time, I had a record of 2-4, and I had some pretty close bouts. I've improved a lot since then, as this tournament obviously indicates, so I'm happy about that. I also know what I need to work on--making my parries smaller and not getting over-confident when I'm about to win, otherwise, I won't.

With the other Cal Novices, Tyler Null was in an easy pool where he won with a record of 6-0, so he got seeded #2. He was quickly beaten in the round of 32 by the seed 31 Sharghi, with a score of 4-5. In my quadrant, Yanmin Hong fenced lefty, and this time, he won the lefty mirror (as opposed to the UCSC Tournament when he lost to Jeremiah in the most memorable Cal Lefty VS Cal Lefty match, which all the Cal Novice fencers watched). Matt Rocklin did well and made it to the round of 16 before being eliminated by Fitzpatrick (a Cal Poly fencer, I believe), I think, who also made it to the semi-finals (and also lost, I do believe). Then, Ron was eliminated, evenly though it was highly disputed because his director sucked, but Coach Lee decided not to dispute it, apparently to show good sportsmanship.

So with that, all of Cal was knocked out of Novice top 8. It was sad to lose on home territory after getting such a reputation for having good Novices (Lee sent our best Novices to Advanced Foil anyway).

Speaking of Advanced foil, here's a story about my friend Mike Liu. So his first bout was against Elvira Mah, the cute girl fencer of Cal, and it was pretty close bout the whole time. The point difference was never more than one. Apparently, during the bout, Elvira started fleching Mike a lot, and at one point, she even broke his blade (which sucks for Mike). When the score was 9 to 9 (in a 10 points bout), Mike started off a little to the right, so when Elvira tried to fleche him, she ran right into him, and got red-carded for corps au corps (sp?), (ie, rushing your opponent so fast that you run into him--usually body contact is the defining characteristic). This red card meant Elvira lost a touch, which meant Mike won 10-9. Elvira was really upset the rest of the day. (I tried to talk to her and she implicitly told me to go away.) Heh, well, she was a lower seed anyway...

Mike then fenced Mark Applebaum and lost, even though he put up a good fight. (Mark was hella higher seeded.) He was glad to make it that far though. Had he beaten Mark, he would have had to fence Zach Marshall, who is the Cal Fencing Club President, the master of the flick, and is one of the best. (He used to be undisputedly the best until he injured his hip and had to get surgery.) Wow... that's quite a gauntlet--Elvira, then Mark, then Zach...

So I went and had a big dinner at 6pm (I was hungry), and when I came back, Zach had eliminated Mark, and other than he and Christina Stevens, the dancer-fencer, the only other Cal Fencers left were already gone. In the end, Christina was eliminated in the Round of 16, and Zach was eliminated in the Round of 8. It was a sad day, where none of Cal's Fencers could rank on home territory. Oh well. There's always next time.

Afterwards, I came back and pretty much just did whatever in my dorms. Heh, what the heck, I'll roll the dice today just for fun.

Dice Roll of the Day: 2 + 5 = 7

A Year Ago Today:

• "According to Linda, Sarah, poorly translated into Chinese, becomes Skunk. I passed the information on to Sarah, but she's so used to my abusing her that it didn't mean anything to her."
• Me: [upon Linda's request] Yeah, I'll check out these books, and while I'm at it, I'll check out something else.
• Justin: You mean Cindy?
• The first mention of my Slivers... I've actually been interested in them since Monday... It's time for me to make my new MTG set, this one will be much better now that I actually know how to design cards... thanks to me reading MTG.com all the time.

Anyways, I'll work on that set anyway. Good Night, my dears...

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Friday, February 27, 2004--Whew! This is the last entry I need to write before I'm caught up again. So today, I turned in my Tau Beta Pi packet, and later, I went to the Eta Kappa Nu Candidate Conversations, where I figured out some shit. Hmm... I hope these honor societies are worth the effort.

Justin: You have no honor...

Hmm... so I guess I should go and get some honor, eh?

Today's Physics 7C lab was about interference, and we got to play with Laser Beams today! It was fun and short, so I had plenty of free time. Woot!

Other than that, there's not much to say, except that I'm finally finished making up my owed entries. Woot!

So... umm... yeah... Good Night!

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Thursday, February 26, 2004--Long day today... The gist of it was that I went and finished up my EE40 Lab by going to someone else's lab, and I still had time to eat lunch.

A Year Ago Today:
Miss Koyanagi: You better have Part I (78 pages) of Crime and Punishment done by tomorrow.
Me: What happens if we don't... have a book?

I went fencing... Since today was the "meditation day", Lee gave us a quick pep talk, then had us fence a few practice bouts against others. First, I fenced Tyler, whom I told had greatly improved due to his smaller hand gestures and more subtle movements. Then, I fenced Niel, who was just like a more skilled version of Tyler (?). Then, I fenced this new left-handed kid, who was pretty randomly aggressive. The only problem was that I didn't really know how to fence a newbie (hence the practice fencing against newbies).

I usually don't keep track of score during my practice sessions. Like I've said before...

So then, I was fencing Ron, and I could feel myself--and the adrenaline that empowered me--much improved. I got lots of touches on him that I wouldn't have gotten before. I also learned a few new lessons. When I feint, I should feint more on target, because if I feint away from them, they do nothing. Also, when I get too close to my opponent, it's better to stay close and wait for the Halt rather than back up and risk getting hit, although if I'm careful enough, I should be able to back up easily.

Anyway, it was a good night of fencing. I have found my aggression again!

And... Good Night!

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Wednesday, February 25, 2004--Today was a day of rest of me... no, wait, no it wasn't. I spent today owning the CS lab and homework and doing my EE homework. Then, I went online to catch up on the stuffs I missed, but (obviously) didn't make any time to update my website. Oh, well, as long as I do it eventually, it's all good, right?

Don't worry, I'll give you more detailed entries again when I get to today, a day that I actually remember well.

For now, though, Good Night. Tomorrow will hopefully be better.

A Year Ago Today: Franklin and I share our first Legions MTG boosters... I discover Slivers for the first time ever... and Mistforms, too. Hmm... I still have yet to build a mistform deck, but what good are they? Anti-tribal?

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Tuesday, February 24, 2004--Mudterm #1 for History 160 and Physics 7C were today, with only a 1 hour break in between. I spent most of the day reviewing while going to classes... reviewing for History because I'm not as good in non-math/science/tech classes as I am in math/science/tech classes.

But the EE lab was just bad. It took forever, and we didn't finish, so Jeff and I will need to come back Thursday to finish the lab.

The History Mudterm didn't go so well, but I think I got decent score. The Physics Mudterm right after that... well...

First, I read Problem #1: "Starting from the Maxwell's Equations in vacuum and in abscence of charges show that the Electric field E(x, t) propagates according to the wave equation and determine its speed of propogation."

Me: HOLY SHIT!!!

Then, I read the instructions for the exam just before Problem #1: "Choose four out of the five proposed problems."

Lucky for me the questions were arranged from hardest to easiest. Problem 5 and 4 were hella easy. Problem 3 was below average in terms of difficulty. Problem 2 wasn't too hard. Overall, I finished the test in one hour, whereas they had given us two hours to complete it. I suspect that I got a good score, especially considering the curve.

Then, I had a quick dinner at the Crossroads and went fencing, where I got suited up to do electric fencing, but the body cord I grabbed had two small prongs instead of one big prong and one small prong, so I plugged it in backwards. As a result, we spent 15 minutes trying to figure out what was wrong with my equipment. Finally, Zach unplugged the body cord and realized that I had plugged it in backwards.

Zach: You see this? This is the "big" prong, and this is the "small" prong. You plug it in the other way.
Me: So... why does this body cord have two small prongs then?
Zach: Some asshole--probably me--put on two small prongs instead of one big prong and one small prong.

I fenced one and a half bouts today...

Anyways, 'tis getting late, so I will speak Good Night.

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Monday, February 23, 2004--Not much happened today. I spent most of today reviewing for Physics, which I thought had a mudterm today. It turns out that the Physics mudterm was tomorrow. Oh, well. I got my studying done early, so it's all good.

CS61B Mudterm #1 in class today. I thought it wasn't too hard. I slaughtered it--slaughtered it like the bitch it was.

Earlier, in Math 55 Section, we got our Mudterm #1 back for Math, and I got 63/64. It turns out that my nice elegant proof was a little backward. What I should have done was convert it to a proof by contradiction, which would have been a highly trivial conversion. Oh, well. 63/64 isn't bad.

After the CS61B Mudterm, I went to the Tau Beta Pi Candidate meeting. Apparently, I qualify for Tau Beta Pi because I'm that damn good. Heh.

Then, I went fencing.

Lee: Next Thursday, we're going to have an easier practice so you can be well-rested for the Tournament.
Me: Do we get to meditate?
Lee: Yes, we get to meditate. We'll meditate upon our equipment.
Me: Meditate upon on equipment, eh? So, we'll be pondering questions like "If a fencer scores a touch, but the machine is broken, does it make a sound?"

Other than that, Good Night.

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Sunday, February 22, 2004--What a fun-filled day of... more reading!!! ARGH!!!

So I went back to Berkeley today with my brand new laptop, and then, I went to the 7th floor lounge to read, reading late into the night.

Me: Man, I'm too bored to read, but I have too much reading to slack off.
Anika: Well, then read.
Me: Okay.
Anika: Sometimes, you just need someone to tell you what to do.

A Year Ago Today:

• Stanfurd Math Tournament 2003
• "So anyways, in a 9-way game of BS, I was third man out, my last move being seven 4's (we played with 2 decks, by the way), and I did it when it was my turn to put down 4's. Your last turn should always be honest, so that even if people try to BS, you still win. Joanna somehow won by lying. Why didn't anyone notice that she was out of cards? Mike won the same way--a flood of 4's. 'Seven 4's.' 'Should I BS that?' 'No, we already know he probably has 7 4's.' It turns out one of those 4's was a 6."
• Stephanie ranks 8th place in Geometry. I vow to stop treating her like a Newbie.

Blah... tired from reading... Good Night!

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Saturday, February 21, 2004--After spending a little bit of time copying over my old files (it took a few hours, actually... that's a lot of files?), I decided it would be a good time to catch up on my History 160 reading, considering that I had a mudterm coming up next Tuesday, so I read and read and read and busied myself for the rest of day. Good Night.

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Friday, February 20, 2004--Here's where it starts to get interesting. So after my 9am CS Discussion and my 2am Physics Lab (we did the Michelson interferomter... I could not prove the existence of the Ether... oh, well... it prolly doesn't exist anyway), my mom came and picked me up and went home. Yes, I skipped my CS61B Lecture. It's not like I really need to go anyway.

Upon getting home, I helped Franklin install his GeForce 4 3D Graphics card, and there is a visible difference. Counter-Strike now works beautifully, as does Warcraft III.

Then, I got my new laptop (which I am using now) and started optimizing it, removing all the programs I didn't need and adding the ones I did. Lucky for me, my dad had already administratively removed most of the crap in here, so there wasn't much work left for me to do... except copy over my old files from my old computer, which I brought home.

Unfortunately, it's getting late, so I'll just say "Good Night" and go to bed.

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Thursday, February 19, 2004--Today, other than a series of classes, not much happened other than me doing Physics Homework and reading for History 160.

Well, in terms of events, today was not so good, but otherwise, it was a Good Night.

Wait... I've just been informed by Sinitic Heat Justin Kuo that today, Cal lost to UCLA in Basketball at UCLA. Heh... payback for them, eh? Also, apparently, the women's UCLA Basketball team beat us at Cal. Oh, well.

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Wednesday, February 18, 2004--Late am I... yes...

Because of my busy-ness (business?), this entry is long overdue, so I will just tell you the highlights of today... the fact is, there aren't any. Otherwise, I'd remember them. I do remember, however, working on my EE40 Homework late into the night upstairs in the 7th floor lounge...

Ah, well, next story for the next night. Tonight was a Good Night!

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Tuesday, February 17, 2004--*yawn* I didn't feel so tired today. In fact, today, I'm feeling good. And last night, after I logged off, but before I went to bed... umm... some stuff happened but I don't remember what it was... damn!

Physics 7C Lecture...

EE40 Lecture...

EE40 Lab... I wanna blow a capacitor, damn it!

Math 55 Lecture... we had Mudterm #1, and there were no questions on the Euclidean Algorithm... damn! ...but at least I presented a nice, elegant proof of why the Geometric Mean <= Algebraic Mean for all nonnegative numbers.

History 160 Lecture... them Communists, so amewsing... After Stalin sided with Bukharin to oust Trotsky, Trotsky got expelled from the Politburo, then from the Central Committee, then from the Communist Party, then he got exiled to Siberia, then to the West, then he got murdered in Mexico City. LOL, sucks doesn't it?

Dinner at the Crossroads...

Dice Roll of the Day: 5 + 1 = 6

I will be stabbing (fencing) tonight, but I will tell you about it some othe day because it is time for me to say, "Good Night!"

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Monday, February 16, 2004--Today is President's Day...

Winnie: Happy President's Day, Dwayne!
Me: You, too.
Me: Except that I'm not a President.
Me: so...
Me: Happy day off from classes!
Winnie: Haha, yes, I think that would be a better reason to celebrate.

Winnie: I need a buddy icon.
Me: I thought you had one already.
Winnie: Really?
Me: *stares at cow-like thing next to the "Warn" button*
Winnie: Oh, right, my spherical cow.

So today, I had a day off from classes.

A Year Ago Today:
Me: If you're lucky, Justin will show you his Phyrexian Dreadnoughts.
Franklin: Wait, if I'm unlucky?
Me: Yes, if you're unlucky, he'll show your his Phyrexian Dreadnoughts... in battle.
(Later that day, Bernard got unlucky.)

So today I spent doing Math homework, "studying" for the Math 55 Mudterm tomorrow, and working on the 61B Project. Hehe, it's amewsing.

Then, after dinner, after doing stuff online for a while, the fire alarm went off.

Me: What's going on?
Ryan: I dunno.
Me: Were you playing with your red deck again?
Ryan: Yes. First, I cast Wildfire. Then, I cast Inferno.

Later, while I was talking to Kim...
Me: Hey, Kim, are you related to William Hung?
Kim: Probably.

Then, Tiffany went to touch the Fire truck and was all excited by it and the flashing lights etc etc. I called her a "Lumophiliac". I probably should have just called her a moth.

So... how did you like my entry of conversations? Should I do this kind of shit more often?

Dice Roll of the Day: 1 + 4 = 5

Me: Good Night!
Mindy: Huh?

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Sunday, February 15, 2004--Today, I wrote more of Dark Fiends today.

...Hmmm... I said "today" twice. Oh, well.

I also visited the LSDers, including, but not limited to... umm... yeah.

I'm feeling very lethargic. I don't feel like doing stuff. *shrig* Oh, well.

Limerick Time!

The maniac came and said, "Hi."
Then, he shouted, "Die!"
He pulled out his gun,
But bullets there were none,
So he shrugged and just told us, "Goodbye!"

LOL!

Dice Roll of the Day: 4 + 1 = 5

*yawn* Me tired. Good Night!

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Saturday, February 14, 2004--Happy Valentine's Day to... every cute girl?

Anyways, I went to visit the LSD people and I saw the two Kens, Sarah, Jackie, Steve, Minh (not LSDers anymore, but the last two were there), Diane, Kevin, and last but definitely not least Stephanie.

On AIM,
Me: Stephanie is tall.
Me: Stephanie wa takai!
Justin: What? Stephanie is expensive?

Actually, he didn't say that, but if he did, it would have been a clear reference to "What? Mariko is more expensive than Yooko?"

LOL, a classic joke.

I also met a girl named Kyoko today... I think that's what she said. (Actually, I met her before, but I didn't remember her name... either that or she didn't tell me before.)

Me: So Sarah, what have you been doing lately?
Sarah: Oh, not much. I've sleeping a lot. I even skipped two days of school.
Me: You slept through two days of school, huh? It reminds me of an old story about Math Contests.
Sarah: Oh, I remember that. I slept through the SCVMA!
Me: No, it wasn't that important.

Nadia likes Princess Nadia's Theme from Chrono Trigger. She said it was "cute". Ironically (or coincidentally), I'm listening to it as I type.

I also visited Bernard playing chess. Wow... chess is even slower than MTG Worlds.

Dice Roll of the Day: 4 + 2 = 6

LOL, today's entry was rather jumbled etc etc. And now, I say Good Night!

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Friday, February 13, 2004--Meh... Eventually, eventually.

Today, I woke up and went to my nearly empty CS61B Discussion...

Then, I worked on the Physics 7C Pre-lab. Abhi told me this interesting story how when he was working with his telescope, a cop thought they were snipers. Amewsing...

Then, I did the actual lab. It was pretty tricky, trying to focus myself though all those lenses!

CS61B Lecture... I fell asleep.

Then, after dinner at the Crossroads, I discovered some Lelanders had showed up at Berkeley for the LSD tournament. Cool. So I went to the Hotel Durant to visit them.

Me: *walks into Hotel Durant, sees Iwen and some other people I don't know* Hello
Iwen: ...
Me: *thinks*Okay, that didn't work.

Justin: You fail to charm every girl you meet.
Me: No, not every girl. Just the attractive ones.
Justin: Okay... you fail to charm every girl you try to charm.
Me: Fair enough.

Then, I went online, updated my website, and Mark and Ryan are asking me and Justin to play MTG so that they can try out their borrowed decks, so... yeah.

A Year Ago Today:

• Elf girls are cute.
• "Don't fall into the [active] volcano!"

Dice Roll of the Day: 2 + 5 = 7

D'oh! Good Night!

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Thursday, February 12, 2004--There will be a time where I split up this journal page. Until then, bear with me. I'm tired.

Today, I slept through

Physics 7C Lecture...

EE40 Lecture...

Then, after lunch at Crossroads, I took a nap and woke up feeling refreshed.

Then, I did my Physics 7C Homework before going to

Math 55 Lecture...

History 160 Lecture... apparently, the entire Russian Revolution was about Bread.

At dinner, I saw and said hi to Nadia at the Crossroads, and I saw and said hi to that girl who looks like Kristi whose name I forget. (I don't think she ever told me what it was.)

Finally, I went fencing, but not before witnessing a dorm war between Stacie/Tiffany and Irwin/Steve.

At fencing, we practiced flicks (Zach's Ultimate) and how to block them. It was fun... probably because it was a lot like Saber, and I like Saber. Then, I fenced Matt and, possibly because I wasn't being my old uber-aggressive self, I didn't fare too well. Then, I fenced (I think her name was) Liz, and since she's a low-level fencer, I used the opportunity to practice my disengages and my beat attacks. Then, I fenced this Singapore guy named Steve. Apparently, he has bad form, but he moves his blade hella fast. I had a hard time following it. I beat him, though, but it was pretty tricky.

The worst part was that I need to improve my aim. I attacked and missed so many times today. I have to work on the accuracy of my attack and make sure I stab rather than slide.

On an unrelated note, I signed Kim onto VidWorks as our third and final artist. Amewsing...

Dice Roll of the Day: 3 + 4 = 7

I've confirmed that Joanna has indeed blocked me. It's probably because of Connie... but Connie didn't block me, and she has a lot better reason to block me than Joanna does.

Ehh... Gooed Night!

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Wednesday, February 11, 2004--I know that I went over the limit and that I should break up this into a new Archive, but I'm tired, so I won't bother with it.

A Year Ago Today: The AMC... this proves my belief that life is periodic.

Today, I made it on time to the CS61B Lab and owned it in just 15 minutes. Then, I spent the rest of my time and owned the homework in half an hour. Then, for the next hour and 15 minutes, I worked on the project, which is pretty amewsing. Yes, it is time-consuming, but not as time-consuming as the Eater of Days.

Math 55 Discussion...

GSI: Dwayne, are you asleep?
Me (suddenly becoming aware): Huh? I have no idea.
GSI: Well, you should get started on the quiz?
Me: Quiz? Whoa! How long have we been doing a quiz?
GSI: About 2 minutes... you have 8 minutes left, by the way.

After lunch at the Crossroads, I did my EE40 homework in the 7th floor lounge, hanging out with Kim and Anika and people whose names I do not know. I finished it, but man, I was soooooo lethargic.

CS61B Lecture...

Dinner at the Crossroads...

I've decided not to buy Kim that Valentine Gram.

Also, I spent most of my night catching up on online stuff.

I also went to that "Sex Games" event. According to the flyer, "Come find out who ends up on top!" There were some amusing incidences.

Leader: The next event is pictionary... sex pictionary.
Guy #1: Dicktionary?

Later...
Guy #2: *draws stuff*
Leader: You have 10 seconds left.
Guy #2: *draws frantically*
Guy #3: Vagina!
Guy #2: *draws a hat*
Guy #3: A vagina with a hat!

Later, to earn points, the girls had to demonstrate the proper use of a dental dam (aka, LOLLYES). An apple with a slice was to represent a vagina, and after they were done using it, one girl asked, "Can I eat the apple?"

Heh, in the end, the girls (who called themselves the "Tricky Little Hoes") won.

Girl Captain: We're TLH!
Girl with high-pitched voice: What does TLH stand for?
Girl Captain: Tricky Little Hoes!

Hmm...

Dice Roll of the Day: 4 + 2 = 6

Ahh... it's getting late. Good Night! Don't let the succubi bite!

(End Note: Apparently, Stephanie, Joanna, Lei, Mike, and Ke all scored high enough on the AMC to qualify for the AIME. I extend my congratulations to them all.)

(End Note #2: Apparently, Stephanie had to do the AMC with a cold, but at least she still made it. Otherwise, she would have gotten a lot better score.)

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Tuesday, February 10, 2004--Today, the Lelanders will be doing the AMC. I wish them Good Luck! ...especially my good students, Joanna and Stephanie.

Physics 7C Lecture...

EE40 Lecture...

EE40 Lab... it went by fast! I finished it with lots of time leftover to eat my lunch in piece... and I had a burrito!

me: i've figured out how to counter your TACO!
me: with... BURRITO!
ryan: psh burritos are a pathetic taco wannabe
me: damn

Math 55 Lecture...

History 160 Lecture...

At dinner, I ran into Mark, Ryan, Louisa, Jessica Lu, Cindy Liu, and Maria, so I ate with them. Then, Louisa left, leaving just 6 of us. Then, after dinner, we collectively wandered over to Jessica's dorm, and apparently, Amy is her roommate.

Jessica: Look, Amy's going to ask Dwayne for help on her EE20.
Me: Hello.
Amy: Oh, hi Dwayne. ...Can you help me on this EE20N stuff?
*Everyone laughs except me and Amy*

Later, as we leave (and leave Jessica behind in her dorm), I apparently forgot my jacket. Upon retrieval, I realized that during the course of me helping Amy, I ended up leaving my jacket on her bed. ...Whoops!

Jessica: Oh, that's real nice. You left your jacket right on Amy's bed!

Then, I went fencing. I fenced Elvira and lost 3-5. Then, I fenced this other guy and lost 2-5. Elvira then told me that although my bladework has become more varied, my footwork is still too predictable. I always go advance, attack, and stop, and she's learned exactly how far to retreat to get away. Now, I need to learn to change up my feet and I'll be set, eh?

Then, I had a discussion with Justin and Ryan about Tinker and how casual groups needn't follow the DCI sanctioned banned/restricted lists. Well, I disagree, but whatever. If they want to let Franklin use his four Time Spirals, so be it.

Dice Roll of the Day: 3 + 5 = 8

So now, I leave you! Good Night!

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Monday, February 9, 2004--Today, I remember waking up, falling asleep again, and waking up at 8am. Lucky for me, classes begin at 10 on Mondays for me, so I made it just fine to my

Math 55 Discussion...

Lunch at the Crossroads... I ate a TACO!

Physics 7C Discussion...

EE40 Discussion...

CS61B Lecture...

After lecture, during dinner at the Crossroads, I formally met the Maria look-alike. Apparently, her name is Jennifer and she doesn't actually take CS61B. She just goes to be with her friend (boyfriend?) Chris.

Jennifer: But I know what a For loop does.
Me: Hmm... that's pretty good for someone who's not even in the class.

After dinner, at about 7:40pm, while I was in the bathroom, someone pulled the Fire Alarm. Since the Fire Escape is on the opposite end of the hall as my room, I had no time to retrieve my jacket or turn off my computer. Lucky for me, I left up an away message.

Since I was outside and it was about time to go fencing, I just went to fencing. Today, after a few practices, we went to Ben & Jerry's for our traditional Ice Cream night, where we ordered two HUMONGOUS buckets of ice cream (aka "Vermonsters") and dug in.

After coming back, I spent some time doing my Math 55 Homework, then went to bed early so I could wake up for my 8am class tomorrow. Good Night!

Dice Roll of the Day: 6 + 6 = 12

---

Sunday, February 8, 2004--*yawn* I posted Dark Fiends Chapter 51 today. It's a... storyline bridge chapter. It sets up the next major event... or at least brings us closer to a fight scene, or other type of tense scene.

Currently Listening to: Chrono Trigger - Singing Mountain. It's a good song.

Anyways, I played a lot of FFX-2 today. Has anyone noticed just how badly the Chocobo music is? It sucks!

I also watched the Simpsons. Here's the quote of the week: "By the power vested in me... by you... just now... I pronounce you man and wife!"

It was somewhat amewsing.

Dice Roll of the Day: 1 + 6 = 7

Hmm... apparently our dorms (Cheney & Deutsch Hall) will be selling Valentine's Day Grams... Hmm...

Limerick Time!

There's no way to do this right,
No limerick is "hella tite!"
But I'll do my best,
And hope for the rest.
For now, I'll tell you, "Good Night!"

---

Saturday, February 7, 2004--Here are some pics from Diablo II. Two from last night, one from a long time ago.

Physical Immune - Here is a pic of me Whirlwinding a Physical Immune creature. I didn't know these things actually existed! Heh, eventually, I had to get Justin to kill it for me with his Sorceress... "Lady SiniticHeat".

Lots of Blood - There actually was more blood that that before, but I left the area and came back and took the screenshot later, when most of the blood was already gone. Heh, now if this looks like a lot of blood to you, imagine the whole ground completely covered in corpses (and eaten corpses, thanks to the Corpse Eaters) and blood.

Lots of Maggots - Those faggots! Anyway, there are a lot of maggots in this pic... but I had killed half of them before realizing I should take a pic, so yeah. I killed them all, btw, thanks to Drain Life.

Anyways, today, I posted some shit for Avalanche Online. Then, I worked on Dark Fiends. Then, I played some MTG with Mark and Ryan and Justin.

Anyways, that's all I'm planning on saying tonight. Good Night and Farewell!

Dice Roll of the Day: 5 + 6 = 11

Wow... that's a good roll! Although I have yet to roll a 2 or a 12.

---

Friday, February 6, 2004 - Addendum--A somewhat amusing AIM conversation.

Me: today's physics lab was about
Me: laser beams!
Ryan: awesome
Ryan: i'm gonna go eat one right now
Ryan: bbl
Me: a laser beam?
Me: k
Me: ryan: no, i'm eating a physics lab

---

Friday, February 6, 2004--I woke up late... Oh, well.

CS61B Discussion...

Then, I quickly finished up the Physics 7C Pre-lab. Then, I did some reading for History 160. U-Boats are fun. They were Germany's ultimate in World War I.

Anyways, the Physics 7C Prelab was about measuring indices of refraction using lasers. It was fun. I like lasers.

I fell asleep in CS61B Lecture today again...

Then, I went to eat dinner with Jen, Tiffany, Yohan, Eric, Irwin, Adam, Steve, Tammy, Allison, and Jason. During the dinner, I asked Jen whether guys should take a girl for her word and trust everything she says or if he should read between the lines and search for hidden meanings. Jen and Tiffany both told me to read in between the lines.

I say... I choose to be oblivious. I have better things to do than to wonder WTF girls are talking about.

Kim: So... are you doing anything tonight?
Me: I'm going home tonight.
Kim: I think we should just be friends.
Me: People sometimes use words with the intent to deceive.
Kim: Yep. What you just described could just may be also called lying.
Kim: I'm not looking for a relationship right now.

Dice Roll of the Day: 3 + 1 = 4

K... Now, I shall go to bed. Goose Knight! ...I mean Good Night!

---

Thursday, February 5, 2004--Heh, I barely woke up. I woke up right when my watch stopped beating. It was... strange.

A Year Ago Today:

• I discover that soda is the only thing that tastes good when you're sick.
• We found out in Linda's chat room that Alan is (or was) the Most Annoying Person on AIM. "What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What?"

Physics 7C Lecture...

EE40 Lecture...

Break, during which I eat lunch and hella finish my Physics Homework.

Math 55 Lecture...

History 160 Lecture...

Hmm... I worked a little on Dark Fiends. Then, I went fencing. After practicing a lot of drills, I fenced Skyler to work on my mechanics. Then, I fenced Salka to try to beat a lefty. Salka's not as good as Yanmin or Jeremiah, but I need to get my technical skills down... which is difficult, because a lefty is angled the opposite way as a righty. However, toward the end, Salka wanted to finish it fast, so she said that that next touch wins.

Me: Don't worry, I'll do you fast. *3 seconds later, I beat her blade and stab her low-line.
Mark: Halt! There was a beat attack from the right, which lands. The score is 5 to 4, Dwayne wins.

Heh... sorry.

Anyways, Dice Roll of the Day: 5 + 2 = 7

Then, Justin wants to demonstrate to Alan his Equipment deck against my slivers. Little did he know I had sideboarded in some Artifact hate. (And of course, the first two games, I was mana-fucked.)

Alan: Wow... that was impressive... impressive in how fast you lost. I thought you said your little kitties raped his slivers.

Haha, anyways, Good Night!

---

Wednesday, February 4, 2004--I managed to wake up at a decent hour to get to my CS Lab. I showed up an hour late and finished it in 10 minutes, LOL.

Diana: You're probably not going to have any trouble on it.
Me: Well... yeah, if I was worried about it, I woulda done it last night.

A Year Ago Today:

• I dreamt I was really dizzy, and when I woke up, I was really dizzy.
• Kristen Kurimoto decides to sit right in front of me instead of in her usual spot near the front of the room (which is usually right behind me) because today I sat at the back of the room instead of the front... Hmm... am I just having delusions, or was she trying to get near me?

Well, I was delusional at the time...

A Year Ago Today:
Tricia: Kristen, why are you sitting way back there? Come sit up here?
Kristen: *embarassed, goes up to the front of the room*
Me: *confused, falls asleep*

Yes, good times.

In my Math 55 Discussion, I finally remembered to turn in my homework. *Burns-like* Excellent...

Heh, speaking of Mr. Burns, back in the old MTG days, Ryan was called "Mr. Burns". Mark was called the "Alabastard". I as called the "Sliver King" (which Alan later changed to "Queen"). Justin was called the "Terrorist". Alan had no nickname, since he didn't play that much...

Anyways, the Assassins game #3 started today. I tracked my target down to the 4th floor, but I didn't know what she looked, so I went to my friend Mike (the fencer) and asked him for some information. He gave me some information. Then, as I thanked him and left, he leapt out of his room and assassinated me.

LOL, that's karma for you. In Assassins 2, Mike was my target, and he never saw it coming when I got him.

Mike (first time): Dude, that is so stupid.
Mike (this time): Haha! This is revenge!
Me: You're fucking kidding me.

I suppose I deserved it.

Finally, after spending the afternoon doing my homework, I went to CS61B Lecture, where we learned about Linked Lists.

Leonard: Dwayne, where are you headed?
Me: B.
Leonard: B? What's the point?
Me: We're doing Linked Lists today?
Leonard: Whoa! That fast? Not even the homework or the lab reflects this speed of progress.

Then, after eating dinner, I went online and did stuff. Abhi came and asked for help on Physics and CS and shit. I went on Bunny.net to see the shit he had collected for Diablo II. Then, I went to Yohan's little discussion group thingie. Finally, when I got back, I played some MTG over AIM.

Interestingly enough, I ended up doing everything I wasn't planning on doing, wtf?!?

Dice Roll of the Day: 3 + 1 = 4

*yawn* I didn't mean to stay up this late... Damn... and I have an 8am class tomorrow, too.

Anyways, Good Night to you all!

---

Tuesday, February 3, 2004--Last night, I had a dream that I met Mark's sister, and she was hot! Then, I woke up and realize that I had met Mark's sister and she was a different girl than the one in the dream. And she was not hot.

Justin: Were you smoking some good shit in that dream?
Me: Lizzie once said, "Dwayne, drugs are bad for you."

A Year Ago Today:

• I dream that I am a buggy computer program.
• Cindy stops wearing glasses.

Today, I woke up at 8:40, and realize that there's no way in hell I can make it to my Physics 7C Lecture, so I don't even bother going.

I show up late to EE40 Lecture, then leave early because I realize I have a pre-lab to do.

On my way back to campus, I saw Mark and Maria walking toward the DC. My thought processes were as follows: "Damn! The light just turned yellow. There's no way I can make it across the street now... but the people on the other side of the street are still crossing... is that Maria? ...is that Mark walking with Maria?!?!?"

So there you have it.

EE40 Lab... good thing I did the pre-lab. Now I can get the 20% of the credit for this lab! Anyway, it was an interesting lab. We basically measured electrical shit with an oscilloscope. Heh, Electrical Engineering is the most electrifying field of study at Berkeley.

After quick lunch at the Crossroads, I went to my Math 55 Lecture, which quickly turned into my History 160 Lecture... I like studying World War I and World War II.

Dinner at the Crossroads...

Between Crossroads and Fencing, I spent most of my time writing up that insane article which got posted under the February 2nd Special... Hmm...

Today, at fencing, I had a lesson from Coach Lee, who worked with me on disengages, trying to help me make them smaller and more precise. Then, I did some electric fencing (with the little sensors that beep whenever you get hit). First, I fenced Raul who was so good that I could never break his defense. I lost 1-5. Then, I fenced Elvira, and at the beginning, I managed to get 2 straight touches on her, but after that, I was so exhausted... She beat me 5-2.

Me: Am I improving or just getting lucky?
Elvira: You're definitely improving, but you gotta vary your moves me. They were all the same, and they were all easy to block.
Me: Yeah... say, do you still remember how I got those first few touches on you?
Elvira: Haha, I forgot.

Anyway, when I got back...

Dice Roll of the Day: 4 + 3 = 7

Then...

Good Night!

---

Monday, February 2, 2004 - Addendum--Yeah, I've been out of it so long that I've forgotten so much... Meh...

A Year Ago Today: I find the "I Love You" virus on my computer.

Math 55 Discussion...

Lunch at the Crossroads...

Physics 7C Discussion... I fell asleep and upon waking up, asked that girl whose name I forget how long I slept. She didn't have a definitive answer.

EE40 Discussion... Mmmmm... Circuits

CS61B Lecture... I was doing my Math homework during lecture, and so, managed to stay awake.

After dinner, I did some work on my RPG, then took Jen fencing. Supposedly, she had fun, but I don't really know.

Anways, I fenced Mike and, as expected, got my ass kicked. He's one of our best "novices", ya know? Then, I fenced Ron and got lucky and lost to him 4-5. Then, my last bout of the night was against Matt, whom I brought to 4-4, then he beat me with a well-placed disengage.

So Matt tells me that my aggressive fencing style was good in that I was so offensive that he had to stay defensive the whole time and rarely ever got to attack. However, the disadvantage is that I used up my moves so quickly and so carelessly that he was able to read all of my moves by the end of the bout.

Anyways, when I got back, I discovered that Jen had left to "the studio"... I dunno what that means, but yeah.

Anyways, I don't remember what I did, but yeah, Good Night!

Dice Roll of the Day: 5 + 1 = 6

No more dice bets until I get un-tired. That prolly means weekend & Friday.

---

Monday, February 2, 2004--Special Morning Edition

Today, I'm going to write about a topic that's been bothering me for a while. The gist of it is that the whole school system is just completely messed up to such a degree that... well... today's people just suck.


What system am I talking about? The School System, of course. And I don't mean the teachers or the classes or the school's themselves. I'm talking about the students. Too often I've seen it where students will sacrifice their selves or their sanity just for the sake of a GPA.

Your grades are meaningless!

The difference between an A and a B is insignificant. The difference between a 1500 and a 1600 on your SATs is negligible. The difference between UCLA and MIT is trivial (except one's a 6-hour away and one's a 6-day drive away). Students today have forgotten the whole point of school. They think that it's all about studying your ass off at the expense of your social life just to get straight A's, and that even a single B will screw you over for life.

Seriously, what's the point of getting "good" grades? So that you can get into a "good" college? While getting into college and getting a good education is a good thing, some students take it much too far and seem to believe that they have to get into that one uber-college, the ultimate college that if they can get into, they can become intellectual gods. Well, the issue of there not being any uber-colleges aside, people fail to realize that you don't need to get into the ultimate college to get a good education. An education from UCLA is just as good as one from MIT. The differences between them are very slight and very subtle, really. And plus, the degrees aren't really all that different. A UCLA Degree in Computer Engineering looks almost as good as an MIT Degree in Computer Engineering. When it comes to hiring, most companies will probably look at most of your other skills, since, after all, it is quiet easy to find a UCLA guy who is just as good or even better than an MIT guy (and vice versa).

So why are students driving themselves to the brink of insanity just to get into MIT, then? We can answer that with just one word: Hype. People think MIT is some godly school, and they all compete with each other to get into MIT, and hence, MIT becomes really hard to get into since there are so many well-qualified candidates. But just because MIT is hard to get into doesn't make it an uber-good school, nor does the fact that UCLA is (comparatively) easy to get into mean that UCLA is a horrible school. Yet, for some reason, students seem to think this, and they seem to believe that they must push themselves beyond the physical and mental limits of their bodies just to put themselves in the competition for the "good" school.

It's not worth it! Get your education at UCLA. It's better than stressing and fretting and becoming sleep-deprived over. And plus, the education is just as good. You sacrifice nothing, and you gain your sanity.

Plus, even if you managed to get into your so-called uber-college. If doing so forced you to push yourself beyond your limits, then when you get to that uber-college, you'll find yourself in the midst of uber-geniuses. (How else do you think they got in?) You'll find that (especially with the ever popular curve, either actual or pre-conspired) the only way you'll survive is, again, pushing yourself beyond your limits. You'll find that, like in high school, you'll feel lots of stress and frustration, and you will hate college. Seriously, is it really worth it to put yourself through so much stress and frustration only to be rewarded by more stress and frustration (which eventually leads to an uber-degree that's just as good regular degree from a regular college)? Hell, no! In fact, in this scenario, going to the uber-college would be worse than going to a regular college, since you'll find that with all the competition among the geniuses, with all the stress & frustration, you simply will not be able to learn properly and to get a good education. It would be better to go to an easier college, and you will be in an environment to learn, an environment more suited to your level. Learning by osmosis does not work, people, at least not in academics.

Don't work yourself to death just to get that next higher grade just to get to that ultimate college. You're better off going to the easier college not only because it's less work to get into, but you will get a better education.

This is not to say that you should totally slack off and not even try, though. Grades are important to a certain degree, in that you need to put some effort into them. However, what I'm saying is that after you've given schoolwork your best effort and you still have a B+, don't start drinking coffee and staying up and pulling all-nighters and stressing yourself just to raise it up to the A-. First of all, this rarely ever works (it's like the Diminishing Returns Principle of Economics), and even if it does... well, as I've said before, getting into a uber-college through intensive studying is generally a bad idea.

People need to have a social lives. They need to have time to relax and time to sleep. Sacrificing any of these for the sake of school is just crazy, and it really will drive you insane eventually. I mean, it's no different from sacrificing food for studying, except that sacrificing food to study doesn't really work. Seriously, not even I can go longer than 2 hours without having to stop and take a nice, long, 30-minute break.

Just give it your reasonable best. To do any more would come close to killing you. It's just a grade. Grades don't matter. You'll still get into a good college just fine.

The same idea goes with standardized tests, like APs or SATs. Seriously, they aren't such a big deal. I know plenty of people who got into UC Berkeley who didn't have a 1600 SAT score. In fact, lots of them have scores as low as 1200 (and some even lower). Surprising, isn't it? No, SATs (or any other standardized tests) don't really matter. Just do your best. Don't spend $500 to attend a class to improve your 1550 to a 1600. Don't spend entire weekends sitting in your room memorizing vocabulary words (which is a bad way to study anyway) to improve your verbal from 750 to 800. You're sub-perfect scores are good enough. To sacrifice your sanity for those extra 50 points is frivolous and I'm sick and tired of people acting like it is.

The same thing goes with extracurriculars. You see lots of people running around trying to stack on a whole bunch of extracurriculars so they can deceive colleges into thinking they were really "involved", and in the process, they sap away all their free time until they end up having to do 36 worth of work every day. Yeah, I see a lot of this at Leland. The most popular extracurriculars for people who do this seem to be Speech & Debate, Cross Country, Track, Tennis, ASB, CSF, NHS, and pretty any other non-trivial organization that's uber-popular amongst the "insane" Asians. You only need one extracurricular to impress the colleges. Having a lot of extracurriculars for the sake of having a lot of extracurriculars is suicidal. Don't do it. Just join the one you really enjoy and stick with it. It looks really good to colleges if you show extreme devotion to one cause rather than sub-standard involvement in several. Only rarely does it ever happen where someone has joined five extracurriculars because she loves all five of them, and only rarely do those five coincide with the five most popular "azn" extracurriculars.

I've noticed that one of the biggest causes of psycho-aggressive student studying is pressure from the Asian parent. The excuse is always that they want you to "do well in school". However, more often than not, somewhere along the way "do well" becomes misinterpreted as "you must become the next Einstein, so no playing, no free time, no having fun, no girlfriends/boyfriends, no friends, no acquaintances, no social life, no freedom, no sense of self, no sanity until you graduate from Harvard with a Ph. D in Everything". Granted, I am exaggerating, but not that much. The stereotypical Asian parent will expect you to sacrifice anything and everything just to get a perfect 4.0 GPA, a 1600 in your SATs, a 5 in every AP test, and an 800 in every SAT II, even if that sacrifice includes an arm and a leg. Well, if that's your parent, tell them that they're wrong. It's simply not worth the sacrifice. Now, I'm not saying doing well in school is bad, nor am I saying you should take the easy way out. I'm simply saying that he who is as experienced as me will know that grades, tests, etc etc, simply are not worth it in the end. As long as your competent, you'll still get that high tech or doctoral job you want. What your parents are asking you isn't to do well in school, it's to become an intellectual god, and unless you're an intellectual god already, that path is cumbersome, tiring, nearly impossible to travel, and the rewards and benefits are virtually non-existent.

This goes for sacrificing morals. As I've repeatedly shown above, grades and test scores don't matter. Those who believe so strongly that they do and would cheat on a test just to get them... well, they simply have no life and they deserve the F and/or the expulsion for their utter stupidity. And no, I'm not saying they're stupid because they couldn't ace the test. I'm saying they're stupid because they couldn't realize that acing the test is meaningless.

As one last final note, there are those students who are naturally smart, who, without too much effort, can get a perfect 4.0 GPA and that 1600 SAT score without putting too much effort. I don't mean to deride their efforts, because they did some good work. You should congratulate them. But don't sacrifice yourself just to beat them when you know they're naturally smart and you're just a big study person. I mean, what does it matter? What do you have to prove by showing that you're better than these natural intellectuals? Nothing at all! Some people are smarter than others, just like some people are taller or stronger or fatter. It's a fact of life. To change it is meaningless. Just because they have a better academic record doesn't mean their better than you. On the contrary, I bet they have flaws too. If you've joined the academic competition for the sake of the academic competition... well, there's nothing to gain from winning, especially if you sacrificed all your free time and energy along the way.

In conclusion, when you go to school, you will work for grades, you will take tests and receive score, you will join extracurriculars for fun (keyword: for fun), but if you're pushing yourself so hard that you hate school, then something is clearly wrong. The whole point of school isn't about college prep (yeah, if it was teachers would make harder tests and wouldn't give out any extra credit). It isn't about getting into college. It isn't about proving to the world how smart you are (if you are that damn smart, there's no need to prove it; people will already know). School isn't about grades and tests scores. No, grades and test scores are merely a measure of your progess in school, and more often than not, they are a highly inaccurate measurement. Test scores and grades in themselves are meaningless unless you understand how meaningless they really are.

So Dwayne, you've told us what school isn't about... so what IS school about?

Good question. The whole point of school isn't about college. It's about learning. Remember in elementary school, where they sent you to school so you could learn how to read and how to count? It was so simple back then that you went to school to learn. Now that we're in high school (and to a slightly lesser extent, college), we seem to have forgotten about learning. Our minds have moved away from today's goal and have now focused on tomorrow's--the college apps. Forget about college. Just learn what they put out to learn. If you learn it well, then the A's and A+'s should come to you naturally.

But what's the point of learning all this stuff? Most of this stuff is useless. When will I ever need to use this?

The stuff you learn isn't useless. If you become a scientist or an engineer or a mathematician, you'll need to know calculus. If you become a doctor, you'll need to know biology. If you become a historian, you'll need to know your history. If you're going to get an English Major in college, you'll need to know why Huckleberry Finn freed Jim in the Mark Twain novel (although there are teachers who will quiz you on the most useless and obscure details... now that is unquestionably bad).

Some of you argue that while each profession and College Major will need to know some of these subjects, no one ever needs to know all of them. However, you forget that it's unlike the school to limit your choices. Thus, they will expose you to as many different fields as possible and let you decide which one you like best. Even if we leave out that fact, for the future in general, Algebra is important for figuring out numbers that you'll need in the future. A little bit of scientific knowledge will surely help you in some way, shape, or form. It's important to know how to write a coherent argument (such as this one you read hear) and to analyze someone else's writing, lest you want to be out of the loop of information.

Literature, the seemingly most useless subject has its uses in that each book you read will teach you some life lessons to carry in your life. To be able to quote great authors is a feat and shows signs of intellectualism and wisdom.

And even in the most seemingly useless cases, every thing they do in class serves to expand you mind and to practice and improve your brainpower--both memory and thinking power. This last one is especially important in the modern world, when most of the students don't know how to think and have shitty memory. It's kind of sad... people can get into UC Berkeley and never know how to think...

So... yeah, school is important in getting you how to think, so think damn it! If you go through high school without ever having to think hard, then you just wasted four whole years.

But thinking makes my head hurt!

I honestly doubt that. Human beings are an intelligent species. You should be able to think without any headaches. I think you're problem is simply psychological. You aren't used to using your brain like that, and so, you end up all confused and subconsciously want to get out of thinking, so your subconsciousness makes you think your head hurts and you stop thinking.

Seriously though, this is the kind of thing which makes me say that today's student's suck. They can't think! What the fuck? That's why school's important. Expand your brainpower. Extend your thinking capability.

If I don't sacrifice my sanity and spend all my free time studying, I'll flunk! How dare you tell me that I should keep some free time for myself.

You're problem probably isn't so much that you have to study constantly. It probably has to do with your study habits. For example, one of the things I hate about modern society is that no student ever does her own homework. She always copies off someone else, saying that "homework is a waste of my time!" Such a naive view! Homework is the most important part of learning. How dare you call it a waste of your time! Human beings learn through repetition and practice. It is important to do homework, because that is the only way for you to get practice to both ensure you know how to do the work and to teach you the techniques hands-on. This is especially important in Math and Science, so please don't skip out on your homework. If you do, the only person to blame is yourself if you end up stressed and struggling for your grades.

Another thing might be time-management. I know that I said you shouldn't study for too long of a continuous period, but I also know a lot of you like to go online or watch TV while doing homework. Well... don't do that!! It dramatically reduces your efficiency to the point that you aren't studying at all, just slacking. If you seriously want to get some studying done, do so free of distrations like TV or AIM. That way, you won't end up having to do most of your homework at 3am in the morning.

What about social lives? Isn't the point of school to see your friends?

Yes and no. It's not that you go to school because your friends are there. It's that you have friends at school because you go there. While social lives are important, it's not the primary purpose of school. Of course, it's vastly more important than grades or college, so I could say that friends are like a secondary purpose of school. Friends are an important part of your life, and school is just one medium.

And yes, it is true that friends are one thing you should not sacrifice for your grades.

Anyways, in conclusion, don't every sacrifice your state of being for the sake of a grade or a test score. Calm down a little. Grades aren't that big a deal, nor are tests scores and college apps. While you're in school, you should focus on learning the material, not acing a test on that material. If you've learned the material well, the grade the the high test scores will come naturally. So live life to its fullest and never fret about that one test that's coming up in a month and a half!

Good Night!

---

Sunday, February 1, 2004--Finally, my downtime is... umm... down... err... up... something. Heh.

Anyways, after lunch at Half Acre Gardens (aka, A&J Restaurant), I played Golden Sun on my bro's Gameboy Advance. It's a pretty good game, (and it proves that not all good games have to be 3D), and guess what? It's music is actually pretty decent for a Gameboy game.

Then, I went back to Berkeley and watched part of the Superbowl. However, I left for dinner at the beginning of 4th quarter, and so, missed the best parts of the game, where the score pretty much doubled. Damn...

Anyways... I intend to get Dark Fiends Chapter 50 up today. Hopefully, it'll come true today.

Dice Roll of the Day: 4 + 2 = 6

Hehehe... Limerick Time!

The players of the card,
Decided to try a shard.
It had interesting effects
To whatever it connects.
Beating them suddenly became hard.

What do you think? Anyone know the reference?

Anyways, it's not so late, but I'm going to say "Good Night!" anyway!

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