Sunday, April 26, 2009

Summer Plans

I have five more weeks of proper school.

Five more weeks… and I’m done my 3rd year of Highschool, 3rd year of Potter’s School, 11th year of full time studies and 11th year as a student of the Johnson Academy of Learning. No mean feat, considering I’m farther ahead in my education than lots of people I know, some of them my age, some of them older. I really am blessed to be able to do school work, even if I complain about it and procrastinate all the time.

Anyways… so plans for summer:

1. Sleepovers. I haven’t had a sleepover with Julius and Jacob since… Christmas. That’s a long time ago. I’ve wanted to have a few sleepovers but really didn’t feel that it would be a good idea given that I have so much school. I could have done it, but decided not to. With summer coming I’ll be having sleepovers a lot more often.

2. Video games. :D At home, some Wii games, and hopefully some new GBA games via emulator. Possibly games like Demigod or some other games… I dunno. At the cafĂ©: DOTA!!!! Other stuff too… but I wanna go gaming for like 5-6 hours a week (twice a week probably… so two stints of 2-3 hours. Quite reasonable, IMO).

3. Time with Caleb. This might sound kinda funny, since I’m specifically calling out one of my friends, but its true. Caleb will graduate from High School in a weeks and then he’s off to do a six-month training course with my parents’ (and his parents’) company. After that he’s going to do some stuff in Samoa I think (he’s half-Samoan so it makes sense). Eventually he’ll make his way to University somewhere, hopefully the US. Anyways, he’ll be in Dhaka for the month of June and I’d like to spend as much time with him as I possibly can.

4. Fun 4him stuff. 4him is usually a bit more relaxed during the summer because lots of people come and go, this year I think we’ll have a few people coming back (Mark, IIRC) but I think Steve and his family will be leaving. I do know that the Stouts will leave this summer so that’s 2 of our members gone. But we should have some fun games (volleyball, soccer… other stuff) and the like. If Mark comes back we’ll have awesome worship… sorry to say it, but while Max is an amazing worship leader, Mark always did a better job.

5. Erm… more fun stuff? Staying up till 11PM regularly, watching lots of movies and TV shows (BLEACH!!! NARUTO!!! HEROES!!!!). I’ll probably watch some LotR extended with commentary. Darn… I did that last summer and learned so much about the Fellowship and Two Towers. Now I need to finish the Two Towers and watch Return of the King. I know it sounds totally and completely geeky of me… watching a 4 hour movie with commentary… but if I don’t, I’ll get bored since I’ve seen LotR like ½ a dozen times.

6. Other fun stuff. I’m sure more will come up. I dunno.

Of course, summer is not here YET and I still have 5 more weeks of school. And yes, I’ll have to fill out college applications and probably write a dozen essays about why I wanna go to this or that university or who most influenced my life. Yes, I’ll have chemistry, but I don’t expect any of this to interfere with the fun stuff… two much at least. :D I know Jacob will be rather free cuz he’ll be done his exams and he gets a huge break. Derek and his friends… I dunno, but hopefully they get a decent break. Julius won’t get a break till mid June, but still we’ll have plenty of time. I know Max will start his A Level Exams soon (IIRC at least) so once again, once those are done he’ll be rather free. This should be a fun summer. ^_^

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Current Events

So I just read an pair of interesting articles on the BBC today. The first was on “Islamic” Hip Hop. Now, I gotta say, the article made me want to laugh. Some Saudi businessman decided to start an Islamic MTV channel. One that showed Hip Hop preformed by “good Muslims”.

What struck me about this is that, last I checked, pictures of humans are forbidden by Islamic Law, as is, I think, dancing. Singing I guess is okay but since we are talking about Hip Hop on TV, I’m not sure how they can follow the laws I mentioned. That being said, I’m glad that someone in the Middle East is trying to make a more modest version of the stupidly immodest Hip Hop music video culture. That being said, it will never cease to amaze me how hypocritical Islam can be sometimes.

Also… the Miss America beauty pagent made into the BBC. For what, you ask? Well Apparently Miss California, the runner up lost because of her answer to a gay marriage question. She said that she does not personally believe in Gay Marriage and for this question, at least one of the judges admitted that she lost.

Now, I’m not sure about what other people may think of this but I can’t understand how that makes any sense. I’m allowed to believe what I believe, yes? And there is nothing wrong with having a viewpoint on a controversial question like Gay marriage. If the question had been gun control I doubt it would have matter what her response was, but how she responded (I WANNA A M16! Versus pulling out a few facts against Gun Control). Because a woman who is supposed to be smart and beautiful gave a smart answer, but one that at least one of the judges didn’t want to hear, she got 2nd place instead of 1st? Explain to me how that makes any sense.

If I had been one of the judges and Miss California had told me she supported Gay Marriage, and then went on to give me some logical reasons for her opinion, I would have given her a good amount of points. I would have made it very clear that I disagree with her, but that I can’t force a person to believe what I believe, and for better or for worse, that’s the beauty of free will.

Instead they jam down her throat that she is WRONG and how she should change her viewpoints and how she should support something that she doesn’t believe in because its “racist” or “sexist” or whatever they wanna call it. Not sure how that works.

Your current events for the day.

UPS

I now have a UPS attached to my laptop. I find this somewhat ironic.

But the truth is, even on “power saver” my batter only lasts about 45-55 minutes. And seeing as power cuts last about 58-65 minutes… I’m outa luck. So I now have an IPS attached to my computer and I no longer have to fear power cuts.

Still, this is kinda weird…. And sorta defeats the purpose of having a laptop, ya know?

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

The ACT

So… a few more things to talk about:

First off, I got my ACT results back a few days back. 33/36 in Reading! w00t! *does a mini-party*

22/36 in Science… not so w00t. Though they can hardly call it science, its more like: read this confusing graph, and read it fast! And then answer questions on the graph! FAST! I tried my best on that section, and I mean I REALLY tried… but I didn’t do that good. Still, I managed to get a composite score of 26/36 which mean is in the middle of the median ACT score of most Baylor freshman. This is a good thing, my friends, *nods* because my SAT scores were lower in this regard. This means of course, if I can write some good essays and the like I might still get accepted into Baylor! Of course whether or not I can actually afford to remains to be seen.

So yes, I’m doing good in that regard. I still wish I could have done higher in the math section of the ACT but I do think that the ACT, as a whole, was much less stressful and much easier and relaxing to take than the SAT. Oh well… I guess that’s just life.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Bleach, not the cleaner

So, I’ve been watching Bleach these past few weeks. Got the 1st season (IIRC) from my friend Jacob and I’m working my way through it.

Bleach is an Anime, a Japanese Cartoon. However, Animes are completely unlike American Cartoons. Artistically they are very different, most people know what I’m talking about if they’ve watched 5 minutes of Pokemon or any other popular Anime. (Dragonball, Dragonball Z, umm… I dunno other stuff). Furthermore, the Japanese do not have the (stupid) idea that Cartoons are at worst only for Kid’s, at best can only be comedies. Bleach, like many Animes has blood, occasional sexual references (annoying, but true) and lots of Language (most usually the expression “What the hell” sometimes other stuff… but it’s rarer). It’s a PG-13 show, for sure.

Anyways… Bleach is a show about a 15 year old teenager going to High School in Japan… his first name is Ichigo (IIRC… its Japanese so forgive me if I’ve spelled it wrong). One day he sees a Shigami (English dubs say Soul Reaper, literally Death God, which is what my subtitled version calls ‘em). These Shigami’s are warriors who fight “hollows” (demons) and defend “pluses” (ghosts) and humans from them. During a battle defending Ichigo the Shigami is wounded and gives Ichigo some of her power to allow him to defeat the Hollow. However, she accidently gives him ALL instead of just some of her power. The result is that this Death God (first name: Rukia… second name unknown) must spend the next few months recovering on Earth while Ichigo does her job as a Death God.

Anyways… that’s the basic premise. Of course the story gets much more complicated by adding other humans, death gods, former death gods, “mod souls” (lol… it’s an aggressive, hyper, lion plush toy. :D) and hollows. The show is good if you can stand the Japanese Mythology (my dad can’t… and I admit it was weird the first few episodes since it’s not a Christian worldview at all, but they pretty much ignore it a few episodes in and focus on the monster bashing) and aforementioned language, violence and mild sex.

So yes… I’m now going to watch bleach instead of do Latin since class was canceled. *parties*

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Large, rather random, update

Michael got Tarja’s (of Nightwish Fame) solo album, My Winter Storm, yesterday. So I listened to it last night, and I wasn’t really that impressed. Tarja has a good voice, no doubt, but the music itself was really quite mediocre. In my mind this cements everything I thought about with Tarja: contrary to her own opinion, she is nothing without Tuomas’ (Nightwish’s keyboardist and composer) music. There were a few good songs on the Album, but I was not all that impressed… I guess I’ll just go back to my normal music.

EDIT: After listening to her album again, I’ve decided it actually isn’t really too bad. It’s just not my style. Plus, Tuomas WAS a better composer than the people Tarja’s working with now. Sorry, it’s just true. I still think Tarja should never have given Tuomas and Nightwish a reason to fire her, because it was a huge mistake on her part. Though, I must admit, I like Nightwish’s current vocalist (she may not have the range of Tarja, but she is good) and I really like Dark Passion Play. Plus, Tarja’s departure seems to have allowed Marco do more singing, and everyone knows I dig Marco’s voice.

And… we are probably going to change our ISP (Internet Service Provider for all you non-tech savvy people). We’ve been using Cynet (or Cybernet or something like that) which is a division of the same company that we all use for our Cellphone service: Grameen. However, we’ve been having some real problems with our Potter’s School Classes. Basically, the VoIP parts of our classes are disabled: we can’t hear the teacher, or anyone else, talk, nor can we talk to them should we need to become miced (erm… however you spell it mic+ed). Believe me, it’s really frustrating. This is the third time we’ve had the problem and our current ISP just can’t seem to provide us with a permanent solution. We phoned/emailed another ISP (BOL, Bangladesh Online) and when my mom explained our Error the guy on the phone said that lots of their customers have that problem and that they provide them with a form to fill out and their problem is solved. In any instance, pray for wisdom in our decision-making and that we would have peace in whatever decision that we make.

A few more things… I finally bought Mutants and Masterminds 2nd Edition (MnM), a RPG that allows you to create Super Heroes. I have to say, it’s amazing. First off, while it is focused on the general superheroes and supervillians ala comic books like Batman and Superman, you don’t have to do stuff like that. I can easily see a group of DnD players converting Forgotten Realms to MnM. I mentioned this system to Brian for running a wizard cadre in his own fantasy setting, and I wasn’t wrong: it’d do it perfectly. Though I do have to say that its quite likely that in that specific instance, all the PCs would have very similar characters stat wise.

Anyways… I’m using the system to play in a as of yet unnamed game with the same people whom I played the Legend of the Moab Mechanism, a True20 game set in the world of Space 1889, which combined Victorian Era Britain with space travelling. :D That game was quite fun and now that it’s over I’m quite happy to be creating my mage/thief/demon PC. A sort of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type character: normal human who transforms into a powerful demon.

Other things to talk about: Drow is imba. Seriously, she is just too good for her own good. Cold arrows + aura + level 6 = pwnage on a very bad scale. She is by far better than sniper, and easier to play than Time Stop guy (erm… Faceless Void), even if he is better. Plus, I like her attack animation. :D
… I seem to have nothing else to write about.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

I just got a Family Force 5 Album. It. Is. Amazing. I didn’t think Disco-esque music could be this amazing. I’m not sure what to say… its just amazing.

Hmm… what else. Caleb is in town, that’s awesome. I went to his house yesterday. His dad made comment about how despite the fact that I don’t want to follow my parent’s profession, he thinks I will. I told him I won’t do it the same way they do, but I’ll do want to do stuff like that, and I plan to give generously to people in their profession.

I also got a scholarship. *parties* 4,000 bucks a year from one of my safer college choices. Quite encouraging. Its not a big scholarship, but there’s more money where that came from, I’m sure. The question is will I even go to the school… I still think St. Edwards or Baylor would be a better school for me, but well… scholarship. I’ll just have to wait and see if what other opportunities and the like come up.

Oh, and got a letter from UT. Right… like I’m going to your boring stupid school. I hated everything about that I saw. Then there was the presentation on writing… that was awesome, the presenter was such an idiot. Besides, seeing as its one of the biggest party schools in Texas… well partying is good, but I really don’t feel the need to go out and get stinking drunk every single weekend. Or be involved with people who do that… Oh, and the lack of personal involvement with the professors doesn’t help much either. We talked to some people while we were in the States and they were like, “yes, its possible to complete your degree without even having a professor teach you...” Good reason not to go there.

Oh, I watched a Children of Bodom music video while at Caleb’s house. (my web blocker hates Youtube…). Very interesting. Exactly what I expected… totally amazing guitar work and awesome melody (coolio keyboard) but the vocals… lol they might as well not have been there. I couldn’t understand a thing that Alexi (their vocalist/guitarist) said plus I could hardly tell when he stopped and when he started singing. Ahh the joys of metal… anyways… I probably should get some of their stuff.

That’s all for now…

Darnit, this FF5 Album is amazing.