divided loyalty

the end

2011-07-06T22:04:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been fun. 3 years and change of blogging and I still haven't managed to get a halfway-decent following, but that doesn't mean it wasn't worth the amount of time I put into it. It's been through a lot with me, from the silliness of freshman year and being an indecisive fan to massive amounts of drama in the baseball world and in my own life.

But even though Divided Loyalty has served me (somewhat) well, with the new chapter that is college, I figured it would be best to start anew, so this is my last post here.

Thanks to everyone who sucked it up through my bloggery, especially for being (mostly) good examples of what good blogging is. You guys know who you are.

In proper abandonment fashion, I'm not leaving a new address because I want to start completely from the bottom, see how long it takes me to build up a repertoire not based on people I know personally. I'll still be following along, and I'm on Facebook if anyone needs to find me.

This is it. Stay strong and don't do anything stupid.

about that

2011-06-22T09:06:00.000-04:00

Yeah. Hm. Not getting lackadaisical on posting. About that.

Sorry, I haven't had much to say, plus once graduation is over I'm 1, going on vacation for two weeks, and 2, dropping DL anyway.

Guess that's it.

things

2011-06-15T15:35:00.000-04:00

Makes this post seem a lot worse than it should, but I was desperate for a title.

Things that went well today:
-being able to study for calc and English during journalism and study hall
-the first half of my English exam (one essay down)
-getting 33MPG on my last tank of gas, which is particularly nice considering I haven't gotten full use (i.e. 30+MPG) out of a tank since last summer

Things that didn't go so well today:
-procrastinating on studying because I didn't feel like it
-the first half of my calc exam, which is sad considering I just did most of these problems and my teacher just happened to pick the ones I had problems with
-sneezing while driving, because that just sucks.

And as promised, I took a picture of my calc project:

I went with a Viking theme, hence the Old Norse runes, the sea monster as the track and the little Viking ship as the rollercoaster car. It was way too much fun.

whatever it takes

2011-06-14T20:58:00.000-04:00

Not in a writing mood, so I'll post this video instead.

continuity fail

2011-06-13T16:48:00.000-04:00

Sad thing is I had the tab open to remind me to post... and then I just didn't do it.

So I might as well break the news now that among other things I'm starting over with, blogging is one of them, so once collegeness sets in, Divided Loyalty is getting the boot. I need such an overhaul in terms of style and content, and I've had this for most of high school, so a new blog would be another fresh start for me for college.

That being said, I won't necessarily be lackadaisical with posting, but I won't be so paranoid about posting every day.

sábado en español numero uno: nuestro colegio es ridículo

2011-06-11T10:03:00.000-04:00

Nuestro colegio fue construido en los ‘60s, y necesita muchas renovaciones. Tenemos demasiadas evacuaciones; uno o dos están cómicas, pero ahora nos molestan. Ayer, había un fuga de gas durante la clase de ingles, y no podíamos entrar en el colegio hasta las 2:30. Tenía una cita con la dermatólogo a las 3, pero los autobuses estában bloqueando el estacionamiento y yo no podia salir. Era muy malo.

Y el hematoma (es un cognado) en mi brazo no me duele mucho, pero la moradura es mucho más grande. Es más verde que antes, y espero que sea casi curado.

pride

2011-06-10T22:37:00.000-04:00

While I ~~may~~ certainly do have undesirable traits, there's one thing I pride myself on, and that's being a cheap date. I almost always pay my way through something (unless it's family, somehow that's different), and if I don't, I pick to go somewhere fun and not expensive. I'll usually splurge a bit on big things, like birthdays and anniversaries, but other than that, I won't say no to an ice cream dinner.

Also, while I'm thinking of it, I really need to brush up on my Spanish before I take my college placement exam, since I haven't taken any Spanish since first semester last year. Therefore, I've decided to do Spanish Saturdays, i.e. blogging en español, so I can be not quite so rusty when I have to take that test. The only thing that might become a problem is having to copy-paste any ñs or accents, mostly because that just gets annoying after a while. If Spanish isn't your thing, there's always the handy-dandy Google Translator to read it for you.c

like a concert

2011-06-09T19:31:00.000-04:00

Lovely little heat wave and thunderstorm spat we've had the past few days, but last night's storm was crazy. Before I went to bed, I had no clue it was s'posed to storm, but I thought, "Hey, it'd be nice to get some rain, it's been so ungodly hot and the rain will cool everything down." And then this happened. Not quite what I meant...

Supposedly it was several smaller storms, but I got up to shut my windows and I couldn't get back to sleep because it was a constant rumbling and cracking of thunder, and the lightning was like a strobe light. It was nature's concert, but not appreciated at 2 in the morning. The first crack I heard when I got out of bed was right as I was climbing down my ladder (I have a loft bed), and it was this horrible, resonating crunch and it startled me so much I almost fell off my ladder.

And somehow, some people managed to sleep through it all. I know I'm a light sleeper, but geez...

i made a difference

2011-06-08T20:35:00.001-04:00

Well, I tried to, at least. My arm had other ideas.

After the fiasco that was my nonappearance at the October school blood drive, and the second fiasco that was my almost-passing-out at the March one, I wanted a nice, easy go this time. I got to my appointment 5 minutes early, they took me right in to fill out all the paperwork, the lady I had was really nice, life was good. They put the needle in my arm (which kinda hurt but hello, it's a needle), and it was going well for about 30 seconds when the lady called another lady over to look at my arm. I was staring at the ceiling, trying not to think about the needle in my arm, but apparently my arm decided to give the finger to the idea of blood donation and refused to give any blood beyond the juice-box-sized amount it had already given.

Apparently these things happen ... well, not all the time, but enough so that it's not a freak occurrence. I'm not sure if it's because of the weather (as it was very muggy today), or because I lost weight between now and March, or if it's a physiological thing (since I'm so ungodly pale, plus a few relatives said they had the same thing happen). But now I have a small hematoma in my left arm (not as bad as it sounds, just an inside-bruise from the blood, but it makes me look like a failed druggie), and I can't try again until August.

Luckily being a end-of-the-year senior has treated me well and I have not had anything of substance to do lately :)

beauty

2011-06-07T15:21:00.000-04:00

Is in the eye of the beholder. For example, my calc project. I'm done with the aesthetically pretty part, i.e. making the poster for my project. I, however, am not done with the mathematically pretty part, i.e. typing up all my equations for continuity and differentiability. As I am not allowed to say that math is not beautiful, I will say that, looking at it, the actual poster will be what gets more people to stop and look at the display case, though the equations and all that fun stuff are kinda impressive too, just not to the average high schooler.

Also, as a warning to anyone who might ever want to use modeling clay, it stains your hands. It took me quite a bit of scrubbing to get my hands to an acceptable shade of green. I'd hate to find out what would've happened if I used blue...

old and young

2011-06-06T21:24:00.000-04:00

You know you're getting old when the Royals' first-round draft pick is in the same grade as you. Sheesh.

However, I'm combating the oldness. How? I went shopping today. For modeling clay. I needed some for my calc project, 'cause there's a bunch of ugly taping jobs on my poster that I need to cover, plus I can use it for paper support. I'll try to remember to take a picture of it when I'm done.

awards

2011-06-05T20:19:00.000-04:00

Even though the actual awards night kinda miffed me, it got me thinking. A lot of the awards were named after alumni that had passed away, and they were given to people that supposedly had similar traits. So in a morbid train of thought, I asked myself, "If I died and had a scholarship or award named after me, what would it be?"

What I came up with was the Behind-the-Scenes Award, which basically sums up my existence: I do stuff, sometimes a lot, and hardly ever get noticed. Take band for example. Being a percussionist, I'm quarantined to the back with the worst possible section ever. So I fight constantly to keep a bunch of beating-happy teenage boys from driving the rest of the group insane. In drama, my job was to keep everything "off-screen" (if you will) somewhat less chaotic. I painted sets, organized costumes and made sure people weren't screwing around. And as softball manager, I basically did the same thing, plus providing equipment to anyone that forgot theirs.

A lot of stuff. Little to no recognition. Bit of a backhanded compliment, like winning "Most Overlooked." But I'd be happy winning it.

ending the sabbatical

2011-06-04T14:44:00.000-04:00

After a month off, I figured I should probably come back. The drama is pretty much over, and aside from a few minor things, I'm fine now. I'll do a small recap of May.

Prom was ok, but that caused most of the drama, so that's all I'll say about that.

We ended the season 6 and 14, no clue what JV was but they were similar.

I now have therapy appointments once a week, though it's not the stereotypical me sitting on a couch and the therapist saying "And how do you feel about that?" It's more of an opportunity for me to talk to a neutral party about stuff that's going on, and it's nice to have a outside view on things. Plus I like talking and need to vent sometimes.

I created a roller-coaster, which was a lot more fun than it really should've been, considering I did it with a bunch of math equations. Eeew, math... :)

And I got to run the weed-whacker today, but it was mostly because I almost got hit yesterday trying to pull out of my driveway so I had to weed-whack our front yard so I could see better.

sparing the pain

2011-05-03T18:08:00.000-04:00

There are some problems I need to address, and to spare you the commentary, I'm electing to further break my one-post-a-day vow and quarantine myself from the blogosphere for a while, at least until I get this sorted out.

I'll be back. Eventually.

not getting it

2011-05-02T20:43:00.000-04:00

We lost today, 3-0 to an 0-and-9 team (ok well they're 1 and 9 now). What I don't get is how they could be 0 (or 1) and 9 when their pitcher has such a nasty riseball. Just embarrassing.

Now to work on calc and stats and journalism and English :P

making connections

2011-05-01T10:18:00.001-04:00

We're starting our senior critique for English, and I decided to read 1984 because I don't think I can stand reading any more of Return of the Native. It was a pretty interesting, if not depressing, book, and there's a few things I could write my thesis about, including the hypocrisy of the Party (since in trying to eliminate any impurities and natural tendencies in the public, they turn everyone into animals anyway).

And then I was listening to some Muse and everything started to click. I'm not sure I'm just making this up, but a lot of their songs relate back to the book, like referencing the Thought Police and stuff. And the entirety of "United States of Eurasia/Collateral Damage" sounds like a plot summary:

You and me are the same
We don't know or care who's to blame
But we know that whoever holds the reigns
Nothing will change
Our cause has gone insane

And these wars they can't be won
And these wars they can't be won
And do you want them to go on and on and on?
Why split these states
When there can be only one

And must we do as we're told?
Must we do as we're told?

You and me fall in line
To be punished for unproven crimes
And we know that there's no one we can trust
Our ancient heroes
They are turning to dust

And these wars they can't be won
Does anyone know or care how they begun?
They just promise to go on and on and on
But soon we will see
There can be only one

(lyrics from AZLyrics)

so much for that

2011-04-30T19:03:00.001-04:00

2 wins in a row and a pretty good feeling around varsity destroyed by having to play the #1 team in the state. They're also #1 in being complete asses, because they won 21-0 in 5 innings (well, 4.5) and never once thought "Hey, we're killing this team, let's show some respect and not take as many bases as we can." That happened to us when we played their JV last year (the 2nd time when they no-hit us and won 26-0. The first time they didn't take us seriously at all and that's why we beat them.).

Anyway. I didn't end up going to the game (which is why I'm really pissed about the book 'cause it's all jumbly and not making any sense and now my stats will be screwed up because of it) because I had to do my NHS project and clean up the trails in back of the school. We put down some mulch on yucky parts of the trail and did a lot of trimming along the sides to get rid of the thorny crap and anything sticking into the trail. It was kind of nice because there was a massive track meet today and when a few guys from another school came down to warm up on the trails, I overheard them say something about how nice the trails looked.

Which is nice, considering that out of the 40-someodd people in NHS, only 3 bothered to show up to help me out. Luckily we got everything done so we did have some downtime, in which we ate the 2 dozen donuts that the Conservation Commission people gave us (there were more of them than us), found a killer bittersweet vine that was so thick and stuck in the tree that we used it as a rope swing, and made vuvuzelas. One of the guys wanted to see if the stem of a Japanese knotweed was hollow, so he cut a stalk down and ended up hollowing it out with a stick, and I'm not sure what possessed him to try to blow into it, but it turned into a very obnoxious vuvuzela-type thing. Naturally we made a few more and tried annoying the people there for the baseball game, lacrosse game and massive track meet.

Also, machetes might be somewhat efficient for clearing brush, but they're kinda scary. Just saying.

blah

2011-04-29T22:23:00.002-04:00

Won 17-5 today. Might've busted a hip flexor yesterday baserunning during practice. Sore. 'Tis all.

wussies.

2011-04-28T17:32:00.000-04:00

The horrible storm system that has thus far killed over 250 in the South decided to ride up the coast, so we got hit with a ton of rain. Luckily we didn't get any tornadoes, and it didn't really start raining 'til this afternoon. Pretty much every other sport got cancelled except for us 'cause it still wasn't really doing anything, so we went out there and practiced in the overcast... and mist... and sprinkles... and rain... and downpours... and thunder and lightning... then obviously we had to stop 'cause we're legally not allowed to be practicing outside if it's lightninging.

I'll be honest, in the last minutes of practice when we were all huddled together in the equipment shed and then running out to the cars, that was freaking scary. Rain is nice, thunder is cool and whatnot but not when you're right in the middle of it.

Before the barrage of precipitant scariness, I got to run some on the bases, which I haven't done since the season started, and it actually felt really good. Sure, my left hip flexor isn't appreciating it now, but it was fun while it lasted. (No sliding though, I was wearing my jeans.)

strange...

2011-04-27T22:11:00.000-04:00

For those of you who noticed, I did actually write yesterday, but somehow it saved as a draft instead of an actual post so it didn't get posted 'til now. But seriously, I wrote it yesterday.

Just a quick post. We had a game a hour away today (we finally won, 9-0), and I had to do calc and I was doing my English essay and then I gave up.

And the Travel Channel is doing a special on the Six Flags in New Jersey so I'm listening and noting the rides I've been on.

'Tis all.

things to do

2011-04-26T21:05:00.000-04:00

I don't usually do a whole lot during practice, so whenever my coach gives me a typed-up list, I get a little worried as to how much I have to do. Today's list involved taking attendance, taking down numbers and sizes of the leftover varsity uniforms, tidying up the shed and talking to various people about handing stuff in. I did that real quick, served as a catcher during outfield drills, played messenger between varsity and JV, braided my hair and spent the rest of the time reading 1984. So I still didn't really do a whole lot. I'll be needed more tomorrow since we have a game and obviously I have to do the book.

psychic itunes

2011-04-25T21:02:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure if this is cool or just plain annoying, but when I'm listening to my iPod or iTunes on my computer and I'm in a bad mood, the music will either match my mood exactly or start playing sickeningly happy music, almost like it's trying to make me feel better. Unfortunately, lately it's been playing songs that remind me of how alone I'm going to be in college and I've kinda been depressed about that so the fact that my iPod is constantly reminding me of that fact isn't all that appreciated.

Plus we got creamed again today, 19-9. It sucks, 'cause we were winning 5-4 at one point. Eight errors will change a game real fast, that's for sure. 15 hits against us sure didn't help either. At least we got our bats going too...

all the wrong reasons

2011-04-24T11:03:00.000-04:00

Sorry, the Nickleback reference was unintentional. Besides, I'm apparently one of few people that doesn't mind them.

Anyway. It's Easter, but instead of celebrating Christian zombification, I'm celebrating the peanut butter eggs and Starburst jelly beans. I love being an equal-opportunity heathen. It tastes so good :)

tour guide mandachan: ithaca

2011-04-23T21:10:00.000-04:00

Or if you're into the Odyssey, feel free to spell it with a K instead. But I went to the New York one, not the Greece one.

Which means a 6-hour ride there and a 6-hour ride back. Now that we've done it twice, it's really not that difficult to get to, just long and in the middle of freaking nowhere. But while you're there, it's neat. What I liked about the campus is that even though you're in the middle of nowhere, you can see downtown and surrounding towns from it so it doesn't feel like you're in the middle of nowhere. Walking around kinda sucks, though, 'cause the city's one big ginormous hill. Thank goodness for the TCAT buses.

The general tour didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know from before, but it was nice to go through and look at everything again. Plus I found out that the new athletic center they're finishing in June will have indoor batting cages, which is awesome. And they have a waffle station in their dining hall (well, one of them at least), which must be an Ithaca thing since our hotel had a make-your-own-waffle thing as part of our continental breakfast, and there was a place in their pedestrian mall that made pretty much everything with waffles. But hey, it's waffles, so who's complaining?

Honestly, I'll probably just spend most of my time either walking around (working off that freshman 15) the city or on campus, since I'll have so much to do in terms of clubs and whatnot, plus that obligatory academic stuff... :)

a closer look

2011-04-22T20:03:00.000-04:00

When I visited Ithaca back in junior year, we didn't really see any of the town, so when we went up this time, we poked around downtown. There are a lot of really cool stores, including a waffle place. And there's also a lot of (ahem) smoke shops. Didn't really see that one coming.

Off to a campus tour tomorrow, mostly to revisit the dorm rooms (get an idea of what/how much I can/need to bring) and the school of communications since I never actually visited it.

Hopefully I can actually find the bookstore this time...

looking for an off-switch

2011-04-21T09:17:00.000-04:00

Have you ever had one of those times where you're trying to sleep or concentrate but your brain keeps going off on random tangents or otherwise won't let you do what you're s'posed to be doing? If not, consider yourself lucky. I spent at least an hour last night lying awake in bed because I had several songs stuck in my head, plus I was thinking about graduation and college and a slew of other stuff. An off-switch, or even just a mute button, would've been so nice.

I know, stressing about all of this isn't going to make it any better. But now that my friends know I'm capable of buying halfway-decent presents, I'm now obligated to get something really cool for their graduation parties 'cause otherwise it'll look like a cop-out. And the college stressing was me realizing that all my friends are going to carry on without me (since I'll be the furthest away) and the only person I'll know within the county doesn't like me to begin with.

And with that, let's go and finish my calc. Yay.

what they should be doing

2011-04-20T14:22:00.000-04:00

Among other opinions I have on athletics, the salary cap is one of the larger ones that I support. Seriously, do people really need millions of dollars a year to throw a ball or swing a stick or even purposely injure each other? Considering I will be one of many spending what will essentially be the rest of my life paying for college, I don't think it's fair, and when I see what these people do with their money and time, it's just bad.

I know a lot of athletes have foundations or whatever that they support, which is obviously a good thing. Having wasted quite a bit of time on Facebook today while trying to procrastinate doing my English essay, I came across a link that the Royals' official page posted about a charity that Alex spokespersons for (because that is totally a word now). It's called Alex's Lemonade Stand, not named after him but a young girl diagnosed with cancer that started a little lemonade stand in her yard to help raise money for cancer research back in 2000. The charity now has chapters/branches/whatever you want to call them across the country, so Alex does events for the Kansas City bit.

People always ask me why I like Alex. He's not exactly a household name (especially not in New England), and he's not a spectacular player earning bajillions of dollars a year. To me, he's an inspiration for not giving up when the going gets rough, and he's a perfect example of what athletes should be doing with their time and money.

photo from Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation

not feeling well

2011-04-19T19:24:00.000-04:00

Not sure what it is, if I ate too much for lunch, but my stomach is hurting up a storm and I'm really tired and I want to go to bed. Ugh.

savoring the silence

2011-04-18T13:06:00.002-04:00

Aside from the bird and car noises outside, the hum of my laptop and fridge and obviously the clicking of my keyboard.

Seriously, I am relishing in the soothing sounds of nothing. A four-day trip that involved 16+ hours on a coach bus, DC and Six Flags will get to your head eventually. I don't really consider myself claustrophobic or particularly sensitive to sounds, but I have certain requests for volume and space and not having those kinda drove me crazy by the end of yesterday. Hence why I'm going to college in the middle of nowhere.

I actually forgot to bring my DLGM notebook with me, so I didn't document it anywhere other than with my pissing and moaning. I'll just do a small pro/con recap of each day.

Thursday:
Pros:

not having to go to school
taking the scenic route through a very nice part of coastal western Connecticut because the highway was backed up
driving through the part of New Jersey I've never been through, plus Delaware and Maryland
eating at Popeye's for lunch and not having my food eaten by someone else (I ordered the spicy chicken strips and no one touched them. It was great.)

Cons:

being stuck on a bus for 8 hours
having to watch movies on the way down and therefore not being able to read (I have two books to finish by the end of break, and I was planning to finish them on the drive, but it's kinda hard to read when you have Lion King 1½, The Little Mermaid and The DaVinci Code on full blast)
the bus AC not working on the hottest day of our trip
not getting very good sleep since we had to share beds, I gradually got shoved into a tiny corner of and off mine and sleeping on the floor kinda sucks.

Friday:

Pros:

taking the scenic route through parts of DC and Bethesda since the highway was again backed up
not getting laughed off the stage at the music adjudication
listening to the other groups (which were a lot better than us...)
the game show dinner. Food was good, and even though the show seemed kinda lame at the beginning, it got really silly and people had to do a lot of embarrassing things

Cons:

...we had to play 5th grader music for the adjudication...
the dance after the game show, not good music
having to lug all the percussion stuff all over the place
not having time to read

Saturday:

Pros:

having a very interesting conversation with one of my friends about religion
not getting laughed off the stage at the adjudication award ceremony (we scored in the 70-80 range out of 100, so it wasn't completely horrible)
visiting the Natural History Museum in the Mall, because I'm a geek
the wicked cool thunder and lightning storm, the bolts were really vivid in some of the flashes

Cons:

driving through said thunder and lightning storm. It had been raining pretty much all day, and there was a good inch of water on the highway.
getting the reject shower in our hotel room, where the shower knob had to be taped over 'cause the metal was broken and sharp and the hot water wouldn't turn off all the way
watching one of the other schools in the adjudication win every stinkin' award but one
still not being able to read much

Sunday:

Pros:

finally being able to go home. I think that if I had been gone one more day, I would've gone ballistic.
not watching a movie on part of the bus ride so I could actually read
remembering I still had an entire sleeve of Ritz crackers and a giant can of Arizona sweet tea in my backpack
going to Six Flags and going on a bunch of roller coasters I had never been on. Kingda Ka was freaking crazy, and it was a lot of fun.

Cons:

the fact that Kingda Ka only lasted about 30 seconds, and that I wasn't anticipating the acceleration (which actually made me scream more than the gigantic ride down)
having a group of people that would constantly disagree on what to go on. I seriously contemplated breaking the group rule, running away and going on rides by myself.
losing the remaining 65 bucks I had somewhere in the park. Hence why I was happy I still had those Ritz crackers.
everyone being sleep-deprived and snapping at each other about petty things ranging from whether or not we were watching a movie to when to call our parents. I was just as guilty as the next person, but everyone else thought it was ok for each of them to be bitchy but not anyone else.

...Ok, maybe "small" was a misnomer, I apologize. But hey, it got me out of doing my calc homework... and essay on Macbeth... and having to read a hellaciously boring Thomas Hardy novel...

taking a break

2011-04-13T20:41:00.000-04:00

I'm leaving for our annual music department trip tomorrow, won't be back 'til late Sunday and I don't think they have free wi-fi at the hotel (which is sad), so I'm leaving my laptop home and taking a break from blogging 'til then. Not like I would've really had much to talk about anyway.

So yeah. I'll try to keep up with Divided Loyalty Goes Mobile while I'm gone, and maybe I'll actually post it this time. Someone keep an eye on the Royals for me, since the Sox aren't doing that well, and I'll be back on Monday (Sunday if you're lucky).

too much to do, too little time

2011-04-12T21:58:00.000-04:00

School, practice (which, today, involved doing stats and organizing equipment stuff), my sister's munchkin softball practice, library for 20 minutes, town meeting, English homework, calc homework, band homework.

And absolutely nothing to blog about. Sorry.

incomprehensible

2011-04-11T20:54:00.000-04:00

The game today was just embarrassing so instead I'm going to do a mini rant on France's burqa ban. I don't understand how this can be at all constitutional. I know that not everyone has the "yay equality" free speech and religion rules, but I would imagine that a country like France would be advanced enough to not let something like that happen. It's not like there's a wide distribution of headscarves and full face veils among world religions, so it's obviously an anti-Muslim stab, and that's racial...religious... profiling.

i need a break

2011-04-10T11:06:00.000-04:00

As much as I really don't want to be quoting Katy Perry lyrics, I have to. I'm stuck on a roller coaster and I can't get off this ride. I'm not sure how much more of anything I can take. I feel a snapping coming on, and I'd really like to avoid it at all costs.

a little rough

2011-04-09T17:02:00.000-04:00

15-8, but a win is a win. Especially considering we were down 5-3 and then the offensive barrage of epic awesomeness occurred around the 5th inning or so. Gray jerseys, here we come :)

And I got my "thanks for enrolling" letter from Ithaca, but I think I'm more excited about the sticker I got to put on my car...

bribery

2011-04-08T21:30:00.000-04:00

We're not allowed to wear our new gray jerseys (which look nicer than our new blue ones) until we get a win. I think everyone is going to try extra hard to win tomorrow just so we can wear the gray jerseys. Besides, this is a small-division school, we can beat them.

Ugh. Bright and early tomorrow. Game at 11, so bus at 8:30, there at 8:15, leave the house at 8, which means I have to get up at 7 to have time to take a shower :P

And the Sox finally won. 1 and 6. Come on guys. That's just sad.

being a fan

2011-04-07T20:42:00.000-04:00

People like to pick on me for being a Royals fan as well as a Sox fan. Yeah, usually the Royals kinda suck. But them Royals are looking pretty good right now, aren't they? So back off.

First game today. It didn't rain, surprisingly enough, but it rained this morning so we can say it rained today for this team. As expected, varsity got creamed (13-0, very easy to score since there were 19 Ks), and JV won though I don't know what the score was since I wasn't doing the book.

I was going to try to get the game on video and then edit them all onto a DVD for the end of the year, but I didn't have enough room on my memory card so now I can't do that, but I think doing a full stats package is enough of a present for the coaches, plus whatever we get for coaches' gifts.

dearblankpleaseblank

2011-04-06T20:27:00.000-04:00

A few I came up with today.

Dear Mother Nature,

Please make the weather go half and half tomorrow, i.e. sunny for the start of our game and instadownpour during it. I don't want indoor practice or numb hands, but I also don't want the freshmen to think I'm crazy for saying it always rains when we play this team if it doesn't.

Dear whoever attacked that Giants fan at the Dodgers season opener last week,

Seriously, what the hell? The guy is in a coma with serious brain damage because you can't handle someone else liking the other team. I hope you get hit by a bus, revived and thrown in jail.

Dear Gadhafi,

That's cute and all that now you're worried about stuff and asked Obama to stop the air strikes, but do Libya, the UN and the world a favor and step down. If you cared that much about the wellbeing of your country and its citizens, you wouldn't be a dictator.

and finally,

Dear proponents of cheer and dance teams,

Sorry, but no matter how much athleticism it requires, anything that involves short skirts and makeup is still not a sport.

cows

2011-04-05T17:17:00.000-04:00

We're remarkable cows.

And wherever we go,

it's a fabulous show.

Oh, you know we are cows.

That's right, we're cows.

Such remarkable cows.

We can sing very low.

We can dance in a row.

We are lovely and slow, oh, oh--

Yes, you know we are cows.

(Sorry, I couldn't help chipping in with "Cows" from Philadelphia Chickens.)

So yeah. Cows. I was poking around on the news and there's this girl in Germany who, when told by her parents that she couldn't have a horse, trained her cow and now rides it like the horse she couldn't have. I think it's a pretty neat idea, but then again, I like cows, so of course I like the idea of having a rideable cow. Think about it, it's a pet, transportation, a ride-on lawnmower and dairy stand all in one.

I think it was being in Ag that steered me towards cattle. And I just made a really bad unintentional cow joke right there. Go me. Anyway. I remember having to go online and research cattle breeds for a little report, and I found this site, which was the source of all my time-wasting for a while because there is so much stuff on there. I had a minor... er, major obsession with dogs for a while, and I loved knowing all the breeds and what they were bred for and whatnot. Naturally, I had way too much fun on this site looking at different breeds of cattle and other livestock for very much the same reason.

(photo from Bing Image Search)

And besides, how can you not love that face?

frustration

2011-04-04T22:10:00.000-04:00

Pretty much my existence in calc from now until May 4th, when it's all over.

Luckily some shenanigans during practice today made the afternoon better. Varsity ended up baserunning for JV while JV practiced situational stuff (usually it's the other way around), and there were some monumentally bad slides. And apparently it wasn't common knowledge that the JV right field fence is just a little short, because one of our freshmen on varsity was going after a fly ball deep in right and completely ran into the fence, bounced off and everything. The play was finished, but everyone was practically dying from laughing, even the right fielder, who was lying on the grass with her hands over her face.

All in all, it was a little rough but fun.

mindscrew

2011-04-03T20:59:00.000-04:00

A slightly kinder way to describe Sucker Punch than what the EGE came up with...

We went to go see it today as part of our two-year anniversary (♥) after a lovely sushi and tempura lunch. I was a little skeptical about it, since the reviews were a little rough, but I decided that it would either be really good or so bad that it's good, so I didn't have anything to lose. Overall, I liked it, but it was a little hard at times to figure out what was reality and what wasn't, which is why it really messed with your mind. There was a really powerful quote at the end, but unfortunately I don't remember it verbatim and it isn't on Wikiquote, so you'll have to go see it yourself to find out.

And the Sox are kinda sucking right now (got swept by the Rangers), but Alex was 4 for 6 in the Royals' 12-9, 13-inning routing of the Angels' pitchers (Scott Kazmir only lasted an inning and two-thirds).

lies

2011-04-02T19:14:00.000-04:00

And slander!

(I don't know, it's something my friends say a lot.)

Anyway. Alex isn't actually doing all that well, and his hit yesterday (the only one so far) was actually a double, not a single.

Speaking of scoring, I spent the entire afternoon doing the book. It was nice to get back into doing the book, except when I missed something 'cause people were talking to me or whatever. Plus it went from really nice (i.e. sunny and no wind) to really not nice (i.e. cloudy and windy and cold) several times, staying more so on the not-nice side for the majority of the time. We lost 2 of the 3 scrimmages but overall it wasn't that bad, especially considering those losses were to two state-champ teams and we won the 3rd 10-4 or so.

Now, what to do for dinner...

fail.

2011-04-01T20:46:00.000-04:00

Opening Day for the Sox against the Rangers and they lose 9-5. Fail. Ellsbury went 2 for 4 with a double and a stolen base, Salty had an 0-fer.

Royals are playing the Angels right now, Dan Haren is pitching. His mug shot is kinda ugly. And Alex is batting 3rd (got a single first at-bat), so he must've done well offensively in Spring Training. Maybe this is the year.

Four-team scrimmage tomorrow. Fun. I'll be gone all day, so I should probably go to bed soon...

laughing out loud

2011-03-31T21:21:00.000-04:00

In the midst of the most recent tiff about prom (this one being dresses), I was sent this idea:

(photo found by the EGE)

Sorry, but I don't think it would go over too well if I showed up to prom in a Cthulhu costume...

not on a weeknight

2011-03-30T21:11:00.000-04:00

Weekday games suck. Especially away ones. Even more so when they're not in the county. I got home from our scrimmage, which started at 4:30, at 8. And I have to get up early for the NHS meeting tomorrow. Ugh.

(We lost 6-4 but it was mostly a lot of funky stuff in the first two innings, the rest was well-played.)

'Tis all. 'Night.

firing it up

2011-03-29T20:57:00.000-04:00

Started pre-game-type practices today, since we have a scrimmage tomorrow. Though fire would've been nice, it was brutally windy again, and if I had lit my hands on fire, I probably wouldn't've felt it because my hands went numb again. Most of my left pointer finger was white by the end of practice. Not cool.

But I handed out uniforms today. They're very pretty :)

working things out

2011-03-28T20:41:00.000-04:00

I was bad, I showed up late to practice because I had a calc study group to go to and I didn't call my coach because I didn't have his number and I emailed him not knowing his email was screwed up. Luckily he didn't really care, he was more worried that I wasn't there 'cause he was afraid something happened. It was a legit tardy so it was ok. I told him about the Facebook group I set up and he was surprised I had already done it. Come on, I have no life, I know how to do this sorta stuff.

'Tis all for now. Excited for my field trip tomorrow, we're going to a nearby high school for a workshop hosted by a local newspaper.

last look

2011-03-27T19:09:00.000-04:00

Visited Quinnipiac for a last look today. Didn't really catch anything I didn't already know, and I'm pretty sure I still want to go to Ithaca, but if I wind up not liking it in East Nowhere, NY, and decided to transfer, I'd definitely come back down here.

Now to study for English... :P

on the job

2011-03-26T14:47:00.002-04:00

First day of practice as a manager, and it was definitely a lot different. I'm allowed to participate in as much as I want, but we had an even number of people so I didn't have to throw. My coach actually made a speech to the rest of the girls detailing my position and basically putting a death threat on anyone that doesn't take it seriously, and it was kinda embarrassing.

The rest I spent doodling around, catching for the coaches when they'd hit to the girls, freezing my hands and face off since our field is on top of a hill and it was below freezing with the wind chill. Our field was like a rock, yet it's in the sun, so by the end of practice, it was a muddy, soupy rock. And yes, that's possible.

I also heard from BU, I got accepted but got crap for financial aid due to issues with the PROFILE so it's a good thing I'm not planning on going there. I think I'll fit in better in Ithaca anyway.

finding my place

2011-03-25T21:11:00.000-04:00

I'll give you a hint: it ain't on the field.

I knew going into tryouts this year that I was going to manage. Try as hard as I might, there was no way I would survive on varsity. My hitting isn't quite as consistent while facing high-speed pitches, and even if I was a good hitter, my mistakes in the field would overshadow it. As much as it sucks that I won't be able to play, it's not where I belong.

I belong behind-the-scenes. That's where I've done the most work. I love doing stats because I have a mind for math and obscure crap; I remember pretty much every score from last year, and I know the schedule better than some of the coaches sometimes. I understand the game a lot better than I can play, and when I'm on the sidelines, I notice the little nitpicky things I wouldn't be able to see if I was playing.

I have a lot more leeway with managing. I can take BP whenever I want, I can warm up throwing if someone doesn't have a partner, basically I can spend as much (or as little) time with varsity as I want. Probably the best part is the fact that I'm not just a person for the team to abuse. I'm sorta the assistant assistant coach, if you will.

Also, I still get a shiny new varsity jersey to wear :)

alright, stop

2011-03-24T17:41:00.000-04:00

The snow wouldn't've been so bad if, you know, it wasn't March, but more importantly it wouldn't've been so bad if we had a 90-minute delay so the roads weren't so sucky. Originally I wasn't supposed to drive this morning and I was just gonna mooch a ride from my mom, but she eventually let me drive, then called me about 5 minutes after she left to tell me that the roads were sucky and that there was a car accident on one of the roads she took.

I took it slow down my road (i.e. went about 15-20, the "Hill" in my street name isn't there just for laughs), I get about halfway down and there's a car flipped. I didn't see it happen, thank goodness, and the lady had gotten out and was already calling the police. She seemed pretty ok minus the obvious shock and what looked like a broken wrist, and I felt bad for not staying, but the guy behind me was helping her out, a plow going up our street had stopped to assist and I kinda had to get to school.

Lovely start to the day, huh? And now it's magically fine and dandy again, hardly any snow left. I'm glad it stopped, but it shouldn't've started in the first place...

spring?

2011-03-23T13:32:00.000-04:00

Yeah, right. You'd think that spring sports and the first actual day of spring would be a sign to Mother Nature to turn up the heat a little this week.

Wrong. By the time I get into my car to go to tryouts this evening, it'll be snowing. We're expected to get 3-5 inches. It's March. We have a scrimmage on Saturday. There's a team from New Hampshire coming down to play us specifically to get away from the snow. (On that note, I've decided that they have to be a private school, because no public school would have the money to truck it down here just for a stupid scrimmage.)

Guess that's it for now. Nothing to do and all afternoon to do it. It's kinda nice.

rants and raves

2011-03-22T15:01:00.000-04:00

A collection of thoughts I've had the past few days. To spare myself the beatings, I'll limit myself to the neutral and/or not-self-degrading ones.

Softball isn't something you can half-ass. You either can or you can't. This week at tryouts was my last shot at figuring out where I stand. So far, not so good.

Trying can only get you so far. You can give it your all and then some, but if you can't do the task at hand, no amount of trying is going to hide that.

Dear Car Radio, I'm well aware of my spectacularly craptastic week so far. Playing "Loser" by Beck on the ride home this afternoon was not appreciated. -me

And the only good thing that comes out of polar coordinates and such is knowing how to make an octopus on your calculator.

'Tis all.

last chance

2011-03-21T15:26:00.000-04:00

Both for trying to make varsity and for doing a legit post until June (if I make the team).

I get home, ready to eat dinner since tryouts are from 5:15-7:30, I'll throw up if I eat right beforehand and I'll be starving if I eat after. I get out the mac & cheese, rummage around in the fridge before realizing that my fridge is almost entirely filled with carbs. Not sure if I'm disturbed or elated.

(My mac & cheese, breadstick and angelfood cake with strawberries were delicious, thank you for asking.)

So since today marks the beginning of me really not having a life, I'll give out the annual warning of a possible sporadic, short or otherwise lame posting schedule.

Now off to do calc. Yay me.

catch-22

2011-03-20T09:17:00.001-04:00

So tryouts start tomorrow. Naturally, my anxiety is really starting to kick in. There's so much on the line, and there's a lot of uncertainty. It's not like other sports (coughtenniscough) where you show up and pretty much automatically make the team. I can't play JV this year because I'm a senior (which really kinda sucks since I loved playing in JV), and the chances of me being good enough for varsity are pretty slim. The varsity coach had talked to me about this at the end of last season, and I'll probably be a DH at best and a manager at worst.

They're really not bad options. The coaches would be foolish to put me in the field, since I'm inexperienced and there are elementary schoolers that could field better than me. I like hitting, and I did really well last year, so it would be like an honor to be used just for the hitting. I'm also a stats monkey, and I really liked doing stats for JV because I'm weird like that.

But I know that either way, I'll be torn. If I don't make the team and instead manage, I'll feel like a loser for not making the team. If I do make the team as a DH, I'll feel that the stats won't get done correctly because I'm not doing them.

I guess that I could split the difference either way; if I DH, I can do pitchers' stats since I won't be in the field, and if I manage, I'll ask to do some BP every once in a while.

decisions, decisions

2011-03-19T16:03:00.001-04:00

I was flipping through all the college mail I've gotten so I could find the opt-out letters for the ones I applied to but aren't going to. It's harder than I thought to find one. In fact, only one of my colleges mentioned anything about an opt-out letter, the rest were just "Send in your deposit or you die." I understand why they don't put opt-out info on there because they're hoping really hard that you go to their school and therefore don't have to worry about opt-out info, but it's still kinda annoying.

I'm also deciding how I want to write my next English essay. I've been getting straight 90s on the past few, and that's also starting to annoy me. Since we've been reading the Canterbury Tales, our essay is to pick a person (fictional or real) and do a character sketch, like in the prologue of the Tales. In my fiction-writing experience, doing character descriptions has always been my favorite part of creating a story, so I think I can use this to bring my grade up. I just need to figure out how I want to go about it.

Tryouts on Monday :P

timeliness

2011-03-18T15:37:00.000-04:00

One of many things I'm neurotic about. But in terms of college information, it's a (non-existent) godsend.

Take my acceptances, for example. I had one due in November, one in December, one in January and two in February. With the exception of BU, who has a hellaciously late acceptance thingy, I heard from all of them within two weeks in December. Heck, I got accepted to two places whose applications weren't even due yet.

Getting everything else has been a little slower, but this is reason enough why I really want to go to Ithaca, because they definitely win the timeliness award. They were first to send me practically everything, including my acceptance and my detailed financial aid package. And I got accepted to their honors program today.

No, seriously, this is quite impressive. I had to fill out an application for the Emerson honors program, that was due all the way in November. I got the "nice try but no" letter yesterday. The deadline for the Ithaca one was March 15th, I mailed it out on March 8th, and I got my acceptance letter for that today. 4 months vs. a week and a half.

I was doing some thinking last night about what I want to do, and I was starting to think that a double major in journalism and Spanish wouldn't be a good idea, because even though I'd be getting the language immersion I need, it'd prevent me from taking anything else. Now that I'm in their honors program, I definitely think that dropping the 2nd major is my best bet. Having that much more time would enable to still take a bajillion language courses (Spanish as my primary but I'd like to learn some Chinese too), plus I'd have room for stuff I wasn't able to take in high school, like anthropology or psych or world history or more art. They even have individualized gym-class-type things where you can learn a sport for a credit.

Definitely feeling better today about my options.

those days

2011-03-17T21:14:00.000-04:00

Everyone has them. You know, when life seems to be working against you at every turn and you kinda just want to throw something at anyone who looks at you.

It's a shame it had to be today. I had my shirt all ready to make me feel like a rebel, and I even succeeded in making it through the day without getting yelled at for it (granted, I covered it when I felt endangered, but that's aside the point). It was my last day of plyos for softball, which means no busting my kneecaps on the stupid boxes. And I went to a local brick-oven pizza joint for dinner, had an awesome brisket sandwich, distributed some school magazines and was asked to create a Facebook fan page for the restaurant.

But no, it couldn't be that simple. First thing this morning, it's colder than I expect and my car is really cold. Not even doing the windshield squirty stuff will clean it off. I leave my car running for a few minutes, defroster on high, until I can't wait any longer or I'll be late for the NHS meeting. I make it almost to the end of my road (so about 2 miles) with only the bottom half of my windshield cleared off. I get to school, try to run up the stairs in the parking lot and proceed to trip and smash my knee on the stairs. Luckily only one person saw it, and technically I'd have a good excuse to be late to the meeting (an embarrassing one, but legitimate nonetheless), but it hurts a lot and I already have a buttload of bruises.

Then I have to go be a complete idiot and get into stuff I have no business inquiring about, which gets me into a huge verbal fight and a pissy mood for pretty much the rest of the day.

One of my layouts during journalism disappeared and I flipped out (I worked hard on that, dangit). But then I found it again. So it wasn't a total loss.

But the morning argument extended into the afternoon, and it just pretty much ruined everything. Because that's what I do best, I ruin everything.

I guess it's just how it has to be. I'm the common factor in all the problems I'm having. I'm not strong like everyone else is, I can't overcome these problems, because I am the problem.

oh well

2011-03-16T17:03:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow, I'm planning on wearing the concert shirt I got the other night. Why? It's St. Patrick's Day, duh. My shirt is green, I don't own a whole lot of green. It's a Dropkick Murphys shirt, they're Irish punk at its best. And it was their St. Paddy's Day tour (they're in Boston this week to finish it up).

So I'm a little bummed to notice that my shirt might not exactly be school appropriate. Their logo for the new album is a 4-part shield, one quadrant which contains a beer bottle, and another quadrant which contains a rearview of a, let's just say, scantily-clothed lady. There's no actual nudity or legitimate alcohol use on the shirt, but I really want to wear the shirt tomorrow and I really don't want to have to take it off.

I'm thinking that I'll take some t-shirt scraps, cut out a half-shield and pin it over that side. It'll look kinda stupid, but it's better than not wearing the shirt.

snippets

2011-03-15T10:09:00.002-04:00

I kinda like doing snippets post, it's maximum information in minimum typing.

First one is not really related to the others, but it's a roughly paraphrased, funny bit of dialogue during English yesterday.

me (to the EGE): Whatcha doin'?
EGE: Trying to remember digits 80-85 of pi. I have the ones after that, but not those.
me:...Did you think to look down at your shirt?
(He was wearing a shirt with several hundred digits of pi in the shape of pi for Pi(e) day).
EGE (looks down): Oh.

Next few will be YouTube videos, I apologize to those of you whose computers don't like YouTube. But the concert the other night was fantastic, so I'll share some of the songs from it.

Their first opening band, which I didn't know about, was Off With Their Heads, but I had spent almost all of their set list buying a t-shirt, so you'll have to look up their music yourself because I don't remember what they played.

The advertised opening band was Against Me! (yes, the exclamation point is part of their name). I hadn't heard much of their music, except for this song:

This was quite impressive live, especially the chorus.

The Dropkick Murphys didn't get on 'til about 9 or so, and they played a lot of stuff from their new album, which just came out the beginning of the month. The titular track, "Going Out In Style," is definitely a keeper. If you listen to the words, it's a little morbid, but they did a really good job with it:

They played a few other songs I knew from their Meanest of Times album, "The State of Massachusetts" and "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya", but I won't put the videos in here, the post will be too long as it is.

I'm personally not a huge fan of upbeat groups like these guys doing slow ballads, but they did an incredible job with "Cruel." Problem is I can't find a good video for it, so you'll also have to look for those.

They ended the set (sortof) with this, which was appropriate since the next leg and end of their St. Paddy's Tour is in Boston. Duh. It's Irish punk. And this is classic.

Of course, they had to come out with an encore. By now, the EGE and I were definitely in a rare crowd since a good portion of everyone else was completely smashed. And the song they encored with was completely appropriate:

Well, in terms of the state that most people were in, it was appropriate. The song kinda isn't (neither is the video but it's the best I could find). But it was really cool 'cause Ken Casey came out into the audience (the band was very interactive with the crowd the entire show) and basically said "Ok, don't touch me, but when the chorus comes, crush the living snot out of me." And that's what happened. He randomly waltzed with a few people, got out of the mosh pit and got into the stands to sing with a particularly rowdy group, playfully beat up a few guys, it was hilarious.

Ok yeah I know, I've typed more here than in most other posts, so it kinda defeats the "snippets" idea, but whatever. I wanted to give a little look at the concert.

best night ever

2011-03-14T21:40:00.000-04:00

That surprise? Tickets to the Dropkick Murphys concert last night. And it was awesome. Soooo worth the sleep deprivation (I didn't get home 'til 11) and the hearing loss (hello, it was a punk rock concert, what do you expect?).

So today was a little rough because I was a little tired. I got my calc test back, didn't do as badly as I thought, which is good. I also brought in pie for Pi(e) Day, and everything is made better with Oreos and Cool Whip.

Conditioning sucked as usual, and I stayed to help out at the softball clinic for the middle schoolers. It was kinda weird being the good example for once. I got nailed in the shin catching the throws from the girls taking grounders, so I'll have a gnarly bruise tomorrow, but that's ok.

surprise

2011-03-13T11:17:00.000-04:00

Very excited about this evening. Going out to dinner with the EGE, and I can't wait to give him his present. I'm obviously not going to say what it is, since that would ruin the surprise, but I will tell you it is kickass.

So I should probably make the reservations soon, huh...

making up

2011-03-12T20:50:00.000-05:00

For not posting on the 2nd due to band rehearsal craziness. Besides, I have a good reason to. I haven't done a birthday post in ages.

I am going to make this one completely ridiculous... ok well it won't be completely ridiculous, since I have puh-lenty of embarrassing pictures and stories to put here and I won't (under penalty of death and/or wedgification). So here goes.

The EGE turned the big 1-8 today. Within the hour, actually (I wouldn't tell him "happy birthday" beforehand). And as much as I'd like to bust his butt here (I so totally could), I'll be the better person and not do it. Because even though he's a royal pain in my ass sometimes, he's my royal pain in the ass. Because even though he's put me through a lot of emotional stress, it's not entirely his fault because I bring a lot of it on myself (some of it is his fault, though). Because even though I want to strangle him sometimes, he's always there for me, and I can't ask for any better. Except maybe for him to not suck quite so much at catching when we throw together, but I can't play tennis to save my life so I guess we're even.

Hope this is an acceptable birthday post, you old fart :)

not pretty

2011-03-12T14:39:00.000-05:00

My hands after going to the batting cages are never pretty. The lining of my gloves is black, which makes my hands all black afterwards, plus the obligatory blisters. The one I got last week, which was more just skin rubbing completely off, reopened itself, and now I have a legit blood blister poofy thing on the edge of my palm between my thumb and pointer finger. Not fun.

Then there's the horrific Japan earthquake. The sheer intensity of it was just insane, since it was an 8.9 and I'm pretty sure the scale only goes to 9 or 10. Now the nuclear power plants, which were having issues beforehand, are exploding.

Plus, this morning, a bus returning from a local casino (i.e. I can see the fireworks from my house in the summer) crashed in the Bronx after getting grazed by a tractor trailer, flipped on its side and ran into a pole, which sheared the roof off from front to back.

And finally, there's a pretty hefty MRSA scare now in town, after a 7th grader passed away yesterday from it. The health district said it wasn't an immediate threat, since the kid had been out sick for at least a week, but the middle school is closed for at least the weekend while they scrub the place down, just to be safe.

Yikes.

complete

2011-03-11T21:53:00.000-05:00

Show went very well. It was really casual, which was good 'cause the sound was a little funky at times but that's ok. Lighting was pretty good, and I got to hang out with a bunch of good people, even though they molested my car and ate my egg salad sandwich...

'Tis all, I'm tired.

talented

2011-03-10T21:12:00.000-05:00

I'm sure not, but a lot of the people in the talent show are. Hence why it's a talent show...

I'm doing lights for it, which is kinda nice because I miss teching for drama. Except the light board is still all messed up, so only about 10 switches actually lead to lights we can use for the talent show. Luckily we don't really need any specialty lighting, just a general wash on stage, varying intensities and combinations for different acts. I think that it looked pretty nice when we ran through the dress rehearsal today.

Yet another night of running around, since I have a doctor's appointment and conditioning before the talent show.

crossovers

2011-03-09T18:00:00.000-05:00

Not always a good idea. Like asking a tennis player to throw with me. But it's better than throwing with my sister.

Also, I saw a commercial for the new Ford Explorer, and that's looking very crossovery too. Almost looks like a Chrysler Pacifica in its roundedness. It's like when they redesigned the Escape to be more macho. Not liking it so much. Give me an '07 or older before a brand new one (you know, if I had any money).

Um... guess that's it. Get to go in early for calc help tomorrow. Yippee. At least I'm getting bonus points out of it.

interesting

2011-03-08T15:27:00.000-05:00

I'm using the Firefly definition of "interesting" to describe the status of band for the music trip. For those of you not in the know, it's "Oh God, Oh God, we're all going to die."

A lot of people don't go on the music trip for various reasons ranging from family vacations to buttwad coaches to monetary issues to thinking it's dumb. Unfortunately, that usually leaves us with an extremely disproportionate band. We have a reasonable number of clarinets and flutes, but that's about it. The rest consists of a 2-man saxophone section, almost the entire 11-person trumpet section, a 2-person percussion section and a 1-person low brass section. "Disproportionate" is a very nice word.

So since we're going to look absolutely ridiculous on stage with such a misshapen band, we're saying "the heck with it" and playing absolutely ridiculous music, including a song featuring the clarinet section (normal), a song featuring mallets (which I'm not sure how we can do with only 1 mallet player, yours truly) and a song with trash cans. Go us.

This can end one of two ways. Our band teacher thinks we'll wow the judges at the competition with this. I personally think it's going to be extremely embarrassing. Either way, should be interesting.

and now...

2011-03-07T16:03:00.000-05:00

...for the post I promised you on... Saturday? Sunday? I can't remember.

Anyway. Various rule-based nonsense. Here goes.

As much as I disagree with the BYU basketball player getting kicked off the team for breaking the chastity rule, I'm not going to fight it, because even though I personally don't agree with it, it's still personal choice and I'm not going to argue that, and it's a school-wide policy (well, the school is rooted in the religion, so that should've been a no-brainer). But Huckabee's recent stunt with bashing Natalie Portman over the same thing is a little ridiculous. First of all, it's pulling religion into politics, not cool. Second, his main argument, the one that single mothers would essentially starve to death were it not for government programs, is definitely not the right card to pull in this instance because Baby Portman will clearly be well cared for (um, hello, look at how much money The Black Swan pulled in, you can't tell me they're not living well right now). Third, it doesn't matter a parent's marital status, as long as they are happy with their situation and can physically, emotionally and financially care for the kid, then that's all that matters.

There's also a plan being concocted in Congress over the '96 ban on gay marriage, somehow quite a few Republicans think it's still constitutional. I'm not even sure how it was constitutional in the first place. I don't imagine this one getting very far, the Supreme Court has a lot to do and it's kinda obvious that the law is unconstitutional.

The last thing was actually something that kinda tore me in terms of what side to go with. The Westboro Baptist Church protesters (the ones that go to the military funerals and tell everyone they're going to burn in Hell because they're accepting of homosexuals) won their Supreme Court case on the basis of the First Amendment. Duh. But as much as I'm for freedom of speech and religion, that takes things just a little too far. Personally, I think it goes under the lines of forcing your religion on someone else, which I'm pretty sure isn't allowed, and it might also fall under the whole right to privacy thing, since they prevented the family members of those killed overseas from having a last peaceful moment with their loved one. And it's just downright disrespectful.

two weeks

2011-03-06T13:49:00.000-05:00

Two weeks 'til tryouts.

I know I'm not gonna make varsity as a starter. That'd just be absurd. I've only been playing for 3 years, 2 on JV only as a backup. I highly doubt I'll be a backup player, or even a DH. I'm not on a tournament or indoor team, and I don't take private lessons. And I'd be fine with being a manager, 'cause I love doing stats and the behind-the-scenes stuff, plus it'll get me away from having to deal with the butt-wad varsity people. But I know I'll disappoint an awful lot of people, including myself, if I don't wind up making the team.

And it's not like I have a lot of options. I'm a senior. Most teams don't take newbie seniors and let them play, because most teams won't let seniors be on JV and they aren't good enough to be on varsity. And track, which is usually pretty good about letting new people in, is out of the question because of my asthma and hatred of running (except for baserunning, that's different).

So what do I have left to do? I'm not sure. But there's only two weeks left. It's do or die.

putting up a fight

2011-03-05T17:01:00.000-05:00

I know, I was gonna do a rant post today but I decided not to because I have better stuff to write about.

So for my last-minute yearbook assignment, I had to write about the fencing team. I was actually pretty excited to do this article, since I'm fascinated by the sport and I know a lot of people on the team. They've done incredible this season, since the guys were undefeated in the regular season and the girls were 3rd. I wrote the article about their awesomeness this season, then waited 'til this afternoon to finish it so I could get the most up-to-date info about their state tournament results. In the end, the guys lost first place in the state by one point, and the girls placed 7th, which is one heck of an accomplishment. Forget the NFA twits, you guys rocked today.

(For more detailed information, visit Matt's blog, since he was actually there.)

anticlimactic

2011-03-04T20:05:00.000-05:00

We've had a minor crisis in journalism this week, since our yearbook EIC had to go in for a second surgery on her knee to get rid of an infection caused by the first one. I feel bad, of course, but what sucks more is that we had to finish 2 signatures (that's 32 pages of layouts) in one week. And the best part is that we all were starting with barely anything. I'm working on the fencing spread (which looks awesome, if I do say so myself) and no one ever wrote the article. Luckily I know a lot of people on the team so getting interviews wasn't that bad, but it would've been a lot easier on me and my homework lagging if the article had been assigned, let alone done, before Wednesday.

I get to catch up on homework tonight. Go me.

Oh, and remind me to do a news rant tomorrow. Between recent and upcoming court cases regarding free speech and gay marriage, and other sad-but-true stuff I found, I have a lot to talk about. But only if I remember.

~27 days til Opening Day.

dammit!

2011-03-03T21:43:00.000-05:00

So much for that. I'm not even sure why I didn't have time yesterday to post. I was doing yearbook stuff, then came home for a bit, then went to rehearsal, then came home again. I was doing so well, too. Booooo.

And I skinned my knee during softball conditioning and it really hurts.

I has a mad now >:(

psych-out

2011-03-01T16:08:00.000-05:00

First, I ended up saying what I needed to in yesterday's post so that's basically the extent of my rant about conservative legislation for right now.

I had my blood donation appointment first thing in the morning, so I figured I'd be back in class around 8:30 and would still have time to get stuff done. Not. They were still setting up when I got there for my appointment at 8, didn't take me in 'til almost 8:30 for the information bit, didn't actually start the donation 'til about quarter of. So I should've been done around 9, fine, whatever.

Psych. I was fine all through the actual donation process, didn't get grossed out by the blood (I'm not squeamish around blood as long it's me or not from a distinguishable body part), but while they were processing the information and packaging the pint, I started to feel a little lightheaded. Reasonable, since I was missing 1/9 of my blood supply. And then my hearing started to go fuzzy and I thought, "Oh, no, don't pass out." The nurses brought me over some cold, wet towels for my forehead and neck, and I just kinda blobbed there, staring at the ceiling, waiting for it to stop.

Then the little information handheld thing they had decided to go wonky and temperamentally delete my information, yet somehow it was still in there, which I didn't really understand but hey, it gave me a few more minutes to regroup.

Except then they wouldn't let me get up on my own, even though the lightheadedness had passed and my hearing was back to normal. So I had to chill there for even longer until they let me sit up and walk over to the snacks. I camped out there for about 10-15 minutes and then decided that since I had missed almost all of journalism, all of homeroom and a good half-hour of study hall that I should get back.

I went back to journalism to get my stuff, and magically half my stuff had gone missing, including my journalism binder (which wasn't really that important but still, that's my class stuff), my pencil box and my sweatshirt. And it's kinda hard to do homework in a freezing-cold cafeteria without a writing utensil or a sweatshirt.

Luckily I was able to find a pen in my bag, and my friend Justin let me borrow his sweatshirt for the remainder of study hall. I went back after the block to get my stuff (it magically reappeared), and the only problem the rest of the day was the tape keeping the bandaid/gauze on my arm 'cause it was preventing me from bending and straightening my arm properly, plus it was pulling on the little hairs on my arm which kinda hurt.

It gets me out of conditioning for the day since I'm not s'posed to do anything strenuous for 12 hours. Even if they hadn't suggested it, after my episode this morning, I wouldn't want to chance it anyway. It's a shame, though, it's really nice out (for the beginning of March) and it'd be nice to be able to throw some.

hurting everyone

2011-02-28T20:56:00.000-05:00

I'll probably do a better post tomorrow when I'm not in need of sleep before I juice myself (as my sister says) at the blood drive tomorrow, but I'll introduce something to think about and then do the real post tomorrow.

Since the House of Representatives took a swing towards the conservative side, I expected a lot of policies to change, but the number of religion-based ones is a little surprising, especially on the pro-life front. There was a bill proposed a while back that would redefine rape as to limit the instances in which a woman can get an abortion, the Georgia bill that would basically sentence any miscarriage as prenatal murder, all these bills based on the idea that life starts at conception.

I know a lot of people have different views, and I am perfectly ok with that. But after reading this article that the EGE sent me, I'm not so sure it's a religious pro-life battle so much as an anti-women's/reproductive rights battle. And that's not ok.

nothing to say

2011-02-27T12:27:00.000-05:00

Spring Training games start tonight and I got a haircut, but other than that, nothing much to say.

not a bad day

2011-02-26T17:44:00.000-05:00

Had another batting cage appointment, had some nice hits. Bunting kinda sucks though, and my timing was a little off, especially with trying to throw my hips into it like my stepdad told me to do, but that's ok.

Sox started their college games today, beat BC 6-0 and will play Northeastern tonight. First real Spring Training game is tomorrow night against the Twins.

And my dad seems to be doing better. Still bored out of his mind, so I brought over some books for him to read. He'll probably be in there a few more days so the doctors can make sure everything is back to normal.

better rain than snow

2011-02-25T15:08:00.000-05:00

That's for sure. It's been raining fairly heavily and nonstop since this morning. Which would be a lot of snow.

Handed in my English essay. Hopefully my teacher takes the idea of "this is just a first draft" to heart, because my essay was atrocious. My problem was knowing what I wanted to say but not being able to express it properly. Plus I was in another one of my ongoing bad moods so that didn't help.

I talked to my dad yesterday, he's doing ok but he was really hungry 'cause they wouldn't let him eat or drink anything before the tests they had to run.

And I really wanted some honey roasted peanuts for snack but couldn't find them, so I wound up eating the rest of our freezer Girl Scout cookie stash. I think it was safe, there weren't many left and they've been in there for at least 2 years, so it's not like I was eating a coveted item (even though they're reeeeally good...)

Um... guess that's it. Conditioning tonight, batting cage appt tomorrow morning, then helping out with munchkin softball signups and then going to visit my dad. And obviously homework.

keeps coming back

2011-02-24T20:14:00.000-05:00

I seem to be having recurrent "Weeks from Hell," don't I? I mean, tryouts are always hellish, as was Production Week (would've been two of those if the 2nd hadn't been snowed out), plus the obligatory "everything is going wrong in meatspace" weeks that I've been having a lot lately.

So naturally it would only suffice that this week, we started review for the AP calc exam and I've forgotten quite a bit of what we've learned, I got my rejection letter from the Ithaca full-ride people and my dad is now in the hospital with a pancreatic infection of sorts. Plus I have an English essay due tomorrow, and conditioning always sucks.

I almost got to the point where I started writing rant poetry. That's some scary stuff.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

just a short one

2011-02-23T15:01:00.000-05:00

(TWSS?)

Anyway. I have a birthday party to attend this evening, so that gives me until 5:30 to shower and do all my homework. I can do it, but not if I have a big blog post. And I got my "haha nice try loser" rejection letter from the people that do the full-ride communications scholarship for Ithaca, so luckily I don't have to stress about that anymore (though that now means I'm going to be spending the rest of my life paying off my college costs...)

Finally, orange juice, the cherry pomegranate Crystal Light powder stuff and some water mixed together is reeeeally good. And the saltiness of Ritz crackers completes it :)

missing

2011-02-22T20:26:00.000-05:00

The grass, college money, my sanity...

Hopefully calc review will start to make sense, my English essay will work out and I'll figure out my life. Somehow.

done

2011-02-21T09:34:00.001-05:00

My sides hurt, my head hurts and I'm not exactly enthused about it snowing again. We were doing so well! I actually had sizeable areas of grass in my yard!

Book was pretty good. Some parts were definitely better than others, and some parts just didn't make sense. But overall it wasn't bad.

And I will admit that I watched some of the Daytona 500 yesterday. Started off by making a fool of myself and forgetting that it's 500 miles, not 500 laps. And then I was a horrible person for enjoying the crashes more than the rest of the race. It's the whole "And they're taking another left turn!" thing. But since this race broke the caution record with 16 (previous record was 11), we had plenty to watch. The only two people I really cared about crashed sometime between eating lunch and getting home, and I had never even heard of the guy who won, Trevor Bayne, but he's the youngest Daytona winner ever, so I guess that's cool. What better way to spend the day after your 20th birthday by winning not only a big race but your first big race?

almost there

2011-02-20T17:15:00.000-05:00

Threw a bit today.

Really, really cold outside.

Not a lot of fun.

Almost done with book.

200-ish pages left.

So... still a lot left.

not so much

2011-02-19T14:38:00.000-05:00

Frustrated today.

Couldn't get my timing town.

Always swung early.

Bunting was ok.

Sac bunts almost too easy.

Next time, base-hit bunts.

Finished calc homework.

Need to finish Diamond Age.

Will take a long time.

It's a good book, though.

Story is making more sense.

It's just really long.

ow.

2011-02-18T19:28:00.000-05:00

I am really sore.

Legs hurt, back hurts, ankle too.

Weightlifting's not fun.

Batting tomorrow.

I love going to the cage.

Such a great feeling.

whoops

2011-02-17T21:13:00.001-05:00

Nine-hundred-third post.

Forgot to mark nine hundredth.

Next time, I promise.

I'll have my book done

By sometime this weekend, then

I'll do normal posts.

(there, is that better? :P)

random thoughts

2011-02-16T14:49:00.001-05:00

No more time for me

I'm can't give you what you want

Please, just make it stop

Borders going out

Guess it's a good thing that I

Used all my gift cards

It's not every day

That I get some underwear

Coupons in the mail

Westminster Dog Show

Scottish greyhound best in show

That's a big, gray dog

a proclamation

2011-02-15T19:42:00.000-05:00

There are so many horribly tactless ways I could go about this, so I'll try to be nice.

Apparently, I'm committing a cardinal sin under the Almost a College Student Act of 2011 by not spending all of my free time reading college-level books on subjects I honestly don't care about. This, of course, implies that I'm wasting my time by having fun or a life (or a lack thereof) or by going on Facebook (which kindof is a waste of time but I already knew that).

As such, I have come to the conclusion that, while stopping blogging would kindof undo a lot of hard work I've done, it would be best for my sanity (and probably yours too) to keep the blogging to a minimum until I get my increasingly large reading list done.

But to make this interesting, I'll revive Haiku Week from last year and post in haikus until I finish my reading list. If you're not into haikus, this is going to be a long few weeks (maybe even months) for you.

Before I go delve into my reading list and possibly never come out, here's a haiku about the Westminster Dog Show pictures I was looking at earlier today while reading the accompanying article:

I once knew most breeds.

It's a little pathetic

I still know several.

so much for that

2011-02-15T15:28:00.000-05:00

One day of operational-ness. That's it. Car decided to not start again this morning, so I had to take the bus. We just replaced the fuses, so it shouldn't be that. The battery wasn't s'posedly the problem but it's charging right now just in case. And of course I had a doctor's appointment today that I was skipping conditioning for, and now I can't go 'cause I have no ride. It's on Friday now, but that means I'm stuck here doing... not-conditioning...

I had a big English test today, so luckily I got that over with. Almost 1200 words in a little over an hour of typing. I don't think I've ever typed that quickly. Ever.

And I took a calc quiz today, on stuff I should've remembered but there was always that last part I'd forget, and I'd get a brain blast right at the end and then I was fine. My process wasn't always the first one to use, but I got the right answers, so that's ok, right?

And cinnamon-roasted almonds are absolutely divine. Just saying.

caught red-handed

2011-02-14T19:31:00.000-05:00

After *le gasp!* 3 years of underground blogging, my mom finally found my secret source of sanity. Guess that means I have to stop posting pictures of my sweatshop meth lab run by the illegitimate cannibal children of dogfighting prostitutes...

Just kidding, Mom. As you can probably tell, nothing I write here is bad in the sense of smutty content. Quality, however, cannot be guaranteed, as demonstrated by... well... most of my blogging. Especially the early stuff. Good gods.

So apparently there might be a new planet in our solar system. Rumors in academia say there's a gigundo gas-ish planet hanging around in the Oort Cloud, something along the lines of 4x the size of Jupiter and similar in composition. Not a lot of investigation yet to determine whether the planet, temporarily dubbed "Tyche" after the Greek goddess of cities and success, actually exists, but I went through school with 9 planets and I want 9 planets, since poor Pluto got demoted back in '06.

enough said

2011-02-13T14:09:00.003-05:00

Dante Shepherd, you are a god.

hitter's low?

2011-02-13T10:57:00.000-05:00

Not really a low, but damn I'm sore from yesterday. I guess it's a good thing I have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday and can't go to weightlifting. Between my hips/butt being sore from Friday's weightlifting, my torso being sore from batting yesterday and my lack of thumb skin on my left hand, I doubt I'd be able to do much anyway.

Finally got my Egypt article done for the school paper. It was really starting to frustrate me how everything was changing too quickly for me to get a good lead done. But hey, they got the bad guy out and so far life seems to be ok, and that's more important than my article.

Last night's shindig was great. We had pork and spinach wontons which were amazing, except I got the reject wontons that stuck to the pan so a hole ripped in the bottom and I lost all my filling. We also had homemade fried rice and stir-fry, and these funky egg roll things that were made with rolled-out white bread instead of the rolly things and the filling was made of mashed potatoes and a few green beans. So basically they were white honky egg rolls, but that's ok because I don't really like real egg rolls.

Dessert was probably the best. My shortbread cookie went over really well, and my mom's friend, who had come over and is going to culinary school, said that their baking sister school probably couldn't've made a cookie that good.

We watched a bit of Firefly, but we had all eaten way too much, and my mom fell asleep on the couch, and I almost fell asleep on the floor (in my defense, I had a blanket and my pillow...)

And that's my story.

hitter's high

2011-02-12T16:01:00.000-05:00

It's like a softball/baseball player's equivalent to a runner's high. It's that point where you feel as though you could just keep hitting, and it's a really nice feeling. Granted, the machine was probably slower than it should've been, but I haven't hit since the beginning of school. The only thing that really prevented me from hitting 'til the cows come home was the fact that my appointment was only a half-hour, plus I accidentally left all my stuff in my car so I had to hit with a different bat and without gloves, and it tore a sizeable chunk of skin off my thumb based on how I grip the bat. Oh well. I had a lot of really nice hits, both solid and placed properly (i.e. not straight up or straight into the ground).

I made another shortbread cookie for tonight's festivities. Hopefully this one will be as good as the last one. If not, we have chocolate chip cookies to eat instead. Besides, none of the desserts planned for tonight match the theme of homemade Chinese food, but we're also watching geeky movies which don't really match, so that's ok.

not very nice

2011-02-11T15:08:00.000-05:00

First, since I was in a bad mood yesterday, I forgot to do a birthday post for Alex. Sorry, dude. I wore the jersey. Happy 27.00273976repeating.

Second, the feline gods claimed Laura's kitty yesterday and brought little Justice to the big scratching post in the sky. Condolences to Laura and a tsk-tsk to the feline gods 'cause, well, that wasn't very nice.

Third, I got a flyer from Ithaca today about their accepted students open housey thing in April, and it's the weekend of the music trip, ergo I can't go. As it is, I'm missing a game that weekend too. But I'm a band senior, dammit, I'm going on this trip.

And fourth, Mubarak was just being a weenie by dragging out his resignation. We all knew it was coming. I can't write my article for the school newsmagazine if the story keeps changing every day.

sigh

2011-02-10T20:39:00.000-05:00

Stressed out. Journalism articles to do, calc to learn, English books to read, and I desperately need to consider getting a therapist. It's school, college, college money, and an overall feeling of inferiority. Same crap, different day. I should get to bed, try to sleep some of this off.

geekery continued

2011-02-09T20:53:00.000-05:00

I finished my polar graph paper fractal, I really like how it came out. I'm working on coloring it right now.

So between that, excruciatingly painful calculus homework including a well-nigh impossible AP problem and the EGE going on a tangent about Beowulf and its phallic imagery during English, I'm wiped out.

I can't wait 'til Saturday. I have an appointment for the batting cage (which I'm really looking forward to because I haven't hit in forever), I hopefully get my car back (we're pretty sure the problem is electrical and is fairly easily fixed) and I'm having the 2nd Anti-Valentine's Day party shindig that evening. So bring on the violence, the freedom and the geeky movies.

fractals

2011-02-08T20:39:00.000-05:00

I got kinda bored in English today, so I started doodling on my paper, and then this video came into my mind:

My fractal didn't end up looking like a Sierpinski triangle, but then I had the brilliant idea to use some polar coordinate graph paper I had instead of wasting normal graph paper, and I did it from the four "corners" and it looks really cool so far :)

lady karma

2011-02-07T20:58:00.000-05:00

She sure is a bitch. First day in a while I had to take the bus, and the bus decides to come 20 minutes late. My across-the-street neighbor's dad ended up driving us in after 10 minutes of it not coming, but our bus was one of four that got to school right as class was starting. Our theory was that all the bus drivers were hung over from the Super Bowl and none of the subs knew the routes.

Seriously, the car, calc suckage, constant arguing about everything with everyone... oh how I love being wrong.

happy feelings gone

2011-02-06T12:16:00.000-05:00

My car wouldn't start yesterday, so I kinda figured that it was just the battery. Nope, something is wrong with the fuel stuff (I think, no one ever tells me anything anymore), and now we have to get it fixed. So now not only am I out a decent amount of money, I can't drive anywhere for at least the next week. Sure, the bus isn't that bad, but I really like being able to go home before conditioning, plus it's nice not to have to rely on my parents for rides.

Broken car and a broken ego. Great day.

overthinking things

2011-02-06T10:44:00.002-05:00

My birthday isn't until the end of the summer. But I'm already making party invites anyway :)

Overthinking things is just what I do. Trust me, I'm not really proud of it, because it gets me in trouble a lot. I look way too far into everything, from stuff my friends say to stuff that happens in school. I always think that anything anyone says to me is insulting somehow. It's why I can't take compliments because my brain thinks there's some hidden subtext that's degrading or whatever. It's why I was so offended that a lot of my friends got senior superlative awards and I didn't (the only one I might've had a shot at is Most Overlooked, but that's only because my opinions never seem to be worth anything to anyone). It's why I wind up pissing everyone off.

Anyway...

I'm actually a very happy camper, because my mom bought tickets for me and my stepdad to the Red Sox/Royals game on July 28th as a (really early) birthday present. I just need to make sure that the 3 of my 5 in that game don't get traded or injured. I mean, come on, there's 3 of them, chances are at least one of them should be still there, right? :)

calc overload

2011-02-05T20:03:00.001-05:00

My calc homework was really pissing me off earlier. Yet when I saw that today's post would be my 888th, I couldn't help but think of this:

Thank you, WolframAlpha. It's a really cool site that has helped me numerous times with my calc homework (when the EGE refuses to help me...).