26 May 2007

Remaining school & Summer Plans

With Memorial Day weekend approaching, many of you may be thinking of summer now, as there are only 14 days of school remaining. Indeed, I have a lot of cool stuff to do over the summer. They include:

1. I will take Math Analysis at Evergreen Valley College this summer, a combination of their courses "Math 21" (Precalculus) and "Math 22" (Trigonometry). If I get at least a B in both these courses, then I can take AP Calculus AB in my junior year.

2. The summer will also introduce at least two concert tours coming locally in the SF Bay Area. (Screw you, Jokin' Timberfake.) The concerts that I am especially looking forward to include, as I know right now: On Thursday 7/19 in the Shoreline Ampitheatre in Mountain View will be the FREE OzzFest 2007, the 12th annual installment of the heavy metal music tour founded by lead singer of founding heavy metal band Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne. Hopefully, I can keep my grades up this year and in summer school so I can go there. However, this will technically be considered a "school night" given that summer school will end on 7/27, so I hope maybe a delay might let me go there. If I can't go to Ozzfest, then I can attend the Rock the Bells hip-hop concert, headlined by reunited rap-metal band Rage Against the Machine and hardcore rap group Wu-Tang Clan. It will be held in the parking lot at McCovey Cove on Saturday 8/18 at noon. The focus of the concert will be on hip-hop, as most of the other headliners are alternative hip-hop acts, and the headliners are hip-hop in some way. The guests include Immortal Technique, The Roots, Cypress Hill, Public Enemy, Nas, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, and many other true MC's who you might've never heard of from Wild 94.9, BET, or MTV. (106 KMEL does play mostly mainstream hip-hop, but dedicates weekend evenings to the obscure but juicier stuff) That is at least gonna keep me happy this summer if I can't go to ozzfest.

3. I should start going out more often, including for working/community service. I'm considering working for the Lunardi's at Evergreen Village Squre, and volunteering at the Evergreen Library and other places.

4. I recently read in the San Francisco Chronicle about the 40th anniversary of the "Summer of Love" of 1967 being celebrated by the "hippies" there. Thus, maybe I wanna create my own "Summer of Love", maybe i should find a girl before the end of the year and do all sortsa crazy stuff with her in the summer of 2007, 40 years after masses of young people in SF and elsewhere began freedom of social lives.


But remember, I did say there were 14 days of school left, so I need to work on my AP World History presentation where I act as Harry Truman giving a "farewell" speech to American tv viewers, and study for finals for Chemistry, Algebra 2, and Spanish. Indeed, I'm not sure if Mr West will give us an English final exam, but I will expect a final project

05 May 2007

Don Imus sues CBS Radio; Spider-Man 3; Warriors advance to Second Round; Conan O'Brien in SF

Don Imus Sues CBS Radio Over Contractual Dispute
It was announced a few days ago that radio host Don Imus, famous for his racist remarks insulting the Rutgers University women's basketball team, has sued CBS Radio, which owned the rights to his program Imus in the Morning, as CBS's contract with Imus allowed his program to be controversial and off-color. So I suppose CBS Radio deliberately wanted Imus to utter those three nasty little words just so that they could fire him? That's one of the theories behind the Imus controversy. And just recently, it was discovered that the censors at MSNBC (which used to simulcast the radio program on TV) and the radio stations had the options to BLEEP OUT those nasty words, but chose not to because of the contract! Oh geez. If Imus is still not fired, then I guess we should still deal with all those gangsta rappers whose music is even more offensive than just Imus's comments alone, with all their B-, F-, H-, and N-words!

Spider-Man 3
So far as I've read the critical reviews for the film, they seem pretty mediocre, so I might as well just wait until the DVD comes out. I might see it in theatres given these conditions:
1. The Warriors play the Utah Jazz, not the Houston Rockets, as I would go to Game 1 (Friday, 11 May) to watch Yao Ming play locally, in addition to our GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS :)
2. Regardless of #1 applying, if the Warriors get ELIMINATED from the Playoffs...
3. A significant # of my friends claim they've reasonably enjoyed it
4. I have taken both the AP World History exam and Summer Math Analysis placement exam

Golden State Warriors advanced to Second Round of the NBA Playoffs
Finally I'd like to thank the Warriors for beating the #1 team in the Western Conference, Dallas Mavericks. Depending on who wins the Rockets-Jazz game today, and as I'm typing, the score at the end of the 3rd quarter is Utah Jazz 75, Houston Rockets 67, GSW will face either the Houston Rockets or Utah Jazz. It'd definitely be worth it to go to Game 3 of the Warriors' 2nd round series if it is to be against the Rockets, as I'd be able to see Yao Ming play locally, and Yao is the greatest Chinese basketball player in the nation.

Late Night with Conan O'Brien in San Francisco
All this week, I've been taping NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien and watching them after school, as for the week of 30 April-4 May, O'brien has been basing his shows from the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco, CA. All the shows have been locally themed, with O'Brien's monologue focusing on Bay area stuff (like the Bay Bridge collapse and Golden State Warriors), as well as tours of SF and vicinity. They have all been very enjoyable. "LNWCOB" has gotta be the best late-night TV show around, with "Jay Leno" and "Jimmy Kimmel" trailing. O'Brien makes the funniest monologues and skits, especially this week from SF.

03 May 2007

Scantrons...

Oh man, I've seen hella scantrons this week...from five days of CST's (California Standardised Testing) and a pseudo-AP World History exam. And then I'm gonna see more on the week of 14 May, as I have the real AP World History exam and a Math Analysis placement test. This is why this month there won't be too many updates. And for your entertainment...

MUSIC I'VE ENJOYED LATELY: Death, The Notorious B.I.G., Beneath the Massacre, Lamb of God, Pantera, Dying Fetus, Slayer, Nas, Eminem, Jagged Edge, Wyclef Jean, Korn, Jay-Z
TV I'VE WATCHED LATELY: local and national newscasts, "Heroes" (NBC), "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" (NBC), "Late Night with Conan O'Brien - In San Francisco" (NBC), "24" (Fox, saw on DVD), "Jimmy Kimmel Live" (Fridays for "This Week in Unnecessary Censorship") (ABC), NBA Playoffs coverage on ABC, San Francisco Giants/Oakland A's coverage locally
Haven't seen much movies lately, but I will watch Indian film "Mangal Pandey: The Rising" (I saw part of it in AP World History)