24 June 2007

Live Earth

On Saturday, July 7, a series of concerts is to be held around the world called Live Earth to raise awareness of global warming, continuing the trend of mass media awareness of global warming spurred by the Al Gore documentary film from 2006, "An Inconvenient Truth". It will be held in pretty much every continent except Antarctica. The event will be held for 24 hours from a single time-zone point of view, given that the globe has 24 time zones. I went to liveearth.msn.com to find out who'd be playing each country. Thank goodness there's no Justin Timberlake! Ha, that must mean Justin Timberlake enjoys polluting teenage girls' minds AND the enviornment with his polluting lyrics and concerts! :p

As far as watching the event goes, the only way I personally can watch it is through condensed coverage on NBC on the evening of July 7 because I don't have cable TV. Zap2It.com reports for NBC's coverage: "Scheduled performances include Madonna, the Police, Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, John Mayer, Kelly Clarkson, Melissa Etheridge, Faith Hill, Fall Out Boy, Enrique Iglesias and the Red Hot Chili Peppers." Hmm, I'd tune in to watch RHCP and Clarkson. If I'm lucky, NBC might televise other American acts playing LE like Dave Matthews Band, Smashing Pumpkins, the Police, AFI, Roger Waters (formerly of the Who), Kanye West, and Alicia Keys. If not, then I'm sure some local radio stations will carry the event live with these artists.

And then I hope that NBC might carry some performances from outside the U.S., as some of my fave artists are playing internationally. For example, in Germany, the two American acts there will be Chris Cornell (formerly of Soundgarden) and rapper Snoop Dogg. Other American acts will perform in the UK: Beastie Boys, Black Eyed Peas, Foo Fighters, John Legend, and...let's hope they can still play well after that horrible "St. Anger" CD from 2003...METALLICA!!! RHCP and Madonna are playing the UK, so I see that NBC will televise a few international performances.

However, since I'm Chinese and enjoy Asian cultures very much, I've taken to finding streaming TV and radio stations from outside the USA that'll carry the Chinese and Japanese legs of the Live Earth event. I've seen the 12 Girls Band, who'll play Live Earth from Shanghai, on PBS before, and look forward to finding out more about them. Given that I've been a fan of Asian music since 2004, I will keep trying to find out if there's any streaming Asian TV channels that can carry Live Earth online. Or at least if not TV, then streaming radio. And then, there's Youtube, and possibly I can find LE on DVD/CD later on.

Finally, I've looked over the Australian and South African performance lists for Live Earth, and I've decided not to waste my time watching live performances from a jumbo of international musicians I've never heard of. I have more important things to get to like my summer homework and stuff like that.

And finally, Justin Timberlake doesn't care about the environment, just as Kanye West asserted after Hurricane Katrina that "George [W.] Bush doesn't care about black people".

23 June 2007

Summer so far

So far, summer has been relaxing, but the relaxation will slowly wear away as I proceed to do the following activities this summer, among others:
1. From now until 7/27 I take summer math classes at Evergreen Valley College- Precalculus and Trigonometry - to advance to AP Calculus AB in my junior year. Passing those courses means another AP exam to study for in junior year.
2. For AP English Literature class, I will have to do analyses on selections from the Chrisitian Holy Bible and Aristotle's Poetics, as well as the novels Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, and East of Eden by John Steinbeck. This will take up the majority of my summer work. All those works look pretty darn hard to me.
3. On Monday, July 2, I will go to the school bookroom to pick up my AP United States History textbook. I don't see why we didn't get to pick it up before the last day of school. That will be also the day I'll start U.S. History notings.
4. Other things to do in summer include piano, basketball, fitness, voluntterring, SAT, college research, and other stuff to enhance my college transcript.

The last week of school was a blast. I got a lot of signatures in my yearbook, especially from the class of 2007, Ruby, and Tina. Also, I had photos taken with Ruby and Tina! Now, lately I've been asking around for those photos, and I'm not gonna be so cynical as to think they've been destroyed. Oh well, there's always next year & the dances & junior prom. But schoolwork & my brain come first.

In addition, I'm enjoying summer math classes so far, but I predict they'll get harder every day. But I had gotten A's in both semester of Algebra II last year, so I predict I will not "bomb" the class, but I'll at least get grades acceptable enough to advance to APCAB in September if I study hard enough and pay attention. So far, I've been paying attention and taking notes everyday. My clases take place Monday-Thursday, with the Trigonometry course from 8:15-10:15AM and Precalculus 10:25AM-12:25PM - those two classes combined equal one year of Math Analysis @ EVHS, so I advance to AP Calculus AB passing those two classes.

I've almost finished my weekend math assignments. In the meantime, today, I had piano lessons, then came home for math, the computer, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, West Side Story, Mobb Deep, and Depeche Mode.

Tomorrow: Finish math assignments, study math, practice piano, watch Steamboy, analyse the Bible for AP English, and more.

14 June 2007

School over? Not quite....

So school ended today, and I spent a lot of time with my friends for the last time before summer, especially RubyAngela. Today, I got to have photos taken with Ruby and Tina. It was so darned hot all day that I struggled in my PE final. Luckily, since I got A's in the 4th and 5th marking periods, and I think I did very well in the softball quiz, I hope I can still get an A in PE this second semester. I also have A's in Algebra 2, Chemistry, and Spanish 2, and B's in AP World History and English 2A. Next year, my classes include (tentatively) Spanish 3, Biology, AP English Literature, and AP U.S. History. If I get at least B grades in both Precalculus and Trigonometry classes that I will take at Evergreen Valley College starting this Monday 6/18, then I can take AP Calculus AB in 2007/08. So I will still be busy until 7/27, when my summer math classes end.

Meanwhile, the recreational activities I plan to do this summer are two extreme concerts: heavy metal tour Ozzfest (7/19, Shoreline Ampitheater, Mountain View) featuring bands like Static-X, Hatebreed, Ozzy Osbourne, Lamb of God, Daath, etc. and hip-hop tour Rock the Bells (8/18, McCovey Cove, San Francisco) featuring MC's like Rage Against the Machine (rap-metal band), Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, Mos Def, Immortal Technique, and more. I registered for a redemption code for the free ozzfest tix on 6/12 and am waiting to be able to register the code online so i can download/print my free ticket. Then I need to arrange to take Caltrain to Mountain View for Ozzfest. As for Rock the Bells, if I still have piano lessons in August 18, then I can't go. I'll just wait and see.

Anyway, all have a great summer! And I love Ruby and Tina.

02 June 2007

I am watching the NBA finals this year

This year in the NBA Finals: Cleveland Cavaliers vs. San Antonio Spurs

I say the Cavs should win. The Spurs have won enough already, while the Cavs have NEVER been to the NBA Finals in its history.

The last two weeks of school and beyond

So as I speak, the Cleveland Cavaliers are leading the Detroit Pistons by 10 points in game 6 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals held in Cleveland tonight. If Cleveland wins the East, I will watch the NBA Finals this year, otherwise i wouldn't becuase Detroit vs. San Antonio in NBA Finals this year would mean a repeat of the 2005 finals. In the meantime, I am continuing to study Algebra II, Chemistry, and Spanish for my actual finals while I watch the Cavs on a pirated stream of CCTV-5, the Chinese state-run TV station that carries the NBA in China, since I don't get cable at home. Grr! Why do all the NBA playoff games that don't air on Sunday have to be on ESPN/TNT? Just because I'm among the minority of TV viewers these days who doesn't have cable!

On the Monday following the last day of school, June 18, I will begin summer math analysis classes at Evergreen Valley College. However, I still have that class through Friday, July 20, meaning I can't go to Ozzfest this year (Ozzfest stops near San Jose in Mountain View on Thursday, July 19) At least not for the "free" promise that promoter Ozzy Osbourne has promised - as if I were really to go after summer school ended, I'd have to pay for round-trip tickets to other areas that get Ozzfest after my summer school ends, e.g. Los Angeles, Denver, Phoenix (ugh not 100+ degree weather!), Detroit (haven't been there since '96), or New York! Grr! I hope some good ppl will post Ozzfest highlights on Youtube or somewhere. But if I'm good at school and in the summer, I can at least go to the San Francisco hip-hop concert Rock the Bells, which will feature Rage Against the Machine, Wu-Tang Clan, the Roots, Nas, Talib Kweli, and more. That concert will basically want Wild 94.9 fans to cry uncle.

As far as grades go, all I gotta say is that if I work hard, I'll get straight A's this semester.