When I was gone...

So this is pretty much my first blog I've written since August 2007. New year of 2008 has come, with only 10 more months of the wicked presidency of George W. Bush and the predicted entry of good old Barack Obama, the first semester passing me by with sand and fog, the writer's strike coming and going, the death of Benazir Bhutto, the upcoming 2008 Summer Olympics in my beloved Beijing, China (I have extended family there), the sequel to Virginia Tech over at Northern Illinois University, the winter storms in China, and loads and loads of other things I could write a lot of blogs a day about that I don't want to include here.

In the past week weird things have come up on my cell. For some odd reasons I've been getting odd calls on my cell phone. I went on google to look 'em up. One of 'em was from a Vietnamese woman living in Milpitas who dialed the wrong number I guess.

But things get worse. I've been getting calls from places like Phoenix, AZ and Newton, MA about "car warranty expiration" when hell, I don't even own a car! Google this. Found a site 800Notes.com that led me to this. Look up suspicious phone numbers there.

The reason why I haven't been able to blog? Due to the fact that I take 3 AP classes...as I've repeatedly mentioned ( I guess in my humble memory) Calculus AB, English Literature, and US History. So far I think I am dong better in them, after a pretty unstable first semester. Lately I've been getting tutoring for Calc AB after struggling with Applications of Differentiation, and since then my grades have improved. I will take the SAT test in May 2007, a couple weeks or so before the AP exams. I have also gotten tutoring in that class, specifically for the writing section and speculatively in the critical reading. I just took a practice SAT today and got 2050. Some genius I am! :) My goal is at least 2200, or if I kick a lot of ass, then as far as 2400 I can go. Well all I can say for myself is to be more careful with the problems and make sure I check every single damn word they say.

I know that the SAT has been criticized a lot due to it's "anti-intellectual" attitude and lack of scope within the brain...that's why some American liberal arts colleges have dropped it in favor of bigger and better things (a.k.a. Your Brain). As far as the Essays go, Massachusetts Instituete of Tech writing diretor Les Perelman has claimed that common "cheating" techniques to get a high scores on the essays like 10 or 12 (the scale is 12) include making your essays uber LONG. Plus, Perelman has a valid point that the writing in the SAT essay pretty much defeats "good" writing you do in AP English classes or wherever that makes you polish it like a shiny new car. But I defend the SAT essay, while I do agree that it ain't as great as, say your AP Lit analyitical essay, at least it tests your ability to make a good argument, through good evidence and structure and proof. I think I'll be able to do well on it, since my tutor recently commented that my writing has greatly improved since the first time we met back in January 2008.

In coming months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds, microseconds, and specks of dust, here's a list of topics I will be writing about:
- Politics as I hear from the liberally biased news media...from both the Democratic/Republican sides of course...or at least i HOPE i stay balanced.
- The upcoming agenda from moronic self-appointed "morality" groups like the Parents Television Council and American Family Association to destroy the first amendment in the name of fundamental 1960s family values that many of us can think beyond. You'll be seeing in the coming times how cranky and foolish these hypocrites are, with the EVIDENCE of course (I promise not to spin)
- Of course, my own life, including my dreams, favorite TV, books, movies, friends, school, and the whatnot.

Now excuse me when I go back to watching PBS' presentation of the BBC's adaptation of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice"...

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.

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.

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.

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

Thanksgiving: Thanks and Nothanks

Tommorrow, 23 November 2006, is the day that my family will be leaving for vacation in southern California and Baja California, Mexico. Yes, we will be crossing the border, and we made all the legal arrangements already, so don't be annyoing me with all this "illegal crossing" stuff. Anyway, I would like to thank my family for providing me with this vacation, for sure it will open my eyes to new culture down in Mexico, as well as seeing downtown Los Angeles and San Diego the first time in my life. I went to the outskirts of LA in 2001 and 2002 for the theme parks, not downtown LA or Compton or anywhere like that. Let's hope that Interstate 405, which my math teacher once referred to as "the devil's highway", is not too crowded for the holiday, as it's like eight lanes wide to the L.A. int'l airport, and it was so crowded once that it took him four hours to go ten miles on 405. But overall, i'm expecting a fun vacation and break from the dreaded AP World History work and homework and all the other worries.

In addition, I've been watching the news and media lately and found some other positive and negative things i'd like to thank and diss. Thanks to:
- News Corporation: They made Fox cancel their two-part special originally scheduled to air this wednesday and friday promoting O.j. simpson's new account on his murder of nicole brown simpson, If I Did It. The book, which woud've been released on 30 November 2006, had its release cancelled by Harpercollins publishers. NC owns both Fox TV and Harpercollins. Wow, I've heard that Simpson intended the book to be "hypothetical" if he really was the one who killed Nicole. Hmm, so far he owes like $33M to the estates of Brown for damages. O.J. is obviously a very unintelligent man who B.S.'ed his way into getting away with murder. He needs to tell the truth right away, or else the controversy shall continue...
- My various teachers and classmates at Evergreen Valley High School for helping me succeed in my sophomre year.
- Heather Gomez, for uploading a petition online calling: "For the Prevention of Cyber-Terrorism on Myspace". Gee whiz, it was bad enough for cyber-bullies and child molesters to pop up on this site, but TERRORISTS? Eww...

And then, my nothanks to certain things I disliked. If you don't want to read them, skip this section, comment on my positives, then do something else today.
- If Fox could cancel a horrendous, schandenfruede special that some alleged that O.j. simpson was gonna profit off of his murders, why didn't fox cancel FAMILY GUY this year, which is the worst show EVER to hit the airwaves! Seriously, family guy isn't that well written! It's jokes are all random and irrelevant to the plot. It's such a bad show that it makes me wanna support the O.J. Simpson special!!!!
- On 11 January 2007, Justin Timberlake's national tour promoting his new CD (crap dirt), FutureSex/LoveSounds, will hit the HP Pavilion in San Jose, the concert was sponsered by local trash music station KYLD-FM "Wild 94.9", the station that screwed badly my music tastes in high school. (See my profile for current music tastes, and the CD i'm listening to now below in "Currently Listening"). Thanks Kathleen for pointing out the tour date and Rishabh for mentioning the sponsorship of 94.9; I didn't check this info myself becuase I don't want my eyes to bleed. Meanwhile, the local rock station I listen to regularly, KSAN-FM "107.7 the Bone" this month has been giving away tix to Guns N' Roses's concert that'll be in 15 December in Oakland. The concert is part of the bands tour promoting their upcoming CD Chinese Democracy. The station give out tickets when it's raining anytime this month, in conjunction with the bands hit song "November Rain". So far there were only like four or five rainy days in San Jose and seven or eight in the whole Bay Area. Well, I'm not 18 yet, so I can't legally win the tix, according to 107.7's sweepstakes policy. But, according to the bands official website, on the tourdates page, they played a show in San Francisco on 20 and 21 September, and they'll play Oakland on 15 December, but NO STOP IN SAN JOSE WHEN THE UNTALENTED JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE WILL COME TO TOWN? Hey, although Slash left GNR in 2002, I'd rather listen to the GNR w/o Slash then Justin Timberlake water down with DJ's and all that junk. Even if GNR turns out to be washed down from their efforts in Appetite for Destruction, I'm sure it won't be like Metallica in St. Anger, and GNR will always pwn Justin Timberlake any day now!

So, overall, I'm exicted to be heading down to SoCali and Mexico. Have a happy Thanksgiving everybody, and