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| Journal |
Journal for November 2002.
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| 11.30.02 4:05 AM (Saturday) Most stressful Thanksgiving break ever |
Wow yesterday was mightily crappy. I finished my Psych assignments, headed down to Central, only to find out they were closed! I ended up e-mailing the DL office instead. Also, I was supposed to go buy the PA system yesterday with the band but Alex didn't have a car and yeah...
It was alright though. I ended up catching up on my sleep (I pulled an all-nighter, like I'm doing right now..) On a whim, I'm turning in the Stanford app online. It seems like such less of a hassle than the paper forms. It's much easier to fill out; no worries of messy handwritings, the ease of typing... it seems less permanent than filling out paper forms as well, so psychologically I guess it's easier in that aspect. So UW is the only one so far I'm submitting by paper.
Now... just need to start writing those darned essays o_O
That reminds me. I never realized how my self-esteem was really low. I kinda figured, but I guess I never thought much of it. Maybe that's why I'm such a perfectionist. (This revelation courtesy of Developmental Psychology!) |
| 11.28.02 1:26 PM (Thursday) Happy Thanksgiving everyone |
So yesterday, we had yet another lockdown (groan mumble groan). It was alright because we still got out early.
Afterschool I rode the crowded 48 down to UW. It's the first time I've been there since the summer... everytime I go there, the more I think I want to go there. I'm so used to the campus. The first thing I did was head into Schmitz to send my transcript off to Stanford. It was $4.00 (!) I was supposed to meet Jenny at 2:30 for studying, but I still had some time, so I decided to head to Padelford to pick up my AAS 210 papers from summer. I did really well on my final I found out, and I got a 3.7 on my identity paper. So that was cool.
Yeah I went back to By George at around 2:40 and met Jenny and Kelly... I've actually talked to Kelly online before, so he was surprised when I remembered him. We headed into Odegaard to study Physics and it was extremely difficult! But, whatever. It's the only time I ever study it independently.
So after that we parted ways cuz they needed to research their stuff for Genetics. I rode the crowded 73 to Chinatown, then rode the 42 home. When I got home I slept for the longest time... I woke up at around 2 AM, and I for some reason had an urge to completely my Berkeley app. So I submitted that online... the first college app I've actually completed! Their online app was so user-friendly and a lot easier to fill out than the paper apps.
So here's my to-do list for this weekend:
-PSY 207 assignments (only one more set!... but then I have to take the final too)
-Finish Stanford, UW apps
-Finish Engineering, Mt. Baker scholarships
-Macroecon and Health HW
-AP Lit HW (come up w/ thesis, motive, 3 arguments + counterargument, Candide reading and Q's)
-AP Chem reading + questions
-AP Calc various HW stuff
-Physics HW
-Annual art/finish up criteria sheet
-Study for SAT II's
-Clean room
-Brush hair
Wow I didn't realize I had so much to do... X_x The things towards the top of the list have more priority though.
On a lighter note, today's one of the few days I try to be optimistic. I'm always stressed out all the time, which isn't good. The bad always overlooks the good. So today should be a little more cheery than usual.. I hope. |
| 11.26.02 8:24 PM (Tuesday) Another lockdown |
Interesting day today... the schoolday was pretty normal, yup... I got two of my letters of rec done (Stanford and UW Honors) so that's all good. We had a Chem test on wavelengths, electrons, orbitals, atomic radii and the like... I hope I got at least a B. But the highlight of the day was during lunch... I went to an NHS meeting, which I found out was today, and towards the end we hear a PA announcement telling us we're in another lockdown... I didn't think much of it, but it took hours and hours and it got really hot in the room and was not cool. It began around 12:00 or so, and lasted until 2:30. So boring! 2 hours of my life I will never get back, ever.
After that I headed up to the Messenger room for Annual late-nights. We got a lot done on the senior quotes, except for the ghetto quotes with all those shout outs at the end that just couldn't fit. Nonetheless, we did our best. I was going to take the bus home, again, cuz no one lived in the south so I couldn't get a ride. Luckily Michelle, who knows how shady it is taking the bus, offered to go out of her way to drive me home. Thanks a lot!
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| 11.25.02 2:01 AM (Monday) Yatta! |
Okay I just looked at my SAT II scores online. I got perfect 800's on all three tests I took! In addition, the College Board wants to give me a million dollars for being so smart! This is my lucky day!
Okay actually I didn't score 800's on all three tests, but I did score a lot better than last time:
Ecological Biology - 690 (84th percentile)
Math IIC - 760 (81st percentile)
Writing - 710 (81st percentile)
Mm... I always amaze myself with how much Biology I actually know ^^; It's a good thing I decided at the last minute to take the Bio test instead of Chemistry, esp. b/c it was the exact same test as last time. It ended up being the test I did the best on, percentile-wise anyway. I'm not sure if I should retake my math at this point because, even though it's 81st percentile, that still seems pretty good... writing I'm definitely planning to retake. So the tests for December look like: Writing, Chemistry, and one other one... maybe Math IIC, maybe World History, maybe Physics.
This weekend was kinda... on Saturday it was Jenny's b-day. I went, and it was okay but I hardly knew anyone there, b/c Anna couldn't make it. All my sister's friends were there, which was kinda cool but I hardly talk to them anyway, and Jie Yang, who I also don't really know. Allison was there which was cool but I hardly know her too. Tomoki was there but he was with his GF the entire time.
It was all good though. I came late, around 4, to the skating rink, and didn't really skate. Then I carpooled with Allison to the Old Spaghetti Factory in Lynnwood (!!!) for dinner. We waited waay too long for our tables which was extremely ghetto. But the food was good and reasonably priced. and that was the party, pretty much.
Lotsa due dates coming up... December 1st is when Stanford, UC Berkeley, UW apps and various scholarships are supposed to be postmarked.
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| 11.22.02 5:26 PM (Friday) End of the week |
I slept a lot last night because I was still kinda... in a daze after the talent show. So after I wrote the previous entry I went to sleep.
When I awoke I stayed in bed just thinking for like 30 minutes. I dunno it's that feeling that you get when you're really depressed and you just don't want to face the world. Luckily it didn't last.
I got to school, to Japanese, where they were making sushi. I stayed a little to record grades, and left because of the pandemonium.
Went to the library afterwards to do Calc and LA HW. Then third period we basically just did our work the entire period; afterwards I asked Mr. Boyes to do my Stanford/Columbia/Harvard/Princeton apps, figuring that I can't really ask Mr. Gaither because the deadline is soon. But I'll ask Mr. Gaither for the rest of my recs when I can get a hold of him (hopefully soon.)
Lunch was interesting. I headed to the usual lunch spot, outside the library, and decided to get something from the student store... but they were closed, so I went to the lunchroom for food instead. Then I went back to outside the library, except it was only Amy, Emma, and Carl there.
Towards the end of lunch the PA system came on... "MRS. PEABODY HAS ENTERED THE BUILDING! MRS. PEABODY HAS ENTERED THE BUILDING!" and we were like "OH SHIT!" So the four of us headed into the drama room for lockdown. The lights were turned off, the shades closed, the door locked, everyone was silent. A little later we heard "MRS. PEABODY IS IN THE LIBRARY.." and we were like "uhh..." b/c we were right across the hall. The incident lasted for quite some time, maybe 30 or 40 minutes, and I still don't know the extent of what happened today. But Ms. Woodward, the librarian, assured us that it was big because she'd never seen so many armed police officers in her career at GHS. And some guy came into our room and was like "it wasn't a false alarm.." so maybe the bulletin we got wasn't telling the whole truth. But anyways.
We had to go back to 5th which was kinda disappointing. It wasn't really too interesting in LA today.
Afterschool I headed downtown to meet with Mike for Physics study. It was just me and him, because Jenny had a doctor's appointment or something. We really didn't get much done... because everything seemed hella confusing O_O Hopefully we'll be more productive in later sessions.
And yeah... I stopped by Uwaji to get some sushi then headed home.
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| 11.21.02 10:48 PM (Thursday) Talent show |
So the Talent Show was tonight. And the worst thing that could happen did! I kinda feared it would happen, but... well, whatever. Basically no one could hear/understand me because either the microphone wasn't loud enough, or everyone else in the band was just too loud.
Other than that, it was really cool. In my opinion not enough variety, like last year... last year the show was really advertised, this year I wouldn't have known about it if I wasn't performing.
So Leanne gave me a ride there, and a ride home. It was funny because they made signs...
Hmm... not much else to say. I won't dwell on it too much, but... I was so disappointed when I found out no one could hear me. It's a learning experience, though.
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| 11.20.02 10:35 PM (Wednesday) Stressful/exciting |
Today was eventful in that it was really long, a continuation of yesterday because I pulled an all-nighter doing Developmental Psych, and yeah.
I finished writing my college rec this morning so that's all good. I was so sleepy in AP Chem and in math, I wasn't very productive. Physics we had a test which I didn't really have time to study for, I have a feeling I did really bad on it, but it should be at least a B (I hope.) Lunch was Key Club, it was cool because we semi-finished counting the money, and I filled in new member add forms.
5th period was normal... Annual we just did more of the same with Senior mugs and my new spread.
The real fun stuff was afterschool. I took the bus to Central and chanced upon Amy, who was also going there to get transcripts to send to UW. Ada was on the bus as well for her Harvard interview.. hope that went well. She's off to Boston now, so I won't get to ask her about it until she comes back.
I needed to go to Central to drop off my Psych stuff. I also got my midterm back... 140/150! I was pretty thrilled. My average is something like a 93.6%, and I hope it stays an A even if it's still a little low. It's so freaking hard to get a good GPA. But anyways.
Amy and I parted ways, cuz she was going home and I wanted to go to Chinatown for Vietnamese sandwiches. But strangely I saw her again in Chinatown, because she had a craving for sushi. So we went to get Vietnamese sandwiches from the usual place, then we headed down to Uwaji for sushi, and we stopped by Kinokuniya to look at the calendars. I ordered a Domo-kun calendar, but I really want an Ayumi Hamasaki calendar as well O_O Her 2003 calendar is like at least 2x better than the one for this year.
So it was after we ate that we parted ways, then I went across the street and settled down at the Starbucks to finish (finally) writing lyrics for one of the songs for the band. It worked out nicely, but there was no way I would remember all of it by rehearsal. I was there for a really long time too, which was kinda interesting.
So I got back to GHS a little early. At 5:30 or so. The band eventually came, and we eventually played. I was really nervous throughout the first song but for the second and third songs I was pretty comfortable. I just hope I can sing well tomorrow...
So much crap to do tonight.
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| 11.19.02 7:55 PM (Tuesday) Update |
I feel obligated to update.
Life is really... slow lately. I'm so lazy, and I'd rather go to sleep than get HW done. Which is kind of a bad thing; I just woke up from a nap and I've got so much Central stuff to do tonight.
On top of that, I have to write lyrics for one of our songs for the Talent Show. It's kind of exciting I should say, but it only very very recently hit me that dress rehearsal is tomorrow, and the real thing is on Thursday. Hmm.
Also, I've lately taken an interest with Jay Chou. I couldn't find his song "Tornado" to d/l anywhere, so I ended up buying the CD, lol. It came last Friday. At any rate it's all good, cuz his other stuff is really good too. And the MV's are nice as well. Now if only I could understand it, or at least sing along...
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| 11.13.02 5:47 AM (Wednesday) WEB 120 |
Okay I finally solved that WEB 120 problem today (yesterday...) After trying to call Central Registration throughout the entire schoolday, when I got home I called them again, and I had to beg the guy I was talking to to put me in (the course # was literally ONE DIGIT OFF!) But yeah. I'm starting to wonder if this is all worth the effort and trouble... do I really want to take a night class for two evenings a week next quarter?
Nothing too interesting went on yesterday, besides wearing my $3 Old Navy visor for the first time. First period I dropped off all my college stuff to Ms. Barge which was good. Oh yeah we also got our tests back in Chem (so quickly.) I got 2 wrong on MC which was great, and I got 34/38 on the free response, which was great because the only thing I missed was that one problem with the heat of fusion. Two greats only make a good, however... my combined score is something like 89%. It's going to be really hard keeping my test grade above 90%... it's still an A, but it's not a real A, ya know. Then again, I should probably worry more about Central...
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| 11.11.02 2:12 AM (Monday) And it didn't last.. |
My li'l bouts of euphoric joy never last. I am so down right now, and only I will ever understand why.
I worked on my Berkeley essay tonight. It's a little long, I need to shorten it so I can use it for all my other apps. But it'll do for Berkeley.
I still have so much HW left... AP Chem Hess's Law Lab write-up and Chapter 7 Q's, Calc Hyperbolic functions assignment, Physics online HW, AP LA Hamlet Q's, and Macroecon weekly assignment. On top of that I have to finish all my college app crap to give to my counselor. And on top of all that, Alex is trying to get me to go to band practice tomorrow. And I found out today my WEB 120 problem still isn't solved... the stupid registration guy signed me up for WEB 200 instead of WEB 120. Which means I gotta go call Central... but the soonest I can do that is Tuesday. The only week where I don't need a holiday...
How do you tell someone something important when you don't know how to contact them... :;sigh:: the longer we wait, the worse it becomes.
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| 11.8.02 10:39 PM (Friday) An exciting day |
What a change of pace. Relaxation and exhaustion.
The periods were all shortened today because of our Veteran's Day Assembly. During 1st I rescheduled my counselor appointment to next Tuesday, and went to Japanese to start writing my letter of rec. Second period I really could not concentrate on the lab explanation because of Hamlet Q's. Third period I really didn't do much... I should've done math but I was distracted. The assembly was a little odd, the main speaker had a monotonous and slow voice which soothed everyone, but his speech was a little long. I mean a little long. I think he was only halfway done when we the thing was supposed to end.
Physics went over HW problems, then lunch it was funny because David had asked me if I wanted to go to Ezell's with him (and I was like... well, today's not the day to be asking), but then I changed my mind and decided to go. I was waiting for him, but he never showed, so I walked down there with Daniel L., and the line was LONG! Nonetheless, I eventually got my chicken, went back to school, and ate it all before 5th started.
Lit was funny because Emma and I hadn't done the mult. choice Q's so we went outside while the rest of the class discussed the answers. Then we kept waiting and waiting and we were like 'hmm, I wonder if they're done yet..' We figured they were done going over the questions but we wanted to see how long it would take Ms. McBennett to realize we were gone (and she didn't notice... lol) Then we figured she would be angry because we would realize it obviously didn't take that long to go over multiple choice, but our excuse would be that she forgot about us, and we would act hurt. Finally we knocked on the door seven minutes before the period ended, I don't know why but I found the whole situation utterly hillarious.
Annual was nothing special, I figured out a little on how to do our spread however.
Afterschool I rushed to the bus stop to catch the 3 to Broadway and I walked to Central to turn in my Psych assignments. I got my 5-part assignment from the last unit back, I got a 71/75 which is pretty good because it raised my grade. So I'm happy... for the moment (I really don't want to know how I did on my midterm...) Also, I figured out my WEB 120 problem; I e-mailed the instructor but she never e-mailed me back, so I asked the RS counselor what to do, and she instructed me to the IT counselor, who gave a signature. So that's all good. (Now if only I could attain all A's this quarter... >_<)
After Central I rushed down to Downtown where I knew I was late for Physics study. Mike, Jenny and I were supposed to meet at 3 but I was late, and I arrived at 3:30, so I was worried they already came but got tired of waiting. Nonetheless I waited at Starbucks', and soon enough they came, with Roger. The study was helpful in that I learned vectors, which was all good. It'll be a lot more useful if we do it routinely.
Soon Roger and Jenny left, and it was just me and Mike, so we wandered around Downtown before Mike had to leave. (Now that I think of it, it's the first time since summer '01 I've actually seen him in person...) After that I waited at Meridian to see our 6:15 movie, Frida, but only Tomoki showed up. We were kinda bored, and hungry, and annoyed at all the underage kids trying to see 8 Mile, so we decided to walk around for food. Eventually I bought Chinese food from that one place in Westlake and we ended up sharing. We got back and Anna and her friend... Toya, Taniqua, Tiona, or something like that (hmm...) were *finally* there. So we bought our tickets and went in.
Despite being the only highschool-aged kids in the theatre the movie was interesting and captivating. The magical realism incorporated in the cut scenes was a nice touch. I really didn't understand some aspects of the film, and I thought some parts were too deep for me to fathom, but I overall liked it.
After that we walked the girls to the bus stop, and Tomoki gave me a ride home.
Wow that was a long entry... it's been a long day, I am extremely tired, and I am going to bed now. Good night. |
| 11.6.02 9:34 PM (Wednesday) Senior poll pix today |
Today was kinda funny. In the morning I got to school and no one was in their classrooms, I was like "huh?" and then I found out it was tutorial. Uhh yeah.
1st period was kinda interesting because, during my voluntary TA job, I had to fill in the li'l bubble sheet for the entire Japanese program at Garfield... lol. 3rd we had this extremely hard worksheet on related rates and it took me really long for some reason, and then we learned about hyperbolic functions (I think we're moving just a *little* too fast now...)
During lunch it was another regular Key Club day. But it was raining so it was a hassle to walk back and forth from the portable. At any rate, UNICEF was a HUGE success! I thank everyone who participated, and I do mean that sincerely. We raised so much money (an excess of around $200 or so) all from the trick-or-treating season. I'm so glad everyone was so enthusiastic about it, it made my half-full box seem really, really, wimpy ^^; But nonetheless it was great.
So 5th period was interesting because I had to leave to take senior poll pix. Christina and I won for cutest would-be couple ^^ Yeah the picture taking session was kinda long but.. oh well. When I came back to 5th I found out I was getting a mid-A for LA, which is cool. And afterschool, of course, was band practice. I wrote some lyrics, hopefully we'll be all set soon for the talent show. We still need a name though. |
| 11.5.02 5:27 AM (Tuesday) Better not fall asleep this time |
Since last time... on Sunday I went to Kjell's house to record a demo for the Talent Show--the Pixies' "Where is my mind?" Yeah it was pretty cool even if getting there was kind of a hassle...
Yesterday I stayed home because I was sick... for the first time since Freshman year. I don't usually stay home when I'm sick because there's too much work due at school, and it's a hassle to make up, but I deserved rest yesterday. At any rate, I've been so busy with homework again. I can never seem to pull all-nighters for whatever reason, I get so tired now I have to take short naps. Maybe I need to get used to it again. Maybe I've accumulated too much fatigue.
So much crap due soon... I spent a good portion of the night working on college app crap. I'm applying to so many 'brand-name' colleges and yet my top three choices are Stanford, Columbia, and Berkeley, in that order. UW is fourth followed by the rest of my colleges. I'm so tired... I still have to do Hamlet Q's, study for Physics test, study for Chem test, prepare teacher rec forms, write lyrics (... well, I wrote some last night but), do all my Developmental Psych crap, go to Central to get permission for WEB 120, and... I think that's it for this week.
In other news, I found out October's SAT scores. Bad. My score dropped 40 points from when I took them in June... Verbal 660, Math 710. I was disappointed and I thought about retaking them in January, but I don't want to give the College Board more money. I'll just have to make do with my 1410 from June (well, it's still towards the bottom of the middle 50% for most schools I'm applying to...) Still, it was just a little depressing because I actually studied for the vocab part this time! |
| 11.2.02 7:21 PM (Saturday) SAT II's |
The past two days: Yesterday was Central registration, and it sucked because I couldn't get permission for one of my classes quite yet, so I'll have to do add/drop. After that Brian dropped me off at Chinatown and I proceeded to get Mai Kuraki's new CD "Fairy Tale"... the quality of her CD's has been going down steadily, but it's not a bad CD. She needs to reinvent her style of music though... it's getting kinda boring.
I didn't really study much for SAT's last night, however, and it would've helped to study a little more... the Writing I think I performed marginally better than last time, the Math IIC I skipped hella questions, and the Biology-E test was the EXACT SAME test that I took in June o_O If only I had studied between then and now (well I did, for AP, but I forgot it all..) I would've done a lot better I think. At least it wasn't Chem... that one would've been disasterous.
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