Tuesday, September 30, 2008

This Little Box

is causing me so much grief! It's called the modem. Holding in the wire sometimes is the only way to get some internet flowing. Yes, I should get a new box. Now that was an electric storm earlier this evening. Otherwise, Main plundered Moore in an inconclusive victory.
Sound like I should be off in bed keeping my head to myself? Sure thing.

Thank You for all your support in our campaign!

Monday, September 29, 2008

House Day 2008!

After 1.8 hours of being in the auditorium, we got out to the playing field. remember, we were in four gourps- our group was skewed to the younger side- I was the most senior- and lots of Aussies- I never told you about the holidaymakers? They thought we did it proper- no, we do it bulldog style. Pull a victory against Alban, lose to Moore. Protect-the-wall. We did well. Krazy Dodgeball- double dodging from both front and back. It took a while to get the strategy right- get balls to your prisoners- fast. 1st-Austin, 2nd- Alban 3rd- Main, 4th- Moore. Trivia. By halftime, after current events and 'the real stuff', Main was up by 30. Then comes Andrew of Austin, and totally serves me. 210 him, 80 us, 50 Alban, 30 Moore. Austin was the formibale opponent.

It all came down to the race again. Main 42, Moore 45 after lunch. If we beat Moore, then we win the day, if we do not come in last. (Austin=40)
Relay happens, I get some good flicks. Little kids in Main- we are losing. 9th and 10th grade picks up the pace- noting Connor W. for his superb passing skills along the 1/4 mile track. Then, by 11th grade, we lost the place- it was not our fault, though. It was that they had a totally awesome runner. Then we picked up the pace at the end, but no pennant. We had to settle with second. But not too bad. Main was a far fourth at Christmastime, and also lost Field day to you know who- Moore, and we still came out victorious.



Revenge will be ours!
Tomorrow- some intramurals that COUNT!

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Recourse

I looked back to Jan. 2, 2008's post of whether it would be a good year or not, according to the TV psychic. The psychic is smarter than you think. While the universe is faliing apart, and black holes are being made, and Cheney makes another billion, people are going to look back at Christmastime, and say, "that loony was right". For this one reason- A new president of the '10's. While the best effect would be the O-man, the McSame would be a slight improvement over the same old. Have at thee, people who believe psychics have magic powers!

Intelligence. A great trait for a great leader. Vote Atticus at 8 am!

One Day to Go...

I nearly forgot to tell you all about the cruelly funny thing that happened to me Friday afternoon. You see, I had orchestra at 3:00pm. Due to our new schedules, we usually end quite early before the 4:30pm (note-it used to be 4:40pm) shuttle leaves. So I go down at 4pm with the I attend some business about the campaign, you know, and I pick up my heavy backpack as well as my AP-edition (what a selling point!) Western Civ. book, and miss the E2. I head to 12th street and board the Brookland-bound 80. Once we go through Downtown Brookland, and pass an 80 in the other direction, I realize, Duh! I left my violin at school. My mother warned me about this, if I had an outlying book. And boy was she right. I try to use Michigan Avenue's hypotenuse action to catch up with that other 80, but it was no use. I continued alonmg Michigan for a while...I knew that turning up 14th would lead to the lower building, where the violin was, so I found it, and ran it. I saw somebody waiting at the E2 stop. I added speed, and defcided that up around the hill to the upper building, a thru sweep, and out through the parking lot would be swiftest. So I did so, grabbed the $2K apparatus, and got to the E2 stop. I waited. No bus. Physics teacher comes. I try to gather my scattered belongings in a way that made me presentable enough. The E2, it was running late. Then down comes the 4:30pm shuttle. I get on, and we head out with the first-time shuttle driver. It was an experience worth waiting for.
Sort of Higgins-esque?

Forgetting. That's not what you do for voting for Atticus Sawatzki on House Day. Perserverence. Passion. Patience. Traits that make a good leader. Vote Atticus, tommorow. Make the right choice for your future.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Don't Copy That Floppy

I watched this video from a rap'rboy about floppy disks- nowadays, rapper's wouldn't talk about their floppies- neither do they of CDs, MP3 (they should care!)- just Escalades, etc. That's why I don't listen to hiphop. Anyway, a rapr' dressed in suit and hat tells these kids in a 1992 setting (I had to check fashion-era.com to put words to the lamenity of '90's dress)- yes, it was the fleece and trousers for all!

Luckily, we have this thing called the internet and You Tube (yootoo') to watch this informative film. Boy, am I jealous of YouTube. But, Don't copy my bloggy! (Hey, bloggy's a word)

A choice that is never out of style- Vote Atticus Sawatzki on House Day

Friday, September 26, 2008

Internet me

As I have said before, a faulty internet connection has caused me much grief since we moved the internet-ready PC to the auxiliary phone line (It's DSL). I finally think I got to the root of the problem- a faulty box with a loose connection.

Solutions. That sounds like Atticus Sawatzki. Vote for Atticus on House Day.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Micro SD Life

I rectified the recognition problem with the chip, and now can save to it, but how do I ever get the pix to PC? Is Verizon really that scummish, making one buy their software!? I think so. Anyway, big scary physics test 2morrow.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

That Lame Duck!

George Bush made a rare appearance to a national audience tonight, and begged us for our $2333 each ($700bil. bailout). What do I think about it? hmmm... giving lots of money to rich people... if I were one of them...
What I do have to say is that it may be unnecessary; a shares swap could work like it did in Sweden. Or the Bush I bailouts of $150 billion wasn't too painful? That amount, inflation adjusted, and doubled, is about $400 bil.

The tax plan
Now suppose next year I got $1 million in income. According to the Obama plan, I'd have to shell out $35K more. Parting with that dear cash! That's the price of 1) a cabin or small house somewhere 2) a new semi-luxury car 3) a pre-owned aircraft.

But if using the McCain plan, I would pay $6500 less, but it would put the USA into more debt...
too many numbers?

If it applies to you- VOTE 4 ATTICUS on House Day.
You'll get your value for your buck.

(WSJ)

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Who's the Best Rep?

It seems that the Form Rep (IV) position is not going unopposed. The glory of such a position is to be contested, to let the people choose who would represent them best.

A.J. is a formidable contestant for the position, and CB (the Mainmeister who led the blueshirts to intramural victory two weeks in a row) is highly considering opposing him. But, I, Atticus Sawatzki, have submitted my name to the President to have a shot.

There are many reasons that one should vote for Atticus in this race. They include:

Previous experience
A maverick of reforms (Priory Press, 21:2)
Promoter of technology (look!)
Consistantly brings home the bacon (wamunc X)
Will represent YOUR desires, hopes, fears and dreams!

Make the choice you won't regret on HOUSE DAY!
Vote for Atticus!

Sunday, September 21, 2008

On TV 2

Channel 4.3 is repeating August history again- Mike Phelps (of nearby North Baltimore) won his sixth gold medal. The woman's volleyball team just came on. What a creative use of bandwidth?

Lest we all forget:
Mike Phelps, sadly, at 19, was not in a kiddie's driving program when he got an underage DUI in 2004. If it had happened in DC- if and only if so, Mikey would be in a massive mess with his license! He repented, though, in compliance with MD state laws. Celebrities...

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Out dis mug

I used the pejorative term "scrub" in the last post in its proper context
For all your slang needs, rep www.urbandictionary.com. Provides explanations for all the common terms that might slip in the blog, on occasion. Remember, I do use the term "regatta" on occasion.

Scrub is a term from the 1990's referring to a person who don't know the rule of the game, and is restricted by it. We throw it around in MUN (don't be a scrub!), and it's interchangeable with "nuub" for newbie.

Calleva is not liable for anything that happens

"After being knocked in the head from behind, the perpetrator was dragged from the cloakroom at a fine Italian restaurant downtown, his belly full with a meal with a group of corrupt mafia congressmen. He was tucked into the trunk of the Ferrari by Guido and driven off to Great Falls, not more than a mile from where Mario, the master of DC, had a nice estate with a vineyardette and horses. He threw the wench's body down, down the falls, and sped back to New York without."

About 7 people a year die in the Falls each year, with many more daring rescues. Most of the time these people don't die in the Falls, for it just doesn't happen, and anyway, the rescuers can find you, easy. Where the people die, though, is in Mather's Gorge, the steepest rapids in the eastern U.S.

At about 8:15, we boarded the 'watermelon bus', an old school bus painted green, and looked like one in Pennsylvania which watermelons are sold from. The clutch didn't burn up on Chillum Road, but I was a little nervous; the ancient engine roared and creaked along in heavy rush hour traffic across town to Sangamore and the one-lane bridge. After crossing the Potomac on the Legion, we were driven down Georgetown Pike, a nice, countrylike road that rolled around nice mansions with horses in the green yard. Like a wilderness bootcamp, we pumped up 7 rafts with a broken pump, a deamonish contest that emphasized tough love. For lunch, we had pitas and hummus. Yes, what if a pita was your last meal? We got briefed at a scenic overlook overlooking the great falls. "Wouldn't it be fun to raft down that?" Actually yes. It has been done intentionally. Soon, we were down the steep crevasse with a rusted pipe down the middle(?!) I was careful not to get wet; I don't want my clothes to get wet, but what. There has to be a situation in every adventure trip. This one was a suction hole in the floor of the raft that let in water. I was in the 'sweeper' boat, frankly, not the funnest of boats. All we do is tail and make sure everything is OK. Neither did we have a peer captain, responsible for steering the craft as the others obeyed commands, which is part of the teambuilding and mutual trust thing.
The first time my shoes really got wet was when we went down the first rapid. I was so worried about falling out and getting wet! But, the puddle on the floor grew. As we came around a bend, it was preplanned madness; ship hopping and mutiny! Again, as the sweeper boat, we came in late, so we had some forced fun- Captain Taylor pushes us into the water So what with it, I thought, I was already so wet. The class III lifevest, with the headrest kept us afloat, but made it practically impossible to reboard without assistance.

Soon, we had our first rescue mission. Captain Reed had grounded his boat on a protruding rock by being different. They didn't seem to understand the concept of friction, but whatever, they were 'scrubs' (rookies). Pulling over past the last set of dandy rapids, we were tested to swim across the rushing water to the Virginee side. Yes, with all clothes and shoes on, and, of course, lifevest. The current had a vector force of 40 degrees. Being instructed to swim at 45 degrees, we had barely moved upstream. Then came the endurance part: Swimming straight upstream for a length. Made it, so did everyone else. Then we just floated back downstream, after a bit of socializing. Was our team built yet? My watertight Swiss army watch said it was 1:45pm, a little time left. It was cliffjumping time. Sometimes, I dislike the feeling of freefall. So anything over five or six feet, it's a challenge, and that was the theme of the day. Peer pressure made me do it, and that was the theme of the day. I analyzed the decent; just as long as there were nop protrusions, I would be alright. Luckily, I didn't think twice before taking the soothing plunge.

The lifevest and all took the rushing wind out of the equation, and it was enjoyable. But I wasn't alright, I was informed; I had fallen within one foot of the rock surface, and it was 'fortunate' that I didn't hit anything on the fall. When asked about this, I was like :"Oh dear" "Oh dear on your life?" Now it was some time for Physics in Motion. How would I have been damaged if I would have hit the tiny, rounded outcrop? Not time for this. We were all inadvertently shivering. We continued on the final stretch, dumped out the boat, and carried it over, and across the canal. Th watermelon bus was there, and I got out of the soaking shirt and shoes. The ride home was surely forgettable. It was 3:30 when we arrived back at school. I threw on my subway pants, and got an E2 home to shower- I was itching a little. Was my team built? I'm not sure, but for others, they were built, probably. But it was never a terrifying, death-defying experience. We can't all die young.

I took a nice sip of Potomac water from the tap before writing this. Cool to the taste. No wonder about the shivering.

I hope you're feeling better, A.J.! (He had a carrot mishap)

Friday, September 19, 2008

Blaze in PA

At least four houses are on fire in an outer suburb of Philadelphia, Pa, in Pottsville PA. Many fire crews and news helicopters are in the area, reports our correspondant. Ironically, if at all, there is to be a demonstration by a foam company in this small town, tommorow, by Sparyfoam (www.sprayfoam.com)

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Nats

The Nats won against the Mets last night, 7-2. I saw about 3 innings live, due to the fact that we got free last-second tickets, but, I still needed to get homework done. When we left, at the top of the 7th, the score was 4-1. There was just a feeling of Nats victory in the air.
(But, I just couldn't find the sushi bar at the ballpark!)

Today's IM's felt the same way; Main had plundered Moore 49-28. A glorious day.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

It makes me look so 1999

The School totally redid the website- It's totally amazing- its rolling maroon colors nad pictures of the scenery does it up. And now I can get to Moodle wihtout straining eyes over uv purple over red. A new website for a new---presidency?

I can't believe I spent 4 hours doing HW today after coming home from the orchestra in SUitland- first day this season.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Friday to Bed

The refresh button at last restores a failed load! Typically, the refresh utton is good only for minute-by-minute political tracking, but it worked today.

And here's to the first 5-day week of school, and for that matter, the only one in September. (The next two are an activity day, as well as House Day.)

Reporting from an earlier game- MC/CB 11, JB/AG/YO 22; 2-ball soccer. A scared defense was incapable of fending off high-powered shots. As a matter of fact, I suffered a hot white flash with a ball straight to the cerebrum. It's safer on offense.
PS- I can't be on the winning every time, hint hint.

Thanks, Delli (who featured earlier this year in his own post), for couriering my violin to me between downtown and school! Your greatness is something to be admired.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

A Miracle

We all survived something potentially much more dangerous than a all-out nuclear war. We have entered an age where blocs of nations compete for black-hole superiority. It's a dangerous time.

It turns out though, that the Swiss were only taking it on a test-run, and letting everyone bemoan their fate now, before Big Bang II. Real tests will start sometime soon, lest we forget.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Swiss Nuke

Stephen Hawkings made a $100 bet that the Swiss machine won't destroy us all. But think of this- if it did destroy us, he doesn't owe nobody! This black-hole spawner (its most acute side effect) is its fault. It's more deadly than a nuke- or a nuclear war- or the whole world's nuclear arsenals fired at once. If you have not heard of a possible impending disaster, look up CERN and what a black hole is- it would swallow up the entire solar system in less than an hour.

There is a chance that nothing deadly bad will happen, other than bogged down internet speeds, but remember, not even a will will save us now. Sorry I couldn't write a nicer mortem post as I wanted to, but thanks to all the people I know, as well as the rest of my anonymous readers.

My parents want to use the Internet now.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Photographs, Photos, and Pix

I'm hopeful about the microSD chip that I'm going to get soon for my Motorola Razr cell phone. It seems that Verizon lets you have mercy on this- downloading pix to your computer via the card, but not the cable, as I tried last night. And it surprised me to find out that LOTS of color photographs (note- not Colored/ tinted, but actual color) exist from the 1930's. Life back then was not totally in black and white. In fact, the first color photograph was made in 1872 -it isn't that complex of an invention- 3 or 4 color filters layered on one another.

And Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, in 1907 and onwards, used new technology, based on 3-layer technology, to make really nice color photos- high resolution. Of course, we all know about the WWII color photos, but it would make logical sense that there be WWI color photos! (www.worldwaronecolorphotos.com) There sure are! They were shot by the French Army, the proprietor of early color film.

And contrary to what Hollywood wants you to believe, The Wizard of Oz is not the first color film. Many color films were made in the 1920's, but were converted to B/W for TV, and film destroyed, in the 1950's. Wine and Cheese bars didn't exist back then. And digital photography was first commercialized in the early 1990's. It looks like a Polaroid camera, another obsolete toy, but without the ears. It wasn't until the digital cameras became palm-sized earlier this decade that people started to buy them. And hail to the SD card!

Friday, September 5, 2008

Soccertime

Two-ball soccer creates a great workout, requires great coordination and concentration, and provides the best fun. For example, I scored three half-court shots to the big, 3D mat from a defensive position. In comparison, one shot is good for me in field soccer.
A valiant effort by CB's team while 3 down with 1 hour to go lead to a victory. In the final 5 minutes, an effort was made by the losing team to produce 3/4 court shots, absolutely none of which succeeded. And did we all sweat! CB's team 46, MC's team 24.

Player KN wishes to say to Coach CB that he was 'skooled' at End-10min. It's probably one of longing for a victory.
fyi I was on CB's team.

About 6 hours later, I was covering the DC tournament (more like the Northwest league). It was St. Anselm's vs. Wilson; I knew players on both teams. DC United's mascot, an Eagle named Talon (closely resembling the National's Squawk) was there. The game started at 4:30; I left at halftime to attend to packing for the trip to Pennsylvania- this is why I have to miss the Mixer, fyi. The difference between gym soccer and this game on the new Astroturf field was that there were dire consequences that were to be taken to the end of the year, at least. At halftime, the score was 3-0, Wilson Tigers leading. A small flicker of hope exists that the Panthers pull off the victory.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

A Day in the Life of Me

I got a little reprieve on the homework tonight. This specific physics problem about the guy chasing the train really got me thinking of literary fiction, which we mentioned in English class today, today which has Chorus, where we studied Music Theory, an artes libertatis, which we learned about it Humanities and History as well. As such, we talked about the 2/0 time signature. Not possible, because it involves division by zero, like in math, and applies to how we learn French; not just counting, but discussing and resolving. It all mixes together. Whether it makes sense stays in my head.

As you all have learned (by now), I have violin lessons on Friday. I also went and auditioned for a chorus part in the Fall musical. The piece was"God Bless America." We sung first as a group, then as solos. My range fared better today than last week, and I think I did pretty well on the words and notes, except for a little anxiety stumble towards the end, and missing a non-existant cue (like everyone else- cues help!)

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

On TV

The Republicans are having their convention on TV now, and Ron Paul is having an event nearby, reportedly tickets were sold for $17.76. Get it? And not much else went on, except that today was a particularly light schedule- only 5 classes, one of which was a double-period Physics, and then Intramurals. I have a good feeling about Main this year. See why soon.

Monday, September 1, 2008

A Guy with Big Glasses and Mustache

I'm trying to get my TI-84 to do tricks. But, you can't teach a new dog old tricks, it seems. I have this book in my lap, called Programs for the TI-81 and TI-82 Calculators, by Stuart W. Ball, copyright 1994.
It mentions compatibility problems with the TI-85, a problem from the early days of computing. But TI-84 is in the same family. I caught the problem, the Division by Zero issue. I need to find how to insert the clause to the division in the hand entered code.
But back to real life, I need to know whether there is such a thing as negative tension?