Saturday, February 28, 2009

No 29th

When I looked up 'how to start a cell phone company', the result came back for how to start a cell phone website company. Now think about this: I have only had to use such a site once- the first cellphone was a freebie.

Now there are those people who like to or just happen to lose their phone all the time, and the sassy who always need a new phone every whenever. And they frequent these websites. So there you go.

Why did I mention this? Because I'm reminiscing about the soon-to-be two years of posts, and still wonder at the ability of millions individuals to make e-cash- just like me, except I don't do it for the money. I do this (blog+web empire) because I like to, and it brings joy to the world.

When I look at tomorrow, it's March 1st. Just three months until another summer vacation. I'm sort of happy that after 11 years of being schooled that the time begins to fly...

Panther Victory- Champs game 4:30 tomorrow.

Friday, February 27, 2009

Tourney I

Big ball in the air
Goes swooshing into basket
Panther Victory

After a mad, quick pep rally prior to filling the stands in maroon, St. A's outdid the newcomer Avalon school. There were a few hairy moments, though. St A's was down by 3 after an awe-full 3-pointer to start, and a closing of a lead to just 2 points. Final score: 51-45.

Next gametime with St. A's, 7pm tomorrow- longest running invitational b-ball tournament in the known universe- 62 years.
Bedtime.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Recovery

That talent show was great. Lots of legitimate talent (a heavyweight wrestler holding up another big kid, who is juggling to "there might be giants". Then there was lots of faux-hip hop imitations, and Abbey Boys Gone Wild (The beans killed you; to the styles of "oriental", "opera", "country", "ghetto", and "Abbey" (nerd). But today was when I started to recover from last night's food poisoning misery mystery. I didn't get any sleep until 2am, got up for school at 6am. And that was after lying in bed since 7pm. Near fell asleep in class 12 hours after 2am. But the sick is all but gone now, and I'm happy, because I can eat solid foods again now!

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Fast Snow, Delaware Roads

Somehow, I did not have much homework this weekend. I got just about all of it done yesterday, so that left me with 'nihil faciendum esse', not much requiring to be done. Sort of sad for a three-hour each way trip, but I laid my head down several times. The trip to Pottstown wasn't that bad, except for Delaware, whose government thought that understaffing the I-95 toll booth was A-OK. By the impingement on interstate commerce legal doodah, it's probably illegal and sue-able for the DDOT to do that. Well, we have EZPass, but the Cash people still cause a bottleneck as they groped for the single open Cash lane.

Pottstown diner lived up to the crowd- a large place where the whole town, or so it seems, converges.

As for Bye Bye Birdie at the Hill School, a free extravaganza that the school let the neighborhood in to see. Spectacular and time-expensive props, interesting use of the electronic orchestra. Rosie played her character; Daddy MacAfee played his part much more violently than I thought anyone would allow- lots of slaps between the characters, now I recall. Ma did well over-dramatizing the mother's role, and Al kept the show rolling well. The screaming hoards of teen girls (and boys) were perhaps played by the young faculty kids- an interesting twist that I haven't seen before. Overall, it was worth seeing.

I then handed over the poker set to Little Brother, and took the return trip home to see the big thing on TV.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Socks

The White House cat, while definitely the first, made his fame by being the first one online- from the White House website to the beloved "Good Willy Hunting" app game from the '90's, has passed to kitty heaven.

I think I wrote about him before, and the only reason he gets his space here is that- well, back when nothing happened in the world, he and Buddy would make National News headlines. So long for that.

c. Feb. 1989- Feb. 20 2009
20 years of cuteness and cuddliness.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

RIP Peter Samp

A Facebook friend has gone to the greater glory. But I have a physics test tomorrow, and I do not think that I will be able to pay right tribute, however, I had already started:

He spent his last seven years with his high school friends
He had only one year after that
Left no mortgage payment, left no college debt
Had no wife or kids
Didn’t have a sip of alcohol, not much if he did: I suppose he never smoked either
In his last year he was on it’s academic; hillary clinton
Death so peaceful, something to accept when it comes
Never again will he roam at home
Was he an only child? What tragedy would that bring to the parents?
The cyst from childhood: Was death always near?
Besides, an innocent life and death can't be held against you at Judgment.
Now, there's an empty place at Harvard, who will take it? One of our own? Someone from Asia? No one?

I knew him a little: We were in the It's Academic team contemporaneously, and he was always winning awards that makes a school proud to have you. Otherwise, I lack details.

Monday, February 16, 2009

President's Day

President's Day. I was out this morning without the coat to my green jogging suit. It was definitely colder than last Tuesday. So I got home...and did some tennis. And after lunch, it was some serious homework time- lots and lots of typing and number crunching. And that's how one President's Day goes through. Looking forward to Pride Day Aftermath in two Mondays.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

A Normal Valentine's Day

Getting back to normal was pretty good. No more unnecessary late nights, at least for a day or two, and getting home during daylight. Yes, there was orchestra, and yes, there was tennis with mother, but I got time to research the zoning of Moco (in regards to skyscrapers), and get started on the History take-home-test.

PS- I suppose if I had a prepaid texting plan, I would have sent lots out, as I thought about today being Valentine's day.

Friday, February 13, 2009

DC Artifacts

I got a part-roll of DC 'Statehood' quarters from the mint. The text seems to be greatly different than the previous 50, sort of like if DC became an all-out state. While I don't give it any art award (it's a simple portrait of Duke Ellington, with the toned-down slogan of "Justice for all"- taxation w/o representation was rejected).

THere is also the issue of Capitalsaurus, the unique dinosaur of Capital Hill who is a legit dino. I want to catch up on this. Also---the former marshiness of the Potomac Basin and Southern MD lead me to believe that there is oil under my feet. I'll go follow up on that, too.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

A Rock and a Hard Place

I woke up this morning feeling somewhat not so bad at 6am. Maybe it was those extra 20 minutes (Which, for once, let me sleep over the 7-hour mark last night). Getting out of bed was not such a headache, and getting out of the shower wasn't such a miserable cod experience (even though I had my water set for the usual temperature) Plus, I wasn't burning so many tissues.

It was a windy day, and, just a few degrees cooler with precipitation, then it would be blizzard-time. Nevertheless, there's a 3-day weekend.

Which leads to my hard place- getting in papers before Tuesday. Religion, Physics, get it all in. I better zoot off!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Caught Something

A twirrling in my noggin, a running nose, stomachache, joint pain, rampant ears, what does this all mean?

The aftereffects of CUMUNC

Sunday, February 8, 2009

CUMUNC X: III

It took only 15 minutes to get there, so I had some time to burn until an ally came and briefing on some of the other countries' blunders. I then prepared my final speech, which, if done right, could make a victory ours. Before I could contemplate on running my card through Starbucks, it was time for committee session 6, the last. I sorted through my bag and found my bottle of water, important to ward off illness, and my ceremonial blue folder as well as the manila folder of press releases and personal messages. And how did it get in there? An award frame, similar to the ones that they put those 81/2x11 motivational awards in, or a MUNC award in. Somebody in my family must have been sending me a subliminal message, but I didn't remember having a loose one of those at home, though. M-Dogg kept the confidential releases.

After more press releases and more threats of gassing and the reality check that gas masks cost $200, not $2, the committee was totally partisan. But after much stalling, the final hour fell. I had not yet given my grand speech. Now tt was goofy time, and we did every imaginable loony thing in one hour, but thanks to that hour, Ethiopia had to clean up the floor singlehandedly. Purposeful success, compared to nuking Godzilla or the internet (which the dais had already proposed in a previous MUNC in high school). Lunch in a white gift bag, and we found the hideout of all the bruthas in Starbucks (I did not see even one of them with a Starbucks cup, but I guess at least one of them bought one). Grab a few bottles of water for the people next to be satisfied while I sipped from mine during the long ending ceremony.

There was a slideshow, with lots of pictures of the informal dance. Sort of glad I didn't go to it: a lot of guys were sidelined. Then came the intense part: the awards ceremony? Would I be able to slip one of them in that frame that I happened to have?

In short, I did. It turned out to be Best Delegate, good for M-Dogg's first run at MUN. But what to do with the unwieldy gavel which we had to share? I get to put it on display at home. M-Dogg, after the ceremony finished, asked to do a switch. So I pulled out the frame. The little congregation proclaimed at just about once;You brought a frame!?

But I'm not that type of person, though, so I wanted to find out really what the deal was about the frame. Nevertheless, as I had that frame on me, I got the paper instead. I could just imagine the uproar if that had been the person (CB) who won two awards at once. Sort of like being hit with two penalties for one crime. Sure, I was so confident that I would win an award, the population acclaimed. But I would have brought a half-dozen, a whole dozen frames if I thought like that, for everyone's awards!

It turns out that the shop where mommy got the bag was giving out free frames. To save a plastic bag, she put the frame in the bag, but forgot about it, and it came to conference with me.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

CUMUNC X: II

Get that resolution passed. We were pummeled with crises, and we knew the international community might turn against the state of Eritrea (which I represented) and Somalia in a battle against Ethiopia. So in a whirlwind and with special maneuvers, a resolution solving Sudan's problems in one page was passed. As we were then sponsors (Cameroon went far out of their way to make sure we were justly represented), we could then stand the hits of page after page of our leader's belligerent attitude and love of sarin gas. Then this whole conference becomes eastern factions vs the west.

Friday, February 6, 2009

CUMUNC X: I

This would be my second run at CUMUNC- the Catholic University Model UN Conference. Well, maybe I could snatch an award this time. So yesterday afternoon, we got in the trusty steed- actually, just your typical SUV in a school bus form. I never knew that the buslets had a little PA system. ETA- must have been under 10 minutes.

Unlike last year, I did not have any frantic research to do, and a greater appreciation for this fine arts was show by the teachers, who did not pile on homework. Naturally, there was an opening ceremony. So there was the I was quite impressed with the brevity of some of the speakers' speeches. Straight to the point is good. This was after multiple plates of cheese cubes, crackers, and cheese-laden spinach provided- oh and some delectable cookies. and some strawberry punch. Session One- went quite smooth. I kept a lot to myself; but did not miss out on anything, as I prepared the drafts for the working paper. Quickly, it became 10:30pm, and time to postpone work for several hours and 2 class periods.

Over the first two days, we came across two SAAS alumni- I guess the Pryz is actually an everybody's place- or were they just trying to come our way?

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Cautiously Pessimistic

The Denny's disaster of a nationwide dusting of snow, significant enough to close school, but not enough to scare drivers from driving, did not happen. And a snow day for the central DC region tomorrow, according to my books, may not happen tomorrow. Let me tell you- a lot of the weather tonight will be what a lot of kids call dismal- the weatherman(or woman)predicted wrong about a major snowfall.

So then, my forecast for tonight is wishy-washy. According to the national data, a significant snow is falling from Minneapolis south to Raleigh east to Boston, and north into Canada. Somehow, all this snow is to dodge the Chesapeake? The local meteorologists are calling a snow tonight, although a brief one. However, NOAA is differing. Or maybe there'll be the yink of an hour delay. After all, I do want to see little brother off.

Monday, February 2, 2009

It's Worth the Publicity

"Down there, you can find a church sandwiched between two waffle houses". But not around here. Denny's restaurants are few and far between, so you might have to hit the locator to find the nearest one. After all, there's ony 1500 of them. But why do I mention this?

Because they're giving away FREE (no strings attached) breakfasts to all who come between 6am and 2pm. Just pay 99 cents to supersize it, and however much for a drink (can't take pancakes dry)

If there is a snow day called- I'll be blessed.