March 26, 2007

Some Updates

Haven't posted lately, apologies. So, I'll give you a quick recap of what's been going on.

It's currently Spring Break and believe me, everybody at school is greatful. Some people are going on trips to New York (Truman), others to California (Jessica), and still others to Arizona (Scott). I, however, am staying at home because I have a bunch of stuff to do! So, what kind of stuff? What could be keeping me so busy that I am not vacationing like last year?

i)

Our band director needs a new podium that's slightly bigger, so I'm making him one. I started on Saturday despite the fact that I awoke with the plague and could barely breathe through my nose. That and I'm coughing like I'm a 30-something smoker that works in a coal-mine. Needless to say, not a whole lot got done on the podium, but I did get the edges dovetailed so that the fit together into a nice little box. Check it out:




We need to sand off the burn marks, but it's shaping up nicely.

ii)

On Wednesday there is a party in Portland for all the kids from Oregon and a bunch of the kids from Washington that were admitted to MIT. For those of you who may not know, I've been obsessing over how many people from Oregon were accepted. Slowly slowly slowly the numbers are trickling in. The nearest I figure, there are at least 6 and likely at most 7. That means a third of the admits from Oregon go to Sprague. w00t, represent. Oh, that reminds me, here's a nifty little statistic for MIT admissions this year.

>>Admit rate for females: 26%
>>Admit rate for males: 10%

Basically what this means is that as an upper-middle-class white male with two living parents and no terminal illnesses, I pretty much just won the lottery while being kissed by Jennifer Aniston. No joke, a ten percent admit rate is insane!

Anywho, the party should be entertaining, I plan on making it fun if people turn out to be dull. I know at least one person is bringing balloons for balloon animal sculpting so I'm going to show off my mad skills. Yes, that's right, I can sculpt balloon animals. Didn't know THAT little detail about me, didja?

iii)

Today I awoke and decided to get out of the house a little bet. I bought some gas and headed over to Wal*Mart while waiting for the bank to open. I had to deposit a check but apparently banks are stupid and open at 9. While at Wal*Mart I succombed to the "I have money in my pocket and I want that" syndrome, so I ended up with a new flash drive. It's 1 Gig and in my favorite colors: Orange and Black. The orange glows when the drive is plugged in, quite fancy. The port retracts when not in use, so it's almost like a switchblade drive. I like it, and the price was right.



iv)

I have far more calculus homework to accomplish than I wish to. In fact, when my teacher was writing down our assignment for spring break she wrote it so that it wasn't in view of the document camera, and she seemed to be writing for an awful long time. Then she shifted her arm and the assignment slid in front of the camera. This is what we saw:

Section 12.1/1, 2, 9, 19, 26, 29, 33, 43, 47, 54, 56, 60, 61

The class then proceeded to groan, whine, and complain like a bunch of little girls whose barbie was kidnapped by their brother. It actually got a little out of control, people started just making weird guteral noises after a while, just because it was fun to complain. Then, to our abject horror, she continued to write.

Section 12.2/1, 2, 4, 5, 9, 20, 27, 29, 30, 37, 42, 52, 53, 56, 58

At this point everybody is starting to dig their pitchforks and torches out of their backpacks. It was an ugly scene.

In conclusion, I have a lot of calculus to get done.

v)

Speech team districts are coming up in about 2 weeks and I need to practice my speech. I don't think I've been giving updates on that very much, so lemme fill you in really quick. I've competed with my Binary speech at three tournaments and been tournament champion at all three. Sooooo, it's going pretty well. I'm rusty though, so I need to start working it up so I can qualify for state! and then win state! and get shiny stuff!

vi) Ok, so this isn't actually part of spring break, but it's right after. On Wednesday April 11th I leave for Boston to stay at MIT through that Sunday for CPW. I plan on taking a lot of pictures and blogging the experience. I also plan on having a blast!

Until then, blog readers, I will talk to you later and attempt to update more often. Adios muchachos!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Woo! I have exactly the same microdrive! Can't wait to see your mad balloon animal sculpting skills. Now I'll have to bring lots and lots of long skinny balloons... :-)

Anonymous said...

god snivels, you keep busy.

Anonymous said...

I got a flash drive today...I'm pretty excited, except for the fact that is mostly for my drag paper at the moment. Which sucks if you don't remember.

Anonymous said...

Hey... do we know about Jake and MIT yet????

Michelle said...

Hey, I can make balloon animals too. That's pretty cool.