blog | tony gong

2007-12-09T04:43:00.000-05:00

New blog post in-depth about the first three (four? Oh shit, four) months of college will be posted like Monday night when I finish all my first semester work. I've been working on it for awhile now; shit's gonna be so epic.

I can't work on it tomorrow (read: today, Sunday) because I have big assignments due Monday and I'm seeing Jose Gonzalez at night.

I've been writing a lot of songs. I'm feeling kind of MySpacey, if you can infer what I am suggesting. Like Kevin Spacey except even more retro.

Where are all those 35mm pictures I took a few weeks ago in Chinatown? I wanted to post them on Facebook, but then I realized that I do not want to post them on Facebook. I will
probably end up posting them on Facebook. Maybe I left them at home over Thanksgiving. I'll find them.

I have a website at Columbia. http://www.columbia.edu/~ajg2157
One day it's going to be not lame and I'll have little things next to my links that are like (last updated: [date]). December 9, 2007 is not that date. Time is such a social construct. Like racism.

This weekend went like this.

Thursday night:
I went to Tree Lighting (every year this stupid-ass university lights up all the trees on College Walk in a magnificent display of human energy consumption and wastefulness). I listened to a dozen or so a cappella (fuck you Firefox that's spelled correctly) groups, drank cider and cocoa, wished I had a good pair of mittens, and felt good. Then we went inside John Jay lounge for another ceremony, this time to light a log on fire. It was aptly titled Yule Log Lighting. The whole time I was really thinking about the Yule Ball from December 2005, but nobody noticed. All the deans spoke and it was alright. I like John Jay lounge; it's pretty homey. A reception followed, I dipped some fruit into a huge, unnecessary chocolate fountain, and went to my friend's dorm where we watched a few television programs. I kind of forget what happened next. I definitely went back to Carman (my dorm, Jesus Christ, learn Columbia terminology). Oh I remember then I hit up HamDel (Hamilton Deli). The NYPD was alright, definitely ordering without hot peppers next time, saw Thomas and Phil, talked about our childhoods. We went to Jia's room at that point. Danced to 90s songs. Then I slept a lot.

Friday:
I woke up really early, like 10:00 am. Ate something at some point, then went to play basketball. I've been playing basketball a lot lately. My skills are improving dramatically. I'm pretty much at like early-Steve Kerr level, maybe when he was first drafted to the Bulls, but before they discovered how clutch he is for those outside treys. Yeah that describes me pretty well. Went up to the Bronx for this Latin night thing at the Bronx Museum of Art with Eli and Gelseigh. It was interesting; live music always contributes to a positive night. Saw some Columbia people there. I could really be telling this story more interestingly. I mean it seemed pretty fun at the time, but I don't know how to convey that really. In retrospect I guess I must've been actually really bored. I came back, fell asleep at 10:00 pm pseudo-accidentally, got woken up by some people looking for me at 2:00 am, went to Evan's room and watched some more of I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, came back, slept. Forget trying to be interesting.

Saturday:
This is today. Woke up at like 3:30 pm. Basketball again. We played against these guys in a five-on-five full court game in which we were blatantly over-matched. I had 100% field goal rate, with two nice jump shots from the corner. I'm telling you, I'm like kinda nice at basketball. We lost 11-8. Ate, came back, showered, did laundry, ate again, and started working in the library. Then I came back. Now I am here.

Sorry I will be more interesting next time, when I finish off my post of epic proportions. I mean I just wanted to get into this habit again. I should write in my journal again, it's been a few weeks I think. I mean I can be downright deep sometimes, and it's good to jot that shit down for next time.

Until next time, I am Tony, and you are you.

2007-10-11T00:27:00.000-04:00

Just now my stomach grumbled and I thought my phone was ringing.

Real blog post coming soon. Hopefully, like, tomorrow afternoon. After my physics midterm.

2007-09-30T19:18:00.000-04:00

Today, I read about this notion of "selective nostalgia."

On a related note, all my memories became meaningless today.

2007-09-23T03:01:00.000-04:00

Tonight was weird.

2007-09-11T22:10:00.000-04:00

A pretty, charismatic girl from the 12th floor I hadn't seen before said "bye" to me as she was exiting the elevator just now.

I have distilled the following possible reasons for her behavior:

Possible Reason 1.
She felt sorry for me after observing my overbearingly awkward nature, my inability to strike witty transient dialogue with a cute girl, and my overall unattractiveness as a human. Sensing that silence would give away her recognition of these disappointing facets about me, she gave a hasty "bye" and shuffled down her hall as quickly as possible, all the while hoping that I would not see which room she lived in.

Possible Reason 2.
My good looks and nonchalance charmed her the moment I entered the elevator. She is as hopelessly in love with me as I am with her.

Regardless, I'll probably never see her again. It's pretty bad either way.

That's all - I'll write about more shit eventually. I have to study now.

2007-09-06T00:21:00.000-04:00

College. New York. More to come soon. Probable topics will include: academics, people, Carman Hall, the Columbia administration, food, New York City, music, living, Butler, sleeping, skateboarding, family, homesickness, and life.

2007-08-03T14:34:00.001-04:00

At work now. About to leave to go to Cape Cod and camping for a few days. I'll be back Sunday and probably write about the past week or so.

Euclidean Dramamine needs some activity. Where are you, String Theory?

2007-07-22T12:18:00.000-04:00

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (major plot details follow):

So some of what I'm about to say is reiterated from conversations I had with people after finishing the book last night, but there are many new thoughts.

Overall, I think with Hallows, J.K. delivered what we all wanted, and a plot that was more or less expected. Considering her history of false identity surprise endings, and the number of outlandish theories (including some of mine; James was in Slytherin, Voldemort Harry's grandfather, etc.) that were circling the Internet, the actual plot turned out to be relatively straightforward. Snape planning Dumbledore's death with him, Harry being a horcrux, Regulus Black, etc. were all some of the first (and most obvious) ideas out there. With the huge world and cast of characters Rowling has masterfully built up, she could've taken it a number of ways at the end, but chose not to spring any major Bruce-Willis-has-been-dead-the-whole-time moments on us, finding satisfaction in mild surprises like Snape loving Lily and the Invisibility Cloak-Hallows-Ignotus-Dumbledore's history story.

I have to admit that I was initially a bit disappointed because of this, but thinking about it now, the way the last book was written will truly let the Harry Potter series to span through future generations. The absence of that major-holy-shit surprise allowed Hallows to cement the themes that ran through each of the previous books, and there were a lot of them, a lot of good ones: love, bravery, selflessness, friendship, equality. Hallows is probably the most thematic book of the seven, and I felt like this really brought a nice thematic unity to the series. I hope this will encourage kids to read them for years to come, as the themes truly are very nice. I certainly know I'm a better person from reading them.

My one unentangled criticism is that some parts of the plot were a bit "contrived" (word borrowed from one Patrick Jeffery). I do think contrived is the best way to describe it. Things seemed to fall into place more easily than in previous books, especially when they had to destroy the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw horcruxes. Also, the entire time they were in the forests living out of the tent, I felt like they were relying primarily on deus ex machinae J.K. Rowling was pulling out of her ass to move the plot forward rather than on ideas the characters had of what to do next.

Even with that minor fault, it was still a really well done book, plot-wise and all. There were so many beautiful moments, many of which may turn out to be some of my favorites from the series. Off the top of my head, here are some:
- Harry says goodbye to the Dursleys, Aunt Petunia turns and looks as though she has something to say.
- The whole "Seven Potters" section, even when they are waiting together for people who still hadn't returned; they felt like one big freaking family.
- George wakes up and starts joking about losing his ear.
- Kingsley's patronus: "The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming." (or something similar)
- Kreacher telling Regulus Black's story, and when he makes them food and is nice to them.
- Realizing it's Christmas Eve at Godric's Hollow.
- Potterwatch.
- Wormtail flinching.
- Dobby's death and funeral.
- Griphook commenting on Harry Potter's respectful treatment: "You are an unusual wizard."
- The entire Aberforth part.
- Neville's story, Neville's grandmother finally being proud of him, Seamus: "Neville is the man!"
- Snape: "Look at me."
- The entire Snape's memory part. That part was ridiculously bittersweet for a number of reasons. I'll never be able to listen to "Lily (My One And Only)" by Smashing Pumpkins again the same way.
- And basically all of the end. Up to and including the Epilogue. A lot of people didn't like the Epilogue, but I liked it, although I might've liked it better if it was in a different format so more people could've been mentioned, and we could've found out more about Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny...specifically, what their professions were. I liked the name "Albus Severus," Harry: "bravest man I knew," and everything Ron said.

So how do I rank the books? Overall, I really can't rank the books individually, just as I can't (or, don't like to) rank musical artists, songs, or movies. So much of that depends on emotional attachments for me, and each book/song/film I associate with different types nostalgias and emotions that I feel is completely meaningless to quantify. I see the books as more of a continuum describing the whole of Harry's life rather than individual plots and stories. The most significant period of Harry's life, to me, is through books 3-5. These books strike me as the most "coming of age" part of Harry's life, when maturity, love, death, the threat of Voldemort, and swear words began to materialize in his life. 1-2 have special places in my heart as well. I read them when I was young, when Harry was young, and I remember my innocence when I read about Harry's. Books 6-7 suck because Harry's old and grumpy and it makes me remember that I'm old and grumpy and falling apart. Just kidding, they're alright.

2007-07-19T23:31:00.001-04:00

These past few nights I've primarily been busy with moving into my new room above the garage. There's still most of the furniture to move, but I have most of my stuff up here now in an assortment of boxes. The current bed I'm sleeping on is not as comfortable to me as the one sitting in my upstairs room, but I'm enjoying the privacy up here so here is where I shall sleep for the time being.

Bought I Am Legend from Barnes and Noble on Tuesday. I anticipate reading it before the movie comes out. I really like end-of-the-world fiction, which reminds me, I need to see Children of Men. Also had a good skateboard session on Tuesday after work, at Burlington. There were a lot of people there, up around twenty, and many around my age. I usually keep a change of clothes but I was lazy and eager to skate so I skated for most of the session in my MITRE business casual attire (minus the shoes), which was somewhat comical, I imagine. It got kind of hot so I did removed a few layers. I'm really close to backside boardsliding the funbox rail. I've alluded to this in a previous post, but the main problem is that it's hard to generate enough speed necessary for some tricks there. I assume the bank opposite the funbox was placed there to address the speed issue, but I'm not heavy enough to get enough speed from the bank either. I resort to pushing a very specific path around the bank in a highly round-about, inefficient manner. Consistent 50-50s are still beyond me. However, I did nearly land an accidental 5-0 grind in one attempt which was kind of cool.

Work has picked up considerably. With my supervisor back from vacation, I've been able to get some good progress this week. This has enabled me to start doing novel work in uncharted territory, which is exciting and actually kind of fun, as lame as that may sound. Once you actually understand the math behind experimental mathematics, the research part becomes much more interesting and, probably more importantly, easier. It's good stuff, I hope to really develop some good theorems in the remaining few weeks about TMBOC and publish a sick paper.

I'm enjoying Neon Bible (the new Arcade Fire disc) very much. It took awhile to grow on me, but I found myself listening to it routinely at work. It's got a great new sound - I kind of picture it as kind of a dark, industrial and impersonal Gotham-esque urban kind of CD (although I read on Wikipedia that Win Butler sees it as "standing next to the ocean at night"), which, again, took some time to get used to. Partly because their old CD struck me as kind of nostalgic suburban winter-y. I guess it's a suitable shift, since I'll soon be in New York.

Ratatouille blew my mind, but this blog is already way too jovial, and I've celebrated its merits with many people already, so I'll reserve further commentary on it. Other than the fact that it's sick and will change your life. Order of the Phoenix sucked, as expected. A pleasant surprise was that Luna was rather attractive. So tomorrow and weekend = Harry Potter. Debatably (and believe me, it has been debated) the most important thing to happen to me this summer. I'll definitely be writing about the concluding novel shortly.

On a final note, my car smells like blueberries. I guess things could be worse.

2007-07-13T17:32:00.000-04:00

Still at work, but I'm here for about another hour and I have run out of work to do so I guess I'll blog for a bit.

I took a bit of a slam a few days ago at the Burlington skatepark, so I've had to restrain myself somewhat from my daily skateboarding activity. It was pretty stupid too; I wasn't even in the actual skatepark yet, skating down the fairly steep hill that leads to the skatepark, when I hit a crack that I didn't see and went tumbling. Cut my elbow kind of deeply in an inconvenient spot, but it should heal by next week. Earlier this week I also slammed on a failed rock-to-fakie attempt at Bedford which had my hip hurting for a few days, but it wasn't bad.

However, the Burlington skatepark is very nice; I am definitely heading back there when I'm good to skate again. They have a lot of good stuff there: two flatbars that are actually cemented into the ground (I pulled off a 50-50 on one of them after a few tries, and it's possible to actually noseslide them because they're cemented), transfer pipes, a picnic table, lots of banks, a cement half-pipe, and a funbox that's a little smaller, but much nicer than Bedford's. There are a few problems with it though. The park has a lot of good stuff, but given it's size, there should probably only be about half of it there. Overall, there's very little pushing room, and it's difficult to cruise around. The set up lends itself primarily to individual tricks, rather than sequences. Still, the sizes of the ramps and everything are pretty much ideal for me, and it's a pretty nice area.

I just sneezed pretty violently. I may have scared one of my co-workers.

Things to talk about?

Battle Creek-style sleepover last Friday. Missing a considerable number of people, but still fun. Policeman made sure we didn't cause any trouble during our 3:00 AM CVS visit.

Played poker on Monday night with some people I haven't seen in a very long time. I won a fair bit of money. I like poker.

Wednesday - went to Stephen Zhu's 21st birthday party. Seeing their house in Newton again was good nostalgic value. He's applying to med schools now, sixteen to be exact. Med school sounds pretty tough. Apparently each has around a 3-9% acceptance rate, so you really can't predict what'll happen. He might join me at Columbia though.

Err, Thursday, returned library DVDs (watched 2/7...not bad), stopped by at Andrew MacRobert's party with Alex, left after 10 minutes. It was pretty weird.

Tonight I might be going to see Michael Moore's new documentary Sicko with James. I'll be sure to write about it if I go. Tomorrow we're visiting these family friends in New Hampshire for the better part of the day. They live at Dartmouth or something crazy like that, I dunno.

Oh, I got into CUE. They said a lot of nice things about me in their acceptance e-mail.

And, of course, I've been working. Next week my supervisor finally gets back so I'll be able to be productive again. Yay!

2007-07-08T15:13:00.001-04:00

When I need to think, I go skateboarding.

2007-07-06T01:15:00.000-04:00

Normal day at work. Got new bearings from the mall afterwards; the guy working was nice enough to set them up for me. He informed me of the skateparks in Lexington and Burlington as well. I'll have to check them out sometime. I also got a good tool so I can set this stuff up on my own in the future.

After my skateboard business was finished, I wandered around and ended up at the Apple store. I played with the iPhone for a while. I've gotta say, the user interface is truly very well done. I haven't seen anything more efficient, intuitive, and elegant before. The tilting function - letting you view the screen both landscape and portrait, was rather crude and often took a little convincing to work. In reality, I'd say it's a gadget that definitely relies much more on its flashiness over pragmatic value, as opposed to the video iPod, which has some good value to it. Seeing the Apple store again was kind of a scary sight in itself. It had been a while since I'd been in there, but tonight I realized how creepy they've become. The way they line up all their products in stacks of identical packaging, employees all dressed the same, how everything has this uniform aesthetic appeal...very off-putting. Reminded me of rows of human cells in The Matrix.

The number of the iPhone I was playing with: 4084767290. Call it. Preferably during business hours.

New DVDS from the library: Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, The Graduate, Catch-22, Airplane!, Almost Famous (seen before, wanted to see again), Apocalypse Now (started on several occasions, never finished), Gandhi. A lot of older movies for some reason. I did pretty well with the last stack, so we'll see how this goes. Sleep.

2007-07-05T00:29:00.000-04:00

Spent this morning and afternoon hiking with the family. It was nice to get out of suburbia/MITRE/Boston/etc. and into the wilderness for a bit. Had a nice nap on the ride home. My sister had a nap too. My behavior is comparable to a three-year-old's.

Last night after work we went to Porter Square and ate at Sapporo Ramen. I have reason to suspect that they've reduced the amount of noodles they put in each bowl. Since as far back as I can remember, it's been nearly impossible to completely finish a bowl. If you ever did, you probably hadn't eaten anything else that day, and you were definitely fuller than you ever felt before. Last night, I finished a bowl with five pieces of sushi to boot, and was still able to wash it all down with some Bedford Farms afterwards. Maybe my stomach is growing bigger (which would be kind of nice), but it's possible the cooks got sick of incompetent Americans, unable to finish a nice bowl of Japanese ramen. I know I would. Bought a soccer ball from City Sports after dinner. Watch out, people.

Not surprisingly, work has been taking up a lot of my time. Tonight was a pretty good break; I got to finish off my stack of DVDs from the library. Results: watched Crash, Say Anything, Munich (again), Amelie (again), The Usual Suspects, and only the beginning to About A Boy. Didn't get to Hitch; heard a lot of bad things from people anyway. Although, I am interested in any movie about a relationship expert. Maybe I'll borrow it again some other time.

Things to do tomorrow (after work):
- go to the mall to get/fix some stuff on my skateboard. (My bearings are completely shot to hell. I also want to get a tool so I can fix some of this stuff on my own; I can't find the one I used in middle school.)
- return DVDs at the library.

Big things to do by the end of the summer (6.5 weeks, what the shit):
- move into the room above the garage. Hopefully this will happen before the end of the summer though.
- finish up Number Theory course.
- I really want to do something tangible with my music. Whether it's record a CD, play another show, more Euclidean Dramamine, all three, it doesn't matter. The whole process of writing and recording songs is one of my favorite things to do, and I wish I was able to make it more of a priority. School/work/friends suck. Music number one.
- Hang out with all the people I do and will miss. Including but not limited to: resurrecting the Battle Creek sleepover group. It's a must.

2007-07-04T01:56:00.000-04:00

I've been feeling extremely nostalgic lately. Albums I strongly associate with different periods of my life:

Spring-Summer 2002 (end of 7^th Grade)
The Sounds Of Science [The Beastie Boys]
Mania [The Ramones]
Maladroit [Weezer]
The Green Album [Weezer]
Weezer [Weezer]

Winter 2002-2003 (8^th Grade)
all David Bowie
Inside Wants Out [John Mayer]
OK Go [OK Go]
The Moldy Peaches [The Moldy Peaches]
5 Tracks - One Day [The Single Notes]
Is This It [The Strokes]
6 Track Demo [Tony Gong]

Spring 2003 (8^th Grade)
Garfield [Adam Green]
Magnolia [Aimee Mann]
A Rush Of Blood To The Head [Coldplay]
Parachutes [Coldplay]
Best Of [G. Love & Special Sauce]
Brushfire Fairytales [Jack Johnson]
Room For Squares [John Mayer]
Up The Bracket [The Libertines]
Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness [The Smashing Pumpkins]
White Blood Cells [The White Stripes]

Summer 2003 (8^th Grade into 9^th Grade)
Harry and the Potters [Harry and the Potters]
Rooney [Rooney]
Pinkerton [Weezer]
Elephant [The White Stripes]

Fall 2003 (9^th Grade)
Room On Fire [The Strokes]

Winter-Spring 2003-2004 (9^th Grade)
The All-American Rejects [The All-American Rejects]
Read Music/Speak Spanish [Desaparecidos]
Heavier Things [John Mayer]
OK Computer [Radiohead]
Acoustic Songs of 04 [Tony Gong]

Summer 2004 (9^th Grade into 10^th Grade)
Friends of Mine [Adam Green]
all Bright Eyes through Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground
On & On by Jack Johnson

Fall-Winter 2004-2005 (10^th Grade)
Funeral [Arcade Fire]
Sea Change [Beck]
The Moon And Antarctica [Modest Mouse]

Spring 2005 (10^th Grade)
O [Damien Rice]
Aha Shake Heartbreak [Kings of Leon]
A Ghost Is Born [Wilco]

Summer 2005 (10^th Grade into 11^th Grade)
Transatlanticism [Death Cab For Cutie]
Get Excommunicated! [Ed In The Refridgerators]
Good News For People Who Love Bad News [Modest Mouse]
Pink Moon [Nick Drake]
Give Up [The Postal Service]

Fall 2005 (11^th Grade)
Two Way Monologue [Sondre Lerche]
This Is Christmas [Various Artists]

Winter 2005-2006 (11^th Grade)
Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production of Eggs [Andrew Bird]
all Soltero
First Impressions Of Earth [The Strokes]
Come On Feel The Illinoise! [Sufjan Stevens]
Summerteeth [Wilco]
A Magical Christmas Of Magic [Various Artists]

Spring 2006 (11^th Grade)
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot [Wilco]

Summer 2006 (12^th Grade)
Apologies To The Queen Mary [Wolf Parade]

Fall 2006 (12^th Grade)
Plans [Death Cab For Cutie]
Continuum [John Mayer]
Late Registration [Kanye West]
Come Away With Me [Norah Jones]

Winter 2006-2007 (12^th Grade)
Piano Works Volume 1 [Debussy] (I was writing a Humanities paper.)
Hopes and Fears [Keane]
Z [My Morning Jacket]
Eyes Open [Snow Patrol]
A Charlie Brown Christmas [Vince Guaraldi]

Spring-Summer 2006 (end of 12^th Grade)
Armchair Apocrypha [Andrew Bird]

2007-06-29T16:21:00.000-04:00

Easily the best concert I've been to. The set list, venue, seats, and energy were all quite good. I've decided it's a much better idea to get awesome seats for every show I go to, and just go very infrequently, than to get crappy seats for every show, and go to shows often. It's really not even the same experience. I wrote down the songs they played:

A Shot In The Arm [Summerteeth]
Side With The Seeds [Sky Blue Sky]
You Are My Face [Sky Blue Sky]
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart [Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]
Kamera [Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]
Handshake Drugs [A Ghost Is Born]
On And On And On [Sky Blue Sky]
Impossible Germany [Sky Blue Sky]
Sky Blue Sky [Sky Blue Sky]
War On War [Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]
Jesus, Etc. [Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]
Theologians [A Ghost Is Born]
Walken [Sky Blue Sky]
I’m The Man Who Loves You [Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]
Hummingbird [A Ghost Is Born]
Spiders (Kidsmoke) [A Ghost Is Born]

Encore 1 –
Heavy Metal Drummer [Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]
California Stars [Mermaid Avenue Volume 1]
Hate It Here [Sky Blue Sky]

Encore 2 –
Via Chicago [Summerteeth]
Passenger Side [A.M.]
The Late Greats [A Ghost Is Born]
I’m Always In Love [Summerteeth]
Outtasite (Outta Mind) [Being There]

I was psyched when they played California Stars and I'm Always In Love, two of my favorite songs ever. A Shot In The Arm was also a great opening song. Hearing and seeing Jeff Tweedy singing the climactic part of that song definitely gave me chills up my spine. He has one of the best stage presences; he's usually in this strange stance that's simultaneously agitated and stoic, with a contorted face and indifferent, glossy eyes. He's like the man. New stuff off Sky Blue Sky is awesome too. It definitely takes some listening to to grow on you since the songs aren't as alternatively-minded and hip sounding as the ones from A Ghost Is Born and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but it's great easy listening, "I'm getting old" stuff.

Alright, I'm leaving work in about ten minutes. I'll be away in Connecticut this weekend and leaving tonight. Be back sometime Sunday afternoon/evening. I plan to do some serious work on that stack of seven library DVDs over the weekend.

2007-06-27T22:52:00.000-04:00

My hair is getting longer. Between every haircut there's a span of a few days when hair is just past being too short but not quite too long yet. I think we have reached this juncture.

2007-06-27T22:27:00.000-04:00

Oh, yeah, I'm seeing Wilco tomorrow night. Second row tickets, they really cost a fortune too; it's a good thing it's going to be like the only show I see all year. Crap, I bet it's going to suck.

2007-06-27T21:03:00.000-04:00

I'll try to make this short because I have a lot of stuff to get done, namely, the CUE application, but I have a feeling I'm going to get carried away and it's going to be another long one.

I woke up kind of late today, so I stayed at work until about 6:00. Went to the skatepark for a little while afterwards. I learned how to axle stall the mini-quarterpipe! I'm talking about the mini-mini-quarterpipe. Like the one that's part of the funbox. It's all about baby steps. I think the next trick I really have to focus on once it gets less muggy is 50-50 on the box. That can open the door to trick variations like 50-50 frontside shove-it and even 50-50 kickflip. I have the most inconsistent kickflips though. I'm convinced it's because my trucks are way too tight, and I inevitably always over or under flip and I land primo. My skateboard is about to break anyway, and I'm ordering a new complete once it does, so I won't make that mistake again.

After skateboarding I went kind of crazy at the library and borrowed seven movies. I basically have to watch a movie every night for the next seven days. I guess I'll be happy if I make it through two of them and return them all on time. Then I went home.

Last night my mom and I went to the First-Year Advising Session thing. It was basically a feel-good event to make our parents feel proud and safe about going to college in New York City. My mom just started laughing when the spokesperson started talking about how special we all were and stuff; my mom isn't very laudatory. I think she's still wondering why I didn't score higher on the Chem SAT II in 10th grade.

However, I did find out a few important logistical things once they split the students and parents up. I'm not going to have much choice in terms of course selection my first semester. By way of the engineering curriculum, I'm required to take calculus, physics, chemistry, and writing. My only real choice is whether I want to fill the last slot with economics, chemistry lab, computer science, or an introductory engineering course. I think I'm going to pick economics because it's such a science heavy first semester already. I talked with a few other students briefly before we left, but it really wasn't much.

I never finished talking about 1408. My problem with 1408 is that it incorporated the emotional context of John Cusack's character into the story. Without that whole aspect of the plot, it would've been just like an Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode, and a great one at that. The thing I liked about 1408 and past Are You Afraid? episodes was how unrealistic they were, and in 1408, especially Samuel L. Jackson's character, John Cusack's attitude (considering his profession), the whole premise. Once his daughter and split with his wife and everything was incorporated into the story, I felt like it got kind of cheesy. Actually, I liked the whole set up with his first book and his father. I probably would've liked that hidden past idea more if they focused on the father thing and left out the daughter wife thing. It was still pretty good, I thought. Definitely see it at night rather than like mid-afternoon though; that was a mistake.

OK I really have to this CUE thing before I find something else to talk about. I think this application is longer than the actual application to college.

2007-06-25T16:23:00.000-04:00

At work. I can't wait to go skateboarding after this.

Just said bye to my supervisor, who is going to be in Ohio for the next few weeks. In the meantime, I am supposed to be getting to the stage where I can regenerate some of the work he's done on BOC(1, 1) modulation correlation analysis, as well as some novel work on correlating sequences of 2^m (m = length of modulation) possibility. A lot of my work will just be figuring out stuff in MATLAB, which you eventually realize is a good piece of software, once you become fluent in it. I don't know, I've come to realize my task isn't altogether very important to the success of TMBOC signals, but overall it's a little bit overwhelming because I only have a cursory understanding of GPS signals and how they work.

On a final, work-related bit (I swear this is the final thing...I don't know if I can talk about it anymore), security had to take my fingerprints today in preparation for government clearance. It was kind of a weird situation; the lady taking my fingerprints wasn't supposed to let me do it myself, and so I had to sort of relax my hand while she nimbly placed each finger into the ink and onto the paper. The whole thing was mildly erotic and intimate. I highly recommend it.

Things to do tonight/this week:
- Decide if I am going to do CUE. Apply for CUE.
- Set up transportation into Boston tomorrow for Columbia's First-Year Advising Session.
- Figure out when I'm going to leave work on Thursday in order to go to the Wilco concert and still work enough hours this week.
- Buy train tickets for my trip to Connecticut this weekend.
- Organize all my stuff so I can move into the room above the garage.

I wanted to talk about what I thought about 1408 because I was surprised it got a 8.0 rating on IMDb, but I'll do that later because this post is already pretty long and I've spent enough time on this. Back to MATLAB.

2007-06-25T00:47:00.000-04:00

After work, went to Lauren's grad. party, saw 1408, and family friends gathering in the evening. Note my abbreviation of graduation: "grad." That makes me cool.

MITRE Corporation early tomorrow.

2007-06-24T08:52:00.000-04:00

At work right now. I'm hungry. There was literally no one else in the parking lot when I came in, so I skateboarded to the door.

2007-06-23T18:10:00.000-04:00

Woke up around 11:00 today.

Last night I went to Carl's house to jam. We came up with a few beginnings for songs. Went to Bedford Farms, and stayed up late talking in the 'columbia2011' chat, which actually led to more meaningful discussion and interaction than usual, I think. Watched the first 30 minutes of The Illusionist, which I'll finish tonight, before falling asleep.

Drove to the skatepark this afternoon. There weren't many people there, which I was kind of disappointing, so I left after about an hour and a half. I tried to get more consistent with backside and frontside boardslides on the flatrails as usual. I think I'm making good progress on 50-50ing the box though; the key is to start slow and just make sure I ollie high enough. I almost rock 'n' rolled the halfpipe consecutively, but I got kind of scared of hurting myself so I didn't end up doing it. Scared to try a rock-to-fakie too; I just need to get more comfortable with riding fakie.

Going to dinner soon, and probably going to the mall for a bit of shopping after.

2007-06-23T17:30:00.000-04:00

I won't use the typical "so I decided to make a blog" rhetoric and just state simply that I made one; this is the first post.