A bad day turning good day

As I blogged before, I was really upset about the fact that I did not do much of what I wrote for my paper but Mrs. Citrin really talked me through this process so I feel a lot better now.

And then it was Etra's lit hw. That really had an effect on me because I have no idea how to start revising that essay and I just can't revisit my research report before finishing revising the essay. So if Etra had not given me an extension I still would have done nothing till this moment because I just don't know how to start revising and I can't focus on either of them because both of them are equally important writings. Maybe not. but you know what I mean.

So now I have an extension. yeah that's good.

What's new? SHP...and Siemens anxiety.

After taking the goddamn exam three times, I finally got into this program (the ironic thing is that I have given up on the science path already). Half-jokingly (and the other half for curiosity, yes, curiosity), I decided to take the astronomy course, or so as it says on the course description. Between Cosmology and Astronomy I chose the one that seems to involve less math and physics but more theoretical, descriptive stuff on purpose (in this case astronomy) but apparently they called this course Astrophysics, which I only realized until I actually got there for the Orientation. Astro...PHYSICS? My immediate response was literally WTF?! I know nothing of physics and I have no interest in any math related to physics (although I understand that astronomy is basically physics). So what happened is I coerced Curtis into taking this class with me, and Amy Chen, probably not knowing anything about the physics part either, willingly put down this course becuz Curtis had it down. Now I feel really bad.

The class itself is quite interesting--in a bad way. The teacher/professor feels like he was once a nerd/geek (just like me, except better and A LOT smarter)...He tried to pull off jokes but the class was completely silent. In a way I thought that was really cute because I can totally connect with him. In Sage's words, I "feel" him--because people don't really understand my humor either. Well I just hope the class itself get better so I won't feel so guilty anymore. :(

One thing that really made me happy was I met Paul Han, a really nice friend that I made when I was at Jason Kim's Academy, immediately after I stepped into the Havermeyer building. We haven't seen each other in quite a while and the reunion can't get any better than going to the same program every saturday.

Now it's the Siemens anxiety. The worst section for me is definitely the Methods. The reason it is particularly hard for me to write up this section is that I did not do most of what I intend to write about. I feel like I'm cheating the competition, cheating my mentor, cheating myself (although I'm sure a lot of people do this). I'm so frustrated because I don't even understand half of the vocabulary used in the Methods and I'm basically copying of what my mentor wrote for his other paper. This is PAIN. and I'm so sick of it.

Revisit the College Idea

Just a minute ago I was talking to this friend H about college. Well, he talked to me about Penn at first, and how his school is really competitive and stuff, and how he doesn't want to go to any thing "lower than Carnegie Mellon." I told him that I don't think bad colleges exist, it's just how you'd use the resources of these The moment. He responded with "do you know the University of Bridgeport? median SAT 1200. WORST college out there." The moment he said it I realized that we have nothing in common. I think college is just one little stop in our long long long life (okay, maybe a little bigger than "jusat one little stop"), and it's more important to use our time wisely no matter where we are and learn how to be a decent human being during four or more years of college life.

Well, one of my dreams is to teach the younger generation my philosophy, to tell them that college isn't everything, SAT and GPA are even less so. Your value as a person is determined by what YOU do and what you think, not some numbers or some prestigious name on your job resume. And furthermore, no one is the best in the world, so there is no reason to look down on anyone or any thing. You must be tolerant of others' faults and shortcomings in order for others to be tolerant of those of your own.

recently and today.

OK so let me begin with the most recent story first. So there's this 11 grade girl Morong today in my gym class. She's new from China and doesn't really understand English so I translated for her. Later I found out that she not only comes from my hometown, her mom also works at Columbia Medical Center (my mom works there too), and even better, HER MOM WENT TO THE SAME COLLEGE AS MY MOM AND DAD (a medical college). What a small world.

Ok so yesterday was the last day of summer, and last day of summer = intensive cramming session. I wanted to pull an allnighter to do Etra's lit assignments but I fell asleep around 2:30 AM. I woke up at 6AM and started working again and finally I finished everything (though the quality was very poor) at 7:30AM. Physically, I was ten to fifteen minutes late to Arod's class; my soul remained in bed.

And lastly, last week I got my provisional license yay

Hmm...haven't posted for so long, so here's one.

took a bunch of pics of this pigeon in front of columbia's library, this is the most interesting one i guess.

btw it's just something little but I must say:

So I found this pigeon first, sitting majestically on where it sat in the picture. I started taking pictures of this pigeon from different angles but soon this random lady noticed what I'm doing and probably thought that this pigeon was interesting too so she also started taking pictures of this pigeon. Before she comes in it was a fun activity javascript:void(0)but I hate doing the same thing as other people or other people do the same thing as I so I got kind of annoyed (inside) and just stopped and left the campus.

Lastly...I really think the overlay function in photoshop makes this kinda marble/stone buildings look like something in those fantasy stories...here's another one using the same effect (St. John the Divine Cathedral):