This statement is false.

2008!

2008-01-01T22:46:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone!

Well, it looks like I've really been neglecting this blog of mine - no posts for a couple of months now. I guess there's a couple reasons: for starters, school, and all my other commitments. Even during winter break, I have a ton of stuff to do: scholarships for the most part, and I haven't had much free time.

Also, I got one of them Facebook doohickeys that them kids use nowadays (view it in all of its web 2.0-y glory at http://hs.facebook.com/profile.php?id=570501827 - feel free to add me as a friend if you so desire but type in "dasooopnazi.blogspot.com" in the message field so I know you're not jsut some random Facebook stalker), and since Facebook is more oriented toward my boring day-to-day life, I don't really need the blog for it anymore, not that I used it for that much anyway. From now on, I'll for the most part be posting on this blog about my random projects and creations, not so much about my personal life, which is what my Facebook is for. It's good to be organized.

But none of these is the main reason why I haven't been posting. Frankly, I completely forgot about this blog I've got here. Sorry guys, and my 2 or 3 readers can expect some more posts in the near future.

Oak Park Seemingly Incurs the Wrath of a Higher Power

2007-10-21T17:31:00.000-07:00

Strong winds knocked out our DSL last night; I'm typing this through great struggle on a dial-up connection. And I was planning on typing a long post today, about the past month. Seriously! I was! Well, it'll have to wait for another day ...

Oh, and Oak Park is flanked by several fires. Crossing my fingers that school will be cancelled tomorrow ... ;)

Dinosaur Pilot Album Finished!

2007-09-29T21:00:00.000-07:00

This week has been quite busy, as Dinosaur Pilot, my friend AP's band, was finishing recording their first album, entitled Pants on Fire. Being a thoroughly kind-hearted individual, I volunteered to design their album cover, which I've been working on intermittently this past month or so. However, the recording was completed a couple weeks ahead of schedule, and I had to rush to finish the cover by the time mixing was completed. Nevertheless, I think the result is pre-tty good (credit for the crazy lettering work goes to Mike, the drummer):

Oh, and the equally amazing back cover:

Well, enough about my amazing graphic design work, you say. How is the band itself? Well, listen for yourself. I don't expect the album to top the Alternative charts, but they're not half bad. I'm not a fan of the genre, and I still like the majority of their songs.

Bear in mind though that some of their best songs aren't available for listening - you'll have to buy the CD. The discs are still being packaged and the price isn't set yet, but if you want to purchase, just shoot an email to Adam Paul (adamxpaul [at] gmail.com) and say that Alex referred you. You'll get your copy autographed for free and hopefully I'll make a phat commission.

There's no preposition I'd end a sentence with. :P

First Day of School

2007-08-29T20:46:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of school, and summer has officially ended. First impressions of my classes:

Per. 1 AP Chemistry

We were all very surprised to hear Mr. N's description of the class today. I knew that it wouldn't be as hard as Biology was last year, in part because it doesn't rely on memorization, but it turns out to be even easier than I thought it would be, definitely one of the easiest APs in the school. The only drawback is that, while almost everyone gets an A in the class, the AP test pass rate isn't the highest - I suppose I'll have to do some independent studying before the AP exam. Well at any rate, the class should be pretty fun and Mr. N seems to be a good teacher, so I'm happy with AP Chem.

Per. 2 Guitar

I still can't believe I get to take Guitar as a class!! :D Mr. O is a big fan of Joe Satriani and classic rock, so this should be quite fun. Hopefully my guitar playing will be a bit less sloppy by the end of the year. :P

Per. 3 Spanish III

Can't give any impressions at the moment, as Mrs. F wasn't here today. At any rate, there is no way that I would ever enjoy a Spanish class (still wishing I could take Esperanto instead :P), and Mrs. F seems to have a bad reputation. Pity.

Per. 4 AP English III (Language/Composition)

English was never a particularly strong subject for me, but hopefully I'll survive this class. Mrs. S is a little bit scary: we must use a specific pen in her classroom (Pilot P-700 to be precise), and we have a whole list of things that we aren't allowed to do because they distract her (including getting up to get a tissue and using a holepunch).

Per. 5 Computer Animation

Like Guitar, Computer Animation should be a pretty fun elective. Past students say that it's a piece of cake, and most of the time is spent playing games. And I'm earning VPA credit for this, hurray!

Per. 6 AP U.S. History

After taking AP Euro last year, U.S. History shouldn't be too difficult, and Mr. J seems to be a good teacher. The workload is quite high, but not particularly challenging.

All in all, my APs aren't as hard as last year's, and after two years of not taking any electives, I'm finally taking a couple. I think it's going to be a fun year. :)

Summer is Ending :(

2007-08-23T12:21:00.000-07:00

High school registration yesterday. As though I needed any reminding that summer is about to end. :(

On the other hand, this school year promises to be fun. My schedule:

1. Chemistry AP
2. Guitar
3. Spanish III
4. AP English III (Language/Composition)
5. Computer Animation
6. AP US History

Fairly easy AP classes, and two electives. Not bad.

I actually signed up for seven classes, not six (wanted to take Computer Graphics too) but I didn't like the idea of going to school at 7:30 from the start, and didn't complain when for some reason or other I didn't get the class. :P

Sweden, Photos!

2007-08-14T16:56:00.000-07:00

I promised photos, and here they are! 423 of 'em, no less.

They're not sorted by day, but knowing that 8/4/07 was Day 1 and allowing a few hours for time zone differences, one should be able to match up photos with blog entries using the date and time conveniently posted in red letters at the bottom of each photo.

Sweden, Days 9-10

2007-08-14T16:31:00.000-07:00

Day 9
Had a bit of a scare this morning when my camera, with all our photographs from days 5-8, would neither charge nor turn on. Fortunately this problem was fixed by removing the rechargeable battery and putting it back in.

I played a game of chess with Ivan. Surprisingly, it remained tied up until the late-midgame, when I accidentaly lost a rook. Ivan remains undefeated, after previous games with my dad and my aunt's uncle (see http://picasaweb.google.com/gregnis/SwedenTrip/photo#5098412259330901538 for an analysis of the end-game position of one of these games).

Had another picnic this evening, this time with 28 people in total, of whom all but one were my relatives.

Day 10

We all woke up at 5:00 in the morning and at 6:00 were on our way to Arlanda Airport in a taxi. After two flights and several humorous incidents with airport security (involving, among other things, yogurt and automatically hibernating laptops) we were back in Oak Park. I miss Sweden.

Sweden, Days 7-8

2007-08-12T03:52:00.000-07:00

Day 7

We spent just about the whole day on a luxury ship going to and from the autonomous Finnish archipelago of Åland, making Finland the fifth European country I've been to (after Belarus, Russia, the United Kingdom, and Sweden). It's a pity that we couldn't stay in Åland longer though - as soon as we reached the main island, Fasta Åland, we were pushed into the ship that took usd back, making the whole journey a little bit pointless in my opinion. Nevertheless, it was an interesting experience, because it was my first time traveling in such a big ship (twelve stories!!)

Day 8

Sadly, we are going home in two days, and while Regina and I want to switch places, it wouldn't work because passports are verified against the seating order in planes (why? why??)

Today we hiked through a real Swedish forests. Very green, both the vegetation and the water. This evening we had a family reunion picnic, which was nice, although there was very little to do.

Sweden, Days 5-6

2007-08-09T10:41:00.000-07:00

Day 5

We went to Skansen today, the happiest place on earth! Or it may have been, if a rather heavy rain hadn't interrupted our stay there. Nevertheless, we saw most of the sites of the outdoor museum. Very interesting place indeed.

After we got back from Skansen, we took a walk down Queen Street. We got to see the infamous harmonica hobo of Stockholm. I took a video and am editing it for Youtube as we speak.

Sweden gets more and more ununsual every day. The tap water here is clean enough to drink, and in fact everyone does. There's so few cars that pedestrians never pay attention to the lights. Clerks at grocery stores do not bag your purchases; you even have to buy the bag yourself!

Day 6

We went to the Swedish Royal Palace today, although it certainly seemed more like a museum than a palace. Most of the palace was accessible to the public and some rooms even had museum-like display cases. Nevertheless, it was an interesting trip, even if it didn't seem like anyone would live or work there. Immediately after leaving the palace, we got to see the changing of the guard, for the second time now. This time we saw the whole ceremony, which was quite long and interesting to watch.

For most of the rest of the day, I had a walking tour of the "real" Stockholm, complete with stores, cafes, and libraries, with Regina and her friend Elizabeth.

I am quite used now to people staring at me when I say that I'd rather stay in Sweden than go back to California.

Sweden, Days 3-4

2007-08-07T10:06:00.000-07:00

Day 3

Today we hiked to Kaknästornet, from which we could see most of the city. Stockholm is really one of the most interesting places I've ever been to, because the city is situated on 14 islands, and different districts are very much different.

It was very hot today, as it was yesterday and the day before ... We're experiencing very strange weather here in Sweden, the one week a year when the heat actually matches that of California, the very heat that we tried to escape by going to Sweden. The locals seem to like this change from the usual.

In the news: a suicide bomber was caught by police only four metro stations from where we live (it's a unit of measurement :P). Also, a murder took place in the small town where my cousin's friend was chillin'. Violent crime is relatively rare rare, but because of Sweden's small population, when it does happen it feels very close.

Most television programs here are in English, with Swedish subtitles, as opposed to most other European countries, where programs have dubbed sound.

Public restrooms cost 5 kronen (about $.80) to use, sometimes even for customers in restaurants and cafes. Socialism!

Day 4

We went to the Stockholm City Hall today (very interesting place, photos on the way!). We wanted to see this guy, but we couldn't find him anywhere. We'll have to look again tomorrow. We did find the Little Dancer though.

We didn't have much to do today, I met some of my cousin Regina's friends ... over MSN. Seem like nice people, most of them, others are just weird. The people in Sweden aren't so different from the U.S. of A.

Everyone in Sweden seems to be able to speak English, but everyone also has a British accent, due to the education that they receive. It's terrible, it really is. I'm trying to teach my cousins some real English ("yo wazzup home dawg" and so on and so forth) ...

Everyone here also seems to be a soccer player, and a very good one too. My brother and cousins never have to look far for a game.

My brother is an aspiring songwriter, and I decided to look for a guitar to put his gibberish to music. We managed to find an old acoustic that belonged to my second-aunt's husband, Ivan. The fifth string was snapped, but we managed to patch it together in a primitive knot; it works fine but occasionally gives problems when we attempt to tune it.

Well, that's it for now!

Sweden, Days 1-2 (Two for the price of one! :P)

2007-08-05T09:39:00.000-07:00

Day 1

Flew in to Stockholm this morning, after 36 hours (!!) in transit (had to stay in Newark for ten hours, and time zone difference accounts for the rest). My parents rented a hotel room, but there's not enough room for all of us, so I'm sleeping over at my cousins'. Speaking of which, I just met about a dozen of my aunts, uncles, and cousins for the first time - fun fun fun!

First impressions of Stockholm:

Very clean place, at least those areas that I saw. People seem friendly.

It's clean for the most part. The amount of graffiti in this place is unbelievable, even to one who's been to LA and Detroit. Apparently, the government sends people to clean the place up regularly, but the grafitti just comes back again - a lot of money down the drain for the government.

Car theft also seems to be a serious problem. My relatives have lost count of the attempted thefts of their car.

Speaking of cars, I've never seen so many small cars in one place! Everything in Sweden seems to be small, from cars to ketchup bottles.

Public transportation system is amazing. Bus lines, train lines, and metro lines (color coded for your convenience!) are all interconnected. Buy one ticket, and you can use any public transport service you want for a week. Sweet.

There's a curious mix of old and new technology. Escalators are faster, automatic doors are more sensitive, toilets are more powerful. And yet, my parents' hotel room key is just a punch card. Most elevators I've seen don't have automatic doors, and something that I've never seen in the States.

Day 2

Went on a long tour of Stockholm today. A picture is worth a thousand words, and I have a ton of pictures to post, not today though.

To Sweden!

2007-08-02T18:58:00.000-07:00

In just a few minutes, I will be heading to the airport and flying to Sweden, where I'll be vacationing with my family for ten days. I'll make sure to blog about what I see! =)

TI-89 Long Division Program

2007-07-24T22:09:00.000-07:00

Today I had to find the first 50 digits of 1/95. With all our modern technology, it should be easy to find, right? Unfortunately, the Windows calculator cuts off at 36 digits, and my sophisticated TI-89 cuts off all operations after a measly 16 digits.

The solution? I wrote me own long division program:

div(n,x,t)
Prgm
""->res
10->n
0->d
0->s
While t>d
iPart(n/x)->q
n-x*q->r
res&string(q)->res
r->n
if s=0 and x>n then
res&"."->res
1->s
EndIf
d+1->d
10*n->n
EndWhile
EndPrgm

This program accepts three parameters: n, x, and t. It divides n by x and outputs the first t digits into the variable res (for result :P).

Google = Big Brother

2007-07-17T21:52:00.000-07:00

Why I Don't Use MySpace

2007-07-11T22:41:00.000-07:00

This link is for a certain friend of mine, who I hope is reading this:

The End of MySpace

I would have written a mini-essay myself, but fortunately I found this one, which covers the same points that I would have used in an anti-MySpace debate.

Woo! I can drive!

2007-07-11T22:29:00.000-07:00

Well ... sort of. I just got a drivers' permit, which, while not yet a license, is still a remarkable accomplishment given my laziness (it took me nearly half a year to finally complete my mandatory 50 hours of driving education).

In other news, AP results are in, and I got all 5s (on Euro, Bio, Stats)! =) And I thought I'd get a 4 on Bio for sure...

Summer...

2007-07-08T22:18:00.001-07:00

It's funny, I thought that I'd post here a lot more come summer, but in reality there's not much to write about. I'm actually glad that I'm volunteering at the library, because at least it gives me something to do, even if I'm playing more than I'm working there, heh.

There's a lot less summer work this year than last year, but I've still barely started. Out of six US History chapters and two English books, I've read ... one History chapter. I'd better pick up the pace, or I'll get stuck with a ridiculous workload in the last week of summer, just like last year ... ahh the memories ...

I just saw The Phantom Riders live, a great instrumental band. If you live in Southern California, you should check 'em out - they play in Hollywood often.

I haven't done much of my own stuff so far this summer, but I'll post if I make anything new. A new version of Little Fighter 2.5 is certainly possible, as is *but don't take my word for it* an online version of European Chess (once I figure out why Flash keeps crashing on my computer >.<).

Finally, some cool links for those of you with some free time:
*LibraryThing - Can't believe I haven't heard of this site earlier. Now I no longer have to wonder about what to read next. Kudos to AP for telling me about this one!
*BattleMaster - Best online game ever, period. Or not quite an online game? Frankly, I don't know what it can be classified under, but it's amazing. Just try it and you'll see why.
*Tactics Arena Online and SlimeAthlete - Where we library volunteers go to pass the time in between Axis and Allies games.

Personal Website Online!

2007-06-23T18:06:00.000-07:00

After six months of work, I have finally completed my new personal site.

Features:
- Fairly comprehensive About Me and My Interests sections.
- A much expanded, much improved My Creations section (compared to my old personal site).
- A fairly active forum.
- Even a blog! Heh.

Enjoy! =)

European Chess Update

2007-06-17T21:56:00.000-07:00

[From the Forums]

Summer has begun, so let me briefly summarize the facts about the European Chess project:

- A patent could cost upward of $10,000, although this cost may be reduced if Fienberg's uncle helps us. We still don't know about the necessity of a patent.
- We have until February 2008 to file a provisional patent (about $300 I believe), which would extend the patenting deadline by a year, giving us until February 2009 to file a full patent.
- We still don't know if a Euro Chess patent would be approved or not, due to its similarity to Chaturanji, which admittedly is a public-domain game.
- Peter Olotka, designer of Cosmic Encounter (off of which Euro Chess is partly based), could offer some help, so I'm trying to get in touch with him.
- I know nothing about what the commercial possibilities of Euro Chess. Would it sell? I have no idea.
- We still have not come up with a good name - I don't like Euro Chess much. A name design competition is a possibility.
- I am not sure about the possible legal issues that could arise from the Design Competition.
- An online game is a possibility. Do not ask me about it - if I do decide to make one it will be a surprise, but I guarantee nothing.

It's summer!

2007-06-16T19:39:00.000-07:00

At long last, school is out. I spent the last month struggling to complete various projects (for the most part, the notorious 18-minute long Historical Figure multimedia presentation project that is often cited to scare incoming sophomores), but since this Friday, I've been free ... for the most part ...

Summer has been fairly uneventful so far, but I did sign up for volunteer work at my local library (upwards of 80 hours for doing absolutely nothing [literally nothing - some friends are even considering bringing an Axis & Allies board over to the library to pass the time]!! How could I have not thought about this before!?!

Roger Waters! [A Concert Review]

2007-06-14T21:51:00.000-07:00

I went to a Roger Waters concert at the Hollywood Bowl yesterday night, with my dad, my brother, and some family friends. To sum it up in a word: amazing.

We didn't eat dinner before we arrived at Hollywood at 6 (concert started at 7:30), and believe it or not, we had to wander the streets for half an hour before we could find a decent place to eat (so much upscale dining in Hollywood, so little fast food), namely a Subway.

We got to the Hollywood Bowl fifteen minutes before the show was scheduled to start, but had to wait for some friends, and finally pushed toward the stadium at around 7:30. The crowd was huge, the biggest I'd ever seen in my life, but my friends estimated it to be between 10,000 and 15,000 people. Anyway, the Bowl was sold out (there were a bunch of people who went all the way to the Bowl without tickets, holding up signs like "Please give me a ticket. I am a fan, not a scalper." And plenty of scalpers too. Not to mention all of the "musicians" and T-shirt sellers standing outside the Bowl. There are a lot of business opportunities available there I suppose ...)

We reached the stands at about 8:00, after much pushing and shoving and security (in my backpack I had two identical opaque bottles, one with water, one with iced tea. A guard picked one at random and asked, "What's in it?" "Water?" I guessed. The guard sniffed it: "That's not water..." and looked at me suspiciously. On the other hand, my friends ran past security, and managed to smuggle in, among other things, a camcorder and a digital voice recorder.) At the back of the stage was a large display showing an antique radio that played oldies, while a hand occassionally reached in to change the channel or pour some wine. Roger Waters entered the stage at around 8:15.

The first setlist was pretty good, with both its high and its low points. The audience was so excited by In The Flesh that I was a little worried that they might take the song seriously. Mother featured a nice acoustic performance by Roger Waters but I never did like the song that much. I was surprised by the inclusion of Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, a very old song, but it was played well and the inclusion of a slideshow old photographs in the back was in my opinion a nice touch. Shine On You Crazy Diamond was played well, and the visual transition (climbing out of the heart of the sun of the previous song, with various distorted images of Syd shown) was nice, but in my opinion David Gilmour's group played it better at the Pulse tour - one of the things I noticed about this concert was that Roger tended to keep the experimentation down to a minimum, playing exactly like the album version, while David's Pink Floyd played most songs a little differently, in some cases even better than the album version. Have a Cigar was an amazing song even in the studio, but played live it sounded even better - I was surprised by guitarist Snowy White's capability of playing exactly as David Gilmour had done in the studio, while still adding his own touch. Wish You Were Here had equally good guitar, but in my opinion it was Roger who was the weakest link here, as his vocals for this song seemed subpar, and he was speaking more than singing.

It was at this point that the songs began to go downhill. The next two songs were Southampton Dock and The Fletcher Memorial Home, neither of which I ever liked particularly. Perfect Sense was one of Roger's better solo songs, and I liked its inclusion, but I felt that Leaving Beirut was overly segmented, with a very predictable spoken verse - guitar - spoken verse - guitar pattern. Roger finally closed the first half with Sheep, which was a nice touch, as it is one of Pink Floyd's loudest songs, in other words, perfect for closing a concert. And of course, everyone cheered and began taking cell phone photos as the pig flew above the stands (although my Republican friends cringed at the "liberal propaganda") - it's too bad that we forgot to bring a camera, but binoculars did help.

Intermission lasted about fifteen minutes, during which a small dot on the back screen slowly grew into a moon, a nice visual touch.

I didn't enjoy the second set as much as the first set, for the most part because at this point the smokers seemed to lose interest in the music, something that was only helped by the two repetitive instrumental passages, On the Run and Any Colour You Like. There was a guy right in front of us who was definitely an addict - he couldn't go for more than a minute without putting that thing in his mouth. Still, we weren't the worst off - in the section where some of my friends were sitting, they were literally the only people there who didn't smoke - my friend's brother actually passed out from the fumes. Other than that, though, the Dark Side of the Moon was played admirably well (I won't go into song-by-song analysis because it was played exactly like the album). There were some amazing special effects in the end, with the giant prism and the lasers. Good times.

After Roger Waters congratulated us for being a great audience, blah blah blah, the band finally closed with five songs from the Wall. As The Happiest Days of Our Lives came to a close, the whole audience stood up for Another Brick in the Wall, singing along with Roger Waters. Similarly, after Vera, another short passage, the audience chanted Bring the Boys Back Home. personally, I only liked the last encore: Comfortably Numb, which was played very well, particularly the two guitar solos. Snowy White once again showed his talent in emulating David Gilmour!

After another twenty minutes of pushing through a crowd, we walked thirty minutes to our parking space through Hollywood at midnight (admittedly not the safest way to travel), and drove home. The End.

Correction: Dave Kilminster, not Snowy White, played lead guitar. To be fair, Snowy White played well too!

Community Service for the Donkey

2007-05-21T22:06:00.000-07:00

I was just informed that a previous post of mine was used to save the Little Fighter 2 community forum. That's pretty cool =).

APs are over!

2007-05-19T22:32:00.000-07:00

No more AP tests! I'm free!! Well ... sorta ...

Last week, right after the AP Bio test, I had to work all week on a reflective essay. Next week, I'm going to have to present a group Stats project that we hardly started. And two weeks after that is the Hi-Fi presentation, widely believed to be the most difficult project our high school has to offer: a 15-18 minute multimedia presentation on a historical figure. Emphasis on the 15-18 minutes. So in essence, my whole life now is just moving from one project to another.

Well, at any rate it's still an improvement?

How did the AP tests go? They were OK. Better wait for the grade sheet before I jump to conclusions about how well I did.

USAMO!

2007-04-25T16:52:00.000-07:00

Whew - this week has been crazy. And I think we all know why ... it's USAMO time! Or was ...

Fortunately, I was able to talk to Messrs Block and Micek, and negotiated my ability to take the USAMO, but at great cost. The first day I had to take the USAMO in Micek's classroom ... while freshmen were taking the STAR testing. They were loud, to say the least, and I could focus only with great difficulty, at least until 12:20 (3:20 ET - that is, 1:40 before time was up) when the freshies left. (But don't worry, I didn't break any rules - I was proctored and I didn't chat.) This may explain my relatively poor performance on Day One.

The second day was easier, as I was able to negotiate taking the test in the library (don't worry, oh eagerly pissed-off USAMO graders, I was indeed proctored), and I performed much better. Big surprise.

I was quite out of shape mathematically. I had only started practicing seriously for the USAMO about a month before, and I couldn't seriously hope to do very well with so little practice. Of course, taking old tests is a little pointless if you can't solve a single problem... ;) In this regard, I think I did much better than I expected - in the immortal words of Ubemaya, "my goal is a non-negative score, although I'd be happy to get a negative score also."

My equipment wasn't the best either. The first day I took my dad's expensive Byelorussian sketching kit, but unfortunately the compasses there were rather dull, as they had not been used for quite awhile. Keeping this in mind, I took my own, much smaller compass set the next day, only to understand why I hadn't taken it the first day - the quality was so bad that I could hardly use them, and the set did not include a protractor, just when I needed one (for problem six, I finally had to resort to constructing right triangles on graph paper and then tracing 60 degree angles to draw a neat equilateral triangle). Once again Staedler's quality shows me why those guys should just stick to making erasers ...

But enough about working conditions. Time to talk about the problems!

As I mentioned earlier, I didn't do too well on the first day, partly because of the friggin freshmen, and partly because of my own stupidity of course. I immediately jumped ahead and solved the second problem, taking something like two hours to write up an incredibly neat, incredibly detailed solution - only to realize after faxing the solutions that I was supposed to find a circle with radius sqrt(2)/2, not a square with side length 1! Well, I hope I'll get two or three points, because other than this my solution is a pretty good one. Next, I attacked problem one, finding out some facts and then hitting a brick wall - I submitted some hastily done formulae in hope of maybe one point. And problem three - that I could hardly understand, let alone find a way to solve. Total for Day One: 3-4 points of a possible 21.

The second day I performed much better. I solved Problem Four satisfactorily, for six, maybe even seven points. The great thing about Problem Four was that it asks for an answer - 8025 - so I KNOW I got the problem right! =) And I proved the equilateral equality for #6, though I did not make any headway into proving the general inequality: I'm hoping for one or two points for the equality. Problem Five I stared at and stared at, but couldn't solve, as, I imagine after seeing the solution, neither could 99% of test takers. Total for Day Two: 7-9 points of a possible 21.

So, in total I got 10-13 points, which isn't bad at all for someone who expected to get zero (see my previous post for details about all that). After a little practice, and hopefully without interference from pesky freshmen, I may even qualify for MOP next year! (18-20 points needed to qualify for sophomores and juniors)

USAMO?

2007-04-22T22:54:00.000-07:00

By an unfortunate coincidence, the two 4.5-hour days of the USAMO fall right in the middle of standardized testing week. To add to the problem, Mr. Micek won't be able to proctor me this time, and I'll need web access to download the problems. And suspiciously, the vice principal, Mr. Block, always seems to be in a meeting when I come by the office, and doesn't respond to my emails either. Well, tomorrow's the day before the first day of the USAMO, so I'll have to get some answers from him, even if I have to camp out outside the office.

Of course, my practice test scores are rather depressing. By a very lenient scoring system, I give myself:

0
3
6 (must've been an easy year ;) )
3
3
0
2

Keep in mind that I'm practicing off old tests (4.5 hours / 5 problems), as opposed to new ones (9 hours / 6 problems). And I should remind my readers that the olympiad starts the day after tomorrow. Hopefully that gives an indication of how screwed I am >.<

Spring Break!

2007-04-08T20:30:00.000-07:00

Yes, Spring Break is here. But it won't be all parties for me, thanks to, you guessed it, Euro AP! As I mentioned in my previous entry, we are picking up the pace in Euro, but I never expected it to reach this level: over Spring Break we have to (1) write a 20-30 page report on the Cold War, (2) read "All Quiet on the Western Front" and write a 5 page review, and (3) reread 700 pages of our Euro textbook. All in one week! Ugh.

As if that weren't enough, it turns out that I qualified for the USAMO, something I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, it's quite an accomplishment to make it there, but on the other hand, now I have to start practicing, so that I won't embarrass myself with a zero (which seems to be the median score on the USAMO >.<). So that's something like 5 hours Euro, 1 hour math already partitioned out each day. I'm losing almost half of my waking, non-eating hours!

The good news is that I still have half of spring break to call my own. ^_^ Some stuff that I'm working on:

- My site. I'm hoping to finish my new website by the end of Spring Break. I'm almost done already, so it shouldn't be too tough.

- European Chess. Ah, there's a lot of stuff going on here. First, Round 2 of the Design Competition just ended, so I have to add 3 countries, and edit a few more (people started complaining about Iraq and Mafia being too strong, and Prussia and Gaul too weak, so I'll have to balance them). Also, John wants to start a European Chess tournament next week, and although he promised to organize it himself, it'll still be a lot of work to keep up-to-date results on the website (a job that, of course, falls to me).

Now that European Chess is out and about on the Internet (a forum spam campaign on my part did a fairly good job of spreading the word), our biggest concern now is obtaining a patent. Apparently, we have less than a year to apply for a patent, or else European Chess falls into the public domain. Unfortunately, patent costs are monstrous (literally in the 5-digits), and being high school students we have nowhere near that kind of money. Our best bet is to somehow get Fienberg's uncle to provide us legal aid for free and then apply for a provisional patent, using our extra year to obtain the ~$3,000 we'll need outside of legal fees. Either that or give up, which I admit is an appealing option.

- One last item of the day: During Spring Break, and pretty much until mid-May, I have very little free time, so naturally I don't really have time to play most games, but there is one online game that takes very little time (~10 min. a day) and is incredibly addictive. I'm talking, of course, of Diplomacy, the board-game sensation that, thanks to phpDiplomacy.net, is now invading the Internet. After playing a game online with a few of my friends, I took the next step and formed what may be the first online Diplomacy league: "Donkeys United". Blatant ad: Have you got what it takes to join? Make an account on my forum and PM me for an invitation! Heh, just had to put that in.

Well, that concludes my first (and perhaps last) post during Spring Break. Ciao!

School is pain. AP exams = very yes.

2007-03-28T22:14:00.000-07:00

The title says it all.

Euro is going nuts, with some 2 hours of mandatory studying every night now, in addition to many lunch periods and 7th periods sacrificed for "optional" videos and DBQ practice. To be fair, it is partly my fault - in February, at the start of second semeste, Mr. K asked if there was anything we would like to change in the class. Seizing the opportunity, I proclaimed that there shalt be no mandatory outlines, and it was so. Somebody else - whose name shall not be uttered - did cry out against the projects, saying "it shalt be not so," and it was declared that there shall be no mandatory outlines or projects. And then it all collapsed. We became lazy, we failed our quizzes and tests even more than what's regular for Euro (although oddly enough, I didn't change, but that's just me), and with the AP coming up, we were grossly underprepared. Finally, Mr. K made us an ultimatum last week: if we wanted to pass the AP exam, we must play by his rules, which meant even longer hours than first semester, and a return of the dreaded projects. Furtunately, I was able to set up a forum for our Euro class on Mr. K's behalf, which proved to be a good idea, as we are now able to coordinate our study and work together on class projects. Nevertheless, Euro is really becoming painful now.

But speaking of painful in the literal sense, while studying for the AP Bio test (ridiculous really, the chapters were longer than ever, and we needed to memorize the functions of 30 different hormones), I stayed up so late that when I woke up my leg was sprained so much I had to spend the morning of the test practicing walking again. (I don't know how staying up late has a connection to leg pain, but my parents assure me that it does.) It was getting better, but then we had to run two miles in the rain, a run that in retrospect I should probably have just asked to make up. My leg did not like that run at all.

Even Statistics, the easiest AP in the school, is picking up the pace now. For the first time, I actually have to work hard on the homework, and the tests are becoming challenging as we are getting ready to "battle the APE".

And to add to all that, the USAMO math olympiad is coming up in late April, and I have no idea how to study for it, or indeed, if I even qualified (though I'm fairly sure I did). The unanimous advice on how to prepare is practice, practice, practice, but there's really nothing like the sensation of sitting down, reading a test, working on it, and eventually coming to the conclusion that you can't solve a single problem. >.<

There's plenty of other topics I wanted to write about, but I really want me leg to get better, so perhaps I should stop while it's still 10:28 (by some miracle, there was little homework today; it's the first time in a week that I'm going to bed before 11 o'clock).

AIME

2007-03-13T22:21:00.000-07:00

Took the AIME today. It was harder than I anticipated, but I still managed to answer 7 problems correctly (6-7 will probably by the cutoff, so I probably qualified for the USAMO ^_^).

I'm not allowed to discuss problems yet, so that'll have to wait for a later post.

Some Weight Off My Back (Literally and Figuratively)

2007-03-11T21:39:00.000-07:00

Today was a pretty good day, because I finally took my CM piano playing test today (I passed with honors! Yay!), which I've been stressing out about for about a week. After the AIME math exam that I take this Tuesday, I will be free of all worries other than schoolwork ... until late April/early May, when I will suddenly be attacked by the ferocious onslaught of 3 APs, an SAT and maybe an SAT II, and the USAMO (if I pass the AIME). Ouch.

After the piano test, I helped some family friends move. Moving is hard work. Especially on a day as hot as today. Ouch.

European Chess

2007-02-27T21:52:00.000-08:00

ChessVariants.org : European Chess

As you may know, I am vice president of my school's Chess Club. And one of my duties as VP is researching new chess variants (ok, maybe it isn't my duty, but I do it anyway). This is the story of how I (not quite singlehandedly) designed a chess variant so popular that nobody in our Chess Club plays regular chess anymore.

"Chatanooga"

I was researching four-player chess games, because I felt that our club needed a multiplayer game. Bughouse isn't bad, but the players are rather detached, because you can only play one opponent at a time. I immediately dismissed all of the variants that required a special board; all we have in our club are the standard 8x8 boards. Bastardo looked interesting, but I felt that it started out too cluttered, with not enough wiggle room for your pieces. Finally, I noticed Chaturanga for four, and immediately was captivated by its elegance and fun. However, some of the rules were ancient, and in need of revision; I took a Chaturanga modification - ZM Machiavellian Chess - and played around with it a bit, and created ... Chatanooga.

Ok, maybe it wasn't as heroic as that. The real story was something along the lines of: I read about both Chaturanga and ZM Machiavellian Chess, but by the next day it was all mixed up in my head. The game I showed to the club that day was an odd mixture of both games, with a name as mixed up (unintentionally of course, you can see how mixed up my brain was, for me to mistake Chaturanga for Chatanooga. But I have a REALLY bad memory >.<). The club loved it. Well, the four people that played it loved it, the rest was too busy playing standard chess.

What exactly are the rules of "Chatanooga"? It's a sort of a mix of Chaturanga and ZM, closer to ZM, but with some differences: Play always goes clockwise with no exceptions (this occasionally enables players to prevent another player's checkmate), there is no king promotion, castling, or en passant, and captured armies are merged into one.

But Chatanooga is unimportant at this point, merely a stepping stone to much more exciting game that was to come ... European Chess.

The First Design Sessions

After a week or two of Chatanooga, we were getting a bit bored: because you only have 8 pieces, you eventually get tired of having the same arrangement: King, Rook, Bishop, Knight. One day, my friend John and I were experimenting with different rearrangements of the starting position. We finally agreed that the current one was the strongest.

But then I had an idea: "What if there were several different arrangements and you could pick yours? And because some are stronger than others, why don't we give special powers to the weaker ones to make it fair?" The first army I made was, I believe, an early form of Russia, with a queen, but pawns that can run away from you given the chance. John made up Austria, with three knights that automatically destroy any piece they flank. Early forms of Britain, France, the Holy Roman Empire, and Prussia also made their appearance at that first design session: those, I believe, were our first six, and all underwent significant changes, except for Austria, which has stayed the same for the history of the game.

That evening, I thought long and hard, and finally typed up the original 13 armies: Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, Holy Roman Empire, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, Russia, and the Ottomans. These, with the addition of Poland, which was to come later, constituted our first "block": 18th century Europe. At the next chess club meeting, these powers were a hit, with different players developing strategies for different powers (my favorite among these were Switzerland and the Netherlands). It should be noted that some of these powers were very different from their modern incarnations, particularly France and Spain, who had very wimpy powers at that point (they revolved around protecting the king).

European Chess Expands

About a week later, John single-handedly created 12 new armies and created a second "block": "Classical Chess". And a few days after that, I created our third and last block, "Modern Chess". At this point, we had 36 armies, 12 in each block. We later added three new ones - Poland to European Chess, and Canada and Law Enforcement Agents to Modern Chess - to obtain the 39 we have today.

However, we ran into a problem: the powers in Modern Chess, such as Iraq, North Korea, and Terrorists, seemed much too powerful compared to those in European Chess and especially Classical Chess. Rather than weaken the Modern powers, we decided to make the game slightly crazier by instead strengthening the others, and so came the period of "The Great Tweaking" - over the next month, we went and attempted to balance the game out more, completely changing several powers in the process.

This post-tweaking set proved incredibly popular in our chess club, more so than any other set, and so this is the version of European Chess we play today. It is also the version that we submitted to ChessVariants.org.

Where Are We Headed?

What's next on our agenda? Quite a few things, actually.

We're thinking about publishing European Chess, although we haven't quite decided on the specifics (our best plan would probably be to publish online, as this gives us the most control over the process). Fortunately, Michael's uncle is a patent lawyer, so I hope we won't have any legal difficulties in the future.

Also, we've got to work on changing the name: the game is not very European anymore, with the addition of the Classical and Modern blocks. However, the best we've been able to come up with is "Global War Chess" - we have to work a little harder on this.

Meanwhile, we've decided to have a little fun by starting a design competition for creating new European Chess armies. The submissions need not be historically accurate, and I'm very happy with the 16 very creative armies that we've received so far. The competition is open to anyone, so feel free to participate!

After the design competition, we plan to have two separate groups of armies: core and expansion. The core armies are the base 39, the first three blocks. The expansion armies are the design competition winners, and guess where they can be used - in expansions! ^_^

How can you help? Show European Chess to all your friends and family! :P

Links and Goodies

Man, that was a long post, and those who trudged through it should be rewarded. Here are some never-before-seen early European Chess designs that I just found after two hours of searching through three computers. Prior to this day, they have only been seen by a few chess club members; this is the first time that I'm posting them online.

- 11/28/06: The very first draft, only 11 armies. Note that the early Spain concept would later be recycled into Terrorists.
- 11/29/06: The second draft, after one day of playtesting. 13 armies (added Portugal and Sweden), and changed a few others. Also added a rather unwieldy two pages summarizing the rules of Chaturanga.
- 12/1/06: The first draft after John gave me Classical Chess. 25 armies. Note that the Classical armies are very unbalanced at this point - some are very strong, others are very weak.
- 12/5/06: The first draft after I added Modern Chess. 37 armies (added Poland and 11 modern). The Modern armies are quite unbalanced at this point - they are much stronger than the European and Classical armies.
- 12/6/06 and 12/8/06: Same as the previous one, but with some tweaking.
- 01/21/07: The first version that I submitted to ChessVariants.org. The armies are almost at their present state. 38 armies (added Law Enforcement Agents; Canada was to come later).

The very latest rules can be found here. Also, be sure to check out our design competition!

AMC - the longer post

2007-02-22T22:38:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I came to the AMC12 very prepared indeed: I forgot to bring a calculator (had to use a friend's, which kinda screwed me up), a ruler (the only one Mr. M had was 4 feet long), a compass and protracter, and graph paper (got lucky - found a sheet of graph paper in Mr. M's scratch paper pile, proclaimed, "I hit the jackpot!").

When I came to the testing room (Mr. M's room - he also happens to be my Stats teacher) after school, I expected three, maybe four people other than myself there. To my surprise, there were a total of six AMC10 takers and four AMC12 takers (including myself), some of whom I didn't even know. These numbers are about the same as last year, but this year we had the disadvantage of only having one test day (we have only the geniuses behind the High School Exit Exam to thank for taking away the AMC A). Yesterday also happened to be a practice day for the tennis team; we lost about five kids due to that.

It is interesting to note that other than myself, every single test taker paid that very day (we - well, not me of course - had about two week's notice of the AMC). Several paid right before taking the AMC, and Mr. M even let two take the AMC12 without paying (they promised to pay the next day, but I have doubts about that).

Anyways, my lack of proper tools did hurt me, but not as bad as I originally thought. I won't discuss individual problems yet - not sure if I'm allowed to - but this year's test was different from last year's. Call me crazy, but I think that the easy problems were easier, and the harder problems were harder this year, which of course is not a good sign.

I solved 18 problems - not very good - but, after comparing answers with Bob, to my surprise I found that I solved all 18 right, giving me a solid 118.5 score, more than enough to make it to the AIME.

I'm going to be busier than ever now. The AIME is coming up, and after that I have about a month break before the APs. And maybe an SAT or two. Yup, my free time is gonna be severely limited...

AMC Day

2007-02-21T21:59:00.000-08:00

Took the AMC12 today. Can't write anything more right now, partly because I'm not supposed to discuss details the day of the test, partly because I have to write an Euro essay about a video that I didn't see due to the AMC... >.<

End of Semester One

2007-02-04T17:06:00.000-08:00

Semester One report cards have been sent, and Semester Two has formally begun. Some reflections (compare to my first quarter reflections):

AP Statistics - B. I started the year horribly, because I missed quite a few big homework assignments, but I managed to bring it up to a B thanks to high test scores.

AP European History - A-. Miraculously, I have kept my A in what is considered to be the hardest class in our school.

Spanish II - A-. 200 extra credit points helped me out a lot in this class.

AP Biology - B. I had an borderline A first quarter, but then I did poorly on some tests, and had an 86% near the end of the semester. By some calculations, I needed exactly 100% (200/200 points) on the final to get an A in the class. We took the essay final a week before the multiple choice final, and I did not get 100% on it. Knowing that your grade will be the same no matter what you do is a great feeling though, a feeling that I had for all of about three days... ^_^

Honors English II - B+. I kept track of my grades all semester, and by all accounts I should have an A. But I don't.

PE II - B. Eh. P.E.

Now that finals are over, I do have more free time, but unfortunately, the AMC is coming up (we're only having one this year ... @#$%^@#$% High School Exit Exam interfered with the AMC A), so I gotz ta study for that. I did start work on me new site, but again, AMC means I don't have a timetable for its completion.

Phew!

2007-01-26T22:21:00.000-08:00

The reason that I haven't been posting much for ... I dunno, last three weeks or so ... is that I had to study my tuchus off for them midterm exams. Now that this week is finally over, and I have a three day weekend with (virtually) no homework, I feel relieved, to say the least. Now I finally have the energy to devote to other things, which I may describe in later posts. Meanwhile, I gotta go enjoy my freedom while I still can.

Reflections

2007-01-07T00:26:00.000-08:00

[00:24] Alex: don't tell me you're up at this hour?
[00:24] Bob: go to sleep

Well, my parents are at a wedding (my second cousin, who, for some reason, forgot to invite me), and I assume that it's common courtesy to stay up until they get back (am I right? :P). So, seeing how it's the new year, let me take this time to reflect on the year 2006.

Uh-oh. I just realized I can't remember back that far. Curse my complete lack of any long-term memory!

Well, let me try something a bit easier: can I look back on winter break? After all, school starts again this Monday.

Let's see, this winter break I managed to:

- Find a long-lost (as in, never before heard of) relative (most likely).
- Do most of my homework before the last day. (Guys, I'm serious!)
- Wade through A Tale of Two Cities and work on finishing up my Strugatsky collection.
- See Everything is Illuminated, My Cousin Vinny, Glengarry Glen Ross, and A Prairie Home Companion, and enjoy all of them except the last one (no matter how charming the subject matter, the lack of any coherent plotline is never a good sign)
- Discover some new music, none of it any good. Well, maybe that's a bit harsh, some of it was OK, maybe even a few gems. OK, lemme rephrase that: "Discover some new music." Better =)
- (Re)discover Chip's Challenge and Cosmic Encounter Online, and proceed to get addicted to both of them, primarily the second (though the first has its merits too, in a retro sort of war).
- Try to do a bit of math studying, and fail miserably (but I'm not giving up! ... yet)
- Get all the guitar accessories I needed, and begin learning guitar in my free time.
- Promise to write a blog post every day, and then proceed to write 3 or 4 total.
- Fail to even start working on the personal website that I hoped to finish by the end of winter break.
- Eat a lot of muffins (and not sprain my elbow doing so, if anyone's wondering *cough*bob*cough*)

Well, that's about it, the long and short of it. Worth using up most of my winter break on the above items? Dunno.

I have family in Argentina?

2006-12-30T22:25:00.000-08:00

Today was a fairly normal day, until I suddenly got an email from a certain Andrea Nisnevich in Argentina. It turns out that there is a Nisnevich family living in Argentina! Our stories seem to match up reasonably well - we're from Belarus and they're from Kiev,Ukraine - but my parents have never heard of any family members living in Argentina. Now, the chances seem low but Nisnevich seems to be a very rare surname, leading me to suspect that we are related, albeit rather distantly. Searching on Google I came across a classical guitarist named Gregory Nisnevich and one or two (you may laugh, but it's hard to tell!) semi-famous mathematicians with the surname of Nisnevich. Could this all be one family? I'm not sure...

Note to any readers: If your surname is Nisnevich (hey, it's possible), be sure to shoot me an email! (alex.nisnevich@gmail.com) I'm still trying to put the pieces of this puzzle together. ^_^

Preparing (somewhat unsucessfully?) for the AMC

2006-12-28T22:51:00.000-08:00

One of the things I really have to catch up with this winter break is preparation for this year's AMCs. Unlike last year, where I took both the A and the B exams (10A and 12B), this year our school is only hosting the B (stupid high school exit exam getting in the way of everything... completely pointless if you ask me >.<), which means I only have one shot to make it to the AIME. Nevertheless, I am fairly confident about the AMC - today I scored 114 (out of 150, 100 and higher qualifies) on a practice test, so I think I'm all set for that. However, for the AIME... let's just say this is looking to be a repeat of last year (5/15, due to 4 rather careless errors) - I scored a miserable 2 on a practice test, again because of carelessness on my part. Granted, I haven't had any practice since this summer, but still... Looks like I've got a lot of work ahead of me... ;)

Winter Break (The Real Post)

2006-12-23T17:10:00.000-08:00

So, this is it. Winter break is here. However, it doesn't look like it's going to be all fun (just like this summer). Ahead of me I have some 20-30 hours of Euro outlines ahead of me, several English essays, and a required reading (with essay :P) of A Tale of Two Cities. I'm also planning to finish the website I'm working on this winter, although I still have quite a bit of work to go.

And now, some random tidbits from my life ^_^:

I'm trying to combat my inherent laziness by keeping a to-do list handy. Unfortunately, I seem to have displaced it a couple of days ago, sorta defeating the whole purpose of the thing.

The last few days of school went by pretty fast, except for the mock trial we had in Euro, of Robespierre (as played by Carl). Me and my friend Neil were the judges for the case, and although we did all the research the day before, we still came out looking the best-researched, somehow. I guess faking knowledge is a talent of mine ;). The verdict was especially fun, as in our speech we seemed to alternate between "guilty" and "not guilty", finally settling on "guilty". Carl, in the middle of laughing at the prosecutors, stopped with surprise on his face. Priceless ^_^.

Sadly, one of my friends is leaving during this break, to some fancy prep school in Ohio, the "potato state" (inside joke). So, I'll take this opportunity to say, WE'LL MISS YOU DEREK!! By "we", I'm either speaking for all my friends or referring to myself in the fourth person, take your pick.

Thanks to my dad's MSDN subscription, we're the first guys on the block to get Windows Vista. And lemme tell you, it is AMAZING. The graphics effects especially make Vista a huge improvement over XP. There are those who say Vista is just eye candy, and to that I answer, well, I like eye candy. So there. :P

Now that I have my guitar, I'm considering what equipment I need to get. A friend gave me a copy of Guitar Rig 2, a truly amazing piece of software, but I still need an amp (I'm looking at the Line 6 Spider II), as well as cables, picks, strap, stand, and tuner. I wanted to order all that today, but due to an unfortunate run-in with a computer virus, my parents are a wee bit mad at me...

One final tidbit: for the rest of winter break, I'm writing at least one post in this blog, every day. Just watch. I won't forget. Seriously. You don't believe me?! Awwww... :(

Winter Break is here!! =)

2006-12-22T23:12:00.000-08:00

Man, I had this really long post in mind, but now it's getting rather late. I'll do it tomorrow, like the procrastinator that I am... ^_^

Later and Later ...

2006-12-13T22:55:00.000-08:00

I seem to go to bed later and later every night. And it's not that I'm getting more homework or anything; I just seem to - inexplicably - be getting more and more inefficient.

Just yesterday I didn't get to bed until past midnight, and I didn't have that much work to do. I guess I just get distracted too much.

Fortunately, I seem to be improving - today it's only 11:00, a full hour improvement from last night =)

Anyways, my hard work is paying off. I am getting better grades in all my classes (maybe I'll even reach a 4.0+ GPA by the end of the semester), and just got a very respectable 214 on my PSAT. It's not that my performance is bad, it's just I wish it didn't take me so long...

I'm free!! (sorta)

2006-12-11T22:48:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was perhaps the most hectic day of my life. From 11 am to 8 pm, me and my friends were doing nothing by Euro work, because our Business Plan, the biggest project of the year, was due today. Finally, after three weeks, I no longer have to devote every waking minute to our business plan (and we did a ton of work - 96 pages of nothing but 1778 Russia).

Now we have nothing to do in Euro except our next project, which coincidentaly was assigned today. >.< However, this one promises to be more fun: mock trials of French Revolution characters. I managed to get a spot as one of the two judges for Robespierre , and my partner has it all figured out:

[20:54] ---: alex
[20:54] ---: i prepared an intro speech for us judges
[20:54] ---: we, the judges, would like to make clarify a matter before the trial begins. though it may seem like it (with our GUILTY sign, guillotine key chain, and "screw robospierre" shirt), we do not hold any biased views against the defendant. the court is now in session.

Yep, it'll be a fun trial. ^_^

Latest News from Alex's Life

2006-12-04T22:19:00.000-08:00

I realize that I haven't posted in a while, and there's a reason for this: Euro. To be more precise, it's time to do my school's most difficult project: the dreaded Business plan. My group of four has two weeks (well, only one week left now) to compile a 100+ page report on.... 1778 Russia. Fortunately, two of my group members (including myself of course) are Russian, which makes it (slightly) easier. But still, finding 18th century census information is tough... >.<

My guitar finally came! It's a 2005 black Godin Solidac, in excellent condition, which is good considering I bought it on eBay ;). It plays really well, and I'm reasonably certain that I made the right choice in not listening to my friends and getting an obscure guitar rather than sticking to mainstream Fenders or Gibsons.

Suddenly, I've become interested in my geneology, and started working on a family tree for myself. Of course, this, along with my other big long term project - a new website - is kinda on hold for now, what with all this schoolwork.

Well, that's it for now. I would've made a longer post, but I'm kinda busy. Oh well >.<

There's cruel, and there's army cruel...

2006-11-24T23:08:00.001-08:00

"You want some water? Keep running."

This is undoubtedly the cruelest thing I have seen in a long time. I'm ashamed to be from the same country as these guys...

Who wants an Xbox 360 for $100?

2006-11-24T22:20:00.000-08:00

As many of you probably know (the event was highly publicized), yesterday, that is, Thanksgiving Day, at exactly 11:00 am PST, Amazon.com sold 1,000 Xbox 360s for $100 each.

Needless to say, when I heard about this I jumped at the opportunity, and spent several hours on Wednesday and Thursday preparing myself mentally and physically, and uhh ... computerifically.

And then ... well, let me give a sort of a timeline:

10:00 am PST: Sit down at the computer, make sure that RoboForm is configured properly with my Amazon.com password - I'm not taking any chances.
10:20: Make sure my computer's clock is accurate to atomic time.
10:30: Begin stretching my index finger by repeatedly pressing F5 on the keyboard.
10:40: Re-login to Amazon, just in case.
10:45: Go to the page with the deal and begin refreshing repeatedly. So far, so good, but then all of a sudden ...
10:55:30: The Amazon server finally crashes from anticipation, one can only suppose. The page doesn't load. I try everything, different browsers, different computers. Nothing, until finally...
10:59:50: The page miraculously loads, 10 seconds before 11:00. The Xbox isn't there - the page is being updated! I quickly hit refresh again but it doesn't load until ...
11:01:45: Ouch. All gone.

I came really close though - if that first refresh loaded 5-10 seconds later I would've had it for sure...

At first I was pretty pissed... I mean, I came ridiculously close to being eligible for a crazy bargain, but missed it by 10 seconds because of a server crash. But the more I thought about it the stupider the whole deal looked. Observe:

Item: Amazon held a "contest" between 4 deals, of which the Xbox 360 deal had a 90% vote from the start.
Item: The $100 (reg. $300) deal is so low that even people who don't really want an Xbox 360 would still try to get it.
Item: The deal was broadcast on national television and displayed all over the Internet.
Item: I estimate that at least 500,000 people would try to get that Xbox.
Item: The Amazon servers are a bit laggy even on good days. No way can they support that sort of traffic.
Item: Microsoft claims to reduce the price of the Xbox 360 "on a yearly basis". The holiday season is coming up... *wink wink*
Item: Last I checked, only two people on the Amazon discussion boards claimed they won the deal. Now, I realize many customers aren't active on the boards, but 2/1000?

From this, one can draw one of four conclusions:
1) Amazon offered the deal out of the goodness of their hearts (yeah, right).
2) Amazon is trying to attract publicity (and is going about it the wrong way).
3) Amazon knows the Xbox 360s will soon drop in value, and is trying to sell off as many as they can under the pretense of being generous, while attracting a ton of media attention. This is a very good possibilities, but I think it's really...
4) The whole deal was a sham to get attention. Either Amazon only sold 10 Xboxes or they didn't sell any, and planted people on the discussion boards to give "proof" that the deal was real. Hey, it all adds up. Call me a conspiracy nut, but this is what I'm going with.

Now, this doesn't mean I won't use Amazon anymore. Hey, I love Amazon. One thing about the Tech industry, and in fact the business world in general, is that all companies are evil. Some are just more evil than others... ;)

LF2.5 Annoyance

2006-11-18T21:13:00.000-08:00

My Little Fighter 2 mod, LF2.5, is doing great. It's been downloaded over 100,000 (!!!) times, and is consistenly in the top 3 at WinSite.com, sometimes peaking at #1. I estimate it's made me around $100 from Google Adsense.

But this popularity comes at a price. Several times a day now, by email, AIM, MSN, or Meebo, I get pestered with questions. Now, I don't have anything against asking questions, but most of these are ... well, I can't call them stupid, but ... ok fine, stupid. Questions like:

"Where can I download LF3 and 4?" Where they got the idea that LF3 (and up) exists, I don't know.

"What are the controls?" Maybe it helps to read the so-called README before wasting Alex's time!

"How do I change the characters?" This one in itself is not a bad question, but usually involves at least 15 minutes of trying to explain how to get to the data/data.txt file ("Go to the LF2.5 directory" "How do I do that?"), then another 15 trying to explain the syntax, and usually involves me finally giving up.

"Can I play as [insert character from random videogame] in LF2?" This is one of the worst. But the prize for the most hated question of them all goes to...

"Where can I get Electro/Mario/LF3 Firen/etc. ?" OK, one thing I can't comprehend is that although people seem incapable of finding the controls to the game, they are still able to find out which characters were taken out from previous versions. And then when I explain that these guys were scrapped, they still want them! OK people, if a character was removed, doesn't it make you stop and think, "Hmm why was he removed?" Ooh, I know, maybe because THEY SUCK!!

Of course, the fact that the majority of these questions come from people less than 10 years old, and judging from their spelling, non-native English speakers, does not help matters at all. Al Harberg writes, no "customers" are idiots, but I'm finding that hard to believe. I try to be as polite and helpful as I can to each and every LF2.5 user, but sometimes it just doesn't help.

I wish every person with a question about LF2.5 could read this post before asking me...

That's right, I finally have a guitar!!

2006-11-18T21:00:00.000-08:00

At long last, and despite my abysmal grades, which needless to say did not please my parents, I'm getting this black Godin Solidac. Counting shipping, it ended up costing around $545. Meanwhile, Musician's Friend is now selling it for $645, counting a $75 Thanksgiving promotional rebate. Ouch, looks eBay only saved me $100, not $420 as I previously thought, and at the expense of questionable condition and possible breaking during shipping. Bad move.

But it's still a sweet guitar. Sure, it's not a Fender or a Gibson but it can imitate either perfectly. It sounds great, and is loaded with features: a H-S-H pickup arrangement, a tremulo arm, and best of all, an acoustic preamp - meaning that it's capable of sounding like an acoustic. And you gotta admit, that black one looks crazy cool (it's last year's model, and is not sold anymore - for this I have to thank eBay). This post is directed to all my friends *cough*Sol*cough* who still think I should've gotten a Fender.

Grades (or First Quarter Reflections)

2006-11-18T20:36:00.000-08:00

Grades have been posted for quarter one, and I'm pretty disappointed, needless to say. I've always gotten straight A's before, but now...

AP Statistics - C. Reason: contrary to reason, homework is 60% of your grade in Stats. And Mr. M keeps giving us assignments like sneaking up on birds and measuring the length of Carl's Jr. fries. Well, hopefully I'll pull it up to a B by the end of the semester.

AP European History - A. My only A, and the only A in the class. Now this is surprising - Euro is the most difficult class in the school, and in fact I believe this is the first time someone got an A only in Euro. The reason I'm trying so hard is that between the difficulty, the subject matter, and the teacher this is definitely the most enjoyable and interesting class I've ever taken.

Spanish II - B+. Didn't do too well on some tests, but will probably raise it up to an A, if only on the merit of Mr. VS's famous leniency regarding extra credit (100 extra credit points and counting ... WOOHOO!! ^_^)

AP Biology - B+. I had an borderline A the whole quarter, but then an 83% test dropped it just below A range.

Honors English II - B. Did poorly on some quizzes in the beginning of the quarter, but have been raising my grade slowly the whole quarter.

PE II - B. I don't really care about PE, seeing how it's a non-academic course. As long as I'm not failing it I'm happy.

Obligatory Midterm Post

2006-11-11T22:34:00.000-08:00

Given what has happened over the past week, I feel obliged to write something about thes whatchamacallems, midterms. Now, I don't know much about politics - in fact I know less than nothing, counting propaganda and brainwashing in the negative - but what I do know is that the Democrats finally won the House, governatoria-tialization?, and i think ... no wait ... or maybe ... it's close ... nah ... oh yeah the Senate too, by a narrow margin.

It would seem that (for once) Jon Stewart is wrong, but do the midterms really change anything? The old regime is replaced with a new one, which as always promises to fix everything, but looking through history, promises like these are hard to believe. It seems that all politicians are equally detached from the real world, be they Republican, Democrat, or None of the Above. And even if once upon a time, some guy comes along who really understands what he's doing (god forbid!) the bureacratic nature of the system means that his opinion will be stifled anyway.

Here, let me give you an example, with simple math and that bill-becomes-a-law stuff we all learned in sixth grade. Suppose the Republicans want to propose a law that the Democrats don't like. Oops we have the majority - overruled. Ah, but what if the Democrats want to propose a law that the Republicans don't like? The president can (and is not afraid to, as we now know) veto it, and we don't have to 2/3 majority in either house to overrule it. So.... what does this mean? It means one of two things - Republicans and Democrats will (for the next two years) have to learn to set aside their differences and get along ... or, for the next two years, no federal laws of any significance will be passed. Say what you want, but I'm betting on the latter.

Well, that's just my analysis of the midterms, but as I said before, I know very little about politics. Say what you want.

Oh, and speaking of politics, now's fine time to post my political compass:

You are a
Social Moderate
(56% permissive)

and an...
Economic Liberal
(31% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Democrat

Link: The Politics Test on OkCupid

Ah, looks like I'm a Democrat ... just barely though. Those Centrists sure have an appealing philosophy though: "Compromise? " Yes, the reason we don't have a major Centrist party in the U.S. of A? I guess they're just not crazy enough.

What's up?

2006-11-02T20:16:00.000-08:00

Another one of my long, all-encompassing posts:

Man, school is getting tougher and tougher. First there was the Stats project, which used up my whole weekend (I was planning going to a guitar store :-( ) Now it turns out that I was quite behind in Euro, and had to turn my Euro notebook in at the very end of 7th period, after much frenzied writing. And then we have to act out Julius Caesar next week... >.<

Halloween was kinda sorta fun. I didn't trick or treat of course (at my age, it's now technically begging), but I played Xbox with Sol which was pretty fun. Fortunately, my brother and sister got enough loot for all of us ^_^

Still no idea when I'm getting a guitar...

Today is my dad's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! =)

My year-long hiatus from Wikipedia is now over. You can see my profile here.

I'm removing the Quote of the Week sidebar box (because I keep forgetting to update it), but I added a subscription service. Now you can recieve email alerts whenever I update my blog! =)

And finally, Neverwinter Nights 2 has finally been released!! However, reviews seem to be pretty bad. I'll give this one a few days for more people to post reviews before I reach any verdict.

And I'll try to post more often, I really will... ;)

How do I get myself into these situations?

2006-10-27T07:53:00.000-07:00

OK, this week has been going okay, until yesterday, in Stats class. You see, it turns out we have a pretty big project that I completely forgot about. It's a partner project, but my class is all seniors except for me, so I only know a couple of people, and needless to say my assigned partner (assigned last week - we were the only two people not in a group) is not one of those couple of people. I had completely forgotten even who my partner was, until yesterday, when we had to do an activity in our groups. All this time I had hoped that my partner had a clue (as I didn't), but it turned out that neither of us have even picked a topic for the project yet. We then had our presenting order picked, and of course we are to be on of the first groups to present, on Monday. That's right, this Monday. Class ended and I forgot to get my partner's phone number, or even his name. And now I have one day to find him so we can spend the whole weekend working on it...

Think that's bad? It gets worse:

This project is worth 10% of my grade at the end of the semester, or 15-20% now. The first quarter report cards are send out at the end of next week, after presentations. And my parents are not very tolerant of C's.... >.<

Where have I been?

2006-10-21T22:20:00.000-07:00

I realize that I haven't posted for two weeks, but I have an excuse - I have had a ton of homework and stuff for all my classes, especially Euro. Man, when they said 90 minutes every day for Euro, they weren't kidding. So, I suppose I should enlighten my blog readers to just what I've been up to lately.

I haven't tried any more translations, though I have read some more Strugatsky works. Monday Starts on Saturday is particulary recommended ... if you can find it. For some reason or another, English Strugatsky translations are rare and expensive, usually costing somewhere in the twenties range (USD), if they're available at all.

I am doing rather well in school, though I may not be doing so well in Euro. Nevertheless, Euro is undoubtedly my favorite class. I just took the PSAT today, and think that I did very well. Also, I'm the Vice President of my school's Chess Club, with meetings at lunch twice a week. I'm in charge of maintaining our school ranking system, for which I use the ELO Calculator that I conveniently made with Mgccl this summer. I'm currently ranked number one, but I swear, no data tampering involved ^_^

For some strange reason, I suddenly have this fascination with old stuff, from antique books to vinyl records. Since my family rarely eBays [yes, it's a verb!], I guess I'll have to take my chances at local garage sales - if I have time that is.

I still haven't gotten a guitar, but in the meantime I got a new hobby - digital photography - to help fill the void. Photography is fun =)

Realizing how old and pointless my old personal site is, I've started developing a new one, using a mixture of PHP and HTML. Since, as I mentioned before, I don't really have a lot of free time right now, I can expect this project to take me a month or so, if I don't give up halfway that is. You can view a very early test here.

Finally, I'd like to mention a very interesting online game that I found: Cosmic Encounter. Oddly enough, this game is based on a boardgame that one of my friends has. Who'd've guessed that a board game designer would also happen to be a web programmer? Anyways, be sure to try it out - it's incredibly fun and addictive in its own way.

Whew. That was one long and rambling post, two weeks in a nutshell. I must have used just about every one of my labels for this. ^_^

Poor Cruel Folk (Take Two)

2006-10-07T17:14:00.000-07:00

After reading my first draft of Poor Cruel Folk yesterday, my dad informed that I had tons of mistakes, dozens and dozens of 'em. So, I spent yesterday and today painstakingly editing it, ending up fixing over 50 mistakes. To top it off, I translated the afterword, which was written 35 years later by Boris Strugatsky. So, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you:

>>> Poor Cruel Folk: Definitive Edition! <<<

;)

Poor Cruel Folk

2006-10-05T21:45:00.000-07:00

NOTE: A newer version of this translation is available here!

I decided to try my hand at translating, just for fun, and translated/edited a short story, originally in Russian, by the Strugatsky brothers, entitled "Poor Cruel Folk". (BTW, the Strugatsky brothers were perhaps the greatest sci-fi writers ever, and I'm building up quite a collection of their works, in both English and Russian. Sadly, many of their novels and stories were never translated into English.) Actually, the translation was done years before by a man named Fyodor Kondrashov, but his version was so bad that it was virtually unreadable, and I decided to edit it into shape, consulting the Russian version when necessary.

View it in all of its now-English glory! =)

Poor Cruel Folk - Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

© Copyright by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky

© Copyright 1998 by Fyodor Kondrashov, English translation

Translated by Fyodor Kondrashov (fedya@simons-rock.edu)

Edited by Alex Nisnevich (alex.nisnevich@gmail.com), 10/1/06

----

The King sat naked. Like a foolish pauper on the street, he sat leaning against a cold wall, drawing in his blue, goose-bumped legs. He shivered, with his eyes closed, he listened, but everything was quiet.

He awoke at midnight from a nightmare and immediately understood that he was finished. Some one wheezed and writhed by the door of the bedroom suite, he heard footsteps, metallic jingling and drunken mumbling of His Highness, Uncle Buht: “Let me through... Let me... Break it down, hell with it...” Wet with icy sweat, he silently rolled off his bed, ducked into a secret closet, and loosing himself he ran down the underground passage. Something squelched under his bare feet, the startled rats dashed away, but he did not notice anything, just now, sitting next to a wall he remembered everything; the darkness, the slippery walls, and the pain from a blow on the head against the shackled door to the temple, and his own unbearable high yelp.

They shall not enter here, he thought. No one shall enter here. Only if the King orders so. But the King shall not order... He snickered hysterically. Oh no, the King will not order! He carefully opened his eyes and saw his blue, hairless legs with scraped knees. Still alive, he thought. I will live, because they shall not enter here. Everything in the temple was bluish from the cold light of the lanterns -- long glowing tubes that were stretched under the ceiling. In the center, God stood on an eminence, big, heavy, with sparkling dead eyes. The King continuously and stupidly stared, until God was suddenly screened by a shabby lay brother, still a greenhorn. Scratching, with an open mouth he gazed at the naked King. The King squinted once again. Scum, he thought, a lousy vermin, catch the mongrel and to the dogs, for them to ravage... He reasoned that he did not remember the lout well, but he was long gone. So scrawny, snotty... That's all right, we'll remember. We'll remember everything, Your Highness, Uncle Buht. During the father's reign, I dare say you sat quietly, drank a bit and kept silent, were afraid to be noticed, you knew that King Prostyaga did not forget you ignoble treachery...

Great was the father, the King thought with an accustomed envy. You'd be great, if your advisors are God's angels in flesh. All know, all have seen them: their faces fearful, white, like milk, and their garment were such that one could not understand if they were naked or not. And their arrows were fiery, like lightning, they drove off the nomads with the arrows, and although they cast them overhead, half the horde crippled from fear. His Highness, Uncle Buht, whispered once upon a time, drunk and burping, that those arrows can be cast by anyone, that special slings are needed that the angels have and that would be nice to take from them. And he said then -- he was drunk then, -- that if it is nice to have, why not have it, why not... Soon after that table talk one angel fell off the wall into the moat, probably slipped. Next to him they found one of uncle's body guards with a javelin between his shoulder blades. It was a dark, dark deed... It good that the people did not care about the angels, they were scary to look at, but it is not clear why it is scary -- angels were happy, cordial people. Only their eyes were scary. Small, shiny, and they keep racing around... non humanoid eyes, not peaceful. So the people hushed down, although father, King Prostyaga gave them such freedom that it is shameful to remember... although, before the Coup, father, they say was a saddle maker. For saying so, with my own hands I had torn eyes out, and sewn ears shut. But I remember, he used to sit in the evenings by the Crystal Tower, and he would cut out leather -- beautiful work. And I would perch myself at his side, it's warm and comfy... The angels were singing from the rooms, so quietly, and in harmony, and father would start to accompany -- he knew their language -- it used to be spacious, nobody around... not like now, guards are stuck at every corner, but there is no sense in it...

The King lamented. Yes, he was a good father, just that he did not die for a long time. You can't do that while your son is still alive... The son is also the King, the son also wants to... But Prostyaga did not age, I'm over fifty, and he still looks younger than me... It looks like the angels had asked God for his health... They asked for his health, but they forgot about me. They say that the second one they managed to pin down in the father's room, he had a sling in each hand, but he did not fight. Before death, they say, he threw both of them out the window, they burst into a blue flame, there was no dust left... Too bad about the slings... And Prostyaga, they say, cried and got drunk then, within an inch of his life -- the first time since his reign -- looked for me, they said, loved me, believed...

The King drew his knees to his chin, and hugged his legs. So what if he believed? One should know one's limit, abdicate, like it is done elsewhere... and I do not know anything, and do not want to. There was only a conversation with my uncle, His Highness.

“Prostyaga,” he said, “doesn't age”. “Yes,” I tell him, “but what can we do, the angels pleaded for his health.” Uncle then sneered, scum, and whispered: “Angels,” he said, “no longer sing their songs here”. And I blurted out: “It is true, but now there is a way to deal with them, not just with humans”. Uncle looked at me soberly, and immediately left... And I didn't really say anything... Empty words, without meaning... And in a week Prostyaga died from a heart attack. So what? It was his time. He looked young, but in reality he was over one hundred. We'll all die...

The King was startled, and covering himself, awkwardly sat up. Into the temple came the High Priest Agar. Lay brothers were leading him by the hands. He didn't look at the King, came up to God and kneeled in front of the eminence, tall, hunch-backed, with waist length dirty-white hair. The King gloated, “It's the end of you, Your Highness, you did manage, I'm not like Prostyaga, you'll ravage your own intestines, drunken swine...” Agar spoke in a rich voice:

- God! The King wishes to speak to you! Forgive him and listen!

The room fell silent, no-one dared to breathe. The King contemplated: when the great flood happened, and the earth burst, Prostyaga asked God to help, and God came down from the sky as a ball of flame on the same day, and that night the earth closed up, and the flood disappeared. It means that this is how it will happen today. You were late uncle, Your Highness, you didn't manage. No one can help you now... Agar straightened up. The lay brothers that supported him, jumped away, turned with their backs to God, and covered their heads with their arms. The King saw, how Agar stretched his clasped hands and put them on Gods chest. God's eyes lit up. The King snapped his jaw from fear: the eyes were big and different -- one was snakes-green, the other white, as bright as light. One could hear how God started to breathe, heavily, with crackling, like consumption. Agar backed away.

“Speak,” he whispered. It looked like he was unsettled as well.

The King lowered to all fours, and started to crawl to the eminence. He did not know what to do or how. And he did not know how he should start and whether he should tell the complete truth. God breathed heavily, weezing; suddenly he started to whimper, quietly and thinly - scary.

“I'm the son of Prostyaga,” said the King in despair, smothering his face against the cold stone. “Prostyaga died. I ask protection from the conspirators. Prostyaga made mistakes. He did not know what he was doing. I have fixed everything: calmed the people, became great and unattainable, like you, I gathered an army... And the treacherous Buht is disrupting my plans to conquer the world... He wants to kill me! Help me!”

He raised his head. God, without blinking, was looking in his face with green and white. God was silent.

“Help me...” repeated the King. “Help! Help!” He suddenly thought that he is doing something wrong, and that God is indifferent towards him, and inopportunely remembered: they said, his father, Prostyaga, did not die from a heart attack, but was killed here, in the temple when the killers came in, with out asking permission. “Help!” he screamed desperately. “I'm afraid to die today! Help! Help!”

He hunched up on the stone tiles, biting his hands from an unbearable terror. Differently-eyed God hoarsely breathed above his head.

“Old vermin,” said Tolya. Ernst was quiet. On the screen, through the sparks of static, an ugly black shape of a human lay splattered on the floor. “When I think,” Tolya spoke again, “that if not for him, Alan and Derek would be alive, I want to do something, that you never wanted to do.”

Ernst shrugged his shoulders and moved to the table.

“And I always think,” Tolya continued, “why didn't Derek shoot? He could have killed all...”

“He couldn't,” said Ernst.

“Why couldn't he?”

“Have you ever tried shooting at a human being?”

Tolya made a wry face, but didn't say anything.

“Well that's what it was,” said Ernst. “Try to imagine it. It is almost as disgusting.

A sorrowful howl was heard from the loudspeaker. “HELP HELP I AM AFRAID HELP…” the auto-translator was writing.

“Poor cruel folk...” said Tolya.

I might upload the Word file tomorrow - it's much easier to read.

The story itself is rather interesting, in the Strugatsky style. Not my favorite work of theirs, but enjoyable, and short enough to translate ^_^

October 3rd: The Break-in

2006-10-05T21:30:00.000-07:00

I should have made this post two days, but I've been pretty busy these past few days, so here goes:

Last Tuesday was a particularly interesting day. I got home after school to find that the garage door would not open from the outside, the reason being that there was a planned power outage that morning, and part of the garage door mechanism must have gotten disconnected when we manually opened and closed the door in order to get out of the house. Anyways, the door wouldn't budge, and nobody was at home, and so I had to find another way to enter the house. I walked around the garage and tried the side door. It was locked. I walked back and tried the front door, to no avail. In desperation, I walked all the way around the house and tried the back door, which, of course, wouldn't open either. Just as I was going back, I saw my brother and his friend walking home from the middle school. I had forgotten my cellphone that morning (I could hear it ringing inside the house >.<), so I asked for my brother's friend's phone and used it to call my dad at work (finally reaching him after trying three different numbers). After listening to our predicament, he informed me that my mom was coming home ... in an hour (turned out she didn't have the front door keys either, go figure...), and as an afterthought, told me to try to open the windows. After politely returning the phone (which I had been using for some fifteen minutes, much to the annoyance of its owner), my brother and I went around the house, trying every window. Finally, halfway around the house, we found a window that for some reason was unlocked. My brother managed to crawl through, run and unlock the front door for me. While I was putting the window frame back in, I saw my brother's friend running across the street (he ran for two blocks, and was a hilarious sight to see) with his phone open and facing me. I took it and it was my dad again, informing me that my mom was almost home. I told him that we had somehow entered the house already, and all was well in the world. Sorta. And that's the story of how my brother and I were able to break into our own home.

White & Nerdy

2006-10-01T22:34:00.000-07:00

Wierd Al's new music video. Funny thing, he's practically describing me. No, seriously! Check out the lyrics. D&D? Check. Wikipedia? Check. Holy Grail? Check. Name on underwear? Uhh... maybe not this one...

However, it should be noted that the song is not quite nerdy. As a matter of fact, it's mostly geeky and dorky. And yes, there is a difference - nerd = academically smart, geek = obscure speciality (i.e. Star Trek, D&D), dork = socially inept.

Just for fun, I decided to take a test to see which of these categories I fall into. I got:

Outcast Genius

65 % Nerd, 52% Geek, 52% Dork

For The Record:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.

A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.

A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.

You scored better than half in all three, earning you the title of: Outcast Genius.

Outcast geniuses usually are bright enough to understand what society wants of them, and they just don't care! They are highly intelligent and passionate about the things they know are *truly* important in the world. Typically, this does not include sports, cars or make-up, but it can on occassion (and if it does then they know more than all of their friends combined in that subject).

Outcast geniuses can be very lonely, due to their being outcast from most normal groups and too smart for the room among many other types of dorks and geeks, but they can also be the types to eventually rule the world, ala Bill Gates, the prototypical Outcast Genius.

Congratulations!

Yay! I'll take over the world someday! =) Of course, I already knew that... ;)

Fear

2006-09-25T21:28:00.000-07:00

Another strange story by me. I used Gogol's "Diary of a Madman" as inspiration. :P

Day One. Today was the first day that I saw them. The people hiding in the shadows. I heard rustling in the bushes and silhouettes disappearing around the corner. I ran to my house and locked the door, but it was too late, for they were already inside. I couldn’t see them – no, they were far too stealthy for that – but of course I knew they were there. After all, how can someone hide in my home without me knowing? The very idea strikes me as comical. But I had a gun in my hand and they knew better than to attack me!
Day Two. They were just waiting for me to fall asleep, to drop the gun, so they could strike. But I showed them, ha ha! Loaded with caffeine and locked inside my fortress, they could not reach me.
Day Three. I heard creaking under the floorboards. A well-placed bullet and a loud thump, and the creaking stopped. Of course there was no body when I looked – they took care of that. Later – I tripped and fell down the stairs due to a large hole in the ground – planted by them of course. Got up fast despite the pain – they can’t catch me that easily!
Day Four. I move from room to room with a shotgun in my hand. As soon as I lock the door, the knocking begins. When I open it, there is no one there. Last night, I saw a man right outside my second-story window, trying to climb to my room no doubt. As soon as I looked, he disappeared. My god, they’re fast!
Day Five. They got me! Bullet to the leg from twenty feet. Still got him though – one shot and he’s down! Feeling woozy – better lie down… Later – Remarkably, my wound is completely gone. Bet they weren’t expecting that! Of course, they took his body, but that was to be expected.
Day Six. I’m starting to run out of food, but I can’t go outside of course. That’s certain death! Later – Oh my god …the man with the knife …my gun out of reach …the knife …oh god, the pain … END
A hospital. Two doctors talking. One says, “No marks at all. Perfect health. Except for the … you know.” The other, “Indeed, a very severe case of schizophrenia. He thinks he is dead, and so he is.”

This Weekend...

2006-09-25T21:06:00.000-07:00

And now ... a more traditional blog entry!

Friday

Rosh Hashana party at my friends' house (yeah, that's right - I party on the High Holy Days! ^_^) Listened to my Mr. Nano using their new iPod speakers. Watched some Family Guy. Pretty fun.

Saturday

Finished my homework and had nothing to do, and so I decided to take a stab at cleaning my room. Now, my room looks very clean to the unsuspecting visitor, but this is for a simple reason - I cram everything into my many shelves and drawers. My desk, in particular, operates by the "Rule of Three", once every three days I take all the papers on my desk and put them into a nice pile; once every three weeks I combine the pile into a bigger pile in a retractable shelf under my desk; once every three months I put all the papers from the pile into my filing cabinet; and of course once every three years I take my whole filing cabinet and carefully empty all its contents into the trash. ;)

Man, I found the weirdest stuff in that cabinet today. Stuff like:
* Obscure lists of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings trivia dating back a couple of years
* Mathematical equations written in a kindergartener's hand o.O
* Many, many blueprints for both hardware and software, none of which was ever completed
* An unfinished story that I didn't even know I wrote
* A huge collection of chess puzzles
* Scribbles I made in elementary school
* Various manuals and strategy guides
* Homemade trading card games of many different systems (the weirdest by far - a card game about C++ - now that I don't remember doing >.<)
* And the list goes on and on...

All that in one filing cabinet. It boggles the mind.

Sunday

Went to a festival in Ventura. Hoped to get a guitar for Rosh Hashana, got a guitar shirt instead. Ate lunch at some Greek place. Watched a pirate play an electric mandolin - now I've seen everything! I might post some photos tomorrow =)

Well, looks like that's it for now. Cheers!

A promise of sorts...

2006-09-24T21:09:00.000-07:00

Lots of interesting stuff happened today, but I have no time to write about it. Expect several posts tomorrow! ^_^

A Story of a Story

2006-09-20T21:24:00.000-07:00

For English class, today's assignment was to write a dramatic monologue story (that is, one character talking to others) that is exactly one page long, 12pt Times New Roman, 1 inch margin, down to the last line, no more, no less. Naturally, my story is about how cruel it is to impose such limits on stories, and the harm it does to the characters, who don't have enough time to develop in such a short story and I imagine probably don't even know what's going on.

The story is a bit weird so bear with me:

Well, now that we’ve introduced ourselves, I think it’s time to go straight to the matter at hand. And the question we all have in mind is of course, why are we here? It was the same for all of us; the day started like any other. But we somehow had the feeling, you know, that we’re just more important, right? And as the day went on, correct me if I’m wrong, but it seemed like everyone else in the world but us, you know, just sort of faded. And now, it looks like it’s just the six of us. The only people in the whole wide world, right? The question is, “Why?” Why are we here? It’s so strange, though, everyone else disappeared. It’s almost like, I don’t know …

Yes, that’s exactly it! It’s like we’re characters in someone’s story! But what sort of sick, twisted story is this? There’s no plot whatsoever, the writing I’m sure is sub par, and even the characters have no idea what they’re doing here. What is this, just us sitting around a dirty table in an abandoned building? This story needs some excitement …

Larry, how long have you been an elephant? Oh, never mind. It’s just the author trying desperately trying to make something out of this horrible piece of writing. Just ignore it and hopefully it will pass. I hope this story never sees the light of day! I think I’ll have a talk with this author fellow. …

Hey you! Author! Whatever your name is! I know you can hear me! Please, we’re begging you, end this! End this horrible charade! Give our lives some purpose! … Reveal yourself! …

Yes, I have eyes, don’t I? Of course I see something’s happening! … We’re … flying! Careful with that trunk, Larry! … Oh my god, what is that thing?

The gargantuan face stared down at the five men and the elephant, and they cowered before it. The face said, “Your job here is done. One page was all I needed. I do hope I didn’t bother you.” They all disappeared and the landscape was empty…

Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

2006-09-19T16:13:00.000-07:00

And nobody knows how t' talk like a buccaneer than th' guys at meebo, I'll warrant ye, Yaaarrrr! They just introduced a new "Talk Like a Buccaneer" feature - type "pirateon" in any chat, and all incoming and outgoing chats will be automatically translated t' buccaneer speak! 'Tis hilarious, Arrrr! So if ye ha'nae made a meebo account yet, make one - t'day! Walk the plank! We'll keel-haul ye, and dinna spare the whip! Ye won't regret it, Arrrr! Shiver me timbers!

And now ... in English!
And nobody knows how to talk like a pirate than the guys at meebo! They just introduced a new "Talk Like a Pirate" feature - type "pirateon" in any chat, and all incoming and outgoing chats will be automatically translated to pirate speak. It's hilarious! So if you haven't made a meebo account yet, make one - today! You won't regret it!

Sometimes You Can't Trust Anyone (or Why I'm Going to Bed at Midnight on a Sunday)

2006-09-17T23:24:00.000-07:00

me: ok so get this
1 PM
my friend and i have a huge outline to do
we split the work
i do parts 1,2,3
he does 4,5
5 PM
i'm done
he's like "one more hour"
11 PM
"Alex, I need help"
Bob: lol
nice
me: kinda makes me: lose faith in people
Bob: your friend sounds like me
me: i don't think he'll consider it a complime:nt
Bob: probably not
me: and now
i'm screwed
he's screwed too
but that's his fault
Bob: yeah
well
next time: you know
can't trust him
me: can't trust anyone
really
Bob: you can trust me
wait no
no you cant
me: hell no
Bob: what am i saying
lol
i'm screwed too

And that explains that.

Fun With Javascript

2006-09-17T18:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a fun little script my dad found:

javascript:X=[R=(s=(m=Math).sin)(0),.1,.25,1.6,300,300];c=m.cos;Y=[0,.05
,.24,.24,200,200];D=document.images;setInterval(function(){for(i=0;i<D.leng
th;i++){S=D[i].style;S.position=\'absolute\';S.left=s(R*X[1]+i*X[2]+X[3])*X[4]
+X[5];S.top=c(R*Y[1]+i*Y[2]+Y[3])*Y[4]+Y[5]}R++},5);void(0)

Simply paste the code into your browser's address bar while you are viewing any web page that has images, and Voila! All the images start flying around the screen. Neat.

All that from a four-line script. Says something about the power of Java, doesn't it?

Note: The above script was found on the OT-Windows newsgroup and made blog-friendly using Quick Escape. Gotta give credit where credit is due...

Quote of the Week

2006-09-17T18:04:00.000-07:00

I think it's been a month since my last "Quote of the Week". What can I say, people forget! ;)

But this is a really good one. For serial.

"I couldn't imagine somebody like Osama bin Laden understanding the joy of Hanukkah." —George W. Bush, at a White House Menorah lighting ceremony, Washington, D.C., Dec. 10, 2001

I mean, come on! That's gold! I got this from a Daily Show episode this week, where it was one of Bush's Seven Stages of Grief:

- Denial
- Anger
- Anger
- Anger
- Hanukkah
- Acceptance
- and back to Denial

You can watch a clip of it here.

Talk About a Tough Schedule

2006-09-12T22:44:00.000-07:00

Here's my schedule for this week:

Tomorrow: the big English essay due
Tomorrow: Bio summer work test
Thursday: HUGE Euro summer work test
All week: Must work the Chess Club booth at lunch for Club Week

And of course, I had to go ruin my life completely for this year by joining not one, not two, but four (?!?) clubs:

- Chess Club (obvious choice, since I'm the VP :P)
- Jewish Club
- Young Democrats Club
- American Red Cross Club

Sure, with 4 AP/Honors classes and 4 clubs I have lost what little life I previously possessed, on the plus side: name me a college that won't accept me now! ^_^

Math Blues

2006-09-12T07:43:00.000-07:00

I was gonna do a blog entry yesterday - honestly! I had a really nice one planned for 9/11, urging America to stay focused and everything. The whole deal. But then, this happened:

In the adjoining figure, two circles of radii 8 and 6 are drawn with their
centers 12 units apart. At P, one of the points of
intersection, a line is drawn in such a way that the chords QP
and PR have equal length. Find the square of the length of QP.

Once again, I stayed up till eleven, this time working on this problem (for my online math class). I have five pages of diagrams and equations on my desk, but I still haven't figured anything out. Here's yesterday's schedule:

9 PM: Finish homework. Decide to work on this problem (class meets tomorrow - err - today).

9:30 PM: Got nothing done. Ask dad for help. We proceed to work on it together.

10:00 PM: Dad has other things to do. I tell him that I'm giving up, go and eat dessert, and then for some strange reason am drawn back into the room. Keep working on it.

10:30 PM: For lack of a better approach, start drawing huge copies of the diagram and measuring. Estimate the answer to be 138 (plus/minus 2).

And I still haven't figured it out. If you have any ideas, feel free to post! Bob - this one's for you ;)

The Pain...

2006-09-10T23:04:00.000-07:00

I just spent five hours nonstop writing an essay about Kurt Vonnegut's critique of humanity's greatest flaw. Enjoy!

Emotions: The Curse of Mankind
For hundreds of years, wise men have asked themselves what will cause the
downfall of mankind. Science (more and more powerful weapons) and religion
(religious wars in particular) both seem to be possible causes, but Kurt
Vonnegut has a completely different opinion. In Cat’s Cradle, Vonnegut’s
critique of emotions – humanity’s greatest flaw – correctly reflects reality,
because hope, despair, and love, three of our most powerful emotions, both drive
people to perform irrational actions.
Hope, the belief in a positive outcome,
can be attractive but requires a lot of perseverance, and as such as criticized
by the hesitant Vonnegut as being deceptive and unrealistic. For example,
Hazel Crosby is obsessed with other Hoosiers, that is, people from Indiana, as
shown when she says, “We Hoosiers got to stick together.” Although one may
obtain hope from knowing other Hoosiers, in reality this group, called a “false
karass” by Bokonists, is meaningless, just another distraction. Vonnegut’s
message is that we must steer clear of such distractions by avoiding hope
altogether, and sticking to more concrete ideals. In addition to foolish
hope, a real sort of hope makes an appearance as well: after the ice-nine
incident the survivors all hoped that the situation would improve.
However, all of this hope amounted to absolutely nothing when all of these
survivors ended up dying. From this we can learn that rather than hope
that things will get better, one must instead work for it, in other words, that
nothing happens by accident.
Despair, the loss of hope, is well known to be
destructive, and Vonnegut only adds to this. One example of the dangers of
despair can be seen in Bokonon and his followers: “[Bokonon] told [his people]
that God was surely trying to kill them … and that they should have the good
manners to die. This, as you can see, they did.” In other words,
Bokonon’s people saw that they had virtually no chance of survival, and so
decided to kill themselves rather than die in any other way. However,
Bokonon’s pessimistic philosophy is, as Vonnegut clearly shows, disastrously
wrong. Regardless of the odds, we should never give up, because once we
give up we have no chance at all. Another example of the consequences of
overwhelming despair is Mona’s suicide after she realized how silly life really
is: “It’s all so simple, that’s all.” Mona killed herself when she saw how
easily life is taken away by ice-nine, symbolical of life’s inherent
futility. The message here is although life may seem useful and pointless,
it’s all we’ve been given, and we must make do with what we have, whether we
like is or not.
More than any other emotion, Vonnegut blames love as the
cause of nearly all of mankind’s problems. In the novel, the destructive
power of love is demonstrated by the narrator’s infatuation with Mona, which
caused him to fly to the island of San Lorenzo, as demonstrated when he said,
“While I didn’t feel that purposeful seas were wafting me to San Lorenzo, I did
feel that love was doing the job.” While there, the narrator aided in the
destruction of the world, by means of ice-nine. Love here is portrayed as
an evil force that leads people to their doom. Furthermore, ice-nine was
distributed among the world’s major superpowers, the United States, and the
Soviet Union, through love, albeit one-sided love: Angela gave her ice-nine
sample to her government-employee husband, while Newt’s sample went to his
Ukrainian girlfriend, who immediately gave it to the Soviet government.
Once again, the message is clear: love causes people to do foolish, and
sometimes even dangerous, things that they would later come to regret.
So far, I have discussed Vonnegut’s views on the dangers of human emotion.
However, lack of emotion can have disastrous results as well, demonstrated by
Dr. Felix Hoenikker, a man so engrossed in his scientific research that he
almost completely isolated himself from the outside world, a lack of emotion
that led to his “playful” development of the superweapon ice-nine, and then his
careless distribution of ice-nine among his children, moves that had terrible
consequences. Clearly, with a lack of emotion comes a lack of ethics, and
when you can’t tell the difference between right and wrong the results can be
disastrous. All in all, while emotions can be dangerous, so can the
absence of emotion, so, as with many other things, moderation would be the
solution: one must refrain from being led solely by emotions, while at the same
time keeping a code of ethics.

If you like it, thanks! And if you don't like it ... After working for so long I really don't care... ;)

A return of the Donkey? Who knows?

2006-09-07T22:24:00.000-07:00

Now that school has started and the summer is finally over, I have begun thinking about what to do with my newest website, www.PodDonkey.com, which, as you may already know, was effectively shut down over the course of the summer.

Here's what I know:

- I recieve two types of traffic: iPod traffic and Forum traffic.
- The iPod traffic is that that actually goes to the iPod pages of the site. There's not a lot of iPod traffic.
- The Forum traffic goes to the Poddonkey Forum, rather than the rest of the site. This is primarily made up of my friends and aquaintances.
- Over the summer, the iPod traffic stayed about the same, but the much larger Forum traffic disappeared entirely. This shows that I have no control over iPod traffic, but much control over Forum traffic.
- Everyone's favorite parts of the forum are (or, were), in order, 1) the game of Mafia, 2) the General Discussion and Music Discussion boards, and 3) the points and shops. I'm guessing a bit on this one.

So, to get my friends, and other people from my school, to go back on, some things I can do are:

1. Promise to start a new game of Mafia within a week. I have a really fun game planned.
2. Reward new members, with, perhaps, points, or point drawings, or both.
3. Reward longtime members as well.
4. Start a string of interesting discussions in all forums.
5. Try to get most of my Moderator team back.

These are OK options, but can PodDonkey manage to bounce back? I asked some PodDonkey members:

"Do you think i should try to get PodDonkey back up?"

I got five responses (names are confidential):

- "I don't have much time to go on."
- "Maybe, but people are kinda busy right now. Wait till October."
- "Hell yeah!"
- "Dunno how it'll work, but you should try."
- "Maybe, why not?"

So I guess it could go both ways. If I have time this weekend, I'll see what I can do. =)

Presentation Time!

2006-09-06T22:19:00.000-07:00

Post Synopsis: Today was the day of the big Euro presentation. [LONG POST ALERT!]

The day got off to a rather bad start, due to the fact that there is a huge traffic jam in Oak Park (busted water main). As a result, my dad had to drop me off to school at 7:45. School starts at 8:30. Since my partner and I are doing a PowerPoint presentation, and my partner doesn't have a laptop, I had to bring mine along, another hassle. Of course, Mr. K's room was locked. I went to my locker and then, having nothing else to do, sat on a bench trying to remember what class my partner has for zero period. At around 8:00 A friend came along, and informed my that my partner had band zero period, and P.E. first period (the band room and gym are right next to each other, and on the opposite end of the school), so I was alone. I decided to go off to Mr. K's room and see if it was open yet. It wasn't. I stood by the door for the next 25 minutes. At 8:25 another friend came along, who had Mr. K first period. Turns out that Mr. K teaches first period in a different classroom... I gave my laptop to my friend, gave him instructions, and went to my first-period class - Statistics.

When I got to Statistics it turned out that I forgot to get a paper signed by my parents. The six of us who didn't get it signed were given a choice - either we could make Mr. M laugh or we had to sing the school oath. We couldn't make him laugh, and it took us several tries to satisfy Mr. M (More emotion! Wave those arms! You're Eagles - be Proud and Bold!) Needless to say, the rest of the class got a good laugh. Mr. M spent the rest of the period explaining the many dangers of pickles.

Next period was Euro. My partner volunteered to find us a projector for my laptop, and finally obtained one from the Geography teacher. Meanwhile, the first group was presenting their report, about Greek sexuality. Regardless of the topic, the report was incredibly boring, and many of us had trouble staying awake. This of course prompted Mr. K to memorably exclaim, "Look at you guys! If a presentation on sex doesn't hold your attention, how will you be able to listen to a presentation on architecture!?" The second group chose the Rise of the Roman Empire as their topic, and had a very engaging report (well, one member of the group had an engaging report - his partner just stood there and occassionally made some random off-topic remarks), which tied in nicely to our own topic, the Fall of the Roman Empire.

We were the third and last group to present today. After finally hooking the laptop up and getting the PowerPoint to run (we are, I believe, the only group to do an electronic presentation this year), we began. Unlike the other groups, our presentation was mostly improv - other than the PowerPoint slides, we had no visual cues - but I think we made a good team: while I was operating the laptop, my partner was talking, and while I was talking, my partner was demonstrating combat techniques with a meterstick (that was probably what caught our audience's attention the most).

After we finished, we were surprised to be somewhat applauded by Mr. K (who is notorious for speaking his mind), who told us that this was the first good PowerPoint presentation he had ever seen! So although we don't know our grade yet I think we did a good job... =)

After school, I had karate, and after karate, I had to work on a poem for English. This is really a strange assignment - take Paul Simon's song "I Am a Rock", change the lyrics and present it to the class. Of course, I hate presenting ... anything ..., so I worked hard on making mine as un-corny as possible. Like everyone else (I think) I failed miserably. Let me post the poem, so everyone can laugh at me today (or tomorrow morning, or whenever, if they even read this blog), instead of tomorrow in English class. [BAD POEM ALERT - o.O]

I AM A DONKEY
by Paul Simon, edited by me because for some
reason my English teacher is obsessed with Simon and assigned us
this project...

Regardless of the argument,
I always
think I’m right.
I don’t often change my mind and
I hate to admit that I’m
wrong.
I am a donkey, I am a turtle.

I rarely talk to people I
don’t know.
Even something as simple as making a speech,
Or presenting a
poem,
Paralyzes me for some reason or another.
I am a donkey, I am a
turtle.

A donkey is stubborn, but can be a hard worker,
Donkeys
can be helpful when they put their minds to it.
When new to someone, a turtle
remain in its shell,
But when comfortable with its surroundings, it
emerges.
I am a donkey, I am a turtle.

And a donkey is stubborn,
And a turtle is shy.

Yeah, it's pretty bad, isn't it?

Euro Pride! =)

2006-09-02T21:32:00.000-07:00

A typical European History Class: We walk in and sit down. Suddenly Mr. K says, "Get a partner and take notes for 20 minutes. Then you'll have one hour to write a complete essay. Your prompt is: Compare the political and economic conditions that Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, and John I of England faced. What were their responses?" And just like that, we had an hour to write an essay on some totally random topic.

And then it hit me: Euro is not like other classes. And those brave enough to take it should deserve some recognition. And just like that, when I got home I did the first thing in my mind: I designed T-shirts! ^_^

Behold! Gaze in wonder at the unofficial T-shirt of the Oak Park Euro AP Team!

Price is only 17.48 for a high-quality shirt. If you take Euro but are not from Oak Park, I also designed a cheaper shirt that has "Euro Nerd" on the front but nothing on the back. I get 3-4 dollars from every purchase! ;)

Purchase Links:

- Front and Back: $17.48 (High-quality direct-printed white T-shirt)
- Front Only: $11.24 (Medium-quality direct-printed white T-shirt)
- View the entire store (in case my inventory changes)

Enjoy! =)

It has begun...

2006-08-31T21:42:00.000-07:00

Bob: essay due tomorrow
ahh
me: 15-min presentation due wednesday
english poem to read out loud (AHHHH) due thursday
4 tests within a week
lol

Today I had Biology AP, English Honors, and P.E.

Bio wasn't too bad. Mrs. L seems like a good teacher (and she's Mr. K's sister, which I take to be a good sign), and although it is a difficult class, it's not nearly as bad as Euro. Although Mrs. L claims that her brother is a "teddy bear", the rest of us are hardly inclined to think so. One really good thing about this class is that everyone I know is in it, and I mean everyone, which will make for a pretty fun period.

English seems OK as well. Mrs. W is a good teacher as well, but I've never been very good at writing essays, which it seems we will be doing a lot of. We started the semester by listening to a Paul Simon song, after which Mrs. W announced that next week we will be writing poems based on it, and presenting to the class. AHHHH!!

And P.E. was, well, P.E. ;)

Bottom line: For perhaps the first time in recent memory, all of my teachers are intelligent and, to some degree, nice, but of course this won't help much due to the huge amount of homework, tests, project, et cetera that I'll have to do this year.

Looks like school has begun.

First Day of School

2006-08-30T21:55:00.000-07:00

First day of school today.

My first class was Statistics AP with Mr. M. This looks like it's going to be a fun class, and Mr. M seems like a very good teacher. Today we had to introduce ourselves and our interests, with Mr. M making fun of everything from The Beatles to summer jobs to martial arts. Also, Mr. M proctored the AMC/AIME last year, so he naturally told the class about my "accomplishments" (the only accomplishment I remember was scoring a miserable 5 out of 15 on the AIME) and the whole class clapped for me. I think I'll enjoy this class.

Second class was European History AP with Mr. K. Although Mr. K is an excellent teacher, and the material is very interesting, I don't think Euro is going to be my favorite class this year. Somehow two hours of work a day, seven days a week, doesn't appeal to me. And that's not even counting the multitude of projects, and the notoriously difficult quizzes held every period. On the plus side, Mr. K did such a good job of scaring us last year that our class only has 14 kids, all of whom i know. Euro will be ... interesting ...

Last class was Spanish II with Mr. V. I don't think this is a very fun or interesting class, but Mr. V is definitely a much better teacher than Mrs. B, whom I had last year for Spanish I (We spend more time playing elementary school-style games than learning.) That's about all I can say about this class for now.

Tomorrow: Biology AP, English 10 Honors, and PE. Sounds fun ;)

School Tomorrow!

2006-08-29T21:30:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed that I haven't been posting in this blog for around a week. The reason for this is that I've simply been overloaded with work. Essays are harder than they look...

So, what's on my mind?

First off, I have school tomorrow. This is bad. Of course. This has been the longest summer yet (which is what everyone says for every summer of course, but this year especially.) It also means that I spent just about the whole day today doing Euro work, and just getting ready for school in general.

I have learned how easy it is to make a fortune off selling on Amazon.com! (Actually part truth here) My friends and I are contemplating starting a reselling business... ;) Hopefully I'll get enough money to get a guitar. ^_^

And check this out: ASCII World Cup! WHAAAT???

How the Game Industry Treats Freeware Programmers

2006-08-19T18:39:00.000-07:00

A long long time ago, two years to be exact, I discovered a cool little program called MtG Editor, a free program that lets you create your own Magic the Gathering (a popular trading card game) cards. I played around with it for a while and promptly forgot about it. Now, two years later, Magic is inexplicably becoming popular again in my school (well, it's the summer actually - let me rephrase that: "Magic inexplicably became popular again in my school last year"), and some of my friends remembered about MtG Editor and asked me if I could find it again. Well, I did a Google search and went to the MtG Editor website. Once there, I saw a huge box containing an email from Wizards of the Coast (publisher of Magic) and explaining that MtG Editor has been taken off, for copyright reasons.

Several thoughts come to mind. First off, a developer comes along and makes a program that lets you create your own custom cards, in effect contributing to Magic's popularity, by making something that Wizards should have made in the first place. What happens? It gets labelled "illegal" by the very people who should be grateful! Funny thing now, The Wizards of the Coast forums actually have a "Create Your Own Card" section, which remains one of their most popular forums. Question - how are the good folks on the forums supposed to "create their own cards"? Answer - they can't! Wizards has removed a portion of their own community.

Another thought springs to mind - about Wizards' own inefficiency. It took them three years to discover a program that was used and advertised on their own forums! If it takes them this long to find something right under their noses, I dread to think about their future, and of the future of Hasbro (the company that bought Wizards).

Oh, and one more thing: check this out! It's a program called CCG Maker, which does exactly the same thing that MtG Editor does, the only exception being that it's not free - the full version costs $10. Now, CCG Maker has been curiously exempt from the copyright laws that govern MtG Editor. Some asking around reveals that this is either 1) CCG Maker, although using Wizards' layout, uses it's own symbols, rather than copying Magic's, as MtG Editor does, or 2) Wizards simply hasn't discovered CCG Maker yet. Given Wizards' track record, I'd go with the second. But as for the first ... what's worse, copying five little symbols , or copying the entire card layout? Wizards seems to think the first is.

Is anyone else outraged by this??? If so, voice your complaints directly to the people responsible - email Wizards of the Coast! Perhaps if they recieve enough emails ... Also, please comment here if you agree with me!

Quote of the Week

2006-08-19T18:38:00.000-07:00

Sorry for missing last week! It won't happen again! (at least for the next ... week ^_^)

The quote of the week is:

"The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity. But not in that order."
- Brian Pickrell

Summer's Almost Over =(

2006-08-19T18:11:00.000-07:00

School starts on the 30th, the Wednesday after next. Only ten days of summer left! And I still have two chapters in Bio and five Euro essays...

I spent a good portion of today filling out thirteen different forms (!!!) for school registration. Afterwards my family went to a library sale. I bought a bunch of fantasy novels (you know those books that no one reads? Well, I read them... ^_^) and a program called "Music Studio 2000". I had no idea what it was, but for $1 I felt that I should check it out. Turned out that it was a supposedly unlicensed collection of ten-year old programs, none of which work on Windows XP. The company "WinGear" doesn't exist any more, and a Google search for wingear "music studio 2000" yields 7 results. Furthermore, it turned out that the CD had a virus, which was luckily detected and stopped by my antivirus software. The box itself looks exactly like one for Microsoft software, with the same layout and font, clearly a copyright infringement. All in all, it's amazing that something like that could even be published...

In other news, I'm getting a guitar! A shiny Godin Exit22. As to the when, I'm not so sure...

Summer Work Update

2006-08-14T21:30:00.000-07:00

Biology "Bio" AP - Ch.1, Ch.5, Ch.19, Ch.20, Ch.21, Ch.22, Ch.23, Ch.24, Ch.25
European History "Euro" AP - Ch.2, Ch.3, Ch.4, Ch.5, Ch.6, Ch.7, Ch.8, Ch.9, Ch.10, Ch.11, Ch.12, Essay 1, Essay 2, Essay 3, Essay 4, Essay 5
English "Englo?" H - The Bible, Mythology, Cat's Cradle

[Done] [Doing] [Haven't even touched] [Did by accident, even though I wasn't supposed to >.<]

Amazingly, I'm not very far behind. Only 4 Bio chapters and 5 Euro essays left!

Click Click! - version 0.2

2006-08-14T21:23:00.000-07:00

Click Here to play Click Click!

My focus for this version was smoother movement, which I achieved using a bit of math, as shown in the diagram below:

I also decided to play around with it, and made a few cheats (Ctrl, Shift, Z, Num Pad + and -). ^_^

Next on my agenda: a title screen!

Oh no! Not another hobby!

2006-08-13T14:32:00.000-07:00

I've rediscovered Macromedia Flash, and decided to try game design. But unlike most of my hobbies, I actually have a rationale for this one. See, if I have a resume consisting of a lot of games, be they freeware or commercial, I will have a good chance of being hired by a video game company. And looking at my list of dream jobs:

Guitar hero
Game designer
Web entrepreneur

As you can see, game designer is above web entrepreneur, though still below guitar hero.

Anyways, 30 minutes of playing around with flash give me the start of my second flash game (the first, an ambitious fighting game, was sadly never completed), which I aptly named "Click Click!". The object of the game is to make the ball pass to green line at the top, but not the red line at the bottom. You can move the ball up by clicking near the bottom of the ball, move it down by clicking near the top, left by clicking near the right, and right by clicking near the left (at the moment you only have to go up, but suppose I add more levels...)

At the moment, the game is rather simple - some 40 lines of code. However, there are numerous improvements I can make:

I. Making it more professional
- Game start screen, and similar stuff
- Levels
- More features (obstacles, mazes, bumpers, and gravity shifters, oh my!)
II. Changing the core (a.k.a. Physics)
- More advanced movement (right now the player can only move the ball in 4 directions, he/she should be able to move it in any direction)
- Better collision detection (at the moment it's adequate, but if I want to add bumpers and stuff, I'll have to make it frame-independent)
- Adding Forces (again, at the moment I only have two forces - gravity and the player's motion, so it's adequate, but to support extra features I should change this)
III. Prettying it up
- Better graphics
- Backgrounds
- Sounds and music

Why do I keep starting new projects? WHY????

New Laptop

2006-08-13T11:10:00.000-07:00

My family just got a new laptop, a shiny new (well, refurbished actually) Dell 6400. A dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, and a wide-screen display, for only $520. The Dell Outlet is full of great deals!

This is a huge improvement over our old laptop, which I estimate to have around 2KB RAM. However, this is more than enough for my four-year-old sister - we gave the old laptop to her. Now she's becoming addicted to it - soon she'll be like me... >.<

Vacation to Pismo

2006-08-11T16:42:00.000-07:00

The reason I haven't posted in three or four days is that this past week I went on vacation, to Pismo Beach, CA. =)

The Who, The What, and The Why

Who: Two families, my own and our neighbors
Where: Pismo Beach
When: Monday thru Friday
What: What?
Why: Dunno
How: Uhh by car

The Hotel

Don't remember the name, but something to do with lighthouses. Not a big fan of lighthouses myself. Had some nice features, like a waffle machine (mmmm waffles...), Nintendo (overpriced >.<), minigolf (which I sux at), and giant chess (like regular chess but giant?). The hotel itself is built like a lighthouse, which I, as I mentioned before, find rather ridiculous. Who in their right mind would want to live in a lighthouse??!?

And now ... a day-by-day account!

Monday: Got to the hotel and ate dinner. Nothing of note.

Tuesday: Ate breakfast. Played some minigolf. Ate lunch. Attended my online math class, which meant no trips to anywhere interesting today. Went to the pool. Ate dinner.

Wednesday: Ate breakfast. Played some minigolf and some giant chess. Went to the beach, where I got bitten by a sand crab (it was a baby crab, but it still hurt :P). I ate a small lunch, and did not eat dinner till nine, at an Italian restaurant, which meant I was practically starving. However, I did not manage to eat much. Here's some advice people: when a menu item is labeled as "demonic", it will probably be rather spicy...

To pass the time at the restaurant, while we were all waiting for the food, my brother and I played 21, by writing down random groups of four numbers, and trying to get them to evaluate to 21, using basic arithmetic functions (+-*/). Out of 8 groups of 4 random one-digit numbers writted by myself, and 8 groups written by my brother, both my brother and I had two identical groups (meaning the numbers were the same, but the order was different). Now, what are the odds of that? Less than 1/1,000,000 I imagine, though Bob will probably correct me on this.

Thursday: Went ATV riding. Soooooo much fun. I had never driven an ATV before, so naturally they gave me a 250cc Honda, with 5 gears and various other features... The stick shift took a while to get used to, but all in all the vehicle was great. I was in 2nd gear most of the time, and I imagine my average speed to have been between 10 and 15 mph.

There was a great sand dune area a half-mile from the dealership, but getting there proved a challenge. Our ATVs (party of 4: two 250ccs, a 125cc, and an 80cc) broke down at various points on the road, and our journey to the sand dunes can well be described as 'The Longest Half-Mile'. Once we got there, however, it was great. I want an ATV. ^_^

When we got back from the ATV dealership (six of us - two were just watching) to our neighbors' cabin (we were eating dinner at our neighbors'), we found, to our dismay, that we didn't have the keys, and the cabin was empty (the rest of our party was out shopping). Fortunately, there were some garden tools lying near the front window, and one of us was age seven. We managed to pry the window loose, 'Shorty' sneaked in and unlocked the front door. Never thought I'd have to break into my own house... (actually, that's not quite accurate - Never thought I'd have to help my neighbors break into their own house ... :P)

Friday: Ate breakfast and drove home.

You know what the gaming world really needs?

2006-08-07T09:12:00.000-07:00

A complete RTS / FPS crossover game. Like, one of those games, where it starts out as a regular RTS, but at any time you can choose to play as any of your units, at which point the game becomes an FPS.

Let's take a look at existing games that call themselves "RTS / FPS hybrids". These fall into two categories, the first being normal FPSes with some RTS attributes. Examples are the Half-Life mod Natural Selection and the free standalone game Tremolous (shown at right).

No, that's not what we want at all! It's about 90% FPS, 10% RTS - a very bad mix. But what else do we have that's even remotely similar to what we want? Ah, we have squad-based RTS / FPS shooters, such as Urban Assault and Field Ops (shown at left). Better, but as roemin points out, the emphasis is still on the FPS.

The best way to make an RTS / FPS hybrid would be to make it about 20% FPS and 80% RTS. That is, the RTS mode is the most important, but certain aspects of the game require FPS mode. Just one example: money (and perhaps items and weapons) must be stored in a bank. You can destroy an enemy bank, which would make your opponent lose all the money and items
in it, but you still won't get any of those items/cash. If you want to get it, you must first get one of your units to sneak inside of the bank (possibly through a diversion or some other RTS tactic, or by using a special item, such as a camo suit), and then get into te vault and out, without running into the security system - stealing items from a bank would require both RTS and FPS gameplay.

This is the kind of game that I would want to see. Of course, it would take up a ton of space and require a fast proccessor - everything in the 2.5D RTS view must also have an analogue in the 3D FPS view, and vice versa. This type of game has been impossible ... until now.

Where Have I Been?

2006-08-06T22:30:00.000-07:00

Two words: computer virus. The second one in a month, actually. Gawd, I hate viruses.

In other news, I finally saw Pirates of the Caribbean II. It wasn't as good as the people who love it say, and it wasn't as bad as the people who hate it say.

Unveiling ... the 8^8 ELO Calculator!

2006-08-03T21:17:00.000-07:00

>>> 8^8 ELO Calculator <<<

This is the first result of a collaboration between Mgccl and myself, to make an LF2 ladder system. What is it? It is an extension of the ELO ranking system (used primarily in chess) to allow for up to eight teams, of up to eight players each. Simply type in each player's ranking, and the team's result (see Scoring, below), and click SUBMIT. Each player's new ELO will be revealed.

Instructions

Fill in team 1 before team 2, etc. If team 1 is blank, team 2 is assumed to be blank as well, and so on.
Fill in player 1 before player 2, etc. If player 1 is blank, player 2 is assumed to be blank as well, and so on.
For players, 0 and blank are different. 0 means a 0 ELO player, blank means no player.
Negative players will cause errors.
Players should be between 0 and 10,000. Otherwise, errors may occur.

Scoring

Win: 1
Tie: 1/n (with n teams)
Loss: 0

So for a match with 4 teams, if a team scores one win, 3 ties, and 2 losses, its score is 1.75 .

Yes, the Guys at MEEBO have outdone themselves.... yet again!

2006-08-02T09:11:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows about meebo, right? meebo is an excellent online client that lets you chat with your AIM, MSNM, YIM, ICQ, Jabber, and GTalk friends all at once, and I strongly urge everyone to try it.

But wait, there's more! meebo has recently (just today) started a new service, called meebome. You can see the result on my blog sidebar (scroll down a bit). With a meebo account, you can put these little chat boxes on any of your pages, and visitors can chat with you - no IM software needed! Truly amazing.

Try it! In the "Chat With Me" box, you can chat with me, change your display name, and turn sound off and on. More features coming soon... =)

Still a Long Way to Go in Summer Work

2006-08-01T19:58:00.000-07:00

How much AP/Honors summer-work have I done?

Biology "Bio" AP - Ch.1, Ch.5, Ch.19, Ch.20, Ch.21, Ch.22, Ch.23, Ch.24, Ch.25
European History "Euro" AP - Ch.2, Ch.3, Ch.4, Ch.5, Ch.6, Ch.7, Ch.8, Ch.9, Ch.10, Ch.11, Ch.12, Essay 1, Essay 2, Essay 3, Essay 4, Essay 5
English "Englo?" H - The Bible, Mythology, Cat's Cradle

[Done] [Doing] [Haven't even touched]

Yes, I'm behind. And yet I waste my time on useless things, like this blog. Go figure... ^_^

Inexplicable Productivity

2006-07-31T20:40:00.000-07:00

Today I didn't have access to the computer for most of the day, and it turned out that I was rather productive.

Today I:

Finished up the problems for my online AIME class (just in time too - I have class tomorrow)
Did a good portion of my AP summer work (finished Edith Hamilton's Mythology and got through a good portion of Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle)
Ordered my AP Bio and AP Euro books (I have procrastinated for two months on this)
Swam and stretched (me poor neck)

Could it be that I can accomplish this much when I'm not wasting away at the computer?

Let me finish this post off with a sample of an AIM conversation:

[18:59] blaaackiechan420: NORMAL PEOPLE HAVE DREAMS ABOUT GIRLS AND STUFF BUT YOU ARE DEAMING ABOUT WORLD WAR 3

Yes, I'm not normal.

Quote of the Week

2006-07-30T17:26:00.000-07:00

The quote of the week is:

"Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak."
- Anonymous

New Glasses =)

2006-07-30T17:13:00.000-07:00

I got new glasses today! Now not only I can see things beyond two feet (my old glasses were two years old >.< ), but now my glasses are fairly inconspicuous. They're like, invisible. Invisi-lenses! o.O

Yay for Google Ads!

2006-07-27T09:35:00.000-07:00

I don't know what was happening, but for the past hour I've been unable to see any Google ads, at all. As a result, all websites took forever to load, and some didn't even load at all. Fortunately, looks like the Google ad server is back up! And I still don't know what happened...

Guitar

2006-07-26T16:45:00.000-07:00

This is my friend Solomon's guitar, which I've been playing for the last three hours. Sol's been teaching me how to play =)

Little Fighter 2.5 Released!!

2006-07-26T10:44:00.000-07:00

Gah... forgot to post this yesterday...

Little Fighter 2.5 has been released!!! See this topic for details.

Hey, it Works!

2006-07-24T19:08:00.000-07:00

The Problem: Creating a geometric mean function for PHP.

First Attempt: Just doing something along the lines of (p1 * p2 * ... * pn) ^ (1/n) . However, even PHP has its limits, and for high n's (we're talking along the lines of hundreds or even thousands), it would just die on us. We needed a better way!

The Solution: Logarithms, yes, logarithms. With basic identities, we find that (p1 * p2 * ... * pn) ^ (1/n) = 10 ^ (1/n * log p1 + log p2 + ... + log pn) ! Now instead of multiplying huge numbers, we're just adding them!

By the way, here's the full function - feel free to it in your own PHP experiments (courtesy myself and Mgccl):

function func_math_mean()
{
$elo = func_get_args();
$num = 0;
foreach ($elo as $value) {
if ($value == 0){
$value = 1;
}
$num = $num + log10($value);
}
$count = func_num_args();
$num = pow(10,$num / $count);
return $num;
}

LF2, Ladders, and Logarithms

2006-07-22T18:51:00.000-07:00

(Don't worry about LF2.5 - I'm still working on it ... and I'll release it in three days!!)

I've decided to help Mgccl, a fellow LF2 modder, build an online ladder system for LF2.

The ladder should have the following features:

Track and store the results of all ranked games. (No idea how we'll do this - for now we'll do it on an honor system, where players submit their game results.)
Keep track of each players' wins, ties, and draws.
Calculate each player's rating, using a variant of the ELO system.
Support clans and countries, and rank them as well as ranking individual users.
Support all possible team combinations, from 1-vs-1 to 2-vs-5 to 4-vs-4.
Track which character each player uses, and rank them on each player (i.e. best Davis players, best Julian players, etc.)

Today, the first thing we did was come up with a database. Here's what we have right now (courtesy of myself and Mgccl):

country:
country_id , country_name , country_flag , country_wins , country_total_elo, country_total_exp

clan:
clan_id , clan_name , clan_leader , clan_wins , clan_losses , clan_draws , clan_ranking, clan_total_elo, clan_total_exp, clan_members

user_stat:
stat_id, stat_elo, stat_exp, stat_rank, stat_win, stat_lose, stat_draw

user_prof:
user_id, clan_id, country_id

team_user_link:
team_id, user_id

vs_games:
game_id , team1_id , team1_winrounds, team2_winrounds

Mgccl also singlehandedly coded the ELO script (this guy's amazing at PHP!) Now we are missing one crucial feature - ranking for team games. Since I'm good at math, it falls to me to solve the following problems:

I must find a way to average the team members' ratings to create a team rating. A simple arithmetic mean won't work - a team with one member rated 1500 and one member rated 1000 does not have a 1250 rating!

Figuring out 1) will let us play 2-vs-2, 3-vs-3, and 4-vs-4 games, but what if we want to play a game with unequal teams? I must calculate how to adjust the temporary team ratings, to account for the fact that teams with more players have a much better chance of winning.

Once I find 1) and 2), I am able to use Mgccl's ELO algorithm to find how to adjust each team's rating, but wait! Teams aren't rated - only players are! I must figure out how to apply the rating adjustment to the team members. As far as I see, the answer to this is to simply take the team adjustment and adjust each team member's rating by it, but I'll have to do some more research on this.

Some data to help me: The ELO system is designed so that if two players (or teams) have a rating difference of 200, then the stronger team should have a 75% chance of winning. I think that if I take a few logarithms, I should be able to figure out the answer to 1) and maybe 2) from that statement.

Whew. Long, very long, incredibly long, post.

www.PrestoSoft.com Goes Online!!

2006-07-22T18:42:00.000-07:00

Tough day today - we uploaded the new PrestoSoft site. Check it out!!

All those FTP errors... ahhhh!! Transferring 18MB of files to a remote server is never easy...

Quote of the Week

2006-07-21T22:21:00.000-07:00

The quote of the week is:

"It's funny the way most people love the dead. Once you're dead, you're made for life!"
- Jimi Hendrix

World Survey

2006-07-21T11:04:00.000-07:00

A world survey was conducted by the UN. The only question asked was: "Would you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?" The survey was a huge failure...

In Africa they didn't know what "food" meant.
In Eastern Europe they didn't know what "honest" meant
In Western Europe they didn't know what "shortage" meant.
In China they didn't know what "opinion" meant.
In the Middle East they didn't know what "solution" meant.
In South America they didn't know what "please" meant, and
In the USA they didn't know what "the rest of the world" meant.

How true...

Physical Therapy - Day One

2006-07-20T13:27:00.000-07:00

Had physical therapy today.

Doctor says the cause of my neck pain could be:

Poor posture (possible)
Sitting at the computer all day >.<
A growth spurt (could be)
Carrying a heavy backpack (uhhh it's the summer ... and i don't have summer school ... hence, no backpacks)
All of the above

Possible ways to fix my neck are:

Fixing my posture
Stretching
Massage
Applying heat and ice (uhh i think i'll stick to the first three ^_^)
All of the above

LF2.5: Volt

2006-07-19T21:46:00.000-07:00

Today I added a new character: Volt. He replaces my old electric char (Electro).

Here's some screenshots I took (JackieRabbit - the creator of Volt - put the second one on his site =) ) :

Don't know why I took the third one ^_^

LF2.5: It's Very Near the End!

2006-07-18T22:19:00.000-07:00

Title says it all!

Tomorrow I'll give you some screenshots. I promise. =)