come to my graduation party!

long story short: i'm having a party on saturday, the 29th of may. yes, this is the day after the lan party, and i'm sorry. i planned mine first (as far as i know) but theirs was made public first. i'm not blaming anybody, i'm just saying it sucks cuz otherwise i'd have planned it another time, since i'm afraid lots of people will be tired or whatever. but.. so yea. if you're intrested in coming, just im me. we'll have the spa open, so bring a swimsuit, we'll barbeque, and have movies till early morning, maybe even a console or two, if we can get a tv or two. again, it's not a lan, so it cant be huge, and it cant be wild.

come anytime after 4, various cool lamar teachers will be there from 4-6 (at various times, but most should be there around 5), so if you wanna say hi to abel, thornton, and some other teachers (if they come), then come a little early. bring dvds, and contact me if you're intrested in bringing a tv or a console. i dont think consoles will be a problem, but i dont want a million useless consoles with no tvs, since i'm gonna use the main tv for movies since thats something lots of people can do.

so yea.. just get back to me. c'mon, it'll be fun!

update concerning presents/gifts/money: as i said to someone else, "hey, if you want to give me gifts, you dont have to wait for a special occasion, believe me, but i'm not requiring or expecting them" and i wont like you any more or less if you bring/dont bring them, ok? cool. good. dont make a big deal out of it, i'd much prefer to have just loads of cool friend there to have a good time with, seriously, who wouldnt?

UPDATE concerning graduation tickets: i have two or three extra graduation tickets for friday, the 28th of may, 2004, 8pm at the nokia live center thing (near where prom is). if you are intrested in attending, let me know, just im me... please let me know asap (and YES! this is the same night/time as the lan.. so please consider this, and make sure you'd actually go before i give you a ticket.. you could always go (back) to the lan afterwards, but just make sure you'd show up for the ceremony)

*sniff* Goodbye, Thornton!

 
  
Thornton gets attacked by silly string, then looks fondly at his HP-32 calculator cake (made by official math/science members Kathy Lin, Quoc Trinh, and Sean Wilkinson) at his 'Goodbye, Thornton!' party on Friday, 21 May 2004 that took place during second lunch and involved lots and lots of food, courtsey mostly of Quoc and Kathy's mom. Afterwards, we all signed his whiteboard. (Or put equations on it.) 

Prom, Prom, PROM

ok, i've decided if i dont post now, i probably never will. this is the way it usually is, and i really want a post of prom to look back on in a few years.
i dont have pictures up now, but i'll have them up in a bit. i'm just too sick and tired right now.

SO! saturday morning i get up at 9:30 (early early) and go to a new nail place to get my nails done for the first time in years. then i headed to the flower mat place to pick up my corsage and buttonaire thingy (they got my corsage wrong but oh well), and after that headed back home to get stuff laid out to go in my purse and to make sure i took to katies to change into for afterprom. headed out to get my hair done at the get fit spa, and returned home to get dressed in my cool dress that is so much cooler than it showed up in any of the pictures, but oh well, what can you do?
i did my makeup, and put on my very-too-red lipstick, that seemed a good idea, and which everyone said looked good, but was really much too bright for me to feel comfortable. but that stuff's like dye, so once it was on i was stuck with it for the evening.
justin arrived at around 6:20, and here i must say a little about justin and our ride *evil grin*. much earlier in the year i looked into limos for all of our little group (katie, kChris, kathy, sean, and emily), but jeezus those things cost way too much. so i decided i'd rent a car, but of course you've got to be 25 to drive a rental.... so anyway, the convo came up while my dad was over and we were all out to dinner, so he offered to pay for us to rent a JAG (w00t!) and LA said he'd ask my stepsisters husband justin if he'd drive us, on the condition that while he wasnt driving us around he could take his wife out and just generally look cool. so my mom found us an awesome silvery-light-blue jaguar s-type (the really really sexy ones) with a navigation system and everything. oh man, it was awesome.
so yes, guys are so cute dressed up. my mom took the obligatory pictures and we drove off to lincoln square to meet up with everyone else for pictures. everyone's parents came too, and even kathy's little sisters (so cute!) and we posed for hours and hours (ok.. half an hour) for pictures. then i had to show everybody the jag (oh no, what an inconvenience! : P ) so they'd know which car to follow to get there. actually, if you dont know me too well, that was of course all just fun, i'm not really that rub-it-in-yer-face. so we went off single file to the horse-racing place, though justin took us on some.. intresting detours since he doesnt know arlington that well, and since we kept going in the wrong gates.

finally we arrived, and waited in a room for them to be ready for prom. prom was ok.. the food was good, the cake was really good.. but i donno.. *shrugs* dances have never really been my thing anyway, even thinking back to 7th grade at shack.

so then we headed back to katie's house and changed to our normal clothes to go to afterprom, YEY! (and eat some really good brownies and stuff). so we took off, and it was great!! afterprom was so much fun. after looking at the prizes and me deciding i really wanted the 90,000 fridge, i headed straight to the gym and did the bungee-run thing, which me on every time, not surprisingly. then we did the obstacle course about a bazillion times, and i every time : ). we also sat around on the quiz-thingy (where you hold a little answer thing and press the answer you think is right and it beams it to the computer... some of you probably did this in mckee's class or in sat prep) and kicked-ass on that. kk&e &kchris &sean all were gambling, but when they came to the gym we jumped into the inflatable throw-balls-at-each-other thing, and played that till we were all exhausted. finally we counted up the millions of beads round my neck and ran off to claim my fridgy.

OH NO!!! the person in front of us got the last fridge! i was really really sad. our buyer person, as someone said 'whose job it is to stand around and talk so you cant decide on what to get', was doing just that and pissing me off.. but finally i decided to get the gift certificate and just put it towards a microwave or fridge, and put the other 10,000 towards katie and chris's fund since they'd lost quite a bit gambling and she'd given me my last 3,000 so i could get the fridge. so i went back to do more stuff and help katie and chris get beads, and when they had like 80,000 we went with them to decide on buying something. as i wandered around, the guy who was in charge of the 90,000 section called to me 'hey! did you want this fridge? somebody decided to get something else!' and so i went into spasms, and after running around the gym a million times to get things and fix things (luckily my mom being one of the people working at the prize booth helped) i got the fridge!! i was so happy. and still am. i'm proud of my nice big 2.5 ft^3 fridgy. katie got a really nice slim dvd player, which is just what she wanted, and kathy got a portable cd player, which is just want she wanted, so we were all happy happy!!

by the time all this is over, i am exhausted, falling asleep. so we all sit down in the gym to wait for prize drawings. katie won a 25$ gift certif for fridays, but nobody won any of the big gift certifs this year (and no frys gift cert this year). then they drew for the little prizes that remained, and emily and sean won some luggage and i won a pretty cool portable tv (oh, wait, TV/FLASHLIGHT!!) hehe.

then we all trudged back to katie's house. we had planned to go to ihop.. but we were just exhausted. i fell asleep on and off the whole way back, and immediately i curled up on the couch and fell asleep. katie and chris fell asleep on the floor, emily in a chair, and i dont know what happened to sean and kathy. when i woke up, around noon, i felt like crap. i had a sore throat and a sore neck. i was siiiiick. i dozed back to sleep. then later i woke up, and they were just starting 'love actually'. i was feeling pretty crappy, but katie's mom made great food and i drank lots of tea, british-style, and watched that great, funny movie. then we started watching 'girl with a pearl earring' but my mom was getting pissy so i headed home. i walked in and fell asleep, sleeping till 9:30. then i woke up, brushed my hair out (for the first time since it'd been put up... OW OW OW OW) and took a shower. i got online for a bit, then went back to sleep.

woke up this morning, and i am sick, and my english proj is far from finished. so i spent all of day working on that, and became a skipppperrrrr (heh). but my english mag thing is finished and it looks spifffeeee. i turned it in at 3. then i went out to get some food.

pretty much as of right now i still feel very bad. i'm tired, my throat hurts, my head is all blocked up, and my whole body hurts, probably a mix of moving around all night on saturday and being sick. my brain is also only half-wired up today, so excuse any stupidness in this post, spelling, grammar, typos, sentances that dont make sense, etc. i called mrs bufkin mrs pryor when i turned in my english mag, for example, and didnt even notice till about 15 minutes later.

ok.. i cant resist.. two pics i have to post now. only because the jag was awesome and i like me with all the beads.. and i guess one of everybody.. even though i hate myself in all these shots.

the Jag!!
Everybody!
Emma's Beads (sorry, big)((by this point i am falling over with tiredness))

i'm going to go sleep or something now. nighty night.

This One's for You, Mai K-Girl!

Cat-calls, shrieks, yells, and overpowering applause filled the gym as a regal-looking Jimmy Jones placed a slick and shiny gold hood on the shoulders of the girl who stood facing us, head tucked into shoulders, a huge but somehow still modest smile giving us all the impression this was just an everyday event – not really a big deal – instead of the official recognition of her valedictorian-ship. Somewhere to my left a chant went up – “Kathy! Kathy! Kathy!” – and I opened my mouth to shout some similar cheer that would never have been heard over the roar of Lamar’s sophomores, juniors, seniors, and faculty. I’d yelled with the rest for the other eleven, cupping hands to mouth with ‘Go!’s and ‘Yea!’s in the excitement of the moment, but I’m ashamed to say I never once cheered for my best friend as she received this highest honor. I really did intend to, of course, but somewhere in my throat (I suspect between my epiglottis and my larynx) my cry caught and died, leaving me completely paralyzed from my chin down… to my shoulders.
It’s Kathy’s fault, really. I mean, if I’d never met the girl then I could have cheered and carried on just like everyone else.
About the same time my voice caught, a midget who’d been lurking under the chair next to mine (Holder, Victoria) darted out with his hammer and proceeded to smash my left big toe with all his might, bringing tears to my eyes. Just a few milliseconds before this most coincidental event I had been watching my Kathy with a rather lopsided smile, for the first time really putting together – in a most mature and un-emotional way – just whom this girl is.
Everybody knows Kathy Lin is our valedictorian, everybody knows she’s works too hard, she’s Asian, her grades are too good, all the teachers like her, and that, though at times slightly eccentric, she always puts her work first. I know that Kathy too, but I also know a girl with whom I’ve snuck out till four am on her birthday, a girl who can be convinced to put off studying for that grade-deciding test, who helped me make up secret code names for boys at Shack, who put skid-marks on Collins, and who has stayed up countless hours discussing every aspect of every moment since the beginning of time, ever.
I can’t take my eyes off Kathy, and the applause seems to stretch on for hours. There are no words for the pride I have for her. I choke up not so much for her achievement as for who she has been while accomplishing this achievement. Kathy never buried herself in her books, lost to the world and all fun and friendship save for the clubs that are required for college application ‘look-good’ purposes. She never turned down a friend in need, a chance for a juicy conversation, or an opportunity to do something completely devoid of intellectual gain.
I had my own medals and cords to be proud of, of course, but my truly greatest pride that day, as cliché as it sounds, was to be able to take my place at her side as best friend when the ceremony ended, and, after all the other formal congratulations, receive the biggest and longest hug given to anybody.
That darned midget came back and kicked us both in the shins about then.

Unexpected Contentment

so, my last orch concert was last night. i was not overjoyed at going, as i'm just plain pissed and mr coatney and mrs todd, my patience with their a-day/b-day bias finally wearing just too thin. it was a shame, because i had really wanted to enjoy my last concert.. just relish playing on stage and being part of the music, but this turn of events dampened my enthusiasm and any desire to play at all, really. because of this and having to learn a song in a week (to the same level as the b-day people in 1st violin who had had the piece... oh! for 3 weeks previously, practicing it on b-days) i made last chair on that song (with the other two a-day people helping me make up the last 3 chairs of 1sts, i'll point out) but didnt really care. i lost all remaining enthusiasm for the concert when coatney decided we wouldnt change seats for our concert, just stay in that song's seats. on the other songs we were playing i had some good chairs, but oh well.

so all in all, i went to the concert rather grumpy and apathetic of whatever happened. while i was sitting in the orch room 'warming up' (reading) i heard someone playing the alma-mater and remembered that the seniors were supposed to be playing this *sometime* during the concert... as told to me by nick 2 months ago, when he had handed me the music and muttered something about it. so i went up to the girl (amber) and asked her if she knew what/when/how this was going to go about, as far as getting the seniors on stage and all. she didnt know. later i asked nick. actually, i yelled at nick for his horrible organization, because i was still too apathetic to care about trying to be polite. nick didnt know what was going on either. so i went back to read.

we played second, as we do now (so that mr coatney can have a break between us and symphony (sinfonia, philharmonic, concert, symphony)), and for the first three songs i played well, but not with much feeling, not so much mad as just.. eh. but our last song was pirates of the caribbean, with percussion. as much as i disliked coatney right then, when he turned to us with that little smile and look of confidence that says 'c'mon guys, i know you can beat the shit out of this piece', when i looked over the music, playing the tune in my head, and when after the first few slow measures i heard the snare drum kick in and the growing shatter of the gong, i felt that rush that comes when i play a piece i love, and i played that piece the best i could. we did good. we did great. the audience clapped and clapped for fucking ever. i'm glad it happened, because i think i would regret having put no effort into my last concert, and now i can look back at that piece and be damn proud.

later on the symphony played, and they were really good too. they played for fucking ever, but thats normal, and they played some songs that werent so bad. sean and nathan both had solo songs (one each) and got shiney certificates, and they played really well. symphony played pirates of the caribbean, too, which was the only thing i'm kindof hrumph about, but it doesnt bother me much, really. they played a chicago medley, which was really good, with alan sutton playing the opening trumpet part to 'all that jazz' impressively. they also played some tchaikovsky piece that i found out today chris kellerman put together by listening too a cd because it was too expensive to buy, which is very impressive, if you ask me. i know i couldnt do it anyway.. especially not for full orchestra. because the symphony did so well, when i get my cd i'll put some of their songs online, and maybe our pirates, to show off the coolness of our players. everybody be sure to pat their senior symph orch friends on the back, including kathy, sean, nathan, irene, quoc, elaine, don, and yuri.

so the symphony finally finishes, and nick steps up to the podium and announces the alma mater. yes, i have no idea what is going on as i am sitting to the far right of the auditorium in the audience, but, still being in a crazy, apathetic mood, i pull my violin out of it's case super-fast and shoot up the stairs onto the stage, weaving through the cellos and basses, behind the band, and squeezing through the percussion. the only other senior who dared to move from outside the symphonic orchestra to the stage was thomas ash. some person i dont know but who is very nice jumped up from his seat in the violins and let me sit there, while kathy turned round from her chair a few seats over and made a laughing face, probably because though i (really) was trying to be discrete, there was nothing else happening to distract everyone from watching me try and hurry through an orchestra, save for thomas, but he somehow was quiet and graceful, probably relating to the fact that he didnt have far to go and wasnt wearing giant shoes. we played. it was really, really awesome. having never played with the symphony before (and thus never missing it because i never knew better) i am glad i had a chance to do so, even if for only two lines. it really is very, very different from playing with philharmonic. though being from another orchestra, not knowing the ways of symphony, and barely knowing the music (expecting to feel somewhat below and out of the group), i could tell as soon as the first note was played that this was a group that played as one. (or at least more as one than the philharmonic ever has). it was really cool, and, as i said, i'm glad i got to experience it.

afterwards we got punch and cookies (DAMN STRAIGHT!) and i took (par usual) more cookies than i could eat. emily, it turns out, was there, and so i talked with her, and kathy's mom, and kathy's two little sisters, who are so cool. i've known them so long, and they remind me of my little sisters. i always try and make them laugh, being silly and fun. but, back on topic. i then went up to this little short guy who went to butler in kindergarten and 1st grade and was a good friend and gentrys and thus a fairly good friend of mine, but who was in "stars" first grade, and so was held back and has since then been in the grade below me. i've seen him for the last 11-odd years, at butler, and at shack, and finally at lamar, but have never talked to him, not knowing if he had the faintest clue who i was (i suspected probably not). i just remembered him because he looks like the guy who plays benjamin in them musical 'joseph and the technically dreamcoat' that i have on video and have watched since i was tiny. so anyway, i went up to him (he's in percussion) and asked him if he had a clue who i was, and he said he vaguely remembered me from butler, and remembered gentry and i laughed and filled in some and then told him how i'd seen him around but had never spoken to him cuz i thought he probably didnt remember me, and then i said bye. and now, as i told him, i can graduate with a clear conscience! i dont have a clue what his name is, i didnt bother to ask, because that's really not what matters at all. anyway, i know he's in my yearbooks, heh.

i was in labor and delivery today, and saw a c-section, and i was going to write a post about that, but i think i've written enough and i dont want to detract away from the concert, which turned out a million times more amusing and strangely satisfying than i had expected at all.

i know fortune cookies are aroon's thing, but i got a one last night that i thought was amusing when the mandatory 'in bed' is added:
"Let us never negotiate out of fear.
But let us never fear to negotiate."

Till I write again..!

See why i dont like change? : P

aw fuck. they went and made blogger ub3r cool.. *sniff*
now i'm torn, because there is a certain template up now that i really like.. but i hate to switch to those just because... everybody uses them. but i know i'll have to change my template again now.. to incorporate stuff like the new comments and the profile section... BLAH!!
*sigh* oh well.. for now i'll ignore that anything happened..

Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring...

I HAVE TWO GREAT LINKS FOR YOU!!!
Go here!
and
Go here next! (keep watching this one, it's actually not repetative when you think it'll be)

BWHAHAHHAHA!!! Got that stuck in your head yet? Be careful!!!

Hooked? JOIN THE REVOLUTION!!


on another note.. didnt have time to see LOTR? no problem, here's a great in-depth summary.

Me?

I am a Scorched Earth Tank. When I have a mission, it consumes me; I will not be satisfied until the job is done. I have a strong sense of duty, and a strong sense of direction. Changes in the tide don't phase me - I always know which way the wind blows, and I know how to compensate for it. I get on poorly with people like myself. What Video Game Character Are You?

(If you were not a Scorched Earth Tank I would be an Asteroid.)

I'm not sure if this is really me, but i do know i dont get along well with people like myself.

i also personally think i might be a Pac-man Ghost.

As Time Goes By...

wow.. i feel kind of bad for not posting more often.. many deep apologies *bows, bows*

in reguards to the last post, after ages of following links around and trying stupid M$ advice i finally found a direct link to install the sasser patch, and just to be on the safe side i downloaded the sasser detector/remover, too, so i can run it quickly at the first sign of anything. windows still refuses to scan my computer for updates though. grr. i just hope my automatic updates still work.. they have been working just fine. if i see bill gates i'm going to rip his eyeballs out. isnt eyeballs a fun word?

so, i just got back from taking the Calc BC AP test.. rwarr... i dont know how i did. maybe a 3? maybe. i'd be happy with a three, personally. it means i learned a hella lot more than i thought i did, anyway.

so, other things going on. well, english AP is tomorrow, but i just dont care enough about it to do anything about it.. i just dont feel like WRITING that damn much, urgh! lazy. this weekend i get the joy of both starting and finishing my literary journal, the replacement of the 'senior scrapbook' assignment.. blah. oh well, at least it's fairly easy to bullshit poems and just claim you dont have the talent. if i have the time and the caring, though, i'd like to make it kinda cool and neat. oh well, we'll see.
i got my hair cut on friday for the first time in like.. 3 years... i got 3-4 inches off, which leaves my hair at 34 inches (he measured), meaning my hair is over half of my height, which i find an amusing fact. also makes me feel kind of short, though. maybe if i cut my hair off completely i'd spring up to 6ft. the main difference is that it's all even at the bottoms and generally looks much shinier and healthier. i'd post a picture but delta stole my camera so i cant.
prom is.. not that far away at all, which i find really, really scary. awards ceremony is next friday. WTF HAPPENED! i swear somehow everything went from being weeks away to being.. next week. well... i guess weekends usually do things like that, but eh, it still seems sudden.
on a more somber note a week or so ago the doctors said rachel's not gonna make it. her cancer isnt responding to the chemo and so they're switching from trying to fight it to making her comfortable and buying her time. that sucks a lot.. cuz.. well.. i dont think anyone really had even thought of that possibility.. it's been only about a month and a half since she was even diagnosed (march 22).. how insane is that??? it pisses me off, because though i dont know her very well, i know she kindof had a sucky childhood, and probably about now (junior year in college) she's really taking control of her life and having good times, setting goals, all that stuff. finally getting a chance to make up for the bad times, and now all this cancer crap. i know life's not fair, and so on and so forth.. but it doesnt mean you cant get annoyed at it being unfair.

right now i'm in a strange mood. it occurs to me i shouldnt post this right after talking about rachel cuz it sounds really unthankful for being alive, so i'll just clarify i am very happy to be alive and i am appreciating it and i know it could be worse. but for some reason i just cant find.. things to look forwards too. it's not in a hopeless 'nothing left to life for' kind of way.. just.. everytime i look forward and think of something fun that's going to happen, i cant help but be saddened by the other things it brings or that are coming with it. i spose it's fairly normal, come this time of year, and that i just need to ride it out and go out with a bang, and make the best of my summer, but still, i would like one no-strings thing to look forwards too. usually i go to sleep thinking of good things to come, but now i just get stressed out because the good brings bad and i'm having trouble sleeping. oh well, c'est la vie, eh?

tata for now.


UPDATE:
i walked lady tonight, but when i got to butler suddenly realised that i was absolutely mentally and physically exhausted and that i'd been walking extremely slowly, hunched over, with my head down, staring at the pavement... er.. sidewalk.. whatever you call it here. so while i walked along staring at the ground i came to a place in the pavement where there were curvey and straight lines. before i had time to even comprehend what i was doing my mind said 'ahh.. an e^X graph. there's (0,1).' i am innsaaaaanneeee.

Fuck Micro$oft

until further notice i'm not online because windows is a fucking bitch and wont let me update my computer from that stupid sasser worm crap. it says my time and date are wrong. fuck that, my time and date are right. so yea, i'm not here.

2004 Baby

so, yous made your final choices for colleges yet? if not then you're in some trouble cuz it's now may 1st and that's the day the gates bang closed bi0tches. as far as i know everybody's all settled, cept tri, of course... cuz he's tri. for the curious:
katie: loyola
emily: hollands
mel: ut
kathy: harvard (are we really... that surprised...? well if you are then it's an insult : ) )
tri: as of 1:15 this afternoon, didnt know. but i'm betting he'll be picking stanford.

so the power was just out for about 3 hours at my house.. what fun. luckily fire is really cool and so i had some light thanks to kathy's cool candle (aliteration!) that she gave me. as you can tell, ap tests are coming up fast, being this next week. i'm taking calc and english, and dreading both, cuz they suck. prom tickets go on sale on tuessdaayyyyy and dont forget to pick up your grad robes and hats on the 5th!
yes i feel like a senior and i'm going to share it with the world, by god.