Archive for January, 2005
Way To Go There Mr. Productive!
Posted by Scott January 30th, 2005 | 5,253 words | 12 Comments »
Man, what a day; I’m feeling awesome! So, to add yet another entry to this ever-growing mass of random thoughts, I’d like to begin by mentioning that I’m feeling really good tonight. I just sat down and focused for about half a day and knocked out more homework than I’m used to getting done in a whole week! 
I finished reading tons of pages in my Calculus III book and doing all of the assigned homework problems and even did my entire first month’s Physics II homework all at once! While I know the procrastinating lifestyle is ultimately self-destructive, it’s so blissful when it works out right! :XD: So, yeah, my Physics II test is Friday and all of the material is fresh in my mind and, guess what; I actually understand it all! I can feel it already; another semester of straight A’s! Then again, that’s what I say at this point in every semester, and how many times have I gotten a B for a semester because I had this attitude early on? I have to work harder this term and will fight hard from the beginning and build the endurance it’ll take to finish strong. The last week of last semester killed me. If it hadn’t been for my poor sleeping and studying schedule during finals week, I wouldn’t have gotten that B last semester. So, I’m taking it upon myself to fight and make sure I get A’s this semester. I need them! … and I know I can obtain thm. I just have to make myself do it. :=o,: Oh gosh, what am I doing talking about school in my introduction paragraph? Not cool folks. I need to back up a bit and talk about something interesting for once!
I’ve been wanting to write something about music lately, so I’ve spent the past few days thinking of songs I could put up on the net for people to listen to. My tastes in music are so off the wall, I figured I’d try to pull mp3’s from the corners of my enjoyment and put them up for the public to listen to and tell me what they think. Some of these songs are somewhat embarrassing, and some of them are pretty cool. If I worried about my public image, this website wouldn’t be here in the first place. Remember, I’m putting these things up here so you can listen to them and tell me what you think! Be sure you listen to them, and comment what you think. Come on! I’m going through the effort to prepare these, the least you could do is listen to them! So, with no further adieu I’ll give you my favorite song list countdown style!
Remember: These aren’t rated well because they’re really good songs or something. They’re rated in the order of how much I enjoy listening to them, for whatever reason(s). That way it’s personal! Anyone can put up a top10 music list. I’m putting up a top10 list Scott style baby! Yeah!
UNSORTABLE SONG: New Korean Song (too new to rate!) I started listening to this one a few days ago. I like how it’s smooth but fast at the same time. Too feminine? Perhaps, but I’m not embarrassed of what I listen to. I just thought I’d warn you all up to this toplist by starting ya’ off with this fun song. I love her voice! ^_^
FAVORITE SONG #10: Dvorak Piano Quintet Scherzo Part 3 (American Classical) What better way is there to start a top ten list of favorite songs than to begin with the happy and cheerful sounds of Dvorak! Well, okay; so he doesn’t always write happy-sounding stuff, but this song is amazing. Think about the best thing that’s ever happened to you. Now picture the next few hours, and spending time by yourself; in the car perhaps. You know how you just can’t help but smile? That’s the feeling I have every time I listen to this song. There’s something about it that’s so… so perfect. I can listen to it and be happy in my aspirations! I listen to this song a lot when I write, and I would love to be able to make a movie and put this somewhere in it. It’s just one of those pieces that I can’t get over. Landing a nice spot at number ten on my musical toplist, Dvorak should be proud!
FAVORITE SONG #9: Wonderful Days – Sky (Korean Soft Vocals) This song is just… indescribably peaceful and beautiful. I really like listening to it, and it’s an awesome song for me to do homework to in the wee hours of the morning. This song perfectly represents the genre of music that I most enjoy listening to, and although I will (and do) listen to so many different types of music, I always keep coming back to songs like this. I listen to this song often, and it’s so wonderful! It’s just, it’s really good. This girl has the voice of an angel. It’s a wonderful song (get it? “wonderful”? Nevermind).
FAVORITE SONG #8: Neon Genesis Evangelion – Tamashii no Rufuran (Japanese Soundtrack Vocals) What list of my music could ever be complete without at least one song from Neon Genesis Evangelion? If you don’t know what it is, don’t bother googling it. If you see a picture, you will purely not understand. This movie piece (15+ hours long) has changed my mind more than any movie I have ever seen in my entire life. It’s absolutely amazing; something you’d never be able to fathom by looking at cover art. For years I refused to watch it because I thought it looked childish. I had no idea how mentally disturbing it was. I think I was depressed for about two months after watching it. But now, thinking back on it, it was really awesome. Any movie that can reach out and kick ya’ in the gut that hard is an awesome movie, and for the purposes of nostalgia I’m going to have to put this one on my list. Tamashii no Rufuran is memorable and fun. I can’t think of a better way to represent the title.
FAVORITE SONG #7: The Classic – Running in the Rain (Really crappy Korean rock) This is probably the most feminine song I’ll admit listening to. Perhaps I say that because it’s the only one I listen to that’s sung by a man. It’s from the Korean movie “The Classic” (yes, one of my favorites) and the reason I like it is completely within the movie. It makes me want to run through the rain holding a closed umbrella by my side every time I hear it. While it’s embarrassingly feminine and not even that good a song in itself, the thoughts it conjures up in my mind when I listen to it make it all worth it. Hope, happiness, love I can’t let it go! It gets planted firmly at number 7.
FAVORITE SONG #6: Ghost in the Shell 2 – Kugutsuuta ura mite chiru (amazing modern chant) Of course! How could I make a musical toplist without including this purely infamous theme? For those of you who aren’t really sure what this ghost stuff is, no, it’s not some new cult theme song. Ghost in the Shell is a Japanese movie (anime) that is purely beautiful. I can’t think of a better way to describe it. Graceful, perhaps? It’s an ultra-violent animated film about Tokyo in the future when people are intermingled with cyborgs. The film is just visually incredible. Every scene is like sugar for your eyes! The soundtrack is instantly recognizable. Recently a sequel came out and with it a new soundtrack. This song is played in the beginning of the movie where you see a girl being created (a robot, that is) and it’s an all automated process and they show credits as they show the body being constructed and… it’s so amazing! It’s a great watch, seriously. These two films are AWESOME! The new rendition of the ghost song includes huge drums that start banging half way through (which wasn’t there in the first movie) to give anyone who’s been exposed to the anime a feeling of pure and utter “incredible”. This song is great. I could whistle to it all day!
FAVORITE SONG #5: The Classic – Exchanging Smiles (instrumental) Yes, I just completely made-up that title. (The original one wasn’t in English characters!) This is a song from the soundtrack for the Korean movie “The Classic” (one of my alltime favorites). My favorite scene in the movie is when the protagonist gets to see a girl he’s been apart from for a very long time, but they have to act like they don’t know each other (part of the plot). They’re in some kind of dance class and they just smile at each other. Near the end of the scene, me mouths “I missed you.” I don’t know if I like this song because it sounds pretty, or because it lets me re-live my favorite part of one of my favorite stories every time I hear it. However, it lands a firm spot on my favorites list as number five.
FAVORITE SONG #4: Hitomi – Gamble (Really crappy Japanese rock) Yes, this song was the one that got me addicted. Before I discovered it around the impressionable age of fourteen (5 years ago!) I had occasionally dabbled in music of other languages, but after I accidentally stumbled upon this song I figured that more cool stuff was out there so I began to search. Searching led to discoveries, discoveries led to revelations, and revelations lead me to foreign streaming internet radio station broadcasts! I suddenly had a way to access all the non-English music I could ever desire. Yes sir-ee, if it weren’t for my accidentally stumbling upon this song, I wouldn’t have looked for more, I wouldn’t have found Japan-A-Radio, I wouldn’t have discovered #jar, I wouldn’t have talked with people like genetik and cyanocry, I would never have started using Linux, I would never have gotten so into computers, and who knows how different I’d be today? It was my complete engulfment into everything related to computers that caused my rejection of them years later. Perhaps one day I’ll be able to blame this song for making me a doctor instead of an engineer!
FAVORITE SONG #3: Sayaka – Ever Since (Japanese contemporary soft rock) Man, I don’t know what it is about this song that keeps drawing me back. It’s one of those sounds that’s tied to some string of nostalgia in the back of my head and every time I hear it crank up I just close my eyes and lean back in my chair and remember my days spent years ago programming and using IRC at obscene ours of the night listening to this song. I’m slowly beginning to realize that my sleeping habits significantly improved after I stopped programming. This song ties me to the best memories of my old life with computers, and I’ll always remember how much fun I had coding, working, and talking with my old friends. Purely for the sake of nostalgia, this song ranks in as my third favorite.
FAVORITE SONG #2: Schubert – Auf dem Wasser zu singen (German opera) This song is one of my newfound favorites! I first heard it in a movie (Battle Royale I (Japanese)) about a year ago and haven’t been able to let it go since. Perhaps my love of this song is coupled with the love and irony of the scene in the movie where this song is played; the death of Takako Chigusa. She lays there with her yellow jacket drenched in darkly-contrasting blood in the arms of a classmate as she dies. It’s a good movie, it’s a good song, and I can’t think of a more peaceful tune to listen to when you’re stuck in traffic and want to keep your cool.
FAVORITE SONG #1: Misia – Everything (Japanese contemporary R&B) How many of you saw that one coming? Of course, Misia is my favorite singer of all time. Her voice is low and deep, a rarity in Japanese contemporary music. Her style is best described as R&B and I love how she sings with emotion. Every once and a while you hear the English word “everything” in this Japanese song, only to conclude with “You are my everything.” Awe! This song lands right smack dab in the middle of what I like. It’s flowing, smooth, quiet, passionate, and easy to listen to on repeat at 3am while you’re doing schoolwork. I like this song so much that I nicknamed one of my old friends after the singer. I’ll never forget you Misia!
Awesome! How’d you like that?! Grab those mp3’s as fast as you can, I’m going to be taking them down pretty soon (because of things like bandwidth, storage space, copyright issues, and men repelling from silent black helicopters in my back yard breaking through my window to hail me off to jail). Grab some, listen to some, and let me know what you think! I’d love to hear your thoughts. It’s late and I should get going. I trust that you’ve had a great day and hope you have a nice day, a nice tomorrow, and so on until I get the change to write again. Leave comments! –Scott
A Beautiful Day For A Psychopath
Posted by Scott January 26th, 2005 | 5,253 words | 15 Comments »
Hey there! Man, let me tell ya’ I’m feeling great!_ I have no clue why either. Oh well, who cares? I’ll just try to churn out another blog entry while it lasts. Life has resumed it’s normal (somewhat chaotic) pace again and 
I’m finally in a frame of mind where I can sit down for a few hours and get some work done. And, as you all very well know, near the top of my list of things I need to do is add to my public writings. It seems as if lately all of my writing time and energy has gone into my silly little book and I feel bad because I know I’m neglecting my public blog. Oh well, it’ll all work out in the end. The book’s fun for me and hopefully will be a good read; more on that later though. For now, I’m just going to sit back, relax, and write about what’s going on in my short-term frame of mind.
Okay, so I’m sitting at school eating lunch by myself today. It was an awesome day outside! It was sunny, breezy, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was the perfect day to be outside. Normal people would eat at the tables outside on such a day, but not me. Nope, I figured that I’d be able to soak it all in by sitting by a window. So, after ordering my ridiculously over priced (yet surprisingly filling) lunch I sat at an empty table by one of the large floor-to-ceiling windows on the second story of the cafeteria at my college. Sitting there, looking outside, eating slowly, and just soaking up the tranquility, I enjoyed the free time to myself to think about… whatever it is I think about when I’m alone in a public place (most likely nothing). I then heard a distantly familiar voice. “Scott”, it said. I looked to my left… no one. I looked to my right and saw a somewhat tall man who I had seen around campus before. I always thought that he was very smart (“incredibly intelligent”, at that) because of his persona. He always carries with him a confident attitude and seems to always be in control. (Do you detect a hint of envious jealousy in my breath?) My old physics lab partner knew this guy (fairly well, evidentially) because he had him come over last semester and help clarify a physics I concept to us. I’m getting somewhere with this, just follow me through. Let me re-emphasize that this guy has a persona that really seems like (at least to me) he’s super confident, knows what he’s doing, and very intelligent.
“Yeah, what’s up?” I fed him a canned response. “How did you do on that quiz?” I paused and looked at him inquisitively for a moment. I’ve seen this guy around, and I spoke with him once last semester. I have no idea what he’s talking about. I know who he is, but I don’t know his name or anything about what classes he’s taking. I only had one quiz so far, and it was in my Calculus III class. Did he somehow know what classes I was taking? “Quiz?” I feebishly asked. “Yeah, the quiz.” Great; that didn’t help much. “What do you mean…”, I began, “the Calc III quiz?” “Yeah”, he replied. I looked at him closer. “Are you in my class?” I asked. “Uhh, yeah” he said (with a slight ‘duhhh’ inflection in his tone). “Huh”, I replied, “I guess I didn’t mentally notice you.” This is where it gets interesting. I said that line because I couldn’t think of a better way to put it. However, I think he subconsciously took it as me portraying the persona of a person who is more or less full of himself and thinks he is too good to talk to other people, or even notice them at that. 
Here I am, sitting alone after all. “I got a hundred on it”, I quietly (somewhat subtly) stated so as not to sound too proud of it. “Really?” he said. He paused. This was getting interesting. By the slightly raised tone of his voice I instantaneously realized that he didn’t get as high of a grade as me. How strange? I still don’t know if my previous perceptions of him were valid or if this grade is no more than an unlucky day for him, but I figured it might be awkward for him so I decided to change the topic at the next opportunity.
“Yeah, I think I must have messed-up some stupid little number”, he continued. Changing the subject and partially interrupting him at the same time, I interjected “It’s cool how he [our professor] posts the grades on the internet so we can see how we did compared to the rest of the class.” “Yeah”, he began. I continued yet again “And the class rank thing is cool, so you can see how high you are compared to your classmates.” Assuming that my 100% score was the only one in the class (which is a strange thing for me to think about because that quiz was near-embarrassingly easy (which leads me to question how well the guy knows the material in the first place)) he thought that I was class rank 1. Well, technically I do have the highest score of the class, but I’m also tied with some other people. When people are tied, the web-based system arranges their class rank alphabetically. I’m guessing a small handful of the class (4 or 5 students (out of about 30)) got perfect scores. He continued “Yeah, I’m number 2 in the class.” I looked at him for a second. “I’m sorry?”, I asked. “My class rank is 2.” By this time I’m screaming inside. What was I to say? I was class rank 2! This guy was so obviously lying, and my chest ached with suppressed laughter and my cheeks burned with a huge grin trying with all it’s might to rip through my stoic rock-solid expression. I just smiled and said something like “Well I’m sure you’ll have plenty of chances to get more hundreds in the rest of the class.” As he walked away I mentally laughed and was like “Yeah I’m going to have to blog about this tonight.”
What? February is approaching!? Ahh yes; the bitter-sweet month of pink paper and heart shaped candies is approaching. A few days ago while taking out (or being taken out by, rather) my sister (Kelly), a friend (Hope), and the friend’s friend (Jill) the topic arose for the first time this year. We were in the car and I heard a voice coming from the back seat. “Scott”, Hope began. I think I have a sixth sense when I listen to women talk to me. I can detect the slight intonation patterns that usually signify the flashing of a small warning light deep in my mind labeled “get ready”. Hope continued “So you like don’t have a valentine this year?” Ahh, yes, thank you for pointing that out. It’s three 
weeks until the fourteenth and now that has to come up. Oh well. “Thus, the story of my life” I half wittingly and half jokingly replied. “Why not me?” she continued. “Huh?” Yes ladies and gentlemen, notice the elevated diction I used as a response. “You have a boyfriend” I replied with a raised eyebrow in the rearview mirror. “So?” :X_x: How did I not see that coming? “I…”, I was speechless. “That’s okay.” The conversation pretty much ended there (or at least the subject did), but I’ve been thinking about it a lot again lately. What Hope did was very nice, and she’s cool, and I thank her for it. However on a slightly humorous note (with just a touch of irony) I don’t know what’s worse, not being asked, or being asked by someone who feels sorry for you.
postscript: Yeah I pretty much just looked through my archives for the most feminine image I could possibly find and decided to post it right about here to further blow away all remaining traces of public masculinity and dignity I still had going for me.
Like I said, I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. I ended-up going back to the entry I made on Valentine’s day of last year (and the entries immediately before and after it) and laughed a few times as what I had written. I talked a lot about S.A.D. (Singles Awareness Day) and that sort of thing, but it was all in pure fun. I don’t really know where I’m trying to go with this topic, so I should probably start thinking about changing the subject pretty soon. Skimming over what I’ve just written, I feel that I should clarify that I don’t mean any of this in a negative or disappointing way because it’s one of those things that I’m sure would mean a lot more to me if I were in some kind of relationship, but since I’m not I really couldn’t care less about it. “Oh well, there’s always twenty.”
postscript: Okay, I feel like an idiot. This is the subject matter of forth graders. I confess it’s true and realize I’m stuck with the mind of a child. Perhaps it’s because I’ve never really dated anyone before, but more likely it’s because I never get out enough to get a life :XD:
Hey, I’ve been working on that dumb little book of mine! After a little while I decided on a cover image. While it still could change, this is my current “best idea”. If anyone has suggestions they should feel free to send them in; 
I’m somewhat dissatisfied with the current design anyhow. As you all have probably figured-out by now, the title is “Whisper of the Mind” by Scott Harden (getting Google ready for the release). I’ve abandoned my [old cover idea] (because it’s way too sappy) and made a new one (pictured here). Some of you may recognize the image, which is why I’m not really satisfied with it. It’s an airbrushing of the girl who was raised by wolves in the infamous and instant-classic Japanese anime movie Mononoke Hime that practically everyone has seen. What’s her name? I can’t believe it; I’m going blank. What can I say, I haven’t watched the movie in years. I think Ashitaka is the name of the dude. (Oh! Remind me to tell you more about this later.) Ha! Silly me. 
Her name is Mononoke! She’s the wolf princess, remember? The title of the freaking movie! Okay, sorry about that. I seriously wonder where my mind is sometimes. Yeah, so, that’s the current title idea. For anyone who hasn’t seen the film I mentioned earlier, you should check it out. It’s a really fun movie that has some great lines and it even has a surprisingly good English-translated version floating around the US. I’m told it’s even in Blockbuster. If you’re in to a ton of blood and gore and don’t like any thing else, you might want to stay away from this movie. But if you’re like me, this movie is great! It has everything. It has war, conflict, death, fighting, blood, love, cuteness (dare I use that word?), and some great one-liners. The more I remember this movie, the more I remember how much I like it. I have a Japanese wall scroll from this movie hanging in my room (over my TV, for those who collect pictures of my room (Tom)).
“Hey, wasn’t I supposed to remind you of something?” Oh yes! Ashitaka. I don’t know what it is about this guy, but when I was younger (ehh, 5 years ago? That would make me about fourteen) and first saw this movie I was really impressed with his character. I don’t know what it was about him I felt I related to so much. No, it wasn’t that I related to him; it’s that I wanted to be him! His voice was so calm and peaceful. He (almost) never lost his cool, and was able to bear immense responsibility. He was able to sacrifice unselfishly for those he loved, and was willing to risk his life to safe someone else. He was always quick to speak words that would quietly stab whomever it was speaking with, being both quick and witty and perfectly articulative at the same time. “Are you ready to hear the full consequences of your actions?” “Yes, I was prepared the very moment I let my arrow fly.” I love that!
Quick Family-In-China Update: My family met Leah for the first time two days ago and things are going pretty well evidentially. Once some good pictures come through, I’ll be able to post some on my website.
postscript: “Hey Scott, aren’t you lonely with your family gone?” Not really, not yet anyway. I mean, I’m a little bit lonely, but it doesn’t really have anything to do with my family being gone :^_^:
Okay, I should get going and start working on this homework! Jeez, I’m loaded. It’s all right though. It’s a lot of work, but I can handle it! Yes, that’s the spirit! Ian’s kick-butt mentality is overcoming me yet again. So, until we speak again, have an awesome day and enjoy life! Then, as soon as humanly possible, come back to your computer and log on to my website so you can read more about mine ^_^
Snapshot of Life
Posted by Scott January 23rd, 2005 | 5,253 words | 7 Comments »
Finally, time to write again. I’m so disappointed in myself for not being able to add to my blog in almost week, but I have been fairly busy lately. Plus, as most of you know I’m putting a lot of my time into writing a silly little story, 
which definitely takes the fun and uniqueness away of writing for my website. :0.o: Nonetheless, here I am and I’m writing in a great mood so I think any feelings of reluctance to write will quickly wash away. I have a lot of little things I’d like to mention today, nothing too huge, so I’ll probably just start hitting it paragraph by paragraph.
“So how’s that story of yours going?” Well, I’ve lost the momentum to write huge amounts of it at one sitting, but it is progressing. I am still trying to write the few chapters encompassing in the “us” factor (read my last entry) of the main character, and I’m trying hard to make it perfect for the story. It’ll be nice when I’m done writing it, because I’ve never really written anything this way before. The perspective of the story is what I think makes it so unique and fun to write. It’s narrated in a stream of consciousness sort of dialogue, where the main character is a guy whose mind you read (literally). I write dialogues in double quotes as to what he thinks to himself, and I write responding thoughts as indented blocks just like it were two people talking to each other. I can’t explain it, it’s just pretty cool. The story isn’t anything incredibly amazing, but I’m hoping that the twists in the middle and the irony at the end will make it worth my time writing. I’ve had this story rolling around in my head for quite some time and it’ll be nice to finally get it out on paper.
My family is in China! I just got a phone call around 7 this morning from my mom telling me that everyone is finally at the hotel. They left the house at 1pm on Friday, and are finally where they’re supposed to be forty-two hours later! 
Evidentially they tried to hook up their laptop to the internet at the hotel but the connection was so slow (7 minutes to log into web mail before it died) that they weren’t able to send email out. I’m guessing that even though the connection may be slow, the problem probably lies in something the computer’s doing. It’s a fairly new laptop out of the box and with all that preloaded junk that comes on it… I’ll bet most of the bandwidth is being leeched by windows update or Norton Antivirus sucking-up the network downloading virus updates and stuff like that. Oh! That reminds me; I haven’t written about this mysterious “new laptop”. Yeah, my mom wanted a laptop to take with her to China and since my laptop is my only computer she didn’t want to take it from me for two weeks so she went out and gone one on her own! And, we’re not talking any kind of little junky laptop. She got a laptop that I would have died to have at any point of my life. Yes folks, she got a brand new Sony Vaio with the letterbox screen and integrated-everything. It’s got 802.11g wifi, svideo out, 4 USB’s, DVDRW, pretty much the laptop of my dreams. You know what the worst part of it all is? She’s only using it for email_! :-_-:
Okay, I had a lot of other things I wanted to write about but something just came up so I’m going to have to cut this entry short. With any luck I’ll be able to write this evening, so start checking this blog more regularly and you’ll probably find some stuff to read coming up pretty soon. :^_-: Well, I guess that’s that. I’m outta here. Have a good one! –Scott
As Her Heart Beats With Mine
Posted by Scott January 16th, 2005 | 5,253 words | 23 Comments »
Ahh, what a wonderful day! Finally I have a little bit of peaceful time to myself. As I look out the window, I can see small beads of water float in the air and caress my window forming small beads of streaking rain. It’s strange; it’s like fog, only falling down quickly. It’s something between rain, and fox. I’ll call it frain. “Hey look! It’s fraining outside!” 
Heh, I guess much to the delight of some of my more personally dedicated readers, I’m back writing here again and still the same old Scott I always was! Tonight I’ll try to be a little more relaxed and casual when I write. I have so many things I feel I need to go over, but I also want to throw in some personal stuff as well. I’ll probably play the seesaw game and go back and forth through this entry. So, for what it’s worth, welcome back to my website. I know the (week long) downtime may have been frustrating, but it looks like this thing is pretty much up and back to normal again.
I really love rainy days =o) Looking out my window at the soft blue-grey blur that’s created from the beading water on the glass gives me such a feeling of coziness, for the lack of a better (or more masculine) word. I like days that are rainy or cold. I love going out walking alone at night when it’s cool out and slightly windy. I usually slightly underdress when I go as well. There’s something about the tingly feeling of crisp cool air in your lungs and the gently feeling of nippy cool on your legs that, for me at least, gives a wonderful sense of humanity to my thoughts. I’m just barely uncomfortable enough that my mind thinks well and stays on track, unlike the way it drifts from thought to thought when I’m warm and comfortable. I spend this time by myself to think about all sorts of stuff. Life goes by too quickly to let your experiences escape you by not taking breaks (or “breaks” that require so much mental distraction). Tonight, while not out walking, I’m taking a little break of my own. I’m listening to one of my old saved Misia albums and guess what song just started playing? “You are my sunshine.” Yes, this music is technically Japanese, but a lot of Japanese contemporary music has small portions of the song in English. This song particularly has a lot of English in it, and one phrase is repeated over and over in the background.
“Every day you are my love and my sunshine!” No, I’m not professing my love to my blog; I’m quoting the English phrase in the song! It’s one of those silly little phrases that sticks in my head. You are my love and my sunshine. [looks out the window at the rain] I wish I had some sunshine! I can’t help but smile at the simple happiness conveyed in this song, but at the same time I find myself incredibly embarrassed about the possible immaturity of how I may sound as I write this. Ahh, heck; this is my blog and no one I know in person really reads it anyway. I’ll just come out and say it. What a “cute” little phrase! ^_^ When will I have someone to be my love and sunshine? Okay, I’m afraid I’m breathing slightly more into this than is merited. I feel myself being pulled into a [blogging] direction that I don’t quite want to go now, so I’m going to restrain from writing about “her” and seesaw back to the reality of my life these days.
Yes, school is BACK my friend. One week down and I’m feeling great! Being my last semester of my first two years of college (and the last semester at my current college) I’ve found myself in a position where my load is slightly lighter than it traditionally has been. I’m in Biology II, Physics II, Calculus III, and a fluff class. “Hey, what is this fluff class you so casually avoided listing?” Well, for three credits and a solid A to keep the GPA high I signed up for a computer class. Yes, that’s right, Introduction to Visual Basic_. I’ll learn how to write windows programs! 
(Something that I’ve been casually doing for years) Nonetheless, this class still has the potential to be mildly difficult, requiring just enough of my time and effort to guarantee that I get an A. Physics II is with my old Physics I professor (nothing new here). Calculus III is with my old Calculus I professor (nothing new here). Biology II is with a new guy I’d never met before Tuesday, but he seems to be a really nice guy! He’s fairly short and small and I thought he couldn’t be older than twenty-five. After he introduced himself, I concluded that he’s probably in his mid forties. “Hey”, I asked myself, “am I going to look this young when I’m in my forties?!” Anyhow, he seems to have a lot of energy and always finds interesting ways to put things. (For his job he milks killer whales at Sea World) Sergio (my old physics lab partner) is in my Calculus III class and Marena (my other old physics lab partner) is in my Biology II and Physics II class. Other than that, I don’t know anyone else in any of my classes. Actually [chuckles] I don’t really know anyone else at the college anyway!
“So, what’re your thoughts on this semester?” While the course load on paper looks easier than last semester’s load, I think this semester will take much more time and work studying to ensure that I have A’s in all of my classes. Last semester Biology I was easy, Physics I was medium, Chemistry II was hard, and Calculus II was medium as well. This semester Biology II is going to be killer (from what I hear about the difficulty of this new professor’s tests). Physics II is going to be a lot of work as well. Calculus III will require a ton of my time to practice, because with my schedule I simply don’t have time to cram before tests as I did before. The end of my week is littered with random blocks of free time between classes, so hopefully I’ll be able to get a majority of my work done on Thursdays and Fridays. Okay, okay, I know. That’s not what you meant when you asked my thoughts on this semester. I think I’ll be a good strong semester of solid A’s this time around. Since I’m trying to set myself up to work harder (spending more time studying) and have few distractions to hold me back (no attractive women in any of my classes (Awe shucks; does this make two years in a row?)) hopefully I’ll be able to get through this semester unscathed and with good grades to show for it as well.
“Hey! What about that computer class you signed up for?!” Well, as my luck would have it, it got cancelled a few days before classes began. I needed to find a three credit class that wasn’t full… and I had to find one as fast as I could. I didn’t want it to be a class that I’d struggle in, so I knew any kind of computer-related class would probably be my best bet. I found a list of all the computer classes at my college and searched for one by my old programming professor. To my surprise, he was teaching a class at a perfect time for my schedule, “Introduction to Visual Basic”. I quickly signed-up for it (two seats left in the class) and smiled at the thought of what I had done. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I’m going to learn how to write windows programs! The irony of this, of course, is that I’ve been exposed to windows programming for quite some time and have written quite a few quasi-intricate things in the language (does anybody remember AimPoo the AIM screen name cracker?). Anyhow, I haven’t written code in VB in about a year and doubt I even remember much. I’ll probably be re-learning a lot of stuff in this class, but I doubt it will take any more than my simple presence (listening to the lectures) to guarantee myself an A in this course.
“What about that girl-in-your-computer-class stuff?” Well, not to worry. Being a night class, and a programming one at that, most of the people are men and the females in the class are, on average, significantly older than I am. 
Plus, it’s a bitterly painful but nonetheless true fact that any girl who takes a programming class that ends at 10pm on a Tuesday night is probably “a little off” anyway if you know what I mean ^_- Thus, everyone’s fears of Scott’s reversion to his past ways because of a girl can be put to rest, and the ugly-masked head of opportunity has descended back through the waters of apathy. Welcome to my life folks.
Okay, back to this feminine sentimental sunshine crap. If you were to think the title of this paragraph sounds like it’s trying to overcompensate in preparation for the femininity of what I’m about to write, you’d be absolutely correct. Guys aren’t supposed to have feelings! Come on, this is America! Plus, I strongly resemble Arnold Schwarzenegger (not just in the fact that I’m so incredibly muscular) so I have this image to keep, ya’ know? Heh, what am I talking about; I’m such a dork. I think my website (“Scott Is Hot”) is about to boot me off for false advertising ^_^ Anyway, with the silly introduction out of the way it’s time to seriously discuss the topic that’s been on my mind. You see, it’s about my book. As you all know I’m trying (ever so slowly) to write a book. I thought it would be a good way to kill time over Christmas break but I have now become somewhat attached to the story. The book is set up in a way that’s somewhat peculiar. The story is literally about me… on December 17, 2004. That’s right, the last day of my classes for that semester. I describe me, myself, my past, who I am, etc. Thus, everything that happens to the main character (me) is stuff that I have to write for myself. Thus, whatever the story calls for, whatever I write, whatever happens I’m the one who lives it out. Since I have some experience writing in the first person quasi-omnipotent perspective (about a quarter-million blogged words in the last two years) I figured the book could be written ever so delicately in the same manner. To make the writing better (or perhaps simply to make it easier to write) I have to visualize myself in the situations of the story for a while before I can write a scene. So, what’s the problem? I’m at that point of the book now that I thought I’d enjoy writing about. The protagonist (me!) “gently falls in love”, and it’s driving me OUT OF MY MIND! :X_x:
“Dude, what’s so difficult in writing about yourself falling in love?” EVERYTHING! It’s a story, right? What if it could happen! What if I were writing my own future… I owe it to myself in the story! I want… I want it to be perfect. I want it to be memorable. I want it to be wonderful. I want it to be beautiful. And, for whatever stupid reason, I have this silly idea that what I write might actually happen to me. That’s where it’s starting to bother me. “What are you doing to yourself?!” I hear my mind scream at me. I’ve written countless times on this website about how much I love watching my little South Korean romantic melodramas because the stories in them are so wonderful (I’d say “really cute”, but my low masculinity warning light is flashing). The problem is that I’ve far overexposed myself to these tasty little mental morsels of ideality. I’ve come to expect the far-impossible in any kind of relationship I’d have, and after focusing so much for so long on these stores that… just… could never happen, I find myself having to mentally prepare for what feels like disappointment. Yeah, it’s really fun to watch stories where things happen so perfectly, but this is life. Things like that would never happen to me! 
However I [know that I] have set my expectations far beyond the simple realms of reality for far too long, and it’s probably why I haven’t had a relationship in [scratches head] … [looks at hand] … [counts finger-years] … [runs out of fingers] … forever! I know that I purposely distance myself from girls that I know wouldn’t work out for me, and that’s cool and all. However, I don’t know; it’s one of those [rare] times where I’m at a complete loss of words. Actually, I’m deviating off my original intent of this topic. Back to the point…
It’s about what I want to happen. In my story, I (or at least my clone-like character) met a wonderful, beautiful, sweet, and kind girl my age. I have to show that their relationship is both deep and close, but at the same time not rushed or immature (which I believe are the same on some levels anyway). I do most of my thinking for my writings at night when I’m laying in bed. Actually, I don’t have a bed. I sleep on the floor. I have a thick blanket that I lay down on my hardwood floors and I rest on top of it. When I think about things, I lay in this really unique position; I’ll try my best to describe it. I lay on my stomach with my head to the right and my arms crossed, but not symmetrically. My left arm is reaching over my right shoulder and overlapping my right arm. My left arm, touching the back of my right shoulder, is strangely comforting. I don’t know if it’s because it feels like someone else’s hand touching my shoulder, or if it’s just because of the heat of my own arm. Anyhow, like I said my head is twisted to the right and laying on my pillow. My right leg is straight and my left leg is bent slightly outward so I can press the bottom of my right foot on the top of my left foot and interlock my toes. I think it gives a strange sense of closeness, almost like curling up in a ball or hugging your own chest. Nonetheless, I remain in this position for a very long time. And, when I think about things like how I want my story to go (or anything for that matter) I often find my thoughts drifting to another topic that I still find very important to me. “Her”. That’s right, I’m talking about “her” again. While some people (most people at that) think it’s really stupid or cheesy or whatever, I find myself spending a lot of time thinking about what my life will be like in the next few decades, years, or months… especially what would happen if I happened to meet someone =o, While I know the chances of meeting (in the next few weeks) the girl who may one day become my wife, I think that if it’s something that’s meant to be it’ll happen eventually. (That’s why I would never want to settle for anyone who I don’t think would work out for me in the first place. Making frivolous and shallow relationships (I believe) would only hurt the one relationship that I already now find so important, and that’s the one I (will eventually) have with my wife.) That’s why I’m so content waiting and watching. Does it get lonely? Yeah, but there’s something I do when that thought arises as I’m thinking in my bed. Remember my right arm wrapped tightly around my chest? My left hand is wrapped around the left side of my torso. My fingers settle in the niches of space between my ribs. I close my eyes; close my ears, listen and feel. I can feel my heart beating between my fingers, and I can hear the gentle rush of blood through the veins in my neck if I breathe quietly. Listening to my heartbeat, I’m surprisingly comforted. I know that the girl I will one day marry is alive somewhere right now, and hers is beating right now as I think of her. I always smile when I think about it; It’s my favorite way of painting flesh on a hypothetical reality placed so far in my future, yet she feels so real to me ^_^
Okay, now that I’ve finally lost every shred of dignity, it’s time for me to scoot outta here! I can’t believe I’m still writing this; it’s 2:10am and I have a million other things I have to do tonight. Oh well, it’s all cool. I’m glad my site’s up again (Thanks Keiko!) and I got smiles working as well because I’m just so darn smart! :=o,: Anyhow, I hope you have a good day and don’t forget to comment! I’d love to hear what you all have to say. Have a good one! –Scott
Keiko Saves the Day!
Posted by Scott January 15th, 2005 | 5,253 words | 5 Comments »
The situation was looking hopeless. About a week ago the computers that held my website mysteriously became unavailable. A few days later, they came back online but with large chunks of data missing. One set of this missing data was the SQL database that held the contents of my weblog. While I was always careful to keep good 
backups of my writings when I used my old movabletype-based weblogging engine, the new wordpress engine I began using a few months earlier had not yet been saved to my local computer. Thus, when the remote network went down and all of my writings were suddenly inaccessible, I began to realize the full extent of my loss; thousands of blogged words that I thought I could never reclaim…
Keiko came in just in time to save the day! Keiko is a girl I met a little while ago who occasionally comments on my website. While I’ve never met her in person, we’ve exchanged a few emails and I consider her a good friend of mine. Last night I got an incredible email from Keiko! She sent me a .zip of my entire website (generated with a web-crawler) barely a week before all of the data was lost! Her zip contained every blog entry I had ever written except for the most recent two, which I still had saved as word documents on my own computer! Thanks to Keiko, this site will emerge from beneath this mini-catastrophe without a scratch.
Keiko, speaking for myself and all of my blog readers alike, thank you! Words cannot express my gratitude and appreciation for your effort in getting this website back on its feet, and I don’t know what I’d have done without your help. You truly are responsible for preventing the permanent loss of thousands of my written words, and I just wanted to let you know that what you did really means a lot to me. Thank you for all you’ve done, and if you ever need anything from me just let me know. I’ll be sure to use your name in my book ^_- Thanks again Keiko; you’re awesome! :^_^:
ALMOST BACK!
Posted by Scott January 14th, 2005 | 5,253 words | 1 Comment »
A Final Recovery…
Posted by Scott January 14th, 2005 | 5,253 words | 2 Comments »
I’ll be quite frank with you right now*; the last thing on the entire planet I want to do is write this blog entry. I don’t know what it is, but lately every time I so much as thing about my blog, my mind fills with disgust and I try to contrive some reason or excuse for me to avoid writing here. However, too much time has gone by and too many things have happened. I can’t put it off any more, I simply must write more about my life. My last entry was made before new years, and before Christmas at that! I feel that I’m neglecting my fellow dedicated readers, but avoid guilt by telling myself that I’ve been simply too busy to write my blog (which is a downright lie). So, with no further adieu, I’ll do my best to catch ya’ up on what’s been happening in the crazy world that is Scott’s reality. Welcome to the first entry of two thousand and five!
My Christmas was wonderful! I thank all of you who sent me emails over the holidays for your kind words; they certainly meant a lot to me and I greatly appreciate them. One question that everyone has been asking me lately is “Well, did ya’ get your minidisk player?” Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I most certainly did. However, I even got a little more than I expected; this thing is awesome! It can read/write those super capacity 1GB minidisks so I can easily store 45 hours of music on a single disk. The recording capabilities on this little guy are pretty nice as well. I tested it by running it in my backpack and talking quietly across the room. On the recording settings I’d use to record my lectures, I can fit over two thousand minutes of live-recorded audio on a single minidisk (that’s re-writable and costs less than 1$!). It also has a really nifty (for the lack of a better word) remote control stick that lets me do everything on it and it is backlit too! How cool is that? I’m really happy with this little guy and have to both thank and congratulate my parents for finding such a good minidisk player. So, yeah, this thing will be getting some mileage over the next few years.
That’s not a burning Christmas tree is it? I’m afraid it is. Being the personality types that they are, my dad and sister thought it would be amusing if they took our Christmas tree out in the back yard to burn it when we were done with it. Well, the thing was practically dead and hadn’t been drinking much water for the few weeks we had it, so needless to say it was pretty dry. Since it was the momentary spectacle of the neighborhood, a few of the neighbors came out to watch. One of my neighbors is pictured here helping set-up the tree. Then, twenty seconds and one match later (with no accelerants like gasoline) this tree was ablaze. This flame was really big, and even I was both surprised and impressed at the speed and size of this fire. Then I started thinking about how dangerous these things really are to have inside of our house. I mean, we had this thing in our living room for a month… wrapped in ribbons of electrical illumination devices! Take this as a word of caution and a simple lesson to anyone who buys Christmas trees. Be super-careful to keep these things from lighting up inside your house! Okay, that’s about it for that topic.
Oh yeah, and another thing*… I got glasses a few days ago. Every time I wear my contacts my eyes turn bloodshot-red and I even heard a person one day say that she thought I was having a hangover. Well, I don’t have a whole lot to say on this topic, but I thought I’d at least let it out there. I’m trying to get used to these things, but they feel weird to me and look even weirder. I never wore glasses in my life, and then one day all the sudden… wham! I look different. They don’t look like “me”. They don’t seem to fit “me”. However, I think it’s just because I’m not used to seeing myself with them. I’m sure in a few days it won’t feel like such a big deal.
No way; you went to a LAN party?! Yes, I confess; however, I digress. To understand the situation, I have to back up a few days. About four days proceeding Christmas, I found an article on a website on how to get Counterstrike Source for free. “Source” is the newest and best version of Counterstrike, an online multiplayer first person shooter game where you pretty much work with a team (Terrorists vs. Counter-Terrorists) and try to eliminate the other team with force (specifically guns, grenades, and knives). It’s a fun game because there’s never a true end to it. The better you get, the more you can do, and the more fun it gets. I hadn’t played counterstrike in years so I thought it’d be a fun project to embark on. To make a long story short, it took me over two and a half solid days of work before I successfully got the program to run. Granted, I could have gone out and bought it for 50$, but there’s something about spending a lot of time and getting it for free that makes it so much more fun! Well, when I finally got the game running I was ecstatic, but once I started my first round I was heartbroken. My computer was too slow to run the game smoothly; I would see approximately one frame every second. I couldn’t play like this! It was more frustrating than if it had not worked at all. In my frustrated gaming ecstasy, I raced out and bought a graphics accelerator from Circuit City. Yes, I paid over 60$ for a GeForce 2 MX 4000 AGP card with 128mb of DDR on the card. To place the rip-off level in perspective, over a year ago I bought the identical card for a friend for his Christmas gift on eBay for (what I remember to be) less than thirty five dollars. However, I didn’t spend three days of my life working on a game only to have to wait two weeks until a card is delivered to play it. I marched in the store, grabbed the box, slapped a Benjamin down on the counter, and raced back home. I don’t think I left my room for the next three or four days. I’d like to continue, but I feel the need to break into a new paragraph.
So what happened?! Saturday night at 11:15pm, I get a phone call from an old friend of mine. “Hey Scott, do you want to have a LAN party tonight?” My eyes widened and lit up with the beautiful joy and excitement that could only be unleashed by these simple words. I accepted his offer and hurried to collect my entire computer junk collection together and throw it in my car. I drove to his house and arrived there around midnight. We set up the computers, got a little network going, installed counterstrike source on all of them, and had fun all night hopping into online servers and working together as a team to blow away the other team. However, with any all-night ventures, around five in the morning laugher is contagious. Things that are not funny suddenly become so, and for about fifteen minutes everyone laughs uncontrollably; one of the most enjoyable and memorable moments of every LAN party experience. Anyway, around 9:30am the next day (not having slept the entire night before) I packed all of my stuff back in my car, helped the guy clean up a little, thanked him for having me over, and drove back home. I stayed awake just long enough to shower and change, but as soon as my body hit the floor afterwards I was fast asleep. So, quite possibly being the last LAN party of my life, I am thankful for the great time I had and am ready to move on once again with my life. Knowing that I get nothing done when I have distractions such as these available to me, I boxed up my recently purchased graphics card and returned it to the store for a full refund. Hoary! I got all my money back and I used it for a good solid week; well over one hundred hours. So, now I’m gameless and spending my time once again writing my blog and working on my book.
Video Clip : For those of you who want to feel a sense of the delirious humor that is so casually released by people around seven in the morning after a solid night without sleep staying up gaming, this video clip is for you. Jared (the guy who is shown most in this clip) is having fun being annoying. I confess, I too was much enjoying it. The way this game works is that at your base when you first start a round, you are all in the same place and have to buy your guns, ammo, and equipment and then try to run to the other side of the map to confront the terrorists. This game has the feature of voice communication so you can say things to your teammates over the internet with the microphone. Combining silly accents with stupid comments and annoying habits (like throwing eye-blinding flash grenades in front of a group of your own teammates when the round begins) much fun can be delightfully obtained. Surprisingly, not many administrators are playing on their servers in the middle of the night, so we were almost never kicked form any servers. It was fun. The quote from the video clip is “Don’t forget your flashbang man!” right before Jared blinds his teammates. You can download the clip here: flashbanger.avi
http://www.mspaint.org/tmp/flashbanger.avi
I’d like to through out a word of thanks to my friend Jeff (www.mspaint.org) for allowing me to store the video clip on his server until mine gets up and working again. Thanks Jeff!
Uh oh, you’re not breathing too much into some little thing that happened a few days ago are you? For the sake of factious enjoyment, yes I am. I’d like to write a little bit today in my blog, so here I go. [Clears throat] I could feel the warm heat of the sun gleaming on my face and neck as I walked into the Parena Bread café / restaurant. With a backpack on my shoulder I confidently walked in the door and down the isle of booths until I eyed one with a wall socket near by. I glanced at my watch… 2:15pm. I looked around the restaurant and happily noticed that there were few people dining. “Perfect timing Scott”, I reassured myself. I whipped out my trust ‘ol laptop and set it delicately on the small round table in front of me. I opened up the word document containing the next chapter of the silly little book I’m trying to write and began to type. About two hours later, I realized my fingers were sore and I was becoming mentally exhausted. I leaned back in my booth and massaged my fingers against each other. With my grey tennis shoes (that used to be white before I got them all dirty) and my jeans that hadn’t been washed in two days and my nicely pressed but slightly small blue t-shirt I slowly got up to stretch my back. I glanced toward the counter where the cash registers are and noticed the girl behind the desk was staring at me. I looked at my watch. It was almost five o-clock. I decided I could use some caffeine, so I began to slowly walk toward the counter. As I walked, I studied the girl behind the register. She was about my height with long brown hair that seemed very light yet remained in place even when she moved. Her eyes were a deep brown, so dark that the edge of her pupil and iris were indistinguishable to my eyes. “I’d like a small drink”, I said with a gently smile. I pulled-out my wallet and started fingering through bills. I knew the price of drinks at this place was a little high, at well over a dollar for a small styrofoam cup. I slapped two Washington’s on the counter and slid them to the nameless cashier. She slid a cup off it’s tower of other cups and handed it to me. Either her hands were really wrapped around the cup, or she intentionally let her fingers rest on the edge for a few extra seconds; when I grabbed it our hands touched. Being somewhat surprised at what happened, I looked at her as she looked over her shoulders. Both of us still holding the cup, she winked at me and let go. I, trying to figure out what was going on, gave my trademark look of “huh?” She looked down at the counter and my eyes followed her path as well. She reached forward and slid the money back to my side of the counter. “It’s cool”, she said with another smile. “Wow, thanks a lot” I said finally realizing what had just happened. I picked up the cup (thankful that I didn’t drop it in my clumsiness) and casually walked to the soda machine and filled that sucker up with Dr. Pepper. I returned to my booth and set my drink beside my laptop and thought to myself “perhaps you should wear your glasses more often?”
postscript: I was going to return to that restaurant today to continue working on my writings, but I now feel too stupid, awkward, and embarrassed to do so. It’s strange enough to suddenly show-up at a café every day, but to do it the day after a girl winks at you and gives you free stuff might falsely cast-off some strange signals
So how’s that book going? I’m glad you asked; it’s becoming really fun. I’m glad I decided to sit down and start this project. I have a good week to finish it, and I thin it’s a realistic goal. While I still am only on the first few opening chapters, I think that once I get to the true gut of the story and begin working hands-on with the ironic twists in the middle to prepare for the story at the end, it’ll become easier for me to write quickly. I am slightly disappointed at the length of my descriptions. I was originally (weeks ago) planning on being able to have a lot of time to write and thus being able to spend time intricately setting up each event with many words to form a novel. However, the reality of my situation calls for me to write a book and not a novel. It’ll probably be better that way anyhow; it’s much easier to read the way I’m writing it now.
Oh yes, there’s one thing I’d love to mention*. A few days ago (when I started getting into the chapters where I introduced the main girl of my story) I was struggling with a name for her. I was originally thinking of calling her Kanya, but I started thinking that perhaps a better name for her character was out there. I thought about my website and Kei’s comments came to mind, so I decided to contact her and ask her what she thought about the possibility of me naming the main female character of my book after her. She said it would be fine, and also said something along the lines of “I’m honored that you chose my name for the girl who plays the central female role if your sappy little romance novel.” Kei’s humor is always so cruel ^_-
And with that I should get going*. I have a lot to do tonight and my time is running out. It was nice blogging again, once I got past my first paragraph and its frustrations. I hope you’re all doing well and have had an awesome holiday season and a merry Christmas! Keep the emails and comments rolling in. Have an awesome day! –Scott
School Lets Out; Boredom Sets In
Posted by Scott January 14th, 2005 | 5,253 words | 5 Comments »
As I slowly inhale the warm moist evening breeze, I can feel the icy fingers of stress being gently pried from my mind as a feeling of relief 
base_href=”http://www.ScottIsHot.com” align=”right”>rushes
over my soul and pure and blissful tranquility drowns my heart in a sea
of luxurious freedom that could only be formed by the sublimation of
academic responsibility to the undeniable yet unmistakable feeling of
simple independence from impending exams. Yes, I have finished yet
another semester of college. One more semester down, twenty-six to go!
And, if you’re a Chemistry guru, do not email me pointing out
my poetic inaccuracy. I know that sublimation is the instant conversion
of a solid to a gas; therefore a “sea” of luxurious freedom is
impossible, at least in freedom’s liquid sense. Oh, wait a minute; I’m
not supposed to be talking about Chemistry anymore. I’m done with
Chemistry! I finished Chemistry II and feel fairly good about all my
classes’ final exams. Tonight I come to you in relief and in boredom.
I’m relieved that another semester is finally over and that I’ll never
have to take a general Chemistry class for as long as I live; yet I’m
saddened because, since school has been all I’ve done lately, school is
all I have. Now, when school ends for a few weeks, I find myself
useless. I have nothing to do, know no place to go, am friends with no
one who would want to meet me, and don’t have any projects that I can
begin with realistic hopes of completion. I’m entrapped between the two
giant slabs of semester chunks, and feel I can do absolutely nothing
constructive. I tried to bask in the lack of reasonability, but it in
itself became boring after a few days. With disappointment and bored
frustration, I come to you tonight to add another collection of
scattered thoughts to my ever-growing collection of memories, hopes,
and dreams. Welcome to my blog.
In preparation for the upcoming semester,
I’ve created a written document specifying some of the aspects of my
life and personality I’d like to change for the next chunk of classes.
I’ve decided to post it publicly so it adds accountability on my part
and also so it may help some of you who might want to use some of my
ideas to improve your own life this upcoming semester. So, with no
further adieu; I give you my list of self improvements for the semester
of fall 2005:
- Improve your organization
– Last semester you wasted so much time looking for and rewriting lost
assignments because you weren’t very organized. There are two things
you need to do right now to prepare yourself for this semester of
schoolwork. First, carry a calendar-style schedule and study with it!
Always know when tests are approaching and what other tests lay
immediately ahead so you’re never caught off guard. Secondly, only
carry one clip book to class that contains paper and any assignments
you need to turn in. Take all of your notes in this clip book and
collect all returned papers in it. At the end of the day (or whenever
necessary) go through the clip book and place the papers in their
respective folders. There’s no need to lug around a million separate
clip books to every class. Super-loaded backpacks look stupid, and
carrying two backpacks looks ridiculous. Just be cool and stay
organized.
- Try to meet as many people as you can
– As independent as you are (or would like to be) there will probably
be a time next semester when you will need to rely on one of your
classmates to help you out. On the very first day of classes, try to
talk with as many people in your class as you can. Get to know who’s
smart, who’s responsible, and who you want to trade phone numbers with.
Keep the numbers organized, and do not exchange email addresses. Try
your best to remember peoples names, because that’s one thing you often
screw up that really makes a bad impression. Also, don’t just get phone
numbers of girls in your class. You stupid boy =op
- Read ahead and know the material before it’s lectured
– I know this might sound crazy, but think about it. If you’re going to
cram for an exam, you’ll read all the material in the textbook dealing
with the chapters to be tested on. To prevent cramming, you can read
your book every day. However, you can get a whole lot more from the
lectures if you’re already familiar with whatever it is the professor
is lecturing about if you read the material before hand! Scott, listen
to me here; this is really important. Try your hardest to read the
chapter(s) in the book before they’re lectured on. It will
make you learn it better, let you get more from the lecture, and also
be rewarding when you feel really smart and prepared. Plus, if you keep
it up every day, you’ll never have to study for an exam! So do your
best to read the material ahead of time. Also, if anyone asks you if
you read the book, deny it! The last thing you need is people (students
or professors) thinking you try too hard. Just play it cool and read
the book secretly; don’t be geeky and brag about it.
- Dress nicely!
– You really let your looks slack last semester. I mean, you wore the
identical outfit (jeans and a blue hooded sweatshirt) for how many
weeks in a row last semester? While it’s convenient and easy, it’s
definitely not cool. You need to dress nicer and change your clothes
occasionally. You’re not doing this to look or act cool; you’re doing
this to look and act responsible. You’re getting older, and you need to
take and properly manage the responsibility of your own wardrobe better
than you have been.
- Continuously work on your persona
– In the professional environment, you will greatly benefit from the
ability to control the way you act and modify your personality. While
you may have a lot to say and even earnestly think other people
actually care, let it go. Do your best to act quiet, yet polite;
mature, yet humble. If you can flip your personality one hundred and
eighty degrees, things will work out much better for you in the future.
So remember, be nice and personable! Just be quiet at the same time.
- Never even so much as utter a single word about your past
– The last thing you need is your current plan and future goals soiled
by some stupid reference to your past. Think about what you say, and
don’t talk about who you were. Just focus on who you are and who you
are striving to become. I mean, come on Scott, no one really
cares to hear your “when I had sixteen computers” stories. Even if it
may be tempting, refrain; you’re trying to change, remember?
- Refrain from saying academic things are difficult
– While people might admire (or perhaps even respect) you for handling
yourself well under an immense load of work, impending exams, and
bitter stress, you don’t need to publicly agree with them. When you
admit that things are difficult, it sounds like you’re asking for
sympathy (even when this is not the case in your own mind). Play it
cool and don’t give in to other peoples comments about the amount of
work you’re under. Plan ahead and prove your responsibility. If someone
asks about an upcoming exam or something like that, just casually reply
with “It’ll be a lot of work, but I can handle it.”
- Get in each of your professors offices in the first week
– You think the teacher’s pet phenomenon only applies to the second
grade? Think again. Find some stupid reason to go to your professors’
offices as early as possible in the semester. It will give you a better
idea of what the professors are like, allow you to feel more
comfortable in their offices for later visits when they may become
important, and also let you get to know the professors on a personal
level. The more you know about them, the more you can work to tailor
your assignments to their likings. Hey, it sounds childish, but it
could get you higher grades; it’s worth it. Showing up in their office
shows that you care about your grade actually care about learning the
material. One really good thing to ask them to drive this point home is
“How do you suggest I begin preparing for the final exam so when the
end of the semester comes I won’t have to cram everything in at the
last minute?”
- Play dumb in your computer class – I can’t believe you Scott, you’re such a DORK! You needed three extra semester hours so, of all classes, you signed up for a basic UNIX
computer class? I understand you think it’ll be an easy A but jeez! All
right, the time for registration is over so I guess this class is
final. You have to prepare yourself for how you’re going to act in this
class. Here are a few points.
- Sit in the back row
- Don’t answer any questions
- Purposely get some questions wrong on quizzes
- Don’t overdo your projects in perfection
- Refrain from using the computer for email
- If asked, claim you know nothing
- Do not let anyone know about your website
- Do NOT befriend a girl in your computer class!
– Even if this girl, in her ever-flowing superfluous beauty is
seemingly perfect for you, refrain! Don’t let yourself even become
slightly interested in any girl in your computer class. She will
result in your demise. On the first day of class, scope-out all of the
women in the class. If there are any you could possibly see yourself
becoming interested in, make a mental note of their faces. Do not allow
yourself to give them any special attention. Do whatever it takes to
let it go. Picture them picking their nose or something; I don’t care
what you do, just get your mind off it and let it go. Meeting a girl
with a computer major would cripple your plans and destroy everything
you’re working for. If a girl in this class shows interest in you
(we’re now treading on the hypothetical of the hypothetical) do
whatever it takes to give her the impression that you’re not the kind
of guy she should be hanging around. Don’t be mean to her, but politely
and casually show disinterest. Don’t even risk befriending a girl in
this class. Seriously man, it’s that important.
- Make sure you go by the name “Ian”
– Remember (and practice) giving introductions. “Hey I’m Ian; what’s
your name?” When a professor does a roll call on the first day and
calls your name, you’ll just say “Actually I go by Ian” and don’t feel
the need to explain anything. Practice these lines so they
become comfortable to you. If someone asks why you go by Ian, just tell
them that once you were in a class with three Scott’s and started going
by a different name. Don’t let it get complicated, just keep it
comfortable. The change of your name will serve as a perfect remind of
what you’re trying to accomplish.
- Get advice from Misia
– Just because she’s gone doesn’t mean that she is out of reach. Try to
talk with her every once and a while and seriously consider the things
she points out. However, just because she tells you what to do doesn’t
mean that you have to do it. Just listen and be there for her when she
needs you; she will always be there for you when you need her. ^_^
Okay, enough about that.
I’m really looking forward to next semester’s classes. I think I’ll
have a lot of fun! I have a lighter load than I have traditionally had
(since it’s the last semester of my AA Biology
degree) and it’ll be like the easy senior year of high school that I
never had. I’ll be taking interesting classes too! Biology II, Physics
II, Calculus III, and a UNIX
class; how much better could it get? I just need to be prepared to work
hard and not get behind and constantly re-read the twelve points I
wrote today, and I’m sure I’ll have a lot of fun. Also, I found out I
got accepted into Union University! I sent applications to four private
colleges with good premedical programs; Carson-Newman College, Samford
University, Union University, and Mississippi College. At that point, I
hadn’t decided where I wanted to go, so I figured that my acceptance
would determine where I went. Well, I got accepted into all four (lol)
which didn’t narrow-down my selection any. I eventually crossed out
Carson-Newman and Samford because their premedical programs didn’t have
as much to offer as Union University or Mississippi College. I still
haven’t definitely decided between the two, but at this point I’m
leaning toward Union University. Union University is in Texas, and
Mississippi College is in Nevada (just kidding). Now that the college
update is complete; on with the blog!
I saw House of Flying Daggers yesterday!
If you’re interested in seeing it but haven’t yet, please skip this
paragraph. What I’m about to say will spoil the movie for anyone
intently wanting to see it for the first time. All right, I had a big
problem with this movie! The script tried to make one dude look like
the 
base_href=”http://www.ScottIsHot.com” align=”right”>“bad
guy” when really I thought he was the good guy! Okay, in general the
plot’s like this. Two police dudes hunt down a girl in an
anti-government clan. We’ll call them Tom and Bob, and the girl will be
Amy. Tom is above Bob in rank, and Tom acts very wise. Bob is a player
(for a lack of a better word) who often selfishly seduces women etc.
Amy is captured by Bob who pretends he’s not a police to try to get her
to give him information about the ring leaders. He get led into a trap,
as he finds himself captured by the ring. Tom, the higher-level police
man, is then seen conversing with the ring. In other words, Tom was a
mole in the government, who was [quasi-secretly] in love with Amy. It
caused him pain to see Bob so frivolously ‘engaging’ with his girl, but
he kept it quiet knowing it was part of the plan. Then, finally, when
Tom meets the girl he loves, she says she likes Bob now! He then says a
quote something along the lines of “I’ve sacrificed my life for you for
three years only to hear you say you love a man you haven’t even known
three days.” At this point, the story turns to try to make Tom out to
be the bad guy. I think Amy should die, and Bob too. Grr. I’m mad.
Overall, the story is interesting and the scenery is beautiful. All in
all, it’s a “fun movie”. I recommend it only to those willing to spend
a few hours of their time being amused rather than entertained.
I have to get going now.
There are some more things I wanted to do this afternoon before company
comes tonight. My days will become more and more hectic as Christmas
approaches. Oh, wait, that’s not what I’m supposed to say! What was it?
Oh yes! “It’ll be a lot of work, but I can handle it!” Have an awesome
day!
Bitter Disappointment; Final Grades Are In
Posted by Scott January 14th, 2005 | 5,253 words | 3 Comments »
Welcome to the nonsensical ramblings of a lunatic mind. No, you haven’t stepped into the scene of Young Frankenstein,
you’ve unknowing launched yourself into an arena where reality and
logic rival. Welcome to my blog. There’s no need for a lengthy
introduction this evening. No sir; tonight this is between me and the
blog. We have some personal issues to discuss. It appears I’m holding
my persona together well and 
base_href=”http://www.ScottIsHot.com” align=”right”>delicately
managing my informal yet curiously proper English. However, don’t let
my symbiotic relationship with my blog fool you. Although we both
greatly depend on each other in our everyday lives, we’re fighting
underneath. So, with no further adieu, I give you tonight’s entry into
what very well might become the greatest work I have ever created; my
blog.
Yes, my final grades have been processed.
I’m in a good mood and feel like writing elegantly tonight. No,
elegantly isn’t the right word. I feel like writing spiritedly tonight!
I haven’t had any fun today. At least I can go to my room late at night
and enjoy myself vicariously through my own writings. Originally I
planned to spawn a new paragraph in large block quotes, but rather I
fill it would make my front page look cleaner if I just write the
paragraph inline. All right, here I go. “This doesn’t leave the room” I
facetiously (yet seriously) said to my sister as she entered the room.
“Dang”, I thought to myself, “I’ve been caught in the most embarrassing
act any man could be walked-in upon doing!” “Oh my gosh”, she uttered.
I knew the future dignity of my entire life had ended at that moment.
“You’re watching ice skating on TV!” She had obviously be watching me
for a while; I couldn’t change the station and pull the
oops-wrong-channel trick. The silence was deafening. Thankfully, I
heard a sound that sounded as if angles themselves were singing down
from heaven. “That’s my phone!” I yelled as I raced out of the room.
Finally, a perfect excuse to leave this embarrassing situation! I raced
to my room and closed the door, only to casually stroll to the phone on
my desk in relief of the awkward moment broken by the high pitched ring
of my cell. It’s late; who could be calling me this time of night? I
flipped open the lid with one finger in a style reminiscent of James
Bond. Huh, it’s Marena. “Hello?” I half asked, half stated. “Hey Scott,
you can check your grades already!” came the cheerful voice on the
other end of the phone. We spoke professionally (for lack of a better
word) with no chitchat or small talk. She explained that if I logged
into the colleges website and tried to submit a null online transcript
for viewing, my grades would be posted even though they’re not supposed
to be available until tomorrow morning. Still staying on the phone, I
quickly went through the steps and clicked the submit button to look at
my transcripts. “It’s loading” I said with a slight quiver in my voice.
It seemed as hours were passing as I watched the progress bar slowly
fill from left to right. I heard the shuffle of paper on Marena’s end.
I looked at my watch; 6:42pm. She must be at work, I thought to myself
trying to distract myself from the intensity of my own anticipation.
All I had worked this semester, everything I had put into my
schoolwork, everything I had worked for… boiled down to this moment. I
would be able to see the grades I had earned and finally feel a sense
of accomplishment. Until this moment, everything I had worked for was
without purpose. I felt a bead of sweat form on my left brow as I
waited, and I heard the audible “pink!” as it dropped on my desk once
the page loaded. I scrolled down, searching for the last semester’s
transcript feverishly. It all came down to this! Finally I would feel a
sense of accomplishment and reward for working so diligently on my
studies this semester. A grin crept over my mouth as my eyes locked
onto the column and I saw my classes listed. I inhaled slowly and
loudly, forgetting I was still on the phone. My eyes aligned with the
column of grades and slowly followed them down. Physics I, A. Biology
I, A. Calculus II, A! All right! That was a tough class. Chemistry II,
B. Buh-… buh-… B?! I got a freaking B? After all the work I put into
that class, I get a B?!? AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Okay, well, yeah; it looks like I didn’t get straight A’s this semester. I will next semester though, thanks to my twelve point list I blogged about in the previous entry! ^_^ My GPA
is now only a 3.74, which isn’t that hot; I need it to be higher if I
want to be seriously considered for medical school. At any rate, I do
confess that Chemistry II is the class I most slacked on, and while I
worked really hard at it, I don’t object to my grade. I had an A
average on all my quizzes and tests until the last week of class, and I
blew it BIG TIME. It really stinks, because
Chemistry is a class I’ll need to have done well in. However, there’s
nothing I can do now except to try harder in the future, which is
something I’m most definitely going to be doing.
Hey Scott, what do you want for Christmas?
I’m glad you asked! I haven’t blogged about it this year. All right,
let’s see here. Portable music players are popular these days, and I
don’t have one! 
base_href=”http://www.ScottIsHot.com” align=”left”>I have an MP3 CD
player that I got almost five years ago (it’s hard to believe it’s so
old!) when they were brand new. Actually, I think mine may have been
the first real domestic MP3 CD
player. It’s a Rio Volt (the old blue one) and I got it the opening
weekend the first day it was being sold. I love that CD player, and I
still use it a lot. However, lately I’ve been realizing that I could
benefit from something a little different. The CD player is fairly
large (and so are cases of CDs) and it’s not something I can use except
for listening to music I’ve burned. In other words, I can’t record with
it. In some of my upcoming classes (both next semester and in the
future) I think I could greatly benefit from recording lectures of
difficult classes and listening to them later (as I drive home
perhaps?). All practically aside; I just want something. It’s been ages
since I actually wanted something, and I didn’t want this Christmas to
come around with me not knowing what I want and having to settle for
another IOU Christmas coupon that I would
redeem five and a half months later. This will probably be the last
Christmas I spend living with my family! I had to ask for something! So, what am I asking for? Duh duh DUH!
Why can’t you just be NORMAL? This isn’t Japan! No one has Minidisk players!
Well, I will! That is, if I’ve been a good boy this year. For this
Christmas, I’m hoping to luck-out with a high-end Sony minidisk player.
If you haven’t heard of a minidisk player, it’s probably because you’re
either a.) 
base_href=”http://www.ScottIsHot.com” align=”right”>not
tech savvy or b.) live in America. These things are nothing new, and
have been floating around Asia for years. On the downside, they’re a
little larger than today’s super-compact mp3 players and somewhat
pricey. So, why would I want one? For me, the benefits greatly outweigh
the disadvantages. First of all, it’s not that big. It’s far smaller
than a CD player. They use minidisks which are floppy-shaped magnetic
storage devices a little bit smaller than normal floppy disks. The
player is about the size of these disks. The thing that makes it so
cool (for me) is that you can record to these disks, unlike a CD. You
can erase them too, so they’re rewritable (unlike CDs). Also, the media
is cheap! Unlike flash style mp3 players with cards easily exceeding
$50 each, minidisks are relatively cheap. They’re usually less than 1$
each. I know you’re about to ask the big question; “So how much can a
single minidisk hold anyway?” Well, there are different ways to encode
music files to these discs. Nice minidisk players (aka: the kind I
want) can encode over 5 hours of music onto a single disk
which costs less than a dollar! Then, if you want to listen to another
set of music, you can just pop in another inexpensive disk! Try that
with an mp3 player. The minidisk player I’m hoping for is also cool
because, although it has a display on the front of the unit, it also
has a display on the remote control stick. I can easily leave the
device in my pocket and just use the illuminated text-display remote
control stick to navigate and change songs. How cool is that? We’ll see
what happens this Saturday. Actually, it boils down to whether or not
my parents know how to use EBay correctly ^_-
PS: You
know that little disk-looking thing that the dude in my title image was
holding a few days ago? That was supposed to be a minidisk. Although,
as some of you remember, it’s peculiar shape resembled something else.
Moving right along…
PPS:
See that clunky part at the base of the minidisk player? That’s an
external battery pack for when you want to use the recording feature
for many hours without wanting to drain your batteries. It just slides
off and once again becomes pocket sized
I found some new music
that I thought I’d share with all my wonderful blogreaders. As you
probably know, my tastes are somewhat unique. I like a lot of different
genres of music, as long as it doesn’t have words that I can understand
(it detracts from the music!). Consequently, I listen to a lot of
Japanese contemporary music, Korean vocal music, old German operas, and
now I can add French tango to my list. Yes, tonight’s mp3 downloads
will be in French. An old friend of mine emailed me the name of a band
and a few songs saying I should look into it because she thought I’d
like it. Well, I dug around on emule (embarrassing p2p client, I know)
and I found some. I have to say it; I’m hooked! This stuff is fairly
addictive. It’s “uppy” enough to be energetic yet not exhaustive, but
it’s smooth enough to be relaxing at the same time. It’s perfect music
to write to, so needless to say I’ve been listening to it a lot lately.
Chances are, if you watch TV, you’ve probably heard of one of the songs
I’m going to post tonight. The band is called Bajofondo and their song
Montserrat has been featured on the Kahlua commercial “with the woman
walking a pet alligator on the sidewalk”. I also just found out (thanks
to the miracles of Google) that it’s featured in the first few seconds
of the trailer for the movie “Shall We Dance”. If you’re interested, I
found base_href=”http://www.ScottIsHot.com”>the trailer for that movie
in QuickTime format. All right, let’s see here. I’m going to post a
link to these songs but I don’t anticipate they’ll be up for more than
a few days so grab ‘em while you can. I’ll be uploading them to this base_href=”http://www.ScottIsHot.com”>temporary music folder
for your enjoyment. Let me know what you think! The song on the Kahlua
commercial and on the movie trailer is called “Montserrat”.
Okay, I guess I’m done with that stuff.
Hopefully I’ll be able to write again tomorrow, although I’ll be having
company in the evening. We’ll see how it goes. Hey, that reminds me; I
have a pile of incoming personal email I have to respond to! Well, I
guess that’s all the blogging you’ll get from me today. I hope you have
an awesome Christmas and stay safe and keep warm. I’m sure I’ll be back
blogging soon enough. See ya! —Scott
Another Day Of My Half-Life
Posted by Scott January 14th, 2005 | 5,253 words | 19 Comments »
I originally was not planning on writing a blog entry tonight,
but after a brief phone call from one of my classmates I decided that
it may be worthwhile. After all, I most certainly have the time. I have
a few things I’d like to mention tonight, and I can already feel the
power-packed punch that this entry will have. 
base_href=”http://www.ScottIsHot.com” align=”right” height=”446″ width=”317″>Tonight
I’ve got enthusiasm; finally I have enough caffeine running through my
veins to write something interesting for a change. I’m also going to
step out on another limb here (more like a twig) and talk about a
subject that I so often try to lightly mention, but never go deep into.
Yes, tonight I’ll be talking more about cosmetic Asian double upper
eyelid blepharoplasty. JUST KIDDING!
Actually, I’ll be talking about the touchy subject… not of women, and
not of Scott, but of the two words combined. No, I’m not saying I’m a
girl; I’m saying that… well… just read tonight’s blog! Seriously, you
won’t have any fun if you just skim. It’ll be awesome; I promise.
Okay, I’ll bet you can imagine the look on my face when I read
this email from Robert (alias: bobbyboy) who has been a long time
follower of my writings. He often gives me interesting little feedback
here and there about some of the things I have to say, but never before
have I gotten an email like this from him. He, in short, took
everything I said in my twelve point list of improvements I wrote about
a few days ago, reversed it, and emailed me to me. You know what the
crazy part it? A lot of it really makes sense! There are a few
paragraphs in his email I’d love to post, but they’re somewhat
personal. I may write about them another time, but I’ll just cut to the
juicy stuff. Remember item #10 on my list that says that I should avoid
befriending a girl in my upcoming computer class at all costs because
it would inevitably result in my demise? If you don’t, I suggest you go
back and read that paragraph. Well, Robert had a little bit to say
about this one, so I’ll show you all a small snippet from his fairly
lengthy email; and I quote…
base_href=”http://www.ScottIsHot.com” align=”center” border=”0″ cellpadding=”3″ width=”80%”>
base_href=”http://www.ScottIsHot.com”>
base_href=”http://www.ScottIsHot.com”>
base_href=”http://www.ScottIsHot.com” valign=”top” width=”1″> base_href=”http://www.ScottIsHot.com” height=”26″ width=”39″> |
base_href=”http://www.ScottIsHot.com”>
…When
it comes to your point of being careful not to become attracted to any
girl in your computer class next semester, why do you have to be so
abject about the consequences of her (even if it were only her) finding
out about your past? It’s not like it would be that big of a deal. I
think that in her mind it might even be a measure of your character!
Think about it. You gave-up of all your computers (which were
essentially your life) and sacrificed everything you spent so long so
that you could put more time and effort into your school work to get to
where you want to go in life. The only girl you could ever meet that
would be able to truly understand and appreciate the severity of your
sacrifice would have to be an IT (computer) major, and the kind of girl that would be in your UNIX
class next semester. If you were to develop a relationship with a girl
in this class, her knowing about your past wouldn’t be a source of
temptation to revert to your old ways, but rather the exact opposite; a
source of motivation and support for you to continue ahead in your
life! She would not only know about your past and understand your
goals, but she would be able to use this knowledge and understanding to
help you stay on tack to prepare for your future!
|
ef=”http://www.ScottIsHot.com” valign=”bottom” width=”1″>
base_href=”http://www.ScottIsHot.com” height=”26″ width=”40″>
ere you have it ladies and gentlemen: Scott’s words were beaten and thrown back in his face.
What do you think? While I don’t necessarily agree with every point
stated in the paragraph above, I do have to admit that a lot of what
Robert said really did make sense. Believe it or not, I’m having a really hard time dealing with this email. Nothing specific it said was necessarily so profound that it bothered me, 
base_href=”http://www.ScottIsHot.com” align=”left” height=”775″ width=”226″>but
rather the fact that something I thought I had so well figured out
could be so easily twisted to make sense, proving once again that what
I think is not always right (even for my own life). This makes me
wonder how much of what I think I know I really know and not just think
I know because I know what I want think. Read that sentence a few
times, it’ll make sense. Anyhow, I found Robert’s email fascinating and
I love it when I find juicy little morsels of real and thought
provoking letters in my inbox!
Now, as a reply
(because I’m too lazy to respond in a formal email myself) I have a few
things I’d like to say about this paragraph alone. I’ll respond to the
rest of the email some other time soon. The one thing that Robert said
that made me mentally think “no” is when he said that I didn’t want
people to know about my past. While this may be true, it isn’t just
because I don’t want people to know about my past. I don’t want people
to know about my past because I don’t want people to talk about my past
and I don’t want to get used to talking about my past. When I talk
about what I used to do (hacking, programming, or whatever you want to
call it) I always (and yes, I mean literally every time) get
carried away and seem to uncontrollably ramble about days past. It’s
like the dam of self-discipline is holding back the floods of nostalgia
and it only takes a small crack in that self discipline for my old
feelings to come back and that is not something I want to deal with. If
other people (people I see often) know about my past, seeing them will
remind me of my past, and I don’t want to keep thinking about stuff
like that! People who are reading this blog for the first time are
probably confused out of their minds right now. “What’s this past?”
Well, it sounds so stupid and feels even dumber, but simply put I don’t
want to be thought of as the kind of person I used to be. I used to be
the computer geek that lived and breathed binary code and basically
acted out the stereotypical roll of the all-out computer geek. I’m in
college now working on a premed major at the moment. My days of
computer (with the thought of majoring in engineering) are over, and I
want to move on. Why do I want to move on so much? Honestly, I think
it’s because I doubt that I have the self-discipline to stay on the
current path I’m on if I think I have other options. “Scott, medical
school is going to be hard, why don’t you just go back to computer
engineering? You’re already good at that stuff, and it’ll be easier!”
Right about now is when I take a chainsaw and slush that little voice
right out of the bowls of my mind.
Napoleon Dynamite is now on DVD!
If you haven’t seen this movie, you might want to look into it. It’s a
pure and simple comedy that makes fun of the stereotypical dork-type
teenager who walks the halls at high school. When I recommend this
movie to people, I hope that they take my recommendation as (and
understand this movie is) nothing more than a chance to laugh at a
story conjured-up by some scriptwriter. 
base_href=”http://www.ScottIsHot.com” align=”right” height=”418″ width=”320″>No, you’re not laughing at a real
person. In fact, I’ve got to say it; chances are if you’re reading my
website, you’re probably more or less a dork anyway so this movie is a
chance to laugh a little at yourself! ^_^ I don’t really have a lot to
say about this movie except “If you have a few hours to kill and want
to laugh, check it out.” Oh yeah, to compare it to another movie using ACT-style analogies, this movie is to blog-writers as legally blond is to cheerleaders.
Please teach me English!
I wrote about Napoleon Dynamite, so I have to now write about this
movie I recently saw. This movie was a lot like Napoleon Dynamite,
except it’s of career-age (instead of school-age) guys and girls and
they’re in South Korea. As you’ve probably guessed from the title, the
movie is about a group of people who are trying to learn English. The
movie is best defined as a romantic comedy much like my
all-time-favorite “My Sassy Girl” with a little less drama. A few parts
of this movie were absolutely hilarious. One of my favorite parts was
“when the girl was at the desk.” Everyone in the movie was trying to
learn English, and about half way through they could barely begin to
speak it. Up until this point, everyone in the movie spoke
Korean so it was completely out of the blue when this scene happened
the way it did. Why bother explaining it though? I have plenty of
bandwidth to blow. I’ll just make and upload a clip of the movie for
ya’. By the way, does the little girl look familiar? It’s the same girl
who played the daughter (slash murderer) in the Korean horror flick
“Phone”, my all time favorite movie of the horror / thriller genre!
DOWNLOAD MOVIE CLIP: base_href=”http://www.ScottIsHot.com”>ptme.avi
if the movie doesn’t work, make sure you have both the base_href=”http://www.ScottIsHot.com”>dv4 video codec and the base_href=”http://www.ScottIsHot.com”>ac3 audo codec installed!
I’ll be cutting this blog a little short
tonight. It’s already late and I need to wake up early tomorrow
morning. It’ll be hectic for the next few days as Christmas approaches,
so I’m not sure when I’ll be able to squeeze my next blog in. I hope
that you (whoever you may be) are having a good day and have a merry
Christmas! All right, I’m outta here! Feel free to email me if you want
to say anything personal or just leave your thoughts in the comments
section of this post. Until I write again, keep your tongue away from
power sockets. Have a good one!
copyright
© 2006 swharden@gmail.com
