Richmond's Own (but unowned) Website

Do you ever notice how you never seem to have enough time to do stuff?  Even if you know that you can do something in an hour, and you give yourself 2 hours, it takes the whole  2 hours to complete the task!  It happens to me alot - and I end up not doing alot of things that I'd like to do because of it. 
I know it's a random topic, but I'm bored, and thought I'd enter a blog entry.  OH! There was a survey about technology that we took the other day.  I didn't think about it then, but now, I think about it, it's hard to integrate technology into classes because the darn internet blocker that the district uses blocks so many things that could be useful.  Like blogs.  And youtube.  I'm sure they have the fear that we'll abuse the privilege  of sites that aren't blocked.  But I feel as a high school student, most of us have proper judgement, and shouldn't be subjected to an internet blockade that allows us to visit sites that are only appropriate for 6th graders.  Well maybe that's a bit exaggerated, but it becomes frustrating.  Sure I may look at a non-school related Youtube Video, but shouldn't the teachers or staff be able to monitor those uses?  That's why our computer lab allows the teacher computer to view the other desktops of the students - why not integrate that into the classrooms too?  And with youtube, they should be able to disable to "log in" feature, but still allow us to view videos, which can be beneficial to our school work.  For a school that's trying to find new ways to use technology in the classroom, there are alot of things they could try now, that are cost effective, and could create a big impact.    

So today is Rowland High School's Prom.  I'm not going.  Instead, this afternoon, I went to a presentation by Northwestern University, at the LA Downtown Marriott.  Oh well, it was worth it I guess - there's Prom next year!  Northwestern is in the Chicago land area just fyi, seems like a nice place though. 

Went to Costco today, great samples!  I bet that's why most people go there, it's those free samples.  It's crazy, I walk in and on the furniture, I see people sleeping, reading books - it's like they made it home!  To their credit, it was nice and air conditioned in there, in contrast to the 80/90 degree weather outside.  I also realized I haven't been there in a while - there are so many clothes!  And only 1 small table of DVDs and 1 table of books.  It used to be about 2 tables of books, 2 tables of DVDs, and a table of games and cd's.  But I guess it's okay - why buy books or movies when you buy your own pair of Kirkland Signature Jeans! 

On the school front, it's mixed.  Relieved to be done with AP and IB tests, only to face a whole slew of homework and projects.  But we march own, through the waves and the winds, each toward our own goals......

Well, here's the gist: I like the show NCIS, I just got hooked a couple of months ago, and since then, I've been watching most of the 3 hour weekday marathons on USA.  But that's not the point.  CBS has new episodes every Tuesday of NCIS.  So 2 weeks ago, they aired "Legend, Part 2" which basically focuses on a 2nd NCIS team as a backdoor pilot episode.  And I thought that was going to be their season finale, wrap it up by introducing a new team.  And at the end (spoiler!!!) one of the agents got shot.  And I thought, great!  Well, it is stereotypical for a season finale to kill off a person, but not uncommon, so I thought they'd pull the camera out on the body laying on the street and we'd find out next year if he lived or not.  Then comes the end credits.  "Next week, on NCIS."  Woah, that caught me by surprise, so I watched the commercial eagerly, and they say something to the extent of "someone will not survive."  And so the whole week, I was excited for the NCIS season finale, but with some dread as I'd be sad to see a major character go. 

So Tuesday night at 8 I got to CBS and watch a fun filled episode of NCIS, waiting for the big moment...and it never comes.  Thinking, what the heck?, I was about ready to turn off the TV with a disappointing season finale (not a bad episode - just not that epicness of a finale), when the end credits come up.  "Next week, on NCIS" - (this must be the show that never stops!) - the announcer goes ONE...WILL...NOT...COME...HOME.  I'm a bit puzzled now - I saw that last week too.  Does this mean the real season finale is in 2 weeks?  Or will I see a "Next Week on NCIS" then too?  Nevertheless, I'm eagerly awaiting what I presume is the Season Finale Finale next Tuesday. 

Other than that, it's still IB Music - I finished all the listening!  (If you want to hear what I've been listening to, http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=DEDED356576E658A) All that remains is listening to the opera, Dido and Aeneas, a couple times and going over my notes.  Not too bad for a year long course learned in...well, less than a year.  The big exam is Friday! Plus a English quiz, and some other things. 

 

So I'm in the middle of AP and IB Testing right now - and I have my IB SL Music on Friday!  It seems ok, I have to discuss musical, structural, and contextual features of music I listen to.  Which is okay, but I also need to learn the music of this Opera - Dido and Aeneas, one of the first English Operas.  Not that I don't like operas.  It's just it's so darn old!  But anyways, if you want to check out what I'm listening to,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApX4DJvPpEg&feature=PlayList&p=DEDED356576E658A&index=0&playnext=1

While I'm on the subject of music, I also uploaded once of my new compositions, which you can find somewhere under the  "Me on the Internet" tab, or on Youtube, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4JHLEUxy5Q

Besides that, there isn't much, just the regular school work and what not, though I suppose if I try to update this every day, it'd be something good to do.  Either here or I should go get one on google or wordpress or something.  I'll see. 

Well, this isn't my first website, but it is my first blogpost.  I dont think I can compete with Joseph Mallozzi's Blog, in either updates, length, or views.  But I will drop in here to talk to the 0.5 people who actually pay any attention to this. 

I must point out what seems like a high similarity to Wordpress blogs on this page - I've seen this layout before! It's almost like deja vu.  But I shouldn't spend too much more time on this first entry, so welcome, and I hope to update this site and blog as I go along.