Richmond's Own (but unowned) Website

 
 
Today, we went out to Loyola Marymount University to pick up my nephew from a summer program. It’s been quite a while since I’ve been there – much of it still looks the same! Though there are parts that are new – either newly built or renovated. Listened to some podcasts on the way there (and took a nap), and there was a lot of traffic on the way back. Also got trained this morning on how to use the website admin backend for the website I’m going to be working on.

Not much else news today, time for some #worldslongestmarathon, a reflection on my senior year of high school –

  •  #worldslongestmarathon day 70 - lots of homework. ALOT of homework
    This was coming after our championship weekend (5th for another year…), and the week before winter break – a lot of homework! If I remember correctly, we had our IB History IA’s due, there may have been a Math IA, and was it possible that we had to do our TOK essays? (or was that second semester? Time kind of meshes together…)
  •  #worldslongestmarathon 71 - my british accent isn't that great. and analyzing 10 quotes in 50 minutes makes my hand hurt!!!!
    There were several times in English class when I would try reading things aloud in a “British” accent (only to the people around me in our little corner, not the whole class) – I know when I was in London this summer, I realized how wayyy off I was in senior year – I guess I realized it a bit then too. And we had to do quote analysis that day as well – that much writing can sure hurt a hand (though 2 hours to do 9 quotes, 1 long essay, and 2 short essays in a college final hurts more!)
  •  #worldslongestmarathon 72 -homeroom class makes a "santa doesn't do drugs" poster for class competition....
    For our door decorating contest for Christmas, our IB class continued our red ribbon week poster theme to a “Santa Doesn’t Do Drugs” poster…I suppose what’s better than a Christmas poster with a message? While we didn’t win, it was an entertaining poster to make, full of IB inside jokes…
  •  #worldslongestmarathon day 73 - woah, what a strange english essay! and i had a headache...i think i need to sleep more
    Self explanatory – not sure what the essay was, might have been a story, or poetry. I have a feeling it was “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Heale Hurston.  Yes, I could sleep, but there’s only 1 more day until winter break!

  •  #worldslongestmarathon day 74 - gave mr alvo his gift - i think he was surprised! i like surprise gifts =) history quiz, english potluck!
    Ah, surprise gifts. As Mr. Alvo had been talking about how cold it had been in his office, we arranged the gifts to look like a blanket roll and a space heater. And when he unwrapped it, you could see it wasn’t quite what he was expecting. Though after urging him to open the box, he was surprised to find a game – and threw the blanket behind him into the pit. (I imagine that I had a rather shocked face with that) as I said something akin to you really don’t want to throw away the blanket – rolled inside was a gift card to accompany it. Better than a snuggie I suppose.

  •  I think i may reintroduce the dates to the #worldslongestmarathon - or ib senior year. day 74 is 12.11.09. no more updates until january!
    Good bye, 2009, see you in 2010!

 
Today was the annual welcome reception event for new Cornell students in the LA area. It was great seeing all the new faces, and it was quite interesting for me to see the event from “the other side,” after being at school for a year.  I had a great time sharing my experience with the new students, as well as learning about t them and what they’re expecting this year. I wish I had more time to talk to people though! It was also a longer drive, out past the 405, but traffic was relatively light today.
But after spending a few hours with people who’ve just finished their senior year of high school, I thought I’d go back and revisit my year with the #worldslongestmarthon hashtag on Twitter I used during my senior year. I’ll give a couple reflections and additional details where I can – I realize now that a lot of what I wrote was not very specific and detailed, and isn’t very conducive to sparking a memory. But I can try!

  • #worldslongestmarathon - day 59. 8.5 hours of school + 8 hours of band. fun day!!! 5 SWEEPS IN BAND!!!!! love doing hw @ midnight.... 
  • So this was some time in November I believe – don’t remember the competition – might have been at the school that doesn’t have its own football field, and has to share with the district. (Forgot the name, and not sure if that’s even the right one). But there was an incredible feeling when we won. It might sound a little corny, but when they announced our name, I could envision a movie moment, where the music would crescendo and swell at that moment to the grand heroic theme! Take note Hollywood – someone needs to pitch a real marching band movie (not just drumline!)

  • #worldslongestmarathon the big day 60. not really big. just really tired from band last night. hope todays spanish test was ok.
  • Evidently it was a Tuesday night competition the night before, thus a late night doing homework.

  • #worldslongestmarathon day 61 - sleepy, physics test, iba meeting, and more stuff. fun fun fun! too many clubs, hahaha
  • Not sure what other clubs were meeting – besides IBA, I was involved in NHS and Math Club heavily, but our meetings were on other days usually. Maybe it was a Science Olympiad meeting. Not sure there.

  • #worldslongestmarathon 62 - interesting day...not much to speak of. did some national honor society stuff - thanksgiving soon!!
  • There’s NHS. Not much to speak of apparently.

  • #worldslongestmarathon 63 - long band practice, christmas music, and the first episode of The Wong Show!!!!
  • I love playing Christmas music in band! Always makes me happy. I was super excited when we received our Christmas music. I think Kathryna or somebody might have laughed at me! But it’s all good fun. Not sure about The Wong Show – besides being an interesting pun, that might have been our “hot seat” thing in English, where I was the host of a talk show like thing, and other students portrayed characters from different books/stories we read, and have to answer questions in character.

  • #worldslongestmarathon day 64 - college interview! spanish test and presentation! learned about radios!
  • Not sure what college that was – might have been Brown, but I’m not certain. We learned about radios in IB Physics, we spent a good amount of time learning about radios, and how they worked (especially AM radios, and the mathematics behind the wave functions).

  • #worldslongestmarathon 65 sleeeeeeeeeepy!!! short day! band practice!!
  • Just what it says – but looks like it was a Wednesday extra practice in the run up to champs (whereas practices were generally Monday only, we had extras in the weeks before champs).

  • #worldslongestmarathon day 66 - really empty, since most people went to see the play. but i read a chapter of hw stuff!!!...in 4 hours...
  • There was a trip by the English classes to see a play – I think it was Shakespeare. I’m not sure why I didn’t go, but there were a few of us who stayed, and mostly had study hall periods, since a lot of my classes had the same students from IB.

  • #worldslongestmarathon day 67 - HARD spanish culture test...surprise english essay...getting ready for extended essay tomorrow!
  • Surprise! Not sure what the English essay was. But I remember Spanish culture tests! Each week in AP Spanish, we’d study the culture of a Spanish speaking country, and every so often we’d be tested on them (5 or 6 at a time?) – and I remember that they were rather difficult!

  • #worldslongestmarathon day 68 - interesting day...i liked the physics movie about radio. and sung last year's field show at lunch. Yup
  • We watched a video in physics about the history of radio – with Tesla, Edison, and some of the early businesses and corporations. Besides talking about the science and physics of radio, I believe it also talked about the politics of radio, with the patents and money and whatnot, which I found quite interesting as well. As for last year’s field show, that would have been Heartbeat – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIa9weoA6XM - not sure who was singing though. Me…Kevin was probably there, maybe Trevor and Victor…some others too maybe. Or if this was a Monday and we had a band club meeting, that’s possible too.

  • #worldslongestmarathon day 69. fun fun, last morning band practice ever on the field! can't wait to go to san diego!
  • Last morning band practice. Getting to school before 7am for band was tiring, but besides getting satisfaction from our performance and practices (most of the time), sometimes we were treated to beautiful sunrises.  And champs were in San Diego that year! It was great to see some alumni from UCSD come seeus when we went down there for band champs!
So that brings us up to about 1 week before winter break in 2009, when I get more time, I’ll continue with those reflections and notes.

PS – Happy Birthday Harry Potter!