what’s this? a snow day? whoaaaaa…how strange. i accidentally slept in til 7:15 this morning and went “oh crap!” when i saw what time it was. then as i was frantically running around upstairs, my mom told me that DGS had called at 6:30 to say that there was no school (i remember being woken up by a few phone calls but never answered them). AGH! i was so sure that i would have school today that i made the extra effort to do all my hw and study! we had way more snow last year and DGS never closed (while most local school districts did)…why now? oh well…it was a pleasant surprise.

been busy non-stop since 8am this morning (school–>work–>church stuff). º_º anyways…Mandy found a bunch of winamp plugins when she was looking for pitchfork (a tempo-changing plugin that i gave her a long time ago which she lost). so she sent me this page of plugins. good stuff! download the one at the top of the page (the one with the big TEMPO picture). you can make people sound like those of the opposite gender (just like pitchfork can) …stuff like making Jewel a man, or turning 98º into a girl band. need a good laugh or interested in hearing chipmunks sing? heh…me too. i’m tired.

today was one of those days that make you go “ugh”…which is precisely what i did. it started in second period gym where our teacher “taught” us how to jump rope. the really scary thing was that when he asked who didn’t know how to jump rope, this girl raised her hand. ohhhh boy. then in stats we were using this computer program and we had to print out some stuff near the end of the period. turns out that some girl decided to print this 30-page document! ugh! it takes FOREVER and the teacher tells us to get to our next period and pick up the printouts from her at the end of the day. newsflash…i get out a period early! she’s asking me to come back at 3:20 to pick up stats homework??? forget it! so i just screwed the assignment and went to work. then in fourth period advanced modtech, i was grouped together with two other guys to do a lesson so off we go when suddenly we need to access a website. the teacher supposedly has the URL, but apparently lost it. we just spent the entire time talking. well, they talked is more like it. as i was staring into space, my ear caught bits and pieces of their conversation. the only part i remember was that they were talking about space for some reason and one of them mentioned “yeah, like in other universes like saturn and stuff.” ugh. then i got the dropslip for poli-sci…YES! time to relax and…work more hours. ai yah.

i had the weirdest dream last night.

here goes: i was watching TV…and i saw this commercial (something like those “join the army NOW!” ad campaigns) but it read something like “join the demonic forces NOW!” and showed legions of ghosts and demons marching. great way to start off a dream eh? then i heard “today we’re going to ivan’s house!” even better. i looked outside the window and saw a bunch of black cloaked figures holding glowing clubs pull up on black motorcycles in front of my driveway so i ran to my brothers room and told him about what i saw, grabbed my assortment of weapons and went outside. when i finally got out the door, everything but my butterfly and survival (aka “rambo knives”) knife had disappeared. interesting…so i started defending my house (this dream was horribly violent and bloody and i can’t explain myself). soon my two knives also disappeared, leaving me empty-handed. then, for some odd reason, the demons started handing me swords which i promptly took and killed (i dunno what got into me) them with. shortly after, i was faced with the bad guy’s “boss” who just happened to be Vin Diesel. he was holding this huge sickle-like sword and was staring down at me. hmm…i grabbed a weird nunchaku-like weapon that happened to be laying on the ground and walked towards him. i grabbed his blade with my hand and started beating him with the nunchucks. then i woke up for about five seconds and fell back asleep. when i emerged once again into my dream, the demons were all gone and i found myself sitting shotgun in a Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R V-spec II. inthelight was at the wheel (which oddly enough, was on the american left side instead of the right). being me, i asked him if i could drive. “no” he said, “this is my friend’s car”. darn! but then i looked back and he was gone…so i took the wheel and sped off. weeeee! then i came upon some street racers and flashed my brights at one of them (it was a ‘99 Mistubishi Mirage with frosties). this Chinese guy with a mustache gets out and walks over to my car and asks me what it is. i tell him to look for himself. he sees a Nismo sticker (which apparently was on my door) and exclaimed “wah!!! Nismo!!!” (for those of you who are going “huh?” Nismo is Nissan’s tuning division). then he said “it’s a Skyline!!!” and ran off to his car and sped off in fear. i decided to follow him in my oh-so-fast Skyline until these cops came out of NOWHERE (which they usually do), t-boned the Mirage straight into the highway median and started chasing me. needless to say, i outran them. then a spotlight turned and shined right into my eyes…which then flew open to find my room flooded in sunlight.

today i embarked on an adventure that i will always remember (well…at least for the next few weeks). jkoh and inthelight joined up with a bunch of upperclassmen guys to go see “Black Hawk Down” (which, by the way, was really really long and really really gory). the plan was to meet at jkoh’s at 5:45 for dinner and then go. both me and Leo were planning on going, so he called me up and asked if i wanted to go to Guitar Center beforehand to buy a capo. i agreed (naturally) so we left at about two-something. we knew it was somewhere on the north side of Roosevelt but weren’t exactly sure how to get there. we took Cass up north (which apparently is east of Guitar Center but we didn’t know…yet) and made a right turn. we followed Roosevelt until it became almost like a highway and Leo’s geo prizm (heh…heh heh…heh…) couldn’t handle the mind-shattering speed (60mph). we kept on going for a few minutes until we came across this huge freaky-looking cathedral and a HUMONGOUS cemetery (graves as far as the eye could see. the only bigger one i’ve seen was in the Aberdeen area in Hong Kong). at that point we knew it was time to turn around so we swung the little red Prizm around and headed in the other direction. we found Guitar Center shortly afterward and went inside, headed straight to the acoustic section and started playing $2000 Taylors >=). after that we went to the main section and started playing electrics for a while. then Leo went to buy his capo. he paid with a jackson and the cashier ran out of singles so he gave him three dollars in change. anyways, if you’ve ever been to Guitar Center before, you know that they check your receipt at the door to make sure you don’t steal anything. so Leo goes up there and gives the receipt to the guy who promptly replies “this is a return receipt…and you don’t look like a jennifer.” the cashier had apparently given Leo the wrong receipt so he went back and got the right one and we were on our way at about 5:15.

we kept going west on Roosevelt hoping to hit naper blvd and get to jkoh’s. well, we apparently went past it and kept on going for a long time down Roosevelt. shortly afterward, we realized that we had passed naper and found a street called Washington (which as luck would have it, was a major street next to jkoh’s house) so we make a left onto “Washington” and go south…then “Washington” starts curving west again. “uh…i don’t think this is the right Washington,” i say as we venture into uncharted territory. soon we saw signs for Kane county. oops…we made some random turns, went through Batavia and ended up in a gas station in Aurora. as we were looking at maps, we asked an employee what major street was outside. “Butterfield” was the reply. duh! so we took Butterfield back to Naperville (almost rear-ending some idiot who decided to stop suddenly) and finally got to jkoh’s house at 6-something. all that trouble for a stinkin’ capo!

i hate pontiacs.

poli-sci blows. i think i’m gonna drop it like a bag of wet monkey hair.

in other news, i’ve stumbled onto a great source of news (pun intended…har har): USAtoday! well, part of it anyways. there’s this section on their website dedicated to odd stories. check it out here.

my counter broke 4000 earlier today (finally, after more than two years!). i just wanna say thanks to all of you who visit…i could not have reached 4000 without you guys (obviously).

first full day of the semester and i’m already sick of it. it’s not anything really in particular, i’m just sick of high school. i can’t wait for school to end. oh man, oh maaaan. ah well, i guess i’ll make most of the time i have left. we just started watching Amistad in multicultural literature. pretty disturbing movie so far…lotta gore and violence. blah…i’m not so thrilled about watching it.

anyways, i sent in my housing stuff yesterday and i just found out today that our first pick for a dorm “blows.” oops. ah well, hopefully we’ll get the second pick which is supposedly not bad. ah well, it’ll take care of itself.

first day of second semester.

where shall i start? ah yes, first period. lucky me, i have first period in the same room as first semester except with a different teacher in a different course. however, my marketing teacher decided not to show up for the first day and left us with a sub named ‘Mr. Fartinuckle’ (NOT kidding). he made us write a few sentences about what we thought marketing was and yadda yadda yadda.

moving on…i have second period gym again. wee, stress management is the class and it sounds relaxing. but since today was the first day, we just sat in the bleachers and bummed around…while doing that, i saw a group of about five african-americans (gotta be PC) standing next to the far wall and a lone whiteboy trying to blend in. the kid stood on the outside looking for about five minutes and then decided to go sit down. he was dressed all ghetto too, poor kid. anyway, for some odd reason my gym teacher was asking us how long teachers should wait after they say “any questions?”. while taking guesses that ranged from five to seven seconds, my friend Jay muttered “about a minute”, which caused the teacher to turn around and deduct two points for ‘being a wise guy’. oh dear…TWO WHOLE POINTS? who cares? well, apparently not Jay.

next up is my only full-year course: APstatistics. i was surprised that i actually pulled off a C (that counts as a B) for the semester considering the lack of work i put into it.

fourth period is “advanced modular technology.” sounds cool and technical right? WRONG! i’m in a 10-person class with a bunch of future hobos with a slightly older (i thought he was my classmate until he pulled out a gradebook…boy was i stunned) hobo teaching us! i thought it was supposed to be advanced, but instead i’m stuck with a bunch of neanderthal slackers. ugh.

fifth period is lunch. sixth was ‘multicultural literature’…i was actually looking forward to the rest of the year until the teacher informed us that this was her first time teaching it and she was gonna ‘wing it’. ai yah… 7th period was AP poli-sci with a blatantly racist (or so i’ve heard) teacher…fun!

oh well, at least i get to leave a period early.

like the autumn leaves i have fallen
tumbling down like a sloth that has lost its 3-toed grasp
the branch of emptiness breaks my back on the way down
my recalcitrance has brought me nothing but trouble
my pride nothing but shame
but yet i try to stand triumphant
like a hobo who has found a bottle of wine laying on the ground
only to learn that it is filled with tears
though the somber streetlamps glow
it basks me not in light
for i am alone in this gloomy twisted world
alone …
alone…
gone…
…
…
…
…
…
just kidding.
…