April 21, 2008

Dear Fa,

I must have slept only two and a half hours last night. My sleeping pattern somehow shifted two to three hours ahead [crossings out] over the weekend, so that I now only feel drowsy around 4:00 am. I wanted to skip school again today, but I have an AP Chemistry test…

But I'm nearly failing that class at the moment…

Why am I writing about myself? I suppose you must remember all this, being in the future… what would be really useful right now is if I received a letter from my future self, instead of the other way around… maybe you could tell me who wins the presidential election.

I finally figured out how to [change] the current directory in the command prompt yesterday. The command is cd! For "[change] directory"…

There's still something wrong with the Java installation, though…

I don't want to go to college, I don't want to be at school… my friends' interest in me is at most superficial, and I really would rather not… see that person again.

Mortality is sad. Hopefully I can get diagnosed soon.

Take care.

Yours sincerely,
[Jenny-fa]

Back in New York for another college open house. This time in the former industrial city of Troy. I'm tired now. The Pacifier is such a trite movie.

Did you know that Troy was settled by Dutch colonists? I never knew that. Also, the famous American writer Herman Melville apparently used to live there. I read "Bartleby the Scrivener" in my eleventh grade English class. It was taught by a witch.

All this constant back and forth (this time, a delightful two-way trip of sixteen hours) along the same stretch of highway is getting a bit tiresome. Thankfully, there was a lovely Indian restaurant (with an entire page full of vegetarian cuisine — the most I've seen from a menu in ages) waiting for us at the end. We forgot to bring the camera; otherwise, I'd take pictures of that double-sided service plaza called Angola in New York.

And it rained steadily for most of the day. I like rain.

I need to buy a smoothie on the way back.

Update: Dude, my suspicions were confirmed. Rensselaer is a Dutch name.

Silly Korean ninjas.

College applications, check. Preliminary college visits, check. Acceptance letters, check. Financial aid packages — just beginning to trickle in. Now as I near the final stretch of the college selection process, I feel like I've finally gotten the hang of this thing. As May 1st looms ever closer, however, I feel a twinge of regret — like I've missed out on something. Perhaps I should've applied to more schools. Perhaps I should've considered some liberal arts colleges. Perhaps I should've

Nah. I just found the admissions statistics. Harvey Mudd College and Reed College are way too competitive. Plus, they're on the other side of the freakin' continent.

I'm good.

On another note, I was scanning through this book called Paying for College Without Going Broke (2006 edition, with a foreword by Bill Clinton!), and you should've seen this one section. It went something like

We are frequently amazed at how often families with high need choose an out-of-state public university as their safety school. For most families with an EFC of between $5,000 and $15,000, an out-of-state public university is the most expensive option they could possibly choose. Why? First, students from out-of-state are charged a lot more. Second, much of the financial aid at these schools is earmarked for in-state students [...]

Let's just say that a lot of face-palming went on that night.

Edit: Actually, my chances for Reed wouldn't have been too bad. I'm just sure they'd put me on academic probation after receiving the mid-year grade report.

And just for the record, my safety is in-state.

It's hard to believe, but there's only seven days left until Barack Obama's inauguration. And with only seven days remaining of George W. Bush's stay in the White House, I have to admit… I feel a little sorry for him. He's an idiot, of course. But a well-intentioned one. These articles pretty much sum it up.

In other news, monster snow storms are sweeping across this part of the U.S. (if there isn't a snow day tomorrow, I'll club someone), and I have officially received two college acceptance letters. One of them has already invited me into their honors program. I'm still waiting on the other one.

Your hot dance/homosexuality-themed video pick of the day:

What? I like girl-on-girl action.

Wait… actually, that guy-on-guy thing was hotter.

Midterm exams next week. Test on calculus tomorrow (assuming no snow day, of course). And a whole lotta odious volunteer work to be worked on over the weekend. Gah.

Update (1/15/09): I'm going to club someone.

1. Finish college applications.
2. Work on FAFSA crap.
3. Read those frickin' stories for English and write quarterly essay.
4. Pretend that my name hasn't been removed from the volunteer sign-in calendar and get in a few more hours at the library.
5. Somehow learn calculus before the midterm exams (highly dubious).
6. Keep zen. Block out outsiders. Don't regress.
7. For some reason, that previous item conjured up a Conan O'Brien sound bite: "Keep cool, my babies!"
8. Inner zen now destroyed.
9. Stupidest. Post. Ever.
10. My list is doomed to failure.

Thanks to those who commented on my last post. I came to a decision (which I won't disclose) and I registered the domain. Now I'm just waiting for it to propagate.

"A spurious past." I hope it remains firmly detached.

Oh yeah, and I need to finish the next installment of those reviews.