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.

As part of my ongoing investigations into the mystery that is my current dream college, I came across several videos. Apparently, several college students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) filmed these amusing spoofs on the popular American TV show The Office, creatively titled The Dorm.

Pilot — Part 1

Pilot — Part 2

Not bad for a tech school.

In other news, I have an announcement that may be of greater interest to my readers. BoA's new U.S. album is doing surprisingly well! It's gained some coveted positions on the U.S. Billboard, including the top 10 for multiple charts!

Today, beginning 8:30 pm and finishing at 9:30 pm, the global event known as Earth Hour will take place. The cause is to promote awareness of the consequences of global warming and the need to take action. For the time stated above, all participants are asked to turn off all unnecessary lights for one hour. This year, "nearly 4,000 cities and towns in 88 countries" are joining the event, including Paris, Sydney, Geneva, Bucharest, New York City, Beijing, Shanghai, Bangkok, the Great Pyramids in Egypt, and Scott Base in Antarctica.

Read this article for more information.

I hope you guys participate tonight and lend your support! Unfortunately, the event clashes with the scheduled airing of Legend of the Seeker, so I'm on tenterhooks right now on whether I should turn off the TV, too.

After finally catching up on the four or five episodes of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles that I missed¹, I snuck² a few peeks at the previews of the next episode "To the Lighthouse," which will be aired on Friday, March 27. Unfortunately, since I'll be attending a college open house in Rochester, New York, it is probable that I will not have access to a TV at that time. In all, I'm looking forward to the road trip… but I'm looking forward even more to Friday's explosive Terminator action.

A few YouTube videos are in order.

For those of you who don't know, the man playing with the Legos is a cyborg. I believe his "brain" and power supply are hosted externally.

And to point out to my nonviewers again, the young, petite brunette who says "You can't kill me" is a Terminator.

Lastly, this preview is a summary of the final six episodes of the season, which includes footage has not yet been aired. There seems to be a climactic Terminator showdown involving a few major characters. If you'd like to avoid spoilers, I suggest you avert your eyes.

On an unrelated note, I'd like to point out the recent updates to my compendium of budget Web hosting providers. One of the newest additions is a unique host that offers "pay as you go" pricing.

And there you are. I'll see you later.

1.The time slot change to Friday is rather inconvenient for me, as I tend to pass out right as I return home from school — a fact I mainly attribute to the emotional/spiritual exhaustion of having endured another week of forced social integration.
2. Firefox's spell checker doesn't seem to think "snuck" is a word — but Conan O'Brien does! He even looked it up (the "gaffe" occurs 0:54 into the clip).

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.