Ummmm...

There's a lot to talk about involving Tempest N' Tampa so it'll be a long post with pictures and videos and stuff. I've been avoiding blogging because of it...it'll be the next post, stay tuned!

Um yeah, so that life stuff. In the next post you'll see how I became addicted to Guitar Hero. I have been watching Guitar Hero videos for the past 5 days and obsessing over anything related to it or Rock Band. It is horrible, since I don't even have the game, but SArmstr0ng's Channel on YouTube gets me through the day (or months until I'll get it, maybe :/ ). So, for the past 2/3 years, I really haven't wanted anything for Christmas. Well technology has sure had a great year or two, and it has finally caught up with me. No, I do not want an iPhone. No, I do not want an iPod. And no, I do not want a car. But here is what I would like:

The List - Christmas/Birthday '07

1. PlayStation 2 Slim - Black
2. Guitar Hero 3 w/Guitar
3. Guitar Hero 1 (Game Only)
4. Singstar Pop w/Microphones
5. Singstar Rocks (Game Only)

All of this totals to $329.95, which is quite expensive. I would be a happy camper with any combination of 1 and 2, or 1 and 4, or of course, just an air mattress would be nice too...har har.

Aside from my selfish wants, I finally like Calculus again. I went through a brief period of completely hating the subject (which I'm sure will happen again), but I actually like this unit. Textbooks should focus more on application of concepts, such as related rates in Calculus, for example. Most people cringe at the though of word problems in math, yet I was flying right through these. If I didn't get derivatives and implicit differentiation a few weeks ago, I definitely understand it now. All of those silly geometric formulas that you have to memorize in middle school actually make sense now. Ooooh derivatives...deriving where something comes from. I think if more people understood why they were actually using a specific formula to do something, rather than just memorizing some path to the solution, we would have a lot more educated and not so many math-paranoid people in the world. Newton is surely an awesome guy. And just when I though Archimedes took the win...

This whole Calculus epiphany has brought me to reflect back on myself. Math is not my best subject. I AM "weak" in math. Not according to Broward County and the State of Florida Department of Education though. According to them I am like...a genius or something, but like...no...just...no. For some reason I am more conceptual. I understand the concept, but when it comes to solving a ton of problems...I'm often left clueless. I know what they want me to do, I know what the answer should look like, and I know kinda how to get there, but I am never 100% concrete about the process, only in some Calc/Physics cases. But with the trig identities...they make no sense? I understand most of the theories with triangles, and I think that they're really cool, but its like the trig functions came out of fucking nowhere and now they're haunting me. Memorization will only save me. Nonetheless, this is pretty much the reason why I hate that I'm so good in English and writing. I know for a fact that I am very left brained, possibly middle, but this still rather baffling. Science is usually never a problem...I end up getting it somehow, but ugh. It's an unexplainable internal debate that I have no idea why I'm blogging about it.

I don't think I'll take the SAT. If I get a 30+ on the ACT, I will NOT take the SAT at all. I take the PSAT in a week and half to see if I can qualify for National Merit or National Achievement Scholars or something like that, but I really don't like the style of the SAT at all. It is a fucking game. I ridiculous game in which the CollegeBoard screws every college-bound high schooler and they always win at the end with the big bucks. There is no winning for us. After reading numerous SAT books full of hints and strategies and gaurunteed-tips-to-2400 books and guides, I'm sick of trying to figure out their game. It is not a test of basic knowledge. I KNOW that I have basic knowledge. I won't let a stupid assessment prove that against me or ruin my chance of reaching my dream. Neither will I let CollegeBoard cash in on my attempt to reach that dream. Sure they'll get a few hundred out of me, but I think that I'll be better off with the ACT. It seems more realistic. I hate that there is a stereotype behind it involving success rates vs. demographic, but whatever...colleges supposedly look at the two tests in the same light. I still have to take the SAT IIs as admissions requirements for some of the major schools that I'm applying to, but I have no problem with the Subjet Tests. Actually, I've taken a few pre-tests and they're not so bad. So...up next on my yearly dosage of standardized testing (yay more lists!):

(edit:will do later...blogger editor is being weird and I don't feel like bothering with the html)