Yay!

I got the job! I'll be working in sales at Circuit City selling cameras and the like. I only had one interview, which I thought went horribly, but apparently not since the store manager was impressed by some of the things on my resume and how I "sold" him a stapler that was supposed to be a camera. The interview was really supposed to be yesterday, but it had to be rescheduled. I usually get nervous with these types of things, but I was pretty confident when I went in yesterday. Today for some reason, the nervousness decided to make an appearance about 20 minutes before I went in. It could've just been the greasy McDonalds breakfast I had earlier disagreeing too...

I already have plans to blow my first month's pay, but after that perhaps I can start saving. In the meantime I'll need to come up with a few plans for managing my time with school work (depending on my schedule), applications, and other activities since I'll be working until close most days. That means no more afternoon naps :( Realistically, this will probably help me since I really do suck at efficiently using my time, and I'll need to learn to do that soon, really soon.

This is kind of surreal. Oh noes, growing up.

The Blog Gods Were Listening

I got a call from Circuit City this morning for an interview! It would be immature of me to think that it had anything to do with the last post, but what a coincidence. My interview is tomorrow at 11, first interview ever. Surprisingly, I'm not nervous at all. I'm actually kind of excited. I really hope this goes well...

HIRE ME!

In the past three months, I've applied to more than a dozen, probably closer to two dozen, various corporations in hopes that they will accept me to exchange labor for US currency. I have not gotten a single offer or even response yet. Is it because I'm failing their stupid personality tests? Is it because I have no experience? Is it because I'm under 18? Is it because the economy sucks? WHAT IS IT?!

(Actually, I've gotten 2 responses that have said I'm too young, but otherwise nothing.)

I've figured that a lot of people will be quitting their summer jobs soon as school rolls around, but I'm still willing to work. Maybe this will increase my chances of getting an offer? This weekend I applied to four more places, hopefully I'll get a call or some type of response next week.

I'm a bit of the lazy type when I have nothing to do, which is most of the time. But when I do actually have work to accomplish, the laziness goes away and I feel productive, like I am actually earning my spot on the Earth. I decided in early 2008 that working would have several benefits. My main motivator is money...I want to buy things. Interacting with the public should help me in some way or another, whether I enjoy it or not. Also, having something other to do than sleep or goof off on the Internet when I come home from school should help me develop some time management skills, which are supposedly important. Someone hire me! Please?

(Ha, what are the chances of any potential employers reading this?)

Mamma Mia, Here I Go Again...

I don't know what's so captivating about ordinary movies and plays that just happen to have random outbursts of song and dance, but I absolutely love it. I have yet to see a musical that I have not liked (maybe I just have good taste in what I pick), Mamma Mia was no different!

My mom and I saw Mamma Mia at Sunrise Cinema 11, yes the theater that all the old people go to, on Sunday. I was surprised at how packed it was, wall to wall gray hair, saggy skin. I'm not used to actually sitting next to strangers without a 1-seat separation at the movies. We arrived relatively early, but the theater became packed very quickly. It was opening weekend, so I suppose crowds were to be expected, though it wasn't that crowded when we went to see Hancock on the 4th. The 20 minutes waiting for the lights to dim down seemed like the longest 20 minutes in my life, with the same E! and Coke trivia and celebrity quotes playing over and over and over and over and over again. Eventually the movie began, but there were no previews! Just dumb, really dumb commercials. This isn't how I wanted to start a potentially great movie.

Despite the lame setting, the movie was absolutely awesome! I won't spoil it for anyone that is reading and wants to see it. Unlike all the other musicals turned movies that I had seen previously, I didn't really know the storyline behind this one ahead of time, so it made it even more interesting. I got that same feeling of wanting to dance along while the catchy, upbeat songs were playing, and the jittery sing-along feeling after the movie just as I had after seeing RENT, Dreamgirls, and the good Disney movies from back in the day. The same omg-I-have-to-buy/download-the-soundtrack feeling. I always love a movie that makes me want to cry one moment and laugh the next. Speaking of crying, there was an old guy sitting next to us seriously crying during the wedding scene. I could not get over that. I know, laughing at old people is horrible.

So while we're on the topic of musicals, I was thinking about how awesome it was to see The Lion King, Live! last year when it came to The Broward Center. I don't think I was blogging back in May of 07, but the show was amazing. I might use the word amazing a lot, but this performance was just...woah. I was absolutely blown away and in awe throughout the entire show, from the musical arrangements, to the costumes, to the choreography, to the technical aspects...it was all just marvelous (I'm running out of adjectives). Back from my little aside, I somehow ended up checking The Broward Center's calendar recently to see what's playing, and guess what is...Mamma Mia. I was excited just to see that it was coming next season, but what's even cooler is that the last show is on February 1, which happens to be my 18th birthday! Yay! So I hope no one asks what I want for my birthday/Christmas this year, because I just told you. Thanks! (I hope I don't sound like a brat) For some reason people tend to get upset when they ask me what I want for a gift and I never really have an answer.

Another little aside: Something similar happened 2 years ago when Prince came to town for the Superbowl halftime show. The night before he was having a concert at the Hollywood Hard Rock, which happened to be the day before my birthday. Sounds just perfect, huh? Well, we heard the promo on the radio around Christmas and tickets went on sale the next day. Guess what...the tickets were completely sold out in less than 2 hours...and the cheapie I-can-barely-see-the-stage seats were starting at $100+. Apparently most of the tickets were bought up way before they went on sale to the general public by NFL execs and the like. So that didn't quite work out. Hopefully there won't be such a craze to see Mamma Mia on MY birthday, especially since it'll be here for a few weeks.

♬ dancing queen, young and sweet only seventeen ♪

I have to go back to school in a month.

Booooooo!

Reminds me of that episode of Arthur where he makes a list of things that he wants to do for summer, the entire summer passes by, and with a week (or is it a weekend?) left, he realizes that he hasn't done anything on the list and rushes to do it before its time to go back. The only difference with me is that I did most of the things that I wanted to do (read: absolutely nothing :) ), and now I still don't want to go back. I still can prep for the SAT IIs, work on college essays, yadda yadda, but that's too much like school.

Just like I have this amazement with airports and planes, I also share the same enthusiasm with trains. Problem is I travel by plane more frequently than I travel by train. Actually, I've only been on the train a few times. Well, I can change that! I decided that sometime in the near future, probably next week, I'm going to take a little journey. I really don't have anywhere to go on a real train (nor do I feel like paying for an "expensive" ticket), so I'm going to go somewhere in the tri-county area on tri-rail. I have always found tri-rail to be pretty cool, being that it stretches from Palm Beach to Miami, the only issue is that it only goes in two directions, North and South, typically east of I-95, so in order to really get somewhere, you'd have to utilize some other method of transportation. The whole "use public transportation to get to work" scenario only works for those that live in the downtown areas. Broward needs to hurry up with that light rail system. I'll be gone by the time its implemented though. It's not like The Sims where I can pause "life" and stick some new features in. Nonetheless, this hinders my destination options a bit, which is why this is just an exploration trip, wandering around just because I can. Perhaps I'll go from the southernmost point of the route to the northernmost point. Perhaps I'll find and interesting place. Perhaps...

I'm really having a hard time believing that it's back-to-school time already. The ads in the Sunday papers were all about new pencils and High School Musical lunchboxes and dull polos and dorm stuff and clean white sneakers and things that are bothering me at the moment because ITS NOT TIME YET. Okay, the caps were unnecessary, but the whole school thing kinda snuck up on me. I had been content doing my FLVS work, but as for real school....nooooooooooooooooo. 30 days is a long time, but I have a feeling it will fly by. This summer is a little weird since I didn't experience the back-to-school rush last year being at CMU, I just went right back to school as soon as I got back and picked up a few new things I needed at the mall that weekend. Maybe if I ignore it I'll just forget and everything will work out somehow on the 18th. Yeah, that sounds good.

My Ears are Happy

People have been raving about Pandora for a while now. I brushed it off when I first heard about it a while back, as I was satisfied with my current internet radio solution, Deezer, until content started getting blocked to the point where I could only listen to very few songs. So yesterday, I decided to give this Pandora thing a shot. Within minutes I had set up stations featuring my favorite artists and similar artists. Also, within an hour of listening, I discovered a lot of new music that I actually enjoyed in addition to some old favorites that I hadn't heard in a while.

So today, when I logged back on, I wondered what made this music service so much more awesome than all the rest. A few clicks away and I come across info on the Music Genome Project, which basically has focused on extensively categorizing music since 2000. That's what makes Pandora awesomer. I've mixed a few of my favorites together, so now I have this set of awesome music that I can listen to without skipping so often. It's actually better than randomizing my own music on iTunes.

Yeah, I'm sure I sound like they're paying me to advertise, but they're not, and it truly is a great service. I was able to make my ears happy, so quickly, so effortlessly.

Now back to Physics...I'm trying to be a good FLVS student and get back on pace (I've never really been on pace lol, I'm ahead in AP Calc though!).

GROSS

On Saturday we went out to Ruby Tuesday for dinner. On the way back, we stopped for gas and I ran inside the minimart or whatever it's called to grab a snack. I purchased a Pinapple Fanta, Tropical Skittles, and Rolos. I love Rolos, they're like the perfect blend of caramel and milk chocolate. Well not any more! I opened the paper and carefully opened the gold foil wrapper so that it wouldn't rip. I noticed the chocolate was flaky on the first piece, but I figured it was because of a temperature change or shipping. NOPE. I pulled the first piece away from the second and THERE WAS A LIVE WHITE WORM STARING AND WIGGLING AT ME from my once delicious chocolate candy!!!!!! EWWWWWWWWWWWW! We hadn't pulled off yet, so I ran back inside and the also disgusted cashier gave me my money back and threw away the candy. I regret doing that now because I could've taken a picture. I was thoroughly disgusted for the rest of the evening. I still am.

So being an avid Consumerist reader, I thought the best thing to do was send off an email to Hershey's informing them of their horrible product mishap. I decided to do a little research first though. Apparently, having worms in various chocolate candies is pretty common. In the course of my research, I stumbled upon an FDA report that basically sums up how many bugs, how much of their poop and other crap that shouldn't be in our food is actually in our food. I found out that in chocolate, there is an average of 60 insect fragments per 100 grams of chocolate. A package of Rolos is 48g and there are 8 Rolos in each package. If I'm interpreting the data correctly, that means that there could've been about 10 insect fragments in every bite! YUCK! And this is perfectly legal and "safe". Not for my mental health; I'm not too comfortable with the thought of eating bugs. I've read that the problem stems from the cocoa beans, but I don't understand how the larvae could survive the cooking process and make it out alive in my chocolate, unless it came in somewhere between the factory and the store to my hands. I remember one of the local news stations did a report on worms and larvae in Mars M-Azing candy bars, and they found out that the problem was not limited to only a few incidents. Heat and improper storage had something to do with it, but that wasn't the only problem. I've read that the worms aren't harmful if digested, but still, who wants to something that something else already ate with the something else still inside?!

I still haven't written to Hershey, but I probably will later today. They'll probably send some coupons for more wormy chocolate and apologize for my dissatisfaction, but I wish that memory could be erased. I probably won't be eating chocolate for a while. That was a horrible experience.

Summer Fun

Yesterday was absolutely awesome. I haven't had so much fun in quite a while. I met up with some friends to see Wall-E, but it was way more than just watching a movie...

Gameworks: while waiting for others to show up, Dom and I went to Gameworks for a quick game of DDR. After playing just one game (3 rounds), we were exhausted. There were some lame kids hogging the "good" machine with the more sensative pads, so we used the other machine and I practically killed my feet/ankles wearing flip flops on the slippery, barely responsive pad.

Mall Wandering: I'm not really used to just wandering around the mall just for the hell of it, so it was kind of strange at first, but eventually I enjoyed not rushing around from store to store like we usually do. After about 30 minutes of walking around my feet started to feel the pain of playing DDR in such horrible conditions and wearing those cheap $3 Old Navy flip flops with absolutely no arch support whatsoever. Luckily there is a Target at Sawgrass and I didn't hesistate to get another pair of comfortable flip flops (I already have a pair of these, but you can never have to many!). I trashed the horrible Old Navy flip flops and our other friends arrived shortly after. We bought our tickets for Wall-E but had some time to spare, so we went back to Gameworks. Over an hour later and the same machine hogs were still there. After abusing my feet before, I was in no mood to play DDR again...but I did.

WALL-E: Is probably up near the top of my favorite movies now. I knew from the moment I saw the first trailer sometime last year that I would probably love this movie, but I had no idea it would be this great. The movie carried a great message about gluttony and the environment with a cute love story. The theme of Buy N' Large in the movie actually reminded me of the principles of the movie Idiocracy. I did sense a bit of irony watching everyone around the theater stuff their faces with oversized and overpriced food...I even had a gigantic wannabe Dr. Pepper. This movie is definitely reccommended and I'll probably have WAAALLL-EEEEE stuck in my head for a while. I'm probably going to see it again with my mom.

sitting on the WALL-E bench after the movie

Food: I haven't had Panda Express in a really long time. It was really good, but they were being cheap with their portions. I've never been able to finish a Panda Bowl in one sitting, except for today. Earlier in the day I had a Lemonade icee from Burger King. Carbonated sugary icee drinks are absolutely delicious. I don't know why I'm so addicted to sweet icy things, carbonation is just a nice extra.

Laser Quest: I've only been to Laser Quest once, and that was with camp about 8 years ago. I vaguely remembered it, but it was definitely 10x better this time around. Dominique works there so she had free passes to share (THANKS!). I chose the name "awesomeness" as an alias, but it somehow got entered as "awesomest" which was equally okay, I guess. We arrived just in time for the last game of the night. Our marshall, who I went to middle school with (just found out!), was very humorous and pretty up to date on Internet culture and kept the jokes coming the whole time. Into the airlock for briefing, strap on the packs, and the game is on! I definitely payed more attention to strategy and detail than when I played before, and it made the game seem so much more fun. 15 minutes felt like 5, but we were all drenched in sweat after the game ended. I ranked 18/29 with 6% accuracy, not tagging everyone that was playing. Regardless of score, it was still a great game and I had an amazing night with cool people.

The odd thing about summer is that I can go hours on end without saying a word or, often days without speaking (in person) to someone my own age, or even leaving the house for that matter ( I think my record was set last year with 10 days). I don't know why verbal communication sucks so much, but this was definitely a nice social break in the monotony of my individualistic summer lifestyle. I blame the Internet...it's too addicting.

I Love the World/ I Love Robots

If you watch Discovery Channel, you may have noticed this commercial being aired:



Isn't it great? Gustavo and I think so too. So does xkcd. Out of admiration and utter bliss, we decided to write a parody of our own about an hour ago...

I Love Robots

I love robots
I love when sparks fly
I love their colors
I love to discover why
I love all of FIRST
And all its quirky perks!
Boom de Yada Boom de Yada
Boom de Yada Boom de Yada

I love engineers
I love to build things
I love metal gears
I love hurdling
I love all of FIRST
And all the fun emersed
Boom de Yada Boom de Yada
Boom de Yada Boom de Yada

I love to program
I love electronics
I love crazy games
I love physics
I love all of FIRST
And all it does for us
Boom de Yada Boom de Yada
Boom de Yada Boom de Yada

The meter and rhyme scheme are a bit off, but it still sounds okay when you sing it. Perhaps we'll make a recording some day. Thanks Discovery Channel for that awesome commercial and for making me feel happy inside!

The Beginning of an Adventure

The UF application should be available online in a few hours along with the Common App and a few other schools. I'm still debating on whether I should start with essays and such now or just relax for a bit and wait until later. I suppose this signifies the beginning of my journey in the college application process.

On Friday morning AP scores became available by phone, so I was impatient and paid $8 to call and hear my scores. They were supposed to be available today, but like all of the other exams, scores are usually available a few days earlier. Unfortunately when I called, not all of the scores were available. The verdict...

AP US History: unavailable
AP Lang: 3
AP Psych: 3

I'm still devastated. I know it's not that bad, and I may still get credit at some schools, but it's really disappointing. I also know a 3 is still a pretty good accomplishment and not the end of the world, but I expected to do better, especially in two courses that I thought I had a very firm grasp on. I don't even want to know my APUSH grade now. ::deep sigh::

With scores like these and last semester's grades I'm probably not going to get into MIT unless my SAT Subject Test and ACT retakes are amazing in Sept/Oct. I should learn to like UF more...