Online Journal

Navigation Menu Home About Me Computer Games Music Online Journal Stories Links Sign Guestbook View Guestbook E-mail me!

Archive Part One First | Previous | Next | Current Sunday, November 10, 2002--Oooh! More fan mail! "You are in a sense being a coward by aying those idiots in SJYS...it's not like you mention any names either..." --------unsigned I think you misunderstand. I call them cowards because they leave me a message trying to harass me without also leaving me their name, e-mail, or any other contact info. In other words, an anonymous attack, simply because they fear retaliation. I don't. If I wanted to verbally attack someone, I wouldn't do it while hiding behind a cloak of anonymity. Since I give out my name and e-mail address on every page, if you took offense to what I'm saying, you can always write me a rebuttal by posting in my guestbook like you are now, or you could e-mail me (except that would reveal your e-mail address and you're too cowardly to do that), or you could confront me in person (except that would reveal who you are and you're hella too cowardly to do that). When you contact me and try to verbally abuse me anonymously like you're doing right now, I can't track you down. I can't send you e-mail. I can't confront you in person. All I can do is post something on my website and hope that you'll read it. Oh, and as to naming the names, I'm not going to do so here, because that would be insulting them behind they're backs, and I prefer to insult them TO THEIR FACE. I ain't a coward. Anyways, today, I spent the most of my day working on the RPing stuff for Avalanche Online. However, Franklin and I DID play a game of Warcraft III, 1v1, Night Elf VS Night Elf. In the beginning of the game, I built an army consisting of 1 Demon Hunter, 3 Huntresses, 3 Dryads (they're cute!), 3 Ballistae, 6 Archers, and 3 Trees of Eternity. Yes, you heard me correctly, 3 Trees of Eternity. I sent my attack squad in and destroyed Franklin's base, only to find that he had sent in his base to attack mine. So, I TPed back home to defend. However, Franklin apparently had another expansion somewhere. First, I rebuilt my attack squad. Of my 3 Dryads, only 2 survived, but I didn't built any more. Of my 6 Archers, only 3 survived, so built 3 Hippogryphs and mounted my Archers on them. Then, I built some Huntresses so I would have a total of 4 and some Ballistae so I would have a total of 5. I also built a Priestess of the Moon. I ended up wandering the map for about 20 minutes looking for Franklin. I found a few minor clusters of buildings, but nothing really. Finally, I found him in an obscure corner of the map, so I attacked. However, there was this large field of empty land that I couldn't cross. Suddenly, a whole bunch of Archers appeared. In the ensuing battle, my Hippogryph Riders, Huntresses, Dryads, and Priestess were wiped out. Then, my Demon Hunter had a fight against Frankin's Priestess. I used Metamorphosis (and Immolation) while his Priestess used Starfall. I won, barely, with about 120 HP left, so I retreated him. Then, my 5 Ballistae and 3 Trees wiped out the remainder of Franklin's base, and I finally won. By the time of my final attack, I had gotten all of the upgrade in the Hunter's Hall. Also, I had a Level 8 Demon Hunter (personal record) and a Level 3 Priestess. Franklin had a Level 6 Priestess. I had a 80% Tech Percentage, as opposed to Franklin's 30%. It was the first time Franklin and I have finished a 1v1 game of Warcraft III. (The Undead VS Undead game a while ago doesn't count, because we never finished it, and it could have gone either way.) I won. Apparently, Warcraft III isn't one of those games Franklin's going to be better than me at. Then again, it always takes him some time to get good. Hmmm... Franklin commented that he wanted to play Starcraft, but we can't install it on his new comp because stupid Sarah lost our CD. In any case, after dinner, I played Final Fantasy X a bunch... *spoiler*Goddamn Yunalesca's so damn hard!*spoiler* (highlight the part between the two "*spoiler*" marks to reveal the spoiler. In any case, Good Night! Elf girls are cute! Saturday, November 9, 2002--I went to the Santa Clara University High School Math Contest today. I got a perfect score, as did Ke. All it comes down to know is the tie-breakers: How well you explain your work. I also saw an old friend: Joyce from the ARML. Poor Connie! She had to wait a whole hour for her friend Joanna to finish with the test so they can go find where they need to meet for the carpool back home. Connie only used 2 of the 3 hours given, while Joanna used the whole time. Well, at least she's thorough and persistent. Franklin and I went Christmass shopping today. We bought GTA Vice City, but family tradition requires us to keep our gift sealed until Christmas. We also bought our dad a gift. More on that in a month and a half. Because Franklin can't open GTA Vice City yet, he decided to rent it at Blockbuster. It's just as fun as GTA3, except with more vehicles and a new map. We also got new Yugioh cards. Kenny told us that there was a tournament going on with the Yugioh club today. "Franklin, you're supposed to tell me about these things!" "Hey, I don't go to meetings anymore because they aren't at T-period." In any case, in my Metal Raiders Booster: 1. Pumpking the King of Ghosts - Level 6, 1800 Attack, 2000 Defense, gets stronger when the Castle of Dark Illusion is face-up on the field. Too bad neither of us have that card. 2. Giltia the D. Knight - Fusion Card, 1850 Attack, 1500 Defense. 3. Electric Lizard - Level 3, 850 Attack, 800 Defense, if any non-zombie attacks this monster, it can't attack on its next turn. 4. Leghul - Level 1, 300 Attack, 350 Defense, can attack your opponent's Life Points directly. 5. *rare*Hoshiningen - Level 2, 500 Attack, 700 Defense, the Light Lord, increases all Light monsters' Attack by 500 and all Dark monsters' Attack by 400. This guy will balance out Franklin's Dark Lord. 6. Hyosube - Level 4, 1500 Attack, 900 Defense. 7. Disk Magician - Level 4, 1350 Attack, 1000 Defense. 8. Rabid Horseman - Fusion card, combination of the Battle Ox and Mystic Horseman, both of which I have. Too bad I don't have a Polymerization. Well, he's not all that good anyway. 2000 Attack, 1700 Defense. 9. Steel Scorpion - Level 1, 250 Attack, 300 Defense, any monster that attacks this card is destroyed on the end of its 3rd turn. In my Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon Booster: 1. Masaki the Legendary Swordsman - Level 4, 1100 Attack, 1100 Defense. 2. M-Warrior #1 - Level 3, 1000 Attack, 500 Defense. 3. Mountain - Terrain card, boosts the Attack and Defense of all Dragon, Winged Beast, and Thunder-Type monsters by 200 points. 4. Mystical Moon - Equip card, increases the Attack and Defense of a Beast-Warrior monster by 300 points. 5. *rare*Stop Defense - Magic card, changes an opponent's defending monsters to attack mode. 6. Larvas - Level 3, 800 Attack, 1000 Defense. 7. Basic Insect - Level 2, 500 Attack, 700 Defense. 8. Ray & Temperature - Level 3, 1000 Attack, 1000 Defense. 9. Dragon Treasure - Equip Card, boosts a Dragon's Attack and Defense by 300. So, after playing GTA Vice City a bunch, our parents went to Bernard's house to play Mah-jiang with their group, and Franklin and I decided to tag along. 5-player Bomberman is fun! Oh, and while we were there, I got on AIM, which turned out to be AIM+, Bernard's sister Kellie's friend Wendi cloned a copy of AIM and went online, and we started IMing each other ON THE SAME COMP!!! At one point, I asked, "How can you tell which one belongs to who?" and Wendi replied by accidentally IMing herself with my SN. So, that's the end of THAT story. Good night! Friday, November 8, 2002--It rained a hella lot today. I enjoy the rain. It seems so... pacifying. It makes you want to forget all your troubles. Which reminds me, I forgot to make comments about last night's thunderstorm. So, my brother and I see a really, really big flash of lightning. Franklin says, "Whoa! Thunder." I reply, "It's more like Thundara." Then, there's this enormously loud clash of thunder, and I say, "Now THAT'S Thundaga." (FF reference, here...) Anyway, today in Zeroth/First period Math 73, I didn't pay attention AT ALL. Instead, I read a little book about paradoxes. Whoops! Darn those sophomores and their Rabbit. Thanks to them, I felt uncomfortable staying for the Math Club Meeting AGAIN. And Math Club is supposed to be MY turf. Oh, well. Whatever. So, later, at home, Franklin wants to continue the 6 out of 11 series... Duel #3: Franklin managed to get his Summoned Skull out early in the game, but after I had already used up a Block Attack. I never managed to get a second one, so I couldn't beat him. Damn, that Summoned Skull is by far the cheapest card in the game. Duel #4: My starting hand had the Lava Battleguard and the Swamp Battleguard, and I managed to bring out both of them. However, by the time I did, Franklin had already put up his Labyrinth Wall (the 3000 Defense card), so my attack force was basically worthless. On top of that, he killed then killed off my Lava Battleguard with a Fissure, reducing my Swamp Battleguard back to 1800. Later in the game, I had a Battle Ox equipped with the Sword of Deep-Seated for a combined 2200 attack and a face down Hane-Hane. I flipped my Hane-Hane to send the Labyrinth Wall back to Franklin's hand. Then, I sacrificed my Hane-Hane for Gyukatenno Megami (Level 6, 1800 attack, 2000 defense), playing it face-down. Using my Battle-Ox, I wiped out Franklin's remaining forces except for 1 face down card that I saw Franklin play thanks to my Ceremonial Bell. It was the Princess of Tsurugi. In desperation, Franklin flipped the Princess (dealing 2000 damage to me), played the Axe of Despair to increase the Princess's attack to 1900, then played the Bladefly to increase the Princess's attack even further to 2400. Franklin opted to attack by Battle Ox, but I played Reinforcements, which boosted his attack to 2700 temporarily, just enough to kill the Princess by 300 points. Franklin then sacrificed his Bladefly to return his Axe. Somehow, Franklin managed to kill off my Battle Ox, so I played the Destroyer Golem and equipped him with the Sword and the Nuzzler (1500+500+700 attack) and wiped out Franklin's remaining forces. Then, Frankin tried playing the Bistro Butcher with his Axe (1800+1000 attack) and using De-spell to remove the Nuzzler. I returned the Nuzzler to the top of my Deck at the cost of 500 Life. Then, Franklin attacked my Destroyer Golem with his powered up Bistro. According to the numbers, he should have won by 800 points, but instead, I played my Reverse Trap, which used the Axe to reduce Franklin's Bistro to 800 attack (and my own Golem's attack to 1000), so I destroyed Franklin's Bistro. Franklin later realized that if he had NOT used De-spell, my Reverse Trap would not have worked out, and he would have beaten me. Just 1 simple mistake, Franklin. Then, Franklin was wide open for an assault. I re-equipped the Nuzzler to the Destroyer Golem. On the next turn, I drew my own Bistro Butcher, so I flipped up Megami, only to have Franklin destroy it with a Trap Hole. So, I played the Bistro (1800 attack) and used it with the powered up Destroyer Golem (2700 attack) to kick Franklin's butt. So, now, the running score is 3-1, in Franklin's favor. In any case, I need to go to sleep now, because I need to go to the Santa Clara University High School Math Contest tomorrow. Good night! Thursday, November 7, 2002--Dwayne answers the letters he's received in his guestbook today! "How can you say there are so many cowards at school and SJYS...yea sure there are some 'idiots' everywhere but don'y judge people unless you really know them...outward perception can always be decieving. dont be so judgmental...there are so many chill peo" --------unsigned Well, let's see, if someone comes along and criticizes you hatefully without any evidence or support to back up their claims, and all they know how to do insult you, then, based on that evidence, I'm sure I can label them as an idiot. Yeah, when I criticize them and call them idiots, at least I can pull out actual evidence. For example, "Philip's" post on my guestbook insulted me without any basis, reason, rhyme, or logic to it. It was a completely random attack with very little, if any, truth or intelligence in it. Therefore, I can label him an idiot and be justified. There's nothing wrong with what I'm doing. If he acts like an idiot, either he is an idiot or he prefers to be labeled as one. "yea ok im just wondering dwayne. do you like a lot of girls because u always talk about them in your website and after u say their names u act all sad like 'shrig'. then you go and say stuff like damnit a million times. i think u shuld take a chill pill a" --------"anonomy" Just because I say a girl's name on my website doesn't mean I like them. Just because I say a girl's name on my website doesn't mean I don't like them. There is no correlation whatsoever. Oh, and if you want to be my therapist, why don't you tell me who you are instead of hiding behind a cloak of anonymity? Yeah, that's what I thought. You prefer to hide in the shadows like the rest of them. That's the difference between you and me. I don't mind--in fact, I enjoy--direct confrontation. And don't even try to call me a hypocrite, because everyone knows that this is the most direct I can get considering I don't even know who you are. "if u dont like us sjys "idiots" then quit." --------unsigned I don't hate ALL the people at SJYS, just the idiots. Plus, I like playing orchestra music. It's fun! Well, I'm back from my "question" answer mode. Anyway... Today at lunch, I was supposed to go to a TEAMS meeting in the Speech & Debate Room as directed by Linda Fang (she promised me that there would be no "plots to kill me" and no "Diane Ko"), but just before I went in, I smelled a rat, so I ditched the meeting. Instead, I went to the Japanese Directed Study with Cindy Liu, Maria "Mariko" Motonaga, and Fukui-sensei. So, I say, "I'm sorry, but I forgot my book and my homework." Fukui-sensei says something to me in Japanese, and I reply, "I also forgot my Japanese." Geez, I'm going to have to study up on my Japanese if I don't want to look like a fool in front of Mariko-san. In any case, at home, Franklin challenged me to a series of Yugioh duels, best 6 out of 11. Duel #1: Franklin got out his Curse of Dragon (Level 5, 2000 attack) early, and I quickly brought out my Swordstalker (Level 5, 2000 attack) to balance it out. Unfortunately, he attached his Ring of Magnetism on my Swordstalker, reducing his attack (and defense) by 500 points, making it really easy to kill it. After that, I never managed to bring out anything to get rid of his Curse of Dragon, and he stacked 5 monsters against me. Naturally, he won. Duel #2: Early on in the game, I got my Judge Man (Level 6, 2200 attack, my 2nd strongest monster) out and attached it with the Sword of Deep-Seated (+500 attack, returns to the top of your deck when destroyed), but Franklin killed it with a Fissure. Fortunately for me, I had Reborn the Monster in my first draw and I drew in La Jinn (Level 4, 1800 attak) on my 2nd turn, so I had a powerful monster and a chance to revive my best. Franklin brought out his Labyrinth Walls (Level 5, 0 attack, 3000 Defense) knowing I would never be able to pierce it. However, I decided to play my Blast Juggler face down and wait for another monster with low enough attack (1000 or less) so I could detonate my Blast Juggler and destroy the Wall (and the other monster). I ended up killing a few good candidates. Whoops! Franklin finally brought out his Wall of Illusion (Low Level, 1000 attack, 1850 Defense, any monster attacking this will be returned to the hand). I tried to detonate the Blast Juggler, but Franklin killed it off with a Ryu-Kishin (1600 attack). I then attacked Ryu-Kishin with my La Jinn (who now had the Sword, so he had a total attack of 2300). Franklin tried to use Reverse Trap to use the Sword to weaken my La Jinn, but I countered with my own Reverse Trap and balanced it out. Then, after playing my Dark Zebra (1800 attack), I killed the Wall of Illusion with my La Jinn, returning the La Jinn to my hand and the Sword to my deck. I forget how, but Franklin managed to get rid of my Zebra. Then, seeing my opening, I used Reborn to revive my Judge Man, equipped him with the Sword, and equipped him with the Nuzzler (+700 attack) I just drew to bring him up to a total of 3400 attack. I tried to attack the Labyrinth Wall, but Franklin played his Reverse Trap (he had brought it back with his Mask of Darkness), so it reduced my Judge Man's attack to 1000, hurting me for 2000 damage and bringing me down to 1900 Life. Then, Franklin played the Horn of Light to protect his Wall, which I removed with a De-Spell, then destroyed his Wall with my Judge Man. Shortly afterwards, Franklin used a Dark Hole to wipe out the entire field. Then, using a 1600 attack monster, he directly assaulted me, bringing me down to 300 Life. I brought back my La Jinn (it was still in my hand) equipped him with the Sword and attacked. Frankin wiped it out with a Fissure. Then, a series of Monsters and Swords were played and destroyed. Finally, I had a Mystic Clown with the Sword (total 2000 attack) and a Bistro Butcher (1800 attack) on the field. using this combo, I brought Franklin down to 1450 Life (from 7450). Then, Franklin played a Giant Soldier of Stone (2000 defense). I had a hunch that it was one of those defense cards, so I revealed it with a quick hit from my Mystic Clown. Franklin, knowing I couldn't pierce his Stone Solider, was safe for a few turns. During those turns, I drew and played Ookazi, hitting him for 800 direct damage, bringing him down to 650. Then, Franklin drew and played Tremendous Fire, dealing 1000 damage to me and 500 to him. The final score was 150-0, Franklin winning. This was the 2nd duel I lost solely because of Tremendous Fire. Looking at my deck, I found that the next card was a Snake Fang, a Trap that reduces the target's defense by 500 Defense temporarily, which would have been enough to wipe out Franklin's Soldier of Stone and deplete his remaining Life points. All I needed was ONE MORE TURN! Oh, well. Franklin stands at a total record of 2-0 in the series, and I have to update my blog and go to sleep. *yawn* Good night. Wednesday, November 6, 2002--There's nothing I hate more than a coward who avoids confrontations, especially the idiot who posted in my guestbook as "Philip" and who had his post deleted do to the complete idiocy and irreverence (yes, I spelled that correctly, I know my vocabulary) of his messages. I hate idiots like "Philip" almost as much as I hate cowards. There are too damn many idiots at Leland & at SJYS. During 4th period Chem AP, we had our tests returned, and as people were looking over their mistakes, Iwen kept asking to look for my test. Apparently, she hates my guts but likes my brains. *shrug* After-school, I came home and had a lot of catchup work on... surfing the internet and wasting time? WTF?!? Who writes these cue-cards? I'm still thinking of that fortune cookie that told me, "There is a true and sincere friendship between you both." DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! DAMNIT!!! I think I've lost my insanity... Tuesday, November 5, 2002--I worked the polls today. As quoted from the essay I had to write for Mrs. Bergantz... "I worked at precinct #1046, whose voting place was at the residence of a family called Redding at Yarmouth off Tunbridge off Via Valiente (just south of Leland). I worked there full day. The whole day went very smoothly. No one caused trouble. Everyone, both voters and poll workers seemed to know exactly what to do. We had a rush in the morning as soon as the polls opened and at the end just before the polls closed, but very little action in between. Overall, we had a 40% turnout (267 out of 647), as calculated by my friend Andrew Matsuoka. I remember this one man who showed up very early in the morning who wanted to vote, but he was in the wrong precinct. When we told him so, he told us, "Well, I'm not going to vote today." When we replied that all he had to do was find the right precinct, he replied, "I don't have time. I have to go to work." It was one of the saddest things I've ever seen. Someone simply gave up his right to vote because of the mad pace of life in the modern world. In retrospect, we should have let him vote Provisionally, but by the time we thought of it, it was too late. Also, an old friend of mine came to vote at our precinct. Elly Drygas, who graduated from Leland last year, had come home from college and voted. (The cause and effect relation of the two events is uncertain.) That day, my mom had packed my lunch for me, so I ate it in 10 minutes. However, lunch break was an hour long, and later, the rest of the poll workers strong recommended to me that I go take the remaining 50 minutes of my break. "You could go crazy without it," they said, so I went home and took a nap. Dinner break was much different. Driving to McDonald's, eating, and driving back took the entire 30 minutes. Dinner break should be longer. I later heard from my friend Ryan Chao that the workers at his precinct got free lunch and dinner. I'm not sure what happened there, though. I hear that starting in the year 2004, we'll have electronic voting. That will be interesting to see. Lucky for me, I'll be old enough to vote for that election, so I can actually try it. However, unless we have an election in 2003, I probably won't get to try those punchboxes (with the chads and everything). Volunteering as a poll worker was a rewarding experience from me. I learned a lot about how voting in California works. I'm glad to have had the opportunity to work at the polls this year." I got back home that night just in time for Smallville... Then, I went to sleep. Good night! Monday, November 4, 2002--I have an addendum for yesterday. It's in magenta. In 3rd period Government... Hmmm... I wonder why Yily decided to call on me first for help with the question Mrs. Bergantz gave her... Oh, well. Probably just coincidence. So, at lunch, I happen to eat lunch near the Science Club Room, and the UTA, who happen to RUN Science Club, dragged me into the room to participate. *shrug*. Later... Me: I paid Claire $12 so I could have some of her donuts. No, Alan, that is NOT innuendo. Alan: Man, I wish I could pay her $250 for some of her donuts. Dwayne: (disapprovingly) THAT is innuendo. The thing is, tonight, I have SJYS rehearsal until 9:40 (and I have to leave home at 6pm), and tomorrow I have to work at the election at 6:30am (so, I have to wake up at 5:30am), which means I need to get to bed ASAP after coming home from rehearsal, which means there won't be time to update my webbie, which means I have to update it now when the day is only 75% over. Tomorrow, I'll probably have an addendum of today. Good night anyway! Sunday, November 3, 2002--I have a few additions to yesterday in green. As the day began, Franklin challenged me to a "quick" Yugioh duel. Toward the end of it, Franklin had used Monster Reborn to revive his Magician of Faith (a weak card, but has the ability to bring back any Magic Card when flipped) and placed it face down, along side of another face-down monster that I was sure had 2000 defense. The only Monster Card I had in my hand was the Lord of D (1200 attack), but I had the Sword of Deep-Seated, so I played Lord of D with the Sword to bring his attack power to 1700, then I played my Reinforcements Trap Card to temporarily increase Lord of D's attack power to 2200, just barely enough to kill Franklin's Defensive Card. My plan was to destroy the defensive card, then use Share the Pain so that we would both have to sacrifice monsters, and Franklin would lose his Magician of Faith without getting to use her special power. You see, Franklin had lost his Axe of Despair (+1000 to attack, can be returned to the top of your deck when lost by sacrificing a monster). He had but 1 Monster, and it was equipped with the Axe, so I played Fissure and destroyed it so that he would lose the Axe and be unable to bring it back. However, his Magician of Faith would bring back the Axe, and I had to prevent that. Unfornately, Franklin played Castle Walls, a trap card that increases a card's defense by 500 points, so my Lord of D lost the battle. On his turn, Franklin played a 1650 attack monster. Then, Franklin activated the Magician's power, then sacrificed it and his defensive card, paying 500 Life because he had Ultimate Offering, to summon the Dark Magician. I had a Trap Hole in waiting, so I played it, killing the Magician. Franklin hadn't chosen the card to bring back using the Magician of Faith, so he brought back Reborn, and used it right away to bring back the Dark Magician. Using the combined pair of the Dark Magician and the 1650 attack monster, he killed the Lord of D and wiped out my life points. In retrospect, technically, Franklin activated the Magician of Faith's power BEFORE he summoned the Dark Magician, so I should have wait for him to choose the card first, THEN play the Trap Hole (when the sequence of the summoning of the Dark Magician was suppose to happen). He would have probably picked the Axe, but this wouldn't have helped. He would have played it on his 1650 attack monster to bring it up to 2650 attack, and I would have lost anyway. Whatever. Good game. I'm working on my UC (University of California) & Stanford Applications now! At Taste of China, while I was looking over the menu, I found some "Fried Coconet", an obvious typo. So, my dad told me once he was at a restaurant, and one of the dishes was Hunan Beef, but there was a typo and it read HUMAN Beef instead. Hmm... Human Bovine, how interesting... Also, the eggrolls we ordered came with sweet & sour sauce as well as a mysterious yellow sauce I decided to try. I put a BUNCH on my eggroll, and the thing was so damn spicy, I spat it right back out. Franklin yelled at me, but I told him, "If you had put as much as I did, you'd spit it out, too." He didn't dare try to prove me wrong." At Taste of China for dinner, I got a fortune cookie that read, "There is a true and sincere friendship between you both." Who are "you both"? I need to come to a decision by tomorrow, or else I'll have to wait a whole week. Argh! Why does this have to be so hard?!? Screw it! Good night... Why do I get the feeling I've said that before? Saturday, November 2, 2002 - ADDENDUM--Franklin challenged me to some more duels. Duel #4: I think Franklin didn't get a fair share of monsters in his hands. I easily fended off everything he threw at me with a series of monsters with 1500 attack power + the Malevolent Nuzzler (+700 attack). I won rather easily, thanks to some Nuzzler action. Toward the end of the duel, I had my Battle Ox (1700 attack) on the field and Franklin was wide open. I just drew Reborn the Monster. In my hand, I also had the Swamp Battleguard (Lv5/Atk1800/Def1500, increases attack by 500 for every Lava Battleguard you currently control) in my hand. My Lava Battleguard (Lv5/Atk1550/Def1800, increases attack by 500 for every Swamp Battleguard you currently control) was in the graveyard, as was Franklin's Dark Magician. I had the choice of reviving my Lava Battleguard and sacrificing my Battle Ox for my Swamp Battleguard so that they would increase each other's power, so that I would have a total attack of 4350 (2300+2050), or I could have revived Franklin's Dark Magician and use it for myself for a total attack of 4200 (2500 + 1700). I chose the higher single attack over higher total attack, and using this combo, I kicked ass and brought Franklin from near full to nothing pretty quickly. Naturally, Franklin challenged me to another duel. Duel #5: Toward the end, I had Big Eye and Ceremonial Bell out, both face down, so I first flipped Big Eye, activating his special power that allows me to see the next 5 cards in my deck and arrange them in any order I wanted. I saw that I had a Blue Eyes coming up, so I moved it to my next card. Then, I flipped over the Ceremonial Bell, activating its special power that allows both players to see each others hands. I saw Franklin had a Fissure, a Magic Card that kills the weakest face-up opponent monster. If I sacrificed Big Eye and the Bell and had Blue Eyes attacking alone, I knew Franklin would destroy it with his Fissure. I had Gyakytenno Megami (Lv6/Atk1800/Def2000) in my hand, so I sacrificed my Bell to play it. (Consequently, our respective hands were hidden again.) On my next turn, I drew Blue Eyes. On the turn after that, I drew the monster card I had, by luck, placed just after Blue Eyes. Lucky for me, I had Ultimate Offering out (allows me to play multiple monsters at a price of 500 Life after the first), so I played that minor monster, then sacrificed it and Big Eye to play Blue Eyes. (I think I also managed to kill of Franklin's last defending card with something I don't remember). Then, Blue Eyes and Megami did a combined attack for 4800 damage. Because of my Blue Eyes-Megami combo and because Franklin couldn't save his life with his Fissure--it would have targeted Megami, the weaker card--he lost that duel. Franklin likes to challenge me to duels until he wins, so it only seems natural that he challenged me to one last duel. Duel #6: Toward the end of the duel, Franklin had his Labyrinth Walls (Lv5/Atk0/Def3000) (yes, a whopping 3000 defense) and 1 other monster at 1550 attack (Skull Red Bird, I think). Earlier in the duel, when the Labyrinth Walls was face down, I attacked it with a monster with only 1500 attack, hurting me for 1500 damage. In the end, this made all the difference. I had a face-down Big Eye, which I flipped face up to find, once again, Blue Eyes at the top of my deck. In my hand, I had a Sword of Deep-Seated and Hane-Hane, a weak monster who's Flip-Effect Special Power allowed me to send 1 card back to my opponents hands. I played my Hane-Hane face-down, then equipped Big Eye with the Sword, increasing his attack power to 1700, so I could kill the Skull Red Bird. Franklin had no moves available. I had seen his Wall Shadow earlier in the game by using the Ceremonial Bell to reveal his hand. The Wall Shadow has 1600 attack and 3000 defense, but he can only be summoned by using the Magic Card "Magical Labyrinth" on the Labyrinth Walls. Obviously, he was still waiting for Magical Labyrinth. On my next turn, I drew Blue Eyes, flipped Hane-Hane face up to send Franklin's Labyrinth walls back to his hand. Then, I sacrificed Hane-Hane and Big Eye to summon the Blue Eyes White Dragon, with which I used to attack Franklin directly for 3000 damage. (The Sword of Deep-Seated, as per it's special card rules, went to the top of my deck. I knew Franklin would try to bring back his Labyrinth Walls, and I was going to be ready with the Sword, bringing my Blue Eyes' attack to 3500, more than enough to breeak down Franklin's Walls.) However, before I had a chance, Franklin used Change of Heart to steal my Blue Eyes from me. At this point, I had around 2300 Life points, just barely low enough for Franklin to kill me with my own Dragon. Earlier (after the first 3 duels), Franklin had said that his friend, who has a really bad deck, "put up a better fight than me". Well, I'm sure these last three duels show that I AM a worthy opponent. I may not be the best, but I still make do with what I got. BTW, for those who are interested, the "Omni-Soul" is a reincarnation-like belief (not MY belief, though), that everyone's soul is just an incarnation of the Omni-Soul, who exists outside of time & space. However, in the physical plane of the universe, every person is, at another point in time & space, that other person who sits right next to you in class...or at work or whatever. Whatever... Good night! Saturday, November 2, 2002--Today, at Chinese School, we were late to the fire drill. As a result, we only needed to stand outside for, like, a minute. While I was out there, I noticed that Little Rodent wore pants. (A rare occasion. She usually doesn't wear pants. No, you sick freak! She usually wears a skirt!) During break, Justin and I played Basketball. He said that he needed to score 3 baskets to win while I only needed to score 1. Since Justin is so damn taller than me and had so much more skill, he beat me. In the end, I tried to make a desperate maneuver to get under and around Justin, only to accidentally hit myself in the face with the ball. Whoops! I later told Justin that my brother Franklin, he may not be all that tall, but he has DEXTERITY. Justin says, "Oh, yeah? I have ENERGY. And you have VITALITY!" I say, "No, I don't. I have, like, unused stat points." Justin replies, "No, you're more of a Level 1 character." Also, we ate at Jasmine Alley again today. Not only does the name sound wrong and the service is bad, but this time, my beef noodle was ABSOLUTELY TASTELESS. During the afternoon, I got the idea that Counter-strike was infecting my computer, but I was wrong. It's something else that has been infecting my computer. After dinner, Franklin's friend finally delivered the Yugioh Magic Ruler Booster that I had bought. I got: 1. Red Archery Girl (Lv4/Atk1400/Def1500) 2. Ancient One of the Deep Forest (Lv6/Atk1800/Def1900) 3. Upstart Goblin (Magic Card, I get to draw 1 extra card, but my opponent gets 1000 Life. 4. Kotodama (Lv3/Atk0/Def1600 If this card is face up, any cards played that have the same name as a card already on the field is instantly destroyed.) 5. Octoberser (Lv5/Atk1600/Def1400) 6. Malevolent Nuzzler (Equip Magic Card, it increases the attack of any monster by 700 points, and if and when I lose it, I have the option of sacrificing 500 Life points to bring it back onto the top of my deck. 7. Dark Zebra (Lv4/Atk1800/Def400, if this card is the only card I control at the beginning of my turn, it goes into defense mode for the rest of the turn) 8. Ceremonial Bell (Lv3/Atk0/Def1850, as long as this card is face up, both players have to show their hands) 9. *ultra-rare* Axe of Despair (Equip Magic Card, increases a monster's attack by 1000 points, and if and when you lose it, you have the option to sacrifice 1 monster to bring it to the top of your deck) Franklin was so jealous that I got the Axe of Despair and wanted it so badly, that he traded me a Malevolent Nuzzler, a Sword of Deep Seated (Equip Magic Card, increases a monster's attack and defense by 500 points, and when it is sent to the graveyard, I must bring it back to the top of my deck), a Reliable Guardian (Quick Play Magic Card, increases a monster's defense by 700 for 1 turn, and I can play it whenever I want), and the Hane-Hane I traded to him (Lv2/Atk450/Def500, when it is first flipped, I get to send one of any of my opponent's monsters back into his hand). I accepted the trade, but then hesitated before I the card's actually switched hands, so Franklin threw in a Snake Fang (Trap Card, decreases a monster's defense by 500 points for 1 turn) to sweeten the deal and I accepted. Subsequently, I rebuilt my deck and challenged Franklin to a duel (Yugioh duel, that is). Duel #1: It started out well. I had the Malevolent Nuzzler and the Sword of Deep-Seated on my first draw, and I drew my 2nd Nuzzler on my first turn. Franklin had first move, and he planted a trap card face down and a monster with 1650 attack. I played the Battle Ox (1700 attack) with the Sword of Deep-Seated (+500 attack) and attacked. Franklin used his trap card, which happened to be Reverse Trap (reverses all increases and decreases to monster stats for 1 turn), so my Battle Ox's attack went down to 1200, and it died. I didn't have any other monster, and the Sword of Deep-Seated clogged up my deck for another turn, so I was wide open for 2 whole turns, and Franlin beat me using those 2 turns, by going on an all-out attack with 2 monsters. Duel #2: I didn't have very many monsters in the beginning, so naturally, I lost. Duel #3: I got both the Nuzzler and the Sword out on the first turn (grand total of +1200 attack), and equipped it on the Lord of D (1200 attack) for a total of 2400 attack, and I kicked ass at the beginning, but as soon as Franklin killed it with a Fissure, everything went downhill. Because the Sword clogged up my deck again, I was wide open for a few turns and Franklin beat me again. Maybe I should take out that Sword. In any case, I'm planning on putting up Dark Fiends Chapter 4 tonight as soon as I finish it. May Omni-Soul protect you while you sleep! Good night! Friday, November 1, 2002--Today during 4th period, I gave Nadia a Reese's, her favorite. She was so happy. She loves chocolate! Yes, I AM bribing my way into her heart. Today, after dinner, I was confronted on AIM by a person who pretended to be a girl that I liked. As the person was doing a very, very bad job of the impersonation, I knew right away that it wasn't the girl. However, the person knew everything I had told the girl, even things that I didn't know the girl had heard me say to her. One of the girl's friends who I was talking at the same time to try to figure out what was going on told me a lot about that girl that, if I were to believe it, would make her sound like an absolute bitch. Later, I talked a lot to Alex and Steph, as they were trying to comfort me after I went through an emotionally trying event. They really are good friends... Resolved: I need to tell the girl that I like how I feel about her. I'm not going to make the same mistake again. If you like a girl, she'll never know no matter how obvious you make it, unless you tell her outright, so I need to tell her outright. Peace be with you! Good night! Thursday, October 31, 2002 - HALLOWEEN!!!--Today's halloween! Here's a picture of me in my costume in the parking lot at Leland (Franklin took this photo sitting atop my car): Click here for the picture. No one could recognize me, except by my voice. Today, before class, I had a run-in with Claire. I stopped her, silently, and on her face there was this expression of absolute fear over her face as I simply smiled at her. Then, I said, "Hi, Claire," and she gave a sigh of relief, and said, "Oh, it's only you, Dwayne!" I also saw a person dressed as Yuna from Final Fantasy X. In the Library at first period, I snuck up on Nadia from behind and covered her face with my claw, and she kind of freaked out. (I later learned in 4th period that she hella likes Reese's, but I digress.) Apparently, Stacie and Stephanie dressed up as twins today, with the same clothes and the same hairstyle, but I could still tell them apart by their eyes. "But, you already are twins!" I said to Stacie. Oh, and we listened to some pretty cool music today in 2nd period and watched scenes from Fantasia 2002. In 3rd period government, Amy was "Amy" and Stephanie was "Stephanie", but Yily was just "a student." Okay, whatever. During 4th period, I tried to attack Iwen with my claw. I got within an inch of her eyes, and she didn't even flinch. Damn, I bet I could have poked her eyes out, and she still wouldn't have paid any attention to me. During lunch, I scared Cindy with the sneak-up-behind-and-put-claw-to-face technique. I also tried to sneak up on Tifa Wang, but she saw me coming, so I just said, "Hello, do you recognize me?" She replied, "I do now." But, I couldn't eat without getting black face paint in my stomach. That sucked. I wanted to attack Diane with my claw today, but I didn't even get the chance to try. *shrug* 5th period, I lunged with my claw at Linh Nguyen, and freaked her out. Haha! Halloween is fun! I saw Sarah in the parking lot after school. I wanted to claw her, but I had to go. Damnit! Why did my parents have to schedule a dental appointment ON Halloween? What the heck? But other than that, I had fun, somewhat, giving candy to kids who trick or treated at our house. I even scared the shit out of Franklin's ladyfriend Jenny Shieh with my claw lunge. Oh, also Franklin got us some candy. We split it 35/35 and the remaining 30 Franklin would give away to his friends. I stuffed my candy into my glove, the Candy Hand: Click here for the picture. I wish... Damnit! *teardrop*... Wednesday, October 30, 2002--Today in government class, Mrs. Bergantz is talking about Saddamn Hussein, but she pronounces "Saddam" with the stress on the first syllable instead, to which Justin says, "Heheh, SADDam (sodom(y))!" Thanks to his "7069", the whole class burst into laughter. "It's pronounced saDDAM, not SADDam." Stupid 7069. Later, Justin was saying to...I forget who, about how people who are Asian (yellow) on the outside and white on the inside are called "bananas". Likewise, people who are black on the outside, but white on the inside are "oreos." I said, "Hey, I'm a banana and I'm proud of it!" During lunch, I walk into Miss Yamamoto's room to deliver the CAMLs, but they're having an MAH intramural. Big mistake. I HATE SOPHOMORES!!! AUUGGHH!!! Well, I have my Halloween costume for school ready tomorroq. It consists of a big black cloak & hood, clawed gloves (see below), and black and white face paint. I'm not sure what it is, but I think its Undead. Ryan says I'm a Lich. Justin says I'm Tichondrius with a cloak. Whatever. I ought to go to sleep now. Good night! *sigh* I think I'm falling in with . . . Hey! This is big enough to read! I'm not going to blurt it out for the whole world to know . . . *sigh* Tuesday, October 29, 2002--Woke up early for the CAML today. When I got to the room, my first thought was, "Oh, crap! What's she doing here?" Why does Little Rabbit always have to sit right there so that she's the first thing I see when I enter Mr. Shelton's room? Other than that, it was packed full of people, more than we expected. I spent the whole 30 minutes trying to solve the last problem (I already solved the other 5 easy problems) and failed miserably. It turns out no one got that one right. *shrig* Heh, today in 2nd period Music class, Stacie had to help her little sister (little by 1 minute) Stephanie every 3 minutes. And they're twins! At lunch, I wandered around the school looking for stuff. I recall seeing a warning sign saying, "Warning! Open Trench." So, I say to Jaylum, "Do you see an open trench around here?" Of course there wasn't. (BTW, Alan, at lunch we were also talking about Ihui (pronounced Ee-hwei, give or take a H's).) Today in 6th period, some guys were playing with magnetic words and making sentences about "blowing enormous sausages." Tiff Hung says to her friend, "Don't read them. They're making some really bad sentences." Miss Koyanagi says, "You better not be making bad sentences on my cabinet." I say, "They're not wrong grammatically, just content-wise." At the Math Team Meeting, Justin was complaining about being hungry because he had to do the CAML at lunch. Mr. Yim says to bring lunch to the CAML. I mention that it sounds like the "Camel" is our god and that we're feeding the "Camel". The whole class burst into laughter. I didn't think it was THAT funny. So, other than that, my mom is helping to sew up my cloak & hood. I might give you a sneak peak later, but for now, I'm saying "Good night!" I'll be thinking of you, Miss [censored to protect the identity of the girl who's name would otherwise be here]. Monday, October 28, 2002--I'm feeling absolutely rejuvenated today for absolutely no reason! Okay, maybe there is a reason, but I don't know it. Well, today in 6th period, I showed Miss Koyanagi the printout of that episode of 8-bit Theater with "Jabberwocky". She thought it was funny. Afterwards, the class was looking over sample essays in groups, so our group turned our chairs to form a triangle (you can't form a circle with 3 people), and I looked behind me and noticed that Tiff Hung is RIGHT BEHIND ME. So, I ask her, "Am I too close?" Immediately, she replies, "Yes." Well, some girls are like that. *shrig* The essay our group was reading had handwriting so bad, not even I could read it. It also had some really screwy word choices. For example, "As the ship increased, the iceberg increased with it." How do you increase a ship or an iceberg? *shrig* #2 snip, snip--has been cut out due to emotional chaos and confusion. In any case, I plan on attending the CAML (California Math League) Contest #1 for this year, so I really should get some sleep. Ironically, I stayed up pretty late surfing the web. Heh, I hope the end of Daylight Savings Time helps me wake up tomorrow morning. Good knight! Sunday, October 27, 2002--Where were you at 1am this morning? Both of them? Yes, there were two 1am. Daylight Savings Time ended today. We got an extra hour. So... Boring day... Did lots of meticulous things. I think I'll go get some sleep, now. See you tomorrow! Good night! Saturday, October 26, 2002--Homecoming's today, but I'm not going. I did go to Leland for Chinese School, though. During break, a bunch of little sophomores came by riding in the truck carrying their float. I flipped them off. Upon coming home, I finished up Dark Fiends Chapter III and prepared it to be uploaded. (I uploaded it later that night.) After that, I started working on my Halloween costume. I already have the black cloth for the hooded-cloak (it's actually a black bedsheet) and my mom's going to buy the face paint soon. But, I made my clawed gloves today. Take a look: Click here for the picture. And that brings me up to the now. So, I'll just end this entry and say "Good night!" If anything happens between now and the end of the day, I'll post an addendum. Friday, October 25, 2002--It's getting co-o-old! *shiver* *shiver* *shiver* During 2nd period, I made another song on Sheet Music. It's The Tragedy of Viltris - Theme of Sorrow. Wow... Once I learned all the tricks and tools of Sibelius, it becomes pretty easy to churn out sheet music. You can get it on the Music Page. Later, at Lunch's Math Club meeting, the Math Club room was packed full of sophomores and 9th-graders. I didn't realize Math Club was THAT popular. (In retrospect, they were probably only there for the Kristi Kreme Donut order forms.) In 6th period English class, I found out that the poem from 8-bit Theater Episode 173 ("Thank you, Mr. Carroll") is a real poem. It's "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll (and it's on p. 669 in the book for you guys in Leland's English AP class). I still don't know how to pronounce "manxome". When I got home, I found this comic and printed out a copy so that I could bring it to show Miss Koyanagi. After that, I did some stuff at home and went to sleep. Good night to thee, reader. Thursday, October 24, 2002--First thing's first... *takes a deep breath* Happy 17th Birthday, Cindy!!! Thank you! I'm feeling MUCH better now. In any case, as you can see, it's Cindy's birthday today. In any case, before school, little Rabbit single-handedly kept me out of the library by looking at me as I tried to approach. I was like, "Oh, shit! It's her!" And I promptly left. Pathetic, aren't I? Well, you'd be scared of little Rabbit, too, if she looked at you like that. During 2nd period Electronic Music class, I finished the sheet music for my Original/Double Piece, courtesy of Sibelius. Rather than printing it or leaving it in the Sibelius format, which most people don't have the application to read, I saved it as a black & white bitmap, which is actually pretty small. In 3rd Bergantz' class, she gave us a really, really old Upfront (so old, it's from back when it was called Update). We've done this one before, 2 years ago, in sophomore year. It's the one with the little Thai child prostitute girl. I know that Alan Watson's gonna remember her. In 4th period Chemistry AP, Mr. "Sacrifice-my-life" was harassing little Nadia exactly the same way Justin was harassing Jaylum last year: by asking questions such as "Who would you rather sleep with...?" Then, Justin joined in and started harassing Nadia. I was like, "Oh, god! Not this again." So, I stayed out of it. I feel sorry for poor little Nadia. She has to take all that trash from Justin and "Sacrifice-my-life". In 5th period, I looked at my bitmaps, then realized the Sibelius, a European program, uses a European standard of 116 dots per inch (dpi) for monitor display while the American standard is only 96 dpi. Thus, I found that my sheet music pages were slightly (ok, MUCH) bigger than a standard 8.5x11 in. sheet of paper. Well, I'll have to resize it at home, I thought. In 6th period English AP, we had a timed writing on a poem about the sinking of the Titanic. It was the best essay I've ever written in that class. Upon arriving home, I started playing with the sheet music, because I had to be able to have it available in the size of a 8.5x11 inch sheet of paper. Unfortunately, if I try to resize the bitmap, since every thing is so small, it'll distort the sheet music. I tried converting to GIF's, but GIF's don't resize well, either. I tried JPEG, but a JPEG of this kind of object is just too large. Finally, while playing with Adobe Photoshop, I discovered that I could convert to PDF's. PDF's resize flawlessly, and are a very generic file format on the internet. My problem has been solved! All the user has to do is tell Acrobat Reader to print so that it fits on a single page. Unfortunately, with Photoshop, you can only make single page PDF's. You need Adobe Acrobat (NOT Adobe Acrobat Reader) in order to make multiple page PDF's. Oh, well. Putting my score on 5 pages is good enough. If you want the sheet music to Original/Double Piece, click here. BUT, if you want to play this song for a performance, please get my permission and invite me to the performance. (Even if I can't go, I would still prefer the invitation, so I know I'm welcome.) I am the composer, after all. (NOTE: There was not meant to be any arrogance in that last remark.) Whoa! Haven't had a post this long since October 10th. I wonder if Cindy liked my card? Good night, milady! Wednesday, October 23, 2002--Damn, all I can think of is that I aced the English poetic devices test today. *shrig* Oh, and I also attended the poll worker training class. It was... slightly amusing. After that, I did lots of minor stuffs and caught some Z's. You know, I wonder if Cynth will like the birthday card I might give her... *sigh* Good night. Tuesday, October 22, 2002--I finally learned from the Electronic Music teacher how to use Sibelius. Now, that piece of trash is actually becoming quite useful. (The instruction manual and help files don't tell you jack shit.) Instead of 3rd and 4th period today, we seniors got to go to an Assembly, where this Brad Henning (?) guy gave us a lecture (amusing, though) about relationships, the differences between guys and girls, and how sex destroys relationships. Wait... He had 3 points, but I already forgot one of them. Oh, well. Reading through the Upfront that Mrs. Bergantz assigned us, I came across the name "Tiffany Wang" of Palo Alto. Scary coincidence... And then, tonight, not much happened. Good night, darling! Monday, October 21, 2002--*yawn* These days keep getting boringer and boringer, don't they? (Is boringer a word? No, I think I'm looking for more boring.) Well, I DID go the SJYS rehearsal today... Other than that, it's a boring day. Good night! Sunday, October 20, 2002--We went to Jasmine Alley yet again for lunch, and we saw one of Franklin's friends. Then, later that day, after doing some college application stuff, I went to Alan's birthday party, where we mostly screwed around. Then, after staying up late doing homework, I updated my website and went to sleep. (Although most don't consider midnight to be late at all...) Yet another short journal entry. *shrig* Good night! Saturday, October 19, 2002--Chinese school today... that's all. I played lots of video games, the details of which aren't all that important. Oh, and I uploaded The Legend of the Dark Fiends Chapter 2. And this journal entry takes the record for being second shortest, I think. Well, whatever, good night! Friday, October 18, 2002--No school today. Other than that, today was a really boring day. This entry takes the record for shortest entry, I'm sure. Thursday, October 17, 2002--Today, while I was trying to finish the Upfront Magazine Assignment in the Library during 1st period, Mrs. Bergantz (the teacher who assigns the Upfronts) came up to me and asked me for some help just as a finished. Good thing I finished when I did. In any case, I helped her with grades, but I am sworn to secrecy as to what I saw and heard. Oh, yes, Math Club Kristi Kreme Fundraiser unofficially began today. I grabbed 7 order forms... Apparently, there's no school tomorrow, so today is, in effect, Friday. Yay! I played some Warcraft III against my bro, but he had to leave for tennis and the saving mechanism screwed up. We don't know who would have won. We both had a pretty good army (I knocked down his air force, he knocked down my Banshee battalion). It was Undead vs Undead. We also tried WarChasers, which might be fun if it weren't so damn hard. Then, we tried SquareSoft BattleArena, which ain't that good. Also, Frankie and I rented some games from Blockbuster. We tried Robotech: Battlecry, which was actually pretty fun, albeit simplistic. Well, that was my day... I think... Good night! Wednesday, October 16, 2002--Today was Alan's birthday. I gave him the card. 8 people signed it: Me, Justin, Frankie, Ryan, Sarah, and Claire. I tried to get Nadia to sign it, but she utterly refused. I tried to get Maria to sign it, but I couldn't find her. Oh, well. It would only have increased the card's likeability by 2.76% anyway. (BTW, unless otherwise stated, assume random numbers such as 2.76 is completely made up.) We did a lab in Chem AP today. Ken Elkabany and I did most of the measuring. Nadia did most of the washing. "Women clean things better than men do," she says. Well, I don't mind, as long as they actually DO all the cleaning. Just kidding. I hope I didn't offend any feminists out there. I did my share of the washing and wiping. (Justin and "Sacrifice-my-life" Guy were there only for moral support, but later Justin did do some of the thermometer work.) While wiping the table, I accidentally knocked down and broke a 100 mL graduated cylinder. I was so scared that Mr. Roske would flunk me, but all he did was give me a brief lecture on how he can't afford to lose any more 100 mL cylinders--our class had broken two already in that one class period alone--and made me clean up the glass shards. Other than that, I think we're pretty much done for today. Good night! Audience dismissed! Tuesday, October 15, 2002--Unlike popular belief, the people in Dark Fiends do NOT parallel real people. The only exception is Mr. Kurczek... The juniors, sophomores, and half the freshmen took PSATs today, so I, being a senior, got to stay home until 11 am. Also, in the morning today, I made Alan's "crappy" birthday card (it's his birthday tomorrow). I signed it, Ryan signed it, and Justin signed it. Somehow, I even got little Rodent to sign it. Before 2nd period, I asked Maria and Claire to sign Alan's card. Both of them said "later", but I never saw Maria again that day... Today in 3rd period Gov't Honors, Andrew, aka "Hobbes", also our class timekeeper, told Mrs. Bergantz that we had pi/2 radians on the clock left (which is a quarter turn, or 15 minutes). No one got it except me and Justin, so he decided never to do it again. In 4th period Chem AP, Mr. Roske scrambled our seats. I ended up sitting across the table from Nadia and almost back to back with Iwen. Well, at least I almost got little Nadia to sign Alan's card. There's always tomorrow. I'm probably not even going to see Alan until lunch, or possibly the passing period between 5th and 6th period. At the Math meeting today, I got Claire and Franklin to sign Alan's card. Well, that's all. These days keep getting boringer and boringer, do they? Or am I getting lazier? Whatever, good night! Monday, October 14, 2002--Uneventful day, today... The only interesting thing that happened at school was that in 6th period English AP, we had to grade 2 essays each. The first essay I graded was Tiffany Hung's. The second was Tiffany Wang's. The two Tiffanies again... SJYS Rehearsal today. I think the people are getting suspicious... Maybe not, who knows. And that as they say is that. (FFX Quote) Good night! Sunday, October 13, 2002--Some people don't realize that I shrig instead of shrug on purpose. What originated as a typo on AIM has become one of my trademarks. Returned Justin's Warcraft III CD today. That tall guy made me return it before 12 o'clock noon today or he'd fine me $60. Well, at least there was no rental fee. While driving to lunch, I saw a flock of birds flying in formation around a traffic light. It was funny. I wanted to take a picture, but I didn't have a camera. For lunch, we went to a Chinese restaurant called "Jasmine Alley." The servicew wasn't the best (although they promise to get better after they get used to the newness...), but what bothered me the most was the name of the restaurant, and for personal reasons... In any case, I found a trick to Warcraft III. Apparently, the CD is only needed to install and start the game. Once you're in the game, you don't need the CD at all. I just removed it and the program didn't complain. Using this trick, I ran Warcraft III on 2 comps simultaneously with only 1 CD. I also played a few games with my bro. The comp isn't all that hard... I'll post screenshots of the game probably next week, since you guys really want more pics on the site. Also, I finally finished the first chapter of my weekly online adventure story (which might not be weekly due to lack of time, but hey, I can write half a chapter in an hour or 2, so maybe...) It'll be posted shortly after I'm done updating this jounral. Well, this Sunday sure was more eventful than the last. Good night, my dear... Saturday, October 12, 2002--Sorry, but there will be a few slight delays in the start of my weekly online adventure story due to . . . college essays. In any case, today's Chinese school class was like yesterday's Math 73 class. Half the class was at the SATs, so we didn't really do anything today. In any case, it was Justin's birthday party today. I printed a card and gave him a $20. Also, we brought some games and Alan brought the PS2, so we played some Smackdown (which Justin enjoyed) and some GTA3 (which Justin DIDN'T enjoy). Also, I borrowed Justin's Warcraft III CD and proved that it wasn't my CD that was defective, but something else. Ryan thinks some other software is interfering with the patch installation, but we've gone over much of what our 2 computers that can't run Warcraft III have in common, and we haven't found anything. I've lost my insanity. I talked to little Rabbit today. Actually, it wasn't all that bad. She was being rather nice . . . for about 5 minutes. Then, she made some bullshit excuse that she had to leave, and then blocked me. Still though, I don't think she really hates me. I'll try to get some sleep tonite. I promise. Friday, October 11, 2002--Today is Justin's birthday. Thus, I had previously made a deal with the Family (formerly the UTA) for balloon service for Justin. (It cost me the last of my money as of this moment.) So, thus, while I was rendezvousing (is that a word?) with Shawn in the parking lot for the ballons--the "really gay" ballons--I absent-mindedly walk into an empty parking space and almost got ran over by Tiffany Wang. That's really ironic, considering that it's TIFFANY WANG! (Never mind.) In anycase, Justin took the balloons. Apparently, Shawn had already spoiled the surprise for him. Half the class didn't show up to Math 73 today, so Mr. Langlois lectured for about half an hour and promptly left. Nadia complained, "What am I supposed to do now? I only came here so early for Math 73?" Tiffany Wang borrowed my US Gov't Notes. Later that day, at 6th period... Me: Hi, Tiffany. Tiffany: Hi, Dwayne. A pause. Me: Are you done with my notes? Tiffany: Oh, I'm sorry, I completely forget. Me: It's okay. Tiffany: Here you go. (hands back the notes). Me: Thanks. Interesting... After school, I needed to take care of college application business and National Merit business. I had a run-in with Diane Ko in the office. The way that girl looks at me...it's unnerving...and that's the irony of it all. Also, who would have thought that the CalTech essay would be so damn hard. I need to get some sleep now... Thursday, October 10, 2002 Addendum--My brother challenged me for the unlimited right to borrow my Yugioh cards. I told him that he had to beat me in a best 2 out of 3 match of Yugioh Duels, and he had to play on my terms: meaning I get to shuffle his deck at the beginning of every game, so that he can't cheat. During the first round, early on, he played his "Toll" card, a permanent Magic Card which requires any attacker to pay 500 Life in order to attack. I didn't know how to handle it, so I kept attacking Franklin's defensive cards until I had about 700 life left. In the mean time, I had only done enough damage to bring him down to 6650 Life. I stopped attacking, realizing that anymore would mean my death. I had the Swordstalker (Level 5, 2000 attack) on the field. After a few turns, I drew De-spell, a magic card that could destroy any magic card on the field, such as Toll. So, I did. Then, I unleashed the fury of my Swordstalker. Unfortunately for me, Franklin sacrificed a monster to play the Summoned Skull (Level 6, 2500 attack), which he had recently drawn. He used it to attack my Swordstalker. I played Reinforcements, a trap card that gives my monster 500 more attack for 1 turn. Franklin countered with his own Reinforcements, this killing my Swordstalker and reducing my Life to 200. Looking back on the game, Franklin had, at the same time, a Giant Soldier of Stone (Level 4, 800 attack, 2000 defense, I believe) in defense mode on the field. He could have, and should have, flipped it to attack mode and used it to kill me, but he overlooked this. It took only a few turns for him to realize his mistake. Fortunately, I had a Dark Hole, so, on my turn, I promptly played it, then played one of my monsters with 1500 attack and attacked Franklin for direct damage, bringing him down to 5150 Life. On Franklin's next turn, he was out of monsters, so, on my turn, I played another monster with 1500 attack and attacked with both of them for a combined direct damage of 3000, bringing Franklin down to 2150. On his turn, Franklin drew the Great White (Level 4, 1600 attack), which he promptly played and used it to kill on of my 1500 monsters, bringing me down to a mere 100 Life. Franklin also had the card "Stim Packs" in his hand, which increases a monster's attack by 700, but then reduces it by 200 per turn after that. He was about to equip it on his Great White, but decided aginst it. He realized at the end of the game that if he had played it, he would have killed me. On my turn, I sacrificed a monster to play Gyakutenno Megami (Level 6, 1800 attack, 2000 defense), which I used to kill Franklin's Great White, bringing him down to 1950 Life. On Franklin's next turn, he played Chain Energy, a permanent Magic Card that requires players to pay 500 Life to play another card. Luckily for me, he had no monsters to play. At this point, knowing full well that I had but 100 Life, I put my hand aside and used Megami to attack for direct damage of 1800, bringing Franklin down to 150 Life. At this point, Franklin realized his 3rd and final mistake. Although he had a monster in his hand which, combined with Stim Packs, could have saved him, when he played Chain Energy, he pretty much slit his own throat. He had no monsters on the field, and now, he couldn't play any monsters on the field without killing himself. Thus, on my next turn, I finished Franklin off for the win. It was a match that Franklin should have won, given his Toll card and my failure to overcome it for such a long time. Unfortunately, his first 2 mistakes delayed his victory long enough for me to make a comeback, and his final mistake sealed his fate. The final score, in a duel Franklin should have won, was 100-0. In the second round, Franklin played much more aggressively, determined not to let me win again. He easily beat me. However, something interesting did happen in this duel. I played La Jinn (Level 4, 1800 attack). Franklin played the Bistro Butcher (Level 4, 1800 attack) and used it to attack La Jinn, destroying them both. Later in the duel, Franklin revived Bistro and I revived La Jinn. I was hoping to use a combo of Block Attack on Bistro to change him into defense mode so that I could kill him with La Jinn, trying to prevent Franklin's double KO maneuver from repeating. Unfortunately, he played Waboku, which protected him (and his Bistro) for a turn, and he, on his next turn, pulled off a repeat of the Bistro-La Jinn double KO. He then used his 2 other monsters (I was completely defenseless) to kill me off for the victory. It came down to the third round. In my first draw, I had the Swamp Battleguard and the Lava Battleguard, a pair of monsters that are extremely strong when both are played at the same time. I also had the Lord of D (used for summoning Blue Eyes with the Flute) and Jirai Gumo (Level 4, 2200 attack, 100 defense, but, if I attack with it, there's a 50% chance I lose half my Life). I had first turn, so I played Jirai, hoping to be able to get both of my Battleguards onto the field. Franklin played a card in defense mode. Then, I drew none other than the Blue Eyes. At this point, I was somewhat reluctant to play Lord of D, knowing full well that all I needed was the Flute to summon Blue Eyes, but I wanted to get my Battleguards on the field, so I played Lord of D face down. Whether I chose Blue Eyes or my pair of Battleguards, I would need to sacrifice a total of 2 monsters to play either combo. I'm not sure what happened next, but Franklin managed to hold off my summoning of the Battleguards or Blue Eyes. In a turn or 2, he managed to play the Dark Magician and equipped him with the Sword of Deap-Seated, a Magic Card that increases a monster's attack and defense by 500 points, and, if the Sword were destroyed, he could put it on top of his deck, returning it to play. With this combo, Franklin easily slaughtered me for the victory. I had a a pair of Battleguards and a Blue Eyes I never got to play. Because he won 2 out of 3, he won the challenge and the unlimited right to borrow my cards. As expected, among the cards he chose to borrow were Blue Eyes, the Battle Ox (Level 4, 1700 attack), La Jinn, Bistro, Judge man (Level 5, 2200 attack), and the Princess of Tsurugi (weak in battle, but has a power that allows you to deal 500 damage per Magic or Trap Card that opponent has on the field when the Princess is flipped), which were some of my best monsters. On a side-note, I've begun a project to make myself a halloween costume. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I have a vision and it sure looks like something undead. In any case, good night, and this time, it's for real! Thursday, October 10, 2002--Who the Heaven is "muahaha" in my ghostbook? Between 2nd and 3rd period, I was called to the office for a meeting that never took place. No one showed up (except me and Tiffany Hung, who was also called to the office)... Hmm... I just walked away and was late to 3rd period. Earthquake drill, today. Justin got to be flag carrier because he was really tall. Mrs. Bergantz asked, "In an emergency, do you know what saves lives?" Somebody (I think it was Justin) yelled out, "Tall people!" I forgot what the real answer was. In any case, Justin had to carry the flag a la the Blademaster from Warcraft III, and Mrs. Bergantz told him to "rally everyone" with his flag. So Justin got to be a rally point today... Tiffany Wang was absent today, so our group was down one character. I suggested that one of us call her tonight to try to get the stuff from her, but none of us knew her phone number. So then Omar asks Tiffany Hung for Tiffany Wang's phone number. Well, I guess you can trust Tiffany to know Tiffany, even if they are different Tiffanies. Speaking of which, what's the plural for "Tiffany"? Is it "Tiffanies" or "Tiffanys". I'm leaning toward the "ies" ending, for some odd reason. This question actually originated in junior year, "What's the plural of Cindy? Is it Cindies or Cindys?" Nadia's very not helpful response was, "Who's Cindy? Are you going to ask her to Junior Prom? Did she say yes? Oh, how sweet." And I didn't even say anything. What the Heaven? I slept like a . . . thing that sleeps today upon coming home. For the first time this week, I have the ENERGY! And then I did my homework, updated my website, and went to sleep. Good night! Wednesday, October 9, 2002--I have an addendum to yesterday. It's in green. The last ever Math Team meeting for T-period... Well, goodbye T-period. In any case, it seems that Stephanie Yaung and Joanna Chen are my two best students at the Math Team, with Lei Huang close behind them. In 4th period Chemistry, I overheard Nadia say that she "loves Mongolian Barbeque"... In 6th period English, we've been watching Death of a Salesman for the last 3 days, finishing it today. Tiffany Hung asks me what colleges I applied to. That was random. I work with Tiffany Wang in a group to present a portion of the play, a portion that I haven't read yet. Whatever... Franklin got a new Yugioh card. It's called the Sword of Deep-Seated. It can be equipped on any monster, increasing their attack and defense by 500. When it's sent to the Graveyard, he can place it onto the top of his deck. It's not as good as the Malevolent Nuzzler (which I don't have but have seen) which increases attack and defense by 700, but costs 500 Life to return from the Graveyard. In any case, Franklin and I dueled. I easily won the first 2 games, but then, during the 3rd game, when he finally got to play the Sword, playing it on the already extremely strong Summoned Skull, he kicked my ass. Oh, well. Good night, that's all. Tuesday, October 8, 2002--I had an interesting conversation today with Ke and Linda 1st period at the school library. Too bad I forgot what it was about... 2nd period today, apparently Stephanie was looking at something on her computer, when suddenly she screamed, real loud. After that everyone was staring at her and Stacie went over to see what it was. After she came back, I asked, "What's going on?" She replied, "Just some ghost thing. It's not scary at all." It's amazing how different those twins are. 4th period, there was this really hard problem in last night's homework. I told Roske that I solved it, and he asked me how. I told him that I used a Physics formula, and he replied, "Oh, is it something Woytek taught you?" Immediately the whole class burst into laughter. Actually, no matter which way you look at it, Woytek didn't teach fluid dynamics to me. He assigned it as reading during the summer between Physics Honors and Physics AP. I learned and review it on my own, independent even from good old Dr. Goodstein--who, from what I've been told, still teaches at CalTech by showing his own videos. 5th period today, while grading quizzes for Mr. Peterson, while I was grading Stacie's paper, it paper-cutted me. It's interesting how those junior girls can still smite you even if they're not around. Also, at today's Math Team meeting, Franklin and Justin (mostly Franklin), with a little help from Joanna Chen, solved the entire packet of 10 probability problems on the board, with explanations, in about 30 minutes. That's pretty damn good! Last, but not least, I found Diane Ko's website last night, and I left something on her ghostbook. It's amazing how powerful Google.com is. Enter anyone's name (in quotes) and, if there are webpages about that person or people with that name, Google will find it. Don't ask why I was searching "Diane Ko" on Google.com. I think I was bored and I had already searched everyone else's name... Oh, also, I saw this girl on one of my parents Chinese TV series that looks exactly like Claire, except Claire's cuter... Have you ever been so tired that you just wanted to go to sleep and never wake up? I felt like that today... *yawn* Good night... Monday, October 7, 2002--Apparently, our school's Assistant Principle of Guidance was rather misguided when he gave us faulty instructions on how to apply for National Merit Scholarships. Therefore, through no fault of my own, I have to redo the darned application and get a recommendation letter. I finally got down to doing the last half of the Math 73 problem set. It was easy, simple, and straightforward, albeit time-consuming. (Why do people think difficult, complicated, and time-consuming mean the same thing? They are three related but completely different things.) I did half of the remaining half I needed to do in 1.5 hours, all the while listening to Mr. Langlois' lecture. Today's Chem Test was easy. It was all homework questions. I swear to god (F~~~ you, god) if people actually DID THEIR OWN HOMEWORK, there's a chance they would actually KNOW how to do the problems ON THE TEST. Lesson learned, don't let people copy your homework, unless you really wanna screw them over on tests. Letting people copy your homework is like anti-teaching. *yawn* Why do some people have to be so implicit in the way they talk. I prefer complete, blunt honesty over bullshit. Today, I went to the SJYS rehearsal, this time at the Civic, aka "Far away place." The Civic probably has a longer more specific name, but, in my ignorance, I don't know it. Castillero (Middle School) is closer, but it's so cramped in there. I honestly don't know which I like better. snip, snip--has been cut out due to emotional chaos and confusion. Oh, well... *shrig* Good night! Sunday, October 6, 2002--I watched The Tuxedo today. It was pretty good, I guess. Jackie Chan's character reminded me of me. Also, today, I visted the Leland Leviathan Message Board and found out they had 92 messages. Being the confused moron I am, I started complaining, until I realized that the message board has been around since July. *shrug* Whatever... Also, Alan and I confronted each other and saw this whole ordeal was just a big misunderstanding. No more "My website is better than yours!" No more "Fatman"s and "Stalker"s. (Or is it FatMEN?) *yawn* Why are Sundays so boring? In any case, good night. Saturday, October 5, 2002--Our first Saturday morning together... In any case, every Saturday morning, I always wake up early and watch the Saturday morning cartoons. Hey, what's wrong with Saturday morning cartoons? Just because they're "childish" doesn't mean they aren't entertaining. In fact, it's BECAUSE they're childish that they're entertaining. The best way to relax is to get in touch with your inner child. That's what I believe. In any case, I had Saturday school to go to. No, I did NOT get into any kind of detention. On Saturdays, I have to go to the San Jose Chinese School, which, starting this year, is held at Leland High School, which is my regular school. Why are they always having football games at the same time as Chinese School? Oh, well. Whatever. After class, she waved at me... :D After lunch, I was playing around with stuff at home. Today, I came up with "I worship Lunar, the Silver Dragon of the Ether.", because I do. I have a tendency to make up gods and goddesses and worship them until I get bored of them. My mind is a shrine to the gods that dwell in my imagination. Also, while playing with Warcraft 3 World Editor (just because the actual game doesn't work doesn't mean I can't have fun with it...), I made a special unit that was actually a double sized Abomination. The condamned thing was HUGE. Here's a screenshot: Click here for the picture. Well, after that, I updated my website, so that's really all for tonight. Friday, October 4, 2002--Today at lunch, I found out that fellow Math Teammate Fei Jiang has a twin sister. I met her at Math Club. I was like, "Is that Fei? I swear, she's already INSIDE." Her name is Fang. I wonder why she isn't also on the Math Team. Maybe they thought that 1 twin on the Math Team is enough. That way, they (or at least her DNA) can be in 2 places at once. Also, after school, while trying to get Warcraft III to work, I asked Windows to update my Video Drivers, and it picked a friggin' VGA driver. That means Low Resolution and 16 colors. AIM looked really funny under those conditions. Good thing I fixed it. BTW, this is what it looked like: Click here for the picture. It's shrunken down to fit within the page, but the real thing took up the whole monitor. Can you imagine that? Heh, I showed Justin my website today. Only know do I realize that Justin and Alan are the most unfriendliest friends ever. Even Linda Fang is better friend than them, and she claims to hate me. Hell, I dare say even Diane Ko is a better friend to me than Alan and Justin. At least she doesn't talk trash me any more. Some stupid people think that anything that isn't funny "sucks". *cough*Justin*cough*Alan*cough* They obviously will never enjoy the finer things in life. And, the saddest part is, the things they think are "funny" aren't. Heh, I showed Alex my website today. He doesn't believe I'm a "Dark Fiend". He thinks that it's all a facade put up to deceive others. Well, if it is a facade, it must be a good one because it certainly deceives me. He doesn't even know what the "Dark Fiend" really is. Thursday, October 3, 2002--In second period, Mr. Peterson, the Computer/Music teacher has a new TA (Teacher's Assistant). His name is Wayne Feng, as opposed to me (Dwayne Jeng) who is TA 5th period. Unfortunately, I'm the only TA who knows music well, so I still have to grade all the music related worksheets. Damn, now I know how teachers feel. Today, in Gov't Honors, while talking about the Declaration of Independence, Mrs. Bergantz went off on a tangent (or so it seemed at the time) about falling in love, breaking up, and getting back together with your significant other. Originally, she was asking students to share their experiences, and Justin kept poking me. I was like, "Justin, stop poking me," and Mrs. Bergants was like, "Justin, stop poking Dwayne." Then, when Justin gave an example, he said, "My computer once broke down for a week. I felt lost without the love of my life, until I figured out that her memory chip was screwed." So, I say to Justin, "She said 'break UP,' not 'break DOWN'." Naturally, the whole class was laughing. At lunch, I was talking to Alan, when suddenly, I noticed that the students were playing one of Nelly's crappy songs in the quad. I stopped mid-word, walked all the way across campus to my brother (who, incidentally, was being forced fed by Sarah "Lulu" Lu and one of her friends--they promptly dropped him when they saw me) and yelled at him, "What the hell is that music? What is it doing HERE?!?" Apparently, what they say that the music you listen to when you're 12 years old is the music you're stuck with forever. Upon arriving at home, Franklin wanted to duel me with his Yu-gi-oh cards. He wanted to try out his Great Moth. Unfortunately, of the 10 or so games I played with him, I either prevented his Petit Moth from evolving into the Great Moth causing him to forfeit (in one of those games, I killed the Great Moth in the first turn) or I beat him outright. Actually, the 2nd game we played, he beat me, but he said he wanted to use his Great Moth, so we played again. Finally, after losing to me 8 times, he managed to bring out his Great Moth, while backing it up with his Dark Magician. Lucky for me, I had the Lord of D and the Flute of Summoning Dragon in my hand, and I just drew the Blue Eyes White Dragon, so I played the Lord of D with the Flute of Summoning Dragon to summon Blue Eyes for free. Unfortunately, Franklin had the Waboku Card, which makes him invincible for one turn only, and, unfortunately for me, it was just enough time for him to play the Earth Lord Milus Radiant, using it to power up his Great Moth so that it would overpower my Blue Eyes so he could kill it. Then, he attacked me directly with his Dark Magician, bringing me down to 700 life points, as opposed to his 5000 or so. At that point, I used Monster Reborn to revive my Blue Eyes and killed off Milus Radiant so that Blue Eyes would once again reign supreme as the strongest of monsters. Then, Franklin just HAD TO draw Tremendous Fire, dealing 1000 damage to me (and 500 irrelevant damage to himself), killing me. I don't know about you, but I thought that was an amazing match. Both of us managed to bring out our strongest cards... On an unrelated note, I hope I can go to Homecoming. She's such a nice, pretty girl... That's all for today. Good night! Wednesday, October 2, 2002--Today is another first for our little journal. At my school (Leland High School), we have this thing on Wednesday called T-period, which is basically a half hour "tutorial period" between 2nd and 3rd period. Unfortunately, it's been announced that T-period is going to be cancelled next week. The thing is, most students use it as a break, and the T-period counts as instructional minutes. You can't be giving students a break during instructional time. We used to think we could trick the administration by loading their "T-period Attendance Sheet" with names, but that obviously didn't work. Thus, if the administration wants to take away T-period, they are justified, and I have no right to complain. What I propose instead is that you add the time "lost" through T-period to all of the days, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. T-period is only 30 minutes a week. In our school day, there are 6 periods a day, 5 days a week, therefore, we only have to add a single minute to the end of each period everyday. Seriously, we can handle 1 minute per period of extra time, can we? I'm gonna write an article about this and submit it to the Charger Account or the Leland Leviathan (our 2 school newspapers, the former is school-run, the latter is student-run). In any case, during T-period, I played 2 games of the Yu-gi-oh card game against one of my brother's freshman friends. Hey, the Yu-gi-oh TV show isn't that bad. It's at least better than Pokemon and Sailor Moon (and a lot of other "good" animes that I've seen that I thought were crappy *cough*Child's Toy*cough*Dragon Half*cough*), and it's not as depressing as most serious animes. And the card game's even better than the show. Better than the Pokemon card game, at least. In any case, I lost both duels, due to extremely bad luck. I got the Blue Eyes White Dragon (one of the strongest monsters in the game) in my first draw BOTH TIMES, but the thing is, you can't play Blue Eyes (and other Level 8 monsters) unless you sacrifice 2 weaker monsters, and I had no weaker monsters to play, let alone sacrifice. So, thus, I was totally defenseless and I got killed. Don't even blame my deck, 'cause I can beat my bro 40% of the time nowadays, and he's a pretty good player. (Then, he got some new, really good cards, so...) The philosopher debate continues... We answered some more questions, and then we voted to see which philosopher's form of government we wanted to live in. Justin was the only one who picked Hobbes tyrannical absolute government world, but only because he wanted to be the tyrant, not the subject. On Wednesdays, I have Viola Lessons. I really should practice more. *yawn* Good night! Tuesday, October 1, 2002--FIRST DAY OF OCTOBER--As I told you yesterday, I only have 1st period math on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, which means, today, I got to woke up just a little bit later. However, I still had to drive to school at 7:35 just to make sure I get a somewhat-good parking space. You know, I guess I COULD go to school a little later... The philosopher debate continues in Government class. Today, I did MUCH better than yesterday, probably because today we only answered questions from our audience. I kept making forward references to "Thomas Jefferson," who was born after Locke (my character) died, but our Rousseau always said, "Who's Jefferson?" Amy asked me a question I couldn't answer: "What if the will of the people is divided?" I should have said, "Compromise." Later that day, Hobbes asked me, "How do you determine if the government is oppressive? What if there's only a small handful of people who think they need to overthrow the government while the rest of the people think the government's okay?" I said, "Well, if you get enough people to be able to successfully overthrow the government, then the government's probably oppressive." Hobbes replies, "So, it's decided by force then. But what if there's only 1 person with lots and lots of guns?" Damn, there's one I REALLY can't answer. Research time, if I get time, which I didn't. Also, I told you in my Bio (assuming you read it) that I was on the Leland Math Team, the Radicalz. Well, we have meetings Tuesdays after school. For some unusual reason, I did REALLY, REALLY badly on the practice CAML. (CAML is one of the "easier" math contests.) Only 3 out of 6. And I'm the Captain. I'm in charge of TEACHING the kids about math. Oh, well. At least I still did a good job of teaching. At home tonight, I finished up the National Merit stuff. Then, I made the birthday card for Cynth. I hope she likes it, but if she doesn't... whatever... at least she liked my rose on last year's Valentine's Day. Monday, September 30, 2002--You know, I've forgotten how fun it is to make and maintain a website... Oh, how nice! Today's the first school day you have with me. Well, I guess that means I have to tell you what my school is like, don't I? Don't worry. After today, I'll never do it again, except by request. Well, first of all, I drive to school, ever since the beginning of this year. Driving's fun. Anyways, my first period (on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays) begins at 7:30, so I had to get up early and go to school early. I take Math 73 first period, which is really high-level college math. *yawn* Boring class. We get nothing but lectures there, and we barely get any homework. How am I supposed to feel motivated to learn the material? 2nd period is Electronic Music. Basically, this means I get to slack off and play with music keyboards for almost an hour. Fun class, but only if you're really into music, like me. 3rd period is government. In any case, today was the great Philosopher Debate, and I was John Locke. My friend Andrew was Thomas Hobbes. Somehow, I ended up calling him Lobbes. That's not good. In any case, apparently, while I was up there, I panicked, my mind blanked out, and I screwed up really badly. Lesson learned: Don't go up to do a presentation without your notes. Lucky for me, someone asked Hobbes a question about his form of Government, and he replied something like, "Well, it doesn't really work all that well. That probably means my philosophy is flawed." And I replied, "I think you just lost." 4th period is Chemistry AP. Because one of my lab partners screwed up really badly measuring the mass of a piece of filter paper, I needed to do some extra work. Even still, we found that a dime is 117.4% Silver. That's just not right. At lunch, I found out that I need to apologize to Claire again. I blame it on Alan Watson. Also at lunch, I gave some advice about US History AP to my "friend" "Cynth." I think she listened, or at least gave the appearance she was listening, which is ALMOST as good. Justin wanted me to look over is National Merit Scholar Semi-finalist Essay. I swear to God, that essay makes him sound like an Un-American. 5th period is my TA period. I TA for Mr. Peterson, the Music Teacher. It really pains me to give bad scores to all the poor students, but, hey, I gotta be faithful to the answer key. They'll never learn unless I take away points for wrong answers. 6th period is my English AP class. Today, we were supposed to prepare a presentation about our assigned scene in A Streetcar Named Desire. You know, the real thing is NOTHING like the one they performed in the Simpsons. The only similarities are the names, the broken bottle scene, and "STELL-AAAAAAAAHHH!!!" Just by coincidence, today is also the first time I go to my San Jose Youth Symphony rehearsal. If you've read my Bio, you'd know that I play for them. I play the Viola. I usually sit 3rd seat or 5th seat, depending on whether or not certain people are absent or not. snip, snip--has been cut out due to emotional chaos and confusion. Playing Liszt's Les Preludes is fun... In any case, I came home and worked on my website. Then, I typed this one last sentence and said, "Good night!" Sunday, September 29, 2002--Welcome to my Online Journal! Alan Watson had an Online Journal (apparently, he detests my calling it a "diary"). Why can't I have an Online Journal? Hey, lots of other people have Online Journals, too, you know! Some call them weblogs (aka, "blog"). In any case, this is my first entry ever... So... today, I revised my National Merit Scholar Semi-finalist Essay. It turned out okay in the end, I hope. I also started working on my UC Application, and then, I started this website. Hmm... That's pretty much all I did today. I hope Chem homework isn't due tomorrow, but I'm sure I finish Chem homework during 73. Hmm... That's all. Good night. Don't let the succubi bite.