Are you joking?!

The TASP 2006 Brochure is now up here and... we've been largely passed over! It's a travesty, I tell you. *stalks away*

Moving on.

Life in Vienna is rather routine, boring, and tiring. I guess it's the cold weather.

But wait, good news. I can begin contributing to the total of TASPer university acceptances! My UK applications have started filtering back. Got the first three yesterday (Imperial College, Warwick University, and University of Manchester) so it's comforting to know that I'm assured of somewhere, university-wise. Still, my sights are set on the US, so fingers crossed for the Early Decision results :P

I sat for the BMO today (British Math Olympiad, Sam probably knows what it's about) and as a result have got a mild headache. So goodnight.

Till later,

Jason

wonderful glories of being Prime

Since I'm now seventeen, I took prime advantage of my newly aquired rights and donated blood yesterday. Quite frankly, it was a ton of fun.

In other news, I got my first acceptance letter today. It's to Calvin College, which none of you have ever heard of, but I quite possibly might go to. Actually, I think Adam told me he has a friend who goes there, so one of you might have heard of it.

I have no safeties!! Eek!

/runs around in circles

you whiners!

so I was just filling out the common app (could they possibly make their instructions more confusing?) and I came across something that made me laugh.

Ridley and Matt-- you can feel better. I pulled an 8 on both ACT and SAT essays :)

-bern

Charles Wu: the Previous Incarnation

My family and I showed our solidarity with the inhabitants of Palau by celebrating Thanksgiving on Friday (according to the "Celebrations Around the World" board, the Palauese(?) share the practice). Surprisingly, perhaps sacreligiously, a single plateful of food sated me completely. But Saturday was the church Thanksgiving dinner, so cumulatively, I did my share of overindulging. In related news, I now owe my homeroom teacher a pecan pie.

Freaky news of the week: My dad, as an economics TA at UC Berkeley in the mid-1980s, taught a freshman student named CHARLES WU. He was a genius, no less - Dad recounted tales of grading endless pages of breathy prose by earnest undergrads in the same class, only to come upon Charles' paper, which would contain perfect one-sentence answers spelled out in miniscule handwriting. On the final exam, the long essay question went something like this:

"While you are home for the holidays, [some economic issue] comes up at the dinner table. Your father says to you, 'You took an economics class at college - what does [some aspect of the economic issue] mean?' Answer your father's question."

Charles began his essay "Well, Dad . . . " going on to offer a flawless answer and pithily inserting the phrase "Dad, would you please pass the salt?" at a likely break in his prose. Apparently, the professor of the econ class personally petitioned Charles (an EE/CS major) to change his major to economics, all to no avail. I am still reeling with the impact of this revelation. Another Charles Wu? So like our own, yet 20 years older? What does this mean?

OK, college applicationicking (a process as long and ugly as its name). I sent off my first application yesterday (Stanford) - seven more to go. But I'm feeling OK . . . incidentally, are any of you applying to CalTech? The CalTech app contains a question as follows: "Fill the rectangle below with something you think is interesting." This is followed by (surprise) an empty rectangle that takes up most of the page. TASP poll: what would you put in there? I am thinking of putting in a copy of a Dutch Resistance poster from WWII with the slogan "Find the fifth swine" and a picture of four pigs that can be folded in a particular way to obtain an image of Hitler's face.

Groetjes,

Sam

Oh Capital! Capital!

Goodness, Thanksgiving has not been kind at all on my gastrointestinal system. The madness started on Wednesday with a huge feast at a local restaurant to celebrate my mum's birthday, and some obligatory cakeage. Thanksgiving was a constant state of chewing and swallowing, from candy apples to rice porridge to turkey legs to stuffing and soup and sundry other manifestations of yumminess. Today, I went over to my girlfriend's house and we made two pumpkins pies, a couple slices of which I used to top my whipped cream. Dinner was wonderful Thanksgiving leftovers, so I ate just as much as I did on the real day. Suffice to say, I was well fed. Of course, that all comes at a price, so at 11:15 as it is now, my stomach is rebelling mightily, and its contents are trying to burst through my abdomen. Owies.

On a brighter note, I introduced my girlfriend to Pride and Prejudice today, which also gave me an opportunity to rewatch the movie and notice little things I missed. Apparently, the actress playing Jane was pregnant during filming, and it's quite noticeable in a couple of scenes, though the costumework was well done to compensate. And Mr. Bennet is even more amazing than I had remembered. What a man, what a man. I think what was most striking about watching the movie was realizing how freaking long it is. I had realized it was quite an epic, but 5 hours in one sitting is quite taxing on the glazzballs. We gave up at the beginning of the second disc and will continue tomorrow. Two discs: clever, that. So now I'm thinking in a British accent and some Victorian mannerisms are creeping into my speech. But all is well, for I have this masterpiece of a movie to hold me over. And everyone knows it only as a chick flick. Hmph.

The Importance of Being...um...Able to Recommend Plays

So I just read The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (and watched the movie too, actually, with Judi Dench, Reese Witherspoon, Rupert Everet, Frances O'Connor, and Colin Firth) and I thought it would be nice if we had a play category on the recommendations page. Of course, we won't always be able to go see any play we'd like, at least not those of us who don't live in NYC or Vienna, but how can we compare Hamlet and Oedipus Rex and not have a list of recommendable plays? Not being especially endowed with technological talents myself, could Meredith or Charles add it on? That is, if no one has any objections.

nighttime babble

so I was playing Cranium today with my parents and their friends and one of the trivia questions came up for my team that was like "true or false- a sonnet has 16 lines in it". being a shakespeare nerd I immediatly shouted"bulls--t, its 14! three quatrains and a couplet!" needless to say I got some weird looks. My parents probably think I memorize them to use on girls. I wonder if they know that 99 percent of them are x rated, and a good 2/3 are homosexual. hmmm. my team lost anyway.

anyway, after that thouroghly random interlude. and I totally just misspelled thouroughly. thuroly? thoughroley? thoroughly? aw screw it.

so to weigh in on the discussion posed by Meredith. I think the problem stems from our confusion between "equality" and "facsimile". to say that any one member of the gender cannot behave outside that genders typical behavior and forfiet their association with that gender is of course, unfair, but we need to acknowledge that there are differences between the sexes. this is not meaning that women are not allowed to assert themselves, but the science will tell us that the gender as a whole tends to assert themselves in a way that is different than that of most men. one cannot of course ignore that many men (and women) have been brought up to think that women cannot assert themselves and so any instance of assertiveness is thought of as masculine and out of a female's bounderies. I will say that, to me, the situation that you outlined seemed very within a "feminine assertiveness" (a male I would have imagined banging the table and making demands) so in the end I agree with you. There is my two cents. feel free to shoot holes in it as you please.

saw Harry yesterday. a little conflicted as to what I felt about it. take Hermione, the actress is really hot, but she doesn't correspond to the character at all. spends way too much time with her emotions and hugging harry. in the end I just came away thinking that if I wanted to see raging hormones I could walk the halls of my school. Harry is for seeing some magic and sweet special effects. also, what is with the hippie dumbledore? I half expected to see a hookah when they panned his office. on the plus side moody/crouch was awesome.

I made a mix for the play today.
To explain that last sentence, what I mean is that we have music playing while we warm up and put on makeup. to that end, I downloaded a tower of power funk song from itunes and discovered that because it is a live cut it has the intro to the next track at the end. It goes "we're going to slow things down a bit and sing a love song, so just grab the person next to you and hold them close--" and it cuts off.
Sooo.... what song could we put next that would complete that wonderful introduction? why Carmen Sandiego of course. you would not believe how awesome it sounds

anyway its probably time for me to stop rambling.

ttfn
ta ta for now

-bern

Hallo all you beautiful people!

It's been so long since I've posted, that it feels weird looking at this sanitarian screen - but you know, everytime I decide to put something up, I lose all memory of what has happened in my life of late, and I type up abs. crap.
Ok..
Well, senior awards are done - I was a runner-up for (surprisingly enough) "Biggest Klutz," and "Clueless." I think you already know about the latter, either because I told you previously, or because after our experiences together, you knew for a fact that I am completely out of the whole American culture. I was also nominated for "E-Mc2" and, haha, "ESL favorite" but I finally ended up with the "Ooh, who's that girl? Introduce me!" award.
But considering that I was new last year, I think it's pretty awesome to be recognized. To those who don't understand what it exactly means (because I was really confused after my three best friends voted me for this) it means the person who you see almost everywhere but probably don't know personally.
Anyway..
My fav. Korean friend made me a compilation of country music recently, and I have to say that Keith Urban rocks my socks. I used to be in love with Shania Twain, but that passion is now gone.

I also have to make a comment on cutting actual trees for Christmas. Plastic is the way to go. It's reusable, considering that you're going to be celebrating many Christmases to come, and (ironically enough) going to protect the environment. Guys, we tried so hard to recycle and save energy by air-drying our clothes and all, how can you agree to cut down these trees?

So as soon as I turned 17, I decided that I needed to watch an R-rated movie to make it official. (Did I ever tell you that my mom still insists that I watch PG-13 movies with parental guidance, and covers my eyes when the dudes kiss?) So I drove down to the library, and picked up Amelie, after winning the fight with my mom. But to be honest, the movie was kind of eh..*shrugs shoulders. It was pretty artistic, for which I have to give it credit, kind of like Frida in that sense, but was pretty drawn out. Besides, I hate watching painfully shy people lead pitiful lives holed up in stupid complexes. But at least Amelie finally finds her true love. Yips!

I keep getting pop-up windows, though I do have a a blocker. Why is this happening? And they come in the form of new Internet Explorer windows, rather than little ad boxes. Also, I keep getting this box that looks like it's of good authority, that tells me about some new Microsoft Premium feature, but if I touch it, all my windows close down. @$%#@$^@$^%$^@!#%!!!!!!

In other good news, I have sent in the applications for Emory, WashU (yay Charles!), and Cornell. 12 more to go.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Sam-yu
ps: I just read over this post and am shocked by it's horrific choppiness. My apologies.

U Mich acceptance

I spent a lot of time thinking about how to spell "acceptance," lol.

Anyway, I just got an e-mail, and after a LONG time of random links I finally found out that I've been accepted to Michigan. Big surprise, lol. I hope that everyone else gets in as well (if you applied-no reason not to, it's a pretty highly ranked safety.)

Btw, Ridley- I got a 10 on the ACT essay, coupled with your 9, I think there is a consipracy against TASPers. How could we have scored so low (they're basically the same score.) !?
Either TASP doesn't know how to pick good writers, or something is wrong with standardized testing.
Which do you think it is? lol.

-Matt (I think Nestor can be "the other Matt" now since he hasn't blogged since... never.)

I like chicken, I like chicken, I like chicken, hey hey hey hey!

Hello, most pulchritudinous comrades!

I've been at home on break since Saturday, and my mom made me fried chicken in celebration. All you need to know about the recipe is that it involves a pound of lard. That about sums it up. Mm, mm, good.

Anyway, I was watching "Gilmore Girls" with my fellow dormmates last week, and one of the characters, Rory, came into an interesting situation. For those of you who don't watch the show, Rory is one of the main characters, and she dropped out of Yale recently because she was discouraged by a bad internship with her boyfriend's newspaper-mogul father. Anyway, she's gotten back on her feet, and she's after a job interview.
Here's the interesting part: her tactics in acquiring the job. She comes to the newspaper office everyday and sits there in the front lobby. She'll read the paper or help people with coffee or offer advice, all the while giving the newspaper head some penetrating looks. He won't give her a job, and she won't take no for an answer. She even puts her resume on his desk. So, one of the girls I'm watching with says, "She's so pushy! That's so obnoxious."
I seriously flipped out. It came out of nowhere, but all of a sudden I was berating her about how if Rory were a man, we'd be talking about how assertive he was, and how amazing it was that he wouldn't take "no" for an answer. Well, anyway, it blew up into a fullscale argument on how we perceive the same actions when we put attribute them to women vs. men. Anyone want to weigh in on this? Are we really as progressive on gender issues as we think?

Also, I'm going to see "Rent" tonight w/ some of my theater-posse friends. How I ended up with so many drama-types, having a passionate hate for acting, myself, I'll never know.

Last, I'm reading The Brothers Karamazov. It's seriously lifechanging. I just read "The Grand Inquisitor" chapter. I read it for Philosophy class, and I was like, WHOA, I have to read the rest of the book. Now that I've come to it again, I've begun to realize that Dostoevsky is not only a genius, but some kind of unimaginable genius. The way he approaches the subject of God just blows me away. You should all read it, immediately. I'm not kidding.

Uh-oh! My mother needs assistance with a pie crust. Duty calls.

Until we meet again!

Thanksgiving Break (or How not to Finish Applications)

Wooo! As of 10:55 this morning, I have been on Thanksgiving Break! So I went out for lunch with my mum and sister, and now I'm going to go play football with some friends before orchestra rehearsal! wooo! Doesn't it feel wonderful to have no school for almost a week and at least one day of total gluttony ahead of you? That's nearly a week of college applications and feverish bassoonicking before chair auditions on Monday! Oh. wait. Never fear! This is a vacation! I will enjoy it!

Top five holiday traditions (oo! oo! you next!)
5. Making study baskets for all the billions of college students my mum knows before final exams.
4. My Dad gets us each a book for Christmas
3. Make carmel corn on the Saturday after Thanksgiving with my cousins in Minneapolis (Helas, we won't be going to their house this year)
2. Go bowling on Thanksgiving
1. Cutting and decorating a real Christmas tree (I know, that organization Sam showed us would be proud.)

Random Thought

OK, my friends suddenly began taking screenshots of their computers and sending them around. Which got me wondering; do you think we can tell something about a person's character by the way they organize their desktop?

Because look, some people have teeny tiny chat windows scattered around, others use only fullscreen windows, some people use a double layered navigation bar at the bottom of the screen, empty desktop, cluttered desktop, weird Apple-inspired dock with icons at the top (or bottom) of the screen... and then think of Charles' laptop with the funky CIA theme... the number of permutations is vast!

Well actually, the real point of this post is to distract me from my TOK (Theory of Knowledge) Presentation which is due in... 13 hours. I haven't started, it's 12:47 AM, so this looks to be a long night.

I am definitely going to feel crappy when I wake up. If I ever get to bed, that is.

Jason

Christmastime's a' Comin' . . .

The Christmas season is getting an early start in my house. It feels almost immoral to be getting out the Christmas music and wrapping Christmas presents before Thanksgiving, for heaven's sake, but I guess there are plenty of worse things that could be prolonged . . . also, Sinterklaas (three weeks before Christmas) is the real Dutch gift-giving winter holiday, so all the frenzied holiday shopping sprees have already started over here, catalyzing the transition into the Christmas spirit.

In a related note, I am very much enjoying a CD compilation entitled "A Prairie Home Companion Christmas" . . . I'm sure at least some of you are familiar with Prairie Home Companion, but for those who aren't, it's a radio show on National Public Radio hosted by Garrison Keillor, a great comedy writer. He always reads a humorous anecdote about a small Minnesotan town called Lake Woebegone, and he gets great folk musicians to come and perform on the show. Probably one of my favorite tracks on the CD I've got is an up-tempo, folksy guitar/bass-driven rendition of "Silent Night" (don't know the artist off the top of my head). Good stuff . . . too bad I can't get the show here in Holland. :(

OK, new TASP poll (thanks for all the contributors to the last one about songs in French!):

Top 5 songs about rivers.

This is based on an English class last year (our introduction to Huck Finn, I think) where our teacher (the Napoleon Dynamite guy) asked us to brainstorm songs and works of literature about rivers. We didn't come up with any really great ideas, as far as I can remember, but I expect better of you intellectual titans.

Sam

TASP Figures

Just out of curiosity... Does anyone have the actual numbers for total applicants/TASPers accepted for the summer of '05? Finally getting around to my college applications, and the info would be much appreciated. I remember Charles asked about this a while back, but I wasn't sure if anyone responded. Apologies for not posting more, I've been lurking though, and I'll put something substantial up at some point. Everything is going well, very busy, but, by the sound of it, probably not as much as all of you, so that's no excuse. Hope all is awesome and wonderful for everyone. Best of luck with all that you do.


-Isaac

(/ducks back into cave)

Li'l Edgar

http://www.mcphee.com/goodies/liledgar.html

Just a little fun for Poe fans. From Archie McPhee!

Sam

an evening wasted

I definitely just got back from the single most pathetic basketball game in the history of western civilization. Eastern Oregon U isn't exactly known for its mens team (its not exactly known for anything) but we definitely just bulldozed Montana Tech. the final score was something like 96-50. we had nothing but scrubs in the entire second half. the most exciting part was during half time when a two year old toddled out on the floor.

So the play is getting whacked scary. like its two weeks till opening night and we are still having line problems. on top of that, its a comedy so timing has to be ridiculously locked in or it falls flat. pardon me while I hyperventalate. on the plus side my character is on stage for the entire show, but a lot of times I am just listening and reacting to what is being said. (the other characters think I cant understand english) so to pass the time I get to duh da da daaaa DRINK TEA. I go through gallons of the stuff. by the end of the show I'll have to pee so bad I will be seeing yellow.

We had the USO swing dance that is put on by our jazz band last weekend. It was actually a lot of fun. the other trumpet players and me blew our brains out and we all had a pretty kicking show. I sung "fly me to the moon" and on a whim decided to scat part of it. sure surprised my friends.

I have an announcement to make. Bern, in his shakespeare class has received A's on all three of his critical analysis essays including "Compare and contrast Henry IV and Henry V as political practitioners in accordance with Machiavellian principals." and "Agree or Disagree: Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet represent allegorys for a postlapsarian world." both as fricken SHOTGUNS. Anyway I know that that sounds like cheap airing of ones achievements, but I was pretty d--- proud of them. so there.

Anyway its 10 and I have to march a football game tomorrow. I got my first app out (deep springs) also applying to st Olaf and Cornell.

until I hear from you again.

bern

Oh no, not the Hungarian Horntail!?

Yay for the fourth Harry Potter movie!

It's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than the previous three, which I realise is not saying much. So basically, I'll say that it's a great movie. Some of this enthusiasm is probably blind Pottermania speaking, but then again, only some.

I actually laughed at the funny bits instead of cringing, the acting of the main three improved considerably, special effects were AWESOME... Which all means: happy me!

Although Dumbledore had this strange accent which was a mix of British and something "American" (sorry, I don't know how to be more specific than that). This twang kept resurfacing in his voice. It was rather distracting.

But whatever, I'm just being whiny.

So go see it! Now!

Jason

let it snow!

It's November 16, and the ground is covered in the most perfect snowball snow in the world! How can anyone expect me to write a paper about Kierkegaard's theology of faith and reason?! I wanna play!

Top (or bottom) 5 worst Christmas songs:
5. Good King Wensceslaus (Despite the cool name)
4. Little Drummer Boy
3. We Wish you a Merry Christmas
2. Jingle Bell Rock
1. Holly Jolly Christmas

The Future Generation of TASP

Check out the TA website: www.tellurideassociation.org/tasp1.html, for next year's TASP topics have been chosen. Cornell I (foreign policy subversion) seems extremely interesting to me, and a marked contrast to Cornell II (medieval literature). In any case, this is a nice guide for TASP recruitment activities (something tells me Co'Relous will be a '06 TASPer). More importantly, this means the official application will be out soon, hopefully with our beaming faces featured prominently.

Blog!

ha. Yeah, I'm posting.

Sints, Piets, and Mutant Christmas trees

So I was cruising for scholarships on Fastweb.com when I found this link to the National Christmas Tree Association, which is offering 5,000-10,000 dollars (and a free trip to Orlando! For four!) to people who write essays about how their real (i.e. not artificial) Christmas trees make Christmas really special or something. They appear to be some kind of radical anti-artificial-tree organization; I quote,

"The spirit of Christmas is alive, as long as you believe. The National Christmas Tree Association hopes that children and parents across the country will slow down and spend family time together this year by selecting and decorating a fresh, real Christmas Tree this holiday season. To get you in the spirit, we invite you to play 'Attack of the Mutant Artificial Tree.'"

I got to level 4.

http://www.christmastree.org/home.cfm


OK, Sinterklaas. Sinterklaas lives in Spain for the whole year except for, basically the month of November. His birthday is indeed on December 5, and that's the big night when everybody gets presents, but he arrives in Holland almost a full month earlier so as to generate hype, remind little kids to be good, etc. He brings along with him his African slaves, the Zwarte Pieten (Black Petes); those are the people you see in my photos wearing colorful clothes, hats with feathers, red lipstick, and blackface. Disturbing? Absolutely. American expatriates cringe whenever we see this, but the Dutch have no problem with it. It's just another holiday tradition for them. I guess they don't have the whole history of interracial tension that we have; no minstrelsy tradition here, as far as I know (although I wonder if there are connections between the Piets and the whole Bamboozled phenomenon . . .) Apparently, they tried to introduce orange and blue Piets instead of black ones a few years ago, I guess to sidestep the prickly racial issue, but there was huge public outcry about the government messing with honored Dutch tradition. As far as I can figure, changing Piet's color is like replacing Santa's reindeer with cows or something.

Anyway, Sinterklaas arrives on the"stoomboot" (steamboat in Dutch) in Dutch ports, and then he spends the next four weeks or so touring Holland on a white horse, followed by the Pieten who give everyone papernoten and kruidnoten, which are miniature cookies similar to gingersnaps. All Dutch people get totally into it, too, much more so than Americans and Christmas; e.g. the Dutch media will cover Sinterklaas' activities as if it were real news for the benefit of little Dutch kids. When we went to see his arrival at the port on Saturday, there must have been over a thousand people there to watch him arrive, and the had the Spanish ambassador there to greet him and everything (wonder what HE thought of it all - "Crazy Dutch people!"). Anyway, if you can't tell, I'm kind of buying in on all the hype, so far by learning a bunch of Sinterklaas songs ("Wij zingen en wij springen want wij zijn zo blij . . . "). :)

Those are onions on the herring. It was actually quite tasty.

OK, TASP poll:
Top 5 songs where non-Francophone musicians sing some lyrics in French.

My nominations:
Michelle - the Beatles
Jack Rabbit Slims Twist Contest - Chuck Berry
Rene and Georgette Magritte with their Dog After the War - Paul Simon

Groetjes,

Sam

Oh, look, the Photobucket!

Quick post before I go to bed.

Emma, unless you have some other fantabulous picture, take that one - it's pretty darn amazing.

Sam, what's on that herring? And the expression on that woman in the background made me laugh.

I finished a short piece on Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and like Lisa a few months before, managed to use "reify"! I'm very pleased. Although I don't like the poem itself.

That's all.

Till later,

Jason

Janam Din ki badhai!

Did I get that right? (It's supposed to be "Happy Birthday" in Hindi.) Anyway, much happiness, luck, and Ivy in your eighteenth year.

Sam

happy birthday samyu!

Now she's finally reached an age where she doesn't have to take naps! Happy birthday Samyukta!

Daler Mendhi sez.....

Happy Birthday Samyukta!

And it's ok, he's Indian!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SAMYU!

That is all.
Hope you have a good one.

Momentous occasion. I think that Samyu's the final TASPer to pass the 17 mark!

HAPPY

BIRTHDAY

SAMYU!

Holy freaking clamadangading!

Remember that puzzle Jason posted a few days back? Well, I beat it! I really really successfully conquered it! At about 2AM last night. And life was good. For any of you feeling frisky enough to plough through it all, the last keyword is chameleon :-P Woohooo!

PS:If you want a high school facebook, just ask!

Warning: late-night ramblings

No Veteran's Day Holiday for us, but there was a little announcement on the school notice-video-screen asking us to remember the soldiers of the 2 world wars. The big news here is that Sinterklaas(!) is arriving tomorrow on his steamboat from Spain. Forget the North Pole and reindeer - the Dutch December-gift-giver knows where to vacation. Tomorrow I am going down to the harbor to watch his arrival. Await further bulletins.

Ridley, about "autumnal lassitude" - I kind of disagree. My favorite literary quote about autumn is from The Great Gatsby, where it's July and Daisy's moaning about how hot it is and Jordan's trying to calm her down: "Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall." It works here on so many levels. TASP was like an existence unto itself - on the day we went home, our old TASP-selves aged and died, and now life is starting over again as we try and reconcile the TASP experience with our normal lives. Or life is starting over as we shed the last trappings of high school and prepare to become college students by filling out applications. Or the Harry Potter movie (which is arriving next week!) will either expand our minds to such a level that we will no longer consider our older selves truly alive or it will so overwhelm us with special effects that our cerebra will be wiped spotless as those of newborn babes. Or Sinterklaas' arrival will so fill us with the desire to be good little children that we will abandon our wicked ways and be reborn, leading lives of goodness and charity. Only now do you begin to see Fitzgerald's genius . . . although somehow I doubt he had considered all this when he penned that line. It must have been his muse whispering to him . . . OK, it's late and I need to end this paragraph.

No British universities on my list, Jason, sorry. Although I will be in London, of course, for the MATH COMPETITION(!) in February. Oh, and I bet you get next Friday off because your teachers will be attending the ECIS (European Council of International Schools) conference, where I will be volunteering to scrounge up my last few CAS points.

Math class anecdote: We're studying limits, right? So the teacher writes "THE SQUEEZE THEOREM" on the board, and this kid asks "Who was Squeeze?" I think he was serious, too. You know, Poisson, Le Chatelier, De Moivre, Squeeze - just another one of those French guys.

I turned in my extended essay (that big physics project I've been griping about for the past two months) on Thursday. Yay! I am devouring Roger Zelazny science fiction novels published c. 1970 right now, perhaps as a kind of reward? Not literature at all, but lots of fun, and a great narrative voice.

1. Kodachrome - Paul Simon
2. Late in the Evening - Paul Simon
3. Scarlet Begonias - Sublime (yay TASP CD!)
4. My Sharona - the Knack (double-yay TASP CD!)
5. Jack Rabbit Slims Twist Contest - Chuck Berry (triple-yay!)

Oh, Emma, and I decided I really like your spelling of 41, "fourty-one" (see "car foibles"( rather than forty-one. I would guess it was not intentional, but a happy accident if not. Fourty just has so much more character than forty.

I am playing soccer at 7:30 AM tomorrow, and soccer waits for no man, TASPer or otherwise, so I better get to bed.

Groetjes,

Sam

Veterans Day?

Hmm... no idea. But I do get next Friday off -- not sure what for.

I am soooo infatuated with the clarinet... There was this one point when I first got the instrument, and couldn't seem to coax a single measly squeak out of it, and started to think I was inherently clarinetally incompatible. Those were a few freaky days.

Thankfully, lessons started and now things are going great! By the way, congrats on getting places in the ensembles Henrik.

Ridley, the frequency of blog posts has decreased, but that's to be expected, what with life and all the hectic it entails. I'm sure that blog posts will pick up once December and April roll around, and we get some idea of where we'll be spending the next few years of our lives.

In that vein... Sam, or anyone else, are you applying to any universities in the UK? More specifically, Cambridge? Because I'm going to be visiting around the 6th of December for my interviews (the thought of which fills me with vague unease). It would be great if someone happened to be there at the same time, but in any case, I plan on using my handy pocket camera and taking lots of pictures of the place. Just hope I don't get lost in Heathrow and end up wandering the streets of London hailing random buses for trips to Cambridge.

Bern recommended this one group a few days back, called Eddie from Ohio, which are unusual in that the band is neither from Ohio, nor does it have anyone called Eddie. However, they do sing beautifully catchy songs with oft ridiculous lyrics, which is why I've been listening to them excessively these past few days.

Top five songs of the moment:

1. Old Dominion - Eddie from Ohio

2. The Three Fine Daughters of Farmer Brown - Eddie from Ohio

3. The Kids Aren't Alright - MIT Logarhythms

4. Black Balloon - MIT Logarhythms

5. Singing in the Rain - Jamie Cullum

Talk to you all sometime soon!

Till then,

Jason

car foibles

I'm very thankful that my car is not burning in the suburbs of Paris, but last night I did lock myself out of my car while it was running when I was returning a movie to the video store. I sat there for a full fifteen minutes waiting to be rescued by my dear old Mummy and counting down the fuel emissions I was pointlessly spewing into the atmosphere. Needless to say, I won't be getting my target 40 mpg on this tank.

Dylan, you might be interested to know that my cross-country team won state! We had three girls in the top 30, all under 20 minutes. Very exciting stuff, and all fourty-one of us were treated out to lunch today. The bus ride was pretty much ten minutes of endless screaming, and on the ride back we drove around our school's feeder middle school screaming and, well, screaming a lot. It was a pretty fun time. If only we had been wearing kilts...

From the Ground in France

Forwarded from a Mr. D. Vaillant:

Very kind of you to inquire about my welfare--I and my family are
well. There have been isolated incidents of vandalism, car torching
around Bordeaux, but this city is known for its somnolence relative
to the country at large.

We rely on French media and e-mail for news of what's going on across
France. My sense is that CNN et. al. have been making it sound like
World War III has broken out. I don't know how well you remember the
1992 LA rebellion, but it was a media circus and suggested imminent
race wars when the truth was rather different.

That said, it's disturbing to see how angry and nihilistic working-
class youth are in France. Unemployment is very high here and has
been disproportionately high in these troubled suburbs. The policy
of the French republic is not to acknowledge ethno-cultural
differences in keeping social statistics making it hard to find
reliable data, but I wager the Maghreb population and their
descendants aren't' doing too well.

What's shocking is unlike major American cities where you see people
of all colors and cultures in professional occupations, on the
streets of the business district and in politics, you just don't see
anything but white faces in positions of power and authority here.
That's a stark difference, but one that France's republican ideology
has deliberately played down.

The quick fix that an American would offer is to have affirmative
action--but to do so is to open a can of worms for basic ideas of
"French" identity that will be painful indeed for a country that has
avoided in some ways the worst kinds of racism that we associate with
American history, even as it has pursued a neo-colonial/republican
ideology that insists on denying that race matters. I'm no expert on
French history, but that's my sense.

Hope your having a good fall despite the stress of applications.

cheers,
Derek
----------------------------------------------------------
As far as I know, France has very little civil rights legislation, because they insist that all Frenchmen are equals. I think the latest riots have proven without a shadow of a doubt that a second-class citizenry does exist in France. Comments?

Be-Bop and Catch-22

Man, procrastination...

It's one in the morning, and I am currently writing a paper juxtaposing Brave New World and Catch-22. It's pretty crazy how I managed to whip up some ideas during the eleventh hour, but nevertheless, it's early and I'm tired. Oh well, tomorrow's the last school day of the week, so I'll crash or something when I get home. This will occur in a similar fashion to when I would finish eating lunch at TASP, then immediately proceed to the couch in the next room, pretend to start reading and sleep for 3 hours or so.

I tried out for District Trombone, and lone behold with only a week of practice I got third chair in both Jazz and Wind ensemble! I wiggled to and fro with joy when I heard the news, and then receded into my previous delirious state when rememebring that I live in Vermont and 5 people auditioned. Shortly thereafter, I started reading a textbook for homework for th next hour and a half.

Oh well.

On the brighter side regarding music, I finally got a band started. We suck, but hey, we're a band. However, I get to write a Be-Bop composition for Jazz Band, and I really feel composition taking a large part in my future. I'm gonna end this one off with some Be-Bop songs by the true greats. By the way, Charlie Parker is truly the all and powerful divine reincarnation of Jesus! OK, that's a little far, it was a joke. But he is the lord in my view, and here's why: When first heard, you will hear constant chord progressions and Charlie Parker (a.k.a. Bird) improvising so quickly and effervescently (try to interpret that as a musical term and you'll know what I mean) over it that it seems he's mere playing notes. In reality, if one were to write out the solo or slow down the tempo, you would see that his improvisation coincides perfectly with each chord change, changing his scale every measure and playing at least different 8 notes per measure. (Don't worry guys, I won't get all strung out on heroin like our good old friend Sonny, I'm just obsessed with Bird and want to have nymph babies with him).

1. Blue Leather Shoes - Charlie Parker
2. Round Midnight - Thelonious Monk
3. Blue Monk - Thelonius Monk
4. Summertime - Dizzy Gillespie
5. Summertime - Charlie Parker

amazing news

I opened my email this evening, and saw a name that I didn't recognize as one of the senders. I was confused, but opened it the email anyway. It was a girl asking about my interview w/ the street musician! I felt like a celebrity and a major academic all at the same time, and I whipped off what I think was a very thoughtful and helpful email. It was a very satisfying moment.

Also, my school has a tradition that about 50 of 180 four-year seniors (seniors who were admitted as freshman, as opposed to sophomores, juniors, or PGs) wear kilts on the big sports weekend with our rival school. The seniors are supposed to be representative of good Exonians with school spirit. I was one of the seniors selected, so I get to wear a kilt all of Friday (with my red gear, of course) and to the big sports showdowns on Saturday. I'm especially looking forward to the bonfire and intense football game. It involves a sea of people in red yelling at a sea of people in blue, and vice versa for two hours. So much fun. Wearing a kilt was always one of my secret dreams.

I have some really sweet photos to post later, so check out the photobucket sometime later this week.

Also, are Nestor and Isaac dead? Has anyone heard from them?

Top Five Songs of Big Red Victory:
1. We Are the Champions - Queen
2. Eye of the Tiger - Rocky
3. Saturday Night's All Right for Fighting - Elton John
4. War - Edwinn Star
5. Do Your Thing - Basement Jaxx

what a wonderful world it would be...of economics

In calculus class today a kid started singing "What a wonderful world" (or whatever it's called), so now it's hopelessly stuck in my head. You know, the one that goes "Don't know much about history, don't know much biology..."

But even if I don't know much about the French I took (see La Retourne de les CDs de TASP below if you need evidence of this sad fact) I am getting to know more about economics. I've never really liked money before, but globalization and microfinance are really intriguing. Speaking of wonderful worlds, I'm all for globalization, sort of. Everyone should check out the November 5th issue of the Economist, because it's just fascinating. I guess I would date the sowing of these seeds of interest to a day in late July (early August? so much for dating) when I heard a young genius named Charles Wu PubSpeak about economics... Really, do check out the Economist.

As a nearly life-long Michigander I feel it my duty to inform you all about important holidays of the state you all temporarily called home last summer. *adopts a very grave tone* Everyone *clears throat, sighs*, tomorrow is a very sad day in our state history. It is the 30th anniversary of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Now I know what your all thinking, "Gosh, the second part of that name is almost the same as Fitzwilliam Darcy's first name!" but please, try to stay focused! On November 10, 1975, twenty-nine men lost their lives in a storm on Lake Superior. You may be familiar with the song about the tragedy by Jenny's fellow Canuck Gordon Lightfoot, a line of which goes something (well, exactly) like this:

Does any one know where the love of God goes

when the waves turn the minutes to hours?

The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay

if they'd put fifteen more miles behind 'er.

They might have split up or they might have capsized;

they may have broke deep and took water.

And all that remains is the faces and the names

of the wives and the sons and the daughters.

The complete song and more information about the Edmund Fitzgerald can be found at http://www.ssefo.com/. If the spirit of Michigan lives on in your TASPly expanded heart, check it out.

itchy and scratchy

Ah! my pets have fleas! Chances are good they won't try living on any humans in the house, but both my dog and my cat have fleas, so we've all been getting a few bites. Has anyone else ever had this? It's rather uncomfortable, and I'd appreciate advice if anyone's got some.

*scratches ankle*

Cultural Philistia

So today in English we were discussing our new book, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, which is based on African-American folktales. My teacher (a big discussion/personal experience fan) opened up a class discussion about myths and folktales in our personal experience. Anyway, we were talking about movies (as sources of cultural folktales, I suppose), and my teacher is like, "Oh, this is kind of off-topic, but I just saw this film that is a great example of characterization. It's called Napoleon Dynamite."

I probably do some kind of spasm of excitement at this moment: (in my high-pitched Mafia voice) "I LOVE that movie!"

Blank stares around the class (no I'm not kidding, people).

Mr. Carlier: "It's about these kids in . . . where is it, Idaho, or somewhere like that . . . they're kind of nerdy, they don't really do anything, just sit around . . ."

A student in my class ( I am NOT MAKING THIS UP): "Well, if the characters don't do anything, how can the movie be any good? What's the point?"

(Mr. Carlier attempts to explain the purpose of Napoleon Dynamite - the class remains relatively nonplussed)

Mr. Carlier: "So, if we have a chance, I'd really like to show it in class."
*whimper of joy from me*
*everybody else looks like they'd rather watch Apocalypse Now*

OK, maybe I'm mis-characterizing this a little; you can't really blame these Europeans for not appreciating the masterpiece of our time, because the movie never showed in Europe (although there were two Americans in the class - treason!). Nevertheless, as an unapologetic, die-hard Napoleon Dynamite junkie (perhaps I have an "unhealthy obsession" for the movie), I am appalled! So much for Europe as the artistic capital of the world (if a continent was ever a capital in the first place).

Sam

La Retourne des CDs de TASP!

Ou PEAT, je suppose. Programme d'Ete de l'Association Telluride.

Sounds like SAT I(I)s were OK for everyone (despite unreasonable Floridian proctors). *snap snap* on the part about the SAT I being really long. Plus I had to wait about an hour once I got to the test center . . . lucky I was only doing 1 SAT II, French Listening.

So sometime this week I was digging around in the space between my bed and the wall (looking for my watch, I think) and I found the CD case with all 4 of my TASP CDs! I'd been missing it for a month or so, so I was pretty excited. Anyway, I've been listening to everybody's "playing my Song" stuff and the Protest CD while I write my Extended Essay. Pretty mad nostalgia trip. Although the verison of Christina's song on my CD is pretty messed up, with 30 second sections of static slicing up the melody. Anybody have ideas about how to fix that?

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle is getting pretty disturbing, with a graphic description of a person being skinned alive. I don't think it's my kind of book.

Yesterday I took a break from my demon 50-page physics project and went to see Corpse Bride, this new movie by Tim Burton. It exceeded my expectations. Remember the part in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory where all the puppets burst into flame? That's what this movie was like . . . :) Strangely, as I sat down in the movie theater I found myself looking forward more to the pre-movie advertisements and trailers than the actual movie. Maybe it's because I never watch TV, so my need for mindless 20-second color- and sound-filled corporate come-ons is sorely underfed. Maybe it's just because the last movie I saw was Pride and Prejudice, which frankly wasn't as good as some of those ads. Whatever it is, it's disturbing.

Our jazz band is playing this awesome Professor Longhair tune called "Big Chief." Unfortunately, we have no drummer (still!) so the powerful shuffle rhythm of Professor Longhair's percussion line will be lacking . Hopefully we can still pull it off.

OK, I am now getting extremely annoyed with the slow typing speed this blogger input box is holding me to, so I am going to go to bed now.

Sam

Sam you are my HERO!

so I walk into the SATII today intending to take lit, bio and chem, but not feeling too grand about it because I haven't taken a chem class in 5 years and what do I find? the first question shows a list of molecules including N2 and asks 'which of these displays a triple covalent bond?' I could have laughed out loud.

yeah so looking back at my last post I figured I should keep you updated so you didn't think I had committed suicide or anything. All in all I am doing better here. Marching season is over which means that I am no longer drum major and can feel no responsibility if the band sucks. I'm currently transcribing the Bach double (Charles knows what I'm talking about; it's a violin piece) for me and a friend to play as a french horn--tuba duet. if it works it will be mad awesome.

in the play my character is supposed to be this british dude and I was having a hell of a time finding a decently british looking outfit for one of my costumes (this is eastern oregon). I put the question (which means whined) to my dad, at which time he was like "well, I guess you could use this" and proceeded to extract from the back of his closet A GENUINE HAND WOVEN IRISH TWEED JACKET. after I picked my jaw up off the floor I was like "wow, you have no idea how cool you have just become" Yay for parents with pasts that you didn't know about.

Standard time makes me sad. I have a class that starts at 6:50 and I used to whistle and dance my way to school every morning because it would be pitch black outside and no one could see me, but now it's light and I feel self-concious. On the plus side it means I dont need tea to wake me up anymore (yes, even I use caffiene occasionally).

anyway, its 6:30 and I am about to waste away I am so hungry. Time to go forage!

top 5 songs

1)Manteca-Arturo Sandoval
2)tequila-Michel Camilo
3)Wake up-Dave Weckl band
4)Unclean waters-Dirty dozen brass band
5)Old dominion-Eddie from Ohio

until later

-bern

BEWARE... May Eat Away Time Allocated For Sleep And Other Productive Activities

It's 2:30 in the morning, and I have a college interview later today. So I really should be busy being unconscious. Instead, I have spent the past few hours ensnared by this website.

It may look like just another badly designed homepage, but this unassuming black page is a portal to the most engrossing and time-consuming website ever. Except for this blog, of course. Which could do with some updating, come to think of it.

OK, the premise is simple. Read the page and source code for clues to fiddle with the web address and advance to the next page. There are 100 pages, and the clues range from jaw-droppingly simple to dizzyingly hard. Sounds dorky and a complete waste of time, and it is. But I'm hooked anyway.

A couple of my friends and I have been conferencing on MSN Messenger, sloooowly working our way through the various levels. We're no where near the end.

I thought you guys might appreciate the site. It's best attempted on a slow night and with the help of others, else it gets frustrating pretty quickly.

Anyway, hope to hear more from everybody sometime soon.

Jason

I want to be wrinkly, utterly wrinkly, wrinkly like a triplet from Bellville!

I just watched the best animated film I've ever seen. It's called Triplets of Belleville, and you should all watch it. Really really good! Nominated for two Academy Awards (including best original song), made official selection at Cannes film festival, Toronto film festival, and (no I'm not making this up) Telluride film festival! You really must watch it. And the "Belleville Rendez-vous" music video. And buy the sound track because you'll fall in love with it!

hamlet is just a story, no?

So I finally finished my common app essay! woo hoo! Ok, now don't roll your eyes, all you ED and EA ppl. I put in soo much work into this. And I got an A from that extremely hard hard grader of an English teacher that I told you about. Yay!

But today, I had a meeting with the same teach, Mr. DeVito, in whose class we've been spending the last month analazing Hamlet. After talking about some essays that we did in class, he asked me, as a send-off gesture, what I thought about Hamlet so far. I looked at him and said, quite seriously, that I thought that we were spending way too much time on it.
"What?!!!" he exclaimed, and sat up straight. Now he was alert and amazed.
"Well, it is just a story, and fiction at that. I mean..."
"OMIGOD!" he yells, and pounds the table. "Just a book? Noo, no.. Sam-yukta.."
And he stalks off to the center of the teacher carrols, and tells everyone there, pointing at me, "See that girl there? Sam-yukta? She told me that Hamlet is just a story." with a touch of disbelieving, incredulous wonder.
Then about seven teachers lean sideways from their work stations to look at me, with exactly the same expressions.

-Way to piss off the teacher who's gonna write your college recommendation.
Keep it up, Sam-yu.

Happy Go Lucky

I had a wonderful day yesterday: I skipped school and did basically nothing the entire day, save make some French toast and sleep. There's no real point here, except to gloat and point out that the site is kinda messed up. What happened?

switcheroo!

I moved the left over TASP pictures posted in the third photobucket to the fourth one, so check out the fourth photobucket everyone. And who put those in the post-tasp collection anyhow?
*looks around for Jason*

after reading the captions (preserved in their original forms)

*looks around for Henrik*

Applications Related Humour

Heya!

I know lots of us were feeling the pressure of those stressig early apps, and the regular round is still to come. So I thought the following would be appropriate. It's a hilarious list of choice excerpts from admissions essays of the past. I found it while browsing collegeconfidential.com (hey, don't look at me like that, some of you go there too :P ).

Mt. Elgon National Park is well known for its rich deposits of herds of elephants.

I enjoyed my bondage with the family and especially with their mule, Jake.

I would love to attend a college where the foundation was built upon women.

He was a modest man with an unbelievable ego.

Hemmingway includes no modern terminology in A Farewell to Arms. This, of course, is due to that fact that it was not written recently.

I am proud to be able to say that I have sustained from the use of drugs, alcohol and tobacco products.

If Homer’s primary view of mortal life could be expressed in a word it would be this: life is fleeting.

Playing the saxophone lets me develop technique and skill which will help me in the future, since I would like to become a doctor.

However, many students would not be able to emerge from the same situation unscrewed.

I look at each stage as a challenge, and an adventure, and as another experience on my step ladder of life.

There was one man in particular who caught my attention. He was a tiny man with ridiculously features all of which, with the exception of his nose, seemed to drown in the mass of the delicate transparent pinkish flesh that cascaded from his forehead and flowed over the collar of his tuxedo and the edge of his bow tie.

For almost all involved in these stories, premature burial has had a negative effect on their lives.

I know that as we age, we tend to forget the bricklayers of our lives.

I would like to see my own ignorance wither into enlightenment.

The outdoors is two dimensional, challenging my physical and mental capabilities.

Going to school in your wonderfully gothic setting would be an exciting challenge.

My mother worked hard to provide me with whatever I needed in my life, a good home, a fairly stale family and a wonderful education.

I hope to provide in turn, a self motivated, confident, and capable individual to add to the reputation of Vasser University whose name stands up for itself. [Note: the correct spelling is Vassar]

Filled with Victorian furniture and beautiful antique fixtures, even at that age I was amazed.

They eagerly and happily took our bags, welcomed us in English, and quickly drove us out of the airport.

Do I shake the hand that has always bitten me?

In the spring, people were literally exploding outside.

Freedom of speech is the ointment which sets us free.

As an extra, we even saw Elizabeth Taylor’s home, which had a bridge attaching it to the hoe across the street.

Under Activities: Volunteer (Retarded tutor)

Name of Activity: Cook and serve homeless

On a transcript: AP Engllish

Misspelled abbreviation on another transcript: COMP CRAP (computer graphics)

Hope you had fun laughing.

Till later,

Jason

Moving Pictures

While de-cluttering my harddrive today, I stumbled across this stash of little video clips taken at TASP with my spectacularly inadequate camera. So apologies for the crappy quality. Anyway, I've probably talked about this before, but I'll ask now: anybody interested?

If so, any suggestions as to how I can share the videos or post them on the internet or whatever?

Oh and Henrik, I didn't dress up as anything for Hallowe'en either. We had the most spirit-sapping, dismally chilly drizzle, so not many trick-or-treaters came around, although we did get a few hard-core ones to whom I basically gave all our candy. It's not like I would have hoarded it for myself. I'm one of those who thinks most sweets are a waste of time. Including chocolate. And ice cream (remember the Washtenaw Dairy, where I gave up on "one" scoop?). Strange, huh?

Jason

Yeah, uhh.. I'm screwed

Soo...

I'm pretty much worse off than all of you...HAH! I haven't started any applications, my selection of prep schools is still incomprehensibly vast, and I don't even know when the due dates are! So, I'm pretty much screwed as you can see. I could ramble on and on about my busy life and why this endeavour has been "tabled" (the American version, Sam, although soon to by Easternized!), but that would bore you. I'll give you some juicy info before I narrow my search down even more.

As you all know, I had an excellent college expedition, while visiting Sam and the Telluriders at Conrell. And alas! I fell in love with Oberlin, a school that has almost everything I could ask for. Everything, except mountains (the highest point in the district was no grander than our very own Sorority building).

Soccer just ended (wooha) and as a result my daily time bubble has been elongated by two hours, and my energy harnessed. Now, instead of running my butt off with the breath of my Alpha-male soccer coach down my neck and his sweat stinging my eyes, I'm playing a lot of Trombone, preparing for District Auditions. I'm screwed for that one too, but no need to get into it.

Everything's going nice and hectic here (I bet your nodding sympathetically right now!), and as a result of all this constant motion I'm deciding to become a little more ascetic, more devoted to my work. So, if you decided to spontaneously visit me, I'll be locked in my room catching up. I'm too busy.

I just finished Catch-22 and Brave New World: Marvelous reads. Totally opened new portholes in my brain. Highly recommend, I do.

Have fun all, and I will officially be number one on the list of people who didn't dress up as anything for halloween. Who's with me?

Herby