Job Front

I finally heard back from the East Harlem School today. I sent them a follow up email after not hearing back from them for a few weeks. I guess the follow up got their attention, so they wrote back. Apparently, the position has already been filled for a while. I guess they just didn't have time to getting around to notifying all the people that applied that it was useless waiting around to hear back from them. Maybe they should take down that job posting as well so more people don't go applying thinking (reasonably so) that the job is still available. Back to the drawing board...

WASSUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP

Some of you may remember the reasonably humorous Budweiser ads from 2000, featuring a couple of dudes calling each other on the phone and emphatically trading "WASSSUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPPPPPPPPPP"s. The ad became immensely popular and was parodied by a whole bunch of folks until it stopped airing and eventually became a relic of the past destined for VH1's "I Love the New Millennium". Despite actually airing on that very VH1 program, the Wassup guys are back with a new agenda. I didn't understand the political significance until after I watched it, but it's a pretty timely and funny way to bring the "campaign" back. I don't know how to imbed videos in this piece, so just check this out. It comes in "original" and "new for 2008!" flavors. Enjoy.
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/brandnewday/archives/2008/10/the_budweiser_w.html

Late Birthday

My birthday was two months and sixteen days ago. Let's celebrate now! Somebody buy me a present. I will accept iPods (of the touch variety), Xboxes (of the 360 variety) and jobs (several varieties accepted- HEYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO).

Nobody gets me.

Early Birthday

I came home from New York today. My mom was acting all weird on the phone making sure I was going to get in at a certain time and everything, giving me the third degree. She said she was having company over for dinner at 5pm. I didn't think there was anything wrong with that so I continued to ride the bus home. I napped for most of the ride since I left for the bus station at 7:40 this morning. I also got a little reading done on the bus and before bed last night.

When I got home, I tried to go into the room where I drop off all my stuff after a trip, but found it to be locked. I asked my mom why it was locked and she said she didn't want me to go in there. That's when I figured out she was throwing me a little birthday dinner. Sure enough, when I got the door opened there were some balloons and the table was set for a dinner party. All my stuff that I left around the table and on the floor had been moved. My sister even came home for a couple of hours from Newport, RI which was nice of her. I forgot to call her on her birthday a month ago which I still feel bad about. Well, I did, but it was several hours late. It's the thought that counts?

My birthday isn't even until Thursday which is why I didn't catch onto my parent's scheme earlier. 23. Is there anything good about turning 23? I don't think so. Is there anything good about getting any older? It's highly debatable, but I'd prefer to hang onto my youth.

Over the weekend, I missed a fantasy basketball draft, but my team turned out ok I think. Of course, there are some picks I would not have made if I were present at the draft, but I think I have something I could work with. I've had decent luck and results the past 3 seasons, so I hope the trend continues.

I was putting some SEAD pictures on a CD for two friends earlier tonight which made me miss SEAD a lot and I got a text message from a SEAD student over the weekend too. Because I came home for the dinner, I missed (without even realizing it until it was much too late) a SEAD even in Boston. I wished that I had remember, but I guess it would've been futile because of the "surprise" birthday dinner. If I had stayed in Boston after getting off the New York bus, I would've probably disappointed my parents and neglected all the work and cooking they did to surprise me. Still, I miss SEAD a lot and it would've been a great opportunity to see the students from the Boston area and other staff members that I've worked with and past SEAD staff and supporters. I'm glad, though, that the SEAD III reunion in Hanover is only a couple of weeks away. I'm very excited to see everyone, catch up, and work on those college applications. I've heard rumors of staff traveling as far as Denver and Nashville to be at the reunion.

Tutoring Rant

I recently got my weekly tutoring assessment. I have a mentor tutor that goes through all my sessions to make sure I'm doing my job and not teaching the kids bad things like taking their parents' cars out for a spin. In my assessment, my mentor tutor told me I was doing a very good job, but there was one thing I really needed to work on for the next assessment. She told me some my sessions were taking too long. There are two types of students that I tutor online: ones whose parents buy them minutes to use on the website and there are students who access free tutoring through libraries and schools. For the students who buy minutes, I'm told to take as long as I need to help them with the questions and with as many questions as they have. For students using library and school subscriptions, I'm instructed to spend around 20 minutes and no more than an hour. I really don't understand this because they also instruct me to bring all sessions to an "educationally sound" close. It's such BS that they have this official statement that they want to properly tutor all its customers and then turn around and tell me I'm spending too much time tutoring students that access the website for free. Isn't that ridiculous? Am I taking crazy pills?

Anyway, I did some tutoring today for my family friend. It's such a relief to tutor in person. I enjoy tutoring online, but it's so much more stressful and there are apparently time limits for some students. I was thinking of sending out some emails or something to get the word out there that I want some more tutoring business, live tutoring. If I get enough business that way, I can go ahead and stop tutoring online. The whole time limit for certain students policy really bothers me.

Pokemon

I wanna be the very best
Like no one ever was
To catch them is my real test
To train them is my cause
I will travel across the land
Searching far and wide
Each Pokemon to understand
The power that's inside

Chorus
Pokemon!
It's you and me
I know it's my destiny
Pokemon!
Ooh, you're my best friend
In a world we must defend
Pokemon!
Our hearts so true
Our courage will pull us through
You teach me and I'll teach you
Pokemon
Gotta catch 'em all!

Every challenge along the way
With courage I will face
I will battle every day
To claim my rightful place
Come with me, the time is right
There's no better team
Arm in arm we'll win the fight
It's always been our dream
Pokemon!

Today's Travel Spot

Salem, MA

That's right! Salem, MA: Home of the Witches

Nothing like a good witch hunt. Talk about adventure and fun!
I've actually made this trip before so I can tell you about it first-hand, not need to research and dream about such a trip. I even have pictures to document the event.

The only thing worth doing in Salem is witch hunting, therefore, go straight to the Salem Witch Museum. The admission price is not too bad. You get to see some "spooky" historical story-telling of the events of the Salem Witch Trials in a dark room with animatronic figures. "Moooore Weight!" Then you get split up into two groups, taking turns viewing some of the displays of witches throughout history and the gift shop. Then head down to Essex St. to see two wonderful attractions: The Witch Wax Museum and the Witch History Museum. When Devin and I went, our tour was led by an actual witch, a Wiccan. She led a good tour, so Devin and I spared her life. There's also a Museum of Monsters from Horror Films if you feel like wasting some money.

As for food, you should get out of Salem before nightfall. You could be stuck there forever if you don't heed my advice. It's up to you, but don't take your chances. During the day, Salem is a quaint port town but it transforms into an evil and wicked place when the sun sets. Seriously, Devin and I barely made it out of Salem in time. The witches placed a spell on the roads, crossing them up and mislabeling the street signs to confuse us. Also, avoid the Maritime Museum. There was a lady there that I suspected of being a witch. Devin and I arrived at the historical museum, not knowing where to go. We asked for directions to the Salem Witch Museum. She got very angry and told us that the Salem Witch Museum wasn't really historically accurate and told us to check out some ship or something by the pier. She reluctantly gave us directions after her little speech. I figured out later that she was a witch. That's why she didn't want us to know about the Witch Museum and its contents. She figured a couple of smart lads like us would expose her for the witch that she was.

All the witch hunting aside, Salem is a lovely town. It was well known in its history as a sea port. The town is very navigable and family friendly (except after sundown). There's a very nice Commons area in the center of town with a gazebo, great site for a picnic of some kind or some baseball tossing or even bocce. Just make sure you get out of there by 6pm to be safe. If you're there in the winter, I would say 3pm at the latest.

Look what happened to Devin in broad daylight!

I'm Working!

Sorry for the lack of posts in recent days. I hold myself responsible for any boredom. Although, you should find a hobby or something if you depend on me for entertainment. With that said, I do love to provide an outlet for work-related boredom and boredom in general. I added Devin as an author for a couple of reasons:

1. I want to hear what he has to say. I get bored myself and reading his thoughts alleviates that.
2. More posts for you to read. Not just more quantity, but more quality too. I like to think that the diversity that Devin brings to the blog will give it new life. I enjoy the pictures and accurate graphs in his posts.

Anyway, back to the subject of this post. I just finished with 3 hours of online tutoring with tutor.com. I received an email this afternoon informing me that I passed the final exam and the background check. I decided to get started as soon as possible so I signed up for 3 hours from 7-10 pm. It went really well. I helped several students with their algebra homework. We did some proportions, linear equations, a little graphing, and an absolute value inequality. I haven't done much algebra since 8th and 9th grade, so I was pretty worried I wouldn't be able to help. It worked out though. The questions I got weren't too hard, and everything felt like it was coming back to me pretty quickly. You should see my workspace. I have my textbooks from high school spread out on my desk as references. I still have a bunch (90% at least) of my homeworks still wedged in my 8th grade Algebra textbook. I used to have really neat handwriting and I used a ruler a lot. I'm tutoring online again tomorrow for an hour and then tutoring the family friend that night right after online work. I definitely prefer to tutor in person, though. It can be difficult to convey things online that would be very simple in person. I really like to show things visually, so I like making little diagrams to show how things work, etc. The tutor.com interface sort of allows me to do that, but it's not as simple as leaning over with a pencil. Tutoring seems less efficient. I worked with a student on comparing graphs for almost an hour, a question that would've taken 10 minutes tops in person. There was a little bit of a set back though because the student didn't really know functions and what the graph would look like. f[x] = x is the most simple graph and function there is, but the student was not familiar with it. I probably could've explained that function much faster in person. That particular problem was a little frustrating. I could've told the student that h[x] = 6 + x move 6 units up compared to f[x] = x, but I wanted to make sure the student knew what the simple f[x] = x is. Sometimes I come to a point in the work where I know that giving an answer would wrap things up very quickly, but I always choose to trudge through it. Sometimes when I do this, I can sense the frustration of the student escalating. I had a student that left the session with me because I wasn't moving fast enough, I guess. I just didn't want to give answers; that's not how tutoring works. Am I right? Holla.

Broadway Blueshirts

Although this is a Boston-centric blog, I thought I'd bring a little New York flavor to the mix. And no, I'm not talking about the New York Red Bulls, you cad, I'm talking about one of the most storied franchises in NHL history, the New York Rangers. "But who cares about hockey?", you ask, and rightfully so. Statistics* show that hockey is at an all-time low in popularity thanks to its inaccessibility to low-income/urban families and the low-scoring defensive-minded play of its teams. Even the efforts of Sarah Palin to reignite interest in the sport have been met with harsh resistance (check this out- hilarious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7TgDanmWkg).But despite this apparent ambivalence on behalf of the general public, New York has always been a popular town for hockey, even through a 50-plus year Stanley Cup drought thought by many to be a curse for burning Madison Square Garden's mortgage in the cup following victory in 1940.
Anyway, I write about the Rangers today because tonight they will play their interstate rivals the New Jersey Devils for a chance at a 5-0 start to the season, something they've only accomplished once before in 1984. Now I do love New Jersey, as I'm Jersey born and raised, but the Devils, they're just lame. They've been one of the top competitors in the Atlantic conference for the past 15 years, winning multiple championships, and they just moved into a state-of-the-art arena, but their fan base is terrible. I almost feel bad for them. I mean, look at the Raiders. Those guys are terrible but they have the most over-the-top intense fans in the NFL. Now imagine you're a highly competitive team playing right between two large sports markets, NY and Philly. And you have no fans. How irritating is that? I mean, they have a few fans, but they're so lame. Anyway, I digress. Last year the Rangers completely owned the Devs, taking 7 of 8 in the regular season and winning all 3 away games in a playoff series that saw the Devils absolutely outmatched and outwitted at every turn. Of course, with their luck, the Rangers will drop tonight's game and ultimately fall behind the Devils and the Penguins in the division, but for now I'll enjoy their first-place standing. And you can enjoy the best shootout goal ever scored in NHL history by Ranger Marek Malik: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x2E1cyTVBA.

*Source: MY BRAIN

Won't Think For Food

I'd like to take this opportunity to use my first post to thank Khiet for this wonderful, humbling opportunity, and to pay tribute to a wonderful teddy bear of a man named Dan "The Man" Belkin, A.K.A. "The Business", A.K.A. "Fancy" Dan, A.K.A. The Whole Danchilada. When Dan isn't busy writing award-winning history theses and screenplays, he can be found on Xbox Live "giving 'em the business" or taking his high school sweetheart Chloe (center) on obscenely expensive romantic getaways. Did I mention the man speaks French? Oo la la indeed, ladies. But fear not; while he's currently not on the market, I hear his lady friend is quite prone to temper tantrums, and I have it on good authority that Dan may soon be replaced in her heart by a budding lothario who, according to the lady herself, "looks SO hot now that he got his braces taken off." So get in line girls, and count yourself blessed if you're lucky enough to snag him off the market. In the meantime, check out his poetic stylings over at http://djbwillthinkforfood.blogspot.com/. Goodnight and good luck.
Happy berfday Fancy.

Double Team

Sorry for the lack of posting these last couple of days. It was the weekend, so I don't feel that badly. Anyway, I just wanted to announce that I have added Devin as an author to this blog. Maybe that will mean twice as much for you to read. You have been warned.

Princess Mononoke Part II

I don't mean to dwell on the same topics and post about the same things all the time, but I watched it again just now. I watched it on a smaller screen at a higher resolution. I usually like to watch it on the biggest screen available, but the smaller screen provided a more vivid and detailed picture. That's what it took to truly appreciate the quality of the animation. Watching it a second time was even better than the first time; I could focus more on the little details.

I was watching Mr. Deeds earlier tonight and missed the latest episode of the Road Rules/Real World Challenge. I also missed the latest of The Amazing Race. For all the tv that I watch, I sure miss a lo t of shows. Of course, it's not realistic to be able to watch all shows on tv, but I think I get around pretty well. I could probably hold my own in a conversation about a couple dozen tv shows. Back to The Amazing Race for a second. Devin and I were going to apply for that show. I think being on the show would be such a great opportunity for adventure. Imagine being on a race across the globe and being put in situations that you have never found yourself before. I think that would be so cool. I think Devin and I would do really well too. We're both decently intelligent. He can speak German in case we're in that part of Europe. I can handle the Spanish. I'm Asian, so we could do pretty well in Asia. Also, my charm works really well on food service employees and my guess is that it transfers to airline employees and taxi drivers. Devin, we should apply for the next season, man. We could be great! I've been watching it for a while now and I think our strengths and weaknesses really compliment each other, so we could kick butt on the challenges. If it came down to a sprint to the finish, I'm sure we're both athletic enough to beat out the newlywed grandparents or the pregnant teenagers. We should at least start filling out the application since it's like 10 pages long. I think making the video would be a blast. Get at me.

Oh. I shaved my mustache off today. I didn't want to show up for tutoring with a terrible looking mustache. Don't worry, the chinstrap beard is still there.

I'm going to introduce a new element to my blog. Everyday, I'm going to do a little research on a place that I want to visit and some of the things I would want to do there. I want to warn you in advance that most of the time I will be listing places I want to eat at each location. Sometimes, the sole purpose of visiting a place will be to eat at a particular restaurant there.

Today's location:

Los Angeles: I have never been to the west coast, so L.A. is definitely a stop I need to make. As for things to do there, I need to hit up Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles. I saw an episode of Snoop Dogg's tv show (told you I watch a lot of tv) and he took David Beckham there for lunch. I've been craving some quality fried chicken. I'd also want to check out Hollywood and maybe go on one of those star watch tours that takes tourists to a bunch of celebrity homes. I want to see the Pacific Ocean and check out the boardwalk at Venice Beach. Kelly told me that there's a magician that works the boardwalk. I want to see just how good this guy is. Maybe there's a job for me on the boardwalk in Cali. I should start working on my magic again.

Nothing New

No word today from either tutor.com or the East Harlem school. I did tutor a few hours ago for my mom's friend's son. He's a 9th grader at Bourne High School. We worked on some geometry problems and I helped him with his English essay on The Gift of he Magi. We also went over some basic studying and note-taking tips. It only took a little more than an hour and I'm working with him again on Saturday. I probably have to get up early though, probably around 10am.

I worked on the Rubik's cube a little more today. I matched my previous best time of 2 min 20 secs once today. I think I'm going to watch Princess Mononoke again tonight. I need to get my hands on Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, created by the same animator, Hayao Miyazaki. Did you know that Princess Mononoke was released in 1997 and became the highest grossing film in Japan until Titanic reared its ugly head? Spirited Away won an Academy Award and Howl's Moving Castle was nominated but did not win. I'm really excited about seeing the two movies I mentioned. Nothing against computer animated feature films, but I have a lot of respect and admiration for 2-dimensional feature films that are largely if not completely hand drawn. Think about it. Before Pixar, I can't think of a 3-D, computer animation film. You have great films like Aladdin, The Sword in the Stone, and The Lion King just to mention a few. What happened to hand-drawn 2-D films? Is there no room in this technologically advancing world for a simpler film format. Don't get me wrong, I think what they're doing with computer animation is pretty amazing. Toy Story is one of my favorites, and it set the table for Pixar to go on making millions. The animation in Finding Nemo was incredible. The thing I really appreciate most about those Pixar films is that it's not all about the animation; they take the time to tell a quality story. Anyway, just wanted to rant a little bit about the forgotten art of good story telling and 2-D animated feature films.

If anyone has a movie recommendation, please let me know whether it be animated or otherwise. I want to go see Choke this weekend, so I will.

Princess Mononoke

I just watched the film and I thought it was pretty incredible. Aside from the brilliant animation, there's a great soundtrack and an epic story that captures the imagination. I want to give a brief synopsis of the film. Don't worry, Devin, no spoilers. Basically, this story takes place during a time when the human world and the spirit world coexist. The spirits are in animal form and are gods and guardians of the forest. The story follows the adventures of a young man from a small village, journeying West to find the Spirit of the Forest to lift a deadly curse. Throughout his journey, he struggles to strike a balance between his humanity and his veneration for the beast gods of the forest. It's a story that's relevant to our world today. There are major themes of deforestation, over-industrialization, and an overall disrespect of nature presented as a battle between humans and animals. The two main characters voiced by Billy Crudup and Claire Danes are pitted against one another because Danes's character was raised by wolves.

The film got me thinking a lot about the way things are and the way things used to be thousands of years ago. It's pretty remarkable how advanced our society has become. Just think about it. Every time I drive up to Dartmouth, I see the vertical grooves left on the rock as a result of drilling. They drilled into these rocks to drop dynamite to blast away mountains to build roads. That really blows my mind that we have roads where great mountains used to stand. I can't say I've always been one to appreciate nature. I always thought nature was beautiful, but I can't say I've always appreciated it. I would say that I took it for granted. It was there to serve an aesthetic pleasure during camping trips. Living in Hanover and being in the middle of nowhere has made me think of nature a little differently. I was fortunate enough to have hiked Mt. Washington, Mt. Moosilauke, and Mt. Cardigan this summer. I can't really put into words the feeling you get when you are on top of a mountain, surveying the countless trees and breathing what feels like the cleanest, crispest air you've ever breathed. I wished I had taken advantage of more opportunities to explore the Upper Valley and experience nature. The best way to experience nature is to just be smack right in the middle of it. I feel like I'm having a Thoreau moment. I really miss being able to take a short car trip to the base of a mountain. That's just not really a feasible outing for me anymore. There's a chance I'll be living in New York in the future, navigating the Urban Jungle. That prospect makes me miss my outdoors adventures and experiences even more. I know I'm kind of rambling, but I'm struggling to find the right words, words that will do justice to the subject matter. Unfortunately, I don't think I can adequately describe the importance of nature. Some of my best memories are out in the wilderness. I spent a lot of time during Sophomore Summer at the Ledges, a rock ravine carved out by a running stream. It provided swimming holes a giant 18-foot tall boulder to jump off of. Other memories that come to mind are the times I spent with friends sleeping in cabins in the woods. I remember the campfires, the games of Contact, and mostly of all, the sound of silence. Of course, silence is not really silent. It's the sound of the wind shaking the leaves of trees, the sound of crickets and other creatures of the night, and it's the sound of the embers in the stove cracking with its last life.

I feel a new sense of deep respect for those who live a much simpler life, free of modern luxuries, by choice. These are who care about the Earth and its future. For a month this summer, SEAD practiced sustainability on a small scale. We used plastic reusable plates and silverware instead of paper products. I'm proud to say that we ended up saving a ton of paper products that would've been trash. The biggest thing you notice is that the trash barrels aren't completely filled after each meal. I have to say, though, that it's not easy. It takes effort. It's so much easier to use something once and to throw it away. If you're interested in more information and statistics on the state of the Earth, google "the story of stuff". It's a short 20-25 minute video that gives you some true and truly disturbing facts. I find them disturbing, at least.

Anyway, I'm going to make an effort to take advantage of nature opportunities when I'm in Hanover for Homecoming. It's going to be a busy weekend filled with fun, but I'm going to try to make time for a short hike, maybe Mt. Cardigan. If anyone is interested, let me know. Take some time to appreciate nature while we still have it to appreciate. The view from the top is really amazing and it's an easy hike. Also, I want to hike Mt. Washington again. There are so many peaks to take in the view from. I want to try to Presidential Range that's up there. It's getting pretty cold so this would have to wait until spring or summer, but I really want to do it, so let me know if this interests you. While I was hiking, I saw some people that were talking about hiking the Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine. Just imagine how amazing an adventure that would be. I'm having difficulty picturing a more ruggedly romantic journey. You would hike up and down mountains all day while witnessing breath-taking views. You would sleep in the woods some nights, curled under a tall tree on top of some soft moss. When you made it to a town, you could restock your supplies and treat yourself to poached eggs over corned beef hash with home fries. Sounds good. Imagine all the different kinds of corned beef hash you would come across at the various diners and truck stops along the way and the people you would meet. A journey like that could probably tell you a lot about yourself too, since there'd be plenty of time for introspection.

Back to the film; I digress. I really enjoyed it although it made me a little melancholy. It made me think, which is something I'm challenging movies to do more now than in the past. Of course, I can always go for a funny yet brainless comedy, but I've come to appreciate the art of cinema, not that I understand much of it. I've always been fascinated by film and I hope to learn more about it. I digress again. The film was excellent and I recommend it to anyone with an imagination and a soft spot for epic tales of heroism and adventure. It's funny that Claire Danes was a voice of a character in this film because I really enjoyed her performance in Star Dust. Yes, I'm being serious. I have such a soft spot for these types of tales that border fairy tales. I used to watch Grimm's Fairy Tales all the time after David the Gnome when I was younger. I guess I always enjoyed some fantasy in stories. Seriously though, check out Princess Mononoke and Star Dust if you ever imagined you were a dragon-slaying prince or a captured princess in an unreachable tower. Fantasy is very much alive. It's in our minds and out there in nature too. Go explore and throw yourselves into it!

Pleased

I am rather pleased right now. After sending in my resume and cover letter today, I feel as if a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I really hope I get this job, but I feel more prepared to apply to other jobs even if I don't get it. I feel like I have a resume, so turning out a few more cover letters wouldn't be a big deal. The prospect of living in New York is excited and daunting at the same time. I worry about the cost of living in the big city. I worry I won't be able to have my parent's cooking everyday, which is very good and doesn't cost me a thing. I worry that I won't be able to afford the rent. I don't know what my expected salary for this job might be, but I'm guessing it's not very large since I'll be working with adolescents and education. It's a troubling trend, but that's the way things are. All worries aside, I'm still excited about the prospect of living in such a big and diverse place. You don't really get the same diversity and vast stretches of streets on Cape Cod. I could use the culture shock. I also know a lot of people living in or near the city, so I would feel not so little in the city.

I've been working on getting my Rubik's cube time down, but it hasn't been going very well. My best time so far is 2 min 20 sec, which is pretty decent but nowhere near the 30 seconds that the professionals pull off. I've been clocking in around 3 min which I'm pretty happy with, given the old and worn cube that I'm using. I think I might try to get a new one that might be easier to maneuver for a faster time.

I think I'm going to try to watch a movie tonight. I have a movie on my external hard drive that I've been meaning to watch. Since it's working again, I'm going to watch it. It's a pretty famous Japanese animation: Princess Mononoke. This movie has been on my movie list for a while now, but I never got around to it. That reminds me that I have to make a new movie list because I lost my old one. I had something like 50 movies that I wanted to see on there. It was a lot easier to get through a movie list when I was at school because I could borrow movies from the Jones Media Center. I guess I could get Netflix, but I think I watch too much tv as is. It might be a huge mistake.

I took my final exam for tutor.com today, so I'm hoping to hear back from them soon so I can start tutoring and making some money. Tomorrow night, I'm tutoring my mom's friend's son after dinner for an hour or so.

Applied

It's done! I just sent Courtney Knowlton of the East Harlem School an email with my resume and cover letter. Now I wait.

I'm going to take the tutor.com final exam as well and wait to hear back from them too.

My mom's friend who asked me to help tutor her son called this morning while I was sleeping. I guess I'm going to call her back in a little while and start tutoring her son. I think he's a freshman or sophomore in high school.

I think I'm going to practice my Rubik's cube now. Cracking two minutes will take a lot of work.

Great Discovery

I was going through a box of stuff I had at SEAD to find some blank cds. I was planning on burning a mix cd that I made a couple of weeks ago. I came across a Rubik's cube which was pretty exciting; it's been a while since I solved one. Hopefully, I still know how to do it. Anyway, that's not the great discovery. I found the cds that I was looking for along with my external hard drive. At the end of SEAD, I discovered that it wasn't working properly. My laptop wouldn't recognize it, which bothered me a lot. I lent it out to the high school interns to work on SEAD stuff and it didn't work when I got it back. I had a lot of stuff on there like all my pictures from college, seasons of Scrubs, all my music, and a lot of papers from my classes. Luckily, my computer hasn't crashed since then. I plugged it into my home computer a little while ago and found that it worked fine. I tried my computer again to no avail. I was pretty disappointed, but I didn't give up. I kept trying and finally got it to work. Now, I have all my stuff that I saved on the hard drive. What a great discovery! The thing I was most worried about were the pictures that I got over the summer while at SEAD. I'm going to try to post a bunch of them. They should be entertaining to look at if you get bored. I don't know if I can post many on this blog, so I'll probably make a facebook album. I already have two albums: Pictures of Nouns and Pictures of Moustaches. Check it out if you haven't already. I'll try to get the SEAD album going in a timely manner. Once I get the pictures up, I'm sure I'll be reminded of some really great stories that I could write about.

Same episodes of Fresh Prince on. Has anyone else seen the Bloopers episode at the end of the 6th and final season of Fresh Prince?

Close Game

The Red Sox just won in the bottom of the 9th in a great game. Tampa Bay Rays next...

I just had some apple pie with coffee ice cream. I heated the apple pie in the microwave, Devin style. It was warm and delicious.

Almost Employed

I got an email from tutor.com today informing me that I passed the mock tutoring session. The next step is to take a final exam and wait for them to process a background check. After that, I get to tutor. I didn't send out my cover letter and resume as planned today. I did look over the letter again today; it's down to a page now. I was planning on doing more today, but as soon as 8pm rolled around, I've been glued to the tv. The Red Sox are on and winning 2-0 right now (bottom 6 I think) It's hard to stare at two screens at the same time. Anyway, I'm definitely sending out the resume and cover letter tomorrow and I'm going to try to review some materials for that tutor.com final exam and get that over with tomorrow as well. I really want to play some golf too even though it's getting cold out. It should be the off-season by now, so it might be a little less expensive to play.

Rescheduled

So I got up much later than I had planned. I have eaten lunch, but this can count as my after lunch post. I can still look over my resume and cover letter, exercise, read for an hour sometime tonight. I'm getting really hungry though, so I'm going to get some food now.

Happy Monday!

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank Kelly again for helping me get my cover letter down to a page. I had gotten it down to a page, but I had to use size 10 font, which I didn't really want to do. With her help, I was able to cut it down quite a bit. Now it's a page long with size 11 font, which is perfect. Thank You, Kelly! I also wanted to thank Devin and Liz D., who helped out a lot during the whole resume/cover letter episode. Emily also helped by reading my cover letter and giving some great suggestions to get it down to a page. Thank you to Carolina for looking over my resume and sending great feedback all the way from Puerto Rico. I also sent the cover letter out to Doops (waiting to hear back from you, Guy). I also sent the resume to Andy to look over. Of course, I need to thank Louisa again for referring me to the job posting. If not for her, I still wouldn't have a resume. If there is anyone else that I forgot to thank, I would like to apologize.

I'm not feeling very tired at all and Family Matters is on, which is pretty sweet. I'm still going to try to get up relatively early tomorrow, but it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to sleep anytime soon.

Schedule for tomorrow:

-Get up early-ish
-Look over resume and cover letter again
-Get some exercise
-Read for an hour
-Post after lunch

*Please note schedule is not necessarily in execution order.

Crossing My Fingers

Sox game still going after five hours. It's in the bottom of the 12th, Angels up 1 run and two outs.

Nevermind, the game is over. Drats. Shoot. They're back at it tomorrow.

If the announcers talk about the rally monkey again, I'm going to have to take all the monkeys hostage from the zoo. I don't have any weapons, but I have something like a dozen bananas in the kitchen. They're ripe too and taste delicious. No monkey will be able to resist.

On another topic, I started a book a few weeks ago and have been neglecting it lately. It's not that I don't like it because I do. It's called The Rule of the Bone, and it has a The Catcher in the Rye feel. I'm about a quarter of the way through it and I should start reading it again. After SEAD, I was doing a lot of reading. I finished Choke, written by the same guy that wrote Fight Club, a man named Chuck Palahniuk. It was a very strange book, but very funny and very good. I also read The Cider House Rules, after recommending another John Irving book to a friend. Cider House was really good, a great story. The thing about John Irving's books is that he is a great story-teller, and he gets his readers pretty hooked on this world he dreams up. It works on me. I also appreciate, having lived and grown up in New England, that his stories center around the world of New England. When he talks about apple orchards or granite quarries, I feel like I know exactly what he means. My mind has no trouble picturing it the way I think he has it painted in his mind. I actually saw the movie before reading the book. I saw it my Freshman year of college with (I think) Pauline, Devin, and Ctao. Feel free to confirm or deny. The book has some very distinct differences, so I didn't feel like I already knew everything that was going to happen. It had also been a while since seeing the movie. However, I'm guessing I think Michael Cain played the part of Dr. Wilbur Larch well because I kept picturing him in my mind as the good doctor. And No! I don't have a crush on the old man so don't go there sickos.

There's another book that I wanted to recommend, and it's the book that I recommended to my friend, Julia J. It's a John Irving book I read as a sophomore in high school, in one of my favorite English classes ever. It's called A Prayer for Owen Meany. Another great story that takes place in New Hampshire. My fellow Dartmouth grads, check it out if you ever feel like you miss the granite of New Hampshire. Speaking of Dartmouth, I do miss the campus and the atmosphere. I hope I will see a lot of you guys at Homecoming two weekends from now.

I'm going to try to go to sleep at a decent hour tonight, I'm shooting for 3-4 instead of 6-7. I'm also going to try to get up earlier. Don't be disappointed with the lack of posts for your workday; I'll be updating during the day. Hopefully, I'll do something awesome tomorrow so I can write about it.

Normal Hour

I went to bed at a normal hour last night, before 3 am. Unfortunately, I still got up at 2 pm despite setting an alarm clock. I think it's broken because it still said the alarm was set when I got up, so I didn't turn it off while half asleep. It was still a small victory. I stayed up the night before and stay awake throughout the day so could sleep at a decent hour. I'm hoping to sleep at a decent hour again tonight. I still need to work on my cover letter to get it down to one page in length. I'm having trouble finding places to cut down. I'm trying to get it ready by tomorrow so I can send it, along with my resume, to the East Harlem School.

Red Sox are on. Right now, it's tied 4-4 at the top of the 7th. Stay tuned for updates...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Pauline! I hope you have a wonderful day!

Canasta

If you haven't heard of canasta, it's a card game. It's a lot of fun, and I've started playing a lot online. A lot as in I played a dozen games a little while ago, actually a baker's dozen. I play on yahoo games and all you need is a yahoo account to play. If anyone is ever bored a work or whatever and wants to learn or play or both, let me know. I did ok this time around; I went 7-6, batting over .500.

Really nice day out, but a little chilly. You can definitely tell it's fall. I love fall; it's my favorite season, I think. I like it because fall is soccer season. I also like it because the foliage. I like that the weather is moderate and mild, I like the temperature to be on the cool side. I enjoy wearing a sweatshirt. It's also more comfortable to sleep at night with the air being cooler. My birthday is at the end of October, so there's that. I also have a few friends who have October birthdays.

Soccer, Baseball playoffs, Football, Birthdays, Weather, Foliage, SEAD III reunion. So many good things happen in the fall.

Facial Hair

I haven't shaved in over a week. There's healthy growth on the neck and the jaw line. There also appears to be something that resembles a mustache on the upper lip. I think I'm going to try to go another couple of days. Wish me luck. Chicks dig facial hair don't they?

Roseanne is on before it's scheduled time slot. Weekends really throw a wrench on the old tv schedule. Luckily, Varsity Blues is on.

SOX WIN! AGAIN!

Really exciting game. JD Drew homers during the top of the 9th with a runner on to put the Sox up by two, for good. The rally monkey tried to make an appearance, but it was spotted by Mr. Drew. He took a high-powered rifle and shot the monkey through its brain; it died immediately. It was pretty humane. It was just a metaphor, no actual animals were harmed.

Next game on Sunday at Fenway Park. Josh Beckett, the post-season standout is scheduled to start. Life is good.

Apologies

Sorry for falling asleep on the job. Just kidding! I'm unemployed, so falling asleep on the job is not really a possibility. But I'm sorry if my lack of postings made your day seem longer than it had to.

In other news, I finally had my mock session with Tutor.com an hour ago. It went pretty well. I'm supposed to hear back from them anywhere from 3-30 business days on their decision. The majority of the time is for them to run the background check on me. My record is pretty squeaky clean, so I'm hoping that means I'll hear back sooner and can start tutoring sooner.

It's Friday, so I guess the postings I put up this weekend won't really help out you working people. If you want, you can avoid reading the blog on the weekends. That way, there should be plenty to read at the start of the work week, when you're sure to have a case of the Mondays.

I'm just watching the Red Sox game right now. I'll probably play some bounce out while I watch. If you haven't played before, check it out. Just google "bounce out" and look for the free online version, should be the first of second hit. It's fun. I heard about it from my friend, Julia J. Thanks, Julia!

Failure

After my fourth episode of Saved by the Bell, I watched a little bit of Beverly Hills Ninja. Unfortunately, I fell asleep and now I'm doomed for another sleepless night.

I'm running out of ideas to write down. I think I may have written too much last night and now I have writer's block. I got nothing.

OMG

Saved by the Bell is on!!! And I just heard the high school bus drive by...
I don't remember ever loving taking the bus. I didn't really like having to wait for the bus in the cold in the winter. The bus always picked you up much earlier in order to pick up all the kids on its route.

Gee, Zack and Screech sure look young. Kelly is about to apply to work at the Max. Sick! This brings me back. Except Kelly is going to fall for Jeff and leaving Zack even after he sets up that nice romantic picnic table outside the dance for her. He has to do this because she can't make it to the dance because she has to work to earn money. But she's actually just falling for her new boss, Jeff, breaking poor Zack's heart. Screech is so skinny.

Sorry folks, but it seems that I remembered this episode incorrectly. Kelly does end up getting the night off to go to the dance, she's completely out of it. She and Zack get voted King and Queen of the Costume Ball and then they go outside to talk after Kelly calls Zack Jeff. Yikes! I know. But there was a picnic table involved; I did remember that correctly.

Side Note: The Zack Attck, the band, plays at the dance. I know everyone remembers the episode where they fantasize about their band making it big, causing them all to develop egos and break up.

I decided to not go to sleep. Instead, I'm going to make sure I stay up until until tonight when I will retire early and get up at a decent hour. If I'm going to do all this work on my resume and cover letter, I need to be operating at normal hours in anticipation for this job. It's still raining, so probably no run today. I might pass out from exhaustion if I do anyway.

Haha, Zack just whipped out his gigantic cell phone. Rain picking up a lot. O well.

Done and Done

I just finished my cover letter. I'm accomplishing so much lately. It's all stuff that I could've gotten done at a much earlier date. It makes me feel a little bad for not doing anything these last couple of weeks, but at least it's getting done now. Better late than never, right? Unfortunately, there's a bit of precipitation falling outside. I really like the sounds of rain. However, it's not that much fun to run in the rain, not in sneakers at least. This is making me miss rain soccer a lot.

I should probably go to sleep in the hopes that I will get up before 4pm, but I got a sudden surge of energy from finishing the cover letter. What to do? What to do?

Cover Letters

I'm watching Fresh Prince while writing a cover letter for that job in New York that I'm very interested in. Cover letter aren't as bad as resumes, but they're still a lot of work. This is the first one I've had to write, so it's taking me a while to get my thoughts on paper in an eloquent fashion. I want to concise, yet descriptive at the same time. I'm finding it difficult to strike that balance. If anyone is bored at work tomorrow and wouldn't mind giving my cover letter a proof read, please let me know. It would be much appreciated and it would bring me one step closer to joining you in the working ranks.

Married With Children comes on at 5am. It's strange to see Christina Applegate as a teenager. It's been over ten years since I've seen Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead. Fun fact, now back to the cover letter.

Cute Kids

I was just watching Jon and Kate Plus 8.
Those kids are incredibly cute.

I'm simply using this post to admit that I failed to go on that run today. In my defense, I did start and finish my resume, so I don't feel very bad. Tomorrow is a new day and that run is going to be nice. I need to write a cover letter tomorrow too, but that shouldn't be as bad or as time consuming as a resume especially after all the writing I've been doing lately. The words will just jump onto the page. Maybe.

Freshman Experience

On Martenn's request, I'm going to write a little bit on some of my freshman year experiences. I know Martenn through the SEAD program, which stands for Summer Enrichment at Dartmouth. It's a program that aims to show promising high school students that college is an option for them. So it makes me very happy to hear that you asked me to write about college, Martenn. I hope it means you have college on your mind, hopefully from working on your college applications.

When I arrived in Hanover with my parents and all my stuff, I was pretty nervous to start meeting people. I didn't go on a first-year trip, so I didn't meet anyone through that. I knew of one other person who was definitely attending Dartmouth at the same time as I was. Her name is Sheila, and she went to high school with me. CAW! Seahawks fly together! It was reassuring to know that I would know at least one person, but I also had no idea how to get in touch with her. I'm very shy before I get people. Sometimes people don't believe me when I say this because I can become rather outgoing once I feel comfortable. Once I was unpacked and my parents left, I was sitting in my room alone trying to set up my email account. It would've been pretty pro-social and normal to wonder the hallways and introduce myself to new people, but I was pretty terrified. I pretty much kept to myself and went off to dinner by myself with every intention of sitting down alone to eat. Now that I look back on the experience, it seems absurd but it was very real then. Very Luckily, a lot of people that lived on my floor were eating together and called me over as I was making my way to the very back of the dining hall. I have to say, I really enjoyed living with the people on my freshman year floor. We called ourselves "Little 1". I found it myself feeling very comfortable quickly. Consequently, we had many dinners as a floor after that. I'm still very good friends with some of the people on my floor. It took me three full years before I started getting sick of the food, still not sick of them.

It's kind of funny how much chance there is in such encounters. It was as if I were destined to be friends with these people. If I hadn't seen them at dinner that night, I would've likely had dinner with them a different night or struck up a conversation in the hallway some other time. It's crazy how much relationships are affected by proximity. You're basically given a group of people to befriend. Of course, sometimes it doesn't work out so well. Clashing personalities and differing interests might cause some people to stray from the over group. Also, previous acquaintances might allow someone to join in on a floor other than their given floor. For the most part, though, it just works out somehow. It's pretty amazing.

Another really great freshman year experience that really cemented a friendship for me was a bocce tournament. Bocce is a game that originated in Italy I believe. It's a lot like curling, which might be even more obscure. If you don't know what curling is, I apologize. You're missing out. The point of bocce is for two teams to alternate shots and try to get their ball closest to a target (the palino, a small ball a little bigger than a golf ball) without touching it. It's a great game and it helped me to get to know a friend even better. I also got to bring home a sick trophy and the title of Dartmouth Bocce Champion of the one and only tournament to date.

Devin and I saw a post for a bocce tourney on our way back to the dorm one day and decided to enter a team. Our team was very inexperienced and kind of an unexpected group. Aside from devin and I, there was Jeffrey who lived on the second floor and Ji who lived across the hall from me. Jeffrey is personable and outgoing. Ji can come off as very intimidating and mean, but he was a great guy. I never had a bad experience involving him. We beat these frat boys in the finals who were dressed up as if they were about to play croquet. It was somewhat improbable, but well deserved. Devin's grandparents got him a really nice bocce set after they heard about the win. I still have the rope they used to mark off our court and obviously the bowling trophy. I'm really glad we decided to do that. Shortly after that, Devin and I decided to room together the following year. The rest is history. I wonder what would have happened to our friendship had we lost...

SOX WIN!

The Red Sox take game 1 from the Angels. Jon Lester pitched brilliantly, a great effort. Jacoby Ellsbury on base 5 times and Jason Bay with the go-ahead homerun. Great work.

Game 2 is on Friday, so tune in.

On a different note, I just saw a few minutes of Paris Hilton's new show. Apparently, she's looking for a new BFF. It looks awful. I'll research it and keep you posted.

I was reminded about voter's registration a couple of times today, so I thought I'd help pass the word. If you're of age, register to vote. I say this after just seeing a very funny Colbert Report skit about voting abstinence.

Baseball Playoffs!

I'm watching the Boston Red Sox play the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim right now. It's October and it's that time of the year again. There are some interesting stories this year. For one, the New York Yankees are not even in the playoffs. That means they never even had the chance to choke. We also have the Chicago Cubs in the mix; the Cubs have not won in nearly 100 years. I feel for Cubs fans, being a Red Sox fan myself. Although, Boston sports in general have been kicking some serious butt, and I have to say that I love it. The Bruins are next, I'm sure of it.

On a baseball note, I find it incredibly difficult to find a lefty baseball glove. Some of you know how I usually play catch. I wear the glove on the wrong hand; it looks pretty creepy. It feels rather awkward too.

I miss Tom Brady and Orient lunch specials. I miss 2am EBAs bread cheesy garlic bread. My mind wanders...

I Can't Work Even if I Try

Like I have said in a previous post, I had a mock tutoring session scheduled for tonight at 9. Unfortunately, it was canceled a few hours ago. The last time I had this mock session scheduled, the person conducting the session didn't show. Now, they're canceling on me. I need to get this mock session done so that I can start tutoring, but factors outside my control are all aligned against me. So I have to reschedule again and keep my fingers crossed and hope it works out this third time.

Anyway, a friend of my parents called me today and offered me a little tutoring job. Apparently, her son is having a little trouble with his grades in school and she was hoping I could help out a couple of night a week. Considering I am doing nothing at the moment, I welcome the offer.

I might not be so inactive for long. Today, actually, just a few minutes ago, I wrote a resume. It's long overdue. I suggest having a resume as early as possible. If only I was good at taking my own advice. Anyhow, I wanted the give a special thanks to Devin, Dan, and Louisa for sending me their resumes as a template to work from. I also want to thank Louisa for pointing me to a job posting that I'm very excited about, my inspiration to write the resume. Thanks to Devin, Carolina, and Andy. I sent them my resume and will appreciate feedback they can offer or have offered. I'm pretty pumped about this job posting though; it sounds like work right up my alley. Here is the link to the job posting if you're interested in taking a look at the description. You can let me know what you think of it.

http://www.idealist.org/if/i/en/av/Job/310698-37

I feel like I accomplished quite a bit today with the resume. The night is young though, and I plan on writing a cover letter for the job I mentioned above.

My SEAD buddy, Martenn, asked me to write a post on my first experiences as a Freshman in college. He mentioned it in one of his comments on a previous post. Thank you, Martenn for setting a good example. If there is anything you readers want to hear about, do let me know via comments, as I'm sure I'll start running out of ideas soon. If I don't write, you have less to read; no one wins unless you hate the blog. If this is the case, I suggest you stop reading. Self-inflicted blog reading is a terrible thing.

Need Exercise

It's been 3 weeks since I've gotten any exercise. 2 weeks ago, I did a few push ups before I got tired and went back to playing poker. Before that, I was practicing with the soccer team at my old high school. CAW! CAW! I stopped going because it's a bit of a drive. Going everyday adds up and gas is crazy expensive. I do miss being active though. I used to go to the gym 4 or 5 times a week and I'd drag Devin along. One of the things I miss most are the times we'd all just hang out on the green - playing bocce or tossing a baseball. I think I'm going to try to go on a run when I wake up in the late afternoon.

Don't worry. I probably won't be posting this many times on a regular basis. There's just something about the start of something new that's very exciting. I may lose interest over time, but I think I like this. I've never kept a journal or anything like that; it's refreshing to put some thoughts down.

Re-runs

The same episodes of Fresh Prince from last night are being played again tonight. I find this very annoying and frustrating. It's not that the episodes are bad ones, but they were just on the night before. Whoever is in charge of airing the episodes is doing a bad job. They usually air them in order, but someone fell asleep on the job tonight and played the sames ones. Luckily, good eats is on. Roseanne comes on at 5am. Not cool. I've never been able to watch that show. I don't particularly despise her, but the show is awful. It's definitely not Family Matters or Saved by the Bell, and I don't mean the new class or whatever it's called. I'm talking about vintage Mark Paul Gosselaar and Tiffany Amber Thiessen. I would've never guessed that Dustin Diamond (Screech) was such a jerk in real life.

My First Post

At the advice of my good friend and college roommate, I have decided to start a blog. I hope it will serve as a way for me to keep myself entertained in the middle of the night. Also, I hope to give all you working people something mildly entertaining to look at during the workday.

Lately, I've been going to bed around 6am as the sun is starting to come up. Once winter rolls around, I'll hardly ever see sunlight if I keep this up. I've tried staying up all day so that I could sleep at night. It didn't really work because I ended up sleeping for 14 hours, and the vicious cycle starts again.

I got some really great news today. My friend, Louisa, told me about a really great sounding job in New York. I'm really interested and plan to take the necessary steps to apply. The main thing keeping me back is the fact I haven't written a resume yet. I've been in the process of trying to start for a while, but just can't quite get myself to do it. But this job sounds great, so I might have to get over my laziness. I also have a virtual interview tomorrow. I applied to become a tutor for an internet-based tutoring company (Tutor.com). Tomorrow, I have a mock session in which I will be helping a Tutor.com representative - posing as a student - through some algebra questions. It's been a while since I've had to do any math, but I did a little review and it seems to be there still. The session is scheduled for 9pm, so I'm likely to blog about how it went afterwards.

Who is heading up to Dartmouth for Homecoming? It's the first Alumni Homecoming for 08s, should be pretty memorable. Anyone else really miss playing pong?