First Post in over 4 months

Haven't blogged in months. I've been tied up with many activities related and unrelated to school. The last few months have been incredible for me: Nationals in New York City, completing my Eagle Scout Project, celebrating my 17th Birthday, going to Vegas for Spring Break, taking 4 AP Exams, going to Prom, then the end of the school year. All these stuff were amazing for me as I got a chance to experience new endeavors. Hard to talk about them but all I gotta say was I had a great time with all those activities.

 But it's summer 2011 now! My last summer as a child at home. Gonna cherish and enjoy this summer.

Nationals bound!!

Nationals is coming up in about three weeks!!! I am super excited since I will be spending one week in New York; 3 days sightseeing and 4 days of conference debate.  On Monday, my co-delegate and I passed our individual grills. We got a score 8/10, which was the second best out of all delegations. Very nice. My co and I spent three hours after school prepping and cramming for the grills. And when Mr. Wat asked us questions about our solutions to our two topics of PMCs and Somalia pirates, we answered it confidently and with susbstance. We backed each other up and filled in gaps in the solutions. Not many people did well on their individual grills. Then Wednesday was Group Grills #2. It was very easy and fun. We did this thing of Club MUN, in which loud music was played and we had to pretend we were caucusing, by explaining our solutions to other people under the condition of loud music. That was basically it as we only had speeches afterwards. My co and I spoke second to last, as Mr. Wat gave recognition to us for getting the highest grill scores. So basically, I just need to develop my caucus outline and do some more research. All the grills are done for me. I can start packing my bags soon....

New York, New York!!!!

Slugged it out in Spanish

Finals are over and I am a relieved man! My mood has totally changed from 24 hours ago. Yesterday after taking the Spanish Objective Final, my grade dropped to a 89.3%. 0.2% and 2 points from an A. I was pissed and angry at myself for not doing the 10 point extra credit offered back in November. I thought about going to talk to Fidel about my grade today, but decided not to. When I got home, checked edline, and I literally jumped up and screamed, as 2 points had been added onto my objective final, thus raising my grade to a 89.5%. A- baby! Fidel is the nicest teacher ever. There are two explanations for this two points added. It could be that period 3 did worse on final today and thus our curve increased or that she saw my grade was that close and gave it to me. I cut it way too close this semester in Spanish and it almost cost me. Either way, an A's and A and I'll take it. Good fortune and luck struck me. Thank goodness for curves. This goes back to the notion that "every point counts." I got 44/45 on notebook check as Fidel didn't see my Honduras notes, but once I showed it to her, she changed it to a 45/45. Second semester, I will be sure to take advantage of the extra credits. Now I await my grades in AP Chemistry and AP Calculus BC. So far, I have all A's in my other classes....till then, I'll enjoy this 3-day weekend where I don't have to worry about anything...

2010 Year in Review

Hard to believe 2010 is over already. It went by sooooo fast. Looking back at the year 2010, I can call it "the year of the growth" for me. I grew up and changed in many different ways. I got my license in June. That gave me more freedom and with more freedom comes more responsibility. Now, I literally go to places all by myself. I drive myself to school and to many different destinations. I spent four weeks in Boston alone, at the Summer Transportation Institution. I took in a lot from that program as I know have some experience of being in college. I also learned a great deal a lot about the field of engineering and transportation. And I got to experience life on the East Coast in the summer. It's freaking humid and hot. I had a lot of fun though. In cross country, I made great strides this season. My times were relatively consistent as I hovered around the 20:00 mark. My 2010 PR was 19:25. I pushed myself to the limit as I ran A group for most part of the season. It all started off in Mammoth Camp, where everything changed. My whole perspective of running changed. I had tons of fun running this XC season, especially with Matt and Mark in A group. Next year, I will enjoy it. Senior year, last season. In golf, I made plenty of improvement and growth too. I worked diligently and hard during the season. I was determined to up and improve my game and that happened. I led the team in scoring for one match and that was cool. I even coached one match since my coach had to leave. But I learned that hard work will eventually pay off. The time and effort I spent will determine how everything goes. As a sophomore in high school, I grew up also. Both semesters, I finished with a 4.0 GPA and that was a relief from freshmen year. I learned how to handle my classes and learned how to study properly. Everything clicked at the right time for me. 2010 was the year of the growth as I matured and improve in many different aspects. Now, 2011 is here and I hope for more improvement. This is going to be a tough year as I'll be applying for college in 10 months! With that, Happy New Year and may 2011 bring everyone blessing.

Las Vegas

My relaxing place...

Last weekend, I went to Vegas for a 3-day 2-night getaway. And it was the best Vegas experience ever. We were lucky as we had no traffic going there and coming back. Non-stop cruising both ways. Each way's drive time was about 3 hours 30 minutes. Very fast. I had a whole lot of fun up in Vegas, going to places I had never been to before. We stayed at the Tahiti Village Resort, which was very nice. Our room was very clean and we stayed in Tower 5, the newest tower built there. In the resort, I chilled one morning poolside, reading "The Scarlet Letter." It was cold but relaxing. In the Resort, they had a fitness center and an activities center. I was happy since I didn't have to walk through the casinos to get to my hotel room. What a relief.

Red Rock Canyon

Once we got there, went shopping at the Las Vegas Premium Outlets. I didn't buy anything but ran into Eric Prana and his family. Pretty cool unplanned meeting between our families. On the night of the 23rd, we feasted at the Feast Buffet at the Red Rock Casino and Resort. There were a lot of different varieties of food, from American to International, Asian to Italian, Mexican to Sushi, etc. I ate a lot of different styles of food. Very good tasting delicious food. On Christmas Eve, we went to Red Rock Canyon. Google Maps led us to this ghost town in the middle of nowhere, but we found our way into the park. It had been closed all week due to flooding from the record rain. Red Rock Canyon was absolutely gorgeous. Went on the scenic drive through the conservation area. Basically, only this one portion or rocks is red. Walked down the rocks and took lots of pictures. 

The V show

On the night of Christmas Eve, we watched the "Ultimate Variety Show" at Planet Hollywood. We somehow got discounted tickets and it was a very exciting and funny show. Wally Eastwood was the host and he is one hell of a great juggler. Eastwood demonstrated to us his juggling skills, using different objects. He was very lively and funny. I loved his demonstration with juggling the balls and playing different piano tunes. There were also acrobats who were crazy flexible and strong, gymnasts who danced like an Olympian, a magician who played many tricks with this one bird, and other acts. What a great show to watch. The "V" show. Then, we walked around that area of the Strip. Went to see the new hotels that just opened recently, such as the Aria hotel, Cosmopolitan, and vDara. Those hotels are nice. They have shops that are for the rich. Everything is so expensive in those shops. Saw the Bellagio water show, which was to Christmas-theme music. It was super short and disappointing.

Overall, I had a extremely great time at Vegas. Before, Vegas had seemed boring as we didn't go to places suitable for us. But now, I want to go back to Las Vegas more often, like during 3-day weekends. Besides, Las Vegas is only a 4-hour drive away.

Interesting store name in Vegas...

Rain is finally over

After seven days of non-stop, hard rain, it's finally over. The rainstorms have come and gone and left a trail of damage, which include debris everywhere, flooding, and just a mess outside. My Christmas decorations outside the house was knocked over. And when I went outside to do anything, I got wet, no matter if I used an umbrella or not. It was miserable with the rain. This "storm" is probably our equivalent to hurricanes in the southeast, snowstorm in the midwest, etc. SoCal weather is so weird. We experienced something like this in January, when there was 5 straight days of rain. It caused flooding as my street was flooded. That was the worse I have seen with rain and SoCal. We experienced a cooler than usual summer, a 113 degree record setting heat in September and now in December, this record setting rainstorm. Weather is so weird here.

This rainstorm came at a bad time: during Winter Break. If it had rained during school days, I would be perfectly fine with it. But I couldn't do anything outside because of rain. I had wanted to go out to play basketball with friends but those hopes were dashed because of the rain. I wanted to practice on the driving range, but those hopes were dashed because of the rain. I was so bored on Monday as I literally did nothing. I stayed in the house the whole day and did not step foot outside the house. But on the bright side, I made a lot of progress on my winter break assignments. I'm almost done with the Calc BC Clue Project. Just have about 6 more sets to complete. I really need those 150 extra points. Those will really boost my grade a lot. But I'm glad the rain is over. I can finally go outside and do what I want to do.

Tis the season to be jolly

Today was the last day of school for the year 2010. And it was a weird day. I had three chill periods (movies and parties) and three periods in which I had either a quiz or test. So I was stuck between enjoying the fun and the food and the important things that affect my grade. I didn't really care that much about the tests and just took a relatively carefree approach. It may come back to haunt me.

The parties in journalism and English were all nice. Holiday Olympics was a pretty cool event created by Mr. Stevens. Food wise, there were many delicious items such as Olive Garden's pasta and bread sticks, Church's chicken, cake, noodles, cookies, and all the party foods. Then in the evening, I went to yet another Christmas party, for my sister's girl scout troop. There, I again ate a lot of food as there were noodles and all kinds of sweets and deserts. So a whole day's worth of food today. The Christmas celebration is just getting started as I have a few more parties coming up in this next week. Oh I really love the holiday season. It brings so much joy and so much food.

4-day weekend!!!

One reason I love November this year is cause of the luxury of two 4-day weekends. Never happened before and it is nice. 2 1/2 months into the school year, it has not been easy. I have experienced moments of ups and downs but yet I've been able to overcome whatever challenges that were in my way. I have so many things to worry about right now besides school. Gotta get my Eagle Project Proposal done, get ready for December SAT, get myself ready for golf season, and much more. This break could not have come at a better time. 4-day weekend, I love it!!!

A Great Moment in APUSH

Today in APUSH, Mr. Mustard was going over the Chapter 10 powerpoint. We got onto the slide of the South Carolina Nullification Crisis. He had been calling random people to summarize the previous slide. I was talking with someone during that slide and when we moved onto the next slide, Mustard called on me to summarize the previous slide. Luckily for me, I was ready and knew my information about the SC Nullification Crisis. So I explained to him about it, with added information. I said "South Carolina didn't like the tariffs placed on the South and passed an ordinance that ruled the tariffs void and no good. They used the principals of what Madison and Jefferson used during the VA and KT resolutions of 1798. Then, Andrew Jackson used his authority to put down the threat by passing a Force Bill, which authorized power for him to use military force. Jackson played it both sides as he also lowered the tariffs." That response shocked Mr. Mustard. He said, "Wow! You should teach the class tomorrow!." The class gave me an applause and I felt pretty happy. I had been called on the spot to answer a question and came through in a big way with an outstanding response!