Bethune Cookman 46 GT 73

Final Score from Alexander Memorial Coliseum in Atlanta, GA:
NCAA Men's Basketball
Bethune Cookman Wildcats 46 (4-7)
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 73 (6-4)

Tottenham 2 Newcastle 0

Final Score from White Hart Lane:
English Premier League
Tottenham 2
Teemu Tainio (43)
Ahmed Mido (66)

Newcastle United 0

GT 10 Utah 38

Final Score from SBC Park in San Francisco, CA:
NCAA Football Division I
Emerald Bowl
No.24 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 10 (7-5, ACC 5-3)
Utah Utes 37 (7-5, MWC 4-4)

GT 46 Air Force 54

Final Score from Colorado Springs World Arena in Colorado Springs, CO:
NCAA Men's Basketball
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 46 (5-4)
Air Force Falcons 54 (11-1)

Liverpool 2 Newcastle 0

Final Score from Anfield:
English Premier League
Liverpool 2
Steven Gerrard (14)
Shay Given (43, O.G.)

Newcastle United 0

Jacksonville 67 GT 92

Final Score from Alexander Memorial Coliseum in Atlanta, GA:
NCAA Men's Basketball
Jacksonville Dolphins 67 (1-7)
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 92 (5-3)

Finally!

Well, well, I'm finally here. I calculated the time it took from door to door, and it came out to be around 37 hours - and I only managed to sleep for a max of 1 hour in between. But whatever it is, I'm here in one piece and glad to be here.

I guess my sleep deprivation continued its work, I went to sleep at 4:30am, but snapped out of it around 12, so I'm trying not to sleep at all during the day and just sleep at night. Who knows, I might be able to combat the jetlag well, it hasn't really sunk in yet.

Denise left her and Koustav's number, so I called them up, and Koustav was so delighted to hear my voice, boy, was I glad to talk to him too! I went out with Lorraine and Samantha for lunch, just easing up to the weather. It was cold by Singapore's standards, but a little too warm for mine, but I guess I'll get used to it.

I'll write up by travel log soon, just not yet. Oh, and an update on my grades for the semester - yeah, I got 2.35. I definitely burnt out. But thank goodness, I don't have to repeat any classes, so I'm just gonna take it and deal with it. My overall is still above 3.0 and is on course for at least an honors, so I just gotta make sure everything's fine from now on. I'm now classified a Junior (third year level), so I should have access to quite a lot of classes from now on. Whatever. I'm here to take a big break and just forget about academics for a while.

I'm just glad I'm here!

Leaving for Singapore

Phew... It's been a long, hard semester. I really need a break. I think, that the reason why I think I did so bad this semester is probably due to burn out. Just thinking about it, I haven't really had a break since I started my life at Georgia Tech. While most people had a good summer break, I was working full time, and I didn't really have time to rest in between the transition, after I ended my first work semester, it was housing staff training straight away and then the semester. The grades are scheduled to be out later today, and I'm not looking forward to it, coz I know I did badly. There's nothing I can do but to sit down and take it. I managed to do the exams, but I'm not sure how it'll turn out. I just hope I didn't fail any classes. If there's anything, then it's that I've definitely learnt my lesson, and from now on, I'll make sure I won't make this mistake ever again.

My laptop met a freak accident while studying at the library. My friend, who was studying with me, tripped on the power cables, and that snapped the pin that connects into my PowerBook. The pin seems to be stuck in the PowerBook, and I can't take it out. I went to the Apple store, but they don't do repairs, so they redirected me to another place, but since I don't have a car, I guess I'll get the repair done in Singapore. So basically my PowerBook's out of power. That sucked.

I'm really looking forward to the trip, though it's going to be for less than 2 weeks. Great news is that Leisha, who studies in Emory, is probably going to be in the same flight all the way from Chicago to Singapore! I'm flying American Airlines, so I wasn't expecting any personal entertainment system, so I was dreading the long flight. I bought couple of good books to occupy myself, since I can't sleep, but heck, if Leisha's gonna be around, at least there's gonna be some company. What's better, her boyfriend, Greg, is coming to Singapore a week later, and probably will be on the same flight when I'm heading back to Atlanta, so there's another company.

I'll be touching down on the 22nd, slightly past midnight. Since I won't have a local number, for the time being, please contact me at -deleted-, leaving me your name, a number where you can be reached, and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I get a temporary SIM card.

I'll try to put up my travel log once again, look forward to that.

Okay, see you guys!

West Ham 2 Newcastle 4

Final Score from Upton Park:
English Premier League
West Ham United 2
Nolberto Solano (20, O.G.)
Marlon Harewood (73, pen)

Newcastle United 4
Michael Owen (5, 43, 90)
Alan Shearer (66)

Injustice

I've not felt such injustice for a long time...

Probably should not blog about it, until finals are over, as I still have two more major papers I need to take, and am in a serious need of sleep as well.

But I went into my probability exam very confident of landing an A, only to find out that the final exam was nothing I've imagined it to be, very abstract, the open notes policy didn't help. And to think that some people were allowed to skip the final based on a high average by just having an upper hand in being able to obtain the test material from a website - well, that's a story I'll have to tell next time I get to blog. I would have thought that I was probably one of the few people in the class who actually knew what was going on in the class and whatnot, and to be shafted while the guys who probably don't have equal understanding of the material as I do get away with an A and me getting a B... well, that's just making me mad. What's more, there's practically no ground for argument against this, as no rules were broken. Sometimes, you just gotta sit there and take the unfairness.

My MSE results are out.. I made a 87, which means I got a B, and I should be happy, but not getting an A in probability renders it pointless.

Unless, somehow, a miracle takes place, of course, which I'll find out when the final grades are out on monday, but I highly doubt that there will be any chance of that happening.

Tennessee St 72 GT 82

Final Score from Alexandar Memorial Stadium in Atlanta, GA:
NCAA Men's Basketball
Tennessee State Tigers 72 (1-2)
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 82 (4-3)

Newcastle 1 Arsenal 0

Final Score from St. James' Park:
English Premier League
Newcastle United 1
Nolberto Solano (82)

Arsenal 0

My World Cup 2006 Predictions - for now

So... the World Cup 2006 groupings are finally out. I was so excited I could hardly pay attention to my Material Science review class while I
started at my laptop.

I'm sure things will change in 6 months time, but here's my initial predictions... The reason why I'm reserving my confidence is because there's always a bogey team or two that makes it to the semi-finals, and go on to clinch third place. But let's see for now, since the groups are fairly easy to predict this time around. Brazil, France, Spain and Mexico have it pretty easy, whereas I really pity USA, not only did they get paired in the group of death, but against Italy, the team that they trailed by one point in order to be seeded. I still haven't made up my mind about who to support this year, still torn between USA, England and Japan. It seems pretty clear that USA has almost no chance of progressing, whereas Japan might just manage to. Since I'm stayting in America, I might as well support USA from now on.

Anyway, here it goes, in order, of course.

Group A
Germany
Poland

Group B
England
Sweden

Group C
Holland
Argentina

Group D
Mexico
Portugal

Group E
Czech Republic
Italy

Group F
Brazil
Japan

Group G
France
South Korea

Group H
Ukraine
Spain

Round of 16
Germany vs Sweden - Germany
Holland vs Portugal - Holland
Poland vs England - England
Mexico vs Argentina - Argentina
Czech Republic vs Japan - Czech Republic
France vs Spain - France
Brazil vs Italy - Brazil
Ukraine vs South Korea - Ukraine

Quarter Finals
Germany vs Holland - Holland
Czech Republic vs France - Czech Republic
England vs Argentina - Argentina
Brazil vs Ukraine - Ukraine

Semi Finals
Holland vs Czech Republic - Holland
Brazil vs Argentina - Brazil

Third Place
Czech Republic vs Argentina - Argentina

Finals
Brazil vs Holland - Brazil.

Yep. So it looks like Brazil will win yet another title again, with a close contest against Holland. But then hey, it's never predictable with soccer, especially in the World Cup, and that's what's going to make it really interesting.

What do you guys think?

Breaking the Silence

It seems its safe to mention this, so I'm gonna say it, in case you didn't know of this. The main reason that I'm going to Singapore this
winter is due to the fact that my dad has gotten a transfer to another branch which is located in Phoenix, in Arizona. What role do I play in this? Helping him pack our stuff in our home in Singapore so that we can move out of our place by the end of December and ship them to where he will be living in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The whole move makes sense, considering I'm in Atlanta, both my mom and my brother are in Chicago, and now, my dad will be located in Phoenix.
Instead of a 24 hour flight to go to Singapore, it'll now be a 4 hour flight, which is still a long time, but heck, compare that to 24 hours, I think anyone will take the 4 hour flight.

So yes, the reason I'm going to Singapore isn't to be back 'home' and meet friends I've not seen for a long time, etc. It's more like this is the 'real' good bye, since the two times I've left Singapore for America wasn't a real departure.

What does this actually mean? In the short run, that I won't really get to go out and meet friends and go out and all that good stuff, though I'll try to meet as many people as I possible can, but the priority goes to helping my dad move out, since he'll be working during the day. In the long run, I can't really predict when the next time I'll be in Singapore. If I were to give any sort of an estimate, then at least not
until I graduate from Georgia Tech (which is May 2008) - a good 2.5 years, which isn't a long time. I had harboured some plans to travel to Japan, Singapore and Bangladesh after I graduate and before I start full time work, but as I mentioned few posts earlier, I'm thinking of volunteering to teach or something in a third world country. There's very few entry level jobs that will get me straight to Singapore, and most likely, I'll be employed somewhere in Atlanta or the south. There's
a high possibility that I'll move to Asia - mainly because I can speak Japanese - and hey, I can go on predicting and planning, but it's of no use, I just have to go with the flow of how my life turns out. I might be going to graduate school, I might just end up moving within America, and all my aspirations to travel around the world may not materialize.

It's a really weird thing to be saying that I may never go somewhere for a while. I previously thought I'll go back to Japan, but that has not happened since I left that place at age 8. I wanted to visit Bangladesh pretty bad, since there still are lot of relatives that I've not seen
for ages, but that didn't happen either. And now this, and I'm wondering if this'll be the same case again. Of course, I can always take a holiday, but who knows, I may have other things coming up that I might have to deal with that prevents me from taking such a long trip - even then, what guarantee is there that even the very friends that I want to meet are going to be in Singapore then? They may also be travelling around the world, having family, immersed completely in their work life,
etc, etc, so there's no point dreaming about a completely perfect trip for reunion.

Yeah, the realization is sinking in. Things will really never be the same again. The past is something we'll always cherish, and for now, I've been in a really nostalgic mood where I am thinking about my time in Singapore. How can I not? It's the place where I spent the formative years of my current being and I definitely have to attribute a lot of things to that.

I've done my bit of reflection, but for now, I really need to get back to studying for my final exams, which I just can't wait to get over with, even with horrible grades. So long as I don't make a D, I'll be okay. It's gotten to an extent that I'm just willing to take a C and deal with it, since this has been a hard semester. I'll make it up with the other semester.

GT 75 UGA 91

Final Score from Athens, GA:
NCAA Men's Basketball
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 75 (3-3)
Georgia Bulldogs 91 (6-1)

Let's go

Alright, here comes the final week before final exams begin. Somehow, I'm back in the contention to potentially score a 3.0. I should be taking this opportunity to study like mad and not let it slip. But somehow, I just can't get to studying. I've more or less done Calculus III and will work solely on MSE and CS for this week and the weekend, so hopefully that will come out right. My biggest enemies will be Calculus III and CS, and that comes as my last two papers, coincidentally.

I'm just tired. I just want to get it done and over with. If they were to give me a C for all of MSE, Calculus III and CS, I'd probably take it. I just don't want to get a D in anything, coz then I'll have to
retake it to pass it and that'll be a bitch. I have a bad feeling about CS, but I'm gonna give it my best shot. Oh please please, just a 3.0 and I will never make this mistake ever again. Basically the summer semester will be spent undoing the damage that this semester inflicts on my overall grade. That's, of course, if I get a 3.0. If I don't... well, I don't even want to think about it.

Georgia Tech's playing in the Emerald Bowl. What the heck? I expect them to play in a much better bowl. Somehow, N.C. State and Virginia, whose
records are worse than GT's, are playing in a better bowl with better money. We're playing Utah, and even though they went unbeaten last year, they're quite the different team this year with 6-5, and it looks pretty clear that we'll beat them. What I'm just amazed is that we've beaten last season's unbeaten Auburn in the opening game and shocked then 3rd ranked Miami, you'd think we'll be going to play in a good bowl. On top of the team travelling to California, we're only getting paid $750k. It just doesn't make sense to me.

Oh well, I guess we'd rather take a 8-4 year and continue our bowl winning streak.

Virginia 54 GT 63

Final Score from Alexander Memorial Stadium in Atlanta, GA:

NCAA Men's Basketball

Virginia Cavaliers 54 (3-2)

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 63 (3-2)

College Football Rankings - Week 15

AP: 24th (No change)
Coaches: 24th (No change)
Harris (Final): 24th (No change)
BCS (Final): 24th (No change)

Newcastle 1 Aston Villa 1

Final Score from St. James' Park:

English Premier League

Newcastle United 1 

Alan Shearer (32, pen)

Aston Villa 1

Gavin McCann (75)

GT 86 Michigan State 88

Final Score from Breslin Center in East Lansing, MI:

NCAA Men's Basketball

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 86 (2-2)

No. 14 Michigan State Spartans 88 (4-2)

Wigan 1 Newcastle 0

Final Score from The JJB Stadium:

English Carling Cup 4th Round

Wigan Atheletic 1

David Connely (88, pen)

Newcastle United 0

I'd just like to say...

... that 'The Motorcycle Diaries,' 'The Corporation' and 'Arna's
Children' affected me deeply. The realization of your surroundings
and what we can do to make the tiniest of the differences has really
influenced my thoughts in the last few months. Together with the
topics brought about in my International Affairs class about
Socialist principles and whatnot.

It's affected me so deep that I'm actually considering volunteer
service and whatever related work for the time between my eventual
graduation and the beginning of my temporary-permanent working life
(there's a grad school plan, but that's up to what happens later).

Yep, that's all I'd like to say.

Something to drive towards

There might still be a possibility that I can get away with a 3.0,
now that my MSE class has altered its grade calculation method.

I have hope.

If there's anything to make me drive towards that goal, then there's
the fact that both Aerosmith and Lenny Kravitz is performing together
at the Philips Arena on January 15th, for Aerosmith's world tour,
with Lenny opening for them.

College Basketball Rankings - Week 4

AP: Nowhere in sight
Coaches: Nowhere in sight (down from 38th)

College Football Rankings - Week 14

AP: 24th (down 4)
Coaches: 24th (no change)
Harris: 24th (down 2)
BCS: 24th (down 3)

Everton 1 Newcastle 0

Final Score from Goodison Park:

English Premier League

Everton 1

Joseph Yobo (46)

Newcastle United 0

UGA 14 GT 7

Final Score from Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta, GA:

NCAA Football Division I

No. 13 Georgia Bulldogs 14 (9-2, SEC 6-2)

No. 20 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 7 (7-4, ACC 5-3)

Dammit.....

UIC 73 GT 51

Final Score from Alexander Memorial Coliseum:

NCAA Men's Basketball

Illinois (Chicago) Flames 73 (3-2)

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 51 (2-1)

Oh dear

If there was any chance of getting a B in this 3rd year Material
Science class, I have definitely blown that chance with today's
horrendous test.

I had it coming, I didn't get to study as much, let alone understand
the material in the first place.

In a way, I'm glad that this was the last of the tests and I can get
to start studying for finals, but at the same time, getting that
elusive 3.0 now seems a distant possibility if I can't get a B in
this class.

Dammit.

Anyway, check out Pandora (at www.pandora.com, sorry, I'm blogging
this entry via e-mail, so I can't enter HTML codes, I'll do it later
once it's in blogger) it's a massive music database where you enter
an artist or a song title and it searches similar songs that matches
the description. It's an awesome tool, it plays the whole song, like
a radio, so you get to look for similar artists and dig up songs from
artists you've never heard before too.

Elon 69 GT 81

Final Score from Alexander Memorial Coliseum in Atlanta, GA:

NCAA Men's Basketball Divison I

Elon University Phoenix 69 (1-1)

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 81 (2-0)

College Basketball Rankings - Week 3

I didn't put week 1, since we weren't ranked at all, as we lost all
of our starters from last season via draft, graduation, etc.

AP: Not ranked
Coaches: 38th (previously unranked)

College Football Rankings - Week 13

AP: 20th (up 13)
Coaches: 24th (up 12)
Harris: 22nd (up 11)
BCS: 21st (previously unranked)

GT 14 Miami 10

Final Score from Orange Bowl in Miami, FL:

NCAA Football Division I

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 14 (7-3, ACC 5-3)

No. 3 Miami Hurricanes 10 (8-2, ACC 5-2)

OH MY GOD.

This is like the biggest upset in a really long time, we beat a team that's ranked 3rd in the world of college football, in their own turf, and we played magnificently! This is against a team that has the no.1 defense in the country too!

Within ten minutes of our unimagined victory, the Georgia Tech campus turned into a party house with cars speeding down honking endlessly, people congregating outside in the middle of a cold night, chanting our fight songs and screaming at any car that passes by.

If we can play like that next week, we can definitely beat our arch-rivals, UGA.

It's a great day to be a hell of an engineer.

Chelsea 3 Newcastle 0

Final Score from Stamford Bridge:

English Premier League

Chelsea 3

Joe Cole (47)

Hernan Crespo (51)

Damien Duff (90)

Newcastle United 0

Crunch time begins

Wow. I completely underestimated the last few tests I've had. Among
the 4 tests that I took in the last 2 weeks, my average came up to a
miserable 51. That's horrible, by anyone's standards. I'm seriously
getting fucked over.

Okay, one final Material Science test on Monday, and after that, I
really have to go all out for my three killer subjects; Calculus 3,
Material Science and Computer Science. I really need to get something
going, make sure I get 3.0 and maintain my goal.

And the weird thing is, it's not like I've been fucking around, I've
studied sufficiently, but I always seem to blank out once I see
baffling questions in the tests itself.

I'm actually scared.

UNC Asheville 52 GT 80

Final Score from Alexander Memorial Coliseum in Atlanta, GA:

NCAA Men's Basketball

UNC Asheville Bulldogs 52 (0-1)

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 80 (1-0)

College Football Rankings - Week 12

AP: 33rd (down 9)
Coaches: 36th (down 12)
Harris: 33rd (down 9)
BCS: Not Ranked (drop from 23rd)

GT 17 Virginia 27

Final Score from Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, VA:

NCAA Football Division I

No. 24 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 17 (6-3, ACC 4-3)

Virginia Cavaliers 27 (6-3, ACC 3-3)

What do I say about this?

Georgia Tech hosted a Palestinian Film Festival, screening a series of Documentaries and films by Palestinian directors, to raise awareness of the conflict that exists in Israel. I can already read your mind, what? You mean some people don't know? As sad as it may sound, some people are really ignorant about what else goes on in the world. I attended the festival just because these are things I would not be able to watch easily, as obtaining these films would be very difficult. I managed to attend 4 out of the 5 nights, because I had a Computer Science test on Tuesday, so I had to miss the Monday night premiere. So I managed to catch 'Rana's Wedding,' 'Frontiers of Dreams & Fear,' 'Chronicles of a Disappearance' and 'Arna's Children.' Two films and two documentaries. I must say, they were excellent, at
least in my eyes. The documentaries were filled with emotion, especially last night's 'Arna's Children' where the documentary spans over a decade, and it starts off with showing children drawing or acting in a theatre play in a children's home, but slowly they turn from innocent children to adults with a vengeance. It was really sad
to see these kids who we somehow found an attachment to in the beginning of the film ended up committing suicide or being killed while attempting to fight against the occupation. It was somewhat 'The Motorcycle Diaries' like, which disturbed me very much for the night. Equally interested was what followed after Thursday night's
screening, where, during an open forum, a guy stood up and blatantly criticized the film ('Chronicles of a Disappearance') and the purpose of the film series. He identified himself as a person who actually grew up in Palestine, who saw his friend shot dead in front of his own eyes and also someone who survived getting shot. He accused the festival of not being useful, that all we do at the end of the day is watch the films, talk about it, but do nothing about it in the end and make ourselves believe that we're enriched by the event. He has a point, I must agree. To an extent, for some people, this is a facade into thinking that we're being so artistic, that we care for peace in Israel and fighting for justice, but what more are we doing about it? There's hundreds of festivals like these, but nothing is changing. Palestinians are still dying, suffering and there's no progress. If we really cared, then we would have conducted a collective effort to do something about it. But in the festival's defense, that's not what the festival aimed for. This was to raise awareness, not to kick start a renegade campaign. Besides, the conflict has existed for at least 57 years since the creation of the State of Israel, and hundreds and thousands of years before that, it's not going to be that simple to put the conflict to an end.

But then again, at the end of the day, who am I to say such things? I am neither an Israeli or an Palestinian. There were times during the
guy's rant that I wanted to stand up and tell him that it's not going to be easy with the way he's proposing things, that it's not just an one-sided affair and that no matter what people like me say, there'll always be people like him who'll ask in return 'Did you go through this,' 'have you seen that' and basically put our attempts down. Who am I? I am nobody in this argument. All I can do is take opinions
from both side and come to my own conclusion. He's gone through a rough life, I must admit, but at the same time, I don't think that being bitter about it for the rest of his life is going to make things any easier for him and the people around him. But then again, who am I to say that to him? Saying things like that is so easy for
us people who's never gone through such pain and suffering as he has.

So the Palestinian Film Festival did serve its purpose, with
controversial confrontation to raising awareness. I'm glad that I attended as much as I could for this event.

On the other hand, something unusual took place over the course of the end of the week. I probably should not mention any specific name, but apparently, some professional was trying to find out more information about the company that I work for by googling it and somehow, that led him to this blog, since I had mentioned the company's name in my earlier entries. He then attempted to contact me by googling my name, which led him to my ex-room mate's webpage, where he then contact him to contact me. We ended up exchanging e-mails and even talking to each other on the phone in the end. I didn't see any foul play, he was simply a professional trying to find out more about the company that he was intending to interview to get a position for. I helped him as much as I could without compromising the company's stand on confidentiality and privacy. But just the way this took place caught me a little off-guard, and got me thinking about a lot of things. Almost instantaneously, this led me to back to my high school days where a friend of mine wrote some derogatory statements about our chemistry professor, not realizing that the professor was married to a very respectable professor in an
university and the nickname that she put up in her blog was not our professor's name, but actually what he was prominently known for. So some person was looking up this famous professor in the internet and because my friend has mentioned that name in her blog, that led the person to her blog, and guess what, that led to a whole lot of
ugliness, she getting called into the professor's office and having to explain why she made such comments and whatnot, and it ended up in she having to shut down her blog. Now, my situation isn't like that at all, but it got me thinking about how people can be tracked down in the net. He mentioned in the phone call, 'You leave tracks everywhere.' It is so chillingly true. At times, I feel like I cannot
be completely free in expressing my thought, and feel like I have to censor myself, but then again, by doing so, I'm not fully conveying my message. Some people believes that what they say in their blog or webpage is personal and thus, no one else can say otherwise. But that is not the case. If you're putting anything in the world wide web, it is public, no matter what. The fact that anyone can visit your blog, unless you have a password protection (even then) is what exists in a public domain, nothing is private. Which means, anyone can read your blog and take your words against you. There were number of high profile cases where some employees got fired because they bad mouthed something in their blog, and as much as I hate to say, they deserved
it, because now everyone can see what you say, and that'll damage the company's image.

What am I trying to tell you all? What watch you say. Sure, it may be your blog and whatnot, but that doesn't give you the right to say anything that you want. AND don't mention anything that will cause you to bring yourself trouble. That's just plain dumb, if you were to say that you were smoking week or getting drunk on your website, anyone can take that against you.

For a moment, I thought of shutting my blog to private, so that only my friends could have access to it. I'd like to keep my thoughts and opinion private, and especially after this incident, it gives me a lot to think about about what I can actually put up on my blog.

I rented Akira Kurosawa's collection of short stories, called 'Yume' (or 'Dreams') on Netflix, and boy, I must say that I was stunned by the beauty of it. Some of them are really dark, but it's a nice examination of how we don't value our lives and all. It was a
really nice escapism into his dreams to get something out of it.

I've gotten some of my tests results back and they don't look good at all. I barely made Cs in the two that I have gotten back. From next week onwards, I'm actually gonna start revising for the finals which is in about 30 days. I have to make sure I get at least a 3.0 for this semester and if I go on like this, I won't make it. Next week will be last of the testing weeks before the monday of thanksgiving which will be my last Material Science test, so after that, I should
go all out into finals preparation.

But until then, I'd like to take a big rest from the week by getting plenty of sleep and catching as many movies as I can. That's my antidote to the life that is at Georgia Tech.

Paul van Dyk at Eleven50

Eleven50 was a really great place for clubbing! I only saw pictures
from the website and was pretty impressed, but when I got in, it was
much more than I had expected. If you're in Atlanta, it's one of
those scenes you should really check out. Paul van Dyk was obviously
awesome, and though I can't dance (and Leisha tried her best to get
me to) I was there just for the music, to shrug off a horrible week,
so I got exactly what I wanted. Place was packed to the core, was
pretty fun!

Sorry, didn't bring my camera this time, but even then, I would not
have been able to take much since the lights were everywhere and that would have made taking photos really difficult.

Semester broken

Remember how I mentioned that the streak of tests will make or break the semester for me?

Well, I think I broke it. Like real bad.

And there's nothing I can do about it, since it's all done, and I did
study, perhaps not as much as I should have. All I can do is hope for
the best and a heavy curve, if not, I'd just have to take it. What
else can be done?

All I can say is that I'm just hoping to get this week done and just
take a long rest. About a month to go til finals, and I'll start
studying seriously from next week on.

Guess what I found out last night. Paul van Dyke is coming to Atlanta
tomorrow. I'm calling up my friends and asking if they are
interested, coz I definitely am. After such horrendous tests, I'm all
up to groove the pain away.

What a difference a day made

I thought this weekend was gonna suck, because I was feeling really
down after the tests and I had a watched this brilliant but very
depressing movie in the name of 'The Crime of Padre Amaro' (another
movie starring Gael Garcia Bernal and a heck of a movie.. Mexican
films are pretty awesome)

However, Saturday turned things around. For one, it was the fact that
both Newcastle and Georgia Tech won. Then, I got to spend some
quality time with friends, first at Andrew and Rich's birthday
cookout after the game, where I hanged around with friends who stayed in the same section in Glenn Dorm last year. Then, I hanged around
with my current buddies and watched 'Saw' (to scare/cheer up Phani)

Plus, my cousin gave me a call, and although the call was brief, I
think that really helped me out. I didn't know that while I was
talking to her, but thinking back at it, I probably really needed
that call. And I'm glad that she did, coz that basically turned
things around.

I hadn't slept well the night before, so by the end of it, I was
really tired, after a long and physical day. I happened to have a
good sleep, so that was pretty nice.

I also managed to catch 'Pas Sur La Bouche' (Not on The Lips), a French musical/comedy film starring the beautiful Audrey Tautou, which was surprisingly enjoyable.

I'm re-energized for the next week. I have a Computer Science test on tuesday and once I'm done with that, I guess I'll take it a little easy from there on.

College Football Rankings - Week 11

AP: 24th (up 2)
Coaches: 24th (up 2)
Harris Interactive: 24th (up 2)
BCS: 23rd (first BCS ranking)

Alright, we climb back into the top 25 as the season approaches its
end. Next week will be a vital game against Virginia before the
onslaught of in-form Miami and Georgia, but I am really hoping that
we'll will two games out of the remaining three. We're bowl eligible
now, but those two wins should put us in a good bowl.

Wake Forest 17 GT 30

Final Score from Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta, GA:

NCAA Football Division I

Wake Forest Demon Deacons 17 (4-6, ACC 3-4)

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 30 (6-2, ACC 4-2)

Newcastle 1 Birmingham 0

Final Score from St. James' Park:

English Premier League

Newcastle United 1

Belozoglu Emre (78)

Birmingham City 0

Lost for thoughts

It seems like I blew both of my exams. It was just, too tough. I
studied, I know, but it just seemed to all go wrong. Wow, funny how
things can turn upside down in just a space of a week. Before this
week, it seemed like getting pretty good grades for this week was
very possible. Not after this week. And it's about to get worse with
one more major test next week, and I suddenly started feeling a
little down tonight, and it's not a good sign.

Half a million thoughts are going through my head right now. I hate
it when a single event triggers so many things at once. It's got
nothing to do with what took place, but it gets me thinking about so
many things.

I just need to chill out... Let's try with Zero 7...

The pace setter

The next 3 weeks will basically determined if I'll be slugging out
just to make a B average with 3.0, or be able to shoot for a B+ at
3.5, if lucky. This semester has really gone out of control.

I've had a horror of a Material Science test today, but somehow
hoping that there'll be a huge curve, like the other two, since it
seems like almost everyone I've talked to who are in that class has
said it was the hardest test of all. So the results of that will
determine if I can try for an A, or settle for a B, with a
possibility of a C if I do badly for the last test and the final exam.

On Thursday, I'm having the final Calculus 3 test before the final
exam, and this test, like the first, makes up for 25% of my final
grade. I did fairly well for the first one, surpassing my
expectations, and as if the cookie jar didn't seem tempting enough, I
started thinking like I could shoot for an A in this class. I'm more
prepared for this test than any of the other classes, but due to the
nature of the content, it could potentially go wrong. But this is
another one of those that will determine whether I can go for an A if
I do well on this, or settle for a high B.

Next week is probably the most crucial of all, with my final Computer
science test. It's mathematically impossible for me to get an A,
unless I get full marks on the next test and the final, and hope that
there's a huge curve on top of that. I need to average 82 on the next
and the final exam just to make a B. So obviously, it's crucial I do
well on this, and I haven't done that well on the tests so far. So
this will determine if I can still do well enough to get a B, or
settle for a C.

Then comes my Political Science and Probability class. Though I'm
taking the Political philosophy class as a pass/fail elective, it
doesn't mean I can just forget about studying it. It needs to be
sufficiently good enough to warrant a pass. I guess I'm okay, but
need to show that I actually am doing work for it by doing a little
better on the test. As for Probability, it is essential that I get an
A for the class, since 70% of it is stuff I learnt for the A Levels.
I'm not gonna let my Calculus 1 horror repeat itself. I made a stupid
error on my first test and that cost me a full marks, but I'm pretty
sure I can back it up, just sucks that I had to lose it to
carelessness and that could come back to haunt me later on.

Yep. As you can see, I'm in a bit of a race here. Should I increase
my pace so that the positioning becomes a little better, or should I
save the energy for the last lap? But if I do, then I'll burn out a
little faster during the last lap, but if I don't, it'll be harder to
catch back up.

I'm looking forward to thanksgiving break. A little too early, but
that's my motivation for the time being.

Please don't wish me luck, as luck can be simplified into a
probability, and I'm studying probability this semester and I know
more than enough to say that depending on probability isn't good at
this moment in time.

College Football Rankings - Week 10

AP: 26th (up 4)
Coaches: 26th (up 5)
Harris Interactive: 26th (up 4)
BCS: Not Ranked

West Brom 0 Newcastle 3

Final Score from The Hawthorns:

English Premier League

West Bromwich Albion 0

Newcastle United 3

Michael Owen (46 & 78)

Alan Shearer (80)

Clemson 9 GT 10

Final Score from Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta, GA:

NCAA Football Division I

Clemson Tigers 9 (4-4, ACC 2-4)

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 10 (5-2, ACC 3-2)




Glenn 2nd floor homeboys are reunited with Buzz!


Pretty packed day, due to homecoming weekend.


Full capacity Boddy Dodd Stadium.

AUDIOSLAVE!

Oh my god. The Audioslave gig was probably the best gig I could have ever attended. I thought it would be a great affair, but it went way beyond that with wonderful performances. It was a great thing, coz we basically got to see 4 bands in Seether and Audioslave, since Audioslave is 1/4 Soundgarden and 3/4 Rage Against The Machine. Everything was going well for me until the last 3 tracks, which completely blew everyone away with Rage's 'Killing In The Name,' 'Show Me How To Live' and 'Cochise.' Those 3 tracks were killers, especially 'Killing In The Name' because I seriously didn't expect they'd play that song, since it's not a Chris Cornell type, but he pulled it off amazingly.

Okay, photo time!


Opening act, Seether. I only knew the song 'Broken' by them, since I don't listen to them. The lighters are really nice.


Seether once again...


Started off with 'Your Time Has Come'... honestly.


They really did well with the background images, simple, yet, extremely effective.


Ex-Soundgarden and now Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell rocking it out.


Ex-Rage Against The Machine genuis and lead guitarist, Tom Morello. He has got to be one of the most creative guitarist around. Have you heard the sound he makes?


Tom Morello again... Oh, not only is he an amazing Guitarist, to top that off, he graduated from Harvard, majoring in Sociology. You gotta have respect for this man.




Time for some RAGE!!!


Chris Cornell's acoustic rendition of Soundgarden's most widely known song, 'Black Hole Sun.' He pulled off some amazing solos with acoustics of 'I Am The Highway' among others.


Back to Audioslave at its finest.




This picture pretty much says how it was that night. It's now my wallpaper. Only wish it was a little more clearer.


Let's give it up one more time for the man, Tom Morello.


Ending with 'Cochise'

I took some videos with my digital camera and it came out surprisingly well, with clear sounds. The videos that I took for Oasis and Coldplay had some audio issues, but this was amazing. Audioslave also happened to play a yet untitled track thay they came up with just the night before that they're planning to put it out in their next album, so recording a bit of that was a plus.

Regardless, it was one heck of a concert, and I'm hoping that they come around again soon, coz I'll definitely be there.

Oh, and guess what. I kept telling my buddies which two songs that they were gonna start and end with, and I got it spot on with 'Your Time Has Come' and 'Cochise' respectively. How awesome is that?

Grimsby 0 Newcastle 1

Final Score from Blundell Park:

English League Cup 3rd Round

Grimsby Town 0

Newcastle United 1

Alan Shearer (80)

An embrace that says it all

Photo from Soccernet


Photo from BBC Sports

Yep, the images says is all about the desperation that is Newcastle. Soccernet described Souness' embrace to Emre very well, by saying 'It was an embrace that said it all as under-pressure Newcastle manager Graeme Souness practically squeezed the life out of Emre within seconds of him scoring a stunning free-kick to settle a sensational Tyne-Wear derby.'

Great weekend

Sorry I haven't posted recently, aside from the sports scores. The
trip to Naperville was pretty good, I guess being there for just 4, 5
days is enough for me. Anything longer, kinda gets a little boring.
This was the first trip in a long while where the whole trip went
pretty much incident free. Usually the flight would be delayed, or
the baggage claim would be awfully long or something, but everything
went smooth, we actually landed earlier than scheduled. American
Airlines is pretty reliable for domestic travel I guess. So I'll be
flying American or Delta from now on. Since the fall break cut into
this week, that meant we only had 3 days worth of school, and
thankfully, there was no tests/assignments due this week, so I took
the liberty of sleeping as much as I could and watching as many
movies as I could. I even lost count of how many movies I saw this
weekend... 7, 8? But they were all class acts, so I'm very very
pleased. Let's see... what did I catch... 'Sling Blade,' 'The
Straight Story,' 'In The Mood For Love,' 'The Sweet Hereafter,'
'Batman Begins,' 'The Corporation,' 'Y Tu Mama Tambien.' I guess
that's about it... What's so cool is that GT is having an
International Film Festival this coming week, and they'll be
screening 3 French Films on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. The one
being screened on Thursday features my darling Audrey Tautou so I'm
pretty excited. I'll be doing a lot of work this week since I'll be
having another Material Science test and a Calculus Test, so a good
movie to wind down to at the end of a long day would be really
worthwhile.

Just wanted to mention... 'The Corporation,' the award winning
documentary about the effect that Corporations had to our lives and
everyone on Earth, is truly an eye opener. In fact, so much of it is
of grave concern, that I'm already having problems trying to
comprehend all of it. It's so heavy. And the fact that I'll most
probably have to work for one of those companies is a really scary
thought. On one hand, I could put my foot down and not be working for
them, but on the other hand, what kind of work would I be doing then?
Would I be deceiving myself by saying that work is work and personal
philosophy must be separated from work? It brings about a lot of
questions that are really tough to answer. Thankfully, I still have a
lot of time to think about these things and have a stand on this
issue by the time I seek employment. It was indeed a great
documentary, and I'm really glad that I caught it.

College Football Rankings - Week 9

Though we didn't play this week due to the impending Hurricane Wilma,
we gained some votes to go climbing back up.

AP: 30th (up 4)
Coaches': 31st (up 3)
Harris Interactive: 30th (up 4)
BCS: Not Ranked

Newcastle 3 Sunderland 2

Final Score from St. James' Park:

English Premier League

Newcastle United 3

Shola Ameobi (34 & 37)

Emre Belozoglu (63)

Sunderland Athletic 2

Liam Lawrence (35)

Stephen Elliot (41)

College Football Rankings - Week 8

AP: 34th (down 4)
Coaches: 34th (down 5)
Harris : 34th (down 5)
BCS: Not Ranked

For the first time this season, it seems like all of the polls are in consensus, putting Georgia Tech at 34th in the country.

GT 35 Duke 10

Final Score from Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham, NC:

NCAA Football Division I

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 35 (4-2, ACC 2-2)

Duke Blue Devils 10 (1-6, ACC 0-3)

Wigan 1 Newcastle 0

Final Score from The JJB Stadium:

English Premier League

Wigan Athletic 1

Jason Roberts (40)

Newcastle United 0

Yellow

Look at the stars; look how they shine for you

And everything you do

Yeah, they were all yellow

I came along; I wrote a song for you

And all the things you do

And it was called yellow

So then I took my time

Oh what a thing to've done

And it was all yellow

And Your skin, oh yeah your skin and bones

Turn into something beautiful

D'you know?

You know I love you so

You know I love you so

I swam across; I jumped across for you

Oh what a thing to do

'Cuz you were all yellow

I drew a line; I drew a line for you

Oh what a thing to do

And it was all yellow

Yeah, yeah...

And your skin, oh yeah your skin and bones

Turn into something beautiful

D'you know?

For you I bleed myself dry

For you I bleed myself dry

It's true

Look how they shine for you

Look how they shine for you

Look how they shine for

Look how they shine for you

Look how they shine for you

Look how they shine

Look at the stars

Look how they shine for you

And all the things that you do

--- "Yellow" by Coldplay

This sucks

After that terrible loss to N.C. State. my throat gave away to an
eventual flu, which bugged me as I studied for my Material Science
and my Computer Science class.

And as you know it, I took the test through a constant running nose
and coughs, so obviously the tests didn't go too well.

At least MSE is a hard class (it's a 3rd year class and I'm a 2nd
year) and Java.. well... it's Java. I can't write the codes out
without using a compiler. The worst feeling is when you look at the
question and you know it's not a hard question, but you can't come up
with the solution. You feel so... helpless.

I'm really glad it's over though. It's right about midway through the
semester, and I seriously need the break. I'll be heading up to
Chicago for my Fall break, which is about 4 days. I haven't been back
there since the end of Spring semester. That's about 5 months!

But before I can rejoice, there's one more thing to tackle.. to
prepare for my Calculus 3 quiz tomorrow...

Student confesses to Georgia Tech bombings

See, I knew it was a prank.

Freshmen held in Ga. Tech blasts

Look at the bright side, Georgia Tech made it into the new scrollbar at the bottom of CNN! The least they could do was send a small crew, since their HQ isn't far at all from Tech campus.

Bombs in Georgia Tech

Wow.

Even my own campus isn't terrorist free.

Apparently, there were few bombs near my freshmen dorm, Glenn, which isn't far at all from my current one. One exploded as a custodian was handling it and it led to the call up of the GTPD, Bomb Squad and whatnot and the FE area was evacuated.

Read the article "Explosives found near Tech dorms."

College Football Rankings - Week 7

Quite obviously, we dropped.

AP: 30th (down 6)
Coaches: 29th (down 6)
Harris Interactive: 29th (down 5)

No comments for the rankings. All I can say is that we need/must kick
Duke's ass in time for the first BCS rankings to come out.

Have I mentioned?

... that Coldplay's 'Parachutes,' Oasis' 'What's The Story? (Morning
Glory)' and Audioslave's 'Audioslave' are 3 of the most absolutely
fantastic albums? I mean, from start to finish, they're packed with
awesome tunes that you can listen to over and over and over again.
Very few albums are like complete from start to finish. Most have one
or two really awesome tracks and the rest of the albums suck. Not
these 3. Try it, I guarantee you.

N.C. State 17 GT 14

Final Score from Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta, GA:
NCAA Football Division I
North Carolina State Wolfpack 17 (2-2, ACC 1-2)
No. 24 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 14 (3-2, ACC 1-2)



Oh my god, I don't even know where to begin. This match was so bad, I think we played as bad as we did against Virginia Tech. I just can't believe we missed two Field Goals and a shot at a touchdown with 26 seconds to go from 2 yards, and it was our first down.

America's most loved mascot, our very own Buzz from Georgia Tech! He's in the running for the best mascot again this year. Please go and vote for him at www.capitalonebowl.com


Our quarterback, Reggie Ball. Frankly, he was pretty bad tonight.

What do I want to say?

Have I mentioned that this semester has gone awfully bad? I have a Material Science and a Computer Science test next week, and those two will kick some serious ass. The mid-semester break follows that weekend and you probably have no idea how much I'm looking forward to that. There's the N.C. State game tomorrow in the Thursday night game and that's probably about the only thing that's keeping me alive right now. I was talking to Sandesh and he mentioned that while both Francesco and I, who were both working over the summer, kept saying that we could not wait to go back to school, now we're saying that we can't wait for the semester to be over and get back to our respective jobs. I really liked work life much much better. Maybe it's just my poor time management, maybe I'm not studying as much as I should be, or maybe I'm just not it. I've always known that I was never an all-A student. I'm the kind of student who's always among the top tier, but not quite making the cut at B+ average. I'm not smart, I know, coz saying that would be an insult to the really smart people I've met over the years. I work relatively hard, to attain what is necessary. However, not as much as I should, hence, averaging B's. It's always been like that. Whenever I  plan out a study schedule or an outline of an essay or a project, I plan assuming that I work at my full capability. But then again, we can't work at full capability for too long, which is why I always fall short of my 'master' plan and never quite manage to do what I mapped out in the first place. That has been my mistake for a long time. I tried to plan out things with maybe say 80% efficiency, but I always go a little higher. Had I followed my study pattern since the beginning of this semester, I shouldn't be in this position right now. But then, it might be a little too late. This fall break must be used properly to get back on track. It's gone haywire, seriously. I'm really ready to settle this semester with a 3.0 (a B average) and head back to work.

Blah, forget it. Not about to rant, it's not gonna help anything. I'll just make myself miserable by doing so.

'I need a little time to wake up, wake up... Hey... What's the story, morning glory? Hey... Need a little time to wake up, wake up."

College Football Rankings - Week 6

Though we didn't play this week as it is a bye week for us, we
actually improved, due to our strong performances in the other 3
matches.

AP: 24th (up one from last week)
Coaches: 23rd (up one from last week)
Harris Interactive: 24th (up two from 26th last week)

This week, we'll play in the traditional Thursday night against N.C.
State in Atlanta. This will probably be the first equally matched
game for us. It'll be a tight, intense game.

And this is my 700th post since I started this blog.

Some changes

I've changed the settings of this blog a little, so counteract the spams I get through the commenting section that I have to keep deleting. So if you're not a blogger user, I'm terribly sorry, but you won't be able to comment. If you really need to leave a comment, then you can send an e-mail to -deleted-

I think it's partly due to the e-mail blog option that I have set on, so that I don't have to log in through blogger to post. Once someone figures out the e-mail address that I send my entries to, that person will be able to put in spams to my blog, which isn't good, so I guess I'll turn that off as well.

I'll be working on a header image file whenever I can afford the time to, which should be in the fall break. I don't plan to do anything extravagant, but yeah, thought it'll be nice. I just learnt how to implement simple java applets, so I guess I might put that to use. I'll be heading back to Naperville, IL after 5 months, so hopefully I'll get to work on it during the 4 days I'm going to spend there. I didn't want to disclose that information, as when I first bought the tickets, I wanted to surprise my mom by not telling her, but after realizing that she might be shocked emotionally just because we haven't met in 5 months, I decided not to. I'll also be heading back to Naperville for the thanksgiving break, so I'll be missing the GT vs UGA football game.

Phew.. I just spent the last few hours sorting quite a lot of shit that I can't disclose yet. It'll be a major news to many of you, but it's good. I'm glad that it's finally straightened out.

I'm back to my regular movie watching habit again. We watched 'Battle Royale,' 'The Dangerous Lives of The Altar Boys' and 'Rushmore.' 'Royale' is a very Tarantino-like Japanese flick by 'Beat' Takeshi, 'Altar Boys' was very funny and had a lot to read into at the same time, which I was very thankful for, but one I did not expect. 'Rushmore' was another one of Wes Anderson's, slow, pretty meaningless ride for me, very much like how I see Martin Scorcese's stuff.

I guess we're in for another movie ride for the night.

Pictures from the Oasis & Coldplay gigs

As promised, here are the pictures...

JET opened for Oasis... great artwork.


OASIS!!!






Coldplay





Chris told us to get our cellphones out while he counted down, so we did it. Magnificent sight... can't really see in the picture though.


Special and a very surprise guest, Michael Stipes, lead singer of REM.


Chris trying getting the crowd in the back crazy.


We found out later that John Mayer was playing at The Tabernale (a fabulous venue) few blocks down from Philips Arena, but I'm pretty sure the Coldplay gig was much better.

Portsmouth 0 Newcastle 0

Final Score from Fratton Park:

English Premier League

Portsmouth 0

Newcastle United 0

OASIS!!!

The Oasis gig was fabulous! I can't even come up with the words to
describe how the whole thing was. JET and Kasabian were pretty cool
acts too. Ooh, the sheer joy when they play a song that you love
listening to... We went wild when they play Morning Glory, Wonderwall
and Don't Look Back in Anger. My ears are still ringing... and its
about to get worse since I'm catching Coldplay later in the
afternoon. Pictures coming up soon.

Oh, and I didn't blog about 'The Phantom of The Opera' that I saw at
the Fabulous Fox Theater, have I? I'll also blog about that later.

The Station Agent

I managed to squeeze in some time to watch the last of the first 3
Netflix DVDs that I rented, since doing the MSE homework was getting
me nowhere.

'The Station Agent' was awesome, at least in my regard. It's such a
simple movie, yet it evokes so many basic human emotions. It was
somewhat similar to 'Garden State' (and also another film based in
New Jersey) and it really did cheer me up a little after a bad week
for me. The other two DVDs were 'American Splendor' and 'City of
God.' I didn't really like 'Splendor' that much, but I guess it makes
an interesting biopic, whereas 'City' is just, well, magnificent.

I vowed to start a new regime of things from now on, eliminating all
the things that I take for granted, or those things that I do
automatically without even thinking about it. One of my colleagues
while working told me that everyone had an necessary evil, no matter
how good/perfect they were. For most people, its smoking, drinking or
others. But if you think about every single action that you take in
your daily lives, you realize there's all these small things that you
do that you don't quite understand why. For me, it's things like
biting my nails, scratching my forehead, my back, cracking my
fingers, among many things. Can one really be completely free of the
necessary evil? I'm gonna give it a shot. I want to see how long I
can last before it starts taking a toll on me. Some of those things
are so common, it might even begin to wear me out physically and
mentally.

One of the major things is that I'm actually going to utilize all
these breaks I have in between classes, so that I can get more work
done. Usually, what ends up happening is that I'll be surfing the
net, or just talking to friends, when I could get my homework or
studying done, so that I can sleep earlier and longer. I always plan
out my studying time, but I never actually complete my plan. I know
I'm capable of much more, but when I think that I've done enough, I
just stall. That shouldn't be the way. I know I'll wear out faster
and feel more tired during mid-week, but heck, let's try and see.

I've failed 2 tests this semester already, and it's gone awfully out
of what I expected. It seems like I'll be glad just to make a 3.0
this semester, when I should be making at least 3.5. This really
sucks, since failing in the earlier part of the courses essentially
means that the rest of the semester will be spent making up for the
loss. I don't quite understand why it turned out this way. It's not
like I've not been studying, maybe I'm doing it wrongly. I thought
that I was okay, since most students take their hit in their freshmen
year, and I didn't really suffer, mainly because it was very similar
to what it was like in high school. I guess now it's my turn to deal
with the change of pace in college life, now that I'm taking few
tougher classes.

Let's see how this somewhat detox thing can last. Will I really have
an necessary evil so that I have something to blow steam off? I guess
I'll see.

College Football Rankings - Week 5

Needless to say, we dropped heavily. I'm just thankful that we're
still in the polls.

AP: 25th (down from 15th)
Coaches': Tied at 24th (down from 15th)
Harris Interactive: 26th(This is the new poll that replaces the AP to make the other 1/3 of the BCS formula)

We won't play in the coming week, so I'm assuming we'll drop out of
the polls this weekend. We have a Thursday night game on the October
6th, against N.C. State. That should be enough time to recover from
the heavy loss and make amends against an ACC foe, to get our season
back on track.

GT 7 VT 51

Final Score from Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, VA;

NCAA Football Division I

No. 15 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 7 (3-1, ACC 1-1)

No. 4 Virginia Tech Hokies 51 (4-0, ACC 3-0)

I can't even come up with the words to describe how I feel.

This sucks. Really sucks.

Newcastle 1 Man City 0

Final Score from St. James' Park;

English Premier League

Newcastle United 1

Michael Owen (18)

Manchester City 0

Alright, another victory, against a good team, and Owen's scoring streak starts!

College Football Rankings - Week 4

This week's ranking seems like the highest we'll be this season;
AP: 15th (up one from 16th on week 3, missing out on 14th spot by
just 3 votes)
Coaches': 15th (up 3 from 18th in week 3)

Alright... next stop, Blacksburg, Virginia to play 4th ranked
Virginia Tech. The battle of the Techs was a showstopper last season,
as VT came back strong in the last quarter to crush us. I'm afraid
they'll be ready to tear us apart, as they've been ripping teams in
their games so far. If we can keep out defense tight and make decent,
yet effective plays, we should be able to keep the margin to a
minimum. It'll be nerve-wrecking to watch for sure. Another ACC
showdown, and a Coastal divisional one at that.

Go Jackets!

UConn game now updated with pictures.

Blackburn 0 Newcastle 3

Final Score from Ewood Park;

English Premier League

Blackburn Rovers 0

Newcastle United 3

Alan Shearer (62)

Michael Owen (66)

Charles N'Zogbia (85)

Finally, first victory of the season and Owen registers his first for Newcastle. Shearer breaks scoring drought and is 7 away from being the all time highest goalscorer.

UConn 13 GT 28

Final Score from Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta, GA:

NCAA Football Division I

Connecticut Huskies 13 (2-1, Big East 0-0)

No. 16 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 28 (3-0, ACC 1-0 )

The Bobby Dodd Stadium as it is filling up.


Stupid Raymond... (My ex-Peer Leader's room mate, who continues to claim that I was one of his residents last year, but I'm actually not) I managed to get a shot as he was moving away from the camera.

Gameday!

GAMEDAY...

Oh, how I've looked forward to this weekend.... The Electronic
Properties test was definitely do-able, but I don't think I had
enough time to answer everything the way I should have, plus, I guess
I focused too much on the definition and manipulation of the formulas
as compared to focusing more on the concepts.

For now, I just want to forget about two disastrous tests and get on
with enjoying the game tonight and hoping that Newcastle will
register their first win of the season tomorrow.

U-fuckin'-Conn... watch out, the Jackets are about to sting pretty bad.

Hurry and finish quick, Week 4.

I really can't wait for this week to be over. Really.

Java test went awfully out of control. It was so different from last
year's tests, which I used to practice, which were a piece of cake.
If that isn't enough, there's still the Calculus Quiz for which I
have no clue what we're learning about, but can still solve most
questions. We're doing weird 3-D functions of several variables. To
top it off, there's the Electronic Properties exam on Friday, which
I'm pretty screwed for.

Urrgghh... Please let the next 2 days end quickly for me, because I
can't take it anymore...

Come to think of it, the end of this week marks the first quarter
point in the semester. Wow, that was pretty quick. Before I know it,
I'll be back to work.

College Football Rankings - Week 3

The streak continues. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets are currently ranked:
AP: 16th (Up 1 from 17th in Week 2)
Coaches': 18th (Up 3 spots from 21st in Week 2)

We're on a roll.. We should win our next game against UConn pretty
comfortably, so we might even make it into top 15. But I'm really
afraid for the game after that one, against Virginia Tech (currently
ranked 4th in both polls) coz they're on a streak and it doesn't seem
they will be stoppable. We need to improve on our defense and test it
out on UConn before the potential slaughter. VT ripped Duke 45-0 over
the weekend.

UNC 21 GT 27

Final Score from Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta, GA:

NCCA Football Division I

North Carolina Tar Heels 21 (0-1, ACC 0-1)

No. 17 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 27 (2-0, ACC 1-0)

Wow, the game was kinda intense.... Our defense was kinda bad... but we made some very interesting plays. The margin should have been bigger, but hey, we won. We better buck up and play better against UConn next week, if not, we're gonna get smashed by Virginia Tech.

Oh, and I met our former Georgia Tech star basketball player, Jarret Jack! He came back to Georgia Tech for today's game and I got to take a picture with him! He's going to be a big star soon, he got drafted in the 1st Round (22nd pick) for Portland Trail Blazers in the NBA, so keep an eye out for him in the coming season. Funny enough, I noticed that Steve-O and Shelby were in the back while uploading the photo.

My updated back of the SWARM shirt...

Go check out the auburn entry, I've added some nice pictures of the trip.

Newcastle 1 Fulham 1

Final Score from St. James' Park;

English Premier League

Newcastle United 1

Charles N'Zogbia (78)

Fulham 1

Brian McBride (13)

Halfway through the ordeal

How quickly a week can change for me.

After an awesome trip to Auburn, AL and the fantastic game, this week
turned out to be a nightmare. It seemed as if my bad was turned
upside down and all my assignments, homework and other things came
all at once, to be either completed by this week or the next. I've
slept very little, cramming in power naps whenever I can afford them
and working on things from early in the morning until pretty late
into the night. I'm so glad this weekend is here, I need some serious
break. It doesn't help that there's a CS test on Tuesday and MSE test
on Friday. I am seriously lost in the MSE class, and it may be the
first class I might fail at Tech. But it's only the third week and
it's too early. At this point, it's as if I'll be content to get a C
in that class.

I knew this class would be tough, but not this tough that I have
absolutely no clue what's going on. To make things worse, I just got
my textbook from an online purchase, and all these while, I only had
the lecture slides which made no sense whatsoever to me. I decided to
skip out on the GT Six Flags night by selling my ticket to Scott and
to get an early start on my MSE, but it took me about an hour to go
through 10 pages.

The Drude Model is somewhat related to the conductivity issues I
learned during my time in high school, but it goes a notch higher
with the introduction of drift velocities and mean scattering time.
There's just too many variables being introduced and too many
formulas popping up, I'm finding it very hard to keep up. There's
about 9 lectures worth of material I have to go through on my own, on
top of the Java test prep (which shouldn't be too hard, my elementary
C++ knowledge enables me to figure things out as they are very
similar) and other homework, not to mention the research I'm doing on
MARTA.

To make things worse, I undertook an part-time assignment from
RubberNetwork. I thought consolidating spreadsheets would not be too
much of a work, but I seriously underestimated the task. I should
have known, if they were asking me to do it, at the rate I was
getting paid over the summer for this work, it meant it was actual
work. How true that turned out to be, I spent couple of hours
everyday making sure that all the data that were copied from one
spreadsheet to another was right and whatnot. That put a real dent in
my academics for this week. But hey, at least I'm compensated well
for the work.

Java prep shouldn't take too much, I'm going to read through the text
and figure out the key identities and methods that could be used, and
then I'll devote the rest of my time to MSE. Most of tomorrow's time
will be taken up by the game against UNC, but that should be fine.

What's so weird is that I used to do so much more couple of years
back and didn't really feel tired at all, but now it seems I tire
faster with less work. Is it due to the lack of exercise or what? Or
is this what happens as you age?

It's 3, I better get my much needed sleep. This is horrid, I haven't
watched a movie since 'Cronicas', not even on my laptop, and that's
something.

I'm so looking forward to the end of next week already. Oh, this is
going to be long and tough.

College Football Rankings - Week 2

WE'RE RANKED 17TH IN THE NATION!!!

Wow, I'm so shocked. I knew Georgia Tech would be ranked, but I
didn't think we'll replace Auburn! AP Poll has ranked us 17th (up
from 29th in the pre-season) whereas USA Today puts us up at 21st, up
from 29th. We're right outside of the Power 16 of ESPN at 17th.

Auburn, on the other hand, slips out of the AP Polls at 28th
(previously 16th), USA Today at 25th (also previously 16th) and
nowhere to be found in the Power 16 (previously 17th).

Come on UNC & UConn!!! I can hardly wait for this weekend's game.

GT 23 Auburn 14

Final Score at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, AL
NCAA Football Divison I
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 23 (1-0, ACC 0-0)
No. 16 Auburn Tigers 14 (0-1, SEC 0-0)



YEAAAAAHHHH WE FREAKING OWNED AUBURN 23-14!!!!!

The trip was fun, and this could arguably be my best college
experience to date. All the shit we endured til the game suddenly
spat back at the Auburn fans by half time, and when the game ended
and we were walking back to our car, the small contingent of Georgia
Tech fans silenced half of Alabama. For my readers who aren't
familiar with college football, Auburn was one of the 2 teams in the
top college division that went undefeated last season (the other was
USC) and were unlucky not to be in the national championship game
because of the nature of the way the rankings work in the computer.
There's still bitter debate about weather they should be played USC
or not. Regardless, they were potential national champions of last
year and we beat them.

Our offence wasn't that bad, but our defence was solid, interceptions
were the key. We could say we were fortunate that Auburn's
Quarterback was inexperienced, but we definitely outplayed them in
the game.

Take that Auburn!!! Undefeated no more, and let's make it clear,
having a Ball (Reggie, our Quarterback) is better than having a Cox
(their Quaterback)

With this, we should be able to beat Univ. of North Carolina (UNC) in
our next home game and the following week, Univ. of Connecticut
(UConn). Then we'll see how we play against the mighty Virginia Tech
in their own turf. By then, we should be ranked well in the top 20 of
the nation.

It's too exciting, I'm eagerly awaiting for the next game. For now,
I've lost my voice, in need of serious sleep (we came back at 5 in
the morning right after the game ended at 1am) and I'm thankful that
monday is a day off with labor day.

Pictures!

Jacob making face during the drive.


Trent.. with his favorite (but not so surprising) friend


mmmm.... burgers...


Shelby... in one of his serious poses


Shelby - "ARRRRGGHHH!!!" (Battlecry)


The Jackson-Hare Stadium... the attendance was in excess of 87,000 that day!

New Orleans

I always wanted to just take a visit to New Orleans in Louisiana. I
got to read about the place from the comic of my favourite superhero,
Gambit. All I knew was that it's a place in the South, with a lot of
French tradition still left behind, THE center of pre-Mardi Gras
parties, and most importantly, great seafood. In fact, I was telling
couple of friends that it'll be fantastic if we could go down there
for a road trip. A co-worker at RubberNetwork told me that it's a
really fun city and that I should go sometime.

I didn't quite realize that Hurricane Katrina was that devastating
until a couple of days ago. I knew that the city was below sea level
and had levees to hold the water out, but now, looking at the
pictures, it's completely submerged in water. And what I don't
understand is the reason why some people at shooting at helicopters
and evacuation buses. Obviously people need to get out, so what's in
it for them to prevent these people from seeking help, let alone
survive? It's literally a renegade city.

Some students from Tulane University are holding shelter at Georgia
Tech campus. The Music Listening Room was basically a temporary bed
shelter for some, whereas many organizations on campus offered
housing. It's horrid that this happened before school started for
them. I mean, the damage is so bad, school is essentially suspended
for the entire year. The city basically needs to be completely rebuild.

All Atlanta got was a really bad rain, but that was it. It didn't
flood like it did last year in one of the other Hurricanes.

This brings my questions up once again -- where exactly in the United
States is it safe to live? The South is experiencing Hurricanes,
Midwest is Tornadoes, Northeast is Snow and West coast is earthquakes.

In any case, it doesn't seem like I'll be going to New Orleans
anytime soon. And even if I do, it won't be the same New Orleans as I
pictured from reading Gambit comics.

I'll be heading to Auburn in Alabama for the College Football season
opener tomorrow. Some places in Alabama were affected, but probably
not where I'm heading. Maybe I might see something on the way there.

I'm really hoping for a victory for Georgia Tech. That will be
freaking awesome.

GO JACKETS!!!

I don't get it, but I can do it

I hate it when I go to a class, get lost in the lectures, and feel
like I'm the dumbest person there (even though I know I'm not) but be
able to do all the homework and understand the text completely.

Most people would just tell me 'Well, that's great, why care about
what you understand? That's not important, what's important is
getting the grade, and since you can do the work, then you shouldn't
worry, should you?'

Well, I do. I can't stand going to class and not follow. It defeats
the purpose of going to class, coz I'm going to class to learn. As
cliche as that might sound, yes, I am actually going to class for
that very purpose. Especially with the fact that this class,
'Calculus III,' is a prerequisite for my subsequent major classes.
It's like Calculus II last spring all over again (a class which I got
an A in), when I could answer most of the questions right, but have
absolutely no idea what the significance of the answer is. It takes
the energy away from me wanting to study for the subject.

Last semester, it was Calculus II and the second half of Principles
and Application of Engineering Materials. This semester, the trend is
pretty much the same, with 'Calculus III' and 'Electrical, Optical
and Magnetic Properties of Materials.' Hopefully it won't follow with
'Object Oriented Programming.'

On a less important note, I've more or less realized that because
Industrial Engineers are not required to take 'Differential
Equations.' my choice of Material Science & Engineering classes will
be very limited. So limited that I might not be able to sit for
enough credits to gain a minor. It seems like the best way out will
be to just take the 4 classes to get a certificate in
'Nanomaterials.' It seems like its the best option, since a minor is
just a minor, whereas with this certificate I'm actually specializing
in Nanomaterials. The second MSE class that I'm taking is one of the
approved electives in order to achieve this certificate, so I can
essentially leave the last two special topics class on Nanomaterials
for my senior year. While holding out for that, I can probably go
ahead and complete the requirements for this other certificate that
I'm trying to earn, which is 'Engineering Entrepreneurship.' I guess
with these two certificates and a bachelor's in Industrial
Engineering, it will be pretty awesome.

Solano came back to Newcastle. It's been an exhilarating couple of
days, I don't think I've been this excited in the 8 years of
supporting a club I've come to love. 30 million pounds has been spent
on 3 players (Owen, Luque and Solano) and it took the total spending
to about 50 million pounds in total if I include Emre, Parker and
Boumsong. The front line looks pretty complete. Ex-England
partnership of Shearer and Owen, midfield bonanza of Luque and Solano
supplying from the wings, Emre and Parker providing the center. I
guess Dyer will act as the free role guy once Shearer retires after
this season. The back's still a worry, Babayaro isn't that tough,
Boumsong showed his frailty over the weekend, Taylor's still growing,
and Carr seems to be the only solid guy there. Given, needless to
say, only needs a better defensive cover. Lineup looks pretty decent
and interesting. We just need a cup, even the Worthless Cup will do,
just anything to make Shearer's last year memorable. I'm not
expecting a top 5 finish, but anything close would be nice. It's
definitely not a short term solution, but hopefully, in the years to
come, this would be a solid squad. Of course, most fans would know
that new signings are usually cursed with injuries (as with the case
of Emre now) and either they need to reform the physio department or
players need to cool a little more.

Either way, it looks exciting, and what I want more than anything now
is a goalfest next weekend. Once we start scoring, the rest should
follow.

Sou thrilled, Owen-ly is up!

Great day, its been 2 years since I started this blog, and its a nice coincidence that Michael Owen was officially unveiled as a Newcastle player today. Fantastic, just fantastic.

Picture from NUFC.com.



More pictures from BBC Tyne









Was just reading what I wrote in 2003 and 2004 today. And my style of writing, and the objective of the blog has changed a lot, at least that's how I feel. And funny enough, I was talking about Newcastle as well. The only different thing is that today, there's something positive among myriads of negatives that's surrounding the club. Back in 2003, we started off bad, getting kicked out of Champions League and in 2004, we just sacked Sir Bobby Robson. This year, Newcastle still started off horribly, but there's something to look forward to now.