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.