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