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...