Monday, October 31, 2005

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.

Sunday, October 30, 2005

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)

Saturday, October 29, 2005

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)

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Glenn 2nd floor homeboys are reunited with Buzz!

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Pretty packed day, due to homecoming weekend.

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Full capacity Boddy Dodd Stadium.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

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!

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

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Seether once again...

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

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

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

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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?

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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.

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Time for some RAGE!!!

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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.

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Back to Audioslave at its finest.

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

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

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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)

Monday, October 24, 2005

An embrace that says it all

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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.'

Sunday, October 23, 2005

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)