San Antonio League Prelims @ Rowland

I got a lot of sleep from late start, so I was bouncy the whole time before the meet. We got to get out of class early, which was nice also.

One of our buses broke down, so we only had one bus. The bus driver for varsity baseball happened to be a very nice person, and baseball has like 10 people on the team, she offered to take us there with baseball. They probably all hate us now because before we came onto the bus, each person had a whole row to himself. We made it 2-3 to a bench.

The meet was really fun. They also have a very nice, new track with the astro-turf grass. (see West Co. post for details) Everyone was all hyped up, and there were a lot of people there. Everyone hyped up just cheered for everyone Walnut that ran by. Especially near the end of the meet when they had nothing better to do. The other schools looked at us like we were crazy, screw them, we got team spirit.

TJ: I jumped a 38'4" and 39'-. I didn't try very hard on both jumps because I was being cautious of the wind. Then of course, the official told me I only needed to jump a 37'+ to qualify for finals. So I stopped jumping because I already qualified. It would've been nice if he told us that before we all jumped though.

So then I was all pumped up for high jump. They told me everyone auto qualified for finals since there wasn't that many people. OK. I kind of expected that to happen, but I was still warmed up and ready for it.

So then I realized since I only needed to jump triple today, I could've very well qualified for finals for long jump too. Coach didn't let me do long jump so I could focus my efforts on my other two jumps, and let people who actually spend their whole season practicing long jump to have a chance. They weren't jumping that great today.

Meet lasted until 8:30 though. Bus ride back, I rode the emptier bus whee we got 1 person per bench, and the other bus was 3 to a bench. Obviously they didn't listen when we told them we had two buses.

vs. West Covina

West Co. has the most awesome track ever, their field, not so much, but their track is godly. When you land on it, it feels almost squishy, but still firm, and you kinda bounce off of it. Its great cause out track is super crappy, and as soon as we land, there's a shot of pain running up our legs. Their field is just, astroturf, fake plasticly grass with black stuff. Since today was hot, the nice looking plastic grass gets hot too. But the field was squishy too, so it was ok for warm-ups.

It seemed like everyone did better on the good track, well, everyone on our team anyways. When we would land for jumps, we would be like, "hey! this doesn't hurt like it normally does, lets try to jump a bit farther because we can afford to land harder." So technically, I got two PRs today, and I tied my other PR.

HJ: still 5'6". I laughed at my own patheticalness. I was wayyy over 5'6", but I lost my form jumping 5'8", first time by looking down to see if I cleared it or not, which I didn't. Second time I underestimated the height of the bar. Third time was the same problem as the first jump. Next week, at league prelims, I'll do better.

TJ: 39'10". Super small 2nd phase. Probably a 17' first phase, and 6' second phase, and a 17' final phase. I know I can probably stretch out that second phase to at least 10', though ideally, second phase should be larger than first phase, but shorter than last phase. Lots of space for improvement here. Plus, it didn't hurt to land, so I could afford to make a super long first phase, instead of the normal, not so long, but completely painless first phase I do. If I can improve by league finals, I might be able to go to CIF for this, only 2" more to qualify.

LJ: 18'10¼". My second long jump this season. It's not 20', but it very well could've been. I just didn't have enough time to finish my jumps, and of the two I did finish, one of them was a scratch by an inch. Not to mention that I have no form for this, since the last time I jumped long jump was two years ago. Also CIF possibility here.

After the meet, when we were cleaning up, our ice water buckets were still full, so normally we would jump dump the water so it's lighter to carry. Guess the other guys thought, it's the last team dual meet, lets dump it on the coaches. So Andrea got drenched first with a full bucket of mostly ice. Thompson next with half a bucket of mostly water. Peralta ran far far away while a few guys attempted to dump a bucket of ice on him, which they did, partially, he was wearing the waterproof coach jacket though. Brad ran too, not enough water left for him either way. Polite is off limits, he might actually die of heart attack.

Then afterwards, when we were back in walnut. The coaches wanted to have a team dinner in the village. Most of the guys went to In-N-Out. Guess I missed that memo. I went to Applebee's with the coaches. It ended up being Thompson, Brad, Andrea, and me there, 3 coaches and a captain. Conversation with them was pretty interesting. Thompson treated us even though we all insisted to pay. Some of the guys came to visit us from In-N-Out, who were then asked by the waiter to move to a nearby table because they were "obstructing waiter traffic."

It was a fun day. Sad that track season's coming to an end though.

edit: Forgot to mention the sand. They have those nice white super soft beach sand in their jump pits. Well, for my first long jump, or my only scored long jump, I landed a bit early, and ended up kicking a whole bunch of sand into my face, into my mouth, and up my nose, and into my eyes. Well, it's easy getting the sand out of the eyes, a few teardrops does the trick. Mouth took a few cups of water to wash out. Worst was the nose. It was just kinda stuck up there, like, in the back part of the nose near the throat. So pretty much spent the rest of the meet trying to blow/wash sand out of my nose whenever I could, which wasn't that often cause I was in 3 events. Even when I showered, it took a lot a lot of effort to get the sand out of my nose. I think most of it's out now. Some good advise, Don't get sand up your nose. The sand was soft though, so it didn't hurt to land. But yeah, sine I landed pre-maturely, I pretty much lost the distance equal to the distance from my ankle to my knee.

And I still don't know how well I ranked. I think I may have placed 1st in triple, and 3rd in long. High for sure is 2nd place. I really didn't care because just by listening to the PA, it was obvious that we won, since they would announce the who placed, and it would sound like "3rd place, ___ from Walnut. 2nd place, ___ from Walnut. 1st place, ___ from Walnut" for just about every race.

you forgot to say goodbye...

So my boss told me that since I missed saying goodbye to our mystery shopper on my 2nd week of work, they're sending me back to customer service training. But at least she congratulated me on getting the greet and offering service.

At Vons, they send in an anonymous shopper, and random days, every month, to rate how the store's customer service is doing. Course, that happened to be on my 2nd week of work where I was like, "Hi... uhh.. lemme find the manager for you... which manager is in today...?" Course, it was also 2 weeks after my last customer service training.

Well, customer service training isn't too bad, you just sit there, for 4 hours, going like, yes, no, yes, yes, no, no, yes, yes, and get paid. Actually, It's kinda boring, whatever, I get paid for doing nothing.

That day, Saturday, was also the first day I worked until midnight (when the store "closes"). Super boring after 10:00pm. Apparently, right when it hits midnight, all the light timers expire, and half the display lights in the store go off. Few minutes later, half of the remaining lights go off. Course, I forgot that they set all the automatic doors to manual-locked, so I crashed into one as I was trying to leave.

vs. Rowland

Did poorly today, not too sure why. Headache throughout the whole track meet, maybe that contributed to it. We won though, which puts us back in the lead. :D

HJ: 5'4
TJ: 35'10''

I got eliminated from high jump in the saddest way possible. As I was approaching for jump, I slipped on the floor right before the jump and hit the mat. Since it was my last jump, I was out. Plus, since I slipped and was wearing spikes, my right spikes sliced up the back of my left leg, on exactly the same spot it did 2 years ago during high jump. So right on top of my old scars, are fresh wounds.

What bothered me a little is that at the end of the meet when we were all huddled up, the football players did their Samoan battle dance. Since Rowland was still there, it looked like we were taunting them. Whatever. It was nice seeing coach all happy and stuff.


After dinner my cousin treated us to yogurtland. I like it more than pinkberry, it has more flavors and more topping choices, and they allow you to mix and match however many you want, at however much you want. So I had this mix of peach, kiwi, green tea, strawberry, mango ice cream with strawberry, mini-gummy bears, watermelon and mochi toppings.

kite flying

Well, its a lot harder than it seems. Probably because the wind was erratic today, and I was attempting to fly the kite on the football field, which happens to be located between two very tall walls of stadium stairs/seats that makes the wind go in weird directions nearing the middle of the field.

The kite sure was popular today though. Everyone wants to fly a kite. I started a trend... kinda. :D

There was one time, where we had a moderate gust of wind, which make the kite fly up up up until I ran out of string. Then it stayed up there for a minute or two, then the wind died down and it crashed into the PA mic. stand.

The kite also attacked many people via kamikaze.

10 min silence

I did my 10 minutes of silence in my backyard, which is as silent as it will get. My first thoughts were about the assignment. Technically, it’s not completely silent in my backyard, there are crickets chirping, and every time I move my jacket makes a sound. Then the following thoughts were just random and without order, they went something like this:

Procrastination is bad. If I didn’t procrastinate, I wouldn’t be out here in the cold at midnight. Plus, I could be using this time to work on other works I procrastinated on. Movies suck. If it wasn’t for movies, I wouldn’t have to turn in something about book to film adaptations.

I must look like a retard out here, if the neighbors looked out at me, they must think, what is he doing? Who sits out in their backyard in the middle of the night in the cold? My feet are cold, shouldn’t have worn flip flops. Come to think of it, this jacket isn’t too warm either.

A breeze. Great. I can fly my kite. Wait, no, the breeze is gone. It wasn’t strong enough to carry that kite anyways. I hope it is windy tomorrow, I really want to fly my kite. Hope Thompson doesn’t get mad with us me flying at kite during practice. I need to run to make the kite fly, so I am getting exercise. I guess that might work out to be a good enough excuse. Who wears green Hawaiian flip flips? Seriously, what was my dad thinking when he bought these for me?

The moon is pretty tonight. No stars though. Wait, there’s three, I think. It’s hard to tell here, that’s the downside of living in the city, no stars. Well, it’s nice how my watch glows in the dark, expect it really isn’t necessary, the moon’s bright enough so I can read the hands without the need for them to glow.

Seven more minutes.

Our neighbors have old school antennas. Maybe they don’t use them.

Why, hello Spike. He must think it’s so weird for me to be out in the backyard. I’m never in the backyard. It’s nice to have someone keep me company out here. It’s awfully boring. Time passes so slowly.

If I get sick because of this, I will be very very angry. My cousin must think I’m weird sitting in the backyard.

I wonder if this bench is clean.

I’m pretty sure she already thinks I’m weird.

Hey, I can see my shadow from the moon.

Spike seems pretty bored too. I think time’s up, let’s go inside.

That was pretty much the gist of it.

Just an insight to how I think. No surprises there.

kites

A few days ago, I learned that Vons sells kites. Yes, kites. Why a grocery store would sell kites is beyond me. Course, but now, I've come to accept that they sell everything.

At track, since its usually windy, and some dork injured herself through attempting to fly a kite, we decided that we would bring kites one day and just fly them.

So I bought a kite from Vons. Now all my coworkers think that I'm weird. They thought I was buying it for someone else, or something. I was going to try to fly it in the parking lot, cept then my break ended.

It's actually a big kite, well, a lot bigger than I expected. Its shaped like a dragon, a very ugly dragon with very big wings. Its still awesome though. Plus, my other options were a butterfly or a fish, or even worse, a barbie fairy... thing.

I'm going to try to fly the kite tomorrow during track practice, if it flies well, my sister wants a fish shaped kite, then we can both attempt to fly kites during out track meet along with all the other weirdos with kites.

first impressions of ucsb

The view is pretty, though everyone knows that, moving along..

The campus is really really clean. It's almost impossible to find trash anywhere, they also told me, the beaches are even cleaner. Sadly, I didn't have time to visit the beach. Campus has trees everywhere, many many different kinds of trees of various colors. Great for shade, or hammocks (yes, we're allowed to bring hammocks and hang them up anywhere we want). Grass is very well maintained, nice thick green grass everywhere.

Weather is pretty much what is expected on the beach. It's warm-hot. There was a slight ocean breeze today. People told me today is considered one of the hotter days cause there was less breeze than usual. Sunny is nice.

Campus is also very very flat. It's easy to walk on, and the campus isn't too big, so everything is within a 15 minute walk. Everyone pretty much travels by bikes, with the occasional skater. There are a lot of bikes. They're everywhere, and apparently, they get stolen/lost quite often too. Parking isn't too expensive, nor hard to find. It's just a bit inconvenient, because most of the parking structures are on the opposite side of campus from the dorms. Makes sense, dorms near the beach, parking farther inland. Really no need to drive, because the school has a great public transport system, and the fact that everything is within biking distance. Though, it's still easier/faster/cheaper to drive home than to take the bus or train. So I want a car in SB, even if it is just for getting home.

Dorms were.. not what I expected. For starters, they're small. Very small. About half the size of my current room, shared by two people. But apparently, the only thing one does in the dorm is sleep. Bathrooms are shared by everyone on the floor/wing. Every floor has a formal lounge for activities on the floor, and every wing has their own personal lounge. Or something like that, might be slightly different depending on hall, but from the 2 I visited, that seemed to be the case. Each floor also has a break room with ping-pong, pool, ice hockey, and/or foosball table, and a plasma T.V. with many couches and vending machines. Kitchens are also shared by the floor/wing. Most people study in the lounges, or socialize, or both. Break rooms are for socializing and hanging out. Dorms however, do not have AC, but its cool enough there that an open window does the job. Dorms are also, very very clean, and cleaned often.

Around the dorms, theres obviously the beaches. But right next to the dorms, are things such as volleyball and basketball courts. All recreational equipment can be borrowed from the school. Plus, theres lots of grass and trees around the dorms. So most people spend their free time playing basketball, volleyball, kicking soccer balls around, throwing frisbee, or most commonly, sleeping under trees or suntanning.

People wise, its very very.. white. Lots of pale white people here on campus. Pale you say? Yes, very. Plus, everyone pretty much walks around campus in bikinis or board shorts with flipflops, occasionally on bikes. Saw lots of people just jogging around campus. Apparently, they have pools everywhere on campus too.

Other than dorm mate anxieties, and the fact that everyones white, everything else about the school seems cool. On the side note, white people are awesome, they're social and friendly. They just make me feel short, and when they're nerdy, they're really really nerdy.

I'm soo brining a hammock.

spring break and birthdays

Spring break's been a blast, well... at least it is now, maybe not so much after homework, but lets forget about that. So far, spring break pretty much consisted of sleep, eat, practice, work, and birthdays.

My birthday - Puente Hills Mall Todai

Yeah. It was pretty much one of those weirdo rituals freaks have, cept in Todai. Sushi was great. Instead of tying my birthday balloons onto Spike this year, my sister drew... interesting... faces on them when I was sleeping with my sharpie collection. Then the balloons deflated, and the faces got all mutated (as if they weren't strange to begin with). Thanks to everyone for really big jar of whey protein. Hope I actually get buffer with it. Thanks to Clarice for the flying pig to match my phone. It's accompanied by the mini mushroom that came with the.. white floofy like thingy with a stick with a leaf on it from Christmas... yeah. Thanks to Char for the mushroom, its cute. (Though honestly, wtf is up with mushrooms. o_O). Much thanks to Connie for expanding my bunny population (see below), and the super big blue pillow. Oh, and my coach gave me her coaches' track jacket cause I liked it so much as a birthday present too.


I was told I was supposed to name them. So. Starting from the mushroom (the picture above's horrible, I know, my phone can't take pictures in the dark) next to the mushroom would be Levey, next to him would be the almost exactly identical looking bunny, Ryan. Between them would be Sandra, whose size matches her quite well. The psycho bunny dice I think will be Natalie. Shes the only one I can imagine with that expression. Connie's the big pink octopus bunny. The brown bunny (that is really hard to see) next to Connie would be Clarice. The two other matching bunnies to the right of the big pink blob would be Jono and Steph. Eric is the mashimaro bunny. Big head, fat body, holding food, see the resemblance? Behind everyone would be the super long blue pillow, who everyone else named Mike. My sister really likes Mike pillow.

Sandra's Birthday - Old Town Pasadena.

Ok. Next time, I'll drive freeway. If not, I'll make sure I bring the gps with me. Though, Connie didn't kill us. Bravo. And we weren't too terribly late.

First time ever getting pinkberry. It's expensive. It was good. Not somewhere I would go often cause I'm not rich enough to buy expensive frozen yogurt with stuff all the time. But they have the funniest "kitchen accessories" ever. A bunny and a carrot makes a paper towel dispenser!

Pasadena Forever21 is huge. Honestly, I have spent so much time in that store with so many people that I've learned to avoid it completely with shopping with females. Surprisingly, they had a guy's section. They have pretty log chairs, and thats pretty much all it was good for, decoration. They're not very comfortable to sit on. So I played lumines a lot. That game is crazy addicting.


Dinner was nice. It was a friendly-family atmosphere with interesting pictures and decor. Seriously. If no one explained to me that the big cans were used for putting food on, I would've been so confused. That's a lot a lot of sweet peppers.

Back at Sandra's it was a free for all. Lets stick whipped everywhere (don't we always?). Pillow fight! Who needs alcohol? We're crazy enough without it. Sucks how everyone had to leave early though.

Connie's Birthday - Her house.

Lots of food everywhere. I like food. Didn't really get to know them DBHS guys. Next time maybe.

I love my waterproof, water balloons bouncing jacket. It's awesome. It absorbs impacts and keeps me dry. :D I still got soaked anyways though.

Brawl was pretty much. "POKEBALL!!!!!!" "you suck." "AHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA Goooooooooooo gundam!" "WTF?" "I hate you" "ByYYEEEEEEeee" "WE LIKE IKE! WE LIKE IKE! WE LIK-- ike's a jerk. GOOOOO KIRBYYYYYYYYY! GO GO GO!" "PikAAA"

It the bestest party game ever.

Oh, and truth or dare.. >.>;

dad's home

Many things happen when my dad comes home. Like..

The house gets super clean overnight, with the exception of the rooms belong to my sister and I, which become clean a few days later due to excessive nagging.

Spike freaks out. The old fat man scares him more than grizzly bears do.

Plus, since Spikes in the habit of waiting for my mom to come home before eating, and since my mom's in Taiwan, hes not eating. Instead, hes playing guard dog watching every move my dad makes.

My phone and alarm clock disappears cause my dad takes it.

I get to drive my moms car! No more crappy Mercedes for a few weeks.

Did I mention the obsessive cleanliness standard? I walked into the kitchen after practice and I swear it glowed from shininess or something.

vs. South Hills

It was fun, and disappointing, mostly the latter. Final score of 81-55, SHHS. We lost.

---

I PRed three times (though technically, only twice) today.

HJ: 5'5'' > 5'6''

An inch is better than nothing!

TJ: 37' > 38'4''

Could've done better. I thought the 38'4'' jump was absolutely horrendous cause there were so many things in that jump I could've done better in, but didn't. Next time...

LJ: ~17' > ~20'

The last time I long jumped was in my sophomore year. It's been a while, I don't quite remember my exact jump distance, but it was 17' something. Good for a sophomore I guess. But I hated long jump cause there would always be an insanely long line for long jump, and I would always be the last person in that line cause people tend to cut in front of me, and I have the farthest mark (cause I have the longest stride).

Well, the reason I long jumped today was because Vincent Chen injured himself and could not jump, but didn't finish jumping, and at least wanted to finish jumping. I jumped in his place. Well I landed about 21 and a half feet into the sand, but I scratched by about a foot. So if it was a legal jump, it would've been in the 20s. Plus, that jump was pretty horrible too, form-wise.

what my coworkers think of me

They think:

-I really like tea, like, really REALLY like tea.
-I am easily fascinated by grocery products I have never seen before.
-I get lost in the store, easily.
-Especially when they need me to find something. Then they need to call another clerk to go back and find me.
-I have this strange obsession with window cleaner and cleaning non-window areas with it
-I really like the red raincoat over the orange vest. (which I do, the raincoat is awesome)
-I absolutely suck at fetching liquor and cigarettes. "Marlboro Lights please. No no. Those are normal Marlboros, and those are methanols, and those are methanol 100s, up more, to your right, farther right, the smaller pack, no no, the Marlboro light small pack, not the light 100s" Usually halfway through that, the cashier comes and grabs the right one.

What I learned at work today:

-Foil balloons are evil. They're hard to inflate.
-It takes two clerks and a supervisor to fill up one balloon, yes, one. Of course, the supervisor gave up first, then told one of the clerks to actually go help bag groceries (me), then when the other clerk couldn't get how to inflate the balloons, we switched jobs, then switched jobs again to tie the ribbon on it. Thankfully the customer was quite entertained by us.
-The store has raincoats for us to use when it rains. :D
-Our store manager hides things in the most awkward areas.
-Everyone loses their pen at work, and therefore, brings cheap pens.
-I don't have to wear an apron to work. Though, I still will, cause it keeps my clothes clean, and the pockets are useful.
-I found out where the bathrooms are!

It's final.

I'm going to UCSB.

My highly retarded conversation with the UCSD appeal and undergraduate admissions representative went something like this.

You have 6771 points. You need 7576 points. You have a good SAT score, backed by very good SAT II scores. You got a huge amount of points for personal hardships and a well written personal statement.

Wait. You didn't say leadership and activities. Didn't I earn any points from there? What did you do? Well I ran varsity track for 3 years, was captain for 2 of those years. I have some school service, and some community service. Well, sorry, we don't take athletics into account unless you're at least state champion, but even then, its worth very little points. Because your leadership is in athletics, that's not good enough.

wtf. -_-

Then she was like, well it looks like your major weak point would be your GPA. It's a 3.55 academic partially weighted from sophomore and junior year. Why partially weighted? Oh, we can only offer honor credit for up to 4 classes. So you're saying even though I took all honors and AP level classes in my sophomore and junior year, only 4 of them count as honors/AP classes? Yes. Sorry. A 3.55 GPA just isn't good enough.

What if I wanted to change majors? It wouldn't make a difference. We admit regardless of major.

Let me assure you that reevaluation of your application will not help you unless you have "new and compelling academic information." If you are still interested in attending UCSD, we recommend attending as a transfer student. We have a won-- (at this point, Mr. Maynard took my phone away and hung up).

My advice for future UCSD prospective students? Take 4 honor classes. Only 4. Don't bother with AP, they're worth the same. Then take all regulars, preferably the easiest regulars level UC approved classes you can find. Don't take more than 10 classes in those two years. Take hard classes in freshman and senior year cause they don't count. Join every club possible. Hell, just take the club directory for your school and list every club on there. Get cabinet positions in a few of them, then do jack shit. Get a job, it's worth more than community service, and you get paid. Don't waste your time with athletics, it uses 100x more time than clubs do, and the school just happily ignores it. Go figure, they don't have a football team.