UIUC... more details.

Whopping out my schedule...

Day 1:
I ate breakfast. It was bad. I went to take tests. I did unusually well. I am normally nervous during tests and do very very average. Then we went to the Kranner Center for the opening ceremonies. Krannert Center is a Transformer. It turns into a giant monster and eats families. It follows the quota system. The rest of the day was mediocre. The campus issues at the Krannert Center was reminiscint of High School politically correct skits. We had ones on getting drunk, getting raped, getting assaulted and getting a lesbian roommate that is black. Afterwards the kids got to discuss this and make posters. Very High School like.

Day 2
This was the good day because it went fast. Breakfast was okay, they have waffle irons there. The Personal Safety issues sucked and I left when they started to talk about the World Wide Web (wasn't safetry related... but...). I went to some success oriented things and then... hmm I went to a special interest session on Unit one/Allen Hall which is my dorm this fall. That was cool. Helped me as far as signing up for classes goes. Then I ate lunch and then got my ID card... (I look like a dork) and then signed up for classes. My schedule is:

Comparative Literature of Non-Western Civilization
Intro to CS
Chemistry
What is College
Graph Theory
hopefully more...

Umm then I went home.

Oh yeah, I've e-dopted Sunita as my e-sister. She's cool.

Read full post
Red Letter Weekend

Red-Letter days are memorable ones. I've had a red-letter weekend this weekend and a few red-letter days this summer.

Read full post
UIUC Summer Orientation

It is really hot down here. I'm typing this via telnet, so I am not used to the way the screen looks. So forgive me if I have no formatting. Anyway I'll be picking classes in a few minutes. I will be majoring in Math & Computer Science and that's about it so far. The weather isn't the greatest... just all around crappy. I did find out my residence hall is really cool. Anyway I head home tonight, should be there tomorrow.

Read full post
OSA 1998 - Monterey, CA

Okay, wow, I have a lot to say. OSA, for those of you who do not know, is the Orissa Society of Americas. These are a group of people from the state of Orissa, India who get together once a year on the fourth of July weekend. Normally it's a mediocre way to spend the weekend, not much goes on, you meet a few people you haven't seen in a year or two, etc. There are also seminars and other things that I'd attend as well and Youth activities.

This year there was virtually no youth anything. It was perhaps the worst convention which I have attended. I did however have a lot of fun with my friends (Minnesotans and ex-Minnesotans). Here is a detailed account of what happened the last few days:

Thursday I went to the airport for our 11:25 AM flight which was delayed to about 12:40. My dad had upgraded his ticket to First Class and he gave it to me. That was very cool. It was my first time in First Class and I think it is really cool, especially on long four hour flights. My food was very edible indeed.

We arrived in San Francisco around 3PM Pacific. We were picked up by my cousin and her husband and went to their Sunnyvale, CA apartment. I learned that I really like math. I had in my posession a book about a mathematical genius and a math text-book. Both which I enjoyed reading. I also decided that I want to do at least a minor in mathematics. Not because I am good at it (the only thing that says I am good is the fact that I've completed UMTYMP with little trouble), but because I find it very interesting. We left later and went to Monterey (over an hour away). We arrived at about 8:40PM. The convention was at a Hyatt Regency resort. It was a very nice hotel which was on the old Del Monte golf course. We checked in, registered for the convention and then put our stuff in our room.

I first met with friend whom we call Titu (many Oriyas have nicknames that they are always referred to by) in the conference center where most of the activities took place. We went to the lobby and met with Leena and Tina (they are sisters, there is a neat little convention to naming children that we've noticed this weekend). We seperated our selves from Leena and Tina temporarily and went back to the conference center.

Titu and I met up with Sunita and Monty, former Minnesotans that were really good friends with us. We were trying to passively avoid someone who was drunk. We re-met up with Leena and Tina and they did that thing with Sunita that girls do when they meet another girl they haven't seen in a while. I think Monty, Titu and I and another kid wound up at the sports bar at the Lobby. Titu and I ate a pizza and we were kicked out because it was past 11PM and they can't have minors then. Sunita, Leena and Tina joined us later and we went to Sunita's room (which was next to her parents, so we had to be a little quiet). We decided to hang out there for a while.

We watched a movie, the Wedding Singer. If you haven't seen it already, see it. It is the funniest movie I have seen in a long time. It also had the right amount of romance. It's kind of like the Princess Bride in some respects. It's a movie that has a chick-flick title, but it's just a really funny movie that can appeal to all. I was earlier told to see it with Molly by Raj and Kelly.

I told people about my "friend" this weekend. They were all surprised that I was able to keep this in hiding for 28 months. They thought the whole thing was neat. I was happy about that.

We went to the conference center and then the lobby and hung out there for a while. It was about 2 in the morning. We went back to Sunita's later and then were kicked out, becuase Monty was tired. I guess he also wanted Sunita to not stay out with us all night. So we left and it soon became Titu and I just hanging around. We went to the conference center (which was conveniently near Sunita and Monty's). I fell asleep on the floor. I woke up at about 4:00-4:30 AM and went to the lobby. We waited till 5:00, thinking the restaurant would open then. We found out it opened at 6:30 and were really tired and went to our respective rooms after I got a new key.

I was supposed to eat breakfast with Titu at 7, but I woke up late and got out of my room at about 9:30/10:00. It was now Friday, and the convention began. We could now officially say the convention sucked. I went to eat breakfast at the restraunt, and discovered Titu and the others (save Leena who was at UC Berkeley) at the sports bar. After I ate pancakes I went there and played some games. We later played Air Hockey and other games. We went to lunch to find it was bad, and then later we came back to the convention center. Titu went somewhere else, while Tina, Sunita and I went to the spa only to put our feet in the water, just because it was really cold outside, and we didn't want to be wet outside at all. Sunita got her pants really wet. Tina for some reason made a point to mention that we all had on our pants.

We kept hanging out at the sports bar when we were bored. The cultural activities sucked. We decided that the five of us and would go to the dinner gathering (the girls dressed up), just incase it was different from lunch (i.e. didn't suck). It sucked. We came back, peeped at the cultural show. Hung out. Went to knuckles near closing time and got some curly fries for almost nothing. That was fun. We later went to Sunita's room again and hung out. Shilpi left and then the rest of us left to see the dance. The dance sucked. Eventually we went back to Sunitas again. Titu, Leena, Tina and me decided we'd spend the night (or early morning) at Sunita and Monty's. We stayed up until 5AM, woke up at 8AM. Titu was gay, but I was a pimp.

Actually only I woke up at 8AM. Everyone else was very asleep. Saroj Uncle (Monty and Sunita's dad) woke up when I was about to leave. He was confused when he looked at the odd sleeping configuration.

I went to my room at 8AM, my dad was unhappy that I didn't tell him I'd be gone. I went back after showering and everyone besides Monty had left. So I went to the conference center to read a book. Rita Auntie (Leena and Tina's mom) told me that the girls were hanging out in her room. So I went there. Watched a dumb cartoon with Tina and Sunita while Leena showered. Then we left and ate breakfast. The breakfast was good. I had a belgian waffle. We met Shilpi on the way to breakfast too.

We skipped lunch (Monty and Titu went) because we ate a late breakfast. We hung out some more around the arcades and just walked about. We went back to the pool in this somewhat larger group. Sunita got her pants wet again. I commented earlier that she had a nice "Asphault." Rather I asked her if others did, because that was the brand of jeans she wore. Well her Asphault (brand jeans) got wet again. We went back to the sports bar, or something and hung out. You'd have thought we were bored of that place, but it's amazing how much pool you can play. We were annoyed at the concept of always going there, but the area of Monterey we were in was desolate. We met Titu there and some other people and played some pool, shot some hoops with the basketball machine, and yeah... We took a group picture in those photo booth things. I will scan and send it to people with email addresses (everyone uses AOL and/or Hotmail).

Our group of friends grew a bit for a while and around dinner time we hung out at my room since Sunita's room was checked out. We ordered a Pizza and talked a lot. Sheila and Smita (sisters) met up with us. Sheila goes to UIUC. I pumped her for useful information.

The girls went to the spa (girls only) and Titu, Monty and I crashed it. Well we did more than that. What I'm about to say is probably the coolest thing I've ever seen done... We walk up to the spa. The girls put up a fit about how it's girls only. Some of them start splashing us. I step back. Then out of nowhere Titu pushes Tina into the pool. She's upset because she's wearing her dad's shirt and well she's wet too. She chases him around the big pool and after sopme time stops. She talks to her sister Leena and tells her that she is cold. So people give her some towels to keep warm. She's still shivering and looks very cold. Then she pushes Leena in the Pool. When I found out that all of this was planned earlier by Tina and Titu I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. Leena was very upset and complaining how you can't push people in the pool if they are wearing white...

The dry among us went to the cultural show, while others went to change. We decided to skip out on the cultural show after it showed signs of being on the boring side. We hung out at the conference center's basement in a lot of the rooms. We just sat around talking. Everyone was really tired. A little after 2AM Sunita and Monty left. Shortly after, the rest of the group dispersed. I went to sleep and woke up at about 6:30 and rode to San Francisco and we went home.

I really like spending time with these people. There's nothing specific about them that I like. Perhaps it's just a long history of knowing them. Perhaps it's being raised similarly. I feel bad about not keeping in contact with them except once in a while. But hey, now I have their email addresses and can start an e-relationship. I don't think I am going to attend next years convention in Toronto. I'd much rather go to Convergence.

Today I am off to UIUC and will perhaps not have such a lengthy entry. Hopefully tomorrow I will do well on the placement exams.

Read full post
Site 4

Here is more information on Site 4. I'm just posting a nice little update, if you look back, you'll see I'm behind schedule. So here's what I "plan" to do after I come back from sunny California and UIUC:

10 June    Web design pages
11 June    How this site was made
12 June    Style guides
13 June    web usability
14 June    What's new.
15 July    Humor page
16 July    Rewrite RSG in PHP3 (with help from Nada)
17 July    RSG Information page
18 July    Links page and add-a-ma-tron.
19 July    Survey Script (with help from Jason Waye)
20 July    Education site....
21 July    Add people to friends page
22 July    Scan pictures
23 July    Window closing script (I need help on this).
24 July    Add more people to friends page
26 July    Beta testing of site begins
 1 August  Site is copied to root directory and replaces
           ftmax.com/ and ftmax.com/x

Read full post
Wave Pool

I Sunday I went to the Wave Pool with Adam, Laureen, Kit, Jenwa, Kerry and Ben Schack. It was a lot of fun, albeit the $6 admission + $2/2hour increments for the tubes was a little much.

Afterwards we (well all of us besides Kit) went to Good Earth. Unfortunately I went with Molly and her parents to the Good Earth in the Galleria on Saturday. It was fun none the less. We had a nice waitress and gave her a large tip and a children's menu that was all colored.

The whole day was very very fun. It was one of those days that made summer and friends seem enjoyable.

This week Molly and I work at the ITCEP/UMTYMP office. Doing inventory and stuff. It's pretty dull, but it is a nice environment. I found a few files from the Summer Institute I attended. That was cool. Today Katie came over to email people about something at Orchestra Hall featuring women composers on Thursday 16 July.

Hopefully I'll finish most of the Thank You cards tonight. Yesterday I asked my mom about the cards I had trouble with. Tomorrow I'm going to a wedding and Thursday morning I will for my first time fly to California. I come back Sunday and leave again on Monday for UIUC.

Read full post
ICQ-H@><0R

Has anybody been getting a series of messages with the body, "Jam with me?" or something about hackerz haven?

I've gotten almost one hundred of ICQ messages like that already. The UINs are large numbers not in the ICQ number range. I assume someone got a crazy hack thing. THe messages were sent at about 5:56-5:57PM today.

Read full post
Bloomington + Valleyfair

Tuesday Adam came over and we went to Home Depot looking for something with which to measure interior angles and could not find the propper device. Later we decided we didn't need it anyhow. We went to Bloomington so I could show him my old stuff and of that stuff we visited the libraries. Actually we went from one part of town to the other in five minutes in order to get a copy of Foundation and Earth before closing. Later we went to McDonalds. McDonalds is so nasty. We got like a 20pack of chicken McNuggets with Szechuan sauce. I will never eat that many McNuggets again. The sauce was okay.

Yesterday Molly and I went to Valley Fair with the SEI 1 group (part of the ITCEP deal). It was fun. Rather the water park was fun. Everything else was mediocre. I mean the roller coasters are not that great anymore.

Would anybody be interested in going to the Wave Pool in Anoka? Laureen was thinking this Sunday. I think I'll be able to make it. Adam said he would too. If your interested ICQ me. I suggest if you want to go, just find a few others who are going and go with them. No need to go as one huge group, nor is there need to go solo.

Read full post
bored

Currently I am doing absolutely nothing. I'm not in too good of a situation at all. I didn't wake up early because I have nothing to do. I sometimes write thank you notes, but that gets boring. Sometimes I read, but I've read a lot recently and am resting. I don't enjoy television and it is too gloomy outside to do any house work.

I'm not a good people person so I don't have that many friends I guess, well most of the ones I have I guess don't have a car or have a job or something. So I really have nothing to do. I don't like doing things in front of a computer either.

Tomorrow I go to Valley Fair with Molly and Laureen. That should be fun. I haven't been to Valley Fair with Laureen for five years. I wish Marc Gutman were in town. He'd know what to do...

Oh goddammit, I really wish he was in town... because I just came up with this cool-ass idea. Get a whole bunch of cardboard and build a people sized icosahedron that would be stable enough to like be inside. Heck even if you couldn't be inside it, it would be neat. I guess I'll just be waiting for Gutman.

Read full post