Senior Prank and MIT

So the class of '09 did their senior prank today.

This is in the school's amphitheatre!

In other news...MIT came to San Diego! I met Kim Hunter and was totally psyched about that and I think the admissions info night just solidified what I already knew - I WANT TO DO RESEARCH and MIT IS THE BEST PLACE FOR THAT.

Well now I have to go study for the AP US history test I have tomorrow. Oh, the humanities - they definitely don't fit into my "inspirational" category.

October Sky...

Just watched October Sky for the 14th time. I swear it is one of THE MOST INSPIRING movies I've seen in my lifetime. Everytime I see it two things happen - 1. I cry 2. I get so hyped up about science and inspired to go make something amazing.

I remember the first time I watch it I was about 10 or 11 and I went and made a huge lego city/castle on my bedroom floor. That caused a few problems because everytime my mum came in she would step on a piece of lego and shout at me - finally after about 2 weeks I was forced to pack my lego city away.

Then I think it was the 9th time I saw October Sky that I did a 2000 piece Disney puzzle - I was about 14. I remember it took me about 3-4 weeks and I was so adamant about doing it by myself in the beginning. After about the first week I had barely anything down and I nearly gave up and I just sat there thinking to myself "I'm never going to get this done." I think a couple days later my friends and I had a movie night and we decided to watch October Sky (this was my 10th time) and it reminded me that I didn't need to do things alone. For the next 2-3 weeks my friends came over every weekend and worked on it for 9 hours a day and during the week I would do it by myself. Finally when we were down to the last piece I remember my two friends and I held the piece and put it into place together.

I wonder how I'll be inspired this time. I wonder how I will commemorate my 14th time watching October Sky. I'm hoping for something truly awesome that might inspire others.

Smores, Bonfire, Beach

So I had my first Smore today. It was somewhat strange but then again all the American food combinations are strange - for example who eats peanut butter with jam? That is just WEIRD.

In other news, my friends and I applied our chemistry knowledge and predicted that a can of soda would explode if put into the bonfire. (PV=nRT) lol and as we had predicted the can exploded but it wasn't a huge BAM BOOM explosion but rather a muffled imitation, which kind of was a disappointment.

The beach was nice. The sunset was romantic. The sand was all over me. It was like any other day at the beach except this time smores and a bonfire were involved.

Random Cameras On Campus - Necessary? Or Not?

So apparently we've had cameras in random places all over my high school campus since a couple students stole a whole stack of laptops last year but the cameras are in such outlandish places that it really doesn't seem like they serve a purpose.

Either they need to get more cameras or just scrap the whole camera idea all together because right now all they're useful for is...well...NOTHING.

NOTE: I had my Chem final - A SUPER DUPER AWESOME WAY TO START THE DAY OFF lol

Resting = Eating?

I just realized something - I force myself to eat when I don't feel like studying even though I'm not hungry. I think it's because I guilt trip myself into thinking that I shouldn't waste time just sitting down and watching tv so I say to myself .. "well if I eat that justifies my tv watching."

WRONG!

It just makes me feel sick (because of the food - you know that feeling you get when you overeat and you truly feel like the food is stacked all the way up your esophagus?) and still leaves me feeling guilty because I wasted an hour of study-time.
I think my brain has permanently just connected eating and resting together. Now I've just doomed myself to gain the freshman-15 when I go off to college - EXCELLENT.

Now back to CHEM STUDYING - orbitals, reaction mechanisms, colligative properties...YUM-O!

p.s. I can't believe I just posted TWICE in one day - I must really want to procrastinate today, which means I must really want to fail my chem final tomorrow. lol

sidenote: the girl I voted for student body president didn't win, the girl I voted for VP didn't win, and you guessed it, the guy I voted for treasurer didn't win - I TOLD YOU SO. ASB is totally a popularity contest. Also, I want to add that the guy who won the VP position totally exploited his embarrassing childhood to get the pity-votes! I don't know whether to call him clever or pathetic...perhaps pathetically clever? lol

Is ASB Just Another Popularity Contest?

My school voted for our student government president, vp, and treasurer yesterday.

To me it just seems like another opportunity for the popular candidates to boost their already overly inflated egos, but hey that's just my opinion.

My grade has so many cliques that it is impossible for the underdog with only a small circle of friends to win over the majority. I hope my choices win (probably unlikely).

On another note, the Community Service Board. Totally excited for this! The board has done so much this year and it's bound to do a whole lot more next year. Unfortunately the Sudanese tutoring center that I've been teaching at the past year and a half might close down because of insufficient funding. I'm hoping to get a charity running at my school to raise about $10 000.

I'm studying for the CHEM FINAL right now - buffers, thermodymanics, electrochem YUM YUM YUM! lol

MEGA NEWS!

I got

105%

on my last chem quiz!

That is all (the little splash of green was in celebration of EARTH DAY)
Tomorrow I have the huge neuroscience convention at UCSD!! EXCITING.
Note: It was cooler today...you could even say it was cold.

Hot, hot, hot!

Approximately 90F today, which is about 32C. That is HOT. It feels like I'm back in Australia. The difference is the air isn't nearly as dry.
In other news - my brother has been playing Halo and Guitar Hero nonstop for the past few months and I came across this article the other day (it's pretty interesting).
CHECK IT OUT!
http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=can-kids-become-addicted-to-video-g-2009-04-20
Other than that I'm out of things to write so I'll be back tomorrow with something a little bit more exciting to say.

Check this out!

My friend Danielle gave me a link to this youtube channel and told me that nat (the girl in the youtube videos) reminds her of me.
CHECK IT OUT:
http://www.youtube.com/user/communitychannel?blend=1&ob=4
So if you were ever wondering what a TRUE Ozzi accent sounded like, now you know.
NB: The crocodile hunter accent is FAKE - NO ONE TALKS LIKE THAT!!!

Summer + Dr. Koob + Neuropeptide Y = PERFECT!

NEUROPEPTIDE Y

The most unexpected miracle happened this past week!

Until this afternoon I had no concrete idea about what I was going to do this summer. I knew I wanted to do research in a lab and preferably research neuroscience but I didn't have a position.

I applied for two summer programs:
1. BIOCOM
2. HBRI

Both are great but they are programs so I was sure they would have strict guidelines, which would prevent me from being able to conduct my own research - a BIG DOWNER!

Well a few days ago my AP Bio teacher emailed Dr. Koob, I emailed him earlier this year asking him if he would provide me with an internship because he researches alcohol's effects on the brain and he has a team under him that studies eating behavior. And GUESS WHAT?

He immediately responded to my teacher and said he would love me to work with him and his team. In addition to that, it looks like I'll be getting a piece of that HUGE $800billion stimulus package because apparently the Fed govt. wants to fund high school students interested in research!! So it looks like I'll be getting a grant! (kind of?)

I AM SO EXCITED! I wonder if this is how you would feel if you got into the college of your dreams (ie MIT). Actually, on second thought getting into MIT would be MUCH MUCH BETTER! But this fantastic internship opportunity is high up there on the AWESOMENESS chart.

So it looks like I'll be spending the majority of my summer in a lab playing with mice and brains - EPICNESS!!

Affects of NPY antagonist (skinnier mouse recieved injections of the NPY antagonist)

Last AP Chem Test

Had the last AP Chem test today on o chem and nuclear chem. I definitely think I aced the test. I knew all the material and the multiple choice questions were a piece of cake. The final is next Saturday. I can't believe we've covered all the material.

Best class EVER! I love everyone in that class. We're all scholars and the discussions we have are just awesome. I'm going to miss Mr. Lineback's ridiculous analogies LOL I remember when he made a connection between bonds and match.com and everyone was like "are you talking from personal experience?" LOL!

I hope we finish the year off with a BANG - literally. I think some of my classmates and I are going to try and build a hydrogen peroxide mini bomb after the APs are done.

Looking forward to AP Physics next year. Kind of annoyed about the fact that our school doesn't offer Physics C though. Physics B only contains a limited amount of calculus and only touches on a myriad of topics - there's NO DEPTH!

Well this was a pointless blog celebrating my last chem test - WOOHOO!!

Weather

So the day began gloomy and cold - I think the special guy up in heavens knew that I had the AP Psych entrance exam at 7:30am today. It was long and dreary much like the weather outside. The test was 100 multiple choice questions about absolutely NOTHING.

I thought psych would deal more with the functions of different parts of the brain and the effects of the functions on behavior, but apparently the psych class is more concerned about various areas in psychology and how each area approaches behavior. Not that, that isn't interesting because learning about Locke and Hobbes and Descartes is awesome. It's just not what I was expecting.

Now having said that, I will rephrase my opinion of the test - the test was 100 multiple choice questions about interesting facts that I'd rather learn by reading a book than by sitting in an AP class.

But I digress, let's go back to the weather. So approximately 10 minutes after I leave the testing room the sun begins to show its head. EXCITING-NESS! SUMMER IS FINALLY APPROACHING. But no! A couple minutes later the icy wind returns leaving me to walk to my english class shivering in the gloom.

The weather was like that the whole day - sun. gloom. sun, gloom, sun, gloom, sun gloom sun gloom sungloomsungloomsungloom...until the sun merged into the gloom and the gloom melted into the sun and the sun and the gloom created this new type of weather called SULOOM.

The last week or so has been suloomy. I think it's because the weather, like many juniors at this point, doesn't know whether to feel happy because the year is nearly OVER or sad because the APs are in less than a month.

I hope April passes soon and May comes and goes in less than a second because I can't wait to finish junior year and get started on my college apps! (this is what you call sarcasm if you didn't already realize)

HILARIOUS!

FAILURE - We can't spell failure without U.

UNIQUE - Just because you are unique does not mean you are useful.

RETARDS - We all know one.

A picture says a thousand words - I just said 3000+!

Which Functional Group Would You Be?

April 16 = O Chem test

In celebration of all that is O chem I decided to pick a functional group I'd like to be in another lifetime. It's an interesting thought.
If I had to choose, I'd definitely have to go with the haloalkane.
Not only is it holy - HALOalkane (it has a halo) - but tetrafluoroethane (a haloalkane found in air canisters) boils below room temperature and looks bloody AWESOME.

It looks like a mini whirlpool.

A mini whirlpool boiling over with a whole lot of AWESOME-NESS! Sounds like me lol.
Now it's your turn...which functional group would you be?

Homework Rant

The big, bad APs are coming. With that in mind, my stress levels are reaching their peaks. Not only that but my teachers are beginning to pile on the homework and test load. Just this week, the week after EASTER might I add, I have a AP psych test, nuclear and O chem test and a Great Gatsby essay (as well as all the usual homework mumbo-jumbo). Where is the holiday spirit? There is none.

Next week isn't better, I have a digestion, circulation, virus and immune system MEGA bio test, WWII and post-WWII history test and my chemistry final! In addition to those killers I'll probably attain my handy-dandy calc packet. PERFECT.

Oh wait, and before you think, "that isn't too bad..." remember that I have the big, bad APs starting on May 6th, which I haven't even started reviewing for.

Due to this school work overload my parents won't let me participate in the student plays that I've been looking forward to. If I were to tech the shows I would not get home until 10pm every night starting April 21 and ending May 1. Thank God I made time for the musical last quarter.

In my opinion I think the teachers need to take into account our life OUTSIDE academia and stop giving us a whole lot of busy work but hey that's just my opinion.

Enough with the rant and back to the US History reading that I'm pretending to do.

50.5 things

This is my third blog. I had one as a Freshman, another as a Sophmore and Junior, and now with Junior year coming to a close I'm beginning a new one as a soon-to-be Senior.
To begin let me give you a sense of who I am with a list of 50.5 things I can accomplish in under a minute each.

50.5 THINGS (I can do in a minute):
Note: #46 will explain why it is 50.5 and not 50
1. Log onto the MIT admissions website
2. Write a blog entry
3. Look at the scattergrams of 21 colleges on naviance
4. Come up with11 valid reasons NOT to do history reading.
5. Read an article on Scientific American
6. Eat one mini burger from Sammy’s
7. Type “I hate the SAT” 23 times with no mistakes
8. Come up with a brilliant dare for someone
9. Look at a cloud in the sky and tell you what animal it looks like
10. Tell you the 7 elemental diatomics – Professor HOFBrINCl
11. Read an analog clock
12. Put shoes on
13. Brush my hair
14. Do a minute of community service
15. Shout at my brother for playing guitar hero for 5 hours straight and driving my entire family crazy
16. Eat a chocolate bar
17. Go from Tutti Fruiti to Regent’s Pizza
18. Not blink
19. Hold my breath
20. Drink a bottle of water
21. Hold an ice cube
22. Run up the stairs in my house
23. Sign my name
24. Swipe my credit card in a credit card machine
25. Not talk
26. Not laugh
27. Keep my mouth open
28. Smile
29. Read in the car before I feel like throwing up
30. Open my laptop
31. Make myself cry
32. Chew gum
33. Memorize 15 SAT vocabulary words
34. Tell a joke
35. Make fun of Asians, women, Australians or all three at the same time (note: I am a female Asian with an Australian citizenship - I lived in Australia for 16 years of my life)
36. Come up with a one word description for everyone in my calculus class
37. Read someone else's weblog
38. Say sorry
39. Wash my hands
40. Sing the happy birthday song – badly might I add
41. Dislike someone – not a good trait, I’m working on fixing it
42. Get bored
43. Accidentally offend someone by telling them the truth – people have called me ruthlessly truthful since I was in 4th grade
44. Make a friend with a stranger
45. Make someone else smile or even better make someone else laugh
46. Whine about homework – actually this is only HALF true because I usually whine for more than a minute.
47. Make a paper snowflake
48. Send an email to my Australian friend listing how terrible America is – I don’t do this very often anymore
49. Make 6 words using the elements on the periodic table (TaN, SAuNa, KISS, ThINK, HOP, POP)
50. Swallow a pill
51. Since #46 only counts as half I’ll add another talent I possess that can be accomplished in under a minute - Play chopsticks on the piano