Mozilla Firefox

I downloaded Mozilla Firefox 2.0 today(11/12/06) because by some miraculous turn of events, I managed to get a hold of an open wireless signal. First time in ages.
Mozilla Firefox isn't extremely different. However, everything isn't as neat and simple as Internet Explorer. The Bookmark Toolbar is pretty cool, though. It's a toolbar that has all the websites you want, so all you have to do is click on one of them. That's probably my favorite thing about this whole program. Well, now the miraculous wireless signal has disappeared... -.-

from recordholders.org

The first world championship was held on 5 June 1982 in Budapest. First place: Minh Thai (USA) 22.95 sec.
Record time for the 4x4x4 cube (Rubik's Revenge): 1:00.38 min by Yuki Hayashi (Japan) at the Kyoto Rubik's Cube Contest on 10 July 2005.
Record time for the 5x5x5 cube: 2:08.45 min by Lars Vendenbergh (Belgium) at the European Championships 2004 in Amsterdam
One handed record: 25.95 sec by Christopher Hardwick(USA) at the US Championships on 10 July 2004.
With feet only: 4:06.68 minutes by Will Arnold (USA) at the Caltech Spring Tournament on 16 April 2005
Blindfold, fastest time: 2:41.54 minutes (including memorising), Leyan Lo (USA) at the Caltech Spring Tournament on 16 April 2005
Blindfold 4x4x4 cube: 19:54 min (including memorising), Dror Vomberg (Israel) at the European Championships 2004 in Amsterdam
Blindfold 5x5x5 cube: 2:34:36 hrs (including memorising), Stefan Pochmann (Germany) at the European Championships 2004 in Amsterdam
The fastest time for solving 2000 cubes was achieved by Jess Bonde (Denmark). He solved 2000 cubes in 22:16 hours on 16/17 Dec 2002 in Arhus.
The largest Rubik's Cube was built by Daniel Urlings (Luxemburg). Its edges are 3.52 m [3 yd 2 ft 7 in] long.
The most expensive Rubik's Cube was the Masterpiece Cube, produced by Diamond Cutters International in 1995. The actual-size, fully functional cube features 22.5 karats of amethyst, 34 karats of rubies, and 34 karats of emeralds, all set in 18-karat gold. It has been valued at about US-$ 1.5 mio.
The youngest person who solved a Rubik's Cube was John Ismael Ugelstad (Norway aged 5 years 117 days) who solved three standard Rubik's Cubes on 28 Dec 2004.
3x3 Fusion (Siamese Cube): 1:10.96 min by Kenneth Brandon (USA) at the World Championships 2003 in Toronto

i saw the gulf of mexico

My family and I visited St. George Island State Park today. The sand was so white and smooth, and there were an incredible amount of small seashells.
What greatly suprised me was the condition of the park. The restroom building was very new, and the restroom was really, really nice. It was the opposite of the parks in Door County, WI. But WI is still better.
There was a nine-mile long bridge that connected the U.S. to the island. It took about 20 years to build, I think.
Tomorrow is my first Chamber rehearsal- 9:00 to 10:30 am!
I really need to practice math now... There's no way I'm getting on the team if I keep procrastinating.

bored

I'm having trouble thinking of anything to type.
But I wrote an Ode to Food today describing (someone else's, for once) obsession with food. I printed copies to give to three people at school.
I looked at our end-of-the-year 8th grade pictures from Governor Dodge State Park. It was extremely depressing. There was one picture with Connie, Francesca, Rose, and Sharon, and it was a side picture of them sitting on a bench and the whole thing was kind of dark you could see the outlines of some of their laughing faces... Good times :) I miss them and everyone else!

doomed

Yes, I am officially in deep trouble. It all started when I found I was going to CHS. It's been all exponentially downhill from there.
I have come to a big dilemma(can't spell) that I can't really solve unless I take one of my future courses on FLVS, which doesn't sound too great because all of these are big classes. Well not that big. Just... Not good to do online.
I want to take:
AP Stats
Pre-Calc
Bio
Chem
English II
World History
Spanish
However, I also want to take AP Psych. Although I'll be lucky if I can in sophomore year. The thing is, I'll only have one AP class. This will definitely not prepare me for what I want to take for junior year:
AP Calc
AP Chem
AP Lang
AP American History
AP Psych
Spanish
Physics
Yeah... not a smooth transition. Here's senior year:
AP Calc (maybe)
AP Physics
AP Lit
AP Macroeconomics/AP American Government
AP Bio
Spanish
Something else
I'm not saying these are my final decisions. It's something like that, though. Unfortunately for me, everyone says that they aren't offering AP World History anymore. I guess that's my main problem. Also, I can't take AP Euro since I need to fufill the requirement- world history and other requirements that I will be fullfilling(still can't spell) in junior and senior year.
I can't stand this!!!!!!!! *throws grenade at something living*

Books

My recent favorite books:
Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer
The End By Lemony Snicket
Beginning Programming for Dummies by Wallace Wang

The Artemis Fowl books are probably my favorite of all time.

The End wasn't exactly an end, but it was pretty good. I liked Ink. There is also a book (I think this is the name), The Beatrice Letters. It's pretty cool. I got it from the library before The End.

I wrote a few more simple programs with QBASIC, but the thing is, it's only really fun if you can watch someone actually use it. Using it by myself is kind of boring, particularly because I wrote them. So, I my brother did them. One of them claimed that he owed money by raising the input number to the 5th power, and then adding one so the answer wouldn't be $0. Another one talked about Asians... Heh.

Chamber Orchestra

YES! I got into the first violin section of Chamber Orchestra!!!!! Heh... It's like... the equivalent of Concert/Phil in Madison. But one of the excerpts was really, really hard. I completely messed up the other one.

On Friday, my dad took me to the rehab center at FSU.
Don't worry- it was because the Psychology Clinic is in the rehab center.
We each had to fill out multiple forms. Then, they put me in a room with this guy who asked me random questions. The first one was, "Have you ever wanted to hurt yourself?" Then, my dad came into the room to finish up the questionnaire. Finally, I was in another room all by myself, taking a true/false questions. There were over 320 questions, as far as I can remember. They were all psychological. Some of them were things like, "Is your teacher trying to do you in?", "Is your father a good man?", "Do you love your father?", "Is your mother a good woman?", "Do you love your mother?", "Is someone trying to do you in?", "Is someone following you?", "Are you possessed by evil spirits?", "Do you like school?", "Do you count things such as the number of light bulbs on a sign even though there is no point?"
The related questions were spaced apart so that every 50 questions or so, you would find very similar questions, such as the "do you in" ones.
In both rooms, there was a huge window on the left wall. I think they were those special one-way windows. Very creepy.
Also, the guy asked me if I wanted to hurt someone. I had to say no, but by then, I was thinking about hand-grenading the junior... Then, during the true/false test, a very similar question came up. I had to lie...
I'm going to take an IQ test eventually, but I don't think my parents have used the two phone numbers I gave them yet... I really hope I make it into the Gifted program! This is my last chance!

My parents are out grocery shopping. I should've asked my mom to get ring pops. However, that probably wouldn't've been a very good idea.

I got the programming book from the library today AND The End!!!!!!!!!! Today was such a great day! I wrote my first computer program today with QBASIC which I got from the Windows 98 CD that we still have from our old computer. It is awesome. I just hope this isn't one of those obsessions that I'll quickly lose interest in, though, because I really need to decide on a major for college.

Irony

I had a 108 in math. Next, I got a 100 on my test. Then, I got a 100 on my homework. Lastly, I got 100 on my homework. My grade went DOWN!!! For being perfect, too. It was sad. It happens to me a lot, too. You can look at it like you got a 98 and you made 90's on a lot of things, but a 100 isn't bad at all, so that's what makes the whole thing seem so weird.

I have the TSYO audition tomorrow... In approximately 14 hours and 8 minutes.

I'm really unhappy about how the AP classes at Chiles are really difficult, but the 9th grade classes are so incredibly easy that they are all teaching middle school stuff. It is also weird how many AP classes cannot be taken before junior year, such as Psychology! I really want to take Psychology now, but I must wait during two more agonizing years of easy classes. Only two other freshmen at Chiles actually know how I feel. Everyone else is either completely stupid, superficial, or both.

14 hours and 5 more minutes...

It's so difficult to be nervous

because you can't function properly. During my lifetime, I have been nervous the most often during piano performances. Once, I could see my hands shaking because I was so nervous. I didn't do too well at that recital...

Tomorrow morning's my gifted screening. I am way too nervous about it. Mainly because I know I'm going to fail it because it's really difficult, especially by high school, since intelligence tests are calculated by age. Too bad WI didn't have a gifted program.

Now, my some of friends know the guy I want to bomb. They hate him too, but (unfortunately) don't think of grenades every time they see him. They don't think of hacking, either. For me, his name automatically triggers both thoughts simutaneously.

I still don't have anything happy to post. But za4-ing that one guy up is kind of happy, I guess.

Does anyone know where you can buy ring pops? I haven't seen those things for ages, and I'll need them in approximately 1o years.

happy-ish thoughts

I typed this on the other laptop(which is the only other computer possible) with Notepad, so I'm going to type really quickly so there's going to be more mistakes than usual unless I happen to be very weird and accurate today.

List of happy things I can say about my life
1. I'm not dead. ut if I were, I wouldn't e able to say this. So it really isn't that special. But it's happy! In a morbid way...
2. Two people read my blog.
3. I have more than enough basic neccesities to keep me alive.
4. My brother isn't big enough to beat me up.
5. My school has AP classes. Yay...
6. I'm getting enough wireless signal to load Google.com.
7. I have friends.
8. I have nice school supplies.
9. I'm Asian AND Chinese.
10. I have a piano and violin.
11. I'm hopefully going to get that programming book from the library- finally!
12. The bus comes early every morning now. Except I get home later. But it still gets to school early. Too early.
13. I'm still not dead.

Oh, look- another depressing post. The point of the whole list was to find myself happy things to say in posts, emails, chats, etc., but obviously, it didn't work too well.
The gifted test and orchestra auditions quickly being closer to the present really isn't helping.