i typed this using only my voice.

Weekend Update!

You know what sucks?

Being sick

You know what sucks worse?

Being sick in the summer.

If there's no school to get out of, there is no point in being sick (unless you're a freak of attendance like this guy)

Speaking of, he wrote an interesting blog about blogging. Yes yes, how very existential self-reference post-modern of him, but it's an interesting read.

Anyway, I'm sick and have done nothing but lay in bed and drink orange juice. (not so different from my "well" life) but I did buy tickets for the midnight premier of the Dark Knight at IMAX and I'll be camping out before the showing, so I should have some cool things to talk about then. Also, tomorrow is the last day of June, everyone say bye June!

An update, a funny quirk, and a challenge.

So the lack of school (and an interesting summer job this year, boo recession) has made for some interesting opportunities for me. (side note, did you know I never spell opportunities correctly the first time? I always spell it oppurtunities for some reason) Most of this summer I've spent doing things I never deemed important enough, or had enough time to do before. I'm trying to absorb as much Texas as I can before I leave (Which luckily means a lot of BBQ), but I'm also reading books. For fun. which I haven't done in a whi--- "Chris What books are you reading?"

Ok, way to interrupt. That's rude, this is my blog, but since you insist:

The Big Over Easy-Henry Fforde (Not a typo, his last name has two F's right next to each other)
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The bell jar - Sylvia Plath


So with that, my librarian thinks I must be a violent sociopath.

Have you guys seen this?


Oh I almost forgot, my challenge!

Ok, do you see that little map off to the right? the one with little red dots on it? that's the number and location of pings to my blog I get. (Note the big dot in Massachusetts, that's doubtless the fault of Paul and Snively)

So heres my challenge. Link to my blog, send it to people you know who know other people in other countries, I want worldwide representation. You can do it, I know you can.

Nerdcore.

Hokay guys, another little snippet of a blog. Check this out. So I bought a laptop right, and it's nice, does all the stuff I want, ( 3Gb ram, Intel Duo core, Nvidia for you fellow nerds), but the speakers just aren't very loud. I am a bit of an Audiophile, so crappy sound sort of bugs me. But I'm also a big nerd, and realize that there are ways to do whatever you want with electronics. So looking at my audio deck I notice that the tape recorders are collecting dust because, well, this isn't 1985.

*lightbulb*

hey, I could use the tape deck channel as an input from my laptop.

hmm, but how? the only output I have is an 1/8th stero jack for headphones.


So I head off to Fry's to get a long stereo jack ($3, awesome!) and some solder and I head back home. I carefully crack open the tape deck and take a look on the inside. Heat sinks, motors, all sorts of crazy stuff, then I find what I'm looking for, the stereo out. Cut off the end of the wire I don't need, solder the leads in place, drill a hole through the case and BAM now my laptop has 5.1 surround sound in my room. Movies are epic, YouTube is legendary, iTunes is phenomenal, even Pandora sounds fabulous. Greatest mod so far.


MIT here I come!

FPOP

Hallo blogosphere! This is a blogget to let the world know that I got into the hiking Orientation program for MIT that I wanted! I can't wait!White Mountains

A week of backpacking through the white mountains, navigating by compass, learning wilderness survival techniques.

I can only assume it will be taught by Bear Grylls

Anyway, I now leave on August 17th which is a week earlier than I'd planned before, but I think it will be time well spent. I can easily translate survival in the wilderness to survival in college: lack of food and clothing, inhospitable environment, fend for yourself, bears; ok maybe not bears, but I hope I learn some useful (or at least cool!) things while I'm away.

Easier living tip#1

I'm going to start out bold.

Boys are disgusting.

As a boy I sometimes cut a lot of corners be it with cleaning a room, or mowing the lawn, or doing the dishes. I like to think of myself as efficient, but in reality it's probably just laziness. With this in mind, I'm proud to present you with the first in a probably one part series of easier living tips as brought to you by me and my boy habits.

#1: Clothes that are marginally dirty (i.e. physically clean but just sort of smell bad) can be "cleaned" by just throwing them in the dryer with a few dryer sheets. You're good to go for at least another two or three wears.

Ang-Ray and the last days of school

I've been absent from the blogosphere because I've had an unusual (well, for me) amount of stuff to do in the real world (or IRL for you true internet junkies). School has been done for a while, and in fact all I do all day is sign yearbooks, make jokes, play my guitar and sleep.

This is English IV AP believe it or not.

It's nice to wind down though, high school has been crazy. I won't wax nostalgic (yet anyway), so I only say that to establish that I have a lot of free time so that maybe you'll understand why things like this next part happen:

CAUTION VEGETARIANS! THE MEAT OF THE ENTRY FOLLOWS:

So today was Senior checkout, which for those uninitiated marks the official last day for Seniors. All you do is get everyone to sign a sheet saying you owe the school nothing, and your grades are locked and theres nothing you can do except graduate. It starts at 8 and takes about 10 seconds. Kim, James, Kayla and I all finished and decided to go to Starbucks. (Side note: Black Tea Lemonade is a prime example of what scientists are referring to as "delicious") We just sat at the bar for a while talking and joking around while I glanced over the bulletin board. If you've never been in a Starbucks (in which case I wonder how you've been on the internet and not at a Starbucks), then you may recall the giant bulletin board where people put stuff. On this bulletin board was an ad that said "Astros Tickets: Pairs available for Boston Games" and a listing of prices for tickets and game dates. In the lower left corner of the bulletin board is a very large bullet that reads "board is for information only, not for selling things" Noticing an opportunity for mischief, I decide to call "Ray" about his baseball tickets. voice mail picks up and I leave the following message:

"Look here Ray, I'm at starbucks and the bulletin board clearly says in the lower left corner 'board is for information only, not for selling things', I don't know if you were standing in such a way that it fell in your blindspot, or perhaps you're missing your left eye, in which case I am sorry, but you astros tickets are very clearly things, and thus selling them is in direct violation of the board! Good day!"

So I thought I made it pretty clear that I couldn't possibly be serious, but no less than 1 minute later my phone rings.

It's Ray.

I let voicemail pick it up, and receive the following message:

"Hey Chris, it's Ray, hey I'm really sorry about the board, I didn't realize it was such a big deal, but I don't appreciate your attitude about the whole thing, you could've just told me politely to take it down, you didn't have to be a jerk about it, anyway I gotta get going" *click*

So Ray didn't catch on that I was joking. Rather than exacerbate the problem, I just left him a note on the board that said:

"Ray,

Hey I was just kidding, I don't think anyone is really offended by you trying to sell Astro's tickets.

~Chris

P.s. Knock $50 off Thursdays game and call me"