I’ve been taking class here at the University of Texas at Austin for four weeks now; midterms were last week. I’m still struggling a bit in chemistry, but after the professors tag-teamed, I’m starting to get a grasp on chemistry. It’s mainly because the new professor teaches with concepts and common sense instead of quantum models. Maybe it’s just this unit we’re on. And the old professor cared when I played on my DS in class, though she thought I was texting. Imagine being called out in a class of 170 students… It’s like high school all over agan, except the classroom is an auditorium. I’ve gotten D’s on both tests so far, and a D is a 60 – 69. Of course, my homework and quiz grades are respectable, but those are only weighted at 10% of the semester average. Looks like it’s time for a clutch when finals roll around.

In calculus, it’s a different story. I took calculus AB in high school. I didn’t do spectacular, finished the semester with an 81. When course registration started in March, I didn’t know how well I’d do on the AP, and the lowest level math I could enroll in was M408C. So in May I took the AP, and I was pretty sure I bombed it. Calculus has pretty much been a freebie, even during lectures I end up falling asleep or watching a video on the Zune. It’s pretty much a review, and I breeze through the quizzes and test. The only catch is that a student needs to get a 99 or above on all assignments to be exempt from the final. It’s too bad that the rule doesn’t work if you have a 99 average. In American Studies, there is a five page paper due next Thursday. For those of you still at home, enjoy summer. Taking class in college is basically like high school, except you don’t actually have to go to class, but most teachers have daily quizzes to ensure you’re in class. And you can’t really get on Facebook or surf the Internet in most classes because the professors don’t allow laptops or the grad students watch your screens.

College is just a lot of fun because of outside of class. It’s good to be away from home and living by yourself. Oh, and you can eat, sleep, drink (haha) whatever you want, whenever you want. Of course, it’s always good to visit home every now and then, and I find myself visiting Houston every other weekend. This weekend I’ll be in Houston again, so if anyone wants to have plans for something Friday evening, I’m free!

I have been ignoring this blog again, and I promise to try to update more frequently! So who thinks I should redesign the color scheme?

Adventures with a life-sized chef doll. Dubbed Tony because we couldn’t think of a more generic Italian name.

For the entire album, click here.

I’m not an expert on speakers. Total wattage means nothing to me. I don’t know what the signal-to-noise ratio is. I can’t tell the difference between impedence and independence. All I know is that the green plug goes in the green hole, you press the power button and crank it.

Well, I decided to upgrade my speaker system to Logitech Z 2300’s. I had Creative SBS 380’s before. Both are 2.1 configuration: 2 satellite speakers and one subwoofer. I got the Creatives in September, one of my first purchases on eBay. They provided good bass response and clear trebles. I’m a total audiphile, and the Creatives were perfect for me. Mainly because I upgraded from a set of no-name two speaker set with absolutely no bass.

My friend Neil L bought a set of Logitech Z-4’s, so I decided to hit up his room. I hooked up my laptop to the speakers, and they were pretty impressive. He said he got them $60 retail, plus $30 shipping. It was a 2.1 speaker set, the subwoofer was bigger than my Creatives. It sounded really decent. I went on eBay, and the total price would be around $50 or $60 including shipping. I read a couple reviews, and eventually I looked at Logitech’s top of the line 2.1 speaker model, Z-2300.

Apparently, the Z-2300 is “one of a select few speaker systems that meets the rigid standards for unparalleled THX quality sound.” I picked up the box from the front desk. The box was huge. The girl at the front was pushing it with her foot, she said, “Uhh… can you come and get this?” Once in my room, right out of the box, this subwoofer is humongous. I mean, it looked like a computer tower from the side. I get it set up within five minutes and I’m testing the sound. The bass is so rich and full. In the manual, the sub is 11″ x 11″ x 15″. It fits right under my desk next to my feet. The remote for the sound sits on the desk, has huge smooth knobs for volume and best of all, bass. My old Creatives had no bass control so sometimes the bass would get distorted if I turned it up too high. But these Logitechs… wow! The bass is rich all the way up to max volume. And my friends checked it out, they could hear it from down the hall. I feel really bad for my neighbors. They are gonna hear my crappy song selection this whole semester. Patrick is five feet away from me, and I have to shout so he can hear me.

Once again I have to say that I’m not an expert on sound systems. But I know good sound when I hear it. The bass is just so filling. Definitely a recommend for those of you into audio. It’s 2.1, too, so you only need one audio jack. Those of you with 5.1 HD jacks on your computer, I envy you, I’ve seen some decent ones on eBay for $70 incl shipping.

There’s the next question. How much did this system set me back? Retail at Amazon.com for $77 + $30 shipping. Total cost is ~$100. It’s one of the best $100 I’ve ever spent. Not too good for rocking out to death metal, but I just turn the bass down.

Check out the new song. Pause your media player for a couple minutes to listen to this new track. It’ll be well worth your time.

James H, David L, and Annieky Y came to visit Pat and me in Austin. They passed by Roger C’s house and they stayed a bit at our dorm, watching old CYC videos. We went to Mellow Mushroom later that night, and it was good as ever. Their plans for the rest of the night were to buy fireworks and shoot them at James’s ranch. At first I was reluctant to go because I’d rather stay in Austin and see what was going down later that night. Then I realized we got to shoot fireworks. Who would rather sit and watch fireworks than shoot fireworks themselves on Independence Day?

On the way to La Grange, we see a huge fireworks megastore, lit up by a dozen floodlights. Inside, its walls are full of all kinds of things that go boom. I think we ended up buying $100+ worth of fireworks. It’s ten times more fun being close to the mortars when they shoot the fireworks into the sky, and they go off directly above you. I guess it’s just human nature to see shit being blown up. Pictures are up on Facebook, videos coming soon.

For $75 in the summer semester, I get 10 Gb of bandwidth a week of internet anywhere on the University of Texas campus. The bandwidth resets every Thursday. Well, on Friday I realized that I have used 16 Gb… I’m over the limit by 6 Gb and counting. The number keeps getting bigger because they don’t restrict my internet. So I’m guessing at the end of this week, I’m gonna get this big ass bill. My weekly usage averages around 5 to 6 Gb. How did I get this high? I have no idea. But I’m sure one big component was Team Fortress 2, which is about 6 Gb. Since the ethernet allows me to download at speeds in excess of 2 mb/s it felt like nothing. Hence the videos coming soon, it’ll be too much bandwidth used.

I’ll be in Houston next weekend. My plans include checking out the Chinese Youth Camp counselor training. The only downside to getting summer programmed at UT is missing CYC. But summer program opens all new doors of oppurtunity for me. CYC will be great this year.  Despite some crucial players not attending, I still think CYC will make it. A lot of older kids have phased out, some are not going this year. From what I’ve heard, there has been quite a bit of promoting, and there are more 16 year old counselors this year. 2006 was the year Wesley, Tracey and I were the 16 year old counselors. Even last year, when everyone thought CYC was going to shit, and we had an inexperienced guy head counselor, CYC still made it. I think this year will be a challenge to the newbloods. Since all of the older kids have since moved on, 2008 will be a challenge to the new generation of CYC. They’re coming in early, and I believe they can do it. We should forget what we thought of them before, but we should focus on how they can contribute to CYC. I highly doubt anyone from CYC will read this, but I sincerely hope the counselor team this year can put aside differences and make CYC own this year. The advisors this year are all former CYC counselors, I know they will keep the weaker groups together. There have been a bunch of new campers on the younger side to join and we want them to keep coming. I’ve only been at camp a total of 3 years; everyone says I missed all the years that camp was fun. I think the three years I’ve been here have been the most fun. If we can bring that kind of fun to camp, now that we’re back at McNeese, CYC just may be saved.

I’m going to try to visit the counselors next week at training, but I doubt that the adults will let me in. I’ve got a feeling the group advisors will be like, “Hell no.” Actually, I have in mind two advisors I know for sure that will say that. It’s true, I have no business being at training, but I’m just curious about the counselors this year and I’m hoping to give them some pointers. But to tell the truth, despite everything I say, I still miss CYC dearly. I just want to see all the people from CYC at training.

CYC is at McNeese State University this year. Lake Charles is 8 hours driving from Austin. Who knows, I just may show up. Probably not.