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[Apr. 17th, 2006|07:44 pm] |
Subject: Cake
From: Carl Jantzen
Date: 7:38 PM
To: Brian Ladd
Had a slice of marble cake for dessert. Thought of you.
-Carl
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| Amador Valley High School Comp Civix 2005 - Remember the Hilton |
[Jun. 15th, 2005|04:08 am] |
Greg Zissel, Kristina Scheutt, and myself just completed the adventure of a lifetime.
Around 8:30 Allie and I picked up Kristina and Greg. We drove to Target with the intent of purchasing a game of Scrabble to give to Mr. Ladd to remember us by. Target didn't have Scrabble Delux, however, but a quick trip to Wal Mart secured us the item we needed. After dropping Allie off at home (it was approaching her bedtime), the three of us went to Nicole's house. We had her take a picture of us holding the scrabble game, to put on a card to give to Ladd.
However, while trying to find a suitable location to take the picture, we realized that the background we needed for the photo didn't exist in Pleasanton. After making some quick preperations (Grabbing snacks, drinks, flags and hats, and of course we all went home and put on our CompCivix shirts) we set out for Sacramento.
Ninety miles and about one hour later we were in the Capital. After Greg attempted to make a U-turn on a one-way street we had a quick discussion with an insane homeless person, and we found the Capitol Building. We took about fifty still photos and probably half an hour of video outside the building in which Arnold works. We saw a security guard, but he didn't give us a second look, even though we were running around the steps of the Capitol waving flags like madmen. I even did a backflip off of a huge flower pot.
After the Capitol we drove around in search of resources. We found paper, pens, and a photo album at a Walgreens. A gas station provided us with caffine, and another one gave us auto fuel.
Our final stop was quite unexpected, but ended up being the most rewarding. While we were finding our way back to the freeway we saw the word HILTON in bright red letters. Swerving violently, Greg managed to put us into the lane we needed to get there. The hotel was eerily empty. A lone guy stood at the reception desk; we calmly walked by him and into the back room. A quick potty break occured before Greg and I positioned ourselves in front of the doorway to the Baryessa room, and droped our pants down around our ankles.
Now, I don't expect anyone who wasn't in CompCivix to understand how significant this was. Going back into that hotel, and re-embracing the No Pants Rule outside our place of greatest triumph and greatest failure brought on a feeling of closure. I experienced a catharsis, all the negative emotions that I acquired in that hotel were washed away.
We're giving Mr. Ladd the Scrabble Game, as well as the photo album and a copy of the video we made. Although we can never repay him for the years of hard work he has put in for our benefit, hopefully this gift will indicate how grateful we are that he touched our lives. |
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| Blah |
[May. 12th, 2005|06:42 pm] |
Blah.
Allie just called me, and told me to come over and watch Much Ado About Nothing. Except when I got to her house, her dad was the only person home, and he had no idea where she was. And of course Allie never has her cell phone on, so I couldn't call and find out where she was. About fifteen minutes later I got another call from her, saying that everyone was at Randal's house, and that they'd started the movie already. Awesome. She offered to pause it where it was for me, so I wouldn't miss anymore. Great. I politely decline, and head back home instead.
Before that I spent about an hour at the corner of Valley and Hopyard waving signs in my Dan Faustina shirt. It was pretty tiring, out in the sun, but still worthwhile. And before that I went to the first powderpuff cheerleading practice. I'm very excited that it's finally getting going. We're going to kick the Junior's asses.
I took my last AP tests today. Macroeconomics and microeconomics. Both were quite easy; the hardest part for me was concentrating long enough to get them finished. I fell asleep in the middle of one of the multiple choice sections; luckily I woke up with enough time left to finish. I'm expecting dual fives. Ladd bought us pizza to eat in between.
Yesterday evening I was supposto go with Kendell and Briana to Sky's birthday party, but those plans got called off so we just ended up hanging out at Briana's. We ate a bunch of candy and chilled out in the hot tub. Fun times.
Before that I went swimming at Allie's house after the AP Gov test. I had a blast over there, swimming and DDRing. I also re-learned how to do the foreward back tuck, where you run off the diving board facing forward, but you flip backwards in the air. It's important not to hit your head on the diving board, too.
The Government test was really easy too, I killed it dead. They had the nerve to ask me, a member of Unit 2, questions regarding the Judicial Branch and the Commerce Clause. I showed them the error of their ways.
Tuesday night I was at Allie's, and we watched the end of American Idol, of all things. Some of the candidates were talented; some weren't. Directly before that I was at Dan's campaign meeting, where we sat around and planned the activities for the rest of the week. It feels great to be part of something like this, and I'm glad that I'm being trusted to take part in the planning as well as implementation stages.
Tuesday evening I dropped Briana's sandals off at Kendell's house, after I left Allie's. She had told me to come over, but then when I got there she was just leaving to go eat dinner. Oh well. |
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[Apr. 12th, 2005|09:47 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | allie, compcivix, school | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  depressed | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Nine Inch Nails - All That Could Have Been | ] |
Today has been so emotionally draining.
We started the "Every fifteen minutes..." thing, where every fifteen minutes a senior or junior gets pulled out of school, and a police officer reads their obituary. They were all killed by drunk drivers. Then at the end of the day they told all upperclassmen to walk out to the street behind the school, where we watched a simulated accident involving a drunk driver. All of the participants in the accident, however, were Amador students. Real police, firemen, and paramedics all drove in with their sirens blazing. We actually watched them tear off the roof of a car with the jaws of life to remove a seriously injured student. They landed a helicopter on the baseball field. We watched real coroners pack a student into a body bag and drive him away.
Allie died, in fourth period. Hearing it was a major shock to me, even though we all knew she would be one of them. Mr. Ladd even talked to me afterward; I guess I was visibly distressed. And then in seventh period I had to listen to Randal making light of the situation. On the whole Randal is a good guy, and I like him a lot, but I really just wanted to punch him in the face after hearing him talk about her like that. I restrained myself, though. I didn't even say anything. Maybe I'm just overly sensitive.
I came home and took a nap, and when I woke up I had mostly managed to forget about all of that. But then I had to dress up and go to the school board meeting, with all of the (living) members of CompCivix, and be reminded once again that we lost at State. We've all got another little certificate, but we were still robbed.
Every time we meet as a class it's just depressing now. I love all of them, but it's so hard to gather together without thinking about what we could have done, had we moved on.
Tomorrow we get to go to the funeral for all the students who died today. I'm going to bring kleenex in my pockets, cause I've got a feeling I'm going to need them. |
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[Mar. 29th, 2005|12:07 am] |
Had a really good day today. Drove home from Saratoga around 11, and stopped by Saratoga Bagel. I actually had the chance to have a conversation with Mae, which was nice because its probably been almost a year since I really talked to her. She was very complimented when I told her (truthfully) that no other bagel shop's asiagos can compare with hers.
I came home and did a tid bit of laundry, then headed over to Allie's house around one. We ended up playing DDR, and even jumping in the 47 degree swimming pool a few times. Then we watched fourmovies: Zoolander, White Chicks, Tomb Raider and Star Trek: Nemesis. I managed to avoid tearing up at the part where Data dies, but its a pretty emotional movie nonetheless. Caitlin was able to join us for White Chicks and pizza, but she had to go home before we started Tomb Raider. Damn Laura Croft is hot.
Anyways, although it is probably the corniest, my favorite moment of the evening was when I was driving home, and realized that I had missed a call from Kendall. I called her back and talked with Bonnie for a bit. It makes me happy to hear from them because I'm always worried that we're going to drift apart because Civics is over. I'm going up to Tahoe tomorrow afternoon, but hopefully when I get back I can chill out witn Bon and Ken. I miss them. |
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[Mar. 12th, 2005|06:23 pm] |
Amador Valley Comp Civix 2005
~LTC~
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| AVHS CompCivix 2005 |
[Feb. 17th, 2005|08:55 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | compcivix, picture | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  nostalgic | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Israfel - Godiva in the Desert | ] |
We all regret that its over, but CompCiv will be a part of all of our lives together. Those memories are worth more than anything to me. All 29 of us did something amazing this year, and we deserve to be proud of ourselves. We are the best team in California, and the only one that encourages casual nudity. Nothing we ever do will be just like this. Cherish these memories. No one can take them away from us. |
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[Feb. 9th, 2005|06:32 am] |
I slept from 18:00 last nighut until 05:00 this morning, netting about 11 hours of sleep. I woke up, did my calculus homework, and I still have some time left over to fuck around.
Still hanging out with CompCivix people, but sooner or later I'm (we're all) going to have to accept that its over. I'm going to stay friends with Kendall, Bonnie, and Zandy for sure, though. They're really awesome people.
Now I have to turn my attention to other things. Most prominent is Robotics. The mission got released about two weeks ago, and we still haven't had a real meeting since then. After school today will be the first meeting of the modern era; we're going to get back on-track for development. On the current agenda is the complete rewrite of the command software, the implmenetation of the wireless tether, partial rewrite of the camera code, and a possible re-implementation of the hydrophones, among other lesser repairs. We also need to get the t-shirts ordered, and I need to work with Randal on the website.
All of which remins me: I need to wear the club shirt today. Thanks.
Anyways, I'm also getting really confused about my future now. Since about third grade I've always wanted to major in engineering or computer science, but now WTP and West Wing have really dug into my brain, and are now urging me to pursue a career in politics, of all things. I'm feeling very conflicted right now.
I'm gonna go shower than keep chugging on the design doc for AUVSI 2.0. As soon as that gets into a state of semi-completion I can start delegating out the coding work. Right now is also probably the right time to set up the development server, so we can have a unified development tree. If anyone has any experience with Subversion I could probably use some help configuring it. I guess I also need to find out of Sloppy Stu is going to be working with our team this year or if his defection is permenant. |
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| CompCivix |
[Feb. 6th, 2005|10:41 pm] |
I LTC! |
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[Feb. 4th, 2005|05:32 pm] |
We lost. |
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[Jan. 31st, 2005|10:06 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | compcivix | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  excited | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | BTO - You Ain't Seen Nothin Yet | ] |
We are soooo ready.
You'd better be wearing socks Sacramento, because we're going to rock them right off your feet. |
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| email from Mr. Ladd |
[Jan. 24th, 2005|05:19 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | compcivix | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Israfel - Godiva in the Desert | ] |
YOU MUST BE DEVOURING THE NEWS EVERY DAY FROM NOW UNTIL YOU HAVE FINISHED
YOUR COMPETITION AT STATE!!!
CONSUME
CONSUME
CONSUME |
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[Jan. 23rd, 2005|11:09 am] |
Ive obviously been having mood swings lately. Maybe I'm pregnant. Or maybe I'm in Comp Civix. Either way, sorry to anyone who I've snapped at or otherwise been rude too lately.
I keep getting mail from colleges. I don't understand why they have EVERYONE fill out financial aid forms, even though they're going to reject more thank half of us. Wouldn't it save both parties a lot of effort to only ask the admitted students to fill out financial aid?
We're going to Nationals from April 29th to May 3rd. We're going to make it happen, no matter what.
So much of my future is in limbo, pending these decisions that I'll start to learn in March. Where will I end up?
Robotics is also going to take some major time investment after State is over. I've started drawing up the design document for AUVAI 2.0, but it needs a lot more work before we can start coding. I should also start thinking about setting up a development server.
Too much work to do to keep writing here. Later. |
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[Jan. 19th, 2005|11:36 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | compcivix, health, music, sleep | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | depressed | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Nine Inch Nails - Something I Can Never Have | ] |
I don't often feel the effects of stress, and even rarer is it that I experience them in a negative way. However, everything seems to have all crashed down upon me at once, and I'm having trouble dealing with it all. Every night all week I have been out working on Comp Civix until after my entire family is asleep. Then I have to whip out my Calculus and English homework, to save my flailing grades in those classes. That is, of course, if I've done enough civix for the day, which has never happened.
Last night I spent about three hours doing a complete rewrite of our second presentation. I completed everything other than an introduction and a conclusion (which we're still stuck on). I felt really, really good about it, and Kendall thought it was awesome too. Today, however, we found a post on the message board from Mr. Ladd stating " I think you should scrap the whole thing and start over...". I first wanted to scream, then cry, then just kill myself. He didn't even leave any criticism. It wasn't until half an hour later that he posted "Not really, but you need a GREAT intro...". It would have been funny, if it hadn't almost resulted in my complete emotional breakdown.
It also didn't help that when I tried to solve our Introduction problem my unit tore it to shreds. Apparently my suggestion was flawed on so many levels; in concept, in boringness, in implementation, and in word choice that it wasn't even worth attempting to salvage. Now, neitehr is my ego.
I've queued up a list of my favorite NIN songs and am now going to sleep with Trent's beutiful voice and bleak message on repeat in the background. Definately something that I haven't done in a long time, but right now I need it. Goodnight. |
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[Jan. 13th, 2005|12:41 am] |
Sometimes I question whether I really lead a healthy life or not. I mean, I get some excercise (DDR anyone?), I take my vitamins, and I go to the dentist every six months. But does that really mean anything?
I have a kind of addictive personality: When I get into something, I'll do it non-stop until I'm forced to quit. This is often quite a boon, like when I'm working on a project for Robotics or Comp Civix. It can also be hellish, though. I started drinking Tea this year, and one night I drank more than a liter worth, that I had brewed so strong that it was nearly opaque. I felt really, really messed up for many hours afterward.
Some nights I can't sleep at all. Or, to be honest, I don't really know whether or not I can sleep, because I get compelled to do something and I won't let myself go to bed until either I finish whatever it is or I collapse.
Other times I'll be sitting calmly, pondering something or another, when suddenly my whole body will undergo a small but noticable twitch. Think of a really, really small seizure and you'll have an approximation of what I mean.
I'm also a chronic procrastinator. I honestly believe it must be some type of disorder, because I've never, ever been able to get anything done within a reasonable amount of time before a deadline. Hell, I missed the deadline for my Cornell app because I left it all for the last minute.
I don't know why I'm writing this right now, to be honest. I've got two calculus assignments I need to do, and I need to sleep before I go to school tomorrow. It seems like the only time when I can make myself fall asleep is when I have something more important I should be doing. So I'm going to take advantage of this opportunity to go sleep. Goodnight. |
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[Dec. 26th, 2004|10:14 am] |
Well, right now I'm getting all dressed up for my mom's wedding. It's not a super-formal affair; she isn't even wearing a wedding dress. We're still all dressing up a little, though. Instead of a tux I'm wearing my suit, which I have grown very fond of. Is it weird that I'm more excited about the opportunity to dress up in my suit than that my mom's getting married? I guess since Matt and his kids are over here almost every single night anyways, the actual marriage doesn't seem like it's very important. I know it is for her though. Plus, I get to dress up.
Would have appreciated some extra hours of sleep, still.
Leaving on the cruise tomorrow, and I have so much to get done. Aside rom packing, I have to write essays for Cornell and MIT, plus I should be spending time on the WTP presentations. Instead I spent about 4 hours yesterday working on my campaign. Hurrah for time management. D&D is fun, though. |
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[Dec. 22nd, 2004|01:27 pm] |
Yesterday was one of the coolest days I've had in a long time.
I spent all morning tweaking out my level 21 gestalt gish for a D&D game that will probably never actually occur. Making gestalt characters at epic levels involves making a TON of decisions, and offers major opportunity for breaking things, and is therefore incredibly fun.
Anyways, after those shennanigans were done, WTPUTP came over to my house and we worked on our presentation for question one. We made some progress, but not as much as we could have. Kendall walked on my back, and it cracked pretty loudly. I was drinknig green tea out of a large glass mug when everyone showed up, and they all thought I was downing beer.
Anyways, after they left is when the true fun began. I showed up at Allie's house for the secret christmas party she and Greg were throwing for me. It turns out that they had bought me a fondue kit, so we had a fondue party. Because of my Canadian heritage, Greg also had purchased a bottle of Maple Syrup for me, so we started off by heating some of that, and made "French Toast" by dipping our bread into the syrup. This was followed up by some chocolate fondue.
This is when we started to get creative. We embarked on an epic quest to create taffey using only the fondue kit and ingredients Allie had in her kitchen. Aside from failing miserably, and making the entire house smell of vineager and cider, we did pretty well. I think. The end product was entirely un-edible, though.
I hung out at Allie's for a while after that, watching movies and having some kumuptar fun. When I was done there I headed over to Caitlin's house, and hung out for about two hours. I had to leave shortly after midnight, though, because she had to get up early this morning for work.
Anyways, I went home after Caitlin's, expecting to go to bed. I found Laura online, however, and it turns out that Olivia was over at the Garritano residence as well, so I had to head over to hang out with them. We all talked for a while, and it was way cool to see Olivia and Laura again. I would have liked to spend more time with them, but I got distracted by Jim's Star Wars Trivial Pursuit game, and I made him play against me. I won the game twice before he could win it once, but in general his questions were harder than mine. I think I am more the master of Star Wars trivia than he, but not to the extent that my dual victory suggests. I'm scared to see TJ play that game. |
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[Dec. 13th, 2004|06:18 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | compcivix | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | confident | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Seatbelts - Space Lion | ] |
We got our scores back from Regionals. Unit 2 got a 59, a 58, and a 60 each out of 60. Now, I definately wouldn't have given us scores that high, but I take what I can get. That's the way we roll.
Everyone else, I'll see you at State! |
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[Dec. 11th, 2004|11:41 pm] |
Ugh. I was feeling so great this afternoon, and now I've hit this shitty low. I guess it was inevitable; the weeks of working my ass off have finally caught up with me, and I've caught The Bug. I'm going to drown myself in orange juice, ecanacia, and vitamin c. I'm just glad it hit me after regionals.
I'm sorry to everyone I was grumpy to tonight, and if I seemed gruff or mean I swear it's the disease and not me.
Also, I'd like to give humongous congratulations to Allie for being accepted to Stanford! Way to go girl! |
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[Dec. 11th, 2004|02:53 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | compcivix | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | ecstatic | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies - I Believe I Can Fly | ] |
I just wanna say that WE KICKED ASS today.
We killed all our competition, and we are MOST DEFINATELY going to STATE in Febuary! With a little luck (and a lot of preperation) we'll ace that as well, and hopefully be presenting in Washington, DC this May.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some major celebrating to do. |
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energetic
weird
sick