Planetperson

Sunday, May 27, 2007 ? Oh stop. Macs and everything else don't mix. By the way, this entry marks my blog's one-year anniversary. God bless America.

Friday, May 18, 2007 School, tennis, sleep. For the last few weeks, those were the only three things I experienced in a day. No time for blogs or entering the two Brickmaster contests. My schedule was packed! But in three weeks, it'll all be over. Now, everything is winding down. Drivers ed was finished long ago. The tennis season finally came to a close this week. I finished a video project. The Heroes season finale airs in three short days. And with nothing calling me away from the computer after school or on the weekends, I can turn some attention to doing cool stuff.

Friday, May 4, 2007 For some reason, my Brickmaster sets arrive at my home very early, whereas my magazines come late the following month. Would that it were the other way around. The set was Thulox. Nothing new, pretty disappointing, so don't get too excited. But on this glorious day off from school of mine, should I see Spider-Man 3?

Sunday, April 29, 2007 It's time to save the world. One more day... until the next episode of Heroes! I'm definitely hooked on the show. That last episode kicked [hiney]. Every episode is like that, in fact. And the next one is tomorrow! I can't believe Isaac's dead, and then Sylar's still out there. Then Hiro and Ando are in the future, where they meet -- future Hiro! It'll be a cool one.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007 For the first time in a long time I get to sit in front of the computer long enough to report my doings to a blog entry. Monday was madness. In any given school day of the year, I'm normally supposed to have two free periods: one being fifth period for lunch and then the second being seventh period for doing whatever else it is that I need to do...like...eat more. But for the last three months or so I've been taking driver's ed, which I've been attending during school hours during my lunch period. Bam, half of my free time gone. Every driver's ed student is also required to spend a number of hours taking driving lessons. They can be taken during the free period. So that's it, all my free time's eliminated. Under these conditions I had no time to do the homework which I always leave over from the night before. It got hard. I got worn down. I trudged through the nine-period day without a break. Monday was a prime example of my misery. No free periods, plenty of work. Then after school I needed to stay for tennis practice. That took until 5:30, when I tiredly left the courts. It took 40 minutes to get home. And guess what, I had an orchestra concert at 6:45. So I got dressed and somehow put food in my stomach in ten minutes and sped right back off to school. Of course in all this I had to be away from my TV for the return episode of Heroes, which was a huge bummer. Using my ultra-cool Archos device, however, I recorded the episode while I was gone. But I arrived back at school about 15 minutes late. No one cared, so I was alright. Then my performance itself actually went well. Finally, finally I was able to leave school at 8:30. So, once again exhausted and this time in formal wear, I rode home to watch my redording of the awesome Heroes episode 19. But at 10:00 I still found myself faced with a giant speech due the next day. I had to give a specifically-structured speech on Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla, memorized introduction and conclusion. It had to be five minutes long. I had to be informative. I'm a big fan of Tesla, but I wasn't ready to relate his life story to anyone. I was ready to fall over, to make up for lost sleep from the night before from doing homework. Until 2:30 AM I worked rather futilely on my massive project. The next morning, Tuesday (yesterday), I slept in the car ride to school. American lit greeted me as my first class of the day as it always does, through which I sat with much loathing. My speech was still unfinished. I planned to do it during my rarely-occuring seventh free period which I had managed to clear from driving on that day. But before that time came, I had to take the driver's ed final exam on the very last day of that class, in which I had been pulling a 77% average. I hadn't been able to study; and even though we always had boatloads of fun in that class, I could NOT afford to fail and be required to do it AGAIN. I took the test and thankfully passed with an 82. Then when seventh free came, I worked all the way through it, struggling to inscribe Tesla's life onto three 3-by-5 notecards. Then it happened. I gave the speech. If your mind's eye suddenly sees a boy standing in front of the classroom, all eyes on him, nervously struggling through his words about a guy from a century ago, that's me. I struggled, but survived. And, uh... the important thing is that it's DONE. I won't have to worry about it anymore. Woo hoo. But the fun wasn't over. Oh no. Geometry test. Big one. Even though I had three or so questions unanswered by the time the bell rang, I cashed in my chips at last and decided just to head straight off to tennis practice. Today I found myself at peace at last. Having completed driver's ed, I finally got my lunch period back. It was weird. I didn't know what to do with myself. Having free periods again just feels so strange, but there were days earlier in the year when that hadjust been so. Yeah, it's sad. I still had to go to my last driving lesson today during seventh free, so that lessened the shock. It rained today, so instead of doing tennis for a couple hours I just went straight home on the bus and train. I had so much free time at home. Really awkard. I'm just going to have to get used to it again. Tomorrow's the big day -- when I have both fifth and seventh free back. I don't know if I'm ready for that much freedom.

Friday, April 13, 2007 Anyone familiar with my older blog entries knows that I absolutely hate iPods. What does not make sense, however, is the fact that for the past year I have been using my own video iPod to listen to music. This has come to an end as of my birthday four days ago. I now have a portable multimedia device from ARCHOS. My new Archos is everything the iPod failed to be for me. Instead of needing to import and convert/sync files through the painfully slow iTunes program, all I need to do now is hook up my Archos via USB cable to my computer in PC hard drive mode. Then I can copy-paste files right from my computer to the folders in my Archos*s hard drive. With plugins, the Archos can even play mpeg, mp4, m4v, mov, etc. files straightaway without needing them to first be converted. The screen of the Archos device is huge, taking up about 85% of the front surface area. Every video or photo is stunningly beautiful. One of the best things about the video player is the fact that if the video file has those black bars at the top and bottom of the video for a widescreen aspect ratio playing in a fullscreen player (the Archos player has a wide screen), it (I love this) automatically chops them off so the actual video is displayed as large as possible. Another awesome feature of my new Archos is its ability to hook up to a special docking station to record video straight from a TV set or DVD player for playback later. This is good for being on the road, but it is also a good way to fill up your thirty gigs in less than a month. The best thing about the Archos is by far the WiFi. Yes, I am typing this entry from the touchscreen of my Archos device. After finally discovering my house router*s WEP key, I can now surf the web from the palm of my hand. There are several disadvantages to browsing the internet on a screen about 4-by-2.5 inches big, but, you know, it*s worth it. That is all. P. S. Guess which common character I cannot type from my device.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007 -- It's April 11. My bedroom faces the busy street on which our house sits, so I always wake up to the sound of tires streaking across asphault. But this morning I woke up to another sound I know very well: tires rolling across wet asphault. The bed of my brother, who had obviously woken up to eat breakfast or do whatever he does first thing in the morning, was empty. With our bedroom door closed, I strode to our bedroom window excitedly, thinking perhaps that the tennis practice in 45 minutes might be unplayable. First I took back the blue curtains, then I rolled up the shade. The roof, the roof of our porch on the first floor right beneath my bedroom, is what I glanced down on first. It was covered in white. I looked up to see it snowing like fury outside -- in APRIL. Yeah, I don't think the courts are dry enough to play on today. Woo-hoo. Now I get to sit on my [hiney]! -- It's April 11. Soon after I woke up, I checked the mail to see if perhaps my MARCH Brickmaster Magazine had come. Nothing there, for the twentieth time. It sucks when Lego's shipping is late. It sucks more when they forget you.

Monday, April 9, 2007 Hey there, BZPower! Today is a very special day. Very, very special for me. Can you guess why? Well, I guess I should tell you anyway. Here it is -- the new comedy show Thank God You're Here premiered on NBC tonight! Um, yeah, it's my birthday too, smart one. Yeah, this is the part where I give a long list of things I gawt, but... nobody cares, so... um, I don't feel like typing all that junk if no one's gonna read it. But I will use this space to wish you a very happy birthday whenever that day should arrive for yourself, as well as a very guilt-instilling reminder about acknowledging others on their very special days. I would say you could redeem yourself through some sort of 5-minute birthday card, but after the sun has been down for so long, do you think you can get to my doorstep in time?

Sunday, April 8, 2007 Happy Easter, everyone! I obviously don't have as much time for this blog nowadays, but I have to say something on Easter! I'm happy. I have no school for the rest of the week. My birthday's tomorrow. I can drink soda again after denying myself that pleasure for all the forty days of Lent. Are you happy, too? I hope you are. Summer's on its way. I see myself sprinting down the home stretch, waiting eagerly for the months during which I don't have to wake up at 6:45 to get to school on time or lose sleep to finish homework assigned by my teachers. I'm literally counting down the days. I think it's in the seventies now. But you can see why I'm excited about it, right? Last summer, you saw me fill up my blog entries with complaints about summer school, oh it's so horrible, why did I sign up for this... But this time I have created no work for myself. You know how summer is. You don't have work to do so you... do stuff. You do stuff because you want to do it, not because you were told. That's a concept I admire. Everyone admires it. So hang in there. I'll make sure to hang out on BZP more often during the vacation.

Ah, very true, very true . Well put.

Sunday, March 25, 2007 True or false: BZPower is a frustrating place to have an opinion.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007 Yesterday -- for the first time, I drove behind the wheel of a car. It was my first behind-the-wheel driving lesson. The instructor showed surprise when she heard that I hadn't at least practiced with my parents before the lesson. I'd been putting that off, as I had never been getting a decent chance after school days to fit in some driving. I have to get my naps in, you know? Well, after my friend and I exchanged positions from the back seat to the driver's next to the instructor, she asked me to turn the engine on and shift into drive, holding down the brake pedal. As I had seen my parents do it hundreds of times before, I switched on the ignition and waited for my next command. The instructor told me to accelerate gently, so that's what I did. Then I was told to come to a gentle stop, which was easy. Then I paused for what I would hear from the teacher next. "Must've been a driver in a past life," she commented. I like driving. It's easy, relaxing, and it gives me something that I can feel like I have control over. It's really something that feels natural to me, if sometimes the rules of the road can be a little tricky to understand. As things seem, I won't be one to struggle with my driving skills as much as other people do (type in "Bad Drivers" on Google Video and see what might come up). I'd still be wise to polish up my knowledge of the roadway, but I look forward to my next driving lesson.

Saturday, March 17, 2007 This past year, I've developed a habit most unusual for me: napping. I would have never seen it coming, but since my school lengthened the school day by 22 minutes this year, I've found it necessary to recharge my batteries upon entering the safe haven of my home once again. It got really bad this past week, because I slept for hours every day. I don't think I once ate dinner with the rest of my family those past five days. Just yesterday, Friday, I fell asleep around 7:00 on the couch. I finally woke up nearly four hours later at 10:50. So I ate a fish dinner at 11:00. Then I went into hibernation again around 1:30, this time in my bed. It happened like this all week. Good thing I've had light homework, because it really sucks when I don't.

Friday, March 9, 2007 Hello again, BZPower. I haven't posted an entry in a very long time or posted in the forums much lately. I've been busy with schoolwork. I've completed a research paper, given a major speech, started driver's ed, and been swamped with plenty of other work in between. But don't worry about me; it happens to everyone. Usually this situation pops around the end of third quarter. I've also had some difficulty with the computer lately, which has seriously not been fun AT ALL. Out of this I have discovered something: I'm a Heroes fan. That show rocks so much. Here's everything that you need to gear up for the next episode on Monday, April 23 at 8PM central: Homepage

Awesome. Thanks a lot, -SZ-.

Monday, February 26, 2007 Last month, as usual, I got my Brickmaster magazine really, really late, like on the 28th or so. Not only did the magazine come late, but it came without any plastic covering over it, both the front and back covers had been torn off, and the spine of the whole thing had been badly beaten up. I called LEGO customer service, and they readily shipped out another magazine to replace the mutilated one. I finally got that one about a week-and-a-half later, and even then, the spine was a little torn up. In the middle of this frustration, I had entirely forgotten that there was supposed to be a feature on a new Dark Hunter called Vengeance. When I finally remembered the other day and looked through my Jan-Feb magazine(s), I didn't find anything like that. So here's my request for anyone who's reading this: Would anyone please offer me a scan or a transcript of the feature on the Dark Hunter Vengeance? Thanks so much.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007 I got my driver's permit today after school today. Awesome.

Nice. Much better. Oh yeah, congratulations .

I have a question. Is anyone other than the blogger himself able to view drafted entries?

Sunday, February 11, 2007 Didn't kids get confused with the real ones? * * * Not compatible with standard LEGO Bricks, try as you may.

Because you can't. It's an edit .

Takadox.

Tuesday, February 6, 2007 This is even cooler:

Monday, February 5, 2007 It's a sad day in Chicago today. Especially with it being the first day of the school week . And it's so cold it's hard to breathe.

Monday, January 29, 2007 Shame on me . Not Destined <-- (Psst, it's an epic -- the beginning of one, at least!)