I remembered my first dream in years

I just had one of the most vivid and amazing dreams ever
scott and i were in it

we were at some camping grounds, it seemed to be a family gathering, but at the same time, a school thing, and a scouting thing (you know how dreams are).

We tried to escape, breaking out the back window, but first using a spare door or something to hold off the other scouts (???). But as we were climbing out the window, Professor McCann stopped us there. He had caught us. The rest of the day was spent at the camp, though I didn't see Scott any more.

It was spent seeing all my family members, but they all knew what I had done and didn't really trust me any more. My aunt Anne called me a creep. My aunt Kathy (who has never liked me anyway) still didn't like me. My little (fictitious) cousins were wary. My dad, it appears, hadn't been told yet. I was absolutely terrified of him knowing. But I decided I better tell him myself. So I went up to him, but then Uncle Bob wisked him away before I could get a chance. I think he told him. I wasn't really pouty or sulky. I had plain and simply been defeated. I suppose it was doing something I really shouldn't have been doing, but that's that. I accepted very easily that I was now everyone's least favorite cousin; the black sheep. "Oh well, whatever" was my attitude.

Interesting Stuff

They say you learn something new everyday. Today, I learned about 15 fascinating things, all from NPR. Here's a few:

The Marriot started as a root beer stand.
Ford lost $12.7 billion last year; worst year for a Detroit automaker; that's $35 million each day! (Equivalently, $48M per business day!)
China's economy might become the third largest before the end of the year (it jumped 10.7% last year); as far back as I can remember (not that I'm old or anything), the top three have remained static as the US, Japan, and Germany.
China has the largest national per capita savings rate.

Federal Aid

This is the first post in over two months. That's the first time I haven't posted for a period longer than a month. Oh well.

There are several things that apparently everyone knows are wrong, but also never change. Things like George W. Bush being the president, the Electoral College, farming subsidies, etc. (I suppose those are the big three in my mind.) Recently, a blizzard swept through the midwest, and a cold snap accompanied it in the southwest (and beyond I suppose). This resulted in huge losses of cattle, citris crops, avocado crops, etc.

The farming subsidies were started because of some sort of unfairness to farmers regarding their profits; apparently the market was not being fair and so subsidies were created to boost farmer's crops so that they didn't have to downsize at all. In my opinion, fate has been far more unfair to these specific ranchers and farmers who lost say, 75%-90% of all their citris crops in Arizona. The federal government could instead save money for a true rainy day for farmers and ranchers, dramatically subsidizing their crops for one season, when a disaster such as this occurs. Just as when a hurricane hits a state, and the federal government pours money into relief, relief should be given to businesses in disasterous situations.

This could be extended to say, subsidizing the businesses on Central, Bethany Home (?), and Indian School (?) who are facing dramatic losses during the construction of the light rail. I'm not saying the government is responsible for pampering all businesses when the business cycle is down. What I'm saying is: The government's primary job is to allow people life liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This directly takes the form of police departments and a national defense system. I think that businesses are just as in need of defending as people are. Businesses are made of people; businesses serve people; businesses allow people the pursuit of happiness. If you don't think that big time farmers are deserving of aid, at least the small, local businesses on Central Avenue are.

Buy plane tickets 3 weeks in advance

I find this interesting. From NPR's Business Story of the Day:

"IF you are planning a trip you will probably get the best airfare if you book your trip in the middle of the week about three weeks before your departure. You want to look at Wednesdays specifically because thats when airlines tend to start running their fare sales, and you want to look about twenty-one days out because airlines know that people tend to plan either far in advance or very much at the last minue so twenty-one days out is when you're going to see the lowest prices."

Also the best time to buy a new car is September.
The best time to buy gas when prices are rising is before 10am.
The best time to buy gas when prices are falling is after noon.

Worst 25 Web Sites

PC World rates these. I haven't heard of most of these, but here are a few highlights:

20. Hotmail.com

16. Microsoft Windows Update
15. Neuticles.com

13. Whitehouse.com
12. The Dancing Baby

9. Hamsterdance.com
8. BonziBuddy

1. MySpace.com

Oh my god, I'm so glad this made it. A number of people have agreed with me that this is one of the ugliest sites on the Internet, despite being one of the most visited. PC World says "Graphically, many MySpace pages look like a teenager's bedroom after a tornado--a swirl of clashing backgrounds, boxes stacked inside other boxes, massive photos, and sonic disturbance. Try loading a few of those pages at once and watch what happens to your CPU. Watch out for spyware, too, since it turns out that MySpace has become a popular distribution vector for drive-by downloads and other exploits. And in a place where "U are soooooooo hot!!!" passes for wit, MySpace isn't doing much to elevate the level of social discourse." Thank you!

Top 10 Programming Languages

eWeek did some interviewing and found the 10 programming languages that will get you a job. Probably not the best twn programming languages (where is Brain Fuck?) but this is a good list:

1. PHP
2. C#
3. AJAX
4. Javascript
5. Perl
6. C
7. Ruby
8. Java
9. Python
10. VB.net

Autobiography Chapter 13ish: Freshman at College

Draft One Two.

My freshman year of college was the best year of my life. I lived on campus at the Yavapai dorm located in the middle of campus. Funded by my parents and a hefty scholarship, money was no matter to me. I started the year in tranquil seclusion, spending most of my time playing computer games by myself. I had opted for a random roommate, earning myself Donovan, arguably the strangest man alive and later named "The Man of Mystery." Donovan, a black sophomore from South Phoenix, is th only person anyone knew who didn't bring a computer to college. His possessions amounted to little more than his TV, several tapes of Dragon Ball Z, a quarter staff, forest-green t-shirts, jeans, combat boots, and a forest-green jacket. I never once saw him do his laundry. He went home twice during the year. He rubbed his feet over a trash can nightly, gently scraping off the dead skin. He took at least five minutes to brush his teeth, and then five more to brush his lips. He never missed Passions that aired daily at 2pm. Unfortunatly I never had class at 2 and was consequently subjected to the soap opera every day. He ate chips everyday and ate them loudly. He ate chili every day and ate it loudly. Sometimes he cooked hot dogs with jalepenos and yes, ate them loudly. On any given day, the most I would speack to him is a "bless you." Needless to say, Donovan did not play a large role in my life. I often forget his existence altogether.

For the first few months, my social life consisted of short-lived relationships and friendships with Colleen, Mike, Ashley, and Prof. Velez. Each of these is a not a particularly amazing or unique story. I am glad to be friends with each of these people today. Altogether, August through October were somewhat uneventful and without a theme; but I enjoyed my time and relaxed. I remember sleeping on the couch of the study room every night for two months. I kept my comforter, pillow, alarm clock, and deodorant in the study room until they were confiscated by the Hall Director. After that I made friends.

Since the beginning, I had been attending Math Club meetings, which were, contrary to popular belief, very cool. I met quite a few people there, including Nikki, the president. We remained in contact for some time. I attended the Arizona Mathematics Undergraduate Conference (freaking awesome) and afterwords, attended Jeff's sister's birthday (a party of twenty-six year olds). That night, Nikki, Taylor, Jeff, another guy, and I became great friends. And then we never hung out together again.

My social entrance continued with acceptance into Amanda, Connor, Kel, and Sunil's circle. They had been a clan since August as I understood, and they graciously welcomed me after Sunil and I started working on math homework together. This introduced me to such wild things as hookah, cloves, alcohol, late-night food, Mexico, clubbing, etc. At the same time as my minimal "experiment phase" (perhaps I am perverting the meaning of experiment), I was playing ping pong two hours a day with Kel and volleyball several nights a week with the Yavapites and friends. I get terribly nostalgic when I think about the ping pong and volleyball. On any night we didn't play volleyball, many of us sat in the study room playing "Ultimate Badass" or arguing about philosophy with James and Chris. So many people made up those nights: Kel, Amanda, Sunil, Connor, Peter, Travis, Mike, Zippy, Metz, Drobie, Jessica, Liz, Josh, Lexie, Jean-Marie, Ashley, John, Katie, Sheyda, Dave, Chris, James, Sarah, Colleen, and many that I'm forgetting I'm sure. Again, much of what I did this year was made possible by my scholarship: I bought ping pong paddles, volleyballs; I went out to lunch, dinner, late night food, sushi, bobas, coffee, etc. without any worry. I performed generally well in school and stayed financially stable.

Edit: Addition:

The summer following my freshman year was also incredible. Nick and I worked at Villa Montessori as swim instructors and classroom assistants for small children, aged 3 to 6. Working with 100 people every day who think you are the greatest person ever. They run screaming to you when you arrive; they ask to play soccer with you; they constantly squirm into your lap; they tell you about what they had for dinner; they show you what they have for lunch; they show off their new dresses, bathing suits, shoes, goggles, fake tattoos, and lunch boxes. They sum up the entire plot of a new movie, or what happened to Sponge Bob last night. The job is easy. The pay is good enough. The coworkers are mostly female between 18 and 25. Honestly though, it was the kids. That was the best summer of my life.

Autobiography Chapter 8ish: 8th Grade

Preface: I wish to write an autobiography / memoir of sorts. At the ripe young age of 20, I will sort this by year in school (in general). This is the entry for the 8th grade, one of my favorites.

8th Grade. Ages 13,14.

The 8th grade was a fantastic year for me. I remember school being quite easy: I had previously studied the Math course (Ms. Schmidt); English was taught by Ms. Lenenweaver and Mrs. Dubin, two brilliant ladies whom I really admired; Yearbook was largely a joke: I remember doing little work even as co-cheif editor; I didn't have to take Literature Enrichment because Nick and Sam Feldman and I were creating the CD Yearbook; Ms. Jacobs was a source for entertainment in Science; and Mr. Kaplan taught a rigorous and interesting Government course.

Most of my memories of the 8th grade include staying after school every day to create the CD Yearbook with Nick Mulrean and Sam Feldman. Mr. Murphy left us in the room by ourselves and told us to lock up when we were finished. We worked most of the time. But some days we just had fun trying to get floppy disks to stick in the wall by hurling them, sticking scissors in the ceiling, putting floppies in the CD drives, etc. It was really a blast every single day. This year I took trigonometry at night from Phoenix College. The professor was a very nice old man who, when I missed the final, told my mother that I didn't have to make it up and I had earned an A in the class. In reality I had really been slacking off at the end of that course and was worried about failing the final.

I remember my female interests were largely unchanged from the years prior: Claire, Mandy, Jamie, and Heather. Heather most of all, of course. I don't think there is really anything to say about these girls. Really nothing. At the graduation dance (the first dance I had actually attended as I wasn't allowed to work the snack bar or film for the CD Yearbook), Savanah asked Nick, Sam Feldman, and I to dance (collectively). Nick and I quickly squeaked a "Oh, no thank you," while Sam (gay) confidently agreed and they went out to the floor. Strange night.

At graduation, Nick was asked to give a speech. He had to, of course, receive approval from Mr. Kaplan before giving it. As he walked up to the podium, Nick says to the crowd of parents, "I prepared a speech for tonight, but you know, I think I'm just going to wing it. ... I'm kidding; you can start breathing now Mr. Kaplan." That earned a sound applause and laughter from the crowd. I announced various awards for highest grades in certain classes (Art, Science, etc.). I remember not earning the Math Award because the basis was strictly class grades; Greg had a higher grade in math than I. I don't think I was upset. I believed that I had been cheated, but I accepted it.

Overall, this was a great year. One I will never forget.