2010 in retrospective and some books

Hmh. It's interesting to think that I started 2010 in high school and finished it in college. For all the cynicism and frustration, it was actually a pretty good year. As far as high school goes, I did excellently on my exams, concluded reasonably happily with my friends. And college thus far has had... ups and downs, but I would classify it mostly as ups. I've connected with people I knew from high school and met some (But not too many!) great new people. That, and academic stuff went fine. Yeah, yeah.

There was also a fair share of sadness and frustration, though. I'm usually pretty good about following through on the plans that I make, but that's not always the case. Suffice it to say that there's a difference between being a solitary person and being alone. Ah well. Move on, damaged but not broken, I guess.

On an irrelevant note, I just got copies of The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein and Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo today (Have already read both of them, but didn't own copies). Both definitely fall in my list of Best Things Ever Written, for varying reasons. I'd argue that The Giving Tree is one of the quintessential childhood reads, and it definitely continues to be a moving story into adulthood. Johnny Got His Gun, for those who haven't read it, falls into the sort of hypercritical, disturbing, oft-depressing category that encompasses books by authors like George Orwell and Vonnegut. Put simply, it's an anti-war novel from the perspective of a soldier who wakes up lacking all of his limbs and all seven senses. Although the premise seems a bit... absurd?, the writing is absolutely brilliant at capturing the sensations (or lack thereof) of the narrator. It's gripping, dips into the insane, and as mentioned before, extremely disturbing at times. For anyone who hasn't read it, you need to. I learned recently that there was a movie made of the book a ways back, and think I will look into it - hopefully the cinematography captures the essence of the book.

Feeling

Feeling...

Tired.

Apathetic.

Slightly depressed.

Done writing this post. More some other time.

Week One: Complete!

Made it through a week of classes! Yeah! Checkpoint reached! And it's... well, not very stimulating or challenging thus far.

I'm currently enrolled in Intro to Molecular/Cellular/Developmental Biology (From here on out, I will refer to it as MCDB), General Chemistry for Majors, Intro to Sociology, and Intro to the Bible. My MCDB class is seriously just a review of last year's class, according to the syllabus. However, it also doesn't cover as much stuff, so maybe they go into more detail. Maybe. Chemistry might actually prove to be an interesting class, as it is taught by Thomas Cech, a Nobel Laureate. Thus far, however, it's just been a review of basic stuff - significant figures, units, dimensional analysis, etc. More on that in a moment. Intro to Sociology also seems like it might have promise - the material seems relatively interesting (bordering on IB Theory of Knowledge-esque). However, I'm not certain that the other people in the class are capable of discussing it at an engaging level. Yes, yes, that's me being egotistic. I don't care. As far as Intro to the Bible goes, I'm actually amused since my teacher seems more liable to laugh at the Bible than I am. Hmh. Could be a fun class. Intro to the Bible is also my smallest class (as it is an honors class), with about 20 people. The rest of my lectures are all at least 100.

I've also come to the realization (Er, re-realization?) that I'm really really bad at meeting new people. I was okay in IB because generally people were pretty motivated and intellectually interesting to speak to, but it's nigh impossible to judge that sort of thing in a college environment, with thousands of people walking around. As such, I'm finding myself making pre-judgments of people before I meet them, which might not necessarily be a good thing. The problem is, I'm somewhat incapable of having an extended conversation with someone that I don't already respect to some degree. And it's proving to be somewhat difficult to respect these people. For example, in my first chemistry lab section, we were (again) going over basic things: significant figures, units, and the like. Here's the gist of one of the problems that they gave us:

You have a 5.0 cubic centimeter sample of a substance. It has a density of 1.5 g/cm^3. If you were to double the volume to 10.0 cubic centimeters, what would the density be? DO NOT CALCULATE THIS - JUST GIVE AN ANSWER AND EXPLAIN WHY.

See the part where it explicitly says "do not calculate"? Well, at least three people (Possibly more - these three were sitting right in my vicinity) attempted to calculate it. I tried to explain why that wasn't necessary. One person sort of figured it out after a moment (Or, at least, pretended to). One person couldn't be convinced. One person stared blankly at me for a moment before just writing down 1.5 g/cm^3. At this point, I decided that interacting wasn't really worthwhile and decided instead to draw a picture of the most interesting thing in the room: A faucet. See below.

So... yeah. As I suspected, the intellectual transition to college wasn't a transition at all. More of a fall down a hill. The social transition, however, may prove to be a bit more problematic. I will say that I have met some people who I am okay with interacting with for an extended period of time. Some are Lakewood IB kids who came to CU. Another couple are IB people from other schools. One is my roommate, who is pretty alright. And finally, I met a senior over breakfast one day, after convincing the coffee shop to sell me a cup of milk (I am not a coffee drinker at all). So, I guess there's hope.

Onwards, then.

On a different note, I may have found a potential way to make some money over the course of my college life. A friend of mine who was in debate (Now going to Stanford) is starting up a business, selling debate research to high school coaches, and offered to pay me to design a logo for him. I, of course, accepted, and it seems to be going well (Progress shots to be uploaded at some point). I guess I could do some graphic design/consulting as a small part-time affair, though it might be tricky to establish myself. Something to consider.

Insert college-related title here

Well, I'm all moved in and classes start tomorrow. Not actually that concerned about the classes themselves - the most classes I have in a day is 3 (although some are a tad bit longer than others - my chem lab is almost 4 hours long). The main thing I'll need to work on, I think, is meeting people. As I mentioned in the last post, I'm a pretty solitary person by nature. I'll need to force myself to get out and meet new people in this first year, since we've already purchased a one-bedroom apartment for next year. Hopefully I can get together the resolve to talk to people in my classes, etc.

I've actually been at home for the last two days. Came home the night of the 20th, after a meeting with my 'flock' (a group of 20-30 people from my dorm). Haven't really been up to much - went out and purchased an all-in-one printer/scanner/copier/fax machine the other day, got some candy and snacks for next year, grabbed some dress clothes and suchlike, etc. Mostly it's just been seeing the family a bit before I head off - though I do plan to be home every couple of weeks. It's nice, going to a college that's just a 40-minute drive from home. I'm far enough away to feel independent, but close enough that I can get home easily if I should want to.

Anyways, I'm heading back up to campus in about an hour. Apparently there's a "dessert with the professors" thing tonight, which I suspect would be a good thing to attend. Though it's doubtful that any huge, meaningful bonds will be formed with the professors - the freshman class is (unsurprisingly) rather large. Oh well.

I've got only two classes Monday; biology and chemistry (science day?). Should be interesting.

Movin' In

Well, here we are. Just moved in to my dorm today, and classes start on the 23rd.

I wish I could say that I'm excited, but I'd be lying. More accurately, I'm just feeling drained. Not so much physically, but more emotionally.

They say it's a huge transition, switching to college. Huge amounts of freedom, no one checking up on you, etc. Me, I haven't noticed anything yet. Just a change of scenery and new people to meet. The latter of which I am not doing a very good job with. I've always been a pretty solitary person - something that probably won't help me out too much, here. I imagine I'll do alright once this lethargy wears off.

Guess I should probably go find something to do now. Sitting about in my room isn't getting me anywhere.

Assorted Thoughts

So, I didn't get to bed until around midnight last night, and was up for a while after that just sitting around and looking at the moon. It's interesting to think: At the moment that you look at the moon, how many other people are doing the exact same thing? Who and where are they? Why are they looking at it? Will you ever meet them?

... It might even be interesting to organize a "holiday" of sorts, with all participants looking at the moon at the same time for some period of time, and just, well, thinking.

As a point of reference, my mom spent 4 years doing her residency in Detroit when I was a kid, and we only got to see her a couple times a month, at most. I can remember my dad telling us about how even though we were hundreds of miles apart, we could all look at the moon and know that she was there in Detroit, looking at the same moon.

Anyways, that's me philosophizing (read: rambling) a bit.

On a only-somewhat-related note, I've added a music list over on the right-hand bar, with songs that I've been enjoying of late.

Because I've got some time on my hands at the moment, I'll do a bit of explaining why I like them.

I've heard Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros a couple of times before, but only recently found the name and such. On a certain level, I think the song evokes the general feel of what I was just writing about with the moon, etc.

I just recently heard Perfect In Between by Champion, and like it for the exciting, triumphant tone that it has. I could see this one being used in an action movie, during some sort of exciting character reveal.

Speaking of triumph, Triumphant by Röyksopp also has an awesome tone. I saw a video of the song synchronized with clips from BBC's Planet Earth, and the two meshed almost perfectly. The song definitely brings to mind images of majesty, and is very aptly named.

One thing that I think would be awesome is a collaborative work by BT and Röyksopp. BT's got a pretty unique style that adds a lot of emotion and interesting themes to the electronic music that he specializes in, and Love Can Kill You, to me, is one of the best examples of this. For another one, try Forget Me.

Finally, Everyday by Carly Comando is an excellent contemporary example of how powerful an instrument the piano by itself can be. (There's plenty of classical examples, but it'd take a long time to list all of them. D:)

The Beginning of the... Beginning?

One week until August. Three weeks until I finish with my current job. One month until I begin college. Interesting.

I'm usually not a very sentimental person, but as I move closer to the big day (Of note: That may be the first time that I have ever used the phrase "the big day"), I'm really starting to look around and realize that all of this is going to change. It's strange to think that I've been living in this house for essentially my entire life, and in what amounts to the blink of an eye, I'll be living somewhere completely different, with completely different people. Not to be too melodramatic, though - CU Boulder is just a bus ride away from home, and I fully expect to be coming back to visit at least twice a month. If only to go out for dim sum with the family.

Even still, it's a major reminder that absolutely nothing in life is static, and almost everything about one's current way of living can change at the drop of a hat (Also of note: I don't think I've ever used the phrase "at the drop of a hat", either).

Sentimentality aside, I need to start packing up stuff to bring along with me for move-in on the 19th. I've decided not to bring my (huge) desktop, and will instead be taking my new laptop. Speaking of that, I ended up returning the Lenovo that I had purchased before and am currently waiting for a new HP to come in. More on that particular escapade another time. I also need to go out and buy supplies, notably some sort of organization system. I'm currently considering getting one of those filing crates and a bunch of hanging folders to organize stuff by class, etc. In addition to that, there's the usual: loose-leaf paper, notebooks, whatever. For my... artistic side, I'm thinking about getting a Moleskine sketchbook. It's a bit on the expensive side, yeah, but I figure I'll give the high end a try.

Decisions, decisions.

Miscellaneous Miscellany

So, I'm mostly recovered from orientation. Sleep-wise, anyways. I'm still a bit tense today, partly thanks to what transpired last night.

I'd been working on stuff/talking with people online, and got off the computer at around 10:00PM, when my mom called me downstairs. She'd discovered that someone had inadvertently left the back door open, and our cat Tiger (A neutered indoor cat, mind you) was nowhere to be found around the house. At this point the household pretty much mobilized into search-and-rescue mode - checking every nook and cranny in the house, etc. Once we'd established that he was very likely not anywhere in the house, we grabbed flashlights and spread out to search the immediate vicinity of the house. Similar situations have happened before, and he was usually somewhere right by the house (e.g. in the garage, somewhere on the deck/porch, etc.). This time, however, we had no idea how long it had been since he got out - my guess being that the door was left open sometime just after dinner - and on that vein, how far he might have gotten.

So. We searched around the house for about an hour, but he was nowhere to be found. By this time it was past 11PM, and the seriousness was really starting to set in. We've got deer, foxes, the occasional mountain lion, etc. in the area, and any one of those could be a serious threat to an indoor cat. My dad and I decided to drive around the neighborhood to see if we could spot him - and at the very least, keep other animals away (Also, we were shining flashlights into neighbors' yards, which may or may not have come across in a strange way).

As we pulled back up the street after fruitless searching, we noticed my brother running down to meet us, with the news that he had seen and grabbed Tiger from under our across-the-street-neighbor's car. Seems he had been hiding out somewhere in their yard the whole time.

It turned out well, but the whole situation was pretty stressful. I'm a pretty logical and rational person, but I have limits, and I almost reached them last night.

On a less worrisome note, I found an interesting website today that claims to analyze your writing style and tell you what famous writer you are most like. Having put my blog entries in individually thus far, it seems that I write like a horrifying amalgamation of David Foster Wallace, Douglas Adams, and Kurt Vonnegut. Actually, that's pretty cool. Vonnegut has a lot of interesting stuff, as does Adams. I've never read anything from David Foster Wallace, but from what I'm looking at right now, it seems like he was something of a satirist like Adams and Vonnegut.

Miscellaneous adventures through time, space and AP scores

Well. Seems like all sorts of stuff is happening. From the top, then!

AP scores came in yesterday. I took BC calc and psychology, got 5s on both. Yayhooray. Wasn't altogether surprised at the score on calc, to be honest (hell, I was almost expecting to be audited), but was amused by the 5 on psych. I distinctly recall making up some terms and flat-out skipping another. Oh well!

So, I believe it's thank you time again!
Mr. Stearns: Thanks for guiding us through the curriculum this year (and dealing with some of the dumber things that we did). While I'm pretty good at picking things up, I do need someone to show me how to get started. So, thank you again.

Let's see. My orientation session at CU is tomorrow, and I realized earlier that I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing in terms of class registration, course requirements, etc. Should be... Interesting.

Finally, my new laptopp should be coming in within a day or two. Surprisingly, UPS appears to finally have become competent, having shipped it from North Carolina to Kansas in just two days. Previously, they liked to ship it north a state or two, then west a bit, back south, etc. The final test will be to see if it sits in Commerce City for weeks on end.

That's about it for major news. I guess it's worth mentioning that this entiire post was written on my new cell phone (an LG Rumor Touch from Virgin Mobile), making it the longest thing I've ever written on a phone. Yeah, me!

On Ideas

I have an idea.

And it's driving me crazy.

Ideas always seem to come at the strangest times - or perhaps it's the complete opposite. This one came while I was lying in bed at night. After puzzling it over for a while, I grabbed a notepad and wrote down two words so I wouldn't forget.

Now I'm beginning to regret doing that.

I usually don't mind ideas so much. They give me something to think about when there's nothing much to do. It's interesting to go over possibilities, expand complexities, consider solutions. But this idea has developed like crazy - and it wouldn't be a problem, but for the nature of what I've come up with.

Y'see, to fully realize my idea would take... well, a lifetime. And I'm not even sure that it's possible. But the repercussions of this idea's realization could - and I do not exaggerate here - change the world. For better or for worse, I have not yet determined. Probably depends on who has the final thing.

You'll note that I've been intentionally vague on this idea, and that's for one (I freely admit) selfish reason: If this idea does come to fruition, I want to be part of it.

So. I'll keep turning this around in my head. Maybe I'll do something with it. Maybe I won't.

On a somewhat less morbid/melancholy/m-word note, I've put up an info page (containing a rather Miserable reference) and am otherwise working on prettifying - wait a moment, SpellCheck says that "prettifying" is a word, what the hell, I didn't know that - the blog. Also, when I'm at home and have some time, I think I might put up some pictures from the trip to California.

Also also: God damn, Blogger does some weird stuff with formatting.

EDIT: Damn, it does. I have no idea what the hell it's doing. Can someone teach Blogger basic HTML, please? D:

The First of (Hopefully) Many

I'm writing a blog!

... Oh dear, I am writing a blog. How does one begin a blog?

I suppose I could begin with who I am. Many of you reading this probably already know who I am, but for the benefit of the (probably nonexistent) readers that don't, here goes.

My name is David Chen (As you may have guessed from the title of the blog. Good job, you!). I'm 17 years old at the time of this writing and live in Colorado. I graduated from the International Baccalaurate program in high school a few months ago. And... well, I'll deem that sufficient for the time being.

Why does someone start writing a blog, anyways?

My Life Since Graduation

Okay. I can do this! Rewind three months, to just after graduation. Pretty good ceremony. I must admit, however, that I'm still not convinced that I am, indeed, graduated. Hopefully it'll set in soon. So. Graduation's over, and my family's off to California. Left the night of graduation, so I wouldn't have to go to any graduation parties. Wait, that came out wrong. Anyways, we were in California for a week, visiting Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon National Parks. Suffice to say, I saw a lot of mountains and a lot of trees. Good trip.

As for what I've been up to since we got back... well, I think I might need some more subtitles for that.

Work and Play

I've been working three or four days a week since we got back. It's probably better for me than sitting around at home all day, anyways. We had planned to go to China this summer as we've done in years past, but with the Worlds Fair in Shanghai (where my mother's family lives), it'd be altogether too hectic. So, instead, I'm workin'. Keeps me busy, I guess.

Despite that, I've still got a ridiculous amount of free time - more than I know what to do with. I find that I like to be engaged most of the time, and so do my best to find things to do. Since summer started, I've gone through four 1000+ page novels in a series (now working on a 5th). I'm also continuing to practice taekwondo (though we're off this week). Beyond that, as insane as it sounds, I've been learning things. I figured out a Calculus 3 topic that I should be covering next year, multiple integration, the other day and plan to continue with that (Mr. Stearns, if you're reading this, what were some of the other topics you mentioned?).

The Big Day

... That was yesterday. IB test scores released! I'd rewind again and tell the harrowing story of how nervous I was, but I'd be lying. Truth be told, I've never been too worried about this sort of stuff. I won't bother putting up my scores (I assume I'm allowed to share them, anyways), but yeah, I passed and earned my diploma. Yayhooray. Which, I suppose, prompts a few messages to hopefully-possibly-readers. Quickly, look for your name!

Ms. Morgan: Thanks again for being my EE supervisor! It was a great experience (even the awful smell) and I really appreciate your guidance during the whole process. Also, your name gets to appear twice!

Ms. Morgan and Ms. Talle: Thanks for all your work in preparing us for the test. I felt extremely comfortable with the topics being tested - which was unthinkable a few years ago. Also, Ms. Talle: Thanks again for those smoothies!

Mr. Buck and Mr. G: I took the IB Math test last year, but a thank-you is still in order. Thank you for teaching the techniques and, in another sense, the mindset needed to excel in math. (Mr. Stearns: Your thank-you comes later, since AP test scores aren't out yet - to my knowledge, anyways - but, in preparation for the more serious one, thanks for allowing all of that Scrabble at the end of the year!)

Mr. Mehlbach: I've always been better with analysis and the significance of historical events than remembering the specific dates, but you prepared me to do both in an engaging and challenging setting. Thanks! (Insert bow here.)

Mrs. Kirby: Thanks for teaching me to enjoy poetry - I was never a huge fan of it prior to your class. Thanks also for helping me be able to express myself better through discussion, etc.

Looking to the Future

Ah, yes. THE FUTURE. A place of mystery and wonder! A time when we shall be assisted by robotic helpers to - oh, wait, not that far into the future.

I'll be attending CU Boulder next year, and majoring in Biochemistry (Probably a crazy choice, but oh well - I've ever been the math/science type). I'm going to orientation... exactly one week from today, actually, and I realized the other day that I have no idea what I'm doing as far as class registration and such goes, being the first in my family to go to college here in the States. Should be an interesting experience.

Apart from that, I'm not overly concerned about the transition to college. They also say that the transition from middle to high school is big, but if I remember correctly, that wasn't too bad, either. Sure, this one's going to be more major, but I'm not worried. Let's hope!

So that's that, then. I've finished my first blog post! That wasn't so bad. Now let's see if I can keep this up.