AND THE LACK THEREOF*

*we put the "mmm" in communism

about

This is the personal blog of Tim. Here, Tim writes on anything he has enough inspiration to finish a post on. That usually ends up being matters of science, pop culture, technology, religion, and philosophy.

This blog is around nine years old, which is over a third of Tim's current age. Back in 2003, it was called "Of Tim: Tim's life - or lack thereof", and it was as bad as you might expect the blog of a freshman in high school to be. Tim hopes that his writing is a little better, these days.

Tim welcomes any input that you, the dear reader, might have. Comments are very much appreciated, especially if you have a dissenting opinion. If you'd like to learn more about Tim, you might want to see his facebook or google+.

Also: Tim is a very avid consumer of various sorts of music. You may be interested in his playlists!

So, I lied
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Most of the blog improvements are done (except for the header, and for a better curly doodle at the end of the borders), as you can see. I've been distracted by Lost and the Sopranos, which is why it hasn't been finished. I was really hoping to be done before I left tomorrow.

Speaking of which, tomorrow I'm off to my uncle's second wedding. It's an all-day drive to Michigan on Friday, the wedding is on Saturday, and drive back on Sunday. I'm not sure how exciting this will be, but, seeing Josh, John, and Uncle Jim will be cool either way. Plus, a day out of school.

And for hopefully my last mention of the progression of school, I've had like the easiest week of school, ever. Tuesday I had a dentist appointment (-2 hours of school), today I had an eye appointment (entire day off, when they dilate my eyes, I can't read at all, everything is doubled, it's cool), and tomorrow, you get the idea. I DID finally get out of Csaki's class. Mr Heffner was absolutely awesome about it - he managed to pull the strings and I spent all of last Friday running around the school getting signatures. Mr Rosenburg is much better, and I have a lot more friends in my classes. School's gotten better.

Ideally, I'll have all the work on here done Monday or Tuesday, with that nice big post I was talking about. Don't hold your breath.
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You gave my friend Herpes!
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Someone was shouting that on the way to PE. No joke.

This is a quickie. My next post will be absolutely massive (seems like whenever I say that, I end up not making it). Within you will find:
  • bulleted lists
  • improved blog lookings
  • stories from Jonothan
  • pictures
  • diagrams of our (my) present to julia
  • diagrams of pictures
  • pictures of diagrams
  • performance staspecibenchimations on my sexy new computer
  • jumping with joy over new parts (arriving thursday)
  • more bulleted lists
  • pictures from Jonothan
  • pictures of chocolate roll
In case you couldn't figure out what has happened, I present to you another bulleted list:
  • Jonothan got back Saturday
  • Jonothan told stories and showed pictures
  • Mom made chocolate roll
  • I ordered the new parts
  • I went to Julia's party and gave her a present.
Horay! The computer should be up to speed by Thursday night (although if it follows suit with the last two installments, something will go wrong) (Murphy's Law). After that, on Friday night I should be done prepping the blog for some improvements, and hopefully Saturday I'll do the massive post. Begone!
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Blast x 10^3 crans
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So far, school has sucked less by a factor of 1.1 than last year. The days go by faster and things are generally better, but there are a few downs in the day. APCS (ms. Teukolsky has been a real jerk lately), and of course, the "Csaki" effect. I went to my counselor to get switched down, but he talked me into waiting for a few days. His statistic that all her students performed very well on finals scared me, but in retrospect: how did he know the mean scores for her class and year off the top of his head, when there's hundreds of teachers and classes? Colette also informed me that out of 24 students in just one of her classes, 14 dropped to regents before the end. The real kicker (as in, point that got me to wait) was that he said I might not be able to take Precalc next year, but considering that my Physics class 'requires' precalc and that chem 'required' course 3, I'm not sweating that.

I'm ready to get out of this school-centric mood, though. Seems like I just kind of alternate between WoW and school every day. 122 hours of the game is just too much, dear friends, too much. Not 'too much' in the 'i should play less' sense, but in the 'i should talk to my friends more' sense. (as a side note, one of Christopher's friends is offering me his 60 hunter, mostly rare, possibly epic)

So here I am. No, I still haven't ordered the parts, meaning, nothing significant will change about the blog here for a while. I've grabbed half a dozen family guy episodes in Jonothan's honor, so that he can catch up a bit. Christopher has suggested I grab some Venture Bros., too. I need your thoughts.

And for now, homework.
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It's Beer!
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I've known about these for a good year, but Zach and Paul reminded me of them recently. For your viewing pleasure.

One, Two, Three, Four!

These are in fact beer commercials, you are warned, for whatever reasons.

[WoW]

I'm up to level 26, making rather nice progress. I've been through the stockades and deadmines, and have yet to go through BFD. In true rip off style (because ripping off is in), here are some amusing screenshots.

Here we see a glitched gnoll, and 4 people all leveling their weapons by leaving their guys there for hours. Amusing. Even more amusing, was that I came back 5 minutes later to find them all naked. True story.



A classic joke.



Sometimes, immaturity is funny.



Zach has funny moments. This is one of them. This was queued from me saying "I can start making silk soon.".



When LFGing goes wrong.



I have funny moments too. D:



Burned.



<3

[/WoW]

Church wasn't as exciting as normal, since Greg wasn't teaching Sunday School. The Mapes did it, and of all the topics to pick, they did evolution, which was minorly awkward. I kind of wanted to jump out and say "uh, no..." a lot, but, I can save it for another day. One thing that I didn't get to comment on was their belief that God should be included in public school teachings. As much as I'd love for that to happen, I'm fully aware that other religions exist, and if we're to be a fair country (and not a theocracy), it's either everybody's playing field or nobody's. This plays in with my disagreement with ID beliefs, as well, fully bringing to mind the concept of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (do a google on it). Benjamin and I had a good few chuckles glancing back and forth at eachother, anyways.

So, plans for college. I might have mentioned it before, but hey, whatev. I'm pretty darn sure I'm off to TC3 after the good old high school is over, for two years, and then it's off to RPI or RIT. What's nifty is that the tech classes get me credits at TC3 and RIT (that is, if I pass the tests RIT gives out). Irony. The AP classes are less likely to earn me credits than the tech classes. We're looking at a work ratio of 3:1. But the AP classes are cool, so it's all good.

Off to homework. Woo.
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Ripping off other posts: in
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Because I'm not original.
  1. Digital Electronics. Mr. Peters is a caring kind of guy, but not a superior teacher. He'll be better than last year, as this is his fourth year teaching this course, but the real amusement comes from making fun of him in class. It's a good class for first period, anyways. Mike's the only friend in there.
  2. APCS. New computer lab? Check. Installed with Tiger, and not with some crappy early version of OSX? Check. New, uglier, thicker, heavier textbook? Check. Eclipse? Check. Boredom? Check. Love the subject, but I am not good at sitting down and learning it. Karel's the only friend in there, so things may be even more boring than last year. Ideally, if we learn at a pace at a minimum of four times faster than last year, I might be able to hold my interest.
  3. Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM). I don't know where the school is getting the money, but they got the best Dells on the market in there. Somehow, and I don't know how it's physically possible for a computer to do this, but these things draw 6 amps (my computer probably draws 2, most draw 1 or 1.5), so they weren't running yet, because they blew the circuit almost instantly. Could be a fun class, and Briegle is a good teacher. Mike and K2 are in there, so things are positive.
  4. Math 11H. Seriously considering dropping to Regents. I cannot deal with Csaki. Her voice, "de homeverk, zoo must doo ze homeberk!". I'll stick it out for at least a few more days to see. Add: sitting next to Greg. Add: only person I know in the class is Elliot.
  5. AP Physics B. Ms Lynn really didn't seem that bad. Definitely what I was hoping. Mark (Dong) is in there, and as for acquaintences, Khoa and Justin (Loomis, kind of a jerk, but better than nobody). The only thing that scares me is that 70% of the grade is tests. That just might scare me into studying. The class (double period, every other day, always) went shorter than the math class, so it's not too bad. An abundance of asian kids in this class.
  6. See above.
  7. H US History. Powers, man, he is hilarious. Not like, comedic, but he fits a funny reference into everything he says. Good guy, no doubts he'll be a good teacher. Colette's the only friend in there, and as for acquaintences, there's Ben (Lou), Mia, Lauren. Strange abundance of republicans in here. I suspect the entire conservative "team" is in this one class.
  8. H English11. The good part of this class is just having it with so many people I know. There's Ben Myers, Zach, Ben Feldman, Mike, and a half a dozen other acquaintences in there. Amodeo isn't exactly fantastic, she's got a sense of humor, and seemed to think that Ben, Zach, and I were hilarious. She's a very typical English teacher though, which is good. I missed having one of those last year.
Somehow, I ended up in none of the same classes as Gwen or Paul, but that will most certainly happen next year. That's my philosophy this year: think about senior year. 4 free periods. 4 free periods. 4 free periods. Even I, the slacker, am beginning to feel the environmental pressure of the classes. I have four classes that will be earning me college credit. Four. I'm not worried, and I have no doubt the pressure to work harded than previous years will wear off soon enough. But for now, it's disconcerting.
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Smurfs
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So, the braces are gone, forever. I am done. My teeth feel gigantic. Of course, it's to be expected after 3 years of this silliness. My teeth were pretty screwed up before, though, so it was worth it. I've still gotta go back in about 10 minutes to get the retainers, which won't be cool, but hopefully after THAT, I'm off to the mall for a haircut and to grab the retail copy of WoW. I have no camera on me, so the new picture of me won't be till later. I wanna wait till I have the new glasses anyways.

Speaking of which, the eye doctor thing didn't happen. I'll go once my dad's back, so it'll be a few days before the glasses come.

Since apparantly people don't read AIM profiles (I don't either, really) anymore, here's the schedule I've got. It's exactly what I asked for. People I know I have classes with are in teh parenthesis.
  1. Digital Electronics [Peters] (Mike)
  2. AP Computer Science [Teukolsky]
  3. Computer Integrated Manufacturing [Briegle] (Mike)
  4. H-Math 11 [Csaki] (Elliot)
  5. AP Physics [Lynn] (Can't remember, I know at least one person is)
  6. PE/AP Physics (^)
  7. H-US History [Powers]
  8. H-English 11 [Amodeo] (Gwen, Mike, some more people I can't recall)
So, that's that. Jonothan got in okay and is having a grand olde time, so this is a good thing.

Ahem. I just got back from the Orthodontist. So I didn't get these crazy retainers that I see everybody else with - they're just plastic molds of my teeth, they made one of them wrong so the top is pretty uncomfortable, but they said the new one I'll get in two days will be better. I only have to wear them for a full week, and after that, at nights at my choosing. They seem much better than the plastic-wire ones.

I also got a haircut. Pleasing.

I also bought WoW, making me an official player paying participant in an online game.

You can guess where I'm off to.

EDIT:

ha. too good not to mention.
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Ducks with chapstick. Really.
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"A quotation, like a pun, should come unsought, and then be welcomed only for some propriety of felicity justifying the intrusion."
- Robert Chapman

I thought the irony here would be enough to justify posting that. I truly do love Google's homepage doodle. It warms my heart.

I have spent the last days before school playing WoW, and doing nothing else. Work ended Friday, I got my paycheck, and once Dad gets back, the parts are coming. He gets back next Sunday, while Mom and Jonothan get back the Sunday after that. This leaves me semi-home alone, with just Emily who is here periodically to make it seem as if the house weren't occupied by a single hermit.

I overslept for Church today (second time in a row), and I shall blame my faulty alarm clock, that doth not ring when I ask it to. This leaves me concerned for my braces removal appointment tomorrow at 8:15. I can only hope that they will remove the darned things and ignore the fact that I've never worn those silly rubber bands. The same day, I also visit the journeyman Opthomaligast to figure out how my eyes are doing. This also means new glasses, which I am rather excited about, as I will be choosing a more stylish and fashionable pair that ever before. No, I will not be getting contacts. The idea of sticking things in your eye is wrong, and cannot be justified.

And now, I go to sleep, or at least the place where sleep occurs, so that I might not shoot myself in the morning.

EDIT:

Despite Microsoft's horrible price gouging, Sony is worse.

EDIT EDIT:



EDIT EDIT EDIT:

[01:16] tim: alrighty
[01:16] TheMysteriousMrZ: ?
[01:16] tim: i should hopefully get my braces off tomorrow morning
[01:17] tim: which i have to get up at 7:30 for
[01:17] tim: so, i'm out
[01:17] TheMysteriousMrZ: woaaah, that's gonna be weird
[01:17] tim: you bet
[01:17] tim: plus, i'm getting new glasses this week
[01:17] tim: my face is going to melt
[01:17] TheMysteriousMrZ: OMG
[01:17] TheMysteriousMrZ: it's like tim PRIME
[01:17] tim: or
[01:17] tim: like tim 2.0!
[01:18] TheMysteriousMrZ: gentlemen, we can rebuild him
[01:18] tim: "first, we'll remove his braces"
[01:18] tim: "then we'll extract his liver, and replace it with high voltage batteries"
[01:19] TheMysteriousMrZ: "how will he digest food?' "ELECTRICITY"
[01:19] tim: "and if he survives that, maybe a nose job is in order"
[01:19] tim: "his new nose will contain razor sharp needles instead of hairs"
[01:20] TheMysteriousMrZ: that would be like the the suckiest six million dollar man ever
[01:20] tim: are you kidding?
[01:20] tim: imagine him sneezing
[01:20] tim: that's his superpower
[01:20] tim: activated by snuff powder
[01:20] TheMysteriousMrZ: lol like poetry in motion

EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT:

As Daniel noted, this is approximately the second anniversary of this blog, with me at around 370 posts, Daniel at 460. I choose to note that most of my posts are more flavorful and filled with words. And for some reason Blogger does not have my stats on posts/week and words/post. Teh lose.
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Delicious Delicacies
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EDIT:

I forgot to mention this, but I hope you've all seen what Katrina's done, it's really amazing. You hear about floods all the time, but this really is on the scale of the damage the tsunami did. Obviously not on such a huge scale, but considering how few natural disasters damage the U.S., excepting Florida, this really is noteworthy. I know God is working through this, despite all the death and destruction we see. That's my two cents.

As you can see, changes are in progress. Things are happening. It's basically reverting back to the old template, but, it should look marginally better, if nothing else. If I just get too frustrated, the old template is coming back. I'm not keen on redoing all the JS I had integrated into this.

Last day of work is tomorrow. I slept in today, on purpose. The nice thing about being payed by the hour is you recieve your own punishment for being late, so I don't mind too much. All it means is I have to work a little harder for the parts. Which reminds me. Let me tell you about them parts.

[geek]

So, the parts I put in the day the HDD broke (which I didn't back up) were these:
The PSU, CD-RW and DVD-R are all black, fitting the theme of my computer. This racked up a tidy total of 155 bucks (including shipping). That puts us at a total of about 225 bucks, thanks to mister case.

The next round of parts will be:
Bringing that to a total of 715 dollars. With shipping, about 720. The motherboard is black, too, and quite an awesome price. I don't want SLI since there's no way I'm spending money on two 7800GTs. The gravity of this video card is immense. I hope you all understand that. That card is the second best thing you can buy. It's quite a good price considering the free BF2, which I was going to buy anyways. It's gonna be hot. That will bring the total under 1000 dollars, which was the goal. There's a bunch of other things I'd like to get if possible (maybe for Christmas or birthday) that add up to about 300, speakers, a sound card, new headphones, that kinda stuff. A new HDD is definitely in order, I don't know what that will be on the budget, but before all the extra goodies for sure.

I'll order that once Mom and Dad get back from picking up Jonothan (the paycheck won't arrive until after they leave, and they're the ones with teh monay), at which point the metamorphosis will be complete. I'm excited, to say the least.

[/geek]

So, that's about it. I'll keep doing improvements on the template and such, it will regain its former glory with time.
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