Jen-Hsun Huang Engineering Center

A friend of mine introduced me to this magical place last year. This is the Stanford Engineering Center which was built in 2010. They have numerous conference rooms with whiteboards, flat screens, projectors, super comfy chairs and lots of tables. If you ever want to hang out with some nerdy friends (like I almost always do) and have fun while getting your work done, this is the place to do so. It’s sometimes tricky to get in, but the usual route is through Ike’s Sandwiches. From there, you can get into the two neighboring buildings with relative ease. Actually, only the Y2E2 building can be easily accessed through the balcony walkway (as pictured above), but the Nanotech building has to be either accessed through the underground passageway or through a student with a key card. Though, the passageway is a lot cooler, as you can see grad students in bunny suits working on microprocessors. There’s also a sign there that says “Caution: Do not feed the grad students.”

Also, I’ve recently noticed I’m becoming super lazy when it comes to getting work done. I guess it’s that senioritis.

So this past year, I’ve had the unfortunate experience of dating someone who was completely off her rocker. I mean, seriously, she was literally the craziest person I’ve ever gotten to know. I should have seen it coming, honestly. But, for your entertainment, here are some text message transcriptions that I’m willing to publicly share. I’ve edited some things to make them SFW and to add explanations in angle brackets (<>). The only privacy is that I’m filtering is her own name, but if you know me pretty well, it’s not hard to figure out who she is. Also, I have not removed any texts and the dates are accurate. I will note where I removed a portion of texts, but only because it’s boring and doesn’t get my point across. More like, the stuff that I did remove is irrelevant.

19 November 2012, 10:50
Me: So there was an armed robbery today at foothill. Two backpacks stolen at gunpoint with a semiautomatic. No lockdown though.
Her: Are you alive
Me: No I’m bleeding out in the foothill ICU
Me: JK I’m still breathing
Her: Dammit
Me: Oh you wanted me dead…?
Her: I was kidding

19 November 2012, 21:43
Her: I miss Evan <her ex before me>

20 November 2012, 0:08
Me: What makes you say that?

20 November 2012, 7:25
Her: <she attaches some stupid picture that says, in Times font, “Stop the glorification of busy.”>
Her: Because honestly I don’t give a platter of f—

20 November 2012, 9:16
Me: I’m sorry I set my priorities like the rest of the human population where work comes first.

20 November 2012, 10:12
Her: I’m leaving you. Just f— yourself

20 November 2012, 12:02
Me: wat

20 November 2012, 12:48
Her: You are a horrible boyfriend. I don’t love you anymore
Her: If you get a pot of plant, you can’t just expect it to live after watering it for a few days

20 November 2012, 14:46
Me: Fine. If you think so, I feel very bad for you.
Her: Why do you feel bad
Her: Or is that another sarcasm
Me: This kind of attitude is the one that loses people. Think about it.
Her: Are you in class right now

20 November 2012, 15:02
Her: Actually why the hell did I ask that. If you can’t handle the worst of me, you can’t have my best. I am worth more than you and I can do so much better.
Her: And I am most likely not come back to you
Her: *will

20 November 2012, 18:18
<during this time, I believe she called me roughly 20 times in an interval of 15 minutes (how’s that even possible?), all of which I ignored. She didn’t get the message apparently…>
Her: Thanks for ignoring my calls. I am sorry but what I meant to say is that although you are quite attractive and nice at time, I don’t want to date you anymore since you are too busy to date and I am an asshole to you

20 November 2012, 19:58
Her: Shit what have I done…. I think I made the same mistake

20 November 2012, 23:06
Her: Hey sorry for bothering like shit but I was wondering if we could talk about this in person

20 November 2012, 23:42
Me: we can, I am on timer that ends on midnight w/out penalty
Me: Later*
Her: I will call around 12:15 then
Me: Uh no because I have more than half of the work left. I only just finished one small part.
Her: How about tomorrow? I end school really early tomorrow
Me: Depends if I finish my essay within the next five hours
Her: Oh and good luck on the essay
Her: It will be in the afternoon still tomorrow when I finish school. It shouldn’t take more than 5 or 10 mins

21 November 2012, 2:42
Her: How is the essay coming along
Me: I am still working on it.
Her: Imma stay up for awhile so if you want to talk or anything like that feel free to talk to me
Me: I’m not gonna finish soon, so I suggest you go sleep.
Her: I took a 4 hour nap earlier
Her: So I don’t think I am going to sleep. And I can’t sleep when I’m worried

21 November 2012, 3:46
Her: I’m not tired but I will go to sleep anyways. Good night! I hope we talk in person tomorrow.

21 November 2012, 14:34
<I think she called me at this time, I was driving>
Me: Driving
Her: Call me back when you aren’t driving

21 November 2012, 17:14
<She messages me some picture of something she drew in her art class, I don’t know what it is.>
Her: To brighten things up, guess what I drew

21 November 2012, 18:46
Her: Shit I got rejected from Oberlin Multicultural Program

21 November 2012, 21:39
Her: I think I figured things out
Her: Can you call me after chem? <I had Chem 1A for the fall quarter, which took up my Monday and Wednesday nights until 10:30PM>

21 November 2012, 22:26
Me: I’m actually going to sleep now, I literally had only one or two hours of sleep within the last 36 hours
Her: Alright then. It’s kind of important though, so I would like to talk about it tomorrow.
Her: Goodnight.
Her: Actually it’s really important. But we can talk about it tomorrow. Sorry for bothering so much.

22 November 2012, 16:34
Her: I cant tell if you are ignoring me or not <kind slow on that, aren’t you?>

22 November 2012, 16:53
Her: I really wanted to tell you that we should get back together. I think if I am more patient with your crazy schedule and you talk to me a bit more, we should be fine.
Her: And I should reduce my pms personality
Me: Short answer is no. Long answer may come after thanksgiving. Enjoy your thanksgiving evening with your family and friends.
Her: I don’t even celebrate thanksgiving

22 November 2012, 18:16
Her: By the way you might want to change the settings so Siri won’t think that I am your gf still <I have an iPhone 4, not a 4S… though I did have Siri at one point it was literally useless other than hearing it say “I’m sorry, I cannot connect…” or something like that>

22 November 2012, 20:58
Her: I deleted my Instagram account. I hope we are really good friends still.

22 November 2012, 22:45
Her: Are you going black Friday shopping?

23 November 2012, 9:10
Her: How did the fry’s shopping go?

23 November 2012, 14:21
Her: I ended up not going to black Friday shopping but I am sure you had a lot of fun

23 November 2012, 14:30
Her: Are you busy tomorrow?
Me: yeah
Her: Work to do huh
Me: yeah
Her: What about Sunday
Me: ECYS plus maybe meeting people i haven’t seen in hella before they go off back to college
Her: Eylar is crazy. We are having only 1 rehearsal before the winter concert
Her: Anyhow I will be bored this weekend

23 November 2012, 14:53
Her: I am curious about your long answer

23 November 2012, 15:19
Her: Actually if you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine.

23 November 2012, 17:12
Her: I am getting so crazy. I am like in front of your place <!!!! WHAT?!>

23 November 2012, 17:31
Her: I left. Don’t worry

23 November 2012, 18:14
Her: I am at my favorite spot on the top of the hill next to the mansion. I miss you <attached is a dark picture of the Cupertino view from that hill>

24 November 2012, 18:22
Her: Thanks for not getting me back. For some strange reason, I sound a lot better on flute. But I hope we remain as good friends. Have a nice day.

25 November 2012, 18:18
Her: Dude why are you guys copying us lol
Me: ?
Her: I meant the alumni playing at the x-th anniversary thing. Oh well.
Her: <she sends me a pic of some flute music>
Her: This shit has been throwing me off for the past 3 hours.

25 November 2012, 18:31
Her: So were there any people visiting today from college
Her: I don’t get it. Why don’t you just block me if you find me f—ing annoying?

25 November 2012, 19:22
Her: F—ing asshole. Why the f— did I date you in the first place

25 November 2012, 20:48
Me: Uh. Why the hostility?
Her: Do you have any idea how I have been living the past few days
Me: Do I want to know…?
Her: Well you would know if you want to know or not
Her: You are so f—ing messed up
Me: How so? You do realize I was on the verge of filing a restraining order when you said you were right outside my home.
Her: Why didn’t you do it

25 November 2012, 21:00
Me: Because a) it seemed to extreme for now and b) I was too busy with other things.
Her: What the f— is wrong with you? Given that you hate the shit out of me, that was the perfect chance to mess up my life <does she even realize what she is saying??>
Her: And I broke up with you technically so I can be as hostile you as much as I would. I really tried being friends with you, but I am not sure where this is really heading

26 November 2012, 2:20
Me: Well, I don’t want to mess up anyone’s life, so for now I’m not going to do anything. As for that, I honestly don’t really care what happens as I am seriously not in the mood for any drama,nor do I have any time for it, so I think I’m taking the best course of action. Yes, we can be friends, but just don’t annoy the hell out of me. Also I never said I hated you. Remember this: “assume makes an ass out of u and me.”

26 November 2012, 7:25
Her: And when in the hell did I assume that you hate me

26 November 2012, 17:00
Me: <I send her a screenshot of her “Given that you hate the shit out of me” text>

26 November 2012, 17:42
Her: Well, sorry that I assumed that you hate my. But you do

27 November 2012, 18:52
Her: I am going to take that as yes.

28 November 2012, 18:48
Her: Dude what are we doing

29 November 2012, 20:39
Me: Don’t take that as a yes, I just didn’t reply because I needed to catch up on work and sleep.
Her: The weather is like f—ing diarrhea. My umbrella is useless.
Her: I really don’t like the fact that we are causing a mild chaos when we are trying to be nice to each other (well, at least I am; not sure about your side). <oh r’ley?> I think you might be right about the relationship that we just ended. Everything happened without too much thought, in my opinion. I wish you best regards on your apps. I am sure you have your ways to get into pretty good colleges.

2 December 2012, 12:37
What’s wrong with all of my guy friends.

2 December 2012, 18:44
Me: Nothing.
Her: Dude I rejected 2 guys in the past few days. Are they retarded
Me: Uh not necessarily?

2 December 2012, 19:03
Her: They clearly know that I broke up with someone just a few weeks ago and I want to stay single yet they still try to ask me out wtf
Her: Anyways dude we have a secret Santa thing at cys. Hella excited of
Her: *omg

2 December 2012, 19:22
Her: Dude what if I am not straight

3 December 2012, 0:57
Me: Hawt

3 December 2012, 6:45
Her: Jk I think I’m straight

3 December 2012, 7:00
Her: For now at least

13 December 2012, 23:17
Her: Dude can you please get a haircut
Her: I sorta beg you

18 December 2012, 15:04
Her: Wtf why aren’t you done with any of the privates
Her: And dude the deadline for the USC scholarship consideration passed 17 days ago

23 December 2012, 20:22
Her: <she sends me a screenshot of her Facebook sidebar, where it shows my name and that I like iTunes and Starbucks and suggest her to give me a Facebook gift>
Her: Lol…..
Me: Lol k

31 December 2012, 1:06
Her: Hey your tufts vid essay seems pretty legit. It seems like you’ve done filming all in one day haha. Great editing job. As for the content, I feel that you sound a bit arrogant at some places though. Otherwise, it was quite intriguing. <backstory: I uploaded a video essay for college apps and put the link on Instagram. The thing is, Instagram doesn’t automatically turn it into clickable links, so she had to go through the trouble of typing a YouTube URL into a web browser.>

31 December 2012, 1:16
Her: And please get a haircut for my and Jesus Christ’s sake. You are looking waaaaaaaaaaaay too fine with the long hair. <Did I mention she also is a Christian and tried to sell me into religion? Yeah, screw that.>

9 January 2013, 22:09
Hey I am doing a portrait project for my art class. Will you do the honor of being my model? I don’t ask this to anyone by the way. I am not asking because you are good looking or anything like that, but you have some exaggerated facial features that I really prefer. Please respond ASAP

10 January 2013, 9:15
Me: Just take a photo of mine
Her: Okay cool!

13 January 2013, 17:51
Me: <I send her a screenshot of 20 bajillion Foursquare notifications of specifically her. Long story short, Foursquare is a social “game” where you check in to venues, such as coffee shops, and you earn points. They can get rewards, badges, etc. Basically, her checkins were at multiple different locations across town within a few second of each other, which is physically impossible and abuse of Foursquare. By this point, I believe I started to not care at all and just start getting entertainment from her reactions.>
Me: That’s not how you use Foursquare.

13 January 2013, 18:07
Her: Idgaf

<Somewhere around this time, she takes a screenshot of the above text and posts it on Instagram. I respond with this: http://instagram.com/p/UeWb5nCzHr/ and http://instagram.com/p/Ueo8S1CzHm/ and http://instagram.com/p/Ue3RNBizIE/>

14 January 2013, 16:06
Her: Dude stop
Her: Seriously

14 January 2013, 16:16
Her: It’s seriously getting out of hand.

20 January 2013, 18:15
Me: <I send her another more recent screenshot of the same thing>
Me: Once again, this isn’t how you use Foursquare.
Her: Leave me alone

20 January 2013, 18:37
Her: Please
Me: <another screenshot of more of her stupidity>
Me: Again, this isn’t how to use it.

20 January 2013, 23:02
Her: Tell me, Mr. Smirnov, your most knowledgable theory of how to use Foursquare. I am hardly skeptical of my own use of your so beloved app. And I have used Foursquare like what you have just sent me for months; nevertheless, you never intended to tell me that I was using the app “wrong” until a week ago. Honestly I am using Foursquare for my enjoyment. I mostly likely won’t be affected much by your elaborate explanation of Foursquare use, but I will be more than delighted to hear it. And please, please, PLEASE leave me alone after your great explanation unless of emergency. The most sincerely, <her initials>.
Me: Common sense. Class is dismissed.

<I’m going to skip over this next block of texts from 18 February (the next time she texted ME) over to 17 March. A tl;dr version of this text block is about college apps, which is utterly boring and nothing of value.>

17 March 2013, 0:16
Me: <Another of those Foursquare notification screenshots>
Me: You can’t be at 6 different places at the same time.
Her: <a picture of her flipping the bird>
Her: Idgaf
Her: I am f—ing tired asshole
Her: And have a great night ;P
Me: Take the hint- don’t abuse Foursquare

11 April 2013, 0:15
Her: Sergey Sergey
Me: Eh?
Her: I want to talk to you in person. Preferably before April ends. It’s kind of a conversation that cannot be equally done over text.
Me: Uh. Can I get a gist of what it’s about?
Her: Life. In general and in specifics. Etc.
<at this point I’m about to message a friend of mine to see if he can help me out just in case this meetup does happen. I don’t want to be knived by a psycho or something…>
Me: Um okay. Why not over txt though?

11 April 2013, 0:30
Her: Oh I can answer that question when we meet in person.
Me: Uh. Well you can meet me at foothill.
Her: So I am assuming that you prefer a weekday. Are there any specific days you prefer?

12 April 2013, 22:56
Her: Man you are such an asshole. <I didn’t do anything…?>

15 April 2013, 16:45
Her: You f—ing asshole.

And after this last text, she removes me from Facebook, Instagram, Foursquare, and everything that could be imagined. AND NOTHING OF VALUE WAS LOST.

Hope you enjoyed this. Moral of the story? Don’t date a crazy psychopath.

Wow, this is impressive of me. I haven’t updated my actual official blog in sixteen months. I’ll let you guys know about what I’m doing and stuffs maybe later. I’ve been just so busy in these last months, it feels like an entire lifetime has gone by. I might do a post on stuff that happened in 2012, but hopefully I’ll resurrect this blog by starting to post more stuff here. Stay tuned.

As the clock is ticking until this year is up, I might as well reflect on what happened this year as long as I’m still sober. Kinda.

JANUARY:
That month, I realized that high school was utter BS. Most of my classes just wasted my time as I spent snoozing through them, doing the homework, and not getting anything out of them. Not because I was snoozing, but the fact that the teachers were bad and made me snooze. Plus, what kind of an idiot put the hardest classes in the first three periods of the day?! So, I had to switch and English class to a lower lane, which wasn’t a good move. But unfortunately, I had no choice. I couldn’t stand the existence of my previous teacher and would rather have some knowledge from a shady class rather than from some crazy, condescending woman who thinks that it’s a privilege to be in her class. Yeah, right. That’s when I also decided I’m going to go to Foothill Middle College.

FEBRUARY:
I had my US Open Music Competition! Although I didn’t win anything it was interesting to listen to other people play their pieces. Plus, when will be the next time you’ll ever play a piano in a church….on a basketball court?! That’s right, the competition was held on a basketball court. Beat that.

MARCH:
Oh the joyful Certificate of Merit. Although I barely did shit to prepare for it, I still managed to pull off a 5 from a judge who apparently gave 3s and 4s to some of the best students in the bay area. I don’t know how that happened, either.

APRIL:
Valve made probably the best video game ever in history. Portal 2 came out and it was only a matter of a few hours until I finished the entire game. And I STILL play it. It never gets old.

MAY:
All of a sudden, I realized that I had AP tests coming up. Well, actually only one AP test, the computer science one. Meh. Let’s move on to the fun stuff in the next month. Plus… I got accepted to Middle College!

JUNE:
The last weeks of June and the first week of July were probably the best of the entire year. The El Camino Youth Symphony had its tour those two weeks in Spain and France. We played at six five AMAZING concert venues (why not six? the other one sucked) and got outstanding publicity. Above all of that, it was just awesome to meet musicians across the globe and to bond with people who you’ve known for at least a year in the symphony. Oh and we made new friends with the young musicians in the conservatories there! Well, at least with one bassist who traveled with us throughout France. Apart from the musical stuff, our partying in the middle of the night, the bus problems and other mini-stories that are too inappropriate to post online, the two countries we visited were jaw-dropping. All of the monuments we visited were very interesting and eye-opening. Here’s my blog post about recollections about tour.

JULY:
Coming back home jetlagged on the fourth of July might not have been the best thing ever, but it was fully worth it after the tour. Nothing much happened in July other than just my buddy and I were chilling out, maxing, relaxing all cool.

AUGUST:
August was an interesting month. Not only did a friend from Seattle come back for a couple weeks to California, but I also got to meet new people in the ECYS Retreat at UCSC. Not, it’s not bandcamp. It’s much more civilized than that. But anyways, it was fun to just hang out with people I’ve known for the past years, from tour, and just from other places. Oh and I got my drivers license that month! And even though people went to school in the last weeks of August, I got to relax for another month as the Foothill quarter doesn’t start until the end of September.

SEPTEMBER:
September is probably my most hated month of each year because of school and all that crap, but Middle College made it a whole lot more better. I met probably a few of the best friends that I’ll have for the rest of my life. These people just made school a whole lot more worth it. I love it. Also, my classes were so much more legit than the crap I got at Paly!

OCTOBER:
Ooooh. Fun stuff! We just had fun things happen on weekends and other awesome things happened. You know what was NOT awesome though that month? Having a physics final on Halloween. You know what else isn’t awesome? Having a physics lecture that night. You know what also isn’t awesome? Having a physics lab that night. But what was good was the ECYS Season Opener. It was a great night.

NOVEMBER:
Oh, the usual stuff happened. Nothing too major. Just another month, that’s all. But what redeemed it all was Thanksgiving. The turkey is always done right in my household. Not too dry, not too wet. It’s always good. Oh and the Paly Turkey Trot was good, too.

DECEMBER:
December is always a great month for me. Not only do I have a birthday there, but I also have a concert, Christmas, AND New Years party. Life is good when you have the friends, the atmosphere, and the awesomeness of it all. Although finals are a pain in the ass, they’re at least off your shoulders when you’re done with them and you don’t have to worry or study for them over the winter break. Hell, this is probably the best winter break I’ve had in a long time. I wish I had more of these. It’s awesome.

So yeah, that’s my short reflection on the year 2011. Hope you enjoyed it! Now, I’ll be off to party the crap out of this into what might be the very last year of our lives, 2012! Nah, I don’t believe that Mayan stuff, but oh well. LET’S MAKE THE MOST OUT OF IT NOW!

I’ve recently had all of my extra space removed from Dropbox and all of my invites that I sent out to people have been nullified due to a mistake on my part. So, I want your help. I want you all to click on this following link: http://db.tt/yFEAuM9 and create yourself a Dropbox account and install that on your computer. It only takes about five minutes to do and it won’t bomb up your computer or bugger it. It’s also very useful software as you can share pretty big files with other people and have free 2gb of space in the cloud. It’s kind of like an internet flash drive if you think of it.

It’s been nearly a couple of months since I last made a post, so this is kind of an awkward blog post to put up. Oh well.

Apple is trying all its best to try to get all of the PC customers to transition to a Mac. It started (or maybe it didn’t, I don’t care) with their TV ads of the Mac vs. PC, where it shows two douches that stereotype the typical user of a PC and a Mac. Here’s my response to that (not created by me, but you get the point):

Joking aside, Apple has this page on their site called “Why you’ll love a Mac”. Apart from having numerous grammatical errors on their headlines (“Make the ultimate upgrade. To a Mac?”), they’ve also included 9 big reasons why they think their product is supposedly superior to a PC (also, why do they call it “Mac vs. PC?” It’s not like a Mac is a Personal Computer as well… it’s like saying “Square vs. Rectangle”). So here are their reasons and my counter-reasons:

1. “It’s designed to be a better computer.” (When you buy a Mac you want it to last. And it will…)
   Exactly how does it make it a better machine if it’s more eye candy than performance? Sure, it may look beautiful (in fact a lot of people go apeshit over the design itself, as if Jonathan Ive was some god or something), it may feel nice when touched, but how exactly does it make it work better? It doesn’t solve the heat problem, it doesn’t solve the space problem (well, maybe the iMac, but then again HP has the same damn thing with a touchscreen), and it certainly doesn’t add wings and unicorn blood to its processor. It’s just the damn exterior. Oh, and about “built to last”: my old Pentium 4 machine has survived at least 5 years of being on in one computer case, been transferred over to a cardboard box, collected an ungodly amount of dust, transferred over to an even crappier and older computer case with the same PSU from 2003, survived computer-unhealthy room conditions and STILL goes strong, and it’s not even near dying. Well, my friend’s three year old MacBook decided to live a long life.
2. “It comes with software you’ll love to use.”
   This section talks about how a PC comes with a bunch of bogus software that nobody ever uses and how a Mac comes with all the software that’s “easy”. This reminds me of a book I once saw at Border’s that was published by O’Reilly, titled “Windows 7 Annoyances”. Why? Because the first page that I randomly flipped to described on how to “Delete All Programs”. Obviously a Mac user wrote this, as 1. they were referring to the “All Programs” menu in the Start menu and 2. they think it’s “annoying”. But anyways, sure, PC laptops come with bullshit software that nobody tends to use, but that doesn’t make them any worse than the Mac. Apple claims that anybody can make a movie, photo slideshow, playlist, website, and all those crazy bells and whistles right out of the box. Best of all, they’re using that argument against the PCs when they can do exactly the same things. iMovie? Windows Movie Maker. iPhoto? Windows Photo Gallery. iTunes? Windows Media Player (also, itunes.com). iWork? Microsoft Office. There’s so much more that Apple claims a Mac can do that a PC can’t when it can. …Maybe except for PhotoBooth. That, yes, isn’t included in Windows. Refer to the picture above as to why it isn’t.
3. “It comes with the world’s most advanced OS.”
   “Most advanced,” you say? Really? If it is the most advanced, why isn’t the government using it? Why isn’t NASA launching space shuttles with it? Why isn’t MRI powered by it? And with the new toys Lion boasts, how is that going to make it more advanced? By having more pretty animations and sharper graphics? Oh come on. There’s probably a reason why no professional institutions other than Apple and college students use Macs. Again, refer to the graphic above.
4. “It comes with award winning support”
   Okay, Apple wins with this one that I don’t reach India by calling 1-800-MY-APPLE. But this just proves that Macs are inferior. If they were really, REALLY superior, they wouldn’t even need support in the first place and that the built-in help and support section of the product would be sufficient. But then again, nothing runs on orphan tears so I guess they need that support. Guess it isn’t superior to the PC in this aspect, is it now?
5.  ”It runs Office and works with your existing PC files”
   I think any computer by now should run a .doc file. Hell, even my mobile phone can run and edit Microsoft Office documents. That doesn’t make it any superior to the PC. But let’s talk about Apple’s claim about working with existing PC files… being a kind of a programmer, I have to work with Java, C++, PHP, HTML, and what not. At least in C++, when I compile a program, Visual Studio makes an executable file (.exe extension). In fact, all Windows programs are .exe files with many supporting DLL files and other archive files that the program might need.
6. “It’s compatible with your stuff”
   RIGHT. Last time I checked, it couldn’t run my AVCHD files properly from my video camera. Sony doesn’t release Mac drivers for my HDR camera, so I guess this statement from Apple is null and void. Oh and it doesn’t run with many USB webcams either (not that it needs them, but for Hackintosh builders it’s a pain). Oh and Mac OS didn’t like my Canon MP480 for some reason.
7. “It doesn’t get PC viruses”
   …and PCs don’t get Mac viruses. Next!
8. “It’s loaded with the latest technology”
   …at the time it was shipped, yes. In a year, it won’t have the latest technology. But my PC could (if I get the money) thanks to its openness.
9. “It runs Windows and Windows applications”
   OMG! So does my PC! And so did my old PC, and so did the PC I owned before that, and so did my old Pentium III! And now it runs on a new computer!!1!
   Sarcasm aside, if Apple really wanted to dominate the computer industry, they’d make all the Windows apps work natively on the Mac platform without needing to install Windows or a virtual machine. This is just more proof that nothing good is made for the Mac as they’ve added a feature that can run Windows programs through BootCamp.

Now you’ve seen my counter arguments. Just keep in mind that most of my posts are supposed to be funny, satirical, sarcastic, and are written just for fun without intentional harm. If you’re an Apple fanboy and you are offended by this, I suggest you seek professional help.

Next blog post will be more ranting about why Mac is not so great. Hint: Maddox is probably gonna be a source for some things. It will be soon, but I’ll take a break for now as this one took two days to write. Also, it’s 1160+ words.

Not that the book itself is a challenge, but reading it in a week in its original language is one. 900 pages (or 1500 Kindle pages for me) in a week is quite the amount. I won’t probably be online that much for this week as I’ll be working on my music stuff and reading this behemoth of a book. Well, not really a behemoth (the REAL behemoth was War and Peace, even that I didn’t finish reading (er.. start reading)).

For the last two evenings I watched this documentary out of four parts on Gennady Rozhdestvensky, commemorating his 80th birthday. Rozhdestvensky had many stories to tell to the viewers of the documentary, many are very intriguing, many hilarious, and many inspiring. I don’t know why, but this somewhat inspired me to want to go into conducting an ensemble or orchestra. He made it sound so amazing and challenging that I actually want to do it. But he did say that musicians who aren’t conductors shouldn’t become conductors and instead should remain performers of their respective instruments. Yet seeing my music coaches, teachers, Dr. Kolchinksy, Dr. Galfendbein, and other people who I did not expect conducting, always makes me feel like “Oohh, I wanna be up in that spot on the podium!” But then again, conducting is tough as one must have very precise hearing in order to hear every note played by every instrument and to catch little mishaps and to help make the ensemble sound better.

It’s been nearly one and a half months since the last night of my symphony’s tour to Spain and France. I must say that this tour has been life changing and eye opening. I met a nice French kid who played bass, I learned what being bros is like, and I re-learned loss. On the afternoon of July 3rd in the Église de la Madeleine, all of the seniors performed their very last concert with the El Camino Youth Symphony. It was a breathtaking event and probably the most emotional performance ECYS has ever played to date. Not to mention very inspiring, too. After looking through the photos from the entire tour that other people posted up on the ECYS ’11 group page, it made me think about where did this year go. It all just went too fast; It still seems like the newly graduated seniors are young and will stay with ECYS… but they aren’t staying and are moving on with their lives. The same thing will happen with class of 2012 this year and with my class the next year. Everything’s going way too fast.

Here’s the most emotional performance that we’ve ever done:

I’ve decided to go away from Posterous and start using WordPress more. As you might notice, my Posterous blog (which is still up and can be found at http://sergeydgr8.posterous.com) has been converted into some picture / random photo blog that I usually update from my iPhone. So I decided to go away from that and leave the text posts on WordPress and my photo posts elsewhere. Oh yes, and this autoposts to my Tumblr! (http://sergeydgr8.tumblr.com)

If you’re reading this on Tumblr, check out my new revamped WP blog at http://blog.sergeydgr8.com.