AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I'm in stats class right now but I can't focus. All that's running through my head is "tryouts, tryouts, tryouts, tryouts, tryouts." :(

AHHHHH!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHH hockey tryouts on friday!! I really really really hope I make the team. My chem test seems pretty insignificant at the moment.

Published

My first pics should be appearing in this week's issue of the university. They're just some pretty basic portrait photos that I took of people who were being interviewed. 

In other news (<-- hahah bad pun), I met up with an architectural expert today about the ADA problem and there might actually be something there. I'll have an official report this week, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. If there's a story here, it very likely will get front page :). 

Breakthroughs?

I really don't want to jinx it, but I'm too excited to not share. After days of uneventful cold calls and dead ends to lawyers and various disability organizations, I finally got someone to send out an expert to examine the actual site and determine whether it is in compliance with the ADA. Now they haven't actually sent out anyone yet so I've got my fingers crossed and I'm hoping.

Hmm what else is going on... I'm photographing the women's soccer game on Saturday. It's my first time really photographing a sports event at ground level. I did sneak in my camera into HP Pavillion to photograph the Sharks playing, but I'm pretty excited to get some sweet press access. This guy at newspaper has a 300 mm lens with a constant f2.8 maximum aperture. Now I don't expect any of you to share in my utter excitement but suffice it to say that its a freaking huge lens that costs like $4,000!!!

I started going to Karate this past week. It's great to get back into a martial art. All the formalities (like bowing before you enter the studio, addressing each other as sir or mam) bring back all my memories from the the 7-8 years that I did tae kwon do. I'm surprised that I remember everything pretty freaking well having never formally practiced for the last 4 years. I guess when you've performed a kick 10,000 times it's kinda hard to forget. 

Anyways that's it for now. Back to hitting the bio book. I figured I'd post out an update now because I don't think I'm going to get another chance for the next week or so. It's crunch time, I've got some epic tests coming up.

Quote for the week:

"It's the brown touch"

Song for the week:

Song for a Friend - Jason Mraz

^Dan 

Nostalgia

Today as I was trudging through my Stats homework, I was talking to Pratusha about what's going on at Harker. There have been a lot of changes. They have a new building, they don't have to take finals, the debate team has Scotty P, winter ball has been moved to January, but really things are the same. Seniors eat in the Sledge just like we did, all our favorite teachers are there (notable exception of Mr. Grant), and juniors will always be juniors even if they're doing college apps now. Don't get me wrong I love college for the freedom, the fact that my friends are a few doors down or a couple flights of stairs up, and a billion other reasons. It's probably just the combination of things, talking about Harker, reliving the good ol' times in the Sledge, and Pandora just happened to put on some Jimmy Eat World that made me think about all the crazy drives in Ravi's car, but I've been struck with nostalgia. I really do miss the epic musical chair games we played, wandering around aimlessly through campus at least a hundred times per afternoon, getting Siam Thai, the really lame dances that Shan always dragged me to, knowing every single person's name, the ridiculous number of psych references, worrying about getting in trouble for stupid things like collared shirts. I could keep this list going forever. 

Well suffice it to say I miss y'all a lot. I'm posting up a picture of my homie's one per week.

Quote for the week:

"Epic sleep"

Song for the week:

This one's a classic. Sweetness - Jimmy Eat World

^Phil (we just love chemistry so much)

New Adventures

Subway is now dead to me. You can thank Jimmy John's for that. For all you unenlightened folk, Jimmy John's is an INCREDIBLE sandwich place that's less than 5 minutes away from my dorm. Their bread is fresh baked, meat and vegetables freshly cut, etc, etc. Basically its awesome. It's just a tad more expensive than Subway but whatevs. The walls are also covered in cool posters and signs. 

So new adventures... Yesterday I first moved into the wonderful world of Journalism. So I wandered into the newspaper room. The way it works is that the editors announce possible assignments and writers are expected to volunteer for ones they want to write. Ok some quick background that'll make this a lot clearer. SLU just built an $80 million dollar arena that seats 10,600 people. It's pretty beastly. The newspaper got a tip that there are now curb ramps (y'know like at a crosswalk the curb sorta slopes down) for handicap people. This might violate the ADA (American Disabilities Act) which would be bad for SLU because then they'd probably have to rip up the curb and make it compatible. So I have till Friday to get this expose researched and written. It's Thursday and I still haven't been able to find a disabilities lawyer who I can talk to about this issue. Oh well, we'll see what goes down...

As I write this entry I'm sitting in the bio building because Phil and I idiotically thought bio lab was at 8 am when it was actually at 9 am so we're sitting here in our rain soaked pants (imagine like the worst rain we got all year in San Jose, it's that bad). 

So after a simple bio lab in which the only negative was my soaked clothing, a good Chinese meal, and a hot shower upon returning my room. I think I'll finish up this post with what hopefully will become a recurring theme. One cool saying or joke or something I've heard and remember, and one song that you guys should check out to expand your musical horizons.

This saying comes from a sign in Jimmy John's:

Work like you don't need the money; Love like you've never been hurt; Dance like nobody's watching.

And the song for this post is Sunrise, Goodbyes by Houston Calls 

El Segundo

I'm not feeling particularly creative with post titles and I'm studying Spanish at the moment so that's why you have the title of this post. I'll fill y'all in briefly on what I'm doing and then finish it up with some pictures so you can see who everyone is.

SLU (St. Louis University) has a roller hockey team. As you all know I love hockey to death, so naturally I'm trying to make the team. Every tuesday the team plays scrimmages against another local team (normally from the adult leagues) so last tuesday I headed out to the rink to get some experience playing with the team. A mess is probably the best way to describe it. College hockey is obviously a lot more intense than high school, and being 60 lbs lighter than the next smallest guy doesn't help. Obviously I have a lot of work to do. The coach says that I need to get in better shape so that I can skate at 100% for the whole game. I've been dedicatedly hitting the gym over the last week and tomorrow I'll get another chance to up my game. Tryouts are at the end of September so the final trial is looming. Admittedly, I'm not too optimistic, but that doesn't mean I'm not gonna give it my best shot.

Other than that, it's mainly been studying and hanging out with people. I signed up for a bunch of clubs at the club fair, the Indian Student Association, Global Medical Brigades, Karate, Newspaper, Pre-med club. Obviously I'm not going to actually participate in all of those but those were the interesting ones that I saw. I'm trying to become a photographer for the newspaper which would be pretty sick assuming I'm not stuck doing fluff pieces (<-- Robin) but hey as a freshman I'll take that. Anyways pics as promised:

^my bed

^chilling in the room at some insane hour


^Phil and I ran for floor government positions