Entries for January, 2005

Six days into the new year, I present my new new year's list of driftwood thoughts that I randomly dredged off the surface of my mind's fetid, mossy pool.

Uno - Nobody reading this now will be able use the abbreviation '04 again for the rest of their lives. Unless, of course, you're one of those people that exercises daily, eats out of the five original food groups, never does anything exciting, and lives to be like 130 years old. However, we live in the 21st century. Those kinds of people are extinct.

Dos - I am officially a "college applicant." After months of putting them off, I finally had to sit down and actually do my college applications. Now I feel like I don't really need to do anything anymore. Not like that's a big difference from the past four years.

Tres - I made no New Year's resolutions that I wouldn't've kept anyway. [double contractions - the beauty of the English language.] Not that it was on purpose. It was just that on January 1, 2005, I was too busy frantically writing leisurely touching up my college applications, and by the time I sent them in and stopped hyperventilating, it was January 2, 2005. Meh.

Catorce - Taco Bell is no longer selling their Fajita Grilled Stuft Burritos. It is the dawning of a dark era, one that is reminiscent of the time of the Great Depression or the induction of xanga. I don't understand Taco Bell's take on this. They put a good item on the menu for once, and because people like it, they snatch it out of our hands with an evil Pancho Villa laugh and a Mexican leer. Do they really think that periodically "reintroducing" the item will really draw more consumers to their retaurant? Well, some high-paid commercial executive somewhere just got fired, because they've just lost a valuable cutomer. Screw you, Taco Bell.














...that's it.

Written by jihwan at 12:23 AM.

3 x 0 = 0

The Deca team is now pulling daily 10 o'clock nights. Needless to say, by the end of practice we were all tired, grumpy, and appalled at what we'd gotten ourselves into when we signed up for the team.

After practice was over, Micah, Brian, and I walked out of the school building and were greeted by a nice little downpour of rain. You know, the rain that has simply refused to let up for about two weeks here in Southern California. Anyway, because we parked our cars outside the school campus, we had to walk there. In the rain. Sucks to be us.

Now imagine this: The orange streetlights periodically illuminates the silhouettes of three guys sloshing along the sidewalk. They're splashing through torrents of water at ten o'clock at night, the wind blowing stinging droplets of rain into their faces. Huddled under two small umbrellas, their backs loaded down with books and study materials, you would think that they'd be pretty miserable.

All of a sudden, they begin belting out the national anthem at the top of their lungs, not really caring that they're stomping through puddles the size of Rhode Island. They don't care that while most people are getting ready for bed after a hard day, they've only just been let out of school. They seem to be having a blast, waking the neighborhood dogs and breaking the steady patter of the rain as they sing about the good 'ol rocket's red glare and the bombs bursting in air.






After being cooped up inside all day reading about ancient Cycladic sculptures and the B flat major scales, that was one of the most refreshing five minutes I've experiencecd in a long while. And while I could try to describe the experience in a more poetic manner, I'm too tired.

Go away.

Written by jihwan at 12:24 AM.

5 x 0 = 0

I am not being consistent in recording my thoughts. It's just that it's kinda difficult to write about what goes on in my mind when all the late nights and early mornings blur together like vanilla ice cream and strawberry syrup when thrown into a blender and flipped to puree.

I am now a United States citizen. I have waived my right to bear arms for the Republic of Korea and am now an American. Kill me.

I am not a National Merit Scholarship Finalist. I'm pretty pissed at myself. Not because I believe I deserved to receive the scholarship, but because I know I didn't deserve to. If I had done what I was supposed to do the past four years - study - I could be getting at least $15,000 a year for college. But. No.

I am now a physics poet. During my Physics test today, I decided that I didn't know a single concept and spent the rest of the period writing poems on my test paper.

Haiku
elusive physics
so necessary to life
and yet so cryptic

Limerick
There once was a boy with zest
Who never did try his best
He ignored the class
And sat on his ass
Then promptly flunked his test.

I hope to get a 'C' for creativity and effort.




I am so very much anticipating college.

Written by jihwan at 11:56 PM.

3 x 0 = 0

Does anyone else feel like the days are all melting into one another like gummy bears left in a hot car for too long?

I've noticed a lot of things during this past week - many of which, under other circumstances, I would be ranting about. However, because I've been running on pure battery acid for as long as I can remember, I'll spare you the aneurism.

Finals are coming up. This time last year, I was biting my nails and worrying about my grades. I was nervous as hell because if my grades were bad, then I wouldn't be able to even think of applying to the colleges I wanted to go to. This year, I really could care less about finals. I know it sounds like I'm putting up a fake wall of bravado, but seriously, I'm more anxious about the Decathlon competition than finals. Mostly because my college apps are in and there's nothing I can do about where I get accepted.

My lips have been chapped for about five weeks now. It's gotta be a new world record or something, because I don't know of anyone else who has to endure the blistered, bloody, painful mess that I have to mop up every time I open my mouth. I can't yawn, I can't laugh, and I can't even talk without fear of spraying blood all over everyone within a five-foot radius. It was all right for a while when I applied medication, but I lost my precious chapstick and I went through a grueling period of lubricant withdrawl. My lips looked like Angelina Jolie's enormous smackers in that one movie. You know the one. My lips got so puffed that I almost crushed my whole decathlon team into the corner of the room. No lie. Scout's Honor.

I got a new suit. I look pretty snazzy, if I say so myself. I've put together a very versatile shirt/tie combo for my dark grey suit to dazzle the many millions of fans I will undoubtedly attract once I become supreme ruler of the world. All solid colors, no tie designs.

White shirt - navy/black/burgundy tie
Wine-red shirt - white/grey tie
Dark blue shirt - white/yellow tie
Black shirt - white/grey tie
et cetera.

Don't you hate it when someone else turns out to be right? You have to swallow your pride and admit to him that you were wrong. Then, a few days later, you find out that you were right in the first place. But then it's too late to save your dignity, so the next best thing you can do is to run up to the other person, babble/shriek incoherently, slug him in the face with all your might, and run off laughing like a maniac. Life bites, no?

A more insightful and structured entry coming soon. I promise. Scout's Honor.

Written by jihwan at 11:09 PM.

2 x 0 = 0