I'm so done with high school. I wish I could come home and nap, instead of doing physics labs and music theory. Really.

More math class drama (tangent: I find it funny that the majority of the drama of my high school career has to be concentrated into the last month of school of my senior year). Crazy man flipped a shit after making us grade papers (for a different class; can you say "illegal"?) and someone did something wrong. Dude SEETHED with anger on Friday, prompting my mom to have the, "just in case he brings a gun to school, sit near the door so you can sprint down the hallway," talk with me. I have to say, every time I've left the room since (and including) the day of the "BC Calc fiasco," I've taken my cellphone (which is normally in my backpack) with me.

Yes. You read the name of that speech correctly. It means exactly what you think it does.

My calculus teacher isn't exactly the... sanest guy. My friend Eliot told me last year that the guy was either bipolar, schizophrenic, or both. He also lives alone in an apartment in Chinatown. That's fine. Whatever. But his demeanor and his spitefulness scared me. I haven't been that scared since my grandma was dying (that was almost 6 years ago). Normally, he's a nice guy--weird, but nice--and he had his mood swings. But even then, there was never this, "Dude, if my class makes him angrier, he could bring a gun and I could die," thought. I swear, I ran danger simulations in my head for three days because I didn't know what the guy could do. I plotted out how quickly and when I could open the door and run (the guy's kind of large and out of shape) to the nearest security guard. I realize that the idea was, in part, due to my mom's speech, but I was thinking (as I do a lot) and I realized that he could do that. I told Robin, Ben, Lauren, etc. and they said "...I see that too.." but then the others were like, "Him?! No way."

So, I sent my old math teacher (who is now an "assistant principal for bad kids" or something) a Facebook message, saying like, "The dude's acting weird and freaking me out. Can we talk?" Her nonresponse didn't help me too much since I'm still a bit freaked out. Talked to some other people and decided that I should indeed go to class (I originally, was not going to go) to see how bad it was. He was better today, but I'm still suspicious.

But all of this really made me think. My school's deterrent for crime/things like this is that every student is SO INVOLVED in the school that they don't do anything stupid. And if they try, super-rich parents will take away their phones. Plus, no one here really says, "Oh. I'm going to go get a gun." No. No one here even thinks it. But, that's just the students. No one counts the mentally-ill math teachers. There aren't any metal detectors here and I doubt that they would make teachers go through them.

I'm still reeling a little, but that was, after all, 3 days ago. We'll see how it goes.

I'm so done.

They fixed that whole fiasco I mentioned earlier. It took a lot of screaming at the administration, but a superintendent/assistant principal heard, got mad at the division and fixed it. My teacher is still being idiotic about it, from what I've heard, but whatever..

Today is my last AP! It's also my hardest though--AP Physics. All of the others were not as bad as I thought they would be. I was incredibly stressed/worried about Euro, but even that wasn't terrible (a DBQ about colonialism? Seriously?). I haven't been to school for a full day for over a week now because of my APs and state (for math team) and stuff.

Speaking of which, we placed 13th in Illinois. Not bad, but not as good as where we placed last year. I'm so glad to be done with that. I swear sometimes it felt like I was the coach because Robin and I would be the ones deciding on rosters and having long Facebook conversations on recruiting people. Being done with that takes a lot of weight off.

Saw Wolverine. It was decent, but it's probably because I'm partial to Hugh Jackman.

Off to school in like an hour. I really can't wait to be done with physics. I don't even care how well I do on it since NU is going to make me retake the class because it isn't as difficult as they believe it should be for engineering majors.

I think I've made my qualms with my school's math department known (if not known, please refer to a really long post from June 17, 2008), but this incident today takes the cake.

I had the first part of my BC Calculus final yesterday. It wasn't anything difficult and I was excited to see how I would do so that I could concentrate on my problem areas for next week's AP since I REALLY need to get a 5. Today, it turns out that a student in AB Calculus (a COMPLETELY different class with different teachers, a different syllabus, and a different "track") cheated on their final which was also on the same day.

What does the department do? Well, they take measures against this student and void the AB final. They also void the BC Calculus final.

I cannot explain how angry I am about this. Their reasoning baffles me--they think that this test MAY BE on the internet (even though they can find no trace of this specific one) so they have to void it. AB and BC calculus cover similar subjects but BC covers more and focuses on different topics. It's like saying the AP American kids cheated on their final so the AP Euro final has to be voided too.

I'm too angry to continue this right now. I don't think I'm going to let this go.

Decided on Northwestern.. I don't leave until September and I haven't even gotten housing forms, but I'd like to have this somewhere so I can access it later.

Also, I'd like comments and suggestions. I haven't done this whole "living in another place for more than a month" thing before and I'd like to know if there's anything you guys found useful that I left off or if there's something here that you brought and never used. Obviously, our situations might be different, but I'd like the help anyway! If you have any brand suggestions/complaints, those would be appreciated as well

Stuff that must be brought

Bike, lock, etc.
Laptop AND laptop security lock (Looking at a 15" MacBook Pro)
iPhone/a better cell phone and iPod
Printer/Scanner/Copier
Backpack
Food containers and forks/spoons
Fridge (under 3 cu. ft.)
Food
Money
Sleeping Bag/Comforter and stuff
Blankets and cow throw
Chelsea and a pillow for her (she's a bear... o_o;)
Hanging organizer things
Down jacket
Snow pants/Snowboard pants
Snowshoes/boots
Computer/desk chair
A safe or something lockable
External hard drive
USB drives
Surge protectors and extension cords
Fixing things stuff (screwdriver, scissors, duct tape..)
Dry-erase calendar board thing (wall mountable)
Posters and pictures
Curtains (possibly; if they don't give me decent ones)
Sandals (for shower) and also slippers for walking around..
Basket for shower stuff
Towels
Robe
Laundry bag (one that can also be a backpack--I'm not lifting all of my dirty clothes)
Mirror
Storage boxes?
Benadryl, Neosporin, Bandaids, Tylenol
DayQuil
Flashlight
Batteries for TI-89
Batteries in general
My clothes and shoes.. O_o
Pencils and other stuff like that
Notebooks
Folders (those file folder things would be useful)
Binders and dividers
Clocky (my alarm clock.. She has a name..)
Post-It notes (lots)
Phone/answering machine (Is this needed?)
Bags for garbage can
Plastic bags in general?
Aluminum foil?
GLOVES
Headphones (to double as earmuffs)
My tasseled hat
DS/Wii (possibly..)

I am given:
Bed
Dresser/Closet
Garbage can
Bookshelf
Desk
Crappy chair
Windows
Radiator
Kitchen (somewhere in the hall for almost all of the dorms)

Edit: GLOVES. I forgot gloves. Jesus. I live in Chicago, am moving 40 minutes away from where I live and I forget the most important thing for winter.

Only a little bit more ranting about ILRAS (Ivy League Rejection Anger Syndrome; yes it's a real thing).

A girl in my English class got into Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, and Brown. I admit she's quite smart, but the rumor/truth is, her family has some... connections and she's also African American.

I can't say that she doesn't deserve to be at any of those schools--she's really very smart and a great public speaker. But, she doesn't work very hard and her grades aren't great; really the current consensus (and she agrees!) is that race and income (much more than mine) definitely played a part in her admission. She's still a close friend of mine and I'm really happy for her. However, today, my English teacher decided to single her out (because my friend was on a field trip yesterday and on spring break when she found out). But instead of saying, "Oh you guys, ____ got into (insert list here)!! YAY!" she said something that kind of implied that my friend was somehow better than us as a person/creature/human being because of her decisions. I know it was kind of a result of a poor choice of words, but of my class of 18 people, 5 of us applied to these schools and 4 of us got rejected--and that was a large percentage of my class today (since everyone was on a field trip to wherever-in-Illinois-that's-reachable-by-school-bus-in-under-3-hours) so, I felt it was really inconsiderate. My friend thought it was kind of awkward and another friend of mine talked to our teacher after class to let her know how our corner was feeling. She was understandably embarrassed but it really got me thinking.

I know Northwestern is not a crappy school. I know. Neither is Carnegie Mellon really and I can get the same education there that I would at ANY Ivy League. I realized today that I wasn't just paying for an education--I'm paying for the brand name just as much. Somehow, I get this odd feeling that some teachers are thinking less of me because I was rejected at these Ivies that I was "supposed" to get into. My math team coach and physics teacher were like "YOU GOT INTO NORTHWESTERN AND CARNEGIE MELLON?!?!?! I NEED TO COORDINATE MY WARDROBE NOW," but others were kind of like, "Oh really.. Hmm.." I kind of felt like it changed their view of me (and the others) and that somehow they were like, "Hmm.. I see it now. No wonder they didn't get in.." It hurts a little to think that their belief in my abilities comes from my accomplishments outside of their environment--that by not getting into one of those schools, I've become mediocre in their eyes. Just something I was thinking about. My friends are quite the opposite. They're being amazing about it and they're planning their visits to Northwestern and stuff. n_n It's so sweet really.

Since senioritis has kicked in, I'm being quite indifferent about school and such now. I really want to be done with it and go off to college. *sigh* But it's only April..

I wrote this on April 2, but I never posted it o.O

So, as mentioned in my last entry, I was rejected at my 5 Ivy League schools. I was a horrible mess for about 4 hours because I just didn't understand how I got rejected at Yale and this complete and utter asshole and idiot in my calc and physics class got in. Turns out the dude, who is an idiot (did I mention that?) has like 4 generations who went to Yale, including both parents and can pay the entire $53,000 cost.

And then there's me. According to FAFSA, my parents and I can only pay $15,000 for college. So, um, a little math here.

Total: $53400 (assumed off of the costs of MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and Northwestern) x 4 = $213600 (Side note: that is more than what my house costs)

My contribution (total): $60000

Difference: $153600 (Daaaammnn...)

Um yeah. I'm not really bitter about not getting into Columbia/Princeton/Yale/Harvard/UPenn, but it would make my current situation of having to decide between Northwestern and Carnegie Mellon easier.

Speaking of which, I can't decide. Every single time I even MENTION wanting to go to Northwestern, my mom launches into this rant about how Carnegie Mellon is world-renowned, etc. and I seriously can't take it anymore. (EDIT: After much deliberation and the realization that Northwestern is cheaper/giving me more money and that their biomedical engineering program works with their AMAZING med school, my parents like them more)

Continued in next post for chronological reasons :D

I went 0/5.

Shit.

So, I didn't get into MIT or Caltech, but screw them. I was mad about MIT for like 20 minutes and, as hard as I tried to be angrier about it, I couldn't. Unsurprisingly, I was accepted to UIC, UIUC, and Northwestern and, surprisingly, Carnegie Mellon as well. So, I'm happy about that. I'm waiting on all five of my Ivy League schools (they're due on Tuesday) but, I think I'll be happy at Northwestern and CMU so, even if I go 0/5 on Tuesday, I think I'll still be happy. But, I do want to go to one of those Ivies..

On another note, math team got to state, which was a total surprise. Our competition was stiff--the people who beat us last year at regionals AND the team that's like 6th in the state, but we pulled it off and beat them by like 20 points.

I typed this out this morning and went off to do AP Physics homework. Obviously, I forgot. |D;

I'M DONE. NO MORE COLLEGE APPS (unless I get rejected at all 11.. It's a 1/2048 (I think) chanc.)

I got Animal Crossing: City Folk for Christmas along with a number of shiny things. I spent at least two days attempting to trick Jingle/Franklin out of their respective furniture sets but, unfortunately, Nintendo's made it a bit harder. I had to buy like 4 outfits to harass Jingle. And then, I realized that with my hairdo, the outfit made me look like Sarah Palin (or as I've taken to calling her, Parasailin'; just a very bad and odd joke on my part). I didn't really get all of the pieces to the Jingle Set. I was time traveling too much.

On another note, Rakoczy (my page) is now at level 49. Yay 2X Exp events! I bought my armor like 4 months ago, after my 10-level spree over the summer.

Just saw this: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/31/education/31sat.html?no_interstitial and am kind of angry. I took the SAT when I was in 8th grade (along with the ACT) and I got a 1500 (out of 2400; I didn't know what logarithms were o.O) and it was SENT TO COLLEGES, WHAT, 5 YEARS LATER?! And now they let you choose?! Granted, if UPenn says they want them all, I'm guessing all of the colleges I applied to want them all as well (I did apply to UPenn; there were so many essays.. ._.), but urgh.

Oh today is the 31st. So, um happy new year. I'll see you all next year. I hope 2009 is much better than 2008 (which I've heard is just a crappy year overall).

Looking forward to:
My birthday (I expect presents. Srsly. 18 = lots of presents?)
Getting into college
Getting out of high school
Finishing my 800 AP classes.
Getting to level 50
Going to state again for math (Damn. I need to go read that book on networks for orals. Eek. Almost forgot!)

Oh well. Mom wants to go to sleep (at 8:25 o.o) so, I'll see you in 2009! :D

So, I was being kind of bored today and clicking around Yahoo! when I came across my very foreboding horoscope which stated that I need to finish my paperwork and make sure the details are right. See, normally I'm one of those people who get horoscopes that are like, "Your dog will marry your second cousin", "What?" This one was a bit freaky in that I have like 10 college apps due in about a week.

Anyway, this whole winter break thing is working out pretty badly right now. My mom keeps bothering me with "Do this. Do that. Oh, you know this other thing? You're home so do that too." I'd like to actually study for my finals. Not to mention I got a 690 on the SAT II Physics test (which was ridiculously hard) so I have to (probably) change my intended major at Princeton and Carnegie Mellon to math (which I'm actually happy about--except for the fact that I hate conics and will have to see them again). I didn't like Princeton's engineering program anyway so, I'm kind of happy and, thankfully, my dad has been pushing me towards majoring in math for a LONG time (there was also the point where he wanted me to major in computer science, but I swore off that).

Unnamed friend #4 (yes, they have numbers o.O I need to keep track of them) was moaning on Friday about having to apply to the University of Chicago and Northwestern because she was rejected at Columbia and her dad threw a fit about her other two colleges. Resulted in me having to hide my "WTF?!?!" look. For the record, I was "WTF?!?!?"-ing about her moaning about that. #4 here applied to like 4 schools--Columbia, Harvard, Washington University in St. Louis (see below), and the University of Illinois (which she got into). Apparently, her dad didn't want her going to Washington University. First of all, she applied to Columbia as an ENGINEERING major. Fu (their engineering school--on a slightly sadistic note, my dad made the joke, "Well I guess Fu said 'Eff-you' to #4"--is really good. I mean, I don't expect to get in--I think I have better chances at MIT, really. The whole moaning about it kind of annoyed me mostly because she acted like she was guaranteed Northwestern.. I don't know why I'm annoyed by this since Northwestern is one of my safety schools (they sent me their application when I got a 30 on the ACT. Too bad I was a freshman back then <_<). I went to the doctor yesterday for vaccines. I can't lift my left arm now (*shakes fist at HPV*) Parents threw a fit yesterday because I somehow grew a 1/2 inch but also lost 5 pounds (so now I'm 5'1.5" and 105 pounds o.O). My mom got so worked up about it that she went and found an old bathroom scale and vowed to "check my weight regularly". o.O

It's funny that in order to accomplish things for school, I have to miss school.

Hihi. Got deferred. Oh well.

Ben got rejected though. :/

I find out about MIT today.

Leaving for school in like 20 minutes. It's really cold here. I should know better than to complain about this-- it's Chicago, it's December, and I've lived here my entire life. xD;

Officially done with all of my standardized testing as of Saturday. I hope that I didn't do badly on the SAT II for physics.

Had a nightmare Friday night (before my SAT test) that I was going to somehow flunk it and end up going to UIC, Northwestern, or University of Illinois. Not that either one is a bad school (I think Illinois is in the top 5 for engineering), but I'd like to get out of Chicago. And plus, the University of Illinois is in a cornfield. No joke. I can already see the cows and the tornadoes...

I just realized that all three of my previous paragraphs' topic sentences start without subjects. o.O

Anyway, I finished some French homework this morning and realized that I absolutely hate my French teacher. Like, my day is significantly better if she's not at school. It's not that I'm bad at French or she doesn't like me (she actually likes me too much), I just find her seriously condescending and, frankly, she's really hateful. She constantly berates my class. Okay, so forgetting how to conjugate the passe compose is not good, but honestly, if she actually taught more, this problem wouldn't exist. If she possibly stopped talking about how "great ______ (insert my/ex-student's name) is," people might actually try. I wish I could tell her that I don't study for her class at all and that I'm not the greatest person to put on the pedestal. I slightly wish I hadn't taken the class, but I needed 4 years of a language.. I have decided that I'm not going to take the AP for French because I'm taking ~7 other tests (which means that my parents will have to pay $658 [my school's price is $94/test] x_X) and because I don't want to spend time with her at all. Did I mention that she's pregnant and will be leaving in APRIL? When's the test? MAY.

Maybe she won't be here today and then I can do some calc in her class instead. I get annoyed when I feel that teacher's are wasting my time.

Hi guys! Um, I was bored, so my journal has this Wall-E/Pixar theme going on.

So, I haven't updated in a while for 2 reasons: homework and college apps. My life at home currently consists of homework and only homework (usually physics homework). Almost all of my college apps are sent or in the process of being sent. MIT is supposed to reply in about 2 weeks. I try not to think about it as much as possible, really. Harvard was sent on Sunday and Princeton is probably going to be sent in this weekend.

I had a math team meet yesterday. I did get orals so, been doing that. Too bad I absolutely flunked it yesterday. I now remember why I do not like conics.

Anyway, got home from math team at like 10:30 yesterday so I decided to skip periods 1 through 4 today. Turns out that my physics teacher wasn't here so I didn't miss anything there. =)

This sucks. Maplestory isn't working on either of my computers. I start school in like a week. Harry Potter's been moved to 2009 and my friend writes graphic Twilight fanfiction. @__@

...I'm going to go do some math now. Markov chains will make me feel better.

Tornado warning didn't amount to anything. I hid in my basement until like 8:45 when my mom was like, "You idiot, get out before you have an allergy attack. >_>" My living room also leaks from the ceiling fan. o.o Yup weird. I stuck a Post-It over the switch so that no one (my mom especially) would accidentally turn it on and burn the house down. Then my mom tells me I'm weird and that I "have an affinity for water" or something and that our house will never burn down because of that or something. o.O Is that why I swim slow?

Anyway, I told my friends that I wasn't going to go to Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 with them because they're planning on driving like an hour to a theater to go see it at like 7 tonight. It's not playing at the two theaters near here and they SO want to see it that they're going to drive an hour. o.o Why can't they just wait like 4 months for it to come out on DVD? o_o;;

The school people called me like 2 days ago and asked me if I'd scare answer questions for incoming freshmen and new teachers and stuff on August 20th. I said yes, of course (because I can put it on my MIT app.. Muwahahaha). None of my friends are doing it which makes me wonder if I'm going to be the only non-faculty person there.. o.o

I also hit level 45 on my Page yesterday (yay!) so, only.. 25 more levels until White Knight @__@; My little archer is at level 12 (XD) and I've started another character that will, hopefully, be a pirate soon.

Hihi. So, MIT did put their app up. Essay A is basically the same as my first paper of English last year.

My real reason for writing this is because I'm hiding in my basement (with my laptop and (most T__T) stuffed animals and iPod). The Chicago area is under a huge severe thunderstorm/tornado warning including my town. Apparently, a tornado has been spotted pretty close to here. So, you know, if you don't hear from me for a while, don't freak out. I'll update Facebook, blahblah.

Yup. I'll be working on my college app and playing Maple until this all goes away.

http://www.hulu.com/dr-horribles-sing-along-blog

Heeeheee.. I have a PhD in horribleness too!! ^^

On another note, senior portrait went well. Until, you know, friends showed up, were like, "OMG. Where have you been? We haven't hung out with you!!!112132onetwothreefive!" Thankfully, it was raining and I told them I had to go before it got worse. Then, they were all, "OMG. BREAKING DAWN IS COMING OUT!!1!!?!? IT'S GONNA BE SOOO AWESUM!!" o.o Um, yeah, I guess. You have to look past the bad writing and the bad messages (telling 12-year-old girls that deferring college to get pregnant/married at 18 is not good), I guess it's a good book. Oh. Forgot the scary pedophile image (True love = newborn? O.o;;;;). No offense to any of you Twilight lovers, I'm just not a fan. :/

Anyway, while, I was talking to them, I kinda felt like I'd missed something. It was odd. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be sad or not, but I don't think I am. o_O;

MIT's app is supposed to be up today, but their site is down for "maintenance" right now. x_x; I do need 3 months to work on that app. Put it up! x_o;

OSP not working. Don't know why. Can you Facebook me the RP, Puff?

http://www.amazon.com/review/product/031606792X/ref=cm_cr_dp_synop?%5Fencoding=UTF8&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending#R1OV177BXUYEEA

I'm ecstatic. You got this far out of luck and now your fans are eating you alive, Stephenie Meyer.

And I'm happy.