New Car!

2010 Lexus ES350, but in white

As you probably figured from my lack of posts since Monday, I've been really busy lately with school, crew, college applications and other stuff. This has been such a stressful month so far and it will only get worse until I finally submit all my applications and get this massive boulder off my back ;_; I really can't wait until winter break.

This past week has been dull for the most part, I had a few test and quizzes as always but my Macbeth Acts I and II test today was a surprise partner test which was really helpful. In Journalism, we're planning to print our December issue very soon and for this issue we have made so far about $1,300 worth of ads which is a great improvement over the $900 or so we made in out first issue, the only issue is that in the past week or so we got another page worth of ads and when the amount of space was originally allotted, it did not take into account the number of ads we would have and now we are short about one and a half pages. oops.

Exciting news, after talking about it for over a year and a half and dozens of visits to car dealers and going on dozens of test drives, we finally have our new car in our garage! My dad picked up our white 2010 Lexus ES350 from the dealer today. We got it fully loaded and in the end got some stuff we didn't really need. The car does have stuff we wanted like Navigation, backup camera and rear sunshade but also some frivolous things. Since we didn't want to wait 5 weeks for a custom order from Japan, we compromised and had one already in the US and made do with the random add-ons. The car has a rear deck lid lip spoiler which is subtle but kinda weird for this kind of car and it also has a rear bumper applique which was a $310 option the dealer just tossed in for free in the end. We had it shipped over from North Carolina and it got it for over $4,000 under MSRP so that was good.

So things are admittedly kind of a boring right now but I just wanted to check in. I'll probably do a legitimate post tomorrow so until then take it easy.

Christmas Countdown - 13 days!

-JP

E-Relationships DON'T Work

Question: Will a relationship with someone you meet online and know only exclusively through the Internet ever work out?

Answer: 99.99999% of the time, no.

Once upon a time there was a girl named Julia. Now Julia had gotten involved in some RP (role play, nothing kinky, just like fantasy world stuff) online and here she met a man who went by the name of Seth. While she never had met Seth in real life, or even knew where he was in this world of ours, she fell madly in love with him. For weeks, she was obsessed with this mysterious individual who talked with the smoothness of velvet which was then massaged with baby oil. For weeks her friends tried their hardest to convince her that this was unhealthy for her, physically and mentally but this persisted. One day however, the floor collapsed and Julia came back to her friends for help. For weeks, one of her friends talked to her for hours about why she must end this drug-like addiction to a man for which she doesn't know the whereabouts of or even his real name or face for that matter. Only after complete disconnection from this indivudal did Julia eventually become free of this scumbag which plagued her thoughts and robbed her of emotional life for much too long.

This was about a year and a half ago and a thoroughly true story. Julia did really meet a person named Seth online and for the longest time had her mind stolen from her as a result, enamored by his words. We, her friends, all hoped she would not make the same mistake again but today I found out she has once again fallen into this trap.

While less mysterious in comparison to Seth, a new boy, by the name of Matt from Nova Scotia has electronically captured the heart of Julia. The conversation between me and Julia started out innocently enough. "If a boy never starts the conversation does it mean he's not interested?" she asked, "No" i replied, "it could just mean he's shy." As the conversation progressed I began to become increasingly suspicious of what's going on. When I finally ask her why, she responds with she met another guy online who she had fallen badly in love with, claiming he's "soooo much better than Seth". It turns out they met over the summer also through RP via Twitter. Fortunately she had realized where she was heading and tried to limit conversation with him herself, but once again she cannot rid her mind of Matt. I dosed my advice once again that she has to realize that the fact that he's far away, a college senior and someone you only know virtually equates to something that will only harm her in the long run, a fact not taken willingly and with much protest. While the conversation sorta just fizzled out soon after, I hope she got the point of my message.

personally, I think E-Relationships, and especially long distance E-relationships, will only lead to trouble. Sure there are stories of people finding each other through the Internet, eventually meeting each other and end up having quintuplets with each other but just how realistic is that?

Given that I haven't ever actually been in a relationship, maybe my friends shouldn't all be coming to me for relationship advice, (funny, really) but sometimes friends really do need to guide friends back into line when things get out of hand.


Bad Relationship? I've got the remedy! (or at least a really good bowl of soup to take your mind off it)


All the best,

JP

Thanks, Mother Nature

A quick snapshot of my backyard this morning, read on to clarify

Once again I'm posting at 1AM, this seems to be becoming a habit of mine, posting late in the night. Well, last night was my friend's surprise 16th birthday party which actually turned out to be quite fun. My friend Nat thought she was going to go help out at a senior living community's annual Holiday Party at the local golf clubhouse but in reality, it was 40 of her friends plus her family ambushing her.

I left practice an hour early so I could send two people home and pick up some dry cleaning (it was semi-formal) before the party, but because of traffic, I didn't get to take a shower like I wanted to. I ended up just wiping myself down with a hot moist towel which worked in a pinch. I didn't have time for dinner either so when I got there, me and the other 6 crew kids were all starving half to death. Finally, when she arrived, everything got into full swing and food was brought out (cue angel chorus). There was dancing and the like but most of the people there were juniors and the only seniors there were me and some other people from the crew team, but we had fun. As always, the DJ though could have been better, he sucked at transitioning songs and he didn't listen to 3/4 of the requests which was annoying. Nat had a great time though, she got a tiara and a really nice *pink* cake. It was a pretty good cake but the frosting was sickeningly sweet and rich. The final song turned out to be "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz which was kinda odd mood-wise but we all got a nice good-bye hug circle going.

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In a rather funny bit of friend gossip, my friend Kevin has developed some sort of man crush on Taylor Lautner of Twilight/New Moon fame. On Friday he asked me "Is it gay for me to like New Moon and the Twilight series?" to which I responded "No, I've read all the books and seen the movies." This then developed into a three person coversation between him, me and another girl in our journalism class and into how hot Taylor is and how he had made so many people "change teams" in the whole Vampire-Werewolf debate. Later during crew practice I asked him what the whole thing was about in journalism and he just said he had been really obsessed with Taylor Lautner since seeing New Moon, to which I responded "Well, he is really hot and has the body of a god" and he said back "He is really hot, and I'm secure enough with myself to say that." Anyways, I find this whole episode kinda funny, I never really expected this from him, and combined with the fact that he likes Lady Gaga, Kesha, Taylor Lautner and to an extent Twilight (though he claims to never have read the books, something I question a little) and that he's not afraid to get touchy with people makes him quite an interesting person...

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Today, here in the DC area, we got our first legit snowfall. I measured about 3 inches outside our front door but some nearby areas got over 5 inches! It might not sound like much to some people, especially those who live further north, but that's a lot of snow for this area and surprisingly early in the season at that. Maybe this will finally be a good snow year. I ended up just working on an English project, French and college essays all day, boo, no fun. Tomorrow is going to be sunny though which means most of the snow and ice will likely melt away, but maybe, ever so slight the chance that some ice will remain that we might just get a delayed start on Monday. *fingers crossed*

I hope everyone has enjoyed their weekend so far.

Take care, and all the best,

JP

Surprise!

Just got back from a surprise sweet sixteen birthday party for one of my friends. Exhausted, but I had a great time. The DJ though, as always, could have been better. I'll post more details tomorrow.

Also, my 2K went relatively well. I didn't reach my absolute goal, but I kept it under 8 minutes which was my secondary goal. I felt that I could have pushed harder at the end so I'll do that next round. At least now I know what my limits are and can now push myself to, and even beyond them in the future.

Bye :)

JP

2000 Meters

I'm so nervous right now! God, I've been dreading December 2nd for two weeks now and now, the dreaded day is mere hours away.

So why am I so anxious? It's because tomorrow I have my very first 2000 meter test of the season for crew. If you're involved in crew or know someone who is, you've probably have heard people talking about 2Ks and their 2K times and maybe you don't know too much as to what it actually is. A 2K test is the standard test for rowers in order to measure performance, strength and endurance. As the name implies, it's a 2000m piece that is done on an erg. Your goal is to find a 500m split that you can hold for about 1750 meters and then you sprint at the very end to get your overall time as low as possible. A 2k usually lasts under 8 minutes for guys and 9 minutes for girls but those are probably the most draining and painful 8 minutes any rower will experience short of being in an actual race.

Because the 2k measures performance, it can ultimately decide your seat in a boat and which boat you are placed in (1st or 2nd etc), so your goal is to get your time to be lower than everyone else's. Of course there are those who are absolute beasts, but you're competing against everyone else on the team to fight for the best spots. It's so competitive it makes my mind and body hurt just thinking about it. >.<. Just tough it out. just. tough. it. out. *sigh*

College Application update:
-Teacher recommendation stuff finally all handed out :D
-There are still supplemental essays to write (probably will finish this weekend, hopefully)
-SAT scores sent out
-Dues for two schools paid, five more to go

With everything being so busy and hectic, the only thing that's keeping me going is Christmas break which is rolling 'round pretty soon. We haven't decorated the outside of the house yet but hopefully we will soon. I put some lights up in my room though and the tree is up and decorated (well, to be honest, it's kinda up all year since we're too lazy to take it down lol). Well, hopefully things will ease up a little and everything smooth out soon. Also, I just downloaded "Alejandro" and "Dance in the Dark" from Lady Gaga's new album The Fame Monster and my god they're good, especially along with "Bad Romance" and "Telephone" Lady Gaga is my total obsession music wise right now if you couldn't tell lol.

Go listen! - Dance in the Dark

I hope you have a great week!

wish me luck :)

JP