Photo of the Week #2

The second installment in a series of my favorite photos each week from my Flickr account.

Daily Wrap-Up - An... Odd Day

First a bit of background. My commencement activities were held yesterday, and the foreign exchange student we're hosting was graduating. As a result, her dad is in town, so today we wanted to give him a brief tour of the city. One of the stops we made was Finlay Park, which holds a great view of the Columbia skyline, depicted in my Photo of the Week from last week. As we were walking to the fountain, we saw a man open a car door, retrieve a bag of some sort, and walk off, as the car alarm continued to go off. He continued to walk off without so much as looking back, a suspicious sign to say the least. My dad and I had remembered seeing a police car at the top of a hill, so he ran to report the now-suspected crime. The man has caught and apprehended. Because the police had a eyewitness account, the theft was categorized as a felony, auto theft, rather than a misdemeanor. It was an... interesting experience.

SUMMER!

With today's two exams, summer vacation is FINALLY here. Tomorrow is the school's commencement, where I'll be ushering and the foreign exchange student we're hosting is graduating. It's about time for a break, and the timing is just about impeccable.
Generic beach, from Beachtown
Press

Happy Memorial Day!

Memorial Day '08 outlook: Studying for exams. On deck for Tuesday: English 9 and Spanish 1. What a waste of a memorial day.

Vietnam Memorial from my Flickr account

Photo of the Week 1

Here's a new weekly feature: Each Saturday, I'll pick one picture from my Flickr account. I'll try to post each Saturday, but I won't make promises.



Columbia's skyline, as seen from Finlay Park.

TI$A Video Supporting Obama

This makes me laugh every time.

KY/OR Analysis

The race has continued on despite Clinton's fading chances. Finally, after last night, I think we can finally say that the race's denoument has officially begun. Obama took a thumping in Kentucky, but still netted ~14 delegates. Oregon went strongly Obama, adding more fuel to the fire that is the Clinton campaign. Obama is now within 70 delegates of outright victory and has clinched the pledged delegate majority. If the race wasn't decided before last night, it certainly is now.

McCain Smacked Down

... by Brave New Films, using his own words.

PES (Pre-Exam Stress) Wrap-Up

First of all, a definition of PES: it's an acronym I came up with last semester, meaning Pre-Exam Stress. i.e. Teachers cram remaining material into the few weeks preceding exam week. Finally, this Friday essentially marks the end of the material-cramming period. I'm going to be utilizing this weekend as a sort of stress detox after this week-of-weeks, which has been riddled with projects and presentations and tests and quizzes and whatever else you can think of. Oh, how happy I am that it's over!

WV Analysis

First of all, let me apologize for neglecting to write up my WV predictions. Nonetheless, Clinton won a landslide victory, winning by 41%. While this is an impressive margin, it isn't enough, especially in a state with such demographics as W. Virginia. Just after the NC/IN primaries, before the stream of superdelegates to Obama, the math determined that, in order to tie Obama in delegates, Clinton would need to win 70%of the remaining delegates, including the supers. West Virginia's demographics are fertile teritory for Clinton, likely the best she'll see in the rest of the race. She won 67% of the vote, which is just shy of the 70% threshold and far from being enough to combat Obama's superdelegate stream. Clinton performed very, very well in WV, but it wasn't enough, and the race continues to be over.

The Facebook-less Experiment Wrap-Up

If anything, this experiment, which I had intended to last for 1 week, showed me what a hopeless Facebook-addict I am. The experiment lasted all of 20 hours before I could no longer bear my need to procrastinate. Sigh.

ANOTHER Reuters Mistake

TORONTO (Reuters) - An attendant at a Canadian restaurant who was sacked for giving a bite-sized doughnut, worth 16 cents, to an agitated toddler was given her job back on Thursday after the case received wide media attention.

Nicole Lilliman, a single mother, said she was dismissed from a London, Ontario, outlet of the Tim Hortons coffee and doughnut chain after video cameras captured the 27-year-old giving a Timbit to a toddler.

Problem: Unnecessary comma usage

The full story at Reuters Oddly Enough.

Iraq War Analogy

Here's an analogy I came up with earlier today, with an addendum from a friend of mine.

"It's like a game at the fair... you can't win, but you keep throwing more and more money at it."

Addendem: We even have creepy old white dudes telling us that eventually we'll win something shiny and worthwhile."

Pretty much nails it on the head, IMO.

IN/NC Analysis

The smoke has lifted from last night, and the results are nothing short of stunning. Obama won North Carolina by 14%. I predicted Obama by 10%. Obama also nearly scored an upset in Indiana, where Clinton eked out a mere 2% win. The Democrats are beginning to rally around Obama, with 3 new superdelegate endorsements today, including one switchover from the Clinton side. Clinton is also short on cash, and yesterday is doing nothing to help her disposition. Just for a little ego padding, I predicted a McCain/Obama matchup in late February.

IN/NC Predictions

Indiana: The polls are inconclusive; the state seems to be up in the air for either candidate to snatch (Just think of Indiana as a tip-off in basketball, Obama!). The state's blue collar workers will propel Clinton to a 5% victory.

North Carolina: Here, the polls are far more conclusive and show Obama grasp on the state. Despite Clinton's headway in the polls, I'm predicting Obama by 10%.

Obama will come out delegate-wise overall and will be just a tad closer to clinching the nomination.

The Facebook-less Experiment

I'll admit it. I spend waaaay too much time on Facebook, and every week I lose hours of productivity. So, until Sunday, May 11, I will not go onto the Facebook website. I'm curious as to how much more I'll get done, how much more sleep (yes, lost sleep!) I'll get, etc. I'll try to post a little update every once and a while. Here's hoping for no withdrawl headaches!

The Corridor of Shame (Editorial)

This letter was published on November 30th, 2007 in The State newspaper:

We live in an age where all Americans are expected to be given a “minimally adequate” education in “minimally adequate” facilities. The state, however, has fallen short of these already low standards in the Corridor of Shame, along I-95, where students are expected to learn in conditions that can be at best described as horrendous.
These students are expected to learn in buildings over 100 years old with dated materials, a 33% teacher turnover rate, all the while coping with their communities’ poverty. How can this country’s future be educated with textbooks that state that, “Someday, man will land on the moon?” How can these students score well on standardized tests when they are lacking in the basics, such as reading? These are conditions that simply cannot and should not be tolerated by the state.
I call upon the citizens of this state to write their elected officials. I push the state legislators and the governor to act upon this outcry and take immediate action to put an end to these egregious conditions.
Will no child be left behind, or will this become another issue for my generation to cope with?

More information about the Corridor of Shame.

PA/Guam Analysis

Sorry. I forgot to do PA analysis before now, and I also forgot to write up my Guam predictions (Obama by 10%).

PA: Nothing changes. Clinton was predicted to win by 10% or so, so a victory by 9.4% doesn't come as any suprise.

Guam: Again, nothing changes. A victory by 7 votes means very, very little.

Loss

Despite my opponent's lack of campaigning and my seemingly-endless campaigning, which brought me to a run-off election, I lost today's run-off. Most of my class confronted me to say that they thought I has the superior speech, and I was the only of my five opponents to have stickers and/or campaign signs. Nonetheless, once I saw the results, I found the other contender to say: "They posted the results. You won. Congratulations." As if the bitter taste of defeat wasn't bad enough, she replied, saying: "Really?! Oh my goodness! Please, turn around, so I don't laugh to your face" (Italics for emphasis). As a consolation, at least, many sophomores, juniors, and seniors, with whom I'm friends, who all told me that they'd have voted for me, were they freshmen. Alas, the popluarity contest lives on.

Run-Off!

Perhaps one of the most annoying rules for the election that was held today is that of the run-off. In order to win, you must clinch more than 50% of the vote. Well, with 5 people running, the 50% threshold is all but impossible to reach. Tomorrow I'm in a run-off with a person who carry the popularity vote. I suppose my school has lost sight of Jacksonian Democracy...