Inauguration Day

Americans, today you start a new dawn in this era of history.

Today, the world witnesses a change from the status quo. In fact, it is a change that breaks this two-hundred year old norm of the white man in the White House.

This day is a testament to the cultural revolution that has taken hold of America, at least for the time being. The whole world is watching with keen eyes; I don't believe it has been this optimistic for you since Kennedy.

On August 23, 1968 a man told America, and the world, that he had a dream. Today, an element of that dream is fulfilled.

Don't screw this up, America.

The Storm Before the Calm

Clichéd saying aside, the coming weeks (two to be exact) are going to suck. I know that it's to be expected with January ending the first term and presenting mid-term exams but that doesn't mean I can't moan about it.

01/19: Literature 12 "Pre-Exam Test"
01/20: Spanish 12 Provincial Exam
01/21: Law 12 Midterm Exam
01/23 8:30am-10:30am: English 12 Midterm Exam
01/26 1:00pm-3:00pm: History 12 Midterm Exam
01/27 1:00pm-3:00pm: Literature 12 Midterm Exam

Four exams in one week is not at all a bad thing until you consider the dates of the exams: January 19th to 23rd, the week preceding the exams. I will not be facing just the pressure of exams but the nuisance of homework that, undoubtedly, will be piled on top of studying for exams.

The Literature "pre-exam test" will be a good indication of how the midterm exam will be, I think. I predict the only difference will be the amount of writing (having two hours in the midterm compared to the one in class). It's a double-edged sword in that, one on hand, I have another test to write but, on the other, it forces studying way before the midterm (of which I am not accustomed).

My Spanish provincial will be troublesome. I know I'm probably not going to get an A on it so I'm shooting for a high B in the hopes that I can re-write it in June. Once this stress-inducer is gone, that leaves about four months to really prepare myself for a second provincial attempt in June.

Law's in-class exam won't be a problem; I just have to get all of my work done in preparation for the test. I'm planning to do that tonight. The only issue that may get in the way is that there are a number of presentations that still need to be given on Monday and if there are more "technical difficulties" then that could throw a cog into the plan.

As they say, you can't really study for an English exam. Having the need to study Hamlet more thoroughly in Literature, I think I will be well prepared going into the English exam. Literature will force me to reach those dimensions of Hamlet that English does not necessarily require so that will give me a good advantage.

History will be easy. That kind of knowledge sticks with me and I think some re-reading of information and tests will all I need coming in to the exam. All those wasted hours of staying up late and reading page-upon-page on Wikipedia will finally pay off.

Like I said, the Literature exam will probably just be an expansion of the test. I'll have at least five days to really dive into the material so I don't have many worries about it. I'm looking forward to it because, once it's finished, it'll give me a five day weekend.

One of the main problems I have when it comes to studying is poor time management so I'm going to attempt to disconnect from technology and society for a while. I'll be following the same sleeping pattern (e.g. getting up at midnight to do homework/study) so I minimize my distractions. If I don't blog often, that'll be one of the reasons why.

Good luck to all who are writing exams.

It Lives!

I spoke too soon.

You'll remember that I wrote an entry lamenting the death of my first MP3 player and welcoming my newest into the world.

On Saturday morning, I took it upon myself to, among other things, rebuild/reformat some of the broken tech in the house. In the week leading up that day, I had repaired a bricked Mac mini, salvaged a PC from the depths of malware hell (almost like Orpheus), and even took apart an alarm clock.

On that Saturday, I repaired the broken whammy bar on my Rock Band guitar (it was simpler than thought), got my brother's ZEN to boot up (unfortunately, it was only momentary), and cleaned out my PS3 of the 10 GBs of photos I meant to sort out (mostly from the Maiden concert).

The crowning jewel of my day, however, was bringing my Zen Vision:M back to life.

I have no idea how I did this, though. The first time I tried to do this, I wiped its firmware and reloaded the current firmware but to no avail. I did this on Saturday morning and was readying myself for let down but, after some time (I had left the Vision:M on the boot screen) it booted to the menu you see above.

To be honest, I was amazed.

I now have 30 GBs of portable storage as well as an MP3 player for the car now! Goodbye CDs, hello archaic friend.

Zen

When my Creative Zen Vision:M died about a year and a half ago, I was saddened by that loss. I lost a 32GB music player as well as a companion in my everyday life, being there for me when I needed it. It sang me to sleep, it told me stories on walks to school, and it kept me sane on long stretches on boredom.

I borrowed my brother's Creative Zen for about half a year. It served me well, although it didn't have the biggest of capacities. Those 4GB of storage did well in trying to serve the same purpose but it came up short. It died in October which is, ironically enough, my brother's birthday month. It survived many scratches and many incidents of dropping and for that I am grateful.

Yesterday, I made a decision to buy my own 16GB Creative Zen. After trying Best Buy (they did not have the 16GB model in stock), I headed to Futureshop. For about $215 (tax included), I scored a fitting replacement for my Zen Vision:M. The silicon case I bought for it set me back about $22. It was slimmer and much smaller with an easier-to-use interface as well as a slot for SD cards. I've loaded it up with music and I'm quite happy. I'm hoping this one will last longer than the other two have; I'm taking precautionary measures to make sure it does.

Next up, nice headphones! Any suggestions?

One Year Later

As it turns out, today is my blog's birthday, so to speak. I really don't have anything to say regarding the matter. I guess it's because I just woke up. It's funny though, reading through the old blog entries. I've gone from long entries of deep thought to shorter ones that ordinary people would write to sonnets and back to long entires of deep thought. I still face the issues I faced a year ago. The cast is different but what does that really mean? It's all the same... I guess some things never change, eh?

No "profound" or "deep" entry from me today; I just hope I can sustain another year of blogging.