Ramblings of a Constipated Mind

I've been doing nothing except eating, sleeping, visiting the doctor, and sitting in front of my computer for the past few days.

My computers program just started to run. I don't know if it works or not. But it's running.

I have submitted Stuffed Fantasies to the 3rd NP2K Online Film Festival. It will premiere this Saturday.

So, right now, I'm feeling happy and optimistic. That will probably change tomorrow, but I don't care. I've gotta enjoy this moment while it lasts.

Yup. My mysterious throat-infecting, fatigue-causing, headache-inducing disease came back while I was in Nicaragua from Sunday through Thursday. And on a hunch my mom took me to get another test done today.

It's official: I've got mono.

Sometimes it doesn't show up in the blood work during the first week. But it showed up now. Which means, great, I finally know what it is! But alas, knowing what it is doesn't change the fact that I'm really sleepy all the time, and still have a week to finish my computers project.

Life can really suck at times, can't it? You've just gotta ride it out.

I'm trying to be optimistic. This gives me an excuse to smile at people and yell, "RUN AWAY! I'VE GOT THE MONKEY SICKNESS!" Then I get to laugh at the ones that believe me and run away.

In other news: it's incredible what we can do these days, thanks to science. That is quite possibly the strangest, most amazing thing I've ever heard of. (WARNING: it's an article from a Russian newspaper and contains a picture of a human penis).

Also, in case I didn't mention it before, there are half a dozen new stills on the production blog.

Quote of Da Moment:
"USA Today has come out with a new survey: Apparently three out of four people make up 75 percent of the population."
--David Letterman

I've been in Nicaragua, chilling with the Wests and having a fun time. But now I'm back, and reality has hit me in the face.

I have record one word of dialogue in Stuffed Fantasies again. The audio in the movie is probably the worst thing about it - there's lots of motor noise I couldn't remove - but this is Souwa's only line and it's pretty important people understand it. So yeah. I'll have to record it again. I thought it was finished, but after watching it a few times that one part is really starting to get on my nerves. No big deal.

I have to finish filming my TOK video. I'll probably do that tomorrow. Then I'll hopefully be able to edit it by April 1, so I'll have more than one film in the competition (though the TOK one won't be eligible for an "official" prize, if it's any good). Editing shouldn't take long though. It's a rather simple film in terms of concept. There aren't tons of different scenes and difficult shots like with Stuffed Fantasies.

I also have to finish my math project by April 2nd at the latest. That shouldn't be too hard to do though, since I completed half of it in Nicaragua. I need white out! If only it was the type of project that could be typed...drawing graphs and writing explanations involving formulas and vectors and gradients by hand isn't much fun.

My computers project is also due April 2nd, so I'll probably turn in the two things on the same day. I have 9 days to finish coding my program and get it to work - the latter part is going to be the hardest. Then I have to write a few hundred pages about it.

Yup. The rest of my vacation is going to be so much fun...

In other news: any person who says the obesity problem in the United States isn't as serious as people make it out to be needs to take a look at these pictures. I'm sorry, but that's not natural. That girl's parents deserve serious punishment for letting her end up like that. There's no way someone can end up that big unless no one monitors their eating habits and they're allowed to eat whatever they want, whenever they want. It could be a glandular problem, but I don't think that's the case with this kid.

Of course, in these days, in some ways there's not much you can do about it. If the girl's parents tried to stop her from eating so much, she could put them in jail for child abuse. Then again, she's only 5. I doubt she'd be capable of doing that.

*shudders*

Those pictures are really disturbing.

Quote of Da Moment:
"Did you ever notice they never take any fat hostages? You never see a guy coming out of Lebanon going: I was held hostage for seven months and I lost 175 pounds, I feel good and I look good and I learned self-discipline. That's the important thing."
--Denis Leary

George Lucas figured out another way to make more money.

Will I be letting him have mine?

If he can pull this off...Without. A. Doubt.

Also: I would allow Will Wright to father my children, if it was biologically possible.

And what do you know, if this is true, it may be.

Quote of Da Moment:
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning."
--Rich Cook

I've been sick, which is why I haven't been updating, so here's the latest news:

Tomorrow is the last day of school before 2 weeks "vacation". It's free time I will spend writing code and a huge document about the code. Fun!

Stuffed Fantasies is finished and will premiere online in April. And I made a trailer for it. Yay. Catch me online some time and I'll send it to you.

The new trailer for Star Wars: Episode III is out. I saw it full screen in the dark and nearly wet myself. Dare I hope it will be good? There's a chance it will end up being PG-13, which is freakin' awesome! You should be able to find it somewhere here.

Also, this is the most creative trailer ever. It gives me hope that the movie will actually be good and not give that hilarious book a bad name.

That's all for now.

Quote of Da Moment:
"If it weren't for electricity we'd all be watching television by candlelight."
--George Gobol

This project is making me seriously reconsider studying anything that has to do with programming in college.

To put it simply (since I'm too tired to type sentences that are very complex): I have written 30 pages of code. I have a lot more to write. Then I have to test it and get it to work. And it would be nice if that was finished by the end of this week.

Goodbye sleep. Hello dark, baggy eyelids and slow, shuffling movements. And don't forget the grunts and groans with which I shall soon learn to communicate.

Holy. Crap. I've gotta see this movie. The main actor actually looks a lot like Hitler.

I spent most of today working on video editing and my computers project. Fun fun fun. I also filmed some of the short film I'll be making for TOK. Hopefully it'll turn out okay. Also, I might be able to modify it so I can enter it in the same film festival I'm submitting Stuffed Fantasies to. In all likelihood, though, only one of the films would be "official" and eligible for prizes - the other one would be showcased simply as a form of promotion. But ah well. I'll take all the promotion I can get. We'll see what happens.

Also, I have posted new stills from Stuffed Fantasies on my production blog. Aren't they pretty?

I Heart Huckabees is...a really weird movie. I think I liked it, but I'm not entirely sure. Very strange. It had some funny parts (including what might be the weirdest and most hilarious beginning to a sex scene I've ever seen), and overall was pretty thought-provoking. It's about people searching for the meaning of life; the problem was that I'm not sure if I agree with the film's conclusion or not. Maybe to some extent. Hmmm.

It does get my award for "Most Innovative Use of a Rubber Ball in a Film" though.

Quote of Da Moment:
"I can't go back in there. It's all hating faces that I have to chop up with a machete!"
--I Heart Huckabees

I am not in a good mood. I am extremely stressed. My school can't seem to understand that we are drowning in work (or rather, those of us taking Computers are drownign in work), so they keep giving us even more. More more more. Here's a list of the things I have to complete in the next month:

1) Computers project. This is due April 5. I have to finish writing the code for a database program in C++. Then I have to write a document explaining exactly how it works, what all my functions and variables are, testing results, algorithms used, etc. etc. etc. In the end the document will be a few hundred pages long. Like the Bible, just about a computer program. I really need to finish the program soon. The problem is that there are some aspects of programming which I really don't understand. If I don't figure things out soon, I'm screwed.

2) TOK presentation. Yes. I have to do another one. This one is about art. We're supposed to create a piece of art, give a 10-minute presentation of it to the class, and write a 1000-1500 word analysis of what it is supposed to demonstrate, the techniques we used and why, the "meaning" behind it, etc. When it comes to drawing, painting, or sculpting I'm about as talented as a synchronized swimmer who's afraid of the water. Not very. So I guess I'll make another short film. I've already gotten the basic idea and script written. I'll probably film the entire thing this week, along with the last remaining shots of Stuffed Fantasies. Hopefully it won't be too hard to do, since it'll only end up being 3-5 minutes long. I might even enter it in the same competition I'm entering Stuffed Fantasies in.

3) Orals. All IB Diploma students are required to send a recorded oral presentation to the IB to be graded. So that means I'm going to have to study Sylvia Plath and Macbeth really hard by next Saturday. I'll go to school on Saturday morning, be handed an extract of a poem or the play, and have 20 minutes to plan what to say about it. Then I'll have to record a 12-15 minute recorded commentary on it. Wonderful. Plus, next Thursday I have to tape my oral for Spanish. I'll be discussing gangs in Central America, which means that I have 7 days to review everything I researched about them last year, and somehow cram all of that information into a 4-minute discussion.

4) Math project. Next week I will be given the information about the final math "portfolio" that I have to complete. Basically, it involves writing a long report about how to solve certain problems, use graphs, and other things. I hate doing these things. Why didn't we finish these earlier in the year?

5) PE project. Yes. That's right. A project for Physical Education. What kind of school gives students projects for PE? It's a group project. We're supposed to research how the media affects how adolescents see themselves and their bodies or something, and give a 5-minute presentation about it. What the heck does the media have to do with PE? Sure, we can talk about how they use strong, healthy models in order to promote certain products, but last time I checked PE has nothing to do with that. If it's Physical Education, shouldn't we be graded based on, oh, I don't know, physical activities? Or would that be going too far?

6) Stuffed Fantasies. The deadline for the competition entries has been moved back to April 1. But due to the all the other work being piled on top of me, I'm going to do my best to finish it within the next week or two so it will be out of the way. And I don't care if I have to not sleep for an entire week in order to finish it amidst all my other work - I'm going to complete it in time. I've worked too hard on it already not to.

7) Other homework. Even with all this going on, we still have minor assignments to complete. Things like math problems, biology lab reports, history essays, etc. Just in case there are kids out there who don't already have plenty to do.

I haven't gotten more than 5 hours of sleep per night this week. I'm exhausted. I'm grumpy. I'm stressed. I want to kill the world. I hate school because of all the stress. I hate going home more because it means that I have to keep working just as hard, if not harder, as I did while I was at school, except when I'm at home I don't have friends to encourage me and distract me from how my life is overflowing with work.

Some people don't want to graduate. It makes them sad. I could graduate right now and not feel any remorse about it at all. That's how much I hate my life right now.

Quote of the Moment:
"I felt like putting a bullet between the eyes of every Panda that wouldn't screw to save its species. I wanted to open the dump valves on oil tankers and smother all the French beaches I'd never see. I wanted to breathe smoke...I felt like destroying something beautiful."
--Fight Club