Semester almost over

This semester is almost over and I'm looking forward to this summer. Even though I'm going to be working, I won't have any of the stresses of homework or grades. I think that I'll be able to finish the program within maybe a month or a month and a half of summer. Then it won't be long before I'm finished. I might also get a stipend. If I get some money then I will probably finally get an ipod or something.

I got it to work (mostly)

I've done a lot with my code today. Its working a lot better than it ever has, but I'm still having a couple of problems that I just don't understand. I'm going to have to take a good hard look at it to figure it out... But for now, I've done a lot today... Time to relax... BTW pictures were taken so you should see some posted soon... and I promise no more ducks.... and no more ellipses... ... AN OVAL!

Oh no, this class is going to last 3 and half hours....

So I got a lot done today. First I woke up at 7:30 am, which is nigh unheard of for me, and then I went to my EHS 10 class. I showed up thinking it was going to be 2.5 hours because that's what the website said but it took 3 hours and 45 minutes. Ugh... Then I met up with my dad and brother on the steps of Sproul Plaza. They brought up a big group of portuguese students from the school because today is Portuguese Independence day. I called Zac and we got together. Eventually we ended up going to class and after that I bought Akira from the local anime store as a little bday present for myself (I found it for 15 when on amazon.com I only found it for 30 because on amazon.com they only had the extended version with like 3 dvds. I just got the bare bones movie). Then I hung out with Zac for a while. After that I did my physics discussion and most of my physics lecture homework. This week I just need to finish up a little physics, do my math (which I can't do yet because he hasn't lectured on it yet), and then do some stuff for my LBL project. (I really need to come up with a snappy acronym for it... If you have any suggestions, just leave them as comments) My current best is SPDWD (Short Period Double White Dwarfs).

A Busy Day

After this weekend I didn't feel like getting back into the swing of things, but I had to... Today was busy but I got a lot done. Tomorrow I've got a safety class to go to. I also have a some work to do, but I already picked out my classes for next semester and it looks like I'm going to have a nice semester next semester. I also ordered a bunch of stuff from Amazon.com including some boring history books for Paul. I'm excited about Final Fantasy Advent Children. It should be awesome. I also picked up a few other things I wanted. I'm ready for a break and I'll get one once these classes are over. I like doing my research and I won't mind spending more time on that this summer.

Being a Little Lazy

I've been pretty productive this week but I'm feeling lazy now. So I'm just resting right now.
PS I just worked for 2 and half hours on my project. I'm having some problems but I just don't know what quite is going on...

Working

I've been working on my project for LBL but my program has a lot of hiccups. I can't quite figure out why it isn't working. I'm going to have to sit down with it and dissect it. It really should be working. Oh well. I'm done with that for now. Lately I've been running around campus at about dusk which is good because I need it. Right now I'm taking a bit of break but it'll be back to work shortly.

A Visit

So my Dad and Paul came up to visit me today and it was a lot of fun. Paul even went to my geography class. We ate at the thai place for dinner and a brazilian place for lunch. They were both quite good. Not much new here. The only other thing is that I'm starting to get excited about the next Magic the Gathering set, Dissension. It should be pretty neat. Not much else...

A Rant on Immigration Reform

Let me start out by asking you what do you think of when you think of an illegal immigrant? Picture one in your mind. Is he hard-working? Lazy? Is this person smarter than you? Stupider? Does he have a family? Does he wake up in the morning and sleep at night? Is he any less of a person than you?

The point here is that we quite often let labels names make people into non-people. Firstly when we judge illegal immigrants we think of them as coming in and stealing something from us. But what are they stealing? Jobs in the fields? Would you really want the livelihood that they have, stooped over in a field for twelve hours a day? Does their being here really affect you in any way? Did they take your job? Well in America, we have an opportunity that they don’t. Through education we can make it so we don’t have to do the kinds of jobs that they have to do. To be honest, isn’t a field worker much more hard-working than a paper-pusher or a retail employee. For the same pay do you think that a McDonald’s employee would spend all day digging ditches? Do you think that there is any difference between them and us other than birthright?

So who is the average Mexican illegal immigrant? He’s from a poor village, whose historic livelihood came from growing corn, but due to the increased Globalization of our world, is no longer a viable source of income. After struggling for meager subsistence farming, they come up short and are forced into the United States to earn money to send back home to prevent their families from starving to death.

So without Mexicans, what would life be like? Not to mention ‘A Day Without a Mexican’ which I felt was not that well-done there are some real issues. Estimates predict that building costs would skyrocket 25%. There’s nothing to screech an economy to a halt like a jump in the capital needed to start or maintain a business. We have a labor shortage in this country for the most menial jobs. As far as legal immigrants replacing them, they couldn’t get through the bureaucracy fast enough or in large enough numbers. Also they would demand the minimum wage they are entitled to, which these businesses are not willing to pay.

What does it mean to be here legally? Is it that you were born here? Well there are those that believe that naturalization by birth should not be allowed to illegal immigrants even though that is one of the fundamental principles of our democracy and history. It’s a right that has only been denied to minorities in our nation’s unsavory racist past. Is it just that you had enough money to file some forms? Is that how thin the difference between legal and illegal is?

So what is the present situation? 3,000 men, women and children die every year in the Arizona desert trying to get into this country because we refuse to allow them in.

Why can’t someone live the American dream just because of a label or a bureaucratic process?

The term illegal immigrant is less than 50 years old. Prior to that, they were called Irish, Italian, or Portuguese immigrants on Ellis Island. Did your ancestors from several generations ago have proper papers when they arrived? The only reason why an illegal immigrant is ‘illegal’ is because that’s what we’ve decided to call them. We just arbitrarily decided about 50 years ago that if an immigrant came from Mexico, like they and other ethnicities had been doing for centuries, that they would be illegal. Do you really think that there was anything other than racial motivation to suddenly make this decision?

As far as building a wall, the only thing that accomplishes is preventing the current immigrants from returning home during the off-season, when there is no work. It would also probably just increase the death toll of our own Berlin Wall. Making it a felony would only further stuff our overcrowded prisons and deportation has proven to just be ineffective. It would also alienate and possible incite riots in millions of people who have lived and worked in this country for decades. The only feasible solution to the problem is not to go after the workers because you can’t punish Labor. The only real option is to actually fine and investigate the farms that are hiring these immigrants. I mean come on; you’re telling me it’s not obvious when a giant farm or business is employing hundreds of illegal immigrants. If you wonder why they’re never investigated and the attention isn’t focused on them, you just have to follow the money of who is making campaign contributions (and not just to the Republicans). The real people who are stealing money out of people’s hands are the one’s employing people and not paying them a decent wage. I mean isn’t it obvious how desperate these people are when they do the most menial jobs for the smallest unlivable wages. The problem is that they aren’t paying the immigrant enough money and that is why they undercut the American workforce. If for some reason, you really wanted to reduce the numbers of illegal immigrants, then go after the businesses, not the workers who have no other choice. We need stricter regulations on the businesses that hire illegal immigrants and we need to insure that they are receiving their rightful minimum wage. The truth is that Mexican illegal immigrants are more desperate than American laborers and more numerous.

My main point is that the cat is out of the bag; ‘illegal’ immigrants have been coming here since the beginning of our nation’s history. After the signing of NAFTA isn’t this even more of a moot point. How can you have free trade without free trade of labor?

The real issue at hand is the lackluster performance of this administration of border control, but you should keep in mind that the men that flew those planes into the two towers snuck in through our northern border.

So what’s my solution to the ‘Immigrant Problem’? Well, I’ll tell you. It might not surprise you in an era full of ‘Social Security Crises’ that well, there is no ‘Immigrant Problem’. Things are exactly as they have been for 200 hundred years and there is no reason to suddenly think of a phenomenon as bad simply because you’ve put the word ‘illegal’ in front of it.

A Programming Day Today

I've spent a lot of time today programming stuff for the lbl lab. Today was a pretty uneventful day. Just a lot of work and looking forward to the weekend. Sorry for nothing exciting happening. The most surprising thing about today was that the sun finally came out today.

I've Been Replaced!

So imagine my surprise when I found that in my own home I had been replaced by a DUCK! Needless to say I was furious. He may be wearing my clothes but I know for a fact that he scored worse than I did on the Physics midterm. Quack!

Well I got my midterm grade....

So let me just start by saying I was shocked when I got my test. So I heard that the mean was a 55 on this test which at first shocked me because it took that score to get an A on the last test. It wasn't until later that I found out that this test was graded out of 100 rather than the 80 that the previous one had with each problem worth 25 on this one and 20 on the last one. Once I got my test my heart sunk as I read a very large red 25 on my paper. I closed my eyes and turned away. I looked back at it and realized that that wasn't the last number on the page. That turned out to just be my score on one problem. Looking lower at a small scrawl in the corner it read 78, which looking at the statistics page looks like one of the top 10 scores in the class. I was flabbergasted. I thought I had really screwed up, but it turns out that where I thought I couldn't solve the problems it was because they weren'y supposed to be solved. OH well. I nailed it and now I'm sitting on a sweet steady A going into the final. I have no idea how it happened. I really thought I had screwed it up.

Not a good Monday

Mel called me not too long ago and told me that she was so sick today that she stayed home from school and went to the hospital. It seems like she'll be okay but no one knows exactly what happened to her. It looks like she just got an infection but no one knows for sure. It was a quite a shock, but let me reiterate that she will be fine. She's on some antibiotics and it seems she's already feeling better.
Other than that, I can't really remember what happened in school today. Things were normal and pretty mundane. I took care of a couple of errands and finally turned in my psp application. That I remember because if I didn't do that I'd be out $9000 next year. Other than that I've just been talking to mel, worrying about her and doing some work.

I don't want to do anything today....

Well, as the title suggests, I'm having a little bit of a hard time getting started doing anything. That whole physics test really just drained a lot of energy out of me for the whole week. Today I went up to the lab and it seems I'm on the right track. Oh well. Nothing much new today. I just have some stuff to do. I'm just a little anxious to see my physics test. I'm sorry that this blog has been boring for the last few days but I've just been busy. If I can convince my brother, then I just might be able to get a video posted of a comedy movie we are planning to make, but that will take some time. We also need to get a camera first... Oh and big news, Free Comic Book Day is coming up and since I'm a subscriber at my local Comic Book Store Black Cat Comics, I get to get in an hour early to get first crack at their 75% off back issues. That's pretty awesome except it means I have to wake up early....
Mood: Lazy
Sonndtrack: Snow Patrol "Run"

Gee, it's been boring lately

Well, today was another working day. I found out that that test was very difficult for everyone. In fact, one of the problems was unsolvable. Oh well, I just hope I did well. Today I spent a lot of time working on stuff for the lab and learning some IDL stuff. I also watched a little arrested development. Not much else new. I'm looking forward to the weekend and currently am trying to figure out when the Full Metal Alchemist movie is coming out here in the states.
PS
Since it's been so boring, I added a picture of something not boring. My incredibly boring, lazy cat.

Not much today

After staying up until 4 am last night I finally fell asleep out of exhaustion. I watched Arrested Developement for quite a few hours. Today I just went to class hung out with Zac and I lent him my Spawn the animated series dvds. Like I said, not much.
Mood: Sleepy
Soundtrack: Deathcab For Cutie Plans

The Test that Destroyed Me

Today I took a test and I absolutely bombed it. I've never done so poorly on a test. It grabbed me by the collar and beat the living shit out of me. With tears in my eyes and blood in my mouth, I lay on the rain covered asphault, my skin raw. I'm not going to sleep tonight, because I can't wash the taste of blood out of my mouth.

Still Studying

Not much else new. I tried to wake up early today but couldn't. Oh well. I've been doing some studying today but right now I'm just trying to relax. I feel pretty confident about the material right now so I'm just trying to not burn myself out.

Studying

Just been studying for Physics class and setting up paul's myspace account. I'm very tired but I feel pretty good about the upcoming test. Now I'm just going to relax.