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So I was told moving to tumblr would be cool... trying it out I guess. pieequals.tumblr.com

east brunswick isn't so bad

I guess I was a little harsh on EB. I'm not saying that it isn't spectacularly boring or anything like that, but coming home for break wasn't really so bad. I got to see my friends and do some incredibly stupid things that only friends that have known each other for years can enjoy.

Driving to New York, in the freezing cold with a bottle of wine and some pringles was...interesting, to say the least. Some random "rapper" approached me in McDonalds with his new cd and gave it to me for free because I was "cool", but he wanted a donation. Apparently he thought the "unbreakable cd-case" would convince me to support independent music. I gave the cd back. Then I somehow caused a fist fight between two street vendors which included one guy spraying the other with oil, then unplugging his cart, then throwing a soda (after rethinking the idea of throwing a snapple). Probably should have asked who would sell the chicken and rice to me for cheaper and let them work it out. That was fun.

A couple of days later, we thought it would be cool to try to get lost. But that proved quite difficult in New Jersey since every road somehow leads to route 130 or route 1 or some other major road we know. It wasn't until we decided to actually just go home that we got lost and decided to break out the gps. No u-turns.

And there were parties. There was Jason's for New Years. Eric has a really funny story about something that happened even before it started. The next day was Eric's for actual New Years. We watched f&f 4 aka "only pussies run nitrometh" which was probably something I should have watched a long time ago considering my ability to quote 1 and 2. Oh and watching music videos at 4am was fun. Michow has no soul and deserves to watch videos of Nagasaki apparently. Then Jason's part 2. Don't really want to talk about that one. Partly because I don't remember much of it but mostly because not remembering is probably a good thing. It's incredible how quickly two shots can turn a memorable night into one you don't want to remember. I guess that's what happens when you bet liquor on games of pong. Ah well. I apologize to any I may have inconvenienced.

The last 2 weeks hanging out with our tiny crew consisting of me, Sidd, Willy and Sheena were quite enjoyable. All we really did was go to McDonald's, watch movies, and hang out at Willy's but it still made 3am feel like too early a time to go home. It's funny how this all started because Willy wanted to take advantage of the 20 nuggets for 5$ deal at McDonald's which isn't even that good a deal... Too bad we didn't go snowboarding. I'm really mad about that.

By the way, I really recommend watching The King's Speech. I thought (with all my movie watching experience which, arguably, is quite a bit of experience considering the 30 or so movies I went through this break) that it was incredibly well written. It really made you feel for the character's and was actually quite comical. The Social Network still tops my list as far as dialogue is concerned. However, The Social Network's appeal was in it's wit, but The King's Speech really communicated a feeling of triumph. Yea. Go watch it. And Definitely, Maybe. It's like HIMYM, but better and in a movie form. It's a super romcom.

It's weird leaving all of this to go back to Duke. I guess it doesn't really take long for people to get accustomed to living in a new place (or old one rather) with a completely different set of friends. I think I might actually miss it.

Yea. East Brunswick isn't so bad.

It's time to leave though. I guess the next post is coming from Durham. If at all. I'm having a bit of trouble blogging. It's not that I don't have things to talk about. I do. I've actually started like 5 posts, but never finished them. They all end up being too idk deep? I just feel like I have more to talk about than 1 post on those topics. They're probably all too boring for a fun blog like this anyways... maybe I should write a book. Or maybe I should just stop thinking about such serious shit. Like religion and death and people and true love and cynicism and government and shit like that... idk... Do you people really want to hear what I think on these things...? I don't even know what I think. Anyways I think pieequals is still alive. I'll let you know if it dies.

Anyways, time to pack up. It's 3:28 am. I'll be lucky if I get to sleep at 4. Gotta wake up at 7:30 tomorrow! fml!

2011

So it's 2011. Apparently, it's the international year of forests as well as the international year of chemistry. Last year was the international year of biodiversity and youth, if anyone actually cares. So what has really changed since last night and this morning?

People see the New Year as kind of a reset button. You get to start over because the calendar starts over right? That's a load of shit. I am the same person I was yesterday, as is everyone else. A bunch of fireworks can't really change that. Sure I'll have my New Year's resolutions to go to the gym, do better in school, and eat healthier, but how long is that really going to last?

I suppose what New Year's really gives people is an opportunity to try to be better than they are. During the year, we tell ourselves that we are too busy doing something, catching up on something. Right now, we're not (except for those few unfortunate people who have finals after break). No work to think about. Don't really have an excuse not to try right? So I guess I head into the new year with only one real resolution - keep moving.

I've spent way too much of 2010 doing nothing. Wasting entire days. All that time, I could have been doing something. It doesn't even matter what that something is, as long as it's not sitting around wasting time.

I always complain about the lack of time I have. Not enough time to work out. Not enough time to study. Not enough time to be better. But there's always enough time to party isn't there? I'm not saying that I should cut down on the partying, because, lets face it, that's college. What I am trying to say is that there is enough time to do everything. But that key to that is to keep moving. Never stop.

Because the second you stop, you're stuck. Sometimes we get stuck on people, an obsession that only in your craziest dreams, will work out. Sometimes it's an idea, like trying to make a blog that'll get enough viewers to pay my way through college. Or becoming a professional starcraft player. Sometimes, it's a challenge, like beating QWOP or Chris Nam's high score in Robot Unicorn Attack (208,004). And sometimes you get yourself stuck, not knowing or wanting something to do.

I know this doesn't really make sense but in 2011, get stuck on something that will move you forward. Get stuck on a class, or a club, or working out, or eating healthy. Because, as long as you keep moving forward (I sound like a toyota commercial), you can't really feel bad about yourself.

Anyways, Happy New Year!

snow

I understand the sentimental value of a white christmas. It's christmas. It's supposed to be snowy and shit. Whatever. But not only did this blizzard fuck that up by coming a day late, it also manages to drop more of this shit than I can remember, completely fucking everything up for probably the rest of the week.

I used to think snow was awesome. It's like white shit coming out of the sky and it isn't rain! Like Narnia type shit. At Duke, when it snowed, some people were freaking out since they had never seen snow before. They, like I, were ignorant. As I've gotten older, and more experienced with this shit, I've come to realize that snow is just rain(which I also dislike except on rare occasions when its warm and kind of feels like a shower) minus all the benefits. It's colder. It eventually gets just as wet. And it doesn't just go away like rain after a day. It stick's around, being completely useless. Sure it's pretty but eventually, when people walk all over it, salt gets mixed in, and it starts to melt, it looks like shit. And you have to shovel it which is absolutely terrible.

Worst of all, I'm trapped in my house. It is probably suicidal for me to even consider going anywhere further than the end of my street, and definitely not worth it. This leaves me at home, bored out of my fucking mind, with nothing to do. I have to do shit like say "hi." on everyone's facebook and watch movies like Dear John to entertain myself. Yea. I'm really enjoying my break!

christmas

So it's Christmas.

Just another day really, except everything but H-mart was closed. So my parents and I went to H-mart. I had never been there before. It is like super korean. Choco-pies and shit everywhere. Saw Susie when I first got there which was nice, but she was leaving. So I end up just walking around with people trying to sell me shit. Then Jae jumps on my back and I'm like woah wtf. It's funny how the first time I see Jae since I got back to EB is in a Korean supermarket in Edison. We catch up a little. This guy like tries to hook Jae up with a job. It's 100 dollars a day apparently. Then he find outs Jae is in college for pharm and he's like "dude go to college and get a real job and shit. you dont want to work here". Apparently his sister is a pharmacist and she makes mad "guap". Then Jae has to leave. My parents bought a shitton of korean shit. Then my mom like karaokes for a free bag of rice, which was ... entertaining?

Spent the rest of the day bored. Watched Blood Diamond and Gangs of New York. I enjoyed both of them. Leonardo DiCaprio is like the fucking shit basically. Now I'm just chilling. Got to level 25 in tetris! Yea. In case you didn't get it from my first post, I'm bored.

So yea, Merry Christmas everyone. Hope yours was slightly more eventful than mine.

pieequals

I just read through the original pieequals. It was quite nostalgic. It really made me realize the value of a blog. Reading my own writing was quite enjoyable. scary drives, on the matter of prom, the crash (!), yearbooks, the redo. I remembered writing everyone of those. The few comments that I got on my posts were also quite fun to read through. Amalan and his comparison to the wall-"Its like stretching out a rubber band, only to release the tension on it, and relax until it shrinks to normal size again. However, this time it's gonna take more work to strech it out." I had no clue what he was talking about.

It makes sense that my posts coincided with some of the most important times of my senior year. That series of volleyball rants really makes me realize how much I miss it. I also blogged a bit about science bowl and frisbee. Those were basically the three things I enjoyed the most of high school. The rest was dedicated to random rants about physics or stat or whatever. I really had a lot of fun writing them. Towards the end, I could tell I was running out of things to blog about. I guess life just really wasn't that exciting after graduation. Now that I think about it. All I really did that summer was play basketball during the day and watch a movie with friends at night. Kind of like what we do during breaks now. I guess I need school to create the stress necessary to blog. During the carefree and aimless months of summer, there just isn't enough shit to talk about. I don't really know how serious pieequals 2 is gonna be. I don't really care. I guess if I have stuff to say I'll blog, if not, then, oh well. We'll see how it turns out. I don't think I'm gonna do song of the every couple of days though. It really wasn't that popular.

duke is hard

I don't know how it is anywhere else, but at Duke, you feel like you're part of something awesome. Everyone there is something. Out of the people I usually hang out with, there's a super fencer, super soccer player, super lacrosse player, math national champ, and a super well rounded badass who looks like a terrorist. Future NBA stars like Kyrie Irving and Kyle Singler are just chilling everywhere. Even a pro Starcraft player is here apparently. It almost makes me feel inadequate. At least I have my superior intellect to separate me from them right?

Not so much. I never really had to work in school before. My 4.5ish GPA in high school was achieved with minimal effort. But at Duke, shit is hard. On top of that, everyone else is smart, and you're grade depends on how well you do compared to everyone else. I was definitely not prepared for it. I fell behind in multivariable calculus, then organic chemistry. a couple of weeks later I was behind in engineering and writing too. It got to the point where I couldn't understand what was going on in lecture and I spent all my time catching up.

By the end of the semester, I kind of had things under control. I managed alright during Finals week, but it took multiple red bull fueled all nighters to pull it off. I should be slightly better prepared next semester now that I know how everything works, and I have a slightly easier schedule - French 1, Psych 11, Math 107 and EGR75. Should be ok.