me, a cool person, tennis, and programming
- by matt on May 14, 2009
If I don’t say so myself, I’m pretty decent at tennis. I have great topspin, and I’m good at getting all those tough shots. But lately, I’m loosing a couple matches here and there. Why? Well, my mind doesn’t like to focus on the task at hand, unless I really really enjoy the task at hand. I lost today, and here’s why.
The first set, I was doing pretty well, the time I started loosing games was when I started thinking about my programming. I was thinking of how I could log all the IP addresses at school, by going to each school computer, and visiting a web-page. This was brought on due to a thought about hacking the band president / captain voting form. Mr. Clark had told me that it only works on school computers due to the IP addresses
I worked out some of the HTML and PHP in my head, thought of how I could log some data using Javascript and mySQL. I had a really good idea of how I was going to go about this thing. (I’m about halfway throughout the 1st set now) After I had that idea out of the way. It was on to thinking about the 7th chapter in my “Programming in Obj-C 2.0″ book. (Yeah, I’m a nerd)
I’ve always had this ambition to start a club. A club on something computer related, and I had one at one point. Flash club. I remember what a failure that had been. So. Thinking about that, I was like. Hey, I know some PHP, and I should have Cocoa/Obj-C down by the end of the summer. Why don’t I make a Mac/iPhone/iTouch programming club. Yeah, great idea. (Note: still haven’t taken the lead again)
So what’s this going to be like. Lets see. Mac required? Yeah, but only for the Cocoa bits. Fees? 75 Dollars for two books. What books? Well, “Programming Objective-C 2.0″ is a must and “Cocoa Programming For Mac OS X” is a great title too. How am I going to teach it? Well, each other meeting we’ll go over a new chapter in the Obj-C book. Then, each other week, we’ll go over various answers to the exercises at the end of each chapter. This should take half the year. I thought keynotes on each chapter would be nice, and along with it a sheet with vocabulary would be quite nifty.
After thinking all that through, I thought. “Hey, It needs a name”. The Cocoa Club. That’s great. What else? Hmm, website? Vocab sheets, keynotes, sample programs and problems. Yeah, that would be sweet. We could at the end collaborate on an iPhone app and sell it in the app store, perhaps pay back some of the fees. (Note: I just lost the first set).
Well, somehow in the second set I was pretty pissed about loosing the first, thought, hey, I should think about tennis. It was kinda hard. I let the other guy get 3 games off me, then I somehow got two back.
The majority of the second set was spend thinking about one of the coolest people in the world. April. We’re going Blacklight Put-Put golfing tomorrow (I hope), and I can’t wait :D, its going to be so much fun. There’s not much to say here. I’m just really excited. Maybe no-one has noticed, but I don’t usually write on realy personal topics here, but this one’s important. April, if you’re reading this, you’re cool 
Did I tell you guys I lost this tennis match?
Well, I did. I think I let my mind wonder too much. In just about everything I do too. My main problem with it appear at school. I’ve got two classes, my two semester grades average out to a 89.2 in German. and an 89.6 in Math. Which sucks. These grades could go either way. I need .3 more in German to make that class a 4, and I need my 2 new math tests to be put in. I’m really nervous to see how these go. The rest of my classes should be good. This was mainly due to loosing focus and getting distracted on other things, mainly computers and programming, in the first half of the second semester. Biggest mistake ever? We’ll see
Other thoughts during match : Jack in the box wind up toys, aren’t those things cool! - If my feet were smaller… - Man, how do they make a tennis racquet? - I really hate hitting balls in the net - That guy wears braces - Oo, I wonder if his mom works for Gieco! - Hmmm, I should study for that Ap test thing tomorrow - I’m hungry - Why is that guy staring at me? - Who is that guy? - Hmm, my laces are frayed - Hehe, it makes a funny sound when I jam my shoe sole into the ground - Boink, boink, boink, boink! He scores!!! - Hmm, my lips are chapped, hehehhehe, “Whereeeesss the chapstick!?” - Woah! If I hit the ball hard enough, there’s fuzz that comes off and it floats in the air! Schweet! - Whistles - Oh, hey, look, I lost!
self validation
- by matt on April 27, 2009
I’m guilty of this. I’m sure you all are to, so go ahead and fess up. No, I’m not sure that this exists, I just kinda came up with it on my own after I knew I was doing something, but didn’t know what to call it. It’s basically just a fancy term for lying to yourself. So what is it exactly?
Well, let me give you an example. You just failed a test. Not awfully failing, lets say a 65. So. At first, you’re angry at yourself, and you deserve to be, you just failed a test. Now, you’re best friend (Who you always thought you were smarter than ) just passed with a 98. That makes you feel completely awful. How could he get a better grade than me
So what do you do to feel better about this situation. Make yourself fell validated with your skills. You start making up silly reasons that you got a 65. “I was tired the day I took the test”, “I missed a day of review”, or “My pencil was broken.” (The last reason was really crappy, but hey) All of these reasons could be perfectly valid, but does that matter? You still got a 65 on the test. In reality the purpose of these statements is to feel self validated. You don’t want to feel stupid (Because, really you aren’t, and you know that), but these things you’re saying to yourself just mask the real reason. You made a mistake.
Then the task becomes, what do do about your 65. Well. Really, in this case, there’s nothing you can do. So what do you do? You forget about it, but not completely. Put it in the back of your head, and move on. When that next test comes around you’ll know what to do, study, know the material, and have a good pencil. This time, you’ll do better, and maybe beat that friend of yours.
Really, that’s just a tidbit of academic advice. In theory, if you get an 85, you should do the same. Honestly. I think some people, including myself, are too hard on themselves. OH MY GOD! a 98. Jeeze, I could have improved 2 points! Seriously, be realistic with this. Apparently, an 80 is considered “Average” by the school, so really, you’re 18 points over average! Awesome.
So all in all, is self validation bad? Half and half. Its bad if you do nothing about it. Don’t just sit there and say, “Oh, I was tired.” and do nothing about it. Take action on your mis-actions (?). I’m doing well in school (Well relatively well, I have a 3.9 GPA, which, honestly, wasn’t what I wanted), but I’m tired of seeing all my peers being content with a 3.0, or a 2.0. Seriously. Parking at SFHS next year requires at least a 2.5 GPA. That wipes out half the school just about. (That’s awesome for me actually ) So come on guys!
In other news. 20 days of school left. We’ve got some last tests to get through, then EOCTs then Finals (Which I’m exempt from all of) then, summah! Honestly, I’ve think this has been the most anticipated summer yet. This year has seemed the longest (Well, everyone does compared to the last one), but I think it actually has. The stress this year was second to none, and I’m pretty stoked for the stress to be gone. I just want to relax.
spring
- by matt on March 9, 2009
So I woke up this morning, and I realized I was just like, really incredibly happy. I really had no Idea why. I think its mainly because I have been sick for the last week or so, and now I wake up and its just about gone. So, being sick was something that was positive really. Hehe.
But anyways. Man, today there was some ridiculously nice weather, I mean, it was just right. Not too hot, not to cold. The sun and the breeze were just right. It was just so perfect, so today was just a really naturally perfect day. They also moved the time forward an hour, so we got an extra hour of lightness in the afternoon, which was great all in itself.
For some reason, I’m just really happy lately, I don’t know if its just how well things are going with school, friends and my relationship. That’s probably it. I guess everything is great. I hope it stays this way for a really really really long time. Cause life is great, awesomely awesomely great!
Anyways. I’ve got the state tech fair this weekend, which I’m kinda excited for, wish me luck. Most likely I’l be up against one other person, if not nobody. At the regional I was the only person in my category. If you don’t really know about my project, its not that interesting. I’m basically writing a mini-blog cms type thing in codeigniter. For any of you nerds, its a really slick php framework based on the MVC approach.
Other than that my weekend is pretty bland I guess. I might be dropping my Macbook off for repairs Saturday afternoon every external part is either cracked or warped (Did I mention I wanted an aluminum Macbook) so basically I’m getting a new Macbook. Also, I didn’t realize, but my light and my IR sensor have stopped working long ago. So, new motherboard too? New Macbook?
Well, I’m feeling just awesome.
d is for drugs
- by matt on March 8, 2009
D is also for depressing. How often do you hear about drugs? It seems like every second somebody is talking about it, and not always in a good way.
The other day, while in the lunch line, I overheard two guys behind me that were talking about some “Purple Flurp” they were drinking. Talk about depressing. They were discussing what kind of feeling it gave them, and the one guy gave the recipe to an inquiring sophomore. I really wanted to stop them. I just don’t get it sometimes.
In health class, I remember learning a whole unit about drugs, but does it really take that much information to know how awful and life-screwing-up they are? I mean, we all agree they’re pretty bad, well, I guess not all of us. While all the kids in my health class slowly nodded their head at the information they were getting, how many of theme were actually agreeing with it? Its like I go to school with a bunch of hypocritical people. “Yeah, drugs are bad, but ah, they’re cool, I still do ‘em.” And I think that’s it, they’re cool, aren’t they?
I don’t know what I’m getting at here. I guess I just wish kids wouldn’t dabble around with them. There was this one gloomy day I remember, where I was walking to a class and I overheard two kids discussing how “Freaky” it was being high when it was raining the night before, and how afraid they were about getting caught. Now wait a minute here. If you’re afraid of getting caught, and freaked about being high, then doesn’t it just make sense to stop?
Another really sad fact, is that a kid who had been arrested for smoking had came into our health class, and told us all these reasons not to do what he did. Then again, he hadn’t told us he’d gone back to smoking again after he got arrested. How dumb! I mean, lets see, smoke pot, smoke pot, get arrested, tell everybody about how horrible it is. Smoke more pot… ! Seriously.
Ok, I guess my point is, why do it in the first place, sure, it may bring short-term, and when I say short-term, I mean short-term. How long can you go worrying about getting caught or getting sick, or something else happening. But think of all the things that can go wrong. I mean, you’re basically throwing your whole life down the drain. Getting caught basically eliminates all chances of getting a credible job, its on your record forever. And dying. Well, yeah, you’re not really getting anywhere when you die, unless that was you’re goal in the first place.
I don’t know, it just all seems so backwards to me. You’ve got your whole life ahead of you people! Don’t sit around and mope! Do something with it, the world needs smart people. Use your skills and accomplish something! my words of inspiration
anew
- by matt on March 7, 2009
Well guys, here it goes. Again. Something got screwed with. I need to do something, it seems like someone is snooping around inside my server. But I digress. Lets go at is again. Its a New Year.
I realize that this is a really short post, but there’s really not much to say right now. Hehe. But there will be. Let me just get back into the habit of it. I really like doing this, it gives me a little, public diary of everything. Anyways. School is going great, and I feel like this one’s gonna be awesome. I’ve got so much to do. So, lets start Anew.