My iPod is on order. Through Air Miles, so it's free, technically. The problem is, it may take a bit longer than if I order it through Apple (3-4 weeks, though it may be less, we got a camera some time ago and it only took a week, apparently) and I don't get the free engraving thing, but I'm not complaining.

Prom. And more!

This has been one heck of a past 24 hours. I got to the school and we do the Grand March (an old tradition, we walk around the gym all dressed up and stuff in front of the parents). The best part? Someone pulled the fire alarm. But that didn't seem to matter. We kept going anyway. Weird.

After was the evening. We went down to the Aston hotel nearby and we had a good night. Dinner was good (a whole buffet). Honestly, though, the best part was I got to be a gentleman for the whole night. Like, for example, while waiting for food (the line was apparently so long it was a fire hazard), one of the doors were open, and there was a draft, and my date said it was getting chilly, so I took off my jacket of my tux and put it on her. It was fun.

And then the "music" started. I have never hated rap more. Seriously, there were only four songs throughout the whole night that sounded like something I wanted to go up and dance to, the four slow songs that were played all night (which I did dance to. Yes, I danced). The rest was mostly rap (and of course, the YMCA). We needed better music.

After we got back, we watched the grad slideshow DVD thingy. The only pictures of me in it were grad napping pictures. Those who do know what it is can laugh at me, those who don't know really don't want to know. Oh well. I have pictures of me.

Then I slept for four hours, and then had to get up again for the other thing I need to do. Yeah, that chess tourney. I actually had an energy drink kind of thing in the morning, and it helped a bit. I won my first two games (the first one was a lot closer than the second), lost the next two, and won the last one (I'm kinda proud of that one. I was able to succesfully trap my opponent's queen there.). Overall, I tied for 4th with two other people, which got me a nice medal. The thing that surprised me most is how organized it was, though. Tournaments almost never start anywhere close to on time. This time, we started only about 10 minutes late, which is a miracle in itself, but we actually started the other four rounds on time. I was amazed.

I gradded. Kind of.

No, there's nothing wrong with my graduation (in fact, I could have gradded last semester), but there's still a month to go in school.

Nothing too special happened. I got $1000 in the form of a bursary, but that's all that really happened to me. A good friend of mine got a whole bunch of academic awards, and while I'm a bit jealous, I know he deserves it a lot more than I do. Besides, I can rest easy knowing I beat him on the Euclid math contest anyway. Our grad class is probably one of the most talented classes I've seen, anyway.

Oh, and I'm getting my grad gift soon. I wish I could say it was something as expensive as a car (I know some people do), but we're also going to the Philippines this summer, so we've got a lot of costs to pay as well. I wanted a semiacoustic guitar (or, as I like to call it, a "hybrid" guitar), but even that was a bit too expensive ($700, I think). For a while, I've been mulling over the decision to ask for either a video iPod or a digital camera. Both would be very useful to me in the next while, but in the end, I think I'm getting an iPod, because I'd use that a lot more. Besides, cameras can be cheaper, and I've got a bit of grad money I can put towards it.

So, I'm getting a video iPod. Score.

Oh, and prom tomorrow. Double score. But do you know what the best part is? After a late night, (as in, past 1 AM) I've got a chess tourney at 8:30 Saturday morning. Anyone representing the school is either going to prom or a LAN party the night before. Oh well. I'm used to not having enough sleep.

Wow. This week is probably one of the biggest weeks in my life. I have a French essay test tomorrow.

Actually, there's more than just that. There are also things like my grad ceremony and my prom this Thursday and Friday respectively. For the curious, yes, I do have a date. Kind of. Me and a bunch of friends are going as a group, and our bus arrangment has been decided. But I dunno. I think it seems to be more than that. I have no idea, though. It's someone I like and know well enough, and for some reason, made me a lot more excited about prom.

I can't wait, personally.

Another Mac-related thing I found

If you've been accepted into a college or university (note, this is the Canadian page), Apple will give you a discount on new laptops and iPods.

Now, it's not much, (you can only save $50 on the cheapest MacBook), but you save more if you buy more expensive models.

Had I waited a bit longer with my summer money...

Apple has released the new MacBook, thereby replacing the iBook.
For about the same price I had paid to buy and upgrade my 29-month old laptop, I could have bought something that's faster, and has a built-in webcam and a widescreen monitor. One of the harder pains about it to deal with is I know someone who plans on getting one in the somewhat near future. I'm so jealous.

Oh, and I don't like that black model much. It may work for iPods, but even then I didn't really like it.

Wow. I made a photoshop.

Yeah. It's just something that started in a forum topic and I decided to take it on myself. Actually, I'm just doing this so it's on the internet so I can put it in as a sig image or something.

edit: wow, the club has already doubled in membership... I may have a cult going here...

Argh, this is the second day in a row that I haven't received my Foxtrot comic from my alternate email account that forwards to my real one. Maybe they're catching on to me?

edit: I've found the source of the problem. Turns out Gmail's spam filter on the alternate account thought it was spam. Fixed now.

Wow, it's a picture of me!

I'm putting it up here because I'm too lazy to find webspace of my own to put a picture up for my Blogger profile.

Just one thing about it: It's raspberry juice, all right? I didn't do nothin' to no one. This was taken after a typical day at my summer job dumping berries onto a conveyor belt for 7 hours.

Here it is.

Something new I learned today: a good place to buy music can be in your local grocery/convenience store. I went down to the Real Canadian Superstore today and saw what CDs they were selling. There was what looked like some fairly good stuff (old stuff, but being an old-time music fan, especially the 30s, that's even better) for less than 5 bucks a CD. I didn't get anything, and I'm not sure why, probably because I don't have much money as it is, but it's something to keep in mind next time I go down there.

I didn't think Nintendo said much at E3 that I already knew

Until I saw this.

Dry grad

Yeah, I know it's a bit late for it now, but I just got too lazy to post.

What is it, you ask? Friday evening, all the grads get locked in the school all night. What may sound like a kid's worst nightmare is actually quite fun, because there's a huge party going on inside.

What can I say, it was fun. Well, except for this one guy that the school hired as an "entertainer", saying he was highly recommended, though many of us suspected he was on some kind of depressant or stimulant. At least he had a guitar. I wanted to see if he could play the Juicy Fruit song.

There was a DDR machine there. 4th mix, so it was a fairly old machine. I didn't really go on it too much, partly because of waiting, partly because there was a lot to do. Kick the Can is awesome, though.

There was also karaoke. I did one song. Chatanooga Choo Choo, an old Glenn Miller classic. I didn't know it as well as I thought I did, and the mike was too low, for a time. I don't think I butchered it, but it could have gone better. I wanted to do more, but there really wasn't too much I wanted to sing (I learned the last time I did this kind of thing I cannot sing rock and roll).

That being said, there was a lot more to do. I got a caricature done (I wasn't sure whether I wanted the math, science, computer, or music geek approach), an air pistol shooting gallery, which, if you let it come naturally, you can hit quite often. Or maybe that's just me playing too many video games. That and much, much more, like a casino (not with real money).

In the end, we were done at around 4:30 AM, all tired and ready to go to bed. I slept till 10 AM, got up for a while, then slept all afternoon. It felt good.

More from the too much time department

Probably the best live-action Mario rendition I've seen.

Mario - Live - Google Video

The Internet is dangerous.

So read this disclaimer for it, then read my blog to avert the dangers. Actually, I haven't posted about any dangers. Um... identity theft is bad! Don't give your credit card numbers or passwords freely! Well, read my blog anyway.

Too much time on their hands...

Slashdot | VW Beetle Fitted with a Jet Engine

I almost got first post on this story. I'm third comment down, second one to post. Oh well. At least it's a 5:Funny.

And, yeah. A VW with a jet engine.