===================================
=======~~~magnet20's Journal~~~=======
===================================

=======Current Stuff=======

Status 9-15-08 "Fall and Folding"
Well, I've been in school for a good 2 weeks now and its as boring and confusing as always. I've got a loaded semester as I have HN English IV, Graduation Project (Read: 10 page report), HN Calculus, and Marching Band. Engrish has been a breeze so far, The lowest grade I've gotten is an 87, and that's on a classwork grade. Senior Project is a pain, I've got 25 notecards and an outline due this Thursday (8-18-08) and I haven't started at the time of me writing this. Calculus is hard. Not only do I have to talk to a TV (we don't have an actual teacher, we do webcam sessions), I also forgot most of the basic stuff over the summer. Catching up is going to be fun...

Ever heard of Folding@Home? Hosted by Stanford University, its website is [link] . Its a distributed computing project -- "People from throughout the world download and run software to band together to make one of the largest supercomputers in the world. Every computer takes the project closer to our goals. Folding@home uses novel computational methods coupled to distributed computing, to simulate problems millions of times more challenging than previously achieved." -- that studies the folding and unfolding of proteins. Understanding this can lead to cures for cancer and diseases such as Alzheimer, so if your computer spends a lot of time idling, why not donate a few of your CPU's (or GPU's) cycles to Stanford so they can get one step closer to finding a cure for various illnesses.

________________________________

=======Older Stuff=======

Status 8-11-08 "Otakon and Ohio"
Great, its already the middle of August. Summer vacation is almost over and I'm due back in North Carolina at the end of this week. Though the entire vacation was fun, the highlight of it all has to be Otakon 2008 (for those of you who don't know, its a giant anime convention that takes place yearly in the Baltimore Convention Center).

Myself, my cousins, and a couple of their friends arrived in Baltimore on the 8th of August at about 6:00pm and stayed there until the 10th. For three days we wandered around the convention center, playing video games, watching anime, taking pictures of cosplayers and generally having a good time. The highlight of the trip was the "masquerade," essentially a talent show performed by the attendees. Speaking of which, the majority of the attendees cosplayed as a wide range of characters, ranging from movies to real life to anime to games. There were several awesome skits and shows, the best of which (IMO) was when a gifted flute player played several selections of music from the Legend of Zelda series. He sounded awesome and the entire audience gave him a standing ovation. Another highlight was the movie "The Girl Who Leaped Through Time," an excellent animated movie created by Bandai; the quality rivaled several Disney movies.

There were several places of interest during the con. The "Dealer's Room," was a massive hall with hundreds of different stalls, all of which were selling everything from clothing to manga to weapons. The "Artist's Alley" was another large hall where hundreds artists would sell their work and offer commission. The "HD Theater" was a large room with a massive movie-theater like screen and seats (This was the location were attendees could view movies and such). These are just a few of the places, I'm far to lazy to list all of them. The whole experience was great, it was well worth the $65 price tag for the three day experience.

________________________________

8-11-08: "Mid August Update" [link]
7-14-08: "Mid July Update" [link]
6-29-08: "End of June Update" [link]
6-14-08: "Father's Day Update" [link]
5-29-08: "New Journal" [link]
4-25-08: "School Update" [link]
4-15-08: "Tagged" [link]
________________________________

=======Friends IRL=======