So as some (or perhaps none) of you might know, I got into the GMail (google mail) beta test. Apparently people will go to great lengths to get a gmail account (which i got through blogger, but only some people can get that).
on gmail swap, a site dedicated to letting invitations to gmail be traded, people offer the strangest things. i've seen a human liver, a left index finger nail, an unused cd key for counter-strike, domesticated animals, and my personal favorite, "the last lingering shreds of my dignity" (scroll down if you clicked on the last one)
also, gmail accounts have been sold for over $150 on ebay. wow. i should've done that.
oddly, finals haven't really hit me yet. i'm off to b&n to study, but they still seem really far off...
mochacappafrappuccino!
...
just came back from b&n and a java chip frappuccino (thanks again!)
i'm not sure what just happened...a close friend told me that she did some soul-searching and is mostly at peace with herself; i think my inner balance just got thrown off...
P.S. ...yes, there is a dispatch cd there; it has two cds: around 20 songs from live performances...that's where i went when your (you know who you are) dad came...
ALSO!!! the new title of my blog comes from the title of a collection of short plays by David Ives. he's a brilliant one-act playwright...he wrote "variations on the death of trotsky" (which is my new subheading and also "sure thing", among others...really hilarious
May 23, 2004
May 18, 2004
Pratham Gala 2004!
So here i am, finally blogging about the gala.
Pratham: volunteer movement to help raise literacy among children in India (and doing a pretty good job of it too). every year they hold this huge gala (700 ppl) to raise money: tickets are $100 each, but it's more of a donation thing. for that you get a cocktail hour, followed by fancy dinner with hindi music, then dancing and crap.
[note: i just realized that my entire involvement in pratham stemmed directly out of mrs. lafleur's volunteer project; must thank her for that]
anyways, so i got to the Westin Galleria ballroom at around 2:00, shortly thereafter Manasy, the head of volunteers, arrived. we hung around for a while; she told me that she told ppl to be there at 2:30 (i was early) in hopes that they might actually arrive by 3. finally Mani auntie came with the crap that we had to put on all the dinner tables, which we started doing.
around that time meera, nupur, priya, silkie (?), and some other girls whose names i don't remember showed up (carrying boxes from the Cheesecake factory, no less).
also a fellow soph from Memorial high school showed up, nikhil, bringing the total count of nikhils i know up to 243. no, i'm kidding, it's just 6 or so.
so i'm like, cool, i finally know someone here, cuz meera and nupur and priya go to hightower (even though i didn't really know them, i knew OF them), and nikhil was cool too, although hungry. all the time. and i mean ALL the time.
so what happened next...hm....right, so then the guys, meaning nikhil, me, and the adult guys went up to the rooms that mani auntie had reserved for us volunteers to change. finally when we got back downstairs, they had food for the volunteers; some really kickass stuffed jalapenos that challenged even MY taste buds. wow...freakin' awesome. (there was more food too; the jalapenos just stick out in my memory)
so then i'm hanging around the stage with this guy who's like in his forties or something and who manasy said is with me helping with audio/visual crap. the audio DJ/mixer guy was named nadeem; he was pretty good.
then the a capella group from UT showed up, they're called HUM (click HERE for a link to their website, buy a CD) don't ask me why it's all in caps...it just is.
so they're pretty cool; i helped nadeem hook up their mics and crap. one of the singers says she knows me from somewhere; she looked familiar too, just can't place her face...hm...
so i ended up going to Mokund (?) uncle and asking what i'm supposed to do; he told me to keep the singers happy; which was perfectly fine by me, they're cool ppl. so i ended up putting them in the side room where the volunteers had eaten to hang around; then everyone seemed to forget about them until they were supposed to sing, at which point i had to dash backstage and around tables to get them...
but i'm getting ahead of myself.
next what happened was meera swiped us (me and nikhil) to help with flower arrangements. FLOWER ARRAGEMENTS. of all things...yeesh. nupur was showing us how to do it when nikhil got a cell phone call and left (he never came back) and i managed to sneak out too (sorry nupur...lol)
so that guy i was hanging around with? his name was like akshay (?) uncle or something like that...i only found out MUCH LATER that he was NUPUR'S DAD!!! i would've watched what i was talking about...yeesh again.
we found out that nupur's little sister goes to dulles middle school where she's taught by ellen townley, who's MY private viola teacher, so it's a small world after all, yadda yadda yadda....etc.
so next we have the thing starting and crap. ppl are getting drunk on whiskey in the lobby while i was running around doing all that stuff that i mentioned before...
finally we let them into the ballroom. they found their tables and stuff. apparently there was a big fuss about registration cuz there were so many ppl who just randomly CAME without telling us...but you'll have to ask one of the fish girls about that; i wasn't there.
so HUM performed...they're REALLY good...wow...i bought a cd for $5...definately worth it. (listening to it all weekend + today)
let's see...what's next...?
right, so then me and rest of kids are sitting around and eating dinner (FREAKING DISGUSTING) and after that was ice cream cake. then they started playing more dance-ish music and the OLD PEOPLE STARTED DANCING...SO SCARY!! someone said that she hoped they didn't get a heart attack...i concur...yeesh!
plus a bunch of them were half-drunk...including Mokund uncle, a VOLUNTEER! he was dancing with his whiskey, no less. so weird.
so Manasy wanted us kids to dance to get them started, but we figured they were already pretty well started (and they were) so we were just hanging out and doing random hindi dance stuff on the side...WISH WE HAD DANDYAS THERE!! nikhil and i tried to do dandya ras with our hands...didn't quite have the same effect (lol!).
slow-dance music came on...i had the extremely strange experience of seeing two girls DANCE AS IF THEY WERE LESBIANS!!! i'm still not sure that they AREN'T!
learned how to slow-dance (thanks nupur and meera!), so now i PROBABLY won't trip over my own or other people's feet..yay!
we slowdanced for a bit until faster music came on. by this time more ppl had left and the dance floor was clear enough for us (and three ppl from HUM) to do the 12-step garbah dance thing around the floor...fun, 'cept i kept on getting screwed up 'cuz they started on an off-beat.
tired and exhausted, but having just had the most fun i'd had all year, i headed down to the lobby to meet my mom who was picking me up (because SOMEONE couldn't take me HOME!...jk)
so peace ya'll....pratham gala was really fun...and i even left out a lot...
i was there for a grand total of 12 HOURS...wow...
catch ya'll later.
P.S. leave a comment! (click where it says 'comments')
Pratham: volunteer movement to help raise literacy among children in India (and doing a pretty good job of it too). every year they hold this huge gala (700 ppl) to raise money: tickets are $100 each, but it's more of a donation thing. for that you get a cocktail hour, followed by fancy dinner with hindi music, then dancing and crap.
[note: i just realized that my entire involvement in pratham stemmed directly out of mrs. lafleur's volunteer project; must thank her for that]
anyways, so i got to the Westin Galleria ballroom at around 2:00, shortly thereafter Manasy, the head of volunteers, arrived. we hung around for a while; she told me that she told ppl to be there at 2:30 (i was early) in hopes that they might actually arrive by 3. finally Mani auntie came with the crap that we had to put on all the dinner tables, which we started doing.
around that time meera, nupur, priya, silkie (?), and some other girls whose names i don't remember showed up (carrying boxes from the Cheesecake factory, no less).
also a fellow soph from Memorial high school showed up, nikhil, bringing the total count of nikhils i know up to 243. no, i'm kidding, it's just 6 or so.
so i'm like, cool, i finally know someone here, cuz meera and nupur and priya go to hightower (even though i didn't really know them, i knew OF them), and nikhil was cool too, although hungry. all the time. and i mean ALL the time.
so what happened next...hm....right, so then the guys, meaning nikhil, me, and the adult guys went up to the rooms that mani auntie had reserved for us volunteers to change. finally when we got back downstairs, they had food for the volunteers; some really kickass stuffed jalapenos that challenged even MY taste buds. wow...freakin' awesome. (there was more food too; the jalapenos just stick out in my memory)
so then i'm hanging around the stage with this guy who's like in his forties or something and who manasy said is with me helping with audio/visual crap. the audio DJ/mixer guy was named nadeem; he was pretty good.
then the a capella group from UT showed up, they're called HUM (click HERE for a link to their website, buy a CD) don't ask me why it's all in caps...it just is.
so they're pretty cool; i helped nadeem hook up their mics and crap. one of the singers says she knows me from somewhere; she looked familiar too, just can't place her face...hm...
so i ended up going to Mokund (?) uncle and asking what i'm supposed to do; he told me to keep the singers happy; which was perfectly fine by me, they're cool ppl. so i ended up putting them in the side room where the volunteers had eaten to hang around; then everyone seemed to forget about them until they were supposed to sing, at which point i had to dash backstage and around tables to get them...
but i'm getting ahead of myself.
next what happened was meera swiped us (me and nikhil) to help with flower arrangements. FLOWER ARRAGEMENTS. of all things...yeesh. nupur was showing us how to do it when nikhil got a cell phone call and left (he never came back) and i managed to sneak out too (sorry nupur...lol)
so that guy i was hanging around with? his name was like akshay (?) uncle or something like that...i only found out MUCH LATER that he was NUPUR'S DAD!!! i would've watched what i was talking about...yeesh again.
we found out that nupur's little sister goes to dulles middle school where she's taught by ellen townley, who's MY private viola teacher, so it's a small world after all, yadda yadda yadda....etc.
so next we have the thing starting and crap. ppl are getting drunk on whiskey in the lobby while i was running around doing all that stuff that i mentioned before...
finally we let them into the ballroom. they found their tables and stuff. apparently there was a big fuss about registration cuz there were so many ppl who just randomly CAME without telling us...but you'll have to ask one of the fish girls about that; i wasn't there.
so HUM performed...they're REALLY good...wow...i bought a cd for $5...definately worth it. (listening to it all weekend + today)
let's see...what's next...?
right, so then me and rest of kids are sitting around and eating dinner (FREAKING DISGUSTING) and after that was ice cream cake. then they started playing more dance-ish music and the OLD PEOPLE STARTED DANCING...SO SCARY!! someone said that she hoped they didn't get a heart attack...i concur...yeesh!
plus a bunch of them were half-drunk...including Mokund uncle, a VOLUNTEER! he was dancing with his whiskey, no less. so weird.
so Manasy wanted us kids to dance to get them started, but we figured they were already pretty well started (and they were) so we were just hanging out and doing random hindi dance stuff on the side...WISH WE HAD DANDYAS THERE!! nikhil and i tried to do dandya ras with our hands...didn't quite have the same effect (lol!).
slow-dance music came on...i had the extremely strange experience of seeing two girls DANCE AS IF THEY WERE LESBIANS!!! i'm still not sure that they AREN'T!
learned how to slow-dance (thanks nupur and meera!), so now i PROBABLY won't trip over my own or other people's feet..yay!
we slowdanced for a bit until faster music came on. by this time more ppl had left and the dance floor was clear enough for us (and three ppl from HUM) to do the 12-step garbah dance thing around the floor...fun, 'cept i kept on getting screwed up 'cuz they started on an off-beat.
tired and exhausted, but having just had the most fun i'd had all year, i headed down to the lobby to meet my mom who was picking me up (because SOMEONE couldn't take me HOME!...jk)
so peace ya'll....pratham gala was really fun...and i even left out a lot...
i was there for a grand total of 12 HOURS...wow...
catch ya'll later.
P.S. leave a comment! (click where it says 'comments')
May 17, 2004
wow...
pratham gala 2004 update still coming...someday...
but in the meantime take a look at this:
CLICK HERE
have fun
P.S. here's another hilarious link; courtesy of pk:
NOW CLICK HERE
freaking hilarious!
but in the meantime take a look at this:
CLICK HERE
have fun
P.S. here's another hilarious link; courtesy of pk:
NOW CLICK HERE
freaking hilarious!
May 16, 2004
Woo Hoo!
So I'll post soon about the Pratham Gala 2004, but in the meantime let me just say GO BLOGGER!!! for making these new templates and for adding comment support! that's right, you can insult my posts quicker, easier and faster now...in other words, there goes my tagboard.
also, you can now update your blog via email...it's pretty cool!
'til next time...
P.S. each post now has its own page, on which it displays the comments and such. it's great cuz you can link to individual posts now...let's see xanga top THAT!
also, you can now update your blog via email...it's pretty cool!
'til next time...
P.S. each post now has its own page, on which it displays the comments and such. it's great cuz you can link to individual posts now...let's see xanga top THAT!
May 4, 2004
The Music Link
So I've realized that for some strange reason I associate people, objects, events, etc. with music. There's usually a story behind it too.
My sister: Matchbox 20 - Bright Lights
She and I are just turning down our street (she's driving) when this song comes on that we both like, but neither of us knows what it is. So we drive around our neighborhood for the next five minutes until it's done, then we went home and both rushed to the internet to find the name. It took a little while, but it was Bright Lights. Then we, uh, procured a version of the song.
Colin: Eagle Eye Cherry - Save Tonight
That guy can sing, even though it doesn't seem like it. This is the only song I've heard Colin sing.
Jordan: Dispatch - Two Coins
I just emailed her this song recently; she downloaded it and was trying to play it when this person in a chat room she was in started playing rap, so Jordan thought that I had emailed her rap music...she got it working eventually.
Ha: The Violet Burning - I'm No Superman
This song was on my blog, and apparently she used to go and listen to it all the time. I finally burned it on a cd for her. I'm just waiting until she gets tired of it, but that doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon.
When I think of more, I'll post them. The links are in my mind; I just have to hear the song somewhere first.
Another note:
My DBQ essay ended up to be SIX FULL PAGES, double-spaced. That's the best report I've ever written. Check out this sentence:
"Although Rhodes is quite biased toward England, one can analyze his justification of imperialism through English nationalism to uncover the core cause of the nineteenth century British obsession with colonization; they believed that it was their 'creed…dream…and mission.'"
It's just awesome! I didn't plan it that way; I wrote it and then I'm thinking "That's freaking unintelligable!".
It's the debate influence, I know.
My sister: Matchbox 20 - Bright Lights
She and I are just turning down our street (she's driving) when this song comes on that we both like, but neither of us knows what it is. So we drive around our neighborhood for the next five minutes until it's done, then we went home and both rushed to the internet to find the name. It took a little while, but it was Bright Lights. Then we, uh, procured a version of the song.
Colin: Eagle Eye Cherry - Save Tonight
That guy can sing, even though it doesn't seem like it. This is the only song I've heard Colin sing.
Jordan: Dispatch - Two Coins
I just emailed her this song recently; she downloaded it and was trying to play it when this person in a chat room she was in started playing rap, so Jordan thought that I had emailed her rap music...she got it working eventually.
Ha: The Violet Burning - I'm No Superman
This song was on my blog, and apparently she used to go and listen to it all the time. I finally burned it on a cd for her. I'm just waiting until she gets tired of it, but that doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon.
When I think of more, I'll post them. The links are in my mind; I just have to hear the song somewhere first.
Another note:
My DBQ essay ended up to be SIX FULL PAGES, double-spaced. That's the best report I've ever written. Check out this sentence:
"Although Rhodes is quite biased toward England, one can analyze his justification of imperialism through English nationalism to uncover the core cause of the nineteenth century British obsession with colonization; they believed that it was their 'creed…dream…and mission.'"
It's just awesome! I didn't plan it that way; I wrote it and then I'm thinking "That's freaking unintelligable!".
It's the debate influence, I know.
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