I have a post-it note on my computer monitor that says, “I think in Post-It notes”.

Shannon: “We should listen to some poker music.”

Me: “Queen?”

Currently reading the little “25 Years Ago” box in Technology Review. We humans sure have grandiose views of the future that never are realized. I think it’d be interested to make some trips to the library and read some old magazines — look at how we think the future will turn out, and how it really does.

Is life a zero-sum game? Can one person win without another losing? Does there have to be people at the bottom of the pyramid to have people at the top? Can people be equal? Are people equal? Can there be synergy? Does one person always gain at the expense of another? Are the resources in life limited? Is there anything infinite? Is love really infinite? Can you give without losing? Is there always equivalent exchange? Is there always balance? Is there karma? Is there an ultimate judge? Are we our own judges? Is there even an answer? Is there even a question? The answer is that there is no question. Or so, I keep saying to myself.

From my sister…

Shannon: “I decided I’m not going to major in art anymore. I’m going to be a professional cellist.”

Me: “Haha. You can be the next Yo Yo Ma.”

Shannon: “I’ll be Yo Yo Shannon.”

The answer is that there is no question.

Yeah, I decided that should be my new life philosophy. I don’t really fully comprehend, understand, or accept it, myself. But for some reason, it seems to make sense, and seems like it holds a deeper truth.

No updates for a while because I will be in New Orleans.

I’ve recently been hearing commercials attacking Schwarzenneger for slashing the school budget by $2 billion. And I thought, wait a second… that figure seems familiar… where have I heard it before? Note that this was all the way back in January.

Oh well, we know that they’re all right anyway. Because we know that every one of those 2 billion dollars would’ve gone to books and smaller class sizes, right?

I’m reading the Bible while listening to The Beatles. Woah.

[Reading for Bible as Literature class. In case you’re wondering, I’m reading Ecclesiastes, and the album is Abbey Road.]

Admitted

• UC Berkeley
• UCLA
• UC etc.
• Carnegie Mellon
• Johns Hopkins
• Amherst
• USC

Rejected

• Yale
• MIT
• Stanford

I was hoping for Yale, but oh well, I’ll roll with it. You gotta play with the cards you’re dealt with. So, here’s my top choices: UC Berkeley, USC, or Carnegie Mellon. I’m considering USC because I got a half-tuition scholarship.

Wow, I had so much fun. I did something almost everyday. The days I missed — first day of spring break (because I had USC stuff to fill out) and the last day (today because of homework I’m avoiding right now). I’ve a bad memory, so forgive me if things are wrong.

• seeing my niece, nephew, and sister-in-law

Wednesday

• missing my nap to go cruising to Chris’s, Ian’s, Richard’s, and Ryan’s house multiple times without jamming
• finally getting to jam with Richard, Chris, Ryan, Ian, and Craig at Ian’s house, after seeing some weird guy show up who definitely did not look like he wanted to deliver a chair
• getting free hot and sour soup at Lite Wok with Ryan
• Poker night, reading Andrew like he’s my bitch, but still losing to his pockets

Thursday

• watching The Apprentice and not running away to leave my sister to turn the TV off because of the premier of The Office
• hearing Chris, Richard, and Craig serenade me over the telephone with “A Thousand Miles” on vibraphone

Friday

• Wenschel, Craig, and Chris hanging out at my house
• starting to learn “If I Ain’t Got You” on piano
• eating, with Chris and Craig, where all the cool people eat — IHOP
• seeing random Moreau people (Trevor) at IHOP… goddamnit, can’t avoid them
• Chris’s concoction of strawberry syrup and maple syrup that looked so gross
• seeing The Ring Two with Richard, Chris, and Craig… “what’s scary about this movie is how I wasted 9 bucks”
• laughing out loud at the deer part… I felt like a jerk, but I couldn’t help it
• hearing some random person say “kodiak moment” and correcting them: “It’s Kodak”
• talking about the next Ring movie… The Ring 3D

Saturday

• Dinner with Chris, Craig, Richard, Hans, and Chris’s family at Claim Jumpers
• Two hour wait
• random wandering, everywhere’s closed
• Chris, Craig, Richard, and Hans getting stuck in the elevator at CompUSA
• Hans: “the emergency button got stuck on my beltloop” hahaha
• treated to a very nice dinner by Chris’s family… I’m forever gracious
• CJ Mac & Cheese, CJ Baked Potato, haha
• the most flavorful of all steaks
• fun times on the streets at night
• watching Pomona jazz band on tape, with Craig’s wonderful Latin percussion

Sunday

• hanging out with the Daryl
• Sebastian: “You sad face!”
• Sega Genesis, whoo
• old Mortal Kombat with all 7 characters to geeze from and retarded special moves
• old-school WWF wrestling game
• Hockey ’93-style, with random penalties
• Street Fighter II, whoo
• Is Vega the inspiration for Voldo?
• Sagat victory pose — AHAHAHA
• listening to Sisqo, Beatles, old 90’s music — Oasis

Monday

• Josh’s birthday party!
• being the one new person to confirm the existence of Kim
• seeing Josh, Craig, Shane, Jenna, and Christy for the first time in a while
• Abbot and Costello
• crazy four-way video game action — holy crap, if only Bridget wasn’t a man!
• SNK vs. Capcom — Army of whores vs. normal people… Shane’s scantily clad women, and my scantily clad fat ugly men (Zangief, E. Honda, and Blanka — Sagat later replacing Zangief)
• Shane and I having complaints of characters wearing too much clothes, etc. — “I meant to lose, just so I could see that”
• Taiko Drummer — that game is so cute
• You Don’t Know Jack
• Family Guy — finally, some episodes I haven’t seen — “… and a little more shut the hell up!”

Tuesday

• Exploratorium! … with Richard, Chris, Liz, and Nisha
• Seeing crazy outside structure that I didn’t know was there before
• too many little kids
• getting usurped at the bubbles station
• hanging out at a mall in SF with Chris, Liz, and Nisha
• deciding on buying a pocketwatch, but not finding a suitable one
• browsing gigantic Borders with a card shop, seeing some interesting book sections with Nisha
• watching The Office… funny stuff, new favorite show
• going to Bonfair to buy cards seeing Orion
• shop owner just sucking on spoon, not telling us if they’re actually open or not, then lying by saying they don’t sell cards
• loitering next to the no loitering sign and seeing Ian, JJ, Wally, and someone from Ian’s band show up randomly, bumping some crazy music, JJ dancing out the window
• winning a non-money poker game

Wednesday

• miniature golfing with Sonja
• Funt
• seeing band show at Davin’s house with Ryan, Sonja, and Chris
• wow, Davin got hella good at drums and hella skinny
• saw some crazy good pianist, wow, I wish I was that good, but without all the work

Thursday

• went to Jason’s house
• Jason was a horrible host, especially since he told me to come over quickly and that Jared was over (did see Jared)
• playing “If I Ain’t Got You” at Jason’s house
• watched The Apprentice for the second week in a row… that hasn’t happened in a long time

Friday

• almost broke a yearly tradition of making Ridiculously Easy games on April Fools’ Day, but didn’t, that was year 5
• almost broke my hanging out streak, but picked up Clement and Aaron from the airport
• hung out at their house, played Melee
• fun times fighting in that bottom section of that one large map (yeah, real specific)… I got Kirby up to 400 damage!
• putting up with the ol’ “we have to go now…” “okay, I’m ready to go…” “blah blah blah blah blah” don’t leave for another hour

Saturday

• seeing Sin City with Aaron and Clement
• sorry for waitlisting Craig and Josh
• Sin City is crazy good… that totally made up for the waste of money entitled The Ring Two
• seeing random Moreau people once more, you can’t get away from them… saw Al, and also saw Jason out on a date, ooooohhhh, how cute
• still can’t escape them… sat through the credits, and Ali works at the theater, hope he had fun cleaning up, hahahaha
• went to pick up my sister and her friend at Borders
• and yup, “Uh oh, I better pretend to talk on my cell phone so I won’t have to acknowledge this person I know…” — I saw Will there
• bumped Chinese pop in the car, despite the protests of Aaron
• didn’t get to end my night with FMA because it got eated up by DST

Miscellaneous

• watched FMA up to almost episode 40
• I’ve learned “If I Ain’t Got You” pretty well… too bad I can’t sing
• back in the weblog groove
• no psycho-ward updates, except for Ridiculously Easy Game
• I now know how to get to Ryan’s, Chris’s, Richard’s, Daryl’s, and Ian’s houses by memory
• not as much poker as expected

Coming: College listlog… still waiting on one college, the one I want to go to most: Yale

Check out my latest Ridiculously Easy Game: The Right Choice. This is definitely the longest running tradition I’ve ever had. This’ll be the 5th year I’ve done it. Isn’t that amazing? (It’s only amazing if you’re as young as I am.)

Oh yeah, and speaking of young… my dog’s birthday was yesterday… he’s 12.

SKrATchpEt: hey guess what

SCHIZO KILLER: what?

SKrATchpEt: i broke my arm snowboarding

SKrATchpEt: so now i can’t go to new orleans

SCHIZO KILLER: you’re typing rather quickly

SKrATchpEt: am i…..

SKrATchpEt: i can still move my fingers pretty well

SKrATchpEt: it’s my arm that;s broken

SCHIZO KILLER: which arm?

SKrATchpEt: shut up…..you ruin my april fools

The Agnoiologist recently talked to a spammer and asked him what the fuck he was thinking. He’s a really smooth talker, and I realized I was being an idiot complaining about the spamming problem: If you can’t beat’em, join’em.

You webloggers will never defeat the comment spammers! Stop the fight! Join the dark side!

I am turning things over to him. To expediate things, the comment spam will simply become weblog entries. It’s much simpler this way and saves both of us a lot of headache.

So, guys, this is me signing off from the Agnoiologist permanently… and I leave you with my final words of wisdom: Buy Viagra.

Do bloggers deserve basic journalistic protections?

“Are bloggers entitled to the same constitutional protection as traditional print and broadcast journalists?”

Uh, freedom of speech, bitch. Freedom of press, same monster. We all have the same rights. You’re talking about privileges.

“If the courts allow every Tom, Dick and Matt who wants to call himself a journalist to invoke the privilege to protect confidential sources, the public will become even less trusting than it already is of all journalists.” [emphasis mine]

Point made.

Or… are you talking about privileges, you silly man?

Speaking of Tom, I think your next campaign after you slay those bloggers is to destroy all those opinion-mongering pamphleteers. Too bad Thomas Paine is already dead, you could’ve gone after him and his un-fact-checked rant against the monarchy, “Common Sense”.

Eighteen’s the age when people go, “How old is Shawn?”

“He’s 18.”

“Eighteen?? Wow!! Time sure flies.”

Geeze, I feel old.

Ew… There’s nothing that turns me off more than disease… okay, except for ugliness.

I’m thinking of watching providing commentary on movies and TV shows. Maybe I’ll start with The Ring Two tomorrow.

Why does Burger King have a Bill of Rights? What is this travesty against democracy? It’s a burger monarchy! You have no rights!

!!!!!!!!!!!

Weblogs have been getting more press recently. They’re entering the mainstream consciousness. Some bloggers think they’re important. Some think they’ll slay the mainstream media. They tout the diversity of weblogs. They tout the open discussions. They tout how weblogs are organic self-correcting mechanisms. Maybe one weblog is wrong, but the general diverse blogosphere can provide a clearer picture greater than the sum of its parts. And maybe some weblogs are like that, but on the whole, weblogs aren’t what they’re all cracked up to be. Thus, begins my multi-day critique on the state of the blogosphere.

Part 1: There ain’t nothing synergistic about an echo

To have open discussion, you must first have an open mind. The truth is, most people like their minds closed. They won’t admit it, but they do. People insulate themselves with those who have like opinions. With the news choices out there, you can pick which ones best suit you. The ones that best suit you, of course, will be the ones that present things in the way you agree with. We can have someone watch Fox News and listen to conservative talk radio. That’s their news. That’s their world presented by the filter of other people.

Now, instead of watching only Fox News and listening to conservative talk radio, let’s say they also get their news from that newfangled internet. These people read and keep their own weblogs. If they’re that discerning with their news choices, they will only read weblogs they agree with. And what will they write about?

WHY! Only the issues they know about! With only the viewpoints they know about! They create their own little echo chamber. These people link to each other and repeat the same viewpoints. They don’t contribute to discussion; they echo.

That’s a problem. People insulate themselves from the other side, the things they don’t agree with, and instead of the truth arising, myths simply perpetuate themselves.

That is one reason why I haven’t been writing too much political stuff lately… for fear of becoming an echoblog that has nothing new to add to the discussion.

Well, whenever I don’t have school, I start my day with comics. (Hooray for Easter Vacation!) Otherwise, it’s the first thing I do when I get home from school.

Today, Bob and George makes me feel old. Geeze, I can’t believe I’ve been reading this crap that long to remember it. The problem is, I keep reading it out of habit, and every time just when I’m about to quit reading, it becomes just funny enough to keep reading, but only for a limited time.

Sinfest makes me feel good today.

Shaw Island makes me feel worldly. Hey, I know what “pho” is! I get it! The sad thing is, my friends and I used to use that joke all the time when there was a place called something like Pho Quyen. And I remember seeing one on the east coast called Pho Kien.

Liveblogging starting now!

WOOWEEE! A BOX! CROWN MOLDING, YEAH BABY! *snore*

9:06 PM

It’s all about presentation. You can have the worst, most boring idea in the world, but it’s all about the presentation.

Is it just me, or is Angie just… ugh. She bugs me. Her voice.

You can definitely see the difference between Magna and Net Worth, now. One team is exceptional, bright, and knows how to pull together in order to win, even if they weren’t originally thrilled with an idea. Craig wasn’t a great leader, but the team was mature enough to pull together. There’s a little disappointment there because Craig is obviously the weakest link and if they lose, he can’t be fired. The other team is just full of all the whiny people.

9:19 PM

That boardroom pissed me off. They all ganged up on Erin just because she was the most convenient scapegoat. Erin’s the smartest one on the team. It wasn’t her best performance, but she’s not the reason the team lost. They didn’t even let her talk. At least Stephanie said the PM was the reason the team lost. Angie’s condescending attitude bugs me even more now. Her little speech at the beginning, you could just feel the BS dripping.

Chris is very unprofessional, but I didn’t like how Erin brought up the chewing tobacco — that was low. But I can understand it because she couldn’t get a word in edgewise. If you’re under pressure, you do what you can.

9:30PM

ERIN! YOU BLEW IT! Right at the end! You had it, and then you had to do that. Don’t diss George and Carolyn! That’s a no-no! I saw it coming right at the end. Once you winked, I knew it was over.

I missed George and Carolyn’s comments because I was typing, but I think they’re wrong. Angie is horrible, and she’s the reason why the team lost that task.

9:43

Ooh, and let me say that I was so excited about The Office because Americans always take British shows and make them better. So far, I think it’s funny. (Note: I have not seen the British one; I just know it exists.)

Perhaps from my basic core belief in “Je pense, donc je suis,” you could infer that I would not want to live in a brain-damaged state. Well, I’m just here to say, don’t yoink the feeding tube and keep me alive as long as possible. I don’t think idle words and experimental thoughts should provide clear and convincing evidence if something bad should ever happen to me.

Sorry, folks. The Agnoiologist has been experiencing a bout of his own personal stupidity lately. Things are well now, though. Thus, we will be returning to your regularly scheduled fun-filled Agnoiologist entries tomorrow.

I take that back, not returning. Returning is not possible. We will move forward. Forward to new tastes of our curious blend of highbrow and lowbrow humor. Enjoy.

Why spend an eternity untangling when the truth can cut through it all?

I’ve done some more metaphorical thinking and realized I can’t let go of yesterday just like that. Life is complicated, messy, full of knots: I have to untangle yesterday.

I can tell myself all I want to let go of yesterday, but it is much easier said than done.

The other day, I went without eating breakfast, and I felt so sick. I used to be able to do that all the time, and it wouldn’t bother me at all. Geeze, I’m still young. This shouldn’t be happening to me already.

Good times singing Spice Girls with various people, especially my sister and my cousin. I’ve been bumpin’ it in the school parking lot, along with Ricky Martin. The 90’s were so awesome.

To seize today, you must let go of yesterday.

In other words, if you try to move forward while still looking backwards, you’ll just keep bumping into things.

Hm… “to seize today, you must let go of yesterday.” That’s definitely my new mantra. I should try saying it every morning.