Monday, July 27, 2009
COSMOS Day 28 - The last day and Disneyland
I am
Friday, July 24, 2009
COSMOS Day 27 - Last Day at UCI
Likewise, I will be finding someway to contact the rest of the people I have met during my 26 days at UCI. Why 26 days? The answer is because the program lasts for 28 days, in which I am not present for the last day and I was gone for the first Saturday.
I don't believe that I should reflect on anything that happened in the past four weeks yet. The simple reason is because looking at all of my pictures, totaling about 1,900, would be far too emotional. It is also not acceptable to show emotions in front of people who have not been through COSMOS, which is why I will be making a commemoration video of my time at COSMOS in the future. I have no plans announced for the time being, because I have more or less refused to do any of my summer assignments for high school. I need to finish regular homework assignments before I can remissness on my time at UCI.
Because the time is now 23:44, I will conclude this post as what I have for the time being. I am afraid I have to break my rule of editing posts within 24 hours of creating it. COSMOS Day 25 and 26 have not been written at all, and COSMOS Day 24 is barely written (as of 2009-07-24). I will be modifying the post times to retain the order in which such events occurred.
For now, I will give a shout out to those who have discovered or know about my blog:
Thank you Laura for being my Day RA for Cluster 6, and buying us little snacks for break time.
Thank you Cluster 6 for being the best cluster at UCI (in my arrogant opinion).
Thank you suite mates from the Smash Bros. Suite for making Woodhall a more lively place to be.
Thank you Woodhall people for sharing the same building with me.
Thank you Whispering Wood people, especially friends in Cluster 2, 3, and 8.
Thank you people from the girls dorms, same clusters.
Thank you the rest of the friends for being who you are...you know who you are.
Thank you the Pippins staff for preparing meals that I could look forward to.
Thank you the custodians who kept Woodhall (and the rest of the dorms) clean.
Thank you the rest of the RAs and COSMOS staff, in which I have not been able to say good bye to properly.
Thank you Tatity and Marjorie for running this program.
And Thank you Adiel, for being my nigh RA, to which I now say good night.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
COSMOS Day 24 - Son Clave Jam
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
COSMOS Day 23 - Last Lecture Day
Monday, July 20, 2009
COSMOS Day 22 - Swimming the COSMOS the final time
Still later, I played water volleyball with a few other people. I don't know their names, because I have not seen them in my time here at UCI. However, I can saw that two people from Cluster 6 played...that would be me and Cameron.
In the mean time, others were playing tennis in the nearby court. They brought swim trunks so they could do both activities.
As we headed back, a large amount of people were talking about Harry Potter, the Intel grant for an independent research project, the cluster project presentations and AP and SAT test results. I ignored most of the conversation except for the Intel grant, only because Intel processors are the only brand I have been using for the past four or so years.
Immediately upon arriving in Middle Earth housing, I went into Woodhall to deposit my items. I then took a shower before anyone else, so I don't have to wait in line at night. I then went to the laundry room to wash my bath towel. I failed miserably, and smells like dish detergent. Outside, I met my friend Robert, who just came back from having lunch with his parents.
Upon putting my towel away, I asked Robert to let me into Whispering Woods, so I could talk to Kyoshi, who is helping me write a song for my project with my partner. He told me his progress, of which I am extremely grateful for, and then we started chatting idly. I then had him install Google Earth so we could play on the flight simulator - this was after I told him to look up my house on Google Maps.
I then had dinner with a large group of people - of which I am not sure if I'm supposed to list their names... Jennifer, Electra, Tiare, Phuong, Josh and Robert. These are not really specific names, so I can assume only [COSMOS] people who read my blog would know who I am talking about. We sat there for a large amount of time just talking idly.
There goes a very ideal way to enjoy a Sunday.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
COSMOS Day 21 - ICUCSD
In general, much like that Academic bowl we had a couple weeks ago, our winning team of five students competed against UCSD's winning team of five students.
Friday, July 17, 2009
COSMOS Day 20 - Viva los COSMOS
Inside the
I left, and went to watch the Texas Hold'em game. There were several people crowed at the table, and I watched for about 15 to 20 rounds before I got to join. For my third hand, I believe I had a three of a kind of 6s, and my opponent raised me $30. Since I had about $27 from winning a few blind bets and call bets, I decided to go all-in. I was thinking that I wouldn't be able to win much money in this casino anyway, and I still had $25 in "cash." It turns out my opponent was bluffing, really badly. And I got all of his raise. I found that rediculously amusing, and that gave me a head start in the game. I had two other winning hands, I believe, and that was my two pair and pair of Aces. By the end of the game, I won approximately $80.
I later went to a quiet area to count up my money, and I had $126. I turned in $20 to the cashier to exchange the money for raffle tickets for a real prize. The rest of the money was in chips, so I had to go to a poker dealer to turn in that money. I was treated like a professional gambler, and received a $100 bill and a $5 bill. I then went to Jennifer to report my winnings, and she saw the money I had. She was nice enough to give me another $5 bill, so I could buy another raffle ticket.
In the end, I had 13 raffle tickets in a pool of xyz amount of tickets. I was drawn during the prize calling, and I received a UC Irvine folder.
COSMOS Day 20 (Extension) - Don't Stop Believing
Download now or listen on posterous
Here is version of the piece we played on Friday. I used the EQ to get rid of some background noise, boost the bass, and lower sharp singing voices. I also used the compressor to boost the overall sound. This is the best I can do with my poor sound mastering techniques.
COSMOS Day 19 - Don't stop believing, Cluster 6
Download now or listen on posterous
Dear all Cluster 6 people who care enough about the talent show:
(and all who care to read my blog at http://mzzyzx.blogspot.com and/or http://mzzyzx.posterous.com)
Basically, here is a preliminary recording of what we recorded today. Yes, I will admit it's a sloppy recording, and if Jim hears this, he would send me back to basic audio editing training. I completely forgot about checking that the mic recording the rehearsal was not going into the red when the performers were playing. That's my mistake on my part, and I apologize as the conductor/recorder/producer.
Please compare the recorded version with the one Journey made, aka the one you all have listened to many times already. I would have embedded the video, but it says embedding is disabled upon request.
For those of you who read sheet music, refer to the score Julia found: http://forpiano.com/file/journey__dont_stop_believin.pdf. In general, my job is to make sure nothing sounds too terribly out of tune, unreasonably hard for you to sing or play, or let you goof off too much during these rehearsals. Therefore, I am very humbled I am even allowed to be the conductor/recorder/producer.
My comments on our recording for today - the tempo was steady in general. The drums win, and most of you were following the ultrabeat very well. The singers, learn the lines as well as possible, but again, a fantastic job for our first rehearsal. As a conductor, I need to learn these lines to, so I can properly give "cues," that you singers naturally articulate. One thing for us to work on is when people cut off after sustaining a note. It's not like it's a real music competition, but we are music students, so we can try harder if we have the will and dedication to beat Cluster 6 from last year. Props to Naveen for playing that solo very well...fake it if it becomes too cumbersome to play so fast. One last piece of criticism, and you will all hate me for this - from class, I think Ania has determined I have perfect pitch, meaning I can tell things when they are slightly higher or lower. I think there was a section that was slightly higher. I have no idea if it's the recording or the fact that it's the end of the song. We must keep in our head the sound of E as our fundamental pitch.
Aside from that criticism, all who participated in the recording, I would like to thank for showing some pride for Cluster 6, which is definately the "best" cluster at COSMOS UCI, no arguing allowed.
Um, this blog post/e-mail was finished at 2009-07-17 00:27. I need to go before the RAs poke into this room and tell me to go to bed.
Sincerely,
MZ
Thursday, July 16, 2009
COSMOS Day 18 - COSMOS-gram
One of the people I bought a card for was my friend Nathan, who got hurt while playing capture the flag (as I mentioned in an earlier post). Here is what I wrote:
2009-07-13 20:48
Dear Nathan,
Hmm, it feels like I am writing a letter to my brother...you know his name. Uh, I saw Jennifer and John setting up a table with these colorful pieces of paper on the desk. Raymond was helping to move the table, and I stood around to watch. Therefore, I decided to go buy some of these candy grams with some of the money available on my name tag.
You must be one of the coolest guys here at COSMOS for being able to look so "ridiculous" while playing capture the flag and letting me take pictures and videos of you while you were probably in much pain.
On another not[e], you wanted some chocolate while lying on the grass. Maybe the RAs delivering this will give some chocolate.
Also, sorry for the sloppy handwriting. I was blurting out everything on my mind. I hope you bounce back up and get well soon. - MZ
And here's the one I wrote for my Night RA, Adiel:
Dear Adiel,
I saw that Jennifer and John were setting up this table to sell candygrams. Since you bought cake for our suite, I think I will start "paying" you back by sending you a candy gram.
Let me state the obvious, you are a great RA. Thanks for taking care of the 10 of us downstairs and making my stay at UCI so much better than regular school.
- [MZ]
I was thinking about buying one for Jennifer, until she said, "No, don't waste your money on me, it's too expensive. I'd rather see you buying them for your friends."
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
COSMOS Day 17 - Final Project Idea Formulated
She did most of the planning since it was her idea. After she made a rough sketch of her idea, I understood more in depth what her idea was concerning. I suggested that we should test at a controlled time, and repeat the process one day after the initial test.
The conclusion for this project idea and planning - I need to look over my notes on what we want to do...
COSMOS Day 16 (Extension) - Capture the Broken Pillow and Flag
Let's break down the title:
- Capture - implies capture the flag
- Broken - implies my friend Nathan getting hurt
- Pillow - implies this pillow fight in which my roommate participated
Skipping words between the title, one can see "Capture the Pillow" is an acceptable omission of a word. My roommate "borrowed" one of my pillows to use in the pillow fight. Or at least that's what he told the other contestants. He asked me if he could steal it prior to leaving. Therefore, he captured my pillow.
Still another combination of words in the title yields "Capture the Flag," as hinted in the first sentence of this post. This was a planned activity people could participate in for Monday.
Continuing from the other post, Nathan can be included in the people who became "sick," as he had to go to the hospital shortly to take care of his shoulder and collar bone.
Monday, July 13, 2009
COSMOS Day 16 - Cluster Sick Project
In general, no one is in any danger, and the obvious course of action is to get more rest, t0 get enough vitamin C and to wash after using the restroom. This was the reminder given to all students since the day of Knott's Berry Farm. The fact that we are all COSMOS students stuck in cramped quarters in nearby dorms contributes to ease of spreading any kind of illness.
Thus, for Monday, Cluster 6 should have been temporarily renamed Cluster Sick out of pity for our "fallen" cluster members. Six, sick, whichever, they both sound roughly the same when pronounced quickly.
In another interpretation of the title of this post, "sick," in its slang term, can mean really good. Therefore, we have to finish thinking about what our sick project is going to be, within our partners. My partner is thinking of an experiment of how music affects learning. I am not sure of the details, and we will be working this out soon.
In the mean time, I need to concentrate on not getting sick.
COSMOS Day 15 - Swimming in the Sun
Forty minutes prior to leaving, I had a small cramp in my right calf, I got out of the pool for the rest of my time. I dried myself, and rinsed off the chlorine at a spray shower outside of the bathroom. I cheated and went inside the bathroom to get some soap to clean myself slightly.
Everyone was rounded up, and the COSMOS name tags, IDs, lanyards or whatever the staff chooses to call them, were distrubited back to the students. Everyone walked back to the Middle Earth housing area, and went back to their respective dorms.
Now why the word "sun" in the title. I got a small sunburn on my shoulder. I usually am very careful to put sunscreen on my face and neck, but I forgot that my shoulder is more or less the msot exposed part of my body when swimming, and I only remembered to put more sunscreen on my entire body only once. I guess I learned my lesson (again), and I will be asking for aloe vera for the rest of the week from Tatiyana.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
COSMOS Day 14 - Piloting Knott's Berry Farm
Out of the kindness of our director's hearts, we were sentenced to serve one day at Knott's Berry Farm to give COSMOS a good name. Therefore, there were three buses waiting to pickup a large quantity of COSMOS students at this drop of area or entrance to UC Irvine. Prior to the departure our bus pilot reminded us of basic rules to obey, such as keeping our hands and limbs inside the cabin at all times and not moving from one aisle to another aisle.
Exiting at Buena Park, the pilot reduced the speed to 26 knots to taxi to the final destination at the general automobile parking. The RA in charge of each bus passed out entrance tickets and meal/fuel vouchers to the line of passengers as they exitted out of the bus. As a group, we walked to the main entrance as depicted here in the image below.
It was approximately 11:45 when the students bearing blue COSMOS T-shirts walked through the gate and into the airport. I find it funny that the inspection of our carry on baggage happens after our flight is over.
Without clearance from the Air Traffic Control, I wandered around aimlessly until I found an RA station. I studied the map of the airways within the park, and decided I would go to the control tower, which is properly called Sky Cabin.
Inside, I saw various identified flying objects in the Knott's Berry Farm airspace. The highest identified flying object was the Xcellerator, and a few jets leaving from the nearby airports.
I got out of the control tower, and taxied to a roller coaster called Pony Express. After waiting 20 minutes in line, the pilot controlling that ride opened the gate to let me into the first car. I thus became the pilot of that car, and I had no co-pilot. After the operator secured the passengers, she announced, "cleared for takeoff," and opened full throttle. Just before landing, the ride halted from the air brakes and landing gear brakes. We all exited the aircraft for the next pilot and passengers in line can board the aircraft/roller coaster. I saw some fellow COSMOS pilots and passengers in line for the ride, and I stopped by the exit gate to take pictures.
Meanwhile, I attempted to practice my Spanish with a little Hispanic girl who was too little to go on the ride, and had to wait for her mom and sister to finish. The only thing I managed to communicate with her is "What's your name?" And she answered too quietly for me to hear. She'll get used to American English when she get to school.
When my friends finished the ride, we grouped up, and I declared I would joint their group. We taxied to Big Foot Rapids for our next ride/flight. After 42 minutes of waiting, the final boarding call was announced four our voyage/flight/ride.
As pilots/captains, we boarded the aircraft/ship/tube for the water ride. The plane/vessel accelerated to a maximum velocity of 20 knots, and splashed water into the deck. Our items were protected in a shielded luggage compartment. When the ride finished after three minutes, we disembarked the airplane/ship into the rotating terminal, and met at the ride exit.
Because a large quantity of the fuel in our body had been consumed for such rides, we received clearance from the control tower to taxi to a fueling station/eatery to redeem fuel/cheeseburgers (or for me, cheese pizza). The fueling station's menu included these items:
When we finished refueling/eating lunch, we taxied to the next attraction.
This next flight is called Ghostrider. The ghosts were probably from the people who died from standing too close to the jet engines powering the roller coaster. Twenty minutes passed before the flight began. My friend and I became the co-pilot and pilot of the flight, respectively, for the first car in the roller coaster. Shortly after takeoff, the airplane had to make an emergency landing due to an electrical failure. After the failure was repaired, the flight continued as normal. Accelerating to a speed of approximately 52 knots, the aircraft made several hard banks to change direction and raised and lowered the elevator to increase or decrease the altitude. On the final landing speed, the aircraft halted at the short runway, and taxied to the roller coaster runway.
After all my group members went on Ghostrider, we taxied to our final roller coaster for the day. Named "Silver Bullet," the ride attempts to emulate the feeling of a fighter pilot making basic aerobatic moves. As we boarded the fighter jets, the squadron of COSMOS cosmonauts/fighter pilots left the runway and climbed to approximately 100 feet. Then a rapid descent with hard banks, loops and twists. These were computer controlled moves, so we as fighter pilots only had to endure the G forces involved in the flight.
Upon the completion of this final flight, my group went back to the control tower to view the airspace a final time.
Our group ate a different eatery after visiting the control tower. Some of the food/fuel purchased included Dippin' Dots Ice Cream and a funnel cake.
Finally, all COSMOS students reported back at the main gate to discuss the day. Sightings of COSMOS students from UC San Diego were reported. Also, and extreme fighter pilot announced that he had blacked out momentarily during a flight on the Xcellerator. Others commented on the long lines to board the aiplanes.
When all students were accounted for, COSMOS announced the clear of the runway and headed back to the terminal where the (air)buses would fly us back to UC Irvine. The bus pilots arrived, and we boarded the same vehicles.
I found it fun writing this post in terms of being a pilot. It probably took me a little too long, yet I of course think it was worth it. Here the only math I could make out of this trip:
Ride Wait Time Ride Time Ratio
Sky Cabin 04:25 04:25 100.000%
Pony Express 20:00 00:30 2.500%
Big Foot Rapids 42:00 03:00 7.142%
Ghostrider 20:00 02:00 10.000%
Silver Bullet 05:00 02:00 40.000%
This is a very inaccurate study on ride time to wait time. In general, this can be used as an excuse for visiting Knott's Berry Farm.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
COSMOS Day 13 - The Professor of the Professor and Karaoke Night
For today, my normal day RA, Laura, had to go somewhere. One of the night RAs in Woodhall, Emilio, took over for her, and Professor Crooks introduced him to the class as one of his former students. This occurrance just goes to show that the line of learning is very easy to trace at times.
One of the topics John wanted us to focus on was on LOUDNESS. One of important ideas to remember about the concept of loudness is that it is an arbirtary term that varies for different humans. The closest scientific term Mr. Dobrian could come up with was "intensity of the sound." With sound being defined as the slight changes in air pressure detected by the ear drum, the intensity (force over a given area) of the changes in air pressure detected by the ear drum would control how "loud" we hear sound. The famliar unit to measure "loudness" would be decibels, or on our little sound system equalizers, "dB." With such units in place, Professor Dobrian said that an exponential change in sound intensity is needed for our ears to hear a linear change in sound intensity. I am barely getting through all of the lecture, and I am starting to confuse myself. Therefore those who read this blog may not complain that I my blog post is too complicated.
On the topic of loudness, COSMOS had a karaoke night. I personally did not think the music was too loud. (The government standard for "loud" is about 80 dB, and that actually can damage one's hearing temporarialy, and the damage can become permanent if one is exposed to such an environment for many years.) Early today, Mr. Dobrian played a simple sine wave at 70 dB and most of the class started covering their ears. The singing was not expecially loud, and the music was not
Friday, July 10, 2009
COSMOS Day 12 - MZ passed at 15
MZ was a poor composer who wrote dull music and was ignored by most of his peers. He knew that no one would like his music, which is why this lesser quality does not diminish the way he lived.
While he was a failure as a musician, he managed to be a student of good standing at Hercules Middle High School. He was taking AP Calculus AB and AP World History, yet his ranking dropped down to number 15 by the end of the year.
"Girls can do that to [a student]," commented John Brown, MZ's journalism teacher at UCHMHS.
In general, MZ was deemed an acceptable person to participate in the COSMOS summer school program for mathematics and Science at UC Irvine. While at the program MZ attempted to rebuild his reputation as a musician.
COSMOS has several courses available to students called "clusters," and MZ was part of Cluster 6, Mathematics and Music. This course focused on music composition and the mathematical and scientific explanations behind the human perception of music, and is taught by Professor John C of UC Irvine and Professor Jim S of Long Beach Community College.
During the Fourth of July weekend prior to his death, MZ had just managed to reestablish his reputation as a composer. He was obligated to perform one of his more creative pieces titled “The 42 Suite, III. Florence” at the Composers Today Symposium, part of the Music Teachers’ Association of California annual convention hosted in Santa Clara.
Along with eight other young composers, MZ showed off his piece. The other musicians had written a piece for piano, and in general
“Lam [MZ] may or may not be missed after his death,” commented Dr. E. Vellame. “I wanted him to grow old and act like a grandpa who teaches biology.”
"From dust his music came from and to dust it will return," commented an anonymous critic on his music.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
COSMOS Day 11 - iMovie Cut Amature
In general, the first project I decided to do was make a soundtrack to the video I recorded when I was flying from San Francisco down to Orange county. That video was a recording of a Boeing 737 taking off, and that video would be this one right here:
However, I have managed to add music to the video and that version is available here:
I am somewhat proud of myself for being able to pull something like this off. However, I know that no piece of music is perfect. This is the best I can do in Logic Express for now, and I'll see how my progress goes as I create my final project.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
COSMOS Day 10 - Boeing 737 takeoff background music
Monday, July 6, 2009
COSMOS Day 9 - Syn - together
- A - 110.000
- B - 123.750
- C# - 139.218
- D - 146.666
- E - 165.000
- F# - 185.625
- G# - 208.825
- A - 220.000
Sunday, July 5, 2009
COSMOS Day 8 - Flight 482, Service from Oakland to Orange County
Saturday, July 4, 2009
COSMOS Day 7 - Northern Cal
After parking the car, we started to search for where my "performance" of Florence would take place. Outside of the building, I met up with my good friend, Paul, who said he would be coming to go see my "performance." The teacher's checkin table pointed to the left and told us to go to the student information center. I was required to report to Ballroom A-C.
The video of the fireworks in Hercules...it is about 80 MB, and I will update this post when it is on YouTube. Actually, no, I won't be able to upload this video, because there was an uploading error at home. The problem is that I don't have the file with me in UCI, and it is at home.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Florence - so close to being done
I don't think I will be able to mix the audio into the video in time. It is simply going to take too much time, which I don't have. I have until 16:00 for the 4th of July (a very, very American holiday) to produce another copy of the DVD. I left the Dell Insipiron laptop in my dorm before I went back to Arcadia, so I am in the inconvience of not having my software at my disposal.in general, I have no clue what will happen, since my dad's laptop does not a have an optical drive, as he replaced it with a spare battery, and both my dad's computer and Uncle Albert's computer doesn't have Windows Movie Maker 10 or whatever...the one that can read and understand NTSC widescreen (the format at which Florence was recorded).\
Good luck on those who care about my music. The time for me has almost come, and I am so close.