Graduation and afterward

Through all the highs and lows of high school, it's all worth it.

And also

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Last Real Day of High School

The last bell of my life rings.  The picture above is an Airbus A321.

In the newspaper that just came out, my "senior commentary" was published.  Here it is reprinted:

Looking back as a senior I am really not sure about the effectiveness of high school in preparing me for college.  All I learned is that people cannot be trusted all the time, and it is up to yourself to provide the motivation to get anything done.

Perhaps that actually is a good lesson I learned while I’m still a teenager.

Over the course of my four years as a high school student, I have lost a few friends, been deceived by people I trusted, and learned that hard work is not always rewarded. 

With regards to hard work, grades and extracurricular activities do not matter that much.  In the eyes of the government, every student is turned into a set of numbers. That is why the STAR test is administered each year, and why students take the SAT and the ACT.  GPAs exist so that one student can be easily compared to another.  These numbers do not define who you are.

I have seen many of my peers act as phonies in an attempt to get a higher set of numbers.  There people have an exemplary skill of filling in bubbles and regurgitating material that is expected of them.  Look at everyone in this school who has a 4.0 GPA or above.  Some of these students have not contributed a single thing to their society or are not particularly talented.

After high school students will be completely responsible for their own actions as adults.  They will have to take care of things like taxes, health care, and food.

Aside from all these negative feelings I had for my experience in high school, I had great experiences as well.  I managed to write a symphony (albeit a short one), which the music department is going to perform for the final concert.  I also had an opportunity to travel to Italy with my freshman English teacher, Janet Headington. 

In the end, high school is what you make of it.  My advice for underclassmen is to not let others say what cannot be done and to not succumb to peer pressure.

And also a few days ago I had a pretty good achievement:

I really am almost ready to say good bye to:

All I am missing now is signing some more yearbooks.  I will have more organized blog posts later.  For now, I must enjoy sleeping while I can.

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Thank you for choosing UC Davis!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: UC Davis Undergraduate Admissions <do-not-reply-adm@ad3.ucdavis.edu>
Date: Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 10:55 PM
Subject: Thank you for choosing UC Davis!
To: Myron Lam

Hello Myron,

Congratulations! You have successfully submitted your Statement of Intent to Register (SIR) to UC Davis. We're pleased that you have chosen UC Davis for your undergraduate education, and we look forward to seeing you soon!

Next steps: Please visit http://myadmissions.ucdavis.edu to review and complete your upcoming pre-enrollment tasks. Don't forget to check for upcoming deadlines.

For additional questions about your admission or enrollment, please call (530)
752-3710. For a list of campus contacts, please visit
http://admissions.ucdavis.edu/contact

Again, thank you for choosing UC Davis. And welcome to the UC Davis Aggie family!

Sincerely,

UC Davis Undergraduate Admissions

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All Around Hercules

Fine, it wasn't every single part of Hercules, CA. 

View Larger Map

But, as in the map, it's more places than I go to in a typical day, on foot.  That's what happens when classes are more or less canceled for standardized testing that the federal government wants my district to do in return for grant money, otherwise known as the STAR test.  Never the less, there's the story in pictures and a video.

 

From description on Flickr: "Most seniors didn't have to show up today. Those that did had to take a partial AP Lit practice test and/or go to AP Gov review. So here's everyone scrambling to leave after the gate was unlocked."

Walking past Refugio Valley Park.

Subway Sandwich - it's the "limited time" Orchard Chicken.

Typical macro shot of a flower - by City Hall. I tagged along in my friend's interview with the building official regading damages to the private property in the mudslides.  Yes, the flower has nothing to do with the interview.

This the is the fireplace at the library.

One thing I forgot to document is when I was walking backwards along Refugio Valley Road talking about "Hercules High School...college."  I really like how those tour guides can just talk and walk backwards the entire time.  Or well, I remember when I went to UCLA, and that tour guide cheated a few times when she wasn't talking.

I typically would have been lazier and just put a link to the set of pictures I have on flickr.  However, it was a special day so I decided to actually put a little effort into documenting the day.   Just to be specific I finished writing this post 2011-04-27 01:15.  But I will be posting this for 2011-04-26.

 

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Spring Break Day 7 - Decision Davis Day

 

I think I more or less know where I'm going.

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Spring Break Day 6 - Various Live CDs

See the full gallery on Posterous

I was cleaning up my collection of live CDs of Ubuntu, openSUSE, and other operating systems of which I do not know much about.  They are a good way to spend a weekend downloading the ISO (yes, slow Internet connection, even if it is called "hi-speed DSL" by AT&T), burning the ISO, loading it in the computer, and then playing around with various functions in the live CD.  I even committed to installing Ubuntu 8.04 on my desktop, and Ubuntu 9.10 on my laptop when I got a new hard drive.  Let's just say I look forward to Ubuntu 11.04 being released, and I will commit to installing that on my newest computer.

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Spring Break Day 5 - Ubuntu 11.04 Beta

See the full gallery on Posterous

I don't care if I managed to skip the days I was on vacation.  I'll get back to writing about the rest of those days later.

As for yesterday, I was trying out Ubuntu 11.04 beta.  I have to say it looks pretty nice, and there are obvious influences from Windows 7 and Mac OS X.  The entire user interface very much looks like a mobile operating system based on all those apps available in the Ubuntu Software center.

And to just think, not too long ago, I was using Ubuntu 9.10: http://mzzyzx.posterous.com/ubuntu-910-70.>

And also 8.10: http://mzzyzx.posterous.com/ubuntu-810-8.>

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Spring Break Day 1 - Monterey

 

I haven't bothered to write blog entries in a long time because they are extremely time consuming.  Likewise, I have yet to put stuff online from previous experiences away from home.

 

As for now, some guy commented on that photo above, on flickr.  When I reviewed this picture, it seemed like a very nicely balanced one.  I figured that summarizes what happened for Saturday, when my family took off from the Bay Area and headed for Monterey.  We also went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, but in the end, the nature it still much more beautiful.

 

I'm in Santa Barbara at the moment, and I will be writing a blog post for that...like when I get home.

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Delta Connection CRJ900

It's about time I posted something new to my blog.  I am possibly going to be going to the east coast to visit New York University and Boston University.  Delta flies a route from Boston to New York with a CRJ900 with Comair.  So here is one:

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Week Before Daylight Savings

Nice colors of the sun just rising.  Next week it will be different.

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Certificate of Merit Evaluation Level 5

I think I did well enough.  I messed up a little bit, but it's okay.  The idea is still just to try you hardest and get feedback from the evaluator.  Music theory is no problem.  Anyway, this is the only time I ever felt unprepared for the evaluation, as I only had one week coming back from ski week.

CM_Level_5_P1040610.mp3 Listen on Posterous

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Composition Collaboration

Here is my only attempt a music composition with another friend that was from a long time ago.  It's a given what I wrote was a rip off of Beethoven from his Piano Sonata number 1.  As for my friend...let's just say it looks interesting.  My guess is that the sketch was mad in 2007.

I decided to put this online as an example of why music composition is something I've consistently done alone since 9th grade.  I gets confusing trying to have completely different styles be expressed at once.

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New Year's Eve...oops..er..Happy New Year

Here's probably the last blog post for 2010.  It's been a year full of highs and lows and epiphanies, and good experiences.  I'm writing this post as my reward for completing two more college applications, to New York University and Boston University.  Other than that, there's plenty more work for me to finish...that is for English, Spanish, and Government.

At the end of the day, Winter Break disappeared really quickly.  Some of the stuff I wanted to do, including organizing pictures, playing with Ubuntu 10.10, and making flight videos....they all got put on hold.  Priorities have their importance...such as making sure a plane is able to land before it runs out of reserve fuel.

Here are a few low points in 2010:

• Hard drive failure...or well..that was actually December 2009, but close enough to 2010
• Laptop being stolen (Feburary)
• An incident that ruined my attitude regarding, er..."DSB" (June)
• General bickering regarding numbers, both in 11th and 12th
• Not able to attend Camp Royal Reunions
• Waterworld (June)
• Chau's (August)
• Winter Break (December)

I'll be optimistic and end with my good things in 2010:

• Installation of Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT 1 GB card...helps in running FSX and Adobe Premiere Elements (January)
• Netbook my mom bought for herself (February)
• Interact District Conference (November) 

----

Okay, forgot to publish this yesterday, but I don't care.  Not like anyone reads my blog anyway.

I'll make a proper list of things I liked and disliked about 2010 once winter break is over.  There's a huge amount of homework I need to finish.  But just for the record, obviously a few missing good things in 2010 are:

• Camp Royal (June)
• Westminster College of the Arts Composition Week (June/July)
• EPGY (July)
• Skiing (and snowboarding) a total of 4 times: January, February, April, November.