Here we go, 1-week+ into winter break chilling man. IT FEELS GREAT TO BE HOME.



So let's wrap-up the quarter before we forget more and more and these memories fade away. I'm anticipating this to be a relatively big post.



Academics
I took 3 classes this quarter. One required, one math, and one CS.

JRLC 01
My freshmen first quarter required core class was every Tuesday and Thursday at 8:00 - 9:35AM. This was quite a journey. For one, I didn't miss or skip a SINGLE class. Which is crazy because like there was a point in the quarter where half of the class would show up. I did walk in 1 HOUR LATE one time because my alarm messed up but I'm glad I did because it ended up working out cuz I participated in class and got the attendance. Lots of times you can just send her an email the day before and say you have a headache or say that you're sick or something but I somehow managed to make it to every class. I would just wake up at like 7:40 and show up 10 min late or whatever.

Ok anyway so this class was mostly just in-class discussions about our readings that were due before class. Meaning we had 2 READING REFLECTIONS EVERY WEEK which became a huge hassle early in the quarter for me. It's just tough cuz it's so much work, but I solved this problem by booking an english tutor every Tuesday at like 2 PM, that way it motivates me to get the Thursday reading reflection done extra early. It's been a super viable strat and my tutor gives some good tips and advice too.

Now among all those reading reflections were some annoying projects. There was the slug story, the group paper, the group presentation, and the final reflection paper. The most frustrating one was easily the group paper and presentation. This assignment easily made me realize how brutally incompetent of a college this was that I'm in, if I'm going to speak my heart out. I picked my own group and none of them did any of work. Even Andres who was in my work. I wrote out the entire essay and did so much planning for like everything. If I didn't do the essay by myself they would've just kept ghosting the chat and been okay with submitting it late for whatever reason. I could've maybe assigned some segments for everyone to complete and for us to stitch together, but I'm just too lazy for that confrontation and just held in my breath. Not just that, but one of my groupmates just kept making the most pathetic excuses. First, he kept asking me for answers to quizzes or reading reflections a week after they were due. Then, during times where we were planning to meetup together to work on the presentation, this guy would dip out last second saying he has to get a haircut like WHAT. Then he like says next that he has a LAB and I look at the calendar and it's a SATURDAY. WHAT DO YOU MEAN LAB ON SATURDAY LMAO this is atrocious.

I knew that after this group stuff was over that I wouldn't have to deal with this again, so I legit had so much grit to do everything for the entire group which was so much work, and I could be studying for finals for my other classes and spending that time doing other things, but man, it took a lot of discipline to get myself together to really push through this. Then come presentation day ONE OF THE GUYS DOESNT EVEN SHOW UP TO CLASS LMAO. So many people in my class just straight up put 0 energy into class, and I thought that this batch of ppl who all chose an 8 AM class were dedicated motivated students. Maybe that's just the best of the worse, which is concerning to think about.

So that's a takeway from this man. Like, lots of ppl in this college come from school districts or backgrounds where they rly don't pay attention to academics or just basic deadlines man. I don't get it, but I get it at the same time. It's just so frustrating having to work in a group with these people, I'm very lenient too and I procrastinate, but these people will go out of their ways to do things late. That's crazy.

Other than that, what are some other final thoughts. Lots of times during discussion there would be that one girl just yapping for 20 minutes somehow making any topic about abortion or something i dont even know lmao but that girl yaps so much so I would vibe out in the back of the classroom with my earbuds watching youtube or doing homework. Lots of times I was working on the next reading reflectoin due during that.

My tutor said that the core class is like the last class with this type of environment of a small classroom with like table groups and like discussion and non-lecture based learning like high school, so I guess it was cool to have this experience in college. I definitely won't miss it, especially that group project. Man dude that was so hard knowing that I was doing so much work that I don't deserve to do.



Reflecting on my grade, this is pretty crazy lmao. I got 10/12 on my first reading response and that freaked me out so from there on I would sweat the reading reflections like crazy, especially with getting the tutor and everything. However, my professor just did that as an initial scare as she began handing out 12s easily and I stopped sweating as much and started using a bit of chatgpt to help.

I did every single extra credit opportunity and I'm very proud of mindset to get things done early. For example, we needed to go to one of her office hours as a requirement for a grade at some point in the quarter, so as soon as she announced that I booked the earliest appointment for office hour because I knew that I wanted to get it over with and not have to deal with that later on in the quarter. Same thing goes for my reading reflections, as I rarely procrastinated on them. The tutor was a big help.

CSE 30
Moving on is my online Synchronous CSE 30 class about programming abstractions Python. I took a passout exam in September to take this class because CSE 20 was a prereq. I had Oswald Campensato or wahtever his name was.

The first like 2-3 weeks I would go into the lectures like a good boy and try to pay attention. He yaps a lot and goes offtopic rambling about random things which is actually quite amusing the way he does it. But anyway lots of times I would get distracted even if I was in the library, as I would boot up geoguessr on my monitor and start focusing on that instead. I felt super guilty and bad afterwards as I realized I didn't focus on like anything during the lecture lmao.

But then I realized that I can skip these lectures which was a good idea because these like 90 minute lectures about concepts I already know just arent it man. Plus, this class' grade is dependent on 3 things: weekly homework assignments, discussion attendance, and a 40 MC question final exam. That's all, no midterm, no quizzes, legit just a final exam.

So my routine and approach for this class became just doing these weekly homework assignments... which took no more than 1 hour, sometimes 2 hours. And that's legit all the time I would put into this class other than discussion. At discussion I wouldn't even pay attention because it was some international student with broken english yapping about a data structure and teaching it so poorly man. Like I remember listening in a couple of times and it's just so atrocious the way he explains things. Anyway tho I met some friends from discussion, mainly Zach from YPSO and band and Amador. I remember when he walked in during that first discussion and we were both like "YOOO YOURE IN THIS CLASS!!" haha, and happened to be in the same discussion too. We worked on the homeworks a lot together if we were stuck, and I remember asking him a couple times if he was sure that all we had in this class was homework and a final exam. It just felt so weird doing committing so little into this class. 1 hour a week is so crazy. It's mainly cuz I already know the concepts and don't have to learn it though.



This was truly a crazy class because like it was just straight up so easy. This was easier than high school. There was legit no time commitment at all, there were like no stresses at all. I didn't even study for the final exam that much even though it's a big thing for my grade.

So yeah that's how my grade turned out. I got 10 points extra credit on one of the assignments so that makes another above 100 grade which is crazy. I struggled in high school man, and here I am in college casually treating this class like a "1 hr a week commitment" and getting 100+.

Classes won't always be this easy, but I sure hope I get more like this lmao. I specifically chose my CSE 12 to be online next quarter so it's easier, partially thanks to zach for the recommendation.

Math 24
This class defined my quarter. Ordinary differential equations with Maria Alejandra Ramirez Luna, lectures every MonWedFri from 10:40 AM to 11:45 AM, and I went to discussion every Wed at 5:20 PM.

How do I begin. This was my hardest class that I put the most time into by far, especially for the midterm and the final exam. We had weekly homework assignments that would be like 4 questions long but they would take like 2-3 hours. I did a rly good job splitting it up, I would get 1 or 2 questions done on Monday, then get another 1 or 2 questions done on Tuesday and so on so it wouldn't be that heavy of an assignment. Like looking back, the college environment and me going to the library every day rly did make me lock in on homework and studying like never before. I could focus very easily in the library and get a lot done.

The key to doing well in this class was keeping up with everything. I went to every lecture cuz I didn't know any of the content and it was super helpful to learn it there. Additionally, I just made sure to always understand the homework I was doing as that's where a lot of the learning happens, especially knowing which steps is the most prone to make mistakes.

There were a couple stretches where my professor had to go online because she was sick and I'm not gonna lie it was sooo hard to focus online but I just had to lock in at the library and rewatch the recordings. I def put in so much work into this class, and I had so much time that I feel like I paced it very well, there were only a couple instances where I felt overwhelmed. And of course during finals, I would grind so much, but that's normal. Man that finals grind was really crazy. I started on like Thursday where I would do like 2 chapters a day and do a ton of practice problems and then I finished reviewing everything by Sunday, where I would do the full practice midterm in one breath and then correct it and everything. I also along the way added stuff to the cheat sheet that we were able to use:

Other than that, I also made the most friends in this class, as the lecture was in a relatively small room with like. around like 30-40 students. I'll always remember Ryan, John, Johnson, Osiel, and that curly hair guy who always smiled when he talked lmao. We had some fun times whether it was in lecture, in discussion, or in the group chat.



And that's how it all turned out in the end. I dodged a BIG bullet and I repeat BIG BULLET in the midterm because I messed up an entire question that I really shouldn't have messed up. After walking out that classroom I was so mad at myself for not knowing the right way, man I was so mad I legit thought my grade in this class was over. But she curved it down so my grade went from 99/120 into 99/100 on the midterm which SINGLEHANDEDLY made me SO HAPPY when I saw that in the gradebook. I definitely did not deserve a 99 on the midterm and my performance was horrible, but man that made me so grateful and I knew I couldn't choke so I grinded so hard for the final exam. After walking out of the final exam I answered all the questions really nicely and I didn't have like a single major messup, I knew I would do well. As for the rest of the grade, I got homework points extra credit from this random popup quiz she did one time in lecture, and I guess I got over the curve for the final so that ran my grade to this. I can't belive this topped off a 100%+ only quarter. This will probably never happen again. 100%+ on every one of my classes is actually crazy bro, and I was stressing so bad for the math final. I'm going to enjoy this while I can because its gonna get more and more tough.

Fun Times and Places
I'm lucky enough to have some kids on my floor that I vibe with very well, along with like a general friend group where we do a lot of stuff together. Our goto's have been poker, where we often play until 4 AM, I pop in once a while because I can't handle that staying up that late so much. Other than that we will watch a movie, fool around, maybe start wrestling lmao, and just legit fool around lmao. Then some of us especially me and the San Jose kids go to downtown sometimes when we're bored or take a bus across campus to the markets to spend points. Just stuff like that.

Some notable things we've done were in the beginning checking out the forest raves which were horrible and I'm convinced no one genuinely enjoyed. It was so smoky and the music was terrible. The lights were cool and the vibe is kinda cool in the dark.

Then there's those forest walks that we've gone on. There's a lot to explore and still a lot left to explore. And these trails are legit ACTUALLY SICK. Like the trunks, the huts, the koi pond. Some photos actually hit so hard:










That's enough spam you get the idea lmao. Other than that we've gone out to eat a lot, along with a costco trip, capitola, and San Jose. Those trips are always fun.

Fitness
The gym has been relatively on and off throughout the quarter, but I have tapped into phases where I consistently go 3x a week, which I realized was about the best I could do 2 weeks into the quarter. I had a vision that I'd be going to the gym 6x a week. That's def not possible with all the schoolwork.

The gyms are like always crowded, so I have to wake up at like 7:30 AM, I often go with two of my friends who also wake up that early. Sometimes on Sunday mornings there's not many ppl so I'll play basketball and then hit a workout. But I do have to admit I rarely play basketball at all after like the first week. It was just not a priority over working out, and also those courts are somehow always taken by badminton club or fencing club or volleyball practice or something on the weekdays so it's hard. Like I would lowkey pull up on a Tuesday night and play some 5 on 5s but the courts are always taken bruh.

Other than that, I don't even have running shoes lmao, even though the track is so nice. I'll def get into hitting some runs on campus but similarly, I just have other priorities I guess. I do bike like everywhere when I can through the BCycle ebike stations. I often bike to the gym or bike to the library especially since mchenry library is a continuous downhill journey. The whole campus is so uneven tho, there's like no flat parts at all so you have to like constantly switch gears and stuff.

As for next quarter, I hope to get more into this 3x a week flow especially since I won't be having an 8 AM class next quarter. Maybe I'll buy some new running shoes and do some runs too, idk.

Food
http://cavs4tw.blogspot.com/2023/12/my-first-quarter-meals-photo-gallery.html

Above you can see my very conclusive photo gallery of like 80% of my meals at UCSC. They aren't really good. Lots of the other dining options like the restaurants are way better. I go over it in the linked post but I have been getting into smoothies, I have one pretty much every day because it's so convenient to just scoop ingredients into my cup at the dining hall. The dining hall has free milk, fruits, yogurt, honey. I can also add in some protein powder and collagen and man that is a NICE breakfast. Having a kitchen in my building has been so nice.

Clubs
One regret I have is not joining some social club like the chinese club or Taiwan club. The only club I'm really in is the competitive programming club and I'm like the 2nd best in there. There's a master rated on CF that's a junior, so he'll carry in ICPC, but I can tell they were really happy to have me. It's a nice club, and I think it will be really useful in having in my resume or just having connections because one of the CSE professors helps out the club a lot.

Others
One core memory will be that fire alarm day. You can read about it there, and now that we're on this topic you can check out my diary blog cavs4twdiary.blogspot.com where you can see some random snapshots into my college every day life. That's where I'll sit down at night if I have time and write about everything that happened in my day, whether boring or not boring.

And yeah, it's January 2nd so I don't wanna make this post any later because the 2nd quarter is already going to start in a week but yea I'm def missing some stuff that happened this quarter but I think this is enough.

Overall a very successful quarter that I'm very happy with. Next quarter I'll have to focus on academics again and also figure out what I'm gonna do next summer. Along with that I think ICPC season is around the corner. This college journey and college life is quite crazy. There's a lot of time in the day and just straight up so much freedom. The workload so far is also comparably less demanding than high school with like 6 classes. We have 3 classes here and one of my classes I put like 1 hour into every week and aced it. That's still pretty wild to me, to have it this easy to this degree. I thought my civics class in 12th grade was easy. Outside of that, it's just kinda nice having this much freedom and having full control of like how I work, how I eat, and how I sleep. I'll see you again after next quarter!


Lyric(s) of the Post:

Higher - Wave Racer

Hi,

So throughout the course of my blog, I don't have a single one dedicated to geoguessr. I mention it in some posts, but like it's ABOUT TIME to just make a geoguessr post where that's the sole focus.



Right now it's 11/18/23, I peaked at Champion division ranking (1104) rating:

https://imgur.com/a/fMjVmvH






But I dropped back to master division at around 1,000 rating cuz mainly it was bound to happen, but also I get easier opponents for the weekly series so I'll take it.

Nonetheless, I still call myself a chamionship division player. I've definitely proved that, when I'm playing in my bag I make some really nice calls in general.

My strongest countries as of the moment is probably Canada, then Brazil, Australia, Kenya, South Africa, Italy, Malaysia, and USA I guess. I"m mainly super good at Brazil cuz I memorized all 67 regional phone codes in that country, my most ambitious geoguessr project, though looking back, it wasn't even that bad. I'm definitely gonna memorize another useless set of maybe regencies, kabupatens, area codes, who knows.

My worst countries are probably Russia, Argentina, Norway, Indonesia. I can read cyrillic which has come in helpful a couple of times, but still I suck at Russia because I lack the practice and also a ton of the meta is based on antenna and like what season the coverage was taken in and the weather which is kinda dumb.

And yea, geoguessr is just so fun. I've been playing fairly regularly, I like to play for like 1-2 hours at the library with the monitor, and its a vibe. It's just the concepts of geography, cultural landscapes, the notion of learning, and the competitive element that makes it such an appealing game to me. I have to admit that ever since I hit championship division (which was a BIG moment for me), there's not many wide goals and I've been kinda demotivated to learn new things. I've just been cranking out duels and seeing my rating stagnate lmao.



But anyway, let me just dump out all my geoguessr knowledge that I know as of now. Let's do this. I'm anticipating this will be quite lengthy.

North America
Mexico
Generally, if it's like urban and you don't know where to go, you can always go CDMX. I haven't done any Mexico studying at all, I just have a gauge that South of CDMX is very similar to Latin-America while North of CD MX is fairly open, rural, dry, mountainous highways that look more like USA.
I will say that I can recognize Baja Mexico pretty well, I just have this like instinct in me and it's dead accurate. I've had some CLEAN guessed on the Baja peninsula and its os satisfying.
Also, I can recognize Yucatan and its distinct rock walls, as everyone can. It's quite noticeable once you get used to the landscapes there.
Anyway, to recognize the country, the octagonal poles might be the biggest clue. The short license plates may be next. Then you can check the sun direction if you're in a tossup between Mexico and Colombia or Mexico and any South American country.
Other than that, generally poorer road quality, single yellow lines I think?, right hand drive, Spanish, stubby antennae/white and blue car / gen3&4 mostly.
I'm prolly forgetting stuff, theres like the pink taxis that you'll see in CD MX but yea thats all I have, I have so much more to go over so yea I'll see you in Dominican Republic section
Dominican Republic
The classic white car peeking out with the roof racks. It's hard to miss the country. There's only two cities covered and like no rural highways, so it was my first ever gold medal in the explorer mode. I just went on plonk it and learned how to differentiate the two cities
The capital, Santo Domingo is more wealthy, built-up, urban, except for the southeast suburbs which have a lotta dirt roads. Lots of times you'll see these distinct like square white glass architecture or whatever
Then the other city, Santiago de los Caballeros, is of course more rural. But to differentiate it, you can use the gray paint on the bottom of the poles, or finding mountains north of you. That's pretty much the main points. There were some other things like street signs and pink stuff but I forgot that lol u can just check plonkit. One thing to note is that they do use "Alto" on their stop signs I'm pretty sure so use that information however you want to whether its like some NMPZ tossup between South America
Puerto Rico
The antenna thing poking out in the corner of the car is obviously the main clue. Other than that you'll prob be put on some relatively elevated highway where I end up just plonking San Juan and calling it a day
Some clues to know you are here is Spanish, Imperial system, but also a lack of front plates. When you have the antenna down, the next step is figuring out if you are in Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, or Puerto Rico, and I'm pretty sure Puerto Rico is the only one without front plates. But the more you play the less you need that because the landscape is very different from those oceanic islands
Curacao
The black round smooth car thing with the roof racks, thats pretty much it
US Virgin Islands
I think this has the red pickup truck?
*checks*
Yes it is red. But also sometimes white too
British Virgin Islands
It's like some black car or something I forgot lol and I dont wanna check
Bermuda
It has that one black car thing that has something noticeable about it that I forgot, but when I see the google car I'll know it's Bermuda.
USA
Alright, here we go. My home country, so you would assume it's my specialty, but I'm really only good at regionguessing California. Anything else I'm pretty mid, I'll get to practicing it eventually
MPH signs, developed, unique neighborhood designs, minimalist architecture, imperial system, right hand drive, classic gray highways, green road signs, one way signs, Gen 1, 3, and 4, lack of Gen 2, highway shields, rumble strips, double yellow lines.
Regionguessing
California is pretty unique, I've analyzed those mediterranean hills and compared them to the likes of Spain, Italy, Greece, and it's quite interesting just staring at these hills lol. Lots of times its those dry hills. Anyway, of course CA has the three yellow lines on the bottom of their poles, it's a super good meta. I see them in every city I go to in California. Also, they use a ton of wooden poles which is pretty useful. Socal typically has more palm trees and coastal, "hot" feeling while Norcal is just so recognizable cuz I'm consumed in it. Not much to elaborate on there haha
I've nailed some nice Oregon guesses, and the Speed sign that just says speed on it helps, along with wide yellow lines, wooden poles, and the PNW feel.
Kansas/Iowa/South dakota/nebraska/north dakota = very similar to the praries in Canada. So yes, studying Canada does translate nicely into USA guessing. This region is flat with lots of corn and grid highways. Kansas also has specific blue stickers on some of the back of their signs too
Texas/Oklahoma/New Mexico/Arizona/Nevada = places you can find deserts. Maybe Utah too. But learning the whole west side of USA is super easy cuz the landscapes are really distcint. the Arizona desert vs. New Mexico desert is relatively easy to tell apart. Also I just have to mention, when I first started playing geoguessr duels, I remember seeing a blurred out Arizona license plate in a round and I recognized it and I nailed the guess. And it just felt so satisfying cuz I pay attention unconsciously to license plates so much, and seeing it just randmly ring a bell felt super nice. Ever since that moment I've been paying attention to license plates more and more.
Texas also has the "texas pavement" that looks like salt and peper on the road or hwatever
Then the rest of the regions are kind of blurry as in I don't know what to classify what state into what, but theres the midwest which is like recognizable. Then the South is also pretty recognizable cuz of like those baptist churches and the Southern Pines. Then there's the appalachians, then there's those forests up there in Vermont and Maine. Then of course Florida is sooo distinct cuz its just a coastal peninsula. The one problem is that sometimes you can get it confused with Hawaii
Alaska is pretty easy to recognize cuz it looks like Yukon but without Canadian metas. So yes, studying Canada helps quite a lot
OH yea I forgot the rocky mountains. It's pretty much the highest altitude places in America, and it's so unique. Just guess Colorado or sometimes Wyoming
Additionally, I've also memorized almost all of the license plates. And also which states require front plates, tho I forget it a lot cuz I don't actively practice USA.
Other than that, knowing place name knowledge or highway knowledge can help too, USA is a pretty easy and fun country to pinpoint if u get the right round
Canada
Yay canada, my best country I would say, tho it could always use some improvement. It was one of the first countries I studied on plonkit, and it's in general a fairly easy country to learn too cuz theres only like 10 provinces.
To recognize Canada, gen2, KM/H signs, junction checkerboard signs, French, blue signs (DONT TRUST ME ON THIS just use it as a factor into ur guess), group postal mail boxes, UK spellings (centre, colour). They are also very minimalist on their signs, they don't write the word "yield" out on the sign, nor "railroad crossing" and thats their pattern.
BC
BC is very easy to recognize. They have hanging signs, green backs of signs (commonly), concrete guardrails, distinct speed limit sign, require front plates, perpendicular transformers, blue license plates, and of course their beautiful, grand, epic mountain landscapes with bright coverage and windy roads.
Urban BC such as Vancouver can maybe be tossed up between like Calgary or something like that but too bad I've been to Vancouver and walked around a lot of the city so I know pretty well. Plus, the license plates are a big clue. Other than that theres also like Vancouver island which has a unique forest feel
Alberta
They have those striped bollards, which can be confused with Northwestern territories. They have red license plates (only other province with red is new brunswick), parallel transformers, and no front plates
The West looks like BC, and the East looks like Sask. Intuitive through just geographically relatively speaking, but also through the terrain map too.
Calgary has more grand yellow gold street signs compared to Edmonton's standard boring street signs so when I'm in a big urban city and I see Alberta plates then I use those to help me differentiate a lot. Red Deer uses a mix of them, which is worth mentioning.
Now if you see some like tall forests in Alberta, you may want to look further North. Most of the roads in Alberta are South, but the North is pretty easy to tell apart
OH Yea they also have the township and range signs a lot of times in their grid highways, and if u memorize the map and ordering then that helps you pinpoint or regionguess Alberta pretty nicely.
Sasketchewan
Super flat, dead, prarie landscape with lots of canola and long grass. They have alternating poletops in a line, they can have white dashes between their double yellow road lines, and they can have white triangles on the signposts of their signs.
Green license plates, no front plates. They only have like two big cities: Regina, Saskatoon
They also have some insanely scuffed and cracked coverage for whatever reason. It's like some dead stuff that you think is inhabitable but you see some house and youre just like wtf how is someone living in this sh*thole lmao
Most of the drops in the province is like just so flat and open its just the middle of nowhere
Yea sask is a pretty iconic and distinct province in Canada. Many times you can just see a flash of those flat highway rounds and just plonk it in the center and get close
Manitoba
A bit harder to recognize. In the west it looks like Sask, and near the lakes it looks like Ontario kind of. I can't describe it as I kinda forgot and can't remember off the top of my head, but they have some roads with some roads you can probably memorize cuz they are super distinct
Green license plates, requiring front plates, parallel transformers, pretty much centering around the main city of Winnipeg. They have sometimes these like stripy green and white signposts in their signs.
Ontario
Most populous province in Canada, they have blue license plates requiring front plates. Lots of meta here. They have the small diamond green sign in lots of their forest rounds. They also have a distinct pole top, distcint speed limit sign, along with disticnt guardrails and distinct traffic cones thats quick to learn and worth learning.
Some parts in the South parts near the Great Lakes are pretty flag and they can look like the Great Lakers or NW New York
In the western parts of the province near manitoba they have a lot of exposed rock which is actually pretty viable
They just have a lotta forest rounds too
Quebec
They speak French, meaning they have Arret on their stop signs and rue on their road signs and Secteur on their speed limit signs and French language everywhere. You can see French as a bilingual language in New Brunswick and Ottawa, and sometimes in big cities in other provinces so know to watch out for that.
But anyway, you can recognize Quebec through their red and white chevrons, unique junction signs, unique bollard, unique poletops, and also their dark blue license plates with no front plates
The east side in the Gaspe peninsula is pretty distinct as it has an Atlantic feel to it.
I think I'm forgetting stuff off the top of my head but that's all I got rn for quebec
New Brunswick
First thing that comes to mind is Perpendicular transformers lmao. Lots of forest rounds. They use bilingual signs pretty much everywhere which is useful to know. They also have red license plates not requiring front plates
There's also a niche meta that I've used a couple of times where the bolt in the bottom of the guardrails hooks below it, whereas in Nova Scoatia and Newfoundland it doesn't hook.
The shape of this province is fairly nice to hedge in. You can go straight center or hedge near Fredericton, or if yorue feeling ambitious u can plonk it up North near the coast.
Nova Scoatia
This pronvince in my opinion is the hardest one to tell. There's just not much unique about it. Maybe I'll get it more grounded the more I practice Canada. Sometimes I go New Brunswick on Nova Scotia, or Quebec on Nova Scotia, or Newfoundland on Nova Scoatia.
They have blue street signs, blue license plates, no requirement for front plates, and overall lots of rural forest highways, sometimes the roads there are unpaved.
Prince Edward Island
They have red soil which sometimes u cant tell but most of the time you can get it. Otherwise they sometimes have varying transformer orientations. They have like blue and green license plates with no requirement for front plates but most of the time I don't rely on licnse plates in PEI cuz the soil gives it away a lot. Also the general vibes of PEI is pretty strong and distinct too.
NewFoundland and Labrador
There's only like one road in Labrador in which u can just memorize the landscape, theres like trees and stuff I kinda forgot but I think I can call it when I see it.
Newfoundland has a good amount of coastal highways where you can see the coast. They also have unique guardrails that are worth learning, with pyramid wooden tops.
They also have some other random metas like octagonal wooden bins lying around, unique road signs, unique junction sign, unique fire hydrant markings.
There's just a heavy atlantic feel and vibe to it, lots of like low population towns and spread out houses that almost feel like theyre on stilts. The transcanada national highway that runs through there is pretty distinct and worth considering if youre on a big divided road.
You can also memorize all 27 phone codes or whatever, which I did, and it's definitely paid off with some sick guesses. I used geo emily's quiz to train the phone codes and it did't take that long cuz theres less than 30. Just make sure to review them every once in a while so u don't forget them. But yea there's no car metas tbh in Canada which I definitely underappreciate and take for granted
Ok so its like 2 AM right now and I legit need to sleep and I knew I would underestimate the time it took but NOT TO THIS DEGREE. I only got through one continent thats crazy. SO yeah, I'll split this into multiple parts, fine by me. Thank you for skimming/reading part 1!

Lyric(s) of the Post:
"
I'm giving, giving up on you, still, make me feel like, I'm not enough for you
"
Giving Up On U - Laser, Panda Eyes

[SPOILERS ARE MENTIONED]










so there are two movies, oppenheimer and barbie, that came out on the same day. this lead to a ton of hype and like dialogues and idk stuff. It’s just two big movies that somehow chose the SAME release date. Barbie went thru TONS of promotion, especially with the soundtrack and stuff. Then there is oppenheimer, the movie I was looking forward to because it was directed by christopher nolan who also directed tons of big thrillers, like the batman trilogy. So it’s like christopher nolan type movie, about the making of the atomic bomb, so that concept was SUPER exciting to me. barbie was cool too, just not as hype as oppenheimer.




So then the two movies released, tons of memes were made lmao cuz its like two very different atmospheres of movies. I opted to watch oppenheimer first on thursday, then barbie friday, cuz barbie is light-hearted and it is nice to finish off with.




oppenheimer




that movie is pretty dogsh*t, i went into it blindly so i was expecting some guns and action and killing and ppl held at gunpoint and snipers and stuff lmao, but it was TOTALLY different from all the other christopher nolan movies i watched. The first half of the movie was the buildup to making los alamos and the atomic bomb and also going thru oppenheimer’s origin and life. That was fairly cool, especially to see him bring quantum physics to berkeley and america.




Then the second half was just straight dogsh*t. After they tested the bomb and it exploded and it worked, and then they dropped the bomb on hiroshima, there were some cool scenes that held a ton of depth. It felt fairly impactful. However, the WHOLE LATTER HALF of the movie is straight talking and dialogue and conversations. It’s utter dogsh*t and boring. That’s just me personally, like, this movie totally wouldn’t go well with like teenage/young-adult audience i feel like.




I remember the guy sitting next to me straight up was on his phone for like the entire second half of the movie im not even capping LMAO and then he dipped out before the movie formally ended. Like he got up and left and i knew he was so mad lmao cuz that sht was so boring. It’s honestly hilarious to kind of realize how a movie can make a man so pissed and dip out in disgust likethat LMAO.




But yeah, there was also like 0 diveristy which aligns to history of course, but its all like white men and they all look the same and its just so stale with no diversity. not a single black man or hispanic man was shown in the movie, NOT EVEN A JAPANESE GUY, LIKE THEY COULDVE SHOWN SOME TRAUMA OF LIKE A JAPANESE GUY CRYING OR SOMETHING IN OPPENHEIMER’S LIKE IMAGINATION OR SOMETHING I DONT EVEN KNOW. LIKE HALLUCINATING WITH LIKE JAPANESE PPL BUT NO, STRAIGHT UP WHITE PPL ALL AROUND. anyway, there is a redeeming factor to see albert einstein act like a normal person, im so used to him being so iconic and stuff i froget hes a real human lmao. but yeah, thats oppenheimer, dogsh*t movie, boring, and LOTS of politics. We learned a lot of stuff, especially relating to communism, or the hiroshima bomb, in US history. Some people who like history or are intrigued by politics in 1940s may find htis movie interesitng, but WHO FINDS THIS POLITICS SHT IN 1940S INTERESTING. LMAO OK




barbie




after watching oppenheimer there was no way barbie would be worse. just inherently, i knew barbie would be a solid movie cuz its a solid concept, but thats what i said about oppenheimer i guess but still.




so its a pretty fire movie, overall its really good. just the whole going out to the real world along with all those like playful elements make it a very entertaining film. theres so many details that were so funny or cool to see, countless details. And there was WAY BETTER diversity than oppenheimer, though literally id probably find more diversity like even in sweden or something.




Like, there isn’t much to takl about because i’m very saisfied. there was also good meaning and depth in the end about like reality and having control over yourself and like the complexities of emotion and like the real-world. the plot was also not predictable at all, i thought barbie and ken would kiss at somepoint in the movie, and i also thought the entire plot was gonna be them in the real world the entire time, but nah, it was like the interpolation of the two worlds and them trying to fix the kendom government.




another thing to mention is the soundtrack!! The dua lipa song, the lizzo pink song, and the ice spice barbie girl remix song are absolute FIRE. Love those songs and especially the way they used them in the movie. FIREEEEEEEE




anyway when i was watching a youtube video about easter eggs about barbie, i saw this clip: https://youtu.be/MB0c6B2PbNY?t=786. And that was FASCINATING. My thoughts as a geography nerd are like.... WHY??? WHY WOULD THEY DROP THAT LINE. It was CLEARLy intentional as it's exactly 9 dashes, and that whole thing is such a mess in the south china sea bro, its such a mess. I haven't looked too deep into it and i dont rly care tha tmuch but like just why?? Anyway, it was interesting to see i guess, we learned about it in ap human geo, it was literally a KBAT term. I sent an email to mrs. zuanich cuz i knew she would find it just as fascinating as me lol.



ok anyway the movie was truly a relief for film after having to sit thru three hours of white men arguing over molecular objects for no reason. Barbie is jsut a fire film with great meaning, great truth, and a great vibe to it. loved it, i wouldnt say its like a top 5 movie of all time, but like its defeinitely a memorable movie!



Lyric(s) of the Post:


Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice – Barbie World (with Aqua)

i can ttell if this site is dead or not

12/10/21 was the day Teminite released his pirate-themed bass album. He had been preparing and working on this project for a while now.

Lots of the tracks were very long with lengthy buildups that consisted of multiple sections. There was a lot of dubstep in this album along with a handful of tracks exploring other genres. Lots of brilliant melodies, riffs, instrumentations, and blend of pirate samples/lyrics in this entire album. I thoroughly enjoyed it and literally like all the songs are so good. All of them.

Instead of reviewing this album chronologically, I will review it from worst-best.



11. The Kraken - I love the drop, it's so clean. The inclusion of the organ synths and literally the entire first 1:45 is all build-up. The thing about this track that makes it my least favorite is probably just the progression and melodies. It doesn't really intrigue me. The strings are so pretty in the second verse. I want to stress that this song is so high quality. Putting it last is simply through taste

10. Thundering Typhoons - This is the album closer and I love the drums and vocals. Why is this album so stacked? This doesn't deserve the second-to-last spot but all of the other songs are better somehow.

Teminite is just so creative. He treats his production as an art, and the vocals reflect the "plunder" elements previously in the album and the hook is so good. The outro is AMAZING. This song is just crazy in the vocals and the final outro is seriously one of the best outros/closures I've ever heard. It's absolutely amazing. It feels emotional. It's a perfect way to end an amazing album.

9. Electroctopi - An insane track full of jazz, ambient, chill vibes. So many different effects and noises that bring this track together. The reason why this isn't ranked higher is because there isn't really any catchy melodic hook or anything that pops out of the blue. There are just scattered samples everywhere. It's a great fit in the album though. I love the creativity in this track.

8. The Deep - A 2:40 second calm orchestration to take a break from the dubstep of the album. I love it when artists do this. It's a transition from one half of the album to another and provides depth and a mood to the album. It's literally a cinematic masterpiece. All the mixing, instruments, and ideas in this track are so lovely. I love this song and what it serves in the album. How does Teminite do it?

This song takes lots of midsections from other tracks in this album and puts it into one full track in a way. The last section of Raise the Black Flag has very similar concepts. I could go on listing but there's really no point.

7. Raise The Black Flag - The opener of the album. Lots of dubstep and an insane storyline. What an epic intro with the storytelling in the beginning as it really sets the mood of the dark pirateness that succeed it. I love the chanting in the second build-up. The instrumentals provide such an epic atmosphere throughout the entire song and there is so much variety that happens everywhere. I can't even document all of it. It's just absolutely insane, it's over the top. One of the best dubstep songs I've ever heard. The transitions/cuts are flawless and fit the scene. EVEN THE VISUALS OF THE YOUTUBE VIDEO ARE STUNNING. The animating style is great.

6. Sail Away - (feat. SeungMin Lee & Jonah Hitchens) - Every EDM album needs a vocal track and it's clear that this is the one. I love the melodies everywhere and the drop. The contrasting between female and male vocalist is lovely, I would love it Teminite made these vocalists return together in a bridge, it's always so satisfying. Either way Teminite absolutely nailed this one. I really like the transition from the first break to the second verse, the duration makes me full of emotion. It's just such a beautiful track at this point. Great melodic dubstep track, reminds me of what Teminite can truly do in this genre.

5. Plunder - The overall rhythm of the drop and build-up is so high-quality. It's quite addicting. The break is just so creative in how the glitch hop is preserved and also the pirate elements. The synths blend in super well. I don't know what else to say

4. Ghost Ship - As we make it to the top 4, these are songs that will likely enter the OC Hall of Fame. That's really how stacked this album is. Teminite has such a unique style. Sail Away could also make it because I think it's so versatile.

As we take around 90 seconds to build to this drop, it all ends and the break is self-explanatory. HOW DO I DISSECT THIS??? ITS AMAZING.

THE SWIRL OF EFFECTS ALONG WITH DIGITAL SYNTHS AND BASS/ELECTRIC GUITARS IS PHENOMENAL.

The second verse is practically nonexistence. It serves to build suspense to the second drop. I love how short it is compared to the first build-up.

Honestly, the first drop is just stunning. Without that, it would move down this list a lot. It's just so creative and it fits my taste perfectly.

3. Sesh The Seven Seas - Jonah Hitchens - The lyrics are so fitting and just perfect for this track/album. The traditional stacking is exactly what we need in this song. I love the stacking.





2. Pirate Afterparty - What a traditional song from Teminite. This is what I love from Teminite. His striking melodies and support are just sensational. The drop is just so fun and the synth break is even better. This is exactly what I love about Teminite. It captures everything. It's a song I would play as a signal for freedom. I would experience euphoria listening to this song after taking an important test or finishing a semester strong. The melody makes me want to be free and it's so light and loose. I absolutely treasure this song. Its melodies, syncopation, and mixing. Teminite knows how to pace his songs and I'm glad he does because this song is now optimized to the brim with this melody. AHHH I LOVE IT SO MUCH.



1. H*ll Raiders - Omar Varela - We've come here. Teminite's brilliant orchestration and high quality progression all leads to the best song of the album: H*ll Raiders.

Teminite absolutely ROCKS the bass in the synth break which is the main attraction. This brilliant and dark drop deserves a proper buildup, and Teminite does so through the pirate samples, chants, pressure synths, and organs/waves. Just such a balanced buildup into a mindblowing drop and pulverizing synth break.

The synth break is something that's just impossible to grasp. It's so complex and the bass liners are drawn out so well.



Through these synth breaks rise a second verse, which is a dark and scary monologue from a dark creature from the sea. It sets such a spooky mood and builds up from the transition of the "battle" from the chorus. This whole song begins to hold a shape, there's a story building, a resolution that needs to be solved.



As the buildup continues, the percussive elements are perfect to my taste. I just love how everything dissolves in these drops and the bass arrives so bad*ss.



And the outro is SOMETHING ELSE. I HAVEN'T MENTIONED IT UNTIL NOW BUT ONE OF THE BEST THINGS I LOVE ABOUT TEMNITE IS HIS SIGNATURE OUTROS.

I first heard it in "Highscore" with Panda Eyes. The final synth break takes the main melody and shifts it so that it's a bass, and he adds a synth lead over that as the new main melody. This refreshing finish is simply astonishing and overwhelming. It's absolutely insane and so satisfying when mixed properly, and Teminite has mastered that.

My favorite song from Teminite, "Break Free," is the best example of this. The synth pad high-riser turns into a low-riser and it's just such a new concept. Nothing fits this new shift more than the synth lead, as it just burns passionately among the flurry of instrumentations. It is truly a moment, especially when the song is so emotional.

And here, Teminite does it. I was hoping he would do it for at least one track in this album and he delivered. He introduces the synth leads in one transition and they fade in to lead the song into a new moment. It represents a new beginning in an end of a thrilling track and there is no debate around this song being #1. It has everything.

Boxel Rebound - Basically lower quality geometry dash. When clicking the icon it releases a small gameplay window embeded on google chrome meaning you can play the game conveniently on any tab. It's a great extension to have when waiting for something to load or when you don't want to pay attention in class
Cloudy Calculator - As described, this is a very versatile calculator. It has a ton of commands and it has the same convenient popup window embedded in Google Chrome just like boxel rebound. If you want a calculator extension, this is the one.
Google Docs Quick Create - With two buttons, you can create a new google doc instantly rather than going to google drive which sometimes takes a while to load. Alternatively you can type in doc.new as a URL.
Stopwatch Tab - Very simple extension that turns the title of ur tab to a stopwatch. I used to use this all the time for various things like monitoring productivity or whatever. It's just super simple and doesn't hurt to have.
AdGuard AdBlocker - Personally my favorite adblocker. Not everyone needs an adblocker but I like having it.
CF-Predictor - Eliminates the suspense after doing a CF contest. In my experience with it, it's very accurate.
Unlimited Email Tracker - Don't ask me how it works. You can see whether or not your teacher has opened your email. It's crazy and gives you an insight on whether or not they ghosted you.


pasted

i got 89.1 % which was .4% away from getting an A whatever i got a 5 on the ap test which makes up for it... ig?

ive moved my addiction over to binarysearch.io lol

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THE NBA IS BACK.


I'll start of this post by putting all the events as I promised:
3/7/20=Nets fire head coach Kenny Atkinson
3/11/20=RUDY GOBERT GETS CORONA VIRUS, SEASON IS SUSPENDED.
During the months of April and May:
Donovan Mitchell, Christian Wood, Kevin Durant all test positive for Corona Virus.

NBA begins to work on a reopening.
6/3/20=
As the NBA models a 22-team format for a July 31 resumption in Orlando, the proposed timeline for teams as the last possible date for an NBA Finals Game 7: October 12.

Sources: Joining the 16 current playoff teams in Orlando: New Orleans, Portland, Phoenix, Sacramento and San Antonio in the West and Washington in the East. If the 9th seed is more than 4 games behind the 8th, No. 8 makes playoffs; Fewer than 4 games, a play-in tournament.

6/8/20=Malik Monk reinstated for NBA's anti-drug policy. Monk was suspended in February for his cocaine addiction

6/15/20=With Kyrie Irving and Avery Bradley leading the way, a coalition of NBA players tell ESPN: “We are truly at an inflection point in history where as a collective community we can band together – unify - and move as one



6/22/20=Trevor Ariza opts out of playing in Orlando
6/22/20=Davis Bertans opts out of playing in Orlando
6/23/20=Avery Bradley opts out of playing in Orlando
6/23=Nikola Jokic tested positive for Corona Virus
6/26=16 NBA players test positive for Corona Virus
6/29=DeAndre Jordan and Spencer Dinwiddie announced for being tested positive of Corona Virus.
6/29=NBA plans to paint "Black Lives Matter" along the sidelines of the courts in Orlando
7/1=JR Smith signs with the Los Angeles Lakers
7/5=Landry Shamet tests positive for Corona Virus
7/7/20=Taurean Prince tests positive for Corona Virus. Prince is the 4th Nets player to opt out(DeAndre Jordan, Spencer Dinwiddie, Wilson Chandler)
7/10/20=Jamal Crawford signs with the Brooklyn Nets
7/12/20=Rajan Rondo misses 4-6 weeks for fracturing right thumb
7/12/20=NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski is fired from ESPN for a "f*ck you" message relating to political messages on the back of the jerseys.
7/13/20=Russell Westbrook tests positive for Corona Virus
7/14/20=Nets forward Michael Beasley tests positive for Corona Virus
7/14/20=Kings forward Harrison Barnes tests positive for Corona Virus
7/16/20=Eric Bledsoe tests positive for Corona Virus





Alright.

Yesterday was a very intense and entertaining day.

Ok before I go to that, I want to say what teams I will cheer for:

Lakers-I've always been a semi-fan of them because I wanted LeBron to succeed. Now that they have JR Smith I'm interested to see how they perform in the playoffs
Blazers-I listen to CJ Mcollum's podcast "Pull Up" frequently and I respect this man's work ethic and mindset. With that being said I think that the Blazers can find a way to make it to the playoffs. During this time Nurkic and Collins were able to recover from their injuries and now they're healthier and readier than ever. I think it well take them an eighth seed elimination tournament to make it to the playoffs.
Heat-Bam, Herro, Nunn, Dragic, Butler, Iguodala, Leonard, Crowder, Robinson, Derrick Jones Jr, Olynyk. This team is stacked with talent. They have lots of young talent but players like Iguodala will help them a lot. I honestly think this team will make it to the playoffs, and the x-factor will be Duncan Robinson.


Now lets talk about yesterday.

I watched the last 5 minutes of the Jazz and Pelicans game, and it was tight. Brandon Ingram was having a great night and Lonzo was bricking all his shots. With that being said I'm frustrated over why Gentry didn't play Zion in these clutch minutes. Theres's absolutely NO reason why not to play literally your second best player in one of the 8 games you have left. You're on the edge of the playoff race and you need whatever you have. I understand there were health concerns but it was clear they're defensive rebounding had a major hole. Rudy Gobert took huge advantage over this and the Jazz ended up winning this game.



LAKERS CLIPPERS
The Lakers performed very well in the first quarter but the Paul George and the Clippers came back in the second quarter. Anthony Davis had 20+ points in the first half and was the reason why the Lakers were still in this game. He was an absolute monster and took advantage of every single mis-match he had. I wasn't too happy with how Lebron was shooting but he still had a positive impact with his playmaking.

Then came the second half. Kyle Kuzma and Dion Waiter were big role players, but Paul George made sure they're deficit wasn't above 10 points.

Then the 4th quarter came, and LeBron went sickomode on the defensive end. I didn't watch too much of the fourth quarter too closely because I was eating dinner but either way the last minute got me on my feet.

Down 3 points Paul george made an unbelievable off-balance three pointer to tie the game. Insane 2 for 1 play and the Clippers are in a very good state.

However, the Lakers don't call timeout and LeBron waits till the last 12 seconds of the shot clock then rushes to the basket and misses his floater, buT RETRIEVES HIS REBOUND AND PUTS IT BACK IN. Looking back on the play again you realize that Kawhi didn't box out his man, and Marcus Morris was staring at the ball. In these crucial situations it's very important to secure the defensive rebound, but Morris and Leonard failed to do so.

So with 10 seconds left LeBron put absolute CLAMPS on Leonard, forcing him to give up the ball to George. He switched onto George and proceeded to CLAMP George. GOOD GAME.

What a defensive stop and LeBron James proves once again that he is clutch and he is a PROBLEM!!


THE NBA IS BACK FELLAS


Lyric(s) of the Post:Vivid visions of us carry on
Think I've found the light it's been so long
I better hold on to this feeling before it's gone
Whatever happened we both grew as time moved on
brighter days – San Holo, Bipolar Sunshine

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