Postby Sonikku13 » Sat Dec 19, 2009 10:11 pm
Hmm. I believe I was 7 when it was 2000. I'm going to have a very vague memory of the early years, I guess... I still know some things.
I know that when I started 2000, I was living in a mobile home in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and I was ok with that. I liked living there, not much to clean, smaller living space means easier organization.
I know that when the planes hit the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, I was curious on why they were burning. I did not know at the time how serious it was, only the burning. Later that day, when I got home from school that day, I saw that the towers had collapsed. It did not affect me much, but that must be that I did not know the enormity of the situation back then.
2002 was my worst year in terms of personal grief, because on January 3, 2002, my dad died. I kind of knew that was coming back then, he was a long-term smoker and we found out that he had cancer. Then again, I had no idea of the concept of death back then. Grief struck me, but I didn't know how to express it. I felt bad but never cried, I know that. I wish he was here, though, could have had an influence on me.
After my dad died, after the school year ended on my third grade year, I moved from La Crosse, Wisconsin to the Twin Cities metro area of Minnesota, first to an apartment in Osseo, MN, and then a year or two later, to my current home, a detached townhome in Maple Grove, MN.
In 2006, two key interests of mine really came to fruition, and they were computers and mathematics. My interest in computers started coming when I realized that my frame rates in Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory were horrible (if you click on my Xfire, you'll find that I joined in 2006, which is why I can cite the year for that), and then I realized that my computer was the problem. A 1.8 GHz single-core processor, 512 MB of RAM, and a Radeon Xpress 200 IGP equals at best 30 FPS on lowest frame rates - horrible. Thats when I started researching parts, and hoping I'd get a new computer one day, when I stumbled on Tom's Hardware, and AnandTech (I'm citing those because those sites helped me big time in my knowledge of computer performance and stuff.) Meanwhile, my interest in mathematics got me to join math team for the first time. I just was bored in the "high performance" math classes, I knew what I needed to know. And then I worked hard, and then was devastated when I finished 13th (did not know at the time of the meet) in my divisional meet in late 2006. Made me work hard in preparation for next year, for the St. Cloud State University contest in April, 2007. On a side note, I qualified for what my school called the "Geo Bee" in this year, was headed to state, anyway.
2007 is likely my best year in personal achievement in mathematics, anyway. At the St. Cloud State University math contest, I finished in 4th place out of around 600 kids. Meanwhile, I also know now that I loved math, because I bombed the state Geo Bee. Later, in 9th grade, in math team, but in a new math program, I finished in 5th. What was it called? I'll find out later, I guess. I also repeated the same mistake that I did in the state Geo Bee, I participated in music recognition from memory. Bombed it cause I was totally focused on mathematics. Then 2007 ended.
2008 is a mixed year for me. I didn't do as well this year at the St. Cloud State University math contest, because I didn't guess at any question, and because our bus was 15 minutes late to it. I blame myself, because I didn't start guessing and put a whole line of As on the rest of the bubble sheet. AGH! I was one point out of the top 10 percentile, finishing around 13th. Why didn't I just put a whole row of As down?! Oh well, I guess. I also got out of special education, and I did well for the rest of the 2008-09 school year. The reason why I was in special education was because I suffer from a mental disability called Asperger syndrome. This is why I am an isolated person in the first place! It seems like it was another great year for me, but then 10th grade came. Now where I live, we use a junior high, 7th to 9th grade, and senior high, 10th grade to 12th grade, system. Now, due to special education, I had no homework through junior high. I came with that same mentality into senior high, and a big fat rude awakening. Homework galore! I sacrificed my grades in some of my classes to maintain an A in AP US History, but then I went to the Philippines for a week. I lost the flow of school. Then I broke, my mentality fell apart, and then grades fell. I still was passing, but barely. At least I bailed myself out in math with an A after the first grading period. But due to my lack of work ethic, I also bombed in the math team meets, mainly cause I missed the first meet due to just personal fear, and bombed meets 2 and 3 due to my mind freezing up. Oh, and then 2008 ends...
2009 will be a mixed year for me. Why? I fell back in special education due to what I believe is my inability to change without help. I also decided to just give up the rest of the year for math team, taking the two hardest individual tests and trying, of course, but was researching calculus at the time, and I believe I was more interested in learning calculus, so I did calculus instead. Now polynomial derivatives and polynomial integrals were second-nature to me, kind of. I had better grades in the second grading period, at least I had no Ds, heh. But I had already decided I needed summer break to clear my mind for a new school year, so I basically had given up. I did my work in the third grading period, but I was resistant to change, and my handwriting was atrocious, but at least my GPA still was a little above three. 10th grade was my worst grade year by far. Now why is 2009 a mixed year? One reason and one reason only - Ender's Game! Entering the 2009-10 school year, I knew I'd have to do work, and I wanted to do better than my atrocious 10th grade year, make up for it. Looking back on it, I have. I always did my work on time and early. In English, we had to read Ender's Game as a required read. The night of September 17, 2009, I started to read it, thinking I'd only read to page 26, and loathe it. Turns out, I loved what I read, and when I tried to put it down after page 26, I couldn't. It was just too good. I read until the end and loved it. I loved the characterization of Ender Wiggin probably the most. And that book pushed me to do well in everything I did. Although in October, I felt the work was too much, by November and December, I was like... this is NOTHING! Theres no homework at all! In math team, I did well for myself, I scored a 12/14, a 12/14, and then a 5/14 due to simple mistakes. I beat out all my expectations of this year in math team by far, I thought I would have around 18 (6s in every meet) by now, not 29 points scored after three meets, and definitely not first place after two meets. Meanwhile, I have taken a theme of Ender's Game by heart. Intelligence brings about isolation (heh, I wonder if the converse is true), and that rings true in me. In non-school related things, I also realized that Christianity doesn't seem right for me. I think I am an atheist, and the reason for this is probably because I heard science in school first, and then my mom really started trying to push the Catholic faith on me in fourth grade. By then, it was too late to develop those value, and since I don't know God exists, I don't believe in a God, basically agnostic atheism. That caused a rift to form between me and my family, which is one of the ways to become more isolated. In school, I had become quiet, talking to myself a lot however. Another thing that happened - I finally got the new computer, which I put together myself. Frame rates in Empire: Total War went from 3 FPS on LOWEST settings to over 30 FPS on HIGHEST settings. Now, I know theres more than one variable, but there is no doubt an improvement in gaming experience. I can now play games without getting annoyed at a choppy game. That finally let my interest in computers fall to the backburner, though I still keep myself up to date on today's parts.
As long as I retain interest of Ender's Game, I should do well in 2010, the second decade of the 21st Century, and beyond, up until death. Oh, and I think I rambled on too much, so maybe it's the time to click submit.
TG M203 Bunker, PFC, 1st Corps, CoD Division, PC Brigade, 1st BTN, Chungking (ST) Squad, SM
I've had 102 nukes on MW2.
I have
Asperger Syndrome (I was diagnosed at birth). It's categorized as a "disability".