Into the Deep End

kevrov: ondor: i-am-the-epitome: adalia3x0h-ipromise: ebullie...

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:41:29 -0500

ondor:

i-am-the-epitome:

adalia3x0h-ipromise:

ebullientefflorescence:

bethosaurus:

thegirlwiththefinchertattoo:

motivatedslacker:

thunderdome-:

expederest:

sailor-sun:

ezio-broditore:

allthehomo:

onlytowardschaos:

thesilverfeatheredraven:

middlemarching:

sometimesbrilliant:

okay I wanted to do this meme again and I. I just realized.

that it would be Star Wars vs Star Trek

um

what is my life

Howl’s Moving Castle vs. Downton Abbey.

awesome.

Sherlock Holmes vs. Battlestar Galactica.

Intriguing.

Sherlock Holmes vs Sherlock Holmes.

FIGHT!

Sherlock Holmes & John Watson vs Sam & Dean Winchester

How to Train Your Dragon vs NCIS

I didn’t know how bad I wanted this until now

Clueless and Teen Mom 2.

Can you imagine? I’d love to see Dionne go against Jenellle xD

Voyage of the Dawn Treader vs. Generator Rex. Interesting…

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest vs. Shameless US

Hugo vs. Bones

The little French kids don’t stand a chance.

The denizens of Middle-earth vs. the denizens of 30 Rock. After Liz gets over her nerdgasm, I foresee her killing Gollum with a sandwich.

Apollo 18 vs a relatively unknown Slenderseries (i count them as TV, okay)

Harry Potter and his crew vs Teen Mom 2. Yeah, the wizards would slaughter them. It wouldn’t even be worth watching.

…Tintin and Captain Haddock vs. Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. That could be interesting.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA the Fellowship of the Ring vs. the Upper East Siders from Gossip Girl. I WONDER WHO’S WINNING THAT BRAWL?

Doctor Who vs LOTR. Taking the TARDIS to Isengard.

The Furious Five vs. Team Avatar. MUST WATCH

The Muppets vs. contestants on Cupcake Wars. This is probably the lamest one on this whole thread.

Note the tiny light green part of the eastern...

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 13:22:07 -0500

Note the tiny light green part of the eastern coastline—that is the only part of NJ that is at all like Jersey Shore. So stop the stereotypes. :P

BTW, I’m in the red blob in the middle (although definitely not drunk), and I lived in the purple strip above it until I moved to CT when I was 5.

mitsudrarry:

Accurate depiction of NJ is accurate.

Because I haven't posted anything in a while

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:38:30 -0500

reblog so people know who you are

Name: Matt

Tumblr Name: mattquest50 (yes, like Mapquest. Fun fact about me: I really like maps. I actually have a collection of about 100 that I’ve been building since I was 5. And I’m also minoring in geography.)

Nickname(s): Matt, Jensen, Mr. Wobbles (thank marching band for the last one)

Birthday: November 5, 1992

Relationship Status: Single, waiting for the perfect person

Hobbies/Interests: Map reading (see above), browsing the Internet way too much, Yankees baseball, Patriots football (plus all Rutgers sports!), politics, and listening to music. (I’m a firm believer that 90% of all good music was made before the year 1990.)

Do you smoke/drink: Nonononononononononono. Not gonna screw up my breathing any more than asthma has already done, and don’t really want to hand control of my mind over to a toxic chemical (plus being underage and all.)

So I don’t really know why, but I’ve been following the Penn State story very closely...

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 01:28:58 -0500

So I don’t really know why, but I’ve been following the Penn State story very closely over the past couple days. Only one word comes to mind: tragic. I will never be able to imagine what the victims experiences or how they felt. This man ruined their lives and their trust, shattered their innocence when they were just 10 or 12. Absolutely awful.

I can, however, almost empathize with the administration who dealt with the problem horrendously, allowing it to continue. Why McQueary didn’t stop Sandusky during the assault, no one may know; I would like to say I would have tried to stop the assault then and there, but I really don’t know if, put in that situation, I actually would have been able to. I also don’t know if, when told about it the next day, I would have done anything more than Joe Paterno did and pass the problem on to someone else. Should he have called the cops and confronted Sandusky about the incident (even if he wasn’t fully aware of what exactly occurred in the locker room)? Absolutely. But he, like all of us humans, don’t want to face our problems. How many of us procrastinate on a tough homework assignment because we know it’s tough? The only difference here is that the consequences of ignorance directly ruined children’s lives. So I understand why Paterno and the rest of the Penn State administration ignored Sandusky for so long, but I certainly do not condone it. Ignorance absolutely was the wrong decision. I also agree that Paterno should have been fired immediately, because it allows Penn State to start to rebuild as soon as possible. The students on campus and on the football team didn’t deserve to have the drama and bad publicity hanging over them.

Maybe the reason I’m so appalled by the story is that Penn State and my school, Rutgers, are very similar. We are both large public institution with a lot of school pride. We’re both football crazy, and our head football coaches (Paterno and Greg Schiano) are both the de facto icons of our schools in the public’s eye. So I could easily see what happened at Penn State playing out here (although I certainly hope none of Rutgers’ coaches are pedophiles!). I know we’d be devastated, and the healing process would take a very long time.

I wish the Penn State that might read this the best of luck rebuilding and moving on from this tragedy.

Juxtaposition of Holidays

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 01:16:00 -0400

Juxtaposition of Holidays:

So a Noreaster struck my hometown yesterday and dumped a foot of snow. Thus, one family created a “snow pumpkin.” (See the link above.)

I really should be asleep right now. But my suitemates are up playing a Super Smash Brawl...

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 01:07:56 -0400

I really should be asleep right now. But my suitemates are up playing a Super Smash Brawl tournament. Not that that’s bothering me—all I can hear is the dubstep they are blasting over the sound of the TV. And I have to be up at 7:30 AM tomorrow.

On the flip side, I’m really pumped for the game tomorrow. I’m finally making a lot of friends in band—two girls from the sax section asked me to teach them mello tomorrow before the game! I also started in pep band and played at a basketball pep rally tonight. Maybe band will work after all…

What goes around comes around.

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 23:53:43 -0400

Ah well then. To be honest, I didn’t think the Yankees would make the WS this year anyway… they weren’t the superstar team they were back in ‘09.

On the flip side, 178 days until opening day!

Yankees Game 5 Tonight. Bring it.

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 20:21:54 -0400

No, I’m probably not gonna be able to focus on HW tonight…

If the Yankees lose tonight, they’re done. If they win, they go to the ALCS. (I would say when, but Detroit’s already down 2-0……grrrr.)

Integrating two different equations together is hard. Integrating two different ways of life...

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 00:03:11 -0400

Integrating two different equations together is hard.

Integrating two different ways of life together is waaaay harder.

But neither is impossible (as long as the first doesn’t involve Taylor Series. That’s bloody impossible.)

Dear roommates, It’s 2 AM. Could you please go to bed? You have a ton of time during the day...

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 02:13:52 -0400

Dear roommates,

It’s 2 AM. Could you please go to bed? You have a ton of time during the day to socialize, play video games, talk with significant others… why now?

Sincerely, I have an 8:10 class tomorrow morning.

Good things happen when I leave.

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 22:52:27 -0400

Seriously.

The marching band I was part of in high school is very competitive; when I was in, we were consistently in the top three bands in the state. Being the competitive band we were, me and my fellow bandmates would almost kill to beat the two bands that were ahead of us. Although we came close, we never did.

Last night, I went back to visit them for the first time since leaving for college. So what did they do? Not only did they win first place in their class, they were the best band at the competition, meaning they beat the #2 band that we hadn’t beaten in 30 years!

On a related note, my Boy Scout troop competed every year at Summer Camp for Super Troop, or the best troop at camp that week. The 5 years I was in Scouting, we never were close to Super Troop. Even when I was SPL and in charge of the Troop, we came closer but lost to a Troop twice our size.

Of course, the year after my last year at summer camp, they win Super Troop by a mile.

The only conclusion I can reach from this is that Rutgers will not reach a bowl game the four years I’m here and then will win the national championship the year after I graduate.

College 101.

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 21:09:18 -0400

Well, I’ve been here—what—3 weeks?? It feels like 3 years. Whoa.

I must say, though, I’m really glad I’m here. It’s more than just the whole independence thing, even more than meeting about a thousand new people (and immediately forgetting their name when you see them around campus.) I think it’s just something completely different from anything I’m used to. And that’s a wonderful thing.

My classes are, overall, great. I’m taking an intro to Bio Research class where I might discover a new mutation in yeast DNA by the end of the semester. Chem is incredibly challenging but bearable, especially because half my suite is also in chem. (Ah, the advantages of Honors college…). My French professor has a great personality (a HUGE step up from high school) and includes cool pop culture references that we study and analyze in class. And I’m also taking a bit of an unusual elective—Maps and Map Reading.Very easy, but I’ve always been fascinated with maps. I’m thinking a minor in geography, maybe?

The one (pretty big) disappointment so far has been the marching band. Don’t get me wrong; playing in front of 50,000 fans clad in bright red and belting out pop music (everything from Journey to Lady Gaga) in the stands is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Our (first) halftime show is Queen—during Bicycle Race, we form a giant bicycle on the field, rotate its wheels, and then move it down field!

Pretty awesome—so why is it disappointing? Well, it’s not high school band. I know probably three people outside my section, compared to just about everyone in high school. And I don’t even know my sectionmates all that well either! Socially, it’s just not what I expected. Lesson learned: never come in to college with any expectations.

Well, maybe one more reason not to like band: waaaaaaay too much drinking. That’s what some people only talk about. The last night of band camp was just one big drinking party, it seemed. I don’t drink, and everyone was fine with that. I didn’t have problems until 2AM in the morning, when I was the only sober person and had to watch over two sectionmates who blacked out and a third who was puking his guts out next to my bunk. Wondering if your new friends need to go to the hospital is not a fun way to start out college.

But overall, college is awesome. Yeah. Just I don’t know how often I’ll be on here to post.

I survived band camp...

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 12:19:44 -0400

and now I’m all moved in at college! Yay!

Band camp was really tough—10 hours of practice a day. It was worth it, though… our halftime show (Queen) is finished. It just needs a lot of polishing.

More to come later…

No, it’s not a Jersey thing.

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 11:34:17 -0400

No, it’s not a Jersey thing.

I survived the London riots...

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 11:08:02 -0400

No really, I just got back from an awesome two-week trip to London with my family. Of course I went to all the touristy stuff (Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, Buckingham palace, etc., all of which were fantastic), but my favorite part was just experiencing a new culture, including things England does much better than the US:

Public transportation. The trains and subways we traveled on were near-spotless, extremely efficient and not even too crowded except at rush hour. We waited at most five minutes for the next train. And it’s not just around London, the trains went all across the country! (We haven’t had a train station in my town in America for around 50 years.)
High-speed rail. We went to Paris for a day on the Eurostar train, traveling at 150-200 mph—much cheaper than flying. Seriously, why don’t we have any high speed rail in America? (By the way, Paris was fun, but not nearly as much as London. Their subway system was just as trashed as New York’s for instance.)
Free decent-quality newspapers at every subway stop. (London must have over a dozen daily newspapers; New York has just 3, and you have to pay for them.)
The food. Not that America has bad food, but British pub fare is great as well. I had one of the best burgers I’ve ever eaten at a pub in Westminster—called a “Big Ben” burger, it had a fried egg on top!
The environment. The UK outlawed regular incandescent bulbs, so everyone uses fluorescent or LED bulbs instead, saving energy. They also have a ton of wind turbines, and more people use public transportation than drive. (However, they don’t have a good recycling system like we do here in America yet, which sort of surprised me.)
Other things about England (such as the spotty wi-fi service in our flat, just 5 TV channels instead of 70 in America, and the lack of baseball) I could live without.

About the riots… the neighborhood where we stayed (Earlsfield) was untouched by the rioters. The only affect we had was all of the police vehicles screaming through our neighborhood at night to get to the riots (during the worst of the riots, eight police vans went by in one hour), and the stores closing at 6 instead of 10 or 11. We were lucky, I guess; the main street neighborhood next to ours (Clapham Junction) was nearly destroyed by the rioters and looters.

So dang tired...

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 21:09:13 -0400

I’ve been running literally everywhere since last Friday.

It started with a mello sectional Friday night at RU, sleepover at my section leader’s apartment, and then a full band rehearsal the next morning (yay,4 hours of basics block!) I got a bit of a break on Sunday, but then I was gone for orientation on Monday and half of Tuesday, also at RU. (More on that later). Right after orientation, I went with my mom to pick up my aunt at Newark Airport, and then went to visit my grandparents and drop her off there. Got home at 2am, then had to get up at 7 for work Wednesday. Right after work, I left to visit my youngest brother at summer camp (Happy birthday Thomas!) an hour away. Worked all day today too, and now I’m finally getting a break.

Oh yeah, and all this when my family’s getting ready for a two-week trip to England starting this weekend.

I know summer was supposed to be relaxing at one point, but I can’t remember when.

Yeah, I haven't been on here much.

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 22:20:10 -0400

I’ve been working a lot—four days a week, eight hours a day. I can’t complain, because many of my friends don’t have jobs, and I’m doing a ton of cool stuff there. (It’s not often that a high school student can prepare information for review and acceptance by a foreign government!)

And when I’m not working, I’ve been relaxing and enjoying the summer (i.e. sleeping late, beach days, parties, and not worrying about stuff I have to do—uh oh, the last one’s a bit of a problem). So I might be in and out a bit on Tumblr.

2. First memory of high school

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 22:13:37 -0400

High school began for me waaaaay before the first official day of school. In fact, it started at my first marching band rehearsal, which took place before eighth grade even ended.

My first impressions of marching band was, this is easy. I can do this. I was a pretty good trumpet player. Yes, the instructors seemed a bit stiff, especially that Santa Claus-look-alike named Bob. And I had never done marching before, but it couldn’t be too hard. I was mostly worried about fitting in and even standing out a bit from the other freshman. I came home from the orientation rehearsal really excited.

Little did I know that I would struggle so much that first year in marching band. Turns out I simply could not march. This became painfully obvious as the real summer rehearsals began. My posture was awful, my balance worse. I just could not control my body with the precision needed to play and move at the same time. I didn’t need to worry about standing out from the rest of the freshman—I was just standing out for the wrong reasons. But more on that later.

It’s fitting that band, not the first day of high school, is my first memory of high school. I spent more time in band than any other program in high school, and for the first two/three years the vast majority of my friends were from band. (Although I’m glad I branched out a bit starting in junior year, I’ll always consider the friends I met in band as some of my closest.) More than anything, band seemed to define me when I was within the walls of NHS. Sure, this had drawbacks, but I enjoyed music too much to let the stereotypes worry me too much. Perhaps it’s fitting as well that my last memory of high school was walking out of the auditorium at the end of graduation… and waving at the band members, my friends, playing teh recessional music.

Ah, I need more photos on here, don’t I? One of my...

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 22:20:49 -0400

Ah, I need more photos on here, don’t I?

One of my (non-)guilty pleasures every week is reading Time Magazine. This week they published a beautiful essay on the simple joys of summer, written by Nancy Gibbs: http://ti.me/l3OIvO . The beginning of the article is about the author’s daughter going away to summer camp, where the electronics disappear and kids can really experience summer. Of course, that got me reminiscing…

If there is one place that defined summer for me when I was younger, that place was Camp Sequassen. From 6th through 11th grade, I went there the last week of July with my Scout Troop. It was a real summer camp, not a posh vacation resort—no electricity, no electronics, and latrines instead of bathrooms. It had all of the great outdoor activities a summer camp should. The picture (taken for a photography merit badge) is of the lakehouse and waterfront; they also had an archery and shooting range, nature center, craft area, trading post, giant dining hall, daily flag ceremonies, campfires, hiking trails… everything that a child/teen should experience in the summer. Yes, there were merit badges to complete, games to compete in, and, when I became my troop’s leader later on, 20 younger Scouts to watch over, but summer camp was just so relaxing for me. Maybe it was the clean country air. Or maybe it was sleeping in open-sided lean-tos at night, and waking up to the sound of wind and birds in the morning. It could have been the tall pine trees shading the trails that connected the different parts of camp.

To me, summer camp just felt so… natural. We were adapting ourselves to nature, instead of forcing nature to adapt to us. And that’s what made it so fun. Add that concept in to all the great principles Scouting teaches (I’ll post more about that later), and you can see why I’ve really missed summer camp these past two years.

Interning in an office of a multinational company during the summer is an experience all of its own, but I would trade a day of work any day to go back to Sequassen, just for a day…

1. First Thoughts on Going to College

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 20:24:48 -0400

Is there any other way to describe going off to college than bittersweet? In some regards, I couldn’t be more excited. Academically? Bring it!!!! Getting to study and do research with professors who truly know and love their field is going to be an incredible experience—the work will be insanely hard, but the rewards will be insanely greater. Socially, I know I’ll meet a ton of new people, people I would never ever meet if I stay in CT (as Mr. Edwards said in his graduation speech, “Your buffet of friends will become richer and more diverse”). And, thanks to Facebook/Tumblr, I’ll still keep in touch with my friends. Not that I won’t miss them; I’ll just have a place to go when I miss them.

I think the scariest thing about college is the whole live-on-your-own, responsibility-for-health-and-grades part. For someone who’s never been away from home for longer than a week, it’s going to be a tough transition for a while. Not that I don’t think I’ll manage, but I’ve never done it before.

Still, college will be fun. I was lucky enough to be accepted at a great school where I know I can succeed and still have a great time. I’m really looking for college, and hopefully my doubts will wash away soon.