Okay, so let me throw my scandalous, edgy opinion out into the burning fire.  What’s the big deal?  Now, I am in no way attempting to justify the actions of these individuals, nor am I condoning what they did in any way.  I think what they did was very hateful and wrong and should have never been done in the first place.  Having said that, I don’t see why people are getting so enraged at these individuals.  Sure, they thought what they did would be funny, humorous, cute, and obviously the rest of the UCSD community, and even the state of California strongly disagreed with their opinion.  Things like this happen all the time.  People are rude, spiteful, racist, sexist, and hateful about many topics, not just black people.  People are entitled to their own opinions, regardless of whether or not the opinions they possess are hateful or offensive to other people.  The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America guarantees an American citizen the right to Free Speech (except of course in the case of shouting fire in a crowded theater) despite whether or not that speech is hateful.

The politicians suggesting “sensitivity training, revoking Pike’s charters (from all UC’s!), and requiring students STATEWIDE to learn how to be racially correct” (Facebook Group: UCSD Students OUTRAGED By The Compton Cookout) are completely ridiculous in their attempts to prosecute the individuals involved in the ‘Cookout.  I don’t see how it is possible to punish the individuals through either the legal system or through the college.  Now, if they used University funding to pay for the party, then they deserve to have the book thrown at them and have them expelled from every conceivable place they can be.  If they did not, however, what is there that anyone can do besides say “You did a bad thing”?  They had a party off-campus, not sponsored, funded, or condoned by any UCSD group or organization.  What can the school do to these individuals without Unconstitutionally infringing on the rights of the individuals?  The Constitution doesn’t just apply when you want it to, it applies in all cases as the “supreme law of the land.”

Just recently, many of my first-year Thurgood Marshall classmates and I turned in a 6 page paper to our “Dimensions of Culture” class entitled “Justice.”  This paper asked us to evaluate the significance of “American democracy, the implicit promise of and criteria for membership in the American social contract, and whether there should be limits on majority rule” (Source), specifically in regards to the two Supreme Court cases of Minersville School District v. Gobitis (1940) and West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette (1943).  In the first of these two cases, the Supreme Court upheld that “State’s interest in ‘national cohesion’ was ‘inferior to none in the hierarchy of legal values’” (Wikipedia) and therefore was of more importance than the individual freedoms and rights guaranteed to the Gobitis children by the Constitution.  This decision was later overturned in the Barnette case, where the Supreme Court upheld that individual rights were more important than this “social need for conformity” that the State was trying to impose.  This case signified a large shift in the Supreme Court’s upholding of individual rights claims, and marked a significant precedent that would be referenced many times in future decisions.

Now, having just (within the last week) written a 6 page paper on the topic of individual freedoms and rights guaranteed to individuals by the Constitution, I can personally say that I think the individuals in their actions were well within their Constitutional rights to express themselves in whatever way they see fit.  Now, even though the majority of people in the UCSD community extremely disagree with the actions of these individuals, I think that there are no legal ramifications that can be imparted upon the individuals involved in event.  Pike members, if you are retaliated against by the University or by powerful politicians, I encourage you to stand by your Constitutional rights and fight back.

Like I have said repeatedly, I personally think the individuals should not have acted how they did, and I believe they should issue an apology to the African American community at UCSD (however small their numbers may be).  But, having said that, I do not think it is right for anyone to attack the individuals because of their actions.  Sure, it may seem hateful and racist, but this is the United States of America, where even haters and racists are protected by the Constitution and it’s pesky Amendments.  No matter how hard it is to say, I think this is the way it should be.  The Constitution should not be extended only to people that conform, only to people that think the way that you or I may think; but nonetheless should be guaranteed to all citizens of America.  John Locke’s principle of a “social contract” implies that “individuals give up sovereignty to a government or other authority in order to receive or maintain social order through the rule of law,” and it is this “rule of law” that guarantees that “the law is above everybody and applies to everyone.”

You may or may not agree with the opinions I have expressed in this (lengthy) post, and I respect that you may have your own opinions about the issue.  Heck, I may come back tomorrow and think something completely different, but I felt that this was something that should be said by somebody in this whole debacle.  If you know me personally, you know that I am a person who respects other people’s feelings and beliefs, even if I do not agree with them.  I think people should be justified to their own thoughts, and having an opinion about an issue (be it politics, religion, etc) that differs from my own does not make me dislike that person.  If you don’t know me personally, you’ll just have to take my word for it. ;)

-B

P.S. I will say it once again in case you didn’t hear me: I do not agree with, condone, justify, associate myself with, or even like what the individuals did in planning this event, but nonetheless, I believe that the Constitution still applies to their hateful words and actions.

2/19 3:22am Update 1: To clarify a little bit, I mean the “what’s the big deal?” questions at the politicians and people who are trying to go after the individuals. Like I said many times, I think what they did was hateful, racist, and stupid. Of course the individuals being racist towards the UCSD African American community is a big deal, and I don’t mean to undermine that point. -Brandon

2/19 4:34am Update 2: I will be the first to admit, I definitely have a differing opinion on this matter than may people because I am not directly affected by the issue.  I was not here for the weekend that the event happened, nor am I African American.  I did not mean any of what I said above to be mean, disrespectful, or hurtful to anybody in the African American community.  I am basically voicing an outsider’s opinion on the issue, as that is what I am: an outsider.  I normally try to stay out of fueled situations, and I already think I have said too much.  The last thing I need is more people hating me for what I think or do.  More fuel for the fire I guess… -B

I have lots to share! Australi was AMAZING! I took around 3,700 pictures over the course of 19 days down under.

College is just around the corner… Move in on the 19th, and I can’t wait! I’m excited to move on to a new chapter in my life. :)

I’ll update more in depth later, I have to be awake in 4 hours…

I’ve just been really busy.  I really hate what my teachers are doing right now.  Every one of them is thinking: “Yay, AP tests are over, now we can do creative projects…”  and I’m just like: NO.  I don’t want to.  I don’t want to do anything.  I want school to be done and overwith already, I want to be free and off into college.  Senioritis has hit an ultimate high in my life.

Well, lets see, what has been going on lately…

Me holding Brea Carl.

We had prom, that was really fun.  It was at Angel’s Stadium in Anaheim. We had dinner at Benihana before and it was amazing.  I had only been there once before when I was a wee tike, but this time was just amazing.  I posted pictures on Facebook, you can get to the album by clicking on the picture to the right.  It was a really fun night, especially after the dance.  We went to our friend’s house and swam until like 2:30 am in her heated pool.  It was heated to like 90 degrees and it felt awesome after a night of dancing, haha.  Then we went inside and played cards and watched a movie.  I think I ended up falling asleep around 5:00 am there. (I spent the night, along with like 4 other guys and 6 girls, don’t worry parental figures, we were in separate rooms, haha)  I eventually left the next morning around 10:30am I think, and drove home and proceeded to plop onto my couch and sleep until like 2:00 pm.  That night (Sunday), I think I went to bed at like 2:00 am because my sleeping schedule was so thrown off.  The next night (Monday, Memorial Day), I went to sleep at like 3:00 am as well, because of a lack of sleepiness, haha, just like right now (it’s 12:04 am).

Well, that was prom.  It was a night I’ll never forget, and I loved every minute of it. :)

My Senior picture. Gotta love jazz...

Moving on to… college.  Well, if you don’t know by now, I’m officially going to UCSD in the fall. (woo!) I’m really excited, as you can probably tell. :)  I can’t wait to follow in my brother Chris’ footsteps.  Haha, nobody in my family knows this, but I did my “Hero” presentation for AP Gov on him, cuz he’s been a really cool brother to me throughout everything, and I’m gonna be following in his footsteps the next four years or so at UCSD in the Thurgood Marshall college.

Oh, speaking of Chris… He just recently proposed to his girlfriend, Katie, on the beach and (thankfully :P ) she said yes! This will be the second wedding in our family, and I’m excited for it!  I really love Katie, she’s really cool and a fun person and she has just enough weirdness to fit into the Carl family.  After all, Chris’ nickname is “Crazy Carl.”  Plans haven’t been set for sure yet, I don’t think, but who knows, nobody ever tells me anything anyway, haha, I always find out about things a couple days later in my family.

Like, for example, my other brother, Jason, and his new bride, April, are going to be moving to Colorado pretty soon.  This came as a big surprise to me just recently, because, again, I had no idea it was gonna happen, haha.  Jason’s going to be attend the University of Northern Colorado to get his teaching credential.  Right now he’s been working as a full-time sub in the Corona-Norco school district, but he will be starting class in a few weeks I believe.  April is going to stay here in Brea until the end of June I think, and then she will join him in Colorado as well.  I have to say, I have mixed emotions about this.  I mean, on one hand I’m really excited for them and what they’re gonna be diving into, and I’m really excited for Jason to get his teaching credential so he can become a full-time teacher, which I think is something he will be great at doing.  But, on the other hand, I think I’m going to miss all three of them quite a bit (puppy Brea included).  I mean, sure I’ll be headed off to San Diego next fall, but I never thought my brother would be in another state.  I’m gonna miss coming home from school and seeing Jason scavenging through our fridge in order to find food. :)  I’m gonna miss playing with their puppy, little Brea Carl.  I’m gonna miss eating April’s bread that she makes.  I dunno, it’s just gonna be a bit of a change, because since they’ve both graduated from college, I’ve gotten used to them being around, and changing something you’re used to is always a difficult thing to do.

I found this when I was looking for baby pictures for my Senior slideshow. :)

Speaking of change, there is going to be a lot of change in my life coming up.  In the next two weeks, I’m going to start seeing a lot of “lasts” go by, and it’s gonna be a difficult thing to see.  Sure, I really want to get out of high school and break free and enjoy life, but, like I said, change is always difficult, no matter what it is that’s changing.  One thing my dad told me recently, though, after I was talking about all the “lasts” that I’m gonna be experiencing, was kind of uplifting.  He told me, “you may be experiencing a lot of lasts in your life coming up, but there will also be a whole lot of firsts too.”  And, I don’t know, it really got me thinking, and what he said is absolutely true.  Even though things may be coming to end in high school, and a chapter of my life may be closing, and new chapter is just beginning.  A new plot in the story of my life is just beginning, and it’s kind of comforting knowing that things are going to start afresh and anew, and the world will be my canvas, to paint however I deem appropriate.

Well, I should probably wrap things up for now, but I just wanted to say a couple things.  Even though everything may feel like it’s ending with the end of high school, I know I need to look forward to the beginnings of the rest of my life, and I can’t wait to figure out where I go from here. :)

-B

A lot of people have been awaiting my decision, giving their opinions about which school I “have to go to” or which school “is the best opportunity for me,” and I appreciate that, I really do.  The only thing I fear is that in making my decision, I may hurt some people’s feelings because I did not (or did, hah) choose their school.  And then there’s the whole issue with the girlfriend, “you’re just going there because she is,” or “you’re not going there because she isn’t.”  Hah, I’ve gotten plenty of that from everybody, and let me just flat out say that… are you ready for this? … I am capable of making important decisions that will affect the rest of my life without being swayed by any one person (girlfriend or not).  I know! It’s shocking, isn’t it?!  A teenager able to make important decisions!? GASP!  Haha, well, in any case, Naomi I love you dearly, but you don’t play a part in which college I am choosing.  Sorry.  =]

And so, I know if you’re reading this, you’re wondering which school I’ve actually decided to go to.  Well, let me try and draw it out as much as I can… You know by now that I will be attending a UC school (sorry Amy), which means no Cal Poly SLO, and haha, I didn’t get accepted to any of my five private schools, so those are out automatically, haha.  I guess that’s all that the title really tells you.  No SLO.  Hmm…

This past spring break was a great experience for me.  I got to visit college campuses, and I got a great sense of what I should expect from each college.  The trips were really eye-opening and told me pretty much exactly what I wanted.  By the end of my spring break week, I had visited UCSD and Berkeley, and I had pretty much made up my mind that Berkeley was not for me (sorry Cameron and Jonathan).  And that left only UCSD, waiting for me to submit my SIR.  But then…

Curveball?  I’d say so…  And so, I was sitting in a movie theater in Mountain View, CA (by Google!), waiting to watch State of Play (great movie, btw) with my Dad, and I popped out ye ol’ iPhone and fired up Mail to find this email in my inbox.  At first I was like: “psh, haha, yeah right” because, get this: I never finished sending in my appeal information!  So I kinda dismissed it, and sent an e-mail back to Gordon (Band director at UCLA) saying pretty much: “what’s this?”  Then, after several hours of trading e-mails deep into the night  (he was in Italy at the time), I finally found out what had happened:

1. Upon receiving my admissions decision from UCLA, I sent an e-mail to Gordon requesting information about appealing through the marching band.
2. He received my e-mail, and sent me back forms to fill out and send back to him.
3. He also submitted my name to the admissions office as an “Incomplete Appeal,” meaning he was waiting for more info from me (the forms)
4. I slacked off, gave up on UCLA, and decided not to submit the materials, and just accepted my rejection like a man.
5. The admissions office decided to do something they never do and they reviewed my appeal anyway.
6. They accepted me.

And so, after investing time and money into visiting UCSD and Berkeley, and being set on UCSD, I now had a third player in the game: UCLA.

This truly stumped me.  I didn’t know what to do.  I had crossed out Berkeley, and now I had to make another choice between two great schools, and that just sucks, haha.

UCSD or UCLA?

Who knows… Maybe I haven’t made my choice yet?  Oh crap, no, I have, considering it’s already May 1st, haha.  Well, I will enlighten you readers more at a later time.

See yuh.

My spring break is officially over now. =[  It’s a very sad evening.  Tomorrow I must crawl out of bed in the wee hours of the morning and make my trek to school, only to waste another day of my life on a pointless day at school.  School has become nothing more than a huge waste of time for me, and for everyone.  Every day I go in, sit down, learn nothing, and then walk out.  Six periods a day, learn nothing, do nothing, care about NOTHING.  Sure, AP Tests are coming up, but who cares? I sure don’t.  Government and economics are the four easiest tests in the world.  Physics I’ll probably do fine on, and Literature, I don’t care a single bit.  I’ll probably end up with a 2 or a 1, I don’t care.  That class is pointless, it’s a waste of space, and no offense to Mrs. Owens, that information is just plain useless for me, or for anyone for that matter.  Who cares if Shakespeare meant this, or John Dunne meant that, I DON’T CARE.  When will I ever use that in life?  Maybe if I become a journalist… but I doubt that will every happen.

The best I can suffice is a poorly put together blog about myself, which is kind of funny when I think about it, because I used to have huge dreams of creating my own software, developing the next myspace or facebook, or phpbb or vbulletin.  I was going to create a masterpiece that I could sell for huge profits, but then reality kicked in, and I realized that it just wasn’t worth the effort.  I once created a script that would parse myspace’s musician and comedian pages and output the performer’s upcoming showtimes and dates.  I had it working very well, and I even had a prospective buyer, but that huge project fell through, and the client never got back to me regarding it, and it ended up being a waste of time.  That’s all, just a huge waste of time.

It seems like everything is just a waste of time these days.  School, band, work, web design;  Pointless, mildly exciting, necessary for an income, and fun yet sometimes frustrating.  That is all my life is made up of these days.  School I absolutely hate, I already have over the allowed number of absences in the majority of my classes.  Band is fine, jazz is fun, but Wind Ensemble sucks, and now that our new director is waving his iron fist, it’s no longer interesting for me.  It’s such a shame that Garcia had to leave, but it wasn’t under anyone’s control, I understand that.

And then there’s work.  The good ol’ UPS Store.  Old Faithful.  It’s kind of sad though, I haven’t been working all week because of college visits, and next week I will only be able to work one day because of jazz rehearsals and then our trip to Reno. Oh yeah, Reno is going to be fun. :)  I’ll tell you about that later.  But yeah, my next paycheck is gonna total a whopping $20…

Well, I think I’m going to have to leave the rest for a later time.  Funny enough, there was just a small earthquake that I felt.  Either that, or a truck just hit the side of my house, (maybe I should go check, hah).

Further elaboration is on its way, specifically about: Berkeley, UCSD, UCLA, Reno, Life, Web Design, Work, Consulting, Computers, Shiny Things, and a whole lot more…

-B :)

Now that I know this, my dad and I have begun to plan our Spring Break college visiting trip, and it looks like it’s gonna be really fun.  We’re probably gonna fly up to Berkeley, tour there, visit the math department, (Gotta love Applied Mathematics =]), and then we will make our way back down through California.  If I get into Stanford, (find out April 1), we will visit there, and then hit Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on the way down, and eventually make our way back home.  I’m excited, and I can’t wait to learn about the departments at all of the schools, and how well (or not well) I will fit in.

With my choices currently between Berkeley, SLO, UCSD,  and UCI, I’m not quite sure where I’d want to go right now.  A lot of things will play into my decision, a major part being finances, considering the effects of the economy on my family.  And so, I’m not sure where I will be in September, or what I will be doing, but I think things will work out somehow, and no matter where I end up, I’m gonna have a blast and get a great education.

Dear Brandon:

After careful review of your application for admission, we regret to inform you that we are not able to offer you admission for the Fall Quarter 2009. UCLA continues to receive more applications for admission than we can accommodate in our freshman class. For Fall 2009, we received more than 55,000 applications for 4,700 available spaces for freshmen.

Each application is unique, and each student presents wonderful attributes and potential. Our work is extraordinarily difficult: admission officers thoroughly review each application and carefully balance grades, coursework, test scores, honors, awards, community service, leadership, and work experience. Admission officers also consider the opportunities and challenges students face while achieving so much in their schools and communities. Ultimately, no single attribute or achievement guarantees admission-there are simply too many well-qualified, accomplished, and capable applicants for the number of freshman spaces available at UCLA.

If attending the University of California remains your ambition, you should know that there are other opportunities for admission. UCLA also accepts applications from junior-level transfer students. To learn more about transferring to UCLA and how to optimize the transfer experience, please visit www.admissions.ucla.edu/transfer or www.admissions.ucla.edu/tap.

We wish you success in your academic endeavors.

Sincerely, 

Vu T. Tran, Ed.D.
Director

Although I hate to say I was expecting to get in, I was sort of hoping that my situation would be unique enough, and my attitude quirky enough to fit right into the Institute, but I guess I was mistaken.  Well, now is the time to move on and pursue my future dreams and goals, and hopefully MIT and I will meet sometime in the future, but for now, I will miss the excitement, the suspense, the thrill.  It is truly upsetting saying goodbye to a long-running dream that has been nipping at me since November 1, 2008–just enough to foolishly lead me into thinking I was going to get in, right down to my Early Action deferral.  But, as Stuart Schmill said on the fateful morning of March 14, “The Admissions Committee has completed its review of [my] application, and [Stuart is] so sorry to tell [me] that [they are] unable to offer [me] admission to MIT.”  The Admissions Committee has decided my fate, and that fate does not have a place in the MIT Class of 2013.

And so, as I try to push away my dreams, and run away from my long-developed vision of my future at MIT, I have come across this video.  It was posted by a fellow MIT applicant who was also attempting to soothe the agony of the situation, and it has given me new hope for my future.  I’ve begun to view this challenge as perhaps a good thing, as in life, everything doesn’t always come so easily.

Take it away, Steve.

I have no idea how often I will post, who knows, I guess we’ll find out.

As for now, I’ll see ya when I see ya.