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By Brandon Carl, April 19, 2009 9:20 pm

Ah yes, it’s been a while since I’ve sent out a new story.  I’ve been up to many things lately, from upgrading my computer to visiting colleges.  I have many new things to share, but alas I haven’t the time to explain them all right now.

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 :)

Comments (1)

By Brandon Carl, March 29, 2009 5:49 pm

After a barrage of rejections and my dreams of MIT, Caltech, Harvey Mudd, and UCLA being shattered, I’ve finally reached some good news in my journey towards college. On March 26, 2009, I found out that I was one of the very few from my school to be offered admission to the University of California at Berkeley.

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.

Comments (3)

By Brandon Carl, March 18, 2009 5:38 pm

Wow, apparently UCLA had an 8.5% admit rate.  That’s worse than MIT!  Pretty much none of my friends got in…  Now to wait for USC’s letter…

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

Comments (1)

By Brandon Carl, March 17, 2009 11:49 pm

Nobody I’ve met along my journey to MIT was offered admission into the MIT Class of 2013.  Not a single person.

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.