journal #1

"astronomers discover an earth-like planet"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18308956/site/newsweek/
This article talks about the discovery of a new planet that is similar to earth. Astronomers discovered the planet using a 141-inch telescope in La Silla, Chile at the European Southern Observatory there. The planet they discovered is the most earth-like planet anyone has sighted beyond our own solar system. Scientists have named the planet Gliese 581c after the star it orbits- Gliese 581. It is planet "c" because there are two other planets there as well- "a" and "b". Gliese 581c is bigger than Earth (about 50% larger), with five times the mass. It can also orbit its star in 13 days. The most curious part of the discovery to scientists is that even though Gliese 581c orbits 14 times closer to its star than Earth is from the sun, Gliese 581c is still in a "habitable zone". The star that this new planet orbits, Gliese 581 is actually a red dwarf,a type of star that is smaller and colder than the sun planet Earth orbits. This allows Gliese 581c to orbit closer to the star and still be habitable instead of turning into liquid or being vaporized as any planet orbiting that close to the sun would be. Stephane Udry, from the Geneva Observatory, was one of the astronomers who discovered the planet and predicts that this new planet is rocky, like Earth is or covered with oceans. Xavier Delfosse, from the Grenoble University in France,and another discoverer adds that Gliese 581 will most likely be an objective of future space missions since it orbits one of the 100 closest stars to Earth and is of a bearable temperature for humans.
Although Udry thinks there may be oceans of water on the planet, not all astronomers are sold on the matter. Everyone, however, is in agreement that there is a planet there similar to Earth. Gliese 581c was discovered using the wobble method, which has detected most of the exoplanets we know of today. The wobble method works on the theory that the gravitational pull of a planet like Gliese 581c has an effect on its host star, causing it to wobble in its orbit. Astronomers use this theory to estimate the amount of time it takes said planet to orbit the star and its orbital distance and mass. Astronomers plan to keep an eye on the planet and gather more information on it to see if it really is capable of handling life. The best possible way for them to gather the necessary information is when Gliese 581c passes in front of its star in a way that allows them to guess the size and density of the planet which will then tell them what the planet is made up of. One of the effects of this discovery is an increased belief in extraterrestrial life and that humans are not the only living beings in the universe.

so yeah that pretty much ruined my afternoon and weekend. all i got was in a really bad frustrated annoyed mood.
and i had to go vent. to maria. who probably thinks i'm a total nut case b/c all i've been doing lately is going on about how much my mom annoys me. oh god, i've become the annoying whiny complaining friend. and i'm worried that i made her angry by giving her soap as a present on facebook. it was a joke, like haha funny. i thought it was cute, rather than the other stuff. oh well. i should call her and straighten that out.

what else??? well muthu and meenu pretty much don't reply to my posts anymore. which is pretty damn annoying too.

i still didn't get my shoes back. which is sooo fadklsfjasdkljf;a b/c wtf? its a pair of freaking shoes. so i refuse to talk to seetha. fuck her

oh yeah and apparently i'm the only one who hasn't learned the dance yet. malar and priya learned it already. yippeee. that's just super.

at least i don't have to go tommorow. that would just make me feel worse.

speaking of feeling worse i couldn't have made more of a mess yesterday if i tried. like i called meena, i don't know why, and she was busy b/c i heard all these people in the background so i was like i'll just call you back later. and then she called back later but i didn't answer. it was really awkward i don't want to vent to anyone else and get into a bad mood again. plus i don't know when to call now i don't want to call her at a bad time again. and she doesn't reply to my posts. why doesn't anyone ever reply to my posts????? its so annoying. meena, meenu, muthu, caitie, ben, megan,maya, laura NOBODY fucking replies to me. grrrrrrrr. i'm an angry person right now. so yeahhhh gotta call her too. plus she just changed her profile pic and its drop-dead GORGEOUS. i'm soooo jealous. i look terrible in all the pictures taken of me recently. when did i get so ugly and not able to take decent pictures??

and why do i always make such a mess of things? i went and txted ben a completely random txt message and then he called and left a voice mail. and i never called him back. god damn. but i did send him a facebook message. which he never replied to. i should probably call him too.

and i can't decide....to go back to green valley or not too? i think i should. just b/c staying at home this summer ain't gonna work out. such a bad idea. esp coming back after spain and all that freedom. its not going to go down well if i'm at home the rest of the summer. so i think i'm going to send charlene an email saying how sorry i am for not replying sooner and send her my paperwork and get ready to go back this summmer. i need it. i def think i need to. plus i want some more money in the bank.

oh yeah i owe laura 5 for the entrance ticket, 1 for food and another 2 for ice cream. so 8 total. and i want to buy carnations....maybe i'll send them to myself. i'll buy a dozen. so another 9. hmmmmm and i think i'm going to get the love week t-shirt too....if they have my size. but that's charged so i should ask the rents. and i want to send a singing telegram to chisaki. if they have any left so that's like 4-6. so 8+9+6 is 23 so i should take about 25 dollars out of the bank and i'll be good.

and what else have i done??? oh yeah sat's. damn. i got an 1810- went up 10 points. i really should have gone up a lot more except my math score dropped 70 points. according to jesse, the math dude, that's "perfectly normal" how the fuck is that normal???? if i don't get my score up then i'm pretty much screwed. ARGH. but i did go up 30 points in writing....which means i would have had to go up 50 points in writing. 50 points in one week is really good. really really good. so that's good i guess. speaking of which i should probably email julia marter and see if my email gets through b/c i didn't get one from her.

oh yeah. good news......apparently i qualified to apply for the Maryland Distinguished Scholars Program....and to qualify, or "to be invited to apply" you have to have an unweighted, academic-only GPA between 3.7 and 4.0. which means my unweighted GPA is above a 3.7. WHOOOOOO!!!! i was so happy when i saw that, esp when i saw that there weren't that many people on the list. like there were only 15 total....out of a 140 people, meaning that's the top 10% of my class! yay that makes me really happy. except to stay there my GPA's got to be good this term. or at least the same as last term to even be considered for cum laude. ahhhhhhhhhhh

other good news: i got a 7 on my AP Poetry in class essay!!! which means a B+....i've gone up one pt on each essay and i got a lot of check marks and "goods" on the essay and mr abbot said "much better" and even said i could've gotten an even higher mark had i gone even further with my analysis. sweeeet.
but i got a B on the rough draft of my term paper b/c i didn't have enough good sources. even though my writing was extremely good according to mr. wood which is why oooo gotta go coming back.....

diverse- large amt of asians/other ethnic groups
number for admissions office: (585) 275-3221 or (888) 822-2256

admitted students statistics:
SAT-Verbal (mid-50 percent range) 620-720
SAT-Math (mid-50 percent range 640-740
ACT (mid-50 percent range) 28-32

accept both SAT (reasoning) and ACT (with or without writing)

total cost (room,board,tuition,fees, books,supplies etc): $45,823

tours and info sessions offered year round, interviews start July 5th....required to sign up for an interview (if you want one) before you go on visit

nearby the city of rochester

one of the 25 "new ivies" listed in newsweek article

divided into different schools, biggest = "the college" (consisting of social sciences, humanities, science) which has no required subjects
go by "clusters"--groups of related courses, mimimum of 12 credits coursework (= about 3 courses)

7 dining locations

first impression from online: it seems ok. i'm not sure i'd like to go there. the majors seem kind of limited.....like no architecture or journalism or whatever and i don't want to enter an engineering school even if i did decide to go with architecture. but there's nothing for journalism- no communications, mass media, multi-media nothing. plus the fees seem kind of a bit much for this school. maybe i'm underestimating it but to me it doesn't seem thaaaat great of a school to be all jumping up and down about. b/c for those fees...they're the same as any ivy league. so final: it seems ok. nothing great. wasn't too impressed. def not a first choice school

Current Location: yearbook office
Current Mood: on a mission