I love GCP

GCP is the best ever. Such a good thing for me. It's my drug. I like the way it looks, the way it feels, the way it smells and the way it makes me smell (which is not so good right after taking it)

Love
Neel

Back After a Long Time...

It has been a while since I have last written a blog entry. Since March 6th, my last entry, a lot has happened. The most remarkable would be that my mom has gone to and returned from India, bringing with her my grandparents on my dad's side to live with us permanently. It is going to be a very hard move for my grandparents, who have lived in their cozy and secluded home in a small town in India all their lives, to now have to live amongst a family with two very noisy children and their working parents. We have built a very posh room in the basement of our house to accommodate them, and so far the move has gone smoothly.

Tennis season has gone on for almost a month, and I wonder whether our team is simply too good to be allowed! We have won every match and I have won every game I have played. My Dunlop racket, mentioned below, has been serving me very well, although the stiffness in my arm persists due to kevlar strings. This evening I was playing tennis with my friend who is much better than I am, but I was doing quite well; in fact, I think it was the best tennis I have ever played in my life. My serve, instead of slowly improving, has suddenly just started working, in that now I hit as hard as I can, and it somehow goes in the service box. My backhand still has to be worked on, however. Hopefully I can improve it as easily as I improved my serve. Tennis is limitless, and there is always room for improvement; Roger Federer is living proof of that.

The third grading period has ended, and my grades have improved, but AP tests are only in May. I can hardly believe 11th grade has gone by this fast... it is almost unreal. In one month, I will be taking the tests that prove that I have learned something this year. Hopefully I do well on those.

It is spring break, and tomorrow night me and my family are going to Washington, DC, to see some colleges. We plan on visiting Georgetown, American, and George Washington University. The original plan was to go see the University of Virginia as well, but my parents decided it was too far from DC (2.5 hours). I am still really looking forward to this even though UVA was supposed to be the highlight of the trip for me. Georgetown especially will be amazing.

I saw one of my favorite movies again after about a year. It is called New York, and it is a Bollywood movie half in english, half in hindi. It's about an innocent indian man who had to live in NYC post 9/11 and how it affected him. EVERYONE should see this movie, whether or not you know hindi (use subtitles).

Tons more has happened, but I cannot think of everything right now.

ILL BE BACK.

New Racket

I love my new tennis racket... it is working great for me. Dunlop Aerogel 500 Lite.

I dont tend to hit as hard, but I like to use spin, so this racket is great for me.

Also, I have it strung with Ashaway Crossfire 17 Kevlar at 60. This is rough on the arm, but great for spin and control.

I will update as I play more with this racket.

UPS: What Can Brown do for ME??

I am waiting for my new tennis racket to come in from California. I ordered it with UPS second day air three says ago... if it doesn't come in tonight within the next hour, I will have to wait until monday. Since tryouts are monday, I won't be able to use it for another week (I can't start using a new racket in the middle of tryouts). After initially cursing UPS and their empty promises, I thought I should try to track it. So I went onto the website and found that I could track it pretty well:

Location	Date	Local Time	DescriptionWhat's This?
THORNBURG, PA, US	03/05/2010	7:29 A.M.	OUT FOR DELIVERY
	03/05/2010	6:23 A.M.	ARRIVAL SCAN
NEW STANTON, PA, US	03/05/2010	3:35 A.M.	DEPARTURE SCAN
	03/05/2010	1:20 A.M.	ARRIVAL SCAN
HARRISBURG, PA, US	03/04/2010	10:13 P.M.	DEPARTURE SCAN
	03/04/2010	8:36 P.M.	ARRIVAL SCAN
PHILADELPHIA, PA, US	03/04/2010	5:42 P.M.	DEPARTURE SCAN
	03/04/2010	11:29 A.M.	ARRIVAL SCAN
ONTARIO, CA, US	03/04/2010	3:44 A.M.	DEPARTURE SCAN
	03/04/2010	12:53 A.M.	ARRIVAL SCAN
SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA, US	03/03/2010	7:30 P.M.	DEPARTURE SCAN
	03/03/2010	6:31 P.M.	ORIGIN SCAN
US	03/03/2010	8:25 P.M.	BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

Tracking results provided by UPS: 03/05/2010 5:38 P.M. ET

This impressed me a lot, and I realized there is a lot more to shipping than putting something on a plane and driving it to a house. Apparently UPS doesn't ship to Pittsburgh Airport so they had to drive the racket over from Thornburg, PA (Which I have never heard of... have you??). Also surprising was the number of cities the racket went to. It started in San Luis Obispo, CA, which is Tennis Warehouse headquarters. It then flew to five other cities before being loaded onto a truck! And here my mom complains about connecting flights when going on vacation! :P

*UPDATE* WHILE WRITING THIS ENTRY, I CHECKED THE UPS SITE AND MY RACKET HAS ARRIVED. I LOVE IT! (I have yet to play with it though :) ).

Anyway, the process is pretty complicated, and my respect for shipping companies has gone up a lot!

New York University: New Motivation

I have officially begun my college hunt, and it is high time. I have been looking at colleges like Brown University, Boston University, University of Pittsburgh, Georgetown, Michigan, Penn, and Villanova, a scattering of levels of difficulty to attend. But the one college that I have found to be achievable and flat-out amazing is New York University. Apparently NYU doesn't have much of a clear cut campus, but is scattered throughout NYC. According to collegeprowler, it is "hard" in admission difficulty, but if I get in, it would be amazing. I have checked my chances with collegeboard, and they are looking good. I have to do a lot of work, however. I consider tonight, February 25th, to be the turning point in my life. I have finally realized that I need to get serious about school, and I only hope it isn't too late. No longer will my top priority be to talk to my friends during class, or to check out the girl over there. I will pay attention and do everything I can to get A's in all my classes (besides chemistry :(, that is a lost case). I will do AP test prep and SAT prep all the time, and everything possible to get into NYU for medicine. I can barely imagine how awesome it would be to get into this school!

Wish me luck.

Tennis Season in Two Weeks

Tennis season starts in less than two weeks, and I am still not where I want to be in terms of skill. Honestly, I can't have expected any better, considering I haven't played more than once a week all winter. I was studying for my SATs so I had to stop taking private lessons. My serve is pathetic and my backhand has no spin and not enough power. From this point on, since I still have two weeks, I am going to try to get better. Since NA's varsity tennis team is the defending state champion, I know making varsity is unrealistic for me. But I want to try to be in the top 5 JVs. Tennis is an extremely fun sport to play, and I simply love spring because of tennis season. As for my fitness for this season, I am better than ever with just one problem: the issue of my shoes remains unresolved. I am flat-footed with shin-splints, and every step hurts when I run. It hurts in tennis too, but nothing like in cross country, so hopefully it isn't too much of a factor to my gameplay. I have tried a variety of shoes to take care of this, but none of them have made any difference, and I am now looking towards orthodics (specialized shoes made for an individual) but they may be too expensive. I have watched a lot of tennis since last season, following Wimbledon, the US Open, and the Australian Open intently. Hopefully this will help me play better, if only marginally. I went to a clinic on friday night with a lot of friends from the team. I am not nearly as bad as I could have been, and I actually think I might start the season at a higher level than I expected. My forehand is well controlled and has good spin. My volleys leave much to be desired, though. Hopefully my forehand will help me power ahead of other players. I am going to play as often as possible from today, and maybe by tryouts on March 8, I will have improved enough to start where I want to on the team.

Wish me luck, and I will update this after tryouts.

AP US History Teacher on Jeopardy

My AP US History Teacher, Mr. Mark Venezia, was on the show Jeopardy in 2001. Here are his statistics:

http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=2249

Though he ended with -$200, it was a great achievement just to make it on the game show. There is a preliminary written test, which is quite difficult to pass. Mr. Venezia had been doing really well in the first round; he had the lead with $1900. He continued to do well through the second round, right up until the end, where he missed some big ones and then bet all his money on a Daily Double: "This verb's synonyms include vilify, abuse, berate & disparage." He said "bedevil," and the answer was "revile."

Too bad, Mr. V, but still a great job.