WOO! READERS!

WOO! READERS!
LOL.
i always thought of my blogspot as just that.
a spot to blog.
and was never seen by actual human eyes.

but now i'm learning to write for humans.
as well as aliens, but that's on the downlow!
(maithreyi's conscience: USE inflexion. refrain from the use of smileys. they do not exist in realllll lifeee!)
real maithreyi, not caring: "=P"
and here comes the BASILISK! with it's hungry tongue! :O
LOL <3 [i love xkcd!] okay. so i was in the Burlington Union. actually, more like ON the Burlington Union. They took an unflattering picture of me at the Brain Bee. And they put it on the front page. fantastic. =) but go to the webpage for a MUCH more flattering picture where i don't look repulsed and angry. (
IN MY DEFENSE! the picture was taken during this episode:
i got the question: "what class are the neurotransmitters glycine and aspartate or glutamate in?"
my answer: AMINO acids (?!)
them: sorry, the cathecholamines.
me: sorry, come again? cathecholamines are dopamine and norepinephrine!
my head: Likeeee WTH? I studied for like... 2 months. esp on this chapter. i got this. why are they judging this? i look like an idiotttt!
judges: we'll give you another question!
etc.
)
so this was an unfair picture.
where i am clearly trying to make my point.
so don't judge. don't hate. don't discriminate.
but google maithreyi burlington neuroscience. or something like that. and if you're lazzzzzy,
here's the link!
(i just thought it was SOOO extremely awesome that i could google my name and find something relevant. and interesting!)
oh and the opening bit about BURLINGTON HIGH SCHOOL competing?
a lie.
or fabrication.
it was just me.
no teachers.
just me and mommy.
and m&ms and pistachios.
that's the REAL road to success, my friends!

haha
so this is basically a nonsense post.

i just got happy that my counter said 9.
READERS!
i think i got wayyy more excited when i was 12 and getting reviews on my fanfiction...
remnants which can be found at FANFICTION.NET/~gcsmores !
again, don't judge. i wrote romance at 12. based on television. mostly gilmore girls and 7th heaven. i didn't KNOW better !

oh and i taught my brother chemistry.
it was a realllly gratifying experience.
to see him get it.
and in some way appreciate science.
i mean, we are like polarish opposites.
i'm artistically and mechanically challenged--he's a mechanical and artistic GENIUS
i am a.... well that's where the comparisons stop.
i'm not a genius.
i'm a sophomore.
and as casey, my enigmatic literature teacher describes, sophomores are sophomoric.
soph=wise. moric= moron = STUPID

so wise stupidity = sophomore.
:)

yep that's me.

thank you, thank you,
i'll be here as long as web 2.0 is :)

i'll sign-off like gossip girl.
another victim of writer's strikeee.
along with harry potter 7 script.
heroes (RIP. for now <3)
ANDDDD... that's it for now.

if you are reading this--- TAGBOARD! click the middle heart :)
and write to meee
i promise i won't kill you!
no matter who you are.
and if you think i might, say so in your post.
and because you are considerate, i might reconsider!
=)

XOXO,
GOSSIP GI--- I MEAN, MAITHREYI <3

i love the scene aesthetic...

i love the scene aesthetic...
so the scene aesthetic is the coolest new band i've become hooked on that i just don't have on my ipod cuz of laziness.

i have a post ready. but the xkcd part doesn't make sense.
i thought that today's xkcd was funny but not in the way it normally is.
i like the a/s/l then DEATH BY BASILISK thing but i just didn't get it the first time :P

so here's the post,
" Did i update yesterday? Even if i did, i'll post today!
so, yeah, i did not end up coming CLOSE to winning Poetry Out Loud. but I don't even care. I'm happy with what i HAVE won. I'm happy with where I am. Like as I sit in Casey's class and watch these scenes (scene aesthetic <33) wash over me, I do not feel. I just think. Just laugh at the stupidity of my classmates in front of me. who do not know the charge of NO3-. which is of course -1. but i choose silence. I believe in work for results, not being given them. and stupidity is fun to watch anyways cuz it usually multiplies.
just writing with my Brain Bee pen. Just basking in my ability.
I think that MIT is now a tangible goal. Because I won. Because I love neuro. Because my grades show I am capable. Because Auntie thinks I am capable. Because I'm starting SAT prep on Sunday. Because I think like I think an MIT student would think / I think like an MIT student. And Because I want it. ANd whenever I really want something, and work for it, I usually get it.
Brain bee, for example, was wanted, worked for, and acheived.
NHS.
my GRADESSSS.
everything is falling into place, so POL, though fun, wasn't my aim. at all.
so now i know what tangible entity i want to be.
a course 9 major. at MIT. my hass concentration? no idea.
i love writing.
maybe i'll be an admissions blogger?
i always tangent too much. and not the kind where you're next to a circle, the kind where you runnnnn and go full speed at NOTHING! =)
It's wayy to early to have a college picked out. especially at the caliber of MIT.
but i think I can achieve it.
And having a tangible goal makes college all the more real.
and coming. and looming. and THERE.
i mean, i paid a visit, in a way, to where I want to spend four years of my education. and i left a mark.

i want my PhD in Neuro. esp after seeing what you can do with just a PhD.
you can save lives.
you can research, have a family, and make a difference.

i want to do that.

and MAYBE i want an MD. but right now, the only thing fueling that fire is HOUSE. and that cool dude who said he had an MD/PhD from emory. and he integrates clinic in his research and research into clinic. i think i may like that.
but after MIT.

for now? i'm sticking to winning at high school :)

xoxo,
REYI <3"

FORGETFULNESS

forgetfulness, by billy collins
this is a post about Poetry Out Loud.
I dunno if I posted about POL last year, but even if I have, I can reiterate a few facts about this competition.
At Burlington, it's school-wide.
i mean, poetry is permeating the school in every way. people are reciting poems to each other, people are basking in poetry on their way to class, the halls are decked out in poems, etc.
it's a wonderful season.
i started memorizing my poem today.
it's due tomorrow.
but every time i read it, i grin. i love it.
it makes my heart sing a little.
skip a beat.
it doesn't even bother me that two others are saying the same poem because i feel like i definitely have a different take on it than both of them.

it's called forgetfulness, by billy collins.

the name of the author is the first to go,
followed obediently by the title, the plot, the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel,
which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never even heard of,
as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor,
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.

long ago, you kissed the names of the nine muses goodbye,
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now, as you memorize the order of the planets,
something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of paraguay.

whatever it is you are struggling to remember,
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,
or even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.

it has floated away down a dark, mythological river,
whose name begins with L as far as you can recall,
on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.

no wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
no wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted out of a love poem
you used to know by heart.

oh. my friday post that is completely bull and null and void :)

oh. my old post that is completely bull and null and void :)
so here's my quoted written out blog post from friday, when i was nervous and feeling really down and unsure.

" Blogtitle: Career?
Entry: Most of my educational career, I've looked at my adult life asa chance to make it big, to write the next great American novel. To be an AMAZING writer. To win the Pulitzer. To be Jhumpa Lahiri (sp?). Then CTY catered to the CIA detective side of me. And I love(d) it!
But now that I face college, I feel like i'm not giving myself room to grow. Yeah, freshman writing made me feel like I absolutely stink at writing. And writing courses would do no better. I feel like I need a chance to break through. To feed my artsy side and satisfy my scientific soul.
I mean, I'm ASIAN and my WRITING and READING SAT scores farrr surpass my mathematics scores. (that can be remedied, my parents'll say. "MATHS is in your blood!" exclaims my mother...) This should indicate that I'm ... SOMETHING.
For my career, I definitely want to do mind-altering research in neuroscience. But I feel like I want MORE. The MORE i get out of DDR, blogging, watching heroes and house. Out of CTY, not in class. and in class. That MORE. That fullfillment that my life isn't just numbers. or work. MORE."

So, looking back to friday, i realize i am pretty melodramatic.
I know what I want. and I'll always get the chance to write as a scientist in my papers. and i can still probably write books. about neuroscience. and the ever-growing field. I love writing, even though I'm not conventionally good at it.
at all! And just listening to career panel made me realize that a PhD isn't the end of the road. It's not a bajillion years and i'll be OLD! nahh, i think i can do what i want. And all i'll need is a MD/PhD or a PhD to do it.
and that's like what? 7 years or 9 years?
not too shabby.
and i'll get to do what i want all along the way.
shweeeet.

THE LUCKIEST DAY ON EARTH

THE LUCKIEST DAY ON EARTH
Today was beyond lucky.
It was Brain Bee day.
So mommy and I left the house at like nine-ish.
We went to the temple, which was closed. I still namaskaram-ed though :)
so then we headed to cambridge.
and got lost.
and then found vassar street. on the wrong side.
so we turned around.

and then we found the place. and the parking.
which was behind the funny looking building that had the stata-center sign in front of it.
:) which was incidentally the stata-center.
who'd have thought?
LOL mommy and i took pictures! :)
then,
we registered.
and i was excited.
and others were being nervous and studying, i studied the posters.
and then i chilled with mommy, eating pistachios and M&Ms :)
then a couple of western mass kids (seniors) came to sit with us. they were named lilly and ben
and i thought they were pretty awesome.
they were totally cool about the 2 hour drive
and we talked and chilled til testing.

the test was uber hard.
i thought i COMPLETELY failed.
legit.
my mommy could tell.
no money today , i thought in my head.
and all this while a guy from a biotech lab talked to our table about what he does, and then a panel discussion about how science careers work, and photo opps for the guy paid to take pictures and then the keynote about smell.
i was sooooo nervous.
esp when they called names for the live round.

they said my name so funny i didn't think i got anything.

i tried to concentrate and look over terms in between the keynote and live, but nothing went in really.

then i just took my seat in front of the audience and the panel.
nervous.
shaking.
trying to smile.
" :) "

but, hey, no one's perfect.

then the questions started.
and they wouldn't stop.
they judges probably sorta knew their stuff, but not enough to judge.
i mean, i KNEW i got a question right that they said was wrong. figures. but they gave me a second chance, which is good.

then it was strike 2.
i knew i couldn't afford another misstep.

i waited it out until there were 3.
i messed up.

oh well, third place !

so the sudden death was pretty much dead.

and a senior from newton south won
and 2nd was a senior from belmont high.
and 3rd was a sophomore from burlington high school.

ME.

and apparently, the 1st place winner may not go to nationals cuz she MAY be in paris.
and apparently, the 2nd place winner may not go in place of the 1st cuz she's in a play.
and I, apparently, am the fill-in if the 1st place winner can't make it.

i'm stokeddddddddd ;)

so my mother goes crazy. calling everyone she knows.
ranting about me, and how awesome i am. i love her.

and then we finally get home after appreciating the sunsetting on cambridge.

and i am greeted by my somewhat pleased father.
who likes making fun of my tunglish.

and while i check the mail, there are two letters from school.

one, more official looking, i open.

it's NHS.
i'm in.
second happy dance of the day.
and second time i laugh without laughing.

then my report card.
*open nervously*
OMG. OMG. OMG.
all A+s!
alllllll except casey. oh well.
AND i was super nervous about my vb program which wouldn't run.
i got an A+.
wow.

so we went to bertucci's to celebrate!

and ate goat cheese pizza (ewww) LOL <3

i love my family
i love my friends.
i love where i am right now.
--Maithreyi