Where Did My Summer Go?

Dear Followers,

When Summer Vacation began just a few months back, I had decided that I would push productivity to all new highs and accomplish a neat and organized list of goals I had typed out for myself. Not only did I happen to lose that list during the first week of Summer Vacation, but I can confidently say that my productivity has actually dropped to all time lows. Once again my sleeping schedule has become a dirty mess.

Once again I have made the mistake of leaving all of my work to collect dust until August. One again I have made the mistake of trying to learn two very different languages at the same time. Once again I have made the mistake of believing that I am able to control how long I watch anime on a given day.

But then again, Summer Vacation this year has definitely been one of the most enjoyable. Maybe my marginal increase in individual freedom from last year is responsible, but from APYC to Don Pablo's, this Summer Vacation has been full of new experiences. But that's not the purpose of this post. I just really don't feel like cracking open that Spanish 4 textbook and memorizing vocabulary words that I had already memorized in Spanish 3.

I can't remember the last time I blogged. Oh wait, I wrote that review of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 for Wes. Hopefully Lucifer has realized by now that I was joking when I wrote it. I guess for me blogging is my outlet for faking productivity when I want to avoid working on something that actually needs to get done. That would help rationalize my drop in blog posts with the onset of Summer Vacation.

I guess I just felt like making a new blog post because Rishi Sinha told me that he would appreciate it if I did. That's enough motivation for me. Sorry if my rants about essentially nothing aren't what you were looking for Rishi. The environment in Bagchi Lab isn't very suited to card cutting, so I can't cut the fantastic articles I found last night.

Today in the morning I went paintballing for my second time. The ride to Maple Plaine involved Avi dogmatically doubting the navigational capabilities of an iPhone and winding around the paintball building for several minutes. Unlike my last experience with paintball, the course in Maple Plaine was very open, containing only a few red and blue inflatable pieces of cover. Learning from my mistakes, I brought sweatpants and a sweatshirt to replace my dress shirt and khakis. My fatal flaw was not bringing a pair of gloves.

As you probably expect with a group of Indians playing paintball, much of our games devolved into a contest to see who could hide themselves the best. Keshav Mangalick was surprisingly skilled, easily taking down most of the other team and then passing it off as nothing with his usual humbleness. I decided to go balls deep and just swarm the other team once the opening crossfire was completed. Surprisingly I got hit significantly less when I charged individual players then when I decided to just play it safe. The only drawback was the experience of having my fingers devastated at point blank by paintball shrapnel. Now people will suspect that my parents abuse me.

Unlike my last paintballing experience I managed to go a whole hour and a half without betraying anybody on my team and then blaming it on Cameryn Luong. Overall, paintballing was definitely the best Hindu Mandir Camp experience yet for me. I didn't realize how much work running and shooting a paintball gun was until I nearly fell asleep on the car ride home. Even Sachin Mangalick was quiet on the way back.

I guess I should probably talk about Hindu Mandir Camp as a whole, but I really don't feel like doing that right now. That will probably be a post for the weekend. Hindu Mandir Camp is really the same as it has been every year, except this year I feel really detached from all of the activities, probably because I have had to miss so many. This year I was able to sleep soundly during the sleepover however, even though my laptop was laying out in the open the whole night. I don't feel safe in that auditorium. Not one bit.

Well, I am probably going to go to Dairy Queen to get an Oreo Cheesequake and reminisce about my days in June when I could get one everyday and not feel September creeping up on me. When scouring YouTube a few days back I came across the following Naruto ED. I really hate the direction that Naruto has taken, but this ED reminded me of my Wayzata East Middle School days when Naruto was way more enjoyable. Fantastic animation, colors, and music.

What's Going On?
Noel