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[2001] [Jan 2002]

Warning: those links ("home", "about", etc.) don't work, so don't click on them.

Just to let you know: -StEveE- is currently being reconstructed (Steve decided to work on it again). So, only this page will be updated, for now. Everything else will be put together, then the release of the entire site. Got it? Thanks. =)


Thursday, January 04, 2001

Good morning! =) So, I'm at school right now, stuck in Physics class. Obviously, as you can see, Mr. Keller was not here, so we have a free. Right now, this is my third consecutive free for the day. Nice. First Aid--OC wasn't here, so we did nothing, but I did English, so it's all good. Period three's my usual free. We had fun with my water bottle, while Craig and Dave Wrigley put in yellow hilighter fluid. LOL. "Hey! it's a new flavor Gatorade! Hyper lemon!! hahaha." But, I almost got in trouble, because SOMEONE *ahemYEahem* thought it was a real drink and almost drank it. He was lucky that it was non-toxic. Finished my notes for English in the first 10 minutes of class [this class] haha. Next period. Lunch. Yay. I heard we have distance today for practice. All good. Craig said that he's probably doing 4 quarters, since he didn't do the workout yesterday. Ok, let's see what's happening around the room. wrigs is reading physics, Ryan's playing solitaire, Viv's walking around with her english homework, Charles is next to her, Masato's walking around, Q's playing Minesweeper, Kedar, Roger, Ye, and Amy are talking about WinXP and whatever. Judy's bored, Sandy's doing work, and I'm here haha. Fun. Our sub's doing stuff on his laptop, so yeah. Ok, now I have nothing to talk about now. So I'll go now, before I get in trouble. Ok, byeeeee! Chen out.
posted by Steven G. Chen at 10:42AM

 

Thursday, January 03, 2001

So, I'm back from the XC Banquet. It was great--going back to the old running days in the park. Oh man, I want to live in those memories forever, if I could. XC RULES! And it does.
It was great to see all the past xc runners again. Grabs, Andril, Superstar, Viva, Jennitta, PJ, Jackel, etc. They seem to be doing well in post-secondary school (aka college), so it's all good. hehe.
So, onto the banquet. The freshman skits were horrible, as usual. Haha. I love that Lip costume that Albert made. Damn, I actually thought that it was Lip! Fooled me. haha. They used my shades for that!! LOL. I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY TALKED ABOUT THAT PAUL-LEO INCIDENT DURING THE KEYPORT DUAL MEET. Oh man. Oops. That was funny, but I felt bad. I would feel embarrassed if I were him. It's ok, Leo. Hey, I got embarrassed at the one two years ago when I got the pic of Viva. That was not nice. But LOL.
Will and Testaments. Of course we did not get any of the girls' things, well, I got a few, but that was it. And the guys'. HAHA. Gotta love Leo's and Eddie's--SAT book and a pic of Joanne. LOL. I can't believe they got me advil. Now everyone knows that I'm a druggie. psh. Just kidding.
HAHHAHAH, that was funny. We filled up Coach's car with water bottles that we saved since Spring Track last year. That was nice. I have pics of that, I'll put up in a little bit.
It really was a great speech, Lip. I was touched, I'll say that. Yeah, we did care a lot, but it was you and coach Loughran who cared even more that made us care. A little confusing? I agree, but it's true, if you get it. Hm, we got our cards back from group 2. That was awesome, though I ran horribly on that meet. Now we can remember this. Sigh. Memories. Last XC season, now over. Oh well. Life goes on.
Oh, congrats to those who earned awards. Craig-outstanding runner (Boys), Ash-outstanding runner (Girls), Ed-Harrier (Boys), Paul-Brian... (what's his name?), Q-most improved (Boys), Gracee-most improved (Girls), Emily-Harrier (Girls)... i think that was it. =)
Awesome night. Great way to end the day. =) Next big thing, New Year's Celebration at church on Saturday (gotta go for a run during it), and State Relays on Sunday--4x8 and 4x4!
good night and sweet dreams to everyone.
posted by Steven G. Chen at 11:00PM

 

So, such a great day (of course it was sarcastic). School, as usual, was boring. Nothing great happened. Craig felt sick, so he went home and didn't go to practice. First aid was fun, like always, when Charles and I went first to do the skill test--child CPR. Yes, we got to play with a m-a-n-n-e-q-u-i-n (spelled it right, right gracee?). haha. English was interesting when the heater would make rather disturbing noises--noises like someone passing wind, if you konw what I mean. yuck. lol. Either way, I couldn't stay awake in that class. My head started to nod as the period went on, TOO BORING. AHH! Spanish, La Casa de Bernarda Test on 2nd and 3rd acts. OUCH, I failed that. At least my day went better as I went to 9th period--Discrete Math. Mr Lewis went home sick, so we didn't do anything in class. So, I left. =) Great way to end the day, with more to come! Practice was fun. Wore my running shades--along with Jon Kwong and Craig Percopo, who took my other pairs hehe. Kwong looked hot in the gold frames and yellow lenses while Percopo wore the silver frames with black lenses. HAHA. Crazy. Very nice workout. 1200, 800, 800, 800, 400, 400. 3:58, 2:31, 2:35, 2:32, 68, 73. Ouch. I mean this light-heartedly, but I HATE MERCES, EDDIE and Q!! You guys love to jinx me, don't ya?! After two laps of warmdown, BOOM - leg spazzed, or was about to, but I felt it. You guys... haha. I'm ok now, we'll see at the banquet. So now I'm home, about to take a shower, getting ready for the banquet. YES! FINALLY!!
posted by Steven G. Chen at 5:48PM

 

Well, Happy New Year to all! 2002! A little over half a year until I'm out of prison--school. It could be seen as a good thing, yet a bad thing, too. Good? Because I can get an ACTUAL life, when I get into college. Bad? I'll miss all my friends since it may be a while after til I see them again, that is, after I move into my dorm and all. But, hey, it's not time yet, so I'll just hold that thought. =) What a year it has been so far! Man. So much has happened, I don't even know where to start. I guess I'll start with my "addiction"--cross country.

Man, THAT was a CRAZY season we had. First thing's first. We already had our top 7 set during the summer: Craig, Paul, Leo, Eddie, Quraish, Dave and me. So we trained off each other. We also had another addition, who became a huge part of our success--"Volunteer" Assistant Coach Todd Lippin, an ex-CBA coach and CBA alumni. This guy basically incorporated all the "CBA secrets" into our training. Tough at first, but we got the hang of it. Soon enough, we got to see the results of this new way of training. We scored BIG at invitationals. To list a few of them:

2nd at Stewart Memorial (17:23 avg) << Best avg at that meet for HHS
1st at Shore Coaches Invitational (17:24 avg) << Best avg at that meet for HHS
3rd at Monmouth County Championship (17:17 avg) << School Record
1st at Eastern States Championship
1st at Central Jersey II Sectionals (17:14 avg) << School Record
4th at Shore Conference (16:30 avg) << Best avg at that meet at OCC for HHS
1st at States GROUP TWO (17:11 avg) << School Record
9th at MOC (17:09 avg) << School Record

Quite a number of accomplishments, don't you think? Yeah. The most amazing one was at States, when we won group two. We went in as second pick, because Haddonfield was in our group, and they were ranked NATIONALLY #4. But, due to some unfortunate events (their #2 man, Skip Stiles, dropped out of the race), we won. Crazy eh? Definitely, but it was NICE. Hence, "Holmdel Stuns Nation's No. 4, Haddonfield."

I wasn't too pleased with my PB, but oh well. My season was cut short after Counties because I really did some damage to my right hip during that race. So the rest of that season was to train through. Sigh. Oh well. I'm healed now, for the most part, so now it's time for payback.

What else happened during the season? hm. Oh yes, the pre-meet dinners at the Segal's. Those were great. Really. The food was delicious! I kept going up for more, yummmy. And as usual, grabs and q were having their contests to see who could eat the most, lol. We watched Hoosiers and Chariots of Fire, too. It was great. Ah, yeah, we all got hair cuts the day before MOC, so that was cool. All had their heads buzzed, except for me. I know guys, I'm a pansy, oh well. Even lip got one, too. Haha. Coach? eh, he said that his wife wouldn't let him. Aww. =)

Oh yeah, NO school went undefeated this season. Haddonfield, who ALMOST was undefeated, lost to us at Group 2, so there. lol. And, speaking of undefeated seasons, congratulations to the girls for being A-Central Champs and being undefeated in their dual meets. Unfortunately, for us, we lost to Wall, so to say "Wall Stuns Holmdel," and got much criticism. But who would've thought that their beating us lasted for only a few days. The next week, at Counties, we took third. And them? Twentieth. Now we see. That meet was also the one that cut my season short, that is, for improvement. I hurt my hip a few days before the meet, and stayed off from running. Came back in time for the County meet, ran it, and busted it again during the race, but hung on. OH MAN, that HURT. It wasn't fun, since it took out the rest of my season, but I learned a lot from that one race. I could've easily stopped running, like what coach said that I should've done, but I didn't--I don't know why I didn't, but that's what happened. Man, I wish I could go back and live those memories again...

OH! We all got nicknames too! Hahaha. I am the... CHENMASTER. I don't remember how I got it, but it's mine! lol. I love Q's--conductor. haha. Of course no one got it when he wore his conductor's hat to school on Halloween. LOL. oh well. There's "Q-train" (Q, me, grabs), "Big Three" (Merce, Eddie, Leo), "Buddha Belly" (Coach Loughran) << yuck. haha. It was disgusting coach! You've blinded eddie too many times hahahaha. So yeah, it was fun. Hanging around after practice to chat and have fun. It was awesome--wished we could do it again.

Now that the season was over. I'd like to really thank coach Loughran and Lippin for all their efforts. It truly was awesome to have such talented and experienced coaches to lead us into doing amazing feats. Hey, they weren't just coaches to us, but mentors. It was great hanging around after practice, being the only few people in school, to just talk about life and stuff. I guess, on a personal note, it was Coach Loughran that brought me to a new level of training that one summer practice. Yeah, I remember it still. I held on to my part of the deal, until injury struck. And Lip, that one frontwoods-backwoods workout showed me something that I never thought would happen. !!! 19 SECONDS only?!? Sheesh. Yeah, those were some of the few things that I learned from these two amazing coaches. I don't think any other coach could've done a more thorough job than these two... It was a pleasure running under their guidance...

Ah, the many tasks of a senior. BLAH to them aLL. Yes, college applications. But I'm almost done. 98% done. I'm so happy. My schools? hm. I applied to UIUC, UMichigan, Georgia Tech, Rutgers, Penn State, UMASS-Amherst, Stevens Institute of Tech, Purdue, and UMaryland-College Park. Blah. Blah. I hate being dumb. So far, accepted to Rutgers and Penn State. Yes! 2 down, 7 to go!

Winter Track. So far, it's cold. haha. Well, now it's getting cold. In the beginning of December (last year), it was like 60 degrees out--WARM. Haha, now it's below freezing. Oh well, it's winter. So far, ran in the 4x8 and 4x4 at Counties. Er, did ok, but not so great. 2:14.99 for 800m and 0:59.1 for 400m. Got yelled at by lip for my poor anchor-leg performance for the 800, sigh. I suck now, gotta work on that. Coach said that I'm probably going to run the same this Sunday at State Relays. Gotta do better. Practices have been alright. Manageable.

Ah, October 31, a few of us decided to dress us as the asian mafia. hahahaha. I have a pic of that but need to get it scanned. It was me, eddie, masato, vivian, and frances. haha, nice. we had the suits and shades and all that. All black. lol. Coach saw me at school and was like "ah, nice costume, CHENMASTER" hahah.

Winter Vacation. Um, good? Was mostly at church for Winter SSC. Hm, different theme, but it was cool. More emphasis on prayer. No test, so it was good. =) Met some new people, some old friends, some who I haven't seen in a while, it's all good. My auntie [Chantel] is so cool! I mean it too. We had the best activity right?? and ice-breaker. lol. go out and have a picnic at 5 IN THE MORNING. LOL. Fun. Oh yes, the napkin passing notes thingy. that was cool. hehe. T, our wake up system rocked, until the last day, sorry! vovoan, hii =Þ guess who?? lol. (no i'm not actually laughing out loud) hehe. And my jacket smells like a girl!!! =\
Hm, gracee, what/how am I supposed to eat this chocolate?? I was planning to keep it til the summer, when I'm not running anymore, but it'll rot or something. Hm. But thank you for that. And there's a deeper thank you for you, but you already know it. Also, gracee, don't get frustrated. "Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success." --Napolean Hill. Don't give up, just wait til your hip heals, and you'll be up and ready to go. We all believe in you. I know that the record will be yours. Just wait on it. Patience. Hey, at least you can run, even if I had to accompany you, just to make sure you don't get kidnapped and/or raped, and even if that was my second run for the day. =)
Min, the bear is so cute! hehe. Now you have to name it. Take your time -- no rush =). Enjoy snowboarding?

My classes:
AP Econ << Boring
First Aid << I have a dumb class
Free << "gracee, stop cutting"... craig doing bird's homework... Wrigs and his clementines (yummy)
AP Physics << hm... interesting
Lunch << Charles is crazy... Jeremy is infatuated by Frances's backpack... Food fights and squirting water all over...
AP English << NOOOO
AP Calculus BC << um...?
AP Spanish 5 << crazy... i hate spanish plays
Discrete << we don't do anything in this class...

Whoa, this is getting long. And I'm missing a few things too. Oh well, if i remember them, i'll put them down. XC banquet today, workout today, spanish test today. CRAP. =( ok, well. I'm out. Talk to you all laters!
posted by Steven G. Chen at 1:06AM