So, let's see what's new...
I finished the semester with all As, keeping my 4.0.  I got ranked high enough to get an A in aptitude for commissioning.  I also got an A in conduct, and then my C in PE (72 PRT, hard-fought 69.5 in swimming).  With a 4.0 academically, I'm still first academically.  However, the Academy decides to (this semester) take in varsity status.  Since the Drum and Bugle Corps travels as much and practices almost as much as the varsity football, in years past, D&B had been considered a varsity sport for military order of merit.  Now, however, cause of the new Superintendant, it's only an intramural sport, so my "ATHPERS" rating is a 0.  This simple thing dropped my semester military GPA from a 3.63 to a 3.09.  With that said, my military ranking slipped to 242 (of 1142), causing a slight drop in my overall order of merit (27).  Still, 27 out of 1142 isn't that much to complain about.  I also got selected by the math department chair and honors committee to become a math honors major a whole year early.  I'm also just straight-up skipping a class because my discrete prof convinced the department that I pretty much knew everything in it already (which is fairly true, cause I read through the text book in a little over a week and understood most of it).

So, now what am I up to?  Summer training.  I flew into Honolulu last Saturday (the day after commissioning, meaning I had no time home inbetween) for a 4-week assignment to the USS Hopper (DDG-70).  DDG means guided-missile destroyer.  I follow an enlisted guy assigned to me to see what it's like for enlisted personnel in the Navy.  He's in the weapons department, so I get to deal with all sorts of fun things that go "boom!"  We've been in port (in Pearl Harbor) since I've gotten here.  We go underway (out to sea) for the next couple of days, and then a few more days here and there before I fly back June 20.  Then I get like 2 days home (yay!) before I go back to the Academy to go sailing for another 4 weeks (culminating with a roundtrip up to Newport, RI and back).  Then, I get my amazing 4-week summer vacation.  Yay!

Stuff I've been doing in Oahu: going to Waikiki, surfing (it was an interesting experience) on some beach on the west coast, doing lots of cleaning/moving stuff on the ship.  It's been cool, I guess, especially since I could've been underway the entire time I've been here

[	Current Location	|	HOME!!!!	]
[	mood	|	happy	]

I hardly ever post to this thing anymore, which I blame on my lack of time, but I'm on spring break!  So, I'll procrastinate a little while writing my ancient history paper (I have really grown to despise these core classes).  But the semester has been going well.  I'm finally officially a math major (we just declared last week), but it was sort of already decided for me when I enrolled in 3 math classes this semester (it's unheard of for a plebe to be done with so many core classes, but I made as many of my AP scores count).  I'm in Differential Equations (plebe-only section; Dif. Eq. is a core class for all engineering and science majors), Matrix Theory (the first major class for math majors, but it's also used in a couple other majors, like quantitative economics and probably a couple of the computer-type majors), and Discrete Mathematics.  Discrete is the most amazing class ever.  There's a little over 20 people in the section, with one frosh (myself), 2 sophomores, and the rest all juniors and seniors (it's a 300-level math course).  So, where do I fit in this class?  I'm the kid people ask for help.  We've had two tests (the last being Friday morning).  My prof says his tests are long, and it does take everyone the entire class do to them, except me, who'll finish with 20 minutes to spare in a 50-minute period, and the only mistakes I make are misreading the question.  Both tests, the prof immediately took me outside and went over what I did (and how I'd slip up and not draw a graph because I skipped over that sentence in a question, for example).  And, then, on Friday, he gave me a "special" (as in insanely hard) problem to work on, cause he'd know I finish early.  I still have yet to finish that problem, but I want to work on it over break.  So, I'm the top of a 300-level math class.  As I've said, discrete is just nothing short of amazing mathematics.  

I'm so weird for saying that....

I figure I've got enough time tonight to tell you all about those four days I spent doing nerdy world affairs stuff. I'll do this in two parts: non-MUN stuff first and a brief overview of the stuff I did in council. Going on the trip were Ms. Wilkinson, 8 sophomores (4 guys, 4 girls), and myself. [Edit: Sorry for the length and the typos! (I'm too lazy to find and change them all)]

Thursday, February 15
We left school at 7 in the morning. We were suppossed to have left at 6, but the administration decided it would be better to have the bus leave when the Sun was up (during rush hour). This would've been tolerable, except for the fact that we had a White House tour scheduled at like 9 in the morning. Thankfully, getting there late didn't screw anything up. The tour was just walking through a couple of rooms (like the Green and Gold Rooms). It was self-guided, but we got to exit through the front door. After that, we went to Castle's and Carper's Congressional offices (Biden was too busy with Presidential Campaign stuff to let us visit him). With Castle, we spent more time with an aid, who showed us his cramped office. When Castle arrived (he was speaking in the House about the $1 coins [we actually got to see one--an aid had one]), he basically met us, said hi, took a photo, and said bye. With Carper, we talked a lot with Carper (who makes millions of jokes), whom I got to personal thank for his nomination (he said it was an honor) and his aid (who seemed rather uneducated on key political topics). In addition, another aid, a Sallies grad who did MUN and NAIMUN, gave us a staff-lead tour of the Capital (we got to take the miny subway back and forth), which was cool. He didn't know as much as a professional tour guide, but it was pretty cool. When we got back, we checked in and went to opening ceremonies and our first session.

Friday, 2/16
The Second Session (session numbers didn't start over with each new day) didn't start until the afternoon, so we had the morning off. We slept in til about 10ish. Wilkinson asked what we wanted to do. She asked me first, and I said homework (not knowing that she was planning on actually going somewhere). Three of the girls couldn't go anywhere because they were going to meet with people in the councils for resolution working after lunch. The concensus of the rest of the group was the Spy Museum. I didn't go (they ended up being pinched for time, anyways) but got some awesome (sarcastic smile) reading done on the political institutions of Great Britain for AP Government. When lunchtime came, the girls and I decided to go to a Subway a couple of blocks away. On the way back, we passes the Founding Church of Scientology, which was having an open house. We decided to go in only to find almost every single Sallies boy in there (I found out from a Padua girl on the bus ride home that Sallies has a tradition of going to the Scientology Church and having everyone try to be the first guy thrown out for annoying them). I was nice to the guy who gave the four of us a tour out of respect, but, by the time we left, he was actively trying to convert us (telling us to try to find the closest Scientology Church in DE (we told him we went to Saint Mark's High School, and he still seemed to lack some respect for other people's religious views).  It turns out that there actually exists a device that suppossedly measures a person's stress (it's the machine with the two silver cylinders you grab onto with your hands connected to a needle).  The guy legitimately thought that it measured someone's emotions.  I think the thing works by measuring pressure (the fact that moving your hands throws of readings [he told us that] supports this); in addition, if you're stressed, you're going to squeeze whatever it is in your hands harder.  The place is borderline cult as it has a huge picture of L. Ron Hubbard in the middle of its chapel and proudly designates the office from which Hubbard worked as "L. Ron Hubbard's Office."  Even scarier is that there is a tiny room with a couple of chairs with a movie screen in it.  People are looked into the room and are forced to watch videos on Scientology.  The funniest thing is that, when we left, none of the girls had any idea as to what Scientology exactly was (I tried my best to explain, saying that it's a way to "better your soul" that uses terms and rituals invented by Hubbard).  After that were two more Committee Sessions, before and after dinner.

Saturday, 2/17
There was a session in the morning and another in the afternoon.  That evening was the delegate dance (which pretty much was a massive orgy).  Before the dance was Fr. Hurley's 20 minute complete Sunday Mass.  After going to the dance for about 10 minutes, I decided to go to Fr. Hurley's trivia challenge.  Two SMH guys and a girl--the president--came along as well, creating the first SMH team in at least four years (I don't know if SMH did it beforehand).  It dragged on for more than the promised 1/2 hour to almost 2 hours, as Sallies, Father Judge, and North Catholic duked it out with us in the normal division, and alumni of the three schools fought in the alumni division.  Of the 11 or so questions we got right, I got most of them.  I still don't get why Fr. Hurley didn't accept San Juan as the capital of Antigua and Barbuda, whose capital is St. John's (I just said it in Spanish).  We came in third, beating Sallies.  Since everyone else ended up leaving before the end, I was the sole collector of the third place $20 dollar award (4th place was $10, 2nd $100, and 1st $500), but I did share it with the other three people.

Sunday, 2/18
We went to the last session in the morning and then Closing Ceremonies (we didn't get any awards) and stopped by the Museum of Natural History before going home (Padua joined us on the bus ride home).  We came back around 7ish, and that was the day.

The Future Security Council (no veto power; US, UK, France, Russia, China, Mexico, India, Pakistan, UAE, Iran, Indonesia, Argentina, South Africa; the delegates for Monogolia and Finland never showed up; gavel-Pakistan, Outstanding-UK, Honorable Mention-South Africa)
The topics: (remember, in the Future Security Council, delegates can make up treaties, government actions, etc. within reason)
Topic I: Sino-Russian relations: In 2026, China and Russia are superpowers (the US isn't that powerful anymore), but there is a resurgence of border dispute problems.  This, coupled with alleged human rights abuses on Chinese immigrant workers in Russian oil fields, made an armed conflict likely.  We were going to send in a fact-finding mission to investigate the human rights abuses before we received a Chinese TV broadcast (a guy entered our room, sat at the table, started talking in Chinese before he switched to English), stating that China had launched a small-scale invasion into Russia to show Russians "how to live the great Chinese life."  It might be good to note that, in the info packet given to me months ago, it was stated that a 2019 military treaty existed between the US and China, but I was told by the chair I could interpret it anyway I wanted to.  I decided that the US would only go to war with China if China were to be attacked/ brought into a large-scale open war.  When the Russian delegate spoke, he informed the council that Russia had declared war on Russia.  Then, the Pakistani delegate spoke and informed us of a treaty between Pakistan, Iran, and Russia and that Pakistan and Iran were willing to go to war alongside Russia.  I then could speak; I, due to my interpretation of the treaty and Russia's actions, decided to declare war on Russia.  However, after this, the Russia delegate made it clear that he did not declare war on China and that the Russian military was only responding on the smallest scale possible; Pakistan and Iran rescinded their willingness to take up arms, and I said I was misinformed by Washington: Congress wasn't in session, but the President had decided to pledge only strategic support to China via an executive order.  We then achieved peace through a cease-fire and the withdraw of the Chinese military.

Topic II:
India-Pakistan: With Kashmir ceded to China by India in 2010, little can be done about border disputes.  However, a terrorist group with VX nerve agent (very bad stuff) was discovered in Pakistan; it's only living because of some minor corruption in the Pakistani government (which is a "stalwart ally with the US in the War on Terror").  I told Pakistan that the US respected Pakistani soveirgnty and that US resources were able to be used to help combat the terrorist group.  Lead by France, most of the Security Council (as in everyone but Pakistan and I) want to send UN troops into Pakistan.  I asked the council to consider the fact (after saying that we must indeed combat terrorism) that Pakistan has been a strong supporter of the War on Terror for the past 20 years and that they can combat the group; if help is needed they will ask for it, "We must combat terrorism on Pakistan's terms."  Pakistan then was able to say that foreign troops could enter Pakistan--but they had to be led by the US and consist of a majority of US troops (it helps to recognize the soveriegnty of a nation).  Pakistan and I co-wrote a resolution (not yet passed) creating a force to combat the terrorist group: 50% Pakistani, 50% US-led.  At this time, we were informed of a terrorist attack by the terrorist group (it had a long, Arabic name; I'll abbreviate it to L-e-J) in which the LeJ released a small amount of VX into India.  A little bit later, a leader in the LeJ (dressed in camo with a black ski mask) stormed into the room, read off his demands of opening up the Pakistani-Indian border, gave us a 72-hour window (time ticked proportionally) to meet the demands, and stormed out of the room.  Pakistan and I, with the consent of Russia, adjusted our resolution to include a rapid response by the Russian military becaue of Russia's proximity to the situation.  In addition, the UK delegate suggested that maybe we should open the borders (no one really agreed with him); he later changed his stance.  We passed the resolution to get troops into Pakistan.  A part of the resolution had included a clause to bring the LeJ to talks between Russia, India, and Pakistan over Kashmir.  It had support until the Indonesian delegate alluded to the fact that it was giving into terrorist demands.  At the only time a could try to bring logic to the council, I made a hearfelt plea to the council in my speech as to why we shouldn't divide the question (which would allow us to vote on the clause by itself) when we were voting.  I emphasized that peaceful dialogue with terrorist groups is not giving into terrorist demands, nor is it something new.  I cited talks between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE, the Sudanese governement and rebel factions, and the UK government and the IRA.  This was able to win over a few more people, but the clause failed to pass (we divided the question), 5-8 (one of those eight was the UK; remember his stance on giving into terrorist demands from before?)  It also turns out that the leader of the LeJ, exiled after a failed coup in 2020, operates out of Indonesia and has several Indonesian bank accounts.  The Indonesian delegate froze the accounts and allowed troops to enter the country through a resolution.  Troops quickly caught the leader, prompting us to release a Press Release infroming the world of the 72-hour window and threat of attack in additon to successes obtained (the troops in Pakistan were arresting several suspected terorists).  In addition, VX weapons were found trying to be smuggled into Pakistan from Iran.  Tehran (we received a press release) had yet to condemn the LeJ's terrorist attack on India, but the Iranian delegate broke against Tehran's wishes and allowed a joint Iranian-Russian force to search for weapons in Iran.  A weapons cache was found and destroyed (as were ones in Indonesia and Pakistan).  An unfriendly amendment was proposed to make an Iranian comdemnation of the attacks a necessity in order to send in troops, but it failed (several other people and I wondered how the Iranian government could allow foreign troops to look for a terrorist group it didn't publicly opose).  When the 72-hour window expired, nothing happend.

Seeing as how we finished both topics with a day to spare, our chair gave us a new topic: The Situation in Timor: violent demonstrations in West Timor (a part of Indonesia) have called for independence to join with East Timor (an indepenedent state) to form Great Timor.  The UAE and I worked on a skeleton resolution that was revised and practically rewritten as debate progressed and when South Africa joined as a sponsor.  An opposing bloc started writing their own resolution that basically said the same thing.  The opposition bloc ended up getting Indonesia's support because my bloc "didn't listen to Indonesia" (we did) and "wants to infringe upon Indonesian sovereignty" (the resolutions were so similar, I pointed out, that it would be impossible for one to infringe upon Indonesian sovereignty and the other one to not).  We got a call from the President of East Timor, who had such a bad Russian accent that it sound Jamican (we couldn't stop laughing).  We ended up passing both resolutions, which effectively created a plebiscite in the region to determine independence once peace was established and the volient protests stopped.

Sadly, because we were given the third topic in the Fifth Session (Saturday afternoon); it took us almost the entire Sixth Session (Sunday morning) to finish it, which meant no FUN MUN (basically attacking other countries for the heck of it, making up our own crises, etc.).  We did, however, raid the Security Council (the contemporary one) and another committeee's rooms (it was in the same hallway) and stole the chair's gavel in each case.  We tried to do the same in the Historic Security Council, set in 1956 (which had erupted into 2 more World Wars over the weekend), but they had already adjourned.

It was, by far, the coolest and most fun Model UN meet ever.