User:Mross
From MariachiWiki
"I'm on the internet!" -Michael Ross on his user page
Michael Ross was born Michael Ross in some hospital on Long Island on July 5 of 1991. He learned to read at a very early age, enabling him to attend a private school from first to eigth grades. In ninth grade, he began to attend Northport High School. He is currently attending the Mariachi workshop with teachers Mr. Horan and Ms. Waszmer as well as fellow student Russel.
Contents |
High School Career
Classes
In ninth grade, Michael took many advanced classes at the tenth or eleventh grade levels. It took many of the students in his classes several months to figure out that he was, in fact, a freshman in their class. He took AP Chemistry, AP Euro, Spanish 3R, and Math 10H. He took Design and Drawing for Production and Electricity as his electives, and chose to take Science Research in place of lunch.
In tenth grade, he continued his rigorous course load with AP Biology, AP World, Spanish 4IB, and Math 11H. His electives included Technical Drawing, Applied Electronic Circuits, and Robotics. He continued in the Science Research program in tenth grade, once again giving up his lunch period.
In eleventh and twelfth grades, he plans on entering the IB program, continuing his high course load.
Clubs
In ninth grade, Michael joined numerous clubs. He joined both the Junior and Senior Mathletes teams. He joined the Science Olympiad Club working on the Circuit Lab and Robot Ramble events, and joined the Woodworking Club once the Science Olympiads were over. He also was a member of the computer club.
In tenth grade, Michael once again joined the Senior Mathletes team and the Science Olympiad Club. He also joined the Academic Team and the Technology Honor Society.
In future years, Michael plans on continuing his participation in the Mathletes Team, the Science Olympiad Club, the Academic Team, and the Technology Honor Society.
Personal Information
Personal Style
Michael most often wears pants or shorts that are loose fitting and have many pockets. He usually wears t-shirts with amusing yet appropriate text. He has his own set of "bling" that he regularly wears.
Michael is never without some of his array of personal electronics. He usually carries his Pocket PC with him at all times. He has a PSP which he uses often for both games and music. His cell phone is usually stashed in his backpack, along with numerous cables which he probably will never actually use.
Hobbies
Michael regularly attends karate classes, where he is a first degree black belt. He also holds the dojo's bag-jumping record, at 9 bags, a height of roughly 4.5 feet.
Michael is very interested in building things. He has a collection of about a dozen robots, all built himself. He is currently working on a project to compile his collection of k'nex into a single structure.
Michael enjoys spending free time playing video games. He enjoys more active games such as DDR and Guitar Hero, as well as games on the Wii console.
Frequented Websites
Webcomics
Comics marked with a * may be inappropriate for those who are easily offended.
Others
Blog
The exciting day-to-day life of the man himself, Michael Ross!
June 25
The first day of Mariachi!
I woke up at 7:10 this morning. I had set my clock for 7 AM, but I realized when I woke up that I had forgotten to turn my alarm on. Oops!
My dad drove me into Stonybrook this morning. On future days I will be taking the train, but on the first day, my parents wanted to see me off.
I arrived at Mariachi at about 8:15 in the morning. There were a number of surveys to fill out, and I always enjoy surveys. There were 3 hours of lectures in the morning before we were released for lunch. We headed over to the Student Activity Center to buy some food, where I got myself a bowl of chili. We headed back to the physics building afterward, and hung out outside the entrance. At about 1, the wiki lecture began. This lecture was more interesting because it was so much more hands-on than the previous lectures. Unfortunately, I had no laptop. The one at home literally has a 10 minute battery life, so I didn't bring it. My trusty PSP gave me access to the internet, though it lacked the capabilities to edit wiki pages. I began the assignment writing on my pocket pc, though after 4 lines of text, I realized I had nothing else to write. I was able to access a laptop to put my changes in, and I just threw together the few lines of code I needed.
We were broken up into research groups, and I was put into the group doing research on lightning. This was perfect for me, since I am most interested in lightning (I find it far more interesting than the rest of the weather). After a while of researching, I realized that everyone else had filtered out. I also was too late to catch the train, so my dad came to pick me up.
After we got home, I had a quick dinner and then headed out to the library for a lecture on volunteer opportunities for the summer. It seemed like something really fun for me to do over the summer, and I also got to sign up for a guitar hero competition while I was there.
June 26
Today started out quite badly for me. I was once again not woken by my alarm, this time because I had set it for too late. I got to the train station and bought my tickets for the mornings. I bought 4, which seems to be too many as I missed the train this morning. The doors only stay open for 30 seconds, and there's no button that says, "Wait! I'm not on yet!"
So, my mom had to turn around on her way to work to get me and drive me to Mariachi. I still got to the program with plenty of time to spare, although I hope I didn't mess up my mom's schedule.
I turned on my Pocket PC soon after, and was thrilled to discover that the changes I had made the previous night enabled me to get onto the internet. Now I don't have to mooch off of someone else to get onto the internet!
The morning had a videoconferencing lecture in store for me and the group I was placed in. I couldn't actually use the software, because my Pocket PC doesn't have a USB port. Plus, the software probably isn't supported by Windows Mobile. After learning about the software, we began preparations for a game called taboo. It's like pictionary or charades, but using words. A clue giver is given a word as well as a list of words that he or she cannot use in the attempt to get a partner to guess the word. I managed to come up with a few impossible word sets.
After a few rounds of taboo, we got a tour of the Van de Graff Accelerator. It was an amazing machine, and a great tour, though I don't think I could grasp all of the concepts thrown around. There was a lot of really cool looking machinery, some big numbers, and a few electrical concepts that I managed to recognize. Altogether a very cool device.
After about an hour long lunch break, we headed back to the workshop. My group was then sent to a lecture to learn about some of the radio technologies that we were using. We got to mess with some software we would be using, which was entertaining. We also learned about a mathematics program that was being used, and I had a lot of fun with that. I kept trying to find out what it would do with infinite numbers, and I was quite pleased with what it was giving back.
After another session of lectures, we were released. It was a little too late to catch the train home at that point, so my dad came around to pick me up.
We went home and then went out to the orthodontist. He once again told me that what I was already doing was fine. We ordered Japanese food and went back home for the night.
June 27
This morning went fairly smoothly for me. I set my alarm for the correct time and remembered to turn it on. I got myself together and headed for the train station, where they actually decided to let me get on. Amazing concept!
I got off the train and headed straight to the nuclear physics laboratory. I had a strange encounter on the way with a woman who said that she knew me from a program I was in four years ago (and I simultaneously solved the mystery of who was honking at me while I walked my dog). Apparently, there is such a thing as being too early, as both entrances to the workshop were locked.
The morning was mostly dedicated to individual presentations set up for the people showing up later. The cloud chamber was cool, though my camera was not able to take a decent picture of it with its resolution. The accelerator controls were interesting, even though they did not actually allow us to control the accelerator.
By about noon, a lot of people had shown up for the speeches and the ribbon cutting ceremony. Afterwards, everyone headed outside for the Mexican fiesta. There was a mariachi band and several piñatas, though we didn't get to break any open (neither the piñatas nor the mariachis). There was a Mexican buffet to get food from, which was altogether good.
We headed back in after lunch to see a presentation on the GRID computing system. I really liked this lecture because I am interested in computers and he managed to keep it at a really understandable level. After that we reformed the groups from Monday and did more work on our specific areas.
I caught the train and took it to the station at Huntington. My mom picked me up, and we headed out to the dentist. After a fairly unremarkable visit, we ordered pizza and went home.
June 28
Another morning that went by smoothly. Alarm went off, got on the train, arrived at Stonybrook, no problems. The doors were once again locked, but Helio Takai and I got in through an alternate door.
In the morning, an astrophysicist came in to give a lecture about stars, supernovas, and black holes. It was a really interesting lecture, and he managed to keep complicated astrophysics concepts very understandable. He then took us outside to a telescope he had set up fo viewing the sun. There was a sunspot visible, although it just looked like a speck on a big orange circle through the telescope.
After an hour long break for lunch, we returned to the workshop to attend the third of the stations we had gone to on Tuesday. My group got to work with the scintillators, though we had a little trouble getting Microsoft Excel to format our charts like we wanted it to. We used Cosmic Chris to see if there was a difference in the number of cosmic rays passing through tin and concrete. Our results were not entirely conclusive, though we seemed to get statistically significant differences.
My mom picked me up after the workshop had ended for the day. We went home for a half hour, then went out to karate. Tonight, the usual teacher was not there, and so instead of jumping the bags, we got to try rolling over the bags. Making it over is easier, but the landings... well, they can be pretty rough.
Food Critique
A day-by-day review of the lunches at Stonybrook, written by the man himself, Michael Ross.
June 25
Today, my choice for lunch was the beef chili. It was all right, but I have a few complaints about the dish.
Although it was sold as a beef chili, there were actually far more beans than there was beef. A good beef chili should be conservative with the beans and have chunks of beef throughout.
As a matter of personal taste, I would have liked for the chili to be more spicy. Although it was fairly hot, temperaturewise, it seemed to lack adequate kick.
June 26
Today, I decided to try a few things. I started off with a philly cheesesteak. It was a decent cheesesteak, but it was fairly bland. Additionally, it lacked some of the normal fixings of a philly cheesesteak, such as peppers, and consisted instead of cheese, shredded beef, and onions. I continued with a serving of fries, which was good, though unseasoned. I finished with a chocolate pudding. The pudding was excellent, but they gave you so much that I couldn't finish it! Which is actually a good thing, meaning that you get great value.
June 27
Today was fiesta day! We had a Mexican buffet. I got a beef fajita, a chicken fajita, a burrito, a corn dish, and a brownie.
Both the beef and the chicken fajitas were excellent. I didn't like the bean burrito, but I don't like beans in general. However, it was still pretty bland for a burrito. The corn dish tasted strange, as if it was made with something conflicting with the corn's natural flavor. Finally, the brownie was excellent. Very chocolatey and nice and gooey.
June 28
Today I tried out the pizza from the Stonybrook cafeteria. The pizza was actually really good; the sauce was tasty, the cheese was thick, and the mushrooms were fresh.
As for the fruit salad, it was... a fruit salad. There really isn't much more to say about a bowl of assorted fruits.
