Saturday, 20 April 2024
Life, the universe, pies, hot-pink bunnies, world domination, and everything
MuseBlog dedicates this month’s random threads to the Muse of Bad Poetry. Because, really, what is life without a lot of bad poetry in it?
Date: February 29, 2012
Categories: At the Top of the Blog, Random craziness
I really love that question mark anyways. Meanwhile, happy March although our time zone’s not there yet!
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I get to see my little sister in 11 days!
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Happy actually March! I’m going to Jordan tonight, I’m super super excited! Also I still have two documentaries on Israel/Palestine to watch before we leave and I still need to finish packing and I’ve got to leave the house in four hours not enough time! Anyway, I will be completely contact-with-the-outside-world-free for a bit more than a week, until I return home to Hong Kong next Saturday! I hope everyone has a wonderful few days, and I’ll see you all in about a week! 
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Bye, have fun! (of course you don’t need us to tell you that, but still.) We’ll miss you, don’t forget to update us when you’re back!
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Enjoy your trip!
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hI GUYS
HOW’S IT GOING
I DON’T KNOW HOW TO STOP ROLEPLAYING I NEED AN INTERVENTION
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ALSO WOW THAT IS A LOT OF SURPRISE NOODLES IN THIS THREAD.
I NEED TO TURN OFF CAPS because that is definitely not cruise control for cool, no matter what the internet says, children. :3c
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HI I WAS JUST THINKING ABOUT YOU YESTERDAY AND WONDERING HOW YOU WERE
WELCOME BACK *glomp*
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WHOA IS THAT A BUNNY RABBIT WITH AN EYE OF SAURON ON IT HOW COOL IS THAT
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Technically it’s a third eye, but whatever. I’m in really good fandoms.
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WHY ARE WE YELLING
LOUD NOISES
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…Is it bad that the only coping strategy I have for dealing with horror movies is making peace with the fact that I will someday die?
I mean, I don’t think making peace with death is a bad thing. It’s just I also don’t think that’s most people’s response to the irrational fear that a monster will climb in through their window and kill them.
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I’m making a 12th century shield and knife out of wood! I’m going to learn how to fight with them. My friend is teaching us all his historical fighting skills that he learned in England while studying abroad there.
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Spiffy question mark.
Half-days of school are stupid. No one accomplishes anything, it’s disorienting, and we just had two of them in a row. Why couldn’t they have just glued them together to make one full day on Wednesday and then Thursday and Friday off???
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This is incredibly random, but does anyone else remember Cocoa Frosted Flakes? It was my favorite get-to-eat-at-Grandma’s-cereal and then they stopped making them.
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Thread title is actually relevant to my life, because I was just placed on the waitlist for my number-one school. I was convinced that I didn’t have a hope or a prayer in the world of getting in, because honestly, the odds were completely against it. 5 people were accepted, and they said that a tiny percentage of the 50 auditionees (about 2 or 3 people) were waitlisted.
Even now, I’m still in shock that they even considered me. Shocked, grateful, humbled, and incredibly excited. But I just have to keep planning for college as if they rejected me.
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FantasyFan?!?! in post #85 on previous thread: Can you ask the potential roommate you don’t know to sit down and have a conversation with you? You can each ask questions of the other to figure out compatibility, and you won’t be total strangers. Also, if you don’t think it’ll work, you can say so gracefully and move on. Tell her that you want to discuss rooming together, have some questions in mind, and answer her questions honestly. It might also be good to ask your friend what kind of roommate she is.
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Museblog>R&R>CTRL-F>Swalot
Your face when. In other news, 42 minutes left on my Windows 8 install.
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Now whats this about? Hmmm? xD
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It’s about you. I’m pretty sure that if you averaged out the words on the Romance & Relationships thread (including words like ‘a’ ‘the’ and others) the word ‘Swalot’ would have the highest average amount of uses.
You two are so cuuuuuuute
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*le Glare*
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*le sigh*
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Ah! I love things made out of smaller versions of themselves.
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Well hello there.
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Are you implying you’re made out of smaller versions of yourself, Castle?
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I think it just meant, “I’m surprised to see you after such a long time,” possibly with a “Welcome back!” thrown in.
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Oh, sssh you, you’re ruining all my fun. :#c
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Sorry, I thought you were serious.
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I installed the Windows 8 Consumer Preview today. It’s pretty nifty–a pretty big change from previous versions, at least in some regards. Unfortunately, the required “SafeConnect” client the university wifi requires doesn’t seem to work with it, so I can’t connect to the internet to authorize it. The UI apparently can’t decide whether it wants rounded corners or square corners, which I hope will be changed before release. I like it, though.
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Well, my paperclips got stolen, but I ad-libbed a ritual, avoided getting my blood spattered over the windows of the library, vicariously played Minecraft, got my medal back, and broke the curse! Yaay!
And my language arts teacher lent me a copy of Ecce Romani 1 to study… she is win. She put a Doctor Who quote on my essay, understood my gas-mask zombie reference, and put lots of good books in the classroom library. (Ender’s Game and Paper Towns, to name a few.)
Also, I gave a really long presentation on the escalator, and there were bunnies everywhere, and so I think that went okay. I just hope I got a good grade…
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Do you want to trade lives? Yours sounds much more exciting than mine.
Also, PAPER TOWNS. I’m reading it for a project and it’s really, really, really, really, REALLY good.
NO SPOILERS PLZ.
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YAY DOCTOR WHO
YAY PAPER TOWNS
YAY ZOMBIES
YAY LATIN
YAY BOOKS
YAY LATIN BOOKS
YAY MINECRAFT
… Yay escalators?
I believe we are rather similar indeed.
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Yes, have I mentioned that Sel is potentially the most perfect person to assimilate into our army adopt into our family? She likes ALL OF THE MUSEBLOGGY THINGS.
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Oh no, two Sels!
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Another Sel? When did this happen? Welcome anyway, Selcothe Sicaria! (I believe I’m correct in assuming you are quite new here?)
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:>
And I actually like Sel better as a nickname, or Selcothe, or Sicaria, as opposed to an abbreviation of the two. SS just reminds me of Nazis.
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Absolutely no offense meant to the people who’ve used it previously, it’s just the abbreviation and what instantly comes to mind. This is why I always referred to social studies by its full name, or just called it history.
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Hmm. Sica works too, even if it’s a bit clumsy. I’ve been informed that Sel is a nickname that somebody here is already using, and things.
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I like Sica. And I totally understand, I insist on my name being abbreviated at “Kai” rather than “KY”, as I’m not from Kentucky, nor have I ever visited.
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You could just be Selc.
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Hmm. I could. It might still get a bit confusing, but I could.
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As I understand it (Piggy can correct me if I’m wrong), “sica” is Latin for “dagger.” In Roman-era Judea, the Sicarii (daggermen) were a violent branch of Zealots devoted to driving the Romans out by assassinating as many of them as possible. Some historians think that Judas Iscariot, the disciple who turned Jesus over the Romans, was a member of the group and that his second name is a mangled version of “Sicarius.” Some speculate further that Judas betrayed Jesus either (1) out of disappointment that Jesus was insufficiently anti-Roman or (2) in a miscalculated attempt to force Jesus’s hand.
That’s a lot of speculation. Anyway, it’s an interesting name.
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It is indeed a very interesting name, but by no means politically correct. >.<
Honestly, I'm really only using it as a name because I like how the word sounds. xD
But yeah, that association would be a little strange, I guess, so… hmm… people can call me Selc. Or Selky, because selkies are little seal-not-mermaid-things, which is generally less awkward and creepy.
Actually, I really like Selky. I think we've got one.
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Yes, a sica is the type of dagger perfectly suited for offing someone without too much of a scuffle, and so a sicarius would be someone who wields a sica. “Sicaria” probably wouldn’t have appeared in any original Latin texts (though I think it may have been adapted as an adjective later on), but that sort of gender swapping is fairly common in neo-Latin. Cicero seems to have been quite fond of the word, and it appears once in the Vulgate (Acts 21:38, translated by the Douay-Rheims as “murderers”).
As for Judas Iscariot, I’ve heard that theory before, and it’s certainly interesting to consider, though there’s really no proof one way or the other.
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What about Cothe?
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How about Cari?
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Mm, I like Sica. I don’t feel like a Cari.
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Selky now. That’s a thing.
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Spreaking of John Green… in 7th grade, we do a UNIT on him. A WHOLE UNIT
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WHAT
That’s AWESOME. 
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…Four for you, Pie Girl’s school. You go, Pie Girl’s school.
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A few friends and I rode the bus over to the other campus for dinner tonight. That’s where they have most of the ag stuff, as well as some biology and some education. And a very good dining hall–definitely worth the extra time (the Boston cream pie was delicious). Then we walked around that campus for a while until we eventually found the tractor museum. It was closed by that time, of course, and unfortunately the tractors outside were all covered up for the winter. But still, come on, it’s a tractor museum. Then we kept walking around and acting like middle schoolers. It was fun.
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Just wait and see!/A few days more,/There may be something there that wasn’t there before!
(Choir was 2 hours today, and aside from giving medals to people who got a 1 on their solos–I did!–and everyone who participated in the ensemble that got a 1–almost everyone–we spent the whole period practicing for the musical, so…)!
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Are you in Beauty and the Beast? Who are you? I was once Mrs. Potts.
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Yes, I’m one of the narrators and also a villager. (The villager has no speaking part or solo; they don’t let narrators play those villagers, but it’s still awesome that I have a speaking part!).
For those who didn’t see this thread until March came around, it said “wait and see” before then.
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Am i really the ONLY person who only has broadwaystuck songs, wrock, and trock on their iPod?
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Hm. Two out of three isn’t bad.
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Craww. ♥
Bad poetry is the greatest. A few weeks ago a handful of friends and I were out in the hallway when we noticed out RA’s door has a gap at the top. So we wrote a few limericks about him and stuck them through. He responded with one, and then came out and all of us sat in the hall and made up limericks about whoever walked by. It was delightful.
Also, this graphic (aside from putting a rare grin on my face) makes me think of how far I’ve come, internet-wise, since joining MB forever ago. For one, we used to have dial-up, and it would have taken HOURS for that picture to load. There were never moving random thread pictures back then, because dial-up existed. I also remember how when threads would reach into the hundreds of comments we’d get new ones since the old would take too long to load.
The internet here at my school is something we students complain about constantly, but it’s funny to think how luxurious my 14 year old self would have found it.
I also was looking at my iPod the other day, it’s one of those square nanos, 8gb, which I thought was MASSIVE when I got it, since my first one was 4. And now they’re up to 16, tiny, and have multi-touch screens.
Technology and science are amazing.
The other day while talking about interesting science-y things in philosophy (we got a bit off-topic, yeah) I had a sudden urge to BE A SCIENCE MAJOR OF SOME SORT. And then I realized how completely impossible that would be for me. I don’t have the background for the cool stuff. I’ll just enjoy it on my own time.
Alas.
I keep looking at this nebulous blob that is what my life might be in the future, and there are so many options that I know I’ll never have time for them all. And that’s really upsetting.
[/ramble]
Here, have a pie for reading all that. 
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Alas, you just get one life. But you can still have fun.
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What are you majoring/planning on majoring in? I’m a senior in high school now and ahhhh no idea what I’m doing whatsoever. I put “English” on all my college apps, but as with all things, as soon as I start to overthink something, the more I start to second-guess myself and come up with all the counterarguments sooo probably not English at this point. rggghblblb
I don’t know if I should do a science major either! But I don’t particularly want to be a doctor or engineer which, for the most part, is what my friends are planning on doing. Gahh
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Well, if you want a science major that’s cool and doesn’t have to be too science-y, there’s always environmental science, which is what I’m currently planning on majoring in. I think Purple Panda is majoring in that too. There reason I say that it’s not too science-y is because although you can do a full science route in this subject you can also focus more on the social or legal or business aspects rather than research or engineering. It’s wonderfully flexible like that. At my school, at least, you can even get a BA or a BS in this subject as you please. Also, this field is projected to grow a great deal in the next few years, which means jobs for us later on. Also you get fuzzy warm feelings from helping out the environment.
I’m currently leaning towards majoring in this, and I think Purple Panda is majoring in it too.
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I’m pretty sure she’s majoring in Environmental Studies, which is similar but not exactly the same. I feel like there are other people here majoring in the same thing. I think the difference is usually that ES is about basically anything environmentally related but mostly focusing on the arts, social sciences, business, law, etc, whereas Environmental Science studies the environment and how it works, but there are colleges where that’s completely different. It sounds like yours might be one of them, because your description sounds like it can be whichever you want but it called the same thing either way. Or maybe I’m just wrong. I know that a lot of colleges have you take a lot of science courses in different areas (physical science, biology, geology, etc) for ESc and not ESt, though.
[/end rant by someone who really doesn’t know what she’s talking about and probably doesn’t even need to know what a major is yet but really just finds it fascinating how many routes you can take and how much more interesting all the classes seem to get the older you are]
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My friends are all planning on majoring in math-y science-y things as well. I love science, but since I know I don’t want to go to med school or be in bio/chem research, I think that as a field of study is a lot less likely for me. I’m looking at cognitive science/psych/linguistics right now, which seems perfect except for that I have no idea where I’d go with it. Right now my ideal is studying language cognition and psycholinguistics.
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I’m an anthropology major. It is pretty great. I get to study ancient cultures and modern cultures and people.
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I know that feeling a little too well for my liking. I’m preparing to go take my GED and start college courses and things, but I have too many things I’m interested in to know what I want to do with myself yet, or even what I want to do the most, because I want to do everything. It’s been this way for a while, and it’s really frustrating, so I understand the ramble. If it’s any consolation, you’re not alone :3
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I love animated GIFs.
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may i humbly recommend gif.tv
addiction at its finest
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I was referring to the Random Thread graphic in particular, but thanks for the suggestion.
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I love Crraw’s poetry. Though I love Bo’s facts more.
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My favorite Muse! For my favorite month! With my favorite type of poetry! *happy squid dance*
In other words, I just dropped a Thermos on my toe.
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18.2 (Raynpho)~ History major, traditional music minor. I go to a small liberal arts college in the Appalachians, so there’s a great traditional music program, especially focusing on old-time and Bluegrass. I play more Irish style, but old-time and bluegrass come out of it. I also like those styles a lot too. I’m currently taking old-time fiddle lessons and a class called “Traditions of Work and Music in the Southern Mountains”. Basically being a music minor (they don’t have a major because the faculty is too small) is awesome. And some of the music faculty is actually on other parts too, like my fiddle teacher is a math professor as well. It’s kind of fun.
I keep toying with the idea of studying anthropology too, but I don’t think I could really handle a double major. I talked to my anthro professor from last semester about it, and she strongly recommended NOT double-majoring, but instead just taking as many anthro courses as I could fit in around my “official” studies, since if I decide to go on to another school or a job or something they’ll look not only at my official course of study but also the courses that I actually took. Which was nice to hear.
ANYWAY.
And then today I went to a talk by two of my professors who went to Kyrgyzstan earlier this year to play Appalachian music with musicians there (it’s also in the mountains), and it was just so unbelieveably cool.
I want to do that. Like, I really do. Ethnomusicology is so awesome.
WHAT IS MY LIFE ABOUT.
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Ahh wait but that’s so cool~ People with really focused, specific interests fascinate me, because mine are literally scattered all over the place… I just really wish I knew what I wanted to do, even with any major I decide to obtain ultimately…
I’ve thought about anthropology too! I put it as a second choice on a lot of my college apps, but then my dad says something along the lines of “since when are you interested in that”
I dunno, I just kinda plan on taking an extremely random variety of classes my freshman year, hopefully I find something, because at the moment all I really have is a small list of things I definitely don’t want to do for the rest of my life (business, math, medicine, music…)
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Yes, focused, specific interests.
My interests range from science and technology to poetry and music (really, anything but sports and history) and it’s actually quite annoying because I want to do a thousand things with my time and I feel like people are of the general mindset that if you do one thing than it’s your passion and your dedication and you’re not interested in anything else.
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Oh hi, you are me.
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Hello, self!
*gives understanding squid for the “holy cake you have more than one dedication” problem*
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Yes! Do take a bunch of things that seem neat freshman year! Find out which ones you like and then take more of those. Is a good way to pick things.
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I had this problem! For quite a long time I worried about what I wanted to do with my life, and had no idea what I wanted. In general I just avoided the question and said “biology or english” when asked because they were my two favorite subjects in school, although I was (and still am!) interested in a really wide array of things.
If it helps, here is kind of how I made the decisions that I did.
Firstly, I thought a lot about all the different interests I had, and which ones were things I knew I wanted to be doing forever, not just for a few years. The things I really loved. These ended up being essentially science, reading, writing, the outdoors, and photography. Notice that they are not necessarily subjects, but categories! Science can mean many types of science, and “the outdoors” can be a part of many different subjects. These are things that I know I will continue doing no matter what becomes my main focus, things I will always enjoy and would love to spend many hours each day doing them.
This is a helpful way of narrowing down lists! For instance, I also like (the playing of) sports/physiology a lot and have a large interest in how things work. But I wouldn’t really want to spend all day being a trainer, or a physical therapist because while it’s interesting I wouldn’t like touching people all the time. I like watching clocks and gears and seeing how they all fit together, but I wouldn’t want to be a mechanic and I don’t feel like engineering is something I’d necessarily be really happy in. But deciding these aren’t what I want to have a major/potential career in doesn’t mean I lose them as interests! I can still spend a few hours one week taking apart an old clock to see what the insides look like and I am currently on a quidditch team and a hockey team.
So my broader list of things I might want to spend my life doing was science, reading/writing, the outdoors, and photography. The second thing I looked at was, if I got went with one of these subjects, the kind of people I would be spending time around while working.
Science would mean I would be working with a lot of people who I knew would be similar to me in a lot of ways! They would value reasonable conclusions and testing/trying ideas, as well as sharing a love of learning why things do what they do and guessing what else they might do under certain conditions/situations. Before I came to college I most often related well with people in my science classes who were also interested in the material, and were people I was less likely to get into arguments with. I also found that I appreciated in-depth discussions of many topics with science-minded people more than not-sicence-minded people, as they were more likely to understand my need for proof of an idea and accepting that some things I know might not be true but they were as close as I could get to truth for the present. Although all people are different and I don’t expect to get along with everyone, the scientific community is one that I know I’ll be able to get along with in general and who share a lot of my values. Then and continuing till now has reenforced my feeling that I would be happy spending all day with people who also like science and learning! It is a community I enjoy a lot. Do I enjoy others as well? Of course. But not as consistently.
However, this does not mean go into something that you know will be filled with people you agree with! There is a lot of debate in science and not everyone has the same opinions/viewpoints, the key for me was how they are approached by sciency people.
But maybe you are the kind of person who likes having their views/way of doing things tested! You could be the kind of person who enjoys hearing other people’s methods/beliefs and reconsidering how you approach things yourself. I know that as a person I am unlikely to change many of my beliefs without substantial proof, so subjects like, say, philosophy aren’t really something I would grow much from–while I find a lot of the concepts interesting, I feel like many views are all in a part right/wrong and can tell you specifics about who I feel the world works/doesn’t, and the parts where I will just say I simply don’t know! I would learn a lot about other people’s theories but personally probably wouldn’t change much. So, not the subject for me to go into, although interesting in itself.
So after I kind of found myself leaning towards a career in the sciences, I broke that down into sections (roughly equivalent to majors). These were: Medicine, chemistry, biology, physics. There was also my huuuge interest in space, but I decided to clump that with physics or engineering, as those are most of the jobs relating to space available now. Right off I knew I wasn’t that into chemistry or physics (as much as I love space, I am just not great at understanding physics-things quickly and being able to work out problems). I liked the idea of helping people, and I’m not grossed out by sickness/injury, so I thought a lot about being a doctor/surgeon. Eventually I decided that I wouldn’t like the making-medicine side of things (a lot of chemistry and molecular biology, which I am not super strong in, and don’t enjoy as much) and while I could handle blood/guts of being a surgeon, I am not sure I would be happy under a lot of pressure and knowing how important it would be that I get everything right. I decided not to go the pre-med route, although I think that I could have been relatively happy in a career with less major outcomes that was still helping people.
So, biology. One of my favorite subjects in school and one I found interesting and easy to learn about. I had a healthy interest in most parts, with an emphasis on genetics and ecology. I put biology down on my college applications and part of how I picked schools was on whether or not they had good science courses/facilities.
Enter leaving for college! My first semester of college I took intro chemistry, intro geology, a classics course (technically a freshman year seminar–a small class of only freshman, designed in part to teach us how to transition to college-style learning and so on), and a black-and-white film photography class.
You will notice that none of these are actually biology! That is because I ended up exempting out of first semester bio from the AP test. And the first semester focussed more on areas I knew I wasn’t as interested in, cells and so on. Not necessarily something I had planned on but I liked the option of taking more things! I was in chem because you need a few chem classes for the bio major and I needed to take those early/get them out of the way. My classics class (Odysseys and Identities) was the freshman year seminar I had picked out over the summer–not my first choice, it was my third actually, but was very interesting and I am glad I took it! Geology I put down on my schedule because another class I wanted (anthropology) had filled up and I was too nervous about getting into classes/missing material to try to get into it off the waitlist. So geo was a replacement class. Photography I was SUPER lucky to get into. They hired a visiting professor over the summer, so freshman had the unlikely but extremely lucky period where we could get into it because it wasn’t full with people who had registered the previous year. I tried to get into creative writing classes as well, but they were all full. I wish I had been able to get into one since I’d considered having it as a concentration (essentially equivalent of a minor), but they filled up really fast, sadly.
How things went: I did not like chem. It was hard and I didn’t test well, though I passed. I knew I wasn’t a chem person going in, but I did learn a lot. I took it because I needed the class to be a bio major.
The classics class was fun! I learned how to write for college classes, and it was my first experience having a lot of discussions with very intelligent peers. My college is MUCH more prestigious than my high school. For the first time (offline), I was really challenged/engaged in discussions with people who had very different ways of looking at things than I did. This was super fun in a class where we read a lot of books, because people brought up interpretations I would never have thought of but ended up agreeing with entirely! Although I don’t like I would like working as a classics person I would enjoy taking more classes in it.
The geology class was an unexpectedly great one! The teacher was very funny and made things easy to understand. It also brougth out my innate love of science and the outdoors, as well as getting into how stuff works–our planet! It even has some space stuff thrown in from the formation of our planet/moon/solar system/etc. I also really liked the labs, which while it was warm out consisted of field trips to various places, and when it was colder we learned how to identify rocks based on sets of categories. It felt really awesome to be able to point out random rocks and know what they were made of and how it was formed. When I was little I always picked up rocks I liked and put them in my pockets (my mom had to empty my jacket out every week), and this brought back that interest.
Photography was amazing. I fell in love with the darkroom, and seeing my pictures go through the film processing room, then into the darkroom where you literally turn light into shapes and shades. It was the closest I’ve every gotten to magic in real life, even knowing how the chemicals work. Seeing the transition of your ideas to paper in that way is like nothing else (digital just cannot compare, although I love it as well). Even thought it was only 6 hours a week in class (tuesday/thursday lab periods, 3 hours each), I easily spent anywhere from 10-20 hours outside of class working for it. Taking pictures took time and effort (esspecially some of the more complex shoots I did! For my final project I probably spent 8-10 hours preparing the scene and taking pictures alone, not to mention processing), and then film processing had to be done SUPER EXACTLY to make sure they came out right. Scary at first, but getting the hang of it wasn’t bad. Then there were the endless hours in the darkroom itself–testing exposure times, lengths in developer, contrasts, etc. Making one picture go from film to paper took at least an hour of attempts, and we made a lot of pictures to figure out which ones we wanted to display for our assignments/projects. It was decidedly my favorite class, and I seriously considered adding a visual arts minor to my intended bio major because I wanted to take more of it. I eventually decided not to, but if I get the chance I will take as MANY more photography classes as I can.
Goodness this is getting longer than expected. The parts about all my classes don’t necessarily tell you specifics on how to choose what to do but maybe they will spark common interests in others so I will leave them there.
Anyway. Second semester I took the next part of chem, the second half of bio (I decided to go into it even though I could still have exempted out–it was focussed on what I was more interested in (genetics and ecology!) and I didn’t feel like my AP class had covered it very well), intro psychology, into cultural anthroplogy, and a half-semester little physics class on quantum mechanics for fun. I also took excos (basically student-led classes once or twice a week, can be taken for credit but I took them just for fun) in herpetology, poi (:D), and traditional irish music.
I again didn’t really enjoy chem. Pysch was fairly interesting. I didn’t end up liking anthro very much (mostly due to the teacher and not finding discussions with the other students as engaging). Bio went all right, I liked one of the teachers a lot more than the others and realized I liked the ecology aspect a lot more than the genetics side. Basically anything molecular I didn’t understand as well/easily and didn’t interest me as much. The physics class was fun, no real work to do, but led to many interesting thoughts.
So around the end of the year I’d figured out mostly what I wanted to do. I still liked/enjoyed bio, and so wanted to take more classes on the ecology/larger side of that. I’d found I’d really liked my geology class and the geo department here is fabulous, so I wanted to take some more classes there as well. I was still unable to get into any creative writing classes, sadly. Probably my biggest class-related disappointment overall.
First semester of sophomore year I was unfortunately locked out of all bio classes. It was a big deal because a lot of rising first years didn’t get into any of them (the bio department is growing, but the number of classes hasn’t changed and it’s hard to increase the class size for most of them). This was really frustrating as it meant I by the middle of my second year I would only have taken one class in the subject of my major, but there wasn’t a lot I could do about it. So I took Organic Chem (which I KNEW would be super hard for me but needed for the bio major), intro to computer science (good to know in general, plus one of my roommates was the lab helper and a comp sci major (she is a senior)), and Earth Surface Processes (geology). I enjoyed comp sci, hated orgo but finally passed it (with difficulty, but that means NO MORE CHEM WOO), and loved my geo course.
That brings us to this semester! I have basically decided on being a biology/geology double major. I am in another bio class (Vascular Plant Systematics–quite fun! We have gone to the greenhouse every lab period (twice a week) but one), two geology (Evolution of the Earth, and Earth’s Interior), and another anthropology that is more science-based than the one I didn’t like (Human Origins Anthropology. Human evolution! Very cool).
Anyway, that is how I decided on what I want to major in. It’s not necessarily set in stone and can be changed if I decide I don’t want one or the other anymore. But they are both subjects I have found I really like learning about and can lead to fun careers! Geology, although it wasn’t something I saw myself doing coming into college, is much more than a “rocks for jocks” subject some people think it is. Last semester in Earth Surface Processes we went out for lab every friday and measured rivers by wading out into them and using cool equipment and touching things. Geology is big on hands-on and feeling things (and even tasting in the case of some minerals) and everyone in the department here is super nice and outdoorsy. Unlike the bio department which locked a lot of students out of classes, the geo department actually opened up space in everything to make sure everyone who wanted to take classes could. It’s been helpful because I feel like I’m getting stuff done towards a geo major while part of me feels like I’m treading water in my bio major because at this point I’ve only taken TWO classes in it, though also a lot of prerequisites that I have been working through.
The bio/geo combo is also exciting when I think about what I could get as careers. Did you know there’s such a thing as paleoecology? Or paleoclimatology? Even if I decide I want to spend a few years just working in a national park instead of doing research (or while!) the bio/geo combo is excellent for my top choice, Yellowstone. Not to mention there’s also things in the fields on their own as well!
Anyway. This turned into a monster. But here is how I decided on what I probably want to do with my life.
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This is both an interesting window into college class selection/major choice and a good starting point for me for thinking about how I’m going to decide what I want to do from here on out. Thanks for the monsterpost, Jadestone!
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Seconded! I appreciated your descriptions of the various levels of narrowing things down, especially since I am another of those science-minded people with many interests and can definitely relate to your experience there.
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Wow. You were so much more systematic about this than I was. Freshman year first semester I didn’t take good classes necessarily. I mean they weren’t /bad/ classes, but they weren’t really worthwhile to my college education or exploring what I wanted to major in. I took English, Calc (which I’d taken in high school) and Spanish (and I also took that in high school) in addition to my freshman seminar, which was a really good and worthwhile class. Second semester I did take an anthropology class, which, though I hadn’t taken any of those before, was something I was thinking of majoring in. My friends were anthro majors, though and I’ve always liked culture. It ended up working out, but I sort of wish I’d done more exploring. Exploring is good.
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Well, the worst part of the week is over. I love Fridays. The housing thing didn’t work out, but as a sophomore I’m guaranteed a spot and a friend of mine said she might be able to help. Also, I think I’m going to be going on this alternative spring break project that my college does where you get to go on a service trip to help out someplace rather than just stay in my room and molder away like I did during fall break. I need this because I don’t go home for any of the short school breaks, you see, and everything on campus is closed and there’s practically nobody around. There are two possible trips I could go on. At one we’re helping out in Joplin, MO, where the tornado hit rebuilding houses and in the other one I’m not quite sure what we’re doing but it involves beaches. And horseback riding, and just regular horses. And helping out at a (historical?) plantation and helping turtles and some rebuilding there as well. So no matter which one I choose there’s bound to be something interesting. I still have to pick tonight though and email the group leaders my answer.
One more week till spring break. In the meantime I have a midterm and a couple of papers, and I need to work on them this weekend, but the weekend’s barely started and I’m feeling all optimistic. Last week was horrible. This next week I’m aiming to actually get things done.
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Today after school was the SciOly post-regionals party. It was at Ray’s house. He is legitimately one of the most oblivious people I know. His nickname in AP Bio was Bubbles. So anyway, I see him at lunch today and he’s like “Oh hey I have to stop by the store before I go back by my house, so can you let everyone in?” Me: “Sure. Will anyone be home?” Ray: “No, but it’s okay. Here’s the key.”Â
So we get there after school. Anna’s dad has a nine-person van and they’ve already arrived. As I pull up, we see people clustered around the side of the house. A freshman is fifteen feet UP THE WALL trying to get to a window. I yell something out the window at them along the lines of “oh my GOD calm DOWN” and send someone over with the key.
Fifteen seconds later the door is open and all of a sudden there’s an alarm going off. At which point, Ray, out of all the things to forget to mention THIS is what you pick? So everyone is confused and I’m slightly panicking but mostly trying not to laugh and Ray isn’t picking up his phone. The alarm shuts off… briefly. Then it comes back louder. We finally manage to reach Ray and get the code. At this point we’re convinced that the police are going to be showing up at any second.
They never do. Ray does, though, twenty minutes later. Apparently, he forgot his house was alarmed.
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Ah, the weekend. I actually have time to go online for fun.
Great animation! I really like it!
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At about 8:15 this morning, during first period, my best friend and I decided that we wanted to go to the Ron Paul rally that was held downtown today at noon. My mom offered earlier in the week to take my brother or I out of school if we wanted to go. While I wasn’t planning on taking her up on that because I didn’t want to miss chemistry, long story short, I found out that we wouldn’t miss anything. So I texted my mom, and she called my friend’s mom, and my friend got a signed note so that she could leave school. My mom came at lunch. And we went to the Ron Paul rally!
The experience was very interesting. This was my first political rally of any significance, but in general I’ve heard that Ron Paul fans are some of the most passionate. They lived up to that with a lot of energy, sign-waving and applause in all the expected places. Neither my friend or I are big supporters Dr. Paul’s philosophy, so we were definitely odd ducks in the crowd, but we weren’t there to agree with him on everything. It was a little awkward when a guy noticed me looking at him (really the seats beside him, trying to see if they were taken) and asked if I’d like one of his signs, but everything else was fine.
Even though I don’t agree with him on everything, I respect Dr. Paul personally and enjoyed his speech. I appreciate that at least one of the Republican candidates has a coherent worldview and principles that directly translate into his opinions and policies. It’s also good that somebody is addressing issues like personal liberty and the Patriot Act, keeping those a part of the national discussion. (All of you who contacted legislators about SOPA got a shout-out!) And, as my friend said, he really is an adorable, grandfatherly-looking gentleman. One of my other friends (from Knowledge Bowl, Cinnamoon) is a hugeeeee Ron Paul fan, so I teased him that Paul should be a model instead of President.
The speech didn’t go on for as long as I expected, even including the question-and-answer section. As we left, my friend and I took a photograph with an event sign to prove that we’d attended. We made it back to school by sixth period. Not bad for two and a half hours!
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I agree; Ron Paul is the Republican candidate I actually don’t mind winning. Though I consider myself mostly apolitical, that’s something I can safely say.
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So far, he’s the only candidate of any party I wouldn’t mind winning, although I think he’s far from ideal. I know literally nothing about his environmental policies, though; they never came up in the debates; if they’re anything like those of the other Republican candidates, I’ll mind him, too.
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As a libertarian, Ron Paul believes strongly that government (and especially the federal government) should play much less of a role in people’s lives than it currently does. These are the environment-related positions I could find for him, some from the “Energy” section of his website and some from other sources:
• against any carbon tax or Cap-and-Trade system
• for removing restrictions on oil drilling, coal, and nuclear power
• for the repeal of the federal gas tax
• for eliminating the EPA
• for making tax credits available for purchasing and producing “alternative fuel technologies”
• for selling land owned by the government (including national parks) to private developers
• environmental legislation should be handled by the states
• holds that climate change is not a “major problem threatening civilization”
• against government subsidies that favor certain energy types over others
And as an assessment of his voting record: “The League of Conservation Voters gave Paul a pro-environment voting-record score of 6% for 2011, and 0% for 2009-2010. … Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP), whose scorecards rate only Republican lawmakers, gave Paul a score of only 5% for 2010, and 2% for 2009-2010 … [REP] rated Paul “Worst in the House” on the environment of all Republican representatives in the 111th Congress (2009-2010).”
Make of that what you will.
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Hmmm… *ponders*
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Mm. Decided that since I’m a neophyte, imma be Neophyte Redglare. Because yes. :>
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I…I can agree with that! >:] I definitely do not have any objections to that statement.
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>:D YES.
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Going to the aquarium today with my geology class! Woo!
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Nice! Tell us how it goes!
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I could make a joke about Seth Shostak saying it would be a good idea to sent Justin Beiber into space, but the punchline is too obvious and easy.
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(Err, that should be “send”.)
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Actually, I sort of like the implication that we already sent him there.
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But he’s still around, so that means they brought him back instead of leaving him there.
(See, now I made the easy and obvious punchline.)
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Wow… I haven’t posted much lately.
I love the animation!
Our school’s play Crazy For You is miraculously coming together, somewhat contrary to my expectations.
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That GIF, it is simply fantabulous.
So the bad news is that delayed American culture shock is setting in. I have tendency to contract culture shock several months after the fact. The good news is that apparently I’m going to Singapore in April!
Knowing me, you may not be surprised to learn that I have been missing Singapore a bit. You know, after three years of complaining bitterly about it and all. It’s just that I miss having the amount of freedom I had there, and, well, my friends there, and the food, and, well, Singapore. And now I get to go back there for a week, so yay!
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Oh good. Have fun, and good luck with the culture shock!
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I’m not that surprised. Regardless of whether you hate something or not, if it’s there for long enough, you get used to it. Aaand then you go back and rediscover all the things you hate.
But seriously, I do hope you enjoy yourself. Like Agent Lightning said, Good luck and have fun!
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Ugh, I slept too late today and it totally messed up my rhythm. Hopefully tomorrow will be more usual.
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Wow, I haven’t been on here in so long. Junior Year is KILLING MEEEEE.
I ended up dropping AP Econ because the Teacher was being mean, and I’m crawling out of the time sink that was first and second tri, but CALCULUS HAS SO MUCH WORK. gaaa.
I saw I 6k last month. Now I feel old.
So, what’s up with all you guys?
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Greetings, TMFA!
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TMFA! Long time no see!
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We’re doing pretty well, how about you?
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I was gone 12 hours today for Science Olympiad. When we left, it was dark, and when we returned, it was dark again. It was far away. We competed. It was… interesting.
After getting there, which took hours, and waiting, which took an hour, there were events taking place. The ones I’d studied for didn’t take place until later, but there are no penalties for wrong answers; it’s like the SAT except some tests are at the same time, so you can’t take them all. I started with Compute this. It was my school’s first year, and I knew nothing about it. It sounded easy: Look up information about obesity, and organize it on a computer. It was, in theory, except that apparently, you were kind of expected to have a partner. If I had, I’d have done quite well, because I could do one half while my partner did the other, and we’d get it all done easily. As it was, I managed to do about half.
Then I did Road Scholar with a friend. It was about map-reading, which sounded easy, but it was impossible. Neither of us had the faintest idea what to do, and all of the questions were short answer, so we may have gotten about 10 correct answers in 50 minutes. Oops.
I had Water Quality afterward. I’d studied some for that. When I took the test, I realized this was what I should have focused on, not Forestry, because everything we were tested on was really interesting! I think I may have done mostly alright on that one.
Then, we had Forestry. I say we; there was a group of 3. Apparently, that wasn’t allowed, so my friend had to quit. She’d not studied much, but… it was sad.
Then… We had problems. It was in stations. There was a buzzer that went off when it was time to switch. It scared me. My partner was in a really busy, “get things done” mode. I hate it when people around me are in that mode; I always feel pressured. So… she expected me to move on as soon as I heard the bell, which makes since; she’s aware I have sensory problems, but she doesn’t know the details or that it was going on then. So I had to try and move, but I wouldn’t be able to focus properly because of the buzzer just having frightened me, so I’d go to the wrong place or forget things. She didn’t understand, got irritated, said things like, “You can’t forget things like that!” I was getting really stressed. She was telling me to calm down. She didn’t know that I hate being told to calm down because I’m always doing the best I can to act calm, but I’m not good at it, and sometimes I really can’t help it. Then she started asking me to stop specific behaviors that were bothering her. She doesn’t know that when I do that, another behavior always automatically starts. Sometimes it’s even less socially acceptable than the previous behavior. I never mean to do any of it, but I just can’t stop everything at once. So when I make an effort not to stomp my feet, I might accidentally start breathing loudly and quickly and shaking and sobbing. Then the judge notices and gives me a tissue. I’m embarrassed the whole time because I know that from the outside, it must look like I’m terrified of failing Forestry or something. It wasn’t like that at all.
Anyway, once I calmed down (which took about an hour; I missed a competition), I wanted to do another competition, but there were only two. One required a partner; the other had 3 people in the group who wanted to do it, and this time, I was the one who lost “Rock, Paper, Scissors.” I had a really long, interesting conversation afterward, though.
I don’t regret going, but it was a very long day.
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Hey. It’s Lizzie and Grant and we’re hanging out. And neither of us really have anything to say and we aren’t really doing anything either. But yeah.
Precisely! Today I got to find a place to park in the city and also attempt to parallel park, both of which are tied for first place of things I hate about driving. That is all. Salutatory sentiments!
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Wow, it’s like an Entmoot. Greetings, both!
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They aren’t THAT slow. I mean, maybe when parallel parking.
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Grant and Lizzie are about as old as Ents in MuseBlog terms. I’m sure that in any MB gathering, we GAPAs would stand out as the slow ones.
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Hold on a week, I’m thinking of witty things to spout at you.
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Does that make me an Ent too?
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Yes, and a very few others. (I wonder what Duncan_Quagmire is doing nowadays…)
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I’m assuming these are GABOOMBA bloggers we’re talking about?
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yes.
If you’re feeling intrepid, you could use the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to check it out!
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That’s right, as listed here.
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In fact, if Entmoots consisted of talking and watching youtube videos, it would be exactly like an Entmoot!
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If space squids consisted of talking and watching youtube videos, it would be exactly like a space squid, too, but that isn’t the case.
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Talking and sharing information — that’s not so different. All that’s missing is determining policy.
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Just got back from my cousin in Long Island’s bat mitzvah, which my family drove down for yesterday evening. Glaaaaaaaaah so much culture shock. I know, to each their own and everything, but the… pinkness of everything there just made me kind of sick. (Also the music was really, really, really loud. And the food seemed to consist entirely of sushi and different kinds of bread. But whatever.) The fact that I’m just getting over a four-day-long twenty-four-hour bug really isn’t helping any either. And I was feeling pretty darn tired and depressed and self-loathing and lonely.
So soon as we got back, I sat down and watched The Villain Still Pursued Her* as an attempt to restore myself to sanity. And now I am relatively happified. Though not nearly ready to go to bed, as I ate way, way too many chocolatey things at the party and could probably pull an all-nighter at this point without too much of a problem. 
*It’s an hour-long 1940 talkie which parodies stage melodramas. It’s goofy, and the more you like Gilbert & Sullivan and such, the more you’re likely to like it. Also, it has Buster Keaton in it. Anything with Buster Keaton in it makes me happy. (Well, almost anything. MGM excepted.)
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It’s an even bigger culture shock to go to a Bat Mitzvah on Long Island when what you’re used to is Bay Area Bat Mitzvahs. Over here, it’s usually, “Let’s go to a small venue, have about two hours of dancing, serve the kids Italian food, and play some silly party games!” Over there, it’s all, “LET’S HAVE AN ICE SCULPTURE.”
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we do like our ice sculptures.
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All-State Jazz auditions are in six days…
and I have to practice trombone for our “boycotting MPA” festival on Thursday. Fun stuff.
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As a parody of the old JFK campaign buttons, and the fact that many of our members are younger than voting age, can we make “If I were 18, I’d vote for Kokopelli” buttons?
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And put them on Musery Loves Company!
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I FEEL THE NEED TO RP.
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What kind of RP do you feel like?
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SO DO I.
…YOU’RE A HOMESTUCK.
I’M A HOMESTUCK.
I THINK I KNOW WHERE THIS IS GOING.
WHY AM I TALKING IN ALL CAPS. AM I THE TEAM LEADER NOW. THAT’S PRETTY COOL, YEAH.
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It’s spreading.
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We are everywhere.
Join us.
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Occasionally I picture a MuseBlog session of Sburb and get very, very frightened.
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I’ll be your server player.
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Ohmygod that would be FANTASTIC
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Me and a few of my off-blog friends have a self-insert session of Sburb going.
…it doesn’t go well, particularly where I’m involved; the phrase ‘dropping imps off the building’ may have been part of that reasoning. And that’s precisely the reason why I’m not supposed to be a Hero of Rage, except I am, and…yeah. It goes terribly.
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THAT WOULD BE THE BEST RPG.
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fudgesicles i forgot the wonks
wonk
wonk
wonkkkkkkkk
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Mars is very visible in the east tonight, even from Boston. Take a look if you can!
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“Mars is bright tonight. Unusually bright.”
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Yup, because it’s at opposition, which means it’s the closest to Earth it will be all year.
(That was probably a reference to something, but I’m not sure what.)
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(Harry Potter, I think.)
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Yes. Ronan the centaur said it in the first book.
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I was sad I missed that 
It has been snowing nearly nonstop since yesterday morning here.
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It should still be visible tonight!
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Maybe things will clear out by then… *crosses fingers*
Though we did have clear skies for the alignments a couple nights ago, so I should be thankful for that
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So I’m working on writing I scientific paper for my biology class right now–or, well, currently procrastinating on writing it, but I’ve got an outline in my head and I’ve finished one sections and am working on another, even tough there’s a lot of editing that still needs to be done..OK, now I’m just depressing myself.
Anyhow, my point is that no matter what my problems with writing this paper may be, passive tense is not one of them. I know a lot of people who have lots of difficulty writing scientific papers because they have to be written almost completely in passive voice, and that goes against every writing instinct they’ve got.
But it doesn’t go against my instincts. It all flows quite naturally, except for the bits where I run around clicking on several different things trying to get all my information together. And I can’t help but wonder what this means about my writing skills in general, that I seem to lean towards passive voice naturally.
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Are people just… posting about their daily lives? Like journal posts? Is that what’s going on here or is there some sort of theme to follow?
Oh, and… Hi! Haha… Sorry I’ve been so neglectful for… ever…. -sigh-
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Hi! I don’t think you were active on the blog anytime I was, but still, I recognize your name. Welcome back! 
And this is our random thread, where all sorts of random things happen… so daily lives, yes, random revelations, yes, theme, uhh, not so much…
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Hello! Good to see you around again!
This is the random thread; post what you like.
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Capricious and TMFA within two days. Huh.
Anyway, welcome back! *pies Capricious* I used to go by the name of eragon. You might remember me, you might not, but I remember you. Maybe it’s better if you don’t, because I was mostly just annoying.
Right now you’re on the random thread. This is where we post whatever. Anything at all. In other news, you are post number 42. A fitting number for your return to the blog.
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You forgot me? I’m a oldbie too, Castle, gossssssssssh. I’ve simply changed my name like fourteen times! No biggie, right?
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While I, meanwhile, have been on for five years and have never had any sort of serious name change.
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I can’t remember anyone’s names… ever. I’m so terrible with names.
Honestly, I hate my name. It’s so awful… It’s an adjective. A sort of… childishly pretentious one, at that. But how else will people recognize me? Hahaha.
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I most certainly did not forget you. In fact, the original draft of that post had you in it until I realized that you actually showed up more than a week ago and didn’t fit my definition which I didn’t want to change because I’m as stubborn as a castle.
Name changes…I’ll go take a look at Who’s Here.
Oh MY GOODNESS you were Avalon. I remember that incarnation of you, all right. I do remember you as you are now, though, if that’s at all comforting. Don’t know if I mentioned it already but I was eragon. I was small and annoying and I like to talk about how small and annoying I was because it makes me feel better about myself now.
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Oh, you’re Eragon! Hey, buddy, how’s it going? Naaaaaaaah, you were a pretty cool person as Eragon; no worse than my stint as Avalon.
…speaking of which. ‘I remember that incarnation of you, all right.’ Is that…is that a bad sort of remembering? It awfully sounds like one.
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Oh no, that’s an affectionate sort of remembering. I recall thinking you were interesting and while I don’t remember your posts I remember your name and thinking positively of them. I would have been…oh, let’s see…November 27th, 2007, so…I would have just turned 10?
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I would have been approximately eight or nine years old at that point, so considering we were both too young to have developed any life skills…hm. Actually, I’m not quite sure where I’m going with this.
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42? I didn’t even notice! Yessssssss!
Yeah, I know the thread is for, well, random things, but I see a lot of plain ol’ logging mixed in with the random conversation, and I don’t know, ignore me, haha.
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Hellloooooo! *pies*
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Helloooooooo!
Welcome back, glad to see you around. People are just posting about their daily lives, yes. The morphing chameleon threads are gone too; it could be a slow descent into vainglorious novelty-seeking, or maybe there are just more topic specific threads now.
But I’m too serious, how have you been?
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Welcome back! I don’t know if we were on at the same time or I know you from the Who’s Here or old threads.
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Welcome Back!
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Welcome back, Capricious! 
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For those who weren’t here or don’t remember, Capricious is not only a venerable MBer but a veteran of the Great Double Kokonvention of 2007.
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Ahhh those photos. We were so young, so young.
I’m actually surprised to see you, I thought you were a lot more, um… Hands-off, now, or something? Not sure where I got that idea.
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I think I’ve figured out that once a week (maybe twice every now and then) is a manageable rate for hanging out with friends, at least if I bolster myself with some caffeine first. I and a few other people went to my friend David’s aunt’s house for dinner tonight. One of the people that went thinks that he may have sat at the same table as I last semester, though I don’t remember that. He seems pretty cool, so I wouldn’t mind hanging out with him again. The other people I already knew at least as acquaintances. The lasagna was tasty, as were the brownies, and the family said we were welcome to come back any Sunday evening, so maybe this will become a recurring thing. David and I talked a bit more about the road trip we’d like to take. The original plan of a three- or four-week excursion with a few other people around the western half of the US sort of fell through, but he and I are thinking about going to the Grand Tetons or somewhere, if we can figure out the financial logistics. I’d like to get a better car before I go any any long trips, though–I don’t really trust my rusty ’92 Accord enough for that sort of long-distance driving, although I’m unlikely to get better gas mileage with a different car.
When I went to church this morning, another person from my parish back home stopped and talked with me after Mass. It’s sort of weird, because everyone from my home parish knows me, but I have no idea what most of their names are, so I have to be fairly quick on my feet. Why there are so many people that apparently attend Mass in two different cities, I have no idea. This is the third or fourth time it’s happened.
I feel like I’ve been talking about myself a lot on MuseBlog lately. I need to work on that. I also just noticed that there’s a rug in my room now. It’s bright blue, but I just noticed it. Hm.
Spring breaks are going to be coming up fairly soon. Does anyone have any fun plans?
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I like hearing about what you do!
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I don’t think you’re talking about yourself too much, or indeed more than anyone ever talks about enself. Also, good luck with the road trip. I hope it does work out. I’ve tossed about that idea with a few of my friends,but it’s far less planned out than yours seems to be.
For spring break I’m going on a service trip with my university to help clean up beaches and rebuild habitat and possibly ride horses. And muck out their stables. Lots of outdoor work. I’m looking forward to it, but I’m also anticipating exhaustion. But exhaustion at the end of a hard day’s work is different than ordinary exhaustion, I think.
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Same thing. I really enjoy hearing about your life. That’s what we’re here for anyway! If people didn’t talk about themselves, it would be a much less interesting discussion.
I would quite like a blue rug. My life does not have enough vivid, shiny colors in it and my rather drab clothing doesn’t help. I think I’ll buy a lime-colored shirt.
As for spring break, well…I’m probably going to read, work on my photo manipulation skills, make my friends some wallpapers, listen to music…how about you?
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COME ON EVERYPONY
SMILE SMILE SMILE
FILL MY HEART UP WITH SUNSHINE, SUNSHINE
ALL I REALLY NEED’S A
SMILE SMILE SMILE
FROM THESE HAPPY FRIENDS OF
MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!!!!
Pinkie Pie’s so cool.
In other news, I didn’t get much accomplished this weekend. I mostly surfed around the interwebz and played pokemon. Procrastination FTW!
@Capricious: Heya! Nice to meet you!
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Got to go study my brains out for my Decipherment midterm, but I just wanted to say hi.
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Next year I will hopefully be visiting WASHINGTON, DC.
This means that I may be able to see ROBERT.
And that other MBers in the area might be able to have a KOKONVENTION.
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ONE DAY MORE TO REVOLUTION
WE WILL NIP IT IN THE BUD
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WE’LL BE READY FOR THOSE SCHOOLBOYS
THEY WILL WET THEMSELVES WITH BLOOD
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WATCH ‘EM RUN AMOK
CATCH ‘EM AS THEY FALL
NEVER KNOW YOUR LUCK WHEN THERE’S A FREE-FOR-ALL
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WHAT IS THIS
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Watch ’em run amuck, catch ’em as they fall, never know your luck when there’s a free-for-all!
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HERE A LITTLE DIP, THERE A LITTLE TOUCH,
MOST OF THEM ARE GONERS SO THEY WON’T MISS MUCH
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ONE DAY TO A NEW BEGINNING
(RAISE THE FLAG OF FREEDOM HIGH)
EVERY MAN WILL BE A KING
(EVERY MAN WILL BE A KING)
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THERE’S A NEW WORLD FOR THE WINNING
THERE’S A NEW WORLD TO BE WON
DO YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING?
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MY PLACE IS HERE
I FIGHT WITH YOU
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ONE DAY MORE
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ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER DESTINY
(wrong lyric?)
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So, while my life is less hectic…
This is like the lull before the storm (AKA History Day).
And I have been very tired of late. And thus this is incoherant.
I’ve started watching Sherlock. See how tired I am? I can’t even obsess about it.
And this sounds like I’m talking to myself now.
Rambling…
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What brilliant weather we’re having today. I wish it would stay, but alas, it’s getting cool again tomorrow. This afternoon I went for a little walk around campus, and then I sat on a stone bench encircling a tree (donated by the class of 1906, apparently), read some Audubon, and finally wrote a bit in the Moleskine notebook I mentioned a while ago. That’s going to be a rather eclectic mix of styles, I think. As you can probably hear, I think I’m still emulating Audubon. I did some people-watching, too. That’s one of the hardest parts of college life for me–there’s a ton of interesting looking people, and I can’t possibly get to know most of them. They seem to congregate around the west half of campus, by the various arts-related buildings, which is unfortunately a bit of a walk. I’m stuck by Greek Row, where the people are somewhat less intriguing, albeit louder.
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Oh yes, the weather. On Friday it was storming and thundering at lunch, and I couldn’t even go home. By the time school was out, not a cloud in the sky. And yesterday in the 30’s, today in the 60’s. I just don’t know what to do.
As for meeting interesting people, you seem like the person they’d want to meet, so you should be fine there.
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Wow, the Windows 8 consumer preview is taking a while to download.
My AP Comparative Government Study guide is coming tomorrow. I really, really, can’t wait to get started on it and take the test.
My homework load is nice and light tonight. Just Calc and Chem. Oh, and a computer science think.
Wisdom teeth out on Friday.
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La la la la la. I’m home with the flu today, but unfortunately I kind of have to go to my history class because it’s only once a week, and there’s a test today. So I get to spend four hours sitting in the back of a very dark room trying not to infect people.
On the other hand, today I watched Bend it Like Beckham, Glee, The Big Bang Theory, and House. And read a biography of Molly Ivins. Life could be worse.
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On Friday we had a Gatsby party and all dressed up like we were from the 20’s. Pretty fun, especially since someone got a picture of me ‘beating up’ a ‘bum’ (someone who didn’t dress up).
Spring Break…
Well, my dad’s going out west to ski, which I didn’t really want to do, so I was going to go to Boston to visit my brother instead. However, my dad didn’t want to get plane tickets for me, only train tickets, which would involve a 20 hour trip each way, which is more than I can take without an ipod or laptop (I’m getting them next month). So instead I’m going to Chicago. Which is okay, I guess because there is a school where I know a lot of people, and I’m going to shadow someone so I can ‘test out the school’. At least that’s what I’m telling the principal. It’ll be good to see those friends, as I haven’t seen them since summer, but I can’t help thinking I’d rather see my brother in Boston instead. It’ll be fine though…
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Ah, the midterm is done, time to relax…
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So for you all musical types, a poll that is going on the random thread because I didn’t feel it would quite fit in on the Polling Place:
So I kind of have this ongoing argument with my friend.
You guys know Remingtons? You know, F E F Eb F D F Db F… et cetera?
And we call them Remingtons because they were invented by a guy named Remington.
Remington also made a lot of different excercises, and in fact someone I know has a copy of the original Remington excercise, which is on a sheet with other bits of warm-up excercise stuff– you know, articulation, lip slurs, etc.
And you guys would all agree with me that there are lots of excercises that Remington wrote, but he is only remembered for one, which is the Remington, which is why it is named after him? And you can publish these Remingtons in another book- say, Foundations for Superior Performance- as a full band exercise and call them Long Tones but in essence they’re still Remingtons, right? Remingtons are Remingtons just as scales are scales.
So none of you would say that, say, just because Remington arranged a nice little warm-up sheet with lots of basic lip slurs and exercises and that a Remington is something you just always do in your warming up, and just because you could call these Remingtons Long Tones, you shouldn’t call them Remingtons and it would be ridiculous to call them Remingtons?
Does this make sense?
Basically, I am on the “Call Them Remingtons” side, and my friend is on the “They’re Just Long Tones, Why Call Them Remingtons” side. I just want to know what the general public concensus on this is.
On another note, (quite literally, another instrument), I might be playing tenor sax in the pit for my school’s musical! I’ve never been in the musical, or even vaguely involved in it, so this is pretty cool. (The musical is Grease, appropriate-ified to G-rated material.)
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Hmm. Well, my band director calls it the “descending chromatic exercise”.
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the following is a true story, told in the form of a bad poem:
A bayman dined with a shaman-
the machos munched upon nachos.
He told me of how he had learned to dance,
and the mystical brew that started the trance.
Then the talk in the tavern turned to internin’
and now I keep tryin’ to tweet for a Mayan!
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Has everyone watched the KONY 2012 video? If not, grab a laptop, get on Vimeo or Youtube, and please do so now. It’s a 30-minute documentary about one of the world’s worst criminals, Joseph Kony. This man abducts children in Central Africa, turns the boys into child soldiers and places the girls into sex slavery, and even forces them to kill their own parents. He calls his abducted children the Lord’s Resistance Army, also known as the LRA. He has abducted over 30,000 children so far. This man remains at large because he is essentially invisible to the world. Few people know his name, and even fewer know his crimes. The goal of this movement, started by the group called invisible Children, is to make Joseph Kony famous. Not to glorify him, but because once the world becomes aware of his crimes, they will demand his arrest. In order to ensure that the U.S. military advisers that have been placed in Uganda to seek out and stop Kony are kept in place, the government needs to know that we care about the cause and awareness about the world’s worst war criminal must be brought to light.
This video will shock you, move you and make you want to get up and raise awareness. Watch, repost, absorb, and join the movement. This idea and this fight will change lives.
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That video is extremely contrived, misleading, and in many cases outright false. Northern Uganda has been free of LRA violence for more than five years. Recruitment of child soldiers is nearly gone. Yes, the leader’s still out there, but with an estimated 200 supporters maximum, and he hasn’t been seen in years. The organization behind the video, Invisible Children, is extremely suspicious. Last year, only a third of its income went to direct services, with the rest going to travel expenses, filming expenses, and staff salaries. The head spokesman for the organization admitted, “I agree with you that leading people to believe that the war is still happening in Uganda is not ethically right.” The organization has been pushing to allow direct military intervention in the region, which at this point would only throw it into chaos and lead to thousands of innocent people dying. As for arresting Joseph Kony, numerous attempts have been made, but he’s slipped away every time and retaliated by slaughtering civilians, including children.
It’s good to raise awareness of issues, but supporting any cause without researching it from numerous sources can be dangerous. Don’t get caught up in hype.
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Additionally, while Joseph Kony is a horrific criminal who must be stopped, arresting him (as various international organizations have been trying their hardest to do for years) will not solve the problems of the countries affected.
Uganda, the country that Invisible Children mainly focuses on, has 40% population below the poverty line. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is spreading like wildfire, aided enormously by the lack of quality sex education and protection available. Uganda’s government is extraordinarily corrupt, and its military, which Invisible Children advocates as the best solution to stop Kony, isn’t much better than another gang. They certainly do a good share of raping and looting in the villages they’re supposed to be saving. And perhaps most importantly, one of Uganda’s biggest problems is overreliance on foreign aid.
Finally, watching Invisible Children’s video and “spreading the word” isn’t actually very effective. In fact, it’s about as effective as signing an online petition: it makes you feel better, but it doesn’t really do much. To help stop Kony and aid the countries affected, don’t stop at posting the video to Voldynet. Donate to an organization– not Invisible Children, for reasons Piggy mentioned– that’s dedicated to stopping Kony. (Be sure to research it thoroughly first.) Donate to an organization that is working to stop world hunger, while you’re at it. Or AIDS. Or provides mosquito nets for malaria-affected countries. You may be directly saving lives.
I am so, so proud of the Internet and the world as a whole for reacting in the unified, vehement manner they have. I’m just worried that, as usual, the people are overexcited, uninformed, and ultimately useless. I’m worried that if Kony is caught, the citizens of First World countries will sit back and go, “Okay, problem solved, everything is shiny, let’s go.” And I’m worried that in three months time, whether or not this campaign has any effectiveness, people will be saying, “Oh yeah, Kony! Wow, I had completely forgotten about that guy! What ever happened with that?”
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After reading more on the subject, I agree that the video is very one sided. But of course, there are always two sides to every story. While it’s true that Kony hasn’t been operating very much at all in Uganda since 2006 (though their headquarters are still listed as being located in Northern Uganda), the LRA is still active in places like the northeastern Congo, South Sudan, and Central African Republic. While I still believe in the good intentions of this organization and this movement to stop Kony, they must be going about it the wrong way. I don’t think that Invisible Children is only acting out and making a stand to gain a personal profit, based on their accounts of their interactions with the people they’ve met and assisted in Africa. I think their intentions are true.
Also, the Ugandan military seems to be extremely corrupt. So wouldn’t sending in the military forces of other, morally sound countries like the United States be a good thing? The methods of trying to capture or kill Kony that the government would potentially undertake need to be discussed more thoroughly, because it’s likely that his bodyguards themselves would be child soldiers and the point of the movement itself is to minimize child deaths. Plus, as you pointed out, they’d have to take into account the LRA’s retaliation tactics.
I still think it’s a topic and a cause that the world should be aware of, because even though minimized, the problem is not gone.
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I don’t think America, or any country for that matter, is “morally sound”- and sending an army into the four or five countries that you mentioned sounds exactly like something that would end in a bloodbath. The US has sent combat groups to Uganda as “advisors,” although what that means they’re doing, I’m not sure.
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Okay, yes, morally sound was probably not the best way to put it. But at least it’s probably likely that our troops would be better able to provide a more trustworthy outlet for any sort of military operation that the government might enact against the LRA. And, like I said, the methods that were previously taken and might potentially be taken against the LRA would have to be seriously thought out and changed in order to minimize deaths.
And a letter that Obama sent to congress said about the advisors: “Although the U.S. forces are combat-equipped, they will only be providing information, advice, and assistance to partner nation forces, and they will not themselves engage LRA forces unless necessary for self-defense.” I’m not sure what this means as far as actually being able to do something about the situation.
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To me, it still seems like another “We’re big and powerful and nothing can go wrong!” invasion. Since, I mean, Uganda’s government is fairly corrupt (the current president has been on the throne for 24 years, and recently apparently rigged an election). I honestly don’t think we’d do much good by sending an army. And since this involves several countries surrounding Uganda, most of which have rather unstable governments themselves, it would be hard to stage a cooperative military operation that didn’t involve one outside country just marching in and taking over.
Just my opinion; I’m not a strategist or an expert. But either way, it is true that more people should know about Joseph Kony.
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I definitely wouldn’t suggest a huge invasion, just some kind of military support if necessary. I mean, IF necessary. I have no idea what they would suggest as a plan in order to try and make some sort of stop to the LRA and to Kony, if they even did. I guess that’s the good that could come from this campaign in the first place, to try and raise public awareness about Kony, his operations and his supporters so that maybe the situation could be bettered in some way.
I’m probably the furthest thing from an expert, clearly, as I didn’t really properly research the subject or attempt to educate myself before I posted in the first place, as ignorant as I am or must be. I think the overwhelming emotional effects of the video are good in that they urge people to want to take some sort of stand or help to put an end the horrific crimes that Kony and his supporters are committing, but I guess we must be going about it in the wrong way. At any rate, the public interest has been sparked, so maybe now people will investigate other organizations who may also be able to help better the situation.
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I have lab soon so can’t get into detail on stuff but the organization behind the video–Invisible Children–seems pretty lucrative to me after some research and I don’t think they themselves should be the organization/method we go through to deal with the problem.
There was a post recently that summed some things up nicely.
If the GAPAs will permit me… if you search “visible children” in google, and click the link with the visible children title (not INvisible) you can get to a brief article/post that sums up some of my main concerns with the organization.
That being said, I agree with the sentiments behind the video. It’s something that needs to be stopped or at least better addressed, but I’m not convinced that the methods they suggest are the most appropriate.
Here is one paragraph that addresses the concern about military involvement:
“Still, Kony’s a bad guy, and he’s been around a while. Which is why the US has been involved in stopping him for years. U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has sent multiple missions to capture or kill Kony over the years. And they’ve failed time and time again, each provoking a ferocious response and increased retaliative slaughter. The issue with taking out a man who uses a child army is that his bodyguards are children. Any effort to capture or kill him will almost certainly result in many children’s deaths, an impact that needs to be minimized as much as possible. Each attempt brings more retaliation.”
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I was lurking an imageboard right around the time it was KONY 2012 was uploaded. Someone posted it, saying “Get in here before it goes viral!” I went and watched it, and it had about 5,000 views.I heard a ton of people talking about it and thought “No way it’s going to get that many views.” I came back today and it has close to seven and a half MILLION views.
I have a friend that I’ve seen wearing an Invisible Children shirt. I never knew what it was before. This interests me a lot.
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I didn’t realize until now that there are so many concerns about Invisible Children. Their roadshow has come to my schools three or four times in the past six years, and I admit that I haven’t done much research other than that which they gave us. It’s disappointing, though.
I don’t know how to handle friends on social networking sites who are talking about “KONY 2012”. I want to give them the chance to educate themselves from more perspectives, but it’s awkward. For example, when a former teacher posts the video on my profile. Yeah, awkward.
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Do what I do–say “I am glad to see so many people in support of this idea! It is indeed something people need to be more aware is going on. I also hope people are taking the time to educate themselves about the various organizations putting this out as well though, especially if they are making the decision to donate money.” followed by a link to an article on invisible children and things they have done/want done/support and an analysis of those things.
John Green also posted a very nice statement on the matter, if people care to look that up as well.
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Also, do the “KONY 2012” shirts and things look like they’re /supprting/ him or am I crazy!?
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I have my window open in early March
56.1.2 – I think many in countries we’ve invaded would have a bone to pick with your description of the US military as morally sound.
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Touché, but hey, at least they aren’t raping and looting all over the place.
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Well, now, probably, hopefully. I mean, there’s no comparison scale-wise, but apparently places like the Baghdad Correctional Facility weren’t too cozy either, to name a more recent incident. Historically- Mai Lai spring to mind? Also, it’s kind of hard to loot areas that are extremely impoverished.
Of course, the US military is way more disciplined etc than that of many, many other countries, I’m not going to argue there, but it’s got its share of war crimes.
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Given my current situation (as outlined above), I’ve been browsing a bit more than my norm… I’d just like to say thank you. To all of you. No matter how things end up, this will always be a part of me; a part of all of us. I for one can’t even properly express how much that’s done for me, and how grateful I am for that.
-A
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Today is an excellent day.
My chorus teacher took my class to see a University of Maine choir perform today. They were absolutely brilliant. At first it was very typical and, to be honest, fairly boring. I mean, they were amazing singers, but it was a lot of classical music, which isn’t really my kind of thing. After they had done a couple of those songs, though, they did adapted pop songs, a capella. Pop songs aren’t normally my thing, either, but these singers were very funny about it; they mimed playing instruments and such, and at one point a small group of boys did a pop song that ended in Rockette-style dancing.
Ah…I wish I could participate in one of those sort of groups when I get older. I’m not a good enough singer to get in, however. Oh well–instead I’ll just watch.
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There are exactly nine days until we open Carousel, and four rehearsals left counting the cue-to-cue rehearsal and the dress rehearsal. This is freaky. We were in costume for the first time today, and I can’t believe how fast things have gotten together and how time has flown. It’s my last musical ever. The senior year show.
I’m also both ecstatic and really sad about how close I’ve gotten with a lot of the cast, especially because we’ve gotten so tight over the past three or so weeks. Soon it’s all going to be over and I’m not going to see the majority of them unless we get together on weekends, which we are planning to do, but still. They’ve been such a big part of the whole experience and I’ll be sad not to see them every day for four hours after school (although admittedly I won’t miss the staying late after school part very much). Nostalgia overload.
I really love theater.
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I HAVE FOUND ROBERT ON SKYPE
*stalks*
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So today, it was very warm and clear, and I was very happy, because it was a very nice day and I could eat my lunch outside and people were playing frisbee. It seemed like we were going to have Public Night at the observatory for the first time in a month, so I was excited.
But then, twenty minutes before the Astronomy Club was supposed to meet, it got somewhat cloudy, but you could still see the moon and Mars, so I figured observing was still on. I went up to the Astronomy Department, but the sign said Public Night had been cancelled “due to clouds”, so I stamped the floor and headed to the meeting anyway.
At the meeting, the president said he thought it was too cloudy, but he told one boy to go up anyway and see if the sky had changed. I went up with him, and we found these women waiting on the stairs. They said they had a whole school group coming for observing. So, we had Public Night anyway, and it was great.
They were a High School group from Texas on a school trip to Boston, and they were really enjoying it, and they loved seeing Jupiter, and they asked great questions… it was just a lot of fun!
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here is a little song I came up with, with the tune from the song that goes
-lean on me, when you’re not strong, and I’ll be your friend, I’ll help you carry on.-
it is referencing how in multiplayer matches in Halo, you can respawn on your teammates.
-Spawn on me, when you’re not strong, and you get killed, I’ll help you carry on. For, it won’t be long, until I’m gonna need, somebody to spawn on. Call on me buddy, when you need to play, we all need somebody to spawn on.-
What do you guys think?
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There aren’t enough songs written about the hardships of virtual warfare.
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I realize this was about actual games and slightly more literal warfare, but I couldn’t help but think of the SOPA wars back in January, so I wrote like eight verses of a SOPA battle poem.
I’m sorry, Lloyd. Your song was great.
The air was clear, the sun was bright,
and through the blinds it shone;
the birds had long since taken wing
for journeys south, alone.
And in the darkened silent houses
not a sound was heard
but for the tapping of the keys,
and once or twice, curse words.
Repost! Repost! the forums cried,
Retweet! Retweet! they said,
For Megaupload has gone down;
they slew it in our stead.
Repost! Repost! the forums shouted,
chaos is at hand!
For here it comes, the choking drums
that got our Mega banned.
They came in waves, the grey Anons,
their faces blank and cold;
they came in secret, came at night,
the young against the old.
And on that day the Wiki fell,
and censor bars appeared;
the Blog herself was taken down,
and each of us knew fear.
Repost! Repost! the forums urged,
Retweet! Retweet! they cried.
We must be heard, so spread the word
and prove you’re on our side.
Repost! Repost! the forums yelled,
Retweet! Retweet! they called.
For which among you could survive
if the Net were to fall?
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Hi everyone.
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Vanillabean! *glomp* Nice to see you! Where’ve you been?
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Just busy. Nice to see you too!
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Hi! It’s great to see you again!
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Vanillabean! You’re back!
*obligatory school-computer post*
Now I’ll get back to my work in the hopes that it will distract me from All-State Jazz Audition nerves…
Fake MPA tonight! Yay!
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Hello from Robert’s chair (& office)!
I have seen the innards of Science (magazine that is), and soon Robert and I will head out to lunch. Hope you’re all having nice days!
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So I just took a trip back to Welcome, Newcomers (November 2007) the thread after the one on which I arrived, and somehow still remember some of, and pulled out some choice posts for your enjoyment.
_________
Chocolate Freak (also known as Go Bananas!!!!!!!!!!)
This appears to be Zinc. They had/have the same avatar.
YAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PIE THE EVIL ONE!!!!!!
*pies evil one*
General Cliff Eagle Teh Pwnage
in November 9th, 2007 @ 16:38
What ever you do, don’t join Prancing unicorns. Join The Coconut cream guerilla on Zemtee! We have all the bases because all the bases are belong to us!
Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in November 5th, 2007 @ 14:20
In general, we zap leet on sight. But we’ve gone easy on this thread so far.
44: Hey noobs! Do you spea
45: Leet pwnxorz get teh piage in tes face
That’s enough, I’d say.
Raynpho the Manifold (I am not a dornick)
in November 25th, 2007 @ 15:36
214- Ah, thanks- I was wondering too, but I forgot to ask =P
Thanks to eragon for asking as well
You did indeed interact with me at one point. And you are not a dornick. And you like Sharpies.
eragon
in November 25th, 2007 @ 12:37
How do you cut/paste photos from Piccasa 2 to MB? I wanted to post a picture of my cat!
Now that’s just painful.
Piggy
in November 4th, 2007 @ 13:41
|-|3`/ |\|00|35! |)0 `/0(_) 5|>3@|
Ebeth The Titleless
in November 4th, 2007 @ 14:43
1337 |>u|\|x0rz 637 73h |>13463 1|\| 735 F4(3!!!! *pies*
agagabagabag zepata (trevor the decent)
in October 1st, 2007 @ 10:07
Another of my first posts that got zapped. Why, GAPAs?
[Because you weren’t welcoming any newcomers. –Robert]
Prarilius Canix who cannot WAIT for NaNoWriMo to begin in 5 days
in October 27th, 2007 @ 19:05
*flings, casts, chucks, hurls, tosses and otherwise throws various pies, flans, dumplings, tarts, cobblers, donuts, croissants, cakes, rolls and other assorted pastries at: The Irregular Bump With Copious Fur; Frozen Precipitation Prefixed By The Answer To The Ultimate Question Minus The Number Of Fingers On A Typical Human; and Hero Of A Popular Young Adult Fantasy Book By Christopher Paolini*
In other words, the loquacious Prarilius Canix bids all newbies a hearty welcome. Have fun!
The Frozen Precipitation one is in reference to 32snow and the Paolini one in reference to me. THIS is how you do a Pastry Flingchuck.
______
This selection in particular never fails to amuse me, Rebecca’s comment in particular.
limegreenelephant_supporter
in October 28th, 2007 @ 16:30
hi! i love muse but why the hot pink bunnies? personally, i would prefer a lime green elephant, as elephants are SOOOOOOOOOOO
smarter! HPBs are cute, but,well. Anywho, is Pwt a boy or girl muse? And what is feather,a bird or humanoid thingy like chad and pwt? we mbers may never know, alas. OMG I REMEBER NOW!!!
sorry but i remember i wanted to say something important!!here goes: I LOVE ALL THINGS MUSE AND KOKOPELLI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
my cat Leroy lurves it too! later fellow mbers!
_
limegreenelephant_supporter
in October 28th, 2007 @ 16:35
also, HAIL KOKO!!!*pies all newbies*
_
limegreenelephant_supporter
in October 28th, 2007 @ 16:37
i love bo’s page and especially that one, um,….. oh yes favorable alignment! i can NOT believe a teacher believed that!!
_
limegreenelephant_supporter
in October 28th, 2007 @ 16:41
mbers i think everyone should help with the lime green elephants thingy PLZPLZPLZPLZ :-l*nervous smile*
_
limegreenelephant_supporter
in October 28th, 2007 @ 16:45
ok *pies long time muse fans* really LGEs are spectacular ideas! they could join the HPBs if not replace them!
_
Irregular Bump with Copius Fur
in October 28th, 2007 @ 16:48
Hello, limegreenelephant_supporter! *pies*
Here are my best answers to your questions.
Hot Pink Bunnies: Originally were symbols used to attempt to stop the cat vs. dog argument, have turned into evil mind-controlling monsters
Pwt: Most people thinks Pwt is a girl, but Larry Gonick often refers to Pwt as a boy. Who knows???
Feather: I have no clue what he is. He says he’s wearing a costume or somthing, though.
_
limegreenelephant_supporter
in October 28th, 2007 @ 16:55
um,yeah, well, how long does it take exactly to be a long time lover? If its three or two years of muse subscription then yeaaaahh i am long time………………………………………………*spaces off and pies nearest mber in face out of reflex*
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limegreenelephant_supporter
in October 28th, 2007 @ 17:02
i am getting tired of waiting for my messages to finish moderating administrators. please hurry it up
[Wow. All of three minutes waiting for that one. I see why you’d be impatient. — Rebecca]
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limegreenelephant_supporter
in October 28th, 2007 @ 17:03
Irregular bump thnx so much! will you support LGEs with me?
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limegreenelephant_supporter
in October 28th, 2007 @ 17:05
Irregular bump LGEs could rule with HPBs!
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Irregular Bump with Copius Fur
in October 28th, 2007 @ 17:09
Limegreenelephant, I would enjoy supporting LGEs, but please but everything in one post next time. It makes life easier for MBers and the GAPAS. : idea
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limegreenelephant_supporter
in October 28th, 2007 @ 17:11
I asked my cat Moira (MOY-ra) and she objects to the bunnies and fully supports the green elephants. Yay Moira!
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limegreenelephant_supporter
in October 28th, 2007 @ 17:12
Lol ok. all one post then. ;D
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limegreenelephant_supporter
in October 28th, 2007 @ 17:13
here goes: Bunnies=BOOO! from the cats
also from cats: elephants RULE!
do you have pets irregular? if you do, ask them they’re opinion!
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agagabagabag
in October 28th, 2007 @ 17:14
LGE supporter, it’s more or less customary not to post more than twice ini a row. Some people even apologize when they double post.
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limegreenelephant_supporter
in October 28th, 2007 @ 17:17
oh gee sor-ree! note the sarcasm! i am a fairly new mber so excuse my whatever it was! :,(
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agagabagabag
in October 28th, 2007 @ 17:18
In the time it took me to post that, you posted thrice. Do shut up.
Please excuse the double post.
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limegreenelephant_supporter
in October 28th, 2007 @ 17:19
agagabagaga or whoever you are: LEEV THE NEWBIES A-LONE!
i could care less about that two post thingy! i like my own style!
~ ~
l l
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that is a vertical half angry half sad face.
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Irregular Bump with Copius Fur
in October 28th, 2007 @ 17:20
That’s O.K. Just read earlier posts, and you’ll get the idea.
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agagabagabag
in October 28th, 2007 @ 17:20
Wow, a lot of ping-pong there. If this is a double post, excuse it.
You might want to try another thread.
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limegreenelephant_supporter
in October 28th, 2007 @ 17:20
WATCH IT THAT’S CONSIDERED RUDE YA KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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limegreenelephant_supporter
in October 28th, 2007 @ 17:21
*silently sobs* the LGEs will get you for this!!
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Whatever happened to limegreenelephant?
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Presumably en wandered off to a thread that was more en’s style. Judging by the quality of those posts, I’m glad en did.
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Well, that was five years ago. I just thought it would be funny if it turned out En had changed their name and was now a mature MB veteran.
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I don’t think so. She posted as Exotica and Superkabob. Then, as far as I can tell, she made a lone attempt to pose as a neophyteand disappeared.
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I thought the exact same thing. I was thinking “Well, what if LGE turned out to be…like Adeliae or something? What if en matured tremendously or something?”. It was a funny thought.
Ooh, did en really pose as a newbie, Robert? This reminds me of the Faye Beauchamp thing.
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What happened with Faye? I remember her, but I don’t remember any debacle.
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She never existed.
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It was just one post, and everybody ignored it.
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I believe en (I think she) hung around for about a month, got tired of Museblog not behaving like an IRC and was never heard from again.
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LGES reminds me of…a certain Internet celebrity.
“stop flaming ok! I dntn red all da boox! dis is frum da movie ok so itz nut my folt if dumbeldor swers! besuizds I SED HE HAD A HEDACHE!”
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I used to wonder whether neophytes became much less annoying before I came or I was just accepting. I have my answer now, and it isn’t the one I wanted, but it’s funny.
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I don’t think “annoying” is a fair generalization about neophytes. The annoying ones by definition make an impression that can be way disproportionate to actual numbers. Just as many neophytes have slipped in without anyone noticing they had ever been anything but old hands, but the majority settle in comfortably in short order without ever having been annoying in anyone’s eyes but their own.
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And, of course, annoyingness is in the eye of the beholder.
Some neophytes (*coughmecough*), are extremely annoying in the eyes of every beholder for much too long before they settle down. You just need to be patient with them.
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You’re probably right. I just meant I have never seen an annoying neophyte in my time here (maybe one, but it wasn’t a big deal–and if you’re reading this and haven’t been here as long as I have, it wasn’t you, because this person left quickly) and until now only knew about them by reputation. I was wondering whether they’d changed or I just wasn’t easily annoyed by them. The post proved it wasn’t the latter. But maybe it isn’t either; maybe it’s just that they’ve never been frequent enough to be noticed by anyone who’s been here less than two years.
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Another fun thing to think about in this subject is that a lot of people come here now having been elsewhere on the internet first!
I, and many others, found Museblog and it acted kind of like a gateway to the internet for me. I’d never been part of an online community before, and Museblog helped teach us all how to act online. So new people would drop in, zing around a bit unsure of what was proper internet ettiquete, but would learn and settle in.
Nowadays people are more likely to be on facebook or other internet sites from a young age that weren’t around as options before. They come in with a skillset of internet etiquette that didn’t exist several years ago. This means Museblog is a lot less of a gateway into the internet. You don’t see people saying as much “I don’t really go on other sites,” but “I don’t really go on other sites like Museblog.”
So it might appear to some as though in the olden days people were a lot more annoying when they were new, but really I’m sure most people are just as hyper and unsure of how to behave when they first start going online! It just happens here less. But that means that when it DOES, it stands out a lot more. So no one’s really gotten any more or less annoying at first, we just happen to notice it since it makes such a stark contrast.
Anyway these are things I find interesting things to consider.
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I just wrote a response but I think it may have gotten eaten! I will retype it but if a post very similar to this one appears you can get rid of this.
Another thing to think about with neophytes is how differently we look at the internet now!
When I was just joining Museblog, it was basically my gateway to the rest of the internet. I, and many others, came here and this was our first experience with an internet community of any sort. We had no idea of the proper etiquette or guidelines at first! I just would come on and bounce around and say things until I eventually got the hang of it and settled into a pattern with how everyone else posted (mind you that as well has changed across Museblog’s history).
Nowadays, it’s a lot less likely that newcomers are experiencing internet communities for the first time through MB. They have probably been a part of facebook or other well known sites and already made adjustments to how to behave online. Those options weren’t there just a few years ago when I and many others started posting here! There was no giant site people talked to each other on and was meant for preteens. It was the first exposure to something like that and through it we learned how to behave on one.
Since that’s not happening as much anymore, it appears that there’s less “annoying” neophytes because they’re already used to online interaction! Instead of “I don’t really go on other websites” it’s “I don’t really go on other websites like Museblog..” There’s some adjustment necessary since we are not a typical site, but not nearly as much as if you’re adjusting to the internet for the first time.
“Annoying” behavior is just behavior that breaks the preset pattern, which neophytes have not really had time to learn yet! Some people learn faster than others, and some even get a handle of it before they start posting so it seems like they knew it to begin with.
And as a result of all this, when people DO come to MB as one of the first internet homes they find, they stand out a LOT more!
In fact, back when I joined Museblog, there was nothing wrong with posting 3 or 4 times in a row. Even if the posts only contained a little bit of nonsense in each. No one judged you for terrible spelling and grammar because things like online spellcheck weren’t really prevalent! That’s all really different now. There’s more people and we’ve moved to a more directional discussion style. Neither is better or worse, they are just different! It is community evolution.
I think we as a community can be actually pretty harsh on ‘phytes. But there’s pretty much no one who didn’t settle in eventually. And people are a lot more likely to stick around if you welcome them with pies than by correcting their grammar! They just haven’t adjusted yet.
Anyway that is what I have to say! These are things that I think are interesting to consider.
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I agree with this. MB was my first stop on the Internet Subway, so when I got here I had no idea how to act. But thanks to MB, when I went on other sites I used proper etiquette.
One thing I can’t stand is this:
omglol did u see how i smaked that creeper with my sord? it died and explodid and blew up all the grass around it lolololololol
Because all I want to do is run up and grammar nazi everything within a hundred-mile radius while screaming “TROLOLOLOL!”.
…which is why I use proper everything, usually. MB helped me with that.
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That’s a good point. I know I’m very embarrassed by my first posts on the Internet, but there’s literally only one post here that’s made me even a bit embarrassed. It took me 3 seasons to learn Internet etiquette on my first site, though–not that anyone complained, for the most part, or was rude, but I’m quite embarrassed by my posts from when I was 10 (and the first half of when I was 11). I didn’t come here until about… half a year after the point when my posts stop embarrassing the current version of me, so for the most part, I knew what to do by the time I ended up here.
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Are you familiar with “Eternal September”?
In an age long ago, the internet was accessible only through academic institutions, like universities. Because you had to be part of such an institution to go online, the standard of content was much higher. Each year new students entered the system in September, annoying everyone else as they tried to figure it all out. As internet became more widely available to the general public, it entered an “eternal” September.
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Ahaha, no, I hadn’t heard of that. That’s quite interesting! And I love the phrase XD
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I’d seen the Wikipedia article on that phrase. It’s very true.
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I have tried to reply to this twice and I think my comments keep getting eaten! They don’t appear after I’ve posted them. To avoid retyping it a third time, is it on my end or did they get marked as spam maybe?
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Well this one turned up fine so maybe it is on my end. Sigh.
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The spam filter was eating them. I don’t know why. Maybe it was just hungry — business has been slow lately. Anyway, I’ve retrieved them.
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Aha! Thank you! Glad I asked instead of retyping (: *hands key-lime pie*
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In my Latin class today we spent a good fifteen minutes discussing various alcoholic drinks, until the conversation morphed into talking about laws against beef defamation and whether or not eggs were vegetables.
Seriously, if any of you don’t know what to major in, give classics a try. Classicists are ridiculous.
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Sounds sort of like the classics department at my school. Most of the professors have a reputation for being strange or ridiculous.
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What the heck is “classics”?
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Traditionally, classics refers to the study of ancient Greek and Roman language and literature.
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Today in Lost Languages and Decipherment, our professor asked if anyone could name the writings found in pyramids that were an early version of the Book of the Dead.
Me and my friend both went “The Pyramid Texts!” immediately, followed by “JINX!”
The professor thought it was great, the other kids thought we were weird.
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I want to take that class. That sounds excellent. *envy*
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Very much agreed…
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It snowed today. The day started out normal, slightly cold, then suddenly at ten the clouds split and whoosh- winter wonderland. It’s all melting away anyhow, but it was pretty. It sounds crazy, but I’m starting to miss my school already.
I miss the ivy I’ll never see regrow.
I miss huddling around the water-boiler with half the homeroom, filling only 3/4 of the cups so that there’d be more to go around.
I miss seeing a gentle sheet of white cover the court and the basketball hoops.
I miss skulking in empty classroom, eating lunch and cramming for Spanish.
I miss leaning against wall behind the back of the auditorium, looking down at the stairwell leading up to the music classroom, enjoying the sunlight spilling in through the windows and lazily thinking of my weekend and the beauty of campus.
I miss staring at the posters explaining nuclear fission in physics class, idly dreaming of the day all this would be clear to me.
I miss returning to classrooms and looking at the mysterious signs and symbols covering the blackboard, staring in wonder at the snatches of ancient greek and calculus, filled with pride at the idea that someday I would master this as well.
I miss the confidence I had that I never believed in myself and would deny.
I miss gathering at nine or ten-ish during the last week of school, to go swimming in the old Danube or just for gelati at a nearby stand.
I miss the kindness of my friends, even though I’m the one who’s leaving first.
I miss the laziness of courses when the summer approaches and everyone seems to grow languid in the heat.
I miss the cold of the half-heated halls in the winter- to completely heat the building would be too costly, or so the ministry for education explained.
I miss the weeks before the grades’ deadline when everyone stumbles around like zombies because of sleep deprivation.
I miss the craziness pre-exams when people are resorting to their third rounds of energy drinks and coffees and teas.
I miss the collective spouting random bits of what must seem like random gibberish to any observer right before some test; “No no, the golf places were the investment bubble- what comes after Bosporus? Retching? Oh, Ägäis!- G and C, A and T, G and C, A and T… help I can’t remember number five- Someone ask me about Chordates!- We’re all gonna die!- Always look in the bright side of life (and other group songs).”
I miss the uncharacteristically yellow curtains in computer class.
I miss the taste of cheap noodles, soggy or still frozen, with a dollop of sauce on top.
I miss the reek of ten different teas in our small classroom.
I miss the craziness of our mock-english trials and speaking exercises.
I miss the pride of being at a school with numerous famous alumni and my childish aspirations of one day having a plaque on the school wall one day as well (one of the ones they made for winning certain prizes, not dying in WW2).
I miss the confortable couches in some of the larger classrooms that I cat-napped on.
I miss the eccentricities of many of my teachers.
I miss the certainty of having a home, of sorts, for at least 8 to 2 on weekdays.
I miss the nervous anticipation of the first day of school, lining the back of the auditorium, standing next to those large open windows trying to catch a breeze, listening to the same old speech given by the principal each year while idle gossip flies.
I miss the hate/love relationship I had with high school.
So instead of working on my term papers, I’ve been listening to Yves Montand, Barbara et Léo Ferré. Avec le temps…
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The weather was great today. It was very warm, and I ate my lunch on the lawn in front of the Communications building. (This was a very popular idea, it turned out!) One day left until Spring Break!
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ONE DAY MORE
*is summarily keelhauled*
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I get mine in two weeks.
*Rage*
is there a rage face emote?
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See here for the list of smilies: https://musefanpage.com/blog/?page_id=1824
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So fake MPA went okayish, I guess. We had a clinician afterward, who I found annoying. (According to Paperclip, who had had him for All-District, he reused all of his jokes.) He made us play Salvation is Created the whole time, and he didn’t do a Grand Pause at the brass choir, which messed me up because I was reading first trombone part and barely could play it as it was.
But it was lots of fun and my trombone survived its assassination attempts from a murderous clarinetist! Also, on the way home my friend and I stared at Wells-Fargos, because they are really Weeping Angels.
G’night, all!
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Shouldn’t Pi Day be on the calendar?
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Indeed it should. I’ve added it, but it will take a little while to filter down from the cloud.
I’ve added Tau Day, too.
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ONE TEST DOWN
now onto the problem set due at 5pm
then I can shower and get this salt out of my hair
PLANT PHYLOGENY IS GO
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Trying to decide how to start this “having my own life” thing, not sure if anyone can provide any insight, but here’s the sitch’:
My main goal is, well… It’s graduating high school, but /after/ that my main goal is moving out. My parents suggest staying at home for a few months while I take a few classes at a technical college in the city, and look for roomates there, after I get a “real” job.
They think I’m not going to find roomates any other way than going to college, though it’s mostly just so I don’t sit around doing nothing and mooching off of them without “making progress”, but oh lord do I hate school and every form of it. If it were up to me I’d get a job, get a room and focus on… nothing. Parents say: “That’s a great idea, but how are you going to find the roommates? The job?” And I think…. College, I guess. That’s the first step, isn’t it?
I’m baffled.
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Maybe start doing activities/classes you’re interested in? Like a martial art or cooking or writing or knitting or something and find roommates through those?
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Oh, and do you have an idea of what jobs you’d like to do? If you don’t, I have a friend who recently trained to become a pharmacy technician. There are training classes (potential roommate finder?) and it is generally hiring.
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Yeah, I’m trying to get into radio, though I’m not sure that’s what I want to do for the rest of my life. I really want to do things involving comedy and story, but every circle I’ve ran with involving those activities hasn’t really worked out.
I’d love to get an internship at a radio station, and I’ll continue to look, but the chances are slim… Hmm…
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Most universities have their own radio stations that are pretty easy to get into. A friend of mine from middle school has his own show now. Last night he interviewed Giorgio Tsoukalos and Bill Birnes.
You’d be surprised how much better college can be than all previous forms of education. There’s a ton of freedom and room for creativity.
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I know… but I’m not willing to go through all the trouble of university just to get ino the radio station…
I’m sure it’s better than other forms of education, but I have a ridiculously hard time with any form of education, heh. /naysaying
Oh well, what can ya do?
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Problem set done! Whew. Now I can shower. Just as soon as I finish this smoothie.
Also, wow. I have been on Museblog for 6 years and one month exactly today. That is a long time.
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HELLOTE :DDDD
It is all of us and we are together right at this moment and happiness is ensuing in large amounts
Wheeeeeee :3
*earless manatee face*
And Castle.
And Justice.
AND ALL THE HAPPY D’AWWCUDDLES
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Okay, I’m technically on Spring Break now, but I have to write something for my dad tonight, so it doesn’t really feel like break yet…
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All state jazz auditions are tomorrow and I am stressing more than is healthy. My ability to improvise seems to have deteriorated. Now sleep! Because stress dreams are fun!
AAAAAAAHH I AM GOING TO FAIL THIS *runs and hides*
Obviously trying not to think about it isn’t working.
Nonono.
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SAT tomorrow. Wish me luck?
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Good luck!
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Good Luck, Cat!
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Luck!
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Good Luck!
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In case you’re wondering, that squid was accidental.
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Good luck!
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ALL of the luck.
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Hello MuseBlog, I am back from eight days in Jordan on our annual school trip (which for some reason is called Interim)! I absolutely loved it, it’s such a great country. I’m a bit sad to be back in Hong Kong (Tuesday = school again ): ) since I really miss Jordan, but anyway, I’m back! We spent a few days in Amman (it SNOWED!), Madaba, went to Jerash, Karak, Petra, etc, also stayed for two days in the desert (the best bit) and the landscape was absolutely stunning there, beautiful beyond words, I can’t even describe it properly. Food was amazing of course, people were so friendly, and the eighteen of us students really bonded. So anyway. There’s my little update after more than week away from you all!
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Oh you lucky, lucky girl. Detailed travelogue, please? Especially of Petra. Yet another place I’ve always wanted to go.
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((Sorry if this sounds like a rant. It’s not. It’s a musing. It’s not a rant… please don’t pity me.))
So… I kind of forget… are there any MBers in Singapore? Who are actively involved in music? In an international school?
Because my band director just announced that he’s leaving after this school year is over… traveling across the globe for the job of a lifetime. This shouldn’t affect me too much, since this is my last year of middle school.
He’s kind of a spot of controversy at my school, and a lot of kids don’t agree with his decisions. He came here in seventh grade taking over from our old band director.
If he hadn’t come, I never would have tried out for or made it into any honors bands. I never would have learned all the jazz stuff I did, or switched from alto sax to tenor sax and trombone. I owe him so much.
And so I was just wondering. Because if a tall guy from NC comes to take over music at your international school, tell him the girl with the tenor sax and trombone says hi.
My sister was going to be in band next year. I wonder how her band carreer will change with a different director. Will en be as open to instrument doubling? Because I’d still be plodding away at the alto sax if it weren’t for him. And my sister has plans to play bari sax and tuba.
I remember right before All-District auditions he said he didn’t know what he would do next year without us, the upperclass of this school– my hard-to-read-ness, Altosax’s deadpan-ness. MO, Paperclip, Linguine, Red, Brick, Captain Jack, Tuba. I guess he’ll never know now.
I’m okay with this, because I know he’ll be happy in Singapore with a really good high school band. But we have a student teacher, and I really, really want him to get the job because he’s really good and he knows the band and I know he’ll be up for it. But I’m not sure if the prinicpal will hire a student teacher.
This is the second time I’ve had a band director leave. I’m kind of glad I’ll be going to high school because I don’t think I could cope with another change. Just the other day, I was sitting in the trombone section and I was looking at the Wall of Fame, which started last year when he came. It has all the names of everyone who’s gotten into honors bands. I imagined it filling up, with new names of the right-now sixth and seventh graders who made all-county and district, and how one day I would look back at my own yellowing and peeling name and remember the good old days, with me and Altosax and Paperclip and Linguine and MO and Red and Brick and Captain Jack and Tuba. And I’d look at the more recent names, with current sixth-and-seventh graders, and my siblings, and their siblings, and beyond. And, in this fantasy, I’d see the years go by, all these legacies left at this school, and hope somebody had seen my name “Agent Lightning-Tenor Sax” and thought of me, or asked about me, and remembered me. And that my sister’s friends would go “Hey, is that your sister?” and see my name and Paperclip’s and everyone else and remember. I even wondered if somebody would see MO’s name so many times and wonder who he was and what he did for the band. (Start a double reeds craze? Hm.)
I just want that wall to continue. With the same font size and the same green border around the posters with the names, and the way the name of the honors band is bolded and underlined. We’re the upperclass of middle school now, and we’re living it to the fullest, and it feels so perfect, with MO randomly breaking into song and dance and Altosax doing Creepy Barney and Paperclip arguing with me over every single thing.
I want that wall to continue, and I know that part of the reason that I want to make these honors bands is to have my name on the wall and be remembered. I want to be remembered. I want to leave a legacy but with a new director that legacy might get erased.
I’ll return to visit. And I know it won’t be the same. But I want that to stay. Time will change things, but sometimes I wish it would stand still. Because some things have to stay the same. Please let it stay the same.
Wow, that was really long.
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Well, this time last year I was a MBer actively involved in music at an international school! Oh gosh, if only I knew which school he was going to (GAPAs, is she allowed to say? Probably not, huh…). But… okay, it probably wouldn’t be either of my old schools, because they both had pretty terrible music programs. Really. At my last school, orchestra was generally known as Defense Against the Dark Arts, because no teacher ever stayed for more than a year or two.
I might know some people at the school, though. I’ll ask all my friends if they have a new music teacher coming in…
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I understand completely what you mean; I think I felt some similar things when my high school band director left two years ago.
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The last few sentences reminded me of a bit of Frank Turner lyrics (as most things do)
“But that doesn’t mean I’m settled up and sitting out the game
Time may change a lot, but some things, they stay the same”
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That awkward moment when you spent your WHOLE day on MEPS.
MY EYES ARE DRY
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I thought that I would post this here so that people would actually see it, since apparently nobody reads books anymore…
I was on TVTropes and saw a mention of A Series of Unfortunate Events, and thought to myself: “Hm, I remember that there was going to be a sequel to that, I wonder if there’s any more information?” And there totally is more information!
There’s going to be a series of four prequels aimed at an older audience. Probably because the series’ original target audience is my age now. And they will hopefully answer some questions!
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I remember reading that series! That’s very exciting. Apparently the first one will be out in October?
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That’s really awesome! I love those books; I can’t wait until October! I always wanted prequels, too… And I can’t believe I still have yet to read his autobiography! I must get onto that…
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How old is the last Books and Readers thread? Maybe a new one would spark book discussion!
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Here are a couple of pictures from Oxlin’s visit.
Oxlin posting comment 66, above:
Oxlin at the National Press Club, about to eat a slice of blueberry pie. (Yes, we ate the pie. Once it has been sliced, it’s not good for anything else.)
The National Press Club resembles the Hare & Hedgepig in some respects, although it’s not nearly as cozy.
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It was pretty tasty pie! We did discuss blueberry’s potential as a pie-ing pie, at least. We figured it’d make an excellent one due to its staining properties and general gooeyness. Mostly an excellent one if the person isn’t wearing clothes they care about, though.
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Did my comment get eaten by the spam filter?
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No. Nothing in the spam filter.
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Ah. Okay. I was wondering because I’d left the pie eating comment and then I didn’t see it at all, no “awaiting moderation”, nothing.
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Love the hat.
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Thanks! It is the green fedora I was talking about on style and fashion. The Capitol security guards also liked it.
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It looks a bit like my fedora!
I bet it would make a really great trombone mute. Mine did– it was actually much better than a more modern fedora that we tried out.
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Nice! If that’s what the National Press Club looks like, I want to be there the next time some spacey person is and eat pie with them in the awesome dining room!
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IIIIIT’S SOOOOO NIIIIIICE OUUUUUUUT
THE SUN HAS COME TO LOVE ME AGAIN
NEVER GO BACK INSIDE
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Outside? What’s that?
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It’s this beautiful place where you can sit and watch animals for as long as you want–birds and lizards and insects and sometimes even snakes and all sorts of things! And you can find beautiful feathers and seedpods and things to collect. You can read out there, too. Things get even more interesting if you take a magnifying glass with you–and even more so if you take a microscope. And at night, you can look at stars, planets, etc; I don’t do that much, but I know you’re really interested in space; I expect you’d enjoy it! I highly recommend you go there sometime; it’s so fulfilling!
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Has anyone here seen A Separation? If so, should I see it instead of seeing The Artist a second time?
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I have! I loved it, even though the subtitles could have been better. You should definitely go see it.
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Whew! It has been a busy weekend.
The SAT went all right, I think. Advice for anyone who hasn’t taken it: you can take practice tests all you like, but the most difficult part of the whole test is sitting in a room for four hours filling in bubbles without being allowed to listen to your iPod or text a friend or something. After a while you just naturally sort of start to drift off. If you’re going to practice, be sure to practice focusing for a very long time.
I cut all my hair off Friday! Well, not all my hair, but lots of it. I essentially have a boy’s haircut now, and I’m really pleased.
I also saw the school spring plays, Our Town and Neighborhood 3. They were utterly fantastic. Our Town was absolutely beautiful; I started crying at the ice cream soda shop scene and didn’t stop until the curtain closed. Neighborhood 3 was a more modern horror play, and it was terrifying and very sad. The acting must have been really emotionally difficult. I would recommend them both, if there’s a production of either in anyone’s area.
And Spring Training started! It’s so nice to have baseball on the radio again.
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We are so much the same person that we even took the SAT on the same day!
I’ll add my advice as well:
There is some fantastic information out there on the Internet about the essay prompt “archetypes” that show up over and over again. The essay was the section I was most worried about because, compared to the other sections, more chance is involved with what prompt you get. A lot depends on how quickly you can come up with a few solid examples. However, my friends and I found a great list of past prompts, organized by “archetype”, and spent roughly an hour the night before test going through them and brainstorming examples for each. Besides simply making me feel more ready and bringing some good source material to mind, one of the categories we discussed in depth actually showed up as the essay prompt! I had my examples written down before I even finished reading because I was so prepared in advanced. I could spend my very limited amount of time demonstrating my best writing instead of thinking of applicable examples.
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This is good advice for essays in general, actually. If you’re writing an in-class essay on a book, be sure to look carefully at key moments in the book, dream up possible prompts, and apply various examples to the possible prompts. So when you finally sit down to write, you won’t have a panic moment, but will just be able to outline your essay in a minute and get writing.
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My problem with taking the SAT (I took a practice version last year, when I was in 7th grade) was that I had to go to the bathroom. VERY BADLY!! (I got a 1000-something on it though, which made me feel special!
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We had a rehearsal all day from 12 to 5, and it’s 60 degrees outside, so therefore we all ran around in the parking lot in late 1800’s dress.
I love theater kids.
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Just finished “Crazy For You”!!! It was extremely fun, along with the cast party. I do sound tech, and one guy’s mic died out in the middle of Thursday’s performance, but otherwise it went very well.
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What I have done on Spring Break so far, 2 days in:
Yesterday:
– Come home from Boston.
– Unpacked.
– Visited the Custer Observatory and looked at Mars, the Orion Nebula, and Jupiter.
– Talked about space with some adorable little kids.
– Taken 12 pictures for the “100 Themes” photography challenge I’m doing.
– Called in to a radio station to request “Man in Motion (St. Elmo’s Fire)”, but we got home from Custer before they could play it. (Also, I found out the station doesn’t have “any John Denver”. Their loss.)
Today:
– Got a haircut.
– Did my laundry.
– Rediscovered an old story I wrote.
– Found two of my old Disney Adventures magazines with awesome comics.
– Sewed patches onto the holes in my stuffed Squirtle so his stuffing won’t fall out anymore.
– Convinced my mother that I absolutely WILL NOT allow her to throw my stuffed Squirtle away, no matter how “ratty” he looks.
– Caught up on my online business after being away from the computer yesterday.
Yay non-school obligations!
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What I did on Spring Break:
Saw Robert
Saw Senators (mostly on the floor)
Saw Museums
Saw my grandparents
Saw the Magna Carta, the Gutenberg Bible, various projectile points, a Da Vinci (in said museums/archives/etc)
Saw a play!
Among other things like walks and eating at restaurants.
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Today I woke up early, took a quick shower and ate a quick breakfast, and then walked to a coffeeshop to which I have a gift card. Then I sat outside for a while drinking my coffee, listening to the birds, and watching the sun rise. Since it was drizzly all day yesterday, the trees are wet and mossy today. I think it’s hard to be in a bad mood if you make an effort to start your day well. I’m feeling a sort of universal friendliness. That guy with the backwards baseball cap and sagging shorts who spit on the ground? He made sure to spit onto the grass instead of the pavement, so he seems like an okay dude.
I just hope my sociology class doesn’t sour my mood. Maybe I’ll get some writing done while the professor’s droning on.
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Update: Sociology did sour my mood a bit, but I got a couple of good haikus done, so it wasn’t a complete waste of time.
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Hm. A support squid doesn’t seem like quite what I have in mind… Have a “Sorry about Sociology but congratulations on the haikus!” squid instead.
Is “haikus” a word, or is the plural the same as the singular? Spell check doesn’t recognized “haikus”, but there are a lot of real words it doesn’t recognize.
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The real plural would be haiku, but I felt like anglicizing it.
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My school play, in which I was participating, just finished.
Tech week. It happened. I am now dead.
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Welcome to hell week. What is sleep?
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For the week. I suggest some Frank Turner.
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Does anyone know how to get Matrices and that sort of thing into a word document? I have to write a ten-page paper on (surprise, surprise) Matrices and I can’t seem to find half the mathematical symbols I need, especially for my proofs & the section on determinants (which we covered in class, so I suppose I could scann in part of the textbook for that bit, but ahrg).
So far, I’ve spent maybe three hours researching and writing and at least 6 trying to figure out how to bend these silly Open Office programs to my will. And no, it has to be typed, only minor corrections in black fineliner are permissible (for typos, etc). *facepalm*
I’m just going to move to a desert island.
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Do you have the entire OpenOffice or LibreOffice (like OpenOffice but more free) suite installed? If not, or if they’re not up to date, you should download the latest release from LibreOffice dot org. It will include, among other applications, Math. Writer is a text editor just like Word, as you know, and Math is an equations editor. Once you’ve written your matrix in Math, it can be inserted into Writer as an object.
Don’t hesitate to ask if you have any more questions! I probably can’t help with any actual math beyond the conceptual level, but I did edit and format an honorable mention winning M^3 Challenge paper!
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Thankyouthankyouthankyou!
I can’t believe I never heard of the Math program before- it’s just what I needed. *appreciatory pies*
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“MuseBlog: Putting People in Touch with Just What They Need Since 2005.”
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I built my model Falcon 9 rocket today, and it looks sweet!
Also, I played with my dog in the park and made wind-bubbles. (When you hold up the wand into the wind and let the wind blow through it and make bubbles.) I was very proud of the fact that I made both the bubble mix (out of soap, dishwasher liquid, and water) and wand (out of wire) myself.
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I’m reading the Complete Sherlock Holmes right now, and I’m just about to start on “The Final Problem.”
SHERLOCK HOLMES SPOILERS? QUESTION? THESE STORIES ARE MORE THAN 100 YEARS OLD? SO MAYBE I DON’T NEED A SPOILER? SHERLOCK HOLMES SPOILERS? QUESTION? THESE STORIES ARE MORE THAN 100 YEARS OLD? SO MAYBE I DON’T NEED A SPOILER?
I can totally see why people got so upset that Holmes died! Mycroft was introduced two stories back and he was never seen from again, and Moriarty is introduced in the very same story that Holmes dies in? What kind of an ending is that?!
I wonder if Conan Doyle’s writing style changes after his ten-year hiatus from Sherlock Holmes? I can’t wait to find out!
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Why would the age of stories have anything to do with whether you’d need a spoiler warning?
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I guess the spoiler has more to do with whether “everybody knows” what the spoiler is. And age might be a factor in that. I don’t know.
Like, I wouldn’t post a spoiler for saying Darth Vader is Luke’s father. I’m pretty sure everybody knows that. I knew that before I even watched Star Wars. But I would definitely put a spoiler warning before Harry Potter spoilers, even though I’m pretty sure that everyone here has read them. Age is a factor there.
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Ah. Well, having not read the spoiler in case I don’t know it, I can’t tell you whether or not it’s something everyone knows.
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And actually thinking about it a bit more Sherlock Holmes spoilers do necessitate a warning, because they’re old enough such that there are modern re-imaginings and retellings that would be spoiled. With Star Wars and copyright law, that’s not the case.
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About the writing style: it actually doesn’t change much. Since he wrote Hound in the interim, Doyle was still somewhat in the Holmes groove. The same cannot be said of Case-Book, however.
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Sleep is for the weeeeeeeeeaaaak
have gotten 9-9.5 total sat/sun and sun/mon and looks like I’ll only get 5.5 again tonight herp derp. Silly test.
PLANTS
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Sleep is for the weak…end.
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So. Got my major declaration form for biology back from the bio department chair. His notes included that I needed to take bio 100/101, the first intro course. Which my advisor told me I could get out of on AP credit (she had known I want to be a bio major since I got here). Part of me is hoping that he just didn’t look at my transcript and I don’t have to take it but if I do and I don’t pass the exemption exam for some reason, then I am going to have to take intro bio like… my senior year. As a bio major. Yup that makes sense.
fdjskaeshgfd
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It’s just that if I’d known I had to take it I could EASILY have taken it first semester freshman year! I had even planned on taking it but found out from my advisor that I didn’t need to and she said it might be a good idea not to at the same time as chem which I knew I was going to struggle with, especially as bio 100 was topics I was less interested in (organismal biology).
Uhhhhhg
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Yup. Doesn’t count.
And apparently no one ever passes the exemption exam.
Well this messes up everything.
cakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakecakeCAKE
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No human passes the exemption exam. Giant space squids are another matter.
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Exploring the Woven Beyond?
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Keep after them. My school did something similar with my AP English credit. At first the dean said no one was ever exempted from freshman English. My professor went to bat for me and persuaded the administration what a waste of time it was for me to sit through the class, and I was finally able to transfer out a couple of weeks into the semester. So I thought that was all taken care of until senior year I was informed out of the blue that I still had to write a term paper. I meekly capitulated, but I bet if I’d fought (and enlisted the right professorial aid) I would have found a way out of it.
Anyway, schools will pull this kind of stuff. I FULLY commiserate kokommiserate. Is there any way the advisor and the professor can work out a compromise between them? There’s often a way out if you persist — provided, of course, that someone is willing to bend. Good luck, whatever happens!
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You’ve inspired me to see if I can get credit for Latin 301 from my AP Latin test. They gave me 302, but I think it would make sense to give me 301 as well. Hopefully I can pull it off, because that would make things a lot easier for me.
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I am not sure that will work in this case I went online and after a lot of searching found the detailed explanations for AP credits and stuff.
I got a 4 on the bio test (could’ve gotten a 5 if teacher hadn’t skipped the endocrine unit), which I didn’t think would get me out of anything. So over the summer I registered in bio 100/101 to take in the fall freshman year.
Went to advisor the first week. She told me I didn’t need it. I believed her and didn’t take it since she said it + chem 101 at the same time would be a lot of work, especially since I knew I would have a hard time with chem. So I withdrew from it and just took bio 102 in the spring because it was the half that interested me.
Didn’t think about it again till now. Got my major declaration form back and emailed advisor and she was like “oh I double checked it you actually needed a 5 and you only got a 4. So you do need to take it.”
So it’s basically my advisor messed up and gave me the wrong info. Their policies on it are really clearly stated I just had trusted my ADVISOR’S ADVICE and didn’t think it was something I needed to look into.
So now I have to figure out if I want to take that at the same time as Cell & Molecular bio (which will be really hard) or at the same time as Minerology (also hard geo class but wouldn’t correlate at all) and uhhhg. I had JUST planned out the rest of my semesters here because I need to take a very specific set of classes to be able to get my double major and all my requirements in. So taking this probably means dropping an upper level bio course, though I might figure out how to squeeze it in if I can make sure credits from study abroad will count towards other parts of my distribution.
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Summer class?
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Thinking about that Not sure how they are with accepting classes from other places… I’d have to do an online one is the thing, since I need to get a job/internship ahg >.< Going to look into it more… after thursday when I've turned in my study abroad forms x_x
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It’s days like this when I find myself wondering, when did I get so old? I feel like I was just a freshman yesterday and now I have less than two months until I leave high school behind for good.
/nostalgia
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I know that feeling.
– a college senior.
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I must say that in today’s xkcd (number 1029), he’s perfectly on track to draw an eight-pointed star. I don’t know what he’s so worked up about.
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I thought it had to be an odd number-pointed star when you draw it that way.
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If you want all of the angle bisectors to point at the center, I think it does have to have an odd number of points, but if that’s not needed, you can still make a nice, bilaterally symmetrical (though not radially symmetrical) eight-pointed star in eight straight lines without lifting your pencil.
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I see. But that doesn’t work for six-sided stars, so converting to my religion would not help Randall Munroe.
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And I assume you’re referring to the top picture on the wikipedia article for octogram, rather than the bottom one, which I was referring to.
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Yes, the top octagram. As for six-pointed stars, I think Mr. Munroe was saying that drawing two equilateral triangles is much easier than trying to figure out the right angle for drawing a star of one continuous line.
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Perhaps, but lifting the pen off the paper is so much work…Although if you have only a compass and a straightedge, it is possible to construct a six-pointed star but not a five pointed-star.
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Happy Pi Day! π π π
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I think you mean, Happy Half τ Day!
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Happy Pi(e) Day, MuseBlog! Still banned from MB at home, just dropping in on a school computer.
3.141592653589793238 …
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Welcome back, R*S! Always good to see you.
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I’m sick. At the worst possible time: Finals Week.
I have to study physics for my final on Friday. That means reading all the chapters that I didn’t read and thus didn’t understand. Which is about seven chapters.
It’s not that bad I guess. I enjoy reading.
I just wish that electricity and magnetism came easier for me. It’s just not intuitive at all. The most frustrating part about it is that I know all the formulas relate to one another, but I don’t know exactly how and thus don’t understand anything. Which is a MAJOR PAIN.
Next quarter will be better, hopefully, with light. I like light. And refraction. And stuff.
The non-intuitiveness is why I’m considering switching majors to chemistry. In high school, I got chemistry. It was like second nature. I’m afraid that I only did physics in college because I thought it was cool. And it is cool; REALLY cool. But I’m not sure if it’s what I’m capable of or even want to be doing with my life.
Hopefully next quarter will provide insight.
Good news: I think I did really well on my math final! I finished first, with fourty minutes to spare. I really, really didn’t want to hand in my test first, so I meticulously went over my answers, found a big mistake (thank goodness), and was done with checking twenty minutes later. I was still the first finished, but I thought that sitting there wondering what to do would be even more awkward than turning it in and leaving, so I did the latter.
My worst area in calculus was always sketching graphs of functions; it’s just so tedious and unnecessary when graphing calculators exist. But I just checked the function I had to sketch, and I got it RIGHT!!!! EEEEEEEE!!! Or at least right enough, I think.
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I just realized that Harry Potter lead me to Muse which lead me here, which lead me to Doctor Who, which lead me to Homestuck which lead me to voice acting and mivie editing which lead me totumvlr which lead me to ask blogs. And so, that proves that Harry Potter is indirectly responsible for lot of my life :O
/ shocking relavation
I forgot to ask, anyone up in charleston??????
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This morning:
*gets up* *gets dressed, makes bed, packs bag, etc.* *works on assignment due after lunch*
Okay, relax, I can do it in my other classes and lunch.
*eats breakfast* *goes to school* *finds friend group* *sees a few people typing on laptops*
Nerd class friend: Mathclassmate is doing her religion assignment due second period.
*impressed*
Honestly, I’m procrastinating less this year, mainly because I have more classes I like and fewer I don’t. Do ALL the math homework!
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…Do all the math homework?
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Do ALL the math homework!
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…I just almost walked in on some guy naked in the bathroom. Luckily he made a startled noise while scurrying to the shower so I didn’t open the door all the way.
With co-ed bathrooms, this was inevitable!
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I just realized that with my family being in Japan and all, all I’ve eaten in the past few days has been: a bag of walnuts, a bag of potato chips, two mini-pizzas, the remainder of a bag of fries I found in the freezer, a bowl of ramen, some goldfish crackers, a tiny bit of chocolate, and an entire box of peppermint tea.
Dear god my metabolism
I love it but how does it work
I really need to learn how to cook so I don’t have a heart attack and die ;_;
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I wouldn’t spend much time worrying about it. It’s amazing what young digestive systems can metabolize.
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Mine is quite the prima donna.
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I once survived on ramen noodles and chocolate milk for six days straight. No joke.
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That sounds like heaven on Earth.
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It was. When we ran out of chocolate syrup to put in the milk, I was heartbroken.
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Do you know what are awesome? Rice cookers! You pour in a simple mix of rice and water, turn it on and let it sit for a while, during which time you can prep your fish! Salmon maybe, with some pepper, garlic, and cilantro ground on top, added to the rice during the last stage of steaming with some peppers, maybe some kale if you’re feeling really healthy! Once you pull it all out you can add some lemon to the fish, mmmm mmmm mmmmm!
(i may be a little hungry)
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Shanghai from tomorrow to Sunday for China Cup, a football/soccer tournament! Wish us luck; go dragons!
I feel like I’m travelling all the time what is this
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That awkward moment when you’re analyzing a Muse article on a standardized test…
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Was it one of mine? They pay me royalties for that, you know.
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Actually, it was “Giant, Nonfolding Money”. I had to write a whole paragraph about it.
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That’s awesome, not weird! Unless of course, you consider Muse weird, which of course it is the best possible way!
Which article?
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That awkward moment when there’s a Muse article in your literature textbook…
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Was it one of– Never mind.
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Don’t you get paid royalties for that stuff?
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Why, yes, in fact, sometimes I do.
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Oh! I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but my Science teacher in Singapore once gave us all printouts of one of your Q&A columns! It was something to do with light, I think.
Anyway, you’re officially world-famous. In print.
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Hi from New York City, MB! I’m here for a high school journalism conference at Columbia, and oh my god I love this city so hard. We have a hotel near Times Square and we saw How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and I learned so so so much about online journalism and censorship laws and oh my god. I want to stay here forever. Someone please make me stay here.
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Oh man, I was just at the Neiman Center! Columbia is a swell place.
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Blargh, so much writing. La independencia de Chile es bastante interesante, pero ocho páginas es mucho. Oh well, it’s just a first draft. Why we have to turn in a first draft, I have no idea. Pero asà es. Debo organizar una junta para derrotar al profesor. O por lo menos posponer el due date hasta que regresemos del descanso. And the pop machine stole my money.
But hey, just five or six more pages and then I’m done working for a week. That’s something.
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Since the Spanish word for ‘date’ (‘fecha’) is feminine, shouldn’t it be ‘la due date?’
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When you throw English words into Spanish, you almost always use “el”, in my experience.
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Si usas spanglish, no hay reglas. Es spanglish.
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AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH
Apparently Castle’s mom thinks I’m the most adorable thing she’s ever seen and wants to wrap me up in a warm fuzzy blanket and cuddle with me
WHAT IS THIS MADNESS
:U
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ADORABLENESS THAT’S WHAT
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My two favorite books are both British, satirical, and about the end of the world. This probably says something about me, but I don’t know what.
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Good Omens? What are they?
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Yup, HG2G and Good Omens.
I tried to recommend Good Omens to my friend group, but they lost interest when I clarified that it wasn’t an anime. :/
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I am very fond of both those books! And now for a related announcement:
Earlier in the week, Neil Gaiman (and Terry Pratchett, but the interview I saw was only with Mr. Gaiman) announced that Good Omens is being made into a TV miniseries by Monty Python’s Terry Jones! Parts of Good Omens reminded me of Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail, so I expect Jones to have a good understanding of the humor.
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It says that you’re awesome and probably also something else I can’t think of just now.
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I started reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and I love it! I definitely plan to read the rest of the series. I just wish it wouldn’t give us Holmes’ deductions and then what he saw that let him make them, backwards, so that we can’t even try to deduce things for ourselves. I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to, anyway, but it’d be nice to get to try. It’s excellent, though!
I hear here that there’s a TV show version that’s good. How many of the books should one read before seeing it, if one doesn’t want any book spoilers? How many books are there, anyway? In what order should one read them?
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According to Wikipedia, Holmes appears in 4 novels and 56 short stories. If you want to see them treated in a traditional style, the Granada TV series from the 1980s and 1990s, starring Jeremy Brett as Holmes, is supposed to be the most faithful. Brett was almost obsessed with being Holmes. I’ve been watching some of the epsiodes lately on Netflix streaming. They may be elsewhere online. There’s also a good chance some of them would be in the library.
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Ooh! Do read all of the books and short stories! They are quite good. Granada is a good series, as Rebecca said. There is also a Russian series from the eighties (I think) that can be found online as well as the more recent Sherlock Holmes movies and Sherlock the show.
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I am very very slowly making my way through the books and short stories (as in I’ve only read A Study in Scarlet so far–I’m in the middle of like four books). They are very good, aren’t they?
I’ve heard of, but never seen, the Russian series and Granada that oxlin and Rebecca mention. I have, though, seen one of the recent movies, which was decent and definitely entertaining but not my favorite. As you may have gathered from the Recent Comments bar, I am a huge Sherlock BBC devotee, so if I were you I’d at least give the first episode of that a try! It adheres modestly in plot and quite well in spirit to the original stories, I’m told, making it a shade more of a retelling or adaptation of Sherlock Holmes than just a film version. That said, it is absolutely brilliant.
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A possible explanation for the “backwards” nature of the stories might be that cases often hinged on details that Watson did not notice at the time. (I wonder if the Holmes-narrated stories are different? I haven’t yet read them, but it seems that they would be.) It’s never bothered me; in fact I rather like it.
I haven’t yet seen Sherlock and thus can’t vouch for it, but I’ve heard good things (and intend to get to it one day). But I give my most wholehearted endorsement to the Grenada series. Jeremy Brett is keysmashingly perfect. It can, I believe, by found online.
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That’s Granada, not Grenada — unless the Caribbean island has started exporting high-quality TV adaptations.
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Ah. Thanks for telling me; I’ve been misspelling it for a while now.
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It’s an understandable mistake.
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Tess: Does the BBC series not spoil the books? I get the impression the others probably do, especially the Granada one, and I don’t want to see any adaptions with spoilers until I’m done with all the books that they might spoil.
ZNZ: There are Holmes-narrated stories? Awesome! I’m pretty sure none of them will be in this book, but that’s alright; it can be motivation for me to finish it. I would like to know what order I should read the books in, though.
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Well, with Grenada each episode is an adaptation of a specific story, and they’re titled with the names of their stories, so it should be fairly easy to avoid spoilers.
Publication order is a good guide. According to Wikipedia, the order of the anthologies is Adventures => Memoirs => Return => Reminiscences => Case-Book, and order of the novels is Study => Sign => Hound => Valley.
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That sounds nice. I’ll definitely start watching Grenada, then. Also, Adventures was apparently a good starting point; that’s nice. Marie! The baguettes! Hurry up!
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I just watched The Scandal In Bohemia, but I’m not sure what it was. “Granada” was one of my search keywords, but it was in my search for “The Red-Headed League” as well, and that gave me an episode of what seems like an entirely different show. I think the Bohemia one was Granada, and this is something different starring Ronald Howard. I suppose it’s probably the Russian series? *checks* No, this is something different from 1954. I don’t like it as much as the first. I’ll give it a try, though. I’m not quite 8 minutes through it yet.
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Oh, never mind, I give up on it; it has commercials. I suppose I ought to be glad because I expect that means it’s legal (I suppose I ought to check rather than just typing keywords into a search engine, even if the search engine does donate a cent to charity for each search), but it’s annoying, especially since this adaption isn’t as good as Granada to begin with. I’ll look for another episode. Let’s see; I can’t find any version of A Case of Identity… The Boscombe Valley Mystery, on the other hand, has the Granada version easily accessible. I’ll watch that.
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I’m sorry, my memory is like Swiss cheese right now, but I seem to recall someone wanting a salwar kameez. Anyway, I’m going to Singapore soon (!), which is a land of many cheap and awesome and colorful salwar kameezes. So if you were the person who wanted one- was it Oxlin?- please let me know!
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Me!
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I’ll just let you know that I wasn’t that person!
(I hope that helps you narrow it down to who wanted a salwar kameez. XD)
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It was indeed oxlin.
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We’ll be on the same continent again soon!
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Thanks!
Sel- yes indeedy! I wish we were stopping over in Hong Kong. But alas, Tokyo as usual.
Swalot- Would you like a salwar kameez :D?
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If you can find one with pockets, I’d like that. Otherwise I like jewel tones (dark reds, blues, greens (also olive greens), dark oranges) I don’t like purple as much but it is alright. Color-wise. I am a smallish person, I usually wear size four pants and small shirts (if they are men’s) and sometimes Medium women’s shirts (if they are super tight fitting) Thank you! I can make you jewelry in exchange!
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This is only tangentially related, but I have a question for people who know Hong Kong! An artist/company I work with/for are sending some pieces to Hong Kong for an art fair. I was talking with someone who has been there before who said something along the lines of “bring only small red art, their homes are small and red is lucky.” I thought “poppycock! Asian art is all kinds of not-small-and-red”, but that got some people worried because all the art we’re sending is large and grey. Have seen/would you hang art in your home if it were larger than a bike wheel and grey?
It also consists of words in English which again concerned people, but I think they have a misconstructed notion of Hong Kong.
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IT IS LATE/EARLY, BUT I HAVE BIG NEWS TO SHARE.
Sometime last November, I found about this competition called the Biology Olympiad and decided to enter. I had an old biology textbook my teacher gave me last year, so I started reading through it, including the chapters and units my class had never gotten to in the first place. For some reason, I did this surreptitiously, so my parents didn’t know about it until approximately the start of February, really close to the registration deadline. Anyways, I finally told my parents, who worked it out with the counselor, who proctored the test for me. That thing was the hardest test I’ve taken in my life. I’ve never had the experience before of literally flipping through pages trying to find a problem that I knew I could solve. 50 questions, and I thought I got an 18. Later, I did some math and decided a 25 was more reasonable. Everyone else also found the test hard, though, so I could still have a chance.
Scores were released for most people yesterday, but my counselor and I didn’t get access to mine until today for some reason. We already knew the cut-off for the next round (top 500) was 24, so I really was right on the bubble.
The counselor texted me today during rehearsal. “Call me!”
I went out into the hall and called.
AND I PASSED.
AND NOT ONLY DID I PASS, I GOT A 33.
Which is at least 5 points more than than anything I remotely considered possible. And double the average. And only 9 points less than the highest score. Looking at the histogram, my dad thinks it puts me firmly in the 99th percentile of test-takers. Now I get to take a two hour semi-final test in the next few weeks, which is cool except that studying has been a low priority for the last month because I wasn’t sure if I made it. And if I end up in the top 20 on that test, I could get to go to biology camp this summer! (I mean, really, LOL IMPOSSIBLE, but so was getting a 33, so who knows.)
This is so ridiculously neat that it hasn’t even sunk in yet, eight hours later. I need sleep, and then I need to write more essays, but I wanted to share my happiness with all of you guys.
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Biology Olympiad? I got my score yesterday! I did super badly though because I only started taking biology this year. Four people from our school made it to the semi-final round. Congratulations on your high score!!
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I just looked it up, and it looks really awesome! I’ll be old enough to compete next year, so I’ll have to ask my school to register for it; I love biology! I don’t expect I’ll pass next year, because it’ll be my first year taking a biology class, but it’ll be good practice for later, because I’m taking IB Biology 1 and 2 in 11th and 12th grade, which are like AP Biology except you get to learn even more because you have 2 years, and each year is at least 40% laboratory and field work, and year 2 is almost entirely devoted to my favorite kinds of biology, so I expect I’ll do really well in senior year if I can get that school to register, too (I’m not going to the same high school for the first two years and the last two years), especially since I’ve read so much biology as it is!
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What are your favorite kinds of biology?
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Ecology, ethology, environmental biology, phylogeny, neurology, field anything, tardigradology… In this case, though, I’m mostly referring to ecology, especially as it applies to conservation. I’m also taking lots of other biology-related classes during the last two years of high school as well (AP Environmental Science, Environmental Systems, IB Environmental Systems and Society, Scientific Research and Design [which is open-ended and lets you focus on whichever areas of science you want], and hopefully Aquatic Science if I have time), as well as a couple in 10th grade (Wildlife, Fish, and Ecology management [one class] and Small Animal Management [which is only one semester but sounds fun]), so that’ll help. The 10th grade ones aren’t science classes, though; they’re “Career and Technology Education.” There are also a lot of 11th and 12th grade biology electives I don’t even have time for, like Forensic Science and Advanced Animal science–alright, technically, they’re also “Career and Technology Education,” but they’re scientific.
…Sorry, the last bit wasn’t at all necessary to answer your question; I’m just excited about the competition and the classes!
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Ooh, you’re an IB school too? I did IB in high school! It is a good program, but lots of work!
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Not yet–I won’t start high school until next year, and the IB program only has the Diploma Program for 11th and 12th graders. I won’t be going to the school with it until 11th grade, because I can’t go next year as my brother will be going to a different high school next year, and he can’t drive, and neither of us can take a bus, and our parents lack time to take us each to separate schools. He’ll be done with high school afterward, but unless I hate the high school I go to next year, I don’t see any reason to transfer to the IB school until I’m actually old enough to do IB, especially since I’ve heard the IB school has more crime than the other. It definitely sounds like a good program, though; I’m excited about the biology and environmental classes it offers and also Theory of Knowledge. Actually, I’m pretty sure Piggy mentioned a Theory of Knowledge textbook once when he was in high school, and I asked what that was, and after the explanation, my reaction was along the lines of, “You can really take classes that awesome in high school? That’s amazing!”
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Opening night! Woohoo!
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JOHNNY DEPP IS STAYING AT A HOTEL DOWNTOWN
TO STALK OR NOT TO STALK
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TO STALK
DEFINITELY TO STALK
TAKE A PICTURE AND SEND IT TO US
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I VOTE YES DEFINITELY YES
PICTURES WOULD BE VERY NICE INDEED
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Friday. Sleep.
^That level of eloquence pretty much sums up my day.
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Piggy tired. I finished that darn paper for my Spanish class, but now the Chilean war of independence seems to be all I can think about. But I luckily overestimated how long it would take me to finish it this morning, and so I had a few hours this morning with nothing to do but drink coffee and sit under a tree reading some Willa Cather. The tree kept raining on me, but I covered my Kindle so it stayed dry. And now I’m on spring break, so that’s nice. A friend of mine is being ordained to the diaconate tomorrow, and although the ordination itself is reserved for family because the chapel’s so small, I’ll be going to the reception. So in about a year he’ll be ordained a priest, which I will be attending even if I have to force my way in.
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I won a national gold medal in the Scholastic Arts and Writing Contest. Remember the thing I won last year? It’s like that. But national. First place in the [snip!] category, y’all. I get to go to Carnegie Hall and accept my medal!
[Sorry for the snippage but the information was a little too specific for us to let through. Congratulations! — Admin.]
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Congratulations, that’s amazing!!
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Is it too revealing to say I inserted a one-liner about a mime named Frappucino?
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I actually found the category after some blog digging…but congratulations!
STALKING WHAT STALKING
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Haha, how? It’s different than what I won last year; last year I won a Gold Key, this year I won a Gold Medal in a different category.
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Congratulations, I’m so happy for you! And also incredibly envious of your writing skills.
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Accidental squid, sorry. Congrats, you’re amazing!
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Congratulations!
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Thanks, y’all! I’m really excited.
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Good job! Much congratulations to you
I, like muselover, did some blogdigging. I was a little more successful.
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If I ever get to build my own house, the only thing I will specify is that the design must not let any bugs in. I don’t care if this means living in a steel bunker in the middle of a nuclear reactor.
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Could you design my house as well, please?
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GUYS.
I just auditioned for a Voice Acting thing. 9 friends and I have been waiting for about 3 hours, and I was one of the last to go. I tryed out for Aradia, Vriska, and Kanaya.
IT WAS SO MUCH FUNNNN
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Our school won all our games against the other three schools, and tomorrow we’re playing in the finals/championship match against our homestays/host school! Nervous, because we really want to win, but also excited! Soccer is so much fun.
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Wheee! Out till midnight last night going to see my Latin teacher in a play (Neil Simon’s “The Dinner Party.” It was excellent!) and then the thirty of us abducted him to go eat frozen yogurt in the middle of the night (we really freaked out the people in the restaurant….).
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Origami is awesome.
Just saying.
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