Again? Yes, indeed: the Chinese New Year falls on February 3. Welcome to the year of the (ulp) rabbit.
(Users’ Manual: Obey The Rules. Consult The Guide. Have fun!
Patience, Please
This site is under reconstruction and will look strange for a while. We regret the inconvenience.
I’ll leave the
JamuaryJanuary thread open for discussion of Gimanator’s late post.Jamuary?
Yum! I must have been hungry.
Jamuary, Breaduary, Marcharine, Apricotil, Mayo, …
Yum!
I like it. Shall we start a petition to change the calendar?
I like February. It’s cold, dark, and wet.
Xin nian quai le!
I have five days of vacation starting tomorrow, which I plan to spend sleeping, eating, shopping, knitting, and watching old Star Trek episodes.
Life is rather good, isn’t it?
*kuai
Sorry.
Life IS good when you’re on vacation.
As long as I’m leaving off the accent marks, it’s not pinyin anyway.
Uggggh. I prided myself in being one of the only people in the school who hasn’t gotten sick this trimester, and here I am in bed now. I suppose pride does come before a fall.
Get well soon. Hot cocoa usually helps.
Tea and cough drops are what I’m currently using. Lying in bed is also helpful.
It’s going to be the year of the rabbit? Oh dear.
Happy February. Year of the rabbit?! Oh…cows.
SFTDP, but I just noticed this. When did the pies change back to thumbs?
You’re right! They were thumbs yesterday.
Well, you know how classes today were cancelled because of the expected snow storm (which hit shortly after 5am this morning)? Well, the university has now cancelled classes tomorrow, as well, since the snow is still coming down (we’ve already got about a foot).
It’s wonderful. I haven’t had snow days in probably 13 years, and I think even then I only had all of maybe one snow day in the 2 1/2 years I actually went to public school. It’s brill. Totally brill.
Off in search of food.
One of my classes is canceled! But not the earliest one.
Earliest one got cancelled! I woke up to see this. Then I went back to sleep and slept in. Yay!
TWELVETH COMMENT!!!
Snow? Mid-60s to 70s tomorrow for us!!
So, one year, huh?
I still don’t hate anybody. In fact, I love and respect all of those involved even more.
Myself included.
Happy Chinese Muse Year everyone, and full steam ahead to Mars!
You never fail to impress me.
Do you mean that you looked up/remembered what I wrote on this day last year? Or just in general? I like context.
No…You’re just impressive, in general.
I remember last year’s. Seconded.
Quite.
You must be talking about this post.
That link needs a colon.
Forgive me for my ignorance, but is there a reason the comments are turned off on the neophytes thread?
For some reason, the blog keeps losing some of its settings today. I don’t know why it’s so forgetful. Maybe it’s connected with the server problems that have taken us offline a few times. Anyway, the problem should be fixed now (for a while).
I hate hatred. Whoops, just condradicted myself. I despise hatred– how’s that?
School’s cancelled! Blizzard warning!
9~ One year what? Glad to hear you don’t hate anyone.
What happened to the pies?
My writing is bad:
I am dissatisfied
With college essays.
Perhaps I should try
To write it in haiku.
That might be some fun.
Instead I’m toiling
Over prose that isn’t even
Very good at all.
see link-the “like” pies got removed for the day or so
https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=8578
Writer’s block?
YAY! New gravatar for Koko’s Apprentice (me)
SFTDP. Forgot to preview. Why didn’t it work?
Everyone! C’mon! It’s time to sing the age-old song!
Ready? One… two…three!
“CLEAR…YOUR…CACHE!”
Good harmonization, guys!
Piggy, you amuse me. Friends?
Of course.
As I predicted, I have a snow day tomorrow. Hurrah! More time to do nothing!
Same here. Ugh, snow days.
SFTDP again, but it looks like it did work. Never mind then
I LOVE MUSEBLOG. ♥
SNOW! It’s everywhere! And CPS is having its fifth snow day in something like eighty years tomorrow! Rejoice!
It’s going to be so COLD tomorrow!
Yay! Tomorrow’s going to be a snow day due to big impending blizzard!
Oh cake, I have a dentist appointment today. I’m not afraid of dentists, but I object to having other people stick their fingers into my mouth.
In good news, the dentist will be followed by the yarn store!
Hmm. Today was a horrible awful day, but now it’s a bit better. And the school might be closed tomorrow, which would be even better.
Although I hope that we do have the orchestra concert. Maybe if it’s just closed until like 6pm.
Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.
Good to know!
Oh, a Mark Twain reference. Hiya.
Does anyone have ideas for giant Valentines day cards for a math teacher and a Spanish teacher? It’s an NHS thing.
Continuing with mine and Enc’s conversation, what should we do in Iceland? Do you want to play the bagpipes?
Yes!
Let us play the bagpipes and eat souffles!
(I’m sure anybody reading this would be incredibly confused…)
Indeed.
Quite so! I don’t like souffles, however, so how about we eat almonds instead? We should also sing songs, accompanied by our masterful bagpipe playing.
)
(This is mine and Enc’s journey. You other people can start another journey. I love you all, but can you play the bagpipes?
Enc Enc Enc! Bagpipe lessons needed ASAP!
Enc…we must find a bagpipe tutor.
Can I come too?
(Also, Enc, I’d pie your post, but for some reason I can’t. o_o’)
Dude! Everybody at Jewish camp is either a Doctor Who fan, a Hetalia fan, or both! Squeeeeee! (And according to them, I am China. Huh.)
In other news, how do the best discussions all happen at the same time? In History we just started the Russian Revolution, which means yet another discussion of Communism and its flaws and upsides. And in Jewish school we somehow muddled into an actual debate on the existence of God. *squees* Seriously. As long as the rabbi doesn’t stop it in its tracks, we get to argue about whether or not God exists. Which will be odd, because half the class are atheists, even though it’s Jew school. I know Jews can be atheists too (I am one) but still, odd.
It occurrs to me that I would be a much worse debater at the two abovementioned issues if it weren’t for MuseBlog. Seriously, if it weren’t for the Hot Topics thread and Piggy and Fridgey (wherever he is) and everyone, I’d be far less educated and less capable of a well-constructed argument and a well-thought-out rebuttal. Is it just me, or does that go for others too?
Me too.
FS is having a smashing time in Scotland, haggis and all.
Haggis is good. It’s basically just a spicy meatloaf-type thing. And it has a cool ceremony that goes with it.
The first item: Wondrous.
The second item: Even more so. The best I’ve gotten this year is a (shockingly civilized, really) stem cell debate in bio, which was fun. We will be discussing Communism today though. I’m hopeful
Alas, no debating was had. We did get to analyze part of The Communist Manifesto, which was amusing.
Aw, sad. Discussions are so good for learning, though! How are you supposed to argue in favor of one point or another of the theory if you don’t understand it?
We wrote our own Manifestos today. Mine featured an “invisible iron sort-of-open hand-thing” as a combination of the invisible hand of capitalism and the iron fist of Communism. It also featured the paragraph, “Workers of the world! Uh, I guess you can unite if you want to. It’s not really my deal. Have fun, I guess. I’m pretty sure you have a lot to lose besides your chains. Like, you know, baseball games. And that one sock that always goes missing every time you do the laundry, I’m pretty sure you can lose that. But, you know, as long as you’re doing your thing. Yeah.”
The dentist did not kill me.
I have to write a two-page essay on genetically modified foods. I thought this was supposed to be a vacation.
I notice you forgot to mention what happened to the dentist…
He’ll live. Concussions of that sort only cause short-term memory loss.
Damn it, Ohio. You can’t even do a snow day properly?
We had a two hour delayed opening because of all the ice (it’s raining) , but then the power in the school decided to not work. Oh well. It’s an ice day!
My school has a snow day for the first time all year, and I live in NY!! YAYY!!!!!
Today I have a snow day! Well, more like an ice day because of the freezing rain. Yay!
Well, on the bright side, I got to see Vertigo for the first time yesterday. Great movie, if a little hard to follow at certain points.
No school for the second day in a row! Yayyy mega-blizzard! (or whatever the news is calling it now)
So… I did all of my homework Monday night, and I’m just taking two days of being a useless blob now. I’m currently watching a show about weird mysteries, and there is a story about people finding shoes with feet in them.
I have a book for English, but it’s terribly depressing. It’s Heart of Darkness. I don’t really want to make myself depressed.
I HATE being depressed.
Wheeeee! Snow Day! We haven’t had a full week that hasn’t had at the very least a late start since Christmas. Life is good. Although we’ll probably be in school until July, in which case I shall be skipping school for most of that time.
I am as of now registered for the SAT. Ulp. That was fast.
Today is a cozies day.
Yay! The pies are back!
Going to Billy Elliot tonight~!
Well, the touring version in Tampa (which is like two hours away), but still. This was my birthday present back in 2010, and I’ve really been looking forward to this.
I just can’t resist the urge to click the little pies.
PCA. Pie Clickers Anonymous.
My name is Celine and I’ve been clean for fifteen seconds.
It amuses me greatly that all of these are highlighted.
So how’s everyone’s Snowpocalypse going?
Wonderful. Two days off in a row, although I’m sure school will be back on tomorrow, unfortunately. Ah, well. The day off yesterday gave me the time I needed to do my online physics homework (took ALL day), and today I’m doing laundry…..Of course, that’s not so wonderful, but it needs done.
Quite well! 2/4 of my classes were cancelled!
Lovely! We’re snowed in.
I had a snow day yesterday, but normal today… We’ve had so many two hour delays, sometimes going on a normal schedule now seems weird. :/
Californianly.
Walking home was a pain. Now whenever an old-timer says, “Back in my day I had to walk twenty miles to school in the snow uphill both ways,” I can say, “You know what? I did that too.”
It wasn’t really that bad.
Nonexistently so far, but there’s a chance of snow tomorrow!! Squee!!! *has seen snow exactly 3 times in entire life so far and always wished for it*
Sort of warm and moist.
THERE MIGHT ACTUALLY BE SNOW ON THE GROUND TOMORROW! I’M SO EXCITED!
IT’S PROBABLY GOING TO HAPPEN HERE, TOO! I’MECSTATIC JUST THINKING ABOUT IT!
Quite well, thanks! We haven’t had a full week of school since Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I had to walk home while it was snowing, and all the white made me dizzy. I couldn’t distinguish depth at all, since there were no shadows and everything was the same color.
GAH!!! HPB!!!!!!!
BTW, how do you do the highlighting?
You get someone to pie you 10 times. In a more boring blog, that would mean getting your post liked 10x.
ANOTHER SNOW DAY TOMORROW!!!!!!
REALLY?!?!?! We’re in mid-70s, for the second time this week. At least it feels nice out.
Two-hour delay, got some sleep, but everything was rushed and rather hectic today. Perhaps there’ll be more snow or hail tonight.
I am envious of all of you and your snow days.
Anyhoo, I went to a concert last night. David Garrett, who was awesome. If you don’t know who he is, he’s a violinist who plays classical, rock, and metal. It’s wondrous. He also had groupies. It amuses me to no end that a violinist has groupies.
43- 70s! That’s like 22 C! Ahh! I wish it would be that warm here.
Do we ever do Round Robin ‘Riting anymore?
I’m currently texting a girl using game show cliches. “yes for 200”. It’s super fun. :]
Most of the RRRs fell apart a while back, but we still have a few running intermittently on the Paleo threads.
…I really don’t think intermittently is even applicable. I think “dead” might be a better word.
I think if MB were segregated into great ages, i.e. gamboomba, great pie war age, etc., the age of the RRRs would be past us.
What age are we in now? Or is that one of those things you can tell only after it has passed?
There have been a few brief revivals, and I’m sure there are several people who would be glad to see another.
Problem is, I still love the idea of RRRs, but my writing has entered such a tightly controlled stage that I’m terrible at collaborating now.
I also love the idea of RRRs, but my standards of good writing, not to mention plot, have gone up way too far. Whenever I get the urge to write anything not required for a class, I delete it immediately. I’m just not devoted enough anymore to try and develop my writing and let it grow.
I wish I could take a writing class, but no such luck.
Happy Groundhog Day/Chandeleur, everyone!
Today in AP Bio, my teacher was lecturing about plants. When we got to ferns, he said (while diagramming a fern lifecycle) that a young fern is called a “fiddlehead.”
My thought process:
Fiddlehead + Fern = Midnight Fiddler. Sense = made.
A new Raw Materials today!
Daily posts return!
Today: rehearsal, dinner at the co-op and then cleaning crew, running to the grocery store to buy choklit&eggs(and also impulse buying caramels and brownie mix) watched an ep of dr who with a friend, went back to the co-op and made pancakes at 10pm (made some for people to eat, and also a bunch of batter in the fridge to make tomorrow for breakfast/lunch/whenever people want them). Then back to Narnia-fort with 2 friends, met up with 2 other friends in my room (one is staying with me for the week), and watched the pilot episode of Firefly becuase 2 people hadn’t seen it (including one who is involved with the musical! So we had to teach her things). Then a little bit of talking, and now my friend staying wiht me and I are getting ready for bed. Tonight will be the last night in Narnia–my roommate comes on friday, so everything needs to be cleaned up by then. Alas! But it’ll be good. And a lot less of a fire hazard, heh.
One hour later and finally ready for bed. I am so bad at this sleep thing. Oops.
Shopped. Ate. Shopped. Ate. Ran. Shopped. Collapsed.
In good news, I now possess a new tube of blue watercolor paint and the sheet music for the Mendelssohn violin concerto! And we got to play Telefairy with some friends from UU.
Update: Today everyone else in the eighth grade is watching Freedom Writers and taking a tour of the high school. Meanwhile, I’m staying home and watching OK Go videos. I guess it’s a win-win this time.
Third snow day in a row today. It’s absolutely brill.
Gah. Somehow I’m feeling deluged even though I really don’t have that much work left. Still. And I have writers block. Still. And artists block, as far as this is possible. *headwall* So I’m mainly lurking until I find a way to reclaim my life. See ya!
I’m a college freshman struggling with emotional and social issues. It’s problematic, to say the least, but it sounds like I’m not really actually outside of normal. A very popular article recently in the New York Times (“Mental Health Needs Seen Growing at Colleges”) examined the growing need for mental health care on college campuses. They attribute the need to a rising student population and students entering college who in the past would have been precluded due to their problems. But that’s not the whole story. There’s an article on Slate called “It’s Not the Job Market”, which tries to discover American college students’ sources of stress. Drawing on the NYT article and common assumptions (that it is the job market), as well as a recently published study from UCLA, the author makes a convincing case that young people today are simply under an enormous amount of stress because we’ve got too little community, too much information, and no way to deal with our negative emotions. I have to agree. I guess it’s just trying to convince myself that I’m not and won’t be a failure, even if I do in fact fail, but isn’t this ridiculous news? Let me quote the article: “As psychologist Robert Leahy points out: ‘The average high school kid today has the same level of anxiety as the average psychiatric patient in the early 1950s.” I don’t know if there’s a quantifiable way to measure anxiety, but whaaat?
Drawing on more personal experience, I have friends who have already decided that they’ll be going to grad school because they don’t know what they want to do and are convinced that there are no jobs in their majors. I also have very little perspective, but it sounds like this wasn’t common way back in history, like, 50 years ago.
Thoughts?
Vendaval:
Coming hot on the heels of Gimanator’s post, your comment makes me think this topic deserves its own thread. Any objections, anyone?
By coincidence, many similar observations were made around the time I was in college.
I feel quite embarrassed by the goof Chuck Schumer, one of my state’s Senators, made in an interview.
He said the three branches of the Federal government were the President, the House, and the Senate. (And he’s ON the Senate Judiciary Committee!)
Please don’t think all New Yorkers are the sort to make such an error.
That is very funny that he thinks the executive branch is the President. I am a New Yorker too, and I definitely agree that this (hopefully) is not common of New Yorkers.
the president isn’t the executive branch?
He’s the head of it, but not the entirety.
This is the kind of thing that makes me worry about the country sometimes.
Hi guys
Guess what?
I got my feb issue of muse today:)
*is happy*
Hi, just checking in to say that I’ll be scarce for the next few days, since my video card is acting up, and we need to replace it. D:
((I’m using my dad’s computer right now. Well, I am from my perspective, but once you read this, I’ll have stopped. I hope.))
Cancel that.
I don’t need a new one after all.
I’m now using the in built one on the computer.
Because my other one exploded. Some of the capacitors had literally burst.
And now I have a higher resolution on my screen.
48 (Tess)~ Love you! And yup. Appropriate, no? Also, I’m all happy that got so many pies. I feel all recognized and stuff. ^.^
So hi.
I’m in Williamsburg for a historical shoemaking class. We’re staying with a homeschooling family, which is fun.
Only rough part is they’re staunch creationists. I feel a little awkward now and then. :/ But it’s okay.
Here until Sunday, then it’s back home to more panicking about college applications that still aren’t done. I swear, the past two weeks have been the most ill timed EVAR. But aside from that okay.
I only have internets because I’m at the library. Mehhh. I like my internets. It’s kind of sad how dependent I am, really. Mehhhhh.
Looking forward to stopping at Jamestown, probably on Sunday afternoon. I love that place so much.
Historical shoemaking! Wow.
I’ve never gotten around to telling you this, but I absolutely love your gravatar. And of course you’re recognized. You’re Fiddler.
Have fun making historical shoes!
I hate February.
I really don’t think it’s the month that has much to do with it; I dislike the way my mind operates in February.
I really don’t want to act like a lazy all the time, but I can’t stop myself, and I hate it.
In the past few days, I’ve lost all of my ability to focus. Despite the fact that I get home at 4:30 most days, I haven’t started my homework before 9 for nearly a week, and once I do begin, I take so many breaks and work so slowly, it’s as if I haven’t begun at all.
I’ve stopped doing my reading for AP Euro and Lang, I’ve BS’d my Spanish homework, and “forgotten my assignment at home, I’ll make sure to bring it tomorrow” in nearly all of my other classes and secretly hoped the teacher wouldn’t notice if I brought it in four days late. I haven’t finished all my homework at all in the past week, and I’ve been up past midnight every night.
And I feel guilty as hell about it.
I always tell myself that I’ll do it in the morning during the 20 minutes before classes start and at lunch, but that never happens. I end up repeating the rules I’ve set to myself
– do not throw things
– do not headwall
– do not eat anything that isn’t food
– do not kick things
– do not cut yourself
– do not yell
– do not blame other people for your own mistakes
– do not blame yourself for everything, even though it’s really your fault
and I continue to break some of these rules, just as I continue not to do my homework. and I have no idea what to do about it.
I hope I can get back to normal
I hope I can gain control
I hate the way I feel.
*sigh*
*hugs* Don’t worry, February is only 28 days, and we’re already through three days of it.
“But if your strife strikes at your sleep, remember spring swaps snow for leaves.” That’s from the Winter Winds by Mumford & Sons. Every time I look outside and see the sun setting at five, and see the snow all over, and feel cold and depressed and don’t want to do school (or life) anymore, I just remind myself of those words. Just wait out, k? *hugs*
And Valentine’s Day is coming up, and then Shackleton’s and Galileo’s birthday, and then the space shuttle takes off on the 24th and then my birthday is the 26th…
(I guess it’s hard for me to hate February because it’s my birth month.)
I agree with Beedle; I wish the sun would set later. I like snow but it’s been piling up too much lately. Marfwarrior, I hope you can turn things around and feel better about yourself.
Seasonal affective disorder?
My mom has that.
Suggestion: Lots of light.
Hugs and hope you’re doing better, Marfwarrior!
Maybe, but there is never any problem in December or January. I really like winter, but during February and March I always end up having extremely frequent mental breakdowns. I don’t know if it has to do with weather or school cycles or activities or some other underlying problem, but for the past few years, Februaries haven’t gone well.
Aw. :/
I know how that is. I used to always get really depressed in the winter.
I know it isn’t much help now, but you’ll probably get used to winter and be ok in a few years.
In the meantime, try eating a lot of citrus fruit!
I eat oranges at least once a week if I can, and it always perks me up in winter. It’s probably from all the vitamins, and maybe a bit from the bright color and smell too.
*hugs* and oranges!
I honestly don’t think it’s winter that’s the problem. The first bit of winter (up through January) is usually pretty awesome, but in February, things just get weird. I have a grapefruit nearly every day, so hopefully that is making things better.
Happy Chinese New Year, MuseBlog!
And Korean New Year!
Chinese New Year gets all the press, but…
I’m not Korean and I don’t live in either of the Koreas, so that’s why I didn’t think of it, sorry!
I got a haircut today. My hair went from being well below the shoulders to chin length. I’m quite happy with it.
61- Happy Chinese New Year to you too!
Okay, I have officially completed the 1,000 dumpling challenge. You would not believe the pork.
Now, what does one do with a thousand dumplings?
Oh, and I am baking a cake. Without my parent’s knowledge. And they are coming home soon. *ominous music*
Go to the nearest high-school and shout, “I have free food!”
Would it be possible to bring all those dumplings to a soup kitchen?
Singapore doesn’t have soup kitchens. But I like the high school idea.
I suppose I could probably eat most of them… I have a very high capacity for Chinese food.
Or college.
Mail them to me.
So… since we have these nested comments, is it double posting if I reply to someone’s comment then immediately write a new comment?
On Sunday, my friend had a practice at her house for an audition she did for a group of Tamburitzans at the college she’s going to. It was really fun. We thought we were going to be there for about 30 minutes, but everyone started picking up instruments out of nowhere and playing, and my friend found her notebook of lyrics so I was singing random Croatian music that I didn’t understand. We ended up being there for about 3 hours.
My sister’s boyfriend is always over here, and whenever they are whispering or quietly laughing I think it sounds like my sister crying, so I always think they are breaking up.
Balkan music ♥
No, I wouldn’t consider that double posting.
I really dislike crash week. It’s really hard to juggle it all. Any suggestions?
Get as much sleep as you possibly can.
My thought process today: “So, how best to stealthily insult my brother?
Oh yes, let’s refer to him as small, cute, and girly without him noticing.”
So I am now calling him (name)-chan. Yeah, I’m strange. I wonder if I’ll remember tomorrow?
I insult people in German and they think I’m just being nerdy. Unfortunately, that means they don’t know when I ‘m telling them to be quiet…
I periodically insult people in Yiddish. Alas, insulting people in Yiddish is like swearing in German: it’s a bit obvious.
The fun part is that even completely innocuous phrases sound like swearing.
I love Yiddish because all the words are full of funny-sounding sounds.
Lots of people seem to have stress problems right now. (including me…)
Don’t know which one I hate the most, going to school or being sick and missing school and having to make all the work up.
Egypt is getting pretty bad… Scary what happens in the world….
I have a guard cat, he thinks he is a dog (the one that beat my puppy).
*random posts*
I am covered from head to toe in icing and there’s food coloring in my eye.
The supermarket has chocolate oranges! For Chinese new year, but still. And my cousin sent me a wax cast of the Vulcan salute, which I have placed in a glass case. I still can’t figure out where the glass case came from, but it is doing its job nicely.
I have pretty much one friend in Singapore and I hate her. Sigh.
I finally got my semester bulletin! As in French, English, Latin, Chemistry, Physics, History (European) and Music (and behavior, but that doesn’t count). Bs in German, Math, Psychology, Geography and Spanish.* It’s a little worse than last year but I’m still on top of my class and I’ll be able to fix most of the slip-ups next semester. And I just survived “Der Freischütz” (I hate operas) which is making me insanely happy. And I’m going skiing!
*I think I explained my school’s surplus of subjects on the back to school thread. Basically, I have so many subjects because all subjects are only 3x or 2x a week.
The way our school is we have P.E. as one of our electives. And they make us call it an elective even though we were obviously FORCED to take that class and did not CHOOSE it. In fact, I had to be dragged screaming to the gym. (Fine, so I didn’t really scream, but I was unhappy.) This semester I don’t have to take it, though!
It snowed! And didn’t melt!!
So we went out to play in it and now my sister’s making hot chocolate. Which is a bit of a tradition.
And we get a snow day despite being home schooled, because Mom promised that we could have the day off if there was snow on the ground years ago.
And in other news, we’re going to see Wicked later this month, because it’s coming to a town which is close enough to us that we can get there easily. Which is also exciting, but not quite so much so as the snow.
Cool! Wicked is a great show.
Congratulations! You’re really lucky. Snow was forecasted here, too, but it didn’t come.
What is this bright yellow thing in the sky?
Acid rain clouds.
I AM THE PANSY ELF
I can walk on top of the snooooow! Because it’s icy enough on top that if you step juuust right, you don’t sink down into it. Woo!
Last co-op meal tonight. It’s the combination pizza an taco night. Then we get to take ALL the leftover food/ingrediants and use them for ourselves next semester.
Going to see the campus curcus’s performance tonight, not certain about after yet…
Ahhhh… Friday… happy happy Friday…
My French teacher put up “The Terrible Towel” and some Steelers(I think?) jerseys up in her room. Does anyone know what that is? I presume that the Steelers are playing in the event that happens once a year and allows humans to scream at a box while watching different colored pixels smashed together and be carted off to hospitals?
The Terrible Towel is a thing Steelers fans have as a symbol. Mike Fincke was the ISS commander durring football season two years ago, and he made a big show of waving it around in space.
Why is it “Terrible”?
I think it’s like, “I am Oz, the great and terrible.” Speaking of which, I have this friend called The Wizard of Oz. THE CARNATIONS SHALL LIVE FOREVER!!! AND THE POPPIES!!!
Because in sports, you want the other team to be afraid of your team, I guess. That’s why so many logos feature angry-looking mascots.
Not a big football fan, but GO STEELERS!!
SFTTP (triple post?), but #52: I didn’t post all the way up there because nobody would see it, but did you see the one with the Rube Goldberg?
This will be the first time in years I will have missed the super bowl. I don’t have any real rooting interest though. I just watch it becuase everyone at my school does and I like the commercials
Inspired by my previous comment, I’m now wondering what it will look like when Fincke watches the Super Bowl this year from (presumably) his house in Houston. Just because pretty much everything he does/says seems to be awkward/adorkable, so I can totally see him overreacting to his team winning a goal. (As you’ll recall from the World Science Festival thread, the first question I asked his crewmate Sandy Magnus was if he had stage fright.)
I don’t know much about American football, but I don’t think you can win a goal.
I only watch the Super Bowl so I can make intentionally stupid comments to annoy my brother, who loves American football. Yelling, “Pass the ball!” and, “Shoot!” when someone runs down the field with the ball is a lot more fun then it sounds.
I know even less.
I have the themes from Star Trek 2009, Titanic, and The Two Towers stuck in my head. Not a good combination.
The Titanic Tower Trek?
Think Nazgul screeches combined with screaming passengers and the sound of phasers.
It is all your fault that I’m now listening to the Stargate SG-1 Theme on Youtube. Over and over again.
Sorry…
Fascinating. There are apparently lyrics to the Star Trek theme.
Beyond the rim of the starlight/ my love is wandering in star-flight…
Thanks for the nightmares, Mr. Roddenberry.
Well, sure. Haven’t you read Gene Roddenberry’s book The Making of Star Trek? A true classic.
I really have to go to the bathroom, but my friend’s cat is lying on top of me being adorable and thoroughly asleep. Curses.
Hey everyone, Armada the long-absent makes a brief appearance… I’m not really reappearing, because I’m currently in Mexico and using my mom’s Kindle, and it’s really too tedious to actually keep track of the blog this way. But I just felt like letting people know that I’m not dead, and possiblyhopefully once I’m back in MA I’ll actually be able to post more… (Good old ellipsis. Remember Armada and her ellipsis? (Or is it ellipsises?…))
So anyway. Have I said already that I’m in Mexico? Yes, I have, haven’t I… I’m currently eating a bowl of rice with what seem to be small pebbles in it, and there are street dogs making interesting noises outside. I rather want to go home.
(Oh,by the way… May I ask what all the pies and pluses and numbers in everyone’s posts are about?I feel so phytey every time I leave the blog for a while, there are always new and puzzling things when I come back… ah, MuseBlog.)
Hi!
They’re “like” buttons.
Greetings, Armada! The numbers are adjacent to a “like” button, which provides a quick way to respond to a comment when you don’t have time to write a reply. They may not work on a Kindle.
Aha,I see, thanks. (And to Ducky also.) *tries it out* They do work on Kindle, actually… ^_^
Gosh, so modern. I feel like I’m using YouTube or something.
Welcome back, ye lover of ellipses!
Thanks! ^_^
Welcome back, Armada! I’m so glad to see you post again!
Thanks! *pies back*
Hey, Armada! It’s nice to “see” you, I was wondering where you were! Welcome back.
Nice to see you again too, Tess… Um, mostly I was getting lost in other places on the interwebz. Hopefully I’ll be a bit more on MB now.
Hello, Armada! It’s good to see you again, welcome back!
Armada! *pounces*
I finally got into the capoeira thing and then you disappeared! I have the first belt by now and I’ve actually figured out how to tie it (and which side to tie it on. Don’t laugh. I’m half-convinced my instructor made up the thing about the ends having to be the same length just to tease me, but then again. Oh and they all think I’m older. Long story).
*mentally wishes you back to MA instantly*
*doesn’t really believe her force powers will work but decides to try anyway*
*will take no responsibility if anything does happen*
*advises to buy parachute*
Yesterday: Last co-op meal, went to see circus performance, went for chinese food, went to supercommando (super-clean the co-op), went to dorm and sat in lounge with people for music session, made cookies at 1am, went to bed at four.
Firefly musical soon!
If I was in charge, there’d be one year of High School dedicated to only driving and college applications, so you could spend the other years focused on schoolwork.
I just spent about five minutes trying to figure out what the posts highlighted in pink meant… couldn’t manage to find it written anywhere, but I think I have grasped the answer! It feels good! Feels like a boss!
Oh jeez I just tried to embolden that by putting asterisks around it.
On that note, I’m a fan of the new pie system, and numerous new pages I stumbled across while on my search for the answer! Uhh… well done! Exclamation point!
On a completely different note, yesterday was my first schoolday in about 2 weeks due to midterms + snowdays! And I missed half of it, at that, trying to make up for another midterm, woohoo
…
Man, sometimes I just feel like an incredibly boring person. I was just thinking I should type out something vaguely interesting, and nothing quite came to me. So this is what you get.
Eesa Raynpho!
*likes anyway*
Ok, so lately my posts have not been showing as “your musing is awaiting moderation” I asked about it, and apparently they’re getting caught in the spam filter. Twice now I thought I hadn’t posted so I pasted it and tried to post again only to get an error saying I already posted it. How can I avoid this?
I’m not sure, but a shorter blogname couldn’t hurt.
Can do!
That didn’t work.
I wonder if logging out helps at all?
logging out made my comment not go in the spam filter
is something wrong with my account?
After the spam filter has decided you’re a spambot, it probably takes it a while to change its mind. Hang in there!
I’m doing math homework right now! And it’s quite fun, actually! Complex numbers and the cis function! It’s great to be learning new things.
STFP, but since I was doing all this math homework, I became re-acquainted with the hand method for finding sin, cos, and tan with common angles. Does anyone else know of this? I think it’s so cool how it works out with your HAND. Neato!
The hand method? I haven’t heard of it. Sounds interesting; could you explain?
Oh jeez. After watching the latest episode of Community, I really want to play Dungeons & Dragons.
Finally got around to seeing 127 Hours today. Very, very good. The only problem is that it was a little too short. Also, why is everyone making a big fuss over the amputation scene? I mean, I saw it as something he 1. really did and 2. had to do, so what was the matter? It’s not like Saw or anything like that.
I just watched Two Towers and Return of the King. Peter Jackson and all the actors did such a beautiful job.
Hm, after a day of hanging out with the most pessimistic girl in the world, who is continually complaining about how humans are stupid and stubborn and petty and corrupt and couldn’t think their ways out of a paper bag, it is so nice to wander through the Internet to MuseBlog and remember how I know she is wrong.
Last day of CNY break. The horror. The horror.
We have a gramophone! My dad bought it ‘for a research project,’ which is also his given excuse for buying a Wii, a Lego Mindstorms kit, and a video camera.
I want a llama.
In other news, I am now in Jordan.
I feel like crying now and I have no idea why. Why do I feel like crying?
Sometimes that happens to me, too.
Yeah, me too.
I suspect hormones. It happens to me too. Sometimes the stupidest things make me tear up, and then sometimes when I really want to cry I just can’t.
Yes. I watch and read Challenger tributes all day on the 28th and I don’t ever get close to crying and I think I’m a horrible person for it, and then I get completely lost and confused durring an exercise we’re doing in Math and I have to blink back tears.
I hate that.
Oh man tonight has /pictures/! I never get pictures! And one is really great. I’m making claw hands at my friend and he’s making the most demonic looking face ever back at me. Tonight was really fun.
This thread has gotten a lot of posts!
For Chinese new year, I went to a fencing tournament at my club. One of the coaches there is the Chinese national coach, coach wen, so we had a tournament on new years. We had a lot of fun with fencing, and samurai movies, but all of the prizes were bunnies. AAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! I got second place, and won a Pez dispenser shaped like a hot pink bunny! I’m sure it’s part of the conspiracy.
I didn’t make the softball team. I didn’t really expect to, there were twenty-two people trying out and the coach only accepted thirteen people. I was fourteenth. *sighs*
*sympathy pies*
That really stinks.
Yeah. I just found out that there is another team nearby looking for a first base/outfielder like me, so I’m going to try that out. Then there is always the rec league…
I’m sorry.
I hope you do better in other ventures!
Has anyone here ever read Heart of Darkness?
I’m reading it for school. It is well written, but miserable. I don’t want to read it now. I have 9 pages before tomorrow. I just got back from another weird cultural weekend, and I don’t want to ruin my mood!
So, last weekend I posted about my Croatian friend. This weekend, I judged a taekwondo tournament and then stayed over with my Indian friend. They live in a house near the hotel where the parents work.
(There are 5 kids belonging to two sets of parents, and a grandpa all in one house) All of the kids speak English, the skill level inversely related to age. (6 year old Jay has an American accent, nobody else does).
None of the parents speak enough English to understand me, and the grandpa knows random sentences of English that are longer than someone who doesn’t know English should be able to say. I think he secretly knows English. I don’t know any Gujarati, so it was pretty fun.
Since the house is already too full, my friend and her sister and I got to walk to the hotel and stay in a room there. :] It was cool. We went on the computer and talked about all of their friends from India and their friends in America who are from many places.
They live in a pretty big city, and I was freaking out trying to drive around. The GPS wanted me to go all over, and there were highways on top of other highways and triple bridges. I was happy to leave and get somewhere with roads that are actually on the ground. :]
Reading depressing books for English is the worst. You feel awful, but if you don’t read, you fail. (We just finished “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter”, which I do *not* recommend.)
I actually much preferred the movie of “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” over the novel. The screenplay changed the plot considerably as I recall.
98- God, Heart of Darkness. We had to talk and debate and write all about whether it was racist. No one even brought up the fact that it was also sexist. Still, all -ism aside, it’s a good book.
Um.
Ooh! Went to the Regional Acting Competition yesterday. It was super fun, we didn’t place in anything but that wasn’t really the point either.
I don’t understand how other schools have SO MUCH MONEY while ours is already at the bare minimum and still has to cut $600,000. Like, flat screen TVs in the Commons? And somehow they can all afford to go to State and stuff. Oh well. I’m almost out and my sister’s going to be homeschooled next year, so if they cut every program and half the teachers and never turn on the heat it doesn’t affect me. -is horribly selfish-
I have a shiny new-to-me cell phone because a family friend upgraded to an iPhone. I can’t use it until I have a new SIM card but I’ve been making a little padded bag for it all day, because my last one got so beat up and this one is too nice.
I have a love-hate relationship with technology.
Thought I’d post here while I thought of this- is anyone else completely fed up with intelligence being ‘defined’ by strength of grades? Conformist thinking(despite what they tell me about it’s being thinking for myself- in most cases, it isn’t) and regurgitation of facts is NOT something I want to be learning about.
Yes, yes, yes.
People also assume that if you get good grades, you are automatically a smart, kind, rule-following person who can’t do much wrong.
And they let you break rules.
Absolutely. And that some grades are valued over others- see if your parents care about your A++ in drama if you got a B- in math.
Yes, I take a test and then forget everything a month later. That’s not learning anything.
I always wish I could learn/take tests by osmosis, just put a book on my head and then my head on the test. (everything would be so much cleaner)
Oh yeah. If your learning something, you should learn it, not be told it, study it like crazy, take a test on it then forget about it. That’s basically pointless.
That’s one of the things I like about my Spanish class. Words and grammar we learn come back later so that we actually use them.
Grades are way to highly thought of. If they were to be important, they shouldn’t define how much information you can memorize in a given amount of time. You can’t put a number on intelligence, it just isn’t something that can be measured, no matter if some people think that grades define intelligence.
Actually, a lot of information you learn at my school recurs in midterms, finals, and MCAS. If I forget something then I’m just not making enough effort to remember it and I’ll have to relearn it later on. The point of learning and taking tests is not just to forget the information. It’s to reinforce the information.
Yes. Like some other people said, when I take tests, usually it’s mostly just going through a lot of stress while studying only to forget all the information I just learned a few weeks later, and then we never use it again. Even in the case of having finals/midterms, I’m pretty sure it’d be the same situation – everything’s forgotten so quickly, and what’s the point of going through that?
Being smart is about much more than that, and intelligence definitely shouldn’t be measured by clear cut grades. I really don’t like how much emphasis is put on grades at my school – it might be a good motivator, but when you think about how much information we’re actually retaining from year to year, it’s sort of crazy. I want to get good grades because that’s the only way I’ll get to a good high school and college, etc, but honestly, sometimes I think there is way too much pressure on something that is simply a number and won’t entirely matter in the real world – obviously some skills would be useful to have, and you do need a basic foundation before you get more into a field you’re interested in, but still…
(that was longer than expected…)
I love winter sunsets, when the sky has those gently fading layers of red-orange and yellow, and then, when they meet the blue, that one part that looks sea-green.
Yesterday:
9:30, got up and watched first 3 hours of the Angles in America movie. Then had lunch at the dining hall for the first time in like 2 months, bought some textbooks, and watched an episode of Coupling with friends. Then went to Firefly at 5pm, show was at 7 and went well, then hung out with people afterward. Then watched 3 more episodes of Coupling and The Princess Bride (fell asleep (SLEEP, WHAT) 3/4 of the way through though). Then went to bed in Narnia (fff still up),
Will post about today later tonight after everything’s done. But teaser: KLINGON SPECIAL MEAL. MEAT, AND VIOLENCE.
Angles in America? Don’t believe I’ve heard of that movie.
It is really good. About a family of obtuse angles. One of them meets an acute angle and they want to date but her parents don’t approve but eventually they realize that they are all formed by lines meeting each other and hence it has a happy ending.
Sounds kinda cheesy.
By the author of Flatland?
KlINGON. tlhIngan Hol Dajatlh’a’?
OH DEAR GOD A KLINGON MEAL WHY DO YOU TAUNT ME SO?
Again. I can’t wait till college.
SFTDP, but I have a lame, cheesy idea for your food. bortaS bIr jablu’DI’ reH QaQqu’ nay’. Revenge is a dish best served cold. It just hit me.
Hooray! Someone else recognizes official Klingon language!
Back in Hong Kong! Which means school tomorrow. (I’m already not going today – flight only arrived this morning.) School =
Aww.
Sorry.
Random facts about my life right now:
-Every time I magnify this thread on the Kindle I’m using, it redirects me to comment #79. No matter where I was before. It is a bit odd.
-I just spelled ‘I’m using’ on the previous fact as ‘I’musing’. It sounds perhaps like a badly punctuated version of something Apple.
-The socks I am wearing currently are cutting off the circulation in my feet.
-The back of my right knee is sore from overstretching for a split earlier today.
-There is a photo in my current bedroom of a man playing a ukelele (at least I think it’s a ukelele, it might be an ethnic banjo or something) with a chicken sitting on his head. The man is wearing a white robe with a hood. He looks slightly amused. He has a moustache.
-You know, my life is so weird…
Speaking of weird lives, I just spent seven hours on the plane stretched out on the floor in front of my parents’ and my seat in order to sleep more comfortably. (That didn’t really have much to do with your post, sorry.)
(And to make this more relevant…) I actually haven’t tried going on MuseBlog on my Kindle yet, but if I ever try it, it would be interesting to see if mine jumps to comment 79 as well.
That is just about the only way to sleep comfortably in a plane. I do it too, or try too, but because I’m not in the middle row my legs end up sticking into the aisle and people keep tripping over them and eventually the flight attendants tell me to move. *sigh*
Do you take a lot of trans-Atlantic flights? I do.
Speaking of being fed up, is anyone else who is fairly small fed up with being treated like you’re cute or innocent? I’m constantly treated like I’m younger than I am and it gets really annoying. People infantilize me. It has gotten better lately but it is rather annoying when it happens.
This. Yes. *five feet tall* People think that my eleven-years-old sister is the older one, especially when she’s wearing heels. >.< And I hate being patted on the head…
The worst, though, is when people start picking you up and carrying you around like a little kid. Doesn't happen as much nowadays because most of my friends have learned that I have a vicious temper, but people who don't know me as well still do it.
I’m the smallest kid at my high school. Seriously, I’m like the girl in the The Girl Who Did Something Dramatic series. People can shove me into lockers with a flick of their wrists. They can pick me up very, very easily. Thankfully, I don’t look “cute”. Wearing all black and eyeliner has benefits.
Hooray for nested comments!
How tall are you, then?
I’m not extremely short (around 5’3″ or 5’4″) but I’m light. There are shorter kids than me, but none as skinny.
Ah. *is both very short and small boned*
Wait… People pick you up? Really? 0.o
Yesterday there was snow on the ground, and today was close to uncomfortably warm. Dear Weather, can you make up your mind?
Hello class, today we’re playing basketball. The six words that strike terror into my heart.
GAPAs, could you maybe slow down a tad on new thread creation? There’s been quite a lot of them lately. Unless that’s in an effort to encourage more commenting?
Never fear, we don’t plan a torrent of new threads, though we will continue to create 2011 editions of popular old ones.
The best thing about TAing first period is that I get to do things like go on MuseBlog during school!
The second-best thing is that the teacher I TA for agrees that the Science Olympiad sponsor’s rejection of a handprint with a pawprint inside of it on the front of our T-shirt design as “inappropriate” is absurd. I’m glad to have backup on this point, because I really need the slightly-revised version to pass. There’s been an absurd about of inter-club conflict surrounding the T-shirt issue, and at this point the less complicated the better. (Much abbreviated summary: I made a decision about the T-shirts based on the results from two votes we took, and all the seniros completely freaked out because it went against their preferred color choice–preferred color choice–and raised a massive fuss including posting some rather nasty comments on [social networking site]. I might post in more detail later, but I might not; the reason I hadn’t posted about it here was that it was too stressful and upsetting for a few days to type everything out again. It seems to be mostly blowing over, though, so we’ll see.)
Oh my gosh, what is their issue? T-shirts? T-SHIRTS?
Isn’t your competition in a week, and they’re still worrying about t-shirts?
Yeah. We procrastinate our events too much is another thing. And the tower my partner and I are building is going to suck because, really, we don’t know anything about tower building. >.<
Guess who managed to completely avoid watching the Super Bowl, despite there being a crazed fan in the house?
Mwahahaha.
Me, too! It’s a tradition. He’s pretty much given up on me by now, though…
The Super Bowl is really weird for me becuase everything is reversed, I want to watch the commercials (though there weren’t as many funny ones as last year) and I don’t really care about the game. For those who watched, what was your favorite commercial? Mine was the crazed Dorito guy
The commercials are the best part. What’s the point of watching 22 guys run around, hit each other, fall down, then do it over again?
The Doritos one with the ashes and Grandpa? Because that was hilarious. There was also the one with the 5g phone and Justin Bieber. That had me laughing.
I believe your first paragraph is fairly self explanatory.
As for the ads, I didn’t see many of them, but the past few years have been pretty lame, honestly.
I liked the Darth Vader car one.
Oh yes.
Radiant_Darkness – Didn’t that have Ozzy Osbourne in it? I hate Ozzy Osbourne. He freaks me out.
I am not denying Ozzy Osbourne is creepy. I can’t deny that.
Oh and by the way, you don’t have to call me Radiant_Darkness. You can call me RD, R_D, or, the one I just thought of, RaDar/RADAR/radar. One, not all three.
OH YES THE ONE WITH BEAVERHEAD! I was laughing so hard I couldn’t hear the TV.
old people prison! followed closely by the reply-all email
also the one with the beaver cause that was really cute
The Coke and the line in the sand with the two soldiers! Also the Coke with the dragon and the castle and all those Orc things, that was fantastic.
I loved the one with the Kia automobile that the various entities were stealing from each other and how it kept getting more and more absurd (Bond villain, Poseidon, aliens, time vortex, Aztecs…)
I didn’t see the Super Bowl. I was at the theater (Arena Stage, in Washington, D.C.) watching an adaptation of the Arabian Nights. It was wonderful, and I highly recommend it to any MBers in the Washington area.
My mom says the Super Bowl is “family bonding time”. I have no response other than ellipses.
I made all of my friends Valentine’s day cards. Have you guys ever seen (500) Days of Summer? (If not, see it. It’s an excellent movie, and I hate romantic comedies.)
There’s this scene where Tom is talking to his boss, after he has broken up with Summer. His boss says something about his cards not being up to par, and then he reads one.
“Roses are red, violets are blue…” I can’t finish that line on here, but that’s what my cards say.
I love that movie! And that is hilarious.
Hooray! I’m going on the best field trip of the year tomorrow. The 7th graders are going to go to camp for 3 nights, leaving behind all the stupid 8th graders! Ha! (Oh, and the few 8th graders who are not stupid) I’ve been doing all my packing. I had to go back to the school to get my tennis shoes out of my gym locker, which was rather annoying, but meh. Oh, and don’t expect any posts from me until Friday.
Have fun!
What the hell happened to the World?
It just keeps going, for reasons unclear to most of humanity. The ones they’re clear to are best avoided. Unless you like that sort of thing.
I just got back from volunteering at the library. I started last Friday, and so far it’s really fun. Today was less fun than Friday, because I didn’t really understand what I was doing and it was a lot more confusing. And I’m really tired, walked to the library, so I was tired when I got there and then I was on my feet for two hours. I’m not doing that again.
I finished my homework and I had a trombone lesson today. Why can I never think of anything I want to do?
I’ve decided what else I want to be when I grow up: a traveling minstrel in the Medieval period.
The job sounds like fun, but those Medieval health and dental plans weren’t spectacular.
Yes, they may have had a few problems with plagues and whatnot, but with no refined foods, obesity and cavities weren’t precisely problems.
True, once you lose most of your teeth cavities won’t be a problem..
Actually I believe there was a sharp rise in Europe in bad dental health around 1000ad when sugar cane became available.
May I join you?
I’m not sure what society’s views were on female minstrels. We could give it a shot, but I’ll offer you no guarantees of not being accused of witchery.
I could do the whole cut-hair, dress-in-man’s-clothes, bind-breasts gig. Of course, if I was ever discovered, that’d be witchery for sure.
After a bit of research, I’ve found that it seems there were female minstrels. Not as common, of course, but existent. The biggest danger I see now is one or both of us being bought by a noble and having to play in a court for the rest of our lives instead of roaming through the countryside. Also, we’d better be fast language-learners.
She turned me into a newt!… I got better.
That’s what I’M going to be! -internet high-five-
Although I actually am going to be a wandering minstrel. Obviously not a Medieval one, unless I manage to get that time machine built, but as close as I can come in this day and age. I was going to do it right after high school, but I lack the necessary musical talent, so I decided to be a troupe of theater minstrels. And then all my friends were like: “You’re buying a van and becoming a minstrel? Good luck, we’re going to college…” so I decided to go to college first in the hopes on meeting some more enthusiastic future minstrels.
Be sure to memorize the Odyssey, and each of the stories surrounding it.
“Sing to me of the man, Muse
The man of twists and turns, driven time and again
Off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy.”
Unintentionally proving Piggy’s point here, but the translation I heard was something a bit different, with “Sing in me, Muse, and tell through my the story of Odysseus… something about men… something something… plundered the heights of Troy”
Not in English, though. In English it’s just awkward, off-kilter prose. In Greek it’s poetry.
I like the English translations of Greek poetry, though. I’d probably like them better in Greek, but you’ll note that I don’t speak Greek.
I’m going to learn the Childe ballads, though. Not all of them. But lots.
get a better translation?
No translation of anything can fully reflect the original meaning and connotations; trying to translate poetry can create something that’s either faithful or poetical–never both.
I’d like that as well. Count me in! Now we just need a TARDIS…
Sounds good. You’ll need to take a course on time travel, though. (Do they offer those at MA?)
There are so many awesome seniors graduating this year. I’m going to be bawling too much to play with the band at graduation. :'(
Yesterday:
Went out and bought textbooks with friends, had baking party in my dorm from like 2pm to 6pm (made a ton of stuff. Technically for the superbowl party a lot of my friends were having in our lounge, but I didn’t actually watch it), at 6 wandered to the lounge on the floor below for our last (unofficial) Sci-fi/Fantasy co-op meal. It was Klingon Special Meal. Aka pretty much all meat. SO MUCH BACON. And chicken. And we’d bought a whole rabbit, but it wouldn’t have been cooked in time, so that’s getting saved till later. We ate a ton and drew ridges on our faces in sharpie and then had wrestling/fighting matches against each other. MEAT, AND VIOLENCE. TODAY IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE.
After that, wandered back to superbowl lounge, sat & talked with friends till it was over, then later that night watched an episode of Coupling and an episode of the IT crowd with friends. Spent my last night in Narnia with my friend.
Today:
First day of classes. Farewell, winter term! It was fabulous, but is now over. Alas. Today was bio and chem class, although I ended the day at noon. Then tonight we played Apples to Apples for a few hours. And then I dismantled most of Narnia and am now sitting on my BED. I haven’t slept in a bed for 3 weeks. This is strange but comfortable!
Don’t have to be up till 10am tomorrow though, so may not sleep for a while yet. I’m nearly done with my mug of hot chocolate though, sadly. Maybe internet tv will make me sleepy.
Tomorrow is anthropology and psychology. I’ve been told my multiple people to drop these, but I’m going to see how they go. I think I have enough personal interest in the subjects to make it worthwhile… we’ll see.
You… You took down Narnia?
=bawls=
-A
Everyone needs to see the latest GoogleDoodle. It’s so EPIC. OH MY GOSH.
Wow! That is really cool!
That’s really cool! I didn’t get it at first, because I was trying to go up when it was already at sea level.
Vernian Submarine!
WIN: I just laughed while drinking Kool-Aid and it came out my nose.
FAIL: I’m wearing a white shirt.
My nice one, too, the one that says, “Non sequiturs are like bicycles- they don’t bathe.” Ah well. Bleach covers all sins.
You can do that with pudding too… The liquidy kind. Find a victim that tends to laugh hysterically.
121~ I was just going to say that. I like the gearshirt-y thing that you can play with. ♥
Welcome back Armada and Raynpho! Pies and all, you know the drill.
I kind of skimmed the thread since my last appearance, but dang you guys post a lot. 0.o
I didn’t see the Superbowl, like Robert, I was in a theater. I went to see the play SCKBSTD in Hampton, VA. All the music was by Bruce Hornsby. I know I’ve been thinking it for awhile, but I need to get some of his CDs. Anyway, yeah. It was a spur-of-the moment decision as our friend (who happens to be Bruce Hornsby’s mom) told us after church and invited us to come along as she had extra tickets. So we went and it was good.
Home now and needing to get down to business on all that panic I didn’t get done while in VA and yesterday. Ugh.
*gearshift-y
Busy, busy, busy… Driver’s Ed at 6:45 means wake-up at 5:30 which means in bed by 9:00 (And I’m *still* incredibly tired). At least it’s only Tuesdays and Wednesdays. (And no, we won’t drive that early, we’ll drive on Saturdays, the weekdays are classroom stuff.)
Would I really be *that* much of a freak if I got my license in college?
Have you considered taking Driver’s Ed over the summer or do they not offer it then?
I’ll be working at an internship out of state.
Erm… It depends on how you advertise it, I guess.
“Hi, I’m KaiYves and I got my liscence in college.”
“Hi, I’m Bob and you are such an *insult*”
“Hi, I’m KaiYves.”
“Hi, I’m Bob.”
I’m a sophomore in college and I only got mine over winter break, after three weeks / four lessons worth of driving. All not having your license means is that people can’t ask you to drive them places
I’m not taking driver’s ed because it just seems useless. I’m not driving anywhere anyway, I can wait until I’m eighteen to get my license. I’ll be two months into college, but thats fine with me.
My friend got her permit at almost 16 (permit age here is 15, license age is 16) because her father made her. She’s now almost seventeen and I don’t think she’s ever driven on it. She plans to avoid getting her license for as long as possible, never driving once she has it, and living someplace with excellent public transportation. So nope, not a freak.
124 – i know people who still don’t have their license. i have mine, but i never drive and i’m fairly sure i’ll never own a car (planning to move to a city with good public transportation and walk/bike a lot. less for the environment and more because cars are expensive and annoying, but hey, environment is also a plus)
this probably belongs on the music thread but that is the deadest of the dead so i’m posting it here. this is also completely useless and reading it may actually damage your mental health.
lately we’ve been playing dynamite in band. a lot of you probably know the maccabeats parody (i throw my latkes in the air sometimes sayin’ ay-oh, spin the dreidel). at a LOTR marathon a while back some of my friends came up with “i throw my lava in the air sometimes, sayin’ ay-oh, i’m a volcano.” at a b2d meeting we came up with a bunch more, most of which i forget, but one of them was schwagers “i turn my eyes into the sky sometimes sayin’ ay-oh, i’m gallileo.” later, after more lord of the rings i came up with “i throw the ring into mount doom sometimes sayin’ ay-oh, my name’s frodo”
well today in band i came up with FAR too many of these so i thought i’d list them
– i walk the yellow brick road sometimes, sayin’ ay-oh, i’m a scarecrow
– i throw my paint rave in a church sometimes, sayin’ ay-oh, this is dayglow
– i throw my keggers in the house sometimes, sayin’ ay-oh, it’s a frat, bro
– i make hot cocoa in the cold sometimes, sayin’ ay-oh, gonna let it snow
– i sit and nod off in a class sometimes, sayin’ ay-oh, can’t we just go?
– a prioress takes all my blood sometimes, sayin’ ay-oh, where’s that arrow
– i write with chaucer at an inn sometimes, sayin’ ay-oh, wife of bath’s a
holady of questionable moral virtue– i make up parodies to songs sometimes, sayin’ ay-oh, i’ve hit a new low
as i said there are lots more that i don’t remember. my life is so sad
Wow.
I THROW MY HANDS UP IN THE AIR SOMETIMES, SINGING AY YO, PO-TA-TO
I love you.
I throw my homework in the air sometimes, sayin ay-oh, got a life yo
I throw my hands up in the air sometimes, sayin ay-oh, no comprendo
I throw my skittles in the air sometimes, sayin ay-oh, taste the rainbow
I love making those up
Heard the rainbow one too!
I saw the Galileo version on somebody’s blog before I ever heard the real song, so those are always the words I hear.
One of my friends wrote a parody about searching for UFOs, and I have Candlelight on my iPod. I don’t even know the words to the original song; whenever it comes on I sing about Hanukkah and telescopes.
Can we see the UFO parody?
I hate that song. And I don’t know where it came from or how old it is but it seems to be suddenly everywhere.
It’s pretty recent. It’s called “Dynamite” (my friend has it on her iPod, don’t ask me why) but I can’t remember who it’s by.
Taio Cruz. It’s funny; the first time I heard it I happened to have a guitar, and it really is just four chords, other than the bridge… It’s the fastest I’ve ever figured out any song. Took me all of twenty seconds.
-A
Bet you can sing better than him. Or at least auto-tune less.
Eh. It’s a definite possibility, but then again it’s not like one really needs to sing to perform that song.
-A
the internet has re-appropriated it
I heard the Galileo one before
During the IASAS MUN conference in Singapore, one of the schools there from Manila made a music video of the MUN version of the lyrics. They changed almost the whole song to make it relevant, and the video itself is pretty cool; it’s on youtube.
‘I raise my placard in the air, sometimes, saying ay-oh, point of info!’
I hold my razor in the air sometimes, sayin’ ay-oh, Sweeney Todd, go!
YES.
Next time I hear this song, I’m singing that. WIN
If only I had that before music camp last summer… My roommates played Dynamite, Can’t Be Tamed, and Baby There’s A Shark In The Water on roomate#3’s iPad 24/7. With the volume up all the way. It drove me insane. I could’ve had revenge by singing along!
I hear too much pop songs in the dorm sometimes, sayin’ ay-oh, I’m insane now!
I police stupid posts sometimes, sayin’ ay-oh, it’s a po-po
I’m not saying your comment is a pointless post. Just clarifying.
Urgh. Woke up feeling like I’m coming down with a cold, I’ve got that sort of scratchy feeling in the back of my throat that tends to precede a full-blown sore throat. Joy.
I stayed home sick from school today… I threw up this morning and I’ve been having a coughing fit every five minutes. Luckily, I’m not congested, but I had an ortho appointment yesterday so my mouth hurts, causing a headache. It seems a bug is going around my school… we had a new record of missing people in band yesterday (10 out of 72), and four of them were our third clarinet section so that was weird.
Guhhhh.
Hope you feel better soon.
124 (Kai)~ I know at least one college student who doesn’t have her license; she uses public transportation during the school year and then sails all summer, so she doesn’t really have any need to drive.
Personally I like being able to drive though. I’d use public transportation if it existed in the boonies where I live, but as it is driving just makes life a lot simpler.
125 (Eboo)~ First off I find it amusing that in order for MB to know what pop culture thing you’re talking about you clarify with “you probably know the parody of it….” Also, I didn’t know I knew the song, but for some reason the “Ayo, spin the dreidel” came up in my mind with music. I wondered if it was the right music, as I’d never actually looked it up and listened, though I’ve seen it referenced around here a fair amount. Turns out it was the right music and I actually recognized the original one as well. Amazing. I guess I must have heard it at crew parties last summer, because I kind of remember moving awkwardly to it. Or something. My pop-culture awareness grew exponentially last summer, I’m not sure how to feel about that.
Last note on that, my spellcheck didn’t recognize dreidel as a word. Sad. Then again, it doesn’t recognize spellcheck as a word either.
It’s probably good it doesn’t recognize “spellcheck”. We wouldn’t want it to become self-aware.
Why not?
The Uprising.
comment twins!
Yay!
somehow, spellcheck recognizing itself as a word would be creepily sentient…
Huzzah! Tomorrow’s the last day of the school week for reasons I don’t entirely understand. It’s not the end of the quarter or anything. Oh well–four-day weekend!
In other news, Middle English pronunciation is weird.
This is completely random and probably mushily sentimental, but I’ll post it anyway.
I’m so glad MuseBlog exists. I’m so glad that there’s a place where a bunch of smart, hilarious, nutty, conflicted, kind, emotional, perfect *coughcoughPIGGYcoughcough*, no so perfect, talented, interesting, and generally awesome people can talk to each other and form friendships. I know a lot of us have been really stressed about school, relationships, and other things, but let’s all remember that there are people who understand how we feel and who will always be there for us on MuseBlog. It’s a wonderful place.
/sentimentality
*takes a bow*
You know what the worst part of coming down with a cold is? Not that irritating scratch in the back of your throat threatening worse to come, nor the looming threat of a full-fledged sore throat, stuffy nose, and sinus headaches, but rather the lack of snogging. That’s definitely the worse bit, the no snogging.
This is where a significant other with an awesome immune system comes in handy. I never have to worry about my lovers being sick- I won’t catch what they have – essentially guaranteed – and if I do, it’ll be really quick and not painful.
Umm, hi. Weird interjection.
Mar… How long have you had it?
-A
I think Alan’s got a pretty decent immune system, but I’d rather not run the risk of giving it to him, he doesn’t have time to be sick, with his busy schedule and two big tests back to back on Friday……
As for how long I’ve had it, not long enough to be whinging about it this much already. I only started feeling sick yesterday morning.
=nods= Of course.
Is it going around? Or just you?
-A
Just me, I think. Or at least nobody that I actually know is sick, that’s not to say every single other person on campus couldn’t be……
Alice has problems.
Such as: She has spent the last 3+ on the computer, mostly reading articles about Ophelia, and is no closer to writing a thesis for her paper or collecting ten sources.
And: She has a directing assignment due tomorrow and she doesn’t know what to do.
This has kind of been a terrible evening. I wish I could say I’d done something besides sit around reading articles and listening to folk-rock. Maybe if I clean the kitchen while trying to create a scene for directing.
You have to write a senior thesis in high school? That’s rough…I’m the worst at writing anything, but it might help to break it up into smaller tasks, cause when you look at the big picture it tends to get rather overwhelming. Good luck!
Alice:
So, you’re confessing that you spent three hours sitting around learning things? Horrors!
Better than me. Give me three hours on the computer, I draw.
She’s admitting to not getting the task assigned to her by her teachers done. Which unfortunately has little to do with whether or not she learned anything.
Tsk, tsk. I could win 36 games of solitaire in that time (without cheating, that is). Kids these days…
Ooh! In not too long (less than a month, I’d say) I’ll be posting the 5000th comment under this precise name. Axa, you just passed the 3000 comment mark a couple comments ago.
Whoa, really? I can’t believe I’ve posted that much…and yet, sadly, it is not over 9000
/oldest meme
5000 is certainly more impressive though
Today: Second day of class.
Cultural Anthropology: Smaller class than I’d feared, so that’s good. 40 people max. Lots of people want in, but a lot probably won’t make it. I was advised by several people that this class is sort of hokey because it tried to be a discussion class when it’s an intro course and none of us really know enough of what we’re talking about to make really valid points. This was definitely true of today at least. I think I’ll stick with it though…
Psych: I know several people in this, even though it’s a fairly large (well, large for the size of my school) lecture. And I’m pretty interested in the material, so that’ll be good even though there’s a lot of reading and work.
Then today I was supposed to get all my bio and chem studying done after dinner, but then pretty much right when we got back 4 of us decided to go play music and sing in a lounge instead. Until 11:30pm. Oops… started homework a little before midnight, worked for like an hour : P Haven’t done problem set for chem but that’s not due till friday technically. So just not going to be as well-prepared for lectures tomorrow as I could be, but it won’t be a big problem. Have bio lab in the afternoon, but it’ll be an open lab so I can go in anytime before 4:30 and even go back on thursday afternoon to finish up if I need to.
It’s not even 2 yet, but I may try to go to bed early… may aim for 7 hours of sleep instead of 6 (I try to am for 6 most nights, so usually average a little less).
GAPAs, before I toss my computer out the window, is there any way to stop the MuseBlog from loading in HTML form? I can still comment, but it’s getting really annoying.
I’m not sure what you mean, CO. Which operating system and browser are you using? Version numbers too, please.
Er, Google Chrome 9.0.574 on Windows XP, but it started working again. Thanks anyway.
the wind is blowing so hard outside it sounds like the ocean!
I can feel the changing barometric pressume in the spaces where my wisdom teeth were. It would be cool if it didn’t hurt.
I just came back from skiing today
It was awesome. I’ve regained my confidence in my skiing abilities, am working on my carving and my jumping (especially turns!). Thankfully, he slopes were hardly crowded at all so I got some really quality carving time in (I usually just use traditional turning to have more control because I’m not secure enough in my balance yet to be able to turn instantly) and I survived a rather awesome ski route (in retrospect, I’m not quite sure how).
The one thing I regret is that I wasn’t able to do any proper deep snow skiing: now that I’ve built up leg muscle from capoeira I’d actually be able to turn but since there was no new snow I had to settle for some slush instead, which gave me the chance to learn how to ski backwards, more or less and now I’m determined to learn that too. I got better at bumpy slopes too, all I need is more practice. Ice is not a problem anymore either, unless I’m carving.
Yep, I’m obsessed with skiing and skiing well. As always, I had no wipeouts but I did run into a tree (it was the tree’s own fault for being in my way), sort of. I didn’t get a black diamond route in like in *place* because there wasn’t one, but the red diamond route I did do went all the way down the mountain and the varying snow consistency made it much more of a challenge (first ice, then powder snow frozen solid, then perfect Firn, then mountains of slush. The last category housed the unfortunate tree).
I’d rave/rant more, but I just realized my profound lack of skiing/snow-related vocabulary. What’s english for Firn, anyway?
The internet seems to tell me that “firn” is English for Firn.
Névé I think, although I’m not actually sure it’s an english word. I heard it once from an instructor on some slopes. I am envious that you’ve been skiing! I haven’t gone for 3 years now and I miss it a lot. We went skiing every spring break for a long time, but my dad doesn’t like it anymore. I learned when I was really young (like…6? 7?) so I was able to maintain it pretty well (plus all the hockey I did sort or carried over) for only skiing once a year. I like black diamonds without mogles the most (aka reeeeeaaaally steep ones–one place I went had a slope that was 56º, although we didn’t go down it), and with moguls second. Some double black diamonds I’ve had a lot of fun on but they’re challenging.
We would always do a few days of ski school at whatever mountain we were visiting (we picked a new place every year), at first so my sister and I could learn, and then because I’d surpassed my parents in skill and they couldn’t take me down the runs I wanted to do. I like to ski fast. One instructor I had said I was one of the fastest he’d taught, second to someone who actually raced
It made me really happy.
The craziest one I ever did was one where we ended up hiking (carrying our skis) maybe 50 yards up the mountain above the highest lift, then skiing horizontally above a forest tree line/bare slope for about a quarter of a mile to get to one run. There were about 4 feet of untouched powder, it was absolutely glorious. Until about 1/6 of the way down when there was an optional jump. The first person took it, landed, lost a ski. Took about 5 min to find it in the snow, but put it back on then waited a little ways below the jump for the rest of us with out instructor. Second person skied past the jump, and the third tried it–and lost a ski. And couldn’t find it at all. So we all skied to the group and waited for the instructor to dig it (and the kid) out. It took a good 20 mintutes. The rest of the way down was a blast though, with no more mishaps.
Man. I miss it a lot more than I’d realized. Oh well… maybe someday soon I can go with friends somewhere.
Actually, just went and looked it up, Névé isn’t the same as Firn, it’s a precursor to it. Hmm. I’ve no idea what it’d be called in english then. Possibly the same thing, not sure there’s another word for it.
ahhh! My face! I can’t feel my face!
I went to the dentist today, and I had to get a filling, and they numbed my face! I was supposed to get it done last time I went but my brain decided it was time to be afraid of anesthetic. So I walked out crying and a few weeks later I’m fine. I have to go back again in a couple weeks.
I think that since I don’t really face that much danger my brain needs some kind of extreme stimulation, so sometimes it decides that I am either afraid of anesthetic or afraid of being late.
I just had to note that “flamablamablous” is now defined both in the Urban Dictionary (www . urbandictionary . com/define.php?term=flamablamablous) and in Merriam Webster’s Third (www3 . merriam-webster . com/opendictionary/newword_display_alpha.php?letter=Fl&last=10).
You know where it’s going to show up next, don’t you? Spelling bees!
How flammy!
Oh yeah. Every single post in the conversation about contradictory mantras on the Quotations thread has been pinked. Including mine.
SAT scores tomorrow >.<
I don't know why I'm worried about it cause I did really well last time; I only retook because I thought my math score could've been higher. I don't need a higher score, but I want one anyway. Is that… I don't know what negative adjective I'm looking for… ungrateful somehow? That I can't just take my high score and be done with it? Ughh. The problem with being friends or friendly with the vast majority of the top ten percent of my class is that instead of being thrilled with a 700 on math, I think, "
, but A, B and C all got 780s! Why would Chicago/Swathmore/Brown/wherever pick me over them since their grades are just as good or better? I have to improve upon that!" I can't even tell how much of that is truth and how much is paranoid absurdity anymore.
700!!!
My highest math was 680. My highest reading and writing were both 740, but not on the same date.
Everyone here thinks it’s ridiculous that I got those scores…but your friends got 780s! That’s awesome! And you’re jealous of that? *incredulous*
What kind of school do you go to? Is it some kind of prep school? From those colleges it sounds like it is.
No, it’s one of three high schools in one of the most intense/competitive districts of North Carolina. Most of the graduates end up at UNC-CH, UNCG, UNCA/UNCC, State, ECU, App State, etc., which are all great schools of course (and UNC-CH is apparently insanely competitive for out-of-state applicants), but the top portion of the class tends to shoot really high and have UNC-CH as their backup plan.
I know I should be happy with my scores, and I feel like an awful person for not being ecstatic. I’m not disappointed at all, in fact I’m very pleased on the whole, but I just always have this sense of “but you could and should do better!” hanging over my head. When so many highly competitive people are applying to the same colleges from the same school, it feels like anything slightly lower will hurt my chances, you know? So it’s always, more AP classes! Get A’s in everything! Shoot for a 2400 and still do a ton of extracurriculars! I try not I get too caught up in it, but I still fixate on this way too much. Not to mention that all the schools that are on my radar as interesting are highly competitive, and I don’t have any kind of list of backups that I know anything about and like yet. That plus the fact that my friends are shooting for like, MIT and Stanford makes it hard to just relax about it all.
What’s stupid is I know what good scores are. When friends score 650s I’m happy for them. Honestly, I have one friend struggling with major health problems (she has been doing so for five years) and given her circumstances, I’d be thrilled for her if she got scores not even that high. I don’t judge others for their scores or grades at all. And yet I hold myself to such high standards for everything academic. I hate it.
Sorry, this is probably the wrong thread for this.
Me too, don’t worry.
GAPAs, my post isn’t showing up as in moderation, nor is it appearing on this thread. Did it get caught in the spam filter or something?
Yes. Our spam filter doesn’t like the word “crap.” Also, you misspelled “Swarthmore” (my alma mater).
Oops, so I did. I do know how to spell it, for the record! I’m writing this one off as a typo.
I got a packet at school about high school (and college) courses. I thought about it all and my brain EXPLODED. Once I pick it off the floor I should stop procrastinating and do my homework. Latin 1 or French 2? And Art 1 and seven periods with sports that will make me stress even more, or no Art 1 (which I want) and sports year round (with six periods) ?
Well, I can right away recommend French 2. Getting a head start allows a much more enjoyable time with the language later on… especially a language you can speak with other people.
As for the seven periods, It’s your preference- all I can ask is if you’ve had schedules that crowded before…
I found a guy on an external blogging site who blogs in-character as Milo Thatch. Immediate RSS sign-up.
Also, I showed my English teacher that “speech” I wrote for Remembrance Week, and he said he wants me to modify it and submit it to the school newspaper!
144 – French is awesome, just saying!
145 – That’s really cool! Congrats.
So, our school musical this year is The Drowsy Chaperone. Has anyone heard of it? I love the soundtrack; it’s so happy and entertaining and, well, fun! Not to mention fun to play. I’m in the pit orchestra, and we might get to be onstage for the shows! This is an exciting prospect.
Today Maria Reyes (of Freedom Writers) came and spoke at our school. It was really…interesting.
Oh! And we got a Kindle! And I’m not allowed to touch it!
I also managed to scrounge up a $2 bill from my drawer so I could get Street Fighter IV on my iPod Touch for only $0.99 (down from $9.99) as well as some of the 127 Hours soundtrack! Yay!
I haven’t done one of these rambling posts in a long time. It feels good.
RIP Brian Jacques…
There’s going to be one more Redwall book, isn’t there?
RIP Brian Jacques…
Indeed.
“To where will they go,
This is a secret no beast may know.”
Friends and I are having a Redwall-themed feast on saturday in his memory and honor. My friend has written a lovely Redwall-style song for the occasion, and we’ll be cooking out of the official Redwall cookbook.
I was never able to get into Redwall, but I acknowledge Brian Jacques’s skill as a writer. I didn’t know he had died, though…
Heffalumps. In order to get out of slow-motion-reading The Giver for the eighth time, I have to write a three page essay about wheat farming. Tell me how this is fair. Or relevant, for that matter.
In other news, I think I sprained my eyeball. More later.
Wheat farming? Your eyeball?
You know, that sounded very odd out of context…
It doesn’t sound much more normal in context.
I just thought of a lovely image of wheat growing out of an eyeball. Eew.
People have written novels about wheat farming. Three pages is nothing.
Really. If Willa Cather can write one of the classics of American literature around wheat farming, a short essay shouldn’t be any problem.
Bah. I dislike being sick. I hate fevers especially. *103.4 degrees Farenheit (sp?) is NOT cool*
Oh look… Was that a pun? AlpacaLips is corrupting my brain.
Its Fahrenheit. Our earth science teacher drilled it into our brains in eigth grade after most of our class got fifteen points off a test for spelling it wrong multiple times.
It’s a cool word to know how to spell, though.
Oh, and feel better! *feels foolish*
Being sick *does* suck.
I would have thought your science teacher would have drilled into your head that Fahrenheit is BAD, WRONG and USELESS.
I wouldn’t go that far. I think it’s better than Celsius as a gauge for subjective human responses to weather in temperate climates. In Europe, where it was developed, the temperature rarely goes below zero or above 100. 0-30 sounds cold; 40-60 sounds middling; 70-100 sounds hot. The smaller degrees add precision. You can make the same sorts of judgments with Celsius (anything below zero is cold, 10 is medium, 25+ starts to get hot), but Fahrenheit was designed for it.
Exactly. Different systems for different purposes.
Oh, they don’t even bother trying to get us to use Celsius anymore. It’s useless, really, to try to get us to switch when Fahrenheit is already drilled into our brains. Of course, we’ll use it in experiments and such, but I don’t think it’ll ever be really used by us in everyday life.
Yesterday:
Class: Bio, chem, bio lab (open lab, wasn’t too hard, I still have a bit more to finish with it but I can do that outside of class).
Then at 6 I went to the ExCo fair! “ExCo” is short for “experimental college.” It’s basically extracurricular clubs that are styled after classes. They’re taught by students for students (although some may have a non-student participating in teaching/guidance).
There’s all sorts, but I signed up for Traditional Irish Music (a friend of mine is teaching the class! It will be fun. I’m pretty much primarily classically trained on flute so learning folk stuff will be good for me. May also buy a pennywhistle. And said friend has been showing me how to play bodhran when we’re doing group jam sessions in the lounge, so I may learn more with that as well), and also Herpetology. They had two snakes and a lizard at the table
And apparently there’s field trips on some weekends and evenings. So that could be a lot of fun, plus I like reptiles/amphibians in general, so learning more about them will be awesome. I also joined PoiCo! Poi will be fun to learn. I know veeeeery little about it, just what the guy teaching it taught me during orientation week at midnight when circus was hanging out in the quad scouting for freshman,
There were also a few excos I’d have liked to try out but conflicted with my schedule–a Sandman (Neil Gaiman) exco, bellydancing, and fencing. But I’m happy with the ones I have so far.
Wait, poi as in the Maori art of spinning little feathery lumps on string, or some other poi? Sounds fun, in any case.
That’s the one! Except it’s mostly just balls in sock-like sacks, or just on string. We’re not using very decorative ones right now, but you can add things to make them more interesting as they spin. There’s glow poi which are a ton of fun, and also fire poi (literally you light them on fire and spin them around), which we’ll get to do at the end of the semester!
Look for videos, they are cool
I know, I spent some of my childhood (the early bit, that is) in New Zealand. My cousin once spun a fire poi and set a wooden cabinet aflame. It’s not something to be done in an enclosed space.
Yesterday I took this fancy American Mathematics Competition math test, for “gifted” math students. That was a fun test, it made me think, actually work through the problems instead of knowing the answer or not. Does anyone else’s school have the AMC?
My high school did. Did you take the AMC-10 or AMC-12?
I took the AMC-10 (I’m a freshman in high school)
AMC-10
Our school took the AMC 10 on Tuesday. It’s mandatory for everyone in the honours stream.
yeah, took both the AMC10 and the AMC12 in the appropriate years. It was rather fun.
Mine did. I didn’t take it because I have no reason to do so. But it did mean that half of the people in my first hour were gone, so we didn’t have to do any work.
I took the AMC-10, to, and had fun. I felt slightly inadequate, as I couldn’t answer most of the questions, but I did feel proud of getting one that at fist glance seemed impossible.
I took it- but I thought all schools took it around the same time. Ours was in October.
I think that my class took the AMC 8, but that was several months ago.
Whoo! Another Raw Materials! It seems that Mr. Gonick may have changed his mind about ending the comic.
SAT scores today. I admit, it was the first thing I checked when I woke up. As I said on the College thread, I bombed math, but not as badly as I thought I would, writing was okay and critical reading was surprisingly good. Overall it’s okay I guess. I’m relieved. I hope my relief is justified.
I was extremely surprised by the critical reading though. I figured I’d done well, but not that well. Whenever I do well on a test (or on anything, really) I’m shocked but not always happy, more often I feel as though there’s something wrong with the test or situation and my success was accidental or wrong. It’s odd, because I don’t think of myself as having particularly low self-esteem.
Today in Physics class, we found out that a Gummi Worm can bear about a kilogram of weight before snapping. It was fun.
I need to post more. Like seriously.
GAPAs, if I were to create a community on LiveJournal and post my art there (since I’d feel terrible sending you so much), could I direct people to it? Probably not, but it’s worth asking…?
In a word, nope.
Oh, well. Worth asking! Thank you for replying! I’m sorry for taking your time.
The week is over. I think I shall go catch up on sleep. I have a deficit of about nine hours.
Alright, after this weekend, I think daily posts will end. Not as much happening every day anymore now that classes have begun and I have to spend a large chunk of time working or some nonsense.
Yesterday: anthropology, psychology, homework. Chemistry did it’s best to kill me. New teacher=there were things on the problem set I never had to do in class last semester and I couldn’t find them in the book or online. Have to turn it in in class today though. I’ll have to deal with points off, I guess, which is bad since this is the only assignment so far x_x
In the middle of homework I did go to the first Poi meeting! I knew a little bit from way back in orientation week when I went to circus’s midnight skill share, but learned new stuff too. So far I can do butterfly, thread the needle, 2-beat weave leading with right or left hand, and I nearly have 3 beat weave down.
Tonight is contra and tomorrow will be fun times, and sunday will also be busy, but after the weekend I’ll go back to weekly posts. Probably on the dispatches from collegeland thread again. Need to post stuff about some of the weeks from ages ago as well (don’t want to forget anything that happened XD)
I know it’s late, but I just found out that it’s Thomas Edison’s birthday. Maybe it could be on the calendar?
Done! The Wizard of Menlo Park was an unpleasant person and a terrible father, but he accomplished amazing things and changed the world. MuseBlog commemorates him.
Baby elephants! D:
TESSSSLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Yes.
Going to a zumba class tonight with my girl scout troop. The only reason I’m really going is because I haven’t seen my friends in over two months and I need to talk to my leader about my gold project. I could totally do without the stupid dancing part. Exercise is not fun, for me at least. Dancing will not make it fun, not matter hard they try. I’d rather just go running or do crunches. On another note: God, I can’t wait for badminton to start…
Zumba=awkwardly flailing arms all over while tripping much too often. Wasn’t too bad.
I will be going camping this weekend. (In a cabin, not a tent-brrrrr). I’m going to go sledding down a gigantic hill that is pointless to try to walk up, so adults just take everyone in a car up and down the hill. Plus, there’s a lodge at the top with free hot chocolate.
I read part of a very interesting book about rouge waves today. (Called, appropriately enough, “The Wave”.)
It blows my mind to think that the same planet contains both waves a hundred feet tall and desert areas so dry and sterile that there are no microbes in the soil.
I wanted to (To paraphrase Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Symphony of Science) grab somebody in the hallway and ask them “Have you heard this?”
Hey, everyone. Thought I’d stop by Ye Olde MB, heheh.
So, anyway, I’m not sure if I’m back for good now or just making a quick stop-in to say hi, but…….Is that a pie-themed like button?
…If that’s a pie-themed like button, I may have to stick around. Because, I mean, it’s a pie-themed like button. What’s not to love?
Hey there! Good to see you. And yes, that is indeed a pie-themed like button. You should stick around.
OH MY CAKE IT’S YOU. I remember you! You were cool. *hugs*
Mhm! Like Piggy said, they are!
Ohhh! I do remember you! Stay!
HEY TGYPWYA!!!
I am BACK!
7th grade camp was definitely as awesome as we were all informed prior to it. We arrived at school between 8:00 and 8:45 on Tuesday morning with our luggage and met with our cabin groups after dropping it off to be loaded onto the trucks. We departed at around 9:15, and the bus ride took two and a half hours >.<
The girls stayed in the cabins called "the Peaks," which were the only ones with bathrooms attached
. They were painted blue with peaked roofs (hence "the Peaks," obvs). The boys stayed in log-cabin-looking cabins. (That was somewhat redundant…) Some of the cabins had 2 stories with one group on each floor, and the floors all accessible from outside. The bottom floors were divided into "east" and "west" rooms connected by an inside door. I was in one of these.
We had a pre-planned schedule for each day, usually enough time between activities to return to our cabin and hang out. The best activity was tubing, which we got to do once each day except for today. My friends and I all hooked our tubes together with the straps before going down, which a lot of people did. It was awesome. Then, there was the gym, where they had rock climbing and a Euro-Bungy. The Euro-Bungy had a harness attached to bungy cords, and you jumped up and down on a trampoline. My two gymnast friends were doing triple backflips and stuff. There was a swimming pool, a game room, and horseback riding, too. My horse's name was Bo. Yesterday we went cross-country skiing, but we didn't have enough time and we couldn't find the trail, so we just ended up having a snowball fight.
The worst activity was teambuilding, where we had to first line up in height order while blindfolded, then have one of our counselors take off their blindfold and lead us up some stairs (that was terrifying). I was also asked to the camp dance and said yes, mostly out of not-wanting-to-say-no-ishness. I suppose the dance itself belongs on R&R.
We left at 11:45 today and got back at 2:20, by which time I was starving. After my dad picked me up, we went out to eat at a Chinese place.
Not entirely sure why, but I decided to pop back over to Museblog tonight. It’s been forever since I’ve posted anything, although I’ve lurked on occasion. I have spent the last few months doing some very productive soul searching, and I would like to share with the world that I feel like I am a more genuinely nice, intelligent person.
In other news, I went to this conference thingy (not really sure how to describe it… pretty much a weekend to discuss your feelings and beliefs with complete strangers) and it was amazing and inspiring and I think that talking so openly to people in real life reminded me of how I used to talk so openly on the blog.
And I’m so totally digging all the pies.
Hallo again! I am quite glad that you are feeling like a more genuinely nice, intelligent person.
Heya! I am also glad you feel like a better person. That is generally a good thing to be.
Hosni Mubarak has resigned!
Now what will happen next, I wonder?
Obligatory happy 4am post!
Class today was uneventful, although I didn’t have my 3 hour chem lab so yay. Also got $10 in the mail from grandma woo!
Contra was fun, went 8-11. Afterwards had baking party at 11:30 in my lounge with lots of friends. Then played a short game of Flux and a really long game of Munchkins. It just ended a few minutes ago. Welp.
Getting up around 8 to help cook the redwall themed meal. Will be making hazelnut pancakes with honey, as described in Pearls of Lutra. There will be lots of other food which I will describe later.
Was considering just staying awake till then, but I think I’ll just go for the 3.5 hours of sleep. Might snooze till 8:30 even… we’ll see XD
How do you not sleep and still be able to think? I need to sleep a lot or else I can’t focus on anything the next day…
Back from a two-day MUN conference – only in Hong Kong this time though, so not much travelling involved. This wasn’t very well organised, and we did a lot of things which made no sense, and the overall standard of people’s public speaking wasn’t as high, but it was still okay.
Some of the more memorable highlights:
-The delegate of Saudi Arabia changing his country’s name to the Kingdom of the Holy Mandate of Camels, and requesting the Human Rights Council to sing Happy Birthday to him in Arabic (he actually knew the words).
-The delegate of DPRK making a Right To Statement saying something along the lines of ‘If you are not a citizen of the United States of America or South Korea, please consider coming to North korea. The weather in Pyong Yang will always be nice unless our leader is in a bad mood (he had previously said something about Kim Jong-Il controlling their weather). We will take you on a tour, and once you visit North Korea, you will never go back home.’
-The delegate of Nigeria attributing the quote ‘It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all’ to Shakespeare. It’s actually Tennyson.
-The delegate of Mauritius declaring war on the delegate of Saudi Arabia
-The Environment Committee next door declaring war on the Human Rights Council
-One of the chairs asking the delegate of the KHM of Camels (formerly Saudi Arabia) ‘Can you just stuff camels in your mouth?’
-One of the chairs rewarding the delegate of Saudi Arabia for having behaved diplomatically for five minutes (one of the other chairs called this a miracle)
-The delegate of Saudi Arabia doing an extremely unattractive dance on the floor, so called the ‘camel’ dance
-The delegate of Guatemala running around the room holding the UN flag and yelling war cries
I love MUN ♥
Ohhh, how I wish I was there…
Seconded.
Fascinating.
Sounds like a blast!
That sounds so fun! I wish I was in MUN!
I laughed when I read that!
:]
Laughing so hard right now! Want!
o.O I’m in a club type thing that I think runs on a similar idea, called KUNA, but I think it runs on a much more serious vein. However, one of my schools best senior speakers is planning a proposal that he says will stealthily annex North Korea to South Korea. He’s going to literally carry a North Korean delegate out of the room (he says).
The thing is, it’s supposed to be serious, except it doesn’t always work out that way. (Our chair gave up on us within the first half hour of debate this conference.) The one I went to in November in Singapore was much more serious and productive, though there was still the occasional humourous moment.
I wonder if the real United Nations has these kind of things happen as well. Somehow I doubt it, but it would be funny if they happened but no one ever knew.
MUN rocks!
I went to one a month ago as well
-The conference was called cinnamon because the acronym was CNYMUN (Central New York Model UN)
-The delegate from Iran won the “I don’t like peace award”
-The delegate from DPRK requested to be called Kim Jong-Il
-The delegate from the United States tried to invade Pakistan
-The delegate from Zimbabwe wrote a rap to the beat of the chairperson’s beatboxing and preformed it in front of General assembly
-A debate ensued on whether or not Justin Bieber was a girl or a guy
-The delegate from Chile had their placard drawn so it said “Chile’s Bar and Grill” with the Chile’s pepper on it, and their nametag drawn on so it said, “Hello, my name is _____, waiter at Chile’s Bar and Grill”
-One of the delegates got an award for “Best use of suspenders”
-Me being the Republic of the Congo, I got about three notes that were supposed to be for the Democratic Republic of the Congo
MUN is amazing
Ooh, MUN. I’m even more determined to try to go to MUN next year. (Ginger and my other freshman friend’s advice for if I do go to their school next year: Go to MUN if you can.)
Do it! It’s so much fun.
That sounds amazing.
I’m still a bit confused as to how it works, though. You actually had people from other countries, or were they just symbolically from other countries?
You don’t have to be from that country, you only have a country that you represent for that particular conference.
Okay, that’s what I thought.
I was up till 9 last night soing a jazz band concert for our school’s orintation for people considering transfering to our school. I thought I was driving my frined home but it turns out my other friend was driving her home so I spent like two hours there protending to be interested of her tour of the different electives you can take.
I have officially posted more than Rosanne. I also officially need to cut down.
No!
Well, the thing is that I discovered that my dad actually checks Who’s Posted How Much sometimes, and he once called me out on posting TOO much. So yeah, that’s why.
170 – Cut down on posting on MB? Why?
Speaking of which, where have I been?! I’ve lurked on occasion, but I have been rather quiet lately… Lots o’ homework lately, especially regarding the research paper. (The Harry Potter one, that is.) It’s coming along nicely, my rough draft was due on Friday so I’m going through the revising/editing now. Oh yeah! Annnnd…I’m using the Muse article about Harry Potter in the July/August 2007 issue (I think, I’m pretty sure it was the July/August issue, but I could be wrong?) as one of my sources! And because I’ve been bringing the mag to school so I can reference it/take notes, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about what it is…which is a nice way to talk about Muse in a non-MB related setting.
I’ve been listening to a lot of Harry Potter podcasts lately, something I hadn’t done much of before the paper. Pottercast and Mugglecast are my favorites, although they seem like the main ones anyway. :/ They make me wish that I had become a Harry Potter fan earlier – by the time I was really into Harry Potter, I was 10ish, and that was around the time HP5 (the movie) came out, and HP7 (the book) came out, but I didn’t really do much on the Internet at that point so I didn’t really know that a whole world of Harry Potter awesome-ness was just waiting to be discovered… Actually, I didn’t really use the Internet regularly at all until the following year – 5th grade, when I was 11 – when the e-mail craze went around my grade before everybody got phones. I guess there are some things you just can’t control, like when I discovered Harry Potter in relation to when I first fell in love with the Internet. *sigh* Such is life.
Nothing else is really knew, but I feel like I should really catch up on all these posts!!
That reminds me, I went to a friends Bar Mitzvah yesterday and talked to some people I hadn’t seen in about six years. One of them remembered when he was over and we were playing Quidditch with my brother. The game involved brooms with names of the Harry Potter broomsticks written on them with sharpie, a lemon, and an orange.
I interpreted the lemon and the orange as writing utensils the first time that I read this.
What rules did you play with?
Haha I thought the same thing. “How do your write on something as small as a broomstick with something as wide as an orange?”
Since money and transportation are no object, we must turn our attention to the issue of finding good places for secret Kokonspiracy hideouts and bases.
Some of my thoughts:
– Pole of Inaccessibility Station, Antarctica. As the name implies, this place’s claim to fame is that it’s hard to get to, which is great for ensuring secrecy. This area has only been visited a handful of times, and a Soviet research station built there in the 1950s was abandoned after only a short while in use. We can dig out their infrastructure, build some of our own, and never worry about anybody coming snooping.
– Hang Song Doong Cave, Vietnam. The article in the January 2011 article of National Geographic says it all- cave systems completely unexplored until recently, large enough to hold city blocks, and full of incredibly dramatic rock formations and natural skylights, including one cavern under a skylight that contains an underground jungle.
– Discovery Island, Bay Lake. Pretty much the antithesis of the other two, but hiding in plain sight can be the best way to hide. Discovery Island is in the middle of Bay Lake at Disney World, across from the Magic Kingdom. There used to be animal exhibits there for park guests and routine ferries from the hotels, but it’s been closed to the public since 1999. Surely the Walt Disney Company can be persuaded to allow us secret use of a few abandoned buildings in exchange for our not filing a gigantic lawsuit over the events of April 2008? (Which we have incontrovertible proof of, as preserved by our poor, traumatized GAPAs.)
I have finished the intarsia part of my star fleet sweater. It was a nightmare- I had to unravel the entire sweater twice before I got it right.
Good for you for finishing!
Thanks. This means I have about two thousand stitches left… sigh.
So my family went for a walk around the city we’re staying in today, and there was a group of breakdancers practicing in the park, and one of them invited me to join them (because I was dancing-ish to the music they had playing), so me and my mom and my sister did some capoeira and some breakdancing with them, and they invited us back… it was nice to move some again, I’ve been so sedentary since we arrived in Mexico, man.
I discovered TVtropes yesterday. I am now completely addicted. ^_^
Stop. Stop now. Delete your past history and try to forget.
Because once you get in, you will never, ever, get out.
Yes… Yes, I realize this… *flails around in giant pool of TVtropes quicksand* It’s extremely awesome quicksand, though. I was walking around the house on the 11th cracking up so bad at regular intervals as I read some of the articles, especially the ones on Cirque du Soleil and the Everyone Is Gay (or whatever it’s called?) one…
Happy Valentine’s Day, MuseBlog!
Happy Valentine’s Day, Selenium! It’s not fair how you and Choklit Orange always reach the holidays first.
Sorry about that.
It’s our only consolation for not being in similar time zones to the rest of you.
I envy all you guys in the US, personally. We’ve finished our celebrations before you get up.
Yesterday was SO MANY THINGS. Which I will post about later because I am off to the first Quidditch meeting of the semester now!
We’re not playing, just moving equipment, but wooo! I still see everyone on it a lot because I’m friends with all of them, but not really in the same place, so it’ll be great to all get back together, heh.
Grar. Stupid organising people at my school haven’t started the quidditch club meetings yet!
-A
Gah. Jade, if I haven’t already said it: I am SO jealous that you are on a Quidditch team. So. Jealous.
I tried to start a quidditch team at my school, and no one believed that there was a muggle version.
Although, it makes me smile that that was their actual objection, not that Harry Potter was ‘stupid’ or some such nonsense. I love my school.
You know how when you have an idea and you’re writing about it and then once you think you’re almost there it starts sounding trite and worthless? I hate that. Especially when you NEED to get it done and you don’t have much time because when you’re under stress you shut down and then discover you’re two days away form when it needs to be completely finished. Urg. *dies*
Advice from an editor: Forge ahead, finish it, and fix it later.
177.1 (Robert)~ You = lifesaver. It’s kind of the part of the piece that’s supposed to bring it all together though. *dies more*
Keyboard-bashing ahead:
r3gjklnEWWDSEGTTYRUYRTT35DFIK8Y66880T51fewfrt5u6dewt466frdewsxdcfrvgthju789klie3456yt5ijdsijazKODEIJFRVIJHVFRJNZqaijljkofrjmfrvjnfvnfvn kfv jmfrjmokkoerokde2v3gt4y6bftgddfsewafdgfhjhfdsfgdfswertgds345657dfgsaDFTUYOR563iuopihyiuo90p
Forgive me.
You can rewrite it as many times as you need to, or scrap it entirely. But you have to finish it first. Maybe you’ll like it better when you see it whole.
Here’s a trick that has helped me in similar situations: First write the whole passage in baby talk — very simple subject-verb-object sentences. Then, when you’re finished, go back and translate it into smart-sounding grownup-ese. Sometimes just knowing that it’s going to sound silly and ugly can be liberating. (As a bonus, writing things very simply can help to clarify your meaning to you.)
The New York Ballet is doing Swan Lake at Lincoln Center, but it’s all sold out.
I found out from a newspaper that I was lining a snake’s cage with when volunteering because, y’know, that’s the normal way to get your news.
Honestly, I could really care less about the ballet, I just wanted the music.
So guys I have no shame, I’m begging for help now. Could you maybe read through 660 words of my atrocious writing and tell me what you think?
Somewhere around 2300 (11pm) on September 10th, 2010 I found myself with puddles in my raincoat (the only piece of foul-weather gear I’d managed to put on earlier that evening), sitting in a puddle in a small boat in the considerably larger puddle that is lake Erie with every scrap of clothing completely soaked through, holding a flashlight to make sure we didn’t get run over by other boats in the deluge and choking back tears that threatened to join the raindrops forming rivulets down my face.
I love sailing tall ships and the beauty, adventure and freedom that one can only find on the water. This enthusiasm began when I was nine, and ever since when faced with the inevitable question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?†my answer has remained constant: “I want to be a sailor.†The past two summers I’ve spent doing just that as a crewmember on the US Brig Niagara, a replica of Oliver Hazard Perry’s relief flagship during the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813.
I’ve set, reefed, taken in and furled sails, run aloft some hundred feet to the royal yards in under a minute, been put ashore by the cutter to catch docklines when coming into port, helped in the galley and seen my fair share of sunrises and sunsets over the water. I can splice lines, and I can keep a 200’ ship on course when we’re rolling in 6’ swells. I’ve cleaned the “heads†(maritime toilets) more times than I can remember and I’ve become accustomed to keeping all my possessions in a 4’x2’ round seabag, sleeping in a hammock and sharing the berth deck with 30 other people. These skills are useful, but they aren’t what makes me consider myself a sailor.
Though I’ve not gone through any formal rites of passage traditionally associated with the maritime community I believe I can call myself a sailor without feeling as though I’ve uttered a falsehood. It’s not in the number of sunsets, times aloft, scrambling ashore from the cutter or cleaning the heads, it’s the enjoyment (or at least toleration) of them. It’s getting into the cutter happily even though last time you ended up climbing straight into a heap of dead mayflies and rotting fish, it’s going aloft eagerly, even though you’re supposed to be off-watch and were just woken up, or just finished eating and don’t feel particularly mobile. It’s singing and chatting while cleaning the heads, not complaining because it must be done.
So it was on that soggy night in the small boat. We were retrieving the leftovers from a concert and spectacle marking the opening of the last tall ship festival of the season. My parents had gotten to town earlier that day to whisk me away home to that mysterious life ashore that, rumor had it, included regular sleep patterns of more than five hours at a time as well as other diversions, such as private berths (which were called “rooms†by the occupants), showers, running water and flushing toilets. Throughout the summer I’d thought of my life in MD whenever my life on the water seemed particularly miserable. Cold, wet, exhausted, hungry, these states would be accompanied by a bout of homesickness.
As more rain trickled into my jacket sleeve and the flashlight’s beam illuminated a glimmering streak in the blackness I instinctively reminded myself that although I probably had an hour more to go before getting to sleep, I’d be going home to MD tomorrow. Home? The word didn’t really fit in the context I was thinking of. Home conjured up images of somewhere I went when I was tired, lonely or seeking protection from the elements and outside world. For the past three months I’d jokingly called Niagara my house, but it was only then that I fully realized that it had become my home.
That is what makes me consider myself a sailor.
Speaking as an editor, I’d say that this passage is a classic example of how hard it is to judge one’s own writing.
It’s the opposite of atrocious, Fern. It’s honest, tangible, real, evocative, and moving. You could submit this anywhere.
Your writing is wonderful. I don’t know how you could possibly call this atrocious.
Agree with Robert and shadowfire. This is fantastic,
Fiddler.
That’s wonderful! As a reader, I feel like I need to wring out my clothes, which means that you did your job perfectly.
really, it’s great!
Thanks for posting.
180.1~ Thanks. What about the organization? Does it make sense? Is it long enough? Too long? This is, as you all probably know by now, the college application essay that needs to be in the mail day after tomorrow.
It’s really organized quite nicely. Actually, the whole thing is quite nice. I actually really love it.
It definitely makes sense. I can’t judge on length- I don’t know anything about college essays, but I know that it’s a gorgeous, heartfelt piece of writing.
It’s amazingly easy to read Lord of the Rings on Kindle. I also realized that as long as I’m asking for books and not video games, my mom is willing to buy quite a bit, as long as I’m going to read it. She recently agreed to get me the Ultimate HG2G! I love the Kindle Store.
180- That’s a great essay. It makes me feel vaguely uneasy about my own college essays. And also really jealous of your tall ship experiences.
Thanks to all who responded to post 180.
Is there anything you’d change though? Anything that wasn’t clear? Anything that didn’t sound or look right? What did you like/not like?
183 (Alice)~ I’m sure your essays are fantastic, and I have a feeling you;ll get plenty more sailtime.
My parents are currently attacking the very essay replicated above with red pencils. I’m scared.
Well, I’d write “Maryland” instead of “MD.”
I really liked it! Only a few things I’d change:
write out some of the numbers – two hundred feet, thirty other people, etc. Just looks nicer.
“Though I’ve not gone through any formal rites of passage traditionally associated with the maritime community I believe I can call myself a sailor without feeling as though I’ve uttered a falsehood.”
I don’t think you need both the believe and the feeling.
“marking the opening of the last tall ship festival of the season. My parents had gotten to town earlier that day to whisk me away home to”
I didn’t quite follow this bit. If it was the opening of the festival, why were you going home? Also, who is the “we” at the beginning of that sentence? It sounds a bit like it’s your parents but that doesn’t make a lot of sense.
“sitting in a puddle in a small boat in the considerably larger puddle that is lake Erie with every scrap of clothing completely soaked through”
Can you rephrase that so that it doesn’t sound like lake Erie’s clothing is wet? (does lake need to be capitalized?)
Also, what’s a cutter?
Still, though, it’s a very good essay and conveys a real love for sailing.
I agree with Lizzie that the first sentence was somewhat confusing, maybe even a bit of a run-on. There’s so much going on it it that it almost deserves several sentences. I love the “considerably larger puddle that is lake Erie” line though…it made me smile. (Should “lake” be capitalized?)
There’s maybe a time discrepancy later on, when it says “My parents had gotten to town earlier that day to whisk me away home”, yet you’re still on the boat?
The descriptions and obscure sailor language are lovely.
Well, I’d be lying if I said I haven’t climbed a mountain today.
A literal one?
Did you build the mountain first? You live in pretty much the flattest state in the Union, don’t you?
is this a mountain by east coast standards or by actual mountain standards?
Oh, that hurt.
It was a mountain by Iowa standards. Mt. Lucia in Stone State Park, if you want to know. Really it was just a big bluff, but compared to the rest of the region, I guess it could be called a mountain. To be fair, it was a good three miles each way through six inches of snow.
A mountain by Iowa standards is certainly not much of a mountain, but I’ll congratulate you anyway.
I used to live in Iowa, by the way. I had rather more space.
Erin just wrote me the nicest e-mail. I’ll reproduce some of it here:
“I know what you mean. 2010 was such a year of changes for me. I think that the girl I was on December 31st 2009 and the girl I was on December 31st 2010 are two really different people for me. There were times in 2010 where I didn’t think I would ever feel happy again. I was so disappointed, or so angry, or so sad. And then there were times in 2010 where I couldn’t believe how lucky I was, and I was amazed that anything this good could even happen. There’s so much more I know now then I did then. I feel like a better person now then before the year 2010.”
“2010 made me sure that I wasn’t just all talk. I was challenged in more ways then I thought possible. But when you come out of a challenge on top, you are rewarded. And usually, the rewards are worth the trial.”
“Thanks for being part of my 2010. I hope I can be part of your 2011, and you’ll do the same for me.”
So I changed my Gravatar again. That’s a representation of the angly-cut hair I keep talking about in character descriptions!
I just noticed Diagon Alley is a pun on “diagonally.”
So is Knockturn Alley.
It is?!
Nocturnally.
Yes. Nocturnally.
Yeah. It’s a pun on “nocturnally”.
I’m so terrible with puns. Thank you everyone!
*facepalm* I never noticed either of those.
Same here. *joins in facepalm-fest*
Oh my gosh, I never noticed them either!
I feel dumb…
Quick poll, based on a conversation with my friends: XOXO means hugs and kisses, right? But which is hugs and which is kisses? I’m curious to know what all of you think.
Cute Gravatar, Zinc!
Thank you! :3
X= kiss. Back when education was not very widely-spread, girls who had to sign official documents didn’t exactly know how to sign their names. So they wrote X in its place and sealed it with a kiss! Also, X looks vaguely like puckered lips.
O= hug. Looks vaguely like two pairs of arms encircled.
I heard it was when women were writing to their sweethearts during the war, there was seldom enough extra money to spend on things like lipstick–which girls would put on, then kiss a letter with, leaving a mark. So they would do without and draw an “x” where they kissed the letter instead.
188- I think X means kisses and O means hugs.
So, after hearing about Brian Jacques’ death, I wondered why I’d never read any of his books. So I started a few days ago. I’m only about halfway through Lord Brocktree, but I can see why his death was so widely mourned here on MB. I can also see why Jadestone had a feast. I’ve already highlighted one recipe Jacques wrote. I’m not going to get the official cookbook, though. The spirit of it just doesn’t seem right. I’ll write down the recipes as I come across them. Now, where to find parchment this time of night…
Tomorrow is St. Valentine’s day,
All in the morning betime.
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.
Anyone recognize it?
Naturally! Wear your rue with a difference, and don’t go near any ponds today.
I just sang Still Alive with Cleverbot. I truly have no life.
(Though now I’m wondering if I can do that with any song…)
*wonders why the cake there are about 5 fire trucks with lights flashing lined up along the street her dorm (and a couple other dorms) are on* There is one quite literally parked right outside my window (well, except I’m not on the first floor). I wonder if the res hall down the street had a fire alarm go off? I’ll have to ask Alan tomorrow, see if he knows….The fiancee of one of his friends is a student staff member in that res hall. I have connections, lol. Anyway, sleep, yes. That would be good.
Sleep is bad. What are you talking about.
Why else would I stay up until 2?
Wait. Has the world been lying to me?
I feel betrayed by everyone. This is horrible. Why didn’t anyone tell me that sleep is good for you?
SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK
I am very, very weak.
Happy Singles Awareness Day.
I went to a brass concert last night!
The opening was Also Sprach Zarathustra!
(You might know it better as the really epic theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey)
Richard Strauss! <3
♥
On a related note, I listened to Eine Alpensinfonie again today. Absolutely beautiful.
Or as a novel by Nietzsche, but I agree that more people would remember it from 2001.
Cool, Enc!
Robert, did you get my email lat night? If not, could you please check it?
Aye, Fiddler. Just about everybody on Earth stays up later than I do at this time of the year.
Thank you.
I have a new question. Where does valentines day come from? We all know the origins of halloween and christmas, but what about valentines day?
Welcome, Schlumfumfugus. I don’t believe we’ve seen you on MuseBlog before.
We all know the origin of Halloween? What is it?
Halloween derives from the Celtic harvest celebrations around that time of year. They believed evil spirits would return and destroy their crops, so they burned bonfires all night long and dressed in animal skins to scare the spirits away.
Later, harvest time was when all the tenants on a manor would visit the master’s house and ask for food or money for their families. If the master wouldn’t give it, the tenants would do something to punish him and his family, so that he would think the spirits were punishing him for not being generous. Of course, before long both parties were aware of who was really causing the punishments, so the tenants would openly threaten “tricks”, if they weren’t given “treats”.
I believe it was originally called All Hallow’s Eve, and it was the day before All Saints Day on the catholic calendar, made to convert “pagans” as it was the last day of the Celtic calendar year, a day to celebrate the dead, and it somehow evolved into what we know it as today.
Welcome!
I don’t know why it turned into a holiday about love, but originally it was Saint Valentines Day, to commemorate the saint.
Happy birthday, Galileo!
Happy birthday, Ernest Shackleton!
20 geek points to whoever can figure out what my current avatar is first.
I believe he is Megaman from the NES
20 geek points to you.
Yay!
Hello.
The good news is that I only spent the morning of Single’s Awareness Day moping.
The bad news is that the reason I did this was because I had nine hours of class today, plus two absolutely useless free periods, no lunch, I’m officially 18€ in debt to my current best friend even though I hiked all the way to the bank to get the money to buy the new notebook and pen (which was expensive and turned out to be crappy) that I needed only to realize I forgot to buy a math compass and by the time I got home, I only had Spanish, French, Math and German homework, plus a German book to read, plus an English Presentation and a French presentation and a Geography presentation coming up that I should probably start preparing for and my muscles are all stiff from gym because it’s so freakin’ cold and I haven’t had time to shower yet. And this is just the first day of the new semester. It would have been less stressful if I’d known that I had three extra hours of class but I didn’t because I didn’t have the caking timetable.
This somehow turned into a rant… Meh. *goes off to plan to do Spanish homework tomorrow, before capoeira but after the French homework and the math homework but before the german book*
I am going to emulate a friend and wish everyone Happy Mushy Sentiment Day! Most everyone has a mushy sentiment about something, so that’s much more egalitarian than VD as it is marketed and ever so much more pleasant than something whose acronym is the same as a form of depressive illness.
Happy Valentine’s day! ♥
Valentine’s day is about love, right? Why does that have to mean “oh, I love my boyfriend/girlfriend/wife/hubby etc etc?” I love the planet! Today I am celebrating love for things like trees! and AIR! and MuseBlog! So ha!
I just realized that the last paragraph only contained question marks and exclamation points. Oops. I’m a little hyper. Sorry.
Today at school they had us celebrate bullying awareness day (No, I don’t know who’s idea it was to have it on Valentine’s day). One speaker they had come in kept telling us about these various people who had committed suicide because of cyberbullying. It was very depressing. (Especially since she printed out photos and held them up, saying, “This is [name] who was teased because of [blank]. He jumped off a bridge. This is [name], who was only thirteen when she shot herself because…”) It makes you realize that there are so many people who are unhappy, so who are we to go around buying roses and candy for the people we love when other people are in horrible situations like that?
Yeah! Down with Aphrodite, Castor and Pollux for life! ( Examples of brotherly love
)
Eros gets enough attention, go agape!
You know what would be really nice? If I didn’t have such freaking huge hair follicles on my legs. From my knees down looks all speckly and yicky. blech.
Happy St. Valentine’s Day, Valentine’s Day, S.A.D., or February 14th, however you choose to commemorate this particular day. Today was quite fun–I don’t know if I’ve ever seen such quantities of sugar at my school.
Hee. I started a new game of LeafGreen last night. My Pokemon so far: Bulbasaur (Thoreau), Pidgey (Audubon), Weedle (Wilson) (as in E.O. Wilson), Caterpie (Kafka), and Pikachu (Tesla).
And a Rattata (Jerry). As soon as I catch a Meowth, I’ll name it Tom.
Am I the only person on MuseBlog who has never been into Pokemon?
No.
Nope.
No.
Yes.
*obviously contradictory*
Nope.
Nopers.
So the club is Selenium, Zuki, Armada, vanillabean, bookgirl_me, and me. I figure less than a fifth of all active MBers, judging by numbers of pies popular posts get.
I mean, the populous proportions of pies popular posts
get.
(hit comment instead of preview)
Nope. I’ve never been into pokemon either.
Nuh-uh.
envy and jealousy! i only have sapphire…i’m on my last gym battle before the elite four so now it’s time to train!
also, great nicknames
out of curiosity, is anyone else planning on buying the 3DS and/or the new pokemanz white/black? i dunno if i have the funds but the 3DS looks so cool…
I have Yellow, Crystal, LeafGreen, and HeartGold. I wanted to start a new story and I had to decide which one to erase. HeartGold I didn’t want to erase because I have a level 88 Charizard. Yellow I didn’t want to erase because I have a really well-balanced team. Crystal I didn’t want to erase because, it being the first Pokemon game I ever got, I have almost 300 hours of play into it alone. (So many memories playing Crystal….) So I erased LeafGreen. I’ve never chosen a grass type starter before, so it’ll be a new experience for me.
What? Nuzlocke? What?
Who mentioned Nuzlocke? It wasn’t me. I’m not doing anything like that.
It was meant more to be a suggestion. You said you wanted a new story, and that’s just the medium I recommend.
I don’t understand the “What?”s.
Sorry. It’s probably a phrase native to a very small group of people. It’s essentially to say, ‘oh, did someone mention this?’ in a subtle suggesting manner.
A sort of condescending sarcasm?
A sort of suggestive sarcasm.
I have Blue, Gold, Sapphire (When I lost it I was very sad), Leaf Green, and Pearl. I’m considering keeping my pokemon history going, but I feel like I haven’t played my DS in forever… Although the idea of there being hundreds of new pokemon and me not knowing any of them makes me depressed, so maybe I will.
I’m going to get the 3DS’s second iteration. That way they’ll fix all the problems with the original, but there’ll still be plenty of time before the next console generation.
I am in awe of you, Good Sir.
Dear Susie,
I hate you. Drop dead.
Sincerely, Calvin.
Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!
Don’t forget the flowers from the dumpster out back.
Twoo love…
I feel very included that I get this.
So, I just found out that Brian Jacques died nine days ago.
. . . Um. Wow. Shock.
I used to be completely obsessed with the Redwall series when I was younger. I haven’t read any of them for years, though. I’ve moved on to J.R.R. Tolkien and Terry Pratchett and Rosemary Sutcliff.
Maybe I’ll get one of the Redwall books the next time I’m at the library.
Requiescat in pace.
I heard someone use “schwa” as an expletive today. I must track them down and hug them.
A girl in my calc class has combined “holey shamoley” and “oh my goodness” into “oh my shamoley,” which she says regularly.
Now I have used “schwa” as an expletive. (What the schwa?!) I got a laugh from my clued-in friends and a confused look from the non-clued-in friend.
Friday: Hung out in the lounge in my dorm with friends after classes. And than that evening was the contra dance! Fancy dress themed. Lots of fun. Then went back to my dorm and had a baking party (heart shaped sugar cookies), and played card games–Flux and Munchkins. Munchkins started around 1am and didn’t end till 4am. Oops. Went to sleep around 4:30.
Saturday: Woke up at 8am, though didn’t get out of bed till 8:20 or so. Went to the lounge where 3 friends had already started making things, so I lay on the floor working up the strength to start doing things. Helped with some stuff, and around 10:30am a friend arrived to make Hazelnut pancakes with honey (recipe from Pearls of Lutra) with me. Also on the menu was watershrimp and hotroot soup (“nothin’ ‘otter for an otter”), a carrot and pumpkin triffle, turnip ‘n tater ‘n beetroot pie, scones, some fresh-brewed tea (3 types), lemonade, sort of strawberry fizz (just ginger ale, juice, and spices, no cream/ice cream), lemon curd, fresh-baked bread, and lots of things I sadly can’t recall at the moment. It was beyond delicious, needless to say. And then my friend sang a song he wrote in memory of Brian Jacques (“The Father of Redwall”) which was beautifully mournful, and we all toasted and screamed “EULALIA!”.
Then there was hanging around and cuddlepuddle and watching videos of adorable animals on youtube until about 2pm. Then I went to the gym with friends (felt great to work out again!), and later that night went out to the local chinese place for dinner and then to a production of Eurydice (a sort of modern retelling–I thought it was very well done. Very interesting blocking, it was cool). Then we wandered back to the dorm and played Apples to Apples. Afterwards, a friend and I stayed up talking about life/the universe/everything until about 2am, when we went to bed.
Sunday: Helped move equipment for quidditch, and spent most of the afternoon/evening working (or trying to). Went to 4th meal for the first time this semester, but there was NO french toast. Just pancakes. DISAPPOINTMENT. But friends went for an otterwalk on the way back so that was amusing XD Don’t think anything else happened really? Except for the fact that everyone seemed to have had a stressful/confusing/just plain bad week so emotions were running pretty high on all parts.
Today was also relatively uneventful. But from 8-10 I had my first Traditional Irish Music class! It’s being taught by one of my friends and his friend, who I sort of know. Playing by ear isn’t nearly as terrible as I’d feared–we learned two tunes today (O The Britches Full of Stitches and one other). I missed playing flute, it’s great to have it out again.
This week is going to be busybusybusy. I have exco classes (Irish Music, Poi, and Herpteology) monday-thursday, and hockey on sundays. Only free nights are fridays and saturdays. I’m even more booked than last semester, oops. And I’m at the credit limit (16) without any of the excos, so I’m not even taking them for credit. Oops.
We’ll see how well I fare XD
Only two days into the week and it feels like a lifetime. Meh.
A woodchuck would chuck as much wood as it could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.
I just got a vaccine, and the nurse used the most enormous needle- and, get this, she was listening to music and laughing as she plunged it into my arm. I swear it could have gone all the way through.
WHEE, Decemberists concert!!! Front row, right up against the railing and everything! And oh my, Colin Meloy. I’m going to marry him, then take over the world and force him to be my court minstrel and compose ballads for my courtiers and me. It’s going to be AWESOME. And the concert was SPECTACULAR, even if I did have to stand next to my brother, who spent the whole time making out with his girlfriend. The Decemberists are always great at concerts. Part of it is that they have all these great ballad-songs, so some people can act out some characters. Also, hello, the Decemberists are basically Portland plus a Scrabble dictionary plus the 19th century plus a morbid streak a mile wide plus a mandolin plus quite a lot of plaid shirts and Buddy Holly glasses plus fairy tales. Oh my, I love them.
And pitchers and catchers reported for Spring Training today! I’m so excited for the season! Let’s win another World Series, kk?
Oh, and apparently there was some holiday or something.
COLLEGE APPLICATIONS THEY ARE DONE.
Yesterday I wrote the second essay and printed stuff and got to bed at 4am and this morning was taken up with organizing the stuff I’d printed and copied last night (earlier this morning) into the portfolio AND STUFF. I heard from the college and they’re cool with stuff coming in a little late, so that’s awesome too.
Going to leave in a moment to send it, then I get to WAIT AND BE NERVOUS.
Also since I’m going to be in NC this weekend anyway (YAY!) I’ll probably swing by the college to do the whole interview thing and hopefully knock their socks off with my awesomeness.
Now I need to figure out how long it’ll take to finish up some straggling HS stuff and how much summer I’ve got, then find a boat job I qualify for and get hired. Funfunfunfunfun.
Actually, I lie. I’m halfway done overall. The WWC application is in the mail, and I just have to finish the Prin one. Then the applications will be done. For now it’s COLLEGE APPLICATION NUMBER ONE IT IS DONE. But that just doesn’t sound as impressive…
Yesterday was very strange… it was one of those the-universe-is-conspiring-to-weird-you-out days. Odd things kept happening all morning long… Today seems to have normalled out, though. Thank goodness.
My mom found some capoeira and acrobatics classes happening in the town we’re in. Hooray, I can sweat my head off once more!
And, er, I must run now… I think I need to put another layer on the papier-mache bowler hat I’m making currently…
Capoeira! *yayness*
I’m officially unofficially not a complete beginner anymore
((Backstory: The beginner’s class I go to is rather tough. After a few months, I was the only one left. I got promoted.))
How long before you get your Walking Engine of Death belt?
In 1,5 years, I think
Today, after I came in from running the mile, I found my pants in the girls’ bathroom trash can.
I don’t know how to feel about this.
Got the March 2011 National Geographic today, and it’s a real slam dunk. The domestication of animals, humanity’s geological record, coelacanths, kung fu, circumnavigating Alaska…
I think this is the first issue in a while where every single article has been interesting to me. Usually there’s one or two that aren’t.
I was walking home and there was a cat, I was petting the cat and suddenly it jumped on me (I was kneeling) and started to kneed my legs and drool all over me. I named the cat wa’ ‘Iv nob Hegh Daq Daj jaghpu’ the name my brother and Gim gave it, but translated like it was supposed to be. *likes wa’ ‘Iv nob Hegh Daq Daj jaghpu’* (hint, hint, it’s Klingon).
has fantasyfan posted in the last few days? i just read about some protests in jordan and immediately thought of her.
fiddler- CONGRATS! that is worth celebrating!
Oh jeez oh jeez. I’m faced with a decision which is causing me more self-doubt and stress than the college decision.
Pokemon Black or Pokemon White?
sounds like the the decision…….is black and white
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH—
*facepalm*
BUT IN ALL SERIOUSNESS, I CAN’T DECIDE EITHER
^THIS
IT IS SRS BSNS
I will probably just have to decide which pokemon looks cooler. So leaning towards Zekrom/White at the moment.
Really? I think Reshiram looks a whole lot cooler, plus the name “Wargle” put me off (vulture is so much more awesome), and I like a gothic-witchy pokemon better than a blob of slime.
Maybe I should just get both…
One of the main differences is the version-specific location. Black has Black City, White has White Forest. White Forest has a number of Pokemon you can’t catch anywhere else; Black City has no extra Pokemon. Thus, I’m learning towards White.
Oh I need to preorder a copy don’t I…
Ah. Now I can’t decide, either.
I’d get Black, mainly because of the more urban-focused environment. Get White if you like forests and stuff.
For all that I have argued on behalf of a more old-fashioned lifestyle, arguing that our culture’s reliance on technology is unhealthy… Thanks to the miracle of wifi and laptops, I am typing this in bed.
Oh god, oh god, what have I become?
Comfortable?
Has anyone else done any research into higher dimensions? Because I just watched a video that explained them, and then BAM teleportation made sense.
Sleep deficit is now up to 25 hours. I really need to stop knitting after 11 PM.
In good news, I now have a Star Trek TOS poster, a Star Trek 2009 poster, and a HP7 poster!
And I am halfway through my first-ever sweater. Sleeves are harder than vests.
I don’t even want to begin to imagine my total sleep deficit that I’ve accumulated this past year. It’s probably somewhere in the hundreds range. >.<
I was totally exhausted today and during my free I attempted to sleep in the library, on one of the couches. It didn't really work because a) I was scared that one of the librarians would get annoyed at me and b) the lights in the library are really bright.
It’s gotten to the point where I try to catch a nap on my desk during the five-minute class change in between 5th and 6th periods (I have a double-period class). I feel for you.
I tried to think of a reply to this comment, but I’m so exhausted my brain isn’t really functioning properly. I’m tireddd.
-yawn- Sleep? I remember sljhmazzzzzzzzzzzzzz
hahaha sleep
that thing you silly mortals do
Or rather, what we tired mortals don’t do.
YAY!! I won the district spelling be yesterday!!
Congrats, that awesome!
Congratulations!!! Were the words hard?
Not particularly. Well, one (serotonin) was, but I didn’t get it; someone else did, so I didn’t have much trouble. It’s the next bee (I nearly wrote ‘bbee’ this time. Talk about irony.) that’s probably going to be difficult, and it (the regional, not the one I won) will be on local television, which is extremely nerve-wracking, though exciting.
Thanks, everyone!
You misspelled “bee” as “be”.
Yes, I am aware that I am a snarky brat. (Love you too Lenny, if you’re lurking out there. I have my suspicions. *shakes fist*)
congrats!
Congratulations, that’s great!
Fireh- heh, irony.
Chess, Sudo!
Congratulations, Bibliophile!
Congratulations!!!
I was listening to Lavender Town music reversed.
Has anyone else ever listened to it?
Look it up on YouTube. NOW.
No thanks, that whole town scares me too much even normally.
It’s creepy, but really cool sounding. I kinda like it.
Wore my shirt from the Race to the End of the Earth exhibit yesterday because it was Shackleton’s birthday.
So, I just got some bad news. I auditioned for Jeopardy in February, and got called back in August. And I just found out I didn’t make the final cut. From a commercial. They didn’t even send me a ‘Sorry, you didn’t make it.’
Quite depressing.
Sorry.
Those fools! Someday, Pax, they will realize what they lost. In the meantime, have a squid.
Guess what I just learned? An arietta.
Bad news: My brothers cat has a gash in his leg and other cuts (not the other one that had tubes in him, I have three cats). And in one of my brothers classes someone was drunk and drinking (in class) alcohol out of a Gatorade bottle… (lots of things about my brother…)
Update: there are about 6 cuts an inch wide on one of Shosho’s shoulders and one under is chin and one or two unexplored on his belly.
So, Watson, IBM’s computer, which they set up against two human competitors in Jeopardy, beat the humans hands down about an hour ago.
I for one welcome our new robot overlords.
That whole “computationally perfect buzz-in timing” thing TOTALLY didn’t boost Watson’s performance.
because that was definitely the point…
At least we know Ken Jennings isn’t a robot.
Though Watson beat the competition
This blogger still is unimpressed.
I will not offer my submission
Till they subvert the Turing Test.
Test question: How many lines are in a sonnet?
Choices: 10, 14, 16
Me: 10 is too short. Is it 16? Fourteen is a weird number, so maybe sixteen…
*flashback*
“Fourteen sides to the globe theater, fourteen lines in a sonnet, fourteen planets in the Carrionites’ galaxy Carrionites Carrionites it’s fourteen!”
Yay for Doctor Who moments.
Three. Day. Weekend.
The words that can strike joy into an adolescent’s heart.
In Physics, we learned how to Waterbend.
Of course, I can’t do without a comb and a static charge.
But still, Waterbending!
It’s amazing how much you can accomplish with the four fundamental forces of nature, or even just two of them.
Er, “can’t do IT without”…
I may or may not vanish completely over the weekend.