Wander often, wonder always.

Normal people: Why do we go to school? To learn. Why do we learn? To get into university. Why do we go to university? So we have a better future and earn more money.

Me: Why do we go to school? To learn. Why do we learn? To get into university. Why do we go to university? To get an education. Why do we need an education? So we understand ourselves a little better. Why do we need to understand ourselves? So we know what we want to do. So what to we want to do? We want to change the world.

On the topic of chickens.

Chicken matsutake soup is AMAZING. It's one of my favourite foods (drinks? :S) and is one of the only ways I like to eat meat.

Regular chicken is about 4 dollars each. Organic free-range chicken is 17 dollars.

My family and I got to thinking about this and discussing this around the dinner table.

Me: The $4 chicken must feel so bad. He must be thinking, "We both lived around the same time, we weigh around the same... how come Mr. Organic over there is worth more than 4 times as me?"

Mom: Mr. Organic is healthier for you and he's treated more nicely.

Me: But no really mom, if you think about it, they're pretty similar in most aspects. But think of it this way. There are two kinds of people in the world. $4 chickens are normal people who feel sad because they're not worth as much as organic chickens, and $17 organic chickens are people like Zuckerberg who are worth a lot.



And that is the world, summarized into chickens.

T3B102

This is my last blog post.

This is the last post on a collection of daily thoughts.

This is the last post I'll make as a Synergy 9 student.

This is the last post I'll send to Mr. Olson.

Thank you, Mr. Olson, for facilitating my learning as a student. Thank you for teaching me life skills as I grow up to be a responsible citizen. Thank you for all the interesting projects that you've proposed over the past 2 years of Synergy.

Thank you for teaching me how to make a website and blog.

Thank you for Transit Adventures.

Thank you for the homeless project.

Thank you for Sketchup.

Thank you for the video projects.

Thank you for Buskerfest 2014.

Thank you for the Ballerina Project.

Thank you for the SFU Wonder Wander.

Thank you for Brain Games.

Thank you for Photography.

Thank you for NPOs.

Thank you for the Crows and Bees.

Thank you for Moveography 2015.

Thank you for Buskerfest 2015.

Thank you for all the random little tidbits of interesting articles and opportunities you present us with.

Thank you for instilling this essential habit of blogging into me.

Thank you for the self evaluation prompts.

But above all, thank you for being an amazing teacher for the past 2 years. I will miss you, Mr. Olson! Have a great summer! I'll see you next year!! :)

T3B101

The Spell of Synergy

BY ROBERT W. SERVICE

I wanted skills, and I sought them;

   I scrabbled and mucked like a slave.

Was it homework or tests—I fought them;

   I hurled my youth into a grave.

I wanted skills, and I got them— 

   Came out with a certificate last fall,— 

Yet somehow life’s not what I thought it,

   And somehow the paper isn’t all.

No! There’s the classroom. (Have you seen it?)

   It’s the cussedest classroom that I know,

From the big projector screen in front of it,

   To the photos covering the walls all in a row.

Some say Mr. Bailey was tired when he made it;

   Some say it’s a fine classroom to shun;

Maybe; but there’s some as would trade it

   For no school on earth—and I’m one.

You come to get smart (damned good reason);

   You feel like a Synerd at first;

You hate it like hell for a season,

   And then you are worse than the worst.

It takes you from all other things;

   It makes you work on the weekend;

It seems it’s been since the beginning;

   It seems it will be to the end.

I’ve stood in a position of attention,

   Where everyone's eyes were on me;

Through the presentation I was blazing,

   About fun things--crows and bees,

Till the projector set my face gleaming,

   And the slides tumbled out, neck and crop;

And I’ve thought that I surely was dreaming,

   With the ideas o’ the world piled on top.

The performance—no sweeter was ever;

   The classroom audiences all athrill;

The singing went by in a blur,

   Through all the rooms of Churchill.

The project that never knows harness;

   The charity that serves as a call;

The philanthropy, the hoodies, Buskerfest—

   O God! how I’m stuck on it all.

The sunshine! the brightness that blinds you,

   The shadows and lights so awesome,

The poses and candids that strike you,

   The photos that bludgeon you dumb.

The lessons that are older than history,

   The outdoors where shadows slant;

The triangles, the golden ratio, the mystery,

   I’ve bade ’em good-by—but I can’t.

There’s a land where the learning is endless,

   And the hallways all run God knows where;

There are lives that are affected by kindness,

   And the world is there, if you just care;

There are hardships that nobody reckons;

   There are those outside laying still;

There’s a thought that we must take action,

   And I want to help them—and I will.

There're awards, and they're haunting and haunting;

   It’s luring me on as of old;

Yet it isn’t that paper that I’m wanting

   So much as just finding the road.

It’s the great, big, broad world ’way up yonder,

   It’s the classrooms where chattering has lease;

It’s the potential that thrills me with wonder,

   It’s the thought that fills me with peace.

T3B100

I have reached 100 blogs!! (This may also be my last blog... I wanted to count down the blogs but I kinda ran out of time... :( )

Anyways, I was studying for my English final and we have to know about puns, right? So I found the "official" definition of a pun, "a joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meanings."

And I also found this pun:

There is something missing from my flower bouquet she said lackadaisically.

It took me a while to get it XP But it's so awesome!

T3B99

Okay, so this is the most genius thing ever. It's a truck with a camera in front, that shows it on the screen in back, so cars behind the car know when to pass safely!! HOW COOL IS THAT?? #Innovation

But honestly, Samsung makes just about everything--I saw an ad the other day where they advertised a Samsung washing machine. mind = blown. I thought they only made cell phones, but apparently I was wrong. :S

T3B98

This cute little guy. #grammarnazi

T3B97

Awwwwwww! <3 This is the cutest image I've ever seen.

T3B96

THIS SONG IS LEGIT THE BEST SONG FOR SHIPS EVERYWHERE

#PERCABETH
#STYALL

T3B95

Ugghhhhh... so sorry I haven't blogged in the last few days, I've been a little swamped with piano. 

Okay so I was on SparkLife today, and I found this SUPER DUPER CREEPY THING: http://gadgets.ndtv.com/apps/news/facebook-stops-marauders-map-extension-that-showed-your-friends-location-697917

I hadn't even heard of this before, like, 10 minutes ago. It's legit so creepy. And it's kind of funny, because we had a debate in English about cyberbullying in social media, and it kind of touched on privacy issues.

OBTW I CANNOT BELIEVE THEY NAMED IT MARAUDER'S MAP, LIKE WHAAAAAAT??? Someone's a huge Harry Potter fan. :)

T3B94

AS;DLFKJ OWIRE;SLDAFKJ A;LSDKJ F

THIS JUST HAPPENED TO ME

THERE WAS AN ITSY BITSY SPIDER ON MY MELON AND I WENT WITH A TISSUE TO SQUISH IT BUT I MISSED AND LOST IT AND NOW I DON'T KNOW WHERE IS IT AND I'M FREAKING OUTTTTTTTT AAAAHHHHH

A;SLDKFJA;SLDKFJA;LSDKJF ;ALKSDJ

SOMEONE HELP ME

T3B93

URRRGHH MY BEAUTIFUL EMAZE PRESENTATION DIDN'T WORK X(

So I found this new presenting software that is SO COOL, it's called emaze (LOLOLOLOL get it emaze like amaze but e-presentation so emaze get it get ittttt) and it's like this cool 3D presenting thing. (OMG more bad puns, my presentation was emazing.... ahahahahaha) So I tried it out for my Ted Talk but it wouldn't load, so I had to get another computer, and then it was really slow and clunky, and it didn't do that cool 3D transition thing!! It was just like powerpoint but with an awesome-er background :( I will find a way to make it work and then I will present with it some other time because it is going to work for me someday. IT WILL. I SHALL DO IT. (I could just bring my own laptop and see if it works)

It's soooo cool, there's even an art gallery type theme and it takes you through a 3D universe, which I thought was so perfect for my topic it was actually amazing.

OMG EVEN MORE PUNS so today Mr. Hauck said for feedback for debates today "There was great modelling all around...." And then I was like, "You know who else has great modelling? QUINN AHAHAHAHA!" And then Mr. Hauck just looked so disappointed in the lameness of the pun.... XP
(get itttt because Quinn models in debate but he also models models for a modelling company ahahahaha)

Okay that's probably more than your fair share of bad puns, I'll stop before you die of the lameness of this. XP

T3B92

Ahhhh I've been researching general relativity so hard and I'm so confused I actually don't know what's going on.

D': It's so confusingggggggg.....

T3B91

awwwwwww! He's so cute!

T3B90

Awwww why thank you Uncle Rick!

It's his birthday today, too! Happy Birthday!

(Coincidentally it's also the birthdays of two characters in his book:

Pretty cool. :) )

T3B89

LOL same for Midsummer Night's Dream.

T3B88

OMG MY SOCIALS TEXTBOOK MADE A PUN:

"Several inventors, John Kay and James Hargreaves, for example, literally went from "rags to riches" because their inventions improved profits in the textile industry."

LOLOLOLOL I LOVE THESE GUYS

GET ITTTTT rags = clothing inventions LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

And apparently someone, on the camping trip with Mr. Mo, was banging a pot with a stick and said this was how they cleaned pots before they invented water. #too much industrial revolution

T3B87

OHHHHHH DANG THIS IS THE BEST SCIENCE PUN EVER OMG OMG OMG

WAY BETTER THAN OMG (lol see what I did there? the one about oxygen and magnesium getting together)

*cue the swag pose*

T3B86

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

YES LEO YES YOUR PUNS ARE AMA-ZHANG (lol see what I did there? ANOTHER PUN XP it's a reference to the last name of another character)

T3B85

Working on my English debate... :) I did this debate once for Worlds impromptu as Proposition and now I'm on Opposition. :) I'm really glad I get to research this resolution and find the examples which I can FINALLY understand. XP

The motion is THBT democracy is the best form of government for every nation.

Last time, as Proposition, we talked about how great democracy was, and Opposition just brought up singular examples about successful governments that weren't democracies. Our judge gave us (well, them, but for this debate, us--a different us) some good advice about actually making a case instead of just giving examples. Okay that last sentence did not make sense. What I meant to say was that the judge gave opposition good advice, so since I'm Opposition this time, it's good for Tania and I, but at the time, they were opposition so it was good for them.

Anyways. Moving on.

That debate was Erica's first debate and we faced this really, really aggressive debater. (Erica's just like that debate scarred me for life haha) They brought up good examples (which we can now use! yay! :D) but Tania and I are going to try to come up with an actual case instead of just refutation.

There were a whole bunch of awesome one-liners from the debate. So the 3 most memorable quotes were:

(This was what the quote was responding to: "Side Opposition has only given singular examples of unsuccessful democracies.") "Actually, we gave you 5. Basic counting skills." (OH SNAP)

"Assert, Assert, Assert. That might as well have been Side Proposition's caseline today." (That was scary. That was really, really scary. note: Caseline = one underlying principle that sums up your case.)

"All Side Opposition has done today is use aggressiveness to hide the fundamental flaws in their case." (OH DANG SNAPPY COMEBACK COURTESY OF MARGO)

Yeah... so the debate ended being this insult match... which is not the best for a debate... but it was funny XP I'm really looking forward to this debate. :) (Not the insults part, the actual debate part)

T3B84

Ageless debate.

T3B83

OMG PEOPLE ALWAYS MAKE JOKES ABOUT THIS BUT I FINALLY UNDERSTAND THE REFERENCE:

Also I never understood why instead of saying "mind blown" people say "mind = blown" but that might just be me.

Because mind blown is like saying "my mind is blown" but mind = blown is like saying "my mind is blown"... OH WAIT I GET IT NOW! :D

Haha for the longest time I thought it was mind equals blown (which it is) but I literally just realized that you say mind is blown not my mind equals blown.

But it does look funny. :S

T3B82

LOL I'm a hardcore PJO fan but I don't get it. :S

T3B81

We have a science test tomorrow.

I haven't studied yet.

I'm going to study now.

T3B80

Everything in my life is so ironic right now.

MSND? Ha! Dramatic irony.

Bad Blood? Ha! Verbal irony.

Irony. What a wonderful thing. (#Shakespeare, a little XP)

T3B79

I love this guy: #my favourite phrase to use in debate (obtw my favourite word to use is fundamental. Just so you know. XP)

LOL anyways, I found this on the PJO fandom and it's really funny. (Do not befriend someone who would do this to do. XP)

LOL TROLL NOPE

T3B78

It's been a week, and Taylor Swift's new Bad Blood music video has already had almost 71 million views.

Have you noticed her music videos are getting soooo intense? Same thing with Katy Perry--she once said that her paradise would have been princesses and fairies but now it's more of a power-girl thing (like Roar).

This is kind of interesting, because it's almost becoming like kind of a trend. Before, women were typically seen as the weaker, gentler gender. But now, girls seem to want to be seen as the power-woman--the one who can do anything and everything.

This reminds me both of Michelle's feminism oratorical and Emma Watson's HeForShe speech.

I haven't listened to it all the way yet, but basically it advertised equality, not one gender over the other. I think, society wants some inequality, or else why would it keep things changing yet still with power imbalance?

It might also have something to do with age. When you're a really young girl, you're all about princesses and castles. But as you grow older, a lot of girls see a more, sort of, powerful well rounded image of themselves.

I dunno. This is all very interesting. Just some trends that I notice, despite my very limited music-listening.

T3B77

LOL SOMEONE MUST HAVE BEEN SO BORED WHEN THEY MADE THIS:

http://www.boredbutton.com

It took me to FreeRice, and I remember we did that in grade 7. Basically, whenever we went to the computer lab and we didn't want to do work (XP lol) we went to the FreeRice site. It's for a really good cause, though--for every question you get right they donate 10 grains of rice to someone in need. Play it for an hour and you'll have made someone's day a lot better. (I did the calculation. approx 3 seconds per question, give or take a few seconds depending on your internet speed :P which makes 20 questions per minute, times 60 is 1200 times 10 grains is 12000 grains of rice. According to the FreeRice website, 19000 grains is enough to feed one person for a day, but that's based just on rice. So you can make a little difference through your little acts. :))

http://freerice.com

OBTW I also found this: (#queenofbadpuns)

T3B76

We should use this for guidance for English. :) Performance on Wednesday and I'm so nervous!

T3B69 - 75

Ugh. Sorry I haven't blogged in a week. :(

I've been caught up in a lot of stuff... I've been really busy this month. Speech provincials, then junior nationals, then residential... I'm really excited for this weekend because it's the first weekend I'll actually get to do work. I'm actually kind of glad I don't have speech nats because I'll get to rest a little.

(And do work, obvs. XP)

LOL I saw this once and this is kind of like the slippery slope thing for debate, where you can take any situation and make it nuclear war.

I should actually do that... I've never done that in a debate before... }:) MWAHAHAHA okay.

OBTW WE'RE HAVING A SECOND ROUND OF DEBATES IN ENGLISH <3 <3 <3 SO HAPPY

Something totally random XP:

:( I heard Fred Weasely too.

T3B68

This is what we're doing for our year-end sci-fest booth.

http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/gold-pennies

SCIENCE!

T3B67

Okay! Junior Nationals!

OMG. It was SOOO awesome. Although it wasn't as hard as I thought, but that might have been because we didn't really go against really good teams (which would have meant we were bad...?) Maybe we just have a really strong region, so we're used to harder teams than usual.

The first two teams we met were okay. They weren't bad, but they weren't as sophisticated debaters as I was used to. Maybe that's also because we face a lot of grade 10s in our region, and they're most likely better than the grade 9's. Maybe that's because I got better. Maybe that's because I was expecting too much. :S

Anyways, the rounds were pretty good, and I learned some new strategies for impromptu prep, plus some new language and organizing strategies for a case. I definitely learned a lot, and I'm really glad I went. :)

AND THE TABS CAME OUT AND I DIDN'T COME IN LAST AND I'M SOOOO EXCITED! AND HAPPY! EVEN THOUGH WE HAD SUCH A LOW NUMBER OF WINS AND OUR TEAM WIN-LOSS RECORD IS PRETTY BAD OUR SCORES ARE HIGH SO YAAAAAH!

:D Sooooo happy.

T3B66

ALL OF THEM <3

T3B61, 62, 63, 64, 65

I'm having a crappy day today.

So it only seems reasonable that I post this image.

:(

1. the nice person 2. the optimist 3. the environmentalist
4. the chef 5. the jester 6. the businessperson

^This guy UNDERSTANDS me

I really appreciate all these cheesy and random when life gives you lemons variations.

Oh. Haha. I meant, "lemony."

Okay that was actually the worst pun in the history of puns, that didn't even make sense. NEVER MIND I SAID NOTHING XP

Anyway, I know I haven't posted for a long time, but that's because I was at Junior Nationals, I'll blog about that tomorrow... when I'm hopefully having a less crappy day...

Ironically (or maybe unironically) someone got this quote at Speech Provincials (impromptu): "Smile though your heart is breaking." And it was pretty cool the direction she took it in--she started by observing that it was completely contrary to what modern-day society tells us, yet she used a personal story to explain how she agreed with the quote after a while. It's pretty amazing how many directions you can take a topic in.

T3B60

Working on my resolution... *cough cough*

In actuality: browsing the PJ fandom

#FANGIRL

OMG the Stoll brothers are legitly so awesome. (Yes, autocorrect, I know that's not a word!)

OMG LOLOLOLOL #DEBATE

T3B59

OMG, the speech provincials were just AMAZING.

I learned so much. I felt kind of like this weekend was wasted, though, because I didn't do my best--but one person mentioned at our celebratory lunch that you learn a lot.... unless you do well. So I guess this wasn't wasted--because I learned a lot. XP That was kinda complicated.

We had lik 8 rounds, which is A LOT for a tournament. I could have done better in my debate rounds, I think I was just tired that day and I didn't do as well as I could have.

For interpretive reading, I think those were my best rounds--Mr. Hauck recommended me to read, "This is Water", an essay by David Foster Wallace, and it was really good. I found this speech (shortened) version of this, and I used that with a few edits, because it was still too long.

For persuasive speaking, I don't think my topic was "big" enough. A lot of the best speakers tackled really big topics, like drugs and poverty, whereas I talked about dropping math scores across Canada. I think my topic could have been bigger and more exploratory, which would have made it better. I'll keep that in mind for next time.

For impromptu, oh my goodness, it was legitly awful. It was (take a deep breath) calamitous, deplorable, lousy, pitiful, sad, unfortunate, unsatisfactory, woeful, terrible, made me want to cry of how bad it was, etc.

Okay, no it wasn't that bad, but it sure seemed like it at the time.

So, you notice that the really good speakers are creative and can make any topic into a deep, worldly problem, arguable topic.

This one guy got something like, "The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook." a quote by William James.

AND HE SOMEHOW MANAGED TO TURN IT INTO NEGLECTING THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES BY FIRST WORLD COUNTRIES

AND I WAS LIKE WHAT THE HECK HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE WHY IS HE SO GOOD

LIKE WHAT WHAT WHAT

And I got like, "You make a living by what you get, you make a life by what you give."

And I didn't take it anywhere, I just talked about a contrast between a billionaire named John and a single parent named Mary. (I know, I have the best names. XP) AND I JUST TALKED ABOUT MONEY NOT BEING THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN LIFE AND I COULD HAVE JUST KICKED MYSELF

AAAAAGHHHH

Actually I just listened to it now, and it's not as bad as I thought. Maybe I banana-sundaes it better than I thought. XP At least, I sound more confident than I was.

My second round was... well, in some ways better, and in some ways worse.

The advice that Mr. Hauck gave me was to be creative--because they're not looking for the amazingly polished arguments set out in the persuasiveness, they're looking for your ability to take something ordinary and turn it into something extraordinary. My second topic was "Milk". (LIKE, MILK. WHAT ON EARTH??? WHERE DO THEY EVEN COME UP WITH THESE THINGS???) But then I thought about milk going sour (because my family's terrible at finishing milk. We don't like milk XP) and then I thought about friendships going sour. BOOM. MY AWFUL MILK/FRIENDSHIP ANALOGY WAS BORN.

I talked about how it takes a long time for you to meet friends (waiting to be picked up as milk), and sometimes it goes sour (same) but something good might come out of it--you could meet someone new (yogurt/cheese. I <3 yogurt, by the way, but that's beside the point.)

Anyways. It was kind of awkward.

Still, I learned a lot, and I'm super excited for the next speech tournament. :)

• star

T3B58

AWER8YI LAFKSJDN ;AKLSJDF;ALSJD;FLKJASD;FKJ  CAN WE JUST NOT OMG OMGGGG

AAAAAHHHHHH I'M SO SCARED NOW

Yesterday there was this huuuuuge wasp. Someone was like "Don't kill it, bees are dying" and I was like YAAAAAAS FINALLY SOMETHING I ACTUALLY KNOW ABOUT but then I looked a bit more closely and I think it was a wasp. For one, it wasn't cute and fluffy like a bee, it was a lot darker and a lot bigger.

I think it was a wasp.

I think. (I hope.)

Because someone rolled his notebook up and smacked it so pro-ly it was just amazing.

Scenario:

Competitor 1: "OMG it's a bee." (Like, she said it really, really calmly.)

Competitor 2: "What do we do?"

Competitor 3: "KILL IT!"

Competitor 4 and me: "DON'T KILL IT BEES ARE DYING!"

Me: "Wait no that's not a bee, it's too big, that's a wasp. KILL IT!"

Competitor 5: *deftly takes out and rolls notebook, eyes target, slowly moves toward target*

Competitor 5: *SMACK* *one dead wasp, one smushed window, one clean notebook*

HOW PRO WAS THAT

IT WAS SO PRO I WISHED I'D RECORDED IT

It was so pro.

I know we're supposed to protect nature, and I agree, but wasps do absolutely nothing to society.




OH WAIT I TAKE THAT BACK--I just did a google search (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftQ6A3DKKeg) and apparently wasps can a. pollinate, and b. eat pests.

Huh.

I'm sorry, wasp. Most of the time you still are a pest.

T3B55, 56, and 57

LE SPEECHES ARE FINALLY OVER

YES

#AWESOME

#LESSSTRESS

#FREE

I'll blog some more about the strategies and observations tomorrow. :)

Meanwhile I'll just cram like 3 posts worth of photos in here :)

IS THIS NOT THE CUTEST PHOTO EVER OMG

I love it when normal characters are put into really cute costumes/drawing styles :)

Plus it fits them so well! Leo = fiery = Charmander (fire type Pokemon)

Jason = electric = Pikachu (electric type Pokemon)

Percy = water = Squirtle (water type Pokemon)

Frank = animal transformer = Ditto (this Pokemon that transforms into other Pokemon)

I never watched the TV shows/animes/movies and never played the video or card game, but I have an embarrassingly impressive collection of Pokemon books. XP

T3B54

This koala just melts my heart. <3

T3B53

AAAHHH DROWNING IN THE AMOUNT OF STUFF I HAVE TO DO.

OMG I just realized that for the past week or so, I've been blogging every 2 days.

:| sorry. :( Just really busy recently.

T3B52

You know, I've always wanted my own beanbag chair...

But this would do just fine.

XP (Ignore all the writing including and after the first highlight... that just ruins the effect...)

T3B52

I was legit SOOOOOOOOOO tempted to do this on my trip to New York (last year).

But my mom talked me out of it.

T3B51

#lolsotrue

T3B51

LOLOLOLOL IT'S PUN CITY

T3B50

Oh, I got the dates wrong, because today is April 23.

HAHA I found this a long time ago but I don't think I've posted it yet.

I LOVE THIS <3

T3B49

It's World Book Day today!

I didn't know that. I went on the PJ fandom and someone hashtag-ed it.

Happy World Book Day, I guess!

Apparently, today's also Shakespeare's birth and death day. (Kind of sad... that he died on his birthday...)

Also, today's Earth Day! So happy Earth Day! And shut your electronics down for an hour today! (Do they still do that?)

OMG I JUST HAD A THOUGHT -- MAYBE IT'S EARTH DAY BECAUSE IT'S WORLD BOOK DAY SO WE CAN ALL APPRECIATE BOOKS

OR MAYBE IT'S THE OTHER WAY AROUND, SO WE APPRECIATE BOOKS WHEN WE TURN OFF THE LIGHTS

BOOM. Magic.

Although books print on more paper.... :S I dunno now. That's why we have ebooks, guys XP That's still using energy... BUT NOTHING CAN BE COMPLETELY RID OF ENERGY so I think books might be more eco-friendly.

T3B48

I think we should do like a debrief session for Buskerfest this year.

In my elementary school, my teacher always had us do like a bit of a debrief on each year-end activity committee we were on, making a list of things that we did well and things that we could improve on, for next year's committee, and I think that would be really cool to try out here.

T3B47

OMG I was just reading some of my old chat histories. We were talking about our socials filming schedule, and then I just had this brilliant thought:

What if one day they invent a triple stacked stapler???

Because you know, they have those "one-touch" staplers where there's actually 2 of those pushy-downy things. I think that that applies the concept of the pulleys, where the more pulleys you have, the easier it is to lift something. So what if one day they made one with 3 pushy-downy things! OMG! And they tested it and it got lighter! Although to a certain extent they could get heavier and heavier and thus not be useful anymore.

That was legit such a random thought in the middle of my chat history. XP

T3B46

OH MY GOD WHAT IS THIS RESOLUTION:

This House Supports a two-state solution for Ukraine.

I WAS LIKE I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING IN UKRAINE RIGHT NOW

This means I have to start actually listening to the news and stuff like that, because I'm feeling seriously uneducated now. I feel like this resolution is actually so much harder, although I guess that's to be expected since it's to be debated at the national level.

T3B45

BOOM.

T3B44

Haha yup. I remember when I was 10 I asked my mom once, "How do you know how old you are?" (because she's born on, like, a hard number). She was, like, "I just subtract this year and my birth year," and I was like "But that's so haaaaard..."

XP

T3B42 and T3B43

WHY HAS NO ONE BEEN ABLE TO GIVE ME A SATISFACTORY ANSWER FOR VOLTAGE???

THE TEXTBOOK DESCRIBES IT AS A CHANGE IN CHARGE AND THEN ASKS SOME RANDOM QUESTION ABOUT WHETHER OR NOT ELECTRONS FLOW THROUGH IT

I AM SO, SO FRUSTRATED RIGHT NOW THIS MAKES NO SENSE WHATSOEVER

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

T3B35 to T3B41

OMG I totally forgot to blog for like a week. :'( Sorry.

I was really busy this weekend, we had Math Challengers on Saturday and we took home 3rd place! The 8's were 1st! *clap clap clap*

I dunno. I'm really tired right now. I have a ton of stuff to do (well, okay not that much since the socials essay is over, but still.)

OH! YES! The socials essay is over. YEEEEAAAAAAHHHHH *makes weird celebratory noise here* I was stressing out so bad for that, because I've never written a socials essay before (although I don't think anyone in our class has, so Mrs. Williams was super duper nice and helped us all out individually with our essays. :D

I don't know. I'm just really tired right now. I'll post more tomorrow.

T2B34

Managing and organizing Buskerfest is pretty hard.

I'm really determined to make it a success, though! Sometimes it's confusing because it's always like, there's one little factor that we totally forgot to consider and it means we have to change plans at the last minute. That always makes me so sad, because I don't like it when people change plants at the last minute, and when I do that it just makes me feel unreliable, but sometimes we just can't do it. (Like I didn't realize that April 6th was Easter Monday! And then, I realized, like, just now (I just sent an email to everyone) that we can't make posters without the charity! The logo's almost complete, 40 people voted on it and that really surprised me! Last year we barely had any votes. I think it may be because you receive a Google forms email, and everyone has gmail, whereas not everyone has Facebook and it's more difficult to remember.)

This managing dates is kind of hectic, but I also don't want to push people too hard because I understand that everyone has other course homework too, but we do need to get all of done soon, so I'm spreading it out over a few classes so we still have about 2 weeks to busk, and people aren't pressured.

Oh, I have to remind people to start collecting pledges too... better go send another email... XP

T2B33

I have learned 2 very valuable lessons this weekend.

1. Keep track of your stuff.
2. Get really good at things so you don't have to worry about mistakes causing lost opportunities.

This is so applicable in my life right now. No matter which way the wind blows, the only thing I can change is myself.

Because, as Robert H. Schmuller said,

T2B32

There are so many jokes about Percy being the only one who speaks horse/fish.

I actually have a bunch of these pics lying around, just waiting to be blogged. (shared? can something wait to "be blogged"? :S does that even make sense?)

T2B31

Haha, this would only happen if I forgot about it, which I never do. XP

T2B30

I just saw this now and was reminded of pysanky.

My elementary school grade 6-7 teacher was Ukranian, and she shared her Easter tradition with us--we made pysanky, which are like Ukranian easter eggs. I loooooved making them--basically you start with the lightest dye and draw with melted beeswax on them. This reminded me of that. Funny, though, I never thought to make one of these... :)

T2B29

OMG I LOVE THIS SO MUCH!! IF MY BOOKSHELF WAS LIKE THIS... OMG... JUST IMAGINE ALL THE POSSIBILITIES <3

T2B28

Haha, Percy's always the irrelevant one.

T2B27

... Remember that one post where you asked me about what a fandom is?

Well apparently my whole life is a lie.

O.O I thought it was a kingdom of fans too.... XP (See T2B68 - T2B70)

T2B26

OH MY GOODNESS THIS IS SO DEEP I CAN'T EVEN:

http://www.vh1.com/celebrity/2011-12-02/divergent-veronica-roth-dystopian-week-guest-blog/

JUST READ IT. JUST. OMG. The very bottom part when Veronica Roth starts talking about the whole utopia/dystopia thing is just OMG. I NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT IT. OMG. OMG. OMG.

I guess there's this whole, completely philosophical perspective on futuristic societies and dystopias (because dystopias are really popular right now) that I've never thought about. Fiction/reading was just something I did for fun, but it's actually so deep.

JUST-- THE LAST SENTENCE IS JUST SO OMG-WORTHY. *PSHEEEEW makes little explodey sound with hand coming off of head* *mindblown*

T2B25

OMG I just finished The Rule of Thoughts and it is so scary. 

So you know the main character is named Michael? He and his friends Sarah and Bryson are gamers in the VirtNet, which is like a really, really advanced and futuristic version of the internet--you get into a NerveBox that completely immerses you in the virtual world. Basically, the virtual world is like your world, except it's all in your head. To Lift means to be taken out of the VirtNet and back into the real world. I still am kind of confused about it, because I can't tell if it's just for games or what, but the point is there's a game called Lifeblood (basically a virtual world that matches the real world), and a Lifeblood Deep (a more realistic version of Lifeblood). So there's all this complicated schmuddle of stuff, but if I told you, I'd ruin it (well I guess I'm ruining it now?). SPOILER SPOILER:

So they think they're in Lifeblood Deep for something, but it later turns out that they were actually in the real word (the "Wake"). Then Michael gets thrown in jail and someone comes to visit him.

ANYWAYS NONE OF THIS REALLY MATTERS it's just a little bit of background so what this guys says makes sense.

So anyways. We have no idea who this dude is, (although I kind of suspected he was Kaine, but his words don't sound like it), and this is what he says to Michael.

"I'm going to leave you now. You'll have plenty of time to think before things come to a head. I hope you've learned a valuable lesson from what happened at that building. About the nature of the VirtNet. About the nature of reality."

"What do you mean?" [Michael said.]

"When mankind can create a world that is so like our own," the stranger said, "then how can we possibly ever know what's real and what's not real again? I could Lift you right now, pull you out of a NerveBox, and then you'd say, 'Ah! I'm back in the real world!' And then I could Lift you again, and you'd be surprised, but feel for certain that this time you're in the... what do you kids call it?... the Wake." The man brought his hands up and gripped the bars until his knuckles turned white. "I could Life you a hundred times. A thousand. How, Michael, could you ever know again that you are truly, truly in the real world? For that matter, who's to say there even is a real world?"

WHOOOAAAAAA.... That's some scary stuff. We watched The Matrix in English at the beginning of Term 2, and it was a similar idea--how do you know what reality is? Machines took over and humans were living in a dream-induced "reality". In the Mortality Doctrine series, the VirtNet is sometimes all that some people live for. I won't spoil it for you, but there is also this idea of a Tangent, which is a programmed intelligence (like AI but more advanced/human, I guess) walking around in Lifeblood Deep to simulate the people in real life (because pretty much no one actually makes it into Lifeblood Deep, it's really, really, really hard to get in, and the people that are in are all like really advanced gamers). 

Anyways, I could talk all day about this, but it's actually a really good series and makes you think. They're actually really philosophical and a good read. (And kind of creepy. Okay, really creepy.)

T2B24

So true, so true. Girls, listen to Emma Watson:

OMG LOL I found this one too and I just died laughing:

I should totally do something like that in a debate and confuse the other team so bad XP

T2B23

Haha I can totally imagine this happening (I made it x-large so the text is easier to read...):

LOLOLOLOL more of Percy's awesomeness: