Posts Tagged ‘Random’

Song of the Nightingale

June 25th, 2011

People often ask me if I’m a gamer upon seeing the workstation setup in my room. I’m not.

Admittingly, a third monitor doesn’t contribute a whole lot to productivity. I mostly use my third monitor for post-its and Skype or iTunes while I work on my first and second monitors.

College apps are hard for me — I’m a very unfocused writer. I go off on tangents, branching off into completely unrelated realms. Additionally, I don’t write towards a purpose or goal, I write for fun, because I like to write.

Now although this is supposedly encouraged by society (as are many other things), one really needs to be able to write in order to accomplish something. Liking writing really does you no good.

My HP laptop’s Windows Experience Index is actually higher than my PC. I was so proud of my PC before — an Intel i7, four cores, eight threads with HyperThreading (rather gimmicky but well), with 6GB of DDR3 RAM and all that good stuff. (Again, I’m not a gamer so the graphics card in my PC is some generic low-end hardware.) This laptop (I’m typing on it as I speak– er, type…) is an entertainment/gaming laptop; it’s got high-end speakers, a huge display, DVD+RW drive, multiple audio/video outputs, and a good graphics card.

It kept crashing, bluescreening, and just generally not working, even after multiple installs of the stock OS. I installed vanilla Microsoft Windows 7, and somehow that fixed everything. The software cooks at HP need sharpening.

The hardware is quite badass. A fingerprint sensor would be nice, I guess, but again those are gimmicky. So many things are gimmicky these days. Like “4G”. Or 3D TVs and phones and consoles. Or colleges.

I’ll leave that out to over/under-interpretationists to meticulously granulate.

The title: according to Wikipedia (accuracy 200% guaranteed), “Poets chose the nightingale as a symbol because of its creative and seemingly spontaneous song.”

Quite true. This post is as spontaneous as they come.

But, “seemingly”. Aha. Interpret THAT. Was that what I was really intending? Or am I hiding something between the lines?

Oh, how about this?

Homer evokes the Nightingale in the Odyssey, suggesting the myth of Philomela and Procne (one of whom, depending on the myth’s version, is turned into a nightingale). This myth is the focus of Sophocles’ tragedy, Tereus, of which only fragments remain. Ovid, too, in his Metamorphoses, includes the most popular version of this myth, imitated and altered by later poets, including Chrétien de Troyes, Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, and George Gascoigne. T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” also evokes the Nightingale’s song (and the myth of Philomela and Procne). Because of the violence associated with the myth, the nightingale’s song was long interpreted as a lament.

Wow, I never knew it but it seems there’s a hidden meaning in this post. I totally subconsciously intended this post to do that.

These days, you can get anything to symbolize anything.

Seriously, I chose the title randomly and then Googled it. Turns out it’s also the name of an orchestral piece by Stravinsky. Cool.

Strawberry Shortcake Post

June 21st, 2011

Alright, alright, I haven’t had a real post in weeks. The last two “posts” were just me passing on an interesting article (it’s almost like Twitter now– retweeting! heavens, what is this world this blog coming to?), and posting some lame quotes that nobody cares about.

Even my last “real post” was just me complaining about my life. Oh wait, that’s what I always post about anyways, isn’t it? Just kidding.

God, that wasn’t even funny. I’m losing my touch here.

Oh yeah, I’ve started using the Senior Year (10-11) tag on my posts since summer started. It really gives out a good vibe — I feel like a senior already because I’m using that tag. Uwaahh.

What tag would I use in college? Meh.

If I go to an East Coast school I’ll probably have to relocate my server, eh? Ping from Dallas to Boston has got to be over 100ms, even with those top-tier university networks I’m so excited about getting my hands on.

I wonder if there are people who go to college just for the impossibly-fast internet connection.

Also, I was thinking of doing something about those old anime posts. They’re extremely embarrassing. Every time I click on “Random Post” and see one of them I cringe shamefully. I want people to click on “Random Post” and go to one of the many deep and thoughtful posts written by me and my one-person staff who hasn’t been posting lately (*semi-threatening glare*).

Time to start focusing on an actual topic for this post

Recently I’ve begun using headers like these to divide my emails into topics. It makes long emails less tedious to read, I believe. I’ve been writing a lot of long emails lately. It’ll probably become like a running joke this summer. Ben and his long, elaborate emails. Oh no, I got off topic again.

I think I’ll change my posting style from long, elaborate posts (why is everything I do lately long and elaborate?) to short and sweet. Like… strawberry shortcake. It’s short. And sweet.

The pun on “short” in shortcake was totally not intentional. I was trying to think of something sweet, and I happen to love those strawberry shortcake ice cream bars. Ugh. What I would give for one right now.

So here’s my first strawberry shortcake post of the summer. Ta-da!

What, that’s it, Ben? You’re ending here? You didn’t begin a single topic! You didn’t talk about anything specific at all!

Shush. It’s a strawberry shortcake post.

Junior Year Featured Convos

June 17th, 2011

This post is directed at my Skype IM group.

» Read more: Junior Year Featured Convos

You Can Tell I Was Feeling Morbid While Doing This Homework Assignment Last Night

February 8th, 2011

2. Our generation is not at all a “lost generation”. One might describe the aimlessness of life as asserted by many of my peers as like that of “lost sheep”, as I personally would, but these sheep are certainly not a disillusioned generation of intellectuals. In fact, I would even go as far as to say the opposite: we are an overendowed, spoilt generation of nonintellectuals who bathe in the glory of the wealth and technology our parents have developed and worked for. We have certainly not yet reached an understanding of many of life’s truths, and are still missing many essential life lessons, much less experienced the killing fields and mass death and destruction involved in World War I. There is nothing to be disillusioned about in this generation of high schoolers. Anybody approaching you claiming to be disillusioned by society has most likely simply been surrounded with luxuries for most of their lives (even those in lower income brackets – we take a more liberal definition of “luxuries”) and only recently made contact with the cruel real world, or even if not, has definitely not been disillusioned by visages of death and war as defined by Gertrude Stein’s concept of the “lost generation” that Hemingway belonged to.

3. Truest sentence:

Life is like a chocolate raisin: sweet on the outside and dry on the inside.

Assorted Conversations (12pc.)

February 7th, 2011

Assorted Conversations from Our Lovely Sophomore Year

K says (12:10 AM):
my post about how our school sucks
Me says (12:11 AM):
he’d probably actually find that totally intersting
and like link to it on his classlink
K says (12:11 AM):
except he thinks our school is good
or is contractually obligated to act like it


Hanning says (12:21 AM):
im gnna fin d some food
K says (12:22 AM):
“i don’t care that my enlighs teacher now thinks that i am a crazy high school nerd who has wierd ideas about love, i need food”


Hanning says (12:23 AM):
where does she go
Me says (12:23 AM):
baldwin stocker? idk
Hanning says (12:24 AM):
….how does she go there i mean
lawl
Me says (12:24 AM):
she carpools with another teacher?
Hanning says (12:24 AM):
i mean why does he take her to ahs..
Me says (12:24 AM):
because he can’t leave her at home?
Hanning says (12:24 AM):
ah
Kevin says (12:24 AM):
to show her what she shouldn’t be when she grows up
Hanning says (12:24 AM):
lawwwl
nah that would be period 6
><
Kevin says (12:25 AM):
hank
Hanning says (12:25 AM):
lawwwl


Kevin says (1:52 PM):
she’s so stupid in that scene
“hmm, arthur has a son with some unkown woman”
“morgaine has a son with some unknown man”
“morgaine knows arthur has a son, but why is she hiding it?”
“hmm”

Kevin says (1:53 PM):
“gasp! did arthur sleep with a priestess?”
“OMG! the slept with each other!”
“SIN!! SIN! REPENT!”


Me says (3:09 PM):
finally finished High Queen
wtf at the scene at the end
Kevin says (3:09 PM):
lol
yeah
Me says (3:09 PM):
… menage a trois with High King+High Queen+Captain of Horse…
yeah, reeaall professional, guys
Kevin says (3:10 PM):
moral of story: don’t get drunk and have your bisexual best friend and wife that is in love with said friend with you
Me says (3:10 PM):
XDDDDD
Kevin says (3:10 PM):
because the last time you had sex without knowing what you were doing, it was with your sister. and your son/nephew will grow up to kill you

Me says (8:07 PM):
Microsoft says the Blue Screen of Death is a feature.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/Q244139
Me says (8:08 PM):
“Windows includes a feature that you can use to cause the system to stop responding”
>____________> that just made my day

Kevin says (11:08 PM):
sure
lol
3 more days of hell
and then junior year
which is worse
Me says (11:08 PM):
think of it this way
3 more days of paradise
Me says (11:09 PM):
and then junior year
which is hell
You says (11:09 PM):
three?
You says (11:09 PM):
well its always darkest before it goes pitch black
Me says (11:09 PM):
XDDDDD I’m saving that quote

(10:01 PM) Kevin:
lol
k
well, you probably should move to japan
(10:01 PM) Me:
but i hate japanese people
(10:01 PM) Kevin:
because there are more random idiots here
i’m presuming
(10:02 PM) Kevin:

you do?
(10:02 PM) Me:
yes…
(10:02 PM) Kevin:
then why do you watch anime?
wait, why do you hate japanese people/
(10:03 PM) Me:
1) Japanese women are UGLY. They smudge expensive creams on their faces to try and hide this, but it only makes them uglier.
(10:03 PM) Kevin:
erm
(10:04 PM) Me:
2) Japanese companies are all about buddying up with your boss, even moreso than in America. Japanese are more prejudiced than Americans, and the same is probably true in Japanese schools.
(10:04 PM) Me:
you know what
(10:04 PM) Kevin:
maybe
(10:04 PM) Me:
i’ll write a blog post on this
someday
:D

***

8/26/2010  10:43:15 PM  Andy  The Life Sucks Group lets dress up for halloween senior year =D
8/26/2010  10:43:19 PM  Andy  The Life Sucks Group we can be like
8/26/2010  10:43:24 PM  Andy  The Life Sucks Group integrals or something

***

8/26/2010  10:29:18 PM  Hanning  The Life Sucks Group xD
8/26/2010  10:30:15 PM  Andy  The Life Sucks Group i kno i like how in EoE  
8/26/2010  10:30:17 PM  Andy  The Life Sucks Group its like  
8/26/2010  10:30:20 PM  Andy  The Life Sucks Group Aron and Abra
8/26/2010  10:30:23 PM  Andy  The Life Sucks Group like pokemon
8/26/2010  10:36:25 PM  Andy  The Life Sucks Group like as soon as i heard abra i was like
8/26/2010  10:36:27 PM  Andy  The Life Sucks Group teleport
8/26/2010  10:36:32 PM  k  The Life Sucks Group lol
8/26/2010  10:36:33 PM  k  The Life Sucks Group yeah
8/26/2010  10:36:41 PM  Hanning  The Life Sucks Group lol yea
8/26/2010  10:38:13 PM  k  The Life Sucks Group they aren’t in teh same egg group
8/26/2010  10:38:14 PM  k  The Life Sucks Group in pokemon
8/26/2010  10:38:21 PM  k  The Life Sucks Group so they were incompatible
8/26/2010  10:38:25 PM  You  The Life Sucks Group LOL
8/26/2010  10:38:26 PM  k  The Life Sucks Group which is why their relationship failed

***

(1:31 AM) Hanning: and sinc ewhen is justin good at music/rhythm
(1:31 AM) Kevin: just use some electronic ones
(1:31 AM) Hanning: lol ok
(1:31 AM) Kevin: and have justin operating the computer
(1:32 AM) Kevin: or we can use trash can lids
(1:32 AM) Hanning: Lol
(1:32 AM) Me: hahaha
(1:32 AM) Kevin: and tell him not to screw up
(1:32 AM) Me: hm I can’t find any mellow songs with sax in my itunes
(1:32 AM) Kevin: “pretend you’re playing starcraft 2, and you need to press these buttons at the right time to beat teh boss”
(1:32 AM) Me: LOOL
(1:32 AM) Hanning: hahahaha
(1:33 AM) Kevin: “except instead of pressing buttons, you’re hitting this trash lid and this vase with this stick”
(1:33 AM) Me: oh we could buy a pad for cheap
(1:33 AM) Hanning: or ur sniping and u need to shoot exactly at this moment to get a headshot when the person walks by >.>
(1:33 AM) Kevin: lol

***

8/20/2010  12:43:21 AM  k  The Life Sucks Group aren’t there pessimists in china?
8/20/2010  12:43:47 AM  Me  The Life Sucks Group the government probably kills them all
8/20/2010  12:43:48 AM  Me  The Life Sucks Group or, well
8/20/2010  12:43:52 AM  Me  The Life Sucks Group not in shanghai anyways
8/20/2010  12:43:53 AM  k  The Life Sucks Group lol
8/20/2010  12:43:59 AM  Me  The Life Sucks Group china needs to look good for the world expo

Final note: these go in chronological order (I believe), and I had these all collected and organized in like September (only bothered posting them now) so sorry if some of these are stupid or not really funny. Also, formatting these took forever. My bold button must have broke by now. Feel free to write your own “best quotes” post (or start collecting quotes now) x3

Five Reasons Why You (yes you) Should Drop AP English

December 17th, 2010

Sunsets are red, the sky is blue, and skylight is polarized (at least partially).

Giancoli Physics, Sixth Edition
  1. Stickers. When you do your (five minutes of) homework, instead of giving it a D, or perhaps no credit for having your name on the wrong side of the paper, or having your margin too large by one millimeter, your Normal English Teacher will show you her fantastic smile and reward you with a glittering sticker on your homework sheet. You feel good all the way through the rest of the school day.
  2. Background music. Instead of spending fifty-four dreary minutes wallowing in the silent cacophony of stumbling minds and fumbling pencils as you struggle to complete your in-class, why not indulge in popular music and rock along with the beat while chillin’ in Regular English?
  3. Candy. For answering a question correctly, or making a valiant effort at doing so, Regular English Teacher will reward you with a sweet treat. Perfect for those with a sweet tooth.
  4. Love. Your Regular English Teacher enjoys imbuing students with knowledge and the impulse to learn, and it shows in her day-to-day attitude. Her smile is contagious, and soon the whole classroom can’t help but become infected. It’ll stay on for the rest of the day.
  5. Victory. You feel like you have surpassed the losers who are still drowning in homework and suffocating from the high-pressure environment of a non-Regular English class. You can even fix their code in your free time.

Yes, I am writing this blog post instead of doing my Regular English homework. Yay me, I’m so fantastic.

Five Steps to Living a More Efficient Life

September 23rd, 2010
  1. Watch anime at 3X. It takes me 30 minutes to watch one episode of anime, on average. This equates to nearly seven hours per season of 12 to 14 episodes. You can imagine how much of my precious life I wasted back when I watched anime at the default framerate. If you press the plus key three times in VLC, your video will be played back at a speed of 3X. Coupled with skipping the intro and outro songs, and the preview, an episode that would have taken me 30 minutes to be watched can be watched in a mere five minutes! You can’t imagine how instrumental this technique is in my life. Even at 2X or 1.5X, much time is saved — 10 or 15 minutes per episode. The dialogue is still completely comprehensible (although a bit squeaky), and it will have no effect on your enjoyment of the anime (although it will mess up the director’s pacing), as you mentally modify your own sense of time to go along with the video’s speed. With this technique, you can watch twelve episodes in one hour, when it would have previously taken you six hours! This is amazing. Call in now to reserve your order and you’ll even receive FREE shipping and handling! Call fast, as our inventory is limited!
  2. Write scripts and macros to automate mundane computer tasks. This includes making Word templates for your MLA documents, and setting up AutoIt or AutoHotkey scripts to perform multiple keystrokes, mouse movements/clicks, or system calls with single keystrokes. It’s amazing how awesome scripts can get, but I always end up forgetting what key runs what macro that does what.
  3. Don’t update programs, unless you need some new feature. You wouldn’t be able to imagine how many times I’ve updated a program (or let a program autoupdate itself), only to end up with a nonfunctional program, corrupted data, or missing functionality. Then comes the string of 20 Google searches on how to revert to the old version, or how to fix the bug introduced in the new version. Then I end up spending 6 hours reverse-engineering the assembly and fixing the bug myself. Hey, loser. I fixed your code.
  4. Use a calendar. I try, but I’ve never followed mine.
  5. Don’t multitask while finishing high-priority tasks. If something extremely important must be finished in two hours, don’t do it while watching anime/TV. Turn off the computer, take out the earphones, go into another room, sit up straight, and do it.

This list is in order of descending importance. Yes, you read that right.

I feel misplaced.

February 11th, 2010

I just wanted to post today. So this post is just out of wanting to post.

So like, I got like 85.5 on the AMC12A, and like, that’s not going to get me into AIME. So like… like yeah.

I feel misplaced.

In the non-math-competition and non-anime-manga related parts of my life, I am also failing gracefully. I haven’t done math homework in 3 days due to studying for the AMC (let’s not go back there), and I haven’t done any AP Physics homework in like a month, and I have a major test tomorrow in physics. So as you can see, I am very stressed. One week ago, at this time, I thought I would score a 120 on the AMC, laugh away not doing work for the previous half of the week, and live happily ever after. Well.

As for anime, I haven’t watched any in about 3 weeks. I’ve read manga (Negima! and various) a little, but my entertainment life has mostly been dead. I admit I have played a lot of Mabinogi, but I haven’t accomplished much in-game. Today’s the Generation 9 patch (and yes, Nexon has extended the maintenance 4 times already), so I guess I might be staying up all night playing a laggy game and wasting the best years of my life away. Just another day in the life of a a teenager without a light to follow.

Summary of Today

January 26th, 2010

I never knew I was so poetic.

standing in the rain

with violin, binder, bag

writing a haiku

Writing poetry in the rain is so romantic, don’t you think?

Game Over. Continue?

January 5th, 2010

“When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.”

– Franklin D. Roosevelt

» Read more: Game Over. Continue?