A Joyous Tryptophan Day to all Americans!

Today is Tryptophan Day, a.k.a. "Thanksgiving," in the United States of America.

In celebration, people usually have some sort of feast with family and/or friends, and express their gratitude for one another and their fortune. The centerpiece of this feast is usually a turkey or roast. Other dishes include things made with potatoes and/or sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and a stuffing to go inside of the turkey (if you have it.) For desert, there is pie; usually pumpkin. You can also have pecan pie, sweet potato pie, or really any sort of pie you want (since it is after all, your feast.)

Now you may be wondering whatever this nonsense is that "tryptophan" has to do with, so I shall tell ye.

Tryptophan is an amino acid; these are essential chemicals that make up proteins, your body needs them, or else....  Tryptophan is found in a variety of meats, including turkey. I have heard, though never experienced it myself (nor has anyone that I know), that eating copious amounts of turkey will make one sleepy, all thanks to this chemical. This sounds a bit silly to me, since eating enormous quantities of other meats with even more tryptophan in them than turkey mysteriously does not seem to make "them" tired. It's probably all the potatoes and pies they're piling on in addition to the turkey that is making them tired, in my opinion....

Tryptophan Day, besides a day for family, is controversial because the whole thing and all the myths surrounding it push aside (and quite frankly ignore) all the decimation, horror, and racism that the Native Americans suffered at the hands of the colonists, and would continue to (and even still do) suffer up to more recently in history. So Tryptophan Day is a day of giving thanks for what you have (like family or being able to put food on your table), and also a day to solemnly recognize the treatment of the Native Americans, and to commit to making things right and to end all the oppression and lack of equality. (Well, at least for me it is.)

In the spirit of this, there are Native American cultural festivals around this time, and the month of the November is designated Native American Heritage Month. People also volunteer to work to give/cook meals and shelter to those less fortunate, like the homeless.

"Never Pass Up a Beautiful Watch"

Such is "one of the ever expanding laws" of magician, photographer, gentleman, and everything else extraordinaire, Daniel Schaefer......he's absolutely right about that watch quote, and I wish to Odin and Quetzalcoatl that I hadn't passed up buying that antique Japanese pocket watch in June. The beauty and quality of it would have been well worth the price, and even more. Ah well, there are other paths up to the mountain, and future days await which may be dedicated to climbing.

Mr. Sir Schaefer not only has words of wisdom to offer us, but _____ photographs as well. That space there is for your own adjective, or you could replace that space with two more and add in two adjectives if you want, or do anything you feel like with the space really. Go check out his photography at Outlier Imagery on Tumblr, and see for yourself.

ENVISION: Interesting little light box

ENVISION : Step into the sensory box from SUPERBIEN on Vimeo.

Here's a neat little video of a "sensory box" I found, thanks to the magic of StumbleUpon.

AfterEffects and an awesome projector that can detect 3D space, perhaps? I'd like to figure out how to do this...

Cretaceous Period Dinosaur Named After Korea

The Cretaceous Period on Earth is one in which the dinosaurs (and other creatures of course) roamed; how exciting! It lasted from about 145.5 Ma (Ma = megaannum = million years 'ago') to 65.5 Ma. If you think the number 65 looks familiar to you, well, it probably does; it's about when the K-T mass extinction happened. Assuming you remember something you learned in a related science class at one point, you'll know that this is when the dinosaurs went pretty much extinct. 

...but I digress.

No, I don't own this image, so don't come after me.

Recently, a type of Cretaceous dinosaur discovered in 2003, has recently been named and, as has never before happened in paleontology, its namesake was that of Korea. This new dinosaur, Koreanosaurus boseongensis, was about 8 feet long, lived on the Korean peninsula, and was a herbivore.

You can read more about the story (in English) here at the site of the Chosun Ilbo, a major S. Korean newspaper....although I think the fact that it's South Korean kind of goes without saying.

Moving Forward

/caution: unfinished + unpolished reflection ahead/

After this June, I will be done with high school. I will leave my school, maybe even my city and state, go to college, and move on with my life. Of course I will still have friends and family, even though I'll see them less frequently than in the past. There are people that I know now that I will slip away from, and lose contact with, but even as sad as that may be, I'm not worried. Even as stressful and daunting this college process may be at times, with writing essays and tests upon which so much weight is lain, trying to pull something together and say "this is where I might want to head in life," and getting lost in the names of a hundred places that are all viable options for continuing one's education, I'm not worried.


Even if I don't get in to the colleges I most want to attend, I may be upset, but not worried. There is more than one path to the mountain, or to Rome, or London, or Daejon, or wherever you want to go. I will try the best I can to go down my intended path, but if that doesn't work out I may be forced to consider alternatives. This will happen in life, and I am not going to complain about it even though I may not find it enjoyable to go through.

Things are meant to move forward. My high school has changed from how it was in its first couple years, for better and for worse. Though I regret what changed for the worse, I know that it may not be "for the worse" according to others, and that what happened cannot be undone, and so all there is to do is to try and initiate change in a new direction to reclaim the spirit of that which was lost, to adapt it.

 I will lose people in my life during the next few years, just as I will welcome new people in. Change is the constant; impermanence. Though I do not wish people to fade out of my life, in any sense of the word "fade," I realize that things just simply work that way, and there's no point grieving over it. I will try my best to maintain things that I want to maintain, and to build positive memories and experiences between me and those I know so that if and when things fall apart, there will be no bitterness or sorrow. Things will simply move on. My best friend recently moved across the continent, and three of my close family members died within the last few years. This is upsetting, yes, but I am grateful for the time I spent with them, and will be enriched by what I have learned from them and what I have experienced with them. And although I can't see my friend as often as I'd like to anymore, I will still do my best to maintain the relationship I have with her, and not let it slip away. Though I'm disappointed that we never got to do some things together, there will be time for new things in the future, and for that I am most glad.

In college, there are many things I want to study. I'm still confused about where exactly I want to go, since I want to head off in so many different directions. I don't need to obsess over it though, since I can just learn on my own...which is essentially what I've been doing for as long as I can remember. I'll just keep on doing what I've been doing, and it'll be fine.

Lazy Chefs

Actually, I don't know if he was lazy so much as incompetent...though it might have been a mixture of the two.

I was visiting a certain university in California around mid day when the pangs of hunger struck me. Thus, I decided to grab a bite to eat. Their food court immediately disappointed me, and I immediately missed UCLA fare...though I decided not to dwell on the happy thought of the food of other university cafeterias, since that wouldn't exactly feed me.

I walked up to one of the few places that was open, and ordered a teriyaki salmon wrap. I wanted salmon, and it was the only salmon dish available on the menu. I also ordered a small Greek salad with it since it sounded good to me at that moment. (What possessed me to do this? Like I said, I was hungry.)

The wrap came to me about 20 minutes later alongside my sad little bowl of cubed cucumbers, tomatoes, and kalamata olives all with a lump of feta cheese on top. It was basically just a large hunk of salmon that had been charbroiled and stuck on a bed of basmati rice mixed with peas and chopped cooked carrots. Oh yeah, it was also drowned in teriyaki sauce. I couldn't even bite the thing without the viscous stuff languidly dripping out of the green tortilla in which it was all enclosed.

Bottom line: it was bad. I was very hungry though, so I ate it (*shudder*) and the little salad too.

Dear Odin....why basmati?!

That thing wasn't even what I was expecting...I could have had something better at airports; small, regional airports.

This is why you make your own food, so that you don't end up getting carrots and basmati rice soaked in teriyaki and stuffed in a dry tortilla alongside an awkward piece of salmon.

INTA - this is for you sock! (and fabre and apple if you care. XD)

"INTAs are contemplative, unassuming, intellectual, and strategically oriented. As an INTA you prize your ability to solve complex, abstract problems through analysis and precise thought. At the same time, you are very adaptable in terms of altering your judgments, strategies, and ideas when the need arises. Your highest value is intellectual freedom.
You enjoy spending time alone, absorbed in thought. When you do engage yourself socially, you prefer to be a quiet observer rather than an active participant. You can become bored with trivial or mundane topics and prefer to be intellectually or academically challenged in your dealings with others. You tend to reflect before you speak, and when you do express yourself, you are able to impart your comprehension of the complete picture with precision and brevity.
Since you are autonomous, you do not submit to conventions and norms simply because they exist. You believe that rules must be intelligent and honest to have value. You will stand up to a perceived lack of personal or professional integrity since you believe that respect for authority is based on competence, not position, power, or age. You prefer to have the freedom to think decisions through without interruption, and as a result, you tend do your best thinking when you are alone. You find it frustrating to work as part of a group, particularly when you see that some group members are having a difficult time keeping up with your quick comprehension and mastery of the subject at hand.
Since you adjust your ideas and thinking so easily, projects or decisions on which you are working often don't get completely finalized. Nonetheless, you are an innovative thinker and your deep curiosity has no limits. You are able to shift your flow of ideas creatively from one topic to another and see points of commonality between two seemingly different concepts. You are an avid and rapid learner who is good at analyzing details to develop patterns and theories.
INTAs are most often found in career fields where they can focus in depth on one idea or task at a time. You are most interested in jobs that allow you to analyze systems, and design innovative approaches to the problems being faced. As an INTA you will be most satisfied and productive when you're involved in work that encourages freedom of thought and pursuit of knowledge."

Completion

Well I've finished watching the young ones. There were four of them, it was terrible. Everything was fine for the first two and a half hours in which we played Xbox, but then I got a call from the parents and apparently I wasn't supposed to let them do that...oh well. The children started chasing the dog around and jumping on both him and me, so I suggested that we go outside and climb trees.  The children didn't go for that much, so I told them to go climb the lemon tree so we could make some succulent lemonade. I also promised to give them popsicles and more pizza if they did so. Of course, I lied about the popsiscles...muahaha!

We made the lemonade with brown sugar instead of regular white sugar. 'twas delicious, and I highly recommend you try it.

Saturday Duties

Well, today I must babysit three small children. I rarely babysit, and when I do, it's always with the same child. I'm a bit nervous...for some reason, children make me nervous. I don't know why, but something about their smallness freaks me out a bit. I might bring my iPod or a book...I've decided to finish Crime and Punishment first, then I'll move on to Doctor Zhivago. Well since I'm concurrently reading 4 books, I might just finish the other 3 then take up Zhivago.

Russian literature for the win...it's much better than babysitting the young. (They're terrifying, as seen in the picture below...)

Intro to French

This is a beginning lesson I made for French.

----

For absolute beginners!

--- Covering subject pronouns and their use, formal and informal versions of address, and grammatical gender. ---

Let's start with subject pronouns! Here they are in English and in French.

English	French
I	Je
You (informal)	Tu
You (formal)	Vous
He/She/It	Il/Elle
We	Nous
You (plural)	Vous
They	Ils/Elles

Now, in addition to il/elle for he/she, we also have "on." "On" can mean different things (that are pretty much all related though), depending on the context.

1) it can mean "we."
2) it can mean the general "one", as in "one must not try to breathe under water, or they will drown."
3) just like the "one", it can mean "people" in general, like "people must not try to breathe under water..."  

Note: If you know German, it is comparable to "man." (Like "Man kann nicht unter dem Wasser atmen.")

You may be wondering what  the equivalent for "it" is in French. Well, since French is a language that has grammatical gender (masculine/feminine), "il" is often used as "it" when "it" refers to things of masculine gender (physical or grammatical) and "elle" works the same way, but for feminine gender things. We'll get to gender at the end of this lesson though.

So, on to the next explanation!

You may have noticed that we have "you (plural)" on the chart. This is because French distinguishes between talking to one person and calling them "you" and talking to more than one person and also calling them "you." In English sometimes we try to make up for our lack of a word for it and say "you guys" or "y'all" to mean "you" when talking to a bunch of people. French has solved this problem, and they say "vous" to mean this.

You probably also noticed that we have "formal" and "informal" next to the different ways of saying "you." French does this to be polite. So when should you use them?

(And yes, the plural "you" and the formal "you" are the same!)

Tu is used:

        - when talking to family and friends (and pets and inanimate objects...also in Christianity to address god)
        - adult to child dialogue (unless there's a special circumstances which demands "vous" be used)
        - between students, kids, and young children when talking with each other
        - a lot of the time online in chats and such
        - to be disrespectful to someone in a situation where you would use "vous"
        - also, younger employees tend to use "tu" with each other more than older ones (so a bunch of 25 year olds would be more likely to address each other with "tu" than a bunch of 50 year olds would.)

Note: Some businesses advocate the use of "tu" amongst their employees, and the usage of "tu" is acceptable in more situations now than it has been in the past.

Vous is used:

        - students to teachers
        - teachers to older students to distance themselves from their pupils
        - people who have just met (sometimes with new business partners, strangers on the street, ect.)
        - to someone of authority to be respectful
        
When you aren't sure if you should use "tu" or "vous," it's generally a good idea to use "vous."

Sometimes people may ask you to start addressing them with "tu" after you've known each other for a while, or, they might not. Or they may address you with "tu" but they expect for you to talk to them with "vous." So it's important to be aware of the "tu" vs "vous" distinction and its rules.

Remember! If you are talking to a bunch of people, use "vous" because it's more than one person, even if you would address them all individually with "tu."

Intro to Grammatical Gender

As I mentioned before, the French language has two grammatical genders: masculine and feminine. (The gender is pretty arbitrary for most things by the way; there's no reason why the sun is masculine and the table is feminine, it just happens.) All nouns have genders, and since articles, adjectives, and some pronouns and verbs must agree with somethings gender, they are very important to know.

The definite articles are words that point to a specific something, they basically are the word "the". They are as follows:

Le - masculine, singular
La - feminine, singular
Les - plural for masculine and feminine

The indefinite articles are words that point to a more general and non-specific thing, like the words "a" and "an" in English. They are:

Un - masculine, singular
Une - feminine, singular
des - plural for masculine and feminine

When you make French vocabulary lists, it is always extremely important to write the grammatical gender with your nouns.

La pomme - the appleLa voix - the voice
Le chien - the dog
Le choléra - the cholera
Some nouns are completely different depending on which gender you use, so be careful!
La livre - pound (monetary unit, or of mass)
Le livre - book

La manche - sleeve/English Channel
Le manche - handle


Le rose - pink
La rose - rose

La voile - sail
Le voile - veil

Now it's time for some special rules. Whenever you have a word that starts with a vowel or an 'h' and you want to put "le" or "la" in front of it, you do this:

La inondation --> L'inondation  (flood)
Le abricot --> L'abricot  (apricot)
Le homme --> L'homme  (man)

When we are reading, we don't say "le abricot" either, we string it together so it sounds just as we write it, like "l'abricot."

Remember that gender is very very important! Seriously, I'm not joking. Once, one of my French teachers from Belgium had her step dad come over and visit her when she was living in France, and she asked him to go buy some bread one morning. He tried to buy it but the woman at the bakery pretended not to have any bread because he asked for "un" instead of "une" baguette, and after that, he tried to buy some pastries but she wouldn't let him buy those either and pretended not to listen to him half the time. So remember your grammatical genders, it will help you buy stuff and not get ignored! :)

Later, I will make lessons getting into how verbs and adjectives and other things are affected by the genders of nouns. 
 
Happy studying! 

- by A. T. Klein

The Forest

Ever wondered where the word "forest" came from? Eh, just as thought, you've never wondered.

Well, I'm here to tell you.

The word "forest" dates back to around 1300, and comes from Old French. In O. French, it was a word for a special plot of forest specifically reserved for royal use. The word "wood" is the native English word for "forest."

Pretty cool huh?

Your texts are not private

If you're a government official, any texts you send on a government issued device are not at all private. Thus spake the Supreme Court, with a 9-0 ruling.

This actually happened on June 17th, and I'm just back-dating it for fun.
Hahaha...

Tariff of Abominations - 1828

This is a re-post from my U.S. history blog.

New England textile manufacturers complained of British products being dumped on the market, so they wanted a higher tariff to protect their domestic products. Westerners wouldn't agree to this unless imported raw materials (especially wool) also had a tariff put on them. The tariff was revised, and a little more than half of New England opposed it. Many of those were merchants, who did not wish to pay a 62% rate on raw goods when they brought them into the country. The New Englanders who supported the tariff saw that the long term benefits, increasing America's industrial system and power, would be worth it.

The South was opposed to it almost entirely, with 50 out of 53 votes going against the tariff. Their cotton would be more expensive for Britain to import (so they would buy less), and the European goods that the South liked to buy would become more expensive. It was a lose-lose situation, they felt. The South lost money from decreased exports and more expensive imports. (Britain also lowered their imports of Southern cotton from abolitionist pressure.) On top of that, the economies of some of the older Southern states were also hurt by people moving towards the newer ones for better soil and more land.

The Nullification Crisis

This is a re-post from my U.S. history blog.

The Nullification Crisis lasted from roughly 1832 - 1833. Before I talk about it directly, I'll start with some exposition (to set things up for you.)

(Yes, my use of the word "exposition" was intentional.)

After the War of 1812, British goods started flooding the American market. To protect and encourage American industry, the Tariff of 1816 was enacted. This made British goods more expensive so that people would buy American-made products instead. This tariff was great for the North especially, since it was well on its way to becoming the industrial hub of the nation. For the South the tariff wasn't too great; they were mostly agricultural and helping industry didn't help them too much, and since they bought many goods from Europe, they were afraid of angering the British (since they might make their own tariffs against Southern cotton) and it just made the things they liked to buy more expensive. Eventually much of the South decided to just go with the tariff for national interest; America needed it and it would probably be repealed in a few years, right?

Andrew Jackson, as pictured during his service in the War of 1812.

They were wrong. The tariff wasn't repealed. Southern cotton went to Britain, which gave America lots of money. With all this new money, industrialization could just get stronger in the North since it could be widely financed. The South didn't industrialize, while the North did. As industry and the North grew, people tried to get more protective tariffs to make it grow even more. The whole thing was a bit self-perpetuating.

There was another tariff in 1824 which basically raised the 1816 tariff rates. This was the first time that many Southerners (who had supported the 1816 tariff) actually began to out right oppose raising the tariff rate. Many believed that this new tariff was not in national interest, but sectional interest, favoring the North and hurting the South. States that were part of the original Southern colonies were also going through some tougher times, so the tariff wasn't exactly appreciated. Among the opposition to the tariff was then Vice President John C. Calhoun from South Carolina, who had previously supported the 1816 tariff in order to raise revenue for the country. Like many other Southerners, he believed that this tariff was an unfair burden on the South and was purely for the North's benefit. There was also some opposition in New England against it among traders. (This tariff was pretty sectional, so you can't really blame the opposition for getting annoyed with it.)

 This picture of Errol Flynn is unrelated to anything I have to say in this post.

In 1828 the tariff was raised again, by the then President J. Q. Adams. Many were angry enough about it to give it the name "the Tariff of Abominations." In the election of that year, Andrew Jackson won the presidency, and Calhoun ran for Vice President under him and (again) won the office. He had been assured that Jackson would not support the tariff, but when he did (thanks on part to his Northern party members), Calhoun became displeased. Over the course of Jackson's presidency, conflicts over various policies and such only made relations between the two of them worse, and the Tariff of Abominations and what ensued because of it pretty much became the final straw.

Frustrated, Calhoun went back to his plantation in South Carolina and wrote a pamphlet entitled "Exposition and Protest." In it, he endorsed and argued for the idea of nullification, which says that a state may nullify (choose to ignore) any federal law that it finds to be unconstitutional. (He also said that if a state should decide to nullify, then a vote could be held among the states and if 3/4 ruled that the law was not unconstitutional, the nullifying state would have to follow suit with the law.) Accordingly, because the Tariff of Abominations was so one sided, South Carolina had every right to nullify the tariff should it choose to.Calhoun also went further to suggest that states could secede from the Union if the federal government proved not to be acting in its best interests and only harming it.

A map showing if all the secessionist movements in our history had succeeded.

Here's an excerpt from the pamphlet. It sums up his thoughts on the 1828 tariff in brief:

"...the whole system of legislation imposing duties on imports, not for revenue, but the protection of one branch of industry at the expense of others, is unconstitutional, unequal, and oppressive, and calculated to corrupt the public virtue and destroy the liberty of the country...so partial are the effects of the system, that its burdens are exclusively on one side and its benefits on the other."

 John C. Calhoun; a cape-wearing 6'4'' Scots-Irish guy from the Antebellum South. More interesting than he looks and decidedly less creepy; I suggest you go check out a book on him from the library.

Calhoun wrote this anonymously so as not to get himself into too much trouble just yet, since he had his eye on succeeding Jackson as president or getting the office some time or other, (which never happened and was never going to happen anyways once 1828 came along) but many people suspected that he had written it anyway. In case you were wondering, Exposition and Protest did not have an effect on the proceedings regarding the tariff, but it did irk Jackson. Although he liked small government and state's rights, he believed in the Union, and thought nullification and secession were treasonous things to do to it.  

By 1832, nullification had become a topic of national debate. To calm the situation down, a revised tariff was created, but South Carolina was still not happy with the tariff rate it had set; it was still too high. Later in that same year, South Carolina (Calhoun's home state) decided that it'd had enough, and passed the Ordinance of Nullification to effectively nullify the 1828 and 1832 tariffs. The Nullification Crisis had officially begun! *drum roll*

Look what I found...

Jackson was highly displeased with S.C., and he was a guy that you probably didn't want to annoy. In 1833 he issued the Force Bill which would allow the tariff money to be collected from South Carolina by any means necessary. He also sent in the military and warships into Charleston harbor just in case the message wasn't clear enough. The little state smirked, and nullified that bill too.

Meanwhile, some South Carolinians (among others) began to make some extreme rallies and movements in support of nullification that were a little radical and could possibly create a volatile situation. Calhoun was a bit unnerved by this, and with his anger against Andrew Jackson contributing to the decision, decided to resign as Vice President and go spearhead the nullification movement. He joined the Senate (where he would remain 'til the end of his days, almost literally), and formed the short lived Nullifier Party. (It merged with the Democratic Party in 1839.) 

A little map of the state for you all...

On the same day that the Force Bill passed in 1833, Senator Henry Clay and Calhoun, now a senator himself, together authored the Compromise Tariff for a gradual reduction in tariff rates. South Carolina found this acceptable, and repealed the Ordinance of Nullification. Andrew Jackson also dropped the Force Bill, since South Carolina now intended to comply with federal law.

Amusingly, South Carolina kept the now-repealed Force Bill nullified, a fact which Jackson decided to ignore.

Bacon's Rebellion

This is a re-post from my U.S. History blog.

Bacon's Rebellion took place in 1676 in Virginia Colony. The leader of the rebellion was Nathaniel Bacon, a wealthy tobacco planter. Why did he rebel? Was not the fact that his last name evokes the image of smoky crispy strips of goodness good enough for him?

I'm glad you asked. As a matter of fact, I'm here to help y'all find out.

Colonial times in all their fancy-coat-and-hat glory.

Virginia Colony was going through some tough times. Tobacco prices had sunk, and the colony faced competition from the Carolinas and Maryland. On top of that, England had barred trade with France for them, so they lost a whole market. Bad weather didn't help either.

When some Native Americans lead a mini-raid on someone's plantation, the Virginians decided to use them as a scapegoat for their troubles. A series of raids and violence went back and forth on either side, so Governor Berkley decided to pursue a policy of containment of the threat, and just build a bunch of forts. Settlers in the back-country questioned this plan's effectiveness, and many thought it was just an excuse to raise taxes. People didn't like Berkley much, and also accused him of appointing his friends to high government offices. Bacon lead some raids against the Native Americans, (even killing friendly groups), and was elected to the House of Burgesses for his efforts.

Nathaniel Bacon himself. 

Governor Berkley convened the HoB and when Bacon came, tried to have him arrested. This failed, and Bacon gathered his followers and coerced Berkley into allowing him continue his raids on Native Americans. Berkley agreed, and fled Jamestown to go raise a militia since Bacon had sort of taken over the Colony for a bit. Bacon died suddenly, and his rebellion collapsed without his leadership. Berkley came back to assume command, but was recalled to England (much to the delight of Virginia.)

Defending against Native Americans, although the colonists may have started this one...

Many joined Bacon's cause against Berkley and the Native Americans, including both black and white indentured servants. The economic situation hadn't been kind to them either, so they joined in the rebellion. For upper-class Virginians, seeing the indentured servants ban together and rebel was frightening, and what was especially frightening was the fact that they were black and white joined together.

This caused Virginia colony to start relying more on slave labor and being tougher on African-Americans, free or slave. Since indentured servants were unreliable in times like these (and because they were racist and didn't like blacks and whites joining together), Virginia decided it needed a safe, more permanent lower class of person. to work for them.

The French and Indian War - Proclamation of 1763

This is a re-post from my US History blog. I will post content back and forth between the two.

The name "French and Indian War" (is the name for the part of the Seven Year's War that happened in North America. (The Seven Year's War was a European thing, although parts of it took place overseas, mostly in colonized areas.) Calling it the French and Indian War may be deceiving, since the French and (many of) the Native Americans actually fought on the same side against Great Britain, and not against each other as it may sound. On top of that, the Seven Year's War actually lasted for 9 years; 1754-1763. You love that, don't you?

In North America, the whole thing got started because Europe was still feverishly trying to colonize, or at least expand and maintain power. Now France had laid claim to the Mississippi watershed area as well as the Ohio Valley and the Great Lakes region, and had some forts and trading activity with the Native Americans going on. As time passed, the British colonies grew more prosperous, and people wanted to move out west over the Appalachian Mountains and set up shop in the rich Ohio Valley lands. The French weren't too happy with this British encroachments on "their" land, so they started building a string of forts to keep guard. Then, Britain built a couple of forts too; one in Oswego and the other in Halifax. (Oswego had started out a trading post below Lake Ontario, but was expanded to become a fort.)

British and French representatives met in Paris soon after, but no progress on the "who exactly has rights to the Ohio Valley, since the Native Americans obviously don't count" question was made. After that, France decided to just settle the situation by building even more forts even closer to British colonial soil, this time in Western Pennsylvania. At the same time, the governor of Virginia decided to start granting land in the Ohio Valley to Virginia citizens. To add to the trouble, a one George Washington decided to advise Britain to build a fort in a particularly nice location in the Ohio Valley, and so they did. Long story short, France captured it before it was finished, completed construction, and took it for their own. Washington then attacked the French, but he lost when re-enforcements came. Fort-wars then ensued for a while, until Britain finally decided it would be a good time to officially declare war in 1756.

The Native Americans (except the Iroquois Confederacy, who fought with Britain alongside some other tribes) sided with the French. France had a far more inclusive society in North America, and the Native Americans received less-meddling in their affairs on the part of France, and more friendliness and intermingling. The Native Americans would trade with the French, and fur trappers would actually bother to learn their languages, and sometimes even decided to marry the Native Americans too. In British society, things were decidedly less "chill;" they had an exclusive society. Things were more hostile, racist, and not as fair business wise with Native American-British relations, so understandably, most Native Americans decided to join France against Great Britain.

The war goes on, and Great Britain wins. The Native Americans aren't too happy, France gets kicked out of North America entirely, and ends up left with two small sugar islands. (Over Canada and the Ohio Valley, France decides to keep the sugar islands; this = importance of mercantilism!) Great Britain decides to raise the prices of goods sold to the Native Americans, and stops paying them for using forts on their land. They also stop giving exchanging gifts, which was an important and symbolic custom for the Native Americans, and they probably felt pretty offended that Britain just decided to stop it.

The Native Americans weren't feeling all that amiable towards the British, and when the prophet Neolin from a tribe in Delaware started preaching through ought the Great Lakes against materialism/alcohol/the English way of life, things didn't go well. On top of that, colonists had started to push further into Native American lands. The Ottawa war chief Pontiac, around the same time as Neolin was preaching, started a rebellion against the British and attacked colonists in the Ohio Valley; this was Pontiac's Rebellion (1763.) In response/anger, a group of colonists called the Paxton Boys in Western Pennsylvania attacked a peaceful group of Native Americans nearby and massacred them; partly out of racism and partly because they thought their government wasn't doing much to help them. Benjamin Franklin helped put an end to the killing by negotiating with the group, and was scathingly critical about their inhumane actions. Eventually, Great Britain decided to step in to end Pontiac's Rebellion, and did so, with the help of germ warfare in the form of smallpox infected blankets.

To ensure that something like that wouldn't happen again, the British government issued the Proclamation of 1763, which forbade settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains. This was an attempt to keep colonists out of the Ohio Valley, and out of trouble with the Native Americans. Colonists pretty much disregarded it, and moved westward anyways, angry at the British for placing this restriction on them. This was one of the first 'restrictive acts' that the British took against the colonists, and one that they became more resented for.

At the end of the French and Indian War, many British soldiers stayed in North America. Tensions increased between the colonists and the soldiers. Many colonists became disgusted/displeased with the behavior/attitudes/appearances of the soldiers, and felt that they had a more separate identity from them. The colonists also felt that Britain had under-appreciated the part that they had played in the fighting the war. During this time, a sense of common identity, separate from that of the British, became stronger, as well as resentment against Britain that would grow in the future.

ISS Tour

This is a video that I found on YouTube; it's a tour of the International Space Station.





On-orbit construction began in 1988, and is set to finish late next year.

Tweet Database

The Library of Congress is archiving all tweets from Twitter made since the site's inception. This means the updates you posted on the Iranian election will be archived, as well as the tweets about how crunchy your toast was and that post you don't want your brother to know about.

Please click this link to know more:

http://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2010/04/how-tweet-it-is-library-acquires-entire-twitter-archive/

Hope this proves to be worth it!

Photoshop CS5

One of the new features of Abode Photoshop CS5 is the content aware fill tool. It's like an automated version of the clone tool, and using it takes considerably less time for complex jobs than it would with the clone tool.




And here is a fun video based on the content aware fill tool. Enjoy.

Eudemons Online

There's this pretty interesting (though fairly standard) MMO that I play; Eudemons Online.  (Oh, it's free.)

Here's a screenshot:

You make an account, and can set up characters (one each) on various serves, like Sydney or Toronto. There are three character classes to pick from: mage, paladin, and warrior. There is no class-specialization, sorry. The most interesting aspect of the game are the pest (the "eudemons") that you carry with you; they help fight alongside you and defend you in combat. They can be combined in different ways to be made stronger in various aspects of their strength and attributes, be ranked, and learn different skills to help you attack and defend.

There is an optional system in the game where you can pay for elite items/eudemons/gear/whatever you want, however it is possible to obtain these without paying for anything. There are also in game events much of the time that allow you to collect some points in the special currency (EP's) that you usually have to pay for. This way, everyone gets a chance.

Taro Magic

Apparently the little doughnut shop down the street from me does have taro drinks; you just have to ask for them. =)

Taro is a vegetable grown for the consumption of its roots and leaves, especially in Oceanic cultures (where it's something of a staple) and in East Asia. The root kind of looks like a hell-potato. Here:

Okay it doesn't look weird, I just said "hell-potato" to get you to laugh. Sad attempt eh?

The plant can be toxic if you don't cook it first, so watch out. With the root, you must clean and remove the skin. Some people may have irritating skin reactions to the plant's juices when they're preparing it, so you can either wear gloves when you're peeling it or just cook it in the microwave first to neutralize the effect.


The plant has a variety of uses, and pretty much any use you can think of for a potato applies to taro as well...except that taro gets made into drinks. Yum!

The purple one on the far right is taro flavored. ㅅ_ㅅ

Don't touch me! - I'm contagious!

So I saw the doctor today about me not feeling good today and yesterday, and it turns out that I am infected with streptococcal pharyngitis. Joy!

By the way, streptococcal pharyngitis = strep throat. It's the most common bacterial infection of the throat that one can get. My doctor had a Rapid Strep Test performed, which took a little more than 10 minutes, and it came back positive. They also took a swab for a throat culture which will take a couple of days to develop, so the RST is good because the results come back quickly. They were positive, so now we know I've got strep.  

Since I doubt any of you want to see any graphical representation of this, I'm posting a picture (that I do not own) of a rabbit instead. Enjoy.

Doesn't its cuteness overwhelm you? ^^

Digital Painting

As of yesterday, I have begun to work on a digital painting. I'm still sketching out the basic design and trying to work out composition. So far I have about 2.5 hours of work on it.

Ordinarily I'd take less time to sketch it, but I'm a little unsure of what I what the final to look like.

One thing that I am certain of though, is that there shall be a robot in it. I'm thinking it "lives" in an old abandoned factory, and periodically goes out with a large sack and forages for scraps of metal and parts in old shipyards and scrapheaps. Then it comes back and works on a generator and tries to replicate the old machines in the factories...

Eh, I'll update you more later. One I have something painted I'll post it up on here so you can see...

...maybe.

National Recovery Administration

Yesterday I was watching an old Marx Brothers film, Duck Soup, from 1933. In the beginning it has the NRA blue eagle logo with the motto "we do our part" beneath it. I thought that was pretty interesting, showing how the film industry was involved in FDR's New Deal.

It kind of ties in perfectly with what I need to do over break, because part of my assignment is to look for traces of the New Deal.

A picture that I do not own

"Lithium Flower Furious Diving"

"Hm?"

That's just what I thought when I looked at the shirt my brother brought home today.

It has a turquoise background with a great blue and white dragon on the foreground. Behind the dragon is a printed "arrangement" of Han characters for Chinese, Japanese, and some Korean Hangul. There's some Japanese scribbled sideways, some arbitrarily arranged Han characters, and some Hangul that's been broken up, flipped around, and written in convoluted ways in syllable blocks that don't actually exist.

His T-shirt is gibberish. All through ought the shirt, the same design block of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean is printed in different sizes with different levels of opacity.

This has inspired me to make nonsense English shirts, and to sell them to countries where many people do not speak English. They must also use a different writing system.

My first shirt?

A smiling girl with blue hair, thinking "Lithium flower furious driving."

Break Week

This week is spring break. It's just one week off of school, a time to catch up on lost sleep.

That is exactly what I intend to do, catch up on sleep.

I'll also probably go a few places with different people. Hopefully we'll find a fun area around town to hang out in, so then we can do something there. Actually I don't really feel like writing anymore, this is just for the sake of filling up blog post quotas. I'm not really feeling inspired to go write about something either, so eh...yeah, just deal.

Google Shifts Search Engine to Hong Kong

Google is leaving China and shifting its server to Hong Kong. All who try to access Google China will now be re-directed to their Hong Kong based site.

Weekend

Yet another post that none of you care about, joy.

The weekend was alright. It could have been better; I'd like to have gotten out more for one thing. I took an ACT practice test on Saturday, and they gave us some pulmonary mechanics in the science section. That was fun.

I added a few things to my grocery list, including kimchi, which one must always have a supply of, otherwise the natural order of the world shall be thrown off balance and all governments and societies shall crumble into ruin amongst the ashes of previous civilizations who have failed to make this wonderful food a staple of their diet.

Behold, kimchi.

There are actually many different types of kimchi, and the one in the picture is just one of the more common varieties. Kimchi is the most common banchan in South Korea I believe, and for good reason, because it is delicious and amazing.

Monkeys choose variety for variety's sake

Monkeys choose variety for variety's sake

Underpriveleged patients not as likely to be referred to specialty hospitals for brain tumors

Underpriveleged patients not as likely to be referred to specialty hospitals for brain tumors

Demonic Possesion

That is the only thing that can sufficiently explain why the SAT people decided that the test would be administered at 8 in the morning. And it goes till 1.

I took it on Saturday. I thought it was pretty easy, but I nevertheless would have appreciated it had it started at, say, 9? I had to wake up at six to get to the testing centre by 7:45 since there were no closer testing centres near my house.
 
I better have broken 2200 on that thing.... ><

Google Fails to Appease China

Obey the law or get out; so sayeth China to Google, who has planned to stop complying with China's internet censorship laws (and possibly even shut down the site) in light of the recent controversy where The Powers That Be or those that work for them in the country allegedly hacked onto Gmail's Chinese servers. The government still denies that they had any part in this by the way, and they still maintain that they have the right to censor whatever they will online (and in well...life...) for 'the good of the people.'

Discussions between the Google Overlords and China are taking place, however there are no released reports yet as to any developments that may have been made.

A cartoon that I do not own.

"Can I borrow a pencil?"

No, you may not.

Well, at least not after today.

You sat next to me in class and casually asked to borrow a pencil "to erase something with." Although there were no conditions under which the pencil must be returned, I did expect it to remain more or less in the same condition as I gave it to you. Maybe a little dull at the lead or worn at the eraser; all that is understandable. However when I lent you my pencil, I had no idea that when I would receive it back, it would be but a mangled and pale shadow of its former self.

As you took the pencil in hand, you jammed the eraser into the paper and proceeded to violently rub out whatever you had written with a fury and determinacy that made me wonder "why." Just "why." What could have inspired so much hate within you that you rubbed the paper with such a vicious force that it completely spent the eraser and left marks upon the paper. Was it an outwards expression of angst for the world? A projection of murderous and frustrated feelings? Did you fancy that your inner demons had materialized upon the paper, and would mock you "in the flesh?"

Please tell me what was so important that you had to destroy my only eraser for it. Nearly every day since we became desk neighbors you have asked me if I had an extra pencil, and for all of those days, I have truthfully replied "no." You knew that this pencil was my only one. On top of that, it had my only eraser atop it. I suppose I cannot entirely blame you for not knowing this, however since I am momentarily ticked off, I am going to blame you.

Deep down in the dark recesses of what could be called my heart, I hope that you are psychologically disturbed. This will not only make things more interesting, fun, spontaneous, and violent, but it will also give me an excuse never to lend you and pencils ever again. Perhaps I can loan you wooden dowels instead. It will also remind me never to hitch a ride home with you, borrow money, or buy you a drink.

If a key opens a lot of locks...

There’s a phrase traveling around the internet that goes like this:

“If a key opens a lot of locks, then it’s the master key. If a lock is opened by a lot of keys, then it’s a shitty lock.”

This was written in response to someone questioning why men are seemingly encouraged to sleep with as many women as possible and are commended for it, and why women are looked down upon and seen as “dirty” and “slutty” if they do the same things even to the minutest degree. The question is basically this:

“Why is a girl a slut if she kisses two guys, but a guy a legend if he bangs five girls?”

The first phrase was someone’s “brilliant” reply to that question; the “master key” and “shitty lock” analogy. That’s not “brilliant”, that’s an irrelevant and degrading comparison that frankly I find to be bullshit.

This key-lock analogy rests on the idea that women should be sexually exclusive and that their value is determined by whether or not they adhere to this. I reject this. When you are single, you are free to do whatever you want. I don’t care; both a men and a women can sleep with as many people as they like (provided they are single, or in a ‘non-exclusive relationship.’) I will not consider the man to be “a legend” if he sleeps with a different woman every night, and my opinion of him shall be the same of a woman who does the same. (What’s so legendary about sleeping with a bunch of people? I’m not really impressed by that feat. You’re popular at a bar or can afford a different whore every night; so what?) Like I said, you can do whatever you want, but making an excessive practice of sleeping with different people isn’t exactly commendable in my book. People need to have a sense of moderation and restraint, and I’ve yet to meet a responsible person who makes a habit out of sleeping with four different people every month. I wouldn’t want to be in a relationship with such a person; I’d have a hard time believing that their lack of responsibility wouldn’t carry over into other areas of life. They just don’t seem like the most responsible of people…


(I’m not rejecting anything based off of some certain idea of value that I do or do not place on chastity/virginity; I’m just concerned about the implications of what sleeping with a different person all the time means about your responsibility and maturity as an adult.)

Keys and locks aren’t like people. The key-lock comparison just happens to work because of the physical comparison; keys are inserted into locks and they were meant to fit like that, (and I’m sure you know how that translates anatomically.) That’s just it though, it only makes sense physically, and only to a certain extent. Locks are designed to only fit one key, and as we all know, women do not “work” like that. Every human “lock” fits every human “key” and vice versa; applied to real locks and keys, this would render them useless. Any person in the world can copulate with anyone else; however as I have already said: any key in the world cannot fit into every lock in the world, and any lock in the world will not work for every key.

The human element is missing, and that’s why the analogy doesn’t work without ascribing to the idea that women have to be sexually exclusive, and even then it only makes sense on the thin surface.

I don’t have respect for your “master key” nor for the lock that is opened by all keys. In my opinion, you can throw them both out if you like, and that's that.

Checking Email

Ever since I got my Blackberry Curve, I've sort of neglected to use a computer for checking my email. When I use the computer, I'm always very thorough about organizing my emails, responding to them, throwing them away or sending them. On the Blackberry, I do this selectively and less frequently that I do on the computer.

Now I have 124 unread messages that need to have something done with them. I try never to let it get past 40 because after that point it's just annoying, so I really need to do something about this.

Identity

I don't want to be known as "the AP girl." I don't want to be known as someone whose sole interests and life lie within the realms of schoolwork and academia. People who think that of me only are seeing part of the picture, which gets quite annoying. I don't want to be thought of as some stuffy up-tight person (you've got another thing coming if you think that) who studies all day (pfft....I hardly ever study) and gets perfect grades (hah! as if...) on everything. That's not me at all. Y'all just don't know me, and maybe that's the way I want it because I have dark and devious plans for the lot of you, or maybe it's because *somebody* just needs to make more of an effort not to make assumptions about a person's bloody personality.

The iPad, Target Markets, and DRM - quick thoughts

- This is a very condensed and simple piece of my thoughts on a few things. It's not meant to be an in depth analysis, I just wanted to get at least something down here. - 

So the iPad doesn't use OS X, have USB or FireWire ports, can't run more than one app at once (let's remember the battery life this thing has, eh?), has no webcam, and doesn't have Flash. It wasn't created to be a computer in the sense that most people think of it; it's built for a market whose computing needs are more about finding a simple, fast, and intuitive way to use content rather than taking time to sit down and create content. (Plus, it's got the aesthetic that so many people are drawn to...Apple's been good at that.) This was made for people who have an iPhone, but want a more convenient way to type their emails and something to read their digi books on. (Yeah, I'm calling 'em "digi books.") It's for light computing and surfing the net. Hopefully Apple will allow for multiple apps to run at once in later versions of the iPad, which I  think would help them in accomplishing their goals here. The Flash issue is an interesting one. Even though it has over 90% of the market, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's the best, and plus it's proprietary, which takes it in the opposite direction that the Internet is headed in. Annoyingly, much of the internet relies on this program, so hopefully the free software movement and Apple can help smother Flash. (An applause for YouTube by the way for switching over!) Be brave, and go out and kill it.

This product is for people who aren't very computer literate, don't need to be, and don't care to be. They don't care about how any of what they're using works as long as it does in fact work, and also don't care much about doing any modifications to their devices. They just want to check their email, play Tetris, listen to whatever bad genera of music they like, and surf teh interwebz. This product isn't for you, so don't buy it. It's as simple as that. For example: If there is phonics book targeted towards small children, it doesn't need to IPA transcriptions of the words being learned for its purpose to be accomplished. I know this book is for small children who couldn't care less about the IPA and will probably never use it at all in their lives, so why should I complain about it? I'm not the target group. If I want a book that shows IPA transcriptions of those same words in various regional accents, it'd be foolish of me to buy the one for kids, and it'd make no sense to complain about it in the first place.

Oh yes, on the iPhone OS....(or rather, on something related to it.)

The DRM issue is ever vexatious. We can all despise the record and label companies for having Apple attempt to stop people from tinkering with their products and trying to gain control over them. On one hand, this may discourage new generations of people who may someday seek to unlock the full potential of their Apple device (or any one really), but on the other, it'll simply strengthen the resolve of those already committed to the free software movement. The people who do truly want to expand the functionality of their devices will do so, and the more certain entities attempt to crush the movement, the people will push back all the harder and louder.  Yes, the trend that DRM is setting is awful. Hopefully though, eventually it'll make people mad enough that they'll force things to turn around for them.

The Movie

There were some things I'd have liked to have changed on the movie.

1. fix the colour in a few of the scenes
2. change the dialogue in the classroom scene
3. get a variety of angles on a few people in the classroom scene
4. cut the walking down the hallway scene; it's much to long 
5. add some more shots to the classroom scene
6. shoot some things for the ending
7. cut the music from a few parts
8. re-record the sound in the classroom scene because it's atrocious(not that scene again! aggghhhh!!!! ><)
9. re-record a few lines of narration here and there
10. record someone banging on the door; the foley sound we have now is painfully inadequate.

Over all though, I think we did a pretty good job. However there's always somethings else that could have been done differently/better, but there's always a next time.

Essays...

Today I've gotta work on this essay where I have to analyze the how American agriculture changed after the Civil War up to 1900. I've got my thesis down and I know what I'm going to write, I just need to get the heck off the internet and start writing it. *chuckle*
 
First I wanted to finish this post though, since the end of February draws near and if I do not fulfill the required amount of blog posts, I shall undoubtedly incur the wrath of my media teacher who checks them!

Okay, he probably won't be so much angry as "Alex...you don't have very many blog posts here....you better go do some...you've had a month to do them...."  Then I'd say "Sorry, I got a little caught up studying for some things and working on the movie...I'll make double the amount of posts for next month."

"What's this?" you ask; a movie? Yes, I made a movie. Well not just me, but I'll blog about that in my next post. Muahaha....

New Gift!

So I just received a new coffee-table book as a gift; 'tis awesome! It's called "Pheromone: the insect artwork of Christopher Marley" This is exactly the kind of coffee table book I like.

Looking at all the pictures makes me feel exceedingly humble in my amateur collector-ness. Hehehe...

The Unending Darkness

Okay that title was just to grab your attention. It's much better than a long drawn out scream of frustration though isn't it? Well that's what I wanted to make the post titled so I did "The Unending Darkness" instead, since I suspect you're all tired of seeing things written in all-caps.

I first embarked upon the quest towards college a while ago, and at first I thought that through ought the journey there would be some awful monster accompanying me, leaving me to cringe in fear of it until I reached my destination at some daunting place. Now, I feel the journey is actually more stressful than frightful. The destination still looms, however it is now far more inviting and mystical than it once was.

Thanks to Pennsylvania U, I now have a list of 5 majors that I'd like to further explore. They are:

• Visual Studies (Art)
• Philosophy, Politics, and Economics
• Linguistics
• Physics and Astronomy
• East Asian Languages and Civilization

The problem is, is that I like everything. There's more that I want to do in life that's not represented on that list. I'd like to get into programming and maybe some engineering, as well as some type of history/anthropology, psychology, film, and computer animation. Also, beekeeping and aviation.

There's still time to decide, and I'm hoping things will fall into place as I go on in these next few years of life. I can always learn to fly a helicopter, learn Korean and Swedish, and work on artistic pursuits while I keep my main job as some type of physicist...or not. Hopefully I will though.

One career option I'm unsure about though is entomology. It's always been a hobby of mine and whenever I go and dig deeper I really really enjoy it, but I don't know. I feel a bit overwhelmed right now....

France's Niqab Ban

This is taken from a post I made on a thread about the controversy in France regarding a possible ban on the niqab.

I understand why some people are concerned, but I don't think that banning the niqab is really the best way to go.

You have two different ideas about what "equality" is, and two different cultures. You're not going to want to "force" integration or "force" people to be equal, especially since one culture's views of equality may differ from the other culture's. Forcing it is only going to cause resentment on both sides. Side A is going to get more defensive and less willing to integrate, and side B is going to react accordingly and there's going to be all sorts of harmful nativist backlash. ><

If a woman doesn't want to wear the niqab but her parents are going to force her to and harass her through ought her adult life for it, then yeah, she shouldn't be forced to. But if she does want to wear it, then go ahead and let her. One person might argue against it and say it makes her submissive, but she might counter and say it prevents her from being objectified by men and actually protects her.

As for the security thing...maybe there should be some extra security protocol made regarding the niqab. A lot of people probably wouldn't like that though and would shout about discrimination, but you know, what needs to be done for the sake of security just needs to be done. It shouldn't need to come to the point where Muslims/people who choose to wear the niqab or related dress (or any group of people) feel or are specifically targeted, but some people just screw it up for everyone else...I wish that didn't happen. ><

Racism is everywhere, and achieving peaceful and mutually respectful relations between two different cultures is no easy task. It's not going to get solved right away, if ever. Sometimes it takes a while, "a while" meaning over a hundred years. Just don't force things to a point where it produces too much friction, and a fire comes after it.

Facebook posts

I like to make odd/funny posts on Facebook. Here are some examples:

1) My prostitute ate my homework, THEN I ATE HER.
2) …well I wear combat boots to BED!
3) Some days I rather fancy myself as an engineer, other days a beekeeper…but today, A GARDEN GNOME!
4) The gender I most identify with is the one I saw on that internet pop-up add once in Cuba.
5) There is nothing inherently wrong with cannibalism.
6) Stabbing squash sounds much like the sound of a knife stabbing through human skulls.
7) Go to the drug store. Buy condoms, dish soap, and dog food. Attempt to purchase these items in Confederate currency. Slap the cashier when they refuse to accept it.
8) I find your lack of support for eugenics programs to be offensive.
9) TAX FETUSES; OBTAIN REVENUE.
10) Writing stories on the insides of animal bones.

Conlanging - Glad I started it!

Conlang = "constructed language."

Hopefully you read a bit into that page...if you haven't at least skim it. I only got into conlanging about a year and a half ago, though I've been interested in languages for nearly my entire life. (Yeah, I haven't been around that long, but still...) Creating languages is an interesting challenge for me, and every step I take in the development of my projects seems rewarding (even if it doesn't take me in a direction I particularly like or enjoy.) Because I need to add another blog post for February, I've decided to just briefly mention some things I like about conlanging.

For one, it's fun and a neat challenge. Plus, it can be used for all sorts of enjoyable, creative, or nefarious purposes! It also makes you appreciate language and linguistic diversity more while making you more aware of your own language and the mechanics of it. It also encourages you to develop new ways of thinking, and to consider the nature of human (or other!) communication. Plus: it helps you better understand your own language as well as others. :)

Language structure is partly determined by social structure

Language structure is partly determined by social structure

What's Up?

 I just felt the urge to document all the difference variations of "what's up" that I hear in my daily life.

So far we have:

1) What's up?
2) Wuzzup?
3) Wuddup?
4) 'sup?
5) What is up?
6) Wassup?

There we go. 6 different variations of it. At the end there are the obligatory:
- dude
- man
- girl
- yo
- homie
- my friend

ect....

Eh, not really a point to this post. Just wanted to write that down.

Aokigahara Jukai

 - a forest at the base of Mt. Fuji in Japan, "the Sea of Trees."

It is one of the top locations in the world for people wishing to end their lives.  Between 50-100 suicide victims are discovered inside Aokigahara each year by local police and volunteers.Official searches have been going on since 1970. So many people choose to die here that signs have been erected by Japanese officials, saying that life is a precious gift and urging those who have come to die to rethink their decision and seek help. Many haunting folk tales and myths of ghosts and spirits swirl around the forest, no doubt aided by old Japanese lore that says that those who die in unnatural manners are doomed to wander the earth as specters, howling and screaming through ought the night when the remains of their earthly bodies are discovered and allowed to remain alone over night.

 

  

 

Product Reviews

Alright humankind, I've a very important message for y'all:

Don't write negative product reviews just because you failed to follow the instructions and install the device/program correctly!

There.

What's with the 1/5 star reviews just because you failed to follow the set-up instructions correctly? Of course it's not going to work if you didn't install it properly! Seriously, come on....and you know what, if you've got a PC but for some reason you bought a program intended for Linux, don't even bother writing a review at all. Just don't.

You didn't use the product, so don't write a review!

Now in some cases I can understand that the instructions might be a bit confusing for inexperienced users, but that is not a flaw in the operation of the program itself. You must understand the distinction, and communicate your difficulties in setup to the appropriate party.

It's like hating a particular flavour of ice cream just because you had trouble getting the lid off or couldn't open it at all. That ice cream could be the best stuff on earth and plunge you into a world of creamy chilly awesomeness; whether or not you could or couldn't get the lid off has nothing to do with that. It is a problem, yeah, and maybe you should write to the company about that.

Try installing it again and follow the instructions if you need to. Then perhaps you will find that it does indeed work, but your first methods were merely faulty. (Much like trying to open the ice cream we talked about from the bottom of the container or something. You're only gonna get it open if you open it from the top.)

(Okay, you could open it other ways too, but that wrecks the philosophical point doesn't it?)

Joyous News!

Okay, today we got the Wacom (Bamboo) tablets in. Muaha! I was pretty excited for them, though I acted in a pretty subdued manner about it since I'm not always one for extreme reactions. Plus, in New Media it's always the end of the day so I feel real mellow and quiet...and not my usual diabolical self.

I came in late again today, since I had been talking with my history teacher about matters of national security important stuff. Walking in, I found the tablet ready to go at my computer. Michael got to it before I did, and he did some pretty neat stuff with it to be honest. (He should look into that stuff a bit I think.)

It's only the first day, but I'm pretty happy with it so far. I'm likin' the pressure sensitivity and the eraser function. (Yeah, I'm a n00b with tablets so it's kinda cool for me even though I am aware that it's not exactly super new tech.)

The first thing I screwed around with was drawing an eye, which I erased, and then I drew a cartoonish looking evil acorn. It was kinda cool, maybe I'll post it on here.

The last thing I worked on was part of something I'm doing for a movie we're doing in class; a poster of Big Brother. I've got a basic sketch done and the head and face are fine, but I need to work on the suit a bit and the positioning of the arms. He's a late turn-of-the-century Englishman. Inspirations include Lord Kitchener, what I thought the KFC man's uncle would look like, and a picture of some random guys from the 1910 standing around, proudly displaying their mustaches.  

Finals Week!

So, the week of finals approaches. Slowly it creeps upon us, bathing our lives in darkness and despair as we anticipate the horrors of that fateful week.

I'm not too worried though.

However I'd just like to voice the opinion that our finals should have taken place over 2 weeks instead of one. This way we can focus more on putting quality study time into a smaller range of subjects and devote more time to that. Instead of trying to study for everything at once or putting some things off, we can devote equal amounts of time over a two week period.

Random side note: I like the fact that I have 99 posts for last year. :)

Pictures: "Energy Oases" to Green the World's Deserts?

Pictures: "Energy Oases" to Green the World's Deserts?

You can twitter upside down, but what about upside down in SPACE?

Happily, this is now possible! Now everyone up there can twitter and check their Facebooks whilst floating upside down in zero gravity.

The International Space Station is now receiving access to the world wide web via wireless connection, made possible by a very special software upgrade this week. They may now send emails, engage in limited video conferencing, and do whatever else they're allowed by the government to do.

This is not only fun and awesome, but it also will help the astronauts deal with isolation from Earth life and loved ones...ya'know.

To follow the astronauts on twitter, please click this link.

To learn about the history of sugar or Erwin Rommel, please click on their respective names.

"Watch it!"

Oh, I watch it? Let's not forget who barreled into me in the lunch line not two seconds ago.

It's always annoying when you're standing or sitting a really unobtrusive place, removed from the general flow of traffic, and then someone walks by you and positions themselves freakishly close to you, so when they make their next movement they bump into you and then glare at you like it's your fault that their elbow came into contact with the side of your coat.

Especially people carrying bags or purses or packs. It's like they don't realize that what their holding protrudes 2 feet off of their back or out of their ams, and that when they suddenly whip around they will ram their heavy backpack (probably full of cement chunks) into you. Why are people not aware of this?

Must you position yourself right next to me at such a close distance that I begin to wonder about your motives? Then do you really feel the need to back into me, slam into me, push me, or jostle me around because of your inability to see what's right in front of your friggin' face?

Stop it. YOU "watch it" once in a while. This will not only improve your chances of not being punched in the face by me on a bad day, but it will also greatly improve your driving skills as well.

Be aware of your surroundings people. It's not that hard. Just stop thinking about how many meat patties you want in your greasy burger for lunch and WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING DAMMIT!

90 Lashes for Bringing a Cellphone to School

A 13 year old Saudi Arabian school girl has been sentenced to 90 lashes in front of her classmates and 2 months in jail...all for bringing a cellphone to school. Cellphones are banned in her school, and apparently bringing one warrants such harsh punishment in this. Her punishment did not originally include the 2 months in jail, and it was only added on because of media attention brought to the case and the court decided to punish her for trying to draw attention to the case 'in revenge.'

Her punishment is harsher than many given to thieves and robbers. 

In more recent Saudi news, courts have refused to annul the marriage of an 8 year old girl to a 47 year old man to settle her father's debt.

All in all, none of this is really any surprise for a country with such a sad human rights record.

Haiti Destruction

The damage caused to Haiti by the recent earthquakes there is visible from Google Maps. Zoom in on Haiti far enough, and you can see crushed buildings and flattened homes.

The earthquake on the 12th was the most serious the country has had in 200 years. Foreign aid continues to pour in.