Friday, August 31, 2012

A post about...well I don't really know.

I really really really liked where I was going with this blog. I was making good long posts about real things instead of me just saying "Hey, this happened" and not really explaining anything, which is kind of what I did when I started blogging. The problem with today is that I don't have a good topic. I don't really know what to talk about, so I'm just going to say what's going on in my life:

Today I had school, it was...well, it was school. I didn't have to give my speech today because there wasn't enough time! YAYAYAYAYAYAY SO MUCH YAY NOW I WON'T HAVE TO DO IT UNTIL WEDNESDAY (I drop speech on Tuesday A week)! Anyway, that was fun. Then I had PE, then math (which isn't really that good this year), then history (I don't have Jack B. Bouchard for a teacher, so it automatically sucks), then Chemistry (Yay! Chemistry!), then Spanish (as Alberto and I said, ¡cubos de diversión! That means buckets of fun...Spanish is...so many buckets...#sarcasm) then, lastly, I had a free! (Yay! Free!) During this free, well, not much happened. Rohun and Mathieu went to their little corner and played minecraft (game of stupidity) while Nick and I ended up just talking about randomness the whole time. So, that was school today. Now, I'm waiting for my dinner to appear, then I shall eat it. After that, I get picked up by Jonathan VanBriesen and probably his dad and we go to his house for a rocket club meeting. That should be at least kind of entertaining. Then, tomorrow, who knows what's happening. Then, sunday, who knows what's happening. Then, monday, who knows what's happening.

At some point this weekend my friends and I will potentially do something, but that depends on Noah getting an answer, which may or may not happen. We have a new member of the group (I don't know if he's "officially" part of the group or not, but I'm pretty sure he is). His name is Rohun Agarwal. He's pretty cool. He likes Doctor Who! But, he doesn't like Big Bang Theory (he thinks it's stupid, which is total and complete blasphemy), Futurama, or Battlestar Galactica! WHAT!? That's just wrong. But, I hope he is the last new addition to the group. Not that I don't like other people (even though I don't), but I legitimately can't handle large groups of people. Large groups are actually kind of stupid. What happens is everyone just breaks up into smaller groups, and what normally happens with me is I end up talking to no one because, well, I just kind of shut down in large groups (because I'm just uncomfortable and hate it) and become completely anti-social and don't talk to ANYONE, even friends (this is one of the many reasons I don't go to school dances). So, I think seven people is more than enough for a group.

Well, that's my life right now. Hope you enjoyed reading it.

P.S. I've gotten pageviews from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, and the US. Hello whoever is reading my blog! I hope you enjoy!

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Public Speaking

First off, something completely unrelated to the entry: My friend Aki and I are going to plug each other's blog in a post on our own in an attempt to see if we can get more viewers. Here is her blog, it's called Laughing at Dragons. She mostly blogs about her life and stuff, it's pretty interesting. Her blogs are a lot better than mine...

Now, onto the entry:

Public speaking and I have a very twisted and horrible relationship. I hate it and it hates me right back. Here's the problem: my elective at school for the next three months is a class about public speaking. How anyone thought this was a good idea is beyond my comprehension. How I thought it was a good idea is also beyond me. My mindset was to get it out of the way sophomore year. I guess I must have been in denial or something about the content of the class. I may not have space for electives next year, as I plan to double up in science, but senior year I will be doing electives! Why I didn't wait until then is  beyond me. This year was supposed to be awesome. So far, it hasn't been (because of speech).

Now, on to why I don't like public speaking. But, first, a little background on me. Anyone who has just met me will perceive me as a quiet person who doesn't really talk to anyone else. But, anyone who knows me knows I'm anything but quiet. Around my friends, I'm a completely different person. The main difference is I actually talk. If speech class were just my friends and the teacher, I'd pass no problem. The problem is that there are people who I don't know in the class, people I hate, and no one I'm friends with. All of these factors combined equal my death. I legitimately hate talking in front of people who I don't know. It is almost guaranteed that I will do something stupid, as I get nervous and then don't think, which is a problem. Another problem is my thoughts (for when I do think). One problem is I overthink EVERYTHING (which is one of the reasons why I'm so nervous about this class. I just keep thinking of ALL OF THE WAYS IT COULD GO WRONG), so during impromptu speeches I will have stupid pauses where I'm overthinking what to say next, if it makes sense, etc. etc. blah blah blah. The other problem with my thoughts is that they aren't very, um, orderly. They're kind of all over the place. I jump from topic to topic as I'm thinking and it doesn't always make sense when I speak. My close friends normally understand what I mean, but as I don't know anyone in the class, I will just confuse EVERYONE and fail the class. Another very strange problem I have with public speaking is the location in which you speak from. Normally, it's at the front of the room at the lectern. That's where my mind says "WHAT?!?!?! WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?!?!? Oh, well, to calm you down, here's all of the ways this could go horribly wrong and how you could make a complete fool of yourself!" Thanks mind, I really appreciate it, now let me run away and jump into a hole and not come out, thank you. If I were speaking from my seat, this would actually be a lot easier. It's stupid human psychology, and I hate it. There's no real reason that the location should make a difference, but it does. My final problem I have with public speaking is what I have to talk about. If I could just give speeches on astronomy, that were just facts and stuff, I would be like "Yay! I can talk about that easily" But, no. I must give speeches about other people, how to do something useful, a humorous speech, and a persuasive speech. That's a lot of badness. Thankfully I get to do one informative speech, but that's one project out of 8. If I do well on that one, but fail the others, I still won't pass the class, and then I'd have to take it again and die a second time. (If you want detail on each assignment, I made an entry about this on my old blog; have fun reading it, if you so desire.)

So, that's my relationship to public speaking. As I said, it's twisted and horrible. I want to be good at it, I really really really really really really really really do, but there's just something about it that scares me to death, literally. Blogging has actually helped slightly, as I'm now SLIGHTLY (key word, slightly) more comfortable sharing my opinions, but I haven't been doing it long enough to make a real impact on my personality.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Blog name

So some of you readers (if I actually have any) may be wondering why I named my blog what I did. Well, I shall explain to you and then your confusion shall drift away on a cloud of happiness.

The Pale Blue Dot is a name for a picture of the Earth, taken 6 billion miles away by the Voyager 1 spacecraft (VOYAGER MISSION FTW!!!), it was part of a series of pictures called the "Family Portrait" of the solar system. It had a picture of EVERY planet in the solar system (except Pluto, which was actually still a planet at the time). Here is the picture. The picture of the Earth is what caught the attention of most people. It was taken when Earth was right in the middle of a sunbeam, and it is an incredible sight. Here it is. Amazing. Carl Sagan (my absolute favorite person ever) later reflected on the picture (in turn, giving it it's name of "Pale Blue Dot") with this quote:

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here, that's home, that's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
That is the story of the name of the blog. Also one of the MANY reasons I LOVE Carl Sagan

Stupid people

So, for the first real post on this blog I thought I'd talk about people. More specifically, stupid people. This was prompted by something I saw at lunch today, which I will get to in the entry.

Stupid people are everywhere. They are all around us. They come in many shapes, sizes, and types. They are rather annoying. I have many stupid people in my class at school. The most prominent example is a group of people called the "Ethnic 8" (E8 for short) This group is in no way ethnic. It contains six white people and two black people. That does not constitute "ethnic." Now, on to what I saw at lunch today...The members of the E8 were congregating in their usual area, near Mr. Maione's room by the lockers. What they were doing made me lose hope for the future of the human race...They were banging their heads against the lockers to see who can bang their head the hardest, and whoever wins gets to be called "superior." Seeing that made me more angry than ever. I used to just write them off as stupid, but it didn't really effect me that much. This didn't actually effect me that much either, but when you realize that it will be these kinds of people who will be one day running the country, running businesses, doing important things like that it makes you scared for what the future holds.

Another example of stupidity in my class was in Chemistry the other day. In Chemistry we're learning about ions right now. For those who don't know (though EVERYONE should know what ions are!), ions are basically charged atoms. These atoms form charges by either gaining or loosing electrons, the negatively charged component of the atom. The thing that the class seemed to just be UNABLE to wrap their heads around was the fact that ions ARE NOT formed by changing the number of protons. While changing the number of protons WOULD change an atoms charge, IT WOULD MAKE THE ATOM AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SUBSTANCE. This was said by Mr. Marx a bunch of times before he started asking about examples. When he did, almost everyone who answered (except for the smart people, which there are a sad few of in our chem class) answered that the ion would be formed by the number of protons changing. We actually learned this in physics last year, ions = number of electrons changing. It's really NOT THAT COMPLICATED. Stupid people are annoying.

The moral of the entry is: Try to not be stupid. Everyone has the potential to not be. Some just need to try harder than others. If people want the world to be a good place, DON'T BANG YOUR FRAKKING HEAD AGAINST THE LOCKERS JUST TO SEE WHO'S "SUPERIOR." ALL IT DOES IS PROVE YOU'RE AN IDIOTIC IDIOT.

I'm bovvered.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

First post on new blog

HI PEOPLES!!! This is my new blog. My old blog can be found here if you want to read any of my old ramblings...they were quite rambly, which is now a word. I've decided to move my blog to an actual bloggy place instead of DeviantART. So, hi. I'll post random stuffs every day or so, sometimes more than once a day, somedays I won't post. It's rather sporadic. But, anyway, welcome. Enjoy my mind...that sounds creepy.