Remember in year 12905120348BC I once said that I would do almost anything (taking out huge student loans not included) to go to a school in the US, and not in Canada? Well, my parents and I went up to Montreal to visit McGill this weekend (after an hour-long wait in customs), and now I can sufficiently say I have changed my mind. I wouldn't mind going to McGill either, even if it's not very high on my list of priorities.
(The really cute red-haired guy with those dark green-blue eyes that reminded me of Brent Tarleton may have something to do with it. Maybe.)
Before this college-visit-and-all-around-trip thing, I'd been to Princeton (with Tea and Avon), Dartmouth, and Amherst. All three of them are pretty secluded schools, in small towns that are a good distance away from the nearest city. McGill—not so much the case. While it's not located in the heart of Montreal (which, judging from where a lot of the souvenir shops are located, would be in Old Montreal), it's pretty much downtown. A blown-up map of the downtown section has the campus at the edge, and when you look out the gates, you see tall skyscrapers, bustling streets, and lots of people.
Another thing that's different. McGill (like many, if not most, other Canadian schools) has a lot of students. While University of Toronto probably claims the most-populated-school title (to my knowledge, anyway), McGill has some 30,000 people, more or less. That's a lot of people, in a campus that is not particularly big. So the buildings, although not taking up a lot of space, are pretty high.
We were going to go to the Welcome Centre, where we could pick up self-guided tours, but the doors were locked. So I asked around a bit, and finally, whom I shall call Brent from now on told me that the bookstore might have some information, and he pointed us towards what we later found out was a library (the bookstore was behind the library). I got a map of the campus, and thus, we began our self-guided tour (because real tours won't start until June, and we're impatient).
On the right of the campus (if you look in from the front gates) are the science buildings—chemistry, physics, geoscience, environmental, and an anatomy/dentistry building. We mostly walked along there (skipping all the art/music/English buildings, because I only had five minutes to copy down which building was what, and so I skipped them). When we were walking away from the chemistry building, a couple of fire trucks came along, sirens blaring, and stopped in front of said building. We watched for a while, trying to figure out if a lab was on fire, but we couldn't figure anything out, so we went to the medical "wing." This was an oddly shaped (it resembles a drumstick) building, tucked behind the biology block, with mostly glass walls. Really pretty.
I don't think we ever figured out where the math department was, which was a pity. Our self-guided tour of McGill ended somewhere after the med/bio sector. The next day, we drove up Mont-Royal (much less exciting because I'd been there once before), then we wanted to go to the Jardin Botanique, but we couldn't stay for long, so we left for Williams, which was our next destination.
Since we wanted to see the islands between New York and Vermont, on our way to Williams we took Route 2 (and the ferry) across to Grand Isle, then onto the bridge and down Route 7 in Vermont, which leads straight to Williamstown. I got a map of Vermont on the island, and it was because of the map that we discovered that Middlebury was along the route as well, and so we made a detour there first.
(Somewhere here, we passed by this motorcycle parade filled with hundreds of motorcycles—and motorcyclists—whirring past us. It was really spectacular.)
Middlebury is probably the stark opposite of McGill. Whereas McGill was in the middle of a busy cosmopolitan city, with tall, modern buildings and the vibe of a city, Middlebury was calm, quiet, and sombre, with its grey stone buildings protruding from the ground in a neat pattern. We got a self-guide brochure from the admissions office, and followed along the route they told us to go.
The entire conversation of the tour basically went like this (all additional commentary are removed):
"Hey, what's this?"—"Dorms."—"Another dorm."—"Another dorm."—"Dining hall."—"Dorm."—"Dorm."—"That's a pretty building."—"It's another dorm."—"Oh! Science building!"—"What's that?"—"Another dorm."
(I can't type "dorm" now without thinking that it looks weird.)
We did find the academic buildings near the end of the tour (and we ended with the library, but it closed half an hour ago), and then we saw the athletic fields, including a small paddle-tennis court and a golf course. I thought the stone buildings were a bit drab, but they were very elegant, even if more than half of them were dorm buildings.
After Middlebury, we went (on track) to Williams. Compared to Middlebury, most of Williams' buildings are made of red brick, and instead of Middlebury's near-complete seclusion, the structure of the campus just flows into the town itself, with two major roads cutting through the middle of campus. It was somewhat difficult to navigate through campus and figure out what each building was supposed to be (we had a map, but it was not very informative), and after walking through two campuses, I was a bit tired. Nonetheless, I did like the small-town feel of Williams, even if it's not my favorite.
(We also saw two Memorial Day parades, and they were really fascinating to watch. I'm sad I missed our town's parade though. I got an email from Mrs. MacDonald asking for people to hold some banner of some sort? Does any of you know who did it?)
We went mountain-climbing as well, up Mt. Greylock, and up the tower on the summit. It was very fun, mostly because we rode the car up the mountain, as opposed to hiking up the side, so it was much less tiring on such a hot, sunny day. I also collected a lot of maps and brochures, which will be fun to read.
Which reminds me, I still have to read two acts of Othello for tomorrow. I was going to read it over the weekend, but as you can see, I was very distracted.
Also, my visited campuses ranking list thus far:
1. Princeton (what a surprise...)
2. Amherst
3. Middlebury
4. McGill
5. Williams
6. Dartmouth
Monday, May 31, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Wherefore Art Thou, Japan?
I am on a school computer right now, and the screen is flickering. I don't know why, but it has happened before, and when I told the librarian and she came over, it stopped. Then, when she left, it started again. It is most annoying.
Anyway, I had this wonderful post yesterday about how Japan might as well be in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, because we're not getting anywhere, when I realized, no, we're in the Pacific Ocean right now, and technically Japan is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, if not directly in the middle, so it's not as... argumentative. I didn't get to finish that post though, so here I am today, barely finishing my English essay (because of a lot of due date delays, I had plenty of time to work and read GWTW), beginning the first part of the voyage (which is us on the plane) because I can't bear the trip on hiatus anymore.
Besides, I will be gone tomorrow and over the weekend to visit colleges, namely Williams and McGill (and really just McGill, but Williams is along the way), and I won't have access to the Internet, so I might as well write something now.
Several hours later, on my home computer, with no flashing screen.
First of all, I need to ask Julie (and any other reader here): do you want to come on the trip as well? I still need to draw pictures as well (especially of Bruney, I'll get around to that one day).
Secondly, this will be a pictureless post because I have lots of random work to do.
So, to recap, Gretchen and Tea and I are on a plane headed for Japan, our next destination. We had just recently left Chile, and if you wish to read about our adventures there, you can click the "Round The World Trip" log, featured as a link above. There, I've archived all the links to the relevant posts we have written on the subject. Right now, however, we're aboard the plane, and despite what you may have heard about no viable source of communication on planes, there's some strange source of WiFi on here, and so we're not questioning it as all of us relax and check our random sites that we always check online.
Bruney is coming straight from home and meeting us at Japan, where we will have a great time. I'm sure of it. I mean, just the food itself sounds great, and if the food is good, nothing else can go wrong, right? But since we will be on the plane for a whilesince just as it's got WiFi, it's also got the ability to indefinitely suspend in midair until we declare it not to do so, we decided to catch up on some news.
Here's what I found out (not sure about Gretch or Tea):
1) Matt and I are interviewing/surveying our people next week during period 7. Here's some of the classes we may be dropping by (we will be, but I'm not sure which dates)—AP English, Latin 2, three western humanities classes, and numerous others. Yes, these are ournot so randomly chosen classes. There are a lot of freshmen and sophomores. Hmm. I wonder why?
2) Reese can be quite adamant when he wants something. Or annoying. I suppose it depends on how you look at the situation. Also, he's quite savvy with Naviance (not sure if it's a good thing), and Argon has never heard of it before. Never? I guess people surprise you all the time. Or maybe he'll just fall into its evil clutches by the time junior year runs along.
3) This. Today. During physics. It looks painful.
MID—
Rhett: 2
Scarlett: 2.5
Anyway, I had this wonderful post yesterday about how Japan might as well be in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, because we're not getting anywhere, when I realized, no, we're in the Pacific Ocean right now, and technically Japan is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, if not directly in the middle, so it's not as... argumentative. I didn't get to finish that post though, so here I am today, barely finishing my English essay (because of a lot of due date delays, I had plenty of time to work and read GWTW), beginning the first part of the voyage (which is us on the plane) because I can't bear the trip on hiatus anymore.
Besides, I will be gone tomorrow and over the weekend to visit colleges, namely Williams and McGill (and really just McGill, but Williams is along the way), and I won't have access to the Internet, so I might as well write something now.
Several hours later, on my home computer, with no flashing screen.
First of all, I need to ask Julie (and any other reader here): do you want to come on the trip as well? I still need to draw pictures as well (especially of Bruney, I'll get around to that one day).
Secondly, this will be a pictureless post because I have lots of random work to do.
So, to recap, Gretchen and Tea and I are on a plane headed for Japan, our next destination. We had just recently left Chile, and if you wish to read about our adventures there, you can click the "Round The World Trip" log, featured as a link above. There, I've archived all the links to the relevant posts we have written on the subject. Right now, however, we're aboard the plane, and despite what you may have heard about no viable source of communication on planes, there's some strange source of WiFi on here, and so we're not questioning it as all of us relax and check our random sites that we always check online.
Bruney is coming straight from home and meeting us at Japan, where we will have a great time. I'm sure of it. I mean, just the food itself sounds great, and if the food is good, nothing else can go wrong, right? But since we will be on the plane for a while
Here's what I found out (not sure about Gretch or Tea):
1) Matt and I are interviewing/surveying our people next week during period 7. Here's some of the classes we may be dropping by (we will be, but I'm not sure which dates)—AP English, Latin 2, three western humanities classes, and numerous others. Yes, these are our
2) Reese can be quite adamant when he wants something. Or annoying. I suppose it depends on how you look at the situation. Also, he's quite savvy with Naviance (not sure if it's a good thing), and Argon has never heard of it before. Never? I guess people surprise you all the time. Or maybe he'll just fall into its evil clutches by the time junior year runs along.
3) This. Today. During physics. It looks painful.
MID—
Rhett: 2
Scarlett: 2.5
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
UBS Is Uber-Huge (and assorted other adventures)
To sum up the UBS building I visited yesterday as part of my job shadowing program into two words, I would have to pick huge and fancy. If I could have a third, I would probably pick high-tech. In fact, it's been so huge and fancy and high-tech that I don't even know where to start, but I'll try.
The building was tall (and huge, although not more so than an ordinary big concrete building can be), concrete and glass, and by the main entrance, there were two fountain-esque features. They weren't exactly fountains, because they were more like several inches of flat water, but they were calming in a strange way. Then inside, they've got this long, long hallway, which leads to an elevator set, and then, going up the elevator, we (the "supervisor" that I was supposed to shadow and I, but most everyone else as well) walk into this huge, huge, huge room that's around three stories tall and with suspended glass offices at the edges (or so I think, anyway), lots of screens with stock indexes and international times posted everywhere. It was a dizzying experience, trying to take all of it in.
My supervisor, whom I shall call Bob for now for ease of referring to him, took me to his desk, and, as he needed to make several business calls (which were all in a foreign language, so I understood nothing), he gave me a huge booklet on the history of the American stock market ever since the pre-(Teddy) Roosevelt era. I tried to follow some of the business-y news, but instead, I found myself attracted to tidbits such as "Johnson stunned Democrats by declaring not to run for office" and that despite what CNN had told me during the 2008 elections (forgive me if I've remembered this wrong), the Bush administration actually oversaw quite a length of economic expansion (granted, the book ended at 2004, so it did not take into account the catastrophe of the later years).
Then Bob showed me to an ETF trader (and if the terminology sounds bizarre, it's because I only remember some of what he does, since he showed me so much stuff). I was there before the markets opened, so he had plenty of time to explain a lot of the things behind what he did. It was all Excel-heavy and he himself said that he had been a computer engineer major, and, during an internship at UBS in IT, fell in love with the excitement on the trading floor. I bet the multiple monitors each person had was a huge plus as well. They've got about three monitors per person, and sometimes even more, and all those screens were filled with charts and tables and other cool things.
After that, I met with several people involved in futures (whatever that means, I still have not found out). All I managed to figure out was that whenever something happened, there was this really cool sound effect that sounded like cars zooming past, and then sometimes a cash register sound, and sometimes a glass object breaking sound. I tried staring at the monitors, figuring out what was causing the sounds, but everything was flashing, and there were so many of them, and so many bright, ever-changing colors. It was exciting, extremely exciting.
Bob led me to the equity traders next, where I learned a short crash-course on inflation and more importantly, that the international equity traders often woke up at ungodly hours (going to work at 5:30am, or, if you were in Hong Kong, apparently going to work at 7am and still working at 11pm) and that they were assigned specific regions, but they were experts in their region, and knew all the news and such.
Then came the analysts, and one of the head analysts had a son who went to Paperclip. He asked me about my math classes and math team, and relayed the rumor/myth/maybe-true tale of how for several years, MIT only accepted one student per year from Paperclip. Well, I hope the spell's been broken, because there are so many people applying to MIT next year, and it would be awful if they only accepted one. Anyway, then we talked about analyses that contained t-tests and regression lines and r-values. It was statistics in real life, and it was amazing.
I went to an options trader later, but she was busy, so then I went to the economists' back row (the entire room's rather organized, and maybe if I feel like it I'll draw a picture later). I got a ten-minute crash-course of the US economy in the past, oh, 100 years or so (crash-courses seem very popular here, or maybe it's just me). The guy who was explaining everything to me then joked that he would be offering a crash-course in physics next.
I had to leave after that, but it was still quite an experience. Sorta left me speechless (except the always present "thank you") for a while. Yeah. Perhaps an analysis of this experience will come later. Maybe.
In GWTW (my abbreviation for the book I'm reading now) news, I'm extremely saddened. And frustrated. Rhett Bulter is, as Scarlett says, "no gentleman at all," but I had not expected him to be so irritating. I never found Catcher in the Rye frustrating, but I am now finding GWTW the most annoying thing I have ever read, and one of the saddest one as well, all at the same time. I can't believe it's not on some English curriculum at our school. It definitely should be—except that it's over 1000 pages long and most people in my English class right now would probably only Sparknote half of it, if that.
As it is, Othello will have to tide me over for now.
MID—
Rhett: 1.5
Scarlett: 2.5
The building was tall (and huge, although not more so than an ordinary big concrete building can be), concrete and glass, and by the main entrance, there were two fountain-esque features. They weren't exactly fountains, because they were more like several inches of flat water, but they were calming in a strange way. Then inside, they've got this long, long hallway, which leads to an elevator set, and then, going up the elevator, we (the "supervisor" that I was supposed to shadow and I, but most everyone else as well) walk into this huge, huge, huge room that's around three stories tall and with suspended glass offices at the edges (or so I think, anyway), lots of screens with stock indexes and international times posted everywhere. It was a dizzying experience, trying to take all of it in.
My supervisor, whom I shall call Bob for now for ease of referring to him, took me to his desk, and, as he needed to make several business calls (which were all in a foreign language, so I understood nothing), he gave me a huge booklet on the history of the American stock market ever since the pre-(Teddy) Roosevelt era. I tried to follow some of the business-y news, but instead, I found myself attracted to tidbits such as "Johnson stunned Democrats by declaring not to run for office" and that despite what CNN had told me during the 2008 elections (forgive me if I've remembered this wrong), the Bush administration actually oversaw quite a length of economic expansion (granted, the book ended at 2004, so it did not take into account the catastrophe of the later years).
Then Bob showed me to an ETF trader (and if the terminology sounds bizarre, it's because I only remember some of what he does, since he showed me so much stuff). I was there before the markets opened, so he had plenty of time to explain a lot of the things behind what he did. It was all Excel-heavy and he himself said that he had been a computer engineer major, and, during an internship at UBS in IT, fell in love with the excitement on the trading floor. I bet the multiple monitors each person had was a huge plus as well. They've got about three monitors per person, and sometimes even more, and all those screens were filled with charts and tables and other cool things.
After that, I met with several people involved in futures (whatever that means, I still have not found out). All I managed to figure out was that whenever something happened, there was this really cool sound effect that sounded like cars zooming past, and then sometimes a cash register sound, and sometimes a glass object breaking sound. I tried staring at the monitors, figuring out what was causing the sounds, but everything was flashing, and there were so many of them, and so many bright, ever-changing colors. It was exciting, extremely exciting.
Bob led me to the equity traders next, where I learned a short crash-course on inflation and more importantly, that the international equity traders often woke up at ungodly hours (going to work at 5:30am, or, if you were in Hong Kong, apparently going to work at 7am and still working at 11pm) and that they were assigned specific regions, but they were experts in their region, and knew all the news and such.
Then came the analysts, and one of the head analysts had a son who went to Paperclip. He asked me about my math classes and math team, and relayed the rumor/myth/maybe-true tale of how for several years, MIT only accepted one student per year from Paperclip. Well, I hope the spell's been broken, because there are so many people applying to MIT next year, and it would be awful if they only accepted one. Anyway, then we talked about analyses that contained t-tests and regression lines and r-values. It was statistics in real life, and it was amazing.
I went to an options trader later, but she was busy, so then I went to the economists' back row (the entire room's rather organized, and maybe if I feel like it I'll draw a picture later). I got a ten-minute crash-course of the US economy in the past, oh, 100 years or so (crash-courses seem very popular here, or maybe it's just me). The guy who was explaining everything to me then joked that he would be offering a crash-course in physics next.
I had to leave after that, but it was still quite an experience. Sorta left me speechless (except the always present "thank you") for a while. Yeah. Perhaps an analysis of this experience will come later. Maybe.
In GWTW (my abbreviation for the book I'm reading now) news, I'm extremely saddened. And frustrated. Rhett Bulter is, as Scarlett says, "no gentleman at all," but I had not expected him to be so irritating. I never found Catcher in the Rye frustrating, but I am now finding GWTW the most annoying thing I have ever read, and one of the saddest one as well, all at the same time. I can't believe it's not on some English curriculum at our school. It definitely should be—except that it's over 1000 pages long and most people in my English class right now would probably only Sparknote half of it, if that.
As it is, Othello will have to tide me over for now.
MID—
Rhett: 1.5
Scarlett: 2.5
Monday, May 24, 2010
Slow Down That Dance, Please?
Major spoilers: In the span of 60 pages (yes, I read all of that today during numerous "free periods" that I'm now doubting my capability of staying on task for long periods of time), Scarlett O'Hara has gone from overly optimistic about winning over the love of her life (or so she thinks, anyway) to becoming married to someone else she abhors, to becoming a widow with a child she doesn't really care about. Uh, what? She's not even Scarlett O'Hara anymore, since she's been married already, and obviously not divorced.
That's quite a lot of action (or really, more like drama) in 60 pages. Which, I know, for an ordinary book of 200+ pages, is quite a chunk of text, but for this book of 1000+ pages, is rather small. I can only imagine (as I haven't read it yet, duh) what comes next.
Instead of being the patient reader as I should be, and because I've been rather spoiled already by the movie's famous line ("frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"), I decided to go fanfiction-hunting. It's only made me want to read the book more (despite those annoying "lady-like" callings that goes against almost everything I'm for), and so Amanda suggested that if I read 30 pages per day, I will be able to finish nearly 900 pages, and have only 100 more pages to go, which I can finish up on the horrible Courier New font copy online. I'm not a fan of anything over five pages in that font.
The rest of my day has been quite a daze, as I've been reading for most of it. The other parts, I was mostly worrying about homework (why do these even exist now?) and other things (including building molecules of 1,3-butyne with a glob of oxygen, sulfur, nitrogen, phosphorus, chlorine, iodine, hydrogen, among other silvery unnamed elements that probably does not have a coherent IUPAC name, although it did have optical isomers). Then, I started worrying about my job shadow tomorrow, especially the dressing "business casual" part. Needless to say, I am not a fashion person, nor someone who frequents the "professional" world as of yet, and therefore my wardrobe consists of little useful garments in this setting. So I'm still on the search for a pair of decent pants (contrary to my dad's opinion that jeans are okay). Other than that, I shall hope to be fine (nervousness aside, but I've always done that).
Also, major traffic jam tomorrow heading on one of the worst highways during rush hour in the country? Yeah. Not fun. I would take the train, but seeing as I haven't maneuvered that before, I'm probably not going to try that tomorrow. But before any of that, I have to figure out how to pronounce the name of the person I'm shadowing. I should try one of those fancy pronouncers that specialize in names such as Mozart and Bach and Beethoven (and other non-musician names, but those are the only few I remember—although there may be a Clinton one).
And of course, homework. This week is turning out to be rather hectic.
MID—
Rhett: 1.5
Scarlett: 1
That's quite a lot of action (or really, more like drama) in 60 pages. Which, I know, for an ordinary book of 200+ pages, is quite a chunk of text, but for this book of 1000+ pages, is rather small. I can only imagine (as I haven't read it yet, duh) what comes next.
Instead of being the patient reader as I should be, and because I've been rather spoiled already by the movie's famous line ("frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn"), I decided to go fanfiction-hunting. It's only made me want to read the book more (despite those annoying "lady-like" callings that goes against almost everything I'm for), and so Amanda suggested that if I read 30 pages per day, I will be able to finish nearly 900 pages, and have only 100 more pages to go, which I can finish up on the horrible Courier New font copy online. I'm not a fan of anything over five pages in that font.
The rest of my day has been quite a daze, as I've been reading for most of it. The other parts, I was mostly worrying about homework (why do these even exist now?) and other things (including building molecules of 1,3-butyne with a glob of oxygen, sulfur, nitrogen, phosphorus, chlorine, iodine, hydrogen, among other silvery unnamed elements that probably does not have a coherent IUPAC name, although it did have optical isomers). Then, I started worrying about my job shadow tomorrow, especially the dressing "business casual" part. Needless to say, I am not a fashion person, nor someone who frequents the "professional" world as of yet, and therefore my wardrobe consists of little useful garments in this setting. So I'm still on the search for a pair of decent pants (contrary to my dad's opinion that jeans are okay). Other than that, I shall hope to be fine (nervousness aside, but I've always done that).
Also, major traffic jam tomorrow heading on one of the worst highways during rush hour in the country? Yeah. Not fun. I would take the train, but seeing as I haven't maneuvered that before, I'm probably not going to try that tomorrow. But before any of that, I have to figure out how to pronounce the name of the person I'm shadowing. I should try one of those fancy pronouncers that specialize in names such as Mozart and Bach and Beethoven (and other non-musician names, but those are the only few I remember—although there may be a Clinton one).
And of course, homework. This week is turning out to be rather hectic.
MID—
Rhett: 1.5
Scarlett: 1
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Rhett Says We're On Everest
Eighty-something pages into Gone With the Wind, I've finally met Rhett (officially), and I have to say, he is a bit of a disappointment. He has a weird mustache, and he's over thirty years old, when Scarlett's only sixteen. It was acceptable back then, and in some places, still acceptable today, but I don't attach any romantic inclinations towards men over twice my age with mustaches and appear "cool" (I'm pretty sure this "cool" does not have the connotations it has now) looking.
However, he's got a cool (modern definition) name, and with a name like Rhett, I will forgive his other faults so far. For the time being. Besides, I do want to see how the drunk Tarleton twins will handle Scarlett's new fancy (if she gets over the cousin-marrying fiend first, that is).
On a more personal level, yesterday, Zephy and I started from Base Camp (our school) and hiked up Mt. Everest to arrive at the peak (our homes). Along the way, we scaled numerous icy paths and lumpy rocks, and made a pit stop at one of the camps along the way.
Zephy rang the doorbell (sophisticated technology), and after a while, Vincent opened the door.
So we went in, took a rest, and watched some adorable mountain critters (kittens) play with each other and running away from us. That last part was kind of sad, but at least one of them liked us, so we mostly played with him while dangling the cat toy (a good distance away from us) for the others to play.
I've also not updated for some time, so a brief recap of things that happened before my outlandish hike up the ever-daunting Everest. Wednesday there was a lab in chem, whereupon we played with super-concentrated HCl (6M, which is half the strength of stock HCl) and vaporized magnesium strips (technically, the magnesium was not vaporized, it merely ionized into Mg+2 and the gas given off was hydrogen, but it sure does look like the magnesium was vaporized). The next day, Argon and Reese and I had a discussion about Reese's awful lab skills, mainly pouring chemicals (which he claims is "in the family," as his sister was awful at that as well). We were all glad that Reese did not participate in the lab I had the day before, because, as Mr. Coffee had said, "One drop of this stuff on your hand, you'll feel fine, and then after a while, you'll say, 'owww.' More than one drop, and you're in serious trouble."
On Thursday, my SAT scores also came out! I'd been waiting for them for, uh, pretty much since I got them over with, and I did way better than I thought I would, so I'm happy. No more icky SATs (not even SAT IIs anymore). I also ran the mile run, with more than a minute over the "health" limit, and half a minute more than what I had accomplished last year, but I blame my current non-activity in health class, instead of gym, as the main culprit.
Today (and tomorrow), all the state parks open for free (most of them are free anyway, as I later realized), so my parents and I went upstate to a place with mountains, streams (with fish), and lots of campsites. We watched a few people fishing for a while, then we went nearby to a waterfall. All in all, it was an eventful day. Plus, I found a few more nice songs from a playlist someone else compiled, so I'm going to listen to those while writing my multiple perspective narrative. (Argon had trouble with the "creative" writing part, so I tried to explain with a complex system of where the input from the surroundings spurred personal output, which altered the environment and thus creates more input, and so the cycle goes on. I think this made it more logical than creative, but oh well.)
MID—
Rhett: 0.5
Scarlett: 1
However, he's got a cool (modern definition) name, and with a name like Rhett, I will forgive his other faults so far. For the time being. Besides, I do want to see how the drunk Tarleton twins will handle Scarlett's new fancy (if she gets over the cousin-marrying fiend first, that is).
On a more personal level, yesterday, Zephy and I started from Base Camp (our school) and hiked up Mt. Everest to arrive at the peak (our homes). Along the way, we scaled numerous icy paths and lumpy rocks, and made a pit stop at one of the camps along the way.
Zephy rang the doorbell (sophisticated technology), and after a while, Vincent opened the door.
So we went in, took a rest, and watched some adorable mountain critters (kittens) play with each other and running away from us. That last part was kind of sad, but at least one of them liked us, so we mostly played with him while dangling the cat toy (a good distance away from us) for the others to play.
I've also not updated for some time, so a brief recap of things that happened before my outlandish hike up the ever-daunting Everest. Wednesday there was a lab in chem, whereupon we played with super-concentrated HCl (6M, which is half the strength of stock HCl) and vaporized magnesium strips (technically, the magnesium was not vaporized, it merely ionized into Mg+2 and the gas given off was hydrogen, but it sure does look like the magnesium was vaporized). The next day, Argon and Reese and I had a discussion about Reese's awful lab skills, mainly pouring chemicals (which he claims is "in the family," as his sister was awful at that as well). We were all glad that Reese did not participate in the lab I had the day before, because, as Mr. Coffee had said, "One drop of this stuff on your hand, you'll feel fine, and then after a while, you'll say, 'owww.' More than one drop, and you're in serious trouble."
On Thursday, my SAT scores also came out! I'd been waiting for them for, uh, pretty much since I got them over with, and I did way better than I thought I would, so I'm happy. No more icky SATs (not even SAT IIs anymore). I also ran the mile run, with more than a minute over the "health" limit, and half a minute more than what I had accomplished last year, but I blame my current non-activity in health class, instead of gym, as the main culprit.
Today (and tomorrow), all the state parks open for free (most of them are free anyway, as I later realized), so my parents and I went upstate to a place with mountains, streams (with fish), and lots of campsites. We watched a few people fishing for a while, then we went nearby to a waterfall. All in all, it was an eventful day. Plus, I found a few more nice songs from a playlist someone else compiled, so I'm going to listen to those while writing my multiple perspective narrative. (Argon had trouble with the "creative" writing part, so I tried to explain with a complex system of where the input from the surroundings spurred personal output, which altered the environment and thus creates more input, and so the cycle goes on. I think this made it more logical than creative, but oh well.)
MID—
Rhett: 0.5
Scarlett: 1
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Now Or Never
I don't believe in fairy tales, too cynical . . . I'm not gonna live forever, said I'm not gonna live forever—gotta make it now or never.—Forever or Never, Cinema Bizarre
Matt and I decided upon a project where we would interview various period 7 classes (because that was when we had stat, and when we could be around the school interviewing people in other classes) and ask them about their opinions on the increase of various department budgets. So we tried to follow a statistical approach, and randomly chose five classes out of every group (we had separated them by AP/honors, A-, and B-levels). This process was much flawed by the senior interns, whom I have not talked about extensively yet but I may get to in the future.
Anyway, for our AP/honors classes, we had chosen notoriously senior-infested classes such as AP environmental and AP Spanish. This posed a problem, because we needed at least six people from each class, so Matt said we could just, uh, choose another class that fitted our needs. It was not random, but, hey, it was the best we could do without physically tracking down the seniors in their intern positions.
(Later on, I asked Reese how many people were in his AP Spanish class, and he said two, including him. So Spanish was definitely out.)
Also, speaking of internships, the Paperclip Job Shadow "event" is coming up soon, and apparently my name was called on Friday, but I did not hear because I was in the hallway at the time (trying to navigate from one end of the school to the other in under five minutes). So I was informed this morning that there would be a workshop for job shadow participants during lunch, which I promptly forgot (until lunch was almost over, and I was in the library with Argon, who informed me that he wrote his elemental symbol on his tests for his chem class now). Luckily, I was able to schedule another appointment during the first half of period 7 to make it up. And, hopefully, I won't forget the second workshop (résumé writing, what fun) tomorrow.
(Clara and Ariadne and I looked over some of those mock-résumés, and they were ridiculous. Varsity basketball captain, founder of the Ultimate Frisbee club, various trips around the world to volunteer—with everything funded by scholarship money, high honors, 3.8/4.0 GPAs, NHS, various other academic clubs and activities, various other community service clubs and activities. Ridiculous, I say. I thought mock-résumés were supposed to be average content-wise so we could feel good about ourselves and be confident with the résumés we came up with.)
Today was also my English class' designated reading period (for the week). I brought in Gone with the Wind, as I mentioned yesterday, and this book has well over 1000 pages. We had around 45 minutes to read, and after those 45 minutes, I accomplished 26 pages. Only 1000 or so pages more to go. Yippee. (Can you believe "yippee" is a word, but "yay" is not, according to spellcheck?)
Non sequitur (a word I learned from Reese earlier today, as we were discussing his Spanish class, Spanish in general, how little I know of the Spanish language, and typing Spanish using a Spanish keyboard), I was bored yesterday, so I typed "forever" in my Google search bar. Then I decided to add "or never" to it, and searched the result, and came up with Cinema Bizarre's song, Forever or Never, which I found fascinating. So I searched the band up, and discovered the Eurovision contest, and last year's winner, who is absolutely the most adorable violinist I have ever seen (the most adorable human being I reserve for someone else who happens to not be a violinist).
I spent over two hours on various Eurovision finalist songs, including this Ukraine one, which is bizarre (the refrain is apparently "I want to see Russia goodbye"?), to put it mildly, and this Russian one, which features a girl popping out of a piano.
I feel it everyday, it's all the same. It brings me down all the time but I'm the one to blame.—Over and Over, Three Days Grace
MID—
Scarlett: 0
Rhett: 0.5
Matt and I decided upon a project where we would interview various period 7 classes (because that was when we had stat, and when we could be around the school interviewing people in other classes) and ask them about their opinions on the increase of various department budgets. So we tried to follow a statistical approach, and randomly chose five classes out of every group (we had separated them by AP/honors, A-, and B-levels). This process was much flawed by the senior interns, whom I have not talked about extensively yet but I may get to in the future.
Anyway, for our AP/honors classes, we had chosen notoriously senior-infested classes such as AP environmental and AP Spanish. This posed a problem, because we needed at least six people from each class, so Matt said we could just, uh, choose another class that fitted our needs. It was not random, but, hey, it was the best we could do without physically tracking down the seniors in their intern positions.
(Later on, I asked Reese how many people were in his AP Spanish class, and he said two, including him. So Spanish was definitely out.)
Also, speaking of internships, the Paperclip Job Shadow "event" is coming up soon, and apparently my name was called on Friday, but I did not hear because I was in the hallway at the time (trying to navigate from one end of the school to the other in under five minutes). So I was informed this morning that there would be a workshop for job shadow participants during lunch, which I promptly forgot (until lunch was almost over, and I was in the library with Argon, who informed me that he wrote his elemental symbol on his tests for his chem class now). Luckily, I was able to schedule another appointment during the first half of period 7 to make it up. And, hopefully, I won't forget the second workshop (résumé writing, what fun) tomorrow.
(Clara and Ariadne and I looked over some of those mock-résumés, and they were ridiculous. Varsity basketball captain, founder of the Ultimate Frisbee club, various trips around the world to volunteer—with everything funded by scholarship money, high honors, 3.8/4.0 GPAs, NHS, various other academic clubs and activities, various other community service clubs and activities. Ridiculous, I say. I thought mock-résumés were supposed to be average content-wise so we could feel good about ourselves and be confident with the résumés we came up with.)
Today was also my English class' designated reading period (for the week). I brought in Gone with the Wind, as I mentioned yesterday, and this book has well over 1000 pages. We had around 45 minutes to read, and after those 45 minutes, I accomplished 26 pages. Only 1000 or so pages more to go. Yippee. (Can you believe "yippee" is a word, but "yay" is not, according to spellcheck?)
Non sequitur (a word I learned from Reese earlier today, as we were discussing his Spanish class, Spanish in general, how little I know of the Spanish language, and typing Spanish using a Spanish keyboard), I was bored yesterday, so I typed "forever" in my Google search bar. Then I decided to add "or never" to it, and searched the result, and came up with Cinema Bizarre's song, Forever or Never, which I found fascinating. So I searched the band up, and discovered the Eurovision contest, and last year's winner, who is absolutely the most adorable violinist I have ever seen (the most adorable human being I reserve for someone else who happens to not be a violinist).
I spent over two hours on various Eurovision finalist songs, including this Ukraine one, which is bizarre (the refrain is apparently "I want to see Russia goodbye"?), to put it mildly, and this Russian one, which features a girl popping out of a piano.
I feel it everyday, it's all the same. It brings me down all the time but I'm the one to blame.—Over and Over, Three Days Grace
MID—
Scarlett: 0
Rhett: 0.5
Monday, May 17, 2010
Belle Noire
I've had this idea for a very, very long time, but I've never quite finished it. Unlike my yeah-we'll-run-around-with-swords-and-try-not-to-kill-each-other story though, I really want to finish this one. There are some minor problems. The most not-minor (but still minor, I hope) one is that I have no idea if it's even good so far. I mean, usually I write without caring how other people think about it (for the most part) because it's more a catharsis (yay, vocab word) of my mind, but this one is a remodeling of an existing piece, so I'm not sure if I should revamp it even more or let it be. But here's what I have so far, and you can judge it as it is (it's only half complete, so I'll add explanatory notes at the end).
[Alice enters.]
ALICE: I come from a world of black and white—of darkness and light. I come to this world blind of emotion and blind to pain. For every step I take, I step upon an ancestor's bones—for my ascent to the silvery throne is a path ridden with secrets and forebodings.
[Alice freezes. Ralph enters.]
RALPH: I hold my soul with utmost priority; with even more pride. I will defend my heart and all which it trusts, until I reach the land of darkness, where trust is shattered and hope abandoned and even the most minuscule of doubt magnifies to breath-taking errors.
ALICE: But when I close my eyes...
RALPH: But when I close my eyes...
ALICE: I see a world of autumn blues—of ocean reds—of grass golds—
RALPH: I see a world of light, with no more fear and no more perfidy—
ALICE and RALPH: This is my wish.
[Alice and Ralph exit at separate ends of the stage.]
[Ralph and Joss enters.]
JOSS: (taps Ralph on the head) That was unnecessary. She didn't deserve that.
RALPH: Are you my friend or hers?
JOSS: Hey, calm down. I'm not saying she was right or anything, but to just up and call her a liar in front of everyone else, without giving her a chance to explain herself—that was uncalled for.
RALPH: I don't care.
JOSS: Yeah, you don't care. You've never cared about anything.
RALPH: Why do you care so much?
JOSS: Because people have been talking behind your back, calling you—
RALPH: Look, I don't care what they say.
JOSS: You may not care, but some people—
RALPH: (turns to face Joss and holds him by one shoulder) Is this about you? Is this because you don't want to be around me, because you're afraid of what others would say if they see you associated with me?
JOSS: Hey, I never said—
RALPH: You've never said a lot of things. Always been too afraid to say them.
[Ralph spins around and stalks off stage.]
JOSS: Jeez, what's your problem?
[Justin enters.]
JUSTIN: Are you talking to me, Ritchell?
JOSS: No, Sandler. Mind your own business.
JUSTIN: Don't talk me like that. Your bodyguard's not here with you now, is he? I'm looking for him—where'd he go?
JOSS: Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you. Why do you want to find him anyway? All you're going to do is fight.
JUSTIN: Fight, yeah, I will. He insulted Skye and called her a liar. The Wextons are all a bunch of trash-talkers. I'm not going to let him get away that easily.
JOSS: You couldn't just talk to him maturely?
JUSTIN: (holds Joss by his collar) You want to fight? I know what you are—you're a coward, that's what you are.
[Other people come gathered around, chanting and taunting.]
CROWD: Fight! Fight! Fight!
[Miguel Hunter enters.]
MIGUEL: What is going on here? Boys!
[Justin lets go of Joss reluctantly.]
MIGUEL: You boys have caused enough trouble already, you two and that Wexton boy. I can't take it anymore. I will report this to the principal today, but if I catch any of you fighting again, I will have to arrest you. And mind you, that mark against you will stay with you forever.
JOSS and JUSTIN: Yes, Officer Hunter.
MIGUEL: Now run along, everyone!
[All exit except Joss.]
JOSS: Coward, me? Huh.
[Joss exits.]
[Avery and Joss enters.]
AVERY: (starts talking even before he walks on stage) So what did you say to Ralph? He walked past me looking like he's ready to kill someone.
JOSS: I just said that the whole Skye incident was wholly unnecessary. He overreacted.
AVERY: What really happened? I mean, I've heard a bit here and there, but—oh, look, here she is herself.
[Skye enters.]
AVERY: Hey, Skye!
SKYE: (waves) Hi Avery, hi Joss.
AVERY: What's up?
SKYE: Not much. I've been busy—oh, there's a party at Alice's house on Saturday night. Do you want to come? You can come too, if you want, Joss.
AVERY: You really think that's a good idea? We're not exactly the most loved boys at the Leightly household, Joss and I.
SKYE: It's a masquerade-themed party, so no one will notice who you are. Besides, Alice's parents won't be home that weekend. That's why the party's at her house.
AVERY: All right, we'll think about it.
JOSS: Yeah.
SKYE: Well, I hope to see you two there. Bye, Avery. Bye, Joss.
[Skye exits.]
AVERY: A party, huh. Well. The perfect time to bring Ralph along.
JOSS: Are you out of your mind, Avery? If the Leightlys ever find out, they'll probably come after the Wextons with guns in hand.
AVERY: Relax! We've got costumes, no one's going to recognize Ralph. And we need to get Ralph into the social scene somehow. How else is he ever going to stop being a jerk all the time?
JOSS: Just so you know, I think this is a stupid idea.
AVERY: Don't worry about it, Joss. If we're lucky, maybe we'll find Ralph a girlfriend as well. It'll do him well, soften him up.
[All exit.]
[Heath enters.]
HEATH: (a flower in hand, plucking off the petals) She loves me, she loves me not, she loves me, she loves—
[Alice enters.]
HEATH: Hi there, Alice.
ALICE: Hi.
HEATH: I—uh, really liked your performance yesterday. You played Juliet really well, like you were meant to play that role.
ALICE: Thanks.
HEATH: So, uh—
[Henry Leightly enters.]
HENRY: Heath, my boy! You're here courting my daughter again?
HEATH: Hi, Mr. Leightly. Alice and I were just talking about the play last night.
HENRY: Oh, yes, Romeo and Juliet. I reckon that was one of the most beautiful shows I'd ever seen, isn't that so, Alice?
ALICE: I suppose so.
HENRY: And Heath, how are your parents doing? Business still well, I hope?
HEATH: Yes, everything is fine. Dad's thinking of starting a new branch in Seattle next month, if everything goes well.
HENRY: That's splendid! And you, school coming along nicely?
HEATH: Soccer season is just starting, and I'm captain of the varsity team this year. We're hoping for a great season.
HENRY: That's my boy! (slaps Heath on the back) Well, I'll leave you kids to yourselves. Don't get too carried away.
[Henry chuckles and exits.]
HEATH: I—
ALICE: (at the same time) I—
HEATH: You first.
ALICE: Oh, I just—I'm tired, that's all.
HEATH: Oh. Well, would you like me to leave?
ALICE: I'm afraid I won't be much company. I'll see you this weekend.
HEATH: Okay, later.
[Alice exits.]
HEATH: (twirls flower again) She loves me, she loves me not, she loves me—oh, she—(plucks off last petal)—what am I doing? This is stupid.
[Heath throws the flower on the ground and exits.]
[Avery, Joss, and Ralph enter with costumes, with the latter two on opposite sides of Avery.]
RALPH: This is the most pointless thing I've ever done in my life.
JOSS: Oh, stop being so cynical. It's a party, you're supposed to have fun.
RALPH: I'm so sorry, my idea of fun is different from yours. What, the people talking behind my back are also making fun of that? Why do you even bother talking to me then?
AVERY: Ralph, Joss, calm down, both of you. Joss is right, we're supposed to have fun, and Ralph, there's not only one way to party. Maybe you'll find your fun here, but you'll never know if you don't try.
RALPH: The great Avery Kanswell is being philosophical now.
AVERY: I can be if I want to be.
RALPH: Where are we going anyway? You haven't told me yet.
AVERY: Oh, close enough. You'll see once we get there.
JOSS: If we ever get there, that is. You sure we're not lost, Avery? It's supposed to be a fifteen minute walk, and we must have been walking for at least thirty minutes.
AVERY: Don't you trust me?
RALPH: At the moment, no.
AVERY: Oh yeah, why don't you two team up on me, huh? The only thing you're agreeing on is disagreeing with me?
JOSS: I'd be a lot more willing to agree with you if we're where we're supposed to be.
RALPH: I'd never agree with you.
[Faint music starts up in the background, and getting louder with each step they take.]
AVERY: Okay, okay! We're almost there—no, we're here already!
RALPH: (looks around) This is the place? Isn't this—
AVERY: Who cares what it is, we're here. Put on your masks. It's a masquerade, after all.
RALPH: But this is—
AVERY: It is, it isn't, who cares?
[Avery pushes Ralph off stage. Joss exits.]
[Alice, Heath, Justin, Skye, and several others are already there, all in costume. Avery, Joss, and Ralph enter discreetly from the side. Avery and Joss try to drag Ralph to dance, but he refuses, and they go on without him. Alice is standing by the punch bowl, not doing anything. Ralph approaches her.]
RALPH: Got an extra cup?
ALICE: They're by the chips.
RALPH: Hn, thank you.
ALICE: I haven't seen you before.
RALPH: I wouldn't think so, unless you go to masquerades every other week.
ALICE: No, at any other party. I haven't seen you before.
RALPH: Maybe you missed me.
ALICE: No one else ever drinks before they at least dance a while. It's too early to be drinking.
RALPH: Maybe you missed me the times before because I was too early.
ALICE: No, I wouldn't have. I'm always here.
RALPH: Always? Why, you don't dance?
ALICE: I'd rather not.
RALPH: What are you doing at a party then?
ALICE: I—my friends are here. What are you doing here?
RALPH: Friends. Those who you think know you the best really know nothing of you at all.
ALICE: Do you think so? What do your friends think of you?
RALPH: (pause) A stuck-up, cold-hearted jerk, I'll bet.
ALICE: What do you think of yourself then?
RALPH: I—I don't know. (pause) I'd like to think I'm a fighter.
ALICE: A fighter? Against what?
RALPH: This world. Everyone in it. Sometimes even my friends.
ALICE: But you still see them as your friends.
RALPH: Yeah. I—there isn't anyone else who'd listen to me but them.
ALICE: That must count for something, doesn't it?
RALPH: What about your friends? Why aren't you dancing with them?
ALICE: They like parties. I don't.
RALPH: Why, too loud for you?
ALICE: No, it's just—too many people. I don't like it very much.
RALPH: But you wouldn't fight against your friends? Even if they wanted something you didn't?
ALICE: It doesn't matter anyway.
RALPH: They won't ever know if you don't tell them.
ALICE: No, no. I don't mind, really.
SKYE: (from the other side of the stage, shouting) Alice!
ALICE: Coming! (to Ralph) I'm sorry, I must leave now.
[Alice walks away to where Skye is, and Avery walks over to Ralph.]
AVERY: Hey, Ralph, having fun yet?
RALPH: As much as I'd expected.
[Justin, who was walking by, hears them and realizes that Ralph is here. He walks over to Skye's group as well.]
JUSTIN: (mutters to himself) Wexton, to have the guts! Oh, I'll get you one day, just you wait.
AVERY: Aw, come on. We saw you talking to a pretty girl that was just here. What's her name?
RALPH: Didn't ask.
AVERY: Really? Ralph, you've got to do better than that! You have to ask for her name and number. How else are you ever going to talk to her again?
RALPH: I don't plan to talk to her again anyway.
AVERY: You're such a bore. All right, let's get going then. Joss might've had too much to drink. He's been hitting on Melissa all night long. Besides, it's getting late, and I have an English paper I have to write for Monday.
[Ralph, Avery, and Joss exit.]
HEATH: Alice, want to dance with me?
ALICE: I'm sorry, my head hurts. I think I'll go to bed early. Make sure everything's in order for me, will you?
HEATH: Okay, Alice. I will. Hope you get better soon.
ALICE: Thanks.
[Alice exits. Heath and others linger for a while, then all exit.]
This is basically the end of the first act (if you recall from the original R&J, there were five scenes in the first act). I feel as if it's a bit too close to the original in structure, but some of the plot is really different, so I'm not sure if I need this kind of structure so that it can even pass as a retake on the classic.
Also, plot-wise, I'm thinking some people will die (obviously), some people will hook up (even more obvious), and there will be lots of hate and misunderstanding but lots of opportunities to make it all up (but whether anyone takes those chances, I'm not sure yet). So far, it's weird and mostly preliminary.
And... school events. NO MORE AP FINALS. Just finished my free-response for chem today, and so the APs are officially over. This year, anyway, and the projects are starting to roll in (Matt and I are going to conduct a survey and it's going to be amazing and we will have all sorts of fancy tests). But it's going to be just splendid.
I've also borrowed Gone with the Wind from our school's library, and I plan on reading that in my free-reading-period tomorrow during English. I've heard wonderful things about the book, so I can't wait. It's a sizable book though (rather on the heavy side) so I'll have to find some other time to finish it all (before June 4th comes along), but I should be able to manage. Hopefully.
Belle Noire
In memory of our sixteenth summer. [An adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.]
CHARACTERS:
Alice Leightly as Juliet
Henry Leightly as Lord Capulet
Marissa Leightly as Lady Capulet
Justin Sandler as Tybalt
Ralph Wexton as Romeo
Martin Wexton as Lord Montague
Edna Wexton as Lady Montague
Joss Ritchell as Benvolio
Avery Kanswell as Mercutio
Miguel Hunter as Prince Escalus
Chronos Sakanet as Friar Lawrence
Tobi Darkson as Friar John
Catherine Smith as the Nurse
Christopher Handoff as Balthasar
Heath Florence as Paris
Skye Padler as Rosaline
Allison Saint-Cross as the Apothecary
PROLOGUE:
[Alice enters.]
ALICE: I come from a world of black and white—of darkness and light. I come to this world blind of emotion and blind to pain. For every step I take, I step upon an ancestor's bones—for my ascent to the silvery throne is a path ridden with secrets and forebodings.
[Alice freezes. Ralph enters.]
RALPH: I hold my soul with utmost priority; with even more pride. I will defend my heart and all which it trusts, until I reach the land of darkness, where trust is shattered and hope abandoned and even the most minuscule of doubt magnifies to breath-taking errors.
ALICE: But when I close my eyes...
RALPH: But when I close my eyes...
ALICE: I see a world of autumn blues—of ocean reds—of grass golds—
RALPH: I see a world of light, with no more fear and no more perfidy—
ALICE and RALPH: This is my wish.
[Alice and Ralph exit at separate ends of the stage.]
ACT 1
SCENE 1:
[Ralph and Joss enters.]
JOSS: (taps Ralph on the head) That was unnecessary. She didn't deserve that.
RALPH: Are you my friend or hers?
JOSS: Hey, calm down. I'm not saying she was right or anything, but to just up and call her a liar in front of everyone else, without giving her a chance to explain herself—that was uncalled for.
RALPH: I don't care.
JOSS: Yeah, you don't care. You've never cared about anything.
RALPH: Why do you care so much?
JOSS: Because people have been talking behind your back, calling you—
RALPH: Look, I don't care what they say.
JOSS: You may not care, but some people—
RALPH: (turns to face Joss and holds him by one shoulder) Is this about you? Is this because you don't want to be around me, because you're afraid of what others would say if they see you associated with me?
JOSS: Hey, I never said—
RALPH: You've never said a lot of things. Always been too afraid to say them.
[Ralph spins around and stalks off stage.]
JOSS: Jeez, what's your problem?
[Justin enters.]
JUSTIN: Are you talking to me, Ritchell?
JOSS: No, Sandler. Mind your own business.
JUSTIN: Don't talk me like that. Your bodyguard's not here with you now, is he? I'm looking for him—where'd he go?
JOSS: Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you. Why do you want to find him anyway? All you're going to do is fight.
JUSTIN: Fight, yeah, I will. He insulted Skye and called her a liar. The Wextons are all a bunch of trash-talkers. I'm not going to let him get away that easily.
JOSS: You couldn't just talk to him maturely?
JUSTIN: (holds Joss by his collar) You want to fight? I know what you are—you're a coward, that's what you are.
[Other people come gathered around, chanting and taunting.]
CROWD: Fight! Fight! Fight!
[Miguel Hunter enters.]
MIGUEL: What is going on here? Boys!
[Justin lets go of Joss reluctantly.]
MIGUEL: You boys have caused enough trouble already, you two and that Wexton boy. I can't take it anymore. I will report this to the principal today, but if I catch any of you fighting again, I will have to arrest you. And mind you, that mark against you will stay with you forever.
JOSS and JUSTIN: Yes, Officer Hunter.
MIGUEL: Now run along, everyone!
[All exit except Joss.]
JOSS: Coward, me? Huh.
[Joss exits.]
SCENE 2:
[Avery and Joss enters.]
AVERY: (starts talking even before he walks on stage) So what did you say to Ralph? He walked past me looking like he's ready to kill someone.
JOSS: I just said that the whole Skye incident was wholly unnecessary. He overreacted.
AVERY: What really happened? I mean, I've heard a bit here and there, but—oh, look, here she is herself.
[Skye enters.]
AVERY: Hey, Skye!
SKYE: (waves) Hi Avery, hi Joss.
AVERY: What's up?
SKYE: Not much. I've been busy—oh, there's a party at Alice's house on Saturday night. Do you want to come? You can come too, if you want, Joss.
AVERY: You really think that's a good idea? We're not exactly the most loved boys at the Leightly household, Joss and I.
SKYE: It's a masquerade-themed party, so no one will notice who you are. Besides, Alice's parents won't be home that weekend. That's why the party's at her house.
AVERY: All right, we'll think about it.
JOSS: Yeah.
SKYE: Well, I hope to see you two there. Bye, Avery. Bye, Joss.
[Skye exits.]
AVERY: A party, huh. Well. The perfect time to bring Ralph along.
JOSS: Are you out of your mind, Avery? If the Leightlys ever find out, they'll probably come after the Wextons with guns in hand.
AVERY: Relax! We've got costumes, no one's going to recognize Ralph. And we need to get Ralph into the social scene somehow. How else is he ever going to stop being a jerk all the time?
JOSS: Just so you know, I think this is a stupid idea.
AVERY: Don't worry about it, Joss. If we're lucky, maybe we'll find Ralph a girlfriend as well. It'll do him well, soften him up.
[All exit.]
SCENE 3:
[Heath enters.]
HEATH: (a flower in hand, plucking off the petals) She loves me, she loves me not, she loves me, she loves—
[Alice enters.]
HEATH: Hi there, Alice.
ALICE: Hi.
HEATH: I—uh, really liked your performance yesterday. You played Juliet really well, like you were meant to play that role.
ALICE: Thanks.
HEATH: So, uh—
[Henry Leightly enters.]
HENRY: Heath, my boy! You're here courting my daughter again?
HEATH: Hi, Mr. Leightly. Alice and I were just talking about the play last night.
HENRY: Oh, yes, Romeo and Juliet. I reckon that was one of the most beautiful shows I'd ever seen, isn't that so, Alice?
ALICE: I suppose so.
HENRY: And Heath, how are your parents doing? Business still well, I hope?
HEATH: Yes, everything is fine. Dad's thinking of starting a new branch in Seattle next month, if everything goes well.
HENRY: That's splendid! And you, school coming along nicely?
HEATH: Soccer season is just starting, and I'm captain of the varsity team this year. We're hoping for a great season.
HENRY: That's my boy! (slaps Heath on the back) Well, I'll leave you kids to yourselves. Don't get too carried away.
[Henry chuckles and exits.]
HEATH: I—
ALICE: (at the same time) I—
HEATH: You first.
ALICE: Oh, I just—I'm tired, that's all.
HEATH: Oh. Well, would you like me to leave?
ALICE: I'm afraid I won't be much company. I'll see you this weekend.
HEATH: Okay, later.
[Alice exits.]
HEATH: (twirls flower again) She loves me, she loves me not, she loves me—oh, she—(plucks off last petal)—what am I doing? This is stupid.
[Heath throws the flower on the ground and exits.]
SCENE 4:
[Avery, Joss, and Ralph enter with costumes, with the latter two on opposite sides of Avery.]
RALPH: This is the most pointless thing I've ever done in my life.
JOSS: Oh, stop being so cynical. It's a party, you're supposed to have fun.
RALPH: I'm so sorry, my idea of fun is different from yours. What, the people talking behind my back are also making fun of that? Why do you even bother talking to me then?
AVERY: Ralph, Joss, calm down, both of you. Joss is right, we're supposed to have fun, and Ralph, there's not only one way to party. Maybe you'll find your fun here, but you'll never know if you don't try.
RALPH: The great Avery Kanswell is being philosophical now.
AVERY: I can be if I want to be.
RALPH: Where are we going anyway? You haven't told me yet.
AVERY: Oh, close enough. You'll see once we get there.
JOSS: If we ever get there, that is. You sure we're not lost, Avery? It's supposed to be a fifteen minute walk, and we must have been walking for at least thirty minutes.
AVERY: Don't you trust me?
RALPH: At the moment, no.
AVERY: Oh yeah, why don't you two team up on me, huh? The only thing you're agreeing on is disagreeing with me?
JOSS: I'd be a lot more willing to agree with you if we're where we're supposed to be.
RALPH: I'd never agree with you.
[Faint music starts up in the background, and getting louder with each step they take.]
AVERY: Okay, okay! We're almost there—no, we're here already!
RALPH: (looks around) This is the place? Isn't this—
AVERY: Who cares what it is, we're here. Put on your masks. It's a masquerade, after all.
RALPH: But this is—
AVERY: It is, it isn't, who cares?
[Avery pushes Ralph off stage. Joss exits.]
SCENE 5:
[Alice, Heath, Justin, Skye, and several others are already there, all in costume. Avery, Joss, and Ralph enter discreetly from the side. Avery and Joss try to drag Ralph to dance, but he refuses, and they go on without him. Alice is standing by the punch bowl, not doing anything. Ralph approaches her.]
RALPH: Got an extra cup?
ALICE: They're by the chips.
RALPH: Hn, thank you.
ALICE: I haven't seen you before.
RALPH: I wouldn't think so, unless you go to masquerades every other week.
ALICE: No, at any other party. I haven't seen you before.
RALPH: Maybe you missed me.
ALICE: No one else ever drinks before they at least dance a while. It's too early to be drinking.
RALPH: Maybe you missed me the times before because I was too early.
ALICE: No, I wouldn't have. I'm always here.
RALPH: Always? Why, you don't dance?
ALICE: I'd rather not.
RALPH: What are you doing at a party then?
ALICE: I—my friends are here. What are you doing here?
RALPH: Friends. Those who you think know you the best really know nothing of you at all.
ALICE: Do you think so? What do your friends think of you?
RALPH: (pause) A stuck-up, cold-hearted jerk, I'll bet.
ALICE: What do you think of yourself then?
RALPH: I—I don't know. (pause) I'd like to think I'm a fighter.
ALICE: A fighter? Against what?
RALPH: This world. Everyone in it. Sometimes even my friends.
ALICE: But you still see them as your friends.
RALPH: Yeah. I—there isn't anyone else who'd listen to me but them.
ALICE: That must count for something, doesn't it?
RALPH: What about your friends? Why aren't you dancing with them?
ALICE: They like parties. I don't.
RALPH: Why, too loud for you?
ALICE: No, it's just—too many people. I don't like it very much.
RALPH: But you wouldn't fight against your friends? Even if they wanted something you didn't?
ALICE: It doesn't matter anyway.
RALPH: They won't ever know if you don't tell them.
ALICE: No, no. I don't mind, really.
SKYE: (from the other side of the stage, shouting) Alice!
ALICE: Coming! (to Ralph) I'm sorry, I must leave now.
[Alice walks away to where Skye is, and Avery walks over to Ralph.]
AVERY: Hey, Ralph, having fun yet?
RALPH: As much as I'd expected.
[Justin, who was walking by, hears them and realizes that Ralph is here. He walks over to Skye's group as well.]
JUSTIN: (mutters to himself) Wexton, to have the guts! Oh, I'll get you one day, just you wait.
AVERY: Aw, come on. We saw you talking to a pretty girl that was just here. What's her name?
RALPH: Didn't ask.
AVERY: Really? Ralph, you've got to do better than that! You have to ask for her name and number. How else are you ever going to talk to her again?
RALPH: I don't plan to talk to her again anyway.
AVERY: You're such a bore. All right, let's get going then. Joss might've had too much to drink. He's been hitting on Melissa all night long. Besides, it's getting late, and I have an English paper I have to write for Monday.
[Ralph, Avery, and Joss exit.]
HEATH: Alice, want to dance with me?
ALICE: I'm sorry, my head hurts. I think I'll go to bed early. Make sure everything's in order for me, will you?
HEATH: Okay, Alice. I will. Hope you get better soon.
ALICE: Thanks.
[Alice exits. Heath and others linger for a while, then all exit.]
This is basically the end of the first act (if you recall from the original R&J, there were five scenes in the first act). I feel as if it's a bit too close to the original in structure, but some of the plot is really different, so I'm not sure if I need this kind of structure so that it can even pass as a retake on the classic.
Also, plot-wise, I'm thinking some people will die (obviously), some people will hook up (even more obvious), and there will be lots of hate and misunderstanding but lots of opportunities to make it all up (but whether anyone takes those chances, I'm not sure yet). So far, it's weird and mostly preliminary.
And... school events. NO MORE AP FINALS. Just finished my free-response for chem today, and so the APs are officially over. This year, anyway, and the projects are starting to roll in (Matt and I are going to conduct a survey and it's going to be amazing and we will have all sorts of fancy tests). But it's going to be just splendid.
I've also borrowed Gone with the Wind from our school's library, and I plan on reading that in my free-reading-period tomorrow during English. I've heard wonderful things about the book, so I can't wait. It's a sizable book though (rather on the heavy side) so I'll have to find some other time to finish it all (before June 4th comes along), but I should be able to manage. Hopefully.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Adieu, Seniors
Yesterday was the official last day for seniors who are going on internships (but there are plenty who are not, including Matt, my crossword puzzle supplier), but I was too distracted to write about yesterday. I will on a later day (including finishing Santiago, continuing on Japan, and finishing TOAST, which I found earlier today). Anyway, I have something else here today.
THE GINNY-BASED FORTUNE CARDS
(DISCLAIMER: Ginny is not responsible for anything that happens as a result of using this product. If you use this product, you may not accuse Ginny of anything, nor may you copy any part of this and give it to someone else unless you: a) cite me as the author and show them this disclaimer-turned-copyright paragraph, and b) do not distribute it for profit. All other rights are mine unless I say so.)
STEP 1: Listen to the fortune teller, Sephy, introduce herself and the rules.
Hi, my name is Sephy, and I'm a magical fortune-teller who will predict your fortune. Now, since fortune-telling is a tricky business, you must do exactly as I say, and nothing else. Okay, let's get started then!
STEP 2: What's your birthday?
Add the year, month, and day together, then divide by 7, and round scientifically (rules are as follows: if it's 0.4999... or less, then it's 0; if it's 0.50000001 or more, it's 1; and if it's 0.5 then it depends on whatever number precedes the decimal, but in this case you won't have exactly 0.5 if you're doing it right). If your resulting number is larger than 9, divide by 7 again, until you get a number that's less than 9. This is your BDN (write it down somewhere so you won't forget).
ex.: My birthday is on September 1st, 1985, so I would solve this equation: (9+1+1+9+8+5)/7=33. This is larger than 9, so I would divide by 7 again, to get: 5. So 5 is my BDN.
STEP 3: What's your zodiac sign?
I know, zodiacs are related to birthday, but because the earlier question also takes into account years, you still have to do this step. Find your sign in the list below and note the number of points attributed to that sign, then add it to your BDN. This is your AZN.
List—
Aries: 2
Taurus: 10
Gemini: 2
Cancer: 4
Leo: 3
Virgo: 4
Libra: 10
Scorpio: 8
Sagittarius: 2
Capricorn: 1
Aquarius: 8
Pisces: 2
ex.: I'm a Virgo, so my number is 4, and adding 4 to my BDN (5), I get 9, which is my AZN.
STEP 4: What is today's date?
Since fortunes are very time-sensitive, you must add the day that you are conducting this fortune-telling into the mix. Take the year, month, and day, and treat it just as you had your BDN, until you get a number that is less than 19. Add the date to it again. Add this number to your AZN, and this is your TDN.
ex.: Today is May 15, 2010, so my equation is: (5+1+5+2+0+1+0)/7=2, and then adding 15 to it, I get 17. Adding this to my AZN (9), I get 26, which is my TDN.
STEP 5: What kind of fortune are you looking for?
For general, event fortunes, go to STEP 6. For love fortunes, go to STEP 7. For career fortunes, go to STEP 8. For random fortunes, go to STEP 9.
ex.: I want all of my fortunes told, so I will go to every step.
STEP 6: What's your general fortune?
Take your TDN and add 5 to it. This is your initial GFN. If your initial GFN is larger than 10, then subtract the largest multiple of 10 you can from it so you can get a number that's 10 or less. If your number becomes 0, then add 10 to it. This is your FINAL GFN. Look into the list below to see what your fortune is. Then go to STEP 10, if you aren't going to another step first.
1. Going outside, you will realize you have forgotten your umbrella. Don't fret! It's not going to rain today.
2. That lawn you've always forgotten/neglected to mow? Yeah, there's a $100 bill in there, but you won't be able to find it in the 3-foot-tall grass.
3. Smile and be happy. Today's a great day for you! (I don't know why, but who cares.)
4. I would go out and buy a cup of bubble tea today if I were you.
5. Are you forgetting something important today? I think you are. No? Well, I still think you are.
6. Feed the dogs before you feed your goldfish. Your dogs will eat so much you won't give your goldfish as much food, which is good, because if you did, your goldfish will overeat and die.
7. Why aren't you running around screaming and jumping and dancing right now?
8. The creepy kid who sits next to you in that one class you have assigned seating will ask you if you have seen his pet melanoid. Ask him what a melanoid is before you tell him you saw it swimming in the lake.
9. Read an entire book of Foxtrot comics today. You'll see why when you finish.
10. Go outside and yell, "SWORDFIGHT!" Whoever answers your call will be your best friend for the next five years (and if no one answers, your old best friend is still your best friend).
ex.: My TDN is 26, and adding 5 to it, I get 31, which is larger than 10, so I subtract 30 from it (3x10), and I get 1. That is my GFN for today, and so my general fortune is: "Going outside, you will realize you have forgotten your umbrella. Don't fret! It's not going to rain today."
STEP 7: What's your love fortune?
Take your TDN and add 8 to it. This is your initial LFN. If your initial LFN is larger than 10, then subtract the largest multiple of 10 you can from it so you can get a number that's 10 or less. If your number becomes 0, then add 10 to it. This is your FINAL LFN. Look into the list below to see what your fortune is. Then go to STEP 10, if you aren't going to another step first.
1. Your crush likes you, everyone else hates you, yadda yadda yadda.
2. You will meet a mysterious person today who you will never see again but you will think about every time it snows.
3. Don't kiss the guy/girl you want to kiss. He/she just ate something weird.
4. If you show this fortune (along with this post) to 10 other people, your crush will like you back! Yay.
5. Roses are red, violets are blue, but whoever's sending you those love poems is too good to be true.
6. Hiding in that dark corner waiting for the guy/girl you like to come out is not a wise idea. His/her neighbor will call the cops.
7. Aww. I'm sorry.
8. You're feeling like being single today, so you'll go out and treat yourself to a meal at a fancy restaurant, whereupon someone will spill lemonade on you and the two of you will fall in love.
9. I wouldn't eat those mysterious chocolates if I were you. They may make you... uh... infatuated.
10. You'll get a bouquet of roses from someone you like, but you'll get a shiny diamond from someone you don't. Oh, decisions, decisions.
ex.: My TDN is 26, and adding 8 to it, I get 34, which is larger than 10, so I subtract 30 from it (3x10), and I get 4. That is my LFN for today, and so my love fortune is: "If you show this fortune (along with this post) to 10 other people, your crush will like you back! Yay..."
STEP 8: What's your career fortune?
Take your TDN and add 6 to it. This is your initial CFN. If your initial CFN is larger than 10, then subtract the largest multiple of 10 you can from it so you can get a number that's 10 or less. If your number becomes 0, then add 10 to it. This is your FINAL CFN. Look into the list below to see what your fortune is. Then go to STEP 10, if you aren't going to another step first.
1. You'll find some money on the bus. Hey, bus fare paid for you already—it's not every day you can ride the bus for free (for the most part).
2. What can be done today but not due today can be pushed off for another day.
3. Remember that huge project your teacher said was due soon? Well, she changed her mind. It's due tomorrow.
4. You will become so confused in the next few days that you will not remember your work until five minutes before they're due. Pull a Calvin.
5. It's going to be a splendid day today, and you won't get anything practical done.
6. Do your work today. You won't be able to tomorrow, and then something will happen the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that...
7. You'll win an award or get a promotion later today, so don't fall asleep in the afternoon or you might miss your opportunity.
8. Your teacher/boss/whoever will forget to give you that huge, scary project he/she has been talking about for the past month/year/eternity.
9. If you can't figure out why your work/school life sucks so much, don't worry, I can't either. At least you're not stupid.
10. Lotteries are not the way to fame and money. Winning the lottery is.
ex.: My TDN is 26, and adding 6 to it, I get 32, which is larger than 10, so I subtract 30 from it (3x10), and I get 2. That is my CFN for today, and so my career fortune is: "What can be done today but not due today can be pushed off for another day."
STEP 9: What's your random fortune?
Take your TDN and add 2 to it. This is your initial RFN. If your initial RFN is larger than 10, then subtract the largest multiple of 10 you can from it so you can get a number that's 10 or less. If your number becomes 0, then add 10 to it. This is your FINAL RFN. Look into the list below to see what your fortune is. Then go to STEP 10, if you aren't going to another step first.
1. There's a cookie monster under your bed. That's why your mom is always accusing you of eating the cookies, even though you know you haven't.
2. Today, you will feel like painting your room neon pink and orange. Just so you know, those colors together can be harsh on your eyes for long periods of time, so don't lock yourself in your room for too long.
3. A pie will fall out of the sky and hit your neighbor on the head, but miss. It's an apple pie. Mmm.
4. Some days you will fall out the bed on the wrong side. Then you will realize, wait, there is no right side of the bed to fall out of.
5. Your bizarre dream about sailing the seven seas on a Huck Finn style raft is about to come true.
6. Don't read the 79th book you pick up today.
7. Did you know tomatoes are very inflexible? Well, you will know by tonight.
8. The sun will appear purple to you today. So will those bunnies down the road.
9. Your piggy bank will jump up and attack you today. Be prepared. Bring a wolf bank along.
10. The third balloon in your contraption to fly will pop, so replace it with another balloon.
ex.: My TDN is 26, and adding 2 to it, I get 28, which is larger than 10, so I subtract 20 from it (2x10), and I get 8. That is my CFN for today, and so my random fortune is: "The sun will appear purple to you today. So will those bunnies down the road."
STEP 10: The end.
There you go, that's your fortune(s) for today! Once again, I'm Sephy, your reliable (sometimes) fortune-teller, and I hope I'll see you again soon.
THE GINNY-BASED FORTUNE CARDS
(DISCLAIMER: Ginny is not responsible for anything that happens as a result of using this product. If you use this product, you may not accuse Ginny of anything, nor may you copy any part of this and give it to someone else unless you: a) cite me as the author and show them this disclaimer-turned-copyright paragraph, and b) do not distribute it for profit. All other rights are mine unless I say so.)
STEP 1: Listen to the fortune teller, Sephy, introduce herself and the rules.
Hi, my name is Sephy, and I'm a magical fortune-teller who will predict your fortune. Now, since fortune-telling is a tricky business, you must do exactly as I say, and nothing else. Okay, let's get started then!
STEP 2: What's your birthday?
Add the year, month, and day together, then divide by 7, and round scientifically (rules are as follows: if it's 0.4999... or less, then it's 0; if it's 0.50000001 or more, it's 1; and if it's 0.5 then it depends on whatever number precedes the decimal, but in this case you won't have exactly 0.5 if you're doing it right). If your resulting number is larger than 9, divide by 7 again, until you get a number that's less than 9. This is your BDN (write it down somewhere so you won't forget).
ex.: My birthday is on September 1st, 1985, so I would solve this equation: (9+1+1+9+8+5)/7=33. This is larger than 9, so I would divide by 7 again, to get: 5. So 5 is my BDN.
STEP 3: What's your zodiac sign?
I know, zodiacs are related to birthday, but because the earlier question also takes into account years, you still have to do this step. Find your sign in the list below and note the number of points attributed to that sign, then add it to your BDN. This is your AZN.
List—
Aries: 2
Taurus: 10
Gemini: 2
Cancer: 4
Leo: 3
Virgo: 4
Libra: 10
Scorpio: 8
Sagittarius: 2
Capricorn: 1
Aquarius: 8
Pisces: 2
ex.: I'm a Virgo, so my number is 4, and adding 4 to my BDN (5), I get 9, which is my AZN.
STEP 4: What is today's date?
Since fortunes are very time-sensitive, you must add the day that you are conducting this fortune-telling into the mix. Take the year, month, and day, and treat it just as you had your BDN, until you get a number that is less than 19. Add the date to it again. Add this number to your AZN, and this is your TDN.
ex.: Today is May 15, 2010, so my equation is: (5+1+5+2+0+1+0)/7=2, and then adding 15 to it, I get 17. Adding this to my AZN (9), I get 26, which is my TDN.
STEP 5: What kind of fortune are you looking for?
For general, event fortunes, go to STEP 6. For love fortunes, go to STEP 7. For career fortunes, go to STEP 8. For random fortunes, go to STEP 9.
ex.: I want all of my fortunes told, so I will go to every step.
STEP 6: What's your general fortune?
Take your TDN and add 5 to it. This is your initial GFN. If your initial GFN is larger than 10, then subtract the largest multiple of 10 you can from it so you can get a number that's 10 or less. If your number becomes 0, then add 10 to it. This is your FINAL GFN. Look into the list below to see what your fortune is. Then go to STEP 10, if you aren't going to another step first.
1. Going outside, you will realize you have forgotten your umbrella. Don't fret! It's not going to rain today.
2. That lawn you've always forgotten/neglected to mow? Yeah, there's a $100 bill in there, but you won't be able to find it in the 3-foot-tall grass.
3. Smile and be happy. Today's a great day for you! (I don't know why, but who cares.)
4. I would go out and buy a cup of bubble tea today if I were you.
5. Are you forgetting something important today? I think you are. No? Well, I still think you are.
6. Feed the dogs before you feed your goldfish. Your dogs will eat so much you won't give your goldfish as much food, which is good, because if you did, your goldfish will overeat and die.
7. Why aren't you running around screaming and jumping and dancing right now?
8. The creepy kid who sits next to you in that one class you have assigned seating will ask you if you have seen his pet melanoid. Ask him what a melanoid is before you tell him you saw it swimming in the lake.
9. Read an entire book of Foxtrot comics today. You'll see why when you finish.
10. Go outside and yell, "SWORDFIGHT!" Whoever answers your call will be your best friend for the next five years (and if no one answers, your old best friend is still your best friend).
ex.: My TDN is 26, and adding 5 to it, I get 31, which is larger than 10, so I subtract 30 from it (3x10), and I get 1. That is my GFN for today, and so my general fortune is: "Going outside, you will realize you have forgotten your umbrella. Don't fret! It's not going to rain today."
STEP 7: What's your love fortune?
Take your TDN and add 8 to it. This is your initial LFN. If your initial LFN is larger than 10, then subtract the largest multiple of 10 you can from it so you can get a number that's 10 or less. If your number becomes 0, then add 10 to it. This is your FINAL LFN. Look into the list below to see what your fortune is. Then go to STEP 10, if you aren't going to another step first.
1. Your crush likes you, everyone else hates you, yadda yadda yadda.
2. You will meet a mysterious person today who you will never see again but you will think about every time it snows.
3. Don't kiss the guy/girl you want to kiss. He/she just ate something weird.
4. If you show this fortune (along with this post) to 10 other people, your crush will like you back! Yay.
5. Roses are red, violets are blue, but whoever's sending you those love poems is too good to be true.
6. Hiding in that dark corner waiting for the guy/girl you like to come out is not a wise idea. His/her neighbor will call the cops.
7. Aww. I'm sorry.
8. You're feeling like being single today, so you'll go out and treat yourself to a meal at a fancy restaurant, whereupon someone will spill lemonade on you and the two of you will fall in love.
9. I wouldn't eat those mysterious chocolates if I were you. They may make you... uh... infatuated.
10. You'll get a bouquet of roses from someone you like, but you'll get a shiny diamond from someone you don't. Oh, decisions, decisions.
ex.: My TDN is 26, and adding 8 to it, I get 34, which is larger than 10, so I subtract 30 from it (3x10), and I get 4. That is my LFN for today, and so my love fortune is: "If you show this fortune (along with this post) to 10 other people, your crush will like you back! Yay..."
STEP 8: What's your career fortune?
Take your TDN and add 6 to it. This is your initial CFN. If your initial CFN is larger than 10, then subtract the largest multiple of 10 you can from it so you can get a number that's 10 or less. If your number becomes 0, then add 10 to it. This is your FINAL CFN. Look into the list below to see what your fortune is. Then go to STEP 10, if you aren't going to another step first.
1. You'll find some money on the bus. Hey, bus fare paid for you already—it's not every day you can ride the bus for free (for the most part).
2. What can be done today but not due today can be pushed off for another day.
3. Remember that huge project your teacher said was due soon? Well, she changed her mind. It's due tomorrow.
4. You will become so confused in the next few days that you will not remember your work until five minutes before they're due. Pull a Calvin.
5. It's going to be a splendid day today, and you won't get anything practical done.
6. Do your work today. You won't be able to tomorrow, and then something will happen the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that...
7. You'll win an award or get a promotion later today, so don't fall asleep in the afternoon or you might miss your opportunity.
8. Your teacher/boss/whoever will forget to give you that huge, scary project he/she has been talking about for the past month/year/eternity.
9. If you can't figure out why your work/school life sucks so much, don't worry, I can't either. At least you're not stupid.
10. Lotteries are not the way to fame and money. Winning the lottery is.
ex.: My TDN is 26, and adding 6 to it, I get 32, which is larger than 10, so I subtract 30 from it (3x10), and I get 2. That is my CFN for today, and so my career fortune is: "What can be done today but not due today can be pushed off for another day."
STEP 9: What's your random fortune?
Take your TDN and add 2 to it. This is your initial RFN. If your initial RFN is larger than 10, then subtract the largest multiple of 10 you can from it so you can get a number that's 10 or less. If your number becomes 0, then add 10 to it. This is your FINAL RFN. Look into the list below to see what your fortune is. Then go to STEP 10, if you aren't going to another step first.
1. There's a cookie monster under your bed. That's why your mom is always accusing you of eating the cookies, even though you know you haven't.
2. Today, you will feel like painting your room neon pink and orange. Just so you know, those colors together can be harsh on your eyes for long periods of time, so don't lock yourself in your room for too long.
3. A pie will fall out of the sky and hit your neighbor on the head, but miss. It's an apple pie. Mmm.
4. Some days you will fall out the bed on the wrong side. Then you will realize, wait, there is no right side of the bed to fall out of.
5. Your bizarre dream about sailing the seven seas on a Huck Finn style raft is about to come true.
6. Don't read the 79th book you pick up today.
7. Did you know tomatoes are very inflexible? Well, you will know by tonight.
8. The sun will appear purple to you today. So will those bunnies down the road.
9. Your piggy bank will jump up and attack you today. Be prepared. Bring a wolf bank along.
10. The third balloon in your contraption to fly will pop, so replace it with another balloon.
ex.: My TDN is 26, and adding 2 to it, I get 28, which is larger than 10, so I subtract 20 from it (2x10), and I get 8. That is my CFN for today, and so my random fortune is: "The sun will appear purple to you today. So will those bunnies down the road."
STEP 10: The end.
There you go, that's your fortune(s) for today! Once again, I'm Sephy, your reliable (sometimes) fortune-teller, and I hope I'll see you again soon.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Ha, homework? What homework?
Mrs. MacDonald had told us that period 6 would have a stat party today, and Micky said, "Oh, we should have had a stat party today. It would have been perfect."
Perfect, because we don't meet on Fridays, and the seniors will be gone on their internships next week. Not so perfect, because half the class was not here due to the AP econ/world tests. Of course, we conveniently skipped over that fact and only lamented on our lack of forethought and preparation. Then, Ali asked if we could go to lunch, and Mrs. MacDonald agreed, so we got an extra fifteen minutes.
Tea had told me earlier that Ms. Sherbert had my Le Petit Prince book, the one that I had lost on the bus during my trip to New England's, so I went to find her. On my way to her office/supply room, I saw Argon and one of his friends outside the chem room (there are technically more than one room for chemistry, but I have had both years of chem in the same room, so I call it the chem room). I asked him about the stat party, and he said, "Yeah, we're having a party in stat." Hint: there is foreshadowing here.
Yuma then walked by, and so we had a gathering in the hallway, talking about our ridiculous day so far (half of the people in almost all of our classes were not there). Then Mr. Turkey, the chem teacher, came along, and so the sophomores went inside.
"We should go in and say hi to Mr. Turkey," Yuma said. Yuma and I were in the same chem class with Mr. Turkey last year. I agreed, so we went in, where Argon was seated in the front row, and Yuma pointed out the seat behind him and said, "I used to sit there."
I pointed to Chrissy's seat, which is next to Argon's, and said, "I used to sit there."
There was also a name joke here made by Argon (although I had noticed it a long time ago, and mentioned it to him before, but he probably used that part of his memory-brain to remember some crucial fact that could save the world but that I can never remember), but the joke is better with our real names.
Several hours (maybe two) later, as I was walking to my health classroom, I saw Argon again, and I asked him how the stat party went.
"Oh, it was supposed to be tomorrow," he said, but he had a piece of cookie with him, so I assume other people forgot as well. "We just got a packet."
"Yeah, so did we. Then we just did whatever we wanted, which was mostly homework. I've been busy doing so much homework in my AP classes now."
"Why, do you have a lot of homework?"
"No, I just don't do them at home anymore."
To be fair, I haven't really been doing anything in my other classes either. In US, we watched a movie (granted, Civil Rights related). In health, we played health/STI/drug related Sporcle quizzes, then digressed to other, non-health specific quizzes, such as naming the first 151 Pokemons. But that wasn't nearly as fun as my physics class, where we merged with an A-level class and listened to the potential physics teacher candidate's lecture and did a lab with lasers, jello, and real, metal knives.
English was the only class I actually did work in, and I linked Huck's decision to save Jim to the white supremacy we were learning in US. One of the reasons why I like taking English 3 (which focuses on American literature) and US history together. I've been able to do these connections between the two classes for almost every unit/book.
Perfect, because we don't meet on Fridays, and the seniors will be gone on their internships next week. Not so perfect, because half the class was not here due to the AP econ/world tests. Of course, we conveniently skipped over that fact and only lamented on our lack of forethought and preparation. Then, Ali asked if we could go to lunch, and Mrs. MacDonald agreed, so we got an extra fifteen minutes.
Tea had told me earlier that Ms. Sherbert had my Le Petit Prince book, the one that I had lost on the bus during my trip to New England's, so I went to find her. On my way to her office/supply room, I saw Argon and one of his friends outside the chem room (there are technically more than one room for chemistry, but I have had both years of chem in the same room, so I call it the chem room). I asked him about the stat party, and he said, "Yeah, we're having a party in stat." Hint: there is foreshadowing here.
Yuma then walked by, and so we had a gathering in the hallway, talking about our ridiculous day so far (half of the people in almost all of our classes were not there). Then Mr. Turkey, the chem teacher, came along, and so the sophomores went inside.
"We should go in and say hi to Mr. Turkey," Yuma said. Yuma and I were in the same chem class with Mr. Turkey last year. I agreed, so we went in, where Argon was seated in the front row, and Yuma pointed out the seat behind him and said, "I used to sit there."
I pointed to Chrissy's seat, which is next to Argon's, and said, "I used to sit there."
There was also a name joke here made by Argon (although I had noticed it a long time ago, and mentioned it to him before, but he probably used that part of his memory-brain to remember some crucial fact that could save the world but that I can never remember), but the joke is better with our real names.
Several hours (maybe two) later, as I was walking to my health classroom, I saw Argon again, and I asked him how the stat party went.
"Oh, it was supposed to be tomorrow," he said, but he had a piece of cookie with him, so I assume other people forgot as well. "We just got a packet."
"Yeah, so did we. Then we just did whatever we wanted, which was mostly homework. I've been busy doing so much homework in my AP classes now."
"Why, do you have a lot of homework?"
"No, I just don't do them at home anymore."
To be fair, I haven't really been doing anything in my other classes either. In US, we watched a movie (granted, Civil Rights related). In health, we played health/STI/drug related Sporcle quizzes, then digressed to other, non-health specific quizzes, such as naming the first 151 Pokemons. But that wasn't nearly as fun as my physics class, where we merged with an A-level class and listened to the potential physics teacher candidate's lecture and did a lab with lasers, jello, and real, metal knives.
English was the only class I actually did work in, and I linked Huck's decision to save Jim to the white supremacy we were learning in US. One of the reasons why I like taking English 3 (which focuses on American literature) and US history together. I've been able to do these connections between the two classes for almost every unit/book.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Deathly Fumes
In physics today, I was painting my pink eraser with an assortment of nail polish colors, when I said to Camel, "I think these fumes are bad for my brain."
"They stink," Camel said, obviously never having had to suffer such atrocious smells before (and if he has, I am not concerned with why).
I kept on painting anyway. Mr. Stencil came in and informed us that the second potential physics teacher candidate (two points here: a) we are going to have a new physics teacher next year because two physics teachers are going to teach the newly created computer classes, and b) the first candidate already "taught" the period 7 class) will be coming tomorrow.
"I won't be here tomorrow," Scott said, "And so won't most of the class. The econ test is tomorrow."
So Mr. Stencil asked those who were taking the AP econ test to raise their hands. A sea of hands went up. Then, he switched tactics and asked those who were not going anywhere to raise their hands. Five hands went up.
We debated (briefly) whether the candidate should come on Friday, since Mr. Stencil won't be in school on that day anyway. I wouldn't mind either way. My Thursday is looking to be pretty awesome so far (it goes like this: calc, extended US, physics, extended stat, English, then health).
After that, since some people were not here because of the English test, we had a clicker day on sound waves. Which was a rather failure for me, since I couldn't do mental math today for some reason (despite having watched Numb3rs in stat the class prior while trying to finish my physics lab, and asking Matt, but he didn't know much about optics either).
In my other science class, chem, we played Jeopardy! almost all period long. Mr. Coffee is amazingly good at these (he got most of them), so it was a great disadvantage for us when he declared that he would compete alongside with us. I got two questions right in total, one on the state tree of Maine (it's pine) and one on which North American capital Queen Victoria picked (Ottawa, and she only saw watercolor pictures of the potential capital cities beforehand—hey, I know my Canadian history).
After two rounds of Jeopardy! (the exclamation mark is totally necessary), we went on Sporcle instead, and Mr. Coffee was busy typing away on a name-that-person-based-on-the-image test when the bell rang. I went down to French (where we had a sub) and so did not see if he passed. Pity.
Then Micro ignored me while we were all on the bus (albeit different ones). But I had Yuma to talk with, and so we talked about something, but it must not have been important, because I don't remember any of it.
"They stink," Camel said, obviously never having had to suffer such atrocious smells before (and if he has, I am not concerned with why).
I kept on painting anyway. Mr. Stencil came in and informed us that the second potential physics teacher candidate (two points here: a) we are going to have a new physics teacher next year because two physics teachers are going to teach the newly created computer classes, and b) the first candidate already "taught" the period 7 class) will be coming tomorrow.
"I won't be here tomorrow," Scott said, "And so won't most of the class. The econ test is tomorrow."
So Mr. Stencil asked those who were taking the AP econ test to raise their hands. A sea of hands went up. Then, he switched tactics and asked those who were not going anywhere to raise their hands. Five hands went up.
We debated (briefly) whether the candidate should come on Friday, since Mr. Stencil won't be in school on that day anyway. I wouldn't mind either way. My Thursday is looking to be pretty awesome so far (it goes like this: calc, extended US, physics, extended stat, English, then health).
After that, since some people were not here because of the English test, we had a clicker day on sound waves. Which was a rather failure for me, since I couldn't do mental math today for some reason (despite having watched Numb3rs in stat the class prior while trying to finish my physics lab, and asking Matt, but he didn't know much about optics either).
In my other science class, chem, we played Jeopardy! almost all period long. Mr. Coffee is amazingly good at these (he got most of them), so it was a great disadvantage for us when he declared that he would compete alongside with us. I got two questions right in total, one on the state tree of Maine (it's pine) and one on which North American capital Queen Victoria picked (Ottawa, and she only saw watercolor pictures of the potential capital cities beforehand—hey, I know my Canadian history).
After two rounds of Jeopardy! (the exclamation mark is totally necessary), we went on Sporcle instead, and Mr. Coffee was busy typing away on a name-that-person-based-on-the-image test when the bell rang. I went down to French (where we had a sub) and so did not see if he passed. Pity.
Then Micro ignored me while we were all on the bus (albeit different ones). But I had Yuma to talk with, and so we talked about something, but it must not have been important, because I don't remember any of it.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Top Ten Reasons Why You Should Never Walk Long Distances In Flip-flops*
(*Also known as: the longest title Nephria has and will ever see. Ever.)
Anyway. I have miraculously (and most unfortunately) discovered almost all of these reasons today. Needless to say, I will not be walking in flip-flops (or high heels, but that's another story) for an extended period of time anymore (until the next time I forget, or whatever). But here is the list:
Elaine had, a very, very long time ago, lent me two bottles of blue nail polish (which I still need to return her), so I went and bought a bottle of pink nail polish and a bottle of silvery one. There were so many I couldn't really decide which ones I wanted, and I didn't find any glitter (to make the shiny effect), but the silvery nail polish had mini-glitter inside, so I suppose that will work (or I can go ask the art department if they have any spare glitter). I plan to paint them (my erasers, that is) on Friday, when Mrs. James is not here. Not that I think she will mind, but I probably will be reading for US on Thursday, and she so happens to not be in school on Friday.
Also, here, I would like to wish all my friends who are taking AP English (and there are quite a few of them) good luck on the test tomorrow. I personally could never write an essay in pen. I would just hate it so much. But you (all of you) will do wonderful and ace the test but will do much, much better than it because I do not have a high opinion of anything that claims to judge your ability with a three hour long test.
I suppose there lies a certain level of ability to the test, however, as Bryant finished his multiple choice section of the AP chem test 45 minutes earlier. Camel (who sat behind Bryant) looked up at the clock with 45 minutes left to go, and saw Bryant sitting upright, with nothing in his hands, just staring ahead. Granted, the test was not hard (and some of the questions were downright ridiculous, but I can't spill them "ever," according to CB), but 45 minutes is a bit absurd when the entire section is 90 minutes long (okay, fine, I had 30 minutes to spare, and I spent them coloring in every one of my bubbles again, but still).
But I have no more excuses to skip class anymore. I must do my homework now (or do them during chem). English vocab/10 chapters of Huck Finn/SAT-type prompt here I come (yay...).
Anyway. I have miraculously (and most unfortunately) discovered almost all of these reasons today. Needless to say, I will not be walking in flip-flops (or high heels, but that's another story) for an extended period of time anymore (until the next time I forget, or whatever). But here is the list:
- When you walk for more than 45 minutes (or over 4000 steps) your feet will hurt. A lot.
- Since you will not be anywhere near your intended destination (or home) after 45 minutes or 4000 steps (because if you were, you would not have this problem), you will have to walk even more. And it will hurt. A lot.
- Because you have been walking despite your feet complaining that perhaps you should not be walking, your feet will retaliate with the suicidal approach of—gasp—growing blisters.
- Blisters hurt. A lot.
- After your feet complain/protest/make your life miserable, your flip-flops will decide to be even more harsh on you (or maybe that's just the placebo effect).
- Since you are wearing flip-flops, you are most likely (although maybe not always) not wearing socks, and so there is nothing to cushion your feet against the hard soles.
- You will be in a lot of agony. So much that, while others complain of their legs hurting because they have walked over 4000 steps, you will not feel anything in your legs because all of the attention/pain has been hogged by your feet.
- When you (finally) get home, you will discover that the shoes your mom makes you wear (because the floor is dirty) resembles flip-flops. (This step/reason is not necessary, but may occur.)
- You will sit down in front of your computer and your feet will still hurt. A lot.
- Lastly, you will become inspired to write a list of top ten reasons why you should never, ever walk long distances while wearing flip-flops, except you only chose the number "ten" because it forms an alliteration with "top," not because you actually had ten reasons, so you basically made up the other seven.
Elaine had, a very, very long time ago, lent me two bottles of blue nail polish (which I still need to return her), so I went and bought a bottle of pink nail polish and a bottle of silvery one. There were so many I couldn't really decide which ones I wanted, and I didn't find any glitter (to make the shiny effect), but the silvery nail polish had mini-glitter inside, so I suppose that will work (or I can go ask the art department if they have any spare glitter). I plan to paint them (my erasers, that is) on Friday, when Mrs. James is not here. Not that I think she will mind, but I probably will be reading for US on Thursday, and she so happens to not be in school on Friday.
Also, here, I would like to wish all my friends who are taking AP English (and there are quite a few of them) good luck on the test tomorrow. I personally could never write an essay in pen. I would just hate it so much. But you (all of you) will do wonderful and ace the test but will do much, much better than it because I do not have a high opinion of anything that claims to judge your ability with a three hour long test.
I suppose there lies a certain level of ability to the test, however, as Bryant finished his multiple choice section of the AP chem test 45 minutes earlier. Camel (who sat behind Bryant) looked up at the clock with 45 minutes left to go, and saw Bryant sitting upright, with nothing in his hands, just staring ahead. Granted, the test was not hard (and some of the questions were downright ridiculous, but I can't spill them "ever," according to CB), but 45 minutes is a bit absurd when the entire section is 90 minutes long (okay, fine, I had 30 minutes to spare, and I spent them coloring in every one of my bubbles again, but still).
But I have no more excuses to skip class anymore. I must do my homework now (or do them during chem). English vocab/10 chapters of Huck Finn/SAT-type prompt here I come (yay...).
Monday, May 10, 2010
Seven Years Of The World
This is another story, because I don't want to study and because someone is a jerk.
one.
In Rurouni Kenshin, Kenshin once said that he was a vagabond. I had not known what that meant at the time, and I merely associated it with his appearance—a man in his early to middle age, carrying a sword that had no clear purpose except to serve a reminder of the past. I would not know what the word signified until well later, but in a way, I already knew its definition before I knew the word itself.
Early one September, right before the leaves turned brown (or at least when you're living in the north), I talked to several of my old friends—most of them had gone on to live their own (and admittedly successful) lives, and many had on that characteristic blank look when I brought up our old dreams. "Remember when we said we would travel around the world?" I asked, more as a tentative measure to see if I could trust them with the rest. "I said we could get summer jobs at the Ex, and then Sheena said we could start by somewhere close, then go on from there?"
Sheena looked at me, then, as if my face had some sort of visual cue, she nodded. "Yes, I remember. That was such a long time ago. We were so naive back then." The others nodded along, some knowing what I was talking about, some completely oblivious but wishing not to be left out of the conversation.
"I said you were crazy back then," Daniel said, not looking my way. "Nuts. Out of your mind."
"I remember that," I said. I heard Nina hold her breath, but I plowed on. "You said we'd never make it, and that if we did, you would walk around painted orange."
"I haven't been orange yet."
I smiled, the only thing I had left of my old self. Somewhere along the way, I had discarded every other piece that had tied me together, even my fears, and I found that it had been much more easier to travel without them. "You haven't," I told Daniel, who had his eyes closed, refusing to open them. "You're right, we never did make it. But I'm going to. I'm still trying."
"You are?" Nina asked me, half incredulous. "Where have you been? Other than Korea, of course."
Daniel stood up. "I'm sorry, I have to go." We all watched as he left, and when he disappeared, Kady said, "What's his problem?"
two.
"You like Daniel."
The statement came so sudden, so unexpectedly swift, that my natural response was to deny it, and I did. Nina turned to me and said, "Don't lie to me."
I could not. Nina was my best friend, or the closest I had to a best friend. I had known her the longest, and the closest to the present, so by definition she was my best friend. I was an open book to anyone who had cared to know me for long enough, unless I cared to hide myself, and it was not hard for Nina to tell that I was lying. I secretly (and often) rejoiced in the fact that few people ever knew me that well.
"What makes you think that?"
"You can't stop talking to him or about him. You stare at him when you think other people aren't looking. And you act weird when you're around him."
I counted the proofs, then stacked up my counterargument. They were pitifully few, but among them was the most critical piece—denial. If I did not admit to anything, then it would soon be a game Nina would grow tired of, and then it would be over.
I had many reasons why I wished to keep my affectations a secret, most of them in line with why I preferred to keep most of what I liked a secret. On the surface, I pretended to be the cheerful, naive girl who was so overly optimistic few people ever saw her upset. My smiles were so cheap, so readily available, that I and everyone else no longer even noticed them for their presence (and later, only for their absence). I forgot why I wanted this façade in the first place, only that it would make me become an integral part of this society, and that had been my ultimate goal.
I had another reason—secrets were weaknesses. I had to keep them to myself to make myself appear invincible. I had to be everything I wanted to be and more. People I occasionally fancied, Daniel included, were weaknesses that were exploitable, and thus must be hidden.
"You're over-thinking things," I told Nina bluntly. "Not everyone is as boy-crazed as you are."
three.
The idea of a trip without a foreseeable end was rooted in my upbringing of no definite home. It could be said that my entire life was a trip of certain proportions, with only a starting time and place, but no destination to return to. Most people went home after a long trip, to relax, or do whatever else it was that normal people did after a "break" from their daily routine of life, and so home was their final destination, no matter what they said to the contrary. I had no home, no place I could call home, because there was no place I had "grown up" in or I had shared any meaningful memories that I had not shared elsewhere. Since I had no home, and so no destination, the trip was my daily routine of life, and the "breaks" came when I stopped to rest my feet.
I first brought up the idea to Nina, because I shared almost (but not) everything with her, but she turned my offer down. She laughed it off as a joke, as I was sure she thought it was, and said that I was always full of these hot-aired ideas that never came to fruition. I knew she did not believe for one moment that I was really going to go anywhere far away, even outside the borders of our city, for more than a month.
Next, I went to find Dena, who nodded with much enthusiasm. "Are you going to France? We should go wine-tasting."
"We're not legal yet," I said, my analytical side for once overpowering my imagination. "We can't drink."
"Oh, sure we can," Dena said. "By the time we go there, we'll be over the legal age anyway. We'll be in our last years of college, if not after that." I had overestimated my logical reasoning abilities against those who were more in touch with the nuances of reality.
Nonetheless, we gathered a few of our friends—Sheena, Kady, Sally, Jennifer, Cynthia, and a few other friends of Dena's whose names I did not remember. We planned this trip, more in broad strokes of color as we talked about what we would do in certain countries and cities, and how certain people would react, and other trivial things.
Sometime amidst our plotting, Daniel and John came by, and Daniel stopped to listen to our discussions. "You're crazy," he finally said. "All of you."
"Oh, take your cynicism somewhere else," Kady said.
"You're still crazy," he said, even as he left. The girls laughed it off after he left, and I joined in, but only half-heartedly. Somewhere in his voice, I found what he said to be true. I was crazy. What I wanted was something so out of proportion that no one who had not experienced my sense of loss and detachment could understand, and no one here took our discussions in the same way I did. Nina and Dena and Sheena and all of the others thought of this as a mere exercise of imagination, whereas I used it as one of the main pillars of the world I was constructing.
four.
A few weeks later, as I had predicted, everyone forgot about the travel plans as exams approached. I was busy searching summer jobs in the library when Daniel took the computer next to mine and sat down. His slightly concerned face told me that he had an assignment he needed to finish last-minute, so I did not bother him. He, however, started up a conversation, perhaps while waiting for his computer to load.
"Hey. What're you doing?"
"Looking for jobs," I said, absentmindedly. I scoured the site I was currently on. Managers and workers with experience only.
"What do you need the money for?"
"Saving up for my plane ticket, or maybe a few weeks' worth of lodging. I don't know. Money goes a long way."
Daniel spun my chair around, rather unexpectedly. I was about to complain when he said, "You're not seriously considering going on that trip of yours?"
"I am. What of it?"
"You know they're not going to go with you? I mean, I know they're all saying that they'd love to come along, but when it really comes down to it, every one of them is going to come up with some excuse or another to not go. You're all alone in this one."
I stared at his face and found nothing but seriousness. "I know I'm alone," I said. I wanted to add, I'm just another lonely person in a world filled with lonely people. I want to find those people, every one of them, and if I must go alone, then I will. But instead, I simply smiled another worthless smile and reminded him, "Your computer's already loaded."
He glared at me, then turned to his work. I picked up my books and said goodbye, but I never heard a response from him.
five.
We were still mad at each other when the spring formal came along. Everyone else was abuzz over the upcoming dance (and the hook-ups and break-ups), but I was excited for another reason. When Nina asked about it, I told her I was anxious for the dance.
"You think Daniel's going to ask you?" Nina said, half musing, half serious.
"Why would he?" I asked, not denying that it would be not entirely unwelcomed. It was a risky decision, but I had something else to protect me now. I had a definite future.
"You two would be the sweetest couple," Nina went on to say. "Not that any couple involving you wouldn't be sweet." It would be the same thing she would said to me when we heard that he had asked Jennifer instead, except without the first half. I nodded along both times, but honestly, I did not care anymore. If Daniel had asked me, I would have gone with him, but my mind was already made up by then. I probably would have, in a last-ditch attempt to make him angry, told him about my plans. As it turned out, I did not even need to go with him.
I was at Nikki's, admiring the pretty dresses, when Daniel walked in, his discomfort obvious. One of the staff told him to wait a minute—she'll be right out with him, and he sat down on one of those uncomfortable wooden chairs in the waiting area. I, in a moment of irrational judgment, walked over to him and asked, "Looking for a tux?"
"Yeah," he more or less grunted.
"I heard you're going with Jennifer. Are you going to find a tie that matches her dress?"
He looked as if he had never heard the concept of matching ensembles before, and, after the initial panic-stricken moment, asked me if it was customary for couples to be matching.
"Hey, I wouldn't know. I've never been to an event like this before. Not that I will be, anyway."
The last part was a bait, and he bit it just as I had thought he would. "You're not going? Why not?"
"I'm leaving on that night," I said, as nonchalantly as I could manage. "Going on that so-called 'crazy' trip of mine."
Daniel stared at me for a while, unable to comprehend what I had just said. I felt a sudden loneliness, more than any I had ever experienced before, and I realized (much too late, and with an aftertaste in my mouth) that my loneliness had driven me to become even more lonely, if that was even possible.
Finally, he said, "There's nothing I can do to change your mind, is there?"
I had already come this far. I could not turn back now. No. "No."
He ran his hand through his hair, then, in a burst of controlled anger, said to me, "You won't last long by yourself. You're going to be back here within a week. Mark my words, you're going to be back here and nobody's going to even realize you were gone."
six.
Seven years later, I was cleaning out one of my suitcases to pack all of the new clothes I had bought when a piece of paper fell out. At first, I thought it was a room service note, or something to that effect. I had not lived in a hotel for three years now, except an occasional stay after the plane rides, since hostels were much cheaper, so I picked it up and examined it.
There was a list of names, and numbers, some of which I recognized. I definitely recognized Nina's name. I had not talked to her in such a long time, and suddenly, I wanted to talk to her again. I thought I had detached myself from my past, but here it was, a piece from my past that urged me to revisit the whole. I picked up the phone, half chiding myself that this would never work, that Nina must have had a new number by now—it has been seven years, after all.
When the person on the other side picked up, I said, with much skepticism in my voice, "Hi, is this Nina?"
"Yes, who is this?"
"It's Ginny."
"Oh my god, Ginny! How have you been? I haven't talked to you in forever! Where have you been?"
We talked a bit about the old times, and times that we did not share together. I conveniently left out my stories of the countries I had been to, and just told her that I was in South Korea at the moment, but that I was thinking of a reunion, just with the old friends. It was more of a spur-of-the-moment thing, but I suddenly just wanted to go back, after all those years of wandering around. It did not matter where, really. Just back somewhere that still remembered me before I shed my naivety, and it so happened that Nina's world was the one I had contact with.
Nina said that she could gather a few people together, and asked me who I wanted to see. I said anyone was fine with me, as long as I knew them. Then I ran my hand down the list and stopped at a particular name that echoed in my heart dully.
"Do you still have Daniel's number?" I asked.
"Daniel—Daniel, the guy on the basketball team?" She asked, even though we only knew one Daniel together. We had been separate long enough that the edges of our memories began to blur when it concerned each other.
"Yes, that's the one."
"I do, wait, let me find it."
When we hung up, I called Daniel next. I was not sure what I was expecting when I asked for his number, or what I wanted to hear from him, but when he picked up the phone, after the fifth ring, his voice was just as I had remembered it.
"Hey, Daniel. It's Ginny."
There was silence, and, just as I thought he had hung up on me out of years of pent-up frustration, he whispered, "You really did it. I never would have thought—I never."
seven.
After our makeshift reunion, I left, but not before telling them about the distilled version of my adventures. They listened as intently as they could manage in a subject that they were foreign to, among uncharted regions of imagination and exhilaration. Even as I left, I could still hear them talking about my stories, as if they had experience it themselves. I even heard small phrases here and there about how nice it would be to travel around the world, and how, perhaps, they should do it themselves.
When I reached the parking lot, Daniel was waiting by my car. I walked up to him and asked, "How did you know this was mine?"
"It's the only one with a foreign license plate," he said, as I realized too late.
"What do you want from me?"
He looked at me for the first time since I had returned. "I want the real story."
So we drove to the hill by our old school, and we raced each other to the hilltop, and once there, we collapsed to the ground, and I started sobbing. I told him everything. I told him everyone I had met, and everyone I had connected to, and everyone I had left behind. I even told him my goal—of finding every lonely person in this world.
"You're still going to go, then," he said, not as a question but as an acceptance of the facts. I thought it over, and I nodded. I still had to go on. My search was not over yet, and I still had many more places I had to visit, and many more people I had to find.
"Well, when you're finished with finding every other lonely person in this world, come back here to find me. I want to be the last person you find."
With that, he left. I sat there on the hill, pondering over what he had said, and I realized that he had just given me a destination. He had given me a place I could return to, at the end of my journey, with such definitiveness that I could find no excuses to find fault with it.
By the way, favorite quote of the not-so-day: "Nick Clegg has reportedly given himself a 24 hour deadline to decide between his two suitors. Will it be dour-but-dutiful Gordon or fresh- (some might say shiny-) faced Dave? Find out tomorrow in another exciting installment of Love Across The Despatch Box: An Interminable Westminster Romance! I'm going to call it a night, I think. See you tomorrow," by Tom Chivers and Matthew Moore over at the Telegraph (I know, I'm too lazy to search up less Tory-based sources, and, besides, they are at least being somewhat objective in this report, more so than others I've heard).
one.
In Rurouni Kenshin, Kenshin once said that he was a vagabond. I had not known what that meant at the time, and I merely associated it with his appearance—a man in his early to middle age, carrying a sword that had no clear purpose except to serve a reminder of the past. I would not know what the word signified until well later, but in a way, I already knew its definition before I knew the word itself.
Early one September, right before the leaves turned brown (or at least when you're living in the north), I talked to several of my old friends—most of them had gone on to live their own (and admittedly successful) lives, and many had on that characteristic blank look when I brought up our old dreams. "Remember when we said we would travel around the world?" I asked, more as a tentative measure to see if I could trust them with the rest. "I said we could get summer jobs at the Ex, and then Sheena said we could start by somewhere close, then go on from there?"
Sheena looked at me, then, as if my face had some sort of visual cue, she nodded. "Yes, I remember. That was such a long time ago. We were so naive back then." The others nodded along, some knowing what I was talking about, some completely oblivious but wishing not to be left out of the conversation.
"I said you were crazy back then," Daniel said, not looking my way. "Nuts. Out of your mind."
"I remember that," I said. I heard Nina hold her breath, but I plowed on. "You said we'd never make it, and that if we did, you would walk around painted orange."
"I haven't been orange yet."
I smiled, the only thing I had left of my old self. Somewhere along the way, I had discarded every other piece that had tied me together, even my fears, and I found that it had been much more easier to travel without them. "You haven't," I told Daniel, who had his eyes closed, refusing to open them. "You're right, we never did make it. But I'm going to. I'm still trying."
"You are?" Nina asked me, half incredulous. "Where have you been? Other than Korea, of course."
Daniel stood up. "I'm sorry, I have to go." We all watched as he left, and when he disappeared, Kady said, "What's his problem?"
two.
"You like Daniel."
The statement came so sudden, so unexpectedly swift, that my natural response was to deny it, and I did. Nina turned to me and said, "Don't lie to me."
I could not. Nina was my best friend, or the closest I had to a best friend. I had known her the longest, and the closest to the present, so by definition she was my best friend. I was an open book to anyone who had cared to know me for long enough, unless I cared to hide myself, and it was not hard for Nina to tell that I was lying. I secretly (and often) rejoiced in the fact that few people ever knew me that well.
"What makes you think that?"
"You can't stop talking to him or about him. You stare at him when you think other people aren't looking. And you act weird when you're around him."
I counted the proofs, then stacked up my counterargument. They were pitifully few, but among them was the most critical piece—denial. If I did not admit to anything, then it would soon be a game Nina would grow tired of, and then it would be over.
I had many reasons why I wished to keep my affectations a secret, most of them in line with why I preferred to keep most of what I liked a secret. On the surface, I pretended to be the cheerful, naive girl who was so overly optimistic few people ever saw her upset. My smiles were so cheap, so readily available, that I and everyone else no longer even noticed them for their presence (and later, only for their absence). I forgot why I wanted this façade in the first place, only that it would make me become an integral part of this society, and that had been my ultimate goal.
I had another reason—secrets were weaknesses. I had to keep them to myself to make myself appear invincible. I had to be everything I wanted to be and more. People I occasionally fancied, Daniel included, were weaknesses that were exploitable, and thus must be hidden.
"You're over-thinking things," I told Nina bluntly. "Not everyone is as boy-crazed as you are."
three.
The idea of a trip without a foreseeable end was rooted in my upbringing of no definite home. It could be said that my entire life was a trip of certain proportions, with only a starting time and place, but no destination to return to. Most people went home after a long trip, to relax, or do whatever else it was that normal people did after a "break" from their daily routine of life, and so home was their final destination, no matter what they said to the contrary. I had no home, no place I could call home, because there was no place I had "grown up" in or I had shared any meaningful memories that I had not shared elsewhere. Since I had no home, and so no destination, the trip was my daily routine of life, and the "breaks" came when I stopped to rest my feet.
I first brought up the idea to Nina, because I shared almost (but not) everything with her, but she turned my offer down. She laughed it off as a joke, as I was sure she thought it was, and said that I was always full of these hot-aired ideas that never came to fruition. I knew she did not believe for one moment that I was really going to go anywhere far away, even outside the borders of our city, for more than a month.
Next, I went to find Dena, who nodded with much enthusiasm. "Are you going to France? We should go wine-tasting."
"We're not legal yet," I said, my analytical side for once overpowering my imagination. "We can't drink."
"Oh, sure we can," Dena said. "By the time we go there, we'll be over the legal age anyway. We'll be in our last years of college, if not after that." I had overestimated my logical reasoning abilities against those who were more in touch with the nuances of reality.
Nonetheless, we gathered a few of our friends—Sheena, Kady, Sally, Jennifer, Cynthia, and a few other friends of Dena's whose names I did not remember. We planned this trip, more in broad strokes of color as we talked about what we would do in certain countries and cities, and how certain people would react, and other trivial things.
Sometime amidst our plotting, Daniel and John came by, and Daniel stopped to listen to our discussions. "You're crazy," he finally said. "All of you."
"Oh, take your cynicism somewhere else," Kady said.
"You're still crazy," he said, even as he left. The girls laughed it off after he left, and I joined in, but only half-heartedly. Somewhere in his voice, I found what he said to be true. I was crazy. What I wanted was something so out of proportion that no one who had not experienced my sense of loss and detachment could understand, and no one here took our discussions in the same way I did. Nina and Dena and Sheena and all of the others thought of this as a mere exercise of imagination, whereas I used it as one of the main pillars of the world I was constructing.
four.
A few weeks later, as I had predicted, everyone forgot about the travel plans as exams approached. I was busy searching summer jobs in the library when Daniel took the computer next to mine and sat down. His slightly concerned face told me that he had an assignment he needed to finish last-minute, so I did not bother him. He, however, started up a conversation, perhaps while waiting for his computer to load.
"Hey. What're you doing?"
"Looking for jobs," I said, absentmindedly. I scoured the site I was currently on. Managers and workers with experience only.
"What do you need the money for?"
"Saving up for my plane ticket, or maybe a few weeks' worth of lodging. I don't know. Money goes a long way."
Daniel spun my chair around, rather unexpectedly. I was about to complain when he said, "You're not seriously considering going on that trip of yours?"
"I am. What of it?"
"You know they're not going to go with you? I mean, I know they're all saying that they'd love to come along, but when it really comes down to it, every one of them is going to come up with some excuse or another to not go. You're all alone in this one."
I stared at his face and found nothing but seriousness. "I know I'm alone," I said. I wanted to add, I'm just another lonely person in a world filled with lonely people. I want to find those people, every one of them, and if I must go alone, then I will. But instead, I simply smiled another worthless smile and reminded him, "Your computer's already loaded."
He glared at me, then turned to his work. I picked up my books and said goodbye, but I never heard a response from him.
five.
We were still mad at each other when the spring formal came along. Everyone else was abuzz over the upcoming dance (and the hook-ups and break-ups), but I was excited for another reason. When Nina asked about it, I told her I was anxious for the dance.
"You think Daniel's going to ask you?" Nina said, half musing, half serious.
"Why would he?" I asked, not denying that it would be not entirely unwelcomed. It was a risky decision, but I had something else to protect me now. I had a definite future.
"You two would be the sweetest couple," Nina went on to say. "Not that any couple involving you wouldn't be sweet." It would be the same thing she would said to me when we heard that he had asked Jennifer instead, except without the first half. I nodded along both times, but honestly, I did not care anymore. If Daniel had asked me, I would have gone with him, but my mind was already made up by then. I probably would have, in a last-ditch attempt to make him angry, told him about my plans. As it turned out, I did not even need to go with him.
I was at Nikki's, admiring the pretty dresses, when Daniel walked in, his discomfort obvious. One of the staff told him to wait a minute—she'll be right out with him, and he sat down on one of those uncomfortable wooden chairs in the waiting area. I, in a moment of irrational judgment, walked over to him and asked, "Looking for a tux?"
"Yeah," he more or less grunted.
"I heard you're going with Jennifer. Are you going to find a tie that matches her dress?"
He looked as if he had never heard the concept of matching ensembles before, and, after the initial panic-stricken moment, asked me if it was customary for couples to be matching.
"Hey, I wouldn't know. I've never been to an event like this before. Not that I will be, anyway."
The last part was a bait, and he bit it just as I had thought he would. "You're not going? Why not?"
"I'm leaving on that night," I said, as nonchalantly as I could manage. "Going on that so-called 'crazy' trip of mine."
Daniel stared at me for a while, unable to comprehend what I had just said. I felt a sudden loneliness, more than any I had ever experienced before, and I realized (much too late, and with an aftertaste in my mouth) that my loneliness had driven me to become even more lonely, if that was even possible.
Finally, he said, "There's nothing I can do to change your mind, is there?"
I had already come this far. I could not turn back now. No. "No."
He ran his hand through his hair, then, in a burst of controlled anger, said to me, "You won't last long by yourself. You're going to be back here within a week. Mark my words, you're going to be back here and nobody's going to even realize you were gone."
six.
Seven years later, I was cleaning out one of my suitcases to pack all of the new clothes I had bought when a piece of paper fell out. At first, I thought it was a room service note, or something to that effect. I had not lived in a hotel for three years now, except an occasional stay after the plane rides, since hostels were much cheaper, so I picked it up and examined it.
There was a list of names, and numbers, some of which I recognized. I definitely recognized Nina's name. I had not talked to her in such a long time, and suddenly, I wanted to talk to her again. I thought I had detached myself from my past, but here it was, a piece from my past that urged me to revisit the whole. I picked up the phone, half chiding myself that this would never work, that Nina must have had a new number by now—it has been seven years, after all.
When the person on the other side picked up, I said, with much skepticism in my voice, "Hi, is this Nina?"
"Yes, who is this?"
"It's Ginny."
"Oh my god, Ginny! How have you been? I haven't talked to you in forever! Where have you been?"
We talked a bit about the old times, and times that we did not share together. I conveniently left out my stories of the countries I had been to, and just told her that I was in South Korea at the moment, but that I was thinking of a reunion, just with the old friends. It was more of a spur-of-the-moment thing, but I suddenly just wanted to go back, after all those years of wandering around. It did not matter where, really. Just back somewhere that still remembered me before I shed my naivety, and it so happened that Nina's world was the one I had contact with.
Nina said that she could gather a few people together, and asked me who I wanted to see. I said anyone was fine with me, as long as I knew them. Then I ran my hand down the list and stopped at a particular name that echoed in my heart dully.
"Do you still have Daniel's number?" I asked.
"Daniel—Daniel, the guy on the basketball team?" She asked, even though we only knew one Daniel together. We had been separate long enough that the edges of our memories began to blur when it concerned each other.
"Yes, that's the one."
"I do, wait, let me find it."
When we hung up, I called Daniel next. I was not sure what I was expecting when I asked for his number, or what I wanted to hear from him, but when he picked up the phone, after the fifth ring, his voice was just as I had remembered it.
"Hey, Daniel. It's Ginny."
There was silence, and, just as I thought he had hung up on me out of years of pent-up frustration, he whispered, "You really did it. I never would have thought—I never."
seven.
After our makeshift reunion, I left, but not before telling them about the distilled version of my adventures. They listened as intently as they could manage in a subject that they were foreign to, among uncharted regions of imagination and exhilaration. Even as I left, I could still hear them talking about my stories, as if they had experience it themselves. I even heard small phrases here and there about how nice it would be to travel around the world, and how, perhaps, they should do it themselves.
When I reached the parking lot, Daniel was waiting by my car. I walked up to him and asked, "How did you know this was mine?"
"It's the only one with a foreign license plate," he said, as I realized too late.
"What do you want from me?"
He looked at me for the first time since I had returned. "I want the real story."
So we drove to the hill by our old school, and we raced each other to the hilltop, and once there, we collapsed to the ground, and I started sobbing. I told him everything. I told him everyone I had met, and everyone I had connected to, and everyone I had left behind. I even told him my goal—of finding every lonely person in this world.
"You're still going to go, then," he said, not as a question but as an acceptance of the facts. I thought it over, and I nodded. I still had to go on. My search was not over yet, and I still had many more places I had to visit, and many more people I had to find.
"Well, when you're finished with finding every other lonely person in this world, come back here to find me. I want to be the last person you find."
With that, he left. I sat there on the hill, pondering over what he had said, and I realized that he had just given me a destination. He had given me a place I could return to, at the end of my journey, with such definitiveness that I could find no excuses to find fault with it.
By the way, favorite quote of the not-so-day: "Nick Clegg has reportedly given himself a 24 hour deadline to decide between his two suitors. Will it be dour-but-dutiful Gordon or fresh- (some might say shiny-) faced Dave? Find out tomorrow in another exciting installment of Love Across The Despatch Box: An Interminable Westminster Romance! I'm going to call it a night, I think. See you tomorrow," by Tom Chivers and Matthew Moore over at the Telegraph (I know, I'm too lazy to search up less Tory-based sources, and, besides, they are at least being somewhat objective in this report, more so than others I've heard).
Saturday, May 8, 2010
ALERT: Command Chain Broken
Well, it was just Dino wearing a red shirt yesterday. Actually, let me repeat that. Dino was wearing a red shirt yesterday.
That's right. No navy, no navy and white, no navy and brown, no navy and palm trees, no navy and—you get the point. And it wasn't any predominantly navy shirt with a few lines of red text or anything like that. It was full-on red. Red as the bloody mountain sunsets. Red.
If this does not surprise you, let me place it in context by quoting Sonny, who talked to Dino after I pointed out to him that Dino was wearing a red shirt.
"You can't just pull off a red shirt like that! I mean, for the past few years, all you've ever worn were the same three navy shirts in circulation, and then—bam!—yesterday you had a brand new navy shirt, and today, this red shirt! What is going on?!"
Yeah. That was why this had been so, uh, newsworthy. Because all of a sudden, Dino decided to expand his wardrobe or something. With a totally uncharacteristic color such as, dare I repeat it again, red. Mind-blowing.
Also, for some reason, Sonny was the one wearing the navy shirt yesterday. Oh, whatever has this world come down to?
I'll be the gossipy girl and speculate that it's because he went prom-shopping lately, and whilst there, he finally decided that he was going to listen to pretty much everyone around him and buy a few shirts that are not some combination of navy and navy. (Also, I would hate to imagine what would be his color of choice if the Yankees were orange and green and purple instead of their present navy and white.) Or maybe Lauretta inadvertently (or advertently, even if it's not a word) told him that a) she didn't like the color navy, b) she didn't like how he wears the same color every day, and/or c) she liked red better. If she did, then the fashion world is much better off with her presence (not that it wasn't before, I'm sure, but now even more so).
Then, of course, comes the question: why would he choose the color red when he's red-green colorblind? This part is what makes the part c of the Lauretta theory so much more plausible than any other theory out there so far. Or maybe Owen likes red a lot and is now trying to push it upon Dino. Or... Dino needs to wear red to absorb certain waves (that have wavelengths only absorb-able by red shirts) to ensure the proper functioning of some part of his circuit board.
That must be it.
(Totally unrelated, but Dino has a nice back. Very cushion-y but not too soft.)
That's right. No navy, no navy and white, no navy and brown, no navy and palm trees, no navy and—you get the point. And it wasn't any predominantly navy shirt with a few lines of red text or anything like that. It was full-on red. Red as the bloody mountain sunsets. Red.
If this does not surprise you, let me place it in context by quoting Sonny, who talked to Dino after I pointed out to him that Dino was wearing a red shirt.
"You can't just pull off a red shirt like that! I mean, for the past few years, all you've ever worn were the same three navy shirts in circulation, and then—bam!—yesterday you had a brand new navy shirt, and today, this red shirt! What is going on?!"
Yeah. That was why this had been so, uh, newsworthy. Because all of a sudden, Dino decided to expand his wardrobe or something. With a totally uncharacteristic color such as, dare I repeat it again, red. Mind-blowing.
Also, for some reason, Sonny was the one wearing the navy shirt yesterday. Oh, whatever has this world come down to?
I'll be the gossipy girl and speculate that it's because he went prom-shopping lately, and whilst there, he finally decided that he was going to listen to pretty much everyone around him and buy a few shirts that are not some combination of navy and navy. (Also, I would hate to imagine what would be his color of choice if the Yankees were orange and green and purple instead of their present navy and white.) Or maybe Lauretta inadvertently (or advertently, even if it's not a word) told him that a) she didn't like the color navy, b) she didn't like how he wears the same color every day, and/or c) she liked red better. If she did, then the fashion world is much better off with her presence (not that it wasn't before, I'm sure, but now even more so).
Then, of course, comes the question: why would he choose the color red when he's red-green colorblind? This part is what makes the part c of the Lauretta theory so much more plausible than any other theory out there so far. Or maybe Owen likes red a lot and is now trying to push it upon Dino. Or... Dino needs to wear red to absorb certain waves (that have wavelengths only absorb-able by red shirts) to ensure the proper functioning of some part of his circuit board.
That must be it.
(Totally unrelated, but Dino has a nice back. Very cushion-y but not too soft.)
Friday, May 7, 2010
Highlights of the 2010 UK Elections
Blame 538.com for my addiction to this year's UK elections. I hadn't really cared (aside from interest in some of the lesser-known parties) until the Nerdfights between Nate Silver and PoliticsHome. But now that I am fully interested (purely numbers-wise, as a fellow amateur statistician, if I can call myself that), I have been following the polls as they come in, one by one, ever since 10:00PM, BST (when the polls closed).
Although this isn't nearly a timely, updated post, it is my experience of the elections, and should serve as something, if only to inform those who utterly have not cared about the elections up until they read this. You can only be an expert (ha, expert, yeah right) to a certain extent.
CONCLUSION:
Britain may very well be headed towards a minority government or a Tory-Lib coalition (with numerous experts prediction a re-election within a year, but hey, these are probably the same—I can't voucher for sure because all of their names blended into one for me, the usually non-political girl—experts who doubted that the Liberal Democrats would do so pathetically, so I would take their words with an idiomatic grain of salt).
On the front of statistics (why I'm doing this in the first place), all polls before the exit poll were off. Mostly because of overly optimistic LibDem projections, but also many thought a Conservative majority might be possible. Telephone polls were generally more accurate than Internet polls. And the most pressing issue? There's no clear winner in the Nerdfight, sadly. We're better off with BBC and its exit poll predicting the UK's future for those who wish not to stay up late (like David Dimbleby) and watch the events unfold. But really, it was so much more fun to see the election map being filled out one by one, and to watch the comments as they rolled in after each astounding (or not so astounding, in the safe seats) win.
Let's hope everything works out just fine for Britain. Of course, I can't wait for the 2012 presidential elections (hopefully by then I will fully understand the swing projection mechanism). I'd say I'm interested in it from a purely statistical standpoint, but that would be untruthful. With the US elections, I can also apply everything I've learned in US history. Imagine, math and social studies!
Sources where I got my information is as follows (and some interesting links to check out):
FiveThirtyEight: Election Night Liveblog Part 1 Part 2 Poll Analysis
The Telegraph: General Election 2010 Liveblog Election Map What's a Hung Parliament
(The General Election link above is updated daily—until they choose not to update it anymore—and archives are at the bottom of the post, but before the comments. I predominately used the May 6th/7th post, which is no longer the one displayed on the first page.)
BBC: Election 2010 Live Coverage Results Swingometer
(Try the Swing-o-meter. It's so amazingly fun I am kind of sad the US elections aren't quite the same as the UK elections. Swings don't really work as well here. Pity.)
UPDATE(s):
"2054 Among the thousands of disappointed candidates few could claim to have been dealt a harsher hand by fate than Bob Peck, a Conservative councillor in Great Yarmouth. When he and Labour rival Charlie Marsden were tied on 1,034 votes each in his Yarmouth North ward, a returning officer settled the stalemate asking each to draw cards from a pack. Mr Peck lost his seat."—Telegraph
Some other UK newspaper headlines (and sources)—
The Independent: Big two woo kingmaker Clegg, "Britain was today plunged into uncertainty over its future government, as both Labour and the Conservatives competed for the support of the Liberal Democrats to form an administration."
The Sun: Cam to Clegg: Let's do a deal/Shameless PM's still clinging on, "Mr Clegg had suffered one of the worst nights of his political life yesterday - but STILL woke holding Britain's future in the palm of his hand."
The Daily Mail (which Tea does not completely trust): Now for the shabby deals: As the Election descends into shambles, Cameron and Brown battle for crushed Clegg's support, "The most tumultuous election anyone could remember ended in a weekend of 1970s-style horse-trading between the parties and a dangerous period of uncertainty. David Cameron made an astonishing power-sharing offer to the Liberal Democrats, while Mr Brown shamelessly refused to budge as PM after leading Labour to its worst drubbing since 1983."
Washington Post (all-American, and so no headlines, but a small, almost hidden Opinions page): An electoral earthquake, "Dionne: In Great Britain, economic change crushed old political strategies on the left and right."
Yeah, I'll stop now. Much more interesting things (such as our trip outdoors in calc) are at stake here, now that Clegg (of all people) is now the one to decide Britain's future. It's a lose-lose situation for him (namely, Clegg goes Tory, he gets sidelined; Clegg goes Labour, chance of re-election with more people voting for the two main parties), and quite the lose-lose situation for the country (namely, despite voting for "change," it all depends on one man and his party's politics).
Besides, you've got to follow it as it unrolls to really experience the fun.
Although this isn't nearly a timely, updated post, it is my experience of the elections, and should serve as something, if only to inform those who utterly have not cared about the elections up until they read this. You can only be an expert (ha, expert, yeah right) to a certain extent.
- The Sunderlands apparently have a tradition of being the first to reveal their numbers (like that NH county whose name I can't remember), and this year, they've kept with tradition, both in speed and results. All three Sunderlands (the first three out and thus most analyzed) voted Labour, despite a huge increase in Conservative votes.
- BBC exit polls have Conservative barely out of majority, and Liberal Democrats losing seats—even though the LibDem's were predicted to gain seats this election. Well, LibDems remind me of the NDPs in Canada (very similar political party environment, especially regional parties, such as the Bloc Québecois, resemble the Scottish and Northern Ireland parties), so I'm not too surprised they've been losing seats, especially with a possible Conservative majority. But my opinion's probably naive.
- Who's the guy behind Gordon Brown during his speech? I don't have a link right now, because I'm following rolling blogs that keep updating, but if you Google Gordon Brown, I'll bet he'll show up. You know, the guy in the sunglasses, who's making that fist-motion, and supposedly belongs to the "Land is Power" party? He got 57 votes, so maybe (if those votes aren't just his family and friends) he's celebrating.
- With the polls and numbers in so far, Nate's model is leading the predictions against the uniform swing model. I haven't delved deep enough to figure out why Nate's model works (uniform swing is much easier to understand, apparently, and I haven't entirely gotten that). Although Nate's model is significantly worse when minority parties (e.g. SNP, DUP, and such) are contenders, which may be a result of his being used to American elections, which are focused primarily on a few (more like, two) parties, rather than a whole range of them, each with their areas of strength.
- Students forced to line up in longer lines while "local residents" vote first? One of a few scandals of the night (including keeping polls open after the deadline), and definitely going to be a problem. Check out the Facebook group. Some are calling for a re-election, which is very unlikely, but if the results are close, things may get ugly. Fast.
- And of course, exit polls once again prove to be rather informative (the last one, the 2005 UK election exit poll conducted by BBC as well, predicted the Labour majority accurately), as LibDems are faring horridly compared to expectations. Not my expectations, I'll say. But I just really care about whether the Nate-model or the uniform-swing-model will prevail, so I never really had expectations to begin with.
- "3:04 AM. Cameron's body language suggested a touch of disappointment."—538.com
- "0254 A clearly shocked Lembit Opik tries to explain his defeat, but the symbolism of the backdrop - a deserted hall - says so much more about tonight's Lib Dem collapse."—Telegraph
- BBC has been having technical difficulties earlier in the evening, with strange graphics, malfunctioning equipment ("Can I just kick this thing?" I'll have to find the specific quote later), and a boat party filled with celebrities and political pundits that plunged into a blackout halfway through.
- Conservative minority (exit poll predictions) may be disastrous for the stock market, as it will definitely drop due to the Greece bankruptcy and the DOW's near 1000 point drop (before rebounding a bit), and a hung government most likely won't get anything done anytime soon. Nate's predicting Conservative majority (by 10+ seats) based on the exit poll and a minority (by 10+ seats as well) based on no exit poll data. Someone tell me how this makes any sense.
- I've been spending way too much time on this, including looking at the funny pictures (Lembit Opik especially, and maybe the wood-chopping PM, but nothing—and I mean nothing in this election so far—tops the Man In Sunglasses behind Gordon Brown). Telegraph election maps either don't update as often as BBC's, or BBC is making false/early projections, as the Telegraph pointed out earlier. Who knows. I just know I should go to sleep now.
- Latest at 10:20PM—BBC: Con. 92, Lab. 92, Lib. 14 (a tie); and Telegraph: Con. 70, Lab. 74, Lib. 9, Others 26 (includes Sinn Fein, which I had thought was the name of an MP before learning that was a party—just goes to show my amateurishness in all of this, doesn't it?). This may end up like a Canadian government: nobody wants a Conservative majority, but they don't want the Liberals to win, so they vote for a Conservative minority with NDP getting some city (working class) votes and Bloc Québecois, well, you know where they win. They have the strangest ties too, all color-coordinated to show party support.
- SLEEP. Will check results later (in the morning, maybe). Tea said I should befriend Andy, who is also very interested in these elections. I hope he's in it for the math, because then he can explain the swing theories to me.
- THE NEXT DAY. (Yeah, that deserves a bullet point all to itself.)
- 538 report: out of 15 districts (at the time, no later data are provided), Nate's method won 7, and uniform swing won 8. Conducting a confidence interval on proportions (conditions are not quite met so we'll have to use a Wilson's adjustment, but I'm using my calculator so I'll assume it does that automatically), Nate's method was right about 47% of the time, with a (gasp) 21% error (this is why you should always have a large sample size when possible). But the same goes for uniform swing as well, so neither one really wins. That's disappointing.
- "4.19am Douglas Murray writes: 'Labour losses, Lib Dems failing to live up to any hype and the Conservatives failing to make gains they should have walked through. It looks like we the people have turned out in record numbers to punish the major parties equally. And, judging from Scotland, the minority parties too. Fun for the time being but this is going to spell mayhem over the coming days.'"—Telegraph
- Imagine losing by 176 votes (as Evan Harris, who got over 23,000 votes but still 176 less than the oppsition, experienced). That would really, really suck.
- "12.12pm (WH) A reader emails me the full Boris Johnson Paxman exchange (11.41am), saying it has been the highlight so far today.
Paxman: “But you started it!”"—TelegraphBoris: “I think if our new government is to be a Wall’s sausage, the meat of that sausage should be Conservatism. Of course there will be plenty of other bits and pieces in there like bread and what have you, but the meat should be the Conservatives.”Paxman: “Will it be a chipolata or Cumberland sausage?”Boris: “Enough of this gastronomic metaphor, I have tired of it.” - "Deal or No Deal" is chosen over Nick Clegg (LibDem leader). Adding insult to injury. (Here's the link.)
- Hung government made official, because apparently the UK can't deal with a minority government for some reason. Or maybe they just don't like to deal with one (lots of political bickering, that's for sure, and if Clegg doesn't form an agreement with the Tories, and David Cameron decides on a Tory minority, then any major decision in Westminster could become a nightmare—like Obama's healthcare bill debate, except possibly worse, since Obama at least had a Democrat majority). Business big-shots not liking this one bit—but this doesn't affect me directly in any way, except perhaps the possible spike in gold and silver prices after a loss of confidence in stocks and currency, which would be harsh on our jewelry club budget.
- A 14-year-old boy voted in Wyre and Preston North. What? How? You'd think a national election would be better regulated than that. Even convenience stores do a better job of monitoring who comes in through the doors.
- Here's the kicker: BBC's exit polls predicted a Tory minority of 307 seats, Labour with 255, and LibDems with 59. Real results? Conservative 305, Labour 258, and LibDem 57. Nate predicted 312/204/103, and PoliticsHome (since I haven't followed them consistently, I have two dates up for comparison) has 291/230/97 on May 4th and 307/229/82 on May 6th (although perhaps after the exit poll was released, because British law forbids any information regarding polls released during voting time from 7am to 10pm to prevent bias—I'll have to check later). Looks like that sample size of 18,000 worked out really well for the BBC for yet another year (much to the dismay of the Telegraph, which had been taunting the BBC's stubbornness in clinging onto its exit poll).
CONCLUSION:
Britain may very well be headed towards a minority government or a Tory-Lib coalition (with numerous experts prediction a re-election within a year, but hey, these are probably the same—I can't voucher for sure because all of their names blended into one for me, the usually non-political girl—experts who doubted that the Liberal Democrats would do so pathetically, so I would take their words with an idiomatic grain of salt).
On the front of statistics (why I'm doing this in the first place), all polls before the exit poll were off. Mostly because of overly optimistic LibDem projections, but also many thought a Conservative majority might be possible. Telephone polls were generally more accurate than Internet polls. And the most pressing issue? There's no clear winner in the Nerdfight, sadly. We're better off with BBC and its exit poll predicting the UK's future for those who wish not to stay up late (like David Dimbleby) and watch the events unfold. But really, it was so much more fun to see the election map being filled out one by one, and to watch the comments as they rolled in after each astounding (or not so astounding, in the safe seats) win.
Let's hope everything works out just fine for Britain. Of course, I can't wait for the 2012 presidential elections (hopefully by then I will fully understand the swing projection mechanism). I'd say I'm interested in it from a purely statistical standpoint, but that would be untruthful. With the US elections, I can also apply everything I've learned in US history. Imagine, math and social studies!
Sources where I got my information is as follows (and some interesting links to check out):
FiveThirtyEight: Election Night Liveblog Part 1 Part 2 Poll Analysis
The Telegraph: General Election 2010 Liveblog Election Map What's a Hung Parliament
(The General Election link above is updated daily—until they choose not to update it anymore—and archives are at the bottom of the post, but before the comments. I predominately used the May 6th/7th post, which is no longer the one displayed on the first page.)
BBC: Election 2010 Live Coverage Results Swingometer
(Try the Swing-o-meter. It's so amazingly fun I am kind of sad the US elections aren't quite the same as the UK elections. Swings don't really work as well here. Pity.)
UPDATE(s):
"2054 Among the thousands of disappointed candidates few could claim to have been dealt a harsher hand by fate than Bob Peck, a Conservative councillor in Great Yarmouth. When he and Labour rival Charlie Marsden were tied on 1,034 votes each in his Yarmouth North ward, a returning officer settled the stalemate asking each to draw cards from a pack. Mr Peck lost his seat."—Telegraph
Some other UK newspaper headlines (and sources)—
The Independent: Big two woo kingmaker Clegg, "Britain was today plunged into uncertainty over its future government, as both Labour and the Conservatives competed for the support of the Liberal Democrats to form an administration."
The Sun: Cam to Clegg: Let's do a deal/Shameless PM's still clinging on, "Mr Clegg had suffered one of the worst nights of his political life yesterday - but STILL woke holding Britain's future in the palm of his hand."
The Daily Mail (which Tea does not completely trust): Now for the shabby deals: As the Election descends into shambles, Cameron and Brown battle for crushed Clegg's support, "The most tumultuous election anyone could remember ended in a weekend of 1970s-style horse-trading between the parties and a dangerous period of uncertainty. David Cameron made an astonishing power-sharing offer to the Liberal Democrats, while Mr Brown shamelessly refused to budge as PM after leading Labour to its worst drubbing since 1983."
Washington Post (all-American, and so no headlines, but a small, almost hidden Opinions page): An electoral earthquake, "Dionne: In Great Britain, economic change crushed old political strategies on the left and right."
Yeah, I'll stop now. Much more interesting things (such as our trip outdoors in calc) are at stake here, now that Clegg (of all people) is now the one to decide Britain's future. It's a lose-lose situation for him (namely, Clegg goes Tory, he gets sidelined; Clegg goes Labour, chance of re-election with more people voting for the two main parties), and quite the lose-lose situation for the country (namely, despite voting for "change," it all depends on one man and his party's politics).
Besides, you've got to follow it as it unrolls to really experience the fun.
