Shortness Is Sometimes A Virtue

It is extremely late today. I have a lot of work. I should be doing said work, but I really, really don't feel like it (and it's really long, and really tedious), so instead I will update about my life. Because it is oh-so-interesting, and if I don't, I'll forget all about it and then think that I have nothing to blog about for quite some time.

Not likely, because tomorrow is—gasp!—the states math meet! There will be so much to talk about, and I can't wait to see what the bus trip will be like. Last year, I was with Tybalt and Bryant and Melissa and Jun most of the time, and it was fun (I played connect-five and Monkey with Jun on the way there, or was that New England's?), but I have a feeling it's going to be even better this year.

So yes, I shall blog about that tomorrow or Wednesday, whenever I get around to it. Meanwhile, today.

Second last gym class today, and I can't believe it! We had a new Tae Bo video today, and it was hard (I've noticed that even Billy Blanks doesn't do all of the movements), but it was also fun. Tomorrow, if the guy our gym teacher's been trying to invite comes, we'll probably be going out to the courtyard to do this mix of martial arts and workout. If not, we'll still be outside, and what better way to celebrate our last day of "physical" gym but to go outside in the nice weather?

I still can't believe it's going to end after tomorrow. Wow. Time really flies, even if you're not having fun.

I'm also making a flowchart adventure map, and once I finish it, I'll find a way to scan it (and my notes for my EOQR for US) and I'll put it up here. It's heavily influenced by xkcd. Just to give you a hint of several of the fates that have befallen my friends as they attempted the adventure:

• Nyx ended up in the ever-looping Rainbow-Land
• Camel chose a path that did not exist (yet), then after re-routing, got eaten by a raptor
• Zephy was hailed king (or queen?) by a group of robots

Very, very exciting. So I'll have that done (probably on the bus tomorrow, along with discussing AIME questions with Argon, who took one for practice and thus knows my pain in question #9, the hexagon one) and I'll get it up as soon as possible. I promise.

And yes, Easter Island trip is still coming up (I've been saying this for quite some while now). I will have that done by the end of my finals (calc next Monday and Tuesday, then stat Wednesday and Thursday). As for today, it's late, and I'm tired, and I have to wake up early tomorrow, so I'll go to sleep now.

(Was this one shorter than usual? I started it out thinking it will be, but it's turned out rather substantial again. Darn.)

Canadian Gold

First of all, I have to admit, I have a ranking system of patriotism.

It goes sort of like this:

1. If there is a Chinese team in a given competition, or if the Chinese are somehow related to a given event, I will automatically support them. Unless I personally disliked the people in the team. But usually I do not have such close relationships with them, so for the most part, the Chinese are automatically on the top of my cheering list.

2. If, for whatever reason, there are no Chinese teams, but a Canadian team is present, I will cheer for the Canadian team, regardless of who the other people are. Unless, once again, I personally dislike the Canadian team members or I personally like the other team members, but that usually does not happen either.

3. If #1 and #2 are both not true, and there is a US team, I will cheer for the US team. With the exceptions as mentioned above.

So I suppose it goes without saying that I was cheering on the Canadian hockey team during the last game of the Olympics. I was elated when I saw the winning shot, by Sidney Crosby of all people (which was sort of expected), and that Canada had finally won the most important gold medal of this entire Winter Olympics. I am also glad I have not forgotten the lyrics to "O Canada" yet.

However, that alone would not constitute a blog post, at least not in my blog. Maybe on Sergio's blog. As it happened, because of Canada's hockey gold, two interesting phenomena occurred.

First, as I would like to point out rather obviously, I have a Facebook account. (No, really, anyone who reads this probably already knows, but whatever. I need to mention this to lead to the next part.) And I had such an account back when I was still in Canada, and it is still very much in use. Therefore, half (and I believe, the last time I counted, exactly half, although this might have changed what with Dino and Irving randomly adding me) of my friends on Facebook are Canadian, and half are American.

During the hockey game, some interesting wall posts resulted.

Random Guy: 1-0 Canada . Omg we better win...

Other Random Guy: 2-1 canada lets gooo!!!

Another Random Guy (right before 3rd period ends): NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Some Soph at Our School: holy shit usa!

Other Random Guy: Canada!!!!!!! Crosby!!!! Gold!!!

Melissa (finally, someone with a name): wtf they're not even a real country

Random Girl: OMGGG CROSBYY!!!! Woot! Hahaaa USA=suckers xD

Some Soph at Our School: one of the best games i've seen. good work USA.

Jun: Fuck Yeah CANADA!!!!

(*Jun's post was followed immediately by Irving's comment, "where do u live, again?")

This reminded me dearly of the wonderful experiences I've had in Canada, where there would be people who would deride the American people. I tried to persuade them otherwise, seeing as I have lived in the US before, and the two really are not that different, but alas, I failed.

And came right here to hear people deride Canadians.

Really, they're not all that different. Even in the ways they insult each other, of course tailored slightly to fit the context.

But I figured showing the reactions side by side would be interesting.

(Oh, and, in calc class today, Sonny and Dino asked me whether I had heard of curling. Because, apparently, it's huge in Canada. And when I said I had heard of it--not in Canada, but in the US, actually--he immediately assumed that I knew how to curl. Trust me, I am far better at chess than I am at curling, and to be honest, I have only won one game at chess, and that was because my opponent gave up since the game was taking too long.)

Hockey gold also places Canada with 14 gold medals, which brings up the next interesting piece, namely the number 14. I now firmly believe it is one of my lucky numbers.

To name but a few 14s that were more than nice, there was the 14 I got at NEML, which subsequently resulted in a fancy prize of $12.5 in giftcard money (they gave two for people who scored high enough to get $25 and so forth... which is probably what only math people could have even thought of) and a book filled with math problems.

There was the 14 questions I got right on the AMC.

Chinese New Year's this year was on February 14th. As was Valentine's Day, although I suppose that was not quite the "cheerful" holiday I had been not-so-expecting anyway.

I have 14 lower teeth.

Okay, the last one, albeit true, is totally unrelated. Regardless, those are a lot of 14s in my life, all related to positive things. So my theory on 14 being a lucky number of mine is not entirely untrue. In fact, it is very, very plausible, and perhaps I should host a special event on the 14th of every month as a continuing respect for this holy number.

Or, more beneficial to me and to the people at our school in general, I could use this as an excuse to postpone school starting time until 8:14am, because teachers would be much more miserable if we had to go to school at 7:14am, and the next alternative has to be 8:14am. If we could also get out at 2:14 pm, my life will be complete.

It's just like 11:11, except even better.

(My wishes for 11:11 never happens, anyway. Neither do my birthday wishes, although I suspect that may have something to do with the fact that my cakes do not have candles.)