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munkeymunkey

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  1. munkeymunkey

    #038 ~ Twilight Disk

    By munkeymunkey,

    I was browsing through the forums today, and I saw something that made me unhappy:

     
    Now, why does the Twilight Disk look like that? In my opinion, the Twilight Disk should look more like this:

    (It would need some better photoshop work, of course.)
     
    But seriously, a Twilight Disk without Edward Cullen? That's like making a Narnia Disk without Peter Pevensie!
     
    (That is -MX-'s signature in the image, by the way.)
  2. munkeymunkey
    Saturday, a staff worker for the college arrived in Alumni Hall with her cleaning supplies to scrub off the grime and germicals left by the bustling, sometimes less than considerate college students that use the bathrooms on the first floor. On this day, however, she had more than the usual to sanitize - for along with the normal dirtiness, there was a filth greater than any natural process written on the walls.
     
    I can't repeat most of the language here, but the specific words aren't as important as the message of this bigoted script. In a direct response to the election of Senator Obama as the next president of the United States, the words sliced through the campus conscious like a rusty blade. "Lynch them all," it said, among other things with offensive words as well as meaning.
     
    Lynch them all?
     
    I can only hope that alcohol or some other substance was involved in impairing the judgement of this person or persons to the point where thoughts were not clear, but even so, that doesn't change the fact that such a horrid emotion was felt. And that is a sobering realization. I never thought that such an atrocity was possible when I was child, and even before Saturday I never thought I'd witness such dehumanizing bigotry (dehumanizing for the writer, that is). I was naïve, surely, but that doesn't change the fact that this came as a terrible shock.
     
    The University has done a less than admirable job reacting to this incident. Except for the hasty scrubbing away of the offending script, the University acting slowly, only holding rallies and speeches against it Tuesday and Wednesday. Student organizations did somewhat better, bluntly stating the poor showing of the community without reservations. I didn't even hear about it until Monday night, myself, and even then I didn't know exactly what had occurred. And although I may not be the most aware of what goes on in the wider community, I keep myself informed enough. This sort of thing should have absolutely zero tolerance, and the administration should have acted immediately - not so much to catch the individual perpetrator, but to purge the community of these evil sentiments, which apparently still persist. One individual can be confined, castigated, and censured, but such sentiments will infect the community much worse if left to fester in insidiousness ignorance of its members.
     
    For although this incident in intensity is something isolated, there is a basis of racial disrespect that is present allowing such intolerable intolerance to exist. Every time a joke is made about her ethnicity, every time he's described as being a certain way because of his race, every time we assume something about somebody simply because of their nationality or race, we contribute to this evil. Evil doesn't have to be spoken or scribbled on a bathroom wall. It can be thought. It can be felt. And either way, it's still the same evil. It's still the same harm. It's still the same reprehensible act. And it's still a problem in our society.
     
    So I'm typing today not to simply rant, but to preach. Don't let prejudice exist in your own community. If a friend says something, even if harmless, that is racially insensitive, call that person out. For in truth, that little comment, even in jest, is not harmless; it's harming. It's harming to others, it's harming you, and it's harming to that friend. Be gentle and considerate in your castigation, certainly, but castigate. Make sure that person realizes that his or her statement was racist and unacceptable. That friend may not realize it otherwise.
  3. munkeymunkey

    #288 ~ It's Snowing

    By munkeymunkey,

    It's very windy. It's very snowy. Well, it isn't quite snow either. It isn't rain, though, nor sleet. It isn't even ice. It actually looks like tiny little pellets of whiteness, short of like that obscure type of packaging peanut that is tiny, round, and sticks to everything. Apparently this is called grapple. So I looked it up online and received this answer:
    "It is caused by the partial melting of a snow flake that refreezes before reaching the ground. Not too uncommon but not seen in huge amounts or frequently. It will produce this and often the warm layer that is causing the melting will be cooled by evaporation processes and it will change back to snow. There are some cases also where the warm layer rapidly increases and it will change to either sleet or to freezing rain and then to rain. "
     
    I found that interesting, but with 35mph sustained winds, I'd rather just be somewhere else. Like here...

     
    Edit: Because the beauty and comfort of Monteverde isn't apparent from the picture:
     
    "Well, that's not a tropical rain forest, it's a cloud forest. It is constantly foggy, but it doesn't rain anywhere near 8 months per year. This picture is form Monteverde, Costa Rica. It averages 80 to 120 inches of rainfall per year. That is wetter than the Northeast US, but it's drier than Seattle, Lousiana, and the Everglades (the really wet places in the US). Furthermore, much of the rainfall falls in the form of fog, so it isn't actually raining all of those 80 to 120 inches.
     
    "But everything is GREEN. It also isn't windy. Beaches are windy."
     
  4. munkeymunkey

    #317 ~ Doing Good

    By munkeymunkey,

    I was reading through an old interview* (well, not that old) with Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn), and there was a quote that really struck me. I decided to share it with everyone:
    “You’re, like, It feels like it’s either black or white. Either I’ll just, like, devote my life to trying to do good, or I’ll do nothing. But, there’s an in-between area. It doesn’t mean you should do everything, or can, as a citizen, or a family person, or a friend, or whatever. But, just do something. You’re on your honor. Basically, it’s your own conscience that will tell you are you doing quite enough to where you can feel okay about yourself, or are you not? Only you can answer that.” - Viggo Mortensen, October 2008
     
    I don't think I've ever heard anyone put it quite so succinctly before. I know I often worry about how much I should be doing for others, and I suppose this gives the slap-in-the-face answer: I need to stop worrying an honestly ask myself. If I'm still concerned after that, I should probably do more. I don't want to go forming a credo out of one side comment during an interview, but still, I felt that there was wisdom in what he said, so I wanted to share.
     
    (I also greatly respect Viggo Mortensen as an actor. If you watch the cast commentary for the special extended edition Lord of the Rings movies, you'll know what I mean. His fellow actors were impressed with and inspired by him.)
     
    *I would give a link, too, but I couldn't find an appropriate one. This was in Chicago when Good was opening. (It's an awesome movie, by the way.)
  5. munkeymunkey
    Not quite an anecdote, but I thought this would be a good spot to post this as well. I have just posted the 16th of 30 chapters in my BZP-related Epic An Insidious Demise. It's received some good reviews, and I think it's probably the best novel-length story I've ever written. Plus, the idea has a load of background... Which brings me to...
     
    Fleshing out that background. I wrote a short story a little while ago (yet to be posted) that was set in the oft-mentioned past of BZP. This past is set more or less in the 2006/2007 version of this website, and I need some more characters to fill out the BZP army fighting it what is known as simply "the Great War." This means guest stars. I've dropped a few names here and there already, but I for this next project, I want to actually portray some of the characters.
     
    Therefore, if you are interested in beign a guest star in this past-project (which will consist of short stories at lest, if not another epic as well), I would ask that you fill out a form:
     
    Name:
    Gender:
    Personality:
    Physical Features: [Whatever you would like, by no means has to be true to real life... in fact, it might be better to be different.]
    Forum: [if you lived in a sub-forum of BZP, which would it be?]
    Color(s): [For armor, clothing, masks.]
    Element: [Only one, please.]
    Mask: [Only one, please.]
    Weapon(s): [Anything within reason, but nothing with extra elemental/mask-like powers. Those come from you.]
     
    Here's a clean version to copy/paste:
     

    Guest Star Form for An Insidious Demise Preludes: Name: Gender: Personality: Physical Features: Forum: Color(s): Element: Mask: Weapon(s):
     
    I would appreciate it if all entries could be posted here instead of the review topic for the sake of organization. Thank you.
  7. munkeymunkey
    I still maintain that I get better material for quirky stories and occurances during the school year, but I have recently stumbled across another curious subject: my cousin's cats. He owns three, and they are all indoor cats that live in his two-room apartment at a boarding school dorm. On top of that, two of them of weigh over twenty pounds. (Surprisingly, his home actually smells decent.)
     
    The two main coons are name Calvin and Hobbes, and the other, a normal-sized white mut-cat, is named Sasha. Calvin and Hobbes are adorable - at first. They cuddle and play; they're excited to see me whenever I stop over; and they're meows are hilariously just like any other cat - small.
     
    Anyway, I've been taking care of these three for the past week while my cousin stays over in Virginia, and today is the first day I've actually seen Sasha. Unlike the other two, she is skiddish and shy, hiding somewhere small and cramped (and unbeknownst to me) in that tiny apartment. Cats are funny like that - if they want to hide, they'll find a way. And I might not have known that Sasha existed until today if it hadn't been for my cousin insisting he owned a third cat.
     
    Hobbes is another matter. He curls up on my lap and starts meowing happily. Then, he bite my hand, drag into his claws, and start licking it. It's hard to discern his emotions, as he shows affection with teeth, claws, tail, purr, meow, tongue, and all. But I'm farily certain that he's simply always happy.
     
    And then there's the calendar. One of the cats, while home without any humans, has been stalker my cousin's calendar and destroying it month by month. It used to hang above their cat dishes, but then I found it on the floor one day with April mutilated. I placed it on the counter out of their reach, or so I thought. Then, sure enough, August and March were attacked. Not wanting a reoccurance, I stored it above the fridge, but somehow, the cat (or cats, I suppose) found it and finished off August before extracting the rest of the months and littering them about the apartment. The only months left unmarked are December and February. I'm not sure if there's a reason, but I get the feeling there may be. Never underestimate the intelligence (or impertinence) of cats.
     
    So, it's nothing special, but I found it an interesting observation.
  8. munkeymunkey
    My town has recently been through some major turmoil (actually, things aren't completely fixed yet) within its school district and higher government, and it inspired me to write up a quick blog entry about one key word that is integral (at least in my opinion) for a democracy to function correctly.
     
    Communication. Almost all of the problems in my town's current crisis relate directly to a lack of communication or else a misunderstanding of what was stated. Back in 2001, our school district formulated a new assessment plan combining the operational and capital budgets which, they thought, was in accordance to all higher laws. Our superintendent was even in contact with a DoE representative to make sure that our agreement was valid. The final version was a ten-year agreement, supposedly lasting until FY2011. But here's the catch - we never received official approval because of an unofficial letter from (funny enough) a DoE official giving approval. Now, six years later, our government has decided to "clarify" some laws that have been misconceived. Apparently, my town's ten year agreement is invalid because, among other problems, we aren't allowed to make a ten year agreement concerning a non-statutory assessment plan. This wasn't a problem in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, or 2006 because, quite frankly, my town's district's agreement worked. It was practical, so the government ignored the fact that according to its interpretation of the law the agreement was invalid.
     
    But now, in 2007, one of the district's towns decided it wanted to back out of the ten year agreement. Without voicing its opinion until after the school released the budget for town approval in March, this renegade town decided to change the warrant and vote the way it wanted to. This, because of the government's "clarification," meant that we couldn't use our method of payment. However, the school committee was bound by our agreement to use our method of payment to assess the towns' payments. Essentially, the school now has no budget for FY2008.
     
    The other towns argued that under our agreement, only four out of five towns had to vote yes each year to approve the budget (which happened). That, however, was declared invalid by the government, even though we were never told this back in 2001. We should, by law, be stuck with the government's default assessment system, but it's not that easy. Oh, no. Since under the government method the nay-voting town would pay less and every other town more, the other four towns, when voting for our alternative method, didn't vote for all of the school's budget as would be paid by them under the default method.
     
    Meanwhile, the school committee was sabotaged because of a violation of open meeting laws and a power-hungry selectman, and two of the may-voting town's school committee members, including the committee's chair, have been ousted for not supporting that town's wish to undermine the regional ten-year agreement. Caught in a legal suit, the school committee is stuck and cannot release a new proposal.
     
    July 1st is coming quick, and if the towns don't start to communicate instead of making severaled decisions, we won't have a school budget next year and will be given a dreaded 1/12th budget by the government. However, all of this could have been diverted years ago if the government had communicated clearly to our towns in the first place instead of neglecting us. And even then, had the one town voiced its concerns of not being able to pay enough instead of undermining the budget by exploiting the legal loophole, everything would have run much more smoothly.
     
    Communication is key. The icing on the cake is that nobody's bothered to ask the students how they feel about all of the program cuts that will result from the 1/12th budget.
  9. munkeymunkey
    This was initially just a neat little idea I had for a content block, but it became something a little more interesting.
     
    As many of you who visit S&T frequently by now probably know, there are two new S&T Fact Team members. This got me thinking: We have a BZP Staff History Topic to keep track of official staff, but what about the "non-comissioned staff" like S&T Fact Team members? They have an added responsibility, and they do put in extra time for BZP, so why not have a place to keep track of the team's status as a whole as well as it's history?
     
    But there was one problem. Sure, it was easy to find the topic that was posted mere hours ago for our two newest members (Great Being #1 and The Infection). It was also easy to find the original list and topic, seeing as that topic is still being used for the S&T Fact Team. But there was a problem. There is one FT Member who slipped under the radar. How could this be? No topic? No definite date? This is unacceptable!
     
    I immediately searched my own PMs, as well as the official topics' list, the S&T Fact Team topic, the Suggestion Box, and even a strenuous search through the November and December topics from 2006 in S&T. Nothing definite could be determined, but I found some brackets: It was in between November 16th and December 30th. But when in those six months?
     
    I then PM'd the chap, as I figured that he might have some PM or such saying the actual date. Nothing (except, that is, about the same minimum and maximum as I had discovered). So, unless bonesiii or an Admin has hidden away some hidden proof of purchase, there will forever remain a gap in our knowledge of when that one S&T Staff Member (the first non-original) joined the team.
     
    Forevermore, he will be remembered (among other things) as the Stealth S&T FT: Utopia.
  10. munkeymunkey
    Today in the Official Brotherhood of Makuta Topic, I used a little phrase that I want to catalogue for future reference:
    Metru-Makuta
     
    I was answering a question about the ability of Makuta to change Kanohi like Toa and wanted to indicate a specific Makuta (the one that we all know and love). Now, I've used various other descriptions to specify which Makuta I mean ("our Makuta," "The Makuta of Metru Nui," "The Makuta we all know and love," etc.), but I like this latest term because it is terse but still descriptive enough to make its point.
     
    We know that there is a trend of Makuta being "assigned" to certain areas (Artakha, the mainland from which Voya-Nui came, probably Karzahni), so this might be a handy short-hand pattern.
     
    So, the purpose of this mini-entry is to make an official beginning-of-use of this/these term(s) by yours truly. Consider it as close to a copyright as I'm going to get. And yes, this is ridiculous, so just shake your head and move on.
  11. munkeymunkey
    By the time this is read by anybody, I will probably already driving to the airport for my trip into the rainforests of North America (which are south of the cold place I am currently sitting at). I'll be studying the geography of the area for my own purposes, practicing my Spanish, and exchanging all of my currency for the local currency in order to more safely barter.
     
    The trip is actually through my school, but being an upper-classman, I'll have a certain amount of autonomy that will allow me to explore as I wish at times. Fun stuff.
     
    Of course, this means I'll sadly have to be away from the computer for about ten days, and I'll miss receiving my third-year Huna. Ah well. At least I hit the big 10,000 before year three was up (a long-time goal of mine). Also, interestingly enough, in my fiscal BZP years, I have made more posts in this third year than either my first or second. (I didn't see that happening since I worked much less posting in the summer than my first year, but my steady 50 posts a week during the past five months have tipped the scale.)
     
    Don't trash the place while I'm gone. See you on the other side of February!
  12. munkeymunkey
    Anybody here who has sat through an entire AP course and grueling, four hour test knows what I mean when I say that AP is a strenuous experience for high school juniors. This past year, I took both AP courses that my school offers for juniors (yes, it is a tiny school without much variety, but that's another story).
     
    The first that we tested for was AP US History. My teacher was great, and one of the best people I know to quote, but we had to blast through a 32 chapter history book (1,022 pages) between August 30, 2006 and May 12, 2007. One week for the Civil War? That's ridiculous! But no, not with AP.
     
    That, of course, is the build-up to the test. First, there are 80 multiple-choice questions. In order to answer them all, you have to be better than one question per minute, and these are not easy questions. Do you know who wrote Silent Spring? That's the sort of thing that had to be answered (although, sadly, that question wasn't on the test). After the MC questions comes the DBQ. A series of documents are given and students have to write an essay about a time period in history, meanwhile hitting as many documents as possible. Luckily for me, I studied hard about the Grange, Alliance, and Populist Movements. After that, there are two half-hour essays. For each essay, there are two prompts, and each student has to choose one of the two. For the first, I choose a great question for me. I was born a few miles from where Shays' Rebellion ended, so I know that story from grandparents, never mind textbooks. The next was tougher, as I had to write a very argumentative essay about the second terms of LBJ and the Gipper.
     
    That was one. The next week I took the AP English Language and Composition Test (my teacher for the course, by the way, is probably the best teacher I've ever had). This one has a very similar format, but instead of US History, it's focused on English writing. I won't spend as much time here because frankly, it was less memorable. However, my hand was certainly just as sore. Writing that much in such a limited (yet still impeccably long) amount of time takes a toll on the hand.
     
    So, why in the world am I writing abotu the AP now? It's been two months since those tests! Well, today was the day that my test scores returned. I was incredibly nervous, so nervous, in fact, that I was shaking as I opened the envelope. And there it was: two 5's. I actually received the top possible score on both tests. It was exhilarating, really, and although I simply said, "Wow, I got a 5 on both" to my mother and then went back to reading TIME, I am simply ecstatic right now and had to let out the immense energy.
  13. munkeymunkey
    The Meaning of Life
     
    The prospect of discovering the answer to life was what had initially drawn James to the project. He considered himself a man of philosophy, and, naturally, this led him to the penultimate question: “What is the meaning of life?” (The ultimate question, of course, is: “How can I make money off that?”)
    The answer to that last question was actually answered before the first. For even before James began work on the project, he was informed that he would be paid millions of US dollars if he and his partner successfully discovered the answer. Being Canadian, this made James cringe, for he detested the lowly American dollar.
    What also made James cringe was the idea that that last question was so easy to answer while the preceding was so difficult. And even now, fifteen months, twenty-three migraines, and seventeen dead raccoons later, they still hadn’t found the answer. James and his partner Graham, a deranged, quick-minded physicist, had tried countless experiments and trials and had collected a mass of dead light bulbs and broken glass. Their sixteen-month research allotment was nearing its end, and they still had nothing.
    That’s why Graham was so excited that night. After such a long, torturous process, he now felt relieved to be occupied with a plan – a plan that just might work. It involved a fluorescent light, tungsten tubing, a fair amount of gold semi-conductors, some coffee cakes, and a variety of mirrors. When James walked into the lab after his dinner break, he found all of these arrayed on the far table with Graham, in pajamas, hunched furtively over them. (He had forgotten to get dressed again.)
    The room was stuffy and dank, so James assumed that Graham had been trying to use excessive amounts of water again. For some reason, Graham was convinced that the answer to the meaning of life must come from mixing water with electricity. James was more down to earth: he expected it to involve multiple dimensions and radioactive milk.
    He noticed that Graham had placed the light bulb in some water and connected it to the cakes. However, there was something different this time: instead of simply electricity, Graham was obviously trying to extract sub-nucleonic particles. It made James smile slightly to see Graham finally taking his advice. He gave a tap to the glass that protected the outside world from the exposed electrical currents and asked, “So, are the coffee cakes for eating?”
    Graham looked up at him, obviously not amused. “This is important, James.” Graham didn’t like jokes. He disliked laughing, crying, and pretty much every other human emotion.
    “All right…” James responded. “It’s a little stuffy in here, ay? Mind if I open a window?”
    Graham swung his head around again and looked James directly in the eyes before agreeing. “Yeah, okay,” he said mystically. “Just not too far open.”
    “Thanks,” James replied, promptly walking to the closest window and opening it just a bit. He rolled his eyes slightly at Graham’s insistence that the window be opened “not too far.” It wasn’t like it was cold out; it was two degrees Celsius outside! “Coddled Americans just always have to be comfortable,” James thought bitterly.
    James was just about to settle down to his research on pasteurization when a moth suddenly fluttered into his face. He swore, batted it away, and called to Graham, “Looks like we have a friend. You’d think the moths would be dead this time of year, too, ay?”
    Graham didn’t answer; his work was too interesting. But not long after, the moth caught sight of his fluorescent light. In the dimness of the room (dim so that the light of electromagnetism would be more apparent), Graham’s light was the brightest spot, the most enticing thing for a moth.
    The moth bumped against the glass encasement, frantically trying to break through and grab the glow of the bulb. It was very adamant, and no matter how many times it failed, it continued to try. “He’s a valiant little bugger, ay?” James commented, walking over to Graham’s station to investigate.
    “I guess so,” Graham answered. “The sad thing is, though, sometimes I feel sort of like that – a mindless moth banging my head against an unbreakable glass. I can see the answer in my mind, I can see how to get there, but whenever I try to grasp for it, I run into a brick wall. The meaning of life. It’s such a simply thing to ask about, but somehow actually getting there is the most difficult thing in life.”
    “That’s deep, Graham,” said James with a serious tone. “But look on the bright side: if the moth were to finally reach the light, he’d be fried up instantly. Something that intense might even kill you or me.”
    “That might be nice for the moth,” countered Graham, “but we’re not moths James. And we’re not trying to grasp at light. We’re looking for the answer to life.”
    “Well, in a way-”
    “Ah, it’s useless anyway,” Graham cut it. “We haven’t gotten anywhere.”
    “All I was saying was maybe it’s not an accident that there’s a ‘glass covering’ between us and enlightenment. Maybe we’re better off not knowing, ay? Maybe this invisible barrier is protecting us just like the glass protects that moth from certain death.”
    Graham pondered that thought for a moment. His face became contorted with thought. Then, a new idea striking him, he placed a gloved hand on the glass cover, looking at James for recognition.
    “What are you doing?” James asked.
    “Well, you said maybe the glass protects the moth, but I’m thinking maybe the moth’s better off reaching its goal and dying prematurely than never reaching its goal and dying anyway. Let’s give it a whirl, ay?” That last word hung on Graham’s mouth almost bitterly, as if mocking James. A maniacal gleam appeared in Graham’s eyes, the crazed light of a genius on the brink of discovery. “I’m about to get it, James; I can feel it. All I have to do is lift this glass and see what happens.”
    “Why, Graham?” James asked, scared of what the answer might be.
    “Don’t you see? The moth! It’s all in the moth! The meaning of life!”
    “Oh.”
    “I have to be the moth, James. I have to be the moth.” Graham shook his arms slightly as he spoke, almost as if he meant to flutter them like a moth.
    “All right, you do that,” James conceded. “I’ll just be right over here… behind the flame-resistant door.” James turned about-face and fled. He had a sinking feeling that Graham had completely lost it. Now he knew why he was using coffee cakes to find the meaning of life: Graham was crazy.
    James ducked down and waited for an explosion, a scream, something. But nothing came. He waited a minute, his temples pulsing faster with every second. Nothing. He called out in a weak, tentative voice, “Graham?” There was no answer. Then slowly, cautiously, he stood up and peeked through the window of the door behind which he had hid.
    Everything was still. The moth still fluttered beside the glass encasement, and the fluorescent bulb still shown with radiance. And there was Graham, shivering, undecided, debating whether or not he should lift the glass. James bit his lip, anticipating the next action. He hadn’t wanted to see the doom that would befall Graham during his craze, but now that he was watching, well, it was just so interesting.
    Graham took a deep breath and lifted the glass. The moth hesitated a moment, as if it were actually surprised to have its path lying clear. It was as if it was so used to being refuted its wishes that now that there were no obstacles, it didn’t know what to do.
    Then, it focused back on the exposed light and charged with furry at the enticing gleam. And as it touched the filaments of the light, a sizzle and a smoke engulfed the moth. Charred to a crisp, it collapsed lifeless to the table.
    Graham started to cry. His hand was still gripping the glass, but his other was at his forehead, hiding the tears that betrayed his emotions to his attentive audience. James didn’t understand what had just happened. He tentatively approached his partner. Never before had he seen Graham cry. Never. Why now? Was the moth really so touching and important? James searched frantically for something to say, but all that came to mind were horrible puns. He struggled for a moment, trying not to give in to the poor humor, but it was futile. “So, Graham,” he began, “why the burning passion for the moth?”
    Graham turned to him slowly, a reddened face glaring intensely back. “Don’t you see?” he exclaimed. “It’s the answer! I’ve found it!”
    James didn’t understand.
    “The moth, James, the moth. It’s in the moth.”
    James looked at the moth, but all he saw was death.
     
  14. munkeymunkey
    Reaching 10,000 posts is one of the major benchmarks of BZP achievement, and right now, I find myself on the verge of that number. It's just six posts away...
     
    I'm not going to reach it tonight; it's too late, and I've already posted 21 times since I awoke this morning. (That's about three times as much as normal.) However, I can confidently say that I'm set up to achieve 10,000 sometime tomorrow.
     
    The anticipation has been mounting since mid July, when I reached 9,000. One day while in the shower, I started to calculate what it would take to reach 10,000 before my third year here was complete. It was a daunting task... I would have to post at least 15 per day until school began, and then about 8 per day until February 20. I took a deep breath and plunged in. On August 30, the day before I went back to school, I took a new assessment. I happily discovered that I would only need to post 7.03 each day. I posted about 60 that week and brought the "magic number" below seven. From that day forth, I determined that I would always try to post at least seven each day. I have done that, and more so (obviously, seeing as there's more than a month until February 20). Each day, I've crunched numbers on the calculator, especially that "magic number." My friends at school have heard me shout it out to 6 decimal places every day, although they have no idea what it's for. When I return to school next week, there will be no magic number. Ten thousand is going to be reached.
     
    It's been a long time since that snowy February morning in 2004 when I first joined and was so excited that I made over 80 posts in my first week. I've tracked my number of posts each day and have spreadsheets and graphs to show the shifts and flows of my posting.
     
    (For instance, October is my driest month, July my most abundant. The most I've ever posted in a week is 181, the lowest 34. I've only ever posted more than 30 a day twice, and my highest is 40. I posted over 3,700 in my first year, but only about 2,700 in my second. (My third year is shaping up to be about 3,500.) Interestingly enough, if I keep pace until January 20, I will have 6 months in my third year in which I have posted in more than either of my previous two years.)
     
    I can actually track my life by my posts, though. The few times I've been away from a computer for a day or two, there are noticable drops in the weekly post count. During Easter vacation in 2006, I had a major spike as I neared 7,000 and resolved to start posting more again... There is a giant drop-off from summer to cross country season, spikes at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I find it fascinating. My family rolls their eyes at me like and laugh at my intensity.
     
    Last Sunday, I reached 9,900, and I couldn't contain a steady pace any longer. I've posted 94 posts since then, and I'll make it an odd 101 after tomorrow (if not more... who knows what I might encounter in S&T tomorrow). And as much as I'd love to reach the big 10,000 tonight, it's already Sunday where I live, so it will still be the same date.
     
    It's been an incredible journey, and that last major goal of mine here is about to be reached. (My other two were finishing an epic and becoming staff. Those are accomplished.) I'll shoot for 15,000 and 20,000; definitely. But I doubt that I'll make another 10,000 posts in under three years.
     
    Here I come...
  15. munkeymunkey
    There was a quick little incident today in school that I found hilarious. We had to tell our AP US History teacher that he would only be having over half of his class tomorrow because of a field trip. The class tried to convince him that, being half empty, he would have to go a little lighter on the workload so they wouldn't fall behind.
     
    So, why is this ingrained in my memory like a firebrand on a cowhide? Well, my 6'3" teacher, having stating that "the train doesn't stop moving for anybody in the feel-good room," proceeded to launch himself onto the table and yell like a union protestor, "The class won't be half empty! It will be half full! Half full! Half full! Half full!" This chant continues on for about half a minute, (full or empty, it's your choice) and some of the class joins in (mostly those of us who won't be absent tomorrow).
     
    The clock turns to 1:52, so class is over, but that doesn't stop our vivacious history teacher from lacking out into a hall littered with petrified freshman and sophomores, "Half full! Half full!" The poor children had no clue what he was yelling about, and I'm afraid he may have frightened some of them.
     
    So, what moral can you take from this incident? If you miss class for a field trip, the class won't be the thing that's half empty - your knowledge of the material is what will be lacking. Or at least, that's what I think he was saying in an implicit philosophical sense... Either that or he's just a bit crazy.
  16. munkeymunkey
    It's that time of year again! The sneak peeks are up for the Fall 2007 series of Games Workshop LOTR tabletop battle game miniatures! I wouldn't be surprised if I'm the only person on BZP who is this elated every time a new GW line comes out, but I really don't care. This is my passion in a tangible form.

    Gondor in Flames is basically a convergence of The Battle of Pelannor Fields (which followed Harad up until the said battle) A Shadow in the East (which covers the Easterlings and Khandish warriors in Ithilien prior to Return of the King). Gondor in Flames, appropriately, takes place in Gondor and will feature a bunch of pre-Return of the King fighting between Minas Tirith and the Morannon forces, as well as Dol Amroth and Harad. I call it a convergence of the other two because it is adding specialty troops to the already issued armies. It also is releasing some previous models which were metal in new plastic poses. I like plastic especially because it is cheaper than metal.

    Picture time!



    [as opposed to Knights of Dol Amroth]




  17. munkeymunkey
    Until yesterday, I had never actually played American football before; in fact, I'd only ever thrown a football once in my life when my cousins and uncles were throwing one around at Thanksgiving and it somebody made a ghastly throw that landed near me. I put down my frisbee and lobbed it back, the football wobbling in the air like an erratic top. And yet somehow I found myself out on Whitnell Field playing a "pick-up" game with some people, mostly guys from around campus. I wouldn't have played, but my friend Sam's team needed an extra person, so I figured, "Why not? I like sports..."
     
    So there I am listening to the plays, asking "Okay, so what do you need me to do?" and playing "the line" against a very large, under armor-wearing man (he wasn't a boy; he was legitimately a man). I was relieved that this wasn't tackle football... Anyway, I started out rather rough, not following "my man" when he decided to break off and make a catch, getting a first down, and not understanding what to do when somebody yelled "Blitz!", but I slowly cuaght on to how things worked.
     
    The fun part was when we were on defense and the quarterback on the other team (yeah, I know who that is!) tried "running it" and I got to just dive at him and grip onto his flags, ripping off his belt. I was so ecstatic that it worked that I almost forgot to get bak on the line for the next play. I did something!
     
    The second revelation was that although we couldn't use our hands, I could block people trying to get our quarterback by simply getting in their way and making them step on me. It wasn't great for self-preservation, but it really helped our quarterback get extra time to throw.
     
    The highlight of all this, though was when, on the last play of the game, I dove at a runner, ripped off the flag, but also managed to grab his shorts, too. It was rather embarrassing, especially since he was a junior or senior and I'm a tiny freshman (okay, so I'm not tiny, but still...). He was really cool about it, but there were plenty of jeers from my teammates about grabbing the shorts rather than the flags. Hey - at least I figured out how to play defense!
     
  18. munkeymunkey
    It's that time again! Games Workshop from across the waters is preparing to release their next Lord of the Rings Sourcebook. This time, it's Khazad-Dum, which excites me even more than the Ruin of Arnor.

    Arnor was cool because it of the storyline aspect, not so much the models that came with it. When I field an army, I like one of two things: cavalry or defense. Rohan and Harad have the cavalry, but nothing matches the defense of Dwarves. No, sir.

    In the battlefields of Lord of the Rings, the Dwarves are the hallmark of an unbreakable force. Historically, though, they have been only released in metal and have had a lack of variety (no cavalry, no ballistas, no siege forces... just bland infantry). But that's about to change! Not only are plastic dwarves being released, but also specialty troops. Yup. Light-armored dwarf rangers, vault warden teams, and ballistas are all being released. That's good stuff.

    Also, there is going to be a dragon (finally!) Dragons are a rare commodity, but they appear from time to time. And now is the chance for something to rival my Mumak on the battlefield.

    More pics (when public).



  19. munkeymunkey
    This is me letting off excitement-steam:
     
    I am an avid fan of Lord of the Rings (in case you didn't know). I'm not only a lover of the books, I'm probably clinically obessessed. I've read LoTR 5 times, the Hobbit 4 times, and the Histories of Middle Earth. I own the the books, the movies, the books on CD, action figures, collectible bookcases, calendars of all sorts, plenty of posters and bookmarks, a rare book that's designed to actually teach Sindarin (one of Tolkien's invented languages), books about the movies, Middle Earth creature, warfare, and plenty of other things. I used to play LotR with my siblings and neighbors all of the time. (And I was always either Merry or Smeagol for some reason.)
     
    Okay, so what's the point? There is one other thing that I am intensely into - tabletop strategy battle games, sepcially Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings. The models are metal, plastic, or a combination, and stand from about an inch to 10 inches in height. And they are awesome.
     
    For Christmas, I received another Kataphrakt, another mounted Knight of Dol Amroth, another Haradrim Raider, Khamul, Suladin, three dwarf warriors, a large Mordor Troll Cheiftan, and Radagast the Brown. Great stuff, really. I can't satisfy myself by collecting just one army; I have to collect tons. I have armies for Harad, Rhun, Mordor, Isenguard, Khazad-Dum, Moria, Gondor, Imladris, and Rohan. Over Christmas Break, I spent about 12 hours pitting a 286-model evil force against a 169-model good force (the good guys still had a better cumlative points value, though). These are 2,000-point forces; the normal is 500 points. So yeah, it was insane.
     
    The good side ended up winning pretty handidly. The Kataphrakts were destroyed by the dwarves and Boromir did a superb job warding off the Mordor Troll until he could get some wizard help. Theoden amazingly survived a trample by a Mumak (this is insane, by the way) and his Rohirrim wre able to flank the Uruk-Hai. Gondor drove a wedge between Mordor and Moria, and the Orcs had to shift a large part of the army toward their right flank since the Esterlings were annihalated by the dwarves (go Gimli!). Radagast was a great addition for the good side, de-horsing Suladin, Khamul, and the other Ringwraith and transfixing the Mordor Troll long enough for Boromir to get a hit in. Good stuff, right there. And although I lost three good heroes in one fell trample by the Mumak, the great beast also took about a few of Harad's infantry, so in the end it didn't ruin the day. The class of the field, though, was Imrahil. He took out Gothmog waaaay too early, smoked a Cave Troll, and even had time to help Aragorn take down the Mumak (finally!).
     
    And that is why I am a complete geek.
     
    Anyway, great news came today: The newest supplement preview (for The Ruin of Arnor) is up and I got to see some sweet new characters. Arnor was the old north kingdom of Numenor/Gondor. Elenedil was the original ruler, followed by Isildur (briefly). Aragorn is of that line. (Hence him being the heir of Isildur and rightful heir to the throne of Gondor.) This supplement focuses on the fall of Arnor to the armies of the Witch King of Angmar (the head Ringwraith). This isn't in the actual Lord of the Rings, but this battle game spreads to Tolkien's other works (even appendicies), too.
     
    So, I'm stoked, and I know what I'm saving my money for (yes, Bionicle sets are a back-burner purchase). And if you made it this far, you might be a little frightened. (Antics are now over.)
  20. munkeymunkey
    I was in a curious situation today. My parents are away, but the cats were out of food. In fact, the one cat was attacking me during the night for not feeding him enough. I dislike that. Anyway, my mother had left me with a grocery list (which included cat food), and a note that she'd reimburse me for everything I bought. There, at the bottom of the list were four interesting words: "what else you want."
     
    This meant that I good go to the grocery store and buy whatever snacks I desired without thinning my wallet permanently. Sounds tantalizing, eh?
     
    So, let's see what I bought:
    white cheese singles (which I can't eat)
    two bags of cat food (which I don't eat)
    1 pound of ham
    a packet of tomato wraps (basically tortillas with tomatoes in them, organic and local, really nice)
    5 nectarines
     
    And that's it. Yes, that's it. I was in the grocery store, which is large enough to have such edibles as ice cream, muffins, interesting fruit juices, and other delicacies I don't usually get to indulge in, but the sweetest thing I bought was the nectarines. I never bought "whatever else I wanted." Why? Why pass up that chance?
     
    I thought these questions as I walked into the house from my car. The answer dawned on me awhile later:
     
    I was in a grocery store.
     
    And that made everything make sense. I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. I didn't want to go browsing around the aisles. I detest grocery stores about as much as I do biting felines that puncture my feet. And that dislike alone is what caused me - subconsciously, mind you - to reject the opportunity presented to me.
  21. munkeymunkey
    No, I have not forgotten my promise of small updates about the Prussian Village .
     
    Anyway, I have written a number of outlines now and have a few smatterings of text, including a three-chpater, 70KB document that seems to be the main story. My sister has started drawing pictures, as well.
     
    And that's where this little update comes in:
    Prussian creatures
     
    The idea has really branched off from anything realistic, becoming rather like a fantasy story. There are mogwots, castabrine, wocks, vulps, and other foul creatures. There are also ounces, lenks, and other, more friendly beings. For a sampling, here are a few entries:
    8) Vulpes- Vulpes are similar to the foxes that most people are familiar with, but they are larger in size, sharper in fang, and more cunning in behavior. Hidden beneath their orange and white tufted tail are two dagger-prongs that can be struck into larger foes. Vicious and uncompromising, these beasts will eat anything.
    9) Mogwots- Also known as land-sharks and vampires, these evil creatures live off the blood of other beings. Their noses are highly sensitive and they will rush to the seen of spilled blood with frightening quickness.
    10) Wocks- These platipudial creatures come in a number of varieties. Each one has a beakish muzzle and a mammalian body. Their forelegs tend to have an opposable joint, and some varieties even have wings. Some wocks are playful, others treacherous, but all are both elusive and illusive, able to confuse other beings with false conjectures.
    11) Unicorns – Do not exist.
     
    I hope that was at least marginally enjoyable. Hopefull we can get some pictures up here soon.
  22. munkeymunkey
    I'm currently taking an online geography course that's been focusing on global warming and how we're going to combat the resulting problems. It's only one semester, so my final project is due on the 18th of December.
     
    Like a good child, I decided to do the project. (It seemed like the natural thing to do since it's worth about 20% of my grade.) I whipped out my maps of Europe, my world atlas, some ArcGIS data, and Google Earth and started working. Apparently, after a 5 meter rise in sea level (which could result from the melting of just one of the many ice features in Antarctica), not only are places like Venice and the Netherlands going to have a little excess drinking water, but cities like Odesa, Ukraine will also find themselves oddly underwater. My job is to come up with an action plan to deal with a theoretical (and highly exaggerated) 50 meter rise in 50 years. Where 5 meters floods the lower city, 50 meters floods out the whole thing, and this is a city built along the slopes of a hill (which, funny enough, is almost exactly 50 meters at its peak).
     
    So, I start looking for information on the internet about Odesa (or Odessa, if you prefer), and I find that Odesa, England and Odessa, USA are much more popular. In fact, the only websites besides the encyclopedias that seem to care about Odesa, Ukraine are travel websites advertising hotels. That's great, but I really don't care about hotels. I want to know about the industries (Odesa has an institute for eye-diseases, a jute mill, and an oil refinery, among other things) and where they are. If the factory is 40 meters above sea level, then it wouldn't make sense to try to transplant the industry when the institute will flood after only six years.
     
    And of course, with my current streak of luck, there's a naval base at Odesa, so the government is a little touchy with some information, which makes it even more difficult to find any information. If I had the money, I think I'd just go to Odesa myself and find out where everything is. I even know where the best hotels are now. Sadly, that can't happen. The other sad thing is that I can't just say, "Let her sink!" (well... I could, but then I'd fail.)
     
    And overall, this project was rather depressing... After a 50 meter rise, the entire eastern seaboard of North America, from the Yucatan, along the Gulf Coast, all of Florida, through up into Canada until about Labrador. My house would be save, which is a nice thought, but looking at Europe isn't a fun time either. Humans have some sort of tendency to build on water (as if they needed it to live or something). They're attracted to it like flies to a dead carcass.
     
    So, my advice to everyone who reads this: Move to Tibet!
     
    So, five hours later, I decide that I've had enough, and I starting reading Lord of the Rings. That makes me happy. I still can't get over the fact that the Black Gate of Mordor is actually three doors.
  23. munkeymunkey
    I was reading Daniel Webster's Seventh of March Speech today, and I decided that I needed a blog. It wasn't because of the speech so much as I was cold. Anyway, I decided that I had prolonged the inevitable long enough. Time to dive in. This will look pretty ugly until I decide that I'm seriously going to keep it up (which may be a few hours or a few weeks).
     
    So, this morning I wake up and the temperature is about 10 and the wind is howling. The hot water heater broke again, so I can't take a warm shower. I get out of the shower blue and shivering and put on a T-shirt, among other things. I then remember that it isn't 50 degrees out like the day before. My winter coat is still at my cousin's house (because I left it there... why else?), and that makes me unhappy, but I still have to prepare for the worst. I put on my under armor and check the temperature again before I leave: now it's three degrees colder. I walk outside in the wind (the wind chill was about -10... I've had as bad as -50 over here, but it was about 50 last week, so this was a major shock).
     
    I wipe the snow off my car and try to open the door. The handle is frozen and won't budge. I end yanking open the back and crawling through to the front of the car. I turn it on (it took about four revs of the engine to get going) and blast the heating fans. I break through the ice hold the driver's door shut, but the handle is still frozen. I go back inside to let the car warm up. I go back out and it's even windier. I scrape the windshield and windows of ice, crawl back in the car, and drive to school at 7:30 to get there early for the Morning Show (our school's daily news show that broadcasts across the school and county).
     
    At 7:47, 20 minutes before school starts, the fire alarms go off. That wasn't fun. After my name was checked off, I dashed back to my car, crawled back in it, waited for my comrades to enter, locked the doors, and listened to music with a few of my friends until the alarms went off and they let us back in. Apparently, the intense cold and winds had knocked on something in the alarm system and the entire thing went off. I hate irony.
     
    I am still wearing the under armor, and I am still shivering, but at least there won't be any school fire alarms tomorrow.
  24. munkeymunkey
    That's right! He just hit a two-run home run in the MLB All-Star game in San Francisco. But here's the kicker, it was an inside the park home run. It was the first ever inside the parker in MLB All Star history. That's awesome. Ichiro is magical. Case closed.
     
    EDIT: The icing on the cake: Ichiro is the All-Star MVP in the American League's 10th straight All-Star win.
  25. munkeymunkey
    Tomorrow is my History final, which should be cake compared to the rock that was the AP test last month. But still, our class has been studying for it. Over the weekend, we were given a set of 50 multiple choice questions to go over as if it were part of the actual exam. On Monday, we went over them as our class, reading each question and shouting out answers.
     
    Derek, who sits at the opposite end of the lengthy rectangle table which we sit around, didn't do the problem set, nor did he bring the questions into class. There he was, sitting at the far end of the table (I sit down by our teacher), a blank table in front of him, seemingly clueless. However, as we began going over the homework, he shouted out seemingly random numbers (we had a 1,2,3,4 system instead of A,B,C,D)... right numbers. Indeed, he was guessing each and every one correct, not missing a beat.
     
    How did he do it? Students around him became uncomfortable. Some shouted at him. This was ridiculous. We reached question 20, and everyone else shouted out a different answer than Derek. They thought he had finally guessed one wrong. But then, lo and behold, our teacher agreed with Derek; the answer was 3.
     
    All eyes were searching around the room, frantically looking for an answers - all, that is, but eight - four pairs Our teacher was one, not caring how Derek knew (or guessed) each one correctly. Derek was the other, his eyes roving calmly and without direction, as usual. Molly was a third, who was simply laughing historically. The fourth was the key.
     
    As we continued, some people began to go ballistic. This couldn't be possible. And yet it was. Then, one by one, a few focused in on something. There was the answer! Another girl joined Molly in giggling; a second shook her head in realization. Then, an explosion hit as Rose discovered the truth after twenty minutes of frantic wonderment.
     
    My name was shouted multiple times, Derek was assaulted for being a cheater. We were both slandered, and vicious language was flung in our opposite directions.
     
    The entire time, I had been sitting with my left cheek resting on my left hand, my left elbow on the table. My right hand had been resting by my left elbow, also resting on the table. The fingers of my right hand clung around my arm. However, after each answer was confirmed by our teacher, the number of fingers across my arm changed - changed to the answer of the next question. The entire time, I had been feeding Derek the answers in a subtle, silent manner.
     
    Our trick uncovered, Derek launched from his seat, made a rounds of the table, and gave me a smacking high-five. We laughed profusely, and the class scowled.
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