On Thursday, the history club that I am part of attempted to have a meeting. Only about half the people showed up out of what is already a fairly small group, so the whole thing dissipated quite quickly. There were, however, three people besides me who came and stayed, and somehow, we ended up creating the Super Political Party. The platform, written on the classroom whiteboard and immortalized on everyone's cellphone camera, is as follows.
Super Political
Party
Strobe lights at elections Reinstate the Alien and Sedition Acts (opposition to this measure is considered seditious, by the way) Do away with Constitution and reinstate the Articles of Confederation Candidates are chosen either by a primary or random sample Candidates are not allowed to speak or explain stances on issues during campaigns Head of the party is a monkey; whatever the monkey says, the opposite action is to be taken We don't have any more debt, China No more free trade Social welfare= FREE pretzels (This one was mine. I was really, really hungry.)
I think we may have something here. This just might be the change America needs.
After weeks of procrastination, planning, brooding, writer's block, and an inability to come up with a halfway decent conclusion, I finally have something that halfway resembles a draft for my college entrance essay. I'm a little worried about the pacing and such, and if I want to use this same essay for my college of first choice, I'm going to have to cut it down to 500 words... but here it is, for your entertainment.
Also, because I probably won't get around to being on BZP tomorrow, merry Christmas and such.
-----
For some time, the more elite speakers of English have valiantly decried the uprising of slang as it continues to expand and integrate itself into informal speech. The slang usage of pre-existing words such as “awesome” or, more recently, “epic,” they argue, debases the integrity of English and robs the language of its former elegance and respectability.
I believe, however, that there is a far more sinister threat at hand, flying under the radar of these well-intentioned crusaders for the preservation of the English language – the popular misuse of the word and indeed the very concept of irony.
The more modern usage of the words “awesome” and “epic,” though admittedly perhaps overused, come from an understanding and appreciation of the original meaning of the words. These new appropriations merely make use of hyperbole to express the full capacity of enjoyment and sheer entertainment of the given experience. For example, to inform one’s circle of friends after having eaten a particularly delicious cupcake that, “That cupcake was totally awesome!”, while perhaps stretching the original definition of the word, certainly conveys to one’s friends that the cupcake was in general quite excellent. Thus is the very nature of hyperbole as defined by the North American edition of the Encarta World Dictionary – “deliberate and obvious exaggeration used for effect,” the effect here being that everyone present now thoroughly understands the incredible scrumptiousness of the cupcake in question.
The many ways in which “irony” has been abused and misapplied is a completely different story. This frightful misuse stems from a lack of understanding as to the true nature of the concept. For an event or situation to be properly considered ironic, it must result in the opposite effect of what would be expected. Irony is not defined (as many tragically seem to believe) as, “Anything that I think is unfortunate or amusing,” nor is “ironically” a synonym for “strangely.” There is, contrary to popular belief, nothing ironic about being caught in congested traffic when one is already late or the death of a reluctant flyer who perished on his first flight, and it is quite baffling as to how anyone could possibly interpret the inability to locate a single knife among a plethora of spoons as “ironic.” Unless perhaps one was in a knife-making factory, but this justification would require facts not in evidence, and I really do not feel that I should be obligated to go to such lengths to defend what is already a rather far-fetched example.
To make matters worse, the abuse of irony is often perpetuated by people who believe that their use of the word makes them smart or witty. It does not. (However, such an example is, ironically enough, ironic, as these people use the word to make themselves seem clever when in actuality it ends up exposing their ignorance, a fact for which we enlightened may mock them mercilessly.) I do not advocate finger-pointing. If we are to combat this travesty of irony, we will not do so by assigning blame. But if we were going to, my vote is that we blame these people.
This is the terrible problem that our English language is faced with, but is there any possible solution? I have always personally been a strong believer in education. We must educate ourselves, devote ourselves to the understanding of irony in all its intricacies and surprising simplicity. And if you hear someone misapply the word, throw a darn dictionary at their head. Perhaps they’ll learn from the experience.
So at my school, there is a teacher whom I shall from here on out refer to as “Mr. P.” Mr. P teaches World History and Humanities, the latter of the two I took last year. When he is not teaching, Mr. P frequently wanders the halls of the school, ducking into classrooms to harass kids he knows and sometimes other teachers. It just so happens that he is friends with my current math teacher, who will be known as Mr. V. Nearly every day, (seriously, the whole class, teacher included, once had a mock betting pool set up for what time he would arrive) Mr. P will at some point come into the room, mess up the hair of the couple of kids sitting closest to the door, and then talk for a bit to Mr. V about either teacher-ly things or something completely irrelevant. On Friday, something close to the following exchange took place.
Mr. P walks into the room and, after getting his obligatory hair-tousling ritual out of the way, asks, “So what are you guys learning?”
“Quartic functions,” replies a classmate.
“Oh yeah,” Mr. P says, “‘Cuz the last time I did my taxes, I thought to myself, ‘Man, this would be so much easier if I knew how to do quartic functions.’”
Mr. V says something that I can’t remember in response, and Mr. P calls him a nerd. At this point, one of my classmates says something to the effect of, “Oh, and you aren’t?”
“I’m not a nerd,” Mr. P says, “I think I’m probably more of a dork. But why do you think Mr. V and I are even friends? It’s because I need a nerd like him to do stuff like hook up my PlayStation for me.”
Mr. V retaliates with a jab at Mr. P’s subject: “And the whole time I was doing that, I was thinking to myself, “I wish I knew more about the Revolutionary War. That’d just be so helpful right now.”
Mr. P turns to the rest of the class. “Do you guys know why Mr. V is bald? It's because he's a neo-Nzai. See, if he knew his history, he would know better that fascism is bad.”
“I'm not bald; I shave my head. And unlike Mr. P, I’m a nice person. I don’t have to put down other people to feel good about myself.”
“Yeah, Mr. V’s right; I am mean. You know why? Because when I was in school I had a math teacher who was so mean to me. She was always saying stuff like ‘you’re so stupid, can’t you do anything right?’ She just made me feel so bad about myself that it ruined my self-esteem and it’s thanks to her and math I’m so mean now.”
After this, Mr. V takes advantage of the fact that this is his classroom after all, and tells Mr. P to skedaddle so he can teach his class. Mr. P finally shuffles out to lurk the halls, ruining the hair of any poor sap he encounters on the way who isn’t careful. For bonus points, Mr. P is actually married to a lady who teaches math at the same school. And next semester, I’ll be in her class.
And as usual, I am late to the party. Most of you got back on the forums in what, October? Due to a series of confusing and frustrating events, I am only now able to get back into my old account. What's happened with me over the last six months or so you ask? Oh, you know, nothing much. Moved one year closer to graduation, made some pajama pants, saw more Confederate flags that I've ever seen in my life on vacation, joined a club, ate some sandwiches, took my first AP exam, experienced some DEEP PERSONAL GROWTH, did some time-traveling... er, wait; that last one might have been a dream. I also recently read a seven-page article on ketchup and analyzed it. Yeah, it was for school; you mean that you don't regularly read in-depth articles on condiments and analyze them for fun?
So yeah. I'm not sure where I'll go from here. The downtime has mostly weaned me off BZP, but I think I'll try to join an RPG if I have time. I missed you guys. Cool to finally be able to stalk, umm, I MEAN TALK, to you again. : D
This was originally going to be an image overload post of Outbreak Sims acting cracky, but because my computer is being a stupidface (quite mature, aren't I?) I can't get the launcher with all the screenshots to pull up. So I figured, bah, since I'm in a blogposting mood and I've already got Maj up already, why not show off my own beautiful eyesores works of art? This is my blog after all. I'm allowed to be self-indulgent and think it's all about me.
So, because I am bored and because I can, please enjoy the following crude sketches. If you've already seen them because I've PM'd them to you... well, sorry. I drew them several months ago, so maybe you've forgotten about them by now already and they'll be new to you.
(I preface this with saying that I do not consider myself to be an artist. I'm simply a bored person posting this because it'd be a shame to let a year's worth of blog go to waste and I don't really have anything better to talk about except for complaining and angsting and really, who wants to hear about my problems? That said, if there's anything you think I did that could use correcting, feel free to let me know.)
Out of my original scribblings, this is probably the one I'm most proud of. Any true artist would probably laugh in my face, especially because I HAVE NO IDEA HOW SHADOWS AND SHADING WORK, HUR DUR but I like it. I had to recolor it on the computer because when I scanned it the colors came out incredibly faded, but otherwise that's pretty much all I did to it other than erasing some lines I couldn't get out on the original drawing. Oh, and they're flailing around like that because they're supposed to be dancing. Yeah.
Matthew Benton From Outbreak is copyrighted by Half-Dragon... Actually, I don't think he can be copyrighted by anybody. I apologize for the sideways-ness of this image. I tried to re-upload it the right way, but that proved to be too much effort, so you'll all just have to crank your head sideways to see it properly. I'm not quite satisfied with his face (I think it's his eyes. They're a bit too big and... bleh), but I am quite proud of his hand, even if it's a bit big, and he's actually kind of shaded, which is a huge accomplishment for me. I used pictures of Sephiroth as a model for his hair, and I had One-Winged Angel stuck in my head for I don't know how long after that.
I'm not quite as crazy about this one now as I was when I first drew it, but whatever. In case you hadn't noticed, no, those aren't my own original creations. Bleach is property of Tite Kubo and all that jazz. The things I still like about this are Rukia's hair and torso, Renji's tattoos and tiny pupils, most of Chad, and the majority of Ichigo except for his face, but I'm very proud of his one visible arm and particularly his fingers especially cuz I generally suck suck SUCK at drawing fingers. Oh, and the tiny Ishida. If you were wondering about the even more poorly scrawled heads next to the larger people.... um, it's kind of an inside joke and yeah it's supposed to look stupid. Ahh... And that's all I have to say about that.
And with that all said and done, I leave you with this. Yeah. I'm not really sure either.
A small, simple room, sparsely furnished. There is a plain, yet conspicuous and easily spotted wooden door to the left; unlocked and welcoming. It is quiet and peaceful. Birds may be heard chirping in the early morning calm. All is right with the world. Suddenly, there is a great crash heard, and wall and peace both are shattered. As the dust clears, SOL DE MEDIANOCHE stands triumphantly, blissfully oblivious to the fact that there was a perfectly cromulent door merely feet away.
MEDIANOCHE: I HAVE RETURNED! ONCE AGAIN! [as an aside] Oi, shh, you. It's still meaningful and dramatic no matter how many times I do it! It's my blog! All of your opinions are rejected, so hush up and enjoy the show and let me get on with it already!
*Ahem* So. Lot of stuff happened since I last posted. Let's start from the beginning, shall we? First off, I had my birthday, and it was awesome. Fairly uneventful and low-key, but still awesome. I received cheesecake, a finished room, a new TV for said finished room (I'm very lucky, I know) which my family watched Community, Parks and Recreation, The Office, Perfect Couples, and 30 Rock on (if it doesn't land on a weekend/Friday, Thursday is a great day to have your birthday land on), and The Sims 3/Ambitions which EVERYBODY minus my dad has been playing nonstop since installation. My brother and I have spent a great deal of time geeking out and making avatars of characters from various fandoms; so far we have all the the Arrested Development main cast, several Bleach characters, Dan Stark from The Good Guys, and a few of my own people from Outbreak plus Steven. Yes, Outbreak. Are you happy, Alex?
Aaaannnyway, if you're wondering what's up with the format of this post, that would be the result of spending the last week or so in English on the play The Cherry Orchard
by Anton Chekhov. Yes, the very same Anton Chekhov for whom the Chekhov's Gun trope was named. It's.. an interesting play to say the least. To give you an idea, there is a guy who gives a dead-serious dramatic and emotional speech to a bookcase, and another guy pops into a room to say "moo" and then immediately leaves.
Continuing on the subject of school, I managed to get through a bunch of painful school projects and tests (96 on the Imperialism/WWI unit for AP US History! ^^), and had the privilege of watching THE MOST AMAZING PUPPET SHOW ON EARTH in Spanish class. It was truly incredible. It was put on by our classmates, and it involved three animal friends, a tragic death, and the exacting of gruesome revenge. All performed by innocent Spanish hand puppets. Also there was singing. Yeah. It was a thing of dark and twisted beauty.
In other random news, I discovered I am allergic to soy milk, made a tiger snowflake and got it laminated for free, and explained to a friend how one of my cats thinks he's a dog with art (words didn't seem to get through for some reason.) So, that's pretty much what's been happening with me. Spring Break's finally here, so things are either going to get very exciting or very slow. This being my life, the latter's probably more likely, but whatever. 'S all good.~
Glory hallelujah, I knew you could actually be capable of producing good animation, Studio Pierrot, not just you know, quality animation. Been a while since I've seen it.
...Also I think I may be having some face-peely nightmares tonight. Unholy bride of Frankenstein, that was disturbing.
Man, I had a freaky dream last night. I was trapped in these series of rooms with some other people, and the rooms were slowly filling up with this purple acid. Even the tiniest bit of acid if it got on someone's skin would instantly start eating away at it and spreading (don't ask me how that works; this is dream-logic) until all that was left was a skeleton. Also, it made people evil. We all had to navigate this series of platforms to escape from the acid as it was rising so we could get into the next room, and it was weird. Like, there was this random dog in locked in a carrier on one of the platforms, and I think at one point I became Temperance Brennan. Once we were almost at the end, this one cartoonishly fat guy suddenly realized that there was a tiny tiny fleck of acid on him smaller than a grain of sugar, and he instantly started freaking out and flailing around while he was dissolving. I think at that point I realized I was dreaming, cuz I suddenly decided "Mm, nope, don't like this turn of events," and the guy turned back to normal before he could become evil and push everyone off the platform into the acid. I think I woke up pretty soon after that.
No, not for me for once, my blog. I toyed with just slapping on a 3.0 in the place of the 2, but I thought this was marginally less dull. Plus, it is the first time I've ever had a blog for more than a week, so yeah.
I have nothing else interesting to say. If you could call this post interesting in the first place~
You know, I gotta hand it to the man; as much as I hate slogging through Sons and Lovers, DH Lawrence is really, really good at writing frikkin' creepy, screwed up relationships. As if the aforementioned novel wasn't enough proof of that, The Prussian Officer has got so much twisted homoeroticism going on between the protagonist and eponymous character that I think I'd seriously eat my hat if it wasn't intended to come off that way.
So, you might ask, "Midnight, where the heck have you been? What have you been doing this whole time?"
To which I reply, "BLARGH I AM SO UTTERLY SO-SO IT ISN'T EVEN FUNNY," and then apologize for capslocking at you and calm down somewhat. Bleh. I'm so not ready for school tomorrow. I spent the majority of my weekend either working or stressing about work. Mostly the latter. Though I did get several days off last week thanks to the blizzard apocalypse. Actually, it wasn't much of a blizzard over here, but meh. I got the snow days, so yay.
I really don't want to turn my history DBQ in tomorrow though. I feel like I did a really lousy job on it. >> And thus concludes this pretty much pointless entry. Woo hoo.
Oh yeah, Alex told me how to add categories to my blog. I'll have to thank him for that somehow.
So in case you didn't bother to read the title, yesterday was awesome for me.
First, paper stars arrived a few days ago. My mom picked up some florescent bulbs to put inside all of them, and we took them up to my room. Now we just have to hang 'em from the ceiling. Also on the subject of room redecoration, all the storage boxes that were cluttering the place up finally got moved to the attic. Thanks, mom.~
Then the entire family went sledding. Highlights include my brother actually flipping out of his sled and rolling partly down the hill. Seriously, he was like something out of a cartoon; the only thing that possibly could have made it any better was if a giant snowball formed around him as he tumbled down. And my mom got a picture of it. AND NOBODY GOT HURT!
After that, my dad started making ravioli and I surfed the net for a couple hours until it was ready. The ravioli was amazing, but by that time we only had about 20 minutes before church started, so we all were like, "IT'S ALMOST TIME FOR JESUS CHRIST, GET IN THE CAR!" We ended up being a little bit late, but it was cool because we got to sit a few rows behind a family we know, and I got to see their oldest (who's about five) in full Batman gear, complete with mask and cape. He was adorable. And, y'know, the message was pretty good too.
Finally, we got home and the family just sort of hung out for few hours. I got some new music downloaded onto my iPod (including some Frou Frou <3), and then my bro and I stayed up 'till eleven thirty and had some major lulz over the QUALITY animation of the current filler arc of Bleach's English dub.
The only downside was that I kept having dreams about homework...
Bleach animators, I have no friggin' clue what kind of medication you people are on (or what kind you are lacking, for that matter). But whatever you're doing, please keep doing it. And please continue this trend of basing episodes on color spreads. You've managed to take a really lousy mood and turn it completely around.
Anemic milk-drinking vampires>Meyerpires. (sorry Twilight fans; I'm not a rabid hater, I swear. :3)
SO. I've officially had a blog for one whole week. And such a prestigious anniversary obviously cannot go by without celebration or commemoration of some sort. This is my blog we're talking about after all. As in belonging to me, Mazo's sister/Midnight Sun/MS: Optimistic Cynic/Midday Moon/Shot by a PHYSICIST!/~Acedia~/~Sol de Medianoche~.
*Takes deep breath*
So yeah, anyway. After much careful consideration, I have finally come to a decision concerning what to do to celebrate this truly momentous occasion. You know how it's become trendy to have one of those "Ask " posts? Yeah, those are pretty fun, aren't they? ^^ Well, forget 'em.
As you may or may not already know, I, quite simply put, am a noob. Perhaps not quite enough to merit the double zeroes, but still fairly noobish nonetheless. Just ask Alex. So, rather than ruining your lives with my terrible advice that would cause you and your children to curse my name for all eternity, I decided it would be much more beneficial for everyone if I got answers to some of my questions. Namely...
~How do I add categories to my blog posts?
~Where can I find what my member number is?
~Do you have any good quotes for me to put in my developing quote block(s)?
~Where can I find Whose Line is It Anyway? on DVD?
~How can I imbed links in my images/get text to show up if you hover over the image?
~Is FotT ending soon?
~Are there any other RPGs you would recommend?
~Where's that Alex kid gone off to?
~Where's that Zarwin kid gone off to?
~How 'bout MacGyver (the member)?
~How do I buckle down and figure out how to create a plot?
~What's a good name for a teenage boy from LA with Caribbean (specifically, Jamaican/Cuban) heritage?
~Are you sick of questions now?
Ay ay ay ay ay. I don't know why, but I've had no energy for BZP lately. Several times this week I've thought to myself, "Y'know self, you really should make a blog entry. The year's gonna go by faster than you know it, and if you don't start posting again soon, you're gonna regret it once January 1 of 2012 rolls 'round." But there really wasn't all that much to talk about. I have a theory that once you finally get the opportunity to blog, all things blog-worthy about your life suddenly vanish. Blah.
So, point of this entry? In a word: nothing. But then, look at the blog title. What were you expecting, really?
Oh yeah, there was one thing. Some of my friends are trying to get another friend to cross-dress for a convention. My friends are weirrrrd.~
This is the hairstyle I'd like to eventually have.
This is a slightly shorter version of how my hair is now.
I've got quite a bit of waiting to do.
Continuing with that theme, we ordered these paper stars for my room off e-bay, and they should get here sometime around the weekend. I'm pretty exicted about that. ^^ And it's certainly much more instantly gratifying than waiting around for my hair to grow out.
BET YOU DIDN'T SEE THIS COMING. > HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! LET'S MAKE THIS Ajkkuiftkiukvigvugvusaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff
Sorry. Fell asleep on the key board for a minute there.
I wonder if this is anything like what a hangover is like...?
So, last night, I believe I broke my own personal record for staying up. You know how it's a custom to usher in the new year by staying awake until midnight and welcoming it with booze, fireworks, noisemakers, and general merriment and rabble-rousing? We kinda went overboard on that first one this year, and our family ended up staying a a friend's party until almost 3:00 AM. By the time I finally got to sleep, it was probably about 3:15. At least I'm not my dad. He has to work from home today, which, jeeze I am so glad I am currently unemployed.
So I've decided when I grow up I'm going to marry a Spaniard.
Said Spaniard and I shall have one set of fraternal twins, one female, one male. The girl shall be Indigo and boy shall be called Inigo. The former will have large, purple-y blue eyes, and she shall be left-handed. The latter shall not. A third child of either sex named Ichigo is also acceptable. (My Spanish husband is half Japanese. Maybe some Italian thrown in there too.)
Oooooor maybe I'll just adopt. It'd be a heckuva lot easier.
Well, as far as first days back at school go, I guess this one turned out fairly well. It had its ups (little homework, nice and easy start, plus I found out that one of my friends is in the same Foods class as I am =D) and it had its downs (lost my right contact about halfway through the day and spent the rest of it squinting through one eye, discovered that yes, we are going to spend a unit in English on Sons and Lovers OH PLEASE NO WHYYYY)
All in all, it wasn't too bad. I'll miss my lack of responsibility, as always, but I guess hard work builds character. Or something.
Also whooo, just noticed I've made it to a second page of blog. =D
I SAW A SHOOTING STAR. FOR LIKE, THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE. (Okay, my brother insists that I've actually seen one prior to this sighting, but his memory isn't the one that counts here, so ha HA.)
BUT ANYWAY, IT WAS ALMOST DARK, AND WE'D JUST PULLED INTO THE DRIVEWAY AND BEHOLD! AS I LOOKED UPON THE DUSKY SKY, A SHOOTING STAR CAUGHT MY EYE!~
Also, I am ditching the whole Roman numeral deal. Silly word filter won't let me have two capital letters right next to each other.
Well, today's the last day of winter break. I miss it already. Tomorrow I'm up before the sun to wait out in the cold for the bus to carry me off to experience the wonders of the public education system so that I may one day (in the uncomfortably soon future) grow up to get a good job and have a happy life full of hard work. Oh well, I guess I was starting to get bored anyway. I've spent much of my two weeks of respite from cramming my brain with knowledge sanding furniture, getting orange paint on said furniture (and the carpet- the former action was intentional, the latter... well, heheh, not so much) and sorting through various drawers plus my closet in the process of redecorating my room. Still not done, but the process has reeeeaaaly slowed down by this point. And lazy as I am, without goals or projects of some sort, I get bored fast, me being a big fat mess of contradictions. But considering my previous usernames, you all probably new that about me already, didn't you? Not a very relaxing vacation maybe, but I guess I don't really relax well? Honestly, I think my subconscious is ready for school. Last night I dreamed I was in the school lot trying to find my bus. (Which, dreams being dreams, was parked about a block away in a random rich lady's front lawn.) Then again, I tend to try to dissociate myself from my subconscious as much as possible, given the things it comes up with.
At any rate, I'd better kiss my halcyon days of blissful freedom goodbye and get ready to buckle down and readjust. Especially since I've got an insanely important English presentation coming up in a couple weeks. What a way to start off the new year.
What happens when a bunch of nerdy fans with too much time on their hands get together to theorize and wildly speculate on their favorite series? This completely random crazy awesomeness!
(Disclaimer: None of these particular whacked-out ideas are my own.)
I get why teachers want us to read classic literature. I really do.
I get that they want to try to preserve certain works throughout the centuries by introducing them to newer generations. I get that they want to get kids into good literature. I get that they want to cultivate in us an appreciation for these classics, and by extension, literature in general. I really do understand all that.
What I don't understand is why teachers are seemingly set on undermining those very goals by assigning the most long, dull, and dated works of classic literature possible for summer reading.
._.
Maybe I, typical teen that I am, just am not able to appreciate the works of DH Lawrence. Perhaps my lack of tolerance for anything outside of my MTV universe has blinded me to the merits of Sons and Lovers. Maybe it's completely all my own ignorant, uncultured, self's fault.
It's possible.
It's also possible that maybe, just maybe, we may want to at least consider re-evaluating which classics make it onto the required reading lists for High School students to prevent entire generations from developing a passionate loathing for reading. Because I know I am not alone here. Just sayin'.
So, guess what happened today? We got our gas turned off!
Apparently none of the bills we thought we were paying actually got paid, soooo now we're stuck without hot water or an oven until tomorrow evening when the company sends someone to turn it back on. Because they couldn't do it today for... some reason.
On the bright side, since we can't cook anything, we got to have pizza for dinner.