Blog: Articles from September 2006

Today I had a party today, with about eight friends over, where we just hung out and watched movies. First we watched A Night at the Roxbury, which I had never seen before, although I love “What is Love”. Then we played two games of Scrabble; the first was a standard regulation game, and then we played one where “anything goes”. And uh … yeah. We had some pretty interesting combinations of letters (I won’t say words, because honestly, they weren’t. ). After that, we watched Love Actually (which neither Cortney nor Rhiannon had seen before!). Then we just talked until people went home.

I had a blast, and the only reason I don’t do this more often or be more “social” is that it tires me out, although I wouldn’t mind having two or three friends over; I enjoy more quiet atmospheres where we can have enthusiastic conversations but we don’t have to raise our voices or interrupt each other.

I love my friends, and my parents are awesome. Honestly, I would go insane without my friends. I am not a social person by any definition of the word; I don’t do much with friends. People don’t really invite me to do things, for one thing, and I don’t know if it’s just because I never come to mind or if I‘m boring. Anyway, I really do prefer quiet activities to parties, concerts, movies, and the like. But I enjoy talking to my friends and just being with them, since otherwise I don’t think I could survive my constant self-analysis. As for my parents, I don’t know how they put up with me. I really appreciate all they do to help, what with the whole making lunches, making food in general (my mom is a phenomenal cook). Cortney, who lives out in Kakabeka, just out of town, would have had to leave really early, but my dad and I drove her home, even though we didn’t get back until after midnight. I know he’s tired and stuff and will probably read this in the morning (which is kind of weird) so I’ll just thank him for that. And I don’t know if mom reads this (she probably doesn’t, since she just isn’t a regular computer user), but I’ll thank her for the awesome cake. And I suppose I should thank my brother for setting up the sound equipment and stuff like that.

Anyway, I‘m rambling because I’m tired. I have to work tomorrow. And school is really taking its toll on me, homework wise and just psychologically. I won’t complain too much though, because it’s of my own working, and life really isn’t that bad. My seventeenth birthday was interesting, and I think it’s special in the sense that it may be the last one I ever have. Next year I’ll be in university by the time I get around to my birthday, and who knows how many of my friends will be left in Thunder Bay? :/ So that’s my goal. I may darn well not be the most social person on this planet; but I’m going to keep in touch with my friends for as long as possible, no matter where they are.

Because life is a team effort, and the blooper reels are the funniest part.

Arr. Today (Sept 19) be Talk Like a Pirate Day, me matey! Ye must be speakin‘ like a pirate iffin’ ye want yer respect!

Avast, tomorrow is me very own birthday, wherein I be 17 Canadian years old! Aye, it feels … weird. Today at work me piratical co-worker, Kamila, brought me a shiny chocolate cake thingy with a cool blue crayon candle, and a yellow smiley balloon (hence the title of this blog, ye scallywags!).

And now, a musical interlude. Arr!

Or not.

There be not much else to tell ye. Writin‘ goes as writin’ does, what with the novel in its interminable second draft. Yarr, if this goes on any longer I be turnin’ to the grog for comfort! Yo ho ho and a cup of tea and what not.

The order is arbitrary, incidentally.

I‘ve been playing around with Kubuntu recently. My laptop used to overheat and shutdown in Kubuntu due to poor power management issues with the CPU. A few weeks ago, however, I took a shop-vac to the fans and sucked out the dust, and now it runs beautifully. I decided to try Kubuntu again, and although the fan is louder than in Windows, it doesn’t get hot at all, which gives me the green light to start playing.

Seth was a big help and was patient enough to answer my many questions as I poked Kubuntu and tweaked it to my satsifaction. If it weren’t for him I would never have been able to get up and running so quickly. As it stands now, I feel comfortable enough to use it to do things like write this blog entry, chat, etc., after only three days!

The best part about learning Kubuntu is that it’s fun. Learning Windows is not fun; learning Windows is a chore. Although the terms “Linux” and “command-line” can seem scary, they aren’t that scary as long as you go at your own pace. And the terminology is awesome. For example, the password manager for KDE is called “kwallet”. While reading a topic about knetworkmanager, I saw a post that basically explained knetworkmanager’s workings as “it takes the [network] keys from your wallet”. How comprehensible is that?! That’s English right there—a foreign language to Microsoft. It was vexing to try and configure Kubuntu before because of the other problems ongoing (the overheating and such), but now that these are gone, I can focus entirely on just customising it to best suit me, and that’s fun.

I should also note that my dear friend Cortney celebrated her 17th birthday yesterday, September 12. Happy birthday, Cortney! No one else’s birthday is coming up in the next few days, luckily, so I can safely celebrate Talk Like A Pirate Day in peace. Nothing else interesting in the month of September, nope. Not at all.

Unfortunately, for all the happy things, there can be some really unhappy things. A shooting happened today, at Dawson College in Montreal. One person is dead and nineteen others are injured. (Read the CBC article.) Not only is this a terrible event, but it is such a completely random one as far as we know—there doesn’t seem to be any cause for it. My heart goes out to the families and friends of the casualities, as well as the people who witnessed the attack.

I could say something corny like “tomorrow will be a better day”, but it won’t. Tomorrow is a Thursday, and I could never get a hang of Thursdays.

I’m nearing the end of the first week back (-ish). So far it feels … the same, yet different. The same in the sense that I’m used to it; there aren’t many surprises. However, being a grade 12 feels different. I‘ve been doing this for three years. I can look around and see the grade 9s and wonder if I was ever like that. The friends I have beside me I’ve known for three or four years (and some even longer), and we’ve all gone through similar experiences. Now that this is my last year, the sense that it is all coming to a close becomes more obvious.

Westgate seems a lot more crowded this year, in class size and hallway congestion. This could be an illusion; it could be normal and I just need to readjust after the break.

My geometry class has about 25 people. It isn’t that bad, except that geometry has always been one of my weaker points in math, simply because I am not a visual person; I don’t learn visually. I prefer more algebra with equations. We’ve already delved into vectors, and although I grasp most of the key concepts, drawing the diagrams can elude me. Hopefully, however, this is just a byproduct of back-to-school jetlag.

After only two physics classes I already remember the problem I had last year: it’s so mind-numbingly slow. And this is not to insult Mr. Andrews at all—he is both funny and a great guy. But we spend most of the period with example problems, which we get an insane amount of time to do. I can understand that some people need longer amounts of time, but I dislike how the AP students have been combined with the regular grade 12 physics students. Now there’s 34 bodies squished into the room. I still need review in physics, but I am ready to go through it quickly and start learning new stuff.

On the flip side, my AP Calculus class has only six people. I already like it; the math is more to my liking (with equations and fun stuff). I think I’m going to buy a graphing calculator, however; it will help me both in my math courses this year and in my math major to come!

Last class of the day is drama. Ah, wubbly drama. How many different ways can I say “best class ever”?! Need I list the reasons? Mrs. Vieira is teaching it once again, so we shall have a blast. There are only thirteen people, including myself, and I love small classes. Bonus points: we are all from the first semester drama class, save one person, whom I know from working on The Outsiders production last semester anyway. Since we‘re such a tightly-knit group, we already know how to work well together and still have a good time. Of all my classes, drama is the one that most feels like I just put school on pause and can step back into it right away. Plus it’s comforting to relax and goof off (er, I mean, work hard at drama!) at the end of the day.

To sum up: grade 12 is a tingly feeling that comes with the anticipation of escaping; math is craziness; drama is the best thing since sliced bread landing butter side up.

Friendly fire that killed Canadians was ‘freak accident’.

Is it just me, or does it seem like more Canadians in Afghanistan get killed by “friendly fire” than by the Taliban insurgents? Is anyone sent there even remotely competent?

Stephen Harper has made it no secret that he intends to increase our defence budget, which is all well and good in a way, since our military sucks. I think that there should definitely be a new training program included with this budget; in the program, Canadian soldiers will learn how to put on disguises to make them look like famous historical figures, and thus avoid being shot.

The crew of the aircraft responsible for the friendly fire, of course, claimed that Han shot first.

Here’s just a random distillation of the thoughts swirling around in my head today (happy Labour Day, everyone). Maybe after doing this I can actually get some writing done before I go to bed.

Speaking of which, I have school tomorrow. Yes, grade 12, my last year of high school. For those who would like to pretend to be interested in my course schedule:

First semester: Geometry/Discrete Math, AP Physics, AP Calculus, and Drama
Second semester: AP English, Chemistry, History, and Data Management

Yes, I have three math (physics is basically math-on-a-stick) courses in a row. There is a theory that lunch will sneak in between physics and calculus, but it’s a fringe theory at best.

For those of you whom I haven’t told, I originally wanted to take Writer’s Craft, but that was only offered once, at the same time as Geometry. :/ But by not taking it, I wouldn’t get a group 1 credit, which I need to graduate. Enter History class, say goodbye to my spare period. My workload shall be intense. But I don’t feel too bad, because I don’t deserve to—my friend Viv is getting royally screwed over in her schedule, which is quite messed up and will require some creative solutions to fix it. It’ll work out though.

Er, Steve Irwin died. In other news, the Department of Homeland Security has now banned stingrays from carry-on luggage. In a recent press release, a source revealed that $50 million has been allocated for the installation of stingray-detection technology at all major airports in the continental U.S.

I’ve spent most of the day putting off writing (not-writing, as I like to call it). I wasted a good half hour to hour browsing Wikipedia. Do you know how addictive that is? Oh sure, one article to fulfill curiosity seems harmless enough. But there are so many tantalising links to other articles! And before you know it, entire hours pass while you hop from article to article, never finishing one because you‘re going on to the next. It’s madness, I tell you! Madness!

I spent most of my time there browsing idly through the Sailor Moon articles, as well as taking a glance at the Big Bad Beetleborgs—whose name I’ve been trying to remember for ages; I can picture the costumes clearly in my head but had completely forgotten the name. Remember when those shows, and others, were on TV after school when we were young‘uns? I don’t know if they‘re just too old and have been replaced by fresher shows, or if I’m just too old to watch them in their time slots nowadays, but I do miss them, as poor as they were. I was a fan of Sailor Moon but only vaguely remember it nowadays (ironically I now watch no anime whatsoever, even though Sailor Moon was one of the first animes to migrate from Japan to North America). The Big Bad Beetleborgs were my substitute to Power Rangers (which I could never fully enjoy for some reason).

So yeah, I wasted time reading Wikipedia articles. And now I‘m wasting time doing this. But it’s worth it, no? It means I will avoid writing.

Stargate Atlantis Season 3 premieres in a week! I watched Episode 19 of Season 2, “Inferno”, tonight. The Movie Network is airing the Season 2 finale right before Season 3’s premiere next week, so I can catch it then. I also can’t wait for Battlestar Galactica (October 7), Doctor Who (Thanksgiving), and Stargate SG-1 (dunno when). And I‘m reasonably enthused for Smallville’s return, since the season finale was interesting, plus I will give Eureka a try, I think. Yes, folks, September is upon us, and that means that television is back in full swing.

And the promise of plenty of procrastination.