My avatar across the web: a photo of my feet in grey-white socks and brown sandals.

Ben Babcock

I read, write, code, and knit.

6 Articles from September 2006

  1. Celebrating birthdays in style

    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. :ermm: We had some pretty interesting combinations of letters (I won't say words, because honestly, they weren't. :D). 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…

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  2. Smile

    Arr. Today (Sept 19) be Talk Like a Pirate Day, me matey! :arr: 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.

  3. Kubuntu, Birthdays, and Deaths

    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…

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  4. First week back!

    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…

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  5. We are dangerous

    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.

  6. Brain Drip

    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. :yes:

    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…

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