I was super ready to be pulling out the results of my research project analyzed and the numbers crunched, but I have unfortunately not done that. I offer, as less exciting substitute, some personal news.
I saw Rogue One yesterday night, and it was good! As of Christmas I have my first smartphone. It's quite useful. I've been spending my time off school furiously putting off the work I should be doing, playing Dungeons and Dragons with friends, and watching Doctor Who. And yes, I know the second two things are just variations of the first.
I've by and large been enjoying the large mass of family in town. There are several cute little kids here at the moment. Our Christmas was very white, the whitest night of the year actually.
That's about it, unfortunately. Has anything interesting happened in your life, dear readers? I feel occasionally on this blog like I'm writing into a vacuum or something. I appreciate any signs of life from people who care about this blog! You don't have to of course. But if you don't there's an alarmingly high chance that I'll reclude in my basement and obsess over something crazy like modifying the genetic code of acorns to produce trees that grow denim instead of leaves. (Now that I think of it, that could be profitable if it worked.) Anyway, you have been warned!
Until next week,
Ian
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
My Family's Holidays
There was a suggestion made that one of my posts be about Christmas traditions at my house, so I'm going to outline for you today some of the habits we have in our house this holiday season. It surprised me how many we actually had, although some of them are by no means unique. Anyway, here you are. Feel free to comment with your own holiday traditions (Christmas or otherwise)!
1. Every year around September or October we draw names out of a hat. Whoever you draw, you make a present for - a homemade Christmas present that must be under the tree by the evening of the 24th. Theoretically, this gives you enough time to create something nice. I'm afraid that with the move this year, I at least have neglected my duties a bit, but there have been some quite spectacular presents given. Would recommend.
2. On Christmas day there is a family-wide, sometimes extended-family-wide pudding-eating contest, with a twist. By the way, the pudding is called risalamande. It involves cherries and almonds. The competition is not who can eat the most. That's tough to measure and little children would probably never win. Instead, it deals with the almonds. The pudding is full of them, and all but one are chopped. Whoever finds the whole almond wins Toblerone chocolate. Every year we worry that someone has, without noticing, eaten the one whole almond without noticing. It doesn't happen a lot, though.
3. There's a nativity reenactment on Christmas Eve night.
4. Sometimes we try to open presents in an order. When we do it starts with the youngest, who opens one present, then the second youngest, and so on until the oldest, who opens one, and then the youngest opens another one and so forth until all presents are open. This usually doesn't last to the end of the presents, though.
5. That's mostly it. Somehow I was thinking there were more.
Anyway, happy holidays to you all!
Ian
1. Every year around September or October we draw names out of a hat. Whoever you draw, you make a present for - a homemade Christmas present that must be under the tree by the evening of the 24th. Theoretically, this gives you enough time to create something nice. I'm afraid that with the move this year, I at least have neglected my duties a bit, but there have been some quite spectacular presents given. Would recommend.
2. On Christmas day there is a family-wide, sometimes extended-family-wide pudding-eating contest, with a twist. By the way, the pudding is called risalamande. It involves cherries and almonds. The competition is not who can eat the most. That's tough to measure and little children would probably never win. Instead, it deals with the almonds. The pudding is full of them, and all but one are chopped. Whoever finds the whole almond wins Toblerone chocolate. Every year we worry that someone has, without noticing, eaten the one whole almond without noticing. It doesn't happen a lot, though.
3. There's a nativity reenactment on Christmas Eve night.
4. Sometimes we try to open presents in an order. When we do it starts with the youngest, who opens one present, then the second youngest, and so on until the oldest, who opens one, and then the youngest opens another one and so forth until all presents are open. This usually doesn't last to the end of the presents, though.
5. That's mostly it. Somehow I was thinking there were more.
Anyway, happy holidays to you all!
Ian
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
On This Day
I have come to today's blog post prepared with a little research.
I must confess that I had no idea what I was going to write today. For all I know, nobody cares about this website enough to notice that I'm a day late or something, but I wanted to do something. So I got to thinking about today's date and then the modern calendar system.
The system that I assume we all use (I'm somehow not seeing any readers in Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Iran or Afghanistan) is called the Gregorian calendar, named after Pope Gregory VIII (yay for roman numerals at the end of names!) This system has been in use since October 1582. That means that we've been keeping track of the date this way for 434 years, and 105 leap years. Astute mathematicians will notice that this isn't exactly one leap year for every four years. Good observation!
You see, the calendar in use before 1582 gave the year an average length of 365.25 days by adding a leap year every four years. Pope Gregory VIII didn't think two decimal places was good enough. The Catholic church, which measures the date of Easter by the spring equinox, was worried that Easter was drifting, so to speak. Considering there wouldn't be any noticeable difference in Easter's season for quite a while after his lifetime, this makes Pope Gregory VIII rather foresighted, in my opinion.
Anyway, he declared that every exact century would be not a leap year, except for the ones that were multiples of 400. So in 1900 there wasn't a leap year, because centuries are the exception. In 2000 there was a leap year, because every four centuries is an exception to the exception. Incidentally, 2000 was only the second time in the Gregorian calendar that this double-exception was necessary.
The average length of the year is now 365.2425 days, and it's anybody's guess how long it will take for the powers that be to refine that number.
Until next week, let's all be grateful for the time we have.
Ian :)
I must confess that I had no idea what I was going to write today. For all I know, nobody cares about this website enough to notice that I'm a day late or something, but I wanted to do something. So I got to thinking about today's date and then the modern calendar system.
The system that I assume we all use (I'm somehow not seeing any readers in Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Iran or Afghanistan) is called the Gregorian calendar, named after Pope Gregory VIII (yay for roman numerals at the end of names!) This system has been in use since October 1582. That means that we've been keeping track of the date this way for 434 years, and 105 leap years. Astute mathematicians will notice that this isn't exactly one leap year for every four years. Good observation!
You see, the calendar in use before 1582 gave the year an average length of 365.25 days by adding a leap year every four years. Pope Gregory VIII didn't think two decimal places was good enough. The Catholic church, which measures the date of Easter by the spring equinox, was worried that Easter was drifting, so to speak. Considering there wouldn't be any noticeable difference in Easter's season for quite a while after his lifetime, this makes Pope Gregory VIII rather foresighted, in my opinion.
Anyway, he declared that every exact century would be not a leap year, except for the ones that were multiples of 400. So in 1900 there wasn't a leap year, because centuries are the exception. In 2000 there was a leap year, because every four centuries is an exception to the exception. Incidentally, 2000 was only the second time in the Gregorian calendar that this double-exception was necessary.
The average length of the year is now 365.2425 days, and it's anybody's guess how long it will take for the powers that be to refine that number.
Until next week, let's all be grateful for the time we have.
Ian :)
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
More Reports
Hello all,
I'm writing my blog post on Tuesday this week because Wednesday is going to be very, very busy. I have a bit of free time at the moment - free time, what beautiful words! - so I'm going to deliver a quick update on a bit of my life.
Tomorrow will be busy because it's the night of my band concert, and there's also a dress rehearsal after school, so between getting home, doing homework and getting ready for the concert, I'll have approximately negative one hour to write then. I'm also taking the ACT on Saturday, which adds a whole new layer of urgency to my homework if I want to get sleep for a couple nights in advance. Luckily, my teachers have taken this opportunity to give me more work than usual. Thank you, public education.
My house is temporarily empty of extended family, but as of a few days ago we do have a decorated Christmas tree in our house. There was a bit of trouble finding a space big enough for it, but we managed in the end, and our cat has delighted in chewing on the ornaments, climbing into the branches, and clawing at the few presents underneath. In a few weeks our residence will once again be flooded with relatives.
That's about all I think I have time for today, unfortunately. If you want to talk to me, leave comments, or send emails. Happy Holidays!
Ian
I'm writing my blog post on Tuesday this week because Wednesday is going to be very, very busy. I have a bit of free time at the moment - free time, what beautiful words! - so I'm going to deliver a quick update on a bit of my life.
Tomorrow will be busy because it's the night of my band concert, and there's also a dress rehearsal after school, so between getting home, doing homework and getting ready for the concert, I'll have approximately negative one hour to write then. I'm also taking the ACT on Saturday, which adds a whole new layer of urgency to my homework if I want to get sleep for a couple nights in advance. Luckily, my teachers have taken this opportunity to give me more work than usual. Thank you, public education.
My house is temporarily empty of extended family, but as of a few days ago we do have a decorated Christmas tree in our house. There was a bit of trouble finding a space big enough for it, but we managed in the end, and our cat has delighted in chewing on the ornaments, climbing into the branches, and clawing at the few presents underneath. In a few weeks our residence will once again be flooded with relatives.
That's about all I think I have time for today, unfortunately. If you want to talk to me, leave comments, or send emails. Happy Holidays!
Ian
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
If You're Tired of All That Philosophy and Mushy Nonsense...
...Then it must be time for some different nonsense!
Farmer Duddle had a fiddle,
But he dropped it in a puddle.
When the fiddle wouldn't function,
Farmer Duddle was befuddled.
Now the farmer favors riddles
Over fickle, feeble fiddles
And it happened in the Downy Wood.
Miss Eliza had a lover
With an angry, grumpy mother.
Miss Eliza's love was clever
And escaped across the river.
There he married his Eliza
With what house and goods he gathered,
And it happened in the Downy Wood.
Little Lee was hit by thunder
When the sky was torn asunder.
It made mostly all to wonder
At his loving mother's blunder.
But the child was fine at that,
(And was even rather fat)
And it happened in the Downy Wood.
Farmer Duddle's father Froddle
Wouldn't walk, but only waddle.
Widely wandering, ever talking,
He'd stop by and tell tried twaddle.
Well, the neighbors held a council
And they told him, "listen, scoundrel,
If you hold your mouth the hound will."
Well, it happened in the Downy Wood.
Farmer Duddle had a fiddle,
But he dropped it in a puddle.
When the fiddle wouldn't function,
Farmer Duddle was befuddled.
Now the farmer favors riddles
Over fickle, feeble fiddles
And it happened in the Downy Wood.
Miss Eliza had a lover
With an angry, grumpy mother.
Miss Eliza's love was clever
And escaped across the river.
There he married his Eliza
With what house and goods he gathered,
And it happened in the Downy Wood.
Little Lee was hit by thunder
When the sky was torn asunder.
It made mostly all to wonder
At his loving mother's blunder.
But the child was fine at that,
(And was even rather fat)
And it happened in the Downy Wood.
Farmer Duddle's father Froddle
Wouldn't walk, but only waddle.
Widely wandering, ever talking,
He'd stop by and tell tried twaddle.
Well, the neighbors held a council
And they told him, "listen, scoundrel,
If you hold your mouth the hound will."
Well, it happened in the Downy Wood.
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Thanksgiving
Sorry for posting so late this week.
I have for you today a poem I wrote in late September, shortly before I was to leave Delaware. When I wrote it I was tired and homesick in anticipation. Bear that in mind!
Never
I was an explorer, alive,
And the world was a blank page
Covered in beauty for me to see,
And anyone else, with me.
A landscape of miracles.
But the more there was around me, the more
There was at home, in the garden, in the walls,
Too.
And life was good because
Because, there was a place
That made everywhere else
Somewhere else.
The saddest words I know
Are,
Never,
Never Again.
In keeping with Thanksgiving spirit, I'm proclaiming to the internet my gratitude for my friends and life in Delaware and that things have gone so well here in Utah!
Until next week,
Ian
I have for you today a poem I wrote in late September, shortly before I was to leave Delaware. When I wrote it I was tired and homesick in anticipation. Bear that in mind!
Never
I was an explorer, alive,
And the world was a blank page
Covered in beauty for me to see,
And anyone else, with me.
A landscape of miracles.
But the more there was around me, the more
There was at home, in the garden, in the walls,
Too.
And life was good because
Because, there was a place
That made everywhere else
Somewhere else.
The saddest words I know
Are,
Never,
Never Again.
In keeping with Thanksgiving spirit, I'm proclaiming to the internet my gratitude for my friends and life in Delaware and that things have gone so well here in Utah!
Until next week,
Ian
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Conflict
In my English class at school we've been reading some rather iconic/philosophical literature lately. These include Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self-Reliance", Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience", Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter From Birmingham Jail" and "The Indispensable Opposition" by W. Lippman. I recommend them all, especially those last two. These works got me thinking about conflict, communication, and their role in human life. I'm going to have to warn you: Today, we go deep.
There's so much to talk about with all of this, I'm not sure where to start. Let's begin, I guess, by talking about ideas.
To begin, we'd better have a workable definition of an idea. Let's just say that an idea is an abstract mental conception of something. Some people might argue that memories are ideas, or that an idea should be defined as something new that nobody else has previously thought of. But this will do for me.
One of the really stupendous things about the human race is our ability to have these - to think about things that we can't physically sense. We, homo sapiens, are very gifted among life on Earth with our ability to contemplate the future. The world is full of consequences, immediate and long-term, physical, mental and spiritual. Humankind has grown to what I would consider rather impressive heights because we can anticipate something that might occur, and make decisions based on that anticipation. That's not to say that other animals are unintelligent - chimpanzees and dolphins, for instance, have proven remarkably adept learners and tool users. My point is that in the capacity to introspect, reflect on intangible possibilities, and come to conscious decision, man is alone on our planet. We can believe something and choose to act in a different way because of it, but we can also choose to act contrary to our beliefs and feelings.
What really propels us forward is that once we have allowed our complex - unimaginably complex - minds to grunt and fizz and whirl and compute and create an original thought, we have devised ways of communicating that thing with others. An idea isn't tied to one person; it doesn't even spread through imitation, or subconsciously, necessarily. One person can think of something - potentially something that cannot be seen, touched, heard, or in any concrete way sensed - and then, through speaking, writing, pantomiming, playing music, allow another person to comprehend that same spectral thought!
The hallmarks of human progress I've discussed to this point are introspection, abstract thought, cognizance of the future, and communication. They're all incredible. One of the things that fascinates me the most is communication, because it allows for efficient interaction between two minds. Considering the unique situation and experiences and tendencies of each person, the potential of one individual in so many directions is astounding. And then to put all of those conglomerations of information, decision and feeling together in match after match, situation after situation (each different from the last) together and apart again and again over thousands of years... that could go almost anywhere. That's really powerful stuff, and fascinating. What happens in just such a circumstance? Everything on earth at this moment is unique. Things will never be this way again. Things have never been just this way before.
In a way, the only definition of a thing is its relationship and response to another thing. Would a twig be the same thing if one could not snap it, swish it, and make fire with it? What is something but its interaction with other things?
In a similar vein, the only way to know something is to compare it with something else. One classic example is, or course, color and sight. What is blindness? Is it not the inability to differentiate the distinctions in light from one place and time to the next, functionally? Blindness is portrayed as uniform black, because black is the absence of light. But wouldn't uniform yellow be just as blind? Wouldn't a person, able to see only a beautiful shade of blue across their whole vision wherever they looked, be just as unable to see as one in complete darkness?
It is in the face of difference and variety that sameness, or indeed anything, has meaning. The significance of even good and evil is that we, as creatures with the capacity to differentiate the two, can choose one as opposed to the other. Someone who does not know pain cannot find any meaning in joy.
That is, in part, why differing ideas and opinions are so crucial. Another is the need for progress.
Change is hard. It is a fact of life that it is easier to do what has already been done. Follow the same road. Follow the same process. Do the same activities. Act in habit. Think the same thoughs. Repeat the same grammatical pattern. Go along with the established norm...
Yet progress, by its very nature, demands change. That is why progress is hard. And sameness is so easy that when we group together and communicate, instead of growing closer to the truth through contrasting our differing experiences, instead of being enriched by the complementary but different things each of us brings to a discussion, we just allow the momentum of the group to carry us wherever they are going. Society values order more than it values originality. It values inertia more than it values justice; so when the system and the right thing are at odds, or when a new idea or rising improvement to some aspect of life occurs, society fights it. We would rather accept a safely flawed existence than uncertainty.
The real value of communication and freedom of speech is when two people or groups have different perspectives - which we all do, being different people - and then both sides listen to the other. I don't mean that one viewpoint passively accepts the other. I also don't mean that both sides listen to the other only to the extent that they can carry on a conversation and criticize their partner in discussion. What I do mean is that two opposing, or at least differing, ideas are first listened to with sincere intent to understand. If necessary, through calm, even if opposed, discussion they then resolve or address points of contention.
The point of communication is the transference of information. This information could be explicit - "I got a dog yesterday." Usually, though, communication gives us deeper knowledge - about how a person acts, about their feelings and mannerisms, their tendencies. The way someone communicates, and when and why, are just as relevant as what they say.
Therefore, sometimes all that is necessary in effective, fulfilling communication is listening. By listening to your words, I learn things about you. If you disagree with me, I learn about another way of thinking. That's a good thing. It can inform my decisions and educate my own point of view. Disagreement, in the right context, is a very helpful thing. One of the best ways to improve an argument or plan is to have someone else try to tear it down. It's like running a truck over a bridge to test its stability.
So to sum up:
What is new is not always wrong;
What is accepted is not always best;
Contrast is meaning;
Disagreement is the root progress;
And listening is not only polite, it's fulfilling and very informative.
I could probably write all day about this, but for now, that will have to do.
To you, ladies and gentlemen, and to life. Thank you for your time.
Ian
There's so much to talk about with all of this, I'm not sure where to start. Let's begin, I guess, by talking about ideas.
To begin, we'd better have a workable definition of an idea. Let's just say that an idea is an abstract mental conception of something. Some people might argue that memories are ideas, or that an idea should be defined as something new that nobody else has previously thought of. But this will do for me.
One of the really stupendous things about the human race is our ability to have these - to think about things that we can't physically sense. We, homo sapiens, are very gifted among life on Earth with our ability to contemplate the future. The world is full of consequences, immediate and long-term, physical, mental and spiritual. Humankind has grown to what I would consider rather impressive heights because we can anticipate something that might occur, and make decisions based on that anticipation. That's not to say that other animals are unintelligent - chimpanzees and dolphins, for instance, have proven remarkably adept learners and tool users. My point is that in the capacity to introspect, reflect on intangible possibilities, and come to conscious decision, man is alone on our planet. We can believe something and choose to act in a different way because of it, but we can also choose to act contrary to our beliefs and feelings.
What really propels us forward is that once we have allowed our complex - unimaginably complex - minds to grunt and fizz and whirl and compute and create an original thought, we have devised ways of communicating that thing with others. An idea isn't tied to one person; it doesn't even spread through imitation, or subconsciously, necessarily. One person can think of something - potentially something that cannot be seen, touched, heard, or in any concrete way sensed - and then, through speaking, writing, pantomiming, playing music, allow another person to comprehend that same spectral thought!
The hallmarks of human progress I've discussed to this point are introspection, abstract thought, cognizance of the future, and communication. They're all incredible. One of the things that fascinates me the most is communication, because it allows for efficient interaction between two minds. Considering the unique situation and experiences and tendencies of each person, the potential of one individual in so many directions is astounding. And then to put all of those conglomerations of information, decision and feeling together in match after match, situation after situation (each different from the last) together and apart again and again over thousands of years... that could go almost anywhere. That's really powerful stuff, and fascinating. What happens in just such a circumstance? Everything on earth at this moment is unique. Things will never be this way again. Things have never been just this way before.
In a way, the only definition of a thing is its relationship and response to another thing. Would a twig be the same thing if one could not snap it, swish it, and make fire with it? What is something but its interaction with other things?
In a similar vein, the only way to know something is to compare it with something else. One classic example is, or course, color and sight. What is blindness? Is it not the inability to differentiate the distinctions in light from one place and time to the next, functionally? Blindness is portrayed as uniform black, because black is the absence of light. But wouldn't uniform yellow be just as blind? Wouldn't a person, able to see only a beautiful shade of blue across their whole vision wherever they looked, be just as unable to see as one in complete darkness?
It is in the face of difference and variety that sameness, or indeed anything, has meaning. The significance of even good and evil is that we, as creatures with the capacity to differentiate the two, can choose one as opposed to the other. Someone who does not know pain cannot find any meaning in joy.
That is, in part, why differing ideas and opinions are so crucial. Another is the need for progress.
Change is hard. It is a fact of life that it is easier to do what has already been done. Follow the same road. Follow the same process. Do the same activities. Act in habit. Think the same thoughs. Repeat the same grammatical pattern. Go along with the established norm...
Yet progress, by its very nature, demands change. That is why progress is hard. And sameness is so easy that when we group together and communicate, instead of growing closer to the truth through contrasting our differing experiences, instead of being enriched by the complementary but different things each of us brings to a discussion, we just allow the momentum of the group to carry us wherever they are going. Society values order more than it values originality. It values inertia more than it values justice; so when the system and the right thing are at odds, or when a new idea or rising improvement to some aspect of life occurs, society fights it. We would rather accept a safely flawed existence than uncertainty.
The real value of communication and freedom of speech is when two people or groups have different perspectives - which we all do, being different people - and then both sides listen to the other. I don't mean that one viewpoint passively accepts the other. I also don't mean that both sides listen to the other only to the extent that they can carry on a conversation and criticize their partner in discussion. What I do mean is that two opposing, or at least differing, ideas are first listened to with sincere intent to understand. If necessary, through calm, even if opposed, discussion they then resolve or address points of contention.
The point of communication is the transference of information. This information could be explicit - "I got a dog yesterday." Usually, though, communication gives us deeper knowledge - about how a person acts, about their feelings and mannerisms, their tendencies. The way someone communicates, and when and why, are just as relevant as what they say.
Therefore, sometimes all that is necessary in effective, fulfilling communication is listening. By listening to your words, I learn things about you. If you disagree with me, I learn about another way of thinking. That's a good thing. It can inform my decisions and educate my own point of view. Disagreement, in the right context, is a very helpful thing. One of the best ways to improve an argument or plan is to have someone else try to tear it down. It's like running a truck over a bridge to test its stability.
So to sum up:
What is new is not always wrong;
What is accepted is not always best;
Contrast is meaning;
Disagreement is the root progress;
And listening is not only polite, it's fulfilling and very informative.
I could probably write all day about this, but for now, that will have to do.
To you, ladies and gentlemen, and to life. Thank you for your time.
Ian
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Fun Facts
I was planning on going all deep philosophy today in my post and talking about freedom of speech, the nature of communication and a tiny bit of politics. Having told you this, I want to apologize for not actually writing about it. While I feel surprisingly lucid currently, especially considering how tired I felt two hours ago, I don't want to push it. Turns out I'm expected to contribute to my own education tomorrow - the horror! - so I'm turning this into a conglomeration of random things that have been on my mind instead.
First of all, I wasted some time today on this solar system simulator which my physics teacher actually told us about for a lab. While it's fun to start with the presets, what's probably a lot more fun is messing with the settings to make stuff go crazy and/or crash into each other.
Secondly, I came up with a delicious pun yesterday, but it requires knowledge of Lord of the Rings and/or D&D. Here it is:
Why are dwarves so stubborn?
It takes a big person to admit you were wrong.
Also, basically everything in life is happening on Friday. My uncle is coming here, where he will stay for around the rest of the month. Also the next Magic set is coming out, and my parent-funded candy--free year is up (hello, ferrero rochers and jolly rancher jelly beans!), and I'm playing in a school veterans day assembly, and it's veterans day AND 11/11, and nominally I'm allowed to drive by myself starting then, and I'm going on a weekend camping trip to Moab (which I'm told is an incredible place). I think there was more, but my memory can only keep track of so much at once.
My Eagle Scout court of honor is in a little more than two weeks. Yay! I can life!
And finally, according to at least one website, if polar bears and penguins lived in the same place, a polar bear could eat as many as 86 penguins in one sitting?
Keep up with good things, everyone. Until next week!
First of all, I wasted some time today on this solar system simulator which my physics teacher actually told us about for a lab. While it's fun to start with the presets, what's probably a lot more fun is messing with the settings to make stuff go crazy and/or crash into each other.
Secondly, I came up with a delicious pun yesterday, but it requires knowledge of Lord of the Rings and/or D&D. Here it is:
Why are dwarves so stubborn?
It takes a big person to admit you were wrong.
Also, basically everything in life is happening on Friday. My uncle is coming here, where he will stay for around the rest of the month. Also the next Magic set is coming out, and my parent-funded candy--free year is up (hello, ferrero rochers and jolly rancher jelly beans!), and I'm playing in a school veterans day assembly, and it's veterans day AND 11/11, and nominally I'm allowed to drive by myself starting then, and I'm going on a weekend camping trip to Moab (which I'm told is an incredible place). I think there was more, but my memory can only keep track of so much at once.
My Eagle Scout court of honor is in a little more than two weeks. Yay! I can life!
And finally, according to at least one website, if polar bears and penguins lived in the same place, a polar bear could eat as many as 86 penguins in one sitting?
Keep up with good things, everyone. Until next week!
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Today
Dear Readers,
My blog post today is that I am too busy to make a blog post, because despite the fact that I have already taken Calc AB, I still have to do the homework.
And still don't understand some of it.
As a side note, scientific studies have shown that teacher views of student intelligence are to some extent self-fulfilling prophecies. (I'm not saying it applies to me specifically, I was just reminded.)
On the upside, you don't have to read a ton this week!
So there you have it.
-Ian
My blog post today is that I am too busy to make a blog post, because despite the fact that I have already taken Calc AB, I still have to do the homework.
And still don't understand some of it.
As a side note, scientific studies have shown that teacher views of student intelligence are to some extent self-fulfilling prophecies. (I'm not saying it applies to me specifically, I was just reminded.)
On the upside, you don't have to read a ton this week!
So there you have it.
-Ian
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
The Move Out (And Subsequent Activity) - Part II
Hello, world! Welcome back to the Brainstormer's Notebook - new thoughts hot off my head every Wednesday! If you have come to this blog, you must be a pretty awesome person. In fact, you're probably becoming more amazing just by reading this, because after all, I am the most important person in the universe, of course.
My topic of discourse today is more about my impressions of Utah, from the perspective of someone from the East Coast. Let's jump in!
It's impossible to talk about Utah culture (at least, in full depth) without mentioning The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints - the Mormons (which is my religion, by the way). That's what's stood out a lot to me, so that's where I'm going to start. Feel free to ignore this bit if you don't care about that, but I should think it might be interesting. I just hope nobody will take offense, though I don't see why anyone really would. I certainly want any readers to know in advance that I definitely didn't intend any.
The LDS church in Utah, in a word: Condensed. For example, where our ward (congregation) in Delaware drew from a large city's worth of geographic area, our ward here has more people and draws from about two streets. The building where we attend church takes less time to walk to here than it did to drive in DE. While I used to be the only person in my grade at my school with my religion, now it's those who aren't part of our religion who are less common.
Hand-in-hand with the dense Mormon population is a remarkable ubiquity of knowledge about us. The religion isn't just part of the public consciousness, it's part of the public culture. This shows in a couple of different ways. There's a lot less cursing in Utah (or at least in my high school) and a few (sometimes rather humorous) substitute phrases have sprung up, such as one of my personal favorites, "oh my heck". I'm pretty sure the Mormon religion influences Utah's strong Republican swing as well.
In my English class recently we discussed satire and, as part of our education experience, were to create a satiric piece. Since satire is by nature designed to poke constructive fun at society, I learned a lot about the culture here from what they created. But it was more informative not to see what they made fun of, but to see what they assumed their audience would know. For example, modesty was mentioned offhandedly, which is of course a real word, but the context (conservative standards of dress) isn't often used among high schoolers, I think - unless they're Mormons. Likewise, church youth activities were tossed out in jargon - not very confusing jargon, but jargon nonetheless - with no necessary explanation. I've also heard people mention "ward activities" in the grocery store, which would of course sound like you were from a mental hospital, unless you understood the LDS term for congregations. But it flew. It's seriously crazy.
Some of you might know about seminary, but I'll put it up here anyway. Seminary is simply the name in the LDS church for the scripture study class for teens. In Delaware, and most of the United States as far as I know, it's done by squeezing time in before school starts. This is the sometimes-dreaded early-morning seminary. Here, however, things are very different. Early-morning is an option, but the default is release-time seminary, which is basically a school class but not technically, because this is a public school and there's the first amendment and stuff. So they release us from school at a given time (hence the name) so we can cross the parking lot to a little building just outside of school grounds, where we study religion in basically a school setting. Unlike it was in Delaware, the teachers are career seminary teachers who get paid.
Unfortunately, I've overstayed my welcome on our sole computer, and am out of time anyway. So that's this week's post, mainly, but READ THIS PLEASE!
I'd love to know what you think of my blog, and how I can improve it for you, and what you'd like to know. So if you have any sort of feedback for me, I'd love to hear it in the comments, or by email if you know it. Honestly. I love hearing from you guys.
Until next week,
Ian
My topic of discourse today is more about my impressions of Utah, from the perspective of someone from the East Coast. Let's jump in!
It's impossible to talk about Utah culture (at least, in full depth) without mentioning The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints - the Mormons (which is my religion, by the way). That's what's stood out a lot to me, so that's where I'm going to start. Feel free to ignore this bit if you don't care about that, but I should think it might be interesting. I just hope nobody will take offense, though I don't see why anyone really would. I certainly want any readers to know in advance that I definitely didn't intend any.
The LDS church in Utah, in a word: Condensed. For example, where our ward (congregation) in Delaware drew from a large city's worth of geographic area, our ward here has more people and draws from about two streets. The building where we attend church takes less time to walk to here than it did to drive in DE. While I used to be the only person in my grade at my school with my religion, now it's those who aren't part of our religion who are less common.
Hand-in-hand with the dense Mormon population is a remarkable ubiquity of knowledge about us. The religion isn't just part of the public consciousness, it's part of the public culture. This shows in a couple of different ways. There's a lot less cursing in Utah (or at least in my high school) and a few (sometimes rather humorous) substitute phrases have sprung up, such as one of my personal favorites, "oh my heck". I'm pretty sure the Mormon religion influences Utah's strong Republican swing as well.
In my English class recently we discussed satire and, as part of our education experience, were to create a satiric piece. Since satire is by nature designed to poke constructive fun at society, I learned a lot about the culture here from what they created. But it was more informative not to see what they made fun of, but to see what they assumed their audience would know. For example, modesty was mentioned offhandedly, which is of course a real word, but the context (conservative standards of dress) isn't often used among high schoolers, I think - unless they're Mormons. Likewise, church youth activities were tossed out in jargon - not very confusing jargon, but jargon nonetheless - with no necessary explanation. I've also heard people mention "ward activities" in the grocery store, which would of course sound like you were from a mental hospital, unless you understood the LDS term for congregations. But it flew. It's seriously crazy.
Some of you might know about seminary, but I'll put it up here anyway. Seminary is simply the name in the LDS church for the scripture study class for teens. In Delaware, and most of the United States as far as I know, it's done by squeezing time in before school starts. This is the sometimes-dreaded early-morning seminary. Here, however, things are very different. Early-morning is an option, but the default is release-time seminary, which is basically a school class but not technically, because this is a public school and there's the first amendment and stuff. So they release us from school at a given time (hence the name) so we can cross the parking lot to a little building just outside of school grounds, where we study religion in basically a school setting. Unlike it was in Delaware, the teachers are career seminary teachers who get paid.
Unfortunately, I've overstayed my welcome on our sole computer, and am out of time anyway. So that's this week's post, mainly, but READ THIS PLEASE!
I'd love to know what you think of my blog, and how I can improve it for you, and what you'd like to know. So if you have any sort of feedback for me, I'd love to hear it in the comments, or by email if you know it. Honestly. I love hearing from you guys.
Until next week,
Ian
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
The Move Out (and Subsequent Activity) - Part I
Welcome back, dear readers. The tale I have for you today is not for the faint of heart. It is a chilling tale of horror, woe and grim fate. It is the tale ... of DRIVING THROUGH THE MIDWEST!
Okay, so maybe it wasn't quite that bad, but wide expanses of flatness do get monotonous.
Before I get to that, though, I'd like to apologize for taking so long to put this up. School has been keeping me busy up until this point; I've actually been meaning to post this since last week but, you know, life. And I'd also like to apologize for not responding to some of your emails specifically. People have usually just been asking how the move was, and I thought it would save some time to just tell it all at once. So here you are.
Monday the 26th we packed our moving truck completely, and stayed in someone else's house that night. Tuesday morning we left. It took us about five minutes to get to Pennsylvania, and we drove eleven or twelve hours and also visited Kirtland, Ohio, which is a historic site for my church. We stayed at my aunt's in Indiana that night.
We drove an average of 9 hours per day the rest of the trip. We saw Carthage and Nauvoo in Illinois on Wednesday, for the same reason as we did Kirtland (though unfortunately, none of these visits lasted very long) and another history site on Thursday. We stayed in a hotel and later a little camping cabin. Friday, the last day, we arrived in Utah and stayed at the house of another of my aunts. Saturday morning (so that's October 1st) we finally got to our new house here.
We spent most of Saturday and Sunday with a bunch of my mom's family. (Side note: I have awesome relatives.) Monday we unloaded our van. Our grandpa had moved out here to live near us, so that's cool. On Thursday the 6th we started school, and yesterday, the 11th, we finally got internet at our house after trying three different companies who didn't work out. That's why it's taken so long to get to all of this.
One of the first things I noticed about Utah was that the view is broken by mountains, not trees, and you can see for ages before that happens. There's also not a lot of green, mostly yellow-gray scrub. The school is way bigger, and quite different from Charter. At the risk of sounding like a humongous nerd (which of course I am) it's almost too easy. You're allowed to take Calc BC without taking Calc AB (and this is the AP), so the entire first semester is AB, review for me, in order to make up for those guys. In fact, APs here don't give extra GPA. They're about at the level of phase 5 back home, and the curricula don't line up, so I'm rather ahead in most areas (except history, and seminary and band which don't really count.) I'm ahead of my programming class, my Calc class, and my French class (see below).
I'm having a devil of a time working out my schedule. I've already met with my counselor twice to work it out and it's still not all free of kinks (although it's already the end of the first marking period). For instance, despite the fact that I wasn't ready for AP French at Charter, my new school's AP French class is still learning stuff I already know. So I'll probably be changing classes.
And as for the other aspects of school: First, it's about as big as the entire Charter/Cab building (including the middle school) plus a few classrooms, roughly. Also, there's no dress code like there was at my old school. In fact, in some ways they're just less paranoid in general. We can wear hats (unlike back home, where I think they were a security threat or some such thing) and the doors are unlocked while school is open (again, unlike the annoying DE get-the-office's-attention-so-they-can-expressly-let-you-in system). There's no activity period in the middle of the day, nor general study halls, but lunch is 45 minutes long and you can do whatever you want during it, including leave the building. They don't even keep track. It ends a little earlier than Charter did. Mondays, classes are shorter and the last 45 minutes are free, theoretically to use talking to your teachers and doing homework and stuff like that. I spent Monday afternoon convincing my APUSH teacher that she should give me credit for the first marking period. I'm not yet sure whether or not it worked.
And, the biggest immediately relevant difference: There's a fall break! As in, we get time off at Thanksgiving, but also RIGHT NOW. I don't have school again until Tuesday. So I might be able to chat you guys sometime or something.
That's more than likely enough information for one post. See me again in a week (or earlier, if I have the time) when I discuss Utahn culture - and especially Utah Mormon culture.
Feel free to comment or email me with any questions (and I'm sure there will be many)!
Okay, so maybe it wasn't quite that bad, but wide expanses of flatness do get monotonous.
Before I get to that, though, I'd like to apologize for taking so long to put this up. School has been keeping me busy up until this point; I've actually been meaning to post this since last week but, you know, life. And I'd also like to apologize for not responding to some of your emails specifically. People have usually just been asking how the move was, and I thought it would save some time to just tell it all at once. So here you are.
Monday the 26th we packed our moving truck completely, and stayed in someone else's house that night. Tuesday morning we left. It took us about five minutes to get to Pennsylvania, and we drove eleven or twelve hours and also visited Kirtland, Ohio, which is a historic site for my church. We stayed at my aunt's in Indiana that night.
We drove an average of 9 hours per day the rest of the trip. We saw Carthage and Nauvoo in Illinois on Wednesday, for the same reason as we did Kirtland (though unfortunately, none of these visits lasted very long) and another history site on Thursday. We stayed in a hotel and later a little camping cabin. Friday, the last day, we arrived in Utah and stayed at the house of another of my aunts. Saturday morning (so that's October 1st) we finally got to our new house here.
We spent most of Saturday and Sunday with a bunch of my mom's family. (Side note: I have awesome relatives.) Monday we unloaded our van. Our grandpa had moved out here to live near us, so that's cool. On Thursday the 6th we started school, and yesterday, the 11th, we finally got internet at our house after trying three different companies who didn't work out. That's why it's taken so long to get to all of this.
One of the first things I noticed about Utah was that the view is broken by mountains, not trees, and you can see for ages before that happens. There's also not a lot of green, mostly yellow-gray scrub. The school is way bigger, and quite different from Charter. At the risk of sounding like a humongous nerd (which of course I am) it's almost too easy. You're allowed to take Calc BC without taking Calc AB (and this is the AP), so the entire first semester is AB, review for me, in order to make up for those guys. In fact, APs here don't give extra GPA. They're about at the level of phase 5 back home, and the curricula don't line up, so I'm rather ahead in most areas (except history, and seminary and band which don't really count.) I'm ahead of my programming class, my Calc class, and my French class (see below).
I'm having a devil of a time working out my schedule. I've already met with my counselor twice to work it out and it's still not all free of kinks (although it's already the end of the first marking period). For instance, despite the fact that I wasn't ready for AP French at Charter, my new school's AP French class is still learning stuff I already know. So I'll probably be changing classes.
And as for the other aspects of school: First, it's about as big as the entire Charter/Cab building (including the middle school) plus a few classrooms, roughly. Also, there's no dress code like there was at my old school. In fact, in some ways they're just less paranoid in general. We can wear hats (unlike back home, where I think they were a security threat or some such thing) and the doors are unlocked while school is open (again, unlike the annoying DE get-the-office's-attention-so-they-can-expressly-let-you-in system). There's no activity period in the middle of the day, nor general study halls, but lunch is 45 minutes long and you can do whatever you want during it, including leave the building. They don't even keep track. It ends a little earlier than Charter did. Mondays, classes are shorter and the last 45 minutes are free, theoretically to use talking to your teachers and doing homework and stuff like that. I spent Monday afternoon convincing my APUSH teacher that she should give me credit for the first marking period. I'm not yet sure whether or not it worked.
And, the biggest immediately relevant difference: There's a fall break! As in, we get time off at Thanksgiving, but also RIGHT NOW. I don't have school again until Tuesday. So I might be able to chat you guys sometime or something.
That's more than likely enough information for one post. See me again in a week (or earlier, if I have the time) when I discuss Utahn culture - and especially Utah Mormon culture.
Feel free to comment or email me with any questions (and I'm sure there will be many)!
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Introduction
Hello all! I'm Ian and I welcome to the Brainstormer's Notebook, my new blog. This blog is for you if you:
a) care about my life
b) want access to discourse on diverse subjects
c) like to read it
d) have any other reason to read it
e) ...are a human? I don't want to discourage anyone
Right now, I'm thinking I'll post weekly. Arbitrarily, because I first sat down to do this on a Wednesday, I'll be posting on Wednesdays. We'll see how that works out. (The weekly thing, and also the Wednesdays.)
As for content, I make no promises, besides the fact that they'll be clean, from my own head (mostly) and in English (probably). At first, posts will likely be updates after my recent move. Once my life settles down more, who knows? The possibilities are endless.* I might share self-written poetry, discuss current events, wax philosophical or scientific or both, answer reader questions, share book or game suggestions, explain something, or advocate ducks as headgear (though almost certainly - indeed, I estimate a 99.999% chance - not seriously).
This concludes your introduction to my blog. Once again, thanks for visiting. Enjoy!
-Ian
*Figuratively, due to the internet's finite capacity. This will - probably, hopefully - never be a problem.
a) care about my life
b) want access to discourse on diverse subjects
c) like to read it
d) have any other reason to read it
e) ...are a human? I don't want to discourage anyone
Right now, I'm thinking I'll post weekly. Arbitrarily, because I first sat down to do this on a Wednesday, I'll be posting on Wednesdays. We'll see how that works out. (The weekly thing, and also the Wednesdays.)
As for content, I make no promises, besides the fact that they'll be clean, from my own head (mostly) and in English (probably). At first, posts will likely be updates after my recent move. Once my life settles down more, who knows? The possibilities are endless.* I might share self-written poetry, discuss current events, wax philosophical or scientific or both, answer reader questions, share book or game suggestions, explain something, or advocate ducks as headgear (though almost certainly - indeed, I estimate a 99.999% chance - not seriously).
This concludes your introduction to my blog. Once again, thanks for visiting. Enjoy!
-Ian
*Figuratively, due to the internet's finite capacity. This will - probably, hopefully - never be a problem.
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