Refraction

Summer’s here. I’m not very fond of summer, because it’s too hot, and I get horrible tan lines. (As a matter of fact, I think these are the worst tan lines I’ve had for years. *stares at arm and shudders* I need better sunscreen, and I need to apply it more often.) But how do I know that summer is REALLY here?

After work, we head to a friend’s house and play video games. For three hours. And not just any video games! Certified practically-over-the-hill-but-not-quite N64 games! There is something slightly demented about smashing into boxes to get shells and shooting them at your friend’s car in order to pop a balloon. There is something equally demented about a Russian soldier, a Russian sergeant, and some bald guy trying to slap each other to death, and actually succeeding.

Yeah, we were having way too much fun. >_>

I got my first paycheque from the stadium today. A whole $31.37. HOO BOY! I have to say that the job itself isn’t too bad, though. I usually end up wrapping burgers, but I don’t mind, since the guy who works the grill is cool. Although everyone there seems pretty nice. XD

I think I need to go find another job >_>

Recommencement of Operations Woodstock and Peppermint acknowledged. Recommend rolling back Operation Snoopy. Efficency of Operation Pigpen currently limited–committee report to come in soon?

Knowing that this morning is the one of reckoning with the IBO’s servers, I decided to go to bed at 11:30 pm last night. Scribbling in my journal took longer than expected, however, and I hit the hay at 12:30 am, with the goal of waking up at 5:45 or so to check my results. Since I have the weirdest sleeping patterns in a 5-block radius, I woke up at 3:30, again at 4:45, and again at 5:15. Then I promptly overslept until about 7:15.

So I suppose this is when I wave goodbye to the IBO. Thank you for all the stress. Thank you for the cheap bistro that was English. Thank you for the Etincelle magazine in French. Thank you for all the random tangential discussions in History. Thank you for the riot that Mathematics HL was, balanced by the lethargy of Mathemtical Methods SL. Thank you for Physics class, where we were attracted to everyone in the room. Thank you for Chemistry, where Mercedes stars reigned supreme. Thank you for the even more random discussions in TOK.

I’ll get slaughtered for this… but these last few years were great. xD

Oh yeah, you were all wondering about results, weren’t you?
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I am still alive. High school is over. Wow. Just… wow. I can’t believe it.

Okay, here’s my to-do list, as related to my online life:

1) Make layout for {{link http://www.andromaeda.net/ Andie-san}}.
2) Move TCG fanlisting.
3) Make layouts for two offline friends.
4) Make emoticon dictionary.
5) Work on Synthesize.

Oh, and…. I have one {{link http://gmail.com/ GMail}} invitation available. If you want it, comment and leave your current email. First come, first served. I don’t care if I know you or not.

First of all, my eternal gratitude to Petzee, who has invited me to join GMail! Yay! The username? gemtiger. Who said I wasn’t creative? You? Well, you’re right.

In other news, a friend of mine has recently discovered that a certain Canadian Party leader resembles a certain (deceased) right-wing European dictator with a few well-placed scribbles of the pen. It’s really actually quite scary.

Yes, it is pure gold. And it gives me more incentive than ever not to have anything to do with that party. (It helped this morning, when the candidate in my riding for that party came a-knockin’ on my door. Let’s just say there wasn’t a lot of chatting going on. No, there were no shotguns involved.)

But how does one get the word out? We could share the file on KaZaA, Googlebomb it, or simply spam a lot of Canadians. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages, of course…

Sharing the file on KaZaA is the laziest way, requiring little more than leaving one’s computer on for long periods of time. It’s also the most passive way. Not only does it fail to target Canadians (assuming that citizens of other countries don’t have a great interest in the political shennanigans here), it presumes that users will want to download this file. Unfortunately, there probably aren’t many ways of doing that short of giving it a name completely unrelated to the issue at hand.

Googlebombing is a rather complex process. In order to successfully acheive the level of misdirection necessary…. we’d have to create a lot of webpages. A lot. And it might not work all that well, in any case. Although I’ll admit that it does present a very enticing challenge…

Everyone hates spam. Case closed.

I suppose I could post it here, but I think that contravenes R.S., c. C-34, s. 263 of the Criminal Code of Canada. That’s right, kiddies, I’d be publishing libel. Maximum sentence: five years. By the way, R.S., c. C-34, s. 274 does not save me, since we’re not really commenting on his public conduct… just his looks. “Truth is not libel” doesn’t save me, either. Besides… the feds know where I live! O_o

I guess we’ll just send it as an email forward XP

It’s been a while since I last blogged, so this entry will probably be unnecessarily long and full of pointless rambling.

Yahoo! Mail has upped their storage limit to 100MB, and one can now send emails of up to 10MB. Things never load on the first try, however, and I’m getting a little impatient with its long load times. Interesting developments; I wonder if it’s in response to the rising hype about Gmail, Google’s highly anticipated email service. It’s still in beta testing right now, but there are people who would apparently offer an arm and a leg for one. As for me, I think I’ll wait until it becomes open to the public.

In other news, I now have [slow] cable interest service. It’s a mixed blessing, to be sure: sure, I can download things faster, but now I no longer have any reason to tell Michael to archive his blog.

Speaking of Michael’s blog, I feel that several of my friends need an overhaul in terms of their blog designs. *points at Anthony and Michael* I offer new layouts since I designed their old layouts, and they’re not aging very well. Although if anyone else wants a layout, you’re always welcome to ask.

Even though I’ve graduated from high school now, I won’t be changing this layout for a while. It took too much work. Plus, it’s not a trendy anime blog layout. And it’s accessible. Yeah, I’m proud of this sucker.

And that’s not all…!
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The observant of you will have noticed that “The Spirit of This Place” is now a link on the sidebar. This means that I am offering it for download, since I have now officially graduated and this is my graduation theme song. So go and download it already! I have the lyrics in the full entry. Plus the full translation.

[Note to Neale: Yes, I am reading the Xanth series. How did you guess?]
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Because I am incredibly bored and not tired at all, here are some fun fun stats on last night:

Number of bobby pins used to hold up my hair: 34
Number of bobby pins that were still in my hair after I thought I’d taken all of them out: 2
Number of times I got annoyed with the slip: 2
Number of times I could have taken a picture of cake girl but didn’t: 2
Number of times I thought I’d lost my ticket: 3
Number of pictures taken on my aunt’s digital camera: 24
Number of pictures I should have taken: 50
Number of pictures in the camera wars: 2. I think I deleted the others.
Consecutive number of hours I was awake: 22.5. That hot chocolate really put me to sleep.
Number of hours of sleep: 5
Highest number of hours of continuous sleep: 2
Number of times I woke up in the night: 3
Number of tissues I have used since last night (I’ve got a cold ??;;): about 7.

Theoretical probability of my father answering the phone: 1/3
Actual probability of my father answering the phone: 1/100
Probability of my mother acquiescing to a request to stay out late: 1/100
Probability of my father acquiescing to a request to stay out late: 3/4
Therefore, it follows:
Probability of my father answering the phone and acquiescing to a request to stay out late: 3/400

And now for actual prose. I’ve been reading pulp fantasy novels (no thinking required, just a good appreciation of puns) lately, so if it’s banal or trite, I apologize.
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The grad dinner/dance is tomorrow night, which SHOULD be the thing I’m worried about, but I’ve got this stupid History timeline hanging over my head instead! Not to mention 50 multiple-choice Chem questions. Ohhhh joy.

Oh, yes, and I discovered that I should really, really, really not be a hairdresser. Not when my solution to everything is “more bobby pins!” And when I give my friends really weird hairstyles that fall out five minutes after I’m done. ??;; Granted, they only took about 20 minutes to make and didn’t have any styling products, but still. Oh, not to mention I still don’t know what I’m doing with my hair. Joy. ??;;

Yes, this has been yet another pointless post.

Michael’s quiz, in particular. I can’t access it right now (Quizilla’s servers are probably overloaded), but I just want to say:

If I get “Walking Alone,” Michael, I will… um… something. I’ll decide later (if I get it as a result.) In fact, I sincerely hope that “Walking Alone” isn’t even a possible result. “Turkeymania” should be there instead.

??;;

//edited 04.05.31: Okay, so I took the quiz. And…….

(Go on, click the link, I DARE YOU!)
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I don’t know whether to laugh at or to be annoyed with my Japanese course on CD-ROM.

First of all, they have animations of people talking as the words are spoken. Problem is, it’s what you’d call “stock footage.” It offers no actual tips on pronunciation and it’s basically just for show, which is distracting.

Secondly, the words are just too easy for someone’s who’s taken one year of a Japanese course. I can pass the “hard” test without even having looked at the vocabulary list for that section (as a matter of fact, the hardest part is matching the pictures.) Some of the tests don’t even depend on any knowledge of the Japanese language. In the section entitled “Countries,” the “easy” test consists of the program showing you flags. And then a map of the general area the country’s in while they say the country’s name. It’s flag recognition test, not a vocabulary test.

Thirdly, you can only hear “Atari!” and “Yoku dekimashita!” so many times before it starts to threaten your eardrums. And quite possibly your sanity.

Although I shall admit that the dictionary program that comes with it is quite useful.

「生きてることも愛されることも　当たり前じゃなかった」