Oral Thermometer

Quick blog

For Biology we have to take our temperature every hour, everyday, for a week.

I keep my thermometer with me at all times.

BEDA #20? Lights show

I'm too busy to write a new blog. So I'm going to copy/paste from a facbeook comment I made on a friend's status.

I went to a friend's house and we made a psychedelic 60's-esque liquid lights show out of pot lids, water-colors, and corn syrup.

now I'm typing a paper about puppetry's role in politics.... Read More
Though the typing isn't going so well because I keep reading too much about it and haven't spent much time on the actual paper. It's due very soon and it still needs to be revised and edited 3 times.
/stressor

Liquid Lights Show/ Puppet Paper Presentations

I find I can't enjoy times when I'm not doing work because the thought of having to do work later looms over me.

I'm writing a paper on puppetry for speech, and it needs to be five pages long.
Mine is already five pages long but I only have two paragraphs in it, it doesn't even really address the main question yet. I still have three sections to add to it.
and it's been hovering over me all day.

I should be working on it now because I have a Biology project to do tomorrow with my partner.
The paper is due on Friday, along with a presentation of it.
It still needs to be revised and edited three times.


Though if I can find some candy-dye, our Bio project will be super.
We want to do a liquid lights show.
I need two clock-faces
Some Candy Dye(s)
Some Mineral Oil
and my Over-head projector.
I'm having no success finding the candy dye.
I need it for noon tomorrow.
I'm not even sure if I can buy it IRL.
I would have gone to the local thrift-store for clock-faces but my neighborhood was flooding today and the streets were crowded with cars and it was too cold/wet to bike.

So, two large projects to do tomorrow, awesome.

I saw Beauty and the Beast for a fourth time.
I wish I'd been able to go to the cast-party at the zoo, but I would have been out too late.

I highly doubt I'd actually get any writing done if I started working on my paper now (midnight) so I think I'll just read more Death Note.
Bye.

(I missed the Aurora Pictureshow's Media Archeology showing of Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable with The Velvet Underground .
Oh well.)

Melting Walls

Okay, I know I've been failing-hardcore at BEDA but, I've been super busy doing things and not spending enough time writing about them.
I'm sorry.

I went to see Silver Apples with Joshua Lights Show at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston presented by Aurora Picture Show.

It was such a great experience that it need to be talked about properly.
Tomorrow I'll blog about both Dan Deacon and the Silver Apples
and hopefully they'll be thorough.

Currently importing a B L A C K I E album.

Day of Silence?

I might be participating in Day of Silence, though I dunno
At my school it would kind of be redundant.
Nobody outright hates gays or acts homophobic.

Some of the kids get uncomfortable around homoerotic activity/behavior, but that's about it, it's not bad at all. Everyone's really tolerant.

I think I might, just for fun. But it would sort of be cooler to talk and have dialogue about the issues, but I doubt that'll actually happen.

I was going to announce it at Community Meeting this morning, but three people monopolized our entire 10 minute sharing time with needlessly long (though I'll admit, they were humorous) stories.

It's sort of pointless to do if nobody understands why, and I can't very well explain it while I'm being silent.

Anyway. I've gotta go to a Dan Deacon concert right now. Bye!

School Sucess Shadows (Faberge Falls For Shuggie)

Rachel W. shadowed at Woods today!
and She loved it!
it completely made my day that it didn't go horribly awry.
Dorian and Chris did a "Welcome to Woods" improv for her, on the Ukulele. It was really entertaining, and I improv tends to be appealing to theater kids.
None of the other shadows were paying much attention, but I found it hilarious.

Rachel is on the fence between my school and her local public school.
My school have 90 students and is in two-houses.
Her local public school is massive and architecturally...just like your local public school.
I really really hope she chooses our school.

We watched The Truman Show today in Film and Philosophy and it was superb.

Stress Syrup. And Uncertaintly.

I don’t know what to say.
I feel like today has been exhausting though nothing of significance has happened.
I thought I had a lot of math homework, but since I’m going to get help with the Self-Test I didn’t really.
And reading didn’t take as long as I thought it did.
(Though I still haven’t done vocab)
The thought of work is what stresses me out.
Actually doing work isn’t too bad.

Today my stress-triggered neck-twitch started firing super hardcore, I got loads of comments on it. In addition to that I started pulling out my hair again. A lot.
And I don’t know why.
Comparatively, I didn’t have that much to do today.
I sorta feel like I need somebody to talk to, but were I to have that somebody, I’d have nothing to say.
In fact, I have some bodies everywhere. I can be almost completely open with all of my internet friends.
I don’t really know how I feel.
I hate commitments.
I love borrowing stuff, but I hate the thought of returning it.
I guess what I fear is responsibility.
Thoreau didn’t have to be accountable to anybody for anything.
He made everything on his own, for himself.
Self-reliance is beautiful.
As is dependence.
Am I dependant?
I’m tired.



Rachel W. is shadowing tomorrow, I really hope the students can pull themselves together enough to impress her.
I’d love for her to come to our school,
I wish she’d come today, or the day after tomorrow. But Tuesday means I have English, and my English class is embarrassing.
It’s the epitome of what my school should not be.
Though Claire and I should have an awesome final project.
She brightens up English.
She’d better not be sick tomorrow, that would suck.

New musical love: The Tontons’ - Dancing + Syrup
Only Syrup was on the internet though.

Zombie Jesus/ TWO IN ONE DAY?

Easter is today.
Today is Easter.

My parent greeted me with a basket full of chocolate and gummy goodies.
Then, hidden beneath the green plastic cellophane, was a glorious 120 gigabyte silver iPod.
I haven't given her a proper name yet :(
Needless to say, nothing could ruin my day, even my aunt trying to hook me up with my coustin.
She kept pulling me over pointing at my cousin saying "...you see that sexy thang over there? ehh? You see her? She's sexy right? You see how sexy she is? Oh, what, don't you like girls?" then to my dad "He don't like girls? You like girls when you was his age right?"
I stood silently and blinked the entire time this was happening.
This is why, should I ever become romantically involved, I will not notify my mother's side of the family unless it is completely necessary.

My uncle referred to The Rocky Horror Picture Show as "The Rocky Mountains Horror". It was an honest mistake, but I laughed anyway.

Whenever my mom introduces me she states my grade. "Hi, this is my son Ciaran, he gets Straight A's"
Dad and I have asked her not to do it repeatedly, she doesn't care.
Sometimes she even pulls up my digital report card on her phone.

Two of my older cousins were talking about gun control laws, then for merely bringing up the idea that the reason places like Universities are targeted by gunmen is because nobody else is able to defend themselves (and in fact legally prohibited from doing so) and that gun control laws night not work very well, I was immediately hailed as a "poster child for the NRA".
Of course nobody bothered to ask my anything about it, or discuss the matter any further.
So they never learned that I'm an anti-gun pacifist, completely against the use of guns. But, I am also an anti-gun-control pacifist because I recognize our Constitutional right to bear arms, and I realize that people need to be able to defend themselves from armed gun men, and that when you ban your average citizen from bearing arms, then guns are exclusively in the hands of criminals that will put them to bad use, and nobody will be able to defend themselves and will instead have to rely on police forces that are almost nationally crappy.
Prohibition of any-kind fails, always.
/gun control rant.

I'm on volume two of Death Note

Best thing ever?
http://iloveegg.com/egg_english.htm
Very appropriate for Easter (only kinda sorta)

Punish Me.

Looks like I've failed BEDA.

Beauty and the Beast ended around 11, this was the third night I had seen it in a row.
My dad discovered one of his tires was flat, we tried getting home, then a great rumble emanated from the outside of the car less than 10 minutes later.
The tires was completely flat, we pulled into a gas station to fill it with enough air to get us home.
The holes were so large that it didn't get us more than 40 yards.
So we tried replacing it.
But the last time dad had a tire replaced the people put the wrong kind of bolts back on, so our tire-changing utensil didn't work.
We called AAA and I got some ice cream and fell asleep with my head awkwardly cocked.
I woke up 50 minutes later, still not home, far too late for BEDA with a sore neck and a puddle of my own saliva on my jacket.

And that's why I failed to update yesterday.


On the plus side I rode my bike to Miller and Rice again. We took *not saying which street* all the way down. NOT a good idea.
The Rice Radio KTRU festival was happening. B L A C K I E performed, as well as Buxton.
Chris, Holly, Andrea, Will, Daniel A. and Ivan were all there.
Will and I left some avant-guard jazz to go play tag at Miller with certain theater-kids.
Fun stuff.

The third performance of Beauty and The Beast was my favorite so far.
I burned a copy of The Velvet Underground and Nico for Katie, I hope she enjoys it.
I've bored you, and I haven't even gotten to Easter yet.
That'll be another blog.

Does Blip embedding work?

I Saw All Kindsa Animal While I was at the ZOo

TODAY I WENT TO THE ZOO

VIA BIKE

IT WAS EIGHT MILES AWAY

I met Will and Andrea.

Then we saw Chris in Beauty and the Beast again but it sucked 'cause we were on the hill

20 seconds to go!

Beauty, Beasts, Death, and Notes.

I had hoped to have something prepared for today, but again I do not.

The Miller Outdoor Theater Performance of Beauty and The Beast was today. It was dazzling, all of the costumes were insane, the wolves that ran into the audience made little children cry. Chris had to tell a little girl that was terrified of him after the show that he was not actually evil (at the behest of her mother). Chris and Wesley were in it, as well as the usual HITS kid gang.
I would have pictures, but I came unprepared with my camera (and they were strictly prohibited).
I plan on going again tomorrow.

Chris lent me all of the Death Notes today.
Debate was very exciting, we're establishing a website so that regardless of lack of administrative support, an interested group of students will always have the resources to get a strong team running.

and, none of the applications on my computer are opening except for Firefox and Text Edit so I need to see what's up.

Done with 14 minutes to spare.

The Perks of Being A Slumdog.

Perks of Being a Wallflower has been completed.

Mind = blown

I didn't get the ending at first, I thought it was being intentionally vague.
Then I read a bit about it on some blogs, and I discovered that I (and many other people) were missing something. I re-read the last few pages and discovered what I was missing. I started shaking afterward because it was so powerful.
I can't wait to discuss it with the person that lent it to me, apparently she didn't get the ending either, so this'll be fun.

I hope to go see my friends performing at The Miller Outdoor Theater tomorrow, so I'll bring her book back to her, hopefully coming as some surprise.

Also we watched Slumdog Millionaire today in Cultural Anthropology.
Tomorrow we finish watching The Matrix (#1) in Philm and Filosophy. (Spoonerism ftw)

(Anwar wins at life!)

BEDA 7: The Mystery Dance and Cherry Peel Envy

TODAY WAS UNEVENTFUL.

I feel like I should insert something fun in here, but I shan't.
Canada sent me this album to day.
Mystery Dance = My jam (fo' real)



I kinda want to start writing again.
Something whimsical.
I think I will.
But not tonight.
Tonight is the night that I finish The Perks of Being A Wallflower.

P.S. I REALLY wish I could write like early Kevin Barnes

"In dreams I dance with you.
We dance the best in the kitchen.
While murderers and rapists surround the house.
We don't care,
because our house is made of feathers!
They wouldn't dare.

In dreams I dance with you.
Though our bodies are made out of wood."

P.P.S
Even more early Of Montreal


/pointless blog

Mussolini and Inflammatory Writ

School started today. My friend and I discussed Walden for a little bit today. He's a bit into the \/\/33d but he knows his environmental science.

I'm super excited to begin studying the reproductive system in biology, in conjunction with sex ed. For whatever reason, the school (stupidly, in my humble opinion) decided not to have Sex Ed. class, instead we have Health class, where we only really focus on mental health and have discussions about whatever we want, everything from questions of ethics to the bedroom of your dreams. But Ms. Arch has loads of sex ed pamphlets in her room, which is nice.

In Philosophy today we read some Mussolini (the founder of Italian Fascism) it was pretty straightforward, and it was completely illogical.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/mussolini-fascism.html
Also we watched John Brown speaking about the Austrian perspective of Fascism and all of the economic reasons why fascism is awful and what leads to fascism, etc. Thought John brown was not a very good speaker, so out teacher drew faces on him to liven it up. He had a parrot on his shoulder, devil horns, eye shadow, stubble, a cigarette sticking out of his his mouth, and at one point a Hitler 'stache with hair to match, which was fitting as he was talking about fascists.

I tried to play "Inflammatory Writ" on piano today, that didn't go very well.
Still no word from the harp teacher I emailed.
I'm currently listening to Oscar Wilde poems via YouTube.
I'm gonna get back to reading The Perks of Being A Wallflower.
I wanted to keep this short.
I'm not sure I succeeded

Perks of Being A Wallflower and A Rant

I've started reading The Perks of Being A Wallflower tonight. I really love it so far, I was never a fan of books that were in Letter format, but I like this.
I had a lot to say today, I find myself writing blogs in my head as I walk through Kroger's. Because of Wallflower I've been doing a lot of thinking about myself, and I've come to accept that I over-compensate a lot in all of my online communications. I was always aware of it. Especially when it comes to vocabulary, I think I use large works to either gain attention, to make myself memorable, or to make myself appear smarter than I am.
I don't think the issue is that I use large words, there's nothing at all wrong with that, it's that I do it obnoxiously. I do it in the manner of a snide English major. I've been listening to Joanna Newsom's The Milk-Eyed Mender and it's becoming one of my favorite albums. I wish I could word things like she does. She uses large works in an organic, wholesome way that actually makes me interested in having a better understanding of the language, not in a way that makes me feel inferior. I'm not sure what the opposite of pretentious is, but that's how I'd describe her lyrics. Even in the new The Decemberists album, there are a few places where it feels like he was using a word just for the sake of using it. Though it definitely has many theatrical benefits to it. I'm in no way condemning the album for it, I actually like that he does that, it just makes it feel as if it were intentionally a bit above you, the average listener.

Wallflower has put me in a very at-ease sort of mood. I was very mellow and observant while reading it. I sort of got riled up because dad had been drinking and was in a very argumentative mood, going out of his way to make arguments with my mom. My mom stated that she didn't get any bathroom supplies for her office, but it was okay because she was the only one to really use her bathroom, so my dad started disagreeing saying "if that were the case then the amount of toilet paper it goes through would be much less than it is" but in a very belligerent drunken way and he said "if that were- if that were- if that were-" repeatedly. Even after my mom corrected her statement he kept going, then my mom conceded that her office-mate might also be using the supplies in her restroom, so he started asking questions like "how likely would you say that is?" mom: "I dunno, not very" dad: "how likely?....pick a number from 1 - 100 how often does she use the restroom in your office" so my mom said "about a 40" dad: "So it's very likely then *rants*" mom: No, it's not very likely. so then they started arguing about percentages, and I calmly said "Guy, just calm down, why are you arguing about this? why does it matter how often and where she goes to the bathroom" and so my dad was quiet for a bit, then he started making mean comments like "you don't even know what 40 means" to my mom. Mom and I ignored it. Then I heard a faint noise in the background, it was the radio, so my mom turned it up and we started talking about Al Greene, and my dad kept muttering things like "rubbish" and "can't even sing". Just going out of his way to create negative tension. Which is really sad, because he was being awesome and agreeable and helpful earlier today. This is where my hatred of mind-altering substances comes from, especially alcohol, I don't mind psychedelics as much because they they do more interesting things, alcohol just breeds stupidity and belligerence.

I found my Bjork bag today, I'm happy about that.
Wallflower as quelled my sense of rebellion, I'm really happy right now.
I uploaded the video of Chris and Will's puppet show.


I'll also add a picture of the puppetry showcase.

(I think the compression that it did when uploading diminished the impact of the picture, I'm not sure if it's apparent, but we are all sincerely incredibly happy, those were an amazing two-weeks, also the puppets all look very cool though that's not visible either.)

I'm not entirely sure why I do this, I'm pretty sure Canada is the only person that reads this blog, but this rounds out my day, it's therapeutic in a way.
I think I just answered my own question.

This followed no order so I'm sure it's painful to read, but I don't want to proof-read it because I'm sure I'll end up censoring myself, I've had a really nice flow going as I wrote this, I've been typing and reflecting for nearly 30 minutes.
Also I wore shorts for the first time in ages today, that was uncomfortable.

I stayed in all weekend, and it was actually sort of nice. I got terribly frustrated with math, but I started reading again. I think I'll try to read 10 pages of a (non-school required) book every day. I want to be a reader, I want to write (though I do not want to be a writer. I don't know what I want to write, I like fiction, and reviews, and articles, and screen plays, and music, and poems. I love them all, I don't do any of them though, probably because I do not read enough.


Currently enjoying Al Greene, I want more of his stuff.

BEDA #4 Discovery Green, Walden, Choke

Today instead of rehearsing for the upcoming show, as is desperately needed, we did a sort of performance at Discovery Green. It was a sort of a sing-through. We got there an hour and a half early and apparently there was some dancing fitness thing going on. The guy invited us to be on stage with him to dance, and being the attention greedy theater kids that we are, we jumped at the opportunity. The dance went something like
Step-funky chicken.... clap, Step-funky chicken.... clap! skip right, skip left, dolphin, dolphin, step out, step in, step out, fan kick.

This attracted a large audience of park-goers. We then proceeded to conga out into the crowd, only children under the age of 4 dared join us.

After that impromptu dance-class/workout session we performed, which didn't go as wretchedly as I had planned. I stayed afterwards at the park and read 10 pages of Thoreau's Walden. It took me nearly an hour to get through those 10 pages. I got 12 new words from it. I found myself reflecting on how profound everything he was saying was after nearly every paragraph.

Mom took me to Blockbuster to rent The Royal Tenenbaums, but it wasn't in stock.
Instead I rented Choke, but the lady at the counter said something along the lines of "This is sexually explicit, like....REALLY REALLY REALLY sexually explicit, if you watch this with your son, it will be awkward, you don't want to rent this" and I was all "I've already read the book" so then she said "Oh, in that case then there's nothing else he could really learn from this movie, it's a really good movie, enjoy!"
Mom almost didn't let me rent it.

Katie lent Perks of Being A Wallflower to me, I'm pretty excited about that.
Math still sucks.
Also, Thoreau would hate my inaction. I love that man, he most certainly would not love me.

BEDA #3 Language

I've been thinking a lot about language, and how it conveys incredibly complex ideas in a very simple form. The phrase "The boy jumped." gives us so much information that is not in anyway explicitly stated. It lets us know that at a given point in the past, a small, male, human, probably between the ages of 2 and 14, with two legs, starting on the ground or on another such plane, was able-bodied enough to propel himself into the air and land back down safely with minimal physical damage done.
It's crazy, through the word "boy" in that sentence, we gain knowledge of the subject's age, size, gender, species, and a vague understanding of their state of wellness. Just the fact that we know he's a human we assume that he has two legs, two arms, eyes, ears, etc.
We don't know any of that for certain, but we assume all of these things about humans until it is stated otherwise.
But what's even crazier is that nowhere in that sentence does it even say that "boy" is referring to a human! We say "Come here boy!" to our dogs all the time, but when we hear "the boy" in that sentence, we don't think that it is talking about a dog (even though dogs can jump). Though there's nothing inherent in the word "the" that specifies humanity

So much of everything we know and that we use to communicate is implied, which I think may be why mis-communication is prevalent in so many stories and such, and in reality. The idea of learning a new language, and understanding all of those implications is mind-boggling, but I guess through common knowledge shared by nearly all humanity, those implications seem to be universally tacit.

Also today was the last day of the puppetry intercession and I have lots of math to do that I'm avoiding tonight.
Pics tomorrow.
I can't find it on the internet, but my song of the day is Broken Beads by The New Pornographers.

BEDA #2: Second to Last Day of Puppetry Intercession

Word of the day: lithesome
Meaning - (especially of a person's body) thin, supple, graceful.

My puppet nears completion!

Today in puppetry my friend made the statement that nothing is ever complete, she originally said this in reference to her artwork, but then extended to to everything. I think it's a ridiculous claim. Not only do I reach stages of completion in my own work, but many things are completed every day.
I think the issue lies in goals. If you have no concrete goals then nothing you make will ever be complete. If I set out to "make something beautiful", then what can I use to judge to say whether or not it has reached a complete stage of beauty?
Whereas, if my goal were to be something along the lines of "paint my room", then I have clearly defined and explicit points or reference to see if my goal has been met, and reached completion.

The Decemberists' album The Hazards of Love continues to blow me away. They also increase my vocabulary and make me want to read more.

In Algebra today I learned of synthetic division.

Chris and Will made a video of their puppets. Will's puppet is an old man, marvelously painted, also the clothing is nicely done and is accurate, he has socks and his pants are too high. Chris's puppet looks like a street prophet, he's painted crazily and to make his clothing Chris took an old sweatshirt of his, cut it into small bits, and then hot glued them together, it was really effective.
If they upload the video I'll post a link.

Blog Everyday April (BEDA) #1

I ought start with an introductory blog...
but I shan't.

I have 24 minutes to get this posted before I've already missed a day in Blog Everyday April.

In short, today was unsuccessful. My puppet's painted head looked like what would happen if Doctor Manhattan and a Goblin were to have fruitful intercourse. I painted his eyes white and as it was drying, a droplet of white paint ran down his cheekbone and Father Time is now permanently crying.

I had an awful stomach-ache for a large portion of the day because I thoughtlessly ingested raw Spaghetti-O's (courtesy of Chris) on a nearly empty stomach.

My dad and I spent four hours on giving Father Time an hourglass for a body, with actual sand. But the sand had to be dried and refined, and because we were working with 2-liter plastic coke bottles and we neglected to account for sand's propensity for static cling, the entire effect ended up being obscured by the sand being stuck to the sides of the hourglass, making it worthless.
I still need to make sleeves, hands, and controls for my puppet, and I need to fill the massive opening in its head.

Also by puppet's clock wheels fell-off, and I did not do my math homework (which I fail to comprehend).

That is all, hopefully further entries will be less whiny, though from the looks of what must be done within the next few weeks, it's not likely.