SivBlog

Sorry, you're not real.

2011-11-04T15:22:00.000-05:00

Today I learned that there were saber-toothed squirrels in Argentina. Which is pretty cool because I'm writing a story that features squirrels the size of corgis.

I also learned the sad news that a couple from a TV show I don't watch lost a child. Well, their surrogate did. Both Dr. Jennifer Arnold and Bill Klein are little people, that is, they have a condition that causes dwarfism. They want children, but, out of concern for Jennifer's health, opted to have an embryo implanted in a surrogate mother, who would carry it through pregnancy. Very sadly, she had a miscarrige. They're devastated and so are those who were watching them and showing their support. This is my virtual hug to them. *hug*

And the rest of this post has nothing to do with them; I know nothing about their opinion on adoption, and respect them regardless. This post is inspired by the comment section of the article.

"Why would they want some stranger's kid when they are young enough to have their own, no matter what? If you feel that way, why don't YOU go adopt one???"- superdogs

I don't know why I even read comments on news articles. Most people who comment online do it because if they stated their opinions out loud they would have no friends. It's usually pointless to reply to them because they are ignorant and therefore don't need to alter their opinions. (I am ignorant sometimes. Sorry. Per my advice here, just ignore me in those cases.)

What is it with adoption? Here is a short history: for thousands of years babies died because people had no medical knowledge. Then we had medical knowledge and tons of babies sitting around in orphanages. Now we can let other people grow our babies for us, so we can have a biological child (which is great if you have good genes) and let someone else deliver it. And that's fine. But the orphanages are still there.

"A lot of adopted kids are angry because their original parents gave them up for some reason. Have you ever talked to an adopted child? Have you seen how many horrible families are granted adoption rights and all they do is abuse their child?" - lavender2569

I've heard stories of many people who, like Arnold and Klein, have to go through extremely long and heartbreaking processes in order to have biological children. It's a natural desire, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting or having biological children.

Some people don't want to adopt because it's not "real". Real children come out of your own uterus. It's just not the same. And I'm sure it isn't. Difference, however, does not make something a less desirable choice. No, you won't have a direct genetic bond with an adopted child. People put too much stock in genetic relationships anyway. Choosing to love someone is worth a thousand times more than assuming that you love someone by virtue of your comparative DNA.

"You just don't get it....somepeople want their OWN child, not a non-relative! Why don't YOU go adopt some foster-care kid?" - superdogs

As I mentioned in my last post, there are now 7 billion people in the world. Some of those people do not have families to take care of them. Thousands are able to join families that are as real as anyone else's. Many, however, will not have that privilege because people who could have loved them did not think they were "real".

I'm still in college, and I can barely take care of myself. Someday, though, I want to adopt. (I checked, and apparently I'm not allowed to adopt everyone.) I will make my genetically-dissimilar children lasagna, take them to museums, and, if I'm not a total failure as a parent, hook them on Doctor Who and Narnia. And they will be real.

Happy birthday!

2011-10-31T14:15:00.001-05:00

So someone said that the seventh billion person alive is going to be born today. I was hoping that it would be me, but apparently having been born previously precludes me from that honor.

Just a minute ago I became curious as to approximately how many people have ever lived on earth. My search ninja skills brought me to the Population Reference Bureau, who estimate* that around 107,602,707,791 people have been born. The current population count they have is just under 7 billion, so I took the liberty of adding the difference, and that gives us 107,615,707,791. Yes, some of the numbers are different.

Happy birthday, 107,615,707,791st person ever! I got you this blog post.

*They use the word "guesstimate" which never fails to creep me out. Is it a guess? Is it an estimate? Is it a silly buzzword? Ding ding ding!

Okay then

2011-04-07T05:39:00.000-05:00

I just had to share this:

Talk-show host Oprah Winfrey today celebrated the opening of her first church and the founding of her new religion, titled O, The Oprah Religion. The multi-tasking Oprah will serve as pontiff and deity for both.“Expanding on Her enormously successful enterprises in television, film, the web, and Her magazine, Oprah Winfrey brings Her positive, motivational spirit to one of the most highly anticipated new religions since Scientology,” explained spokesperson and new Archbishop for the church, Gayle King, in a press conference in Chicago today.
“O, The Oprah Religion gives confident, smart women the tools they need to explore and reach for their dreams, to express their individual style, and to make choices that will lead to a happier and more fulfilling afterlife.”
“In addition, we’ve eliminated the regressive prohibitions - such as those against shrimp, clothing made of mixed fibers, and premarital sex - that older, outmoded religions still cling to, but which no longer fit in with the lifestyles of their congregations. In fact, Oprah loves to share a shrimp cocktail with her live-in life partner while wearing stretch-wool slacks! Now, with O, The Oprah Religion, you can do the same, and without the threat of everlasting damnation!”

More: http://davismcdavis.xanga.com/197822930/oprah-winfrey-opens-church-founds-religion/

The funniest part, though, is the comment section.

There won't be any shortage of converts to 'O'! Wasn't it P T Barnum who famously said that every minute a sucker is born? And there are suckers aplenty in Uncle Sam's country!

Yes. Yes there are.

I am going to miss you all...

2011-04-01T21:05:00.000-05:00

Why will I miss you? Because this is some sort of April Fools' Day prank and I'm going to tell you that I'm taking a hiatus from the internet to focus more on the real world? Don't be ridiculous. Soon there will be no real world anymore, because the earth is going to be destroyed by an asteroid. It will be here in four days. It was nice knowing you all.

April Fools! (Although, if the world is destroyed by an asteroid in four days, do not blame me.) I love April Fools' Day. I don't know why. It's just fun seeing what Google and the gang do every year to "fool" people (and also fun, though a bit sad, to see how many people actually fall for such jokes as "Gmail Motion"). Even my classes had some April Fools' pranks today. It's just a fun day to be silly.

Some people, however, do not understand the purpose of this sacred day. They seem to think that April Fools' Day is about calling out pranksters.

"BREAKING NEWS! Herds of giant fish stampeding Botswana!"
commenter1: "lol wut is dis fer realz?"
commenter2: "April Fools! Haha! You are so gullible!"

NO.

It is supposed to go like this:

"BREAKING NEWS! Herds of giant fish stampeding Botswana!"
commenter1: "lol wut is dis fer realz?"
commenter2: "OMG! We're all going to die!!!!!!!"

The official April Fools' Rules dictate that if a witness to an April Fools' Day hoax such as this realizes that it is obviously an April Fools' Day joke, then they are bound by international law (which is sadly unenforced, much like the law against naming continents after famous cartographers) to play along with the joke. It's only common sense! Once you tell the gullible masses the obvious truth, it is no longer any fun. The only fun thing is being smug about having a healthy skepticism, which fades quite quickly because that's a pretty average ability. But if you play along, you might actually convince someone that giant fish are indeed invading Botswana, or that you can actually control the internet with your mind. And then you'll have a million people staring at their monitors trying to search Google for "Helvetica" telepathically.

I love April Fools' Day. If the earth is not destroyed by an asteroid, I'm looking forward to next year's pranks. Now, if only I can convince my school to say that Dining Services is being bought out by McDonalds.

Why I Really Should Never Ever Read Book Reviews

2011-01-22T21:12:00.001-06:00

Have you ever noticed that there is always someone who is not happy? I could give everyone in the world free pancakes and then get hate mail the next day because one of the pancakes was burned and another one tasted like paprika. An angry group would probably threaten to shoot me, others would try to cast out pancake demons from me, and one guy would send me a picture of a bunny with a pancake on its head.

Media are similar to pancakes in this respect. I can read a fantastic book, then look it up on Amazon and catch a glimpse of a scathing review that completely disagrees with my perception of it. Then I feel like I’m a literary imbecile who would probably read any trash. I feel tempted to pore over the book searching for the terrible writing that the reviewer blathered on about. But I don’t really care.

One example is my current book, The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene, which I think is a fantastic book on physics, and quite accessible to the average reader, but upon reading reviews I discovered that apparently some people have completely different definitions of science and literature than I do (fortunately, most of the reviews were good, so I still love this book and highly recommend it).

A particularly embarrassing example is The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, which I read in nearly one sitting on my way back to school after Christmas break. It was an exhilarating read, but when I looked it up online I found that most of the reviews were not about its shoddy historical claims (seriously, people have written dozens of books “debunking” it when anyone who knows how to use a computer can, in less than a minute, find a host of factual errors from the book), but rather about how terrible the writing was. And upon further reflection, I could see why they would think that. I still kind of like it, but in a way, reading those reviews ruined the book for me.

No matter how much I personally enjoy a book, someone, somewhere, is going to vehemently disagree with me. So, I have resolved to never read a negative book review again. I might read a positive one, but only if I’m sure that the reviewer isn’t only being positive because the book is good for fuel. Because books are important to me, and I’m not going to let anyone else ruin them for me no matter how bad they think the writing is. Even if the literary world suffocates under the weight of bloated prose. So there.

I Do Beleive

2011-01-06T16:29:00.001-06:00

I’m sure you’re probably hyperventilating right now, but don’t worry. That typo in the title was completely intentional. All shall be explained.

It is snowing today. But that is not what I am writing about. Neither does it have anything to do (as far as I can tell) with the typo in the title.

Today’s reading assignment for Western Heritage was selected pages from “The Freedom of a Christian” by Martin Luther. A simple reading assignment, however, led to an astoundingly pointless chain of events.

I had ordered a book online for a significantly lower price, but had not yet arrived in the mail. I went to the bookstore to see if I could find a used copy that was on sale, but the only copies they had were new, and almost twenty dollars. I then debated the pros and cons of buying a copy of a book that I already (sort of) owned just to use it for two days, after which I would no longer be able to return it to the bookstore, and would end up with two copies.

I decided to see if they had a copy in the library. What luck! I checked it out and read the required pages, but it was rather confusing, because the page numbers assigned didn’t delineate any logical sections of the book. I decided that it must simply be a different edition of the book.

Fortunately, I got to class ten minutes early. As soon as I walked into the sparsely populated classroom, I sensed that something was terribly wrong, and my backpack seemed to grow heavier. As my eyes fell upon the few other students who were early, I felt confusion, and then more confusion, and then pure frustration. I had read the wrong book. And I owned the correct book. I immediately turned around and headed for the dorm, which was about 10 minutes away at a comfortable pace. I passed both of my Western Heritage teachers while I was speed-walking back to my room. One of them commented with a grin that I was going the wrong way, and I said something about having forgotten my book. Little did he know (may he never read this post) that I had literally forgotten all about my book.

I only got to class a few minutes late, fortunately. Unfortunately, I came back to a quiz for which I was completely unprepared. I’m pretty sure that I didn’t get a single question right. However, one quiz will not hurt my grade too much, so I’m not terribly worried.

After class we got back a pile of our papers from last semester that had been graded. As I looked over them, I flickered between elation (Thank goodness I mentioned Plato’s rationalism!) and despair (How on earth could I write “beleive” instead of “believe”? How could I ignore my spell checker’s fervent warnings?). See, I told you I’d explain the title. Isn’t it clever how I tied it all together?

I did notice one mistake that my teacher made, however. That comma was correctly placed, thank you. I didn’t mention anything about it to him, though; somehow I get the feeling that nobody else really cares about commas.

2010

2010-12-31T22:52:00.000-06:00

So, a new year is upon us. It may even already be a new year where you are. And it will probably be a new year by the time I finish this post. 2010 was pretty good. I started college. And that, I suppose, is a major accomplishment. Here I shall commemorate the most notable music, books, and events that I experienced this year (in no particular order, because then it would take me all of 2011 just to organize them). It feels almost like my whole life has taken place in the last 365.25 days.

Music

Oliver the Penguin's album, "Button Pusher"
Charmaine's album, "Love Reality" (must listen!)
"On a Good Day", "Clear Blue Water", and "If I Could Fly" - OceanLab
"Hide & Seek" - Imogen Heap
"Airplanes" - B.o.B.
Britt Nicole's album, "The Lost Get Found"
"Fireflies" - Owl City
"You Belong With Me" - Taylor Swift
"Miracle" - Matisyahu
"The NaNoWriMo Song" - All Caps
"Touch My Hand" - David Archuleta

Books

"Sophie's World" by Jostein Gaarder
"It's Really All About God" by Samir Selmanovic
The Genesis Trilogy and "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle
"Eating Animals" by Jonathan Safran Foer
"7 Deadly Wonders", "The 6 Sacred Stones", and "The Five Greatest Warriors" by Matthew Reilly

Everything Else

Started college
Finished my first semester of college
Wrote my first story with 10,000 words (next year I WILL finish NaNoWriMo!)
Read the entire archives of xkcd, Unshelved, and pictures for sad children
Made some awesome friends
Went for one week without listening to music
Spent more than one week listening to music
Discovered "The Legend of the Seeker" show and "The Sword of Truth" series, which I want to continue watching/reading next year (thanks, Linda!)
Did some serious self-reflection

I'm looking forward to what comes in 2011! See you all next year!

The End!

2010-10-02T06:20:00.001-05:00

I’m ending my experiment today. Huzzah! The main reason is that I’m going to church and can’t avoid music. The secondary reason is that not listening to any music is really boring.

I didn’t go insane. That was mildly disappointing. Oh, well! Now I know that I can survive without music; I’ll just be really bored. Lesson learned. I guess this is like one of those studies where they discover that vitamins really ARE good for you! (Who knew?)

Now… let’s see… what music should I listen to first?

“Safe” – Britt Nicole. Ahhh….

Day 2: Meh.

2010-09-27T19:27:00.001-05:00

So, this is my second day without music. I’m not going to count the music that comes blaring into my room from the room next to mine every now and then.

I’m okay.

I'm really not missing music as much as I thought. My earworms are pretty calm; mostly I’ve just been hearing selections from Handel’s Messiah all day, but nothing lately. This isn’t as psychologically straining as I thought it would be.

But, hey! That will just make it easier to go a whole week!

…I do miss my music though. :(

Day 1: The Quiet

2010-09-26T18:00:00.001-05:00

So, today is my first day without music (see last post). I’m already missing it badly. Not so badly that I’d listen to country music if it was the only thing available, of course. I’ve decided on some further rules, so here is the updated list:

Do not listen to music.
Do not go anywhere where you know music will be played, and if you are around music, if possible, leave.
Do not sing or hum.
If someone in the room next to you is playing music loudly while you are trying to sleep, it does not count.
No television, radio dramas, or anything like that, unless you skip the musical parts (a.k.a. all of it).
No recorded soundscapes (like http://www.rainymood.com).

I’ve deleted my shortcuts and bookmarks to music players so that I’m not tempted to click them out of habit. So far my earworms (see last post for definition) have been really random. They aren’t as intense as when I’ve listened to music in the last few hours.

Right now the silence is distracting (as compared to earlier today, when it was irritating). As long as I can finish this paper that’s due tomorrow, I’ll be fine!

I Will Regret This When I Lose My Mind

2010-09-25T13:43:00.002-05:00

Never mind, I already regret it! Nevertheless, I shall go on.
You see, I’ve decided to try a little experiment (and by “little”, I mean “terrifyingly large”). If you know me, you may know that I listen to music. A lot. I’m listening to music right now, in fact. It’s quite nice. Today, however, I am listening to music a bit more cherishingly. This is because, beginning tomorrow, I will not listen to music for an entire week.
I’m doing this for several reasons. First, because I am probably not in my right mind. Second, because I want to examine the psychological effects of music deprivation. This will be a supervised experiment; my roommate is a psychology major, so I’m sure he does this sort of thing all the time, right?
My main concern is that I will go crazy. That is a distinct possibility. Then again, I already am crazy! That makes it less worrisome. I’m also interested in seeing how my studies are affected. I am almost always listening to something while I study.
The most interesting part for me will be the effect on my earworms. Earworms are the songs that get stuck in your head. I have chronic earworms. I literally always have one, except when I stayed up really late, and then I just had static, which kind of scared me. If I remove all musical stimulation, will my earworms die, or will they grow more intense as I crave music?
I’m hoping that I’ll be able to go the whole week. If I feel lightheaded and start to gnaw on my arm, I’ll stop the experiment. I’ll also post periodic updates so that you’ll all know that I have not lost my ability to think and express thoughts in writing.
So, feel free to give advice on how not to lose my mind. Unless, that is, you want me to lose my mind, in which case, you are not a nice person and that makes me sad inside. :(

Update on my Relationship

2010-09-22T16:11:00.001-05:00

If you are a faithful reader of my blog, you will recall that recently I received a comment on my Nablopomo (National Blog Posting Month, for the unenlightened) profile:

Hello,
My name is mary, i got you from nablopomo.com and i want to have a
good relationship with you, please i need your cooperation,
am yours mary

I was, of course, quite excited to find out that I was in a relationship. Mary is a wonderful person. At least, I’m pretty sure she is. I haven’t actually talked to her. I can, however, speculate about what she is like based on the content of her message. I’m sure that I’m qualified to do that kind of evaluation because my roommate is a psychology major.

Hello,

As you can see, she is a very friendly and polite person. She doesn’t just plunge into a soliloquy without a formal greeting.

My name is mary,

Always begin with an introduction! This is an especially good idea when you intend on having a relationship with someone. Also notice how she breaks conventional rules of capitalization. While some finicky English-imbibing fascists would say that is due to ignorance, I know that it means she is expressing her individuality in a conformist world. Arbitrary grammatical rules don’t tie her down.

i got you from nablopomo.com

This expression, “I got”, is also used in cases where people buy things; for example, “I got this pink-and-orange double-decker bus for half the original price”. As you can see, Mary values me at least as much as she would a pink-and-orange double-decker bus. And those buses are expensive even at half price.

and i want to have a good relationship with you

Not just a relationship, a good relationship. I think I’ve emphasized this already. A surprising percentage of relationships that spring from random internet comments are not successful, probably because the comments do not include this phrase.

please i need your cooperation

Any good relationship requires cooperation. Mary obviously knows this.

am yours mary

As you can see, she’s quite a nice person. She also included an email address by which I can contact her, but I think it’s best if we keep our relationship as objective as possible right now, and I think that if I spoke to her it would make it subjective (or something like that). Actually, I forgot the email address entirely, and don’t feel like going and looking it up again, but I think that I can reconstruct it so accurately that it will tell us even more about her. I’m guessing that her email is something like penguinluvr@bananayodel.edu.

This means that she loves penguins! A great match; I love penguins too! Also note that she goes to the prestigious Bancroft Anabaptist University of Yorklyn, Delaware. I’m pretty sure she’s a physics student. Bancroft only offers programs in physics and English.

I’ll post further relationship updates, of course. I’d say something about my Anatomy and Physiology lab that I had today except nothing really happened. We just killed some onions, sliced them up, and probed them under microscopes.

Poor onions.

The Lollipop Incident, and Other Drama

2010-09-21T16:41:00.000-05:00

Food Science is a really cool class. We get to cook! Today, our teacher said that our topic was sugar, which meant that we would be making candy and ice cream. I immediately went into hyperactive mode and started scribbling all over my class handout.

Canada shout-out! Yes, it looks like a tulip. Be grateful for what you get.

Also, one that wouldn't fit in a picture: "Splenda: It's made from sugar, so it kills you like sugar! :D"

No, I have no idea why I, on the same page, denounced sugar and declared candy an essential part of the diet. I was too busy looking forward to making ice cream.

BUT, before I could eat ice cream, my lab partner and I had to make chocolate fudge. Fudge sounds kind of daunting, but it can't be that hard, right? WRONG. Fudge requires years of practice (although some say that fudge skills are solely hereditary) in a small French chocolaterie in Lozère. No matter what your cookbook says, you cannot just follow the simple directions and actually expect to end up with fudge.

We mixed the ingredients in a saucepan and stirred it while it came to a boil. So good, so far. Then once it was boiling we waited for it to reach the proper temperature. Then we took it off the burner, added the butter and vanilla extract, and waited for it to cool to the proper temperature. Then we stirred it and... wait, no we didn't. It was hard as a rock. I stood there stabbing the chocolate rock with a spoon while my partner went to talk to the teacher. For a moment I had a vision of failing the lab and being sent home in shame. Fortunately, the teacher just told us to reheat it until it melted and then put it in the pan to cool. Of course, it didn't turn into fudge (once it crystallizes, you never have another chance to fudgify it), but everyone liked it, and we didn't fail. Which was good, since my partner had been cooking for 30 years and who knows what would have happened if she had failed; her family would probably never let her cook again, just in case everything she made turned into invincible lumps. So, it ended all right (labs are notorious for going wrong anyway, right?).

The lollipop incident was the second emergency of the class. While we had been making "fudge", other groups had been making other candies and ice creams, including lollipops, mints, caramels, and fondant (which didn't turn out quite right either...). We had to try one of each of the different projects and write a haiku about it on our lab sheet (at least, I assume we were supposed to write haikus and not couplets or something). I innocently picked up an orange-colored lollipop that tasted like watermelon.

My teeth! My poor teeth! I was probably going to have the incredibly sticky lollipop surgically removed or something. After calming down and half-convincing myself that I would survive, I went off to a corner and tried to remove the sticky mass from my mouth using my fingers, trying not to break any teeth. Oh, and trying not to embarrass myself (well, we can't win everything, can we?). I eventually freed my mouth and tried to retain my sense of dignity.

At least the lollipop tasted good.

Why I am Going to Turn into a Beaver

2010-09-19T10:36:00.001-05:00

Sadly, it is true. Any minute now I am going to turn into a beaver. I forget exactly why, but it made perfect sense at 2:00 this morning, so I will not question it.

Last night was “Almost Anything Goes” at Andrews University, which is where each class comes in color coordinated shirts, shouts and cheers, and plays random games against the other classes. It was quite exciting. So exciting, sadly, that I left before it was over because it was really wearing me out. And I only participated in one game. That’s how exciting it was.

When I came back it was after 11:00, so I decided to call my sister, since she was off work. We ended up talking until almost 1:00. It was fun. :D 1:00 is the curfew on Saturday night, so I decided, why not stay up until the RA comes around for check-in? Every night, one of the RAs goes to each room to make sure nobody has escaped or been eaten by a tiger or something. Usually that is at 11:00, except on Saturday nights, as I mentioned earlier. So, for reference on my sleeping patterns, I have only been awake three times in the last month at 11:00. I go to sleep fairly early. So staying up until 1:00 was like walking to the moon: a gargantuan feat.

It took the RA at least half an hour after 1:00 to come to our room. I was expecting him to faint or call 911 or something (“TRAVIS! YOU’RE AWAKE!” *goes permanently insane*), but he was just like, “Oh, hi. Did you guys enjoy Almost Anything Goes?”

“Excuse me, I just stayed awake for four hours past my normal bedtime just to freak you out. I DEMAND surprise, shock, and/or temporary loss of consciousness!” (I did not really say this, although I felt like it. Keep in mind that while I would not normally wish anyone to lose consciousness unless they were pointing a gun down my throat or trying to make me dance on stage, this is 1:30 a.m.)

It took me until after 2:00 to finally calm down enough to get to sleep, after going through the stages of “HAHA I’M AWAKE”, “I’m. Going. To. Die.”, “Haha, I’m still awake! Llama!”, and “SHUT UP AND LET ME GO TO SLEEP BEFORE I THROW YOU TO THE BEARS.”

And I slept until nearly 11:00 a.m.

And that is why I’m going to turn into a beaver.

Off-topic!

I got a message this morning! I think I’m in a relationship now:

“Hello,
My name is mary, i got you from nablopomo.com and i want to have a
good relationship with you, please i need your cooperation,
am yours mary”

See, she doesn’t just want a relationship, she wasn’t a good relationship. I still haven’t decided on a wedding date, but I’ll keep you all posted, of course.

Where am I? Who am I?

2010-09-18T14:42:00.001-05:00

This morning I awoke to an astonishing realization. This was not the realization that I am at college hundreds of miles from home and my entire life is different henceforth; I figured that out last week. No, this realization was far more earth-shattering: I don’t trust myself enough to figure out what day it is, let alone what my plans are for the next ninety-six years. I was fine until I was on my way to church (yay for being a two-minute walk away from church!) and, not seeing very many other people, suddenly wondered what day it was. Was it Friday? Wasn’t yesterday Friday? What if I slept through Saturday? Wait, Boris (my roommate; pseudonymed, of course) thought it was Saturday too! But what if we both slept through the entire day? What if someone snuck sleeping pills into our water bottles or something?

It was at this point that I saw people dressed up for church, so I decided to stop worrying about what day it was and start worrying about why all of these people were walking around outside instead of being in church. What time was it? Was my watch correct? It looked like it said 10:05. Was I reading it wrong? Had I lost my ability to read anything correctly? Would this affect my grades?

Oh, yes. These people are leaving early church. It’s easy to tell because nearly everyone who goes to early church is, shall we say, “experienced”. The second service is where all the college students go (either because the music is better or because they get to sleep in; maybe both).

So, in summary, I seem to have some sort of condition in the morning that dissociates me from reality. This explains why I like my 8:30 Anatomy and Physiology class so much. Go figure!

(Haha! I bet you thought this post was going to be philosophical or something.)

General Conference

2010-07-04T15:17:00.001-05:00

I went to the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists from Wednesday through yesterday. The GC session happens every five years and this time it was in Altanta, Georgia. Unfortunately, my mom couldn’t come, so dad and I had to go by ourselves.

We left Wednesday morning and arrived that afternoon after meeting my sister, Linda, for lunch on the way.

Here is our hotel. It had two beds, a bathroom, and a TV. And that was pretty much it. Not even an alarm clock or refrigerator.

That’s our hotel sign. It has a pineapple. That’s kind of random. Kind of like the wireless internet, which had a very bad signal in our room, hence why I could only get on the internet at the exhibition hall (more on that to come).

We took MARTA, the mass transit system, from a station near our hotel to the area where the Georgia Dome and Georgia World Congress Center.

Here’s the Georgia Dome, where the meetings were held, Wednesday afternoon when we showed up there. The area in the center, where the stage is, was for delegates (representatives chosen from each division), their families, and retired denominational workers.

When we got there, they were just wrapping up a business session (which most people except delegates don’t go to), and we got to watch a screening of The Adventists, a documentary about the Adventist health care system.

Here’s the Wednesday night meeting! There were probably a dozen musical performances at each meeting, with one or two between practically every speaker and such. But those of us who like music don’t mind. :)

Each night (except Friday and Saturday) there were videos from the divisions about what they had been doing over the last five years, with two or three divisions showing their videos every night. My favorite video was probably the Trans-European Division’s, which is (obviously) not the one in this picture.

Thursday morning we went to the exhibition hall, where all the booths from ministries all over the world were. Right at the entrance was the North American Division ministries section. They had an NAD Live stage where presentations were done. This one is an actor portraying Ellen White preaching a sermon that she gave at a pulpit that had been made especially for Ellen because she was so short.

Andrews University, where I will be going next year, had a really good booth. This is a replica of the globe that’s at the entrance of the real college (it’s so good that when I saw it on TV at the beginning of GC I thought they were actually at Andrews!).

Here’s the Adventist Heritage Ministry booth. I’m related to someone in this picture.

Here’s the ADRA booth! I was supposed to meet some online friends here on Thursday night, so they never showed. Oh well. I liked the booth, anyway. And they had stickers!

Here’s Hopey, the Hope Channel mascot!

ADRA started a petition called enditnow to protest violence against women. They had this banner that people could sign. I signed my name. Here’s what my dad signed:

Um… yeah.

Here’s the Adventist World radio’s wall that people could sign. I didn’t, because it was full by the time I got there.

Anyway, for reference, here’s Wednesday night’s meeting:

And here’s church on Sabbath:

Wow.

I have a lot more pictures, which I should have labeled and uploaded by tomorrow. Meanwhile, I’ll tell you all about the FREE STUFF I got at the exhibition hall (where pretty much everyone was handing things out for free).

Here’s the booth of the lovely Sanitarium health food company from Australia. They gave our free food every day. One day I got granola with soy milk, and another I got rice pudding. All delicious!

‘

This is all the free stuff I got. In case you can’t tell from the picture, it’s five bags full of stuff. Most of which is not duplicates. Overall, I got at least 6 writing utensils, three pins, two buttons, a fossilized shark tooth, 16 CDs and DVDs, a bottle of hand sanitizer and a first aid kit, a Russian flag, a bunch of stickers, a fan, volcanic ash, and a whole lot of brochures. And a few free books.

I also got some other things that I had to pay for but at a great discount.

This is a two-book set, each book of which originally cost about $20, but at the ABC sale, both books, together, were $5! I also got an awesome t-shirt at the Spectrum Magazine booth for $6 off the original price:

Here are some pieces of ash I got for free from the Trans-European Division booth! They came from Eyjafjallajokull, the volcano that erupted recently.

I’ll have some more pictures up later, but that’s enough for now. I need to catch up on the rest of my interwebs!

Later,

Siv

I has a new blog

2010-06-10T20:27:00.001-05:00

I know, right? ANOTHER BLOG. But hey, I might actually update this one, because it has a topic! And it’s not too broad, and it’s not too narrow, so I might be able to think of something to write about occasionally.

It’s called Broccoli Central (I was sick when I thought of the name, so give me a break), and it’s about health, which is one of my favorite things to study (especially when I’m sick). So… here it is:

http://broccolicentral.blogspot.com

Please at least skim it if not actually read and comment. If you have any suggestions, I would welcome them!

I am blogging…

2010-06-04T15:09:00.001-05:00

…during the writing seminar. Hey, look! I can Facebook without anyone noticing!

Class blogger

2010-03-29T19:33:00.001-05:00

So... I'm watching the new "Harriet the Spy" movie, which is basically about teenagers fighting over who gets to be class blogger. Schools have class bloggers now? And the students actually care? The teen blogger is cool? I think we've officially entered the 21st century. At least that's what I said when I tweeted about this. Being the only person in my class (unless you count my college algebra class, which doesn't have a blog), I'm now declaring myself official class blogger!

My life? :O

2010-03-17T09:13:00.001-05:00

It's true, I have a life. And I'm going to tell you all about it.

Specifically, I'm going to tell you the following things:

1. I'm active on Goodreads again!
2. I'm active on Helium again. Helium is the coolest writing website in the world. You can write an article about pretty much anything (and if the subject you wish to write about is not on Helium you can request that it be added), rate other people's writing, and get money! There are writing contests, a marketplace where you can do freelance writing, and a section for creative writing (where you don't get paid to write, but you do get nifty badges and stars). I've made $7.88 so far, and I think that practicing my writing skills (especially to help me write better scholarship essays...) and getting paid (however little) is great. Oh, and if you want to join Helium and write too, please tell me before you sign up! Tell me your first and last names (if I don't know them already, which is unlikely...) and email address and I'll send you an invitation, because I get 5% of whatever you make if I refer you!
3. I'm going to college. I'm not sure which, but I'm hoping to go to either Andrews University or Southern Adventist University.
4. I'm sick today! \:D/
5. I'm going to be blogging a lot more. Because I love my faithful readers. :D

I'm an uber space nerd!

2010-03-10T08:25:00.001-06:00

I just took this cool test that revealed that I'm an uber space nerd. I guess because I know what a neutrino is.

Speaking of art...

2010-02-11T09:12:00.003-06:00

Here is a little art based on word usage in my blog:

Apparently "correct" is a favorite subject of mine. Who knew? And I don't even remember mentioning Italy.

The American Art Museum

2010-02-11T08:42:00.003-06:00

Yes, I know, it's been a while. You can call off the search party now. :)

Anyway, the first place we went in Washington was the American Art Museum, home of... really good paintings. Of course, I wanted to spend the most time in the contemporary art section (obviously that didn't have anything to do with the fact that my parents think that most contemporary art is silly). I think I have never said "Philistine" more times in a ten-minute span than in that section. ;-)

But first, before we went there, we looked at many, many other paintings. I was going to bring some home, but apparently they don't let visitors take them out of the building (unless that's just some cruel trick they play on out-of-towners).

You can see some of the art on my mom's blog at http://thenatureofthings2010.blogspot.com/2010/01/american-art-museum.html. Be sure to keep an eye out for any mention of Elvis (because, you know, Elvis is the most culturally important figure that ever lived in Tennessee).

The Hope Diamond

2010-01-24T20:25:00.002-06:00

Have you ever seen the Hope Diamond? It's one of the featured displays at the Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C. Just hearing about it one might think that it looks far more impressive than your average "large" diamond. I was excited to see this very valuable diamond for myself when I found myself on a trip to Washington last month.

It just so happens that it's actually more "hope" than "diamond". Walking into the room where it is held at the museum (yes, it has its very own room, so that we can all stand around it and gaze in awe), I was expecting something about the size of a small potato. Maybe bigger. It took me a minute to find the diamond. The huge bulletproof glass case helped a bit. And there it sat, on a periodically rotating platform, in all its glory: The Glorified Rock.

It was quite beautiful, but really, why not put it in the other gem exhibits with the other pretty rocks? Probably because it would be harder to find. I had a feeling that the main reason for the big glass case was so that it wouldn't get misplaced.

As if to add insult to injury (well, no I wasn't that injured, but I have to use the cliché anyway), the security guard followed me around the room as I walked. "Yes, sir, of course I'm planning to steal the world's most valuable carbon crystal right in front of all these people." Well, if there hadn't been an inch of glass between us and it, they probably wouldn't have noticed.

It was a very pretty blue rock. But I'm glad I didn't base my trip around the hope of seeing the Hope Diamond.

Washington Trip

2010-01-16T20:53:00.001-06:00

I took a trip to Washington, D.C. at the end of December, but hadn't gotten around to blogging about it yet... so I shall be beginning that shortly.

If I forget, please email me nasty messages about my pies not browning evenly (or something equally atrocious).

Help give food and water by educating yourself!

2009-11-19T11:37:00.000-06:00

Like, seriously.

Most people by now have probably at least heard of Freerice, which is a vocabulary game in which each correct definition you give donates rice to people around the world. You can find it at freerice.com. There are also now different subjects, such as chemistry, foreign languages, math, and art, so it's not just vocabulary skills that are growing now.

Some similar sites I just found, which as far as I can tell are legitimate, are helpthirst.com and freeflour.com.

Helpthirst is a game where a number flashes on the screen (for example, the population of Zimbabwe) for a few seconds, and then when it is gone you must type in the number. The numbers start at a few digits and get more difficult. I managed to get to level 48 without missing one. Each correct answer, according to the website, donates 1 cup of water to World Vision (I assume this means that the ad revenue goes to well-digging and similar projects).

Freeflour is nearly identical to Freerice, but the only subject is geography, and each correct answer donates a spoonful of flour (according to the website, the money goes to "multiple charities" for various food-related projects).

Another website I just found is at Freepoverty.com. This also asks geography questions, but the object of this game is to click the appropriate place on the map. For example, the website displays "Rome, Italy" and you must click where you think Rome is on a map of the world. Each correct answer is supposed to donate up to 10 cups of water depending on how close you are to the correct answer, but I found a place on the site where they were asking for someone to donate to, so I'm not sure if the virtual water is actually going anywhere at the moment.

Freerice has definitely established its reputation, but the three websites I just found haven't, probably because they don't provide clear information about where the money is going and how it has helped already. If anyone has any information about these websites, that would be great. However, I'd definitely recommend at least playing Helpthirst.com, since it's the only one of the three more questionable websites that provides the name of the charity to which the money is donated. The other two games are still fun, though, even if you aren't really helping anything but your geography skills.

http://www.freerice.com
http://www.helpthirst.com
http://www.freeflour.com
http://www.freepoverty.com

NaNoWriMo - Day 2

2009-11-02T20:51:00.001-06:00

Please, don't look for the strangely absent "Day 1" post. It does not exist. :)

So, National Novel Writing month has begun, and I'm about 2,600 words into my magnum opus. And hopefully I will have a good plot idea tomorrow, because I've written myself into a mind-numbingly dull corner.

Since I'll be spending one or two hours a day this month writing, that means that hopefully after NaNoWriMo ends, I'll be in the habit of writing a lot, and with no novel writing to restrain me, I'll have plenty of time to blog! :D

Watch for Falling Cats

2009-10-21T06:47:00.001-05:00

Last night, I got a surprise crawling into bed to find that an anonymous cat had mistaken my bed for a litter box.

An hour later, I finally got into the spare bed I have in my office. I am so glad I have that bed. The mattress still isn’t clean. My room still stinks. This turn of events does not make me happy. :(

BUT

I woke up at 5 this morning to watch the meteor shower. I am so glad! I saw approximately 20 meteors and stayed outside in the 45-degree world for an hour and fifteen minutes. It was very groovy. \:D/

Best Essay Entry - Snow Day

2009-09-07T18:18:00.001-05:00

Last fall when I took English Composition 101, I submitted an essay for possible inclusion in the Best of Student Essays for 2008-09 at the community college where I've been taking college classes for dual enrollment (I get high school and college credits for taking the classes). To my surprise, the other day I received the Best Essays book in the mail, along with a letter saying my essay had been published. The essays published will be used for examples in classes, and other such things. It is one of the two descriptive essays featured, and so that my family may read it, I am now posting it here. :)

Editor's notes: "This first-person narrative is a present-tense vignette of walking to find a fresh snowfall and going for a walk. The descriptions appeal to the senses of sight, sound, and touch. The narrator's thought upon returning to the house is effective because it implies more excursions to come, offering a "look to the future" as a recommended strategy for concluding paragraphs."

Snow Day

I awaken, my feet cold under the sheets. The room is strangely quiet as I slip out of bed and look out the window. I see the world covered in a sea of white snow. I hurry to get dressed and start for the back door. Today I will walk through my snow-covered yard.

I stop at the door, silently watching the snow fall. The tiny ice crystals drift peacefully down from the sky, covering the world in

white. The door creaks as I open it, and I carefully step onto the back porch so as not to slip and fall. I now have a full view of my backyard, a wintry paradise covered in snow. As I walk down the steps and to the sidewalk, the squeaking of the wooden steps combines with the crunch of the snow under my feet like two instruments in an orchestra, performing in the sweet silence all around me. The white, cottony powder covers the branches of the trees. As I walk down the sidewalk, I see the car resting under a thick layer of snow. The dogs run to meet me, leaving trails of paw prints in the snow. I continue to the driveway and scrape some snow off of the car window, looking inside. The powder chills my hand, so I put my hand inside my pocket to warm it. The snow begins to fall harder. I wander around the car, crunching the snow under my feet.

I hear birds chirping, and walk to the bird feeder, where several small birds are hopping around on the ground. The snow is peppered with tiny holes where seeds have fallen from the bird feeder. The birds fly away as I approach.

I continue walking and scoop some snow from the ground into my hand. After shaping the snow into a rough sphere, I throw it at a tree trunk. The snow scatters. I walk past the bird bath and see that the water has frozen. The snow falls even harder, making it hard to see. I close my eyes and feel myself being bombarded with tiny pieces of ice. After the snow subsides, I continue through the sea of white.

I brush against a cedar tree, and the snow falls to the ground like powdered sugar, revealing the green needles underneath. I begin walking down the trail to the pond. The dogs jump up and follow me eagerly, prancing down the trail behind me.

The forest is quiet. The only sounds are my breath and the snow crunching under my feet, as well as a few birds chirping in the branches above me. I see the pond beyond the next row of trees. The normally dark hole is now covered in white. The dogs run on ahead of me onto the snow-covered pond. The ice holds them up as they run to the other side. I test the ice under my feet, and the ice cracks slightly, so I decide not to risk stepping out onto the pond myself.

I walk back up to the trail and continue, noticing the snow-covered fence. The fence leads me around a curve to the now sleeping berry bushes, down the hill and up another hill, completing a small loop leading back into the clearing of my backyard. I walk up to the garden and see the large hay-covered rectangle sprinkled with snow. I walk down to the other side of the backyard, to another trail leading into the woods. I follow the short trail down to a second pond, and it also is frozen and covered in snow.

Feeling colder now, I decide to go back inside and eat breakfast. I walk back up the trail and see my house a few hundred feet away. As I reach the driveway, I see that the car window is covered with another thin layer of snow. I run back up the steps into the house, shaking the snow off of the porch railing. The dogs look at me sadly, and I pet them before I go inside. I'll be back later.

Stuck in the Middle

2009-09-05T15:23:00.001-05:00

Ah, I see that they're singing verses 1 and 3! Nobody ever sings me. I just sit here in the hymnal and stare at them. But do they care? Of course not! They don't have time to care, because now they have to turn to page 183.

Of course! They're singing the first and last verses again! How I do feel sorry for those verses stuck in the middle. Just because we're non-living strings of words, we get no respect. After we go to all the trouble to rhyme and everything!

I mean, it's like we don't even matter. "Let's just sing the first and last verses so we don't have to pay attention to the deep spiritual truths in the second verse!" You know, I bet they stick all the deep theological matters into the middle for just that reason.

Wait! They sang the middle verse this time!

Wow, the congregation looks exhausted now. I'm sure it was so difficult to sing for thirty extra seconds that they'll probably have to sleep an extra two hours this afternoon.

We get no respect. Maybe I should order pizza.

Flying Cats

2009-08-30T20:46:00.001-05:00

Last night, just after I had settled in bed and was drifting off to sleep, I was jolted awake by something hitting my feet. I jumped about two feet in the air and almost hit my head on the wall, only to see Cheddar flying off of my bed.

I guess he won't want to sleep on my bed for a while...

The Saga of the Creepy Bug

2009-07-07T20:21:00.001-05:00

So, I was pulling weeds this afternoon, you see, and while I was tirelessly pulling hundreds of wild plants from the dirty soil of the asparagus bed, I noticed that one of the wooden poles supporting the tin roof on the side of the shed was riddled with holes. Upon closer observation, I discovered a system of tunnels that apparently had been previously discovered by a woodpecker of some sort.
Inside one of the holes I saw a small bug peeking out. As soon as it saw me, it started staring angrily and tapping its feet, much as I would do if someone was staring into my window while I was tunneling through my house. I tapped on the walls of its apartment (for no particular reason, of course), left, came back, and saw it doing what I thought at first was washing itself, but as it didn't seem to be paying me any mind even when I tapped its walls, I decided that it must be doing some sort of ritual dance to scare away giants. It must have thought its dance worked when I walked away to continue weeding.
I returned shortly to see it calmly doing whatever bugs do... until it saw me. Immediately, seeing that its dance had not worked, it began screaming and shaking its little bug fists at me. I was a bit taken aback, especially when, after less than a minute, it suddenly seemed to calm down and just stare at me. I at first supposed that it might have gotten used to the fact that I really wasn't leaving, but then I saw its sinister grin. I discerned that it was trying to tell me that it was just as crazy and dangerous as I was.
I left it alone after that.

Paintball and the End of the World: A Facebook Conversation

2009-07-01T09:10:00.002-05:00

Travis

Travis + Paintball and/or blob = global chaos and mayhem

But don't ask me why :\

Seymour

do i dare ask? why?

Travis

I think that being in the very presence of such activities negatively alters the fabric of space-time and if I actually participated then the continuum could collapse once and for all...

Seymour

ok, um, i'm not sure how doing the blob and slide and/or paintball could cause that

Travis

That is why it's called "theoretical" physics

*nods emphatically*

What they're doing with genetic engineering

2009-06-19T17:26:00.005-05:00

My parents left for their anniversary trip (happy anniversary!), so they left my at my friend Seymour's* house for the weekend. Today Seymour, his mother, brother, dad (for a few minutes), and I went to the Nashville Zoo. It was a very educational experience, especially when I saw a misplaced apostrophe on the zebra sign (second paragraph, fourth line, last word, I think). It says "it's" when it should have said "its". I was shocked, horrified, and slightly offended until the zebras personally apologized; then I calmed down a bit. After the zebras we walked through a bamboo forest. I've decided to cut down all the trees in our yard and plant bamboo instead. I hope my parents don't mind.
A lot of the signs in the zoo had "Vanishing Animal" written on them. Apparently the animals spontaneously vanish into thin air. It's amazing what they're doing with genetic engineering these days.
After the zoo, we went to Whole Foods Market for lunch. I had some delicious lasagna, couscous, a variety of tofu, some strawberries, fried rice, noodles, and some other foods as well. Whole Foods is my favorite store now. (And I don't work there. Really.)
It's been a very good day. I hope my parents have a good trip! :)

*Not his real name. Seriously! :O

About Yourself

2009-04-09T09:00:00.001-05:00

I think that information requests like "About Yourself" are far too ambiguous to satisfactorily answer. Do you want to know how old I am (16), what school I go to/have gone to (currently homeschooled), what my hair color is (brown), where I live (the United States), where I work (I don't have a job, and I hope you will let me test your software regardless), or what browser I use (it changes periodically, but currently Mozilla Firefox)? I suggest that you ask more specific questions such as, "Where do you live?" or "What color is your hair?". Perhaps, and this may be a preferable option, you could not ask people about themselves, since I hardly see what that has to do with testing software (though if I'm missing the point you may feel free to enlighten me). Or perhaps nobody reads these "About Yourself" sections anyway, which makes me wonder even more why they would be required. In any case, I do hope that you have a wonderful day and that sitting in a cubicle/office all day is not sapping the life out of you. Perhaps you could take your family (if you have one) to the zoo or beach, or you could sit under a tree on a sunny day and read a book. Perhaps you could even talk to God (if you're so inclined, although I know He'd love to chat and is always ready to listen). In any case, do have a good day, and please give my regards to everyone at your place of employment!
-Travis

Spam

2009-04-08T08:20:00.001-05:00

Yes, Yunfei Ebql, I'd love to read your email about "Hideous surgery's victims".
Yes, Wilford B., I'd love a complimentary diabetic meter.
Yes, myself, I'd like to hear about the job you (I) found me.
Yes, Julie whom I do not know and who apparently does not know my name, I'd love to meet tonight. Why don't we go to Cancun; I just won several free trips to there.
Yes, myself, I'd love to get 72% off on a bunch of drugs I don't use.
Yes, Live Jewelery Auctions, I'd love to buy 1 carat diamong rings (live ones, I suppose?) at up to 95% off.
Yes, I'm very grateful to know that the Nintendo Wii that I didn't order is here.
Yes, I'd love to hear about the legitimate online company that needs workers in my area (however you found out where my area was).
Yes, I'd love to confirm the plane ticket I didn't buy.
Yes, M. Vincent, since I haven't replied to my email about finding myself a new job, why don't you tell me about the job that you found me?
Yes, German person, I'd love to hear about something to do with liability insurance that I had to translate to understand what you were talking about.
Yes, I'd love to hear what legal advice you have for my bankruptcy problem.

Now, why on earth are these important emails in my spam folder? :\

Happy New Year!

2009-01-05T14:47:00.001-06:00

Or... am I a bit late for that? Oh, well. I'm in East Tennessee now! :D I like the mountains and such. And even though our cabin doesn't have WiFi, I can steal internet from the conference center here. Guess where I am now!

On a side note: some elephants can read everything that can otherwise do either.

Christmas Letter 2008

2008-12-24T16:19:00.000-06:00

December 2008

Dear Friends and Family,

Merry Christmas!

This year was all right. A few things happened, but approximately 241 days of the year were simply blank spots on the space-time continuum. The other 125 days, however, were filled with fun, excitement, and undergraduate studies.

Linda (Travis's sister) is 21 and has moved to a classified location to continue her studies and become an underground music appreciating superhero. Superheroine? Whatever. Anyway, her goal is to save the world from villainous musicians. She’s already captured a rogue violinist as part of her training.

Travis (me) is now 16. He (I) is (am) making great progress on his time machine invention, but he needs an automatic quantum field oscillator. Also, he thought he won the Nobel Cake Prize, but then found out there wasn’t one.

Mom and Dad escaped, but our search party found them in Florida and immediately returned them. They have trained our chickens to lick envelopes and are now running a profitable pre-sealed envelope business.

Our rock farm was doing well, but in June the rocks started getting scarce, so we moved to an active volcano where rocks grow more quickly. It’s very exciting living right next to a lava flow, and it’s very convenient when you need to cook something. We have had three straw huts burn down already, and it looks like this one is about to catch fire right as I type, so I need to print this letter before the lava completely engulfs the printer.

Be sure to write me (Travis) soon!

TTYL,

Travis (And Mom, Dad, and Linda too I guess)

News!

2008-12-23T09:07:00.000-06:00

First of all, I've changed the template, as you can tell. I hope you like it, because it took ten minutes to fix everything after I installed it. Let me know what you think!

Also, I got an A in my English class. :D

It's almost Christmas, and I haven't posted my annual Christmas letter! I'll do that later. :P

-Me

Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T20:26:00.001-06:00

I'm tired. Mostly from playing with my 6-year-old cousin. But I get more pie tomorrow, so I should be okay. :D

I found out that since I didn't wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving on my Facebook profile, I'm the Grinch who stole Thanksgiving. And I get my own movie, apparently. Although I don't think Jim Carrey looks anything like me.

Hello!

2008-11-25T10:40:00.000-06:00

Since I got out of class early today, I came over to the library to check my email and thought it would be nice to use this spare time to post on my blogs. :D

Hopefully my essay was good. The person who reviewed it said it was good, but who can tell these days? What if she didn't even read it? Oh, well. The essay I reviewed didn't have a title. So, yeah. Poor guy. I probably messed up my works cited page, for all I know.

Anyway, hopefully I can get enrolled in Creative Writing class for next semester. It sounds like fun.

I haven't posted in a while.

2008-11-04T17:10:00.000-06:00

But, then again, I just put the broccoli in the microwave.

Does that make any sense at all?

New Post

2008-08-18T08:58:00.000-05:00

I am posting. O.O

Since I haven't posted in about forever, I'm re-posting now. This post represents the last month or so. If you know what I did, good for you. If not, then imagine me doing happy and fun things. Adios!

-Me

Long Time No Write

2008-07-29T07:52:00.001-05:00

:) I suppose I haven't written in a while. Well, I'm going to try to start writing regularly again. Okay? Okay.
On Sunday we collected and processed 225 ears of corn. That was just thrilling, as I'm sure you can guess. :P
We have two fewer puppies now than when we started; Penguin was adopted and Chloe was as well. So now we only have five puppies. :(
Then again, that's less to keep track of. Pappy and Dot think my shoes are something to eat. :P I also learned that their claws are quite sharp now, since they keep jumping up and scratching my arms and legs.
I think I'm going to town today. But who knows? :D
Well, this week has been so boring that there's nothing left to say, I guess, so bye!

-Myself

Summer Camp!

2008-07-14T09:55:00.001-05:00

I had a great time at summer camp last week! I went to Teen 1 at Cohutta Springs Youth Camp. I left on the 6th and came back today, the 13th. I had a good time, got to spend time with my best friend Stefan, had an awesome counselor and my cabinmates weren't too annoying. ;-) At the beginning of the week, there were 8 guys in my cabin, not including the counselor, but two more came later in the week.
Stefan and I did the Digital Photography attraction. Every morning for two hours we had our photography class. We got to use digital SLR cameras (Canon Rebel XTs). Everyone in our class had their own memory card, but there were 12 campers in our class and only 6 cameras, so everyone had to share with a partner. Stefan was my partner for the week. We went around the camp to the other attractions and took pictures. Our teacher taught us a lot of interesting things about composition, and we all took some really good pictures.
The food was good, even though our cabin was always last in line. Just kidding. :-P
In the evening, there was campfire (they call it campfire, but there is no fire) where we sang songs and the staff put on awesome skits. This year the skits were about being healthy mentally, socially, physically, and spiritually. The staff did an awesome job.
I will be posting more about camp as I remember it, probably, so stay tuned! :D
By the way, my pictures are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/travismyhamster/SummerCamp2008

I guess...

2008-06-16T09:24:00.001-05:00

I guess I haven't posted in a while...

I'm too obsessed with the ToO, I think... O_o

We has puppies... :D

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Puppies!

2008-06-05T08:04:00.001-05:00

Linda's latest stray dog had seven puppies. She says she'll never pick up another stray animal again. :P They're cute, though.

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Campmeeting was fun!

2008-06-02T09:48:00.001-05:00

Friday: We packed up, went to campmeeting, unpacked into our tent, had supper, and went to meeting.
Sabbath: Went to Sabbath School and church, had lunch, went to a presentation called The Entertainment Trap about how TV affects your brain, had supper, went to meeting.
Sunday: Went to book sale, had lunch, read, had supper, went to meeting.
Monday through Friday: Went to Lessons from our Adventist Pioneers meeting, went to Sanctuary Snapshots meeting, had lunch, went to Lifestyle Matters workshop, went to Understanding Ellen White workshop, had supper, went to meeting.
Sabbath: Sabbath School and church, lunch, went to a meeting where a bunch of people came up and told about how they evangelized, read while listening to a woman sing, had supper, went to final meeting.
Sunday: Packed, went home, unpacked, collapsed in exhaustion.
Sunday morning at 2:30 a.m.: Mom woke me up and we went to the dorm because of a tornado warning. And a tornado came and destroyed everything! (Okay, I made that last part up. But the first part is true.)

Only 353 days, 22 hours, 12 minutes and 3 seconds left until campmeeting next year!

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I... am...

2008-05-20T08:30:00.001-05:00

going to mow today.

I can't wait till campmeeting! Only 3 days left! Campmeeting is my favorite holiday. :-)
I guess I haven't posted much lately- sorry about that. I've been so busy preparing next week's posts for Talking Paper Clip (with Blogger's new post-in-the-future feature, I'm writing a post for each day I'll be gone) that I'm... just... busy... :P Don't worry, though, I'm still here. By the way, I was looking at my stats on Google Analytics, and I'm wondering who looked at my blog from Las Vegas and from Portland, Oregon. I didn't think I knew anyone there. :P

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New Blog!

2008-05-18T17:05:00.000-05:00

Yes, I'll still post in this one! I'm just making a new blog to post about interesting software and websites I find. It's called Talking Paper Clip, and you can go to it by clicking on Talking Paper Clip.

My exciting day (so far)...

2008-05-17T14:43:00.001-05:00

I just had lunch.

Well, that wasn't the most exciting part. At church this morning, the local Adventist Academy had a graduation program in church. Nobody actually graduated, but it was still good

But even that wasn't the most exciting part of my morning. On the way home from church, we were happily driving along when the car broke down. My mom called AAA and they sent a tow truck. While we were waiting, my mom tried to call Granddaddy (her father) to see if he could pick us up, but he wasn't home. The tow truck finally came and the man who was driving it drove us home, which was very nice of him. We got home much earlier than I thought we would. Our car is now at the car hospital (I hope).

Also, today (which I did not know until I was already driving to church) is the annual yard sale day, with yard sales lining a certain highway, which means car parked everywhere and people randomly crossing the street directly in front of you. That was exciting... especially for the people I ran over! (Just kidding about that last part.)

Anyway, my mom will probably post pictures of our exciting car adventure sometime, so you can visit her blog and click on ads or something until she does.

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Flock!

2008-05-16T14:21:00.001-05:00

I just downloaded Flock, the social web browser based on the same platform as Firefox! It's pretty neat. I can access Facebook, do updates on Twitter, and upload photos to Picasa or Flickr from my browser without even having to access the websites! I can even see new e-mails on Gmail and read them with the click of a button. Flock can also be used with del.icio.us, YouTube, and many other social networking sites. And even though it doesn't have built-in support for StumbleUpon, I was able to install the StumbleUpon plugin for Firefox because, as I said before, Flock and Firefox are based on the same platform. Flock has a Web Clipboard to help save images and text I find on the web. There's a lot of great features in this browser, and it ought to really help me with things like updating Twitter, blogging, etc. Oh, speaking of which, I'm posting this using Flock's blogging tool! I don't even have to go to the Blogger website!

Check out Flock!

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My Weekend

2008-05-06T20:22:00.000-05:00

On Sabbath afternoon, our Pathfinder club had investiture. I was invested (believe it or not)!
On Sunday, I got up at 5:20 in the morning and went to the Pathfinder Fair. At 7:30 we got there and I helped set up our club's booth. Then each club's drill team marched. Our club was the seventh to march. We did really well, which kind of surprised me because normally when we practice at our meetings, certain anonymous members keep talking and wiggling. :-P And no, I don't mean me (I do wiggle sometimes though).
After the drill teams, all of the Pathfinders had a drilldown. Everyone went into the middle of the room and we were given commands. If anyone messed up, they had to step out. I was actually the last person in our club to stay in (of course, our drill instructor wasn't in the drilldown, so that's probably why). Then the staff had a drilldown.
After the marching, we had lunch and they started the pinecar races during lunch. I forgot to bring my pinecar, so I didn't really watch the races that much. I had lunch and then went back into the gym where we were having the other events after the pinecar races. I practiced my knots with some other club members for a while, and then the pinecar races were over and it was time to start the events!
First was a knot relay. I was first in line. I ran to a line, the judge told me a knot, and I tied it to a blanket. Then I ran back and tagged the next person in line, who tied a knot the judge told him to the end of my rope. We only had three people from our club including myself participate, so we each had to do several knots (except one of us, who didn't get to do his last knot), because there were 6 knots in all that we had to tie.
Next was a first aid game. Myself and two others were blindfolded and sat around our "victim", who we performed simple first aid things on as instructed by another un-blindfolded Pathfinder.
Finally, we had a Morse Code relay. I ran up, picked a card from the judge, translated into morse code, and ran back where the next Pathfinder decoded it, ran back and told the rest of the club what it said. They were generally things like "Name three ways to purify water" and "Pull your hair". Only two of us knew enough morse code to do the coding and decoding, so both of us did most of the work.
After that, they gave out the awards and we went home (after cleaning up).

Nope...

2008-05-03T08:11:00.001-05:00

Not sick. At least, not as sick. I'm just coughing a little bit. :-)

Anyway, I'm glad my midnight post worked! Maybe I'll make all my posts at midnight now. :-P

2008-05-03T02:00:00.000-05:00

12:00 AM, May 3, 2008

No, I'm not really writing this at midnight. I'm writing this at 2:41 PM yesterday. How, you ask? Well, Blogger just added a feature to post on a future date and I'm trying it out, that's how! :-D

I hope I'm not still sick... when I wake up I'll let you know.

Bleh, sick

2008-05-02T09:40:00.001-05:00

I'm not feeling so great. In fact, yesterday I didn't even turn on my computer. :-O
I am feeling better than I did yesterday though. My throat is only about half as sore and I'm only about half as congested. I'm very tired, though.
As long as I'm all better by 3:30 tomorrow afternoon for Pathfinder Investiture, I'll be okay.

-. . .-- .--. --- ... -

2008-04-29T08:45:00.000-05:00

.. .-.. .. -.- . .-- .-. .. - .. -. --. .. -. -- --- .-. ... . -.-. --- -.. . -... ..- - -. --- - .--- ..- ... - -... . -.-. .- ..- ... . .. -- ..- ... - .-.. . .- .-. -. .. - ..-. --- .-. .--. .- - .... ..-. .. -. -.. . .-. ... .. - .. ... .- .-.. --- - --- ..-. ..-. ..- -.

- - -.-- .-..

-- .

Kentucky Down Under & Camping!

2008-04-27T16:39:00.000-05:00

On Thursday, I went with my mom and sister to Kentucky Down Under. You can read more about that on my mom's blog.
On Friday evening, my mom dropped me off behind our church's school for a campout with my Pathfinder club. We built fires, set up tents, cooked our food over the fire, went hiking, and had a good time. I was the only kid not to get any ticks, I think. On Friday night, just after we were almost all ready for bed, our Pathfinder leaders decided that we should move our tents under the overhand in front of the school entrance. That was most likely a very good thing, except it was a slight inconvenience to get back out of bed and unstake and move the tents. Eventually, we got to sleep, and in the morning I learned just how evil allergies are when I woke up and, to put it simply, most of the parts of my face were not working correctly. :P I took some decongestant and felt better eventually. We went on a fairly long hike around the trails behind the school and went back to the campsite to have lunch at around 1:30. We also tied knots, toasted marshmallows, and build a rocket ship to take us to Mars. Okay, that last one wasn't true. :D Anyway, we had a lot of fun and our parents came to pick us up at around 7:30.

Pathfinder Bible Achievement

2008-04-19T20:06:00.000-05:00

Pathfinder Bible Achievement is over for the school year! There were 45 teams from all over North America (including some Canadian teams who spoke French) and 40 teams, including my team, got a first place! The other 5 got second place, and nobody got third place! It was an exciting day. Unfortunately, this was my last year I could be on the Bible Achievement team because it's only available to those in 5th through 10th grades, and I'll be in 11th grade next year. But maybe I'll come again anyway next year if my Pathfinder club's team makes it this far again (and I hope they do). I also met someone who had been on our Bible Achievement team the first year we went to the NAD level and then had moved away. It was a good day. Talk later.

-Me

I'm in...

2008-04-17T19:32:00.000-05:00

Michigan! :D We're in some hotel. Fortunately, they have wireless internet which is how I'm posting right now. :P It took hours and hours to get here and we're finally here but I'm kind of tired and there's not really anything to do but post on my blog. So I'm posting on my blog. The world's strongest woman is on Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader. That's about it. Bye!

What's new?

2008-04-14T15:12:00.001-05:00

Well, I've been geocaching, doing schoolwork, studying for PBA, building lenses on Squidoo, practicing my piano pieces, looking over peoples' shoulders, putting the finishing touches on my personal spaceship, secretly managing Microsoft, Yahoo and Google, brainwashing children through my television show and influencing them to eat more healthfully and be kind to others, forming my personal army of blenders to overthrow the kingdom of Atlantis, disproving gravity, downloading the Internet, making my own gasoline using my secret recipe using only water, grass cuttings and mayonnaise, inventing new colors, writing a book with no pages, hiding away the billions of dollars I make every day, capturing giant squids and selling them as pets, writing extremely long run-on sentences, broadcasting subliminal messages to make people eat more Fri-Chik, rewriting the Constitution to mention my name as Supreme Monarch for Life because I discovered America first, and writing in my blog as well.

Geocaching!

2008-04-08T15:37:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I found my very first geocache! It was an ammo can hidden in a tree. Specifically, it was geocache number GCGV9K. My mom and I took a short walk after the homeschool group meeting and picked up this geocache. I got a neat knotted keychain and left a pen (because I didn't remember to bring much of anything with me to trade). Here's some pictures of my first geocache hunt:

This is a post on my blog

2008-04-05T08:31:00.000-05:00

I suppose that I have not posted in a while. I guess I'll do that now... oh, wait! I already am! :D
You'll notice that I have a widget on my sidebar to show you what books I've read. However, I currently have only two books added.
I did my achievement test yesterday. It was... an achievement test. I think I took the same one last year because freshmen and sophomores have the same test book.
If you read my mom's blog, you know that my Pathfinder Bible Achievement team is going to Andrews University for the North American Division level in two weeks. Another team member and I had a practice last night, and we got 89 percent of the possible points; but then again, we got a few answers from my dad who was saying the answers too loudly for us not to notice.
I guess I'd better go get ready for church...

Script Frenzy!

2008-04-01T16:48:00.000-05:00

Script Frenzy begins today! In case you're wondering, Script Frenzy is a writing event in which you must write at least 100 pages of a movie or television script, stage play, or any other kind of script during the month of April. And only during the month of April. Considering I have about... 1 page currently, I'm not so sure I'm going to get that snazzy certificate and web icon that you get for writing all 100 pages. I'll be glad just to write much of anything, though, so I'm confident that I'll improve my writing skills greatly! I'm working on an adaptation of In His Steps (by Charles Sheldon) for a stage play. Script Frenzy is from the same people as the NaNoWriMo, which is a novel writing event that takes place in November. It's pretty much like Script Frenzy, but you write a novel. And it's in November.
So, anyway, I thought I'd spread the word before it's too late to write very much! :D
Oh, and the website is at scriptfrenzy.org.

-Me

Yesterday...

2008-03-25T10:26:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, as I'm sure all of my readers know, I went to the museum/library/park with my mom and some friend's of ours. The museum was the Adventure Science Center, the library was the Nasvhille library, and the park was Centennial park. We had an awesome day. The squirrels and Centennial Park had moved to Las Vegas or something (we couldn't find a single squirrel!), so we went to another park that had ducks and geese. Thus begins the saga of Baby Duck.

Baby Duck was found swimming happily (I guess) near the edge of the lake. We took pictures and such, and mom theorized that it was an Easter duck, bought as an Easter gift or something and then taken to the park when whoever bought it realized that ducks were animals, and like all animals, they needed food and care and love. So this person took Baby Duck to the park and went home glad that they had done the best thing for Baby Duck. Anyway, while we were at the park (not Centennial Park, I remind you), two kids came up and started bugging the ducks and geese we were feeding. I began to suspect that they had no idea what the difference between ducks and geese were and they probably didn't care. They found Baby Duck and picked it up out of the water and held it and they talked to us for a few minutes. We said something about somebody should take it home and take care of it. A few minutes later I heard eyewitness accounts that the two kids had thrown it into the water. Upon further investigation, we saw that Baby Duck lay sideways on the rocks by the edge of the water, presumably from when the careless kids had thrown it. We later guessed that his neck was broken, because when Kid 1 picked it up out of the water later, its neck was bent up in a strange way. And that was the last we saw of poor baby duck. It probably died. :'(

Please don't buy baby ducks or bunnies or chicks for Easter! Too many of them get thrown away into the cold March weather to fend for themselves.

Needless to say, none of us were very happy. It was a sad ending to a happy day.

Here are some pictures of Baby Duck before it was hurt badly:

Easter SonRise

2008-03-23T11:41:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I went to the Easter Sonrise Pageant at Southern Adventist University. Here are some pictures I took:
Leetle Sheep
Finest bricks in Jerusalem...
...made while you watch.
Eat More Chickens!
These girls are singing and dancing.
They don't peck!
The Garden of Gethsemane
The Crucifixion
Resurrection
Arise!

2008-03-22T07:18:00.000-05:00

Today I am going down to Collegedale, TN for the Easter Sonrise Service. :D I've been once before and it was very good, and I can't wait to go again! Hopefully this time I won't get sick. And I hope my sister and her crazy friends won't bug me too much. (Just kidding.)

2008-03-22T07:17:00.001-05:00

Hey there! You really should check out my mom's totally groovy blog!
The Nature of Things

2008-03-21T12:12:00.000-05:00

Today (and yesterday) were the airings of the two-parter Adventures in Odyssey episode, "Connie, Parts 1 and 2". You can listen here. I like these episodes... they make me happy. :D Well... that's about it. You should listen to AIO. Really. Go. Now. Listen. NOW! Please. :) Bye!

-Me