The Topic of Great Randomness

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

Emi: the episode Michelle Branch was in was "Tabula Rasa", the next one after "Once More With Hobbits -- er, Feeling".

Gryph: thanks. *hugs back* Nice snail. :-) Did you hear about the snail who got mugged in the jungle by a gang of sloths? When the police asked him what happened, he said <span class="ev_code_white">"I don't know, it all happened so fast!"</span>

I saw a chiropractor for a while after messing up my neck by cracking it to "make it feel better" over the course of a bunch of years. It felt much better after he treated me for a while -- before, it was painful to crank my head around to check my blind spot while driving. Now, years after my last treatment, it still feels fine. On the other hand, I know one chiropractor who treated his son's appendicitis with chiropractic -- I think _that_ was dangerous. He recovered, but I'm not sure that it didn't just subside on its own.

I'm in at work today: I discovered that there was a tweak to the medical records system that I could make which had the possibility of greatly speeding up some reports. Only one of the practices here is actually open, and the system was backed up overnight. It turned out to be a success, yeah! I have one query that Oracle computed to "cost" over 20000 -- by adding one index, I cut the cost down to 5000. A report that took an hour to run before just ran in less than 10 minutes. I'm happy. :-)

[Maelstrom]

Hear ye, hear ye!

A new website, named lost.eu, has surfaced from the brink of the briny ocean whenceupon it dreamt about mysterious and unorthodox ways to connect people in an unusual fashion, that did not make sense at all, whereupon it would bestow 32 points for each person invited by oneself, 16 points for each person invited by one's invitee, and so forth . For more details, see this link for an induction into the lost art of something or other. Of course, the only reason oneself is writing in this long and rather drawn out fashion, is that the one who participates in this game is granted extra points for creativity in one's invitations, (or so one is led to believe.)

etcetera, etcetera, and so on, and so forth.

Ahem. etc.

[vashmata]

Well, I finally finished with my two QAIS speeches. I'll explain a bit for those who don't know about it (probably everyone but Wolfy has no idea what it's about). So, in shot:"We're doing a persuasive speech national(or provincial, not really sure) contest, in both French and English. It's two contests, basically choose one out of five quotes or morals-there are different choices in the French contest." Once we have the best speech in our grade, we compete with the other schools in my province (Quebec). Basically, we have to do them, and they're worth maybe 15% of our grade.

Meanwhile, I started guitar over (the last time I had lessons was two years ago). Both the head of guitar courses (a substitute) and the regular teacher (might be famous, his name is JS, in his 30's I guess) are fun to learn from.I knew the most in my class because I remembered a lot from two years ago, but my teachers started off teaching us a different set of chords (2 years ago I started with A,E,D, then G,C,Am..., and this year they started with G,C,Em,D7, then Am,E,Dm...).

In English class, Mr. Benn (no spelling mistakes) had two interesting points about Romeo and Juliet.
One was that Romeo fell into unrequited love a second time (Juliet), because i's not possible for two people that met each other the day before to get married right away. "Hi, let's get married... Oh, what's your name again?" "Friar Laurence, marry me to... what's-her-face... tomorrow" "I swear to bond (not sure of the right word) with... this person... in holy matrimony". As you can see, there are a few problems.
And the second one is:"wherefore art thou Romeo", a common mistake. Wherefore means why, not where. "Why is your name Romeo? If you were a Capulet, and not son of the despised Montagues..."

[wolf_wizard]

Garrett: thanks... sorry for the mistake...
and I hope the heart porblem isn't that bad!

Hungry: congraTulations on two more colleges!

vashmata: How were the QAIS speeches?... good luck!
And yeah... Romeo and Juliet is wierd... the whole thing happened in a 3-day period of time... so,
the 1st day: they met
2nd: they got married and Romeo killed her cousin or whatever he was.
3rd: Romeo is banished, Juliet takes the "poison," and is placed is a moseleum (I spelled it wrong, I know) Romeo gets the wrong message, comes back, and thinks she is dead. Romeo kills himself because she is dead, and Juliet wakes up, and, in turn kills herself.

This is a short summery. Wierd, isn't it... I mean, a 16 (or whatever he was) year-old and a 13 year old (she was considered 12 because they skipped 13 or something like that)...

I could be wrong, but that is my understanding of it... human literature is wierd...

[Emi]

Vashmata: I think that Wherefore is the right usage, I mean she's asking why he's Romeo Montague!! Why does he have to be a part of the hated family!! That's my taking from that part... BUT anyway good luck on your speeches. I gave up on French this year .

Garrett I actually cracked up at the joke. I don't know why... but that made my crummy day better. I'll go check out that episode.

Ummm.... I'm a little upset at the moment... My stupid beloved football team lost in the Superbowl!!!!! I can't believe they actually lost to a MANNING... Sorry for all you Manning fans but I'm a little partial to the Pats and my Brady. They played really bad tonight, I think they were a little cocky. Ah, that's what happens I guess. Hopefully next year will give us something good. But still 18-0!

Ahhh... I can't believe the weekends already over! Where did it go? Seriously, I worked ten hours of it! Haha... mmmm I think I'm going to head to bed now that the game is over.

Just going to browse some more....

[vashmata]

ok, I'll clarify a bit more (and answer questions):
Wolfy and Emi:I think I did okay on my speeches.
Emi:I'm not sure if you know, but here in Québec French is mandatory - it's a bilingual province.

Wolfy:I'm not sure if it's true that Romeo and Juliet is 3 days long, because we only got to where Romeo tells the Friar he wants to marry her, so I'm not sure if they get married that same day.
And there's a part where Lady Capulet wants to marry Juliet to Paris (before the Masque), but the nurse is arguing that she is only 12, but she will turn 13 in a few days. I think Romeo is around 14. You know, in those times they only lived 'till around 50, so everyone wanted to do everything really quickly.
About the wherefore thing, in my book it says that wherefore means why. We have this cool Romeo and Juliet "modernized" movie. They act out the whole movie in modern times, using the exact same words. So the masque is like a night club, and its about two rich and powerful enterprises... Anyways, just to make sure, I listened to the emphasis, and sure enough, instead of her asking where is he, she asked why is he.

And now, on a topic more worrisome, this week is winter carnival week. We're going on a field trip for tubing, skiing and snowboarding on Tuesday, but I managed to get a fever on Saturday! So I hope it disappears by tomorrow.

And, finally, on a happier note, I started getting interested in learning how to play all the songs I like. so I went to www.ultimate-guitar.com (for those who want to know) and I started learning them. They're a challenge, just the way I like it. Especially Stairway to Heaven.

Well, I finally got tired. Time to sleep.

[jwiz]

Yeah, Romeo and Juliet. THe wherefore thing actually means why. I remember our teacher practically pounding that into our heads....
And I BELIVE it takes place over seven days. Or something around there. 90 percent sure. Really crazy tragedy, but, that's what was popular back then. My classes favorite character was ...*thinks back a whole year almost* uh... Mercutio! Yeah, I think that's it.... Anyhoodles, we all loved him. And saucy Tybalt. One of my friends loves to use the word "saucy" now, and since she acted out as Tybalt in the little skits we were forced to do... we call her "saucy boy". And don't Paris and Romeo battle before Romeo sees Juliet is dead?
vashmata: We watched TWO movies... no, wait. Three. The 1960's one (and the whole class well, we weren't acting too terribly mature that day, I suppose. But more mature than most kids would.), the other, really really dry, boring one, and a modern day-like one. I liked that one the best. They talked the same as the play, but it was modern day setting. I remember the class was always begging to watch that one, not the boring one. But the teacher usually said "No, we have to do this one, then we can watch the other one." Pfft.

I am really tired, and should probably get to bed. I have to work a little more on my world history project though; three more articles, and then I'm done. Glad I'm not putting it all together, though!

[Emi]

I know that French is mandatory in Quebec... I was just saying that Mon francais est tres mal. See? Ugh, stupid laptop won't let me add in the accents... darn. That's cool that you can teach yourself to play guitar.

Um. Why do I feel like people always come to me and tell me what they feel at the moment? Like my friends do that all the time. It's so weird, because sometimes I don't even know what to say. So I'm always saying "how does that make you feel?" Haha, or something like that. In my experiences when someone wants to talk to you, you just listen, don't tell them what to do because they need to figure that out themselves. Or just tell them you understand and you're there for them. Don't let whatever they say make you turn away from them because sometimes what they really need is you to be there for them....

Yeah, so what brought that on? One of my old friends started telling me about he dilemma and all today. So random, and I almost didn't reply to her text but she said she needs my help so... I listened (read). It's one of those problems where you had to promise not to tell anyone, and it's also something that I've no answer to.

So yeah, that's my day.

[Kathy Li]

Hey. Happy New Year! [grin]

Just wanted to drop a reminder that tomorrow is Super Tuesday. If you can vote, please do so. If you can't, make sure to remind those who can...

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

I don't get to vote until next Sunday. It'll be my first caucus ever -- last time I was in Maine for an election year, we had primaries. I think Washington did caucuses as well for the presidential elections, but I was too confused to show up. :-)

[marina salem]

Sunday comes soon. I congratulate thee on exercising your mature adult right to vote, voicing your say and working to change this country for the better. I don't get to vote for three years. And I'm still deciding whether that's a good thing or not, with how this country and this world are (to use a moldy cliche) going to hell in a handbasket anyway. Though since someone has to win each party, let's have The Clinton Machine (TCM) for the dems and Mr. Senator John McCain for us republicans. TCM will be easier to beat. Now that we know my political views, let us turn to a more pleasant, less-controversial, less-likely-to-start-a-posting-war topic...

...which I can't think of at the moment. Happy Super Tuesday, at any rate. Happy Fat Tuesday as well. Hurrah for traditions that allow people bring pretty, yummy cakes to school.

[vashmata]

It's a miracle! Ski day was moved to Thursday! So today I have school, but my parents won't let me go, because of the after-effects of my cold. I wonder why I'm always so lucky? I don't really believe in anything (religion-wise and superstition-wise). Well, I'll make the best of this day by practicing guitar and reading manga, and maybe playing some Hexic on the Xbox. It's too bad I don't have guitar classes tomorrow, but at least there's no school. It's FJTS day (something for Jewish schools).

[Garrett Fitzgerald]

Originally posted by marina salem:
And I'm still deciding whether that's a good thing or not, with how this country and this world are (to use a moldy cliche) going to *heck* in a handbasket anyway. Though since someone has to win each party, let's have The Clinton Machine (TCM) for the dems and Mr. Senator John McCain for us republicans. TCM will be easier to beat.

*idly wonders how marina expects the country to stop going to Hades in a handbasket by electing someone from the same party that increased the Federal Public Debt from $3.3 trillion in 2001 to $5.1 trillion in 2007*

Now that we know my political views, let us turn to a more pleasant, less-controversial, less-likely-to-start-a-posting-war topic...

Hey, how 'bout them Patriots? :-)

{note: edited quote to placate the filters of doom)

[Kathy Li]

I voted. You know, I was all geared up to have to monitor that stupid flying-past receipt thingie with the tiny plastic window and the idiot electronic touch-screen thing, and when I got there, they handed me a paper ballot and a pen.

It was just like those old bubble tests, only with higher stakes. Well, at least for all those Indian casinos that want more slot machines, and Californian politicians who want to be in power for more than 12 years. :eyeroll:

[marina salem]

Upon reading Garrett's reply, I feel obligated to respond. Assuming I were 18, I'd vote for somebody, and since McCain is pro-life, he'd get my vote. I assume, of course, that he will get the Repub. vote, since stats on Fox News show he's the leader in several "important" states (that's as of last night). Once upon a time, I did consider protesting the complete inability of every candidate to run this country by not voting, but killed that notion dead, because though they say that your vote DOES matter, it doesn't really, because there's so many other voting Americans out there who think the same thing that I become obsolete and not worthy of being paid attention to. With 50 states and too many people, one little protest by omission isn't worth nothing.

Is this long-winded? I apologize. But there's really not one of the 6 people left that I'd trust to run this country. People say bad things about Bush and the war in Iraq, and I suppose there are some, but the media covers none of the good changes that have gone on over there since this began. You know, schools and getting rid of Saddam Hussein and such-like. Though they did get that second one right. Nobody will get rid of all the problems, though people seem to expect them to, and complain when what they want isn't done. *sigh*

And, on a lighter note, I'd forgotten the Pats lost. Huzzah! It isn't so much supporting the Giants and Eli Manning, whom the media loved to compare negatively to his brother and who has now proved his worth, as growing increasingly annoyed with Golden Boy Brady and the "18 and Oh No" Patriots.

This is long. I had only meant to edit my first post, but the edit grew too lengthy to look good in italics at the bottom of said post. Finally, I apologize for setting off the "filters of doom". I didn't know that the common word for the hot, scary Underworld is a trigger. In the future I shall mind my tongue.