Music Review

Okay, everyone:

Today I want to tell you about a band that I heard about quite recently, called "Los Ilegales"(which translates to "The Illegals") All of their music is really catchy, and even if you don't understand Spanish, fail at Spanish, or are a native speaker, you'll enjoy the music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PQATa34TrY

Pay no attention to the video, it's kind of stupid.

The beat is nice, and it's kind of reggaeton-ish, especially with the car and the gas pumps, which is probably a reference to "Gasolina" by Daddy Yankee. Nice beat, nice music, and fun to listen to.

Anyways, life is good now. Holidays are here, and the world is somehow a better place now that school is out.

Also, funny new Onion headline (satirical newspaper) "States Quietly Raise Speed Limits Near Failing Schools"

That's all for now,
-- Noah

Jay & Nick

Hey everyone,

Well, I'm feeling slightly less festive today, so NO new art.
However, I got my grubby mitts on a copy of Nerdaclysm, so that's good.
Now let's return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Now, Gatsby and Nick have a lot in common. For one thing, they're both "new money" types, trying to fit into the "old money" society. Also, Gatsby also has Nick's politician-like charm, as evidenced in the party scene, where Gatsby smiles and Nick instantly thinks better of him. I actually think that Gatsby reminds Nick of the qualities of himself that he hates, which is why he says he dislikes him at the beginning of the book.

I also think that, at first, their relationship is false, and that Gatsby's using him to get to Daisy. But later on, I think that they become more like friends.

Nick and Gatsby, however, have some differences. #1, we've already seen that Gatsby has some shady connections, as evidenced by the guy that rigged the World Series in 1919. Also, Gatsby lies about his past, mainly the whole "San Francisco is in the Midwest" thing. Honestly, I can think of various people that would be ROFLing because of that statement. So, he definitely has something he wants to hide. Also, I'm going to use some logic here, and say that he's a bootlegger. Why? because everyone at his party has huge amounts of alcohol. During Prohibition.

Just food for thought.

--Noah

Winter Poem, With Excursus About The Holidays, Featuring Ranting Action One Would Normally Expect From Sydney

In case you don't know what it means, I have the definition of "Excursus" here:

ex·cur·sus

  [ek-skur-suhs]

–noun, plural -sus·es, -sus.

1.

a detailed discussion of some point in a book, esp. one added as an appendix.

2.

a digression or incidental excursion, as in a narrative.

So I'm basically using it right.

Now, we can get on with the rant-like digression, and then the winter poem. 

Don't you just love the holidays? There's the freezing cold snow, the people pointing out said snow and exclaiming "LOOK!! Global warming is a lie! It's cold outside!!". AND, they don't listen to you when you tell them atmospheric carbon is at 369 ppm or so, which is about 100 ppm higher than it was post-industrial revolution, AND that it's the hottest decade on record, AND that according to a recently created mathematical model, 75% of the freak weather systems we've had over the past several years come from carbon WE'VE put into the air. 

Oh, and of course there's the pretty general thing about family and friends and chestnuts and magical little robot elves blah blah blah etc. Oh, but don't think I'm shallow and only care about the presents. Nope, I enjoy the generic holiday activities too, like watching Fringe and Battlestar Galactica with my family and my new kitten with a mug of hot cider, singing Christmas carols as people get shot of blown to bits on TV. 

But one of the things I'm REALLY looking forward to is World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. I can't wait to make my Goblins/Worgen and adventure in Uldum, Vashj'ir, Deepholm, Mount Hyjal, and the Twilight Highlands. I'm literally this ==> |--------------|-------------|--------------| close to getting to level 80 (for those of you who don't know, that is how many experience bars I need to fill up before getting level 80). It's going to be SO cool.

Finally, I'm adding new art to the blog, so that's good. I'm thinking of using something I originally made up for AP Human Geography, for the "Authentic Self" project. I'm thinking navy blue boxes interspersed with either lime green or orange, with whatever color I don't pick ending up as a tertiary color.

Without further ado, here's the Winter Poem!!!

   Winter makes its presence felt, as the snowflake falls,

   Tumbling, tumbling to the ground.

   Its facets reflect the slowly fading light of the day

   As the sun sinks below the horizon, 

A shaft of sunlight hits the flake.

The snowflake falls, as must we all,

But just for a moment, a fleeting moment, 

The ray of light catches it in its warm hands,

Caressing it in its fatal embrace.

And just for a moment, a tiny blip in time,

The flake is golden.

But, like all things, the moment will, nay, must pass

And the snowflake continues its spiral,

Falling down, down

Into the white abyss of its fellows.

Anyways, C&C are welcome. Yes it's a little bit dark, but happy Christmahanukwanzaa all the same everyone.

Happy Christmahanukwanzaa to all!

--Noah

People In My Class I'm Thankful For.

As we approach Thanksgiving, we--

Oh, wait. It is Thanksgiving.
This Thanksgiving, we sit down and think about people that we're thankful for. Also, since this blog post is about people in our class we're thankful for, I'll start the lis with thanking Gaga, for somehow helping me retain my sanity during Algebra II/Trig BC, my only class marred by the unholy presence of Barry Ng and his equally unholy shenanigans (BTW, for me to say something is unholy means it's pretty bad, because I'm an atheist). Without being able to complain about Barry to someone, I would have gone totally INSANE *maniacal laugh*. Also, Jiayin for helping me in the same class with the various assignments and groupworks. Otherwise I would have had an F in that class. Also, here's yet another person who I can complain about Barry to.

Then, there are people not in this class peiod who I want to thank:

#1. My Spanish for Native Speakers class for being so awesome :D
#2. Sydney, for restraining my nascent pyromania in Chemistry class.
#3. Mr. Neris for coming up with awesome... FIERY... experiments for our class
#4. My lunch table, for actually not wanting to fail their world studies class and listening to me

And finally, there's the ever-present not-being-thankful-feeling one gets when thinking about Barry. God, talk about a downer...
Anyways, go enjoy your turkey, everyone. I'm taking advantage of this time to powerlevel to level 80. Then I'll start raiding. Naxxramas, here I come!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

(Also, does anyone know how to cranberry-proof your electronic devices?)

--Noah

Edit: apparently that would have been a good idea. Level 78!

I am a plow...

Okay, this week's blog is a little bit weird.
I kind of don't get the whole "plow" thing, but I'm going to write it anyway, so here goes...

I am a plow, an instrument used to not only till soil, but also mark boundaries. I am possibly pulled by oxen, maybe horses. I am pulled throughout a field from dawn til' dusk, and am then allowed rest (although it's the horses doing all of the work) I might be a little bit rusted, but not a lot; I am used very often. This plow is then stored in a comfortable toolshed. I also serve various other functions, as mentioned above: boundaries, farming, etc. Oh, also I am not a plow in "Farmville", if there are plows in that game. God that game is stupid. Also, like most plows, I do not do Facebook.

Okay, that might not be my best writing. But in all fairness, the topic was, as I said before, a little weird. Also, have you seen how evil Facebook is?

PURE EVIL!!

--Noah

Directions Our Class Should Take

Hey everyone (and anyone),

This week's blog is about what we should change in our class.
First of all,

LET US POST ADDITIONAL POSTS NOT RELATED TO THIS WEEK'S BLOG POST!!!!

Second of all, I don't really have a lot of complaints about the class. But what I do have in abundance are complaints about the school. First of all, the stupid spam filter thingy is STILL blocking my blog for no reason. It really annoys me. Second of all, cafeteria food. I bring my own lunch, but still, that stuff is nasty. They should at least try to make it edible...
Third of all, less homework. We get a lot of homework from all of our classes, and it really leaves us with no lives (not that I had one anyways).

That's basically it. I kind of don't like doing the project, but that's probably because i'm lazy and wait until the last minute to do things, which kind of kills any fun I could have gotten out of it...

--Noah

P.S.

Cataclysm releases on the 7th!

Modern Slavery

Okay, let's get this blog post STARTED!!! WHOO!!!

No, i'm actually not that excited about this. I'm actually mad at CPS for blocking this blog. I mean, why? for the love of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, WHY?

But enough with my CPS rage.

Today's post is called : Modern Slavery. It's kind of a self-explanatory title, to tell you the truth. It makes me think of the workers who work in factories in countries like India or China, and eke out a living on less than $1 USD a day. They manufacture all of our cheap consumer goods, in order to let chain stores maintain their "low, low, LOW!" prices. It also reminds me of towns in theses same countries that process e-waste. They basically take it and burn it to reduce it to the bare metals. The burning process creates pollution in the air, and also makes the rivers toxic, containing high levels of heavy metals, and contaminates it with lead and poison. It's often one of the only water sources available, and if it's not?
Well, it'll probably seep into the water system in a few years anyways, and they'll be poisoned just the same.

Why, that just sounds wonderful, doesn't it?
That was sarcasm, by the way.

--Noah