Sorry that I haven’t been writing more often, school has been swamping me.  However, I thought it a good idea to lift my nose from the grindstone (hehehe) to say that I have been accepted to the Arthur Kroeger College of Public Affairs and Policy Management at Carleton University in Ottawa!  This was a tied first choice with the University of King’s College in Halifax.  Carleton won’t let me defer (I’m considering deferral so I don’t have to work during university) but said that I’d likely be accepted again.  UKC will let me defer one year.  Now the clock is ticking, Halifax!

This is a short essay I wrote for Mr. Bontakoe’s English II class at KCVI.  It got good reviews so I decided to post it here.  Mr. Bontakoe, if you’re doing a plagiarism check, I did indeed write this

Just a few nights ago I was working at the till at Best Buy when I got a paper-cut as I grabbed a customer’s receipt coming out of the printer. A paper-cut! I could have died! The Best Buy – just like everywhere else in the world – is crawling with microbes and bacteria and if just a few of those slipped into that paper-cut I could have had a serious allergic reaction and ended up in the hospital.

The fact that the world is a dangerous place isn’t news to anyone: daily we are assaulted with “studies” and “research” done by “scientists” who basically surmise that because I ordered a large fry at McDonalds last night the whole world is going to seed. I’m sure my impulse purchase has killed innocent kittens somewhere, but I only see two choices: live it up or stop living.

For indeed, life is a dangerous business: with one wrong step on black ice you could end up in hospital eating through a straw for the rest of your life. It is particularly peculiar that this is perhaps the most safety-aware generation and (according to the “scientists”) the generation most likely to make sure it removes itself in its entirety from the gene pool due to (gasp!) the sterilizing effect of cell-phone usage. Yes, I just made that up, but there is certainly a study or some lab work or some tinfoil-hat wearer that persistently insist that your digital communication habits will leave you barren as the Liberal Party coffers after an election. Continue reading

So the discussion in Media English recently has been the interest of public vs private.  In case Mr. Hardy is reading this, continue and then tear me up in the comments or class (depending on which suits you ) for others, just comment on fallacies or other such things.

First off, the first aim of all companies is not – as is taught in ME – to make money.  This may be true at a corporate level, but in Small/Medium-Sized Businesses the aim is to provide a living for the owners and employees.  These places – like my employer – put things above money, like loyalty to their customers and employees.  They will not fleece you to make a profit.  Another great example perhaps is Canonical, makers of Ubuntu Linux.  Sure, they get their money from giving enterprise-level tech support to Ubuntu-using businesses but they market to the normal desktop user.  I have never paid a cent to Canonical for any of its products yet have made use of the Ubuntu OS and all it’s advantages and features (there’s no special Enterprise edition) for free.  In some businesses there is a genuine commitment to the greater good.  I’ll take another one with Crossover, who makes the commercial derivative of WINE (the Linux/Mac app that allows many Windows programs to be run under those OSes).  They borrow from Free software as is their right and feed their improvements back into the Free software ecosystem.  When I asked questions they gave me a discount.  They don’t include DRM on their software even though they might lose from piracy because they believe it is wrong.

This is not to say that there are not companies that are only out to make money – surely there are – but to say that not *all* companies are like that.  Similarly, not every company has a sinister motive when doing anything – from sponsoring schools to (as some would have one believe) breathing. Continue reading

See, apparently I need to take the Grade 10 Literacy Test.  The fact that I got a 2060 on my PSATs or was the top of last semester’s IB Higher Level English class doesn’t seem to make a difference.  I have to spend a morning on Thursday proving to the Province that I indeed know that a capital letter goes at the beginning of a sentence.

I understand that the Literacy Test is required, but I believe I should have had it waived:  I entered the Ontario school system in Grade 11 and the test is a Grade 10 test.  They waived Canadian History, Civics and Careers, and the like.  Why not the literacy test?  It’s a waste of time.

Then someone comes in during Period A today and asks me why I’ve been absent so much lately.  Namely, the week before March Break and Thursday and Friday last week.  All of these were excused.  March Break had a letter to the Attendance Office and I was an organizer for the Model UN which gave me a pass.  However, only one of my teachers marked me excused (Math teacher).  I told all of them about MUN and I had a pass for the cruise.  It’s just such a waste of time and it’ll end up on my transcript…

Anyways, that’s the end of my vent for today.

Day 1:  Light (and thereofore darkness as well)

Day 2:  Water and sky

Day 3:  Land and plants

Day 4:  Moon, Sun, and Stars

Day 5:  Fish and Birds

Day 6:  Humans and land animals

Day 7:  Snow Days, Inconvenient Weather Days, Gratuitous Sick Days, and Statutory Holidays

See how wise God is?

Frankly, I can’t wait for the weekend.  Apart from it being a mind-murderingly awful week it is also the Family Day Long Weekend!  This morning I was desperately hoping for freezing ran.  Kingston is currently in a fog bank.  Due to prevailing Chinooks, the temperature is above zero Centigrade.  Imaging what would happen if it dipped below zero…  Instant Snowday(tm)!

However, it was not to be and it’s raining.  In february.  Bah.

It should go down to minus something tommorow, but I’m not holding my breath.  Though a 4-day weekend would be great.

In the mean time, I do plan to actually upload some pictures to the gallery widget I installed on Wordpress… just when I have time

What am I doing right now?  Nothing.  In CompEngineering.  Absolutely nothing.  Bah^2.

Don’t you just love reading my blog?  Isn’t it so happy?

So finally, here comes the day when I no longer have to do really anything except eat, sleep, and… welll… that’s ’bout it.  For a week at least.

I only have two exams this semester, in IB Higher Level English and Physics11.  Now that I just had Physics this morning, I’m free as a dove.  I’m not working this weekend either as its Chinese New Year and the Leungs (my employers) are celebrating that and my boss’ birthday.

So things that are possibly on the productivity itinerary:

• Eating
• Sleeping
• Reading (got the whole Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series from the KCVI Library)
• Working on websites for Mom
• Reading some more (hey, I have 3.5 more books to go!)

What else do you think I should fit in there?  I’d like to get some serious LOST going, but Dad’s away most of the week so tommorow will be the best chance.

Anyway, off to the all-nighter at youth.

So I am taking two exam subjects out of 4 (those being IB English and Physics 11, with my other subjects being Computer Science and IB Film Studies).  So unlike most of my friends, I only have two days of exams and then I’m done for another week.  No school.

Seeing as you can’t really study for English, I’m worried about Physics but not stressed.

What I am stressed about, however, is all the end-of-semester projects.  Today and tommorow I have my IB Film Exam Project due (A film, Statement of Intent, Storyboard, Script, and essay), my Computer Science project due (In two parts:  Python math script and Flash portal), and my Individual Oral Presentation for IB English.  This is the big elephant in the room right now seeing as I have to give it in 15 minutes and I’ve never been good at planning presentations… Continue reading

I probably should not be pontificating on deep matters at 11:30 at night, but whatever.  My Film exam is rendering.

So if you don’t know (and you don’t, because I haven’t told anyone), my exam film for IB Film Studies II is all about signifigance.  A brief overview of the story:  family sits down to dinner with a friend who is utterly boring, family battle begins behind the scenes, escalates in to war after about 5 minutes.

Now, this short has gone a long way since its inception.  I wanted to have a family of psycics having a friend over for dinner and whilst he’s talking they’re talking between eachother in their minds.  Obviously, this is kitchy.

Now, I filmed this short with that in mind, with a script that, although flimsy, supported it.  Because all of the consequential dialogue would be done with voiceover, I could change the script at will.

It didn’t fly.

But what happened was better.  I decided to take this idea of a family that is different and internalize it.  The almost-finished version of the film creates two distinct stages (the whole thing is one scene at a kitchen table), one in the ‘real’ world where their boring guest is going on quite like I’m probably going on right now (hey, it’s 11:30.  Give me a break) and the one that is more a mirror of their family struggles.  While the boring conversation is constant, the battle between the family members gets more intense as it progresses.

Which brings me to my point on signifigance. Continue reading

If you haven’t read my post on insanity, you might want to read it.

I read in Wired today (at school) that people like me (ie, creative/programmer night-owl) should be going to sleep in the morning and waking up around noon, and should get more than 8 hours of sleep for maximum productivity.

AMEN WIRED!

I can’t say this enough,  I usually start drifting off around quarter past 10 and fall asleep somewhere between 10:30 and 11.  Then I wake up at 6 to go to school.

This results in a lot of stress.  I can’t go to sleep at 10, and I would thoroughly like to kill someone at 6 in the morning.  Suffice to say, I’m overtired and stressed.

This is one of the reasons I love my job.  My job is very hands on and automated, very relaxing.  Honestly I don’t know what would happen if I wasn’t working.

Does anyone have ideas on how to fall asleep?  I don’t listen to anything, and if I try to read myself to sleep I end up being really awake by the time I realize it’s midnight.

I probably sleep the most among my friends, but I seem to be the one who’s tired and stressed.

…

BAH!

So today school in Canada reconvened… A bittersweet moment, seeing as I will be productive but no longer have the time to be so. First day of school was pretty laid back: I wore my wifi-detecting shirt which became the conversation piece of every room I walked in to. Film Studies is basically going to be prep time, Physics won’t even have a unit test, Computer Science is as computer science always has been (though I am now using that time to learn Python. Great language. Easy to learn) and in English we are watching Apocalypse Now (based on the ever-dreaded Heart of Darkness) and then working on our world lit papers due at the end of the week.
Unfortuneately, I’m only half-done my WL One paper, so we’ll see how that works.