Some Fun and Out-of-Context Quotes, Part XXVII

This is the most quotes I've ever put into a single post. I'd like to say there's some just reason for this, like that it's the beginning of school and I've gotten a lot, but really I've just been to lazy to transfer th-- I mean, Harvey wills it!

"We have a pizza delivery in the front office for a student named Brian."
-Mrs. Hartman

"There's a back to every worksheet. There's not always something written on it..."
-Mr. Lyons

"Sometimes efficiancy becomes very inefficiant."
-Mr. Lyons on ordering and purchasing notes

"You just have to hope to God that the people around you are dumb... or dumber than you."
-Sra. on the IB exam being graded on a bell curve

"It's where electric dasies grow."
-Mr. Lyons on electric fields

"Woah! The chair moves!"
-Marie on a róllisilla

"It's digital ink, it never dries."
-Mr. Lyons on possible corrections to the seating chart

"I only created the important stuff: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division. And calc."
-Harvey on how much of math He created

"Moodle senses how badly you need the information, and will shut down."
-Mr. Lyons

"It's like two degrees... Kelvin in here."
-Harvey on the fisix room (and fun phrases that annoy Mr. Giromini)

"I got a bike so I don't have to walk to school anymore."
-Tejas (who lives a minute from IA) on how he spent his summer vacation

"You don't choke T-Rexes, they bite!"
-Julia

"Todas tus base son nos pertenecen."
-es.wikipedia.org on All Your Base Are Belong To Us

"The IA lockers are too small to stick people in."
-Elizabeth O. on being nice to freshpeople

Pictures 'n' Stuff, Part V

Yes, there are a lot of xkcds. You see, I've endeavored to read all of them until I'm caught up; I'm up to 520 at the moment (later: done!). And some of them I just can't help putting here. Besides, it's summer (or it was at the time)! What else is going on?

Click all to Enlarge







The really scary part? I do this sometimes.






This one also applies to me.






Wikipedian Protester:

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are"

In physics class this year, I sit near the front of the class. One day I looked up at the projector on the ceiling, and noticed something interesting: there was a Wiimote hanging from it, aimed at the board. Cue photo:


Naturally, I asked Mr. Lyons to explain. He said that (since he doesn't have a SMARTboard in his room) he was trying to compensate. He referenced this video, saying he wanted to try it:


Pretty cool, right? He had bought all the supplies and done everything needed to make it work...but the school system reused to let him install the software. Hopefully someday they'll be able to work things out...because that would just be totally awesome.

Special thanks to Theodore Roosevelt for the title of this post.

Damien

Today I'm gonna take us back in time a bit, all the way to my freshperson year. I was in choir, along with Zoë and Chase. I can't sing for my life, but I tried, and I think I improved a little bit. I first met Chase (who's a year older than me) when I sat next to him in choir. Anyway, my birthday is on June sixth, and Chase and Zoë found this out one day (I don't remember how). This was less than a year after 6-6-06, which (for me) had been preceded by everyone in my middle school pretending(?) to be terrified of me for several months. Chase and Zoë, upon hearing about how people had run in terror whenever I came by, took it upon themselves to keep the tradition going. At this point 6-6-06 was over, and people were pretty sure that if the devil was planning on destroying the world in one massive attack, he had picked another (less obvious) date. Nonetheless, they thought it would be funny to continue pretending to be scared; hence, I soon got the nickname Damien. To be honest, it was annoying for the first few days, but I soon got over that and realized that it was actually kind of funny. Eventually I began to have some fun with it: once I messed with the timer on my watch until I managed to get it to stop at 6.66 seconds, then made a big deal of wondering what time it was, being shocked, and showing Chase. My favorite of all, however, involves a particular song we were singing in choir at the time: Brighten My Soul with Sunshine. It talks about how hard it is to keep going, and asks (presumably Harvey) to...well, insert the title here. One of the lines says "The devil's calling and he's pulling hard." The first time that line came up after the Damien thing started, everyone involved suddenly found it difficult not to burst out laughing in the middle of the song. Every single time after that, at least three people (spread out around the room) would turn and glare at me for the entire duration of the line. I took to slapping Chase's arm (I still sat next to him, mind you, so he was the only one I could reach) to discourage him. As I said, I also found it hilarious, but letting them know that would have ruined all the fun.

On a somewhat related note, I've recently come across an interesting idea that may help explain why some people get annoyed with my sense of humor, and I'd really appreciate your opinion. I tend to tire of jokes much less quickly than most people. Hence, I'll be saying an old line long after others have lost interest and still find it hysterical. (I mean I just found 14 relevant links in like ten minutes.) This was one of those cases: everyone else let the Damien thing go long before it had (in my opinion) worn out. Do you think that's true? I'm really curious about this...please leave me a comment and tell me what you think!

How do you feel about school starting?

In the few days leading up to the beginning of the school year, I created a poll to measure the attitudes of IA students in regards to said event. I was amused by the first several votes; after five, four were for "Can't wait!" Only at IA. As you can see, this option still won, but by a smaller margin after those who don't check OAIA constantly over the summer started voting. (BTW, in case you fall into that category and it's not obvious, I love you;) ) Despite this, the results still show demonstrate, illustrate, and portray some interesting information about the IA community...or at least the portion of it that reads OAIA. Here they are, myself as always having not voted:

Blech! More summer, pleeeease! 11%
I could use a bit more time, but it's gotta happen sooner or later 29%
I sorta wanna get it over with 23%
Can't wait! 35%

I love it. Thanks to all who voted!

Career Cruising Dot Com

I should start by saying that I'm sorry for having already given away the punchline to this post. It was previously posted as a Fun and Out-of-Context Quote, but after thinking it over I've decided that it deserves a bit more background information. I'll put a link to the quote at the end, but (especially if you haven't seen it yet) please wait until you read the rest before clicking it.

In eighth grade, the year before I entered IA, our teachers told us that now (meaning then) was a good time to start thinking about what career choices were available to us. The time when we would have to pick seemed impossibly far off, but they said that it would come faster than we expected and that we should at least start to think about it. For several class periods, we had to go into the computer lab and answer endless questions on careercruising.com about out interests, what classes we had taken/planned to take, our plans for the future, ad infinitum. To be honest I don't think it helped much, as those who had no idea what they wanted to do just answered the questions, stared at the results for a few seconds, then forgot them, and those (like me) who knew what they wanted to do answered all the questions with the intent of making the site tell them exactly what they wanted to hear. It got pretty monotonous after a while, and I was quite glad when it was over.

Some time later, I found out that (per state law) we have to complete some sort of career preparation work each year at IA. Naturally, we use careercruising.com, which I still can never spell right on the first try. Why? Harvey wills it. Thus, every year we have to sit down and go through the same questions over and over, getting more or less the same results. Most of the results are to be expected, and everyone likes when their results match the life goals they already had. We do, however, have a little fun looking at the results of a few certain people. Now I shall reprint the previously-published punchline:

"Number one was neurologist, number two was vending machine operator. Could they be more different?"
-Rachel B. on a career aptitude test

WARNING: Nerdier-that-usual humor may follow

Yes, more than normal. It is possible, trust me. Don't believe me? Read on.

I was having a conversation with my IA friend Amy when she sent me a link to BlahBlahFish, a site that lets you enter a phrase, translate it into another language, and translate it back. (Although some of the top-rated ones are funny, many are not so kid-friendly, so be warned.) In response, I showed her this post. Then (with a few inserted links to help you follow along and some slight re-ordering to account for the fact that we were talking so fast that many a train of thought was interrupted):

Amy: i am glad she tells people not to insert words thoughtlessly into essays

Me: :)

Amy: literal translation is a big pet peeve of mine
Amy: *continues reading*
Amy: haha
Amy: so you could have made blahblahfish if you had been quicker
Amy: though i thought German ch was more like Russian kh?

Me: idk russian
Me: it can be
Me: velar
Me: or palatal

Amy: very nice

Me: :)
Me: i kn consonants
Me: i figured id try it
Me: most ppl just think im tryin to make them look dumb
Me: but i figured u might kn
Me: more likely than most

Then the 'creative discussion' began:

Amy: but i'm afraid "sh" is alveopalatal
Amy: not palatal

Me: no
Me: its post alveolar

Amy: alveopalatal
Amy: meaning behind the alveola, near the palate

Me: its the closest thing we have
Me: so we hear 'front ch' as sh

Amy: so you're saying that it is different, we just can't differentiate as speakers of English?

Me: yep
Me: well
Me: as uninformed speakers of english

Amy: ok
Amy: just didn't want to let you continue being wrong :P

Me: yeah yeah
Me: and its post alveolar
Me: ask wikipedia

Amy: technically
Amy: sh is a voiceless alveopalatal fricative
Amy: :P

Me: no

Amy: mhm
Amy: Phonology book > Wikipedia
Amy: :P

Me: its a voiceless postalveolar fricative
Me: OR
Me: if u wanna b RLY fancy
Me: SIBILANT
Me: ftw
Me: wikipedia>whatever it was u said

Amy: both are used

Me: o fine

Amy: the postalveolar and alveopalatal
Amy: means the same thing
Amy: *mean

Me: i is not able conjugating?
Me: jk jk
Me: lol
Me: (Here I did this cool huge laughing smiley that tries to hold itself back but fails)

Amy: i really should have gone to bed 4 minutes ago
Amy: i have to get up at 6:00 tomorrow
Amy: i'll ttyl
Amy: night

Me: ok well
Me: go get some voiced alveolar fricatives
Me: gn

Amy: haha
Amy: nice
Amy: night

Me: :)
Me: nerd humor

THIS IS ... wait a minute, where is this again?

The prep day for Freshperson Orientation was today. It ran pretty smoothly; the volunteers all gathered to get job assignments, learn about what to say to the freshpeople, make posters, etc. I really like Orientation: it's a lot of fun to be involved with. Take, for example, the following sign made by Cat. We told the volunteers that despite IA's smallness, the freshpeople will think it's huge and probably get lost. Many signs with room numbers and arrows were created, including the one in question:


Awesome. And by the way, if there are any freshpeople reading this, the swimming pool is in the basement...there's nothing interesting on the roof.

L'anglais est plus important que le français??? Das stimmt nicht!

I found this snap on my phone and unfortunately can't remember the whole story, but I'll do what I can. We were in Product Team discussing the usefulness of various languages in today's world (because that's what we do in our free time,) and someone who takes Francias came to the board and wrote "English is more important than Francias" in Francias. I, a student of both Spanish and Juhrmen, had to stand up for them, so I then wrote "But Spanish is the most important of all," in Spanish followed by "Well, Juhrmen is also pretty important..." in Juhrmen. Oh, and "Das stimmt!!" (dahs shtimt), which is really fun to say, meaning "that's right!!" I don't know what the other thing in Francias is... If someone can help me remember who it was, that's be great. If it was you...sorry.

Something just occurred to me... why is Spanish the only one without a funny pet name? There is Chinese too... but at least it has "the middle language." Ideas?

Dog People

While studying for the fisix final, I was going over the notes when I found an old problem that said:

A dog running chasing a ball runs at 5 m s^-1 off a 50 m high cliff. How far from the base of the cliff does the dog hit the ground? What is the dog's final velocity?

Noticing a particular mark I had made on the page, I remembered how everyone in the class had objected at once when Mr. Giromini read the problem, as there were several dog people in the class, myself proudly among them. He decided that our complaints were valid, and told us to change the problem. At his recommendation, this is what resulted:

Some Fun and Out-of-Context Quotes, Part XXVI

"The word for this in English is 'phonetics' and it is spelled f-o-n-e-t-i-k-s."
-Sheikh Darwish

"And the word for this in English is 'spell check' and it is spelled
s-p-e-l-c-h-e-k."
-Sheikh Darwish on the above

"I don't mean ready as in prepared, that's not possible."
-Mr. Giromini on asking if we were ready to begin the exam

"That's all the angels crying."
-Mr. Giromini on rain during the final exam

"It's either 'I went to Hawaii' or 'I was Hawaii.'"
-Sra. Riggs on the Spanish word fui

"Oh wait it's bolted to the ceiling."
-Bridget on the bench in front of the school

"Rain! Oh wait I'm getting wet..."
-Bridget on jumping dramatically out from under the canopy

"I have the license to be stupid sometimes."
-Bridget on the above two quotes

"I feel offensive!"
-Tricia C. on Mr. Giromini's blonde jokes

"I just love the technology in this school but it's not wanting to love me back."
-Srta. Fernández on trying to play a movie

"My advice to you, my friend, is to seek out food and sit on it."
-Gabe, to Will, on the latter's snacking in preparation for a history exam

"Did you just accuse me of being a physics teacher?"
-Mr. Giromini on entering a math room

There's no such thing as gravity, the Earth just sucks

In Spanish class, we took our final the penultimate class so that we would have time to do test corrections. During the block designated to taking the final (while we were doing test corrections) Sra. Riggs came in to do some end-of-the-year cleanup. She was trying to organize some cassette tapes when she dropped a large pile of them on the floor. David turned to me and said, "There's no such thing as gravity, the Earth just sucks." I didn't get it, so I went back to work and shortly thereafter asked, "Wait, when you said that, did you mean 'sucks' like (here I sucked in air quickly to make a sucking noise) or like 'is bad'?" He told me that that was the point: it was a pun. He then continued, saying that he wished real life were like a sitcom, in which people always answer puns with other puns. Sometimes these conversations can go on for a very long time. Unfortunately, as he now realized, this doesn't actually happen.

"It happens sometimes between me and Harvey," I said. "Well," I corrected myself, "they're not puns per se." What really happens is that I ask Him a simple question (let's suppose it's " Watcha doin'?") and He answers with something that is true, but does not answer my question in the least. In this case, it might be "Breathing." Then I do the same thing ("Watcha breathin'?") and so on indefinitely ("Air." "What kind of air?" ... ). As the responses get more and more ridiculous, trivial, and/or nonsensical, we both try to keep straight faces for as long as possible. I usually lose. OK, I pretty much always always lose. But I almost won one right before the end of the year...and I have all of next year to keep trying. Try it with someone you know (not Harvey...I call Him), it's fun!

WARNING: Do Not Mix Subjects

In Product Team:

David: I hate it when people use science words in literature.

Me: Like what?

I was expecting an answer like "crucible" or "power." Not:

David: Semi-permeable membrane.

Me: What!? (Laughing) Who said that?

David: During Song of Solomon, remember that picture with the headlights? When Mrs. Saxsma read the rationale, it said "The white line acts as a semi-permeable membrane."

Me: Oh yeah...

P.S. I'm back from camp! Hi! I'm now here to read your comments...so leave them!