Think of a CD that you know front to back. You know all the songs, the titles, and their order on the CD. Can you sing the first few notes of any song on the CD at random and have them be 100% accurate? If you know the individual songs that well, then probably. I think it goes beyond that, however. I think that if you know the CD as a cohesive unit, then after one song plays, you can sing the first few notes of the next song perfectly.
I'm like this with Sigh No More, the first album by Mumford & Sons. I can name all the songs in order, and can sing them. But when I'm listening to the CD in the car, on my computer, or on my iPod, after any song plays, I can sing the first few notes before they even play. It's really cool and I think it's so awesome that I can do that. I haven't been able to do it for any other CD, because I don't know any album as well as Sigh No More.
But I'm curious about this. What makes this a thing? Listen to your favorite CD, and try and sing some of the songs. Then do it one after another, trying to start the next song before it actually plays. What happens? Comment below! No one ever comments on my posts and it makes me really sad. Alright, no it doesn't. But I really am interested in this, though. SO COMMENT!
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Saturday, March 24, 2012
The next time I get stung by a bee
The first time I was stung by a bee, I had no idea it happened until the next day. I must have stepped on it and not felt it, because when I went to bed with hives that night (in 2004), I had no idea why. After five years of immunotherapy shots, if I get stung by a bee, it will have the same reaction as though anyone else were stung. With the possibility that much more severe things could happen. Which is okay, because the chances are next to nothing, but, being a man of numbers, is greater than nothing. Luckily, they have Epi-Pens.
But what will happen the next time I'm stung by a bee? Like I said - most likely, nothing will happen, but like I also said, there's the chance that something bad happens. But I also feel like it'd be kinda cool to wait and see if anything actually happened. Like in some movie where the heroes cut the wire that was connected to the bomb that would destroy the entire city, and they have to wait five seconds to see if it was the right wire. Something like that.
But what will happen the next time I'm stung by a bee? Like I said - most likely, nothing will happen, but like I also said, there's the chance that something bad happens. But I also feel like it'd be kinda cool to wait and see if anything actually happened. Like in some movie where the heroes cut the wire that was connected to the bomb that would destroy the entire city, and they have to wait five seconds to see if it was the right wire. Something like that.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Beast mode
Here are a bunch of things I'm thinking of, but not enough of it to come up with its own blog post. Which means I'm currently devoid of a title for this post. Meh.
- I put the Foo Fighters' In Your Honor in my iTunes this weekend. SUCH an awesome CD. Especially because half of it is acoustic and nothing like you would think the Foo Fighters are like. What's better is that the other half is exactly like you would think their stuff would be like.
- There was an email sent out to Stonehill students asking if anyone wanted to write for The Summit, our school paper. Opinion stuff. When I first read it, I was like Hey! I can do that! Unfortunately, as previously stated, I'm short one 500-word topic.
- I'm also making gradual steps towards performing at a coffeehouse at school. Right now I'm putting a handful of songs together that just happen to have chord progressions that fit with each other. But I'm not telling yet, just in case I actually follow through with this.
- The one thing that I probably could write about is the basketball team. They're in the Elite 8 (like, of all the Division II teams in the COUNTRY), and playing in the national quarterfinals tomorrow against the third-ranked team in the country, West Liberty. A team that scores over 100 points per game. On average. It's scary to see all those offensive statistics, especially because this team has led the country in scoring for six of the previous seven seasons, but Stonehill has the fourth-ranked defense in the nation, allowing under 60 points per game. EVERYONE at Stonehill should watch this online at noon tomorrow (Wednesday).
- I hate that feeling when you think you have a lot of homework, but you actually don't. I also hate the converse feeling. I'm not sure which one is true right now, however. These two weeks between spring and Easter breaks are going to be some sort of limbo stage that will have a couple tests scattered throughout. Guess it's beast mode time.
- I put the Foo Fighters' In Your Honor in my iTunes this weekend. SUCH an awesome CD. Especially because half of it is acoustic and nothing like you would think the Foo Fighters are like. What's better is that the other half is exactly like you would think their stuff would be like.
- There was an email sent out to Stonehill students asking if anyone wanted to write for The Summit, our school paper. Opinion stuff. When I first read it, I was like Hey! I can do that! Unfortunately, as previously stated, I'm short one 500-word topic.
- I'm also making gradual steps towards performing at a coffeehouse at school. Right now I'm putting a handful of songs together that just happen to have chord progressions that fit with each other. But I'm not telling yet, just in case I actually follow through with this.
- The one thing that I probably could write about is the basketball team. They're in the Elite 8 (like, of all the Division II teams in the COUNTRY), and playing in the national quarterfinals tomorrow against the third-ranked team in the country, West Liberty. A team that scores over 100 points per game. On average. It's scary to see all those offensive statistics, especially because this team has led the country in scoring for six of the previous seven seasons, but Stonehill has the fourth-ranked defense in the nation, allowing under 60 points per game. EVERYONE at Stonehill should watch this online at noon tomorrow (Wednesday).
- I hate that feeling when you think you have a lot of homework, but you actually don't. I also hate the converse feeling. I'm not sure which one is true right now, however. These two weeks between spring and Easter breaks are going to be some sort of limbo stage that will have a couple tests scattered throughout. Guess it's beast mode time.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
How to (not) pick your March Madness bracket
0.
That's the number of losses in my bracket when I gave up hope on concluding that I picked a good bracket.
I picked the winner in each of the first seven games. However, Harvard lost to Vanderbilt, which in hindsight, doesn't surprise me. (Editor's Note: I typed up this post as Harvard was making a comeback in the second half, which was the reason for the zero losses at the time of the blog post.) What DOES surprise me is that I had Vanderbilt losing in the first round, coming off an SEC Conference Tournament win, where they beat Kentucky in the championship. Seriously? I picked them to lose? What the hell. In the wake of this horrible decision, I'm going to create some rules to follow if you don't want a bad bracket. Unfortunately, this won't be applicable until next year, but hey - never too early to start for next year.
ps. I say horrible because I had Harvard in my Elite 8. More on why that was a bad decision soon.
That's the number of losses in my bracket when I gave up hope on concluding that I picked a good bracket.
I picked the winner in each of the first seven games. However, Harvard lost to Vanderbilt, which in hindsight, doesn't surprise me. (Editor's Note: I typed up this post as Harvard was making a comeback in the second half, which was the reason for the zero losses at the time of the blog post.) What DOES surprise me is that I had Vanderbilt losing in the first round, coming off an SEC Conference Tournament win, where they beat Kentucky in the championship. Seriously? I picked them to lose? What the hell. In the wake of this horrible decision, I'm going to create some rules to follow if you don't want a bad bracket. Unfortunately, this won't be applicable until next year, but hey - never too early to start for next year.
ps. I say horrible because I had Harvard in my Elite 8. More on why that was a bad decision soon.
- Good teams make it to the playoffs. Hot teams win them.
- See: St. Louis Cardinals, UConn Huskies, Dallas Mavericks, New York Giants, Boston Bruins.
- If you pick a favorite as your champion (Kentucky, UNC), be prepared to need to win the first few rounds. If you fall behind early, you won't be able to overtake the teams with the same champion as you.
- DON'T pick a favorite as your champion.
- You have a better chance picking a team that no one else has in your group to win the championship (Duke, Michigan St., Syracuse, Kansas, Missouri, Ohio St.) than to win 28 of the 32 first round games, or 14 of the 16 second round games.
- Root for your favorite team because you like them, not because you picked them to win.
- I.e., don't pick your favorite team to win unless they can legitimately win the tournament.
- Follow the status quo.
- If you don't make any high-risk, high-reward decisions (like putting Harvard in the Elite 8), then you can't hurt yourself, and if you have that one-shot winner like Michigan St., Duke, etc., you'll put yourself in a position to win.
Follow these rules and you'll be in a decent position to win your pool next year. Until then, good luck on this year's brackets, enjoy the madness, and, above all, go Duke.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Why books are better than movies
We all know it's true, but has anybody actually figured out why? I think I have. It at least holds true if you read the book first. Books are better because the visual imagery is totally up to the reader. Sure, there are words on the page, but the reader is left to decide exactly how those words are interpreted. In movies, the visual imagery is there right in front of us - we have no other choice but to visualize it as we are seeing it on the screen.
What I believe to be the case if you watch a movie before the book, is that you'll just repeat the movie in your head as you read the book. Even though it's left to your interpretation, you've been exposed to visual imagery previously, which will take over as you read the book. I haven't tested out this latter hypothesis, but I hope I can at some point.
What I believe to be the case if you watch a movie before the book, is that you'll just repeat the movie in your head as you read the book. Even though it's left to your interpretation, you've been exposed to visual imagery previously, which will take over as you read the book. I haven't tested out this latter hypothesis, but I hope I can at some point.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Memorial for the Living
Oh, what a wonderful life we live.
Although I'm pretty sure I've blogged about karmic balance and stuff like that, I don't know where it would be off the top of my head, so I'll just go about it here. I've always secretly believed that the universe course-corrects itself, one of the many themes in LOST. It's kind of like karma, and the balance of good and evil, happiness and suffering. Eventually, everything's going to normalize itself out. I believe that our lives are true to that system. There are amazing moments in our lives, but there are also the ones that, for lack of a better word, suck. Sometimes things suck, but hey. C'est la vie.
To be completely honest, I have no idea how I want to say what I want to say. I'm not even sure I know what I want to say. I know I want to talk about the preciousness of life, and how delicate it can be. Everyone preaches how short life is, and how sacred every day is, but I'm going to disagree with some of that. One of the best things I've ever been told is when my grandma said, "What a long life we have." I love that. Our lives are filled with an unlimited amount of moments and details that are perfectly known by only us. Right now, I'm sitting alone on a bed, listening to a song from 50/50. No matter how detailed I could describe exactly what I'm doing, no one would be able to understand it in the way I do right now. No one will have this memory like I will.
But what happens if we can no longer remember?
That's the second part of my living-life-my-way thing. Part one came with cherishing as many moments as you could, and having those memories for yourself. Part two goes right off of that. It's about sharing as many moments as you can with the people you love. We may not remember everything, and there may even come a time when we may not remember anything. Which is why I believe that it is so important to remember with the ones you love while you still can. To share those cherished memories.
Celebrating life is one of the greatest things we can do as humans. We often celebrate the lives of others, but I believe that we need to do this more often while others are living. Consider it your memorial for the living. Remembering the good, the evil, the happiness, the suffering, and everything in between. Remembering moments, experiences, and shared stories of life.
I can always be found.
I will stay by your side,
And I want you to find me,
so I'll stay by your side.
Although I'm pretty sure I've blogged about karmic balance and stuff like that, I don't know where it would be off the top of my head, so I'll just go about it here. I've always secretly believed that the universe course-corrects itself, one of the many themes in LOST. It's kind of like karma, and the balance of good and evil, happiness and suffering. Eventually, everything's going to normalize itself out. I believe that our lives are true to that system. There are amazing moments in our lives, but there are also the ones that, for lack of a better word, suck. Sometimes things suck, but hey. C'est la vie.
To be completely honest, I have no idea how I want to say what I want to say. I'm not even sure I know what I want to say. I know I want to talk about the preciousness of life, and how delicate it can be. Everyone preaches how short life is, and how sacred every day is, but I'm going to disagree with some of that. One of the best things I've ever been told is when my grandma said, "What a long life we have." I love that. Our lives are filled with an unlimited amount of moments and details that are perfectly known by only us. Right now, I'm sitting alone on a bed, listening to a song from 50/50. No matter how detailed I could describe exactly what I'm doing, no one would be able to understand it in the way I do right now. No one will have this memory like I will.
But what happens if we can no longer remember?
That's the second part of my living-life-my-way thing. Part one came with cherishing as many moments as you could, and having those memories for yourself. Part two goes right off of that. It's about sharing as many moments as you can with the people you love. We may not remember everything, and there may even come a time when we may not remember anything. Which is why I believe that it is so important to remember with the ones you love while you still can. To share those cherished memories.
Celebrating life is one of the greatest things we can do as humans. We often celebrate the lives of others, but I believe that we need to do this more often while others are living. Consider it your memorial for the living. Remembering the good, the evil, the happiness, the suffering, and everything in between. Remembering moments, experiences, and shared stories of life.
I can always be found.
I will stay by your side,
And I want you to find me,
so I'll stay by your side.
Monday, March 5, 2012
38 items that represent me
A lot of things are going on in this post. First and foremost, I'll be mentioning how amazing the Peer Mentor retreat was this weekend, and then talk about what items really represent me. While this is all going on, I'm also going to start figuring out which songs will make the Orientation playlist on my meek-but-ever-increasing iPod.
It's amazing how much you can really get done in 24 hours. Stepping onto the bus to leave for the Cape, I knew maybe a fifth of the first-year Peer Mentors. A lot of the freshmen were just names to me, but by the time we got off the bus back at Stonehill, I knew everyone's names, and something about them. Twenty-four hours. Pretty awesome, huh? I can already tell that everyone is going to excel on this team, and that everyone will make a significant impact on not only their mentees, but the other Peer Mentors, as well. Which I'm totally pumped for. Because who doesn't love feeling humble?
One of the last activities we did was talk about three items that represented who we were, for two minutes. Doesn't seem like a lot of time, but I managed to run through my three items in about 30 seconds. That's because each item only represents a little bit of me - as I told the team, there are probably 300 things that represent me. Make yourself comfortable...
(in no particular order...)
1. My hair elastic. On my right wrist are a hair elastic, silly band shaped like a moon, and one of those friendship/rope/whatever bracelets. All from Vicki. I could probably have an entire blog dedicated to how much I think she's the greatest person ever, but a paragraph in one post will have to do for now. Because I have 299 things to go.
2/3. A picture of me and my sister, and me and my parents. The former is from the first day of school my junior year, and the latter from Senior Day of baseball season. I was one of the few people who didn't talk about family during the retreat, but that doesn't mean I don't love my family as much as I love anything.
4. A sinking ship. A gift from my AP Stats teacher in high school. We had a running joke all year that the ship that was our class was sinking, or otherwise known as throwing in the towel right before the AP Exam. A lot of the spring of my senior year felt like the ship was sinking, or wanted to, but for good reasons. Now, it serves as a reminder that there will always be a time for the ship to sink, but not right now.
5. My Rubik's Cubes. I kind of want that to be my thing, where I just own a bunch of different Rubik's Cubes and display them somewhere in my future house. I dunno, that'd be cool.
6. NHL12. No, seriously. I play NHL12 with all my friends, we all love it, and we get incredibly into it at times. It's some of the most fun I've had this year at college, and it definitely deserves a spot on this list.
7. My whiteboard. If my whiteboard doesn't have any writing on it, then something's wrong. And simultaneously fantastic, because I have nothing that I need to keep track of. Currently, it outlines all the work I have to do before this week is over. One of the last things I do before I leave for spring break will be to erase everything on it.
8. Tickets. I keep most of, if not all, of my tickets to sporting events, concerts, movies, and the like. Not really to remember every one I've gone to, but to just have all of them. I dunno....seems kinda weird now that it's in words.
9-11. Purple sunglasses, Razor scooter, winter hats. So much swag.
12-16. iPod, iTunes, guitar, piano, guitar picks. I could just say "music stuff" here, but I actually want to see how many things I can find that represent me. So, you're stuck with this. Music is a huge part of my life, both performance-wise and the enjoyment of. I've been saying I want to play at a Stonehill coffeehouse for a year and a half now, but have yet to get around to it. Maybe this should change...
17. House calendar. I always get a House calendar at Christmas for the next year, as well as the latest season of House (18) and The Office (19). I'm not sure how much longer the latter tradition will go on, but I live for House. One day, I'm going to watch each series from beginning to end. So pumped.
20. LOST. Lost, as I've maintained for almost three years now, is simultaneously the greatest and worst TV show of all time. A lot of brief quotes or phrases really stuck with me throughout the entire series, as well as a ton of the themes. Another show I want to see in its entirety once or twice more.
21. Books. Surprisingly enough, I do enjoy books. Find out more here.
22. A baseball. This was one of the items I actually brought with me, which says a lot about it being 22nd on the list. I loved baseball, still do, and always will, but nothing can compare to being on the mound with the ball in my hand. I had control of everyone's next move in the game, and I was going to make damn sure that it would be as beneficial to my team as possible. God, I miss baseball.
23. My Duke flag. I love Duke. If you don't know this, then I'm doing something wrong. This could also go under the category of I-love-this-enough-to-blog-about-it-all-the-time. But then, my blog would be "Every Day, One Room." Not as nice of a ring to it.
24-31. Step Brothers, Anchorman, Superbad, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, Inception, V for Vendetta, Major League, Cruel Intentions. These are only some of my favorite movies, and again, I could have a separate post talking about movies, but I won't. If you can't deduce from this list, I love movies that are funny, and I love movies that make you think. Kinda represents me perfectly, actually.
32. My quote book. And by quote book, I mean quote Word document. There are a few quotes that I absolutely love, that mean a lot to me, and are in a Word document on my computer. I might actually talk about this at a later date, so I'll hold off on too much detail.
33. Symbolism. Yes, I am aware that this isn't tangible, but allow me to explain. The title of my quote Word document is "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know." Ralph Waldo Emerson. Such an awesome, contradictory title.
34. A $1 casino chip. On the cruise our family (and a dozen others) went on, I won about $80 playing blackjack throughout the week (which sparked a blog post of mine). I decided that I'd also start collecting casino chips, too. Unfortunately my collection only stands at one right now, but I'm definitely hoping to add to it in the next year. (Editor's Note: Wait...I'm 21 in under a year? In NINE MONTHS? Wow. WOW. Life is scary.)
35. A picture from graduation. At home (I think) is a picture of my friends and teachers from high school. High school was super awesome for me, and if I could freeze a period of time forever, that would make a very strong case for the #1 spot. Although this college this is pretty cool, too...
36. Awake My Soul. I've decided that this will be the penultimate thing that represents me, because I have a cool ending set up. That, and I'm listening to Awake My Soul as I type this. (I put the Mumford & Sons album on instead of trying to find Orientation songs. Oops.) This song is just so beautiful. I know I talked about it a little in my Mumford & Sons post, but it's honestly one of my favorite songs ever. It just evokes that kind of emotion, you know? It's quiet yet powerful, until it becomes loud and powerful at the end. I can picture driving down the highway with any number of people that mean a lot to me, listening to this song at full volume, cracking a smile, and singing the hell out of the last chorus.
37. One Day, One Room. Yes, I'm going there. It's true though. I'm going there because this blog really does represent who I am. (Enter loud and powerful part.) I talk about so many different kinds of things here, but I could name any post and talk about it at length if I was prompted. That's how much this stuff means to me. Some people journal, others keep diaries, others write books. I have a blog.
38. The epiphany chuckle. In TV shows, books, whatever...in life, there are these moments where you're talking about something, and it reminds you of something completely different, yet totally relevant, and you can't help but give yourself a quick chuckle. That just happened to me. I was going to talk about what I said in my first blog post, about this blog being a place where I could write about whatever, so I went back to my first post. Room #1. The last two sentences of my first post? "So that's what this blog is. A series of rooms, or blog posts, and whatever is stuck inside of my blog posts adds up to what my blog is, which is essentially a representation of me."
Told you symbolism was awesome.
It's amazing how much you can really get done in 24 hours. Stepping onto the bus to leave for the Cape, I knew maybe a fifth of the first-year Peer Mentors. A lot of the freshmen were just names to me, but by the time we got off the bus back at Stonehill, I knew everyone's names, and something about them. Twenty-four hours. Pretty awesome, huh? I can already tell that everyone is going to excel on this team, and that everyone will make a significant impact on not only their mentees, but the other Peer Mentors, as well. Which I'm totally pumped for. Because who doesn't love feeling humble?
One of the last activities we did was talk about three items that represented who we were, for two minutes. Doesn't seem like a lot of time, but I managed to run through my three items in about 30 seconds. That's because each item only represents a little bit of me - as I told the team, there are probably 300 things that represent me. Make yourself comfortable...
(in no particular order...)
1. My hair elastic. On my right wrist are a hair elastic, silly band shaped like a moon, and one of those friendship/rope/whatever bracelets. All from Vicki. I could probably have an entire blog dedicated to how much I think she's the greatest person ever, but a paragraph in one post will have to do for now. Because I have 299 things to go.
2/3. A picture of me and my sister, and me and my parents. The former is from the first day of school my junior year, and the latter from Senior Day of baseball season. I was one of the few people who didn't talk about family during the retreat, but that doesn't mean I don't love my family as much as I love anything.
4. A sinking ship. A gift from my AP Stats teacher in high school. We had a running joke all year that the ship that was our class was sinking, or otherwise known as throwing in the towel right before the AP Exam. A lot of the spring of my senior year felt like the ship was sinking, or wanted to, but for good reasons. Now, it serves as a reminder that there will always be a time for the ship to sink, but not right now.
 |
| Next in the collection? |
6. NHL12. No, seriously. I play NHL12 with all my friends, we all love it, and we get incredibly into it at times. It's some of the most fun I've had this year at college, and it definitely deserves a spot on this list.
7. My whiteboard. If my whiteboard doesn't have any writing on it, then something's wrong. And simultaneously fantastic, because I have nothing that I need to keep track of. Currently, it outlines all the work I have to do before this week is over. One of the last things I do before I leave for spring break will be to erase everything on it.
8. Tickets. I keep most of, if not all, of my tickets to sporting events, concerts, movies, and the like. Not really to remember every one I've gone to, but to just have all of them. I dunno....seems kinda weird now that it's in words.
9-11. Purple sunglasses, Razor scooter, winter hats. So much swag.
12-16. iPod, iTunes, guitar, piano, guitar picks. I could just say "music stuff" here, but I actually want to see how many things I can find that represent me. So, you're stuck with this. Music is a huge part of my life, both performance-wise and the enjoyment of. I've been saying I want to play at a Stonehill coffeehouse for a year and a half now, but have yet to get around to it. Maybe this should change...
17. House calendar. I always get a House calendar at Christmas for the next year, as well as the latest season of House (18) and The Office (19). I'm not sure how much longer the latter tradition will go on, but I live for House. One day, I'm going to watch each series from beginning to end. So pumped.
20. LOST. Lost, as I've maintained for almost three years now, is simultaneously the greatest and worst TV show of all time. A lot of brief quotes or phrases really stuck with me throughout the entire series, as well as a ton of the themes. Another show I want to see in its entirety once or twice more.
21. Books. Surprisingly enough, I do enjoy books. Find out more here.
22. A baseball. This was one of the items I actually brought with me, which says a lot about it being 22nd on the list. I loved baseball, still do, and always will, but nothing can compare to being on the mound with the ball in my hand. I had control of everyone's next move in the game, and I was going to make damn sure that it would be as beneficial to my team as possible. God, I miss baseball.
23. My Duke flag. I love Duke. If you don't know this, then I'm doing something wrong. This could also go under the category of I-love-this-enough-to-blog-about-it-all-the-time. But then, my blog would be "Every Day, One Room." Not as nice of a ring to it.
24-31. Step Brothers, Anchorman, Superbad, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, Inception, V for Vendetta, Major League, Cruel Intentions. These are only some of my favorite movies, and again, I could have a separate post talking about movies, but I won't. If you can't deduce from this list, I love movies that are funny, and I love movies that make you think. Kinda represents me perfectly, actually.
32. My quote book. And by quote book, I mean quote Word document. There are a few quotes that I absolutely love, that mean a lot to me, and are in a Word document on my computer. I might actually talk about this at a later date, so I'll hold off on too much detail.
33. Symbolism. Yes, I am aware that this isn't tangible, but allow me to explain. The title of my quote Word document is "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know." Ralph Waldo Emerson. Such an awesome, contradictory title.
34. A $1 casino chip. On the cruise our family (and a dozen others) went on, I won about $80 playing blackjack throughout the week (which sparked a blog post of mine). I decided that I'd also start collecting casino chips, too. Unfortunately my collection only stands at one right now, but I'm definitely hoping to add to it in the next year. (Editor's Note: Wait...I'm 21 in under a year? In NINE MONTHS? Wow. WOW. Life is scary.)
35. A picture from graduation. At home (I think) is a picture of my friends and teachers from high school. High school was super awesome for me, and if I could freeze a period of time forever, that would make a very strong case for the #1 spot. Although this college this is pretty cool, too...
36. Awake My Soul. I've decided that this will be the penultimate thing that represents me, because I have a cool ending set up. That, and I'm listening to Awake My Soul as I type this. (I put the Mumford & Sons album on instead of trying to find Orientation songs. Oops.) This song is just so beautiful. I know I talked about it a little in my Mumford & Sons post, but it's honestly one of my favorite songs ever. It just evokes that kind of emotion, you know? It's quiet yet powerful, until it becomes loud and powerful at the end. I can picture driving down the highway with any number of people that mean a lot to me, listening to this song at full volume, cracking a smile, and singing the hell out of the last chorus.
37. One Day, One Room. Yes, I'm going there. It's true though. I'm going there because this blog really does represent who I am. (Enter loud and powerful part.) I talk about so many different kinds of things here, but I could name any post and talk about it at length if I was prompted. That's how much this stuff means to me. Some people journal, others keep diaries, others write books. I have a blog.
38. The epiphany chuckle. In TV shows, books, whatever...in life, there are these moments where you're talking about something, and it reminds you of something completely different, yet totally relevant, and you can't help but give yourself a quick chuckle. That just happened to me. I was going to talk about what I said in my first blog post, about this blog being a place where I could write about whatever, so I went back to my first post. Room #1. The last two sentences of my first post? "So that's what this blog is. A series of rooms, or blog posts, and whatever is stuck inside of my blog posts adds up to what my blog is, which is essentially a representation of me."
Told you symbolism was awesome.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
7 great books I read in high school
Surprisingly enough, books aren't so bad of a thing. They can even be, dare I say, enjoyable and interesting at times. What's more surprising (although less so now that I have the infinite wisdom of a college student) is that high school teachers actually had something going for them - giving us one to two good books a year to read. True, most of them are of the everyone-in-this-grade-reads-this-book variety, but there are a couple of gems that may be specific to Watertown High School. Which would be awesome, because that means that my non-math high school education was worth something!
Spoiler alert: I don't trust myself with describing the books both effectively and concisely, so if you have any interest in these, read at your own risk.
1. After the First Death - Robert Cormier
When: Freshman year, English.
What about: A bus hijacking. Yeah, that seems concise enough. Oh, did I mention that the bus is full of children?
Why it was great: It was definitely one of those badass books that you actually wanted to know what happened next, because it had a plot that you never though you'd read in high school.
2. Candide - Voltaire
When: Junior year, World History.
What about: This dude who goes around the world, meets all these people, and philosophizes.
Why it was great: I've heard of this book being used in history, philosophy, literature, and French classes, both in high school and college. It's insanely fun to think about, too. Probably the only reason I managed to write my ten-page paper for my GenLit class freshman year on Candide.
3. In the Lake of the Woods - Tim O'Brien
When: Senior year, AP Literature.
What about: Read the footnote on page 31.
Why it was great: This book was just as badass as After the First Death, but had so much mystery to it that you just had to figure out what happens at the end.
4. Le Petit Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
When: Junior year, French.
What about: This dude who goes around the universe, meets all these people, and comes to understand his life.
Why it was great: You can learn a lot from a fox...
5. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
When: Junior year, English.
What about: I'm trusting that most people know this well enough, because I can't seem to explain it the right way.
Why it was great: Symbolism, my friends. Symbolism.
6. The Crucible - Arthur Miller
When: Junior year, English.
What about: Oh, you know...witch trials, hardcore Puritanism...the usual.
Why it was great: Maybe it's only because I got to play John Proctor when we read the book aloud in class, but a lot of the scenes were cool and dramatic.
7. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
When: Freshman year, English.
What about: A bunch of people get stranded on a deserted island and have to live together, or die alone. Or something like that.
Well, I was planning on having ten books on the list (as I do with any list on my blog), but unfortunately, I fell three shy of my goal. The silver lining in this is that it totally justifies me being a math major now. A few more books and I might have actually gone as far as to say that I enjoy reading...
Well, I was planning on having ten books on the list (as I do with any list on my blog), but unfortunately, I fell three shy of my goal. The silver lining in this is that it totally justifies me being a math major now. A few more books and I might have actually gone as far as to say that I enjoy reading...
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