No Time!

I’ve been messing with This lately, donated generously by a certain someone. Great stuff, makes beautiful things that these screenshots do no credit to.

Hit the jump for the photos, and if you like them, then simply get the demo, or buy it (or get someone to buy it for you. ;_;).

Look into the snake’s eyes…

Well, this here blog necromancy sure went well, didn’t it? Because I’ve been busy (as always) I tended to neglect this blog. Hm.

Anyways, I am having IB Exams at the moment. If you do not know what they are, imagine taking a month off in a class because the final examination requires you to step barefoot across a live magma flow whilst drinking a strong acid and juggling five dead cats at the same time.

The bright side is that I get two hours off each day, but the downside is that I get two hours off each day. As I only get to leave early every Thursday for the next three weeks, the actual spare time is kind of a moot point. The only thing to do in those two hours is to simply not do anything. Since my school is inner-city (and in a particularly weird area of the inner city), I can’t go outside for long without getting stared at by hobos.

The upside is that I get my report card tomorrow or the day after, but I do hope it is tomorrow because thursday would conflict with my IB exam.

I am probably doing shit at Chemistry, doing mediocre (but not bad) in Math, doing awesomely excellent in Philosophy, and I am the best student in my Biology class. Weird how that happens.

Anyways, that’s all for this post, so have a weird picture to make up for it. Anyone who guesses what it is gets a cookie.

 

o hai

Stones in a Glass House (January to April)

The new year rolled by in a very cold manner, which gladdened me so very, very much.  Snow is so much better than horrible hot dryness or torrential rains.

The semester didn’t actually end until late January, but for all purposes, it was over by December. I had something like an 86% average, very much like the average for the first term back in Mexico. I started the new semester with four classes: Biology 30IB, Chemistry 25IB, Philosophy 20/30IB, and Math 20IB. All IB, half of them hard.

Biology 30IB has shaped up to be awesome so far. I have a new teacher,  and that single fact has already raised my average in the class by a full 6%. At the moment, I have a 88-90% average. Quite nice, and will probably be my best class.

Philosophy 20/30IB is really awesome, taught by someone who could best be described as “Wise Beard Man”. His word is wise, and his face is beard. I have a 92% average so far, and the course is supposed to be hard. Peh!

Math 20IB is a rollercoaster of emotions. I get 30% on tests sometimes, and my latest tests have been in the 90% range. My average is something like 55% unstandardized, and 77-85% standardized depending (literally) if the teacher likes me.

Chemistry 25IB… Taught by an awesome Welsh man with a dark sense of humour and a very nerdy way of looking at things. He cares, he helps, he jokes. I study, I understand, I do the best I can.

Then why am I getting a 70% in that course?

Oh well, I’m not carrying through in Chemistry next year, so it doesn’t really matter. It’s just causing me a lot of despair.

I guess that’s it for my past history. My past has been laid out before you, and now it’s your turn to watch and wait. Wish me luck.

 

Into the Long Night...

Hunting Bears (September to December)

School started, and the culture shock truly began.

I was surprised to be in ELA 20-1, not 20IB. It was probably due to the fact that the administration thought I was inexperienced in terms of my English studies. Although it was unjust, I made quite a few friends and established a good relationship with the English administration at the school. Quite good.

Social Studies 20IB was fun. I never had problems with it, I learned to use the required amount of passive-aggressiveness, and it became my best class by the end of the semester.

Biology 20IB was really weird for the first few months. I managed to BS my way past the teacher in terms of basic things (for example, I never did cell theory) and I relied simply on past learnings for the most part. It was during this time that I learned how to make IB labs, but my marks were understandably low for the most part. By the end of the semester, I literally sneaked by with an 85% mark, the required mark to stay in IB.

Finally, Pure Math 10 was really weird. I had four teachers in the space of a single semester. Stuck in a class full of semi-idiots and belligerent grade 10s, I managed to sneak by with an 85% again.

 

I don't know, I just want to show off these flowers.

 

I re-established contact with my friends, for the most part. I have a feeling things could have gone better with a few of them, but no regrets. No use in regretting anything by now. I finished the semester (and the year) with a good note, gaining much in terms of experience, and losing little in the long term. Things were looking up.

Look Into My Eyes (May to September)

I guess I’d better start back up by recounting the things that have happened from the time of the last real update.

Well, in June I finished that year in school, said goodbye to my friends, made sure they knew where to contact me, and I tied up most loose ends. When we moved, we packed up most everything into a big container pallet and shipped it out via truck/ship/train to Calgary.

We arrived at Calgary all fine and everything, except it wasn’t a full year since we left, so the Customs officer couldn’t give us the full tax rebate for the stuff we bought in Mexico. The plane ride was awesome as always, and we went from a Guadalajara->Mexico City->Calgary route instead of the usual passage through the US. This saved us a lot of grief, but DAMN the airport in Mexico City is fecking ugly.

 

Not Mexico City.

 

 

For about a month, we lived in a friend’s house (who rented it to us while he was away fishing at Cold Lake). It had two cats, one asshole, and the other completely lazy. The most significant thing that happened there was the fact that the house came with a huge enormous full HDTV. It was grand to play on it with the Ecksbawks. My brother also arrived a few weeks into the arrival, and he bought me a full Rock Band set for my birthday. It was great, and we played on it every day until he left for Bolivia.

After a month, we moved into the new house, which (now, at least) feels like a real home. We got everything sorted out, everything great and fine, and then I got a new bike. It is the most bitching bike in existence, carrying a very 50s bike feel with it. Sadly, I only had a month or two before it became too cold to ride. As of this writing, it’s warm enough to ride again.

August rolled around, and I was fully signed up at my new high school. The first semester carried with it ELA 20-1, Social Studies 20IB, Biology 20IB, and Pure Math 10. Pure Math 10 was required since my studies in math are… inconsistent. I learned Math 20 and 30 stuff, but I lacked Math 10 stuff. It was at this point that my very passive-aggressive feud with the Math Director at my school started. Very petty stuff, but to be fair, he DID start it.

The hardest month or so of the year was to begin…

Upkeep!

I’ve had to delete a few things in the blag and make a few things and whatnot. I want to move all the Mexico posts over to a new page or category or something to seperate them from these new blag posts, seeing how it has been (practically) a year since those old posts. If anyone with a WordPress blag knows how to do that, tell me.

Anyways, I was looking at my stats, and I noticed this:

 

What

Notice how I ended the blag back in Aught Eight, during Month 5, or May as they call it.

Notice how I have a big spike (89 people, with 24 people visiting during a particularly busy day) sometime in August. I have no idea WHY they visited in such a freaking rush, but I think I have an inkling of what happened.

Y’see, most of the google search referrals to this blag have a certain word in them, something concerning a light tank of some sort. There were many comments on that one post (seeing as how it was responsible for literally every single viewer of the blag for the past year or so), most of them derisive. So, I simply deleted the post and the comments. It was a process akin to nullifying a sample set for a scientific experiment.

Anyways, I’ll definitely try to keep the blog up a long time to come. I’m just so busy that sometimes it is hard. Wish me luck! (For those in Planet TT-Forums, give me back my luck.)

There Was Nothing To Feel, Nothing To Doubt

I think it’s about time I performed Blog Necromancy up here in this joint. A few things to set out!

I am now in Canada, attending Western Canada High School in Calgary. I’m 16 now. I’ve gotten a bunch of new games, suffered many losses, victories, and my life has changed drastically from the last update. You will see less petty small updates, and more things of substance.

I don’t know if anyone visits this blog anymore, or if anyone visited it before. Oh well, I’ll still continue.

Upon the behest of a certain person, the blog is running back up. Updates will be weekly, with maybe a few extra updates in between. I’ll try to do a Spectrogram Analysis sometime each month, not punishing myself by setting a weekly limit on those. Pictures sometimes will be redirected to my server space (generously donated by that certain person) and other isolated pictures will be posted here.

I think the Planet TT-Forums conglomeration is still tracking me, so good luck to them.

Also, Nathan if you see this, email me sometime, yes?

It Lives!

I created this little Lego creation on a whim after being tired of having my iPod just lay around there all in the way and generally ignored while listening to it, so I created a little stand-up dock.

Behold!

You just put in the iPod and ignore the scribbled-on hands in an awkward position…

Then you lock it into place with a simple 3-piece… piece…

And Voila! No wait…

Much better!

Do drop a comment if you like it!

Perdition

I wrote this story for a homework assignment, originally in spanish. Some things may have been lost in translation, but the meaning is still there.
Tell me what you think. Drop a comment.

Perdition

It all started with the Australian. We called him The Australian because he had an odd accent. He was Australian, of course, but with a bit of Scottish in him. He had an air of young naivety, but in reality he was a mature and almost dangerous person. He was a kind lad, rarely angry, but known to go into fits of desperation. I mention him because he introduced me to Her.

She was a photographer, and everything that entailed. Like all professional and semi-professional photographers, she was quite bossy, but secure in herself. I myself am a photographer. A photographer with experience in the old ways and the new ways. We were both under the guidance of Jim.

Jim was a professional photographer who had been on every continent in the Earth. He took photos of the people and places wherever he went, and in his pictures he captured the essence of entire countries. When he wasn’t on a plane or on the streets in foreign places, he was a freelance photographer and a teacher. When we were working, he told us stories of his journeys and experiences, his opinions on countries, and a view of the world in general.

They both come into the story because they are the ones who taught me humility and discipline in photography. They also changed my life. I noticed things that previously went ignored. I opened my eyes to the world around me. I cast off those rose-coloured glasses. I had a purpose in life, and they awakened me to it. I knew what I had to do.

Life is a circle. Everything eventually comes back to the source. Things come and go like the flow of the tides. I remember the story of the puddle on the sidewalk, and how it thought that the world was made for it and it alone, always waiting for an eventuality that never came and ultimately ended in disappointment. It was all part of life. Evaporation was not the end of its short existence, merely the transition into a new one. It’s all part of the inevitable circle of life.

But all in all, these experiences prepared me for the essential point in my life. The Australian, The Photographer, Jim, my friends, my teachers, my colleagues. I hear their voices in my head.

The Australian asks “If you saw a grain of corruption, a malicious action, a fatal lie, would you go out of your place to correct it?”

The Photographer asks “If you could influence the world with your work, even if it meant gaining enemies, would you do it?”

Jim asks “If you could change the world for the better, even if it meant getting out of place and risking your life, would you do it, even knowing that your life would drastically change?

It all prepared me for this moment. This singular important moment that was the culmination and pinnacle of my life. I threw discretion away, and threw myself into the middle of the revolution. I launched myself through the streets, searching for that perfect angle and the correct moment. In it, I found the meaning of life, of love, of friendship, of charity, of humanity, and the meaning of life itself.

And I took the photo that changed the world.

Still Alive

Yes, I am still alive. I’m just lazy, tired, and generally stressed out. Laboral Experience ended out alright. Took a trip to Michoacan a week after it ended. Then, did nothing for a week and a half.

Sort of annoying, really.

Anyways, a big announcement.
I’ll be back in Canada hopefully by mid-June. Early July at worst. Never if dead.
The special thing about it? I’m moving back there, it’s not just a vacation. So, if any Canadian friends are reading this (you know who you are), please keep it to yourselves until I can make it truly public. That means no telling anyone else unless they were in our class until I give the signal.

That out of the way, I’m off. I’ll post again sometime, maybe, if I don’t forget my password for the three millionth time.