The many faces of "okay"

So, texting.  Also, Facebook or Gmail chat or whatever.  We've all had that time, like the common situation I illustrate below, when you have nothing to say but "okay."  But how to do it?  Do you use "ok?" Or maybe just "k?"  Today, I solve the conundrum!

Let's get down to it, then!

Option One: "Okay"
It's simple.  It's classic.  What more to say?

Pros:
- Classy
- Traditional
- Makes you sound British.  Not that British people say "okay" any more than any other people, just that saying the full "okay" makes you sound like the kind of person who sips tea by the fire wearing a bow tie.

Cons:
- Long.  I mean, four letters is a lot to type when I'm such an important person
- Makes you sound formal, like a stuffy penguin who never has any fun.

This penguin is clearly stuck-up and unfriendly.  Don't be like this penguin.

Option Two: "'kay"
A nice abbreviation that lets you skip a whole letter, sort of.

Pros:
- The apostrophe in 'kay makes you sound kind of like Hagrid.  And half-giants are cool.  What's that?  You're just big-boned?  I didn't mean to offend you.
- Sounds kinda ghetto.  'kay, man, fo' shizzle.

Cons:
- Sounds kinda ghetto.
- Apostrophes are hard on most phones.  And skipping the apostrophe and just saying "kay" is just wrong.  I mean, what if it's someone's name?

Gangsta penguins (like this bad guys) say 'kay

Option Three: "k"
One of the most scorned abbreviations on the internet

Pros:

- Short and simple

- Can be used interchangeably with "potassium," to the confusion of all your non-nerd friends

Cons:

- Could get you scorned or killed slowly with a blunt weapon

Option Four: "kk"

For those who want to sound cute, and don't want to open themselves to the derision of the "k" users.

Pros:

Can't think of any

Cons:

- sounds dumb

- could be accidentally mistyped as "kkk," leading to many potentially awkward situations.

This is the penguin that "kk" reminds me of

Option Five: "OK" or "ok" or "Ok"

I use OK because that's what my phone corrects it to.  You might use ok.  "Ok" makes me thing of the alot.  I think that the Ok would would be a cross between an oxen and a kangaroo, and it is summoned in awkward conversations when the only thing left to say is "Ok."

Pros:

- Simple.

- Socially acceptable

Cons:

- From this point on, whenever you see the word "Ok," you will now have the image of the terrifying ox-kangaroo cross-breed I have created.  I am very sorry.

That came out looking much less cool and much more demented-centaur
than I was intending.  I apologize.

Wait, what's that you say?  This post needs more penguin pictures?  All right.  I comply with your demands.

I urge you to watch this video. 

Hey guys, I'm still alive

Yeah, the hurricane blew the roof off my house, and now I'm drifting down Main Street on a salvaged car bumper, typing this on a internet-enabled microwave.

Actually, I'm sitting in my brightly lit bedroom, having just watched the first episode of Sherlock (which I finally have time to watch).  It's pretty much stopped raining, and I still don't have school tomorrow.  Whyyyyyyy?

I've been watching people look live-blog the storm, seen horrible reports, the whole deal. The most exciting thing here? Well, at one point, the wind blew pretty loudly, and I couldn't hear Benedict Cumberbatch's witty remark.

Today, I read two chapters in my AP Physics textbook for fun (because we won't cover them in class). I guess I'll do the problems tomorrow.

In case you couldn't tell, this has been a disappointing hurricane on my end.

Halloween Movies

Last night, I went to a friend's house for a Halloween hang-out thing.  We wanted to watch a Halloween movie, but half the people wanted to watch a horror movie (like, The Omen or The Exorcist) and half were terrified of that and wanted to watch Ghostbusters or The Nightmare Before Christmas (which I'm not entirely sure if it's a Halloween movie or a Christmas movie...).

So we compromised and ended up watching this hilariously terrible 80s movie called "Killer Klowns from Outer Space."  It was horrible.  Like, you have no idea.  It was entertaining solely because it was so horrible

There were these clowns from outer space that shot popcorn at people, and then wrapped them up in cotton-candy cocoons to eat.  And the main characters were so stupid that we were rooting for the clowns.  It was bad.

BUT we had a good time.  Several of my friends are likely going to sleep with their lights on for a while.  We got to criticize it and scream at the screen and make fun of the continuity flaws.  Like, how the girl takes off her pants by pulling them UP.  We were confused.

I'm trying to imagine what would happen if we had killer clowns descend upon Earth.  Mostly, I think it would be awesome.

Oh, and then we watched half of a movie called "Troll Hunters" which was in Norwegian.  I'd already seen it - it's actually quite good.  In a weird sort of way.

I'm thinking I might post about this whole hurricane thing next.  I can either tell you about how awesome it was, or how much of a disappointment it was.  If I have power.  See ya then!

I have a problem

See, I know a lot of facts.  And I like to tell them to people, because having a more informed populace is good, right?

Well, I'm just afraid my friends will hate me.

Consider the following, which was posted on my Facebook wall by a very good friend, whom I'm very close with:

My first reaction was to comment something like this:

"Actually, it wasn't a space jump.  People said that Felix jumped from 'the edge of space,' but actually, the (arbitrarily) politically defined 'edge of space' is 100 km above Earth, and Felix only jumped from 37 km up.   However, if we're talking about the scientific edge of space, you could say that there are still remnants of earth's atmosphere as far as 10000 km away.  However, it is the highest he could have physically gotten in his helium balloon, because helium rises only because it is less dense than air.  The atmosphere gets less dense the higher you go, so above 37 km, helium is no longer less dense than the atmosphere, and the balloon won't rise any higher.  I agree though, it was a pretty cool jump."

However, I read that over, and immediately I became slightly worried that my friend would hate me to the end of time for going all factual on what was clearly meant as a fun post.

So, as of yet, I haven't commented.  I don't know what to say!

This problem isn't new, either.  And the last time, I actually posted the comment.  AND it was on a political post, making it 10 times worse.

One of my friends was talking about the news that Romney was using a KKK slogan in his campaign.  This sounded ridiculous to me, so I googled it.  I found the following sources of information:
a) The campaign video that used the alleged KKK slogan
b) The Washington Post article that accused Romney of the deed
c) The editor's note at the top of the article, which admits that the article "contains multiple serious, factual errors" including that fact that the video that sparked this whole debacle says, at the end, "Mitt Romney does not actually support this ad."

So I commented on my friend's post with this news.  I was pretty polite about it, I think.  I guess my friend was a bit unhappy with how I had ruined her anti-Romney post.  Oops.

I just don't know what to do.  I try to tell my friends interesting things (like, last week I enlightened them about how the Earth is in a stable orbit with the sun, which is what prevents us from spiraling inward into a fiery combustion).  And the other day, when we walked by a creepy winged angel statue, I educated them all about the dangers of blinking.

Seriously though.  I don't know how to reply to the Felix post.  What do I do?

Also, here's my Felix Baumgartner artwork!  The Gallifreyan text says "Sometimes you have to get really high just to see how small you are."  Which is an actual Felix quote before he jumped.

I think I'm vaguely stuck in the 90's...

Despite the fact that I'm barely old enough the remember the 90s.

You see, back this spring, my dad replaced the radio system in my car (against my protests that it was perfectly functional, thank you very much).  Or rather, the car that my parents so graciously allow me to drive.

Now, my radio has a fancy radio, a USB and auxiliary input.  I hardly use them.  All I use is my CD slot.

I love CDs, and I don't know why.  It would be easier, and higher quality, less wasteful, and the same thing if I just made playlists and played those.  But there is something I can't give up about CDs.

It's irrational, I know.  It drives my dad bonkers.  Sorry.

Maybe I'm just a hipster?  I dunno.  I just love my CDs.

On an absolutely, totally unrelated note, I broke my phone.  (That's not really true.  It was a very logical, straightforward thinking process.  I went to Wikipedia to read about CDs, because I was curious.  It made me think of my Wikipedia app and how I love it with all my heart, because I can read random things whenever I want, which made me think of my phone.)

While on vacation, I dropped it.  It smacked the corner of a wooden table and got a deep crack in it.  Luckily, the touch screen still works (as of right now, at least) but it's done funky things to the LCD screen.  It started with purplish discolorment that started around the deepest crack, and slowly spread across the screen like a rainbow.  Once a full rainbow made it across, now it's all dark and hard to read.  Not fun, and it's gonna cost a lot to fix.  :(

Because that description did not adequately capture the situation, I made a guide to show the progression of the death of my screen.  I'm quite proud.

The nerdiness of this post is slightly overwhelming

So I'm at a program at WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute - college in Massachusetts) and it's pretty freaking awesome.  Just thought you should know.

So here's how this goes down: 200 nerds from across the globe gathered together to be awesome and learn things.  I'm in physics, so we're learning about astronomy and black holes and quantum mechanics and special relativity and all that mind-blowing theoretical craziness.  I'm also in creative writing, since we're required to take one main STEM class (physics) and also one Humanities and Arts class, for this camp that I'm at.

Basically, it's amazing.  We've played countless games of Magic the Gathering and Settlers of Catan and Egyptian Rat-Screw.  We've held many Rubik's Cube competitions.  We've broken out into Disney medleys on the bus.  We've had light saber duels on the quad (nerf guns are, quite unfortuantely, forbidden at WPI).  We've played Ninja, quite a bit.  We've had multi-hour-long debates about quantum physics and how one would survive the eventual collapse of the universe (including detailed plans on how to become a cyborg-human and create an alternate universe within a quantum computer).  We've eaten ice cream cake at 8AM. 

The best part is, we're all crazy nerds here.  Not only do they understand my nerdy t-shirts, we can have awesome debates about Legend of Korra or Death Note or Nerdfighteria.  We all understand the internet jokes that everyone makes.

The funny thing is, every morning, the Program Assistants slip an announcement sheet under your dorm door, listing out the day's schedule and announcements.  And on the back, they put a comic.  For the past three days, its been an xkcd comic, and about 80% of the camp was talking about how they'd seen that comic before.  It's great.

Anyways, just letting you know that I'm not dead, and that I'm actually being awesome, just not online.  I have real-life nerd friends too!  Be proud of me.

I cleaned out my backpack today

My mom always nags me about how heavy my backpack is, and I always insist that I need everything that's in it.  Well, since school's over tomorrow, I cleaned it out today.  Here's what I found.  You can tell me if you think I really need it all, but I swear: it's all necessary.

Things I Found In My Backpack (Besides, you know, actual schoolwork and things)

• 2 books (I, Lucifer and Virals)
• 1 planner (unused since February)
• 3 Rubik's cubes (one normal, one from the Mathworks, one hell cube)
• 1 Book Sock (cupcake design)
• 1 HUGE binder clip (like three inches wide)
• 10 erasable gel pens (my favorite things in the world)
• 1 bottle of White-Out
• 2 calculators (scientific and graphing)
• 2 zombie finger puppets (necessary-I swear)
• 1 school ID card (squashed beneath my math textbook)
• 1 Vera Bradley change purse
• 1 yellow highlighter
• 1 silver Sharpie
• 1 dinosaur rubber ducky (Again, this was completely necessary to carry to school every day)
• 18 buttons (like the pin type that I stick on my backpack)
• 2 CDs
• 1 DVD (thankfully in a case)
• Approximately 400 vocab notecards (I didn't count, sorry)
• 5 chopsticks (not sure where the 5th one's partner went)
• 1 tube of body lotion (made everything in my backpack smell like pomegranate)
• 1 hairbrush
• 2 necklaces

You never know when you might need these things, okay?  I like to be prepared!

Ferdinand has a message for y'all

I'm sorry, people.

Yeah, it's been like a month since I last posted.  Do I feel bad?

...well, a little bit.  But it's been busy, I swear!  I mean, in the time I've been gone:

• AP Psychology Exam
• AP World History Exam
• Prom
• Prom #2 (at my date's school)
• "Saving the world" end-of-year history project (in which my group is focusing on micronutrient biofortification, mostly because I love saying all those syllables)
• And other things.  Like, you know, living!  Be proud of me, I have a life!

Yeah, as you can see, I really honestly could have posted.  But I didn't.  In apology, I will give you this picture of a....thing.  I honestly don't know what it is; I just know that it's carrying a pink sparkly magic wand.  I'm going to call it Ferdinand.

Please enjoy casting your eyes upon Ferdinand in all his splendor.  I wonder why he has a pink sparkly magic wand?  That, my friends, is an answer you will only discover if you forgive me for not having posted in, like, eons.

I won't make excuses.  I'm just here to apologize, and I'll try to post something decent in the near future.  Until then....Ferdinand has a little something for you:

So...Nathaniel Hawthorne was Sicilian?

I think the thing that made my day was when I discovered that Nathaniel Hawthorne used the word "inconceivable" in The Scarlet Letter.

We had a sub in English, and were assigned to read chapters 10 and 11.  Being the good, dutiful students that we are, my friends and I did the work.  We read in a happy reading circle: we sat criss-cross applesauce on the floor and switched off every sentence.

People looked at us strangely, which was the best part, but the sub pretended not to notice.  Then we came across the part with "inconceivable" and my friend shouted it, since we're all big Princess Bride fans.  The sub looks up and stares right at us, says "I do not think it means what you think it means."  Then she kept doing work like nothing had happened.

Made my day.

So, tonight, I have a presentation night for something called Humanities Scholar's Collaborative.  A bunch of students apply, and you get to be part of the group that meets with HSC groups at other schools, and goes to local colleges to hear professors talk about something in relation to the year's theme, which this year is "the family in America."  Tonight is the culminating night, in which each group performs a skit about the American family structure in an assigned decade.  We're doing the 1990s.

I get to play a neighborhood gossip woman.  I also get to wear a visor, scrunchie, and fanny pack - classic stereotypical suburban 90s mom.  This shall be exciting.

Finally, the only other noteworthy news is that Relay For Life was last Friday.  My friend and I set a goal to walk 100 laps - our track is 1/4 miles so that's 25 miles.  Originally, we actually wanted 105 laps so we could say we walked a marathon, but we ran out of time.  We actually had to sprint the last few laps so we could finish before they kicked everyone out at 6am.  We were sprinting after having walked 24 miles.

Yeah, I could hardly move my legs for the rest of the weekend.

Trust me, I have an excuse

Once again, I'm doing my "Friday" 56 on a Saturday.  But wait!  It's okay!  I have an excuse!  I spent the day getting stitches.  Yeah.  Feel sorry for me.

I have this freaking epic scar on the side of my lip now.  Why, you ask?  Oh, I was just practicing my French kissing.  With a shark.

Kidding.  I was in a knife fight.

So I took the ACT this morning (running on very little sleep, having spent Thursday night in the ER).  I'm hoping i did okay.  I forgot my calculator, so I did the whole thing using just a four-function calculator that they loaned me.  Ick.  I've mentioned my rampant love for my scientific calculator in the past, so leaving it behind for this important test was kind of depressing.

But anyways, on to the Friday 56.  You guys are going to be kind of disappointed this week.  I have two books sitting in front of me, and I'm too lazy to go find another one at the moment.  I have my AP Psychology textbook, and Webster's New French Dictionary (does that mean that they have words in New French, as opposed to Old French, or that it's a New dictionary?).  And for a double-whammy, I'll give you a sentence (or, in the dictionary's case, a word) from each!  Think of all the things you'll learn about Psychology and French!

"Tens of billions of neurons, each communicating with thousands of other neurons, yield an ever-changing wiring diagram that dwarfs a powerful computer."
--"Psychology" Ninth Edition by David G, Myers


"Cantankerous [kæn'tæɳkərs] adj acariâtre"
--"Webster's New French Dictionary"


There you have it.  Now you know how to call someone cantankerous, in French!  Use this knowledge well.

There has been too much action in reaction to political scandals. Please write to your congressman to repeal Newton's third law.

Ahh, physics.

So, I have a physics project that I have to do.  It's meant to help us learn about torque.  Basically, we have to make a mobile.  You know, those things with sticks and objects hanging from them, most often seen above baby cribs?  We have to use the laws of torque to create a mobile out of any objects we want, and make sure that it balances.

So originally, my friend and I planned to use fuzzy dice (those things people hang from their rearview mirrors) as our hanging objects, because fuzzy dice are sort of a running inside joke in our physics class.  But I told my circus teacher (yeah, I take circus classes) about the project, and he suggested that I make my mobile out of people.

It was great.  We had these 20-foot metal Chinese poles lying around, and we weighed everyone, and did the calculations, and spliced ropes, and constructed this enormous mobile.  And we put people on it.  The surprising part was that it actually balanced, and we didn't all die.

But yeah.  I wasn't sure how my teacher would react to my, erm, creative project. (Especially since the assignment sheet said a) that the mobile should be less than 100 cm tall and b) you should not use fragile or valuable objects.  I'm honestly not sure whether humans count as valuable or fragile.) But I showed him the video and he freaking loved it.

Here it is.  I'm the one in yellow, though I'm sure you didn't need me to tell you that.  It's obvious that I'm the awesome one.

That's all, folks.  May the mass times acceleration be with you.

I'm a sucker for nerd jokes.

This has been bothering me for a while

Sorry to post yet another post about The Hunger Games, but I really need your input on this.  It's been bugging me.

So there are 24 kids in the Games, right?  12 girls, 12 boys.

12 girls.

If we say that your period lasts an average of five days, and there are 30 days in a month, that should mean that, at any given time, at least two of the female tributes should be on their period.

Right?

How the Capitol handle this?  Are there some boxes of Tampax hidden in the Cornucopia?  It wouldn't make sense if they girls' uniforms were made differently from the boys' to account for this, because then they might have an advantage in some way.  Are tributes responsible for bringing their own stuff?  So does this mean that any girl who'll be on her period during the Games would have to bring some tampons as their district token?  Cuz that would kind of suck.

Plus, it would give them a disadvantage in the games.  Do you really think a girl who's curled up with cramps is ready to fight to the death with some male tributes who don't need to worry about it?  Or what if there was water with sharks in it, and they smelled the blood?

Maybe the Capitol messes with their bodies so that they just don't have periods.  Wouldn't that make all the girls unable to have children?

I'm trying to remember if any of the female victors that we meet end up having kids.  Oh yeah!  **SPOILER ALERT** Katniss had kids!  **END SPOILER ALERT**

Clearly, that's incorrect then.  Besides, that would be unfair to the girls.  If they messed with the girls' bodies so they couldn't reproduce, they would have to cut off all the guys' balls or something, just to make it fair.  And Finnick makes it clear that this is not the case.

Anyone have any ideas on how this works?  Maybe I'm just reading into it way too much, but I've been wondering about this, and I'm stumped.

May the odds be ever in your favor (LIES)

The odds are clearly not in your favor if there's a 1 out of 24 chance of survival.  Favorable odds, to me, means that there's a higher probability of winning than there is of losing.  I'm not taking AP Statistics until next year, but I know enough to recognize that 4% is not particularly favorable.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, please go read The Hunger Games.  It's a fantastic book.  I don't feel like blogging about the Hunger Games, though, because of all the movie hype.  EVERYONE is talking about it.

Right now, I'm reading "The Hunger Pains," a hilarious parody starring "Kantkiss Neverclean" from District 12, the undesirable telemarketing district.  This book is the newest parody from the Harvard Lampoon, whom you might know as the author of "Nighlight," the Twilight parody.

It's freaking hilarious, people.  

But besides that.  Hunger Games are way too overdone at the moment (I'm seeing the movie tomorrow!)  Instead, let's talk about more awesome things, like, um...did you know it was 80 degrees yesterday?

This is pitiful.  I'm so pathetic that I'm talking about the weather.

So, do you guys remember about a month ago, when I posted about President's Day and listed all the US presidents in order from memory?  Well, that skill came in handy recently.  Sort of.  Ish.

I had a vocab quiz in American Lit, and my teacher included a random bonus question: "Who is Sylvia Ward?"*  The name sounded familiar, but I wasn't sure who it was.  So, instead, I wrote the following:

"I'm not really sure who Sylvia Ward is.  Sorry.  I instead propose a new bonus question: 'List all the US presidents in order.'" And I then proceeded to list them all on my test.

I didn't expect points or anything, but the next day in class, my teacher says "I was grading the vocab quizzes last night, and there were some...interesting responses to the bonus question.  For example, Anne said..." And she told the class my answer.

It was hilarious and my face turned totally red.  She didn't give me points, but I got a smiley face on my paper.  It was kind of funny.  Well, a lot.

Have you ever put "questionable" answers down on tests?  How did it work out?  All my friends were just like, "you're so nerdy" and I answered "yeah, I know."  One friend, who shares my history-geekiness, agreed that I was a genius, which was quite nice.

*In case you wanted to know, Sylvia Ward Dr. Heidegger's lover in the story "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" by Nathaniel Hawthorne.  Kudos to you if you knew that!

I'm on a QUEST(ion)!

So I was tagged in a Question Thing by the lovely blogger Catherine, and, even though I'm bad at this kind of thing (I mean, everyone lies to make themselves sound cooler.  Yes, admit it.  But I'll try to be truthful at least 94% of the time.) I'll give it a go.

The Rules:

1. You must post the rules.
2. Post eleven fun facts about yourself on the blog post.
3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you've tagged. 
4. Tag eleven bloggers, however, you can break the rules and tag fewer people if you want. Make sure you hyperlink their names/blogs.
5. Let them know you've tagged them!
6. Have fun! 

1. What is your biggest fear and why?
I'm afraid of people ignoring me.  I have way too much to say for that too happen.  I might explode.

2. What are your plans for the future?
Go to college, get a well-paying job, get married, get rich, have 2.4 children and a dog, live in the suburbs with a white picket fence.

PSYCH!  Actually, I want to live on a mountain.  In a castle (with lots of secret passages) and mountains.  I like mountains.  And beyond that, I have no idea.

3. Do you prefer a nice stomach or a nice butt on the opposite sex?
When I first read this, I thought it meant actual stomach, like that they were good at eating, but I guess it means abs.  I say, I don't care. Just be nice overall.

4. What are your opinions on gay marriage? 
Very supportive. Very.

5. What do you think about Rebecca Black?
I think she doesn't deserve the fame she got when there are so many really good singers out there who could use that kind of well-known-ness.

6. How many pairs of heels do you own?
One, I think.  Maybe?  I don't like heels, even though I'm only 5'2".

7. Share the experience of your first kiss.
Kind of weird.  Let's leave it at that.

8. List 3 things you like about yourself, and 3 things you don't like.
I like my nerdiness, awesomeness, and craziness.  I dislike my shortness, awkwardness, and craziness.


9. What is the worst pickup line you've ever heard? (check out my last post titled - Pickup lines at their worst, for ideas if your stuck)
I love looking up nerdy pickup lines, so I'm just going to list a few of those:
"If you were sine squared and I was cosine squared, together we'd be one."
"Let's do some math: add a bed, subtract the clothes, divide the legs, and hope you don't multiply."

"If I were an enzyme, I'd be a DNA helicase so I could unzip your genes."

10. How many hours a day or week do you spend blogging?

Each post takes me one or two hours, depending on how long it is and whether it comes with pictures.  And I post once, maybe twice a week,

11. Would you rather have eternal health, wealth or love? Explain.
Not health, because then I'd sit there and watch all my friends die around me.  Love might be cool, I guess.  Saying wealth would make me sound all greedy-like, but I'm torn between love and wealth.  How about I have a bit of each?


Okay, now I tag people.  Whoopee!
Quirky Screamage-ism, and such
An Abundance of Rambling
[I Am Unimaginative]
Defenestrated Feet
Tangential Bemusings
Peace. Love. Rock n Roll. Various Other Things

My Questions for You Guys are the Following:

1) What is your favorite smell?

2) Who would win in a fight: Neil Patrick Harris or Darren Criss?

3) Tell us a nerdy joke.

4) Describe a situation in which socks and sandals would be acceptable footwear.

5) How will you ever get out of this labyrinth?

6) What food would you like to have growing on a tree in your backyard?

7) Compose a poem describing the nature of a stubbed toe at 3 AM.

8) What is a quark?

9) What is the best way to eat an Oreo?

10) Feelings about Kony 2012?

11) What would you do with a superpower that allowed you to use your toes as fingers?

Am I really the only one who sees the resemblance?

This is the Puma logo:


So here's what I noticed: what if you turn the puma sideways?  Looks something like this:

Which, I think, looks something like a deranged monkey doing the Thriller dance.  This is my sister, who doesn't resemble the puma as much as I'd like, because she was pretty stubborn when I asked her to pose like a deranged monkey doing the Thriller dance.  But seriously, am I really the only one who sees what's going on here?

Well, the point of this post was to teach you that a new way to look at a puma logo.  Go forth and share the enlightenment with the world!

It's a nice thought, but...

So I happened upon this comic:

It's a nice thought.  Aww, how sweet.  Math love.  The only problem is, it's a nerdy joke that wouldn't actually work on real nerds.  I read it, and I couldn't help visualizing the scene that would play out if anyone ever tried this trick on me:

...Yeah.  Not quite the intended result.

In other news, I spent the weekend on a ski trip in Vermont.  A great deal of the weekend was based on this comic, which I find hilarious:

So my friends and I would break out in song on the chairlifts (often freaking out the strangers riding with us) and throw our palms in each other's faces.

Um...Yeah...

I SET FIIIIIIIIRE TO THE RAIN, WATCHED IT POUR, AS I TOUCHED YOUR FACE

*virtually touches your face*

I enjoy messing with people

I went to the bank to get money the other day, and the bank teller guy asked me how I wanted the bills.  I said "Um...how about in two-dollar bills?"

He paused, and looked at me with a face vaguely resembling this:

But he didn't say anything, and proceeded to pull out a little official-looking envelope from a little cabinet, and counted out a whole bunch of $2 bills.  The other tellers sort of looked at him weirdly, and he didn't say anything, just handed me my stack of two-dollar bills.

Great.  My bank thinks I'm a freak.

But this doesn't matter, because I am dancing around with my fresh stack of two-dollar bills.  I love these things so much, for several reasons.

1) Sometimes, people don't know that you can just ask for them at a bank.  They think $2 bills are rare.  Therefore, if you're convincing enough, you can persuade your friends to buy them off you for $3 or so.  I haven't had any success yet, but I'm working on it.

2) My brother likes to spend them all the time because he says he's "trying to bring them back into circulation."  I love spending them too, but for a different reason.  First, the cashier always looks at me, and the bill, really weirdly.  In some cases, I've heard that cashiers vehemently accuse you of counterfeit (or just refuse it), because they don't believe there's such thing as a two-dollar bill.  Hasn't happened to me, though.  But here's my favorite part.  See, cash register have specific slots for different types of bills and coins, and they don;t have a $2 bill slot.  So their hand sort of hovers between the $1 and $5 slots, trying to figure out what to do with it.  It reminds me delightfully of the spork scene in Wall-E.

It makes me crack up every time.

Better late than never, right?

Today is February 7.

Five days ago, I meant write a lovely rant about Groundhog Day.  Well, you're about to be subject to said rant, because instead of the five-second rule, I follow the five-day rule.  Groundhog Day is still fair game.

Speaking of fair game, it's not like you would prefer me to write about the Super Bowl, right?  *cue groans and screams of agony*

...

After that introduction, I'm worried that my lovely rant cannot live up to such high expectations.  You're thinking that this rant had better be INCREDIBLE to be worth posting five days late.

It isn't incredible.  It's average.  Mediocre.  Practically incoherent.

I just realized this whole post is a big fat wad of disappointment waiting to happen.

BUT

Even disappointment can be a good present if it looks nice.  I shall wrap this disappointment in shiny wrapping paper, with glitter, and all will be right in the world.

How shall I accomplish this?  Friends, allow me to present: The Illustrated Rant - Groundhog Day Edition

So, we had some snow...

You know what the Nazca lines are?  They're these huge giant lines in the middle of Peru.  On the ground, they look something like this:

Not very impressive, right?  Just some dusty lines in the sand.  Well, these lines go on for miles and miles, and when you fly over them and look from above, they look like this:

Crazy, huh?  They were somehow made before the people were actually able to look at them, and make sure they looked right.  Impressive.

So anyways, my sister and I decided to make our own, reduced-size version of the Nazca lines in the snow.  Here's what we ended up with:

It doesn't look quite right because the photo is taken from our second-story bathroom.  We couldn't convince our mom to let us rent a helicopter to fly directly over it and take a proper picture.

I wonder if it can be seen by people in airplanes.  That would be SO COOL.

Ultimate Battle: Neil Patrick Harris vs. the Milk Carton of Doom

This happened about two weeks ago, but I forgot to post it, so here's a fun story.

First, during Creative Writing, we did something called "found" poems, in which we cut words out of magazines and glued them together to make poems.  I was cutting up a People magazine when I found a lovely picture of Darren Criss singing to me.  My friend then found a random picture of Neil Patrick Harris holding a chicken (no, I don't know why).  We cut them out and I saved them.  

Next period, for our AP World test, I gave Darren Criss to my friend as a good luck charm, and then gave NPH to another friend during lunch.  After lunch, we wander down to the office and find a hole in the wall, as though someone had taken a 2 by 3 by 4 inch block out of the wall.  We stood there for a while, pondering why there was a hole in the wall.

We never found out why, but my friend had a great idea to put Neil Patrick Harris (and his chicken) into the hole, just to see how long it lasted, and if anyone would notice.  We propped him up and said goodbye.

Meanwhile, Darren Criss got taped to his own special page in my friend's history notebook, labeled with the caption "This is what supermegafoxyawesomehot looks like."

Two days later, we went to check on Neil Patrick Harris.  He was gone, and the hole instead had a milk carton in it.  Strange.

Moral?  In a fight between Neil Patrick Harris (+ chicken) and a milk carton, bet on the milk carton.