Distemper

I guess I'll just throw in a post with some links to my user-created Sporcle quizzes. I've placed a badge linking to the site in the Links section. In short, Sporcle is a site with a bunch of fun trivia quizzes on many topics. Popular ones include:
Countries of the World
NFL Teams
The Simpsons Characters
Periodic Table
Commonest English Words

They enabled the creation of user-made quizzes sometime around September last year. It doesn't have the full capabilities as some published quizzes, but a lot of pretty impressive and creative quizzes have already been made thus far by various users. Ones that are popular enough or really novel may get published by Sporcle as an official quiz.

I am already rather humbled that any of my quizzes managed to garner some level of popularity, but I'm not sure if any of them will be published. The most well-accepted ones so far are:

Shape-Describing Words
How would you describe in a single word something shaped like a cross, or a star? This quiz might help... Definite plus if you know some Latin or Greek vocab, but there are a lot of words whose meanings can easily be inferred.

Look-Alikes: Hidden Objects [pic]
I took a picture from the book Look-Alikes by Joan Steiner (amazingly creative, I read it when I was younger and loved it) and asked you to identify all the everyday objects Steiner used to create the picture. She uses objects in a way such that they "look alike" to something else, such as using slices of bread to create a sidewalk or a lemon juicer to look like a spinning carnival ride, all rather convincingly.

Pokémon Trainer Classes (Gen I)
Pokémon Trainer Classes (Gen II)
Hopefully if you played Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow back in the day, or even the Gold/Silver/Crystal versions, this might give you a nice nostalgic blast. Can you remember all those annoying trainers from the game who stop you in your tracks, walk up to you to say something completely non-sequitur, and then challenge you to Pokémon battles?

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Here are also some of my other quizzes. There is a bias on Pokemon-based quizzes since those were mostly the ones I started making first before branching out to other topics. I do have some more pending release, like "Accidental Inventions/Discoveries" which I'll release soon...

Classical Mythology Lovers
Identify the lovers from famous classical mythology couples. For example, the woman whose face "launched a thousand ships"...?

Common Drug Delivery Forms
You'll find examples of all of these around the local pharmacy or hospital somewhere. What common methods exist to deliver medicine/drugs into the body?

Pocky & Pretz Flavors
If only I was able to try all of these flavours...Mmm Pocky.

Pokémon by Cry I
Pokémon by Cry II
This was an interesting idea to put together. Can you identify the Pokémon based on the sound they make in the game? Too bad it's not what they say in the anime, since that would make the quiz rather easy. ;)

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And now, all the really niche quizzes/rest of the many Pokémon quizzes.

Non-Evolving Pokémon
These Pokémon defy the laws of evolution. Then again, so do the ones that do evolve since individuals do not evolve. Oh well.

Pokémon Supporting Characters (Game)
No single quiz would be able to encompass all those supporting characters from the anime, so I compromised with supporting characters from the games.

Pokémon Without Footprints
Pokémon by Footprint
Ever wondered what it's like to be a Pokémon forensic podiatrist? ...Me neither. Yet these quizzes exist!

Foreign Pokémon Names
It seems English Charmanders say "Charmander!" while French Charmanders say "Salamèche!". Weird.

Digimon Partners (anime)
Strange that all the world-dominating digital supervillains always seem to show up at Japan first.

Word Disassociation Lyrics
This quiz is flouncy, panicky redundant.

ALL OTHERS WILL BE CRUSHERD

Most intense exam schedule ever. I had to do my first ever true all-nighter. I think I've always had some sleep the night before an exam, even if only for a few hours. Compounding the problem was that they were all cumulative exams covering content from September. The "plus" side was that I ended rather early, allowing me the luxury of having more time to mourn the senseless deterioration of my brain.

Exam Schedule
PCL365 - 12/04 - 9:30am-12:30pm - GB304 - Toxicology Lab
PSL302 - 12/09 - 9am-12pm - BN2N - Physiology
PCL302 - 12/10 - 9am-12pm - EM119 - Pharmacodynamics
CLA204 - 12/10 - 7-9pm - East Hall, UC - Classical Myth
LMP363 - 12/11 - 9am-12pm - RW229 - Pathobiology
BCH370 - 01/13 - ? - ? - Biochemistry Lab

The three day chunk officially doesn't count as a conflict. As well, all of the tests (except for physiology) were short answer format, not MC. Unfortunately, unlike the spring term exams, there is no studying week beforehand. However starting next year a modified schedule is being implemented which allows for a few days of studying before the fall exams, but taking some away from the week before the spring exams to compensate. There's also this strange November break added in which I guess would help for the midterm crunch. A lot of these new breaks also count the weekend, so 5-day breaks are really more of 3-day breaks. I guess the weekend breaks apply more for university staff than students.

I would say although this was the most stressful semester by far, with six courses and some type of evaluation every week since the end of September, the content of the courses learned seemed more satisfactory. It's probably because we're starting to learn more about new content that we haven't been taught in detail about before. The courses are beginning to overlap somewhat too.

I took classical myth as an elective, and I would say that the learning experience is much less enjoyable and impressionable as it was in high school. The whole course was to essentially memorize everything in this textbook and then spill out names, terms and essays in a short amount of time. Perhaps I'm just not as used to this style of learning. I was surprised because this course is apparently in high demand, and for this past semester the waitlist in September after classes started had about 100 people. A lot of the myths that I was more intimate with from high school were glossed by in a very bare-bones manner. Of course the text was very informative and contained all the necessary details about the myths, but didn't seem to give much importance or emotion to the stories. But I guess you can't really demand much more in a university setting.

Anyway all of that is done now. There is another week or so to do non-school stuff before preparing for January midterm and labs.

"Non-school stuff" includes:
iSketch
osu!
Sporcle
FAILBlog

Also to remind you about all the shovelling you had to do:

Approximately the amount of snow that fell so far this weekend, according to my backyard table.

I have pressure!

Lots and lots of crap coming up basically every day these next few weeks. I hate you so much, most of June.

In terms of the movies I saw the last week, I felt that The Emperor's Club had really good casting, and The DaVinci Code had not-so-good casting. The Emperor's Club also reflected the concept of karma consistently throughout the movie.

...yeah.

Cubyrop

And so, Conference '06 is done.

Here's the Mad-Lib P.10 made. You could tell which group chose which words. ._.

In the beginning, there was poop, which was a dog of dark and endless puffy buttocks. Then one day, miraculously, a flamboyant unibrow appeased from the vortex and broke into two sandwiches. When it broke, the light that radiated from it blew away the clouds, gyrating the Earth underneath and the Heavens above.

The golden unibrow was the Creator, Monica Lewinsky, and when she shattered into two parts they each became a deity: Zaheer, the god of the emptiness, and Sally the goddess of hairbrush. They coexisted peacefully. One went up to the Heavens and the other stayed on Earth. Eventually they began to thrust between where the Brokeback Mountain between the Earth and the Heavens lay. The god of the heavens said that he deserved to have a jucier kingdom because the dragonflies needed to fly freely across stretches of thong. The goddess of the land said that the land provides the potential for life and should be allowed room to defenestrate.

The two deities eventually began to party. Each one attempted to expand the cubic centimetres of their rugs. The great god scattered his naval across the wind, and each seed grew into a being of free-thought and lust. The benevolent goddess shed some of her blood and let it fall to the ravishing earth, and when each drop landed a being full of life and misery sprouted.

But throughout the squabbling of the gods, they did not expunge that some of the seeds mated into a puddle of the shed blood, and from that combination ostracized man. The gods finally took notice of this being, and decided to solve their dispute. The deities all decided to live in the heavens, and man and his fellow dogs could thrust on the fertile earth.

Hmm, "thrust" was used twice by two different groups.

"I can't, I'm busy all night talking with my girlfriend."

clas·sic (klăs'ĭk)
n.
classics The languages and literature of ancient Greece and Rome. Used with the.

con·fer·ence (knfr-ns, -frns)
n.
An assembly of clerical or of clerical and lay members from a particular district in various Protestant churches.

I'll be there.

The Matrix Rectangular - Coming [200|7]

Done...until next week. The torture will be fended off until the Physicalculus test.
Then the rest of Classical Civ. And then Algeo.

Conference from Thursday to Sunday = Fun and food. And masses of people draped in bedsheets. Speaking of which, I need to find a bedsheet. And figure out how it works again.

Can't wait to see if the I EPLACE L UNGE has been fixed.

From May 2005:
"It's Conference time tomorrow...off to four days and three nights of fun. I feel less prepared for anything than I did last year. Darn."

Doesn't look like much has changed. Darn.

In mid debauch'

Yay, week is done, next week is Conference. Time to enjoy my HM addiction in peace.

In other news,

Nintendo Wii.

It's "we".

The internet is going to be swamped with the various preteens who are afraid they'll be considered nerds if they like the name "Nintendo Wii".

*waits a few months for them to get on with their lives*

And Other Plays

"The Pseudolus, with its love-lorn young man and quick-talking slave who try desperately to wrest the captive heroine away from the scheming pimp, is a typical and masterly example of Plautus' genius."

Well...at least it sounds more interesting than The Women of Troy...

*reads*

[Update] It turns out that Pseudolus is a lot more entertaining than The Women of Troy. Which is an understatement. /TWoT bashing

Pseudolus: Blessed gods! This Charinus is a charitable institution! Now this slave of yours from Carystus - is he a foxy sort of fellow?
Charinus: Goaty, by the smell of his armpits.
Pseudolus: We'll have to give him a long-sleeved tunic. Sharp, is he?
Charinus: As an acid-drop.
Pseudolus: And suppose we wanted him to serve up the sweet stuff, can he produce that too?
Charinus: Easily. Spiced wine, raisin wine, fruit cordial, honey cup, sweet drinks of all kinds - they say he once set up as a one-man refreshment bar!

A new scientific study shows that scientific studies may cause cancer

One thing I don't like: Debates.
Another thing I don't like: The Women of Troy
Together, they are pretty much a nightmare waiting to happen.

So, marks get sent away to post-secondary establishments by the end of this week. I don't think I'm able to let myself "slack-off" for the rest of the school year. Fully, anyways. By now, without stress, I feel random symptoms stemming from stress deficiency.

Bio Presentation, English Presentation, Classical Civ Presentation
The Real Axis of Evil

When Satires Go Bad(der)

The word 'cunnilingus' also occurs in literary Latin, and is found once in Catullus and more frequently in Martial. Horace's Sermones I.2 and I.3 use the word:

Nam fuit ante Helenam cunnus taeterrima belli
causa. . .

which attributes the cause of the Trojan War to Helen of Troy's cunt.


Ehhh that's not what I learned in Classical Civ and World History! :o

It seems that when we were studying Catullus, Cicero, and Suetonius last year, Mr. McLaren stealthily tucked all of away from us. But now the truth is out!

*sprays some vulgar Latin graffiti*

Modified Lit. test schedule today was a waste of time, if it wasn't for the physics lesson and the fact that I had a quiz/test today >_O

Grumble Pen

April is always the month for me where all those deadlines set from a long time ago all suddenly pile up and smack you in the face. Especially English and Classics. Eeps.

Today my parents got back from China and now we have all these fun souvenirs. My favourite is this set of bells that you can hit with a miniature hammer. Also got these cool framed figurines of Zhang Fei and Ma Chao. And a marble stamp! And a baseball cap from the Olympic stadium! *plays with things*

"Was it 'Photography For Dummies'??!?"

^ Grad Photo Guy







OMG big icicles, hurtful if they make contact with back of head.

By sheer luck I caught a little droplet of water falling from that right icicle :O It's hidden in the puffy cumulus.

The texture of icicles looks like candy up close, albeit somewhat deformed.

Also, words of wisdom from Antigone:

"Is there anything more stupid than a stupid man who doesn't know his own stupidity?!" - Teiresias

This must be saved for future amusement.

Markham District High School is a public high school in the town of Markham, Ontario, Canada. It is one of many high schools in the York Region District School Board.

With almost 2000 full-time students, MDHS is active in spirit and in the community. The school hosts many clubs, many of which are activist-based (for example, Amnesty International). The Classics Club is by far the most prominent club in the school and Markham District is the only high school in York Region to have a three-year Latin program. Sadly, this may not be the case next year as it seems Kelly McCleod (principal) would rather direct funds to better air conditioning in her office or comfier chairs for the auditorium than keep the program running.

The Markham Maurauders are the official sports team, most well known for Football and Rugby.


Markham District celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2004.

Wikipedia, information obtained Feb. 06, 2006; 8:40 PM EST

Seriously, kudos to whoever did that.

Markham District High School

Bite-sized portions

During one dinner, [Queen Elizabeth] sat next to a rather deaf and very dull admiral who regaled the Queen with naval stories, with especial reference to the condition of an old ship which had broken down. In an attempt to change the subject, the Queen enquired, "How is your dear sister?" -a question that the admiral obviously didn't hear, because he continued in the same naval vein, saying "She'll be alright when we've turned her over and scraped the barnacles off her bottom." The Queen's shoulders shook helplessly with laughter as she buried her face in her napkin.

Educationalists often deplore the use of abbreviated or slang words, and one of the most common used is Xmas, in place of Christmas. Wicked atheists have been blamed for using an X in the place of the word Christ, and thus "taking the Christ out of Christmas." In fact, the reverse is true. The X has been used by theologians for hundreds of years to denote the Greek letter chi, the first letter in the Greek spelling of Christ. The X represents Christ and the cross upon which he was crucified.

Punishment for sexual misconduct in 17th-century America was strict, with fines or imprisonment for adulterers and fornicators, and worse for convicted rapists. However, one cannot help feeling a little sorry for the joker Ralph Earle, who was fined 20 shillings in October 1663 for "drawing his wife in an uncivil manner on the snow."

Courtesy of: History Bites by Judith Millidge.

Restitute!

Some of Hammurabi's Codified Laws:

128. If a man take a woman to wife, but have no intercourse with her, this woman is no wife to him.

132. If the "finger is pointed" at a man's wife about another man, but she is not caught sleeping with the other man, she shall jump into the river for her husband.

155. If a man betroth a girl to his son, and his son have intercourse with her, but he (the father) afterward defile her, and be surprised, then he shall be bound and cast into the water.

249. If any one hire an ox, and God strike it that it die, the man who hired it shall swear by God and be considered guiltless.

Obviously Hammurabi's Laws are great practice for Geometry and Discrete Mathematics in working with conditional statements.

"If this woman is no wife to him, then he take a woman to wife, but have no intercourse with her." (true)

"If he shall be bound and cast into the water, then he betroth a girl to his son, and his son have intercourse with her, but he (the father) afterward defile her, and be surprised." (may be true)

The tops of taro and the roots of rice

If you were wondering how humans came to be according to a Chinese legend:

"[Fuyi and his sister] came across a turtle which said the two of them should marry. Fuyi and his sister said, "How can a brother and a sister marry?" and said if the turtle can come back to life after they beat it to death, they would marry. They beat the turtle to death, whereupon it laughed and crawled away. A bamboo also told them to marry; they cut it down, and it came back to life and laughed as they left. Venus spoke to them, and told them to build fires on two different mountains, and if the smoke columns joined, they could marry. They did so, and the smoke columns came together. Venus laughed, and the brother and sister married. They gave birth to a fleshball. Not knowing what to do with it, they minced it up and scattered the pieces, and the pieces became men and women."

Deflection

Oh noes, it's my rant about first days of school post.

Chemistry - I don't know any anyone in my class, Mrs. Hubbell is pregnant, and we got some 50 mark review homework. Oh dear.

Biology - Mr. Jamieson is cool, loves biology and has a cool website. Yay.

Func and Calc - Most of my class seems rather pacified by math, Ms. Oliver is nice, but normal and bland, and we got a bit of factoring review homework. Eeeh.

English - The only class on Day One to break the dreariness of science and math. Mrs. Corry is still very good, and no homework. :o

Geo and Discreet - Mrs. Chow is really crazy, and we had a DEAR session. Although, this is probably going to be the most challenging course.

Comp Sci - Oh noes, to be dropped!

AP Physics - I did not sign up for this, but was put here anyway to keep the class running. Consequently my name in the school database has been labeled "tool". I'll have to hestiantly do my chapter of homework, and ignore the suggested ones...But it is hilarious that we have three textbooks.

Classical Civ - Sweltering, stuffy classroom + split with Gr 3 Latin = Classical Civ is hot.

The Norse Heaven

In Norse mythology, Einherjar (or Einheriar) referred to the spirits of warriors who had died bravely in battle. The einherjar live on in Valhalla, the Norse Heaven.

Every day they are woken by Gullinkambi, a rooster, and march out to great field of Idavoll in the heart of Asgard to fight against each other in merry (and mortal) combat. At dusk, when they are all cut to pieces, save perchance a few, they are miraculously healed, and marches back into Valhalla, where Andhrimnir, the chef of the gods, has prepared a meal for them from the pork of Sahrimnir, a pig that is reborn every day, and the mead milked from Heiðrún, a goat feeding on the leaves of Yggdrasil. The einherjar then spend the evening and night in feast, served by lovely Valkyries, until they all fall asleep, solidly drunk. And yet, they never experience hangovers or other mishaps from this daily inebriation.

Source

Oh My Ga-od x30

It turns out Vesak Day is a very important holiday observed prevalently in Southeast Asia by Buddhists. Go figure.

In other words...oooooooooooomg the projects. So overwhelming...all due within a day or two from each other. It's going to make the coming of exams a huge smack in the face. First dealings is the Comp Sci Presentations due Monday, then Latin Essay and Creative needs to be dealt with by Friday, Physics motor is going to be an underlying threat, World History needs to be shoved into a pretty package by next week, and English will constantly annoy me with stupid prose test and presentation as time goes by. While that goes by Chemistry and Physics decide to stick in exams for fun, then I get assaulted by a full year's content of Math and then Biology, which is never all that fun to study for.

This is a good time to vent. Which is why some dudes are coming on Sunday to clean my home's central venting system thing.

Saving Classics saves trees, the animals, and famine victims.

EDIT: PETITION: From the Latin root word "to beg, to ask for".

What did the protester with a runny nose do? Picket.

But I digress. If you took Latin Level 3 you would learn the derivative of the expression "but I digress" while reading the fourth book of the Aenead. If this is the case, those poor intermediates currently being denied of Level 3 Latin will never learn the essence of "digressing". That is but one side-effect that will outcome if Latin Level 3 would stop.

Classics will continue to support the arts and humanities. It represents the roots of today's Western civilization. If history is important, than why shouldn't Classics receive the same priority? If the principal and vice principal would pull me into a security room to plead me to join AP Calculus and AP Physics along with the current 15 or so already, why can't they at least give Level 3 Latin a split class opportunity? You don't have to pay $100 for the exam in Level 3 Latin. You can learn the roots of the terms you'll use in mathematics, science, and law. It would be surprising for a Law student to throw latin terms at a latin student and for him/her to answer accurately without having studied or looked at law before.

If you could ask anyone at all who has attended Classics of their opinion on it, they will give you a positive response. Any course that can do this must mean something. Any course that consists of such a close family of students and offer so many events such as movie nights, Certamen, Saturnalia, Myth Contests, Conference, and downtown lectures...I can't see why the school would not want a program such as this to run. Is the fact that university students and university graduates who had taken Classics return to visit and volunteer for Classics to be ignored?

It's horrendous that society would want to give up this course for the sake of money. It goes against what Latin teaches you: the roots of humanity and society. Being in Latin 3 right now, I don't want the memories and experiences gained this year to be abstained from others who have just as much rights as I did to be priviledge with this course. Arts courses are great, as courses like music have brought me to many concerts before, and the histories to many museums. But no other course has let me experience anything like Conference, and downtown lectures which are FUN. The most exhilarating Math/Science excursion I've heard of is the Queens trip, but that requires you to be GOOD to be able to go, putting pressure on students to aim for numbers, not the sustenance of the courses.

But to wrap up this huge thing: SAVE CLASSICS.