In Which All the Answers are Revealed

Or at least some of them.

1. Narration: Today, I had a conversation with my friend about what music was “the best”. It started when a song came on over the radio. It was, in my opinion, a great song, which I pointed out. To which he (my friend) said that it was only “okay”. This was not okay with me. We quickly began talking about the different kinds of music, and what was considered “great”. In the end, he said “The music I listen to is the best”. But is it really? Why is his music the best? I think mine is.

2. Definition: When something is the best that usually means that it is better than everything else in that classification. The best football team is the one that wins the state championship. The best school is the one that scores the best on tests. But not all things can definitely be said to be the best. The best song is the one that every individual person likes the most. The best food is the one that is the most appealing. We can’t always say what the best is.

3. Example: Last year, the Wayzata football team won the state championships. Because of this, we were considered the best team in the state. The team got a trophy saying that they placed first. In essence it was a trophy that declared we were better that any other team in our class. It was a proven fact that we could beat the other teams. We were the strongest, the fastest, and the smartest. We were the best.

4. Compare/Contrast: Being champions in the state football tournament is the equivalent of being the best in the state. When a team beats all of the teams they are placed up against, they are considered the champions of the tournament. But it also means that they are better than all the other teams, that they are the best out of all of those teams. So, it a team is declared to be champions, they are declared to be the best. Therefore, being a champion means that one is the best.

5. Argument/Persuasion: Nothing is better than the music of the ‘60s and ‘80s. Popular music of today pales in comparison to popular ‘80s music. Current music gives us songs like Friday by Rebecca Black. A whole lot of it is auto-tuned crap with bad lyrics that encourage kids to do drugs and other stuff. Meanwhile, in the ‘60s, the Beatles were all the rage. They produced good, genuine music that actually told people good things. The ‘80s, too, was comprised of funky beats and catchy tunes. So radio stations should be paying old music, because it is the best.

6. Description: For me, the best dinner in the world is Shepherd’s Pie. A lot of people say English food, which Shepherd’s Pie is, is way too bland. But when that’s what you grow up with, you don’t notice the lack of seasoning. However, even if it doesn’t have a lot of seasoning put in, there’s something about the combination of ground beef (cooked in a special way) and mashed potatoes that just makes my mouth water. It’s the equivalent of a stereotypical American’s cheeseburger. I just can’t get enough. It is, without a doubt, the best.

Although in hind sight, some of these might be different than what I thought I was writing

What is "The Best"?

Here ya go. Good luck with guessing

1. Today, I had a conversation with my friend about what music was “the best”. It started when a song came on over the radio. It was, in my opinion, a great song, which I pointed out. To which he (my friend) said that it was only “okay”. This was not okay with me. We quickly began talking about the different kinds of music, and what was considered “great”. In the end, he said “The music I listen to is the best”. But is it really? Why is his music the best? I think mine is.


2. When something is the best that usually means that it is better than everything else in that classification. The best football team is the one that wins the state championship. The best school is the one that scores the best on tests. But not all things can definitely be said to be the best. The best song is the one that every individual person likes the most. The best food is the one that is the most appealing. We can’t always say what the best is.


3. Last year, the Wayzata football team won the state championships. Because of this, we were considered the best team in the state. The team got a trophy saying that they placed first. In essence it was a trophy that declared we were better that any other team in our class. It was a proven fact that we could beat the other teams. We were the strongest, the fastest, and the smartest. We were the best.


4. Being champions in the state football tournament is the equivalent of being the best in the state. When a team beats all of the teams they are placed up against, they are considered the champions of the tournament. But it also means that they are better than all the other teams, that they are the best out of all of those teams. So, it a team is declared to be champions, they are declared to be the best. Therefore, being a champion means that one is the best.


5. Nothing is better than the music of the ‘60s and ‘80s. Popular music of today pales in comparison to popular ‘80s music. Current music gives us songs like Friday by Rebecca Black. A whole lot of it is auto-tuned crap with bad lyrics that encourage kids to do drugs and other stuff. Meanwhile, in the ‘60s, the Beatles were all the rage. They produced good, genuine music that actually told people good things. The ‘80s, too, was comprised of funky beats and catchy tunes. So radio stations should be paying old music, because it is the best.


6. For me, the best dinner in the world is Shepherd’s Pie. A lot of people say English food, which Shepherd’s Pie is, is way too bland. But when that’s what you grow up with, you don’t notice the lack of seasoning. However, even if it doesn’t have a lot of seasoning put in, there’s something about the combination of ground beef (cooked in a special way) and mashed potatoes that just makes my mouth water. It’s the equivalent of a stereotypical American’s cheeseburger. I just can’t get enough. It is, without a doubt, the best.




As a side note, I'm sorry for how confusing some of these are, and how I ramble about the same things in all of them. It's almost 12:30 in the morning, and the championship football game is today, I'm listening to music, we just ate Thanksgiving diner a few hours ago (maybe a little more than a few), and I'm tired. I know that's a lame-sauce excuse for writing about the same things again and again, but it's the only one I've got.

Vocaloid, Tea, and Toby Turner

You know, I've begun to notice that my posts are turning into rants about my obsessions. Oh well.

I really dislike modern music. It has no soul, the lyrics promote bad things, and a whole lot of it is auto-tuned. I really dislike rap. Ew. I mean, I like a few artists like Daughtry and Taylor Swift, and stuff. But in general, popular music sucks right now. Because I am addicted to music (I listen to it all the time, and I feel wrong when I can't), this is a problem for me. Thankfully, I was saved by my friend late last school year. She showed me Vocaloid.

"What is Vocaloid?", you  ask. Simply, it is a computer program that makes music. Each voice is represented by a made-up character. A lot of people think "wow, that's lame" and that it's pretty much auto-tune taken to the extreme. But it isn't. To get each voice, they take samples from real people. Believe it or not, they are real voices. The only drawback? Most of it is in Japanese (they made the program, after all). But that really doesn't bug me, personally. The more important thing is that a lot of them have way better messages than modern American music does. My two favorite characters are Rin and Len. They're so cool because it's a guy (Len) and girl (Rin), but their voice samples are from the same person. Their official relationship is that they are "mirrors" of each other. They are usually viewed as either twins or "lovers" (destined, made-for-each other, kind of lovers).

This is the first picture that was released of them

And when their software was updated (so that it doesn't sound as computer-y) This was released

In addition, there are a lot of fan-made pictures that are super-cute

Another reason why I love them is that they don't always follow what society says. For example, Rin (the girl) is stronger that Len (the guy). Len also cries in some songs. While there are some songs where there are typical guy-girl things (like Len protecting Rin), there are also some "abnormal" things too. Here is a song called World is Mine. This is called Paradise of Light and Shadow. There is one more here called Hot Cocoa (there are way more, but these are some of my favorites). These are all super cute, even if you watch just a little bit of one of them, you'll see how awesome they are. And they all have subtitles so you can tell what they're saying.

Next, tea is awesome. This has absolutely no relevance to what I was talking about, but I shall continue. A bunch of my friends like tea too. My mom's family drinks a lot of tea. Yes, they are British and it's very stereotypical, but it's true. Seriously, I think we drink tea anywhere from six to eight times while I'm at their house. And it's always the same brand: Tetley (Orange Peoke). A lot of people would be like "gross, why would you want the same kind of tea over and over again?" I say to them, why do people drink the same kind of coffee day after day? So I am an avid tea drinker. I love it. And thankfully, I usually get home from school before tea time (3:00 p.m.).

Finally, there's this guy on youtube called Toby Turner. He is awesome. Generally, he has three series that he does. He has Literal Trailers, where he records songs for movie/video game trailers, where he describes what is going on in the trailer. Here is a link to one of his better known Literal Trailers (and it says Tobuscus at the beginning because that's his alias). Another series that he does are his daily video blogs (vlogs). He basically walks around and randomly talks to his camera. He's a pretty weird person, so they are usually quite amusing.  Here and here are some of the many. And then the third thing that he often posts are Cute Win Fail videos. Basically he gets one video that's cute, one that's a win, and one that's a fail. He comments on them and then the audience votes for which one is the most epic. Here and here are two of my favorites.

Because I know that people won't look at all of the videos, maybe not even one, Here is a picture of him, because he is just to awesome for you not to see him.

So yup, just another post about some of my many, many obsessions.

Dude, what does that even, like, mean?

In response eXplorations and eXtensions, pg 133. Slang, Colloquial Language, and Popular Expressions

I think that pretty much whatever I say about this will be ironic in the fact that I use slang on an everyday basis. Saying that, I think that it's a natural part of life. We can't eliminate slang from our lives, it's just not possible.

One of the most popular words that people use way too much is the word "like". We have distorted the meaning of this word in to one of the most vague terms we use. It used to refer only to feelings, but now we use it as, like, a filler. I can't even say anything bad against it! Because I do it too. My friend once decided to count the number of times certain people said the word "like" during class. By the end of class, some had used it more than twenty times.

Another example of overused phrases is "Achilles' heel". My coach was talking to my team one day and he mentioned that one dive would be the Achilles' heel of the team. After he said that he asked if everyone knew what that meant. I was the only one. Aside from being absolutely horrified that my teammates had seemingly no knowledge of Greek Mythology, it really made me think about all of the phrases we use that we don't really know what it means. But I think we still use them because they're just so familiar. As a society we have placed a general meaning on words and phrases, so even though we don't know what a phrase may actually refer to, we know what most people will think of when we say things like "Achilles' Heel" or "case in point" (as the packet pointed out)

One more thing I want to mention is that words fade in and out eventually. In french class, we were taught that one word meant "cool" (as in "Oh my gosh, that is so cool!"). But this year, my teacher told us that no one in France uses it because it is to them what "groovy" would be to us. It's old, and it's a little silly. Another example is from the book The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. At one point in the book, the main character finds himself in a casino with tons of video games. However, time doesn't effect the people in there. He starts playing some games with a kid from 1977 One passage reads:

"We played a game of sharpshooters together and he said 'Groovy,man.'...
    Groovy?
    Later, while we were talking, I said something was 'sick' and he looked at me kind of startled, as if he'd never heard the word used that way before" (pg 261-262)

I guess "groovy, man" would today translate to "Dude, sick!" It really makes you think about how we speak.

Finally, I asked my neighbor (he's in 7th grade) if he had heard any "interesting expressions" lately. He told me two that he personally had made up. If you every want to tell someone you understand what they're telling you, you can try
"I'm smelling what you're stepping in" or
"I'm eating your mashed potatoes"

How's that for creativity?

Shimeji: You'll Never Be Lonely Again

So during the summer my friend randomly skyped me and told me about something totally, amazingly awesome. They're called shimejies, also known as desktop buddies, and they are quite possibly the cutest things that will ever haunt your computer screen. Basically, what they do is they sit, walk, climb, and sometimes they throw your windows away.

At first, I had a ton of trouble downloading the program that would let me use them. It took almost a week before I could get it working. Of course, after that I went on an absolute spree. I have 22 right now. I mean, you don't have to have all of them on the screen at the same time. That would just be absolute chaos. In fact, it would probably make my computer freak out and shut down in a very catastrophic manner. And that would be very bad, because I'd probably lose a lot of data.

The only downside for most people is that they're kind of a geeky thing. Well, the buddies in essence aren't that geeky, but the characters are. They're things like pokemon, anime characters, and even a creeper from minecraft. If you didn't really understand anything I just said, then they definitely not for you. However, if you like these things, shimejies/buddies are so adorable and you should get one! Oh, and did I mention they multiply? That's right, leave them unattended, and you can soon have complete and utter chaos to the extreme. Imagine like twenty little things running around your screen. you wouldn't be able to do much. When I say little, they aren't actually that small. You can see details like creases in clothes and stuff.

Another thing I don't think I mentioned is that you can interact with them too. There's a little button in the program that says "follow me" and if you click that, every shimeji/buddy on the screen will follow after your mouse like little ducklings. You can also pick them up. They hang there, but if you shake the mouse (as in moving it back and forth) they make funny faces an they swing in a way that's similar to a clock pendulum. And then when you let go of the mouse, they fall down and land on the bottom of the screen (which is actually very sad, so I avoid it whenever possible). But yeah, it's a very cleverly designed program.

In fact, the program is so well written, that you can make your own shimejies/budddies if you want to. Basically you just write over the existing pictures and then put your own over it. But it takes a really, really, really long time because there are somewhere around 54 images to replace. So yeah, only very ambitious people can really do it.

Aaaaaand since I have pretty much run out of things to say, here are a couple of pictures of some of my shimejies/buddies being super cute

So yeah, they're cute and awesome and keep you company when you're doing your homework.Yup.

I leave you with this final thought: the videos right here and here aaaaaannnnnnddddd here are awesome (the second, and third are by the same person. He is one of the funniest people on youtube, and the first one is our french song right now. It will be stuck in your head, even if you don't know the words) So go click it! Go click it now!!!!!