| All professors ask,
"Why study literature?"
I still have no clue.
Are they trying to dissuade
potential English majors? | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment   |
| Since January 2007, I've been keeping track of all the books I read. And gee, did I slack off in 2008. Just sixty-three books, compared to 2007's one hundred two. This may be in some small degree due to schoolwork, or to the fact that I didn't essentially spend five weeks in a library like I did at GSP, but it perhaps has more to do with the fact that I rediscovered video games in 2008. (Although I could probably recoup the lost time if I just cut down on idle Internet browsing.)
Anyhow, ( these are the 63 books I read in 2008. )
I make it a point to read one new nonfiction book for every three fiction books or repeated nonfiction books--a rule instituted in spring 2007 so I'd learn something once in a while instead of just reading a lot of cheap detective fiction or Asimov on Astronomy over and over. I didn't keep very careful track of that last year, but I guess I was right in figuring that my tastes were tending toward nonfiction anyway. In this respect 2008 does beat out 2007, in which I read over four times as much fiction as nonfiction.
Of 63, I had read 11 before. 10 were required reading for school. Ignoring required reading, 20 were nonfiction and 33 were fiction. I don’t have Microsoft Access to do statistics with anymore (and anyway, there aren't a lot of data here), but it looks like that Jules Verne kick I went on puts him in the top author spot, at six works read. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| So the protagonist of your video game doesn't talk much. Well, good. It allows you to identify with him better, it speeds up the action, and sometimes (yes, I've spent fifteen hours this week playing Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga and it's AWESOME) it even allows the protagonist to engage in adorable pantomime.
And anyway, it's usually pretty easy to fill in the blanks. Expositional characters let you know all the important data about yourself ("So your name's Luigi, huh?"), and interrogatory characters don't waste your time with stuff you already know ("What did this hoodlum look like? Oh, I see."). And shopkeepers make sense enough: any time you walk up to a counter, it is perfectly logical that you will be greeted with "How can we help you? Buy Sell Quit."
The problem comes when you walk out of the laboratory of exposition and into the streets of the village of implausibility. "They're storing items and Pokémon on computers now!" raves one townsperson. "Try pushing the L and R buttons together," another advises you. "I'm not a whole person until I get my coffee," confesses a third.
Here is a mental exercise: fill in the blanks. Imagine, if you can, exactly what the protagonist said to evoke these responses. Keep in mind that by stepping up to a person and pressing A, he has initiated the conversation.
"Hi there!"
"I would avoid attacking
chickens if I were you. They
can be dangerous animals."
It is a difficult exercise.
It is easier, if no less absurd, to fill in the blanks in conversations initiated by other characters.
"Hi!"
"Hi."
"I like shorts! They're comfy
and easy to wear!"
"Personally, I hate shorts. They're difficult to wear."
YOUNGSTER wants to fight!
Now, there are several ways to deal with the problem. The best one is probably to ignore it altogether, to dismiss it as a convention of the medium. Another is to imagine that the protagonist has acute observational skills that allow him to pose pertinent questions. Or perhaps he simply approaches everyone with "What's up?" or even "Hi there, I'm on a quest; do you have any helpful information for me?"
Personally, I am leaning toward the theory that my protagonist is a normal guy, and non-player characters are just self-absorbed and determinedly unhelpful.
"Hi, can you tell me which way it is to--"
"I hear they have all
kinds of unique items
at Celadon Department Store."
"Yeah, but right now I need to--"
"It must be nice living
in a big city."
"Uh, sir, can you tell me how to get--"
"I love the crisp autumn
evenings here in the mountains."
"That's nice--"
"Ah, to be young again!"
And then he goes off to find it himself. The life of a video-game protagonist is a lonely one. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| Last Christmas my parents bought me two nice new notebooks, and beginning in January 2007 I used the back of the one I'm on to record the books I read. In spring 2007 I resolved to read a nonfiction book for every three fiction books I read. In summer 2007 I spent five weeks with Morehead's library. In September school became more demanding than ever, and I got a social life for the first time, so my reading slowed. Also in September I discovered the Star Trek novel. Lately I've been a little lax on the nonfiction, but I'll catch up. These are the 102 books I read during 2007.
( List )
( Statistics )
There were some flaws in my recordkeeping. Until mid-2007 I didn't count the components of omnibuses as separate books. I only wrote down entire books, not short stories, picture books, or manga. So all the times I reread "Reason" didn't count against me. I'm good with that. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| The Poetry - of Dickinson -
Gains undue Admiration -
Her Sentiments have beauty, but,
How poor - her Punctuation - | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| I'm back from GSP, which was the most awesome five weeks of my life. I learned about naked-eye and telescope astronomy, wrote a children's book that was pretty cheesy but did involve a robot with a moustache, sang opera in front of an audience for the first time, read 27 books in 36 days, got inside so many jokes, and met many friends, with whom I actually intend to maintain communication.
Mom cleaned my room while I was gone and when I got back I promptly spread all my books over it. I guess I'll move them later.
If only to take them with me in 24 days. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | I got my SAT Subject Test scores via email. 670 in Chemistry, 760 in Spanish, and 800 in Literature. I had forgotten a lot of Chemistry, but am pleased to have aced literature again. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Elizabeth is too blooming lazy even to write her usual long post-vacation rant, let alone a pre-GSP one. Instead of an original thought, here's one from RED's MOM:
All boys leave home some day. It said so on TV.
(Man are those games messed up. I don't even think it's the translators.)
Anyway, the chief reason for this post is so anyone who cares will know that there's no way I'm reading all that email while I'm at GSP, so nobody bother emailing me. (As if anybody was going to!) I'm going to leave it alone until I get back, then skim it for important communications and delete it all.
The good news--or bad news--is that it appears I will have pretty frequent Internet access librarywise--or, in Oldspeak, librarily?--so LiveJournal-based communication'll probably reach me. But I don't promise or particularly want to keep too close an eye on any part of the outside world. I'll be back here on July 27.
Woo! | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| 
Bwahaha I love the Internet.
---
Tomorrow early I leave with my mom and sister to visit my mom's family, which we never see, on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. It ought to prove interesting and I look forward to the people and the region. After that, GSP! I can't wait! | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Tags: | meme, radio, star trek | | Current Music: | Leonard Nimoy - Gentle On My Mind | | Subject: | Meme | | Time: | 10:16 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/juicy/cutealiens/surprised_a.gif) like woah dude |
|
| ( Meme )
---
So, for me, the only thing more surreal than hearing Jack Benny's voice come out of an animated mouse is hearing Jack Benny's voice come out of Jack Benny's mouth.
I mean, come on! Everyone knows radio personalities don't have faces! They're noncorporeal entities, like on every fifth episode of Star Trek!
I think I can expect to have my mind blown a lot in the course of my life. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| Today was my last day at Boone County High School. Should I feel sad? I'm thrilled. I don't want to wait for GSP to start.
In the evening I went out with friends . . . We ended up at Kenwood Town(e?) Center (Centre? Maybe it was called a mall after all--I don't pay attention to these things!), and I ate this amazing miniature tiramisu cake from someplace called Freddissimo Gelato. I thought "Freddissimo" was Italian for "very, very Fred," but it turns out freddo means cold. I took a picture of the cake. It was a seriously AWESOME cake.
Then we went back to Anthony's house and everyone pwned me at Mario Party 8. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| Say, there are rewards for staying up until all hours watching Star Trek, playing with Facebook, and listening to cheesy old-time radio! Because look what the College Board sent me at 1:52 AM:
| Critical Reading | 800 | |
| Math | 700 | |
| Writing | 720 | |
| (Multiple choice) | (75) | (Score range: 20-80) |
| (Essay) | (8) | (Score range: 2-12) |
| Total | 2220 | |
I think I got 8/12 on the ACT essay as well; those 30-minute pieces are hard not because of the format (which is exactly the same as an Extemp speech--that one year of Forensics helped me more than I can tell), but because I don't write quick enough to support very much in that amount of time.
I'm just happy that I apparently got every single Critical Reading question right. Woo!
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I know nobody reads my LiveJournal for the content, but I do note that I have been posting a disproportionate amount of boring school-related news and copies of letters and tables lately.
Well, as soon as I get time I shall make one of my signature long, disjointed posts about the old-time radio programs I've been listening to. Those of you who are too lazy to remove me from your "Friends" will long for copies of tables! | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| Yesterday I went to the orientation for the Academy of Maths and Science, and got my schedule for next year.
Here it is ( . . . in exceedingly boring TABLE-VISION!! )
I'm bummed that I didn't have room for Astronomy of Stellar Systems, but I'll try again next semester.
. . . I'd go on about the orientation, but it took about an hour to make this table and I'd better shower if I want to have time to listen to an episode of Jack Benny before bed. Gee, is his program swell. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| Note to self: Self, you have blond retinae or especially dilated pupils or something. Looking at the little light is not enough. You must make a conscious effort to stare AWAY from the camera.
---
In Fine Arts class, we had to dance. I'm still bummed I never got to sing, but I guess dancing is more accessible or something. It was more fun than I expected, though, because I joined a fun group and we did a narrative dance to the full-length version of the US Pokémon theme.
Ours was totally the best. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| April 18, 2007
Dear Elizabeth,
Congratulations! I am please to inform you that you have been selected as part of the Academy of Mathematics and Science in Kentucky. . . .
April is the month for these kinds of suspenseful letters. This one was not only folded back right underneath the salutation, but had a second piece of paper in front of the body.
Fortunately, it concealed good news. Next year, instead of finishing my senior year at BCHS, I will head to Western Kentucky University, where I and 119 other Kentucky high-school juniors and seniors will take college courses with a focus on math and science.
I'm very excited about the opportunity. There are some things I'll miss about BCHS, but I really look forward to taking more interesting and challenging classes and to hanging out with a significantly greater number of other nerds. | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| I was at the library and saw a book called PSI: What It Is and How It Works.
My first thought was, "Wow, a whole book about tire pressure?" | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
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