a compliment accomplishment

Giving compliments is harder than it is given credit for. Sometimes it seems like it's out of pity, sometimes it seems even seems condescending.

I want to post my 2U Representation of Women essay's comment:

"Starts well but becomes a bit incoherent at the end. However you do answer the question & show extensive knowledge of the text. You also (mercifully) desmonstrate sophisticated control of language in readable writing"

I know that this, in fact, is the equivalent of a glowing review. But it sure doesn't feel like it. Like the bit at the beginning, I'm not going to discuss cos it's a not a compliment. It is indeed constructive criticism because my essay did drop in quality after I got tired :L
But the additional word "mercifully", combined with me seeing everyone else's essays, makes it feel like a cheap moment of satisfaction. So in actuality the compliment was made stupid by implying that everyone else's essays sucked. So I didn't really enjoy that comment :L


Compliments are also always about timing. The subject of the compliment and the time it is given are subtly intertwined.
Like, if you're making out and then you say "Damn you're pretty", it would have less effect than if you said it while taking a walk through the park.
Because whether you intended to or not, because you're a dude and you're always wanting sex and you're a dick, if you give compliments during moments of intimacy you just want more sex. Truefact.
Certain praises during certain times can be described as "strings attached compliments".

So do comments about work. Like, a certain member of staff always gives unnecessariliy long speeches during assemblies that are tangent. But for the first time on Year 11 info night, I heard something useful. It went something along the lines of:
"Don't wait until after the results come back to praise them on their hard work. Don't even wait until after the exam to praise them on their hard work. Do it before the exam, where your compliment is completely unbiased by the actual occurence of the test"
And I found this a good idea. Giving praise/compliments as they are deserved is much more effective than a "Oh you got 30%? Well, you worked hard and you tried your best." No matter how you say it, it will always sound like either pity or condescension.

And if its a good result, it's like "Oh, 98%, son? Good, I see you worked hard enough.". And that is even worse than a "Wow 98% is a really good score. Good work". It's like, avoiding the actual compliment, which is the topic at hand, the mark. It's like the parent is just encouraging the kid to study more through that pseudo-compliment.

But if the praise was given before the actual test, the kid will know that they did indeed work hard, and regardless of the result, it will be true, even if their parents try to rescind that later xP.

So the unconditional nature of a compliment lends to its sincerity and any compliments with ulterior motives just feel cheap. And it's true. And remember it. Give them for the sake of complimenting and not for the sake of trying to please them or gain something from them (Y).

Semi-related topic. AC electricity can be shaped into many pick up lines. Take these key points and combine them at will 8D
I feel a spark/tingle/shock
Feels like a sine
I can't let go!
Solenoid + bar magnet to generate AC electricity. LET YOUR IMAGINATION RUN WILD.
Back and forth, back and forth motion of particles.


OH BEST EUPHEMISM FOR SEX THAT I HEARD IN AS YOU LIKE IT: "You just want to have a man in your belly"

tribute to crystal

Since a normal "thankyou" cannot be accepted as legal tender in Crystal-world, I have to dedicate a blog post. And being in debt, I agreed =P

So, thankyou for being awesomely wisdom-ical.

Some wisdom is hidden below.

two words, separated by a space, no caps.

If I missed any, tell me to add it, Crystal xP.

But now I'm gonna rage about how shit my day was, in true dedication to Crystal's awesomeness.
- My guitar got knocked off the table and the headstock asploded off of the guitar. Thankfully it was the Fender CD60 and not the now-out-of-production Blizzard Pearl HSS Strat. =). But still, sour about life.
- In touch I went on for like 15 seconds, and I got a dodge pass that I had to dive for. I dove and got the ball, landing facefirst on either the ball or the ground, cutting both my upper and lower lip on my teeth. I did that hk thing where you spit out blood though. But it healed too fast and I couldn't do it again :L
- I discovered that for AFX I would be moved from Black Ops (a group of 20 or so cadets who act as opposition to the rest of NSW cadets - it would've been hectic fun). I was moved to commanding Basic Field Craft (ie a bunch of first year cadets) with my least favourite person from cadets. There are about 5 people in Ruse who know him and only 1 of them would read my blog. So no point naming =)

Read more for a cool anecdote though =)

stationery

Ehh screw the feminism talks for now. Not because they're not important, but more because at this point in time I'm more likely to be an ass about it.

So, meaningless trivial posts for the time being, yah? =P

As you know I'm kinda anal about my stationery.

I usually only like to use one side of my rubber, and I never use the rubber on my pacer.

Now the first one is, as far as I'm aware, unique to me, but the second one, I swear nobody uses their pacer rubber. It's like. What you take out to put more lead in. When the rubber's a stump you can't take it out, and you're stuck with putting lead through the tip, which often breaks the lead. Plus the rubber looks ugly as fuck when it's been used.

The annoying thing is when people lose their morals regarding pacers just because it isn't their own pacer. It is so disheartening when I observe someone who doesn't use the rubber on the own pacer, but when I lend them one and I get my pacer back, and the rubber is all fucking deformed from being used. It wouldn't be as annoying if you just asked to use a normal rubber or something. It's not like the pacer rubbers were designed to erase - they just smudge and pretend to be cool.

Now back to the first one, about using one side of my rubber. This leaves one side of my rubber rounded off and dirty. The other part is PURE WHITE and still has crisp edges. What in the fucking world possesses you to think that I kept it in this condition just so you could use it?

When I was little my parents taught me to "Treat my own possessions carefully - but treat other's possessions even better."

Which means that I observe borrowed stationery for patterns of wear before using it =D. Because if I'm anal about my own stuff, then I ought to be anal about others too.


In conclusion
-Never use my pacer rubber
-My normal eraser will usually have a bias in wear and tear. One side (the larger bias) is when I use it, the other side (the very small bias) is when people charge ahead and use the nice part of the eraser and manage to use it for a few seconds before I rip their face off.
But atm I'm using an eraser that wasn't broken in by me, so it's like almost circular and I have no OCD attached to it. But when I get a new one... all beware!
-Also, never fold the casing on my iPod touch backwards, just let it hang.

question time

The discussion on feminism was interesting and I did gain a new perspective.
But through the comments I also thought I saw some underlying accusations that were concerning - but I will have to confirm them through this post.
To clarify, honestly I am not passionate either way. I do not think feminism is retarded, nor can I call myself a diehard supporter. I am on the side of accepting that there are problems with society with regards to sexism. As one from "the outside" I have a good idea of why men aren't responding the way you'd want them to. But I am one (almost) man and the world is many.
And it is difficult to convince someone more passionate than I am of my views.

And hence my standing on feminism is "yeahp society is fucked but I cbf cos I can't do it myself. And I can't get more people because they aren't gonna listen to me."

So all seriousness I do agree that society is sexist, and there is a great problem with it. However I also do have a problem with how people are seeking to change it.

This is mainly to Amanda and Claudia, and to some extent Emily.

Oh yes I also need to mention I am very heartened to see that
a) People are not afraid of placing a name behind their words
b) People care about this enough to warrant part a)

I am going to be asking some neutral (as in minimal presumptions made) questions, and then asking another question based on your answer

The big question is:


Do you view feminism as a fight? (I would prefer a simple yes or no answer but I have a feeling I will be getting a lot of elaboration :L)


Trigger warning: Many of these links are about rape
Some links to responses to my initial post, "carded":
Amanda's and Kerrie's.

Kerrie linked this, which is an interesting "look from the bottom not the top" view. It is, however, written by a man. Though I still think it's worth a read, because I think it's pretty tactful.

Claudia linked, in one of her comments to my post, this post about rape culture which I found exceptionally eye-opening.

Interesting link if you have any views at all about the situation with women in higher corporate positions. Linked to me by Claudia. It's a very lengthy article and in honesty I'm only through 3/4 of it. But it provides a woman's view of the corporate world, and discusses issues such as "old boys groups", differences in corporate drive, the presence of women in exec boards, etc etc. What I read was an extremely interesting read (Y)

time corps

So in English we were doing anything but English. We were discussing the improbability or probability of time travel being developed.

Now my peers on my table believe that because we haven't had any visits from future people going "HEY I'M FROM THE FUTURE. HERE'S A GADGEMETRON TO PROVE HOW FUTURISTIC I AM!", by logic of deduction, that means there probably will never be time travel.

But I didn't find this solid enough. I proposed that the mechanism of time travel could be strictly controlled.

"Rules are made to be broken"

And I agree with this. Screw rules. I'd just escape to the past to avoid getting caught by authorities eh?
But this is based on the assumption that untrained people can use the time machine. My analogy is that "Why aren't people illegally flying jet planes for fun? It's not like people can successfully apprehend them if they break the sound barrier and land in some boat in the middle of nowhere? The reason why random civilians aren't flying Mach3 jets is not because of laws prohibiting them - it is purely because they don't know how to."

The hole in my argument is that there are people out there who can fly jets and use it for illegal stuff. But we all know a jet costs a metric shittonne, and I'm sure a time machine would too. Also if you're flying a jet illegally, it's very rarely used to go visit other countries and go "Hey! I'm from Australia! Here's a kangaroo head to prove it! Right, that's all I wanted to do when I used this to travel illegally to your country. Just tour a bit. Toodle-doo!"
Similarly, it makes no sense that people would risk going against the law just to tour the past and show off to people that they are from the future.

In addition there may be physical barriers or rules against killing past family members and any of those paradoxes. Personally I think the "solution" to the kill-family-member-time-paradox is that you will fail inevitably, no matter how hard you try. Because it is implied that your family member must survive in order for you to survive to the age to which you can use the time machine, by some chance or another you are physically incapable of finding your family member and then subsequently killing them.

Like you can shoot at them but your gun will jam, or you will miss. You can try stab them but not before another member of the public spots you and apprehends you. etc etc. You can try but you cannot succeed, if you have travelled to the past.

ANYWAYS my proposal is that there is an elite division of the Defence Force, known as the Time Corps. They exclusively travel to the past to rectify military mistakes while leaving no trace of their interference. They need to have both physical ability, a mind for tactics, and also high intelligence. High intelligence because if my idea about the paradox "solution" is the correct one, then they need to overcome the physical barriers that the present is holding on them. This includes being able to persuade the leaders to send them back in time, even if there is seemingly no mistake. Let's give this example

1) Day 1
The politician/officer gives a written command that was badly worded (not known at the time)

2) Day 2
This results in a massive loss in a battle, with civilian casualties everywhere... It is just a mess.

3) Day 3
The Time Corps is given the go-ahead to travel to the past in Operation Pocket Watch, to amend the politician/officer's words of command.

4) [Day 4] Day 1 revisited
The politician/officer notices a mistake in his notes as there was a strange black smudge above it, drawing attention to the mistake.

5) Day 2 revisited
A direct conflict is avoided, and the situation is stable.

6) Day 3 revisited
The Time Corps must be given the go-ahead to travel to the past to add the black smudge above the notes. However, it is imprudent to directly alert the officer/politician of their role in the past, and therefore must subtly gain the approval to launch Operation Pocket Watch, even though the politican/officer has no idea about the crisis that has been just avoided.

7) Day 4 paralleled
At the gaining of approval, the parallel alternatives match up, effectively closing the loop and moving on, and the alternate path involving severe losses has been destroyed as it is recessive to the dominant present reality.

If you followed that properly and it made sense to you, then kudos =D. All this shit makes sense in my head but I probably am not wording every detail =]

And high intelligence is also needed because I bet a time machine is not something stupid like "punch in numbers and you're off". Just like flying a jet is not "punch in numbers and you're off". There still needs to be manual take off and landing, and unless you're trained to do this, you can't use it. It is probably a very technical piece of equipment - the incorrect usage could lead to you surviving in a recessive reality which eventually just ceases to exist, or you could not effectively close the loop and hence live the same loop over and over again, all the while aging until you die within that loop.


Now that I know this, the Time Corps will come and murder me in my sleep yesterday.
=D

the art of answering the question

I think I've finally done well enough in English to warrant passing on some nuggets of useful knowledge that I have gleaned from teachers or students (whether these students told me directly or I overheard and I inferred is not important xP).

I revealed this quick tip (click to skip to the tip) in 2u English today and I was surprised at how many people on the table found this new information.

Now let's pose our 3u question (SORRY SORRY) as an example:

A literary classic explores univeresal and timeless human concerns that can be continually transformed and appropriated into new contexts. What universal and timeless concerns have been appropriated from the original and how have they been reshaped to resonate with a contemporary audience..[sic]

Now in an exam, these keywords should stand out to you and burn into your brain immediately: universal and timeless concerns.
It's freaking repeated in the question, so you should instantly go "if I don't mention this, I'm kinda fucked."
Now the next most important keywords are: transformed and appropriated, reshaped to resonate.
The rest of the question is basically garbage to me. If you're more hax at English and can glean more information from that wall of text, please inform us all =). But for me, I wing it off of those 4 main phrases.

Now synonyms confuse the fuck out of English teachers. Or at least they pretend. When you mean "universal and timeless concerns" you MEAN "universal and timeless concerns." English teachers aren't dicks when the set the question (let's not mention marking though xP), so "universal and timeless concerns" is a very neat and concise way of wording it. Don't try to be fancy and say "notions that transcend the barriers of time and remain applicable universally" or any of that shit. I used to try that, thinking I was cool. Yes, you sound like you read the Thesaurus, but you are also deviating from the question, even if only superficially. In addition you wrote 7 more words meaning the same amount of bullshit than if you just said "universal and timeless concerns". Yes, it means exactly the same thing, which is the exact same reason why you shouldn't use it. Sure, it inflates your word count, but by now I've learnt that your word count is not important. Your word count is meaningless if it is filled with crap (ie roundabout sentences). When people ask me to ruthlessly chop their essays, I see strings of sentences that seem purposely worded to last about twice as long as what is necessary. When in doubt, "technique, example, effect". Concise as vacuum packed Styrofoam, and I use it 90% of an essay. I asked my teacher, and she said "It's better to have a boring, repetitive sentence structure than it is to have a sentence that goes nowhere in about 25 words."

But I'm deviating. This post will get too long if I post about Intro, Body, Conclusion. So I'll stick to question answering, which is a subtle art :L

So my advice that was somewhat of a revelation was "Remember your practice essay. But whenever you find a word or phrase that means either 'universal or timeless concerns', 'transformed and appropriated', or 'reshaped to resonate', then just substitute it in. If it makes sense in your sentence, and it means what you wanted it to mean before, then just sub it in. Those words you may have used before... notions, concepts, changed, rewritten, suit new audiences... they're all placeholders. Pronumerals if you like. Waiting to get subbed out."

But I had a valid question: "But if you keep using these words whenever you mean this, won't you sound like you're repeating yourself?"

My answer was that you really shouldn't be using gay conceptual words very often throughout your paragraphs. I'll go into more detail later, but in general, if you had 5 quotes in a paragraph, link 3, preferably 4, to the topic sentence OF YOUR PARAGRAPH. Link the remaining (hopefully one) to the overall question. So you're doing something wrong if any of these keywords appear more than 5 times throughout your whole essay.

The essay is a powerful yet extremely daunting thing. I am personally a much more mathematically inclined mind - I'm sure a great majority of you can relate. I like to break down things into formulas, relations, numbers, rules, logic. Towards the end of year 10 and throughout year 11, I've been developing the formula to an essay that teachers actually like.

BUT, while this formula works for me (this time), it may not work for you. I can't say for sure if this round of exams was a fluke or signs of formula fruition.

So my formula for answering the question:
-Write a practice essay
-Spot keywords in the questions
-Vomit out practice essay, but stick those synonyms in

But seriously, the best thing you can do is write essays and get feedback from your teacher. I can write all the shit I like here but at the end of the day I don't have any credentials, nor am I marking your essay.

So, to you, your English teacher is the biggest tool. Yes I intentionally worded it like that xP

carded

My personal view on feminism is that I will treat women in general equally, but with no more courtesy than I would treat a guy of the same social circle. So I will treat close friends poorly xP. Obviously I'll treat a girlfriend a little like a goddess on dates (and probably in between too), or let minor arguments slide (esp. during undesirable days of the month). But socially and economically they should be treated equally on all levels. I know this doesn't happen in 100% of men - but if you're seeking to make EVERY MAN think that women are equal, you're just plain deluded. There are people out there - at least one group of people hating on any other given group of people. I bet there is an anti-Jew movement. I bet there is an anti-Asian movement. I bet there is an anti-disabled people movement. I bet there is an anti-hamster movement. There are loons that hate on things, and you're wasting your time trying to change them.

There is no way in the fucking world that everyone will agree with you. You have to settle with "good enough". The unfortunate thing is that everyone's idea of "good enough" is different.

The word "feminist" means about as much to me as the word "Christian". It's massive umbrella term that doesn't really mean shit. Feminists range from "If we both work at Maccas, we both deserve minimum wage, isn't that fair?" to "YOU ASSHOLE DO YOU THINK I DON'T EARN MONEY? DO YOU SEEK TO PATRONISE ME WITH YOUR CHARITY? I AM CAPABLE OF PROVIDING FOR MYSELF."
This is just like how Christians range from "I kind of believe in God and I want to go to Heaven" to "I go to Church every Sunday and I pray 3 hours per day on other days."

I swear I posted before about a biological reason why there are less female CEO's atm, but I can't find it so I may put up a new one. It may not explain the still massive disparity, but I think it does make sense. It will come after this.

I see a card pulled out very often to make a point; I do believe that this is not a valid reason for thinking "our society is fucked, men are still more powerful":

Please don't continue if you will be offended by discussions of rape.

to the teeth

Last night I had a dream where I lost most of the teeth in my mouth. This is not the first time I've had dreams about losing teeth, and I wonder what the hell it means.

My teeth were falling out and at first I tried to bite down to keep them in. That didn't work cos they were all falling out, so I stored them under my tongue until I could find something to spit the teeth into.

I found a random bag that I could spit into - however I had so many bloody teeth under my tongue (it was more than 20) that some of them seemed stuck near my salivary glands, and it felt distinctly uncomfortable.

I strolled into a dentist's clinic and told her about this (it seems that I randomly regained my molars for this part), and she told me it was a virus and it would "pass". And for some reason I thought it would be totally okay if the virus left - maybe I thought my teeth would grow back.

Man I'd hate to actually lose my teeth =(

Fun fact - When I was little and trying to grasp the English language, I often mixed up tomatos/mushrooms. Like if I saw a red fleshy fruit I'd think twice before saying TOMATO. Similary for a fugly brown black thing, I'd think twice before MUSHROOM. It makes no sense that I would mix those two up, unless I was way ahead of my time and grouped them together as key ingredients in Italian cuisine xP

And I found a possibly controversial post regarding feminism and its fundamental arguments that I wrote up a while back. Stand by while I re-read it and will probably post tomorrow =)

out bush

I might bother blogging properly again, now that Prelims are over and I'm relatively less stressed, barring 3on3 Soccer xP.

I'm here to recount our bivouac - a lot of people asked how it was (thanks, btw =D) and I just said "eventful", too tired to tell the whole story. Well here it is now =)

Table of Contents

Beautifully hyperlinked for your reading pleasure.
1) The First Bus
2) Peons and Fudz
3) Sleepy Driver
4) TWSS
5) The Lost Section
6) Deceptive Lookout
7) Overnight
8) Calamari Rings
9) The 911 Complex
10) The Bus Returns

the hell is this?

I was typing up the Othello essay I wrote for the test, to see how many words I could write in 40mins. I came across two comments that I felt should not be there.

A strong focus on appearance is established in Iago’s black and white imagery “an old black ram tupping your white ewe”. Similarly the Duke’s comment “he is far more fair than black.” This polarization of white as good and black as bad reflects the underlying racism present throughout the play, as well as drawing attention to Othello’s race.

Next to "focus on appearance" the marker wrote "race too".
She then read on and found that I did, indeed, mention race, and crossed it out and said "ignore".
I found this disappointing. It isn't really fair that you are bringing your own judgment of the text into your marking. Maybe, my quote is better to prove a different point. But unfortunately my paragraph is not proving that point, so it would be stupid to use the quote for that purpose.
A good essay is somewhat defined by its ability to flow. By pressing your own opinions into each point and going "now why the fuck did they not include that", the flow is broken, but by no fault of the writer. The writer does not even know who marks it, let alone their personal interpretation of the text. There is no way the writer can accommodate for the marker's interruption in flow just because their opinion about a quote differs.
Also notably, I also received "poor interpretation of the poem" in an essay a while back. Suffice to note I only included analyses that my teacher discussed with the class. The marker's intention was to tell me my whole paragraph interpreted the poem incorrectly - I'd like to think that it's not possible to interpret a poem incorrectly, only differently. It wasn't like I made a shittily constructed paragraph - The only comment was that I interpreted it "wrong". So that was fucked. I really lost faith in the cohesion of the English subject - It was subjective at the best of times... but really?

Nextly I have an issue with another part in my essay

In Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello, many universal human flaws are explored, and the timeless nature of these flaws allows for the play to be relevant for all time. The concepts explored include the tendency to allow emotion to override rational thought, the inability to discern appearance and reality, and the blind trust of a man’s reputation.

About this whole conclusion, the marker wrote

? confusing
flaws/concepts
which

Read all of that with a massive mothereffing [sic] next to it. But clearly she is telling me to use "flaws" a third time in a conclusion of 55 words, instead of using a synonym.
Personally I do not see the difference between "flaws" and "these concepts".


And I'm also running as far away as I can from 3U English, after that intro talk that Ms Murphy gave us. I cannot imagine myself writing about Navigating the Global in an essay, so I"m not going to pretend I'm going to try.

miration

Those people on Formspring or other sites where people may ask questions or comment either anonymously or behind a username that is similarly anonymous...

Those people that defaultly answer "I love you" to every compliment, or in extreme cases, just any comment - It's really really fake and seriously it feels so... IT'S A FREAKING STRANGER. DO YOU KNOW WHAT LOVE IS? Every time I see one of these Formsprings or, to a lesser extent, the tumblrs I check out for surveys/links from people for funky photos... Every time I see one of these I have a little facepalm and a little gag reflex. Seriously you'd think they had been chomped by a Dementor, the way their answers are set to a specific formula of:

(Optional: Aww) thanks, you're [compliment given, or synonym] too! [I love you]/[You're amazing]/[You're beautiful] [Generic emoticon].

It's nice to pretend you like someone you don't know, but a robot response isn't the way. I guess it makes sense for celebrities to, cos they have:
a) No time
b) No interest in being friends with you whatsoever
c) Probably hired someone who answers for them
d) Too much money to give half a shit
e) The expectation that they will say certain things

Which makes it all the more terrible if you answer like this on your own personal Formspring or tumblr. Like, you have your own freaking personality, so use it. You could always make more friends, so try by being interesting instead of blindly and fakely complimenting. You also don't love them. I must stress that.

Like not hating on Taylor Swift personally but her Formspring is like... if words could be made out if plastic, that's exactly what her Formspring reads to me.

So my message is - be a real person and I'll like you.


On a related note about compliments and admiration - the difference in boys and girls. This isn't as sexist as you might think it could be :L

A funny thing I've noticed is that girls can often say personal compliments, like "omg you're so pretty", or "omg you're so nice", and "you're the best".

Like SHOOT A GUY if you hear him saying that to another guy (especially the first one). But guys don't live without compliments. I was like - so how the shit do guys compliment? I reflect, as well as observed in day to day business, that guys compliment each other's possessions, but never their person. Like, "hey your story is really cool", "omg cool joke", "I found your answer to this question very good!"

Not to say girl's don't participate in this kind of pseudocompliments, but I think they would just say "omg you're so good at English!", "ahhh you're so funny", and "YOU'RE SO SMART OMG OMG OMG" respectively. It's just so much direct and at the same time, so much more awkward in bro talk :L

it smelt like... victory

I'll put the word "end" in terms of all the tests I've done
- 2U English = "final chapter"
- Physics = "the Big Crunch"
- 2U Maths = "endpoints"
- 3U English = "lol there is no end. Themes can get recycled to suit new audiences xP"
- Chemistry = "titration"
- 3U Maths = "eliminate the parameter?! I don't know ._."
- Biology = "extinction"

Props to Tree for showing me this Google Doodle for today. It made my day more than the end of exams did =D =D


But there's still more shit to do. *sigh*
-Hardcore 3on3 - get teams sorted, fields sorted, VNR's sorted
-Hardcore Term 3 Biv TP
-Hardcore Cadets TP

I'm too burnt out to post a thinking post. I bet nobody wants to think anyway. Stupidity will do then =D

In addition.. POTTERMORE!
RiverBlood42
+Some other one I forgot I will post up soon

IF YOU'RE GOING TO ADD ME TELL ME ON MSN/otherwise LOL.