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Infinitesimals

Voicemail has its uses, for example, when one won't be able to pick up the phone for awhile, but needs to relay a message immediately, or when other forms of communication are not possible, i.e. e-mail or texting is inconvenient or irrelevant.

However, I still usually end up ignoring it, thus rendering most of the pros as moot.

(1) Oct 10, 08 - 10:18 AM

On the subject of high school friends, just because you're different, doesn't mean you can't be friends.

(0) Jun 17, 07 - 10:41 PM

Pi is wrong.

Well, actually, maybe it would just be better to use what is currently known as 2*pi. I've always thought it would be easier if sine and cosine had periods that were just pi, not 2pi.

So should pi be 6.283185...? Should pi be the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its radius, instead of diameter? If so, it would take about 50 years for this to gain any momentum in the mathematical community.

(0) Apr 20, 07 - 12:07 AM

President Bush and (Dis)approval Ratings

Sunday, October 22, 2006 | 10:39:48 PM
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So there's all this about Bush being incompetent, evil, greedy... basically (insert word here). There's all this talk about his approval ratings constantly plummeting.

Is he really a bad president? That is up for debate. He's certainly not the best speaker, with books circulating around filled with spoonerisms and other faux pas.

But not the horse race politics continue, 51% of Americans want Bush impeached (The stats are buried a bit on the second page. Some math involved). But once I read that, I was thinking... do people really know what it means to be impeached? Do people know that impeachements are actually rare? I think that was skewed a bit with Clinton.

Basically, to be impeached means to be put to trial. If the president is impeached, he's still the president. The House impeaches and the Senate handles the trial. It's not easy to actually convict, either. If the Senate is shy of a 2/3 vote, the president will be acquitted and he's still the president.

Impeached != bye bye. Only two presidents have been impeached, neither were convicted. Even Nixon wasn't impeached (granted, he resigned before the House could vote).

But that's politics... sensationalism and mudslinging.

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On Procrastination

Monday, September 25, 2006 | 12:25:00 AM
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So. Everyone knows that procrastination is bad. At least in the long run. "Hard work pays off later, but procrastination pays off now", or something to that effect.

But anyway, right now I have homework to do. Namely, I need to read and write entries about the book Wuthering Heights. I had other homework to do, and I completed that first, but still at a slow pace. I had been far too distracted by the internet. And now, it's 10:00 and I have over 150 pages to read. It's not a small book with large print, either.

And still, I am avoiding doing the work by writing this entry.

I realize that this is something I will need to get over. I have made some progress, in fact; however, it is often lost after a few days.

I did my other work. That interested me more. Enough to make me at least start it. This, however, I have yet to even read a word. I only opened the book to see how many pages I needed to read. That was only for the purpose of this entry.

And so I am ranting instead of working. Illogical, yes. A confusion of priorities, sure. But does it bother me? Well... somewhat. I realize that I need to get to work on this. All I need to do is pick up the book and read a sentence (and turn of the monitor of the computer). Starting it is the hardest part.

I'm sure I could slither by and not put forth a full effort, but that would simply make it harder for me the next week, compounding the work I need to do on this book. Plus, next week is a cutoff, as we will have finished the period and need to turn in our work.

And so, procrastination bites us in the end. The far and and the near end. Because of procrastination, I'm losing sleep tonight (or not, as I may have stayed up late anyway). And then, I'll be losing sleep next week (definitely working to get it done due to the incoming deadline).

Why do people procrastinate when they know that it will just cause problems? By this stage of development, people are able to understand that their actions have consequences. Regardless, they continue to do the actions that will have negative consequences.

"If you have to, you might as well want to."

But too bad I don't even pretend I want to do this work.

Well, I might as well get started now. (Riight. Like that'll happen.)

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Pokemon is back!

Sunday, September 3, 2006 | 11:41:07 PM
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So maybe not really. I don't know how it started. Dillon just brought his cards one day and showed me his (poor) deck. And then I eventually tried to fix it after school one day. It spread from there as people saw what was going on. Soon, other people began bringing their own decks and cards, as well as their gameboy games.

So happy day! Pokemon is coming back! People are even battling the TCG at lunch and after school and such. Even outside the inner circle, there have been talks of pokemon in small groups around school.

In fact, I was excited to see a commercial about an hour ago advertising the new Pokemon EX cards. Actually, after I searched online... I was surprised to see that there are about 10 new sets that I was unaware of. Wow. Too much to collect!

In addition, I'm really excited for Pokemon Pearl and Diamond. It will come out September 28th in Japan. I want it. Too bad I'll have to wait for Spring 2007 for it to come to America.

Until then, though... I still haven't finished LeafGreen. And I should try playing Trozei again. And I think it would be fun to battle over the gameboy games. I think the wifi capabilities of the DS would make it a lot easier... no dealing with link cables!

And in the meantime... we're playing around with the idea of a pokemon-related webcomic! Something like Pokemon X, but different.

This mini-revival of the pokemon craze excites me! Sure it won't exactly be as great as it was, but it's Pokemon!

In other news... new voice actors for the anime... intended to be similar to the 4Kids VAs. We'll see how it is soon, I suppose.

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Wiki Wiki Weirdness

Tuesday, August 29, 2006 | 12:24:32 AM
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I recently discovered a chart listing the most popular Wikipedia entries since its inception (about 3 days ago). This Wikipedia Chart reveals some interesting information. The top includes the main page, Wiki, Wikipedia, as well as popular news items (JonBenét Ramsey and Pluto). Next surprised me: Pokemon. The fad is long gone, but it's number 7!?

After that, you notice a few trends. The top 100 consists mostly of things that recently appeared on the news, celebrities, anime, and sex/porn-related items. A lot of the last item. People's minds seem to be rather predictable, perhaps? Or possibly this is just a subset of people with similar tastes. Another interesting note is that the list of gay porn stars ranks higher than the list of female ones.

So that list was interesting enough, but then I stumbled across another similar list... but it was for Wiktionary this time. The Wiktionary Top 100 was a lot more... predictable. Sex related terms make up a significant percent of the top pages and become more distributed towards the end. In fact, of the top 15 pages, there are 8 such terms.

It seems obvious what people consider the internet to be for... well, at least the Wikimedia area of the internet.

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Procrastinate later, not now

Monday, August 28, 2006 | 1:08:35 AM
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Why procrastinate now when you can procrastinate later?

An amusing quote... both tongue-in-cheek and helpful. One may see it first as a joke, in that procrastinators put off things, so why not put off procrastinating? But by that, it also means one should do things as soon as possible to be able to waste time later. But since you would have nothing left to put off, one can't truly procrastinate procrastination: proof by contradiction. QED.

In other news, I'm avoiding doing my homework. It's interesting that I'll tend to do things due later before things more pressing. Usually because they interest me more or can be finished quicklier. Regardless, it's a bad habit I should break. I always put that off, however. Or, I only last for a short while. That while being anywhere from a day to under three weeks. Supposedly a habit is formed after 21 consecutive days. Too bad I can only last for 20.

I do usually end up getting everything done. And I still have my fun. I merely lose a bit of sleep... I usually prioiritize sleep, however, so I still get at least 5 hours a night. Normally more. I strive for 7, but 9 appears to be my natural number.

So basically, this entry was made mostly to avoid typing up something that has already been written up; doing under 5 minutes of work (Word is already opened, actually).

Another note: mynoteIT interests me, as well as Writely. I wonder if I will get a chance to use them. The former is only likely in AP Government (and Journalism) if I happen to bring my laptop and acquire internet access. The latter is probable for some AP Chem Labs... possibly.

I'm really rambling. Desperately trying to hold on to all that is not schoolwork. Looks like my grip is slipping... Hamlet, to read or not to read, that is the question.

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