Archive for the 'writing' Category

Phoenix

Published by
gradster1
at November 1, 2007 in fall, teenagers, starting, advances, November, webcomics, series, night, writing, learning, poetry, philosophy, beauty and random. 0 Comments

Apparently, when I get emotional I write poetry. The mood of it explains the mood I was in when it was written - which is pretty much how I do that. Anyway, here’s a poem:

It dulls your senses
Makes your head throb
Makes you rage against one -
Someone?

No one.

Howling at the white moon framed by the black sky
Black like your pain.
Wings of hatred sprout, and you fly
Away from it all

Information floods your brain
Like that tall gray wall that is your pride has finally broken
under the relentless attack (cliché though it is)
of that hurricane of feelings

It never ends.

Only waits, watching.
And your soul dies, over and over
Reborn each time - a surreal phoenix, if you will - comprised of your thoughts, hopes, dreams
Emerges anew when the call of this phoenix is answered and the sun rises
And your eyes dry, yet still smart from the heat
Stinging and twitching with memory.

The human race is not forgiving, nor is it ever forgiven.
This is not said without good reason.

I’m going to be entering this into a competition soon since I thought it was pretty good. I wondered at how the words seemed to flow straight from my mind to the paper - the pencil only a gateway. Of course, see where it gets me? Now I’m being what I call “clichéd poetic” without even trying. Anyway, hope you like it, and there’s another webcomic coming soon (possibly a series soon too!).

Tip III

Published by
gradster1
at October 18, 2007 in fall, teenagers, starting, advances, r.ompo.us, October, high school, series, random, technology, blogging, writing, night and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

I’m amazingly tired - mowing two acres of lawn (with lots of fun terrain!) seems to do that - but also amazingly satisfied. After sushi and a bagel (a repast to thrive on), here it comes

Tip III:

Use your resources.

This may seem a bit simple, but it’s definitely true. No matter the actual type of resource - be it friends, books, teachers, maybe even (gasp!) parents - they will give you information. This is evident for me in that when I don’t write down my homework, I have nowhere to go: my parents haven’t the faintest, my friends aren’t in the same class, and emailing teachers takes time. Luckily for me, I have another resource - Facebook. A glance at a schoolmate’s page reveals an AIM screenname.

One fairly new resource we now have is technology. I use either Hiveminder or RTM for my organizational needs, mainly homework (reviews pending). I can IM a friend, check the homework page, or email a teacher now - instead of waiting helplessly like I used to.

I’m glad to be finishing this post. Not only was it hard to write, but it’s also my first post here on r.ompo.us. It’s sentimental… With stress on the “mental” part. In other news, a quick question to readers: What theme should I use for my blog? The basic K2 is getting boring. As stated above, reviews on to do listing programs pending.

Tip II

Published by
gradster1
at September 15, 2007 in September, metaphor, high school, fall, starting, r.ompo.us, homework, betaphor, series, writing, Wordpress, random, internet, blogging, school, learning, facts and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

With no further ado (you’ve waited too long already):

Tip II:

Don’t get behind.

Now, this may just be the most important of all the tips. It’s hard to do, what with remembering everything, from homework to friends to relationships to even blogging, but if you can stay on top of the slowly accumulating mountain of things to remember you will be pretty well off. Even if you don’t get that project done on time at least you remembered it, which brings me to an apology. I have not been blogging. It’s a fact. Also a fact, however, is that I have a lot of stuff to remember and sometimes “superfluous” things like blogging get pushed to the bottom, therefor while trying to keep up with schoolwork lately I have been putting off blogging a lot, sorry.

Back to the point, when you get “under the mountain” (to use a betaphor), it takes a lot to get back on top. This strategy works for pretty much everything in life, when you have a lot to do. All you have to do to succeed is stay organized and things just fall into place.

Other than that, how about a nice surprise? I now have my own domain! Visit r.ompo.us (no, I don’t believe rompous is a word (Firefox spellcheck just confirmed that…) but it’s only a test) for my new testing domain. This is (hopefully) only a step between Betaphor at wordpress and Betaphor at “be.jeez.us”, a domain I have recently developed a longing for. Just betaphor.com would be pretty boring, don’t you think? And besides, I like domain hacks. Any other suggestions? Just comment.

Learning for the Future

Published by
gradster1
at September 4, 2007 in lazy, arguments, bored, high school, series, September, beliefs, advances, betaphor, starting, fall, teenagers, night, teachers, blogging, school, random, internet, technology, facts, learning, education, beauty, computers, politics, writing and Uncategorized. 1 Comment

In preparing students for the twenty-first century we need to educate them in certain ways. Skills in certain areas will be necessary because of recent advances in technology, for example, the human race will need to accept that computers and robots may do our jobs better than we do. In other words we must learn humility. Other skills will become the norm as well, for example it will be necessary in day-to-day life to have basic programming skills in all the major languages, we will also need to be able to service the hardware side of things too.

I believe this video is the newest version, correct me if I’m wrong. It was originally made by Karl Fisch (see his blog at The Fischbowl) for a presentation on how his high school should be teaching kids. It has been remade so many times it’s not even worth mentioning who else helped.

I’ve always loved this kind of video - words that shock you along with some quiet music. This goes along with someone talking made into animations, such as Alan Watt’s videos. This was actually assigned to be watched, which is progress in our school system, however it was also assigned that we fill out a sheet and analyze the video, which totally ruined all the progress. The writing in the top paragraph is actually one answer of what I’m handing in! Even this is a connection to the video. If the right steps are made soon all classes will be on computers, and, even further along, blogs, which is why I like including my homework into something I consider fun.

This video makes me think. If a laptop available in 2049 will surpass the combined technological power of the human race put together, than what are we left to do? As much as anybody I wouldn’t like an “I, Robot” situation however this may be for the better. I choose to see these advances as an opportunity; with all the “menial” (think open heart surgery) jobs out of the way our kind will have all the time we need to express ourselves in ways we can’t program computers to; such as the arts. Think about it.

Tip II coming soon.

Tip I

Published by
gradster1
at August 29, 2007 in lazy, technicalities, bored, arguments, beliefs, August, starting, teenagers, high school, series, school, blogging, random, facts, learning, education, writing and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Alright, I was a bit tired when I wrote my last post, so I failed to reveal that I was to include tips about school life. And thus, tired again, I will do my best to write the first.

Tip I:

Don’t be too prepared.

Having recently spent a day at Walmart (among other places, thank god), I should know that preparing is hard. It can be a bit fun, fighting the crowds, sifting through the piles of stuff, squeezing into tight places to let that obnoxious person past to the checkout lane… But enough is too much. Get in, get out, and try to do it early. Later they may give you back to school prices, but they will wear you and your patience out very quickly.

After the ride home look at your items. Consider how much stuff you have. You’re not going to want more than one binder per class, so if you have too many discard or save them. Notebooks are essential for some classes but not others, find out from your teacher or maybe a friend. Pencils and maybe pens are obviously a must, but erasers are usually not necessary, the pencil ones will suffice. Your teacher may have recommended a calculator, even if this is not a requirement it is a very good idea for math classes. I suggest the TI-84, be it plus, silver, plus silver edition, or something else I have not yet heard of, it works very well for anything up to and even past college and the investment might as well be made now. Other than that accessories such as post-its and pencil sharpeners are surplus and not recommended by me, because they become clutter.

These are my main recommendations for materials for the beginning of the school year. I will take no responsibility if anyone gets in trouble their first day because of these, I am not forcing you to use these guidelines, merely suggesting. It’s rather ironic that as I type I am in my first day of high school, right before lunch, but this underlines my point that I do have experience and so am not a total dimwit when it comes to school preparation. It’s debateable as to whether this applies to blogging, but anyway… Try to enjoy or at least get through without mishap your first day at school.