Stats

So I've been looking at my stats for this blog after I discovered I could do that (Thank you Google empire!), and here's what I found:

• The most page views I got in the past year was in January of this year with 204.
• The most viewed post of all time is Adorez with 193 views. Runner up is New Book with 43.
• The biggest referring sites are Lona's blog or Google.
• Most of the page views come from America, but the second amount is from Russia with 89.
• 64% of the viewer's browser is Internet Explorer (for shame, internet users!)
• And of course, 94% use windows.

In other unrelated news, I have taken to the couch again since a spider appeared on my ceiling last night. Armed with anything I could find on my bunk bed, I threw odd projectiles at it, ranging in size from cough drops to college books. I finally gave up the fight and retreated to the living room.

Gauguin

Recently in my French class we learned about Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, so hearing about a crazy lady attacking a Gauguin painting really rustled my jimmies. She called it evil and called the two topless women in the painting homosexuals. Don't even get me started on the whole "radio in her head" thing.

It's acts like this that makes me feel sorry for our country. Blatant acts of homophobia and prudishness that could damage what others would call culture and history are uncalled for. Speak your mind, write a letter to the editor, blog. Don't attack it!

And the women in the painting weren't even doing anything vaguely homosexual. One was carrying a platter. The other one wasn't. It's obviously symbolism. And the way she seems to connect homosexuality with evil is heartbreaking.

Now I'm not surprised at how the news shows reported it. They want viewers like any other show and don't want to deter anybody. What shocked me was what they mentioned about the reactions of the 2004 summer Olympics opening ceremony in Athens, where they displayed bare-breasted statues of Greek goddesses.

First we had to be subjected to the breast of Janet Jackson in the [Super Bowl and] now an even more gratuitous display of pornography an [sic] indecency during what was suppose [sic] to be another family viewing event.

Wait what?

How can people be so disgusted and/or offended by seeing a naked breast? One person just outright said “My children saw an exposed breast during the opening ceremonies” as if they hadn't seen one before.

What these people don't seem to realize is how insulting they are to others and their cultures. At the Olympics, they were displaying artifacts of their great history. In Tahiti I wouldn't think it would be too uncommon to be half-nude. And there are many other French paintings that could be considered more "evil". Manet's Olympia anyone?

Woah

I don't know when my stalker count went from 12 to 34, but boy, does it raise one's self-esteem.

One thing that had happened in those two months that I haven't blogged was course selection for next year. I'm taking AP Language and Composition, AP World History, Chemistry, Physics, Pre-Calc, Web Design II, Java Programming, and French IV. I've planned some college tours for my spring break, where I'll visit University of New Haven, Quinnipiac, Tufts, and WPI. I also took a placement test at CSM so I can take some summer courses there. This should be fun :)

Kindles

I have decided to put in my two-cents of what I think about the kindle and other e-reader type electronics:

If you like 'em, great. Personally I wouldn't want one (though it would be handy to get books faster and cheaper). I wouldn't be able to bring it to school, and the squareness of it would be uncomfortable.

You see, the way I read at home is I curl around the book. My favorite reading spot is on my couch upstairs. I don't lay back, instead I sit up with my legs bent so the spine of the book fits perfectly on my legs. I usually lean my head against the back cushion of the couch with my chin down the read the book and my arms slung over my knees. Doing that with a solid rectangle would be uncomfortable and weird, especially since I'd have to move every few minutes to change pages.

Computer Classes

Sorry for not posting in two months. Lately I've been feeding my unhealthy habit of doing nothing.

I have decided to do Computer Bowl at my school, with the first meeting being on the Thursday after break. It's sponsored by my Web Design teacher, which is by the way a really cool class. After we learned about HTML and CSS, we worked on Adobe Fireworks, and for those of us who are ahead (including me), Photoshop. But the Computer bowl is about programming, which is what I'm learning in my Design & Logic class.

I've been pretty ahead in my Design & Logic class. We go by these lessons that we do on our own, and I can usually finish one in a class period. One Tuesday I was absent, and on Thursday we were taking a quiz, so the teacher told me I could take the quiz later unless I was comfortable with Lesson 8, which everyone was just finishing up that day. I told her I could take the quiz because I finished Lesson 8 on Friday (We run on A-day B-day schedules). Needless to say I felt pretty good when people acted surprised.

Well it was my birthday on Saturday (I know, I'm a bit late). On Saturday I was woken up at 7:30 to do a treasure hunt for some of my presents (headphones, a T-shirt, and a Modest Mouse CD "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank") and got ready for the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. We picked up my friends at 9 and headed toward the metro. My friends and I were wearing the Guy Fawkes masks from V for Vendetta. My dad got on one of the trains while the doors were closing so we got separated and had to ride a different train. My dad said there was much jocularity on his train. Meanwhile on ours, everyone was silent except for one guy who was shouting about how Halloween was for the devil.

Once in DC, we walked with our masks on and a few people even asked to take pictures of us. When we got to the rally, we saw even more people with masks on. Once the rally ended, that's when the real fun began. Everyone was walking in the streets and we saw the most funniest signs then. We met up with Hallie in Chinatown and ate with her in a noodle restaurant.
Once home, I opened more presents (Tim Gunn's guide to life, the beauty cookbook, An Abundance of Katherines by John Green, and silk pillowcases).

After that I went to a friend's house and spent the night, where we watched Rocky Horror Picture Show, did the time warp, ate brownies, and fell asleep at 3 in the morning.

NEST Time

Now some of you may know that with my new 1-hour lunch (called NEST time, which stands for something but I won't bother you with the ridiculous acronym) comes clubs and study periods that can be attended during that time. With the urging of family (i.e. Lona) I'm posting the list of things available that they gave us on the first day of school. They are broken up in to A and B. A is the first hour of lunch and B is the second half. I've starred the things that are relevant to my classes and crossed out things that are not, including sports.