This is another example of a great project that uses social networking crowd-sourcing. I re-discovered this while looking through my Twitter following list. Check it out:

The project gathers @replies and mentions from Twitter, and displays an animation on a giant screen mounted on a building based on users’ tweets. (When it first came out, it was mounted in London, but now, it’s looking for a place to stay.)

How it works

You send an @reply to its Twitter account, @thehellowall, using a combination of the following commands:

• circle
• square
• rectangle
• triangle
• shake
• faster
• slower
• bigger
• smaller
• And HTML colors.

A command could look like this:

@thehellowall White circles bigger

The Wall will interpret your command, and display it instantly. It’s that simple!

Thus, we wish you a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, a Happy Kwanzaa, or whatever it is that you celebrate.

Again, happy holidays everyone!

And here’s what I hope for this blog this new year:

• REAL HTTPS that doesn’t cause the “OH NOEZ YOU’RE ABOUT TO ENTER DANGEROUS TERRITORY” message
• A new layout perhaps?
• More posts this year
• More people on our Minecraft server
• More views on this blog
• Monthly polls

Sound realistic? We’ll see.

Anyways, the iPhone 4 immediately caught my attention. At first glance I did not believe my eyes. It was something! And something quite a world apart from the previous iPhone model. The first things I noticed were-

• its glossy oleophobic screen (which I tested)
• the awesome new rounded rectangular body
• the complementing metal siding and buttons
• the retina display

Just to test Apple’s claims about the magic oleophobic screen, I smudged my fingerprints all over the iPhone (something I would never do on my phone) then I wiped it against my shirt. BAM. Fingerprints gone. No streak marks. That was something.

It felt so nice to hold. Maybe because it wasn’t in such a weird shape like the previous iPhone model.

Then came the controversial retina display. I put my eyes as close to the iPhone as I could without risking them falling into my eye sockets. Sure enough Apple’s claims were right… Again. I could not distinguish the individual pixels. One color merged seamlessly into the other. Lines and text were crisp and sharp. I was blown away again.

it doesn’t stop there though. The touchscreen felt renewed under the glass surface of the iPhone. the iPhone worked seamlessly, no jumps or breaks. The touch functionality was effortless. Its five megapixel camera was stunning, but of course will not replace a regular camera.

Yes, the iPhone 4 is Amazing beyond belief but there are some things I would like to point out. The multitasking involves going from one application through the home screen to get to another app, instead of simply jumping from app to app (maybe its something I missed…) The other funny thing is that you can see the individual pixels quite clearly in apps not built for the retina display. Also, I don’t know if this is just me, but does the iPhone lose its wifi signal when you hold it in a certain fashion?

I didn’t try calling anyone so I can’t day anything about its antenna issues.

On the plus side the iPhone 4 supports tethering (F*CK YEA.) and customizable backgrounds.

would I get it?

if I wasn’t going to call anybody, antenna issues aside… YES! It is absolutely amazing. Great for business. Great for the casual. Great gift. I don’t know about communication via phone, but it seems like even phone calls are getting old fashioned.

For $300, this is major bang for your buck. but make sure you try before you buy.

P.s. I did not try the FaceTime feature and I can’t figure out how to download apps from the app store.

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

Every year our neighbors celebrate with a gigantic party of 50 adults and a swarm of children. They run more than a fireworks party. It’s a huge social hour complete with beer, toy trucks for the kids, and even an outdoor movie screen. After walking around our entire neighborhood this night, I’m pretty sure we have the largest July4 party for miles around.

Good news this year is that there were no spontaneous fires (read last year’s post and my blog post for details.)

Bad news this year is that it’s RAINY which kind of spoils the fun. NOT. The rain ain’t gonna stop our neighborhood from partying till midnight. In fact, I think the crowds are bigger this year.

I always remember the Fourth of July. It’s one of those highlights of the year that you can’t miss.

Look at this beautiful picture:

…and this video feed (refresh the page):

Well there we go. Nothing else to say about the sunny weather other than it’s rarity in Seattle. Have fun!

Today, at my school, and thousands of other schools around the nation, students participated in a Day of Silence. It is a silent protest to bring to light “anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in their schools.”However, silence is an ineffective tool against discrimination.

If you’re going to speak out about an issue, is being quiet a way of speaking out about it, or is speaking out about it a way of speaking out about it. Sure, the students are staging a protest, and that protest is silent. Why is it silent?

Think about a time when you were super angry at someone or something. Some people will go up in fire about it, while others silently slunk down in the corner avoiding contact with the known world. I find that when you are silent, not many people will support you. Conversely, when you speak out about the issue, you’ll get more supporters. It’s a matter of active versus passive.

Likewise, the Day of Silence protest is silent because people are passively protesting, not a good idea (as we saw in the above analogy) for gathering support for a cause. Silent protests are usually not heard either. Here’s some food for thought: you’re in a grocery store and there’s two vendors who are selling equally delicious appetizers. One vendor doesn’t say anything, and the other says “come try this.” Who are you going to go to? Of course. The point is, in today’s world, if you’re totally silent, no one’s going to hear you, whether or not it’s a protest or your shyness.

Being quiet is not the way to protest. People don’t see you’re protesting. On the other hand, speaking out about the issue helps a lot more. All the protests I’ve heard of are outspoken mass gatherings. I have not heard of one single protest except for this one which was totally silent. These protests do nothing. Sure, being silent may help to show your compassion for a friend who has been discriminated, but speaking out shows your compassion and it helps bring about change.

The Day of Silence needs to not be silent. Everybody knows that silence doesn’t speak louder than words, unless it’s a massive day of silence instead of just two people. People who don’t speak out are viewed as cowardly and weak, and that could cause more people to discriminate others based on race or sexual orientation. The issue of discrimination needs to be spoken about, not diminished by a day of silence.

You heard me right. Beginning today at around 11:00am it began snowing. At first it was barely noticeable (except everyone at school went crazy.)

And now, it’s snowing like it’s December. In Washington, we’ve barely had any snow, but now, it’s just coming down hard. Just when you thought the weather couldn’t get any more peculiar, it does.

For me, I’m happy about this. Snow in such unusual times makes me really excited. I don’t know how long this is going to last, but hopefully, I see more days like this. And yes, I will laugh if it snows in June.

Hmmm… I wonder if the guys in Portland are having any of this…

Oh well, I hope this website isn’t phishing for my personal information.

And hopefully this security dilemma is solved before anything bad happens.

At last count, there are 1187 spam comments. I just checked the comments today, and some spammer actually made it to the approved (!!!) list.

But it’s been a good year for this blog. Long live and prosper everyone.

–Deathgleaner

Class curves are intended to raise students’ grades above the fail line. Many students see this as a way of slacking off. We’re not talking about just one student slacking off, we’re talking about hundreds of students failing the class and hoping for a bailout from students. Class curves inspire students to slack off, not do better in school. Here’s why:

The moment that students hear that the class has a curve, many of them are inspired to slack off. They know that, even if they do bad, their grades will automatically improve by a few percent and not look as bad. Everyone starts failing, and then the teacher doesn’t want students to fail, so a curve is introduced to bump up everyone’s grades.

I like to compare this with lowering the standard. Allowing students with a D average to pass. Admitting students with a 2.0 GPA to get in college. We’re lowering the standard by arbitrarily raising everyone’s grades. Get rid of this!

It takes less time to load, it looks much cleaner, there’s less CSS, that floating bar is gone, and the look is more coherent.

Trust me, I’m picky with themes, but this one is pretty damn good.

First it was a test, and now our entire class is in the library.

At the beginning I thought this was going to be fun. But no… The only time we stepped out of the library was to get lunch.

Anyways, I’m about to fall asleep and I can’t wait to get out.

Akismet has netted about 150 spam comments. It’s scary that spam comments out-rival normal ones.

Thanks again,
Deathgleaner

The CDC says that the number of flu cases at this time of year matches the number of flu cases that we usually have near the peak time of year.

Even though people are taking dire precautions such as washing your hands and staying home, the flu continues to spread, probably because one student gets sick while at school, even though they don’t know it. Their latent germs get over the staircase railings, and once these germs become active, anyone who has touched that railing is infected. The spread is exponential, and young people are at more of a risk because they have not been exposed to such strains before.

My advise: wash your hands as frequently as possible. I’m not even joking. And carry around a few plastic bags in case you have to touch anything that’s swine flu infested.

Yea, we’ve been lazy these weeks but hope to be back!

The reason the teachers went on strike in the first place was because issues such as classroom head count was unregulated and time spent with students was very small. In terms of these two parameters, Kent School District is not up to par, and the teachers wanted the School District to be. Thus, the teachers were really striking for the benefit of students, since less classmates equals more productivity and more time with the teacher means more learning.

August 31st, the first “day” of school, came around, and still no agreement between the teachers and the District. Finally, our superintendent, Edward Lee Vargas filed a complaint to Judge Andrea Darvas. On Thursday, she ruled that the strike was illegal, ordered the teachers to return to classrooms on Tuesday, and students to go back on Wednesday. But yesterday (Monday), teachers voted 71% to defy the judge’s order. I was absolutely ticked off.

Some parents and students actually supported the striking teachers. I stand fast in opposing this strike though. First of all, school has been delayed because of this stalemate between the two sides. Secondly, the School District has already offered the teachers a multitude of proposals that the teachers might as well accept, but no. The teachers are so stubborn, even in this recession, that they will by no means compromise. Horrible attitude, teachers. Such proposals they got were assistance for large class sizes and more pay. An alternative is better than nothing, so why not just accept and end this stagnant strike? Lastly, Judge Darvas already ordered the teachers back to class, and defying a judge’s order can result in jail time or fines. I would not risk this to continue on strike, and I don’t get why the hell the teachers are.

I’m absolutely pissed. This strike has made life boring, and there’s no end in sight. Some of my classmates say school will likely start in October, and Darren asked me what I would say if this case was taken to the Supreme Court? First of all, I’d laugh, and secondly, I’d already be attending a different school.

But there’s still one type of “matter” that perplexes me, and I’m not even sure if it can be classified as “matter.” This blog is made out of data. Before we go on though, let’s make sure we have this concept clear. It’s the data we’re talking about; not the data storage device, be it a flash drive or a hard drive; nor the type of machine you’re using to view the data, be it a mobile phone or a monitor.

1s and 0s are all that make up this blog. Matter takes space, but data doesn’t. Matter has mass, but data does not. A hard drive with 1 terabyte of free space will not weigh less (or more) than the exact same hard drive with no free space remaining. Yet, the hard drive that is completely occupied with data weighs no more than an empty hard drive, and still can store thousands of photos, videos, and applications. A photo album with no photos in it will weigh less than a photo album with a thousand photos in it. Yet with a hard drive, more photos does not equal more weight.

So here’s the question- is data matter? Are we violating Newton’s first law of thermodynamics, saying that you can’t get something out of nothing? Are we getting something out of nothing? Is this a paradox? Does this spell doom for physics? science? the world? the universe??? existence as we know it?????!!!!!!

Wikipedia administrators have turned Wikipedia into an online totalitarian regime, and no one is doing a darn thing about it.

(Note: This does not apply to all administrators on Wikipedia.)

On a Wiki such as Wikipedia, there are 3 tiers of users: Regular users, Bureaucrats, and Administrators. Out of those 3 tiers, it’s the administrators that are the worst. If you are a regular user on Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons or any Wikimedia Project (Wikinews, Wikisoure, Wikibooks, etc), you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Administrators are supposed to be “helpers” and people who “clean up and perform maintenance” on the wiki. Apparently, the administrators who are on the Wikimedia Project’s wikis have abused this power so much that they can’t even be classified by the two phrases above. Instead, their function now is to bash users for making accidental edits and to find excuses to block users. On Wikipedia, I got blocked for “spamming” the Wikipedia Sandbox with a survey. Well, the sandbox is an area where people test wikicode and no one really cares what goes on it. Now, apparently, administrators spare no pages in their around-the-clock hunt for “vandalizers“. Some administrators have been so sucked in and addicted to this task that they literally stalk the people that make even the slightest trouble. One example of such a user is Either Way. I made an edit on the Simple English Wikipedia and he said something about that on my user talk page. Then, I uploaded an image on Wikimedia Commons, which the user followed up with a comment. I make another edit on the English Wikipedia and still, Either Way is following me. I swear that these admins have developed secret admin-only tools to stalk and hunt down users.

Because of administrators, Wikipedia has turned into an online totalitarian regime, with administrators at the throne. Whether you know it or not, every time you log on to a wiki, there’s always one administrator who has his or her eye on you. It takes just one mistake, one wrong edit, and that administrator will be on your case before you even press the “save changes” button. How do they do this? Administrators use heinous “automatic users” called bots to accomplish the task of stalking down users (although the admins are barely human, they can’t possibly watch over millions of Wikipedia users). These bots are the administrators’ assistants, and thousands of them are crawling all over Wikipedia, and at the slightest bit of a mishap, they’ll leave a horrific message on your talk page and notify all the admins. Then all hell breaks loose.

Another notable conflict I’ve had with administrators was on Wikimedia Commons. I nominated one of my pictures, a panorama of Mount Rainier, for Featured Picture. I believed that it was such a good image that I used a few other user accounts under the same name to vote for it. Unfortunately, this kind of activity sticks out like a sour apple to Commons administrators, and I was promptly blocked. I would have been fine if the block was less than 3 days, but of course, those administrators have mental problems. They blocked all of my other accounts, blocked my main account (Deathgleaner), blocked indefinitely, and without any prior warning. Usually, users are given at least one warning if the offense hasn’t been committed before, and I have never committed any offense like this and I get blocked indefinitely by one administrator. Then, another administrator follows me just to rub it in my face, followed by another, then another, like an online pileup of football players. The administrators also put a notice on the voting page of my panorama saying what happened. This screwed people’s perception while voting and caused them to focus on the incident rather than the image. Yes, some of the comments did regard the image itself but I still believe there would be less opposing votes if the administrators hadn’t screwed up the voting page with numerous comments.

After my primary account, Deathgleaner, got blocked, I created another account so I could keep contributing, in a good manner, to the wiki. Yet, the administrators are so one-sided that they only see the bad stuff, and that was that the user account I was using to keep contributing was connected to my main account. The administrator wasted no time in blocking that account. It took me another three months to finally convince those biased admins to unblock my main account.

One of the most recent and ongoing conflicts happened on Wikisource. I was looking at the text for a book called Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. When I found out the first chapter was formatted as prose, I promptly disagreed and changed it so that it was not formatted as prose. Of course, a nosy admin walks by my user talk page and leaves a note that basically said “prove it”. I gave him three very trusty sources and he still didn’t believe it, which got another administrator on the case. The debate escalated from there and resulted in me being blocked, for the millionth time. One of the admins said that I needed “special guidance” on editing and that my changes are “erratic”. The only person who needs special guidance and is erratic is that doofus who wrote the comment on my talk page! Now there’s a huge pileup of administrators’ dumb comments on my talk page, including one comment that said “I am going to block you for 14 hours so you don’t prevent us from carrying on with our lives”. Well, I doubt these admins have any “life” other than gluing their eyes to a computer monitor and trying to hold records for the most number of users blocked.

All this administrator activity on Wikipedia and other sites has pissed me off. I have almost stopped editing on Wikipedia because I can’t do so peacefully. The administrators only exist for the purpose of framing users and causing more trouble rather than settling it. They have framed so many users that their reputation has changed from people who help other users to people who block users. In fact, these administrators have turned Wikipedia into a Neo-Nazi regime, and they treat the rest of the Wikipedians like Jews in World War II. The only way to stop such horrendous injustice towards non-admins is to dethrone the administrator position. Talking to admins is useless, they’ll only call in other administrators to help take down the talk. Sure, Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, but it’s only free if we don’t have any nagging administrators patrolling Wikipedia every second of every day.

Perhaps you’re a user on Wikipedia who’s had a similar story. Please share it with me so I can back up my claim (or maybe it’s just me). If you hate Wikipedia’s administrators, feel free to leave a comment saying “I HATE WIKIPEDIA ADMINISTRATORS”. Feel even more free to list off the usernames of such admins and I will happily post them on my blog.

UPDATE: Great news. I have found out that Wikipedia and other similar wikis don’t allow freedom of speech, even for people in the United States. First of all, that’s an infringement on the Constitution, and second of all, I guess that’s the reason why I get block threats from Either way and other such dirtbags. I swear that it was administrators who took away this right in order to promote a more uptight community. And now I’m blocked on Wikisource for saying that I hate administrators. Those administrators have no sense.

This is the 100th post, and if none of the previous posts before this get deleted, it will stay that way.

I can’t check the full statistics, but right now, we have 100 posts , 5 pages, 13 categories, 423 tags, 113 comments and no pending or spam comments.

SO HAPPY 100TH POST OKSBLOG!!!

So I wish people would realize this and switch. Cause 20 years from now, no one’s gonna be talking about this (thank god). At least OKS blog still remotely works, but not as good. Images don’t show up, the font and style are all wonky, and other crap. But OKS blog is telling users in BIG LETTERS AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE to switch. Thank you OKS.

Yesterday, I was driving home when I saw a few menacing clouds that looked like thunder clouds. They were towards the east, so I reasoned there might be some kind of thunderstorms there. Today, I haven’t seen a cloud in the sky. It’s 85 degrees in my house, 95 outside, and not many people here have air conditioning. At least I have a fan.

So for all of you feeling this heat, drink plenty of water and don’t move around too much unless you have to (writing at OKS blog is a great way to cool off!)

Done with teachers.
Done with homework.
Done with math, english, social studies, and all those subjects.
Done.

No more stress.
No more lack of sleep.
No more cramming.
No more nonsense.

No more angering the librarians by playing games on the computer that you’re not supposed to.

No more.
Done.

The link is: http://bit.ly/LH5GC

The website wasn’t unveiled just today, but in New York, everyone gathered around a billboard that will update itself.

ScribeFire allows you to post to blogs such as WordPress and Blagger. This blog, in fact, is supported by WordPress. What I would like to know is if it is possible to post to this blog. The site editor can reply to this post by including a list of steps to set up ScribeFire to post to here.

UPDATE (6/15/2009 @ 7:20): The site editor has replied

OKS Blog is powered by WordPress 2.9-rare (as I write this comment).

Setting up ScribeFire to post to OKS Blog is easy.

Just use http://oks.verymad.net/~onekopaka/blog/ as the URL and your username and password to login to the Admin interface here.

-Darren VanBuren

UPDATE (6/15/2009 @ 15:46) by Darren VanBuren:

My last name doesn’t have a space…

UPDATE (6/15/2009 @ 16:25)

Hmmm… I’m trying it out and it doesn’t seem to be working. When I try to load a post, it refuses to load. I just have to try publishing a new post.

16:30 – ScribeFire can now post (I sent a test post), but can’t edit. Looks like Mr. VanBuren will have to work this out.

It was a year full of memories for me. When I started school back in September, I had to switch classes because “they” screwed up my schedule. After I switched classes, I discovered that I had a test on a book. While everyone got two weeks to read the book, I got three days, and yet, my teacher expected me to pass the test like everyone else. I didn’t pass the test and that ruined my grade for the rest of the year.

The first semester of school went on without much more happening. Tests, projects, quizzes, waking up too early, sleeping too late every single day. This was the case until December, when school was happily interrupted by storm after storm of snow, much more than we’ve gotten for the past twelve years. Some days we had late starts, and some days, school was canceled. Kids enjoyed the days they had off from school, but snow plow drivers and those who still had to go to work did not.

The second semester came quickly, and I tried some new things. I played a piano accompaniment for the orchestra and for several people at their recital. I went to our school’s restaurant and tried some great food there. I conducted the orchestra and went to a college to perform there. It seemed like I had finally found the zest of high school, even though I wasn’t in athletics or too many school activities.

And finally, after a few more concerts, contests, and competitions, it is almost time to say goodbye. Today, our principal recognized our seniors for their excellent work and their legacy at our school in a special assembly. They will graduate next Saturday and move on. For me, that’s still a while away, but a time will come, and when it does, I will look back at my twelve wonderful years and wonder: “What will be in store for me for the next twelve years?”

During the time that this blog was down, I actually created a new blog on WordPress, which this blog is based off of. It’s at deathgleaner.wordpress.com

But now that this blog is back, I don’t know what to do. Should I keep my blog on WordPress? Or should I post here? My previous preference before this blog went down was to post on this blog, but for now, you can find me active (more or less) on both my WordPress and this blog.

Update (3/6/09 17:15PST): I have made up my mind. School-related stuff will go here and everything else on my other blog at WordPress. Of course, I’m flexible, so keep updated!

Update (9/6/09 20:15PST): Maybe not just school stuff will go on this blog. I will decide at my own will which blog I’ll post to.

On Saturday, I had a piano competition. To be specific, it was the Green River Piano Competition. It was held at Kentlake High School.

When I got to the campus, it seemed so new compared to my high school, which is about the second-oldest in the district. I’ve seen some of the Bellevue schools which look just amazing, and this is right next to them in quality. Apparently, there was a judo competition going on there, which really doesn’t go well with classical music.

I heard a mixture of composers, including Liszt, Beethoven, and Bach. I played a Bartok sonatina and a Bach prelude, and got a score of “1″. Four other people were able to get that score.

Sunday, we had a Christmas musical. I was to play Pachelbel’s Canon with two others as a prelude to the Christmas service. So, why have the service in January? Well, what stops us from having Christmas in January, or for some, June? Besides, there was so much snow in December that the service was canceled.

The play was about a young boy named Foster who forgot the meaning of Christmas and all  he wanted was presents. One of the cool parts in the story was when they turned off all the lights and the actors were wearing white gloves. They turned on ultraviolet lights, making everything that was white, including the gloves, glow. Quite a show.

After the service I headed down to Snoqualmie Falls. One of my mom’s friends told her that the falls were absolutely enormous. I had been their once, but when I got there, I was blown away, quite literally.

The falls, raging with all that floodwater, sprayed fine sea mist into everything it could reach. The sea mist created a thick fog, making photography there notoriously difficult. I did manage to get a few pictures where there was mist and where I didn’t get sprayed by it.

Now, I’m in a library, writing, or rather, typing this post. I wonder how this chaotic weekend will end…

Where I live, Renton, we do not get so much so; not the most snow, nor the least. But this year seemed different.

We have had storm system after storm system move in on us. Wednesday experienced two inches of snow, nothing compared to what would happen next. On Friday, after the Wednesday snows had melted, we got a four-inch covering of snow, along with three millimeters of ice on top (yes, I measured that). This added ice made the snow exceptionally crunchy, like walking on potato chips.

Come Saturday, we had blizzard-like conditions. Around 7pm, strong winds started to blow all the snow off the rooftops. This snow accumulated wherever it could, including on our front porch. In fact, the snow drift was about two inches. This blizzard continued for a while.

In the end, Renton saw about twelve inches of snow. The ice left over from the previous storm was still there and as crunchy as could be. I built this huge bowl of snow, but I didn’t know what to do with it. Our neighbor built an igloo that was quite nice. That bowl of snow in my backyard was intended to be an igloo, but I didn’t know how to build one.

UPDATES

(Dec. 26, 2008 @ 3:08p): Meteorolgists were right in their predictions of another storm around Wednesday. The storm was not as severe as before, but we got quite some snow that I did not measure. This snow dragged on until Christmas Day Thursday, when it snowed all day and night. And, for the first time, our car got stuck in the snow. Luckily, we were able to get out.

No one plowed our neighborhood that day, so when we got back, it was all h*** broke loose. It got worse, though. Around 9pm, there was a sudden power outage. I don’t know what caused it, but I took some pictures of our neighborhood, which I will upload later. Lucky for us that the power came back around 10pm.

As I write this from a library in Bellevue, it is snowing, but not for much longer. This snow will turn into rain, and melt away what it brought. You’ll either be happy to be out of the deep freeze, or sad as the snowmen in your neighbor’s front yard melts away.

(December 29, 2008 @ 7:51p): More snow for this region is predicted any where from Monday to Wednesday*. It’s Monday, and for the past three days, all I’ve seen is rain, rain, and more rain. This rain has melted away 80-90% of our snow. It has also been very windy today.

Just a few days ago, something unfortunate happened in our neighborhood. Supposedly, two people were walking on one of the storm drainage lakes in our community. One of them fell through the ice. I’d infer that the other called 911. My dad witnessed some of the event, saying that there were four ambulances and several police cars. No one was aloud to watch, but my dad did see a gaping hole in the ice where the person fell through. The rescuers through a life ring into the frigid water in hopes of saving the victim, but that didn’t work. Police eventually had to don special wet suits to dive in the water as a last ditch effort for rescue. This story hasn’t appeared on the news yet, though.

(Jan 10, 2009 @ 8:0_p): We got an unexpected two inches of snow the day before school, so it was two hours late. Other than that, the snow has disappeared, but much of the sand on the streets remains. In fact, I was riding my bicycle and fell due to the sand.

The snowfall has been replaced by rainfall here, and hasn’t caused any problems for Renton. Elsewhere, it’s a different story. Floods closed all of the mountain passes and some major highways, which made Western Washington an island.

*Correction: The predicted storms are supposed to bring with them high winds and rain.

A view from my house in Renton, WA

Peace out,

Deathgleaner

After hearing that statement, I decided to Google search this. The only result I found was that “polar graphs…show patters of racism”. That was the only explanation I got, so I decided to go to the Wikipedia Reference Desk for Mathematics.

I posted my question there, and waited. After a day, here’s some comments I got:

There is nothing inherently race oriented in the definition of polar graphs. Specific instances of polar graphs might be considered racist.

Presumably because they are based on Poles – that’s as worthy of the word “joke” as the likelihood that Fermat had a solution to the Riemann hypothesis.

Did a manic-depressive invent those ?

I would have said that Cartesian graphs are more racists than polar ones.

Clearly a revolutionary approach is needed.

If you want to read all the activity that question has generated, go here.

Peace out and ha-ha!

–DEATHGLEANER

Upon arriving at Wal-Mart, there was a line stretching for about 500 feet. We waited for thirty minutes just to get in the door.

When we got inside, the store was less crowded than I expected. We went to the Electronics section to look for a Toshiba laptop. Unfortunately, both the Toshiba and the HP laptops were completely out. Considering that the store opened at 5A.M. and everybody was buying TVs, it was reasonable that they sold out. We did however buy a GPS and a HP printer.

Along with the two electronics, we bought a few kitchen supplies. My mom didn’t like them, so the next day, we returned the items.

The return line that day was practically as long as the waiting line the previous day. It seemed that everyone was so dissatisfied by the products there. Some people were even returning TVs!

That’s all I have to say.

Peace out.

–DEATHGLEANER

Apparently, in World History class, we were doing a crossword that had to do with European Exploration and Colonization of the World. One of the questions on the cross word was:

11 (Across): Hernando Cortez conquered which Mexican tribe in 1521?

We already knew that the second letter was a “Z”, but didn’t know the answer. In fact, I didn’t even read the question. This one guy, by the name of Reggie, asked me what the answer to 11 Across was. I looked at the row and made up the word “Ezbco”. It doesn’t make sense that Hernando Cortez conquered the Ezbco tribe, but Reggie actually believed it. He even asked the teacher if the answer was “Ezbco”. At that point I broke into an uncontrollable laughter that lasted ten minutes.

Hernando Cortez conquered the Aztecs.

I made up other words for some of the crossword answers like “Macon” (Question was “Which port did Columbus sail from?”). They actually believed me a few times even though they knew they fell for the first one.

Peace out,

Ha ha!!!

–Jeff

UPDATE:

I did a Google search on “Ezbco” and guess what? It searched, and our blog was the FIRST ONE on its list of results. :-O !!!

We first peeled off the shell by immersing the eggs in 90mL of vinegar for three days. When we got back, all of the shell of my egg was removed. We decided to test how hypertonic laundry detergent and VitaminWater were to the egg. We immersed four de-shelled eggs, two into each solution.

After the first day, the results were quite obvious. The eggs immersed in VitaminWater were beginning to expand because water had been moving into the cell; apparently, the concentration of water in VitaminWater was greater than it was in the egg cell. The opposite happened to the eggs immersed in laundry detergent.

When we first saw our eggs, there was a one-inch thick membrane of semi-solid laundry detergent surrounding the eggs. It made the egg take on the appearance of an embryo. Upon taking the eggs out, we realized that almost all of the laundry detergent had taken on this solid form.

We proceeded to wash our eggs and our hands, but had no idea that the laundry detergent was notoriously difficult to wash off our hands.

When we examined the eggs, the surface was wrinkly and calluses were starting to form. But this would compare to nothing as we observed the next day. It was the first day’s results, ten times worse. The egg’s membrane had become so loose that we could lift the egg by the membrane and shake its contents around. The calluses were so abundant that the membrane had become a thick wall of bumps. On the other hand, the eggs immersed in VitaminWater were filled with the orange liquid and looked like they were ready to burst.

Eventually, we popped our eggs. Unlike some, where the contents exploded out of the hole, ours leaked out slowly. We had to squeeze our eggs to get the contents out. What was left was a membrane that I swore could have been converted into a small sack for storing things.

Never repeat this experiment, unless you want your hands to have a gooey feel and if you want to see what I mean by a one-inch thick membrane of semi-solid laundry detergent. I don’t think you would want to try this, considering that all my classmates cringed at the sight of my egg.

Peace out,
Deathgleaner

Not intended to be mean or condescending.

Biased, you could say that.

At the time of posting this blog, I discovered that the site admin changed the theme. Now the CSS or whatever runs really slowly, even when I’m using Firefox 3.0.4 on a Mac PPC. JavaScript would be a better alternative for adding effects to this webpage, including that pop up navbar you will see if you scroll down the page.

One of my friends by the name Dylan has a blog at www.conduitzone.com. He uses Joomla (whatever that may be) and enhances his page with JavaScript and Google Ads just for the purpose of earning money. His site runs just fine and smooth, except for the fact that it is quite slow to load.

Overall, the theme and asthetics of this blog are great, but needs some improvement on the code and technical part. Also, the “Log In” link could be a little more conspicous, I had to use the word find to find the link, which was hiding in the “Meta” section.

Since this topic is highly controversial for some people, everyone is welcome to post their comments about this and the Onekopakaspace Blog.

I hope to see many improvements being made in the near future.

Peace out,

Deathgleaner (aka mbg.gold)

OPINION ADDENDUM:

November 22, 2008 @ 3:14:15pm

The column on the right is sometimes very lengthy. At the end of some posts, it extends about a mile down the page, leaving a football field of blank space. The site admin needs to trim off some of that fat (no offense).

November 25, 2008 @ 12:40:09pm

I see that the theme has changed. now, the background is static. Good Idea. it just makes your blog run even slower.

• A kid held up a sign saying “OBAMA BIDEN 2008″
• Another kid held up a sign saying “MCCAIN PALIN 2008″. Gross.
• My friend by the name of Tyrone said that McCain would die in office and Palin would take over
• There has been much discussion about the election. All of my friends are voting for Obama

Please remember that Election Day is November 4th this year. If you are registered, don’t forget to vote!

And vote for Obama if you don’t want a president to get Alzheimer’s in office.

Change for the better.

Peace out,

Geoffrey Liu

ELECTION DAY UPDATE:

People are beginning to wear their campaign shirts and signs, I’ve seen equal numbers of both. After school, there was this huge crowd with Obama and McCain supporters all arguing about how good each of their candidates are. I have never seen anything like that.

According to CNN, Obama has won the presidential election. Good thing otherwise our country would get a lower average IQ (John McCain does not promote science) and McCain would have a heart attack if he jumped up and down because he won.

Notebook Software is software that enables you to use a board, called a Smart Board, to click on objects on your screen. The Smart Board also allows you to use digital pens to draw in programs like Smart Notebook and right on the screen. It’s sort of like a touch pad.

I was trying Notebook Software 10 out today. Here is a short summary of how much it sucks:

• In 1st period French class, I saw the transparency layer of the new Notebook Software. It was frickin crap bloated like hell. The frame looks heavy, and it’s VERY hard to use
• At lunch in the library, I was testing out Smart Notebook. I drew a freeform shape and tried to fill it with color. But guess what? The damn software wouldn’t let me fill it in.
• The splash screen for Notebook Software reflects on how bloated the software is. Sure, looks modern but is nothing but a load of bull.

After that experience, I wish that my school hadn’t updated to the new and crappier software. It’s so freaking bad, it makes MS Office seem good.

Like heavenly good.

Peace out,

Deathgleaner

PS: All school related posts will be filed under the tag “Kentridge” from now on as well as any other applicable tags.

Apparently, this one kid by the name of Eric put about twenty hot tamales into a full can of soda. Then, another guy, Ethan, took a sip of it and he could barely stand the spiciness. Then, another kid by the name of Tyrone took the can of soda and chugged it down like he hadn’t drunk in four days. His reaction wasn’t that bad, considering that Ethan had a flush-red face after just sipping a little bit.

I am Deathgleaner, and will report any future things that happen at my school.

Peace out,

Deathgleaner

Game show host: “What is the capital of France?”

Contestant: “F”

After all, F is the only capital letter in France.

I will try to keep updated on anything that happens around my high school.

Apparently, a few Winblows lovers are arguing that WinBLOWS is better than the Mac OS. I strongly disagree with them however. But, this one kid who’s my friend has a bunch of reasons why a Windows is better. All these reasons seem very controversial to what I’ve heard:

• “Windows Vista has better security…I once hacked my parents’ Mac. It was so easy to hack their Mac.”
• There are no admin privileges on Macs
• There’s better software for Windows

Only my other friend, who has a MacBook, and I know the REAL truth: Macs are better than winblows.

11-13-08 UPDATE: From my user talk page on Wikipedia-

At a recent forum, Ubuntu, Mac, and Vista were all put to the test of some of the worlds more skilled hackers to find a way into a up-to-date system. The mac box lasted a little over 10 minutes. The windows box hadn’t been cracked by the time the exercise was over.

Macs are pretty, like flowers. Windows is functional, like a set of cutters. Treat the cutters poorly, and they’ll rust and go blunt. Treat them well, and they’ll cut the head off your flowers any day. Doesn’t matter how you treat the flowers though, they’re gonna die eventually

That was quite surprising. Please see my user talk…

Freddie is an expert bike rider, and can do all sorts of tricks and stunts, like ride his bicycle with no hands. But the one thing he can’t do is comb his hair while riding his bicycle, as he tried to do one day. Why can’t Freddie do this?

I have discovered two possible answers. You can try this brain teaser yourself!

Note: The champions’ names will remain undisclosed until further notice. We will refer to the winner of the winner’s bracket as Player 1 and the winner of the loser’s bracket as Player 2.

In the first game, Player 2 beat Player 1, and because this was Player 1′s first loss, the two had to battle each other again. This, as Player 2 would say, would be “a battle to the death”. After the game, we weren’t so sure if that final game really was.

In the opening of the second game, Player 1 was white and Player 2 was black. Player 1 opened by moving a pawn two spaces forward. Player 2 mirrored the move, so to speak. This continued with a few other moves. The knights were out, taking pawns and anything in their zigzag path. Then, Player 1 mobilizes his queen, and brings it out. Player 2 starts moving his pawns out, forming a discontinuous line of pawns. This lead to Player 2 being put in check by the opponent’s queen. By this time, both players have most of their pawns out. Player 2 sets up a queen-for-queen trade, quite a risky move. All of a sudden out of nowhere, Player 1 realizes he has a pawn at the other end of the board and promotes that pawn to a second queen. Despite the unexpected pawn promotion, Player 1 keeps walking his pawns. By this time, all of Player 2′s pieces are huddled in a corner (except for an out lier pawn), while Player 1′s pieces cover the whole board. The game suddenly ends when Player 1 puts Player 2 in checkmate with two queens and a bishop. There wasn’t even much of an endgame.