Good morning!
It is exactly 8:00 in room 1907.
I woke up pretty early, and I've been looking out our window. It's great to be on the 19th floor. You can see everything, but it is like a pop up book rather than a map.
People are already bustling. Walking to school and work. A bunch of trucks have been driving around to deliver fruit and stuff. Taxis are everywhere already. I wonder if taxis have routes, where they drive around in circles until someone flags them down, or if they just randomly drive.
I think being a taxi driver would be kine of fun. Hearing your clients conversations. Wondering who they are and what they're doing and why they are here. I kind of like taxis. You know, in the taxi last nigh, there was a little taxi weather report on the screen, and they had this little lavender bunny bounce around the weather charts and stuff. It was so darn cute!
Pigeons are walking around....
Wow. So many people in New York. It's weird that I'll even maybe see some of them again. And they don't even know I'm here watching them.
...
I so did enot think of that while we were walking around yesterday!! Hmm. Normally I'm really aware of things like that. I will certainly be today! With so many windows, that will be a little overwhelming. So many windows. So many cars. So many people!
And all these doorst and stuff on the roofs! I pretend there are secret labratories behind the doors on the roofs. I've also been making stories for people living in the apartments behind the windows above the sto re across the street. I have them all written down. It's a soap opera waiting to happen!
I also discovered that the buses have numbers on them, like Chicago. I'll post a list later. see you after Chinatown! At least I think that's what we're doing first....
9:37 at Hotel Beacon
Wow! That was a long day!
I'm sorry I haven't updated, but this is the first time I have been home all day. I'll break the day up into sections. I guess I will publish this post after each one so you guys can ca tch at least one of them. Hopefully.
THE SUBWAY
Uuuuuugh!!!
Sooooooooo crowded. Ugh. And loud. And crowded.
There were so many people all going places. When we got on our first train, it was so packed that we barely managed to squeeze through the doors. I mean, not Tokyo packed, but crowded. very. I was in that ackward position where I couldn't quite reach any of the poles and I kept bumping into people. Eventuallyafter a couple train transitions, I managed to snag a seat on a slightly emptier train. On the next stop, the person next to me left, and I slid into the middle of the seat, feeling satisfied. Then the train pulled out and I slammed into the little barrier thing. Hard.
Several people were busking in the station. That always depresses me, even if they're happy middle class folk. I feel so guilty for not supporting them when they are giving me this music!
Anyways, I freaked out at the thought of entering the subway again, but on the way back it was rather empty and I enjoyed it. I really like motion, actually. Riding in cars, trains, planes and buses is just fun to me. We managed to stay on one local train the entire way back. It s longer on the local train, but I enjoyed it.
There's something that just seems so comforting about that being your routine to get to and from work. The subway. Public transportation. In your business suit and all that. With coffee or a scone or something that you picked up on the way.
LITTLE ITALY
Little Italy was cool.It was vey pretty and full of color. It was also full of restaurants. I'm not sure how any of the restaurants survive. I mean there is nothing but restaurants. No Italian shops or anything. Tons of restaurants.
And the guys outside the restaurants were just really annoying. They would stand outside and are all "Wanna eat here?" I mean, they were very polite (and in some cases, Italian) about it, it was just so irritating!And pointless.
I mean,you can see that I have turned down every other guy on this street. That could be for two reasons. Three, I guess.
1. I don't like Italian food.
2. I am already planning to eat somewhere. If that's you, great, you do not have any reason to ambush me. If not, you jumping out at me will not make a difference! please stop wasting my time!
3. I'M NOT HUNGRY!!!
Little Italy was cool, though. Nice and cultural. Bright and colorful.
CHINATOWN
Chinatown was extremely big! There were lots of stores with small fronts going deep into the building. They were full of sparkly colorful fans and carvings and such. Here was occasionally some stuff that wasn't really Chinese, like tourist shirts and stuff
Chinatown smelled very good. There wasn't a ton of restaurants, but the ones that were there made the streets smell nice over the heavy traffic.
We ate in a very small place. It was small, but popular. Lot's of people came there after us. It was good! I had a noodle soup with beef and herbs and stuff. The restaurant was really cool, because you could see this little staff cooking the entire time!
They would come out of the tiny kitchen thing with bowls of stuff and mash it and add seasoning on the little counter outside or whatever. This wasn't really to put on a show - they were just being efficient of space.
And then the guy in the kitchen was Hans pulling all these noodles! It was amazing. He would take some dough and just pull it into dough strands. Then he'd bring the strands together and pull husbands apart and the noodles would already be twice as thin! It was amazing. He was extremely good at it. The noodles and the soup tasted delicious.
Btw - I totally ate all the noodles with chopsticks! It was hard. I've eaten stuff with chopsticks before, but these would all wriggle out, so I had to lean low over my plate.
Anyways, then we left and kept walking, and came across the Chinatown Icecream Factory, which we had read in our little touristy book thing had the beat ice cream in NYC.
And it totally did. It was delicious! My too flavors were mocha chip and almond cake. They were both excellent, but I think I enjoyed the almond better.
We bought a dragon fruit and some large grapes from a little market someone had set up on the street.
LOWER EAST SIDE
We had a tour of the Lower East Side scheduled for 2:00, but on the way, we ran into this other small tour going inside the remaining preserved tenement building - 97 Orchid street.
We went inside and it was really cool. There was all this really old woodwork and tile patterns. Some nice metalwork on the ceiling in doorways. There were these oil paintings on the canvasy walls. The stairs were fun. You could see it was all dented and polished from being used decades.
Tenement buildings, for those of you who have forgotten your fifth grade education, were where immigrants would pile into tiny apartments with very harsh living conditions.
The tour guide was very good.
Then we met up with our own tour. We met up at this center with a bunch of books that was this education center about the Lower East Side. Then we walked around looking at architecture and temples and such. We talked about tenement buildings and construction and living opportunities and schools in Lower East Side, mainly since immigration.
There were a ton of different places of worship for many different religions. Some temples held multiple religious. The tour guide talked about Taoism and Confucianism, and I was very satisfied because I had just learned about those religions! Apparently today was a holiday (I am afraid I am not certain of the name of the specific religion. I don't want to
accidentally say the wrong one.) We saw incense burners outside this one Temple hooding a mix of religions. It was very interesting. We had actually seen people burning these shiny gold and silver envelopes in this oven earlier. Out on the street. I suspect that was for the same holiday.
We also passed a large synagogue that some photographer had built. It was pretty impressive. There was a large circular window with a design. The photograph had rearranged a Star of David to look like a camera shutter. That was great. It was subtle.
The architecture was very interesting - how it changed with the time. People just kept wrecking the old stuff and building up, higher and higher.
It was very cool, but it lasted two hours. Agh. My feet were dead, so we took a taxi to the Brooklyn Bridge, even though it wasn't that far away.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Update from the North
Wednesday, April 4th, 1:10, Syracuse airport:
Hello, viewers! I am in the Syracuse airpot at gate 23!
I am typing on an iPad, so hopefully this will not take too long. The flight here was fine. There was barely any turbulence - none, really. Some attendant guy took me on and off the plane. I sat next to some nice Jewish physics professor on the plane. I got the window seat, because I was the first one on the plane!
I finished my first book. The plane was too loud for my iPod, so might listen to that some now.
Security was fine. Mom and Benjamin were aloud to accompany me to the gate, which was nice. I called home as soon as I got here. My grandparents were here. We went and had lunch at some sandwich place. The airport is pretty empty here, not like Atlanta, although it is pretty big.
I'll be updating this post all day as stuff happens.
I know this is very short and rather bland so far, but it will get longer and more exciting I'm sure.
Bye for now! I'm waiting in the same terminal in which I arrived.
I might call some of you later today just because I can. Short calls, Mom! Don't worry! I won't waste all the battery power.
(Heh. Just realized I forgot my iPod charger. I don't really have anywhere to plug it in, though, anyways. I'm sure it will be fine.)
GOODBYE!!!
5:53, Hotel Beacon, NYC
I'm here!!!
New York City is huge!
The flight here was short - only about half an hour long. Thus, no biscoff cookies :(
We had a nice , brief view of the skyline on the way back down. We then took a short Shuttle to the main airport. The airport was loud and rather crowded, but it only took about a minute to get out. Less. There were a ton of taxis lined up outside. All that orange cheddar color. All the same shape. The inside if the taxi was similar to the taxi I rode in Chicago, with a little barrier between the driver with all these screens and stuff.
We got into the city pretty soon. The buildings are HUGE. I'm not even talking about the skyline. All these really tall apartment buildings.I A lot of them look really old, and they have these long fire escapes. Under the apartments were all these tiny stores and restaurants crammed together. A ton of people were walking around. The sidewalks were really thick.
I couldn't stop staring. It almost reminds me of somewhere I've been, but I don't know what that place was.
There were several signs advertising stuff, but not really as much as in Atlanta. Not enough room, I suppose. One said "AGED" with a picture of the lower face of a pale woman wearing lots of makeup with an asparagus in her mouth.
There were a bunch of subway stations and stuff. The six lanes of traffic were split by this row of park like benches and tulips and stuff. A lot of people were just hanging around. In the street too. All over. No one seemed to care much. Once this group of motorcycle people screamed by on one wheel each. It was loud.
So far New York City seems fine. There's certainly a lot to look at.
We arrived at our Hotel after a long taxi ride.
It's called Hotel Beacon. The was a fancy black canopy thing outside. In front of the building were several abstract chicken sculptures. They were like these large balloon things with tiny blobby chicken heads in top.
The inside of the hotel was very furnished, with all this glass and granite and gold-painted stuff.
Our room is this neat little suite thing with classy green furniture and a very nice view.
I'll upload the pictures sometime.
Heh. Some guy just started playing jazz outside. Bu bubu bu buuuuuum.
Well, I need to go out and explore a little. Buy some food. Take some pictures.
Talk to you later!
9:23 Hotel Beacon
That was exciting. And cold.
We went to a little food market across the street where I bought raspberries. Then we walked down to Hudson River Park. By the Hudson River. Duh.
There were a bunch of pigeons and hot dog carts. And this statue of Eleanor Roosevelt.
We walked down against the river. It was cool and windy, with a nice view across the river. There were a bunch of blossoming trees against the path that were very good for climbing.
We walked against the river for a very long time. Almost an hour, probably. There were all these cyclists riding past.
Then we went by the apartment where Mom was raised until she was four years old. We sort of walked around it and I took pictures.
At this point it was around seven thirty, and we went onto Broadway to find something to eat. There were lots of restaurants open. We went to this French one that was really nice. I had some pasta with shrimp. It was a very good. All these cherry blossoms around the street kept shedding a ton of petals all over the food.
For desert I had a hazelnut moose thing with chocolate and hazelnut cream stuff.
It was AMAZING!!
Then we waited a bunch in the cold for a bus that never came. Instead, we ended up taking a taxi. We nearly got crushed by this random truck. The driver was a little wild.
Then we came home and not much has happened since then. I've read some.
Can't wait till tomorrow!
Hello, viewers! I am in the Syracuse airpot at gate 23!
I am typing on an iPad, so hopefully this will not take too long. The flight here was fine. There was barely any turbulence - none, really. Some attendant guy took me on and off the plane. I sat next to some nice Jewish physics professor on the plane. I got the window seat, because I was the first one on the plane!
I finished my first book. The plane was too loud for my iPod, so might listen to that some now.
Security was fine. Mom and Benjamin were aloud to accompany me to the gate, which was nice. I called home as soon as I got here. My grandparents were here. We went and had lunch at some sandwich place. The airport is pretty empty here, not like Atlanta, although it is pretty big.
I'll be updating this post all day as stuff happens.
I know this is very short and rather bland so far, but it will get longer and more exciting I'm sure.
Bye for now! I'm waiting in the same terminal in which I arrived.
I might call some of you later today just because I can. Short calls, Mom! Don't worry! I won't waste all the battery power.
(Heh. Just realized I forgot my iPod charger. I don't really have anywhere to plug it in, though, anyways. I'm sure it will be fine.)
GOODBYE!!!
5:53, Hotel Beacon, NYC
I'm here!!!
New York City is huge!
The flight here was short - only about half an hour long. Thus, no biscoff cookies :(
We had a nice , brief view of the skyline on the way back down. We then took a short Shuttle to the main airport. The airport was loud and rather crowded, but it only took about a minute to get out. Less. There were a ton of taxis lined up outside. All that orange cheddar color. All the same shape. The inside if the taxi was similar to the taxi I rode in Chicago, with a little barrier between the driver with all these screens and stuff.
We got into the city pretty soon. The buildings are HUGE. I'm not even talking about the skyline. All these really tall apartment buildings.I A lot of them look really old, and they have these long fire escapes. Under the apartments were all these tiny stores and restaurants crammed together. A ton of people were walking around. The sidewalks were really thick.
I couldn't stop staring. It almost reminds me of somewhere I've been, but I don't know what that place was.
There were several signs advertising stuff, but not really as much as in Atlanta. Not enough room, I suppose. One said "AGED" with a picture of the lower face of a pale woman wearing lots of makeup with an asparagus in her mouth.
There were a bunch of subway stations and stuff. The six lanes of traffic were split by this row of park like benches and tulips and stuff. A lot of people were just hanging around. In the street too. All over. No one seemed to care much. Once this group of motorcycle people screamed by on one wheel each. It was loud.
So far New York City seems fine. There's certainly a lot to look at.
We arrived at our Hotel after a long taxi ride.
It's called Hotel Beacon. The was a fancy black canopy thing outside. In front of the building were several abstract chicken sculptures. They were like these large balloon things with tiny blobby chicken heads in top.
The inside of the hotel was very furnished, with all this glass and granite and gold-painted stuff.
Our room is this neat little suite thing with classy green furniture and a very nice view.
I'll upload the pictures sometime.
Heh. Some guy just started playing jazz outside. Bu bubu bu buuuuuum.
Well, I need to go out and explore a little. Buy some food. Take some pictures.
Talk to you later!
9:23 Hotel Beacon
That was exciting. And cold.
We went to a little food market across the street where I bought raspberries. Then we walked down to Hudson River Park. By the Hudson River. Duh.
There were a bunch of pigeons and hot dog carts. And this statue of Eleanor Roosevelt.
We walked down against the river. It was cool and windy, with a nice view across the river. There were a bunch of blossoming trees against the path that were very good for climbing.
We walked against the river for a very long time. Almost an hour, probably. There were all these cyclists riding past.
Then we went by the apartment where Mom was raised until she was four years old. We sort of walked around it and I took pictures.
At this point it was around seven thirty, and we went onto Broadway to find something to eat. There were lots of restaurants open. We went to this French one that was really nice. I had some pasta with shrimp. It was a very good. All these cherry blossoms around the street kept shedding a ton of petals all over the food.
For desert I had a hazelnut moose thing with chocolate and hazelnut cream stuff.
It was AMAZING!!
Then we waited a bunch in the cold for a bus that never came. Instead, we ended up taking a taxi. We nearly got crushed by this random truck. The driver was a little wild.
Then we came home and not much has happened since then. I've read some.
Can't wait till tomorrow!
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
I Heart New York
Hello, everyone! It's Julia.... and tomorrow I am flying to New York City for the first time!
Yay!
I'm not sure if/when most of you have gone.... so comment on your own experiences! Let me know if you have any... recommendations! And guess what - I'm going to a Broadway Show! I am seeing Wicked preformed live. I can't wait!
Honestly, I am kind of scared. I mean, of course it's expected that I go to the Statue of Liberty and all of that - but that prospect kind of freaks me out! I mean, just tons of people crammed up into this statue.... it scares me. But I'm sure I'll enjoy it... mostly.
Passover starts this Friday at sundown, but sadly I will not be home for the ceder - my grandparents and I are crashing some old friends of theres who live in NY City. I'm sure it will be fine. The matzah will probably taste the same - in that it doesn't. For some reason I really really enjoy matzah. Not just with all the haroset on top and stuff. Just plain. It is good.
The plan is I fly into Syracuse, meet up with Zaslaws, and then we fly into the city together.
Here's the schedule, so you guys will know what I'm up to if I don't get a chance to blog, which is likely:
Thursday
2-4 pm, Then and Now, walking tour of the Lower East Side presented by the Tenement Museum
Before, after, whatever, Little Italy, Chinatown, whatever we please. Suitable lunch :-). It's all right there within blocks. Then afterwards a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and a bit of exploration of Brooklyn Heights at the other end, having dinner there and viewing lower Manhattan at sunset.
Friday
Boat trip to Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. They say allow some five ours for it all. And they say arrive promptly in the morning (like, before 11, but earlier is better) to avoid long waits. There'll be a half-hour wait for the boat in any event.
Dinner at the Stage Deli, a classic NY Jewish deli.
8 pm - Wicked
We'll have had a glimpse of Times Square navigating around the theater district, and if we haven't had enough we can have a look after the show.
Saturday
The American Museum of Natural History and the planetarium. Opens at 10 a.m. It's just blocks from out hotel.
4:30 seder at the Strausses', on 105th St. and Broadway. It finishes not long after 8:00.
Sunday
Observation deck of the Empire State Building. The 20-or-so-block walk on the Highline. A peek into the New York Public Library. A peek into Grand Central Station. All this makes geographic sense. Or we could go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the MOMA instead. We might like to see the Egyptian Temple of Dendur at the Met. It's VAST, but we have "free" admission and could go for just a bit of it, if a bit is all we want.
Monday
We have only the morning. There's an attractive bit of Riverside Park near where we'll be staying, likewise an attractive bit of Central Park. Whatever we're in the mood for.
(This schedule was provided by my grandmother in an email, with some editing by me to make it more compatible for viewers)
We're staying in a flat-hotel thing. Should be interesting.
I went out and bought two books about an hour ago and BOY is it taking self constraint not to devour both of them right now. Barnes and Noble is irritating because like ALL of the teen books are in hard copy and shelved all over the place. I miss Borders!
Also, I just redeemed and promptly spent $30 on iTunes which has been placed on my fully charged iPod.
I started my 4-D New York City Puzzle yesterday. I have completed the foam base, but unfortunately I have not had time to place in the buildings yet. I'm planning to make a stop motion when the time comes though. Maybe I'll even create a Godzilla thing.
Will I be keeping a notebook in New York City? I've been thinking about that. The verdict is... uncertain. I think that would be great to have. Like I kept with Spain. But the pressure of keeping a notebook is stressful, and I'm worried about lagging behind. So, I am going to bring a notebook. I'm not sure how much I'll write in it. But I will blog as much as I can and I'll take a TON of pictures that I'll try to post daily with captions. I'm not sure if I'll have an opportunity to load that onto a computer or something. We'll see how that turns out. I will definitely get all the pictures on the blog at some point.
I get to take Mom's cell phone to New York City! I might be posting from there some of the time.
That's really the deal with New York City... I'll be thinking of you guys! This is my first alone flight.
I'm not worried about dealing with the airport on my own and all that - but it makes me more scared of fears that are generally suppressed in larger company - like the plane crashing.
That's that!
But, on an unrelated notes - two two month-old female kittens are now officially OURS. They are reserved as of today. FINALLY! They are two young torties from a litter of four - the Girl Scout Cookie Kittens. Together they are Savanna, Samoa, Tagalong, and Thin Minty (a.k.a. Minty).
We have claimed Savanna and Samoa.
They get their shots April 15th, and we pick them up that same sunday. Yay!!!
Yay!
I'm not sure if/when most of you have gone.... so comment on your own experiences! Let me know if you have any... recommendations! And guess what - I'm going to a Broadway Show! I am seeing Wicked preformed live. I can't wait!
Honestly, I am kind of scared. I mean, of course it's expected that I go to the Statue of Liberty and all of that - but that prospect kind of freaks me out! I mean, just tons of people crammed up into this statue.... it scares me. But I'm sure I'll enjoy it... mostly.
Passover starts this Friday at sundown, but sadly I will not be home for the ceder - my grandparents and I are crashing some old friends of theres who live in NY City. I'm sure it will be fine. The matzah will probably taste the same - in that it doesn't. For some reason I really really enjoy matzah. Not just with all the haroset on top and stuff. Just plain. It is good.
The plan is I fly into Syracuse, meet up with Zaslaws, and then we fly into the city together.
Here's the schedule, so you guys will know what I'm up to if I don't get a chance to blog, which is likely:
Thursday
2-4 pm, Then and Now, walking tour of the Lower East Side presented by the Tenement Museum
Before, after, whatever, Little Italy, Chinatown, whatever we please. Suitable lunch :-). It's all right there within blocks. Then afterwards a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and a bit of exploration of Brooklyn Heights at the other end, having dinner there and viewing lower Manhattan at sunset.
Friday
Boat trip to Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. They say allow some five ours for it all. And they say arrive promptly in the morning (like, before 11, but earlier is better) to avoid long waits. There'll be a half-hour wait for the boat in any event.
Dinner at the Stage Deli, a classic NY Jewish deli.
8 pm - Wicked
We'll have had a glimpse of Times Square navigating around the theater district, and if we haven't had enough we can have a look after the show.
Saturday
The American Museum of Natural History and the planetarium. Opens at 10 a.m. It's just blocks from out hotel.
4:30 seder at the Strausses', on 105th St. and Broadway. It finishes not long after 8:00.
Sunday
Observation deck of the Empire State Building. The 20-or-so-block walk on the Highline. A peek into the New York Public Library. A peek into Grand Central Station. All this makes geographic sense. Or we could go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the MOMA instead. We might like to see the Egyptian Temple of Dendur at the Met. It's VAST, but we have "free" admission and could go for just a bit of it, if a bit is all we want.
Monday
We have only the morning. There's an attractive bit of Riverside Park near where we'll be staying, likewise an attractive bit of Central Park. Whatever we're in the mood for.
(This schedule was provided by my grandmother in an email, with some editing by me to make it more compatible for viewers)
We're staying in a flat-hotel thing. Should be interesting.
I went out and bought two books about an hour ago and BOY is it taking self constraint not to devour both of them right now. Barnes and Noble is irritating because like ALL of the teen books are in hard copy and shelved all over the place. I miss Borders!
Also, I just redeemed and promptly spent $30 on iTunes which has been placed on my fully charged iPod.
I started my 4-D New York City Puzzle yesterday. I have completed the foam base, but unfortunately I have not had time to place in the buildings yet. I'm planning to make a stop motion when the time comes though. Maybe I'll even create a Godzilla thing.
Will I be keeping a notebook in New York City? I've been thinking about that. The verdict is... uncertain. I think that would be great to have. Like I kept with Spain. But the pressure of keeping a notebook is stressful, and I'm worried about lagging behind. So, I am going to bring a notebook. I'm not sure how much I'll write in it. But I will blog as much as I can and I'll take a TON of pictures that I'll try to post daily with captions. I'm not sure if I'll have an opportunity to load that onto a computer or something. We'll see how that turns out. I will definitely get all the pictures on the blog at some point.
I get to take Mom's cell phone to New York City! I might be posting from there some of the time.
That's really the deal with New York City... I'll be thinking of you guys! This is my first alone flight.
I'm not worried about dealing with the airport on my own and all that - but it makes me more scared of fears that are generally suppressed in larger company - like the plane crashing.
That's that!
But, on an unrelated notes - two two month-old female kittens are now officially OURS. They are reserved as of today. FINALLY! They are two young torties from a litter of four - the Girl Scout Cookie Kittens. Together they are Savanna, Samoa, Tagalong, and Thin Minty (a.k.a. Minty).
We have claimed Savanna and Samoa.
They get their shots April 15th, and we pick them up that same sunday. Yay!!!
This is Samoa (to be Sasha)
And this is Savannah (to be Maya)
Yay! I'll get pictures and videos up as soon as we get them - obviously.
Next time I update I'll be in the BIG CITY!!! Wish me luck!
~Julia
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Spring has Flung
The azaleas are blooming!
The pollen is falling!
The inchworms are clinging!
The poplars are growing!
The dogwoods are flowering.
You know what that means........
IT'S SPRING!!!!!!
Hooray!
I went out this morning to take a bunch of pictures of it being spring. Then I found some fairies. Then I wrote about azaleas. I have those pictures prepared for today's post. I hope you enjoy the spring-ness of today's spring. To go along with the spring mood, I am possibly (again) adopting kittens after an interview. Their names are Luna and Lucas. Because the pictures did not load on the website, I only have small pictures for you today.
Okay, get ready for the spring pictures!
.tiff)
I actually have a ton more, but I figured I wouldn't bore you.
Here's me against some azalea bushes.
Happy Spring everybody! Hope you don't have any inchworms on your clothes/bikes/helmets!
~Julia
P.S. Here's me as a fairy:
The pollen is falling!
The inchworms are clinging!
The poplars are growing!
The dogwoods are flowering.
You know what that means........
IT'S SPRING!!!!!!
Hooray!
I went out this morning to take a bunch of pictures of it being spring. Then I found some fairies. Then I wrote about azaleas. I have those pictures prepared for today's post. I hope you enjoy the spring-ness of today's spring. To go along with the spring mood, I am possibly (again) adopting kittens after an interview. Their names are Luna and Lucas. Because the pictures did not load on the website, I only have small pictures for you today.
There they are. Lucas is on top. Luna is on the bottom. These are actually really nice cat names, so although we might be changing Lucas to Luca, or even just Luc, Luna will probably stay Luna.
I really do hope we get them today. If not, I hope I can buy a consolation book on the way to volunteering at Furkids this afternoon.
(Btw, as you've noticed, this post is very COLORFUL. I'm enjoying that. Opinions? Leave your color preferences for future posts in the comments!)
Okay, get ready for the spring pictures!
Here's me against some azalea bushes.
That's me ENJOYING SPRING
I also have had a strawberry smoothie today. It was very good. Yum.
Happy Spring everybody! Hope you don't have any inchworms on your clothes/bikes/helmets!
~Julia
P.S. Here's me as a fairy:
Yay!
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Bless You
Today's flowers are making Atlanta history this week.
Not sure if you've noticed, but things might have been seeming a bit.... yellow, recently? Cars, bikes, sidewalks, streets, benches, plants, clothes, YOU? Coated in sticky yellow dust.
*sneeze sneeze*
This is called pollen. Plants use pollen to pollenate their seeds. Um.. duh. Well, what happens, is the sticky yellow dust flies around on bugs and wind and fertilizes the seeds of other flowers. Evergreens, obviously, do not find this necessary.
It's been especially yellow recently. That is probably because, since it is so warm so early, and since it was never even that cold, plants that usually bloom over a very spread out period of time are overlapping all together.
The previous record in Atlanta for pollen was made in 1999. 6 thousand particles per square meter. Sounds like a lot, huh?
Then yesterday.
8 thousand.
Then today.
9 thousand.
Tomorrow? Who knows?
I just hope you are not allergic, because you are in for a rough time....
*sneeze sneeze*
Not sure if you've noticed, but things might have been seeming a bit.... yellow, recently? Cars, bikes, sidewalks, streets, benches, plants, clothes, YOU? Coated in sticky yellow dust.
*sneeze sneeze*
This is called pollen. Plants use pollen to pollenate their seeds. Um.. duh. Well, what happens, is the sticky yellow dust flies around on bugs and wind and fertilizes the seeds of other flowers. Evergreens, obviously, do not find this necessary.
It's been especially yellow recently. That is probably because, since it is so warm so early, and since it was never even that cold, plants that usually bloom over a very spread out period of time are overlapping all together.
The previous record in Atlanta for pollen was made in 1999. 6 thousand particles per square meter. Sounds like a lot, huh?
Then yesterday.
8 thousand.
Then today.
9 thousand.
Tomorrow? Who knows?
I just hope you are not allergic, because you are in for a rough time....
*sneeze sneeze*
Thursday, March 15, 2012
We are Superior
Today was Festival for Inman Orchestra!
This was not a fair or a party or anything like that.
Orchestras from all these different schools in Georgia go to another school to play three prepared pieces for Judges. They then play a sight reading thing. They are graded as follows.
POOR - 4
GOOD - 3
EXCELLENT - 2
SUPERIOR - 1
1, of course is the best. "Superior". Grady got 2 excellents and we were determined to best them!
And we did. Inman Orchestra scored a total of
FOUR STRAIGHT SUPERIORS
This year at Festival.
Congrats Ms. Shields! I'd say you owe us a juice party...
Now, here's a short unveiling of the inner workings of our Festival preparations....
1. PRACTICING
Of course turning in practice records is expected weekly of orchestra students, but this time it is the work that goes into it that counts. If you don't practice, you don't go.
2. TESTING
Ms. Shields tested everyone in groups of 1-3 on passages from the music. She scored you and eliminated the incapable. This resulted in several long periods of sitting around. Most students chose to practice in this time. You go up with your music. She tells you where to play. You play. Not everyone made it, particularly among sixth graders, but a lot of people did.
3. REHEARSALS
Once you pass testing (IF you pass testing) you must attend a ton of rehearsals till 5:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the last three of them mandatory. Ms. Shields would go on long rants to people who left early or didn't come to go to grow club or whatever. Of course, I had to leave at 4:40 to go to AJCO, but Ms. Shields let it slide. We rehearsed in the Band Room and the cafeteria for more space.
4. MS. SHIELDS GOING BALLISTIC
We're too loud... we're uncommitted... we do not attend rehearsals...
Ms. Shields was often provoked by our teenager-y lack of support.
5. THE BOOT
Not sure how many kids were kicked off for missing mandatory rehearsals. Maybe none. Maybe Ms. Shields is that forgiving.
6. THE INSTRUMENTS
Competition over school instruments is fierce in these desperate times! Certain STUPID VIOLIST was irresponsible at every rehearsal, and even on the final date. I can't really blame certain other violist this time, as he doesn't actually have a viola. But someone else better get in shape with his reliability...
7. THE TUNING
Being someone who can tune, I was supposed to... tune. Other kids. But it's so tiring. Because some kids won't have shoulder rests and they have to play it. Some kids' pegs won't turn at all. But I do my best for the good of the community. :)
There's a little... background. Now that we have that covered, what actually happened?
Well, the buses, despite having previously arrived a day early, were an hour and a half late. That meant we had very little time to warm up, but luckily we managed to preform. The buses were hot and crowded, with a Ms. Shields on each bus.
(And yes, having two Ms. Shields talking the same from different directions (and then looking the same when you whirl around) is VERY confusing)
Having the windows open helped, though. It was very nice terrain out the window. We passed the airport and several plains. We also passed the location of my first Allstate audition.
We got at this HUGE intimidating high school. I've seen airports smaller than that high school. And I'm not just talking about the Ithaca airport, which is pretty much smaller than any school you could find in Georgia. It was HUMUNGOUS and very intimidating. When I saw it, I remembered why we were actually there, and I started getting just a little physically nervous. We were led by some of the high school orchestra students there to a warm - up room, where I helped tune.
Then we were led with all our stuff to the auditorium, where I got a slightly deja vu-ish feeling because it somewhat resembled the auditorium at Grady (where Morningside had its talent show). We had three judges sitting at podiums in the back. Then a bunch of guests were in a back wing. Ms. Shields 2 sat near the front.
So we played. Improvada, Canyon Sunset, and Conquistador. The judges wrote notes and talked commentary into little microphones. We'll get the recordings later. We couldn't actually hear them at the time, of course. They were given time to finish up between each piece. One of our judges was Richard Prior, the conductor of EYSO (joint with AJCO). The other two were women.
Then we left and we were SO HUNGRY but we had to go to sight reading.
Sight reading was in a room near our warm-up room. We came in. The guy gave us an introduction thing. Then he passed out folders. We opened them and took out this Hawaiian Lullaby. We had 6 minutes to look it over. Ms. Shields could instruct us for the last three. Then we played. I think the violas did very well. At least my stand. Basically the front two rows were good, though the seconds sounded thin and out of tune. But then the guy was like "Applaud your conductor because she just got you a 1!"
We were like AAAAAAAAAH!!!!
Basically they were judging us on our resilience and our ability to follow the conductor.
So yay.
Then we went and stood around in a hallway and then we FINALLY got to eat. Outside. In the heat. But in the shade!
Alex and I were like "MUST HAVE JUICE...."
Grape, orange, apple, cranberry, mango, lemonade, pineapple, grapefruit...
ANYTHING.
So I borrowed a dollar and waited for like TEN MINUTES in line to get to this concession stand and all they had was sprite. So I was like "No way am I leaving after waiting all this time" and I bought a chocolate bar. Alex and I shared it.
Yum.
Because the buses had been late, we did not have time to see any other groups. We lined up. Ms Shields was like "Y'all got straight ones!" and we were like
AAAAAAAH!
Then we went on the bus and drove home in the HEAT.
Band goes to Festival next wednesday! Good luck emma!
That's all for now!
~Julia
P.S. I got a blister walking home in my dress shoes.
P.P.S. I met a violist on the way home! He had a british accent.
This was not a fair or a party or anything like that.
Orchestras from all these different schools in Georgia go to another school to play three prepared pieces for Judges. They then play a sight reading thing. They are graded as follows.
POOR - 4
GOOD - 3
EXCELLENT - 2
SUPERIOR - 1
1, of course is the best. "Superior". Grady got 2 excellents and we were determined to best them!
And we did. Inman Orchestra scored a total of
FOUR STRAIGHT SUPERIORS
This year at Festival.
Congrats Ms. Shields! I'd say you owe us a juice party...
Now, here's a short unveiling of the inner workings of our Festival preparations....
1. PRACTICING
Of course turning in practice records is expected weekly of orchestra students, but this time it is the work that goes into it that counts. If you don't practice, you don't go.
2. TESTING
Ms. Shields tested everyone in groups of 1-3 on passages from the music. She scored you and eliminated the incapable. This resulted in several long periods of sitting around. Most students chose to practice in this time. You go up with your music. She tells you where to play. You play. Not everyone made it, particularly among sixth graders, but a lot of people did.
3. REHEARSALS
Once you pass testing (IF you pass testing) you must attend a ton of rehearsals till 5:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the last three of them mandatory. Ms. Shields would go on long rants to people who left early or didn't come to go to grow club or whatever. Of course, I had to leave at 4:40 to go to AJCO, but Ms. Shields let it slide. We rehearsed in the Band Room and the cafeteria for more space.
4. MS. SHIELDS GOING BALLISTIC
We're too loud... we're uncommitted... we do not attend rehearsals...
Ms. Shields was often provoked by our teenager-y lack of support.
5. THE BOOT
Not sure how many kids were kicked off for missing mandatory rehearsals. Maybe none. Maybe Ms. Shields is that forgiving.
6. THE INSTRUMENTS
Competition over school instruments is fierce in these desperate times! Certain STUPID VIOLIST was irresponsible at every rehearsal, and even on the final date. I can't really blame certain other violist this time, as he doesn't actually have a viola. But someone else better get in shape with his reliability...
7. THE TUNING
Being someone who can tune, I was supposed to... tune. Other kids. But it's so tiring. Because some kids won't have shoulder rests and they have to play it. Some kids' pegs won't turn at all. But I do my best for the good of the community. :)
There's a little... background. Now that we have that covered, what actually happened?
Well, the buses, despite having previously arrived a day early, were an hour and a half late. That meant we had very little time to warm up, but luckily we managed to preform. The buses were hot and crowded, with a Ms. Shields on each bus.
(And yes, having two Ms. Shields talking the same from different directions (and then looking the same when you whirl around) is VERY confusing)
Having the windows open helped, though. It was very nice terrain out the window. We passed the airport and several plains. We also passed the location of my first Allstate audition.
We got at this HUGE intimidating high school. I've seen airports smaller than that high school. And I'm not just talking about the Ithaca airport, which is pretty much smaller than any school you could find in Georgia. It was HUMUNGOUS and very intimidating. When I saw it, I remembered why we were actually there, and I started getting just a little physically nervous. We were led by some of the high school orchestra students there to a warm - up room, where I helped tune.
Then we were led with all our stuff to the auditorium, where I got a slightly deja vu-ish feeling because it somewhat resembled the auditorium at Grady (where Morningside had its talent show). We had three judges sitting at podiums in the back. Then a bunch of guests were in a back wing. Ms. Shields 2 sat near the front.
So we played. Improvada, Canyon Sunset, and Conquistador. The judges wrote notes and talked commentary into little microphones. We'll get the recordings later. We couldn't actually hear them at the time, of course. They were given time to finish up between each piece. One of our judges was Richard Prior, the conductor of EYSO (joint with AJCO). The other two were women.
Then we left and we were SO HUNGRY but we had to go to sight reading.
Sight reading was in a room near our warm-up room. We came in. The guy gave us an introduction thing. Then he passed out folders. We opened them and took out this Hawaiian Lullaby. We had 6 minutes to look it over. Ms. Shields could instruct us for the last three. Then we played. I think the violas did very well. At least my stand. Basically the front two rows were good, though the seconds sounded thin and out of tune. But then the guy was like "Applaud your conductor because she just got you a 1!"
We were like AAAAAAAAAH!!!!
Basically they were judging us on our resilience and our ability to follow the conductor.
So yay.
Then we went and stood around in a hallway and then we FINALLY got to eat. Outside. In the heat. But in the shade!
Alex and I were like "MUST HAVE JUICE...."
Grape, orange, apple, cranberry, mango, lemonade, pineapple, grapefruit...
ANYTHING.
So I borrowed a dollar and waited for like TEN MINUTES in line to get to this concession stand and all they had was sprite. So I was like "No way am I leaving after waiting all this time" and I bought a chocolate bar. Alex and I shared it.
Yum.
Because the buses had been late, we did not have time to see any other groups. We lined up. Ms Shields was like "Y'all got straight ones!" and we were like
AAAAAAAH!
Then we went on the bus and drove home in the HEAT.
Band goes to Festival next wednesday! Good luck emma!
That's all for now!
~Julia
P.S. I got a blister walking home in my dress shoes.
P.P.S. I met a violist on the way home! He had a british accent.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
The Loop of Life
Y'all know about reincarnation. Someone dies. There soul is reborn into a new body.
The end.
But wouldn't it be cool if that actually happened? Not just you die and you fill into the next available slot, but something on a whole bigger scale! Like, what if the world just keeps repeating and repeating! Like, some complicated space time continuum thing happens and by moving far enough in a certain corner of the universe and time files into a loop or whatever. So technically you would live over and over again. Infinitely.
And each time, you fill into one individual. Different each time. Not your memories, not your personality, not even what I would call your soul, but more of your awareness. Stored in some entity of time until the next cycle.
You could have just met the guy you "played" in your last cycle.
That guy you saw on the motorcycle on the way home from school.
The toddler you saw at the playground down the block.
Your creepy vulture librarian.
President Obama!
That girl you asked for help on you math homework in 2nd period (I'm sure you must know her name by now) could be your next one. It's comforting to know that you will always have a chance to exist. Even if there's a time gap the span of infinity between each existence.
SPOOKY!
But think about it. I mean, this could be totally depressing or extremely awesome to you, or even both at the same time. Depending on your perspective. I mean, you'd live through all those kids dying of starvation in Africa. But don't linger on that! Think of all the movie stars and [surviving] mountain climbers and gymnasts you'll get to be!
And I'm sure there are a ton of other awesome people you could list.
Then there are some things that are just a little weird and a bit awkward, if interesting.
Your mom.
Your crush.
Your spanish teacher.
You could go on and on and on. The scariest thing is - what if it's just you? What if everyone else and all their actions in the entire world - even those you never see - are just recordings of who've you already been? That doesn't really make sense when you think about it, so I try not to.
But chances are you haven't been a bunch of people yet. On the other hand, how can we even tell? This might be one of the really early cycles, but if it's infinite, does that even happen? Or does each repetition collapse and overlap as it crosses the same passage over and over again? That makes it a lot more likely that everyone is just you.
Like Brahman! The spirit in everything.
...
Okay, that's just a random speculation that isn't really logical, so let's stop talking about that.
But at the same time - let's move on to the unconscious mind. So in that random fantasy I dreamt up above, the unconscious mind would make sense - because your soul would be in like twenty thousand billion places at once!
But what about this - your brains send off electromagnetic thought waves when you think. They bounce off some gama rays or whatever in space, come back, and slip into your brain. Of course, by this time, the signals would be very weak, so they would slip easier into your brain when you sleep - less thought activity to compete with.
That's how we dream! A bunch of random gama-ray-thoughts!
...
Whatever.
So, it's pi day! I considered doing a separate post for this (as I wrote the draft for the rest of the post yesterday), but it would be very short and I also wanted to post this post today.
So hooray!
Today Ms. Beard had this huge pi competition and stuff. With like, 10 pies. I was jealous. But at least I have the true pi inside my soul!
Here's some pi....
3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286 208998628034825342117067982148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128481 117450284102701938521105559644622948954930381964428810975665933446128475648233 786783165271201909145648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273724587006 606315588174881520920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384146 951941511609433057270365759591953092186117381932611793105118548074462379962749 56735188575272489122793818301194912983367336244065664308
(And, yes, I copied and pasted that. I know about 50 digits, and I feel I owe you as my viewers more than that.)
So, pi related stuff...
Well, guess what? Google did NOT do anything pi themed for its browser! Tsk tsk! Instead it did this whole oragami thing for some dead guy's birthday. Boo!
Also, I have heard about a pi clock - 12:00 being 2pi, 6:00 being pi, etc... I'm not exactly sure how the rest of those fractions would file in, so whatever.
Hmm... Well, pi day is NOT Clarissa's Dad's birthday! Silly Clarissa! Hopefully from now on this event will allow you to actually REMEMBER your dad's birthday....
...
I do not have really much to say about this. But it's extremely awesome and a ton of formulas use it... yeah! Anyways, a bunch of people will probably do other, more awesome pi posts. You are not abandoned!
What other news do I have...
The end.
But wouldn't it be cool if that actually happened? Not just you die and you fill into the next available slot, but something on a whole bigger scale! Like, what if the world just keeps repeating and repeating! Like, some complicated space time continuum thing happens and by moving far enough in a certain corner of the universe and time files into a loop or whatever. So technically you would live over and over again. Infinitely.
And each time, you fill into one individual. Different each time. Not your memories, not your personality, not even what I would call your soul, but more of your awareness. Stored in some entity of time until the next cycle.
You could have just met the guy you "played" in your last cycle.
That guy you saw on the motorcycle on the way home from school.
The toddler you saw at the playground down the block.
Your creepy vulture librarian.
President Obama!
That girl you asked for help on you math homework in 2nd period (I'm sure you must know her name by now) could be your next one. It's comforting to know that you will always have a chance to exist. Even if there's a time gap the span of infinity between each existence.
SPOOKY!
But think about it. I mean, this could be totally depressing or extremely awesome to you, or even both at the same time. Depending on your perspective. I mean, you'd live through all those kids dying of starvation in Africa. But don't linger on that! Think of all the movie stars and [surviving] mountain climbers and gymnasts you'll get to be!
(And no - this last pic is not some famous person you should know. She's just a random sky diver.)
And I'm sure there are a ton of other awesome people you could list.
Then there are some things that are just a little weird and a bit awkward, if interesting.
Your mom.
Your crush.
Your spanish teacher.
You could go on and on and on. The scariest thing is - what if it's just you? What if everyone else and all their actions in the entire world - even those you never see - are just recordings of who've you already been? That doesn't really make sense when you think about it, so I try not to.
But chances are you haven't been a bunch of people yet. On the other hand, how can we even tell? This might be one of the really early cycles, but if it's infinite, does that even happen? Or does each repetition collapse and overlap as it crosses the same passage over and over again? That makes it a lot more likely that everyone is just you.
Like Brahman! The spirit in everything.
...
Okay, that's just a random speculation that isn't really logical, so let's stop talking about that.
But at the same time - let's move on to the unconscious mind. So in that random fantasy I dreamt up above, the unconscious mind would make sense - because your soul would be in like twenty thousand billion places at once!
But what about this - your brains send off electromagnetic thought waves when you think. They bounce off some gama rays or whatever in space, come back, and slip into your brain. Of course, by this time, the signals would be very weak, so they would slip easier into your brain when you sleep - less thought activity to compete with.
That's how we dream! A bunch of random gama-ray-thoughts!
...
Whatever.
So, it's pi day! I considered doing a separate post for this (as I wrote the draft for the rest of the post yesterday), but it would be very short and I also wanted to post this post today.
So hooray!
Today Ms. Beard had this huge pi competition and stuff. With like, 10 pies. I was jealous. But at least I have the true pi inside my soul!
Here's some pi....
3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286 208998628034825342117067982148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128481 117450284102701938521105559644622948954930381964428810975665933446128475648233 786783165271201909145648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273724587006 606315588174881520920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384146 951941511609433057270365759591953092186117381932611793105118548074462379962749 56735188575272489122793818301194912983367336244065664308
(And, yes, I copied and pasted that. I know about 50 digits, and I feel I owe you as my viewers more than that.)
So, pi related stuff...
Well, guess what? Google did NOT do anything pi themed for its browser! Tsk tsk! Instead it did this whole oragami thing for some dead guy's birthday. Boo!
Also, I have heard about a pi clock - 12:00 being 2pi, 6:00 being pi, etc... I'm not exactly sure how the rest of those fractions would file in, so whatever.
Hmm... Well, pi day is NOT Clarissa's Dad's birthday! Silly Clarissa! Hopefully from now on this event will allow you to actually REMEMBER your dad's birthday....
...
I do not have really much to say about this. But it's extremely awesome and a ton of formulas use it... yeah! Anyways, a bunch of people will probably do other, more awesome pi posts. You are not abandoned!
What other news do I have...
NEWS
-Alex and I are going to Festival tomorrow - wish us luck and hope that we are not abandoned at the school!
-Emma and I want to arrange us as a band! Alex and Clarissa - y'all onboard with that? Leave your musical resumees in the comments so we know what we have to work with!
- AJCO is playing the Bach Double next concert! I am on the second violin solo! Come to the Schwartz Center at Emory on Wednesday May Ninth to see me!
- We're looking into kittens at the shelter this Saturday! We might be adopting these two adorable little ladies....
Aren't they adorable? Awwww....
Name suggestions welcome! It looks like we may be going with Sasha and possibly Jasmyn or something else herbal (Lavender, Jade, Willow, Fern, etc...)
- Nice earrings, Emma!
Well, I need to go practice, so I guess I'll post this. I hope you got at least something out of this long... unrelated... and slightly disorganized jumbo-post!
:)
~Julia
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Happy Belated Leap Day
Happy March, everyone! It is now March 3rd!
Now, I didn't get around to doing anything about leap day on leap day, so I'll do a little thingy now. Leap year. Leap year is when we have the presidential election, and both the summer and winter olympics, and when we have a 29th day of February.
The whole concept of February rather confuses me. Only 28 days, on average. (Actually, the average is 28 days and 1/4 because that's how long february actually is!) It seems to me more logical to have the short month at the end of the year, where you actually store the excess time. Otherwise, this whole ripple of a quarter day tears through the calendar and then has no where to go come february!
But, leap year works. Otherwise, you'd have a whole extra six hour-long day on December 31st, and then you'd have to set your clocks back for January and it would be as if those six hours didn't exist.
BUT THEY WOULD.
Because your clocks would no longer line up with the sun as we picture it! Midnight would look like dawn! So either we have dawn look like midnight or midnight look like dawn, and you'd have to choose the latter - otherwise you'd be missing six hours of January. You'd have to ignore those six hours that you would be used to having in December and then the clocks would be thrown off even more.
There might be some compromise found in what I've just said, but the point is that our current system would appear to be the best option.
On a normal year, where do you place the extra six hours? Where does it go? Well, we IGNORE IT. So although our dates are generally in context with our orbit around the sun and how that affects the environment. But only every four years do we actually match our time with our placement around the sun. Basically, our system for leap year decides to compromise the years as a term of measurement rather than time. It's too confusing to keep slicing off hours all over the place, so we treat it like a relay race. Just as long as we get to be in this place on this time in this pattern, everything's fine.
We treat the year like a mile lap. As long as you get to the finish by the fourth 1/4 mile lap, you win.
So, although you think of your birthday as being "Oh, exactly 13 year ago today I was born" that's not true. Because although we ignore those hours, they are still there. But you can still say "So? In 13 of those units of time we identify as years, I WAS born."
And that is not true. Because you have to take leap years into account. You would be off by several hours, even days, depending on how old you are, unless you even out the excess time. So only every four years past your date of birth would that be correct.
(By the way - I'm not actually objecting to this way of identifying with your birthday. Stick with it. Any other way is just too confusing.)
Anyways, you might want to measure your birthdays by the distance. "Oh, I was exactly here in relation to the sun 13 years ago, getting born." But that's not true either. Because only 1/4 years are you actually in the right spot. Only 1/4 years does that spot actually match up with the time of your birthday. This is the same issue that comes up when you measure years with time. It doesn't matter if it's a leap year in which you were born. Just as long as that year is in the same context to a leap year as you year of birth. So your birthday is only accurate on your 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th... etc. birthdays. Only the multiples of four.
Feel free to forget all of that. Because it will just make you get really upset on your birthday.
Anyways, if you have an actual birthday on February 29th, it's stupid to celebrate on the 28th. Celebrate on the 1st. Because it's the 60th day of the year. You'll be in that spot around the sun. (Yes, I know I just explained how that's not technically true, but it's close enough) A lot of people are like "har har, he was born on the 29th so he's only had 3 birthdays" which is stupid. That person has a birthday every year. It's just hard to pinpoint it unless it's leap year when the time evens out. Just like EVERY OTHER SINGLE PERSON in context to their fourth birthdays. The closest you can really say without getting all mathematical is March 1st.
Whether you qualify that as a March or a February birthday is up to you.
You could say, march, because 75% of your birthdays will be.
But when you were actually born was in February, and that's what birthdays are all about anyways.
Most people would probably say February.
So ya. Leap year. Enjoy!
I actually started this post to tell y'all about the red goat graffiti going on in New York. Now it's mostly me ranting about leap year and talking in circles. I can't really call this post "Red Goats" anymore. So I'm probably going to tell you about the red goats tomorrow or something. It's not that exciting.
So I guess that's all for now! Happy birthday party day, Clarissa!
~Julia
Now, I didn't get around to doing anything about leap day on leap day, so I'll do a little thingy now. Leap year. Leap year is when we have the presidential election, and both the summer and winter olympics, and when we have a 29th day of February.
The whole concept of February rather confuses me. Only 28 days, on average. (Actually, the average is 28 days and 1/4 because that's how long february actually is!) It seems to me more logical to have the short month at the end of the year, where you actually store the excess time. Otherwise, this whole ripple of a quarter day tears through the calendar and then has no where to go come february!
But, leap year works. Otherwise, you'd have a whole extra six hour-long day on December 31st, and then you'd have to set your clocks back for January and it would be as if those six hours didn't exist.
BUT THEY WOULD.
Because your clocks would no longer line up with the sun as we picture it! Midnight would look like dawn! So either we have dawn look like midnight or midnight look like dawn, and you'd have to choose the latter - otherwise you'd be missing six hours of January. You'd have to ignore those six hours that you would be used to having in December and then the clocks would be thrown off even more.
There might be some compromise found in what I've just said, but the point is that our current system would appear to be the best option.
On a normal year, where do you place the extra six hours? Where does it go? Well, we IGNORE IT. So although our dates are generally in context with our orbit around the sun and how that affects the environment. But only every four years do we actually match our time with our placement around the sun. Basically, our system for leap year decides to compromise the years as a term of measurement rather than time. It's too confusing to keep slicing off hours all over the place, so we treat it like a relay race. Just as long as we get to be in this place on this time in this pattern, everything's fine.
We treat the year like a mile lap. As long as you get to the finish by the fourth 1/4 mile lap, you win.
So, although you think of your birthday as being "Oh, exactly 13 year ago today I was born" that's not true. Because although we ignore those hours, they are still there. But you can still say "So? In 13 of those units of time we identify as years, I WAS born."
And that is not true. Because you have to take leap years into account. You would be off by several hours, even days, depending on how old you are, unless you even out the excess time. So only every four years past your date of birth would that be correct.
(By the way - I'm not actually objecting to this way of identifying with your birthday. Stick with it. Any other way is just too confusing.)
Anyways, you might want to measure your birthdays by the distance. "Oh, I was exactly here in relation to the sun 13 years ago, getting born." But that's not true either. Because only 1/4 years are you actually in the right spot. Only 1/4 years does that spot actually match up with the time of your birthday. This is the same issue that comes up when you measure years with time. It doesn't matter if it's a leap year in which you were born. Just as long as that year is in the same context to a leap year as you year of birth. So your birthday is only accurate on your 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th... etc. birthdays. Only the multiples of four.
Feel free to forget all of that. Because it will just make you get really upset on your birthday.
Anyways, if you have an actual birthday on February 29th, it's stupid to celebrate on the 28th. Celebrate on the 1st. Because it's the 60th day of the year. You'll be in that spot around the sun. (Yes, I know I just explained how that's not technically true, but it's close enough) A lot of people are like "har har, he was born on the 29th so he's only had 3 birthdays" which is stupid. That person has a birthday every year. It's just hard to pinpoint it unless it's leap year when the time evens out. Just like EVERY OTHER SINGLE PERSON in context to their fourth birthdays. The closest you can really say without getting all mathematical is March 1st.
Whether you qualify that as a March or a February birthday is up to you.
You could say, march, because 75% of your birthdays will be.
But when you were actually born was in February, and that's what birthdays are all about anyways.
Most people would probably say February.
So ya. Leap year. Enjoy!
I actually started this post to tell y'all about the red goat graffiti going on in New York. Now it's mostly me ranting about leap year and talking in circles. I can't really call this post "Red Goats" anymore. So I'm probably going to tell you about the red goats tomorrow or something. It's not that exciting.
So I guess that's all for now! Happy birthday party day, Clarissa!
~Julia
Monday, February 27, 2012
The End of the World
To keep you people happy, I took some clips and formed a kind of promo thingy. I considered making it more trailer-y by adding shots of me hanging from vines or climbing a swing set (and yes, I do have shots of me doing those things. I'm not making all this stuff up about me actually doing stuff. The vines are in my back yard).
Anyways, I decided to keep it short for now. The vines didn't really fit the mood.
If I don't make much progress in the upcoming week, I'll squeeze together another trailer to keep you occupied.
So here's the vid:
I totally had this a week ago, but I needed to convert the files a bunch and it was all confusing. I don't know why it didn't let me upload it as a .mov rather than a .mpg or whatever because I've posted it that way a thousand times before.
Okay, I don't have a sound track, so it's kind of boring sound-wise, but if I can find something on my iTunes that works (or make a track or whatever) then I'll edit it in and replace the video on this post.
Hope you like it!
~Julia
P.S. Love the mask, personally. It made me look and sound like Darth Aardvark or something equally bizarre. Get one before it's too late!
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