Wasting time

Today I spent a bit over three hours watching the entire playlist of important videos. Then I spent an hour and forty minutes watching the entirety of Of Oz the Wizard, which is The Wizard of Oz but in alphabetical order. I have so much work to do. Help.

Just For The Record

Today, I

which took, as expected, 100 days. This means I started 100 days ago, which was, by the way, the second day of school.

Also, today I received The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behaviour, and was told by it, in no uncertain terms, that birds are reptiles. Ah, well. I was bound to come around sometimes.

I Swear I Did This One Already

I distinctly remember posting this thing about dreams. Huh. Well, to paraphrase myself from that alternate timeline, I've made five different dream journals to date:

jetpack level, finished on December 25th, 2014
Escaping a castle, finished July 5th, 2015
I had a cool dream so, finished February 20th, 2016
On a boat, finished April 18th, 2016
In a fantasy world, finished at 7:00 today, November 25th, 2016

Yay, a list! It's been a while since I've done a list. I need to write other things now, though. Bye!

Wait, one more thing. Jetpack level was 43 pages, Escaping a castle was 35 pages, I had a cool dream so was 42, On a boat 19, and In a fantasy world 32. I just wanted to say that because the old, now-nonexistent post had that information. Bye for real now!

Just For The Record

I finished the series Firefly, and watched the movie, on Monday.
I started watching One Punch Man with my dad on Tuesday.
I went to the tent rocks yesterday (and got some cool pamphlets).
Today, I started and finished Thinger Strangs with my family.
Today, I manned up and did the algebra of the general formula for Lucas Sequences (as I now know they are called). The old formula, in case you couldn't read it, was

which looks kinda ugly and needlessly complicated. So, with just a bit of algebra, it becomes

which is much better.

Brady numbers. Brady numbers. The title is acting strange. Help me, friend.

I found the general formula for the Brady numbers. It's Bn = 1571.964902Φ^n + 381.0350976(-Φ)^-n.

I know, potoo friend. I was surprised, too.
Here's the series on the Brady numbers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8ntDpBm6Ok
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTWKKvlZB08
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeUbRXnbmms
One thing I like about the general formula is that it's clear to see why every series which increases fibonaccily is connected to the golden ratio, because when a term is divided by the previous term it is:
[(a constant)Φ^n + (a constant)(-Φ)^-n] / [(the first constant)Φ^(n-1) + (the second constant)(-Φ)^-(n-1)]
And, because (-Φ)^-n gets closer and closer to zero as n gets bigger, it can be simplified to:
[(a constant)Φ^n] / [(that same constant)Φ^(n-1)]
And then, because [(a constant)Φ^(n-1)] / [(that constant)Φ^(n-1) = 1, this becomes
Φ^(n-(n-1)) = Φ^1 = Φ
YAY!

Two announcements

I did two amazing things yesterday. First, I found a general formula for every fibonacci-like series in which each term is the sum of the two previous terms, given the two initial terms.

The Fibonacci sequence occurs when A0 = 0 and A1 = 1. The Lucas numbers occur when A0 = 2 and A1 = 1. I'm sure someone else has found this formula, but I haven't seen it on the internet. It was a pretty easy generalization to make, after seeing the Fibonacci series done in Elliptic Tales, and then doing the Lucas numbers as a trial run. Learn more about these series here.

Second I did this word search.

I am very proud.

Three distinguishing or admirable qualities

Okay, let me preface this by saying that the last post actually helped a lot, even just in the act of writing it. Okay so between that sentence and this one my mom confronted me about said post and we agreed that is was fine, because it is. I think largely because of just writing all that down. Anyways, here's what I ended up saying:

I have a very… distinct sense of humour. I like dumb jokes, and visual gags, and terrible puns. You might have noticed that I’ve made a few joking comments in these responses. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if they are funny. A quality that I find admirable is my open-mindedness. I enjoy trying and learning new things, and aim to never dismiss anything just out of hand. Again, you might have picked up on that elsewhere in my responses, what with all the learning and the exploring. Third, I have the best hair. It is black and curly and the swirls go in different directions depending on what side they are on. My hair is also noticeably long, going a little past my shoulders. I should probably cut it, to be honest. Anyways, I would say those are my three most distinguishing and admirable qualities.

And I meant every word of that.

I am the worst person

No, really. I am my least favorite out of all the people I know. I never do anything. I never go anywhere. I can't even bring myself to make any interesting descriptions of myself. I have tried and failed at more things than I have tried and succeeded at. My life is the easiest of any I've heard of, and I still manage to only barely stumble through it. None of my friends are dead. None of my relatives have recently died. I get good grades. There is no logical reason for me to be sad. But I am. I'm just worthless.

I'm applying to colleges this year. It's not fun. It's not fun for anyone, though. I'm not special. Anyways, I am looking into everywhere I'm applying to and they all want people with direction and creativity and smarts and tenacity and perseverance and uniqueness and other things that are not me and I don't know what to do. One of the questions for me was, "List your three most distinguishing or most admirable qualities." I couldn't think of any. I still can't. I am the most bland, useless pile of nothing ever to disgrace the earth.

Yesterday I met a guy named Amos. My dad and I gave him a ride home from a choir concert. He is the least me person I can think of. He is in basketball and football and wrestling. He hopes to compete in the NFL and I think he can do it. In his free time, he plays Call of Duty. He has a YouTube channel onto which he uploads footage of him playing CoD and also original songs that he's made. He has two first names, but I've forgotten the second one. He is interesting and nice and humble and fit and he knows what he's doing in his life. He does things. I don't.

In conclusion, I do not, in fact, think you should let me into your college, or even into your state. Although, if I was there, you still probably wouldn't notice. Gotta look on the bright side. At least nobody cares.

Thank you, voiceless imaginary reader. Thank you for letting me vent. I need to go pretend to have three distinguishing or admirable qualities now. Bye.

Just For The Record

Yesterday was the first time I had ever stayed awake all night. As in, I woke up on Wednesday morning, was sick, and the next time I fell asleep was Thursday afternoon. I wouldn't recommend doing that. It doesn't feel good.

One thing I would recommend is Flat Dreams. It's a tale about Gravity Falls, in which Bill comes from Flatland. I'm not sure how much sense it will make to someone who has neither read Flatland nor seen Gravity Falls, but I have, so I really enjoyed it. The story is here if you want it.

New York

Today is the last day I'll be in New York. Well, that's not actually true right now, but it probably will be by the time I post this, because right now it's 11:12, New York time. So, I just got back from watching Hamilton. It was so good that I could not even. But I'm going to refrain from talking about that right now, because I have more to say.

I arrived by plane almost a week ago, on Wednesday, with my sister and my dad. We landed in Newark, and took a bus to Times Square, from which we walked to our hotel, Le Soleil, and met up with my mom. In summary: the penthouse floor is dumb because it has not much room and costs a lot more and the lighting is wired in an incredibly weird fashion. Still, it was enough to sleep in.

The next day was Thursday. I woke up in the hotel, and learned about our plans to go to the American Museum of Natural History. We walked through the heat and humidity to the subway, then took the B line uptown. We could immediately tell when we got to the right station because of all the tiled creatures lining the walls. We entered immediately through the 81st street entrance, and looked at space. Such space. After the space, we went upstairs to see more space. Specifically, we went to see a planetarium show by Neil deGrasse Tyson on cosmology and the big bang. It was very good at conveying information, without dumbing it down too much for the audience. We also got into the Dinosaurs Among Us exhibit, which is about dinosaurs evolving into birds. It's pretty sweet. We were there for over an hour. Then we went into the Hall of Biodiversity, which absolutely BLEW MADAME MIND. We spent the rest of the day between there and the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life. I had so much fun.

The next day was Friday, and, having learned my lesson, I tied up my hair to make it feel less hot, and we went out to the National Museum of Mathematics. Needless to say, it was radical. My favorite exhibit was a game in which two players had to add numbers to fifteen. Thing is, one of the players is presented the same information in a tic-tac-toe format, so they get a huge advantage. Then I got seventeen books and we left. After leaving the museum, we went to a "Japanese store" that Lucia wanted to visit. It was okay. I'm not as much of a japanophile (should that be capitalized?) as my sister is. Still, I got a book about trees. We went home, and my mom and I planned the next day.

Our plan was to move in a big square, walking west to the High Line (a park on an abandoned train track), then south to Chelsea (a mall), then east to The Strand (a book store), then north back to the apartment. We did, indeed, do that. The High Line was pretty. The Strand had only four places to sit, and we got all four. I bought two more math books. Now I have many books. Also, we saw a man with a snake.

On Sunday, we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, better known as the Met. It was very fancy. The Arms and Armor exhibit was really cool, almost as cool as the fashion exhibit. We also saw modern art and classic European paintings by folks like Picasso and Monet.

Yesterday (or, the day before yesterday, now that it's 1:17) we went back to the museum to try to catch a bit more of it. First we went to like a space theater and went down a ramp or whatever. Then, we got into the temporary exhibit about crocodiles, which was very cool, and then slipped right into watching National Parks Adventure. I'd already seen it two times, but Lucia wanted to go again, and I didn't really mind. It does, after all, have the best music of any documentary I've ever seen. We tried to go see the dinosaurs, but we started in the wrong place, and then we were taking too long, and then we decided to come back the next day (today) (yesterday). After a quick trip to the Hall of Minerals (in which I was a bit too interested for my liking) and another trip to buy a shirt (but not a butterfly shirt, because that one was for girls apparently) we went back home.

Then, today. Or, yesterday. We went all the way through the fossils, from start to finish, following the path, going through all the branches, and reading all the things that were interesting. This was a lot. But it was worth it. I came out with an understanding of the history of life on Earth miles ahead of where I was before. That took most of the day. Afterwards, we went to Barnes & Noble to wait for Hamilton to start.

Hamilton was so great that it kind of hurts that I'm this tired, because I really want to say more about it, and I know I won't be able to get my ideas across as well in this state. Still, here I go: it was fantastic. It was incredibly fantastic. So much as to even be worth the price of admission. And that's saying something. My favorite songs were Right Hand Man, Satisfied, The Room Where It Happens, The Reynolds Pamphlet, and the ones where the folks die. Prior to today (yesterday), I hadn't heard any songs past Ten Duel Commandments, and I think that made it a better experience. The show is all songs, so you don't miss any audio if you get the iTunes. I cried. I cried a lot. It was good.

So, those were the highlights of New York. Tomorrow (today) is Wednesday. I'm going home.

A scary story

I've become more and more fond of scary stories since Halloween of 2014. What with being all savvy with the tropes, I haven't been really scared in a long while. This here is the first story in the last few months which has genuinely made me scared of the dark. Enjoy.

https://www.reddit.com/r/shortscarystories/comments/4x7wgk/the_restaurant/

The Late Post on the Museum

Saturday, almost a week ago, I had a really great day at the museum. I then promptly forgot to blog about it for six days straight. I don't know why, but I've become kinda reluctant to do this. I don't like writing as much as I used to.

This is not what the Hall of Life looks like.
This is what it feels like.

When the day started, I didn't really want to go to the museum, because it was early, and I hadn't slept well, and I just kinda wanted to stay at home. But, I went anyways, because I'm like that. I don't remember much of the ride, or signing in, or the first hour of work, really. It was a slow day, and there were only like three families in the entire health exhibit. I do remember that one little boy asked me if the Perplexus was the museum. Presumably, he had just exited the topsy-turvy animal rooms. I informed him that it was not the museum.

Visitations didn't pick up until a group of kids with matching shirts came in. Well, I say "kids," but they were about my age. They were part of some sorta summer school thing, and they had a packet to fill out. It was through their questions, and my lack of answers, that I ascertained an important truth: even after ten years, I still didn't know all of the stuff in Expedition Health. Now, to be fair, part of the problem was that someone had removed the blood pressure station, and nobody had told me about it. But, still, I feel like I could have been more helpful.

So, with this new realization, what did I do? Did I resolve to better myself? To spend the next few weeks learning the ins and outs of Expedition Health, to the point where I could effortlessly answer any questions asked? No. Instead, I gave up. I decided that, if I had really stopped learning new things from Expedition Health, I should move on to new things. Like, for example, Prehistoric Journey. More commonly known as "the dinosaur exhibit," Prehistoric Journey is a tour from the beginning of the earth until now, focusing on the creatures that once lived there. That's where I decided to transfer to.

Eventually, the group left. Thirteen (or maybe fourteen) of them had me sign their packet, to prove that they had watched the little movie. That leaves eight (or seven) people who didn't have their books signed. I wish them the best.

Anyways, after they left, things started to pick up. I met all sorts of people, but one in particular stood out: a boy with a little cowboy hat, upon which were pinned three proud Junior Ranger badges. As a man who also has a hat adorned with flashy national park symbols, I was incredibly... something at seeing the kid like that. The feeling I had was part pride that my idea had caught on, part respect for the kid's adventures, part excitement at the adventures he had yet to have, part disappointment that I could not show him my corresponding hat, and part the feeling you get when a little kid does something awesome. There should be a word for that.

After our shift ended, my dad and I ate lunch, and then we went to check out the new temporary robot exhibit. It was really cool. There were all sorts of things to try out, and even robots to pilot. One robot that particularly confused me was a tic-tac-toe playing robot who could actually lose. That shouldn't be able to happen. Tic-tac-toe is a solved game. There are literally still images which will never lose at tic-tac-toe. I was then informed by a sign that the robot was just learning to play, presumably restarting every day.

Then, something even more amazing happened. The robot cheated. It essentially did what it did in this gif, placing it's X on top of someone's O. That is both amazing and terrifying. We gave it a challenge, asked it to learn, and it decided that the best way ti succeed was to not follow our rules. This id how the world will end.

On that cheery note, I think I'll stop now. Not much interesting happened for the rest of the evening. Nothing noteworthy, anyways. Also, it's 11:33, and I need to sleep. That's right, the "late" in the title has two meanings. Yes, I am very clever. Thank you. I'll sleep now.

Leaves

My dad and I were outside cutting branches for compost and we made a bunch of leaf-based movies. And by movies I mean movie titles. Here they are.
Leaves: The First Movie
Leaves 2: This Time It’s Personal
Leaves 3: Back For Seconds
Leaves 4: Ever After (They Just Won’t Leave)
Leaves 5: Back For Seconds... Again! (or, alternatively, Leaves 5: Back 5 Seconds)
Leaves 6: Pick Up Sticks
Leaves 7: Renegade (A Sticky Situation)
Leaves ∞: Forever After (It’s Like An Eight On Its Side)
Leaves 9: The Cat Leaves Nine Times
Leaves X: The Final Frontier
Leaves Y: Why Are We Still Making These?
Leaves Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
Leaves 11: Back On Track
Leaves 12: Literally Just Leaves 1 And 2 Cut Together
Leaves 13: The Hungry Trees
Leaves 14: The End Is Near
We never got to Leaves 15.

Blink

So, I swore on the soul of the Onion Knight that I would right something today. Here I am. I would never tarnish his reputation.

I finished watching Dan Sucks at Dark Souls today. I liked it. Dark Souls is most certainly my favorite game I've never played.

I've been thinking about death lately (or have I been thinking of death? I'm not sure) because of reasons. By now I'm kinda fine with it, which is slightly worrying.

So death happens. What it means is that we stop working. Everything dies eventually, and there is nothing we can do about it.

Part of why I've been thinking about it is that there's a little night light that I've had since fourth grade which I think is about to die.

Really, it's impressive that it's lasted this long. Kinda. An LED light lasts about six years until it is at about 70% brightness, according to the internet.

Actually, the more I poke around, the less concerned I am. Apparently, LEDs don't flicker, so the little blinks it does are probably due to a bad connection with the base.

And, of course, there is a chance that I'm just actually blinking. Sometimes I blink and don't notice. You probably do so, too.

Well, I think this is enough. The Onion Knight would be proud. I'm going to rewatch the first episode, and then go to sleep.

Also, my birthday party is tomorrow. So that's fun.

Numbers to ponder

Here are some numbers I have been looking at. They are very large. If you can figure out what they're supposed to mean, then kudos to you. I'll put up the full story, minus context, after finals are over. So in like a month. In the meantime, here are the numbers.
8^8 = 16777216
8^16 = 2.8147498*10^14
8! = 4032
8!^3 = 6.5548321*10^13
24*21*18*15*12*9*6*3 = 264539520 = 8!*3^8
24*21*18*15*12*9*6*3)^2 = 6.9981158*10^16
on another note
8^8*12^12 = 1.4958734*10^20
8^8*24^24*24^24 = 7.1922132*10^67
and, in conclusion,
(8!*3^8)(12!*2^12) = 5.1902404*10^20
(8!*3^8)(24!*2^24)(24!) = 1.7085268*10^63

News from the Council

The council voted 4-2 in favor of volunteering during 8th period next year. This surprised me. Now I have to do it, regardless of my personal preference. Accursed democracy.

Dream template

It's the future
I have a dream journal
It's just little notes
They get longer later on
This is the template

...

So, a while ago I decided it was the future, and I feel like that means I should start doing stuff. First off, I am going to officially plot the story that has been in my head for like two years now. But also, I'm going to start writing down my dreams.

See, I've had a dream journal for a while, now. Since grade school, I think. I just jot down little notes when I wake up, if I think the dream was cool. I have a lot of dreams accumulated now. The documents of dreams, in order, are as follows: jetpack level, Escaping a castle, I had a cool dream so, and On a boat. They are all named after their first line (because they were originally iPhone notes) and have 43, 35, 42, and 19 pages, with a total of 139 pages worth of dreams. The last one was, I suppose, cut off short.Also, at the beginning, I only have a few lines, but later they get really wordy, because I just remember more stuff and I know how to write about it.

This post serves as a template for the dream writing that I'm planning to do. Essentially, I just rewrite the dreams to be a narrative. I'll fill in the details as faithfully as I can, but you know how memory is.

...

This is the last part of three sections. Here, I say which parts of the above dream are from memory, and which I made up for story reasons. In this case, I already know everything, so this section isn't exactly a huge thing. It probably never will be, especially as I write more details in the later dreams.

Eventually, I might put the actual content first, when the journal part gets too long. Or maybe just have a link and tell people to find it for themselves if they're interested. Yeah, that one's probably smarter.

Mystery Solved

Thursday last my friends and I have solved the mystery about which to you I have not told. Long story short, Mr. Arehart has been calling me Carlos this entire time because one of my last names is Gomez, and he has a student named Carlos whose mother's last name was Gomez. The end.

And lo, you did not know about this beforehand. The mystery was solved before you even knew about it. I'm that good.

So. Yesterday was the future.

It doesn't seem too different. I suppose we aren't far enough into the future to see any real change. It's kinda cool, though. I mean, some things have changed. Yesterday, I hadn't started Masterminds: Criminal Destiny. Today, I finished. Also, today I read XKCD's Time again. Still just as good. And topical, I guess. Oh, and World Trigger ended a while ago. That's something. Still in the past, though.

Love or Something

First of all, I'm not sorry about the title. I saw an opportunity and I took it. Second, this post promises to be gushy and full of emotion, so whenever I feel awkward I'll put a link to a gushy love song.

Okay. So I know that self-diagnosis is usually bull, but I don't think someone else would be qualified to tell me. I think I'm panromantic. Fortunately, I apparently made up that word, so nobody can tell me I'm not. Okay, so I've just looked further, and it looks like other people use the world, but not in the sense I mean it. Which gives evidence that I'm crazy and different. Yay.

So, what do I mean when I say panromantic? Well, recently (last year) I bought into the Triangular Theory of Love, because it looks pretty, and the three sides make things clear enough. If you want a full explanation, you should see the Wikipedia page to which I just linked, but here's the basics: there are three aspects of love which are present in different amounts during a relationship. One aspect is Commitment, which is about staying with each other and having plans for the future. Another is Passion, which is where we get the sexytimes and the rush of happiness while together (and also creepystalkerism). The third aspect of love is Intimacy, which is feelings of connectedness, of being close, of knowing each other and liking each other.

The word that I invented, panromantic, deals with the Intimacy part. Essentially, I believe that I can form an Intimate attraction to things which aren't people. This is kinda hard to admit because (a) it makes me sound crazy and (b) I might be crazy for thinking it because (c) I have no idea what I'm talking about. Really though, it feels like love, like how I love my good friends, or my family. It's just this thing where everything about the thing is perfect and I don't ever want anything to change. Don't worry, I have a list.

In retrospect, the first time I got attached to a thing was with The Mysterious Benedict Society. I have read that book approximately 20 times. That is not an exaggeration. The characters are great and I love them and I want them to be my friends. Also it's funny and clever and it has puzzles.

The whole Professor Layton franchise is another thing I love. Most of what I said above applies here also. Actually, I don't think I have enough in me to gush about each thing individually, so I'll just finish. the list: Gravity Falls, Skin Horse, and Monster Pulse. There. It's not very long.

Part of why I wrongly think this is real is that it's a very distinct feeling that I have for these things. I don't love a lot of my favorite things, like Romantically Apocalyptic, El Goonish Shive, or Skullkickers (my three favorite comics) or Phineas and Ferb or Primeval (among my favorite TV series) or Artemis Fowl, The Spiderwick Chronicles, or the Secret Series (my favorite book series). There's a different sort of thing that love is. Then again, to reiterate, I might be crazy.

It feels good to get this off my chest. I'm not really any less stressed or anything, but there's always a chance that someone will understand. Anyways, I told myself I would say this: tomorrow is the future. Thank you very much, goodbye, good night.

Wow. I never even once linked to a love song. Time to fix that. Every "love" shall be linked.

I have done it!

I have escaped the Week of Doom! For the last week, from last Wednesday to today, I have had a big thing done every single day. And now I'm done. It feels good. So good that I could create a bunch of randomly-generated cars and then make them drive as far as they can in order to see who is fittest and then suddenly transport them to the moon and laugh at them in low gravity and then kill them all when I see the loop-de-loop because otherwise I would be there forever. So that's what I did.

I kinda wanted to talk about the Week of Doom, but... it's been an experience. I don't entirely want to relive it. The point is, I have the time to do fun things now. Maybe tomorrow I'll talk about love or something.

Yesterday

All my troubles seemed so faaar away.... Life was just another gaaame to play....

Ahem.

So, today, there was a lot of being sad for no reason. This is because I was up all night yesterday reading Questionable Content. I am not proud. But, a lot of my posts lately (two) have been sad, so I don't want to focus on that. Instead, I want to focus on this: Yesterday was the best day ever.

So, first off, it was April Fools'. I've always loved April Fools'. It makes me incredibly happy to think that anything could be false at any moment. Also, all the cool YouTubers do April Fools' videos, and even the serious videos have a sense of suspense because they could turn at any moment.

My day started off with Chemistry (and yes my day starts with school because I never really remember much of mornings). Chemistry was whatevs. There was work, and I turned in stuff. I felt alienated from the rest of my lab group. Nothing to complain about.

Then was Spanish. Also mediocre, but I did get a cookie-cream-chocolate heart out of it. Also, Nando let me in on this whole thing the Web Team did where they put QR codes around the school (one was affixed to Nando's backpack) to see how many of them students can scan. It seems fun, and also April Fools'y.

Not sure what I did on my off period. Probably homework. OH! I studied for the History test. Also, I met Kaylee (I still don't know how to spell her name) and we talked about hair and tentacles. That was... interesting.

The next class is Physics. And yes I am going to go through the whole list darnit. First the teacher (yes I know her name but too many details is boring) showed us PhoneView, which is a number that you can call that lets you navigate the school website with your phone. Surprisingly, it actually works! Then we played with lasers and wave interference, which is ALWAYS fun. Also, a lot of my best friends are in Physics. It's a good class. Anyways, we ended by watching stuff in SnoopaVision. Google it.

Language Arts was... not terrible. It was a work day. I worked. Yaaaaay.

I had already eaten my Lunch, so I went right to the library (specifically the hallway outside the library) to meet up with my friends. I had seen an interesting-looking book earlier, so I went in. Seth, from my History class, asked me to study with him. I had already studied, but we were friends, and anyways how long could it take? It took the whole period. And it was great. We talked about broad strokes stuff, and went of on like three irrelevant tangents. One of them was about Seveneves and the logistics of living on the iron core of the moon and how dead we would be if the moon exploded. I had a lot of fun. It was nice to hang out with a "normal" person for once.

Math was mathy. I didn't do NEARLY as badly on the test as I thought I had (like a 92 as opposed to a 60) and we talked about u-substitutions, which seem a bit annoying, but it's cool.

Finally, History. The best part of the day. Before class, the teacher came up to me and told my that the paper I had written was one of the best she had ever seen in her entire teaching career. I was floored. Absolutely stunned. If I switched those adjectives, it would work better dramatically. Wait, are they adjectives, or just verbs in the past tense? Probably verbs.

Anyways, that happened. I can't even describe how great that made me feel. Like, if a million bucks feels great, then... I don't know where I was going with this metaphor. Probably a larger amount of money? Meh. The point is, this made my day. I went in, and she told the whole class about it, and she gushed, and everyone looked at me and smiled, and I felt great. Then there was the test, which was meh. Then we practiced the Citizenship Test, which might be mandatory for completing high school next year.

And then I was home. Well, after a bus ride, in which I played Flow. When I got home, there were cinnamon rolls there. Like, the little baby ones. I ate their persons, then watched YouTube videos. It was delicious. I don't even remember much of the evening, it was just a whirlwind of fun times. I think there was singing and games.

Then, I read QC until past midnight, and resolved to write this post today. So here I am. In between, there has been a lot of sadness, but also Your Grammar Sucks 100, which was so cool.

The end. I don't really like doing diary-type posts, but yesterday was literally the best day I have had in years. Probably. I don't really keep track. It was certainly the best this year so far. Anyways, time to put all the links in. Huh, just three. I thought there's be more. I mean, I could put in SnoopaVision. But no, that's too much work.

Thank you very much, goodbye, good night.

Further Undertale Confessions

Here are some things that I missed:

At the end, I went back and talked to every single living thing in the game. Even the rock.

I took the locket but not the blade. It felt like the right thing to do.

I got two Nice Cream punch cards, but could never cache them in.

My favorite character is Papyrus.

My favorite enemy is the Tsunderplane.

My least favorite enemy is the eye bully dude. I ran away from him.

I am both glad and disappointed that Yanderplane was not a character.

I did not even pick up on the fact that the beginning was a to-Toriel.

I let the flower hit me at the start.

I completed the crossword before advancing.

I found the tutu, but left it there. I still don't know why.

I had befriended everyone but Alphys prior to the thing.

I spent two hours last night in the darkness thinking about an Undertale story. Now I have to write it.

I really wanted to eat that burger. But the game wouldn't let me.

Undertale Confessions

I wrote most of this before, then left to see if it was "catdog" or "hotcat." Of course it was hotcat. When I came back, everything was deleted.

I ate the snowman. I was trying to put it down, and I accidentally ate it.

That was the only thing I ever ate outside of battle. I just forgot that I could.

I REALLY wanted to just kill that stupid flower at the end, but my sister stopped me. I'm glad she did, because the murder ending is boring.

Undertale autocorrects to Undertake.

The fight with the muffin spider was hard. This was because I had no food. Eventually, I caved and bought a single hotcat for the fight. It was kinda easy then. (Only took three more tries)

Apparently, beating it with just one food item takes skill. Therefore, I have skill. Woo.

Oddly enough, even though it made me really mad, the thought of attacking the spider never even crossed my mind.

The big dude killed me three times.

I beat the flower on the first try.

My favorite part was the duck.

My least favorite part was at the end when the duck didn't play its music.

I will never play Undertale again. It seems mean.

I was on the lookout for a man who spoke in hands. Sadly, I never met him. I later found him on YouTube.

The first time I ever ran away was in the fight with the fish. I was too busy laughing at the animation to run, and so my character didn't actually move.

If you play Genoside, Undertale is dark. I know this through videos, as playing Genoside is something I could never do sober.

My favorite fight was with Metaton, whose name I can't spell.

I should really be working right now.

So... Undertale.

I finished Undertale today. And World Trigger. And Skullkickers, a while ago.
Yeah. I had wanted to play Undertale for a while.
My sister made me start a few days ago.
It's pretty darn great.
...
Also, I can't speak much in one line.
These text boxes are small.
...
It's a strange feeling.
The feeling of being done with something you love.
Reminds me of when Summer was over.
You feel like you've lost something.
Even though you haven't.
And you feel like you've won something.
Because you have.
And a part of you wants to do it again.
And a part of you wants to stay like this.
And a part of you wants to shout it's name from the rooftops.
And a part of you wants everyone to find it for themselves.
And there is also a small, tiny part of you...
whose heart is broken...
because nobody will ever, ever do it the way you did it.
Or feel it the way you felt it.
Ever.
Again.
Or maybe that's just me.
...
And there is another part of you.
And another.
Almost as if you're a complex human being.
And you feel alive.
So alive that you feel like dying.
So alive that you feel like living.
And then, if you're me, you try to capture that feeling by writing it down and it doesn't really work but it's fine because you can't really write any of it down in a way that does justice to it because it's a feeling, and feelings just don't work that way.
...
But, no matter what you feel.
It's still over.
You won. Or something.
And now...
there is nothing left to do.
...
Heh.
Ah, who am I kidding?
There's everything left to do!
All good things come to an end.
Because they have to make room for BETTER THINGS!
There are still other games.
Other comics.
Heck, World Trigger isn't even really over, there's a new one every Saturday!
There's still so much to do.
And so much to see.
And... looking into the future spreading out ahead of you...
It fills you with DETERMINATION!

Why am I so good at math?

I'm better now. And, lately, I've been thinking about math. Because it's been brought to my attention that I'm good at it. You see, I proved something I called Andres's Cool Theorem shortly before winter break. Long story short, a couple months later it was revealed that Andres's Cool Theorem was actually called the Power Rule. Upon hearing that I had never heard of the Power Rule, my math friends told me to "leave" on account of me needing to be in a higher math. So, why was I able to prove this, and find certain other curious mathematical things?

In regards to this, after a lot of soul searching, I came up with two rules that have helped me. The second of these rules, which I came up with first, was derived from something that Commander Badass of Manly Guys Doing Manly Things once said. Essentially, the rule is: always try to be a better person than your past self. Nothing more, nothing less. The way I generally phrase it in my head is "Be a better person than you were yesterday." Of course, it's not like there's any way to actually tell what is new between the today you and the yesterday you. But, if you can't see any difference from yesterday, just be sure to be better than yourself from last year. That's the second rule.

The first rule was just thought of recently. Well, recently as of when I intended to write this, which was a while ago. See, when my friends told me about the Power Rule, that was when I realized I was proper good at math. Just now (so, like, at the beginning of March) I realized how crazy it was getting. At that point, I was finding connections between higher-dimensional systems of algebra and finite geometries via the products of cyclic groups. It's really not as hard as it sounds. But why do I find it so easy?

After a right big think, I think I've found the answer. It's because I let things change me. That's rule 1: "let things change you." Don't be taken for granite, like in that one story which has been lost to time and the internet. If you see a dumb motivational video, take it to heart. If you find a dumb quote you like, write it down. If someone recommends doing something (yes, even if it's dumb), do it. That's how I got started with physics, by reading books recommended by Micheal from VSauce. And that's how I got into math, by reading Matt Parker's book, Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension. Then, when I went to my grandparents', I got a bunch more math books to nerd about (I've almost finished the history of algebra) to further seal my fate. So, yeah, that's why I can do stuff. Those two rules.

Actually, I just got a few new math books, among which are The Magic of Math and The Joy of X, which look similar. But, before I read those, I have to finish the new Masterminds and Hugo Cabret books I've got. But, before I read those, I have to finish Unknown Quantity. But, before I read that, I have to read Chronicle of a Death Foretold, because it's for school. And, eventually, I might finish Red Mars. But first, I have to sleep.

To the future!

Just for the record

Today, Inversion and Conformity joined the Dancing Stars. Neither of them have seperate names; Inversion doesn't want one, Confirmity is fine with just Conformity (we tried to call her Conversion, the made-up opposite of inversion, but she didn't like it). Inversion isn't really the right word, but Subversion is just too strong. Basically, they are the desire to stand out and the desire to fit in. And yes I kinda ripped that off from Subnormality, but I wanted to hire them and they needed themes. Anyways, that's all.

P.S.: Oh, did I say today? I meant YESTERDAY because it's past midnight. Stupid LA.

Why am I so bad at everything?

So, yesterday, I told myself that today I would write a post called "Why am I so good at math?" because it is a question I'd been asking myself for a while, and I think I found an answer that also sums up my philosophy about life and leaves me with a good feeling about the world. That was yesterday.

Today, I am sad. I don't know why, and sometimes that frightens me. When I don't know why I feel things, it feels like I'm lost. Not, like, adrift-in-space lost or surrounded-by-darkness lost or left-behind lost or even just plain old strange-location lost. It's a kind of lost where you know where you are, but nothing else. You don't know what your doing, or who you are, or why you do things, or where the future will take you, or if anything even matters at all. It's like the moment of disorientation when you have just walked into a room, and you don't remember why you're there, but you haven't quite noticed that you don't know why you're there, so you just stand. I mean, it's not like there's anything else to do.

My day went well. I was mostly ignored by the people in my chemistry class, and overspoken (that's not a word, but it should be) by the people in my LA class. In my off period, I finished something I had been working on for a while, and then learned that it was pointless. When I mention that in my math post, it will be a positive thing. Honestly, math class was the highlight of my day, because it was a work day, so I could mostly just hang out.

Wait, scratch that. The highlight of my day was hanging out with Devon during lunch. It was sort of surreal, because we don't talk to each other that often, and today we spent over an hour together. We spent the time talking about nothing, like the wind, or Trump, or cancer, or yo-yos, or books. At one point Devon wondered aloud where Zach was, so I texted him, and we got no answer. Zach's a mutual friend, by the way; he's the reason Devon and I spent time together before.

Sometimes I write a lot. See those last two paragraphs? Those were unplanned. They just happened. Well, that's usually how writing works in general, but still. I was going to spend a lot more time talking about depression and stuff, but I didn't. I'm usually not a sad person. Sometimes, I just get sad. It happens. I get over it.

Also, you should totally read this.

The summer is over

Okay, first off, that one I wrote when I was tired was way too long. Sorry.

I realize that I actually have a lot to say, but I just never really sit down to say it. I am going to resolve to start blogging more.

Today (the 21st) I moved back into my old room, which is now only my old old room, and also my new new room. It thus follow's that Lucia's room - the one she's in now - is my  old new room and my new old room. Cool.

Yesterday (the 20th) I meant to write this post. I didn't get around to it. I was busy finishing Narbonic, which is a good and you should read it. Definitely read it without commentary, though. It becomes 70% shorter, and there is less chance that you will glimpse spoilers that ruin everything.

The day before yesterday (the 19th) my family and I watched the last three episodes of Gravity Falls. Now it is done and I am sad. It's an odd sorta thing that Gravity Falls and Phineas and Ferb have ended in the same month. What's more, we were actually watching things as they were added to Netflix and Amazon, so we finished the shows within a week of each other. We had skipped a whole season of Phineas and Ferb, which is why we had already watched the last episode.

Today (the 21st) I need to do my math homework. My mom and I just worked out my schedule for next year, and I'm planning to do double-advanced math, so I have to make myself look good. Fortunately, now that I'm done with Phineas and Ferb, and Narbonic, and Gravity Falls, and sleeping in the other room, and not owning the latest two Sandra Boynton albums, and some interesting self-discoveries (which I will might about later), I have a lot of time to do stuff like that. And to blog.

I'm going to end with a quote from my mom: "Now that Gravity Falls is gone, and Phineas and Ferb is gone, it feels like summer is over." It kinda really does.

P.S. We moved the beds, so I have Lucia's old old bed which is my new old bed and my old new bed and my new new bed. It follows that Lucia has my old old bed, which is her new old bed and old new bed and so on.

Just to clarify

It really was 10:44 when I posted that last one. All of the times were correct. I don't know why it says 9:44.

It's 10:47 right now.

Free time

I need to sleep. I know that I need to sleep. But I won't sleep. Because I am blogging. It always feels like I have a lot of free time, and then I look at the clock, and it's just ten minutes after the last time I looked at the clock, but this is the moment I realize that it's late. Blugh, It's 10:14 right now.

I'm considering creating an informative video about voting systems and things. Like the CGP Grey videos, except with less quality. I think it's possible, especially because I would just have to set up the rules once, but it would end up being like a 30 minute video. I think that's a bit ambitious, at least until Spring Break. It's 10:19 right now.

I'm also thinking of making music. Music is cool. With improvisation, I can just come up with tunes, and then put lyrics to those tunes later. First on the list is "Bacteria are Cool (and Viruses are Not)," which I came up with last Wednes-Thursday. Last Thursday. With some friends. When I came home and preformed it in front of my family, Lucia didn't entirely understand the concept of improv, because she kept asking me to do it again the same way, which messed me up. Anyways, I could probably make a short one-minute song over the weekend, if we didn't do anything special. It's 10:23 right now.

I was reading a book earlier this year called Night School, which is about how to sleep better. It recommends to keep yourself awake until you're really sleepy (check) and stay away from screens or blue light (not check). It's still in my old room, though. Right, I never told you, but Lucia and I switched rooms. She really likes sleeping under the bunk bed. It is 10:26 right now.

I had a nice segue to this paragraph, but I forgot it. Anyways, "segue" has one of the dumbest spellings in the english language. Do I capitalize that? Spell-check says so. Anyways, when I was walking home from school this afternoon, I looked behind me, and the moon was enormous. Like, seriously, way bigger than it should have been. I kept looking at it as I walked across the field filled with nothing, and it got smaller and smaller, until it returned to a semi-reasonable size when I got to the edge. I'm wondering if it might be an optical illusion. It might not be, though. Who knows. It is now 10:31.

Speaking of reading (yes I was speaking of reading, two paragraphs ago) I have been reading Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality again. Harry and the rest of the cast are slowly becoming people I wouldn't mind sharing a train car with, if they sat far away and we didn't talk. Which is an improvement. I'm also reading Red Mars, which I almost gave up on, but it's starting to heat up. Literally. Ba-dum tish. The third book I'm reading is called Unknown Quantity: A Real and Imaginary History of Algebra. It's not as boring and lame as it sounds, although that might just be because I am boring and lame. Still, it has given my a whole new animosity for Newton and his time manipulation. Speaking of time, it is now 10:36.

And, hey, speaking of boring and lame, here's a thing. I just proved it in a math test, and It's a bit freaky when you try to thing around it. Basically, as X (a variable) gets closer and closer to K (a constant), the function (X^3 - KX^2) / (X^3 - K^3) gets closer and closer to 1/3. I find this strange. And confusing. And it makes me want to find a general theorem for other powers. What a nerd. Anyways, that was the end goal I set for this blog post when I started it. To tell you about that weird limit. Now I am done, and it is 10:43. Time to shut down my computer.

Just kidding. It's 10:44 now. I'm not going to check for spelling mistakes.

We dropped him down into the sky.

This evening, while walking through the field full of nothing on my way home from school, the sun kept getting brighter and brighter. It was super hot, and made the whole thing a real chore, and it didn't even melt the snow. Boulder, amirite?

Anyways, today I watched an amazing movie that you should see. It's called Patema Inverted, and it is SO GOOD. It is about a world in which some scientists have  messed with gravity, and accidentally made it go the other way from certain people. This causes a split between the up-goers and the down-goers. Then, it's the future, and a princess named Patema is not okay with staying cooped up in her home. She goes exploring, and then BRILLIANT THINGS HAPPEN. It is also full of dangerous hugs.

Really. This is one of the best movies I have ever watched. And I love it despite the fact that it includes one of the scariest things for me, falling up. Ever since I've read that stupid poem book, I've worried that one day, things would just change. And then I would fall upwards. It has become a kind of terrifying game for me, trying to find the places best suited for surviving gravity changes.

Also, a few short scary stories have been written on the subject. You should read them.

https://www.reddit.com/r/shortscarystories/comments/33j04p/lying_upon_the_park_hill_watching_the_clouds_go_by/

https://www.reddit.com/r/shortscarystories/comments/3w44wx/the_mirror_boy/

That's all. Watch the thing! Or, if you don't have the time, just read the stories. They're, like, ten minutes at most for both of them. Anyways, bye!