they don't call me "clever jack" for nothing.

spykumquat @ 2007-10-16T16:52:00

2007-10-16T21:57:22Z

wow.

time has gone by. so to cure your burning desire for me,

Over the course of one year, a little over a million children will get the chance to sleep under the stars, learn valuable life skills, and enjoy the risks of fending for themselves. And this opportunity doesn’t come in the form of a camp with a three-thousand dollar price tag: it’s free – and priceless. At the end of Horatio Alger, Jr.’s Ragged Dick, we learn that our favorite title character is well on his way to becoming a successful young lad. Of course, young Dick could have been born into the role which he is about to assume. But his time spent on the streets, where he learned all-important traits such as hard work, generosity, asceticism, and honesty, undeniably contributed to the character we have come to feel such a fondness for over the course of Alger’s slender volume. No other experience could have shaped Dick so strongly. Contrary to popular belief, homelessness is not a “problem” that needs to be “solved” – it is instead an opportunity which we should embrace for the skills it teaches young children in their formative years, the freedom it grants them, and the appreciation it fosters in everyone.
First and foremost, homelessness teaches children invaluable life skills. Dick Hunter would never have learned the importance of elbow grease and saving money had he not been a young man of the streets. When a homeless child comes up short, they feel the consequences firsthand. What better way to learn than the hard one?
Another important aspect of homelessness is the freedom it grants children during their years of rebellion. When Johnny Nolan, a character from Ragged Dick, got a place to stay, he promptly ran away, for he felt “lonely” (11-12). Alger’s narration explains: “It is often the case that the young vagabond of the streets…gets so attached to his precarious but independent mode of life, that he feels discontented in any other.” Spike Gillespie’s article There’s No Place Like Home ...(That’s Why I Left) echoes the sentiment: “Most will tell you that’s why they’re out on the streets. They’ve convinced themselves it’s the ultimate form of freedom.” But who’s really doing the convincing? The teens? Or is it Spike Gillespie trying to convince you, the reader, that living alone is somehow not the ultimate form of freedom?
Children who have spent time homeless also learn to be more grateful for what they do have. And, should they end up as lucky and well-off as Ragged Dick, they will no doubt appreciate their home and steady source of income infinitely more than they would have had they always had these things. It’s not only the ones who have been homeless who become more thankful either. The mere knowledge that there are others worse off than you is a good incentive to count your blessings.
The problem that needs to be solved here is not homelessness itself, but instead the common misconception that homelessness is a problem at all. Think of all the bias that goes into education about the homeless – English teachers tell students to write essays describing homeless children’s “plight.” Instead we should be writing about the rich children, who covet the freedom homeless children enjoy. The rich do not get to decide what they eat – it has all been carefully planned out by a nutritionist. They do not get to choose their activities – their parents choose what languages they will study and what instruments and sports they will play at an early age.
Clearly, we should not spend our time studying the lucky when others perish before us. We must open our eyes and address the real problem. This fallacy that homeless children are worse off than the rich has been going on for too long. Something needs to be done. It is a downright outrage that we, as a society, continue to focus on an issue that is not a problem at all.

it's not completely done, but i'm sure you get the general idea. and if you don't, you never will.

and i henceforth embark upon what will probably be another rather long hiatus. bye!

the summer-ness of summer

2007-08-09T01:15:51Z

....and now the word summer looks really weird. Great.

So even though semi-interesting stuff happens in summer and I actually have the time to post in summer I still fail to post...in summer. I think it's because...well, I really don't know why. But here's what's going on that's has a chance of being worth talking about:

I'm at an art camp. A film-making camp. 8:00-4:00. But some kids arrive on a bus that gets to the place at 8:30. And then we do some sort of stupid warm-up until 9. Then, today for some unknown reason we did Latin dancing from 9 to 10:15, when we have snack. Then after snack we supposedly make movies, but everyone needs to use the makeshift green screen, of which there is one. So that was really just sitting around doing nothing. And that was until lunch, which is one hour (12-1). Then after that, we went on a field trip for the rest of the day. GAH. What a waste of time.

spykumquat @ 2007-07-15T22:40:00

2007-07-16T03:41:25Z

I waste a lot of time on YouTube

and as such have seen various bad lip-syncing jobs.

And I use lots of enters.

Regardless, this is HILARIOUS

Totally captures the essence of bad lip-syncing.

spykumquat @ 2007-07-07T20:41:00

2007-07-08T01:47:28Z

Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? My life is uneventful without school. Not that I'm complaining, though.

and

OMG APPLE STORE IN MADISON! I don't know which you guys check more often, this or Facebook, because I already posted about it there (with photos!). It was pretty cool...I got a free t-shirt because I was in the first thousand to get there (no. 104, actually, which was very annoying when they let in the first 100) which had a little Apple logo and then West Towne. I wore my "Mac Geek" shirt, which got oohed and aahed and photographed by the manager's fiance (I spelled that wrong) and videotaped by some guy with a news-looking camera (oh yeah). I was second only to the person with an Apple logo tatoo on the back of their neck, but hey, when they were photographed you couldn't see their face. All in all, there's an Apple store here in town and I'm awesome.

Ciao.

SMC

2007-06-18T02:23:10Z

So I am at the Summer Music Clinic, which looks to be a fun week of singing and happiness on the UW campus. Tonight's entertainment was an acoustic jazz quartet that was pretty good. Not much else to say, really.

spykumquat @ 2007-06-14T18:36:00

2007-06-14T23:37:20Z

HAMILTON IS OVER! And I won't see people for a really long time.

Whoa political nerdery.

The end is in sight

2007-06-04T02:20:10Z

With pretty much only eight real days of school left, I can almost taste the freedom of summer.

Unfortunately, I can't. Because it isn't summer. The proximity of liberation day just makes each minute between us last longer. Don't get me wrong - I still want to be out of school. But I'm really almost going crazy with said want.

Meh.

...wow

2007-06-01T03:16:16Z

I just watched the National Spelling Bee on TV. I am such a nerd.

Grr

2007-05-25T05:08:18Z

I really
really
really
really
hate being a procrastinator.

To Kill A Mockingbird Status: Amazing.

2007-05-19T16:45:04Z

Opening night last night rocked, and a sweet review to go with.

Pointless field trip!

2007-05-12T18:56:14Z

For some unknown reason, the higher-up folks at school decided to take the entire eighth grade to see Spider-Man 3. If I'm missing school, I'm not going to complain about it.

The movie pretty much sucked, especially with the presence of obnoxious people behind us throwing popcorn around. Then, on the bus ride back, all of said obnoxious people were put on our bus to go back to school (as opposed to a nearby park where everyone else was going) and were still being obnoxious. The bus driver got super mad and threatened to call the police, which fortunately ended up shutting them up. The park was uneventful, but fun.

Definitely better than school, though.

stuff . . . ness

2007-05-05T15:53:04Z

Bugsy Malone is finally over. It went pretty well, I guess. But the other class was way better than us. I had a screen test a few days ago, which was basically me talking in front of a camera to see if I could be okay in the commercial. The accelerated biology test was last week, too. I think I did pretty well. Gah. I used pretty well already in this post. Bad word choice! Whatever. Actually, that wasn't very much stuff. I'm about to get my hair cut and I'm pretty nervous. There's that word pretty again. I think I don't like to commit to complete emotions, so I just say I'm pretty blank. Anyway.

sweetness

2007-04-28T01:46:46Z

So I think I'm going to be in a TV commercial.

Yay nerdiness!

2007-04-25T23:18:57Z

So thanks to me being awesome and doing independent study math, I've ended up playing The Game of Life. No, not that game of life. This one.

If you don't think that's super cool, open up this and open any of the premade patterns. If that's not enough, then you just do not appreciate the beauty of mathematics.

Mock Trial

2007-04-23T00:44:24Z

We had the Mock Trial competition yesterday . . . second place. Oh, well. You can't win at everything. I could tell you every last detail (like about how we totally should have won) (or how we beat the other Hamilton team in the semifinals HA IN YOUR FACES), but that would probably bore you to death and I don't have a big enough attention span to do that.

On an unrelated note, I am loving this weather.

Editification: I have nothing else to do and thus will continue to try to remember as best I can the events of yesterday's mock trial competition.

Everyone arrived feeling very nervous, not at all helped by the ever-so professional looking team with suits and briefcases. We checked in and anxiously awaited the first trial, for which we would be plaintiff. I am a lawyer for the plaintiff=even more nervous.

Finally, we got our courtroom assignments. Upon getting there, we notice that we are against the previously mentioned ever-so professional looking team with suits and briefcases. Gulp. It turns out they are from Jefferson. From the bits of their discussion I overheard, however, they seemed to be not as prepared for defense as they were for plaintiff. The trial goes without any big huge oh my gosh events, except THEY ARE GOOD. We put up a good fight, and in the end actually feel fairly confident we did well.

For the next trial, we are facing the other Jefferson team. They are WAY less smart, as they apparently have been switching team members pretty much since the beginning. The witnesses don't remember their written testimonies and lie, and we are almost positive that we won.

For the first two trials, it didn't actually matter who won or lost. It was a total number of points. There were twelve teams to begin with, only four would be eliminated before the next round. We stayed in.

Our third trial we were plaintiff again, for the same judge (who liked the fact that I had taken his previous advice and not talked super super fast). We were going against sixth graders who had everything memorized but talked with no emotion whatsoever. THEY WERE SO CUTE, especially the little kid I cross-examined, who had this adorable little speech impediment. He was like "I never knew she was being tweated with stewoids" and I just wanted to go "ahahahaha tweated with stewoids" but instead remained lawyer-like and mean. From the judge's comments at the end, we were thinking we lost. We would not find out if we had advanced to the semifinals until after lunch.

In the lunch line, I see someone who I hated from elementary school. Pretty funny. We also got to know the Jefferson team who we played first, and they turned out to be super friendly/nice. Some people from our team went over to the union and our coach taught us a sweet card game that we played looking out over the lake. Oh, how picturesque.

After lunch, we discovered to our relief that we would be playing in the semifinals . . . against the other Hamilton team. Crap. It was pretty funny, considering we had the same coaches and fairly similar examinations. Someone actually was about to object before a question was asked because they knew what was coming. Such is life.

We finished the semifinals way way way before the other people (cool Jefferson team and a team from Wright). In an attempt to find out where they were, we went into their courtroom and got a severe scolding from the Jefferson coach. When they were done, the Jefferson team told us that the other team had been super objecty and so-so in terms of skill.

You can guess what happened - we were to play in the finals against Wright, and Jefferson went against the other Hamilton team in a consolation match for third.

Then, the moment I will always regret: the coin toss to see which side we would be. I would call it in the air. I said heads. WHY DID I NOT REMEMBER, "TAILS NEVER FAILS"? It was tails. They chose to be plaintiff, meaning I could not do anything to contribute to our victory or defeat. It was all up to our defense.

They were okay, nothing special. Same with us. But our witnesses (me and someone else) were SWEET on cross. See, the case is about a nurse who saw steroids in someone's gym bag. I was the nurse.

Lawyer: "Did you open your daughter's bag?"
Me: "No, I opened Betty's by mistake."
"What did you see in the bag?"
"Betty's medicine"
"Did you notice that the things in the bag weren't your daughter's?"
"Well, the medicine was on top of the stuff, and that's what I noticed first."
"Are you saying you didn't notice the things you were looking through weren't your daughter's?"
WTF? Were you not listening?"No, the steroids were at the top of the bag."
"Permission to approach the witness."
They got permission. The only reason they would do that is to show me my written testimony to prove that I'm wrong.
OH SHIT SHIT SHIT. Did I misremember something? Is misremember even a word?
They read me something that was total bullcrap and had no effect on me. Then they were all
"When you made this statement, you didn't think it necessary to include the fact that the steroids were on the top of the bag?"
"No."
Thinking back, I totally should have said, "Well, I didn't say anything about the steroids' location, and I think it would have been more important to say if they were at the bottom of the bag. Therefore, I think it's safer to assume that they were at the top." Plus it turns out my testimony says I unzipped the bag and saw the steroids. Whatever. I was still cool.

Then the thrilling moment: the awards ceremony. First, award for best attorney went to someone on the other Hamilton team. It was a stupid award, considering not everyone was an attorney an equal number of times. Whatever. Then the Jefferson team won third, and the Wright team won first. That's about all there is to it.

And I really like EarthDesk.

many moons it has been since an update

2007-04-19T00:56:36Z

yet i still have nothing to say.

except

Purple Comet Math Competition today after school and drinking Mountain Dew for the first time (I know, wow) and getting really hyper and running around in the rain around our ever so wonderful school and locking people out of places and hiding behind doors and this is not a pipe and Indian food on Monroe Street is good and mock trial competition on Saturday and being unprepared for said competition and in fact it hasn't been any moons at all since an update forgetting to write down the questions to answer for homework tonight and you have a lot of free time on your hands for reading this far and three tests in the first half of next week and being way too unorganized and having the urge to keep typing despite not having anything to say and Barenaked Ladies running through my head over and over and crazy run-on sentences.

Seriously, though. Nothing to say.

HA

2007-04-04T17:27:02Z

So, um, WTF. Song about a school board candidate. And she won. Hopefully not because of this.

Oh, no.

2007-04-04T03:22:08Z

Annette Ziegler: 57%
Linda Clifford: 43%

If Ziegler wins, I will be shocked/disappointed/in need of shooting someone. Gah.

Oh, Google . . .

2007-04-01T15:51:00Z

you and your April Fools' Day pranks.

Gmail, you too.

amazement

2007-03-31T03:54:06Z

The fact that it's spring break is amazing.
Miss Saigon was amazing (mostly).
My blog's hip new design is amazing.

The fact that I have the nerve to title a post "amazement" and only have ~~three~~ four amazing things is amazing.

But such is life.

spykumquat @ 2007-03-25T22:24:00

2007-03-26T03:25:45Z

Today was 78 degrees and I don't want the weekend to be over. But spring break is soon. How wonderful. How very, very wonderful.

Oh, yeah . . . updates! I remember those!

2007-03-16T22:55:51Z

Hope you were all mathematical on pi day and Caesarean as a section on the Ides of March.

So. Pretty intense day (as far as my days go – you'll probably be disappointed).

Lunch: Food fight! Except it was totally planned and lasted for all of about 20 seconds, most of which I didn't see because I hid under a table. Still, the principal called the cops who apparently thought it was really stupid that he cared so much.

History: A friend and I showed our awesome history project: The Thirteen ColoNews. Our classmates loved it, and the student teacher wants it for his portfolio (Mrs. Tuccinardi explained: as a student teacher, he has to make a file of exemplary work). Huzzah!

Jeopardy!: Pretty much a THREE WAY TIE. So they'll all be back on the show on Monday. Wow!

Yeah . . . looking back, that was pretty pathetic.

avenue q helps me cope with the fact that everyone else on my team got to countdown, but not me.

2007-03-03T23:14:48Z

I'm a man of few sentences - three, to be exact.

2007-03-03T02:46:52Z

State Mathcounts competition tomorrow. To Kill A Mockingbird callbacks Sunday. I haven't posted in a really long time.

the harsh subzero climate of western madisonia

2007-02-05T15:27:25Z

So . . . rather interesting adventure this morning. I was bundling up, getting ready to brave the cold on the walk to the bus stop when I realize I'm running a tad late. My dad offers to drive me to the bus stop (which I gratefully accept). When we get there, there's nobody there. "Well, we might be just behind the first bus and the second one is coming in a few minutes . . . maybe . . . " But he gives me a ride to school just to be safe (I don't really want to be standing around waiting for nothing in subzero weather). We get to school, and lo and behold, there's only two cars in the parking lot, and nobody there. It's like those movies (and Twilight Zone episodes) where someone is the last person alive and they're walking through a barren wasteland and stuff. They see a creature approaching on the horizon (or just Mr. Schmelz). So no school on account of cold. Odd. But hey, I'll take what I can get.