Today we were going to go to Halifax but we're not because there's a blizzard outside. The snow is very powdery and there is a lot of wind so it looks like someone put a thousand kilos of confectioner's sugar through an industrial strength blender.
That being the case, I've been trying to teach myself eleventh grade physics from a textbook, reading Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" (very good book, very bizarre too) and writing a few pages to my novel, Lost in Six Billion Dreams. I'm actually at a bit of a writer's block because I can't think of a word to describe the sound a string makes when you stretch it far enough. I wonder if it even exists. Douglas Adams, the author of Hitch Hicker's Guide to the Galaxy, once co-wrote a book called "The Meaning of Liff" that is a collection of made-up words for all those sorts of unnamed situations. For example, Kalami is the ancient eastern art of being able to fold maps up to their original state, and a boscastle is a pyramid of cans put right outside the entrance to a supermarket. Pierre and I have our own collection of words we use in our conversations, since we both suffer from a rare verbal disorder called Franglais.
Our words include Sarthusiasm: Sarcastic Enthusiasm, for ex. "I'm so exited we have band for another four hours!" and Wongling, the word to describe the way a tall pole sways back and forth in the wind.
Last night I tried out my new telescope. I could see the moon perfectly because the sky was clear of clouds and it was a full moon. I could see craters. It was pretty cool. I tried to get my dad (the person who bought me my telescope) but all he did was complain about how the telescope kept going off target and how cold it was.
Today my father's colleague and friend's family is coming over and I have to entertain his three sons while they socialize. We're going to try to decorate all the cookies I baked last night, but I have my doubts about whether it will work. They're a bit young.
It seems that I am getting a number of "mock intellectual" spam in my blog comments. I'll try to ban the IPs but I doubt it will work.
I'm having a very enjoyable Christmas. I got a new winter coat, a pair of PJs, a telescope, some Jazz CDs from my grandmother, the greatest hits CDs of U2 and No Doubt, some Saxophone music, "The Elegant Universe" by Brian Greene, "The Blue Girl" by Charles de Lint, "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman, "The Dictionary of What" and "The Illustrated history of art". I also got a big amazon.ca gift certificate from my uncle Ken, but I haven't decided what to get yet.
Merry Christmas!
I am one of the few students in all of Canada who have to go school this week. We have school right up until Christmas eve, which I don't think is fair. Neither do the rest of the school, including the teachers. But hey, the school's gotta do what the school board dictates.
The reason that school has been drawn out so long is to make up for the supposed "snow days" that we've never had. We did have a snow storm in November, but they didn't send us home. The ol' farmers almanac says will be getting a big snow storm tomorrow, but modern meteorology says that there's going to be sun. So it looks like I'll have Math homework for Christmas.
Here are three websites I like to read when I'm not hideously busy:
www.neilgaiman.com my current favourite author's website
BBC Science and Nature section There's still a few "coming soons" in this one, but it's pretty cool. I really like the Psychology section.
Encyclopedia Mythica Very good mythology webpage.
Last year, in Russian History, I learned about a method of control by the Communist government called the carrot and the stick. They would wave an impossible to reach reward in front of their worker's eyes, and if that didn't force them to work, they'd hit them with a stick, or a very cruel punishment.
Our band director has taken a few pointers from Stalin, it seems.
This week, and all this month to be exact, we've had way too many band practices than we can take. Every day this week we've had practices before and after school, getting to school to practice at as early as 7:10 and leaving after school as late as 6:15. The carrot in this case is our grand trip to Florida, which will be very fun, and the stick are the insults, the being singled out and shamed during practice, and the threat of making us come to more practices and getting kicked out of the trip.
There are many other things he does than annoys me, but if I had to go on I'd be here forever. I just hope he won't see this.
This is just to inform anyone that my website url is milankie.huffmancoding.com, not cathy.cjb.com . I lost the previous URL and it is now a run by some porn site.
Yesterday afternoon I went to see the movie "But I'm a Cheerleader" with the local teenage Gay-Straight Alliance. It was an okay movie about a home established to try to turn homosexuals into heterosexuals by forcing the traditional gender roles on them. It was okay, but not great. The characters were caracatures and some of the stereotypes were overused. There wasn't anything inappropriate about it other then some swearing and some homosexuals kissing. The surprising thing I found was that there were a number of teens there who had to lie to their parents about where they were going that afternoon. I cannot believe it. In our town, the parents will stop their kids from socializing with homosexuals because of the supposed "threat" but they have no problems with letting their kids smoke on school lunches and get drunk at the pub before the school dance.