Nerdology

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At 17, it seems like my entire life revolves around me. It's nice to know that I have my priorities straightened out. Oh, yeah, and there's two parents and two siblings in there too.

Monday, October 30, 2006

And This is my Visual Aid...

So, to start with, I'm taking Communication Applications this trimester (and at the end of this week, it will finally be over with).

This is also not an AP class (because there isn't one), but more what I refer to as "The Dum-dum class" where you get people who really either don't care about their work or couldn't handle it if they did care.

It's also required to graduate.

So, as a final speech, we've had to select a topic from a pre-decided list and prepare a 4 to 6 minute speech (the thing we were supposed to be learning here was endurance). My topic was Benjamin Franklin, so I made a powerpoint presentation of pictures to go along with it (since we had to have a visual aid). It was nice.

But that's not the point.

The point is all the other people, who get up in front of the class and start talking about their subject.

And almost all of them ended with the same line...

"And this is my visual aid."

[sarcasm] Really. I couldn't tell. Is that why I can visually see that it is a graph? Thanks for telling me... I never would have got it otherwise. [/sarcasm]

Those would be some of the most boring presentations I have ever had the misfortune to sit through. These people clearly learned nothing through the class about imbedding their visual aids inside the presentations. But no, they all ended with,

"And this is my visual aid."

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Return of the Familial Strangeness

Disclaimer: I'm working under the assumption that everyone reading this has at least seen Star Wars (the original three, the prequals aren't important right now).

There's a grating in our church leading to some type of air duct. Or something. Anyway, it looks like the grating leading to the Rancor's pit in Return of the Jedi.

For reference:
The Rancor Pit:


The Rancor:


So we've called it the Rancor Pit everytime we walk over it in church. I'm not sure when we started calling it that, probably it was my brother and I who came up with the name, but you never know.

And thus today I was very insulted when Mom called it a bantha pit.

For Reference:
A Bantha:


They don't look like each other. They don't smell like each other. And lastly, any bantha wouldn't be happy in a pit. They like the dunes.

Now, for handy future reference, because Mom's scrapbooking habits have taught me that a picture is worth 1,000 words:
Tauntaun:


Ronto:


Space Slug:


Ysalamiri (Sadly, never shown in the movies):


Krayt Dragon (Sadly, never shown in the movies):


Now you can go wow your friends with your knowledge of Star Wars creatures. Or get laughed out of a biology lecture.

And yes, I do enjoy extra-terrestrial ecology.

(Join me next week for the lecture: "Do Balrogs Have Wings"*)

*Not a real offer for a real lecture. Nevertheless, if the topic interests you, the internet is full of essays written by people arguing the opposing points.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For...

Starscream?

Before I begin, I would like to make two disclaimers. First, I've been reading some of Edgar Allan Poe's poetry tonight and quoteing it for an essay (I'm pretty sure "The Raven" can be quoted for any essay an AP english class can devise) which when reading Poe, one can tend to enter a strange philosophic mode. Second, some of you readers may not be able to understand this blog without some explanation, which will be provided shortly.

First off, who is Starscream? The Transformers were (or that is to say are) a line of toys (and calling them such makes my soul hurt) that had/have two forms, that of a robot (armed with weapons) and a vehicle mode. The two forms were switched between by tweaking a plastic piece here, twisting there, and detaching and reataching here. They were broken into two factions, the Autobots (which we can sum up as "Good guys") and Decepticons (which through conotation of name alone would tell one that they were "Bad guys"). The two factions fought endlessly, led by two leaders, Optimus Prime for the Autobots and Megatron for the Decepticons.

You'll notice Starscream is not one of the leaders. And that is perhaps why he was my childhood (and still) favorite. But we'll get there. For the time being, a picture:



Recently, the company that makes such "Toys" re-released (in their original form) a select few of the ones that were around when I was a child. Starscream was listed among the re-released.

Starscream's alternate form was an airplane (according to the websites that know, an F-15 Eagle)* and is faithfully reproduced to the original figure (although the airplane-robot transformation has been cleaned up a little so that fewer pieces have to be removed).



So, why was Starscream my favorite character, and why, after I have professed to being matured and past such things (just last Friday I gave such a speech with a friendly smile to a dentist aid who offered me a choice from a prize jar) should I care?

Because of what he represents.

Starscream was Megatron's (a refresher: Decpeticon leader) second-in-command and as often happens with evil leaders, often plotted his overthrow and rise to power. Perhaps as the youngest of three children, my young mind saw Starscream as a fellow pursuer for accomplishment and recognition from behind huge shadows.

Or maybe it was just because he turned into a cool looking plane. I'll leave that question to the philosophers (philosophic Poe high has worn off).

*In the live-action movie planned for next year (a strange theme to make a live-action movie of, robots that turn into vehicles) apparently Starscream is planned to be an F-17 Raptor instead. I can just hear the heavens shouting "Travesty!"