2.72 km in 14:33
So I'm going to try to start running again. 4 times a week. Weekends and Tuesday and Thursday since I can run in the morning those days.
Anywho, to start today, I just finished running 2.72 km in 14 minutes and 33 seconds. I think that's pretty good for not having run since the beginning of September.
Oops. I just pledged insanity.
So yep, I totally decided to participate in the NaNoWriMo :D That means that I have until midnight on November 30 to write 50000 words (175 pages).
HAHAHAHHAAHA. Prepare to either see Tyler crash and burn, or get good time management skills.
Prepare yourselves for my story from like, grade 5.
The Last Lecture
I watched this quite a long time ago, but I thought some of you might like to watch this...
In the States, they had this thing called the Last Lecture Series where professors would give one lecture as if they only had one lecture left to give. The lecture would be on a topic of their choice that they thought was important.
Well, last September, a professor participated in this and gave his Last Lecture. Except, for this professor (Randy Pausch), it really was like his last lecture as he had just been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer.
Thus, you can see his Last Lecture as posted below:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo[/youtube]
Randy Pausch passed away last July, leaving behind his wife and children, but his lecture lives on.
Memorization Vs Learning
I apologize if this makes me sound like a bitch, but I really hate the school system. I am seeing too many people in higher level education who aren't prepared for what they are having to deal with. They've gotten through the lower levels of education through either memorizing without understanding or cheating. This irritates me because if people are going to do something, they should know how to think about it. Something needs to be done to prevent this from happening. There are too many people who are not yet at a level where they are capable of learning. This is a serious problem and the schooling system needs to be changed to tackle this problem.
To start, I would like to look at the problem of cheating. This problem arises when students are given the opportunity, thus I suggest that this opportunity be removed. I think assignments should not be given out, or if they are, I think they should be given out unique to each individual (research projects or what not). I think tests need to be written at the same time, be written in different versions, be spread out so people cannot see other people's papers, and be subjected to stricter exam writing policies (cell phone on person = 0, etc). Also, the same version or similar versions of tests should never be given out to classes at different times because between the testing periods, information about the tests will be spread around. And a new test should be written each year to prevent information from being passed down across years. I know this would create more work for the teachers, but the increase in tests (which could also be nullified by making everybody write the test at the same time) is mostly balanced out by the decrease in assignments.
The memorizing versus understanding presents a slightly bigger problem. Somehow, critical thinking and understanding have to be used to utilize knowledge.
(Note, in admist writing this blog, I was pacing, and now I've lost my train of thought)
I guess that inspiring an active learning process rather than a passive learning process would ultimately be the key to solving this problem.
But now that I'm lost in writing this, I think I'm going to end this now.
My apologies.
Change-a-Day
I thought this was an interesting idea. I stole an idea from a magazine and modified it a bit...
Anywho, I'm going to try to make one change per day and then decide later if it's a change I want to stick with.
Since Friday was Halloween and I've eaten about 500 candies since that night, I think I'm going to start by having no candy today.
Note: I'm going to make a page for this so I don't have to spam up the blog.
I Never Want To See That Again
"Ew. No. Now that is just wrong. I never want to see that again." This phrase has reached my ears multiple times throughout my lifetime. The most recent time came last night upon a scene in an anime involving a same-sex relationship. I am fine if people don't want to be exposed to personal relationships in public but it bugs me when people are only irritated with certain types of relationships. Let's face it: homophobia is dead. People are people, no matter who they pursue.
Let me start off by saying that yes, I agree, I do not want to see a girl kissing a girl or a boy kissing a boy. But let me also point out that I do not like seeing anybody kissing anybody in public. I find it kind of inappropriate, really. It may just be my social inadequacy, but I personally believe that it should be kept as a private affair (it's fine to let people know that you're in a relationship with somebody else, but you don't need to demonstrate that relationship to them). Nonetheless, that is my opinion. I'm fine if people want to be more open with their intimacy, but in that case they shouldn't expect other people to avoid being as open with their own relationships.
People, it is important to understand that when it comes down to it, gay people are people to. A person is defined as a human, which is defined as the homo sapian species. Just to be clear, gay people are of the homo sapian species. If you have a heterosexual cat, it is a cat. If you have a homosexual cat, it still is a cat; it does not suddenly become of a gay cat species or anything. It's the same situation with people; people are humans regardless of their sexual orientation.
A lot of this mindless hate may be attributed to the Bible. But from what I've heard, there is little evidence to support these claims. A big part of this problem is that the Bible is interpreted differently by different people. What one person reads as "a man may not sleep in another man's bed" may be interpreted as "sleepovers are forbidden" by another or "gay people are evil" by another. Thus to the best of my knowledge, the Bible does not directly say anything about the topic. However, in the case that it did, it is important to note the age of the Bible. The Bible was (originally) written thousands of years ago. As a result, it is an outdated book. The world has expanded across the oceans, people no longer need to walk across town and women are no longer sucking the toes of men.
Just to drag in a random topic, I would like to point out a theological aspect on this point of view. As I noticed the other day, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is accepting of homosexuality into their practice. However, this is only true so long as they do not have sex with people of the same sex. Doing so results in excommunication; that is, if they do have sex with people of the same sex, they are no longer allowed to be part of the religion.
What type of crap is that? That is nearing the ultimate in discrimination. "Dear Gay Person, if you wish to have sex, you must have sex with somebody of the opposite sex. Yes, we understand you are not attracted to them, but if you want sex while remaining one of us, you must comply." I think that is absolutely stupid. If we lived in a gay world, it would be as stupid as saying the following: "Dear Straight Person, if you wish to have sex, you must have sex with somebody of the same sex. Yes, we understand you are not attracted to them, but if you want sex while remaining one of us, you must comply." If I really wanted somebody to break my nose, I would go up to them and state that to them. But seeing as pain is generally a bad thing, I think I will stick with avoiding that path. I guess some aspects of the religion are simply outdated and illogical.
Anyhow...
Ew. No. Now that is just wrong. I never want to see that again. Or hear that again, for that matter. Discrimination is pointless and obsolete. What happened to the belief that being unique is a good thing? What happened to celebrating diversity? Are we back to being the species of the clones? A species of clones is doomed to die out. Should we start preparing for our Ragnarok? Or are we going to finally start evolving?
GET MOTIVATED!
So, today is the first day of November. Just a random note. It has nothing to do with this blog.
Anyhow, I am like, re-motivated for school at the moment. I must say my motivation is like a cosine graph; it goes up and down, up and down.
In English, I've moved up a letter grade with each paper so far. I went from C+/B- to a B to a B+ to an A-. I'm hoping I can keep this trend up. One reason to stay motivated.
Math is basically my always-fun class, so it's rare that I'm not motivated for math.
I'm re-remotivated for physics because one of the TAs challenged me to do better by the end of term. It's kind of a stupid reason, but I need to get motivated anyways, and it's a goal that I can aim for.
I'm motivated for biology because it might count for a mark for my program, so I really want to get a high mark in bio. On the bright side of things, I was 19% above class average on the midterm multiple choice and 40% above class average on the midterm written (and one of only two or three students who got an A on this section). Unfortunately, I still didn't manage to get an A on it, so I still need to work a bit harder.
I'm also motivated for chemistry since I'm going to be taking quite a few chem courses next year, so I need to get these basics down now.
So yes, I am back (for now) and it keeps gettin' better.
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