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Weird nostalgia

admin — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:59:56 +0000

Listening to this band called High Places now. Their electronic music coupled with like wind instruments evokes some imagery of colorful illustrations of lions and other inhabitants of Africa I saw in encyclopedias when I was little.
Speaking of weird nostalgia, sometimes after it rains and the sun starts heating up the air, I get flashes of pond ecosystem and food chain illustrations in biology textbooks from 5th grade, sort of like this one:

Although often it’s in black on cheap yellow paper.

Untitled 1

admin — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:51:59 +0000

…overhead train tracks i wanna know the person who invented you recycled cups in coffee shops look at us eco friendly eco friendly environment we care buy our tea $2 small twofiftyforalarge hot water and a teabag…

The great innovations of New York City

admin — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 01:24:14 +0000

New York City claims to be the 6th greenest city in the United States [cit.]. I think this is a great accomplishment.
In fact, about a year ago, the new “Clean Air” hybrid electric buses have been introduced. I would skip an older bus and be late to school just to ride one of them back then. Anyway, it’s a great innovative new technology. Taking into account that buses usually make a large amount of stops while running (up to the point where it’s unbearable, especially in Manhattan), gasoline becomes rather wasteful while the bus isn’t in motion. The new hybrid technology enables buses to run on electricity at slow speeds or while idling. The gas is being used only when the bus accelerates to normal speed. This idea is nothing short of genius. Not only does it save energy, it greatly reduces gasoline emissions, keeping the air clean. It’s amazing how far we’ve come to invent such a complex technology that alternates between petroleum and electricity in vehicles. The only problem is the wastefulness of the nickel batteries used, but I’m sure new technological advances will resolve that soon.

In other completely unrelated news, trolleybuses have been used in most Eastern European countries since World War II [cit.].

Writing

admin — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 19:38:32 +0000

I haven’t really updated recently. I have no idea what to write, or more precisely how to write. I started out writing as an angry kid pissed off about everything, then I moved on to being kind of alright and trying to be witty and all, and now I became so ashamed of humans that I want to write in a serious tone again. I hate sounding serious. I stopped being serious in writing because I realized that I’m no Dostoevsky, thus it sounds lame when I try to pull him off. Now I realized that trying to be witty doesn’t work, since I’m not really Mark Twain either. Perhaps I should try to be a romantic now and write about trees and stuff. Or be semi-serious and write dark satire. No, the latter won’t work. Only Fellini could pull that off. He’s got style.
Maybe I should just be okay with myself.

Chinese New Year

admin — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:49:43 +0000

Today roughly two-thirds of my AP Calculus class were missing. Happy Chinese New Year!

Paul’s IM conversation anthology, part 3

admin — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 23:14:23 +0000

Yes, it’s that time again. I always keep a text file where I paste the funniest, smartest, and/or stupidest conversations I encounter while Instant Messaging. Well, every once in a while I reset that file and post the best quotes here. This started a while ago when going through the ritual of discussing our logs with Mike, I decided that some of the things said were brilliant, yet bash.org would never approve them. That is when I decided to post them on my website. You can use the search field on the bottom to check out previous conversation anthology posts.
—

A discussion evoked by my complaint about the upstairs neighbors vacuuming a solid hardwood floor. I questioned the reasoning behind such an action, and it got to this:

(01:41:50 PM) Paul: ever heard of mopping the floor?
(01:42:13 PM) Asian Mike: thats so old fashioned
(01:42:29 PM) Asian Mike: plus it mite leek thro the wood
(01:43:03 PM) Paul: and?
(01:43:14 PM) Asian Mike: lol, it sucks if ur under it
(01:43:33 PM) Paul: who do you keep under your floor?
(01:43:43 PM) Paul: you’re cruel
(01:43:48 PM) Asian Mike: no dude
(01:44:00 PM) Asian Mike: do u live in an apartment?
(01:44:05 PM) Paul: yes
(01:44:17 PM) Asian Mike: well if theyre on the top floor and ur on the botton
(01:44:27 PM) Asian Mike: its not a good idea 4 them 2 put ater on the floor
(01:44:35 PM) Paul: yes it is
(01:44:53 PM) Asian Mike: its gonna leak thro into the bottom apartment
(01:45:08 PM) Paul: I mean like maybe it’s not too smart to pour 4 buckets of water on the floor
(01:45:29 PM) Paul: you do realize there’s a concrete layer under the hardwood
(01:45:34 PM) Asian Mike: nope

A classic requiring no comment. The % sign means out of 113.98, stupid.

(11:10:21 PM) Paul: it got 7% on rotten tomatoes
(11:10:44 PM) Daniel: lol out of 100?

You won’t believe me if I tell you that I take AP Calculus with this kid.

(09:47:28 PM) Justin K.: yo
(09:47:28 PM) Paul (AUTO-REPLY): (06:27:34 PM) %n: paul is sex
(06:27:41 PM) %n: <33
(10:06:48 PM) Justin K. has signed off.

Next day...

(02:59:31 PM) Justin K.: wat thef uk was that gay away message for yesterday
(02:59:42 PM) Paul: what gay away message?
(03:00:04 PM) Justin K.: u put like jk8019: paul is sex
(03:00:14 PM) Paul: lol
(03:01:10 PM) Paul: did you know that if you go on dictionary.com and search for "gullible," it's going to say "the word 'gullible' cannot be found in the dictionary"
(03:02:00 PM) Justin K.: ok
(03:02:12 PM) Justin K.: but wat does that have to do wit me

He got me.

(08:00:28 PM) Justin: U DONT EVEN HAVE CABLE U LITHUANIAN
(08:01:24 PM) Paul: I MIGHT NOT HAVE CABLE BUT I HAVE A JOB
(08:01:39 PM) Justin: I MIGHT NOT HAVE A JOB BUT I HAVE SEX
(08:01:48 PM) Justin: GOT EM

Dicks like me are the reason why we can’t have great speeds on bittorrent.

(01:57:37 PM) Paul: I’m sooo about to get banned from this tracker
(01:57:40 PM) Aida: lol
(01:57:40 PM) Aida: why
(01:57:52 PM) Paul: Uploaded 424.98 MB Downloaded 15.59 GB Share ratio 0.026
(01:58:08 PM) Paul: excessive leeching
(01:58:13 PM) Aida: lol wow
(01:58:14 PM) Aida: holy crap
(01:58:37 PM) Paul: Join date 2007-11-03 16:42:51 (4 days ago)
(01:58:40 PM) Aida: .LOL

And finally, Mike’s ingenious plan of revenge in case his company decides to fire him for not showing up to work for a month.

(04:29:52 PM) Mike M.: and come on, I’m their webmaster
(04:30:02 PM) Mike M.: the URL is on every flyer
(04:30:32 PM) Mike M.: I can change it.. Neighborhood Outreach.. For all your neighborhood rape fantasies

Brooklyn, 1945

admin — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:24:33 +0000

I’ve just checked out Franz Kafka’s The Castle from the library (which I had to request to be brought from storage) and found out that this copy was printed in 1945. It also contained a little disclaimer in the beginning, stating that since paper is a resource useful to the war, publishers then had to use it as conservatively as possible, thus the book itself was printed in the most efficient way possible.
But there is no reason to order new copies. Who reads Kafka, anyway? We need to bring Burger King to Baghdad first. Priorities.

On good nutrition #2

admin — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:29:35 +0000

Apples + green tea for the gloomy days!

The best of satire

admin — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 23:07:45 +0000

Winter is without snow. Both Hitchcock’s screenings at Brooklyn Lyceum have been canceled and rescheduled for March. Reading Swift, reading Wilde, reading Kafka. AP English had kept me warm alright. Anticipating replies from colleges. Buñuel is nice. Radiohead too.

Speaking of Swift, Gulliver’s Travels is the best of satire. A fellow named Master Bates, Swift pissing on the government (quite literally), as well as this

“Thus, gentle reader, I have given thee a faithful history of my travels for sixteen years and above seven months: wherein I have not been so studious of ornament as of truth. I could, perhaps, like others, have astonished thee with strange improbable tales; but I rather chose to relate plain matter of fact, in the simplest manner and style; because my principal design was to inform, and not to amuse thee.”

Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, Part IV, Chapter XII.

Awesome.

It’s the regents week break. No school until next Wednesday. Metrocards work!

Winter almanac

admin — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 22:25:20 +0000

Mr. Melamed says that Queen Elizabeth I would have never thought that some five hundred years later, in one of England’s former colonies, her Speech to the Troops at Tilbury will evoke discussion about her sex life and earn her the title of a “slut.”

Strawberry Fields, Central Park. December 8th, 2007. A man of a rather stout complexion with an odor of alcohol around him yells “Give peace a chance! Give peace a chance!” A Neil Young-looking older man says to his friend: “He must’ve not had his vegetables. He keeps shouting ‘give peas a chance’ haha.”

Pavel says that having turned 18, I can now buy lottery tickets. I said I bought one already. An expensive one too, entitled “Columbia University Application for Undergraduate Admissions.” Seventy dollars.

Maman says “любить — так королеву, воровать — так миллион.”