Cool Cherry Cream

I sometimes rather hate how thinking about one thing leads to thinking about another.

My dad was talking about getting me an iPod, which is pretty awesome. But then I looked up iPods and thought, well, first of all, that the Apple site sucks: "Which iPod are you? Are you the 1 GB one or the 80 GB one? Are you the 2" screen or the 3" screen? Are you $199 or $249?"

Why do you have four different types of iPods? It's not called the "iPod shuffle" because it's 1 GB. It's not called the "iPod touch" because it has a 3" screen. It's called shuffle because, presumably, it shuffles. But the Apple site doesn't tell me this. It just gives me the numbers. Which are nice to have. But I also want to know what FEATURES make the damn thing different from the iPod classic!

And I got to thinking, you know? There's not going to be one iPod that's right for me. I have 10 GB of music. So, obviously, I should get the $399 16 GB iPod touch. But why the fuck would I do that when I could get a 80 GB iPod classic for only $249?

The so-called "features" of each iPod are incredibly lame. "I'm tiny and I don't have a screen!" "I'm tiny and I have a screen!" "I'm huge and I have a screen………. that you can TOUCH!"

I don't want an iPod. I want an MP3 player that will hold at least 10 GB and plays MP3s. I want it to have a screen to tell me what's playing, a play and pause and next and back and shuffle button. That's fucking all.

I don't need video, I don't need photo, and I don't need no stinkin' web browsing. I just want a music player. One that does what *I* want it to do.

And how do you get something to do what you want it to do?

You make it yourself.

"What, you mean, Google 'how to make an mp3 player'? Come on now, Jenny. No one will have a site like that!"

Surprisingly, there are quite a few sites like that. I found one on (shudder) Digg, where the comments basically consisted of people calling it ghetto.

Excuse me? Wasn't Digg supposed to be the all techy news community? I thought this thing was fucking awesome. "What's that circuit board with wires hanging out of it you're holding?" "Oh, it's an MP3 player… that I built myself."

How is that not cool?

I did a bit more reading about these various DIY mp3 players, and as long as there's one of them that lets me modify the coding for it, then I'm fine with that. That's all I want. Unfortunately, more reading tells me that this is an "advanced project" for someone who's been soldering for years. Well, I've soldered about two or three times two years ago… does that count?

So then — this is where I finally start thinking about that other thing that I mentioned that I didn't want to think about — I think, "well, why can't I take some more engineering courses in university as electives?".

Oh yeah. Because Brock doesn't have computer engineering.

Why did I pick Brock? Because it was the only school around here that would accept me into the CS program without taking the advanced calculus (or science) course.

That makes me feel real good about the quality of education I'm going to get.

What was the other reason? Oh yeah, it was cheap. And I get to do co-op.

I don't really want to do co-op. I'm just doing it to pay for university. I'd rather be at school all year 'round, in class, doing useless assignments rather than working. I'm hoping I get to work at some place that is actually fun to work at and where I'll actually be programming and not really feeling like I'm doing any work, but I'm fairly certain that ain't gonna happen.

I'm just feeling less and less sure about choosing Brock lately. I've always known it's had a reputation as the "stupid" school, and with that comes the partiers and all that kind of stuff I'm not too fond of.

How many Brock students does it take to change a light bulb?
Seven. One to change the bulb and six to throw a party because he didn't screw it in upside down this time.

I'm even more grateful now that I don't have a double room after seeing this wall post on the Facebook group for my residence:

msg me if yo are a rommate i'm sorry im hammreed.

I've never understood that phrase, "the pot calling the kettle black". But somehow I've figured out that the pot is black? So it's like a stupid person calling someone stupid, right? Isn't that a bit of irony, too? But thinking about irony and what is and isn't irony makes my head hurt, so I'll just forget about that.

Anyway, today in summer school, I came in after second break to hear some people discussing religion. I know this because one guy brought up the "Flying Spaghetti Monster", which was met with blank stares and giggles by everyone except me. Well, scratch that, I laughed (inwardly) at the mention. He threw around some words, Pastafarians, and so on. One girl said frustratedly that whenever she gets in a religious debate with one of her friends, he always bring that up. "Like, what are you smoking?" she asked. I laughed (inwardly) again. The pot calling the kettle. There you have it, folks.

Another language issue came up today in math. We were doing logarithmic functions and the Richter scale and this one guy was like "is 'intenser' a word?", and the conclusion was no, he had to use "more intense" in his therefore statement.

But really, what is a word?

a unit of language, consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation, that functions as a principal carrier of meaning
Dictionary.com

Well, we can say "intenser". It's physically possible. And it has meaning. Tell me it doesn't have meaning. Tell me "funner" doesn't have meaning. Go ahead. You're wrong.

That's one grammar rule I don't care for. Why should I say "more fun" when I mean "funner"? You know what I mean. It means exactly the same thing, just as pop and soda do. I just choose to say "pop". You know what I mean (unless you're from New York, in which case, I have to say you guys are wrong about that, but otherwise you're pretty cool).

I listen into people's conversations in math a lot, don't I? Huh. Oh well. Makes for interesting… umm, listening to.

Then this one girl was talking about Miley Cyrus and how she doesn't like the way she talks because she sounds like her mouth is too small for all the words to fit into. Another girl goes "that's not what I heard!".

…

*crickets*

Me: *GUFFAW*! (inwardly).

How is it that I get dirty jokes and no one else around me does?

Anyway, I really should be studying for the trig test, but I just don't feeeeel like it tonight! Why do I have to do damn right-angle trigonometry when I've been doing it since I was like in diapers! It's so easy!

And you know what else is easy? IDENTITIES! I remember reading about them, they were supposed to be really hard, but I find them soooo easy! And fun! Not long division fun, but like, fun. It actually sounds funner than it is, which to people who don't like math, well, they wouldn't really get. But I mean, proving two statements are equal sounds like fun to me, but I didn't actually like it as much as I thought I would. I guess maybe once we get into harder ones.

Also, at Brock, they have a sonar fence. I will be posting pictures of it once I go there in September. And my summer school has a broken clock that always said 10:13. ("Young girls are coming to the canyon…") But this clock is notable because the number are on little black squares with white writing. It freaked me out when I first saw it. And my bus driver today (who was ten minutes late! What is up with my bus lately?) was Keamy.

And what is up with Big Brother being on tonight? Thursdays are elimination nights. This is bullshit. Hoping Brian is/was able to get enough votes, because he seems like a pretty good player. He just needs to be a little more quiet about it. I thought I was going to like Renny because she's strange, but I respect Brian's playing more.

Anyway. Trig it is. And who knew "trigonometry" had anything to do with triangles? I certainly never did.

Yes, here it comes, another post about the man!

I think writing an 80's glam metal song would be more appropriate here than a regular blog entry. So mote it be!

Except… it's not the same. I need the wailin' guitars and the poundin' drums and all that crazy stuff, and I can't really do that with words.

Whoa. I guess that's what music's for.

But seriously. They said it couldn't be done. They said I was wrong — nay, stupid! Just an innocent, stupid child being overly optimistic about the world and her place in it. Well, I have it on good authority that that is, in fact, a lie. The man himself told me so. Oh yes. The man told me.

This man is, without a doubt, the man. He's the man, but he tells it like it is. He doesn't lie to us. He tells us the truth.

When guidance counselors said "data management, calculus functions, and geometry calculus are all equally difficult math courses", he said "data is the easy math, calculus functions is the middle math, and geometry calculus is the difficult math". He confirmed what all the kids already knew. It came straight from the man's mouth. Straight from a goddamn teacher.

And then today, he said it. He went against what the man has been telling us for years, what he wants us all to believe. He told us the truth.

You can be happy.

He says that he could've retired a few years ago, but he's still teaching because he just likes it that much. I mean, hell, he even teaches during the summer. Voluntarily!

Ah, "no no no no", you say. He's getting paid for this. That's why he's doing it. Not for some bullshit reason like "happiness".

But you, my friend, my buddy, my guy, are wrong. He says he turned down a job as an engineer that would've made him way more money because he just wanted to be a teacher. He said, and I quote, "I've never worked a day in my life".

BOO. YEAH. That is exactly what my life goal has been for quite some time. My life goal that everyone says I can't achieve.

You: I work at McDonald's. Where do you work?
Me: Nowhere…
You: [awkward silence, because you were expecting an answer]
Me: …and I hope I never have to! Heh heh… heh…
You: [laughs encouragingly, smiles knowingly]

Well, I'm not at all sorry to inform you that you are wrong. I'm never going to work. I'm never going to come home complaining about how much I hate it. I'm never going to be a tool for the system.

I'm doing whatever the hell I want with my life when I feel like doing it. And goddamnit, I'm going to be happy.