So I skipped a day of NaBloPoMo…(Google Keep II)

And it happens to be on my birthday.

I’m not planning to make up the post gap anytime soon, even though it’d be easy to just dig up a picture or quote and change the date. It’s like prescription medicine. If you miss a dose, don’t double-dose; just pretend like nothing happened and take your next dose as normal. However, I still want to claim that I wrote 30 posts for NaBloPoMo, so this mysterious gap may be filled in the future.

I really haven’t been in the mood to write lately, so here’s to purging my google keep below. In chronological order starting from summer break…

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awkwardness is relative

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 Writing out my FOMO

It’s the beginning of summer already and I’m feeling bouts of FOMO again, reminding me of my lack of a social life. Particularly the pictures of people [insert social stuff] . Like, why don’t I get invited along to these types of excursions and why don’t I plan these on my own.

OK OK. enough of the actual FOMOing. Time to my reflection. Originally, this was going to be a list of all the social outings that I found “worthwhile”, whatever that meant, but I couldn’t think of anything off the top of my head.

Then I remembered what I wrote earlier about interactions with somewhat strangers being more interesting than hanging out with friends.

*Conversations, not outings are the most important

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 The best way to get someone to like you is to talk to them and spend more time with them–it’ll happen naturally

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On Trich

I realized that I’d be stronger on both fronts: If I was able to stop, it would be a personal victory in the practice of self control. However, if I wasn’t able to stop, I’d be stronger through dealing with the judgement. If it meant that I had to work twice as hard to hold anyone’s attention (in the right way), So. Be. It.

It was more worth it to focus my attention on what I could control rather than what I couldn’t control.

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 So quizbowl is my last chance to learn about anything that i won’t get a chance to learn about in school

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History stuff

It’s been proven that showing individual stories is more effective at getting people to donate to charity than mere statistics.

Similarly, wouldn’t it make sense to present history as a series of stories from 1st person rather than a book of facts?

Maybe this is the result of too many SAT critical reading practice tests, but I can’t remember anything anymore after just reading it once, especially purely factual information.

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 Justifying cheating

This seems like a safe time to write this post.

This is what I define as busy work: Any work that doesn’t utilize the most efficient method of learning something and that the teacher doesn’t value. By this definition, almost all work is busy work, but to different degrees.

I’m going to argue that cheating is more justified as the degree of “busy-work-ness” increases. In the end, as long as you learn something, I don’t think the process matters. During NaBloPoMo, I explored the idea of whether cramming for a test and passing was better than failing a test and actually learning the information afterwards.
Change this situation so that the first person crammed and passed and the second person cheated and passed. Does that really make them a worse person?
The main problem is that when people cheat, they don’t bother to learn the information afterwards. (Also tests only measure how much you know at a certain point)

BSing isn’t really that much different from cheating. In either case, you’re not putting effort into your work. However, BSing (if detected, which it rarely is) is often punished with a bad grade, while cheating will lead to really bad moral consequences

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 Problems with School

1) Our work has no real world relevance (imagine what would happen if all our english essays were published online)
2) It’s not intellectually challenging enough.

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 Doing it “just for the college app”

I first heard someone say this freshman year when I heard someone complain about someone else for a group competition. At the time, I vowed to never become the type of person to whom that’d apply.

However, as I’m entering the second half of high school (AHHHHH) with college apps less than a year away and seeing all the the seniors in the midst of the college frenzy, I feel like that label is inescapable. It’s impossible to say that we’re doing everything out of complete good will and a passion for learning, but the motives doesn’t drown out what actually gets accomplished.

I have a belief that accomplishments will look good on paper if done properly and that the end goal should to be the type of person who gets into a good college, not necessarily to get into the college. For instance, if I cured cancer and got rejected by Harvard, I could easily say, “screw you Harvard, I cured cancer. Your loss.” Obviously, I’m not curing cancer any time soon, but that’s what I’m aiming for.

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 COLLEGE STUDENTS DON’T EVEN TAKE 7 COLLEGE LEVEL CLASSES. WHY IS IT ACCEPTABLE AND SEEM TO BE THE NORM WITHIN MY SOCIAL GROUP.

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 On not being likeable

I’ve had a hunch from about 1st grade that my teachers didn’t like me. I wasn’t sure of an exact reason, but I always suspected that it was because I was so loud and wanted to prove that I was better than others. I guess I just wanted (and still do want) attention.

A quote from one of the old stories on my blog popped into my head, and I feel like it hit the core of most of my motivations

I would exaggerate my actions whenever Timothy was anywhere close in an attempt to catch his attention. Laugh a little harder, speak a little louder, wave my hands more, all while stealing glances in his direction. No response.

From what I could observe, Timothy was a quiet person who kept a small group of friends. If anything, I had to get him to acknowledge me by not being outlandish and crazy, unless I wanted to be perceived as an insane 7th grader. On the other hand, he had no reason for noticing me unless I stood out in some way, say, being outlandish and crazy.  (Nevermind actually, like, talking to him.)

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standardized tests wouldn’t be necessary if everyone got perfects

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 You need to write something that people will read, but it can’t also be pageview journalism. (why? ethics?)