Slice of Life #25 - Some Strange Talents of Mine

March 25th, 2013

I have some weird talents--by this, I'm not talking about math, science, etc. Lets forget those common talents for now. I'm talking about things like:

1. When I'm typing at my computer, I can always, always hear my parents or sister if they're walking to my door. It doesn't matter if they're trying to be soft, or if my sister is trying to sneak into my room so that she can tattletale on me for checking my email. If they're really trying to be soft, I can always sense movement in the floor, or vibrations, even though the floor's carpeted. I can also tell which person it is.
2. I can also walk with almost no sound, at least with no sound I can hear. Of course, I'm not like Gale or Katniss; I don't think I can walk on leaves without crunching them xD I don't know if that's a good or bad thing...like in the hallways at school, if I'm walking with another person, that person's footsteps my clipclop through the hall, but I'll have no sound at all. It might be because I wear Uggs/sneakers/boots without heels all the time. I don't know.
3. My facial expressions are, as Nivetha puts it, VERY expressive. xD I don't know if she's just exaggerating or not...but since I don't make a lot of faces at home (staring at a computer screen does not require facial gestures), my family has likely not seen many of them before. When I went over to Thomas's house last month, I was talking to his mom, and all of a sudden my mom said, "OH MY LORD VIVIAN YOU HAVE SO MANY EXPRESSIONS!" Yes mom, indeed I do. They range from:
• jokingly accusative face (coined by Nick and apparently my most famous one)
• I-have-just-been-metaphorically-electrocuted face
• dun dun dunnnnn face (see the trialer for The Croods for clarification; watch at least ten seconds or until the dun dun dun part: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjkPb0ewYPo) I fond that link to be hilarious, by the way
• really-now face
• etcetcetc you get the point

Can you guys do these things too? I'm pretty sure some of you can, they're actually not that hard to do. If you can't, I'm sure you have other weird talents xD

Slice of Life #24 - My Piano Auditions



March 24th, 2013

So, remember I said last week I was going to have piano auditions today?
At 9:00 AM, I woke up. Frantically, I brushed my teeth, shoved breakfast down my throat (how often do I eat quickly?) and rushed to the piano to practice just a couple thousand more times. That usually never happens. On the first couple of days of spring break, I usually catch up on sleep instead of playing piano.

I had played for about 4 hours straight on Saturday, trying, TRYING to play my piece with zero mistakes. Of course, last minute cramming never works. Especially when your song is full of places where your finger has to reach notes an octave apart. That never works then your hands are tiny like mine. So in the end, I had to be satisfied with a decent piece that at least didn't sound like trash...I still made a couple of mistakes where my fingers couldn't reach the octaves. mehhhhhh

When I got to the audition, I didn't even know who my judge was. I was waiting in the hallway for her to call me in, when a lady walked out of the bathroom and said hi to me. I thought, "Well, that must be some random teacher in the building because I think my judge is in that room listening to a student play piano." Sure enough, I heard music. However, it turns out that the room I was supposed to go in was empty, and the music was coming from upstairs. The lady turned out to be my judge. After I nodded hello, she beckoned me inside the room I was supposed to be judged in, and I finally realized this was my judge. I internally facepalmed myself and said good morning.

After playing through my two pieces that are somehow a little easier than one of last year's pieces, I could see my judge writing furiously with her pen on her comments page. I knew I had made a couple of mistakes...I've actually never made a mistake during auditions before. It's just that this year, I've had less practice time. I don't know if this is a good sign...musicians tend to be lazy when it comes to writing things, and I've never met a judge that wrote down good comments. Usually, they can only summon the energy to write areas to improve upon. A page full of marks...I'm guessing that's not a good thing?

Also, the piano was weird. It was one of those pianos where if you press down on the pedal, it doesn't really go down--the little pressure you put on it is enough to make the notes blur. The keys were really slippery and almost TOO easy to push down, resulting in difficulty for me to make parts of the pieces pianissimo. So....almost everything sounded too loud. >.<' Another problem: my dress was so, so, so long. It was lavender, and actually pretty this year, but it was definitely meant for someone taller than me. Every time I walked up stairs, even though I basically held up half my skirt, I was afraid of tripping. The skirt bottom almost brushed the ground.

Anyways, afterwards, I went shopping. I know. LE GASP. I almost forgot what shopping was... But I got so tired, since I don't exercise as much. After only a couple of hours walking around the Jersey Shore Outlet, my legs started to give way. Now I'm sagging at my desk pounding out this post. :D

Slice of Life #23 - Being a Proctor

March 23rd, 2013

I have to practice piano, so my post will be kind of short.
So, being a proctor is a lot harder than you think. During the CTP4, when you feel uncomfortable when the proctor walks around the room, it's not the proctor's fault. I was a proctor today for the HSK 4 at my Chinese school (kind of a graduation test for Chinese kids)...or rather, I was the TA, but I was pretty much still a proctor. The teacher in charge of me told me to stand up the entire time, to make sure no one was cheating. So, that meant basically 2 hours of standing. Of course, it was great exercise for my legs. I never thought I would be so tired...last year for jazz band I've stood up for long periods of time. I've stood up for 3 hours in a row waiting for roller coasters. I guess I'm just seriously out of shape. :P

Anyways, all the kids in my room weren't from my Chinese school, so I didn't know any of them. They seemed pretty well behaved, and their eyes almost never left their papers. It's really, really boring to stare at a group of kids for 2 hours, so I could understand why the teacher walked around, looking over people's shoulders. Since she's a teacher, I would think that looking at Chinese questions would be interesting to her. My legs were sore enough just standing, so I didn't walk around.

After, I took a two hour nap. It was my first long nap in...well...a long, long time. It felt great, and although I am still tired (of course I am) I am less tired than usual :D

Slice of Life #22 - The Day Before Spring Break

March 22nd, 2013

It's the day before spring break, and I should be feeling happy. I AM happy, for that matter :D

However, it seems like I have a million things due right after spring break, from basically all my classes. While the teachers told us to just finish it before spring break so that we wouldn't have to worry about it,
1) Even if I stayed up the entire night yesterday, I still would not have finished that mountain of work
2) I was too tired yesterday to stay up late again.

Now, since I have everything due right after spring break, I will probably spend spring break working. Of course, I did persuade my parents to go on a brief one day vacation to New York, where I REALLY REALLY REALLY need to get a new clarinet. Whenever I blow into my clarinet right now none of the air goes through, and sometimes no sound comes out. Which is why people were staring at me when I made mistakes in my solo for the chamber concert. >.>' I've been meaning to get a new clarinet for about a year now, but I just haven't had time to do so given the fact that we've had no days off for the entire year after Sandy came. Thanks, Sandy. </3

I also have TSA and FFF to work on. I barely started on my research proposal. SO MANY THINGS TO DO AND SO LITTLE TIME....Maybe if spring break was longer, I would rage less. :DD

Slice of Life #21 - That Feeling When You Swim Right

March 21st, 2013

When asked, many people say they exercise just for an extracurricular activity, or exercise because their parents make them do it. I exercise just because if I don't, I feel like a blob of fat. (very sentimental, I know...) After swimming almost continuously for almost seven years, I can't just stop...it makes me feel too unhealthy to stop, and it makes me feel so good when I do swim.

The last two weeks, I almost haven't touched the water at all, mostly due to no more practices since the season is over for me. I've been sitting at my desk doing homework or surfing the web most of the time--until yesterday, I couldn't stand it anymore. I legitamately felt like I was obese. Usually, I eat chocolate and sugary things, telling myself I'll exercise it off later anyway...but after realizing I haven't exercised for so long, it occured to me that I had probably gained about five hundred pounds. I'm not even someone who cares about how much I weigh (actually, I only gained about a pound). It's just that when I gain weight, it's harder to run or to move around. So, yesterday, I made my mom take me to the YMCA to practice by myself. :D

See, if you keep putting off exercising because you just feel to lazy, or you don't want to feel like caca in the water, the next time you DO swim, you feel even worse. So you have to get it over quickly. Whenever I start swimming again after, say, not swimming for a week or more, I'm extremely, extremely uncoordinated. When you're swimming the right way, you don't force yourself. You exert as little force as possible to go the longest distance. And I'm not saying that just because I'm lazy--doing this will both conserve energy for you during races, and make you feel more relaxed and less stressful. But to become more fluid in my movements, it usually takes about a half hour of continuous, jerky swimming.

I remember when I practiced the most and won the most races (when I was ten), I felt like a fish, like I was one with the water. This sounds really dramatic, but it's the best way I can describe it. I literally had to put almost no effort into moving my arms and legs, yet I got maximum propulsion. It's all about moving the right parts at the right time, and not kicking too hard. See, sometimes not putting a lot of effort into something is a good thing. xD

That's kind of part of the reason why I like fly so much. It comes naturally. Once you get the hang of it, it's the most fluid stroke; your body just curves and slides through the water. I just do whatever is easiest, which isn't always appealing to other people. For example, I swim with slightly bent elbows and slightly spread fingers, just because it's faster for me. My mom used to reprimand me, telling me to straighten my arms, because that's how everyone else did it. Well, according to recent revelations, my method was right all along. ^.^

Well, I have to practice more. It may or may not be the reason why I'm not winning as many races lately. Did I mention, winning is a great feeling, too? xD See, this is a video Tiffany recorded for me from shore conference (after I didn't practice for a while). It kind of explains why I'm first only for the first lap, and then I get really tired and I finish around fourth or fifth. The video only has the first 75 of the 100--I'm the person in the lane closest to the camera. Please don't laugh at my slowness. Also, the video's sideways; I didn't have enough time to rotate it. Sorry. xP

Slice of Life #20 - Overthinking Things

March 20th, 2013

As children, the people in my district were trained in school to pick the "best answer". As long as we could adequately defend our answer, we were right. This increased logic and problem solving for the kid, who often strained his mind to find an answer that logically fit the question. At the same time, I think it's turned all the Marlboro honors kids into the kids who overthink all the time (a lot of High Tech kids in general are like this). At Marlboro, we didn't really prepare for standardized testing much in middle school, so we weren't the best at taking them; we were a lot better at taking insanely hard science tests instead. :D This may or may not explain why I always get hundreds on hard tests, but get terrible grades on the extremely easy ones. On the easy ones, I don't trust myself, and go back to check the test and change some of my answers into the wrong ones.

My reading teacher used to tell us, "When you take the NJASK, please don't be dumbed down by the questions. The questions were not designed for you. Also, please, please, please DON'T OVERTHINK." Well, she told us the same thing right before our reading midtern. While there were kids in the school in average reading who got awesome grades, almost everyone in honors reading failed. Why? We overthought almost every single question. To us, all the answers of a multiple choice question were right. Sometimes, being in honors has its downfalls.

Now, since we've come to High Tech, the issue has expanded, at least for me. On history tests, I frequently get things wrong just because I convinced myself that TECHNICALLY, one of the wrong answers was right. I tell myself that why, WHY in the world, would a teacher make a problem so easy? This must be a trick question. Usually, I succeed in proving the original right answer wrong, and pick the wrong one. Then I get the question wrong. It turns out the teacher wanted to make the question easy. On these occasions I get quite frustrated.

Even MATH started to have more ambiguous answers. Math, which had always been the one subject that had certain, cut out answers. Even since we started chapter 6's experimental/observational study statistics, I always mix up the two. Math has started to integrate more and more logic and reading skills. For example, on the test we got back today, the question was:
Randomization is a key element of well-defined studies. Which best describes how randomization applies to a sample survey?
I was debating between:
A) A random sample is surveyed from the population studied
B) As possible, random samples can be selected from the groups being studied
At first, I chose A, the obvious answer. However, since I finished the test in 20 minutes I went back to check, and I ended up spending the rest of the test debating between A and B. I finally changed my answer to B.

My logic:
 - the question asks how randomization applies to a sample survey
 - sample surveys can include convenience, self select, systematic, and random samples.
 - therefore, there are some types (convenience, self select, and systematic) that DON'T use randomization
 - so the answer can't be so absolute. A must be wrong because it doesn't apply to convenience, self select, or systematic sample surveys.
 - B allows convenience, self select, or systematic surveys while also allowing random surveys

So apparently I overthought the question...when I tried to tell Dr. Eng how I did it:
Me: "...<everything I just said up there^^>..."
Dr. Eng: "...what?" <proceeds to explain again>
Me: "Butbutbut"
Dr. Eng: "You were the only person who put B." <Dr. Eng laugh>
Nick: "Ohhhh Vivian is a REBEL!"
Me: "Yes I am very special."
Dr. Eng: "I think you overthought the question."
Me: "Yeah, alright. Maybe I did....a little..."

Anywayssss that's what happens when I finish too early. xD

^This is so, so, so true...

Slice of Life #19 - So Mermaids are Real...?

March 19th, 2013

This blog post might seem really shallow and whimsical...in a way it is. I was really stressed out yesterday, and decided to take a break. So, I started searching the Internet for random things, and came across an article on mermaids. It claimed that mermaids are indeed real, and the government had found evidence of them ever since WWII. Of course, I was slightly wary at the credibility, but I assumed that if they actually did find mermaids, the mermaids would look like Ariel (something like that). However, when I dug deeper in and did more research, I was greatly disturbed.

Apparently, there's two sides to the debate. One side claims that from the evidence, mermaids DO exist, we just haven't met them face to face yet (except for one fateful event that I shall describe later). The other side, as usual, says it's all a consipracy theory and that the government had said already it wasn't true. However, the scary part was that I couldn't find any evidence for the second part (or it could be that I didn't spend much time researching this side...). Meanwhile, for the first side, I found loads of "evidence" that just made me even more scared.

So apparently real mermaids don't look like Ariel. What is this nonsense. xD

 

On Youtube, there is a video that seemed pretty credible and was posted by an organization (I forgot which one...I wish I had a better memory. But I think it was something affiliated with Animal Planet). Experts in marine life were interviewed, and some pointed out that during WWII, the government had been mapping sea life sounds. They were mainly doing it for humpback whales, but there was one sound called the "Bloop" that was apparently a mermaid. It was really, really, really scary, to say the least. It hasn't been attached to any known animal yet.

In the same video, there was a short film taken by two boys. It was really blurry, and it showed one boy walking along the beach, and kneeling down to poke a dead fish. Well, the "dead" fish had a human torso and picked itself up and screamed at him. I nearly had a heart attack watching that. Apparently they have recovered a body of a "mermaid" that really just looks like what I would have for dinner, except with a head and hair attached.

I really still don't think mermaids exist though...I don't know...this kind of proves why surfing the Web isn't always good. xP I think I'm going to have nightmares of screaming mermaids now. :D joyyyy

Go search this up yourself. Tell me what you think.