The Future of Only At IA

Hello everyone! It's that time of year again; my payment on the domain name has run out, and I have to decide whether I'm going to renew it or not. I had already decided that if the site was put to good use in my absence I would have no problem doing so, but there have been two non-introductory posts by anyone other than me, and it's been about a year and a half. As much as I'd love to keep the name, it's not worth it for the amount of use it's getting. Therefore, I've decided not to renew it. There is, however, some good news! The site will continue to exist, all the old context will still be around, but the name will revert back to onlyatia.blogspot.com. I'm posting this as far in advance of the change as I can so that people don't have trouble finding it, but in early November the current domain will no longer work.

That said, I'd still like the site to continue in whatever way possible. I'll still post to it when I feel like it, and I hope that the others do the same. Like I've said countless times before, I really enjoy writing for the site and reading what others have written. I hope to keep it interesting enough to make it worth checking back, and I look forward to seeing where we decide to go with it:)

The moral of the story is this: nothing much is changing, the web address will return to onlyatia.blogspot.com sometime around November 13, and I hope to see more content appearing this year than last year.

IAtionary: Portmantastic

Port-man-tas-tic [port-man-TAS-tik] adj.

1. Of or related to a well done or entertaining combination of two words; Have you guys seen xkcd.com/739? It's portmantastic!
2. Demonstrating the ability to improvise new and interesting combinations of words; A: So, do you think Kurt and Blaine will get together? B: I hope so, Klaine is so adorable! A: Ooo, portmantastic!

Antonym: Port-man-ter-ri-ble [port-man-TER-rih-buhl] adj.

1. Of or relating to a poorly-constructed combination of words; I keep trying to find a way to portmanteau "IA" and "Oberlin" but there are too many vowels at the beginning...it's portmanterrible!



It's been half a year since I've posted on OAIA, and I'll admit it feels weird to have been away for so long. Things are going great for me at Oberlin, and I thought I'd come back and share a little of my new, expanded vocabulary. You see, by complete accident I ended up living just downstairs from Sci-Fi Hall, an entire hall full of sci-fi fans, nerdy references and all the video games. I learned to speak Sci-Fi Hall pretty quickly, and a lot of the new words were either references that I needed to catch up on or awesomely meta words like "portmantastic." (Like, hey, did you know there's a word for "self-referential"? Yeah, it's "meta," like metalanguage or metaknowledge. The word on its own is still a neologism, but I love it nonetheless.) Anyway, I thought this would be an appropriate addition to the IA lexicon if it hasn't appeared independently in my absence, so I thereby justify putting it in the IAtionary.

Now let's address the other issue at hand; in the half a year, not counting semi-forced introductions, there has been one post. In total, I've written 97.5% of the posts in existence, though I've had sole ownership for about 80% of the time. And I'm 1/9 of the Task Force, so counting the time of each person separately, only 57% of the time has been mine. (See, I can still do math at 3:30 in the morning; I'm on college time.) Anyway, OAIATF people, I hope you pick it up a little. Meanwhile, I think I'll start posting once in a while again. I can't promise any regularity, but this has been fun and I've missed it. Obviously it won't be specifically IA stuff, but I'll pick out what I think applies best when I have time.

Calculator Fun!

First I'd like to say happy new year!  Congrats to me for being the first to post something cool now that Josh isn't updating.  I don't really have a story to this post, but I do have an explanation....of sorts.  So over a few weeks in Math Studies, I have taken pictures of some pretty cool calculator drawings that Zach Rich has created.  I believe the first one was Pikachu and then came the pokeball, followed by Jigglypuff and then the Dreamworks symbol.  Well, math is usually very easy, so many of us don't really pay attention to lectures and this is what we do to occupy our time.  

I will rock your face off

Hello. Abby here.

Well, as I am the person writing the OAIA articles and the back page of The Overachiever, I should really contribute to the site. Agh, I was so scared of doing it, I thought I was so unfunny. I'm still kinda in shock that Josh let me help run his special site . . .

However, since entering junior year, I have noticed a positively graph-able increase in my funniness, which hopefully will continue so this site doesn't die from my punny lameness.

Anyways . . . hi! I'm a junior girl at IA's central campus. Most of you will see my name on the back page of the school newspaper as the back page editor and contributor. Other than my work on The O, you won't hear about me much. I do love writing, so hopefully I'll be OK at it for the site. And yes, I'm trying to be funny when I post, but I'm just not very funny - unless I'm wicked tired, then I'm as funny as a YouTube "crack" video . . . and that's still not funny enough! :D

Ah, what else . . . I love languages (third year German, first year French, fourth year amateur Japanese), but I'm not much of a linguist. I'm a huge anime/manga nerd, or a general Japanese culture nerd. I wear glasses (big surprise). I sometimes show up in the quotes section, but that's when I'm tired, really. Seeing as I'm tired a lot more this year (oh IB . . . ) maybe I'll show up more. Oh, and I have very little confidence, so if I talk like this a lot, trust me, it's a regular day.

Despite being an IA nerd, I am not as nerdy as many people: I'm really bad at science, and struggle to keep my grade at A- in math. I prefer artistic or philosophical work, and prefer to work alone, though I like people. I read a lot, I write lots of amateur stories, and if you see me in the halls, I look kinda stern and masculine. My voice is pretty low too . . . Ah, and I talk a lot, and I mean A LOT. Look at how long this intro is!

Well, I've got some stuff bugging me already, so I can't wait to post more stuff! I'll try to make it a more regular process - after all, we can't let this site die! It'd be dishonorable to Josh. :D See y'all around the interwebs!

... I like peanut butter.

Hi. I'm Simone, I'm a sophomore, and I'm really tempted to write in all caps right now.

SO I THINK I WILL.

There, I feel better now.

Yeah, I may seem a bit hyper right now (and a lot of other times, to be honest), but that's because I'm avoiding my work. Because I know I won't be able to when I'm a junior. So I'm savoring what little social life I have now.

Although this website is meant to -- let's face it -- extrapolate the nerdiness that is IA and put it all into one fun little web-sized package, I plan on bringing... a slightly less nerdy point of view.

Yeah, that sounds good.

And yes, I am the same Simone that is in the "Arguably Inappropriate" section of that venn diagram of types of quotes you've seen on our facebook page. So if that doesn't give you any indication of what I'm gonna write about... I don't know what to say. (If you haven't seen the fb page yet, you should go on it. And then like it. Don't you love my abilities to plug our other site in this one? SOMUCHFUN!)

I may have only been around for a few weeks, but I already have loads of ideas and stories. So I hope you enjoy all of the crazy crap I write about. :)

--Simone S.

P.S. Floccinaucinihilipilification.

... That's an awesome word, isn't it?

ACCIO READERS!

Hi there! I'm Brie (or Bri, or Brizzi, or Brijonai, etc.)! I like to think that I'll be bringing a bit of randomness and energy to OAIA.  I'm a junior this year and am very very nervous about the IB, so if I post anything it'll most likely be quotes from the other fear-stricken juniors about IOPS or CAS or maybe even the upcoming Orchestra concert on October 12.  I'm a fan of crude humor, so for our younger readers I probably won't post many things besides "that's what she said" jokes.  Let's see....what else. I'm not a formal writer, so prepare yourself for awkwardly phrased sentences, horrible grammar, and a general sense of confusion whenever you see my name.

    I'm a huge believer in all things Harvey, and I WILL go on and on about the guy, so I'm not going to approach the topic of Harveyism (we'll save that for the other authors that AREN'T obsessed with him).  I love OAIA and I hope that this year we'll see both returning readers and some new blood coming to the site.  Keep an eye out for us, because once things start rolling we'll probably be making our way to the back of the Overacheiver! 

Introduction

Well, now that school's in not only for us IAers but the rest of the state, I guess I probably shouldn't put this off anymore. I've been meaning to do this sooner, but it just hasn't really worked out until now (procrastination- it happens to the best of us). ANYWAYS, I'm doing this post at Josh's (sorry, I haven't figured out how to put umlauts up here yet) suggestion, to introduce myself to the readers on onlyatia.com.

Okay, so here goes nothing!

My name is Caitlin Mayer, and I'm a senior this year. Other common names for me include "blue", "that mermaid obsessive" (don't ask unless you want a REALLY long explanation), and "weirdo hiccuping girl" (if you hear any strange, almost squealish noises and I'm in the vicinity, I'm probably the cause...). My favorite color is blue (as nickname #1 implies), and I'm an avid reader of books, mangas, comics, and pretty much anything else with writing on it. I've made a few other appearances on Onlyatia.com, both as the provider of a few of the out of context quotes, and the creator of a treasure map that featured last year. Last year I was known for creeping on freshmen, but this year I've moved on to bigger and better things- creeping on sophomores!

Anyways, if you see anything on this website that says it was posted by Caitlin, it probably means that it was posted by me, and not some random hacker by the same name.

Some Fun and Out-of-Context Quotes, Part XLIII

"You think I'm mean now, wait 'til you see me without food."
-Mr. Giromini on the 30 Hour Famine

"I can't remember my childhood anymore."
-David G. on time at IA going slowly

"Oh! She wants to be a teacher instead of a parachute!"
-Bri J. on a mistranslation of German

"You realize that my purpose in life is to entertain others with my stupidity, right?"
-Marie N.

"I just made a gesture without talking!"
-Kelsi C. on nonverbal communication

"I've gotten my best ACT and SAT scores on two hours of sleep."
-Anthony G.

"My best ACT section was the one I fell asleep on."
-Mr. Lyons on the above

"I'm getting more and more out of date as I age!"
-Abby S. on the 90s being two decades ago

"You mean, like, ghosts, and communism?"
-Kevin M. on the subjunctive being for talking about things that aren't real

"Brian! Sound intensity!"
-Ms. Priest on Brian's loudly making fun of Joel

"When I think I fail, I get a six."
-Lucy D. on the philosophy behind Math HL

"What are you, the Borg?"
-Miss Davey on judges' simultaneous, unanimous decisions

As far as you know

There are several words and phrases that can serve as a response to absolutely any statement, question, exclamation or other utterance. It can be kind of fun to try to find them and use them in various situations (just be careful to avoid being that guy.) The idea is not to say the same thing over and over again, but to have an arsenal of things to say when most other responses would be inappropriate or impossible. There are two categories into which such words and phrases can fall. The first is the confusion-based group, which includes such favorites as "Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz" and "Are your gastrointestinal problems getting worse?." The idea here is that the phrase does not have to make any sense at all in the context of a conversation. This group is put to good use in situations like this one.

The second category is my favorite of the two: the ToK-based group. These are the generic responses which ask the recipient to consider the deeper implications of what he or she has just said, tell him or her to "prove it," etc. My favorite of these is "Arguably," as it turns out that in fact every statement you hear on a daily basis is - at some level - arguable. The favorite of our good friend Harvey is the title, "As far as you know." I encourage to try these out for yourself, and leave a comment if you come up with any of your own. It's especially fun to get friends to try to come up with an utterance which cannot be answered with a ToK-based generic response; I often play this Game in the lunch line, and it is indeed quite entertaining. May the mass times acceleration be with you.

Poll: The seniors are gone.

I posted this just after the seniors' last day. Here are the results:

Yay! More space for us!
17%

Aww, we'll miss you!
70%

(Seniors only) Finally!
5%

(Seniors only) Oh no! Not already!
5%

I guess we're pretty popular:)

By the way, sorry for the infrequent posting lately. You'll start hearing more from the other Task Force members soon: I've asked them each to write a post introducing his/herself, and as soon as school starts back up you'll hear from them more. Not that we have to think about that yet, of course. Besides, I've still got a few posts in the making myself, so keep checking back!