Only At IA

The Future of Only At IA

noreply@blogger.com (Jösh) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 19:24:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Jösh) — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 08:37:00 +0000

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!

noreply@blogger.com (Bri J.) — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 23:21:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Abby Strub) — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 19:36:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Simone S.) — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 23:37:00 +0000

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!

noreply@blogger.com (Bri J.) — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 23:57:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Caitlin) — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 20:53:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Jösh) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:34:00 +0000

"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

noreply@blogger.com (Jösh) — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 05:45:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Jösh) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 18:55:00 +0000

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!

IAtionary: Physicstubby

noreply@blogger.com (Jösh) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 18:46:00 +0000

Phys-ics-tub-by [FIZ-iks-tuhb-bee] n.

1. A physics teacher, especially one using a video and/or other non-personal medium to instruct students; I was wondering why certain pipes can only support odd numbered harmonics, but once I watched the Physicstubbies I understood.
2. An alternate method of physics instruction based on the idea of leaving a child to watch a screen until he or she understands a concept

Alternate spelling: Fisixtubby

Mr. Giromini came into fisix class to make fun of Mr. Lyons for a picture he sent him of a guy wearing an iPad as a necklace. I believe the word they used was "bling." This wasn't the picture, but I think it's close enough:

Mr. Giromini said the real reason he was making fun of Mr. Lyons was not that he sent him the picture, but that he included the statement that if he had an iPad, this is what he would do with it. He said that he could have all sorts of cool stuff like music videos playing whenever he wanted. The discussion quickly turned to the possibility of recording lectures, then standing in front of the class to play it back. Like the Physicstubbies.

Some Fun and Out-of-Context Quotes Part XLII

noreply@blogger.com (Bridget) — Mon, 24 May 2010 02:09:00 +0000

Facebook Status: "Homework Sleepovers- the epitome of nerd-dom."
Reply: "I think skipping school to finish homework might be slightly worse xD"
-IA student facebooks on the great lengths taken to get homework done

"Hey, don't tell people class starts in two minutes when it doesn't!" - Lizzy on everyone being afraid of being late to Mr. Wolf's class
"But it DUD!" - Nilam on class starting in two minutes
"...I mean did..."- Nilan on self-correction

Pictures 'n' Stuff, Part VI

noreply@blogger.com (Jösh) — Sun, 23 May 2010 20:56:00 +0000

Some fun pictures in here, I think. And I really want that T-shirt.

I was hanging around The Cheezburger Network today, specifically Graph Jam, So Much Pun and Failbook. The first was introduced to me by Mr. Lyons, and the second reminded me of him. The third I just found for myself. The next four are a few personal favorites.

So true.

A friend linked to this on Facebook:

To what extent is calling an award the "Xerox Creativity Award" ironic? A conversation entirely in IBan

noreply@blogger.com (Jösh) — Fri, 21 May 2010 04:56:00 +0000

I finished my last ever IB exam yesterday, so I'm feeling somewhat reminiscent. When I think about it, I believe Mr. I B and I would get along very well, as counterintuitive as that sounds. I'll gladly say that I love the IB program, and I think it has had a profound impact on my thinking. I could go on nostalgically for quite some time but I think I'll skip ahead to today's topic, as nostalgia really isn't what it used to be.

My friend Brian B. (2011) recently posted as his Facebook status, "To what extent is calling an award the 'Xerox Creativity Award' ironic?" Apparently the award is presented to competitors in robotics competitions for unusual strategies and such. As I said, I was in an IB mood, so I decided to respond in IBan:

To the greatest extent possible, created by the possible excessive use of capital letters, the use of a brand name, and the clear contrast between the initial and penultimate words.

I must warn you that I am fluent in IBan.

Brian responded simply, "IBan sounds a lot like BS. It's just BS with IB words." Not about to give up, I countered with

It appears, given the limited length of the retort authored by [Brian's last name], that he is unaware of the full nature of the IBan language. This dramatic irony- created by the fact that most readers of said retort will have seen http://www.onlyatia.com/2008/05/iationary-eyebeean.html - is essential to the development of his message. This message is, (not to beg the question,) that he disagrees with the principles of the language.

The reader is then inclined to wonder how he would feel about Orwell's classic 1984, in which the opposite approach to language is employed. This juxtaposition of the simplified and and the complicated is key to [Brian's last name]'s disapproval, and only by understand [sic] these devices and [sic] a reader fully appreciate his intent.

Still not quite showing his full potential for writing in IBan, Brian said, "LMFAO. That just made my day. So IB...," to which I responded with two consecutive comments:

The author of this comment finds it necessary to clarify that the aforementioned point, "So IB..." ([Brian's last name] 2), is in fact the entire purpose of the language in question. He also must cite from his original comment that "I am fluent in IBan," ([My last name] 1) emphasizing that this point may be more potent after the previous demonstration.

followed by

He also, embarrassingly, must clarify that the concluding sentence in the second of his comments, above, was incorrectly rendered, and was meant to read, "...and only by understanding these devices can a reader fully appreciate his intent," ([My last name] 2).

Finally getting into it, Brian said:

The author of this comment agrees with [My last name]'s point in the previous comment that his claim of fluency in IBan "may be more potent after the previous demonstration" ([My last name] 3). He moves to admit [My last name] as [sic] fluent in IBan.

Me:

Upon closer inspection, this comment's purpose can be seen as twofold. On the one hand, it aims to thank the other participant in the current conversation for his appreciation of its author's proficiency in IBan while congratulating him on his own successful attempt thereof. This effect is created by his appreciative diction: he employs words such as "thank" ([My last name] 5) and "appreciative diction" ([My last name] 5).

On the other hand, the purpose of the comment can also be seen by the reader as a request for permission to publish the conversation of which it is a part on Only At IA, albeit with last names removed. This is evident in the author's sudden transition to a more inquiring diction, with phrases such as "request for permission" ([My last name] 5) and "inquiring diction" ([My last name] 5). Either way the reader chooses to interpret the comment's intent, its author does a masterful job of crafting his work, effectively conveying a multitude of messages while leaving only a slight trace of arrogance.

And finally Brian:

This comment's purpose can - like the comment to which it is a direct response - be seen as twofold. One function is to grant the request in [My last name]'s previous comment (to which this comment is a direct response) regarding the publishing of the conversation of which this comment and [My last name]'s comment are a part ([My last name] 5).

Another, equally important, function of this comment is to commend the extent to which [My last name] has successfully developed himself as self-centered and lacking humility through his tendency to quote himself even within a single sentence ([My last name] 5) and his precise diction, with which he provides himself opportunities to quote himself and thus develop himself as self-centered and lacking humility. [My last name]'s character development is quite masterful.

However the intent of this comment is interpreted, its author effectively conveys multiple messages in the language of IBan, which is an impressive achievement, as the author (at the time of the comment) is still learning IBan in the course IB IBan (a group 2 subject).

I decided to leave it at that for several reasons. The most prominent of these were that I wanted to get this post written in time to go to sleep at a semi-reasonable hour and that I was laughing too hard to think straight. Besides, I would inevitably get the last word in, as I get to write the post. I must say that I am impressed with Brian's analysis of my self-citations; it took me a couple of drafts to get the same-sentence self-references to work out just right. After an experience like this one - seeing how far we've both come - I find it much more believable that one must spend only four adult years in China to learn all the Chinese characters.

IAtionary: Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgaben-übertragungsgesetz

noreply@blogger.com (Jösh) — Fri, 07 May 2010 01:03:00 +0000

Rind-fleisch-e-ti-ket-tier-ungs-ü-ber-wach-ungs-auf-gab-en-ü-ber-trag-ungs-ge-setz [RINT-flaysh-eh-tih-keht-TEER-uhngz-oo*-behr-VACK**-uhngz-OUF-gah-behn-OO*-behr-trag-uhngz-geh-ZETS]*** n.

1. The German for "Cattle marking and beef labeling supervision duties delegation law," a law about cattle marking and beef labeling supervision duties delegation
2. Absolute, concrete proof that the German language is the single coolest sounding thing on the planet; A: I think German sounds kind of ugly.
B: It's not ugly, it's just guttural. I mean, Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz.
A: Wow, you're so right! Teach me more!

See also: Sind deine Verdaungsprobleme schlimmer geworden?

*English doesn't quite have the vowel ü (or else this wouldn't be funny), so click here for a better idea of how to pronounce it- try the sound sample.
**Please, don't actually say K. Click here if you're confused, and again, the sound sample is your friend.
***You can listen to the entire word here.

Sudheer dx

noreply@blogger.com (Jösh) — Wed, 05 May 2010 01:44:00 +0000

This was a teaser I posted on Only At IA's Facebook page a while ago. I found it on Mr. Majask's whiteboard. "What?" you ask. "Who's Fudheer?" Actually, poor, misinformed reader, the integral sign comes from the long S, which has all but disappeared but for its remnants found in the German ligature ß, which comes from the pairing ſʒ, ʒ being related to the modern letter s. Fire up.

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

noreply@blogger.com (Jösh) — Sun, 02 May 2010 09:31:00 +0000

I have no real witty comment at five thirty in the morning, so since the next quote to appear over there <--- will have to do with Star Trek, live long and prosper. Oh and for the record, Zefram Cochraine High School has nothing on IA. Now go read the new quote(s)...erm, I mean "Make it so, Number One."

"Since I tend to say stupid things it only seems logical for me to start listening for other people's stupidity."
-Marie N. on my invitation to join the OAIA task force

"I was conscious that entire class!"
-Anthony G. on misremembering fisix

"'Cause nothing says 'we care' like photocopies."
-Anthony G. on Kiss-A-Senior-Goodbye-Grams

"Monday we'll have a party."
-Mr. Stibitz on Friday being my last day

"Probably because you observed it."
-Mr. Lyons on Kavya's not understanding a college quantum physics course

"I give you three weeks."
-Mrs. Parliament on my resolution never to learn Klingon

"...Pregnant pause. Haha, don't say pregnant."
-Sra. on meaningful silences

"It gets kinda competitive. Like Survivor."
-SHS leader on college apps

"I don't want much, I just want the world."
-Sra. on being dedicated to SHS leadership

"Important, important, important. I'll look at all this important stuff later."
-Natalie K. on procrastination

Plans for the Future

noreply@blogger.com (Jösh) — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 20:11:00 +0000

I've been thinking about this for a while now, and I think I've come up with a solution what will work for everyone. I won't be at IA next year, but I'd like Only At IA to continue. I considered passing it on to one person, but I know no one else will be willing to donate as much time as it takes to run the site alone. I considered keeping it and expanding the subject matter, but I think that would ruin the essential IA-ness that makes the site what it is. I also considered all sorts of other options, and I've finally picked one.

I'm going to pass it on to a carefully chosen task force that will have the job of maintaining the site and supplying it with new material. I'll still post occasionally, but most of the writing will be done by them. See where it says "Posted by Jösh" below this post? If not, then I'm still working on fixing that. If technology agrees, you'll be able to see who posted what in case it's not obvious. I've asked eight people to be on the team and so far I've heard back from three, all interested. I just sent the email yesterday, so I'm optimistic about the rest. Here's the list of people who've agreed so far (I'll update it as more people sign on):

*Change of plans: check the sidebar for the most recent version of this list*

I chose people whose unique senses of humor I appreciate and who have a certain connection to OAIA already. Special thanks to everyone who's opted to join, and also to all the readers for making the site enough fun to be worth continuing. As soon as I post this I'm going to start granting permissions, so if you're seeing it then the plan is already in action. I've also asked the task force to keep itself populated as its members graduate by finding replacements, so OAIA ought to go on for quite sometime to come. It really has been a wonderful part of my IA experience, and I hope it continues to grow in the coming years. I do plan on reading everything that appears here, and I'll probably comment pretty often. Thanks again to everyone seeing this, and let the invitations begin!

I hate blog posts about controversial topics almost as much as I love irony

noreply@blogger.com (Jösh) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 23:33:00 +0000

First let me say that I seriously considered writing this entire post in the color of the background so you would have to highlight it to see it. Instead I decided text was silent enough already...consider yourself lucky. This past Friday, I and many other IA students participated in the annual Day of Silence. Please read the aforelinked Wikipedia article if you don't know what that means. It was a great experience and for a great cause; I encourage you to participate next year if you get the chance. IA's GSWA (Gay-Straight-Whatever Alliance) handed out stickers to wear, advising others that one was participating. Sadly they ran out of them before I arrived, but Marie got there in time to get one. As you may remember, Marie is a fairly religious person. Her entire church, however, participates in the Day of Silence; they even have a silent service that evening. In her own note-passing, "Not all Christians are confused." Anyway, she happened to have a copy of the bible in her backpack, which she decided would be an excellent place to keep the DoS sticker.

I decided to take another picture, as the sticker in the first one wasn't straight. At the time, the pun was totally not intended.

Hang a left at Annotation Isle

noreply@blogger.com (Jösh) — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 20:39:00 +0000

Quite a while ago, Caitlin M. showed me an assignment she had to do in math. According to her, "The assignment was to create a treasure map for math that would have a coordinate system, and give clues so that the person who is given your map can find the treasure, we were told to 'be creative,' which mostly resulted in maps that had pictures of pirates or were supposed to look like authentic pirate maps... except mine :)" I asked her to send it to me, and she kindly agreed to do so. After months of friendly reminders, I have the map (sans grid, but we don't need that anyway) and am ready to share it with you. Take a look (click to embiggen):

Well done, Caitlin! I'm a little curious about the two unnamed Sleepless Nights' Islands (and just a bit annoyed with the erroneous apostrophe), and I recommend that for safely reasons we keep Mr. Giromini away from the Ocean of Tears.

Poll: How many of the mouseovers in SFAOOCQ XXXIX did you find before reading this?

noreply@blogger.com (Jösh) — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 02:24:00 +0000

I do mouseovers quite often, as I find them to be a very useful way to insert additional comments and thoughts without disrupting the flow of a post or other text. (This sounds familiar...almost like I've said it before?) I was wondering how many people find them, as the idea is for most of you to, not just an elite few. Unfortunately, the poll results leaned toward the "elite few" model:

"Wait, you do mouseovers?" got an entire quarter of you.

"None, but I often find others" gathered 16%.

"Just one," fittingly got just one vote: 8%.

Another quarter went to "A resounding two."

No one picked "Three...getting better."

"Four, decent" got another 8%.

"Five, not bad!" got 16%.

Finally, not a single person said, "All Six! Go me!" Good.

You see, in addition to investigating how many people found the mouseovers, I also tried a little mind game. Take a look at this video we watched in ToK2. I find the whole thing fascinating, but it's pretty lengthy, so if you don't have the time just stick to 4:20 to 6:30.

The basic idea is that when given the chance to cheat, a lot of people will cheat a little bit. They won't try to get away with as much as possible, but rather increase their "score" by a small enough amount so as not to tamper with their idea of being a righteous person. SFAOOCQ XXXIX had only four mouseovers, and true to the theory no one cheated as much as possible, preferring when they did cheat to do so in smaller increments. Congratulations Mr. Ariely, you got us this time.

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

noreply@blogger.com (Jösh) — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 21:07:00 +0000

You know, there are certain numbers that just make you step back and say, "Whoa, that's a lot of quotes." XL is one of those numbers. In fact, I really want to know just how many there are...so I think I'll count. It's not like I have anything better to do. Hang on a sec.

Almost exactly 15 minutes later: 391. Wow. That's including this post, obviously not re-counting the New Year's posts, and counting "This is a classroom copy" only once. If anyone would like to verify, that would be appreciated but not expected. Thanks to Bridget S., I have several new ones to put up; take a look:)

"When irrational people rationalize things, their rationalizations tend to seem irrational to rational people."
-Marie

"It's either this or dum-dums."
-Miss Davey on handing out Smarties before English orals

"Now I know what it feels like to take drugs, so I don't need to do it in real life."
-Tanmay S. on bumper cars

"I feel awkward not being stressed about something."
-Jamie

"Oh wait, history internal assessment."
-Jamie on the above

"Ewww are those brains?"
-Caitlin M. on Ming C.'s Chinese food

"Yeah, yours."
-Ming C. on the above

"Yeah, that would explain a lot."
-Katerina M. on the above

"If homework is like a woman, then turnitin.com is the pimp."
-Anonymous

"Quiz! Take out your brain!"
-Mr. Woods

"We can't do that..."
-Students on the above

"Don't hang around because we start eating students."
-Mr. Woods on staying after school on half days

A A A Handbag?

noreply@blogger.com (Jösh) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 23:53:00 +0000

We just read The Importance of Being Earnest in English class, a play which I quite enjoyed, albeit not as much as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. The play makes fun of the upper classes of Victorian England, an idea with which I identify having spent so much time making fun of the upper classes of education. In fact, among my favorite lines is, "The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes" (Wilde I-don't-have-the-page-number). Oscar Wilde (see also: Oscar Wilde) has a wonderful sense of humor. Today we had planned to have a tea party in honor of the play (although I don't think we had any cucumber sandwiches, as Algernon had eaten all of the ones we made, despite Lane having gone to check twice). I brought lemonade, which as we all know is essential to any and all tea parties. Before we got started, Mrs. Fuelling announced that she had a song to play for us first. You see, one of the characters in the play, Jack, does not know who his parents are. He was found in a handbag in a closet at a railway station as an infant, and that's all he knows about his heritage. This presents a problem when he needs Lady Bracknell's approval to ask his love to marry him, as "To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness" (Lady Bracknell). Take a look at the video Mrs. Fuelling played for us:

Se Busca

noreply@blogger.com (Jösh) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 00:27:00 +0000

A while ago I wrote a post about Sra.'s missing fácil button. Remember? The sign that said "It is looked for"? This is a follow-up to that; I have some new information I'd like to share. No, it still hasn't been found. (If you have information, please contact myself or Sra. Riggs immediately.) However, I did find this on her desk some time ago:

Yay! It's back! Well hang on a minute, let's take a closer look:

Upon seeing this attempt to remake Sra.'s desk into the fácil button-inhabited paradise it had once been, I asked Mr. Stibitz to explain how it got there. He said that he had wanted to try to restore the button, so he taped a printout of a picture of it to the lid from a coffee cup. However, after (I imagine) taking a look at it from a similar angle to that of the second picture above, he commented, "It's kinda like Disney world, it's everything just...artificial."

A few days later, I returned and found this:

It was also made by Mr. Stibitz, and this time he added, "I made it in the spirit of finals week." I guess that gives away how long I've been meaning to write this post. Oops.

"As they say in Mexico, 'Dos vi danya.' Down there that's two vi danyas."

(Don't recognize the quote? No worries, just check out 5:21 of this clip from one of my favorite TV shows. Or, if you're feeling adventurous after reading this particular post, try 5:21 from this other clip.)

Free Flip Video Cameras!

noreply@blogger.com (Jösh) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 21:51:00 +0000

Even though many of you already received the message with the title in the subject line, I think it's clever enough to be immortalized on Only At IA. Said message went out to all Central students from Mrs. Miner, our technology coordinator. The content of the message was as follows:

NOT REALLY- but some students might think they are... if you borrowed one to use on a project and FORGOT to return it, please bring it back immediately. It is not worth the rotten karma that will be heaped on you if you forget to return it.

When I asked, she said that it would at least get people to open it. Well, it worked on me.