LoL in Olympics?!?

So... apparently League of Legends is a sport. Like actually one that could be in the olympics as soon as League of Legends. It's pretty official. It's in Forbes.

So what's your opinion?

Me? League in the Olympics?! Like what! I don't really play that many video games, but I do know quite a few people who play (or have played) League. Still, I feel like the Olympics should be kept to games where you actually... well do stuff. However, it is true that League of Legends is competitive and requires team work. Plus apparently there's already this thing called E-sports that's basically the olympics of gaming.

The thing is,
Is it sad that the definition of sports has been stretched to include computer games, and that computer games made it into the olympics before chess, or checkers, or even dance?

Or is it just sports adjusting to our time period?

Trial = Justice?

Yesterday the outcome of the George Zimmerman trial came out and he was proven not guilty of anything. Yesterday, the outcome of another, lesser known trial came out as well. This person, was convicted with 20 years in jail. The only differences were:
in one case a seventeen year old boy with skittles died and in the other no one got hurt (physically)
in one case the person being convicted was a hispanic and in the other it was a african american
in one case the person being convicted was a male and in the other it was a female

If you want to read more into the other story, then here: read it.

Anyway, George Zimmerman should not have been let off without anything. No sentence, no fine, no nothing, especially if this women got 20 years in prison. George Zimmerman killed a boy, does that mean nothing to people? And for those people who think George Zimmerman was innocent and have a good reason, then feel free to comment below.

There is still more to this post, if you would like to read more, then click here.

"What would you do if you weren't afraid"

~ Spencer Johnson M.D. in Who Moved My Cheese

Me? I don't know, I'm too afraid to say.

But honestly. When you read this quote you have to wonder what you're afraid of. Society? Failure? Your parents? Your peers? It takes courage to do what you want to do. What do you want to be? Who are you? An actor, a singer, an author? A biologist, a politician, a businessman? Maybe just someone who has an impact on the world or someone's life. Someone who wants to leave this world a better place. Whatever. Of course, not everyone can be an actor, or a biologist, or a politician. The question is have you tried despite your fears? How do you know you won't be successful? And if you are already at your dream job, aren't you glad you tried? Everyone knows, not everyone will get their dream job, but who knows?

"Sound is touch at a distance."

Sound is touch at a distance. When you think of it. It seems true. When your lonely you seem to want to play or sing sad music. When your happy, you want to play or sing happy music. At parties or dances they usually play loud fast moving music and then have a slow song where the mood in the room cools off a little. In the same way when your happy your voice is usually a bit higher and a bit clearer than when your sad and when you want to comfort someone your voice is usually soft low and soothing. Many people feel like they can relate to the artists writing music when they listen to songs. When I feel lonely, it makes me feel better to put on some music. It makes me feel like someone else is there. Knowing how I feel. Hugging me. Or when I'm happy it makes me feel brave to dance and to be myself when I listen to upbeat music. Like I'm not going to just suddenly start jamming to the beat when there isn't some music in my head. I don't have the support. The invisible person telling me to let go and have a good time. The invisible person holding my hand and swinging it around, holding on to my shoulders and making a train.

You can listen to the real radiolab podcast here
http://www.radiolab.org/2007/sep/24/sound-as-touch/

Men Are Finished

I recently came across an Intelligence Squared debate named Men Are Finished. Here it is:

But, for those of you who don't have an hour and forty minutes of spare time, which I totally get, here's a quick, probably inadequate, summary. The side that says yes, men are finish pull out facts and statistics about how women are surpassing men in the quality of their work, rate of people who go to college, rates of people who get good jobs, and behavior at school. The other side argues that men are not finished. Women are just catching up to them. Although the side that states Men Are Finished did a much better job at arguing and debating (and won), I still believe that men are not finished and women are just catching up to men. I say this because although it has been proven that at least til high school girls are smarter than boys, but boys are  known to be better at math and many good jobs such as engineering, computer programming, economics, designing, architecture, etc. require good math skills. But perhaps this is only because men are "riding on the fumes of sexism".

Muscle Memory

Ever find that you can't remember a telephone number when you just try to say it, but if you have a phone in front of you, you suddenly can? Or, if you've had some code or pin number, that you could always type, but not say? That, is the wonders of muscle memory. That, is also what I just blogged about on my other blog http://classicalmusicandme.blogspot.com/. You rely on muscle memory  a lot more than you realize. For example, when you're walking you use muscle memory. This is the reason you don't fall every few steps like you did as a toddler. I believe this is also the reason why once you learn to ride a bike, you never forget. Unless of course you suffer some sort of brain damage or develop a brain disease like Alzheimer's.

Strange Pumpkin

I came across this pumpkin while visiting my friends house one day and I was shocked by how peculiar (and cute) it was. I'm not sure if you can see it with this picture, but this pumpkin actually looks like two pumpkins that were merged together. When I asked my friend how this pumpkin became like this, he said that it was a pumpkin that was about to split apart, but got cut off the vine before it had the chance to. Pumpkins reproducing by splitting apart was so bizarre to me that I had to go Google it. I went through many websites about how to plant pumpkins and pumpkin diseases, but I couldn't find any explaining how and when a pumpkin reproduced by splitting apart. The closest I got were two pictures, this one my friend took and put on his website http://randomnessgame.weebly.com/index.html, and one on a website called Garden Tales http://gardentales.areavoices.com/, that also has many more funny deformed plants.  

One or Two?

I was writing a paper when I needed to use the word rollercoaster. Spell check corrected my "misspelling" and told me it was roller coaster. Two words. This interested me, so I searched the spelling of rollercoaster or roller coaster online. Their seemed to be about the same amount of people who thought rollercoaster was spelled with one word than people who thought roller coaster was spelled with two.

So, my question is, is rollercoaster/roller coaster spelled with one word or two?

Sometimes Behaves So Strangely

During lunch one day I was listening to a Radiolab podcast I downloaded and I thought it was so... I don't know. I really don't know, but it was definitely extremely interesting. I know that's not saying much because all Radiolab podcasts are interesting, but this one just stood out. Especially the beginning of this one. Just the first 10-15 minutes of it.
Here is the link to it: http://www.radiolab.org/2007/sep/24/behaves-so-strangely/

Gifted

The gifted program. What do you think about it? Do you like it, support it, or do you dislike it and think its bad? I was listening to a radiolab podcast and in it was a guy who disliked gifted program thought that it was labeling the smart students from the bad ones, but  I didn't notice this in my school. I really support gifted programs; I really think it helps Gifted children think and learn. I remember my 7th grade gifted teacher helped my find the best way for me to study after I got a C on a test. After that I always got A's in her class. She was probably my all-time favorite teacher ever.

The thing is, other than the argument about the labeling issue, what's so bad about the gifted program?

Secrets of Success (Radiolab Podcast) - http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2010/jul/26/secrets-of-success/

Creative Writing

So today, I was thinking and doodling with a Sharpie when a poem just came to me. I really quite like it because it is really funny to me and I never really knew I could write poems. It went like this

Happy Days

Happy days
form in ways
I don't
understand

Happy days
are the same
as one
old friend

Happy dayps
are happy days
no matter
what you say

So don't ruin
my happy day
and do
what I say!

I don't know what inspired this poem because that day was neither a day I was very happy about nor a day I where really wanted someone to do something for me.

Life At Princeton

A few weeks ago, I stayed with my sister at Princeton University. At Princeton you can't help but be inspired to learn. The students, the architecture, and especially the professors make a perfect learning environment. At Princeton I listened to lectures about Neuroscience, Psychology, and Organic Chemistry. Although I didn't fully understand the Organic Chemistry lecture, I could still mostly follow the lecture and the material the students learn is great! Still, taking neat notes in chemistry is challenging and I have no idea how my sister does it. At Princeton, I also watched my sister do a Chemistry Lab, and I swear it is just like watching someone do potions in Harry Potter. You have to get your prodect and mix it in with Hexans two times, making sure you release the pressure so your contianer doesn't explode, Then you have to make sure you get the hexans out, but keep your product. You have to cool your product, heat your product, even measure the acidity level of your product. I can't say life at Princeton isn't hard, but it certainly is pretty amazing. No wonder why Princeton is one of the most liked schools in America.

The Most Extraordinary Ordinary

Water. A thing we see everyday in our life. Ice. Another thing we see everyday... well almost everyday. But have you ever thought about how strange ice are water are? I mean ice is the only thing that floats in its solid form. Like butter sinks in melted butter and like copper would sink in liquid copper. Ice, it floats! I know it has something to do with water's structure, but i just don't understand it. I mean when water becomes ice, the density changes from about one to 0.92. I think it has something to do with the water expanding when it freezes, but I'm not sure. Any thoughts?

The Dreamer

"How is it, when we dream we do all three the same time? We write, direct, and watch the film as if we've never seen it before."

So, I was watching this hour long podcast and second half  of it just made me realize like... i don't know. It was the story of a dreamer. A dreamer having a extremely interesting dream. And although radiolab can tell this story much better, I'll summarize it for you people who don't have the time (you can listen to it at http://www.radiolab.org/2007/may/07/  and can just skip to the second half which is right after 30 minutes):

A young man, the dreamer, had traveled a lot to get away from his evil father came back to realize his father had married a new wife. Neither wanted to talk to each other, but they agreed to meet on a sandy beach. They got in an argument and the dreamer killed his father in the fight. He then went home to live with a different person. No one suspected that the dreamer had killed his father. One day he saw the person he was living with go to the train station, so he followed her. The girl went to the very place the dreamer killed his father and looked for evidence.The dreamer ducked behind a bush and saw her pick up a vital piece of evidence. It might have been from shock or from something else, but she sliped and was yelling for someone to save her. Without thinking, the dreamer saved her and they stood face the face with the evidence in between them. A few days later, while the girl was out, the dreamer looked around for that piece of evidence. When he finally found the evidence, all he could this of was ,"If she had such a important piece of evidence, why hasn't she used it yet. Then, with the dreamer still holding the evidence, the girl walked back into her room. There they stood again eye to eye with the piece of evidence between them. Soon after the dreamer heard talking in the girl's room.
"What happened? A robbery!"
"No, I'm quite ashamed actually, I thought I lost something."
The very next morning the dreamer asked the girl why she was keeping the evidence when she knew everything. The girl threw her hands up and exclaimed, "Do you not understand? I love you." And then the dreamer woke up.

I don't think my dreams have ever been so ... good, but this was the dream of  a real person. The strange thing is that while we are dreaming our minds are making this story, directing it, and watching it like we hadn't ever seen it before. Now, how does that work?

Painting Perfect

Today, at about 5 I noticed the sky. It was a grayish blue. Then I noticed the setting sun reflecting on some clouds. I was like,"wow, look at that!" Then I looked down just a little bit and the sky was a peachy pink color. Oh, and the transition between the two colors... they looked as natural as a light blue going into a blue, instead of a pink into a blue. There were no colors in between, it was just grayish blue then peachy pink.  I looked down more and saw trees. Black trees. The darkest green you could ever get without it being black. Then a house, also black. See it? See the real painting? Then I though, "a painting like this happens every day,or even multiple times a day, but how many people actually look at it, and see it as it actually is?"

Grapefruit?

Why is grapefruit called grapefruit? I mean grapefruit isn't the size of a grape, it doesn't look like a grape, and it taste nothing like a grape. Oh, english language, why do you have to be so confusing.

Natually Sparkly

I never knew that in Nature there would be things like a Monarch's chrysalis. I was just looking at one and was shocked to see that there were small sparkles on the outside. As I looked at more, all of the chrysalises had sparkles on them.A light green cocoon with sparkles on it. It was beautiful. I was yet again amazed by the things Mother Nature has in store for us if we just take the time to look and observe.

Another Child Prodigy

Mark Yu, he is such a cute and awsome pianist. I love him. Just go on youtube.

Anyone really CAN make MUSIC

Really, I'm not kidding. Everybody can make music on this website:

http://www.inudge.net/index.en.html

I know it sounds like I am advertising for it, but you don't need to buy anything, I promise... or at least I didn't. But, really, on that website, anything you put would probably sound good. Once I put a smiley face, star, heart, and a peace sign and it STILL sounded good. Just try it and see for yourself.

Real Child Prodigy-Art

I just got on the internet when I saw Yahoo had a article about a child art prodigy. No offense to Yahoo, but I don't exactly trust the articles. Natrually I was still curious so I searched on Youtube a 6 or 7 year old guy called Kieron Willamson. This is a video that came up...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2DRhovPlD0