The Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill

So I thought I'd post some quotes from one of my favorite historical figures, Sir Winston Churchill.

"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."

"Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb."

"From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put."

"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire."

"History will be kind to me for I intend to write it."

"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results."

"It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."

"It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required."

"Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught."

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."

There are a terrible lot of lies going around the world, and the worst of it is half of them are true."

When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home."

"I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter."

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

"The power of man has grown in every sphere, except over himself."

"I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals."

"There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result."

I gather, young man, that you wish to be a Member of Parliament. The first lesson that you must learn is, when I call for statistics about the rate of infant mortality, what I want is proof that fewer babies died when I was Prime Minister than when anyone else was Prime Minister. That is a political statistic."

"Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into a even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill- designed for the purpose."

"Statistics are like a drunk with a lampost: used more for support than illumination."

"A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen."

So there you go...some of my favorites...I've still got this stinking migraine, so I'm not gonna post anymore..except to ask you to comment on my blog background...what do you think of it? And ask you to vote on my poll regarding Politics to the right of the blog...thanks!

Laters..

Time Traveling Summaries of Handgunning Professors.

More random quotes from my Trig Teacher...

Prof: "I've been told that I write with an accent" (after doing a weird dealy-do with one of his letters...kind of hard to explain, but..)

Prof: "We are getting perilously close to the end of the unit. And as always, at the end of a unit, we have a celebration, also known as a test." (Yah...oh boy!)

Prof: "Let's say I ask you to choose your favorite integer that's at least 20 digits long...Yes, I know that's a nearly impossible request since there are so many wonderful digit combinations."

Prof: "I'm easily side-tracked. I'm always running off on wild tangents...or cotangents."

Prof: "Euclid made a HUGE tactical error when he allowed himself to be born so many centuries early." (For those of you who don't know, Euclid was a mathmatician, lived ca. 300BC, and did a lot of work with proving math formulas and such. In fact, one of his books, "The Elements", is number two on the all-time best selling list, distantly behind the Bible. It has been in continous print since he wrote it, and parts of it are still used today in highschool geometry textbooks.)

Prof: "Croton was on the Ball of the Foot of the Boot of Italy."

In class today, we "time traveled" to several different places, learning about mathematicians like Euclid, Thales of Miletus, Pythagorus, etc...It was actually pretty interesting. I like his approach to teaching, which essentially consists of a lot of stories and history of where mathematical principles came from rather then just an attempt at a rote explanation and memorization of formulas. I like it.

I've got a "blooming" migraine, so I'm gonna stop typing now. Oh, and I turned in another English paper today...it was a summary on the article "It's Time to Ban Handguns" by Lance Morrow, TIME magazine, April 1981. Kind of interesting. I had no idea how to write a summary...so we'll see what happens with that paper...

Another Bluetooth Sermon

Well...I got a new phone, a new wallet, a new driver's license, a new bank account...kind of a new everything. :p

The phone is a Samsung MyShot...it cost 9 bucks with the contract, and I'm pretty happy with it so far. I did some crazy things to get some ringtones on it...Let me preface this by saying that my mom and my sister have the same phone as I do.

For my ringtone, it wasn't too bad. I took a song that I like by Matthew West, called The Motions. I downloaded an audio editing program from off the internet, and used it to edit the song to a 30 second clip of the best-for-a-ringtone sort. Basically the chorus, when he sings it the loudest. So, I get that finished, I put it on my jumpdrive and give it to my bro. He sticks it on his Mp3 Player, which has bluetooth capability.

(Something I forgot to mention, the Samsung MyShot has open Bluetooth. That means that not only can you use the bluetooth technology to connect your phone to a headset, but you can also connect to other bluetooth capable devices, and do file transfers between them.)

So now the ringtone audio clip is on my bro's mp3 player...he then connects the phone and the mp3 player using the bluetooth wireless, and transfers the song from his player to my phone. Now I have it on my phone, and can use it as a ringtone...That's not the craziest thing either.

For my mom and sister...they had songs that they had heard on YouTube that they liked, and wanted as ringtones...That took a little more time.. I found a program online that would convert YouTube videos to any other downloadable format. So I could convert a video to AVI, MP3, MP4, OGG, etc...I took the video, converted it to an MP3 format (essentially stripping the audio from the video, and just using the audio), and then did the same thing I did with the Matthew West song...So now we all have custom ringtones on our phones. :)

Playing Frisbee today...We had some Morman's come over and approach our moms, who were sitting off to the side watching us play. Sam and I immediately ran over when we saw them coming, and talked to them for 30-45 minutes, using our WVA training. Interestingly enough, the two questions they never answered were also the ones upon which their faith was based.
1). Why do we need the Book of Mormon (as opposed to only the Bible)?
2). What makes Joseph Smith so special? (i.e...Mohammed allegedly received visions from Allah...how do we know he wasn't right? Why should we believe a man claiming to recieve visions?)

They skirted both of the questions.

Apparently, when the Apostles and Jesus died, the Christian Church died also...well..it started to fragment, and no one had true Authority like Jesus, or His 12 Disciples. So for hundreds of years, the Church grew farther and farther apart, splitting into many many denominations, and ending up with the thousands of different beliefs and churches that we have today. And apparently, since we have so many different churches, and don't really know which one is the right one, God decided that Mr. Smith needed not to go to Washington, but to go grab some gold tablets, and reveal Another Testament of Jesus Christ to the World (as if the first one wasn't good enough?). (Btw, that paragraph was an summary of what the Mormon Elders told us, not what I believe).

Well, unfortunately...I believe in the Bible that it says that whoever Believes in his Heart, and confesses with his mouth that Jesus is Lord will be saved. You don't have to go believe in a certain method of baptism. You don't have to dress in a suit and tie. You don't have to tithe 11.5% of your net income. There are no rules, no regulations, save that you Confess and Believe. You see, when you base a religion on Morals, or principles that MUST be followed in order to achieve this end, the Salvation of our Souls, eventually someone will get there, and achieve everything. And then you have nothing left save the Pride and Glory of having achieved something great. And that kind of destroys the Faith. The whole basis of our Faith is founded on the fact that Man CANNOT redeem himself, and that he needs a higher power to help him. But God's gift is Free, we can do nothing to earn it. He's offered it to all, and all we need to is accept it, but we cannot earn it. We cannot make God owe us something. He owns everything. It is foolishness and folly to believe that we could ever do something that would either make God give us Salvation, or do something good enough to earn it.

It's a GIFT people. Take it or leave it. But when you take it, don't worry your head about "how should I baptize", "Is it okay to clap and dance in church" or "What REALLY happens to the bread and the wine when it's blessed"...concentrate your thoughts, emotions, feelings, and passion on HIM. Serve HIM. Be ye Holy, as He is Holy.

More later...I'm sermoned out. :p

Good Grades Stolen Weighs Heavily on Phone, Wallet

So...I got a 92% on my first English paper...so I'm tickled about that...



But...I put all my stuff in the locker room at school and went to work out. I spent about 1.25 hours in the weight room, and then came back to the locker room to change...I finished getting dressed, and went to put my phone and wallet in my pockets, and..couldn't find them. I cleaned out the locker, went through all my clothes, went through my backpack...still nothing. So I did it again. And again...



The people at the security office were really nice. I filed a complaint with the school, gave all my info, etc...Then I called the police, and filed a report with them. I called my dad, and he got my phone deactivated. I'm supposed to call the Credit Agencies or whatever, and file a fraud report, so my identity can't get stolen and all...but for some reason the automated machines tell me that they can't put out an alert with the info I've provided...whatever...



So...yeah. That made me 25 minutes late to Math class...The teacher was very understanding, luckily...I think he likes me, knows I work hard, and am always at class on time, and have never skipped...so.....and I got a 100% on the Trig test...so that was sweet....



But even the good grades don't exactly pick up the slack for the disappointment and frustration at losing my phone and wallet...



Laters,,

Strider

Graphs of 6 Question Surgeries

My trig teacher, for the first two weeks of class, always wore navy colored khakis, and a white dress shirt...Tuesday, he came in wearing his navy khakis, and a white dress shirt with STRIPES!

Me: Umm...you shirt has stripes on it...that's really gonna mess with my mind today.

Prof: Well, I don't like to think of them as "stripes"..I prefer to think of them as graphs of parallel lines.

Gotta love my trig teacher..
Okay, so he's telling us about the test (this is Tuesday that he's talking on) we have on Thursday (that's earlier today)...we reviewed for the test during the entire lecture period...and he gave us like 50-60 problems to work out...and told us that we'd have the entire 75 minute class period to work on the test come Thursday....

So I spent hours upon hours studying for this test...I did all the problems he reccomended we do to study for the test, I made flashcards to memorize formulas, etc...I get to class today, he hands us a single sheet of paper with 6 questions on it, and...that was the test. I turned and looked at my classmate, and in total shock said, "THIS is it? I studied for 7 hours for THIS? ...I overstudied"...so, yah, 6 questions, worth a total of 100 points...and I was done in 30 minutes, after quadruple-checking the questions for stupid errors...and...hopefully I made none...I wouldn't mind keeping a perfect score in the class...that'd be pretty tight..

Saw a surgery today...can't tell you a thing about it..but it wasn't too bad...:p

Choir and Orchestra start tomorrow..then the Symphony on Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!

Laters..

Prelude in C Sharp Minor

okay, so check out the last song in my playlist. It's Sergei Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C Sharp Minor. It's a little slow at the beginning, though really pretty...but about 2/3 of the way through, it picks up the pace a little bit..it's only 3:48 seconds long, so take the time to listen to the whole thing.

This is the song that I'm playing as a duet with my Piano Teacher in our fall recital...it's...intense. And a little bit difficult...I'm really looking forward to being able to bang it out...it's totally my kind of song.

A Perfect Sextetian Day Care of Frisbee Theory

So, I got a 100% on my first trig quiz. Yipee!!

I played at a wedding this evening with a string sextet. 4 Violins, a Viola (me) and a Cello. Now, really, the instruments didn't play themselves, and I'm not a viola. But those were the instruments used by bipedal humanoids in this wedding. It was an outdoor wedding, and it just about got rained out. It was raining only an hour and a half before the wedding started. But, the rain stopped, the clouds stayed in the sky, and the wedding proceeded. We each got 30 buckaroos, which...really isn't a whole lot compared to what we could make if we played at weddings regurlarly. A String Quartet could charge $800-$1000 for an hour to an hour and a half of music. But hey, I'll take the $30...it's spending money, anyway.

So next week, Orchestra starts full time. I'm pretty stoked. I've got 2 hours of choir, 2 hours of Orchestra, at least one private student, I'm one of the Security Team members, and I'm hoping to be able to teach a theory class. I told the main theory teacher that I didn't want to, but as I think about it more and more, I really can't see myself going the whole year without teaching someone something. I just have to impart the knowledge that God and others have given to me. So...hopefully I can do that..

So, I found out on Tuesday that my English Teacher takes her kid to Day Care in the same building that Orchestra's in, and on the same day. She came by and said hi on Friday...she's not as bad as I first thought...though she does have some quirks and what not...

I'm pretty tired...but stoked (yes, I just used the same word twice in the same blog post..tsk on me) about Frisbee tomorrow! It's been a while since we played, and I can't wait to play again.