Well, here it is - the culminating and ultimately definitive climax of my year and a half (2 day a week) love affair with Theory of Knowledge at Aurora High School. Go figure, this is my final blog post as well (how brilliantly timed, I know).
I'd like to take a moment just to sit right down and tell you all a story of my experience with ToK - in the form of an annotated list of course!
1. Year one begins. ToK still has that 'new car smell' whenever we walk into Mr. Norton's classroom. The whole 2 day a week thing is unique and makes us feel special - it is a nice bit of elitism that helped thread all us IB'ers together. The final recollection of the day is one that resounds in everyone's hearts: Fish do not have ears, although it would seem that they can still hear. Go figure.
2. Year one warms up. At this point, we had no idea just what ToK was really about. Heck, I don't think I actually figured that out until about two weeks ago (more on that later). In a fit of self directed learning, we tossed our hats into a debate about Egoism with Ayn Rand being the target of a much deserved jeering.
3. Year one makes us question if this is all really necessary. I still contend the following was just an extension of Mr. Norton being incredibly bored. He opened the class by throwing out a handful of props gathered from his desk drawer and telling us to make a game. We ended up with some sort of ultimately not funny version of American idol where the only clever bit was Puneet's impersonation and Kimson's absolute cluelessness about pop culture. After which Norton passively suggested that what had just happened was in fact, weird.
4. We get labtops. At this point, the year was effectively over despite it being only the beginning of second semester. From here on we would be 'working' on ToK presentations.
5. We watch ToK presentations and then do our own. The seniors presented to us some of the most boring intellectual inquisitions under a slurry of obvious distaste for what they were doing. We promised each other that in no way would ours be that boring - after which we proceeded to give some of the most boring intellectual inquisitions under a slurry of obvious distaste for what we were doing. Woops.
6. During the summer, we learn that Mr. Wilcox would be teaching ToK from there on. Uh oh... actual work.
7. Senior year starts. What is all this nonsense of a ToK syllabus? We are actually following a prescribed path? Wowzers.
8. We watch the daily show. 'Nuff said.
9. The first essay is assigned. The first essay is turned in. The first essay is significantly curved; Mr Wilcox comments with it being "pretty much what he expected."
10. We watch the daily show again. Still 'nuff said.
11. We have a project about Languages. Standard Mandarin = not fun. I've already learned 6x the info from junior year.
12. Prescribed topics are handed out as we 'work' on our final ToK presentation. Oddly enough, even with the regime change, 'work' still requires the sarcastic quotes.
13. ToK presentations were vaguely interesting this year. Time considerations are significantly higher than they probably should be, but whatever. I write my ToK essay and have an absolutely horrendous time at it. Here's to vague pronoun references and the significant reoccurance of the words: logical, reasoning, critical, areas of knowing, perception and emotion.
14. I realize it's been a good year.
I'll miss you ToK, especially as I daydream in the now band occupied 8th period without you. No longer do I have the most unique element of a schedule in the school. No more ridiculous discussions about fallacy and perception or why all history teachers hate math. No more 'work.' No more considering how I know something - back to just accepting it.
It's been fun.
OH! I ALMOST FORGOT!
15. Special Olympics.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
On Orange Juice and Why I Hate It
Taste is subjective. It is an element of perception that is unique to the individual, and indeed one that varies widely between each of us.
Still, I posit that if there were one foodstuff that could be universally considered a slew of negative adjectives (horrible, tantric, vomitous) it would be orange juice. I stake this opinion on the grounds of taste composition, and social effect.
First, the taste composition. What exactly is orange juice supposed to be? It takes the natural deliciousness of a citrus sphere and convolutes it to the point of disguising ick. From my experienced tongue, orange juice has two distinct trends going on. There is the sweet wholesome motif, which is represented by the initial touch of your sensory stick. Then there is the 'edgy' in your face flavor blast. The only problem is, the textural requisites of wholesome become moot in the face of an edgy blast. Propagating issues, the 'flavor blast' is not necessarily a good flavor at all; it depends on the oranges used. I'd say that there is about a 73% chance that bad oranges were used. And then there is the situation where companies will try and sweeten their beverages in order to hide those lackluster oranges. Furthermore, the taste will have a secondary depreciation as the flavor disperses. This is called an aftertaste by most. This 'aftertaste' is just... i shiver ladies and gentleman. SHIVER.
Also, under taste composition: pulp. 'Nuff said.
Secondly, there is the social impact of orange juice. We drink it primarily for breakfast. Therefore, you feel like an imbecile for drinking it any other part of the day. Any beverage that influences you're self-image based on temporal consumption is just wrong in my book. Also, orange juice is malicious in what it forces upon your physical archetypes. It makes one's tongue swell to sop up the remnants of flavor lingering in mouth. This will lead to an almost reflective look of idiocy upon the drinker as well as a sad, but immediate regret for drinking. That is just an unpleasant thing to experience both primarily and secondarily.
Therefore, orange juice is the worst drink on earth. Just, ew.
Still, I posit that if there were one foodstuff that could be universally considered a slew of negative adjectives (horrible, tantric, vomitous) it would be orange juice. I stake this opinion on the grounds of taste composition, and social effect.
First, the taste composition. What exactly is orange juice supposed to be? It takes the natural deliciousness of a citrus sphere and convolutes it to the point of disguising ick. From my experienced tongue, orange juice has two distinct trends going on. There is the sweet wholesome motif, which is represented by the initial touch of your sensory stick. Then there is the 'edgy' in your face flavor blast. The only problem is, the textural requisites of wholesome become moot in the face of an edgy blast. Propagating issues, the 'flavor blast' is not necessarily a good flavor at all; it depends on the oranges used. I'd say that there is about a 73% chance that bad oranges were used. And then there is the situation where companies will try and sweeten their beverages in order to hide those lackluster oranges. Furthermore, the taste will have a secondary depreciation as the flavor disperses. This is called an aftertaste by most. This 'aftertaste' is just... i shiver ladies and gentleman. SHIVER.
Also, under taste composition: pulp. 'Nuff said.
Secondly, there is the social impact of orange juice. We drink it primarily for breakfast. Therefore, you feel like an imbecile for drinking it any other part of the day. Any beverage that influences you're self-image based on temporal consumption is just wrong in my book. Also, orange juice is malicious in what it forces upon your physical archetypes. It makes one's tongue swell to sop up the remnants of flavor lingering in mouth. This will lead to an almost reflective look of idiocy upon the drinker as well as a sad, but immediate regret for drinking. That is just an unpleasant thing to experience both primarily and secondarily.
Therefore, orange juice is the worst drink on earth. Just, ew.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
On Virtual Reality
Worlds within a world. Secondary layers upon half truths and ambiguity; everything that virtual reality allows us. It is an escape from the constraints of the normal, boring physics and much more importantly, from the traditional action reaction. See, in a world completely programmed to be artificial, there are no 'real' punishments, no 'guilt', and no reason to conform. As long as there is a line or two of coding for it, one can really do anything.
If all of these acertations ring true, then can it really be said that any virtual reality is immersive? Immersive of course being used here to denote a blurring of the lines between the two worlds, an almost mental projection of the two inter-meshing. I purport that most people purposely destroy this sense of continuity by abusing their anonymity online. Which, I must say, is a complete d-bag move.
So then, where or what place does virtual reality take in our ever evolving lives? Well, as technology increases, the sense of physical involvement becomes more intense, leading me to believe that eventually the two will be indistinguishable minus the extraneous bits if interesting powers or perquisites. This is in itself a dangerous precipice, for if the virtual world is more interesting than ours, it is natural that the real one becomes the less desirable. See AVATAR support groups for example. For an example of this kind of immersion though, look up Disney Quest - by far the coolest of Disney attractions.
I think though, that that would be sweet. I've always wanted to shoot fireballs on command.
Too bad the real world has the food; I think I'm stuck here.
If all of these acertations ring true, then can it really be said that any virtual reality is immersive? Immersive of course being used here to denote a blurring of the lines between the two worlds, an almost mental projection of the two inter-meshing. I purport that most people purposely destroy this sense of continuity by abusing their anonymity online. Which, I must say, is a complete d-bag move.
So then, where or what place does virtual reality take in our ever evolving lives? Well, as technology increases, the sense of physical involvement becomes more intense, leading me to believe that eventually the two will be indistinguishable minus the extraneous bits if interesting powers or perquisites. This is in itself a dangerous precipice, for if the virtual world is more interesting than ours, it is natural that the real one becomes the less desirable. See AVATAR support groups for example. For an example of this kind of immersion though, look up Disney Quest - by far the coolest of Disney attractions.
I think though, that that would be sweet. I've always wanted to shoot fireballs on command.
Too bad the real world has the food; I think I'm stuck here.
Friday, January 15, 2010
On Puneet - Exemplar of Reality or Illigitimate Hound Dog?
Part 1 was so legit I thought I'd begin again for 2010.
PART DEU
This year Puneet is pulling out all the stops! Here are my grievances.
1. Keeping gum in gold business card holder. (1/1/2010)
2. Fixed the Decorum... Jerk. (1/2/2010)
3. Wearing an excessively loud green v-neck shirt on a postdate to an extremely loud red shirt (1/3/2010)
4. French or Urdu? (1/4/2010)
5. That sadness. AYFKM? (1/5/2010)
6. Dekulakization. 'Nuff said. (1/6/2010)
7. Claiming that laugh is real. (1/7/2010)
8. The sound of music. Really? (1/12/2010)
This is different enough to count as another blog post.
PART DEU
This year Puneet is pulling out all the stops! Here are my grievances.
1. Keeping gum in gold business card holder. (1/1/2010)
2. Fixed the Decorum... Jerk. (1/2/2010)
3. Wearing an excessively loud green v-neck shirt on a postdate to an extremely loud red shirt (1/3/2010)
4. French or Urdu? (1/4/2010)
5. That sadness. AYFKM? (1/5/2010)
6. Dekulakization. 'Nuff said. (1/6/2010)
7. Claiming that laugh is real. (1/7/2010)
8. The sound of music. Really? (1/12/2010)
This is different enough to count as another blog post.
On My Own Ransom Note
Last night, in a flurry of rapid fire heel clicking, I tripped and slammed my head against the keyboard. Luckily, out came a senior narrative piece which vaguely resembled my own ransom note.
With a bit of creative editing, I had fashioned it into something fantastic; oddly enough, my ransom note did indeed fit the perquisite of answering the question "Who am I?" That's disturbing in its own right.
I also wrote a script of me talking to my own clone. It's wacky, filled with terrible jokes, and somewhat blatantly sarcastic. As an eagle once said, "FOOOKWAAAA!"
In other news, my favorite direction is north, color is lime green, food is japanese, language also japanese, punctuation mark is the hyphen, tornado is Jim, and time of day 9:54. Ergo I shall post.
With a bit of creative editing, I had fashioned it into something fantastic; oddly enough, my ransom note did indeed fit the perquisite of answering the question "Who am I?" That's disturbing in its own right.
I also wrote a script of me talking to my own clone. It's wacky, filled with terrible jokes, and somewhat blatantly sarcastic. As an eagle once said, "FOOOKWAAAA!"
In other news, my favorite direction is north, color is lime green, food is japanese, language also japanese, punctuation mark is the hyphen, tornado is Jim, and time of day 9:54. Ergo I shall post.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
On Writing through the Noise
I wanted to try writing a fake ToK post where I pretend to care about something that I clearly do not. I also wrote it with the screen off, so any grammatical errors are straight up me. The result is as follows.
I am currently in a room where everyone is spouting bits of insanity, thereby causing me to be rather incapable of continuous academic thought. I hesitate between each of these sentences as I lose concentration. I'm forced to wonder whether this is a spawn of the current circumstances' intensity or a new development in my cognitive psyche. Generally, I pride myself for an almost pirate sense of concentration (pirates of course being somewhere between quite and very focused at all times).
So now, as I muse this situation I am currently locked in, I become introspective. What's up with that? Is it not akin to dragons firing their heated breath down upon the unsuspecting village? It seems strange that an approaching obstacle leads me not to examine the outside universe, but the inside me. How annoying.
Seriously; have you ever tried writing something with Kimson sitting next to you? It is like a giant gnat that needs to be slapped.
I do however believe that this is the natural tendency of a human being, to question first one's own inadequacies and then return for the outside world when one's self reveals no fault (we are incapable of seeing our imminent faults as a defense mechanism, I think) That is the nature of a thinker. I certainly like to consider myself a thinker.
Therefore, while I suppose this loud room has left me with a recognition of self. Even though I have temporarily left academics behind, I've gained.
Or, I've gained nothing. Either way, that's something.
Wait... What?
I am currently in a room where everyone is spouting bits of insanity, thereby causing me to be rather incapable of continuous academic thought. I hesitate between each of these sentences as I lose concentration. I'm forced to wonder whether this is a spawn of the current circumstances' intensity or a new development in my cognitive psyche. Generally, I pride myself for an almost pirate sense of concentration (pirates of course being somewhere between quite and very focused at all times).
So now, as I muse this situation I am currently locked in, I become introspective. What's up with that? Is it not akin to dragons firing their heated breath down upon the unsuspecting village? It seems strange that an approaching obstacle leads me not to examine the outside universe, but the inside me. How annoying.
Seriously; have you ever tried writing something with Kimson sitting next to you? It is like a giant gnat that needs to be slapped.
I do however believe that this is the natural tendency of a human being, to question first one's own inadequacies and then return for the outside world when one's self reveals no fault (we are incapable of seeing our imminent faults as a defense mechanism, I think) That is the nature of a thinker. I certainly like to consider myself a thinker.
Therefore, while I suppose this loud room has left me with a recognition of self. Even though I have temporarily left academics behind, I've gained.
Or, I've gained nothing. Either way, that's something.
Wait... What?
On Study Hall
I found this post just chilling in my list of drafts, so I figured I might as well post it.
It is an institution that most students get to experience. I, however, have not ever and will not ever be placed in a study hall. This leads an to an interesting outside perspective, I believe.
I cant for the life of me understand what it is people spend an entire period every day doing. High school students are not assigned nearly as much work as we make it out to be and have an over abundance of time to do it as long as we are not useless bafoons (some clearly are).
And then, what baffles me further is how some people manage two study halls a day. That is TWO WHOLE PERIODS of doing nothing every day. It is so utterly useless, and I am incapable of understanding whatever impetus drives them to think such is required. Do they really have so little care for academics as to shrug off the chance for at least one additional class?
All that being said... I wish I had a study hall. I like to sleep, and if for nothing else, it seems quite capable of providing an outlet for REM.
It is an institution that most students get to experience. I, however, have not ever and will not ever be placed in a study hall. This leads an to an interesting outside perspective, I believe.
I cant for the life of me understand what it is people spend an entire period every day doing. High school students are not assigned nearly as much work as we make it out to be and have an over abundance of time to do it as long as we are not useless bafoons (some clearly are).
And then, what baffles me further is how some people manage two study halls a day. That is TWO WHOLE PERIODS of doing nothing every day. It is so utterly useless, and I am incapable of understanding whatever impetus drives them to think such is required. Do they really have so little care for academics as to shrug off the chance for at least one additional class?
All that being said... I wish I had a study hall. I like to sleep, and if for nothing else, it seems quite capable of providing an outlet for REM.
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