The Rest of Sisco-Land

Vacation is Over

2005-11-28T21:11:00.000-05:00

Now that Thanksgiving vacation is over, I shall tell you about the whole thing at once.

Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2005- I told you about this in my last post, The Wrong Trousers and Mother Goose Rocks.

Thursday, Nov. 24, 2005 aka Thanksgiving Day- Usually we go to New York to spend the holiday with our relatives, but this year we stayed home. We decided to go out for breakfast and we drove around looking for a place that was open. By time we found one, Cracker Barrel, it was closer to lunch time. Me, my mother, and my father got the Thanksgiving lunch/dinner that they had, my sister got a breakfast sampler, and my brother got blueberry pancakes. The Thanksgiving meal had turkey, ham, stuffing, sweet potato, cranberry sauce, choice of vegetable, and small biscuits/corn muffins but only small amount of each, so it ended up being about the size of a normally large restaurant meal. And it had pie! Everyone had a different one, I liked my chocolate pecan pie. The meal was big and so we didn't have any other meal except for cereal at night. My brother complained that we only had one meal that day, though I continually pointed out that everyone else had two (he didn't have the cereal).

Friday, Nov. 25, 2005 aka Black Friday- This year was the first in a while that we went shopping early on Black Friday. We left around 6 am and first went to Target. There, among other things, we got Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for $5.88 plus tax. We then went to Kohl's and Best Buy, where we bought nothing. Lastly, we went to Staples back in Hershey, the place I was waiting for the whole time. At Staples they had 512 MB USB flash drives for only $9.99 plus tax after rebates, but by the time that we got there, they were out, though they had slightly different one's for $12.99 plus tax after rebates. There were two models at this price, I got the smaller one and my brother got the larger one. You'll probably be able to see them at school on Tuesday.

Saturday, Nov. 26, 2005- I slept in, waking around 11 am or noon or so. When my mother got home at 1 pm, me and my brother scrambled to get ready to go out. When we were almost there, I suggested to my mother to let us out of the car here so that we could walk the rest of the way and she could get going on her way since she was runny late. My brother inexplicably took longer to get out of the car and so I was way ahead of him the whole time as we walked the last leg of the way to Shank Park. Yes, it was Ultimate in Shank Park! There was a very large turnout and so we split into 4 teams and had a small tournament. My team won and they congratulated me on catching the winning throw for both games. We then went over to Caitlyn Craig house for pizza, monopoly, Super Smash Brothers on their N64, Scrabble, and I am Sam. Not all activities were done by me, the great amount of people necesitated that we subconsciously split into different activities. It was a great time, at Shank Park and at the Craig's house.

Sunday, Nov. 27, 2005- Didn't really do much, just relaxed.

Monday, Nov. 28, 2005 aka Today- Did some homework, wrote this, and ate some chocolate covered raisins. And we finally got around to openning the USB flash drives from Friday. With the different skins that mine comes with it can be blue, bright pink/red/magenta, or brushed steel. And it's all tiny. And it's 512 MB. I like it. The first thing I put on it is Smithers: The Video Game. It is a great game made by Joe Gershenson and you can get it at his site over here, at the bottome of the page. Inspired by Zach's comment on Joe's Xanga, I plan on making a Lindsmer video game soon.

This was a pretty enjoyable vacation.

Captured!

2005-11-23T15:56:00.000-05:00

I have captured Feathers McGraw! He's right here!

Today in English class we watched The Wrong Trousers. It was a good time, very funny, as my class mates can atest.Today starts the Thanksgiving vacation. We don't have to go back to school until Tuesday! This shall be fun.

Already on the vacation I have discovered a new music sensation, Mother Goose Rocks. The song snippets sound good but what is really great is getting to here the whole length of Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes at their site or at Albino Blacksheep. What makes it even funnier than a nursery song sung to rock music is the flash animation that accompanies it. Featuring "Bono, Bush, Blair, Benedict, and Oprah" it is pretty funny in my opinion.

Tags: Feathers McGraw, Wallace and Gromit, The Wrong Trousers, English, Mr. Sterner, Thanksgiving, Mother Goose Rocks

Back from HP

2005-11-18T19:15:00.000-05:00

When this post was posted at my xanga, it was the 42nd post there. This next paragraph pertains to that.

Hello for the 42nd time! Big occasion this is, my 42nd post! Zach said people seem to be using smilies less now a days and this is an occasion to celebrate so I will combine both problems into one solution. Smilie formation!

I just got home (a half hour ago) from the forth Harry Potter movie. A went with a largeish group composed mainly of juniors excepting, of course, my brother Sean and myself. It started earlier this week when the people at my lunch table decided to all go together to the movie and that Felicity would collect our money and buy our tickets ahead of time. Yesterday at lunch I gave Felicity money for myself and then later at Cooking Club I gave her additional money for Sean. This morning Sean payed me back for his ticket and at lunch I was told where we were meeting after school to get to the theater. I told Sean this before our math classes, he has class across the hall from me during 5DE. After school we gathered outside the main office and then proceded into the parking lot to ride in two cars over to Cocoaplex. There were ten of us at that time so we fit quite nicely. We got there much earlier than I usually arrive at movies and so was able to see all of the pre-previews things on the screen twice. More people arrived, namely Josiah and Fauzzie (sp!) though separately. The movie was good, more on that later. After the lights went back on I discovered that Luba and Tim had seen the movie too, right behind us. Then in the theater's lobby I discovered more people, namely Zach and Kaylyn (sp!), most definitely separate.

This message is viewable at three locations: Sisco Inferno, The Rest of Sisco-Land, and my Xanga.

Tags: 42nd, smilie formation, smilies, Harry Potter, Sisco Inferno, Brian Sisco

It's over.

2005-11-04T10:58:00.000-05:00

Today I finished Mostly Harmless in the short time after I had finished my Word Wealth quiz and not everyone else had.

SPOILER WARNING: What follows is my commentary on the end of Mostly Harmless encrypted in Rot-13 to ensure the ending is not spoiled for those who do not wish to know the ending.

Whfg nf fbzrbar gbyq zr, gur raq bs Zbfgyl Unezyrff, gur svsgu obbx bs gur Uvgpuuvxre'f Thvgr gb gur Tnynkl gevybtl, pbzcyrgryl haqbrf jung gur bgure 4 obbxf fcrag qbvat. Abg sne vagb gur svefg obbx gur Rnegu vf zbfg qrsvavgyl qrfgeblrq. Gur frevrf gura tbrf ba nobhg Neguhe'f zvfnqiragherf va gur havirefr. Ohg va gur svsgu obbx gurl tb onpx, jbexvat nebhaq gur snpg gung vg qbrfa'g rkvfg ol tbvat gb n cbvag nybat gur "cebonovyvgl nkvf" jurer vg rkvfgf orpnhfr vg vf n "qvfpbagvahbhfyl cebonoyr bowrpg". Enaqbz vf gnxra gurer ol gur arj, oveq-yvxr Thvqr, ohg ubj Neguhe naq Sbeq trg gurer naq ubj Gevyyvna trg gurer vf abg rkcynvarq ng nyy. Vg qbrfa'g rira znxr frafr gung gurl pbhyq trg gurer. Gur cvax fuvc Sbeq tbg sebz Ryivf jbhyqa'g unir gur grpuabybtl gb whzc nybat gur cebonoyvyvgl nkvf abe jbhyq gur sbhe-oregu Uehaqv ehanobhg Gevyyvna hfrq. Ohg gur gur obbxf nera'g fhccbfrq gb znxr frafr naljnl, fb nyy vf svar. Rkprcg sbe gur cneg jurer nyy bs gur znva punenpgref qvr. Nsgre gurl unir nffrzoyrq va n Ybaqba pyho, Neguhe svaqf bhg gur anzr bs pyho'f cebcevrgbe naq gur anzr bs gur pyho. Chg gbtrgure gurl znxr Fgenieb Zhryyre Orgn, n fcryyvat inevngvba bs Fgniebzhyn Orgn qhr gb Neguhe bayl urnevat gur anzr nybhaq naq guvaxvat vg jnf 2 jbeqf vafgrnq bs 3 naq n cynarg vafgrnq bs n pyho. Fvapr uvf noqhpgvba ol Ntenwnt va gur guveq obbx ur xarj ur pbhyq abg qvr hagvy ernpuvat Fgenibzhyn Orgn, fvapr ur svanyyl qvq, ur qvq. Nf gur svefg obbx ortna, fb gur svsgu obbx raqrq.

They were all good, I suggest you read the trilogy, all 5 of them, if you can.

After school today I played Ultimate with the other people. I had a fun time, as did the others, and I look forward to the next time were playing.

Mathy Math

2005-11-03T16:38:00.000-05:00

Today was a team math test in Mr. Hamilton's room. There was 100 problems to do in 30 minutes with everyone working together. Before starting we went out into the hall for a group photo. Unfortunately we didn't get an after picture. The questions were difficult, with everyone having ones they were perplexed with.

Today I read chapter 1 of Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. After reading the prologue, the strange setting became more known and so this chapter seemed less far out and less funny, though it maintained it's high quality.

Tags: Mathy Math, Math, Mr. Hamilton, perplex, perplexing, perplexed, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, DAOITMK, chapter 1, Brian Sisco

Muy Comico y Feliz Cumpleaños

2005-11-02T21:26:00.000-05:00

From Google Blog I have found a video similar to the Numa Numa, but lesser. Behold, two Chinese students "singing" I Want It That Way.

Today we had a sabatical from learning in English class due today being Mr. Sterner's birthday. There were drinks, my favorite being the watermelon juice, and food. The selection of delectables included chocolate chip cookies, both homemade and store-bought, peanuts, donut holes, donuts, and Pringles. Mr. Sterner show cased his guitar skills, aweing most of the class. Some took the opportunity to get some homework done, Vinny worked on his chem and Madi worked on her pre-calc. Most simply enjoyed each other's company, the food, and not having class.

Tags: Google Blog, Google Video, I Want It That Way, English class, English, Mr. Sterner's Birthday, Mr. Sterner, peanuts, Brian Sisco

Penultimate Bread

2005-10-30T21:53:00.000-05:00

I asked my brother what kind of bread he was eating and he said, "penultimate bread". I responded saying how he was incorrect and such. A google search for penultimate bread turned up 107,000 results. But there were only 18 results for "penultimate bread". Quotation marks are critical. I hope that number will grow to 19 after the publishing of this post.

Tags: penultimate bread, penultimate, bread, Google

Pretty Colors!

2005-10-30T17:43:00.000-05:00

They're o so pretty, you can't deny it. And they're in motion. What are they? 250,000 bouncy balls bouncing down a San Francisco street. Sony took on this endeavor to advertise their BRAVIA televisions though they don't tell you until the end of the commercial. The commercial is stunning and you can see it here. They have a gallery of 14 photos on their site. The commercial is astounding, the colors in motion, merging order and chaos, bounce and roll. It opens panning around the San Franciso skyline, then there are three, and then the swarm comes. The frog hopping out of the drain pipe is a nice touch.

In other news, I've just added "chao" to Merriam-Webster's Open Dictionary. Right now it is at the top as it was the most recently added, but once it gets covered with newer entries you'll have to search in the search box at the bottom of that page. Here's what the entry looks like, if you don't care to go there.

Search results for 'chao':

chao (noun) : simply the singular of chaos, one single unit of chaos. pronounced similar to "cow": It used in this couplet: To diverse gods Do mortals bow; Holy Cow, and Wholly Chao. —Greg Hill and Kerry Thornley, Principia Discordia, 1965; Submitted by: Brian Sisco from Pennsylvania on Oct. 30, 2005 20:43

Tags: pretty colors, 250, bouncy balls, 250,000, bouncy balls, Sony BRAVIA, Sony, BRAVIA, Merriam-Webster Open Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, chaos, chao

DAOITMK

2005-10-29T20:56:00.000-05:00

I've discovered a revolutionary book, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow. I haven't only just started it so I don't fully know how good it is, I called it revolutionary because the author released the entire book under a Creative Commons license, the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license more specifically. Anyone can freely copy, distribute, display, and perform the work and they can also make derivative works.

Just from the prologue it appears it will be a good read. The humor even begins before the book starts.

I’m releasing the entire text of this book as a free, freely redistributable e-book. You can download it, put it on a P2P net, put it on your site, email it to a friend, and, if you’re addicted to dead trees, you can even print it.

"Addicted to dead trees", I laughed when I read that bit, though my mother didn't think it was funny. For quicker access to the book, I saved it to my USB key and made a shorter URL for it, http://daoitmk.blogspot.com. Do not be alarmed by the .blogspot.com ending, it is not a blog. The entire template is

<meta equiv="Refresh" content=".001; URL=http://www.craphound.com/down/Cory_Doctorow_-_Down_and_Out_in_the_Magic_Kingdom.htm">

so it instantly takes you to the book, leaving no trace of a blog.

I must continue reading.

8:45

2005-10-27T14:03:00.000-05:00

1. At 8:45 am this morning I was in Visual Basic. VB is my favorite class, I enjoy it more than any of my other classes.

2. I got a time of 8:45 when I ran the mile today in gym class. Before we headed outside, Mrs. Fricke told us the times we would have to get to get the National Physical Fitness Award (50th percentile) or the Presidential Physical Fitness Award (85th percentile). For the National, the see this chart, and for the Presidential, see this chart. I failed to get the National by 1:15 and the Presidential by 2:25. Yeah… I'm not so fit, but I think I improved over my previous times.

The next period was the 3rd chem quiz on polyatomic ions. Those are so much harder to memorize than the elements' symbols because they have around 5 parts compared the elements' symbol being only 1 or 2 letters. For sulfate, SO₄^2-, for example, you need to know that it is S, then O, followed by a 4, a two, and a negative sign. I think Mrs. Bechtel should have gone over them with us in class the day before each quiz, because now she's testing us on material she never taught us. Or maybe I should just study.

Tags: Visual Basic, VB, gym, the mile, polyatomic ions, Mrs. Bechtel, Brian Sisco

Triangle!

2005-10-25T20:17:00.000-05:00

Ah ha! Today in VB Ms. Schmoyer taught us menus, but did not give us PA Triangle. But it was on the calendar at 8:45 when I downloaded it. For non-VBers, it is the instructions, saved as a Word doc, that is on the calendar. She gives us a paper copy in class, but she also puts it on the calendar in case we need another copy. I am using this opportunity to get a head start on the program, allowing me to show my classmates how I am how ever far I get tonight when they haven't even started. I know I am overly competitive, but it's fun!

Did you know that currently the top result for Mrs. Balanda is this blog? Here, try it: http://www.google.com/search?q=mrs.%20balanda. Without the "mrs.", I'm not even in the top 200. I find it humorous how that little word propels me up to the top from who knows how far down. This will probably go on longer because I'm talking about it. It seems Google is only listing my index in their results, so I think to keep this going I will have to mention Balanda weekly as the index only shows the last 7 days' posts. What's bugging me is that I'm only the 4th result for brian sisco (http://www.google.com/search?q=brian%20sisco), my own name! I might not be able to pry wikipedia from the top two slots.

Tags: PA Triangle, triangle, Google, Mrs. Balanda, Brian Sisco

Happy Mole Day!

2005-10-24T15:22:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, October 23, was Mole Day. As it fell on a Sunday this year and most high schoolers don't want to come to school just for chemistry on a Sunday, Mrs. Bechtel celebrated Mole Day in her classes today. It was quite a class, especially when compared to other days in chemistry. A good amount of us brought in food, more than the other classes, according to Mrs. Bechtel. The food had to be mole themed, such as Coca Mola, guacamole, caramole (mine), moleasses cookies, mole dirt (chocolate whip cream topped with crumbled Oreos and a gummy worm), etc. After everybody had a chance to get some food, Mrs. Bechtel started the class with her best joke, which undoubtably was funny, as shown by the class's reaction. She followed the joke with some mole themed songs and jokes.
Hey look what Robert Becker has to say about Mole Day at http://mailer.uwf.edu/listserv/wa.exe?A2=ind9710&L=chemed-l&D=1&P=43390

Tags: Mole Day, moles, mole, Mrs. Bechtel, Bechtel

Tropical Storm Alpha is Coming

2005-10-22T21:47:00.000-05:00

Tropical Storm Alpha is coming! This year's storms are breaking records izquierda y la derecha. This is the first time ever in the history of using names to name storms, that they had to resort to the Greek alphabet. It appears the storm is not ready for release yet. They should probably work some of the bugs out before releasing the beta version. Look at all the bugs, it doesn't even hit the US.

How can they expect to get many users with such low accuracy like that?

Anyway, with all these records being broken, this is seriously looking like the end of the world. Get ready, actually, you should already be ready. But don't feel too bad if you're not, I'm not either.

Tags: tropical storm alpha

Bingo!

2005-10-19T16:03:00.000-05:00

Today's German Club meeting had a high turnout as usual. It is the largest of the four language clubs (Spanish, German, Latin, and French) though it is the second least spoken (Latin being the least). It isn't just a higher percentage of the people who take German participating in the club than for the other languages (though it is probably true), but because many people who don't take German are in the club, including myself. And it makes sense. So far all the meetings had plenty of food, the dues are lower than in some of the other clubs, and German is not the language of business in the club. Most importantly, the club makes an annual field trip to Shady Maple, a smorgasbord only 1 hour and 4 minutes away in Lancaster County. I never knew that smorgasbord was from Swedish, did you?

The majority of the meeting was spent playing bingo. The caller called the numbers out in German and then in English while another person wrote them on the chalkboard, which made it even easier than bingo usually is. I was not amongst the winners, though my brother won a small monkey figurine. The bounty of soda, Oreos, chips, and pretzels made the meeting complete.

Due to time constraints, the distributions of advent calendars to be sold was postponed to tomorrow. These calendars have chocolate behind the doors. They want each of us to sell 5 of them for $3 each.

Yesterday I added some technorati tags for searching by blog to my template and this is the first post I have put tags in. I put them, except for the one with the previous link, on the top of the post invisibly. Do you think I should instead put them visibly at the bottom like most other tag users?

The Cows Have Danced.

2005-10-15T13:53:00.000-05:00

Today was the PSAT/NMSQT at the high school. The test has Critical Reading, Mathematics, and Writing sections. I didn't spend much time preparing for it. I looked through the preparation booklet, but ignored the questions since I had put off preparing to around 10 o'clock last night. I disregarded preparing because this test has absolutely no effect except giving us practice for when we take it again next year, when it counts.

I got back around 11 and went to sleep until 2:15. I had a peanut butter and banana sandwich and now we are deciding where we should go. Sean wants to go the homecoming dance and we were also deciding between going to Hersheypark and going to the new 91,200 sq. ft. GIANT in Camphill. The older GIANT is 42,000 sq. ft. for comparison. Though the new one is quite large, it still isn't as large or amazing as a Wegmans. Last year Mrs. Balanda told us in study hall how awesome Wegmans stores are and she is correct.

My sister, my mother, and I went to Hersheypark while Sean stayed at home to get ready for the dance. When we returned, he was not yet ready and so we had to wait. When we brought him there and saw all the other people, I decided I would go too, and so we went to GIANT (the local one, not the new Camphill one) and then home for me to change.

At the dance there were two large screens in the gym with the video for the music being projected onto them from behind. The music played the whole time there in the gym, and outside the gym, in the lobby there were soda cans (Coke, Diet Coke, and Sprite) for all. I had two, a Diet Coke and a Sprite. I a fair amount of dancing, often being watched by others. I disliked how they did not play dance songs such as The Twist, Macarena, or the Limbo.

After coming home, we had apple pie. It was good.

The Cows Have Come Home

2005-10-14T21:37:00.000-05:00

After arriving at Granada around 5, I found only Sarah Ernest, who came there with the float. I then went around to the front entrace of the building that contains the theatre and got a candy bar. I then crossed the street and got a fun size candy bar from the front entrance of the factory. At both locations the security guard told how they don't normally give the candy to people who just come off the street. I wonder who the candy is meant for.

Upon my return there were more people and they continued to arrive. It was sometime until the parade started. The parade left Granada, went down Chocolate Avenue, went around the back of the park along Park Boulevard. It then went in the parking lot through the Chocolate World entrance and continued through the parking lot to the stadium. John Snyder and Alex Lamoreaux, who deserved it, got to sit atop the float sitting on folding chairs playing War at a card table. The parade was an exhilarating experience. I loved being on the open air, moving float waving at the people, clapping, and dancing to the music playing in the boombox beside me. After the parade ended in the stadium, I found Mrs. Shirk and then waited for her to returen with the jug for collecting money for the children in Ecuador who need heart surgery. Working together, my brother and I got a lot of money for the cause from the game's attendees. I am eager to find out, hopefully on Monday, how much we raised. After we had went through both sides of the stadium collecting, we returned the jug to Mrs. Shirk and then got some water as we were both thirsty. Then we left to beat the trafic that would ensue at the end of the game.

After arriving at home I had a late dinner of scrambled eggs, two small sausage links, two spinach nuggets, milk, and some banana cake with chocolate icing. It was good.

Mundee

2005-10-14T10:14:00.000-05:00

Today I saw Dustin in the hallway between VB and World Cultures IH. I hadn't seen him since before he termed at Hersheypark. He told me he went to our school, but I had never seen him here until today.

At the beginning of Spanish class I gave Josiah the stuff he left at the library on Tuesday, his assignment book, physics notebook, and Spanish textbook. He seemed very grateful for the delivery and thanked me.

After school there was a most fortunate series of events. After going to my locker after the pep rally, I went to Miss Seyfert's room for the Let's Get Real meeting. She promptly asked me to run two magnets she had borrowed to Mrs. Shirk's room, where I discovered that there was an International Club meeting today. I went back to Miss Seyfert's room for the brief meeting and then went to the International Club meeting. It was a nice meeting, only a handful of attendees but we ate a whole package of Oreos and got much done. Mrs. Shirk said she would bring one (or both) of the two water jugs which we had made into money collection containers to the football game so we can collect there. The money is for pediatric heart sugeries for kids in Ecuador. We will be collecting money in Mrs. Shirks room and lunches in addition to tonight at the game. Feel free (or forced if you wouldn't donate otherwise) to donate some money.

I am now here at the library and will soon be walking over to the old middle school at Granada for the beginning of the homecoming parade. The parade goes through town to Hersheypark Stadium where the football game is being played.

Those who were working with your words such as "Mundee" and other phonetic spellings, I found it quite humorous but for some reason I didn't like it as much as other times when people are the object of jokes. I don't know what is making this different. Perhaps it is that I do not see what it is that you dislike about this person.

¿Cómo se llama?

2005-10-12T15:10:00.000-05:00

Today's Nexus meeting had a disappointingly low turnout, which led to some anger on the part of Mrs. Balanda. A teacher who I haven't seen before, a supposed Mrs. Reinhart (I have never seen her name and so I most likely misspelled it.) who teaches creative writing, was there and was a large portion of the discussion. She said that the "magazine" looks the same as it did ten years ago when she was in the school and Mrs. Balanda said that she had recieved an email from an alumni who was in the high school 25 years ago who said Nexus hasn't changed. These led the group to conclude that Nexus will be totally changed this year, including the name which Mrs. Balanda said she wanted to change since she got here. There will be a contest announce shortly to rename Nexus with a prize for the contributor of the chosen name. There will be a box for entries in Mrs. Balanda's and Mrs. Reinhart's rooms. Required for an entry are your name, your homeroom, and your suggestion. And so, in conclusion,

Submit to Nexus!
Ah, the way the world turns. Mrs. Bechtel said she would wait until next time to check our homework. But tommorrow we have off for Yom Kippur and on Friday we won't have chem because of the pep rally. So we have until Monday to do last night's and tonight's chem homework.

What do you think of the tool tips I put for when you hover over the title, description, profile, links, etc.? And what do you think of the clock following your cursor? Is it too distracting, does it get in the way? Or is it okay?

Worms, Bears, and Fishes, Oh My!

2005-10-09T19:29:00.000-05:00

This morning I worked in Tudor Gifts for a couple hours. I didn't get a chance to read further in "The Emporers of Chocolate" though. Around 11:30 Tudor Gifts was closed down and I was sent to Chocolate House. I have never worked there before and it was nice. They sell "The Emporers of Chocolate" there too, but I was to busy not working (and working later on) to get around to reading it. It was fun playing with the scales, putting stuff on and taking stuff off.

Soon after lunch (1:35 according to the receipt), I bought a single gummy worm. It registered on the scale as 0.03 of a pound and therefore cost 21 cents at the rate of $6.99 per pound but the employee discount brought it down to 15 cents. It was oh so tasty, juicy with sugar and artificial colorings and flavorinngs.

Today from working the register I was able to add 3 coins to my collection. They are a Kennedy Half-Dollar, a 1998 Bahamian penny (it has a starfish on the back), and a Canadian penny. Yesterday I got a British penny. It is from 1971, the year of the decimalisation, and so it says "new penny" on the back. Before 1971 the pennies were worth less (because decimalisation made it 100 pence to a dollar instead of 240) and after 1981 the pennies no longer have "new" on them because they aren't new anymore.

Dead Things Grow.

2005-10-08T21:43:00.000-05:00

We recently got back from "The Wizard of Oz" at the high school. It was pretty good for $5 and the money goes to my classmates (the HEA scholarship Fund specifically), hopefully myself and my brother when we graduate.

It was quite comical whenever Stephan Bihoreau, the high school French teacher that lived his whole life in France, was on the stage either in his role as Uncle Henry or the Oz guard. His think accent made understanding him sometimes difficult, which was not annoying but funny, and other times he was speaking straight French, which was the funniest of all.

Toto was another source of many laughs. In Kansas the dog was played by Baxter, Mrs. Mullikin's little white dog, and in Oz the part was played be Brian Ogle. It was amusing when the dog would go away from Dorothy and toward Miss Gultch, the antagonist, because Miss Gultch was the dog's owner Mrs. Mullikin.

After the play I had to wade through the horde of attendees to get to Ms. Schmoyer to get my 3 point pass. Many of the high school teachers employ this method of increasing attendance by rewarding goers with extra credit, including Mrs. Stuckey and Mrs. Ritchey who gave my brother 30 and 5 points, respectively.

Bicycle Flambé

2005-10-07T13:53:00.000-05:00

Today was the chem test for chapter 4. It was quite stressful. Maybe I should try studying next time to ease the stress.

I think this drink of mine is quite good.

Bicycle Flambé

1. Take one regular size drinking cup (at least 8 oz.) and fill to the top with ice cream. (only Bryer's Vanilla has been used so far)

2. Microwave on high for 2+ minutes, stopping when the froth is about to overflow the cup.

I imagine this being served in restaurant as one of its specialties if it is liked enough. The waiter or chef wheels out a microwave on a cart and microwaves about a quart of the customer's choice of ice cream flavor. Immediately after taking it out, the server pours the drink into a special frozen mug (see below) which steams when the boiling ice cream comes into contact with the frozen mug.

For this I picture a special mug that is 50% ice. It would be a hollow plastic tankard with plastic tubing leading from the bottom to the top, going around and around on its way up, the built in straw. The interior is filled with water which freezes before use. Almost at the end of the straw there would be a wheel that the flowing drink spins, which rotates the rod above it causing the umbrella to spin. So it would be sippable boiling hot ice cream in a frozen tankard with a spinning umbrella.

Hershey isn't so mad for the Mad Hatter.

2005-10-06T15:28:00.000-05:00

Everyone, including me, that I came into contact today forgot about today being Mad Hatter Day. This is most likely because they had never heard of it since it is very big yet.

During lunch I was supposed to go right outside the cafeteria to meet my mom there and order my class ring, but I forgot until there were only 5 minutes left of lunch. I took too long there and so I was late for pre calc. Fortunately, Mr. Heilman didn't give me any punishment in addition to a stern reprimand. I had forgotten that today was the quiz was today, though it doesn't matter as it is math class after all. After finishing the quiz, I stored the speed of light on my calculator with all of its digits. When people say you are using all of the digits of the speed of light, they usually think your doing a great feat, but it only has 9 digits (299,792,458 m/s) unlike π's infinite digits. In chem everyone usually uses just 3 digits of the speed of light (3.00 x 10⁸m/s) but I dislike that as it skews the results upwards. The problem is, when more digits are used your answer would be considered too low as the answer derived using 3.00 x 108 m/s is condered the correct one.

For those who use the Hershey Public Library's computers, the items I linked to in a previous post are not blocked at those computers.

It's blocked!

2005-10-05T08:57:00.000-05:00

Arghh! The hosting service I used to host the two items in my previous post are blocked from being accessed by websense so you have to wait till you get home or somewhere else that doesn't have stupid web blocking. I'll have to check if there are any other hosts that I could use that aren't blocked, because obviously my things shouldn't be blocked. I should also check at the public library to confirm that it works there.

Today we get out of school two hours early at 12:25 pm and so our class periods are only 27 minutes today instead of the usual 42 minutes. I probably be going to the car show sometime after 2:20 because that's around when my sister will be coming home from elementary school and she'd be going with us.

I'll be going to one of the showings of The Wizard of Oz at the high school, partly because Ms. Schmoyer is giving us 2 points extra credit if we go. Its still not decided whether we will go Friday or Saturday. I haven't ever gone to one of these HEA plays, so I hope it will be enjoyable. Hope to see you there!

Finally, tomorrow is Mad Hatter Day. I don't know a lot about it except that it is awesome, so get ready.

DDE and f orbitals

2005-10-04T17:37:00.000-05:00

In VB I showed the Dance Dance Evolution (DDE) program I wrote yesterday to the people who saw it. You can play it here. They seemed to think it was nice, though Adam seemed upset that I took his idea.

Today I brought to chem the PowerPoint I made this morning from the Word document I made last night. You can see the PowerPoint here. After showing it to the class, she added the last 3 (out of 4) to her notes. As she said, "You'll live forever in my PowerPoint notes!". Also in chem we got new seats. Now I am with Michelle instead of Tezak and on the right side of the room instead of the back left corner.

So little bits, so much humor.

2005-10-03T10:19:00.000-05:00

8-bit Theatre is so hillarious, especially when you read it during Engineering Drawing 2 while the teacher is going step-by-step through the part you did the class before like you were supposed to.

In VB, Adam Murry is working on a DDR program in his spare class time. I must defeat him in this pursuit! I shall work hard to make a better one. I could probably use it for the final project, expanding it over the months.

Sadly, The Song That Never Ends is no longer playing. We must mourn.

Omar Sharir isn't real!

2005-10-02T20:01:00.000-05:00

Today the park was rented out by Hershey Foods. It was much busier yesterday when McCormick & Company had the park. I was in Tudor Gifts today and spent the whole day reading The Emperors of Chocolate. I got through the first 7 chapters or 93 pages, which ever you prefer. As you can tell, the park really was slow today. Joël Glenn Brenner did a great job with the book. I never knew how secretive Hershey and Mars, even in trivial things. Living in Hershey, I haven't learned much at all about the history of Mars, so those portions were pure informativeness. I suggest hanging out in Tudor Gifts and reading it sometime. I mean, why pay $10.85 plus shipping and handling at amazon.com or whatever high price they charge at Hersheypark when you could just read it in the store, or better yet, find it in a local library.

About the post title, the first note in the back of the book explains how they are using Omar Sharir as a pseudonym to protect the identity of the actual Mars employee.

A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss

2005-10-01T19:05:00.000-05:00

Tonight the Rolling Stones are playing down the street at Hersheypark Stadium. I was walking through there on my way home and saw Mark Boyer getting in line for the concert. I'll have to ask him on Mondy how the concert was. There were lots of limos there, some black, some white, and some the kind that looks like a stretch SUV.

At work today I was "extra". I didn't have my own store, I just helped others. After lunch I worked in Dutch Fudge for the first time. I got to sell fudge (#10428) and pretzels (#5396) for the first time, which was AWESOME.

Today I noticed "Ruby Tuesday" and "She's A Rainbow" are by the Rolling Stones, so not all of their songs are rock.

Day 4 of The Song That Never Ends

2005-09-29T07:36:00.000-05:00

This morning on the morning annoucnements, Student Council announced that they have gotten over $400 through the song, which means it won't end early, luckily.

After looking through the class ring catalogue, I doubt that I want one. Most of them cost 2, 3, 4 hundred dollars. The only ones that are under $100 are the two with the minimal of options and make of Lustrium, a non-precious man-made alloy. It just doesn't seem worth it. What do you think? If you are a sophomore, are you getting a class ring? If you are beyond your sophomore year or out of high school, did you get a class ring? If you are not yet a sophomore, do you plan on getting a class ring?

In Spanish class today was the first part of the test. It included the listening section, Mrs. Clouser (prerecorded) doing the reading, a future tense section, and a writing section about Juan Bobo.

Day 3 of The Song That Never Ends

2005-09-28T08:06:00.000-05:00

Today Dan Kovaks (sp?) is using his backpack as an anti-The Song That Never Ends statement. He duct taped a Lamb Chop doll and another probably related doll to the back of his backpack with "Stop the Extortion for Charity" written on the duct tape. I found the "complete" lyrics to the song- http://www.zutroy.com/stuff/neverend/. Sadly, that is only ten pages of it. Today I noticed for the first time the part of the song where Sheri says "That's enough!" to the farm animals. That's exactly what many of the students here are thinking. But as I have expounded, I am not.

During 1st period we (the sophomore class) had an informational assembly about class rings. I haven't looked in the packet we were given, but the rings must be expensive.

The Song Continues!

2005-09-27T15:24:00.000-05:00

The Song That Never Ends continued to be played between classes. On the announcements the Student Council said that they raised $92 from the song being played yesterday and won't stop 'until they $1000. They were saying that if each student, of which there are over 1,200, gave $1 then they would have more than $1000 (obviously), but don't fall for their death trap! That's what they want you to do! You know that, deep down, you love this music and never want it to stop, so don't give them your money because then it will stop!

At lunch, some people were discussing how the Student Council made an inferior choice of an annoying song citing some examples of more annoying songs such as Bananaphone among others. I personally love this song, especially the hillarious flash animation at http://www.lemonizer.com/banana/ made with it. They also said that a low, continuous beep wouldwork well, though I would not like that hardly as much.

After school I spent a large amount of time working on PA#5 (The Deli) for VB. I think this is my best PA yet. I'll try to get it uploaded so you can all see it.

The Song That Never Ends!

2005-09-26T15:45:00.000-05:00

(Note: this is my 3rd time writing this post due to errors. It is very frustrating when you can't remember what you wrote when it is time to rewrite it.)

Today before school, after school, and between each class, The Song That Never Ends was being played on the PA system. There was much moaning among the students, saying how it is annoying, unbearable, evil, inhumane etc., though I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was informed by Sleeping Dragonx that this was put into effect by the Student Council in an effort to raise money. I'm not against raising money for hurricane relief, I even bought one of those Kookies for Katrina today at lunch (they cost 25 cents more than usual but the money goes to Katrina relief), but I the music was just for fun. But of course, the school wouldn't do anything for just for fun. They block as much fun stuff on the internet as they can with websense and their AUP, so they wouldn't do something as obvious to everyone as this music, just for fun, sadly.

I must find out who is responsible for get this song to play, personally thank them, and perhaps tell the whole school it was them so there could be a masssive attack on them. But that last part.

I hope they change the song daily, to other annoying songs like Pop Goes the Weasel, 99 Bottles of Beer, John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, though the second might not be chosen due to its alcohol references and the first could be chosen even though it has an alcohol reference, albeit an obscure one.

A Puppy and Possible Spying

2005-09-22T16:33:00.000-05:00

Today when I got I home, I found out we got a new puppy! She's a toy fox terrier and is still very small. We didn't decide on a name for her yet, so I'll be using feminine pronouns alot. Her back looks like dalmation's because of her black spots on white, though overall she looks like a chihuahua, but that is just because she is still a puppy. She has plenty growing left to do since she is only about 7 weeks old. Sean told me that he thought "Ah! A real live nintendog!" when he first saw her. She is very, very cute. I currently believe that little puppies are the cutest thing in the world, second only to babies, of course. My little nephew was so amazingly cute when we saw him when he was only a day old.

(Note: by this I do not wish to mean that I dislike Google, in fact, I use gmail as my sole form of email.)
Google's new Google Secure Access provides Google with even more of their users information. This product isn't fully available to the public, its main page, https://wifi.google.com/, directs to the Google main page, but you can still get to the download page, faq, and privacy policy. From these you can see that they keep a large amount of information about your surfing habits. As quoted from the privacy policy:

Google may log some information from your web page requests as may the websites that you visit. We do this to understand how Google Secure Access is being used and to improve our services. Google Secure Access does not log cookies and strips potentially sensitive query data from the end of requests to help better protect your privacy.

This may not be as bad as it sounds as it may be intended just to be used at Google WiFi locations (from the faq):

Where can I go to download Google Secure Access?
The program can currently be downloaded at certain Google WiFi locations in the San Francisco Bay Area.

And so it might have no effect at all, but some say that this is just the first step towards Google having free WiFi all over the country. The possiblity of that is discussed at http://www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/print/0,17925,1093558,00.html.

So is this another step in Google's plans of world domination or are they truly behind their mantra of "Do no Evil"?

More blogging in the library.

2005-09-22T15:03:00.000-05:00

Again I am typing from the Hershey Public Library, but today it is from OPAC #3. These OPAC computers aren't meant to be used to for the internet and everything, their supposed to just be a present day card catelogue. But obviously there is a workaround, otherwise I wouldn't be typing.

Here's what you do:
For items in the catelogue there is a button available on the toolbar that says "Purchase". This displays the amazon.com listing of the item on the lower 3/8ths of the screen. You then drag the upper boundary of it upward, taking over the space previously occupied by the OPAC listing. Then finally, you use amazon's A9 web search to find the site you would like to visit. The downside of using these computers to surf is that it doesn't allow you to have more than one window open, meaning, for example, that all outward links within gmail (including links within emails, the ads, and the search box at the top) don't work.

News alert!

2005-09-17T21:36:00.000-05:00

After work I found in Hershey Shop (Hersheypark Souvenirs and Gifts, in full) a candy bar I had never seen: Hershey's Extra Dark Pure Dark Chocolate with Macadamia Nuts and Cranberries. On the front it says it is 60% cacao dark chocolate, higher than Hershey's Special Dark. It tastes pretty good, if you like dark chocolate. Otherwise you won't like it like my mom and sister didn't. I like how the cranberries add even more tartness to the dark chocolate. Here's some pictures. Sorry they're blurry.

Blogging en el biblioteca.

2005-09-16T16:09:00.000-05:00

I am typing this from computer #6 at the Hershey Public Library. I came to the library because I didn't ride the bus home because today was the last day to take the Brainbuster's test in Mr. Hamilton's room. Let's continue going in reverse chronological order in this post. In chem we learned about moles. I forgot to bring my Highway Safety book to class. In Pre Calc we learned about piecewise functions. At lunch I heard about John (the junior, not the sophomore vice president)'s dream where Anthony becomes the most popular kid in school and takes the girlfriends of two other boys, who then plot against him for taking their girlfriends. In Engineering Drawing 2, I worked on my chem homework, which Mrs. Bechtel didn't check anyway. In Spanish 4 I was nervious because I hadn't done the Spanish homework either, but luckily Mrs. Clouser also didn't check the homework. In World Cultures I H we had talked about the (short, 2-3 paragraphs) essays we wrote on whether we thought our country is more safe, less safe, or just as safe against terrorist attacks now compared to before 9-11, though I did not share my view with the class. To read what I wrote for that essay, in full, click this link. In VB we started PA#4 after Ms. Schmoyer taught us picture boxes and images, though I had already used them in PA#3 which I turned in today. In English we took and graded the Word Wealth Unit #2 quiz. For what happened before 1st period, see my post at The Presidency.

Ice cream and more carrots.

2005-09-15T15:38:00.000-05:00

Right now I'm eating some ice cream out of a foam cup while listening to Herb Alpert and blogging. 'Tis nice, except for the homework that looms in front of me. I again wore double orange to school, leading some to ask whether I was having an orange week.

Orange is hot,
changes H to He,
if you let it go
it will fly NE
until it pops.

Orange is festive,
unlike a black and.
Blue, which many people were when
orange and blue
lost the bean.

Oh, the bean!
They did lose the bean,
it never was found,
unlike some beans
on an orange countertop.

The top did spin,
around around
till all around
were orange.

Carrot Top

2005-09-14T21:52:00.000-05:00

Hello! As you know if you saw me today, I wore an orange short-sleaved polo t-shirt and orange shorts, both a very similar shade of orange, today. This evoked some comments and conversation among somepeople. In English class they were saying how I looked quite like a carrot, being almost entirely orange and all. Matt Kinny was jokingly warning me to be careful because Liz might try to eat me. Later in the hall some people asked if I was going hunting after school. I like the carrot one better because it is new, the hunting comments being old from when I wore a super bright orange long sleaved shirt to school last year.

In other news, I thought of adding a small, cropped picture of myself to PA#3: Font for VB. That will surely give me extra credit as we haven't done anything with pictures yet. But it isn't that I need the extra credit (I do have a 107% in the class last time I checked), but that I want it.

(start pirate mode)

Arggh! That English non-fiction project is a loomin' on the horizon. You don't even have to be in the crow's nest to see, it's due so soon (Monday!). I best be get readin' or Procrastination'll make me walk de plank.

(end pirate mode)

World Cultures Essay

1990-09-19T21:44:00.000-05:00

Here is the World Cultures essay I submitted on September 16, 2005, in full. On September 19, 2005, it was returned to me graded as 8.5/10.

Brian Sisco

Mr. Bean

World Cultures I H

15 September 2005

I think our country is as safe against terrorist attacks as before. The security measures that have been put into effect at airports, borders, and other terrorism targets, do not completely protect us and so they hardly protect us. This is because if terrorists want to cause terrorism, they will make many attempts and will have to succeed eventually. The larger terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda definitely have the power and followers to make the large amounts of small terrorism attempts or smaller amount of large-scale terrorism attempts.

The increased security at airports and other places would be able to stop small attacks but not a large one planned by a large organization. A well-planned attack could still be successful (not meaning that any are good, just whether the perpetrator’s mission was accomplished). For example, security at airports requires that you do not bring any weapons or other dangerous materials on board the plane and “random” additional checks may single out Middle Eastern looking people. The organization could simply train people of another ethnicity to do the hijacking and choose trainees who are skilled in martial arts so weapons would be unnecessary. Security can prevent bombings and armed attacks, but not an unarmed hijacking. An unarmed hijacking isn’t far off from the September 11^th attacks as those terrorists were armed with knives, but no guns or bombs. In brief, our country is about as safe against terrorist attacks as before.