The Squirrel, the Birds, and the Rain

Today when I came home from school, there were three things outside that I saw: 

the squirrel, the birds, and the rain.

I suppose I could type up something poetic about those three things, but I don't want this to become one of those websites with a bunch of doltish poetry. I don't mind websites where they show poetry from famous poets. I actually rather enjoy good poetry. However, most of the poetry on these websites is, *ahem*, not the greatest...

You know what I mean? They try too hard. They assume that the audience already has their minds up in the clouds. Good poetry isn't written when you're in that cheesy inspired mood. Which, unfortunately is the mood I'm in as I type this. Sorry. You know what I mean? Anyways, the poetry just comes off as stupid when you're not in the right mood for reading it. 

Good poetry can transcend the mood of the audience. Good poetry changes the mood of the audience to fit the poetry. Good literature does that. Good art in general. I think that art is an expression of emotion, of thought in a purer form. Especially nonverbal art. They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

More can be said for music too. Honestly, somebody should write a kind of spin off of Harry Potter or Percy Jackson, but where the magic comes from music. Kind of like the ocarina from Legend of Zelda or something.

Pandas

If not for humans, pandas would go extinct.

If not for humans, pandas would not face the threat of extinction.

Pandas would go extinct if humans did not help them because their natural habitats have been destroyed. 

Humans destroyed the natural habitats of the pandas.

Why have humans destroyed the natural habitats of pandas? Humans are greedy and want more money. They could make more money by destroying the natural habitats of the pandas, so they did. 

The funny thing is that money is a system that humans made up.

This is what I talked about with my biology teacher a few days ago. My biology teacher is awesome.

Recounting Pi Day

Yesterday was Pi Day. Yay! However, I think that Pi gets a little too much credit. There are plenty of other great irrational numbers that almost never get celebrated. Fortunately for pi, it sounds exactly the same in English as the word "pie," so people use it as an excuse to buy a fancy giant circular jam sandwich.

I also had health class yesterday. A bit of info for all readers: I despise health class. It's not that I hate the teacher or anything, I actually like the teacher. It's just that I'm too dang smart and health classes are too dang repetitive. Every year I have to take health, it's all the same stuff. Additionally, we go off of an older textbook, so all of the information we get is outdated and sometimes wrong.

Anyways, we started our tobacco unit yesterday. There wasn't any textbook mention of e-cigarettes. Instead we were told to create a list: "What You Think You Know About E-Cigarettes." I may have gone to town with my ideas. I started with all the basic facts like "e-cigarettes contain nicotine" and boring stuff, then I got creative and added that they don't work underwater, they don't help with calculus, and elephants don't use them. At least, I've never heard of an elephant that smokes e-cigarettes. Somebody please let me know if I'm wrong on this one.

Then I got to thinking about how when people are asked to create abstract list like this, they usually don't come up with silly ideas. There's some point in our school careers where we just kind of give up being creative in class. We just kind of give up on doing more than is required in general. When compared to elementary school children, high school teens are much less likely to ask questions in class or raise their hand to answer questions. They loose their spark. It's kind of disappointing to think about.