And Then There Was Another Update · 6:29pm Sep 7th, 2015
Currently listening to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSDUPCq82GQ
At the moment, I'm sitting in the college dormitory. It is actually peaceful because my roommates are absent and thus unable to create noise for me. It's nice to be actually able to work and study in my own room again.
I spent this morning going over my problems and attempting newly assigned problems for my probability course. Tomorrow there will be a quiz. Basically, the professor will choose two problems from the homework for us to complete without any of our notes to reference. They may be easy or arduous; the homework so far has consisted of a great mix of both.
I've been having a hard time finding places to find practice probability problems of college-level difficulty. One of my teachers from high school recommend that I just get an additional Prob/Stats textbook to get problems from. I may not need them, though; I actually feel pretty clear with a good bit of this now.
I need to study some for a macroeconomics test on Friday. We'll review some stuff in class on Wednesday, but I don't know if that will necessarily give me a good indication of what will be covered on the test. We shall see.
I had three hotdogs for lunch today. The students are having a cookout and volleyball tournament, but I'm not interested in spectating. I might actually spend some of the time today working on the video I want to complete.
Yesterday, I was back home at my own family's cookout. It was nice seeing everybody, but the break of continuity involved with heading back home was jarring. I expressed this to my grandparents, and they said they wouldn't mind my not coming home often, that they understood that I feel more comfortable getting the work done that needs done.
Over a number of years, I have built up a great stash of quarters. There's a vending machine that sells Spree candy for quarters. In my experience, Spree always taste better out of a vending machine because they've become chewier from being left in the candy machine for a long span. However, Spree is hardly worth it as a nickel candy, and the machine only spits out about five to seven pieces at once per quarter input. I wanted to have a bunch of Spree because I like Spree and can easily transport it for sharing with friends in my residual Ice Chips Candy containers. I figured I could get rid of my quarters with this machine and still get Spree.
But then it dawned on me. I could just make the Spree chewier by letting time take its course, and most people in my area don't buy Spree, so what candy the various stores had would probably be old, anyway. I still had about $24.45 on a Sheetz gift card (I don't frequent Sheetz), so I could buy some there, and I could spend my quarters at the self-checkouts at grocery stores this weekend because few people would be there, and the machines don't complain if you give them a bunch of quarters.
Long story short, I managed to relinquish about sixty dollars on Spree and will be set for candy for a good part of my lifespan. Along the way, I was held up by traffic from a motorcycling convention and also was almost involved in a collision because my grandfather's GPS fell onto the windshield wiper controls as I was making a sharp turn.
I keep questioning my validity as an audio reader, considering my output frequency and limited video editing/animation/artistic visual rendering skills to be largely sub-par. YouTube Analytics is a sad creation. I think it's funny, though, that I don't have any trolls or haters yet. I guess the notion "You haven't done anything worthwhile if you don't have any haters" isn't necessarily true.
Besieged with ideas for my next fanfiction and by feelings of uncomfortable warmth and coolness, I did not sleep well last night despite the peace. I had some issues trying to shave some parts of my face before I went to bed. My beard grows too fast, and I'm not willing to shave it often enough.
Edit: Going to include a "listening to" to each of my blog posts from now on.
Additionally, I figured this is a place that I could mention that one of my biggest pet peeves is when hotshot artists and writers bash their own work. They so often fail to realize that someone who considers his or her own work at all comparable to theirs is going to value his or her own work much less, especially if that person highly esteems the opinion of those hotshots. I vowed a long time ago to never bash my own work unless my work truly isn't that noteworthy.
I also came to a realization while I was responding in a reflective literary journal for another one of my classes to a passage from William Zinsser's Simplicity regarding clutter in writing. Considering, I've had my verbosity called out twice within the course of a week or so on here, naturally I had something to find in the passage. I wrote:
In my experience, where someone speaks simply, people can generally tell whether the speaker is limited in his or her vocabulary and ability to build complex sentences or the speaker is making a concentrated effort to be clear; however, where someone speaks verbosely, people generally cannot tell whether the speaker is being pedantic or the speaker simply cannot conceive a better way to convey what he or she is saying.
In either instance where the speaker is verbose, there's no positive assumption to be made. Thus, one should write simply, for there is at least a chance that people will assume one is writing simply in order to be clear, something positive. Does this mean I will still avoid verbosity? Probably not. I rarely can boil my own thoughts about something into a few short sentences. I don't even think in short sentences.
Edit 2: I uploaded a video!
Works on FimFiction I've Proofread/Edited for (From most recent to first)
Hidden Wonderful World of Pinkie Episodes by Robipony
Works I've Audio Read (From most recent to first)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKOWRYVTONs Eternity by Camlan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVhe7GeTD8Y Crusader's End by CalebH
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6LX_wjJtNM The Serene Forgetting by Avox
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gZ2SWao4wc The Weak by Wisdom Thumbs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_428y-6LboY De Grave of Blueblood by Metal-Quill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyF3uyJAPBs Ruin Value by Titanium Dragon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mcfsa1MVbQA Mare of the House by jmj
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ocU-BfXLDI I Don't Know If I'm Real... by North
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCyE2T8yLa0 Drifting by ShadowKirby
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MhWVZbkUBc Dreams Fade by Enduring Man-Child
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaYt5jHyq1FjxBLphDM-qlTLdbKE5ULNi (Playlist)
Friends Forever and Fading Twilight by ObeySaturnGod
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCo2g7d7oRM A Life Rebuilt by Epicburst
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zEz9_69ics Drop. by Sexy Pudgy Pinkie Pie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhrgvQdpFL8 Let It Snow by Graymayne
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh_2BnkBQvE Those Who Are Oppressed by emoshy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhCKtWeI9hg Lives' End by Arvaus
Well glad to see things aren't going bad.
3375785
Thanks, ShadowKirby. I'm staying alive.
Always nice to hear from you, old chum. I do have one small question, though. What in the name of Nikola Tesla's fabulous mustache is Spree? I'm guessing it's some sort of candy that we don't have out here on the West Coast. Either that or Ibe just never seen it before.
Also,
3375815
I swear if anyone makes a reference to the Bee Gees I WILL END THEM. I hope you're having a lovely time in college.
3379767
Thank you, and likewise! Spree is a candy from the Wonka company. The "Chewy" variety comes in grape, apple, lemon, cherry, and orange. They're kind of like SweeTarts, made by the same company, but they're less tart and less chalky. Spree generally tends to be less popular, and people generally don't tend to notice it unless they're looking for it.
I'm not at all familiar with anything called "Bee Gees," actually. If I saw a reference to it, I probably wouldn't be able to recognize it.
3379876
Aha. Thanks for clearing that up.