How does Outliers connect to MY life?

Outliers was a story by Malcolm Gladwell that was intended to change out perspective on success, or to at least let us consider a different way to approach success stories. This book was initially met with much controversy by   most of my friends, who did not at all agree with the statement Gladwell made about all colleges being equal to each other. Of course, there are many factors that determine success, just as Gladwell writes, and I believe that not all of them are obvious. What I believe all of my friends have misinterpreted is that Gladwell does not write about how to measure success, but how to find the roots of success. For Asians, success is generally to get into a good college, but life doesn't end there. Maybe success is to be a better athlete, or to break a record, or to write a story. No matter what success is, Gladwell has determined that it can always be traced back to a few key things that, although were very exaggerated in the story, are still things that I have connected to with my own life.

The most important thing that kept me reading throughout this book was the chapter on IQ (69), which was the first section of the book I turned to, by chance. Throughout the book, the author writes a lot to emphasize the lack of importance of IQ after a certain point. "A mature scientist with an adult IQ of 130 is as likely to win a Nobel Prize as is one whose IQ is 180" (80) was a quote from the book that now makes me consider different perspectives and paths whenever I go about my daily life, in a broader sense. Perhaps IQ doesn't matter as much and perhaps there is always another way. I had never thought about IQ before. This hasn't really changed my life drastically, but it has made me think of finding new ways around the bigger problems that society has created. The divergence test was a new experience that I found to be really interesting (86) because it measures creativity over IQ, which is an aspect I really enjoy. Ever since I was little, I always read fiction and fantasy such as The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, and Redwall by Brian Jacques. These kinds of books, along with the sporadic nature of life, have greatly influenced my writing. Throughout my middle school years, I found it very difficult to even finish all of my writer’s notebook assignments because I favored quality over quantity and would write entire pages before I realized much later that all of my classmates got full scores for half pages with pictures in the middle. The divergence tests are also a great way to vindicate the fact that I am not wasting my time. In reality, I like the divergence tests because they illustrate a second path, where creativity and IQ may diverge to form different paths to "success", wherever that may be. In the future, there will be many more opportunities for me to keep an eye out for the chance to diverge and think differently.

Another part of the book that I could connect to was the point of practicing 10,000 hours to finally achieve success in an area. I have been told to “practice, practice, practice” and that “practice makes perfect” by various people, including my parents and motivational speakers. While growing rice paddies is not an area I am experienced with, my parents have indeed forced me to work and to put a lot of effort into playing the piano when I was younger. I hated playing the piano when I was younger (even though my NYSSMA scores were 28/28). That’s what Outliers reminded me of with “Even Mozart… couldn’t hit his stride until he had his ten thousand hours in” (42) and that Mozart only wrote his masterpiece at age 21, after ten years of writing music. As I got older, I gradually liked to play musical pieces more and more as I became more adept at sight reading and could play the pieces I liked. It is an interesting idea that people such as Bill Gates could accidentally rack up ten thousand hours of practice and suddenly be in the midst of the dawn of the 1975 personal computer age and in a “position to take advantage of it” (64). I have to become skeptical at the thought that year of birth and age are the most important roots of success, as if life was predetermined, but the amount of time that practicing and working hard has paid off in my life has led me to heed from this book the ten thousand hour rule as a life lesson.

The final thing I connected to in Outliers was the emphasis on race, but not on stereotyping. There wasn’t much of a lesson to be learned, but there was a small discrepancy that caught my attention while reading. It was interesting to learn the backgrounds and legacies of different groups of people, but I began to wonder if it was really background, or if it was simply outside influence. “…Being good at math may also be rooted in a group’s culture” (231), Gladwell writes about abilities and traits as if they were solely because of one’s culture, as in the Korean pilot examples and the Cohen and Nisbett experiments. I was convinced about the validity of Gladwell’s writing until I remembered an older experiment I had seen long ago about stereotypes (http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2450394&page=1#.TvPCTtQV12A). In the experiment, Blacks were asked to do as good as they could in a game of golf. They were divided into two groups, with one group operating under the assumption that it was a test of athletic ability and another being told that it was a test of intelligence. “When students are told the golf game is a test of intelligence… scores were 18 percent worse”, writes the abc news article that reported on the tests done by Jeff Stone at the University of Arizona. This leaves me to wonder whether it really is a cultural legacy that determines our success, or whether success can simply be determined by the state of our overall mentality.

It may be that Gladwell writes in a very radical way about success, but it has shed a helpful light over new ideas and has motivated me to live in new ways. For now, my friends still hate his message, or at least how they interpret his message. I still think his writing is interesting, and his points are mostly well supported and correct. I completely agree with practicing and working hard, as well as receiving a good education outside of school, nonstop. Even though Outliers has just as many radical ideas as the ridiculous stories of success of the world’s billionaires, the stories that Gladwell as compiled have encouraged myself to think more about where the future will be, where paths will diverge, and most importantly, what opportunities I can get a head start on for the future.

Lines of Conversation- Cats

Sitting on a distant star is a rose

That most probably has been eaten by a cat somewhere

And this star is inhabited by all sorts of life,

Such as cats and flowers and black cats,

And it radiates life across the universe

Even though this light will not reach any cats for ages

And on a tree in this radiant land

Sit cats.

Cats?

Cats.

Microfiction: This wasn't where he wanted to be.

This wasn't where he wanted to be. The fields of soft snow covered the land, like fields of asphodel, for as far as he could see, until it blurred with the white sky, forming the horizon. Everything was gray. There were no landmarks in this monochromatic new world, except the occasional hill in the distance. He began to head towards the nearest hill, leaving two parallel lines where his feet sifted through the snow. His breath hung like smoke in the sharp air. When he reached the top of the white snow dune, he glanced back at where he first began and saw only a perfect layer of snow, with no evidence of himself existing at all. In the distance was a dark figure, casting its contrasting presence over the white lands around it. He rushed towards it and, as he did, saw the figure materialize into a door. While examining the wooden door, which was very plainly built out of light wooden boards, he observed that it swung open both ways, and was held up by a wooden frame. He had not quite stepped into it before a small voice resonated from the other side of the door.

            “Do you think that’s the right side of the door?” asked the voice.

            He looked down to see a cat, wearing the same color as the door. He did not know what to say to a cat. He didn’t usually talk to cats.

            “Or perhaps that is the wrong side?” asked the cat.

            “Who are you?” asked he to the cat.

            “I can tell you which side is right,” said the cat, “and which side is not.”

            He hadn’t known very many cats, but this one was certainly not helpful, and so he wondered if all cats weren’t helpful.

            “What is right and wrong about entering doors?” inquired him to the cat.

            “There is no right and wrong to entering a door,” explained the cat, “it is which side of the door you enter that is right or wrong.”

            “How so?” he asked the cat, skeptically.

            “Well, one side brings you to heaven, and the other takes you to hell,” the cat explained.

            “Only dead people go to those places.”

            “Who’s to say you aren’t?”

            He paused at the cat’s argument.

            “Exactly, and if you help me, I can help you,” offered the cat, “Just give me your soul. I heard human souls are a delicacy.”

            “But then there is no point of going through the door at all!” he exclaimed to the cat.

            “Why of course there is! It’s not like you need a soul, with its silly emotions weighing you down always.”

            But he, as a human, had always thought that souls were important. That was what he was taught. So, he decided to kick the cat through one side of the door and see what happened. The cat disappeared in a wisp of black smoke with a musty odor. He decided to take the other side instead.

My T-Shirt Vote

The one with the gazelles and the one with the dreams in a bottle. I can't decide.
Cat cookies or oatmeal...

TU Tuesday Editorial

http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/Jerry-Dumas-Sometimes-remakes-of-films-work-and-2403457.php

The author of this editorial writes about how remakes of classics are very tough to do, because of such high expectations. While the author does not say that this is the reason, he does show that he himself believes that some movies will be near impossible to remake as good or better than the original because of his own high expectations. His use of rhetoric "Imagine somebody trying to improve on...Tough to do." implies his own affinity towards certain actors over others. Another reason, he argues, why remakes will never be as good is because the original had golden lines that could not be replaced, but could not be plagiarized either. He writes that "the only way to have done is successfully would have been to use the original... But then they had already done that." In the end, not all remakes would be so bad. Dumas argues that perhaps a remake of life with better dialogues and camera angles would be not so bad, but it was mostly just a thought. He also cites that remakes have been everywhere from "Dvorak's New World Symphony" to novels, but does not give an opinion on these. The only fallacious argument with this editorial is that it is an opinion, and purely an opinion. The author considers some such as "Alistair Sim unsurpassable", and does not regard any possible pros of remakes. His highlight of actors may seem like exaggerations to some.

Creative Contest I Blog

R=Russian Toy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Toy


Description: The Russkiy Toy is one of the smallest breeds of dog in the world. Their breed was almost wiped out during the rise of communism, due to the association with aristocracy.It was originally bred as a rat hunter and watchdog.

Appearance: They are very small and are either black and tan, blue and tan, brown and tan, or red. They are either smooth or long haired.

Diet: Could not be found, as very little is known about this dog outside of Russia. Most probably will eat dry dog food, and perhaps not much.

Temperament: It is active, cheerful, and will become very attached.

Shedding: How much it sheds depends on whether it has long hair or is smooth.

Health: It is prone to seizures and gum problems that can be easily prevented.

Creativity Breeds Creativity

http://www.amazon.com/Phantom-Tollbooth-Norton-Juster/dp/0394820371
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. I can't post books online though.

Transparent Poetry Prompt- Glass Prison (Without Cats)

Seen through like the lies
of a kid,
or as easy to read as books,
are the things like glass, and
air, and contacts

which give way to
eyes, demanding, gazing,
not upon, but through open
space, and gripping what is left
of the distortion that is light

that passes through such things as glass,
and air, and contacts (things
that bend the light like
a politician would bend
information, or

perhaps serve as a middleman
that you cannot trust,
delivering the light in a manner in which,
after it has been delivered,
it does not feel right),

my eyes yearn
for 20/20 vision.

TU Tuesday Guest Speaker

Poise- The speaker was very comprehensible while speaking, but had a sense of wavering to his tone throughout the talk. He had a very clear set of ideals, but was not particularly adept at dealing with audience members whom held strong and controversial opinions, such as with Andrew Fedorov's argument for the two extremes of twitter and books as opposed to newspapers. The speaker did try to engage the audience, but was somewhat limited to a straightforward set of thoughts such as reading books and being against internet anonymity. He did not bend to incorporate the audience's thoughts into his discussion afterwards, but on the other hand, the audience was not really motivated to push forward a novel idea to examine.

Clarity- As far as clarity was concerned, the speaker did a great job, as he was a journalist. His words were concise, although his tone was unsure, which still got his message across. He acknowledged that journalism wasn't always objective, and thus was very talented at using modifiers to convey a feeling across to reinforce his rhetoric on reading lots of books instead of browsing the web and facebook and twitter.

Volume- His voice was audible, but it was slightly quieter than some speakers. Throughout the whole speaking, however, there was not much inflection, and so it became a narrow discussion. There were some parts where he was telling stories, and perhaps it was because of the task of multitasking between recollection and speaking, but he sometimes became too quiet.

Information- He gave a lot of information, but arguably it was subjective. His speaking was centered around key principles that were information about his views and about facts that supported them, but there came a time when there could have been considerably too much redundant support for the point of reading lots of books and not enough reasons as to an in-depth why.

Organization- For an audience driven speaking, and with a fairly unmotivated audience as well, the organization was very good. His points were conveyed neatly, and had facts surrounding them. It was not creatively organized, but that's hard to do with such an audience. He put his views first and foremost, and gave many supporting reasons and stories capturing his points perfectly, albeit redundantly.

I did not participate as much as I had hoped to, because there was not much that interested me as far as the field of journalism went, and because I am not an active participant in general. Some other classmates were like me as well, and did a very poor job of participating. Some, such as the regular people whom consistently asked questions did keep the discussion going well, and I've observed those people to have been active in the field of literature in general.
For next year, I would recommend someone way more radical, such as the author of a book, or a columnist. Someone working in a field that requires opinions as opposed to facts is much more likely to have a broader range of categories that he/she can and will be willing to debate and discuss in. Also, people whom travel the world have a very large outlook and lots of experience.

Thankful Four

Opinion Prompt #13

I believe that number grades are better than letter grades, because they encourage improvement. While an "A" can span multiple different number grades, number grades can pinpoint a more specific level of achievement, which encourages students to continue improving. An A sounds great compared to a 95. When students see their specific grades, they are more competitive, and have less of an illusion as to where they stand. Letters cannot be compared to anything, while a number out of 100 shows ability. Not only are they more precise for gauging oneself, but they are also better for gauging others and motivating Americans to have a competitive mindset.

I Want To Write About #96

An important lesson that everyone learns early on in life is that dying is bad. I, for one, learned this fairly quickly, and I'm sure that others have too, because it is a vital piece of knowledge that is very much so important to living a life filled with life. Some people have not learned this yet, and these people are insane people. They like to play violent video-games and punch walls and play football. I'm sure that it is very tough for them to stay alive sometimes, but this is okay because they have adapted to their lack of vitality by having more vitality than that which they lack. Cats, on the other hand, have nine lives, so I'm fairly sure dying is more fun for them. It makes me wonder if they have seen the other side. Maybe I can ask them.

Magnetic Poetry- Blind Color Picture

http://play.magpogames.com/create.cfm?k=1

Q=Quebec

I've been to Quebec once, and it certainly is not France, but it is still a very comfortable place and the hotel was really nice. It is obviously modeled after France, from its roads to its buildings, but it still has a distinct American influence about it. There are also many Chinese communities around Canada, which is awesome.

Seven things I want to do there are:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g155033-Activities-Quebec_City_Quebec.html

1. Visit Old Quebec, "[a] Historic part of Quebec City, which was founded in 1608"


2. Visit Morrin Centre, the city's first jail, which now "houses one of the world's most beautiful [Victorian] libraries"


3. See the "higher than even the legendary Niagara Falls" Montmorency falls.


4. Visit the Musee de la Civilisation, a museum "characterized by its innovative and daring outlook" and supposedly very intellectual, but hopefully not boring. kind of like jaundice, but hopefully not quite jaundice.ref catch-22.


5. Climb to Citadel, located on the highest point in Old Quebec. It has an interesting name and the description is written in all capital letters, making it accentuated.


6. Visit the Basilique Cathedrale, the "Notre Dame of Quebec"


8. Ride the Levis Ferry for a tour of Quebec "along the St. Lawrence"

There is more than one way to skin a cat

There is always more than one way to get somewhere in life. Life is kind of like math, as there are many times where there can be many options that lead to one place. To achieve one's goal, one must find the best way for oneself. I know that if I ever get stuck, I will usually go around the problem, because I am lazy, and that is my way of doing things. For others, everybody has had many goals throughout life, and I believe that if anyone puts their mind to it, they can find some way to reach the end. And then they can have skinned cats, or whatever other reward their accomplishments bring.

Sparrows Poetry Prompt- Air

There are sparrows in the open fields
somewhere over there, and
they glide gracefully over the hills of
flowers and leaves and fresh green grass
saturated with soft, blurring mildew
with the scent of melons. They whisper
through the air with their wings
of paper feathers and songs of crystal clear
tunes. They are free, soft, and delicate things
that serve no purpose, but they are welcome,
because to me they are like decorations in my
peripheral vision, which is to say that they
are awe-inspiring and remind me of
if I could be free.

Halloween

"If you could make a magic brew, what would you make and why?"
I would make a magic brew that grants the power to control time, because then I could always find the best path in life. With time on my side, I could even go back in time to make a different magic brew until I have too much magic everywhere. Also, I would never get anything wrong because I could just go back in time and redo everything. It would be like going on the internet, except even better because I could make money off of it. Also, I have always wanted to see how time itself works...

TU TUESDAY BLOG

http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Outdoors-Paddle-and-Hike-2181623.php

set in motion a swirl of color
swirl: twisting or spiraling

black-and-white checkered bird
checkered: pattern of alternating squares; varying

we again spied the summit
spied: to have observed, furtively

my disappointment dissipated
dissipated: dispersed

vacant campsite for a swim
vacant: empty

This article is about a trip to the Adirondacks, and uses many words to describe the natural condition of the parks and the observation one uses to enjoy the scenery. The "checkered bird" and "swirl of color" are both phrases used by the author to describe smooth motions and textures found in nature, showing differentiation and transience. Even the quote "my disappointment dissipated" makes me feel like I am reading about nature. The author uses many other terms to describe the vast expanse of the parks, such as "spied" as opposed to "saw", and shows its area by using "vacant", which gives it a sense of being more spacious.

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/07/Oh%2C_the_Places_You%27ll_Go.jpg

I really liked this book when I was little, and I'm sure that that led to a long chain of other readings that I really liked later on in life. This book sparked ideas and reinforced my imagination, and to this day I still like books like that. Others that are similar that I have read in the past are "The Phantom Tollbooth", and "Alice in Wonderland". I like books that are creative, but even greater am I drawn to books that create new landscapes altogether, and I have tried experimenting with that in my writings as well. When I was little, I had always thought that the world was too small, so I have grown to always like other worlds better.

P = University of Phoenix

Information taken from http://www.phoenix.edu/

I'm not particularly interested in this college because:

1. Online: A large part of the course is online, which creates more room for error and technical difficulties which can interfere with the class and they are expensive as well. http://www.phoenix.edu/students/how-it-works/how-learning-formats.html

2. Computer Programming: They don't have a very prominent computer programming course, or at least do not have many visible options on their website. They do have one course which only provides the "basic understanding of programming".

3. Reputation: They have only been around since the 1970s, which makes them much newer than a lot of known universities with good reputations.

4.  Location: There aren't any colleges near where I live, Slingerlands, which makes it inconvenient to get to the university unless I attend online.

5. Location: While there are many universities spread across the U.S., the chances that they are all too shallow in their curriculum is also high. Personally, I believe that their dedication to students is questionable if they cannot focus their efforts.

Reasons why it would be a good choice:

1. Symbol: They have a really cool symbol, and I like phoenixes.

2. Teachers: Their teachers are all supposedly extremely qualified and are "encouraged" to put what they teach into practice outside of teaching.

3. Online: If I were to take an online course, it would be easier to multitask while learning.

Why I Write

Vintage Photo

http://www.old-picture.com/american-legacy/000/Parakeet-and-Cat.htm

This is an image of a parakeet and a cat. It is quite accurately named Cat and Parakeet. The photo was taken by Harris & Ewing, whom obviously harbored at least two great pets throughout their lives. This picture illustrates the fluffiness of a cat's fur that cannot be described by words, much like how the feeling of not being able to take off one's new fur coat even when one is dying of heat because it is so fluffy and comfortable like a warm shower on a cold winter morning is cannot be described by words. The simple parakeet resting on the dark furry coat of an indifferent, indulgent cat outlined by negative white space over a soft flowery blanket like thing resembles a full 9 course dinner after a long day of cold back breaking work. That's why I think this picture is worth a thousand words.

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

"It was inevitable."

I knew that I would get the answer wrong. That's how life is sometimes; it's the antithesis of one's very existence. I knew how everything would turn out, from years of experience and of being wrong. Life is like mind-games, but not really because the one who plays is always wrong, so perhaps one could think of life as being like a deity, or maybe more of a puppeteer. Life is like that. Whenever my heart tells me to dream big, I know that I will surely fail, because that is possibly the greatest setup for failure. There is no higher drop than having one's dreams crushed, so I have learned not to dream and, likewise, life has learned to dismantle me in other ways. So this morning, I had to take the PSATs. Firstly, I believe that life is becoming a little bit dull on the creative side, as it has started to become systematic and predictable. This morning, it started with the usual back stab by sending a tempest of headaches my way as soon as the test started; this was to ensure the maximum duration of the headache's effect on my not being able to concentrate during the test. That was the inception of my huge blunder on question thirty or so of the writing section (except that it wasn't question thirty or so on the writing section because I'm not allowed to say that it was question thirty or so, or at least I think I may not, so I shall refer to it as not question thirty or so). I was doing perfectly terrible until I didn't get to question thirty or so. It was not a question regarding grammar, which wasn't particularly difficult. I debated for  maybe a few minutes on what the correct answer was, taking into account what the answers for the other questions were as well (which was generally discouraged). I narrowed down the choices to said question that was not number thirty or so to two choices, and, naturally, I picked the correct answer. Then, life grew discontent. It was inevitable that I would have to second guess myself. So I did. And life won. Suddenly, I thought that maybe the answer was (not) E, as there hadn't been enough Es on my answer sheet. But then what if A was right after all? Well C was in the middle, so it could have been a good compromise, but there was only one correct answer so a compromise wouldn't do. Could there be three As in a row? What if there were three As in a row just to throw us off? Had I ever seen three of a kind in a row before on the answer sheet to my practice book? What if the other two As are wrong as well? Down the spiral of doom I went.

So that's why I got that question wrong today. It was inevitable, obviously.

Haiku-

Life is a petal
soaring until a soft breeze
can will me to rest

TU TUESDAY BLOG

http://blog.timesunion.com/gamers/the-battlefield-3-beta-is-here-and-almost-done/1259/

This article blogs about the anticipation of one gamer for the upcoming release of the popular video-game Battlefield 3. He has already played the open beta on "two systems the Xbox and PC", and has a very good understanding of how the game differs on consoles and PCs. Butler, the blogger, admits to not having much PC experience, but will buy the game for PC when it is released. Much of the article is, quite obviously, made of opinions, but the author definitely has a lot of experience with the game. One thing I find questionable was the fact that he claimed a certain glitch, "the one in the video above", to be the most annoying of glitches and then later on states that it actually "never happened to [Butler himself]". I find it really tough to believe secondhand information, especially on the internet and about video-games. People quite often tend to exaggerate and make up excuses as to why they lost. He also talked about hacks being found "already", but in a day and age like this one, that's unsurprising. He does give many bits of useful knowledge, and I don't think anything else could be too inconsistent.

TU TUESDAY, China against anti-artificially undervalued money bill proposed in U.S.

http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/China-US-currency-bill-would-have-repercussions-2201484.php

This article is based around the issue of the Chinese currency, known as the yuan, which has been artificially devalued for a very long time now. The reason for this is that devaluing the Chinese currency gives them an edge in the competition of exports by having the ability to sell their products at a significantly lower price. The new bill proposed in the U.S. aims to, from what I understand based on a similar conversation with my AP Euro teacher this morning, discourage trade with countries whose currency is artificially undervalued. This would probably include high tariffs, or otherwise. According to the article, "the Foreign Ministry, the Commerce Ministry, and central bank all issued statements denouncing [the proposed bill]", saying that it "'seriously violated WTO rules'" as well. Not only would China hurt from the bill, but the U.S. as well would see significant inflation and a rise in almost all imported goods because everybody knows that China makes everything we own. The reason the U.S. wants to protect itself from artificially devalued currency is because they see it as hurting their own job market as well as damaging the economy, but the Chinese stated that "it cannot resolve insufficient saving, the high trade deficit, and high unemployment rate". There is also the worry that, if the bill passes, it could lead to a "trade war" which will surely damage both sides. 


5 Questions I have after reading this.
-Why would the U.S. want to pass this bill, knowing it could hurt themselves just as much and cause inflation and hurt those who are already suffering from bad economic times?
-Which side, (i.e. democrat or republican) would most favor this bill, seeing as how it only benefits U.S. businesses?
-How has China managed to keep the value of the yuan so low?
-Should politicians sacrifice the welfare of the majority of citizens living in the U.S. for their own personal gains and, if so, how many people will notice that they are sacrificing the welfare of the people for their own personal gain?
-When China's economy slows down, who will be the next big nation?

Raising the pay of chief executive officers in bad economic times should be forbidden.

I believe that the investors should get more money instead. They are way cooler than CEOs and way richer to begin with, which must mean that they can handle money really well, otherwise they wouldn't still be so rich. Plus, there's always the saying that you need money to make money, and I think that, taking that to heart, encouraging investors to invest during tough times would be the perfect fix to all this debt. Therefore, the government should pour all of its resources into encouraging investors to spend by giving them more money and resources so that they can fund businesses. Also, if normal workers didn't get complimentary insurance, businesses would save a lot more money that they could use to invest elsewhere and become much larger, resulting in successful and happy investors. I think the government should give more decision making power to investors and let them decide what to do with all of the money so that they can become rich and help the world. CEOs on the other hand should have a large pay to begin with, especially with budget cutting of various unnecessary appendages of the company. In the long run, the super rich investors will drive the economy back into action in no time, while CEOs don't make enough money to sponsor other businesses privately to begin with. The other option would be to raise the pay of middle class workers, but then they would gain more power until equilibrium is reached, and that would lead to communism, "and we all know communism leads to killer aliens and the end of humanity and fox news." [edited by Andrew Fedorov].

Color of Rainbows- Color without the Color

It is the color of rainbows,
the color of ends
that are happy and bright
and cheerful.

It is the color of dew
after light passes through,
illuminating the color of nothing
into a million pieces of light.

It is saturated with
feelings of all sorts of
anger, of grief,
of joy, of relief,

and it always changes,
every day. It changes, into
whatever we feel,
and it oscillates its bright colors, every day

we feel,
or live,
or see,
or breathe.

and it is the color of cats,
or unicorns,
or cats that are deep fried, perhaps,
because it is

the
color
of
rainbows.

126-Perfect World

There would be a towering island of dirt and stone, and it would glow in a golden fashion, and it would house all sorts of biomes from densely forested lands to golden-green meadows, and it would have cats, lots of cats, and they would deep fry each other for food because they are made of sugar and jelly beans, and so therefore they must eat deep fried jelly beans for their natural source of nutrients that are, of course, sugar and fat, which are the two healthiest things aside from all the other things that one can elect to eat which are much, much healthier than sugar and fat, but these cats will be in perfect shape because they will have godly metabolism and will be very agile and strong so that they can inhabit the place and make splendid palaces and decorate the island with wonders and saturate it with technology that is far superior to any other nations', and then all the cats will disappear, just like the Mayans, because that always happens in the movies and, if the writers know anything at all about what they're doing, there will be a good reason for making all of the characters of this utopia disappear, I'm sure.

-Leonardo da Vinci

This is a picture of cats. There are a lot of cats in this picture. They are very fluffy and fat and cat-like. They are also a calm and leisurely shade of orange. They are very 3 dimensional, and graceful. I want a cat, except I'm allergic to cats and they are a pain to take care of, because they only look lazy in nature, but they have claws to make up for that. They have nine lives, which makes them fun to throw around the house, but that destroys the furniture too, so my parents wouldn't let me do that. That's why I don't have cats. But I draw cats too, and they are also fluffy, but they are not fat and 3 dimensional and realistic. They are like cartoons, because I am lazy, like a cat, so I can't draw realistically, and thus my cats are simple and flat, which makes them easier to work with and easier to throw around the page. So it's not so bad.

Haste Does Not Bring Success

When I actually think about it, and that is to say that I have really just started to sincerely think today- although that may be a lie- because it is very difficult to think with a cold, it feels really cliché, which is very expected of a fortune from a fortune cookie, and very typical, but it reminds me somehow of the arguably revolutionary works of William Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet (in the scene where the friar is hastily, and ironically, rushing Romeo on with his wedding with Juliet while lecturing him on the importance of thinking slowly and steadily, which is very different from what I normally think about, such as cats, but it makes for a good sentence.121

O, O, What Begins With O?

Once upon a time there was a cat whose name was Odin. Odin was not only a very magical cat, but also a perfect way to start off the beginning of sentences that needed starting off by using the letter O. Odin was a convenient cat. Orange was he, as well. Ousted from his childhood home at an early age, that one place with the indigenous language of catalan, he became an apprentice to a magical owl. Outrageous was this particular owl's personality, for he ate rainbows every day and befriended every single mice he met. Odin met him quite out of the blue as well, for Odin did not want to learn magic, but wanted to fly instead, until the owl told him of the fact that magic could make him fly. "Okey dokey lokey" said Odin, upon hearing said information regarding said result of magic on said dream of flying. Ominously, as soon as Odin began to cast the magic spell of rainbows that the owl had taught him, all of the birds in the sky fell. Owl said that that was probably nothing, so Odin continued on. Onwards he went, and suddenly, he grew a pair of wings and flew over all of the magical land of Equestria. One last sentence.

All Purpose Cats

Cats are
perfect hand-picked pets.

Cats make for
fluffy pillows,

cool evanescence,
like the wind.
They come and
go with ease.

perfect
hand-picked pets.

Cats make for
good thought.

They can be
thrown off trees,
or couches,
and then, one
can ask oneself: 'how
is it possible for
such a cat
to land, with such
elegance,
on its feet, still?'

Cats are
truly perfect
hand-picked pets.

They are an inspiration when
they are not a meal.
Deep fried, or extra
rare. Carcass dancing
across spice and
sands of salt.

Being the
perfect hand-picked pets
that they are,

the slender beings
of shadow disappear,
with still more lives
to go. Even in death.

Did I mention,
they also make
for great pets?

Because they do.

Perfect hand-picked pets.

10 Things (Devoid Of Artificially Flavored Cats)

1. I learned how to draw something that greatly resembles the face of a cat. I perfected it while studying health in my health class over the summer. Also I didn't do very well in my over the summer health class this summer.

2. I'm allergic to cats. Also I don't eat many deep fried foods.
3. I like art, but not modern art because modern art is stupid makes no sense. I know this because this summer I went to many museums in Europe, especially in Paris, and almost all of the modern art museums were really boring. The other museums hadn't any better pieces either, but at least they looked nice on the outside. I usually draw in pencil, which is why my favorite colors are gray and rainbows.

4. I like computer programming and coding and videogames. I hope that I can finish learning how to program sometime in the future.

5. I like Pocky even though I've only ever eaten 1 pack, but it just has that reputation for being a really awesome food. It's really expensive no matter which asian supermarket I visit.

6. PCs are the best, and not only compared to Mac either.

7. Last summer I also took a college course on creative writing *irony*, which is where most of my reading came from. Otherwise I only ever read manga and Japanese stuff.

8. I am bad at math.

J. I visit China sometimes, because that's where my relatives live.

10. I really like being the antithesis. Oddly enough, I used to pronounce antithesis wrong.

Books I read in the Summer of 2011

The Cloud Corporation by Timothy Donnelly
Fort Red Border by Kiki Petrosino
Oblivion by David Foster Wallace
Chapters 9, 10, and 11 of the AP European History textbook
Lucky Star by Kagami Yoshimizu