The Awesome Random Posting Thread

[MaxRide]

Taamen's still on FB (I have convos with Fran, Anthony, and/or Taameen most days, though that's probably going to decrease after we start getting more schoolwork), and Madison has a Tumblr. I don't actually talk much to Madison now, to be honest, which is a shame...

 

I can ask on the LAN.13.2 page to see if anyone wants an extra one, if you want.

 

Idk about any disco revival, I'm not into it much.

[Coldplay]

I can't stand much of '70s disco but modern influences of it tend to be good.

 

Cool! I should probably remake my Facebook, I'm missing out on keeping touch with a lot of people.

You should send her a Tumblr message, then! :wacko: Not for the lanyard hahaha but just to check on her

 

That would be awesome actually, thanks! You're not obligated to, but if you can, seems like it would be a nice thing to do. :nod:

(I wish I could have one of those yellow staff lanyards instead though... yellow's my favorite color and I got a bit pissed when I realized we were getting black haha :disappointed:)

[MaxRide]

I think they switched the colors, actually - we were supposed to get yellow, but they messed up the amount that they printed or something.

 

I'm pretty much gone from Tumblr at this point, to be honest. :shrug: She seems like she's okay for the moment, though. She got into SNL BIG TIME, so I don't really have much to talk to her about any more. Sadness. :(

 

~goes off to post~

[MaxRide]

i posted it~

[Coldplay]

Yeah, it was a mistake. I was talking about it for a minute or two on the first day and one of the squirrels was like "...wait. They aren't black every year?" hahaha :blush:

 

Ahh omg I used to stay up every Saturday to watch SNL, and I'd watch it with my best friend at the time, or he'd watch it at home and when we got back to school we'd have all sorts of inside jokes relating to the skits we saw. Good times :wacko:

 

EDIT: Nooo, Bill Hader left! He was my favorite cast member, fucking hilarious guy. Have you ever watched SNL?

[MaxRide]

I now have the ability to tell when someone is a squirrel just by how they're acting.

i need a life

 

I literally have only seen the episode of SNL that Coldplay was on after MX came out, so that's pretty much a no. :|

 

Oh, I figured out that there's yet another CTYer who goes to my school. I say "yet another" because there's [at least] one who's a junior (holy crap I'm a sophomore) and this new person is a freshman. There are two CTYers that I know of in my grade too, but I don't really count them because they go to Easton.

[MaxRide]

Oh, and sign up for Acting Improv and GLOW next year. Trust me, you won't regret it.

[Coldplay]

Aww, I remember my squirrel year. :wacky:

While I was on the plane to get to my site, I sat next to some other CTYers and they asked me "So, are you looking forward to anything besides your class? Dances, Casino Night, Movie Night?"

And I was like, "...wait. We do something else besides learning?"

Also I was hopelessly infatuated with this guy who liked me a lot too (as a friend) but I completely scared him off when I let my emotions get the better of me and was around him all the time... that's how I learned to always just treat people as people and just give them their space :uhoh:

And I had the coolest group of girls in another hall on my floor, I snuck over to their room every single night for all three weeks and no one noticed :badass:

 

Aww, yeah I watched that episode too. I can't remember if I liked it as much as others, but I remember being impressed by the fact that Coldplay didn't just play their song and leave and actually took part in the skits.

 

Yeah, I've got a good amount of CTYers in my school too, it always surprises me. I've not made friends with any of them, just small talk, but they're all really nice, and have a distinct great personality that I cherish so much when I go to CTY.

 

I tried Acting Improv two years ago but it was when I was going through some pretty serious social problems, so I bravely managed to volunteer to do something, then burst into tears when I got up in front of everyone and left... :disappointed:

I think I can do it now though. I've changed a lot.

 

What is GLOW? I've heard you say it was like GSA but better. I don't like the GSA in our school, it is fairly clique-y and unwelcoming (and this is saying something, the school I go to is one of the most accepting and bully-free schools you could possibly find in America, I still marvel at how this actually happened as we are faaar from a high-income or private school)

 

We had a week-long activity this year at CTY that informed people on sexuality and gender, and I didn't choose it cos I thought it would be basic things I already knew, but I regretted it afterwards because there was a lot of new and good information.

[Coldplay]

I edited my post loads of times over the past few minutes, so... yeah

[MaxRide]

My squirrel year was so cringeworthy in general. @_@

(come to think of it ALL of my years have been at least somewhat cringeworthy)

 

Treating people as people is important. :nods:

 

You want to talk about sneaking away? A guy in my hall (wooo trans peeps) started a relationship with another trans guy who was in my hall last year. THE LATTER WAS IN AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT DORM.

 

They were/are WAY TOO ADORABLE

 

I still laugh every time I think about the "Someone Like You" scene hahaha

 

I don't think I actually have that many considering I go to a math and science specialty school. There should definitely be more than 5 (2 who barely count, I'm sorry to anyone who goes to Easton).

/doesn't have school friends

[MaxRide]

You don't even have to do anything at Acting Improv, you can just watch. Our Jester next year is SO FUNNY (I had a class with him so I know this for a fact), so it will probably be really good next year. At least, I hope so.

 

And GLOW stands for Gay, Lesbian, or Whatever. It's really good in general, there was a genderfluid guy, another agender kid, a person who I don't know the gender identity of but used they/them pronouns, and three trans* guys. Also lots of lesbians/bi and pan girls.

 

Yeah, going to informative things is always great. We don't have any week-long activities, though; we have to pick for each individual day.

[MaxRide]

oh hey i hit 18k

[Coldplay]

Yeah, it is! :P I mean of course, I didn't treat him as less than a person, just the contrary. I think from that I realized lately that fangirling over people is ridiculous too, all of them are just like us, and yeah yeah they're awesome but you will surely find a friend/partner like that at some point in your life so there's no point in idolizing their qualities, in fact I think doing this might be a little negative as it might make people overly attached and infatuated when they find a friend/partner for them.

 

Hardcore! I've been wanting to do that since the year I came, just for the thrill of it. I wanna be a badass my nevermore year, of course not doing things that harm anyone, I just wanna be super sneaky :sneaky:

 

Aww they sound lovely. :wacky:

 

Maybe you go to a small school? My school has somewhere around 3000-4000 people, I'm not completely sure but I'm in the right ballpark.

CAA/Academic Explorations, from my experience, has the same level of curriculum as Intensive Studies, in fact I highly recommend taking the Biotechnology class if you're interested in science. The only difference is that the people tend to be more laid-back (not a nice word for stupid, just in general are more chill in contrast to the sort of neurotic nerdy personality that us CTYers tend to have) and the traditions are minimal. If this bothers you, I can understand, but again, Biotech is sooo good, and you will still find people to connect with and you can introduce traditions to sites. You are what you make of your experience!

 

That's okay if you don't have school friends, I've realized that it's so hard to find people like you if you're more mature than others and the connections you make with people in school don't entirely satisfy. Later on you'll find people meant for you. That's why the internet is so cool, you can find people who have the same interests and personality you do and you don't have to go through the awkward part of approaching them IRL and all that.

I have a group of friends to sit with now after a year of being in this school, I don't think I'll ever feel as in sync with them as some of the people I've met online but at least I've got someone to chat with every day so I'm really grateful with that. I'm gonna try some clubs too, do you have many clubs at your school? Have you thought of making your own?

 

Yeah, I know you can just sit in Acting Improv, but it's one of the things I did to try to get over my social anxiety. That was an unsuccessful attempt :P but over time from doing that it became less uncomfortable, now it's almost normal.

 

Hahaha I like the 'whatever' part :P

That's so odd that you don't have weeklies! I guess Lancaster is just a distinctly different site in general.

 

Congrats on the post milestone, hahah

[Coldplay]

By the way, when you're talking about someone who uses singular 'they' pronouns, do you still use verbs in the plural way? Like

 

They are cute

They is cute

 

The latter one sounds like it wouldn't be right, but the concept of 'singular they' gramatically exists so I think you'd therefore use singular verbs... I'm confused :thinking:

[MaxRide]

I mean, I don't even understand attraction, so I don't completely get the "obsessing over your significant other/crush" part, but the obsession thing makes perfect sense. That being said, I still obsess over youtubers to some degree. :|

 

I couldn't ever be super sneaky, I hate breaking rules in general because of my personality. I couldn't care less if people sneak around, though. Just, DO YOUR LAUNDRY ON WEEKENDS PLEAAAASE (long story).

 

THEY WERE SO FREAKING ADORABLE

that reminds me, there was one time when they were being super snuggly (behind closed doors :sneaky:) in Jack's [more recent hallmate] room, and, at the time, Jack was taking meds for an ear infection. He missed taking the meds because of all the snugglytimes, and our RA knocked on his door...and Aaron [the hallmate from last year] had do to the walk of shame all the way back to his dorm.

 

Also Aaron "got hit in the neck by a glowstick" 11 times

 

In theory, my school is 960 people, but I say "in theory" because there are two other schools [technically the same, but one is middle school and one is high school] that are arts specialty schools that are in the same building. Yes, we have a huge school building. The two schools don't interact much, to be honest, but to some degree we do.

 

Meh, I'm sticking to Lancaster - I only have one more year, and it's the place I'd prefer to be, if that makes sense.

 

We have so many clubs, it's pretty ridiculous. I'm only part of the GSA [Gender Sexuality Alliance...I'm leading it this year, so I changed the name to be more inclusive], rowing club, and fencing club, all of which are really small clubs. Also hopefully 10th-12th grade math league, but we'll see how that goes.

 

To be honest, I'm not that interested in clubs all that much. There is an anime club [yes really] that I might join, but I'm not sure how serious I am about getting into anime yet. Taameen made me get into two shows, but I haven't seen anything else.

 

See, I'm able to be comfortable socially quite quickly, I just legitimately prefer to be alone and not do social things. I have gone to lengths so that other people avoid me instead of it being the other way around, just to avoid talking to people.

[although I will admit that I sort of have trust issues in general, even with my own parents sooo]

 

You mean Lancaster is the main site and everywhere else is different? :P

 

/didn't even realize how close I was to 18k

[MaxRide]

It's grammatically plural no matter what (though it can be singular, and yes I realize how confusing that is), so the "they are __" is the right way to go. It's kind of weird, I know, but then again, we say "you are __" whether referring to one person or a group of people. ENGLISH IS CRAZY

[Coldplay]

Ahh I see. Yeah I forgot about 'you are'. English is so absurd, I think if I learned it at a later age and had to force myself to accept all of the grammatical rules and all, I would've just gave up after a while hahah :anxious:

By saying that, I mean it is my second language, but I learned it at an age where you still absorb language like a sponge and you don't have to block new things or think of them analytically.

Also I've sort of forgotten my first language but I'm working on it :anxious:

 

~ESL students appreciation day~

[MaxRide]

To be honest, I'm surprised at how good my mom is at English, considering that she came here when she was 30 years old. She has an accent, but it's not really identifiable as Russian at all.

 

 

now if only she actually taught me to speak Russian when I was younger...

 

[Coldplay]

Nice! Awww I wanna meet your mom (that sounds kinda creepy hahah)

That's interesting, because Russian accents are normally very distinct. My mom's accent sounds like a stereotypical Russian one, and people mistake her for being Russian often :P

 

My mom's English is fluent but she has a thick accent and makes grammatical errors at times. I think she came here in her early 40s, but she studied English in school before.

 

If she still speaks Russian, you should totally start talking to her a little every day! You've got a great resource for studying cos she's already living with you.

[MaxRide]

Romanian seems like a cool language, if your forgetting it might be nice to remember it.

 

hahaha it's okay, you might end up meeting her if she comes to closing ceremonies :uhoh:

 

Yeah, my mom doesn't have a strong accent at all. Until recently I couldn't even tell that she had an accent, aside from her weird pronunciation of a few words. Granted, she did learn how to read and write pretty early, but it's still pretty impressive.

 

She still speaks Russian - it's a little hard to forget after 30 years. :P And I've tried, but I always get frustrated because I'm pretty terrible at learning languages. Even Latin, which is not even that difficult for me because of how much English has been influenced by it and how easy the grammar is.

 

not to mention Russian is one of the hardest languages to learn as a non-native speaker :uhoh:

 

That being said, I'm trying to teach myself on my own. Knowing only five words and not even the alphabet doesn't help me much, as does the fact that I can't roll my R's, but I CAN TRY GODDANGIT

[Coldplay]

It is actually! Imagine Latin with a Russian accent, sorta. It's actually the closest, if not one of the closest living relatives to Latin. :wacko: So when I heard that I took a Latin class and understood a lot, but I didn't really enjoy learning Latin much as it's not a practical language IMO so I stopped taking it :disappointed:

I tried to speak Romanian as much as I could this summer and I'm far from perfect but my speaking abilities improved, I went from barely able to say a word to being able to hold up simple conversations in a month or so. :anxious:

The absurd part is that I am able to read and listen to Romanian and understand everything, it's just the speaking and writing part, I haven't done either since I was 6 so it's like it's been hidden from my memory and locked in a hidden drawer. People think that if you can understand a language passively, you can speak it actively, and if you can speak and listen, you can read and write too, and it just doesn't work like that, they are completely different processes and they all have to be practiced regularly to be fluent.

It's not like I've completely forgotten though, when I relearn a word, I nail the pronunciation and sometimes the meaning of the word, but it's not in my active memory, if that makes sense. :thinking:

 

:surprised:

 

The Russian alphabet is cool, we buy Russian candies all the time and I asked how it's pronounced and it often sounds simpler than it looks, like if it can be spelled in English letters easily why is it written in weird letters that look like numbers and upside-down letters :veryangry: /dumb foreigner

 

It's ok, you just learn a little at a time. You don't have to force yourself to be dedicated to it haha. But it's nice to take advantage of the fact that your mom is always there to teach you.

[Black Rose]

I'm having a lazy day.

 

Looking for a new bag/suitcase to take on holiday with me.

[Nikola]

Hey Dee I live in eastern Serbia, close to Romania. There's a considerable Romanian (Vlach) minority here.

 

Was emigrating to the US hard for your family?

[Coldplay]

Hi Nikola! Ooh I didn't know that :wacko:

 

I don't remember much of the experiences first hand, as I was quite young (around 6... I'm a few days shy of being 16 now) but yeah it was really tough, cos my mom ended up here on her own with no connections and no money, and a pretty poor command of English, and my sister refused to work and fled back to Romania for a while and blehhh. Luckily my dad did have an apartment for us before he left, so if we didn't have that, I can't imagine us ever staying here, my life would've been so much different

anyway, my mom and sister eventually start doing odd jobs just to get food on the table and get the rent paid, around 5 years down the road my mom gets money to open her own shop from getting a big commercial spot that is seen all over TV

so we thought things were gonna get better then because the first year the store actually made profit, but then uhhh the recession hit and we did a lot worse, to the point where we nearly lost the store, but we somehow found a location for the store at the same price range but with a loooot more traffic, now we're 10 years in and we're doing well, like for the first time since moving here we're making actual profit and we're able to be more free with the money we spend and stuff

 

I read somewhere that it takes around a decade to settle down and stop struggling so much as an American immigrant, and that sounds about right, though I imagine for others it could be much longer

 

so I mean it's really luck to stay surviving here but the only way to get that 'luck' is to be really determined. Nobody who doesn't work their ass off will get these lucky opportunities. So I guess it's not really luck.

 

tl;dr my life story

[BookLover715]

(random intrusion)

 

The singular "they" as a gender-unspecific pronoun is actually wrong;you should use "him or her" or "he or she" or whatever when you don't/can't tell gender.