An End of the Year Review

Well guys, this is the last graded assignment for this blog, which means that I probably won't post much after this (though I might get bored over the summer).

from: iusedtohavehair.com

I've been saving this review for a while, cus I wanted to do this for my last one.
It's a review of this entire project.

Background of the project for the, like, two people who aren't in my English class:
We got this big project at the beginning of the year to make a blog about whatever you want, and post weekly. This blog was the result of that project. This is all very lucky for you, dear readers, because where would you be if you didn't have your weekly posts from yours truly.

Over the year, I've been wondering why Mr. P decided to make this project. It seemed like an inconvenience to make an assignment where you'd have to grade 100+ badly written posts every week.
I've come up with three reasons.

1. Better student/teacher communication:
If I was a teacher, I'd want students to feel open about talking to me about whatever the heck they wanted. I'm not sure if Mr. P shares this opinion, but for my argument's sake I'll assume he does. These blogs would be a great way to get to know your students, and see what they enjoy. Also, if the students are like me and get super awkward when they talk to a teacher ((which is a constant problem of mine, and I'm fairly sure that my percussion teacher thinks I have a disorder because I just can't answer his questions without completely panicking)), this project is helpful for getting opinions and ideas across.

2. Better student/student communication:
One thing that I've really liked about these blogs is that you can get insight on your fellow students. Like, it's cool to go on your friend's blogs and see what they post about and then joke with them about it later.
But it's also cool to see the blogs of people who you aren't great friends with, or want to be friends with. Like, maybe you talked to one guy in class and found out that he's in honors English, so he has a blog. You can go on it and find out stuff about him, and then you can talk to him about stuff he likes next time you see him.
Is that creepy?
I really hope not......but then again, this is the internet. The views from random people in Singapore should have reminded you that these blogs are public.

3. Writing practice:
Of course since this is an English assignment, it does make sense to have all this writing practice. A lot of kids have improved on their general spelling/conventions skills since the beginning of this project.
What stinks (for me at least) is that this isn't the type of writing I need to practice. I mainly write stories, so this casual blogging style isn't what I need to work on.


There is one benefit to this project that doesn't really relate to English, but I think most students will agree with.

1.Getting to show off:
Face it, we're all awkward teenagers that suck at communicating with each other. We're especially bad about coming out about our talents. This is a good way to show off our stuff without seeming too braggy.
People can show off their art skills, or writing skills, cooking, humor, music, or whatever the heck else they want to.
Blogging is a really nice platform for showing off what you can do, and I'm glad that a lot of students took advantage of that, because that was the most fun part about this project.

What I think about my own blog:
I'm actually pretty proud of myself with this blog. I know it isn't anything that I'll look at in 20 years and be like 'This is one damn good blog', but it could've been a LOT worse. I was thinking about doing a blog about my life, and trust me, you should be glad that I didn't post about my weekend LoTR marathon.
A review blog was a good match for me. I have a lot of opinions, but don't talk about them much because people get bored after a few minutes. This was a good way to get thoughts out without boring everyone to death.
Overall, this came out pretty well. It isn't popular, but it's a fun little blog that I can laugh about in the future.

Conclusion:
This is definitely one of the best projects I've ever done. Though it was a pain in the butt to have to think of something to make a post on and get it in by Friday night, it was a load of fun. The entire experience of blogging and making this weird community was strange and awesome. Thanks for the opportunity Mr. P!

Incongruent: ALL THE LINKS

From: dftba.com

I know I've done two posts regarding the Green brothers already, but this time I want to focus on Hank.
If you haven't read my vlogbrothers post, you should go read it. It's very informative.
So recently (last Wednesday) Hank Green & The Perfect Strangers came out with their new album, Incongruent.
I bought the special pre-ordered copy that's SIGNED.
Cus I'm that cool.
Unfortunately it hasn't arrived yet because I ordered it with the TFiOS preparedness kit which is still in preorder.
BUT since the people at dftba records are so nice and realize that a lot of computers now don't have disk drives (looking at you eighth graders with your dumb macbook airs), they sent a digital download of the whole album!
Which means I can review it for you guys!
Unfortunately, the songs are still too new and I can't find them on Grooveshark so I can't put all them on here for you.
However, Hank performed a few of them on the vlogbrothers channel, so I can at least link you to those videos.
Also, there are two versions of the album (a clean and an explicit) and I bought the explicit but I don't think they're very different anyway.
If you're interested in the clean version, I'm sure there'll be some review somewhere else that's available by now.

1. I F***ing Love Science
This one is pretty self explanatory. Hank runs around singing about how science is great and everyone should be happy that it's a thing.
Here's a link to the music video (it's the clean version but you can get to the explicit version from it if you'd like that better).

2.T-Shirt and Jeans
A song about how t-shirt and jeans are a great outfit that you can use to express yourself (or not).
Here's the acoustic version.

3.Hug Scream
I don't really know what to tell you with this one. Just.....hug someone and scream while you're doing it. There's also something about armadillos worshiping lions.
Now hold this awesome person oh so near
and scream your loudest scream
but not directly in their ear

4.Mother Pheasant Plucker
I'm pretty sure that they just wanted to make a massive tongue twister and make a bunch of people accidentally sing fucker. Go on, try it. I DARE YOU.
But my life as a mother pheasant plucker is pleasant
Just listening to music as I pluck mother pheasants
I'm a pleasant pheasant plucker and no ones
heard a pleasant pheasant plucker ever say the f-word

5.Marilyn Hanson
I think this one of those songs that's about a girlfriend he (the singer) had a long time ago and is being all nostalgic about it, but I can't really tell cus I can't find the lyrics anywhere so I have to go by ear which I suck at. The song has a rocking saxophone solo and it's the only song that actually says incongruence.
By the way, incongruence means incompatible.
It didn't matter
To anyone but ourselves

6.The Universe is Weird
Again, self explanatory. Hank is flipping out about how the universe is really weird and amazing and that it's pretty great for us that it's a thing cus if it wasn't, we wouldn't be here.
Here's a link to the acoustic version of this song.

7.Gangnam Style (Full English Translation)
Again, pretty self explanatory.
Here's a link to PART of the song. It's with a bunch of other songs that are translated to English, but just watch the video because it's funny.

8. I'd Rather
You know when you're like 'I'd rather gouge both of my eyes out with a rusty spork than _____'? This song is pretty much that.
No, I don't think we'll get together again
And no, I don't think we can still be friends
Because there's so many things I'd rather do
Than spend another day with you.

9. Oh JK Rowling
A song about how JK Rowling should really write something new because she's amazing. Ironically, this came out a few days before JK revealed that she wrote The Cuckoos Calling. Actually, Hank is pretty psychic when it comes to Harry Potter. I should also mention that he does an anual Harry Potter song, so this psychic-ness comes to light pretty frequently.
Here's a link to the song (album version!)

10. Undigested Lump
Mr. P, if you skip everything in this post, at least don't skip this cus you'll like it.
This is a song about how awesome Shakespearean insults are.
We can't use them for the smackdown or anything, but it's a good song.
Here's a link to the acoustic ((you can skip the first minute of the video if you aren't interested in the statistics of the vlogbrothers channel)). I like the album version better but I can't get that to you without things being sort of illegal and I'M SORRY.

11. My Favorite Pony
A song that's making fun of bronies (but in a 'ya this is lame but it's still fun' way).
Here's a link to the acoustic version.

12. Video Game Books
I really don't know what they were trying to do with this song. Maybe they just wanted to make a slow song and had to put something that you could maybe pretend was lovey if you didn't listen to the words?
And I'm starting to see
Not just what you want from me
But you want to get
From what you've got

13. Accio Deathly Hallows
This is a song from back in 2007 that Hank wrote about how Deathly Hallows was coming out in a few days. Listen to the song, and you'll know what I mean about Hank's psychic Potter powers.
Here's  a link to the acoustic version. I actually like this version better, but only because in the album version they move into this weird reggae thing that sort of ruined it.

14. Perfect Strangers
This is ones of those songs that they put in cheesy kids movies where the kids are spending the summer together and bonding and it's all sweet and stuff.
Now picture that scene with 5 (maybe) men who are 30-ish years old, and I'm pretty sure that is the inspiration for this song.
Sometimes the world looks perfect
Nothing to rearrange
Sometimes you just get a feeling
Like you need some kind of change


That is a lot of links, which all took a long time to find.
Phew.
Overall, the album isn't my favorite (I only bought it because I like Hank and want to support him ((plus it's SIGNED))), but it's quirky and fun so I like it well enough.
Honestly, I'd wait till some people put it on grooveshark for the album versions, but go and listen to all the links up there!


UPDATE:

THAT IS A GENUINE SIGNATURE/HANKLERFISH YOU GUYS. THIS IS AMAZING.

Unfortunately my parents were there when I opened up the package and started flipping out, and they saw the parental advisory sticker and freaked out a bit. They were a little better when I explained that Hank swore in the name of science.

BUT ANYWAY THIS IS REALLY GREAT AND GEEZE.

Kim Possible

The other day I was in class, and some girls started talking about Kim Possible.
This prompted the girls I was talking to, to start talking about Kim Possible.

blog.lib.umn.edu

"Don't you remember that show?" One of them asked while her eyes gleamed with nostalgia.
"Um.....not really," I said awkwardly. "I've never seen it."
This one comment completely ostracized me for the rest of class.
See, my parents were the type of parents that didn't really let us watch T.V until we were 10.
((no they aren't the insane religious type, they just didn't want to pay for it and wanted us to go outside)).
This left a lot of blanks in mine and 'le brother's' pop culture experience. We didn't see any classic Disney channel shows while they were still on, were utterly confused about why an underwater sponge was so popular (still confused about that one), and didn't see any of the High School Musicals until middle school.
It's sad, I know.
After the previously mentioned conversation, I decided that I would finally watch my first episode of Kim Possible.
Then my first episode turned into second, and third, and fourth........and then twenty.
I KNOW IT'S LAME BUT IT WAS FOR THE SAKE OF SCIENCE.
THE SCIENCE OF MISSED CHILDHOOD.
.
.
.
.
Summary thing based off of the first season (but I don't think it would change that much in later seasons anyway):
Hopefully someone else had been living under a rock their entire lives too and actually need this.
Kim Possible is this teenage super spy person in the early 2000s (you can tell it's the early 2000s because crop tops are still in((and because having a website automatically made you cool)) ). She goes around the world, saving people from everything from volcanoes to villans.
For some reason everyone knows about her missions and is for some reason cool with it?
Her sidekick is this guy named Ron Stoppable (ya see what they did there?) who is a klutz and a dork and I love him. He has a naked mole rat named Rufus who lives in his pocket.
So....that's about it.

Characters:
Kim: They made her a little TOO perfect. Honestly. She's the head cheerleader, an honors student, REALLY popular, and a world wide hero. She's reminds me a bit of Buffy Summers (shout out to BtVS fans!), but without Buffy's awesomeness.

Ron: This is where they dumped all of Kim's flaws....or tried to. Honestly, I think this show is allergic to realistic teenage problems. Ron is uncool, and the only reason he doesn't get beat up all the time is cus he's friends with Kim.
He goes on missions with Kim, but is mainly a distraction. He's made of comic relief from head to toe, which I guess is why I like him. He also has a weird phobia of monkeys.

Wade: Kim's tech guy. I think this kid lives in his room, just surrounded by computers (which could not have been high quality at all cus again it's the early 2000s). He gets her all her info, and builds unnecessarily disguised weapons (such as a grappling hook disguised as a hair dryer).

Rufus: A naked mole rat who likes to eat.

Dr. Draken: The supposed bad guy. Again, this guy is made of comic relief. He's sort of like Ron, but thinks that he's large and in charge. It's hilarious actually. He's always beaten (which follows the classic kids show template), but is surprisingly cool about it.

Shiego: She's the one who I think is the REAL villan. She actually looks sort of evil, and has this weird super power that I haven't quite figured out yet but it makes her hands glow green. She's the one that's always fighting Kim, and is actually sort of a BAMF.

Review:
I like it...I guess? I'd been hearing so much about the show over the years, that I guess it had been built up to this perfect thing. Needless to say, it wasn't perfect, and I am a little let down about it. Then again, I'm not eight, so that might be part of it.
I'd give it a 6/10.
You can watch episodes here if you want.