Miss Ellaneous

So who's that girl?
"uhh which girl?"

I mean sure I'm dating, but not "Dating."
I'm trying things Elder Oaks' way
'with a variety of dates... not implying something very serious.'
just now.

Will I continue to flirt with those people? Yes.
Will I continue to flirt with everyone else.
Absolutely.

That's just where I am.

There was a new girl at volleyball the other day.
She was fairly pretty, I won't deny that,
but I wondered if she wouldn't be even more pretty with just
a few changes. A little less tan, and some slightly smaller earrings.
A little less make-up and more natural looking hair.

Upon mentioning my experience.
There was an opinion that this girl probably got way more attention than anyone else.
Sure she received more attention than some, and less than others,
but I really believe that there were a lot more factors involved.

#1. She was new! I know it almost seem too obvious, but she got attention, because nobody knew anything about her... most of the other people that we didn't know got a lot of attention too.

#2. Perhaps we are not so shallow as one might think. I suppose some of us are, and some are not, but I would be surprised if a goodly number of people couldn't see that a person would look really good with a little less of the non-essential embellishments that perhaps some people like.

#3. Personality. Personality. Personality. She was nice and she was happy, and that goes along way. She said more to me than some of the others there have ever said. She didn't stay only with her friends, she was kind to everyone, and outgoing. She acted like she was happy that we were there, and happy that we received them, and when I saw her at a later date she remembered me.

She reminded me of someone actually.

A girl who once told me that she'd rather not be hot.
Or rather she didn't want people to say that she was hot.
She said she'd rather be pretty or cute, or something like that.

Ironically she understood the difference, she just didn't realize that she was hot.
She didn't realize that her definition was right but that everyone else was using the word in it's proper context. She wanted their definition to change, not change itself.

Which is interesting, when you think about it. I think Hollywood does it a lot.
They change the definition of words, so they don't have the same meaning.

It reminds of a movie that "should have be have been 'R.'" But because it is not, many people who would not otherwise see it, probably have. I don't understood why people don't take a less passive approach to their entertainment.

There is a website that helps me be less passive.
(I'm sure there are others too). I use Screen it dot com.

anyway I hope you enjoyed the miscellany
ttfn

Snapsots: part I

There are some moments, simple moments, that I look at and smile. The fifth grade, The sixth grade, the tenth grade and so on. Brief photographs that make up the movie of my life. Here are the stories that I think about often, but don't share enough. These are some things that have influenced me.

I remember my first computer class, 6th grade, (apparently that is both more common and more ancient than I thought). I had no idea, when I sat down at my first Mac that computers would weave so thoroughly through my life.

I enjoyed the class, but, I'm not sure it really changed my life.

When I was in ninth grade you could have asked me "Are you Mac or PC?" and I probably would have said PC. After all it looked like the way things were going (and they did). I was even a little surprised when I decided to take the 'intro to Mac class' (instead of the 'intro to PCs' one), but somebody taught me a great secret; sometimes it's the teacher.

This time it was the teacher.

Mrs. Webb was amazing. She had a gift, she had a few of them. She loved computers, she wanted us to love them too. She could start at the very beginning, but she could take a person about as far as they wanted to go. She didn't teach the same things that others were teaching. In fact she did even always teach the same things herself. Her goal was to teach (and learn) one new program every semester, at a minimum. Consequently we learned a lot of cool stuff.

I heard that the 'PC' people were learning stuff too, but it wasn't quite the same.
We were frontiersmen, on the very edge of unexplored world of computers, and we were exploring it. We started with the some of the basics, but soon we had moved on.
We made movies, and websites, and in my year, 3D animations. We talked with people all over the world, face to face. It used to be a serious novelty. We learned FTP, and layout programs, and the one of a kind Hypercard. Hypercard was like the forerunner to flash. It was programming, and and animation all in one. And yes we did a little programming, and HTML.

It was downright remarkable. I was learning the things that got me to where I am today. Mrs. Webb was indeed an architect and artist: creating futures for hundreds of students, and I was one of them.

When the foundation was set. I decided to take some classes from Mr. Andersen. He too helped me to see the power of these little beige boxes. Here too, I learned so much, partly because he had us help each other. Usually I would learn one way, and he would find a different way to do it, whatever it was. Then when people needed help, he let us share whatever knowledge we could muster. I was glad he did it. It reinforced the things we learned. And I learned a lot.

It's amazing the difference one person or class can make. I've forgotten most of the thing we learned back then, and I've had to learn many more things. But the foundation
was laid and the foundation was solid. I learned how computer programs work. I learned the frameworks, so I could learn all the programs that we didn't learn. Even the programs that were yet to be conceived. And it has served me ever since.
Thanks to those that taught me so much, so long ago.