5 Questions the YA/NA Genres Have Yet to Answer About Vampires

                 It's no secret that I'm not a vampire expert. I haven't read Anne Rice, whom everyone in the know assures me is the best vampire novelist ever. I haven't read Bram Stoker, except for a few chunks of a faulty Italian audio book simplified for early English speakers. I don't pretend to know anything about them compared to the more serious Paranormal readers.

                 The only vampire books I have read however, leave a lot of questions unanswered. Well, it's not like Young Adult books aren't infamous in their adjustments to occult culture (sparkles, anyone?). Here are some pressing questions even the most popular YA vampire books have yet to answer:

1. Twilight: Are vampires sterile or not?
                  Edward + Bella = Renesmee?? I can't be the only one who was mystified by this turn of events. I don't know if you bought the whole male-vampire-and-female-human-can-conceive thing because I sure as hell didn't. We're told pretty much the entire series that Esme and Rosalie really, really want kids, but are totally unable to have them. I don't think it's illogical for me to assume that once you die, so do your abilities to create life. Yet within a few chapters of Breaking Dawn, Edward has impregnated Bella and the author is all like, "Well, I never said that would apply to men. Men just have so much more power than women, and that's why Edward/Jacob/Every Guy in Forks is constantly saving Bella from herself." Because, you know, she's hopeless without men.

(from mrsalvatorre.tumblr.com)

Some other perspectives:
Chicagoland Vampires: Yes, vampires are sterile. Except apparently some can procreate with the help of magic from the shape-shifters or something. It's not confirmed yet, but there's a 99.9% chance that Ethan and Merit are going to have a creepy vampire baby.
Vampire Academy: No. Just No. In the world of Vampire Academy, all the vampires grow up from infanthood like humans, but Dhampirs are unable to reproduce with one another, and have to cross pollinate with Moroi or something. That's a whole other issue, though.
Mortal Instruments: Maybe.... Throughout the first half of the series (and by that I mean, the better half), we're convinced that they are, indeed, sterile. At no time whatsoever are we presented with a pregnant vampire, or a vampire kid of any sort. But by the first chapter of the fourth book, the entire thing is blown apart by a single pointless conversation between Simon and Isabelle.
Isabelle: Do you even really know how vampires are made?
Simon: Well, when a mommy vampire and a daddy vampire love each other very much...
Isabelle: Fine, you know that vampires don't really need to have sex to reproduce, but I bet you don't really know how it works...
NO, WE DON'T. And it's your job to explain it to us. But apparently random dinner conversations with Simon and Isabelle really are random dinner conversations, because none of this is ever brought back up. Ever.

2. Mortal Instruments: Vampires turn pale after they're made, right? But what if you're black? Do you turn darker or become white?
                   This isn't really a Mortal Instruments specific question. It's just curiosity in general. My friend Adelle once asked me if I thought darker-skinned vampires would turn completely white after they were bitten, or if they would turn completely dark. The only reason this is linked to TMI is because, even though Simon and everybody else is mentioned to become pale and chalky after they're turned, Raphael still maintains the "honey-colored skin of a Diego painting" of his original Spanish descent. Does the 'becoming paler' thing only work on Caucasians? Or does your color slowly return over time?

(from loki-in-chains-tadah.tumblr.com)

Some other perspectives:
Twilight: No effect. Or darker. Both is possible. In the movie, Laurent is definitely dark-skinned, and so are those Amazon people. I'm not sure what they're called. I'm assuming that they were born that way, and that getting paler is something that is only inflicted upon the paler skinned vampires. I don't know, maybe their skin was paler before?
Vampire Academy: No effect. Rose inherits her Turkish father's tanned skin, though this can be open to interpretation, as she describes the color as being "the inside of an almond," which are milk white when raw and pale gold when roasted. Then again, she is a born vampire, so that might be different.

3. Twilight: Are all vampires just invincible to daylight now? Just sparkly?
                   This is probably one of the things that most vampire fanatics are unable to stomach. Everyone has heard about how Twilight vampires are basically flimsy forest fairies that sparkle in the sun. While in ancient vampire lore (as ancient as the 2004 novel Let the Right One In, as least) vampires are known to catch flame and burn themselves alive when met with sunlight, Twilight vampires have little to fear from the day. Sure, they sparkle to "attract prey" but it doesn't hurt them whatsoever. Also, it only happens when it's really sunny. Yeah, right.

     (from mrhankey.tumblr.com)

Some other perspectives:
Vampire Diaries: Only with the aid of magical jewelry. I have a confession: I've never read the books. I have, however, watched approximately 3 random episodes of the TV show, during which it's revealed that vampires can walk in the daylight when they wear special rings and amulets blessed by witches or something. But if they're not, they do get burned.
Mortal Instruments: When you have extra-angelic Shadowhunter blood in your veins. Simon becomes permanently immune to the sunlight after he takes blood from Jace on Valentines ship. Everybody else just avoids sunlight at all costs.
Drake Chronicles: It makes them weak, but it's survivable. Solange and everyone else in her extended family is constantly traipsing around the place in half-sunlit scenarios, though it's revealed that it's especially potent to newly turned vampires. Older vampires can withstand sunlight for longer amounts of time, and with fewer ill effects.

4. Chicagoland Vampires: What is with the eyes? Seriously?
                    Why is it that they all change color? And they all change for different reasons? Chicagoland vampires have eyes that turn silver when they're excited or angered, no matter what your eye color was originally. It turns pure silver. Yes, this is pretty much the most terrifying aspects of vampirism mentioned in all YA books so far. I'm not going to talk about the blood consumption thing, because most YA vampires are either super tame or super lame.

Some other perspectives:
Night Huntress: They glow green. The vampires of Night Huntress world are also cursed with strange ocular conditions. Their irises glow green when they're hungry, or when they're aroused. It's all a very dramatic affair.
Twilight: They turn red or gold. The twilight vampires have their eye color changed pretty permanently after they're turned. And all vampires have the same golden eye color, except for when they're hungry or newly born, which is when they turn red. I swear, this is getting out of hand. It should be pretty easy to spot a vampire like this, just make sure they have the weird golden eyes and you're cool.
Fifty Shades of Grey: They turn dark. Yeah, I know that this isn't a vampire novel, and that it's semi-realistic porn or whatever, but come on. I only skimmed through a few pages of it, and even I know that Christian Grey is a vampire in disguise. His eyes 'darken' whenever he's aroused or thinking something dark and twisted, he's a billionaire, and he has a thing with forcing Anna (Alice? Annie? Yeah, Anna) to eat large portions of meat -which is clearly proof that he's fattening her up for slaughter!! Blood packed with nutrients! Don't say I didn't warn you.

5: Twilight: This is awkward but... What about periods? Can vampires smell periods? Do all the vampire boyfriends of the world avoid their girlfriends at least once a month?
                    As we all know, the main thing keeping Bella and Edward apart in the Twilight novels is the fact that they are, after all, of different species. Edward's main argument throughout their relationship is that he is afraid the smell of her blood out of fear that he will want to suck her dry and potentially kill her. There's a scene in New Moon (which I, due to a strange obsession I had with birthday parties at the time, remember vividly) where Bella cuts her finger and the smell from that drop of blood causes Jared to go insane and attempt to throw himself at her. If that one drop of blood is so potent, what happens when Bella's period comes? Are the vampires attracted to that kind of blood? Can they smell it whenever Bella  has a period? Does Edward know her 'moon cycle' better than she does herself? What do they do when it happens? I would love to read a fanfic that deals with this.

 (http://gemini-dragon-gifs.tumblr.com)

Some other perspectives:
Vampire Diaries: No idea. There is no mention of this, as far as I know (which is not much, really. I've only ever watched two episodes of the TV show and an excerpt of the novel)
Night Huntress: I think they can smell it?? I wasn't as big a fan of this series as a lot of other people were, and I've only read it once, but I do remember Bones mentioning that he could smell her period and the main character being slightly mortified by this.
Mortal Instruments:No idea. Either Simon is really just a tactful human being, or else he was never able to smell that kind of blood on anybody.
Drake Chronicles: No idea. Well, all the main characters are vampires, so it's likely this was never a problem.
Fifty Shades of Grey: . We've all heard about that awkward tampon scene already, and I think evidence suggests that Christian Grey just doesn't give a frack. Then again, he isn't exactly a stellar example of a well fleshed out vampire character, so I don't know if that counts.
The Others: They smell it like normal blood. Anne Bishop's novels don't really focus on vampires per say, but there is one fantastically realistic scene where a vampire smells blood on Meg and almost bursts into the bathroom believing she's hurt herself, only to find her cranky about her period. This is one of the few period scenes I've ever read in paranormal/urban fantasy, and I have to say, I quite liked it. 
 
Till the next time I feel like an over the top analysis,

An Apology for Laziness

          Wow, it sure has been a long time since we all wrote on this thing. But I can bet you that it probably has been less than a few days since one or another of our esteemed writers has thought about writing on this blog. In fact, I can promise you that Adelle and I have said this sentence to one another every time we've done anything together in the past twelve months. "You know, I think we really should start the blog back up again..." To which the other one of us will reply, "Hey! Me too! We really should do it. Maybe after we watch this movie/ read this review / plan this fundraiser/ write this essay. Then we'll have loads of time!"

           Yeah, right. We never have time. Not during Fall Break or Christmas or Chinese New Year (Yes, yes, I know it's not just the Chinese that celebrate it, but it has such a nice ring to it. Lunar New Year just sounds so... vague and Professor Trelawney-ish). Students never have time for anything these days anyway. Not in between studying and extracurriculars and League of Legends (all the 8th grade boys) and Personal Projects (all those poor 10th graders) and such. I, of course, only have time for reading.

          Anyway, I'm very sorry for not writing on here. I'm also very sorry that the last two articles posted on this website before we all went on a year long hiatus were semi-crazy rants by Adelle. (She means well. It is not her fault that summer vacation is not kind on the cat ladies of the future.) I am also sorry about the half a dozen unfinished articles saved in the draft corner of the blog. I always meant to finish them, and now I have the time I cannot remember what on earth any of them is supposed to be about. (One of them is from Alex who titled her draft: Chanel 4 needs to stop wear their ass as a hat.  Shame she couldn't have finished it. It seems like a very interesting piece of reporting, though I am quiet curious about this whole numbered Chanel business. I wasn't aware there were different types.)

          There, that's it. If you would like me to grovel some more (not that I did very much of it above anyway), please leave a comment. Just let it be noted that Chichi is clearly the only writer here with any real decency and common courtesy. We're all going to be waiting for apologies from other writers, and if theirs are too late in showing up, we'll pick out punishments for them, okay?

Love you guys, I'll write some more soon,






P.S. Oh my gods, did you guys know that the Laggies trailer with Chloe Moretz and Kiera Knightly is up? Yes it is!!! Here's the link. Love me.

P.P.S. And the equally awesome (ha! pun) trailer to The Equalizer.

'Summer' Break and the Universe

It's Adelle~! "WOOT WOOT!"
*facepalm*

So everyone's on Summer break (even though technically we're below the equator so it's Winter break, but it doesn't matter cause the weather's the same anyway) and therefore too lazy to post anything. SO I decided to post something kinda different today.

It's a poem.

God, I know. Trust me I'm not trying to be one of those deep, sentimental, touchy-feely types that sit in dark corners and contemplates the meaning of the universe. I just like working concepts and ideas out and my major way of doing that is through writing, so this time I thought I'd try and do it through poetry instead.

There's not too much rhyming (it's a bit inconsistent and don't even try to ask what kind of poem it is) so it's not too reminiscent of Dr. Seuss, thankfully. Cause' for some reason my rhyming-poems tend to lean to the children's-picture-book side of things. Don't ask me why -- I dunno. But it's inconvenient, that's for sure. I mean, you don't really want to sound like a book talking about cats and hats when writing a poem about, say, child abuse. (This actually happened. 9th Grade English class. Yeah.)

Anyway I'm blabbering. Here's the poem I guess.

If you think about the chances,
the statistical probability of us being alive,
here,
now,
today,
you would find that each life is an improbability.

Cause' seven billion is still tiny,
puny,
insignificant,
no matter what environmentalists say,
compared to everything else.

Think of me, of you.
We are just a speck in our country,
which is a spot in our world,
which is an ant in our galaxy,
a piece of lint in the universe.

So if you take into consideration
all the little things that could go wrong,
all the things that had to happen
all the way back from when the planet-galaxy-universe was created,
(don't strain yourself)
to make sure that you exist,
and the fact that there is only one you,
one individual, unique you,
in a universe of uncountable, limitless possibility,
you could argue that each person,
each life,
is their own little miracle-child.

There was no you before you existed--
there are no expectations fitted to you.
Nothing you are going through has ever happened before.
Not this way. Not like this.
So no one can judge you.

No one can say they know you,
your problems, your fears.
Or anything about you--
the reason you shed tears.

No one can know how you feel,
cause' each person's unique.
No one can know what's fake or real,
lies or truths both speak.

Each person is a mystery,
a case never to be solved,
an unprecedented situation,
one of a kind, of a different mind.

Define yourself, and live by that definition,
Let yourself be tame, loving, rebellious, wild--
Be your inner miracle-child.

Okay so it's a little touchy-feely, isn't it? Ehh.
I just didn't want this blog to turn into a wasteland of forgotten dreams over the June/July holidays. Chichi and Boris (and Jenny, who's currently in L.A.) will thank me when summer ends and the blog still has stuff going on.

But to clarify, probably the only reason I'm writing here and no one else is is because they're all traveling and I'm stuck at home with a bunch of lessons with nothing else to do but read, write, internet and work on my friend's birthday presents, not able to socialize CAUSE' EVERYONE ELSE IS TRAVELING.

Grr.

I feel so alone.

If you happen to find that the next few posts are angst-y poems or song lyrics about loneliness (All by my se-eelf. Don't wanna be, all by my self, any-moo-oore.), you know why. If there are no most posts by me this summer, I have either found something else to focus my sorrow filled days on, or I dug around in my dusty closet and found a social life. One is less likely than the other.

Goodbye, cruel cruel world.

 

Messed Up High School Relationships

Just a little intro: Boris, what are you talking about 'I never posted about sport'. ALL you post about is sport. And dating. Which I think is a pretty good representation of guys in general. All you need is a post about food and you've covered everything.

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Disclaimer: Please do not be offended by this post. In no way am I suggesting that you have to fall into any of the categories that are mentioned below. Everyone is different and everyone's relationships with everyone else is different depending on circumstance and personality. These are just my *very large* opinions and if they will offend you please just walk away. :)

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Another thing -- I am doing the last half of this blog post on Windows (VISTA :( ) and since I usually put in the gifs and stuff at the very end I find myself at a point where I really couldn't be bothered to wrestle with all that stuff on Windows. I might put in pictures and gifs later on, maybe. Maybe.

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This is Adelle. In case you didn't notice, this blog post is about messed up High School relationships. Not necessarily dating -- any relationship. Friendships (or what passes as them nowadays), dating (can't leave that out), student-teacher relationships (it can get pretty weird), parent-child relationships, the messed up undefinable relationships, the lot. All of these get completely and totally weird in High School.

There are very few things that don't get weird in High School, honestly. It seems that relationships take on the brunt of it -- put a few hundred socially awkward, hormonal, confused teens in a building with high and mighty figures of authority and what did you think would happen? Yeah. Exactly. It's to be expected.

That doesn't stop them from being messed up, though.

I've honestly never been one for friendship drama. I love drama drama -- I'm a bit of a drama queen -- but I don't joke around with my relationships with my friends. My friends are probably one of the most important things to me, and I couldn't stand going through things like friend break ups or the like.

Obviously, though, I can't say the same about the rest of the High School population.

I think friendship was so much easier when we were younger. A person gave you a cookie, friends for  life! You didn't get into things like betrayal or backstabbing. Ah, the simple days.

Nowadays, though, you can hardly walk through the halls without someone feeling backstabbed because someone wore the same outfit.
Please.

Just because I don't participate in friendship drama, doesn't mean that the friendship drama doesn't sometimes include me. Once there was this absolutely stupid piece of gossip that said that one of my best friends emailed me in class to tell me how much I sucked.
Yeah. That happened.
*eye-roll*

You wanna know what that email was really about? My friend was teasing me about getting into the same group as my crush. 

No further comments.

The conversation where I found out that there even was a rumor going around was pretty messed up too. This is pretty much how it went:

Other Girl: Hey? Are you and *insert name of friend here* done fighting?
Me: We were fighting?
Other Girl: Yeah! She sent you a really mean email right? That time in class?
Me: ...Yeaaaahhh- No.
Other Girl: ...NO?
Me: No.
Other Girl: Oh.

After that I dug a bit into the gossip universe that is my school and found out all the details. Ridiculous. 

Dating is really weird in High School. Honestly, I don't really see the logic in it -- what are the chances that you'll stay together after High School? That's right. Practically nonexistent.
Even if you do, it's bound to either not last long or be a pretty dysfunctional relationship. On the rare chance that it does work out and manages to be a healthy relationship then... well.. we've already stated that it's a rare chance.

When people are in High School they aren't really their own people yet. They haven't gone through enough of life to really shape themselves or who they will be. They haven't gone to university or had a job -- they aren't themselves yet. For this reason I don't believe that High School relationships will last. The person you're dating simply isn't who they were meant to be.

There are a couple of different types of High School dating relationships. I'm not saying I'm going to list them all, because that would be impossible -- every relationship is different based on the people in it.  But I have a couple I guess.

There's the overly-casual relationships. These are the people that get into relationships but aren't, really. Those who don't show affection or anything then after a couple of weeks (or days) of not-dating, they silently go their own ways. There's honestly no point. They might as well not be dating.

There's the 'true luuurve' relationships. The title is pretty self-explanatory. These people are the ones that are convinced that they have found 'the one' for them. They show excessive amounts of PDA (public displays of affection, duh) and regularly disgust their surrounding peers. They have bright, happy ideas of their future together and how many kids they will have (well, maybe not that far). They are obsessed with each other, but their overly attached relationship usually ends in tears. Especially if only one of the members is a 'true luuurve' person and the other is overly-causal. Those never end well.

There's the 'in the moment' relationships. These relationships are made as a spur of the moment thing, fueled by passion and lust. They usually start for one thing only *conspicuous wink*. They can either end with both parties sated and accepting or in a gigantic explosion of a fight, with a vengeful partner. These are never good news and are the typical 'irresponsible teenager' relationship that most people refer to when complaining about the new generation and how much they suck.

Relationships can also be half-half, which I touched on under the 'true luurve' heading. When people don't communicate they can have different views on what the relationship means and what they respectively want to get out of them. 

I'm not saying that it's impossible for High School relationships to be healthy and break off on even terms with both parties accepting the consequences after an acceptable amount of time of compatible relationship filled with open communication-- no, wait. Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying.

 Of course, I'm not exactly an expert. But feel free to quote me if you want to overlook the disclaimer. I've always wanted to be quoted. You have to keep in mind that I, too, am a High School-er. That's why I'm saying this like some condescending Spock Prime that's seen the future -- I understand the limitations of the extremely immature and underdeveloped mind of a teenager because I am one.

Yes, I am aware that that means all this applies to me too. Honestly, it probably does. 

The only difference is I'm willing to look at myself and my peers in the face and admit that Wow. We are all idiots.

I'm just a realist, honestly.

Teachers are supposed to be these people that lead us and guide us and well... teach us as we grow. But are they really all that great? I already have a post about this so for this in a bit more detail I'll forward you to my other post, Teachers: Should They Really Be Teaching?. As you can probably tell this is a bit of a sensitive subject for me. And ironically I want to be a teacher. Imagine how that would go down.

Anyway. Relationships between teachers and students can also get a bit messed up in High School. Not all of it is bad. Some of the developments are good, and teachers can really help a student come into themselves. If the teacher is a good teacher, the student can actually bond with them and this can become a beneficial relationship based on support and understanding. This can only develop, however, once the student is mature enough, which usually only occurs in High School. So there's one positive development in relationships in High School. Go figure.

But, of course, there's two sides to every coin. Or something like that. I don't even know if that applies here...

But anyway, obviously there are some bad developments or this wouldn't even make it into the blog post. It is called messed up high school relationships, after all.

One of the things that gets weird in High School is if the student becomes more invested into the relationship with the teacher than the teacher is. Not in a romantic way -- we'll talk about that aspect later. I mean if the student starts seeing the teacher as a friend when the teacher is more interested in their salary than the student. It can come as a rude awakening and the teacher will probably end up saying something like 'I'm your teacher, not your friend'.

I completely disagree with this, by the way. I believe that a teacher should be able to see themselves both as a teacher and a friend, a caretaker, a guide to the student. That's what children need -- someone who actively cares about them, not someone that only cares about passing them so they get paid more.

Anyway. So that situation can be awkward and make the rest of that relationship actively Messed Up.

Another thing that gets weird -- or just ugh- just yuck, really --  is teacher-crushes. Let's dedicate a moment to a little shudder of disgust here. 3.. 2... 1... *shudder* Yuck.

I'm not saying that teacher-crushes only come into existence in High School -- no, that little piece of disgusting-ness has unfortunately been around for quite some time. But it is in High School when it has the possibility to develop into something a little less... innocent.

Godthistopicgrossesmeout.

Maybe we should just leave this here. Yup, yeah, I'm gonna leave this here.

Okay so next in line to get weird and messed up is Parent-Kid relationships. We've all heard of teenagers getting rebellious and stuff, becoming the bane of their parent's existence, arguing and debating and being stubborn. There's a whole lot of scientific study about why this happens -- brain development, hormones, some psychological stuff that I really don't want to get into -- but honestly I think the answer can be summed up pretty efficiently.

We don't like to be told to do shit.

You can go as deep into the meaning of it or all the whys but at the end we just want to make our own decisions. Obviously this crashes with our parent's inherent need to take all the decisions out of our hands. Parents want to protect their children and part of that is making the decisions that they think are right for their children. As teenagers, we are growing into our own opinions and those don't necessarily align with our parent's opinions.

At other times they do align with our parents opinions and we get into a fight because -- darn it -- we don't want them to be right.

This, I have major personal experience in. I don't know if it differs from parent to parent (which it probably does) but there's something in me that just makes me want to fight back with anything and everything my parents say. I don't know why -- maybe it's a pride thing, or the condescending I'm-older-and-always-right look that gets directed my way afterwards -- but I just can't loose to them.

I'm gonna say that this is what a lot of teenagers feel, for the sake of the validity of this blog post.

One of the major thing that I find causes fights between me and my parents are moral debates. We, as teenagers, are part of a generation that I believe is much more open to things like sexual orientation and mental disability, things like that. My parents aren't so open. So I usually get in arguments defending people or debating human rights or something like that.

But I don't think that's what all teens get into with their parents, so I'll just stop there.

Something else that develops in High School is the introduction of the seriously-no-one-knows-whats-happening relationship. These relationships cannot really fit into any other category -- not sure if it's a friendship, or a romance or an... acquaintance. They might like each other one day, hate each other the next, have to be forced to be together, or be surrounded in a thick cloud of UST.

These are just... well.. I can't really say much about them. They're just kind of confusing. Depending on the side they wake up on or the state of the weather the two people can act completely differently.

You can't expect to get on with everyone, obviously. But with these relationships it's like their conflicted with their perception of the other person. Like-don't like-love-hate. They all get thrown in there somewhere.

Honestly there's two people like this in my grade. They like each other, then they don't, then they're in love, then their archenemies. All this is enough to give a girl whiplash.

Boris (Redcap) and I have actually deliberated on their relationship and the ups and downs of it. We've decided that there is actually a pattern to this madness. They seem to stick to a state of mind in one-week stages, switching up to a different state the next week. The state peaks and wanes through out the week. This is pretty regular unless there is a trigger event that causes the states to switch faster or more slowly.

That is our hypothesis. It is still yet to be proven but we plan on graphing their interactions and hopefully coming up with a full overview of their relationship.

Soon.

So anyway. I think... that's the end of the blog post.

Christ, it's long.

I hope this didn't bore you to death, and if it did, well... you're dead. I can't exactly apologize now, can I?

Cya in the next post (or, you know... not)
 

Ultimate

Despite my blog name is Jakarta Athlete, I realized that I have rarely posted anything about my athletic life. So I'm gona do one right here.
On Saturday, May 18th, 2013, the SWA Ultimate team participated in the first ever high school Ultimate tournament ever. Four schools came to play, Bandung International School, Jakarta International School, SPH and SWA. There were 6 teams in total, JIS had 3 teams.

We had trained for about 4 weeks, with only 2 practices that the whole team had come, mostly it was small groups coming on one particular day.
We were the unlucky team, we had three back to back matches. Also the playing field wasn't what we expected. The playing field was a soccer field cut down in half, but it was the long half, not the wide half which we have been practicing on.

Our first match was against Bandung International School, a veteran of Ultimate, they have been training for two whole years. Even though we were up against a great team, we played good defense, blocking them several times, but always give out turnovers. Africa, James, Min Hao and me gave out several blocks and steal, but on offense we were bad. Our long range passing wasn't really effective, and was blocked often. We lost that game 7:0 I think. BIS team captain was the best player I ever saw that day, with amazing speed, stamina, high jumping abilities and quick reaction.
The second match, which we played 5 mins after the first one, was against SPH. They were fast and quick, their passes were good. Most of their players can both throw forehand and backhand. Which made it hard of us to intercept, but we still did on multiple occasions. James played defense extremely well, with lots of block from his basketball skills. Africa could have done better, he was the best player on our team, but he just gets nervous and sometimes hesitates too long. The girls were improving as well, they begin to go after the frisbee but our stamina isn't very good. We lost that match as well, actually, we lost all the matches that day.

After the first two matches, the toll of playing of matches in a row took its toll on us. All of us were tired, and our strategies weren't really working out. Therefore, this game we devised a simple strategy which was kinda effective. James would play defense and stop them from scoring, after picking up the frisbee, he would pass to Africa who was in the midfield. Africa has the best passes and can be very accurate, he would then pass to me at the end zone. Ms. Z gave me the scoring role because I was the best catcher after Africa. Min Hao would be the back up plan, if Africa can't pass to me, he would pass to Min Hao.
That game we played against JIS III, the strategies worked out quite well. I scored one with an assist. Rhein scored too. We lost the match 3:2. But we were improving. Gyu played good defense, he succeed in denying the frisbee from player bigger then him. Bening was injured that game, she twisted here ankle on the dash for defense.
The games after those were fun, because we got used to playing and began to score much more. James played extremely well defense, foiling several great offense plans. Our defense was really our strength, we had great steals and blocks. The problem was really our stamina and the cooperation between boys and girls.
I think Ultimate is a great game, because we are required after each game to gather round with the opponent team and high praise one another, well in our case of praising them was all true, but them praising us was all lies, well kinda lies.

I Hate Unicorns

      I have discovered quite recently (though my sense of time is quite twisted and my recently might have been a few months earlier than your recently) that I am not alone in this passionate hatred of Unicorns. I stumbled upon a video while surfing the vlogbrothers channel in which John elaborates upon his intense dislike of them. He also owns this wonderful shirt that says "Unicorns were left off the Ark for a reason." It has now become my life's ambition to acquire that shirt. Enough said, let's start with my reasons.

1. Unicorns are overrated. I'm sorry. I cannot contain myself on this. Whenever I go on tumblr (which, admittedly, is very infrequently when compared with the rest of the internet-addicted world) I am bombarded with pictures and quotes like these:
   
   (taken from naharoo ahjumma on tumblr)
   
   
   Bad Idea!!! (I only used 3 exclamation marks because 5 exclamation marks are a sure sign of an insane mind, and I'm only partially sure) Unless you are a girl named Bella, your inner alarm system would be blaring right now. Don't get on the unicorn. It's a ploy, I tell you!
   
   
   
   (etsy.com)
   
   
   Do not be a unicorn. Your horns will be cut off to make corn dogs.
   Perhaps that is why I particularly enjoy corn dogs so much...
   
   
   
   ( keepcalmandposters.com)
   
   
   A unicorn farm?? Why would you want that?? They would trample you to death.
   Slowly.... And painfully.
   
   
   
   (the villainous unicornappreciationsociety.tumblr.com)
   
   
   See what I mean?? There is a UNICORN APPRECIATION SOCIETY. Help me.
   
   
   
   
2. Unicorns are too often confused with pegasi. No, unicorns do not fly. 
   
   (fanpop.com)
   
   
   This appears to be some sort of buttercorn hybrid. That sounds delicious. Buttercorn should totally be a thing.
   
   
   
   
   
   This is taken from a webiste called lucylearns.com, which leads to the important question of, 
   Just what are we teaching poor Lucy?
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. They are creatures symbolic of innocence whose sole purpose seems to be to get to virgins and like, do stuff. I have never found any source telling me what unicorns actually do to the virgins, and the fact that they like virgins is kinda worrisome. I mean, sure, I get it. Virgins are supposed to be innocent too, and we are inevitably drawn to our own kind, but if there isn't any info on what they actually do when they get to the virgins, then what am I supposed to think? If maybe, they had said something along the lines of, "Unicorns like to eat the hair of virgin girls" it would have been a more satisfying explanation then none at all. (Though while we're on the subject of unicorns and virgins, here's a link from my friend Alex to the game CLOP in which a unicorn named Clop clops his way to the virgin girl. I haven't found out what happens when you get there, because I'm a horrific player.) 
   
   (foddy.net)
   
   
   The lilac shaded, twilit world of CLOP the unicorn, whose unfortunate nickname comes from his disturbingly loud hooves. Oh, and for some reason, all unicorns are inherently male.
   
   
   
   
4. They are menacing beasts that are somehow presented to the public as cute and cuddly creatures. I mean, people don't worship rhinos in little pink plastic toys that flash with neon lights. And rhinos are also quite fearful, with the same horns and stampeding hooves. 
5. Unicorns never seem to help with anything. They frolick in the forest all day long and never truly have anything to do. They don't eat or drink and just spend their time whiling away, until they are attracted by a virgin girl or someone (like Voldemort) hunts them down to use their blood in ressurrection of an evil villain. The said evil villain goes on to kill or maim hundreds of people and the unicorns don't care. They go on prancing about and making rainbows or whatever it is they do. 

           I am tired, hungry, and drowning in my own sweat. I will rest my case.

DFTBA,

Teachers -- Should They Really Be Teaching?

We have all heard of the occasional cringe-worthy teacher, one that's super strict or overloads you with work. These teachers, however frustrating, are just trying to get us to do work. As much as it pains me to be admitting this, their efforts are probably good for us in the long run.

No matter how torturous they seem.

No, these teachers are not who I'm complaining about. I'm complaining about the legitimately stupid teachers that make me think: if that's the teaching standard nowadays, I could train my hamster to become a teacher. That is not the message a student should be getting from their teacher.

The teachers who honest to god just cannot teach. Their teaching techniques are more painful than helpful and no one actually learns anything. The teachers who even the smart people admit do not have the talent for explaining, so much so that they take pity on you and teach you themselves.

Those. Teachers. Just. Make it. So. Hard.

My exams are coming up, and we need to study for about half a years worth of work which will be tested on the exam. While reviewing for the subject that was taught by the aforementioned -- honestly just terrible -- teacher, I realized something.

I wasn't reviewing the work. I was learning it.

The teacher was so terrible at teaching that I had to re learn everything because I didn't understand it at all when he taught it. So pretty much in the classes I had been like:

It's not just me, either. All of my classmates, even the ones known for being smart in this area, are completely befuddled when it comes to this class. We don't understand what is expected of us or how to go about it, how to do the work, which equations will be needed -- none of it! Our teacher just cannot teach.

He spends way too much time on work that does not matter, not enough time on the work that does, and skims over way too much because of his super-high expectations.

As you can tell, I am super impressed by his teaching abilities.

This isn't the first time I've been plagued by terrible teachers. I had another one, back in the seventh grade, that honestly taught more like a university professor than a middle school teacher. Pretty much every lesson went something like this:

Teacher: *background buzzing noise, a.k.a lecturing*
Student One: Hey. Hey, what's he saying?
Student Two: I dunno. *shrugs*

End Of Lesson

Student One: Hey. Hey, what did he talk about?
Student Two: I dunno. *shrugs*

I am not even exaggerating here. This actually happened. Multiple times.

I don't know if this is just the way I see it, or it other people see it the same way, but I think that if you're a teacher you have the responsibility to be able to  -- oh, I don't know... teach?

But maybe that's going too far.

So that brings me back to the title of the post -- teachers. Should they really be teaching?

Hugs and love and kisses and crap.