9.27.2008

RIP: a Teenaged Suicide

On September 23, this Tuesday, Connor Wilkinson was found dead. He had committed suicide.

Connor was only 13 years old.

Tired of being pushed around and taunted, he tried to release himself from his living hell. Wilkinson had an abnormally high voice, which was target for mocking from his peers.

I never met Connor. I don't know his family or friends. I hardly know anything about him. It's probably not my business. But I think I know his story. Maybe it started as a joke, maybe it was serious. But somehow Connor became a game of "Pin the insults on the Dork." Maybe Connor laughed it off at first. But it's not human to pull up your insecurities and shove them in your face. Time after time, Wilkinson was bombarded with taunts and it wore away what little confidence he may of had till maybe he truly believe something was wrong with him. That he was a weirdo, a freak. Maybe they convinced him of more than that. Maybe he really thought he didn't deserve to live. Without a kind word to uplift his spirits, he powered through as long as he could. One day, he got pushed over the edge and sought to release himself from this personal hell.

Depressing.

Connor didn't deserve this, no one does. No one understands what it's like to be "that kid" unless you are at some point.

But through it all, some good has come. The school he went to was brought together through grief, they put aside their stupid differences and were equals to sadness and mourning.

I hope you remember Connor Wilkinson and what one kind word might of done to help him.

9.22.2008

Q: When is the first day of fall for the year 2008?

A: The first day of fall occurs at the autumnal equinox: Monday, September 22, 2008, at 11:44:16 EDT (15:44:16 UCT). This is the astronomical definition of fall, and is generally used when we refer to "fall" or "autumn."

It should be noted that meteorologists tend to refer to September, October and November as fall, which means fall starts on September 1.

In temperate and polar regions generally four seasons are recognized while in tropical or subtropical regions seasons are defined by wet, dry, and sometimes cool. These meteorological seasons are reckoned by temperature, with summer being the hottest quarter of the year and winter the coldest quarter of the year. The equinoxes and solstices mark the start of astronomical spring/autumn and summer/winter. The divisions are based on the rotation of the earth with respect to the angle of the earth. As the earth goes around the sun, picture it looking down on its orbit from above. summer solstice is when the earth's north pole is pointed most directly towards the sun (longest day) - warming the northern hemisphere. Winter solstice is when the earth's south pole is most directly pointed toward the sun warming the southern hemisphere and leaving the north cold (shortest day). The equinoxes are the midway points between the solstices with the sun halfway between its northmost and southmost points, so we have equal day and night.

- z monkey

[as found on WikiAnswers]

9.17.2008

Just to be fair.

While I haven't tried Chrome yet, I still feel that Firefox is superior. But just to be fair, I've decided to post this video I found about Chrome's uber-awesome features.


Before I forget...

New band to check out: Republic Tigers. They seem to be up-and-coming sort of band. Mom would like them.

:]

- Z

9.16.2008

Throw Out IE!

Mozilla Firefox is the best browser I've ever tried. Period. You still using IE? Shame on you. *shaaaame*



Reasons Firefox is WAY Better:

1. Safety First!

The Mozilla team is constantly fixing little bugs to make Firefox "The Safest Web Browser."

More info:

http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/security/

2. I don't need a million windows

Okay, so the tab thing is old news. HOWEVER! Firefox has the simplest, neatest tab system I've seen. IE's tab system is big and blocky compared to the sleek package my favorite red panda gives. Not to mention I'm always accidentally opening new tabs with IE.

3. "Make Firefox Your Own"

Really, normal Firefox only has a handful of advantages. What really makes it superior is the add-ons. With the huge [and I mean HUGE] collection of add-ons, Firefox can be molded to your needs quite easily. Kinda' like a baby torn from his mother's bosom to be trained as a soulless killer. But I'm getting off track. Firefox's add-ons can make downloading videos of YouTube, listening to your music without leaving your current window, previewing a link before clicking it, etc. simple, even for the technologically impaired. Grammy can update her FaceBook while watching moving clips from her soaps, yeah.

4. All the COOL kids are doing it!

Ah, yes. I had to fit this in here. Peer pressure is awesome. :D Really, will you be allowed to sit at the cool table if you've got such a lame browser? I didn't think so.

5. It's free.

That's right, absolutely FREE! But wait, there's more! Call now and receive 4 lawn chairs, a 12 piece set of sushi knives, and some guy named Dave who's got this really cool trick with his elbows!*

* This is a complete lie, disregard it.



For more information, see their website or do your own research. D:

-------------------------

No, I'm not an expert. The point of this post was to make my mates get with the times. :]

- Z

9.15.2008

Halloween

So, I need to get to work on my costume. >> Me and a bunch of folk I know are being the Mafia. I needs ma fedora. We need to get to the thrift store fast.

So, my CYO was going to have the haunted forest we host ON Halloween, which won't work because I trick-or-treat. STFU, I'm not too old. And a bunch of other people couldn't make it either, so we moved it to the previous Saturday. Turns out we have something that night. ARRRRGH. WHAT YOU SAY. So I was like, "Too bad, I'ma skippin' to be at the haunted forest." And the Mother was like, "Over my dead body." And I was like, "Well, $#!7."

So.

Yeah.

And I was gonna be a zombie @ el foresto too! "Haunted forest over, dinner w/ friends equals very yes? That's not a good prize!"

It ANNOYED me. Very much so. Note to self: Hire someone to replace me at dinner.

- Z

Good morning, Blogger!

I've been playing with the idea of a blog for a while but just realized the only way to get into it was to start.

I feel no need to introduce myself, I hope you'll figure out who I am, what I'm like, etc...

Good luck to myself... >>

- Z