Kelly

I swear I've never been so angry in my life trying to figure something out, and I need it explained!

http://24.media.tumblr.com/80e14b7cae46a130316a9ea...

How can you have 24 bricks of white chocolate, then take one brick away and STILL have 24 bricks of which chocolate?! I'm going crazy. I will end up in a crazy house and it will be because of this gif and I will only mutter one thing for the rest of my life. "24 bricks of white chocolate on the wall... 24 bricks of chocolate... take one down... pass it around... and you still have 24 bricks of white chocolate on the wall..." This is so distressing.

So can anyone explain this gif to me please????

Tomorrow morning I'm going to court as a witness to a thing that happened with some of my friends this evening. There was underage drinking involved, and one of my friends got very drunk, way too drunk. And so our other friend, who happens to be black, was trying to help him up and get him back home. But when he was standing over our other friend and trying to pull him to his feet, a man a few houses down saw this as our friend attacking our other friend. So he came out and started shouting at our friend and shoved him. Our friend defended himself by pushing back, and the man started shouting to the street that he'd been assaulted and for someone to call 911. Me and my other girl friend tried explaining to the man that there was a misunderstanding and that we were all just trying to get home. We tried to get away from the man, all of us, but he continued to follow us and continued shouting at our friend and pushing him and yelling for 911 to be called. Me and my girl friend decided it would be best for us to try to get out of there, because our two guy friends were continuing to be shoved around by this man and were defending themselves. The cops showed up, and apparently our black friend was arrested (I include his skin color because personally I'm certain the guy who attacked us was making a racist assumption about the situation), and all three men are currently being detained. Me and my other girl friend are supposed to show up at witnesses to the court case tomorrow morning, and being that I've never ever ever been involved in something like this in my life, I really don't know how to handle it or be prepared or anything whatsoever. So I guess I'm just looking for counseling of some form and any input on what's the worst that could happen and how I should be prepared? Thank you.

I feel like sometimes people get so caught up in crushing on someone and being in lust, and they're so hung up on pursuing that person and get so upset when it doesn't seem like the other person is returning it... and I just wonder, why do we never just ignore it? Why is it so difficult to just decide that it's not that big of a deal, and that your life is neither more or less "complete" based on your relationship status? Why do we feel like when you fancy someone, the *only* solution is to pursue them, and if it doesn't work, get heart broken? I just don't understand why ignoring some feelings out of convenience and out of the sake of broadening the focus of your life isn't at all more common... What do you think? Why do we insist on pursuing the object of our infatuation instead of just appreciating what's there and being okay with the current state of life, or at least putting as much effort into pursuing other much more worthwhile things?

Disclaimer: This isn't about "love sucks" or "why try?" or anything about feeling hopelessly "forever alone." It's just about the fact that infatuation, often times, is just plain silly, and sometimes it just seems like things would be so much better for us if we'd ignore those feelings, but it doesn't seem like that happens often.

Any opinions?

The two main arguments to this that I've heard are that prejudice against someone based on skin color and actual *racism* are two very different things. But then the other argument I've heard is that the definition of racism *is* prejudice against someone based on skin color. So based on the former argument, racism against white people does not happen. In the latter argument, it does.

What do you think? Do you feel like white people claiming that racism happens to them too is legitimate, or that it's a total joke? Do you have any additional points to make on the issue?

I'm personally somewhat undecided about it. I feel like racism against white people *can* happen, but that in most of the cases what most white people complain about and claim to be racism, it's really not. Like, when I'm in my school, which is a very PoC dominated school, and I get called "that white hoe" or "snowflake" I don't feel like this is actually racism. It might be a little rude, and possibly offensive based on your mindset, but I don't think it's racism in the same way that it's racism for a cop to pull over and search a black person's person and car for no legitimate reason.

So anyway, yeah. What do you think? Do white people not truly have a full understanding of what racism *really* is? Do we just go by the dictionary definition of it and think we know all about what it is and what it feels like simply because we've occasionally experienced some unkindness from a person of color?

BQ: What about sexism against men?

Thank you for your answers! :)

It doesn't matter which type of reality check you think I might need. I'm pretty sure most of them apply to me. Except for the one about not sleeping around with strange men on the street who offer you bags of cocaine in exchange. I'm pretty okay on that one so far, although actually, you can throw in that reality check too for good measure because it might not be too long before it, too, is relevant to me.

Thank you! :]

BQ: When was the last time in your life when you were in serious need for a good sit-down lecture-like reality check?

I live in the state of New York, and I'm a senior this year, and I'm failing my Algebra 2 & Trig course. In the past for math I've taken Integrated Algebra and passed, Geometry and passed, and Intermediate Algebra which is not a Regents course, but I had to take it because I had done pretty badly in Geometry the previous year, but I passed it. Then in A2&T, I pretty much just turned into literally the worst student ever. I've just gotten extremely apathetic toward this class and decided that because I hated it and doubted I would pass the Regents Exam, I just wasn't going to try at all. At all. There have been weeks where I skipped this class every day, and even now I still skip it at least twice a week usually. I'm passing every other class with at least a B, if not an A, but Trig, man....

So anyway, I know there's no way I'll get an Advanced Regents Diploma, but I don't really care about that because I'm already accepted into college, and not even our Salutatorian and Valedictorian have an Advanced Regents, so whatever. But is there a chance I might not even graduate at all? I mean, I do have three math credits, two of which are Regents credits, which I think that fulfills the requirement for a simple Regents Diploma math-credit wise, but is the fact that I'm failing a class that's not an elective enough that they could keep me back?

I know Yahoo! Answers isn't really the place I should be asking this question, so tomorrow I'm gonna try to see my counselor and see what she says about this. I guess I'm kinda just looking for some general educated opinions on what I might expect... Thanks!

Like, if we knew all of each other's opinions, even the worst and lowest opinions we have. If we all knew about the cruel and heartless thoughts we sometimes have. If we all knew the horrible reasoning behind every poorly made decision. If we all knew the intent behind every person's action, even if the intent behind it was purely personal gain. If we all knew about every low deed and thought that every single person has, how do you think that would change our social interactions? Do you think we'd all be so completely disturbed and horrified by each other that we wouldn't even want to form social bonds anymore? Or do you think eventually we'd reach a point where we felt we had to lower the standard of human decency so that having cruel opinions was just the norm?

Personally, I know I've had opinions that I know would be very unpopular if they were to get any sort of attention, so I keep them in my mind and don't share them. And I feel like I must know that I'm not the only person with these sort of opinions and thoughts. I'm quite certain other people experience this sort of thing as well. What originally got me thinking about this was a friend of mine confessed to me that he wouldn't befriend himself if he knew everything about himself, but from an outsider's perspective. And I realized I kinda felt the same way about myself. And I feel like others must too. So how do you think it would change the dynamics of social interaction if there were literally no secrets in what we all presently silently think?

Alice in Wonderland is a little obvious, so if you have any other suggestions, it would be so appreciated!

The reason for this question is just for a school play me and a friend of mine are helping write. It's supposed to feature two students in a library arguing literature, and on the other side of the stage, the scene will get acted out by different actors. We decided to make the two students argue about the "trippiest" scenes in literature, mostly just for laughs, but I want to make the argument really legitimate between these characters, so I'm wondering if anyone else has some real suggestions for some kinda surreal, absurd, or psychedelic moments. Author and era don't matter.

So, well, thank you in advance if you have any suggestions for this somewhat odd question! :P

If we all only know life from our own mind's perspective, then there's no real point of comparison for us with each other. Try as someone else may to explain how their thought processes work and how they feel about different things, we're all still only interpreting what others are saying inside of our own minds.

Like, let's say all your life, you've only heard one song. You've never heard any other song but this song, and you know other music exists, but you've never heard it and you have no way of hearing it. And people try to explain to you what this other music sounds like, and they explain that there are whole genres of music, and various musicians with different styles, from rap to electronic to folk to rock, but you've only ever heard classical. And if you've only ever heard this *one* classical song, how is it expected that you could even fathom what an electronic song sounds like? If you've gone your entire life only having heard one song, is it safe to say you even understand what music is?

Is any of this making sense? What do you think?

Or is it better to just try to distance yourself and not make an ordeal of it by having a conversation with the person about ending your friendship? What if you had been very, very, very close with this person, best friends, but recently you find that you just can't be around them without feeling pissed off at them, and you just feel like it would be best to end it? Do you think a conversation about it is appropriate or is it unnecessary, or even mean?

I know when you're in an intimate relationship with someone and you want to break up, it's pretty necessary to have that sort of talk with them... but I've never really known how it works with friends, especially ones that you're particularly close with. I just feel like not responding to texts anymore and just acting generally cold toward them would leave the friendship ending too vaguely, and kinda, I dunno...

What do you think? Is a "break up" talk appropriate?

Okay, I know this is a strange question, and probably not very politically correct either, but it's driving me insaaaaaaane trying to figure this out! There's this gif floating around Tumblr of Justin Timberlake looking all upset over Madonna and Britney kissing, and just to the left of Justin's ear is another slightly blurry celebrity fangirling over the moment. Everyone seems to be convinced that it's Neil Patrick Harris, but I'm positive it's someone else. I have his face pictured perfectly in my head, but other than that I have no clue what this guy's name is or whar show / movie I even recognize him from! Ughh, I know this is so stupid, but it's making me crazy... D:

http://25.media.tumblr.com/a89ff8c10bfe23834fa3151...

So... any ideas?

Okay, I know this is a strange question, and probably not very politically correct either, but it's driving me insaaaaaaane trying to figure this out! There's this gif floating around Tumblr of Justin Timberlake looking all upset over Madonna and Britney kissing, and just to the left of Justin's ear is another slightly blurry celebrity fangirling over the moment. Everyone seems to be convinced that it's Neil Patrick Harris, but I'm positive it's someone else. I have his face pictured perfectly in my head, but other than that I have no clue what this guy's name is or whar show / movie I even recognize him from! Ughh, I know this is so stupid, but it's making me crazy... D:

http://25.media.tumblr.com/a89ff8c10bfe23834fa3151...

So... any ideas?

Do you think they're an accurate measurement of a person's intelligence? If a person consistently scores extremely well on tests, does that mean that person is very smart? And vice versa, if a person does consistently bad on tests, then they are stupid / unintelligent? Are the SAT's, AP exams, and Regents exams very good indicators of where a person is intelligence-wise?

This is something that's been bothering me for a while. I'm undecided. When my friends do badly on a standardized test, I don't think anything of it, and I go on believing that they're still an intelligent person, just that they happened to have a bad day, or that subject just isn't one of their best. I don't think any less of them. But when *I* do badly on standardized tests, it just haunts me for months... In school, I get far above average grades. Yet on every standardized test I've ever taken, I'm somewhere around average. That might be nice for any average person, but when I compare myself to my friends, who always score above average on these exams, I just feel like that means that maybe the only reason I get good grades in school is because my teachers like me and pull bonus points out of no where for me. In English especially, I've always "excelled," but then on the SAT, I only got a 520 on the reading and a 510 on the writing... I studied tons out of the SAT study guide and wrote my essay exactly in the style that is always recommended, and I felt like I delivered my point quickly and with clarity. Yet somehow when I feel like I'm doing my best in my best subject, I'm falling so short. It really scares me that this is happening, and it makes me think that there's no chance I'll survive in college with only average writing and reading comprehension.

Well, enough of this rambling. What's your opinion on standardized tests?

My former English teacher just posted this on Facebook:

http://i987.photobucket.com/albums/ae358/kelly4139...

And I thought the discussion was interesting, so I thought I'd bring it here to Books & Authors. How would you define words in just ten words? One of the people described it as symbols portraying meaning... which to an extent I agree with, but she also included sign language as an example of words, and as a person who's been taking sign for four years now and is acquainted with many Deaf people, I wouldn't describe ASL as a language of words. It's a language of signs. Go figure. That description also doesn't do a very good job at distinguishing words from other symbols like %, &, $, and #. Those are all symbols with meaning, too, but I don't think anyone would classify them as words. Another response many people gave to my teacher was sounds assigned certain meanings for communication... but I think that's more along the lines of speech, not words (as I commented). So with all this in mind, I think words are within the realm of language, but something very very specific within that realm that I'm having a hard time putting my finger on. X)

So how would you describe words in ten words? (You can use more if you wish, I'm just adding the ten words part because that's what my English teacher originally did, haha.)

Thank you for your answers, and I hope you don't think this question is too elementary! :P

I feel like it's been a while since one of these types of Harry Potter questions has been asked. Or maybe that's just because it's been somewhere close to ten thousand years since I last regularly prowled the halls and corridors of Books & Authors.

Anyway! I saw this post on Tumblr, http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbe1pjTqAk1qzcv7... and I thought it was amusing, so I thought I'd ask about other people's clever ideas on what to turn into a Horcrux. We can just ignore the fact that you have to murder another human being and rip your soul apart in order to make a Horcrux. If it would make you feel more comfortable answering the question, you can just pretend that instead of killing people, you only have to write a ten page paper on why Twilight is the greatest work of fiction of all time in order for your soul to be ripped apart. Or maybe that's just as awful of a crime upon humanity... I don't know. You can insert whatever you wish instead of murdering people to create a Horcrux. I'm really only seeking witty answers about the object in which you'd store your soul, so what you have to do to contain your soul inside said object is pretty irrelevant.

Bonus Question: Would you recommend I start watching Doctor Who? And if you don't know about Doctor Who, are there any other insane fandoms that you'd recommend I be recruited to? It's been a while since anything has happened in the Harry Potter fandom, and I need some source of procrastination throughout my life, which fandoms happen to help me with fantastically.

Thank you for reading / answering! :)

That's pretty much all there is to the question... I've just been looking at colleges, and some of them are really fantastic colleges, but I know I wouldn't be happy attending them. Should I pass up going to a great college simply for the reason that I know I wouldn't be happy if I went there?

If you haven't heard of the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, it's a modern-day adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice in a vlog form, run by Hank Green of the VlogBrothers. And it's fantastic. http://www.youtube.com/user/LizzieBennet

I honestly love this so much. I love how they capture the integrity of the themes, and interpret things to make sense to the modern-day American culture, while maintaining the general idea of what was being done in the novel. (Such as Mr. Collins's "proposal" to Elizabeth being a business proposition instead of an actual marriage proposal.) Also, Mr. Bingley ---> "Bing Lee" Ha! So clever! :P

Really, I just adore this so much.

What is your opinion, Books & Authors? Do you think the diaries have done justice to the characters? Is there anything you take issue with? Do you have a favorite episode? :)

Do you think the drug is harmful and shouldn't be used by teenagers? Do you think it shouldn't be used at all? Aside from long-term health issues that can come with smoking weed, do you think people who smoke (teens, especially) are likely to have immediate negative consequences to their mental health? Do you think teenagers who smoke are more likely to do poorly in school? To rebel against their parents? To not go to college? Do you think weed is a "gate-way" drug to other more harmful drugs? Have you personally had a negative experience with weed, whether it was your problem, or someone you were close to?

My personal opinion is that marijuana is one of the least harmful drugs, even less so than alcohol, and that your body is your own to do what you want with. I do, however, think it would be wisest to make sure you're fully educated on both the positives and negatives of smoking weed, and that you're doing it in a mature state of mind. Just my opinion. :p

What do you fine people of Y!A think? :)

I'm headed into my senior year of high school at last, and now I'm looking at colleges! Yay! I'm completely dreading it! But yay!

Something that I'm very uncertain about at this point is distance from home... I really love the city I live in, and I hope to one day teach in one of the schools in this district (preferably my own old high school.). However, at the same time, I don't want to limit my options for what college I'll go to, or where I'll even spend the rest of my adult life. There are so many other places I'd love to try out living, and not even necessarily just in the city. So now I've kinda been checking out colleges in rural areas near some cousins of mine, but the hundred mile distance from my home town is still daunting.

So I'm kinda just looking for experienced advice of people who either stayed close to home for college, or left their home town area completely. Do you think you made the right decision? Would you recommend what you did to someone else? How much significance did the distance factor play for you? Was it difficult, or did you fit in with the new environment and routine easily?

And basically any other college-searching advice you have to offer would be fantastic. Thank you! :)

I just read somewhere that the reason Lord Voldemort out of the Harry Potter books is unable to love is because his conception was under the influence of a love potion rather than authentic true love. So I looked it up under Voldemort's Wikipedia article (not the most reliable source, I know) and found under the "Personality" section for him the confirmation of this "fun fact." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Voldemort#Person...

And so I guess I'm just wondering if anyone else is a little let down or disappointed that JK Rowling would do something like that to one of her characters. To me it just kinda feels like she's saying any child who is the result of a rape or a one night stand shouldn't be able to love. As though just because you're not the product of love, you shouldn't be capable of that universal human feeling.

What do you think of this, Books & Authors?