Happy New Year!

Well, it's been a loooong 2008. A very, very long 2008. Filled with plenty of drama, excitement, and pretty much everything else. It's been a wild ride. Who would've thought, on January 1, 2008, that we'd be where we are today?

Among the things that happened...

The phraes "downward spiral" became the new hot phrase for a while as America tumbled into an economic crisis, dragging the rest of the world down with it. With the fall of Lehman Brothers in September, all hell broke loose, as countless banks found themselves billions in debt, the marekts seized up, and the new "credit crunch" (hey, another fun phrase!) became all the rage. When the Fed stepped in to buy Fannie and Freddie, AIG, etc., we knew that this was for real. Especially when markets in other countries started to fail. Go us!

All was not lost at home, however, as the buzzword "change" found itself the most popular kid on the block. Barack Obama's dazzling victory in the US presidential election was as inspiring a story as people have heard in their lifetimes, uniting a troubled populace and smashing racial barriers left and right. If there's anyone that helped give the world hope for the coming year, it is he.

In the meantime, John McCain fought a good fight, and Sarah Palin singlehandedly taught America how to stop thinking and embrace their inner fanatic. To Katie Couric's smug amusement.

Abroad, the world found its fair share of conflicts. The world will remember the Mumbai attacks that claimed the lives of hundreds, and took a city hostage for three days, all at the hands of ten men. And let's not forget the growing spread of terrorism everywhere: While they may not have claimed quite as many lives, hundreds of other attacks claimed the lives of countless innocents. Frankly, that just shows what a sorry state this world is in.

Oh, and Somalian pirates took over the waters near the horn of Africa. At least this means that global warming is finally slowly down.

Meanwhile, Russia waged war against Georgia over Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Who started it: No one knows. What it means for the world: The Russian bear is stretching its legs. And Putin's still in power, by the way.

Iraq got somewhat better... and Afghanistan got a lot worse. Funny the way the world works, eh?

Oh, and Fidel Castro stepped down, among the hundreds of other interesting things that happened that I didn't manage to mention. Didn't you hear?

The Beijing Olympics united the world in peace and harmony for a few weeks this summer... except for the whole Russia-waging-war thing. Still, it was a fun show, especially when Michael Phelps let his inner dolphin show. Such an amazing, talented, and sexy young man... Erm. Moving on.

The iPhone and iPod continued to conquer the world... I suggest you all keep a hammer handy. Apple may decide to proceed to Phase 2 of their iWorldDomination Scheme soon. Wouldn't want to have those lasers firing out of your iDevices hitting your eyes...

And the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, based in Geneva, Switzerland, did not create a black hole and kill us all. That was Jeremiah Wright, and luckily, his dastardly plot was foiled by a media slipup that probably ended his career. And no, Barack is not "cool" with you anymore, Jeremiah.

Heath Ledger won my heart with the release of Batman: The Dark Knight, which despite the criticism of countless critics, still remains my favorite movie of 2008. Why so serious? Beacause your performance was so flipping amazing, Heath. That's why.

Rafael Nadal unseated Roger Federer as the king of tennis in what may have been the greatest tennis match of all time. And the Phillies, yes, the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series.

And some crazy blogger decided to start up a blog called Defenestrate!, which is read by an average of two to three people daily. If that. Who knows? Maybe by 2010, ten people will have read this post. That, my friends, is the miraculous wonder that is the internet.

Here's to a happy, healthy, prosperous, and significantly amusing 2009. Can't hope for more than that.

(Note: If you're still craving to reminisce on the year that was, check out The 2008 List of Lists. If you read slowly enough, it'll keep you occupied until 2010.)

Best?

As 2008 draws to a close, we are inspired to look back at the year that was... and people all over the interwebz are scrambling to catalogue the best and worst, well, everythings that were.

Among the many lists, three of my favorites:

Best Movie Posters of 2008

MAGNET's Top 25 Albums of 2008

Sin's Top 20 Best Songs of 2008

Happy Zombie Jesus Day!

Yay for self-explanatory blog posts! Today, as we all know, is the day that zombie Jesus rises from his hallowed grave and brings holiday joy and cheer to the masses! Good stuff, good stuff.

As for me, I'm just fine watching movies and eating bagels. And hangin' with zombie Jesus and zombie Moses.

Merry Christmas!

Winter Break

School is out. I am relieved. I have no school until January the 5th - that's 12 whole days for me to sleep like a normal person and hopefully catch up on some well-deserved and greatly-needed relaxing. Just some good books, my new iPod touch (yay!), friends, and family.

I love winter break.

Chanukah

Happy Chanukah all of you crazy Jews and gentiles. Tonight marks the first of one crrraaaazzzyyyy eight nights. We're talking candles, spinning tops, chocolate coins, presents, and best of all, an emphasis of fried potatoes even greater that you would find at McDonald's.

Happy Chanukah, and long live the latke.

Zeitgeist

As 2009 draws ever closer, the world has a bit of time to look back and reflect on how the past year went. And what better way to do that than to get up with the spirit of the peopla and the times by finding the hottest search terms on Google?

I introduce Google Zeitgeist, Google's explanation of the most popular and fastest-rising search trends of 2008. If you're wondering, the word 'zeitgeist' is a German word meaning "the spirit of the age and its society". Definitely one of my new favorite words.

Cool stuff. CHECK IT!

It is Possible to Win Without Winning

Well, I competed at a debate tournament on Saturday. Prelims passed by nicely, and I broke into the Super Session of Student Congress, with 15 people and myself going for the top. Pretty much... I mostly dominated. I made 3 speeches about 2 bills, and most people in the chamber were telling me that I had won.

So, naturally, I got 2nd place.

I was pretty frustrated - in my event, you can get ranked from 1-9, with 1 being the best and 9 being not-ranked. There were three judges, who gave me the ranks of 1, 1 and 9, respectively.

I will kill the third judge.

That is all.

Knowledge is Power

Knowledge is power. The old saying has been around for centuries, I'm sure, but never has this been more true than in today's society. The proliferation of education and innovation have created a better world in which we solve problems that face us faster, and increase the standard of living for everyone. Obviously, this includes the reduction of poverty and crime, disease and disorder, and an increase in global competitiveness as our populace becomes smarter and more innovative, and realizes its potential for becoming productive and successful.

Information is at the heart of all of this. A well-informed citizenry was the key to our Founding Fathers' vision of democracy, in which the people hold absolute power, and dictate the fate of their nation for their benefit. The proliferation of information allows us to understand the world around us, and become better suited to serving ourselves and those around us. One who embraces the power of information (especially through education) tends to find themselves successful. Those who ignore it often find themselves left behind.

No one thing has provided such huge, all-encompassing access to information as the advent of the internet. Never before has such a vast compilation of information been available to the public. And with the invention of search engines such as Google, it is possible to sort through this information and find what we are searching for in seconds. Never before has it been so easy to better ourselves through the acquisition of knowledge. With a world's worth of information at our fingertips, the internet truly has the power to change the way we think. And that has great consequences for the way the world will work, and for the better.

If you ask me, the internet is one of the greatest and most consequential inventions in all of human history. It informs us, it connects us, and possibly most importantly, it allows us to respond to what we see and share our own information. For too long mankind has relied on one-way mediums for its information such as radio and television. While very informative, they are not very useful in creating a well-informed populace because they only allow its users to receive information, and not contribute to it themselves. Only the very rich can influence what is seen over these mediums, and as a result, a very small group of people has the power to influence hundreds of millions. This is not acceptable. A well-informed populace needs not only access to information, but also the ability to respond to that information. This "conversation of ideas" is what fuels innovation and free thought, and what we have seldom seen since the days of the Revolution. It is time that we realized what a great thing the internet is, and started using it to its full potential.

Slowly, the world is starting to adopt to this new infrastructure of free-flowing and fully accessible knowledge. In Estonia, internet access is a basic human right by law. Today, it is one of the most modernized, well-informed and in-touch nations in the world.

The world will change as the internet becomes a more dominant medium in our society, and undoubtedly it will be for the better. We should try to hasten this new age of free information and knowledge by encouraging the proliferation of technology throughout the nation, and the world. Bringing this technology to the people of the world will undoubtedly help us stay connected, well-informed, and better able to cope with the problems of the 21st century. Perhaps if we could bring internet access to everyone, we couldsee the benefit in society. Maybe bringing the net to the secluded parts of the nation, from rural South to the Great Plains, could allow us to truly accomplish greatness.

Singing

With no one in the house, about an hour ago, I set to work tackling my AP Calculus homework. Admittedly, differentiating and integrating various permutations of natural logarithmic functions, e^x, and inverse functions is not exactly the most... thrilling work in the world. So, bored about halfway (more like two-thirds) to tears, I began humming to myself an odd, shapeless tune.

This eventually developed into a full-blown, endless beatbox-style song about my current topic in calculus, essentially integrating (ouch, calculus pun) each step of the problem I was doing into lyrical and melodical form. After about twenty minutes, the tune became completely nonsensical, with regular modifications to the rhythm, and lyrics that made no sense at all.

Nonetheless, it was quite amusing. I suggest that, if ever you're alone and are partaking in some sort of boring or mindless task, start singing about it. Don't try to make it very musical - just go with the flow and essentially start speaking in rhythmical form. It's pretty interesting.

And yes, it does mean you're crazy, or close to it, if you do.

Just like me.

Glass of Water

Well, Coldplay recently released a new EP, entitled Prospekt's March. It's a random collection of a couple of B-sides and remixes, but there are a couple of very nice tracks on there.

In particular, a song known as Glass of Water. Personally, I am in love with this song - nice lyrics, full sound, and a powerful driving chorus make this my current favorite in my library.

If y'all are interested, here's the link to this latest song. Enjoy:

Linky