….but success, unfortunately, seems to be a combination lock. Living in the kind of society that I do, I’m very often disturbed by certain people’s perception of the grading system. Not that I see anything immediately wrong with the idea per se, I simply can’t imagine living with that sort of mindset [which makes sense, seeing as I wasn’t told as a child that these specific kinds of values were important]. For those of you who aren’t aware of what I’m talking about, please spare a brief moment in your lives to let me explain [shouldn’t be too hard considering you’ve already started reading. Why not finish what you started? :D]

I like to live life knowing that most people think with the “good/bad” continuum in mind, having anything that they do lie on a certain point in that continuum. This is, for the most part, true. However, some people don’t view possible outcomes as a continuum, but rather as something more along the lines of two points on a plane [point, line, plane. Mathematical word play bonus points win!]. The two points on this plane being good (perfection), and bad (failure), where nothing lies between. Anything that would seem to fall between automatically gets shoved to hang out with the “bad” point. As you have probably noticed by now, this leaves literally no room for error for anything short of perfection is failure.

Again, it isn’t really something that keeps me up at night [that’s a lie], but its still something I’ve noticed that greatly disturbs me.

And yes, I wrote this in class. Geography 🙂

Earlier this week, we were told to take a personality test, the results of which would be published on a database for my future guidance counselor to see. Having taken many other “tests” of this sort in the past, I decided to get it done as soon as possible thinking that something as exaggerated and overdone as this couldn’t possibly be worth spending a whole class period on (that same class period could very well be used to study for something of greater importance). After a lengthy series of seemingly random and repetitive questions, my results came in:

“People like you are intense, private, and creative. You are a highly imaginative and intellectual person, and are rarely satisfied with anything less than a full and logical understanding of issues. Serious, quiet, and cautious, you tend to initially hang back from new social situations, and you are pretty selective about which activities you get involved in and which people you befriend. You probably have a small group of trusted friends and also enjoy spending time alone, delving deeply into the subjects and activities that interest you. You keeps your feelings and your private thoughts to yourself, or share them occasionally with your very closest friends. You have a rich inner life and may enjoy studying and reading about perspectives or lifestyles that are out of the ordinary. You quickly grasp complex concepts or theories, and are able to glean the less obvious meanings of information. But you may have little patience for anything superficial or repetitive.

You are super independent and are willing to stand up for your positions, even if others disagree. But you may be stubborn and have difficulty changing your mind once it’s made up. You are also a naturally skeptical person who questions the way things are so only a sound logical argument is likely to persuade or convince you. Calm and emotionally self-contained, you don’t like when other people exaggerate or over-react. Overall, you are much more interested in meeting or exceeding your own high personal standards than trying to please other people.”

there I was sitting on my rotating chair smiling and thinking to myself, “not bad personality test, not bad.” The accuracy of the results shown on my screen amazed me. Granted, I don’t see these results to be perfect, but still. Still in awe of my results from the personality test, I proceeded to take the “career interest profiler.” Results:

• Realistic: 2
• Investigative: 23
• Artistic: 17
• Social: 8
• Enterprising: 11
• Conventional: 7

Definitions

Realistic: Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.

Investigative: Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.

Artistic: Artistic occupations frequently involve working with forms, designs and patterns. They often require self-expression and the work can be done without following a clear set of rules.

Social: Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.

Enterprising: Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.

Conventional: Conventional occupations frequently involve following set procedures and routines. These occupations can include working with data and details more than with ideas. Usually there is a clear line of authority to follow.

Best Career Matches:

-Sociologist                                    -Psychiatrist

– Anthropologist                            -Mathematician

-Curator                                          -Physician

-Historian                                       -Biological Sciences Teacher

-Reporter

-Political Scientist

-Technical Writer

I think I need to think through the tests I take a bit more.

The infinite monkey theorem presents the theory that a monkey in front of a type-writer that smashes random keys, when given an infinite amount of time, will type out any given text such as the complete works of William Shakespeare. (Note that this proposed “monkey” is metaphorical and actually represents anything pressing random keys in a random combination ad infinitum).

Once again, I find myself keeping myself occupied throughout this summer break by focusing on any studies that I may find particularly interesting. Yet I find that this occupation seems to be the epitome of my frustration, and is probably the most depressing thing I can do over this ideally enjoyable summer break. Don’t get me wrong, by no means do I hate studying what I study. I find the human’s quest for knowledge interesting at every aspect, and this serves as a pilot light to the burning furnace that is my quest to know more (yeah, I don’t like the representation I just used either). However, I constantly remind myself why I am doing this. Why I am so motivated to study, why I consistently peak myself to perform musically at the highest level possible, and why I constantly push myself to understand the evolving video game industry. As sad as I am to admit this, it can only be because I’m not proud of what I’ve done (or rather, what I’ve failed to do) during my time in middle school.

I know of a Jackhammer and a Captain who once attempted to predict my future.  Now I think very, very highly of these two, so I certainly wanted to hear what they thought would happen to that student who never gave in his homework, who thought nothing of the realm of mathematics, who would very much rather apply his mental capacity to a play through of Ghouls and Ghosts (Commodore Amiga, 1989) and the student who thought way too highly of himself for his own good. The first day through, I only asked the Jackhammer, and she, like many other of my classmates who attempt to simplify the enigma that is Etlevs Wolf, excused herself because she clearly had some thinking to do. About a day or two after, she said she consulted the matter with the clearly all knowing Captain, and they told me that they foresaw me having trouble deciding what to do, given the “clearly high amount of proficiencies that I have.”

And now, I would think that I like to prepare myself for that decision by trying to make it…well….sooner rather than later. I want to be someone who excels in mathematics, and although I do know a lot about the field from research, I’m not great with the functions of calculations (or I guess just math in general). I want to excel in the other sciences, but as much as I know already, there are just some things that I cant understand. I want to design/potentially program video games, but my proficiency in the field is limited to being able to spot imperfections in coding, mechanics, and etc.

And then there is music. I don’t want to sound overconfident or anything, but I know I’m good at what I do. I know that I have a lot to learn and that explains why my practice schedule led me to 21hours of practice and study every week. But then, I stopped. This wasn’t because I was lazy, it wasn’t because I ran out of ideas, but its because I wasn’t sure of what I was doing. Mastering countless grooves, listening to classical, jazz, blues, and pretty much every other genre of music to understand techniques and add them to my musical arsenal, and writing pieces that express everything I’ve worked for. But as I was practicing on the piano one day, I thought to myself, “do I really want this?” I love music more than almost everything, but I’ve always pushed to be better than everyone else. And now I can’t help but think if I need to do that, or if I want it to always be this big of a part in my life.

I’m at a point where I’m lost. I know I’m probably too young to be worrying about things like this at this magnitude, but I want to know what to do. I can’t aim to do everything anymore. I can’t continue to know how to play several instruments at an adv. intermediate level, strive to excel in mathematics as much as I want to, while being proficient in the study of the sciences. I don’t know if I can handle it, but its always the level that I’ve performed. I already know that not all of my classmates, friends, etc. will appreciate what I produce out of my work, and I’ve gotten past that. But even then, I still have to think of all of these things when I think of what I want to end up doing, and where I want to end up going.

How do I know if, like that figurative monkey, I’ll ever hit the right combination?

And so begins my actual vacation. I don’t think I’ll be studying too much while thinking about this, but I still have projects to finish. Beast Mode, engaged. Thank you, and good night 🙂

-Dr. Etlevs S. R. Wolf

[ Regarding my project (the attempted problem of opinion) I have been forced to scrap it. I have put approximately 14 hours of study time into this piece of work, but due to a previously unforeseen contradiction in my logic, I couldn’t bear myself to publish the rest of it. I do, in fact, think that this may have been one of my best deductions and it may have very well been one of my best pieces of work in general, but I guess its just back to the drawing board for now. ]

This may come as no surprise, but my summer to do list has, so far, been:

-General Studies: Science, Mathematics, History, Paradoxes, Etc. (Boredom Killer)

-Music Studies & Music Projects

-Workouts

-Video Game Collecting & Playing

-Youtube Video Producing and Video Watching

This has been going on for almost the whole summer break so far, and to be honest, I’m not really complaining. Sure, it would help to get out of my house and socialize with some of the beings that I know to be my friends, but I guess Shrodinger, Youtube, Schobert, Neutrinos, and everyone/thing are my friends too right?

To be even more honest than I was a while ago, boredom does strike more than sporadically, so as of yesterday, I’ve started my reading campaign for this summer. Other of choice as of this moment: John Green.

Yes, the same John Green who is one half of the vlogbrothers on youtube. The same John Green who has a video talking about the current education system and how it seems to be something of a continuum. However, he is also the author of Printz award winning book Looking For Alaska, Printz honor book An Abundance Of Katherines, And Edgar Award Winning Book Paper Towns.

I read An Abundance of Katherines a while back and I just started reading Looking For Alaska yesterday….and I finished it the same day. The same went for Paper Towns today! I can’t seem to ever put his books down once I’ve started reading them. I seriously recommend his novels, and that isn’t just because I’m a Nerdfighter.

So that has been the start of my reading campaign so far! Another book I’m looking into is Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Well, that’s after I finish reading The Zombie Survival Guide.

[Note: Understanding the fundamentals of this process of thought is greatly encouraged before moving on and reading through this part. Please read through and grasp a solid understanding of the concepts mentioned in part one. Also, it is important to understand that although you may need an understanding of all of these parts as a whole to grasp the final concept (that will be presented in the final part), all parts before the final part are to be seen as separate pieces of information that I am “feeding” you (assuming that you are not already aware of it. Thank you!]

-Dr. Etlevs S. R. Wolf

Let us assume the first of two situations. This situation consists of a person having a simple conversation (or argument, either situation applies, although in different magnitudes) with his or her friends. Now suppose that one of the friends were to present a disagreement. Based on my understanding, this is how your brain would react:

[The networks formed by neurons react by signaling (via synapses) and this sends your brain into what can be described as something like a state of defense. Regardless of who is presenting the disagreement, or what the disagreement is, I find that this state of defense still occurs.]

Now how you react to this state of defense depends on the opinion that you currently hold. If the disagreement was presented on a topic that was thought to be fact, then you would then normally respond with the mentality that you can’t possibly be wrong, no matter what logic is presented against what you think (seeing as this is fact). However, if the topic were something that was understood by both parties to be something of opinionated nature, most would probably hold the mentality of possible “conversion” (the understanding that although a correct answer may not exist, the possibility of converting the opposite party to hold a different opinion still exists).

What is incredibly important to note here is the occurrence wherein this defensive state kicks in and we attempt to argue with fact. In the situation I mentioned above, I say that when most people are faced with fact while in this defensive state, they argue with the mentality that they can’t be wrong. However, there are two (or more) parties involved, remember? Why is it that we have no problem defending what we think is fact, however arguing with what other people see as fact seems to be less of a task. And what about those occurrences wherein we learn that what we thought was fact was actually wrong, and is then replaced by another fact? For most people, there is still a state of disbelief and questioning that takes place before the acceptance of this new fact. Wouldn’t all of this mean that some facts differ from other facts in terms of how we are still able to “argue” against or for them? But how would that be? Shouldn’t we accept fact as fact when given the sufficient amount of reasoning behind them? Why is it that we are still able to argue with or against some facts, even if we know that a solid foundation of reasoning stands behind them, and that foundation is the reason that these things are fact? That is where interpretation kicks in.

[End Of Part 2, continues in Part 3]

(This is the first part of my blog post, which explains every thought that went through my head pre-epiphany. Yes, I do actually think in variables and sets and I recommend that you read this before reading part 2. Kapitan Tandem, comments would be very much appreciated due to the fact that you seem to have more experience in REAL mathematics, let alone pseudo-mathematics, than I do. Thank You!)

-Dr. Etlevs S. R. Wolf

There are things in life that I know to be true:

0. [Opinions exist] (lets assign the variable n to the word opinion)

1. [Everyone is entitled to their own opinion without being judged upon it] (lets represent this with the variable x)

2. [One’s opinion usually (not always!) reflects how a person thinks, and by extension, how they are as a person] (variable y)

3. [Opinions need to be backed by some form of reasoning] (variable z)

4. [Reasoning can be invalid] (variable r)

5. [Opinions are seen by the general public to be a form of personal fact (they cant be “wrong”)] (variable q)

So let me get this straight. If x, y, n, z, r, q, and w are true, then I have a bit of a problem.

                     [       N = { x, y, z, r, q }    ]   

I have no problem with this. However, suppose we had another set representing “wrong” (variable w) then I know that, in theory:

                  [       W = { r } (wrong exists because of r)  and  N (intersection symbol) W = { r }     ]

Now the problem is, I also know that (because of variable q)

                   [      N (“can’t be equivalent to” symbol) W   ] 

So if I myself am not wrong, then what I understand to be true is that: Opinions themselves can’t be wrong, yet opinions and the idea of “wrong” share a common element: they both exist along side the fact that reasoning can be invalid.

As I sat lazily on my couch reading through yet another one of my good friend’s (not so surprisingly) creative concoctions on his blog, my mind entered what I could only describe as a state of keen observation. And as expected, this state of mind led to one of my first thinking sessions of the summer – stick with me on this one, I think its pretty good!

The general concept of growing up is perceived by the general human populous as a stage of change, advancement, and all of this is mixed in a blender along with the idea that humans will inevitably age, die, and fall into whatever may come afterwards. However, the fact that most people’s perception on the concept is the same, doesn’t seem to affect the fact that most people invision the actual effects that this process will have on them differently. Basically, Even if Crossroad Cursed and I were to share the same understanding on the concept of growing up (because clearly, both of us still have some growing up to do!), he still may think that growing up will turn him into a potato, and I may think that growing up will turn me into some form of humanoid/sock monster. This actually isn’t surprising due to the fact that people are different, and therefore invision themselves in the present and in the future differently.

As this thought left my head just as swiftly as it had entered, It had me thinking and it let me to realize that: when I was younger, I seemed to have no vision on how I thought I was going to change in the near future. If asked to, most kids would generally only depict themselves in the somewhat distant future as astronauts, heavily wealthy businessmen, firemen, etc. etc. However, I wouldn’t imagine that they normally think of how they would be in, lets say, 8th grade because they seem to think that there wouldn’t be anything of particular interest that would happen to them within that – seemingly – short time period. The reason I find this so interesting is because of the fact that, because of this, we aren’t able to examine the thinking process that goes through these children’s minds when they picture themselves to be these images of achievement. they seem to picture improvement, however there is no saying when this improvement takes place, or whether or not said improvement is gradual, or sudden and dramatic. But you can’t really expect them to think all of that through, because they still probably have difficulty calculating how many apples Jimmy has left after he had 4 and ate two of them!

And this is around the time wherein I started looking around the room I was in, and what was immediately next to me. Never would I have ever imagined myself to have become what I am today, from what I was yesterday, or the day before that, or even 2 years prior to the day before that. From barely being able to sustain an idea of multiplication, I now know basic trigonometry, multiplicative inverses, and the mind blowing effects of having a hypothetical pizza with a radius of z and a depth of a*. From thinking that expressing my creativity through writing was a waste of time, I now tremendously enjoy it, I – obviously – write in a blog, and I now know how to make really simple concepts sound impressive by using words that aren’t commonly used by the general human populous. I’ve voluntarily read through a college SAT reviewer twice, I’ve scanned the internet for articles to increase my understanding of physics – which is now probably my favorite field of science – and read through all of the ones that I’ve found to be interesting. My grades aren’t bad, but they don’t seem to be a valid image of what I know that I am truly capable of, and thats sad really.

But as I realize that I am probably in the best condition that I have been in the whole 13 years that I have been a member of the exclusive club that is planet earth, I also realize – along with probably millions of others in this world – how little I truly know. This is simply because as you gain a solid understanding of more and more concepts, you then know what you dont know. And even as you learn what you dont know, what you dont know simply evolves to become a larger and larger set of ideas. 

So as I’m thinking about it now, even if knowing everything were possible, I don’t think I would need to know everything. I just hope that in the future: what I know is what I need to know, what I dont know is what I want to know, and I know that I really do know everything, because knowing everything is simply knowing everything you need to, and I think thats enough.

*A hypothetical pizza with a radius of z and a depth of a, would have a formula for volume that is: Pi x Z x Z x A

I came across this video a while back and I can’t help but think about it as a ponder about education in today’s society whilst sitting on my couch and sipping my protein shake.

Not only have I been trying to express this in the many years that I have been in school so far, but this man (John Green: Award Winning author of books such as Looking For Alaska and An Abundance Of Katherines) was able to express this better than I ever would have been able to. When we as humans study – whether it be economics, mathematics, literature, or even the general sciences – having more than one right answer isn’t always satisfactory. I often grit my teeth as if one were scratching a blackboard at the sound of someone saying “well there are multiple definitions…”

There are times wherein humans aren’t able to process information enough to print out a definition that will satisfy all aspects of a given idea, object, or whatever it may be. However, there are times in which we simply choose to make things infinitely more complicated for ourselves by insisting that the answer right in front of us isn’t the answer at all. To a human on his or her quest to understand the universe, this doesn’t help too much. Whether it be in the numerically heavy field of mathematics, or the prose and poetry in literature, sometimes, having one answer is good enough.

Tomorrow will be the day that I leave home. I leave my friends, I leave my classes, and I leave the rest of the people that I’ve come to know and love. I leave the blood stained basketball court, the pitch with no grass, the oh-so-undersized lockers jammed up against one another along the hallways that I’ve walked through for what seems like ages.

And with this goodbye comes an inevitable wave of boredom, but if I’ve learned anything from the countless classes I’ve sat through, that isn’t completely a bad thing. Something we all have to constantly remind ourselves of is that the general human populous thinks of boredom in the wrong way – in the exact opposite way, in fact. Boredom isn’t when life gives you nothing to do. It isn’t when you slump on your couch asking yourself why a comet wont spontaneously hit your house thus starting an adventure that will hopefully kill at least 5 hours of your clearly empty schedule. Boredom is when you do nothing with life. So what comes with a 3 month wave of boredom? Well, thats 3 months of opportunities staring you at the face and hoping that you make the most of them. Because life, well, its worth it. And frankly, it ideally always should be. Now whether or not we believe that is a different story. But knowing my batch mates, diversity and skill are our specialty, and a batch as special us, we’re going to do things, (and quoting my long time friend and cousin one last time) I can assure you that, until the very end.

I’m going to miss you grade eight, It’s been one hell of a ride and for that I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.