Alright, so my speech is roughly ready, homework is all caught up, and now I’m ready to tumblr. This may be long, but I’ll try not to go overboard. One interesting link right now, more over the next few days or something. Then random thoughts.

http://mjroseblog.typepad.com/buzz_balls_hype/2007/03/titles_the_reso.html
http://mjroseblog.typepad.com/buzz_balls_hype/2007/03/titles_part_2_a.html

        Above links are about the importance of titles. In summary, because honestly there’s only the one interesting part in the entire article: a title must have resonance with the audience in order to work. There are two kinds of resonance: automatic, which evokes something already relevant to the audience. Can be hit or miss, but when it does resonate with someone, it will tell them instantly something about the book and draw them to it. A strong one for me is the song Hollow Place by Polar Bear Club, which has such intense imagery for me that it sends shivers down my spine every time I hear the chorus and I ran home to look up the lyrics immediately after I heard it while driving home from school.

        Come to think of it, I guess album, band, and song names rely almost solely on automatic resonance. The main exception would be concept albums, like The Power of the Dragonflame. Complete crap for a title, until you know what the power of the dragonflame refers to.

        The second kind of resonance is acquired, so you don’t truly appreciate it until after you’ve read the book. These are risky, because they don’t grab you right away, and only become instantly memorable after you’ve made it through several hundred pages of quality literature. When you have something that doesn’t need to fall directly into a specific genre to succeed, you can take more liberties with your titles because people won’t necessarily want the book to be completely explicit with its title (ie Aliens/Predator works better than “Scary Monsters Kill People!”). Acquired resonance is what gets people talking about the book, because it’s clever and deep and etc.

        A good example for this one would be the book Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson. When I bought it, I thought eh, kind of a fluffy name, doesn’t seem to mean anything though… So I expected elves and gardens and unicorns on the moon. Then you learn about Moon’s Spawn, a giant floating rock that houses the dying remnants of the Tiste Andii, who live forever but can no longer procreate, so they just wallow in their misery and apathy forever basically. They’re extremely melancholy by nature, as they come from this beautiful, amazing world with no light, and they screwed up and got stuck in a crappy world full of bleh and brightness. Only the amazing tough ones can overcome their apathy and go out to do things, and every single one you see in the books is a major badass. When you see them from a human point of view, they’re intensely tragic because, in reality, they have no reason to be so utterly sad. When you see them from the point of view of another Tiste Andii, it just gets worse, because they connect with eachother on such a deep level of empathy that they know there’s nothing they can do to help. It’s brutal.

        Not all of that happens in Gardens of the Moon, but after you’ve read the book and as you continue the series, it just takes on such a huge meaning and becomes the perfect title, even if it doesn’t immediately grab your attention. I know I haven’t mentioned the gardens themselves, but just imagine what kind of a garden you’d get on a big, floating pile of rocks inhabited by perpetually depressed immortals and their giant ravens who feed on magical energy. They aren’t happy gardens.

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        Slightly unrelated topic: why don’t women use electric razors? I’m not exactly pro at shaving normally, because I get impatient after a while and rush it, but my skin gets pretty irritated for a few days after I shave and occasionally I’ll nick myself. My dad was home for the weekend, and I borrowed his fancy electric razor, and it was wonderful. I got a closer shave than normal (except on the curve of my chin, but a few millimetres there hardly matters), it took a fraction of the time, it was better for my skin, my skin felt better afterwards (shaving cream makes me feel weird for a few days) and there were basically no downsides. Is it because nobody has ever tried to sell them one? So they’re a manly man product, and not a useful product all around? When you see a commercial for some fancy razor, it’s always a tough looking guy with some girl rubbing up against him and appreciating his perfect skin.

        I’ve never shaved my legs, so maybe I’m just ignorant of the tools and technique required that electric razors couldn’t provide, but it’s worth thinking about. You’d think an industry built around telling people they need your products, or else they aren’t beautiful, would be able to better exploit its customers.

Valedictorian speech

I was having a hard time writing this speech, because I just couldn’t find the right way to start it off on a high note. It wasn’t until I was listening to music and trying to procrastinate one night that I found the perfect quote to get everybody’s attention. It comes from the song Light of Local Eyes by Polar Bear Club, and while I won’t sing it for you, Micah might if you ask him nicely. It’s meant to be about a small town, but I think the principle fits just as well for a high school like Three Oaks. “We lived life out of this place, we wore its map on our faces, to say the least, we left our trace, burned off the tips of our laces, when this city shined, from the light of local eyes.” Looking back right now, after prom and all the memories you have of the last three years, it’s easy to say how awesome high school was and how it’s been the happiest three years of your life. Like the town in Light of Local Eyes, we’ve left our mark here and made Three Oaks a part of our lives and it’s shining from the light of our eyes. When we’ve seen more of the world, that light’s going to fade. When you go off to UPEI, or Dalhousie, or University of Ottawa, the so-called “best years of your life” may not seem so great in comparison. You’re going to study or work in whatever field you actually enjoy, instead of having to take physics and social studies simply for the credits. When all you want to do is act or make movies, it’s almost a waste of time, because you’ll never use any of those things. Over the course of the next few years, you’ll start doing something that hardly feels like work, compared to the pointless busywork in your obligatory high school courses. You’d probably keep doing it even if you didn’t get paid. That’s when you’ll start to realize how silly it sounds to say you had fun checking your significant figures or memorizing that the volume of a cone is a third of pi-r-squared-h. When you find a job doing what you really love to do, you’ll get more out of it than anything else you might have done, no matter the salary.

            Despite the many false starts I initially had trying to write this speech, I find that words are my most natural talent. It’s up to us to use our talents as fully as possible, whether you’re good at art or cheering people up. I’ve always found that the right words at the right time can make all the difference, and I do my best to find them when the time comes. One of the more memorable opportunities I’ve had came when a friend of mine, Spencer, posted a link on facebook to a news story about a school in the States that had cancelled its prom because of a lesbian couple who planned to attend. I replied with a link to a story about a teacher at an all-girls Catholic school in Vancouver who was fired for being a lesbian. A shared friend of ours posted that they were right to fire her, as she would have a bad influence on the students. This happened a few days after we studied logical fallacies in English, so I decided to practice my debating skills with him. He claimed that he had science and other undeniable facts to back up his position, yet strangely he didn’t provide any examples. When I pointed out various flaws in his logic, he relented, and admitted that he had been prejudiced and never really tried to see things from an objective point of view. He agreed to be more tolerant in the future, and I found it very satisfying to find a practical use for something I learned in class. This just proves that anyone can make a positive difference if they make the best of their abilities.

            I know all too well that many of us often doubt our abilities, and I’d be lying if I said I’d never once worried that I’m not good enough, or that I couldn’t handle all the things life was throwing at me. It wasn’t until I was half finished that I thought I could actually write and give a speech. I’m no motivational speaker, and I just didn’t have time to practice as much as I would have liked. Yet here I am, with a speech written and mostly memorized, pretty nervous but mainly glad that it’s nearly over. Deep down, I know that I can do anything after I calm down and get to work. I know just as well that the same thing goes for all of you. So if there’s anything I’d liked to tell you, it’s to find and hold onto that same confidence, no matter what you’re doing next year, or even ten years from now. Don’t underestimate yourself, because you’ll rise to the occasion if you work hard enough. There’s no limit to your potential, and anyone who embraces life’s challenges will grow as a person, and as an intellectual. Failure comes only from a lack of effort, not a lack of ability. There’s no such thing as “not being smart enough.” If you believe the only difference between an A and a B+ is hard work, you’ll always get the results you’re looking for.

            We may not see it right now, but our teachers and classmates have had a huge influence on us over the past few years. When I met up with a friend after UPEI finished their classes, he told me I was starting to sound like Mr. Gallant, so I must have taken calculus as well as advanced math. He says it happens to everyone Mr. Gallant teaches all year, but personally… I have absolutely no idea what he’s talking about. Aside from making jokes about interrupting turtles and spiders doing push-ups against a mirror, we’ve learned a lot more than just facts and formulas from our classes here at Three Oaks. Some of those things were part of the curriculum – we were supposed to learn to think outside of the box, but some of us thought a bit too far outside of the box. Other things we’ve learned in class taught us about ourselves – for example, I’ve learned that I’m not exactly careful enough to be a physicist or an engineer. You’ll thank me later when your car’s brakes accelerate you at negative five meters-per-second-squared instead of positive five meters-per-second-squared. I can’t speak for every single one of you, but I’m sure each of you can think of a similar experience. I’d be pretty surprised if you could spend a full semester – or two – with someone like Mrs. Keough, Mrs. McQuaid, or Ms. Barrett without learning anything about yourself. We’re all busy trying to figure out who – and what – we want to be, and it’s people like them who spend as much time guiding us through that as they do teaching.

            In Light of Local Eyes, there’s a section that goes “I sat down and thought, what of here makes me proud? Proud to not dismiss this place, and hold it all, from gold to gray.”  Graduation is the perfect opportunity to look at the last few years and see the things that actually made your time here great. The things that make you proud to have been here and that you’ll cherish even as the golden light from our eyes fades to gray. Three Oaks was just the place where it happened, not the reason it happened. Your teachers and friends, and the memories you made together, are the things you should remember fondly. The best part is that even though you’ve finished high school, and you can never get that back, the friends you’ve made will never fade away. Some of them might be going with you to university; others may be staying here, or moving a dozen hours away. Realistically, there’s no longer any difference. No matter where we are next year, we’ll be able to keep in touch… for better or for worse.

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Yeah so there we go. It’s not done yet. Subject to improvements from the recommendations of you lovely folk. Still have to read it out to time it, as well as test it for awkwardness/wordiness. Still, feels good to have it “done.”

edit: first update done, may possibly change the facebook paragraph to be vaguer

My valedictorian speech is almost done. I just need to finish my current paragraph about how anyone who really tries can succeed and conclude it decently, and we’re good to go. I’ll post it up if/when I get it done tomorrow, because it won’t be perfect, and I’d totally appreciate help looking for things you wouldn’t say in a casual conversation. Things you wouldn’t say colloquially, which is not nearly common enough to be colloquial. I don’t use if I can avoid it.

        It’s been making me think, though. Finally, with two weeks left of school, I’m actually confident. I know exactly what I need to do: finish this speech, prepare my razzle-dazzle for my propaganda presentation on monday, and study. Certainty and predictability are very good for me. When I know what needs to be done, I can plan for it. If I knew that x amount of research could fill y amount of words, and would take z hours to write, I could pump out papers and projects like you wouldn’t believe. It’s the uncertainty that kills me, that makes me panic and stress out until I’m nearly done, and then when I’m done I get stressed about the things yet to come. With two weeks left, I’m now safe from that, because I’ve worked at it, and done so early. I’d probably be done already if it wasn’t for this damn moving thing. Not nearly enough space for us at my mom’s friend’s house, but oh well.

        Going to university is predictable. I’m afraid of the stress and the misery that will likely come with it, but I’m far too stubborn to lay down and die. As much as I might want to, I’m sorry to say that I probably couldn’t give up, no matter how bad it gets. I’ve made it this far, anyway, and I’ve managed to swim by trying not to drown. Once you learn, you don’t usually forget. I told Ms. Barrett that she’d taught me how to study and do research properly, which is true, and I know I’d make my way through whether it took four years or fourteen.

        The question remains as to why I would do that, though. What do I gain? A good salary, of course, but… what else?

        Not going to university, however, leads directly to that uncertainty I fear so much more than unhappiness. I don’t know how to make myself a life, I don’t know any of the things you need to be a responsible adult. Well, I can fend for myself as far as sustenance goes. I don’t know. I’d keep going, but my rambling has been interrupted, and I need to vacate the vicinity so someone can sleep here. Will continue later if I’m still feeling vulnerable, maybe.