A World Without 'Um"

If you listen to a person giving a speech, you will probably hear them say "um", "uh", or other similar filler words. For some reason, our culture has been ingrained with hearing people stutter like that. Not that people do it on purpose, it's just a natural side effect of being nervous.

Even if you look at national TV, if the show is sent out live, someone will probably say "um".  It seems that one of the things that draws a line between the more eloquent speakers and the novice speakers is simply not saying "um". In fact, in basically everything in life that even remotely involves speaking, not saying "um" really adds some professionalism.

This post is mostly focused on "um", but there are plenty of other filler words out there too, like "okay" or "ah". Why do we insert filler words while we speak? Often we need time to gather our thoughts. We don't want silence, so we want to "fill" it in, even though it often ends up sounding much worse.

Why of all things, do we say "um"? It is what linguistics call "a neutral vowel sound", which means that it is a sound that is easier to make. Actually, which sound that we happen to use as a filler depends on what language we are using. In English we might say "um", but for example, in Japanese, a common filler is "eetto".

I'm not going to even bother trying to predict what I will be or what I will do when I grow older, but I think that one very attainable goal would be to simply stop saying "um". So, if I ever happen to say "um" or "uh" in your presence, would you mind smacking me?

I'm Going To The Iowa High School Mock Trial State Competition

So, as might my last post says, I went to Mock Trial regionals.  Out of the ten teams that competed, only three would make it to the Iowa High School Mock Trial State Competition. The only way you could go to State was if you won both of your rounds. My team was one of those teams.

Marion Homeschool had two teams this year. The "older" team with the more experienced students, and the "younger" team that only had one student that had done mock trial before; me. Despite my team having some very talented people, the other team was much better than us. They put a lot more work into it than us.

In our regional competition, the teams going to State is always dominated by the teams from Robins. Each year, Robins has either two or three teams, and almost all of the time all of the teams go to State. Last year, they had three teams, and all of them went to State. A team from Robins has not only went to State, but won State for the last three years. This year, we had heard that Robins only had two teams, so both of our teams knew we had a chance.

The first round, my team went against a team that wasn't really prepared. At all. To say we dominated would be an understatement. But, it was nice practice for our team to behave in a mock trial environment. Sadly, the next round wasn't as easy. Both of our teams were evenly matched, and it was REALLY close. Yet, when the ballots were in, we won. Barely, I'm sure.

In the first round, the other team also faced a team wasn't as good as them (although the gap of expertise wasn't nearly as big as between my team and the first team we went up against). Things were looking pretty good, until they found out they were going against Robins team one in the second round, without a doubt the best team in our regionals. Sadly, our other team lost. 

Thus, although I'm happy to go to State, it is most definitely bittersweet.

You might see me around a little less. I'm going to be REALLY busy preparing for State.

Not to say I didn't have fun, while we were waiting for the other teams to finish after we were done with our second round, the team that we had went against in that second round came up to us and started talking. We decided to have a game of ninja. Needless to say, it was a great break from the intense trial we had been in. Oh, and I won the game of ninja :)

Mock Trial

I'm going to my Mock Trial competition today. I'm pretty excited. Luckily, I'm not nervous at all. That's what I've always been like. I realized at a early age that being nervous didn't help. Anyway, I have to leave in a minute for the competition at Coe College. I might say something about how everything went later, assuming I didn't fail too badly.

A Post To The Stereotypical Teenager

Hi you. Yes, you.That stereotypical teenager slouching in his chair while texting on his phone. Using poor grammar, of course. I would like to talk to you, if possible. I know you have a short attention span and a bad attitude, so I'll try to make this quick. First off, I don't even know if you exist. I don't know anyone exactly like you. A lot of people I know regularly text, several have bad grammar, a few have short attention spans, and even though I don't know any personally with a bad attitude, I'm sure they are out there. I just don't know if anyone has all of them put together anymore. Is the stereotypical teenager simply a thing of the movies now? I sure do hope so.

If you haven't noticed, I'm anything but stereotypical. If anything, I have devoted my life so much to not being stereotypical, I have made my own stereotype. I really dislike stereotypical things. Which means, eventually, I might hate myself for hating myself.

Anyway, back to you. You possibly nonexistent being. I don't like how either you don't look at the future at all, assuming that your decisions now will not effect you when you get older, or you look to the future so much that you totally disconnect with the now.

Wow, I just had a conversation with my imagination. And that wasn't even the worst part of this post. I know Emily will have a hay-day when she comments on this one...

Spinning, and Spinning, and Spinning...

Have you ever tried spinning around? Like, really fast? Fast enough that all the lights around you blur, and even if there are people all around you, you can't see them because they too, are blurs. Fast enough that you are so dizzy you can't even walk a straight line? Fast enough that when you stop you have to move your head in the opposite direction you were spinning, just so that your vision doesn't keep on going around, and around, and around? Have you ever seen little kids twirling around so fast that they almost puke, just to feel what's it like? Why are were older one's somehow denied such a simple pleasure?

Valentine's Day

So today is Valentine's Day. If you know me, then you probably know that Valentine's Day is most likely the holiday that affects me the least. Due to the fact that the Aperture Science Weighted Companion Cube is my main romantic interest, and due to the fact that the Aperture Science Weighted Companion Cube is a inanimate object, it isn't hard to see that romance isn't a big factor in my life.

I considered making a post about how much love is assumed to always be romantic in today's culture. How in reality love is as much for a friend or a family member as for a lover. It's different, of course, but when the word "love" is said, we usually become uncomfortable. As for those who don't become uncomfortable, I think we need to have a long talk.

But then, I decided I really didn't want to make a post about that because it would no doubt make me feel embarrassed, although I really shouldn't be. To be honest, a homeschooling nerd would probably be the least qualified to make a post about love. But, in honor of Valentine's Day (although now that I think about it this of all holidays probably doesn't deserve it), I will keep this post. Please don't be alarmed if I don't come out of my closet for a few months due to my embarrassment.

Purpose of Blog

So I'm re-evaluating what I should use this blog for. Should it be more of my thoughts, opinions, helpful posts, or just more about me? Looking back, a lot of what I wrote was pretty lame. I'm kind of like a armchair quarterback; I know a bad play (or piece of writing) when I see one, but I don't know how to improve. It's mostly my age. I have seen vast improvements of how I was writing a year ago though. One example would be how I recently saw an article in a school's newsletter or something. The student who wrote it, despite being in highschool, didn't know proper punctuation or spelling. But, after criticizing it, I looked at something I had wrote a year ago. Mine wasn't any better, and here I was making fun of someone else for not being able to do something that I couldn't do a year ago! As I got older, if my sister is anything to guide by, I will be able to actually write effectively. But, until then, you will have to settle for how I am right now. It's a learning process, but hopefully at some point I will be able to put things that are clear in my head onto a piece of paper (or in this case, a blog). In the meantime I will be experimenting on what works best on this blog, so please forgive me ahead of time for posts that are pathetic.