life is more about discovery than learning

QUOTE:

"My advice to a high school student interested in science as a career would be to forget all the stuff they tell you in the textbooks about the answers. My advice to a high school sophomore or junior considering a career in science would be to close the science textbook for a minute and forget all the answers that their texts purport to be telling them.

What you should steep yourself in is the ignorance, in what we don't know.

What is fascinating about science is to define the questions.

When we teach science in the high schools we try to teach people all the answers. Well, that's the answers to old dusty questions.

What we should be teaching people is how to ask good new questions. It is a tremendous art to ask good questions. To look at a situation and see that there is something going on and articulate clearly what is it that you want to know about that. To be willing to risk and to explore.

I'm sorry in a way that we don't capture it in the high school textbooks, high school curriculum, because we have to impart knowledge. But in fact it is ignorance that drives us. If we had knowledge about everything there would be no point in going into science.

And so what we have to do is convey our tremendous excitement about our ignorance, the wonderful potential of ignorance, and then we have to teach people how it is that you take raw ignorance and turn it into processed ignorance, and processed ignorance, well-defined ignorance, well-asked questions that we don't know the answer to, that's the root of experiment. It is processed ignorance, carefully constructed ignorance, and apply it to the situations.

I think kids interested in science should look around the world and start asking questions. And don't worry so much about all the facts that are in the books. Ask questions."

- Professor Eric Lander, Professor of 7.012 (Introductory Biology), Director of the Broad Institute, Co-Chair of Obama's President's Council on Science and Technology.

I think the above quote is very relevant to our generation. It's important to remember that exams aren't everything, and that life is truly about discovery rather than learning... not just in science but in all other aspects as well, I think :] anyway good luck to everyone for their exams

study leave

I think I make very good use of my study leave. =P chikorita! paper pokedoll ^^ took me like the whole day, no joke. probably because I used printer paper instead of thicker nicer paper, and my printer is black and white so I had to colour pencil the whole thing. The leaf is gonna fall off >__< oh well not too bad for a first attempt?

Adults are human too

As we grow up, we start to realise that everybody is human, everybody is equal. People who we thought were all-knowing, the teachers, our parents, the adults of the world, seem so much less significant. We understand that they are nothing special anymore, that they are just as uncertain as we are, that there was never any safety net for us to fall onto even though we felt so secure with their decisions before.

When we were younger, their word was law. If a grown up told us that 2+2=5, then it must be true. We never resisted, they knew more than us. We succumbed, because we thought everything they said was correct.

As we grow up, we realise that the world is not painted in black and white. There is no right or wrong. A million shades of grey flash before our confused eyes every day, and nobody knows what to do about it. There are people who try to make sense of it all, to perhaps categorise the greys into darker and lighter, and eventually into black and white. But others, like me, believe that it just can't be done. grey is grey, no matter how you look at it...

But that's a scary thought. Adults aren't all knowing. So where does that leave us? We don't have anything to fall back on anymore. It's up to us to create our own morals, decisions. We can't turn to them to make our decisions for us anymore. They know as much as we do and, in certain cases, perhaps less. It certainly makes me feel extremely insecure in my decision making to know that even my parents aren't sure about what they want for me, about what I should have for myself.

Or sometimes, the flipside occurs and they make decisions for you that you don't want. You know that they've made a mistake, a common human error, since they're as human as you are... but they are adults. We are merely teenagers; they still hold power over us in this world. What then?

I always thought that my parents were pretty perfect. I always thought they had the perfect morals, their word was law, everything in the world was exactly as they said. But lately I think I'm realising that they are human too, and the corruptions of humanity affects them as well. ...Adults are no saints. Lately I realised just how much some of my parents ideals and morals go against my own. But what can I do? I'm just a kid in their eyes.

I won't complain about them. Whenever I do, people agree with me and I get pissed off because I think, what right do you have to critisize my parents? But then again I brought it upon myself I suppose. It seems like a lot of parents are this way though. Humans eh? I still love my parents. But that's why it bothers me so much... something that I can't control. Aaah I feel so useless.

It's a paradox, they want me to do something, but for all the wrong reasons... so do I do it? I want to do it too, but for myself, not for them. I don't want to do it so they can fulfill their reasons for wanting me to do it... but why would I sacrifice myself for them? Yet, if I do succeed, I'll be happy but at the same time it's cancelled out because they won as well. ...Looks like it's always gonna be lose-lose for us kids.

I guess we just have to wait our turn.

yujie made me.

THREE WAYS I AM STILL A KID:
1. I play pokemon (yeah play as in present tense)
2. I love lego :D
3. I still watch cartoons and animated pixar disney films.

THREE WAYS I AM ALREADY OLD:
1. I'm 16. Old enough.
2. EXAMS IN 14 DAYS
3. I'm old enough to not be able to get childs fares and kids packs when I go on flights ):

THREE THINGS I WANT TO DO:
1. Be young forever (I think 17 or 18 seems like an optimal age) and be IMMORTAL HAHAHAHA.
2. Make pancakes
3. GO TO MIT. omg.

THREE WAYS THAT I'M A STEREOTYPICAL "BOY"
1. My room is so messy that my parents refer to me as a boy =_=
2. I know the lyrics to taylor swift songs. Yes, this is in the right section
3. I like having short hair.

THREE WAYS THAT I'M A STEREOTYPICAL "GIRL"
1. I have two X alleles
2. I like pretty things and cute things (:
3. Taylor Lautner is hot.

THREE NEW THINGS YOU WANT TO TRY IN THE NEXT 12 MONTHS
1. Driving by myself >> maybe if I get my restricted...
2. Calc schol. Yes I am going to die.
3. STUDYING :D

THREE THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. I suck so much at certain things that it's actually entertaining to other people to see my fail. Whatever makes your day (:
2. I'm not stupid. Sometimes.
3. I am extremely, extremely lucky. Well I think so. (:

THREE THINGS YOU DISLIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. I tend to be arrogant haha
2. I'm stupid. A lot of the time.
3. I don't work hard enough ><

THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE:
1. Born in GZ, like 234092843 other people
2. came to NZ when I was 3
3. - ...i have a boring heritage

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:
1. Being alone
2. Dying
3. Solar powered lamps at night

THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:
1. Food and water
2. Oxygen
3. Clothing

THREE THINGS YOU JUST CAN'T DO:
1. Lick my elbow
2. Read people's minds
3. Like fruits

THREE CAREERS YOU'RE CONSIDERING:
1. Science/engineering
2. Architecture
3. Assassin/ninja

TEN things you wish you could say to ten people right now: (no specific order)
this section got deleted when my post failed and i cbs doing it again

EIGHT ways to win my heart
1. Understand
2. Accept things as they are
3. Be honest
4. Make me laugh
5. Teach me things
6. Intelligence
7. Being goodlooking and tall never hurt anyone
8. Or rich... -gold digger-

ELEVEN people who mean a lot to you (In no order):
1. Family
2. Mollies
3. Friends who are not mollies
4. People I have heard of
5. Strangers I see on the street
7. Everybody else in the world
8. Aliens
9. Extra-universal aliens
10. The creator of the universe
11. Max and mariel. (they made me)

FIVE things that cross your mind a lot
1. That ____ is _____
2. I'm bored. what should I be doing...
3. When's lunch
4. I'm tired
5. I wonder ______ (insert random thought here. I solved the mule cloning thing btw.)

FOUR things you do before you fall asleep:
1. Charge my phone
2. Turn off the lights
3. Take off my glasses
4. Mental check list of everything that I need to do the next day when I wake up.

THREE songs that mean something to you:
1. I'm yours, Jason Mraz
2. Light Surrounding You, Evermore
3. Bai se feng che, Jay Chou

TWO confessions:
1. I am actually a man.
2. That was a lie.

ONE thing you're thinking about right now:
1. What did Mr. Chemistry just say? (totally studying atm)

Do you have a busy weekend coming up?
studystudystudystudy...

Does it make you mad when people stare?
Nope. A bit unnerving though.

How did you get your last bruise?
I walked into an iron bar

What are you doing Thursday?:
Going to school and then I have a dentist's appointment (:

Who is your last text message from?:
Billy

Do you feel awkward when strangers say hi to you?
Nah it's alllg (: I say hi back. maybe we can be friends.

What do you find most beautiful?
Life is beautiful, if you appreciate it.