Google Translate is Life

If you have not discovered it yet, Google translate is pretty much the best thing ever. You can do so many things with it that are either productive or just plain amusing such as:

Sound smart by speaking in a different language. Impress your friends by simply translating a word or phrase into some other language and slipping it into everyday conversation. When your co-conversationers ask what in the world you just said, casually explain that it means this in this language. You'll sound smart and well-educated.

Be grammatically correct. If you've got a project due in French, Spanish or Elvish, no sweat, Google translate is actually pretty smart. I'm not saying it will, without fail, be exactly and utterly perfect every single time you use it but it sure is helpful by giving you different suggestions and all that. (Something to note is that I'm very sure that they don't offer translations for the Elf language yet. Or that it's taught in school. But you never know so I just kind of threw that in there.)

Play the Translating Game. If you have never tried this out, you don't know what you're missing. Basically, what you do is translate a word or sentence into a random other language, then translate whatever you got from that into another language and so on and so forth. By the time you go back to English, it will be completely different and quite hilarious.
For example, I translated "I have two cats, named Oreo and Gingersnap, who like to chase balls of fluff around the house and are super crazy" to Japanese, got a whole bunch of Japanese characters and, when I translated it back to English, I got "My name is super crazy like a ball of fluff to chase around the house and Gingersnap Oreos have two cats." Crazy, right?You can do even more languages to mess it up even more.

Sometimes you stumble on something so random like when I translated "fox" into Polish, got "lis", translated that back into English and got "November".
This is great to do when you're bored. Kills time instantly.

Make the voice that reads it out speak to people. This really creeps people out when you turn up the volume really loud and make the voice say something random. They don't know where it's coming from and it isn't a voice they recognize. It's really funny to watch their reactions! The only downside is that there is a limit to the amount of words you can make it say. But you can just feed the voice short sentences and then the sky's the limit!

The above reasons are why I think all you need to live a fulfilling life is Google translate.

Outpost Review

cover could've been better.

I don't know why this series isn't as popular as all the other dystopian books like The Hunger Games or Divergent! It is pretty original and really pulls you in. It's also not as fat (meaning around 350 pages) as the previously mentioned books so it's a nice read for people who don't like too many pages.

INFO
Title: Outpost
Author: Ann Aguirre
Previous Book in Series: Enclave
Goodreads Summary:

Deuce’s whole world has changed. Down below, she was considered an adult. Now, topside in a town called Salvation, she’s a brat in need of training in the eyes of the townsfolk. She doesn’t fit in with the other girls: Deuce only knows how to fight.
To make matters worse, her Hunter partner, Fade, keeps Deuce at a distance. Her feelings for Fade haven’t changed, but he seems not to want her around anymore. Confused and lonely, she starts looking for a way out.
Deuce signs up to serve in the summer patrols—those who make sure the planters can work the fields without danger. It should be routine, but things have been changing on the surface, just as they did below ground. The Freaks have grown smarter. They’re watching. Waiting. Planning. The monsters don’t intend to let Salvation survive, and it may take a girl like Deuce to turn back the tide.

I really, really enjoyed this book. It was never slow, you got all the intenseness from the beginning and it kept you hooked until the end. Where it obviously leaves you with a minor cliffhanger.

Regarding the plot, I was a little sad for Deuce and Fade and everyone that things weren't calm for a long while before the storyline got more interesting but what kind of book would that have been.

Regarding the characters, I just love Deuce so much. I am her, pretty much. Minus the lack of knowledge surrounding normal human things and the fighting ability. But her determination to prove herself capable of anything a guy can do and to not be seen as weak is an attribute I have as well. I hate talking about feelings and things like that and don't do it often if I can help it.

Regarding the love triangle, I am kind of glad it is less of a thing than it could be. Deuce makes her choice and though she doubts herself, she's not one of those wishy-washy girls that can't decide between these two boys that normally she doesn't even deserve. (Except Deuce does deserve amazing guys.)

Regarding the fact that it is a second book and doesn't suck, I am pleasantly surprised! Even Insurgent didn't really meet my expectations and succumbed itself to second book syndrome but Outpost steered pretty clear of it! At the beginning, Deuce and Fade were a little distant and that was kind of annoying since authors tend to make the love interest not hang out as much because of some HUGE misunderstanding but they resolved their differences soon enough that I wasn't too put off. And the book did have some content as well, it wasn't just a huge lead-up to the third and final book; actual things happened. So I am pleased.

I really recommend this series! It deserves all the recognition of all the hot and popular books of the moment. And do tell me if you were ahead of the game and already know about this book or even if I have introduced you to something that you love/hate!

Instead of "Good" #7

Totally not endorsing this, just sticking to my rule

Splendid.



















Why? http://thecontentsofmy-brain.blogspot.ca/2012/10/instead-of-good.html

My Lingo

Also Known As: Things I Say A Lot That The Average Person Doesn't.

^Do you know how annoying it is to capitalize everything? Never doing that again.

"Cool beans."

"This is true."

"*insert random adjective here* and a half."
ex) "That was massive and a half!

"Dood." as opposed to dude. They're different, trust me.

"Oh snap!"
which has turned into
"Snap, crackle, pop!"

"Sweet."

"Calm your muffins."

"Stop the car!"

"Awesomesauce."

Fonts

I love fonts. Whenever I have a project for school, I always obsess about the fonts I'm going to use and any layout details in general.

So, at this moment, I have decided that I don't like the font I've been using so far. This post is pretty much going to be me figuring out which one of the severely limited selection offered I like the most and will be using from here into the unforeseeable future.

Arial:
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Courier:
The quick brown fox jumps over that lazy dog.
Georgia:
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Helvetica:
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Times:
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Trebuchet:
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Verdana:
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

Well this is an easy choice. I really don't like the sans serif fonts very much. They look like they're missing something. And Times is a little too small so Georgia it is! Get really for a whole new level of fonts!

Isn't this clever?

Instead of "Good"

Oh snap, I have just thought of a weekly thing that you can look forwards to and will greatly improve your life.

So every week, I will make a short post that provides you with an alternative word to "good" because "good" is just too boring and non-descriptive sometimes. Along with the first picture Google images gives me when I google the word. This should make it interesting...

And the awesome part is the as time goes by, I will definitely run low on quality suggestions so they'll get ridiculous. This will continue until the end of time.

Today's word is: Spectacular 

Why I Love the Library

Ok, seriously. About half my posts are book-related. THIS ISN'T ALL I DO. I swear there are other things that I enjoy and that are going on my life. For realz.

But I want to enumerate some reason why I love the library.

1. Free books. Have you ever heard a better pair of words? (Probably. Like, "no cancer" or "bellybutton lint") If I were to buy every single book I've ever read, I would either not read very often due to brokeness or not care that I was broke and buy them anyways and be in debt to a loan shark and they'd steal my house and I'd cry. Either situation is unpleasant so YAY for libraries. There's no limit to how many books I can take out, there's no continuous or start-up fee, it's amazing! The sole purpose of a library is to give everyone a chance to readas much as possible. It's sweet.
2. Pretty layouts. If you think about it, libraries are pretty much art-holding-buildings. They are where carefully crafted volumes of words are kept so it makes sense that the actual place is artsy too. Every library I've been to has had it's own unique flair that makes it just gorgeous to be standing in. I don't mean old-fashioned, beautiful stone structures or whatever, although those are great, I mean lots of colours, cozy nooks, tons of posters and just an openness to having people being there. It's pretty awesome.
3. Nice people. This is a stereotype, but it's a nice one so shh. It seems to me that libraries are only filled with nice people. Moms with their little kids zigzagging through the shelves, scholarly men who are looking for something to relax to, teenagers that aren't partying and upsetting the balance of the universe with their reckless and atrocious behaviour. Cause reading is for everyone but those that really enjoy it are the quiet nicer type, in my opinion, and the library is where we all flock. The only place you can find a nicer group of people is at a blood bank.

These are the biggies that come together to create all the small perks of libraries like studying with your friend or finding your next favourite book because it was recommended by the person browsing beside you. It's just so nice to have libraries.

Capitalizing Titles

I have a problem.

And that problem is that I am really bad at knowing which words are important enough to capitalize in a title and which ones you leave alone. Like, I actually stress about it when writing titles in anything and feel like everyone knows how to do it really easily and all judge me when I do it wrong.

The trick is to not capitalize the ones that wouldn't be missed if you removed them but I just overthink it all and nothing gets done.

Yup.

I Need This Answered

Does the "nes" part count
as one of the syllables
in Wednesday's haiku?

My Emotion is I-Want-To-Punch-You-In-The-Face

Not you specifically, I barely know you. Although that could be remedied if anyone COMMENTED.

Anyway. Completely off topic there.

My friend just lent me her copy that I gave to her for her birthday of The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. (No, I totally did not premeditate that by buying her a copy I could forgo the massive line waiting for me if I ordered it from the library.) And I have been reading it whenever I could all of today. Secretly during chem class, all of my spare and while my sister was hogging the computer.

Now let's zone in on when I was reading it during my spare. I was sitting with the very same friend who will be known in this post as The Owner of the Book and a friend from Data class who will be known as The Spoiler. The Owner is raving about the book as I'm reading it, starting and stopping in the middle of her sentences as she tries to convey the awesomeness of the book while not actually telling me any details. The Spoiler knows nothing of the book but steals it from me and reads the blurb in the front jacket flap. (Side note, isn't it cute how they're called jackets? Like the book is getting all dressed up? Or is it just me? Thought so.) He then proceeds to GUESS THE PLOT TWIST and say it out loud. Now, let's just say that my dear, dear Owner of the Book friend would be terrible at poker as she just does not own a poker face. Maybe it got lost in the mail. Maybe she was given faulty information of when and where we were to obtain them. Who knows. But she completely gives it away that that indeed is the plot twist that left her bawling alone on her couch.
That's when I declared my emotion to be I-Want-To-Punch-You-In-The-Face.

I have tried to push what he said to the back of my mind and carry on enjoying the book play by play but it was incredibly annoying to have it spoiled like that.

Sorry for any vagueness about what the actual plot twist is but I felt like this is the kind of thing you should not pay forward so for anyone who hasn't read the book, I won't spoil what it is for you.

I might possibly do a book review for it (without spoilers, calm your muffins) when I'm finished but I'll have you know I kind of suck at reviewing books. But then again, not being able to sing doesn't stop people who can't sing from singing.

Shout out to John Green for being awesome and writing The Fault in Our Stars.

DFTBA

Tangent Count: 2