You're Weird by Ashley Lasko

I’ve always loved irony, especially situational irony. Whenever something ironic happens I'm always at least smiling, if not struggling to stand in the midst of a fit of laughter. One thing that I always thought was so ironic, and puzzling, was the concept of something being weird.

Something is unusual or different is often considered weird. Wearing polka-dots with stripes or socks with sandals in considered weird. Having ketchup on something other than fries or acting a certain way can also give you the title. However, if something unusual is weird wouldn’t being completely normally be as weird as you can get? If someone had nothing to define them, they were as plain and normal as someone could be, they would be weird. They would have no personality or something to make them different. By this logic, being weird in some way makes you normal. So what makes everyone different, makes them weird, in the same way makes them normal. Ironically enough, the idea that to be normal you have to be weird and to be weird you have to be normal is weird itself.

Another thing that makes this even weirder is that for something to be weird, something has to be normal. Socks and sandal are only a weird combination since no socks and sandals are considered normal. Certain genres of music are considered weird since Pop is considered normal. What this basically means is that something weird is an opinion. The majority agrees what is normal and what isn’t, causing things to be normal or weird. However, if whether something is weird or not is an opinion and not a fact, than nothing can actual be weird, since what is weird depends on each individual. Saying something is weird is as accurate as me listing the best desserts. It’s biased.

This makes things even more convoluted, since that means that the totally normal person that seems weird may actually be weird to someone else, which would make them normal to that person. However, this does not make them weird since weirdness is a matter of opinion and no matter how many people view them as weird s/he cannot be weird on a factual level. This then brings into to question of possessing characteristics altogether. Can someone actually be funny, cute, smart, or weird if they only are because the opinions of others say so? Is this the wrong way to look at characteristics, should we be looking at it from the perspective of time, which a human creation that does not exist? Is this at least slightly over exaggerated and something we probably should not invest much time into?

I don’t have the answers to the first two questions (and arguably the third is asking for an opinion, and opinions can arguably never be fact so I can technically never have to correct answer for the third question) but in regards to the third question, going any further into this would spend some time you could definitely put elsewhere.

As my final blog, I wanted to do something a little different. Admittedly, this is still along the basis of trying to introduce a perspective on a topic and expand on it; however I obviously changed things around. Instead of focusing on issues or something impactful, I decided to look at something simple and twist into something far more complex. Unnecessary? Yes. Confusing? I did have to read my blog a few time to actually understand what I was saying. Was it different and eye-opening? I hope so.

Thank you all for reading my last blog and, to students, good luck on finals this year and years to come. I may seem like we have some breathing room until June, however as students we all know that what really spans a few weeks of the calendar passes in a matter of seconds.

A Poem About Snow by Madison Levinson

As I was deciding what to post for my blog post I had a realization. I have never written anything creative and meaningful. My only blog posts are wildly sarcastic, opinionated, and full of rants. So I made the decision to write a hopefully wonderfully delightful poem. Considering I am sitting in bed on a snow day writing this it seems fitting to make the poem about snow. So here I go...look I'm a poet and I didn't even know it! (Sorry, I'll stop now). 

Actual picture of my backyard

Fragile and white.
Tears from Angels that fall in the night.
Dancing and twirling to the ground.
Landing on rooftops without a single sound.
Crisp and cool.
A prime suspect in the possible cancellation of school.
Small white ballerinas falling to the floor.
Building and building until I can't open my door.
Snowmen and sled tracks litter the street.
Without hot cocoa this day would not be complete.
Hearing the sound of the children playing.
Maybe there will be no school I wind up praying.
Repeatedly checking the Woroworld Blog.
Just wanting to spend the next day in bed eating like a hog.
Watching the accumulation on Weather.com climb.
Oh, a relaxing day at home, what a wonderful time.
Warmed by the fire, watching the flakes fall.
Waiting anxiously by the phone for the school to call.
That wonderful "All Sparta Schools will be closed tomorrow"
And in no students heart was there an ounce of sorrow.

A Modern Frankenstein by Madison Levinson

The infamous novel Frankenstein was published by Mary Shelley in 1818. It is now 2017, but 199 years later this novel is still so relevant. Why? Mary Shelley, as an author in 1818, was able to create a stunning masterpiece that touches upon medical and technological innovations, innovations currently happening as you read this. Yet, I can't help but wonder how the story of Frankenstein would have changed dramatically if Frankenstein and his monster were alive today. In this post, I will attempt to recreate the scene of Frankenstein's monster's entrance back into the human world.

"Classic" Frankenstein 

It was a dark and stormy night (cliche, I know, but just keep reading). Thunder and lightning rattled the frame of the lab. If this were an old-time horror movie there would be trees shaking and scraping the windows and probably some really bad graphics. The lab was crisp white except for the thing that lay on the table. That horrid, wretched monster. I mean, who even likes hairless cats? Why was it even in the lab? Oh, there was also multiple corpses sewn together to make one corpse which was also pretty terrifying. Victoria Frankenstein (yes, he's a girl now) sat on her swivel chair at her mac book, which was sitting atop her minimalist glass desk. A small ping erupted and Victoria glanced at her Apple Watch. Her round, green, go button app had finally downloaded (the storm was slowing down the WiFi). She let her finger hit the button.

An electric zap sounded but it was unclear as to whether it was the lightning or the monster's reanimation process. Initially, nothing happened. But as Victoria moved closer she could see small twitches and spasms in the being's musculature. The body seemed to regain color and life before her eyes as the ligaments received oxygenated blood. It was so quiet Victoria swore she could hear the soft beat of a weak heart, whether it was her's or the monster's she was unsure. The monster's eyes popped open with such intensity, Victoria screamed and stared, one eye blue and one eye green. Horrifyingly gorgeous.

Franny Moe 

Once she had looked past the monster's unique feature she noticed the pure grotesqueness of her creation. Nothing was proportional or coherent. Terror flowed over Victoria. The giver of life questioned what she had done and debated abandoning the monster, until brilliance struck.

Her Apple Watch notified her that Kim Kardashain had just posted a photo to Instagram. Of Course! Kim Kardashian! The Queen of Contour! Victoria grabbed her makeup bag and with a couple sweeps of a brush she transformed the monster.

The monster had defined cheekbones, her eyebrows were on fleek, and her smoky eye was fire (no pun intended). Victoria named her new wing-woman Franny Moe. The pair watched The Notebook until the storm passed and then cried each other to sleep. There was no murder or resentment between Vicky and her monster, only a lot of feels and sleepovers.