The Scriptures of the Perpetual Muffility

I'm in a bad mood right now because

A) I have a cold, in FRIGGIN' JULY
B) Smith is complaining that my health form is inadequate. Firstly, I didn't fill out the date for my medical exam [which can be easily dealt with]. Secondly, my hemoglobin test is not recent enough. WTF??? Like they care??? Technically this is inaccurate because I did a freaking test [and passed] when I donated blood several months ago. GRRR.
C) Smith, in another act of incompetence, decided not to send out the housing notices until like the 30th [instead of the 15th]. So boo!
d) I'm still emotionally petrified from the 4.2 earthquake two nights ago.
e) I'm worried that the olive oil burns I received are going to become permanent scars.


Whatever. Bye.

Tribute of the day: cold medicine.

High School is over. Wow. It went by so quickly.

Senior retreat was an awkward experience for me. People kept getting up and talking about how high school was "the best 4 years of my life" or how much they've "changed for the better by being more confident." I'm glad a lot of people feel that way. Sadly, I can't really say the same for myself. I don't really think I've changed that much (please correct me if I'm wrong) personality-wise. However, I don't really think I'm as happy or confident as I used to be.

Honestly, there is so much I do NOT like about CPS. I hate getting up so early. I hate assembly. I hate the rap-only dances (senior prom was the worst). I hate [a] certain person[s] (not many, but perhaps one or two), and how he/she/they harm my social life. I hate the fact that there are so many people who are so much smarter and more accomplished than I am who are going to higher ranked schools. I hate the fact that there's really no one thing that I'm truly passionate about. I hate the loss of innocence. I hate the structure of the curriculum. I hate the crappy packaged soup lunches I have to eat.

Then again, I had similar feelings when I was in Middle School. By the end of 8th grade, I HATED Bentley. I hated being stuck in the same place for 9 years. I hated being stuck inside in the rain because we were too "delicate" to go outside. I hated running laps in PE class. I hated the worthlessness of lots of the stuff we had to learn. Also, part of my desire to leave stemmed from the fact that I knew the school was going down hill. Discipline was out of control in our class. The administration led by the corrupt headmaster and Ms. Mockingbird sucked ass. English class was a joke; our "assignments" included writing letters to the U.N. about child labor and a paper about why we've never had a female president. The school got so overcrowded that there was talking about moving part of it to the High School in Lafayette.

However, as a [almost] high school grad, I'm doing the unthinkable: I miss Bentley. I miss the Middle School dances where they played music that was NOT rap, and everyone (including the faculty in the cases of some of the Bat Mitzvah dances) would hit the floor and have a great time. I miss the youthful innocence, where simply taking an Alka-Seltzer was considered a hazard. I miss the sense of community I felt with my class and the feeling of somehow "knowing" everyone. I miss many of my teachers, like Schug and L. I miss being able to play with younger students after school on Fridays. I miss the elective art classes I concluded my day with. I don't mean to sound like an ass, but I miss feeling like I was genuinely smarter than most of my peers. Oh, and don't even get me started on lower school --- there are so so so many things I miss about that.

Maybe the same thing will be true of CPS. I may hate it now and want to leave with a fiery vengeance. However, soon I'll miss the security of being told what classes I have to take. I'll miss waiting for my dad to pick me up after school. I'll miss Max's humorous announcements. I'll miss the never freezing weather. I'll miss CPSnet. I'll miss college research. Most of all, I'll miss my friends. I don't want to name all of you guys, as you probably know who you are. However, my friends are what made my life in high school so much better.

College is going to be so much different I can't believe it. I'm going to be living in a dorm with about 50 or so females my age, probably with a roommate. That's a huge leap from living in a fairly isolated house with my parents and sometimes my (way) older brother. Ok, just living with other young FEMALES is strange, as I do not have a sister. I also realized another thing --- I'm hardly ever going to ride in a car. I may take a bus every week or so, like to see Michelle at Amherst or other friends elsewhere. Other than that, it's just walking.

Alright, I think that's enough emotional release for now.

Tribute of the Day: ALL MY FRIENDS BECAUSE YOU GUYS ARE SO AWSOME!!

At first I wrote a long entry detailing my experiences today, but then I decided not to post it. Instead, I’ll put it much simpler and more poetic:
I learned a lot today.
I learned what it’s like to try to do math problems with a punctured arm, only to find the urge to burry your face in that same punctured arm on your desk.
I learned about how embarrassing it is to tell the teacher that you feel unwell in the middle of someone’s project.
I learned what it’s like to actually black out for a period of time unknown to you.
I learned what it’s like to actually have a difficult time trying to scramble yourself onto the ground with a half-conscious mind.
I learned what it’s like to find yourself lying on the floor of a class room, staring up at a dozen worried faces.
I learned what it’s like to be responsible for canceling half a math class when someone else was supposed to do his presentation.
I learned what it feels like when your friend tells you that you almost looked green a few minutes ago.
I learned what it’s like to have a half dozen people, including 3 school faculty members, try to force you to consume water and juice.
I learned that nurses deliberately try to converse with you just so that you don’t fall asleep.
I learned how fast rumors spread at this school.
I learned about the consequences of a 5 foot 8, 112 pound girl donating blood.

Tribute of the day: All the people who helped me with my medical crisis.

PS: When the Red Cross says that it only takes one period to donate, that's a LIE.

Random comment: Judging is fine. I don't understand what's wrong with judging people. Everyone does it. I hate this phrase "OMG you're being too judgemental!" Calling someone judgemental is judgemental in its own right. It's like accusing someone else of being a McCartheist --- puuuullleeese!

So what was the point to that random comment??? PEOPLE MAKE ME SO ANGRY, EVEN IF I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THEM!!!!

On another note, I want to conduct and experiment about my weight. I want to know why I'm underweight (5'8" and 112 pounds), despite eating lots of sugary goodness [donuts for breakfast!!!] and a sedentary lifestyle [now that I think of it, the last time I ran the mile I got the worst time in the class]. However, I don't know what to do. Eat a bigger breakfast? Lift weights? Whatever the case, I probably won't have the willpower to do it anyway. What worries me is the fact that I used to be 10 pounds heavier and a few inches shorter. I have no idea what changed that. I don't want to be sick with some obscure digestive problem or anything. Then again, i don't really care. Any ideas?

Haha and then there's my sleeping problems. I had a conversation with my doctor about it last year. She said that regular exercize makes sleeping easier...like it prevents nightmares or something. She's like "how about you jog for 20 minutes a day?" And I'm like "I can barely run for 10 minutes without wanting to puke!" So instead I did like a walk around my house every day (which involved uphill). Guess what? It didn't work!!!! It didn't do anything but make me sweaty and tired (tired in a bad way...it didn't make getting up in the morning any easier cuz my sleep was still bad), so I quit. I still don't know what wrong with me.

BTW I'm going to Smith. I should have just done early descision. Grrrrrr.

Ver is probably going to Uc Berkeley, which is annoying, because then we can't be close. Anyway, perhaps it will provide me with an incentive to make new friends. Plus, she seemed really pumped about berkeley, and she should go were she'll be happy.

I REALLY DON'T WANT TO GET UP TOMORROW MORNING!!!! I DON'T WANT TO TAKE A SHOWER OR BRUSH MY TEETH OR DO MY ENGLISH READING.

TRIBUTE OF THE DAY: "The Wind that Shakes the Barley" is a really good movie. I highly recommend it.

[end of a very random and incoherant entry]

Liberals, forget the NRA; fight AIPAC:

"For decades AIPAC has operated in the shadows of American foreign policy decision-making, exerting its influence on elected officials away from the public scrutiny of the very constituents who elected those officials to begin with.  It is impossible to hold someone accountable for actions that are kept secret, and as such AIPAC’s ability to secretly influence American foreign and national security policies represents a flagrant insult and threat to the very essence of American democracy.  I am not advocating the dissolution of AIPAC.  However, I am demanding that AIPAC be treated as any other representative of a foreign nation is treated. It should have to register as an agent of a foreign power so that the totality of its interactions with American officials can become a part of the public record.  We require this of all other nations, including our good friends the British. " --- Scott Ritter


"'AIPAC!' was the forceful one-word answer of Congressman Michael Capuano when we asked him, 'Why was the Iran clause forbidding war on Iran without Congressional approval taken out of the recent supplemental for the Iraq war funding?'" --- John Walsh

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On an entirely different note, the debate on the forum remark continued today. During assembly, the same kid who asked the forum question went up and attempted to defend/clarify his position. He rambled on about lots of different things, so I don't really know if he had a main point. He seemed to object to people who blindly believe things about religion, politics, etc. because other people say so without question themselves. For instance, he asked why people in the USA want to overthrow Chavez and Castro when they are helping the poor. What I finding amusing is that, since he's just a teen, I shouldn't really believe anything he's saying, according to his logic. Secondly, by praising Chavez and Castro, he's still being brainwashed; this time it's just by liberals, not by Bush. He also pulled the whole "you shouldn't complain because you have so much to be thankful for"  phrase to put everyone at the school to shame.

At the beginning of AP Bio, Tony, Izzi, Emily H., Hywote , Veronica, and I discussed this darn debate. I frankly think that it was very rude of him to ask the question at the forum and that it was a waste of other people's time to bring it up at assembly. Maybe he should have posted something about it on "Items of Interest." Whatever.

Tribute of the Day: Scott Ritter, just because he may very well prevent World War III. Who knows?

- I got into Berkeley (a semester late) and Whitman (a semester late). Huh.

- I went to a Seder at Izzi's house last Monday with Avril, Evan C., and Erik. It was actually fun/interesting. I have to do a report for World Religions on a religious ceremony, so I took notes during the seder for it. We then had dinner and spent the rest of the time gossiping. hehe.

- I took a film noir class for interterm. We saw:
1) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: A silent German film. It was ok.
2) The Maltese Falcon: too confusing to be interesting.
3) Double Indemnity: Really good.
4) Sunset Boulevard: Also really good.
5) Woman in the Window: probably my favorite because we saw it in the Palo Alto theater.
6) Brick: a neo-noir film. Recent. Complicated.
7) Touch of evil: not a very good movie.
8) LA Confidential: pretty good, but too complicated.

- My Birthday was thursaday. I got a lot of cake, because both Michelle H. and my family got one. They were both really good.

-Ver and I then went to the Uc Berkeley library before seeing "Volver." It was a good movie. Penelope Cruz's lip-synching was embarrasingly bad, however. It had surprises in it, which was good.

-Today I went to visit Uc Davis with my dad. I doubt I'll end up going there, but I was fairly impressed. Number one school in the nation for vet-medicine --- haha.

- tomorrow I'm leaving for Smith and Bryn Mawr. It's supposed to be like freezing in New England. Grrr. Oh well. It'll be...realistic.

interterm is next week. I'm doing a film noir-related class. My birthday is on thursday, but I don't really have anything planned. After that is Spring Break, in which I'm doing a college visit trip. I'm actually excited about that. Saturday after interterm I'm going to UC Davis' admitted students day, just to see what UC life is like. The next day we're flying into Phily to see Bryn Mawr, then going to New Haven (mom has a meeting at Yale), then going to Northamtpon to overnight at Smith. We also hope to visit New York and possible see my aunt and co. there.

I got into Reed the other day. I found out by email. I got rejected from Pomona. Duh. That leaves Whitman (no idea if I'll get in) and Berkeley (probably won't get in).

People found out about Cal/ucla admissions yesterday. It seems totally random who got in. I don't know if I did. I don't really care enough because I doubt I'll go anyway.

The other day we went out to SF for dinner with my mom's Israeli friend.

That brings me to a political topic: I officially OPPOSE the two state solution to Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I'm attempting to write an article about it, but I'm being lazy.

Tribute of the day: nasal spray, even though I'm addicted to it.

Ok, so the good news is I finally got my Smith acceptance packet mailed. It's juicy, it's shiney, it's special. The bad news is that I was rejected from Haverford. Not waitlisted, as I suspected, but rejected. Half of me is really bummed about this, because it was my 1st choice coed school. It's also the first rejection letter I've gotten in my life (I've only been put on waitlists before). The other half of me is relieved that I don't have yet another choice to drive me crazy about (the Smith vs. Bryn Mawr thing is burning me out already). This also means that I won't do an overnight, giving me more time to hang out in New York. So, really, I guess it's not such a bad thing.

LAC-wise, this leaves Reed and Whitman, both of which I think I have a strong shot at, and Pomona. Pomona seems pretty much hopeless at this point. It's one of the most, if not the most, selective liberal arts college in the country. If I didn't get accepted to Carleton or Haverford (which I interviewed for), I doubt I'll get into Pomona (which I didn't interview for). It's ok, because if I really wanted to attend a Claremont, I'd be fine at Scripps.

There's also UC Berkeley, which I almost certainly will NOT attend, even if I do get in. Good luck, Mr. Kelp, and all those who genuinely care about getting into UCB.

On another note, we saw Hyenas today for Bio class. They're kept near the Lawrence Hall of Science, which is close to my house. Perhaps if one of them escaped, it would find its way to my backyard. Creepy!

Tribute of the day: colleges, because they're actually sorta awesome to research and talk about.

I'm in a mixed mood right now. For some strange reason, I couldn't sleep last night (and when I finally did get to sleep I had this weird dream about my backyard being accross between a WWI battle scene and Egypt). I felt a little sick-ish as a result of the little sleep/caffine combo, so I couldn't finish my lunch. Yet, I'm happy because I don't have a whole lot to do this week and interterm/spring break are after that! I'm also so excited about colleges.

I got into Scripps today, which is good. I sent in a part of my application late (my graded writing sample), so I'm glad they forgave me. I got waitlisted at Carleton, my first non-acceptance. I figured it wasn't good due to the thin envelope. Oh well. I'm still happy with my options. Based on that, I'm predicting a waitlist from Haverford and a rejection from Pomona. Haverford is about the same selectivity wise. Pomona is a bit more selective, plus I didn't interview there (I'm an idiot and waited too long to request one, and then I was even more of an idiot and didn't bother to go on the interview "wait list" to even show interest). I wish everone else luck with their college acceptances!!

I changed my icon. On that note, I've decided that I generally hate female child actresses. They're all cute and smily and friendly and all, like Shirley Temple or Liz Taylor when she was little. They're also REALLY annoying and shallow. Now that I think of it, it's mostly a probably with the roles than with the actresses. I think there were two all time great female child roles: Christian Ricci as Wednesday Addams in "The Addams Family Values," and Ivana Baquero as Ofelia in "Pan's Labyrinth." They actually managed to show some realy character without putting on some bratty little smile or doing a tapdance. Hence the icon.

Weird factoid: both me and Mr. Kelp were recently reading about Palestinian airplane hijacker Leila Khalid. Creepy. Chickens and kelp have a lot in common, no?

I haven't updated this journal in like a month. I should really keep it up!!!

Anyway, college acceptances are slowly but surely trickling in. The first two places I got into were The University of Puget Sound and UC Davis (both with scholarships). Then I got into Lewis and Clark and UCSC. Friday, I got into Smith and Bryn Mawr. Saturday I got into UCSD Earl Warren College.

Puget Sound and Lewis and Clark are pretty much off my list, as far as I'm concerned. If money ends up being an issue, I'd just go to UC Davis. Otherwise, Smith and Bryn Mawr are probably better LACs, and I know I got into them. UCSC is also off my list. UCD is just as good, if not better, plus they gave me the scholarship (UCSC is practically broke). Right now, of all the places I've been accepted to, Smith has an edge over Bryn Mawr still. I could be convinced otherwise. I'm supposed to do an overnight at both these schools (plus Haverford, if I get in) the week of Spring break. I'm actually totally looking foward to the trip. We may see my aunt and her family in New York (which is in between Smith and Haverford/Bryn Mawr).

I've been wondering a lot about the all-women's thing. People who went to an all girls middle school talk about how catty it was. It doesn't surprise me really. I asked about this on the all women's college livejournal community, and they seemed to think that an all women's college and an all-girl's middle school aren't really comparable. One person, who goes to Bryn Mawr, said that she hated all-girls middle school but loves her all-women's college. It makes sense --- all women's colleges are self-selective, unlike girls middle schools (where the parents make the decisions). A bunch of random girls put together doesn't work well; a bunch of self-selected females at a more mature age may be better. Hmm. I liked the people I talked to at Bryn Mawr, Smith, and Scripps, so I doubt it's gonna be a big deal. Additionally, the Bryn Mawr person said that people at Haverford are more party-ish where Bryn Mawr people are more watch movies/ see a play-ish. I think I'd like that about Bryn Mawr. She also indicated that, if anything, haverford is more catty than Bryn Mawr. Someone else agreed --- I'll keep that in mind.

This probably sounds annoying of me, but I want to know more about where other people from school got accepted to.

Last Friday I had Indian food with Mr. Kelp. It was good. Then we talked on top of a building. She indicated that she might visit people in college via train accross the country, which would be cool.

I think if a good number of us get bunched up in the New England area, that would be awsome!

Tribute of the day: college acceptances!!

It was a three day weekend. I did not do much. However, I did see two good movies. At home, we watched "Flags of our Fathers," which was a very good movie. The last 10 minutes seemed a bit rushed, however. In the theater, we saw (my parents, my bro, and I) "Pan's Labyrinth," which was AMAZING. When I mean AMAZING, I mean one of the greatest movies I've ever seen. Heck, I'll say that it was even better than "Apocalypto." This is one of the few foreign films I've seen that deserved a best picture nomination.

That's another topic. Foreign films. Two of my all time favorite movies are foreign language: "Pan's Labyrinth" and "The Passion of Joan of Arc." Perhaps I could throw "Spirited Away" on the list, now that I think of it. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "My Life as a Dog" were good as well, but I wouldn't call them favorites. However, I must admit, I'm not a huge fan of foreign language films. There too...indie, I guess. Ones from Islamic countries have one specific problem: endings. "Osama"  (afghanistan), "Turtles can Fly" (Kurdistan), and some other Kurdish movie (called "Stranded in Baghad" or something) all had depressing endings. 'Kandahar" (afghanistan) ended on the exact same note as it started, which bothered me. "Paradise Now" (Palestine) basically ended with zooming into one of the character's eyes. WTF?! The ending basically didn't exist. The whole film was sorta boring anyway, no offense to Palestinians. I also saw a Northern African movie, "[someone's] Daughter" (I don't remember the name), which had a mildly sad ending. It was ok, though. I don't know. Maybe Muslims don't have happy endings in real life.

On another note, Avril posted an entry about food in college. That made me think about the same topic. You're supposed to gain weight in college, allegedly because you have all this free, starchy food available without parental control. I doubt that I'm going to gain wait in college. I'm worried that I'm not going to eat as much in general. It probably depends how repetitive the food is. I get sick of certain foods really easily, especially if it is poor quality, as I imagine it would be in college. I also will probably never eat breakfast, as I HATE breakfast foods (pancakes, scrambled eggs, etc.). The only stuff I'm willing to eat for breakfast is a) pastries b) lunch/dinner foods. I'm also probably going to get up relatively late, which means I may miss breakfast entirely. The alternative scenario is that I will GAIN weight because lunch will be better. In other words, it will be actual MEALS instead of packaged soup. I guess I'll see.

I remember when I used to post a "tribute of the day" on all my entries to be more positive. I'll do that.

TRIBUTE OF THE DAY: "Pan's Labyrinth."

-arigiery

We got out of ap bio class 10 minutes early or so. It was raining outside. So you know what I did? I took a walk approximately 40 minutes long down Broadway. It was fun. I did the same yesterday, as well. I sorta made loops around the school and Chabot. I felt good afterwards.

Then again excercize is extremely annoying. I feel exhausted afterwards, so much so that I can't really perform productive tasks until I've slept. That's why, when I take a walk, I like to do so on days where I have no school work to do. I also hate the sun, so I avoid taking walks in the sun. I take great joy, however, in walking in the rain.

This semester has been much more fun and painless than last semester. I think it's largely due to dropping stat and being done with college apps and standardized testing. I also have 5th free, which makes me less time pressed during lunch. I can also converse with Melly D. 

I would write something more profound just now, but I'm too sleepy due to exercize. I'll make a prediction: Some time within the next several months, the US and/or Israel will bomb Iran. Not Invade, at least not initially. I mean like a targeted bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities. This may spark a bigger confrontation, though. I sure hope it doesn't. 

Anna Nicole Smith died yesterday. It was really weird, because I had no idea who she actually was, and yet I was totally surprised when I read about it over Ana B.'s shoulder during 6th period. 

I want dinner!! Either Indian or Japanese, hopefully. 

Ok. Dad's here. Bye.

I have so many things to say!! I'll try to save some of the more tangential stuff for later.


1) Computers: All I've go to say is that if Macs are better than PCs, then PCs must REALLY REALLY suck. My iMac G5 hasn't been starting up (which is why it has been a while since my last update), so I had to take it into the hospital to get a power supply transplant. This is the second serious hardware problem I've had with this computer. The other one also involved startup issues, and many other people had the exact same problem (so many people had the problem that they ran out of replacement parts and I had to wait a long time). ALSO, the latest version of Quick time blows. I can't play "Rise of Nations" with it. I can't downgrade, either, which blows. Ugh.

2) Oscar Movies: I saw the movie "Little Miss Sunshine" over the weekend. It was a very good movie. It was funny. It kept me entertained. However, it was most certainly NOT hilarious (meaning I rarely laughed out loud), it made Albuquerque look totally wrong, and I do NOT think it deserves the Oscar for best picture. That honor belongs to Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto," which was not even nominated. Hollywood fools!

3) Comedy: I saw comedy show last weekend with my bro and parents (before which, BTW, we went to a REALLY good Northern Italian restaurant). If you want to know what the theme of it is supposed to be, just think of my dad. Anyway, there were three comedians. One with this African American guy with dreadlocks. He was pretty funny, but in a nice way. I liked him personally. The second guy was the opposite. I could tell that he was a jerk based on his angry f-wording all the time. He said some funny things, though. He said that the Chinese are going to take over the world because global warming will kill off everything in the ocean except bacteria and jellyfish and only the Chinese can prepare that stuff. haha I liked the 3rd guy better than the second guy. He seemed actually, like, stoned. He seemed more pleasant. I like pleasant comedians better than totally offensive ones.
    Oh, and that brings up something else. I recently realized that I'm not a huge fan of stand up comedy. I don't know whether I have a bad sense of humor or whether everyone else in the audience is high/drunk/retarded. When the audience laughs, I usually don't think it's funny. I think that it is totally stupid. In fact, I don't really like most comedy movies, either. For instance, many a moviegoer enjoyed "Thank you for Smoking." It got rave reviews and an 86 percent freshness rating on rottentomatoes.com. I didn't like it at all. The movie tried so so so hard to be hilarious, smart, etc. etc. but it just quite didn't work. It was ALMOST funny in so many cases. I just can't help but think that it was extremely overrated. Don't get me wrong; I love comedies. But only GOOD ones, like "The Addams Family Values." Maybe I'm just picky.

4) blogs: I've been reading blogs lately. Mostly political blogs. Most of them aren't very good. I'm trying to decide what makes a blog successful. I think one important ingredient is to update at least every day. Another thing is to have an original opinion. Being a good writer, with some humor (especially of the sarcastic variety), works as well. I also like bloggers that respond to comments. I also like easy names to remember and type. One of my favorite blogs has a long URL, which makes it annoying to type into computers that don't have your bookmarks.

5) The San Francisco Chronicle: Many people have said that the SF Chronicle sucks. I didn't really notice, myself. I knew it wasn't an especially great paper (there were a couple of global warming related articles, for instance, that met my definition of crap), but my standards of journalism aren't exactly up to par with the experts. However, the paper a few days ago confirmed SFC suckiness in my mind for good. Specifically, there were two articles about the Palestinians. One article was titled something like (and I don't remember the exact wording)  "Palestinians worry that infighting is hurting their reputation."  This is one of the most pointless articles ever. Why? Well, for one, it's totally obvious. You don't have to remind the entire world. Furthermore, I think Israel's reputation has suffered greatly in recent years as well. I know my opinion of the government of Israel was shattered by the Lebanon bombing
   The other article was entitled something like "Palestinian gays feel more at home in Israel."  I have seen articles on numerous websites from months, YEARS before this one that essentially said the exact same thing. They probably even mentioned the exact same people [the stories sounded identical to the ones I've heard before].  Interestingly, one person they quote is from a Palestinian Lesbian group. The Advocate actually did an interview with the leader of the group, who actually lambasted gay rights groups around the world for not being anti-Israel enough. However, that sort of quote isn't included in the article because it doesn't serve the authors thesis (she also boycotted the Jerusalem Pride March). Anyway, I will most likely write more about gay rights related issues later.

- arigiery

I'm in a bad mood. My dad woke me up from my nap so we could go out to that French restaurant with the good sole. I didn't have the good sole, though. I had this beef with burgondy sauce. It was not especially good. The beef was too "stringy", and the sauce too bland. I couldn't finish it. I would have rather been sleeping. Futhermore, during dinner, the conversation of STAT was brought up. My mom wanted to know my grade, and I told her to wait for my report card.


Ok, now a more political rant: I'm so sick of liberals whining about how we shouldn't care bout the private lives of elected officials. We could talk about how much we shouldn't care about politicians personal lives, but you know what? THAT'S NOT FAIR!!! Elected officials make moral judgements of anyone they want to. When President Conservative Asshole decides to ban gay marriage, HE IS MAKING A MORAL JUDGEMENT ABOUT EACH AND EVERY COUPLE IN THE WHOLE FRIGGIN' COUNTRY. I have every right in the world to know how many divorces he's had, if he's had affairs, and whether he molests 17 year old boys. When President Liberal Asshole decides that oil companies are evil, THAT IS A MORAL JUDGEMENT. Does liberal asshole drive an SUV? I want to know! There are numerous other jobs out there where personal details do matter. Babysitters often have to make moral decisions themselves --- a child is behaving poorly, so what must I do? I MAY WANT TO KNOW HOW A BABYSITTER TREATS HER CHILDREN, LITTLE BROTHERS, ETC. BEFORE I HIRE HER!!! Will the fact that the potential babysitter beats her son with a ruler at home necessarily affect my decision? No. But it MIGHT. I WANT TO KNOW!!! Why should elected officials be any different? Look, if your spouse committed adultery and lied in your face about it, you'd probably be pissed. I would be pissed as HELL. And you know what, I'M NOT LETTING THAT PERSON GET MY VOTE, NOT NO WAY, NOT NO HOW! Why should he or she be trusted??? And you know what: Gavin Newsom is a manwhore. He got drunk and had sex with his campagin manager's wife.
I'm so angry at bullshit!!!

It's official!! Bye bye 5th period Stat, hello 6th period World Religions. I was informed about this at the beginning of 4th period. Now I have 5th free, along with Melly D. Fun! On a bad note, Mr. Kelp the Cao dropped math. Ditched!

We had an intro to hinduism in world religions today. It was interesting; I think I'm going to really enjoy the class. I then wrote this whole rant about my hypothetical religion, but I think I'll save that to edit and perfect for another day. The basic concept is that there are two main "Gods" so to speak --- one is the God of morality, while other is the God of the physical world. The first god is "Goodness" -- the absence of it is evil. The 2nd God is also the creator of the universe [I would say that the God of the book of Genesis is this god]. There are also subgods in each of these two categories. I would classify Saints, Jesus, etc. as subordinates to the moral God. The classical Gods, such as Zeus, are subordinates to the physical God. Sometimes these two Gods conflict with each other [a gnostic philosopher would go so far as to say that the physical god is actually Satan], sometimes they don't.

Anyway, enough of that for now.

We talked about Plato's "On Morality" today in philosophy class. One argument that came up is whether morality is determined by intentions, actions, or results. Nick gave an example [to make it short]; he gives me a muffin as a gift, but I drop down dead due to an allergy in one of the ingredients [he was unaware of my allergy previously]. On one hand, Nick was good intentioned to give me the gift. On the other hand, his results were bad. Then Nick described two schools of thought; one said that you should be morally judged by your intentions/actions, another one said that you should be judged by results. I believe in the first one --- morality is about intentions, not results. Some other time I may explain why this is the case, but I'm too lazy to go into depth. Basically, my idea is that nobody can accurately predict the results of an action 100 percent of the time, so its unfair to judge people on results. However, you are aware of your intentions and actions, and your intentions and actions are often indicators of the result. I may explain more later.

I just got lazy. fairwell.

-arigiery

 

Here I am, in the library at lunch, because  a) my cup of noodles is filled with cobwebs, b) it's cold outside and c) Melly D is sick.

Bleh...soooo...I was going to Calc class, like usual, when Preston pulls me aside to talk about Stat class. He says that I can in fact drop the class and still get credit (he said otherwise yesterday, and wanted to correct himself). So we arranged a meeting at lunch to talk about possibly alternatives. However, immediately after I finished talking to Preston, Munro pulls me aside to talk about Stat. She says stuff like yeah, I can drop if I want to, or I can have weekly meetings with her if I want to stay in, blah, stuff I expected. She also said her stuff about how I have more "potential" in the class, but I still haven't reached it. It was just a tad bit intimidating to have two teachers/faculty members talk to me at the same time about the same thing, especially when I myself was thinking about the same thing.

so anyway, I met with Preston during the meeting. He said that Martin doesn't care about whether or not I drop stat (Munro thought he would care), but that I would have to write a brief letter to my colleges explaining my decision. Probably not a big deal. Anyhoo, I will most likely drop Stat to transfer into World Religions (6th, I believe), and if that's not available, 5th period linguistics. I'm sorta pumped about this. I think I'll enjoy these classes much better than Statistics, which, I think, has been a failure for me.

Avril just walked into the reference room.

The Oscar nominations have been announced. Apocalypto deserved to be nominated for best picture. Babel was nominated. Some people thought the movie didn't deserve the nomination. However, I saw it and thought it was totally deserving.

GRRRRR--- Bell just rung. Stat...evilevil!

I just got my grade report (literally, this period, like 5 minutes ago). Luckily my final did in fact bump my bio grade (I actually found that out yesterday). It did not, however, bump up my AB Calc grade, which I find very irritating. My parents are going to be very angry about stat (I'm too ashamed to think about it). Thank the gods for Government and English, which were safety A's.

I was thinking about something yesterday and this morning. It's about moral standards and censorship in the media. All these politicians who claim they care abut children and want to protect them from the media are a bunch of hypocrites. They say child porn is bad, unless it involves a naked Iraqi girl bleeding to death on the news. Violent video games are bad for kids, but declaring war and killing thousands of civilians is OK. It reminds me of the movie "Turtles Can Fly," which is about the Iraqi Kurds in the last days of Saddam's regime. It literally involved rape, pedophilia, infanticide, suicide, and exploding landmines, but still managed to pull off a PG-13 rating. Had the main character been a white girl living in L.A., I bet it would have been rated R. It shows how different our standards are from people in different countries. The average Hollywood executive would be horrified at the thought of his own 17 year old daughter being raped, but acts as if brown girls being raped in 3rd world countries is the norm. It's really sad. And it sickens me.

Heh. I think class is going to start soon. I'm done with my rant. I was going to mention something else too, but I'll do that later.

I got my Stats final back. It was AWFUL. And so is my class grade. In fact, it is the worst class grade I've ever gotten in my life (and that includes the first part of 5th grade, which I didn't do so well during). I'm really angry at stat class. Generally, in classes that I struggle in (think middle school honors algebra, high school Latin...), I try really hard, do a lot of work, and at least pull off a respectable grade. I may not do quite as well in the tough class as I would in others, but I learn A LOT and I feel really good about myself afterwards. I think the reason why I can pull it off is because I have great teachers. Hard Teachers, but ones that helped me improve. However, I'm not getting that vibe from Stat class at all. Ver claimed that the teacher was better in BC Calc than in stat --- maybe this is true. I personally don't think I benefit from her teaching style at all. We get these really annoying homeworks that comprise problems that are either A)busywork (easy, pointless, and time-consuming) B) impossible, since we didn't cover it in class (we're constantly behind), or C) review, which I may understand, or may not understand because it was not taught adequately, or understand but still get wrong due to careless errors from lack of practice (in comparison to 7 and 8 grade algebra, where we did like 20 problems a night on one subject to hammer the idea in our brains). In other words, the homework isn't very helpful. This is compounded by the fact that I don't think the material is explained very well in class. All this = arianne is unprepared = arianne gets bad grades. BTW I did in fact meet with a teacher a few times, and it is not particularly helpful.

Darn you, Melly D., for dropping Stat and leaving me as the stupidest person in the class! I'd rather we be stupid and fail together!

Slightly more upbeat notes: I did fairly well on the AB calc final, though I doubt it will be enough to boost my grade (which was my goal). I probably did well in government and English --- I was never worried about those subjects. I still reserve some hope for bio, the final of which I'm getting back next period. I think it still has potential to boost my grade, but I'm not counting on it.

However, I must admit that this semester as a whole has been a GPA butcher. Good thing I'm applying to a good number of "safety-ish" colleges that I think I will still enjoy.

The bell just range. Bye.

- Arigiery

I'm writing [dun dun DUN!!] ANOTHER ENTRY!

Finals went by surprisingly painlessly. English was easy (as expected), Stat wasn't as hard as I thought (I think because of the long time we had...I still probably flunked it, thought), bio was time consuming (but not hard), and math wasn't hard either. I also didn't need to study as much as I thought I would. Hm.

Snow trip was last week. I have to admit that it was a bit of a disappointment. I didn't try anything new this time. I already failed at downhill skiing, cross country skiing, and snowboarding on other snowtrips. I was going to snowshoe, but I decided against it after hearing what other people said. Ver and Debb said that the snow was so hard that the snow shoes were unnecessary and just a burden. That was another problem this snow trip --- it didn't snow at all, and what snow on the ground was icy and hard. Freshman year the snow was powdery and nice.

On another note, the food sucked this snow trip. Actually, the food was exactly the same, I just didn't like it as much. hmm.

I really don't want to go to school tomorrow, but I'm sure it'll be fine. I just don't want to get up early. Silly me.

I've been thinking about colleges lately. I applied to 14 (yeah, I know, I'm crazy, but it seems fashionable to apply to so many these dayS): ucsd, ucsc, ucd, ucb, reed, U. puget sound, Whitman, Lewis and Clark, haverford, smith, carleton, pomona, scripps, Bryn Mawr. Of these, Pomona, Haverford, and Carleton are the "reachiest." Puget sound, ucsc, ucd, and Lewis and Clark are safeties. Looking back on it, I don't know why I decided to apply to so many. I will most likely NOT go to a UC. I will most likely NOT go to one of the 4 northwest schools. I am more likely to choose Smith over Bryn Mawr and Scripps (the other women's colleges). In fact, I have been really leaning towards Smith over all the others. I guess I'm being held back by the "CPS syndrome" of feeling guilty about going somewhere that's not uber-competitive. Smith has a relatively high admit rate, and sometimes I feel like i could do better. But isn't that lame?

Actually, when I said "I've been thinking about colleges lately," i was thinking of something else. Specifically, I want to know how much distinction there is in the academic goodness of colleges. I mean, people say things about the ivies, duke, stanford, etc. being top schools, but I wonder if they're really any better than other places. I bet that they're better in the sense that they're more selective --- more selective = more qualified students = more pressure to do well. However, in terms of the official work load, quality of the professors, and the amount you actually LEARN in the end, I doubt that top schools can really be called "the best." It probably depends, though. For instance, I have the impression that Princeton is mega hard while Harvard and Yale aren't bad at all. Also, techy schools like MIt and Caltech are supposedly brutal. I think the same holds true with Liberal Arts Colleges --- Reed, which US News ranks horribly, is one of the hardest schools in the nation. Swarthmore is hard too. But is Williams really better than Oberlin? I doubt there's a difference. Wellesley is ranked higher than the other seven sisters, but i doubt it's any better. It's got the most fame and money, sure. But Barnard's the most selective, for instance.

I think one problem is that people usually only take classes at one college with one major. Yeah, there are transfers. But people are too limited by their own experiences to make judgments. It would be interesting to see someone take all sorts of random classes at random colleges and compare. But even that would be misleading. So we're stuck with assumptions, at that bothers me, because assumptions are often wrong.

blah. I should spend my last night of vacation doing something else. All Done.