Graduation

Hi guys,

I’m really sorry, and I’m going to miss anyone who still ever looks at this blog. The plan is that on June 16 I’ll be taking the CHSPE, and from there on going to a community college near me. I’m a really flexible person, though – I might be going back to high school. I might be homeschooling again. I might be in the Sahara, fighting wild beasts or in the jungle with the cast of The River. Or I might have crawled under my bed and will never be seen again after midnight on July 1st. 

Whatever happens, I think this blog has pretty much run it’s course. I might be starting another one (I’m totally starting another one!) but I want to thank everyone out there who read my blog, commented on it, listened to me ranting, and other wonderful wonderful things! I love you all!

Good-bye. 

Um… Where the “Phys” in the Phys Ed?

As a homeschooler, one of the things that people always seemed to say when it came up that I didn’t go to school was a variation of the line “Oh my gosh darn golly! It must be awesome to never have to do PE! I hate all that exercising stuff!”

I hate PE too. But I still do it. I have a gym membership, and I had it when I was homeschooling. I also went to that gym, and sometimes got on the machines when I wasn’t too busy wiping all of them thoroughly or taking long water breaks. I also jogged, and did gymnastics. 

Unlike now. In the last three PE classes, and I’m not paraphrasing this line, my teacher told us to “Just hang out guys. Don’t get too loud.” I sat and chatted in those classes. Occasionally we’ll run, but most of the classes I’ve spent trying to get a basketball while my teacher fills out paperwork or does whatever PE teachers do when they’re not supervising their classes. Since there are three basketballs among what has at times been a forty student class, they’re immediately snapped up by the actually good basketball players among us. Which leaves me no time or practice with which to get better. 

I also have no time to go to the gym. 

GSA Isn’t Just A Random Combination of Letters

I’m in my school’s GSA – Gay Straight Alliance. I thought they were kind of common, GSAs, but judging from the fact that our school just started one this year and that no one seems to know what I’m talking about when I mention the letters “GSA” apparently they’re not. 

The thing is, however, the idea seems to be popular, because the first meeting held the entire classroom was full and people were sitting on the floor because all the desks were taken. 

Afterwards, not so much. 

I feel like no one really cares about the actual issues. And that does hurt. Because I can say with absolute confidence that gay rights are a big part of my life and that I would like to do what I can to make sure that gay people actually have rights with which they can protect themselves. Everyone deserves this. Every living thing deserves rights. But after the first meeting, only eleven people showed up. Then ten. Then nine. So far, three people (including me and the president) have signed up to create the sign that we need in order to raise awareness and money for organizations like the Trevor Project.

I think that this is no acceptable. If you’re going to say that you will help us try and help gay teens, then do it. But don’t just show up once and pretend that proves that you’re edgy. That’s not ok. 

“Supersize Me” and America’s Reaction

Okay, so we’re watching “Supersize Me” in English class and doing a little project on it as a supplement to our reading, Fast Food Nation. I enjoy Supersize Me. I think it’s an interesting insight into our nation’s food problem, which also shows the good things that we’re doing to try to prevent having a problem (mostly because the option to “supersize” things at McDonald’s was taken off the menu in response to this film). 

Other people, however, see it, and anyone who agrees with it’s message (namely, as far as I can see, “Fast food is bad for you”) as a huge “Screw you” to America. As seen in Tom Naughton’s response (a whole movie in which he tells us that fast food isn’t actually that bad for you, we swear!): “Have you seen the news stories about the obesity epidemic? Did you see Super Size Me? Then guess what? … You’ve been fed a load of bologna.” 

And, honestly, I get this. To a point. I get this to the point where they say “OMG” (they’re all teenage girls, because those are the only people I can imitate) “They’re, likez, totes taking this waaaaay out of proportion!! :/ You’re not supposed to eat fast food EVERY day!! Of course you’ll get fatso!!! OMG. srsly. My new jeans are totes adorb!”

But the thing is, his message was not “Oh my gosh, does anybody know that if you eat supersize servings of fast food all day every day it’ll make you fat? That’s totally groundbreaking!” Of course if you eat five times the amount that is good for you, you’ll gain weight! However, this is apparently what people thought the message was. As seen in this quote from A Supersized Distortion: A Response to Supersize Me: “The name of his documentary, “Supersize Me,” should serve as a warning to the rest of us that eating too much will make us fat…”

Unfortunately for them, his question was, for the most part, “How bad is fast food for me?” I think it’s definitely a reflection of our society that if you make our restaurants your kitchen (you being a healthy, vaguely young person), after only thirty days you will become two times as likely to develop heart disease, two times as likely to suffer heart failure, develop headaches, become depressed, become fatigued all the time, develop fat in your liver, develop cravings, have your cholesterol go up WAY high, and develop sexual dysfunction. 

After all that, you can’t argue that fast food is okay for you. And you definitely can’t say stuff like “Hey, you can totally lose weight while eating fast food!” Of course you can lose weight while eating fast food. You can lose weight eating only chocolate, too, because as long as you make sure that the number of calories you’re taking in is low enough, you can lose weight while eating anything. But you have to be prepared for the massive heart attack you will have in twenty years because of an accumulation of fat in your heart. 

The message of the film wasn’t “You’ll get fat if you eat fast food.” It was “Maybe we should think about limiting the number of times we eat at the thousands of McD’s in America if we still want to be able to get it on with our wife/husband when we’re in our forties.”

Spring Break

Hi dudes (and dudettes)!

Okay, so I know I promised lots of lovely new updates and posts and drama and such, and I haven’t really… um, done that at all. BUT, that is because I have been on spring break this past week and so school has been wonderfully nonexistant. SO, I will begin updating a super-duper amount NEXT week.

Apologies for the ample use of boisterous energy and capital letters. I’m totally feeling the energy. Dude.

I’m Still Here!

Alternate title: PLEASE READ MY BLOG. PLEASE READ MY BLOG. PLEASE SPREAD WORD OF MY BLOG. AND WHILE YOU’RE DOING THAT, READ MY BLOG.

Ah, good to have that out there.

Anyway… today was a friend’s birthday (happy birthday K!), so that was fun. At my high school they pin dollars to your front on your birthday, perhaps to give encouragement – after all, if you can’t get through high school you can always become a stripper! …Or, you know, maybe not.

It is a sad reflection on our public school system (or maybe just on our English classes) that while I was gone for a week in NY, my Honors English 10 class took turns reading a book in class. And, I know, it’s whatever. So what they’re reading a book in class? Shakespeare is one complicated (and filthy-minded…) dude. Fortunately, there’s a “but”.

The book is one hundred and forty pages long. It’s a novella. It was published in 1981, and, believe it or not, the English language has not changed that much since the eighties (I know, I was surprised too). I read it all in one sitting, at the end of CAHSEE testing. It doesn’t have any complicated language – it’s all pretty clear cut, and some parts of it read like a police report. (For those interested, because it’s actually a very good book, it’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I would love to hear feedback from those who’ve read it… and those who haven’t. *hint hint*)

At least it was good for me. The only unfortunate thing is that at the end we’re supposed to make a one-page response to the book. I am fine with most responses – I will write as many book reports as my teacher will give me. But this is a “response”. A graphic response. A response with pictures. I don’t know if anyone’s caught this, but I’m not that big on… artistry. In general. Except for the literary kind. If my teacher gets a paper with bits of string and cut out pictures from magazines, she’ll be lucky. Worst case scenario: I give her a written paper and start a scene about how writing is an art too. I think in the end it’ll be an “eenie meanie minie moe” kind of thing.

I’m Back!

Hi everyone! I’m back, and with a flashy new… um… well I’m sure there’s something flashy new somewhere on earth. Meanwhile, back in my life, I’ve turned fifteen and have, once again, ignored everyone’s advice and done something that I didn’t mean to.

I’ve stayed in school for first and second semester of 10th grade. And this time, I’m new and improved with dual enrollment (high school and homeschooling) and 9 new classes. (And some really awesome friends and teachers.) Because my already horrible time management “system” really needed an upgrade.

On the other hand, I’ve also got a ton of credits, so that’s that.

This post is just to get started on blogging again, and unlike when I actually promised to blog and didn’t, this time I will promise to blog and actually blog. Every day.  A lot of days. But also, since a lot of stuff has happened since last year (I’ve reached new levels of dorkdom, for instance) here’s a simple study guide to the changes that have taken place:

1. I have acquired twenty five new Facebook friends.

2. I have been accepted into a UCSD summer course – Intro to Psychology

3. I have prepared for the summer course by taking AP Psych at school.

4. I have been told to stop diagnosing everyone with mental conditions.

5. I have been threatened that if I didn’t stop diagnosing everyone with mental conditions, I will be silenced by force.

6. (Bipolar schizophrenic paranoid violent-aggression super-personality disorder.)

7. I have been accepted into Theatre Workshop.

8. I have practiced really spectacularly bad time management.

That’s pretty much it for now, so I’ll let everyone go. *silence* Hello? *crickets chirping*