So. School. Wow. This is going to be a long year. Shall I run down my courses? Yes? Alright then.
AP Physics. A class that has already inspired multiple breakdowns. School starts tomorrow.
AP US History
Honors Chem
Honors Brit lit
Honors German III (well, to be fair I'm pretty sure this one will be an easy A even if it's called honors. Last year I managed a 100% average, so....)
Honors Pre-Calc
Gym (half year)
Civics (half year)
This should be fun. And it occurs to me that it's rather sad that I'm sitting here wondering whether it's overkill bringing my graphing calculator tomorrow. Because the answer is obviously yes, but I worry, and most of the people in my physics class are going to be seniors, and I'm a junior, so I really don't want to be unprepared. Did I mention that I'm paranoid? And I have procrastination issues- sort of. I start my summer homework on August first sort of obsessively every year, which seems like a positive point. But, on the other hand, I just finished it all today. And I may occasionally fail to start essays until the night before they are due. But I've only waited until midnight once!
In other news I'm finally signed up for driver's ed. My birthday was only in April, so when it starts in October it won't have been quite eight months since I could have taken the class. It occurs to me that I should be more upset by this. I really should get to bed, so I can get up at 5:30.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
MIT and Partnering
So. MIT and I need to have a little discussion. They sent me this email:
Dear Emma,
You haven't responded to any of our other emails regarding getting on
the MIT mailing list and getting some interesting/cool materials in the
mail, so we'll stop bugging you. But I begged my boss to let me try one
last time, telling him that bad haiku is the key to connecting with
people.
If you respond to this email, after having ignored the others, it will
make admissions officers everywhere rethink their use of bad haiku in
the admissions process. Let's change the world.
Here goes...
Hi, how's it going?
We would like to send you an
MIT brochure.
It's free, really cool,
And we think you will like it.
Click the link below to request it.
(That last line had nine
syllables. Did you catch that?
We knew you were smart.)
Now, what you have to understand is that I don't reply to many college emails. I ignore most of them without even thinking. But MIT, there's a reason for that. It obviously isn't that they are a bad school, because they're very good at what they do. It isn't even because I'm not interested in the things that they teach, since I'm seriously considering engineering. But that's all that they do. If I was one of the math/science geeks who hated English and History it would be one thing. But the biggest college related decision I'm going to have to make is whether to major in Engineering/Physics (depending on whether the school I choose offers Engineering), History, Creative Writing, or Literature. So MIT's one sided approach is the problem. Sending me butchered poetry? Not the way to convince me to apply.
Now on a related topic:
Partnering Classes are hard. And I am really sore. And bad at finger pirouettes. But seriously, the classes were a great experience and I feel like I learned a lot. RIBT (Rhode Island's ballet theatre) is all girls right now, but we got some men who work with the local-ish professional companies to come help teach the class. It doesn't seem like it should be so different from dancing by yourself, but it really is. You hold your weight differently, etc. Instead of leaning slightly forward you're supposed to lean into the guy, and you really have to trust them completely.
You know those trust exercises where you fall back and have to trust the person to catch you? We did some stuff like that. The girl stands on her point shoes in fifth (feet crossed so that one foot is right in front of the other) with her arms up in fifth, a circle above her head. The guy basically holds her waist and tips her in all different directions while she has to stay stiff as a board. It sounds easy. I promise that it isn't. But still, I deffinitely learned a lot, and it's always fun to do somehthing different.
Dear Emma,
You haven't responded to any of our other emails regarding getting on
the MIT mailing list and getting some interesting/cool materials in the
mail, so we'll stop bugging you. But I begged my boss to let me try one
last time, telling him that bad haiku is the key to connecting with
people.
If you respond to this email, after having ignored the others, it will
make admissions officers everywhere rethink their use of bad haiku in
the admissions process. Let's change the world.
Here goes...
Hi, how's it going?
We would like to send you an
MIT brochure.
It's free, really cool,
And we think you will like it.
Click the link below to request it.
(That last line had nine
syllables. Did you catch that?
We knew you were smart.)
Now, what you have to understand is that I don't reply to many college emails. I ignore most of them without even thinking. But MIT, there's a reason for that. It obviously isn't that they are a bad school, because they're very good at what they do. It isn't even because I'm not interested in the things that they teach, since I'm seriously considering engineering. But that's all that they do. If I was one of the math/science geeks who hated English and History it would be one thing. But the biggest college related decision I'm going to have to make is whether to major in Engineering/Physics (depending on whether the school I choose offers Engineering), History, Creative Writing, or Literature. So MIT's one sided approach is the problem. Sending me butchered poetry? Not the way to convince me to apply.
Now on a related topic:
Partnering Classes are hard. And I am really sore. And bad at finger pirouettes. But seriously, the classes were a great experience and I feel like I learned a lot. RIBT (Rhode Island's ballet theatre) is all girls right now, but we got some men who work with the local-ish professional companies to come help teach the class. It doesn't seem like it should be so different from dancing by yourself, but it really is. You hold your weight differently, etc. Instead of leaning slightly forward you're supposed to lean into the guy, and you really have to trust them completely.
You know those trust exercises where you fall back and have to trust the person to catch you? We did some stuff like that. The girl stands on her point shoes in fifth (feet crossed so that one foot is right in front of the other) with her arms up in fifth, a circle above her head. The guy basically holds her waist and tips her in all different directions while she has to stay stiff as a board. It sounds easy. I promise that it isn't. But still, I deffinitely learned a lot, and it's always fun to do somehthing different.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Confession
I have a confession to make. I have a gummi problem. It's all because of german (which is also the reason that I now call them gummis instead of gummies). I've been taking german at school for the past few years, but even that might have been okay. However, I've been to a few german club meetings, although not many. At one of them we did a gummi bear tasting. We tried gummi bears (not gummy bears, whch now just sounds weird to me!) from several different companies and rated them. Haribo was, quite naturally, the winner. It is a german company that makes many gummi candies, although we can't get a lot of them in the US. And from that point on I was a little obsessed (no, really, only a little. I know what serious obsession looks like. Harry Potter anyone?).
I sort of collect Haribo bags of diferent sorts, like the frogs, and I've got a bag of gummi bears from France when I went last summer and of gummi peaches from Sweden which my mm brought me. But I did not realize how bad my problem was until last night. I was with my family and we had gone to see Julie and Julia, the new movie (which is very good). At one point we see Julie go into a grocery store. Behind her, in the back of the shot and HOLDING NO IMPORTANCE AT ALL is a rack of Haribo candies. I kind fangirled, like squealing quietly etc. over the Haribo, and grabbed my brother. Over the background of the shot. At this point I realized that yes, I really do have a problem.
Moving on. Grammar. Many people in this world not have any, so every so often I'll be adding a small grammar point onto the end of a post.
Of v. Have.
As in "I should of gone to the store." This is, incorrect. When you write this, what you are presumably trying to do is write down the sounds that your mouth makes when you say "I should've gone to the store." They sound very similar, but they are not the same. When you say 'should've' you are using a contraction of 'should have' and thus if you decide to write it out that is what you should write. 'Should of' does not make sense.
I sort of collect Haribo bags of diferent sorts, like the frogs, and I've got a bag of gummi bears from France when I went last summer and of gummi peaches from Sweden which my mm brought me. But I did not realize how bad my problem was until last night. I was with my family and we had gone to see Julie and Julia, the new movie (which is very good). At one point we see Julie go into a grocery store. Behind her, in the back of the shot and HOLDING NO IMPORTANCE AT ALL is a rack of Haribo candies. I kind fangirled, like squealing quietly etc. over the Haribo, and grabbed my brother. Over the background of the shot. At this point I realized that yes, I really do have a problem.
Moving on. Grammar. Many people in this world not have any, so every so often I'll be adding a small grammar point onto the end of a post.
Of v. Have.
As in "I should of gone to the store." This is, incorrect. When you write this, what you are presumably trying to do is write down the sounds that your mouth makes when you say "I should've gone to the store." They sound very similar, but they are not the same. When you say 'should've' you are using a contraction of 'should have' and thus if you decide to write it out that is what you should write. 'Should of' does not make sense.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Oy Vey
SO. Now I'm back at work, which means more dead bat updates, which I know the world has been waiting for. Continuing on the topic of bat wings, today I'm going to be getting trained in using the machine to test the stretchiness (technical terms...) of bat wing skin. The guy whose project it has been is going to be moving back to Washington state in about a week and a half, so I'm apparently going to do this.
Also, I seriously have ridiculous homework. Physics... How the heck should I know how much a pickup truck weighs? Seriously? And because it's technically a college book it wants me to say how much information in one of the tables can be verified using equipment found in a dorm room. Of course, I'm in high school and living at home... And the sheer volume of work is already ridiculous, which is bad because school hasn't even started yet. This should be a fun year.
Also, I seriously have ridiculous homework. Physics... How the heck should I know how much a pickup truck weighs? Seriously? And because it's technically a college book it wants me to say how much information in one of the tables can be verified using equipment found in a dorm room. Of course, I'm in high school and living at home... And the sheer volume of work is already ridiculous, which is bad because school hasn't even started yet. This should be a fun year.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Saying nothing about those who know it
So... After returning from vacation (which I"ll probably talk about later) I had a bunch of college letters, as expected. One which particularly amused me was the pamphlet from Emerson University which has a paragraph titled "A Commitment to Sustainability" saying "In addition to having beautiful, tree-lined campuses, Emory's commitment to the environment is evident in our sustainability program. It includes such long-term efforts as alternative transportation, campuswide recycling, and the designation of half of campus as green space. Emory is a nationwide leader in the number of certified 'green' buildings on our campus."
This sounds great, right? I'm all for environmental sustainability (and social responsibility! um sorry.. precepts of my middle school...). However, this would sound a lot better if it hadn't come in a plastic, NON-RECYCLABLE bag... COme one people. Think. It isn't that hard to figure this out.
This sounds great, right? I'm all for environmental sustainability (and social responsibility! um sorry.. precepts of my middle school...). However, this would sound a lot better if it hadn't come in a plastic, NON-RECYCLABLE bag... COme one people. Think. It isn't that hard to figure this out.
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