What have they done? In my sophomore year, they tried to give me Latin 1 instead of Orchestra, when I’d already taken Spanish 1-4. Yes, it was an elective issue- I didn’t NEED it to be fixed, but why should I spend my time learning another foreign language when I’d already gotten all the way through Spanish? Last year, my junior year, I had signed up for AP Biology (Remember my rant about the AP Bio exam?), which is a two-semester course: they’d only given me the first semester of the class. Which is obviously an issue. And this year?

This year, they gave me regular high-school Sociology and college-level Sociology in the same (second) semester. How am I supposed to take (and understand. Understanding is vital) college-level Sociology when I’m taking regular Sociology in the same semester- I’ll be in the process of learning things that I’m already supposed to have mastered… (they don’t put people in Spanish 1 and Spanish 2 for the same semester, do they?) They also didn’t give me orchestra- I think I’m going to have to drop college Sociology and switch into orchestra.

I think these people must have it out for me or something. I can see messing up once, maybe twice, but THREE times? I’d better warn Hannah that she needs to watch out for these people- who wants to bet that they’ll mess up her schedule for the next three years, too? I know, I know- they do scheduling by computer, it’s not the counselors’ fault, they have a thousand kids to worry about- but don’t they check this stuff? Don’t they? You’d think so…

(If you’re curious, the rest of my [apparently tentative] schedule is as follows: AP English Language/Literature (yes, both), AP European History, Student Aide for my AP Euro teacher, Science Research, Statistics and Probability, and both Sociology courses which of course has to change.)

My favorite parts of the layout: the comments (my own idea), the navigation, the search bar/form fields, and the header. I love that header… especially the brush effect that I have no idea how it occured…
If you want to learn how to make the navigation or a similar searchbar, here are the tutorials I used:

• Fancy Navigation Menu
• Shiny Search Bar

Oh, and if you were curious, you can find the color schemes that I used/drew inspiration from here:

• Color Schemes
• Matching stripey background is from Anomalyd.

Any thoughts/comments/bugs to report? Please share… especially bugs, if you wouldn’t mind. I’m not infalliable… and I coded half of this at 11:00 at night, so I wouldn’t be shocked if there are issues.

Now, I might be a bit biased against Twilight in the first place. I am not a big fan of romance novels, and, after all, Twilight is nothing but an over-hyped romance book. But I will admit, that, done right, a bit of romance can be interesting and captivating even to me. Twilight was just wrought with too many flaws to enjoy.

First, there is the issue of characters. Bella, the leading lady, is one of the most obnoxious examples of a female lead character I have ever encountered. Clumsy and “plain” (but apparently not plain, as it seems that every boy in her new town is falling over themselves to befriend her), narcissistic and self-centered, she looks down on everyone she encounters in Forks (including aforementioned boys) until she meets her super-special sparkly vampire boyfriend. She obsesses over him, and they start dating after a few days. Soon, she decides that he needs to make her a vampire too- so what if they’ve only known each other for three weeks, this is true love!!

Bella only gets worse in the next book, falling apart after Edward leaves her (hey, ladies, unless you have your man, your life is totally worthless!). She takes advantage of her friend, Jacob (who actually was the only good character in the story until he turned into a pedophile and “imprinted” on Renesmee, Edward and Bella’s half-human, half-vampire monster child who nearly kills Bella during birth), leading him on and using him to get over the fact that her Edward abandoned her then dumping his sorry butt when Edward comes back to her. In short, the author tried to create the image of depth and intelligence with Bella, but ended up making a horribly flat character whose life revolves around her boyfriend. Way to go, Ms. Meyer…

Now, about Edward. His only good quality seems to be his appearance, as is so often heralded in the book (his sparkling, ice cold marble skin, his perfect hair… OMG). He is a controlling and often unintentionally abusive boyfriend, telling Bella what she can and cannot do (refusing to let her visit her “friend” Jacob in the third book, for example). I have a feeling that Edward wouldn’t be quite so annoying if the author had focused less on his appearance and more on his personality, but as it was, Edward was boring. Sorry, fangirls.

Another issue was the plot (I mean, the lack of a plot.) The entire book series centers around Edward and Bella’s relationship (I love you! I love you too, but we can’t be together! But I don’t care- hold me! But I’ll hurt you… etc, blah blah blah..) This would have been fine, if the book had been normal sized- but the romance lasted for thousands of pages. THOUSANDS. It shouldn’t take that long- and most of it was fluff, describing either Edward’s god-like appearance or Bella’s irrational, obsessive love for him (HE SPARKLES!!!). Meyer attempts to insert some semblance of an actual plot about three-quarters of the way through each book, but that quickly fades away… even the epic “battle” that was supposed to take place near the end of the last book never happened, and was solved without any losses on either side. (And I was looking forward to one of the Mary/Gary Sue Cullens getting their throats slashed- will I never win?)

Meyer’s writing style just makes the whole thing worse. The woman uses the same adjectives over and over again, and constantly resorts to cheap descriptions of Edward’s body to take up space. She’s no writer. Some people compare her to J.K.Rowling, but I beg to differ- Rowling might not be a writer, certainly, but she’s an excellent storyteller. Her main characters were all amazingly developed; her plot was intricate and clearly well-thought out. Anyone who tries to compare the two should take a look- Rowling clearly has a few things going for her that Meyer does not.

I suppose what irritates me the most is the overt shallowness of the entire series and the overblown enthusiasm that it has encountered in the general public. I mean, come on- Sparkling vampires, a supposed “true-love” type of romance between two teenagers who knew each other for three weeks, no plot, a “strong” female lead who can’t survive without her boyfriend, and characters with no depth or personality- there are much better things to read out there. I don’t understand the fandom for Twilight out there- it’s just not that great. What scares me more is what this book seems to be teaching teenage girls- that it’s OK to decide that your boyfriend = your entire life, that abuse is OK (because when Edward hurts Bella, it’s all right, he didn’t mean it and they’re in luv, right!?!), and that everyone will get an Edward in their own life.

Especially that one. Because I really just want my friends to shut up about how they’re waiting for “Edward Cullen” to come and sweep them off their feet. Give me a break. Pick up a book with some depth. Twilight is no more worthy of your worship than my sock drawer… but there are so many more books that are.

Conclusion? One star out of five for effort. If that. Sorry, Twilight fans, but I guess I’m just not a Cullen sort of girl.

By the way, I’ve added some new pictures of my cat, Addie, that we took in the early spring out by the woods. She’d love it if you’d put her face on some pretty graphics, I’m sure.

Some of you may remember that my friend writes a bi-weekly opinion column for our local newspaper. And you also may remember that some of the online commentators are rather harsh, often making rude and highly critical remarks generalizing my entire generation. The most recent example would be this: “It is a fairly safe assumption that ALL high school students are nitwits.”

Well, excuse me. I think I might have something to say to this.

Let’s start with this: How dare you call every teenager in this city thoughtless, stupid and lazy. How dare you assume that no teenager has better things to do on their hands than get drunk and party, or that no teenager has a desire to do anything BUT party. That’s akin to saying that because a few adults have made the decision to murder or rape, every adult is a hardened criminal. You just can’t do that. Here some of us are, working our asses off to try to get into college, maintain our grades and challenge ourselves with AP classes, and you DARE to call us all druggies, drunkards and partygoers because we complain that adults don’t give us enough freedom?

I, for one, have a 4.0, have never gotten drunk and would never dream of trying drugs. Every year, I work my butt off until after AP test time. I’m in the National Honor Society. I watch the news and try to stay informed, hell, I even form opinions on world events. And you would call me a nitwit? Honestly, I think I can say that I show more maturity on a daily basis than some so-called “adults” that I know- including many of the commentors.

The very idea that all teenagers can be grouped together and classified as morons shows a great deal of immaturity. Nothing magically happens on your 18^th birthday that makes you suddenly more mature and understanding of the ways of life. These people write off my friend’s complaints with a wave of their hand, and, when met with well-thought out comebacks, dismiss it with a simple, “It’s because of my ‘life experience’. You wouldn’t understand- you’re too immature.” I’m sorry, but since when does life experience make you suddenly more “intelligent”, and less of a “nitwit”? Stupidity is not something you grow out of, as some of these people have CLEARLY demonstrated. If all teenagers are nitwits, then, hey, we must ALL be nitwits.

Given my general impressions of people lately, I’m not saying I would be suprised if such were the case.

• As I said, no schoolwork any more! And soon enough, I’ll be on summer break.
• I don’t have to work every day this summer- I’ll only be working three days a week, enough to keep me busy and earning money, but not enough to take up all of my free time.
• I got my driver’s license on Wednesday! And I haven’t wrecked any cars yet. Aren’t you proud?
• Did I mention that I haven’t had any schoolwork for a month?
• I’m finally going to have enough time to put this place on the re-vamp that I want to- cleaning out old articles, re-writing pages, and then finally advertising and commenting to finally get myself a bit more “known”. My hits have been taking an unfortunate dip lately, probably due to site neglect. Oh, and the disappearance of half of the people on the internet. (Where did everyone go?!?)
• Oh, and I made this pretty new layout! With stripes! And doodles! And a cool color scheme! Let’s see how long it lasts…
• I’m going to the beach in August with all of my cousins again. This promises to be lots of fun. (My cousins are a little crazy.)
• Oh, and I might be getting my first real web-design job soon!

And other things are looking up as well. The weather’s been gorgeous (warm, and NOT HUMID!) lately, I’ve been seeing more of my best friend, and my personal life might just be improving. And I’m definitely going to try to be spending more time on this website, trying to set up a portfolio, etc. I haven’t disappeared yet, internet people, and I won’t for a while now. So how’s everyone else’s life going?

My Life Is Good.

*reference to mylifeisg.com, a website where, as opposed to on fmylife.com, people post stories about what makes their lives awesome.

I eagerly awaited 1:10 today, when I would get out of school to go and take my driver’s test. The minutes went by slowly as I sat in my chair, discussing nervously with friends who already had their licenses about the difficulty of the course, worrying about whether or not I’d pass, etc. Finally, the fateful moment arrived, and with a few glares from my jealous friend left in fourth period and a good-luck wish from my class, I left and met up with my mom in the parking lot.

We drove an hour to the next county’s MVA (our county’s MVA is always ridiculously crowded and slow, and the people who do the driver’s tests are supposedly rather mean and strict compared to the next county’s MVA). We get there and go to the front desk about an appointment, so the lady sitting there checks her list, then gives us this blank look and says, “Are you sure?” My mom and I just looked at each other. “If your father,” my mom started, “screwed up this date, I swear to you, I will kill him.”

My father made the appointment for Wednesday, June 3 rather than Wednesday, May 27. So now I don’t have a driver’s licencse, I skipped fourth period for nothing, and I have to make the hour drive to the MVA AGAIN next week. He said he was sure of the date and time; he didn’t even bother to write it down. So my mother and I made an hour’s trip for no reason. *sigh* Note to self: Don’t let father make any more important appointments.

I’ve found many small blogs, of course (this is the freaking internet after all, you could find convincing photographic evidence of the apocalypse if you looked long enough), but here’s my problem: they’re all carbon copies of one another. All people write about anymore is their daily lives (okay, once in a while, you just need to rant, but frankly, I’d rather hear your opinions on gay marriage and abortion rather than read about what you had for breakfast this morning) but worse, the writing style is horribly monotonous and dull. (I could read about your breakfast bagel if you managed to make it funny, but few people have that kind of talent.)

The layouts, of course, all look the same- confined to the same boxes, the same (occasionally displayed in an iframe) template of updates and news streams, lack of browser compatibility, bright colors, and fonts either set to a default or to a microscopic size.

The worst is the utter lack of originality and creativity in the “visitor content”. I swear, I feel like if I see one more “How To Start Your Own Website” tutorial, I’m going to throw a rock at the author’s head (a virtual rock, I suppose?). There are hundreds- why make another that basically paraphrases someone elses’ article?

And reviews? Yes, they’re fun. Yes, they’re useful. But not everyone should offer reviews. Not everyone’s good enough, or knows enough about websites, to be critiquing others’ websites- why do you think I don’t offer reviews? I think it would be fun, but, honestly, I don’t know enough to feel comfortable giving critique on a regular basis. I’m hardly a professional- and neither are half the people offering reviews. And, again, the “reviews” are usually monotonous, say the same things to every website, and are too nice- either because the reviewer is afraid to give critique (hypocritical and missing the point, much?) or doesn’t see the problems with the site (see above comments, please.)

Whatever happened to the creative genius? It’s the original ideas of the owner that give a website it’s “spark”, not the fact that it offers up 200,000 different “icon coloring” tutorials or an article on every aspect of the most basic HTML. It’s true that most everything’s been written about before, but bring something new to the table- an idea that you thought up all on your own, a collaboration of other ideas- have at least SOMETHING that can’t be found anywhere else. A website is supposed to reflect who YOU are, not who the rest of the internet is, or what the latest trends are. Write and make content that best reflects your ability and opinions, not your neighbor’s. Then, maybe, I’ll stick around- I’ll be very interested in what the real you has to say.

Naturally, though, there’s always an exception. In this case, it’s Biology. Today’s class was the one and only review class that I will be present for before the exam. We did about 60 multiple-choice practice exams- and the results were a little … disturbing, to say the least. 28 correct. Twenty-eight out of sixty. And let me tell you, someone who had an A in the class all year and has no trouble whatsoever taking tests should not be getting less than 50%. Something is clearly wrong.

Out of all my AP classes, the teacher for my Biology class seems to be the least focused/concerned with the AP exam. In Calculus, we had more than a month of review. Even in AP U.S., we managed to get a good two weeks of review in (and AP U.S. is a two-semester class that my county somehow forces into a single semester). But in Biology, we barely did any review for the test, and didn’t finish covering the curriculum until Wednesday (the test is on Monday). There is no reason that we couldn’t have just as much review time as in the other classes- AP Bio ran all year, for crying out loud.

During the year, the class barely went into all the curriculum details that are needed to pass the exam. AP Biology felt more like a second year of regular Honors Biology than it did an AP course. I don’t think it’s supposed to happen like that, no?

I think that the Biology teacher is much less preoccupied with having us pass the exam than he is with having us pass his class. We never went over exam format, and we don’t even know how many multiple choice are on the exam, let alone how much time we have for each section. Let alone review the curriculum. Hello? I want my college credit. The only reason I took this class was to take the exam- and if I had honestly known what this class was going to be like, I never would have signed up for it last year. Never. I could have done so many better things with my time (like taking an AP class that I actually have a chance of passing the test for…) And the worst part is, I had no idea that we were so unprepared for the exam until first period this morning. I’ve got a lot of studying to do over the weekend.

Or not. One thing that I’m getting absolutely sick of is the media over-exaggerating every little thing until something that poses relatively little threat is being portrayed as the next Bubonic Plague. Like the Swine Flu. So far, the only known death in the U.S. from the Swine Flu was that of a toddler. The real flu kills thousands every year, but the news doesn’t make a big deal about that, do they? Why is it that we never hear about deaths from the regular flu, but as soon as someone (a toddler, no less- toddlers and the elderly are much more suceptible to disease than everyone else) dies from a new strain, it’s a pandemic. Honestly.

Pay attention to the facts, people. You’re not going to get swine flu. You can stop panicking. Even if you do somehow find yourself sick with it, you’re not going to die. You can open your doors and windows, you can shake hands with people without feeling the need to sanitize yourself afterwards. You’ll be fine. But all the noise and fear is making you sound ignorant and pathetic. If it weren’t for the media’s over-coverage of this little flu strain, you’d never even have heard of it.

So… new layout. I thought I wasn’t going to make a new layout until I bought my new domain, but I changed my mind after playing in Photoshop for an hour or so yesterday. And I decided to go back to a two-column theme- I needed my sidebar. Oh, and the search bar is now in the sidebar for easier access. Let me know if there are any compatibility issues or if you find something wrong with the layout (i.e., too bright or something). I’d be glad to work on any bugs, and your help is appreciated!

I realized that I’d never posted a video for this month. I haven’t had time to even make an interesting video, let alone upload one. So, you’re going to get a video that I DIDN’T make. Without further ado, I present to you a video made by a few of my classmates last year in orchestra. Yes, in class. Don’t ask.

I’m just going to say that I’m probably the only one who actually finds this funny. Mostly because I watched it being made…

I’ve been considering this for some time now. I think I’ve just outgrown the domain “RainysWorld”, for the simple reason that I’m sick of using an online alias instead of my real name, and, without my alias of “Rainy”, the domain just doesn’t fit any more. Why? I’d really like to be able to put myself out on the internet a bit more, start taking on more design projects, etc. If I want to do that, I can use RainysWorld as a design example, but it looks sort of silly if I’m using an alias on my own personal site. I also would like to be able to show this blog to people I know in real life; again, being called “Rainy” online is sort of embarrassing.

After all, the only reason I was ever called Rainy to begin with was because of Neopets. And doesn’t that just say it all?

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still be here. Just not necessarily under this name. And I’ll be sure to let everyone know what my new URL will be before I switch to it. I have to work this all out still; I’m not even sure if I’ll be able to make this switch in the near future. But, in the meantime, I want to ask- does anyone have any domain name suggestions? I have a few suggestions: I’d like it to be a .net ending, though I would accept .me. I’d also like to have just one word in my URL, to avoid hyphens. Any ideas? What do you think of the idea of changing the name of my website?

Edit: I added a lot of new stock photos today, and added preview thumbnails to the entire section. Enjoy!

Why was I always so down on myself in middle school? I have no idea. If I had to take a guess, I’d say I did it to myself with my quiet personality- it’s a lot harder for quiet people to establish relationships, believe me. And, because I didn’t have as many friends as some of my classmates (though, looking back, I was far from friendless), I decided that I just wouldn’t care about making friends, which leaked over into other aspects of my manner. I never really cared if I looked a mess (which I didn’t often, but I had my days). Maybe it wasn’t my fault, but I do know that I always felt like I could never measure up.

But not anymore. For some reason, this year in particular, I’ve become more confident in who I am and more comfortable with myself. I’m willing to recognize that I’m not a friendless freak, and that I actually am generally pretty well-liked. I don’t know when I had this epiphany, but it’s been nice knowing that I’m appreciated and loved for myself. I’ve really been able to appreciate myself, my talents and my body more in the last year than I ever have before.

I’m still quiet, of course, but I like to think that I walk a little taller, hold my head up a little higher, than I did in my middle school days. Self-love and self-confidence aren’t easy to establish, but they’re a sign of inner strength and self-worth. It’s a lot easier to face life, school, and everything in between if you have confidence in your own ability to stand up to the task, or so I’ve found.

What am I getting at here? Appreciate yourself. Your own mind is your harshest critic, keep in mind- things are never as bad as they look in a mirror. And the easier you find it to love yourself, the easier other people will find it to like you. Have a little confidence- it’s worth working for.

One of my friends in particular has been in a seemingly endless depressed and pessimistic mood for the past two weeks. I’m well aware that she has a few problems, but sometimes, I catch myself thinking, “Why do you keep dwelling on the things that are making you miserable? Just think about something else for a change, already!” If I didn’t know that there was something more going on there, I’d be incredibly frustrated with her. Since when does a bad mood get anyone anything?

There’s a song that I downloaded a few weeks ago, called “Change Your Mind” by Sister Hazel- it’s about how you can change your outlook on life by shifting your attitude:

“If you’re tired of fighting battles with yourself,
if you want to be somebody else,
change your mind”
-Change Your Mind, Sister Hazel

Imagine what the world would be like if we all adopted more positive outlooks on life. Imagine if we all started trying to be happy rather than wallowing in our own misery, what could we do? I know it’s not possible for everyone to be happy all the time- and expecting that would be unrealistic. But, especially with the situation of the world today- with all the bad news that floods our TVs and computer monitors on a regular basis- couldn’t we all afford to try to put ourselves in a better mood?

So try it sometime. Next time something bad happens, think about it a little differently- you never know what it could do for you.

I’m sorry about the downtime with the blog over the weekend- it wasn’t my fault; my MySQL was down, and so was my website login. I tried everything, but even FTP was down, so there was no way for me even to let you guys know what was happening.

Since last year, the school board and administration has been taking a chainsaw to my favorite classes. They’ve been particularly hard on my school’s performing arts program. Last year, they cut our music program in half (we only had one full-time music teacher to begin with. Now, our music teacher has to spend half the year at another school and half the year at ours. Which, by the way, led to my favorite teacher and my best friend leaving the school.) The only music classes that are being offered to us are Guitar, Chorus, and one instrumental music class, with Band and Orchestra combined. This sucks- we all used to have our own separate classes, and now, not only is the class huge, the atmosphere is completely different.

This year, they’ve decided to completely cut out the Drama classes, which has upset the drama kids just as much as the elimination of half the music program upset the band kids last year. Several other electives, like Journalism and Creative Writing, were axed too.

AP classes are also not being offered next year to the extent that they were this year. We’ve managed to pick up one new AP class- AP European History- but AP Chemistry and AP Physics, which were supposed to be offered next year, were cut.

Why? Why must they do this to us? I have a couple of theories. First of all, I don’t think that our administration is a big fan of the perfoming arts- why is it that music and drama are the first things to go? I KNOW people sign up for the classes. They say that they think the arts are important, but do they really believe it?

AP classes are getting cut because teacher’s time is getting absorbed in teaching state-test prep and remedial classes for those who can’t pass state tests, mandated by our favorite president Bush’s No-Child-Left-Behind Act (which didn’t really work anyway).

Then again, it just might be that all of our budget money is being taken up by the School Board’s decision to build themselves a multi-million dollar brand-new office space. IN THE MIDDLE OF A RECESSION. Yeah, that might have something to do with it. Who knows what would happen if they took that money and invested it back into classes and the schools themselves?

New layout, if you didn’t notice! A bit different from my previous style, but I like it nonetheless. If anyone has any ideas for blog entries or articles, they would be much appreciated- I don’t have much inspiration at the moment.

So, aside from all that, I haven’t really gotten anything done around here that would be of interest. No articles, thoughtful blogs (you probably noticed that…), nothing. I have lots of ideas, but no time. =P Figures. I’ll post a real blog tomorrow or in a few days, but I figured that I’d better post something or other to let you know I hadn’t dropped off the face of the planet.

I need to work on a new layout. I like this one, but I’m bored with it, and I need a change from this layout pattern. I’m thinking something minimal and orange, maybe with a bit of green. Ideas?

Featured in the very first video is my cat, Goober*. It’s only a few seconds long, but it made me laugh. (Ignore the shaky photography- that’s my fault. I suck at taking videos.)

*- Goober isn’t his real name. Actually, it’s Twilight (NOT a reference to those books by the way)- my sister named him that when he was just a kitten, but I think Goober suits him much better.

Before long, the grass will be turning green, the snow will be gone, and the flowers blooming- or so I hope. As I mentioned before, spring is one of my favorite seasons, and whenever it comes around, my mood and motivations soar. So, for the sake of keeping the mood of my blog at least somewhat light, I’ve postponed two hate-filled angry rants and decided to post instead a list of my favorite spring-related things.

• Cherry blossoms. Cherry blossoms are one of my favorite flowers (blossoms? Whatever they are.) and they come out in spring! This is part of what makes Washington, D.C. so amazing in the early spring: the cherry trees. My grandparents also have a lovely tree in their front yard that produces gorgeous pink blossoms. I like to lay under it and throw the little flowers at Toucan. The darker pink blossoms are the prettiest.
• Hyacinth bulbs. Yeah, yeah, another flower. But they smell so nice, and they look so pretty! Probably my second-favorite spring bloom. (If you’re wondering, third is lilacs- there’s actually a lovely little lilac bush outside of my window, and whenever I open my bedroom window to let a little fresh air in, the scent of the lilac bush comes in as well. Gorgeous.) If you don’t actually know what a hyacinth looks like (poor deprived children!) you can find a picture of one here.
• Longer days. Another of my major issues with winter: It doesn’t get light until 8AM, and gets dark at 5:30. It’s starting to get light earlier (I get on the bus at 6:30, and by that time the sun is starting to rise. Not that that’ll last- daylight savings time starts next week. Bleh. Too early.) and is staying dark later (6:30 or so- soon to be 7:30). More daylight means more happy!
• Warmer weather. Should be self-explanatory. It’s just so much easier for me to stay comfortable in warm weather than in cold- and oh, to be able to go outside without piling on three extra pairs of pants and four extra shirts!

I think that about sums up my love of spring in a few bullets! Only a few more weeks and it’ll be here for real- and hopefully, to stay- at least until next winter. You’ll be getting the hate-filled rants any time now, by the way- I’m sure they’re much more fun to read than my love-filled lists. =)

At my school, the social studies classrooms are all along the same hallway, and most are separated by temporary partitions (things pretending to be walls, but which are actually about as thick as a piece of cardboard). My fourth period classroom has a normal cinderblock wall separating it from one of the neighboring classrooms, and a partition separating it from the other neighboring room.

Fourth period is my AP US history class. Next door, a class of merit (grade-level) freshmen are having their required government class. The only thing separating the classes is the temporary wall.

Naturally, the freshmen are a bit… loud. They’re freshman, and they’re not even honors freshmen- how could anyone expect anything different? But, naturally, my AP U.S. teacher sees a major problem. He has the belief that his AP class is sacred, and that anyone who dares to disturb it is an immature and obnoxious jerk. His logic is that because we’re AP kids- smart, and taking a college class- that we deserve ultimate rights over the building.

Occasionally, the freshmen will get too loud, especially when there’s a substitute teacher. But even when they’re not being particularly loud, our teacher has our class treating them with blatant disrespect, including slamming their door and raising the volume of our lesson to ridiculous levels to over-compete with their noise level. They justify this with the fact that they’re disturbing our concentration with their noise. Why is it, then, that I sit right next to the wall, but can concentrate perfectly fine?

Usually, the teacher of the freshmen is as compensating as she can be, changing the structure of her classes when we have tests so that the disturbance will be minimal, but, in truth, there isn’t much that she can do- they’re grade-level freshmen. They talk. It happens.

The disturbances wouldn’t be quite so bad if we didn’t have to take time out of our class to actually ACKNOWLEDGE the noise. I’m sick of the negativitiy- it’s coming from both sides now. Both our blatant disrespect of their lesson and their disrespect of ours has to end. I think our class in particular has pushed this out of proportion and needs to let it be. I’m sick of my teacher’s AP elitism- just because he only has to teach AP kids and social studies electives (in other words, kids who want to be in his classes) doesn’t mean that everyone else has such well-behaved classes. And just because those freshmen aren’t as intellectually gifted and need a different lesson structure than we do doesn’t give them any less right to learn.

It’s coming to the point where this interrupts the lesson five or six times a class period, and every time, I want to stand up and give the teacher a piece of my mind. It’s a pity that I’m not that bold.

Just to clarify, I DO like my AP US teacher, and the teacher next door, as well. I’m just sick to death of the negativity that seems to be passing through the temporary wall just because of a difference in grade level, work level and teaching style. Sorry if that seemed a bit disjointed, but I’m clearly not happy, so my oh-so-eloquent writing style disappeared (/sarcasm).

Was I really sick? No, actually. As I type this, school has just let out for everyone else, and I’m absolutely fine- I feel normal, and I might as well be on the bus with everyone else. Why did I go home? Every month, I get crippling menstural cramps. (Yes, I’m talking about the ones that come with your period.) Usually on the first day or two of my period, they are so bad that I end up shaking, bordering on nausea, and doubled over my desk in pain. However, it doesn’t take much to cure the pain- two ibuprofen pills, and half an hour later I’m fine again.

So what’s the problem? I can just bring a bottle of Advil to school with me and take it whenever I need to, right? That would make sense, wouldn’t it? Unfortunately, that’s not the way my school district sees it.

Advil and other over-the-counter painkillers are not allowed at any school. If a student is caught taking Advil or sharing it with a friend, it is to be treated as a drug offense- dealt with in the same way as someone taking or sharing crack or cocaine. You can get suspended this way. You could probably even get expelled.

Because I can’t keep a bottle of Advil in my backpack, every time I forget to take a painkiller before school, or my period sneaks up on me while I’m there, my mother has to drive thirty miles to pick me up, and then another thirty back to work. She’s wasting her time and gas money to pick me up from school for something that I could have fixed myself if I wasn’t afraid of being suspended!

This is the second time this has happened.

I am sick and tired of forcing my mother to make unnecessary trips to come and pick me up from school every time I have cramps. This is one of the school district’s most ridiculous policies. There is absolutely no reason to continue forcing parents to drive the distance (and in some cases, this is quite a ways) to give their kids something they could easily give themselves.

I think it’s time for a serious policy reform here.

So, instead of a thoughtful opinion piece, today, since I really feel guilty for not blogging for more than a week, you get a list of random things that are going through my head right now. Doesn’t that just make you feel like wetting yourself with excitement…?!

• I’m going to the University of Maryland tomorrow for “Junior/Sophomore Visit Day”. College is looming over my head, and I don’t like it. At all. This sucks… how did I get halfway through my junior year? And I still haven’t the slightest clue what I want to do with my life. Bleh.
• I need to blog more often. My favorite blogs are the ones that update semi-daily or daily, why don’t I do that? I’m such a freaking hypocrite… after all, it’s not like I don’t have the ideas to blog about…
• AP U.S. sucks. The workload is huge, and I hate the school board for trying to cram a yearlong course into three and a half months. When will they learn that cutting expenses like this isn’t good for the students?!?!
• I signed up for a Web Development class for next year. I’m not sure that was a good idea… I have the feeling that if it ends up in my schedule, I’m going to be very, very bored.
• I think God reads my blog. Really. I posted that blog about being desparate for spring, and we had an entire week of sunny, 60-degree weather. Amazing. Unfortunately, now it’s cold again. And it probably will be for the next six weeks.
• I am so sick of people in the U.S. who refuse to support our new president. (*cough*Rush Limbaugh and his “I hope he fails” remark…) I don’t care WHAT you think about his policies, he’s in charge now, and if he doesn’t run the country well, it will hurt all of us. I’m also a little annoyed with the people who are frustrated with him already, and not having turned the country around yet… Come on. It’s been three weeks… give the man a chance.
• So our orchestra class has been in session for three weeks and we still haven’t had our seating placements yet. That’s bad. Really bad. Though we’ve managed to cut down our half an hour of tuning to 15 minutes!
• One of my cats is snoring really loudly. I wonder if that means something bad…?
• I still have several articles that I’m working on. And so far, I haven’t found the energy to finish up the Twilight review, either. Sorry… but I did put up the Domain Discrimination article that I promised months ago!! (timeliness fail.)
• I should really be doing my Calculus homework right now. And my mother just came in here to tell me so.
• I’m supposed to be going snow tubing this afternoon, but my friends just called me to inform me that none of them could actually go. And now I’m stuck with the choice of going and hanging out with some of my sister’s friends, or staying at home. Thanks, guys, thanks a lot.
• I’m running out of list ideas…
• Hm… the quality of these list items seems to be declining seriously as the list goes on… Maybe I should be finished now before the crappy blog post police come and feed me to the hippopotamuses (which are apparently highly aggressive?).

So there you are, thirteen random thoughts straight from my brain. Wasn’t that thought-provoking and enlightening?

No?

Darn.