This past week, whilst avoiding homework and impending AP exams, I decided that it was high time I watched Anne of Green Gables. I actually haven't ever read the book (I am doing that now) but I decided the movie was worth the watch.
And it was.
But oh. My. Goodness.
Let me first say, I'm not a crier. I don't like crying, I don't cry if I can help it.
But this movie. Man. I CRIED. Almost the whole time.
It was just really sad. All the time.
Anne was such a sweet girl. I wanted the best for her. You saw her almost obtain happiness, and then something would tear that away from her.
STOP.
JUST LET HER BE HAPPY.
But alas, the poor orphan girl could not easily obtain happiness.
I mean, she did. Eventually. I think. I sure hope the book concludes better than the movie did. Dang cliffhangers.
But yeah.
The movie is about a poor orphan girl, Anne, and she is just a chatty little Cathy. She's a brilliant girl, but just as Don Quixote, she was an idealist. And people thought that was weird. But then a mix-up happened and Anne was adopted by an elderly brother and sister. They almost didn't keep her, but in the end decided to. The movie is essentially about her growing up with them.
It's incredibly sweet and there are a lot of good morals in it as well.
Also, so far, it goes along almost exactly with the book. However, that does make the movie a little over three hours I believe.
Nonetheless. I thought it was a wonderful watch, and I would recommend it. I mean, who doesn't love hearing an eleven year old say things like "a perfect graveyard of buried hopes."
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Why do you do this to me
It's that time of year. When students' attention spans are worse than they have ever been. When teachers are for some reason still teaching new material even though students just want review. When an open window is simply tempting with what we can't have.
Summer is just around the corner. We have a little over a month left of school, and roughly a week or two until AP exams.
That means STRESSSTRESSSTRESS.
I'm sure teachers don't enjoy this time of year either, but seeing as that I am a student, you get to see it from my point of view.
One of the big dilemmas is when a student takes both AP and regular classes. While (most) AP classes are into review at this point of the year, regular classes are still learning new material and assigning regular homework assignments. I don't think teachers understand how much time and effort is needed to complete all homework and to try to review all material learned in a class. Seriously. First term? Did that even happen? 'Cuz I don't remember at all.
Another reason school sucks now is because it's getting nice outside. Really nice. Not just mid fifties, I mean "sun is shining birds are singing, sky is a perfect blue with fluffy clouds" type of nice. And those few classes one might have with a window are just torturous. You can see the wonderful day outside, but you can't feel it. All you can feel is the freezing cold air pumped out by the supposedly better "geothermal cooling/heating." Honestly. It doesn't work.
Also, AP classes just in general suck this month. Some teachers have finals that week, which means that students are expected to be reviewing all material learned in the class while also learning the last few chapters of new material. That, I promise you, is damn near impossible. Especially if one is involved in sports, has a job, or is a part of any extracurricular activity.
I just want to say this too. No offense to any teachers. I promise. I'm just saying what I see. Teachers seem to be more "crabby" this time of year. I mean, it's understandable. But it does affect the students as well. If you're teacher's pissed off and short tempered and yelling/loudly talking a lot, it tends to put you in a bad mood as well. Honestly, the best thing we can all do then is try to understand. We all have a lot of pressure and stress, so we need to be tolerant and compassionate to others. Especially since you don't know what else is going on in their life at the moment. Then again, we could all apply that to our lives all the time.
As I sit here, stressing from the impending doom of AP exams in two weeks and my AP biology final starting Tuesday, I hope that we all can just chill out a bit. Life sucks. Get over it. Get past it. STUDY YOU LAZY TWAT. Well that's mostly for me. But yeah. You don't ever want to regret what you could have done better. There are no re-dos in life, so do your best always. If you're not going to do a job right, then what's the point?
(This has been a personal pep talk by Our Lady of Self Discipline)
Summer is just around the corner. We have a little over a month left of school, and roughly a week or two until AP exams.
That means STRESSSTRESSSTRESS.
I'm sure teachers don't enjoy this time of year either, but seeing as that I am a student, you get to see it from my point of view.
One of the big dilemmas is when a student takes both AP and regular classes. While (most) AP classes are into review at this point of the year, regular classes are still learning new material and assigning regular homework assignments. I don't think teachers understand how much time and effort is needed to complete all homework and to try to review all material learned in a class. Seriously. First term? Did that even happen? 'Cuz I don't remember at all.
Another reason school sucks now is because it's getting nice outside. Really nice. Not just mid fifties, I mean "sun is shining birds are singing, sky is a perfect blue with fluffy clouds" type of nice. And those few classes one might have with a window are just torturous. You can see the wonderful day outside, but you can't feel it. All you can feel is the freezing cold air pumped out by the supposedly better "geothermal cooling/heating." Honestly. It doesn't work.
Also, AP classes just in general suck this month. Some teachers have finals that week, which means that students are expected to be reviewing all material learned in the class while also learning the last few chapters of new material. That, I promise you, is damn near impossible. Especially if one is involved in sports, has a job, or is a part of any extracurricular activity.
I just want to say this too. No offense to any teachers. I promise. I'm just saying what I see. Teachers seem to be more "crabby" this time of year. I mean, it's understandable. But it does affect the students as well. If you're teacher's pissed off and short tempered and yelling/loudly talking a lot, it tends to put you in a bad mood as well. Honestly, the best thing we can all do then is try to understand. We all have a lot of pressure and stress, so we need to be tolerant and compassionate to others. Especially since you don't know what else is going on in their life at the moment. Then again, we could all apply that to our lives all the time.
As I sit here, stressing from the impending doom of AP exams in two weeks and my AP biology final starting Tuesday, I hope that we all can just chill out a bit. Life sucks. Get over it. Get past it. STUDY YOU LAZY TWAT. Well that's mostly for me. But yeah. You don't ever want to regret what you could have done better. There are no re-dos in life, so do your best always. If you're not going to do a job right, then what's the point?
(This has been a personal pep talk by Our Lady of Self Discipline)
Friday, April 26, 2013
I wish I was Martha Stewart. Or Betty Crocker.
\I wish that most schools still offered home economics classes. Mine doesn't.
I know it's kinda silly. But I wish that we had that option.
Iowa State University was established in 1858. In 1872, the first home economic class was taught. Eventually, an entire college of home economics was established.
They had an entire college dedicated to it. Why is it suddenly not as important to have in schools nowadays?
Home economics isn't just sewing and cooking. It also includes other aspects of running a household. One of the major topics that would benefit us high schoolers most is money management. I will never learn how to do my taxes or balance a checkbook, unless my father teaches me.
Of course there are some classes that still contain home ec. topics. Food and nutrition teaches basics of nutrition and calories and stuff. I think we have some sort of money class. But the thing is that these aren't required, and thus, I have little-to-no time to take these classes. With so many required academics and so much emphasis on AP and core classes, any high-reaching student has no time to take such classes.
But then you get into a different debate. Whether or not students should have required courses or what those required classes should be. It's difficult because we are still stuck focusing on creating Renaissance men. We want people well-rounded in all topics. And nowadays, that's just not a reasonable thing to ask.
In many European countries, such as Germany, when children reach a certain age, they are put into schooling programs that are specially designed for their futures. While some might think that takes away their freedom, does it? Sure, it's great that you want to become something when you grow up. But how many people actually achieve that goal? Not that many. So when you're being helped out with achieving a good future, how it that bad?
But really. I wish I knew how to sew. I wish I had been taught the basics, and the not so basics, of cooking. I wish someone would teach me about interior design and the correct methods of home furnishing. I wish I knew the little quirks and secrets to cleaning methods. I wish I knew how to take care of my money besides not spending more than I have.
On the Wikipedia page for home economics, it says that home ec. "teaches students how to properly run a family environment and make the world a better place for generations to come." That might just be nice wording, but it's nice. "Make the world a better place for generations to come." Who doesn't want that?
Sunday, April 21, 2013
I'm sorry
I really am. But I live in Iowa. So it's practically a requirement to blog about the weather.
So spring is finally here. Today anyway.
Tomorrow, it very well could snow, despite being in the sixties today. That's just how Iowa weather works. It's like a middle school girl who just drank a liter of Mountain Dew at one o'clock in the morning. Yeah.
Today, it was sunny and reached 60. Friday, there were freezing cold gales and it was actually snowing.
It's not all bad though.
My absolute favorite thing about spring are the thunderstorms.
I love them. How can you not?
Sure, when I was a youngster, I was scared of the thunder, but now I love it.
I love the way thunder can shake the ground and you can feel it. I love the flash of light and the anticipation of the booming and rumbling. I remember being a little kid and counting the seconds between the light and the noise to see how near the lightning was.
I even love the rain. Most of the time anyway. It's the best when you're inside, especially in a trailer. If you've never been in a trailer or a building with just a metal roof during a storm, you're missing out. Hearing the rain on the roof of your house is one thing. Hearing it directly on metal is a complete other. Rain's also alright when you're outside, but only in certain conditions, like if you're wearing waterproof shoes, or it takes a long time for the water to soak through your shoes. Having an umbrella is favorable, but just a hood will be suffice if the rain is blowing towards your back and not getting in your eyes.
I only really don't like rain or thunderstorms when I'm wearing flimsy shoes or it's cold out. Cold rains SUCK. I'm even going to say cold rain is worse than snow. Snow you can brush away, but cold water sticks to your skin. Hydrogen bonds, man.
And for some reason, thunderstorms during the day are even better than thunderstorms at night, in my opinion. It gets dark, during the day, which is weird, but cool. If I'm at school, that means thunder gets to interrupt the teacher and I don't know, it's just great, in my opinion. Not the teacher getting interrupted, the storms.
So the next time it's thunderstorming, just enjoy it! It's unlikely that there will be a tornado in most cases, and really, it's just the sound from the electrons in clouds being passed to the ground. Or angels bowling, whichever you prefer.
So spring is finally here. Today anyway.
Tomorrow, it very well could snow, despite being in the sixties today. That's just how Iowa weather works. It's like a middle school girl who just drank a liter of Mountain Dew at one o'clock in the morning. Yeah.
Today, it was sunny and reached 60. Friday, there were freezing cold gales and it was actually snowing.
It's not all bad though.
My absolute favorite thing about spring are the thunderstorms.
I love them. How can you not?
Sure, when I was a youngster, I was scared of the thunder, but now I love it.
I love the way thunder can shake the ground and you can feel it. I love the flash of light and the anticipation of the booming and rumbling. I remember being a little kid and counting the seconds between the light and the noise to see how near the lightning was.
I even love the rain. Most of the time anyway. It's the best when you're inside, especially in a trailer. If you've never been in a trailer or a building with just a metal roof during a storm, you're missing out. Hearing the rain on the roof of your house is one thing. Hearing it directly on metal is a complete other. Rain's also alright when you're outside, but only in certain conditions, like if you're wearing waterproof shoes, or it takes a long time for the water to soak through your shoes. Having an umbrella is favorable, but just a hood will be suffice if the rain is blowing towards your back and not getting in your eyes.
I only really don't like rain or thunderstorms when I'm wearing flimsy shoes or it's cold out. Cold rains SUCK. I'm even going to say cold rain is worse than snow. Snow you can brush away, but cold water sticks to your skin. Hydrogen bonds, man.
And for some reason, thunderstorms during the day are even better than thunderstorms at night, in my opinion. It gets dark, during the day, which is weird, but cool. If I'm at school, that means thunder gets to interrupt the teacher and I don't know, it's just great, in my opinion. Not the teacher getting interrupted, the storms.
So the next time it's thunderstorming, just enjoy it! It's unlikely that there will be a tornado in most cases, and really, it's just the sound from the electrons in clouds being passed to the ground. Or angels bowling, whichever you prefer.
Ten things I *insert clever pun here*
Yep, you guessed it. Or you didn't. I don't know, I'm not a mind reader.
10 Things I Hate About You.
I was forced to see this by a certain movie freak friend of mine. She insisted it was a must see, something everyone should have seen besidesneverhavingseenasingleTerminatormoviecoughcough. But nevertheless.
So this afternoon, after baking a cake for our AP US History class, we decided to watch it.
And it's not too bad.
Basically JGL wants this girl and he can't get her because her dad says she can't date. Then her family has an argument and her father says that she can't date until her older sister dates. So JGL decides he's going to make that happen. He and his dorky buddy team up with this douchebag, who also wants the girl, to try and get that to happen. They use the douchebag to pay this rebel dude who everyone is scared of to go out with the girl's older sister. Obviously there are the usual problems like with the douchebag and JGL both wanting the same girl, and other cliched stuff. And I'm just gonna ruin it for you, everyone dies. Just kidding.
So it was released in 1999, and it's essentially a typical chick flick. Not that it's bad.
It has the typical "be yourself" message in there and "don't date douchebags, but feel free to date the shady rebellious and/or dorky guys" message.
But seriously. A movie with a young Heath Ledger and Joseph Gordon Levitt in it? I can't complain.
Along with that though, they did a fantastic job of appealing to my more feminine, girly side of wanting some guy to come and sweep me off my feet, and love me no matter. Sure, it was cliched. But sometimes, we just have to indulge ourselves and let ourselves hope and believe that there really is going to be that perfect guy out there who we will just fall head over heels for.
Overall, I couldn't complain. The acting was good, believable for the time period ("Where did you come from? Planet 'Loser'?") and I generally enjoyed it. And I wouldn't mind watching it again.
But honestly Macy, you can't consider 10 Things I Hate About You to be a "must see" and have never seen any of the Terminator movies. And if you consider Arnold Schwarzenegger to be attractive, it's practically a more action-y 10TIHAY.
10 Things I Hate About You.
I was forced to see this by a certain movie freak friend of mine. She insisted it was a must see, something everyone should have seen besidesneverhavingseenasingleTerminatormoviecoughcough. But nevertheless.
So this afternoon, after baking a cake for our AP US History class, we decided to watch it.
And it's not too bad.
Basically JGL wants this girl and he can't get her because her dad says she can't date. Then her family has an argument and her father says that she can't date until her older sister dates. So JGL decides he's going to make that happen. He and his dorky buddy team up with this douchebag, who also wants the girl, to try and get that to happen. They use the douchebag to pay this rebel dude who everyone is scared of to go out with the girl's older sister. Obviously there are the usual problems like with the douchebag and JGL both wanting the same girl, and other cliched stuff. And I'm just gonna ruin it for you, everyone dies. Just kidding.
So it was released in 1999, and it's essentially a typical chick flick. Not that it's bad.
It has the typical "be yourself" message in there and "don't date douchebags, but feel free to date the shady rebellious and/or dorky guys" message.
But seriously. A movie with a young Heath Ledger and Joseph Gordon Levitt in it? I can't complain.
Along with that though, they did a fantastic job of appealing to my more feminine, girly side of wanting some guy to come and sweep me off my feet, and love me no matter. Sure, it was cliched. But sometimes, we just have to indulge ourselves and let ourselves hope and believe that there really is going to be that perfect guy out there who we will just fall head over heels for.
Overall, I couldn't complain. The acting was good, believable for the time period ("Where did you come from? Planet 'Loser'?") and I generally enjoyed it. And I wouldn't mind watching it again.
But honestly Macy, you can't consider 10 Things I Hate About You to be a "must see" and have never seen any of the Terminator movies. And if you consider Arnold Schwarzenegger to be attractive, it's practically a more action-y 10TIHAY.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
A poem for my AP language and composition class
Abstruse Oblivion
1 My mind roams free
2 Every night,
3 On an adventure,
4 Through the tumult of silence.
5 Everything is loud; everything is silent.
6 My mind out to all of the memories
7 Of the long hard day.
8 All is calm; all is wild.
9 My mind dregs
10 Through the past
11 Reminiscing bittersweet days
12 And mourning the ones wished forgotten.
13 Away slips my mind and my consciousness,
14 Reaching with open arms to the Almighty
15 And deep down to embrace Lucifer.
16 My mind then forgets
17 The eyes, the ears
18 And sees and listens with the heart.
19 In this prison
20 I find freedom
21 From everything
22 And from myself.
Self Analysis
Line 3/12: Personification- “The mind” is said
to “roam free.” Minds don’t actually get up and walk around. Minds also don’t
mourn, technically.
Line 4: Oxymoron- Tumult is defined as
disorder or an outbreak of disorder, which contradicts the word describing it,
“silence.
Line 5/8: Parallelism- Everything/all is
_______; everything/all is _________ = similar structure
Line 11: Paradox- The word bittersweet
contradicts itself, but is accurate.
Line 13: Zeugma- “Away slips my mind”
and “away slips my consciousness” produce different meanings. The latter
intends to create the picture of falling asleep and the former illustrates
dreaming or the like.
Line 13: Inversion- Most would normally
say “my mind slips away” or “my consciousness slips away.”
Line 14/15: Allusion- “The Almighty” refers to God
and “Lucifer” is Satan, in case you didn’t know. Referring to God brings to
mind heaven and good things, so the mind thinks of good things. Mentioning
Satan refers to hell, and thus bad things, and one might make the connection
that the mind thinks of bad things.
Line 17: Metonymy- By looking at line 18,
one can tell that “the eyes” refers to sight and “the ears” refers to hearing
Line 3/9/16: Anaphora- While not in succession, the
repetition of the phrase “my mind” should be evident. Every other sentence begins with the phrase,
emphasizing the subject, the narrator’s mind.
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