Last week, I felt troubled by my procrastination of writing an English journal on Hamlet in which he explained that he was troubled by his procrastination.

The French homework answer key said that some students passed the test without studying; this is unfair!  So why is it unfair?  Some people know the material that they're asked to know better than their classmates.  And how do you know that they really didn't study?  They could be pretending that they didn't study in order to falsely boast about the grades later on.

I have a DVD of The Two Towers but I haven't watched it.  Instead, I've been glued to Futurama and Family Guy DVD collections.  So much for school.  My TOK teacher explained to us today that he would have graded our binders over Thanksgiving break, but he considered the stress that doing so would induce and decided against it.  Well, I'm not going to write extensively when I'm stressed.  I'm just going to go to sleep.  That may not turn out as I hope...

I'm going to take the SATs this weekend even though I'm feeling rather ill-prepared.  I'm going to go through life feeling ill-prepared.  Or, if this weekend was any indication, maybe just ill.

Productivity is so overrated.

I saw someone I vaguely recognized at Shadowland and it turned out that I had classes with him in middle school.  It occured to me briefly that I've forgotten a lot of my life before the past few years, not intentionally, but rather that I just don't know what happened during a certain period of time.

My mom's buying an '86 Mercedes Benz which she assures me looks exactly like our current car.  She picked up the papers today and will have it back from the mechanic after the routine check-up in a few days.  Naturally, I haven't a clue what it looks like.  I never see a new house until the night we move in.

When I briefly consider writing something here, I usually decide against it; when I think in trivialities like OMG this book is so cool! or Man.. I suck, I procrastinate too much, I feel as though posting such thoughts would be demeaning to Pitas.

Back on Friday morning, I realized too late that I looked run down, even more so than usual, especially with the whole dark undereyes thing.  I made a feeble attempt to rectify this by applying concealer but there was no effect whatsoever.  I can only hope that the photo retake went well.

Blah blah, school happened.  When I'm not keeping a time chart for TOK, I have no idea what happened at any given point in the past few days.

I saw both Twelfth Night and Pericles with Wilma this weekend, in that order.  We ran into plenty of people we knew or vaguely recognized because, well, I suppose these people attend the same schools.  (You'd think that would have occured to me sooner...)  RM's open stage after the show is much more fun; after Blair's play, all we could do was leave.  TN played the parts so well that, miracle of miracles, I actually understood most or all of the show.  I think Drama Club definitely gets more credit than I do on that count.  Blair's set was much more elaborate but to compensate they had a few really horrible actresses.

Next time play season rolls around, I'll plan my weekends more carefully and see more than two, so be sure to promote your school whenever you see me.

Ehh.. RM B vs. WJ A tomorrow.  Does this look like an optimistic face to you?  I suppose you can't see me through the computer, so no, it's not optimistic, not by a long shot.

It's getting difficult to talk in sentences, so I'm now saving what precious ability to do so I have left for real life.

Things I learned:

• People are really nice if you're stressed out because of quizzes / tests
• French teachers still give lunch detentions for forgetting a textbook
• Right-brain and left-brain "moods" make homework more difficult

Habits to break:

• Writing English journals the period before
• Starting homework at 9 pm
• Yelling when frustrated
• Predicting 4/20 on quizzes

Never underestimate the power of short term memory.

I typed a lengthy tirade on natural disasters and Math Team, but something happened with MSN Explorer, I pushed the wrong key by accident, and it's gone.  Well, Math Team individual questions are taken in sets of two for ten minutes each; the team questions are five questions for a group of five people for fifteen minutes.  We got through 1-2 and 3-4 as well as most of the team questions at today's meet at RM when the fire alarm sounded and everyone had to go outside.  Our exceedingly generous coaches (did they pay for this out of their own pockets or do we have more money than I thought?) had six pizzas for all of us, including the people from other schools, that we ate outside.  We tried to wait patiently while the alarms started and stopped intermittently, but we collectively got fed up with it all and went back inside to attempt 5-6 during a longer stretch of several minutes with no sounds.  We'd been sitting there for barely three or four minutes when the alarm sounded again and we were sternly ordered to take it seriously and leave the building because firemen were there, and if something has happened that firemen need to be there, we were not to stay in the building just in case there really is a huge fire somewhere inside and in case it spreads through the halls and kills us all.  Everyone evacuated and drama was stuck outside for a while, interrupted right when the rehearsal was to have started.  They let us back in sooner than I expected and there was an announcement that although the school had been deemed inhabitable (hah), they would be on "fire alert" and check for fires every thirty minutes.  Poor RM Math, though; since 5-6 couldn't be counted, A team is down ten potential points and might now be behind Gaithersburg in the county rankings.  (And that's scarier than any horror movie.)

Late at night, when it's deserted, my mom's office building is eerily silent.  The sensation that someone's watching you and ready to attack is omnipresent; the shadowy doors and unusual noises come straight from a horror film, complete with narrow white hallways that resemble the trademark camera angles.  I hate walking through a seemingly deserted area when I'm convinced that it's not.

Is there a phrase to describe the specific mix of panic and adrenaline that accompanies a test well done?  Probably not -- I'm glad quarter one's done and dead, at least until some report card grades make their way into my hands.  We'll see what kinds of panic worked and what didn't work when that day comes.

The nice thing about quarter changes is that as teachers who have lives realize they have four weeks' backlog of grading to catch up on, we get two half days, which I'm spending at Sandy's, working on our Final Frontiers Lunar Bridge.  I've never worked with hot glue before, so I experienced for the first time those odd two seconds between the time the glue hits your finger and the time you actually realize that your hand feels like it's going to burn off.  Slow reaction time would be much funnier to watch in someone besides myself, though.  As for the bridge project, I have no idea whether it will succeed, let alone be able to compete against other, more carefully crafted bridges.  Ours still has newspaper bits stuck to the glue because we can't glue properly, and it all strings into long cobwebs that follow the sticks around the table.

Sometimes, on those days I try to avoid my homework like the procrastinator that I can be, I skim through entries in other people's weblogs and I wonder whether they lead such exciting lives or whether they simply write more eloquently than I do.  Some entries sound positively magical, but others rave about a wonderful day, only to reveal that all those touching, heartwarming conversations took place over a lifeless instant messenger.

I still can't believe that I only slept three and a half hours last night; how did I ever manage as little as I did in middle school on a regular basis?  Why did I so desperately avoid losing consciousness at the end of a long day?  Sleep is one of my newest friends.

Who rocks your socks?  RM It's Academic!!

All three teams made it to the playoffs; A team won the tournament, as well as a curvy trophy.  Details on the site when I get around to getting it hosted . . . hopefully by Monday or Tuesday.

Once I get the It's Ac web site started, I'll stop padding my own page with reminders to myself and congratulations to the various teams.  However, since it's not done (English homework intervened), I can say that RM won the Quizmaster Invitational!  Finally, another trophy to accompany last year's Blake tournament pair.

I took the real PSATs today, not to be confused with those taking a practice booklet and grading it for their own reference.  While I don't want to get my hopes too high, I did aim to do well, and I'm sure I beat my own score from last year, at the very least.  The Writing section eludes me; there are stylistic atrocities all over the page (not that I don't commit them here) and none of the phrases I despise are underlined.  Speaking of which, has anyone seen the RMHS PTSA newsletter?  Oh, it certainly reads like a correction passage.  They would do well to have someone proofread the entire document before it's sent to print.

UMD math tomorrow morning.  I don't remember why I signed up, but I suppose it can't be that bad if it's a contest.  After all, it's getting me away from English class.  I still have to turn in my story... so much for attempting to drop the work from schoolwork.  Palmer also awaits.  No notes, no highlighting, and two mere cursory readings.  Talk about flirting with failure.

Using studying for the PSAT: Writing as a flimsy excuse, I read Strunk and White's The Elements of Style.  Attempting to write with good style is akin to trying to breathe normally.  Neither is the same with conscious effort.  I can't do either activity effectively; so far, I've taken eight minutes to write four sentences.  How do I usually use words?  (Don't say, "badly.")  I don't know, how do I normally breathe?

I vowed not to mention ordinary It's Ac practices, but I rather like one of the newest possible solutions to our buzzer problems.  Twenty one dollars is a high asking price for a plastic box with uniform machinery, is it?  Then, we'll build our own buzzers.  I smell impending disaster (as well as some food outside), but then again, Science Bowl soldered their buzzers when they were falling apart.

Does everyone dream in fuzzy vision?  It rarely occurs to me that the world doesn't look that fuzzy and isn't as slow as molasses in reality, so I don't have lucid dreams often, but I really can't perceive lines and colors as clearly when I'm dreaming.  Colors are always there, but they're also a little messed up during motion.  I have shopping dreams too, even though I don't shop regularly for anything.  Hello, materialism.  It's probably the piles of unread books and empty containers in my room.

The It's Academic tournament at Blake today... took place.  I saw people I know at other schools.  Banish today's Blair B vs. RM B game from your mind... we'll meet again on a (slightly) better day.  One of these days, I'll think of something useful to do with my Blair connections.  Something besides the obvious potential homework help.  Something a little bit more... sinister?

I feel comparatively unambitious.

There ain't nothing else to say except that by consensus of one parent, one teacher, and four or more students, I need to do something about my 2:30 fatigue.  Common suggestions include getting more sleep and having a light snack after seventh period.  What I should do is give up the internet, give up comic books, and give up working hard for classes in which hours more effort has no effect on the letter grade.  (Actually, I have done the third one, but the first two draw me away from good study habits with their collective visual siren song.)

Every day and the entire week can't possibly be taken by It's Academic and Math Team alone, yet that's all that stands out on the page.  And I know perfectly well that there is a world outside of my school; it's almost everything else out there, but school doesn't just nibble at time, it gobbles it up faster than my friends could eat the cookies I so generously brought to school.  They were quite good, and people asked if I baked them, but I didn't; I'm not that skilled in any discipline, never mind that I don't cook or bake.  They aren't just store-bought, I think- your tax dollars (or, more accurately, your parents' tax dollars) paid for them.  Ever notice poorly told anecdotes (like this one) always take a lot longer to be told than they need to be?

I can feel something that feels like carpal tunnel after writing those As I Lay Dying journals until a bit past midnight.  Analysing literature isn't bad except under time / grades pressure, but then again, it doesn't get done unless there's a deadline.  And that's when it reads the worst.  I pity the English teachers who muddle through our convoluted pages upon pages, either resorting to hurried, inaccurate grading or succumbing to several weeks of a four page essay every day.

Is there a well known piece of literature by the title, "The Turn of the Screw" (or something very similar) that is written by a Henry but not Henry James?

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before . . .

Oh, responsibility awaits.  So much for the luxury of reading during the school year.

School requires actual thought and contemplation and lots of other phrases for mental exercise.  Staying home does not.  Unfortunately, I went to school today and took a frightening Math test.  BC Calc is intimidating.  I was annoyed only that the problems all resembled examples we've learned and that I just should have studied.  Too bad my eyes glaze over every time I try.

I briefly considered purchasing a digital camera just so that I could have one and delight in taking pictures of everyone and everything, but I don't think I would take pictures that much.  That, and there are a lot of material possessions cluttering up my bedroom floor that I haven't so much as glanced at in the past few weeks.

In this past weekend's It's Academic tournament at Blake, TJ placed first, Blair placed fifth, and RM placed sixth.  Not bad, but... TJ tournament should be good, if only because TJ can't compete.  By the way, if there's anyone I haven't asked "How many It's Ac players does it take to change a flat tire?" who wants to be asked, by all means, contact me.  Good luck finding an AIM name or e-mail address.  (Hint: it's rather obvious if you look at the URL.)

Oh, and RM homecoming was last weekend as well.

Life is fun.

You probably expect more than that for an entry.  It's been one of those wildly oscillating weeks.  Shopping at B&N is satisfying because I like buying books, even if getting around to reading them takes a tiny bit of effort.  The people at the local B&N annoy me, so I've considered going further away, but adapting to a new bookstore layout is tough.  Also, irrelevantly, I rather liked today's English quiz.  I sat in a quiet classroom and wrote a silly story using big words that I didn't have to study (which is good, because I didn't study the 100 word list).

The next time I'm bored, I may go through Sparknotes.com and read their character lists and summaries.  Probably not, but it's something to consider.  That's gotta be more useful in the long run than checking my e-mail 5 or 10 times per day.  And of course, it seems silly to call memorizing trivia useful, but turn on the Game Show Network in ten years and you'll see... some total strangers.  Because I don't like such matters, and I'd never be able to pass an arts / sports / entertainment section.

When I get through my stack of purchased yet unread books and comics and magazines, I need to assemble a new reading list, i.e. things I "should" read and am at least marginally interested in but haven't made time for.  Classics would be good, and by classics I mean not published within the past five years, so almost anything is fair game.

What does it mean when someone "has a life"?

"Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream by night." -Edgar Allen Poe

Stayed home sick yesterday.  Rule: for every day of school you miss, you fall behind three days.  Corollary: for every day you fall behind, it will take you more than one day to catch up.

I don't know where to go to college or how to ask the representatives questions and I have no one to ask for recommendations.  IB is no longer free here and I have to pay some enormous sum to get that special diploma; I think it probably averages out to more per subject than six AP tests.

How can anyone actually focus on all the detailed stories in IB History?  Everything in every subject is going way over my head.

Colleges always visit during classes you don't want to miss or can't afford to miss.  And finally, the one day you're absent is the only day the IB coordinator gives out donuts.  Not that I really wanted donuts, but... it might have helped keep me awake.

Mosquito bites on my wrist really suck.  So does missing Soheil Nasseri in concert because MCPS is strange and cancelled school this past Thursday.  On the other hand, huge amounts of homework is continually getting pushed back, especially since school is also cancelled for tomorrow.  I'm one of the fortunate ones in this area, it seems, as I only lost electricity for about twelve hours.  (Of course, there were some new housing developments that lost their power for all of ten seconds.)  All things considered, I don't mind Hurricane Isabel very much.  It let me spend some time of dubious quality dilly-dallying around at a house besides my own.  Watching the "hurricane" (which hit this area as a mild storm and did not flood or otherwise damage my house).

Although people have been using candles as emergency or normal lighting for centuries, I don't trust anyone in this age to use them and start panicking every time one is lit (besides birthday candles and the like).  How many times have any of you (non-pyros) had to extinguish an unexpected fire?  I unconditionally prefer flashlights.

I've always taken the DC metro area's diversity for granted, I think, because whenever I go travelling I'm struck by the homogenity of small towns and tourist attractions.

I'm happy to realize that I've emerged from a week or so completely unscathed, considering

• I tripped, fell down a few steps, and caught the railing, thanks to my sleep-deprived state
• I almost literally walked into a couple of people
• Math homework inexplicably takes me half an hour... (but it's only the beginning of Calculus -_-)
• English journals, English journals, English orals, and more English journals.  Stay calm, stay calm...

I've whined non-stop since school started and no one's even pretended to slap some sense into me!

History sucks.  Well, sometimes.

I think I look distracted when I space out or play games or draw during class, because my teachers have been very good at calling on me the moment I stop paying attention.  Let's hope this three- or four-day trend doesn't continue.

I need to study for the SAT II Math IIc... does anyone have words of advice / encouragement / discouragement?

If you'd asked me earlier today (which my teacher actually did) what 'apprendre' means (it's a French verb), I would have absolutely no idea.  (I think I could have conjugated it a little bit, though...)  I do believe I suddenly need more sleep.

I am now a 'Team Manager' for RM It's Ac.  While this sounds important in a dubious, hesitant sort of way, it has a much more modest meaning.  Wouldn't it be nice if there was more power involved?  (Let's leave that part up to the imagination...)

I've forgotten so many things over the summer.

"Nothing makes time more valuable than knowing exactly what to do with it." -T.S. Eliot

This morning, I couldn't remember why I'm taking IB Physics.  We did the dizzy bat thing today.. you hold a bat perpendicular to the ground (look at me, I'm using math terms in a different context!!), bend over a bit so that you're facing the ground while holding the bat.... and spin around 10 times.  Did I mention I already have an incredibly bad sense of balance and direction?  I'm talking about walking into walls and falling down easily.. yes, so, I had mud on my clothes today!  (Alina asked me if it was gold paint.. now why would I have something like that on my shirt and pants??)  Oh, and, I'm taking IB Physics because I've hated the Pre-IB samplings of the other two main sciences.  Plus it'll give me my third HL, though I have somewhat bad feelings about how that's going to go.

It's Ac is up and running.. seems like it's been so very long.  I'm more relieved than excited.  Well, that, and mildly pleased with myself.  Yay for improving in Literature... and Sheila, I think you still owe me a packet you promised (?) a long time ago.

CP3 makes me feel kinda stupid.  Let's see how long I can keep up without getting CodeWarrior for home...

I just realized that in my Haloscan numbers, I put 1, 2, 4, 3.  That's kind of stupid.

Too much school!  Too few things to say.  The Prince isn't bad at all, but I have doubts of my own ability to discuss it.  I wonder what seminars are like...?  I have to talk more in TOK.  The teacher's nice and the classmates are nice and all, it's just... it's always too funny or too perfect, and I don't want to interrupt watching the class by participating in it.

A humongous bleh to not having It's Ac practice today, staff meetings are stupid.  Do they really have to go?  Isn't it more fun to spend the afternoon with mildly strange students?  Okay, maybe not, but still...

It seems we'll probably be at the WJ scrimmage on the 25th, which really sucks for me and my procrastination skills (or lack thereof), but it's The Prince and I've read parts of it before, so maybe it won't be all that bad.  And... uh... oh!  Pizza's here!

*END*

It's a new layout!  You can either celebrate the end of that stupid old trees and huge text abomination I had before (can you tell I'm tired of that old layout?) or you might throw rotten fruit at this page.  Hey, I wouldn't mind -- it is your monitor that you're defacing.

Day one of school was weird.  I didn't fill out as many boring forms as usual, and I (stupidly) forgot to bring pens to school, so I borrowed one from Willa -- and promptly lost it.  Willa, if you ever change your mind, I'll still give you one of my nearly equivalent pens.  Poor first impressions aside, I really need to get my name changed with MCPS.  Does anyone reading this know how it's done?

At four forty-five, 50 mph winds knocked down tree branches everywhere and the power stayed out for over 21 hours, at least at my residence.  (Although many suffered for less than 20 minutes, I understand a handful of people did get it worse than I did.)  It was something of a novelty for a while... we brought each of our own flashlights, 4 for 4 of us, from room to room and creatively mounted them on doors and shelves to light up the walls.  I set three alarms but I awoke before they rang, and I am not a morning person.  Too bad I didn't check the radio before I left, as we had a two-hour delay.  It seems some schools lost (and still have not regained) power and accompanying luxuries as air conditioning, so they saw fit to close those schools.  I heard traffic lights blew out too, though I didn't see any of that firsthand.  The only really bad part of the blackout, for me, was loss of air conditioning.  I can live without bright light all day long, but my dusty, seemingly airtight home is unbearably stuffy and humid without the constant icebox feeling.  DEATH to violent storms.  Curses and sharp objects upon blackouts!  My poor little house lacked power while houses several hundred feet down the road were brightly illuminated... how did that happen?