I know this is only the 15th entry and I've traditionally archived after the 25th, but it's time for a change.  Since I'm too lazy to do anything significant, I'll just change the number of entries I take to archive.

I'm back from my annual vacation from life, aka Spring Break at Catoctin Mountain.  I can't name everyone there but among those who could conceivably be reading this... Kathy and Min?  Highlights include Sheila's Freudian slip of the day, "erotically" instead of "erratically," Min and Wen's Gollum imitations and crazy Teletubby love in the corner of the loft, lying on the dock in the warm sun and reading, and listening tirelessly to this year's grossly overplayed mix CD.

I was also informed that the version I downloaded of "Don't Stand So Close To Me" was the wrong version, defined as the version that my friends like less.  This oversight has been rectified and my CD must be reburned.

In case no one else noticed, every conversation involving Sheila at some point turned to either Jared or Swaney (or in rarer cases, both).

I loathe the wilderness and will not go on another hike if you paid me a lot of money.  However, extended sleepovers in a renovated hunting lodge will do nicely.

Proof that Min is an old-timer: "Ah, the 1990's.  That was a good time.  Dot-com boom... everyone was rich."

Literary highlights of the past week include William Faulkner's Light in August, Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl, Joseph Heller's Catch-22, Chapter 29 of AMSCO (US History AP review), William Golding's Lord of the Flies, and the American History Trivia Quiz Book by William MacKay (published by B&N).  Granted, I didn't read Stargirl and we only plowed through the first 5 chapters of Light in August, but they were certainly there.  Musical highlights include The Beatles' "Mellow Yellow," Carly Simon's "You're So Vain," The Police's "Don't Stand So Close To Me," and Jimi Hendrix's (?) "Wild Thing," Kinks' "Lola," and Barenaked Ladies' "If I Had A Million Dollars" (which I maintain sounds like a country song).

Mental leftovers: "Freud stick", The Chipmunks' version of the Nutbucket Music CD, hornets, egg dying, other people's nightmares, Taboo™, constantly eating junk food.  Did I forget anything important?

After spending the past three days with the best people in the world (maybe that's an exaggeration?), I'm getting impatient at talking to people who don't seem to be able to read my mind, so I have to spell everything out.

Short version: Hiking was bad, I got sick.  Made cupcakes and icing.  Everyone loves me.  Reread Lord of the Flies and discovered that it is still the best book ever.  Will finish those last three chapters tonight.  Listened to Sheila and Kathy collectively read the first five chapters of Faulkner's Light in August aloud.  Enjoyed it but will not complete book on my own.  Am crazy, I know.  Argued very, very briefly on merits of Faulkner vs Fitzgerald.  I win because Fitzgerald's grave is nearby.  Talked about random crap.  Willa knows: Wen is awesome.  Cringed multiple times at Swaney x Sheila innuendo.  Horrible thought.

"Mindblock!!™"

RM had a guest speaker in the media center; an IB alumnus, David Amsden, came to talk aimlessly about his life in Rockville and his newly published novel, Important Things That Don't Matter (you can see reviews here and here).  I actually had the privilege of hearing him speak three times today.  I could just write it off as skipping 5th, 6th, and 7th period with permission, but it seemed like more than that.  This guy is from my hometown, he went to the school I'm at... he's actually published by Harper Collins, he's actually garnered praise from some critics, he writes professionally.  I keep trying to visualize what life is going to be like in one year, let alone ten years... I have no idea what it's going to be like.  Amsden is 23 years old and he actually survived the IB.  He described things that seem exactly like what a number of us are going through, and yet he still seems human, he still seems perfectly normal.  He speaks casually, he sprinkled his extemporaneous speech with "Dude" and pauses here and there.  He related experiences which remind me that even if our lives are currently completely absorbed in school (or maybe for other people, in social lives, in sports, in music, etc.) that, well, life won't always be like that.  I keep staring in amazement when I realize all these people that look so young, people that look like middle schoolers *cough* or high schoolers... they're "adults" now, and though most (not all) of them have matured a bit, they don't necessarily know what they're saying.  Not that Amsden didn't know what he was doing when he was talking to a crowd in the media center; they formed a captive audience, but one that was at least awake and paid attention enough to keep quiet, which is more than we can say for the vast majority of guest speakers at RM.

I'm never sure how to say what I mean, and I don't know if the above paragraph works.  Concise is better, I know, but I need to type it through a bit.  (Like my generalization; I didn't get it approved yet *gasp* and I need to refine it before I have to face Ms Sullivan again.)  But what was I saying... it's amazing to imagine people I know in a few years, realizing that they can do these sorts of things for a living, that life isn't just some distant, abstract concept and that we'll actually have to live in the real world within a decade.  It's not impossible to make money being a novelist, being a teacher, being a graphic designer...

"Mr Beach is like a 5 year old!  If you give him a piece of candy, he'll say yes."
-Beth, on getting permission to skip class for the KMO

Yup... yup... yup... French project is Apr21 and English journals are Apr11 (the teachers actually claim to have been oblivious to our workload until Mike and Beth talked Ms Sullivan into an extention) but I'm still not going to be around online much.  Right now, am attempting to make myself start the math portfolio piece.  Am attempting to convince myself that can get a passing grade this time.  Am unconvinced.

*mumbles*  Our team would so have won practice today if Seth had just listened to the rest of us and said "root 2" instead of "2 root 2".  Gah, it's okay.  You all know we were good...

I really need to work on buzzer speed.

Hey!  I just realized that out of all my many attempts to get out of Chem, this one might actually succeed.

Yesterday's file of Conversations Gone Wrong™ includes ET and Alina snickering about Mr McKenna's name origins accompanied by mental images of cartoon leprechauns à la "Lucky Charms" cereal.

My mind hurts so much.  I just got home from watching the last showing of Blair's West Side Story.  Now, I'm not a big fan of musicals, and I don't know much about the drama production process, so I'm not one to ask for an authoritative review of the actual work.  All I can say is that I didn't enjoy it.  There were a few charming scenes with catchy beats, but they were few and far between; I laughed a few times, but only because I always laugh at fight scenes in school plays.  They look so silly pretending to beat each other up!

The sound was certainly bad today.  Tony was audible through most every scene, but half the cast wasn't, including Maria a number of times.  The songs were rather painful, too; the students didn't seem particularly off-key to me, but the songs' tunes are inherently aimless and just don't sound very professional to begin with.  In addition, the sets weren't quite up to Blair's amazing standards... well, except for that nice balcony that supported two people sturdily.

Oh yes.  Very poor casting for both Tony and Maria.  I'm not normally offended at having to see people kiss on stage, but seriously, both of them looked far too young to be kissing anyone or anything.  They look like extremely young children.  It looked rather disturbing and I felt physically sick afterward.

I'm going to see Hello, Dolly! after Spring Break.  Watch out.  Last year's rendition of Damn Yankees is the yardstick for all musicals in my mind, and little can beat Steven Shema as the devil and Sherry what's-her-name as Lola.

Oh!  Swaney played the violin in the Pit!!  *snicker*

I got another Harry Potter question at It's Ac today.  I'm sorry.  But I had to buzz in!  I actually knew the answer!

Do you all know who said, "The ballot is stronger than the bullet"?  I said, "Al Gore," which I thought was mildly amusing at the time, but I got the feeling that some of 'em didn't understand it.  Come on, you all get the joke, don't you?  (The actual utterer was Abraham Lincoln... before he was President.)

I think I might have gotten a negative score overall, good thing no one wanted to keep score.  Oh!  The stupid frisbee came flying into the room two or three times.  Bah to Pouya for nearly killing Ersin and Mr McKenna as it ricocheted off the metal file cabinet and flew toward the buzzer hub.  "I was trying to hit one of the buzzers!  I knew the answer."

Ugh.  I screwed up so many things today even though I got to sleep in.  How do people manage getting home at 10 pm on school nights and actually do their homework, anyway?  It's so much more difficult than I'd thought.  Of course, I did manage to write a SAP generalization and get approval from a number of different people.  Yay!

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over user guides and handbooks piled up on the desk and floor--
As I nodded, after nine or ten straight hours of design,
I finally drew the final line, then pulled a floppy out to store--
Locked and loaded, then, I saved, and waited for the disc to store;
Only this and nothing more.

see source?  (click on "poe puree")

Too good... too good...

Apr2 1:19pm edit: Pineapple?  You've got nothin' on the pie...

Oooo.  Fatigue makes people do funny things.  During second period, I could've sworn the room was tilting and spinning, 'round and 'round...  I also had quite a bit of difficulty with that "human interaction" stuff.  I think I seemed normal during the day, but after seventh period, I stumbled to a dark corner of the RM lobby and just collapsed against the cold stone pillar.  I managed to pick myself up to make eye contact / wave to any and all passing teachers and students, but words were beyond me.  And then, and then, I went outside and sat and walked for a bit.  Oh, the cold air is so nice.  It completely woke me up and made me feel better about everything.  And the snow!  I like our crazy Maryland weather, it was snowing sideways (15 mph winds?) one minute, then bright and sunny the next.  I feel sorry for those running track today.

There's no practice tomorrow.  I thought that would've been obvious, given that teachers are doing grades and students are doing homework, but Stahly asked me so I asked and there's no practice.

Tomorrow is my least favorite holiday of the year; traditionally, it's because I never notice it; this year, I have absolutely no ideas, so it promises to be a dull day anyway.

I have borderline (A-B) grades in all 5 core classes.  Oh joy.  Don't make me think about them any more, I just want the teachers to grade the stupid assignments and be done with giving me my B's.

Long enough update for ya?

Hey, who thinks our generation is a redux of the "silent generation" (born 1920 - 1939)?

I'm doing textnotes.  Yes, they're depressing again.  Like I said, US History goes downhill after the 1920's.

Today's textnote lyrics are taken from that hilarious Hitler monologue in The Producers:

Heil myself, raise your hand, there's no greater dictator in the land!
Everything I do, I do for you!~  (Yes you do!)
If you're looking for a war, here's World War II!

Hurrah for Blair A!  They beat down TJ A and B at Langley.  (I'm glad we weren't there for that...)

Next week is Sidwell Friends.  Can we go, can we go, can we go?  Maybe?  I hope...

[Post deleted.  It just sounded painfully angsty, more so than I wanted it to.  Seriously, that sort of writing ought to be confined to flowery journals and androgynous Final Fantasy protagonists' inner monologues.]

My BookOfFriends class (for Java) is finished.  Eternal thanks to Han.  *worship, worship*

Once relieved of the tension of being first in seventh period to finish, I walked around helping CP1 and other CP2 students.  Everyone was so grateful and happy and relieved, since third quarter is ending and a lot of people have either been overwhelmed or were just slacking off a lot.  Jess D, Alina, Yolanda, Ersin, Correll, Yubing, Anita R.  Alina called me "Teacher #2" (because I don't get paid for this... yet...)

Oh my god, someone just pull me aside from life and make me sit still for two seconds.  Today I took a US history quiz, a French quiz, a Math test, I think I got B's on all of them and my grade is just not going up...

No, that's not it.  It's not grades that's really stressing me out, but I'm not sure if I can say why...

Math Team pizza party today- Cranium is the worst game ever (maybe it's the people I played it with), and the pizza was from Papa John's (as opposed to Domino's, which everyone knows is better).  Someone make me feel better, tell me you've heard the song "The Girl From Ipanema"?  I got strange looks from everyone except one for knowing the tune, and though Ms Wheeler confirmed that I had the right tune, I'm not sure the people were convinced.  I know it's not an obscure song, it's famous (or I wouldn't have heard it), right?

I desperately want the Peter Pan DVD, even if I probably won't watch it once I buy it.  I also want several books that I keep forgetting to buy at B&N, as well as a few intangible things, which I also keep forgetting.

How does one deal with irritating classmates when one seems to have lost the ability to tune out annoying noises?

Bonus points for anyone who can identify the wonderful novel by the author of this quotation:

Laugh and the world laughs with you.  Snore and you sleep alone.
-Anthony Burgess

This is just an entry to let anyone who hasn't seen the Almighty Pitas Archiving Process™ know that the entries aren't gone, they're just tucked away under one of those little headings to the right.

I wish there were more to say, but all I've really done is wake up eerily early Saturday and Sunday morning (8:24 both days?  But... no alarm clock?) and do all but six of my textnotes.  And I read my third SAP book...

For years a secret shame destroyed my peace--
I'd not read Eliot, Auden or MacNeice
But then I had a thought that brought me hope--
Neither had Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Pope.
-Justin Richardson, Take Heart, Illiterates