Sunday, April 11, 2004 - 07:36 p.m.:
I love being at home. Or, more accurately, I love not being at school.
In the past three days I've done more work than I did from Monday to Thursday last week. And I actually have time to do things that need to be done that aren't schoolwork. E.g. clean, do yardwork, shop, etc. Don't get me wrong, though; yesterday we basically finished our chemistry presentation notes and did a lot of the visuals too. The majority of "instruction" at school is wasteful and - I cringe to write it, because it sounds lame - mentally exhausting. Not in a making-you-think-hard way, but a making-your-brain-go-numb-with-boredom way. And this long weekend has confirmed that for me.
Back to what's important: television. I was watching ER Thursday night. Parminder Nagra is my hero. She's the coolest person ever. Her character, Neela Rasgotra, is the coolest person ever as well. It must be true, because she (they?) actually got me watching ER. It's as bad as Days, though, because she was just starting a good (read: not wince-worthy) relationship with Gallant, but then they had to go and make Gallant cover for her killing a patient, which kind of messed up the both of them. And then they made him go to Iraq.
Excellent, four days to sleep. Or two days to sleep, and two days to work on Chemistry.
The past week has been more difficult than normal, but not incredibly difficult. But if you asked my family, they'd think I was going insane. Heh. I haven't been home for two nights this week for band stuff, and I left an hour early today to write a test that I missed yesterday. But it's not as bad as it is for the New Orleans people, who hadn't had an evening at home since last Wednesday I think.
I didn't like the test. It was simple, but I was out of it. I was very angry last night and I didn't go to sleep until around 1, and then I woke up at 5 and went back to sleep, and then I woke up half an hour earlier than normal so I could leave in time for the test. I was a few minutes late anyway.
I feel like breaking something. I don't know what, though... everything around here is pretty expensive. Except maybe the crappy keyboard, which cost eight dollars at Pacific Mall. But we need that, I think. Can't break the tablet, or the mouse, or the CDs... maybe I'll just tear up some newspaper.
Okay, I just ripped up the "Return Service Requested" postcard from Encore Photo. They were being stupid and sent out a late-payment postcard even though the cheque had already cleared when they sent it, and had the gall to put a fake e-mail address on it. That's what you get, Encore Photo. No return service.
It's the weekend!
You know, classes are really tranquil when a bunch of the music students go to New Orleans and a bunch of robotics people go to Niagara Falls. Something about musicians and nerds that make class... loud. The past two days at school have been utterly bearable - even Anthropology! It's a miracle!
By the way, those Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka (Theravada Buddhists! I learned something in Religion.) are freaking insane. They're attempting to run for all the seats in the government, armed with the mentality that a) the government is selling out on the Sinhalese, and b) Sri Lanka is an inherently Buddhist nation. Well, you know what? That just makes me want to donate more money to the Tamil terrorist rebels. And furthur boycott Sri Lankan products so those crazy monks don't get any of my money. Jaffna forever!
Yeah... so I've been catching up on my really old gameboy ROMs recently. Pokémon Blue. I totally named myself Sami, because she rocks, and my rival is Lucas. Which kind of fits with their actual story (whenever they meet in the game, Lucas' dialogue is totally in character. It's cool.) except that they don't have a preteen son from a one-night stand when they were teenagers, and they're not in love but won't admit it. Actually... you don't really know anything about these guys, do you? Oh well. I'm having a field day with the nicknames of my arsenal. I think the best ones are Celeste for my Kadabra, and Bart for my Gyarados (it fit better when it was a Magikarp.) Ooh, and Stefano for my Pikachu. Pokémon and Days of Our Lives are the best.
I'm going to do the minimum tonight when it comes to homework. I should have learned my lesson long ago when it comes to procrastination. I really should have.
We watched two videos in Religion. The first one was excellent. It was a kids video about the basics of Judaism, most probably for Jewish kids. Our teacher didn't let us watch the puppet shows and song routines, but we did catch a a bit of the puppet show where the one sock is admonishing the other sock for eating leavened bread (i.e. "You can't eat that bagel!") on Pesach.
The other one was meant for students... educational. That is, no fun. They touched on the Israel-Palestine conflict in it, with some rabbis commenting on the Jewish position, and it... affirmed my existing beliefs. Of course, I'm not nearly informed enough to have any sort of debate about it, so leave me alone.
Even days are better than odd ones. Day 2 and 4 forever! Down with Anthropology! Oh, about anthropology... the people who sit at my desk-grouping are more annoying than I thought possible. I hate it (and that's not exaggeration) when people are too busy telling themselves how great they are to listen to what others are telling them, and then act like it's not their fault that they don't know what's going on. And I hate that I'm stuck with these people until the end of the year. You know what, I just hate group work. Group work can die slowly in a pit.
I have too much work to do. Is it possible to be burnt out after two days back at school? It's physically getting to me now. Yesterday, as soon as I got to school I got a major headache that never went away. I still have it, I'm currently seeing fuzzy patches of light everywhere. And my back hurts. And I've been twitching a lot lately. And, even though I haven't lost sleep in the past two days and I never missed a meal - even breakfast - I've been fighting the urge to fall asleep in class.
Complaining is overrated. I don't feel remotely better. And my Coke is flat, too. The worst part is, for all the hoops I've jumped through, my average is the same as it's been since grade 9. 89%. I can't even break 90.
Now I have a whole bunch of work that's due tomorrow. You know what I like? CityPulse24. On their scrolling forecast, they have four days. Tuesday to Friday. It makes it seem like it's closer somehow. Or maybe not, and I was just a little high on something when I saw that this morning.
Now I have to awaken myself with a shot of caffeine to furthur throw off my circadian rhythm. Early dismissal on Thursday! The saving grace of this week.
My thumb hurts. Yesterday, I was preparing some cassava (also known as yucca) for cooking, which involves taking off the skin. The skin is pretty tough and leathery. What my mom had taught me to do was use the knife, but that was pretty difficult, so I decided to be smart and use by thumbnail. I was watching the Ellen Degeneres Show, so I was pretty distracted. Christina Aguilera was on, and she wasn't funny but I think she thought she was. And that was so intriguing that it really distracted me.
Anyway, so I was picking at the cassava skin almost solely with my right thumbnail. As you can imagine, there was a lot of buildup of stuff under my nail, but I was operating under the assumption that I would get it out when I was done. When I finished, my thumb was pretty sore, but I shrugged it off. It was only when I washed my hands that I realised what my apathy had caused. The cassava skin had been jammed under my nail, past that point where your skin becomes attached to the nail. Well... maybe not, but it was pretty far down there.
I think I got it all out, very painfully, with that pick thingy that's attached to the nail clippers. Now, even just touching the nail is painful. A few hours ago, I tried to pull back the skin to look under there, and it started bleeding a bit. It stopped, but now I'm scared of infection.
I have come to the conclusion that not only am I clumsy, but impulsive and foolish. Actually, my right thumbnail looks really cool now. Not because of the cassava-peeling incident (you can't really see that), but because of when I slammed a drawer on my thumb just below the nail during exam week. Apparently (according to my dad) it caused a blood clot there, and the part of the nail that was under it got this weird red blotchy thing on it. It grew out last week, I think, and now it's out in the open. There's also a white discolouration, also from the drawer-slamming, above it. It's really cool.
So... the zoo was nice. Waste of money, but nice. All the animals looked psychotic, though. Pacing around and around and around, always following the same path... poor guys. I wanted to stay longer, but everytime we saw a direction sign with "Exit and Parking" on it, my brother and sister would recommend that we go there. So we left after about an hour and forty-five minutes. Didn't even see the red pandas. Orangutans, though.
My goodness, it's boring over here. I just watched Kingdom Hospital. This guy with bleeding eyes started singing Na Na Hey Hey and then the doctors started singing and dancing too. Freaking weird show.
You know, when the youngest person in your family is 14, it's hard to find suitable day outings. In fact, you usually don't bother. But my dad was pretty bent on it, and what are the chances that he and my sister could both get tomorrow off work? So I totally copped out. Tomorrow, we are going to the zoo. My brother and sister are kind of (very) angry with me... in fact, my mom seems pretty angry as well. Tough. I'm going to see the red pandas.
Oh man, there's absolutely nothing to write about. Oh yeah, those guests on Sunday... I got away with serving them dessert and then retreating for the rest of the evening. I played Trivial Pursuit (Pop Culture, with the DVD!) with my brother.
I'll end this with a fairly useless thought: what happened to the hospital on General Hospital? I used to watch it with my mom years ago, and it was a respectable medical drama; now it's all about the mafia! And it still has that annoying contemporary jazz theme song.
So we're hosting a dinner party. Not for fun or anything, just to keep up appearances. I hate these things. My mom makes me serve them things and then sit there, not doing anything. It's not like I'm going to talk to them, since a) I usually don't speak their language and b) I have next to nothing in common with them. Except the colour of my skin, probably.
I had a plan today. My parents (especially my mother) both have the unfortunate habit of putting things (like printouts, newspapers, etc.) that should go in the trash or the recycling bin on tables. Like the dining room table, and the coffee table. So I spent most of the day cleaning the house, and helping my mom cook. Even better, my brother and sister used the computer and watched TV all day, making me look even better. So now they have to lend me some credit. I am not setting foot in the room with the guests in it.
I can't stay downstairs with the computer, though. As much as I really really want to, it'd be prime fodder for guest-jokes. For example: "Kala's on the computer 24/7... she's such an antisocial loser who'll never amount to anything! Hahaha..." I'm not kidding, they actually say stuff like this (the guests, not my parents.) So no computer. I'll read "Brave New World" in my bedroom instead... or "Maigret et le Clochard". You know, "Maigret" is probably better.
I recorded the marathon of Star Wars: Clone Wars last night. I didn't get to see any of them yet, so I really want to watch that. It better be everything I imagined and more. I also recorded The Empire Strikes Back on the same tape, making it the coolest Star Wars tape... in my house.
Stella told me on Thursday that I should get a new layout. I used to change layouts every few months, and this has been up since last spring. I haven't put together a layout in almost a year! My HTML skills are waning, and my stylesheets skills are pretty much gone.
And I have no idea what to put in a new layout... last year I had this design renaissance, with the flowers and everything, but that's all gone now. And all my photos are gone, too. Now all I have are extreme close-up shots of random things in my bedroom, taken while doing my homework or practising clarinet.
We got out of school early yesterday. They dismissed us at 2:10. After lunch, there was an announcement saying that there had been problems with intruders, and to keep the classroom doors open and report anything strange. And then in period 4 they said that they were dismissing everyone an hour and ten minutes earlier than normal. I guy in French class told me that they found people smoking marijuana in one of the washrooms, but I didn't hear anything else about that. It also may have to do with the shootings Thursday night. The best thing is the deadpan way I'm writing all this.
So I didn't get to buy a present for my dad. I took the York Mills, and I missed my stop talking to my friend. And then I didn't pay attention when the bus stopped at the Commons, because these guys beside me smelled horrible and I was trying to ignore it.
I just finished my Anthro paper. I've been sitting here all evening. I suck. If I had just worked, I could have watched CSI. Wait, is CSI on now? Oh well.
I missed Kingdom Hospital last night... I thought it was on today. I was trying to show its site to my brother, but I didn't know it changes. I nearly jumped out of my skin. Go to the Services section, you'll see what I mean. (And turn off your speakers or something... I think creepy sounds play, but I was never brave enough to find out.) I'm easily scared. Those cheap gifs with the "What's wrong with the window in this photo?" and then something pops out at you... those scared the heck out of me.
Anyway, my anthro paper is a really bad piece of crap. I mean really. It's like "A Well Thought Out Englilsh Paper" by the Yellow Dart. That bad.
Dangit, CSI is more interesting than this is.
It may not actually be true, but I'm pretty much done for this week. Mentally. Except for that Anthro paper due on Friday... I'll do that.
My dad's birthday is on Friday! I don't know what to get him. I'll probably end up wandering STC tomorrow after school... something from Cole's maybe. What the heck happened to Indigo, anyway? There's always Chapters... but then I'd have to take the Ellesmere bus. And walk, like, 7 miutes more than normal. I could get a hot chocolate from Starbucks... or I could order out of that little ordering pamphlet they made! That thing is great.
Tionie's birthday is on Friday too. Huh. :P
I'm so burnt out, it's kind of funny. DOOL is getting worse and worse, by the way. And Passions is getting better and better. The quality of Days varies inversely as the quality of Passions. So... I totally think Julian should have pressed charges on TC. TC is insane. He needs anger management classes. I'm loving the Julian-Eve-TC stuff. I was losing hope for a viable love triangle on a soap, and there it was. All along. On Passions. You know, without the supernatural stuff, 5-year-old Passions is pretty much the most traditional soap on the air. And Days, that 38+ year old wonder, is probably the least traditional one. And probably also the worst one. Hmph.
GFNEJ8Y*(SDFhjkf. Indeed.
Today I learned that you have to think relatively. In Religion, that class of all classes, we had a minor quiz on the homework. Formative-like. But I forgot to do the homework. I didn't get a few questions on the quiz. This girl behind me, she copied down the homework pages wrong. She didn't didn't do one of the pages we were supposed to. She also messed up the quiz, albeit less than I did. I didn't care too much. But this girl, she was totally beating herself up. She even said she should kill herself a few times. No, seriously. After a few minutes of self-deprecation, she called the teacher and did some more self-deprecation, and also apologized profusely. It was kinda funny with the teacher, whom I think didn't know what the heck to do. I saw her later, at the end of the day (Religion is first period) and she was still upset about the quiz.
Anyway... I'll always be comforted knowing people like her exist. I mean, yeah, I feel bad for her, but it's good to know that you're not really anywhere near paranoid.
Heh, my English teacher said I made a "valiant effort" on that horrible presentation. It's nice that she acknowledged that. She also said I would have been better with notes. Ahem.
You know what? I hate seating plans. In anthropology class. They're obviously there just to lower my self-esteem even more. See, I somehow landed with a group of one person who doesn't speak English properly, and two more who are workophobic. Every other group has multiple people who work, but in mine there's only me. And, as I have repeatedly been made painfully aware of, I can command no authority over anyone. The result is usually me doing all the work and letting the entire group take credit for it.
This time, the unthinkable happened: they agreed to do their parts! I was overjoyed. Well, not really. I was apprehensive at best. But still, they would work! So we divided up the work and agreed that we would send each other everything by today. The presentation, in which we all have to demonstrate understanding of each part, is tomorrow.
So it's past ten now. Past my official bedtime. (Shut up... it's the only thing my parents actually insist on, so ha.) Two of the three other members have sent work. And worse, even those two didn't actually do anything. They surfed the net until they found stuff that vaguely resembled what we supposed to be researching and copied and pasted it into word documents, while I spent hours last week and this morning searching for sources and compiling notes from them. I'm so unbelievably furious that I'm contemplating staying home from school tomorrow, just to spite them. They totally deserve it. I'm going to be humiliated in a presentation again, because I was stupid and trusted people.
And would you look at my luck, my printer is out of both black and colour ink! Now I'll have to go to school early tomorrow and waste a few dollars to print out the plagiarized information in the library. I think I'm going to cry.
I just beat KOTOR. What a hilarious ending. I especially liked the part when Vandar (coughYodacough) said that my crew and I were the "saviours of the galaxy" or something like that and the shot changed to a head-on group shot, and we all simultaneously lifted our heads to look at the camera. I also liked Canderous in purple. Heh. I hope the ending is better if you're on the dark side.
I tried to go clothes shopping today but there was only a bunch of overpriced junk. I'm no good at shopping.
You know what I just did? Slept for like three hours. That felt good.
I started out today with a plan. Several plans, actually. The first and foremost was "Don't let the cramps get to you." It involved a lot of extra-strength Tylenol. It worked pretty well. I was kind of woozy in Math, but that stopped. I took even more Tylenol when I got home! Don't worry, I'm about 500mg under the maximum daily dose. :)
Then there was "Go to school early and finish Religion homework." This also worked out well.
After that, however, was "Don't screw up the English presentation." Failed. Miserably. Our notes (or should I say... my notes) were obviously subjected to antimatter at some point between Wednesday and today. I should be really angry now because I spent my entire Tuesday evening analysing Bolt, alone, to be humiliated today because I trusted that the notes wouldn't be left behind in class on Wendesday. But I slept, so I'm good now. Well... okay, now I'm prety angry, but it's nothing like I was in class when I was taking out my anger by scribbling really hard on my notes.
Then there was "Don't screw up the other English presentation." This went relatively smoothly.
And the rest of the day was pretty easy.
Now I'm not sure if I should go ahead with "Play KOTOR." It's pretty late... but I already slept. Hey, how come I never saw Carth's son in the Sith enclave on Korriban? Aren't you supposed to find him in there? I never saw him. And then I killed everyone in it. Aw, I would've like to have seen that. Carth is the best... his voice actor is terrible. He's so funny. "I think I could love you." :D Aw, shut up, Carth. You're such a doofus.
