Saturday, October 23, 2004

"Manny, you broke the curse on my teeth!" -sign held by the kid who lives in the house where Babe Ruth cursed the Sox by chucking his piano in the lake and who got his teeth broken by a foul ball Manny hit
Can you even believe the Sox made the Series?

I can't, but it makes me happy! Maybe we didn't set ourselves up for a hard fall into disappointment this year!

Too bad it's on one of the channels that doesn't work well on my TV.

Anyway, today, a friend came down to work on our History Day project. We chose the Enigma code breach at Bletchley Park, because the topic is communication and the time limit is 1789 to 1970. Actually, it was pretty cool. (Ever seen the movie U-571? That's the machine in there, though most of the facts about the capture are made up.) Basically, you have this machine that has three rotors in it so that when you type Q, a current will switch it to, say M. Then they do a Caesar cipher, so M becomes K. Then third rotor and current changes K to, say J. Caesar cipher, and J is now L. Then you apply a reflector, and not only dose Q result in L, but L results in Q. It's really complex and techinical, and whenever the Germans figured out the Allies had gotten it, they through in another rotor so the Allies would need another machine. It's also really neat that they had to invent computers for this to process so many possibilities fast enough, because the way it worked is, you set the rotors randomly every time you encode and the only clue you get is that the first letters they type are always ABCDEFG. So, every individual message, you have to figure out how the rotors were set and set them that way and then type back the message as it is encoded to get the decoded version.

Wow, that's complicated, and I'm not even totally sure I get it.

At any rate, 6 or 7 hours later, we have a really nice-looking posterboard.

And I'm so tired, and I need to watch the game.
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Friday, October 22, 2004

Okay ... today, at lunch, I came over and my friend was crying in the corner of the room. I came over and asked if she was okay, and this is what happened.

During first block, there was a sub for gym. A girl got hit twice, very hard, by stupid people randomly humming softballs around the gym. So, a few girls went to walk her to the nurse and some other girls went with them to sneak out of class. The gym sub (the same one who later let this cheerleader do gym in a cami, short shorts, and no shoes in my class) didn't happen to notice any of this, and asked my friend who left. She thought he was just taking note of who was gone, and gave him the names. Then he gave them all detentions, though some of them didn't deserve it (the girl was having trouble walking). At lunch, she was crying, saying how everyone hates her.

Consequently, all of her friends came over and talked to her, the band director talked to her twice, and some of the marching band came by and told sick jokes until she laughed to make sure she was okay.

Or at least, that's what she told me. As it turns out, what triggered the whole feeling that everyone hates her was that a particularly nasty girl said something to her. I don't know what it was, but knowing her and knowing my friend is sensitive, it was probably pretty bad.

But really, my point is, gym class is a pretty nasty place. It's the only place that, even when the teacher isn't a jock, people can get hazed without a teacher ever knowing. If you've ever been cheered on as a form of ridicule, you recognize it instantly, but if you haven't, you don't even catch it. It's the most common form of hazing in gym, and it's really hurtful.

In my class this year, the gym leader's always hazing this one kid that way, so the other kids do too. The thing is, the overweight slow kid nice guy is too much of a nice guy to bother picking on, because 1) he doesn't react and 2) people notice if you pick on mentally disabled people more. So in my class, he doesn't get hazed anymore. Instead, they haze this nerdy Indian kid. He's a nice guy, and he's really not a horrible athlete, but they're constantly hazing him by constantly yelling his name (which isn't English, so it makes it more fun for them) and cheering for him in that nasty way kids have. Reason they pick on him is he's visibly different, has a very slight accent, knows computers, and most importantly, tells them to stop if they keep at it too long. At some point, the teacher's going to notice and he's gonna look like the bad guy, but really, I hate it when things get like that.

A friend and I were considering talking to guidance about this stuff. I don't know about it though ... I haven't been hazed in a while ...
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"You wanna take this outside, huh?" "No, I'd rather not. It's a bit chilly out there." -the Rachels
I'm so tired, I have no energy to be anything but upbeat. Now I get how these people who do everything can act so awake. Back when I slept, I had the energy to mope. Now I just plain don't have the energy to be anything but pleasant.

It's like, today was pep rally day. So, for like, the third time this week, I had to tell these cheerleaders that I really did not want school colored tape on my arm. If I'm not wearing the right colors, I probably don't care to be wearing them.

The pep rally was so toned down, it was almost bearable.

So ... apparently, I can still join tech. Yay! But I'm not sure how well I'm gonna do with the drills, because my wrists are so unspeakably weak. I kinda have constant pain now to the point where I've become numbed to it. There was a period this summer when I just really couldn't do much at all, and now that I'm back writing constantly, it's jsut getting worse again.

But yeah. The new school is coming next year, so we're still stuck with, of all things, an asbestos fire curtain. Grand, huh? In case of a fire, seal off the fire on the side of the room with the actors and crew to allow the audience to escape, while trying very hard not to breathe the charming dust we're throwing into the room. Technically ... the curtain is illegal, though ...

And right after, I had an hour lesson, which was good till I realized that I was totally tired out and that I couldn't keep any semblance of an ombiture ...

And now, my wrists are just fried from all this playing today ...
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Wednesday, October 20, 2004

If you flail long enough, you're bound to hit someone. Or a music stand. Or someone dodging you will hit a stand. In the end, something will fall over.
Last night, I watched most of My Neighbor Totoro. That totoro jumping up to make the rain fall on him his going to be my happy image for a very long time.

So yeah ... my feet hurt.

In truly exciting news ... Johnny Damon just hit a grand slam! Ho yeah!

And there is a kid on AIM swearing at me in Spanish and Armenian for a change. I guess English is too mainstream?
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Tuesday, October 19, 2004

The ancient Romans considered sacred chickens a good indicator of how successful a battle would be.
Sacred chickens ...

If the chickens ate or pecked at grain, good sign. If chicken's didn't eat, bad sign. So one guy threw the chickens overboard ("If they won't eat, drink!"). He lost.

So yeah! I had a few blonde moments in band, and then the rest of the day was just one huge moment ...

After school, I got to go poke myself in the eye repeatedly while this lady cheered me on. I highly doubt I will ever get contacts in.

Then I read some of Julius Caesar to a friend over the phone. Which is what she got for calling me while I was doing homework. I also discovered the footnote you saw paraphrased above there. She heard that too. Having amused her with it, I am now bothering this kid who is an acquaintance's cousin online with this newfound knowledge.

Just in case anyone cared about sacred chickens ...
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Monday, October 18, 2004

HIYA!
I was in a good mood today ... but I didn't see any of my friends and one of them was really upset and I didn't get to her to cheer her up till after she'd cried it out, and my sectional was really informal again ...

So yeah. Right ... I'm going away now ... since I have Hot Gimmick 5 and 6 and Dragon Knights 16 around somewhere ...
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Sunday, October 17, 2004

If we acknowledge media stereotypes, we obviously see through them and don't buy into them, lady.
God, religious ed people give you no credit. They seriously believe that unless they and their colleagues tell you once a week for 10 years, "Jesus loves you so much he died for you, please conform, and you need to know not everyone is Godly," we'll be saved. It doesn't occur to these people that to give examples and talking about applying ethics would give us more. Really? I think that religion should be more about estblishing a set of ethics than about transcendentalism and blind faith. Faith is good, but faith enough to trust yourself means more than faith in anything else.

I am Catholic, but I don't really like the way the church takes a stand and insists they're right. I don't like the ban on abortion and gay and lesbian marriage. I don't like that women still can't do much in the church except as nuns or lay people. I don't like the Vatican asking us to believe that God raped a young woman and she bore him a son who, as God's rep, deigned to live as human to show us our error. I'd much rather believe that I am a member of a religion that was founded by a Jewish philosopher who had some really great ideas about kindness to others.

Let me know if you've got any ideas. I've got a lot of thinking to do before confirmation. I also may need to work on my theory that every person has a one-man cult.

On a totally different note ...

I finally got to go to the bookstore! And I did a lovely job splurging, too. At least, for me. Ooh! and I got some socks today too! I love socks! Argyle makes you smart!
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Saturday, October 16, 2004

Right ...
SUMMARY OF MY SATURDAY:

I woke up. I showered, dressed, ate, and went to work, where only 2 people showed up because one boss doesn't do Saturdays, the other boss was on vacation, and the children's librarian doesn't do Saturdays either. It was soooooooo nice and quiet. Then Mother and Daddy came and picked me up and we walked around the state school (it's been a school, a home for the retarded, a redemption center for bottles, and assorted other things ... but now it's just a home for a few very old retarded people, a redemco, a center for research on American chesnuts, and a place with rather nice grounds) with the dog. And my brother is at a buddy's house, the Sox were winning when last I checked, and I talked to my friend in MN again. (I though going to Indianapolis for band was so cool ... she's going to Europe this summer ...)

Yep. That's my day. Plus some Gundam, Gilmore Girls, and Yu-Gi-Oh! Uhuh. Again, the exicting life I lead.
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Friday, October 15, 2004

I'm lazy. Rather than actually make up something original to say, I'll just grab some stuff about my day from an IM I was having ... but my friend claims to have died, which makes me think she went to bed.


Here's my random sharing:


I had a doctor's appointment,
so I missed the first tech meeting, so I don't think [the teacher will] let me stay unless I get very obnoxious.

My sister broke a thing that hooks 2 parts of my bassoon together, which I could fix if it were not springloaded It's not a necessary part, but it's dang usful for lining up the two midsection pieces


Then I explained how happy I am that my sister is stuck playing bass clarinet.


This is what I said when she told me about how she nearly broke her nose with a frisbee.


My gym class is sad. Four girls try, three girls change but don't try, [and] the rest of the girls don't even change. So today, the boys and the seven girls in gym clothes playing frisbee. Well, to protest being on separate teams, [cheerleader/field hockey/jock/idiot girl 1] and [cheerleader/field hockey/jock/idiot girl 2] decided to throw away kick offs to the other team and give up every thing they got to the other team. 1) Can they be more immature? 2) That is a sad way to protest to [the teacher], who wasn't the one directly annoyed by it. Also, one of my gym leaders is constantly picking on [and Indian kid in the class]. It's like, man, you have to be a role model because you're older. The only reason he doesn't pick on [this slow kid in the class] is because [the Indian kid]tells him to cut it out [and the other kid doesn't]. You know what's going to happen is [a] last straw's gonna come, [the Indian kid's] gonna get caught in a bad light, and he's gonna be the one in trouble. And since the junior gym leader's cooler and older, of course, everyone joins in. I hate my class.


That was kind of reformatted to make it readable and I took out her interjections and removed names, for obvious reasons ...


Yeah, so that's it ...

cellpadding="0" bgcolor="#000000" height="200"
bordercolor="#AD9A79">

width="250" height="150"> target="_blank">What Goth Are You?

Not that I'm actually goth ...
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Wednesday, October 13, 2004

So ...
Yes, well, apparently, "a monkey on your back" is a euphanism (sp?) for having an obsession. I didn't know this when my dad randomly said on the way home from Target yesterday, "So, has this shopping trip fed the monkey on [Tea's] back?" Of course, this was just too much for my mature mind, so I lost it over that one ... now Tea keeps telling me I have a bloated monkey hanging around me ...

But I'm sorry, monkeys are funny. Especially on people's backs.

Don't try on pants after drinking about half a gallon of Mountain Dew. They may not fit right.

Don't try on belts if you aren't wearing pants you wear a belt with. You will buy a belt that's too big.

Okeys, we started this piece in band, and it was really cool, "Suspiros de Espana," but the director killed it by telling us we should all imagine ourselves as "Zorro or Catherine Zeta Jones." The next statement, "Don't you want to be Zorro? I thought he was hot," was pretty distressing too ... so is the insinuation he made with the statement, "This part of the song is a man, and this part's a woman, right? That's the story. They're gonna get together ... so what do think happened when we suddenly went into a major key?" It was so distressing.

Other than that ... I like the piece.

... Okay, what else? I'm supposed to be watching the debate ... instead, I'm adding it to the tape with three hours of Gilmore Girls and one episode of NCIS ... no one's gonna watch it till later because of the game anyway ... COME ON, RED SOX!

We're THIS close to reversing the curse, don't blow it!

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