Vita's footnote in her blog gave me the idea to describe the little pyramid of levels of advanced-ness in my school district, because it's kind of complicated but more because I'm tired and lazy and sunburned.
Elementary school: Either "on-level" regular classes, or REACH*
Middle school: ESL/"guided" classes, on-level, or more REACH
High school: "Key Points" classes, on-level, "fast track" math for the "frosh"**, Honors, then starting juinor year official AP classes for college credit.
Confused? All will be explained in the footnotes... *skip there if you wish to read the rest of my blog un-confoozed*
Question: Imagining that you'd be successful and make at least enough money to live, what would be your dream career?
Is being filthy stinkin' rich considered a career? No? How bout MARRYING something filthy stinkin' rich? (Who is also my soulmate with a great personality, and heck, good looks on top of that wouldn't be so bad... ;) )
Okay, seriously, (since John and Maureen make it seem so fun) and since the question says I would at least be good at it and moderately rich, being a YA author would be pretty cool. Or, should I wish to fulfill my childhood dreams, a mermaid/pastry chef/detective/dog trainer/actress.
My question: What was your first thought when you got up this morning?
* REACH doesn't stand for anything, it's just supposed to mean we should REACH for the sky, REACH our goals, similar cliches... and it was only for math and reading. Just 15 minute little classes during the regular school day. Usually during recess. RECESS! AND the classroom had a huge window that faced the playground!!!! >:C TOR-TURE. At least the teacher was super nice.
** Ok, I'm in this, and even I don't get this: This year the "fast track" classes don't COUNT for real honors credit, but if we CONTINUE on that track, NEXT year THAT class will count as honors. As far as I know this only applies to a certain frosh math class that I happen to be in. This is probably explained in the course catalog, I might have to read that more...
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
Smeyer & MYP
You probably know by now that I am not, to say the least, a huge Twilight fan. Quite the opposite, in fact: I have so many issues with the characters and (lack of) plot in the books, and I don't think they consist of quality writing, either. However, I absolutely hate when people start attacking Stephenie Meyer.
Any person who puts their work - whether it's books, music, acting - into the public eye has to be able to handle criticism. Even JK Rowling, author of what is arguably the most popular book series in the world, hasn't captured the hearts of every person on the planet. But there is a huge difference between being critical and being downright mean. I know that a few months ago (maybe longer) Stephen King basically said that Meyer can't write. Whether you agree or not, it's not the nicest way of putting it, especially considering that he's so famous. Just because you're famous doesn't mean you have to lie about everything, but you could at least phrase it differently to make it sound less harsh. True, there are some issues that you don't want to sound nicer about, but if it's just a matter of giving your opinion on someone else's book, it won't kill you to say something more along the lines of, "Well, it's not my favorite book." Meyer is still a person with feelings. Make fun of her books all you want, but I think it's really unfair to start attacking her. Unless she actually does something horrible, like murder a litter of kittens or something, lay off.
In other book news (segway segway!), I just finished "The Picture of Dorian Gray," which was my chosen summer reading book. Thankfully, we only had to read one book this year and fill out an absurdly easy sheet on it (which I still haven't done, hehe). I say "thankfully" not because I hate reading (I don't) but because I have a ridiculous amount of Math and French that I have yet to do, as well as the first half of my MYP project*, which is supposed to be mostly completed during the summer. So yeah, these last 3 weeks should be fun. What can I say? I procrastinate.
What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten?
I remember this one time at my best friend's birthday part in seventh grade when we spent close to half an hour blowing up Peeps in the microwave (not to the point of explosiveness, but close) and then kind of fondue-d (chocolate) it with grapes and pretzel sticks. I can't imagine it was very tasty. That much sugar in one place is somewhat nauseating, and I like food.
Imagining that you'd be successful and make at least enough money to live, what would be your dream career?
* I'm in this program called MYP (Middle Years Program) that runs from grades 6 to 10 (it works because my middle school and high school are, of course, in the same cluster... you can join the program in 9th grade, but I don't know why you'd want to. The only reason I joined is because my school more or less forced everyone who was doing at least reasonably well in above-grade-level classes to continue on our magical quest through MYP-land, or something). MYP is basically the same thing as all-honors classes except with a lot more pointless crap (and I do mean pointless crap... academically, the only real difference between Honors and MYP is that there's more algebraeic equations in Geometry and the books we read for English are deemed a bit more difficult. The rest of the extra stuff is complete BS). It's part of the IB (International Baccelaureate) program, which you have to apply to get into and is for smart kids who won't die trying to do ridiculous amounts of work. Here, I will make a handy pyramid type thing for you that will explain how challenging each program is supposed to be in the minds of their creators (starting with the "smartest" on top):
IB
MYP
Honors
On-level
Yeah. I could go (ohh, trust me, I could go on) but I'll spare you. It's annoying, let's leave it at that. :)
Any person who puts their work - whether it's books, music, acting - into the public eye has to be able to handle criticism. Even JK Rowling, author of what is arguably the most popular book series in the world, hasn't captured the hearts of every person on the planet. But there is a huge difference between being critical and being downright mean. I know that a few months ago (maybe longer) Stephen King basically said that Meyer can't write. Whether you agree or not, it's not the nicest way of putting it, especially considering that he's so famous. Just because you're famous doesn't mean you have to lie about everything, but you could at least phrase it differently to make it sound less harsh. True, there are some issues that you don't want to sound nicer about, but if it's just a matter of giving your opinion on someone else's book, it won't kill you to say something more along the lines of, "Well, it's not my favorite book." Meyer is still a person with feelings. Make fun of her books all you want, but I think it's really unfair to start attacking her. Unless she actually does something horrible, like murder a litter of kittens or something, lay off.
In other book news (segway segway!), I just finished "The Picture of Dorian Gray," which was my chosen summer reading book. Thankfully, we only had to read one book this year and fill out an absurdly easy sheet on it (which I still haven't done, hehe). I say "thankfully" not because I hate reading (I don't) but because I have a ridiculous amount of Math and French that I have yet to do, as well as the first half of my MYP project*, which is supposed to be mostly completed during the summer. So yeah, these last 3 weeks should be fun. What can I say? I procrastinate.
What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten?
I remember this one time at my best friend's birthday part in seventh grade when we spent close to half an hour blowing up Peeps in the microwave (not to the point of explosiveness, but close) and then kind of fondue-d (chocolate) it with grapes and pretzel sticks. I can't imagine it was very tasty. That much sugar in one place is somewhat nauseating, and I like food.
Imagining that you'd be successful and make at least enough money to live, what would be your dream career?
* I'm in this program called MYP (Middle Years Program) that runs from grades 6 to 10 (it works because my middle school and high school are, of course, in the same cluster... you can join the program in 9th grade, but I don't know why you'd want to. The only reason I joined is because my school more or less forced everyone who was doing at least reasonably well in above-grade-level classes to continue on our magical quest through MYP-land, or something). MYP is basically the same thing as all-honors classes except with a lot more pointless crap (and I do mean pointless crap... academically, the only real difference between Honors and MYP is that there's more algebraeic equations in Geometry and the books we read for English are deemed a bit more difficult. The rest of the extra stuff is complete BS). It's part of the IB (International Baccelaureate) program, which you have to apply to get into and is for smart kids who won't die trying to do ridiculous amounts of work. Here, I will make a handy pyramid type thing for you that will explain how challenging each program is supposed to be in the minds of their creators (starting with the "smartest" on top):
IB
MYP
Honors
On-level
Yeah. I could go (ohh, trust me, I could go on) but I'll spare you. It's annoying, let's leave it at that. :)
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
On the run...
Okay just a quick note: I will not be able to blog tomorrow.
I know I've been a case worthy of the fail boat lately, but I have been away from internet connections and computers and this brief interlude is so short that I cannot hope to find time to write a blog. Actually, at this very moment I should be packing, because I'm leaving in, let's see... oh, five minutes ago.
That is a snapshot of my summer: I should've left five minutes ago.
I apologize. I'll be back on Saturday, and I'll come up with something fantastic to write about on Sunday. Rest assured, it will be incredible (or incredibly lame--one of the two)
They're coming.... *crash*
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Summer... to thee I bid a sad semi-farewell.
Ah yes, 'tis that time of year again m'friends. Summer has come and almost completely gone. As Green Day once put it: (in one of those songs that isn't really about what you think it's about)
"Wake me up when September endssss..."
(and while you're at it, make me a well-adjusted, organized, put-together type, straight-A's-yet-still-well-rounded person. Thanks. You've just saved me a lot of time.)
Yes Vita, I ADORED BSC. It was so awesome then, but now it seems slightly cheesy. Do you remember Mallory? She showed up in one of the later books as like a junior secretary or something. She was a minor-ish character, but I thought she was THE COOLEST, for whatever reason.
I now go back to lamenting the end of Summer...
I'm not sad about summer ending so much as I am sad about having to GET UP EARLY and "be productive". That's the great thing about summer, you don't really *have* to do anything. At least anything school-ish.
Vita's question: What is your favorite childhood book?
I don't know if anyone else ever read this (or since this is WAAAY back, had it read to them...) but I used to LURVE "The Veleteen Rabbit". The ending was so sad to me when I was little, but I loved the story because I had all these stuffed animals so I thought that made me like the boy in the book. (did they ever mention his name? I forget.)
My question: What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten?
"Wake me up when September endssss..."
(and while you're at it, make me a well-adjusted, organized, put-together type, straight-A's-yet-still-well-rounded person. Thanks. You've just saved me a lot of time.)
Yes Vita, I ADORED BSC. It was so awesome then, but now it seems slightly cheesy. Do you remember Mallory? She showed up in one of the later books as like a junior secretary or something. She was a minor-ish character, but I thought she was THE COOLEST, for whatever reason.
I now go back to lamenting the end of Summer...
I'm not sad about summer ending so much as I am sad about having to GET UP EARLY and "be productive". That's the great thing about summer, you don't really *have* to do anything. At least anything school-ish.
Vita's question: What is your favorite childhood book?
I don't know if anyone else ever read this (or since this is WAAAY back, had it read to them...) but I used to LURVE "The Veleteen Rabbit". The ending was so sad to me when I was little, but I loved the story because I had all these stuffed animals so I thought that made me like the boy in the book. (did they ever mention his name? I forget.)
My question: What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten?
Monday, August 3, 2009
assorted things?
Wow, I procrastinated today. It's only 8:29pm over here, but I usually try to write these things earlier... the later it gets, the less my brain works. ^^
Mehr, summer work is finally catching up with me. I have a little less than a month left until school starts and, to put it simply, I haven't done crap yet. Last year I kind of, uh, left everything until the weekend before the first day of school... I'm trying to avoid that. It was not, to say the least, a fun experience. :P
Did you guys ever read "The Babysitter's Club" when you were younger? It used to be my FAVORITE series in the ENTIRE WORLD. I think that I read almost every book in the series at some point (and there were a ridiculous number of books... at least 130, I think). Looking back, I'm not so sure why I loved it so much. Maybe it was because I thought that 11 and 13 were practically middle age and I couldn't wait to start a babysitting club of my own (yeah, that never happened). I'm pretty sure that BSC is more overwhelmingly obnoxious than anything else, really.
What is your single favorite word in the English language?
I'm sure that tomorrow I'll suddenly remember some incredibly amusing word that makes me laugh every time I hear it, but I'd have to go with "soliloquy." It may be French or something, actually, but we use it in English, so... let's just say it counts. ;) I think it's quite pretty.
What is your favorite childhood book?
[Sorry this is so short... *brainfail* :P)
Mehr, summer work is finally catching up with me. I have a little less than a month left until school starts and, to put it simply, I haven't done crap yet. Last year I kind of, uh, left everything until the weekend before the first day of school... I'm trying to avoid that. It was not, to say the least, a fun experience. :P
Did you guys ever read "The Babysitter's Club" when you were younger? It used to be my FAVORITE series in the ENTIRE WORLD. I think that I read almost every book in the series at some point (and there were a ridiculous number of books... at least 130, I think). Looking back, I'm not so sure why I loved it so much. Maybe it was because I thought that 11 and 13 were practically middle age and I couldn't wait to start a babysitting club of my own (yeah, that never happened). I'm pretty sure that BSC is more overwhelmingly obnoxious than anything else, really.
What is your single favorite word in the English language?
I'm sure that tomorrow I'll suddenly remember some incredibly amusing word that makes me laugh every time I hear it, but I'd have to go with "soliloquy." It may be French or something, actually, but we use it in English, so... let's just say it counts. ;) I think it's quite pretty.
What is your favorite childhood book?
[Sorry this is so short... *brainfail* :P)
Saturday, August 1, 2009
I am reduced to moaning about the weather...
'Nother "retro" blog!!! Yay. Anyone else besides me remember early April where all I would do was complain about the stupid weather? I did. A LOT. I think I will continue this little retro thing. Because during BEDA I would just blog about whatever was going on in my life on that particular day and not about any "topics" that contain anything interesting. I didn't even have to respond to any other blogs. Not that I DON'T like this arrangement; and I DO think I'm getting better at blogging, but my early blogs required much less work. I like them for that.
BUT ANYWAY!
Yesterday, there was an article in the newspaper about the average temperatures for July. On average: 69.4 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT!!! Brrrrrr... I mean, usually it is BLAZING HOT here in summer. The hottest day was July 6th, it got up to a scorching 85. This is nothing. We're used to at least 90 degrees, even higher heat index... and it's one thing I like about Chicago. The weather makes you tough. 60 degrees in March is a FANTASTIC day.
Questions!
Alex: What's your feeling on Michael Gambon as Dumbledore?
I'll have to agree with Vita and say that they both have their moments, each capturing some of the complexities of Dumbledore, but neither of them gets him just completely right... which makes him more awesome. He's hard to capture, because as Vita pointed out, he IS really conflicted. But no more than any other person, I think. We're all pretty complicated people. 3-D, as they say. Which makes the fact that anyone can take words and create this REAL, multi-faceted person kind of amazing.
Really, I don't think ANY actor could portray EVERYONE'S idea of Dumbledore, mainly because he's a character in a book, and we've all had a chance to form our versions of him totally non-visually. This happens with almost every book-turned movie. Everyone has all the characters perfectly IN THEIR HEAD, so we're all bound to be at least a little disappointed by the movie portrayals.
Vita: If you could have one superpower and/or magical power, what would it be?
I used to think about this a lot as a kid, and I always imagined this huge bin of all the crazy awesome powers. Like a bottomless cardboard box. Every superpower that had ever been invented. I decided I'd take all the "reject" powers as long as I could have like 50 of them. Like, the ability to make toast with my eyes and grow my fingernails at will and be a human spellcheck. All the ones nobody wants, as long as I could have ALL of them. But, if I had to choose one BIG one, I'd choose invisibility. Before you get all psychoanalyst on me and say that's because I'm insecure and want to be invisible in social situations and blah, no. I want this power mostly for snooping and observing purposes. Just too see people when they think they're alone. Not to like, mess with their heads and pull pranks and stuff, (well, only occasionally... teehee...) but to see how every one's unedited, alone, uncensored self is compared to how they act in public.
I'm not accusing anyone of living some sort of secret double-life or something, but we all do it. It's kind of human nature to change how we act based on who we're around, or even if there's anyone there at all. Just slight changes. Not in a bad way; I think it's almost a survival thing. Like, if all the cave people had acted the same around some rival tribe with huge weapons as they had their cave children, humanity would kind of be extinct by now.
Wow, that was ramble-ish. Does that make sense to anyone but me?
Or a less confusing answer is I want to be able to be in more than one place at once. This would really come in handy. (Fully visible, of course)
My question: What is your single favorite word in the English language? (can be total nonsense, fun word to say, or something meaningful. or both.)
BUT ANYWAY!
Yesterday, there was an article in the newspaper about the average temperatures for July. On average: 69.4 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT!!! Brrrrrr... I mean, usually it is BLAZING HOT here in summer. The hottest day was July 6th, it got up to a scorching 85. This is nothing. We're used to at least 90 degrees, even higher heat index... and it's one thing I like about Chicago. The weather makes you tough. 60 degrees in March is a FANTASTIC day.
Questions!
Alex: What's your feeling on Michael Gambon as Dumbledore?
I'll have to agree with Vita and say that they both have their moments, each capturing some of the complexities of Dumbledore, but neither of them gets him just completely right... which makes him more awesome. He's hard to capture, because as Vita pointed out, he IS really conflicted. But no more than any other person, I think. We're all pretty complicated people. 3-D, as they say. Which makes the fact that anyone can take words and create this REAL, multi-faceted person kind of amazing.
Really, I don't think ANY actor could portray EVERYONE'S idea of Dumbledore, mainly because he's a character in a book, and we've all had a chance to form our versions of him totally non-visually. This happens with almost every book-turned movie. Everyone has all the characters perfectly IN THEIR HEAD, so we're all bound to be at least a little disappointed by the movie portrayals.
Vita: If you could have one superpower and/or magical power, what would it be?
I used to think about this a lot as a kid, and I always imagined this huge bin of all the crazy awesome powers. Like a bottomless cardboard box. Every superpower that had ever been invented. I decided I'd take all the "reject" powers as long as I could have like 50 of them. Like, the ability to make toast with my eyes and grow my fingernails at will and be a human spellcheck. All the ones nobody wants, as long as I could have ALL of them. But, if I had to choose one BIG one, I'd choose invisibility. Before you get all psychoanalyst on me and say that's because I'm insecure and want to be invisible in social situations and blah, no. I want this power mostly for snooping and observing purposes. Just too see people when they think they're alone. Not to like, mess with their heads and pull pranks and stuff, (well, only occasionally... teehee...) but to see how every one's unedited, alone, uncensored self is compared to how they act in public.
I'm not accusing anyone of living some sort of secret double-life or something, but we all do it. It's kind of human nature to change how we act based on who we're around, or even if there's anyone there at all. Just slight changes. Not in a bad way; I think it's almost a survival thing. Like, if all the cave people had acted the same around some rival tribe with huge weapons as they had their cave children, humanity would kind of be extinct by now.
Wow, that was ramble-ish. Does that make sense to anyone but me?
Or a less confusing answer is I want to be able to be in more than one place at once. This would really come in handy. (Fully visible, of course)
My question: What is your single favorite word in the English language? (can be total nonsense, fun word to say, or something meaningful. or both.)
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