This year thus far has not been good to me.

My English teacher practically hates me. And she grades very hard. She gave me a 5/20 on an assignment just because, quote, "[The assignment] isn't a natural setting." She also tends to call on me because I apparently do not talk at all in class discussions. That's not true. Bitch. Other people don't talk at all and yet she picks on me.

Not only that, but she practically loves Ricardo. Almost to the point of wanting him. Pedophile. Roselle told me that Yaxi is very certain that she only likes Hispanics like her and that she hates Asians. Her hypothesis seems to prove true.

My French teacher is even worse. She seems very OCD and complains to us about how little time she has to grade tests and projects, and yet she has the time to talk about dresses in class! I hate how she just calls me [enter a derogatory remark about a girl] from my last name. I asked another girl (Kit) with the same last name in my grade who also has her, and she told me that she is called that too. Kit and Joyce's class sounds more fun though. According to Joyce, half the class talks back to Mme Brun, and she screams back at them. My class is quite boring and usually silent.

She has also upped participation to be 20% of the term grade o_O.

My geometry teacher Mr. McQuade is okay, but he gives a lot of lectures to my class about how we shouldn't have to use the bathroom during his classes, how we shouldn't talk while he's assigning work and there's tests still out, about how we should respond to his questions and ask some if we are confused. Many people seem to think he's gay. I don't know why, but they do. I should have tried for honors. I don't really know/like half the class.

PROOFS! I'll chop off the head of whoever decided that the world would become better by concocting proofs!

Chemistry is interesting, but my teacher is very BORING. I'm sorry, but his voice just drones for extended periods of time, and I use much efforts in trying to stay awake in class. He had a surprise notebook check today (or should I say yesterday; it's after midnight) and I was completely unprepared.

I hate notebook checks. Teachers who do notebook checks seem to have strict regulations over such things. It is the student's responsibility after all to keep their notebooks in check, not the teacher. It's just more work for both teachers and students.

The two classes I have come to enjoy this year are World History II and Latin Prose Honors.

The former, I must say, I do  like, mainly because of my tablemates, Kit and Tadesh. They are very fun and easy to talk to. I've opened up a lot more this year, and hopefully much more by senior year. After meeting Kit, now I know there are three people including myself in our class (grade) who have that same last name that I had so detested to say aloud. Tadesh is also quite funny. All his teachers seem to love him. And yet he's as normal as any other person.

Other people in that class include Muhan :D, Noelia, and Athena.

Ms. Gomez I think has done a wonderful job in bringing awareness of the world to us students. Many people outside of the US have the perception that the regular American (or rather, United-Statian) outside of the government is ignorant of foreign affairs, and hopefully this will correct that perception.

In Prose Honors, I am very surprised to see that many people are doing poorly. I really like this class too. Ms. LeDang is a fun teacher. She gives a lot of work, but it all pays off in the end. Many people got warning notices, though. I however, am getting a very good grade, and the teacher even told me that I am very intuitive and intelligent in Latin. :D

I cannot believe I have Mr. Smith again for Physical Education. He is a sleazy idiot who looks at little girls' chests and is very full of himself. What reinforces the theory that he's a pedophile is when he revealed to us that he was forty! FORTY?! He looked like he was in his late twenties. Oh, well. The gym teachers have also revamped the grading policy, which is not a good thing. Health is now a joke. We're given information and told to memorize it for quizzes. And we watch videos. Hubert told me that his gym teacher was making them do skits on how to say NO.

The school ruleshave been reinforced drastically since Ms. Kelley, the Headmaster (why does she call herself Headmaster? Shouldn't she be called Headmistress?) Emerita, left. There were many new rules added, though I have noticed that there was no mention in the policy of the dress code "DOES MS. KELLEY APPROVE?" slogan.

current mood: stressed

However, the MBTA is turning Green Line fare collection into a quasi-proof-of-payment system and has implemented changes intended to increase the efficiency of boarding at peak times on surface Green Line stops. All doors on all trolleys will open at all stations. Passengers can pay their fare in several ways, depending on their payment method. Passengers paying with cash must continue to enter through the front door and pay at the farebox, where they will receive payment receipts. Stored-value CharlieCard or CharlieTicket holders may also need to pay at the farebox. However, selected stops on all four of the Green Line branches contain ticket validators which allow passengers to have money deducted from their CharlieCards or CharlieTickets before boarding and providing them with proof of payment receipts. With receipt in hand, these passengers can enter through the rear doors of trolleys. In addition, MBTA inspectors with handheld validators will be stationed at stops to deduct money from and verify monthly passes on CharlieCards, also allowing these riders to enter through any door. (Thirty of the handheld readers have been deployed, with an additional 20 coming by the end of January, 2007, according to the MBTA.) Persons holding monthly passes can also just enter through any doors.^[9] All passengers, even those who entered through the rear doors, may still be required to go to the front of the train and make payment (or show their receipt) to trolley drivers. MBTA Transit Police will conduct random checks to make sure riders have paid their fares. It is unclear whether this system will operate only during rush hours, or during equally crowded mid-day and evening periods..."

Shocking, isn't it? Students used to frequently get on without pay because their large numbers at the station near school causes the trolley drivers to open all doors. Now they're about to have random checks to see if you have a student pass and whatever else is required...

I guess I haven't updated in a very long while. My mother took away the notebooks so we would work on our summer reading reports, but my little sister found them and hid them in her room. For some reason, one of the notebooks'  Wireless network thingamajig doesn't work, so it's been constricted to one notebook which my sister's been hogging.

On to the topic:

When my aunt, uncle, and cousin came from overseas to stay with us, my grandfather relocated himself to sleep on the couch so they could have his room. However, he uses my room to store all of his material possessions. Half of my room is now cluttered with his paraphernalia!!!

Then there's his midnight smoking. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night to find him wandering around in my room searching for his beloved cigarettes and taking his jacket. I lock the door to try and prevent this, but he manages every time to unlock it. I've told my mother about this, but she keeps telling me that she'll take care of this.

Then there's the trash he collects off the streets. He leaves old cans and whatnot in my bedroom so the place practically reeks. He washes and dries his laundry in my room, and I have to dig through his clothes in the closet before I can usually find mine.

And here's the most random thing of all: Twice I have found rotten bananas on my windowsill. I talked to him about it, and he said the bananas would ripen faster if they were left there. O_o

Nothing against my extended family, but I hope they move out soon so my grandfather can take back all of his belongings. ALL of them.

current mood: frustrated

Today I felt bored doing nothing at home so I decided to investigate the Body Mass Index of each character with a profile in the Battle Royale manga.

Rules:

Underweight: less than 18.5
Normal: 18.5 - 25
Overweight: 25 - 30
Obese: over 30

Screenshot:



This was using the simplest formula of (kilogram/meter²)

1. •
    
2. o
   
3. o
   
4. o
   
5. o
Class III: English 10: The American Experience

 

The Little Prince

 

The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd

 

Ellen Foster, Kaye Gibbons

 

and two titles selected from the Class III Summer Reading List

I had my seventh and very last final this week! Whoo!!!

On Tuesday I finally managed to borrow the novel version of Battle Royale from ML. I finished it in a couple of nights and returned it to her yesterday.

I still haven't finished The Silmarillion.

On Tuesday, my 5th period teacher [Latin] is going to treat us to pizza, not in the school! Yay!

Because we didn't have him today because of the finals, my history teacher Mr. Glavin is having our party on that day as well. In addition, he will be giving out his designated "Glavy" awards. Our class gets a special award for having the most animals [Emily Jaguar, John Fox, and Raffi Baboon!]. Hopefully I won't receive an award. I probably shouldn't have been participating that much at the beginning of the year. Then people wouldn't always be relying on me for answers.

However, besides these specialties, there will be nothing to do at all at school. My mother is making my sisters and I go anyway. There's only one full day and two half days left! And we're not going to be learning anything new at all!

Hopefully my first submission to battle_writing will receive some criticism. The last I checked, there haven't been any comments at all. I don't really know what to do with some of these themes. Here they are:

Yoshio Akamatsu: Yakuza
Mizuho Inada: My Girlfriend [I'll probably have quite a lot of fun writing this]
Keita Iijima: Pride
Yukie Utsumi: Common Sense
Tatsumichi Ooki: Famine
Megumi Etou: The Coach
Toshinori Oda: Greed
Sakura Ogawa: Wheeeeee!!
Shogo Kawada: Dreams
Izumi Kanai: ***WILDCARD***
Kazuo Kiriyama: Drunkard
Yukiko Kitano: Endgame
Yoshitoki Kuninobu: Ouch
Yumiko Kusaka: Insanity
Yoji Kuramoto: Existence
Kayoko Kotohiki: Sloth
Hiroshi Kuronaga: Mother [Done!]
Yuko Sakaki: Tears
Ryuhei Sasagawa: War
Hirono Shimizu: Collapse
Hiroki Sugimura: Geek
Mitsuko Souma: My Boyfriend
Yutaka Seto: Teacher
Haruka Tanizawa: Nature
Yuichiro Takiguchi: Follow the Leader
Takako Chigusa: Carnage
Sho Tsukioka: Nobody
Mayumi Tendou: Unbelievable
Shuya Nanahara: Cherry Blossom
Noriko Nakagawa: Pretty Flowers
Kazushi Niida: Salad
Yuka Nakagawa: Fourteen
Mitsuru Numai: Shut Up
Satomi Noda: Competitivity
Tadakatsu Hatagami: Death
Fumiyo Fujiyoshi: Rats
Shinji Mimura: Emo Kid
Chisato Matsui: Precious Metals
Kyoichi Motobuchi: Who's the Daddy?
Kaori Minami: Witness
Kazuhiko Yamamoto: Lust
Yoshimi Yahagi: Blasphemy

Only one down. I'll update this as I go along.