Life goes on. Let’s see what happened in these last two or so weeks of bloglessness.

School started, I’m now a senior. Schedule:

• Japanese II — Same as usual. The class is filled with anime fans of the socially inept variety. The teacher appointed me the Japanese Club president out of the blue, so I’m going to have to find some sort of way to manage them without stabbing my eardrums out from all the Yu-gi-oh talk.
• AP Environmental Science — Like my previous science class, this one looks like it’s going to be valueable. The subject matter seems pretty manageable, yet it also seems like I’ll be learning alot.
• AP Psychology — Whoah. The teacher is a bitter old man: he sits in front of the class seething until someone raises their hand to ask a question, then he begins a lecture. It goes on like this until the bell rings. The subject matter is pretty eye-opening, I hope I don’t end up a nihilist by the end of it.
• AP Computer Science — Bah, this class is almost a waste of my time. I already know how to program, but now I’m having to do it in older, crappier languages. Bleh.
• ‘D’ Lunch — Worst. Lunch. Evar. It’s the last lunch period of the day, so I’m rediculously hungry by the time I get to it, and I know all of two people. Oh well.
• AP English — I wanted to be in the middle level class, but the lovely counselors stuck me in the lowest. The only option was to move up the the highest. I hope this doesn’t manage to mangle my grades.
• Advertising and Graphic Design — I really, really like this class. I’ve had the same art teacher for three years, and even though she isn’t the best, she gets the job done. The class is also an excuse for me to buy some awesome art supplies ^__^
• Algebra III — This class is sadly easy. It’s the math class for people who don’t want a math class. It’s just a review of the first two algebras. Get it? Algebra 1 + 2 = 3?

Between the Enlglish fiasco, I’m excited about the year. Despite this, I’m still ready to get out of home: the faster this year goes by the better.

My family bought a new Toyota Prius. I think this is the first time we’ve own more than one functioning car in close to a decade. The price was marked up like hell becuase of the scarcity of Priuses in North America, but the car itself is a dream. It handles great, although it takes some getting used to after driving the land-yacht station wagon.

More importantly, we’ve driven the car 225 miles and the gas meter is only down halfway. I don’t have the exact MPG figures at the moment, but I think it’s around 50. Pretty freaking impressive. I like to think of it as a mobile ‘Fuck You’ to the oil companies.

My house has been invaded by carpenter ants. I’m sure it’s just a summer occurance and not a serious permanent condition, but even then I can’t help developing a sort of love-hate relationship with the bugs.

I’ve only ever seen a single one at once, so it’s easy to imagine that it’s simply one ant following me around to different rooms. He’s walking on the wall behind my computer moniter. He’s eating some toothpaste off the bathroom counter. He’s standing on the oven’s fume hood.

When I get really close and actually observe, I start to see little nuances in the ant’s behavior. They stand on their back legs and clean off their antennae with their front two, almost like a cat grooming it’s ears. Despite this, it’s hard to emphasize with something hundreds of thousands of times smaller than you. It’s easy to flick them away, and it’s easy to imagine one crawling down your back while you sleep.

(Side-Note: Most species of ant don’t actually bite, they sting with formic acid. Apparently, carpenter ants lack the delivery method to inject formic acid directly into our skin, so when threatened they attempt to bite and then inject the formic acid into the bite wound. I never actually had a carpenter ant bite me without having me actively trying to coax them into doing so.)

An Ant, by M.C. Escher

I’ve had a very strange history of switching between schools. It’s never solely been that the schools have been bad, or that I was a crappy student, or outside factors, but a combination of the three. I want to take a look at the schools I’ve ever been to:

• Pre-K Ages 3-4: Glen Memorial

  Its wonderful playground is my clearest memory of the school. Massive and with plenty of fun play structures. The equipment has since been dismantled, presumably for safety issues.

• Kindergarden: Saint Andrew’s Presbyterian Church

  My first experiance with Christianity. Not so bad, really, I had a wonderful teacher. Ate lots of cookies and learned to write (and haven’t really improved much since then ~_~).

• Kindergarden (Again for 4 months): Regina Howell Elementary

  The public school system wouldn’t let me into 1st grade because I started school earlier than most and the school said I was too young. Unlike my last school, the teacher in this one was certifiably insane. She splattered the walls with any sort of clown-related-imagery she could get her hands on. She even looked like one of them with her garish artifical red hair.

• 1st: Homeschooled by Mother

  My first experience with homeschool. I don’t remember much of it really. Not suprising since homeschool (as I later learned) makes an incredibly empty life.

• 2nd, 3rd, 4th: Regina Howell Elementary

  They let me in this time. My first experiance with bullying and the Texas disciplinary system: If you were ‘bad’ you ‘got the paddle.’ I never experienced it firsthand, but I did know lots of kids who it is very easy to imagine growing up into mentally damaged people.

• 5th, 6th: Briarlake Elementary

  Back in Atlanta. A very nice school, but also the one where my problems with educational institutions came out. I was never rebelious, but I just never did homework. The teachers were nice, but they sure as hell didn’t know how I could manage to flunk math in 6th grade. I didn’t know either, but later found out that chronic anxiety does not blend well with school.

• 7th: Shamrock Middle

  An awful place for anyone. The entire system was designed to crush any sort of individuality or expression from anyone who came into it, faculty included. The defining moment was when I recieved a lecture from a balding teacher explaining how he feels horrible for protesting against the Vietnam war, so therefore I must unquestionably follow all school policies. I left as soon as the year was over.

• 8th, 9th: Galloway School

  This was the time when my conciousness kicks in. I got my first serious girlfriend, a new batch of friends, and an atmosphere I truely loved. Theatre took up a huge amount of my time, and endowded me with a large dose of self-esteem. The administration of the school fucked it up by not only removing me from classes and theatre activities without my permission, but personally insulting me and breaking written agreements concerning my academics. I left because I didn’t feel I could continue in the poisoned atmosphere.

• 10th (for 7 months): Homeschooled

  This is where my life hit a new low. Still reeling from Galloway and suffering from intense depression, I pretty much layed in bed 18 hours a day: not healthy and awful for mental healthy. After hitting a true low, I healed myself and decided that homeschool wasn’t going to work.

• To present: Lakeside High School

  Despite the school being intensely mediocre, I’m intensely enjoying my life. Although I lost alot of friends to Galloway, I have wonderful pool of friends now, and I feel much more complete and secure. I’ve come to grips with my academic problems, and pretty much learned how to work with them.

It’s kind of sobering, considering many people never go to more than 3 schools in their entire life, but I’ve learned alot from it. I’m doing well now, and I heading into college I can continue that. Ultimately, schools are supposedly designed to facilitate learning, and I want to take advantage of that.

As a footnote, this summer, I’ve enrolled in the Dekalb County School’s Online Academy. The website uses some sort of prepackeged software, but the neither the teachers nor the people running the school seem to know how to use it. Online school can be done better than this.

Thank you for reading this entry that consists solely of a single person’s memory-wankery. The author of this piece apologizes for the overuse of the first-person and will take measures to prevent this in future writings.

Creepy Mannequin I found somewhere in Florida

Awkward late at night post time: Musing on absences.

I’ve missed school at least 6 days in the last 2 weeks: A combination of AP testing, badly timed illness, and a wedding 250 miles away. Public school is weird about that. A teacher who won’t blink if you don’t turn in an assignment will hunt you down like an animal if you miss a day of school. And then they won’t let you turn in the work. Absolutely trivial. Public school is petty like that. They think you’re skipping, but they also want to give you the benefit of the doubt. Teachers in public school are conflicted.

I’ve also noticed school (whether attended or not) has the ability to complete trivialize one’s life. I’m ready to leave the place and become a productive human being. School doesn’t let anyone do that. I have to go to the motions, making me feel powerless. That makes me unhappy and destroys creative urge. This entire site is one of my creative urges. meh.