Monday, October 9, 2006, 05:55 PM
Alright, for the record, my AP Calculus teacher (Mr. Crawford) is an ANNOYING NUTCASE!!! The man assigned homework (due tomorrow) in 2nd period today that is taking six pieces of paper front and back! I knew I should've done AP Statistics...
Oh well, can't really change that now. See, I'm getting a good grade in his class right now (high 90s, 96 I think) so the man sees no problem that I might have; he fails to notice that we all have homework in other classes, too.
Mrs. Ward, my AP US History teacher, gave more of a 'pop test' than a 'pop quiz' today. You know this annoying little sheets that are rectangular and you have to use a pencil to bubble in the answers and are timed, Scantron I think they're called? Think one of those. It wasn't so much the subject (I love history) nor the fact that it was timed (50 questions in 45 minutes) as much as it was that she never said anything about it. I mean, I studied what it was on (Chapters 6, 7, and 8 of the textbook), but come on now, giving a pop test insted of a pop quiz, now that's just low...
In other news, Mr. Yoshida, my AP Japanese Language teacher, thinks already that we should be able to pass the AP exam in May (can't remember which day), even though most of us are juniors (only four seniors) and we're only in the sixth week of school already! I honestly don't know where the man gets so much confidence in us, because I'll tell you, a lot of my classmates don't do their homework nor practice their vocabulary (yes, yours truly has missed one of his assignments too). So as a result, he gave us a twelve page paper to write for him, on whatever subject we wanted, all in Japanese, due next Monday, so yeah, I've got that to work on in addition to my calculus homework.
As for science, I'm in AP Physics A this year, and I must say, Mr. Daisley is one of my most favorite teachers I think I've ever had. His idea of starting the class period involves giving us cooking tips and telling the latest (mostly) inappropos jokes he's picked up (and of course, my generation loves them like a bunch of dinks). So by the time he's finished doing his spiel, we've already spent ten minutes of class! But hey, he's really good at what he teaches, and he's got a Ph.D in physics from Texas Tech, so I figure he's got to know his stuff pretty well. It's a hard class, but I really am learning a lot.
5th Period for me is woodworking. Yes, I know some of you might be wondering why someone who is otherwise strictly all AP classes in a woodshop class, and I'll make it simple for you: I needed a class period where I could relax, and this is relaxing for me. So far, I've been making toys (makes me feel a bit like old Santa Claus...), which we're going to donate to the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery and the battered women's shelter for the winter holidays season. To date, I've made two cars, a drag roadster, an airplane, and a motorcycle (the motorcycle was so bloody complicated!) and tomorrow I am starting a helicopter. Mr. Hadway is kinda different, and his approach to teaching is what some might call, ah, unorthodox, but he' kept all of our appendages attached so far! So yeah, that's my good cause thingymabobber for the season.
My sixth period of the day is AP English Language, and my teacher there, Ms. Rhodes, lets people get away with ANYTHING! Profanity, vulgarity, inappropos touching (including herself, which really scares me...), dipping in class (and I'm meaning Skoal here...), drinking stuff that appears to be Smirnoff Ice but without a label, etc. I think you get the picture now. Some people say she's the best teacher in the world, but she's starting to sound like the next Debbie LaFave, Mary Kay Letourneau, or Pamela Turner to me.
My seventh and final period of the day is AP US Government & Politics. See, this is an optional period that actually occurs before school starts and is technically called 'zero hour'. Class starts at 7:00 AM and ends at 7:55 AM five days a week. Mrs. Gerard is a pretty cool teacher, and she's really hands-on with her teaching methods, so it's a very fun class to take. Overall, I am attempting six AP classes this year. Funnily enough, I'm doing very well so far, and I still have free time...hmm...
Outside of school, I watched the JV football squad play Mead today, and let's just say that my school's JV team plays like the Detroit Lions do ('nuff said). They were down 21 points by halftime, which was when I left, and the updates I got from Coach Myer weren't exactly encouraging...oh, and thanks to Capt Mike Hill from the FSF for pointing out an error on my school's sports website that didn't give me due credit as being the team captain of my squad (thanks Mike...I talked to Mr. Minnerly and he says he'll have it fixed by tomorrow night at the latest...although knowing him, don't exactly count on it...I'll have the coaches deal with him). This Thursday, we're playing University High School at 6:15 PM at Albi Stadium, and it is sure to be a showdown, because U-Hi has one hell of a good football team, and they aren't to be taken lightly...I'll update on how it goes by Friday morning.
After the game Thursday, my mother and I are flying to Arkansas to see my dad, who currently has another diabetic ulcer on the bottom of his foot and as such can't travel to see me this month (my parents are divorced and thus there's a court order for monthly visitation with him). So yeah, I'll be leaving Thursday night and flying back on Sunday night. During that time, I should be online, and if you want to shoot the bull, go right ahead.
On that note, I should be getting back to my calculus homework, or Mr. Crawford is going to have a cow tomorrow morning.
L'Shana tovah,
Yirmiyahu
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( 2.9 / 119 )Sunday, October 8, 2006, 03:49 PM
Okay folks, I know it's been months since I've posted, and unlike Tommy, I haven't had an excuse as to why I haven't (okay, not a good excuse...). But let's do a recap of the summer. Over the summer, I went to:
-Israel
Got caught up in the whole ruckus there, and ended up taking some mini-vacations out of Ben Gurion Int'l in August
-Malta
This was for a fishing trip that was, admittedly, dull. Lesson learned: there's not much to fish for in the Mediterranean Sea.
-England
I thought this trip to be pretty cool. My girlfriend and I spent a night out on a relative's private boat on the Thames River, which was pretty sweet. We ended up flying to Marseille mere hours before the no carry-on luggage rule went into effect. (That was ironic when we first heard about it).
-France
Went wine-tasting in Marseille and Toulon for our second trip (went a couple years ago to Paris and actually walked part of Le Musee de Louvre)for a couple days, and I must say, I like Italian, Californian, Chilean, and Australian wines much better (although a bottle of GHW Pinot Noir does pretty good)...
-Italy
The missus and I went to Venice, which I must say was very romantic (anyone with dirty thoughts stop reading now please) and very enjoyable, although the missus did a big stupid and fell into a canal from a boat we were riding in (it's got to be a woman thing...), which subjected me to a string of curses from her parents that night. The food here is SOOO much better than my great-grandma Kluttz's (yeah, funny ha-ha, that's really the family last name for that side of the family) kitchen, although the amount of Euros we spent on food was despicable.
-Cyprus
This was a weekend vacation the missus took me on for my birthday. She blindfolded me until we got to Ben Gurion, at which point we had the 20 questions routine by Israeli security (Tommy, Israeli airport security is a great model, btw...they really do look at everything, including a certain item from an adult boutique I picked up in Italy...so much for surprising the missus...). But in all seriousness, Israeli airport security is the best in the world, and El Al's safety record surely reflects that. Anywho, Cyprus saw the two of us spending two days and two nights in a beachfront hotel on my great-uncle's corporate credit card (I don't have a clue how she got my great-uncle to let her use it for this) and it was just really a bunch of good fun.
-South Korea
Yeah, I know what you're thinking: what am I doing this close to Kim Jong Il, who happens to be tossing missiles around like they are candy bars? Well, to put it simply, the missus has some relatives there who are businesspeople (Seoul is sorta like Hong Kong in that regard) and since said relatives had a couple days free, I figured that I'd be a good boyfriend and take her there.
Now, the really unfortunate part of all this is that I had taken a lot of really good pictures that I was going to post, and I did such a stupid thing when leaving Israel (we were supposed to be staying there the whole summer, but yehiye BeSeder) at the end of August, and forgot about the whole thing with X-ray machines and undeveloped film...so long story short, my film is all ruined!
Yours truly will not be so stupid next year.
So now I'm back in school and it's really different now that I'm a junior. All but one of my classes are AP, and it's really a lot more studying than I thought it would be, but to use the same Hebrew expression I used earlier, yehiye BeSeder, which translates out to something along the lines of "Don't worry, it'll be okay." I'm an intelligent cookie!
In other news, I'm captain of the varsity football team this year (which was pretty cool when I found out, but now the extra stuff is mind-blowing) and so far this year, we are undefeated (6-0) and ranked #2 in the state, BABY!!! *starts dancing to Havah Nagilah* There are only three games left in the regular season for us, and then the state playoffs, which should last a couple weeks. And I know this is my ego talking, but we stand a very good chance of winning it all again this year for the third year in a row. We beat a prep school to win it all last year (public school is better, see?) and I think we can do it again this year. GOOOO SAXONS!!!
"Let the SCARLET and SILVER stand out among the rest! Here's to show the others we're with you because we're by far the best!"
"As we're cheering our team on, we are full of pride! We're the fighting Ferris Saxons, that's our side!"
"F-E-R-R-I-S Ferris! S-A-X-O-N-S Saxons!"
"As we're cheering our team on, we are full of pride! We're the fighting Ferris Saxons, that's our side!"
Believe me when I say that we are just as fearsome as our namesake. Our linemen impart fear into our opponents. And in fact, one QB pissed his pants when he saw our 300 pounder coming charging at him (or so the story goes).
Now, before I go do any more bragging, I need to do my physics homework for tomorrow morning.
Shana tovah,
Yirmiyahu
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( 3.1 / 113 )Thursday, May 4, 2006, 04:39 AM
Yeah, yeah, I know, it's been a while. Fine, so shoot me. LOL The past week and a half or so since I've updated this thing have seen quite a few interesting things.
For starters, I've been studying almost religiously for the AP World History exam (which I took yesterday...damned thing took 4 hours!), and I'll admit, I studied way too much and didn't relax enough, so I'm pretty sure that I burned myself out in doing so (had quite a few nights where I only got about an hour or two of sleep in total). So now, my mom's demanding that I pay for the next container of Folgers, which I really don't think is fair given that the only reason I drank the stuff was to stay up so I'd be able to get more studying done (I'm more of a Starbuck's, Yuban, and Maxwell House person).
Then, my mother's 44th birthday was this past Tuesday. She's been flipping crap at me because I made a mistake while IMing with one of my school pals and inadvertantly told said school pal that my mother was actually turning 45, not 44! Hey, normally I'd do that as a joke, but in all honesty, it really was a mistake!
So anyway, my grandma and I took her out to Applebees for her birthday dinner (embarrassed the hell out of her by getting some of the hostesses and waiters/waitresses to come to the table and do the whole "Happy Birthday!" sing-along number) and got a quarter sheet cake (one of the smaller ones) with white cake mix and chocolate frosting. (Okay, so I would've thought my mom would've wanted it to be chocolate-chocolate given past experiences on the matter, but...::shrugs::)
Long story short, my mom's birthday went pretty well, and I've now started planning what I'm going to do for her 45th birthday (just goes to show that I can go toe-to-toe with FSF Nefarious in the evil scheming department), although I'm going to have to implement my plans for my dad's 50th birthday, which is coming up in January. Then, the day afterwards (yesterday) I had my first AP (Advanced Placement...for those of us who live in the UK and other places, Advanced Placement classes are university-level classes, both in coursework and textbook selection, that are taught in the high school/secondary school setting...essentially, I'm taking an A level world history class) exam, in World History, and it was a sunuvagun! 70 multiple choice questions, with only 55 minutes to do them, plus three essay questions, and only 130 minutes to do them! I got it all done with about 5 minutes left in the exam period, and I think I'll score pretty high on it, but who knows...the College Board (company that administers the exam and the program itself) is pretty erratic on grading these suckers. But, I got it finished, and it's a new day today, so I'm fairly content with not having to even think about the exam itself until July, when the results will be mailed to me. On a related note, I will be taking AP English Language and Composition and AP American History next year as a junior/11th grader/whatever you Brits call a person who is (age-wise) in 6th Form.
While it's been a fun chat for these past few minutes of me madly typing, I've got to get to my next class (Science) and get my lunch. Oh yeah, and not to mention the fact that my math teacher is hanging over my shoulder.
Shalom,
Jeremiah
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( 3 / 311 )Sunday, April 23, 2006, 06:30 AM
And there you have an example of my ego at work.Know I haven't posted in a while, but WASL is over!!! GERONIMO!!! LOL So I'm happy about that. It's about time...this is the third WASL I've had to take since 4th grade, so it's really a relief.
In other news, I'm looking at a possible extension of my internship with the Spokane County Sheriff's Office (already on until senior year), because I think that I can get it extended into my freshman year of college. It's been a really fun experience, and if not, well, there's an engineering one I've got lined up.
Hoping to get over to my grandma's today (yes, I know, I'm dull, so shoot me). She's making spaghetti and meatballs, which contrary to popular belief, come out pretty good from a Jewish kitchen! lol In all actuality, I can cook, but...let's just say I don't like to.
Tonight is simming night for me, so I have RAS Paragon and USS Cartier right after each other tonight. Maybe I'll find out what Sir Knobby White Tail (aka FSF Ku) wants done for the remake of the commando page on there so I can get some stuff done. Which reminds me, I ought to talk to Omni or Sir Nef about doing one for ISD Relentless's sturmkommandos...::does a note to self thingy::
KU!!!! WHERE ARE MY STICKY NOTES?! See, there's a reason I can't loan him anything. LOL Well, I'm outta here. Sorry I'm not a professional blogwriter like everyone else on here, but mom's banned me from MySpace before I could even get an account. LOL
Shalom Aleichem,
Jeremiah
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( 3 / 290 )Wednesday, April 19, 2006, 04:56 AM
My school's computer security person is going to go absolutely ape when he finds out that something like this is actually accessible through our filter without having to hack the filter, enter a code, or use an IP address converter, but hey, here I am!
I'm currently in my 2nd period Integrated 2A mathematics class (school started at 8 AM today, but the first two hours were devoted to taking part of the WASL-Washington Assessment of Student Learning, a standardized test that high schoolers starting from the class of 2008, my graduating class, have to pass in reading, writing, and mathematics in order to graduate with a diploma), and during WASL testing, the school operates on a 1-3-5, 2-4-6 schedule (that means that yesterday, I had English, AP World History, and Computers, my first, third, and fifth period classes, and today I have Math, Science, and PE, my second, fourth, and sixth period classes).
The WASL is an absolute pain in the ass. The only reason my graduating class has to pass it is because of Mr. Bush's flawed No Child Left Behind Act, which requires standardized testing, among other things. I will be up front and honest with you: I HATE STANDARDIZED TESTS!!! Why? Well, due to the fact that I have both Asperger's Syndrome (an Autism spectrum disorder...means I have above average intelligence and used to have below average social skills) and a Non-Verbal Learning Disorder (I question this diagnosis, due to the fact that I consistently get good grades), I usually do poorly on standardized tests. However, that is not because of lack of intelligence or ability to learn; in fact, I'm not entirely sure why, but I am far from unintelligent. Indeed, I currently have a cumulative 3.94 GPA (on a 4 point scale) in all college preparatory classes.
So yeah, I pretty much freak out when I hear about standardized testing that I have to take, although I am looking forward to the AP World History exam that I'll be taking at 12:00 PM on Wednesday, May 3rd, because I really have immersed myself in that class, and I have learned more than just the usual dates, people, places, and events; instead, AP World History went in-depth and taught me about trends, cause and effect, and how to take a look at one small thing, usually an event, a person, an invention, etc. and understand how that one little thing influenced global civilization. At the college that I'm seriously considering going to, I have to get at least a 3 out of 5 (preferably a 4 out of 5) on the exam to be given credit for a world civilizations class at the college freshman level.
I just wish my school offered more AP classes that I can take than it does now...here we've only got AP World History, AP American History, AP European History, AP Calculus, AP Statistics, AP English Language, AP English Literature, AP German Language, AP Spanish Language, AP French Language, AP Japanese Language, AP Biology, AP Chemistry, and AP Physics. While that may look like a lot when you read this entry, in reality, there are so many more AP classes that the CollegeBoard has developed (psychology, economics, studio art, Latin, Latin: Virgil, and so many more that I can't remember them all) and either my school doesn't offer them (not enough AP-certified teachers) or I'm not advanced enough for them (especially in math).
Anywho, I've got to go start packing up my bookbag; class is out in about, oh, six minutes (if I can even interpret my watch correctly...it's one of those Sergio Valente ones with only four hour markers...remind me to NEVER let someone else buy me a new watch ever again) and I really do want to get my lunch; I'm ravenous!
Shalom,
Jeremiah
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