I can see barefooting is an issue that many of you feel passionately about. After I posted, I found what's billed, correctly I think, as "the definitive paper on barefooters explaining us." I'll link to it at the end, though, so you don't go there and forget about the page that linked you to it, which is something I do all the time.
-Bare feet aren't the item for today's blog, though. The item is kitejumping. "Pardon?" you ask. Kitejumping is a sport that you do by means of a big giant kite. Don't visualize one of those little triangular or Charlie Brown-type dealies. These kites are called powerkites. They look much more like rectangular parachutes. So, you get a powerkite. Now you go out into some field somewhere, and wait for wind. When you get it, you wait for just the right moment, and then jump. The kite takes you way the heck up into the air and you come back down to the ground a ridiculous distance away. I've watched lots of Google videos of kitejumpers. I need a powerkite.
-Take note: kitejumping has shot up straight to the top of the list of great sport-type stuff to do at Grinnell. The reason is obvious. I'll be in Iowa. There's almost nothing but fields, perfect for kitejumping, and the abundance of fields means that there's nothng to stop tremendous winds from building up, again perfect for kitejumping! Ideal! And, another thing to know: kitejumping isn't the only sport you can do with a powerkite. There's a whole family of these sports: kitesurfing, kiteboarding, snowkiting, and kite ice butt boarding all come to mind, and there are probably resourceful people all over who have come up with innovative new ways to use a powerkite. I think I very well might get into snowkiting; failing steep hills, it may be the best bet for a winter sport in Grinnell, because you only need big winds to propel you. (Gravity is for troglodytes!) To this effect, as soon as I get a job, I'll be saving up to buy a reasonable powerkite (and also, obviously, to help finance college). I guess I'll have to practice around here so I can get good at it. Where's a clear, flat place? Maybe somewhere in Winton Woods. And once I'm fairly good I can have a go at a clear place with a big hill, that being the Elmridge Overlook. Hopefully, if I try that, I won't blow into the lake. Though that would probably be most comical for an observer.
-You people always wonder where I come up with this stuff, so I'll explain briefly: I searched for a sound file online, and found it at www.kitejumping.org. After going only to the sound file usually for a while, I eventually took a look at the rest of the site, and discovered what kitejumping is, but didn't really think twice about it. That was like a year ago. Then I was on Google Videos the other day thinking of things to search for, and that came out of my head, and when I watched the video it was the greatest thing ever.
-Parkour too. I wonder if the buildings are any good for parkour? Probably. College campuses usually are. By the way, I found another guy, via facebook (a networking website), who's going to Grinnell and does parkour. We'll even both be first-years (trivia: Grinnell doesn't use the term "freshmen"). He has some pictures up of him doing parkour, and he's way better than I am, mostly because he's actually had places to do it. But he says he only started about a year ago, so there's hope for me yet.
-Graduation in two days.
The promised link: http://www.barefooters.org/key-works/case_for/
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Sunday, May 27, 2007
A trifling crusade
As I noted before, I've decided that I'm going to go barefoot a lot this summer, and not exclusively outdoors, either. I noted that, in fact, there is no Health Department regulation whatsoever that prohibits you from going barefoot inside a restaurant or similar establishment. I know this because I found a website where a couple guys wrote letters to the health Departments of all 50 States asking if there was a law. They all wrote back saying there wasn't, and he posted all their letters on the website. So, legally I ought to have no trouble. Of course, establishments are still free to set a dress code that you have to follow if you want to enter; this usually goes along the lines of "No shirt, no shoes, no service" on a sticker on the door. They could require you to wear pink hats, if they wanted to. I read that example on a website and I liked it enough that I always say pink hats now.
-I haven't gone into enough places to get a broad range of reactions, but I'll tell you a few things that have happened.
-I've gone into Walgreens several times without incident, probably because they haven't even paid attention to my feet.
-I've gone into Graeter's - for you out-of-towners, that's the best ice cream company in the country - a few times. Only once did I get a reaction. That was when the manager and an employee were chatting by the door. As soon as he saw me come in, he said, "Shoes???!"
-"Why?" I said.
-"We just had a big health inspection! I can't have anything happen!"
-At this point I whipped out a printed copy of the Health Department letter, because I knew it would come in handy for this sort of thing. "Well, actually," I said, handing it to him, "That's not a law." He glanced at it and said, "Okay. You're free this time." A pretty jerky way to put it, but I can understand, what with health inspections.
-I also went to Skyline the other day. Out-of-towners, it would take too long to explain, so go do independent research. I had flip-flops in my pockets. (Cargo shorts.) When I walked in, the manager lady said, "Sir? You have to have shoes on to eat here." So I shrugged and flipped and flopped into them, and ate. When I was done, I talked with her. "When I came in, as you noticed, I didn't have shoes on. I'm wondering, Why can't I eat without them?"
-"I don't know, it's a Health Department rule," she said, shrugging it off.
-"I thought it might come down to that," I said, and showed her the letter. She looked at it. Then she said, "Well, it's our policy. I don't know." So I said, "Well, in that case, let me ask you - I put on these flip-flops. How exactly does that make my feet less objectionable?" She said, "I don't know. It's just a policy. I don't know." I couldn't argue with "I don't know," so I said okay and left.
-And finally, I went into UDF yesterday. Out of-towners, it's a gas station and convenience store. I was getting laundry detergent. There was a managerial-looking guy, about 60 years old, and I asked him where it was. He pointed me to it, and then, suddenly noticing, said, "You have to have shoes on to come in here."
-I didn't handle this one as articulately as I needed to. "Oh. Is - is - is there a sign on the door?"
-"It's a Board of Health regulation. You have to have shoes on."
-"Well, actually, ther - "
-"Actually, sir, you have to have shoes on," he said, completely cutting me off.
-"There is no Board of Health regula - "
-"Actually sir you have to have shoes on."
-"Why?"
-"Because there's food in here! Use your head, sir!!"
-"Okay, look. I'll put my sandals on and - "
-"Okay then. All right."
-I walked out toward Mom's car where I had my sandals. Then I reconsidered. I opened the door and hollered, "Actually, considering that reception, I'll take my business elsewhere!"
-This guy is the worst reaction I've gotten so far. He wasn't even trying to be civil about it; he was just an out-and-out jackass. However, I'll address one thing real quick. "Because there's food in here! Use your head, sir!!" Well, if he had used his, he'd notice that what he said didn't make a whole lot of sense. All right, I'm barefoot. So shoes are cleaner than feet? I wash my feet daily. I've never washed my shoes. What exactly does he think is going to happen, anyhow? If I'm carrying any diseases, he should require me to wear a mask, because the mouth is germs' primary escape route to the air. So, now we've got that cleared up.
-After the UDF jackass incident, I told Mom about it and why I didn't have any detergent. So we went to a different convenience store. On the way, she asked me why didn't I just wear shoes. Well, because I don't like to. She cited the familiar ghost Health regulation, which I promptly dispelled for her. So she argued differently. She says it's a cultural thing. It's polite to keep you shoes on here, just the same way it's polite to take them off in Japan. Okay, so people like you to have your shoes on. Since when is it a right for people to have everyone do exactly what they want? I don't think that one was in the Bill of Rights. I'll give her that it's polite. But I happen to think it's uncomfortable. Isn't one of the goals of a consumer establishment to make a customer comfortable? Someone lost sight of that. So now Mom tried a different tack. She said: "There are just so many more important things in the world."
-Agreed! To name just three of them, there are millions starving and being killed in Darfur, the South Koreans live under a madman, a quarter of the globe is under the totalitarian control of communist China. All this is tragic, and there's no way to argue otherwise. It would be a triumphant victory for mankind if just one of these three problems were solved in the next few years. But no one can claim to think solely about those things. We have our own lives, too; we're not completely diffused into the total Earth society. Duh. Thus, in my own life in the here and now, I'm taking on my trifling crusade to be allowed to go barefoot in public places. Why not? I like to. It's comfortable. I can take the flak from overzealous manager types. And jeez, it's summer.
P.S.: Another objection is that it's a liability issue if a store lets someone in barefoot. Two rebuttals: If a store says this, they're basically admitting that they create a dangerous environment for customers. And people need to get out of the litigation mindset; I won't sue for anything reasonable that happens to me that wouldn't if I had shoes on. (I would sue if an overzealous manager type came at me with a dinner knife, for example.) I'll tell as much to anyone who comes at me with a liability concern.
P.P.S.: The website I mentioned is www.barefooters.org. It's very good.
-I haven't gone into enough places to get a broad range of reactions, but I'll tell you a few things that have happened.
-I've gone into Walgreens several times without incident, probably because they haven't even paid attention to my feet.
-I've gone into Graeter's - for you out-of-towners, that's the best ice cream company in the country - a few times. Only once did I get a reaction. That was when the manager and an employee were chatting by the door. As soon as he saw me come in, he said, "Shoes???!"
-"Why?" I said.
-"We just had a big health inspection! I can't have anything happen!"
-At this point I whipped out a printed copy of the Health Department letter, because I knew it would come in handy for this sort of thing. "Well, actually," I said, handing it to him, "That's not a law." He glanced at it and said, "Okay. You're free this time." A pretty jerky way to put it, but I can understand, what with health inspections.
-I also went to Skyline the other day. Out-of-towners, it would take too long to explain, so go do independent research. I had flip-flops in my pockets. (Cargo shorts.) When I walked in, the manager lady said, "Sir? You have to have shoes on to eat here." So I shrugged and flipped and flopped into them, and ate. When I was done, I talked with her. "When I came in, as you noticed, I didn't have shoes on. I'm wondering, Why can't I eat without them?"
-"I don't know, it's a Health Department rule," she said, shrugging it off.
-"I thought it might come down to that," I said, and showed her the letter. She looked at it. Then she said, "Well, it's our policy. I don't know." So I said, "Well, in that case, let me ask you - I put on these flip-flops. How exactly does that make my feet less objectionable?" She said, "I don't know. It's just a policy. I don't know." I couldn't argue with "I don't know," so I said okay and left.
-And finally, I went into UDF yesterday. Out of-towners, it's a gas station and convenience store. I was getting laundry detergent. There was a managerial-looking guy, about 60 years old, and I asked him where it was. He pointed me to it, and then, suddenly noticing, said, "You have to have shoes on to come in here."
-I didn't handle this one as articulately as I needed to. "Oh. Is - is - is there a sign on the door?"
-"It's a Board of Health regulation. You have to have shoes on."
-"Well, actually, ther - "
-"Actually, sir, you have to have shoes on," he said, completely cutting me off.
-"There is no Board of Health regula - "
-"Actually sir you have to have shoes on."
-"Why?"
-"Because there's food in here! Use your head, sir!!"
-"Okay, look. I'll put my sandals on and - "
-"Okay then. All right."
-I walked out toward Mom's car where I had my sandals. Then I reconsidered. I opened the door and hollered, "Actually, considering that reception, I'll take my business elsewhere!"
-This guy is the worst reaction I've gotten so far. He wasn't even trying to be civil about it; he was just an out-and-out jackass. However, I'll address one thing real quick. "Because there's food in here! Use your head, sir!!" Well, if he had used his, he'd notice that what he said didn't make a whole lot of sense. All right, I'm barefoot. So shoes are cleaner than feet? I wash my feet daily. I've never washed my shoes. What exactly does he think is going to happen, anyhow? If I'm carrying any diseases, he should require me to wear a mask, because the mouth is germs' primary escape route to the air. So, now we've got that cleared up.
-After the UDF jackass incident, I told Mom about it and why I didn't have any detergent. So we went to a different convenience store. On the way, she asked me why didn't I just wear shoes. Well, because I don't like to. She cited the familiar ghost Health regulation, which I promptly dispelled for her. So she argued differently. She says it's a cultural thing. It's polite to keep you shoes on here, just the same way it's polite to take them off in Japan. Okay, so people like you to have your shoes on. Since when is it a right for people to have everyone do exactly what they want? I don't think that one was in the Bill of Rights. I'll give her that it's polite. But I happen to think it's uncomfortable. Isn't one of the goals of a consumer establishment to make a customer comfortable? Someone lost sight of that. So now Mom tried a different tack. She said: "There are just so many more important things in the world."
-Agreed! To name just three of them, there are millions starving and being killed in Darfur, the South Koreans live under a madman, a quarter of the globe is under the totalitarian control of communist China. All this is tragic, and there's no way to argue otherwise. It would be a triumphant victory for mankind if just one of these three problems were solved in the next few years. But no one can claim to think solely about those things. We have our own lives, too; we're not completely diffused into the total Earth society. Duh. Thus, in my own life in the here and now, I'm taking on my trifling crusade to be allowed to go barefoot in public places. Why not? I like to. It's comfortable. I can take the flak from overzealous manager types. And jeez, it's summer.
P.S.: Another objection is that it's a liability issue if a store lets someone in barefoot. Two rebuttals: If a store says this, they're basically admitting that they create a dangerous environment for customers. And people need to get out of the litigation mindset; I won't sue for anything reasonable that happens to me that wouldn't if I had shoes on. (I would sue if an overzealous manager type came at me with a dinner knife, for example.) I'll tell as much to anyone who comes at me with a liability concern.
P.P.S.: The website I mentioned is www.barefooters.org. It's very good.
Friday, May 25, 2007
"Doneness" is a real word, but it's still a bogus one
The bio and psych tests were easier than I expected. The bio test really wasn't the torture it was made out to be, though it was still difficult. The psych had a cinchy multiple choice, but the essays were a lot tougher. In particular, I remember being asked what a locus of control was. I wrote: "I have no idea what a locus of control is, but I know you're having a boring day, so I'll write this joke: What's brown and sticky? A stick." I won't get any points for it, but I'll have brightened the reader's day. I hope I get good grades on all these. The only other AP test I've taken is the US History test last year; I got a 3 on it. (Top grade is a 5; 3 is the lowest passing grade.) Time will tell. Results arrive in July.
-After that, all the AP tests were done. Because my classes this year were five AP classes and one joke class (econ), my year was effectively over. I came to school Wednesday and here's what we did: in psych, we watched Awakenings. In bio we played rummy. In econ we watched Roger & Me. In English we watched Breaking Away. In Spanish we watched Spanglish. In math we watched an obscure film about quantum physics called What the Bleep do We Know?!. Apparently Devin Judge's aunt was involved in its production somehow. The rest of the week followed a similar pattern. It didn't hit me until the weekend that, after the coming Tuesday, it would all be over.
-I realized something that I probably should've realized a while ago: that I had been building up to next Tuesday for 12 - nay - 13 years. That's over 2/3 of my life so far. It seemed like I should be doing something extraordinary. The best thing I could come up with, though, was something I'd thought up months ago - to come to school without shoes. Actually, I didn't even do that. I copped out and brought flip-flops. But I mostly didn't wear them. I don't think anyone even noticed. So much for making a bang. At least I didn't have to touch any of the bathroom floors or the lunchroom floor. I didn't even notice when the math bell, the last bell of the day, of the year, of Finneytown Local Building District, rang. I left the room with everyone else. Before I finally biked off the campus, I chatted briefly with Aaron. After I finished, I said: "Well, here I go." And I turned my bike around and left.
***
-Of course, it wasn't that definitive. On the next day, Wednesday, I biked up to the compound to tutor Patrice, and today I had to bike up to print out my econ final (a 3-to-5-page essay). Additionally, there's a Senior Banquet tonight (eating real, catered food in a fake lunchroom - innovative experience), and, of course, graduation on the 31st. But I don't have to go to any more klasses. I don't have to bike up there at seven in the morning anymore when I'd rather be doing almost anything else. I'm done.
DONE
What to do this summer? Well, for starters, I've got several books lined up to read. The Sound and the Fury, My Name is Red, Independent People, Reasonable People, and I want to check out something about the unconscious. The last one is for a book that I want to start writing over the summer, and possibly even finish. Incidentally, the third and fourth books are by completely different people: Third, an Icelandic Nobel Laureate by the name of Halldór Laxness; fourth, a Grinnell English professor named James Savarese. Besides these endeavors, I seriously need to get a job. I'm thinking Borders, if I can swing it. If not Borders, what else is there around here? Let's see: Hader Hardware, Walgreens (they're moving across the street into a bigger building, which is being constructed currently, but I doubt if the move will be finished before I leave to the cornfields, so it's mostly moot, I'd say), Kroger, - actually, there are a lot of establishments in Finneytown, but a lot of them are the type I just would not work at: Sally Beauty Supply, SimplyFashion, Brooks' Bar, Snow Nails, Curves. Ruling those out, I still probably have a reasonable pool of places to apply to. Though, I don't want to work in foodservice. Too stressful, and I doubt I could even get accepted, given my warm reception at Subway. And, as well as reading books, writing a book, and getting a job, I want to tone up so I can start doing parkour. (That video is by no means the definitive parkour video; many others are way more entertaining, but this one is informative as well. Long, though. Finish reading this first, probably.) I can't even do a handstand right now. I can do at least twelve pullups, but apparently among traceurs 30 are a warmup. Part of a warmup. I want to be able to do decent parkour, because, simply put, it looks like a lot of fun. And, as if those four things weren't enough, I want to finish at least one of my fonts and get it selling. It's looking like a busy, terrific summer. Let it not be said that I'll be lazing around doing nothing. You people have no idea.
Because you weren't going to go back to the previous paragraph: parkour.
-After that, all the AP tests were done. Because my classes this year were five AP classes and one joke class (econ), my year was effectively over. I came to school Wednesday and here's what we did: in psych, we watched Awakenings. In bio we played rummy. In econ we watched Roger & Me. In English we watched Breaking Away. In Spanish we watched Spanglish. In math we watched an obscure film about quantum physics called What the Bleep do We Know?!. Apparently Devin Judge's aunt was involved in its production somehow. The rest of the week followed a similar pattern. It didn't hit me until the weekend that, after the coming Tuesday, it would all be over.
-I realized something that I probably should've realized a while ago: that I had been building up to next Tuesday for 12 - nay - 13 years. That's over 2/3 of my life so far. It seemed like I should be doing something extraordinary. The best thing I could come up with, though, was something I'd thought up months ago - to come to school without shoes. Actually, I didn't even do that. I copped out and brought flip-flops. But I mostly didn't wear them. I don't think anyone even noticed. So much for making a bang. At least I didn't have to touch any of the bathroom floors or the lunchroom floor. I didn't even notice when the math bell, the last bell of the day, of the year, of Finneytown Local Building District, rang. I left the room with everyone else. Before I finally biked off the campus, I chatted briefly with Aaron. After I finished, I said: "Well, here I go." And I turned my bike around and left.
***
-Of course, it wasn't that definitive. On the next day, Wednesday, I biked up to the compound to tutor Patrice, and today I had to bike up to print out my econ final (a 3-to-5-page essay). Additionally, there's a Senior Banquet tonight (eating real, catered food in a fake lunchroom - innovative experience), and, of course, graduation on the 31st. But I don't have to go to any more klasses. I don't have to bike up there at seven in the morning anymore when I'd rather be doing almost anything else. I'm done.
DONE
What to do this summer? Well, for starters, I've got several books lined up to read. The Sound and the Fury, My Name is Red, Independent People, Reasonable People, and I want to check out something about the unconscious. The last one is for a book that I want to start writing over the summer, and possibly even finish. Incidentally, the third and fourth books are by completely different people: Third, an Icelandic Nobel Laureate by the name of Halldór Laxness; fourth, a Grinnell English professor named James Savarese. Besides these endeavors, I seriously need to get a job. I'm thinking Borders, if I can swing it. If not Borders, what else is there around here? Let's see: Hader Hardware, Walgreens (they're moving across the street into a bigger building, which is being constructed currently, but I doubt if the move will be finished before I leave to the cornfields, so it's mostly moot, I'd say), Kroger, - actually, there are a lot of establishments in Finneytown, but a lot of them are the type I just would not work at: Sally Beauty Supply, SimplyFashion, Brooks' Bar, Snow Nails, Curves. Ruling those out, I still probably have a reasonable pool of places to apply to. Though, I don't want to work in foodservice. Too stressful, and I doubt I could even get accepted, given my warm reception at Subway. And, as well as reading books, writing a book, and getting a job, I want to tone up so I can start doing parkour. (That video is by no means the definitive parkour video; many others are way more entertaining, but this one is informative as well. Long, though. Finish reading this first, probably.) I can't even do a handstand right now. I can do at least twelve pullups, but apparently among traceurs 30 are a warmup. Part of a warmup. I want to be able to do decent parkour, because, simply put, it looks like a lot of fun. And, as if those four things weren't enough, I want to finish at least one of my fonts and get it selling. It's looking like a busy, terrific summer. Let it not be said that I'll be lazing around doing nothing. You people have no idea.
Because you weren't going to go back to the previous paragraph: parkour.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Testing Testing 1 2 1 2 3
I knew all year that this time would come, and I knew I'd be in the stress neck-deep. That's right, it's AP week.
-I don't know if you knew, but I took 5 AP classes this year. They were English, Spanish, bio, psych, and calculus. I knew when I signed up for them that it was going to be a heavy load, and it was, but I did my best not to notice. I just treated it like I was getting a normal workload. In fact, it wasn't until a few weeks ago that I realized how hard I've been working all this year to keep my grades up. I hope I can keep this up during college, rather than get totally stressed out. Grinnell is well known as a school where you rarely stop studying. I'll have plenty to occupy me. A lot of it is writing, and I like writing, so not only will I not be miserable doing it, but I'll also hone my writing.
-However, I was supposed to be talking about this week. Actually, AP week is two weeks. Last week, I was testing Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Those were Spanish, calculus and English. Spanish was a really hard one, but only because of the listening comprehension stuff. There was one part where we got a source to read and a source to listen to, both of which were about Hispanics celebrating their national heritage after moving to the US, and then we had two minutes to come up with an oral report about those two sources that would also last two minutes. There was also a simulated phone conversation where a friend calls me up and asks if I want to go to a Shakira concert with him. I was supposed to accept, but I forgot to read the sheet, so I just did what I would've actually done in that situation, which is I refused. Whoops. But I think the oral parts only counted for like 10% of the grade. The rest of it was easy, pretty much. The calculus exam was possible, and I did it. I think I got pretty much all of the ones I answered right, and I only left three blank. Except on the free response; I left two of about 19 parts blank, because I ran out of time. It was tough stuff. The free responses were a lot harder than in previous years. The English exam was difficult; there was one poem called "When I Buy Pictures" that was just flat-out a bad poem. If a poet writes so that the person reading it has no idea what she's saying, the whole point of poetry is lost, and the poem is bad. The AP Board should take note of this. Circumlocution is not a merit. For the Open Essay, they asked me to describe a book where a character has a relationship with the past, either trying to reject it or trying to embrace it. I used The Road by Cormac McCarthy, which is a pretty good book. It's a postapocalyptic book.
-So, tomorrow is bio, and Tuesday is psych. I'm going to be studying for both of them; as soon as I'm done with this blog post, it's to the bio notes with me.
-There's something else I was going to write about, but I have no idea what it was. It might have been books, but I'm going to leave that for the next entry, which, with any luck, will be after Building on Tuesday. Because there's no curriculum left after the test in my AP classes, we're basically socializing with several different groups of friends over the day. I've had only one day of this, and it wasn't complete, because we're still working in bio and psych. (Once you're done with an AP test, you're allowed to leave the building, so I've had three half-days.) When I come back to the skedule on Wednesay, I'll have total nothing. This'll be pretty cool.
-I don't know if you knew, but I took 5 AP classes this year. They were English, Spanish, bio, psych, and calculus. I knew when I signed up for them that it was going to be a heavy load, and it was, but I did my best not to notice. I just treated it like I was getting a normal workload. In fact, it wasn't until a few weeks ago that I realized how hard I've been working all this year to keep my grades up. I hope I can keep this up during college, rather than get totally stressed out. Grinnell is well known as a school where you rarely stop studying. I'll have plenty to occupy me. A lot of it is writing, and I like writing, so not only will I not be miserable doing it, but I'll also hone my writing.
-However, I was supposed to be talking about this week. Actually, AP week is two weeks. Last week, I was testing Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Those were Spanish, calculus and English. Spanish was a really hard one, but only because of the listening comprehension stuff. There was one part where we got a source to read and a source to listen to, both of which were about Hispanics celebrating their national heritage after moving to the US, and then we had two minutes to come up with an oral report about those two sources that would also last two minutes. There was also a simulated phone conversation where a friend calls me up and asks if I want to go to a Shakira concert with him. I was supposed to accept, but I forgot to read the sheet, so I just did what I would've actually done in that situation, which is I refused. Whoops. But I think the oral parts only counted for like 10% of the grade. The rest of it was easy, pretty much. The calculus exam was possible, and I did it. I think I got pretty much all of the ones I answered right, and I only left three blank. Except on the free response; I left two of about 19 parts blank, because I ran out of time. It was tough stuff. The free responses were a lot harder than in previous years. The English exam was difficult; there was one poem called "When I Buy Pictures" that was just flat-out a bad poem. If a poet writes so that the person reading it has no idea what she's saying, the whole point of poetry is lost, and the poem is bad. The AP Board should take note of this. Circumlocution is not a merit. For the Open Essay, they asked me to describe a book where a character has a relationship with the past, either trying to reject it or trying to embrace it. I used The Road by Cormac McCarthy, which is a pretty good book. It's a postapocalyptic book.
-So, tomorrow is bio, and Tuesday is psych. I'm going to be studying for both of them; as soon as I'm done with this blog post, it's to the bio notes with me.
-There's something else I was going to write about, but I have no idea what it was. It might have been books, but I'm going to leave that for the next entry, which, with any luck, will be after Building on Tuesday. Because there's no curriculum left after the test in my AP classes, we're basically socializing with several different groups of friends over the day. I've had only one day of this, and it wasn't complete, because we're still working in bio and psych. (Once you're done with an AP test, you're allowed to leave the building, so I've had three half-days.) When I come back to the skedule on Wednesay, I'll have total nothing. This'll be pretty cool.
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