We're studying The Canturbury Tales in English. We watched this and I thought it was WAY cool.

Guess Who Made the Front Page!

Monday night The Young Democrats Club and The Young Republicans Club had a sort of presidential debate. There were three speakers for each club. Two debated the economy crisis, two debated foreign affairs, and the last two gave a candidate over-view. My friend Judith, president of the YDC, organized the whole thing. She called me the night before to see if i could bring a package of cookies. I told her that my mom had offered to make a cake, and she said that would be awesome. The debate coach for our school, Mrs. Caldwell was so excited about this cake that at the end of the debate (which was a great success) asked me if I could bring it out for a picture. She proceeded to tell the entire audience about how my mom had generously contributed and pointed out the business cards I had printed out for mom's cake decorating. This was on the front page of Lindale ISD's website:

Anybody Who's Anybody Reads Poetry

Right.



As you all may or may not know, my big thing in high school has been Oral Interpretations. This includes Poetry, Prose, Original Oratory, Humorous Interp, Dramatic Interp, and Duo Interp. The last four that I listed are NFL (National Forensics League) events, not to be confused with this "National Football League" that I keep hearing about. The NFL has different rules and regulations than Poetry and Prose which are UIL (University Interscholastic League) events.



These two events are then broken down into two different categories (A and B) every three years. This year Category A for Poetry is "Excellence in Poetry" This means that The author you use for this category must have at some time won an award that the UIL deems "excellent". These poems are usually depressing and the authors have most likely been druggies or simply have committed hari-kari. Fun. Not only is this the most "blah" category, but it's also really hard to find pieces that haven't been used a thousand times, and that are also worth reading. Believe me, if you can find a great Category A- you're in. Category B is much more open. Basically, if you can prove that the poetry you use is published- you can do whatever you want.



So now that I've bored you with the rules and whatnot, I get to thrill you with my discover for Category A!! Don't jump out of your seats just yet! Actually my poetry buddies and I are totally stoked with my discovery.... Billy Collins! All last year I'd never heard him performed once, but my wonderful English teacher, Mrs. Brody, introduced me to him. She told us he was the Poet Laureate for the USA a few years ago.



...Wait. There's a government position for poetry??? Well I want to be the Poet Laureate! Who knew?






Anyways, I read his poem "The History Teacher" in English and just thought it was fantastic. I looked it up, just in case, but he was qualified for Category A (I mean come one... Poet Laureate). I stopped by Barnes and Noble yesterday to buy one of his books. I bought "The Trouble With Poetry" and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I can't wait to show off my brilliant discovery to my Interp coach, Miss Thomson!

Watch. Read. Listen.

Watch:

I remember I was asking my mom last summer if some of my friends and I could go see the midnight showing of the fourth Indiana Jones that weekend. Dad, overhearing and misunderstanding, said, "Yeah let's go tonight!" He thought I was asking my mom if we could go see Iron Man that night. This surprised me since it was Monday- and school was still in session. But that night me, Paul, and dad went to Tyler and saw Iron Man with the promise that Paul and I would get up for seminary the next morning. It was fantastic and I told everyone how incredibly awesome it was. This was also the first time I had ever seen Robert Downey Jr. in a movie before and I have to say, he is incredibly good-looking. We got Iron Man on Netflix this week- I don't think I'll let mom send it back.

Read:

I suppose this section will be determined by whatever we are reading in my English class. Right now it's Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. I really want to like this book- but I swear it's hard to read. I feel like a moron admitting this but I've had to go to Sparknotes more than once for help. Luckily I've gotten just enough to write my essays for the tests and contribute adequately to the discussions in class. I'm only half way through it though- maybe I'll get more into it as we get closer to the climax.

Listen:

Okay so I was first really introduced to the musical Wicked during the summer of 2006 when I visited the Blair's in New York and Erin took me to see a show on Broadway. I wanted to see the Phantom of the Opera but she persuaded me to move Wicked to the top of my list. Unfortunately we didn't get to see it and instead saw the Phantom. That same summer I returned to Lansing, Kansas to visit some of my friends. My friend Bobbi Walden had the soundtrack at her house. She told me it was AMAZING, but we never listened to it. This summer, my friends in the Band saw it during their trip to Chicago. It's all they've been able to talk about. I felt out of the loop so I went ahead and bought the soundtrack.

OH. MY. HECK.

I cannot listen to anything else. I listen to it on the bus, in the car, at the gym, when I'm sneaking my headphones in during class, everywhere! I think if my choices ever came down to going to see this musical or having a car- I would choose Wicked. It's coming to San Antonio this summer, so a bunch of friends and I are saving up our money to go down there for a Senior trip before we all leave for college.

To Our Daydream Believer and Our Homecoming Queen

Last week was Homecoming 2008 for Lindale High School, and also the last homecoming I could experience while attending high school. I never really cared for all of this "school spirit" stuff before, but this year I threw myself into all the chaos! I don't know if homecomings are as big a deal everywhere else as they are in Texas... but I do know that in Texas they are INTENSE. EVERYBODY is excited about this stuff, regardless if you are a high school student or not.

Homecoming week was themed "around the clock". Monday was Nerd Day which my friend told me was supposed to represent the 90's, but I'm pretty sure we all messed up each decade anyways, so it really doesn't matter. I did not dress up for this one.

(Tyler Rutledge, Judith Schomp, Daniel Hatoum)

Tuesday was 80's day- mom LOVED this. You probably already saw her blog on this. I was way excited about it too. I loved dressing up and doing the hair.

(Tyler Rutledge, Judith Schomp, Matt Craft, Lauren Seher, Me)

Everyone told me that my hair looked really good this way and that I should do it like that more often. I probably won't do it EXACTLY like this... but I may curl it more. :)


Wednesday was 70's day. I didn't really have any clothes to go with the theme, but I did try to feather my hair. I had a frilly top with flared sleeves that I thought would be good.

(Andrew Lang, Me, Casi Jo Dinger, Judith Schomp,

Tyler Rutledge)

I was actually feeling good about my appearance until I saw Katie Irwin...

(Katie Irwin, Me)

Thursday was 60's day. I did dress up for this one (I did the hippie thing), but I didn't take any pictures that day and I can't find any posted on Facebook. My friend Megan Bryant is amazing. She's such an artist and I just adore her. On 60's day the only things she added to her appearance was a flower in her hair and she carried her guitar around. She won the contest that day.

(Megan Bryant)

Friday was 50's day and also the day that the Lindale Eagles faced the Pittsburgh Pirates.

(Andrew Lang)

(Judith Schomp- I Love Lucy)

And TODAY was the day we wore our mums! Now THIS is the thing that makes Texas Homecomings different. These decorated fake flowers are usually given from boyfriend to girlfriend and vise versa. But parents buy them for their kids too. At Lindale each band member gets a special band mum. With all of this some kids can really rack themselves up on mums. I saw a girl with four on Friday. What was even funnier was seeing the adults with their mums at the pep ralley... I don't know if they were old mums or if they made new ones for this year, but I thought that was wierd. Of course it's sort of wierd that the adults come to our pep ralleys. Mums are usually worn pinned to the front of your shirt, but they can also be garders worn on the arm. This year I saw a large variety.

I didn't dress up for 50's day... I was too excited about my first mum!

garder on the arm

way cool mum... I've never seen one like this

garder on the leg

Me and Tyler in English

This weeks football game was the first Varsity game that I had ever gone to in Texas. There are only two more home games. What a waste! This was a mind-blowing experiance. It was incredible the amount of people at this game. My friends and I were pretty sure we would have to move to the Pittsburgh side, which REALLY bummed me out. We didn't want to walk all the way around the stadium so we decided to try and sneak past the guard at the gate and just walk around the field. We ended up succeeding and in the end watched the game from the sidelines by the band. I think my core score went up for that one.

Tyler is Editor and Chief of the Newspaper and also on the Yearbook Staff so he didn't have to sneak past anyone.

The marching band is titled "The Pride of Lindale." Most of my friends are in it, and it's so much fun to hear them play and watch them do their routine on the field at half-time. I wish I had filmed it, but I was busy watching :)

Lindale won and everyone celebrated. It was so loud! everyone was cheering and the band was playing and cheering that "Ole!" song. You can't hear it though on the video- I took it with my phone and the quality is terrible. (this crowd is the band- the rest of Lindale (literally) was behind me)

9/11

It's 9/11 today. I'm surprised that only two of my teachers discussed it with us- and very briefly.

In my Creative Writing class we talked about how it was the first significant moment of history my generation was able witness. I don't think any of us will forget where we were.

The History channel posted this map with different locations in New York where people were video-taping the event. They were all shocking, but the one taken in the NYU dorm was really, really scary.

What I've Learned After Three Weeks of Being a Senior

My schedule:

1- AP Calculus
2- AP English 4
3A- TJC Government/Economics
3B- Psychology/ Sociology
4A- Computer Multimedia
4B- Counselor Assistant
5- Creative Writing/ Media Analysis
6- Oral Interpretations


1. Block schedule is confusing. This is the first time I've ever had anything other than your standard 7 periods, each 50 minutes long. I don't know what the point of this "revised block scheduling" is, but it's purpose seemed to be for the first week was just to make sure that I had to ask everyone, "is it A day or B day?" I think I have the hang of it now.


2. Psychology is a blow-off class. I was so worried when my principal called me during summer break to tell me that the classes I requested wouldn't work with our block scheduling, and that I would be taking Psychology this year. As it turns out, I have absolutely nothing to worry about- except I have it for 90 minutes every other day, and I may die of boredom. The other day we all took turns reading a paragraph until we had read the whole chapter. Psychology= Health (in disguise).

3. Creative Writing is NOT a blow-off class. Every Senior in the class of 08 recommended this class to anyone looking for a coaster. Of course that was when the young and oh so blonde English teacher taught the class. Now the old lady married to the evil World History teacher teaches the class. It's not that I don't like her, it's just that she expects us to actually work. I didn't see that coming.

4. I learned how to fax papers! One of the counselors finally decided to use me and asked me if I could fax some papers for her. I told her that I couldn't, but that she could teach me if she would like. She did. It took her about five tries though. I noticed the second time that she was skipping a step, but I didn't know if she would be offended if I pointed this out. The point is, is that now I know how to do something useful for the counselors. I don't know how long this will last though. Apparently they're supposed to do everything on the computer now. I sat there and listened to the head counselor gripe that, in the time it took her to send one file through the computer system, she could have faxed twelve of them! Maybe I can teach them how to use this new-fangled technology.

All in all though, I think I'll really enjoy my senior year. I don't have any teachers that I hate (yet), and I could use some easy classes that, even though they're boring, give me a break during the day. Nine months until graduation!