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Yup. So here it is. I moved it over here on the good advice of thedad , lol. No need for a special introduction... just continue wherever we left off.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Tuesday, September 09, 2003 - 02:45 am: Edit

Ummm..."smiteth" (not "smitheth," a word with an entirely different denotation, as in "Isn't that one of the Smithest girls you've ever seen?") isn't Shakespearian, it's Biblical. Now, it's KJV Biblical, so the era is more or less right.
Btw, the past tense of "smiteth" is "smote."

It has been said that the KJV is the only successful work of art ever made by a committee. Not that it was *intended* as a work of art. Btw, if you ever make your way to L.A., you've got to spend half a day at the Huntington Gardens/Museum. Full of stuff like a First Folio Shakespeare, one of the Ellesemere Canterbury Tales manuscripts, etc., along with that overrated Gainsborough, "Blue Boy," which doesn't hold a candle to "Mrs. Siddons with the Tragic Muse."

By O71394658 (O71394658) on Tuesday, September 09, 2003 - 03:37 pm: Edit

Okay interesting fact to follow:

As I've said many times before, I told you that my Macro class was a joke. The teacher's funny, but he doesn't really "teach". Funny thing is, he went undergraduate to Harvard, which is probably the last place anyone would ever expect him to go. He's probably the craziest and most laid-back teacher I've ever had. So, it sheds some interesting light on the facts of attending elite universities. The fact that he was a graduate of arguably (and very much so) the best college in the U.S. just sheds light on the fact that's it's absolutely no reflection of who you are, or what you make of a career after the fact.

I should say this now, that I'm taking 6 APs over the course of the year, I'm only taking 5 concurrently. AP Macro/AP Gov't & Politics are split into semesters, so for the first half I have Macro, and the second Gov/Pol.

TD, congrats on SAT score. Very exciting.

Another interesting fact. Mold has been detected in the extremely large middle school, and they've only attended one day of school so far. They've been off Thursday and Friday of last week, and they have the remainder of this week off. Thing is, if they still don't clean up by the end of the week, they'll send the Intermediate school kids to the high school, and we'll have half days. I know this would wreak havoc there, but I'm secretly hoping for it. I have a lot of ECs (outside of school) to do some catching up on, as well as SAT studying (I registered for October tests yesterday, and today's the last day. Close one.) So, Que sera sera, I suppose.

and oh yes, lots of homework tonight!

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Tuesday, September 09, 2003 - 04:11 pm: Edit

Haha, still no idea what smiteth means... I thought it looked Shakespearian :/ Oops. You know, like cometh, and hither and thither and yonder (which is still sometimes used, actually!)all of those other good words. Interesting tidbit about the museum for me to keep in mind, thanks I AM going out to L.A. one day though because L.A. has practically EVERYTHING, imo L.A. and NYC define what a "big city" really is.

This is my last day that I'm going to be home THIS early!!! I just had an ice coffee fix, I mean, snack before which is just awesome...I LOVE going out with people and getting coffee or slushies for some reason, I just think it's one of the greatest things. OTOH, I *hate* hot drinks... yup I'm a freak, I even don't like hot chocolate. I'll drink tea if I have a cold or strep or something, but it's not a practice I engage in on an everyday basis.

Sidetracked again!!! Did not so well on a gov't quiz... nobody did except for one person... so I can't feel too badly and it IS only September, meaning this one mediocre grade is not going to completely shatter me from getting an A. Something like a 98 isn't going to happen but a 92 or 93 is possible. And yes, minuses and pluses at my school DO COUNT for a lot. There is a MAJOR difference between a 92 and 97. Actually, there is a giant difference between an 89 or 90. That's our grade weighting system for you, I guess, which lately I just don't pay attention to anymore because it will drive you crazy trying to play number games if you give it too much thought.

My day at school was actually not too bad... it would have been nicer if there were tissues in every classroom (Who the heck gets a cold in September!!??!?! I didn't even know it was possible, but everyone seems to have one around here, me included and I find it highly annoying, lol) but other than that, and ignoring the results of the government quiz, it was pretty good. I'm actually starting to enjoy my classes, at least most of them, and I've stopped counting down the days until graduation, too, which is always a good thing

~*~

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Tuesday, September 09, 2003 - 04:35 pm: Edit

Who the heck gets a cold in September?

well apparently I DO!!!! i woke up this morning with the worst sore throat, and we all know that sore throats in the morning means an oncoming cold.

i seem to get sick more and more every year. i swear i spent half of last year with some sort of the sniffles.

and Twinkle, i sell tickets and do face painting at home games for fundraisers for school. its actually a lot of fun, but it gets tiring when you paint so many faces. our team is bad, but our school always has a bunch of spirit.

lots of hw, but i get to skip class tomorrow (excused of course) for HUDDLE training (group of high schoolers go ot elementary schools a few times a month to talk about drugs/alcohol/peer pressure and stuff). this means i dont have to turn anything in tomorrow, but i will get myself in a HUGE mess if i push everything until tomorrow night. 2 full nights of homework + 5 hours spent at an SAT class=BAD IDEA.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Tuesday, September 09, 2003 - 04:49 pm: Edit

Yeah... I don't know what the deal with this September cold thing is either. Under my neck is like... completely swollen and I really cannot swallow anything, unless if it's like, a drink or something, or iced coffee, which I'm sure is *really* helping my energy crisis. (LOL, I'm writing about the economy and stuff right now so that just kind of popped into my head!)

BTW, curious, what is the fundraiser for? All of our fundraisers have been primarily for the senior class and to raise money for sports and stuff. That sounds like fun with what you're doing for HUDDLE... too bad you weren't on the block schedule, because then you could get away with pushing some homework ahead in that type of situation.

Speaking of work I must get back to it... Ciao...

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Tuesday, September 09, 2003 - 07:20 pm: Edit

i just took 2 tylenol to try to suppress the cold before it gets bad. there is NO way im going to still be sick when i take my SATs for the first time. i would rather die.

haha our fundraiser is for Girls Leaders Club which is a club we have at our school. it basically consists of jr and sr girls with 3.8+ GPA's who are chosen from this horrible application process and we go around and we volunteer and help out with school stuff and everything. our club needs money to help buy stuff to donate for charity and such.

it seems these days everything is a MUST, while sleep is OPTIONAL. probably not a good way to live. i think im going to try drinking TEA instead of coke. probably better for me and provides the much needed caffeine without the added sugar (i hate diet)

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Wednesday, September 10, 2003 - 12:16 am: Edit

YES!!! Go Tylenol Cold! Not that it's really helping right now, but hey, I can always pretend. Ohhh my god, being sick for the SATs is the worst. I was sick for the May 2003 SAT and the AP US History and it royally *sucked* because it was breaking my concentration, lol, especially with the AP US toward the end. There was one essay that I just got tired in the middle of and I kind of crapped out on it because I was so out of it, but it didn't luckily end up mattering at all b/c I was positive I had gotten 75 of the multiple choice right, and my DBQ was solid, as was my first essay. Yah... being sick for October would really suck seeing as how it is the last chance to boost our score and I know how much you're yearning for that 1500+ score. I sincerely believe you have a great shot at it, lol, not that many people have the tenacity and willpower to slave and trudge through an SAT prep course and do all of that independent studying. I know that whole sleep is optional feeling... I know I SHOULD go to bed right now but there are thing I must must MUST get done and I'd rather feel craptacular than pull a mediocre grade or not complete a commitment. I actually had tea today, and just recently I learned that it has caffeine in it... I'd always assumed it was caffeine free since it's natural and supposed to be really good for you, lol, but apparently I was wrong. By the way, don't you add sugar to your tea too? Tea on its own has nothing in it, but I can't drink it without a spoonful of sugar in it. I like the idea of Girls' Leader Club, too bad we don't have anything like that. Actually, your school is the 1st one I've heard of having that club. I think we need a school spirit club at our school badly, though, people just don't get excited about anything in general and that kind of gets to me. Yeah, this is coming from the girl who gets psyched upon finding a green popsicle in the freezer (green are my favorite) but still, I remember cheering at football games in the freezing cold and trying to psych up an apathetic crowd. Of course I know some people aren't into sports. I'm not a big sports fan; I can't even tell you HOW you're supposed to play football. But, all I mean is is that attendance at school functions and games is optional- I mean if you're forced to attend a pep rally and you really don't want to be there, that's one thing. But if you decide to go somewhere and just act totally lackluster, that's... a pet peeve of mine. Sigh. Back to work.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Wednesday, September 10, 2003 - 01:26 am: Edit

D's National Merit app package goes back to school tomorrow. Someone whose opinion I respect highly said that her essay sucked. I had had my own reservations but I'm glad she got a wake-up call and bucket of cold water from an external source. Thing is, it was well-written but sucky. (Sucked in that it was a bad choice of topic, too close to the mundane and pedestrian.) But I kept my critcal mits off of it except for some minor editing...god, the self-restraint was awful. I'd rather read Sunshine's or Twinkle's or O71's essays so that I can let it rip.

Also pleased to hear that D is not too good to be believed. See, the AP Gov class, which she hates already, meets in a computer lab because a fair amount of the work is via some software thingy. Turns out that D and a couple of others figured out there's a Private Chat function and they've been exchanging scurrilous messages about the teacher during class.

Talked to D's Calc BC teacher during an interlude at the PTSA meeting tonight...the teacher calls D a "ball of sunshine" in the class, thinks she ought to be a math major...D chokes on the notion, this is the last math class except for some Statistics that she ever hopes to take. Teacher can't believe she's really a Humanities-type major.

===

Twinkle, I vicariously envy your AP US 5. D got a 4...crappy teacher the first semester and when she switched due to a schedule change at second semester, she found the first class had been way behind and she had to study 1877-1912 on her own...she missed too many on the MC.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Wednesday, September 10, 2003 - 04:28 pm: Edit

aghhhhhh!!!!! so i went to bed at 3 AM and am extremely irascible today.

i had HUDDLE training all day so it wasnt as bad as a normal day of school. at least we got free food. lol. ANYWAYS, i talked to my counselor and asked her about my National Merit stuff and she said that the NM stuff goes to the principal first, then the counselors, and the counselors have to give them to us.

the part that irks me a little is the fact that the counselors DONT EVEN HAVE THE FORMS yet, which means our school either flat out didnt get any or our principal is stupid and didnt know what they were for, which is highly possible because she is new this year.

meanwhile, everyone is saying that NM says the deadline for the student forms to be turned back to school is 9/12? well seeing as how today is 9/10 and i dont have a form, i dont think this is going to happen.

this is realllllllllly bugging me. no one else at school as been notified either, so its not just me. *gets mad*

*goes to Kaplan SAT class*

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Wednesday, September 10, 2003 - 04:40 pm: Edit

Wow... long day...I sincerely do not remember when or how I got out of bed this morning. I actually came home early just because tomorrow I'm not getting home until really late, so I figured I'd have to blow some homework out of the way so maybe I could get to bed **before*** two. Calculus is really tricky btw... at first it wasn't so bad when we were reviewing... I was like okay I don't like this but if I really try I can do it... now it's like BAM! Calc is not like any other math classes I've ever taken. I operate on the math buddy system now as much as possible, which helps somewhat, and I'm passing, so I'll settle with that for now. I just have to remember... I need to understand math until January...after that I just need to get by.

Hmmm... I would take a stab at it and say that your daughter is someone who really excels at everything, which is probably why the teacher was so surprised that she wasn't a math/science major/oriented kind of person. It seems like if someone is awesome in English, they may be good at math too but usually one stands out more than another- I know of a girl who is a complete math genius, but she has a hard time with writing and stuff because I guess she's more... right-brained? Is that how it works? I've got to check that, it's in the book for AP Psych somewhere. Oops. Off topic. If you don't mind my asking, what was your daughter's choice of topic for the National Merit Scholar thing (btw congratulations to her for making semi-finalist!!!!!)?

LOL @ the notes being exchanged about the gov't teacher!

Damn. Having a good teacher is really important for the AP History imo... but I mean really how much difference is there between a four and five? They're both pretty hard to get. Our teacher really pushed us to the edge in that class but I'm glad now because I knew my stuff on the exam. We only went up to WWII so I learned 1945-199? the week before the exam. That was the most I ever crammed in my entire life.

The thing with the AP US History that got to me were the written responses because my thesis statement is never great so it clouds the rest of the essay from that moment on, no matter how great the rest of it is. I just remember our teacher breaking down the test section by section to show us what we'd need to get on average on the exam (although we were all advised of the way the AP people curve the grades) to be able to get a three, so I figured, okay, I'll shoot for that and just get all the MC right and do whatever I could with the essays, but I guess it all kind of came together when I did the exam. I noticed that it was easier to prep for it too because I was only taking one AP (two offered, I gladly refused the chem) and people who were doing both AP US and chem seemed to be having a hard time really concentrating on prepping for the exam. I know of people who have gotten two 3s on the ones they took and I can almost say that that may be worth more than just 1 5, because it's hard to do multiple APs- but I don't know what my logic's worth on that subject.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Wednesday, September 10, 2003 - 07:44 pm: Edit

D's essay was a bit too generic about ballet though she did talk about falling on stage in front of hundreds.

She took AP English the same week as AP US but you really *can't* study for AP English. Funny, but walking out of the tests she had a pretty good feel for how she'd done...she was a bit bummed about the History but doing cartwheels about the English.
(Passing grade on AP Exams is 3, except in this house where it's 4. Sunshine: D says I could be an Asian parent.)

Sunshine, the date for students to return the NM stuff is "9/12 or whatever date the school sets." Now the *school* has got to get the packet back in the mail by 10/10, so technically they're still safe. Just aggravating as all get out.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Wednesday, September 10, 2003 - 08:28 pm: Edit

I always considered a 4 on an exam to be passing because a lot of colleges won't accept a three- so I don't consider your standard to be too unusual. I had though I'd gotten a TWO when I walked out of that exam though, but I wasn't upset... it was more or less one of those things where I figured it wouldn't break me when it came to college, and if I had to take AP US again in college because of it, then I would just be better prepped.

This year, though, I highly doubt I will pass the English unless there is multiple choice Q's. Psych... I think I have a good shot at, and government too, but Spanish is still up in the air... it's really too early to tell.

I wish I had known that the PSAT junior year could lead to NM commendation/semi finalist status when I was taking it. Not that I didn't try, but maybe I would have prepped before it, lol. And I wouldn't have gotten nervous about having blanks and wouldn't have just randomly picked letters to fill them in. I illogically decided it would be a good idea just to randomly fill them in and hope for the best, while in retrospect I can't believe how incredibly dumb that was. Oh well. I figure though, even if I was to get my SAT I/II scores combined on the PSAT... it would have only been a 680V+610M+660W...which equals a...195. And I got a 194 on the PSAT in the fall, but the breakdown was different... 65V/59M/70W.

I wrote an essay. It sucks, so I threw it away and I'm starting again. That is, after I figure out why Marxism couldn't exist in a democratic America (WHAT!!! WHY NOT!?!?)

By O71394658 (O71394658) on Wednesday, September 10, 2003 - 08:57 pm: Edit

Okay. Um, I would never ever prep for a PSAT. That to me just sends the wrong message. Well, I didn't really prep for the actual SAT either, so my advice isn't worth too much. I mean, if you want to, go ahead, but it puts too much pressure on people to perform well, even though it's only a practice test.

I got a 4 on USH. I know I should be happy, but I'm not in the least. I thought I did fantastic on it. I might get it rescored, just for peace of mind. I was confident, and walking out of the test, didn't think I screwed up anything. I got a 780 on the U.S. SAT II, and I didn't think it was any easier/harder than the actual AP. The essays I was also prepared very well for. The irony of the entire thing is that I got a 5 on Environmental Science, and I studied for about an hour for that test (as opposed to about 20-50 for U.S. History). According to my Environmental Science teacher (who helped design the test), it was the lowest-averaged-scored-test yet. Environmental also has the lowest mean score out of all the APs. Walking out of that test, I didn't think I did very well at all. Still boggles the mind a bit.

Well, tomorrow marks the one-month cutoff date for the October SATs (as well as another important, yet disturbing event in recent history), so it's time to finish the Kaplan book and start on 10 Real's. I have 2 editions, so that's 20 tests to take. I'm not too worried about it though. I'm pretty confident I'll break 1450, and I know I'll break 750 on the other two SAT: IIs (Writing and Math- maybe Literature in December, which is an iffy score). I'm not all that worried about them. Maybe it's due to the fact that I have something to lean back on. My total and complete lack of preparation. I look at it like, hey, I got a 1370 cold, if I prep, I'll do better. I know I sound like an overly cocky bastard (which may be the case) but it's really nothing to worry about. You're all going to do fine. It's only a test.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Wednesday, September 10, 2003 - 09:41 pm: Edit

yeahhhh ummm prepping for the PSATs was sort of stupid. although i did it myself. well not really. i took the stupid kaplan class. took=slept through.

in the past two months, my practice SAT scores have ranged from 1360 (eek!) to 1570 which scares me. i dont have any sort of idea where im going to land, but hopefully its closer to the 1570 than it is to the 1360 or i will have some sort of panic/heart attack. of course, knowing my luck, it'll be like last time and i will improve 10 points for a grand total of 1450. GRRRRR.

i also consider a 4 to be "passing" an AP because a lot of the more selective schools dont accept 3's. lol TheDad, asian parents are psycho. well most of them...not mine (yet). they lock their kids up when they score a 1550. its sad.

teachers and the people you are surrounded by make a world of difference in the classroom. some of my favorite classes are my worst subjects, because i have a teacher i can really connect to with a great group of kids i feel comfortable around. sometimes i despise my best subjects for the same (but opposite) reasons. my like/hate for a class has a lot to do with how much info i retain.

tomorrow would be 1 month before the 10/11 SAT. Princeton University starts tomorrow so good luck to them and...hopefully no terrorists will try anything tomorrow.

Red, White, and Blue!

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 02:54 am: Edit

Sunshine, to be fair, D says I'd be an "easy" parent if I were Asian, but middle of the pack demanding if I were Jewish. She's made her own quiet study of parental differences along demographic lines...just the kind of data sorting that appeals to her...I wonder if she'll be George Gallup's successor. I'm as scared of D's 1580 practice (#10 in the 10 Real) as I am of the 1390 she pulled when she started.

O71, D got a 760 on the US Hist SAT II, which bums *me* out more about the 4 on the AP. Karma.
But I think (hope?) something has kinda clicked on her test-taking. The fact that she finally had zero omitted after routinely having 7-8 omitted on the SAT I makes me think she might have turned the corner.

Twinkle, regarding the PSAT: oh, my. You mean your school didn't *tell* you? Or none of the other "smart kids" did? D's school is up enough on the PSAT that they encourage students to take it freshman as well as sophomore years just to get familiar and easy with it.

By Momof2 (Momof2) on Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 09:36 am: Edit

Thedad - our school is also starting to encourage more sophomore PSAT's and "allowed" our S#2 and a couple a freshman friends to take it last year. Believe it or not, a couple of his 9th gr. teachers had to "decide" whether or not to let him make up the work he missed during the testing time - and they both knew his brother was a NM Scholar.

As for PSAT prep - well, our family certainly encourages it. The scholarship from that "practice test" will save us over $16,000 for this year alone. Sure makes grad school look more feasible - not to mention our Retirement!

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 11:50 am: Edit

I can't believe the resistance when every study shows that the more familiar students are with the test, the better they do.

I'm a bit bummed that none of D's top seven schools give NM scholarships.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 08:39 pm: Edit

Sunshine, my scores fluctuate from a 550-630 math to a 660-740 verbal. I'm all over the darned place, and granted, that could mean a score from a 1210 to 1370. Stupid stupid stupid!!! I'll be okay if I break 1300. It's just... grrr. I wanted to hit 1400 realllly badly but that's not going to happen and I'm not going to place false hope in it either.

For the first PSAT I didn't care at all. I didn't even know how they scored the thing, so I didn't know whether my score was good or not. Yup, a couple of us took PSATs soph yr, thedad, I think it was an effort to bring the overall scores of the school up honestly, maybe I'm being cynical about it but we weren't prepped or anything and it was just like... okay... you honors algebra 2 kids should take this. And really I had no idea what I was in for at all. I mean, I was unfamiliar with the format of the test and everything... I had no clue what to expect, what I was supposed to do with an analogy, how to attack the CR section (I simply didn't. My mother wished I had because we paid for it and I took it as if I didn't care, which I really didn't). I mean, I tried, but the way we were told about it made it sound like it didn't really matter how we did- which was true but I took it too literally. The only section I made a real effort on was the writing, because picking apart grammar and such is a real skill of mine. And... junior year. I remember seeing the words NMSQT on the tes next to PSAT but I didn't even think, ooo, there could be money involved with this or what it really meant. I don't really know of anyone who knew, but no one qualified for it, though, either. My selection index was considered to be "high" and it's not even anywhere near the cutoff for our state.

I did improve between sophomore and junior year for PSAT, though... lets see I found the paper from soph year surprisingly... 60V, 55M, and 63V which comes out for a grand total of 178. Hahahaha. There was no drastic improvement, it was more of a thing that my problem attacking skills improved and I approached the problems differently, plus I didn't skip over any CR because of tedious boredom.

Did I mention that I *hate* the SAT? I'm not even stressed over it anymore. It's more of a state of apathy because I'm kind of resigned to the fact that "this is what it is" and I'm not smart enough to max it out anymore, I think I've hit my limit and I was always of the mindset that people's abilities are limitless because you can take them further and further but sometimes I guess people have a breaking point. Oh well. SATs can bite me. I had an awesome time at dance tonight, though!!!! Pirouettes are a so tricky but I'm slowly...slowly...slowly getting there. I don't have a full one down yet but I'm really pushing for it. More concentration and effort= skills are gained more quickly.

I got an 89 on my gov't test!!!! I'm usually not that psyched about a "B" test grade but almost everyone got a C or D on it so I was totally thrilled. Government may be my favorite class, but Psych and English are pretty close, though too.

Hmmm... it's funny. My mom would have been okay with the fact if I DID get a 2 for AP US like I thought I did because she knows I go to the limit and if nothing good comes out of it... it sucks but at least I tried and that's more than enough.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Friday, September 12, 2003 - 03:12 pm: Edit

Damnit. Ladies and gentlemen, pick up your dictionaries and look up the word DUMBA$$ and lo and behold you will find my picture *right* there. GOD!!! I do the dumbest things guys, maybe SATs are indicative of intelligence after all. I am bombing AP English at the moment very badly, and I'm really beginning to wish I had dropped calc instead of physics. I almost miss physics. I'm more miserable in calc than I ever was in physics. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME LATELY!!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!

I have dance until 6:30... then over to the ex's house for dinner... apparently he is more perceptive than I thought... I was sitting next to him today and he was like you look really tired and hungry (my clothes have gotten kind of looser since we've started school :/), why don't you come over and I'll make you dinner? Granted it will be like PB+J seeing as how he doesn't really cook, or he somehow learned over the summer and just never told me but I thought it was a really nice gesture either way.
God, I love this kid. :/ Not love... but... you know what I mean. I think we're doomed to be bonded together in some type of unusual relationship. Not necessarily doomed, but boys are so hard to read. Especially this one. I never know where we really stand.

BTW I finally found out what "smite" means... smitten is a different test and I know what smote means as well... thanks for the vocab inspiration thedad!!!

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Friday, September 12, 2003 - 03:27 pm: Edit

i just got a C on my first french test. A C!!!!! C!!!!!!!!! 300 point test! i am going to die.

it was the easiest/dumbest test ever and i must have been half asleep when i took it or soemthing because i screwed one of the translations of the verb up and did it for the rest of the test and then screwed up another conjugation and that managed to bring me down freaking 75 points or something. *dies*

my grades are horrible. i think im spreading myself out too thin. i am either doing *really* well in a class or completely bombing it. this is NOT good. i dont want my first quarter grades to be sent to my EA schools now.

what are the chances i will be able to pull an A in french this quarter? probably 0%.

*dies*

i am skipping the football game tonight to sleep. something i need.

By O71394658 (O71394658) on Friday, September 12, 2003 - 05:45 pm: Edit

---

Quote:

Not necessarily doomed, but boys are so hard to read. Especially this one. I never know where we really stand.

---

By Asknot11 (Asknot11) on Friday, September 12, 2003 - 06:29 pm: Edit

Hmm...I thought the APUSH test was actually quite easy. I got a 5 with no prep outside of the classrooom, but I guess the credit should go to my school. Nearly 95% of students get a 4 or 5 on the ap exams. We have extremely good teachers.
Thedad- I don't know of ANYONE who considers a 3 to be a passing grade on an AP exam. I mean I took Euro Hist as a sophomore and still was able to pull off a 4.

By Alita (Alita) on Friday, September 12, 2003 - 07:27 pm: Edit

At my school, a 3 is considered passing and good.This is not surprising, considering that of the 13 or so ap tests we offer (this is not including the classes that SAY Ap, but when you get there your teacher says "Surprise! You didn't really think I was going to teach that boring stuff, did you?) only about 4-5 of them have good teachers: Calc AB, US Hist AP, Physics AP, French AP Lang. Im taking calc right now, and I've determined that the reason only 2 out of 30 students got below a 3 on the test is because the teacher gave them 4hrs of hw a night. Luckily, by the time I arrived the prof had decided that the students didn't need to work that hard, so I only get 1-2hrs of hw a night. Yippee! I cant take USH because of scheduling problems (why are the only classes offered 4th period Guitar 1 and Art 1????????) and I'm stay as far away from physics ap as possible. French is good too, but I need to work on my accent or theyll think I'm speaking spanish on the test. The rest of the teachers range from non english speaking to insane to notoriously easy.


TwinkleToes.....:thats sweet:-) he actually sounds really perceptive-im racking my mind trying to think of any guys I know that would do this...drawing a blank.

My school is lost when it comes to SAT's. They encourage freshman not to take psats , but its fine if sophomores take sat's. Huh???? I don't think weve ever had a NMS. Hopefully I can change that (crosses fingers:-)) and to -07...why not prep for the PSATs-people study for sats and others tests, and whether or not it has practice in front of it, if it can get you a full scholarship, its real enough.

By Mauretania (Mauretania) on Friday, September 12, 2003 - 09:44 pm: Edit

Twinkle - I'm sorry to hear you're having a rough go of it in APEngish We're having a bad week here too. D has gone through 3 different AP English teachers (so far) because her "real" teacher ended up in the hospital, this past weekend and isn't expected back until January! So D announced I'm not taking the AP test because we're way behind now. Then one of her favourite teachers passed away (from a previous year) but D would always stop in her class, first thing in the morning and have a chat with her and all of sudden she dies unexpectedly. Tears, all week. Memorial service on Wednesday so no homework. She's been riding (her pony) between the rain
all week.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Friday, September 12, 2003 - 11:35 pm: Edit

I'm carrying a VERY low average for AP English right now. If anyone is dying to know, I'll just post it but otherwise I don't really need to display my stupidity if no one cares. That is... appalling. I can't even envision getting an 85. I can't write, in addition to not being able to do math. What's going to go next... my Spanish speaking skills. No comprendo nada? I hope not. My grades suck right now. Except for calc, and we haven't even had a major test yet. And we all know that I am struggling in calc badly. Man No more physics. I liked my physics teacher a lot. I didn't understand anything we were learning and I was failing out but I liked my class a lot Sigh. Where as on the other hand calc makes me super squirmy... oh man. I can't stand calc. Delta x and derivatives and other stuff that doesn't sit well on the Twinkle- happiness/comprehension scale. Grrr. Every time my teacher says "Delta X" I think of a fraternity instead. We also do physics in calculus. Something else that just rubs me the wrong way. We would have never done calculus in physics.

And no, O71, I'd be lying to you if I said that guys weren't confusing and hard to figure out. They are, I usually have people nailed to a tee in consideration to who they are and why they act the way they do (yup, budding psych/soc major in action) but this one guy is just...hard to figure out. I can't really figure out what the deal is, with him OR even with us. Alita... lol... it was VERY sweet. We ended up going out to dinner instead, his cooking efforts didn't pan out so he decided we'd go out somewhere and we had an awesome time but it was almost weird because he was acting as if I were his girlfriend again and everyone one KNOWS he still likes me so I don't understand *why* we can't be... an item. So confusing. That's why I said we're in weird waters right now. I would want to say it was my first date where I actually ordered normal food (yeah, I used to be one of those diet coke/salad girls on dates but now I try to get something healthy and non-messy, plus he wanted to make sure I actually ate something other than fruit or coffee) but it wasn't a date. It just felt like it. Sigh. So perfect in so many ways (I mean, how many guys will try to cook you dinner just because they're worried about you, have great conversations with you on both a intellectual and fun level, AND are just all around nice/funny/smart/talented people who really have it together by the age of 18??? I haven't met many!!!) but the relationship has a tragic flaw. I miss him WHEN I'm with him almost, I can't even articulate it. My lack of proper articulation translates into my crapout sessions in AP English, a class with people and a teacher I adore but I just... suck. Yup yup yup.

Mauretania...thanks... sigh... AP English will probably be my first C or D ever in high school (note I did not mention ever. Yup, I was the kid in middle school with straight A+'s with the exception of the mercy A or B in math (I always had teachers in middle school that pitied my severe math inabilities, so somehow my 65 test average would translate into a 90... don't ask. I sure as heck didn't!!!) , and a C or two in conduct because I was one of those kids who would run their mouth forever and ever. Thank God we're not graded on that. I'm sorry to hear that about your daughter's favorite teacher, that must have made for an exceptionally horrible week, my heart goes out to you guys.

By Geniusash (Geniusash) on Saturday, September 13, 2003 - 12:23 am: Edit

Twinkle-I used to be a diet coke/salad girl too! Hey, don't get discouraged w/AP Eng already. It was the best, most usefull class I've ever taken. I did pretty well on it, so if you ever want examples, I'm your woman!

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Saturday, September 13, 2003 - 09:28 am: Edit

TWINKLE!

awwwwwwww that sounded sweet what he did. guys are REALLY hard to figure out. im the same way where i can usually figure out people right away and why they do things, but guys are just..weird. thus why i stopped caring

my last exbf is so strange. he will ignore me completely for a month and pretend i dont exist and spend the next month acting like we are best friends and always talking to me and going out wiht my friends and stuff...i dont really get it. but whatever, i just go along with it because i dont really care.

this thread is getting invaded! hi new people!!!!

our homecoming court candidates were announced yesterday. big surprises...im STILL in shock about who GOT in and who DIDNT. the people who voted in the initial top 15 selection process must have had a really strange idea of an "accomplished person."

i slept for 12 hours last night so now i am all happy.

stupid C in French...

By Alita (Alita) on Saturday, September 13, 2003 - 12:18 pm: Edit

sunshine- im amazed that your school actually has a homecoming board and all....the same 2 people have been homecoming court for my grade in 9th, 10th, and most likely, 11th grade. The girl is nice but, the guy actually came to homecoming drunk last year. What an "accomplished person" !

twinkletoes-if you don't like delta x, just subsitute it for another letter. I had to do that because it bothers me to see delta x and x next to each other. it just looks...wrong. lol. is your teacher good?

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Saturday, September 13, 2003 - 02:01 pm: Edit

Sunshine, lol, your last ex b/f aounds confusing (like many other guys). I have friends who have had that happen to them with their ex b/fs, it sounds like you and him are on good terms but he's just... an awkward boy lol, kind of- like you still get along with him but he runs hot and cold and that just be what kind of boy he is in general (haha, trying out my behavior analyst skills once again~correct me if I'm wrong) The really confusing thing about this ex is that we're NOT going out anymore. Or, at least, I thought we weren't. But since we're still in the same friend group, we see each other all the time and lately we've been hanging out more TOGETHER and stuff... but we're not "going out" in that sense. It's awkward sometimes. It's like we both want to but something...something is off. Sigh. Damnit... that is who would be my ideal homecoming date but I just have a bad feeling about it. I wouldn't want to ask him and have him be like, um... we're NOT going out anymore!!!

Sunshine!! I slept for 11 1/2 hours last night!!!!! There was construction work going on all morning outside, drilling and everything and I didn't even hear it. I got out of bed and sauntered across my room and walked down the hall to find my mom, who laughed at me for sleeping through the LOUDNESS of it all. I used to be a really light sleeper, but ever since last year, there isn't much that can really wake me up. Haha. My mother is endowed with the task of waking me up for school in the morning, which is going to be a **major** problem in college because I usually won't get up to an alarm clock, and if I hear it I'll simply ignore it or turn it off. Hence why the alarm clock radio on my desk has been used for two things... showing what time it is and blasting my music as I'm doing HW. You can bring your C in French up... you will probably have other tests and assignments that are weighted on a point basis so if you accumulate enough points you're bound to get out of the C range. My Spanish teacher would grade papers similarlytoo, like a 180 out of 200, or something like that, instead of the basic "100" or whatever. Whoa... what happened with the homecoming candidates??? Did any of your friends get in???

Alita- I never thought of substituting something else for Delta X!! That's such a smart idea. Now... okay, if you multiply delta x by x what do you get? and if you multiply delta x times delta x what do you get? (Just wondering. I keep getting odd answers whenever I do my homework and such). My math teacher is a pretty good teacher but some teachers have different teaching styles, and the teacher I had last year was much more compatible with how I learned math. Of course, we have a HUGE math class, so I can't whine about not getting enough attention- last year if three kids were confused in our 15ish person class, we'd stop and slow down and go over things so everyone was on par. Now, if three kids don't get it, well they have to come in for extra help (um... I actually don't have time in my schedule to do that most days... I have to learn it IN class or get help from someone else) or make someone else give them the answers. It's too hard learning something this difficult in a huge class. Surprisingly, there were enough desks this year for everyone in the class. People are starting to drop the class though so it will get smaller as time goes on, hopefully.

GeniusAsh, now you know I am going to ask you for AP English help. I can write well but something isn't clicking with my writing in this class. I am getting an idea of what I should do but for some reason on paper I can't get it together for actual assignments. I love the people in our class and our teacher. It's awesome. And I do want to learn how to write on a college level so I'm really ready for next year, but it's going to be a matter of getting there, or being stuck in fail-land all year.

Thedad has been MIA :/ I hope you're not being killed by work or anything... hope the trip planning and such is going well.

By Alita (Alita) on Saturday, September 13, 2003 - 02:42 pm: Edit

Twinkle: subsituting A for Delta X.:
X times A equals AX, and A times A equals A^2. when youre done with the problem, every time you see an A in the answer, replace it with Delta X again-less confusing for you and the answers right. I got lucky cause my math teacher teaches for 30 minutes of class, and then helps individual students for the next hour. (I always end up taking a lot of that hour up because I have so many questions! I don't understand how people can self study math. I would be sooo clueless! My class has like 36 people in it, but have of them are geniuses and already know the answers before the teacher explains it-and then theres me, lol.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Saturday, September 13, 2003 - 04:50 pm: Edit

Thanks Alita!!! I have been struggling with that in class for about a week now. My math teacher couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong or why I can't grasp the delta X idea. I sincerely do not like calculus at all, lol, I honestly MISS the math class that I was in last year. Small class, plenty of attention, and simply the best teacher I ever had. I would easily put him near the top of the Twinkle Hero List simply because he truly loves his job and will go to any length to make sure that everyone gets a good math education and actually knows what they're doing AND he makes an outstanding effort to connect to all of his students, not just the math geniuses, but the regular math people and those who can't do any math ;) LOL. And this year I don't have that and mostly the math geniuses get attention in our class- well this year we have less math geniuses because most of them went to AP calc. The other ones just didn't do enough homework last year to qualify gradewise or don't want to deal with an AP calc workload.

But I regress. We're doing something odd in math right now... I forget what it's called... we're beginning to touch on derivatives and stuff and it just... doesn't click with me. It reminds me of when I took algebra 1 the first time, when everything was completely foreign the first time and I didn't understand ANYTHING (the 2nd time was great, on the other hand. I got a 98 the second time, lol). I wish we had an hour to ask questions individually... it's pretty much a lecture-machine class, meaning we get lectured, take notes, attempt to keep up with our teacher and try to pass the best we can. If we pass, wonderful, if not , we're left to our own devices.

Grr. One of my wisdom teeth hurts... it looks like its infected or something This must be why they have to get pulled, but we had been waiting to do that since I only have three wisdom teeth and there normally wouldn't be a reason why I would have to undergo the procedure twice, but I guess I may have to get it done in separate sittings because this isn't the first time it's happened.

By Esmerelda (Esmerelda) on Saturday, September 13, 2003 - 05:56 pm: Edit

hey, I know this is something like a private chat, but is it alright to join in? I just stumbled on this site and this is really the only thread where people are talking and not just asking questions (not to diss asking questions or anything).
Your lives seem so interesting, and reminds me of mine. It's kinda weird because I read about you and you know nothing about me, but I really wanted to respond to some of your thoughts.


Responding back to the subject from a couple days ago about PSAT practice. At my school, also, we had to take the PSATs Freshman, Sophomore, AND Junior years in school. But the first two tests were special to our school, i guess. They were the real tests but they didn't count for colleges. And I was damn lucky they weren't because Sophomore year I missbubbled in the writing section and got 8 questions wrong!!! Luckily I didn't make that mistake again on the real thing last year. I was so scared that I was going to screw up I checked each number a million times to make sure i didn't skip one. so scary. I don't know if studying for the PSATs is necessary or not. I didn't really have the option of not studying because, well, taking it three times is mandatory at our school. Plus, if you just study for the SAT I and SAT II Writing, you've covered everything.
Wow, you seem to be covering more in your Calc class than us. We've only just had our first test on limits and such. We have the worst teacher imaginable. He makes so many mistakes! He will write something on the board wrong and wont notice until someone mentions it to him. Then, he doesn't errase the wrong answer, and no one is sure which answer is correct. It's all but impossible to learn from him, because he even writes the rules down incorrectly. We can't trust our notes because they are probably wrong. The book has become my best friend.
Sorry about the loss of D's teacher. My brother's teacher died in middle school, and two of his classmates in high school (remember to look both ways when crossing the road) and I remember how devastated he was. It's always hard.

By Alita (Alita) on Saturday, September 13, 2003 - 07:10 pm: Edit

Esmeralda- your calc class seems pretty similar to mine-we did a review, then limits, and now were doing derivatives, etc. no need to worry- derivatives come right after limits (actually the derivative is a limit, but if i tried to explain it youd be reallly confused) I live in my own math world-it all makes sense in my head, just not to anyone else... oh well.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Saturday, September 13, 2003 - 10:56 pm: Edit

Esmeralda, you're welcome to join. It's an open thread.

Yeah, I didn't KNOW we did limits (I checked the book and that's what we were doing last week... we just began derivatives), our teacher didn't tell us that THAT was what we were doing or why we were doing it. It was more of a thing like... okay THIS is what you are doing and you NEED to know this within the next 45 minutes because we're going to have a quiz before you leave class! I hate being tested on material RIGHT after we're introduced to it. I don't even have time to process the garble.

I hate calc with a passion. If I understood what I was doing I MIGHT like it a little more, but everyone knows the scoop with me and math. Just doesn't click.

Had an great night at the ex b/f's :/ I think we're spending too much time together, but he invited ME over so obviously he wanted to hang out too so it's justified and it's not that I didn't want to...;) We just watched TV and made fun of the stuff that was on, but it was still awesome. Yuppers. Now I'm gonna be a good girl and get grilling on the pages and pages of AP Psych that is only 1/2 completed...

I've decided I'm going to take Economics or Sociology next semester MAYBE, depending how much my work load is killing me. Maybe creative writing, then I really put my imagination to work. It's funny... I am VERY left brained as tests would show, thus in part explaining my math deficiency- but I am also very disorganized when it comes to schoolwork filing AND I am very artistic and I am really,really good at writing fictional stories, as I discovered my junior year. Of course, this is also all contingent on scheduling which will prove to be difficult.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Sunday, September 14, 2003 - 02:04 am: Edit

The Dad is *not* MIA...just over-extended for a bit.
Extrapolate TheDad's presence hear to his own work, his work with the ballet, and his work with the high school orchestra and you can see how TheDad occasionally can run red-lined for a few days. TheDad even gets so overwhelmed that he starts speaking of himself in the third person...better than the Imperial "we" I suppose.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Sunday, September 14, 2003 - 02:22 am: Edit

Haha, yes, at least you haven't gotten to the point where you're saying, "Thedad and I are very redlined...", lol. "MIA" was the wrong term, lol, I was just hoping all of your work and activities weren't killing you.

You would be proud to know that I am working on a college admissions essay. And yes, dear lord, it definitely sucks, but I'm going to keep at it and whenever I get the nerve to send it to you you can find it somewhere in your mail box. Then you'll be free to hack it apart to bits, lol. I've gained increased distrust in my writing ever since the start of AP English, land of disastrous papers (although I love AP English... don't get me wrong... I'm just having a difficult writing experience there). I'm also trying to make sure I avoid topics that would be no-nos when it comes to adcoms... this is so confusing!!

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Sunday, September 14, 2003 - 11:14 pm: Edit

I didn't finish the essay. I KIND of accidentally fell asleep instead and then today I got stuck with a ton of homework for classes - classes I'm barely scraping by in anyway. I sometimes wonder if it's too much and then I realize that other people are doing much, much more so I must be wrong. LOL.

Time to suck it up and get ready for another week of this... At least dance is in full gear now which is always an awesome plus and gives me something to look forward to...

By Thedad (Thedad) on Monday, September 15, 2003 - 12:02 am: Edit

Gee...it seems like someone around here has been talking about sleep as a priority...I forget who it was. You can't do anything else well if you're not in decent shape with respect to sleep.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Monday, September 15, 2003 - 01:09 am: Edit

Thedad :/ Please don't think I've been ignoring the sleep as a priority advice. It is something that is much easier said than done.

I've realized some kids can get by doing the same amount of APs as I'm doing in less time, but they also have less EC commitments AND AND AND here's the big one. They are smarter. Not that this is a copout- it sounds like it, but as established by years of Parent Teacher conferences, I'm relatively smart, but if I want to get to the top of the game, it's going to take much more effort and work than someone who is "smarter". For instance, a homework assignment that takes someone an hour may take me two hours because it takes me longer to process it, forex. Now, this raises the question... what AM I doing in these kinds of classes; some are quite a deal above my own natural ability level and I can admit that, but I won't go down to lower level classes due to being excessively driven (which is surprising, because that does NOT come from ANY external source).

Now, of course this isn't an excuse for having a harder time with certain classes, and essentially not getting enough sleep. This is going to be a process for me... I'm really trying to and the lack of sleep could be a contributing factor as to WHY it takes me longer to do stuff and why my concentration levels and reaction times are generally down.... its like a really bad cycle. Not enough sleep---> can't concentrate, trying to retain enough information to ace the next test or w/e, go to all ECs and get hw done, sometimes must review extra on HW because too tired in 1st period to pay attention---> equates to staying up later----? not enough sleep, cycle starts again.

It's self-destructive and I know it and it's harder to stop than I realize. Hi...I'm Twinkle... and I'm a sleep deprivationist.

I'm so tempted to just take a day off this week and simply sleep for most of it, just to get caught up, but then I may end up falling further behind on hw and stuff so it could be counterproductive. Plus I have to save my days off just in case I do happen to catch something really nasty this year, lol.

Back to the remnants of my government homework... it's a good thing I love the class, so I don't really mind the workload. It's tolerable and I'm interested so it's a win-win situation, plus our hw actually helps us comprehend info better for the upcoming test.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Monday, September 15, 2003 - 02:18 am: Edit

The fact that you're so driven and--to paraphrase your paragraph--are something of an overachiever is one of the things why I think many colleges will look at you in a kindly light. Given your leadership tendencies and being of the female persuasion, is one of the reasons I think a school like Smith would want you, test scores be damned.

The sleep thing is really close to absolute. You can push it down periodically to as little as six hours but otherwise the vicious cycle will hurt you more than the extra hours of studying will help you.

C'mon, hang in there...it's just a few months now. But it does mean being extremely ruthless about other time commitments outside of the EC's. Homework, EC's, sleep...anything else when there's time.

By Digmedia (Digmedia) on Monday, September 15, 2003 - 01:04 pm: Edit

twinkle - hope I'm not intruding, but here's my thought.

My first reation to your described situation with homework and sleep is to say that no matter what your load, you'd be doing the same. As theDad days, you're driven to do well, so I thought that you'd fill whatever time you had, and still have the sleep-time problem.

But I don't think that's the case. My son had that problem last trimester (his school does trimesters insead of semesters: classes are longer and cover more material each day, but you can get a whole credit in just two trimesters, allowing you to take a wider variety of courses. Each trimester is a MAX of 5 courses).

But this trimester, he only has two "stress" classes: APUSH and Pre-Calc. The other three are French, C++, and Art (for his animation). And what a difference over last trimester!!! He can actually sleep at night and he has time for his other activities, projects, a part-time (very part-time, like 3 hrs a week) job, and needed down-time with dates and his friends. He's happier, healthier, and i-don't-know-what-elsier, but it's a BIG difference. Note: next trimester, he doesn't have it so easy when his physics class starts.

So maybe he's not going to Cornell or any of the HYPS, but those schools don't have what he's looking for anyway.

But that's HIS situation. I won't try to advise you because I don't know you, but just know that the world doesn't begin and end with academics.

By Geniusash (Geniusash) on Monday, September 15, 2003 - 06:49 pm: Edit

But in high school, it seems too. I know sleep deprivation oh-too-well, as my first hour is at 6:52. It's insane. And that's AP lit (what eactly were they thinking...) So that's six hours of sleep on a really good night (I can get up at 6 and be out by 6:25). I have a part-time job too, but mine's more like 20 hrs a week. Those days when I have to work 3-10 AFTER school are killer!

By Alita (Alita) on Monday, September 15, 2003 - 09:20 pm: Edit

so how much sleep can you supposedly function well on-on a good night i get 7-7.5 hrs sleep, and a bad night is more like 5.5 hrs. Then, on saturday, i get mucho sleep:-) Is that enough?

By Geniusash (Geniusash) on Monday, September 15, 2003 - 10:05 pm: Edit

I have to work on weekends!!!! THey say 9 1/2 hrs is ideal for teenagers, less for adults

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Tuesday, September 16, 2003 - 12:45 am: Edit

I had thought the same thing, too, thedad, regarding being driven and being an overachiever. But the things are...

1. Are they actually going to see this? Or are they going to chalk up the imbalance of ehhh test scores and great grades in difficult classes, WHILE missing important APs to being a kid who is lazy... or doesn't want to challenge herself... or figure that our grades are way overinflated.

Or...

2. They'll figure... GRIND GRIND GRIND. Which wasn't something I was concerned about until after I read A is For Admissions, but then I realized that's a common category for kids with so-so test scores and very high grades to fall into.

"You can push it down periodically to as little as six hours but otherwise the vicious cycle will hurt you more than the extra hours of studying will help you."

LOL the "little as six hours" almost makes me laugh in a way because the first thing I thought of was JACKPOT, I don't remember sleeping that long during a school night ever, unless you count accumulative. J/K... sort of. Well, no, there are those days far and few between where I take a small nap. But I need to increase the amount of sleep I get soon, lol. I can't get around getting up @ 5:15ish or so but I really, really have to back up the time I'm getting to sleep at. Yeah, the early wakeup time is partially due to primping time. I know that's going to get attacked but I've been doing that since the 7th grade and I really see no reason to stop now, lol. If I didn't take forever to get ready in the morning, I'd be grumpy and self-conscious the rest of the day. Trust me on this one. I know this sounds absolutely crazy but a bad hair day will seriously have a good chance on tainting how the rest of my day is going to be, simply because I'm going to be preoccupied by it. (Haha, this may be one of my tragic flaws, but I'm sure this tidbit wouldn't surprise you that much from what I've dropped here)

Digmedia- I bet that schedule would alleviate a lot of hw related stress if it was implemented in my school, lol. Good luck to him in physics I only lasted 2 weeks in there, lol, physics is *definitely* one of the tougher classes I've encountered. I do realize that academics aren't the beginning / end of everything- hopefully you can tell that from my other posts, that I do try to maintain an almost normal social life and participate in ECs that I love doing ANNNND I also have a part time job lined up, but academics carry such a weight for me because not only are they a huge deciding factor in college admissions, but a lot of it stems from wanting to be something that I'm not yet, lol, as confusing as that sounds.

NINE and a half hours of sleep!?!??!?!? How would any teenager who goes to school and does some kind of EC be able to fit nine hours of sleep in?? I conjure up an image of a kid with those glasses with the eyeballs painted in taking a nice long doze in chem class!!!!!!

By Esmerelda (Esmerelda) on Tuesday, September 16, 2003 - 03:55 pm: Edit

WOW. Nine and a half hours of sleep. That would be WONDERFUL. Ugh, six hours would be nice too. I'm with Twinkle. School and EC's just don't allow for sleep. It should be a priority. But, personally, if something has to go, it's not going to be my grades. hee hee, even if i tried to go to sleep before finishing my work, I couldn't. I'd just worry about it and wake at 4'o'clock in a panic. I'm a little obsessive.
whoo. I want a nice easy schedule this year. I mean, Junior year was hard, and I only took three AP classes (Lang, World, and Chem). THis year I have four and a comunity college class (BC Calc, Lit, Physics (double period!), Statistics, and college Engineering Design). Actually, if i didn't have SATs and SAT IIs and college apps coming up, this year would probably prove to be less stressful than last year. My college class is only on Monday's and Wednesdays, and takes up two periods a day. So, including my lunch period, I have three periods off every Tuesday, Thursday, and Wednesday, and I still have my lunch on Mondays and Wednesday. Plus, I LOVE my engineering class! Even though I am one of two girls in the class and all but one of the guys are really aragant and annoying, I am learning sooooo much. With SATs and such though.... I just always have work looming. I mean, even if i finish homework, I have to study for the SATs or outline an essay, or something. I tend to go to sleep between 12 and 2 on a normal day, waking at 6. SO I get 4-6 hours of sleep on most days. But, sometimes I am kept up until it's so late it's early. I pulled my first late night homework night of the year last week when my AP Statistics group left me to do all of the work. I spent forever trying to figure out what the hell my teacher wanted, ending up with about two and a half pages single spaced, and falling asleep in exastion at around 4:50. One hour and ten minutes...not good. Last year, I pulled a couple no sleep nights and several 15 minute or half hour nights. I'm hoping that this year will change, but well, it's still the begining of the year. The stress will really pile on as the end of the marking period nears. Luckily, I'm fairly good at my maths and sciences, so if we ever have a test, as long as I understood most of the material, I can do well without studying, and being barely contious for the tests. What a lack of sleep really does for me is makes me a little jittery and essentially unable to write a coherant sentence. If there is an inclass essay, I'm effectively screwed. eep.
As far as college applications are concern, what really frightens me, is that the college people don't know how hard I work for my grades or whatever. I mean, there are some people who work half as hard as me and have the same stats. ggrrr. ah well, i guess they deserve to get in if that's the case. Whatever. okay, blurb ending.

By O71394658 (O71394658) on Tuesday, September 16, 2003 - 04:09 pm: Edit

I slowly deteriorate as the school week progresses. Kind of amusing actually. When I don't get enough sleep, my body goes haywire. I'll get muscle spasms, twitching eyelids, heart palpitations, and really bad dark circles under my eyes (many ask me during this state if I had recently got into a fight, and a 7th grade teacher even sent me to the Nurse, thinking I had been in a brawl in between classes.) The Friday-Saturday sleep is the longest, usually 9 hours. I never go to bed before 11: 30, but always before 1. So anywhere from 4.5-7 hours a night is my usual thing.

And guys, relax about the SATs. Not a big deal.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Tuesday, September 16, 2003 - 08:22 pm: Edit

hmmmmm sorry...i think i died or something. havent been here in awhile

i. hate. school.

you know whats evil? having 2 papers to write, 100 pages to read, 3 tests to study for, and 4 pages of bio homework...

ON YOUR BIRTHDAY.

i think im going to go die now.

does anyone ever sleep these days? nobody i know ever does...

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Tuesday, September 16, 2003 - 09:02 pm: Edit

I've still slept really badly this week. I'm starting to get scared about having to fit work in too, but I figure... it can be done. I can do anything, lol, or at least, I'm really going to try... yeah... the goal is to stay positive and upright and try to be at the top of my game. That is all I ask for.

I am trying to sleep more but last night I came up with a grand total of 3 hours. I was okay today, ignoring the dark circles (but hey... I'm a makeup pro. You'd never notice I looked plum tired most of the time, unless if its really bad). I was okay most of the day until I came home late this afternoon and discovered that the air conditioner was taken out of my bedroom!!!! I didn't exactly throw a tantrum, more of a tantrum in my way... "WHYYYY IS MY AIR CONDITIONER GONE!!!?!?!?!?!" Sigh. Don't worry it wasn't stolen... it was taken out because "its the end of summer". Yeah, but it's still kind of hot... and I liked sleeping with it on. Sigh. But I was too tired to argue so I didn't.. I just went into the other room and did more loads of homework. And it NEVER ends. I'm still not done. And I have to go out again tonight for more EC- related stuff. And come back for more homework. I may just hit a point sometime tonight and say guess what... that's enough now and go to sleep and figure out how to squeeze homework time in during another class. I really don't know whats left to do.

Gilmore Girls is on in the other room and I heard Rory's mom say to her daughter after she complained "I'm tired..."- "You could always sleep. Then again, you could always make a pot of coffee and get no sleep again."

Haha. That is like the story of so many people's lives.

I should also mention that my newest synonym for Calculus is the royal train wreck. Derivatives? Limits? WHAT!?!?!?!? I hate this. And I have a story to tell you all associated with that but I can wait, lol... must work...

SUNSHINE!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I'm sorry you're SO swamped on your birthday, that is nooo way to spend a birthday

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Wednesday, September 17, 2003 - 04:19 pm: Edit

As of today, I am officially a T.A.!!! Wow guys... I am in awe... plus the fact that my school trusts me to tutor kids and teach things makes me a little nervous in the sense that I may hurt these underclassmen more than help them, but time will tell, I guess.

I swear I find ways to take up my breathing time.

But I can't say that I don't "love" being productive... it has it's own sense of accomplishment in a way;)

By Esmerelda (Esmerelda) on Wednesday, September 17, 2003 - 09:57 pm: Edit

hey. My boyfriend just dumped me. After a really nice afternoon together. I mean, I know we weren't really working well but today was really great, so why did he choose today? I was shocked. I think I"m going to go have a cry.

I wish the world were an egg so I could smash it.

on a happier note, Hurricane Isabelle cancelled school for thursday and we already had friday off, so it's a four day weekend for us.

still, life sucks.
Need to go die.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Thursday, September 18, 2003 - 01:12 am: Edit

Awww Esmeralda... I'm sorry... that always sucks and I can tell just by the way that he did that that he is a.... I can't use the word here. It's too vulgar.

We're due for the hurricane, or parts of it Friday. We won't miss school, but at least we can do gym inside!! I hate outdoor gym for some reason. I can plan a hurricane party... that's always a good excuse... deck out someone's basement with pseudo palm trees and Hawaiian looking flowers and make it into a theme party, lol. Just kidding!!! I bet Friday night I will be completely wiped by whatever time I get home, which will probably be around 8 or so, so I probably won't want to do anything unless if something extraordinarily fun comes up.

I officially have given up in calc. I don't even care anymore!!! I only care for college and because it will kill my GPA if I really do fail out, and it looks like a possibility at the moment. There is no reason I should sit and try to understand something for 3 hours and have my "AP coalition" (lol... it's good to have people who absolutely adore you because they'll forgive your utter stupidity/slowness) tutor me and then I STILL not get it. It's not fair to anyone, lol. I just want to know WHY we have to do derivatives and limits and such. I don't understand what the point is. Maybe if I could connect it to something relevant to me, then I could at least appreciate it a bit more. We're also throwing in LOTS of physics concepts... and yup I was dumb enough to drop out of physics. Sigh. My main problem with calc is that not only is our class too big, but it fails to be recognized that all kids have different learning styles... math is not a one size fits all concept/subject. Maybe I was coddled last year with my color coded chalk and diagrams broken down into step by step explanations, but it worked so I'm definitely missing pre-calc this year.A lot of kids went from getting no explanations in pre-cal to some explanation in calc so they wouldn't notice the difference, where as the other kids in my class from last year who didn't make it to AP do. I've decided I'm going to try out the math-music related concept... I noticed that blasting music makes math more "enjoyable", but it has to be the right sort of music, otherwise it doesn't work. 1. It must be loud. 2. It must be Incubus or a band of that nature, but it depends on the day... today it is definitely Incubus.. but I have an EXTREMELY broad music taste. And it has to be "energetic" sounding... not something that's going to put me to sleep. That's another perk of music. I can't fall asleep with music on usually (but I hate complete silence too... I used to like the whirr of my air conditioner but SOMEONE took it out of my room, lol, I had the hardest time sleeping w/o it the other night despite being plum tired) so it's like a natural caffeine. Awesome. I don't think the music makes me LEARN math but at least I'll concentrate and try to make an effort to complete it all correctly more.



On a note, I have an A in government which I am very psyched about... government is shaping up to be my favorite class this year I think.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, September 18, 2003 - 01:07 pm: Edit

Unfortunately, the reasons for derivatives and integrals need some math-technical savvy to explain. It really pretty much is a "here's how you do it" and then a "here are some applications" kind of thing.
Telling you that an integral will give you the area under the curve isn't very useful, I'm afraid.

===

So D is having a 17th birthday sleepover party this weekend.

TheMom: you still need to work on X over the weekend. When you're in college, you have all sorts of things you have to do on your birthday and you don't get *any* time off.

TheD: but Mom, this is the last birthday where I'm legally a kid.

I sense law school in that one.

By Alita (Alita) on Thursday, September 18, 2003 - 01:41 pm: Edit

Twinkle- i feel for ya. I was all set with this calc stuff, and then they pull out the chain rule and derviatives of sec^2 ,etc. I AM SO Lost! and the worst part, is everyone else gets it......i so do not like math. grr.

The D: lol...but, you know thed does have a point.......

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Thursday, September 18, 2003 - 04:25 pm: Edit

The furthest that I ever comprehended math was this type of stuff... as in HEY GUYS can you factor this: x^2 + 6x+ 9 = what??? Or what is 2x+5=9? I have that down pat. Granted, I didn't learn that algebra one stuff the first time I took it, but the 2nd year I was just fine. Geometry just never worked out and I was okay for most of algebra 2. Pre-cal was okay until we got to trig, then I fell into that confused state. Calc is just... WOW... I must say power to people who can do calc. I sure as hell can't. I can't even do a simple derivative. The concept to me is mind boggling, I lose all kinds of variables when I can actually get into the real solving of the problem and when you throw in physics concepts, forget it. I'm *done*. Seriously I really think I am done, I've had enough of this... confusion. You're right thedad, lol, that explanation doesn't make much sense to me yet especially since I don't know what an integral is.

I have a new homework policy for math if I make it another week in there, which is looking highly unlikely. My plan is to pick up a science instead and you know what that MAY end up being... wow... can we say that this year is becoming a mess?? I decided I HAVE four-five math credits (I guess you don't count a repeat, so four) and only 3 science. I'd rather have four science instead of 3 science, 5-6 math. Plus, I think colleges will see the math as a very weak point. But my policy is that I will try to do the problems.. and if I don't get them... ohhh well!!! I try. Really, I do. But I'm fed up and I don't want to anymore.

However, I am definitely enjoying AP English because I'm getting into my groove you could say... I'm improving and I'm starting to see what is bad and what is sought after, and what steps I need to take to improve my writing.

Thedad, lol, your daughter is very right about having one last birthday celebration as a child My birthday this year fell during a VERY busy and hectic time of year but I decided... I want to look back and know I enjoyed my childhood, not that I don't love what I do, but birthdays are holidays I had to get school stuff done and testing done on my b-day, but it wasn't as if I didn't celebrate it either ;) I had *two* birthday parties on the same day and it was simply great. Definitely a "Sweet 17" seeing as how I missed out on the "sweet 16" ordeal. What does D want for her bday?

I discovered today that Special K cereal bars are quite good... only 90 calories and a good snack/lunch... it's mostly carbs but it has calcium so I suppppoooseeeee its forgivable ;)

I made prelim's for homecoming queen. Hurrah. At least I know I may be a moron, but a lovable moron I can't feel too badly. But homecoming's not for a month and a half, this is kind of early to set all of this up already. I don't know if I WANT the title or not. I do but I don't, and people will complain if I do get it because I already won a title like that. However... um... I didn't exactly nominate myself, and I haven't said a word about it. It just kind of happened. People make it out to be a bigger deal than it actually is- but I can't say I don't enjoy it, either.

Off to my favorite part of the day Bye guys!

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Thursday, September 18, 2003 - 07:54 pm: Edit

Wow... I just had the most amazing dance classes EVER. I was all fired up for whatever reason before class, perhaps a combination of being excited (I always get SO excited before dance... every time I go it's like it's the first time all over again) and just being SO frustrated about school. So I really focused today and decided to just GO for it this time... usually I hold back a little in order to avoid mistakes, but then I realized... I have NOTHING to lose and I can just try again anyway. I HAVE my first pirouette everyone! No grogeous technique yet, you know, I don't have that... little something extra when I get down a skill. It's more of a matter of learning something, then making it "yours", if you know what I mean. My biggest problem in dance, I discovered today, was mixing up left and right badly. That was a problem with my pirouettes... I'd lift the wrong foot at times and that messes things up. I still mix up left and right , especially in combinations or when learning a new skill, lol, I'm what I'd call a dance dyslexic, but if I think hard enough about it I can sort it out, but I still mess it up sometimes... but eventually I always get it down. It's so nice to be able to validate, in a tangible way, that you can actually do something well if you put enough effort forth. Lately, I'd been beginning to doubt that. I'm definitely not the best in my class (one year of experienced opposed to forex a girl with 11 years) but I love it and I am improving sooo much that it's something I'm going to stick to because it's just so amazing.

Hmmm... off to do some super-sexy homework... lol sorry for the 2 posts in a row guys

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, September 18, 2003 - 10:00 pm: Edit

The left/right thing correlates with your problems in math.

I was watching a rehearsal once and the director told a girl to do a certain combination to the left. The girl did the combination and the director said, "Very good. Now do it to your *other* left."

Congrats on the first pirouette.

By Sandy (Sandy) on Thursday, September 18, 2003 - 11:48 pm: Edit

wow, this thread is going somewhere

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Friday, September 19, 2003 - 12:57 am: Edit

Thedad, thanks It's not perfected yet but I *have* it and I'm good with that at the moment. I'm psyched for the day I'll be able to do multiple ones, but for now I'm just going to try to solidify this. I discovered I like dancing with no shoes on, but that's not encouraged AT ALL because you have no support for your feet that way. I think some things like pirouettes are almost easier to do in just socks... I showed it off to my mom when I got home, lol.

I kind of almost figured that the left/right confusion had something to do with math. All the things I have a hard time with are connected together, lol. The story of that girl sounds like me, lol!! My teacher can say to do something to the left.... or rattle off a series of steps in a combination and SHOW us and I'll do it backward sometimes, lol. That's probably the hardest part of dance for me. Once I can get the order down pat I'm usually good. It's more about technique at that point, lol. It's more confusing though if we are practicing combinations and then have to turn around and do them in the opposite direction I can be fine in the first direction then completely mess up the other direction because I have everything backwards, lol. I think that being in some advanced classes is doing wonders for me in regards to improving... being in a class above your level forces you to catch on more quickly and it's motivation to try harder. I'd rather be at the bottom of the totem pole in an advanced class and be a better dancer than if I was the best in a lower level class. There's definitely a discrepancy between my ability levels in different classes but I don't really see it that way... some things I am great at and others need work, and some I can't do yet but I will be able to someday Which is my goal. I will get on pointe someday, I will have multiple pirouettes, I will get more height on leaps, and I will stop mixing up left and right in class.

LOL, okay, I retract the last statement!!

Hi Sandy!!

By Firedup17 (Firedup17) on Friday, September 19, 2003 - 01:31 am: Edit

What is the eternal thread....?

Sorry, my head has been elsewhere

By Thedad (Thedad) on Friday, September 19, 2003 - 02:21 am: Edit

It should really be named simply "Twinkle's Thread." It's a bit of an anomaly on CC but it really is an ongoing thread about many things that bear on college applications, from homework to classes to EC to WAMC. One could, I suppose, call it "Twinkle's Soap Opera," for there's certainly an on-going narrative. You'll laugh, you'll cry....

Twinkle, dancing in socks sucks for your technique development. The ultimate point is where you can look good doing it in pointe shoes. I know of a couple of Ballet VI girls who used to snigger at Ballet VII girls having trouble doing common things on pointe...they stopped sniggering once they started having to do it.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Friday, September 19, 2003 - 02:57 pm: Edit

Yay... I got to go home early so I could have soup before I go to dance in a wee bit ... that is, after I take my short power siesta. I am absolutely lazy when it comes to cooking or eating... haha... if I want a salad but I don't feel like cutting up the leaves I won't, and I'm picky too so I don't like the prepackaged stuff. Soup is easy though if you have a few minutes, lol, I can honestly say I have mastered the art of soup making (haha, that is, from a box or can).

School wasn't bad today, except I was just cranky because 1. I was tired... really really really tired. 2. It was raining and everyone knows my feelings on rain (absolutely HATE it), actually pouring as a result of the tropical storm/ hurricane. 3. I couldn't find the pants I wanted to wear this morning So disappointed, lol. I knew I should have picked out my clothes the night before, but I didn't get the chance to. At least I get two days school free now I got a 98 on my gov't test!!! YESSSS!!!


LOL, thedad, I hope I'm not totally dominating this thread and not letting others get a word in :/ I'd feel awfully rude then. Haha, my life MUST read like a soap opera, lol, so much "drama" all the time!!

Yeah, practicing with shoes does suck for your technique but I can't say that I don't enjoy my shoelessness... lol. But at the studio I ALWAYS wear shoes because it's a requirement/ part of the dress code.

I am getting excited for the hopefully upcoming days of pointe, though Haha, I can imagine myself like thirty five and *just* beginning pointe... that would be weird! Then again there are adult dance classes so I'm sure it's not that unusual.

Haha... wow, I'd say more, but sleep is kicking in and I have to succumb to it Catch y'all later!

By Digmedia (Digmedia) on Friday, September 19, 2003 - 05:33 pm: Edit

twinkle -

Did you see the latest Newsweek about sleep and teens?

http://www.msnbc.com/news/966324.asp

Says that high school teens need nine and one quarter hours sleep a night!?! Of course, no one is getting that much and school grades are suffering because of it.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Friday, September 19, 2003 - 07:41 pm: Edit

Digmedia~Thanks for the link!! I must say that I'm not surprised, but it is a little shocking that we need 9 1/4 hours sleep to function at our best levels. I noticed during the summer if I was allowed to sleep as long as I wanted to (after getting over the initial sleep deprivation from the school yr, lol) I would go from about 7 hours to 9 and a half, so that seems to make sense to me. I would say my grades do suffer to an extent from not sleeping enough, but they'd probably suffer if I slept more too so I don't know if that correlates with me in particular but generally I would believe that statement to be true; even in little kids you notice they won't do as well in class if they're tired. I know this because I've tutored little kids and have worked with them on a volunteer basis for years- there is definitely a marked split in performance between kids who sleep well and kids who are tired. I heard somewhere that high schoolers who sleep 20 minutes less than what most teens get suffer A LOT when it comes to school. That was certainly surprising- it doesn't seem like 20 minutes would really make that much of a difference. Then again, I mean I notice a difference between 3 and a half and 4 hours of sleep. Every little bit makes a difference.

I kind of fell asleep for a long time before dance, I was supposed to get there early today but I slept too long and my sister didn't wake me up for the time I was supposed to get up, hahah, I nearly missed class. My mom came home from work and she was like you have to get up nooooow or otherwise you miss dance! Too bad there wasn't that much motivation for getting up at 5:15am for school. I wouldn't mind getting up for school if I could get up at like, 6:30 even instead.

Attitude turns... wow... extremely difficult. I "did" them for the first time today. LOL, I put the attempt in but I can admit to the fact that they are a complete disaster. I can't actually do an attitude turn. I can only do a full pirouette from *one* leg, but the other one will get there too. I've always been stronger on one side of my body so it only makes sense. Haha, more dance dyslexic incidents today. I got SO confused in the middle of a combination because I kept getting left and right backwards. I would color code my hand before class just as a reminder but its not like I don't know the difference or that I forget... it's just when you're doing different things with your arms, feet, etc. and your right arm has to be out and you step with your left or whatever, in a combination (not just a simple command, I'm capable of that), that leads to disaster. I learn routines pretty quick once I get the left-right ordeal fixed somewhat into my head, but for every new thing I learn I have to begin that process all over again.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Friday, September 19, 2003 - 10:50 pm: Edit

im back still alive. still awake. no time to talk. i shall return later though. HI!!!

btw. is it NOT NORMAL to STILL not have gotten my NM SemiFinalist stuff? my counselor hasnt contacted me, the other girl at my school for for-sure made it hasnt gotten contacted, and my counselor is already annoyed with me. it worries me though...

By Thedad (Thedad) on Saturday, September 20, 2003 - 12:27 am: Edit

Sunshine, it is NOT normal.

Twinkle...sacre tonnere! Do not miss dance class!

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Saturday, September 20, 2003 - 12:50 am: Edit

I could be bleeding to death and I would still go to dance class. There is nothing that would ever make me miss it... well except for sleep, that is, and not intentionally either. I'm going to end up being one of those kids who misses classes in college if they're too early just for the sheer fact that I can't wake up to an alarm clock. I sleep like a rock, to put it simply. I didn't even wake up to the construction going on outside last week, and supposedly that was SUPER noisy, so I really don't know what to make of that.

LOL, speaking of dance, a freshman at school was talking about the Elton John song "Tiny Dancer" and he thought the lyrics went "...hold me closer, Tony Danza!" Lol, I had to set the poor kid straight, but at least he was less confused after, even though his interpretation was pretty hilarious.

BTW, what exactly does "sacre tonnere" mean? Is that Latin? I just realized just HOW difficult it is to learn two languages at once, esp. if they have some similarities. I take two foreign languages this year and I have them back to back, lol, so I have to jump modes quickly to make sure I'm still in the same language.

I can't imagine how someone could be fluent in like seven languages... I don't know how you would keep them all straight.

I wish I had taken two languages straight through HS because that would have been cool, but oh well, I guess a full sequence of one and one year of another will suffice.

BTW, I have a MAJOR philosophical point regarding me and college after that I really should bring up, but I'm going to refrain for now because I already wrote too much and it's going to take up a lot of space.


SUNSHINE!!! WELCOME BACK!!!

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Saturday, September 20, 2003 - 01:21 am: Edit

i didnt think it was normal

*sigh* i guess this calls for another trip to the counselor. along with telling her i think i changed my mind back to Cornell ED.

senior year is too confusing.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Saturday, September 20, 2003 - 03:11 am: Edit

Twinkle, that's not as bad as someone who thought the Madonna song was "Lack of Urgin'"

"Scare tonnere" is a mostly-literary French expression, "Holy Thunder!"

===

Sunshine, I would really press because time is running short. The school must mail the NM back to the NM office by 10/10. You've got to get your essay done, the school has got to fill out this transcript-like chart, write a school rec, fill out some other info...none of it is particularly difficult but it *is* time consuming.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Saturday, September 20, 2003 - 12:55 pm: Edit

What exactly happens to people who achieve NM semi-Finalist/ finalist status? Aside from having something rather rare and great on your transcript, what kinds of scholarships does it make you eligible for? I'm not exactly sure how this works; I would ask someone who made it to that level but the thing is I don't know anyone who has... we had an NM semi-finalist last year or two years ago. It escapes me of when it was, but I didn't really think anything of it then. There weren't any this year. The highest scorers seemed to be in the 190 range... I don't know if there were any low 200s...I think there may hvae been but I'm not totally positive.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Saturday, September 20, 2003 - 02:39 pm: Edit

A few mid-level schools like U of Arizona and U of Oklahoma give a four-year full scholarship to National Merit scholars. Many many other colleges have substantial ($2,500-$10,000) scholarships plus automatic admissions to special Honors programs for NM finalists. The NM itself has 2,500 $2,500 scholarships that is gives. Plus many corporations have scholarships that they give to NM finalists, though it's mainly sons/daughters of employees...still, it's a *lot* of corporations.

Beyond that, you read stat blurbs in college promotional materials and they'll often give you a count of the NM finalists admitted in the most recent year...so it's obviously something that makes you attractive to them just because of your status.

I once read a detailed analysis of the whole Academic Index thing where being an NM Semi-Finalist was worth about 90 points of SAT scores or 60 points of SAT II scores. Obviously that's something that would vary on a college by college basis.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Saturday, September 20, 2003 - 03:24 pm: Edit

Wow... I just got this huge lecture from my father about me not making enough money to completely cover the cost of dance, among other arguing points that were so kindly raised. Um, hello? I'm starting TWO jobs as insane as that sounds AND is. I barely have enough time as it is. You understand how hard it is to try to keep up with your ECs, stay on top of your grades when it comes to AP and honors classes, among everything else, and helping to maintain the house in terms of things like cleaning and helping sibs with hw and such. I mean, yeah, I'm not the most awesome kids at everything but I really do try. I could say that although I'm not an angel, I have been a pretty good kid. Yet, the nerve still exists to complain...especially when 1. it's my mom who pays for dance when I need someone to kick in the extra money, and 2. I only see him 1-2x a week... so I don't know why that would be a reason to pick a fight. Whatever. I also apparently sleep too much on the weekends. I don't know if I'm being irrational thinking that that was a stupid thing to cause an argument over, or if he has a good point. Hmm. I didn't even bother arguing this time, I basically said WHATEVER and walked off. I've decided that I'm just going to simply ignore anything of that nature, lol, now I just avoid fights by saying 'I'm NOT hearing about this because it makes no sense' and leaving, if it's something that makes no sense or is not a valid point with my dad because I would like to hear something positive from him every once in awhile but I've decided I can't really put too much energy into caring about it anymore.

End of my assorted rant of the day.

LOL, I just had this vision of a Harvard pamphlet saying "100% of our admitted students were National Merit Finalists!!" At a school where the mean average is 1400-1600 or so I would imagine almost ALL of the students are national merit scholars. It's an important status to have anywhere, I would suppose, but I would think that schools with lower SAT averages would probably use that as more of a "bragging point" than schools where all of their kids are PSAT/SAT superstars. But I'm not sure about that theory. Do most of the kids who make NM Semi-finalist go on to be finalists? And what happens to the commended students?

By Thedad (Thedad) on Saturday, September 20, 2003 - 07:12 pm: Edit

According to the stats the NM folks provide, 15,000 out of the 16,000 Semi-Finalists become Finalists. The Condemned students, of whom I was one, get a nice letter that together with $3.50 will get you one of those mocha drinks at Starbucks.

Amazingly enough, even schools like Harvard only have a 200+ NM Finalists in any one year. Just one more sign that admissions isn't merely by the numbers.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Sunday, September 21, 2003 - 01:03 am: Edit

LOL, I'd rather be a condemned student than not get anything at all ;) BTW, I'm curious... if I got a 195 on the PSAT how close WAS I to commendation? It can't be more than 10 points off, can it? Because I know a lot of the Semi-Finalist cut offs are like 215ish so I would **infer** commendation status would be around 205 or so. I guess. I don't really know about the inner working of ETS and the National Merit Board.

Wow... I must be slow, lol, wouldn't you get one of those mocha drinks at Starbucks for $3.50? I LOVE Starbucks, I'm in there a lot, except I never buy anything in there really unless it's like bottled water or something. My friends get stuff from there, but I'm not into hot drinks whatsoever... there is the iced coffee I'll get every now and then though. I tried getting a job there and the guy had me fill out the application at the store, and I got sooo excited because I thought I was going to get to work in Starbucks! But then he glanced over my application and saw the "1986" birthdate and said, sorry, you have to be at least 18 to work here. I don't understand the reasoning behind that, but I can work there in less than a year if I *really* want to, but then I decided I would much prefer a mall job instead because I would actually be able to reap the perks of the coveted employee discount

Harvard has only 200 NM finalists? Wow, I would have never guessed. I'd think that since their SAT range on both sections is a 700-800 M/V, all their kids would have been NM finalists, but it IS nice to know admissions is contingent on a really wide variety of factors.

See, I have a small problem. I believe in retail therapy, lol, but just looking at clothes gets me sooo recharged, even when I'm broke. I get so many ideas for outfits like that and then I find things and think, hmmm, this would be really cute if this and this was changed and if it were a different color. I think designing clothes or even deciding what was going to be "hot" for each season would be such a fun job. Of course, I wouldn't mind modeling the clothes either, lol, I'm the type that will go into a store and try a bunch of things on when I know perfectly well I don't have enough $$ on me to actually BUY anything that I want. Not like, OOO I want to model. Well, I mean, I would, I've gotten "scouted" twice now and I know it's a scam because a lot of these scouting people are just trying to rip you off. Not to mention that there is the small fact that I'm a whoppingly tall 5'3", and basically you usually need to be about 5'6"-5'10" or so for teen modeling. My mother and I had a discussion over whether I wanted to get pictures done and stuff, but we both know it would be really tough because I'm short. Damned genes. (I was only supposed to be 4'11 at most, but I can happily say that the doctors were wrong, lol, I swear I willed myself into growing taller) But this brings me to my philosophical question... I'm interested in a lot of different things that may NOT be college related. I was thinking of how cool it would be to be one of those celebrity makeup artists, and I know people would be like WHY does she want to do this. People seem to think that it's superficial and not really contributing to the world but I really do have a knack with the whole fashion/makeup thing. Heck, I've been practicing since I was nine. I know what I'm doing. I get excited when such and such company releases their newest eyeliner or whatever because then I get ideas of how to combine this or that with another color scheme, look, etc. It's FUN for me. I want to go to college and expand myself intellectually. I don't want you to get the idea that I'm some superficial girl who just cares about clothes and makeup- I do, but that's not my only focus, it's just one of them. I'm just kind of torn about all the things that I want to do because I know I'm going to have to choose my path soon and every day I just get more and more confused. I don't even know what I really want anymore, lol! Maybe I'm just immature on that level for my age. I know I've grown up socially and maybe am still getting there intellectually but I'm definitely behind on the "life path" scale. Everything I've done in my life has been kind of random. It's just like I've woken up in the morning and have decided, okay, I'm going to do THIS. It was like that with cheerleading, with dance, with EVERYTHING I've done in HS. Somehow, I just knew and most of my decisions have led me somewhere great so I've got to trust my instincts sometimes, but as to college/career/life path, etc, etc, I don't have any of that. I'm just confused like a little kid for some reason and maybe I'm not ready for this yet, for some reason. I don't know if time would provide a solution, or if it's more so that I'm not lost, I'm just getting fidgety over the whole process.

I was kind of thinking the other day that it would be cool to be an admissions officer at a college, but I wonder if that would get tedious after awhile, and whether I'd start becoming partial to certain types of kids. People would develop a love or hate relationship with me, depending on whether or not I admitted them into my school. Hmmm...

By Thedad (Thedad) on Sunday, September 21, 2003 - 03:38 am: Edit

Twinkle, if it gives you any comfort, the arc of my life path didn't start to become clearer until I was almost 30. Late bloomer here, in lots of ways. But to crib a line from one of the masters, "Not all who wander are lost."

That said, I emphatically urge your to stick it out and get your bachelor's degree somewhere before hoofing it off into the world at large. You may wind up seeking employment in a field that doesn't require a degree or isn't related to anything you studied...but it's good to have it to fall back on. I've known people who took the more circuitous route and let me tell you, it is a royal bitch to go back to college after you've been working in the real world for a few years. The degree will give you more options and, in general, options are good.

You may want to take courses in design while you're in college. I know a girl who went away to Virginia School for the Arts as a ballet dancer in high school and then got an apprenticeship for two years with Milwaukee Ballet before she got screwed over when a new artistic director came in and decided he wanted tall girls instead of short girls. At that point, she threw in the towel and came back to SoCal for college and is now studying fashion design at a small LAC nearby. What's neat is that she's already getting paid internships and summer jobs with a small Shakespeare company as a wardrobe mistress, drawing both upon her stage background and her fashion studies.

Btw...Milwaukee fired the new artistic director and the new new artistic director wants short girls again...but the girl I know decided enough was enough. Going pro is a tough life unless you're exceedingly lucky and exceedingly good...it makes getting into Harvard look easy by comparison.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Sunday, September 21, 2003 - 02:34 pm: Edit

HAPPY BIRTHDAY THEDAD!!

"Not that all who wander are lost." I like that line. It sounds sooo familiar, but I can't place where I've heard it from. I'm drawing a blank. It IS nice to know that there are people who become very successful and figure out what they wanted to do later on rather than write away. I have a few friends who are confused too, but the majority of people in my classes know what they're doing, generally & where they're going. It's frustrating to be surrounded by these really smart kids who are like, yeah, I'm going to be a neurosurgeon, or yup, I'm going to be an environmental lawyer.

Either *one*, I'm behind everyone else, or *two*, they're probably going to just change their minds a few times once they get to college and really explore different things. I think it's a little of both, and that I might just be a late bloomer. At least I know I may be going in the right direction, which would be to go to college to get a degree. In what exactly, I'm not sure. The whole college process is a very good example of how I would be considered a late bloomer in that department just because I'm still in the revision stage. I mean I KNOW I will get there and I will have a solid list and I'll get my applications out and be done with the whole thing (trust me on this one! I know that I will even though some people are apprehensive about this!) I've got a much better grip on what I want though. A core curriculum- doesn't really appeal to me because it has become apparent I want to explore lots of different things. Some requirements outside the major would be okay, I guess, for well-roundedness and guided structure but some places that have really really strict core curriculums would be too binding for me. I was really into Tufts for awhile but as far as I can tell they have a lot of core curriculum requirements and may not be my best option right now.

I want to dance. I love the idea of taking courses in design (I may need a portfolio for that though :/ But perhaps for just taking classes outside the major it wouldn't be necessary) because I would love to do that perhaps as a job some day. I want to take art classes because I DO like art a lot, mainly drawing and painting (me and clay do not mix...hence why I avoid pottery and sculpture like the plague) even though I'm not awesome at it, but I'm not terrible either. I want to learn how to express all the cool things I envision in my head on paper or some other kind of medium. I want to take acting classes too because I love acting. I sincerely do and I'm actually pretty good at it, I would admit it comes pretty natural to me. I've only done 2 plays before but I know I love everything about acting, but it's going to be hard getting into performing arts in college because of my lack of experience. I chose cheerleading over acting back at the beginning of high school because there was someone in the theatre group that I just clashed with and he was making me miserable, plus it was impossible to cheer and act at the same time so I had to choose between the two. Now I realize that may have not been the best decision- I mean why quit something you love because someone is being a you-know-what, but I chalk it up to being less mature. Plus, staying with the cheerleading is what probably led me to dance so I think it had its perks in the long run. Hmmm, lol, I see a pattern... a very strong interest in the arts and the performing arts. (LOL, the only thing is missing is that I do NOT sing because I honestly cannot. I have no technique. Singing for some reason kills my vocal cords just for the simple fact that I suck at it)

But, I also want to try out different things as well. I really like psychology and sociology because people, how people's minds work, social interactions, social structure, institutions, etc fascinate me. And I want to write too, creatively because making up stories is something that just comes naturally for me and it's actually fun. I made up a great story for English class for an assignment last year and it came out SO awesome. If I find where I saved it on my computer I will send it to you because everyone who read it loved it. I didn't even know I could write creatively until the end of last year, when we were assigned a creative writing story, and I griped about it until I actually started working on it and then I had this whole revelation that I could really get into something like that. But I'm getting off track again, as usual. I'm also interested in things like political science... biology... anatomy...business, and maybe Spanish too just for the sole fact that I've been taking it forever and I mind as well become fluent in it so I can be bilingual

I WOULD LOVE to have the internship that the girl you described has. It sounds like the best job and I would absolutely love doing something like that because theatre...fashion design...etc... that would combine so many of my interests. It's great though, that she was able to find something that awesome after getting screwed over by an arbitrary artistic director..which I find totally unfair. If someone is talented then why would it matter how tall someone was? I know part of dance is aesthetics, but still, it's hard to make sense of.

Sorry for the long post Don't worry, I got a lot of thoughts out this time around so the next one will be shorter, I promise!!

By Thedad (Thedad) on Sunday, September 21, 2003 - 02:59 pm: Edit

Unless you're going to a high-end design school like RISD or Cal Arts, you can start in college with Design classes from the beginning. This is where cross-referencing becomes a useful tool. Take a Barrons Guide to colleges and look at Design and related majors that seem interesting...look for the schools that are in your preferred geographic areas and at the right level of competitiveness and selectivity. Voila...you'll have a brand new spanking list of possibilities.

Unfairness is part of life. You need to learn to deal with it, *especially* in the performing arts. A director wants tall girls, he gets tall girls. The next director wants short girls, he gets short girls...it's actually hard to have a ballet company that's a complete mish-mosh of types. A movie or TV director has a certain "look" in mind and you don't have it even though you can act great, it's "Thank you...NEXT!" The race is not to the swift but to those with endurance.

Apropos of taking cheer over acting, it may have worked out okay but I really suggest you make a conscious habit of making decisions for the right reasons. You'll still make mistakes...we all do...but it's a habit of outlook, like honesty or anything else, that will serve you well in terms of being an adult that's in charge of your own life instead of being swept along by whimsy, caprice, and circumstance.

"Not all who wander are lost." --Tolkien

Yeppers, a lot of people who think they know what they want to do will be very surprised in 20 years.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Sunday, September 21, 2003 - 03:06 pm: Edit

Regarding the NM stuff, I think the Condemned cut-off was 200...sorry.

D's school has eight NM semifinalists this year, which is fairly typical for them. I don't mean this in a rude or mean way but I'm concerned about how weak your school sounds from things you drop about it now and then...you aren't competing against "A" pitching. This could actually cut in your favor when it comes to admissions or not...they could either say, "Gee, here's a student from a school that ordinarily doesn't do that well" or they could discount your profile because of it...I don't know. But it might be a rude shock when you get into college when the level of competition jumps up.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Sunday, September 21, 2003 - 03:40 pm: Edit

Yay, but the same hold true for taking drama classes and participating in theatre? How much experience is needed and... what if I DID decide to be a performing arts/psychology double major? Is this even *possible*? I MUST get the Barron's book because this is driving me crazy.

I know about getting parts and such depending on whether or not you can act and whether or not you have the "right look". The reason why I got the major supporting role in the play frosh year, which is generally unheard of- they want kids who have a lot of experience and I just strolled in and auditioned- was because I could act, but I had "the right look", as I later found out. They wanted a petite little blonde girl, and although the other girl who was serious competition for the part was more seasoned, in my opinion didn't get it because she was too tall, according to the director. So it all depends on who wants what. I didn't get the lead because I still looked very much like a little kid at the time and they wanted someone with more of an adult look for that part. So it's just luck... do you look how they want you to look, and if you DON'T, or can't conform, then they can just find someone else. I'm not saying I'm not an expert on this at ALL, I just have seen a little bit what it means having the right look versus what they don't want. P But I think I could withstand that... I know that breaks certain people in auditioning and stuff but I don't know... if I had the opportunity to get involved in theatre or film/the performing arts I'd do it again. I know I have no future in dance because I've only been doing it for a little while, but I honestly could say that I COULD have a future in acting, given the right experience and jumping on the right opportunities. I mean it's a POSSIBILITY, a small one as it is for anyone trying to get into that business, but I would say I'd have more of a shot than a lot of people. I'm not being conceited. I'm just being realistic... I know what I'm good at and what I'm not. I do math on an 8th/9th grade level at best. I don't understand the concept of instaneous acceleration or what V naught means. But, there are things I know I have potential in.

I do need to start making my choices more carefully instead of random or on a whim. That makes me sound flaky, but some would chalk it up to being young and simply immature in that department. I'm pretty indecisive on a lot of issues-I'll mull over the pros and cons forever, but then sometimes I just want to avoid that and make a decision and go with it, which is never really the best idea. It's worked for me pretty well so far, but it can't go on like that forever because I'm going to end up doing something stoo-pid. It's not that I don't have control over my life- I am definitely a control freak- but my decisions aren't always made the best way.

Hmmm, which Tolkien book is that from? I vaguely remember hearing it or reading it.

My school has won awards and stuff-I wouldn't say it was weak, but it has its problems. A lot of the school's efforts are being put into reforming the curriculum for the really low level kids. But, we do have SAT scores that are below the national average which is PROBABLY why we don't have any NM scholars this year. Some people came close to commendation but as far as I know we have no condemned even, let alone NM Semi-Finalists. The top 5%-10% of our class are very smart kids, and the people within the top 15 rankings are driven, smart, take challenging classes, etc.- that's a generalization. It's not like we're going to suck in general to the rest of the kids who we're going to be up against; it's not exactly our fault that we may not be as well prepped but I think we've managed to make the most of what opportunities we've been given, and if we haven't had them, we make our own. I don't see myself entirely as a product of my school. A lot of what I've done and who I've become is because of ME... I can say that I've been self-made in a lot of ways and maybe that contributes to why I've gotten this far. I already know there are soooo many smart, talented, accomplished students out there that I'll be competing against and will be attending college with this time next year. So I'm not going to be shocked because I understand this... I believe that I will rise to the challenge in wherever I'm lacking just for the sheer fact that I want to be the best at everything and because I thrive off competition.

I guess I can't worry how they're going to look at my profile. Our honors courses and AP courses are very challenging, even though most kids are not enrolled in these classes. My school has a lot of good things going for it, but we seem to have a lot of kids slip through the cracks and our school focuses a lot on them.

It could really go either way, and I can't get upset over it because it's not my fault where I went to school. It's kind of like how they will look at my SAT scores... will they see me as driven and look highly at the other parts of my application aside from the SAT scores, or will they say, high grades/so-so SATs and say, this one must be a grind? I can't change how they're going to perceive me and it's frustrating but I don't want to worry about something I can't change. :/

Darnit! lol, sooo close to condemnation. Oh well, I'll declare myself semi-condemned and call it a day.

By Tux (Tux) on Sunday, September 21, 2003 - 05:12 pm: Edit

This thread is crazy, haha

Your use of the word "condemnation" makes me laugh..

My school only has 1 NM semi-finalist, and it's me. But it's kind of nerve-racking because I don't really enjoy all the attention and they always make a big hoopla over that kind of stuff here.. There are 3 commended kids though, so maybe they'll even out the fuss over us 4. *I hope*

Right now I'm procrastinating writing my NM essay. Ugh, I never can think of what to write!

And A & M's essay this year is crazy. The prompt says to write a witty essay about a humorous event that has brought about insight. Well.. I haven't really had too many of those experiences yet. :/ And I think my version of "wit" will just be my natural dry sarcasm, lol.

By O71394658 (O71394658) on Sunday, September 21, 2003 - 06:40 pm: Edit

I think I got over a 200 on my PSATs. I don't have a clue about anything regarding NM stuff. It isn't a big deal here, either because people don't get them or people keep it close to the vest.

The guidance appointments are this week, and the dreaded "final" class ranks are being released. I don't think I made top 5%, but not really that big of a deal. By the end of the year I'll be there.

I haven't been here in a long while, merely lurking for the past week. Hope everybody's doing ok.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Sunday, September 21, 2003 - 06:42 pm: Edit

Twinkle, the problem is that where there are the top 15 or so kids at your school, there'd be the top 60-80 at D's school and the top 150-200 in the same ability range or better at some of the really elite schools. It's as if you're working out with lighter weights. As a *group*, the overall test scores are a pretty good indication of the level of the competition and what's most challenging at your school might very well be ho-hum at another school.
It's not your *fault* that you may not be as well prepped but *fault* isn't an issue and has no bearing.

Just spoke with my favorite sister in-law, whose a high-level administrator at a private school in Seattle...they had 30 NM finalists. Their rival public school had 28. And another public school had around 17. You can't get around that at schools like that, the competition for grades, rank, etc. is going to be a lot stiffer and, conversely, less of a jump going into college itself.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Sunday, September 21, 2003 - 07:23 pm: Edit

hmmmmm all of my posts are always so off-topic but i never even know what the "topic of the day" is so i just ramble about my life

im getting REALLLLLY worried about my NM stuff.

i spent all friday night out with friends (ummmm bad idea), spent all of yesterday reading through a 400 page novel we had two weeks to read...finished that at 6 AM this morning, went to sleep til 8, started writing my 15 page paper on it...and im 14 pages through and i think if i write one more page my eyes are going to pop out. aghhhhhhhhhh.

i took a practice SAT yesterday. got a 1580. it was painfully easy. when i graded it, i knew exactly which ones i was going to miss and was really confident. one stupid mistake cost me that coveted 800. such a big difference from my 640. i think it was a mix of a good day and a good test. the CR passages i could read without dozing off and i knew all the vocab...every single word (!!!). normally, im not so lucky. makes me sad... i have skipped the past 2 kaplan classes becuase of lack of time and i honestly feel a lot better with my wednesdays and sundays free. i should probably go back this week...

im torn again with PRinceton ED vs. Cornell ED. grrrrrrrr. i really DO have a first choice and its BOTH. haha. i always thought Yale EA but not after my visit.

i agree with TheDad about the level of schools. i would say top 20 at my school are extremely competitive people but after that, the competitive nature completely dissipates. its kind of odd. a few kids transferred out to go to Phillips Andover freshman year...but we still have at least 5-6 fairly smart kids in each grade. thats probably why 3-6 kids go to extremely selective schools every year.

however, our schools avg SAT is somewhere in the 1100's...not so great. its your average large, public. we have a lot of kids of every ability level.

is it competitive? YES. but only among the select few. the sad part is that most of us are best friends but the competition is only friendly to a point...inside each of us want to be the one to get into Yale, Brown, Penn, Cornell, Princeton, fill in the blank.

By Tux (Tux) on Sunday, September 21, 2003 - 11:14 pm: Edit

I'll bet my school has a lower avg SAT score than yours though.. It's depressing :/

I think that our courses are extremely easy here too. When I go to college I'm going to be in shock because it's so easy to be at the top of class right now! My high school isn't very challenging at all.. I almost never have to study, and that habit is going to absolutely KILL me in the future. gah!

Is Kaplan even worth it? I've gone to an SAT course at the "smart" high school across town (organized by the ISD) the past 3 summers and it's helped my verbal scores quite a bit. So no one around here messes with real courses like that.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Sunday, September 21, 2003 - 11:35 pm: Edit

kaplan is different depending on the ability level of your class and your teacher.

i took it summer before junior year and had a GREAT teacher with a great class of 4 (we all eventually scored 1400+)

i am retaking it now. i am the only person in the class of 9 with a score of over 1000. the teacher has no control and the class is at a jesuit private school a good deal away full of stupid airheads who giggle too much.

it doesnt bug me that i am skipping at all. i laerned nothing and spent half of the past few classes correcting the teachres math mistakes and telling the kids what the vocab words meant that the teacher didnt know.

its depressing. i cant believe im paying to be there.

our high school gives WAYYYYY too much hw. if you take "normal classeS" you can basically get out of school by noon and escape with 1 hour of hw max.

then there are the 20 or so of us who get bombed with 6 hours or more a day on top of our crazy mound of EC's.

there are two types of people at my school. we are completely different from the rest.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Sunday, September 21, 2003 - 11:36 pm: Edit

O71, we stop doing class rank after 1st semester, so if you're #1 in January and you get a D in every class for the rest of the year... guess what... you're still #1 in June! Not much incentive to try after apps are out, lol, you can slide a little (As down to Bs) and probably not get rescinded from any schools and still maintain your class rank... hence why this one semester is my last shot to jump to 1 or 2, lol. I've decided I cannot think about it...let the chips fall where they shall. I may get straight A+s, but if the girls ahead of me also get straight A+s we all stay in the same place, more than likely.

Thedad...I understand your point. My situation is similar to Sunshine's; the school as a whole is not very competitive but the top kids are VERY competitive among ourselves. I know it's going to be a jump going to college and maybe I'm not ready for it but I have enough confidence in my willpower that I WILL be able to meet the demands of a college courseload/curriculum.

I think our SAT average is an 1010; the national average is a 1026. Not below average by A LOT but still...below average!! A lot of kids seem to have scores in the 900-1100 range, which is why it rounds out to be around a 1010 or so. We also have a lot of kids from every ability level but most are not insanely competitive. Those who are, like me, get TONS of hw and do a ton of ECs...most other people... do not. Some have good ECs but a light HW load. there are a few with tough-ish classes and meager ECs... then a lot others are just...lazy I guess.

Why do I bother in the 1st place? It makes me wonder if I would have gotten rejected from a school regardless of what I've been doing, just for the sheer fact of where I've gone to school. I really want to be something more and it almost feels like I'm being stopped before I can embark further on my path to that pinnacle. I am fighting against being the girl who peaked in high school because that is one of my biggest fears (LOL, there are three others...failure, gaining weight...and planes too)

I saw the Emmy awards in part tonight...god would I like to be famous. LOL. It's an extension of my extroverted, mildly self-absorbed self...hey I can admit it.

Sunshine~btw congrats on the 1580!!! Good luck on the SAT next month

I have been drilling like a madwoman as well.

Peaks: 740 Verbal. 640 maTH!!!! What a wild fluke!!!

Lows: 540 Math, 660 verbal.

That could be anywhere from 1200 to 1380. Granted, these scores were from separate sittings. I seem to peak out around a 1300.

I wish I had another 2 years of HS because maybe I'd catch up more, but it's a little late for that.

Oh well. LOL, I'm screwed now. Time for Shakespeare, an author I am beginning to enjoy. My English teacher this year is WONDERFUL so I try harder to get into books this year and I think it's working for me

By Thedad (Thedad) on Monday, September 22, 2003 - 12:55 am: Edit

Hey, O71. Good to see you. Hang in there.

Twinkle, you need to hang in there, too, without doing head games on yourself. You'll do best if you have a clear-eyed understanding, neither too rosy nor too pessimistic.

Btw, about the 20 kids, that's exactly what I'm saying: it's completely different when it's 60 or 80 or 100 other kids on the same level.

We went out for dinner for my birthday tonight, at a restaurant in what used to be the first-class dining room on the Queen Mary. Great experience, though we would have been sailing in steerage if we had ever traveled on her. Table talk turned to the whole college application process and D said being an average top-level ballet dancer has helped her cope with the prospect of being an average student at a top-level college. I dunno if she's going to make top 5 percent in her hs class or not but so many kids have 4.0's with a Mickey Mouse schedule so she doesn't sweat it.

By Collegeguy (Collegeguy) on Monday, September 22, 2003 - 05:13 am: Edit

Someone fill me in on what this thread is about... all i know is I'm staying up writing that national merit essay.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Monday, September 22, 2003 - 12:17 pm: Edit

Think of this thread as a quiet corner of conversation at a large party.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Monday, September 22, 2003 - 03:44 pm: Edit

I got out of an office detention today. Yay. I guess.

I'm not playing head games so much, but it's not difficult at this point to start doubting yourself when you're being reminded of what else is out there. I understand that, but it's a little...nerve wracking I suppose.

I actually passed my calc test. I have this magical ability with tests to simply not know what I'm doing and somehow pass anyway. It mystifies me, but hey, if it's working then I can't question it. Personally I am stuck on derivatives and there is a very good chance that that is where I will be the whole year.

I guess we're lucky that we have weighted GPAs so people don't get rewarded for getting As with VERY easy schedules. Of course, there's always ways to beat this system but it works better than an UW system IMO.

The hardest part of writing a college admissions essay is almost like you have to open up yourself a little bit to the adcoms, and for some reason I'm having a really hard time doing that. It's supposed to be a personal essay and I find myself being a little distant in writing it.

Work time now guys... I'm out like a fat kid in dodgeball. Talk to you all later.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Monday, September 22, 2003 - 04:58 pm: Edit

checked with my counselor.

STILL NO SIGN OF NATIONAL MERIT STUFF...

oooooooo if i dont get it soon someone is going to die. im in the running for the corporate scholarship at my dad's company of $2000/year for 4 years...a nice chunk of money...so this NM stuff is more important to me than just the average "write an essay, get the title and leave" situation.

i have a princeton info session tonight. and lots of hw to finish.

and a few "vote for _________ for homecoming queen" shirts to make since a lot of my friends are running and elections are on wednesday.

check with you guys later.

this is the thread that never ends...it goes on and on my friend. some people started it not knowing what it was, and then they continued writing in it just because this is the thread that never ends...

By Momof2 (Momof2) on Monday, September 22, 2003 - 06:07 pm: Edit

Sunshine - I really think it is time you, or better yet, a parent, asks your counselor to PLEASE check with National Merit on this. Make sure he/she knows that a fairly large scholarship is riding on this application being found. The national deadline for returning the application is Oct. 10th. It will take a good bit of time for both you and the school to complete your portions. If it was lost in the mail (or the high school) it is time to get a replacement - good luck!

By O71394658 (O71394658) on Monday, September 22, 2003 - 06:37 pm: Edit

I think that the lot of us should all try to pull at least 1450s (although some of you probably have already). Would be a nice, group accomplishment.

I'm a horrible procrasinator, so I've reserved my SAT studying to the weeks leading up to the test. I figured, 10 days prior to the test, I'm going to do a "test a day" after school. Not on the Friday before the test though. There's about 3 vocab. lists that I have to memorize, and I do those 10 tests (I'm also ever-so-slowly reading through the Kaplan SAT: 1600 book, which is quite good), and I have nothing to worry about.

I think I'm going to have to send in the Part I's to all the colleges that want them. That's going to be a wonderful mess.

I still have yet to get my class rank. Funny, really. The #1 kid is the most modest, laid-back kid you'll ever meet. He's #1, and he makes it look pretty easy. The reason why it's funny is that everyone immediately under him is so hardcore (a.k.a. hXc) about grades, it's funny watching them. A girl was making a list of the Top 10 kids and comparing herself to it. Yeah. My friend was mad because he was #11. I was laughing at him. I think I'm low 20s. Of course I'd like to be in the Top 5% (around 18) but it's really no big deal. Hey, if math wasn't counted, I'd be in the Top 10, but unfortunately, it is (all electives and Gym aren't counted in our GPAs). It's almost pathetic watching these kids scramble for these ranks and grades.

By Collegeguy (Collegeguy) on Monday, September 22, 2003 - 07:20 pm: Edit

Sunshine - National merit stuff is due in early october. I think you need to march down to your counselor's office and DEMAND that he find out what is going on.

I love the people that are intellgent, modest, and laid-back. It's the tensed up overachiever that's constantly comparing grades/scores that really ticks me off. So...

ANY PREDICTIONS ON THE RADIERS GAME???

By Thedad (Thedad) on Monday, September 22, 2003 - 08:10 pm: Edit

You mean about how many are out on bail or on probation?

I think D meets your bill fairly well...she's competitive, she knows where things stand, she's pissed about a couple of B's she thought weren't fair, but she moves on and she's not calculating GPA's to the fifth decimal point and playing "What if?" games.

By Asknot11 (Asknot11) on Monday, September 22, 2003 - 08:44 pm: Edit

The situation at my school is quite interesting. In all reality we have about 60 kids who could attend an Ivy League school. Unfortunately, only 20 will actually get into an Ivy. The saddest part is how horribly competitive the school is. By the time I graduae I will have taken a total of 6 AP's. I think it is a reasonable amount. 1 AP sophomore year, 1 junior year and 4 senior year. However their are students taking 11 AP's. I've gotten nearly all A's in high school (2 B's in AP euro soph year) and yet am only in the top 6%... Damn my ultra competitive school...

By Tux (Tux) on Monday, September 22, 2003 - 10:21 pm: Edit

We have maybe 2 that could get into an Ivy League.. that's sad.

11 APs?? We don't even offer that many.. geez!

I started out freshman year at #6, went up to 5 last year, and came up to 3 at the beginning of this year. But I don't see why because I get straight Bs in history.. I guess everyone else just majorly slacked off. But hey, I'm not complaining! If I get all As this year and #2 gets any Bs, I can make salutatorian.. that would be cool, but at the same time I don't want to make a speech :/

By Thedad (Thedad) on Monday, September 22, 2003 - 10:21 pm: Edit

Yeah, the depressing flip side of the coin. But...some colleges will take that into consideration and you'll make an easier transition to college than most.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Monday, September 22, 2003 - 10:49 pm: Edit

Hmmm... I can see the point about the overachievers vs. natural intelligence but all I'm going to say is this: As a so-called overachiever, I'm in that above-average intelligence range approximately so I have to work my tail off to get to where everyone else is. I don't see anything wrong with this, and maybe that involves the What If games... just for the sheer fact that you have to be a little more manipulative in how you're going to play your cards as opposed to if you're already really smart. Granted, you're going to have to work hard either way but there *is* a difference, and being an overachiever does not make me some grade grubbing brat either. In the long run, it's not going to matter if you're were born with it or you had to create it... it's more of what you DO with it once you have it imo.

Yeah, good luck to Sunshine, O71 and Thedad's daughter on getting 1450 + scores!!!! You've all worked really hard for it and you deserve it so I'm rooting for y'all ;)

Sunshine, I love the t-shirt idea. We usually decorate men's beaters for school spirit related stuff and wear them to school. I feel awkward about campaigning for myself but then I looked at who else is up for nomination...and I decided...come on now... I should win it. Mwuahahaha. Just kidding. But really, some people just DON'T deserve to have made prelim's, but once it's narrowed down to the finalists then the cream of the crap will be kicked out.

I'm sorry if that sounds snotty, but a airheaded, rude, mean girl should NOT win it... that's not the definition of a "queen"... they want to change it to Homecoming Princess this year but that just sounds so odd, lol.

It was so weird... in school today I was sitting in a class for some reason and it just felt WRONG. I couldn't explain it. I thought to myself, "What the heck am I doing here?" I mean, I KNOW why I go to school. I discussed it with my mom and she said it's normal to question things like that. I went through my phase of deciding whether there was a God or not after 9/11 hit, and I questioned it for awhile until I was finally able to make that decision on my own terms (LOL, yea, it was an affirmative decision... I just decided that people still DO have control over all of their actions. That's my theory. Eh.). Hmm... my parents are SO different. My father flipped when I was in my little questioning mode as opposed to my mother who said it was part of normal intellectual development. Mom=Clinton Democrat/liberal. Dad=Very Republican/conservative. Mom=authoritative (leaning toward the less side)parenting. Dad=authoritarian parenting style. LOL, I don't understand how that works but I guess it does somehow. I will make a note of that to bring up in sociology next semester.

I am getting really excited to get a doble pirouette because all of the other girls in my adv. jazz class can do them, but I think I'm just going to concentrate on perfecting the single for now because I'd rather perfect a simple skill than do a more advanced one...sloppy. I go to dance... come home and go over certain things... get up and stretch and do pirouettes... lol... dance vs. homework/studying has become the question simply because I'd rather work on turns than do a page of calculus problems. But I know school work comes 1st, so I have to get through the stuff I don't want to do to get to the fun stuff.



Off to study for two MAJOR AP tests tomorrow... and more homework hurrah ;) Bye guys!!

By Asknot11 (Asknot11) on Monday, September 22, 2003 - 10:50 pm: Edit

My school offers every AP except Human Geography, we have something like 26 APs. A blessing and a curse. I do feel I will be more prepared than others when I go to college. We are prepared very well in the classes, in sophomore Euro 50% got 5s and virtually the rest all got 4s. The competition is brutal. Its sad when you go to the local library and you find the pages torn out of books because others didn't want you reading them...

By Alita (Alita) on Monday, September 22, 2003 - 11:19 pm: Edit

Grr. I hate class rank. How am I supposed to compete with people who got A's in Guitar 1 and Student Aide??? Hmmm. my school is pretty big (1600). However, in my grade of about 400, I would say there are about 15 taking APCalc Ab this year, and 1 that took it last year. Our average sat is like 1040. but Im confused... if i do really well, will this make me look worse or better. also, If i have like a 3.85 in my ap classes, and someone else has a 4.0, but i got 5's on the test and he/she got a 2/3, which is better-highgpa/lowscore or highscore/lowergpa? considering same classes. my parents have gone crazy. My dad has gone from thinking that state school was the one for me to practically buying me harvard sweatshirts!AAAAAAAh! and my mother-every night she is faithfully, word by word, typing up her notes to a is for admissions. I didn't let her read the gatekeepers cuz i think shed get too hung up on the •••• club/weed brownie issues to actually realize the point of the book. One of these days Im going to dye my hair blue just to show her that colored hair doesn't equal freak of nature/evil ungodloving child. okay.......done venting. Amazingly, its bedtime!!!!

By Esmerelda (Esmerelda) on Monday, September 22, 2003 - 11:44 pm: Edit

I have the same problem as Asknot!! Our school has an average SAT score of 1191. Which is bad. We only have percentages (top ten, etc.) and in order to be top 7% you have to have a weighted GPA of 4.7. It's so annoying! I mean, with the weight, a honors class looks the same as a AP class. grr. I took half an AP sophomore year, three last year, and four (and a college class) this year. But at my school, everyone does this. In fact, some people think you're slacking off if you take 'only' three APs senior year.
Ugh, I'm not going to get into Yale EA. But, whatever, I'll try anyhow. If they don't want me...well, then they don't.
Oh, guess what?! This really really qualified girl decided to apply to Yale EA too. She would be valedictorian, no question, if our school did that. She has a 4.0, took 5 APs last year, 6 this year, and has amazing EC. Her SAT scores are great too. Plus, we're close friends, so the competition is going to be rough. But we talked about it, and we're okay. Anyhow, she's more of a humanities person, and I'm really into sciences and engineering. DID YOU KNOW THAT THE RATIO OF YALE ENGINEERING MAJORS TO ENGINEERING FACULTY IS ONE TO ONE>?! Which practically guarentees personal attention. Even though Yale is not in the top ten engineering, it is in the top 50 (i think it's twenty something) and those scores fluctuate so much, as long as the school is up there, it's good. I'm not too worried though. Last year Yale accepted 4 people from my school out of the 18 that applied. I still have a chance....kinda. One can hope. :P And 'one' will.
ANYWAYS, I'm having major trouble with my stupid National Merit essay. it's due on the 25th for us. fun fun. I wasted today doing physics work, and (mostly) sketching out a few comic strips. My friend who draws for the school newspaper said she could possibly get me a job, so i can be 'really' published. I sketched a couple out that are school appropriate and relating. Trouble is, I think of a joke, and by the time I've drawn all the boxes, it doesn't seem funny to me any more. Whether it's because the joke wasn't funny to begin with or because I have read it over so many times that I'm numb to the humor, I have no idea. I'm hoping it's the latter, but it's probably the former. ;P I need my brother, but he's at Westleyan U. so he can't read my comics over and change what needs to be changed. Ah well. I also did some comp. paper sheets of my characters posed. Just for fun. I wish I had more time to draw...It really clears up your mind, and makes the worlds seem so peaceful.
Anyways, the point is, i didn't start my NM essay. I tried to write it once, but it just ended up being a description with no purpose. Oh well, tomorrow is another day. urgh, tomorrow is also school (didn't have it today because of power outages) and seeing my ex for the first time since he became my ex. And I LIKE AP physics too! He better not ruin it for me.
off to try write the NM essay...AGAIN. The question is just too broad. Can you just focus on primary interests that set you apart?
College applications....*shudder*
-Ezzie

By Esmerelda (Esmerelda) on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - 12:02 am: Edit

Dye your hair Alita! I knoe you wern't serious, but stillll......Oh, how I miss my blue hair.... *sigh* Don't bleach it though...too permanent.

Only a few more months and I can redye it....
stupid college interviews.

-Ezzie

P.S. I am not a freak....(okay maybe I am a little). I dyed my hair at a summer school/camp. I'm a blue haired nerd.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - 12:09 am: Edit

yupp. a lot of my friends and i are applying to the same schools...and honestly, not that many kids from our school get into a bunch of ivies or top schools...because everyone just likes to stay put.

i really dont understand people who are born, grow up, go to college, get married, have a family, and die all in the same town. i want to get OUT of this place...

but a lot of my friends and i are ehhhhhhh...well the competition is getting a little heated. we've got 3 princeton applicants, 3 yales, 5 harvards, 8 cornells i know of (!!!), at least 2 stanfords, 3 MIT's, 2 Brown's, 1 Caltech, and who knows where else everyone is applying.

i think only 2-4 of us will get into any of those schools. we have similar GPA's (4.6-4.7), similar ranks (top 10 of 540), similar EC's (despite our huge school, we dont have that many interesting clubs), but the one thing that varies is SAT score: top has 1580, next comes me with my pitiful 1440 (soon to be 1500+ i hope), then the rest of them range from 1200's to high 1300's. its odd because the teachers tell us that our year is the strongest they've seen academically but our standardized test scores are SERIOUSLY lacking. we usually have at lesat 4-5 kids in the 1500's. sad.

tough competition. *bites nails*

princeton info session made me wanna apply ED again. i cant decide. i love princeton. i love cornell. somebody saaaaaaaave me.

yes twinkle campaign for yourself!!! im campaigning for my friends...but only one person can win so now i see some tension between them all. glad im not caught up in it. hey and rumor has it that someone is going to ask me to homecoming yay for me. finally. i was getting worried it would be senior year and the one year i dont get a date. hmmm good luck for queen! you deserve it! a LOT of the girls in our top 15 shouldnt be there and i dont know HOW they got in...i found out that the Queen apps dont even have room for GPA or classes on there. a lot of the people also *LIED* about their EC's. a lot of "active member of latin/french club" on there. im french club president and latin club freak and i've never seen them at meetings.

makes u wonder how easily people can get away lying on their apps. whatever.

By Collegeguy (Collegeguy) on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - 05:37 am: Edit

I doubt being an "active member of latin/french club" does anybody much good. Now lying about being the President would be different...

It's time to sleep.

By Alita (Alita) on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - 06:40 pm: Edit

i wish I had heated competition: where our senior class goes each year based on this sheet the school system gave us:

Comm. College : 35%
Work/Job/sleep: 15%
College in State: 40%
Out of state:10%(but mostly to de and pa, wv, and va.i live in maryland.)

if i get national merit, ill be the first person ever from my school......

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - 08:43 pm: Edit

aghhhhhhhhhhh im so frustrated (AGAIN!)

went to see the counselor...AGAIN. still no sign of national merit stuff. AGAIN. the principal seemed to have lost it. she is such a stupid loser. i hate her. she is new this year but she worked as assistant principal last year and was REALLY MEAN. if she really did lose it, someone is going to diee.....

i also decided to take the opportunity today to complain about my AP Enviro Sci teacher and how he is terrible and how he has adam (a smart kid in our class) teach half of it because he has no clue what he is talking about it. and when he TRIES to explain stuff to us, he gets half of it wrong. all he does is talk about his football team (he coaches) to all the dumb jocks in my class. i want to kill him too.

in addition, my HUDDLE partner has mono and tomorrow is our first lesson so i have to go there alone and i have to do SO much planning before it and aghhhhhhhhhhh.

i have 5 huge tests friday.

homecoming elections tomorrow...who to vote for?

i still havent gotten my teacher recs or counselor recs out yetttttttt...i just keep forgetting...SDKFJSLD:JFLS:DKFJ. i dont even know for sure where im EDing to. Cornell vs. Princeton. i changed my mind to Cornell for like a day and i think i switched back to Princeton? i think i may opt to do NEITHER if this persists since i have no real *first choice*

*is annoyed* (mostly at national merit and AP Enviro Sci)

and yes Collegeguy i know that latin/french club wont make the difference between an admit and reject but it still irks me that people put time and effort into stuff and can put it on their app and people can flat out lie IN THEIR OWN SCHOOL about it and not get caught. so how much can you get away with to a random adcom? makes you wonder...

By Momof2 (Momof2) on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - 09:21 pm: Edit

Sunshine - it is time for your parents to call the principal. If that doesn't bring results, move up to the superintendent. They need to make it clear that someone needs to check with NM ASAP if your score may have made you eligible for a large scholarship. (sorry, I've forgotten your exact score by now) The completed application must be returned by 10/10 and there are no second chances that I know of. I know it is not in your plans, but that NM designation saved my son over $7,800 for this fall semester alone at a state school.

Please think about asking your parents to become involved. Good luck - lots of folks are pulling for you.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - 09:44 pm: Edit

yeah i told my parents if they dont get it to me by Thursday, they're going to have to take action.

i know that the valedictorian of our high school 3 years ago (now attends cornell) whose father works with my dad got the corporate NM scholarship for his year, so i have a shot at it. my exact score is 223 which is PLENTY HIGH for the ohio cutoff (214 i believe). it would really be nice to get my forms filled, essay finished, and be in the running for that $8000 scholarship.

my counselor is getting annoyed too because she doesnt have much time to do her part.

this new principal needs to get her act together. all last year, she spent her time measuring skirt/short lengths and enforcing the dress code instead of doing her asst principal duties. now that she is principal of a 2400 student high school, she seems to be completely lost. we have a NEW superintendent and a NEW asst superintendent too. our whole school administration flopped last year (they all hated each other).

thanks for the encouragement guys. it has forced me to take action...

one other thing-i picked up a copy of our "school profile" today and it has listed on there AP's that have never been available such as human geography, euro history, etc. someone decided to self study those last year and take them on their own but our school does not offer those courses. yet they have them listed as AP's, and im afraid this is going to affect what colleges think is the "maximum workload"...should i go in and complain?

all this college stuff has my head spinning in circles...as if high school wasnt enough already!!!!!

i am really hating my school right now. arent public announcements out for semifinalists already? i wonder if im on the list? the other girl at my school is getting frustrated too about NM (thus why the frantic counselors...frantic kids and frantic parents)

By Thedad (Thedad) on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - 09:56 pm: Edit

Yes, complaining about those phantom AP's is valid. They should not be on the profile. What a bunch of nitwits your administrators are.

By Sandy (Sandy) on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - 10:19 pm: Edit

Hey people,
I think I should start posting here if you guys do not mind. I seriously need a place to get my stress off. I think ranting helps. Diaries and journals do not work for me. Can I join?

Starting off with NM...did not make the cut
I guess I am just too stupid. Talking about that, SAT IIs in less than three weeks!OMG...Rice application due in 39 days!OMG
I do not get time to do anything else besides homework. Calculus and English take up tooooooooooooooooooooooooo much of my time. More than that, I think I did not do very well on my Rice interview last weekend....forgot to say a lot of things I should have said. More than that, my best friend is mad at me for not visiting her in Houston when I was there for my interview...ahhh..She has something to tell me, but she won't until I see her. I am a very curious person. I was on the phone for an hour with her, but she would not spill it out. Ahh..sorry. I am just going crazy right now. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunshine:Good luck with your NM stuff!
TheDad: Are you mad at me? I am really sorry for anything I said....I am an idiot most of the time.

By Tux (Tux) on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - 10:29 pm: Edit

The list was released on the 17th, but the papers here have yet to publish it. Hm..

I'm a semi-finalist but I'm still kind of confused about all this. What set amount do you get for NM? Can each college choose how much they give you, or is there a minimum scholarship amount that they must reward you with?

By Tux (Tux) on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - 10:32 pm: Edit

Sandy - What are you wanting to study at Rice? I'm thinking of applying there, but I'm not sure I could go there because of the cost

And do you know anything about University of Houston? They offer some really good scholarships (free ride) but I'm not very familiar with the school.

By Collegeguy (Collegeguy) on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - 10:57 pm: Edit

"Phantom APs"... I suspect that it's actually illegal to do that, Sunshine. You have two reasons to report your principal to the district superintendant or wtv....her failure to address the National Merit Competition and her failure to provide a VALID list of APs.

College apps are really starting to •••• me off. With school and extracurriculars, I have no time!!!!!

AARRRRGHGHHHHhhh!!!!

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - 11:27 pm: Edit

Sandy... of course you can join LOL you're in good company.

Sunshine... I don't have to deal with the NM stuff, but I know what it's like trying to deal with uncooperative (Wrong word...bear with me here, I'm so out of it right now!) higher authority and it gets sooo annoying. My problems usually stemmed among the GC's, though, but I found I could usually beat that problem by just skipping the guidance step altogether and just going straight to the principals because that works at my school for me, but unfortunately your principal is like some of the teachers at my school that shouldn't be teaching anymore... I had a teacher one year more concerned with our shirt/ skirt lengths than what we were actually being taught. Eeek. BTW, lol, I subtly gave hints out to people to ummm vote me for Homecoming Queen. Hey, all's fair in love and war, and homecoming race is a war within itself. Mwhahahhaha. I seriously DO want it now. I don't know why, maybe it's that competitive nature kicking in again, plus the fact that have that tiara wearing posture. Haha. Just kidding. I wanted to wear a tiara instead of a mortarboard at graduation (those mess up your hair) but I guess I'm just going to go with tradition and do the whole mortarboard thing.

LOL, College guy, I know the feeling.... I look at my stack of college apps looking lonely in a corner of my room before I go to bed in the late wee hours of the morning every night. Sigh.

It's only Tuesday. I swear that this is the longest week EVER. I was up almost all night studying for two major AP tests and I was sooo tired all day but I actually know I kicked butt on them and they were hard tests too so I can't say I regret it

I got more music on my computer tonight though so when I type up my thingie for English I will have something A) to keep me from falling asleep and B) something great to listen to. Sigh. How do I love music....I am obsessed with Incubus right now. And that Dashboard song. Normally I'm not a huge Dashboard fan but it grew on me. And some old Janet Jackson stuff that I liked a long time ago and songs we used for dance. Darn. I have to find the title of that Dashboard song...that's going to bother me. Yup, yup, I am a music freak.

I am a music freak who has managed to pull an A in calculus for the time being.

Yes, I am as surprised as you are all. We got the grade sheets and I was like NOOOO WAY!!! This must be the wrong kid! But nope, I double checked it and it was mine.

Wow. Something odd must be going on in the Bermuda Triangle.

I was late to dance today due to a VERY quick but untimely nap. I also slept in the shower this morning.

Good thing I don't drive legally yet...

By Thedad (Thedad) on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - 11:45 pm: Edit

Sandy! Why on earth would you think I was mad at you?!

39 days indeed. D has two essays to do for Yale. I think her confidence was shaken by the critique she got on the NM essay. But she's got to start moving through it.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 - 11:55 pm: Edit

I don't want to do this anymore, i.e., writing college essays and such. Why can't I write my darned autobiography instead and turn that in, it would be soooo much easier. Trust me, if I ever have to write one of those, I will be verrrrry ready. Kind of like writing a journal. But I just can't get comfortable with writing a college admissions essay just for the simple fact that it's hard for me to open up in writing something that's not typical or something a little risky. Hmmmmm

Really. I thought I was on track with SAT prep and getting rec's together.

I'm so lost. I don't even have a definitive list yet.

I'm worried about homecoming queen and trying to get a 1300 on the SAT and perfecting a pirouette, damnit. My intentions/priorities are all in the wrong places, lol.

I don't want to think about college anymore, lol. I'm tempted to just simply ship off an application to State U, where I *know* they'd love to have me and could get major scholarships from (almost full tuition), and be done with it.

State U has its problems but it's not a bad school and I'd have to compromise certain criteria a bit, but it wouldn't be the worst decision ever... it could turn out quite good. It's a good school, but the classes are HUGE, no dance, and there are a lot of TAs teaching who don't speak English, plus the fact that if you don't know where you're going or what you're doing it's going to be tough going for you. Other than that though, I like a lot of aspects of it.

A consideration.

Back to the excitement of homework and listening to all my great music

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - 12:26 am: Edit

39 days. oh my goodness. *jumps off the roof*

SAT count is 17 days...i think...*jumps off another roof*

im in the same boat as Twinkle. no clue what im doing, where im going, what my major will be. i have my priorities in all the wrong places right now.

im with everyone here. by the time i finish my hw and come home from my EC's, the last thing i care about is college. as far as im concerned at 3 AM, i'll just go to OSU and get over my life. i *too* have a lonely stack of "to do" and "not to do" apps sitting in the corner of the room...mostly untouched.

this NM stuff is so annoying. i hate my school. its so stupid. the administration and the teachres hate each other so they go head to head on school policy and its such a big mess.they are such babies about it. cant they handle anything like mature people? our new principal is scary. last year, i accidently ran into her becuase our halls were so overcrowded and someone pushed me...and she YELLED at me. so yeah....ummmm i hate her. she hates kids. our new superintendent AND asst superintendent are clueless because they are both first-timers to the position.

my school is falling apart when i need it to come together the most. some higher being must hate me this year.

this year is my breaking point. i've cried more times this year than i have in the past 3 years combined. what i would have laughed off last year, i bawl my eyes out for this year. i cant stand it. too much stress for too long. im trying to lay off everything and chill out but my grades are no really starting to suffer for that as well.

i just worry about one day at a time.

good luck TWINKLE!! i cant wait to see how elections go tomorrow! we'll find out top 5 probably thurs or friday and vote again for queen. do you have a date? when is your homecoming? ours is next saturday eeeeeek!

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - 12:55 am: Edit

LOL, Sunshine, I know EXACTLY what you mean about crying about stupid things that you would normally laugh about but you're so tired and stressed out that you get upset for no real reason, lol, like the morning I couldn't find anything to wear and I was crying and then my Spanish book decided to randomly pull a disappearing act on me for no real reason. I don't like crying. Especially in public, which is why I was glad it was just my mom who was around. Then I ruined my liquid NON waterproof eyeliner, so I had to contain myself in order to undo the damage. Oh... what was the other incident. Someone said something really rude to me and it just upset me for the whole day... and normally stuff like that does NOT bother me at all- really who gives a flying poop. But once I get to a certain level of tiredness anything goes, lol. Plus I noticed being SOOO tired can make you really hyper, almost as if you're drunk, then suddenly everything becomes very, very funny for no reason. I hate feeling this stressed out. I've been sick this year already and I never get sick, plus I lost another two and a half pounds. What the heck?? Yeah, this may be the best "diet" I've ever been on-stress lol- and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't happy about it- but something makes me wonder just how healthy it is. Now I have to read Sparknotes because I just read a ton for English and I didn't understand the bulk of it. Sigh. At least I'm glad SOMEONE understands why I feel stressed, lol, someone had the nerve to comment "Shut up, you have everything, stop complaining". There are some things that people will never understand, and most people are just going to see me for the image that I project and not the nitty-gritty of what really goes on. I mean, not everything is bad at all- school and ECs, etc, are good but it's a lot of pressure and most people can't see past the pulled together exterior.

Our Homecoming is NOW slated for October, toward the end, because my school is weird like that. We never have it when homecoming REALLY is. I bet we end up doing it in November as usual. So we don't narrow down the candidates for awhile which I think they do on purpose to spark animosity between the candidates. Just kidding! LOL, the situation with the date- I'm either going with my ex b/f which is a 50-50 shot because it's just awkward... and I want to and I've heard he's mentioned it but for some reason I just don't see that happening because we're still in that semi-awkward patch. Kiiind of. It's getting better though, I guess. I need to SEE him more, though because that would help a lot. If we don't go I'll go with my brother from another mother. We're super tight in a very platonic way but it's good because it'd be a really comfortable date. Either way, I'm not going to worry about it. It'll all work out. LOL I'm more concerned about the dress, because I can never find a dress that actually fits properly and it drives me crazy!! Did you get your date yet or your dress??

By Sandy (Sandy) on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - 01:59 pm: Edit

"Sandy - What are you wanting to study at Rice? I'm thinking of applying there, but I'm not sure I could go there because of the cost

And do you know anything about University of Houston? They offer some really good scholarships (free ride) but I'm not very familiar with the school. "

Tux: I want to study biochemistry and cell biology. The cost of Rice is a lot less than other comparable schools. They have awesome fin aid program. They do not let you take a little more than $3,000 in loans every year. Your application for admission is also used for various scholarships from the university. As for U of H, I don't know anything. All I know is that it is a big school

TheDad: "Sandy! Why on earth would you think I was mad at you?!"
I don't know. I am just like that Today, my English teacher got hurt in class, and I thought it was my fault. I wanted to apologize...lol

Twinkletoes and Sunshine: Tell me about crying. However, I feel like you two are more stressed out than I am. I feel like my work is nothing compared to yours.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - 02:18 pm: Edit

Reading all of this confirms my long-held opinion that I would *never* want to go back to my high school years. A "do over" for my early 20's, maybe.
Otherwise, life begins at 30.

By Esmerelda (Esmerelda) on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - 03:33 pm: Edit

hehe, today my engineering professor thought that we didn't have enough work to do as high schoolers. He was like 'well, i see that most of you aren't doing the homework when I give you some spare time' He kept on comparing us with his college students who study and do homework in every spare class-second. Well, first of all, I WAS doing the homework! Then the TA/other professor was talking about how our high school years will probably be the best years of our life....erm. Because, according to him we have SO MUCH TIME. I just want to say that if these are my best years.....well, i don't know that I want to see what my worst years are like. *shudder*

Anyhow, I spent a lot of last night staring at my computer trying to write my stupid NM essay that is due tomorrow (thursday). Now i have to do it in one night, and I am so so scared i wont be able to! I also have to rewrite an essay for school, do a set of math homework, study for AP physics, do engineering hw (what i didn't finish...hehe), a statistics project, and...actually, that's it. If i have any spare time, I need to study for the SATs (just thinking about it makes me feel sick) and fill in some applications. Maybe just maybe ink in my comics, but i doubt it.....the day needs more than 24 hours.

I'm also applying to Yale EA. Got to get to writing those essays. *sigh*
Also, I need to get my teachers the individual college recommendations. They wrote the recs over the summer but now they need to personalize it to the colleges...or something. argh
stress stress go away
don't come back another day.
I'm so so tired. back to work ;O

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - 04:26 pm: Edit

Yale EA is CRAZYYY this year...

I GOT MY NATIONAL MERIT STUFF FINALLLLLLLY!!!! my counselor ran up to my room in the middle of latin and announced it to the whole class and gave me the forms and she was all flustered and i was all shocked. i have to get it all in by next friday. grrrrr the day before homecoming...GRRRRR. BUT I GOT IT!!!! YEAHHH! in AP ENglish the period afterwards, the only other girl who got semifinalist (usually we have more, but our class has bad test takers...) and i were dancing around the room because we were so happy we finally got the forms.

yeahhhhhh i NEVER cried about anything. even when i pulled all nighters, i would just laugh everything out and be okay. i definitely know the semi-drunk laughing state where you are in a fit of giggles all day when nothing is actually funny. this year i have cried about EVERYTHING and ANYTHING. the stupidest thing will set me off, and im not a crier at all.

one of my best friends who is top 5 got so frustarted with our 20 page english project that we had two weeks to do(read a book and write stuff) that she didnt finish half of it, turned half of it in monday (due date), went home, and bawled her eyes out. pooor girl. shes got her brown, upenn, BU, cornell apps to worry about. our whole lunch table (which has 5 out of the top 10) goes nuts every day trying to copy notes and hw from each other because no one seems to finish it all.

thank goodness for my AP Gov teacher who is my favorite person ever. my friend and i went up to him yesterday and told him we had five tests friday and he postponed it for us. he understands what we are going through because his daughter was salutatorian at our HS a few years ago and he said she was really bogged down. she ended up graduating cum laude at Duke. smartie i love mr.kelly though. thank goodness for teachers like him.

i just got back from my firsT HUDDLE lesson which was super fun, but i have to volunteer at open house tonight and then go to kaplan classes and i have WAYYYYYY too much hw.

homecoming voting was today!!!!! i wanna know what happens. twinkle, i know what you mean about the ex-bf situation. it ALWAYS gets awkward. i have the date (one of my best guy friends) and the dress. i get more worried about the dress too because im so small (5'3" ish 105 lbs) and dresses never fit me becuase they are too long. BUT i got a cute maroon one at charlotte russe which cost a fortune but is adorable. its that wine/burgundy color, spaghetti straps, and it has one of those sheer layers over it with flowers imprinted in glitter and then the front of the dress sort of opens and you can see my legs up to my knees but the back is long again. that sounds funny and weird, but i cant describe it.

im excited and happy! although i wont get much sleep tonight. definitely relieved about the NM stuff!

By Thedad (Thedad) on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - 04:49 pm: Edit

Hurray for Sunshine! I'm so glad you got your NM stuff finally.

Regarding Yale EA, D still doesn't have the Part I done because she's been sweating over some paragraphs for the "Additional Information" session at the very end. *Then* she has to get the rec forms out, start whipping on her essays, etc. But she's been done prep for the SAT's, too. Time, time, time. I hope she gets that finally finished tonight.

Esmerelda, I think anyone who says that HS years are the best of your life is nuts. It *is* sad, to see some people for whom apparently hs was their peak experience in life. I'd have to say that, so far, each age has its compensations. I'd be tempted to go back to my mid-30's again but only if I get to know what I know now. High-school is far too full of over-structured time, non-stop demands, and very little control for you...even in college you have a lot more control.

By Momof2 (Momof2) on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - 04:58 pm: Edit

Congratulations, Sunshine! So glad you finally got it. Just reading your posts makes me tired. I am SO glad that one S has finished this and the other has a couple more years before his ordeal begins.

BTW, S#1 is carrying 18 hrs. his first semester, including 2 Honors classes and reports that he has WAY more time than during his senior year. He's finished three novels of his own choice since school started, too, and considers that a REAL luxury. Said he had forgotten that he really likes to read - kindof said, isn't it?

Anyway, congratulations and hang in there!

By Momof2 (Momof2) on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - 05:08 pm: Edit

kind of sad, I mean!

By Digmedia (Digmedia) on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - 06:06 pm: Edit

sunshine - what a relief (and congrats). I was getting more and more upset as I read your posts....

if you had been my kid, I would have camped out on the counselor's desk and refused to move until the paperwork was found.

Now, get the stuff in on time and give yourself a break; you deserve it.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - 06:43 pm: Edit

I LIKE high school, but I mean if it were the best years of my life, then what would be the point of advancing any further? I mean, I do like my school but lately it's just soooo tiring. I slept barely 2 hours last night, and even then I had a dream about the stupid SAT's. I would like to think that I could have a nice dream every now and then as kind of a nice little escape, so to say, or perhaps even as a "break".

BUT nooo. I had a dream that my math teacher handed me this really thick SAT IIC math book and said that I should take that instead of the easier version because it would be "a LOT more fun". Okay, who has dreams like this?? Besides me, apparently. Definitely *not* a refreshing sleep. Today was definitely one of those "giggle like you're drunk days even though nothing at all is funny". That worked out fine though, because suddenly everything doesn't seem so bad, and other people will catch your giddiness as well, then everyone else wonders what you're laughing about so they awkwardly join in too. I was okay because I was running around all day getting stuff done during my "free" period, which is an oxymoron because I do hw during it or take care of EC stuff. I don't like THIS: dy/dx in math at all. I also despise delta X and am making a conscious effort never to use it unless I am being held at gunpoint to do so. I don't like calc because it induces a high frustration level, and I complain about it all the time but I'm almost managing.

YAY Sunshine!! For finally getting the NM stuff!! That must be such a relief, lol. Or at least, a little bit of a relief. I KNOW what your dress looks like btw by the description, lol! So nope, your explanation wasn't weird at all. Every year I get a dress I have to get it altered, but I'm not getting it altered until rigth before Homecoming because I don't know how much I'm going to weigh then, lol, as funny as that sounds. I mean, I'm sure it won't be drastically different but you can never be too sure, A change in either direction wouldn't mean a different dress size, which is always a good thing, but it would mean differences in alterations. Oh god, the length, lol, we're the same height so you know how it is when you find the perfect dress and it drags on the floor!!! Yay about the date!! Hmmm... I'm thinking more and more the ex b/f will be the date... I just have this feeling. I can't explain WHY.... it just seems right and we're gelling really well for whatever reason again so I don't know. We have the oddest relationship possibly ever.

I have the hiccups and I need to do homework. Talk to you all later gators.

By Esmerelda (Esmerelda) on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - 08:05 pm: Edit

I have school dreams too! Probably because I'm such a dork....hehe. Last night I dreamed about applying to college. What a wast of a dream! I get so little sleep you'd think I'd be able to enjoy it, but NO, the little dream fairies can't allow THAT. THat would be to nice.
Yay for gettin the NM stuff. One of my friends was talking about NM today. she said something about them dropping one of the PSAT questions...is that true? She sounded like she expected it to allow her to get National Merit. Which would be cool, but I hadn't heard anything about it and I didn't want her to get her hopes up about something that might not be true. Oh well, I just said that i didn't know anything about it.
Ah, homecoming. As I JUST got dumped by my boyfriend I am DEFINATELY in the awkward stage. I can't really talk to him. Which is great because first period we sit right next to each other. ANYways, i refuse to go to homecoming with him. I may not even go. I'm going up to New Haven on the friday of homecoming, so, I may just stay up there and visit my brother at Wesleyan instead of rushing back after the interview. It's a shame, though. I was planning on going to homecoming my senior year, but going without a date senior year?? Plus, if my ex has a date...I don't know that i would have a good time.
I think I have my NM essay worked out (it's due tomorrow!!!!!!!!) I fell asleep right after i posted at 3. Just goes to show you, doing work on your bed is a bad bad bad idea. And I skipped mural club to do work too. Grr. I think I'll go in during my free period tomorrow and see if what they did and maybe fix up my mural. Me and two friends have been working on this one mural since the begining of sophomore year. Hehe, it's not like we didnt' paint often, it's just that we kept on painting over things. At one point someone thought it would be a good idea if the sky was hot pink and orange and the table clothe was lime grean. Of course, they didn't consult their partners before they started painting...It's almost done though, we just have to add a few leaves and touch up on some stuff, and we'll be done. We've made a pact, if someone makes a major mural-altering change, the other two members of the group will smack her until she changes it back.
I'm so excited! Our school is doing Arsenic and Old Lace! Which means that we are going to paint some scenery. It's going to be so awsome. Although, sometimes the tech crew gives us things to paint that really take no skill. Grrr. I hate painting signs. "come to blah blah blah" in nice lettering.
Still, I'm pretty sure we're going to get to do a big mural. Last year we painted two huge city scenes placed on either sides of the stage. Very cool.
ANYWAYS, back to work. sleep? who needs it?

By Thedad (Thedad) on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - 08:36 pm: Edit

Twinkle, as a non-sequitur, I woke up this morning thinking you should take a deep breath and drop Calc. You're at the easiest part of it now and Calc is a subject where it's like a ziggurat, every level dependent on the level below it. If it's dim and difficult now, it's going to be totally opaque in two months. Really. I can't see your temperament and dyslexia or whatever suddenly unlocking and having enough make sense.

I stumbled through linear algebra and differential equations and my "C's" there should have told me to give it up. The next semester, which was something like complex-variable plane calculus, was my re-enactment of Pickett's Charge.

So I know from first-hand experience whereof I speak. I think you will wind up being absolutely miserable to no good effect.

Best, The Dad

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - 10:20 pm: Edit

Thedad I thought YOU were the one who told me that dropping calc was going to do me in regarding whatever chance I had left at getting into a "top" school (whatever that means anymore).

I don't know why you'd think my temperament would be the problem, lol, I feel like some monster now who throws tantrums in class. But anyway. I probably misconstrued that. I see your point though and I DO agree. See, though, if I drop calc, I have to find another class and the school is going to give me a hard time as to letting me out of the class.

I AM really trying though and I know it's just going to get harder. I think limits are confusing. I don't really understand derivatives either and we're only on chapter one.

Sigh. This is hard, though, because with NO math, and NO science senior year (remember how I had to drop physics because I honest to god could not grasp the mathematical concepts involved)... I may be toast in the eyes of the adcoms. Lacking two important subjects is going to hurt like no tomorrow.

I do have an A in math now, but it doesn't mean I will have that for the whole year, especially if calc is how you describe it. It's not like I don't try to get it. I try to be positive in class and believe that taking that class will lead me to bigger and better things and maybe that if I don't give up, things COULD just click. But the chances of that ever happening are so slim realistically because I know from experience that much of math, especially geometry and trig was comprehended on a very dim level of understanding.

This is bad no matter what I do, lol. Welcome to dilemmaland.

Back to Espanol Cinco. And working on my pirouettes, which have become a recent obsession of mine. I know I probably shouldn't practice at home but my dance teacher noticed that with frequent practice they HAVE been getting better slowly.

I love Thursdays because although they're a hard day in terms of Ecs, I'm at the studio for longer than most days so = more time to dance = more time to get better / improve technique.

By Pistolpete (Pistolpete) on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - 10:58 pm: Edit

Twinkletoes, thedad, et al, mind if I jump in here?
Does your school offer AP Stats? I hear the mathematical concepts are less confusing than those in calculus.
How does your teacher explain derivatives/limits? My teacher is really terriffic; maybe it would do you better to look at limits in a diffent way...I wish I could explain them the way my teacher did, but that would require a diagram. Until you find some alternative to calc, keep on trying your best--that's really all you can do.
The only good thing I can say about my school is that we've got good teachers (except for this one math teacher who has her students do quilting). Yeah, anyway...

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 - 11:44 pm: Edit

Nope, no AP stats at my school.... which imo is more relevant to any field I'd go into but it's either AP calc AB or honors calc. Nothing else after you're past pre-calc.

LOL, I want to know about this math teacher who has her students do quilting! Does she tie it into math somehow or does she just decide that she just doesn't feel the need to teach math to her students?

I agree that a lot of understanding math is the approach that you're being taught by, and how willing/patient a teacher is to pinpoint your problems and try different ways to work through them. However, in a class the size of ours, it is rather difficult and I think that we simply go too fast for me to process what I'm being taught. It is an "honors" class meaning that it goes faster than a regular one, but there IS no regular calc for me to transfer into if I wanted to just try to do it at a pace where I'd have time to process things and absorb them and practice concepts and let them sink in. Our book is not only ancient but confusing as well, so I don't understand just from looking at done out examples and studying from that if I don't understand what we were supposed to learn in class.

New mission: trying to figure out the reason why the Aerosmith/Run DMC "Walk this Way" has a small clip at the beginning of the Def Leppard "Pour Some Sugar on Me". LOL. Yes, that is my song of the night.

By Pistolpete (Pistolpete) on Thursday, September 25, 2003 - 12:20 am: Edit

Yep, you're right...you are in dilemmaland.

Basically, the way things work with Mrs. Forbes (cue involuntary shudders) is she'll often just talk about quilting in class. Which I guess is okay because by no means is she any good at teaching math. For extra credit, students can come in and learn how to quilt. She's a really hardcore quilter...she belongs to this sort of top-secret quilting society and everything. She scares me...

It's really hard to plan schedules, because no matter how familiar you think you are with the admissions process, you can never tell what, exactly, adcoms are looking for. There is one thing I know for sure: my fingernails will soon be nonexistent. I wish us all good luck (well, for me at least).

Hmmm...eyes getting droopy...must finish Wordsworth poem...

By Tux (Tux) on Thursday, September 25, 2003 - 01:45 am: Edit

"Basically, the way things work with Mrs. Forbes (cue involuntary shudders) is she'll often just talk about quilting in class. Which I guess is okay because by no means is she any good at teaching math. For extra credit, students can come in and learn how to quilt. She's a really hardcore quilter...she belongs to this sort of top-secret quilting society and everything. She scares me... "

Haha, that's exactly how my Alg2 teacher was!

This morning my mom got really mad at me because I hadn't written my NM essay yet. For the past 3 nights (no joke) I've sat at the computer staring at Microsoft Word but nothing comes to mind to write... I know sort of what involvement stuff I should talk about, but I can't come up with a way to tie it all together and make it sound half-way intelligent. It's due to my counselor Friday and I'm getting pretty stressed out about it, but my mom saw it as laziness and said I was over-complicating the assignment and that I should just write something down, whether it sounds good or not. *I* say she's over-simplifying it because.. I mean, the NM merit people are thinking that I'm fairly educated and if I turn in a completely BSed essay.. let's just say it could cost me a lot of money. GAH.

And then I have college essays to do, namely for A & M. Their prompt is awful.. I have on inkling as what to write. I *thought* I did, but then I realized that I misread the directions so I have to come up with something else. I should just go to a technical school where they don't care about writing skills

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, September 25, 2003 - 02:00 am: Edit

Twinkle, I'm old enough not to feel bad about changing an opinion based on new data. If you're having problems with limits and delta x *now*, it's going to be Bloody Shiloh for you before too much longer. Funny, my own drop off is fairly steep these days...I could *teach* the part of calc you're taking now and I'd be at sea by the time you hit Calc BC.

There is a school of thought that says that which does not break you will make you stronger...I don't agree. I'm all for perseverance and endurance but I'm really getting a sense of futility. Fwiw, I think to be really educated, you should cross this bridge someday, along with Physics...but that day is not necessarily now. Without them, it's akin to being color-blind, where there are important parts of the world that you won't see, let alone make sense of, because they're totally opaque to you. Or transparent to the point of invisibility, take your pick of metaphors. And metaphors be with you.

Okay, the lack of science/math your senior year may hurt you. Failing is going to hurt you more. If I were on an adcom, I'd look at your file and shrug and simply say, "Not a math kid" and move on...you might get a compensating read, you might lose out to someone who had both bases covered. I really would follow up with getting the kind of assessment about learning disabilities we talked about a while back but none of that is going to help you *now*.

I think I could teach you about delta-X and limits in about 30 minutes, with markers and a whiteboard, one-on-one. But the point is, this is the very elemental foundation of where the whole course rests and if it's not solidly internalized, the class will start sounding like Greek and then Sanskrit.

By Tux (Tux) on Thursday, September 25, 2003 - 02:14 am: Edit

I don't know if y'all would know the answer to this.. but do the NM people look more at form or content on the essay? Or are they equal?

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, September 25, 2003 - 02:48 am: Edit

Hell if I know. I suspect there are threshholds for both but that's an ungrounded guess on my part.

By Esmerelda (Esmerelda) on Thursday, September 25, 2003 - 03:56 pm: Edit

Twinkle, have you talked to your councelor? Or to your math teacher? THey might be able to set you up with a tutor. Just a suggestion. I'm guessing you know your school's policy on droppin classes? Our school is loath to let anyone drop out of a class. IF you decide to do it, I hope it all works out. I wish I could help you out. hehe, and then you could help me on AP lit. Writing...urg.

I am thinking about switching out of a class. I finally realized why I loved my community college engineering college. It's SO easy! madeningly easy. Anyways, i'm not planning on switching out of that class, I just wanted to switch into the high school engineering class. I really like engineering and they actually do stuff. and they have a great teacher. I expected college engineering to involve more physics and math, but it is just 3D modeling. urgh.
Anyways, I want to drop my second period of AP Physics (1st period is lecture, and 2nd is labs) because I hate labs! We have one every day. *sigh* I'm not sure I can still switch into a class this far into the year though. The teacher likes me though, so maybe he'd let me make up the work. I don't think it's going to happen though. I'll just have to keep doing stupid AP Physics labs. *sigh*

AP statistics is the worst class ever!! Never take it! It is so damn easy. We're doing box plots for goodness sakes and we have to write essays about them, and describe them, and analyze data. I heard that it was helpful in life and in college, but I don't see it. At least I can skip it in college.... of course I probably wouldn't have taken it in college, but whatever. If it wasn't for AP physics, I don't think I would last the day.

ugh, I finished the essay for NM last night. It sucks but it's turned in so I don't want to think about it anymore. argh. whatever.

I didn't get much sleep last night, so in the morning, after I took a shower and got dressed, I fell back to sleep. I dreamed that i got up again and got ready for school and stuff but I didn't. I finally woke up at 7:13!!! So i had about two minutes to actually get ready and whooshed out the door. I was still late for school, i think i walked into the building at 7:28. I was close...
oh well, I have an AP Physics test tomorrow, and well, I've been getting a lot of questions wrong because of stupid stupid errors. like I'd misread the question and think the rod didn't have a weight so I wouldn't draw the weight vector in. Or this other time, I didn't realize that they gave me the length, and I was trying to figure out how to solve for the answer without the length. Yesterday I wrote cosine instead of sine on a vector component. needless to say it really screwed me over...argh, i feel so stupid. so many wrong answers. grrr. Anyways, hope I dont make them on the test!

By Ch2 (Ch2) on Thursday, September 25, 2003 - 05:56 pm: Edit

Hey, I've been reading your "Eternal Threads" and thought I would add to the conversation with my little problems, if you don't mind (not that this thread is lacking in senior year woes! lol) As a senior, I'm pretty stressed out, too. Doesn't sound like I'm quite as stressed as you guys, but still this year hasn't been too great so far. I have a test in an AP class every day. The only non-AP I have is EnglishH and that class is such a joke. I wanted to do AP English but it didn't fit in my schedule and I wouldn't want to do more than 5 APs anyways. I'm assuming I didn't make the NM cut-off (I had 214) which isn't a big deal since none of my top choices offer the scholarship except for Rice.

Anyway, my main thing is writing essays at this point. I have no idea what to write about. Every time I think of something it seems too cliche. My life is just a series of cliches...the only things I can think of to write about are too personal. I mean, I know they want you to get personal, but they also want to see positive qualities that will make you a strong contributor to the college or whatever. An English teacher came into our class the other day and said that the college essay is not the time and place to come out of the closet on being gay or something like that. While I happen to be straight, it really reinforced the fact that you do have to conform to some extent in the essays. They want you to be personal and unique, but not too personal or cynical or whatever.

My grades in school so far have been all over the place; I really don't know what's going on. I got an 87 and a 67 on the first two AP Stats quizzes, but then a 100 on the first test! I have no idea what that is about. And Ap Psych was supposed to be pretty easy but I got an 82 on the first test and it was a really easy test (of course, I only studied for like 20 minutes because then I fell asleep after my XC meet). Cross country - I'm doing even worse in cross country than in school. I was a solid varsity runner last year, and this year I don't even think I'll be a Varsity Alternate (you don't find out whether you're Varsity or JV until the end of the season when the State and New England meets are held). I've been running slower than last year and I can't figure out why. I ran a little bit less this summer, but I've been sleeping about as much as last year, eating the same, but I just can't run anymore. What's worse is that my coach favors the Varsity runners and so now that I've been running slow he doesn't ever talk to me which really doesn't help. I'm going to start taking vitamins again, because maybe that's what is making me weak. I might try to get an inhaler, too, to help me breathe better. It's just so frustrating that I ran all summer and now I'm just so far behind everyone and not to catch up or keep up when someone passes me in a race. Anyways, enough of my running woes. I just had to get that out because I just got back from practice and I felt so bad.

Well, I have a full Thursday night of homework ahead of me - and an AP Econ test tomorrow. The only thing I have to look forward to right now is that my middle sister is coming home for the weekend tonight and I haven't seen her since May.

Anyway, good luck with AP Calc, Twinkle. Either way, I hope it works out for you.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Thursday, September 25, 2003 - 07:52 pm: Edit

Yay lots of posts to respond to!!!

I just got back from a TON of EC stuff- absolutely crazy day- and dance too. I couldn't even enjoy dance today because I was getting so frustrated because it really, really is hard being a class that is way above what YOU are doing and I can do it, it just takes me longer, so I have to take another lower level class to supplement that, so to speak so I can try and be on track. I was SO sloppy today. Horribly sloppy. Especially turns and attitude turns which I cannot even do at this stage in the game. BUT I did have my one shining moment... at the end of class I did this one beautiful pirouette. It was seriously gorgeous. I must say I was surprised. But, it's okay; tomorrow will be a better day at dance. I used to have my off days in cheerleading when I would fall out of a half when stunting (note: A VERY simple stunting maneuver, especially when I was doing basket toss stunts and fulls with twists, etc.), so I guess today was just an off day.

Thedad, you are completely right. I only asked why you changed your mind out of curiosity, but I definitely understand and agree with your reasoning. "That of which does not break you will make you stronger". That used to be MY motto, lol, because that's how I go about dealing with things in life. But calc... it's not worth to struggle through and fall so far behind that I'm horribly lost for the whole year. I hate to sound dramatic but really it's suffering. It's one thing toughing it out, but its another having a class that seriously kills you because you do not have the mental capacity to do it. We were talking about that in class today, how there are kids who will never be able to achieve a certain level of accomplishedness within a certain field simply because they lack the capacity or their brains are just wired different, and they're not dumb because they're good in other areas, they're just faulty in some and that's the way things go. And I KNEW that but for some reason it just struck a chord with me and we had a huge class discussion over it.

If Delta X, limits, and derivatives are the the foundation of calculus, I am SO out of there. I really do try to get it but I can't bring all the pieces of any of the problems together enough to actually do the problem and the concept usually escapes me as well. Its a good thing homework grades are based on effort anf completion, not correctness, otherwise I'd be averaging around, I don't know, a 27 in that class. My homework is pitifully WRONG so I decided if I try a problem a couple of times and it's just wrong then ohhh well I move on because there's no point in trying to get the right answer because it's not happening.

My teacher/school will make it nearly impossible to drop the class, especially considering 1. I'm not flunking out, 2. I just dropped a major class (w/ good reason though) and 3. I got A's in math all through HS. (This is also why I need to go somewhere else to explore LD testing; most will just look at the numbers, state test scores and be like, okay kid, you CANNOT possibly be deficient because you're making straight A's and you're ranked such and such in your class, blah blah blah. Um, obviously "smart" kids, if you want to call them that, can be LD too. It's not that uncommon and I am almost positive that there is nooo way I couldn't have some type of math problem!!!)

BTW Esmeralda lol I would gladly welcome AP Stats, although I doubt it's an "easy" class, lol. ;) I slept FIVE hours last night! I skipped studying for a quiz instead and just went to bed... I was SO wiped. LOL, and I too have done that where I've fallen back asleep and THOUGHT I've gotten ready when in fact I was just dreaming and then woken up to realize what really happen. Although, at that point, I would just make myself late to school. My "getting primped" process takes ages and nothing will stop me from doing it, lol.

CH2-- I agree with the essays! I can't write anything TOO personal- I'm not divulging my whole life to an adcom, and also I'm not writing about anything that could paint me in a bad light. Is your problem with track that you're just way too stressed? Maybe?

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Thursday, September 25, 2003 - 09:49 pm: Edit

yes i agree that limits and derivatives and delta x are the foundations of calculus. we are reinforcing them right now again in AP Calc BC. you get to learn *antiderivatives/integrals* soon too. lucky you. if you are struggling with the basics...eeek you better find a way out!

top 5/homecoming court announced today. everyone but one person i voted for made it so yay for them!!!! homecoming tickets went on sale too! yay again! i cant wait. the only thing is that it is exactly a week before the SAT's and i have a feeling that i will be thinking about school in the back of my mind that whole night...which will ruin it for me.

i have five tests tomorrow. the AP Enviro Sci teacher said we could have it moved to monday if we wanted but its not. our class is literally divided down the middle. on the left side, we have almost all of the top 10 kids and on the other side we have the football player types with 1.6 GPA's who took the class because the teacher is a football coach. we had a vote when to take the test. our whole side of the room (which has MORE people than the other side) voted for Monday and their side voted for tomorrow. the stupid teacher didnt believe us when we said that most of us had 3-5 tests tomorrow. the kids on the other side of the room were just like "yeah well tehy're geniuses. they dont need to study" and i got into a fight with one of them (not a REAL fight, but more or less verbal attack). the teacher decided that since our half of the room was so *smart* we shouldnt have any problem reading and memorizing 20 pages of material we never went over and it wont be a big deal. GRRRRRRR I AM SOOOOOO MAD. the kids on the other side dont care. they all have 5 classes, leave after 1 PM, go to bed at 7 PM, and have one test a week if that. and of coures the teacher sides with his stupid football team rather than the kids who are actually there to learn.

everything is so biased. it drives me crazy.

i found out that kids from my school in the past 10 years have gotten into Princeton *shocked expression*. my AP Gov teacher is encouraging me to apply ED. i think he will write one heck of a rec for me so im excited i am going to give it my best shot if i do opt for ED...but seeing as how our EFC is 30k and my parents arent rich...it could be a problem.

5 tests to study for. the bio one is over 3 chapters so thats about 70 pages of text to go over tonight and 20+ pages of AP Enviro Sci plus we have to write a 7 paragraph essay in class tomorrow on the Gallic Wars in french class, a latin overview test, and an AP English essay test...soooooo uhhhhhhhhhh...hey at least i have lots of pepsi!

i was so tired i spelled my name wrong on my NM paper. thank goodness my counselor gave me a copy to write on first...not the real thing.

senior year is sooooo stressful. i am having trouble with my college essays too.

i also need to get a hair appointment for homecoming!

my priorities are all over the place! i go out on friday nights and as soon as i wake up saturdya morning, i realize i should not have gone out the night before. but i will go crazy without a social life. i am already going insane with only one night of any sort of real social interaction.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, September 25, 2003 - 10:14 pm: Edit

Sunshine, you'll appreciate this: as a solo project in Calc BC over the weekend, D has to use parametric equations to have her graphing calculator write her "handwritten" initials (i.e., not printed).

At some point, you can't worry about EFC. Get in and then start bargaining on the financial aid. Though I hear Princeton is one of the tighter HYPSM schools in that regard.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Thursday, September 25, 2003 - 11:59 pm: Edit

I've decided that since my school isn't going to let me drop calc (see above post) I am either going to One. Stop going to class. Eventually they'll have to catch on. Two. Complain about it loudly but in a convincing, friendly way to the administration and convince someone that an A doesn't mean that you understand ANYTHING. I love the principals at my school though, they're awesome, so I think I'm going to surpass all the other steps and go directly to them. Or, three. If all else fails, go to class and volunteer lots of *wrong* answers. LOL. I do this sometimes because it drills the point across that I do not get it, which my teacher does not see for whatever reason. We had this answer with a derivative and delta x and whatnot and I got a simple FIVE as an answer, when I was supposed to have x's and delta x's and all that stuff. It's not my fault that I'm not getting the proper explanations when I get stuff wrong, or that we go over things too fast in class so I can't process it. I decided I'm not spending more than an hour on the homework because either way it's not going to make a difference. We had LIMITS tonight so basically I just plugged a bunch of stuff into the calculator but I'm not really sure what I did and if it's right or wrong. I heard somewhere that TI-89s can do just about everything and are a surefire way to pass calc, so hmmm I may consider getting one if that is true (almost everyone has the TI-83+ we had to go out and buy after frosh year).

LOL, Sunshine, antiderivatives?!?!?! WHAT!?! That sounds like... little math creatures that are against derivatives. OOO a war between math concepts. Just kidding. I looked at the next section and I almost choked. Everything is a symbol now and for some reason I simply don't process the meaning although I've been told what it means. Hey, whatever. I'm also not allowed to color code my papers (no ink) anymore so you know what that spells... trouble. I'm going to keep doing it anyway, even if it means losing points on hw assignments. I decided I'm bringing a small box of markers to the SATs so I can attempt some of the trig problems at the end if I have time because sometimes I can organize the problem in enough baby steps with the color coding multi-step system enough to figure out enough to stumble upon an answer.

Sunshine... five tests on one day is INSANE! This is why everyone needs to go on the block schedule, the most you can have in one day is four tests. (4 classes/day)

BTW, thedad, that is a *very* interesting assignment, something that I never knew could be possible. We did something cool in math last year where we made flowers with the cosine function on our calculators, though, in pre-cal.

TOMORROW IS FRIDAY EvERYONE!!!! That means that although I'll be out from 7:30am to 11:30 pm taking care of school, dance and EC stuff, I will have a lot of Saturday to sleep and get caught on hw and maybe chill a little. Yay I get psyched for weekends but I am actually back into the swing of school itself again so it doesn't bother me anymore at all, I actually like being there most of the time so it's good. This is my hardest year yet, but aside from being tired, it's a lot of work but I enjoy everything I'm doing this year (with one flagrant exception) if I really think about it so it works out. A little fried and time strapped, yes, but I realized that I've become the girl I wanted to become as a frosh. I used to look up to people who did well in everything they did from schoolwork to ECs and were involved in things that mattered to them, and I kind of reflected for a moment and I realize... hmm... I think I've reached that point this year. Which, imo, is enough motivation to keep me grounded and on the right track for the rest of the year. Like my mother reminded me, I may hate doing loads of homework and studying forever and ever, but something bigger and better will come out of it and I guess that's the beauty of it all

By Tux (Tux) on Friday, September 26, 2003 - 12:36 am: Edit

Thedad.. when did D take Calc AB? I don't think we offer BC. Is that gonna be setting me behind other kids when I go to college? I'm doing architecture so that would play a large part in my higher education..

My NM essay is due *tomorrow*! I've been stressing out about it all week and not sleeping, basically. Every idea I had wouldn't work out on paper or sounded stupid after I thought about it some more. But I talked to a friend and she gave me some good ideas as to what "sets me apart." So hopefully I can write a super splendid essay tonight that just blows the judges off their feet ;)

Haha.. so last night I was staring at the blank screen in Word and then next thing I knew, it was 6 am and I woke up lying on the floor with my head on the dog's pillow! Shows how incredibly exhausted I am! My body is operating on Dr.Pepper right now. My mom keeps getting onto me because I can't respond very well to anything and I keep falling asleep in random places. (I think it's kind of humorous in a way, actually.) And today I had an AP Economics test. So far this 6 weeks I've worked my tail off for that class and I've had the highest grade of anyone. I really enjoy the subject and everything has been just fine and dandy. But since I've been so stressed lately, I didn't have the time or energy to read the chapter and so I bombed the test.. I think I just threw away my A on the last day of the grading period. *Quite* maddening..

By Esmerelda (Esmerelda) on Friday, September 26, 2003 - 03:39 pm: Edit

TUX- You don't take Calc AB if you are taking calc BC. It's like an higher level AP class or something. I don't think there is that much of a difference though. i donno. sry

Remember when I said I liked physics? well, after today's test, i'm not so sure. Okay, I'm exagerating a little. I started the test and ran through the first nine problems to the last one, probably making stupid mistakes here and there. The last problem was so so so so hard. i think i misread the question. but i spent like seven minutes on it until the bell rang! I didn't even get an answer for part b of that question, and didn't touch the extra credit question. *sigh* I know i made a mistake on at least one of the questions in the begining too. *sigh* And I have to do well on every single test, because the teacher picks people by their test grade to compeate in physics competitions. ARGH!! I know i didn't do perfectly on this test (I didn't even answer a problem) and I know that I will be unhappy even with a low A. It's a lose-lose situation. If I get a low A, I will be upset; if i get a B or C I will be upset. argh. I think a C will kill me. Especially if all the people I had to help get higher scores. The day we get our test scores back is going to be humiliating.
ANYways, yesterday I spent pretty much the entire day studying for physics. I didn't have much homework (just math, which he doesn't check so I left for the weekend) so I went with my best friend (can I call her T. ?) to the library to study. I've been her best friend for twelve years and counting so it was kinda nice. We know exactly what each other is thinking and we can 'bicker' without either of us being hurt. We worked out about a million problems and checked over the homeworks for this units to see why we did things wrong.
Then, we went to dinner at Mama Lucia. We couldn't enjoy it beacause we were both so freaked out about the test, and we still had some things to review when we got home. Then T started talking about colleges, and she got really depressed. I feel really bad about it all. I would say that she and I are equal, achedemically. THe thing is, she tends to mess up on tests and stuff, stupid mistakes and that, so my stats are a bit better than her's. But that doesn't maker her dumb! *sigh* I feel so awful about it. I'm just lucky sometimes, you know?
I didn't tell her that I made NM for a week and a half after i found out. SHe only found out when I was writing my essay and she directly asked about it. I wasn't going to lie or anything so I brushed it off. I still think it bothered her. I hate that. Her self-esteem is so low. I hope she gets into Rice.
Now, i am so so tired, that I can't think....there was something I was going to respond to but I can't...oh. right.
Twinkle- I'm not positive, but I don't think a TI 89 will really help you that much. I tried using one once, and it was so complicated. eh.
i guess that's it...i can't think of anything else. I can't think. but I have to go to art class now, so I hope i'll wake up there. I still have all the songs from Chicago stuck in my head. It's been almost two days, and they have been there the entire time. Must be some sort of record.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Friday, September 26, 2003 - 03:43 pm: Edit

Home early for a bit because I managed to get sick somewhre between bed time and waking up this morning so I get to take a nap before dance as I wait for my drugggssss to kick in to get rid of a really annoying fever. Hahaha.

I think there is nooo way around dropping calc, especially with the advent of the **28** I got on the last test. Um... Statistically I didn't think it was possible to do that bad, but lol I proved my theory wrong. Darn about the TI-89, but it doesn't really matter now, lol, I'd like to see what my average is now... a 28 is probably very damaging.

Ill write more later but I may be dying so if I'm still alive later I'll get around to it.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Saturday, September 27, 2003 - 02:22 pm: Edit

Newest SAT practice scores: 710 verbal, 630 math.

A 1340

Which is, in its own right, a respectable score. I know a lot of people on CC would be like EWWW I got a 1340 but I personally would be psyched if I got that on the actual test. The next two weeks are going to be me going into psycho prep mode... lol.

Apparently I'm not the only one who bombed the calc test... other scores from my class include: 67, 51, and a 39. So perhaps I'm not the only confused one. I switched my assigned seat in calc yesterday and some of my other friends switched their seats around so now we have a cool little corner now which isn't SO bad... if I'm not allowed to drop at least I can enjoy failing, lol. Hmm. Isn't there a pass / fail option out there? How does that look on a transcript? It would imply the worst, but somehow I think a "pass" would look better than like, a 70 or something. Plus it may not be weighted into the GPA that way... hmmmm...

I don't know how to solve limits using a calculator! I tried to but I get really odd answers in the "Y" column when I look at the table.

I learned a new turn at dance last night... I forget what it's called but I almost did it although it was VERY sloppy. I actually had a great class overall last night... definitely made up for the disaster class of Thursday. My pirouettes are really coming along, although I am only doing them on one leg. The other leg will get there too. I really want to perfect them, though, so that's why I have a tendency to only practice them with my left foot on the ground and my right one up. They aren't totally "clean" yet but...they will get there

By Tux (Tux) on Saturday, September 27, 2003 - 04:03 pm: Edit

The ACT is officially evil.

I took it this morning and I ran out of time on all the sections except the first one. :/ I think I was getting the answers right, but I had to just frantically bubble in 10 or so C's at the end of each part because I didn't finish.. boo.

I turned my NM essay in to my counselor yesteray and it STUNK. So all of you other semi-finalists.. you have at least one more person who'll be below you in the end ;)

By Thedad (Thedad) on Saturday, September 27, 2003 - 04:39 pm: Edit

Should any sophomores be reading this thread, a piece of advice: as soon as you get your PSAT score junior year, if it looks as if it's in Semi-Finalist range, ask around and get the essay prompt from the previous year...it changes either not at all or very little. Start working on the essay over the summer between junior and senior year so that when you're notified it's ready to go. D's wasn't perfect in selection of material but what she did write was fairly polished and fairly well written. This also gets you a bit of a jump on your actual application essays.

Twinkle, all those test scores mean is that I'm afraid a lot of you are in trouble...this is the material that needs to be so burned into your brain that it's a matter of reflex when you're dealing with in the context of more advanced stuff.

Good news about the turns...one class, one week, one month at a time. D did a series of 12 releve turns the other day...would really like to get the hang of fouettes. On the casting front, she's not a Sugarplum, Arabian, or Snow Queen...didn't expect to be any of them. Isn't a Russian, either, but the version we're doing this year requires dancers who are *very* strong. The most interesting spots for her, Spanish and Mirliton have not yet elicited even a peep from the directors.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Saturday, September 27, 2003 - 05:09 pm: Edit

I could easily say that 1/3 of our class is seriously screwed. (So far now I've figured that one girl got a 94... she is *very good* at math.. but then there is my *28*, the 67, 51, 39 and then there's more... lol and then now I know there is also a 50, 44, and a 55. That alone is six F's and a D. Not good). Some people aren't BAD at math, they just have weak backgrounds so they're having a really hard time. Plus, the way it's being taught only seems to be compatible with SOME kids... so my belief that some people benefit from different teaching styles still makes sense. Not that it's relevant, or save us from failing out. I think it would raise a red flag to anyone, though, if kids were trying to drop a class and they were failing a lot but other scores, like class participation and homework were keeping their grade together.

So how DO colleges look at pass/fail? This may be my best option at this point because now I'm pretty much stuck.

I've never heard of a releve turn before, but I would THINK it would be a turn on releve... on pointe shoes... but I can't exactly envision what it looks like. **12** releve turns??? Bravo!!

What role would your D prefer? Spanish or Mirliton? Or would she be happy with either one?

How do the dancers at your daughter's studio have Nutcracker rehearsals (as I think you may have mentioned in another thread) if not all of the girls have been cast yet?

My new challenge is getting a really, really good arabeseque. Mine are not terrible by any means (thanks to cheerleading, lol) but they definitely do need work.

The biggest hurdle for me isn't so much execution; it's more so getting the left-right thing down because when I'm learning something new I get confused the first couple of times because I can't remember the sequence, but after I learn the sequence and pound it into my head I'm fine; the next battle is the technique, which is a problem on things like turns but... like you said... time. Even week to week improvements are becoming visible... some areas more slowly than another but with time and practice I will get better. The potential IS definitely there .

BTW how is D's Calc BC assignment coming along?

By Thedad (Thedad) on Sunday, September 28, 2003 - 03:02 am: Edit

Parts are multiply cast. I should amend my previous: D is in Russian but she's not one of the center soloists. She'd like to do both Spanish *and* Mirliton but absolutely loves Spanish.

See, rehearsals are starting but you don't have to rehearse the whole thing at once. In fact, rehearsals are going on in three different studios on Saturday from 1:30 to 5:30, with different parts scheduled for different times. They don't come together until the first studio run through about two weeks before the first show.

Spanish is already being rehearsed but it's just the core dancers right now. There's a space in the center where a solo couple could be but nothing has been announced. I expect it to be triple cast with D being the #2...maybe the #1 with good luck and a fair tailwind.

There've already been dramatics...one girl dropped out when she was un-invited from the Arabian/Snow Queen rehearsal because the director checked attendance records and saw that she hadn't been attending pas de deux classes. Director also asked her to drop five pounds. Another girl is in a major snit and has been ducking classes with the director. Both these girls are seniors and it seems a pity to screw up in your final year.

A pass/fail is better than nothing...may you get the "gentlewoman's pass."

D got the first half of her first initial done Thursday, hasn't worked at it since. She has to do *a lot* tonight...her date got sick yesterday so we took TheMom to see "Freaky Friday" last night. (I'm off to a UCLA football game and wont' be around to nag\\ encourage her.) Tomorrow morning is shot with SAT prep.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Sunday, September 28, 2003 - 03:43 pm: Edit

I completely forgot that in ballets and plays people can be multiply cast. Duh. I was mutiply cast before; somehow I forgot this was possible because you can be a different character in different scenes. Hmmm... I think I had a blonde moment. But anyway good luck to your daughter, although I doubt that she needs it

A pass/fail probably looks better than a 65 or whatever I will probably end up getting. Then again, I can always find out IF the pass/fail option would be allowed under these circumstances, and then not utilize it until I find out what my grade actually ends up being... I'd hate to use pass/fail if I ended up with like an 88, which would be a blemish on my record but for calc it's not BAD at all. If it's a C or below then I'll use pass/fail. Yeah, I'll probably get accused of being the next Blair Hornstine with transcript manipulation, but I've decided that it's not **my** fault they are making us stay in the class so I'm going to do what I have to.

The good thing about pass/fail is that they may not count it into your GPA (I figure this: how can they?? A pass is not a GRADE so thus it cannot be given a number) so it won't affect my ranking either way which I'm sure is going to stir up some controversy but come on... I get creativity points here

A date... could this be a potential b/f? Maybe? Just curious ;)

I've developed a liking for Shakespeare this year, something I thought would never thought would happen. AP English is full of surprises. I realized that the only reason I didn't like Shakespeare before was because I didn't understand the language, but now I realize how witty and poetic it is. And I still don't understand parts of it, but then I can use study guides to help figure them out, and then reread it to get the meaning.

I'm debating over whether to redo Math IC or just to do IIC. I figure that I know enough on both to get around a 500 to 600 score because I suck equally on different sections of both. Neither score will be stellar. But: a 560 on Math IC (which is what I got) will be/is 36%. A 560 on IIC is 11%. Which is worse... but... would it look better to get the same score on a more difficult test, or would they just consider percentile points?

I think I know who my homecoming date will be!!! The "ex" who isn't really an EX, so to speak because that implies that we aren't on good terms and we ARE now. But. That's besides the point and I'll keep this short to limit my soapbox stint because I'm sure people get annoyed with this drama because I'm always ranting about it. He dropped hints last night that he was going to ask me, and I KNOW how he works, except I wish I had just came out and said something so he would have just asked right then and there. LOL, I HATE having things left up in the air. They aren't done with prelim's for homecoming king. I don't understand why they didn't vote for queen and king at the same time, but that will be announced next week at some point. I still have to go dress shopping, and I don't know when I'll have time for that, but it's important enough where I'm going to have to get a lot of stuff done ahead of time because I'm picky and will need a morning/afternoon set aside just to look because I really want to find the perfect dress within a reasonable price range.

Time for government homework. I was going to SAT prep but I don't think I will have time, plus I did it the other day and THAT is enough for a weekend.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Sunday, September 28, 2003 - 03:58 pm: Edit

The girl with the major snit dropped out of Nutcracker yesterday. That's *five* Ballet VII's since mid-summer: one for weight (anorexia, director told her she couldn't come back until she gained weight), one because of not being able to hack the 90-mile commute during senior year, one because she was the worst dancer in the group and wasn't going to get good roles...she finally accepted it and decided she'd rather be doing other things, one for roles and being asked to *lose* weight, and one for just general bad attitude.

Some of the senior ballet VI's are rejoicing at the parts that are dropping into their laps. I wonder who'll get to do the Maid in Party Scene...the maid gets "drunk" while dancing the Grandfather's dance and while the dancing isn't much it's a very nice acting role. D is the "mom" who gets to "faint" when obnoxious little Fritz springs a [toy] rat in front of her face.

Twinkle, check the pass/fail option carefully...in colleges, at least, you need a "C" to get the pass; a C- is a fail. I don't think you're in any danger of accidentally getting an 88 in the class.

Yes, "date" as in potential b/f. They've been eyeing each other from the middle of last year.
This was going to be their first date. He's even more cranked on college prep than D is...he's Asian and dealing with the stereotypical parental expectations. D tells me that I'm very demanding as a parent but that if I were Jewish I'd be in the middle of the pack and that if I were Asian I'd be easy.

By Esmerelda (Esmerelda) on Sunday, September 28, 2003 - 05:06 pm: Edit

welllll, Twinkle, you're not the only one having trouble with Calc. I'm taking BC calc, and it's murder. We have the worst Calc teacher in the school. He is a nice guy and all, but he makes mistakes every five seconds in class. SO, my notes are all messed up. Not to mention, I haven't been getting much sleep recently, so I haven't been paying attention in his class. Just stilling there with a glazed look on my eyes trying as hard as I could to stay conscious. And I didn't do the last two day's homework (he doesn't check) because I was studying on those days. OI. I've been working on it this weekend, but when I try to ask my friends for help, I find that they are procrastinating like crazy. None of them has started! at ALL! argh. Likely or not they are going to come to me for help at like 2 this morning. I think i'll go in for help during lunch. UGH. I hate going in for help. but the unit test is on Wednesday, so I have to understand whatever it is we are learning soon. It'll probably work out...somehow.
I sent out part 1 of the Yale EA application this morning, so that's one less thing to worry about. Now I just have to write the essays. I have one drafted, the other is going to take a little more time though.
heh, yeah, asian parents are massively demanding. And I can really compare, my dad is caucasian and my mom is from Taiwan. Pressure-wise they are really from two different worlds. I take after my mom though, so even though she is really demanding as a parent, I think I am more demanding on myself then she could ever be. I know that she doesn't nag me as much as she did my brother (who takes after my dad). Still, thinking about all the work I have in front of me, I feel amost physically ill. It's like a steel fist envelopes my heart.
I've decided that I'm not going to the party next monday or to homecoming because of the work I have to do. I am going to allow myself to go to the party on the day of the SATs though. Otherwise, I'll probably just sit at home worrying about how I did. And my friend is throwing a "Maquerade" on Halloween, and I'll think I'll go to that because she's been planning it for the past two years.
I "started" two books this weekend, both of which my dad suggested to me. I really wish i could finish them and I'm going to try, although I have no free time. Maybe after applications? I miss reading! one of them is THE GUNS OF AUGUST by Barbara Tuchman. I've read about 50 pages, and I was caught in the first two. I put the book under my bed, 'hid' it, so that I wont read it instead of doing work. ughhh. The other book I started Friday afternoon as I was waiting for a ride. I can't remember the name, but it's a interesting read. It was a little boring to begin with, because the writer had a long intro, but it's pretty good, once i got past that. I should remember the title...but I can't. Oh well, it's by Richard Feyman and is pretty cool physics. nice stuff. It was really refreshing reading again. *sigh* Can't wait until apps are in.
anyone reading anything good?

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Sunday, September 28, 2003 - 06:25 pm: Edit

This was going to be their first date. He's even more cranked on college prep than D is...he's Asian and dealing with the stereotypical parental expectations. D tells me that I'm very demanding as a parent but that if I were Jewish I'd be in the middle of the pack and that if I were Asian I'd be easy.

as a fellow asian, i am starting to feel the pressures too. slowly but surely, but thank goodness my parents arent nearly as bad as most. i would say they are somewhere between easy and middle of the road. every asian kid i have been talking to whether a freshman or a senior is freaking out over college stuff. it's almost sad. my parents are really starting to get on my case about apps, SAT's, essays, etc. they are definitely rooting for me for princeton or cornell, and i think in their minds (although they wont admit it) they want me to go to either of those schools or harvard/yale/mit/stanford so they too can say that their child went to an ivy or equivalent school. i am HONESTLY the dumbest child in my extended family. im an only child (hehe!) but my cousin goes to oxford, my dad went to the MIT of china, my cousin went to the Harvard of China, my other cousin went to the Harvard of China too and is now making 100k a month in Hong Kong, another cousin came to the US after getting into Princeton as an international, etc etc. it makes me feel bad. *sigh*

the thing is, i am hard on myself too. im usually the first person to get upset over a bad grade or bad score. my parents know this and i think that is the one reason they arent hard on me-im too hard on myself. they know im smart and they know i try my best. but they are pressuring me to focus on my princeton, cornell, yale, MIT, and possibly harvard (international family pressures ) apps.

at least they have the same goals as i do. i just feel bad when some poor child spends all 4 years of high school taking every class and entering every contest for the sole purpose of getting into Harvard, and either getting in and hating it there or getting rejected and feeling like they wasted their life.

asian parenting is good...to the point where education is important (unlike the American system where parents seem to be indifferent) but the pressure they put on their kids to be top-notch and go to Ivies is ridiculous. my parents are now monitoring my time/activities closely and gently *reminding* me i should do SAT prep.

okay enough about that. im a bit frustrated right now because my practice SAT scores have been getting lower. it started out with 1580 last weekend and has decreased to 1560, then 1550, and now 1530 today. i know i shouldnt think anything of it, but its a bit annoying. i think i go through "smart" and "dumb" phases where some days my mind is clear and other days i cant seem to think. i think i am getting toward my "dumb" days. honsetly though, my goal is only 1500 (target=1550). i know test anxiety really gets me though so i sort of need some breathing room. SAT prep is driving me up a wall and im still not done memorizing my 3500 word list lol.

in other news, this NM form is annoying the heck out of me. i dont know WHAT to put down for my first choice college, dont know why they gave me that envelope from college board with a form that seems like an SAT registration...because i already registered for the SATs...so what is that form for? i need to fill out my "Brag Sheet" so my counselor can write my recommendation, get going on that horrid essay, and i really dont understand the grid where the counselor is supposed to fill out your courses and grades. im supposed to fill it out myself so my counselor can check hers with mine but there are a few problems: 1)i have taken more classes than there are spaces 2)my school operates on 2 semesters a year and im a bit confused as to how they ahve 4 "terms" listed and then a "final grade." this form is due friday-the day before homecoming-so im panicking. i also have some big projects coming up so i dont have much time. i also need to start SAT II prep in November...

i got ANOTHER homecoming dress. for some reason, i decided i didnt like mine anymore (the bottom layer was too short and i got paranoid i would bend over and people would see my butt lol) so i went back to the mall today...i got a black one at cache. its like a princess dress-very classic and elegant. slim on top, 3 columns of gems going down from top to mid-stomach, really thin almost elastic-ish straps, and from my stomach (which is REALLLLY tight...remind me not to eat much ), it poofs out completely into one of those really huge skirts. very pretty. i love black dresses. im excited! i still dont have a hair apptmt though. aghhh i hate my hair. all the hair places in this town are booked so i may have to drive a ways out.

TheDad-WE JUST STARTED PARAMETRICS FRIDAY!!!! yay i love Calc BC. the project your D has sounds kind of neat, although i probably wouldnt think so if I had to do it...i have a Calc BC test tomorrow and my grade is hovering at a borderline A (93.2) so i need to do well. i had a 97 on the first test but bombed the 2nd (87) and have a 90% quiz average. his quizzes are practice AP Calc BC mutliple choice questions...which are hard...

yay for Twinkle *basically* getting a date! im glad you and your ex get along. my ex is in one of those "not talking to me" phases right now. every time i think about him it makes me mad, so then i just dont think about him. it makes my life better. good luck dress shopping. its SOO hard. i have to wear 4 inch heels with my dress because its so long! being short gets annoying...

did i ramble enough?

By Asknot11 (Asknot11) on Sunday, September 28, 2003 - 06:37 pm: Edit

Wow, I see a lot of the people on the board talking about how asians have the most demanding parents etc. Personally I think it has nothing to do with race, but rather economic background. My school is approximately 85% white and the rest mainly asian. In general the asians make up the less affluent portion of the student body, and hence tend to be the least driven. My parents are probably the most demanding I know. They forced me to take classes I really didn't want to take such as AP euro hist. sophomore year, but in retrospect I'm glad I did. I wouldn't generalize about race...I think things are more economic based.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Sunday, September 28, 2003 - 07:21 pm: Edit

no i dont think it has to do with economic background.

most of the asians i know are from *VERY* affluent families (im talking millionaires here) and their parents are still very hard.

if you go to china or another asian country, EDUCATION is SUCH an important part of life. asian kids are forced to study and be competitive because the MINORITY of them are able to go to college...thats how competitive it is. its not like the US where you can get into certain colleges just for having a heartbeat.

asian parents, especially of this generation, had the toughest time when it comes to getting into college because of the cultural revolution. i think only 3% of the people who took the test got into college...

the ones who did are usually the ones who are the in the US today. they were the people who worked hard, studied, and know what it takes to be "successful." asians value education a lot more than americans because you need an education to lead a decent life in most asian countries.

its a cultural value thing. not economic background. personally, im from a financially stable middle class family (both of my parents are engineers, we make 100k ish) and they tell me everyday how education is important.

it really is a race thing. not economic. honestly, most of the asians i know have amazing parents who make a fortune, and instead of leaving the fortune to their kids, they want to have their kids make their own fortune...it is the philosophy of our dear friend Confucious...

By Esmerelda (Esmerelda) on Sunday, September 28, 2003 - 08:49 pm: Edit

sunshine--
asknot said that asians at his school were 'less affluent' and were thus LESS driven. I think you read his post wrong.
I think the amount your parents drive you depends a lot on their education level. pHDs are going to expect their children to reach at LEAST college and probably go on to grad or med school.
I know that many asian parents in the US are really into driving their kids, but I'm not sure that really has to do with their race. It's pretty much what you said: in order for this generation of asians to make it to the US, they had to work like crazy to get a good education. I know my mom did. She was one of a family of eleven, and had to pay her own way through college and grad school.
Still... my cousins in Taiwan aren't nearly as driven as I am, although they assume that because I am "American" I must spend every spare hour at the mall and have about three hours of school every day. I think they watch too many teen movies.... hehe, when we compared the number of hours of school we have, they were surprized that we have only like one hour less than them. And they have more time between classes and a longer lunch/rest period (because of the heat). hehe, that was a fun conversation.
ANYways, that was just a little blurb. um, I don't know.

I always hate generalizing with the races....mostly because I don't relate to any of them. People at my school don't feel that I am white enough or asian enough to criticize either way. Most people assume that I am latino, rather than accurately identifying me as a mix. hehe. Okay, that's it. I don't think I have a point. I have to finish my Lit essay. g'nite, everyone.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Sunday, September 28, 2003 - 08:58 pm: Edit

Thedad...Wow... so how many Ballet 7's are left? D is the "mom" too? How many roles do you think she will end up with?

The pass/fail option, I would bet, at my school would be a D to pass because a D IS passing... not passing well but still scraping by. I will check. I also doubt I will get an 88, but see... I have a teacher who does funky things when grading as in curving tests and stuff so I really don't know what I'll end up with.

Ooo... a potential boyfriend. Very nice. His parents sound like my ex b/f's parents... not EX because we are um... essentially an item again (SUNSHINE---YAY!! VICTORY!!!!) but his parents are SO strict about achieving and college prep, not to mention his job or sport. He's not Asian but his parents are definitely very strict- although nice- over what he does.

We were raised very differently. My parents are different with my brother and sister- you have to pull teeth to get them to do anything. But even as a little kid I was such a perfectionist and sooo competitive. I had to beat the other kids in races, I had to have my letters in writing just so. So I guess my parents figured that I was self motivated and I was going to do what I knew I had to do to get to where I wanted to be. My parents have agreed that I am VERY hard on myself and they aren't going to add to that if they don't have to.

My father didn't do the bulk of my parenting, hence why the authoritarian style never took to me- because of his work hours I rarely see him, so it's hard for me to switch gears when I do. I can't take orders if I don't see the reasoning behind it. My mother always gives me the option of what she wants me to do but will give her opinion, and since that's who I was primarily raised by, that's what I've gotten used to and I think it's influenced how I've grown up. My mother never really has to tell me what to do, hence why I don't have a set curfew. Once I break her trust or start slipping in school, that's where the rules are going to start coming down, as it is with my other siblings.

Forex, we had a conversation tonight over school stuff and her advice for the Oct 11 SAT was... "Just go for it and do your best. You have nothing to lose." Whatever I do, is going to be the best that I can and you can't do any better than that. We've accepted the fact that Yale isn't a possibility anymore, as she had once thought, and we've moved on. (I still have to send in the app though... grrr... but I was like OKAY MOM I'll do it for you because you don't ask me to do that much). So. I guess it works.I would have probably rebelled if she was strict with me and even if she was, i think I am maxing out myself academically so it wouldn't have made a difference. But... I could be wrong. Oops. Rant.

Esmerelda.. ugh about the calc class. But you *are* a math person, so you are bound to catch on at some point, right? I can't imagine you failing out of there.

No homecoming? I decided that I'm going even though I'm going to be swamped with a ton of other obligations because I want my darned title, lol, and even if I wasn't up for it... then... I would still go because I'm NOT looking back at high school and thinking that I missed out on something like that. I miss out on enough fun stuff so I'm drawing the line there, lol.

Sunshine~~You can regard this or disregard this because I'm not authority on this... but I don't think you're going to be looked at as dumb by any college regardless if you get a 1500 or 1580. Really. The rest of your app is going to be so great that I don't think that once your score is that high it will be your determining factor... and a 1530 on a "dumb" day could just be because of one stupid question. LOL. Sorry. I had to give the pep talk.

LOL, did you take your *other* dress back??? Your dress now sounds very pretty though. I am working out like a maniac for homecoming in any spare time so my dress looks perfect... haha... I do this every year before every big event. It's like a ritual. Did you get your 4-inch heels yet? Its soo hard finding ones that will make you high enough off the ground so that you don't trip in your dress, but ones that are not so hard to walk in that you can't dance!

I don't get along with all of my ex's well.. there is one that HATEs me and all his friends hate me too, but that'd besides the point. I think this relationship is destined to work out. I don't know why. He called today and asked what color my dress was going to be... leading me to think that MAYBE he was going to try to find an outfit that would not clash with what I was wearing. Odd. Then again, he could have just been curious. I don't know. Boys confuse me. Homecoming dresses and prom dresses are sooo hard to find but I decided I know exactly how I want my prom dress to look like... pink and fitted on top.. a corset essentially...and poofy on the bottom. The whole princess look. Now, finding that dress will be a journey, lol.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Sunday, September 28, 2003 - 10:09 pm: Edit

oooooops you're right. i did misread asknots's post. sorry im illiterate. it confirms my horrible critical reading skills

yay GO TWINKLE!!!!! your description of your perfect prom dress sounds JUST like my prom dress from last year! only mine is a light purple/lavender!! it was soooooo pretty and really sparkly. when i put it on, i had sparkles all over my hair and on my face and all over my body.

yes i took my other dress back. the lady commented on how she would never find anyone else to buy it becuase it was so small (it wasnt too long!). i guess not that many people are 5'3" hehehe. yeah i am trying to watch what i eat this week since homecoming is THIS SATURDAY!!! my dress is a size 3 so there isnt much room...ummm...yeah if i gain like 5 lbs it will be really obvious because the top is realllly fitted/tight. it looks good...if my stomach isnt popping out. the whole thing is also backless except for 2 ties so my back better not randomly break out like it sometimes does or i will be REALLLLLY mad. yay i love dresses! i also cant wait to see who will be crowned homecoming queen over here. you have to keep us up-to-date on that!

my date asked me what color my dress is too...but i said dark red because it was the color of my old dress!!!!! i hope he doesnt buy something that matches red...oh well i guess my black dress matches everything. i definitely decided to go to homecoming this year so i wouldnt regret it later. it was sort of tough though because this saturday is the week before SAT's...and friday=homeocming game, saturday-dance, sunday=SAT Kaplan class...and the whole weekend before SAT's will be wasted. i am getting really scared. i know i will have a lot of work and i really dont want to get myself too stressed/worked up before SAT's. i decided i would put all homework on halt the whole week before SAT's and wont go to bed after midnight because i think its what relaly killed me last time.

i know that a 1530 isnt "stupid." i am just honestly afraid i will get to the test center, flip out, and get a 1100 or something. eeeeeeek. my goal is 1500 and i really honestly think i deserve to reach it because taht was my PSAT score and i have prepped so much this summer and put so much effort into it. i hope we all get the scores we want

yay for TheDad's D's possible bf! new relationships are always so exciting!!!! do you know what colleges he is looking at? i assume he is fairly bright since his parents are pushing him so hard. i wish there were more asian guys over here. i personally think they're cute...hehe. i like their smartality (thats not even a word...)

well i still havent started on my NM essay. what a procrastinator. i will after i finish studying my calc and take a shower. i still have more hw to finish. im THE procrastinator and THE perfectionist which leads to a very stressful life..

HOMECOMING IN 6 DAYS FOR ME!!!!

SAT's in 13...

EA/ED apps due in 33

By Thedad (Thedad) on Monday, September 29, 2003 - 03:26 am: Edit

Sunshine, D's guy is in BC Calc and AP English with her, as well as Orchestra, so yeah, I'm guessing he's pretty smart.

Esmerelda, I hesitate at generalizations, too, but I don't ignore it when they're true. Worst case I've heard of is a Asian guy in orchestra whose parents won't let him go on the Vienna/Prague trip unless he scores an 800 on the SAT II Bio test in two weeks.

It all boils down to what's "good enough," I suppose. I have high standards but I don't expect people to routinely go beyond themselves and I do believe deeply in a sense of balance.

Twinkle, I split the difference between your mom and Dad. I don't believe in authoritarian as much as authoritative. I am open to dialogue and believe in discussing the "why" of things and try, inasmuch as a possible, to offer options. I think one of the things that I made a conscious effort to do was to treat D as her own person, rather than an object or an extension of her parents, from the very earliest ages and she certainly has a strong sense of "self" as a result. I don't mean to suggest that I don't *ever* say "This is the way it's going to be" but if we get to that point I generally feel as if one of us has made a mistake along the way that we arrived there. [D has just announced that there's so much to do on the Calc project that she must miss ballet tomorrow...I don't mind her missing Pointe II (she takes Pointe III and IV) but I wince that she'll miss technique...but it's her call. She's also going to miss ballet class a week from Thursday because it's her last SAT prep.

D has more restrictions than some of her friends but also has a lot more freedoms...she seems happy enough about the trade-offs so I don't fret much. To be on topic for this board, the acid test is going away to college...if she functions well off on her own, then we've done a good job a fostering a combination of independence and survival skills.

Regarding D's casting: ummm...actually, there are five moms. The "head" mother is an adult who has done the role for years, the mom of a dancer who graduated several years ago. The other four are taken from among the tallest, most adult looking of the VII's. (There are still a dozen "old" VII's left along with two new full-time VII's and several part-time VII's whose other classes are in VI.)
Thus, all the "mothers" have parallel "dads"--including the husband of the "head mother" and then men from the second act, the various cavaliers, doubling. So of the 20 "party children"--nine girls, nine boys, plus Clara and Drosselmeyer's nephew, who transforms into the Nutcracker Prince later on--you have five families. D's family is the "late family;" most of the familes are on stage in a "freeze" tableau behind a scrim (sort of a gauzy curtain) when the main curtain comes up...the "late family" gets to make a splashy entrance and it's the "late mother" who gets to do the fainting later.

D is in the Russian corps, which looks as if it may be double cast, Snow corps which is *the* top corps role and is gorgeous when it's done right, Party Scene mom...and we're waiting. Mirliton rehearsals start Tuesday in Variations class...she's done Mirliton before so I think Side Mirliton...there are only four...is a virtual lock for her though I won't be surprised if there are something like 10 girls cast for the part...just checked...last year there were 9 for the four slots across the eight performances. I think she has an excellent shot at Center Spanish if that comes to pass and is on the bubble for Center Mirliton...right now, I think she misses by one or two but it's not a sure thing. Ordinarily I think she'd be out of the running for Fairy of the Clouds, she's taller and therefore heavier than the girls who normally do it, because they it's a pas de deux role where you have to be easily lifted on to your partner's shoulders and it's a lot easier to do with 5'3" 95 lbs. than 5'6-1/2" 115-120 pounds...but they may re-choreograph it this year with just a girl soloist, so who knows. As has been remarked, all will be revealed, but not necessarily to us and not necessarily any time soon.

D came back to earth on her last SAT practice, a 1470. I'll be happy if she cracks 1500...declare victory and move on.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Monday, September 29, 2003 - 05:24 pm: Edit

i just read an article about a ballerina who was fired for being "overweight" at 5'6" 110 lbs. sorry but if thats overweight you might as well consider me obese because im 3 inches *SHORTER* and dont weigh much less...

of course as i was trying on dresses saturday my mom observed that i had lost a lot of weight since school started and how she hasnt noticed at all until now becuase i've been wrapped under so many layers of clothes. i honestly dont know why since i am eating more and eating more of the BAD stuff, but i think stress is a major weight loss stimulant. ughhh i cant say im upset about losing weight but it worries me.

By Sandy (Sandy) on Monday, September 29, 2003 - 05:42 pm: Edit

Sunshine,
Give me some of that weight-losing stress. Seriously, my weight has been the same for so many months. I have gone through ups and downs. I have been through the most stressful moments of my life in the past year, but my weight never changes. Ah, I just wish stress would take off some pounds.
Anyway, I am very tired right now. I don't know how I am going to do my homework + SATs + apps +sleep +eat ++++++++ I feel lost. I feel like a baby. I feel helpless. Ah, January, my dear January, please come fast!

By Thedad (Thedad) on Monday, September 29, 2003 - 06:33 pm: Edit

Stress, like cigarettes, is a bad solution for weight issues. It depends on the ballet company but 110 pounds can be pushing it. D is thin by contemporary social standards but is probably 7-10 pounds heavy by ballet standards...though so far it hasn't been an issue. She fits into this Chinese silk slit-dress with no problems whatsoever...actually, she looks too darned good in it.

Sandy, *I* can't wait for January to come. I think D will do better adding the A.M. (before 1st period) band class at the expense of sleep than she's doing with the college app stuff.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Monday, September 29, 2003 - 07:04 pm: Edit

Okay, I had to comment on this: HOW can you expect a kid to get a 800 on ANY portion of the SAT, even if he's super hard working and one of the smartest kids out there??? I'm sorry but there is always room for a dumb error or two and if he can't go on the trip because he makes a 760 or something... wow. I'm at a loss for words. I hope that poor kid's parents weren't SERIOUS...

I guess expectations come down to what's good enough- which for my mother is whatever I can do best. But I guess I'm of the type who is going to push it to the limit and see how far it's going to go until I hit a breaking point, and then... I'll keep going. It's the whole perfectionism thing. I think my mother doesn't think I need any extra pressure as I'm already a perfectionist freak (but a nice one, unlike this one girl who is such a perfectionist that she expects others to be perfect... I'm more of the type who expects appearance/social/achievement perfection, which I like to play down to other people because I hate seeming of the obsessive type. I want people to see me as the image I'd LIKE to project, but minus all the struggle/lack of sleep/excessive effort it takes to get there because THAT defeats the whole purpose.) because I don't need to become a basket case before I graduate... or like ever.

Oooo... I forgot about boys in the Nutcracker! How many older boys are at D's studio? I wish we had some in our classes because that would be sooo awesome. I love the idea of pas de deux. From your description I would probably be a good size for most pas de deux... around 5'3/93-97 lb. (as of lately... I used to be more around 102) even though that's not as tiny as some dancers my height who are pro who are about 85 pounds. You cannot naturally be 85 pounds at my height or approximate unless you are a pre-teen who grew really fast. If you weigh 85 lb and are 5'3... that is definitely fringing on anorexia if not already in the midst of an eating disorder.

I agree that 5'6/110 is INSANE to be considered overweight for a ballerina... I SAW that girl on TV and even by ballet standards... it was hard to consider her overweight.

LOL, Sunshine, I can agree with the stress being a good weight loss stimulant... I mean bad... I've been sooo busy all the time and stress just makes me not hungry, so having dinner is like a forced act for me because I simply have no appetite. Tonight I definitely did not want to eat dinner at ALL but my mother made a comment about not eating during the day yet or much during the weekend, and I didn't want to have her on me about that so I did my best to have a few bites but I really couldn't make myself eat because I didn't want to. My favorite jeans ever are too loose But, hey, it's not the end of the world. They invented cute belts for a reason My lines in dance look better, which is always a perk.

I think I've won my math battle after all... I'll keep you posted on the ordeal... not too many details till it's all finalized!! ;)

By Thedad (Thedad) on Monday, September 29, 2003 - 07:59 pm: Edit

Well, there's one boy who's a hs senior at D's school but he's not very good and all (I think) he's doing is the Toy Soldier in Party Scene, which is nifty enough but not like a pas de deux solo. The best boy we had last year, and who had been with the school for several years, did the solo in the Trepak version of Russian and he was outstanding...he's now joined the Royal Danish Ballet as an apprentice...the route is always better and smoother in ballet if you are a boy. The school has a number of boys but they're all younger and will be things like Blue Soldier (the Cavalry in the battle scene with the Mice and the Mouse King vs. the Nutcracker Prince) or boys in Party Scene...most of the "boys" are girls with their hair up in buns tucked under Victorian-style boys' caps.

The parent(s) are serious about the kid and his 800 on the SAT II Bio test. I hope someone talks some sense into them. At some point, the Orchestra director, who is also Asian, may be able to approach them...I have to stay out of it.

Eating well goes with sleeping well for maximum performance, be it academic or in Dance. Really.

Sandy, I'm working on a short story (fiction) about the college application process in the year 3003 right now and one of the characters is adding up the hours in the week figuring out what he can cut to fit everything in.

By Sandy (Sandy) on Monday, September 29, 2003 - 08:56 pm: Edit

"Sandy, I'm working on a short story (fiction) about the college application process in the year 3003 right now and one of the characters is adding up the hours in the week figuring out what he can cut to fit everything in."
lol...That must be some story. I would definitely want to read it. I am sure I would be able to relate to it.
Off-topic, but TheDad is the coolest dad I've ever met!

By Esmerelda (Esmerelda) on Monday, September 29, 2003 - 10:35 pm: Edit

hey, guess what?! I *may* be going to homecoming! big big may. i didn't want to go, because I JUST got dumped by my boyfriend, and I couldn't go with him because, well, he really hurt me, and I refuse to go with him, so there. It's been absurdly awkward for the past week. grr. I'm so mad at him. I know, that it's probably not his fault and he's just being honest about his emotions or whatever, but still....it HURT. So, anyways, this guy I'm close friends with hinted that he was going to ask me, and so maybe I'll go....I have a yale interview the night before, so I can relax from that, I guess. I donno. That means I have to buy a dress, and all, and, let's just say I'm not the super skinney people you all are. I once was but I need to exercize more, it's just i can't fit it in! argh! I'm still deciding about whether to go or not. I don't know. In fact, maybe my friend WASN't hinting that he wanted to go with me. Apparently I am terribly at reading guys. I had no idea that my boyfriend was going to dump me, and I had no idea that my freshman, sophomore, junior year crush DIDn't like me. hah, i found out when he started going out with another one of my friends. Just shows how bad I am with guys.

Anyways, i finished my homework early and did SAT study for a while. My verbal score dropped WAY down!!! ah!!!!!! Well, I'd be happy if I got a 800 in math because Yale and many other colleges take your highest of both scores, so I'd have like a 1530 which is good. In fact, as long as I get a 770, I'll be estatic. Probably. Still don't want my verbal to get too low though. Argh.

*take deep breaths*

i got caught up with AP calc by doing all the homeworks I skipped and checking my answers with my friends. I didn't miss much, thank god. The questions, it turns out, weren't that hard, and I just missed the teacher going over them, so I'm okay for the test Wednesday...hopefully. There is one thing I'm still not sure about...I remember the teacher saying something like "NEVER multiply this out, because if you multiply this out on the test, and make a stupid error, I will mark you TOTALLY WRONG" but I can't remember when you can't multiply it out! Hopefully, it'll be pretty clear. I think it was something like when you get the derivitive of U to the fourth. then you use that rule and end up with 4U to the Third times the derivitive of U, or something. And you don't multiply U to the third out.....I think that's it, but no one i asked was sure. Argh. I hope i'm right, because I tend to make stupid mistakes a lot.

You know what sucks? I try to figure out why some math thing works, and I ask my friends, and they try to explain it, and I just punch holes in their explanations so they don't understand it any more. Then I go to another person, and the same thing happens. Then they all blame me for confusing them. But, don't you think, if they REALLY understood it, their explanation could stand up to questioning? It's not my fault! grr.

Today I drove to the library to do my homework. I can't concentrate at my house, and the library really helped. I started my homework right away, and finished pretty quickly....except for my lit essay which I just finished (after studying SATs)

ah well.

nothing interesting ever happens to me...my posts never have any purpose oh well.

By Geniusash (Geniusash) on Monday, September 29, 2003 - 10:55 pm: Edit

Thedad-
I DID THAT!!! I actually added up the hours and everything! Decided to cut out Latin Dance and a few hours of work to keep up with HW, what a freak!!! I would also like to read your SS, as you always give the best...and most entertaining advice.
Girls-
I got my dress yesterday! It only took an hour!! I am so psyched (now for shoes....)

By Tux (Tux) on Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - 12:45 am: Edit

Just thought I'd share a sad story..

3 years ago when I was a freshman, the cheerleading coach had a nice little romance with one of his cheerleaders. No one really knew about it.. but then in college the girl fell in love with a guy she met and they got engaged. But when the fiance found out about what she had done, he refused to marry her and a couple of weeks ago the girl proceeded to sue the coach and the coach was fired.

And the coach was my AP Statistics teacher. Which means we're sunk on the AP test.. grrrr

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - 12:51 am: Edit

Thedad, I'd gather the route in ballet is smoother if you're a boy because there's less boys in ballet, thus less competition.

I'm still cringing at the story about the parents who demand that their son get an 800 SAT Bio. Let us know what happens with that... I somehow find that extremely disturbing for whatever reason... maybe because I didn't think parents like that actually existed, except maybe in nightmares. I'm sorry. They may be excellent parents in other ways but that is too high of a bar in the 1st place and too great of a consequence for something the boy does not have complete control over.

Eating well goes well with sleeping well but I have horrible eating patterns and I am really healthy as to what I eat, but when and how much is the issue. Plus I really CANNOT eat if I'm not hungry, and lately I'm just not hungry at all. So I force something every once in awhile so I don't lose too much energy, but if I didn't have to I wouldn't. This is normal for me though so it's not thhhhhat big of a deal. I just need to balance sleep better and try to eat at least two semi balanced meals a day. I picked at chicken at dinner which is like the best thing ever, didn't feel like eating rice and had a couple of broccoli spears because those you don't have to be hungry to eat. And I had a freezer pop at like 10 because I was thirsty but usually I do better than this. This was just a bad day and I'll try harder tomorrow. I ran a 6:53 mile today on my energy/caffeine reserves. I think I might not be hungry because I'm comstantly downing water or diet coke but I'm not too positive over that. Enough analyzation.

I am very curious to read your fictional story... I like the way you write and it's an awesome story so when you finish it if you would like to email it to me I wouldn't be terribly sad.

Esmerelda exercise is a painnn at times but you really CAN squeeze it in... I have faith in you...walk whenever you can and do crunches before bed... just my unsolicited advice. Neither take much time and are good exercise.
GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR YALE INTERVIEW!!! Blow them away with your awesomeness!!!! Guys are definitely impossible to read. My ex has randomly decided that we are best friends again so... that just goes to show... boys are really really confusing. Go to homecoming!!! You won't regret it, especially in retrospect. What are you looking to wear?

LOL, I tried working at my library once but then I got distracted by the people in there... I would have the urge to strike up conversations with people and that became a problem. But, complete quiet drives me crazy as well so I guess I'm best sprawled out listening to music on the floor with NO ONE bothering me, except for my mom because I bother her all the time and she usually doesn't complain. hehe.

Still have lots of homework to finish...ew... but hey... at least my limits homework will go unfinished without consequence... score one point for me!!! But I'm holding my breath on this until tomorrow afternoon after a big meeting with the school when I can actually say that limits will not be relevant material for me for some time to come! There is a plan to fill in my schedule with more humanities oriented classes... so I'm not going to have a math or science. But, that is okay. I make up for it in a lot of other ways. Not everyone's going to be the next Einstein or Descartes so I'll leave those duties to someone else more capable ;) I plan on trying out math again, but just not now. Some colleges offer a class in college that is equivalent to pre-calc so I'm considering that if that is an option so I can build a more solid math foundation. RANT over.

GENIUSASH NOW.. you know I am a fashion freak. So of course I want to know about your dress. You have to come back and tell all the details AND the details of your mall trip because that's just as an essential piece of the tale!!!

Tux- I don't know if I'd call that a sad story because I know of quite a few people that has happened to... eh-hem... I need not give details. But...you can still pull through on the AP stats exam...who are you getting as a replacement?

By Esmerelda (Esmerelda) on Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - 03:10 pm: Edit

YAY, my friend DID ask me! I was right! yayay
so, I'm going to HC. As for a dress...that is still to be determined. I guess I go on Friday, and find something.
I'm trying to squeese in so running every night. It's been three years since i was on the cross country team (freshman year) but I think I can get back into running. Ninth grade I ran like crazy, but I got really bad shin splints and they wouldn't let me run any more because they thought I might have a stress fracture, so I got all out of shape, and didn't want to start up again....not that I didn't try. I was just so behind everyone I just gave up. Now, I wish i hadn't. *sigh* oh well, hind sight is 20-20
Another reason for me gaining weight (I was really thin freshman year, and things just went down from there ) was because of my turning vegetarian three years ago. yeah....I ate way too much junk instead of meat, but since i started eating fish again last month, I lost like 5 pounds doing nothing. fish. is. amazing. especially after you haven't eaten it for three years. AMAZING. anyways....
Isn't it disturbing how many teacher-student relationships there are? ew. Last year, a senior girl went out with a teacher (apparently) and when she turned 18 (after she graduated) the teacher quit and they got married.....a little weird. The young male teachers at our school are not allowed to teach seniors and juniors anymore. whatever.
AP Calc test tomorrow, but I think I got it....we'll see.
I can't WAIT until second summester senior year. I hope I don't let up on my studies, but at least i wont have college apps and SATs which will make my life SO much less stressful. And, i mean, if you already get into a school, do you think the school is going to mind if your grades drop just a little? I think i might allow myself to get a B or two.....i hope they wont mind.... knowing me, though, I'll probably stress about school even second semester....it never ends.

By Geniusash (Geniusash) on Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - 03:34 pm: Edit

Well, I went to the mall on sunday, little did I know that it closed at 6:00!!! So, I shopped speedily. After finding nothing at Marsall Fields, I ran down to Maurices and found a gorgeous gold/brown sparkly halter number with a slit up to the thigh on one side. It's sooo cute! I picked up a gold wrap on the way out and will get a gold purse and shoes, and maybe...greenish jewelry? Or amber... I am so excited, yee-hah.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - 05:07 pm: Edit

Oy. Shopping. Why does it always have to be shopping?

===

D's take on Calc BC: It's both beautiful and terrible.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - 07:19 pm: Edit

Calc is both beautiful and terrible. Terribly hard and beautiful because I don't have to deal with it. Not for the time being. Someday, yes. It's the wrong time now though and I'm finished with the struggle... so I can breathe a little tiny bit. (By the way, I do recognize how calc could be beautiful, but my frustration level with math is so high that I can't enjoy it)

However, now there is the issue that there are holes in my schedule and now I have to get into a class and there's DRAMA over that... but it will be fixed. I always work things out MY way even if it involves going to the next higher power. ;) Long story. Details after. Cogent argument given by me and mini-tantrum due to the fact that some people who are supposed to help won't and don't and find ways to make your life sooo much more difficult!! The one thing smart thing I took from frosh year was that you're goint to have to go to bat for yourself and deal with people who are going to tell you "no" for stupid reasons, or do things that simply don't coincide with what you want to do. So the best thing to do in that case is to smile and then find someone of high authority who will override a decision or fight to get you what YOU need if it's a worthy cause. If I don't take the responsibility to seek out people who will act as friends or not give up on what is best for me... then who else is going to?

ESMERELDA--YAY!!!! Who is this date? A good friend of yours? The vegetarian thing takes discipline, but I have like a junk food PHOBIA so I guess it hasn't been hard in that department. I've taken a liking to lentils. They're good for you and a good source of protein. I don't really like meat so it wasn't hard for me to stop eating but I still DO have a piece of chicken every once in awhile to keep my protein levels up because I won't eat other things like nuts or peanut butter, and your body breaks down without enough protein, so I decided that it would be okay to have chicken every now and then. Plus I actually DO like it. I had a bowl of cereal for dinner tonight though b/c I missed dinner because of dance and the meal wasn't something I would have eaten anyway so I was lazy and had special K. Yay I'm such a freak though... I drain most of the milk out because I don't really like milk, just a little so the cereal is somewhat damp.

GeniusAsh.. I like the sound of your prom outfit, I bet it looks AWESOME!!

My pirouettes are becoming gorgeous. Clean. I have been advised to get down a double soon because a) it's necessary, especially in advanced jazz, and b) my singles have gotten so good that I can move to the next step. Doubles are hard because you need more power to do a second turn, but I am definitely going to work on it. Today was just an awesome class because combinations and jumps and turns are just clicking so much better for me. My only things that needed to be corrected were minor imperfections and of course I mixed up left and right again, but I think that's just something I will have to work extra hard at to remember. It's not a lost cause. The arabesques are going better but they need to be higher and straighter and stronger.

Government government government homework...

By Thedad (Thedad) on Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - 07:26 pm: Edit

Doubles (and triples) are as much a function of balance as of power. Or, another way, you need a lot more power if your balance isn't perfect.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - 09:04 pm: Edit

YAY TWINKLE! im glad you were successful. a bunch of friends and i have been going in constantly to complain about our (pathetic excuse for) AP Enviro Sci and i think the administration is finally listening. theres something up when 10 of the top 20 kids are going to their counselors every day and the stupid school finally KNOWS IT.

national merit essay due friday and i have not a clue what im writing about. isnt that awesome....AGHHHHH

talked with the GC today. i had to turn in my "brag sheets" so she could write my recommendation (although she has known me since 7th grade because she used to be a math teacher at my middle school). got interviewed for the county newspaper-press release for NM Semifinalist.

everything is set. i gave her my udpated college list and told her my final plans. my applications sare not doing so well though, but i already have an interview set up with Williams next Thursday. everything is going fairly well. i just need to pick up the pace on my early app. my GC told me today how proud she was of me...it was touching.

no time to talk. i have a 10 minute memorized french presentation to write and memorize, a chapter of french history to read, a long calc bc project, a bio lab to finish, english grammar packet, latin test and AP gov test to study for...and i hope thats it.

eeeeek no sleep for me tonight. i REALLLLLLY need to start fitting in SLEEP, SAT PREP, and COLLEGE APPLICATION TIME into my day or else nothing is ever going to get done.

i honestly think im going to take a sick day sometime next week to get caught up and rested up before the SAT's and get the stuff done that i need to. i cant screw up the SAT's this time.

this college application process is freaking me out more and more by the day.

calc is both beautiful and terrible. i agree. beautiful at how logical everything is. terrible that some of the concepts are hard to grasp. we took a practice AB exam the other day and i got a 20/45 on the multiple choice section...thats like not even a 3 lol. i want to know HOW i got a 5 on the actual exam. i dont feel so bad though because the one girl who is ahead of me in class rank did worse than i did...i think we're both in the same boat-stressed and unable to concentrate

im mad. i forgot to add "+C" on all my indefinite integrals for the 3rd year in a row and missed 4 points on the test.

got on the scale for the first time since early August. dropped 10 lbs. aghhhhhhh i need to eat more and stop freaking out. i have always been the little skinny one (5 feet and 70 lbs in 8th grade...) and i finally gained some weight in high school. nto that i want to be fat, but i enjoy being my somewhere in the middle of thin and average size.

By Twinkletoes696 (Twinkletoes696) on Wednesday, October 01, 2003 - 12:12 am: Edit

My newest battle is going to have the school fix my schedule which is now a royal train wreck... don't like starting people in classes this late in the year.

Well, guess what?? I have to graduate... and the way things got messed up I may end up being short credits. The amount I have now is insufficient for ECs.

But, I came up with a great plan to move things around and add a science class (YAY!! I may get my 4 yr worth after all!!!), and move other classes that I know I can move so it will fit. OMG. I will cry if it doesn't work. I I saw that I have all these stupid study halls THAT I DONT WANT AND LOOK BAD ON MY APPS and got sooo mad/frustrated! So I finally decided, they can't make me go to a study hall full of screaming freshmen so I simply didn't and don't plan on going... I mean a HUGE chunk of one of my days has nothing in it and that's bad. Break, yes- good time to get work done but it's bad to be out of class that much.

Actually, I am going to fight tooth and nail to get that fixed. I am not screwing up my chances for schools, which are already shot as they are as some teachers have kindly pointed out to me anymore than I have to. And I'm not going to let this ruin my class rank. It's the one thing I have left that shows that I have some academic credibility, lol.

Thedad... I think both power and balance need some improvement. My goal is to have a double before Halloween. The most I can get is 1 and a quarter but they will get there. I don't expect a clean double in a month but I really DO need a double at least (they definitely do NOT expect a triple yet, lol) ASAP. I'll let you know how it works out

Sunshine!!! Yay for you guys too!! I love it when the admins finally do listen... I would say that the principals at my school are the best at getting things taken care of so I decided that they are becoming my right arm men, lol. How do you want to change your AP En. Sci class?

My mother told me I have become blase about the whole college app thing. Maybe I have. There is no excitement in it for me anymore, and it just makes me more stressed and upset than anything for a large number of reasons so I try to repress it, but I can't escape it... it's right around the corner. Sigh. She is right though and I'm glad she's making me get cracking on it.

Sleep. Sleep. I miss sleep and I need to get balanced too. 10 pounds... oh man... I swear you are like my twin...j/k. I have lost yet another pound bringing me to a grand total of 92 pounds which is great for dance and I don't LOOK unhealthy but I would want to say that it is. I haven't lost strength though because I've been working out so much, so as long as I stay in this range it will be fine I suppose. I agree, stress is bad for losing weight because it's so unhealthy. We are going to start getting sick soon No sleep + insufficient diet + stress is a good recipe for a crapped out immune system so I think it would be a good idea for you to take a sick day to get caught up AND before you really do get sick. Today is Wednesday though We are almost halfway through the week and we will get through it

I'm almost kicking myself for not being in math anymore just for the sheer fact that I only went up to pre-calc. That looks so dumb, but then I have to weigh the alternative of staying in calc so regardless of what other people say I know in my head that I made the right decision. I'm sick of people telling me that I'm not going to get into any schools because of a lack of physics/ calc. You have no idea of how many times I've heard that in the past week, even from other seniors...the same people who stopped taking foreign language(s) and social sciences or aren't heavily involved in ECs. Yeah, I'm not going anywhere in life because of the choices I made for senior year scheduling, I guess that puts me in the same group as the homeless bum who shoots up in the corner of an alley. (Note my sarcasm). Really, i shouldn't let it get to me but it gets aggravating to hear the same stuff over and over.

But time to finish Spanish grammar (ewww to the subjunctive!) and study for Italian and write part of my English paper... bye guys!


Should I produce a new thread soon?

By Thedad (Thedad) on Wednesday, October 01, 2003 - 02:46 am: Edit

Yeah, Twinkle, I'd start a new thread. Why don't you just assume modest ownership and call it "Twinkle's Thread--Part V." While it's not all about you, you're certainly the central narrative character.

===

Tonight was Back to School night, the 13th and last that I'll ever do. (I don't view Parents' Weekend at college as being the same thing.) D's AP English and Calc BC teachers are absolutely *phenomenal*. Her AP Government teacher is an unimaginative teacher whose greatest stress is on organization--GMAFB--and is not at all inspiring. Her French teacher would drive me nuts...she's Vietnamese and her English is so choppy that you keep waiting for the next burst of 3-4 words and then the next and then the next. D says her French is much better than her English.

English teacher let the cat out of the bag that D and b/f sit on the love seat together (yes, there's a love seat in the English classroom), not that they're the only ones who do so.

Last night she was up until 1:40 doing homework, a new record.

They started rehearsing Mirliton today. She's not going to be one of the soloists; in fact, they cast the Mirliton even stronger than I thought they would (one of the Sugarplums is switching off into it). I think she has a very good chance of being on the side, though...it's only a five-person dance so the visibility is pretty good. Fingers now crossed very very very hard for Center Spanish and maybe the Fairy of the Clouds, Flower demi-solo, etc. D talked very matter of factly last night about the fact that she won't be able to dance as much in college as she has been...college doesn't give you enough time. I think what with National Demerit and college apps she's really made peace with the fact that she's a student who dances as opposed to a dancer who studies.

Sunshine, if it's any consolation, D's application essays are stalled though she's going to be working on them in English class for a few days starting tomorrow.

By Digmedia (Digmedia) on Wednesday, October 01, 2003 - 10:30 am: Edit

Yeah Twinkle... do start another. I don't participate much, but I find the posts very interesting.