No, I have not suddenly skipped multiple grades and gotten myself accepted to a college. But one of the French words for middle school is collège, so you see, I am in college if you interpret it that way.

I've heard several mentions of college recently. The first one was in debate club, which I went to as usual on Wednesday. It's kind of a regular activity of mine now. I still don't really say anything, but I listen to other people's opinions. This week it didn't go that well. People didn't seem particularly interested in any topic, so the topic kept changing. At first it as whether health care should be free for everyone, and then folks starting talking about alcohol and how it's more socially acceptable than smoking even though alcohol is still bad for your health. Someone brought up the point that smoking affects the people around you, but if you're drunk it's not going to damage someone else's liver (at least, I hope not). I think it's because people think alcohol is good for your health, at least, people say red wine has benefits. But I still don't approve of wine. When I ask my dad what it's like, he says it's like grape juice except with alcohol, but then, couldn't you just drink grape juice? (And I hear that liquor has a bitter taste. I don't understand why you would want it.)

Then my old teacher, whose classroom the debate club is held in, noticed a girl. She is a regular to the debate club, and that day, she happened to be wearing a college sweatshirt. (I believe it was a UC Berkeley shirt, but I can't be sure) The teacher asked her, "What are you doing wearing a Berkeley sweatshirt? Look at her, the girl who has been saying she's going to go to Harvard." Apparently it was a sibling's sweatshirt. "So you're supporting a sibling? Clearly an inferior sibling..." (Berkeley isn't a bad college, but I suppose Harvard is still considered harder to get into) "I've gotta get a picture of this." The teacher whipped out his cell phone and was trying to take a picture of the girl wearing a Berkeley sweatshirt, but she kept hiding it. My teacher called for back-up, which happened to be one of my friends. She ran over and kind of half-tackled the girl, and the teacher managed to snap a picture. "Not very good, but I think you can tell it was her," he remarked.

Later that week, my history teacher (let's refer to him as JB, it's tiresome having to say "my teacher" every time) told us about his college times. He said that there were three floors on his dorm building. The first floor was filled with guys and the second and third floor were filled with girls (which was pretty nice for a freshman, so he said). JB says that when you go to college, you fill out a form with who you want to be with as a roommate. Either you can name a specific name (if you have someone in mind already) or you can describe what kind of person you're looking for or what kind of person you DON'T want. JB was pretty much fine with anything but he did say he wanted a non-smoker. But most of the people in his dorm building are smokers, so he ended up with a guy called Doros from the island of Cyprus who is 24 years old because he had to serve in the Greek military.

There are a variety of people in JB's dorm, but he says they all kind of got along, despite their differences. He had a friend by the name Sid (or is it Syd? I have no idea, but I'm guessing). One day Sid asked him for a favor. He wouldn't tell JB what it was, but he told JB to take a nap, and then be awake at a certain time. So JB did as he was told and took a nap. Then Sid barged in and said, "Are you ready? ...Could you put on some nice clothes, like slacks and dress shoes?" JB replied, "No, I don't have anything like that." Sid sighed. "Fine, that'll do." Sid had gathered a total of 12 people for this favor. Sid knew someone who was a valet, and his friend had called him, saying that they needed 12 more valets for a party at the W hotel in Los Angeles because some valets had just canceled. So the college students went to Los Angeles to be valets for the night.

Out of a total of 40 or so valets, only 6 of them, including JB, knew how to drive stick shift. JB had been arguing with the others earlier over whether the tips should be split evenly or if everyone should keep their own tips. Now JB's decision to keep his own tips was coming in handy. He had more opportunities to make money since 34 people could drive with automatic only. The first car that came up was taken by him. It was a Jaguar (I forget what kind exactly), which had been JB's dream car. He said that he didn't have pictures of girls in his room - he had pictures of cars like that Jaguar. The old gentleman who owned the car said to JB, "If you crash this car, I'll kill you." JB responded, "Oh, don't worry, if I crash this car, I'll kill myself." Unfortunately, the story ended there because the bell rang.

Labels: alcohol, berkeley, car, college, cyprus, debate club, driving, french, harvard, jaguar, middle school, party, siblings, smoking, stick shift, sweatshirt, teacher, tips, valet, w hotel

My beautiful orchids are reaching their demise. I used to have three of them. One was purple, one was a lighter purple, and this one is white. The plants are still alive but the flowers have fallen off. They've kept their petals for at least a couple of months, but now they're shriveling up! Maybe I should try to get the seeds if possible, and fertilize them, and then plant them in a new pot. The problem is, orchids take a lot of time and patience to raise. After all, I heard it takes 5 years for them to reach their mature, beautiful look that people prize. It's hard to believe they are so cheap at the farmers market and flea market.

I need to put a stop to my dad's evil schemes. My mom went grocery shopping and she came back with a pack of Bud Light beer. I got really mad at my mom since I disapprove of my dad drinking alcohol (yeah, I know, beer doesn't have that much compared to whiskey, brandy, and stuff like that, but still). Then my mom said if she didn't buy it for him he'd buy it himself for a bad price. No wonder my dad has a Computer Science major instead of Economics, he isn't exactly a bargain shopper.

One time I managed to foil his plotting. I saw that he'd bought some cigarettes, he said it was because a colleague wanted them, but I was feeling doubtful, so I secretly snuck off with them and hid them. My dad and mom are displeased with me but I don't even remember where I put it so if they torture me (like they did in the Spanish inquisition if they thought people were hiding something) I won't be able to reveal anything.

I'd like some suggestions for my next blog theme. I was thinking something seasonal or anime-related, but who knows. (I already have some blogskin users bookmarked so that I can easily access some spiffy layouts) Seeing as I am too lazy to make an image and code a blog layout I figure I will have to use a pre-made. So if you have an idea of what to look for, please let me know in the Cbox. ;)

My mom thinks that bikers are weird. Whenever we drive to piano class on Sunday, we always see a bunch of bikers. The male ones usually wear this odd biking outfit which flaps a little when they go fast. They all look like they have sharks or pieces of rock on their heads because of the helmets. Because they keep biking even in the blazing hot sun, my mom thinks they're really addicted and perhaps have no life. I was kind of jealous of them, actually, since they seem happy and they make friends because they have a "common hobby".

Here's today's lesson. Last time the whole post was basically me lecturing about Apocalypse type happenings. This time I want to point out the difference between principal and principle. I have noticed some people write principle when they are talking about the school headmaster. It seems like no one paid attention in Mrs. Weber's third grade class. :( Anyhow, here's the difference between them.
PRINCIPLE - This is basically a guideline or idea which people generally accept. For instance, a person could have good moral principles.
PRINCIPAL - Someone who is the head, for instance, a school. Don't forget, he is your pal! (That's a cheesy phrase I heard somewhere. XD)

Labels: addiction, alcohol, beer, bike, cigarette, flowers, hide, language, lesson, orchid, principal, principle, purchase

One of my friends always needs to be occupied somehow. If she's not kept busy she will descend upon your belongings. I have managed to appease her with a book but who knows what will happen tomorrow because I have finished that book and won't be bringing it to school again. D: Lately I have been working on something called a budget project, in which you make up four or five people to create a family, and then have to use a certain amount of money to rent a house, get a car and furniture, find a job, and feed and clothe all of the people. I am in charge of the food, so I have been looking over grocery coupons and fliers to try to find deals. (All the same, I ended up spending hundreds of dollars XD) Whenever I leave my pencil case out my friend starts rifling through it, or she takes the scissors and cuts up scraps of paper, or she "blows up" my backpack (as it is a roller backpack, that is basically pushing down the lever when it is up). I don't mind too much as long as she doesn't cause any serious trouble, but still I must be sure to keep a secure hold on my belongings.

Another friend of mine is less restless in comparison, but still enjoys poking around. She is a fan of sharp things, so she likes inspecting people's teeth. I think she ought to be a dentist or something. She likes swords, too, particularly katana swords. And if I have noodles as part of my lunch, if I give her permission, she uses the fork to separate the carrots and olives from the noodles, and then sorts the noodles by color (green, beige, and orange). Actually, the lunch looks more artistic that way, but not very appetizing.

Anyhow, as the blog post's title mentions dogs, I figure I ought to talk about them, namely the chihuahua (pronounced "Chi-wa-wa"). Back in fifth grade I remember my teacher would pronounce it the way it looked, so he called it "Chi-hoo-a-hoo-a". I thought of them since my history teacher mentioned it. (Yes, my history teacher is rather talkative...) The name actually means rat dog. My teacher doesn't like them since they are small and might even try to attack you, they bark so much and in a high-pitched way. He only likes the ones that are lazy and don't do much. He should probably get a cat, then, and not one of the hyper young'uns.

This week has been STAR testing week. STAR stands for Standardized Testing and Reporting. It's the annual test for all California students from second grade to eighth grade. (I presume that once you reach high school you can only take finals and SATs or something.) The eighth graders have six days of testing, but we only have four. The school class schedule is messed up now. We have a testing period that's practically two hours, and then thirty minute periods. It feels odd. I also have less homework (I've already done it, mostly, so I just have the budget project and a PE muscle drawing right now) and I fear I will lose my time management abilities because of the weirdness of school.

Lately at school the PE teachers have been discussing drugs, alcohol, and smoking. The first day we started going over it, my PE teacher asked us to separate to the two sides of the gym depending on whether we were affected by tobacco or not (meaning someone in our family smoked, or something like that). I should've gone to the Affected side, since several male relatives of mine like to blow some smoke. Then Mr. Robinson announced he was giving us a sermon (no, not the religious kind) called "How to Be a Loser". He said the very first step is to hang out behind 7-11, because there is bushes and stuff there so people can illegally smoke cigarettes. My teacher said he was very disappointed since one day he was jogging and saw a girl who used to be one of his star students, doing a rather suspicious activity back there. She pretended nothing was going on and said hello to Mr. Robinson, but he didn't reply, having seen the smoke billowing out from behind her back.

Labels: alcohol, belongings, chihuahua, Dogs, drugs, friends, lecture, noodles, projects, restless, smoking, state testing, teeth

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