Yes, you've guessed right, this post has to do with yearbooks. Or rather, my lack of one.

Before this year I had always purchased the yearbook each year. I have the whole collection from my life as a student from kindergarten up through middle school. But this time, for once, I didn't buy one.

The only way to buy a yearbook at my school, or at least the easiest way, is to buy a certain membership card. This card grants you access to the dances at this school, and it comes with a yearbook as well. However, at the beginning of the year, since I decided I had no interest in attending dances, I didn't buy the card. I'd been hoping there'd be some way for me to just waltz up and purchase a yearbook, but I'd heard rumors that if you wanted a yearbook now, you would have to buy the card to get one. The card isn't exactly cheap, either, and I eventually made up my mind not to buy it.

I am a bit regretful now, as the yearbook looks quite nice (and heavy too! Lots of pages, certainly more than my middle and elementary school yearbooks). Though I did get creeped out at one point...I was flipping through someone else's yearbook and saw the page for the boy's swim team. They were all naked except for their Speedos. Not really what I want to look at.

I do wish, too, that I had brought along something for my friends and teachers to sign. One of my friends makes her own tiny books just for signatures. It's quite cute, and even has a few of her drawings on some of the pages (she's really good at drawing...too bad her scanner is broken D: ). She offered to make one for me next year, so I'm looking forward to that.

The yearbook that I'm really impressed by the most, though, is the one that another friend of mine has. She brought her old yearbook from when she lived in Korea. It's very fancy - there are very nice photos, such as of the school and of the places the students went on field trips. Even the students have their own individual photos, not like the ones we have in yearbooks around here. The students get to pose, and the photo shows not just their head but also their torso, so you can actually see what clothes they're wearing. They also have a nice background full of green bokeh. Looks like the students actually got to have their yearbook pictures taken outdoors. Not like the photos that have been taken of me each year: me sitting stiffly and tilting my head, pasting on a fake smile, with a lame bluish-greyish backdrop behind me.

I mean, really. Take a look at the yearbooks from the schools I've been to. We just get a headshot, and the photo is small. All the students pictures are lined up side by side in neat rows. Our names are in a column at the side of the pictures, so it takes a moment to match up each name and face. As for my friend's yearbook from her school in Korea, the pictures are bigger, and the name of each person is just beneath his/her picture. It's easier to get a feel for each person's individuality. I wish the yearbooks of the schools around where I live weren't so...impersonal. It makes me feel like I'm just one of many clones. Only identifiable by the 7-digit ID number assigned to me by the school.

Well, to end, I have some videos to share (though they're totally unrelated to yearbooks). This is a Matryoshka/Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica crossover. For some reason I found it highly amusing.


Here, I just like the mustaches. XD

Labels: card, comparison, contrast, dance, drawing, friends, korea, membership, money, personal, photos, school, sign, speedo, swim team, uniformity, yearbook

Recently we had an event at my school called Kennedy's Best Dance Crew. This is like the actual TV show - people choreograph moves and then dance in front of the school to the beat of music. (I haven't actually watched America's Best Dance Crew, but oh well.) Our school day had a wacky schedule on Friday because of the show. There were many dance crews.
No Parking Here Males wearing caps and shirts that have a P in a circle with a slash on it. (like those no U turn or no smoking signs) I guess they were okay, but I didn't find them very interesting.
Epic Phail Females wearing a white shirt with a vest and a skirt. They were kind of blah. Hence the name (though I don't think they intended it to be a literal description). I don't want to put them down, though, should they be unhappy about it.
Purple Pixies Females wearing a pinkish purplish (I wouldn't call it purple, but it's not exactly pink. Maybe fushcia? Violet? Magenta? Aubergine? etc.) shirts and either skirts or pants (I think it was pants, but I don't remember any longer). They weren't that interesting either. I guess they're just so-so. Though a few of them were able to do cartwheels and stuff.
J-Walkers If you don't know, Jay walking is a crime, apparently. It's when you don't cross the street using the crosswalks. Anyhow, this was an all girl group. They all have white shirts with a colored J on it, and pants that were also colored. They were energetic, so I liked them.
Medical Tape Males wearing aqua blue jackets and jeans, I think. They had some cool moves. They were very popular since after the show a lot of people talked about voting for them. (I heard someone called them Duct Tape, though...)

Oh yeah, and we had three judges.
Joseph I think that was his name. He was a guy who said nice things. That's about it.
Shannon She said nice things, mostly about the clothing the people wore. I thought they were judging the dancing, not the outfits. (I mean, yeah, it does matter, but not very much.)
Paula Abdul I think you might know who she is if you watch American Idol. Not the real Paula - an imposter! Judging by the voice I suspect it is a certain PE teacher at my school. Wow, they let him crossdress. How miserable for him. He said nice things, too. (I guess they all have to.

Here are the hosts, security, and joke acts.
Hungarian Ballet Troupe Not a real ballet troupe, it's probably two counselors or teachers dressed up. I think one of them is probably Ms. Crowe, but no guarantees. They were dancing at first until a teacher burst on stage and told them they were supposed to be hosting, not actually dancing. They are pretty amusing. One of the two always says things like, "I don't know about that. When you do this thing, it looks like you want to throw up," or "I don't know about that. When you do this thing, you look like a chicken," or "I don't know about that. When you do this thing, you look like a robot, and I had a scary dream about robots last night." The other person always says, "IT GOOD!" or "YOU'RE GOOD!" in an odd accent.
Security This consists of Mr. Moustakas, the woodshop teacher, and Mr. Robinson, a PE teacher. (They look alike, actually, since they both wear basketball shorts and a white shirt, and neither has that much hair on their heads) When summoned, they run onto the stage and take away any offending people.
Two Boys I forget their names. I think one was Akitas. He bribed the hosts to let him perform. The first act they did was that the two ran around the stage with pretty streamers. One of the boys was wearing a strange rainbowy lit up thing. The second time only one boy performed. He wore a banana suit and kept shaking something (sticks? batons? maracas? something like that) to a song that goes "Peanut Butter Jelly Time!". He fainted and was dragged away by his partner. The last time was when one of them dressed up as Chico, the cougar school mascot, and wore a red dress on top of it. They played "Lady in Red" on the speakers. The two boys were dancing (one boy was pretending that he thought it was Chico, not someone inside) but then Chico's head came off, and the boy jumped away in disgust. Anyhow, it was pretty amusing.

I would say it was all pretty cool except for one thing - THE MUSIC IS WAY TOO LOUD. It's a good thing I wasn't sitting in the front of the room or I would be deaf. You can feel the ground pulsing just slightly. One of my friends had her hands over her ears because it was so loud. I would've done that too but I thought it might be rude.

Labels: crews, dance, deaf, funny, host, humor, joke, judge, kennedy's best dance crew, loud, music, security, show, stage

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