This past Monday was my first day back at school. It wouldn't have been much of a concern normally, but this time I was moving up to high school for the first time. I really had no idea what to expect. I knew it would be more tiring, considering that more is expected of a student as they age (and also seeing that I have 7 classes, not 6, this year), but I certainly had not expected it to be THAT bad.

I didn't really take any summer classes this year, nor was I particularly diligent about my studies at home. I did do some work in my geometry textbook, took an SAT practice test, and looked over some vocab cards, but I pretty much didn't touch algebra at all over the summer, and I quickly came to regret it. I couldn't remember much of the operations that had come so easily to me before. I was really frustrated and also angry at myself. I really shouldn't have assumed that I would still remember something that I learned a year or two ago. I thought it was like being able to swim, or ride a bike, that you wouldn't forget it quickly. Boy, was I wrong.

I expected that I would have less free time than before, but that I would at least be able to go on a few websites for a while. Maybe about twenty minutes a day for that. But I found that if I spent time doing things besides homework, I might not finish my homework until past 9 pm, and sometimes even later. I have to focus on my homework without the distractions of the computer or it simply won't get done. The teachers often assign a lot of homework but only give one day to finish it. There hasn't been all that much teaching going on, either. I know that I am expected to become independent eventually and that leaving more work for us to do on our own is a step on the way to that, but I miss having clearer instructions from the teachers and actually getting a reasonable time period to finish homework.

I wonder if perhaps I am the only one, or one of few, who is struggling with it. I guess I'm not used to efficiency (or maybe I never had enough time management skills to begin with) after a summer of relaxation and slacking off. It wasn't until the weekend that I found I had the chance to resume my normal activities on the Internet. And even then I feel uneasy while I am taking such breaks because I feel like I ought to be studying or getting ahead on homework (which I really don't feel like doing). I figure I'll probably get used to it, but I still feel disheartened thinking about the time I still have left in high school. There are still four years to go, and I've already become a hermit who rarely socializes but instead spends lunch, brunch, any free moments in class, and the whole evening doing homework. I'm hoping that either the workload will be lessened or that I'll develop speed as the year goes on (though the former doesn't seem likely, so I suppose I have to hope that I'll learn to manage my time).

Labels: algebra, break, clarity, first day, forget, high school, homework, lazy, socialization, struggle, summer, time management

I haven't posted in a while on this blog. I guess I've been busier this school year than I ever expected it to be. I was told eighth grade was a harder year by far but seeing as seventh grade was such a lax year for me, this is really a change. I have to get used to it again or I will lose all semblance of free time except for on weekends.

I'm already beginning to worry because I had some pretty unfortunate luck in science class. I was assigned the very first of the presentation days for my Current Events this trimester. Basically, Current Events is where you pick a newspaper article or something, and then you write about it and give a speech. Except in this case it has to be science related. I have a pretty good idea what article I'm going to use, but seeing as I have only until September 8th to get everything together, it's stressful. Also, I'm not very good at public speaking so I'm afraid my lack of charisma will result in a worse grade. I mean, in the past I have rocked on my feet from nervousness or missed some crucial part of the presentation or something along those lines.

As for the blog title, what I mean is that if you don't touch something for a while, dust collects on it. Like corners of my piano. The little parts at the very left and right sides of your piano keys, well, you never really put your hand there so there's dust on it. I had better make sure mold and dust and such doesn't grow on my blog.

I'd appreciate if you all let me know if the blog's layout is working out right for you. Sometimes the header and background image don't show up so the layout looks all weird and you can't see things like the navigation. And when you view certain pages, since I wrote too much, the scrollbar looks like it's cutting off the text. I'm going to try and fix it if I get the chance. Anyhow, if you can't see the navigation, try highlighting the page with your cursor (the arrow or whatever thing you have on the computer screen that you use to click on things) until you can see the stars. (I will see about changing them to text, maybe it'll be easier to navigate that way as well.)

Today my language arts teacher and class were supposed to sing the birthday song to me and another classmate of mine. Our birthdays are in August (more specifically the 5th) but since we have summer birthdays we have to celebrate during the school year instead. However, we didn't have enough time in class and so I didn't receive my head of the line pass or get sung to. I don't really care about that but I worry that maybe the teacher has trouble managing time or something. (Or perhaps it's just because it's Wednesday, a short day.) It's a good thing I have brunch right after language arts class.

Labels: birthday, busy, current events, dust, eighth grade, language arts, layout, middle school, navigation, problem, public speaking, science, speech, summer, time management

Today was a pretty unimportant day. It passed in a flash and before I knew it somehow I had walked myself home and called my mom. I tried turning on the speaker on my cell phone and playing piano for her since it must be really boring stuck in an office cubicle all day. Unfortunately, some of her co-workers came in and she hung up, but I didn't notice because I was busy making a big racket on the piano...

I spent too long attempting to replace the furniture in one of the houses in the Sims 2, so I didn't have enough time to spend on the computer doing other things like posting in the Nutrinopets forums and replying to all my comments on Crunchyroll...I guess from now on I need to manage my time better. Then I saw my mom was looking at Google maps so I went and clicked on the images on it and looked at the national parks.

Anyhow, tomorrow I have a busy day because Stanford is having some sort of day where they are letting you take classes (for a price!). I am going to take two afternoon classes so I have to the library in the morning and I won't get any free time until the evening rolls around. But at least I get to visit my favorite college again!

Labels: cell phone, college, crunchyroll, furniture, google maps, music, nutrinopets, piano, sims 2, speakers, splash, stanford, time, time management

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