For homework, I was reading the Declaration of Independence (well, I have no idea if the whole thing is in there, considering how the textbook skips various events in history). There was a phrase in the Declaration, saying that the colonies of the America were separating from Britain and so they would now have the same relationship with Britain as they did with the rest of the world - "Enemies in war, in peace friends". The grammar does sound a little odd. But then again, back then the writing was a lot different. D: I wonder, though, when you fight with someone, would be you be enemies with them automatically, and then be friends again as soon as you stopped fighting? (But I guess the relationship between two larger bodies, like countries, might be different than the relationship between two people)

I learned something curious about my history teacher just the other day. I usually arrive a bit early for class, and since it's cold outside, I go inside and sit down and start getting ready, or I read a book. My teacher was sitting, staring at the screen of his laptop. I thought all was as normal, but suddenly he started talking. "Crossyourfingerscrossyourfingers... Awww!" he said, among other things. One of the students, who was just walking in, was freaked out and backed away. A person already in the room told my teacher, "Uh, you scared ____ away." (I use underscores to keep the person's name private) The teacher seemed unperturbed, saying, "That happens." So then the other student told the one who had gotten intimidated, "It's okay, _____, he wasn't talking to you, he was talking to his computer."

The teacher explained what he was talking about. See, apparently he likes to play fantasy football (basically like fantasy golf, which is like gambling, sort of, it's not a video game or anything). He had the choice of either a very good player who was facing a good defender, or a not-so-good player who was facing a bad defender. He went with the not-so-good player, which was a mistake, since the very good player scored 4 points and threw the ball quite far but the not-so-good player didn't throw so far, had a fumble (not that I really understand football terminology, but oh well) and only scored 1 point. My teacher sighed and said, "There go my perfect rankings this week." (Wow, I guess even people of different generations - my dad, and my teacher, who is quite a bit younger than my dad - can have similar interests)

I've taken to using a whiteboard that I bought some time ago. I've had the whiteboard for a year or two already, but I didn't use it much before, besides occasionally copying Chinese characters whenever I saw them onto the board. Now I've started writing things that I need to do at the bottom of the whiteboard. This way things actually get done, and though I still procrastinate, I don't put things off as much as before. I'm glad to be able to put my whiteboard to use. (The only problem is that the markers smell kind of nasty when you use them a lot)

We've moved on from lacrosse in PE. I really liked lacrosse, so I'm sad that we're not doing it anymore. I'm scared of "missiles" flying toward me, and so I have trouble in ultimate frisbee and volleyball, which are sports where you have to react quickly to catch or hit dangerous objects. At least in lacrosse you are armed with a net/stick/whatever you call it and so it gives me a feeling of some sort of security. I keep thinking of the lacrosse net as a bug-catching net, though, so when I saw a butterfly I tried to catch it. I actually snagged it by covering it on the ground, but then it flew out of a hole in the net. Grr. Oh well. Butterflies don't live that long anyhow and it would have a miserable life if I actually caught it and took it home, unless I were to release in my backyard.

Labels: britain, bugs, butterfly, colonies, declaration of independence, enemies, england, fantasy football, fantasy golf, fear, friends, lacrosse, PE class, peace, sports, to do list, war, whiteboard

...Actually, now that I think of it, that isn't true. But oh well. Some of the tulip bulbs we planted back in late 2008 have started shooting up through the dirt. It's like magic. I think we planted 25 of them, though I don't know if all 25 of them will live to have those beautiful flowers. (One of the places we planted a bulb is just a hole now. Maybe a squirrel or bird dug it up, somehow. I didn't think they ate tulip bulbs, but who knows.)

I was attempting to learn the numbers and a few characters in Chinese. Mostly it all looks like random dashes and lines to me, but I guess that's just the way the language is. I always got confused between the characters for 5 and 9. I'll figure it out eventually, I suppose. I use my whiteboard to practice. (It's hard if you use a bad quality marker, though...Make sure to use new whiteboard markers if possible. Not too dry and not too watery.)

Today, I want to spend some money, for some reason. It's probably bad, especially considering these economic times, but I haven't bought anything for myself (besides food) for a few months. Since I have free time this weekend, maybe I should ask my parents if I can go to Nordstrom or some other place I like.

I tried some strawberry milk this morning. It tastes okay, though the flavor is not familiar to me. I prefer smoothies or yogurt to strawberry milk, personally.

My dad seems to have a lot of free time. He's always watching movies or lurking on a Chinese forum. He doesn't even have an account on that site, yet he's still able to view the forums. I thought that was weird, that he always just reads posts and looks at celebrity pictures but never posts...He's a talkative guy, so I thought he would be like that on the Internet, too.

Anyhow, right now, the TV is on (even though no one is watching it) and the channel is the Golf Channel. We have an inside joke at my house where I say "The Golf Channel would be the best channel if it didn't have golf on it." Golf is such a slow-paced sport, sometimes they film ducks flying overhead instead of filming the players.

My parents sometimes worry about being laid off. I guess my mom's company would rather lay off workers than cut activities. My mom's "group" at work played lawn bowling to celebrate when they finished a "project"...Guess they still have enough money for that, and for eating at restaurants that are at least much better than the school's reheatable food. My mom says she's busy at work, too, since she has to type a weird code, and is constantly visited by people, but it's actually not true. One of her group members visited my mom's cubicle just to tell her that there was free pizza. Then the two of them were gone in a flash. (I always knew my mom likes the crusts on pizza, but...)

Labels: career, golf, leisure, lurk, mandarin, milk, money, nordstrom, pizza, reading, thief, time, tulips, whiteboard

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