Whoo hoo. Third day third day! I seem to be obsessed with actually posting three times in a row. I've mentioned it in 66.6666666% of my posts. I mean, I must be committed. Ah look I made a pun.
Any-who, now that I've posted three times, at the same time, in a row, I should be able to post everyday, without missing a day. Even if the post is lackluster and boring, I will have posted nonetheless. It helps that Google Chrome opens up every day to my blog so that I have to face myself each time I go online to procrastinate. Which is often. Very often.
I have a research paper outline to type up by tomorrow morning. This is going to be such a fun night for me! *Le Sigh* I'll get over it. Sleep is for the weak, yadayadayada... The one good thing about this paper is that I've been reading so much more because of it. And it's making me read thing I wouldn't usually read, like plays. I never would read a play for fun. But now I've gone through 6 of Edward Albee's plays (since my RP is all about "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (I am George, I am)) and it's amazing. LOVE THE SANDBOX. Who am I? I don't even know anymore (and two days ago I sounded so confident as to who I was/am).
I don't feel like making a super long post. Tomorrow is Thursday, which means that Friday comes afterwards. I have a love/hate relationship with Rebecca Black. Obviously I love to hate her. A deep analysis of her song is planned for Friday.
Love me?
Dan
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
The Second Day. In which I miraculously write again and tell you everything wrong with the US Education system.
Doesn't that title sound lofty? Well, it is, but I shall rise to the challenge.
As a TL;DR, here's my argument. Teachers get shit pay. The education system is flawed. Kids suck at learning. College is a business.
First off, an analogy. Imagine that school is just a giant slide. The ladder up is school, and after school you can go down that big, fun, exciting slide that is the rest of your adult life. I mean, I can't wait to get the chance to go down this extraordinary slide right now. But that's just it, I probably never will. I'm going to climb for 6 years of elementary school, and then 3 more or middle school and then another 4 years of high school climbing will commence. By this time my arms are tired from hoisting myself up for so long and pushing too hard. Just to go down this lousy slide. But here's the best part: If I want to be able to fully enjoy my slide-ride, I should probably get a job. Which requires a degree. Which requires, at the very least, another 4 years of college. BUT WAIT! I don't just get to enter into college, oh no, that would be too easy. I, along with the rest of the graduating high school class, must test/apply/beg to get into a college that will prepare me for my slide-ride. Or at least, prepare me for graduate school. Oh, did I forget to mention that in this day of inflated grades and inflated degrees, to get a job that used to require an undergraduate degree I really need a post-grad or doctorate level degree? Oh I didn't, did I. Let's add an extra 3 to 8 years onto that ladder climb. Feels more like a hike now doesn't it. Right now that is a total of anywhere from 16 - 24 years of schooling, coming out with a doctorate somewhere around age 30.
But that doesn't even begin to cover what they teach in school. I'm not bashing any curricula, I'm dead set against how they teach. In elementary school they teach to prepare students to middle school, in middle you prep for high school, and for 4 years of high school you are trained to get into a good college, because heaven knows college is the gate to a good job. Never are you taught how to think, or how to be creative, or even how to learn. Instead, we are stiffed and taught how to survive in a new school environment that we "can't possibly be ready for". I mean, without the help of these awesome schools, we all would definitely all just fail in school, right?
School should teach us to learn, and should foster a passion for something, anything. Unfortunately this is extremely hard, as trying to get each student to be interested in something and then actually have them go and actively pursue their knowledge is difficult. Kids are lazy. And if they are lazy for the most part, why should a teacher want to help? It's really a multi piece problem: the system itself is flawed, but lazy students don't lend themselves to change or a changing system. In the end teachers get hurt while athletes get millions of dollars for running (can you feel my disdain?)
On a completely different note, I've been reading some good books this past few weeks. "A Novel Bookstore" by Laurence Cosse. Excellent book translated from French to English. You'll get more out of it if you know basic Paris geography. Know what they mean if the narrator is talking about the arrondisment. Also, a Zombie Novel called "Allison Hewitt is Trapped" by Madeline Roux. I enjoyed it and read all 3xx pages in like 2 days. "The Handmaid's Tale" we read in class in English and I absolutely loved it. Get out there and read it.
That's all for today. Tomorrow I go and concur the "Three Day Hill" in which I hopefully write for a full three days in a row and make blogging a part of my daily ritual (as Facebook and procrastinating are now!).
Good Night, Good Light.
Dan
As a TL;DR, here's my argument. Teachers get shit pay. The education system is flawed. Kids suck at learning. College is a business.
First off, an analogy. Imagine that school is just a giant slide. The ladder up is school, and after school you can go down that big, fun, exciting slide that is the rest of your adult life. I mean, I can't wait to get the chance to go down this extraordinary slide right now. But that's just it, I probably never will. I'm going to climb for 6 years of elementary school, and then 3 more or middle school and then another 4 years of high school climbing will commence. By this time my arms are tired from hoisting myself up for so long and pushing too hard. Just to go down this lousy slide. But here's the best part: If I want to be able to fully enjoy my slide-ride, I should probably get a job. Which requires a degree. Which requires, at the very least, another 4 years of college. BUT WAIT! I don't just get to enter into college, oh no, that would be too easy. I, along with the rest of the graduating high school class, must test/apply/beg to get into a college that will prepare me for my slide-ride. Or at least, prepare me for graduate school. Oh, did I forget to mention that in this day of inflated grades and inflated degrees, to get a job that used to require an undergraduate degree I really need a post-grad or doctorate level degree? Oh I didn't, did I. Let's add an extra 3 to 8 years onto that ladder climb. Feels more like a hike now doesn't it. Right now that is a total of anywhere from 16 - 24 years of schooling, coming out with a doctorate somewhere around age 30.
But that doesn't even begin to cover what they teach in school. I'm not bashing any curricula, I'm dead set against how they teach. In elementary school they teach to prepare students to middle school, in middle you prep for high school, and for 4 years of high school you are trained to get into a good college, because heaven knows college is the gate to a good job. Never are you taught how to think, or how to be creative, or even how to learn. Instead, we are stiffed and taught how to survive in a new school environment that we "can't possibly be ready for". I mean, without the help of these awesome schools, we all would definitely all just fail in school, right?
School should teach us to learn, and should foster a passion for something, anything. Unfortunately this is extremely hard, as trying to get each student to be interested in something and then actually have them go and actively pursue their knowledge is difficult. Kids are lazy. And if they are lazy for the most part, why should a teacher want to help? It's really a multi piece problem: the system itself is flawed, but lazy students don't lend themselves to change or a changing system. In the end teachers get hurt while athletes get millions of dollars for running (can you feel my disdain?)
On a completely different note, I've been reading some good books this past few weeks. "A Novel Bookstore" by Laurence Cosse. Excellent book translated from French to English. You'll get more out of it if you know basic Paris geography. Know what they mean if the narrator is talking about the arrondisment. Also, a Zombie Novel called "Allison Hewitt is Trapped" by Madeline Roux. I enjoyed it and read all 3xx pages in like 2 days. "The Handmaid's Tale" we read in class in English and I absolutely loved it. Get out there and read it.
That's all for today. Tomorrow I go and concur the "Three Day Hill" in which I hopefully write for a full three days in a row and make blogging a part of my daily ritual (as Facebook and procrastinating are now!).
Good Night, Good Light.
Dan
Monday, April 4, 2011
A post to get things rolling; An Introduction in which we meet our protagonists.
Hello all,
You all deserve to know who I am if i expect you all to keep reading. I am a kid, a teenager on the cusp of graduating from one school being shuttled to another one. I have a few names, if that makes sense. I know it doesn't but I'll explain. My given name is Daniel, and I like that name. Dan, Daniel, Danny. Ok, I don't really like Danny but the other two are fair game. Dan is my family name; it's the name my close family call me or my very early friends or my newly made friends. Any friends made in the last two years of high school or in elementary school will call me Dan.
Now I said before that I have a few names. Another one is Wendi. Yes Wendi, with an i. And I know what you're thinking right now. Something along the lines of "how gay is this kid to be called by a stupid girls name?" Actually I hope most of you don't think that but there might be some of you I've pegged to a tee. Others of you probably don't care and think I'm some sort of loon to pay this much attention to names. Well I think names are powerful and have a lot of meaning. Anyways. I got this name in middle school from a friend. Most people who call me Wendi don't actually know where it comes from. They just see me as a big friendly guy with a disarming name so it's easy to make friends with me. The name actually stemmed from playing a prank on a substitute in sixth grade. My friend talia switched names with Sara, and since neither could remember that they actually switched names we ended up calling them tsara and stalia. I didn't have anyone to swith with so talia dubbed me Wendy. I changed it to be Wendi with an i to really own the name. It's different with a nickname. You get the Power to decide your own name for once so you'd better not screw it up. Wendi ended up fusing with part of Dan and thus created wendidani, probably my favorite Internet name I have. And this conveniently leads into my last and newest name:
Xince. It's the newest identity I have. It's a little silly, but it's my online gaming name and general forum name. I got it from a random generator. I know, how out of my control is that? But I owned Xince, and now it's mine.
Whenever I don one of these names I take on an entirely different personality. Daniel is more reserved, Wendi is outgoing but still unsure of his own skin sometimes, and Xince will rush into battle to save comrades or fight a war on the forums with his array of words. I know, how weird does it get? And ive only told you about my names, you have no idea who or what I am. Here comes allllll that.
I am eighteen as of this moment, closer to being nineteen than I'd like to be. I am gay and have known this since I was eleven and have been out since I was either thirteen or fourteen. It's a wonderful feelng to fInally come out; you have no idea how long you've been holding your breath until you finally breathe again. I have a great family that supported and still supports me. I'd be lost without my mom, dad, and sister. I'll refer to them as sister, mother, and dad or something like that; I'm not willing to give everyone with Internet access to their names. Much too valuable information. I have awesome friends. I take hard subjects in school and do pretty well in tem. Well, all but ap physics. I need to do something about that... Anyways. I am starting/started this blog as a sort of diary where everyone can read it. It's a inconspicuous little piece of the giant collection of tubes that is the interwebs. As long as I'm not some amazing writer who is amazingly fascimaging, that should happen. I love video games. Lovelovelove them. Escpecially jrpgs. I probably made friends wih that comment. I cannot stand fps though. I probably made more enemies with that statement. Oh well. It's my choice.
This is my life. You're reading it. In the next installment we see Daniel face off against the American education system and his high school career, as well as some good books he has read in his schooling career. Sounds like a fun time and you'd be crazy to miss it.
Thanks.
Dan
You all deserve to know who I am if i expect you all to keep reading. I am a kid, a teenager on the cusp of graduating from one school being shuttled to another one. I have a few names, if that makes sense. I know it doesn't but I'll explain. My given name is Daniel, and I like that name. Dan, Daniel, Danny. Ok, I don't really like Danny but the other two are fair game. Dan is my family name; it's the name my close family call me or my very early friends or my newly made friends. Any friends made in the last two years of high school or in elementary school will call me Dan.
Now I said before that I have a few names. Another one is Wendi. Yes Wendi, with an i. And I know what you're thinking right now. Something along the lines of "how gay is this kid to be called by a stupid girls name?" Actually I hope most of you don't think that but there might be some of you I've pegged to a tee. Others of you probably don't care and think I'm some sort of loon to pay this much attention to names. Well I think names are powerful and have a lot of meaning. Anyways. I got this name in middle school from a friend. Most people who call me Wendi don't actually know where it comes from. They just see me as a big friendly guy with a disarming name so it's easy to make friends with me. The name actually stemmed from playing a prank on a substitute in sixth grade. My friend talia switched names with Sara, and since neither could remember that they actually switched names we ended up calling them tsara and stalia. I didn't have anyone to swith with so talia dubbed me Wendy. I changed it to be Wendi with an i to really own the name. It's different with a nickname. You get the Power to decide your own name for once so you'd better not screw it up. Wendi ended up fusing with part of Dan and thus created wendidani, probably my favorite Internet name I have. And this conveniently leads into my last and newest name:
Xince. It's the newest identity I have. It's a little silly, but it's my online gaming name and general forum name. I got it from a random generator. I know, how out of my control is that? But I owned Xince, and now it's mine.
Whenever I don one of these names I take on an entirely different personality. Daniel is more reserved, Wendi is outgoing but still unsure of his own skin sometimes, and Xince will rush into battle to save comrades or fight a war on the forums with his array of words. I know, how weird does it get? And ive only told you about my names, you have no idea who or what I am. Here comes allllll that.
I am eighteen as of this moment, closer to being nineteen than I'd like to be. I am gay and have known this since I was eleven and have been out since I was either thirteen or fourteen. It's a wonderful feelng to fInally come out; you have no idea how long you've been holding your breath until you finally breathe again. I have a great family that supported and still supports me. I'd be lost without my mom, dad, and sister. I'll refer to them as sister, mother, and dad or something like that; I'm not willing to give everyone with Internet access to their names. Much too valuable information. I have awesome friends. I take hard subjects in school and do pretty well in tem. Well, all but ap physics. I need to do something about that... Anyways. I am starting/started this blog as a sort of diary where everyone can read it. It's a inconspicuous little piece of the giant collection of tubes that is the interwebs. As long as I'm not some amazing writer who is amazingly fascimaging, that should happen. I love video games. Lovelovelove them. Escpecially jrpgs. I probably made friends wih that comment. I cannot stand fps though. I probably made more enemies with that statement. Oh well. It's my choice.
This is my life. You're reading it. In the next installment we see Daniel face off against the American education system and his high school career, as well as some good books he has read in his schooling career. Sounds like a fun time and you'd be crazy to miss it.
Thanks.
Dan
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