Free Post: my school somewhat survival guide.

   A lot going on is an understatement. Yes, I'm an overachiever, I want to be successful in everything I do. No, I do not want to choke under all the work I've been given. There are four things in my life that I don't want to get behind on. The first is AP world History. If you get behind in that class, you have to work your behind off to catch up. You also have to keep track of every assignment and pace yourself or you no longer have a weekend, like me. The second is Honors Bio. Honors Biology isn't as bad, but when you get an assignment, you better do it, because the class doesn't have that many assignments and each one is critical to achieving a good grade. He also assigns things at the worst possible time. Third, Band is the most time-consuming enrichment I've ever done. Once, I finish my credits for enrichment, I'm out of that class. I seriously can't imagine another three semesters of Band. Just, no. Fourth, English is the single most hard class to catch up on. Dr. D is great at pacing, so when she says do something, do it on that day.
   The other classes are jokes according to assignments, Foreign Language is mostly memorization, so if you got the vocabulary, you get five minutes to do homework each night. Math is a different story though. Math assignments add up. Mrs. Sabotke has plenty of assignments unlike Science. So, you can miss one or two, but if you start missing three or four, you start getting in trouble. Another thing is that, you have to try hard on the homework. Math practice is crucial to learning the subject, with her sporadic daily quizzes, homework is the only time you can ask questions about the lesson "learned," even if you don't pay attention in class, there are plenty of ways you can teach yourself.
   The worst day of the week is wednesday. Thursday just sounds good to teachers, they like to say that word a lot for some reason. Maybe so they can grade on Friday and over the weekend, I don't know. But, don't ever schedule anything on wednesday night. That's homework night!

Reading:
Lord of the Flies, William Golding
11/13- pages 32-48, 1 hour and 45 minutes
11/14- pages 48-58, 1 hour
11/16- pages 58-66, 50 minutes
Total- 32 pages, 3 hours and 35 minutes

What are things you've forgotten in the past?

    So, last week I had a run-in with forgetfulness, and it may or may not have been involved with my mom's birthday. Her birthday was on Wednesday, and I had been extremely busy for a whole day and a half before she had to tell me it was her birthday. On Tuesday, I was loaded shoulder high with work during the day, and after school, I had basketball practice which was a little bit less fun, because it was centered more on set plays. Then I had to go home and prepare to go SCUBA diving. If you've ever gone, then you know just how much equipment you have to keep track of. I had to do some homework while my mom was working to get us over to the pool. Then we headed off and were at the LSU pools that can go deep enough for us to practice diving. We eventually got home at around 8:30 and my load of homework could only be half way done.
    Wednesday, I had another full day of work, not to mention even more homework. I had a basketball Jamboree after school and that didn't take that long, but, then I had a band concert, which takes long. We did great, and my feet were hurting so bad from standing up in heels, that I couldn't feel my big-toes, but then I got home around 9:00. With another big night of homework up ahead, I started and wasn't going to stop for a while, until my mom stopped me and told me that it was her birthday. She also said I had the best excuse out of everybody, but I still felt really bad. Don't forget your mom's birthday, your dad's ok with it. But your mom is really important to remember.

Coffee, anyone?

I woke up extra early to get to work this morning, put on my Starbucks apron, arranged the headset to fit perfectly on my head. But, this wasn't what I'm interested in, I just want the coffee. Pumpkin Spice, Chai Tea Latte, all of them. It's winter and all I want is a warm drink to accompany my morning endeavors. Especially this morning, it was snowing.
I drove to the biggest Starbucks in town where I occupy the manager spot and nobody's here. I turn on the news and find out the day is stay-at-home because all the roads are blocked. Maybe my day could be stay-at-starbuck's. Then, another car drove up, it was my best friend Jordan. She always comes to this Starbucks in the morning so she can tell me what to do, and I have to obey willingly.
The first thing that pops out of her mouth is, "I'll have a grande moccassippi please."
"That's it?"
"oh, decaf, one shot of milk, cream on top, and mix it all together well for me, love."
"Haha, not today Jordan, didn't you hear, Starbucks isn't open."
"So, you're saying that there's a bunch of coffee laying around that you know how to make, and we're now stuck in this store together, AND it's snowing outside. Did I mention you know how to make coffee?"
Then, I knew, today was going to be a nice day off.
Jordan and I drank all the coffee we could, paying each time. Eventually we ran out of money and we went outside to have a snow fight, then we heard the bulldozer. It rolled past us and we could've stopped right there, but we decided to invite more people instead. By the end of the snowball war, my body was numb and I drove back home. I went straight to my bed and slept, dreaming of a snowball avalanche falling onto Jordan.

Written for all the coffee lovers who need a shot of cocoa beans in the morning.

Class activity

My class was very organized, and very straight forward, but I'm not sure if our class was being thoughtful about doing more than surviving. Yes, we got the first three steps. Water, shelter, and food are always great. But, past that we started going into amazing detail on groups and it was almost too much detail. By doing more than surviving, you have to try to get off the island, establish a settlement and begin growing crops, things like that.

Also, by doing more than surviving, you have to work together, and I noticed some people were just denied a say, if their idea wasn't applicable to finding specific numbers on the groups that would go hunting, make a fire, etc. It just seemed like we were treating the survival like a math lesson, not something that could take a person's life at any time. I think there's a group of people that would agree with me, we didn't take the right approach in class.

Reading times
Allegiant, Veronica Roth
11/7- 2 hours, pages 278-367
11/8- 4 hours, 367-526
Lord of the Flies, William Golding
11/9- 1 hour, pages 8-32
Total - 7 hours, 272 pages.

Almost as happy as a camel on wednesday.

I walk into a not so normal day of school when I realize it is so normal. All the boys around me are screaming, "Sarah, sarah, what day is it? Huuuummmmmpppp Day!" Then they turn to each other and chest bump. Of course it's not a normal day of school, it's wednesday.
I walked over to my locker which is right next to my best friend Lacie's locker. We say hey, and nothing else. Does anybody know what day it actually is? I walk with Lacie to the library for our free study, and on our way, a guy I know named John stops and is about to say something, but Lacie gives him a cold as stone look, and when he tries to talk she loudly says, "Move along, we're trying to get to our free study." What in the world? Maybe he wanted to say hi or something in particular, what was up with her?
Lacie started moving faster than we were before and I have to almost jog to catch up with her. We walked across campus past the cafeteria and when we get close to the library, I see it. I thought they forgot, but they didn't. In front of the library, they hung a huge banner saying, "Happy Birthday Sarah."

What does Veronica Roth do that makes it so interesting?

    So, I'm reading Allegiant and just like Divergent and Insurgent, I'm completely hooked. I'll try not to reveal any super special secrets or anything. But, in most series, the author comes up with a brilliant idea in the first book and then the last two books aren't quite as great. When it comes to the Divergent series, that tradition doesn't apply with Veronica Roth. There's also another tradition about stories that just get old, and your readers get tired of hearing these stories. Once again, Roth somehow finds a way to break down these barriers.
    My theory is that she has many different stories within the same main idea of the series, Tris, a teenage girl is put in several situations that decide the outcome of her life. That's pretty general, I see. But, each of these different stories are so developed, and transitioned so well that it sounds like a complete masterpiece. But, then Roth adds in plot twists and cliff hangers that take the story to that next level and to a complete masterpiece. All this completely and totally compels me to read more!
   

Reading Log

Allegiant , Veronica Roth
11/1- 3 hours and 30 minutes, pages 11-163
11/3- 3 hours, pages 163-278
Total- 6 hours, 267 pages