High School Illiteracy: Mine

In high school I did not read a single book assigned to me in my English classes. Yet, I'm appalled that many schools are taking novels out of the curriculum, because it doesn't directly relate to the state's standardized test. I used to pride myself on getting decent grades on assignments with reading as little as possible. A couple times I decided to open the book and cover some of the pages. I remember in the 9th grade I read chapter chapter 10 and the last 100 pages of Jurassic Park. I found it fascinating. One person created such in depth character development. A couple years later I got sick and had to miss about a week of school. I was so bored at home I decided to read the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. My class had already read the first 20 chapters so I read those in the Cliff Notes and then I read the rest of the novel. It was amazing. I never read, but the two times I tried it I thought both books were great. Maybe other books are also great. So the summer after my junior year I decided I wanted to read a book in its entirety. I guess I just wanted to prove to myself that I was indeed literate. I read The Firm.

That's it. 3 books. The only 3 books I read by the time I graduated high school. That's even using a very loose definition of "read." (Read at least 100 pages of the book.)

More thoughts on reading to come...

Cell Phone Setting

I accidentally held down a button or two on my cell phone and changed the settings. Now next to my signal bars I have a little tree. From turning my phone on I learned that means I'm in the outdoor setting.

So far I've found it to be very similar to the indoor setting.

Technology

A story from college humor called teaching my mom the internet.

Church Sign Response

No Alarm

I woke up Monday and layed in bed for a bit. As usual, when I was ready to get up I reached across the bed to turn off the alarm clock. It was already off. Fantastic.
I may not have to set it again until July 13th.

Homefield Advantage

In sports like hockey, basketball, and football all the fields are a regulation size. So could home-field advantage really matter that much?

Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals is about to start. The last game 7 road winner was the Pirates in the late '70's. Since then: the Hometeam is 18-0.

Unbelievable.

Optimism

I just saw a commercial that said:
"Are you age 55 or better..."

Student Note

On the last day of school I saw a note folded up on my desk. I'm not sure when it was left. I thought to myself, "how thoughtful."

I opened it up and read, "I would totally bang you!!! -your lover!"

I thought to myself, "how thoughtful."

Waking up

I woke up. It was weird. It took me much longer than usual to decide what I was waking up from. Was it morning? Evening? When did I fall asleep?

Weird. I usually know exactly when I went to bed, about what time I feel asleep, and even how long I expected to be asleep.

After a minute I realized it was evening and I reached over and looked at my phone. It was 7pm. Even more weird I had a missed call from 6:41pm. Wow. I must have been out. I didn't even hear it ring.

Tomorrow is my last day with the studnets. The last day of my semester for my night classes is Tuesday.

I'm ready for a break.

Accusation

I have a nerdy student that likes to eat lunch in my room, even if I'm not in there. The other day I asked him and some other students to leave the room while I went to get some food. He said he would "see me in court."

He returned to 5th period with a Plaintiff's Petition. He filled out his name as the plaintiff, and my name as the defendent. It was written for a renter's complaint.

My favorite part was in the "Facts and Causes of Action" section it listed the following fact:
Plaintiff is a tenant and leases premises from the Defendent.

He crossed out "premises" and wrote in "knowledge."

He was forced to leave the premises from where he leases knowledge.

I didn't pay him the $500 of damages he asked for this afternoon.