brokenrecord

New layout! brokenrecord__. I've had Opal for nearly two years now, so I decided to try something new. (Stylesheet is by refuted.) The layout obviously reflects my current The O.C. obsession. Lyrics are from "On Your Porch" by The Format. I'm not entirely sure if I'm happy with the header (something looks off about it to me, even though I liked it when I was looking at it in Paintshop Pro), but I like the rest, so I'll keep it for now. I might change the header in a few weeks. But, um, yeah. Yay, new layout! :D

I want to redo my userinfo too (I've been wanting to do that for like a year, actually) but I don't think I have the energy. Maybe tomorrow.

So far this semester my grades have made me feel like I'm in bizarro world in something. In French, a class I've never even come close to having a B (especially not with deBerry), I'm getting an 81 (a 79.95 before she took out this test that everyone failed because she doesn't know how to use a scantron machine properly). wtf? This is ridiculous. It's not just me, though. The class average for AP was an 81 and there were no As until she took out the test (and then there were only like 2, and there were still several people who had Ds), and for French 4 it was a 69! Also, we already have over 600 points in the class, even though it's 6 weeks into the semester. 600 points! That's 200 a week! By the time the semester is over, by my count we'll have roughly 4800.

On the other hand, in math I haven't gotten any points off in homework even though I've been barely showing any work, the quiz I barely studied for and failed (4/10! woot!) ended up not counting because everyone failed it, and the test I glanced at my notes for about 5 minutes for I ended up getting a 94% on. What the hell? Most of the time I can't get a 94 on a calc test even when I do study for hours! And in physics, a test I was planning on dropping I got 100% on the free response and Mr. Malin called me his hero. I mean, I probably failed the multiple choice, but still. I just don't understand! I would've never thought I'd be struggling to maintain a B in French and have an easy A in Calc! My brain hurts. :(

I'm tired. I think I should sleep.

hee. So last night I should've had Symphony at 5:30 but at like 4:45ish the power went off at my home and I didn't think it would reach to the school (I live like 2 minutes from the school, but often the power will go off at my house and it'll only be like my block) but when I was driving me and Galaxy to school the traffic light was off and a policeman was directing traffic and then when we got to school some lights were off but Parsa and some other guy in Symphony told us that it was the generator and I guess it isn't for the band room? I don't know, I didn't go there, but they told me Symphony was cancelled and a lot of people were leaving so I left too and then at 5:48 the lights at my house came back on. hee. So I get to ditch Symphony and still watch Veronica Mars and Gilmore Girls and record House. That was pretty awesome.

Anyways, got my final grades in my classes yesterday, and I got a 90.5 in Chem! I totally didn't expect that, because that final was really hard, and I thought I'd gotten like an 80 on it, but it turns out I got a 94! I'm really happy. :D ( Final first semester grades. )

Ah but even though I got a B in English, I totally kicked ass on the final. I was so proud of myself. I got the 2 highest essay grades I've gotten all year, and she showed us how to convert it to an AP scale, and I would've easily gotten a 5 on the actual AP test. Like, not even barely, but right in the middle of the point range for a 5. So that makes me feel a lot more confident about my chances on the AP exam in May. It's still frustrating to know I could've done better but I thought I didn't have a chance so I just didn't bother. This is totally what happened first semester junior year in English, too, and I thought I had learned my lesson but obviously I hadn't. Oh well.

( About the Veronica Mars promo last night... )

Besides the promo, I really enjoyed the episode. I was also happy with last night's Gilmore Girls and kind of can't wait for next week. Haven't watched House yet, probably will this afternoon.

Thank god finals are over. I was kind of going crazy there after awhile. The only class grade I know for sure is French which is a 95.7 (I only needed 9% on the final to keep an A, no exaggeration, I calculated it, but I ended up with a 96%. But whatever, not like I'm complaining). And now it's second semester of my senior year! It'll be so nice to go a semester without having to worry about grades.

I got accepted to Goucher on... Monday or Tuesday I think, which made it harder to study. Not that I really want to go there, but that's 3 colleges now, and they and Lewis and Clark are offering me a lot of money, and you know, I'd be happy if I went there. So it's like... maybe I should just blow finals. I'm already in places, and I'd be happy at those places. I just didn't feel like bothering. But I studied and hopefully it'll be good enough. We'll see, I guess.

Speaking of college, I had an interview with an alum from Vassar on Wednesday night, and I'm pretty sure he was either high or had smoked a lot of pot in the past. It was kind of amusing, but kind of annoying after awhile, because he never finished his sentences and repeated himself a lot and he'd reply to everything I'd say with "Aaaaawesome" like really drawn out and stereotypical surfer-boy type speech, except he totally wasn't a surfer-boy. But whatever, at the end he said he'd definitely recommend me, really well, so I guess it went well.

I spent today catching up on TV from Supernatural last Thursday to Veronica Mars and just finished now in time for tonight's Supernatural and The O.C. I also spent my time when I should've been studying for finals downloading all the episodes of Torchwood, since I stopped watching after episode 6 or 7 first because I was busy for a few weeks and forgot to download, and then afterwards because of my computer. But I have the entire first season now and I'm kind of super excited about it. That's probably how I'll spend tomorrow. I love the weekend of semester break. It's almost better than like winter break, and kind of definitely better than spring break, because there are no tests or any sort of homework whatsoever coming up. Spring break you have to worry about APs and winter break about finals, and it's just nice not to have anything major coming up.

Anyways, time for The O.C. and Supernatural now.

Happy 18th birthday to me! Ah, man, I don't believe I'm 18. I still feel about 14.

I did most of my celebrating yesterday. Emma, Soan, Jackie, Jessica, Galaxy, Richard, and Andrew came to my house with food (lasagna, baked fettucine alfredo, and macaroni and cheese. Oh, and cake!) and we hung out there for awhile, and then we went to the Spectrum for a few hours and didn't really do much but it was fun. And I got many presents that I wasn't expecting. I got an iTunes gift card and a hat from Emma that matches the scarf Andrew gave me for secret santa, a really nice scarf from Jessica, Gilmore Girls Season 1 and The West Wing Season 1 from Jackie and Andrew, and a Target gift card from Richard. I think I'm especially excited about The West Wing season 1 because I saw the first 2 episodes over the summer and liked it but then right after that I went to Minnesota and then it was just chaotic when I got back because of marching band and having to do summer assignments so I never had a chance to watch any more.

Today for my birthday my parents gave me a necklace, an Amazon gift card, the first Bridget Jones movie, money on my visabuxx card, Persuasion by Jane Austen, and an iTunes gift card. So now I have a bunch of money to spend at Amazon and iTunes (I still have Emma's giftcard plus one I got from my parents for Christmas) and Barnes and Noble (from Christmas) and Target. Awesome.

I found out what musical my school is doing for our winter musical, and what the hell? They're doing High School Musical. I don't really understand this. I mean I've never seen it so I'm not like... saying I'm upset at the choice. It just seems bizarre. I wouldn't think we could get it, because it's property of Disney, right? And wouldn't it cost a lot to get? I mean, I heard when we did Beauty and the Beast 2 years ago it was super expensive because of that. And it's really recent, too. I don't know. Weird. It'll be interesting to see, at least.

I just got accepted to Lewis and Clark College! On their site it said they weren't going to notify people until January so I wasn't expecting it, but then I checked my e-mail and they'd e-mailed me saying I was accepted. I'm actually a lot more excited about it than I thought I would be, considering it's a safety and not on the top of my list. But it's my first acceptance, so that's cool, and I actually do really like the school and would choose it above schools that aren't even safeties, like UCLA and Haverford. So yeah. Yay for that! At least I know I've been accepted somewhere.

One more week until school's out! Not even a full week, more like 3 1/2 days. Probably won't be around much until then (not that I've been around much recently, anyways) because I have a lot of stuff next week (calc test, physics test, chem test, french essay, and I have to write a 10 minute absurdist play).

I'm still loving The O.C., by the way. It was totally awesome last night. And I loved The Office, too. TV makes me so happy. :D

So this week the only TV I watched was Veronica Mars, Gilmore Girls, My Name is Earl, and The Office, since it was pretty much a hell week for me (I had something major in every class: test in chem, quiz in calc, test and essay in French, test in physics, midterm and essay in English, and jazz band auditions) and then on Friday we had an away football game even though we already had our last football game ever because our football team was in CIF (like... championships, or playoffs, or whatever? I mean, they didn't even make it, they got a wildcard spot or something, but yeah). So today I had like 12 hours of TV to catch up on, and I watched everything except the now three episodes of Supernatural I've missed and last week's Torchwood (which I'll watch in an hour or so). And I'm very surprised to say that out of all the TV I watched (Prison Break, Heroes, Studio 60, House, Ugly Betty, The O.C., Doctor Who, and Battlestar Galactica), the episode of The O.C. was my favorite. I just don't understand how this has happened, how The O.C. is suddenly so good again! I loved Ugly Betty a lot too, and everything else was very good as well, but somehow The O.C. was my favorite. Weird.

Anyways, at the end of the football game yesterday (which sucked, by the way, for many different reasons, and I'm glad we lost 28 to 2 so we don't have to go to another), Mrs. Daley announced that she resigned. I don't really know how to feel about it, because I didn't really like her and I wasn't really happy with how she ran things, but at the same time I did feel bad for her. So now I don't know who's doing jazz band (Mrs. Bentley, maybe? Or Mr. Johnson?) but that explains why Mrs. Bentley announced on Thursday jazz band results would be posted next week but couldn't explain why.

I'm glad next week is Thanksgiving because I could really do with a break. Ah, but this year feels like it's moving so fast! Thanksgiving means it's almost December, which means it's almost winter break, which means it's almost January, which means first semester is almost over and I can stop studying so hard and just get B's in all my classes and in January I'll hear from the three schools I applied to early action (Goucher, Colorado College, and Lewis and Clark). So weird to think about how senior year is almost half-way through.

The past two days have made me happy:

1) Democrats take the House, and quite possibly the Senate!

2) Tuesday my English teacher told me that my grade (an 85) is a lot lower than it should be based on how good a writer I am and that I just need to boost my multiple choice tests and rock the next essay, and today she told me again today I'm one of the better writers in the class. I was feeling super unconfident about my writing, so that makes me feel much better. I'm going to reread Woman Warrior this weekend and really pay close attention and annotate it and crap and know it inside and out and do awesome on the essay Monday. Hopefully.

3) I enjoyed Veronica Mars last night (not one of my favorites, but I still thought it was pretty good, and next week looks awesome), and I have episodes of Studio 60 and House waiting to be watched.

4) I got my first A on a chem quiz in like a month today. This new unit makes me happy. Let's just hope my test next Friday goes the same way.

5) The girl I was going to tutor in FST realized she didn't need tutoring in FST because it's super easy, but she's struggling in honors chem because she has Mr. Tran, so I'm going to be tutoring her every week in that instead.

6) This isn't really about the last two days, but there's no school Friday and we're marching in a parade at Disneyland that day, so I'm looking forward to that.

And, lastly, 7) Rumsfeld steps down!

Good couple of days. :D

wtf I want my car back! 2-3 weeks ago when I first took it in they said it would be ready on the 5th, which was last Thursday. My mom told me it'd be like 3-4 weeks, so I was really happy with that, since it was sooner than I expected. But then Thursday they were like "We're almost done, we just got to do this thing, and you can have it Friday." Friday it wasn't done, but they said definitely Saturday. Saturday, still not done, but Monday! Monday it was almost finished, and on Tuesday they'd deliver it themselves to my house. Well, it's Tuesday, and now they're saying it'll be for sure done tomorrow. For some reason, I don't believe them. I mean, I'd be fine with if it they'd just told me in the first place it'd be like three weeks because I wasn't expecting it to be done so soon. And it doesn't even seem like they underestimated the time it would take, because each day they keep saying it'll be done the next day. It just makes me think they're saying it'll be done the next day to placate me when they know it really won't be done for like another week. The thing is, I'd rather they just tell me the truth about when it'll be done then lie to me.

Anyways. Hello to new friends from the fall friending meme! Just to let you (and the rest of my friends list who doesn't already know), I suck at checking my flist on Mondays and Tuesdays because Mondays I get home at 5:15, have until 8 to finish homework (and Mondays I usually have the most amount of homework), watch TV from 8-11, then sleep at 11 so I'm not dead at school the next day, and Tuesdays I don't get home till 8 because of Symphony, and then I watch TV till 10 and that usually doesn't give me enough time to do anything online. But I'll catch up on everything tomorrow afternoon.

Now for TV stuff! Some of this probably doesn't need to go behind a cut, and I don't think I have a lot to say about anything, but here we go anyways:

( Heroes )

( Studio 60 )

( Gilmore Girls )

( Veronica Mars )

blah. I still have French homework to finish. Off to do that now.

blah. So I got out of sectionals 5 minutes early to come home and tutor this girl (I think I mentioned this in an earlier post) and my mom picked me up (because my car isn't fixed yet) and she was like "Yeah, she came by about 15 min ago to say that she dropped from pre-calc to FST and she wasn't sure if she'd need your help in FST or if you could help." This makes me sad because I really like tutoring and stuff and I was really surprised that someone actually called me for once for tutoring and I was excited for it, and now I'm probably not going to do it. She said she'd e-mail me about everything and who knows, she might need help in FST and I might be able to help her (I don't really know what FST is. Functions, statistics, and trigonometry, maybe? I'll ask Soan what it is tomorrow), but yeah, probably not going to happen. And she was going to pay me $15 for each time, too! sigh.

Got my physics test back today, the one I blew off studying for to watch Veronica Mars. I got a 65% on the multiple choice and a 90% on the written. alkjfd blah. Should've studied. Some of the mistakes were just ridiculous, like reading a velocity graph as a position graph. But yeah. Disappointed in myself. Well, other than the written, but the written was only 10 points, so my overall grade on the test was a 70% and in the class a 87.9%. I don't want more than one B this semester and I'm pretty sure that B is going to go to AP English, so I really need to start studying for Physics. And this is supposedly the easiest test of the year! sigh.

New episode of The Office tonight! That makes me so happy. :D

Quick update before watching DVDs.

On Wednesday I ended up having no willpower, so I watched the first two episodes of The Office with commentary (I justified that to myself by saying that watching with commentary is different than just watching the episode because I don't pay very much attention to the episode when I'm listening to the commentary) and then the first two episodes of Arrested Development. Tonight I'll hopefully finish Arrested Development and then tomorrow will be an Office marathon!

Today I had an essay on the Scarlet Letter and I think it might be one of the best essays I've written in a long time. This doesn't mean I think I'm going to get an A, because I think I'll probably still get a B because of stuff I didn't notice or whatever, but just based on my standards, I'm really happy with that essay. When I get the grade this'll all probably come crashing down, but for now, I'm happy.

Yesterday one of my birds, Caitlin, was like... wheezing and sneezing funny, so my mom took her to the vet and he thought she had a seed stuck in her trachea, so they put her under anasthesia and performed surgery on her and it turned out she had a fungal infection, and yeah, this was all very shocking to come home to considering she was fine the night before. She's all right now, she still wheezes but we're giving her medicine and it should get better. I feel so bad for her, though. She'll like try to chirp but she can't because of all that so it just comes out as this little like... wheeze or squeak, and it's just really sad. :( I hope she gets better soon.

...I think that's all I wanted to update about. I can't wait until next week, because it's major premiere week. I'm really looking forward to Studio 60 starting (well I've seen the pilot already, so not so much to this Monday, but just in general I'm looking forward to the show) and definitely The Office (I'm so excited for the new season to see how everything turns out, but nervous because I'm afraid that I won't be happy with whatever path they end up choosing) and there's also ANTM and My Name is Earl, neither of which I'm totally in love with (MNiE definitely more than ANTM, though) but I'm still happy new seasons are starting, and yeah. Yay for next week! :D

Ok, off to watch season 3 of Arrested Development!