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KillerGremlin
08-28-2004, 01:20 AM
It was inevitable; I had to go back to school. I knew it was coming, but I only utilized my last week of summer “to the max.” Meaning, I stayed up till 4 every morning, I got by on 6 hours of sleep, I played as many videogames as I could get my hands on, I went to the mall and hung out with friends, and I burned about 40 CDs. All in one week.

Well, good times must end, and sure enough, school started last Thursday. I’m not anti-school or anything like that, so I don’t really mind going back. And even though this is my junior year, or the most important year of High School, I’m still not that worried. I got the ACT and SAT to look forward too, and of course, I’m taking a full load of classes this year, but it’s still all good.

I got my schedule, which looks something like this:

Period 1 – Honors Physics
Period 2 – Electricity
Period 3 – Advisory
Period 4 - Math Analysis
Period 5 - Gym
Period 6 – U.S. History
Period 7 – English
Period 8 – Option
Period 9 – Orchestra

Overall, my year isn’t that bad. Honors Physics is essentially AP Physics B, according to my teacher…but, it’s probably slightly less work. I’m a lazy kid, so I’m only doing one honors class. However, I still get to take the AP Physics test, if I choose too, which I most likely will do. My physics teacher, without a doubt, kicks ass. He’s a really really nice guy, but he’s intelligent too. He doesn’t like the physics book that the school is using, and for years he’s said that he could write a better book. So, sure enough, he’s writing his own physics book, and we get to use what he has so far. That is pretty cool, because he knows EXACTLY what he is teaching us. The rest of my classes shouldn’t be a big deal, thankfully, but the school year isn’t exactly my core issue.

I’m holding a job right now. I work at jewel, I bag groceries, and it sucks. Best Buy just called today so I could go for an interview, I was very excited. The keyword is WAS, and I shall elaborate on that in a tad bit.

Being in Orchestra has yielded an opportunity, one that my parents think I should accept: We get to go on a trip to Europe, more specifically, England, as a “super field trip” or whatever the hell you want to call it. The trip is optional, naturally, and will cost an upward of $2,500. That’s an upward of $2,500 that does not include food, so we’re talking something along the lines of $3,000. Now….the trip is going to be for about 10 days, which I suppose is a decent trip, but there’s two catches. Catch number one is: it’s an expensive trip! I know a lot of people that aren’t going, simply because they wouldd rather keep the $3000 for some better more practical use. Now, England is probably very nice, and I have never been there. But…this leads me into catch number two. Catch Number Two: I have a Ford Taurus. It used to be my dads, until he got a new car. It’s a 91 Ford Taurus, it was purchased in 91, and it’s a really nice car. If we where living in 1991. The car’s transmission is due to die, within the next…oh, say few months. Fixing the transmission would cost more then the car value itself, so it’s not a practical route to take. Also, the car needs to take an Ignition test in December, and I’ll be damned if it passes that. Again, more repairs will be due to get the Ignition clean, and it’s just not worth it. So, the bottom line is, a new car seems like something that might come in handy in my future. A new car costs money. $3000 dollars is a decent chunk of money. Now, my parents keep telling me they have enough money to look at a car and a trip, but I’m not sure they do. So I’m in a mental debate, which is really irritating. Okay….onwards with catch number 3.

Catch number 3 is more like……a story in itself. Today was Friday, my second day of school, and I drove to school. I didn’t drive on Thursday because I wanted to see who was on the bus and whatnot. On the ride to and from school, everything went swell. After school, my friend and I decided to go see Hero. I’ll elaborate on Hero later….since I’m basically telling you guys my life story here, LOL. Well, I drove up to the theaters in my car, and everything was fine. On the way back, the engine was making A TON of weird noises. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I dropped my friend off. As soon as I pulled out of my friend’s driveway, the car starting smoking and steaming really badly from the engine, and the front lights wouldn’t stop blinking. So I hauled ass to my house, and the minute I pulled onto my driveway, my car orgasmed a liquid everywhere. My dad thinks that it was radiator coolant, but whatever it is, all of it came out. The car also smoked and steamed a lot. So good times.

This means that I might have HAD A CAR. For all I know, the car is dead, pointless, bye-bye. So more mental debate comes into play. Mental debate play….why not call it Mindbation. Anyways, Best Buy is a good distance away, and there is no way in hell I’ll be able to commute there without a car. So, I can basically scratch that off my list of ‘hoorays!’. Jewel is within biking distance, but I’d rather just quit that job and focus on school, especially if I don’t have a car that I need to spend lots of gas money on. I saved up a thousand bucks this summer, and I’m sure I can use that for gas/games/other stuff over the school year. Again, more mindbation.

Of course, my dad, knowing a lot about cars, is going to look at it tomorrow. The car was supposed to die in 2 years anyways, and we were told that…oh, I don’t know, longer then a year ago. The point is, $3000 might need to go to a new car, Best Buy might not work, and yeah, Hero was a kick ass movie.

Hero was probably the better part of my day today (compared to getting assigned 50 physics problems). Hero was really good, and I’m pretty sure that the same director that directed Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon directed it, and it had a lot of cool scenes. I wouldn’t call it an in-your-face-kick-your-ass martial arts movie, but it did have some really cool fight scenes. They did a lot of the “defying gravity” stuff that they did in Crouching Tiger, and that’s a lot of fun to watch. They did a fight in the trees, and in one scene there is a sword fight over a lake. The movie felt very “arty,” which isn’t a bad thing. Some of the scenes where just beautiful, and the movie put a heavy emphasis on the style. It wasn’t a western style action movie, it was much more calm. However, it was a lot of fun to watch, and I thought the story was very good. The movie used subtitles, which is a far superior method to dubbing the thing. The subtitles gives you an opportunity to hear the original emotions expressed by the actor’s voices, and even if you cannot understand the language being used, you can pick up on emotions such as anger, sympathy and compassion. After seeing Hero, I wish I could…well, skip around on water and like do stuff with a sword. The scene with the arrows is pretty cool too.

I’m not sure how Tarentino got tied in with Hero…but they mention him every time I see a preview for the movie. This IS NOT A FREAKING TARENTINO movie. There are absolutely NO F-BOMBS, and it is not over-the-top…..well, I take that back. But it’s not Tarentino over-the-top. Go see it though, because it’s one of the better movies that has come out this summer….if you still consider it to be summer.

Umm…..and if you read all this…..I give you…..a pretzel! Hooray!

Joeiss
08-28-2004, 01:32 AM
i'll read all of your post when i am less tired.... but i start university on the 6th of sept... and i am pumped... i just got my new laptop (which i am using now) and i am going to the mall tomorrow with my mom to get a bunch of stuff for my dorm room. its gonna be a blast.

as far as my schedule goes... i am pretty busy on mondays and wednesdays... but first semester i only have 1 class on tuesday and 1 class of friday... then second semester i have fridays off. it should be great. i look forward to it very much.

KillerGremlin
08-28-2004, 01:34 AM
Yeah....I basically went to Blob levels and beyond. But I just wanted to get it all out....it's been a strange 2 days. Lol.

Swan
08-28-2004, 01:40 AM
Score, I read it all. I get a pretzel. :D

I have a couple questions. What type of school do you go to, high school, college, university. How long is each period. Nine periods a day sounds like alot. Third...um well thats all.

KillerGremlin
08-28-2004, 01:45 AM
Score, I read it all. I get a pretzel. :D

I have a couple questions. What type of school do you go to, high school, college, university. How long is each period. Nine periods a day sounds like alot. Third...um well thats all.

Just High School, so it's not all that bad. But, it's time consuming when you have a job, and when you have over-pressuring parents that want you to study for the ACT and SAT, and when your car just sort of has a hangover on your driveway. Hehe.

The periods are all 45 minutes long except for Advisory....Advisory is a BS 19 minute long period that everyone takes during 3rd, it's a fancy homeroom that gets used as a studyhall.

Vampyr
08-28-2004, 01:47 AM
These pretzels are making me thirsty.

I'm sorry about all your money/school/work issues. They say money is the root of all evil, but you need it to do anything, and you seem to be in a tight situation. So many things to spend it on, and you cant decide which.

Will your school be doing any fundraisers for that trip to England? If so, I think you should take your parents up on that offer to get the truck fixed AND go to England. Once the truck is fixed (or you have a new one), you can use it to drive to Best Buy and work at a job that you actually enjoy. You can save money you make at this job to fund your trip to england. You might not be able to get all of it, but combined with fundraisers and a little help from your parents, it should go smoothly.

By doing this, you arent putting too much stress on your parents, you get a cool job, a car, and a trip to England. BTW, I wouldnt miss that trip for anything. How many chances like these will you get? A car is a material possession...but something like going to England is an experiance. And that's what life is all about, right? I mean money, food, toys, and games are awesome, but can any of them really live up to the feeling you get from experiancing something?

Life is very very short. There are a million things you could do, and that's why we were put on Earth: to learn and choose. Choose your path, and I hope you choose the more interesting one.

Also, I saw a commercial for Hero and I instantly wanted to watch it, and I heard Tarantino's name mentioned. Are you SURE he didnt direct it? Or are you just making a hypothesis based on the fact it isnt like his other movies? I am just wondering why they would mention his name on the commercial and call it "his" film if it wasn't.

[edit] I also just started my junior year a couple weeks ago. I have AP US History, AP English III, Special Topics Literature, AP Calculus, and Principles of Engineering. I like all my classes except PoE. ack! I HATE it. I would rather have Calc for another hour and a half.

But I know what you mean by the Junior year being the hardest. I have had more homework this year than any other, and I have the hardest classes. I dont have to worry too much about the ACT, because I took it last year and got a 30.

But the Juniors also have the most rigorous, longest, and hardest "end of the year" test. I'm dreading it already.

I also notice you have 9 classes. How long is each one?

KillerGremlin
08-28-2004, 01:58 AM
No, he did not direct it. Straight from my newspaper:

Directed by Zhang Yimou; written by Li Feng, Zhang, Wang Bin.

It was released in China in 2002, and apparently was well recieved there. I'm assuming Tarentino had something to do with getting the movie to America, but, according to what I have seen, including this article and the movie credits, Tarentino did not have any part in making the movie. =/

Typhoid
08-28-2004, 02:05 AM
9 Periods a day.....man.......We only have 4 a day ( unless you take extra) and each class is 70-75 minutes.

I couldnt take 9 different things in one day.

I can barely take 4.


EDIT: About the Terentino thing, i dont know if anyone has said it, because poete are so long nowadays, but hes "presenting" the movie. He did nothing. He said he just likes it, and thinks it should be re-released with more exposure.

Happydude
08-28-2004, 02:34 AM
WTF is up with the huge posts?!

anyway, on topic, i get home from downunder on sept 16th, so i guess my first day would be the monday after that, dunno the date...and il be aattending my last year in H.S.

Bond
08-28-2004, 08:39 AM
I would quit your job and focus on school. You will make a lot more money by going to a good college and getting a good job than having a temporary job while you go to school. Maybe you should set money away for college rather than a new car/trip in anycase.

Joeiss
08-28-2004, 02:09 PM
Is tarentino the owner or something of Miramax? Because that is the company who does all his movies, and they brough Hero to north america.

Typhoid
08-28-2004, 05:01 PM
Is tarentino the owner or something of Miramax? Because that is the company who does all his movies, and they brough Hero to north america.



It has been said why.

About the Terentino thing, i dont know if anyone has said it, because posts are so long nowadays, but hes "presenting" the movie. He did nothing. He said he just likes it, and thinks it should be re-released with more exposure.

Seth
08-28-2004, 05:58 PM
I only have 2 classes a day. 2:45 minutes long or something like that.


Ya, Tarentino just liked the film so he brought it too NA. The guy's got a lot of cash floating around.

GameMaster
08-28-2004, 07:18 PM
I enjoyed reading your detailed entry, KillerGremlin. My advice is similar to what some others have already said, particulary Vampyr's advice so I won't repeat it. I just wanted to let you know I thought your thread was interesting, detailed, and a good read.

KillerGremlin
08-29-2004, 12:44 AM
I enjoyed reading your detailed entry, KillerGremlin. My advice is similar to what some others have already said, particulary Vampyr's advice so I won't repeat it. I just wanted to let you know I thought your thread was interesting, detailed, and a good read.

Thanks. I enjoy reading blogs and stuff...and it's not because I'm a loser, but because you can find some good reads/funny stories/and other interesting things. If I had the time, I'd post stuff on a blog, but I usually use my spare time for games like CS.

Thanks for the advice too.

Acebot44
08-29-2004, 01:42 AM
my car orgasmed a liquid everywhere

Funniest thing I've read in a while. :slap:

Oh, and I'm also entering my Junior year, but my schools got a Block schedule so I've only got 3 periods (90mins each) a day, plus an extracurricular activity which is Basketball for me. So school ends at 1:12 and I'm there till about 4:00 for practice. From what I know, my daily ruetine is like this:

First Semester:

First Period: Math Analysis
Second Period: Spanish 2 (I couldnt take it last year cus I had no space)
Third Period: AP U.S. History
Fourth Period: Basketball
Job: Intern at Washington Mutual (a Bank)

Second Semester:
? Period: AP English/American Literature
? Period: Honors Physics
? Period: Hopefully Technical Drafting 2
Fourth Period: Probably Volleyball, but I've never played before
Job: Intern at Washington Mutual

Oh, and there's no way that I'm quitting this job. $8 an hour and a 25 cent raise next year. Plus, the Owner plays ball and is real chill and the company might offer scholorships. Also, when I go off to college, I will be assigned to the nearest Washington Mutual and already have a job ready for me!

Joeiss
08-29-2004, 10:36 AM
It has been said why.

Still doesn't answer my question. Is tarentino the owner of Miramax?

The Germanator
08-29-2004, 11:29 AM
Tarantino does not own Miramax. I believe Harvey Weinstein is CEO of Miramax, and in the end, Disney owns Miramax.