Friday, October 31, 2008

Confession Number Fifty-Seven

I must confess...

...that I've spontaneously agreed to write a novel. In a month.

NaNoWriMo, for those that don't know, is a project intended for anyone who's ever entertained the thought of writing a novel, but has been scared off by the daunting task of it.

Basically, in the month of November, I'm going to write a minimum of 50,000 words. The short period of time makes it so that I can't self-edit as I write, which has always been hard for me.

I start in a little over six hours.

I'm sort of freaking out, in this anxious, excited way.

Wish me luck.

:)

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Confession Number Fifty-Six

I must confess...

... that my AP Euro teacher completely fails at teaching. And everyone in my class feels the same way.
He thinks that in an AP class you should focus on the big picture during class discussions and then worry about the little details on the test. This is a completely ridiculous philosophy on an AP class.

AP classes are supposed to be at the college level. I'm pretty sure that teachers in college don't teach like he teaches. He doesn't even know what he's talking about! Countless times, we have corrected him on his facts.

The essays are ridiculous. He doesn't even grade them. He doesn't read them. He simply gives everyone 100%. I heard that one of my friends wrote one essay on the origin of the word f**k and still got a 100%. It makes me so mad! He's not preparing us for the AP Euro exam at all!

This is his second year teaching AP Euro, and he should have never been given that position. So many people warned me not to take his class. Sometimes I wish I would have listened.

Last night, I sent a message out to a bunch of people in the class on facebook asking if anybody would back me up if I brought this situation up with the administration. I got a heck of a lot of support, but we ultimately decided to talk to our teacher first and tell him that we feel he is teaching the wrong way. If he didn't change, we would bring it up with our principal.

Today when I came into class, guess who I saw! The principal. Sitting at our teacher's desk to evaluate his teaching. Our teacher performed pretty well for not knowing crap. He still got a lot of things wrong. Not to mention the fact that a girl in our class taught us about Peter the Great the first half of class. You should have seen our principal's face! She was paying such great attention to the things she was saying about Peter the Great; it was kind of scary. I think she thought to herself, "Wow! A student has actually learned something?! I'm so surprised one of our students has actually learned something. This is so intriguing!" The problem is that our principal has too much faith in the teachers, and I'm sure she gave our teacher a good report.

In light of this situation, about 7 people from the message I sent out on facebook decided to have an online study group. We all logged onto AIM and got in a chat room. We divided up the terms that our teacher gives us to hint at the random facts that will be on the test and we each defined our terms. It was much more successful than I imagined it would have been. And now we have created a forum. Yayz for us!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Confession Number Fifty-Five

I must confess...

... that I am happy but sad that the show I was a part of is over. It is kind of like a :-/ face.

I am so relieved that now I will be able to have a normal schedule and will be more free to do other things. This show has taken up my life for the past six weeks. (Wow. I can't believe we put a show together in six weeks. Professional schedule for a high school show anyone? Yeah. We did.)

The show was soooo good. I absolutely loved it. Our cast did a fantastic job and at our last show, the total number of people that cried was 52 I think. (Our Production Stage Manager was in the light booth and was counting the people that would bring their hand up to their face.) And I loved working with the crew. I have had so many good times with the crew members. Ahhh! I love everyone!

I am going to miss hanging out with everyone so much! I will especially miss the conversations we had over our headsets.... farting in public, familial realtionships among the crew, laughing at the cast, and so many more!

On Saturday, the two other stage managers and I got together and made a special cake for the cast and crew. They loved it. And so did we! It was so fun to make! Here are some pictures...



I absolutely loved my experience with this show! And now I expect to be blogging more! WOO-HOO!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Confession Number Fifty-Four

I must confess...

that I have been insanely busy for the past two months and I would like to apologize for not keeping this blog up-to-date.

Delia and I started school at the end of August and we have been so very busy. Our classes are pretty hard this year. We are Juniors so this year is very important for colleges. We've been trying to adjust to our new teachers and we are finally getting a hang of it.

Also, our life in the theatre has been demanding. I am the Assistant Stage Manager for our first show, which will be showing soon and I am the Film Designer for our second show. Delia is the Set Designer for the first show and Co-Set Designer for the second (?).

Fulfilling two jobs for two different shows that are happening at the same time is very taxing. I have had two 14 hour days so far (School at 7 and show stuff until 9). Delia also had a 14 hour day recently.

Now, I bet I sound like I am complaining. But I am not. I am absolutely loving it! Being able to help out and design things is wonderful. And we are always having fun with each other, even on the bad days. Sure, we may be lacking in sleep, but that just makes it all the more fun when you get slap happy.

Today I designed a commercial for our first show (even though I'm ASM for it) and I completely loved the final product. I felt so professional and I am even tempted to send it to a local news station.

Also, designing the film aspects of our second show has been such a great new experience. Filming on location and deciding all of the shots and scenes has been awesome! I haven't started editing the videos yet because I am so occupied with our first show. It's going to be awesome!

Well, I guess that's it for now...

Delia, any comments?