Words of Wisdom

"Life is not about getting on a giant hamster wheel and chasing after that dollar that is just out of reach. If you equate life to money, you're dead."


"You mature in three main ways: physically, mentally, and intellectually. You have already matured into adulthood physically; that started at about 13 years of age and continued until you were 16 or 17. Intellectually, you are just starting to mature into adulthood. Good decision making is a learned process. That is why we have laws that say you cannot do this or that until you reach a certain age. Mentally, some of you have matured and some of you haven't. Maturing mentally is when you realize that you are not the center of the universe. It's not about you."


"You should be fluent in your native tongue."


"What you read and watch on television is directly proportional to how well you use your language. Some of you don't read at all, and it's obvious."



All of those were said by my English professor.


Oh, and all is quiet on the home front. I'll be registering for classes this week. I'm taking English II with the same professor next semester :)

Polar Opposite Days

Yesterday was probably the worst day of the semester. Aside from my morning class math class, I spend nearly all day working on Tech Drawing work. A bunch of worksheets on auxiliary views were due yesterday and also a take-home test.

During the first part of the day, I finished the take-home test. Then I had lunch and wrote the symphony post. By the way, I think I'll wear my suit with no tie. I like that look :)

The rest of the day (from 1p-5:30p), I was trying to wrap my head around auxiliary views. I won't bore you with what they are since probably none of you are interested in drafting :P I just couldn't get it and I got really frustrated. Knowing there was a drawing test during class, I had to know how to draw an auxiliary view.

By the time 5p rolled around, I still had a bunch of incomplete worksheets and I still didn't understand how to do an auxiliary view without looking at the book.

So I was angry with myself for not being able to understand it, frustrated with the class, and pissed off with the instructor, who is not cut out to be a teacher at all.

For the test, we had to draw views for each of the individual parts of a gyroscope, draw assembled views, one auxiliary view of the base, dimension it, etc. We had the entire class time to do it (3 hours). No one got done. I got most of the drawings done, but I didn't have enough time to dimension it and some of the other things.

Grr...


Today has been completely different though :)

I'm writing this with only half the day gone, so hopefully I don't jinx it :P

Anyway, I had English class this morning. As I've said before, I really like my English professor. I'm definitely going to take his English II class next semester.

Tuesday, we had to turn in a revision of our worst paper of the semester. Today, we graded another class's revisions. The exercise is to help identify mistakes in writing and know how to fix them. It better helps you as a writer identify your own mistakes. We've never done this exercise before. We were being graded on both our grading and the grade we got on our revisions. We were allowed to leave when we were done.

Barely 15 minutes into the exercise and people were getting done. A girl handed the professor the paper she was grading and he asked her why there weren't many marks on it. She said it was because she didn't see much wrong with it. He said, "So if I go over this paper, I won't find much wrong with it?" She said, "Well you might, but that's why you're the professor. I'm not here to be an English teacher." He just said "ok" and she left.

An older lady (early 40s maybe) and I were the last ones to get done. When it was just us left, the professor said, "And here you two are, the best writers in the class and the ones who will benefit least from this exercise, poring over these papers and are actually taking time to find the mistakes, correct them and are the last ones to finish."

That compliment made my day :D

Then the prof said, "That girl, when she said she wasn't here to be an English teacher, I thought to myself 'I don't want you to be an English teacher anyway.' If you're going to be an English teacher, you had better be fluent in your native tongue."

This guy is my favorite teacher <3

My Dad, being a minister, has to have exceptional English and speaking skills. My Mom, being a librarian and high school teacher, also has to have good English skills. I am glad they passed it on to me :)

Oh and if you were wondering, the paper I got had a lot of red ink on it after I was done :P I gave it a C grade, though he would have probably given it a D.

English Journal

We have to write a journal for English class. Three pages for every week we have class. It gets turned in only twice - midterm and at the end of the semester. Well, midterm is here and it was due yesterday. 21 pages. Well, I needed something to write about so I wrote about being gay.

Here's what I wrote:

I wasn’t sure if I should write about this in here or not, but I want to write about it now (and I need something to fill the space!). To come out and say it, I’m gay. I’ve known for a long time, but I only started accepting it when I was 14 or 15. Nobody knows except one person, Alex, who used to be my best friend. I’m afraid to tell my parents because I don’t know how they’ll react. Dad will probably have a negative reaction since he is a minister. Mom may have a better reaction because I remember her saying once that she doesn’t think “those people” have a choice.

We do not have a choice. I get sick and tired of people, who are usually straight, saying that gay people have a choice in the matter. Well, I never chose to be gay. In fact, who would chose to be gay and have the possibility of your friends and family hating you because of it? I certainly wouldn’t.

It seems that society is becoming more accepting of gays today than it was only a handful of years ago. That is another reason why I am a Democrat. Democrats are a lot more likely to fight for gay rights than Republicans are. Republicans seem to be the Conservative Christians who think we should use the Bible as a law book. I don’t think it’s good for society that we do that.

Since my Dad is a minister and a Republican, I walk this virtual tightrope between being gay and Christian. I go to church every Sunday. Not because I want to, but because it is expected since I live with Dad. I do like going because I get to see a lot of people I wouldn’t see otherwise. However, I don’t know whether I believe or not. It’s difficult to when the Bible basically says that God hates gays while still claiming He loves everyone. I’m in a difficult position.

I also wrote this:

I started blogging a few years ago when I was in a situation with my best friend and I couldn’t get help from my friends or family since that would mean they would find out that I am gay. Writing down details of the situation here would be tantamount to too much information overload.

Anyway, I have met so many great people from blogging. Since they live all over the world, I also have learned about their culture and society, too. My best online friends literally live all around the world. They live in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, and the Philippines.