Done!

This is supposed to be a blog about academics and schooling, so I suppose the most important news of that sort needs to be said...

As of this week, I am now a high school graduate! Whoooo!

I had thought it was too late to graduate early but I had good enough grades last semester that it only took two grades for my counselor to make it work. I'm glad to be done.

I could survive for 1 minute, 13 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

Created by Bunk Beds Pedia

School School School...

Somehow blogger is not blocked at school. I thought it was, but maybe it's from getting here through links instead of going straight to it. Either way, that's a good thing.

I am in office systems right now. I'm about a week and a half to two weeks ahead of most of the class. Which means free time for me.

I finished reading Dumbing Us Down on Sunday. It was as amazing as I thought it would be. I ended up not highlighting much, maybe a dozen or so points. It is definitely a book I will read a couple more times.

I started reading Lolita. I have no idea why it's taken me so long to read this book. I have seen both versions of the movie already but I'm anxious to read the book.

Current thoughts

Brian starting a new blog made me want to start updating this thing more often. Here are the things I've been thinking of lately:

• Seeing people outside makes me happy. One day this week while canoeing during PE I saw a mom and her young son at the beach. The kid wasn't at daycare or preschool and the mom wasn't at work; they were just enjoying a quiet day at the beach together. As we were leaving I also saw a man come to the park, sit on the pier, and start eating his lunch. No ipod, no phone, just eating and looking at the lake.

• I've been in school about a month now and I think the most practical thing I've learned is how to rescue people who have capsized in their canoe.

• I've been reading Dumbing Us Down (John Taylor Gatto) and it's great. I do get annoyed though by how many people ask if I'm reading it for school when they see it, even though "The Hidden Curriculum of Complusory Schooling" sounds mighty anti-school to me. They ask a lot when I hilight stuff too. I just like hilighting in my books. I marked stuff all over in The Art of War.

• I'm ready for all this rain to end. It's meant a lot of canceled canoeing days (the one fun thing in school) and bad internet connections. Rainy weather makes me want to curl up with a book and lots of blankets, but of course school doesn't allow for that.

• This is a busy weekend for me. I spent five straight hours at the dojo today. Tomorrow I'll spend five hours at the tambura club.

• At karate the dad of one of the kids I teach a lot thanked me for always helping his son. That made my day. =)
  

Big Kids Want to Play Too!

Muffin Tin Mondays at Sycamore Stirrings looked so fun I wanted to join in for myself.

I have a small collection of shaped muffin tins (silicone hearts, flowers, snowflakes, individual easter shapes and metal easter eggs). The one I happened to grab was snowflakes, not very fitting for summer, but still fun.



I ate out more than usual this past week so that meant more leftovers.
Clockwise from the top left:
Dove dark chocolates (which sadly were melted by the time I got to them)
Pringles (I had planned on grapes, but we were out)
Cinnamon granola bar chunks
Leftover "Crusher" burger from Baker's Square
Ketchup
Leftover chicken nuggets and fork

Self-imposed Outdoor Challenge Days 1 & 2

Day 1 (Sunday)- This was a super easy day! My friend A called me and invited me out on her boyfriend (N)'s dad's boat. Our friend K went with too. At first N's dad and grandma came with and N and A went tubing (K and I opted out). Then the adults left and we took the boat back out to swim in the middle of the lake. After eating at N's dad's place we went to the beach and A and I swam while the other two wimped out from the cold water. We spent about five hours or so at the lake that day.

Dat 2 (Today)- I ate lunch outside, which was 15-30 minutes. Then I sat out/played with the dog/ran a karate kata under the sprinkler until the cold water drove me inside. That was another 20 minutes or so. My dad likes taking walks at night, so I'm going to ask him to take me walking tonight and that's usually 30 minutes. As long as I follow through later today I'll just hit my hour mark.

A new goal

I was inspired by reading posts (and challenge participants) over at Unplug Your Kids to spend some time today outside working on a paint-by-number my mom brought home one day (I am definitely NOT a painter).

I decided I want to spend more time outside this summer. My new goal is one hour a day minimum outside. I think this is a good goal since even on days when I'm feeling lazy I can go outside for an hour without pushing it too much. I think if I push myself too much I'll just give out.

I don't watch much TV. In fact, I only watch tv one day a week. This isn't a parental rule or even a self-placed rule. I just don't like TV much and the shows I watch happen to be on the same night.

I do however spend too much time on the computers. I spend most of my time at home at the computer. Sometimes I'll do other things like read or craft projects, but I usually have the computer on for instant messaging while I do that.

It's a nice summer, so I think I can do this. It'll probably help that next week I'm going to Florida too. =P