Debate!

This mornings debate was a refreshing change to the regular pace of class. It was fun, I thought, to interact with everyone for a change. I feel like last semester we all interacted a lot more and so it made the class more meaningful. It was also nice to talk about last night's event since mroe people had gone. It's great when more people get to go to the events because it gives us something to talk about the next day that we all have in common. But back to the debate. The topics that we chose were a bit difficult to argue. It's hard to disagree with the statement that schools are failing our students. But I thought the debate was good.

On the first topic, we tried to push the view that many schools do not prepare students for college. I feel that is very true. Many schools' curriculums and lesson plans are very strict and rarely do teachers ever stray from them. Because of this, I feel like students don't get the chance to learn things on their own. They are babied through courses and because of it become dependant on someone else to always be there to help them. Once they get to college though, there is no more hand-holding. The professors just give you an assignment and you have to figure out how to accomplish it on your own. I do not think this is a "personal problem" on behalf of the students. I think schools need to work out a better system to prepare students for college.

The other group related their school topic to overcrowding in high schools and how that affects discipline and the learning environment. I've personally seen the problems of overcrowding. I went to a very overcrowded high school and it does cause many problems when trying to learn. When you have 35 students in a classroom, it is harder to discipline them when they act up. It's almost as if the students gang up against the teacher because they outnumber them. I've seen that happen many a time. Eventually the teacher gives up and no one learns anything. Unless I was in an honors class, I felt like I was wasting my time. There are so many students who think school is a joke, that they hinder the education of those students that care about learning. Of course the best solution to overcrowding is to build new schools. Unfortunately the money is not always available for this. It's hard to figure out a solution to overcrowding but something needs to be done. It just isn't practical.

I enjoyed the debates and the class overall this morning. It actually kind of woke me up, being 8 o'clock and all. We should do it mroe often.

Floyd Skloot

Tonight I trekked downtown with Courtney, Christa, and Jenn to hear Floyd Skloot at another River City Writer's Series event. I liked the atmosphere of the art gallery as the setting for the reading, except it was really cold and Wendy wouldn't serve me wine. But after hearing Floyd's work, I was really intrigued by some of his pieces. I normally don't like poetry very much so when he started out by reading some of his poems, I wasn't really that interested. I just find myself not being able to connect with poems because once you get into them, they're over. I did like his last poem though. It was a love poem for his wife which I thought was really kool. I love seeing older people that still are completely in love with their spouse. The poem talked about how the cells in your body are always changing, so his skin is not the same as the first time they touched, but he still remembered how that felt. And so on...I though it was really cute.

He then went on to read a non-fiction piece of work and also a fiction piece. I usually find myself enjoying non-fiction as opposed to fiction, but tonight was different. I didn't find his non-fiction piece all that relatable or really interesting to me. However I felt really connected to his fiction piece once he introduced it. He told us the background of the piece was what started out as a memoir of his parents and how they met, why they married, and why they stayed together when it was obvious they despised each other. I always think the same thing about my parents. All they do is fight. Every sentence out of one of their mouths is a sarcastic comment or arguement towards the other. He told us though that he didn't know much about his parents' history, with his father having died when he was 14 and his mother with Altzheimer's, so he made it a fiction piece where he could make up a logical past that might have been similar to theirs. I really found it interesting and enjoyed the images that his work portrayed. He talked about them going rowing out on a lake and I could picture the boat and the oars.

I really enjoyed listening to Mr.Skloot's readings. He seems to be a man that has overcome a lot in his life. He told us of how he contracted a viral disease 20 years ago that affected his brain and his ability to perform tasks that are a part of everyday life. He had to re-learn how to read and because of the illness he had to learn a new technique for his writing. Because of this, he said he became a better writer. I liked it when he said that because it backs up my thought that everything happens for a reason. It might have seemed at the time that this disease would have been life-shattering, but he turned it in to something amazing. His story was very inspiring to me. I'm really glad I could go and hear him read. I'm looking forward to the next reading.

meaningless

I hate feeling like I'm writing about something meaningless that no one cares about. But It's become harder and harder for me to write these blogs. I feel like they're getting shorter and I'm skipping days. I jut don't feel motivated to do anything. So on that note, I'm going to write about something completely meaningless but it's all I'm thinking about: America's Next Top Model. Me and Daniel talk about this all the time and I think we've both written blogs about it. Well the new season started up and I think it's going to be a good one. Last season I watched every episode but I wasn't really feeling any of the girls. This season, I think there are some good ones. And I was glad last week when the cocky bitch got kicked off. Normally the cocky girl who thinks she's better than everyone else stays on pretty long which makes for interesting episodes because she always pisses everyone off and causes drama. Well I'm glad she got kicked off early this time because I hate people with that kind of attitude that think they are amazing and no one can tell them anything because they're already perfect and no one can beat them because they're the best. Well not one of those girls has ever won; not Lisa, not Jade, not Melrose, not Bianca, and this season not Allison. I missed this Wednesday's episode because I went to see that movie The Other Boleyn Girl. So I'm about to watch it online and I hope it's good. At least it will keep me occupied until my roommate gets off work!

Disappointed

Today has been thoroughly disappointing so far. My boyfriend was supposed to come home from spring break today before he goes back to school on sunday. Instead, he decided just to ride back with his friends so he wouldn't have to make two trips. It really sucks though. I was looking forward to spending once last weekend with him before he went back to school because the next time I'll be able to see him is in the summer. It really sucks having a long distance relationship. You know, when you go from seeing someone almost everyday for a year, it's really hard not to. It's hard but we do it. It makes every time we see each other that much more special. And I know he loves his school and he hates being here, so I'm glad that he's happy. I just wish he could've come home this weekend. Now I'm sad and I have nothing to do until my roommate gets off work. We've decided to have a pity party this weekend. She's recently had some boy trouble too and now I'm sad because of this, so we're just gonna drink and be sad all weekend. Sometimes it just feels good to feel sorry for yourself every now and then. Not all the time of course, but just for a little while. It's refreshing to cry a little...or a lot in my case once I've had a few drinks....and just get everything out of your system. So that's what we're doing. As soon as she gets off work we're eating dinner at El Porton as we do every Friday and then going to a friends house. Then tomorrow my parents will be going out of town so I'm spending then night and taking care of our pets so I think I'll have a few friends over to entertain me. Then I'm looking forward to not having to go to work on Sunday...instead I have Opera practice. So while it's not the weekend I was expecting of hanging out with my wonderful boyfriend, I guess I'll get through it and count down the days until summer when he's finally back home!

There must be a way out

So I've talked a lot about my whole problem of not knowing what to major in and whatnot. It's just really hard for me to not know what to do and not have a plan. That's why school is so dreadful for me right now. It's not that I don't love college or anything, I just hate classes. And I know I'm not the only one, but I really hate it. I'm skipping one of my classes right now actually. I just feel like it's pointless for me to sit in these classes that have no purpose for me and I don't even know what classes I do want to be taking. My roommate has been feeling kind of the same way, so we've divised a plan to get out of here. I know it's really sad but I just don't feel determined to do anything. I want to sing, but I don't want to go to college for it. If I got a degree in singing, I wouldn't have a job that paid me enough money after college. So I've decided to go on American Idol. Everyone has always told me to do it before, but I never really took them seriously. My sister got mad at me when I didn't try out when they were in Memphis. I just never really thought about it because I didn't want to miss out on anything here. Well now I've realized I'm not missing out on anything and I really just want to get out of here. So I'm waiting until August and I think I'm gonna try out. My roommate wants to try out for The Real World. So our plan is to both go on our reality tv show of choice and then get famous and have our own show! That would be cool. We always joke about how we should have our own show because we are so much fun. Ha....well who knows. All I know is I have to figure out something because I really can't stand school anymore.

The Other Boleyn Girl

I went to the movies last night to see The Other Boleyn Girl. I didn't realize that the movie was based on the true story of King Henry VIII of England. Man I'm glad I didn't live back then. Thing were so fucked up. Everything was based on power and status. The story revolves around the Boleyn family who are seeking to move up in status and wealth. They have discovered that there is a way they can move in and get close with the king. His wife, the queen, has been unable to produce a male heir to the throne. Therefore the king is getting restless and is looking for a mistress. It is so astonishing to me how they delt with this issue. It's was like if you were going to cheat on your wife, it was an arranged thing. Like, no one said it out loud, but everyone knew what was going on. Even the queen knew and could do or say nothing about it. So The Boleyn family has two daughters and one son. The youngest daughter is married and the eldest daughter is set to be the king's mistress. However, when she "messes up", the family becomes scared of losing their place with the king and throw in the younger daughter to take her place. It makes no difference to them that she is happily married. They send the family to live with the king and place the girls in the queen's court as her helpers. I just couldn't believe that everyone did what their families told them to do. Even if it meant adultery and betrayal. I don't want to ruin the movie but I just couldn't get over how fucked up it was. That was a really corrupt time. I liked the dresses though. It'd be pretty cool to wear those.

Value of Marriage

I got carried away reading my Cosmo last night that I didn't post a blog. But I did come across an inspiration for a blog. There was an article discussing marriage especially in Hollywood. It talked about the phenomenon that seems to be going on now where many stars are having children and cohabitating without being married. They had quotes from stars saying that they didn't feel they needed a ring to be parents. I disagree. It's not that I think you can't have kids without being married, it happens. But I do value the importance of marriage and I think if you love someone enough to share your life with them and to give another life, you should be married. I'm not married, obviously, but I can imagine what it's like. When you're married, it's a binding thing. It's not something to be taken lightly. Once you're married, you can't just break up because of a little fight. You work things out when you're married. Not that you should cheat on someone when you aren't married, but when you are married it's like taboo. You don't cheat on your spouse. Of course there are always going to be people that cheat, and get divorced, but I'm speaking of what marriage SHOULD be. I think that's why there is such a high rate of divorce in this day and time. People don't value marriage. They rush into marriage without thinking things through. It's a shame that Hollywood seems to be the role-model of our society. Celebrities live in a fantasy world. It's pretty much like they live in one of their movies. They do things that you just don't do in real life. I just tink it's a shame that they are bringing these views of marriage out as a "new way of living."