Damn, am I behind

Damn. I'm behind by...exactly a month. I'd better post some shit!

May 1, 2008- When I grow up, I want to work for IDOT and take home discarded road signs which I would hang on a wall in my house until the wall is totally covered.
I graduate high school in 30 days. Creepy.
Barkles is lying down right next to me. I'm lying on my side with my head resting on my left hand and my left arm, forming a sort of structure holding my head above the bed. Animals understand sociology and affection better than humans. Animals were never racist, and they never pick on each other for a certain trait they have. They're nice to you if you're nice to them, and if you're mean to them, they refrain from associating with you. They maintain order and get done what they need to get done. People are stupid--how else would a dipshit like George get into office?
Christianity is the epitome of what makes animals better than people. Animals form herds because they need to- but congregations really aren't necessary; individuals can take care of themselves. Religion is another way of categorizing people for the purpose of discrimination. What difference does it make to know what someone's religion is- how are you going to change your attitude if I told you I was Jewish, or if I told you I was a Sikh or a Quaker? Would you change your judgment? I sure as hell as hope not. But I think you would, and that I would do the same, because we're humans who generally make judgments of people based on their beliefs and traits. Animals act based on what they perceive, and that only. Christians act based on something of which there is no proof that it exists. Animals form groups to stay alive. Christians form into groups to form clubs so that they can say they're better than everyone else and threaten eternal damnation if you don't join them. Hardcore Christians find it impossible to revise their beliefs. Animals live and learn. Animals are loyal to those whom they feel deserve it. Christians are loyal to those whom they are forced to be loyal to (i.e. if they don't, they're going to hell). Animals don't discriminate. Christians say they don't, but then, there are the gays. And there were the blacks. And even each other-- remember learning about the Reformation in history class? Animals have sex to survive. Christianity tries to condone sex, but that doesn't exactly work when you're trying to create something that keeps your name in the books and when you're trying to CARRY ON YOUR SPECIES...Christians believe that the world was created in seven days. Animals don't claim to know something they don't, and more importantly, they are completely fine with not knowing how the world was made. In the Christian story of how the world was created, a woman was to blame for making humanity flawed; thus, women are seen as the "fuck-ups" in society, to at least a slight extent-- plus, the story claims that humans were created in the image of God, making humans at a higher level than other living things. Animals don't care about these theories, they don't value men over women (though often one of the genders is bigger and stronger than the other, putting one at a higher level of power--but they don't hate one because of their lower level of power), and they most certainly do not pride themselves with being of a godly image. How stuck-up is that, to say that your race is modeled after God? Whoever wrote THAT part must have been totally full of themselves.
I got a haircut on Tuesday. Macy and I walked to Orchard Road and got some Wendy's beforehand. Wednesday was presentation Day. It went okay, I guess. I only went to 5 out of the 8 sessions. I'm pretty sure I was supposed to be there for the whole thing. But what are they going to do? A lot of the presentations involved kids talking about cutting-edge research, none of which they had any real knowledge. Many of the mentorships seem to be opportunities for the kids to do revolutionary work with top researchers, and by that I mean become the top researchers' monkeys and do their busy work. So they just said a bunch of words of which they had little to know understanding. And if they didn't understand what they were saying, how the hell was I supposed to? So what--was I supposed to enjoy listening to a bunch of self-centered people spout a bunch of cryptic scientific jargon of which they had no understanding? And I call it 'self-centered' because these people were mainly doing this mentorship to add something big to their respective resumes. What did they care what the implications of an NKY gene were, or how n-323 binds to the inhibitor of a PO4 phosphate layer of some kind of cell thingy? It was pretty clear that they didn't even know what they were talking about, so it was obvious that they weren't there to pursue something they were actually interested in. They wanted it as credentials, nothing more.
That's what got me. Many of the presentations weren't to share what they had always wanted to learn. They were there to make themselves look good. Don't get me wrong, though-- there were other people who actually did pursue something they really wanted to learn, and in my opinion, these were the right kind of people (except some people in the other category can be the right kind too, if they were forced into their mentorship by some external pressure, like that of their parents). People like this included Erika, Mamatha, Janelle, and Kelsey. It's good to know that SOME people out there aren't totally shallow. It's those shallow people that make me shake my head in disgust here at IMSA.
The IMSA lifestyle more caters to that type of person, I've found-- someone who studies all day and sleeps all night. Since we can't leave our halls past 10PM, we have to do all of our socializing before then. Here are the possible ways to organize one's schedule:
1. After-school activities, homework, sleep
2. After-school activities, socialize, homework, get little sleep
3. Homework, socialize, sleep
4. Socialize, homework, sleep

Most of my friends take route #2 and get little sleep. But IMSA seems to want people to go route #1.

If an IMSA student has commitments after school (most do), and socializing can't be done after 10, people would do their socializing before 10, leaving most homework until after check. This leaves little time for sleeping. If you do your homework before 10, you get to sleep on time. This is the schedule which IMSA seems to favor. IMSA seems to advocate only doing homework and after-school activities: building one's resume. They don't really pay attention to the social, recreational, nutritional, or health aspects of life. There are student organizations that promote these sort of things, but the students that belong to them are too busy to promote anything they want to contribute because they're all doing AFTER-SCHOOL ACTIVITIES OR HOMEWORK!
It's all to build up the resume. That's all they care. It's all to help oneself, and who gives a shit about anyone else? Unless your child is a busybody and a selfish bastard, don't send him or her to IMSA.

May 2- I have thoughts. I like that. I wish more people did.

May 3- [Kickass flow chart that I can't post]
I don't wanna go home, blah blah BLAH...

Organizing memories by location, blah blah BLAH...

Oh yeah. Six Flags. I decided to rank all of the rollercoasters in terms of how much they own.

1. Superman. This rollercoaster isn't one to thrill a whole lot, but DAMN, is it fun to ride.
2. Raging Bull. Close second, lemmetellyaz. Now THIS is a thrill ride.
3. Viper. Again, it isn't the BIGGEST thriller, like Superman. But it's always unpredictable and just plain fun.
4. Batman. It's got the thrills. It's got the excitement. Yea-yeah.
5. American Eagle. Pretty fun, no big letdown.
6. Demon. Now we're getting into dukie territory. This would be a fun ride if it wasn't so fucking loud inside the tunnels.
7. Whizzer. Child's rollercoaster. I think I might actually put this above the Demon. It's decently fun, but nothing special.
8. Vertical Velocity. YAWN. It's repetitive and not fun at all.
9. Iron Wolf. OW, MY FUCKING HEAD. BRING IBUPROFEN. Every time you turn a corner, your head clonks into the restraints which have a cushion factor of 2 (out of 10). I'd avoid this one altogether.

*- Deja Vu is disqualified, because out of the 5 or so times I've been to Great America, the RIDE HAS NEVER BEEN OPEN. It is ALWAYS broken down. I think this gets a ranking of 11 out of the 10 rollercoasters.

May 4- ROAD TRIP!
I went driving around Livingston and McLean Counties. We stopped at a few rest areas, and well, here's the breakdown:

- Go to Walgreens at US34 and IL71 for batteries
- Get some cash at the bank
- Take Ridge Rd south to I-80 west to get to a rest area, from which I jacked a map
- I-80 to IL47 south to IL17 W into Livingston County (yay women's prison)
- Pontiac. In Pontiac, there's a park with swinging bridges and another park with crazy metal statues, both of which we stopped at.
- US66 and I-55 south to Bloomington, where we ate at Arby's (on IL-9) and got gas. I mean, we ate at Arby's, and THEN filled up at the gas tank in my CAR...sick-minded, all of you.
- We were going to go to a comic book store in Normal but we both totally forgot. Durka. But we stopped at the Eastland Mall and checked it out. There really isn't much for two guys like Tyler and me to do at a mall, so that didn't take terribly long.
- McLean County. US136 is officially the most boring highway in Illinois.
- Another rest area. This was along I-74 near Farmer City (whose name seems a bit oxymoronic). This rest area was the coolest one we saw. It had shingly roofchitecture (quote from Tyler).
- Farmer City was a nice little town. It had a nice, quaint town square.
- We drove toward Towanda to get back on I-55 and roll back home.
- We hit another rest area just before passing Pontiac again. It wasn't too special.
- At Pontiac (again), we went to the Wal-mart and got some pudding snacks, Triscuits and cheez-whiz. But it was the cheapy Wal-mart brand, so it was actually "Cheese Wow." I call it "40% cheese, 60% plastic."
- Went to the Portillo's on IL59 in Shorewood.

Region 14 complete!

May 5, 2008- Today is my half-birthday. I'm now 18 1/2-- halfway to 37. Half-birthdays are nothing special-- just another day with a somewhat interesting bit of trivia to it.
Last night I changed my calender. May 31st is now in sight. I have a wet-erase laminated calendar that I can write on. When I was writing the numbers in, I decided to end with the week of the 31st, the day I graduate. I was actually able to fit the entire remainder of the year on the calendar, with a week to spare. Holy shit.
What a shitty week it's going to be. I have two tests and a poster due on Friday.

May 6- I picked up my yearbook today. Earlier in my IMSA career, I would have really enjoyed it but right now, I don't feel that I belong here. I am already, in my mind, somewhere else. I like my friends here. But as far as IMSA goes, that's it.
I really don't feel that I belong anywhere, as things stand. My life is turning out strangely like that of my grandfather, whom I was named after. Paul Weiner, my mom's dad, was a hobo around the age of twenty, from what I understand. He had nowhere to go, just like me.
We're moving on to The Fountainhead in English class. The main character is an architect who will not conform to classic architectural styles even to the slightest extent. He is a pure-- a ridiculously pure-- individualist. I'm a lot like Roark (that's his name), but completely unlike Roark at the same time. When I write music, I write with a style that is completely independent from all others, but I write so that the public enjoys my pieces. And in order to write for the enjoyment of people, I must write to suit their values. Roark is ridiculous because he refuses to accept this in order to create things that sell. In order to create things which sell, he has to make them with the concepts that society looks for in mind. The characters that Ayn Rand creates are ridiculous, but I think that's the point.

May 11- Last weekend was the band concery. Vesuvius ROCKED. The band played most excellently *feels like a sophisticated British man*. But I happened to be shocked to receive the John Philip Sousa award--the highest they could offer, basically. I almost shat my pants- I was NOT expecting that. I still don't feel that I deserved it. ...and they pronounced my name wrong, which figures. But I got it! I couldn't believe I got the same award as Rachel, the amazing flute player. [DOES NOT COMPUTE]
Whatever. I'm going to sleep.

Next update: Prom! ...and stuff.