clementine | Entries tagged with friends

Mirrored from Oh Clementine. You can leave any comments there.

Today I was walking home from a job interview¹, and by "today" I mean "a few minutes ago". Here I am, minding my own business and walking down the street carrying a huge case of contact solution that I picked up at the mall, when a woman walks into me. From behind. Know why? Because she's texting.

Now, when people walk into me because they're texting, or when cars don't slow down at the crosswalk, I tend to give them a dirty look. That's justified, right? I mean, this woman walked into me. From behind! Because she was texting! So, of course, I shoot her a glare. And you know what she does? She shoots me a glare right back.

Yep, because I should have known that she was behind me, about to walk into me, all because she wasn't paying attention to where she was going. Clearly it's my fault. God, Clem, why on Earth would you be pissed off at her? Seriously now.

People text too much.

There, I said it. It's true. I read an article about a girl who sends and receives 500 texts a day. Since I got my first phone 3 years ago, I don't know if I've even sent 500 texts total. And, yes, I realise I'm weird. I know people my age text a lot. But you know what? I don't like it.

I don't like walking down the street with my friend while she responds to the 85 billion incoming texts she has and trying to hold a conversation. I'll say something while she's texting, she'll look up and go "Huh?", I'll say, "Never mind," and she'll say, "No, no, really! I really want to know! What did you say?" Uh, if you really want to know, why don't you pay attention the first time? Why don't you NOT respond to texts for the ten minutes that it takes to walk home from the subway station? It can't be that urgent.

And texting during class? Please. Okay, maybe the occasional "oh my god I am dying of boredom in this stupid class", but if you text throughout the whole class and then complain to the teacher that you need another week before the test because you really, really, really don't get it, too bad for you. Some of us actually pay attention and do well on the test. (Okay, maybe I didn't do really, really, really well, but I genuinely do not understand many aspects of chemistry. I also have little desire to understand it.)

One last item in this little rant – texting during the Remembrance Day ceremony.

I'll just give you a little time to let that sink in.

Yes. It happened. Here we are, 2000 students², listening to poems and speeches, when somebody's cell phone starts to ring. Their ring tone? My Humps, by the Black Eyed Peas. Really now. To top this off, my friend, standing next to me, was indeed texting. Now, I don't care if you hate war. I don't care if you don't think that the soldiers died for our freedom. They did die, and this is the time to respect them. You can't turn off your phone for fifteen minutes? Because, yeah, the ceremony was literally fifteen minutes long.

Honestly. I'm not saying nobody should ever text, but it seems like people are becoming incredibly dependent on their phones. Texting is an easy, convenient way to reach people, but it takes you away from the real world. Is it really necessary to be in contact with them all day long? Maybe it's just me, but I feel like sometimes it's nice to turn of your cell phone and live in the real world.

ETA: I did mean to add this to the original post as an aside, but I forgot. ANYWAY! Jem just had her daughter Isabel today, so YAAAAAY, CONGRATS!!

I did get the job [↩]
my tiny school and the larger one that we share the building with [↩]

Mirrored from Oh Clementine. You can leave any comments there.

I have not been having a great week. I won't go into details about much, but I will mention that I am having huge problems with a certain teacher. I have mentioned him before; I had him last year for two courses, and was a little on the dismayed side to find that I had him again for World Religions this year. Last year, he made a point of pushing his beliefs on us by saying things like (and I quote), "I'm not going to tell you to not eat meat – no, wait, I am. DON'T EAT MEAT," showing us videos about a slaughter house, and generally ignoring the curriculum in favour of these things; this year, he has insulted people who don't care about religion either way by saying that they are "ignorant, boring, and uninformed" and that he "hopes to change their opinions by the end of the year", as well as creationists, saying that they "don't display a sophisticated level of thinking". This makes me extremely uncomfortable to be in his class. If any class should be a safe space, it should be World Religions. It isn't a class about his personal opinion; it is a class where we're supposed to be learning about, you know, the religions of the world.

Yesterday, we had presentations. One group was missing a member due to H1N1; he said that they would have to present anyway. That's fair enough… what isn't fair is the fact that he told them that he expected them to present their partners' information. Apparently, we should all memorise every group member's part on the off chance that they're away. That definitely is not how a group project works; the point of doing it in a group is to split up the work.

That was the last straw for a friend and me. We decided to see the guidance counsellor about switching or dropping the class. Unfortunately, it's too late in the year to do anything about it. We can't even enroll for an online course instead. The guidance counsellor did allow us to voice our concerns, and she advised us to talk to the principal about him.

Today, I was helping out a grade 9 class. (They were learning to make websites, and I'm the head of the web team at my school.) My World Religions teacher came into the room and asked if he could see me after school. I immediately got freaked out, although I told him yes. The teacher whose class I was in¹ asked me what he was talking to me about. I told him most of what I told the guidance counsellor, and he said that he understood and that if I had any problems I should definitely talk to him. I think it's interesting that none of the other teachers seem to be very fond of my World Religions teacher, and are not quick to defend him.

Anyway, I was already having a really bad day, so my best friend ended up finding the World Religions teacher and telling him that I was sick and needed to go home right away. He probably didn't buy it, but I don't think it's appropriate to corner a student and ask to speak to them about something that you had discussed in confidence with someone else.

This entry has gone completely off base from where I was originally going, which was to discuss how people hold back emotions. Because of the way this week has been so far, I've had a lot of strong emotions. My natural reaction to strong emotions? Crying. It's embarrassing, and I don't like it, but that's just how I apparently have to deal with my emotions. This is especially a problem when I'm mad. When I'm angry with someone and trying to express that, the last thing I need is to cry.

When I was about 10, I read Ender's Game. I remember virtually nothing about the book, but one thing that has stuck with me was the brief description of what Ender does when he feels like he is going to cry: he starts at 1, then doubles it, then doubles that.

Since then, that's always what I've done when I'm feeling upset. It helps me concentrate on something else, and it's also a good way to gauge how upset I'm feeling. I've memorised a lot of the sequence, so if it gets so bad that I actually have to do math in my head to figure out what the next number will be, I know that I am extremely close to tears.

Now I'm curious: do you try to hold back your emotions? If you do, how?

(And, because this post wasn't already all over the place, I'm doing NaNoWriMo! I've made a lot of progress so far, and I can afford to take around 2 days off since I'm so ahead.)

who is in charge of the tech group, and who is awesome [↩]

Mirrored from Oh Clementine. You can leave any comments there.

I've complained about it before, but yesterday I finally did something about it. There were a few reasons, but once Facebook launched the news feed, I was over it. I do not need to know every person my friend adds. I don't need to know that someone in my English class is a fan of ice cream or that they joined the group "1,000,000 PEOPLE AGAINST THE NEW NEWS FEED!!!" (Like that ever works anyway.) I don't need to see every picture my friends are tagged in and I definitely do not need Facebook telling me to reconnect with people who went to my middle school and who I have never even connected with in the first place. Stop micromanaging me, plzkthx.

This has actually been easier than I expected. I deleted my shortcut link and now I'm not really tempted to go on. There are lots of ways to contact me should anyone have the need; my school has its own virtual bulletin board, so my peers can easily contact me through that. I don't need Facebook and I'm looking forward to seeing how long I can go without it.

(Oh, and I also had a job interview. Just so you all know.)

Mirrored from Oh Clementine. You can leave any comments there.

Let me tell you a little story. Nearly two and a half years ago, I had to wear my friend's glasses for a skit in French class. I put them on and noticed that I could read the text on the spine of the dictionaries at the back of the room. Amazed, I asked my friends if they could read the text, too. They gave me strange looks and said yes; that was when I first realised that I am terribly nearsighted. I did end up getting glasses, but I found them quite inconvenient for a variety of reasons, and, due to my tendency to be forgetful, I often wouldn't have them when I actually needed them.

I decided that it would probably be easier for me to have contacts; that way, I could leave them in all day without having to worry about misplacing them. So I made an appointment with my optometrist and got them yesterday.

The appointment started off as it normally would: I had my eyes tested and learned that my prescription for my regular lenses has changed since the last time I was tested. My vision has actually become weaker! Now I can only read the top two or three rows of a standard eye chart, whereas before I could read a few rows past that. Once we had established how crappy my vision is, my optometrist put a pair of contacts in my eyes. I don't exactly love having my eyeball touched, and since I've never worn contacts, it was a weird sensation at first. I flinched when she put them in.

After that, I had to take them out and put them in by myself four times. It was awkward the first two times, because I had to hold my eyes open with my fingers and then just stick my finger in. They felt really, really weird before I got used to them! Poking around at my eyes so much caused them to get really red, and I even shed a few tears (not because it hurt, though).

Now I'm just amazed by how much clearer my whole world is. It feels like I can see everything! I'll be walking down the street, looking down at the sidewalk, and then look up and be slightly taken aback at how defined everything is. I can see the crisp outline of cars, every leaf and twig, and people's faces from all the way down the hall. Before, cars would be a blobby mass, trees would be a blur of yellow and brown, and I would have to figure out who people were based on the way they walked. To make everything a million times better, I can't feel my contacts at all. After all the commercials I've seen on TV about how you should buy these awesome contacts because most of them make your eyes dry and itchy, I was so happy when mine didn't feel like anything! In fact, when I put them in this morning, I had to look closely in my mirror to make sure they were in.

I'm pretty sure my friends are already tired of my constant declarations that the world is beautiful when you can actually see!

Mirrored from Oh Clementine. You can leave any comments there.

About a month ago, I mentioned that Aisling's cousin Brock was on The Next Star, a Canadian singing competition. For those of you who are interested, yesterday was the finale¹. Unfortunately, Brock did not win.

I'm not going to lie – I'm disappointed. I did invest quite a bit of time into voting for him; I lost count ages ago, but I'd say I voted around 1200-1500 times². To make it worse, I genuinely don't think the winner is particularly talented. Yes, she is a better singer than I am³. But, honestly, I find her voice quite average. I would be less upset if somebody else had won, like Darrelyne. I personally feel like she would at least have deserved it, based on her talent. I find it really strange that Darrelyne was constantly in last place during the voting process, when I found her to be one of the most talented people on the show.

Honestly, I hope that Tianda, the winner, is able to make something out of this. It would be a shame if the opportunity was wasted, especially since it could have gone to somebody else. I also hope that the other contestants will be able to use this opportunity to their advantage. I'm sure Brock will make some sort of a career out of this – he certainly has the talent, and he already has a lot of fans! (I bought his single off of iTunes! ) I hope the others will be able to get something out of it too.

So… yes, I'm sad. I did spent a lot of time voting. At first, it was just to make Aisling happy, but by the end of it, I got really into it! I even watched an episode of the show so I could see who I was voting for. I probably wouldn't even care so much, but he's Aisling's cousin! It would have been amazing for him to win. Regardless, I'm sure he'll turn this into something good.

(Oh, and thanks to everyone who voted! It makes me happy that people from as far away as Singapore were voting.)

and it was in my city – I could have gone! [↩]
YES, I KNOW [↩]
though that's not saying much! [↩]

Here's what happened:

Jet fell down an entire storey.
We bought a leash and harness at Walmart and took the kitties for a walk.
Bighead and I decided to be Calvin and Hobbes for Halloween.
I got "swine flu".

( it's kind of long and involved so here's a cut for you )

Mirrored from Oh Clementine. You can leave any comments there.

The other night I realised that I haven't had a proper dream in months. I used to have the regular "wow that was random" dreams every night; now I generally don't have dreams¹. When I do, they're nightmares.

About a year ago, I had a dream that made me wake up in tears. This was the first time that had ever happened to me. In the dream, I was in a car with two of my friends and one mysterious person. My friend was driving, and she crashed the car. Our faces were all bloody and shredded, and we were crying and begging the driver to tell us something. Apparently she knew something about the accident that we didn't. When I woke up, I really was crying!

I had another dream a few weeks ago that had the same effect. I don't really remember the details, but one of my friends kept shaking me and telling me she was sorry. Apparently it really disturbed me, because I wasn't able to calm down very easily even after I woke up! Two nights ago, I had a dream about attending a funeral. I really don't know what brought that on, but it was apparently upsetting to me, since I woke up crying.

I also occasionally have recurring dreams. When I was around 6-10, I would have dreams every few months about a dragon in my school's library. Everyone was scared, but I would always go up and talk to it, and I would end up climbing on it and sliding down its back.

Now my recurring dreams are without fail very unpleasant. They always have to do with being unable to open my combination lock. I think this is because I was unable to open it on the first day of middle school², and it's just transferred over to my subconscious mind. In these dreams, I end up spending so long trying to open my lock that I miss at least one class, and generally a chunk of another. As school gets closer, I find myself having these dreams more often³.

Do you also have recurring dreams? Do you ever wake up crying after having a bad dream? Do you even remember your dreams?

or don't remember them [↩]
because I suck [↩]
which is weird because I'm excited for school! [↩]

Yep, is ma birfday! (And

chiklita's too!)

Today I went to Wonderland with my friends, which was very, very fun. However, I didn't get to go on the Behemoth because the line was SO LONG (seriously, the shortest line we waited in was 25 minutes, and Behemoth is so popular that it would have taken 2 hours), which made me a bit sad.

Another thing that made me sad was getting tricked by a group of 11-year-old boys. *facepalm*

We went to the water park, and obviously we needed a locker for our stuff. The lockers cost $8 plus a $2 deposit. (Yes, I know, that is a MASSIVE rip-off, but what are you going to do?) So, we were waiting in line to get our key when this little boy approaches us. He asks if we want to get a locker for $8, since he's done with his. He leads us over to the locker and locks and unlocks it to show us that it's legit. We agree, pay him, and put our stuff in our lockers. His friends are giggling, but we can't figure out what could possibly be wrong, so we decided it was just the fact that they're 11-year-old boys and we're ~older girls~.

We go down a bunch of water slides and go in the wave pool. When we're done with the whole water park thing, we go back to our locker. We open it and get our stuff out - and then we realise that when you give the key back, that's when you pay the $8. Oh. GREAT. We already paid these stupid little boys $8. We don't want to have to pay it AGAIN.

So we tried to give the key to someone else. We weren't going to sell it to them like the boys did to us - we just wanted to give the key to them, and then they could pay $8 when they returned it (and save money, since they didn't have to pay for the deposit). Nobody wanted it, though. So we ended up just putting the key back in the locker and running.

I felt so stupid for letting five 11-year-olds trick us. At least it makes a funny story!

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Clementine

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je voudrais être un yeti

i am clem

Entries tagged with friends

Turn your phone off

Holding back emotions

What I did yesterday

I can see everything

1500 votes later…

today was a big day

My dreams are weird

Iz ma birfday

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