c4tp's friend's Journal: High School

Tuesday March 4, 2003 9:45 am
Since February is Black History month, an African-American I admire is Malcolm X because he had the ability to rise up and overcome strife. He was able to conquer losing both his mother and father and to rise up and spread his ideas. Too bad he lived during the era of Hoover. Therefore he was killed to prevent the spread of his social disease.
        You know the problem I have with typing my thoughts down is that I think too fast and therefore I can't type as fast as I can think. Also, I have a problem with thinking about things I have little knowledge about therefore I could easily make a fool of myself. Like I'd love to talk about Hoover here, but I have no concrete evidence about what he did and therefore I cannot digress. However I shall digress about socialism and other ramblings that make me unhappy or things I just like to complain about.
        TV in America is one of the worst things ever to be invented. I do not know the location that it was invented, but due to our almost vulture like reliance on it the US most certainly would have to be the country of origin. In America we have probably 20 news channels. In America we have live coverage of our political representatives. In America we have channels dedicated to sports, music, and comedy. What happened to the days of the big three? What happened to quality programming? Why do people have shows named after themselves?
        In the olden days (at least I am told) there were four networks; ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS. In the olden days the weather was the first thing on the local news. In the olden days if the president was on that's what you watched. In the olden days things were better.
        You watched programs that promoted good things such as diversity. This was promoted through Star Trek with the bi-racial crew. You watched good clean comedy on programs such as The Brady Bunch and Green Acres and Lets Make a Deal. The worst television on was probably the Twilight Zone and that just because it dealt with paranormal ideas. The children of these generations never had to deal with the bare midriff's of Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears. Oh no, they didn't have to listen to staunchly republican Bill O'Reilly. And certainly the only reality TV they dealt with was the $64,000 Question. They weren't posed with shows that promote promiscuity, lying, and alcohol abuse.
        Now with the third generation of TV in existence, their parents have been exposed to enough TTV (Trash Television) that they no longer ask questions about their children's friends and what activities they partake in. That would be un-TTV, and since we (the parents) put our children in front of the babysitter each day, we cannot ask questions about our children for fear the babysitter has taught them asking questions is not cool. And since social status with simple words such as 'cool' and 'dirty' are the way little Junior thinks, we better keep him 'cool' or else he'll be shunned by his friends.
        Thursday March 6, 2003 9:40 am
        My favorite childhood memory is... will be graduating of course. I will finally be able to leave the pathetic high school life. Maybe in college I'll actually accomplish something rather than run around in circles like I have in high school. What makes me mad is the friends I had in junior high are all of a sudden my friends that I keep closest during the end of my high school days. The new people that I met in high school never did or tried to do anything as in a friendship. I mean, I would give myself and devote myself, but it never mattered. Therefore I find my true friends are the ones who are still there from middle school. Forget these shallow individuals of high school. Its like, 'Oh man, he wears those clothes? I can't talk to him.' But it's not really like that. Its much more complicated, you have to act just a certain way. You have to condone illicit activities you have to do all of this BS if you want to be popular. But I have realized that being popular is just a waste of time. I'd much rather be a passive observer criticizing the things people do rather than help them. It's just so much more fun and is much more entertaining especially when mocking people right in front of their faces. The best is when people don't understand that you're mocking them. But, who am I kidding? Anyone who reads things such as these will say I come from a bad home life or high school is just like that. Both are true, but you see high school should be nothing like it is today. We should have uniforms, block scheduling, and much stricter rules. Also, we need a more proficient effort from the 'know-it-all' administrators to eliminate cliques and to take a more proactive stand against illicit activities before, during, and after structured school times. Now my opponents will say it is not the responsibility of the school to be a 'parent.' Alas, if we let the parents do the 'parenting' they will only place little Junior in front of the tele and let him make his own decisions about what to and what not to do in high school. Therefore, we need some sort of agency or government run parenting institution. This would be in the best interests of our nation if it wishes to continue existence. Rather than face the alternative of future generations not caring about the nation and therefore turning the US into an almost anarchist state. But then again, I know nothing I'm only in highschool.
        Tuesday March 11, 2003
        My extreme weakness is trusting people. It takes years to be able to trust. I do 'trust' some people. But hardly do I ever trust everyone with everything. People are rather backstabbing and it makes me mad that people do that. One second you'll have a friend you 'trust' then the next this person will rip you apart with the information you've entrusted them with. Such is the life of high school and I cannot wait until college and the rest of my career so that I'll have more steady and trustworthy friendships. I know quite well that anything I do and most of the people I meet in high school will be lost or disregarded ten years down the road. I'll be lucky to keep in touch with possibly five of my classmates. And those I would possibly think about doing this with are my 'geek' friends. I once had them then I decided to join the backstabbing circle. I soon learned it was worthless. So now I am back in the beginning and I like where I am. Soon I'll go off to college and hopefully I'll be able to be involved and not have to live with the worry about what I say and whether or not it'll come back to haunt me. Generally I guard what I say very closely for this fact alone. I know that if I openly spew things about it allows the vultures of society to gobble me up. Anyhow...
        I found the best website in the world thanks to my friend Dan. Its address is www.slashdot.org no, it's nothing offensive. Rather it's a geek portal. It's a large conglomeration of geeks who get online and talk about current issues. It's quite interesting and I enjoy reading things about geeks. Well written by geeks. Oh well.
        I was reading about interplanetary travel this weekend from a link on that website. Anyhow, the article talked about the easiest (as in least work) ways to travel to other planets. The problem lies in the amount of fuel one can carry to get to these other planets. You cannot just take off straight away from earth because it would take to much fuel to get out of the earth's gravitational pull. NASA already does this 'slingshot' method. Anyhow, what one needs to do is go into orbit around earth to gain momentum to therefore be able to leave the earths gravitational pull. The thing about this article is that it addressed the gravitational fields represented by L1-L5 each having its own strength and distance from the sun. Obviously the farther you are away from any object the less amount of 'gravity' or pull it has on you. This even happens on earth between every object with mass. The problem is that to model how these forces interact it is extremely complicated mathematically. I mean you can easily (relatively speaking) measure two object's gravitational attraction, but throw in five or six and it becomes (you guessed it) complicated. So, to accurately find the actual amount of fuel required for interplanetary travel would be hard and, it would take more time to travel because you are spending time in orbit around planets rather than heading to your destination in a direct line. So, until we can generate an infinite amount of energy from very little mass there is little possibility of interplanetary travel. (In theory remember, to travel the speed of light requires an infinite amount of energy.)
        I do someday in the future foresee interplanetary travel, but some major issues that are limiting it need to be addressed and those may take a long period of time to address. This being because they are complicated and our technology is not advanced enough.
        Thursday March 13, 2003 935 AM
        Write about your family and who they are... Yes my family, I have one. Aside from that I tend to not see them much per se. Rather, I see them, but not that much, maybe 30 minutes per day. Otherwise I am in my room asleep, playing computer, or Slashdotting.
        Slashdotting you ask what is it? Well, it is the ultimate waste of time. It is the nerds place to find information. But most of all, it is a portal of semi-useless information I like to keep up on. Anyhow, it is a forum where nerds post information about numerous topics ranging from science to the obvious computer technology. But it emphasizes a positive feedback type of area. They have a program that tracks how much you post and how much you visit the site. Also what you post can be 'modded' up or down depending on how good of a post it is. But, anyhow... you post things and either get chastised or get many mod points. The problem with this is that my friend Dan recently sent me to this site, and now it is using all of my time that I need to do homework and such. But I guess I am senior it is only natural after all.
        When I was little I had a Winnie-the-Pooh blanket. Yep and a bear of no relevance at all. Other than that I had a bed and slept there. Unfortunately I moved and everything changed and most of the time I'd rather forget living in Waverly, as it was a horrible house and a horrible place to live in general.
        But, this had a different impact on my life because this was the time where I began to realize the way humans think. The way they don't bother to talk to the different people, the way they can easily shun people without actually thinking about it. And, soon the contempt came and luckily I was able to move soon after this to a new place with new people, somewhat more open people, but now I see it's going to happen again. But this time, the people will be willing to make friends because now people realize they have no choice. This time things will be different.
        Write a letter to a former teacher thanking him or her...
Dear Mr. Campbell,
        Thank you for giving me the chance to learn the way that math truly works. For years I have been subjected to teachers not caring or bothering to tell me how things work in reality. But suddenly it all came together this year, how I wish I could stay and learn more. But the truth is that until this year I haven't given much of a hoot about math, taking it as it came and in general just putting it off. Unfortunately only once in a lifetime will I be able to learn from a great teacher. Thank you for all of your hard work.