Project 366: Dancing for a Guest when there Wasn’t Much other than Lunch Time Shenanigans, a Job Interview, and a Hat.

On Monday, there was dancing. 

Because she lost a bet. So she performed some highland dance for us in Biology class. It was pretty fantastic.

 

On Tuesday, there was a guest. 

His name is Gwynne Dyer. He talked to us about Arab Spring and then extended his talk to non-violent revolutions in general.

 

On Wednesday, there wasn’t much. 

So this is a fun photo of our Biology powerpoint presentation. The caption in the top right hand corner says, “Don’t forget to put a shirt on when cooking (no one cares about your six pack)”.

On Thursday, there was lunch time shenanigans. 

Here is Andrew getting slapped by Lisa. And Cynthia wearing a mustache. Would you believe me if I told you both of these things were for cancer awareness?

 

On Friday, there was a job interview.

Cross my fingers, I think I did well. All I need now is my criminal record check and references. I’m cautiously optimistic.

 

On Saturday, there was a hat. 

A magnificent hat. HOLD YOUR CAULFIELDS, EVERYONE, I’VE FINALLY FOUND IT. It’s the hunting cap that I’ve been hunting since September. The infamous, the symbolic, the red, it’s Holden Caulfield’s hat from Catcher in the Rye.

Some reflection on the week. 

It’s been painful trying to get back into the Project 366. It really isn’t that difficult to take a photo a day and upload it, but in my mind it became this monumental task that was insurmountable. I really had to force myself this week to take a photo a day. I literally put it on my To-Do List every single day so I wouldn’t forget it. I would like to think that this shows some perseverance, but I don’t think I can really say that until I’ve started to do this on the regular again. This is why I’m going to continue the Project into the new year, until I’ve reached the 366 photo mark. I know it’s cheating, but my focus is now on finishing, not on following the rules.

 

Project 366: Longest week of my life

(I’m going to try a new format of presenting the pictures…)

This last week just seemed to drag on. I’m ready for Spring Break, frankly. This whole week I’ve been just watching the time, waiting for the weekend. Nothing really bad really, it just seemed to drag.

I’m very excited for my Extended Essay however, I’ve chosen my two books and I’ve actually got a very good feeling about them.

(Thursday, Feb. 23, 2012)

I’ve chosen The Little Prince  and The Catcher in the Rye to study for it. The Little Prince is one of my favourite books and I am very passionate about it, so I think it would make for good motivation, seeing as I’m going to be spending the next 9 months of my life with it. Of course, in choosing this I abandoned my original topic of Taiwan’s Economic Miracle – I plan on doing that for my History Internal Assessment next year.

I think I should start utilizing my off block more. So far I’ve only done any work during it if I did not do the History homework, I would scramble to finish it during my free block, but I think I would do well to use it to actually do my work everyday.

Usually, I just sit around and chat with my friends. This is one of them who share the free block with me, Manal.

(Friday, Feb. 24, 2012)

They are making bracelets for a CAS project that they are doing. I really like her smile so I thought it would be a really great photo to have.

Speaking of smiling. Before the Biology test, the teacher told us about a study that tested whether or not a (forced) genuine smile really made you happier. Putting a pencil between your teeth actually pulls your facial muscles back in the same fashion that a genuine smile does, and the study found that doing that really did make you happier. (The point she was trying to make was that your brain can be tricked, so if we tell ourselves that we know all of the information that was on the test, we would do better than if we told ourselves that we would fail. – I know this firsthand because I spent the whole way up to my commentary telling myself that I was going to fail and when it actually came time, I drew a complete blank and I actually did fail.)

Of course, after she told us about this pencil thing, we obviously had to test it (For science!).

(Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2012)

I said earlier that I needed to utilize my time more, so I’ve been spending a lot of time in the library recently. I was planning on going up to SFU library today, but it had been snowing this morning so I didn’t want to take the chance and get trapped up there. I did go to Terry Fox Library yesterday however.

So the highlight of my weekend was smuggling food into the Terry Fox Library – which to be honest didn’t take any effort at all. I just walked in…

(Saturday, Feb. 25, 2012)

I really do waste a lot of time though. During History class when we were suppose to be working on our postcards, we spent the whole time joking around and talking. Then Nick’s hair started to be poked – what popular hair… really…

(Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012)

There was a Canucks game at a really weird time today, it started at noon. So clearly, I needed to have some coffee with me or else I might have slept through it. I put my coffee in my Canucks mug – fitting 🙂

(Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012)

I really need to go to Chapters again, Blood Wedding, which I ordered a while ago, has finally arrived… a week after I went to pick up the other book that I ordered at the same time.

When I went to pick up that book, there was a bunch of notebooks and journals on sale, so I bought one, which I’m writing in regularly now. I also saw this amazing book, which contained the answer to LIFE.

(Monday, Feb. 20, 2012)

Project 366: Studying Hard?

It wasn’t that bad of a week. Really busy. Next week might be worst.

The problem I’m having with this project is that I sometimes forget whether or not I took a photo that day or not. Also, I miss a lot of really good photo opportunities because I forget that I am doing this project. I don’t think I’ve “bought in” to the whole documenting my life thing. Sometimes if I forgot to take a photo of something during the day, I’ll just quickly find something to photograph so it’s not really something that is representative of the day.

Project 366: Worst month of the Year

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February and March tends to be the crappiest months of the year for me. It’s usually the point in the year I have some sort of crisis. Although I did have a very crappy beginning of the school year so maybe the crisis has already passed. In the past couple of years, this time is usually when I’m lowest in confidence, but really that was November for me.

Right now I’m feeling like I won’t be able to survive school. I’m having an academic crisis. I bombed an English commentary and I’m just generally I’m underachieving. If I knew I was performing to the best of my abilities, I would not be having a crisis. I know I can do so much better, and I know I’m not.

The first photo was from the day I went to the Tour de Nerdfighting. It was awesome and I got my books signed by John Green. I’m really upset because I was so thrown off after speaking with John that I completely forgot about Hank Green. Stupid, yeah.

The second photo was from the day I found out that I’m one of the final 30 for CBC News Day! It was really exciting when I found out because it literally came after I failed my English Commentary, it made me forget about how poorly I did. Oh. Bonus photo, this is my awesome student reporter jacket: 

I’m really excited for being apart of it … not to mention the $1000 scholarship that comes with it 🙂 I’m assigned to radio, but I haven’t found out what my story will be on or who my mentor will be yet. I won’t be able to go to the actual TV broadcast though because I’m going to be in Ottawa. It’ll be a bummer to miss it, but Encounters with Canada will be a ton of fun too.

Also, I’m fairly certain I failed my English Commentary because I went to the Tour de Nerdfighting the night before, I was dead tired and I was in the midst of a transition to having classes start at 7 in the morning. Either way, I knew it wasn’t my best and my teacher knew it wasn’t my best.

The photo of a bear is Otis, he’s the classroom bear in my History class/room I hang out in at lunch. He was our divine leader during our presentation on fascism.

The 6th picture was taken during the full day workshop for CBC News Day directly after we had gotten our red jackets. As I say, forget the scholarship, we get these awesome jackets. 😛

The 7th picture is a photo of Edward in a banana suit. The CAS play project at our school is raising money for funding and Save the Children by having a banana suit fundraiser. They got a bunch of teacher’s names on boxes and you vote for a teacher by putting money into their box and the teacher with the most votes has to wear the banana suit on Tuesday, February 14. It’s a really awesome idea. I dumped all my change into Mr. Lenihan’s box.

The 8th picture was taken during my free block – which I didn’t give up for Peer Tutoring this semester because frankly, the experience was disastrous for me last semester.

The 9th picture was taken after I dyed my hair again. I tried a slightly different colour this time. I think I could even use the bleach next time to get it even more brown.

The 10th picture was taken at lunch, in our lunch room. That’s Otis photobombing in the background.

The 11th picture was a picture of me that I messed with. I found this awesome new app called Hubba Hubba and I love it. The “Big Daddy” part was completely necessary.

The picture of the pile of books was from the day I went to SFU library and used my free library card for the first time. I think I decided on my extended essay topic. A comparison between the economic miracles of Taiwan and Korea. I’m not quite sure if it’s a history paper or a geography paper or something else.

The last picture was from today after I went with my parents to a wholesale place for new stock. We got tons of new purses. My favourite:

I also really like this one:

I pretty much collect bags. I usually don’t care much about fashion, but I love bags.

That last picture is our new window display.

Project 366: New and Old

Day 1: January 1, 2012

Same Foot

New Years suppose to be a chance to start afresh, but so far, I’m still the same messy person. My desk is a monster and I doubt it’s going to change anytime soon.

It’s a holiday so I’m lazing around the house, editing pictures with PhotoShop.

Day 2: January 2, 2012

All Night Long

I know these first two days haven’t exactly been good pictures, but they pretty much sum up my life as my Winter Break draws to a close. Once I actually start getting out of my house, then I’ll start trying for a “good” picture.

It was taken at 7:45.

There’s a perfectly good reason why I didn’t sleep. I’m forcibly resetting my sleep pattern. I’m been going to bed for the past two weeks around 2-4 am and for the past week, waking up past noon. I would not have been able to fall asleep at an earlier time because my whole day had shifted.

By not sleeping at all, I become so tired that I will be able to go to sleep virtually any time. So I will be going to bed around 8 or 9 pm tonight in order to wake up at 6:30 tomorrow morning.

Winter break is over, that means no more getting up at 2 in the afternoon. The proof is in the pudding when I was standing at my bus stop before the sun has even risen. Okay, truth is I take a 7:30 bus, so it’s not ridiculously early…

But if I’m complaining now, just wait a month; I have block 0 in the next semester. I have to leave my house at 6! I don’t know how I’ll learn anything that early in the morning.

What I’m most looking forward to is the off block that comes with having class at an ungodly hour. It’s connected to my lunch block so that’s a two hour nap in the middle of everyday. 😛

Day 4: January 4, 2012

The Max

This is my friend Max, modelling his very awesome shirt.

Day 5: January 5, 2012

Mob Scene

This morning was the signup day for our English commentaries. The signup sheet was suppose to go up at 8, so I showed up at 7:45. There was no one at the cafeteria table where the usual group hung out so I thought no one was there yet. I decided to go wait for the signup at 7:55.

There was already a line for the signup going halfway down the hallway.

Ms. K told us we were a lot more civil than the grade 12’s in signing up for their TOK presentations.

I had to signup Lina as well because she was sick that day, so I was checking to see if someone took the spots I wanted constantly.

In the end I got the day and time I wanted; during exam week and around 11 am.

The only thing I’m kind of regretting is not having a day off to prepare first, but it doesn’t really make a big difference.

Day 6: January 6, 2012

Check in

Sharon and me waiting outside the principal’s office waiting to check in with her for our weekly peer tutoring check in. I was suppose to be in a class (after school) and she was in a meeting, so I couldn’t wait any more. I had to leave and I’ll have to check in with her on Monday.

I also really need to talk to her about the problems I’m having in my peer tutoring class. The group of people I’m working with just won’t read. I’m peer tutoring English 10, so in order for me to help them, it’s essential that they actually read the text. That’s the only way I can help them. I can explain things they don’t understand if they actually ask, but I can’t explain everything that happened to them.

Right now what they’re trying to do is answer the questions without reading the text by searching for key words that are in the questions. Which does work because we’re doing a novel study and when I tell them they have to expand their answer from what is in the text, they have no idea how because they haven’t actually read and understood the text.

Day 7: January 7, 2012

Pomelo

This is me wearing a pomelo hat, which I’m sure was a lot cuter when I was a kid. This pretty much summarized my day, I did so much nothing that I ended up amusing myself by making this hat out of the pomelo skin I took the pomelo I was eating.

Day 8: January 8, 2012

Late Start

This is my usual wake up time on a day off. My mum came in screaming that it was already 3 in the afternoon. I got up had lunch, did nothing until it was actually 3 in the afternoon, then I went back to sleep again until 5.