Community College Fail

Dr. Evil being charming

The end of the semester looms. The Chemistry teacher won out her battle of brains and wills. I withdrew from her class. Probably the best idea as my sister called me in tears after a test not long ago. My sister who is probably smarter than the professor herself – which is my personal opinion of what is going on in that classroom. This Chemistry teacher – we’ll call her Dr. Evil – has a superiority complex over her poor Basic Chemistry students. Her tests aren’t designed to make you feel like you might actually know what you covered that chapter. No. They’re designed to make you think, “What the heck? When did we cover that?”

She worked in the Chemistry field for years and has an undeniable passion for her subject. However, that doesn’t reflect into her teaching. Her teaching methods leave her students wanting. She nitpicks on small details and stresses topics better suited for higher up Chemistry classes (such as organic topics). She demands you memorize formulas and definitions that you wouldn’t usually touch until a 200+ class.

And flaunts the fact she knows everyone is struggling with pride. “Oh I’ll help you,” she’ll say as her students scratch their heads over her latest lecture. “I’m available after class.” But what student wants help from the person who is confusing them and then admits it? Will she really help after hours? Or will she just reiterate what she spewed from her podium for 2 hours with poorly made power point slides and weak lecture notes?

So while I was severely disappointed with having to withdraw to the point of depression, I felt a little reassured that maybe I had done the right thing. If my sister – whom has the makings of a genius if she wanted – struggled under Dr. Evil’s tutelage, what chance did I have?

And biology, a subject I dearly love, has been disappointing of late. I’ve learned nothing knew, short of the Kreb’s and Calvin cycle to a level of detail I thought would be saved for microbiology (again not a basic biology topic in my mind) and had Darwinism shoved down my throat and then slapped with that paddle until I relented. The labs have been useless recaps of the Introductory Biology course I was forced to take and then even more pointless when they did a few that weren’t from that course.

On top of that, my dear Community College felt the need to force me to “experience the world.” By our professors explanation, the school felt that students didn’t go outside enough or visit enough museums.

I’m sorry, my parents took me camping nearly every summer of my youth and I saw plenty of museums. With my family. Whose job it is to expose me to things like that as a *requirement* NOT my school that I’m paying to teach me a subject. So once again, my sister and I are forced to go a musty old museum that puts the Chicago Art Museum to shame in the name of “experiencing the world” and I must put together a ‘field journal’ to show that I go outside.

What does that have to do with anything we discussed this semester? Nothing. I guess you could sort of tie photosynthesis with the outdoors and the evolution crap with the creepy museum full of stuffed dead creatures, but really – I’d rather pass.

But the end of the semester, as I said before, is merely weeks away. I wonder what I’m ultimately taking away from this half year that I will apply to my later career. My sister and I have both been accepted to the near-by University. We agreed that despite the cheaper price of the community college, the education we were receiving was just not worth it. So its off to EMU we go, financial aid is filed and loans are looking to be in my future.

I will retake that chemistry course over the summer. I’m praying its done by a real Chemistry teacher – not a joke like we had this semester.

Lament of the Past

I know I am intelligent.

I am smart. Maybe not very worldly. Or maybe not super street smart. And sometimes I’m naïve in believing the greater good in most people…

Or maybe my self-perception is totally an completely off. I’m not sure. The one thing I do know is 1) I am smart and 2) I test like a moron.

I don’t know what it is. It’s been this way since I could remember. Ever since my earliest memory in school I always tested terribly. It really bothered me, but I was super embarrassed about it because it seemed like it was only me who suffered from this “issue”. No one else made the teacher sigh and huff in frustration as she passed back quizzes and tests. No one else had teachers throw their hands up in frustration when they explained things to me one way and I still didn’t understand it.

It made me ashamed.

So I shut up about it. Because even though I tested badly… I still went on to the next grade. Even though I grasped some concepts but not others, as long as I attempted to write answers or guess at my multiple-choice questions, it seemed to be good enough. I know now that somewhere along the way (I estimate around 3^rd grade) something went wrong with how the public school system taught certain subjects.

I excelled in reading and writing – but then again, I was reading from a young age and writing as soon as I knew how to string words together. It was a personal passion. And I remember enjoying adding and subtracting as it made sense, was neat and pretty the way you would set it up all aligned…

Then fractions and multiplications came along and somewhere it just didn’t “click.”

I know this because as a soon-to-be 25 year old, I sat in my sister’s 3^rd grade classroom and watched 8 and 9 year olds fire off multiplication tables that my brain literally blanked and fizzled out on. I felt such embarrassment, hurt, and anger as I held up cards with what was probably considered simple multiplication and had these kids answer them with a swiftness that put me to shame. I looked at my sister with wonderment and longing. If only I had had her as my teacher. Perhaps I would have been able to do these tables as quickly as her kids in her classroom.

I asked her about it by complimenting them on their multiplication and division skills. She told me she felt most schools didn’t put enough emphasis on learning these basics of math – which is why so many children struggle later on in life. She said the same with reading – by having such strict regiments and making reading an unpleasant, tedious task – children are disinterested. She encourages the passion of reading by letting the children (gasp!) choose what to read. Be it a comic, a novel, or a picture book, “If they’re reading, that’s the most important part.”

 

If only all our teachers could have that attitude.

Though I don’t mean to say it is all the teachers. My sister is no longer a teacher due to the way the school administration and the school systems forces teachers into teaching in a manner that is inefficient to the students. My sister had kids that loved to read and loved their multiplication tables because she didn’t follow the schools “pre-plan” on how to teach them. By getting to know her kids and paying attention to how they learned, she was able to adjust her lesson plans accordingly.

And when the school would send that “official” to observe to make sure the students were learning the way THEY wanted them to learn, she’d have to put on that show for them. But as soon as they left, things would go back to normal… and the kids would actually learn something.

I can’t say that any individual teacher is at fault for my poor skills that are biting me in the ass as I prepare for a professional career that looks only at test scores. It may not be one teacher’s fault, it may be the system, or maybe a combination of a bad system and few impatient, at-loss teachers. Thrown up hands and sighs of frustration when the way you teach it just doesn’t get through to a young child? Well I know that was a poor choice… but I remember teachers who genuinely tried as best they could with 29 other students needing just as much (maybe more) one on one attention as I needed.

It’s been haunting my thoughts ever since I started going back to school. I dream of being a doctor. And as I get back a test from every class, my heart grows heavier and heavier. If you sat down and discussed the subject with me, I could explain to you exactly what we were tested on fine. But when it’s looking at me from paper, my mind seems to freeze and jumble up. And I write wrong answers or wrong processes, and its only regret marred with red ink and a disappointing grade.

I know I’m smart. I’m just not the smart the way the school systems grade me on.

And in the end, that might be the only thing that matters.

Valentine's Day Musing

Valentine’s Day

I’ll admit I like Valentine’s Day.

Because it’s definitely a woman’s holiday. And we need more of those.

I found myself irritated by the amount of anti-Valentine’s day hate that is spewed by the mouths and writers of our local and World Wide Web authors. Everyone wants to bash on it, yelling the tired phrase of “corporate holiday” and “shallow.”

I don’t find it to be shallow at all to have a nationally recognized day of gifting your spouse or S.O. with either an item bought or an item made. And the people I find that put of the most fuss are the ones that don’t want to spend money one someone else. Seriously.

 

“If he/she loves me then they don’t need to get something.” They shriek at the sight of my cooing over the upcoming day.

“Well of course they would love you regardless, but wouldn’t they be disappointed if you didn’t do anything?”

“It shouldn’t matter!” and then this is usually followed by some tirade of how the corporations are making money off of us on this day, which is exactly why we should do everything in our power to do something that doesn’t fund the holiday.

Short of slapping on the name “Valentine’s Day” and maybe adding more red and pink to the usual pickings of the market – you’re really not spending any difference between that Hershey’s bars you pick up at the market. Or that card you’d buy. Or the construction paper and glitter you purchase to make your own. I’m really not certain why people get up in arms over “one day” when we spend 364 other days of the year getting screwed over on gas prices and rising essentials (food and clothing for example.) Where are our bleeding hearts and outraged speakers for those?

Instead we get bashed over the head for trying to celebrate a harmless holiday of expressing your love towards one another. And you should talk down on the person who decides to spend some money on a bouquet of flowers and a card – or buy those chocolates in the heart shape. Just because you don’t’ want to do it doesn’t mean everyone else in the world shouldn’t either. So sure – hate on the holiday – and I think its good to encourage people to think “outside-the-box” in gifting people… but outright labeling anyone who does purchase items as “uncreative” or “shallow” is just plain rude.

 

Another point is people like to say, “It’s just another day, why should I do anything special?”

If you think about it, do you really take the time to show your S.O. the amount of thought and express it (through card, gift or words) any other time of the year? Maybe when you’re going through something hormonally or maybe when you’ve had a few too many drinks or the snow starts to fall at midnight on Christmas Eve… but seriously. I know I don’t think about it or really do much – and I feel that Valentine’s Day is a good reminder.

But a good point is, we should make an effort more than once a year, three times a year to show how much we love a person. And for some people, buying someone a bouquet and chocolates is how they do it. And that’s just fine.

Stacey's Big Fat American Wedding: Part Two - What I know now

While Part One focused mostly on what I would have done differently, I’d like to focus more on some of the preparation lead up to and the day of the wedding in this next part.

Our next door neighbors in our 3 apartment complex got engaged not long after we moved in that December. I found out by walking in the bar that the girl worked at and saw this huge book that said “A Brides Guide to Her Wedding.” I did what most people ask that annoys the crap out of the bride when it’s an obvious answer: “Oh you’re engaged?”

Duh.

But she was nice and told me of their engagement and their hopes and plans. They had a similar idea to what Fritz and I were planning. An outdoorsy wedding, perhaps in an old fashioned barn, with a reception to follow in the same location or nearby outdoors. I gave her suggestions from what I had discovered during my planning of an outdoor wedding.

Stacey's Big Fat American Wedding: Part One

So I never really got around to staying on top of updating what was going on with the wedding stuff. In retrospect, there are a lot of things I would have gone back and done differently. However, the wedding went beautifully and everything worked out in the end. And really, I married my husband which was the whole point of this fiasco anyway.

First I think I’ll talk about things I would have done differently. When we first started planning the wedding I was all about being penny pinchers on what we could do. I felt we found a reasonably priced caterer who would provide service at the wedding and cleanup for less than $1,200 for approximately 150 people. We also went to a rental place which had beautiful tents (the owner had used them for his own wedding) which included set up and tear down, no additional charge for the driving out to the wedding location despite it being out in the middle of the woods for around $1,500.


(also here was our wedding website I made mostly for the STD's)

Combining forces

I have like three hundred blogs on the internet. If I can find them all I will be happy camper. Alas my original Blogger Blog has vanished... well actually I can't remember which email I registered it as and what I called it. Oops. But from the ones I do have I'm slowly transferring the memories over. Slowly. But surely. Hello 2003!

The Things Customers say

I like being a barista. It's a good job. But at some points I can really hate it!

Not because of my coworkers (surprisingly) but because of the customers that come up and treat you like a robot because you're behind the register! Are all customers terrible? No! But a large majority are. Luckily, I don't have it nearly as bad as some other barista's like the ones who work at popular chain stores, however, I've met my fair share. Here's a fun list I've compiled taken from my own personal experiences and from many other barista's around the world!


The List of 41 Barista Woes

Taiwan Wedding Reception

So here is the story of the wedding reception a la Taiwan straight from the horses mouth!!
Click on the "read more" button to view!

Me and my new side of the family!!

The Taiwan Trip from like a year ago...

Okay, obviously I'm not being serious for people who lack sarcasm radar. Regardless, it has been 2 months since we've returned from Taiwan and I have not even looked in the direction of this blog for reasons regarding things like procrastination and forgetting about it...


On an embarressing note, I find myself obsessed with California Girls song by Katy Perry. It's similar to that obsession I had about Ke$ha's Blah Blah Blah about three months ago. Don't make fun of me. I like Candyland. And whip cream.


Anyway click below to read about the time in Taiwan - the wedding reception Taiwan style has it's own post that'll I'll put up separately with a couple of photo's. Unfortunately it's not a complete documenting on our days over there since it was a long time and I was getting tired and what we were doing was repetitive. But you'll get the gist of it!


No pictures yet, will add those later.

Wedding and BMI

Well not much has been happening with the wedding scene lately. I’m going over to my grandmothers tomorrow to get measured for my wedding dress. My mom and grandma will be sewing it for me. I’m very excited as it is a pattern my mom picked out for me years ago and I just happened to pick that same pattern myself while browsing options online. She already had the pattern! No such thing as coincidence, right?

Anyway, I wanted to focus on diets. Weight loss becomes a goal for almost everyone involved in the wedding. From the bridal party to the guests, the thought crosses their mind when they receive the save the date or invitation – will I be able to lose a few pounds before this big day?

Well it turns out that life isn’t just a bunch of roses. Sometimes I’m ready to strangle people and I get the mixed emotions of feeling mildly disappointed in myself for lacking the patience – and frustration because I’d probably face 10-30 years in prison if I do act on my more violent impulses. 

I find myself debating over whether to act on my more motivated and productive ideas for my part time jobs – or to simply sit back and let things happen as they come. Normally, one would think suggesting and acting out these ideas could lead to promotions or other such rewards – but having worked for one company for two years and watched my beloved fiancé (and other close friends) work for the other, I feel it would be a fruitless action. Perhaps I could squeak out a small pay raise from the one I’ve been working for 2 years, but the other I’m sure would just take my ideas and never implement them or expect me to implement them with minimum wage. Either way, I have lots of good ideas, but I deign to use them without proper credit or due.

40 Interesting wedding facts….

1. In the United States, there is no law or religious dictate that says the bride must take the groom’s last name. However, approximately 70% of Americans agree that the bride should change her last name. 
2. In the States, where no blood tests or physical exams are required, failing to tell your prospective spouse that you have a venereal disease or a physical impairment (such as impotence or infertility) can void the marriage.
3. Early Roman brides carried a bunch of herbs, such as garlic and rosemary, under their veils to symbolize fidelity and fertility and to ward off evil. These herbs served as a precursor to the modern bridal bouquet.
4. The phrase, "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a silver sixpence in her shoe." Symbolizes: continuity, optimism for the future, borrowed happiness, fidelity, and wealth or good luck, respectively.
5. Because white is the color of mourning in Eastern cultures, white wedding dresses are uncommon

To cake? Or not to cake? Whether tis nobler to follow tradition....

So I realized something relatively early into planning the wedding. I do not like cake.

It seems almost blasphemic to utter that during a conversation about receptions but as I’ve been browsing options of bakeries and designs – I found myself virtually inable to be pleased by anything. Not a single thing looked appealing or appetizing to me and the thought of having to taste test made my stomach churn.

The Story of Stacey and Fritz

I’m very fond of Fritz. I should be seeing as I’m marrying him, but to some it seemed a surprise that we became engaged. In fact, I remember telling people that I was dating Fritz and the reaction was often: “Fritz? Really? Huh.” Or “Oh you weren’t dating before?”

I fancy that I noticed Fritz before he noticed me. I was a sophomore in a school where I was still relatively the ‘new girl’ and uncomfortable being there. I had very few friends and being recycled into a freshman class due to failing the year before (another story in itself) I was a little self-conscious and on edge. I noticed Fritz right away because he was the most handsome boy I had yet to lay eyes on in the school. He kept to himself, was very quiet, and mostly doodled in his artbook. As an aspiring (and ever failing) artist it was that which finally gave me the courage enough to walk up next to him and ask him if I could look at his drawings. He did and then…

Introducing...

Well since everyone is always – CONSTANTLY – asking me about what it is going on with wedding planning and the like and I always have to judge my answer carefully before opening my mouth… I figured I’d get it all on the table. Or the net. Something like that.

Probably wondering why I would have to be worried about that well you find out a lot things about your friends and family (and soon to be family) when you get engaged. You’re usually not doing things fast enough – or right – or have forgotten something that you never really considered a big deal anyway, but to them it is. Can I list examples for each of these? Probably, but I don’t want to seem like I’m complaining. I appreciate the help and the kick in the butt I get from everyone involved – it keeps me on track and going.

I know I haven't posted in a while but I have been home since October 7. It's been wonderful! I've been running around a lot and haven't ever really gotten the time to just sit down and write in my journal. I'll do it after this weekend though. I have drills this weekend at Fort Custer, Battle Creek. I also found a job- already! I'll put up more details about what's happened since I've come home on Sunday or Monday.

Until Sunday evening!

*toddles off to car*

I am HOME.

*revels in comfort*

Internet in my room now too, woot woot. 

My new room looks spiffy. Will post pictures later.

I have my plane tickets sitting right next to me. I'll be back in Michigan at 10:21pm tomorrow.

YES!

Graduation tomorrow morning and then I'm gone.

*runs off to party*

I passed all my tests! Four more days left in El Paso ^-^

- S

Tired but don't want to sleep

Another weekend should mean another pass- but this is not so for me. My pass was taken away this weekend for a reason I can't understand until the drill sergeant who took it from me returns to tell me. My room was not up to "standards" which is not possible. I have never consciously left my room unless it was to the standards. Clearly something isn't being told to me or it would have been fixed before it became a problem.

So I've been stuck around the barracks all day which bleeding sucks. I guess there's a reason, though, since I know I'd be out spending money in ole El Paso. I have to wait once again to send my family a package, though, since I CANNOT miss school to mail it.

Next week is the final week. It's what matters. The last stretch. 
Get it?
I DO.
Talk about pressure, man.

I have a written test and three hands on tests- PMCS, Basic Control, and a Road Test- it's like fricken drivers ed all over again only multiply the BS by 700000000 and you got it. :p No, really its not that bad, but sometimes, it is. I'm only worried about the written test otherwise I think I'll be fine. They said the only way to fail the road test was to A) Run a red light/stop sign B) Not buckle your seatbelt and C) Hit someone. I'm pretty thorough and careful about those things...so no worries.

Basic control I think I can ace, I just can't run over the cone in the right turn. Oh and the alley way docking I need to pull up further to actually fit it in the box. Hrmmm, ya'll better pray and make sure I pass this. If I have to stay here any longer I may have to do something crazy that I'll regret later on in my life so I can get the hell out of here.

In the end, I spent the day watching Tears of the Sun which I purchased from the PX last week. That is a brilliant movie. Really makes you think- especially as a soldier. Plus it was cool cause we knew all the weapons they used and some of the moves they did. Tee hee. We're all dweebs here in the military.

They popped in Taking Lives and I've seen that like three times and they have Fight Club on the other telly. I think I may go upstairs and take a nap. I'll probably end up watching one of the movies, knowing me.

Did I mention I have 11 days left? 

Woosha!