Paperwork

What with my severe sense of the exact, I have problems filling out forms. I really do like doing it, but I’d rather not add to my difficulties by slashing the wrong box. Unfortunately, the number of forms I have to fill out seems to balloon as I grow older and I have to fill out more and more of them without the watchful eye of Mom. For example, I rather dislike the hypochondriac checklists of ills on medical forms.

Have you now or in the past had…(check all that apply)

__1. a family history of heart issues–To what degree are we talking? Do heart murmurs count?
___2.fainting spells–Seriously, yes, I’ve fainted twice…does that count? No.
___3. severe allergies–Well, I think gluten intolerance is a pretty severe infliction, even if not life threatening….
___4.emotional instability–Alright! Why is that even on here? Of course I’m unstable! I always am!
___5.hormone inbalances–See number 4.
___6.extremely high or low blood pressure–What counts as extreme? My feet turn purple at sixty-five degrees. Is that significant?

So I tend to look like a severe hypochondriac, even to the degree that I’m not. So is this exaggerating effect specific to medical forms? How do I prove that I’m not really a hypochondriac? As it turns out, it extends to government papers too.

I registered to vote recently. Do I need to fill in the “Are you a permanent resident of the United States?” in addition to the “Are you a citizen of the United States?” box, or is that only for people who have filled in the “Are you a green card holder?” box? Why do they need to know this anyway? Am I not allowed to vote if I happen to be living in a summer house in France the majority of the time? For that matter, why on earth would a green card holder be filling out one of these forms anyway–non-citizens cannot vote. I have a Venezuelan friend who, after thirty years of having a green card, got her citizenship just so that she could vote.

Also, do I sign my full and proper name, or do I need to abbreviate my middle initial? Do I just need my first and last name? What if the name I sign doesn’t match the one on my ID exactly, or even at all? Do they check? What if I had broken my right wrist and couldn’t sign my name recognizably with my left hand, would I have to explain why I had just written a wobbly J?

So this ambiguity which torments me extends to a variety of forms. Unfortunately because most literature is not written for lawyers, I shall have to live with uncertainties. Fortunately, because I took a business law class, I know how to write without them. (Hopefully.)

What I Learned from the SAT

Having taken the SAT the morning I rushed off to take a vacation, I had an interesting experience and felt it worthwhile to comment on the test.

In the first place, I had a totally different experience than I did on the PSAT. When I took the PSAT, we had to register at the only local school with a staff member who knew how to deal with homeschooler registration (The school forgot that I was coming, anyway, and we had to nag the test people in order to get my scores back.)

We registered online for the SAT, and, with more than one opportunity to “get it right” and without a guaranteed scholarship on the line, I had comfort in the knowledge that it wouldn’t really matter if I messed up.

I didn’t mess up.
Despite massive stressing, and a total inability to become “really worried” about the test, I took it with a somewhat disconcerting amount of peace (probably due to the many people praying for me.)
An enormous crowd was clustered around the entrance to the building. I am not a fan of crowds; they look at you oddly. But there were room assignments! I didn’t have to take it in the far corner of a crowded cafeteria with low tables. Yes!

Lesson 1: Resist the urge to stress.

So, we started with the essay. I got a relatively easy prompt:

Do we benefit from learning about the flaws of people we admire and respect? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.

Oh look! my hands are shaking. That’s not good. However, although I had not studied as much for this test as for the PSAT, I was able to incorporate a paragraph from one of my practice essays into the assignment, but I only had time for one clincher sentence, and I used the word “knowledge” too many times.

Lesson 2: Budget adequate time to proofread.

Alright, I’m in the next section. I’m not entirely sure what came next, but somewhere in there we had a math section. Whee! I can do all of these! Well, maybe barring two or so this section…I’m done early and I can recheck. Good, good. Wait! That’s not right! “Time!” Fortunately, the question was a student-produced-response one so the wrong answer don’t get marked off. Still, I didn’t get any points for that one…

Lesson 3: SPR questions are good for points. Unfortunately, they can also be much harder.

The more you’ve read, written, critiqued, edited, the easier the writing questions are. It’s mostly done by feel, with a few grammar rules thrown in there. Not having many concrete rules to rely on as I speed giddily through these makes me uneasy.

Lesson 4: Speed can be good if you’re careful.
Lesson 5: Read up.

Reading Comprehension is interesting. I know I got all of the sentence completion questions, but the passage based reading questions have several almost identical multiple choice questions…also my concentration is breaking down. Focus!…and I ran out of time.

Lesson 6: Don’t over-analyze.
Lesson 7: If you even can concentrate for an three hours to do a math set, now would be a good time to utilize that skill.

And it’s done. My scores were sent out this time. Turns out I didn’t have too much reason to worry, but there were other things I needed to learn.

Lesson 8: Learn to focus on your coursework.
Lesson 9: If you get good scores, “they” will come–you don’t need to research colleges overmuch.
Lesson 10: Large amounts of prestige aren’t too important in picking a college, if the school is decent with a certified program for your major–and cheap.
Lesson 11: Be patient.

I’m still stuck on lessons 8 and 11, and I haven’t picked out a college yet, either. But I’ve got lots of time to hone my skills–I hear colleges want homeschoolers to take the SAT IIs as well.

The Venturing Hike

We went hiking day before yesterday. It was beautiful. Granted, we’ll have to call it something other than “hiking” next time if we want certain people to come with us again.

It was a perfectly balmy day; I regretted many of the things I had brought “just in case.”  My possessions included:

a wide-brimmed cowboy hat, two walking sticks, a backpack, a canteen, two sandwiches,  a small first-aid kit (including matches, a needle and thread, and a signal mirror), a compass, a roll of tp, a pocketknife, an LED light, an emergency whistle, a poncho, a roll of duct tape, the bottoms of my zip-off pants,  an extra pair of socks, an extra windbreaker-(maybe)rain jacket, and a large bottle of sunscreen.

As noted in my previous post, I don’t “do” concise.

Pleasantly surprised by and attendance of thirteen (!), we set out from our rendezvous in two cars. This was all fine and pleasant. With a minimum of delays and a good bit of The Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack, we arrived at our destination within the hour. It was cloudy, but humid and hot. I ditched the jacket and the sunscreen. I loaned out my hiking sticks. The beginning of “Pigeon Trail” has an angle of ascent of 45 degrees. “That’s not so bad;” thought I, “we did worse than this at Philmont.” Indeed: it was so. I made it with small trouble. I have, however certain advantages in being lightweight. I was somewhat out of breath at the top of the hill. Unfortunately, one of the members of our group has asthma; this was not good. In addition Sarah got poison ivy. At least the first aid kit came in handy.

It was a lovely place. It was truly woody in a way that only the south can be. The site of a decisive battle in the Civil War, the terrain contained a liberal amount of plaques and informational boards. I’m not much of a historical enthusiast for the Civil War specifically, but it got to me. Against the advise of a tactician, the southerners cut a swath through the forest and nine hundred men pulled nine cannons to the top of a somewhat insane incline–overnight–and defended themselves. If that isn’t tenacity, I don’t know what is. Especially exhilarating to me was looking back at the view half-way up a mountain, and realizing that we had just climbed up and come down the mountain behind us. I never knew how much ground I could cover in an afternoon: according to the map, I believe we covered five miles; counting in switchbacks and vertical distance it was longer.  

We lunched at the half-way point, where all the tourists were getting off their buses to see the view. We had reached the peak of the second mountain. My sandwich was mushed. Oh, well, I worked for my supper and I bet it tasted a lot better than it otherwise would have. We started the descent, our group splitting in two by pace. Sarah and Sarah were in the front. One of them happened to notice a vine some kids were swinging on. It did look like fun. Unfortunately, Sarah’s trip ended mid-swing when she landed in a patch of Virginia ivy interspersed with poison ivy and got scratches up and down her leg. Ouch.

We reached a fork in the trail and got our bearings; the trail led through the visitors’ center.  Since it was Memorial Day weekend, the visitors’ center off the trail had a uniforms exhibit. It was really neat seeing all the soldiers’ stuff from the world wars. Then came the informational video, which was more informative, big-picture wise than all the informational boards. After this, we continued happily down an easy path that skirted the battlefield: truly beautiful. I began to berate myself. I hadn’t even used most of my stuff! Sarah came into contact with roughly twenty-five dogs on the trail. She petted all but one or two of them, and that wasn’t for lack of asking. There were also lots of boy scouts with loaded backpacks training for Philmont. The trails weren’t a bad simulation of Philmont either. Then it started to sprinkle. We doubtfully pulled on our ponchos; “It wasn’t going to last that long in all probability, was it?”. Then it poured. My poncho hood came up, and my wonderful cowboy hat went on. We slogged  through the rain looking like a group of flamboyant Keebler elves in our brightly colored ponchos.

And then, we were back at the car. After ten minutes, the rather damp and tired second half of our group happened along and we set off. I lent out my dry extra pair of socks; my initial pair had been protected by my duct tape adorned boots and were quite dry.  So in the end, I ended up using everything in my pack when we set out but my roll of tp, pocketknife, LED light, emergency whistle, trusty roll of duct tape, and the bottoms of my zip-off pants. I’ll leave some things off the list next time, but others it’s just good having. I had a good time.

I would like to thank the veterns for fighting for all of us. 

Happy Memorial Day, everyone!

~Joanna

What I learned in Business Law 2200

My chronic absence has not been for nothing. In fact, I actually learned something while I was away. (Imagine that!) In light of my experiences, I think it was actually worth it to take a class in business law and get a little behindhand on everything else.

• The first thing I learned was that procrastination invariably leads to naps. This sort of nap, while infinitely enjoyable, almost always leads to odd situations. One day, in the beginning of the semester, I decided that I needed to be in a certain frame of mind to read my law book. (Poor fool, I had not yet learned that law creates its own frame of mind.) I waited until late afternoon and read the chapter in admirable detail. Unfortunately, the homework assignment for that chapter was due the next day, and it was already quite late. I worked into the night and finished sometime around two. The next morning rolled around at precisely five fifteen a.m. I awoke with great vigor. My vigor wore off sometime around ten that morning. I had to have a nap. But my dad was still in the office where I was encamped and I had loads of schoolwork to do. I would simply have to put it off. I awoke sometime later to find the edges of the last thirty pages of my chemistry text saturated with drool. (Fortunately for me, and my younger sister who will be reusing the book, the pages of the chemistry book are made of heavy, glossy paper–perhaps in foresight of such an occurrence.) Another awkward situation arose with student advising. My father is by now quite used to it, but the sight of a body stretched out on the floor, even if studying, has never quite lost its tendency to startle visitors.

“Earth Hour”

So, the “Earth hour” symbolic act is tonight. Everyone is going to turn their lights off for an hour to protest global warming. I, however, have turned on several unnecessary light bulbs, pulled up the blinds, and am now asking the question: Is this really anything more than symbolism?

Think about it. People are using flashlights, candles, and they’re going to be turning on the lights in an hour anyway. Are they really saving energy? While I cannot pretend to know the energy usage of a single energy-efficient bulb versus a single candle, I can assure you that people are going to be burning five candles to every light bulb they aren’t using.

Now about the businesses participating in Earth Hour. They do realize that everyone is going to have to work an extra hour to catch up, right? That means an extra hour of light bulb usage tonight or whenever the employees catch up. In the meantime, I’m guessing that the businesses are still running the A/C or heating, depending on where they live. Now, is it likely that everyone isn’t going to fire up the Wii after they turn on the lights? Are they going to quietly read for the rest of the evening? Furthermore, I was informed once that it takes more energy to turn on and off lights when you leave the room momentarily than to leave them running.

If people actually wanted to save energy, they could go to bed with the sun. “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise,” so it is said. We wouldn’t use any unnecessary energy. We would correct our biological clocks. If we really wanted to get into it we could stop watching (and running) all late night entertainment!

Therefore, I propose that anyone who is disgusted with unfounded, ineffective global warming hysteria leave their lights on from 8:30 to 9:30 tomorrow night in protest. Everyone else will have their lights on.

Weather and Non-mood Music

Things have been happening. It was turning into a quite balmy February worth wearing shorts to when, quite suddenly, March proclaimed that it was still winter and dumped and inch or two of snow on us. Our snow even got into a little blurb on the front of the Wall-Street Journal which directed the reader to an even smaller blurb in the general occurrences section inside. However, our climate, determined to establish a monopoly on scaring people with weather, immediately took back over. Generally, the snow melted within two days and the temperature began to climb again. Yay for predictability, even if the sudden change back to normality was unexpected.

I had been too busy being myself to take advantage of more than an hour of snow time, especially as I expected it to stick for a week or so. Despite all this, I expect to enjoy the snow again. I am headed late this evening (or early tomorrow) up north again! Yay! Where there is still snow solid ice on the ground! Yay! For which I still must pack! And abandon most Internet access! (yay).

I am in the hopes that in Massachusetts where I began getting this cold, allergy, whatever, it may finally leave me. The thing has been holding subtly on to my sinuses since Christmas. Also, nasty flu of some sort is sweeping my area. The situation is queer.

In addition to learning law, I have been practicing the piano. I’m not sure whether this is a good thing for anyone besides myself and my piano teacher. In attempting to play the pieces faster and more clearly, smoothness is difficult to maintain. Indeed, on bad days, they might resemble a number in The Phantom of the Opera. Or some sort of Polka. (And next up on WXCGY is “Little Prelude Eight and the Melody of Doom!” performed by Bach to teh Schummanno.) On a semi-related subject is the question of the universe: Why do Hispanic bands use polka to tell their sorrows? It’s bizarre. Polka has always reminded me of the circus, so polka featuring a man sorrowfully asking his girlfriend to love him again seems an oxymoron.

One of my dogs died a year ago day-before-yesterday, so prayer on the situation would be nice. I doubt that we’ll get another dog so that there will be two dogs in the house again, but thinking about it makes me kinda sad.

Anyway, I’ll be back after spring break and ready to handle anything again. We’ll be painting while we’re up North, and, in addition to my books, I’m sure that will keep me more than busy.

I go to school!

I just returned the my second session of my first formal course. I had thought that business was a fairly cushy major. Perhaps it is. I’m scared now. Anyway, even if I do flunk this Business law  course, I will have gained new experiences, most notably, getting up at five to beat rush hour. Fortunately (for everyone involved), I’m not doing the driving. I am drawing little stick figures, however…

My dad teaches BLAW 2200.

It’s fairly strange being around so many people who are roughly my age. A quarter of them wear Ugg Boots, and three quarters of them appear to only carry one book at a time in their backpacks.

“It’s illogical Homes; whatever do they want a backpack for?”

“To purvey their books to class, Watson.”

I don’t suppose I am the one to criticize their approach, especially since my own backpack weighs thirty pounds (Which does not sound like all that much, but it’s impossible to lift.)

On a happy note, the school has an elevator, which means I can bring a scale to do the last physics experiment. People look at me weirdly enough, why not give them reason?

Yay for Christmas Break!

Happy New Years! I’m finally home from Christmas break. Yay. On my trip I learned that A) if my digital pictures are blurry, I should probably remove the plastic film from the viewing screen and B) I can eventually tire of junk food.  I did then, have a good Christmas. Although I did not finish my sister’s Christmas present, I did manage to lose my notes for the physics chapter I had meant to take the test on. I also discovered that restrooms in Virginia are generally the cleanest and if I fall asleep with any pressure on my eyelids, my vision will be blurry for the next hour or so, despite the valiant attempt of my glasses.

Unfortunately, now that the trip is over, my siblings will have to return to school soon. My mother will be traveling also, so it will be difficult to schedule the college touring trip that I’ve been lobbying for. To complicate matters more, College board lost the results of the test I took in October, so it won’t be easy to know what my options are. Ironically, because my father is an attorney, abet not a trial attorney, my lost scores are likely to become College board’s problem than they are to become mine…unless I have to retake the test.

Life resumed its death grip as soon as I returned home. So I closed my email client and went grocery shopping. Huzzah.

Planned Chaos

I will begin with the inevitable plea to anyone who is able to vote. Please…

Now then, I would like to spend an entire post trying to steal your vote. However, it is election day and most of the US has already voted. Go vote; shoo!

I took the PSAT several weeks ago. It was very traumatic. Because the school didn’t have me on record, they didn’t have assigned seating for me. I had to sit in the corner and smell the cafeteria ladies making pizza. Despite my fear on the day before and my subsequent massive panics, I am fairly sure that I did well. My mother is laughing.

My dad has proclaimed that the house is to be clean. It is so. Sort of. My younger sister has taken advantage of the opportunity to have a clean room all to herself by contracting a fever. Little did she know that the vacant bed in my brother’s room is far more comfortable than my own. Ignorant of this information, I put off going to bed an hour to memorize Morse code for an upcoming campout.

This upcoming campout was to be the epitome of planned perfection. Because our trips are often canceled, the Venturing crew made up lists of the people coming, their phone numbers, who was riding with whom, and our activities. We were going to teach the older girls from the local AHG troop how to tie knots, signal Morse code, make fires, follow a compass, cook over a campfire, build shelters; and last, but surely not least, we were going to do team building COPE activities with them. We had this all planned out. We then discovered that the leader in charge had forgotten to schedule and reserve spots for the girls to do COPE. Ducky. This didn’t dissolve our plans, but it sure made it harder for us teach the girls. Gah!

Anyway, I’m learning Morse code, fire lays, knots, how to make shelters, and picking out easy camping food recipes. I thought that becoming the president of the Venturing crew would cause more planning to be done and fewer under-planned trips to be had. It has accomplished that, I suppose, but I happen to be doing a whole lot of the planning.

Bach in the Chimney

I am staving off anxiety this evening. I take my standardized test tomorrow. Conveniently, I’m too anxious to study. Fear makes you forget the little that you remember.

Anyway, what was I talking about? Nope, I don’t remember.

I was playing piano this afternoon when I heard birds in the chimney. I had noticed scuffling in the chimney earlier and postulated that they had built a nest in there somewhere. Something was singing its heart out. I stopped playing. The room went quiet. Bach rang out over the keys, and his accompaniment followed. I began to play something called “Spinning Song” by Elmenreich. They liked that. Did you know that birds can sing in keys other than the ones they use normally? Somewhere up there, a small bird is singing Bach. I find that pretty neat. The bird could be useful too. Next time I miss my sister, a small bird will fly into the window glass, recover, and blast me with a rendition of Toccata and Fugue. I only wish that I could see the face of the first jogger to be serenaded. Apparently, Bach discovered ways of preserving his work for posterity in addition to transcription.