Acadec, and more Lady Gaga

Friday at 8:10 in the morning I left school and embarked upon the most important trip of my life.

Not really. I just went to Dallas for Acadec competition. In case you haven't read my other posts, Acadec is basically a place where you can compete in ten different areas such as: Essay, Language/Lit, Social Sciences, Math, Economics, Art, Music, Speech, Interview, and Super Quiz.

It's pretty daunting seeing as it's just testing for two day straight, but it's extremely fun.

One thing I noticed while being holed up in my "studying" was the Asian and Indian kid ratio to everyone else.

It was like 947703:4. Crazy! Also, surprisingly a lot of those kids are afraid of elevators! No lie.

Yesterday we left before the awards got started and still arrived at 11:30, but I think I learned a valuable lesson in life.

When in doubt, LADY GAGA. In the interview portion of competition I was thoroughly dreading the "who do you look up to" question, and of course I got that question.

At first I freaked out because I didn't want to say the usual Gandhi, Mom, Dad, The President, but I went with my gut and before I knew it I spouted LADY GAGA.

Apparently I did good because I scored a 910/1000. Thank you Lady Gaga.

Wonton Lady Gaga fan

Why is it that whenever people find out that I like Lady Gaga they're just like, "Really? Are you serious?"

You know what fans of death metal, followers of Dimmu Borgir? SUCK IT. Don't try to pull your elitist BS on me. Don't judge me because I can appreciate folk, punk, and other various forms of music at the same time.

At least Lady Gaga has some actual talent backing her crazy antics.

SUCK IT HATERS. And yeah, next time you think about criticizing my taste in music, remember who knows how to do the chemistry homework.

Going over back-ups with the gingers.

Recently my school has implemented a new form of picking electives. Instead of picking the ones that sound the most fun, or the ones that look really easy, they're handpicking them for us according to career clusters.

I don't know how I feel about this. I often proclaim that I know what I'm going to do when I'm older, but the truth is, I'm so scared of liking something too easily only to hate it, or have no interest in it in 5 years.

Luckily the program is aimed towards kids who don't plan on going to college, but still need technical training of some sort. The councilor said that students in AP classes don't have to worry about our electives being chosen, which makes me feel a little better, but not so much.

I usually don't like to think of HOW to get somewhere, I just know I want to get there. I'm so scared of all the different variables that could pop up and throw me off track.

Half jokingly, while hanging out with Root and Metcalf I made some fall backs if there are any complications for any of my future aspirations.

If for some reason I can't get into college I will become a guidette. Yes. Like Snooki, only with a nicer tan.

If I end up failing at college, or decide that it's not right for me, I'll become a tattoo artist, perhaps starting off as a shop cleaner, and slowly work my way up.

And here's the best one, the one so great Metcalf said that we had to get married and have babies.

If normal social expectations don't suit me, I'll work hard and save my money and live off of soup until I raise enough money to buy a medium sized brewery in Ireland that I would personally work to perfect until it brewed the most awesomest beer on the planet. And after quite a while when I have about a million in savings and investments I'll start a classy call girl/boy service that will be run as a side business in the brewery. I will handpick all of my potential employees, offering them a 5 year contract to work in the business and live in the housing that I provide within the cover of the brewery. My employees will hold themselves to a high standard, keeping physically, and mentally fit, and to ensure they are free of any sexual diseases there will be mandatory testing every two months. Because their job entails entertaining those of white collar professions a certain standard shall be set. Employees will receive a cut of 35% each job, and considering the clients pay high dollar, and free comfortable housing is provided, any violation of the standard of keeping mentally and physically fit will result in the immediate termination of the contract. If an employee were to retire before their contract was up they would have to pay a fee that would consist of their share of 35% of each job that had been scheduled for the next 30 days.

Also in entering the contract they will sign a privacy sheet that prohibits them from telling the authorities about the location, or head of the business. Violation of the privacy sheet will result in swift legal action that would most likely render them bankrupt.

But, all of this is theoretical, and will only be considered if I completely and utterly fail at life and college. Also, it could be the manefestation of watching too much MTV, LA Ink, and Dollhouse. Let's all hope that I make it into Texas Tech or Penn State!

Rand, Money, boy in the green hoodie, all cont.

Recently I've bought a few Ayn Rand books because I thought she'd help me with my recent Debate topic. I only own three of her books though.... I didn't want to buy all of them only to return them or re-sell them because I didn't like them.

I discovered her last year, but only read two of her novels Atlas Shrugged, and The Fountainhead.

And by read, I mean skimmed, and watched the old black and white movies while I skimmed. Blasphemy, I know, but at least I didn't cliff note them. As a wise ginger once said: "The kind of person who reads cliff notes instead of the book is the kind of person who would rather listen to sex than have it."

Anyways, I'm currently re-reading The Fountainhead, not skimming, and so far I really like it. Howard Roark at times can be very difficult for me to understand because he never gives in to anything, which can be viewed as an admirable quality, but if I were to come across a man like Roark I would do everything in my power to make him cave.... which is why I would make a great villain in a novel. But her message in her book still stand true, even if Roark is impossible.

A lot of my friends are getting jobs, or at least applying for them. Even though I'm finally old enough to get a job, I'm going to wait till either April or May until I apply for anything.

I've been observing my friends, and most of them have had their grades drop considerably since getting a job. My friend put it best, "....it's either make money for gas and fun, or do my homework and be broke...." Skewed priorities much? I'm not saying this is an all around thing, or that kids can't hold down a job and still go to school, but I know that if I were to get a job I'd probably end up being one of those kids who couldn't handle both. Also, in most of the places that employ 15- 18 year olds it's mainly teens supervising teens, which means professionalism isn't every one's top priority and getting fired over petty things would be normal.

Waiting till summer just seems more pragmatic. Also, it opens up different opportunities for me to work in an environment of my choosing via. family connections. Till then I'm just going to focus all of my efforts on school and extracurriculars.

School has been mediocre lately. I finally understand Chemistry to the point of making A's, and that kid in the green sweater that I mentioned a while back who was really nice made a random appearance at my lunch table.

At first I thought that micro random conversation we had walking to class was just coincidental, but he's always popping up randomly. Our conversations are literally 30 sound bites, sometimes it's not even that long.

I tried to find out his name by looking in the year book, but nothing. Turns out he looks like 5 other guys at my school, all in different grades. Oh well.

Ooooh, before I forget, at my last debate meet I placed 1st in persuasive speaking, and 5th in LD debate.

I was really surprised that I did so well considering all the schools that were there, also it was pretty ironic that I placed higher in the event that I'm not too fond of.

Ultimatums and deciding the future.

I hate to be one of those people who base their future actions on the fulfillment of an ultimatum.

Not to mention, women are notorious for putting up ultimatums.

But I just joined the ranks of Women Who Set Ultimatums. Commonly referred to WWSU.

Ah well, it's the only way things will get done.

I want to ask people questions.

I kind of want to do something a little new.

I want to do a little questionnaire thing where I go around and ask people questions and film their answers.

And nothing specific really, just random semi deep, or superficial questions.

Any thoughts on this project? Any questions you think I should ask.

Some Words.

-Walking back to class from lunch-

Me: ".....and I realized that if I think Texas is cold, then I'll just die in Ohio or any other northern state."

Alejandro: "Yeah, man, that really sucks."

Person: "Lizzi!"

Me: "Huh?" -turn around-

Person who turned out to be a kid from my ap art class: "Hey dude, you dropped your chapstick."

Me: "Oh.... thanks. Now I won't have chapped lips."

Now to most people, this is normal, but I have to say, if it were me I probably wouldn't have noticed if someone's chapstick fell out of their pocket. Even if I did, I probably wouldn't make an effort to tell them unless they were a friend.

Recently I've been amazed at some of the encounters I've had while walking to class. Just today I was making the 4 minute sprint from my debate class to homeroom and while going down the outside stairway I get cutoff. This is normal, in fact I usually do a fair share of cutting other people off, but this guy... this guy looks at me and says with a sheepish smile: "Oh sorry! I just cut you off didn't I? I didn't mean too, but I wasn't really looking."

Kind of stunned that someone was apologizing over something so small and mundane as cutting me off on the last step of the stairwell all I could say was: "Don't worry it's cool!"

The guy looked like he was going to say something else, but he stumbled, laughed, and said something about not looking where he was going again and then got lost in the big crowd that is my school.

In that moment, I didn't feel like an ant. I didn't feel like I was a determined little creature with marching orders to be where I was supposed to be time.

It was nice.

The Grind

So it's the new year.

Nothing especially great happened.

I stayed in the clothes that I fell asleep in, ate steak and lobster, and cleaned out my computer registry in order to boost the speed.

It seems like this year will be great.

Also, it seems as if I might actually be getting a cellphone. Believe me, it's not of my own doing. In fact, I've been trying to avoid cellular devices like the plague, but as of late I started realizing that getting a phone would not only be practical because of all the events and clubs I'm in, but actually pretty cool on my end because it's not being funded by my dad or stepmom.

One of the main reasons I wanted to delay getting a phone is because my parents would be paying for it. Not that the concept of them providing for me is bad, I just didn't want it to be one more thing for them to hold over my head.

If I were to get in trouble, make a bad grade, or just do something they thought was stupid the first thing they would probably take away would be the phone.

No thank you. I'd rather not get something that could be taken away from me at any moment.

However, as stated above, this phone will not be bought or paid for by my dad or stepmom.

So there. A loophole.