We went to the eight AM church service this morning, to briefly pretend piety before going back to our vaguely paganic activities.

I say this because a 100ft tall (now long) beech tree fell down on Wednesday. We were having winds up to 70mph, and it went all the way over, roots and all. It was about twenty feet from the house, so it's a good thing the wind was going in the right direction. Anyway, we're in the process of sawing off the branches and sectioning the trunk into sections, with which to make Celtic totem poles. We'll put celtic knots, Green Men, Cerranos, etc, on them. And that's what we worked towards after church.

The roots were deep, and when a tree wrenches out of the ground like that, it brings up soil and leaves a pit. I need relatively pure sub-layer dirt for our oven, and this turned out to be a great oppurtunity. The only other way to get it would be to dig a great big hole, which turned out to be unnecessary here. And that's what I spent most of last night doing. It's a deep orange, occasionally red, and pale yellow when it dries.

Dirt, like water, is very heavy, and there was a relatively long distance to move it. So dad and I took the winter sled and rigged it up with some rope- now I just fill the sled, strap myself in, and pull. All the resistance is at the front of my shoulders, so it's much easier than trying to carry a big load, or even lots of small loads.

I also had my birthday party on Friday. I think it was a success; everyone looked as though they enjoyed it.

I only have to go into school on Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday is the very last day I need to be in school as a junior.

Oh, note: I gave the dog his heartworm, tic, and flea prevention yesterday, on the seventh.

About the summary of the last few days.

I didn't go into school today- woke up with a migraine. They're obnoxious. Mum was home from work also, because she put her back out yesterday; I woke up around eleven and we spent most of the day making sexually inappropriate jokes at one another across the living room and watching Iron Chef America (I kind of liked Iron Chef Japan better). I went out around one to collect the mail and met our neighbor, Lavira, who kind of reminds me of one of my grandmothers. She and her husband Herb are both in their fifties, and she gardens- her garden is huge, and it borders our yard, so we get to see climbing flowers, sprawling roses, lilies, primrose, peonies, weird giant iris-things in a gourmet of colors, tangles of geometric orange flowers, big mop-head blooms of purple and blue... all kinds of things. Anyway, she and Herb are incredibly nice (although Herb thinks that global warming is caused by human biomass), swear freely, and they have two dogs: Bo and Willie. Willie is a miniature greyhound and Bo is this ancient schnauzer thing. They love those dogs (and Duncan, our big goofy shepherd-lab mix) like children.

That was about the high point of the day. I spent most of the past three hours drooling in front of the TV, watching VH1s Top 100 Songs of the 80s, and wikipedia-ing Pete Burns (I'm guessing body dysphoria for this guy), ant lions (larvae of the damselfly), and grubs (larvae of the Scarab family of beetles. Which, surprisingly, live in North America- I saw one while clearing the wood pile.)

Yesterday I went to a total of two classes, and spent the rest of the day in a school-sanctioned shaving-the-administrator's-head party, and a library thing in which they gave us cake. Most of the students there were skipping class, but I actually asked my instructors to go, and they gave me passes. We're at that point in the year where it's about done with: the bureaucratic home stretch. Also found out that my favorite English teacher so far will not be around for another year, as she has to go back to Australia. If I ever manage to get down there, I have an open invitation, but it's still a bummer that she won't be here. On top of being a wonderful, knowledgeable person, she's just the right combination of exacting and lenient.

Also wrote a pretty extensive report on the albatross. Big seabird, doesn't really know where it's going, mates for life... That's really the most interesting part: each pair develops its own unique courtship dance. Now, this sounds very cool and intricate, but when you actually see it, it just looks awkward. It's still cool and intricate, just not in the way you'd expect.

Wow. I really don't do many interesting things.

Mostly finished Special Topics in Calamity Physics- very interesting. It's another novel with a teenaged female protagonist that surprised me in the vein of White Oleander. Where were all these decent heroines when I was younger? All I got were gender stereotypes and shallow characterization.

Won English Student of the Year and finished most of my exams- Cambridge English and a few class finals to go. It should be fun. I actually forgot to show up to the ceremony for the awards, and found out about it the next morning. Surprisingly, dad was pleased. He's usually indifferent to most of my accomplishments in the humanities, because he knows I'm good at them- a typical response is something like "Well, why aren't you doing this well in Algebra?" Being that I failed this year, that's really the last thing I want to hear when I manage to overcome my natural state of mediocrity. Even so, I 'spose this is an ok way to finish out junior year. The literary magazine sponsor (who I get along well with, but don't particularly like all of the time) had me apply for a few positions: it'll be busy next year if I get one, but it'd be fun, and look good on my college apps. Speaking of, I need to register for the SAT again.

The mystery-vine growing out of the back of the compost heap is cucumber, definitely. Something keeps shredding the leaves, but it's growing quickly. I dug around behind the shed for a while this weekend and found loads of suitable rubble- and a completely functional aim-n-flame, just hanging out all by itself under the foundation.

Mum and I made paper yesterday, out of old stuff we were going to haul to the dump to be recycled. You shred it and blend it with warm water, then press it into a screen and turn it out. Our first few attempts were pretty thick and lumpy- I'm thinking that if we boil the water next time, the pulp will cook down softer. The great thing about even the ugly hand-made paper is that you can put seeds in it and plant it, kind of like that flower-carpet thing they advertise on the public broadcasting channel in the wee hours of the morning. We tinted ours with pink construction paper, and formed some of them into heart-shapes with a cookie cutter. It wasn't a bad first try.

I finally understand a lot of references I'd previously missed- I saw Citizen Kane. Not a bad movie- that's a weird thing to say about the film most often identified as #1 so far, but I really didn't find it soul-wrenchingly eloquent or significant. Rosebud! Jeeze, I missed so many jokes by not having seen that movie.

I also saw Ironman yesterday with dad and Amber. Boy, it did live up to the reviews- I liked the characterization.

The mystery vegetables are some kind of vine- cucumber, I think, but they could be melon. That would be awesome. I love almost all melons, except honeydews. They always taste a little like diluted sweaty-sock.

We have a rule in our house- to gain the priviledge of eating an ice-cream treat, one must run a mile on the day they plan to eat it. Running credits don't carry over. Dad thinks we're too sedentary (which is correct, and why this is a good idea, but I can still be pissy about it when I have a cold and don't want to run and reallllly, reeaaallllly want vanilla with some blackberry jam on it...), and it justifies eating three cartons in one week between the five of us.

I usually run maybe once or twice a week, depending upon what flavor is in the house (we also don't always have ice cream, so if you run without checking the freezer, you just expended unnecessary effort that won't be rewarded). But this week I've run every day. My time sucks, because I'm slow and I have a cold (10:39, 10:39, and 10:57 respectively), but I figure a month or three of this, and I might actually start to build up some speed.

Went out and switched the daylillies with cucumbers today. Mom kicked out some ugly roses yesterday, and I took them back and replanted them in my un-garden place in the woods.

It's just the space in the woods beyond the compost pile/hole. The pile is last year's maturing compuse, the hole is for scraps from this year. I jump a layer of old on top of the new to help it degrade faster.

Everything grows well there, because the soil is loose and way more fertile than the crummy yellow clay that's usually below the humus. There are some flowering vines, and a yet-unidentified vegetable that popped up out of the back of the heap. I surrounded them in a ring of old bricks I found further back in the woods, to stop anyone from stepping on them before they fruit and I figure out what they are.

I put unwanted plants back there, and otherwise just let things grow. I'm the steward, not the master- I cultivate the soil, and everything else just kind of does the rest. I think I'd like to grow pumpkins or watermelons or strawberries back there; something that tolerates shade and likes rich soil.

I used a tungston-carbine bow saw to chop up (saw up?) a fallen tree today (ooo, cool ranger skills, ah!). It had fallen over a little birch or aspen and bent it, so that the trunk was parallel to the ground. It survived like that for months, so I figured it deserved a helping hand. Plus, I wanted lengths of the log to add to the wood pile. We have a fireplace for winter, but I've started gathering material for the cob oven. Rubble, too, for the foundation- bricks and big chunks of quartz. I don't think we're going to have to buy any of the material, which makes me feel pretty good about the project. Self-sufficiency, and all that.

I'm going to range a little further afield tomorrow and explore. There's a big expanse of wood that the developers couldn't build on- a flood plain. So I could probably walk an hour, maybe even two, without hitting any houses. Maybe I'll take the dog.

Dad's in Jersey this week for work, and I kicked some serious ass LARPing this weekend. We brought the small tent and forgot the rain fly, so although we had a tarp, sleeping arrangements were a little damp, but I've done worse. Makes me feel all tough to say so. I've only recently begun to really enjoy playing my good-aligned character: for a while I had a hard time remembering not to do some of the things that occurred to me as common sense. For example, I'm not supposed to smash the skulls of non-undead corpses, I'm supposed to sanctify them, to prevent desecrating the body. I guess I'm not as lawful good as I thought I was. Anyway, I had a cool time.

I got about thirty or forty deer ticks, though, and those suckers are obnoxious. Unlike chiggers, which, contrary to myth, don't burrow into your skin (by the time you notice the itchy bite, they've already left), ticks stick around, and they're tiny. They also head straight for the groin. I didn't want to get Lyme disease, so although I was pretty certain I was tick-free, I trimmed the lawn, so to speak. I never realized how sad the vulva looked without something to hide under. I miss my pubic hair.

Mom got her book in the mail- we're going to build a mud-brick cob oven in the back yard this summer. I also found out that we're going to Yosemite National Park sometime in August to see some grizzly bears. Go bears!

A Midsummer Night's Dream finished up nicely, grossing over 4,000$ in three nights. To put it in perspective, last year's director, with her campy 50s teenage werewolf musical, made only 900$. They gave me a little lantern to thank me for my help as techie. I like it.

I procrastinated on an English speech and ended up just printing out an old thread on gender roles that I wrote earlier in the year- I basically gave a condensed explaination of sociological vs. biological gender and identity. It took half an hour, and the instructor was incredibly impressed. She also pulled me aside to tell me that I was the top AP/Cambridge English student in the grade, which made me feel kind of bad, since she reads my essays aloud to the class all the time. My English class is really friendly, but I wouldn't blame one of them if they just hauled off and punched me one day. I kind of feel like doing that sometimes, even though I can't well be jealous of me since I'm me... That didn't make sense.

I finished a gifted program IQ test today. I'm waiting for them to get back to me and tell me whether or not I'm sufficiently intelligent to participate in their seminars and card games.

Prom was this weekend, and I didn't go.

Total: 1980.

Critical Reading: Perfect 800, bitches! Yes!
Math: 580. Above average, but not something to get excited about.
Writing: 640. Disappointing. I'll do better next time.

That wasn't so bad for a first try. I'm going to work on the writing questions, score in the 700s somewhere, and then call it a day.

Screw the groundhog; I saw a bee last week, and therefore it is getting close to spring.

So because the bacteria and things are waking up, I've started composting again. Dad won't let me have a bin or barrel, so there's no real method to it- I have a big patch out back in the woods, where things have been buried and subsequently rotted. When I get kitchen waste (not meat or dairy, because my compost doesn't heat up like the industrial stuff, and hence it won't deter rats and things. I don't mind rats, and I think they're welcome to it, but mum says I'm not allowed to attract vermin) I leave it up top for about a week if it's still pretty good, to see if something will come by and eat it. Raccoons really like eggshells, oddly enough. If time passes and nothing wants it, I bury it so that the worms can have it.

I went out to bury some old oranges today, and wow, were there a lot of worms. I decided I'd hang out with them for a while; they're really zen. They just kind of chilled while I sat there. They probably weren't conscious of me at all (or even themselves; they might not be sentient), which is ok, but it was nice to sit out there with them. They're ultimately the ones doing the work, along with all the microscopic comrades out there. The soil around here is this sick, pale yellow clay, and it's too dense for worms to get into- the compost pile, on the other hand, is loose, well-aerated thanks to the worms and my shovel, and almost black. It's disturbed too often for anything to actually grow in it, but all kinds of things flourish just at the edges, where their roots can spread around it.

I'm a little worried about what I put into it, though. It's generally just kitchen scraps, usually plant-based, and sometimes paper. But I really have no way of knowing what kind of chemical residue is on those vegetable peels, and whether or not the ink on the paper contains heavy metals. It sort of says something, that almost all the waste from this household has the potential to be toxic. It's definitely not just us; we're relatively careful about these things. If natural decay of the wrong thing could kill my worms or my plants, what the hell is it doing to me? I don't even really want to know what kind of agricultural toxins are just hanging out in my tissues. I guess all I can do is hope that they don't fuck me up too much.

Thats another thing that worries me. We don't engineer products to be recycled- when an aluminum can goes to the recycling plant, it doesn't become another aluminum can. It's downcycled, not recycled. It becomes a less useful product, gets mixed with something as an alloy, and the materials in it are lost. The system we have now essentially locks precious and nonrenewable metals and minerals away where they can't be purified out. Ideally, we should be working on a method that doesn't use incredible amounts of energy to take waste and turn it into other, less useful and more toxic waste.

Like, get a load of this- if we could make a soda can out of biodegradable materials, and put a little seed in the bottom, that can could just be tossed about anywhere, and it would degrade back into the environment and the seed would grow, creating more things for us to make cans out of. As immature as that model is, it exemplifies the concept of closed-circuit recyling. You have a product, and recycle it into the same thing. What we're doing now is having a product that was never designed with re-use in mind, and forcing it into a new and less valuable form. At the end of that process, it will eventually become so worthless that it'll be trash. Essentially, we prolong its lifespan, but we use a lot of energy and let loose a lot of byproducts in the process.

That doesn't mean we should toss out our aluminum cans. Landfills are a problem, too. We just need to work on a better model, and work on producing less waste, period.

[/rant]

It's also Spring break. :)

I'm done being a computer refugee- dad picked me up a replacement. My GpC, which I got for Christmas, died after barely a month- a freak power surge jumped through a single port in the surge protector and fried something in it. But I'm going to send it in to be fixed, and I've had years of experience losing all my files, so I store them all on an external drive.

So I am now working with The Cow. The Cow is named such because it's big and slow, but it has a kind of placidness that's easy to deal with. It also doesn't make dying car noises like my mom's- there's something wrong with the fan, and if it's on for too long, it starts making odd moaning, vibrating noises. Dad's not really sure where he found my new bovine-esque companion, because in his words, "they just come to me." It's canabalized and I'm surrounded by three other dead boxes and the laptop I used last (which still turns itself on sometimes, even though the screen was broken when I got it and the keyboard quickly followed). It's like sitting in the middle of a computer graveyard. Which would make me the lord of the technological dead. Mwaha. That single phrase may in fact attract droves of cyberpunk fans. But probably not, as that would be strange.

I think I swallowed some change this morning. I woke up with a headache, and went into the bathroom to look for something to take for it. For some reason, I ended up with a handful of change, and I remember thinking "Well, if I swallow a quarter, it'll be twenty five cents worth, but I usually just take three cents. I'd better not overdose."

I'm not sure if it was a dream, or if I was just so tired I mistook money for Tylenol. I'm hoping it was a dream; if I'm confused enough to swallow metal after just waking up, imagine what would happen if someone found out about my temporary lack of reason in the mornings.

Ok. Well, I guess we'll just see how that works out.

I've never done journal lists before. I figured I might try. It's not a circulated prompt, just a list.

I volunteered to go to the store yesterday, because I wanted mozzarella cheese to make a pizza. Simple, right? Well, on the way to the grocery store dad (who had just run) changed his shirt while doing 45mph down a windy road. To clarify, he was driving the car. Given, he's a very good driver, but that just seems... potentially lethal? After that flirtation with death, we picked up my sister. She doesn't go to our base school (she's the smart one), so she has to ride the bus to another school where we pick her up. So we get her, and the two of us do our usual expressing-love-by-punching-one-another's-kidneys, so on and so forth. We get the cheese. Good. If this wasn't my family, this would be the end of the story. But it was, so it isn't. On the way back, Amber chucked the cheese out of the window.

We're traveling at fairly high speeds, I've got a handful of her hair, and both she and dad are laughing maniacally as the cheese fades into the distance. After I get over the shock of having dairy products jettisoned from a moving vehicle, I realize that we're still driving and shout;

"Halt this vehicle immediately!"

No, really. That's what I said.

So he stops, and we get out to retrieve the cheese, which is by now a ways back. As we're running back to where we think it might have landed, dad drives away. But this story has a happy ending. After we found the cheese inside of a bush, we walked the half hour home, and I made a delicious pizza. There is no moral to this story, but it made my classmates hate me less during sociology.

I love it so much, I wrote a brief, silly, incorrect haiku about it.

So I've given up on the illusion that this is any kind of scholastic journal. Now that I've admitted it, I guess I'm free to break out the shenanigans. What a weird word. It sounds Gaelic. Speaking of weird words, www.freerice.com is an amazing vocabulary game, run by someone connected with the United Nations World Food Fund. You answer vocabulary words- each one you get right, the site earns money from the advertisers at the bottom of the screen, and they can buy the equivalent of twenty grains of rice.

300 grains = 1 teaspoon.

There are fifty vocabulary levels. For ever three words correct, you advance a level, and for every one incorrect, you go down. I'd recommend this for anyone who aspires to write- hint, hint, gayyouthwriters . Isn't it kind of funny how I write as though I have an audience?

This was kind of an experiment. I wanted to see if I could pull off a crossdressing character that wasn't a simpering cliche, or a sexless cisgendered character, period. It was originally written as a character biography, so it gives up the nitty details more quickly than plot progression would usually allow.

Well, not really, considering I only just remembered it this week. The SAT really isn't so bad. The linguistic section of the test rolled over to expose its belly in submission as it always does for me, and the math section didn't put up much of a fight. I'm generally math-illiterate. They gave me the formulas right there on the booklet, and didn't ask for any specialized procedures. It was really just like the title said- reasoning. So for this run, I'm aiming somewhere in the range of 2000-2200.

I bought The Heart is a Lonely Hunter yesterday (I just happen to have tons of gift-card cash lying around, saved up from years of birthdays and holidays; envy me, fellow bibliophiles), as though I didn't have enough to read. I'm about halfway through, and it's really turning out to be magnificent. It's one of those books that's so absorbing that I have trouble placing the historical period.

I dropped in on the journal of skull_bearer the other day: I'd been reading her Raistlin/Dalamar (Dragonlance) fanfiction, because I'd been enamored with the books when I was younger. I discovered, to my delight, that she also does Magneto/Xavier (X-Men) slash. I like her fiction, but I'm not one for her porn. Or any porn, for that matter. I actually like slash for the relationship dynamics between the characters, and not so much the sex. It's plausible for so many cannon characters, because implied homosexual relations are big money makers. Xena and Gabriella, Gregory House and James Wilson, Charles Xavier and Eric Lenssher... so on and so forth. That, and I can read homosexual subtext into anything and everything. Some call it perversion. I call it analysis.

I'm taking my SATs for the first time tomorrow. Honestly, I think dad's more worried about it than I am.

I finished Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Nealson Hurston, and checked out Walden (which I tried once but didn't manage to get through, having a hatred of fabricated memoirs and inability to stand exclamation-laden prose), and Doctor Zyhavo. Or something to that effect. It was recommended by a friend. Farewell to Arms, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Uncle Tom's Cabin are all in my possession and just waiting to be read. I've obtained a lengthy list of books recommended to highschool students before entering college- it's not a 'young adult' kind of list, but rather something that plays up to my insufferable superiority complex when it comes to literature. Ah, well. It's led me astray a few times, but so far, that kind of discernment has served me well, even if it's not completely justified.

I'm also reading the Memoirs of Fredrick Douglass, for English. Usually assigned books are things I'd want to read anyway, but I'm not sure that I would have picked this up on my own. The actual narrative is better, but the foreword is written by this guy who uses an overly sentimental Victorian voice, and peppers every paragraph liberally with exclamation points. That says 'melodrama' to me, not that slavery wasn't (isn't) a dramatic and horrendous crime. But this guy doesn't do a very good job of making it sound that way. Douglass' style makes me imagine that he speaks in this loud, quavering vibrato. I don't understand how I can find Elizabethan language conductive to wit, but anything from 1700 on to the early 1800s overly flowery and archaic in an annoying way. Nathanial Hawthorne included, even though I did kind of like The Scarlet Letter. Why do I always sound presumptuous when I talk about books?

Speaking of Shakespeare, I stopped by play practice the other day. I never realized Nicole was such dynamite. She's playing Hypolita- not a major role, but for someone so bouncy, she's good at looking imperious. I, on the other hand, occasionally stand in as a corpse, and move some desks. I love stage crew. We don't have to contribute to troupe politics, and we get to build stuff.

Read Jesus Land, by Julia Scheeres, The Accident, by Eli Wiesel, and In My Hands, Irene Gut Opdyke, but am too tired to write a review r synopsis.

Still hanging in. My brand spankin' new computer died- a power surge jumped through a single port in the surge protector and fried a piece of hardware. I'm not sure which yet- I have to ship it back to the company for repair. I talked to a guy named Jerry (I think) at Customer Service, and he explained it nicely.

Have you ever called up one of those questions or comments hotlines when you didn't have a problem? I called Pepsi once and got this amazingly friendly lady named Judy. I asked her what happened to cause those occasional sealed cans with nothing inside, and she explained that sometimes a filled can gets snagged on a piece of machinery, and the product just drains out. I called a fruit juice company (Very Fine, I believe) to ask about the ingredient Calcium Lactate. I asked how it was derrived from milk. Margaret, the representative, told me that she didn't know, but she knew it was a milk product by the word 'calcium'. If anything, 'lactate' identifies it as a dairy product, because lactate is a milk protein. Or enzyme. I forget. Calcium is a mineral and it can be found in things like kale, which is a relative of cabbage and not a milk product.

I think this proves that I'm both lonely and obscenely boring.

First of all, I was selected for the finals of a writing competition. That in itself is good enough- but I got in without even knowing. I'd discussed submitting some pieces, but missed the deadline. Not a big deal, being that I hadn't really gotten my hopes up too much. So yesterday my English instructor jumps on me with a form, telling me I was one of the two finalists: this means that, sometime in the coming months, the fund or foundation or institution, whoever runs the contest, will send in a topic they've selected, and someone to proctor us while we write an impromptu composition. My English teacher, Mrs. G, submitted an analytical document-based essay I'd written, because I'd mentioned that I was considering entering.

I'm up against an incredibly formidable classmate, good competition, for the prize of a letter of recommendation to the college of my choice. It would be nice to win- I've narrowed my college choices down to nine (in-state, public, with a significant English program, competitive, and three hours away at the most), and any little bit will help in terms of admissions. But if I lose, hey, at least it was a fun experience. I'm not saying this to be a preemptive good sport or convince myself- I'm only doing this because I love ambush-essays, and I love to write. If I win, great. If I lose, great.

In spite of how much this resembles a cheap platitude, the gain is in trying. I didn't muster up initiative, but this time, someone else did for me. I'm not particularly theistic or spiritual, but I think that means something. It means "Hey, dumbass, you'll have the chance to enjoy things a lot more if you actually do them." I've decided to take it as a sign that things, good or bad, happen when you go for them.

I have so much extraneous crap. I'm not talking just the material- I Google myself (maybe the ultimate arrogance, but I need to know who can find me with minimal effort), and I come up with all kinds of things. Friends and acquaintances have posted fifteen+ pictures of me without my knowledge. I've had at least three futile little blogs. It's like there's this sad snail trail of my attempts all over the internet, but under different names so that only I know it's joined.

I'm getting rid of a lot of material items- clothes, mostly, and jewelry, because I have so much but never wear it. As a friend said, "Goodwill is just so pedestrian", so I hand it out at social gatherings and before class starts. Time to consolidate all the mental mess, too.

This is funny, because I sound really pissed, but this is how it looks when I'm motivated. I'm only laid back because I'm never motivated. But I'm cool with that. Motivated isn't really my color- makes me look frustrated and confused.

I. What is Sociology?
-The systematic study of social behavior in human groups.
-Examines the influence of social relationships on people’s attitudes and behavior
-Studies how societies are established and change
-In contrast to other social sciences, sociology emphasizes the influence that groups can
-The Social Imagination:
-Definition: An awareness of the relationship between an individual and the wider society.           
-It is the ability to view our own society as an outsider might, rather than from the perspective of our limited experiences and cultural biases.
-Theory: An attempt to explain events, forces, materials, ideas or behavior in a comprehensive manner.
-Knowledge that relies on “common sense” is not always reliable.
-Sociological Theories: Seek to explain problems, actions, or behavior.
-Sociologists must test and analyze each piece of information that they use.
-Effective theories should explain and predict.
-Sociologists employ theories to examine the relationships between observations or data thatmay seem completely unrelated.

          1. Functionalist Theory
-Emphasizes the way that parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability.
-Views society as a vast network of connected parts, each of which helps to maintain the
whole.
-Each part must contribute or it will not be passed on from one generation to the next.
       a. Functions
-Manifest Functions of institutions are open, stated, conscious functions. They involve the intended, recognized, consequences of an aspect of society.
-A dysfunction is an element or a process of society that may actually disrupt a social system or lead to a decrease in stability.
-Latent Functions are unconscious or unintended functions and may reflect hidden purposes of an institution.
         2. Conflict Perspective
-Invented by sociologist and political theorist Carl Marx
-Assumes that social behavior is best understood in terms of conflict or tension between competing groups.                                            
-The Marxist View: Conflict is seen not merely as a class phenomenon but as a part of everyday life in all societies.
-Conflict is not necessarily violent.              
-This view emphasizes social change and redistribution of resources, making conflict theorists more radical than functionalists.
-Conflict can be over economics or over competing values.
       a. Racial View: W.E.B. DuBois: Encourages sociologists to view society through the eyes of those segments of the population that rarely influence decision making.
-Generalizes about everyday forms of social interaction in order to understand society as a whole.
-Interactionism is a sociological framework for viewing human beings as living in a world of meaningful objects. These “objects” may include material things, actions, other people, relationships, and even symbols.
-Sociology, contended DuBois, had to draw on scientific principles to study social problems such as those experienced by Blacks in the United States.   
          3. Feminist Perspective (Note: This is not what people are usually referring to when they say 'feminism' in a colloquial context.)
-Definition: Views inequity in gender as central to all behavior and organization.
-Unlike conflict theory, with which it is sometimes allied, the feminist perspective often focuses on the micro-level relationships of everyday life, just as
interactionists do.   
          4. Conclusion
-Sociologists make use of all four perspectives.
-Each perspective offers unique insights into the same issue.

This was originally entitled Sea Creatures. I think I overdid it on the religious symbolism (although I felt a strong need to get that part across), and I've never really gotten any feedback for it. Mostly because I've always felt pretentious trying to pass myself off as a poet. I cleaned a lot today, so I feel ok being a slacker for a while and posting this.

An ocean rolls beneath my bed at night, over my head,
forever grinding out 'thou shalt be done', 'hallowed be thy name'-
I accept its dogma, distanced, deaf, bereft of meaning.
The relentless rock tumbler stealing my sleep,
until I meet it at its shores.

-

I wander in the land beside the sea for forty days and forty nights:
the tides roll in and out- mysterious ways, mysterious ways, in thrall to the pull of the moon.
I sit at the sandy shore, watch while the ocean chews the bones of saints,
gnawing out Amen, Amen. An owl is my companion,
and Galileo's ghost sits at my left hand. There are no snakes here.

-

I speak to the sea creatures, shuddering bulky rational discourse,
of gravity, pale planetary motion and its place in the unseen, the curvature of the world.
They laugh like bells, submerged in those eternal murmurings of grace.
I sprawl to sleep and listen to the water pray.

-

The owl takes her flight at the sunny Sabbatical dawn,
the sirens rise from their cathedrals of light and kelp to sing for me.
They beckon, they dance, showing me their silver-scaled fins.
Their promises are like the music of pipes: they understand the rumblings of the water.

-

I abandon my shoes on the warm banks, and float on my back in the ocean.
The silver sirens surround me, but my ears are submerged.
The muttering of the sea ruts on, unintelligible.
But far in the depths, I snatch the long, sad song of a whale.

I was doing one of my bi-monthly self-searches on Google, to make sure I hadn't leaked any personal information, and I found an old journal entry from one of my old aliases (bluecattz), dated October 2006. I'm glad I found it; I've reread one of the books, and am preparing to do a more in-depth look at Eli Weisal's Night with my English class. My opinions changed a little bit, but in terms of prose, my voice has stayed mostly the same.

I didn't really expect that, since I was unmedicated at that point and more than a little bit angsty, but it was a heartening revelation. Maybe I wasn't as desperately pathetic as I remember.

Here it is:

So because I've come down from my most recent manic episode, and in that space of time had several wonderful and unexpected oppurtunities to visit libraries and bookstores, I've checked out, bought, and summarily finished several books. Kat is happy.

First I finished was a dubious-looking pick from the Young Adult section, from the tiny local library. If I'm checking out a substantial amount of heavy subject matter, I try to also find something to cut the grease, as it were. This one was entitled Hope Was Here, and it was about a sixteen year old waitress (named Hope), who drives from New York to Wisconsin with her aunt, a short-order cook, to work in a diner. The one thing that niggled me about the beginning plot was that the owner of the diner supposedly had leukemia. The guy was also fifty four. By the descriptions and symptoms (and the fact that leukemia usually affects children) I think they meant lymphoma, and said 'leukemia', because it was the first cancer that came to mind. I hate that lack of detail. It's blaringly obvious that Joan Bauer skimped on her research.

Anyway, they get there, he decides to run for mayor against the undefeated, highly corrupt, current mayor. Blah, blah, blah, they run, the mayor tries some dirty tricks, they loose, the mayor's discovered to be a cheat, he wins. Though this is the overt plot, it mostly focuses on Hope and her issues. While I usually shy from books centered on female characters of my age group- the critics tell me I should be relating to them, while in reality I think they'd either be really good short-term sex slaves, or need to be bitchslapped- Hope was actually well developed and pretty fun to read.

Her aunt marries the mayor/diner owner, he dies, she (and assortment of Wisconsin-buddies) go off to college. The end. The falling action bothered me, as after the climax of election winning, it's mostly a monologe. Told from Hope's POV, the next two years just kind of happen. The whole book feels like the timeline was a little smooshed, but that's my only real complaint. In all, something I would recommend to a dominantly female audience of maybe 11-13.

The next book was one that I picked up simply because everyone had read it except me. Now, wait a second before you burn me for jumping on the wagon. There are two kinds of 'everyone has read it but me'. The first applies to books like Eragon, that everyone has read but me, and everyone's constant praise of it turns me off. If the majority of people I function with- think public education- really enjoyed it, I probably won't. Survivor and Desperate Housewives are great examples of such a scenario.

The second kind pertains to classics. EVERYONE has read it but me. And by everyone, I mean people older than me, or people who have been educated in different countries. Not my peers. In this case, EVERYONE had read Fahrenheit 451 but me. And that made me feel left out. So I read it and loved it.

The book and plot itself is great- the description of the futuristic society made me feel desperate, as opposed to scared out of my mind. I like that, as most Utopias-gone-wrong seem designed to scare. Anyway, I even liked the afterwords that the author wrote. His tone is great. That one was by far one of the favorites I've read in the past year.

A read Night by Elie Wiesel for a similar reason. I'd seen it everywhere, but no one ever talked about it. It was... I really don't know what to say about it. I wasn't too impressed, which sounds horrible, but honestly, I've heard worse of that particular bit of history- even of those particular camps, Burkenwauld and Buna. It was very well told, but I think I killed the message by watching Schindler's List directly before reading it. Schinderler's List used up the last of whatever shock or outrage I had left. I hate it when that happens. Technically speaking, it was a good book, but I can say nothing for emotional impact, as it did very little to me.

Forth book was called Sandpiper, by Ellen Wittlinger, and I picked it because it was on the Virginia Reader's Choice list that the lit club handed out, and I'd already read a few off of it. The premise is that there's this girl named Sandpiper, who gives blowjobs to every male who expresses interest in her. That's basically her problem. She deludes herself into sexual power trips from putting her mouth around male's sexual organs. They threw in some 'chivalrous male with a dark and painful past', and managed her voice very well (it was in first person), but I don't think the book was something I'll remember for years to come. I'd recommend it to budding feminists in the 12-14 age range.

I bought On the Road, because Kerouac has been touted to me as the father of the beat movement, and the bread of the contemporary intellectual community. That and Mr. Wooten suggested him, and got me on this thesis about the internet and how it relates to our society, as the car related to 1950's society. I'm finding it easier to follow than Thoreau, but I'm not sure I like the speed at which it progresses. I'm not far enough in to give an actual judgement.

Picked up Treason by Anne Coulter, because I absolutely hate that bitch, but I don't want to be a hypocrit like her. So I'm gritting my teeth and swallowing her 'all democrats are committing treason because they don't agree with me' shit. I read a funny talk show transcript a few days ago, where she was being interveiwed, and the guy asked her which liberals in particular were committing treason, and she responded that there was no one in particular, but the entire party! He asked for an example, and it quickly became obvious that she had no backing, she was just taking advantage of the rabid patriotism mania going on.

To combat the mindnumbing propoganda, I took out a book from the Opposing Veiwpoint series, which I'm pretty sure was designed to give teachers a way to assign potentially controversial topics, without worrying about their students being absorbed completely by one side. It basically presents a debate, all the details of it, and then arguments for and against. I got one on civil liberties, simply because it seemed like the thing to read after the Anne-bitch proclaimed the godliness of the radical right.

That's all on books, but I renewed my Care2Connect account, and joined some cooking groups. I'm currently quietly observing one about natural healing through some kind of Eastern magic, but I was more interested in the free-love polygamy. Sadly, the site knows my age, and won't let you into sex groups unless you're over eighteen. Not that it's sex, just sexual discussion, and if I'm not well versed in that after however many years on Gaia, I never will be.

Began 01/20/08, finished 01/24/08.

I'm generally selective about best sellers and young adult literature, but this was a surprise.

It follows the life of Astrid, the narrator, from age twelve to twenty-one. She's the daughter of a poet, Ingrid, in Los Angeles, and lives as a kind of silent extension of her until her mother murders a former lover and goes to prison. Astrid is then bounced around between five or six different foster homes- there's sex (not coersed), abuse, and drug use, but it's handled well, and the character development is astounding. It's written in first person, but you won't be subjected to the weak-and-teary protagonist continually portrayed in 'inspirational' young adult novels. This is coming-of-age in the style of JD Salinger.

Especially interesting is the changing role Ingrid; it's subtle, and you don't notice it until you look back on it, but it's definitely one of the most interesting aspects of the story. At the beginning, the reader perceives her positively, as Astrid does- but as she develops into her own person, her view of her mother changes ours. I find it difficult to find a teenaged protagonist I identify or agree with, but the exquisite characterization and maturity of the prose make it impossible not to. The questions she asks are important, universal, and her experiences make realistic marks on her worldview. It's a visual book- lots of imagery, and the descriptions avoid repetition.

I'm thrilled that this didn't turn out as yet another 'Go Ask Alice' or 'Crank'.

I. American Life in the Seventeen Century
- As the seventeenth century continued, the ramshackle gave way to permanent settlements.
       1. The Unhealthy Chesapeake
- Malaria, Dysentery, and typhoid killed half the population before they reached twenty.
- What population growth that occurred was due to fresh immigrants.
       2. The Tobacco Economy
- The Chesapeake region was ideal for tobacco, which depleted the soil.
- In search of greater profits and more land, indentured servants became a major resource.
- The Headright System was introduced- for every indentured servant brought over, the government awarded the patron fifty acres of land.
- Eventually, slaves were obtained instead.
       3. Frustrated Freedmen and Bacon's Rebellion
- Penniless former servants rose to follow Nathanial Bacon after the governor of Virginia refused to retaliate against Indian attacks, due to his economic stock in the fur trade.
- After Bacon's death of disease, Berkeley the governor hung more than twenty rebels.

II. Colonial Slavery
- Approximately 10 million slaves were shipped to the New World, mostly the West Indies and sugarcane plantation.
- Americans began capitalizing on the slave trade in 1698, and the population of slaves eventually outnumbered that of whites in some places.
- Most slaves came from the west coast of Africa.
       1. Africans in America
- The further south one went, the harder life was for the slaves.
- African culture was remembered and changed in the slave quarters, contributing to later American culture.
        2. Southern Society
- Slavery encouraged sharp definition between southern social classes.
- Planters, the distinctly American wealthy, occupied the top caste. Smaller farmers occupied the largest group, and below them landless whites, below them black slaves.

III. The New England Family
- New England was much healthier a climate than both the South and the Old World.
- The family occupied the center of New England social structure, with very high birth rates.
- The South fostered stronger property rights for women, whereas the North was more concerned with the traditional marital structure.
       1. Life in the New England Towns
- New England towns were set out in a legal and orderly fashion, under the care of a proprietor who set up the meeting hall, which would then be surrounded by homes.
- Towns of more than fifty persons were required to provide elementary education.
       2. The Half-Way Covenant and the Salem Witch Trials
- Puritan ministers, alarmed by the incrementally decreased control of the church over the populace, modified the qualifications for membership to be more accessible.
- Hysteria broke out when several children claimed to have been 'bewitched'- twenty lynchings followed, a result of class resentments towards property-owning women.
- (Note: while some accounts profess that the girls were faking their symptoms, it has been theorized that, at first, they were legitimately suffering from Hay Fever.)
        3. The New England Way of Life
- Agriculture was shaped in New England by the unwelcoming soil.
- The settlers had no qualms in taking land from natives- they then introduced European wildlife, such as the pig and horse, and changed the land to suit their farms.

IV. The Early Settler's Days and Ways
- Most colonists were farmers- work went from dawn to dusk.
- Men worked the farm, women worked the household.
- The social structure of England was not quick to take, and the wealthy were frustrated by the democratic impediment of their distinctions.

I. Settling the Northern Colonies
-  Though bound by common elements, the north and south developed regional differences.
- The south was settled for profit, whereas the north was settled for religious fervor.
        1. The Protestant Reformation Produces Puritanism
- Luther gave rise to Calvinism and predestination, which gave rise to Puritanism.
- Separatist Puritans arose in response to predestination, and the slow progress of reform.
      2. The Pilgrims End Their Pilgrimage at Plymouth
- Fleeing the Church of England, the Separatists went to Holland.
- Nationalism then drove them to the Americas, where they settled illegally at Plymouth Bay.
- Less than half survived the first year, but the second brought stability in fish and fur.
- Eventually, the small colony merged with the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
       3. The Bay Colony Bible Commonwealth
- Non-Separatist Puritans obtained a charter to form the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
- The colony became the largest in New England, with Boston as its hub.
      4. Building the Bay Colony
- Only 'sainted' Puritans were considered freedmen and allowed to vote. The government applied religious laws, and taxed non-believers to support the church.
- John Winthrop, governor nineteen times, despised the concept of democracy.
      5. Trouble in the Bible Commonwealth
- Quakers and those who disagreed were beaten, harassed, hung, or banished, for expressing “newe and dangerous opinions."
      II. The Rhode Island “Sewer”
- Roger Williams, an exiled minister, established Rhode Island illegally, granting freedom of religion to all the outcasts gathered there.
       III. New England Spreads Out
- The Connecticut River, the coast of Maine, and New Hampshire were settled and absorbed.
       1. Puritans Verses Indians
- Weakened by disease, native lands were quickly absorbed by eager colonists.
- Various massacres later, a pan-tribal union was formed, and fifty-two organized attacks carried out. It was overcome none the less.
       2. Seeds of Colonial Unity and Independence
- In 1643, a New England Confederation was forged of four Puritan settlements, while England was embroiled in civil war.
- Charles II then punished the four colonies, and granted privileges to non-Puritan settlements.
        3. Andros Promotes the First American Revolution
- Edmund Andros, England-appointed commander, imposed strict limitations on the colonists.
- After England's Bloodless Revolution, Boston expelled Andros.
- English judges, clerks, and officials were put in place, in order to control the populace.
       IV. Old Netherlanders at New Netherland
- In the 1500's, the Dutch rebelled against their Spanish oppressors. By the 1600's, they had emerged as an international power, holding claim to the Dutch East India Company.
- Henry Hudson sailed down the Hudson and claimed New York for the Company. New Amsterdam (later New York) was established.
       1. Friction with English and Swedish Neighbors
- New England, the Indians, and the tiny New Sweden were all hostile to New Netherland.
       2. Dutch Residues in New York
- In 1664, the much stronger English colonies overtook New Amsterdam.
       V. Penn's Holy Experiment in Pennsylvania
- Quakers (Religious Society of Friends) were generally persecuted by government/church.
- In 1681, William Penn, a Quaker, received a land grant for Pennsylvania, and proceeded to turn it into a democratic and religiously tolerant venture.
       1. Quaker Pennsylvania and Its Neighbors
- Quakers obtained beneficial and fair relationships with Indians, though this was decimated with the introduction of less peaceful European immigrants.
- Civil and religious freedoms were granted, and the death penalty was used sparingly.
       VI. The Middle Way in the Middle Colonies
- New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania were considered the middle colonies.
- All shared fertile expanses, deep, slow rivers interspersed with waterfalls, virgin forests, natural harbors, intermediately sized land holdings, more religious freedom and democracy, greater ethnic diversity, .

I. The Planting of English America
- By the 1600's, Spain held most of the settled territory, leaving the North largely open.
- Within three years of one another, France, Spain, and England set down outposts.
        1. England's Imperial Stirrings
- Religious conflict (Protestant vs. Catholic) and political allegiance to Spain held English Imperialism at bay until the 1600's.
        2. Elizabeth Energizes England
- English colonization efforts, starting at Newfoundland, failed spectacularly.
- Spain attacked England in 1588, and was soundly defeated, starting their decline as a world power. At the same time, England began its assent, and sent forth new colonies.
        3. England on the Eve of Empire
- Population boom and unemployment encouraged colonization.
        4. England Plants the Jamestown Seedling
- In 1606, King James I chartered a joint-stock company to create a colony.
- Jamestown was not a success, saved from decimation only by native cooperation.
- A relief party arrived in 1610, with it a new, aggressive lord.
        5. Cultural Clash in the Chesapeake
- Colonists became more and more aggressive to natives, driving out 90% by 1607.
- They fell to disease, disorganization, and disposability.
        6. The Indian's New World
- Trade, disease, and conquest decimated native life, destroying and reforming cultures.
        7. Virginia: Child of Tobacco
- Tobacco became a huge cash crop, inflaming desire for land and slaves.
- King James became increasingly aggressive, abolishing the self-governance of Virginia.
        8. Maryland: Catholic Haven
- Founded by the Catholic Lord Baltimore, Maryland fostered more Catholics than any other colony, and granted many of them great estates.
II. The West Indies: Way Station to Mainland America
- Spain lost its grip on the West Indies by the early 1600's, allowing England territories.
- The area was used for sugar plantations, and densely populated by African slaves.
        1. Colonizing the Carolinas
- After a period of Civil War in England, colonization reemerged, and the Lord Proprietors were given Carolina, named for the king.
- Originally intended to supply the sugar plantations, Carolina began to export rice.
        2. The Emergence of North Carolina
- Impoverished farmers from aristocratic Virginia gradually trickled into North Carolina, above the aristocratic South. They resisted authority and were largely independent.
- North Carolina was officially separated from the South in 1712.
        3. Late-Coming Georgia: The Buffer Colony
- Founded in 1733, the last of the thirteen colonies, Georgia was a buffer colony between English colonies and the Spanish territory to the south.
- At first, it disallowed slavery, and offered religious tolerance to all Christians but Catholics.
        4. The Plantation Colonies
- Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, and North Carolina were all plantation colonies, focused on commercial agriculture.
- All had some religious tolerance towards Christians.
- An aristocratic atmosphere flourished.
- Conflict with Native Americans continued.

I. New World Beginnings
- Six thousand years ago, recorded history of the Western World begins.
- Five hundred years ago, Western explorers discover America, altering the world forever.
        1. The Shaping of North America
- 225 million years ago, supercontinent Pangea comprises all dry land, until the land breaks apart and drifts, forming continents, oceans, and seas.
- By ten million years ago, the continent is formed. However, Ice Age Glaciers rearrange topography.
        2. Peopling the Americas
- The Ice Age uncovered a land bridge between the Americas and Eurasia- over the next 25,000 years, Asian nomads cross the bridge in pursuit of game, until it is once again covered ten thousand years ago.
- These nomads spread, growing to a population of 54 million dispersed across the Americas, with over 2,000 distinct languages by the time of Western exploration.
        3. The Earliest Americans
- The staple crop of corn was developed around 5,000 BC in South America, spreading to North America by 1200 BC, gradually and unevenly changing nomadic groups to agricultural societies.
- Though South/Central American empires were great, the North yielded nothing of their magnitude.
        4. Indirect Discoverers of the New World
- Scandanavian Norse first discovered the Americas, but soon abandoned it.
- The Crusades created a market for Asian trade, encouraging the discovery of better routes.
        5. Europeans Enter Africa
-Excited by the Age of Exploration, Portugal sailed down the coast of Africa in 1450.
-They began to trade gold and slaves, creating the plantation system, and allowing de Gama to sail around the Southern tip to reach India.
- Spain, newly united, seeks to sail to the West.
        6. Columbus Comes upon a New World
- In 1492, Columbus lands on an island in the Bahamas, convinced he is in the Indies.
- A new economic system begins, with the Americas, Europe, and Africa playing parts.
        7. When Worlds Collide
- An exchange of plants, animals, and diseases began, changing both continents.
- Roughly 90% of Native populations died as a result of Old World diseases.
        8. The Spanish Conquistadores
- Enticed by precious metals and new territory, Spain becomes the exploration and colonization power in the 1500's, sending conquerers in search of riches.
- A great deal of New World silver enters the European economy, increasing inflation by as much as 500%, possibly fueling the rise of Capitalism.
- The encomienda system (slavery) takes root in Spanish territories.

I. The Conquest of Mexico
- In 1519, Cortez launches to conquer Mexico, gaining two translators along the way.
- Through these two, he gains tactical advantage and exploits unrest among natives.
- Mistaken for a god, Cortez approaches unmolested, eventually conquering the Aztecs.
        1. The Spread of Spanish America
- Though the Spanish held great influence in the New World, other powers had become interested in the wealth therein. To hinder impeding powers, Spain fortified its Northern territories.
- European powers send expeditions to the Americas, as Spanish territory expands.
- In all, the Spanish created a titanic empire, impressing their culture, government, religion, and language upon thousands of natives, laying the social infastructure for a number of modern-day nations.

Greetings, shalom, yo, howdy. I'm a sixteen year old American student in the public system. This is where I archive notes, essays, and creative writing; both for class and for independent studies. You're free to use it as a reference or as supplementary material, but keep this in mind; plagiarism will stunt your ability to orgasm.