Uni High Gargoyle Staff Blog

For those of you who’ll be sophomores next year, here’s what you can generally expect in some of the classes you’ll be taking. Now keep in mind this is all based on my own experience, so don’t just take my word for it. If you’re curious, ask some other Class of ‘09ers.

Chemistry: On most days, you’ll either be taking notes during a lecture or doing a small-group lab activity. In addition to unit exams, expect frequent quizzes — most of which are announced only the day before, so keep up with the material.

Oh, and did I mention that you should keep up with the material? The very first few sections may seem extremely basic and easy, giving you the illusion that chemistry’s an incredibly easy class that you don’t have to study for. Well, in chemistry you build from one section to the next, so in order to do well on the next section, you will need to have mastered the previous sections. This is basically true for all classes, but especially important for chemistry. Pay attention in class and don’t procrastinate, and you’ll do fine.

• Typical homework assignments: Read section, do problems from textbook.
• Grading system: No weighting; quizzes usually 20 points, exams usually 100.
• Extra credit: Usually a few points on every quiz/exam; also a few extra EC assignments.
• Do most students take notes in class? Yes.
• What should I bring to class? Notebook (provided on first day), pencils, calculator, goggles (when announced).

English: Usually, class periods are spent discussing the previous night’s assigned reading. Every Tuesday and Friday, you’re given a portion of the class to read a book of your choice; every Friday a reading journal entry about your chosen book is due, and once per quarter you will give a five-minute “book talk” about a book of your choice (it doesn’t have to be the one you’re reading for the reading journals). Also happening on a quarterly basis are essays (typically four to five pages) and exams.

Quizzes on the previous night’s reading are given on an unannounced basis; there are several of these per quarter. They are usually worth eight points: two vocabulary questions and one question about the reading. Quiz grades — together worth about 15 percent of your quarter grade — tend to be the weakest part of most people’s grades, but you can avoid this by actually doing the reading and learning the vocabulary words each night. (It seems to be easier said than done.)

• Typical homework assignments: Reading.
• Grading system: Quizzes, presentations, papers, exams, reading journal entries, and participation are each worth 10 to 20 percent of your quarter grade.
• Extra credit: Occasionally you can get extra credit by doing optional assignments.
• Do most students take notes in class? Yes (but occasionally), when literary terms are discussed.
• What should I bring to class? The assigned book and a notebook for copying down definitions of literary terms; on Tuesdays and Fridays, also bring your independent reading book and reading journal.

History: If classes are split the same way they were last year, two-thirds of the class will be in Chris Butler’s sections, and the other third will be with Billy Vaughn. I was in Butler’s class, and most days the routine goes like this: You turn in the homework assignment (a flowchart summary), and Butler talks about that flowchart in detail for the rest of the class period. Unit tests usually consist of date questions, short-answer questions, longer-answer questions (which most people answer with flowcharts), identifications, an essay, and usually up to seven points of extra credit. Regarding the tests, some will tell you to “just memorize the flowcharts,” but you really should also read through the attendant readings to get a deeper understanding of things.

On the first day of class, you will be advised to spend a short amount of time per night looking over the unit flowcharts (in addition to the required homework, of course) so that you don’t have to cram seven or so the night before the test. Heed this advice to reduce the need to stay up late the night before a test.

The other things you’ll experience in this class include movie clips, timed slideshows showcasing art from the relevant period, and quiz bowls. You’ll like them.

• Typical homework assignments: Summarize a flowchart.
• Grading system: Average of all homework (20 points each) worth one test; paper (100 points) worth one test; each 100-point test worth one test; each 50-point test weighted to be worth one test.
• Extra credit: For class participation, winning quiz bowls, and on homework and tests.
• Do most students take notes in class? Many do at first, but it trails off toward the end of the year.
• What should I bring to class? Just a notebook, if you’d like to feel more studious than the people sitting around you.

All of the other classes I took this year are equally as important as the aforementioned ones, but I won’t give a detailed preview of them since they’re not ones the majority of you rising sophomores will take. Basically, just make an effort to do well, and you’ll do fine.

As you might expect, there’s a lot more homework and studying to do sophomore year — don’t be surprised to get homework in every class even on the first day of school — but you’ll still be able to find time to have fun. And when the year is over, you can rejoice about the fact that you’ve completed more than half of your Uni High career.

— Jason He

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am a senior. You know, Class of 2007, about to don the awkwardly fitting gown that makes my shoulders look too broad and that silly-looking cap with the tassle, that whole shebang.

But you know what else I am?

I am studying. I am studying for finals.

Right, so is the rest of Uni, I understand that. But you know who isn’t? An entire gang of seniors at nearly every school but Uni.

From Blacksburg High School to Centennial High School, seniors are usually exempt from their final exams if they have maintained a specific grade point average and not had an excessive amount of absences. If the senior fits the aforementioned criteria, then taking a final exam is optional and if taken, only counts if it raises the final grade.

Here are three quick reasons (in no particular order) why Uni should consider (very very very seriously) about implementing such a senior policy with regard to final exams:

1. Seniors Love Senior Privileges!
   
   As a senior, it is always nice to feel as if your seniority has its own perks. Most schools have rules where only seniors can park in certain spots, go out for lunches, get out of school a few days early, etc. Although I like the fact that at Uni it is difficult to feel serious differences between the various grades, one small (and very helpful) extra senior privilege is great.
   
   

2. Sick Seniors!
   
   We are graduating. We are off to jobs and colleges. And I’m sorry, I know that we have all heard this several times, but at this point of the year, senioritis has turned into full-fledged senior ebola, senior meningitis, senior typhoid fever … you get the idea.
   
   

3. Seniors Love Quality Time!
   
   Come on, rather than administering an exam, wouldn’t teachers rather swap good old Uni stories with their beloved students who are about to leave?
   

I could probably elaborate more and come up with better reasoning that would not make teachers roll their eyes, but I really have to go study some more calculus, but in short, let’s have a senior policy with regard to exams!

— Dana Al-Qadi

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 7:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Because today should not go unnoticed.

Because some things should reach across partisan lines.

Because some people think patriotism is a dying chauvinistic institution that belongs in the forgotten annals of world and American history, but they are wrong.

With the advent of the Internet, there are hundreds, thousands of tributes to American troops. Some are cheesy and silly, some are heartfelt, but all the real ones give you a lump in your throat and tears in your eyes.

Some of my best, most real memories are visiting Arlington Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, or traveling to the Lincoln Memorial and reading the Gettysburg Address inscribed into the south wall.

It’s a wonderful country. Thank you to all the men and women in uniform who served and continue to serve. Other people, from Lincoln to Reagan, have said it better than I ever could, but thank you.

— Ben Hyman

Posted by bhyman at 6:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Hey guys, this is the last day of school, and I am having a hard time getting motivated to write a true blog entry. I decided since Wikipedia has been the inspiration for countless blog entries over the year, I am going to give my opinion on random articles I select.

OK, here we go.

The first article I have randomly chosen is: “Certified Server Validation.” After further reading, I learned that this is a method of e-mail authentication intended to prevent spam. Well, there is not much to say about this one; at least you now know what CSV is.

The next article is: “Air Saint-Pierre.” It is a small airline that is headquartered in France. It has seven destinations, a fleet size of four, and 41 total employees. Impressive. Didn’t know an airline is worth operating with such a small infrastructure.

The next article doesn’t get any more interesting. In fact, I have absolutely no opinions on “Pikelot.” Supposedly, it is one of the outer islands of the state of Yap, part of the Federated States of Micronesia. Where?

Let’s hope we get a fun article to talk about. I randomed and we now get to learn about “dammar gum.” It is used as a glazing agent in foods. It is obtained by tapping the Dipterocarpaceae family of trees in India and East Asia.

Next we get “footpad.” It is basically an obsolete term for a stealthy thief. The term comes from the padding thieves use on the bottom of their shoe so they won’t make excessive noise. What can I say about this? I just hope you don’t go astray when you grow up and become a footpad.

Alright! We finally get a beefy article on William P. Foster. He created the famous Florida A&M University Marching “100” Band in 1946. I have personally seen the band at halftime during one of the Illini football games. I didn’t see anything special in the band that made national headlines. Nonetheless, I don’t know much about marching bands, so props to Foster.

If you ever visit Mexico City, be sure to stop at Tlalpan, because according to our beloved Wikipedia, it is home of Ajusco, a volcanic mountain peak, and National Park, one of the highest mountains in Mexico City. Many native farmers have been forced out of the area due to new developments. One of those developments is Restaurante Arroyo, the world’s largest Mexican restaurant.

That’s all folks. Sorry I didn’t land any more interesting articles for you. On the upside, at least you now know some random facts that you can impress your family with.

And shoutouts to the boys track team. The 4x800 squad is in the state finals.

— Ranny Ma

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Have you ever been in that situation where you know you are supposed to be doing something, but then you don’t do that something, and instead do something else that is completely unrelated?

Or, have you been in those situations when you know you aren’t supposed to do something, but then you do it anyway?

Well, those situations are the ones I find myself in more and more these days. With the sweet summer getting closer and closer, I am finding it harder and harder to do the right thing. It’s like some alien has taken over my brain, and in any situation I get myself into, it screams to me, “Carpe Diem!”

So what are the “bad” things little Miss Andrea Park has done?

The first is I bought a kitten without my mother’s permission. These kittens were being sold off at the senior auction. I couldn’t resist. I wanted a cat. So, I bought a cat.

Furthermore I didn’t tell mom that I bought that cat until four days later when I knew she was in a very, very good mood (and I was out the door, leaving for prom).

The second is I went to the “Pirates of the Carribbean” movie premiere last night instead of studying for finals.

I know, you’re probably thinking, “Man, that Andrea. She’s bad.”

But for me, it felt pretty bold and badass. Especially because I’m going to Michigan this weekend, which leads me to the third bad thing.

This weekend I am going on a fun weekend trip to Michigan with a couple of friends. Well, this wouldn’t be “bad” if it were any ordinary weekend. But, it’s the weekend before finals! Not only that, it’s the weekend before finals of junior year (which are perhaps the most important finals I’ll ever take).

I’ve weighed the pros and cons over and over again. Honestly, the cons probably outweigh the pros. However, I still want to go to Michigan!

Although these “bad” things are on the mild side on the scale of “badness” (if they are bad at all), I still feel guilty (which is why this entry is a sort of confession). But, what’s weird is that this feeling of guilt is mixed with feelings of total take-charge and freedom.

I’m making these decisions myself. I’m doing things that I want to do.

Even though my parents have pressed very hard for me not to keep the cat, go to the movie premiere, or go to Michigan, I still did.

I feel more responsible, adult-like, and mature from my irresponsibility.

So for right now, I’m going to stick with my bad “bad” decisions. I’m going to be proud that I made them. I like the weird feeling I get from doing the wrong thing.

— Andrea Park

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wow. Junior year is, for all intents and purposes, over. Finished. Done. No more.

Where did all the time go? Last time I actually thought “Wow, I’m going to be a senior soon!” was at the beginning of the year, and now look where I am. Time flies when you’re having fun, you might say.

I’m sure all rising seniors go through this same thought process, but I’ll still go through it. In less than one year, I’ll have applied (and hopefully been accepted) to colleges. I’ll have gone through the final year of high school. I’ll have run my last cross country meet and attended my final prom.

In a little over a year I’ll be out of the house I’ve lived in for about 14 years. That’s a big deal. I won’t have my parents there to wake me up when I sleep late, or to make me the food I enjoy eating so much. I’ll be living in a dormitory, in a hall with tens of other students who are more or less like me, but whom I may not get along with.

Ah, just thinking about being a senior makes me become less motivated. Is it possible to have senioritis before senior year starts? Because if so, I’m afraid I’ve got the beginnings of it. The summer won’t last forever, and when I come back I’m going to have to go through the exact day-in day-out grind I’ve gone through this year. I’m definitely looking forward to that.

I can once again look forward to getting up, going to school, then going to practice, going home, doing my homework and eating dinner, and then going to bed, only to look forward to the same thing the next day, and the next.

On the other hand, maybe it won’t be so bad. There could be senior year perks that I hadn’t thought about. The senior trip will be cool, for instance. I think for now I’ll just try to put it out of my mind until senior year actually starts, and just enjoy my summer.

… The last summer in high school!

— Carl Zielinski

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Summer is just around the corner, and for the first time in my life, I’m a little sad that the school year is ending.

This might largely be due to the fact that next year I will be a junior, a year that is notorious for being the hardest year in high school. Probably once the year has started I’ll think it’s not as bad as I thought it would be, but all the same, right now the apprehension is great.

But I have another reason making me wish the year wasn’t over. Two of my classmates will be leaving at the end of the year, and the chances that I will keep in touch with them are very slim.

I’m a terrible correspondent, and since I don’t have IM or a Facebook page, my only methods of communication are e-mail and the telephone, neither of which can replace the face-to-face conversations we have had during the past two years. I’ve never been able to talk well on the phone because I can never seem to think of anything to say, and e-mails feel a little too impersonal.

I’ve had a few friends move away before, and now I’ve completely lost touch with them. In fact I’ve even lost touch with a friend who lives right across the street. If I can’t do that then how can I maintain a long-distance friendship?

But maybe I’ve changed. After all, technology has changed since I was little, so perhaps now I’ll be able to keep in touch with the people who are leaving. Nonetheless, it’s a bittersweet moment.

— Avanti Chajed

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It has finally really truly hit me that I am going to be a senior next year. And that this year’s seniors, the Class of 2007 … well, they’re going to be gone.

There will be no more upperclassmen. The members of the Class of 2008 will be the rulers of the school. There won’t be anymore upperclassmen to talk to, no one to talk to about classes that they had taken last year. This strikes me as odd, and scary, but exciting all at the same time.

When I first walked into Uni as a scr … no, sorry, prospective student, I was in awe of the current seniors. They were so … big. And scary. It didn’t help that they day that I was there, many of them were dressed up because they had senior debates that day. They were big, and grown-up, and completely untouchable.

There was the same aura of mystery surrounding the seniors during my freshman and sophomore years. However, that disappeared this year. The seniors this year weren’t terrifying; they were actual people who I could have long conversations with, commiserate with, laugh with.

And next year, it’s hard to think that I am going to be one of those seniors that I was so frightened of. I don’t think I’m that big; in fact, I’ve grown a maximum of maybe four inches since I came to Uni. And I don’t think of myself as a very scary person at all.

Funny how perspective changes.

— Michelle Gao

P.S. Over the summer when people ask you what grade you’re in, do you say the grade you just finished or the one you’re going to be in? Because I just think it’s obnoxious to say the grade I’m going to be in, because I haven’t actually experienced being in that grade yet; but on the other hand, I don’t want to say I’m in a grade that I already finished. Oyyy.

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Handsomely rugged, smart, great sense of humor, equipped with a large vocabulary, and charming are all excellent qualities for any man to possess. When I recently heard a recording by standup comedian Dane Cook from a CD called “Retaliation: Want,” I immediately found myself laughing along to many of the witty one-liners and clever anecdotes and wishing to meet him in person.

His frantic pace and unexpected randomness keeps listeners on their toes as they anxiously anticipate his next creative and wildly outrageous thought. In addition to this is his excellent use of vocabulary. His ability to sprinkle in large and interesting vocab words elevate his humor to a more sophisticated level, and it also makes me realize that although Cook’s humor may be crude at times, he actually is a rather intelligent man.

His storytelling skills rival those of Aesop’s, and his wild imagination can keep you giggling for hours after hearing him. After all, who wouldn’t crack up at the thought of a bunch of friends being tossed around in the back of a cement mixer?

Cook’s comedy is all over the place, and though there isn’t much of a connecting thread between jokes, comprehension remains at an all-time high. From hearing about Cook’s dream pet (an armor-clad monkey) to his dream house (a mystery house, fully equipped with secret laboratories and trap doors leading to a swamp three miles away) you get a wide variety of ideas and funny comments which keep you smiling constantly.

Great for summer laughs and that wonderful rest and relaxation after a tough week of finals, I highly recommend listening to Cook’s comedic masterpieces.

— Shivani Khanna

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 8:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As weird as I think it is, being Jewish and all, I was confirmed last night. In the reformed movement of Judaism, once a child reaches 16, he or she goes through a confimation ceremony that essentially represents his or her graduation from religious school.

And so, I, along with fellow Uni students Sam Imlay, Hannah Leskosky, and Laura Dripps, and the rest of the confirmation class, was honored in such a ceremony.

The evening consisted mainly of a service led by the confirmation class, as well as a speech by each confirmand. The service also celebrated Shavuot, the holiday on which God handed down the 10 commandments.

The whole thing was kind of uneventful. One kid messed up his prayer, no one stood up on cue, and someone else had to pee so bad that they were forced to get up and leave in the middle of the service.

But, other than that, nothing really happened.

Besides, for most people, this ceremony doesn’t mean anything. It isn’t like the Bar/Bat Mitzvah, the other big deal in a Jewish childhood. We didn’t have to read Torah, and we didn’t have to spend the whole year studying and practicing.

I especially felt no strong connection to this whole confirmation schtick. I had one of the lowest attendance rates during the classes. The essays that I had to write for the class were last-minute and awful. And, I didn’t volunteer to lead any parts of the service, so all I did last night was carry the Torah during a processional and then deliver my speech.

However, there was one aspect to the evening that was significant for me.

Let me tell you a little something about Champaign’s Sinai Temple: They think that we are still in the 19th century.

The rabbi was going to make us wear skirts for the service. When I requested that the girls be able to wear nice slacks instead, he flat out refused, saying that we had never done it that way. By that logic, no change would ever happen.

I wasn’t going to let this go. Skirts suck, and I wasn’t about to wear one to this confirmation service. Especially because we all had to sit on the bima, the raised platform where all the religious bulljive goes down, which put our crotches right at eye level to the congregation. So, unless some perverted old man wanted to see a lot of panties all night, then it seemed to me that skirts were not a good idea.

Finally, it just seems ridiculous to tell a girl that, in this day and age, where nice slacks are becoming just as fancy as skirts, that she can’t wear pants. We go to a reformed synagogue; women wear pants all the time.

Thanks for bearing with me through that little rant. The point of my story is that I won. The rabbi caved, and talked to the parents. Enough of the parents supported my side that the girls were able to wear slacks to the service, and four of the six took advantage. Yay!

And, in the spirit of the event, where we were celebrating our adulthood, I did feel very accomplished and grown up. People had listened to what I had to say.

Now, I don’t really know what one should take away from this rambling. But I guess now you know that the next time you are confirmed at Sinai Temple, you can wear pants regardless of gender.

— Sarah Pfander

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 7:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today I rushed to school, because I knew what I was going to see when I arrived. I, unlike most of the Uni school, was one of the privileged seniors who knew just what lay behind the lounge doors before Ms. Kovacs swung them open.

Balloons. Lots and lots of balloons. Different colors. Different shapes. And even one that was termed “the butt balloon” by some of the guys for its resemblance to well … a butt. Mature, I know.

I don’t want to call our bit of ingenuity a “senior prank,” because I’m not sure it qualifies as one. It’s hardly daring and definitely doesn’t make a statement. I doubt people are going to say, “The class of 2007?!? They were too cool! They put balloons in their lounge!”

The initial idea was playpen balls, but the cost caused us to rethink that idea. Another idea was discarded because of the potential for too much school damage.

Although some people expressed their opinions of our action on the balloons, I thought it was a senior antic that fit our class very well. Subtle, colorful, and non-inciting of faculty wrath.

But I especially liked the chalk drawings in the front. I liked seeing “We Love Ellen” scribbled underneath her window and the soccer records displayed in bright and bold colors. It embodied some of the things we were most proud of as a class and wanted to celebrate before we left.

Maybe that’s even better than spreading a rumor that syphillis was spreading rapidly as the Blacksburg High School Class of 2004 did. Although their idea was truly a prank that even had many parents sending their kids off to be examined, ours was sentimental.

Was it perfect? No, we could probably have done something a little more flamboyant, and I really do hope that the Class of 2008 pulls out all the stops (I am sure they will), but I also love balloons and loved filling the lounge with them.

(And our balloons were much better than the Class of 2006’s prank, which was … as far as I recall, nothing?)

— Dana Al-Qadi

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 5:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This summer I am going to have the opportunity to go to France for a couple of weeks with the French class, and as the school days are winding down I’m gradually becoming more and more excited about the trip. Although I have been busy doing homework and studying and have yet to even think about packing a suitcase, mentally I have been making various notes as to what I should be getting ready for.

This last week my host sister, Margaux, whom I will stay with for about a week during the trip, has been able to keep contact with me through e-mail. Me not being perfect at French, and she not being perfect at English (though thankfully enough she does speak English!), the e-mails obviously aren’t always fully gramatically correct, but nonetheless we have been able to keep a decent conversation going.

I was under the impression that being in France for the beginning of June I would be able to attend school with my temporary host sister, but as she is in high school, I was informed that she gets out of school the same time Uni does.

I was attempting to think about the different things I would want to do while I was in France, something that would give me a taste of the French culture. Something that I can’t get here in America.

But then I realized that no matter what, even if I do just go shopping (and obviously we can go shopping in America), being able to do something ordinary in another country is a new experience in itself.

For example, Madame Lopez informed us that when you are in France it is considered impolite, when walking in to a grocery store, to not say hello to everyone you come into eye contact with. Personally that seems a little strange, considering if I went to a store, and a bunch of people I didn’t know were saying hello to me, instead of feeling warm and welcomed I would more likely feel compelled to leave.

There will be many little things that I will have to get used to as well. For example, as it is throughout most of Europe, the electrical outlets are different. On top of that, not only will it be harder to use my many hair dryers, hair straighteners, hair curlers, etc., but since we will be constantly traveling from city to city, I was told not to pack any of those things if possible. “You will get there and be dead tired from lugging your heavy suitcase everywhere. The lighter the better.”

I would also imagine that I would want to buy quite a few authentic French items, but attempting to communicate with already stressed-out sales clerks will be more than a hassle.

Usually as summer progresses, I tend to gain weight if anything since I spend the majority of my time eating and participating in minimal physical activity. Contrary to what I’d thought, though, for the trip it was recommended that we bring belts in our suitcases since our pants will most likely be too big at the end of the trip.

I suppose this is because on top of all the walking around we will be doing (especially since we are not allowed to drive motorized vehicles — even scooters), our meals will be limited. This isn’t to say that we will be starved, but instead we will all be on budgets, and unlike sitting at home over summer in America, it’s not well accepted to just open up the refrigerator and grab a snack every hour or so. This will most definitely help me to learn (forcibly nonetheless) to resist my cravings!

In general, I’m really looking forward to the trip. It’ll be quite a new experience, and hopefully not too difficult!

— Lizzy Warner

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 10:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As clichéd as it feels, this is my last blog entry, so I feel obligated to discuss at some length my reflections on this school year.

The segue between freshman and sophomore year gave me the feeling similar to the one I got between watching “The Matrix Reloaded” and “The Matrix Revolutions.” More modern example: the feeling between the second “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie and the third one (which, incidentally, looks awesome). In words that the other 90 percent of my audience will understand, there wasn’t much difference between the two years; one stopped abruptly, and things picked right up where they left off a good while later.

Case in point: Just like last year, this year I ate lunch in the same place at the same time; I had math in the morning in Room 206, and science in the morning on the third floor. I did the same sports in PE (with the tragic inclusion of pickleball) and had a similar English curriculum (read a book, talk about it, write about it, perhaps do a group presentation, repeat). In history class, despite prevailing lethargy (you try sitting in a warm, dark room right after lunch or fitness) I learned a lot of truly interesting material and got used to spending the better part of the night every two weeks steadily absorbing pages of flowcharts into my brain.

I had a lot of fun in Japanese, with an endless parade of inside jokes, including (in general order from least to most “inside”): the tribulations of filling out workbook pages by listening to the supplemental CD; the textbook’s jaw-dropping attempts to explain the derivations of kanji; the importance of okurigana; and the elusive definition of “ashita.”

I had eighth hour free, and oscillated between hanging around until the end of the day to finish homework in a more productivity-conducive environment and getting home to take my mind off schoolwork as fast as humanly possible.

The only really noteworthy difference was that I signed up for journalism. As I had more or less expected, it was one of the most demanding parts of my courseload, but there’s certainly a feeling of accomplishment now that I look back. Writing on this page once a week has been fun, and it was always kind of neat to see my work get published. I’d also like to think that I’ve partially overcome my fear of letting my opinions become visible to anyone with an Internet connection.

In any event, I expect next year will be rather different: I’ll have a new floor to call home, I’ll have several new teachers, and for the first time, I’ll be sitting alongside a pretty high proportion of non-Class-of-2009 people, what with the combined junior-senior PE and English classes and the two fine arts classes I’ve registered for. And I can’t wait for the monstrous load of junior-year homework that I’ve been promised.

Until then, I’m going to have myself a great summer. I’m going to be heretical by waking up early (sorry, I never really liked the feeling of stumbling out of bed at noon unless it meant I wasn’t going back to school for a few days). I’m going to whittle away many a happy hour on my XBox 360. I’m going to strive to get in at least five miles of running and/or biking every day that I’m not off on vacation. There are tons of movies coming out this year that have caught my eye, not to mention some new albums, especially the new offering from the White Stripes, which I’ll be earnestly and amateurishly playing along to after I’ve had a few listens and a few tab searches. I imagine I’ll also do a fair amount of reading.

One more item of business. As of late, as anyone who’s come within 10 feet of my locker recently will note, I’ve become borderline obsessed with xkcd. The first time I saw it was on the day that Ben Fu posted a link to the webcomic in his comment to an entry on this very blog about the merits of owning a cat. The last time I saw it was about 10 minutes before I started working on this blog. The author is surely one of the most clever, insightful and clear-minded people I could name, so I thought I’d conclude my illustrious Gargoyle blogging career with one of my favorite installments.

And that is the proverbial “it.” (“Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” plagiarism!)

P.S. Hey, all of you ersatz copyright police who noticed that comic above: Try not to get too excited. The author permits all kinds of not-for-profit redistribution and, indeed, many forms of for-profit redistribution. To console you, I offer this.

P.P.S. Yes! I’ve been trying to find a good place to use the word “ersatz” for months now.

P.P.P.S. If that strikes you as rather odd, this is my defense.

P.P.P.P.S. Yes, this is definitely one too many postscripts.

— Andrew Lovdahl

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 8:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We have made it into the last week of regular school! That would normally make me really excited, and even give me a boost of energy as all the classes are winding down. This week should be enjoyable.

Unfortunately it is not.

Why, you ask? Because I’m sick.

I was able to survive a month-long barrage of illness, but in the last week of school my immune system fails, and I now have a cold.

This means I really don’t want to be in school. I am suffering with a stuffy head and congestion while I try to pay attention in my classes and succeed in my quest to find a room with a tissue box.

This means that classes, which usually feel really slow around this time of year, seem twice as long at least. This means that the awards ceremony, which is always very long, seems to go on forever. Sometimes it feels like the blue clock in Room 218 is accurately telling the time.

I would like nothing more than to go home, with a nice filled box of tissues, and rest until this stupid illness goes away. But I can’t do that until I trudge through three more days of classes.

At least I have a three-day weekend to look forward to, right?

— Deren Kudeki

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 6:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My sister once said that the three s’s are the least stressful years: subbie, sophomore, senior. But whether or not she’s right (and I definitely don’t think she’s right), I’m glad that the school year is coming to an end.

Besides my English paper revision due tomorrow, a history and a calc test on Friday and finals week, I’m basically home free. Afterwards I’ll finally be able to sleep in till 1 or 2 p.m. and eat breakfast during lunch. I’ll be able to bike/drive to my friends’ houses and make fun of them, and I’ll be able to not worry about work (besides studying for the SAT and summer reading).

However, I’ll also miss some things. 1) Seniors will be gone. 2) Some people going on vacation. Also, I don’t exactly enjoy the idea of becoming a junior next year. It makes me seem old and wrinkly.

Over the summer I’ll be going to some camps, improve my skills in everything, perhaps make a trip to China, and maybe find a job.

I’ll also go on countless adventures with my imagination. G’luck to everyone in surviving the last weeks. Enjoy the summer.

— Alan Liang

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, here it is, my last blog entry. For all (or any) of you loyal viewers out there, I’d like to take this opportunity give my thanks.

We’ve had our shares of fun. I write a 300-ish word entry on some topic that’s on my mind. You read it and occasionally write a comment. Not as exhilarating as telepathy, but we get our ideas across to one another. Plus telepathy sends brainwaves all over the place and takes a lot more effort.

With over a dozen blog entries written a week and three on Mondays alone, I really appreciate you all taking the time to take the time to look over mine, even if it’s just a brief glance. Hopefully you never feel that reading my entries has ever been a waste of time. Sure some of them don’t cover the most innovative and breakthrough topics out there, but on those days I usually pay a little more attention to my writing style.

In general, the blog entries have been pretty informative. I’ve learned a lot about current events, as well as about my fellow Gargoyle staff members.

That’s about it. Sadly, I won’t be regularly writing blogs next year since I’m off to college, but this past year has been great. It’s been four months since my first blog entry in late January, and I’ve enjoyed writing every single one of them.

Thanks again for a great last few months.

— Benjamin Fu

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 9:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Automatic things were created to make our lives easier. They were invented to keep us from exerting extra energy and to save precious seconds in the daily lives of modern people. However, some automatic facilities are even more troublesome than their traditional counterparts.

Take automatic sink faucets for example. Half the time they don’t even work properly. In the bathrooms at Grainger Engineering Library, I would often end up standing in front of a sink — waving at a motion detector — trying to get water to come out. It would be a lot easier if I could just turn a knob to wash my hands rather than waste time trying to get a sensor to detect my presence.

On the other hand, sometimes when I’m standing by a sink looking into the mirror, water would come pouring out from a faucet. It’s a waste of water, not to mention a bit creepy.

The same goes for automatic toilets. Good-quality ones usually work nicely, but the bad-quality ones often don’t flush when you want them to. That’s definitely not good, especially from a sanitary perspective.

Why do we even need automatic toilets? It’s really not that hard to flush a toilet. And then there are some automatic toilets that flush randomly even though it’s not being used. What a waste of resources.

Finally, there are automatic doors. Every time I walk by Follett’s Bookstore on Green Street, the automatic doors slide open. It’s actually quite annoying. Yet every once in a while when I try to enter a store, the sliding doors just won’t open. I’d have to walk around the front door a few times before it detects my presence.

Maybe automatic things and I just don’t get along. But I’m thinking that it’s more because they tend to malfunction. Yes, I admit, they can come in handy sometimes. For example, if you’re carrying heavy boxes, an automatic door would save a lot of trouble. However, many automatic things, such as automatic toilets, are quite useless.

— Elaine Gu

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 6:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I know, everyone will be writing about the big night this week, but that’s all I have to talk about, so here I go.

Prom. The infamous night when teenagers dress in ridiculously expensive dresses, eat fancy food, and then dance together for three straight hours. Everything about prom applies to Uni’s prom here, except my dress cost me 15 bucks.

Overall prom was fun for me. I got to hang out with my friends, and I didn’t spend a bunch of money. Plus the DJ played “Safety Dance.” It was pretty rockin’ on the dance floor at that point.

The lows of prom were picture taking beforehand, mostly because it was weird, and a certain someone was late and therefore I was the only person there who didn’t have a date who was also present, and therefore had to take a picture alone, looking stupid.

Also, there was a fairly awkward moment when I was named prom queen (only at Uni could I be prom queen). I think that the ritual of electing rulers for prom is silly in the first place, and having to perpetuate the ritual myself was kind of weird, but the weirdest thing was that everyone kept congratulating me like I had just done something really really cool, instead of just happening to be in a relationship that people think is cute.

Oh well, in the end I got a tiara to give to my 3-year-old brother (a naked little boy wearing a tiara is a good photo op), and I got to make some cool prom queen jokes. Also, in the future I could join a sorority!

— Bethany Hutchens

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

If Mims can sell a mil’ sayin’ nothin’ on the track, then this Nokia cell phone is destined for success.

Nokia braved the iPhone and Razr 2 craze to announce its “3109 classic.”

It’s the exact opposite of the type of phone that the tech-savvy type are eager to have, with no 3G, no camera, and basically no nothing. The thing’s basically a few ounces of pure phoneness. And, at least on paper, it looks like it’s pretty good at being a basic phone: good battery life and durability, and a Nokia interface that’s renowned for its intuitive structure and ease of use.

I applaud Nokia for announcing such a phone. I certainly wouldn’t want one, but that’s beside the point — this phone clearly appeals to those who prefer simplicity, and there are probably more people preferring simplicity than you’d think.

Just last summer when I was in a Cingular store looking for the most feature-packed free phone I could find, I heard some guy ask a sales rep what their most basic phone was. He said he wanted a phone just to make calls and nothing else.

Sometimes, simplicity can be good. Generally speaking, when a gadget tries to do too many different things, it can’t do any of them particularly well. (There’s even an expression for that.)

But really, when it comes to cell phones, some people (probably excluding most teenagers) just don’t need or want “fancy” features like a full-fledged music player, full Web browsing capabilities, or “even” a camera. From what I’ve heard, some businesses don’t even let employees bring in a camera phone, for security reasons. If anything, fewer features on a cell phone means fewer settings to accidentally screw up.

Good call, Nokia.

— Jason He

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 12:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are only two more weeks of school before summer officially begins. These two weeks are also the hardest to get past. The days are longer and hotter, your mind keeps drifting off to how you are going to sleep in during the summer, and you just don’t care anymore.

This is pretty much everyone’s mindset right now, but it is also the worst time to have this mindset.

There are final exams coming up that need to be studied for, but most of us simply can’t find the willpower to do so. In addition, all the teachers have somehow decided that the end of the year is a perfect time for a big paper to be due. Why can’t we just relax for the final two weeks?

We should get everything over with before the last two weeks. And what should we do the last two weeks? We can still have class and homework, but nothing painful. Everyone would appreciate the lack of big tests and 10-page papers.

Or maybe let us stay home and give us one project to work on during the last two weeks. The productivity of the students will probably be the same since tired, grumpy students don’t learn much anyway.

My point is that we deserve a break after a long year.

— Ranny Ma

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With so many of my friends taking APs when they’re only sophomores, I definitely feel I’m on the lazy side like Elaine Gu. Last week I watched them come to school every day looking tired and worn out. By the end of the week they looked like walking zombies.

Although part of me felt guilty that I was taking no APs, the other part felt that some of my friends were going too far. Right now I haven’t even thought about what college I plan on going to or considered starting to study for the SAT. One of my friends missed the PLAN test we took last semester because the SAT was on that same day.

Honestly, I don’t give college as much importance as some people do. I don’t feel my happiness depends on getting into an Ivy League school. Besides, you’re only young once, so why not enjoy your high school years instead of constantly preparing yourself for college? True, it’s good to plan a little, but sometimes it’s nice to live in the present.

I have to say that a week later I don’t feel quite so guilty about being a slacker. When I think about it, not only does the stress of taking APs seem pointless, some of the APs don’t matter that much either. I haven’t even heard of some of the subjects my friends are taking APs for because I never thought there would be a class for them.

And if taking four APs means you have to give up your sanity, then I think I’d much rather be called a slacker.

— Avanti Chajed

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

As the end of the school year nears (finally), so does the track season. As such, I’m a little conflicted. While track is a fairly entertaining sport and it keeps me in shape longer so that cross country will be better next year, I’m not sure whether or not I should keep doing it after the year is over.

But why are you conflicted, Carl? Good question! The reasons I should keep doing track are important. First, there’s my nightmare of Doug killing me because he thinks I should stay on the team. Even though that’s not very likely due to my relative insignificance on the team, it’s a scary prospect.

Secondly, I enjoy running, especially in groups. When you’re in a group it’s harder to slack off because everyone will know about it and you’ll fall behind. When I’m just running by myself I don’t necessarily push myself as I might otherwise.

Thirdly, I love having two free periods during track season. Instead of going to PE like all the other juniors, I get to chill in the lounge and do whatever I feel like doing that period, until the start of fitness testing. Even though track takes up time after school, it feels like less of a big deal since I would normally have to wait about an hour after school to go home anyway, making the two-hour practice less of a big deal.

However, then there are the reasons I shouldn’t remain on the team. This is really only one reason, but I’ll put it into two parts. First, I don’t run any events that well. With my best time of 5:46 in the 1,600, I’m hardly anything special. And in other events, I’m just plain terrible.

Secondly, I have absolutely no chance whatsoever at lettering. Being part of a team is nice, but what do you show for it if you’re not on varsity? A little sheet that says I participated, I guess.

Anyway, I’ll think about it.

— Carl Zielinski

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My brother and I are best friends. We have been for a long time. We also plan to be best friends for a long time after now.

I think it has something to do with our personalities: You won’t find greater opposites than the two of us. While I like rich chocolate cake, Justin prefers a light fruit tart. If I’m in a group of people I don’t know, I’ll tense up and shy to the corner. Justin, on the other hand, will be best buds with them by the end of the evening. I guess what they say is true. Opposites do attract.

This year has been hard with my brother leaving for college in the far Northeast. He has only been home for Thanksgiving break and winter break. Justin’s absence has definitely discombobulated my life.

No more late night talks under the covers. No one to whine to after I failed the last quiz, or got turned down by that dreamy dude. No one to stick up for me. No one to run to after my mother has found out that, once again, I’ve scraped the bottom of the car due to my poor driving abilities. No one to approve my outfits for the Friday school dances.

However, the pains of separation haven’t been as great as I anticipated. I first have to thank the craziness of junior year taking my mind off the empty seat at the dinner table. But I also have to thank such wonderful communicating devices like Facebook.

Facebook is a great way to check up on how my brother is doing. Whether it’s viewing the latest photos his friends have posted of him sunbathing on the quad, or Javi, his hott bud kissing him on the cheek, or receiving a message or wall-post, I always feel as if the distance has, for a short moment, melted away.

I thought it would be hard not being able to see Justin’s face every day. But, in some sense, I do get to see his face every day. Thank you, Facebook!

— Andrea Park

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It is Thursday, today. Meaning that there is really only a day and a half until Saturday. And Saturday is prom.

And I am sick.

This week, my head has consistently felt about five pounds heavier than it should be. My brain seems to have taken a vacation, and I forget things that I need to do very easily (Dear Mr. Sutton, I will definitely find out who Oliver North and April whatsherface are. Love, Michelle).

I break into coughing fits in class. I felt like I was dying a very slow death when I ran the mile in PE earlier this week.

And PROM is on Saturday.

I was talking to my fellow sick person Samantha Nguyen about this dilemma earlier today.

“My ears keep ringing, and I can’t hear right,” she told me glumly.

And we have both had a hand in getting Lucy Zhang sick. She walked into first-hour history this morning and glared at us both threateningly while motioning to her throat.

However, I completely refuse to let sickness ruin my prom. I will somehow force myself to get better even though I will probably get close to no sleep for the rest of this week.

I will combat my cold through sheer will power even though I am coughing up a storm even as I write. (It feels like there is a small furry animal that has taken up residence in my throat that feels the urge to puff itself up every few minutes.)

And this blog entry is probably very disjointed and incoherent. Oh well. I’m going to go and focus my energy on fighting my sniffles.

— Michelle Gao

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With the girls state track finals looming on the horizon and fully taking over my brain, I think I’ll have to keep this entry short.

It’s that time of year, though, when teachers get crazy trying to finish their annual curriculum, and students feel angst because summer is so close. It’s times like these that force me to look back on the year and marvel at how quickly it went by and how so much occurred.

However much I want summer, though, I can’t help but want to length this last week. I am amazed at how chaotic it gets in the last two weeks. I am craving sleep now more than ever.

I desire free time like little kids desire ice cream. I need to relax like fish need water (you get the point). I have no idea where all my time is going, and I would really like to slow time just so that I can get all my work done and go to bed at a decent hour.

Summer is definitely the solution. I need to get to there in one piece though. My fingers are crossed.

— Shivani Khanna

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 11:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last weekend, I was at a city mall with my mother. As we were walking from one store to another, we passed one of those slightly annoying vendor carts where some man with an accent asks you ceaselessly whether he can straighten your hair. The vendor cart we passed was selling Crocs of all colors and had a pale blonde woman working there.

As we walked by, a commotion quickly broke out. Another woman ran toward the blonde woman yelling profanities at her screaming, “Try it again next time bitch! Best recognize who you’re messing with!” But the hateful words quickly escalated into physical violence with the cursing woman pulling the hair of the blonde. At this point my mother and I quickly ducked into the closest store.

Once the blonde had fallen onto the floor, the other woman proceeded to kick her over and over. She then removed her shoe and hit the blonde on her face.

By this point, people passing by had taken notice and were attempting to calm the violent woman down. One small and mousy looking man held his hands up and said, “Now, now, let’s all take a breather.”

Mall security soon arrived to clear up the mess, and as I exited the store where my mother and I had been waiting, I saw the blonde still sitting on the floor in a humiliated heap with a large bag of ice on her face that did not cover her cuts and her hair all out of place.

What struck me about this entire situation was not so much the violence, but my reaction to it. I’ve always prided myself on standing up for what’s right. Or at least I think I do. I don’t like when people say the word “retarded” as a synonym for something being bad. I like to apologize if I’ve messed up. And I can’t unleash the Dana-giggle at a terribly offensive joke.

But somehow, when I was faced with something, I just watched. In middle school we were always told, “To stand by and watch is to participate,” whenever a hallway scuffle broke out and student spectators gathered, and even English philosopher Edmund Burke has said, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

I can’t quite say what paralyzed me to do nothing. I don’t think it was a physical fear of being hurt if I attempted to interfere, but rather, a feeling that this was not my place and it was not my business. That sentiment is true and valid because I don’t have a place in a physical assault between people I don’t know and in a location I am not familiar with.

So when is it my place? When is it my duty to help someone out? I still don’t quite know the answer to that, but I do know that leaving that woman as I and others stood by as she was physically assaulted caused me intense feelings of guilt.

Even the witness statement I was asked to give to the police in order to properly charge the fighting female and the fact that I checked on the injured woman before walking again did not make me feel any better.

Maybe I learned a lesson. Maybe I’ll do better next time. But hopefully there is no next time.

— Dana Al-Qadi

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 8:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I was walking up the stairs the other day, and I had the strange feeling that I had walked those stairs before. OK, so I have walked up Uni’s stairs several thousand times before (most of the time unhappily), but I had the sensation that I was walking in the exact same way with the exact same feet upon the exact same steps.

Trivial? That’s a possibility. But then you get those events that you think you have already dreamed of. Like in chemistry, I thought our class had already been through one of those experiments, and in calc it seemed as if I had already solved that problem.

I know the events, but I can’t remember the specifics. I know that I remembered having a repeated experience in chemistry and calc, but I don’t remember what experiment or what problem.

Deja vu, according to dictionary.com, is a noun meaning the illusion of having previously experienced something actually being encountered for the first time, but could it be that we actually are experiencing things for a second time? Could we be reliving life and catching glimpses of our previous life cycle?

I always had difficulty understanding the idea behind reincarnation. If you were to be reborn into another body … I think that it would be pretty easy to remember who you used to be. However, if your memory were erased, then the idea seems plausible. Maybe your previous self awakens when you sleep, which would explain sleep-walking and bizarre dreams.

Then I reached the top, entered the third floor hallway, and went to class.

— Alan Liang

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For my birthday, my aunt sent me a pin. It’s yellow and has a bespectacled girl who’s kind of nerdy, scandalously taking off her glasses. Underneath, it says reading is sexy.

Kind of like this.

I recently put this pin on my backpack and have been receiving a lot of comments about it. I thought it was really funny, and people seem to be agreeing with me.

However, this pin also holds a certain sentimental value.

When I was younger, I read. I read a lot. I would go through a book a week, sometimes more. There was never a time when I wasn’t in the middle of some sort of reading material. All types of genres and stories, fiction and nonfiction.

But, like all students at Uni, I ran out of time. Between school work, sports, etc., I no longer have time to read. I go through a book a year, if I am lucky. I have been “reading” Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility” since November. I am still in the middle of “Memoirs of a Geisha,” and the first page of “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” by James Joyce was enticing, but I have yet to get further.

Not to mention the huge list of books that I want to read. There are probably 20 books at any given point that I am “planning” to read. Right now there is “Catch 22,” anything by Kurt Vonnegut, “In Cold Blood,” “Everything Is Illuminated,” “Fight Club,” and “The Great Gatsby,” to name a few.

It’s really sad that no one has time to read anymore. Reading is really important. Not only is it “sexy,” like my pin says. But it develops vocabulary, teaches you valuable things, and it is just fun. It transports you to new worlds. It is a really cliché thing to say, but reading is an adventure. And it is an adventure that we are all missing out on.

— Sarah Pfander

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

… Or rather it was last night.

This totally threw me off, when I realized that the weatherman was right.

Yesterday, when driving to Uni the weatherman said that the day would start out sunny and clear. That wasn’t too hard to tell, because I was squinting into the sun as he said this. Then he said that in the afternoon there would be showers and thunderstorms. That I was very cynical about since I find predictions of this sort to be notoriously bad.

Oftentimes they say that there will be rain all week, and there isn’t a cloud in the sky the entire time. Sometimes it is just the opposite.

The only things that I find they are somewhat accurate about are the daily highs/lows, and predicting that a snowstorm is coming. So once winter is gone, I pretty much ignore whatever they have to say, because it is usually very, very wrong.

Because of this I ended up downloading a Doppler radar widget for my computer, so I can make my own weather predictions about if it will rain, snow, or be clear in the next few hours. With the help of that I usually find that I am just as good, if not better, at predicting the weather than the weatherman himself.

But yesterday I didn’t bother to take a look at my computer, so I was surprised to hear the first pitter-patter of rain falling on my house. I was so surprised that they actually made an accurate prediction, that I decided to dedicate my blog post to it!

— Deren Kudeki

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Recently I have been reading a fairly intriguing nonfiction book called “Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters from Marketers’ Schemes,” by Sharon Lamb and Lyn Mikel Brown.

Unlike other popular nonfiction books such as “Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities,” this book doesn’t really focus in on lives and doesn’t form a type of storyline but definitely focuses on the facts.

Written by two mothers, they bring up interesting points and point out various “marketing schemes” set out there to entice girls. Although they take a slightly feminist parent’s point of view at times, the information has gotten me to notice my surroundings.

For example, each chapter focuses on various age groups and tells of the mothers’ different explorations into teenagers’ favorite stores. During one trip they went out looking for a plain T-shirt. No slogans, not low-cut, no brand-name logos, etc. Just a plain T-shirt, and all they could find was one red shirt at a JC Penney.

So then I thought about it myself: There is no way. I see plenty of normal T-shirts when I go to the mall. First thing that came to mind was Abercrombie, which sells plain shirts … but they all have the Abercrombie moose or are low-cut or tight fitting.

That narrowed out Abercrombie, as well as Aeropostale, American Eagle, and Hollister. Then I thought that surely Wet Seal or Bergners carried plain T-shirts, but then thinking back to my previous experiences I realized that their T-shirt selections had various designs on the front such as little hearts or were decorated with rhinestones/glitter/etc. So … maybe there aren’t very many places that actually sell plan T-shirts after all.

But what girl wants to wear a plain T-shirt? I most certainly would prefer the nice fitting camisole vs. the boy shirt! Which was another point touched upon: Starting as little as Disney princesses in bikini tops (“Little Mermaid”) we are taught to “dress to impress.”

And despite this realization that we are taught to think this way, as expected by the authors, I don’t personally plan on doing a 180 and changing my wardrobe altogether. Because we are taught that the tomboy girls, the nongirly girls, are outsiders — and no one wants to be an outsider.

One passage, titled “From Romance to Porn,” describes the authors’ views on how we are tricked into thinking we have a wide range of options to see at the movies, when in reality the movie selection is very limited.

“A teen girl may think she has a myriad of choices at the movies when she is out with her friends. She can see a romance that is a step more sophisticated than the princess movies. She can see a romance/comedy that includes a bumbling, rude, but loveable male character (typically played by a comic actor such as Adam Sandler or Will Ferrell) that draws the boys into the movie too, similar to ‘50 First Dates’ and ‘Fever Pitch.’ She can see a horror film that may have a strong woman [who is] porn-star sexy (as she runs in the rain, for example, from her stalker, her blouse will get wet, and her nipples will show through). A teenage girl can see a ‘boy comedy’ where all the girls in the film will serve as types the boys can choose from; there is always a sexy girl and a good girl among them. Or she can go to an action movie where the woman looks like a blown-up sex doll that a boy puppeteer is controlling on the set, keeping her sexy during all her leaps, flips, and laser saber fights. She’ll be the kind of woman who appeals to boys — so strong that she’s over the top and so busty that she’s over the bra. She’s a fantasy woman, but she’s no girl’s fantasy.”

Basically, this book has definitely given me a slightly humorous insight into the various ideas and “schemes” advertisers use to manipulate us, using examples from our beloved Disney classics to “The OC,” and even managing to find support in shows such as “Dora the Explorer.”

Although I don’t think I will change my style or behavior as a result of this book, I think it’s a worthwhile read so as to get an idea of your everyday surroundings and how they are constantly affecting you.

— Lizzy Warner

Posted by Gargoyle Staff at 7:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)