Failing (Epic Fail?) (It's Over 9000!) (Insert Other Often Said Thing Here)

Self-regarded as a good student (not conceited, honest), I don’t take it very well when I receive less than desirable grades on school assignments, which again, isn’t very often. One of the worst feelings is when that grade is the sixth letter of the alphabet. The ominous F – the failure, frick, and other unrepeatable words word. If you thought you did well, the feeling of the F-bomb isn’t as traumatic because it’s a sudden bad emotion after a longer period of good ones. If you thought you sucked it up, the feelings are worse because you know you’re going to get a bad score but there’s nothing you can do about it.

The latter feeling is the one that I currently feel about the math test I just took. I’ve always gotten A’s on all the other tests in that class this year, but this test, my mind performed an effective meltdown. About every answer I got was wrong, and though I struggled more on this unit, I thought I had finally grasped the material. Boy was I wrong. During the middle of the test I was silently reprimanding myself for sucking so bad. It was bad. But oh well, hopefully there are more grades during the review period.

Dakota

Spring Break

Spring break just cannot get here fast enough for me. School has been in session for way too long now and I am just ready to get out and relax. I just want to be able to sleep in go to sleep late and not worry about anything…

Oh wait, I don’t get a spring break. Not really. No, I have to go up to Indianapolis with my dad for college visits. Because my mom works every day and can’t take off to take me to the colleges, my dad has to, and because he starts work on Tuesday in Indy, I have to go up there with him. I have college visits on the Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of spring break week. The time between visits will be spent sitting in a hotel while my dad does his business (literally). How boring.

But oh well. I guess what I am doing is better than what some could be doing…nothing’s coming to mind, but I’m sure there are worse things. Can’t wait.

Dakota

UK: A Disappointment

It’s the times that I put my confidence in a team that goes 0-17 from 3-point land that I feel I was born in the wrong state. My family has always been full of staunch UK fans, and I have become one as well. But when an Elite 8 team cannot sink a single three pointer in seventeen attempts, I begin to question the greatness of my beloved Cats.

The fact that we went about 10% from the three in the tournament is astounding, but what aggravates me more is that they still attempted them, contested or not, after missing ten in a row. Obviously we have a size advantage in the post against any team with DeMarcus Cousins and Daniel Orton. Why are our guards hoisting up the long ball when they can’t drain it? Just feed it to the big man.

They say defense wins championships. I think this comes with the assumption that some points are scored on offensive possessions. When we screw ourselves out of a potential 51 points because of selfish three point shooting, it’s hard to blame the defense for losing the game for us.

Coach Cal, it looks like you’re going to have to coach these stars you recruit, not just let them survive on their own raw talent. Because it is very raw.

Dakota

Spring

So I got my first mosquito bite last night while biking with Joseph Powers. You know what this means? My least favorite season has finally returned. Oh, it’s been a while my pleasantly warm but unpleasantly bug-bringing friend. I love the temperatures; I hate the bugs. Strike that, I hate the bugs that hate me. I’m sort of a girlie boy in this regard, but any bug that has a stinger or has the potential to hurt me is my sworn enemy. Bees, wasps, spiders – I’m scared of every one of them.

It really is weird, though. One of my favorite things to do is camp. I don’t know, just getting out into the woods and living semi-all-natural with the Off spray lathered on and sitting around the campfire singing those campfire songs (J) just gets me every time.

Back to spring though, I literally will not open my windows in my room for fear of wasps slipping through the seal and flying around with their lazy legs eyeing me the whole time. I believe I might just have a phobia of these little buggers (no pun intended). Why can’t we just skip straight over spring and go right into summer!?

Dakota

Academic Team Over

The season for academic team has come and gone, and I think I’m going to miss it. All of the time spent practicing and…..studying…..has really gotten to me. We didn’t make it to state in quick recall for governor’s cup and I feel like the job is not yet done. We haven’t completed what we set out to do as first year upperclassmen. This one was finally going to be the year that we got to state by putting the hurt on our region, but it wasn’t so.

So now it’s necessary to wait until next year, study my butt off over the off-season. Most might think that studying over summer break is ludicrous. I think I have to agree with this most person. But when I destroy in science in quick recall, they’ll be chanting my name in the crowd (silently of course). Oh yea, it’s going to be a good day in the neighborhood when the team rejoins next year!

Dakota

GSP Anticipation

So I must say, GSP anticipation is about to drive me insane. Those who applied for this great opportunity did so almost three months ago, and we won’t find out for almost another one. I just really want to know if I made it or not, not only just for the sake of knowing, but also the fact that I need to schedule my summer events accordingly. And not knowing whether I’m going to be free for five weeks in a row or not is kind of a big deal.

It sure would be great if I were accepted. I’m sure the program is really fun and interesting and I will have an awesome time learning and meeting other people. But the major benefit of going to the program has kind of fallen away from me. I was originally going to get full-tuition to UK, but my plans have changed since I applied. Now I am about 95% sure that I’m going to Indiana University, where this program does not aid me at all.

I know it looks good on your applications and stuff to any college, but I’ve been asking myself of late if I still want to go through with a five week program that’s taken out of my last summer break as a high school student just for the sake of going.

Dakota

Pests

There aren’t many things in this world that just generally grind my gears. That said, I don’t like insects very much. But most insects themselves have biological purposes in the ecosystems they inhabit. The pests of the group that have no biological purpose are the ones that I don’t like at all.

These nuisances include but are not limited to mosquitoes, fleas, and ticks. More or less, these insects are parasitic without a general niche other than to stay alive. They do nothing helpful for their ecosystems and generally only benefit themselves.

My question is, “What is their purpose in life?” I mean honestly, they just seem to be little life-suckers that help no one but themselves.

P.S. One could probably tell by this point that this blog is very random and also rather pointless. You may be asking the same question posed earlier toward this blog post…

Dakota

Awakeness

Staying up late and getting up early has adverse effects on both sleepiness and health. It makes me want to never get out of bed in the morning and fall asleep as soon as I get home from school of a day. Deprivation of sleep makes everything harder in general. Why then, do I willingly give up sleep? The answer is simple. I am a teenager.

I’ve stayed up until the early hours of the morning talking to my friends, doing homework, procrastinating on homework, playing games, among other things. It used to not be this way. During middle school I would do my homework as soon as I got home, do all my other daily things and be asleep by 10:00. But then freshman year rolled around and it all began to change. I started becoming a homework lazy, friend chatty, and just overall time wasting kid. That fact has only manifested itself more since I’ve moved up the ranks of high schooldom.

And you know what? It’s cool, because I always get what I need to get done, done. Maybe it’s at the cost of my awakeness, but hey, if the shoe fits…wait, that cliché doesn’t “fit” here…anyway, sort of loopy right now, so I’m going to call it a blog and a night.

Dakota