Wasted Day

This picture of my cat, Casmir, basically establishes a visual for my entire day. I did NOTHING! I laid in bed with my laptop next to me and spent the part of the day I wasn't sleeping fooling around on there. Casmir has me beat, but only by a small margin.

I wish I could cite something absolutely amazing that I did today. But that would be a lie. For the first time as far back as I can remember, I slept until 2:00 p.m. Upon waking, I took my dog outside, made my sister and I something to eat, and then retired to my room where I lay down next to my laptop and watched five episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

My mom came home and we all took Cugel, my basset hound, to the vet. There he was proclaimed healthy, though a little lean. We came back home and I yet again retired to my room to watch MORE Monty Python's Flying Circus. Do you know that some people were testing cures for cancer today? Others were fighting for their lives in Iraq. Still others at least managed to find two matching socks. I wore flip-flops. I feel like a lazy slob.

Well, I am thankful that I did post on theoretical deviation today. At least I did SOMETHING valuable and useful.

Slave to the System

So, I have become a slave to the system. Once you begin, you can never turn back. I am scared and excited, like Little Red Riding Hood in Into The Woods. I can not turn back. What will become of me? Is my entire future dependent on how I begin?

And to never be able to escape. Eternal enslavement. How does our entire world just let this injustice slide by. Surely some organization has been formed to fight this! I'll join and work with them to fight this evil.

But for now I must bow my head, stand before the alter of injustice and pray. Because without this evil, I cannot survive. How would I transport myself from one place to another? I would die a homeless woman. There is absolutely no way to survive without this system. That is, until we fight back. But, I shall wait in the wings and hope that some day it will change. Ghandi says to be the change you want to see in the world. I am sorry Ghandi. I would like to follow your advice, however I do not have the courage or willpower.

Oh, the job is at Highland Park Market.

To My Blog Viewers

So, I opened my blog today and was just reading through my past entries, deciding what I needed to work on, when all of a sudden the words "3 comments" appeared before my eyes underneath two of my posts. Stunned, I opened them up, and what should I see, but comments from the disgruntled chemist, the minstrel boy, and tata.

I must admit I realize that my connection to Burb Rocking must have gotten ahead of me, for I know the names of my viewers well, having heard my mom mention them quite often in the car. I am unsure of how to react, but I suppose a simple thank you shall suffice. So, thank you for taking the time out of your day to read my blog. It isn't really anything spectacular, I mean, AP Physics hasn't started yet so I have nothing to talk about, but I like my writing. Thank you all so much for your advice. In response to my post University Debate: Massachuesettes or Ireland??, I would like to thank you all for your advice and questions. I have decided that I am going to go for Ireland, and if I get accepted, I'm going to go. It is scary leaving people behind, but what is life without a sense of adventure?

And to answer your question, tata, I really don't know. When you apply as an early decison candidate, you are saying that if you get accepted, you agree to withdraw your application from all other schools. I'm sure there is some way to get around those rules. I'll get back to you on it.

So, thank you for reading theoretical deviation. I hope you're enjoying it, and I hope that I can make it interesting enough to be read in the future. So hold on tight and wish me luck!

Being a Teenager

Sometimes it is hard being a teenager. Now, it is important for you to realize that I am not the "typical" teenager. I do not have temper tantrums, I do not drink, do drugs, smoke, abuse freshman (well not often), or drink soda. I also have a clean room. Yes, I have a clean room. As a matter of fact, I take care of the house by cleaning it. If it weren't for my cleaning, the house would be a literal pig sty, filled with pigs and all. I get great grades in school, take the hardest classes offered, etc. My point is that I work hard and I am responsible.

SO, my mother and I had our very first fight ever. Well, first angry, yelling fight. And, it was over driving. Now, the speed limit on our highways here in Connecticut is 65 mph. I don't know about where you may be from, but here, most people drive about 75 mph on the highway. Yes, fast, but reasonable.

Well, I was driving back from my aunt's house. The highway was slightly damp. My dad was sitting next to me in the passenger seat, and my mom and sister were sitting in the back seat. So, I am driving behind this pack of cars, which are respectively behind two trucks. Now, there are three lanes, and these trucks are in the right two. Since they were braking, and the cars behind them were tapping their brakes, I decided the best decscion was to pass the dangerous situation, and move ahead. So, I moved to the left lane, sped up to 70 mph, and began to pass the truck. Now, the Violent Femmes were playing pretty loudly, you do have to keep that in mind.

The next thing I know, I hear my mother scream from the backseat, "Siobhan!!! You are going FAR TOO FAST!!!!!" She did it in that high-pitched, anxious voice that made me feel as though A) The truck was at that precise moment crashing into our car and B) I was a terrible, awful, irresponsible driver.

I was pretty upset. I mean, I am a young driver, I only have my permit and I do not have a lot of experience. So, having someone screaming at me from the backseat was certianally not only distracting, but upsetting. I may have been overly emotional, but I broke down crying. I was just... ashamed, I suppose. And disappointed that my mother couldn't find a better way to approach my driving.

So, I was mad and sad and... bad?? When we got home my mom didn't say anything. So Maeve and I headed up to my bed for the night (Maeve is having trouble sleeping in her own room due to the fact that it is COVERED in clothes, stuffed animals, and books). I came back downstairs to grab something and my mom says, "Siobhan, I'm sorry that I got upset at you earlier but you were making me very nervous. And I may be overeacting, but you can not drive over the speed limit in my car. I am upset that no one ever listens to me. You can not go over the speed limit. Not the supposed speed limit. You just stay in the right lane and drive 65 or under."

Now, I do understand where she is coming from, but with my little driving experience, I think that driving too slowly, where you are posing as an "in the way" object for other drivers is just as dangerous as driving 70 mph. I know that a car driving 55 mph on the highway (something my mom condones) makes me sort of angry, and I am more likely to pull a reckless pull into the next lane to pass them than otherwise. So, I explained this to my mom, maybe a little less coherently and a little more emotionally, but the same gist. But she decides that she isn't going to listen to me, nor have any more argument. And that's that.

So, well, now I don't know. I feel sort of like I am being restrained on the one thing where I felt like I was in control. My mom wants me to explain my driving maneuvers to her at all times, which I think is... well, ridiculous. "Mom, I'm turning left here. Mom, I'm accelerating to 25, 30, 35 mph. Mom, I'm pressing on the brake now." I think that if she is going to let me drive, she has to actually let me drive! Hah! That is exactly what I mean. As long as I am not driving dangerously, then I think that since I am behind the wheel, then I get the priveledge of making the driving decisions. That is 95% of driving, anyways, isn't it? Encountering a situation, and making a quick decision as to what the best course of action is? It is like those robots I read about in PopSci (Popular Science, magazine, for those of you who aren't as geeky as me) that in order to answer the phone, have to take a reading of the layout of a room and then make a decision about which path to the phone is easiest, taking into account changes that may occur to the room during the trip, such as a toddler crawling across the floor.

Conclusion: I get to make the driving decisions when I am behind the wheel, so long as they are safe and legal decisions.

Tweet-Tweet

So I completely forgot to mention yesterday my daring rescue of a baby bird!

My cat, Casmir, decided that the little fledgling would taste good, so he carried the baby bird over to out back step, and delicately dropped her down. Since she was no longer moving, Cas wasn't interested, so he moved on to more interesting prey.

Now, my dad and I assumed the bird was dying and figured we would leave the bird there. But I was worried about her, so my dad grabbed a fireplace shovel and gently picked the bird up. Once on the shovel, the fledgling was a lot more alert and seemed to be doing fine, so my dad advised me to put the little bird in a box in my room, and call Animal Control for advice. Well, I strongly dislike the officers at our local Animal Control, so I called the Wild Bird Center somewhere out in the middle U.S. and after describing the bird, the said that she was probably fine, and to just release her in the morning. And I did. And right now, I can look out my window and see her sitting in her nest in the tree outside. It is a good feeling.

So there is my cunning rescue. It was neat because she sat in my lap (and peed on my lap) and thought that my hand was the perfect perch. And how often do birds just sit in our hands? Nifty, huh?

Univeristy Debate: Massachusettes or Ireland???

So, I was thinking about this school thing. College, right? I've already told the President of Smith College, as well as two professors, that I'm applying there as an early decision candidate. That means that if I get accepted, I must remove my other applications from other schools, and must accept Smith as my college.

So, that is all well and good, except for two things. First off, Smith is an all girls school. Now, I don't want to seem like one of those girls whose whole purpose in college is to date and meet the man of their dreams. I have higher goals than that. The one thing I am afraid of is my apparent lack of female friends. As far back as middle school, my best friends have always been boys. Going back and listing my best friends starting with fifth grade, only three have been girls, and of those three, only one is still my friend. All in all, I find girls too petty, vain, controlling, gossipy, etc., etc. And the guys who have been my friends are still my friends. I don't know if it is a matter of compatibility or whatever, but going to an all-girls school seems like it would limit my options. I suppose one could look at it as an opportunity to make different kinds of friends, learn how to associate with women, or what have you, but I am going to whine a little, and say that I want a school where I don't have to work to make friends.

The other thing that makes me wary of Smith, is my desire to make the changes that I want in my life happen. The title of this post, which is now FINALLY relevant, is due to my love of Ireland. Not only did I love visiting it, but I loved the idea of living there. While doing all of my university research, I came across NUIG in Co. Galway, Ireland, and I cannot even express how much I desire to go there. I think I could get in, too. And there I could study botany, because they actually have a department dedicated to it. So few schools do. And I would have family to visit, and cute Irish accents to imitate.

And there is the fact that I believe the best time to make extreme changes in your life is when you are young and still have time to mend the problems that come with those changes. I don't want to settle in here in the U.S., get married, have children, get a job, a house, and then look back on my dreams and regret not having made the change I am so ready for now. Almost nothing is holding me here now. I have family, yes, and friends, but I can still keep that when I move. However, if I wait I fear I may never again have the courage. And that scares me.

So, now it is up for debate. Should I go to an excellent all girls school here in the U.S., and possible give up my dream of moving to Ireland, or do I move to Ireland next year, attend NUIG in Co. Galway, Ireland, and make my dream happen?

I think I need a psychiatrist.

Welcome to theoretical deviation

With all that is going on in the world today, it seems important to have a place to discuss one's ideas. A blog seems like the perfect somewhere. Expressing ideas has made the world as we know it today. Now, one could argue that the place the world is today isn't a good one. And they would be right. But we cannot sit by and watch the world fall apart. Thinking through our problems and taking action is what can made the world a better place. We can do it. As Mahatma Ghandi said, " Be the change you want to see in the world."

So here I am, bringing change in a small way to a world ruled by power-hungry adults. Being young it may not seem that I would have anything interesting or valuable to say. Who knows, maybe I don't. I can only say what I believe and do what I feel is right. And maybe that is what needs to be said.

So, although I didn't mean this introduction and welcome post to turn into a throng of my many hopes and dreams, I suppose it did. And since I think it is somewhat well written, I am not going to go back and change any of it. What I will say is, feel free to comment. Or berate my ignorance and such. I could use a little constructive critcism.

Oh, and just call me Sio.