Amazing

is that a group of people in my science class (Ali, Gnatta, Christoph, Dino, Tybalt, and Sergio) were able to have a long discussion about shoe sizes (Dino, for any interested parties, had the largest) without devolving in the slightest bit to making size jokes. There weren't even any snickers and pointed glances. I'm somewhat shocked. I thought that other high schoolers spent as much time in the gutter as I do!

On a more serious note, we had a discussion about gender distribution during math today. For some reason, only one third of the B.C. calc classes are female. Why did this happen? Oh, fellow females, why have you abandoned me so? I think the whole "guys are better at math" thing is utterly bogus. Do guys really just care that much less about grades? Maybe they don't feel that constant need to prove themselves, to show the teacher and fellow students that they really deserve to be in the tough classes. Are girls just scared out of the big, bad, b.c.? It seems difficult to believe. And when, precisely, are we getting funneled into lower levels. It doesn't seem to be early on, so why such a skew at higher levels? I don't get it! Does it have to do with us just assuming that guys are smarter? I mean, look at Gretchie's and my valedictorian list. Sure, we managed eight guys on the last one, but that took a fair amount of manipulating on out part. The first people we thought of on our extended list were all male, and we had to talk ourselves into adding girls to the top spots on the final. And as far as reputations go, the smart people, when others are asked to name them, are Bryant, Tybalt, Livny, and Mario. Never mind that Julie took B.C. last year as well, or that I keep up with Tybalt just fine much of the time, or that Livny has an ego far larger than anything else of his (that was a size joke), or that Mario really isn't much of writer. It's always the guys who get listed! It's just so utterly infuriating!

End rant.

Grandfather

Yesterday, Papa gave my cousin and me a lecture on the evils of electronic communications. First it was texting. "All you kids text every day, all the time, text text text text text." "Papa, it's hardly-" "Oh, yes you do! You text people you hardly even know! Why I read in the paper-" "I don't know about everybody else, but the majority of kids I know don't text that much." "Well my newspaper said they text constantly. Always. And Everyone. They even text strangers!" he told us with an air of finality. "And then there's this facebook and twitter. What's the difference?" My cousin started to explain, but her cut her off. "They twitter everything! And facebook is not private. Why, I read in the paper that..." blah blah blah, on and on and on. Apparently, everything he reads in the newspaper is true. Opmin would be disappointed.

Today, I looked at Bristol's facebook page. Her brother died a few days ago, and the whole profile is now covered in messages of condolence, that people are "sorry for [her] loss" and are "praying for [her]" (Yes, I can properly MLA format quotes from facebook). Margot and Christoph actually wrote the exact same thing (although Christoph wrote it first). George's blurb was uncharacteristically eloquent. I would write something, but I think anything I say would sound fake. I am sorry for her loss, but I'm more sorry about her brother's life being cut short, since I barely know her, but I barely even knew him, so lord knows if he had a life worth living, but I still feel badly, but I haven't the foggiest idea how to actually express all that.