Coca-Cola

Because I have nothing else to blog about and the fact that I am drinking one right now, I will be blogging about Coca-Cola. For people out there who don't know what Coca-Cola (Coke) is, it is a "carbonated soft drink," to quote Wikipedia. It is brown, and is typically found in a red aluminum can (unless it is diet coke or the holiday polar bear one). Coke was originally intended to be a medicine to treat... something. Coke actually, at one time, had trace levels of cocaine in it because Coca-Cola began to use the leaves leftover after cocaine extraction to make Coke. This is not the case anymore. It is not possible to get high off of Coke. (Darn! Just kidding, Mrs. Kirk. Just kidding.) The can I have sitting next to me is a 7.5 fluid ounces (222 milliliters for those of you who use the metric system who are reading this). It has 0 grams of fat, 30 milligrams of sodium (1% of the daily value), 25 grams of carbohydrates (8% of the daily value), 25 grams of sugar, and 0 grams of protein. While I know that all of you reading this would love to know what  the ingredients of my highly engaging and mesmerizing Coke can are, I need to go study, work on my Psycho essay, and wash some clothes, none of which I feel like doing right now. Maybe I'll take a nap...

Exams

For lack of anything else good to blog about, I will be blogging about exams. Ah exams, the dreadful things that come twice a year, are worth twenty percent of your semester average and encompass everything you have learned thus far. I hate exams. We are being tested on material that we have already learned (and probably forgotten), so what is the point of having a HUGE test on stuff if we have already learned it? Most teachers would probably respond to this by saying, "The point of exams is to make sure that you remember what you have learned." You go to school to learn and be prepared for "the real world," but I don't think that I will need to know half of the things that I learn in school. I don't want to be an architect, so that rules out geometry. I won't need to know off of the top of my head what glycolysis is or who the greatest ruler of the Mughal Empire was. I either want to be a psychologist or an attorney (prosecutor that is, not defense- no way am I going to try to prevent someone who has committed a crime from going to jail when they should be punished for breaking the law. Just sayin'.). I will need to know English for both of those, so I'm fine with taking English. But anyway, I am not looking forward to exams or studying for them. I am very glad that I do not have an exam on Friday! (My H period is band.)

My review of the lecture at USC

On Wednesday, November 2, Maddy, Sara, Katharyn, Ayan, Mrs. Kirk, Dr. Dasgupta, and I all piled into Dr. Dasgupta's mini van and made our way to the Rutledge Chapel at USC. We went there to see Martin Doblemier talk of how to tell a story with moral and ethical themes. This is not what he talked about at all. All he talked about was Gandhi and his influence on Bernhofen (that spelling is probably totally wrong). The most exciting part of the whole lecture was when Dr. Dasgupta asked her question about Gandhi and how religion had nothing to do with his pacifist ways. He didn't even answer her question, and it didn't even sound like he knew what he was talking about when he tried to answer her question. I went to this hoping to learn about filmmaking, and I came out with no more insight that when I went in. I was very disappointed.

Slumdog Millionare

So this weekend I watched Slumdog Millionare. It was ok. I liked how it flashed back and forth; that was neat. I didn't really like the part where it showed the people blinding the kids. That was awful. I thought that it was funny when the little boys were giving tour guide at the Taj Mahal and how they were stealing peoples' shoes. I thought that the ending was good. I do not know if I would have given it best picture of the year, but it wasn't up to me, and I'm not an expert on movies. The four characteristics of great movies are uniqueness, highly crafted and layered, they achieve what they set out to do, and takes on a complex theme. This movie is unique, with its flashbacks, highly crafted, also the flashbacks, make the audience happy in the end (which was what the moviemakers wanted to happen), and takes on a complex theme, this one being "never stop looking for true love." I liked The Shawshank Redemption a lot better... :)

My Grandparents' Ten Cats (part one)

Since this is my first blog, I will write about my maternal grandparents' (Meme's and Poppy's) ten cats. They're always a good conversation topic. You are probably wondering, "How do they have room for all of those cats?" Well, my grandparents have to squeeze the twelve of them (Meme, Poppy, and the ten cats) into an 1100 square foot home. I'm just kidding. That would be a nightmare. My grandparents live down in Williston, South Carolina, near Barnwell (out in the boonies). Because they live out in the country, they have a lot of room for all of those animals (they also have two dogs). We call my grandpa "The Cat Man" or "Dr. Doolittle" because he has so many animals. Anyway, four of the cats live in the main house, five live outside, and one lives in the Red Barn, which is like a pool/guest house. The following cats that I will talk about all live in the house.

I will start with the "Queen of the House." That is Katie. She is the meanest cat in the world. She has gotten better (somewhat), compared to when she came back to live at Meme's and Poppy's (that's another story, for another blog). If another cat is getting more attention than her, she will try to swat at him or her. She is always wants all of the attention and is spoiled rotten. She is also really fat. She loves to eat, and whines like crazy around five o'clock, which is her snack time, because she is hungry or because she wants attention.

Next we have Katie's second in command: Violet (or Buttons because her eyes look like buttons), who is a tuxedo cat. She is so fat that her fat drags the ground when she walks. She has been caught, several times, with her head stuck in the food box, eating. What she does is, she knocks it over so she can stick her head in there and eat. It's hilarious! Another hobby of hers, besides eating, is hiding in the cabinets in the blue bathroom (there is also a yellow bathroom) and jumping out at people if they are using the bathroom in the middle of the night. It scares the crap out of them. It is really funny to hear that story the next morning. 

The last cat that I will talk about is Dexter. His actual name is Beldock (It's a town somewhere. Don't ask me. My grandpa named him), but he has many nicknames: Dexter, Doc, Beldexter, Dex, or Docster- I'm the only one who calls him that last one). Anyway, this cat is fatter than Katie and Buttons. He is a tabby cat, and his hobbies are eating and sleeping. If he's not sleeping (like he does all day), he is either eating or waiting to be fed.  My mom got the cats a little kitty house to sleep in, and that is where Dexter typically sleeps, unless Katie has decided that she wants sleep in there. In that case, Dexter has to go find another place to sleep. He is adorable. He's like a cuddly teddy bear because he's so fat and soft. Dexter is my favorite cat because he is so sweet and cute and fat. :)

So those are the three main cats at Meme's and Poppy's. I will save the other seven for the next blog. Oh, another thing: my grandparents will take basically every cat and dog (they have two dogs also) that "walks-in" because my grandpa loves animals so much (can't you tell?). Dexter and Violet "walked-in" together, and so Dexter and Violet are buddies. Because they are so close, they like to lick on each other's ears. It's really cute. There are some pics of the cats in my picture area, if you want to see them. And that ends this week's blog. Bye! :)