My student government is in league with The Man

I felt sad today when I opened my school newspaper and saw Alex Shortle, the Speaker of the House, modeling in a big advertising spread for DC Tux in the exact same space that Student Body President Lindsey McDaniel had occupied two weeks before. I know it’s good money, but it’s an awkward coincidence that the two most powerful members of the student government just happen to be the same people pasting tuxedo rental advertisements to the wall (by the way, it’s illegal to post advertisements for an independent company on school property). I feel like my student government is selling its soul. Any day now, it might change from the Student Senate to the patiofurniture.com Senate.

I’m in Mr. Gossard’s SRT. He’s the #1 government teacher in the school (I believe he has 6 classes), so the 5-6 kids making up government tests second semester are a regular fixture of the room, just like all the election posters and the life-size cardboard sign with the funny-looking guy from some TV show saying “I LOVE YOU MAN!”, a joke I still don’t understand. Also, Mr. Gossard mysteriously disappears for at least 45 minutes every period. There’s always people looking for him. The kids are really honest, though; only one of them has ever cheated since I’ve been in that SRT. That one, ironically, was the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who pumped her friend for answers and definitions from the book while Mr. Gossard was out. It seemed like she simply didn’t know much about US government, which is ironic because she went on to win the Daughters of the American Revolution’s award for Outstanding Citizenship in the community.

I suppose it’s rather fitting of student government, which, while excellent at times, becomes a tiring gauntlet of popularity contests between completely indistinguishable candidates during the election season. I wish they didn’t abuse our cafeteria with irritating signs every year, but I suppose it’s an indispensable part of the election process. Last year, I posted a sign on my locker saying I would rent the space out for campaign advertisements to the highest bidder. No one wrote back. That’s too bad, but I suppose it doesn’t really make a difference. I do look forward to Jessica winning another unopposed election for Vice President if she still wants the job, and student government does do more good than bad. Nevertheless, sometimes it just worries me.

On trite quotes and other things

Man, that was a really cool weekend. It just made me feel good. A lot of stuff happened, and things are very different now than they were before it, but I think it was all for the best.

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The weather is beautiful. While driving to Confirmation, I realized, “Wait a minute! It’s 7 o’clock, and it’s still sunny! Holy cow! It’s been black at this hour every single day of confirmation before now!” It was amazing. At first, I associated the warm weather with miserable track workouts, and I didn’t like it, but I’m warming up to it, if you know what I mean, heh heh heh. It’s a lot more fun to be outside now than it was a couple weeks ago.

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I think it’s really pathetic when people leave really mean anonymous messages on other people’s livejournals. They may be trying to send a message to the person, but they just come off as petty, mean, and cowardly – like France.

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Another thing that is really silly is stupid motivational quotes. Some motivational quotes are cool, such as one by Teddy Roosevelt that I will stick at the end of this journal entry. Others, though, try really hard to be brilliant and have “Chicken Soup for the Soul” painted all over them but just seem somewhat trite or unmemorable.A prime example of this is sitting on the computer desk right in front of me. The person who wrote this probably meant well, and my sister probably meant well when she wrote it on this cute fish-shaped piece of paper and highlighted the outside with light-blue (it does look really attractive), but with all apologies to my sister, this quote seems rather sad, and you probably think so, too, because this thing hasn’t moved from this desk for at least three months. Here is the quote:

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: “It’s easier to go down a mountain than up, but the view is always best from the top!” (Author Unknown)

The problem with this inspirational message is that to go down the mountain, I have to be at the top already! Going down the mountain and being at the top have absolutely no connection; in fact, they are inseparably linked! I have to go down the mountain unless I live there, and the easiest thing to do would be to just not go up the mountain at all, not to march up it and then march back down again! It’s inspirational cotton candy! It makes no sense!

Sigh. Well, it was a good effort, nevertheless, and obviously someone liked this quote if it circulated enough to land on my desk.

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I feel good, nevertheless. I feel happy. I also feel like going to do other things, so that’s that. You all have fun….I just said “you all.”

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“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Complaining about complainers

I hate people who complain. It really ruins my day when people whine all the time, blah blah blah blah blah, “Boy my life sure sucks.” Come ON! Don’t you care about anyone except yourself?! Geez, I wish people could just let it go sometimes instead of just complaining about everything. Urrgh. Well, thanks for listening.

John XXIII and Ray Kroc would have been great friends

Everyone thinks McDonald’s is really great or at least really historically important because it pioneered the idea of franchising: a restaurant (or other shop) that is exactly the same everywhere in the world. People like franchise restaurants because they’re safe. They know what they’re getting: Big Macs are almost exactly the same everywhere in the world, and people prefer that to taking a risk at some ramshackle local diner that could be really good or really bad. Yesterday, though, I realized something: McDonald’s didn’t invent franchising; the Catholic Church did! The Mass is said exactly the same way in every Catholic church in the world. The readings in Mass at OLMC are the same readings in Mass in Spain or Bangladesh or Australia or anywhere else. Almost every Catholic Mass (excluding Holy Saturday, when Jesus is dead, I believe) features the Eucharist.

I’ll bet a lot of people of other faiths don’t go to church or are really careful about which church they attend on vacations because they don’t know what they’re going to get. Catholics don’t have this problem. They know what they’re getting. A lot of people think Mass is boring, but they don’t think McDonald’s is boring, do they? They just don’t appreciate the reason for a standardized Mass.

Even so, the Catholic Mass incorporates the advantages of local color, as well: the local priest gives his own homily, and the Mass is said in the local language (though this, too, was homogenous until 1962: before then, everyone spoke Latin). From this perspective, then, the Catholic Church looks like it came up with a pretty good idea way before Ray Kroc even conceived it, and, come to think of it, way before Ray Kroc was even conceived.

Why did my English assignment take so long? Blame the Muse

People wonder how I could have possibly taken so long on that assignment, especially since I started on Saturday rather than the night before. Well, this may seem weird to you, but I don’t think I had any control over the amount of time that project took me. I didn’t write the story. The story wrote itself.

Inner Light Pollution

I think we’d see God better here if the light pollution wasn’t so bad. That’s the cost of development and automobiles and parties late into the night..but I hate it.