Blog: Articles from June 2005

Lots of updates (the site moved servers).

I installed Ubuntu Linux on my computer. Now it is a dual boot Unbuntu/Win XP laptop. There are some hardware issues with the CPU and heating, but otherwise it is pretty cool. Ubuntu has almost everything that I need, including the GIMP and a functional word processor. I‘m still a Linux newbie, but I’m learning as I go.

School continues to wind down. The schedule continues to be affected by our impending closure. My exams, mostly held in-class, are going pretty well (100 in English and 97 in Science). I took the second part of my English exam on Tuesday but have yet to receive a mark, I think I’ll get it on next Thursday. My History exam is on Monday, followed by the second part of my Science exam on Wednesday.

The impending closure continues to loom. We had a “Blue Bear Bash” on Wednesday. We got to see pictures of our school and its students through various decades. FWCI has been around for 107 years, since 1898. It’s seen two World Wars, the Cold War, the invention of the radio, television, computer… . What saddens me the most about the closure is not what we lose, but what we will lose. Ten years from now, no one will be sitting in my place, learning about my friends and I.

All hope is not yet lost. The independent facilitator sent by the provincial Ministry of Education has released his recommendation on the school closures — and recommends the FWCI stays open! He says that it does not make much sense to close a school that has such high athletic and academic performances. The Ministry will offer funding for renovations, but not for a new high school as our local Board of Education wants. The report recommends that our school remain open for two more years, then be more thoroughly reevaluated in 2007. I am absolutely ecstatic about this news, and I hope FWCI remains open for a long time to come!

For the past um … month or so, I‘ve been meeting at lunch with a group of kids from my English class, along with my English teacher, Ms. Sukalo, and reading King Lear. It’s a pretty good play, I like watching Lear become increasingly insane. We‘ve decided to continue our Shakespearean experiences after school is over, meeting somewhere during the summer. We even have a name: The Shakespeare Seven. Here’s to the summer!

I went to the orthodontist today, first time for everything. Apparently I have an underbite, which occurs where my lower jaw protrudes out from my face slightly more than my lower jaw. Mine is very slight, only about a millimetre, so apparently it isn’t much to worry about yet. The treatment would be jaw surgery in which a portion of my lower jaw is cut, removed, and then the remainer is slid back to correct the profile. I would have to wear braces for about a year prior to the surgery, then about six months after. I’m too young to have the surgery done, however, it would have to be done once I stop growing, so they are going to call me back in about a year to see how my underbite fares. If it doesn’t get worse and I’m happy with it, I don’t need to get the surgery; this is good, I don’t like the idea of surgery… .

Well, there’s been a few changes. I got the random quote up, although due to some FreeType library problems, it is in a text version rather than an image. Also, I’ve added a background-image, a starfield. It was created by me, using the GIMP and a convenient tutorial.

To go with the starfield, I released a new logo. Those of you using Internet Explorer on a Windows platform will probably now be wondering why it has a blueish background that doesn’t look very nice. Well, I explain that in a special section of my About page.

More mundane updates now … well, in school every class is beginning to wind down but accelerate as teachers hurry to finish things by the end of the year. Matters are further complicated by closure issues. In order to make more time for packing and moving, they cut our exam days to two, so many teachers are holding in-class exams.

In drama, we had our Drama Improv-O-Rama. It was awesome! However, I think that improv is more fun when we were not competing. Now I‘m depressed because the school year is ending, and my school is closing. It would be not as bad if my school were open next year, but this means that I will never again experience classes at FWCI. Which is sad, because I’ve done more in this last semester than I did in my previous 1.5 years in high school.

Also in drama, we started our culminating activity, a miniature play (playlet?). I wrote most of the script, which my group then tweaked together. It’s called The Five People You Meet in Hell, a pun off the title of Mitch Albom’s novel, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, but that’s where the similarity ends.