Dual booting my emotions

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!