War Culture?

Ryan showed me this today.

The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have raised their security level from “Miffed” to “Peeved.”

Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to “Irritated” or even “A Bit Cross.” The English have not been “A Bit Cross” since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out.

Terrorists have been re-categorized from “Tiresome” to a “Bloody Nuisance.” The last time the English issued a “Bloody Nuisance” warning level was in 1588 when threatened by the Spanish Armada.

The Scots raised their threat level from “Pissed Off” to “Let’s get the B*******s”. They don’t have any other levels. (This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.)

The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from “Run” to “Hide”. The only two higher levels in France are “Collaborate” and “Surrender.”

The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France’s white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country’s military capability.

It’s not only the French who are on a heightened level of alert. Italy has increased the alert level from “Shout loudly and excitedly” to “Elaborate Military Posturing.” Two more levels remain: “Ineffective Combat Operations” and “Change Sides.”

The Germans also increased their alert state from “Disdainful Arrogance” to “Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs.” They also have two higher levels: “Invade a Neighbor” and “Lose”.

Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual, and the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels.

The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.

Americans meanwhile and as usual are carrying out pre-emptive strikes, on all of their allies, just in case.

And in the southern hemisphere… New Zealand has also raised its security levels – from “baaa” to “BAAAA!”

Due to continuing defense cutbacks (the airforce being a squadron of spotty teenagers flying paper aeroplanes and the navy some toy boats in the Prime Minister’s bath), New Zealand only has one more level of escalation, which is “I hope Australia will come and rescue us”.

Australia, meanwhile, has raised its security level from “No worries” to “She’ll be right, mate”.

Three more escalation levels remain: “Crikey!’, “I think we’ll need to cancel the barbie this weekend” and “The barbie is cancelled”.

So far no situation has ever warranted use of the final escalation level.

Don't feel bad.

The following is an excerpt from the incredibly popular website, College Confidential.

Gosh. No one can answer that. I doubt, even if you knew someone in Columbia's admissions department they could answer that. Let's say their rep from your area has ... 100 (?) applications to review and consider.

30 of them are an immediate "no" due to stats or something else that really stands out (who knows, discipline). I'm totally MAKING UP these numbers...just explaining how they are correct when they all say the process is holistic (once yohave the stat range)

So now he still has 70 people and maybe gets 10 slots to fill. I know the regions don't have EXACT specific numbers. But you will not find an elite school that isn't represented throughout the nation/world. So...it's not like their Midwest rep is going to be allowed 500 spots, you know?

So he sifts through and the cream rises to the top first. The 2400/36/4.0UW kids. And they might go in the "yes" pile and he already has 5 "yes" and only 5 more to place out of the remaining 65. THEN he actually reads. Again...MAKING ALL THIS UP but...once you look at the numbers you see how HARD it actually is to get into these colleges. HYP, for example...only 1200-1600 IN THE ENTIRE NATION get into their freshman class. That's a LOT of very special kids who were told no.

So...back to Columbia Admissions person...who has to narrow 65 kids into 5. Now he reads essays. 5 of them can't form a decent sentence even with their high scores.
Down to 60.

10 of them showed no continuity or passion in their ECs. Down to 50. 10 more little/had no leadership roles, 10 more had little/no volunteer work. STILL 30 and can only take 5!

So....what next? He reverses the process and, instead of eliminating he now selects the 10 of them had state or national championships in one thing or another (sport, music, acadmic). And they have "everything else", interesting essays, plenty of "extras".

Yet he STILL can take only half of THOSE! So something just stands out for him in the 5 he picks versus the 5 he doesn't. One of them is an "army brat" and had to change schools repeatedly but still excelled. One of them started a charitable foundation or helped raise her younger siblings when her single Mom fought cancer. Another one is so passionate about math that they've taken every advanced class their school offers and some local college courses too AND is Math Bowl champion...you get the picture. The fourth one plays oboe...and Columbia is looking for oboe's this year (it happens). And the last one goes to a tiny school and lives on a farm and their town is offering to help with tuition if the child returns home and practices medicine for 5 years after becoming a doctor.

So...YOUR child, while I'm sure a very attractive candidate...just didn't end up in that mix. There are SO many talented kids; they work SO hard these days. I'd HATE to have the job of selecting. But...your child will get a great education and I believe that (for the most part!), kids get in where they SHOULD get in. I hope your child will be happy at their "2nd choice". But, I'm sure you already know, there is no real answer to your question.

Luck!

Daily Life

One of my friends in Wisconsin posted this as her Facebook picture.

Pretty Game

I spent about half an hour playing this game today. I think it is so pretty. But maybe a little frustrating.

Uhh.

I found out who my teacher is supposed to be next semester and I think he looks like the guy on TV in Grey's Anatomy. What do you think?

Mr. Obama

9:57 PM me: then let's go to boston wooooooh
and ice skate
:D
and play tennis at 2am
:D
William: butbutbut i will be leaving like everyone else behind
i wish i could take chiles with me and put it in boston
me: we can come back to visit
haha
they would hate the liberals
9:58 PM William: O.O
leon county went democrat in the election
we voted for obama
9:59 PM me: O.O?
yeah but theyre not that democratish
William: but they are
otherwise they wouldnt have voted for obama
gobama!
10:00 PM i'm probama
and i'm sobama, its scary
because i root fobama
10:01 PM i globama in the dark
10:02 PM me: O.O
William: and i'm letting my hair grobama
then i will have a frobama
me: ...
William: if i go to boston i can play in the snobama
10:03 PM because the temperature gets really lobama
me: it does.
William: i'm a democrat, does it really shobama
me: yeah
William: ok i'm about out of those for now
but that was supafun
me: it was .
10:04 PM William: you cant do that with mccain
thats why obama won
me: mhm

Another short post.

Writing for college. Wow.
Earlier, I said that the next half year is so planned out. But what about the rest? What about the part that carries into the next YEAR?
I am already excited for August of 2010, even though no one knows where he or she will be.

I looked up "epsieanniihsct" on Google. I shouldn't be so proud, but I am. A "TOP CONTRIBUTER" on Yahoo! Answers referenced my blog! Well, I posted an essay by Mark Twain on it...
Anyway, here it is!

To do for the summer

I made a list of 25 things I wanted to do this summer. It wasn't a nice round (well, square) number on purpose, but anyway,
I did 23 out of the 25. One of them, well, I only wrote the first letter of each word and there were a lot of letters. I don't know what it is. I can't remember. The other one I didn't do is "beach." I never went to the beach. I failed that one, then.
But I did a lot of stuff, and I am so glad. It was awesome.

Schedule Fail

1. Psych
2. Math
3. Art
4. Econ
5. Lit
6. Physics

Physically impossible. Woohoo!

I wanted to make the ideal schedule, but I wasn't sure about three of the classes, so it wouldn't really work.
So, that was amusing. I don't think ParentPortal is working for me anymore, though.

A Good Sunday

The procrastinating is no good, but I am now William's manly man (instead of "wing man" like Jack), and I am listening to happy-ish music, and my parents fixed my break light in a dramatically short amount of time with about two dollars! Awesome. And they got me an extra bottle of contact lens solution for no particular reason.
The subject was going to be Good Sunday, but then I realized that might be (LIKE) a religious holiday.
I am scared for a week and less than a day from now. But this summer has been very good, so I am very thankful.
The next half year or so seems so planned out that I don't know what could surprise me. It is a nice thing every now and then, knowing what is going to happen.
I think that if people convince themselves that they are going to enjoy the day, that it can work, as long as something really awful doesn't happen. That is such a big catch, though, sometimes. We'll see.
I am on 18/30.