"And we hung like space stations and rocket ships..."

"Since I left Delhi, days ago..."

*yawn*
Tired. Tired in a nice way, though. Had-enough-sleep-and-am-coming-awake-slowly kind of tired. I should revise soon, I really should. Figured I ought to get away with going online...

Whatver. I am bored of revision, and we're not even half way yet. I'm bored...

I know next to no history. And tomorrow is not good either.
And my head hurts.
So yes. Not a wonderful start to the day. And general idiocy in my journal doesn't help.

Fordney-McCumber...

Yuk. Fucking homophobes. I loathe these people. I like this place because it's quiet, but because of the exams it's been invaded by the fucking teenybopper homophobes who are having a loud conversation about lesbianism. If I had the courage, I'd go over and hit on them.
Fuck.
I have an urge to yell, "I write slash! Am I a fucking retard?" at the top of my voice. But I won't, because I'm too much of a charming little girl. I ought to be revising America in isolation rather than getting ranty about fucking teenage homophobia, but oh, well. And some of them would be all right, if only someone told them something about life. It's not my responsibility, oh, no, but I can't let things go.

Yes, America. Isolationism and protectionism, which were introduced because of increased nationalistic feeling in America due to World War 1. They were afraid new immigrants would provide cheap labour and take away American jobs, and also bring in new political ideas like Communism that would challenge American democracy. This was called the Red Scare.

In 1921, Emergency Tariff Act, followed by Fordney-McCumber the next year, which placed tariffs on imports. Then there's the Immigration Quota Act in 1921, which is too complicated to explain here.

Crap.
Fuck.
Tourette's.

Bare necessities...

The history was oddness. Because of a screw-up in the photocopying, everyone had to do Section B before Section A, so it wasn't until forty-five minutes in that I realised how sadistic Section A was. I did the Germany option for B, and did all... right... not horribly, anyway, and managed to get an essay on something I knew something about. But Section A - sadism. Only one question, as usual, but in five parts - worth 5, 6, 9, 10, and 15 marks respectively. I have definitely fucked up the 5 and 10 mark questions, but I don't think I did too badly, seeing as I did do them all in an hour.
I may even have done better than last year (69% - ugh). Incidentally, I wonder why everyone says "last year" when referring to our last set of exams, when they were only six months ago.

It's strange, isn't it, how during an exam, you have to clock-watch obsessively, constantly thinking I have ten minutes for this question and that question and I have five minutes left, fuck... and afterwards, you look at your watch again, and suddenly realise the last five minutes do not represent five marks, or a paragraph, or the time taken to read through and check, they represent the amount of time it took you to stand up and leave, grab your things and just escape.

I travel light. I'm only carrying my pencil-case, CD player, phone, purse, and keys, and that's strange as well, because in general school life, I need a tonne of stuff. For exams, everything is stripped down to its barest essentials. Two years work is reduced to one exam paper, a school bag full of books and scraps of paper and pens and pencils and Tippex becomes a small denim bag with the fewest possible things, and a whole school day becomes come in, do exam, leave.

Leave. That's the best part.

No victim, no crime. And yes - birthday present!

Well, what do you know. First birthday present, yayness!
It was from Pedar's old friend Elaine Barker, who never forgets my birthday because it's the same day as hers...
Anyway, I, in my bewildered state, thought it was an orange piece of paper, but it turned out to be a ten-pound note.

So that's good. My mother wants to go to Liverpool on Saturday, and she wants me to go with her. I'm okay with that, but I do want to go to Quiggins, and I can't decide whether I really want her to know where it is. Anyway, if I do go, I'm using the money to buy two patches and load of badges. Um... Nirvana and no victim, no crime for the patches, and any badges I like. They're all going on my denim bag, I have decided. Whoo for customisation.
It's strange she wants to go to Liverpool - she hardly ever does, because she has to go there every day to work.
I wonder...
No. My mother is not that organised.

Banned books

I just saw the 100 most frequently challenged books of 1990-2000. It's quite frightening, the books people want to ban. And it's also frightening how many of them are by Judy Blume, and how many of them I've read.

So, loneraven has read:

Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling

Forever by Judy Blume

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle - how can anyone want to ban this? I love it so much...

The Witches by Roald Dahl

Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry - nooo! Not Anastasia! Only one of the funniest heroines ever...

Blubber by Judy Blume

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - for the love of god, why?!

Deenie by Judy Blume

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume

Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene - I think. I honestly am not sure.

I will stop updating now. I promise.
But some of these books - you cannot ban! No!