CHICAGO: If Hepatitis C Were Attacking Your Face Instead of Your Liver You'd Be Doing Something About It

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john, i'm far from a bully but i just want to slap the shit out of you when i read that.

otto midnight (otto midnight), Monday, 16 October 2006 16:23 (eighteen years ago) link

John is an exception, but when I hear people say that they loved HS and it was the best time of their lives I think something is wrong with them and they are lesser human beings. HS was pinnacle of misery. Or maybe the nadir. I don't know.

I did join band though. That was good. Until they made me march, then I dropped out. Not because I was too uppity to march, but because I was seriously bad at turning corners.

jesse, Monday, 16 October 2006 16:23 (eighteen years ago) link

OH! expost to kevin, but I agree. John could bring out the bully in Mother Theresa.

jesse, Monday, 16 October 2006 16:25 (eighteen years ago) link

John, I don't like to acknowledge that anyone can raise my self-esteem except me, or a relatively small number of people I don't mind admitting to the "trusted" category. I was TOTALLY unprepared, at school or college ages, to give and/or admit that I gave a fuck whether anyone approved. I know, it's a little dumb...but it's a big deal for me, as an adult, to let even silly kinds of praise make me happy! I'm still a stubborn pain in the ass, though.

Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 16 October 2006 16:29 (eighteen years ago) link

HS Pros:
having a mostly good rep with teachers -- this meant I could get away with things
quiz bowl -- mad time off school on their dime
AP courses -- didn't have to see the mouth-breathing idiots in my class as much

HS Cons:
everyone knew my parents -- couldn't get away with everything
mouth-breathing idiots not entirely escapeable
most of my friends being older and graduating 1-2 years before me
growing sense of doom & depression in 12th grade due to having small friend base (silver lining - got even more into punk rock)

There are parts I remember fondly, there are parts I'd rather forget. On the whole, I did it, and now it's over. I'm glad I never went to graduation because there are a lot of people I feel good about saying "fuck off" to and never seeing again.

danno martinez (danno martinez), Monday, 16 October 2006 16:30 (eighteen years ago) link

Also, please note: for lunch I am eating home-made jambalaya with Zatarain's spicy rice, extra veg, shrimp, and chicken Andouille sausages. AWESOME.

Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 16 October 2006 16:31 (eighteen years ago) link

I don't know if it was the best time of my life -- it was so long ago that it's hard to even consider it part of my life -- but I did enjoy it.

The driver's ed situation in more detail: There was supposed to be a two-hour Homecoming assembly at the end of the day, but at about noon it was cancelled because the school had received a threat of gang violence, and everyone was told that we'd remain in our 6th period class for the rest of the day instead. Since 6th period for me was driver's ed, I was like fuck this. (To be fair, I didn't realize that we were going to have a quiz, which I then received a zero on and had to scramble to get my grade back up to an A by the end of the semester, or else I'd probably have reconsidered.) I asked myself where I'd rather be during 6th period, and I thought, Well, EJ has another section of AP English right now. I showed up, explained myself, and she was like, "All right, JC, as long as you know what you're getting yourself into," and the class -- many of whom I was friends with (as opposed to the mouth-breathing sophomores in driver's ed) spent the rest of the day talking about current events and stuff.

(Ha, xpost: Dan and I both used the word "mouth-breathing.")

jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 16 October 2006 16:31 (eighteen years ago) link

I should have mentioned that AP courses kept me away from the mouth-breathing teachers, too.

danno martinez (danno martinez), Monday, 16 October 2006 16:33 (eighteen years ago) link

(Also, when I found out I got the zero on the quiz, I wrote a long, eloquent letter to the principal detailing why I should be given a second chance. He said no, but he commended my writing and made a joke about how I should be his secretary. He was kind of a douche.)

I should have mentioned that AP courses kept me away from the mouth-breathing teachers, too.

Word.

jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 16 October 2006 16:34 (eighteen years ago) link

We didn't have any AP classes, or any weighted classes, or anything more accelerated than standard college prep, so I took the hardest classes I could and then did about as much work as I was interested in. It mostly evened out.

Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 16 October 2006 16:35 (eighteen years ago) link

I mean, the decision I had was: Driver's Ed with dumb-as-a-brick good ol' boy John Cornelius, or English with a teacher to whom I loaned my copy of Raymond Carver's Where I'm Calling From?

jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 16 October 2006 16:37 (eighteen years ago) link

My Canadian friend told me that they had a word for people like John in HS: keeners.

People who delight in not only knowing the answer, but in the subsequent delight in their teacher's faces when they present it so eloquently, as they always do.

Armando Grouse (Armando ), Monday, 16 October 2006 16:37 (eighteen years ago) link

When I say I made a big show of seeing through the importance of HS, I mean that I did OK academically and was pretty well-regarded by the teachers. I was known for having real talent and potential as a writer by all the English teachers. That was fine and I valued that.

What I hated was all the teenagers around me. I had 2 or 3 friends throughout my high school career, and even they didn't last. I didn't even take part in lunch, but instead sat in the library writing, stealing books and cutting pages out of the encylopedia. (I still have a color wheel from the World Book.)

Looking back this is probably bad because I was actually suffering from a pretty serious depression. Also religion was ruining my life because I would have probably joined some kind of club but I wasn't allowed to go to Saturday meetings.

xpost-- I had a good rep with the teachers too. I got to use the faculty bathroom.

crunkleJ (crunkleJ), Monday, 16 October 2006 16:38 (eighteen years ago) link

(xpost) Oh good God, I hope I wasn't as annoying as that. People liked and respected me.

jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 16 October 2006 16:39 (eighteen years ago) link

I'm sure you weren't an offensive keener.

Armando Grouse (Armando ), Monday, 16 October 2006 16:42 (eighteen years ago) link

I failed my driver's ed course with a big giant EFF. This was because I was a freshman (in MT you could get your learner's permit at 14.5 years old) and this was when I had friends. We all sat at the same table and I paid 0 attention.

The reason I had friends when I was a freshman was that I got the attention of the hippest senior whose name is T0r D@ahl (cool name even). He pimped me to the school full of assholes. Then he graduated and my 1 real friend moved away and I was a loser again. Goodbye yellow brick road;adlksfjf;askldjf.

crunkleJ (crunkleJ), Monday, 16 October 2006 16:44 (eighteen years ago) link

I think I'm going to call today a sick day.

I'll called in scared, "I'm afraid I can't make it today."

crunkleJ (crunkleJ), Monday, 16 October 2006 16:46 (eighteen years ago) link

(Who would I even call in TO? Eh?)

crunkleJ (crunkleJ), Monday, 16 October 2006 16:46 (eighteen years ago) link

(God?)

Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 16 October 2006 16:47 (eighteen years ago) link

dan, i'm trying to remember, do you recall my friend Bill (or perhaps someone else) playing with the snout from that hog on saturday? it's amazing how something that a couple hours earlier would have been a complete affront to all my sensibilities turned out to be the greatest thing ever after 5 hours of miller time.

otto midnight (otto midnight), Monday, 16 October 2006 16:49 (eighteen years ago) link

Interesting. I didn't think about it before but I was also pimped by the coolest kid in middle school (Boone J3nsen, also a cool name). The others weren't having it though. I was actively and cruelly hated by the cool girls. The guys kind of just ignored me.

I had REALLY big hair in middle school. Like Kevin Ry5.

crunkleJ (crunkleJ), Monday, 16 October 2006 16:52 (eighteen years ago) link

xpost Oh yeah, I remember. To me, hilarious, no matter what my state of inebriation (by that point, admittedly quite high).

danno martinez (danno martinez), Monday, 16 October 2006 16:52 (eighteen years ago) link

Well, for part of middle school.

The rest of the time I looked like this.

Would you not go NAMBLA on that?

http://static.flickr.com/52/136277970_1b35557155.jpg

crunkleJ (crunkleJ), Monday, 16 October 2006 16:53 (eighteen years ago) link

Thanks for the huge pink carnation and baby's breath boutonierre! Who plans these things anyway?

crunkleJ (crunkleJ), Monday, 16 October 2006 16:55 (eighteen years ago) link

I had good friends in high school and I enjoyed band, and my one "AP" class. It wasn't an official AP thing, but it was a senior class where we just sat in a circle and did this whole philosophy survey and discussed shit. It was better than 80% of my college classes. Other than that though, high school suuuuucked.

I am not one of those people who is forever wishing they could go back to school. I'm happy working and I don't think I ever want to be a student again.

JordanC (JordanC), Monday, 16 October 2006 16:56 (eighteen years ago) link

OMG You look like Ralph Macchio!

Armando Grouse (Armando ), Monday, 16 October 2006 16:57 (eighteen years ago) link

Hahah, I almost said the same, then wondered if that was like "one cute Mexican kid looks much like another" RUH ROH.

Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 16 October 2006 17:00 (eighteen years ago) link

Jesse you look so ready to be bar mitzvahed.

JordanC (JordanC), Monday, 16 October 2006 17:00 (eighteen years ago) link

Ralph Macchio is Mexican?

Armando Grouse (Armando ), Monday, 16 October 2006 17:01 (eighteen years ago) link

xpost No kidding. The comments under that include Sarah saying "Charles in Charge?" and Jenny saying "Chachi!"

So now I look like a Jew?

crunkleJ (crunkleJ), Monday, 16 October 2006 17:01 (eighteen years ago) link

Would you not go NAMBLA on that?

Yes, but that's not news.

Another reason I disliked driver's ed was because I was the youngest kid in my grade and so I had to take it as a junior instead of a sophomore. I felt like an idiot.

jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 16 October 2006 17:03 (eighteen years ago) link

Macchio is a Handsomely featured, Italian-American actor with boyish looks that initially...

crunkleJ (crunkleJ), Monday, 16 October 2006 17:03 (eighteen years ago) link

Trivia about RM:
Daughter, Julia, born in 1992, son, Daniel, in 1996.

Is a big fan of songwriter/singer Bruce Springsteen.

Born in the same Long Island town as superstar Mariah Carey.

Once saved a baby porpoise that was beached on the shores of Malibu. When reporters tried to cover the story, he asked to remain anonymous.

Armando Grouse (Armando ), Monday, 16 October 2006 17:04 (eighteen years ago) link

The dude who writes the Television Without Pity recap for Lost didn't get why Sawyer called the kid in the cage "Chachi," and I think it was less "I don't think he looks like Ralph Macchio" and more "I have no idea what that name could possibly signify." HI YOU WRITE FOR A POP CULTURE WEBSITE!

jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 16 October 2006 17:05 (eighteen years ago) link

Noo, actually RM is Italian-American (XP)...but I vaguely remember watching Karate Kid and thinking that the character was Mexican or Chicano -- to Kid Me, that would have explained the class/inequity thing.

Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 16 October 2006 17:06 (eighteen years ago) link

How come no one uses the word Chicano anymore?

jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 16 October 2006 17:08 (eighteen years ago) link

put that gun to my temple
put that gun to my heart
make me walk off the plank chicha
all always in to the dark

A I D S H I V
i cannot wait to die
can’t you tell
can’t you tell
can’t you tell


never finish my degree chachi
never play with the Pogues
throw my head out the window and
cement my feet into the dark

crunkleJ (crunkleJ), Monday, 16 October 2006 17:08 (eighteen years ago) link

Aaaaay IIIII Deeeee Eeeessss..........

crunkleJ (crunkleJ), Monday, 16 October 2006 17:09 (eighteen years ago) link

I don't know, I didn't find out "Chicano" meant until a year or so ago, when I read this book we publish and a Mexican-American colleague told me it was a classic of Chicano literature.

Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 16 October 2006 17:09 (eighteen years ago) link

It just means Mexican-American, right?

jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 16 October 2006 17:10 (eighteen years ago) link

i use chachi all the time, just as the striped-shirt set uses "chief".

otto midnight (otto midnight), Monday, 16 October 2006 17:11 (eighteen years ago) link

"chachee" is my housemate's video-game/AIM handle.

danno martinez (danno martinez), Monday, 16 October 2006 17:12 (eighteen years ago) link

Another reason I disliked driver's ed was because I was the youngest kid in my grade and so I had to take it as a junior instead of a sophomore. I felt like an idiot.

Same here, dawg. See also: turning 21.

JordanC (JordanC), Monday, 16 October 2006 17:12 (eighteen years ago) link

For some reason I think it specifically means the first generation born in America to Mexican parents, but don't quote me on that.

Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 16 October 2006 17:13 (eighteen years ago) link

xpost Also, when Sawyer said it in the season premiere of Lost and I cracked the fuck up.

danno martinez (danno martinez), Monday, 16 October 2006 17:13 (eighteen years ago) link

I've been reading up on the word Chicano and the meaning/use is fluid. It seems that now it has a left wing politcal connotation. But before it was just Mex-American.

crunkleJ (crunkleJ), Monday, 16 October 2006 17:17 (eighteen years ago) link

Interestingly the word Chicano is the root of the name "Chicago." People in the Mid-West can't pronounce the letter N so they said Chicago.

crunkleJ (crunkleJ), Monday, 16 October 2006 17:18 (eighteen years ago) link

I think for a long time I didn't realize it was so specific to Mexican-Americans. I knew it was different from "Latino" but was never exactly sure how.

jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 16 October 2006 17:19 (eighteen years ago) link

xpost WTF

danno martinez (danno martinez), Monday, 16 October 2006 17:19 (eighteen years ago) link

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otto midnight (otto midnight), Monday, 16 October 2006 17:29 (eighteen years ago) link


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