Day 8: Wins and Losses

Today was full of wins and losses.

The day started with me going to the Bookstore. I went to see if I could buy my books, keep them for a week, and then return them next week. Unfortunately, the UCSD Bookstore’s return policy was: Final Day to return books was today. That’s just great, UCSD. You lose money, I lose my ability to buy my books, and nobody wins in this tradeoff.

But, luckily shortafter, I got to see Michelle Song!!!!! We met up at Earl’s, where Leah was working, and where Brittney went to get a drink. After getting a drink, me & Michelle went to Pines, which was a fail because there was no stir fry. We went to Foodworx instead, and she got her wrap after-all (which she didn’t finish). Anyway, this was a win for the both of us because we got to catch up after not seeing one another for 6 months. (PS: She also has hair now). The only loss is now I won’t be able to see her again for awhile…. if not forever….

Loss: The 24 Marathon did not start as planned. Although it was supposed to start at 4:30, because of Tiffany’s fencing tournament, we did not actually start until 7:30. Fortunately for us – boardgames kept me, Geetha, Matt Diamond, Bee-John, and Brett entertained until the marathon started. That was a win. We played Loaded Questions (duh) and Cranium: Scribblish (a less obvious choice). [The picture of the day is thus Cranium: Scribblish because it allowed us the ability to all gang up and make fun of Geetha.] Then we went played with Legos and went to CV to eat once Bee-John left and Rashika came. The marathon finally started with me, Geetha, Matt, Brett, Rashika, Ryan Nock, Tiffany Saw, Daniel Jenkins, & Brian (at Ryan’s place). We stopped at hour 5 cause it was a more natural place to stop. Although it didn’t go on for as long as I had hoped, it was still fun. And thus a win & loss in and of itself.

Loss: A federal judge was killed and a congresswoman gravely wounded Saturday in a shooting outside of a Tucson, Arizona, grocery store, according to police and government officials. In all, six people died and 12 were wounded in the shooting, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona, according to Rick Kastigar, bureau chief for the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. This is a clear tragic act that happened today, and the person responsible for it is a terrible human being. I have a feeling with the power of media manipulation however that because the Representative was a Democrat – the Tea Party will somehow get blamed for this. Even though ONE person did this act, somehow the Tea Party will get all the blame. Another way for the media to extort this for their liberal media purposes. Stop jumping to conclusions, people.

Win: On January 8th, 2002 George W. Bush signed into law The No Child Left Behind Act. Though he had good intentions behind it, the policy ultimately failed. The bill, although many would attribute as created by George W. Bush, was a bipartisan effort to improve education in the United States – spearheaded by the late Ted Kennedy. NCLB supports standards-based education reform, which is based on the belief that setting high standards and establishing measurable goals can improve individual outcomes in education. The Act requires states to develop assessments in basic skills to be given to all students in certain grades, if those states are to receive federal funding for schools. The Act does not assert a national achievement standard; standards are set by each individual state. Still, there’s a reason why private schools do better overall than public schools – government interference. Once the government stays out of education, as advocated by Ron Paul, the system should improve overall.

P.S.: Some are like water, some are like the heat. Some are a melody, some are the beat. Sooner of later, they’ll all be gone, Why don’t we stay young? It’s hard to get on without a cause, I don’t wanna perish like a fading horse… Youth is like diamonds in the sun, and diamonds are forever. So many adventures couldn’t happen today, so many songs that we forgot to play…. so many dreams swinging out of the blue, we let them come true.