Fighting the Current

The Sibylline Books

"Photography is a tool for dealing with things everybody knows about but isn’t attending to." 
- Emmit Gowin

"As I progressed further with my project, it became obvious that it was really unimportant where I chose to photograph. The particular place simply provided an excuse to produce work. . .you can only see what you are ready to see--what mirrors your mind at that particular time."
- George Tice

"The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is see something and tell what he saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think. But thousands can think for one who can see. To see is poetry, prophecy, and religion, all in one."
- John Ruskin

Above is a drawn out way of saying: "A picture is worth a thousand words."

We were talking about prophecy in Latin class today. About Sybil, who wrote prophecies for the entire future (now, of course, it's the history) of Rome and gave the books to one of its last kings. And then we started talking about Nostradamus. Which got me thinking: If prophecy is only "correctly" understood in retrospect, what is the point of writing it down? Especially prophecies about the End of the World, who is going to be there to look back and say, "Gee, that's right, this symbol represented..."? Idle wonderings. Surprised I remembered that thought train several hours after I had it. My eye/ear/sense for irony must have kicked in.

"Stare. It is the way to educate your eye, and more. Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long."
- Walker Evans

That will be my excuse from now on.

Two weeks to figure out my schedules and see if I want to take that job.

Finding out sometime next week if I and another girl are splitting chief editor or if we're making a hierarchy of two (which would be really stupid, but stupid decisions have been made before).

AP US Exam next Friday and no one is prepared.

SAT Saturday. And I'm really screwed for it. I have to do major reviewing tonight.

There is a question on a survey we got today in school: "What world problem or issue bothers you the most and why? Do you have any solutions?" Really think I'm going to leave that one blank. They don't need a thesis paper from my dark, paranoid, slightly disturbed mind. Besides, I really don't want counseling for something like that, lol. If they ask me outright for an answer, I'll make something up on the spot. They didn't ask me for any of the answers I left blank on the last survey.

Senior prom was Friday night. An announcement came over the PA system yesterday morning, "A girl's undergarments were found under one of the tables. If they are yours, please come to the office to retrieve them." My entire homeroom burst out laughing, except one girl who said, "What are undergarments? Is that like underwear?" (And this girl got an academic scholarship Freshman year. I couldn't figure that out even during my Freshman year. ::eye roll::)

People who do well in school without real intelligence and without much (or any) effort tend to get on my nerves. It's nice that they do well and all, but they don't even try to learn, if they even know what learning is. I know so many people who give their all just to get mediocre grades, and I'm positive they're taking away more than those I described in the beginning of this paragraph.

Set up another college visit.

I have to call the community college this week to see if they got my registration. I should have gotten a slip by now.

Latin test tomorrow. ::sigh:: I learn so much better when we do not have tests. We haven't had a test for a long while in English and I feel like we've actually gotten something done. We haven't had a test for a while in Latin either and I feel like I've learned a lot more about the people and the time period and the poems. This was all probably because I was in a mode to remember things for my own personal use rather than just memorizing to write down on a test.

Things to do.