I genuinely do like Religion and our teacher is pretty relaxed and gets involved in class discussions about social issues and the usual stuff. I’m an opinionated person and love talking abut realistic issues, and we’ve also been promised tea & biscuits in the last twenty minutes of our Wednesday class, to help us relax after a stressful day (I love teachers who make tea. This is scarily common in my school..) but the thing that does annoy me about this class are the people who just see it as a doss and take up the whole class on pointless things. I may as well sit in the lunch hall studying as listen to stories that aren’t even funny! I realise I probably sound like a sad, boring whinger right now, but it really is a waste of time. Our class today was about drugs, drinking & smoking in teenagers. It’s one of the most over used topics by teachers for class discussions but our religion teacher isn’t patronizing and does actually entertain us..

It went something like this:

“So, how many of ye smoke? Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell your parents.. Sure I sneak out to the van and have a fag in my free classes!”

One girl answered “I gave up last Thursday.” She then went on to explain how she’s after giving up smoking at the age of sixteen and she no longer drinks because she wanted to challenge herself.

The teacher jokingly went “What about drugs?” and she honestly looked so panicked and stuttered before going “Are you allowed ask me that?” He replied “So you don’t drink, don’t smoke, but you do drugs” and she decided to answer “I’m not allowed answer that.. Let’s just say no.”

Her and a friend then giggled in the corner and went to profess that drugs aren’t that bad, etc, and other people joined in with stories of drinking and all. Now believe me, I love going out & letting my hair down as much as the next underage girl – but I do actually have better things to do with a forty five minute class than listen to people big up drugs and mock people who stress over exams because they care about their results.  If I could get a word in edgeways, then of course I’d engage in these talks and  it might not be such a big waste but it’s just the same people who take over a class and say all the right things to the teacher even though everybody knows it’s complete and utter lies. So I’ve changed my mind – I think classes such as Religion should be optional, with a choice of studying if that’s what someone would prefer. I’m not saying I would actually go with the study option but at least it’d be there.

I don’t even want to read back over this post.. It’s probably unbelievably muddled and confusing, but I literally just threw my thoughts down! I promise I’ll make sense next time

Right. Enough with the pessimism. While last year, I found it entirely amusing that I would wind up speaking Japanese in the middle of Irish class, this year, I’m thinking that such antics would probably cause a slight problem. Aside from that, I seem to aquire most marvellous Irish skills while attempting to do german oral work… Is anyone else having this problem?

I’ll close this with a bit of advice (shamlessly stolen from my german teacher). If you wish to succeed in your oral exam, a good idea would be to hunt down a native speaker of whichever language you are doing (german, french, spanish…) and seduce them.

Use them.

Exploit their fluency.

Bribe them if you must.

Good luck =P

-Hey and if any german or japanese people are reading this…………. 

I should explain the set-up. I was at a friend’s 18th on Saturday, which ran into Sunday, which ran into my time to get lovely and prepared and do my homework for Monday. This has necessitated using my “Could I give you it tomorrow, please?” line in no fewer than three classes, and I try to utilise it sparingly, or else the diligent-student-who-forgot-it-this-one-time impression turns into more of a dosser-who’ll-never-actually-do-it sort of effect. I also didn’t have time to sleep properly or put on make-up, and I yawned and stretched throughout the day, staring darkly at the clock in every room that had one. I have a strictly scholastic variety of dissociative identity disorder, having been everything from an exemplary student to a self-sabotager who took a certain pride in not trying, but for obvious reasons, I’m trying to bring the former to the fore this year, so this is not good.

Along with having scholastic dissociative identity disorder, I’m also bipolar about how I think I’ll do in the Leaving. My predictions hop straight from maximum points to perhaps enough to do Applied Goat Husbandry in the University of South-West Leitrim, with nary a happy medium in sight. I’m swinging towards negativity at the moment, but in a resigned sort of way, which means I’m also trying to think positively about my probable resounding lack of success. As such, I’ve compiled a list of advantages of being a failure for those who, like me, need a pick-me-up.

1. People don’t expect things from you. Now, I’m sure all my fellow self-sabotagers (word!) will identify with this one. Success is terrifying. Not only do people expect you to maintain your current standard, they expect constant improvement. If you fail long and hard enough, they’ll eventually leave you alone to wallow in your mediocrity, which is, of course, what you’re aiming for here.

2. You know that your friends aren’t just using you for your Leaving Cert results. I’m not sure why anyone would bother using anyone else for their results, ever, or what possible benefits they could derive from it, or any of that jazz, but failures know that they’re not instead of just strongly suspecting it. So there.

3. Any small success will be met with disproportionate praise. If you’re good enough at failing, you can get to the point where people will pat you on the back for remembering to write your exam number. Some would view this as condescension, but those people are probably successful, which means their friends are obviously just using them for their Leaving Cert results. If they even have friends. Which brings us to the next point:

4. People genuinely want you to do well. Let’s face it: when you wish most people good luck, what you mean is, “Good luck as long as you’re not applying for my course, in which case I hope my points will whip yours into submission before cracking their skull open with a giant novelty pen.” Not so when it comes to you, my failsome compatriots. They know there’s no way in hell you can compete with them, but they want you to do well enough that the post-results conversation won’t be too awkward.

5. People believe you when you say that you didn’t study. Furthermore, you can accuse 500+-ers who make this claim of talking out of their arse, pointing out that you didn’t study and you were 20 points short of Candle-Wax Sculpture in Central Louth Institute of Technology. They can’t say to your face that this is because you’re not as smart as them. They’ll think it, but they can’t say it.

6. If your parents have been living vicariously through you prior to your failure, you get the slightly twisted satisfaction of ruining someone’s vicarious life. That’ll show ‘em.

I hope I’m being sarcastic. Everything I say or type is in inverted commas to the extent that I (and, I fear, the people around me) stop noticing, so it’s rather difficult to tell. Anyway, that’s enough glorification of failure, ironic or otherwise, for the moment. Oh, and because I mightn’t have the time to comment on all the new blogs for a bit: a big generic ‘hi’ to all the new people!

It’s part two of our overall revamp strategy (part one being students.theleavingcert.com). Forums allow like minded people to discuss in public whatever they want. Up until now, all you could do was comment on a blog post like this one.

We think it’s important every leaving cert student in the country can voice their opinion, ask questions and get help, online. A question about an Emily Dickenson poem? Worried about making the right decisions on your cao application? Want to know how to fill out a UCAS application? Think Irish should be optional or banned all together? Don’t like this site?

This is why our forums exist. Ní neart go cur le chéile – strength is in unity. So the new forums are a place where anyone can sign up, create a topic and get something off their chest. Someone out there has the answers you’re looking for.

With these new forums, we’re hoping to connect you with that someone. So sign up, start chatting today and together, let’s build the finest leaving cert forum this country has ever seen

(note: all of our existing bloggers can log in with their login details for this site)

I’m sure everyone is soooooo happy that Kilkenny lost and being a Kilkenny woman I was naturally disappointed. Everyone wants us to get off our “high horse” and stop basking in the glory that we get. Seriously, I don’t have a hurling bone in my body (yet the rest on my family were bore with a hurl in hand) but I can see that Kilkenny are a great team. The best at the moment in fact. There is no denying it. Seven All-Irelands in ten years?

However, as disappointed as I was. I was absolutely delighted for Tipperary. I mean, it was my first All-Ireland and what a game! There was no magic with Kilkenny and the Tipp team took full advantage of that. Well done! The better team won! I soon found myself clapping for Tipp as the delighted players jumped around the field at end time.  There was no hostility in the stands, just the sound of clapped backs and silent approval from the Kilkenny supporters. I feel such respect for the Tipperary supports as they stood and clapped Shefflin off the field. The only downer on a great day was the four hour journey up and down. And I sit here with food poisoning from the chipper on the way home.

And speaking of brains and such! Guess who found out that blood and arteries and veins make her feel extremely weak and nauseous? Why me, of course! Yes, a great start to the year. Emily Dickenson depresses me and Human Circulation makes me want to faint. Yippee.

Just to point out, I am from Wexford, and yes, as a rule, I fiercely hate Kilkenny in GAA. But after spending the money that should have paid my school insurance last night, I decided to make a bet against my sister : €10 on the result of the match. Needless to say, I lost and am now trying to hide from her.  But I DID actually realise something after the match. A lot of students could probably be compared to both teams.. Kilkenny worked hard, they were doing deadly, then when it counts? Crash & burn. Whereas Tipperary have been pretty consistent, went in as underdogs, but they persevered and did better than anyone could have expected. It’s like the student who’s naturally smart but starts to take it easy, and the one who has to work non stop but ends up doing better. Sadly I’m one of the former, after five years of achieving good results I’ve gotten bored and prefer to try scratch fake tan off my leg than listen in honours maths. (Seriously, two weeks after the debs and it’s STILL there. Any solutions?!) Actually I should probably have been doing some German homework instead of watching the All Irelands, but after my regatta was cancelled today, I had to make the most of some free time… I firmly believe in doing homework five minutes before the bell.

So other than that strange little thought, this week has been good. I’m delighted to be back and I was even more delighted when I got the school calendar. Scanning through the dates, I noticed the date of my birthday was on it. And beside the 10th of May 2011 were the words Sixth Year Graduation. I’ll be legally able to celebrate! Quare happy I also have three new teachers.. All the sixth year religion teachers are swapper around, plus my Biology teacher is taking maternity leave so I’m happy with those. I’m going to get a new LCVP teacher too and I’ll find out who on Tuesday.. I’m back to Applied Maths after school this week too, so overall? Is maith liom scoil.

By the way.. I apologise if the title is spelled wrong.

Unfortunately, Saturday night must come to an end, and it leads to Sunday. Sunday is a school night. Which means Monday is soon . Bad times

So, first week is done, and to be honest it’s not awful. My previously abysmal Irish class looks like it might be on the up, which brings me much joy. Is aoibhinn liom an teanga The last two posts have both dealt with Irish, so I won’t get into it, but I’m firmly waving a Pro-Gaeilge flag. Classes are alright, studying is a strange and foreign concept but I’m adapting, and the craic is only 90 at breaks. The thought of 9 months of this is crazy though. Like, the idea of a full week starting tomorrow.. A bit scary. As I’ve mentioned, this entire thing is exhausting, and the build of of fatigue will inevitably result in a decrease in sanity. Yay!

I shall bid you all adieu and go enjoy my last few hours of weekend. Hope everyone had as good a one as I did, and are ready to go back to the grind tomorrow

Fast forward four months, to the day before first draft of said masterpiece is due in for inspection. I don’t think I need to tell you that the whole doing the project over the summer idea came to nothing. Best laid plans of mice and men and all that.  I thought that I’d have a decent amount of time to cobble something or other together, but no. Tomorrow, I’m supposed to have something resembling an essay ready. And upon finally reading the book that I ordered sometime in June (yeah, how on the ball am I?), I realised that it’s about as reliable as your average issue of the Sun. As far as I can see, it mostly consists of hearsay, slander, speculation, and stuff that’s just downright made up. For example, I’m very interested to know exactly how the author of this book discovered that Walt enjoyed dressing up in his mother’s clothes as a young’un. So, the only source I have is a load of codswallop (god, I love that  word), and only has a paragraph in roughly 200 pages that could be of use to me anyway.

‘Not to worry,’ says I, trying to stay positive, ‘I’ll try find something on the internet’.  No joy. I realised for myself exactly why this topic isn’t done very often, there’s basically no information there. A few fairly dodgy looking sites, Wiki (yeah yeah, I know that’s bold but I’m grasping at straws here), and a load of pictures of Disney WWII memorabilia, posters and the like.  Cool and all as that is to look at, it’s pretty much useless to me. At this rate, I’ll have to pluck stuff out of the air, which I hear is somewhat frowned upon.

So today, far from getting an epic first draft done, I managed to browse failblog for about 3 hours, eat some rather questionable chocolate rice cakes that my mam had in the fridge, and write this blog entry. I knew it’d be a great procrastination method. I also ordered another book that might actually be based on a small bit of fact, but since it won’t be coming for another week, it doesn’t help me much in my current predicament.

Gah, curse my over-ambition.

At first I thought it wasn’t too bad, it didn’t seem over complicated although we do have to include a piece for mounting it onto a car, which will be more difficult.  But as for changing the sat nav, that’s where it’ll be tricky.  This is where the creativity kicks in.  But you can’t be very creative with a sat nav – it’s basically going to be rectangular in shape, probably some rounded edges.  Nothing creative there.  And I don’t think there’s a huge amount of extra features you can have – making it solar powered would hardly make sense when it’s inside.

So what are we meant to do?  I want to make it as creative as possible, but I think I’ll have my work cut out for me.  No worries, I’ve got until Christmas to figure it all out anyway (projects have to be completed by January 14^th if I remember correctly).

Slan go foil,

Sarah

Hope everybody is having an equally boring Sunday. Got up at ten(early for me) with great intentions. As I was mentally slow in fifth year and thought my home economic’s journal work was a practical joke I have it ALL to do. Yes, you read that correctly I have two weeks to do five journals which contribute to twenty percent of my overall grade. Yes, I know what you are thinking and it is true I’m royally screwed but I have to be optimistic or I will die. No seriously, this journal harnesses the same power as a machine gun. I’m also one of the lucky few to have a Religion project due at the end of September and have no idea what in God’s name (no pun intended) to write about. Holy crap….

Anyway lets look on the bright side…I have my birthday coming up and well that’s about it. My birthday consists of an out of tune rendition of the smash hit ‘Happy Birthday’ and complete calorie fest with my friends. Wow. I really do honestly love my life right about now.

Well how rude have I been, not mentioning my subjects and all that. So here they are in order of how much I want to punch them in the face.

• Home Economics
• Religion
• German
• French
• English
• Biology
• Maths
• Irish

The last two are being studied at ordinary level. Booya…I really do despise maths and *shocker*- it really seems to dislike me. We have never really hit it off. I don’t know whether it was the cruel algebra or gruelling theorems that made me turn against it. Irish is another old man I cant really understand either. I mean I think it is safe to say that is dead and gone. But then again I wouldn’t want to anger any Irish lovers because I do understand how useful it can be in foreign countries. Especially, and I speak from experience, when there are extremely annoying french students on your campsite.

I really need to realise there is more to life then this Leaving Cert thingy. It really does invade my thoughts on a regular basis. Jeez…”get out more” I hear you scream. OK..I will I promise. It is just the first scary weeks back at school that are making me this uncool…I swear.

So this UCAS thing. Can somebody please tell me what is going on? I’m interested in studying Medicine but I don’t have chemistry. Is it essential? Also I’m interested in applying to study English, journalism or something along those lines. I have no idea where to begin and what colleges would be the best. If you have any knowledge that you would like to pass on please comment. I don’t exactly have the best guidance counsellor to deal with. She actually is special..like really I think she has something wrong with her mental health.

OK i think that could be enough blabbering and complaining for the day. I really need to take a shower. There is only so much talcum powder can do before you begin to resemble an old man.