Bibles, Schools, & Lawmakers

Apparently, Arizona lawmakers want to make a law promoting a "religion-neutral" course on the Bible in public schools.

Yes, you read that right. Religion-neutral class in public schools on the Bible.

Now, I have nothing against religion, but when your schools rank near the bottom of the nation, maybe you should focus on the basics like math, English, science. You know. Those silly little things.

Some of the lawmakers said that Yale professors wanted students to have a better foundation, but I get the feeling that the professors were aiming more for a better grasp of the English language. It's a bit sad when ESL students have a better grasp of the English language than natural speakers.

Of course, there are other ways to enhance students' interest in their own language. Promote other topics that appeal to a larger variety of interests. If they can find a teacher to teach the Bible, then they can probably find a teacher to teach other special topics. Just looking at ASU's English classes, you have Shakespeare, science fiction studies, fiction and poetry workshops, and British literature. There's even a course on Mark Zuckerberg. The best way to teach something is to make it relevant to the students. Not all students are Christian, and even some of those that are may not care about the Bible. Others probably don't want to try to cram another boring course into their busy schedules.

Unless this course is an elective, I don't see how anyone could claim that this is not a breach of Church and State.

Derailed

ADD strikes again. The Hangman series is taking a break for now (just vegging for now), and I'm working on Love is Stupid, a completely unrelated story with a completely different set of characters to duke it out with.

Hopefully I'll finish one of these damn stories...

Fell in love with the song "Tune It Up" by Timeflies. I like it, regardless of genre, and I'm dreaming up another... shit. I need to start writing these stupid ideas down before they eat me alive.

Kidney Stones Suck

At the healthy age of 22, I got a kidney stone. Now, when I first started to ache, I thought that it was just a muscle cramp, but OMFG, the pain just got worse.

Then came the vomiting.

Mom and I went to the ER at Mercy Gilbert (Mom's favorite place in the whole wide world [not]). We got there at about 8:30 PM. It was pretty empty, so we got to see a doctor pretty quickly. I threw up one more time at the hospital, though thankfully not during any of the tests. The drugs they gave me were... really nice, and I babbled at my mom for a while.

They sent us home with prescriptions for painkillers and anti-nausea pills and orders to drink more fluids. We went to a 24-hour CVS, but apparently it can be really busy at midnight. The pharmacist was nice enough to give us one anti-nausea pill to get through the night.

It didn't help.

After two extra visits to the white throne, I managed to fall "asleep". Three hours later, I went back to the bathroom for another round, and sometime during that visit, that little bastard stone plopped into my bladder. Instant pain-killer. At about 10 in the morning, that thing was completely gone.

I hope to God that I never get another kidney stone.

New Year's Resolutions

This year will be the year of change for me. I hope that I could get there with at least two major resolutions:

The first is "use my planner more". I tried this last year, but I completely failed at this. Procrastination is such a horrible habit to break. Hopefully, if I use my planner more, my grades would get better. At least homework won't pop up like the fucking ninja it was last semester.

The second is to lose at least 50 pounds, though I would love to lose 100+. Actually I need to lose a lot more than that (though I'm not really happy to say that), but 50 pounds sounds like a good start. Hopefully my planner and food tracking app will help me with that.

Minor goals of the year will be:

• Complete the Hangman series (which I've been working on since November) and self-publish it 
• Do NaNoWriMo (Nov) and Camp WriMo (July & Aug)
• Not fail calculus or any other courses (but mainly calculus)

School starts in 4 days (Jan 5), but no one's prepared for it, I think. Hopefully I'll get my financial aid on Tuesday, though I get the feeling that it won't be until Wednesday. Shame on ASU for not being prepared. It's not like this came out of nowhere (it's been planned for a year at least), but oh well.