11th Grade Recap

As I'm nearing the end of my junior year of high school, I thought it was about time to do a recap of my year.

School

The biggest change this year that I started Running Start, and I've been taking college classes all year in addition to school at home. Here are the classes I took this year:

• Early Modern History - At home all year
• Geometry - At home all year
• College Study Skills (ENGL 170) - Fall 2014
• Yoga (PE 107) - Fall 2014
• English Comp I (ENGL 101) - Winter 2015
• General Psychology (PSYC 100) - Winter 2015
• Intro to Geology (GEOL 101) - Spring 2015
• Engligh Comp II (ENGL 102) - Spring 2015

I have a week left of spring quarter, but it looks like I'll finish my first year at the college with a 4.0 GPA!

School at home as been a struggle, and I am depressingly far behind. I will have to work for the summer to finish both history and math. Next year, I will taking a full load at the college and doing nothing at home.

Other Activities

I have really loved being at the college. I have made friends (though admittedly not that many), and I love being part of the community there. 

Outside of school, this has been a strange year. With some of my friends being gone at college other places, the year started out strangely, and through many strange and complicated events, the trend continued. 

It's been a hard year but that I've learned a lot about myself and how to handle challenging situations. I've learned a lot about dealing with and helping other people, and while there are numerous things about this year that I wish I could just reverse and have never had happen, I am a different person because of it, and I don't think that that's a bad thing.

I've made friends and had relationships evolve and change, and overall I think the year is ending on a positive note.

Outside of that, I've been teaching Latin, taking Irish dance and Ballet classes, and I was in two dance productions. I performed ballet in Dracula, and Irish dancing in the Nutcracker. I also danced in about four other smaller Irish performances this winter and spring. It's been quite a year! College planning has taken up time too, and we visited a number of colleges, mostly over spring break. I've been volunteering at the library as well, and have gone to a few annual events like the Children's Literature Conference at WWU, and the Bellingham Anime Convention at WCC (where I worked as a volunteer).

Next Year 

Next year is exciting and terrifying to think about. I'll be at the college full time, and I also will have college applications to work through. I also would really, really like to dance in the winter and spring performances at my dance studio if I am able. I have applied for a job working in the Writing Center at WCC, and I am hoping that that will be something I'll be doing come fall. I'd like to keep teaching Latin, and also taking Irish dance and ballet classes.

This is sounding exhausting already!

Podcasts

I know I've talked about podcasts on here before, but I've started listening to a few new ones recently and I wanted to talk a little bit about my current set up.

First of all, I listen to podcasts using Overcast. I used to use the default iOS one, but Overcast is much better.

As for the podcasts I listen to, there are a few categories. First are the ones I've listened to every episode of, and eagerly await new episodes of:

-Welcome to Nightvale. You probably all know I'm a big WTNV fan. If you listen to it too (and are totally caught up) you probably know that wierd things are happened in Nightvale and that this is a wonderful and terrifying time to be in that particular fandom.

-Hello Internet. I know I've talked about HI on here before, but really, it is worht talking about again. I love Hello Internet so much. It's a show of "two dudes talking" and it's awesome. It's hosted by CGP Grey and Brady Haran (of Numberphile and numerous other YouTube channels) and they talk about many, many things. I don't even know sometimes why I like this show so much, but it's really awesome.

-Cortex. Okay, so this only has one episode so far, but I'm putting it here anyway cause it was a pretty great first episode. This is CGP Grey's new podcast with Myke Hurley. This is about work flow, organization, and basically how Grey gets stuff done.

There are also other podcasts that I listen to periodically, but not religiously. I don't always listen to the episodes in order, and I sometime skip some:

- The Digital Gentlemen Podcast. This is also the "two dudes talking" style, and it's hosted by Matthew Gaydos and Matty Kerr. It's good, it's very weird, and it's very often not family friendly. They are both commedians in some sense, and the show is often very funny, and totally random.

-Radiolab. I don't to try to sell this one to you. Radiolab is clearly great, and it's the podcast that got me into podcasts. I don't listen to every episode, but there are some really awesome ones out there. 

-This American Life. Same basic story as Radiolab.

-Ear Biscuits. This is a podcast by Rhett and Link where they interview people of Youtube fame. Some episodes are really good, other less so. I usually just listen to the interviews of people I know and am interested in.

-The Cracked Podcast. This is run by Cracked.com, and it is sometimes a little overproduced for my taste, but it is well done. I dont always listen to it, but there are some great episodes out there. They focus on pop culture analysis and all sorts of human interest kind of things.

-99% Invisible. This is a new favorite of mine. It's hosted by Roman Mars, and it is about design - architecture, sound design, product design, all kinds of design. It's really great and the episodes are really short. It's well done, and you don't have to be into architecture to like it.



These are some of my favorites. What podcasts do you listen to? I'm always looking for more good ones!