I compliment myself in finally getting off my fat ass and going out to run this morning.

Happy 17th to me!

It's strange that school has ended for the summer. This happens without fail every year. I will feel like I'm still in school for the next two weeks, thereby wasting my summer. Gah! Junior year is finally doneeeee.

Daniel's off to Alaska for 10 days, and I will be at Seattle for roughly 12. I'm going to miss him, but I'll have so much fun too! (Daniel check your email)

I also turn 17 in 8 days!

Sculpture Project

For sculpture our final exam project is to take a box and fill it with things that represent you. I just threw in random things. We also had to spray paint it one color, so I got "rust red" from Tobi (the sound of that one seemed prettier than the other colors she had). Instead, it turned out to be more like blood red. My project is creepy and scary, but I'm still happy with it.




That is actually a bee, not a fly.

My mom got these really pretty flower candles from Dollar Tree. I took the green one because green flowers look kind of weird so we could afford to sacrifice this one to "art."


I liked this button too. It was gold prior to the spray paint. :[

So I guess, in conclusion, my project is creepy but also kind of cool and unique at the same time. I wouldn't say it's pretty, but it's more abstract than most. The bloody Piglet still scares the poop out of me though.

Last Day of APES

Thang's backside.

Our entire class today. All the seniors are gone, so we had about 9 juniors. It was sad...




Making waffles.

Yummy! Hydrogenated oil goodness!



Talking and stuff. Then we started playing Catchphrase and we were all hyper. O'Shea's head is turned because that's her "good side." haha I love her she's so funny.

Hm. We probably should have taken the picture without flash.

Silly Daniel in the car.

Threadless

My threadless tee came today!

I also had my final driving lesson. Unfortunately I forgot about it, so my mom couldn't pay the final balance, and I couldn't receive my certificate. I'll get it later. I just hope I can get my license on the first try and in time. My permit expires on Aug. 2. Yikes!

Bret Harte's promotion is tonight. It's hilarious thinking of it now because all those little middle schoolers are excited over a semiformal dance (not even as formal as homecoming). The girls are probably wearing dancing dresses for the first time and guys are wearing dress shirts for the first time. It's nothing compare to junior prom, yet back then I had exactly the same naivette.

I also made it into chamber choir. =P

San Jose/Santa Clara Water Pollution Control Plant

On May 31 I visited this water treatment plant for extra credit for APES. I'm posting the pictures here instead of facebook because somehow uploading an album with pictures of my e.c. trip seem pointless and obnoxious since fb isn't a blog. I suppose I could put this in my "world" blog, but it's hard to draw the line between my two blogs. When is it personal? Does this experience count? At the same time, my personal life is "a piece of the world," so technically I could just use one blog. Sigh.

This is the main office.

This was the old office, back when the plant only had 9 employees. Now the plant has 200.

Pumping things for primary treatment.

Digesters where pollutants are dissolved through anaerobic processes.

The plant is quite big.

These are the "vats" that are for primary treatment, but this one is empty.

A full one.

So the polluted water just sits here; the oils rise to the top, and the sludge/solid waste sinks to the bottom. Quite nasty.

This is tertiary treatment I believe. I didn't put pictures of secondary treatment up because it's essentially the same as primary except the water's cleaner.

This reminded me of Africa.

Large engine room that pumps oxygen for the bacteria in secondary treatment.

This is where they pipe their cleaned water. It goes to the bay.

Then the bus took us on a tour of the Don Edwards SF Bay Nat'l Wildlife Refuge. I thought this sign was cute.

Vultures eating something.

The same levee where the recycled water goes, except on the opposite shore.

A walkway you can take.

It is so gorgeous.

Salt ponds.

A lot are kind of dried out.

I plan to come back here because it's so beautiful (at least to me). It makes me think of how America used to look back in the days of the Oregon Trail.