First term of the school is finally coming to an end. At the moment of writing this, it's only one week before the semester holiday begins. This week, there will be no exams and all we're gonna do is sit all day and watch random movies during class periods. An example includes To Kill a Mockingbird during English classes, which is the movie of the novel of the same name that we read in school. It was pretty good.

To get to the point, apparently, this summer holiday there will be an arrangement for US and UK summer schools. On Wednesday there will be a presentation in school about them. I previously agreed with my mom to go only Tuesday (I have a fast reading class to attend) and Friday (that's when the report cards will be given) this week. Now, just because there's a presentation which probably won't include anything important, my mom urges me to go on Wednesday too. I keep refusing, she keeps insisting. No mom, I'm not going to school another day just because of a probably shitty presentation of a summer school, which I probably won't even attend. And guess the duration of the conference? 30 minutes. And there's one for parents after school, so if my mom's so curious about it, why can't SHE attend instead?

Now that I mentioned my hatred for summer schools, here's a little back story. Six years ago, when I was ten, I attended a kid summer school in Turkey. On the first day, I liked it. On the following days however, I really started to hate it. Our swimming coach, that mean bitch (which I secretly referred to as "Swimming Shit") kept yelling at me not to bend my legs while swimming. There's nothing I could do about it, I just wasn't good at swimming (I'm still not), I couldn't help but bend my legs. I didn't care either. I even remember crying at home once, and despite that, my parents didn't want me to quit. Jesus Christ, summer schools are for fun, how could you make your kid attend it if he's CRYING?

The reader, I hope you understand where I'm getting at. I have a traumatic (literally) experience with summer schools, so whenever I even hear those two evil words, I walk away from the conversation as quickly as possible. They tell me that the US and UK summer schools are a lot different than the Turkey ones... but somehow I don't think so. Bad summer school is bad, mean coach is mean, and I'm a guy that despises both. Tomorrow I'll try and do my best to convince my mom that I'm a traumatized guy who isn't even into sports (unless maybe if it's sprinting), which is what summer schools are all about.

Update (January 12, 2010): So I did the presentation. My mouth dried like hell and I was stuttering a bit, but both my teacher and some of the students commented that it was pretty good.

I failed the last geography test, so I'll have do a presentation tomorrow about population to get my grade up. I hate doing presentations, standing in front of the white curtain (what do you call that?) and talking constantly. The lights are dimmed and my mouth dries while speaking. No, not because I'm thirsty, it's because I'm nervous. My heart pounds as I realize 16 pairs of eyes turned towards me.

I did two presentations (not about geography) so far this year and both went pretty well. They even applauded me for my second one, although the reviews stated that my body language and eye contact were lacking. I hope this one will be just fine, and enough to make me pass the first term.

I'll try to keep it as short as possible because my first presentation was way too long... Halfway through the presentation I already realized people sighing and feeling bored.

I just presented it to my family for practice, it went well but I still have some more to memorize. Thanks to them I managed to correct many spelling and logic mistakes. I'll be going to bed shortly and will update this post tomorrow.

It's been 3 minutes since we stepped in 2010. I hope it'll be a nice, fresh year for everyone.

I got a white GAP sweatshirt, 100 liras (Turkish currency) and a PS3 as presents! We hooked up the PS3 but haven't played any games on it yet, well, because we don't have any. The game that was sold with PS3 was Need for Speed: Shift, but we haven't played it much because we already have it for Xbox 360 as well.

Update (December 29th 2009, 22:55): I had the maths exam today and it was like every other maths exam I took: not bad. At least I didn't have the diarrhea problem.

Tomorrow I have both a geography test and a German exam. I'm not good at studying two different subjects at once, so I'll either study a lot of geography and lack of German, or vice versa. Since German is an easy class and I know most of the subjects pretty well, I'm focusing on geography right now. Dear principal, thanks for setting up such a messed up exam schedule. Much obliged!

There's been a change of plans. Tomorrow I'll have to stay in the "New Year's Eve party" at school, because I have exams to take and once you get in the borders of school, you can't leave. Not without a reasonable excuse. Seriously, what kind of a party is it if it's forced? What's fun about something you're forced to do? Well, I'll just try having a positive attitude and see if I can stay in there for 3 hours without losing my sanity. I'll also bring my camera there (thank God it's allowed), so if I'm getting raped, I'll try to enjoy it. Updates to come tomorrow.

Update (December 28th, 21:36): My history and religion exams went well today.
Although I realized that I made a few stupid mistakes later on in the history exam. I have a maths exam tomorrow, and boy, wish me luck... Because some of you know how it went last time.

Update (December 27th 2009, 23:12): Right now I'm on a break from studying history. I've never been good at history and I failed the first test, so I need to study hard on this one that is tomorrow.

Where do I get all the energy on this time of the night? Those thanks go to my big brother for recommending me a cup of espresso. Yeah, when I told him I was a bit tired and needed an energy boost in order to study, he introduced me to the nobel prize deserving espresso. It tasted like crap, but after drinking it, my mind was clear and my body was ready to kick some ass.

I studied well so far, but I started to feel the energy boost wearing off, so I'll get back to study soon. Next week I'll go to school only for three days. Thursday I have no exams to take, and after lunch the school is celebrating the new year's eve. When my brother told me that the "celebration" was nothing more than imprisoning the students in the lunch hall for two hours, me and my mom agreed that I'm allowed not go that day. On Friday there's no school because of the first day of the new year.

I'll just hope that those three days will fly by and that I'll do well on my exams during that.

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While this may be an overused phrase, I mean it. I really do. I hate it. I do know that being educated is the only way to get a proper job. I just don't like what I have to go through until that.

Next three weeks, there are exams almost everyday. Some days even have two of them in the same day. It has only been a week since the last exam period, and now it's starting again. Love of fuck, it's like the principal and the teachers have never been students once. It's like they really don't understand what we're going through.

I miss the summer. I played Left 4 Dead all day long, occasionally with a can of beer in my hand, without any worries nor thoughts. I was planning when to do some of my homework while playing. NOW, it's completely vice versa. I'm studying like hell while planning when to play games. Worst of all, I feel that whatever I do is worthless, I can study all night for a test and can get a bad grade in the morning. Something is obviously wrong about the way I study, and I'm tearing my eyes out here trying to find out what it is.

I hate the education system. Five days of school, two days of holiday. Why not just one more day of holiday? Why couldn't just Friday also be a part of the weekend? Weekends fly by so fast nowadays, that I can't even feel rested anymore. I don't count Sunday as a weekend day, because I get up approximately around noon and have to go to maths private lesson in 2:00 PM. I can stay in there even until 6:00 PM sometimes, so when I get back home, the day is already over, the sun is down, and my head hurts because of the feeling of going back to school the other day.

I decided to try a new strategy. Tomorrow I'll get up as early as possible. That way, I should have as much as time as I need to study. Somehow I don't really like going to bed so early in weekends, but at this point, it isn't up to my liking. I have no other choice. I hate school, but if I'm attending it, I should as well act according to the system.

Now I'm going to bed. Hopefully I won't regret my choice in the morning.

P.S. It also saddens me that Christmas isn't as exciting as it used to be. When I was a kid, I was like "Whoa, I can't wait! I bet they bought me one of those super cool action figures!" And when I got everything I wanted, I would be the happiest kid in the world, dancing around the house out of happiness while it snowed like hell outside. Now, it doesn't snow one inch. It's not even that cold.

P.P.S. I'm not complaining that I no longer get what I want. I do get what I wish, good ones too, and I celebrate it with my family with plenty of fun. It's just that... I no longer feel the heart warming atmosphere of Christmas. It just feels like another day.

Today my brother brought home a young female Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Without even telling any of us about it. He said he intended it to be a surprise. Just like how he bought our rabbit.

At first, I didn't really want a dog. No, it's really not because I don't like dogs, it's because of the amount of responsibility they entail. Dog care in an apartment? What if he shits all over the place at night? And makes the house smell awful, and spreads his furs on food?

I was really surprised, and perhaps some of you know the feeling of welcoming a new fellow to the house. My mom and dad were quite surprised, too, and they liked her a lot. When my brother left the house to get her food and cage from the car, I started to express my worries about the dog. Unintentionally in a rude way. I didn't want to do it in my brother's presence, because I didn't want to ruin his enthusiasm.

My mom turned her face to the dog sitting on her lap, and said "I think you are unwanted." The dog immediately looked at me. That moment was probably the saddest moment I had in a while. I think my mom tried to take advantage of my emotional personality, and succeeded. I denied my mom's statement, saying that I did want the dog (seriously), but I was just worried if we couldn't take care of her well enough. Especially in a small house like that.

My mom smiled, so apparently she was half-joking, but a joke is supposed to make both sides happy. It didn't make me. I stroked the dog's head, hoping she would forgive me. Then my brother came back, and showed us the dog's food, pee absorbing blanket, carrying cage, and all that. He also explained that these kinds of dogs never grow much. Even at their maximum size, they are still small. They can also be trained easily, he said, and that a trained dog in her gender never has a habit of pissing and shitting in the middle of the house. It was a relief.

I'm willing to do whatever it takes to please her. We didn't give her a name yet, although we thought about "Present", "Surprise", and an alcoholic drink name that I currently don't remember. Unfortunately no pictures for today, because even though I took some, I need to take a shower then go to bed soon. Goddamn it, two days of weekend are really short! I wish there was another day of weekend. Like that's going to happen...

Other news? I beat Portal. I really liked the game although I'm not sure whether I'm going to start it again or not. One thing that was great about that game, though, was the credits song. It's still stuck in my head.

I will possibly be releasing a trivia game sometime soon. No, it's not the 100Q VG Quiz, and no Archon68, it's not the photography game. I'm not going to explain what kind of project it is, because I started to get paranoid of some little bastards stealing my ideas. No, no such thing happened yet, but it's a high possibility.

All I can say is that it may include both multiple choice and typing questions. With a timer, also. I'll start working on the game as soon as I hit the "Post it!" button.

Also, I took the Swine Flu injection at school. The injection was no different that the others, I took the shot in my arm and it stung a little bit. I feel it was worth it.

Today I had the maths exam that I was studying for months. With a private teacher, actually, I wasn't studying so much by myself, I'll admit. Well, here's the tragicomic story. As soon as we were handed the exam sheets, I realized that I had to shit REALLY badly. Goddamn it, I never thought that such problem would occur. I started solving the questions, but I could feel a huge amount of diarrhea being pushed down my bowels... I couldn't ask for permission to "go", both because they wouldn't let me, and because I didn't want to waste time.

At first I started to sweat a bit, but then the pain was gone. At least for a while. I wrote some things for all the questions but I couldn't come to a clear answer in most of them... Because there was a FUCKING flood of diarrhea insisting to come out! It was five minutes until the end of the exam, and I couldn't take the pain anymore... I asked the teacher if I could go to the toilet. She told me that she would let me only if I handed my sheet. And so I did, inevitably.

As soon as I got out of the class, I stormed to the toilet faster than a speeding bullet. First I closed the door, then ran to the first stall I saw. It didn't have a toilet seat... Without any thinking, I entered the second one (with a toilet seat), and the moment my butt touched the cold toilet, I released all of it. Another second and I would have crapped my pants, I swear.

The bell rang when my "job" was done. I reached for the toilet paper box, and guess what... THERE WAS NO FUCKING TOILET PAPER INSIDE. Two guys entered the toilet in the mean time, and I heard one of them say "Eeeewww, this place smells FAINTLY of shit." while entering the stall next to me. I stood up, inevitably without wiping my butt, and went into the other stall. Thankfully there was toilet paper inside.

As soon as I got out of the toilet, I heard everybody talk about how bad their exam went. Later that day I learned that I scored %27, while the highest score in the class was probably something around %50... I was excepting such a bad mark, but you know, this comes as a shock. After all that studying...
My first exam score was %75, I hope I'll do better next time.

Worst of all... 27 isn't actually the score that I deserve. My real score is 17, because one of the questions were cancelled as they were mistaken, so they just handed 10 points to everybody.

TL ; DR? I got a shitty score from the maths exam just because of my god damn bodily functions... And a bit of not studying, actually.

Good news, donut loving US citizens!

I took part in NG TF2 mods vs regulars dedicated server, and it was a lot of fun. I played as a medic all the time and I believe I did a good job. We had some mods on our side like Rig and Malachy, it was fun healing them and ubercharging them.

Thanks to all the ones I played with, also the one who arranged the whole thing, for making me forget about school and my other problems at least for an hour. Yeah, I played from 4:00 PM EST to 5:00 PM EST, but it was 11:00-12:00 PM in here. Gotta say it was kinda hard leaving the server because I had a lot of fun...

I favourited the server and I'll make sure to track down other NG events like these, they are like medicine while you're playing in the midnight of a Sunday night, while having that ugly feeling of starting a new school week the other day. Thankfully, this week, Thursday is half-day and there is no school on Friday and the other Monday, but I still REALLY don't feel like going to school while typing all this.

I took a lot of screenshots, nearly 60, and I'll make something like a slideshow of the screenshots and upload them to SpamTheWeb (since I know it's going to be blammed on NG :)), I have some interesting ones. I'll keep this post updated and provide the link to the slideshow. I'm planning to start working on it tomorrow.

Well, that's it for today. Now I have to go to bed and prepare myself for a "fresh" new school week. >:(

Update 2: I got Photoshop&Flash CS4. YEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAWW!

Update: My Animals&Dinos update post has been updated.

I got Photoshop CS4 Extended trial today (getting the full version soon), and I made this Team Fortress 2 related lolcat image. It's not great, but I think it's good for a first attempt.

I'd really like your opinions.

EDIT: Wait, my trial was supposed to be a 30 days trial, and it just expired... WTF?