In my 302 class (English 1C), I have to write a 6-7 page paper on how education (high school, college) is depicted in film, and how that differs from reality. To help me, what I really need is to have numerous people fill out a small survey.

The films I am using for my paper are 10 Things I Hate About You, Legally Blonde, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (if I can rent it somewhere). However, you don’t have to have seen these movies to answer these questions, so please, if you’re attending college, have attended college, or are thinking about attending college sometime before you die, please take pity on me and answer my questions!

Please please pretty pretty please? With a cherry on top?

Alright. Thanks. I owe you one. And if you have a questionnaire , I am so there to fill it out for you.

1. Before you entered college / high school, which movie (can be any one you’ve ever seen) did you most associate with how college / high school would be once you arrived?
2. Why?
3. Were you disappointed if your ideal didn’t match up with the reality of college / high school?
4. Were there any parts of “film life” that matched up with real life?
5. Anything else you’d like to add?

To answer the questions, don’t bother rewriting the questions (I know it sounds lame to actually have to state that, but I would do it, so I don’t doubt others would too). Either leave your responses in the comments, or drop me a line at lisa@unsympathetic.net.

If I use your responses, I’ll email you and let you know, because I will need a little bit of info to fill out my “Works Cited.” And as always, I’ll be posting the essay as soon as it’s done, so anyone can read it.

Thank you so much for your help!

When I went to turn it in (online class), it turns out that I had until tomorrow night to finish it. It’s a good thing I didn’t know that, though, or I would have put off writing it until tomorrow.

Logging on to Blackboard, I also found out that I was a week behind in my thinking. I thought I was still in week 9, when really, it was week 10. Which meant I missed the online lesson for the week. Good thing it’s the first one I’ve missed, and that online lessons only account for 20% of the grade.

Anyway, I am sure that everyone is so excited to read this piece of crap essay—”California’s Flaky Image.”

The essay is an evaluation of an article found in our reader, but it should be available online (I don’t know why the Sacramento Bee doesn’t list it no matter how I search) It’s called “We’re Only Confirming California’s Flaky Image,” written by Anita Creamer. It was originally published on August 13, 2003, in the Sacramento Bee, and is about the recall election.

I didn’t really want to do this essay, and I feel that it is utter crap. I hate evaluating things, and this essay was torture. But, it’s done now, and I can move onto the next one.

But I’m spending the rest of evening playing with my new toy. Perhaps there’ll be a podcast in the next week.

—”Don’t Stay,” Meteora: Linkin Park

Anyway, this essay that I should be writing but am not, is supposed to be about California. More specifically, it is about the paradox between the California Dream, and the reality of California. The problem I’m having is that being a native of California, born right here in the central valley, I have no insight on what the dream really is. For me, the dream is just to get out. To go see the world, and live somewhere new and different. I don’t understand why people would still choose to move to this state. It’s just a big let down. You think it’s going to be some big wonderful adventure, and instead it’s the land of high gas prices and suburbia. Everything is more expensive here, and still hardly anyone can afford it.

Did I mention I’m trying to avoid my math homework? I have no idea how many assignments I have to do, and I’m not sure if there is a test tomorrow or not, seeing as how we had Friday and Monday off for holiday (okay, I’m not sure why we had Friday off). Algebra is so not my cup of tea. We had a quiz last Wednesday, and I know I did one problem horrifically wrong, but I didn’t know what I was doing wrong. I didn’t figure out how to fix it until after time was up, and I was on the lightrail train back to work.

Update: I’ve finished my essay (and the math, yippy!). It is quite possibly the worst essay I’ve ever written in my life. If you would like to read it, feel free:  California: Possibility and Disappointment (pdf file – don’t steal my work). If you notice discrepancy, unfinished thoughts, and the like, let me know. I get to redo one essay a semester, and I feel that this is it. Besides, it’s never good if you’ve started drinking to mask how much you hate the paper, before you’ve even written the conclusion. After I turned this one in, the assignment for the second essay was available. I really don’t want to write about the mismanagement of California.

- “Californication,” Californication: Red Hot Chilli Peppers