Christmas Break Insomnia

It's 2:30 am, Thursday December 29th. I am totally wired on caffeine. Probably won't hit the sack for another hour... Damn Wawa.. So Christmas was eh this year. Had a freaking stomach virus. I have never failed to endure an illness over Christmas yet! Great accomplishment huh? Oh well, what can you do. At least my brother medicated me with Miller.. That really helped my 102 fever lol. I sat in his room with music blaring, window wide open, his fan full blast and a Miller Lite on my neck lol. Merry Christmas Michele! I am glad everyone liked their gifts this year. My brother and I are really getting good at shopping for the rents. Old age perhaps? I felt bad for my boy friends parents though. They had Christmas dinner at their house unfortunately, I had to bail out last minute. I went up on Saturday, but I really felt bad I couldn't be their with the whole family. I know that they were really looking forward to having me meet the whole clan. But, if I went I would have been throwing up half the time. I think I'm going to purell my ass to death for the next few days so I don't repeat Christmas on New Years.

So forget the mushy crap, let's get to the goods of '08. Now I don't know about you, but nothing says love like a Pearl necklace and a Bilstein sport suspension. I love my boy friend. He knew exactly what to get me. I got him the latest and greatest Garmin and of course some clothes and skiing stuff. I got his dad a kick ass cashmere scarf and his mom a Waterford xmas ornament and a Yankee candle. My bro and I got our dad a digital camcorder ( he needed to be updated from the old fashion tapes). We got mom a really nice griddle she wanted and a logitech ihome thingy for her ipod she recently mastered. And last but not least, we got Nana a hearing aid and sugar free chocolate lol. I got the Bro Back to the future and the Ghostbuster trilogies. He just got a sweet Samsung TV from Nana so he's set not to leave the house. Oh I almost forgot, I got Toby that pet nail clipper (as seen on TV). :) Him don't like it.. Damn TV people lied. They must have sedated the cat they clipped on the commercial because Toby ran! lol.

I love giving people gifts on Christmas. It's so easy to tell when someone really likes something. And when they really like your gift.. I dont know, I get this great feeling of accomplishment. It's so cool to share real joy with somebody. You and that person you gave to have this connection for about a minute and a half. And you always question their enthusiasm. Like, "Yeah?! Do you really like it? I wasn't sure in the store, but the guy..." It's the best part of Christmas. At lest for me it is. Well, 2008 is done. I can't wait for summer lol.

Next Semester

Next semester I am taking math 012 because I missed the cut off by 3 pts. Should have retook the test but eh, I suck at algebra. English 152 because I loooooovvveee English oh so much lol. Economics 151, Comm 154 and Intro to business. Dean Polk helped me pick out my classes to ensure a good business transfer to Kean. I'm pretty excited about all of them. Should be an interesting semester..

Why kids cheat..

Well, let me just tell you my story then maybe I can answer the question. It was the first marking period of my senior year. I was in Mr. Murphy's advanced English class. His curriculum included an outside reading every marking period. And to be honest I thought our options where quite standard and boring. So I thought I could beat the system again with my 50 dollar subscription to Bookrags.com, A cliff note site. Except this time instead of reading every chapter summary and writing a report in my own words like I did throughout most of high school. I got a little lazy in the midst of writing this report on The Stranger. Which supposedly was a good book, but nevertheless I stole 2 paragraphs from another similar essay. I used a thesaurus to replace some words. But, instead of fully rewording the paragraphs I just left them as is. I thought it flowed similarly to mine. So I left it. Well, about a week later I was shocked that my teacher figured it out and printed out the essay off of google. I really thought since I paid for my sh*t I would have been safe. It was literally two paragraphs, the rest I did write. It didn't matter, Mr. Murphy failed me for the first marking period. It kept me off the high honor roll! So I went home and told my dad. He was so pissed. It was a nightmare, I got my car taken away for 2 weeks! My dad called my teacher and he agreed not to make a federal issue out of it and report me to the school, but he did fail me. So after the incident I never renewed my subscription to Bookrags.com, I have never even revisited the site since then. I learned my lesson the hard way. I was so lucky not to have been reported to the school. Thank God it was my first offence. It really sucks too because during high school my ex boyfriend, plagiarized every essay he had ever handed in. He was in basic English and I guess those teachers are just happy to have something to read. But, he never got caught, and his essays were practically word for word. I suppose he instigated me as well. However, he was a very very very stupid kid. I had multiple teachers tell me that he held me back. I eventually got over the V-card thing and realized that they were right. However, I guess he was just lucky or had tons of sympathy for his stupidity. However, I don't believe kids cheat because they dislike their teacher, or feel that their teacher is a push over. I know my reason for doing it was arrogance and laziness. I felt as if my eloquence in my speech and writing was enough of a cover to make me above the law. Where as in my ex's case he simply was extremely dumb and lazy. I do believe if he got caught like I did, it would not have phased him like it did me. I had much more to lose than he did. I was a bright kid, I couldn't afford to have my name tarnished. He was pretty much retarded, seriously, people thought he was, I have no idea what I saw in him. He had nothing to lose. He was in retarded classes that probably didn't care because he probably wouldn't go to college. So I guess for those who aren't high achievers do it because they just don't care. A D to them is just as good as an A, as long as they pass that seems to be okay with them. So if they get caught, oh well, better luck next time. I believe someone like me experiencing an F in English for the first time ever, would be enough to change them for the rest of their lives. I known that I will never ever do it again. It is not worth it, AT ALL. Bottom line is eventually everyone gets caught, and you probably wont just get an F. Not only will you fail, but everyone will know that Jane Doe plagiarized, and in college, you will get kicked out of school. And good luck getting into another school. You might as well stick you head in between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye. And if you simply forgot to do the assignment, just hand it in late or don't do it at all. Better an F for forgetfulness than for plagiarism. In conclusion, kids cheat because their lazy and arrogant. Youth can sometimes make you feel above the law, especially if you are underage. I only hope for someone like me, if they decide to cheat and get caught that their teacher is as kind to them as my teacher was to me. I don't think kids understand the severity of plagiarism until they are caught. I know I didn't. I never thought that the consequences were that sever. But, they are. I think teachers should spend a few moments in the beginning of the semester to just emphasize how real this is. Warn them of the consequences and make clear that it is not tolerated and that they will be caught. It happened to me, and I think I was pretty smart about it. I think I put more thought and money into it than most probably do. So if I got caught, you most likely will too. DON'T DO IT!