Smirnoff Seems Hot

Is Joe Camel back in disguise?"

The world's best drinks start with Smirnoff." Lately, I've been wishing my parents would buy Smirnoff. It seems so classy in the commercials, but I don't have access to it like I can get to my parents' ready stock of whiskey. I wish I had someone old enough who could buy for me.

The commercials where the guy is looking through the vodka bottle and sees more, understands more, appreciates more...that's so cool! In the background you see these cool costumes this wedding couple are wearing. So exotic. This other thing I saw makes one kind of their vodka look really healthy. An orange rolls into a single bottle and bounces next to it. Then several bottles interlock and seem to pop with orange flavor. Suddenly, there are oranges all over and slices of fruit too. Refreshing! Yum!

After I watch the adds, I can just feel my mouth watering. But until I'm older, I'll have to settle for second best...Harwood. Yuck! But hey-it gets the job done.

Prescription Drug Abuse

Prescription Drug Abuse

Since I've written this blog, I have gotten involved with a student named Chris. Though I still love Jerry, he won't even look at me. To get him back and also to make myself feel better, I started going out with Chris. He's on the yearbook and is pretty hot. He was really nice to me when I met him and complimented my writing. Now he's changed. It's almost like abusive the way he talks to me. He offered me this pain pill and muscle relaxer thing. I tried it and it seemed to help me forget how unhappy I was. My mind numbs when I take it. I forget my problems and feel sleepy and out of it. The problem now is that I think I'm addicted. I do anything Chris says to get more of the drug. I don't know who to turn to. I can't tell my parents. Celia would drop me again like a hot potato. Jerry already despises me. What am I going to do?

Unfair Teachers or Sensitive Teens?

Are teachers unfair? Do they play favorites? Or are teens supersensitive?

It seems like my social studies coach favors the popular cheerleaders and athletes over students not connected with sports.

It seems like my English teacher gives grades randomly, high if she likes you that day, low if you pissed her off.

My mom tells me I'm being paranoid or too sensitive.

I want to be section leader, but I think the band director doesn't like me. If I try out and he picks Jenna over me, I'm thinking about quitting band. She's late for practice all the time and talks about Mr. Sanders bad behind his back.

I need leadership opportunities to get into college. He better recognize how had I've been practicing and how little Jenna practices, and give me the position. If he doesn't, I'm going to quit.

Why don't teachers see the truth about students and how they really are? I've made some mistakes in my sophomore year, and teachers hold it against me and never give me credit for changing.

A reputation shouldn't follow a teenager all through high school. Teens are growing up and maturing. They should have a fresh start each year.

This one boy, Chris, has the journalism teacher wrapped around his little finger. He publishes whatever he wants in the newspaper and gets away with it. He even bullied Ms. Smith when he published pictures he stole from her husband's office when he interviewed him. And the journalism teacher lets him get away with everything! Why doesn't she see what an opportunist he is?

Teachers can be so blindly unfair. But maybe I'm being too sensitive...NOT!

Bragging Teens

Do you ever notice how only one in ten or less teens are braggarts? Most teens spend their adolescences feeling low self esteem, or total security in who they are if they're blessed. But the occasional person you meet brags all the time. I don't mind if a friend or acquaintance says he or she did something well or had a success every now and then. It's the one who feels the need to have one up on you every time you say something that gets me. If I get a 90 on a test, I don't want to hear someone saying, "That's nothing. I got a 95." If I jump a four foot fence for the first time, I don't want to hear someone say, "I've been jumping four feet for over a year."

I guess what I mean to say is, it's okay to start a positive conversation about yourself, but not once a minute and not to show you're better than someone you're talking to. Really, the main turnoff for any teen is when someone acts like he's not interested in you or your accomplishments. So, braggers who don't listen are the worst. But the pits is when a bragger is discovered making up the details he or she is bragging about. People who brag badly, do it because they are down on themselves. Most teens feel that way, so why make it worse with bad bragging (putting down someone else or lying)?

Last, I've noticed that more elementary than middle school students brag (from my own experience) and more middle schoolers than high schoolers brag. It seems that bragging is something you can and should outgrow.

Parent Put Downs: What do you do when your mom talks you down?

I'm so mad at my mom. She called me lazy. Put downs really suck. It hurts so bad when she talks to me that way. I know I do more work than some of my friends. Most of them watch more t.v. than I do. I was watching my soap the other day, General Hospital, and my mom came home from work. She was furious I hadn't vacuumed the kitchen. When a teen gets home from school, the last thing on her mind is "What work do I have to do?"

The natural inclination is to eat and relax after having to pay attention all day. Well, my mom turned the t.v. off while I was watching it. That made me furious. If someone did that to her, she'd have a conniption. And then, on top of that, calling me a name. Just because I didn't do what she said when I came home from school, it doesn't mean my personality for life is lazy and good for nothing. I really wish she would stop labeling me like that! If someone said something to her about the way she sits down and has a cocktail when she gets home from work while my father makes dinner, she'd go bananas. Maybe she should just think about that!

Do you have the same type of problem with your mom? How do you handle it?

Few Colleges Follow NIAAA Advice to Prevent Student Drinking

Few Colleges Follow NIAAA Advice to Prevent Student Drinking
A study is published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

One commenter at this site wrote:

Posted by Profbam on 02 Aug 10 01:15 PM EDT
...In the long run, the solution to our problem lies in the middle schools that sorely need an effective alcohol/drug program (DARE is not one) that continues through high school. That requires time and money for teacher training and is never going to happen. Thus, the students come to college already drinking, just now they don't have to shape their drinking around the presence of their parents...

What do you think? Do you think students who drink in college were already drinking in high school and man y who drink in high school started in middle school? Do you think public schools should be responsible for teaching the dangers of drugs and alcohol in a more comprehensive way than a token program like Drug Awareness Week that we have in Texas schools?

Back to School Gossip

Back to school is such crap. Everyone's trying to outdo everyone with the best outfit. Shopping isn't even fun because you feel fat or ugly or you can't find what you need. Where's the perfect purse, nail polish, socks, jeans? They can't really be found and if they are found they cost way too much! I saw the cutest jeans at Anthopologie, but they cost $172!!!! Get real! They're not Buckle. At least Gap's shirts are great colors and great prices. But I heard they employ underage workers in foreign countries, so I even have to feel guilty shopping there.

More back to school crap. Everyone looks at you and you don't know what they're thinking. They might have had a conversation about you online just last night. You don't really know what people are saying behind your back. If they're not talking about you, then that's not good either. That means you're not important enough to talk about. What might they be saying? If you're dating someone, you can be sure they'll say a mouth or earful about that. You don't deserve him. He doesn't deserve you. You two don't deserve each other. What bus is it of theirs?

What about teachers? Last year I had this teacher everyone liked, but he turned out to be a real jerk. Do teachers even care about students at all? I like this new teacher I have, Ms. Smith. She seems really good. My problem isn't whether she cares about me or not but whether I'm going to disappoint her. Have you ever felt that way? Scared you would disappoint an adult you liked? It's really pathetic I know, but I'm not sure I can keep up with two AP English classes back to back. I'm beginning to wonder if I should have done this, but I just have to get out of this school. I can't stand everyone looking at me all the time, and I don't know what they're all saying but I know it's not good.

Would you try to graduate early? Do you think it's a good or bad idea?