Oh it's not cheating I'm just helping you along but don't tell anyone.

Today is the Thursday of Turpitude. It is a day for rejoicing because I am on school holidays and can relax and unwind. Also clear my own mind of the hatred that dwells in my heart for that blasted place.


Now throughout the year in the class Triple Science. We do these things called ISAs which are like little exams involving experiments. At the end of these are tests. Everyone did reasonably well in these tests.
The ones that tried at least.
Now our teacher is very keen on getting us as high a grade as possible and has made us do different ISAs so we can get better grades. Now this is all fine and dandy. Until it fell on me to go with the teacher with a few others for what I thought was tutoring.


Now you may have already gotten the wrong idea but I assure you this is all legal. To an extent anyway. Now once we got down to the room he handed this small group their ISA test papers or in my case a blank one for me to do because I was ill the day of the exam. This was fine, I assumed I would do the exam and they would be told what they did wrong but this was not to be.


All of a sudden the teacher then get's blank test papers and carefully opening them up with a staple remover. He hands certain blank sheets from said papers to the other students. (During all this I was doing my test quietly and ignoring what was now obvious to me.) He told the students to redo those questions. Now at first I thought.
"Well if they got it wrong before what will change if you just tell them to do it again." Oh how foolish I was.
The teacher then began 'advising' the other students on what to write.


Most would think either two things in my position.
A) Shut up stay quiet and just do the test. This way I don't loose my marks for saying anything and I did it all myself without help so I am not in the wrong.
B) Cash in on the gravy train and get me an A*


Now I was a little different. I was very blunt in telling the teacher what he was doing was wrong and illegal and I thought it was bad. He was very polite but a little nervous in saying.
"I'm not doing anything wrong, I'm just teaching you the stuff again."
And allowing them to go through their exam and correct things, really? That's not illegal at all?
He also offered me help but I told him no and made deathly sure he didn't look at my test paper as not to tempt him to say what was wrong or right.


If I am not going to get an A* from my own merits then I don't want it. (I got a B in the end. On my own I might add.) I think it was wrong that the teacher would think it is okay to help the students cheat. I don't think he deserves his job if he is going to do that. He is supposed to guide us not throw us at the grades. 


This all reminded me of Mass Effect 2. A line from it is. "We think all races should self determinate." Which is essentially saying all races in the universe should advance in technology and sociology themselves. Not be given advanced technology from a super being and just taught how to use it.


Now I understand the teacher merely wants to help me and the rest of the students get the grades we want. But he should trust in our abilities and teach us the best we can. If we fail it is not his fault but our own.


- Matt
I don't hate life.
I just hate life that is stupid.

You see I was late because my car got hit by a meteor and then a cat chewed my feet.... Yeah.

It's 'Tabloid Tuesday' (Shut your face there aren't any words for Bad or Evil beginning with T other than turpitude) and I have -as always- something to rant about but if you had gotten tired of this then you wouldn't still be reading my post.


Now recently we switched to daylight savings time. I was not aware of this and ended up being one hour late for school. I walked into my English class and apologized and just said.
"Daylight savings."
Then I went to my seat.


What I thought almost as soon as I sat down was how crap an excuse that really is. How many people around the world must use that as an excuse for an extra hour in bed or something. I was truthful when I was late because I am one of few that is forgetful enough to forget when time moves forward and backward.


It got me thinking. People use extremely bad excuses all around the planet and there is no real reason to do it. Some people whom improvising comes naturally to are quick on their feet and able to come up with a logical excuse in moments such as.
"I'm sorry I had to get gas and some idiot had stalled in front of the exit."
But then comes the excuses I hear at high school.
"Sorry I'm late, I woke up right and went for a bath but the bath wouldn't work so I had to try and get it to work and I gave up then went for a shower instead cause we have two bathrooms like and then I realized I was late and I couldn't catch the bus that runs past my house so I had to get a lift but I couldn't get a lift etc, etc, etc."
Now there is obviously a big difference. One goes on for a long long time and the other is short and simple. You can tell a liar when they overcomplicate things.


Now I am not hear to teach people how to lie so I will get on with it. Many people just use the cliché excuses that are 50-50 chance of working or not. Which I don't mind but I will get onto this in a minute. But when someone tries to improvise and fails it just annoys me. Not because they are lying but because they are just doing it so badly.


If you know you can't think of something good why lie? Or at least just use a cliché. If you are a bad liar then don't try and be a good one. It isn't something you can improve on unless you pick up a fucking book and read more often and learn to deal with nerves.


Now the next thing I need to query is. Why lie in the first place? Unless you were really doing something that will get you fired just don't bother. I have seen people who have just gotten caught in traffic lie because they are just so nervous. It's just pointless.


Just tell them where you were.
"You see. I was at home, sleeping on my couch with chocolate all over my face. Why? Because I think this job is shit, the people are morons and the pay is crap. I really don't like you. Can someone get me some wine so when I look at you I don't cry?" That works right?


- Matt
I don't hate life.
I just hate life that is stupid.

Your top 20 friends? Isn't that a little rude?

Now even though it's Snoozy Sunday I do have something to rant about today as you may have guessed.


I was looking on my facebook and noticed one of my friends - whom I feel I should delete following my rant about facebook friends and picking them - had a picture called 'My Top 20 Friends' Now that just sounds mean to me.


Not from the title, no obviously the people in the list are quiet happy they were picked and are silently gloating to the people behind them. But what does seem cruel or at least strange to me is the fact that you could rate your friends. How could you say which friend is the best and which is not the best but still great? I mean it is very easy to pinpoint the best friend you have and the worst but not the ones in between.


I mean I have some shitty friends and I have some good friends. No one I'm especially close to. I consider all my friends to be on an equal playing field to some extent. Each one has done good and ill towards me so I tend not to rate them with a number. If I sat down and thought about it I could pinpoint a friend that has done the least ill towards me and stood by me. If he reads this blog he knows who he is but I couldn't honestly say whom is a second to him or whom is a third. It wouldn't be possible.


Now it's not just the fact that I'd find it hard. I would honestly find it rude. My friends know they are my friends so why would they need more? Why would they want to know that they just aren't as good as someone else in terms of friendship to me? Obviously you read this and say.
"Oh but Matthew it's just a bit of fun. No one thinks anything of it."
But I think it does. I think on a deep level they are effected by this and it hurts them. A lot of them are even hurt on a more obvious level and show that you have offended them by numbering them. I think doing something like 'My Top 20 Friends' effects how people treat you and how you are seen as a friend.


All my friends are number 3. The reason being that there is no number one. Everyone has done good and bad and it levels out like the natural order.


Why do you have the right to say who of your friends is the best? Should it really be up to you? Your best friend is never the person you think it is. Your best friend is the one that doesn't need to say he/she is anything more than your friend. He/she is the one that just stands by you and talks to you. A friend who has saved your life. But abandoned a hundred times over when you needed them. Is nothing compared to the friend who has always been there for a nice chat before you leave school or work.


You should not put your friends on a list from highest to lowest or vice versa. You should put your friends in one big collage of names.


- Matt
It's Sunday why am I even awake?