Mia Goes Fourth

  Samuel B. Morse

  Telegraph

   Easier communication

  Disrupted view  (wires)

  Thomas  A. Edison

Electric light

Phonograph

   Easier to turn on lights

  Less expensive than candles

  Music in the home

  w/o anyone playing instrument

  Society didn't trust them

 weren't successful at first

  Music in the home

  sound was bad at first

  Ben Franklin

  Franklin stove

  Lightning rod

   Less fuel, easier cooking

  Less chance of house being struck

  More pollution

  Ugly

  Eli Whitney

Cotton gin

   Less work

  Less employment

  A. Graham Bell

  Telephone

  Easier communications

  Disrupted view (wires)

  Elias Howe

Sewing machine

  Less work

  Less employment

  Chris. Scholes

Typewriter

  Easier work

  Less employment

Henry Ford

Automobile

assembly line

  More cars

  Pollution

I will never invent anything, either of benefit or cost to any society, because I am a talentless reject.

Homework:

Algebra: probs at beginning of Chapter 11 (no review session, Mr G has mtgs - also, just started semester, so nothing to review yet. Also, not flunking any more!!!!!!) English: update journal (How I Spent My Winter Break -500 words)

Biology: Read Chapter 13

Health and Safety: Chapter 1: You and Your Environment

G & T: Figure out secret talent

French: Chapitre Dix

World Civ.: Chapter 13: Brave New World

Tuesday, January 19th,

in the Limo on Way to Grandmere's for Princess Lesson

Things To Do:

1. Find Queen Amidala underwear.

2. Stop obsessing over whether or not Michael loves me vs. being in love with me. Be happy with what I have.

    Remember, lots of girls have no boyfriends at all. Or they have really gross ones with no front teeth like on

    Maury Povich.

3. Call Tina to compare notes on how the not-chasing-boys thing is working.

4. Do all homework. Do not get behind first day!!!!!

5. Wrap Michael's present.

6. Find out what Grandmere talked to Mom about last night. Oh, God, please do not let it be something weird like

    wanting to take me clay-pigeon shooting. I don't want to shoot any clay pigeons. Or anything else, for that matter.

7. Stop biting fingernails.

8. Buy cat litter.

9. Figure out secret talent.

10. GET SOME SLEEP!!!!!!!!! Boys don't like girls who have huge purple bags under their eyes. Not even perfect

     boys like Michael.

Tuesday, January 19th,

Still in the Limo on Way to Grandmere's for Princess Lesson

(presidential motorcade going by, stuck in traffic on FDR, underneath the United Nations)

Draft for English Journal:

How I Spent My Winter Break

I spent my Winter Break in Genovia, population 50,000. Genovia is a principality located on the Cote d'Azur between

Italy and France. Genovia's main export is olive oil. Its main import is tourists. Recently, however, Genovia has begun

suffering from considerable damage to its infrastructure due to foot traffic from the many yachts that dock in its harbour

and

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Wednesday, January 20,

Homeroom

Oh, my God. I must have been even more tired than I thought yesterday. Apparently I fell asleep in the limo on the

way to Grandmere's, and Lars couldn't even wake me up for my princess lesson! He says that when he tried, I swatted

him away and called him a bad word in French (that is Francois' fault, not mine).

So he had Hans turn around and drive me back to the loft, then Lars carried me up three flights of stairs to my room

(no joke, I weigh as much as about five Fat Louies) and my mom put me to bed.

I didn't wake up for dinner or anything. I slept until seven this morning! That is fifteen hours straight.

Wow. I must have been fried from all the excitement of being back home and seeing Michael, or something.

Or maybe I really did have jet lag, and that whole I-am-a-talentless-bum thing from yesterday wasn't rooted in my low self-esteem, but was due to a chemical imbalance from lack of REM sleep. You know they say that people who are sleep deprived start suffering from hallucinations after a while. There was a DJ who stayed up for eleven days straight, the longest-recorded period of time anyone has ever gone without sleep, and he started playing nothing but Crosby, Stills and Nash, and that's how they knew it was time to call the ambulance.

Except that even after fifteen hours of sleep, I still feel like a bit of a talentless bum. But at least today I don't feel like it's

such a tragedy. I think sleeping for fifteen hours straight has given me some perspective. I mean, not everyone can be super-geniuses like Lilly and Michael. Just like not everyone can be a violin virtuoso like Boris. I have to be good at something. I just need to figure out what that something is. I asked Mr. G today at breakfast what he thinks I am good

at, and he said he thinks I make some interesting fashion statements sometimes.