DEMAND EDUCATION REFORM- I DID, AND SO SHOULD YOU!!!

Hello to those out there in the internet! I have been exponentially appalled with our current education system and have just written my local congressperson to demand immediate reform. PLEASE FOLLOW THE LINK TO FIND YOUR LOCAL CONGRESSPERSON AND WRITE YOUR FRUSTRATIONS!! (https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml) This is a democracy, we are a country who is run by the people, for the people, if we say NOTHING then NOTHING will happen! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE SPREAD THE MESSAGE THAT WE NEED REFORM!!!!!!


My local congressperson is The Honorable Dana Rohrabacher, and this is what I wrote:

My name is Heather Wallace, I am a hardworking citizen of this country and just received my Bachelor's Degree from CSUF with the hopes of continuing my education to become a High School English teacher- however due to the current state of our Education system I am unsure of whether my dream will become a reality.
I am writing you today to voice my concerns about the direction of our FAILED Education system. Every election we as a people are promised that budget cuts from our Education budget will stop- however all we hear on the news is that there have been more budget cuts, that more teachers are being laid off, more after-school and elective classes are being cut, class sizes are increasing, and there seems to be no plan in place to put money back into our education system, our children, or our future. I AM APPALLED AT THE CURRENT STATE OF OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM AND DEMAND INSTANT REFORM. We are one of the wealthiest states in this union, one of the wealthiest countries in the world, and there is absolutely no reason for our continued neglect! Our government seems to be happy to ignore the growing problems facing those on both sides of the issue- our teachers and our students- and we cannot afford to ignore this issue any longer!

Our teachers are in an ever growing state of need. They perform the most important job in this country- educating and guiding our youth, priming them to take the reins of our future- and yet they are continually assaulted by our government. They are forced to pay for school supplies out of pocket because they have no funding. They are forced to control an ever-increasing class size. They are forced to take pay cuts and see cuts in their benefits. And yet they are still expected to deliver quality test scores and kids who are excited to continue their education and to get involved in their schools and communities. But how can these teachers give the desired results when they are not given the proper tools? These individuals should be given ALL the tools and funding they require to inspire, educate, and teach these kids both course work and life lessons- and yet this task seems nearly impossible under the current circumstances. How can you teach (much less inspire) kids when your class has forty kids crammed together in a small space? This environment evokes distraction- THIS IS NOT A PRODUCTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT. Even worse, this kind of environment is lessoning our teachers drive to reach students and thus slowly choking the quality of the education they are giving, and the ever-increasing pay-cuts and budget cuts do not inspire others to become teachers as it is such a volatile and unrewarding profession as it stands today.

Conversely, our students are even worse off. Every class is packed full- personal and individual attention from a teacher is almost impossible to come by because you are competing with so many other children. Interest in school is waning because after-school activities and elective classes such as choir, band, speech and debate, etc. are no longer available because there is simply no funding for them. As a result of decreased teacher/administrator attention and a lack of school related activities, more children are falling through the cracks.

THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE. OUR CHILDREN ARE OUR FUTURE, HOW CAN WE BE WILLING TO ALLOW THE UNEDUCATED, UNMOTIVATED, AND UNDERWHELMED THAT IS OUR YOUTH TO INHERIT THE EARTH? They hold the keys to our future, they will mold it, build it, and navigate it- and yet we seem UNWILLING to give them the tools- even the choice- to do this.
America is in a critical stage right now, we are at a crossroads. We are no longer the America we used to be; war, internal struggles, a recession, and many other factors have taken the America we used to live in and have turned it into a shadow of its former self. If America is to once again regain its status as a leader in this world, as a leader in Education, WE NEED REFORM.

I myself have felt the pain of this failed Education system. I put myself through college but had to jump through several hoops to do so. Because of the state of the FAFSA requirement s I was unable to receive Federal help (my Mother and I are no longer on speaking terms, and yet her information is required in order to fill out the FAFSA- so I was unable to receive any Federal funding towards my education), and therefore had to work full-time in order to afford my education. On top of that, during my years at school, I was forced to swallow the costs of ever-increasing tuition, increased class sizes, decreased teacher availability, class cuts (both in times/days offered and some classes were cut from the schedule entirely), and other factors that made my overall experience both frustrating and less effective than it could have been because of the frustrations. My senior year (ending in December 2009) I was paying more for tuition, more for books, more for parking- and yet for all this, I received less offered classes, less teacher participation due to increased class sizes, less classes per semester due to forced furlough days, and yet was expected to take all of this without raising a fuss.

How in good conscious can this Union allow matters to continue as they are? Our Education system is flawed, it no longer works. Budget cuts are not the answer. We need to look at our spending and find a solution to put money back into the Education system. The strikes in Capistrano are indicative of the frustrations on both sides of this issue and unless this matter receives immediate attention both our youth, our education system, and our future will be lost.

Demanding immediate reform (and open to any and all conversations),

(here I included my name and ALL of my contact information: my address, my phone number, and my email address because I WANT THEM TO CALL ME, we want to be recognized as real people with real frustrations, and I encourage you to also put in all your information.)


PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HELP MAKE OUR COUNTRY GREAT- THIS IS HOW A DEMOCRACY WORKS!!!!

Today is Saint George's Day- and I may be a crazy person

I work for a company based in London, and my boss is English (NOT Brittish, lol), so today, on the national holiday named after their patron saint, he sang a song from Jolly Old about England, and this got my mind a-wandering...

Yesterday I walked to the beach with one of my best girl-friends Rachel, and I mentioned how I think it's complete shit that St. George was sainted for killing a dragon when there are no damn dragons. After my boss brought up St. George AGAIN my subconcious (that bastard) took it as a sign that I need to think about this more seriously.

And then I went on Facebook- and this is how it went down, because, as previously mentioned, I may be a crazy person.



my status: happy st. george's day!
Then I made a comment: also: something to ponder- if there are no dragons, then what on earth did he do to gain saint status? kill a gila monster? not likely to be found in europe, so what was he then, a terrific liar?

Then I made another comment: sorry to keep nagging on this but once my brain starts it doesn't stop until it bloody well wants to.

so if this so-called saint was obviously a liar (unless there really are dragons and in which case i'm going to require one IMMEDIATELY), what does that make the catholic church/pope who approved his saintly status? ignorant? naieve? in on the lie?

and if they knew he didn't actually kill a dragon- what does that say about the institution, the process of this religion and it's dominant attractions?

or perhaps this ties in with the era where they were selling indulgences because they needed the money- perhaps he just bought his way in... indulgences by the way, is when they were LITERALLY (this is an actual FACT- martin luther had a lot to say about this actually) selling passes into heaven- people were literally paying a fee to have their sins taken off their permanent record.

that all sounds very morally upstanding and holy doesn't it?



I then posted this on Rachel's wall: you know how i was going on about how that fool didn't kill a dragon yesterday? please see my wall and note how freaking crazy i am. lol


She then posted this on my status: ya know you are not in school anymore, You dont have to think this much!

To which I replied: but this is just how my mind works! cognitive thinking isn't something you can just turn off!

plus i'll be going back soon so i can't get out of practice!

and a beautiful mind is such a tragedy when it's wasted...


To which she said: alright, fair enough.


Then my boss mentioned it's also either Shakespeare's day (good old billy wiggly-stick) or poet's day, which got my mind a-wandering once again...

So on my status I wrote: also, apparently, he was a christian who stood up to the roman's for their unfair treatment of christians at the time- fair enough. i'd saint him for that. but what the dragon??!!! also, it is highly unlikely he ever actually made it to england! he was just trapesing around the continent!

also: now this is just highly ironic: Shakespeare was born ... See Moreon 23 April 1564 and he died on the same day in 1616- hmm.... perhaps he just got creative with his resume and thought he could write like shakespeare (ignore the hundreds of years between them please, it's just an ironic point) hmmm...

Then good old Rachel said: hahahahaha you make me happy!



Please note that NONE of my other friends commented, and like I said, I may be a crazy person.

College Grad- put that in your pipe and smoke it!

So while I technically graduated from CSUF in December, I just got my degree in the mail yesterday,and I walk in May.

This is how the epic moment went down:

So after work I walked to my mailbox like a normal day- but when I saw a package that said, "do not bend" from the Commencement Department at CSUF I knew what it was immediately. I booked it (I walked quickly as I am against running unless my life is on the line) to my pad- slammed the door (terrified my children/cats)carefully ripped open the package, and screamed like I had just won a million dollars!!!! With no one else around I was content to jump up and down in my living room screaming "IT CAME IT CAME IT CAME IT CAME IT CAME!!!!!" I'm pretty sure my neighbors all think I'm a complete nutter now (well to be fair... I have my moments, lol)but they can eat me- I'M A GODDAMNED COLLEGE GRADUATE!!! I bought and paid for my education so I'll scream like a banshee if I want to damn it!

From there I picked up my phone, called my Dad, and proceeded to scream "MY DEGREE CAME IN THE MAIL MY DEGREE CAME IN THE MAIL MY DEGREE CAME IN THE MAIL!!!!!!" Until he just started laughing and said "Good job babe, I'm proud of you." I then promptly hung up and called Grandma. Grandpa picked up the phone and he asked technical questions (because he's grandpa and that's how his mind works) which made me lose my buzz a little- which sucks because if Grandma had picked up the phone she would have screamed along with me, but whatever, I love them all! So I sent out a mass text informing EVERYONE (except my mother and my new chew toy as they don't need to be that involved in my life) called a few more people and proceeded to be stoked on life for the rest of the night. Well, I'm still stoked- day two- so this buzz may last a while!

It's weird, I never let myself get excited about things until I have them because I've had too many things not work out or get ripped away from me, so I never really felt like I did it (although the $10,000 missing from my bank account should have told me); but now that I have that piece of paper I feel like I'm on top of the world!

From there the night went on like this:

Got my ass properly kicked by Gina in my chick boxing class (for info go to hiddentalentsfitness.com- it's a kickboxing class aimed towards fitness and self defense specifically for women- I LOVE that studio! GO!) then went down to the LBC for some good old fashioned karaoke time with the bestie, our friend John, and his pals.

Needless to say it was an EPIC day.

Check out my epicness:

Speed limits are the most retarded things E-VER

I've been thinking about this the last few days, and I think that we should ban all speed limits- and I'm not even being a smart ass, I'm totally serious. I'm sick and tired of being punished just because most people have neither the IQ or the common sense to get through life without ruining it for everyone else. Just because some people suck at life doesn't mean we need 10,000 laws telling the rest of the normally functioning society that we can't do things because the idiots out there may hurt themselves. Let them get hurt!! We have an over population problem anyway! It's time that we stop pandering to the stupid people and start pandering to the intelligent!

Let me explain: I know how to drive my car safely at 100mph, not everyone can- if you can't then you shouldn't do it, and if you do it anyway, your license should be revoked for reckless driving and endangerment. Similarly, if you drive that fast with too many people around, even if you can do it "safely" (I use quotations as it's not safe to drive that fast with too many other drivers on the road) you shouldn't, and your license should be revoked because you're a dumb ass. If you don't know to slow down in residential areas and near schools you're an idiot and you shouldn't be allowed to drive. It's relatively simply, no?

I also think that we should use a point system rather than a ticket system. Driving too fast is minus so many points, etc. etc., and once you run out of points you lose your license- there is a similar system functioning rather nicely in the UK right now. This ensures that all dumb asses stay off the road and don't plow into the rest of us who actually know what they're doing.

There are just too many damn laws in this country, and 90% of them are pointless. If you're too stupid to drive your car and talk on the phone then don't talk on the phone while driving, it's not that difficult! If you don't want to wear your seat belt then don't, and we will all applaud your distance when you get launched during a collision. If you're too drunk to drive and do anyway, we should beat your ass with a stupid stick. These are all solved by people using common sense, but really? I'm so tired of being punished for knowing how to eat, shift gears, talk on the phone, and dance to my radio while driving 80 miles an hour.

I would also like to add that the only car accident I've been in was when I was rear ended at a dead stop- I've never been the cause of an automobile accident.