...because they really have nothing else to do.

Teachers and politicians here really have nothing to do.

Our new premier (boo Liberal! Why the hell did they kick Alan Carpenter out?) has decided to spend millions of dollars (all taxpayer's money, of course) doing a really thoughtful, useful, task that desperately needs doing.

He's changing an effing logo.

Are you serious? There is so much stuff in our state that needs doing and he decides he doesn't like the logo used on the signs of all the government department thingamajigies so he's friggin changing it. And it's not a simple job either - it's a big buck project. He could spend that money building the new women and children's hospital to replace the old ones that are about to explode from overcrowding, or at least do something about the fact that most people consider Australian children to be dumb and sadly we have the statistics to prove that. We are in the middle of a financial crisis here and he wants to spend our flipping money changing the old logo to the national emblem with the emu and kangaroo.

I swear, these people really have nothing to do.

Teachers apparently have nothing else to do either, because this week is uniform inspection week and they're cracking down on anyone out of uniform. The thing is, our school is not the kind of school where people break rules outright (much), so they're reduced to giving out infringements (get three and it's detention) to people with the wrong coloured socks on. I mean, who cares? My school is supposedly a government school, yet we're expected to dress as though we're a friggin private school. Who cares if a guy wears white socks and a girl wears black socks? I know it's meant to be the other way around but we all have better things to think about then sexist sock colours. We're pretty well behaved for a high school, I must say, but they're really pushing it, you know. Most of us aren't the kind of people who will take this kind of shit quietly - in fact, the more times they do ridiculous things like this the more likely we are to rebel. You'd think they'd have learned their lesson by now, but they haven't.

In other news, I hope I get a good mark for my science project, which involves making a 3D model of a cell. I made mine out of jelly, with lollies embedded inside it (there are two layers) to represent all the shit inside the cell. Nice idea, but it didn't really turn out the way I planned.

For starters, I used an Asian jelly called agar-agar, which is popular amongst vegans and vegetarians because it is made from seaweed extract, rather than pork fat like most other jellies are made of (yes, most jellies are just flavoured fat). Agar-agar sets a little, okay, very cloudy, so consequently you couldn't see all the stuff inside the jelly. So my mother, who helped me made it, made it so I could lift part of the agar-agar off so you could see all the lollies inside.

It looked revolting.

Agar-agar is only liquid when it is hot, or at least warm, and sets as soon as it gets cool. So when we poured the agar-agar over the lollies, the marshmallows melted a little, and the colour from the gel lollies leaked into the jelly. Part of the jelly was also bright orange-red, so you couldn't see the big red lolly that represented the nucleus.

When I took the cover off, it was revolting. First, the smell hits you like an unflushed toilet. The seaweed extract smells disgusting, and mum made an extra concentrated mix for my project. Mixed up with the sickly sweet smell of the lollies, it was vomit-inducing.

And it didn't look too pretty either. The marshmallows had melted and you couldn't see the gel lollies because they had become the exact same colour of the jellies. The piece of licorice in there had absorbed all the water and became fat, wet and soggy, looking like something out of a dead animal.

I got top marks for my understanding of a cell, but it wasn't the prettiest project. Worst off, though, the school publicist was in the room with us, taking pictures of the projects for magazines and such. When she came to my table, she wanted to take a picture, so I quickly put the top part of the jelly back on so that it didn't look too much like a pile of dog sick.

"No, no, take the lid off" she said impatiently
"I'd rather not" I said "It looks revolting"
"Come on, take it off" she insisted
"Really, I'd rather not..." I protested feebly
Then my science teacher came around and told me to take it off, so I didn't have much of a choice. The publicist took tons of pictures, whilst I smiled weakly in the background.

They never take pictures of my good work. Only my bad work.