I’ve always fancied the 19th century as my ideal time to live. I like to dream in fairytale terms, and that time period just has a certain air about it that makes it seem like it’s straight out of a storybook.

The spring semester has officially started, which generally means two things for Uni students: No work for seniors, and work for everyone else.

I woke this morning to hear my sisters happily screaming, "There's no school today." At first, I was glad I could get more sleep, but then I remembered that one of my close relatives (whom I won't specify) had a court appearance at 11 a.m., where my mom was going to provide moral support. So I tagged along. Had I known that I would be wasting my time, I would have stayed home.

Google has made many announcements over the last year.

I believe that as long as more and more land is being taken from Palestinians for Israelis, there will never be peace.

Oops! Looks like the cat's out of the bag! I spilled the beans! I sure did throw the shingle, huh?

OK, so I made up that last one, but I think it's a good euphemism. Start using it. Tell all your friends.

Fine, then. Don't tell your friends. But do tell them to stick around after the last final this Friday. Why? I can't tell you. It's a surprise!

I remember receiving all sorts of chain e-mails and MySpace bulletins (back when e-mail and MySpace were, you know, relevant) with titles like "Bring back the '90s!"

When I visit the front page of Yahoo nowadays, I'm reminded of Gail Wynand in "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand.

Believers say that unprecedented catastrophes, such as massive earthquakes, tidal waves, and volcanic eruptions, among other calamities, will precede the end of the world in 2012.

For the sake of entertainment, we'll "suspend our disbelief," as I was taught to in speech class. Let's assume that the Mayan calendar ending at 2012 translates into an apocalypse.

Around 8 p.m. on Sunday, I realized something: I needed to request time off from work. I was also craving brownies. So out I went, off to the Savoy 16, taking my usual Neil Street route.

After I had fixed my schedule, I decided that I didn't just want brownies, I needed them. So I stopped at the grocery store on the way home.

Winter break is barely a week away. But so are finals.

Of course, this time of the year before the holiday season is full of stress and weariness. I try not to get bogged down with work, but we all know that’s not going to happen for anyone.

So, I’ve developed a super plan to achieve my vision of a stress-free Uni High. Hmmm … oxymoron.

Cheating seems like an easy way to get by, but is it really worth it?

I think of cheating as looking off someone's paper on a test, but cheating could often be as simple as copying down someone's homework when you have not even looked at or tried the problems out.

The student handbook clearly specifies cheating as:

Most of us are immersed in a society ostensibly riveted with universal values, but living life requires flexibility in interpreting these values. Virtues aren't always straightforward as in McGuffey's Readers, a 19th-century children's book on Christian morals.

The U.S. spends an average amount of $1 million per year for each soldier it deploys in Afghanistan.

You still remember the "ABC Song."

You probably still hum it under your breath to recall which letter comes after "K." Actually, you may not, but I do, which perhaps explains why I am so entrenched in my childhood.