oh, the other thing i wanted to write about was that yesterday i caught a bit of a marathon of MTV's "Made," and as always, i find it fascinating. for those of you not familiar with "Made," a high school student chooses a goal that they would like to achieve (winning a beauty pageant, getting onto the cheerleading squad, getting a lead in the school play), and then MTV gives them an expert in that area to put them through an extensive training program that will help them to achieve this goal. the reason that the show is fascinating is because these kids are truly the loser-est losers of high school. they are often so awkward or unattractive that it is painful to watch them, especially as it may bring to mind the awkward or unattractive moments that we all experienced in high school. and they usually pick goals that they think will help them to become part of the "cool" group, or at least that will make them "normal" teenagers. this show captures moments like a tomboyish girl feeling so uncomfortable when her coach makes her go in to school wearing a dress and makeup that she breaks into tears, or a girl getting flat-out rejected by her popular crush, who turns her down with a smurk. but the show would not be watchable if it were entirely like this, or if all of the coaches' advice were so misguided. the show is surprisingly encouraging and nurturing of these outsider kids, and in addition to trying to help the kids reach their goals, the coaches usually give them a lot of talks about being comfortable with who they are and finding ways to be themselves. and so "Made" ends up being both a heartbreaking and a heartwarming portrayal of probably the worst time in the lives of people who are outsiders or "different" in some way. when you've been out of high school for a while, you really forget how much this kind of stuff can matter to someone, and its interesting to revisit that time in your life. ultimately, though, you just want to tell the kids to stick it out, that it gets better after high school.