Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

Why? Guess. Go on, guess!

...

I got my learner's permit!!! :D

So yeah. Clear the roads, or at least the church parking lot. Just thought y'all ought to know.

So, yeah, Christmas? Was awesome. The servies at church were relatively uneventful, except for the worship leader forgetting the words to "O Come, O Come Immanuel." This caused quite a bit of laughter among my siblings and I. After church was the extended family Christmas/lunch over at the aunt's house. That went well; we all got filled up on sandwiches and soup, then opened presents. (I also had to open one from my birthday; my cousin had repeatedly forgotten to give it to me back in October.) A few hours there, and then it was tromping off back home to have the immediate family Christmas. This was very relaxing, very nice, and, of course, filled with the captioning from my siblings. (You really can't avoid some sort of sarcastic joke being cracked at some time during any and all gatherings.)

Last year, the big surprise was the iPod. This year? I got a TV. Yeah, you read that right... A TV. A 20", flat-screen Sanyo, to be precise. The ploy used to deliver it was great: A large box down in my dad's workshop. See, we have exactly the same model of TV in front of the treadmill, so I thought it was something else entirely in that box. Dad had told me it was presents for my brother, and to not mess around with it. (I couldn't anyway; it was sealed.) So I unwrapped the VCR/DVD player with a large "HOLY CRAP!", and then came the question of what I was to play it on. So then I'm all, "So THAT'S what the stupid Sanyo box was for?!" Yup. As Phil said: "Hook, line, and sinker." (Even though, in my defense, I had wondered if Dad wasn't using reverse psychology on me.)

Current Mood: Elated

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Two of the original "Dogs Playing Poker" paintings were estimated to bring in only $50,000 at an auction. Instead, they sold for over $600,000 and are now emblazoned on many novelty t-shirts.

Yeah, Yeah, Still Alive...

There was one particular thought that struck me a couple of minutes ago: I have now had this blog for over a year. How 'bout that, eh?

Well, Christmas Eve is once again here... I've just gotten done with the first three of four Christmas Eve services; I was singing with the choir and Mom was playing the piano/keyboard. So yeah, now my feet are toast, seeing as the shoes I was wearing were comfortable but not supportive. Not great when standing on risers for long periods of time. But at the moment, my family is waiting to go to the late night service at church (starting at 11 o' clock... great). The late-nighter last year was really very pretty, and very quiet. That I can deal with. Tomorrow? We have church, then the extended family Christmas at my aunt's house, and after that is the only time we have been able to get at least most of my immediate family in the house for our own Christmas thingy. So by Monday we're all going to be completely bushed.

But Monday doesn't end it, no sir! Next week will be spent preparing franitcally for my brother's wedding on Friday. Let's just hope that my voice holds out enough to sing well- Phil says if Joel (the duet partner) and I don't do a good job then we get no toasted ravioli at the reception. This? Can cause panic. I want that darn ravioli!!

So yeah. That's pretty much all that's been happening around my house. I hope you guys all have a merry Christmas or Hannukah or Kwanzaa or whatever it is you tend to celebrate. (I refuse to say "Happy Holidays.")

Current Mood: Really Tired

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Jesus probably wasn't born in winter. Since there were shepherds watching over flocks, then it was probably the time of year when lambs were born- in the spring.

Ah, Great, Here We Go Again...

Yup. For those of you that don't know it already, Journey to Bethlehem season is once again upon us. Great. That means cookies being baked until the house smells like butter (nauseating), practices (mostly done), days off of school (w00t!), and being Bible-fied until 11 at night with no coffee (argh...). I'm not even allowed coffee. Why? For one thing, I got a solo to sing, and I have to do well, and do it repeatedly. Meaning my voice has to actually live through the weekend. (Plus, my brother's wedding is at the end of the month, and I'm singing for that, too, so that tosses my precious caffeine supply out of the window.)

So yeah. Great times. Not that I'm really complaining a whole lot, it just gets really crazy around here. Makes me yearn for things like the day after Thanksgiving, where everyone just lays around and talks (or, in my siblings' case, watch "Star Wars"). Some of the backstage stuff (when you get a few minutes) is really fun, especially if someone brought cards or board games or some of those chips that taste like onion rings. The friendships you make back there are awesome.

Those Lab pups that I mentioned in a previous entry are sick. Now they've got a bunch of upper respiratory stuff, which is really nasty. Most of 'em are getting better, but one particular puppy is still coughing up junk. Poor girl. :( The really ironic thing is, they can't leave the shelter until they're better and they're spayed/neutered, but they won't get better unless they leave the shelter. I'm not saying we have nasty facilities or anything, but coming back to the same room might start to infect other animals (particularly other puppies that already have been through a lot), plus they keep picking up previously left germs. Sort of a catch-22 situation, I guess.

Extreme, my high school choir, is done for the year. There's going to be some great stuff happening next year. We sort of expirimented with drumming around on PVC pipe, sort of like the Blue Man Group. People loved what we did with them, so next year, according to Captain Kirk (no, I'm really not a Trekkie, the nickname just fits him), we will be building more complex PVC instruments and fiddling around with them. It's going to be great, I can tell. I'm kind of excited about that.

Well, I'm going to go check on another batch of cookies, and/or wash some dishes.

Current Mood: Impatient

Random Useless Fact of the Day: In Singapore, one movie ("Talking Cock: The Movie") was the only film to have ever received an NC-16 rating for bad grammar. Talk about the war against Singlish.

Oh, by the way, Nish: Mental_floss is therefore your ideal magazine. It's the one that I get a lot of my useless facts from. The link to their site is right here.

Lab Pups = Sponges

Remind me not to go to the humane society after it rains. Why? Because it gets muddy. Why is this such a difficult problem for a girl that happens to like the "drowned rat" look and practices it weekly? Well, here's the answer to that unfathomable question:

Have you ever tried to bathe a bunch of Labrador puppies that have been playing in mud?!

No? I thought not.

Ooh, believe me, it's a fun activity! Especially when the bath is over and they're all wet. This means you have to dry them off. And Labs? Well, let's just say that they're very absorbant. Meaning my shirt(s) get soaked whilst making the puppy burrito with the towel. Fun stuff. At least they held still, very sweet puppies, aside from the fact that they had a staph infection previously...

Well, yesterday was also interesting in that my mother's computer has gotten upgraded. Buh-bye, old fart of a compy, hello to Windows XP!! Boots up a lot faster, now... Sweet.

Sunday, I think, was "Recruit Poor Runti" Day. How so, you ask? Well, during church, the choir seemed to be a bit lacking. I was heading back to the green room (where all the cool people hang out if they've already heard the sermon), and my buddy Preston, who had gotten recruited for the choir earlier that morning, looks at me and says, "Get in a robe." Of course, I'm freaked out now, and people are saying, "Hey! You! Get in a robe!" I look at my friend Britney and ask one of those whiney "Do I hafta??" kind of things, and she nods.

So I got in a robe. Guess that means I'm in Victory now. *insert a shrug here*

Yeah. I'm off.

Current Mood: Cold

Random Useless Fact of the Day: White chocolate isn't legally a type of chocolate. Look it up if you don't believe me.

Here We Go Again...

I'm going to have to make this quick, but...

Yeah, my cousin was yelling at me again.

My siblings came home for the holidays, we're having turkey, and all that good stuff.

No school this week. Taekwondo's fine, although I did get flipped a bunch of times and my head still kinda hurts, but ibuprofen is taking care of that.

Current Mood: Hungry

Random Useless Fact of the Day: This one's for Nish, who I recently heard is engaged to Tisch. :D The diference between a mountain lion and a cougar? Absolutely none. Difference between running and racewalking? Racewalking requires that one foot be on the ground at all times. Difference between a violin and a fiddle? None!

Mr. Head, Meet Mr. Desk.

Dear Stupid:

If you walk into a pet store and buy a dog that they say is a chihuahua, please read up on the breed. A chihuahua puppy should not be weighing 5-10 pounds. Heck, an adult chihuahua shouldn't weigh that much. Therefore, it is not a pure-bred chihuahua, or the poor thing has some pretty crappy genes.

Also, once it gets through your skull that it isn't a purebred chihuahua that you paid $800 bucks for, try actually taking responsibility. Like, say, actually knowing that you want a dog. Impulse buyers of dogs suck pretty bad, particularly if they dump it on an animal shelter doorstep.

In closing: Do homework and think with your brain, plzkthxbai!

With absolutely no love,
The Management

Out with One, in with Another

Well, "Dorothy" was a pretty good success, and I'm kinda glad it's over. Bad thing is, now I'm going to start getting restless that I'm not acting. It's sort of a weird split: I'm going to miss all the fun it was, I'm going to miss all the people, I'm not going to miss constant absence from taekwondo, and I'm not going to miss getting home at eleven at night. Oh, well, Nazareth practice for Journey to Bethlehem is starting up on Thursday, and my mother signed me up (sort of without my prior knowledge) for either a large or small speaking part, so I'll figure what it is I'm doing then. Sigh.

So yeah. My weekend was long.

Current Mood: A bit confuzzled

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Difference between lager and ale? One's light beer, one's heavy beer.

Chick Shoes and Hoop Skirts

Well, the clock is ticking, and the light at the end of a very, very long tunnel is drawing closer: The opening night of "Dorothy." It'll be this Friday, and boy am I ready for it to be over with! Yeah, I know, it's been fun, but I haven't been to a taekwondo class for a couple of weeks... I'm getting antsy. On the upside, the troupe's going to be on TV! I won't say what show; it's one of those local things and we'll be in the window, waving and hollering (or not) and advertising shamelessly.

And about the chick shoes and hoop skirts... There's been a lot of hoopla (*snort*) about the hoop skirts. Every female in the play over five feet tall has to wear a hoop skirt (and I'm five foot two). You know what? Those things are annoying as sin and whoever invented them deserves to be shot in front of their family. You have to be really careful about how you sit down in those because if you're not, it'll flip up, slap you in the face, and make everyone else in the room die of laughter. The shoes are a big advantage, though: they're gold strappy dealies and they are just generally great shoes. I mean, seriously. Awesome shoes here. I call them my "chick shoes." I don't know why, but the term just seems appropriate. So there. But anyway, the makeup for the entire thing is really cool, particularly the stuff for Beelzebub and his minions. It's pretty much a mix of Darth Maul, camouflage, and African war paint, highly interesting.

School's going fine. Mom's only letting me do half-days this week, since she thinks I'm overextending myself or something like that (and I tend to agree), so I'm getting short days until "Dorothy" is done and over with.

Humane society was interesting today. I know it can be a pain to walk one dog when it's pouring rain, but how about multiple dogs in pouring rain? That's how it was this afternoon, I tell you! It was pretty much a dog-walking army, trying to get everyone exercised since it was too wet for them to be outside in the runs. I decided I look pretty good in the "drowned rat" look.

Anyways, I gotta get going. I think my parents need the computer, and I have to go get my contacts in.

Current Mood: Tired/hungry/content

Random Useless Fact of the Day: My cousin still hasn't given my book back. Remind me to fiddle with her hair until she gives the thing back, seeing as I've only read it once.

Oh yeah, and before I forget... Happy Halloween!

Another Year, Another Joke Flies Over My Head.

I'm not exactly sure about the joke (although some really do escape my comprehension), but yeah, another year has passed by. Yesterday I turned 15.

Now, this is really a significant event, seeing as now I'm legal to get my learner's permit, and that my parents and siblings, though threatening to kill me multiple times, have allowed me to live thus far. All I can really say is this: I'M NOT DEAD YET. BWAHAHAHAAA.

So now back to life as normal.

Current Mood: Accomplished

Random Useless Fact of the Day: The iPod song total is now up to 993. w00t!

I Hate My Lungs

Why? Because pretty much any time the weather starts fluctuating like it has been in the past few days, my lungs become full of crud and my throat gets drier than the freakin' Sahara. I swear, I've drunk enough liquids to make my eyeballs float, but my throat feels just as dry as before. Coughing has ensued, especially at night. So now I have a doctor's appointment in the morning, on the suspicion that I have bronchitis. Ew, ick. Leave my drinking glasses alone. You cannot have a bite of my apple. You cannot eat the peppers off of my plate of szechwan chicken. You cannot borrow my pencils.

On the upside, Friday's going to be highly interesting. For one, I get the day off of school (WHEE!). If I am deemed well enough, then Mom might allow me to help prepare stuff for my sister-in-law-to-be's bridal shower. For two, the bridal shower is going to be a hoot. It's a bunch of women crammed into one house. There's going to be an "Oberweiss" sundae bar. (Salivation: Commence!)

But I probably won't be able to stay for the entire thing because Friday is also testing for yellow first in taekwondo (yipee!!). So yeah, I'm pretty excited about that. Then there's Saturday, which will be photo day in taekwondo. I've already gotten the "normal" school pictures, now I have to get the ones in which I look like I'd like to rip someone's leg off. It's going to be interesting to see which photo Mom puts in the Christmas card...

Current Mood: Congested

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Got the new "Series of Unfortunate Events" book, squee! And? It's really good, very enjoyable. Okay, Cori, you can tackle me to for plot details now... Oh, wait. Your computer's borking. Oopsie. :)

Go Cards!

Ninja Brat

Yup, got myself a brand-new nickname, courtesy of my brother Phil. Amy had called last night, and I was wanting to talk to her, and Phil was just getting off the phone with one last "Yeah, I gotta go. The ninja brat wants to talk to you."

Me: "Wha?"

Phil: "Ninja brat."

Me: "But it's taekwando! Big difference!"

Oh, well.

In other news, got the reccommendation to test for yellow first in a couple of weeks, yay! I also got all of my sparring gear, so now can I fight in class, within reason (and when we actually spar in class) without getting completely beat up. That's not to say a nose won't get broken; that's entirely possible. In one tournament, a guy in my class was actually knocked unconscious and given a broken nose and a black eye because apparently the guy he was sparring with got a little overzealous. But yeah, I'm already getting injured: we were practicing a self-defense technique in which the elbow gets pretty well wrenched or broken (and it can be done from a handshake, so don't try to make up with me while really wanting to continually fight). My partner? Gets a little jumpy and moves my arm in a such a way that I hear something crack. So I was nicely wrenched up. Not cool.

School is going very well at the moment. I aced pretty much all of my midterms (lowest score: 93 in health), so that should count when I'm applying for scholarships... Haven't taken the Spanish one yet, seeing as I started that a week after everything else. But still, good grades rock.

My choir, Extreme, has ventured into a sort of new area lately: precussion/drumline type stuff. Really pretty cool-sounding (and looking) once it's done right, but still not exactly what I would envision the average choir doing. Huh. Voice lessons are still fine; my teacher is now allowing me to sing in other languages (not that I actually know Italian, but I do my best on "Caro Mio Ben"). They're very pretty songs, but the demos suck. (Why do they always get the "American Idol" rejects to do the CD demos? Is it just because it's cost-effective?)

Tonight? It's off to my cousin's bridal shower. Girls' night out, w00t!

Current Mood: Passive

Random Useless fact of the Day: Buckminsterfullerine- a highly complex molecule comprised of 60 carbon atoms arranged in a spherical shape. Also known as buckyballs.

Because I'm Getting Yelled At...

...By my cousin via email. She's all, "And you should update your blog! Like right now!" I'm thinking, "Geez, we're impatient." So here I am. Updating.

Got my mondo government project done, yay! Now I can actually read a book that I want to read, not just some really long biography that doesn't give what I'm looking for. In other words, school is fine. Just need to remember: Sodium=Na. Blah. Missed that on the quiz, crap. A long with a couple others... Radon=Rn. Grr. (And shut up, Chris, I know you'd be getting on my back about it.)

Well, after much anticipation, the first Bible Bowl competition of the new season is this Saturday over Acts chapters 1-6. I'm kind of excited to get going again, as this time I think my team just might actually get to be feared. My mom did some really good recruiting, i.e., the sort-of social misfits that like memorizing and have kind of weird senses of humor. Geeks. well, not all of them are geeks, but mostly what the team is made up of. Er... yeah.

Taekwondo is still going well, nothing new to report at the moment. I'll probably test for yellow first some time next month. Thursday I kearned a technique for breaking someone's elbow from behind if I'm grabbed by the wrists. Whee!

Current Mood: Hungry

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Today with John's last day at my church, as he's heading up to Boston. Fare thee well, Tish. Don't act stupid and I'm sure you won't be abused for still being single.

Project "Death Waltz"

A couple of weeks ago, during Labor Day weekend, Phil passed me a peculiar piece of music that I found funny. This music? "Faerie's Aire and Death Waltz." Based on an ancient cro-magnon skinning chant, arranged by accident, and really funny to show to musicians. Trust me, that piece is utterly impossible to play without the assistance of a really elaborate computer program. For instance: There are harmonic intervals in the shape of pyramids, rectantgles, and really big long lines that take up the whole of the grand staff. There are insanely fast "Lord-only-knows-what" notes with about eight bars connecting them, and absolutely crazy dynamic symbols like fffffffffff. The best thing about the "Death Waltz," though, has to be the notation that's printed in with the 'song.' Stuff like, "Release the Penguins." "Light the explosives now, and.... now." "Balance chair on two legs." "Sing 'Hey, hey, hey-o, ho, hey!'" "Remove cattle from stage", and "Add bycicle" make the song so completely ludicrous it's funny.

And musicians hate it with a firey passion. I first showed the "Death Waltz" to Chris, who doesn't play an instrument but was still all, "What the heck is this crap?! Is it, like, five different songs printed on top of each other?" The next morning I showed it to my buddy Syd, whose face went all pale and she asked "How do you play this?!" When I explained about the song and showed her the notation, she laughed and dared me to show it to various members of the church orchestra. Who am I to turn down such a great time? I headed up the aisle to my third victim: Kirk, the director of the orchestra. When practice was over, I called him and said, "Hey, I thought this would be an interesting song. Only one page, but interesting." I handed up the "Death Waltz" and much the same thing happened as with Syd. This look of utter confusion came over his face and he muttered all the notation and stuff to himself, asking how in the world a person could physically stand this piece. (He especially hated the empty repeat signs.) The next people to stand up to the fury of "Faerie's Aire" were the bass player, who pretty much shook his head and looked scared, and one of the drummers, who had the day off. He displayed that same confused look as well and wondered if there even was steady beat throughout the whole thing.

That being done, I mosied up to the worship minister, and showed him the music, asking how it might be played. One glance and he was all, "'K, you don't, man, you don't." after that the service started, and the "Death Waltz was put away until second hour, when Syd and I traipsed down to the youth building, laughing at various reactions and figuring whose reaction was the most funny. We agreed that the worship minister had given us the most laughter, at least until I showed the "Death Waltz" to another singer. His reaction? "Oh my God, what is it?!?!" Syd and I? Pretty much dropped to the floor laughing, and immediately gave him the prize for the best reaction to joke music.

Second hour passed, as did third hour. When that was done, I headed on over to show the piece to a couple of my buddies in the orchestra. Joel: "Agh!" Nick: "'Add bycicle?!' What the...?" Steven: "That is awesome!" Olivia: "Get that thing away from me!"

And so ended the cycle of hilarity. It was a good ride, and I ended up with a sore gut from all the laughing I'd been doing.

School is going well, taekwondo is fine (I'm currently trying to figure sizes for sparring gear), dogs are still lazy, it's raining, and all is normal in Lake Woebegone.

Current Mood: All 'brainy-d' out.

Random Useless Fact of the Day: It's sad that I found more books on Barbara Streisand than James Madison in the biography section of the library.

Labor Day, Schmabor Day...

The Day to celebrate work-day, some geek celebrates work by playing all day.

But do I mind? Naw. Any excuse to get off of school is fine by me.

So yeah, everyone came home for the weekend, meaning that a merry game of "Screw the Sibling" (aka "Uno") was played. For those of you who have no idea what the heck it is I mean, a game of "Uno" is usually accompanied by yells of "That's mean!", "Sorry, Mom, I guess we're cooking breakfast tomorrow because I'm about to really tick you off...", and, of course, "Screw you!" "No, Kiddo, screw you." (Hence the name.) It's really entertaining, especially when husband goes against wife and reverses, as Phil calls it, the "Cycle of Vengeance". Always a good time. You go to bed feeling like your lungs have been ripped out and stomped on because you're laughing so hard. The game has really gotten more fun with the addition of this little machine that spits cards back out at you. You never know exactly when it's going to vomit out a few cards, but sometime you can predict, depending on who's been getting the most cards when the button is pressed. (Last time, the machine really hated my mom and Chris.) And when one of us plunks down a card that makes you press the button, well... There's the family name for "Uno" being yelled. Great times, great times.

I've decided to give the church's high school choir, "Extreme", a chance, mostly because I really need something to work my voice. Only problem is, this group is pretty dang puny and I'm sick of being told that I should hold back almost any and all power from my voice to avoid outdoing everybody else. Can I help it if even when I'm honestly doing my best to blend I don't succeed? Sing louder. I could use the help. Bleh. We'll see how it goes. If I hate it, then I'll just ask if I could join the adults' choir a little prematurely.

Taekwondo is still going well. Last night's lesson was full of kicks, so my legs were feeling a little weird this morning when I first stood up. I've almost got my form down, so I'm looking to get the next tape for my belt tomorrow night. (Three tapes: Two red tapes for form, one black tape for ground, or sambo, moves. All three tapes means that you're probably ready to test for the next belt.) I think I've pretty much got my kicks down; just need to remember to aim for the leg in the first part of a low/high kick.

School's all right thus far. Tomorrow I have tests in Spanish and algebra, and at least one quiz in government. Whee. So I'll have to go scale Mount Homework tonight after choir practice.

Current Mood: Tired

Random Useless fact of the Day: The number one most annoying person in history according to "Mental_Floss"? Nostradamus. Why? For making his prophetic visions vague on purpose: Using a mixture of French, Latin, Hebrew, Italian, and Greek; including few dates and scattered geographical references; and claiming that the "people of the future" would be able to figure all that crap out. (*coughcoughWeeklyWorldNewscough*)

Stuff, Stuff, and Yet More Stuff!

Doesn't that just sound so exciting? Er... yeah. Got the part I auditioned for in "Dorothy!", so I'm quite pleased. I would've gone for the larger one if I thought I had the time, but, as it were... I still think that producing this sucker is going to be a hoot. The people are all nuts, but nice, and seem agreeable. It's gonna be a blast.

Went to taekwondo class this afternoon, and got my yellow belt, yeye! It's a startling contrast to the white I've gotten used to. But yeah, just all around good stuff there.

School's going fine. I managed to get a 95 on my Government test, which I'm pleased about. (I mean, hey, this is a senior course...) I'm getting along just fine in my other subjects, though I'm going to really have to stick it to the Spanish because I keep missing questions on my quizzes... Gr. Not cool.

Current Mood: Tired/Hungry/Congested

Random Useless Fact of the Day: I think my parents are planning to chuck me and my belongings into the basement apartment as soon as Phil moves out and use my room as an office. Cool. A bedroom that's bigger then 9'x10'. But we'll what actually happens... Might not at all.

And Half the Results are In

Well, the "Dorothy!" auditions this morning went pretty well, in my opinion. I tried for two parts (one major, one minor) and I'll see on Tuesday who gets what role. So a little suspense for me this weekend. We'll see how it really went.

My other big event today was my belt test in taekwondo. Results?

...

...

...

I PASSED!! *squeesqueesquee!!!* (Insert your own happy dance here) I successfully didn't screw up my form, kept most of my balance in my kicks, remembered the Tenets, and (this is a big development) broke boards. Yes, I, one of the THE most unathletic people on the face of this earth, broke boards. So yeah, my right hand is a little tender, but no biggie. I get the sparkly (well, maybe not sparkly, but still...) new yellow belt on Tuesday, I think. So now I'm kinda glad that's over.

School's going well. House is still standing. Pixel now believes that she is a giraffe and keeps trying to eat the leaves off of this one tree we have in the house. I keep attempting to discourage this. Pixel (in effect) gives me the finger and keeps chewing on the leaves.

Current Mood: Accomplished

Random Useless Fact of the Day: The Tenets of Martial Arts are: Courtesy, Integrety, Perseverence, Self-control, and Indomitable Spirit.

Just So People Know...

I took people's advice and switched the "anyone can comment me" option off, since the comments are starting to look a tad like a billboard. It's like, "Dude... I can't afford a Corvette, nor am I old enough to drive. I'm not legally able to get a paying job. I don't want an X-box, since my mother is sort of against video gaming systems and I wouldn't play it anyway." So yeah. You anonymous folks are either going to have to get an account or talk to me in person. (Sorry Sarah...)

Anyway... Bible Bowl started up again Sunday. The grand total of team members at this point? Eh... Somewhere around 20. Five teams. Now, let's see how many kids decide to back off before the first Round Robin, since that's when the dropouts really start leaving in droves. I mean, hey, I appreciate y'all coming, but this game is a lot of work. If you're in a bazillion other things or just don't like studying, this isn't your game, so don't take it lightly, plzkthxbai.

Still waiting for Saturday. "Dorothy!" auditions in the morning and my belt test in the afternoon, yay!

Current Mood: Impatient

Random Useless Fact of the Day: My government professor rocks. Why? He's funny! Just this morning he was all, "Well, I don't have to fear the policeman if I'm following traffic laws, but if I'm doing 60 in a 30 zone, running over children and small dogs, I just might have something to worry about, don't you think?" Things don't get much better than a darkly sarcastic teacher.

And the Drought Breaks

And all God's people said? "Amen!"

Yeah, we finally got some decent weather around here, mainly thunderstorms that give a lot of rain and a good light show. Let's see how long it lasts; hopefully for at least a few days because it's getting really freakin' hot again.

Had another taekwando lesson this afternoon. Today it was mostly practicing forms, kicks and high jumps. The high jumps? Suck. I like doing 'em, but I just can't jump that high. Stupid Irish genes... Meh. I still had to do my form blindfolded. Got dizzy and screwed up my directions. And I was almost done, too.

So I was in Waldenbooks at the mall today, and saw a display with a book that I've read and enjoyed (Cornelia Funke's Inkheart). One of the paperbacks I saw had a sticker on it that said, "Soon to be a major motion picture!" Me? I'm all "WHY DOESN'T HOLLYWOOD LEAVE MY BOOKS ALONE AND THINK UP ACTUAL MOVIES FOR A CHANGE?! IS NOTHING SACRED ANYMORE?!" No, I didn't actually yell that in the middle of the store, but I was thinking it. I mean, pfft, some on. Stop riffing offa books. I realize that this may seem like a large money-generating thing and that some directors actually do a good job of representing literature, I'm majorly of the opinion (read: fact) that movies =/= the actual quality of the book. Yes, there are a few very rare exceptions (*coughEllaEnchantedcough*), but the book-into-movie thing's starting to get really annoying. Blah. But anyway... Got a couple of new books, yay.

Current Mood: Slightly sleepy

Random Useless fact of the Day: Got the recommendation to test for my yellow belt, w00t!

Please Excuse My Big Red Nose

It always goes red -always- when I cry. And yeah, I've been doing plenty of that these past few days. Yes, Grandma went to see Jesus on Friday, her funeral was Monday, and her burial, yesterday. So yeah, the weekend ended up being one big red nose after another, combined with quite a few headaches. But seriously? I'm kind of relieved now, because she had Alzheimer's for, what, eight years? My family's mostly doing fine, although my grandpa (obviously) is taking it extremely hard. Why not; the two were married 54 years. So do me a favor and pray for him. I'll say no more about it. Just wanted to give you folks an update on what was going on...

But the upside about funerals? Funeral dinners. Especially the ones at Uncle Joe's house. The guy may look surly, but man can he and his wife cook! We're talking about five different types of brownies and fried chicken, here. I'm talking a big freakin' dinner. When you grow up in an Irish clan like mine, you get fed and fed well. Food=love, love=food. You are loved, you are fed. If you're not sure an Irish person hates you or not, just ask yourself whether or not you've had food or drinks offered to you. If yes, then you're pretty well off, at least for now. If not, excuse yourself politely and don't call back.

But yeah. School started last week and I've got four different pages of algebra homework.

Current Mood: Awake

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Taekwando isn't all kicking. For instance, I now know a techique that will have someone unconscious in ten seconds or less. (Go ahead, Tyler. Bring. It. On.)

...

Got a phone call this afternoon. My mom's just gone off to the nursing home where my grandmother is... Grandma's blood pressure is way too high and her heart is racing, and they can't seem to get her BP down.

So I guess this is it.

I guess I always thought she'd die in her sleep...

...




...




*sniffle*

Current Mood: Waiting

Relief at Last

A lot of you know about the heat around here. Mostly? It sucked. But then, last night, it rained. And the people celebrated. It didn't feel like being fried when I walked outside this morning.

And all God's people said? Amen!

Well, last night was certainly a kicker when it came to the ol' schedule. The first half of the day was pretty much nothing, except for the average laundry day. But then came 5:45 in the evening, when it was time to head over to voice lessons, where songs I'll be singing for a wedding next month were practiced and generally hit pretty hard. At seven: dinner. Pork kabobs, yum. 7:35, changing into my uniform and heading over to my tae-kwan-do lesson, in which I think I strained a nerve in my right foot since the side of it's a little sensitive. No matter. 9:15: Shower really quick, since there was a quite a bit of lightning and I'm a little paranoid about getting electrocuted. So yeah, busy times.

But tomorrow through Sunday, that's what's going to be a real pain. Why? Well, let's just say that getting up at five in the morning really isn't my kind of thing (especially when it's cool outside and the blankets are nice and warm). Then it's an hour's drive across the river to do a dog show to earn money for the Bible Bowl team. Staffing it this time has been really interesting, since CIY and every single band camp in the state has decided that this week would be a great time to do their events. (And I don't even get the point of band camp. You'd think one could practice marching formations and songs during the regular school year.) So we don't get as much as we could've, but it's better than nothing. But whatever, not my problem.

Current Mood: Passive

Random Useless Fact of the Day: My genetics really don't allow for much hip flexability, which makes executing inside/outside/axe kicks kind of difficult. Which sucks.

Be Vewwy Vewwy Quiet

...Because my baby cousin is sleeping and if you wake him up and make him start yowling again I will hurt you. Seriously. I found one thing Ibuprofen does not fix headaches from... But yeah, my two youngest cousins are spending the day at my house, since my aunt, uncle, and other cousin are at a golf tournament. Why they voluntarily are working outside when it's like a bajillion degrees is beyond me.

On a better note, I finally started up karate classes. Results? It is freakin' awesome. So what if the tops of my feet hurt after a bunch of roundhouse kicks? I can deal. I have really good feeling about this class, I really do. The uniform's a lot heavier than one would think...

It is really really hot around here. It's too hot to go swimming, almost. I think now would be a great time to sightseeing in Alaska. Or perhaps Siberia. Or maybe somewhere down south, like the Shetland islands, maybe New Zealand, or perhaps Antarctica.

On the drama front, I managed to swing the lead in a certain sketch that I think we're performing for the teen worship service at church. My part? A troubled teenage girl with a deadbeat father and a cheating crackhead boyfriend! (Believe me, if any boyfriend of mine decided to do either one of those, he wouldn't be living.)

Current Mood: Hot and Tired

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Ninjas were actually quite ineffective as assassins. Not to say they haven't tried, though; one general nearly got his head blown off with a cannon but the ninjas firing it missed.

After the Book

Yes, I have successfully finished reading the sixth installment of the Harry Potter series. My thoughts? It's probably the best of the books so far, in my opinion. The fifth book was just a little, I don't know, unsatisfying. Yeah, that's it. The sixth was a lot more action-packed. It had more funny moments than the last book. Most of all (and this doesn't happen very often, mind you; I didn't shed any tears when Sirius Black bit it), it made me cry. Yes, I admit it, I cried during the funeral of... Ha! You thought I was going to say who dies, didn't you? Don't worry, I'm merciful and won't reveal that particular fact, since I'm aware that a lot of people don't stay up until 1:30 in the morning to finish a book. (Yeah... I felt the effects of no sleep today. Oops.) And who was the Half-blood Prince? The result neither surprised nor shocked me, but it did kinda raise my eyebrows. And then there were the romance parts. Boy howdy, that was funny. For those that would moan and cry about any little fact they haven't heard about until the read the book, close your eyes now, because I'm about to reveal something! The name "Won-won" (*snerk*) had me laughing. That was just plain hilarious. I mean, geez. Talk about your unfortunate nicknames.

In all? Very good book. I'll probably start re-reading it soon.

Oh yeah. And another thing: I love my mother. Why, you ask? Well, aside from the obvious reasons, Mom had the foresight to buy two copies of the book. See, my sister's reading speed is much higher than mine, and she tends to steal the book before I really get into it. She gets done fast, yes, but I'd rather read it straight through without someone else snitching it. It's the principle of the thing, you know? So yeah, in order to prevent a fistfight from brewing, Mom got two copies to pacify both Amy and me. And good times ensued.

Started hi-lighting my Bible Bowl text today. Got the first seven chapters done, and boy are my pages colorful now! :D Plus, a friend of the family found a buzzer board hidden in the back of his closet, and asked my mom if our team could use it. Heck yes! That saves the team $425! The thing may be ancient, but it's a buzzer and we needed another one badly. Why? Three teams this year. That means we need at least two buzzer boards. Which means that costs more money, which is tight because my church is in a cash crunch and the budget was small in the first place. So, great stroke of luck there.

Current Mood: Passive

Random Useless Fact of the Day: The results from my little poll question last entry are in. Pwn is prounounced "pown", at least in the minds of many people. Thanks for the help in improving my knowledge of the outside world; I don't get it very often and so I'm doomed wander around looking like a moron.

Saturday

And here it comes, that momentous occasion that millions around the world are waiting anxiously for... What is this moment, you ask?

The release of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Yessir, Mom's preordered my copy, and for the duration of the weekend I'll be quite busy waiting for the mail to get here (kinda feel sorry for those poor postal workers...), and actually reading the book. Don't expect me to answer the phone if it rings, don't expect me to talk, don't expect me to be very responsive to any outside stimuli aside from the book. Just warning you...

Since Bible Bowl has ended, I have been taking full advantage of my (belated) sumemr vacation. Just this morning I didn't summon up the energy to drag my lazy carcass out of bed until 9:15. This may not sound like a lot compared to other teenagers, but it's the best I can do with my internal clock, okay?! A lot of reading's been getting done; I managed to read a couple of books in the span of a day. My iPod now has a couple new albums on its little hard drive (Both by Mannheim Steamroller, ha), sticking my song total up to 784.

Bad thing about iTunes: Whilst I was updating my iPod, the computer recognized the disk I was attempting to upload, but iTunes didn't. And of course, version 4.9 was out! This meant that I couldn't do squat until iTunes was updated. Darn those turds at Apple! But hey. Everything is working merrily now so I'm not going to complain.

Current Mood: Hungry

Random Useless Fact of the Day: I am still attempting to figure out if 'pwn' is pronounced 'pawn' or 'pown'. Any opinions?

I'm Ba-aa-ck...

Finally, the Bible Bowl National Tourney is over and done with for this year. The trip was long, excruciatingly mind-boggling, and really really fun. For instance: We made Steven, one of my teammates with a sort of afro, cut his hair. This scared the crap out of his mom upon our return. We (the entire team) swam a lot in the hotel pool and hot tub. Card games ran amok, and I discovered that I'm pretty good at "Spoons". (NO, there is nothing weird about this game, for those of you that don't know. The object is to grab something like a piece of candy or a drink coaster off of the table before everyone else does.) We played against teams that were actually of our own caliber during the Round Robin, resulting in a victorious five games. Rawkin'. We broke a hundred points against a team that I expected to show us absolutely no mercy whatsoever. I didn't get to bed until 1:30 this morning. (Yes, I do mean this morning.) The team has decided that I am either going to marry Joel or Ethan, two of the boys. I am neither confirming nor denying this; I'll figure that out later. Like, in ten years.

The organization in the hotel should've been a lot better. We weren't able to get into our rooms until, like, seven on Sunday night because they screwed up our reservations, resulting in utter chaos. In one room, the boys had their refrigerator stolen, with their food and stuff inside. Sucked to be them. They hotel also charged for use of the exercise machines, which was outrageous. Not to mention that every day for just about every meal we had to walk no less than six blocks to get to food. So yeah, we're hoping for better accomodations next year. I'm sure there will be; Mom's put in for suites in Louisville next year. w00t!

And as for the actual competition... We didn't do so well. We had a 5-6 record in the Round Robin, so we were put up against teams that were a lot stronger than ourselves. Ah, well. We didn't care much; losing just meant that we had more free time to go swimming, watch movies and play cards. So yeah.

The team also experienced a Random Act of Kindness. This one lady from the Pampered Chef convention walks up to us as we're playing cards (yet again) and asks us if we wanted an entire pizza that her group didn't want. Now, keep in mind that this was Chicago deep dish pizza. You don't find that stuff often around here, I don't think. So of course my team leaped at the oppertunity to score free food, and, thanking the lady profusely, we all gnawed happily on pizza. (But so you know, I still prefer St. Louis-style-provelone-and-ketchup-on-a-cracker pizza.)

So yeah, my week was quite interesting. I had a blast, and I'm really glad to be home.

Current Mood: Tired

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Also got new music and art supplies! w00t!!

Dude, This is Awesome...

Sauron in space!!!

If a buncha Nazgul show up, I am not here. I don't know anything about a mysterious ring. *insert innocent whistle here*

The Weekend Shall be... Filled.

Lesse... I should really be studying the next couple of chapters of Luke, but I wanted to poke my head in and say 'hi'... I've got piano on Saturday. Leaving church for Chicago on Sunday, so don't expect anything outta me until next weekend, unless I can bribe my dad to let me use his laptop (and only if the hotel rooms get some decent broadband). So the bus ride'll last around five hours, four if Dad drives fast, and then at four that afternoon is the Top Brain Test. Ick.

For those of you in the audience that don't know what the Top Brain is, allow me to explain. During the Round Robins, it's 150 fill-in-the-blank questions in a half an hour. Tensions are high. During the National Tourney, it's 400 fill-in-the-blank-using-a-Scantron questions during the course of two hours. And they usually hold it in large conference rooms during Nationals, so there isn't a proper desk to work things out on. This usually results in your neck and legs aching really bad afterwards. Sucky. This year I'm planning to sit on the floor. But the big secret? Do what you know, and guess on the ones you don't know later. Easy, in theory.

And then we'll be play various games until the Double Elimination, in which my team must play, as my mom put it last year, "for blood". But when you lose twice, the rest of your day is free, free, FREE!!!

Sent my school stuff back yesterday, w00t!

So yeah. I'm off.

Current Mood: Daunted

Random Useless Fact of the Day:
I do feel for Holmes-
Tom Cruise is such a retard.
Someone, shut him up!!

Obviously, I don't suffer idiots very well.

So What's New?

Nuthin' much. Currently my days are spent studying Bible Bowl and doing lots of laundry, one of the most unpleasant chores in my house, short of cleaning out the fridge. But mostly, it's Bible Bowl 24/7 in preparation for Nationals in Chicago. So yeah, that's going to be no vacation for me and my team.

Excuse me for a moment; I think Pixel's tearing something else up.

...

Idiot dog loves eating cellophane.

...

I guess I'd better get back to work. Blah.

Current Mood: Thirsty

Random Useless Fact of the Day: People seem to be foregetting the basics of American law, as the Ten Commandments have been banned from various courtrooms...

Idiots.

Haiku

Some are just confused
The world is full of retards
Head, meet Mister Desk.

Thank you.


In case you couldn't tell, the bigger retards tend to annoy me. Pfft.

Even though they're kinda fun to laugh at.

At Last

"I'M FRRREEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!" remains my rallying cry at the moment. I am running away from the junior high bandwagon screaming. I'm not looking back. Oh, yeah, got good grades on my finals.

I'm officially on summer vacation. At freaking last.

Current Mood: Like a huge burden has been lifted from my shoulders, AKA liberated

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Bad news? My throat has bugged out once again. I peeked down there using my mirror and it's all red. Dang. Back to Mom's famous tea remedy.

Vebis Part II

Yeah.... Haven't had a whole lot of time to write stuff. So now I suppose I'll entertain the masses with more Stories from Vacation Bible School. Fifth grade boys? Are legally and in all senses insane. I don't know how the junior worship people handle them all.

But the really funny story was this: I was describing what it would be like to spend the night in a stable, and I asked what happens when one rolls in the grass. I got a few good answers, but this one blew everybody in the room away-- "Umm... Well... You might get animal potty on you." Everybody had to prevent themselves from CRACKING UP LAUGHING. All I did (aside from failing miserably at keeping a straight face), was say "Well, yeah, that might also happen, but that's not what I'm looking for."

Hence, a great story from VBS.

Finals are coming up soon, THANK YOU LAWD. Algebra tomorrow, history if I'm lucky. If not, history will come on Tuesday. And then I shall be free to sleep until nine thirty in the morning, depending on how bad Beans has to go outside.

So yeah. Story of my life.

Current Mood: Tired

Random Useless Fact of the Day: The best place to read is on the toilet. I'm not sure why, but it is.

VBS

Well, it's that time of year again. Yes, that's right, vacation Bible school has begun at church. And what did I go and do? I signed up to do one of those story room thingies. So I'm stuck preaching about Jesus being born in a barn. Not too bad, since I got the same room as one of my friends and an intern that is as crazy as the rest of us. Plus our room looks awesome. I worked the staple gun, which is was pretty much the highlight of the decorating process. I've also been learning about the kids in various grade levels:

3-4 Years Old: We only had one kid cry, and that was because he wanted his mother. Poor guy. But they behaved pretty well, albeit with a couple of interruptions.

First Graders: They know too much for their own good. For example: "Is this a play?" "This used to be a classroom!" "Why did the shepherds knock on that door?!" They have two volume settings: Loud and louder.

Third Graders: Pretty well behaved, pretty quiet when asked to be.

Fifth and Sixth Grade Girls: Fun. They kept the rest of us entertained, listened pretty well, asked just enough questions, responded when asked stuff.

So yeah. It's shaping up to be a pretty interesting week, and it's only Tuesday.

The Humane Society was crazy yesterday. It was Critter Camp, meaning that there were small children running around and making the place even busier than normal. Hilton the lab/chow was very happy to see me. He showed this by offering his butt for me to scratch, and by sitting in his little wading pool, then trotting over to me, shaking himself off, and then sitting in my lap. I love that dog. Marigold the Jack Russel was also jumping for joy when I visited her, although she jumps most of the time. She also leaped in and out of the pool and my lap, licking me in the face with her stinky dog breath. This job rocks.

Had to do a political analysis for history today. I had to find the staces of both political parties on various topics, and then decide if they were corectly labeled as "liberal" and "conservative". My brain is now liquefied.

Current Mood: Mah brain iz teh liquefied.

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Remind me not to sleep with my arms all sprawled out under my pillow. That will jsut result in severe acheage.

Break It Fix It Then Upgrade It... Technologic!

Yes, it is the Title That Has Absolutely Nothing To Do With The Entry Whatsoever!! Bwahaha!

Okay, the maniacal phase has passed for now.

I just felt like typing something. So why not? I'm blogging. I'm blogging about blogging. I am still blogging.

Wow! I think I just felt some personal growth!

Current Mood: With a Headache

Random Useless Fact of the Day: --->(Disclaimer: A lot of this blog entry was inspired by a recent "Dilbert" cartoon in which the Pointy-haired Boss started a journal, wrote about writing, and was sure he'd felt personal growth. I just thought it was funny. Don't sue. Plzkthxbai.)

Algebra: The Haiku

Dang it, algebra.
Once again I have screwed up.
Crap!! Wrong radicand!!


Thank you.

The End Draws Near

The end of school, that is. All I can say about that is "Hallelujah!!". But yeah, next year I'm so not taking all the Internet courses... Sent in my big hairy-scary geography project the other day, so that's done with. 385 questions just makes your brain hurt like whoa.

My mom took me and my cousins out to see "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" yesterday. It was a really good movie, very sweet. Yes, one might want to be equipped with tissues. One part involved this kid dying from leukemia and I'm all, "Parallels to my life suck." There was, like, no one else in the theater except for this one old guy that looked like he was asleep half the time. Not sure why he'd wanna see this movie, since it is very much a chick flick. Good movie.

A lot of entertainment these past couple of days has been gotten from watching the Cardinals stick it to the Red Sox. Too bad they couldn't do that back in October... This September I might be heading out to see the Cards play, as Chris puts it, "the crappy Pirates". (Maybe I'll get a ketchup dispensor, since Chris has already claimed the one for the mustard.)

Current Mood: About to go get some lunch

Random Useless Fact of the Day: There are now 725 songs on my iPod. Trippy.

Maybe Some of These Would Work...

This entry shall be dedicated to my siblings: Chris (who plans to blow up the world), Phil (who has constantly plotted to take over the world), and Amy (who probably will blow up the world after taking it over).

I have weird siblings. But anyway...

I hope they find this helpful.

Current Mood: Headache-y on one side

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Let's see... About thirty days 'till Chicago. (Give or take a few nanoseconds.)

iPods, Again

So who's the newest member of my clan to be getting an iPod? My dad. This one was pretty much free; all he had to do was suggest a name for a security tool for work. so now, he'll be the lucky owner of an iPod. That makes four of us. Don't know when it's coming or what type it is or how much memory, only that it's an iPod. So yeah. Four of us have transferred over to the Dark Side.

Changed that background of this blog yet again. Notice, now there are actual LINKS in the sidebar! Phear my teknologikal prowess! (Ow, the spelling just died.) So, anyone else want linking to the Blog list? (If you want off it, I'll go and delete the link...)

Some of my new schoolbooks came the other day. Some of my Spanish stuff, some of my English and literature stuff. Whee.

Current Mood: Caffeinated

Random Useless Fact of the Day: One month until Bible Bowl Nationals... Look out, Chicago, here we come.

Gimme a Break!

Now, I think the the iPod Shuffle is pretty nifty. Of course, I love my second-generation 10gb iPod better. But trying to copy the shuffle and then make it crappy?

Now that's just funny.

In other news, my grandpa went in this morning to get a kidney removed. (Won't give out too many details, as a precaution to avoid getting yelled at.) He's doing fine, and I think he's in his hospital room right now. I'll probably be going over to see him this evening. If y'all could keep him and my family in your prayers, that's be much appreciated.

Tyler left my church Sunday... He will be missed; that much I know. You just don't get too many bald guys that are willing to deal with a bunch of insane youth.

I suppose I should go study for my history final... Whee.

Current Mood: Blank

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Whilst tag-team babysitting, my friend Joel got my arm pinched in between the sections of one of those retractable toy lightsabers, resulting in a very ugly bruise. Therefore I chased him around the house beating him with another lightsaber. Remind me not to play Star Wars with those kids again...

Eh?!

This entry is provided by the words What, The, and Crud.

No, I did not just turn Canadian. That was my first thought when it was announced that my mother didn't get the job she's been working 11 years for. Atch. Excuse me while I call the college and yell that I hope they get what they asked for.

In other news, Pixel the Abnormally Stupid Pug ran off this morning, probably to go roll in something obscene. We've got coyotes back there, and I wouldn't be surprised of one of 'em got hungry for a small animal that blunders into their territory. In other words, Pixel don't go get eaten by coyotes! (Because guess who'd get the blame? Yours truly.) EDIT: Yes, we did in fact find her again. Stop worrying.

Current Mood: Tired

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Ab initio Roma erat oppidum parvum in media Italia in ripa fluminis Tiberis. (But everyone knows that.)

Star Wars

Yessir, the latest movie was pretty darn cool. Good old-fashioned lightsaber fightin'. The dialogue needed work, and Darth Vader's "NOOO!" at the end just should've gotten the axe.

The Chosen tour Saturday went pretty decently, in my opinion. Nobody screwed up massively, we didn't get lost on the way there, and the ice cream was good.

Am still trying to finish school. At this point it feels like I'm never going to finish junior high. Sucky!

And that's the news from Lake Woebegone.

Current Mood: Bored, somewhat

Random Useless Fact of the Day: If there's anything you want to remember, it's the number forty-two. (You knew the Hitchhiker's Guide reference was going to be in there... Go on. Admit it.)

It's Still Hot

I hate the humidity around here. Just so you know.

There is nothing worse then staring at the little thingy blinking at you, waiting for you to type something when you had an idea of what to say but there's nothing coming out. Bleh. Okay, it's not the worst thing to happen but it sucks when you feel like typing something.

Finished The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy today. Highly enjoyable. Now I'm in the middle of The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Still good, especially if one is rather sarcastic and enjoys weird humor.

Dad, Amy, Phil, and I are going to see "Star War Episode III" tonight. Can't wait. (Only two more hours, only two more hours, only two more hours...) Ha! I'm seeing it before you, Chris!

Now let's wait for Chris to fly down here and smack me for that out of sheer jealousy.

My mom ordered my schoolbooks for next year. Bring on high school. I feel empowered. I'm even taking government. Let's see how long it takes for my brain to get twisted up in knots from trying to understand that various political systems of our country. Spanish should be pretty easy, considering right now I'm doing Latin. Apparently that makes things easier. I've found a few parallels between the languages, so it shouldn't blow up my brain or anything. The only course I'd really be nervous about is the Government. Otherwise, it should be a relatively pleasant ride.

Current Mood: Eager

Random Useless Fact of the Day: I know where my towel is. (Hee.)

Sunday

And so Sunday comes again, continuing that long, long cycle that makes me wake up early. Gah. But this time I actually got to stay in bed, since I didn't have to be at church until 10:15, which rocked because usually the deadline is 7. So hey, two and a half more hours of sleep made for a much better day.

Karate might start Tuesday, depending on my parent's schedules.

My sister's home from college for the summer. I think it's going to be amusing to see her working in the fast food industry, as do my brothers.

My friend's little brother is in the hospital for a sinus infection that spread to his eyes. The kid may be a punk, but I hope he gets through okay. I'm sure he will. He's not just a punk, but a stubborn punk.

Grandma's got eyelid surgery tomorrow.

As Gerisson Keillor would say, "And that's the news from Lake Woebegone, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average."

Current Mood: Stuffed

Random Useless Fact of the day: Chosen tour is on Saturday. Let's see how that goes.

Summer? Already? NOOO!

That's right folks. Our two seconds of spring as come and gone, and now it's time for the heat, humidity, and outright "Holy crap, it's freakin' hot out here!" to start. For some reason, spring never lasts too long around here. That kinda sucks, because once spring actually comes it's some really nice weather. But now the weather's continuing to spawn thunderstorms (none of which I actually get to see, which sucks). Lovely Gulf air hovering over our heads.

Got my grandma moved into her new apartment. I can only be glad, for various reasons I won't mention. But hey, it'll be a lot easier on us since now my family doesn't have to drive two and a half hours to go and visit, since the apartment's five minutes away.

The last kickboxing class was last night. So now that's over, and I'm pretty much begging my mom to let me take up karate. I may not be an athlete worth a durn, but I really liked kickboxing, and since there aren't any classes I can take without violating any gym policy or whatever, karate's probably my best bet. So yeah. We'll see.

I finished A Tree Grows in Brooklyn a few days back. Methinks that that'll be one of the books I come armed with on any long car trips (like, say, to Bible Bowl Nationals in Chicago. Teens plus bus equals headache, even if you're wearing headphones). But my info supply has been in no way affected, since a trip to the library has brought some some pretty interesting reads. Armageddon Summer was the one I finished at, like, midnight last night. I couldn't get to sleep without figuring out what was going to happen. (Plus I'd had a double shot caramel macchiatto, so I was on a caffeine buzz.) It was that good. Forgot the author's name, but ah, well. If I ever find it in a bookstore I'm buying it.

Current Mood: Brainy

Random Useless Fact of the Day: If my family ever does adopt a big dog, then we can't get something from Doberman Rescue because they all require fences, which are frowned upon in my subdivision...

Survey Says: "We're Closed! Go Away!"

Well, my days are certainly taking on a weird trend: Wake up. Let dogs out. Make sure Grandma doesn't try to let the dogs out again, as this will cause a big spat. Do school. Feed both self and Grandma, thank God for sandwiches.

But once Grandma moves into the apartment... (A few more days. A few more days. A few more days.) Life'll get easier... Just have to remember that. Especially when you own the "Series of Unfortunate Events" DVD. The director/author commentary? Rocks. It's hilarious, especially when the leeches are attcking and the author can't stand it, so he gets out his accordion. Reminds me of "Mystery Science Theater 3000."

Kickboxing is drawing to a close, although there may be an encore week coming up; I need to check with Dave later on... After that? I don't know. Maybe I'll take up karate. That sounds fun.

Bible Bowl is going okay. Competition this Saturday, drat. Ah well, we're in the B bracket again so we have a chance to win something. My team's been placing pretty consitently in the Top Brain standings, so we might get something for that. :D

Just thought I'd update.

Current Mood: Tired, even though I should be waking up by now.

Random Useless Fact of the Day: You don't meet very many teenagers who actually like the book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, do you? Take a good look, folks. Back to school for me now.

Ah, Crud

As most folks that read this know, I work at the local animal shelter. Whilst working there on Monday, I discovered that two dogs that were very difficult to adopt out (Hilton the lab/chow and Marigold the Jack Russel terrier) were returned. Now, these guys are great dogs, honestly. They're really very sweet, so long as Hilton is taken out regularly so that he isn't lifting his leg against your antique furniture. I feel especially sorry for poor Marigold, though. Apparently her ex-owners dumped her this nasty animal shelter and left here there for TWO WEEKS, and she caught this bad case of kennel cough while she was there. So now Marigold's back with us sick and unhappy. She seemed to remember me and my mom, though. Hilton was returned because hs ex-people couldn't handle so many dogs... So now we have to get Hilton and Marigold back to good health, make sure they're adoptable again, and find them homes again. Krutz.

Poor Mari's case just makes me lose yet more faith in the human race.

Current Mood: Tired

Random Useless Fact of the Day: "Series of Unfortunate Events" is out on DVD, w00t!

And so it Goes, and so it Goes

Yeah. Billy Joel lyrics. Rawkin'.

But anyway, life around here these past few days has been hectic, to say the least. A couple of days ago, I was woken up much earlier than I would've liked (which has been happening ever since my dad got a new scale and stuck it in my sister's room) by people running around and talking. This doesn't usually happen, considering that when Dad's still around in the morning no one else is up. It turns out that Dad had received a phone call from my grandmother (who lives two and a half hours away from us) that her eye was swollen and red. So, that meant that grandma had to come up here, bunk across the hall from me (meaning that I have to share the bathroom that I've grown possessive of ever since Amy went to college), and that I had to clean my sister's room. Talk about sucky, having to clean up a room that isn't even yours. Ah well.

Well, my grandma's going to have to have surgery on her eyelid, meaning that she'll be here for a month, probably. In the meantime, we've been trying to convince her to move closer to us, since it's a real pain to drive for five hours to pick her up for a few days during holiday season and for her to get any help from my family. So my parents, after many misgivings, found an apartment we think she likes. If grandma doesn't, then... Too bad. They've already got the rent started. She's moving ASAP. Hallelujah. This means that we can see her and check up on her a lot more often, and is a lot easier on the family in the long run. No more having to bunk in my room during the holidays, yay! (Plus the apple pies are in much better reach, hehe. Ain't nobody beatin' my gramma's homemade apple pie. Except possibly her coconut cream...) Point is, it's a much better arrangement for everyone. Seriously.

Kickboxing is still something I enjoy. So what if I wake up sore? I discovered what abs are! They're the ones that hurt! *cough* It's really fun, and is a good way to exercise. Plus, if anyone tries to misbehave then I'll break their legs. I'm not tall enough to kick their jaws to the other side of their heads. It's only a four-week class, though, and my mom hasn't found any other classes in the area, I don't think. Thus, I might get to take karate! :D Now that's what would be awesome.

The one big mystery right now is my friend's big secret. I'm not sure, but I bet he's engaged. I mean, if the senior minister at church knows but no one else does... And I have informants that say he's been hanging out with some girl. Right now all I can do is speculate. Heh.

My dad says that my youth minister had better watch out or I'll mention him here. So here I go: Hey Dave! Here's your honorable mention! Happy?! *ahem*

Current Mood: Tired but accomplished.

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Got a new songbook the other day. Josh Groban, w00t! It's orange! That way I can't lose it no matter how hard I try.

Of Dog Shows and Kickboxing

I'll report on the kickboxing first just so I can get it out of the way. For one, I'm still kind of sore from the class Thursday night. But you know what? It's worth it. The instructor seems nice, and the kickboxing is actually really fun. I'm just looking forward to not being sore once I get used to it. Waking up in the morning and having your legs crumple isn't that great.

What's with the dog shows, you ask? Well, my Bible Bowl team needed money for the hotel rooms we'll be staying in this summer at our National Tournament. We're not allowed to sell anything (which I'm really kind of glad for; I hate waltzing up to strangers and asking them to buy stuff). So my mom got this email, saying that this dog agility show needed people to help work the rings, so the entire team (and then some) was all signed up.

Result? We're a lot richer than when we started out and we want to do it again. And again. Enough to finance the whole trip, perhaps. It's that cool. For those of you who don't know what dog agility is, I suggest Google-ing it because right now I can't be bothered to post links. (so nyeah.) But anyway, it was a great time for all of us on the team. The judges were pretty nice, especially one judge that let me scribe for him. Scribing is pretty much keeping an eye on the judge and writing down the hand signals he uses to say if the dog has refused an obstacle, failed, etc. I'm surprised he let me do that, considering that scribing is usually an executive task and isn't handed out to kids. Aside from the scribing, I was a pole setter (setting up jumps, putting bars back if the dog knocked them down, that sort of thing), a sheet runner (taking score sheets up to the appropriate personnel), and a leash runner (taking leashes from one end of the course to the other). It was quite a working thing, so now my brain is mush from concentrating so hard for the entire weekend. (For which reason my mom said to go and do something mindless. So here I am.)

Current Mood: Tired

Random Useless Fact of the Day: I must be an inspiration to my family, as my mother has made a blog. You can find it here.

I Get the Point

Everywhere I turn today, it seems like I'm faced with another picture of the dead pope. Seriously, those photos look Photoshopped, simply because after a few days dead a body doesn't look too good. But anyway... Pope's dead. We know. Next?

I'm still really excited about the kickboxing thing. I'm not sure why I am, because when it comes to sportsy-type things I never really wanted to join in. Maybe it's because it doesn't involve basketballs smacking me in the skull. Instead it's kick and punches, yay.

My beloved dog, Beans, gets to go into the vet again tomorrow. This time she's getting a liver panel, just to check and see if those enzymes have returned to normal. What's the deal with liver enzymes, you ask? A lot. One of 'em gets out of whack, and it's bye bye doggie. Luckily, Beans seems to be getting along quite well after being put on thyroid medication.

Got to go to quartet practice tonight... Let's see if I actually remember the harmony I'm supposed to do.

So yeah, that's the news from me.

Current Mood: Brainy

Random Useless fact of the Day: Thomas Edison electrocuted small animals just to prove Nikola Tesla wrong. That's just cruel.

Of Small Choirs and Kickboxing

Well, not a whole lot about the kickboxing will be said yet. I haven't started the class. But come Thursday, I'll have a report up on that. Yes, I am, in fact, taking up kickboxing. It sounded fun.

You know what's ironic? It's being taught to junior high and high school students at CHURCH. Hmm. So much for the non-violence approach to persecution. Ah, well.

Chosen, my "choir" (yes, there is a reason for the quotation marks) is as small as ever. I doubt that, in the history of Chosen, it has been this small. Tonight's attendance? Six. Total. Two boys, two altos that didn't know what they were doing, and two sopranos. It could've been worse. Last week I was the only soprano. You know something's up when there are only six people in what used to be, like, a 40-strong choir. Seriously, Chosen used to be huge, as did Visions of Praise, the elementary school choir before fifth and sixth graders get their own group. That being the case, I'm used to singing with gigantic groups of people. Having to abruptly switch from 40 to 15 people was quite a change for me. I guess I'll have to get used to it if I want to do Extreme next year... They're even smaller, if that's possible. Oy.

Current Mood: Content

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Dude, it has been beautiful around here lately. Seriously. The weather is almost never this nice. Ever. So yeah. Better enjoy it while it's still here, because it'll probably change pretty quick.

EDIT: I changed the background again, in case you didn't notice.

And so it Begins...

As my brother Phil once said to me as I was eating breakfast:

"Today is a good day, a very special day. Do you know what it is?"

"No."

*Insert the cover of the sports section here. And I don't mean the stuff about basketball.*

"The start of baseball season."

"Wohoo!" And so pretty much the entire city rejoices.

Current Mood: Excited

Random Useless Fact of the Day: And what else is coming up soon? Something that only a weather geek looks forward to- tornado season. Why am I so interested in stuff that can kill me?

The Great Weekend of a Wannabe Superstar

And Bible Bowl finally seems to be looking up. Yes, my team was finally kicked down to the lower bracket after many months of abuse from all of the high school teams. And so everyone rejoiced. A couple of my teammates wouldn't believe me when I told them... Guess they learned their lesson. Results? We brought home my team's first trophy of the year. It's a rental kind of a thing, but who cares!? It's a trophy! It's shiny and blue and busted our tails trying to win it. So there. Five out of nine people placed on the Top Brain test, meaning that (yet again) we got Dairy Queen today's practice. So my weekend rocked.

House groups was pretty interesting tonight. The current discussion was on the lies that the media so frequently feeds to children and teens. Tyler showed us a video on violence and suicide in today's music, video games, movies, and television shows. Some of the music and movies really grossed me out. I mean, take the band Slipknot. There were a few snippets of a music video, and a few song lyrics. Their looks freaked me out so much that I wondered how people can possibly endure that sort of thing. I mean, dude! They say the F word pretty much every other line, and have songs about killing and raping women and shooting and killing... And what's so strange? These artists have wives and kids. They wouldn't let their own kids listen to some of the stuff they produce, and yet they market it to teens.

Hypocrites.

There was a story about this 14-year-old kid who was depressed because of that type of music. He took a hunting rifle, loaded it, proceeded to kill his mother and younger brothers, and then he shot himself in the head. It's those kinds of things, like teens and kids listening to that kind of music, playing those games and watching those movies and then becoming so depressed and twisted that they kill themselves or someone else, that really make me scared for my generation.

In another note... If my mom gets the job she's been going after, I might be able to go to Christian high school. I don't know if I would, but the idea is sort of appealing to me. I'll have to think long and hard on it before I make any real decisions. But maybe going to an actual school wouldn't be too bad. Huh.

Current Mood: Still appalled

Random Useless Fact of the Day: That darn trophy has to be returned next month, sigh...

Funny/Weird/Scary Dreams

Having yet another head cold, I have to get reacquainted with generic cough supressants. This particular one (cheap equivalent of NyQuil) I had to take in order to get more than two hours of sleep. I took the regular dose and flopped down in bed, waiting for a while until this drug came into effect. When it did, I was out like a lamp that had been tossed out of the back of a pickup truck going full speed down the interstate... Well, you get my point.

I discovered that this medicine, though effective in keeping away my cough during the night, gave me weird dreams. Not just stuff that makes you think, "Now what the heck is this?" but the kind that scars you for life.

First off, I was just standing in the parking lot in front of the youth building at church, seeing my buddy John getting falsely arrested for some reason. He comes over to me and he's like, "But I didn't do it... You know I didn't..." while all the time giving me this pleading look and I'm like, "What?" while standing there like a moron.

So I look around and he's suddenly gone, but then I realize that I'm late for some play and Count Olaf (from the book series "A Series of Unfortunate Events") was chasing me and my cousin around for some reason or another. So I yelled at my cousin to run, and we did. We dove behind this hill thingy, thinking that we'd be safe, but had to run again two seconds later. So we make it into the middle school, run from Olaf there, and bolt back across the road for this play thingy.

We burst into the chapel and take our place in the choir (why there was a choir there, I have no idea). It turned out that we were doing a play about the kids in the "Series of Unfortunate Events" books, so my cousin and I go along with that, thinking that this would be interesting.

Then came the part where something had to burn down. (You can see where this is going.) So in comes Olaf as himself, and he lights a match and tosses it right onto the rather flammable stage. Everyone's running around screaming, but the crowd manages to escape the burning building without getting seriously hurt. I turn to my cousin and say, "I guess we should've rehearsed that part, huh?"

Current Mood: Congested

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Generic NyQuil goes along with chocolate pudding on the "List of Things That Give Me Weird/Strange/Scary/All of the Above Dreams." Let's see what I'm up to tonight.

Tea'd Off

You know that my throat is bugging me when I drink hot tea willingly. Now, I think tea's okay, but it's just not something that I prefer to drink if I don't have to. Unfortunately, I tend to catch every throat bug that comes to me. Right now it's not a big deal, just enough of an aching cough be annoying. I'll have to ask my voice teacher tonight about some decent remedies... Preferably ones that won't put me to sleep.

Otherwise, nothing too exciting going on here. Pixel the pug is still being a bit of a brat. (What else is new?) Beans, in a display of bullheaded insistance, got me up at 6:15 this morning, whining and scratching at my door. Little punk. So that was a bit of a sucky start to my morning.

My cousin's birthday dinner is tonight, so that should be fun. I need to wrap her present, as I can't put it off any more... I mean, geez, it's two minutes to wrap a present of that size. Why do I put it off? 'Cos I'm lazy.

Not a whole lot of plans for the rest of the week, except for Friday...

Current Mood: Not 100%

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Apparently the word 'blog' is one of the most overused words of our time. Well, guess what? Blog, blog, blog, blog, blog! So there. I thumb my nose at you!

U2 is now Legendary

After school, laundry, and taking the garbage out, I was bored. I thought that I might do dishes, but I decided to check over the Internet first. One of the things I discovered was that the Irish band U2 (one of the my favorite bands) has been inducted into the Rock n' Roll Hall of fame.

They deserve it, in my opinion. Go them.

School was okay. Not too much new, just some more stuff about the Cold War, more algebra, and yet more stuff on electromagnetism. Don't get me wrong, I think electricity is interesting, but I've been studyinbg it for a couple of months now and I'm starting to get a little tired of it. So... Can I just do chemistry now?

Listening to Bill Cosby. He's got this one act entitled "Noah". It's a spoof on Noah's conversation with the Lord, among other things. For example: God-Noah? It's the Lord. Noah- Right.
'Tis one of the best acts ever.

Can I never really focus on one topic? I can think of, like, three entries here that involve less than two topics. Huh. Guess I have "Blogger's ADD" or something.

Current Mood: Snickering

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Lord-"Noah?" Noah-"WHAT?!" Lord-"How long can you tread water?"

Laser Tag

If I'm not mistaken, most junior high groups have gone to play laser tag at one point or another. I got my first taste of the game last night. Result? I loved it. A lot. I want to go play laser tag again.

What is it that makes it so darned fun? Maybe it's the way that you're allowed to go around shooting people in the back. Perhaps it's the way that white things glow under that blacklights. Or it could be the way that students get to hangout togther whilst doing something fun.

I personally think it's the shooting. I shot Tyler once, I think. Can't be sure. This one guy, Todd, wouldn't move so I just stood there tagging him over and over. Got plenty of boys shot, so I am quite proud.

Otherwise, not too much news coming from my end. My mom had this one party so I had to clean the house (payment: new headphones). Managed to hunt down the one CD that I needed. Need to get the two songs off of iTunes. My brother has five laptops under his roof, along with two iPods. Dork.

I was asked to give a 15-minute thingy for the adults Sunday school class on Scripture memorization. I am sort of freaked out, but I think I have some idea of what to say. Maybe a quick blurb on Bible Bowl...

Chosen sings for the youth service tomorrow. Yippee.

Current Mood: Satisfied with life in general

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Got a new hoodie. And a good pair of shoes. Nike Shox? rock. w00t!

My Brain Hurts

Hey, your brain would be throbbing too after thirteen rounds. Know what's even worse? No wins. The bye round doesn't even count.

So yeah. Bible Bowl isn't on the list of great inventions right now. Too much brain throbbing going on to really be happy.

Current Mood: Tired like whoa

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Never eat chocolate pudding just before bed. That's just asking for weird dreams. Just don't ask. It's too strange and/or scary for the sane mind to comprehend.

Greatest Magazine Ever

And the trivia junkie's world revolves around... Mental_floss. It's just this magazine that tells you a bunch of stuff that you probably didn't know and probably could live without, but is interesting anyway.

And it's funny.

Current Mood: Dork

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Soda's first ancestor was seltzer water. Although I bet you know that already.

Let it Shine, Mah Brother!

This morning was a rather interesting one. My cousin and I went to the community college to see a play called "Inherit the Wind." It was about the Scopes trial, in which a schoolteacher taught evolution, which was against the laws of the town in that time. Various people were fighting for the Scriptures continuing to be taught, while a man of renown was defending this teacher.

I'm not sure exactly how evolutionists believe what they do. It's nonsensical to me. I would rather believe I came from intelligent design and not from a little blob of jelly. All the time I was watching this play, I was saying to myself, "Now that's just strange." Apparently even evolutionists can't defend evolution in their own; the defense lawyer kept trying to admit zoologists and that sort of thing into the courtroom. Apparently they need backup in order to explain what they believe, whereas this one guy named Brady stood up for the Bible with almost no trouble, until the defense lawyer just pounded him down to a pulp, using tired arguements like "Well, who says a day is 24 hours? Huh?!"

Man, that ticked me off. I know where I stand, thanks, and that's on the Bible.

Because if we're all wrong, then nothing's lost. If Christians are right and I don't believe it, then it's all lost.

Current Mood: A bit confused

Random Useless Fact of the Day: I'm not sure why the title of the book I'm reading in English is called "The Lord of the Flies." Is it because some boys are like annoying insects? Or is it just because they had no oppertunity to take a bath on that island and so attracted flies? Ah well. I'll figure it out.

Dentists

My least favorite kind of doctor has to be the dentist. And why not? As taken from the wonderful Bill Cosby, they poke around in your mouth and try to talk to you ("So, how's your life going so far?" "Ah heen hokai. Hoo i' een har."), they tell you not to pick your teeth with any sharp metal objects and immediately prod your mouth with an iron hook, and they stick a little white sucky thingy in there. ("This will suck up your face.")

Had to get a couple teeth repaired this morning. Nothing like waking up and thinking 'Oh, yay, I get to have some dude with a funny name poking around in my mouth!'. I had an extra cusp on a couple of my molars and apparently that was inviting junk, so I got to spend the day with my face feeling like it had slid off my skull (yet more Bill Cosby).

So my day was interesting. Yay.

Current Mood: Sleepy

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Latin for asparagus? Asparagus. Wow. What a stretch. Let's see how many times I have to fend off that one guy tonight...

Updates of Various Kinds

Last was productive. How, you ask? My iPod has sucessfully been modified to fit the new software Apple came up with. So now the menu is more organized and there's a a couple more CDs on it... Mannheim Steamroller, yay. And I am ecstatic.

My brother Chris has recently gotten a job and better TiVo hardware, so he is at least happier than he was a couple of weeks ago. (Chris isn't known for his joyous personality.)

Need to pick up "Lord of the Flies" from the library before it gets checked out again...

But otherwise, I just felt like typing something. And now... On to the algebra! ( Insert a *w00t!* here.)

Current Mood: Quite content, thank you so very much.

Random Useless Fact of the Day: My dog, Beans, has discovered the couch and won't get off unless we make her. Little stubborn punk. And I changed the layout, by the way. I just felt like it. Got tired of the Minima thing.

A Field Study: Teenagers

Tonight should be really interesting (read: Hey! I actually have a subject! Go me!). I'm going to type up a field study of teenagers, as I saw them tonight at the youth program thingy. Being homeschooled, I don't know very much about my peers. I live a rather sheltered life compared to some, and speak a different language (read: better vocabulary than most teens), and live in a different culture.

The first thing I did was ride a large capacity vehicle, along with my objects of study. Most of these teens were male, wearing baggy clothes and baseball caps. There were a few females- the type that seemed more concerned with makeup and/or athletic events than with living a productive life. Unlike the males, in whose pants you could store more than one person (heaven forbid), the females were wearing clothes that looked rather tight, and must've been cold, since it was snowing at the time.

I arrived at large, open area, known as a 'gym' to most who saw these structures on a daily basis. There were packs of teenagers here, and the ones riding on the bus with me immediately tried to locate their friends. Most of the males were either swaggering around with females with them (they seem to pair off quite early). There were two very large packs, both of which were playing a game with a spherical object and two hoops. (They call this "Basketball".) I presumed that this was a game too out of my knowledge to play, and didn't feel any compuction to join in. Instead, I watched both packs from the sidelines.

One of the packs was mostly males, but a few females were playing along halfheartedly as the boys scored basket after basket. (Watching them come your way in one large stampede is something I wouldn't wish on anyone.) In the other end of the gym, a smaller group, this one mostly made up of females, was playing basketball as well, although they often paused to yell at one another in play or exasperation, or so I think. Many minor groups were strewn around the place. Most of those were made up of girls with a couple of boys, or of a few boys and a couple of girls. You could tell which males were the dominants, as they had the baggiest jeans and a female on the arm. I think that these were the so-called "popular kids". A few males were sitting on top of the bleachers, either listening to music players or talking amongst themselves. I think that these were the less dominant males, as they didn't make any move to join in the games or socialize with the females. There were few female stragglers.

A few minutes of watching on the sidelines lead a one of the lesser males to sit next to me, asking "What's up?" and getting a bit too close for my liking. For this, I simply told him about my older brothers, who I knew would object strongly to his getting too close to their little sister. The male backed off and went to join one of the games.

A couple of minutes later, the adult leaders came in. It was obvious that these were the most dominant of the entire pack, as when the bald one stepped up they all obediantly jogged over to listen to his instructions. His instructions turned out to be his rules of playing dodgeball.

It was then I began to understand the ruthlessness of teens when it comes to dodgeball. They slam into others, they smack each other with hard objects, and they attempt to generally cause pain, or at least embarassment. The game lasted for at least fifteen minutes. When all of the teens that played were a little tired and sweaty, the bald leader (at least, he seemed to be the leader, since he was the one telling people what to do) spoke to the pack, giving advice for life. It was obvious that most of the teenagers seemed to respect the bald one, since he came down to their level and spoke in a language they understood (you see, teenagers are quite simple when it comes to communication. At least to me).

After this time of speaking, the bald leader said that the teens were free do go eat food, which was graciously given to all of us by other adults. The waiting was now on to see who could reach the shuttle bus first, thus getting a seat. I was one of the lucky ones to get on the first bus. It was a short ride, but I think that all of the yelling caused by the teenagers' confusion will result in a more ferocious headache.

Conclusions? Teenagers might seem simple on the surface, but underneath is a complex and very confusing society. I think that this should grant another look, perhaps in different surroundings, or in smaller or larger groups. (Even though going with a larger group might just produce more of the same.)

Current Mood: Geeky

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Even though it's snowing, I get no snow day. If there's a foot or two of snow outside, I get no snow day. Sigh.

Sorry, We're Closed.

Heh, I've been a bad blogger. No updates for a week. Nothing really has actually been happening, so I thought, "Why bother? My life is boring, why would people want to read about that?"

So yeah. Have to be at church at 5:30 tomorrow evening for choir practice... Better take some aspirin because I know I'm going to have a headache. Why shouldn't I? I've had a headaches running rampant for the past few days... But that's why God made Excedrin.

I did laundry and the dishes voluntarily. I must've had a useful streak. Now that doesn't happen too often. (You're not allowed to answer that one, Phil.)

Current Mood: Productive, maybe? Nah.

Random Useless Fact of the Day: I think my mother is becoming more and more geekified. She was looking at iPod Shuffles and is apparently interested... (That's right, come over to the Dark Side, Mom.)

And By The Way: I changed the title of this blog. I just felt like it...

Kids? Do I Have to?!

If there's one thing in this world that can annoy me, it's little kids. I mean, sure, they're not going to be as disciplined or quiet as the average teenager. But they just annoy me. I'm not sure why, so don't ask. Yeah, there are a few kids that I actually like (my cousins, and about five others from church). But the rest? No. Just no.

Take tonight, for example. Mercifully, I had Pixel the pug to do her tricks, et cetera, but the little girl I was watching had no idea whatsoever of what to do around dogs. She wanted to play really rough with Pixel, fiddle around with her tail (which is asking for Pixel give a person one of her 'leggomytail!' bites), and then proceeded to scream and whine when Pixel got riled up. (As the wise prophet would exclaim when a person riles up a dog and said dog goes nuts... "Well, duh!") Then this girl decides to try to chase Beans, my Boston terrier, around the house when Beans really, really doesn't want to be messed with. So yeah. When someone messes around with my dogs (especially eight-year-old Beans who hates strangers), I get somewhat ticked.

I'm just not sure why I get so irate around little kids. They're cute, right? The pride and joy of their parents' lives, right? Maybe I spend too much time with animals (you try to cut down on it and..well... I'll take shelter in the Humane Society shed) and that inhibits various relationships with various kids, but I doubt that's it. Maybe I'm just not cut out to be a babysitter.

Current Mood: Tired

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Found a cool website... These guys crack open an iPod mini and show all the little different parts. Yeah, I'm a dork.

Little iPod? Ooh!

Ever since I first saw my brother's first iPod (the one that's now mine), I have been fascinated with all sorts of MP3 players. Mostly, the iPod itself. A couple of days ago I found that Chris's wife, Christine, has ordered an iPod Shuffle. Yeah, the one that's tinier than a pack of gum. I think it's because she needed, like, a USB storage device or something... I think. But then, I don't know what the heck I'm talking about when it comes to computers so I'm just going to shut up about the really technical stuff.

So yeah. Now there's three of us: Chris, myself, and Christine. We're rapidly becoming the Aliance of White Earbuds. Or something like that. With me it's headphones more often because earbuds kind of irritate the cartilage in my ears if I wear 'em too long. But I like them well enough.

Current Mood: Slightly headache-y

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Mom got a new watch. Took long enough for her old one to conk out...

Meh...

My life? Is boring. Ah, well. Guess it'll get interesting sooner or later...

Wednesday was sort of an interesting day. One of the staff members at the Humane Society quit, and the others really needed help. So Mom and I marched right up there at 8:30 in the morning and cleaned things. The only real issue was that at 10:30, there would be camera crews. Why? Because this one organization knitted a bunch of dog beds and those (very nice!) folks donated them to us. And of course, it had to be done on television. So the camera dudes came as Mom was sticking the last blanket in the last dog cage while the camera was running. She was backing out, and, well, I'll say no more. She'd probably kill me, and I'm not allowed to die until at least the end of Bible Bowl Nationals...

In other news, I think we've found a good way to make some money for the Bible Bowl team. There's this dog agility thing around the county, and they need to staff up the events. Good news? For one day of really simple tasks (setting up jumps, carrying leashes, etc.) the team gets paid $150. If we can keep that up for a few days, that'd really cut hotel costs... So yeah, I'm excited about that.

Current Mood: Yawning

Random Useless Fact of the Day: The only really bad thing about drawing with charcoal is that it gets all over your hands. It's worse than oil pastels... And no, I'm not talking about the kind of charcoal one uses to light one's grill.

Super?Bowl

Yes, the question mark is supposed to be there. I didn't watch a whole lot of the Super Bowl on Sunday. I did see the halftime show, though. Plus a few commercials, but those weren't all that funny aside from the one Cadillac commercial. (You know... the "Don't market convertibles in the middle of winter in St. Louis or anywhere else but Jamaica" one...) Sir Paul McCartney (did I spell that right?) was pretty good. Nifty stage and lighting work...

As for the actual football game, I didn't really care. I'm not that much of a football person in the first place, unless the Rams pull off some decent plays and win an actual game. Otherwise, I just don't care. So why should I get all hyped up because of the Pats and Eagles crashing into each other in one of the coldest months of the year, just to have to stop every thirty seconds? That's one thing I don't get. Why does the actual playing time of a football game total about five minutes? Tch. Boring. Give me baseball or a good horse race any day.

Current Mood: Blank

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Dr. Death-vet struck again this morning... Friends of ours had to put their dog to sleep because she was getting more aggressive than was advisable... I swear, the dude needs, and I quote my brother Phil on this one, "a black cloak and a scythe."

'Twas the Day Before Bible Bowl...

And after this post I'm probably going to go study with my friend Luke daGospel. This month it's chapters 13-17, and they're not very long so this might be an interesting competition. Dang. My team always gets stuck in the upper division with the high schoolers so we always get pretty well spanked during the actual rounds. If I had to be there at all (which I do...) then I'd just take the Top Brain Test and leave. I'm good on that test, regardless of the fact that it's 150 questions. Erk. Not that fun. Tomorrow I think my team's going 16 rounds, so we'll be pretty well bushed, drat. Need to remember to pack a few asperin pills... Harvester is stuck with devotions (a five-minute thingy and a prayer) this month, so I think Tyler (you can find his blog at tyhuze.blogspot.com) is going to do that. I wonder if he's sticking around for the games. I'm not sure that he will; Bible Bowl is a great game to play but if you don't know what's going on, then it's the most boring sport in the world to be watching. I'm not sure Tyler's ever even seen a match in his life... Education time, hee hee.

Well, at least my team should be getting Dairy Queen as usual. It's a reward for doing however well we did. DQ is also a tool to salvage our wounded dignity. Need to remind Dad to make coffee in the morning... Chosen starts on Sunday, w00t.

Current Mood: A little stressed

Random Useless Fact of the Day: Steven Curtis Chapman rocks.