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.