Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Clever Luke
(To paraphrase a bit)

"So, what you do is find three skunks. You label the first one One the second one Two and the third one Four. Then you let them loose in the school."

Take a minute and think about it.
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Busy. *dash* Busy. *run* Busy. *Flee*
Yikes. More busy-ness again. It's still not at the point where I'm freaking out about it; well, I never really freak out about these things, but I'm feeling the strain of keeping things in line.

I've got rehearsal tonight fro 6:30-8:30, but, I will miss most of it because I have "conditioning" for Fencing. Basically, I think it's going to be an evening of running, and footwork, and more running. And stuff. It'll probably be good for me, in any case. That goes from 6:00-8:00, so I'll have a half hour to go to rehearsal. I think Lisa (the stage manager) will be there tonight, so my presence isn't actually required. I just like to go. :p

Dudley!
Victoria went to Maine this past weekend for a family vacation, and she brought me back a stuffed moose! ^_^ It's small and furry and adorable and....his name is Dudley. :p

She handed him to me this morning before we went to homeroom. And I was reminded *cough* I still haven't given Christina the moose I got her while I was in Maine. >_>;;

Things I've Left to Do
I have a major Theology Assignment due on Friday, involving lots of little activities based on the papal document: Spiritus Paraclitus.

The document is 19 pages long, printed, single-spaced. v_v;;

I have to find 25 difficult words and define them.

I have to find ten quotes, and write about them. (Significance, how I can relate to them, etc.)

Then I need to come up with 30 reading questions whose answers can be found in the document.

Lastly, I need to write my opinion of the document. Did I find it easy to read, or hard? Did I like or dislike it? Why?

I have a paper due Monday for History, but that should not be much of a problem. We are provided with the documents to use as references. Last time, I wrote a paper that he read out in front of the class, and I did that one the night before. =p

I have Pre-Calculus homework, but if all else fails I can do it tomorrow during Off.

I have to write out Psychology flash cards, but I don't have Psych tomorrow, so it's not terribly pressing.

Umm...

Work on hero. I must get that done. Shy's right, I've had over a month now. Time to get cracking. >=\

Well, actually. It's time for dinner. >.>;;
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Tuesday, October 12, 2004

   Not impossible....inevitable.
Okay, so. I have a moment of triumph that is sure to be short-lived. Just before I started writing this, I checked the member list for MyO. Guess who occupied the space above Arcadia. Go ahead, guess.


Okay, you're wrong! It was me! >:o

Oh...wait. Maybe you were right. Whatever. For that moment (not necessarily this moment) I was ahead by one space. The rivalry lives on! >:D

So, I've got PSATs tomorrow. No big deal. All of my morning classes are wiped out, and I get to take a nice long series of tests. Whoo hoo! My only two classes are Honors Pre-Calculus, in which we're not doing anything particularly special, and Honors English III. That class is quite unpredictable, so we may wind up having an exam or something. :p

Hopefully, he'll give us our theses back so that we can see if we're on the right track for this next paper. In Off today I tossed together a very slipshod thesis about how Common Sense was a catalyst in getting America to begin the Revolution. This next Unit did not provide many options to write about. =/

Today at lunch John and I dueled, with quite the annoying audience interfering. John loaned me his Egyptian god card, Obelisk the Tormentor, and he used Slifer the Sky Dragon. He actually managed to draw Slifer from his deck and summon it, which would have spelled out big trouble for me.

That is, if I didn't destroy it.

Twice. XD

I wound up beating John without ever even drawing Obelisk, let alone bringing him into play. My deck kept me with plenty of monsters on the field to offer for Obelisk's summoning and effect, but I simply did not draw him. o-O' But, yeah. Whatever. I pwned his Slifer.

Rehearsal tonight went well. I started writing down where people should be and when, as well as their little movements on stage. Fulfilling one of my few duties as Assistant Stage Manager makes me feel like I'm not just an extra set of hands. :p

I've got "conditioning" tomorrow night for fencing. I'm not sure what they mean by it, but I'm sure not going to miss out. Matt's not particularly looking forward to it, as it more than likely requires effort. He was a bit shocked to find that he may actually have to leave his house after 3:00 in the afternoon. =p He really has no life, I guess.

Mmmm, random other stuffs. I'm waiting for an e-mail back from Victoria, because she apparently knows something about the Christina-James incident that I do not. We recently filled out a survey-ish thing that recounted our history together. Fun fun fun...

Amanda smelled me a couple of times tonight. O_o Apparently I smelled nice, despite wearing no extraneous chemicals and not showering for a day or so. >.>;; She was happy to see I was involved in the play, I guess, and rehearsal was made funner. =p

I have letters to write, and RPGs to dust off and return to. My room could use a good cleaning. I could use a haircut. I had Subway for dinner. Cafeteria food is mediocre and the prices are outrageous.

I'm off to bed.
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Monday, October 11, 2004

   Okay, so....
Right. Homecoming. You probably all want to hear about it. :p

*rewinds memory of the past few days*

Bzzzzzzt. *STOP*

Mmmmmmm, donut.

...


Not far enough. ^-^;;

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt. *STOP*

Okay, Saturday evening. I was the only one in the house, for one reason or another. I took a shower, shaved, and got dressed in a spiffy blue denim shirt and vanilla khakis. I was hot stuff. ~_^

Christina needed a ride to Homecoming, because her mom was sick and didn't want to drive her unless she absolutely had to. So, as has been the norm recently, we gave Christina a ride. She was dressed in a stylish pink dress and had a wonderful pink shawl wrapped around her shoulders. *le sigh*

My mom had insisted on finishing a movie before we had actually left to pick up Christina, and so Christina and I were both about fifteen minutes late. Fashionably late, in other words. ~_^

There was already a ton of people there. The corridor outside of the cafeteria was lit up, and there were a bunch of tables with assorted snacks and drinks on them. Inside the cafeteria, it was very dim, with multicolored lights swirling everywhere and a DJ pumping music out through a number of large speakers.

For the rest of the night I traveled from friend to friend, pretty much. I danced with Amanda, then I talked with John, I danced with Megan, and I talked to Zach and his date, etc. etc.

Dance Toll: (because I know you're all interested :p)

Amanda
Megan (slow song)
Raine (slow song)
Christina (slow song)

I also danced with little groups of people I knew. I felt rather foolish, but my friends were all doing it too, so it was not terrible. In particular, I danced with my Freshman friends (Tyler, Christina, Paul, Raine, Hannah, Ivan, etc.) because my Junior friends don't dance. XD

Truth be told, that was probably the first time I danced...um...not-slow, for lack of a better description. "Fast" wouldn't exactly be accurate, because I didn't really move all that fast. So, yeah. It was great fun. ^-^

Megan kept on randomly tackle-hugging me throughout the night, covering me with glitter from the front of her dress. She had invited a friend from another school along, and ran her ragged from one place to another. Megan's rather...excitable, and ditzy. :p

I'd have to say, though, that I spent the majority of the night with Raine. We had a blast, heh. We kept trying to get her friend Hannah to dance, and Raine kept forcing people to stoop so that she could rest her elbows on their shoulders. The shoulder-elbow thing is a big inside joke for us. It's hard to explain. =p

She kept trying to get me to ask this guy named Brendan for his screen name. We walked around the throng of people dancing in front of the DJ a couple of times, bringing us close to Brendan each time. I warned her the first time she dragged me around: "If you make me go over there, I will yell 'Raine likes Brendan'."

I guess she didn't believe me. ~_^

She forced me across the room with her, and so I shouted out: "Raine likes Brendan!" Immature, yes. But I get like that sometimes. There's something, I don't know what it is, but sometimes this outrageous sense of humor surfaces in me and I do things like that.

Raine was frantic, and dragged me back to the other side of the crowd. I then proceeded to tell her (at a high volume) that nobody could hear me. Or even if they did, they didn't care because they didn't know me. Or if they did know me, they didn't care what I was saying anyways. I had her doubled over in laughter with some of the things I said (again in full volume against the music). It was great fun. :D




Oh yeah...

Remember how I said Christina was going with somebody else to Homecoming? 0:)

She was with him (James) for the first half hour, maybe. She figured that they were there together, so perhaps she should stay with him. Her "big sister" Morgan (a Senior girl who is supposed to help Christina through Freshman year) forcefully encouraged her to stay with James.



Then, he tried grinding* with her.


To grossly paraphrase a quote: "Hell hath no fury like a woman [who has had a guy try to grind with her.]"

She was very angry, and pointedly ignored and avoided James for the rest of the evening. I don't know if she yelled at him or anything, but she ranted at me for a while. She went on about how he was such a jerk and how she never really wanted to go with him in the first place, and how he kept telling everybody they were going out. She was really steamed. >_>;;


She ended by saying that next dance, she's going with me. ^_^;;

Sadly, the night came to a close. A wonderful evening of fun and dancing done and was over with. The lights sprang on and the crowd dispersed. Christina, Paul, and I helped with the cleaning and stowing away of leftover materials. Christina and I went outside and found my grandfather waiting to take us home.

It was a fantastic night, and I had a great time. ^-^

*Grinding is an unsophisticated modern dancing style which involves two or more partners rubbing their bodies on one another in a sexual manner



Now, for the present. I have homework to be doing, including an English thesis! *shriek of terror*
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Sunday, October 10, 2004

And he said:
Quite the variety of movies on tonight. John Q, which is a great movie with Denzel Washington. Quick summary: "John Quincy Archibald's son Michael collapses while playing baseball as a result of a heart failure. Immediately, John Q. rushes Michael to the hospital's emergency room for a transplant. Unfortunately, the insurance would not cover his son's transplant. So in order for Michael's quick and complete recovery, John takes the emergency room hostage until the doctors agree to get the transplant successfully."

And then, on Fox Family channel, we have Clockstoppers. Slightly longer review: "Jesse Bradford stars as Zak Gibbs, an ordinary fun-loving teenager who has communication problems with his father, gifted scientist Dr Gibbs (Robin Thomas). One of Dr Gibbs' old students, the brilliant Earl Dopler (French Stewart) sends him a device to look at - a wristwatch that can place its wearer and those in contact with him into 'hypertime', with their molecules traveling so fast that everyone else appears to be standing still. Dopler is in fact working, under some duress, for a company run by the ambitious and sinister Gates (Michael Biehn) who has high hopes for the financial potential inherent in the device once the final flaws are fixed.

Zak borrows it unknowingly while his father is away at a conference, and is most surprised when the world seems to stop around him as a result of his fiddling with the watch. He and his girlfriend Francesca (Paula Garces) go on a spree of pulling pranks using the device, however they do not know about Gates or that his people have access to hypertime. Those people want the watch and Dr Gibbs as well, because he may be able to solve its final problems - and they will stop at nothing to get them both.

'Clockstoppers' is a cheerful adolescent sci-fi romp mixing the fun one can have with a time-stopping device with standard 'evade-the-bud-guys' action. The science behind the concept shouldn't be examined too closely, as the plot glosses easily over most of the technical questions - it's probably best not to think about the film too hard. Instead the film prefers to focus on the action, with the help of outstanding special effects and spectacular car chases. There is little depth to the film's plot or characters, but the constant development of the action does provide a fair bit of entertainment."

And then I've got Rain Man waiting in the wings. I borrowed it from the library today because I've heard that it's a good movie. I also borrowed Matrix Revolutions, which I've already watched. It's a good day for movies, with no school tomorrow.

I'd tell you about Homecoming, but these movies have got my attention and I couldn't do it justice if I'm distracted. I'll tell you one thing, though. It was incredibly awesome. ^-^
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Saturday, October 9, 2004

   Midwifery thingummyabob
My mom's a Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM) and apparently this week was National Midwifery Week, or some such thing. There was a bit of a party being held at the hospital where she works, and quite naturally I was dragged along to attend. :p

Anyways, they had tons of free stuff being handed out: pens, tissue boxes, fliers, books, etc.

There was a poster/paper-esque thingy that I saw, though. The passage (or whatever you want to call it) written on it I have seen before, and I've always liked it. It goes like this:

Children Learn What They Live

If children live with criticism, They learn to condemn.

If children live with hostility, They learn to fight.

If children live with ridicule, They learn to be shy.

If children live with shame, They learn to feel guilty.

If children live with tolerance, They learn to be patient.

If children live with encouragement, They learn confidence.

If children live with praise, They learn to appreciate.

If children live with fairness, They learn justice.

If children live with security, They learn to have faith.

If children live with approval, They learn to like themselves.

If children live with acceptance and friendship, They learn to find love in the world.

*sniff* Gets to me every time. ^_^'

Now, I'm off to do other things. I've got to shower and shave and stuff before Homecoming.

I'll try to get in an update when I get home, but I may be too tired to do it tonight. You'll all just have to wait. :p
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Friday, October 8, 2004

Homecoming Game and such.
Today was an okay day, for the most part. Classes were shortened because of our Pep Rally we had at the end of the day, so they weren't totally unbearable. =p

The Pep Rally itself was great. ^_^ Normally our Pep rallies are stupid, with a demonstration by the cheerleaders and random other inter-class activities. So, yeah. Pretty lame.

But today's; today's was good. ^_^

The inter-class activity was a game of volleyball. A certain number of volunteers from each class were called down to the floor and competed against the other classes. The winning class went on to face the faculty. :0!

And the faculty won! (Due in part to some shady dealing, I'm sure) o.<

After all of the planned events and such were over, the Student Council simply opened up the floor to anybody who wanted to dance. We had a local radio station handling the music, and so we had some good and loud music. At first, it was just a bunch of cheerleaders dancing about. Then some more people went down and joined them. Then some more, and more, and more, until all manner of people were jumping up and down to the music.

What was great, though, was when the good dancers got to the floor. Sickened at how those already on the floor were performing, they showed them how to really dance. A couple of these kids were really great dancers, and had great control over their bodies. Like Michael Jackson-ish control.

To top it all off, though, one of the Seniors went down and did a rapid series of back flips across the gym. I don't think anybody realized he was capable of doing something like that, but it was pretty darn cool. :D


This evening, I went to the Homecoming game and had a great time. I hung out with all of my Freshman friends that I'd not seen for a long time. Christina, Paul, Tyler, Ivan, Isabelle, and some of their new friends that I hadn't met yet. A great time was had by all. Our team absolutely devastated the visitors, winning 41-0. Which is great, because for a number of years our team hasn't been all that great.

After the game, we went to a huge bonfire being put on up on the hill over the football field. The radio station had a table set up there and was blaring music out for all to hear. The fire was its usual impressive self, and people danced the night away as the fire slowly burned to sparkling cinders.

I got a bunch of hugs tonight, heh. Amanda is always glad to see me, and grabbed me almost as soon as she saw me. Jane, one of Amanda's friends who no longer goes to St. Bernard's, saw me and ran over to give me a hug. Later on, Megan tackled me in the midst of dancing and dragged me away by the arm. She and I watched the fire for a little bit, and then held hands as we walked around all of the crazy dancing people. ^_^;;

Oh, and by the way, I bought my ticket to Homecoming today at lunch. This'll be the first Homecoming dance I've been to in my three years at St. Bernard's, and the second dance in total. (The only other dance I went to was a fund-raiser for my class that I helped organize and set up)







ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz.......



*shakes himself awake*

Oy. I'm thoroughly worn out. I was up to 1:15 this morning writing my English paper. It did get done, though, and I think it was done acceptably well. What seemed like an unkindness was when Mr. Lamoureux informed us that the thesis for our next paper was due on Tuesday. (We don't have class on Monday :p)

Gah. Tired-ness and happiness. I love my friends and my school.
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Thursday, October 7, 2004

   *typing furiously, of couse*
Heh. It's now 11:11 and I've still not got my paper done. I'm not worried, though, as I'm actually making fairly good time. I only worked on the paper from about 4-6, and I've been working on it since I got home at 9. So, four hours of work ahs gotten be 4 pages of paper. I think I can up the speed a bit, and I'll have the paper done in what seems like no time.

Heh, then come the Psychology questions and other neglected homework. =p

I wrote my Reaction paper for Theology today in my Off period. For our Reaction papers, our class is given a copy of an article from a newspaper or a magazine. Then, we summarize and interpret the message of the article, stating our opinion of it. The first paper we did had to do with the terrorists in Russia, holding the children hostage. The one I did today was concerned with teenage drivers, and their high-speed deaths.

I went to rehearsal tonight and had a great time. ^_^ I think it was well worth the time it took away from writing my paper. I may not be in agreement with that come tomorrow morning when I get up, but....eh. I got to see some of my friends, which was really cool. ^_^

Christina was still hanging about the school after a soccer game, I guess. In a break we had during the rehearsal, Christina and some other Freshman were talking about Homecoming. Some boy in their class had asked Christina to the dance and paid for her ticket. On our way back into the auditorium, she told me that if she hadn't been asked, she would have gone with me. ^_^;;

*thwaps self*

Why can't I be just a bit more assertive? :p

Anyways. Paper. Yeah. *flees*


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Operation English Paper
Objective: Research and complete a 6-10 page English paper.

Ideal length of time required: 3-4 hours.

Actual Length of time required: ???

I've got another rehearsal tonight, so hopefully I can get a good amount of the paper done before then, and then finish it when I get back from the rehearsal.

Alrighty. Six to ten pages....

GO!
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Wednesday, October 6, 2004

   Dude, ow.
Yeah. I've got a lot of stuff due in a very small space of time, yet again. I'm very good at trapping myself in corners like this. Ergh. It can't be healthy, missing this much sleep because of this much stress.

I've got an English paper due Friday, with almost no work done on it yet. I have a Theology paper due Friday, which, while not requiring a heck of a lot of effort, will take precious time away from the English paper.

I also have Psychology homework question due on Friday, which will also take precious time.

I have rehearsal again tomorrow night for the play. I missed tonight's rehearsal because I was busy working on homework that was due earlier today. I didn't have it done for today because it was a large assignment and I went to rehearsal last night instead.

Oy, oy, oy, oy, oy, oy, oy.

And I'm sure that there are other assignments due that I've forgotten about, or simply have not gotten yet. Joy to the freaking world. T_T

I spent nearly my whole afternoon working on this one history assignment. Simply because, I could not focus. Yet again.

Sometime after nine, I came up with a sort of temporary solution. I put on sunglasses, which dull the colors of everything in my room, thus making all the colorful stuff less appealing (and making the white stuff stand out, i.e. area around text). Also, I toss in my earplugs to block out much of the noise from downstairs and the clacking of my keys, which may in some way contribute to...something.

*heavy sigh*

I'd really like to write about something interesting, but I'm just...swamped right now.

Interesting things to think about:

I've played John four times with two different decks. Twice with one, and twice with the other. The first duel with each deck, John totally wiped me out. The second time around, my decks begin to work with their theme and I start tearing John apart. Unfortunately, the bell rings before the duels' completion. =/ Bleh. I so would have beaten him both times.

The Homecoming game is Friday, and the dance is Saturday. I'll probably be going to the game, but I'm undecided concerning the dance. I haven't gone in the past two years, and I don't think many/any of my close friends are going. Considering, you know, how social we all are. =p

Again, oy.

I need a vacation.

EDIT: I just remembered. Next week is "Give Ben a Freaking Break!" week. I have Monday Off, and PSATS take up half of my day on Wednesday. Only two major assignments in sight that week, and I'm not worried about them.

Slightly cool. Now I just need to survive until then.
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