Monday, May 10, 2004

   Various Variations....

Your Years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Name
Age
House	GryffindorHufflepuffRavenclawSlytherin
Family Line	MugglebornHalf-BloodPure-Blood
Dated	All the Popular Girls
You are well known for	Your family name
Percentage of student body you shagged - 0%
How do the staff and students feel about you	*giggle blush*
This QuickKwiz by lady_ameily - Taken 49519 Times.

Your Years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Name
Age
House	GryffindorHufflepuffRavenclawSlytherin
Family Line	MugglebornHalf-BloodPure-Blood
Dated	All the Popular Guys
You are well known for	Dating someone famous
Percentage of student body you shagged - 96%
How do the staff and students feel about you	*giggle blush*
This QuickKwiz by lady_ameily - Taken 49522 Times.

Your Years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Name
Age
House	GryffindorHufflepuffRavenclawSlytherin
Family Line	MugglebornHalf-BloodPure-Blood
Dated	Pansy Parkinson
You are well known for	Subduing Peeves, YAY!!!
Percentage of student body you shagged - 52%
How do the staff and students feel about you	They LOVE you
This QuickKwiz by lady_ameily - Taken 49523 Times.

Your Years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Name
Age
House	GryffindorHufflepuffRavenclawSlytherin
Family Line	MugglebornHalf-BloodPure-Blood
Dated	Tom Riddle
You are well known for	Excelling in Quidditch
Percentage of student body you shagged - 21%
How do the staff and students feel about you	Ahhh!! I want to have your babies!!
This QuickKwiz by lady_ameily - Taken 49523 Times.

Your Years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Name
Age
House	GryffindorHufflepuffRavenclawSlytherin
Family Line	MugglebornHalf-BloodPure-Blood
Dated	Lucius Malfoy
You are well known for	Your family name
Percentage of student body you shagged - 1%
How do the staff and students feel about you	They HATE you
This QuickKwiz by lady_ameily - Taken 49523 Times.

Heh, a reflection of last year, that last one.

Your Years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Name
Age
House	GryffindorHufflepuffRavenclawSlytherin
Family Line	MugglebornHalf-BloodPure-Blood
Dated	Lily Evans
You are well known for	Your family name
Percentage of student body you shagged - 98%
How do the staff and students feel about you	Will you Marry me?!?!!
This QuickKwiz by lady_ameily - Taken 49525 Times.

The things I do to procrastinate....

Your Years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Name
Age
House	GryffindorHufflepuffRavenclawSlytherin
Family Line	MugglebornHalf-BloodPure-Blood
Dated	Sirius Black
You are well known for	Being the youngest Seeker after Harry Potter. Go you!!
Percentage of student body you shagged - 53%
How do the staff and students feel about you	Huh?Who's that?
This QuickKwiz by lady_ameily - Taken 49527 Times.

Comments (1) | Permalink

   Uh-huh.....

Your Years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Name
Age
House	GryffindorHufflepuffRavenclawSlytherin
Family Line	MugglebornHalf-BloodPure-Blood
Dated	Draco Malfoy
You are well known for	Subduing Peeves, YAY!!!
Percentage of student body you shagged - 57%
How do the staff and students feel about you	Huh?Who's that?
This QuickKwiz by lady_ameily - Taken 48951 Times.

57%, that's the percentage of girls at the school, I'm sure. >_>

Draco? Maybe I have a thing for Dark wizards...

That part for the teachers is spot on, however.
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Saturday, May 8, 2004

Grrr....angry...
I went to the Duelist League this morning. Right off of the back, I was engaged in a three-on-three duel. Me, Mark, and John versus another group of friends.

John got wiped out fairly early. The other guys had gotten out Jinzo and Spell Canceller, which pretty much locked us up. John couldn't cope.

I took out the Spell Canceller with my Archfiend Soldier, which left only Jinzo to worry about. They pounded on Mark for a while, and then I wiped out all of their monsters with Dark Hole. Eventually Mark was wiped out, and it was just me versus the three of them. I played my Spirit Reaper, a card that is all but indestructible. Then, I took control of a Dark Necrofear and plowed it into the one guy's Jinzo. That destroyed Dark Necrofear and let me take control of the Jinzo.

On the next turn, one of the guys copied my move with another Dark Necrofear. Jinzo was back on their side. I managed to stall for a few more turns, but eventually I was wiped out as well. John and Mark were astounded at how much longer I lasted alone against the three of them. The other guys were rather impressed, too. Three on one, with my Traps suspended. Not too shabby.

I traded a few of my doubles to get two Cat of Ill Omens, and two Royal Magical Library's. I traded one of the Cats and a King Tiger Wanghu for three Compulsory Evacuation Devices. I was going to duel again, but time ran out before the man was done playing.

I also traded to get a Guardian Sphinx, which is an incredibly good card. It can totally clear an opponent's field of monsters. I also traded for a Ring of Destruction.

Now, the reason for my anger.

7 cards were stolen from me. Their total value is $46.65, approximately.

The Guardian Sphinx, gone. The three CEDs, gone. My Airknight Parshath, my Mefist the Infernal General, and my Ring of Destruction. All gone. Stolen.

I think I know who did it, too. One of the three kids I had been dueling earlier was checking out Mefist, and I never actually saw him put the card back. *sigh* Today I had brought in all of my rare cards to see if I could trade them. I don't think I'm going to do something like this again.

I'm heading out at around 2:30 to go out to lunch with the cast and crew of Godspell, and I'll setting up for the play until it starts at 7:30. Where I'll be or what I'm doing after that I don't know.

I went out and further broke an old, partially broken fence when I found out that the cards were missing. I was livid. I'm still rather upset about it. If by some coincidence the kid shows up next week with the same cards that I'm missing, I don't have any qualms about taking them. Forcibly.

No more Mr. Nice Ben. Not when my cards are being stolen.

I think I'll go now, before expletives start showing up.

(Instead of breaking up the quotes, from now on I'm just going to keep them together in all of their crazy [non]sense)

There's an old Scottish saying,
"An unhappy man's cart is easy to overturn."

O-Ren Ishii (Cottonmouth)

You're O-Ren Ishii! Twisted and homicidal, you respect most people, but let them know not to mess with you. You have a talent for sensing danger, and keep only the most loyal and skilled people around you.

Kill Bill: Which Deadly Viper Assassin Are You? (Vol. II spoilers... results with pics)
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Friday, May 7, 2004

Eh..........BOO!
"Where should I begin?"

"At the beginning, you moron."

"Oh, right. That makes sense."

*sigh*

I got up at 5-something this morning in order to be sure that I was ready to go early. I put my contacts in, got changed, and had breakfast with plenty of time to spare. I climbed onto the couch for a nap while I waited for my sister to wake up.

She woke up, and 40 minutes after I had lain down to snooze, she was ready to go. We left maybe five minutes earlier than we normally would. =/

I managed to stay awake today through all of my classes. Not so much as a lazy eyelid. ^_^

Algebra II was first, and awesome. :D We watched Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Or at least as much as we could in the period. I'm a bit lost as to what we're doing in class, though. =P

I've got a couple questions to do, and a test coming up.

English wasn't bad. We got the rest of our vocabulary work done, but we still need the correct answers from Mrs. Fitzgerald.

History was fairly run-of-the-mill. I've got vocab to do for Monday, and a test then too.

French we spent going over the questions we received about Cyreno DeBergerac and discussing Godspell. That took most of the period, and we were given the rest of the period for ourselves.

In Off, I typed up an article summary for Theology. It wouldn't print on the computer I had typed it on, so I had to borrow a disk from the librarian to get it to another one. I printed it out and left.

Upon reaching the cafeteria, I realized that I never took the summary from the printer. =/ So, I speed walked back to the library, grabbed the paper, and went back to the cafeteria.

Ben's Yu-Gi-Oh Update!

I dueled John twice today. I beat him the first time, rather badly, I'd say. I let him continue to play about 11 turns after I could have beaten him. For about 4 of those turns, he had no monsters on the field, and my weakest monster could have wiped out his LifePoints. Then he started a minor comeback, destroying all but one of the monsters with a Mirror Force.

I decided to beat him a turn or two later. He got lucky and pulled out his Summoned Skull, and then powered up his other monster, Gazelle the Mythical King of Beasts. He attacked my Forgiving Maiden with Summoned Skull, and I cut it's attack in half with my Mirror Wall Trap. The difference in their stat strengths wiped him out.

We started up another duel, but the bell rang before we could finish. He was livid, as he had gotten a pretty good draw that time.

In Chemistry we had a quiz. Mr. Woodmansee says I got one wrong and got a ninety, but I think there's been some mistake. Not out of arrogance, mind you, but I was just very sure of all of my answers, and nobody else managed to get a 100 either. It just made me sort of suspicious, is all.

In Theology we started discussing Capital Punishment, particularly concerning juveniles. Did you know that in some states, it is legal to sentence a 7 year-old to death?

One of the girls in my class is particularly staunch with her position that persons under 18 can't be held fully accountable for their actions. She's irritating about it, though. She'll interrupt someone while they're talking to put in her argument. It bugs me when people do that. Particularly when I want my view expressed. I'd like to sit down and to with her about the issue, I think. I agree that some level of sympathy (for lack of a better word) should be shown to juveniles in court. some of these kids, mental/emotional/social instability or none, they've reached the point where their actions become more than just "not acceptable."

Heh, I didn't mean to go off on a tangent there. (or did I? O.o)

I took the bus home after school, having a nice talk with Anastasia, the cute Freshman girl I mentioned in my last post. We were telling another girl, Mallory, about Godspell. We pretty much concluded that she would just have to see it to understand.

I got my Sacred Heart yearbook today. I don't go to Sacred Heart anymore as a student, but I am an Alumni and I still have friends there. This year's eighth grade class in particular had a lot of my friends in it. Out of 20 kids, ten of them are going to St. Bernard's next year, and three or so are undecided.

Tracey gave me a ride home when she got off of work, and I've been home since then; watching Emily and Michael, my younger sister and brother. My parents couldn't find anyone to watch them, which meant that I couldn't see Godspell tonight.

My mom cheered me up, though. When I asked her if I could go tomorrow night (not really expecting a positive reply) she said yes! She asked me why I wouldn't be able to go, and I reminded her that we had a birthday party to go to. She said that it wouldn't be fair for me not to be able to see the play on either night, and that I could miss the party. ^______^

I really do love this play. It's just awesome.

So, I've spent the past few hours browsing websites, playing games, talking to people on AIM, eating dinner, and reading.

I've posted a Recruitment thread for my new Yu-Go-Oh RPG. I've got a few sign-ups so far, and most of them look great. :) I'm hoping to get more people before I start, though. That, and the thread probably hasn't even been up for a full day yet. :p

I'd like to go to the Duelist League tomorrow, and I need to talk to my parents about it when they come home tonight. I'm thinking that if I toss in the line: "Since I watched the kids tonight" or something like that. That generally works. =P

Okay, I've got plenty more things to talk about, but this post is pretty long already, so I'll stop here.

Topics to discuss later:

Kill Bill Vol. 1
Mother's Day
Sleep (or lack thereof)
English Paper

(almost) ANYTHING YOU WANT TO HEAR ME TALK ABOUT.

There's an old Maori saying,

"A fruit tree which grows on a dunghill..."

"...is sure to flourish."
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Thursday, May 6, 2004

   Oh dear....
I don't get it. I went to bed earlier than normal last night, and I actually fell asleep in a few classes today. I mean, actual sleep. Not just sort of dozing.

Photography wasn't too bad of a class to fall asleep in. Mrs. Kainz was in the dark room working with some other students, so it was alright for me to fall asleep there.

In English, we're watching A Doll's House. When the lights go out, and I'm stuck watching a boring movie, I start to doze. And so I did today. It went a bit further than that, though. At one point, I found myself just barely conscious. It took a great deal of effort to keep from slipping. I eventually forced myself up, though. It was one of the harder things I've had to do today.

My sister absolutely has to get to school early tomorrow, and she convinced my mom to put me on restriction if she's late. Some of it might be due to some things I said. I'm nauseatingly careful about not making any promises to my sister, particularly when time constraints are involved. I can never know for certain how long it will take me to get ready in the morning, or if I'll decide to get up when my alarm goes off.

When I'm barely conscious in the early hours of the morning and there's a loud sounds blaring in my ear, I don't have enough wits about me to think: "Hey, I should get up so Jess isn't late." When I don't promise here anything, she gets infuriated. Similarly, the few foolish times I did say I would be ready early (and wasn't) she was angry at me, and she got my mom angry at me, too.

I've held the opinion since early childhood that my older sister is evil. She's not helping to reshape this opinion.

I really, really want to see Godspell tomorrow, or Saturday, or both. I really love the play, and I know the cast, and I helped build the set. My parents are playing bingo tomorrow night, though, and my sister "conveniently" has other plans, so she can't watch the younger two.

My dad, God bless him, said he would ask around and see if he could find someone to watch them. If he can, I can most likely see the play tomorrow night.

What really sealed my determination to see the play happened today. A pretty Freshman girl walked up to me and asked me if I was going to watch the play this weekend. We've known each other for a little while; we met on the bus and have talked a bit since. I replied: "Of course."

So...yeah... -_-;;

(I don't think I mentioned this, but she's in the play, too.)

If I ever get past Friday, I've already got plans in the mix for Saturday. The Duelist League is convening again on Saturday morning, and Mark and John will be there. I've got all of my cards lined up to trade, and I can rebuild my good deck in no time at all.

My cousin's birthday party is Saturday night, too. That's the reason going to Godspell would be such a problem on this night. Perhaps I can persuade my parents that I am needed on the set. :p

Oy oy oy....Sunday looks to be like my saving grace. Although, if I'm up to it, I should definitely begin working on my English paper. I think the hardest part of this paper is going to be the length. Even with my text manipulation tricks, it should be difficult. Not because I wouldn't know what to write; but sitting still and working for the amount of time required for that would be daunting.

Aye...I must be going now. If I'm restricted, I'll have no chance at seeing Godspell.

Where in the world is Mimmi? ;_;
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Whimsical thought...
Mimmi's MyO is MIA.

Mia is her name, get it?

*laughs*

Wait...her site is missing. *cries*
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Wednesday, May 5, 2004

   Ben, briefly.
My dad told me that he was concerned because of how I've been sleeping. He knows that I'm up late at night walking about the house, and he notices that I doze throughout the day.

So, in an effort to put his mind at rest, I'm going to get to bed early earlier tonight.

Sadly, that means that I will have to shorten this post significantly. : (

I kept nodding off during my first three periods, even after downing about a third of a bottle of flat soda in Photography. It woke me up a bit at first, but the boredom of the movie in English erased any effect the caffeine of the soda had.

Ben's Yu-Gi-Oh Update!

I beat John, and then I beat him again. Score. ~_-

End Yu-Gi-Oh Update.

I missed a good portion of Cyreno de Bergerac while I was at the camp, unfortunately. The last thing I saw was an army officer waving a scarf, and the next thing I know, I'm listening to Cyreno's dying oration, and his recently married cousin is a widow. O.o It's a shame I missed the crucial stuff, considering I'm having a test on it next week. >:p

Left school...blah blah blah, went back to St. Bernard's to help with Godspell at 6:30.

Godspell is going to be fantastic. The music is very vibrant, and the actors and actresses we have sing it very, very well. I can't wait to see it again on Saturday. ^_^

I got home from that, and I posted this. Whoo!

Now I've got to go.

EDIT: Has anyone seen Mimmi? I can't get to her MyO, and it's making me have a nervous reaction. *twitch*

There's an old Yiddish saying,

"Only in dreams..."

"...are carrots like bears."
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Tuesday, May 4, 2004

   Rakes, fights, and snakes, oh my!
I actually had a very good time today at the Hole in the Wall Gang camp. That's surprising, considering we went there to work and not to play. Well, we played a bit. :p

I was grouped with my carbon copy friend Matt, my friend Drew and his girlfriend Valerie, and Kim, the girl I was partnered with for the Plague and Fire of Rome paper. Our chaperone was Mr. Baginski, the Physics and computer teacher. He's kind of short, but very solidly built. Being as he is the wrestling coach, his physique is easily explained.

He told us lame jokes as we raked up leaves. The leaves, we noticed, did not significantly decrease in number as we raked them into the forest. Every time we pulled a rake through the grass to move some leaves, more leaves were brought to the surface. It was a daunting task.

Mr. Baginksi very nearly wiped out the camp's frog population by removing the leaves from the frog pond. He had removed the jelly-encased tadpole eggs in his effort to clear the pool. He picked them up, and after showing them around a bit, he replaced them in the pool. Later on, I found a dead (and decomposing) snake. He picked it up and offered it to Drew, who threw it at Valerie. She shrieked and jumped out of the way, shivering.

While we were raking, we found a sort of rope-wire obstacle area. There were low metal wires held securely taut between sets of trees. The first station, there was one rope to help you get across, and it had a sliding thing that attached it to another wire above you. When you got across, you climbed around the tree trunk to the next station. I made it through without too much trouble.

The second station consisted of another wire, but instead of one movable ropes, this one had three immobile ones. Meh, piece of cake for me.

Then there was a much smaller cable between two tree trunks, where you had to step across without any ropes. About two steps and I was leaning against the second trunk.

Then Matt came barreling into me and knocked my off of the wire. The one and only time I was knocked off of any of the wires in the obstacle course. I got right back on and continued on to the next station.

This one had one long rope that was hitched to the tree at the other end of the wire. It formed a sort of triangle with you, the wire, and the tree. Zip. No problem, once again.

The final station of the obstacle course was a short wire with a rope secured to both trees. Only, there was a good deal of slack to the rope, so you had to either lean one way or the other to use it up. Or, if you were talented, you could bunch it up in your hands and eliminate the need for hazardous leaning. Yeah, that's what I did.

I was the only person who made it through without falling off on their own. I only fell because Matt tackled me. >->;

Another individual station was a long wire that you balanced on using a set of about seven ropes. We went on several people at a time and tried to knock each other off. I was pitted against our Physics teacher, Mr. Baginski, who is also the wrestling coach. He is built like a miniature ox.

He was holding on to one rope to keep his balance, and was systematically pushing everyone off with his free hand. When he reached me, I resisted the shove and kept my balance by using the ropes I had, one in each hand. I tried kicking his feet out from under him, as he had been doing to other students, but to no avail whatsoever. He eventually managed to cause me to lose my balance and fall.

But, my feet stayed on the wire, and my grip tightened about the ropes. I was still on the wire, but at an almost horizontal angle. Everybody was stunned. The feat was particularly astounding because, unlike Mr. Baginski, I am not a particularly small person, nor a very light one.

"Dude, how'd he do that?"

"Did you see that?"

"Whoah!"

Mr. Baginski tried to shake me off, but I managed to pull myself back upright. We went back and forth for a couple of minutes I lost my balance again.

"Dude, he did it again!"

Indeed, I had done it again. I had caught the knotted ends of the ropes and kept my feet on the wire. I knew I couldn't hold my grip much longer, though. I decided to try something different.

Instead of trying to get back up, I wrapped my legs around Mr. Baginski's, trying to jar them loose. Again, he was totally immovable. I eventually lost my footing at the horizontal angle and fell off. It was so much fun.

From then on, whenever somebody tried to imitate my move, it was known as "pulling a Ben."

Shortly after that we got back on the bus and left, eating lunch on the way back to school. We got back about halfway through our last classes, so we were given an Off for the rest of the day.

Ben's Yu-Gi-Oh Update!

I traded John my Newdoria and a card case for 40 common cards that he didn't really want. I didn't mind getting rid of Newdoria or the case, but there were a good deal of cards in that 40 that I didn't have.

John and I dueled when we got back to school. He beat me the first time after having a very good starting hand. We decided to play a Match, however; three duels to determine the outcome of our rankings. Best two out of three.

I beat him the second time by a landslide. He was begging for mercy near the end. And then, I beat him for the second and final time. I had won the Match and the 2nd place title. ^_^ Mark is #1, but I only see him on Saturdays at the League.

I'm using a Light Deck right now, inspired by the two new cards I got; Paladin of White Dragon (and it's Ritual magic card) and a second Airknight Parshath.

It's not as good as my Beatdown decks are, but it's fun to use.

End Yu-Gi-Oh Update.

I had to stay after school today to serve that detention for my shaggy face, which was a complete waste of time. I didn't have any homework, since I had been on a field trip and missed all of my classes, and I don't have anything to study for.

I basically just sat and looked contemplative. I had already prepared a response for if I was questioned on what I was studying, too. We're supposed to have work to do during detentions, or else we're supposed to study.

Well, whatever. I finished up with that, but there was still about another hour until my dad was coming to pick me up. So, I went and helped work on the stage for Godspell. I helped drill on a few pieces of the background, and then I proved most useful in moving Hefty Herman. Hefty Herman is the name of a sort of mobile lift that our school owns. We used it to hang up the sky-blue backdrop we rented. Herman's a heavy son of a gun, and it took three people to move it when I wasn't available. I became some Freshman's hero for being able to move Herman with just me and Mr. Ayres.

By the time we got the backdrop set up, it was time for me to leave. My dad was waiting outside, and we drove home.

I didn't have any homework, so I decided to go for a walk. I haven't been walking for a while, and so I wasn't sure how I would hold up walking on my old four mile route. I settled instead for walking down to Sacred Heart and visiting with Tyler, Christina, and Victoria.

Daycare ended soon after I arrived. Victoria asked what I was doing after daycare ended, and I told her that I intended to walk around Washington Park for a while before heading home.

She decided that it would be a great idea for her and Christina to come along, too. They had both finished their homework and wanted to come along. Their mothers eventually consented, and so we walked to Washington Park.

We talked about all sorts of things as we walked about. Mostly memories inspired by things in the park. A lot of other things they said weren't meant for me, and so they spoke rather vaguely a lot of the time.

We swung on the swings for a little while, and they pestered me about who I like. They kept trying to trick me into giving something away. It's getting harder and harder to put them off. I suppose I'll tell them eventually. I imagine they'll be rather surprised.

We walked back to Sacred Heart, where I was supposed to leave them with their parents. Tyler, however, had invited us along to a science fair at the company where his mom worked. I called up my dad to get permission, and we wound up going to the science fair.

We were given protective glasses, which were tight enough to give me a good headache. =/ Here's a brief synopsis on what we looked at:

Exhibit #1: Make your own magnet.

We coiled wire around a nail and attached the ends of the wire to a battery. The nail was then able to pick up paper clips.

Exhibit #2: Shatter teh Flower.

In this exhibit, we were permitted to take a flower from a vase they provided, and then dip it into a vat of liquid nitrogen, freezing it quite solid in a few seconds. We were then encouraged to smash the flowers on the table. They broke like glass.

Exhibit #3: Coolest Robot you Ever Did See.

This robot was about 6 feet tall, and it knew the names of everyone around it. It would roll up to them and ask them questions about where they came from or who they came with. It shook the hands of several little children.

It was very comprehensive, I must say. Some kid asked it if it ever kissed a computer. It replied something to the effect of:

"That is a personal matter, and one that should not be discussed in a personal forum such as this one."

It was the coolest robot I've ever seen. :p It scared the pants off of me, though, when it called the four of us by name. O.o

Exhibit #4: Pickle Flashlight.

Basically, a guy ran an electric current through a pickle, which makes a decent conductor. The pickle sparked and glowed as a result.

Exhibit #5. Pickin' Pellets.

In this exhibit, we went through owl pellets with tweezers, looking for bones and such. There was a great deal of fur compacted around the bones, so some picking was required. I uncovered a fractured skull and a few ribs, which I left for Tyler to keep. He thought it was one of the coolest things there. :p

So. After a busy day, I finally returned home. I made myself some wanton soup for dinner, and watched the tail end of The Shawshank Redemption with my dad.

Whew. There, I'm done. -_-;

There's an old Irish saying,

"Irish roads are..."

"...potholes loosely joined together with tarmac."
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Monday, May 3, 2004

   Wait, chemicals? In Chemistry class?
Whoah, we actually got to do an experiment today in Chemistry class; using CHEMICALS! Dun Dun Dunnnnnn!

All we were doing was changing an acid into a base with baking soda, but that took time. Sure it was a useless experiment, but it was a time-consuming useless experiment. And that's what matters in the short run. (No, not long run. We've got less than a month less of school)

School was as it should be; full of learning and using up time.

Ben's Yu-Gi-Oh Update!

I stayed upstairs at school today, keeping a close eye out for my bus. John and I dueled in Mr. Ayres' room, as he was in the auditorium setting things up for Godspell this weekend.

I was doing quite well. I had increased my LifePoints to over 12000, having started at 8000. John had been reduced somewhere around 5000. My new Light Deck was enduring moderately well against his. I actually managed to get out my two Blue-Eyes White Dragons, which was very cool.

A lot of Yu-Gi-Oh players badmouth the Blue-Eyes, with all the Monster Removal cards abound, but let me tell you something. When you're staring down at one of them on your opponent's side of the field, you tend to get nervous. You're face to face with a monster with 3000 ATK points, and you won't always have the cards you need to get rid of it. In the meantime, it's pounding away at you like there's no tomorrow.

I got a second Airknight Parshath today, which I will shortly incorporate into my Light Deck. Airknight is one of my few favorite cards, and now I have two of them. Whee! ^__^

Matt is losing his enthusiasm for the game, I think. He's been giving his cards away to John at a steady rate; good cards, too. I am envious. -_- But, there is a slim chance I could get some of the cards from John by trading. It's just too bad I can't get them straight from Matt.

End Yu-Gi-Oh Update.

I caught the bus, which for some reason made my sister angry. She said that my dad was mad at her because I wasn't on the bus, which didn't make any sense to me at all. I'm going to get to the bottom of that tonight, provided I can talk to my dad before he goes to bed.

We went to Sacred Heart, where I vouched to stay rather than to go home. I hung out with Christina, Victoria, and Tyler and helped them put up signs for their class's bake sale on Wednesday.

Christina was in a bad mood which I did my darndest to improve. It worked, I'm sure. She couldn't seem to stay angry or annoyed at me. Heh, even after I accidently stepped on her hand when I tried to retrieve my pen cap, I just continued to win her over. She seemed determined to stay sulky, though, until she and Victoria began pestering me about who I like.

That always seems to be a crucial issue to a lot of people I know, particularly girls. They all want to know who I like for some reason. Just out of the blue, I'll have someone ask me who I like. They all make all sorts of promises in return for the information, but I refuse.

I don't know why I don't tell anyone. I guess I'm just not ready yet. =/ I just really hope the opportunity doesn't pass me by.

I left a little after 5:30, after playing the part of the monkey in a fruitless game of Monkey in the Middle. I always start in the middle for some reason, and unless there is an extremely faulty throw, I almost never get the ball. It's just not fair, I tell you. :p

I returned home for a while, where I responded to a PM from Zanarkand Abes, who was asking me to return to the Yu-Gi-Oh RPG I recently backed out of. He was godmodding outrageously, and I told him so. I'm looking forward to a response.

Then I spent some time talking to Solo, Mimmi, and Sara on AIM. Solo and I discussed ideas for Way of the Worlds, which sounds like it will be incredible with the things to come.

I had Confirmation class shortly after I said goodbye to them. The classes don't serve any purpose in my eyes, but I like to think that I'm too polite to simply blow them off.

We finished watching October Sky today, and next week (our last class) we'll find out just why we watched the movie in the first place.

We talked a bit about Mary tonight, and her role in the Catholic Church. We all received Rosaries and a little prayer book to help pray it. Then we made plans for an event coming up a couple of weeks from now, a sort of reception for everyone involved in religious education this year. I'm presenting a gift from my class to Father Greg. It was the only non-speaking part, so I readily volunteered for it.

I got out of class as soon as I could, which was still about ten minutes late.

Tomorrow I'm going on a field trip to The Hole in the Wall Gang camp. Quite a mouthful, yes, but a great camp. It's a summer camp for kids with cancer and other deadly or debilitating diseases. 60 kids from my school are going there to help clean the camp and get it ready for the kids to come in this summer.

Oy. It's late, and I need to get to bed. I'll be doing a good deal of either manual labor or domestic chores, both of which will require energy to accomplish.

Crud...I need to find a lunch to bring. -_-;;

See you all later. *yawn*

There is an old Hindu saying,

"The world will not conquer him who..."

"...is always rubbing his beard."

Must be static, or something. :p
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   Insomnia....whoo(!)
NOTE: You probably haven't read the post or two before this. I'd make sure, if I were you.

It's almost 2:00 in the morning, and I can't seem to sleep. I slept a good while this afternoon, which has probably lent itself to this predicament. But also, my chest still hurts whenever I try to position myself for sleep. I can't seem to get into a comfortable position without my chest being uncomfortable.

I think it's safe to say that the problem with my chest is a pulled muscle from coughing. It's not as bad as it was, but it's still a bothersome irritation. (Yay, redundancy)

I suppose I could take some Advil or something, but I don't like taking pain medication when I'm not really hurting all that badly. I save it for when I really need it, so I don't begin to develop an immunity to it. It seems unlikely that such a thing should happen, but my elder sister and her friends take medication all the time for various aches and pains and it is seldom very effective anymore.

Now, since I can't sleep anyways, I think I'll write something. Something with possible relevance or that would keep your attention.

I've been thinking about my book, When Humans are the Enemy. It's not published, nor has it been to an editor or anything. It simply exists. I started a sequel to it, but I'm unable to find it just now. I think some of it may have been lost when my old hard drive was lost to a virus. I have part of it (maybe even all of it) on a floppy disk somewhere, but I can't find the disk.

After reading the story over a couple of times, and having (maybe) lost some of the second story, I've come to think that I should start over. I don't really like the book, to be honest. There's far too many ideas adapted (taken) from books I had been reading at the time, and I put in too many characters that were totally unnecessary.

I was in eighth grade when I started, and I thought that it would be neat to have my friends in the book. Once I had gotten that idea, I extended it to include a few friends of my friends that I knew. Again, none of them particularly relevant. Some of the ideas I came up with, though, I do like. I like them a great deal and I want them to be used.

I started introducing friends from OB in the second book, too. It soon grew to be too much to try and balance. I had three different groups of characters (friends my age, younger friends, OB friends) with nothing really to tie them together except for the main character, who, to my dismay, wasn't fleshed out well at all. His name was Ben, and he didn't have a motive for a single thing he did. He simply did them. I asked myself later, Why? Why did he do those things? What was his motivation; what reason did he have for doing the things he did? The answer:

None.

There was no reason. None of the characters had reason for anything they did. It was totally...just...bad. :p

W.H.A.T.E. the RPG has done well as far as continuity and number of posts go, but there is little in the way of plot. It's been a lot of fighting and little crises so far. Nothing really defines its story yet. I've got to figure out what to do with it. Of course, the people posting in it are great. Solo, Raiha, Boba, and me. Terra was around for a while and her character did a lot, but she left some time ago. Yoda and Neoclone-7 were in at the beginning too, but they both left shortly after the story began. I simply shelved their characters and continued without them.

It's difficult with just four people working on it, particularly with no goal in mind as yet. I introduced a villain a little while ago, a sort of central point for antagonism. I hope that his appearance helps somehow.

Anyhow, back to the book. What I've thought about, and pretty much decided, to do is this: I'm going to scrap the original book and start over.

I'll use it as a basis, of course, as well as ideas fleshed out in the RPG. The first books and RPG I'll use as a sort of database; guidelines for the world of the story.

I'd like to get everything down in writing about this world I've thought of. I imagine things would be much easier if I had things down on paper instead of floating around in my head. A set list of plants, animals, different kinds of clones, etc. Maps would be convenient, too. Having some idea of where things are would be grand. Ah, there are just so many things that I would have to do; and I want to do it.

God willing, I will start the writing this summer. School and things during the school year provide far too many distractions and the wrong sort of outside influences. I will not be taking the names of my friends and inserting them into the story. I will not make the characters (easily) identifiable with my friends. I'm going to write a truly original story, gosh darnit, and it's going to rock.

Reminder: You may not have read the previous post. Check it out to be sure.

There's an old Arabic saying,

"Three things cannot hide: love, a mountain..."

"...and a man on a camel."
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