Thursday, February 19, 2004

   Whee!
I am having lots of fun here in Florida, make no mistake about it. :)

*five minutes later*

Yeah, heh. Lots of fun. I suppose I could go over every minute detail here, but I'm a few days behind. Maybe I'll do it when I get back. :p

I will say this, though. My family went to the two Universal Studios parks and had a really good time.

We went to a character breakfast today; which is to say that we ate breakfast while various Disney characters walked around and visited with the people eating.

I got several pictures taken. One was with Dale, the chipmunk, and another with Goofy. One thing I noticed while I was there was that Dale is infinitely more popular than Chip. Well, at least with the people who know the difference.

Do you know the difference? o_O

So, after that we went to Epcot. Of all of the Disney Parks, I'd have to say that I like Epcot the least. I'm a big fan of rides, ever since I started going on them.

Epcot doesn't have many rides, or, at leat, many that I wanted to go on. So I went home early with my grandparents and took a long (much-needed) nap. That was nice. Very, very nice.

I've retained my usual sleeping habits since I got here: Go to bed late, get up early. Only now, I have to walk all day instead of school. The thing is, since I'm doing something I like, I don't feel as tired...

...during the day. :p

I'm pretty tired right now though. I think its time for me to grab my pillow and hit the floor. Heh. We have more than enough beds, but I sleep on the floor. ^_^;;

*yawn* I must be going. It's 11:18PM and I've been up since before 7. In other words, I'm tired. :p

Good night everyone, I'll see you later.

NOTE: I will not be on Otakuboards until I get back to Connecticut. I don't want to spend a half hour waiting for the page to load. That'd ruin the fun. :)

*mutters* Stupid ancient laptop...
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Sunday, February 15, 2004

   News from Florida
Hello everyone! I'm here in Florida, typing this up on my grandparents' ancient laptop. I'm going to see if I can get my laptop hooked up sometime tomorrow; as this thing is really quite slow.



What am I complaining for? :p I get to be online and writing this! Yay!

Oh, I am having a great time here in Florida. The house we rented is great and It's very nice not to have any real obligations.

Yeah, okay. Starting from the beginning. :)

We got up to Hartford at around 12:00 on Thursday night, and I got maybe four hours of sleep before we left to go to the airport. We got all of our bags checked and loaded on the plane, and then we boarded for the one hour flight to Baltimore.

It was my first time flying, and I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't a little nervous. At first I unconsciously added a track under the plane, which made it seem much like a roller coaster. After a while, though, the surreal nature of everything outside made that utterly unnecessary. I slept through most of that first flight, not having gotten much the nights previous.

We got off in Baltimore, and then went to another plane for the two hours flight to Orlando, Florida. I wound up playing games on my laptop and reading for most of that flight. Flash games have been my savior for long boring events recently.

So, we landed in Orlando and were picked up by my grandparents. They had rented a car, but there we were still very hard-pressed to fit into the two vehicles. We went to a condominium that my grandparents were staying in. We stayed there for a night and then moved into this house.

We went to Magic Kingsom yesterday. It was a good time, only slightly deluged by rain. :p I went on Space Mountain, a little tour guide ride (twice), and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. I kicked major butt on that ride. :p Each little pod has two little laser guns and a toggle switch on it. As the ride progresses, you shoot these badguy robots to get points. The scores for the rest of my family ranged from around 27,000 to about 157,000, I think.

I scored 622,800. The number is engraved upon my skull. :p I demolished everyone else's scores. I guess all of those times at laser tag paid off. Heh, yay! Laser tag helped me get a high schore on another laser tag thing! ^_^;;

The rain dampened things a bit. (ha...ha...) I went to the the Philharmagic 3D show, which was totally great. ^___^ Donald Duck sort of flew through various Disney movies causing a ruckus. Good fun, heh.

We went home and swam in the screened-in pool that came with our rented house. It was warmer than most showers I take. :p So I spent a while swimming, and then watched Anger Management on my laptop with my cousins.

Today I spent mostly lounging about the house, recovering from my late night last night, and the night before, and walking around Magic Kingdom. I went and played mini golf later in the day, and came in second behind my dad. His score was 42, mine was 49. Par was 40 for the course.

I have to admit that I was surprised at the result after that 6 I got on the very first hole... :p

So, yeah. I don't now what I'm doing tomorrow, but I'll try my very hardest to get back on and update again.

See you all again soon, I miss you all lots! :D
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Thursday, February 12, 2004

   Maybe this will be the last one....
Well, apparently that last post isn't the last one I'll have made before I leave. I am still sitting here in CT, typing away at my laptop.

I'm almost packed. I can't bring myself to put any finality to it, though. That would be against my personall beliefs, or something...

I'm looking forward to Florida, as I had been all day. I was actually told to stay awake in French; lightheartedly, but it was suggested nonetheless.

Let me see; through the school day....

I had History first today, and I got the test back from yesterday. I got an 89%, losing points only on a few (trick) multiple choice questions.

After history was French, where my teacher spent much of the hour discussing our futures, which he tends to do sometimes. What triggered it today was the course selection booklets that had been passed out. As soon as I get a definite idea of what I'd like to take, I'll be sure to put it up here.

After French was Off, which I spent playing Flash games in the computer lab. :) After Off was Chemistry; we had a quiz which I'm pretty sure I did well on. It was multiple choice, and I got a couple of the choices when I tried solving the problems different ways; crafty...very crafty...

After Chemistry was Theology, we got another quiz back and continued watching the documentary on the Da Vinci Code. Photography, I worked more on my Materialism collage. I need more pictures, yet...

After Photography was Algebra II, in which I still continue to do well with great ease.

I was driven home by a friend of mine and set about reading and packing stuff up.

That's pretty much it, other than the fact that I got a haircut this afternoon. My head was freezing afterwards. :p

I made myself a new Yu-Gi-Oh Deck today; one that's pseudo-themed Water. Yesterday I made one that was Warrior/Earth...

I have a great deal of fun tossing these things together, for some reason. Using them against my friends is fun, too, but...meh...I like building new decks.

*exhale* What else...?

Well, I haven't gotten those pictures of me and David developed yet. 0:) But I fully intend to as soon as I get back. We'll probably have tons of others to develop anyways.

If something goes right,[/cynicism] David and I will have more pictures comes March, after we go on a ski trip.

Right now I'm wondering why we haven't already been all packed up and up in Hartford already. Which reminds me...


I STILL HAVE PACKING TO DO!

*runs off*
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Wednesday, February 11, 2004

Last post, maybe...
This may be my last post until after I go to Florida, so relish every moment of it. I should be packing right now, too, so...yeah... :p

Today I got to school late, since I keep having trouble getting up in the mornings. I really need to get to bed earlier. I really, really do. First period was English, and we did some grammar work. Bleh...not fun at all. Although I have to write a paper on "The Plague and the Fire of Rome" that I'm sort of looking forward to. I love the Greeks and Romans; they just rock.

After English I had history. I had forgotten we had a test today; or rather, I had remembered, but it just hadn't really registered in my mind as: "Hey, you have to take this test today."

I think I did well on it though; I remembered a lot of information on the multiple choice, I did all ten identifications and related them to what we had been studying, and my essay actually had a thesis, several points to it, and a conclusion. o.O It was one of the better best tests I have taken; I think. Let's see how the grade on it turns out.

It was nice too, that I got extreme approval from my history teacher for providing an excellent example when he was struggling for one.

French was after that; we had a quiz and I really hope that I did well. Progress Reports come out on Friday and I didn't do too well on my last quiz. Fortunately, I won't be in school on Friday. I'll be "sick". (Pfft...I'll be on a plane to Florida)

After French was Off, which I spent doing my Chemistry homework and managing the S.F.C.E. with its co-ruler. We're actually getting money from people now, which is cool. I just don't know how much I can trust Tim; the other ruler, who actually only owns 2/9 of the Empire.

Anyways, Chemistry was pretty much the same as yesterday: show us a new concept, give us a worksheet, and lose control for the rest of the period. Theology was spent discussing our previous test and quizzes. We then began a movie on the book, The Da Vinci Code.

Photography was my last period of the day. My group developed our film from our Texture shoot today. I didn't get to see how they actually came out, since I was eager to get out. I still need to get materials for my collage.

After school ended, I went down to the auditorium to get Techie pictures done. Out of the squad of 10-20 people, only I was there. A few more popped in when the Drama director and I made an announcement on the Intercom and physically dragged people into the auditorium. Now there were four of us. We got our picture taken together, and then we got some individual shots. One was me pressing a piece of wood against a razor blade to make it look like I had just cut some wood. In reality, no one trusted me with a power saw and I was never really permitted to touch it...

I got to roll around in a wheelchair that we use as a prop. Wheelchairs are fun, but I don't think I'd like to be forced to use one for the rest of my life.

I went to Sacred Heart with my dad and picked up my brother and sister. I got to talk to Victoria and Christina briefly, which was quite nice. Victoria got a scholarship to St. Bernard's, which makes the chances of her going a little better.

I went home, did some stuff on OB and had dinner. I got more college applications, which I intend to open right before bed, like I've done since I started getting them. They're getting frightfully redundant, though. It's most of the same stuff with different pictures and different signatures....

I went to Drop-In tonight, where we played the game Wise and Otherwise. Thing for that: http://boardgamecentral.com/games/wiseandotherwise.html

I didn't do too well my first time playing. I kept making too much sense. :p Some of these quotes had the most random endings ever...and when I tried to put something random, everybody saw through it. Still a very fun game, though.

David (Boba Fett) was there, at my invitation. I had invited him so that he could get information on a Ski Trip my Youth Group is going on in March. We wound up just hanging out, which was "cool beans". I showed him my Ladybug of Doom and a few reasons why CB Shin must die.....

I came home, and began packing for my trip on Friday, which actually sort of begins tomorrow. Tomorrow night, my family is driving to Hartford, CT, and staying in a hotel near the airport so that we can be closeby for our flight at 6-something in the morning.

Okay, I still have packing to do, so I need to go. I don't know if I'll be able to get to post tomorrow, so I guess this might be goodbye for now. ;_; I'll miss you all and see you when I get back.

(This could all be unnecessary, of course; my grandmother has been sending me constant e-mails from Florida. She has to have some form of Internet access, doesn't she?)

Well, goodbye for now. :)
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Tuesday, February 10, 2004

*sigh*
I was going to post something; but someone said something that just sort of emptied me of all desire to do so....

Sorry.


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Monday, February 9, 2004

   RPG Madness...
Before I get into what happened today, I'd just like to say something first.

Heh, I got College Brochures today. I'm only halfway through my Sophmore year, and I'm getting stuff for college. Heh, it was pretty neat. Especially since I don't normally get any mail. :p

Today started out as what has become almost the norm. I wake up to my alarm, shut it off, and vow to get up in the next few minutes.

Someone else eventually comes and ges me up, and I get to school.

School wasn't too bad today, and I'm in an odder mood than usual, so I'm going to do my class by class analysis.

D Period: Photography. We began working on our ethics collage project. We're taking pictures from magazines, newspapers and even some of our own to portray some of society's evils in a negative light. Evils such as poverty, materialism, pollution, etc.

I have an idea that I'm going to try and do for materialism. I was thinking of putting together a bunch of baby toys in the top left corner of the collage, and then on the right side have a picture of the baby Jesus in the manger, with nothing, really. I'd like to put a biblical passage under that. I don't know which one yet, though.

In the bottom left I would put all sorts of adult-aimed products. It would probably be a lot of technological junk. Then on the other side, a picture of the Roman guards gambling for Jesus' robe, one of his only possessions. Another Biblical reference placed under it.

E Period: Algebra II. We had a test today. I was sure about most of the problems, but I had a few minor doubts lingering afterwards. *shrug* I have an impeccable grade in that class as of now anyways.

F Period: Honors English II. We continued watching Oedipus the King. I really think that I'll buy this movie at some time. For some reason the dramatic prose really draws me in.

We got our topics for our next term paper. I'll post it at soon as I can find it...I know it's something good.

G Period: Honors American Histroy I. Ergh...note-taking. Not a heck of a lot more.

H Period: Honors French III. Reviewing....something...:p

A Period: Off. A welcome relief in the school day.

B Period: Chemistry. Our teacher gave us a worksheet to do while several others made up a quiz. Control of the class left within ten minutes.

I had a Student Council meeting where we planned more on our dance in March. Details would follow if I weren't getting tired...

Yeah, my day wasn't incredibly different for a Monday after that. Confirmation meeting from 7:00-8:30, came home and ate dinner, and posted in an RPG.

RPG News:

Hunter The Reckoning: I put up my first post, more to see if anyone else was still around who signed up for it. It had a good Recruitment thread going for it, so I tried to bring it back. We'll see if anyone else replies.

The Children of Sharess: This RPG took hold of my attention for the majority of the afternoon and evening. Skedy, apparently in retaliation of my last post, killed my character and Domon's.

I planned my revenge from the offset. I wouldn't godmod my way out of death, nor would I go and contact Raiha, at least not yet. I was going to legitimately beat him. It wasn't all that hard; he had killed me in the presence of a necromancer, for goodness sake...

I made arrangements with Dagger to have my character brought back to life, and contacted Raiha in regards to what skedy had done. She expelled him from the RPG and gave Domon and I free reign to do what we wished with his character.

I sort of got carried away with my post, I think. I just discovered this afternoon that having one of my characters portrayed as helpless and feeble, and then being butchered, is not something I like very much.

Yes...I most certainly got carried away. I was angry. I keep losing my patience with people who are either godmodding or who seem to know everything when they shouldn't. I think it's just from my usual lack of sleep. *sigh*

4 days until Disney...

w00t...
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Sunday, February 8, 2004

   *Gets settled into chair*
Yesh. I have a lot to write about, and I probably won't end up getting it all. :p

I had a day off on Friday. The weather forecasters predicted bad driving conditions, and my school administration caved in. They have a lot on their minds at the moment, so it's not too difficult to see why they were so easily influenced.

I don't remember much, except that I slept late. That was very nice. I woke up to my alarm, and my sister came in to tell me that school was cancelled. I murmered something and went back to sleep. It wasn't really sleep; more of an extended and consciousness-lapsing rest. There were periods of about forty-five minutes to an hour between the times I looked to my clock.

I finally got up a little after twelve, which was sort of appropriate, as I went to bed near twelve on Thursday night. A nice catch-up on my sleep.

Soon to be destroyed. :p

My parents decided to go out on Friday night, and left me at home with my two younger siblings. I stayed up until they got home. Every time something like this happens, they tell me that I don't have to stay up after the younger two are asleep, but I just feel like I should. (Gah, a quirk of mine)

So I didn't get to bed until about 2:00AM on Saturday, when I had to be up at St. Bernard's before 6:30AM. The bus was leaving at 6:30.

I set my alarm for 5:30, just to be on the safe side. It takes me about 15 minutes to get to St. B's and I wanted to have plenty of time to get ready.

My alarm went off at 5:30, as it was supposed to. I rolled over, shut it off, and told myself I'd get up in a few minutes.

6:45AM Saturday, February 7, 2004

"Hey Ben, what time do you have to be at St. Bernard's by?" asked my mom.

"6:30." I replied.

"Well, it's quarter to seven right now. You'd better get up and get moving."

I groaned. "No mom, the bus left at 6:30. I was supposed to be there before then."

She just sort of stood there. Then she sighed. "Get your stuff, dad or I will drive you."

My dad wound up driving me to Guilford, which is about an hour or forty-five minutes away from my house. He wasn't too happy about it, but had adopted a "Shit happens" sort of attitude, so it wasn't all that bad. I ate a small box of Cocoa Puffs.

Our Novices did very well at the Novice tournament; all but two got further than I did last year. That is to say, they got past their first round of Direct Eliminations. :p

One of our Novice men took 6th place overall, which was a great accomplishment. We're all so very proud. Heh.

I had been assigned to a Novice. I was to carry around his extra weapons, an extra body cord, and to provide something to drink after each bout; to be his biatch lackey, pretty much.

I fulfilled my biatch lackey requirements dutifully up until the point where my Novice was eliminated. At first I was a little put out that he lost, but then my eyes brightened. I was free! I made sure that he realized that, too. I patted him on the shoulder, told him he did a good job, and then yelled "I'm free" and walked off.

AH! I'd forgot to mention! As soon as David (Boba Fett) was done fencing, we hung out. ^__^ He, unfortunately, did not make it to the Direct Eliminations round. But I'll let him give you the details. We didn't get to fence, since I had biatch lackey jobs to do, and his team was supposed to be leaving soon after I was released.

But we did get pictures! ^___^ They may not be the best ones, but by golly we got them! As soon as I get them developed and find a scanner I can....ehrm...."borrow" I'll have them up! (Note: "As soon as I" should be interpreted as "Not anytime soon" in most instances)

(Un)fortunately, one of my teammates took the camera while I was unable to pursue and used up the rest of the film. I'm almost afraid to see the shots...

Although I know one of them was of David's feet...

On the bus ride home (my dad had only dropped me off) I got to watch some of Freddy vs. Jason on my laptop. A friend of mine had brought it and insisted on watching it. We skipped most of the plot-ridden parts and watched the gory conflicts. Right before pulling into Wendy's, heh. I don't think any of those who watched the movie ate much.

I only had a few French fries that I stole, as I was going out to dinner with my family as soon as I got home. I called my dad using a borrowed cell phone, and he came and picked me up. We stopped home, got everyone else, and drove to the Mohegan Sun casino to eat dinner at their buffet.

Food. Eat. Yum.

We came home, and....yeah...it became today after a while.

I went to 11:00 Mass this morning, and left after Communion to pour juice for Coffee and Donuts, as this week was my week to do so.

After Mas let out, I had a couple of cups of tea and a donut or two. I skimmed the newspaper and read the comics. Then I watched as Christina and Victoria played a card game called "Spit" or "Speed".

I'm not very good at the game and I don't really want to try and explain it. After that, we all played Egyptian Rat Killer, another card game that I'm not incredibly good at. I was the first person out of the game, and Christina won in the end.

By that time, most of the people had gone, so I set about tidying up after them and cleaning all of the coffee instruments and tables.

Digipeep Results
Ben: 10
Digital Monster: 7
Leh: 5
Takuya: 1

RPG News:

Children of Sharess: I thoroughly enjoyed writing my last post. I ravaged Skedy's character, while still giving the post some credibility and I'm about to sell him to Dagger to be an undead servant; or whatever purpose she has for him.

OtakuBoards and the Holy Otakubot: I posted and yanked the narrator out of the sky. Let's see where that takes it.

The Silmarillion: I'm getting a little tired of CB Shin killing all of my orcs without taking any apparent casualties or having his character getting hurt. I think there's a word for that: skill GODMODDING!

I've begun to plot again, this time with Isen`Tar. CB Shin is the next to be taken down a notch.

When Humans are the Enemy: The breath of life has once again been breathed into the RPG and we've got a new character soon to be introduced. Boba Fett has agreed to take part with his character, Jedgar Nieta the weasel-clone. Hopefully an extra poster will help to keep it going.

That's all for now. I'm hungry, so be sure to look at my AIM Profile the next time I'm on. :)

Five more days until Disney; not counting today.
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Saturday, February 7, 2004

Early Morning Saturday...
Sorry I didn't post yesterday. I'll post later today hopefully with news about the fencing tournament and such.

Ech...I've got to be at school in less than 4 and a half hours. That means I get less than four hours of sleep tonight. >_<

DRAT!

(This is due to my parents' going out; not my conscious choice. If I hadn't been needed to watch my siblings, I could have gotten to bed at a reasonable hour.)
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Thursday, February 5, 2004

   Not too bad, actually...
I got up late again this morning. My alarm was set for the right time, I just hadn't turned it on as of yet. So my mom came in and woke me up. I sat up for a minute, then plopped back down and fell asleep. A little while later, my older sister, Jess, came in. SMACK! "Get up!"

"I'm up, I'm up!" I replied, sitting up and rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

So, yeah. I went to school.

SCHOOL!

After school, which wasn't actually that bad today, I went and picked up my brother and sister from school. I came home, went online for a little while, and then got off and watched Yu-Gi-Oh. :)

After that, I made myself some dinner, put a bunch of clothes that desperately needed cleaning in the laundry, and got ready for practice.

All at the same time. I was busy for about a full 45 minutes. :p

I went to practice, which was centered around the Novices again in preparation for the Novice tournament on Saturday.

As I'm sure I've mentioned before, both Boba Fett and I are going to be there, and hopefully we'll be able to take lots of pictures. ^_^ It'd be nice if we could get them up before the Picture Forum is deleted as well. :p

I'm surprisingly content at the moment. I'm tired, but it's not the same miserable-tiredness that's been dogging me for the past few days. I think it may have been the self-hypnosis that our coach put us through tonight. It's a great little exercise that made me completely calm and my mind clear. It was very relaxing.

I fenced several one-touch bouts tonight. I think my end result was 5 wins and 3 losses. It may have been 6-3, I'm not quite sure.

We did some more footwork drills too. I didn't quite get sick this time, as I was partnered with a Novice instead of Steve. (Steve just sort of grinned at me evilly) The drill wasn't too bad. Our coach timed us this time and only made us go back and forth for four minutes.

We did another drill, though. We would advance (step forward) five times, and then retreat (step backwards) six times. At any point during our moving, if he clapped his hands, we had to lunge. My leg felt like it was on fire after moving about and lunging so much.

I came home, switched my laundry over, and had a boloney bologna sandwich. (yes, I do know the correct spelling. :D )

Then I came upstairs and have since been waiting for my laundry to be done so I can grab a towel from it and go take a shower. All that running made me sweaty. Yech...

Digipeep Votes Thus Far:
Ben: 10
Digital Monster: 7
Leh: 5
Takuya: 1

RPG News:

Children of Sharess: I am plotting the death of skedy's character, just because Domon and I don't like him. He's a vampire, I'm a guy who summons golems, and Domon is a warrior nobleman.

The Silmarillion: CB Shin is making more moves that I disagree with. Slaughtering more orcs; just because he can. He's taking almost no casualties yet again. And he claims to have killed a balrog. With arrows. O_O You can't just kill a balrog with arrows! There are actually many factors to be taken into account when slaying a balrog, which I would explain further if I could only find my LOTR book....

*shakes fist at CB Shin*

W.H.A.T.E.: Two posts! And I got backed into a plot-forming corner! Yaaaaaaaay!!!!!!

(curse you, terra....:p)

And, hot off the IM window, a little conversational clip...

simply terra: *thwaps ben*
Legoboy1: O.o What was that for?
simply terra: oh, just for fun
simply terra: you can thwap me if you'd like
Legoboy1: *thwap* *thwap* *thwap* *thwap* *thwap* *thwap* *thwap* *thwap*
simply terra: YOU HIT A GIRL!?!?!?!?
simply terra: YOU JERK!!!
Legoboy1: o.o
Legoboy1: but....
Legoboy1: you...you...said....
simply terra: I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!!!
Legoboy1: x_x

;)

I fly to Florida next Friday.

The 13th.
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