Working With Leif

Today I have emailed Leif about starting up my tutoring and I can't wait to see how things turn out. Honestly I have been looking forward to this the more I wait around thinking about it. The reason why is because I don't do too hot in math but with some help I could catch up to where I am supposed to be because I am 2 math levels behind where I should be. This isn't that bad but there is still much that I am missing in my education that I can't continue in without some kind of help to get me there even faster.

I have started a couple of new books along with my current book, David Copperfield. The first one is The Watsons go to Birmingham and the other one is The School Revolution. The first book or the Watsons is a little bit more light hearted then the last 2 books I finished off while the School revolution is a bit heavier being the story of how the school system has evolved over time and how it is doing today in comparison. I like both of them and they work in comparison very nicely I'll go into a little bit more detail on the both of them when I finally get farther in the books.

Last week was certainly fun but things are starting to calm down now. Balance is exactly what all of this needs because last week was extremely hectic because I only had Sunday to have one average day all to myself but still a recap on whats happened on each day includes, Monday going to do some investing, Tuesday going to work at Hillcrest, Wednesday was my belt testing, Thursday was I went to work with dad, and then on Friday was the 2 hour and 45 minute test on math which was going to show where I was on my curriculum. Saturday was also the get together to celebrate my brothers birthday so it was pretty hectic as well. Either way I enjoyed last week and it might just be the signs of some very interesting things to come.

Time lies when your testing

Sorry it took me so long to post because 12 people have already looked at my blog today and I have offered nothing for them so heres my post and honestly I'm kinda satisfied with my day but only after 3 hours of working on this one test. This was absolutely maddening until I managed to get to focusing because of the fact that 100 questions of varying difficulty and each one is a different subject made the test very hard. The only reason why I had to do this test is to show Kristi where I am on math to help my future tutor help me more. I understand how this helps but getting results is probably the hardest part.

I also watched some Frontline today and this episode was about how highs chool football effects the players. The video was just absolutely eye opening explaining that even people that don't get major concussions can have permanent damage done their brains which can effect them for the rest of their lives. The scariest part is that apparently research shows that high school foot ball is also more dangerous due to the pressure put onto the kids from their coaches. If you are interested go ahead and check out this link

I still have a lot to do this weekend including my brothers birthday being today. I don't know what will happen but a day based around hanging out with friends and my brother tomorrow as well will make things hectic but fun. The reason why I would still consider this work though is because of the fact that I am hosting this myself and have also set all of tomorrow up. I know it sounds kinda strange but every once in a while me and a group of friends get together and play some table top games like DnD which is outdated but still pretty fun. Everyone has their hobbies and this one is just once a month so it doesn't get out of hand is extremely fun when it comes around.

Day at work

Today I was given the option to go to work with dad and now that I am a little bit older I had a lot more fun over there today then the last couple of times. I had a lot of fun doing stuff as simple as taking apart computers and then deciding which computers were even usable. Some of the most fun I had today was the point leading up to working on an Apple computer which let me point something out about why this alone is interesting. I was raised by my dad who is utterly and thoroughly against any kind of Apple product in any way. He won't even let an iPod inside the house which goes to show that some of this might rub off on me. I have better reasons for not liking Apple now then I did back as a child but I'm not here to get into an argument about why its bad or why its good.

I go up to dads work and just help out every once in a while but then there is his boss Chris who is really cool. Well he is the one that wanted me to work on the Mac/Apple computer. When I responded to his question of "Do you let your kid touch macs?" with "I prefer not to." led to a laugh and this line which I love to death. Chris said and I quote " I taught my kids not to pick up the turds in the sandbox and you taught your kid to not touch a mac. I know this isn't that funny for me telling you through the blog but its one of those situations that have to be seen in context with everything else happening around in order for it to make sense.

I had a lot of fun today but there is also the fact that there was an alternative today. Instead of going to dads work I could have gone with Kristi to made to serve instead which would have led to a different kind of day. I could have ended up going to Go Chicken Go ( not Chick Filet ) and talking with one of Kristi's old teachers after going out feeding the homeless. I know that probably could have been more interesting but I felt like going out to dads job and working with the computers and helping out there but I also feel bad for not helping out the homeless. I don't regret what I chose but still it is a lingering decision I could have made.

Test of Will

Today I have gotten sick with a simple head cold but on the worst possible day! Today is my belt testing and I have not gotten sick since about 2 years ago. This is absolute bull and I won't allow one little runny nose to stop me from getting done what needs to be done up at the dojo. Because of this I have also been powering through my work today and have gotten done within a reasonable amount of time. I enjoy being able to do some work whenever I can but this head cold is not making things easier and so far this week is not going in my favor.

I was told to that on my list of things to do today was to talk about doing something new and different that I could do this week. I've discussed this with Kristi and talked about it a little bit I think last week and while all of the ideas are good I have this habit of letting anything exciting come to me. Some might call this oppurtunistic but Kristi calls it being reactive instead of being proactive. I understand that I am being a reactive person and waiting for something. Despite all of this I am willing to change right now but am not in the best moods to do anything out of the ordinary right now. Because of this I might just end up going to Made to Serve this week which I may have gone before I haven't been in a very long time.

I enjoy doing some new things but I have always waited for something interesting to come to me. This comes from the fact that I have never had to do anything based entirely on my decision and the fact that I can't make up my mind on anything without some kind of help from someone else. For example on my indecisiveness manner is that I can't even decide what kind of toppings that I want on my pizza without asking someone else what they may want on their pizza or what everyone else is interested in. I could change my ways but until given a reason like almost every other time before this I won't even when trying. In other words another little hidden form of incentive.

Testing for Skills

My next testing in Tae Kwon Do is tomorrow and it is kind of scary because we will be testing in the new dojo for the first time which they may boast more floor space they sadly lack even that because half of the floor is divided by the practice bags and that side is for practicing your forms and stretching so its kinda awkwardly shaped so even if we moved the bags the floor would still be a wierd shape and accomplishing things on both sides just wouldn't work out that well. Since this is testing we'll see how this goes for me and for everyone because the experience is going to be very different for everybody.

Today was extremely fun inside Hillcrest thritshop. I enjoy being the TV guru which is the little nickname I earned in the thriftshop due to the amount of time I spend working on TVs. Today I spent all of the time before lunch activating the TVs, reorganizing the shelves, cleaning and setting prices for new TVs, and getting everything in a good order before settling down for my lunch. There wasn't anything special for lunch and I don't really know how to describe Methodists casserole but for anyone that knows what I'm talking about I had that with some really good green beans.

I work hard outside of must the electronics area though because electronics only get you about half way through the day. One of my favorite parts of the day was near the end where I got to smash a really cheap desk with a sledgehammer and that stuff is just too much fun. It reminds me of the time I helped with demo at Kristi's church. I honestly enjoy destroying things because we can always destroy stuff but we can't without dire consequences most of the time so when it is actually your job there is a massive feeling of satisfaction that can't be found anywhere else. Still I do some odd jobs around like carry things to the dumpster, fixing furniture, or just moving stuff around which is the most common job for me. I love working over there and the fact that people over there are so nice and that the work is easy enough if you don't mind lifting some stuff leaves me wanting to go back its the same for some of the other there that aren't exactly volunteering.

Saving me from future Galen

There are many people out there that say that they have a get rich quick scheme that could make you millions by a certain age. Sadly that isn't true at all and while many fall for this pitfall I take old reliable down the narrow hill of savings. That's right I'm talking about my money saving style where there is no shortcuts, only good ideas or bad ideas get you anywhere in this area of life and half the time your falling into some kind of trouble. whether that trouble be some kind of over spending with a credit card to maybe just some problems on the stock. It doesn't matter what happens but there will always be a problem that can show up at any point in time but there are ways to make things easier for you in the long run or maybe make some things more interesting to make some more money. I am going back into investing and my account is almost set up and then I will be working on accumulating even more money because of this I have been getting really anxious to get things working sooner rather then later to get started.

Today is getting to the point where I am kinda frustrated by how crazy they are for me but I don't care because they are nothing like the last couple of days that I have been describing so despite feeling rushed I am quite happy with how things are working. I actually enjoy being able to feel important and having something to do nowadays. This makes me think on the theme of the future and past that in the past if I felt like this back then I would feel a lot better with being in public school and I do believe that with a little bit more time I would be ready to go straight on back to highschool and not feel nearly as bad as I did back in middle school. I think that I wasn't as mature back then as I wanted to be and now despite learning the balance between being an adult and kid I feel like I am more ready now then I have ever been to go back to the way that things were back then.

I think that with a little bit more time I will be ready for the college work at the end of the year as well along with my home school. I know I won't like it in the beginning but you start to enjoy things the more you go through them and by later in the spring semester I will have adjusted just like the beginning of both of the years prior which might start with a meltdown in the beginning and then everything goes back to the way they were prior with maybe a small change in the plans. Sadly this is all predicted based off of what I have done in the past but I can avoid doing this at all and go through the college classes without a single complaint, but we'll see.

Captivating Authors

Today I decided to go to the library and ran into a couple of my absolute all time favorite authors on the shelves. The two authors are my favorites because they both focus on fiction but they accomplish two very different goals with their writing. The first writer is Eoin Colfer whom you might recognize for being the writer of the Artemis Fowl series which is just filled with plot twists that all seem random and just downright bewildering when somehow the young genius manages to somehow solve any problem thrown his way in a spectacular show. The other author isn't as much of an intellectual thriller for the average pre teen and more a book that you sit down and hope to get a good chuckle  out of. The second writer I happen to be talking about is Terry Pratchett who is known primarily for his book revolving around the disk world where tons of random things seem to be happening in many of these places that not only can you not dispute them due to the fact that they are in a completely seperate universe while still being extremely close to home. Terry Pratchett and Eoin Colfer both focus on the fantasy fiction genre but they both take one piece and then run in completely different directions. While Colfer trys to keep things where they are in modern times but the fictional beings like elves or fairys have access to far greater technology then the humans. Pratchett does the exact opposite and makes everything outlandish while also being believable and funny too boot. If you have the time look them up and see if either would be what you might be looking for in a book because I don't think that anything that I could say right now do them any justice.

I love the thought of going to the library which while it isn't the easiest of a ride it is still an amazingly quiet place with a lot of things to offer including information to entertainment and even a little bit at the same time sometimes. I honestly like going to the library and I believe that I will be going there a little bit more often but then there is the fact that when I went there earlier I noticed a pattern for the books that happen to be made for my age range. I started looking and the pattern was just that almost every book was another Twilight rip off which after hearing what everyone has to say about the series as a whole I don't even want to put time into Twilight let alone a knock off of the series. I don't know how often I will be going but I bet I will be going there a lot more often do to how fast I read through books on my own time.

Today I watched some Frontline as apart of my curriculum and once again it shows yet another shocking truth as this one is about the current regime within Egypt and the transferring between powers where everything has lead to almost the same thing every time. The end results for almost everyone that got power was that they would solidify their control by trying to turn everything into a dictatorship. I was almost in shock from the amount of trouble that the civilians had to go through to fight for their rights and even when people seemed to have won over the current regime some still were fighting against the government for the president to be returned to power even though to everyone else it was obvious he was setting himself up for a very powerful dictatorship. I was absolutely baffled by what I had seen and if you have the time why don't you have a quick look as well.

Calm, Peaceful, and mediocre

Recently things have started to calm down around the house other then the occasion slip up by anyone in the household. This has lead to some pretty mediocre days recently and I quite enjoy them considering that my work in the beginning of the year was absolutely devastating for me but now I'm thinking I might need a little bit more work just to help me pick up the pace. I have been taught to start my day when I wake up in the morning and lately I have started slipping back into set time pieces for when to start and when to stop. Because of this the only thing keeping me from finishing my day any earlier is my blog which I usually have enough fun doing that I don't really consider it either a chore or curriculum just because I do this during the school day to start winding down most of the time. The parents are probably going to read this tonight and then get back to me tomorrow or maybe even tonight to discuss this and then we'll decide what to do. To be honest I don't know how well I will cope at the beginning of the extra work but the parents will just have to point out that I was the one that recommended this myself and I'll probably just grumble and move on.

Alright This is apart of an edit so sorry to anyone that was wanting to see the original but it was pretty much a continuance of the first paragraph. I feel like I'm kinda stuck on the thought process from above but I can try to continue to whats going on now. Currently I am being considered to do some work with dad and earn myself a paycheck but its not a permanent job and will only last a few days maybe so I know that it will be fun and interesting but it will not impact me that much but give me something to do. Also I'm going back to finish up my initiation for the investment with dads specialist which will be fairly interesting as well.

So after my original blog post Kristi told me some of the other stuff that I can do to add to my blog and all around day. One thing I could do is start reviewing books from the library which I ride to the library everyday normally so I wouldn't be that much of a problem. I could also get Kristi and we can start reviewing some restaurants at least 2 times a month. I could continue to work on the Raspberry PI or even do start on the catapult project that I had wanted to do last year. There is even another trip to be scheduled from the same people that did the float trip. Because of these things I have realized I only make the day boring by not trying to do anything new and because of that I apologize to my audience for boring you to tears at times.

Tae Kwon Do: Moving around

I forgot to mention that my dojo has moved to a new location which isn't that far from where it originally was but it is a little farther away but much bigger with some new equipment in the place. I am quite happy with how smoothly the move went considering that it only took about 1 week total in order to move everything from the old building and get everything that we wanted to keep into the new building. I love it although the setup is very different from the old dojo it is still much better for everyone to use this new one and then there will be something new moving into the old dojo area.

Not much going on lately honestly but there is always something to go over no matter how little is going on at any point in time. For example there is the fact that watching some of the new shows on TV for me is more of a chore than some kind of relaxation. The reason why I mention this is because I was thinking back to my comment on Rachael and Guy cookoff which I enjoyed but if I wasn't ever told that it was apart of my curriculum then I probably wouldn't have ever really watched it if it wasn't on the TV at the time. This may seem random no matter how much I make this out to be but there is also the fact I don't want to be this complete stranger who just happens to be typing up all of this stuff for people to enjoy but then no one really knows who I am if I haven't met face to face. The point of this is saying that I want to become a little bit more loose on my blog where I'm not so uptight on my blog and the best way to start is sharing some harmless details about myself with the audience. I doubt that anyone is reading this blog to use something in this against me to get money from my family or something equally outlandish so why shouldn't I try to a bit more friendly to the audience.

This may be jumping right back into shallow normal Galen but I still have to keep some of my blog about my home school to keep up records. This isn't a bad thing because there is quite a bit to do during the home school day that isn't just outright boring from putting it in the same sentence as school. Of course, that could also just be in my head and everything I do is absolutely boring to someone else out there. I don't care though so I thought I might go over what I have been reading on Kristi's nook called A Glass Castle: A memoir. This book is just amazingly sad for me but also eye opening because I live in a very nice house where I take many things for granted and there is someone with two very different parents where one is an alcoholic genius with a temper to match his level of smarts and then the authors mom is also just a little bit strange as well for many reasons I couldn't point out on my own. To be honest I can't really explain most of what happens in this book other then go and pick up the book somewhere and read it to understand what I'm talking about. This maybe a biography of one child but by no means is it boring and sometimes it will leave you dumbfounded over what you have just read.

Lackey for a day

Today at Hillcrest Thriftshop I was pulled into being a lackey for a day. The reason why I say this is because I was doing a whole bunch of odd jobs around the place and didn't really know what to do with many of the things that I needed to do but just followed instructions. I am used to this already so it was actually pretty easy. The hardest part of the day was when things started coming to a close where things slowed down to the point of molasses.  I was at that point making sure that I was walking around the store and helping out as many people as I could.

I don't really do much outside of Hillcrest on Tuesdays so I think that I still owe a decent amount to my audience because of this I will be trying to at least type about 2 paragraphs on Tuesdays. If I can think of more to write about I will continue to go even further. The thing that I think that is pretty funny is that I don't really consider my blogs address to be very accurate anymore. the address is dayinadventure.blogspot.com but now my life goes outside of the house a lot more and I may spend a lot of time around my neighborhood but in no way am I cooped up in the house all day. I don't plan on changing it but it is still not what defines my day anymore.

I do have one more thing to write about today and that happens to be the fact that this is my 200th post today and it just so happens to happen on the day that I am not doing my average school day. It is actually pretty ironic but it also shows the evolution of my average school day over these last couple of years. I originally didn't want to post anything on my blog that didn't have to do with specifically home school but now there is so much more to say once I diversified. I am glad to see that my audience has stayed with me for this whole time and I couldn't hope for this much of a success after such a rocky start so thanks everyone for your constant support through the last year.

Linking up

Today is my first blog that will be linked within Facebook and I am kinda nervous about it because I know that there will be more people that want to read it but then there is the fact that I don't know exactly how much this will help. I guess that I am probably just freaking out about expanding my audience no matter how small the audience size increase will be.

Today I watched the Rachael vs Guy Kid Cook off and I was really amused while watching it and then Kristi pointed out that I should look at some of their mistakes from the lense of my own cooking. Thats when I realized that these kids were still doing much better then me in every way because I remember not even being able to cook rice. I may have been laughing at Daniel not being able to tell the difference between sugar and sea salt but I probably would have made the same mistake. To be honest with you I have been working on my cooking and I am still not that good. Even with practice all of my mistakes in the kitchen boil down to how much am I willing to dedicate to cooking.

Home school has been pretty simple today and there hasn't been anything that has kept me from finishing on time today. I know I am finishing later the day every day but that isn't that bad. I just have some reading to do in the morning, math later in the day along with cooking and exercise at the moment. Not to mention anything else that might come up at the drop of a hat. I enjoy doing all of this and I'm getting through the days much easier then 2 weeks ago where I was on the verge of tears. Either way there will always be a difficult day of the week in a normal week but it is only as hard as you make it.

Running rhrough crowds of cows.

I have gotten through the week and I would say that things went wrong at times but still one of the easiest weeks I have had in a while. The requires some thanks to the parents who were willing to help me get through some of my struggles. Today was extremely easy but then there was days like Wednesday which went wrong on so many levels for me but led to one of the greatest of the day blogs yet. I have some issues every once in a while but nothing would be fun without a problem out here and there.

I don't have very much to talk about at the moment. Even the school days are starting to become a good chunk of my life. Now the my life and school seem to have some kind of undefinable line in between them and thats fine with me but its confusing at times. Any moment for me is now another chance to learn and honestly I don't mind having something to do at any point in time as long as I give new things a chance there is always something new to do to get me away from my average day.

I feel like adding a little something new to my blog like my dad has recommended in the past. Something similar to what Pioneer woman does on her blog. I don't know where to go exactly but then again this one is all on me no matter what happens. If I wanted to start reviewing games and the companies that make them then that is just one of the many things that I could do. I don't know what I would do but that was one of the things that I have considered before and now I'm thinking of doing the same again. I never did think of trying to pull it off but still. It might be worth a try.

Another day, another drama

Alright I got a couple of things to talk about today and one of them concerns this blog in particular because it is kind of a scary thought for me. I have been  told by one of the people that I am very dry at times when it comes down to my personality. This is pretty darn scary for me because it means that many people won't want to keep looking at my blog if I continue to be bland. Because of this I am requesting that people go ahead and post some comments giving some areas that I could improve on.

Kristi is yet again in the hospital for another couple of days and this time was one her worst I've seen her in a while so I don't know how this one is going to end until I hear from her. I feel pretty bad for her because she has been in a bad condition for a while but then I think that shes been dealing with this for most of her life and that is just sad that someone has to deal with that. I know everyone has  their issues but this is just rediculous to deal with this for so long. Kristi I know your reading this so I hope you get better soon. :)

I realized that yesterday after my drama that I never mentioned the date or what happened over here in America. Yesterday was 9/11 and that deserves a good mentioning for what happened that day. For anyone reading this out of America that doesn't know what happened 9/11/2001 was the day that the twin towers were bombed. Millions died that day and many things have been impacted that day because of what happened. The airports are now locked down to the teeth is just one example but I myself have not been too heavily impacted because I was only in Kindergarten when the twin towers were bombed. When I returned from Kindergarten no one I knew was hurt and I didn't understand it at the time. I may seem a little bit heartless when it comes down to it but to dwell on the past only obscures the future.

Cookies!

I made some really awesome cookies today and they are the exact same cookies as the last few batches I made. but before I go into that let me start out with how hard I made today for myself. I feel really bad about this because usually when my school day goes wrong it is usually about the curriculum or something I don't feel ready for and not the fact that I am feeling like making my life miserable. For example for todays math work I was given one problem which was just 3/10 of 3.50 well I was over thinking it so much that I needed to go out and get some money to do the diagram required and then smack myself over the complete simplicity of it. Then when making the cookies I was once again slipping into my old habits and not reading the instructions and then nearly screwing up the entire recipe and a 6 dozen batch of cookies. I feel like the little boy who cried wolf over and over and then instead of the the wolf actually coming the little boy turns around and dresses like a wolf and before he could keep the people from doing something bad he ends up in a terrible spot where I won't go into detail.

Lets put that behind us though and get onto the cookies that I baked properly with pictures I have arranged all of the pictures on the side in order of what happened. The first picture is of the mat that I used for making these cookies called outlaw cookies. I absolutely love them to death but the parents are more fond of the Lemon cookies on the other side of the mat. The prep work took a while but its not worse the preparing some good Pad Thai. The longest part of pad thai is the prep work and this is the same thing but because of all of the prep it makes doing everything a lot easier in the long run. Next picture is the pouring of everything into the mixing bowl and then giving everything a good stir. The picture after that is the final product of the dough, then the cookies beign put onto their sheet, and then finally is the finished cookies. I am sorry to anyone that tries this recipe and it doesn't look the same I know that it may sound strange to say this but I mentioned almost screwing up on the cookies earlier and thats what I'm referring too.

 I am doing pretty well other then my spinny moments today but those are also the most important parts. The reason for this is because I learned more from those moments of screwing up then the entire day worth of work to accomplish the same goal. I have had some problems with anger in the past not only making my life miserable but also letting my thoughts get clouded much too easily. The reason why I mention that is because I usually am reminded of one my favorite sayings.

"For every minute you are angry, you lose 60 seconds of happiness"- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The reason why I love this saying is because of what it represents. It says to me that we always have a choice in what we do and that despite what you think you can always change what you don't like in life. And because of that you can decide whether you want to be angry or if you want to be sad and mopey instead of doing something. For the longest time I didn't want to do anything other then just get mad and let it boil and then I remember that I don't have to let that happen and then I can live my life easier and let some of the minor problems go. Just because you can decide does not mean that you give up on serious problems like a kid goes missing but that does mean that you don't have to stress yourself over minor things all the time.

Early Morning Writing

It is a little bit early for me to be writing this but Kristi has a good point. By doing this now in the morning I don't have to worry about this later after work so the rest of the day I can pretty much just relax. I'm trying to set my day up to be a little easier on me for the rest of the day because working up at Hillcrest has been hectic the last couple of weeks. This way I only have to write one more paragraph when I get home and the only reason why I have to write it then is because it will be about my day at Hillcrest so that you have something for today's work.

I will also be working on redoing the cooking mat with pictures because last time I didn't take any and now if I post much else then this on the mat it just won't seem right. It will also be harder listing the pros and cons without some kind of reference for any of you. Because of this I will be redoing one of the two recipes on the mat and then be posting all of the pros and cons hopefully tomorrow.

Finally its the end of the day for me and time to get this post wrapped up. For most of the day I have been keeping myself busy within Hillcrest the entire day making myself busy. I primarily work within the appliances area but that doesn't stop me from working on some of the heavy lifting and just all around helping the customers. For the most part I do odd jobs around the Hillcrest area and sometimes people don't even recognize that I actually work there because I am still so young looking. Either way I make sure that many people are left feeling satisfied with the service that they are provided.

Working with Money

Welcome back to a new week of home school. I have been working on improving my credit and I bet you can guess what that means I have been doing. I have been saving all of the money that passes by me at any opportunity I have. I also have had a long standing deal with my dad for a good year that has allowed me to make even more money to build my credit. What we have agreed to is that when I reach a predetermined amount then my dad will match it and then we will deposit the money into a CD. Well things have changed from that original agreement and now I'm going to be #investing to build my credit instead. I forget the name of the actual company that will be helping me start investing but that's where my money is going.

I have learned a few things about investing thanks to my dad who was there to help me get through today's work. Usually Kristi would have been the one that drove me around but today dad has the day off so he was able to help me out with many of these things. I learned about high volatility profiles which have a higher chance of losing money but when you gain money it is usually more money then a low volatility profile. Also I learned about rates into depth a little bit more for example CD's have a higher rate of interest then a savings account and investing has higher rates based on volatility. Pretty simple stuff and this helps me out with a lot of what I'm working towards which is independence in the world of money.

Today started out pretty awesome as well to compliment the entire day. Most of this was discussed over breakfast and where we ate brought back some good memories. The reason for this is because we went to eat at Corner Cafe which I don't know if anyone here knows this but is where I started my first day of home school. It felt appropriate due to the fact that this is still the beginning of the year and also the start of financial independence. Besides even if those don't seem like good enough for you then Corner Cafe has some fantastic breakfast food and I can't tell you about later in the day because we haven't ever gone for lunch or dinner there.

Reflect, Review, Remember

I have a new assignment for my blog today and that is to compare this year and last years home school at about this time last year. Honestly Fridays have never been hard, Thursdays and Wednesdays were pretty mediocre unless I was doing anything special but the beginning of the weeks are always hectic. This year is even more hectic then last year because I have more responsiblity this year then last year. I have been working very hard lately and I am going to be talking to the parents personally over things when I can to see if we can make things a little bit easier for me but that isn't important at the moment. I was told to compare this point in the year to last year at around this point. At this point last year I was still in meltdown after working on the word problems. I don't have those problems anymore but I still remember vividly working through many of my problems last year and then going through an extremely long day of catch up work. Also I remember last year of bursting into tears over the word problems saying that they were too much at the time. Not a couple of weeks later I was back to doing the same amount of word problems in no time flat and even more. Those were some of the most interesting days of home school I have ever experience but only because of how new it was to me at the time. Nowadays I am stressed in the beginning of the week but calm down the farther I get into the week. It all resets on Monday morning but I want to see if they start calming down instead of getting harder.

I never mentioned this on the blog but I kinda had a meltdown again much like last year from the work. I am starting to think that something is just going to make a new year for me very hard to get into no matter how hard I try. Its like a square trying to fit into a circle it just doesn't work until the square gets smaller or the circle gets bigger. Either way one has to adjust and I hope we can just come halfway somehow. Other then that things have gotten fairly quiet around the house now.

I also want to say something about how the parents are doing on there vacation. I am absolutely astounded to see how well things are going for them and Kristi has been doing then she has over here in a long time. There is no stress for her at all up in the cabin with little to no responsibility. I am just so happy to see how things are going and I honestly couldn't give what they have up there right now to them if I wanted too. They are also going to be visiting their friend and the tutor for my brother Leif Masrud. I am also going to be trying to have him as tutor as well to not only provide him with work but to also keep me up to speed on my math which is commonly known on this blog that I am falling behind in. I am glad to help out and I'm willing to try some tutoring so when the parents are ready I am willing and I am so happy to see that everything is doing fantastic.

Viewing of The Butler

Welcome back everyone to yet another blog entry and I am proud to say I have something new to talk about. Today as apart of my curriculum I have watched The Butler at the movie theater and I absolutely enjoyed it. It is the story of a man named Cecil Gaines who worked as a butler in the White house through the american civil rights movement. Gaines is a African american citizen and started out his long trek through his life at a cotton plantation where his father was killed and his mom went crazy. This sounds like a really bad start but what makes this all so fascinating is that this entire movie is based off of a real events. Tomorrows work is going to be figuring out what is facts and whats lies so I'll be going into deeper detail at that point.

I think I have gotten much better at writing my blog entries. The reason why I say this is that I have been able to include something interesting in each blog entry whenever I do post when last year I was looking for filler
a lot. Now I have an idea on the fly that works for the blog even if there isn't anything going on I don't have to sit down and wear on everyone with the daily boring routine. I am so glad that I have figured out all of this now and that I won't have to go back to do that for a while.

I still have some kind of work today and that happens to be baking! I'm not just going to be baking though I am going to be helping a friend of Kristi with a tool in the kitchen. I would love to go into more detail on it but I don't know how to type it out here and make it sound the way it is supposed without it sounding like nothing more then a blank piece of paper. In order to avoid this I am just going to be explaining that this is going to help this friend of Kristi and that I get to enjoy baking. I will also be going over the pros and cons of this tool and if I can I might be able take a picture of it but I think that it might be a bad idea because it isn't patented yet so probably not.

Weekend fun!

Alright I owe everyone here a long blog entry so buckle up and enjoy because I have a lot to say about many things! Starting off is the reason why I haven't posted lately is that on Friday I had headed out early to attend my float trip and then yesterday even if I did post something it wouldn't have been very good because I only had an hour left in the day before I had to go to bed and then it would be rushed if it was of good quality. Even then to be honest I didn't want to post because I did not have anytime to relax yesterday and I decided to use that hour for some time to myself.

Now onto the float trip that I had mentioned so much. I thoroughly enjoyed the float trip because of the people I was with and the activities were fun. The only problem I had was the lack of sleep before the trip left me drowsy and even noxious at some points of the day. When I had finally gotten to riding in the boat I was running on adrenaline and splashes of cold water for most of the day and went to bed early to get a really long sleep.

Enough of the downsides though on to the parts that I enjoyed. The most fun I had on the trip was in that canoe and riding along with everyone else. I started out in one boat with a man named Dan who was in control of steering most of the time while I was in charge of creating speed and helping turn when there was some really hard turns or rapids. Later on I switched with a kid named Logan to help him and his friend calm down because they were just about at the verge to start strangling each other. Logan has ADHD and forgot his medications before going on the trip so Chris knew Logan on his meds but this was his first time seeing how Logan is without them. Anyway I switched places and as soon as me and Chris got to our first rapids we tipped into the river. Sadly no one came to help us until our pastor Shane came along and helped get the water out of the boat and set it upright for us to get back in. Pastor Shane even followed close by to make sure that we didn't tip again and then finally we picked up the pace and soon me and Chris were leading the group to the end of the river and got their 3rd because we had waited so long for people to catch up that we managed to fall behind when some of the other sponsors for trip caught up and told us where to go.

After getting back on Sunday I went out for lunch with Grandma Kathy who is currently watching the household and me. Along for the ride was Zoe, Grandma Debbie, and Grandpa Mike. We ate at a place called Cheddars and because of a need for a good blog and some good ideas I decided to give a review of the restaurant for you. To start off I will say that despite everything I am about to say I truly enjoyed my experiences there. The main problems that I had consisted of environment. The reason why I didn't like it is that they serve meals that are based around comfort foods and homely comforting foods. But instead of a relaxed atmosphere the place was fancy with every employee dressed in ties and looked like waiters from a restaurant much like Aixois which you might remember as the fancy French restaurant that was a reward for finishing my first part of Pimsleur French. Next up is that while they are dedicated to serving comfort it is comfort food from all over the world. I had a chicken alfredo, Zoe had a hamburger, Grandpa Mike had chicken tenders, Grandma Kathy and Debbie both had a Monte Cristo. This is only the main meal as well because this isn't including dessert where I had a monster cookie with ice cream, whip cream, and a cherry on top. the grandmas and zoe shared a huge slice of chocolate cake. In other words the menu was all over the place. The place has an advantage over my last reviewed restaurant which was the Rusty Horse Tavern because Cheddars can be seen from the highway easily. I was mentioning the appearence of the restaurant earlier and I have wondered if it is influenced by the fact that it is a popular place for people to go to after church but still for a place that is meant to be relaxing and calm it seemed a little up tight. I also loved the service in Cheddars because while the servers were dressed a little out of theme they were very nice and weren't too needy and were there only when you needed them. In all as I mentioned earlier I enjoyed it here and also the food was fantastic so I would give the place a 6/10 only because of its inconsistency but that doesn't matter because I would go back to try everything on the menu.

Last but not least today's work has been fairly easy despite maybe this blog which has been taking me a while. Math is coming along nicely and I am finally past Oliver Twist and I am now onto A Christmas Carol which is also just as good but this one I have seen enough details before to make it not as fun. I also realize there isn't that much difference between the book and the movie so far and the book is moving really fast for such a renowned book. I have already gotten past the part where Mr. Ebeneezer Scrooge has met his dead business partner and has been told of the three other ghosts that will help him be rid of the sins of his past. If you haven't read the book or watched the movie this is just one of them that you should stop reading this and go find either or and start. This book is a classic and should be read by everyone. I don't care if you just watch the movie either but still just make sure that you see it in someway. Anyway I hope you enjoyed today and have a good day yourself.