Growing Pains: Take 2

It's amazing how fast things can move within the course of a week. Since I last wrote in my blog I managed to accomplish something that I thought would take ages to do. I managed to get a job. This places me as the first kid in my family to get a job and leads me on the path to start getting the car off of the parents. I will be working at Chili's like I said that I would and I'm so stoked and yet, at the same time, I'm kind of sad as well. This is my contract into being somewhat responsible with my life. I now have more than just my family who rely on me now  on a day to day basis. All I can do is take it slowly and make sure the job is done right. I was going to say something about hoping for the best but if I'm busy hoping for things to be done than nothing is going to get done.

On top of this, I have obtained the ability to drive on a full motorcycle for the first time. Meaning that I could take my dad's Harley at the age of 16 and drive it downtown for fun. In theory of course. My dad might kill me if I took his Harley out for a joyride without his permission. Instead I'm thinking of getting a Kawasaki type motorcycle when I have the money. It will be cheaper to get around on, a lot more fun, and strangely for me, it seems to be less nerve racking than any car that I have driven in my short amount of time. Strange I know.

Now I can't forget the most pressing issue of the moment. The Holiday season. Personally, my family celebrates Christmas and no matter what it looks like. Despite this being one of the "Happiest seasons of all" it is also one of the most stressful. The organizing for both sides of the family, the gift shopping, the making sure that everyone can attend, and the over the top dinner. Some people find Christmas the best and jump all over it with the lights strewn around the house and some holly over the doorway, but my dad's side of the family isn't quite like this. We don't have the tree or anything like that and instead focus on the gifts, dinner and most importantly family. Still, One of the hardest times of the year.

The Beginning of the Future.

Welcome back everyone to yet another fascinating week of events. Of late, everything has been going down. For example the 15th was my birthday and that is where I got my very first smart-phone. I've always been against smart phones in general but I find that they are extremely useful. The ability to work your schedule everywhere you go or be able to just listen to some music. I use it way too much in order to hate as much as i used to, but the problem beyond everything else among cell-phones is that they are self fulfilling. If you didn't have one cell phone than you wouldn't need the others. There isn't much point in having them in the first place as there are other tools that can serve the same purpose.

On top of my new smart phone I also have recently applied for a job. For the job I have already gotten my second interview. I'm extremely happy about this as I will be able to work at my first establishment. To top it all off, it is not at a fast food chain like McDonald's. Instead I will be working at Chili's which is a location that I would willingly eat at, the people there are really nice, and I could be able to earn my first paycheck. I hear the paycheck is what really influences most people to start working. We'll have to see though.

Finally it is the end of the semester for the most part outside of one pesky day. You see, we just got a snow day right at the end of the semester and now we have to make up the last day of finals after we get back from break. It is extremely annoying since now I have to keep up my studying over the course of the 3 week break. The good news is that despite this, we do have some snow to make the week go by a little bit faster. Besides. It's a good excuse to keep working on my subjects even during break.

December Madness

We are all in the thick of the busiest time of the year here within many lives including my own. Everything is coming up all at once including the holidays, tests, and the most important is birthdays. Within the month of December we have 4 different birthdays on both sides of the family. My uncle Aaron, my cousin Max, dad, and myself. Because of this we all get together as a family too eat dinner and have a combined birthday between the two houses. Tonight we get together and we celebrate by eating at one of my favorite locations. The Rusty Horse Tavern. During one of my earlier blog entries I reviewed this place but no matter how hard I search I can't find the original post. I have searched everywhere and can't find a single reference to the place. I will say that they have some of the best burgers I have ever had making it perfect for everyone celebrating here tonight.

Along with the excitement going is all of the tests. Tests for Math, French, Debate, and English. All of them being fit in desperately at the end of the year. It is a lot to take in and not too easy for the students to cope with. All of the reviews and finals come down on your head quickly and without mercy as the schedule is thrown on its head. I can say without hesitancy that the schedule is a humongous mess. No two days have the same schedule within a week. No one even bothers to keep track as we're too busy working on studying for all of the tests.

I never realized how much I loved listening to music until I lost most of my time on the computer. Nowadays I can't really listen to any good music. You just can't find good music when everyone listens to Country, Rap, or some other misc music that I can't describe. Now the only time that I can listen to good music is on the computers at school or on the Chromebook while writing my blog. It's at times like these when I wonder whatever happened to my MP3 player.

Decisions

Welcome back everyone to another fantastic blog entry!  Lately I have decided to make a deal with my parents which isn't exactly what I would call nice.  The deal that we have made limits my recreational time on the computer and how this deal came about is actually kind of funny.  More than anything it comes with the simple fact that I'm addicted to gaming by all accounts.  Spending 8+ hours a day if I can help it.  By limiting my time for the day down too 2 hours a day is far more moderate and allows me to focus on other things. There is also the fact that I kinda miss the days where I was a kid and played with my friends without a care about if I got online for the day.  Back in the days where the computer was a magical machine that I had no idea how to use and where the PlayStation 1 was something I caught in slight glimpses.   by going back to limiting myself in such a way It can allow me to get back into things such as reading. I bet we all remember that strange time period where people actually wrote words for fun!  I could also use this as an opportunity to possibly hunt for a job but I don't know how well this is going to work as, like always, I don't actually have much time to spare during my week due to the amount of homework. Still it won't hurt to go looking now before the next semester hits.

Of late in school I'm dealing with a lot of remembering things.  For example, the remembering of all of the different French phrases and words which is going fairly well, but then I also have to work on trying to remember on my oratory speech for Debate.  The main problem with both of these things is that my memory has never been very good.  I've gotten better over the years and have even managed to not brush my teeth foot lotion or load the washing machine with some of the kitchen trash.  Besides that though, trying to remember speeches or new words and enunciating them properly is probably one of the hardest things that I have had to do in a long time.

Coming up in the next two weeks are the finals for all of my classes.  The worst 2 weeks of each semester hands down.  A 40 minute test most of the time turns into a rescheduling of the class schedules for everyone and a lack of new curriculum.  Rarely does anyone learn anything during this week unless the class doesn't have a final.  It's infuriating more than anything.  I can't stand having my schedule moved around to the point where I'm sitting in one of my classes for 2 hours while my other classes I get 1 hour.  Usually all of my classes are about 1 hour and 30 minutes but when you throw off the balance like this within classes, you end up in some really annoying classes for way too long next to some people that will ruin a somewhat good day.  I can guarantee you that the next couple weeks are going to be the most hectic weeks of the year.  Ranging from birthdays, to lack of my computer for time passing, too finals will leave this an interesting end to the year.

The Tournament!

Welcome back everyone to another blog entry and we will open up with one of my current sports. Whether you consider a sport or not were talking about the world of Debate. Lately within School my debate team has been working hard to help set up one of the best tournaments within the Missouri area and in order to do this I had to go and collect judges, contribute to setup, and finally help out for the rest of the weekend in some way. These ways of helping could include helping monitor pods, Keep track of ballots, or help time rounds. I ended up not getting a job like hall monitor so I ended up timing different events such as Lincoln Douglas debate which is mostly philosophical debates, and Foreign Extemporaneous which is doing a persuasive speech with only 30 minutes of prep time prior to the speech. While these are fun to sit through eventually these things begin to wear on you after looking at the same walls for about 8 hours for two days in a row and listen as the arguments seem to blend together you just want to go home and relax.

I manged to get one of the new people to my household to help judge in a few different rounds. His name is Manny. Lately he has just moved in to live with the family for a while. Now personally I don't know him as well as I could since he is a fairly quiet person. Despite sharing a room with him at the moment he is quiet and usually keeps to himself. I won't go too much into detail about him because I have just met him and what I do know is for him to share if he ever wishes. I haven't really gotten much of his personality yet since I don't see him often enough and for this reason I won't start laying judgment or compliments on his character yet and he has turned out to be really nice so far.

Before I wrap this up I have to address Thanksgiving at least a little bit so why not my favorite foods. After all this is usually what people associate with Thanksgiving. Personally I love turkey as much as the next person but the sides are where all of the deliciousness lies. Lets start with the most basic food of all. The bread. Whether this be a fluffy roll or maybe just some slices of white bread the rest of the meal is not complete without this simple addition to the table. For me personally there needs to be some sort of potato such as mashed potatoes or maybe some potatoes Au gratin. There really isn't a limit here on the potato dishes. Finally there is that oh so beloved cranberry sauce that looks like dog food when it comes out of that can. There is something strangely alluring to me about this odd looking substance. It is sweet and has a strange gelatinous texture that you really can't get anywhere else except for with jello. If anything, this is probably my guilty pleasure as far as anything canned or packaged. All of these answers can vary by person so you don't have to agree with me on these foods, but for me dinner just isn't complete without these staples.

Autumn's Fall

Welcome back everyone to another blog entry. Lately things have been changing rapidly. For example there is the recent change in temperature. Within the last few days the temperature here in Missouri has dropped drastically, and I absolutely love it. The signs of the first winter are here, and it has almost completely bypassed Fall. This constant cycle of the seasons has made way for my absolute favorite season known as Winter. There is nothing like the bitter chill outside to bring everyone inside huddling under their blankets and relax as the twinkling crystals of ice glisten in the sky as the crystals softly provide for the earth, its' own blanket made of a bright white.


Another one of the changes comes from school revolving around Debate. A personal favorite class of mine due to how simple and difficult this class can be all at once. We now have a new resolution for debate, and this one is going to be pretty fun for me. The new resolution is "Resolved: To be 'forgotten from the Internet' ought to be a civil right." The really cool thing about this resolution is that the entire case is focused around Google. One of my personal favorite companies on the internet at the moment. I'm so excited about this project that I have a massive document of accumulated facts just waiting to be cobbled together into a working case.


Within all of the changes occurring at the moment it is hard to remember the amazing holiday that lies in wait around the corner. Thanksgiving, My absolute favorite holiday. As I have mentioned last year as well, many of the other holidays don't mean half as much as they should to me. Halloween feels tacked on, and simply there for just candy, Christmas feels more like just the act of giving and receiving gifts over the old values that it's supposed to have, and New Years just doesn't have the right levity for me. Thanksgiving can be seen as just another holiday to start stuffing yourself silly on turkey or whatever meal tickles your fancy, but it is one of the few holidays throughout the years that can guarantee me time to sit down with my family. To reminisce on the years before. The people that sit around you will stay within your memories for years to come as you give a proper thanks to times you've had, have, and will have.

Time Doesn't Fly!

One of the few words that I could ever consider to be my favorite would be the worde time. Time is something so mysterious yet it was a measurement created by man. All of the great truths in the world usually have some kind of flaw. The speed of light is not a constant, and if you cut the earth in half and make the two pieces drift apart the earth loses the gravity we have become so accostomed too. I can't lie that it's facts like this that drives me crazy sometime. Few constants exist that are reliable and the thought of them can chill one to the bone. Did you know that there is a virus that attaches to other illnesses to make them incurable? Dieing of the common cold would just be a sad way to go. Coincidences in of themselves leave you fearing for your life. Stories of people dropping dead in some strange way like a man hit by the same taxi that killed his brother and both dieing at the same age on the same moped. Something to chew on eh?

Happy early Halloween! Don't you love a good thought provoking story? I know I do and I find that facts among all other things are just the easiest way to bring that chill down your spine. Some people get it through bungee jumping or skydiving, but for the mostly sane we stick with our stories. I gave a nice misleading title to my story so that people would read the title and think it was another average post.  The second factor to making it work was the idea that surprise would help. Surprises are shocking and jarring. If you didn't know what you were walking into it would come as that much more terrifying. Honestly I hoped you all enjoyed the little distraction from the mediocre. After all surprises lye around every corner and it would be a shame to miss out on all of them.

Speaking of mediocre I think it's about time to get on track for the first time today. Lately I have been working hard on increasing my skill in French in order to have an easier time with getting my grades up and keeping them there. In order to do this I have taken up working on the side on a website known as Duolingo. I quickly saw improvements in my writing and speaking of French immediately. I don't like handing out praise to locations so quickly, but even my dad has been using it and it's helping him brush up in the hazy areas of the beautiful French language. If your ever looking into increasing your linguistic skills or to learn a new language I would recommend it personally.

"Put it in The Stack Over There"

To be honest with everyone out there I am super busy lately. I'm working my hardest to do all of my work right and it's starting to get to me. As I've mentioned before this is the first year that I've really had to work hard to be able to keep my grades up. A little bit more bragging on my part but it's true and it's starting to get to me. I'm making mistakes here and there its starting to ware on me. I've missed a couple assignments and then I'm trying to keep things together at home and I just need to keep going, but more than anything at the moment I need a break from it all.

On a more lighthearted note I'm working on writing a story for my English class. The story needs to be horror which sadly isn't my strong suit,but more than anything that is because I feel that horror just isn't the same anymore. I mean a good jump scare still gets the same feeling of terror across but that chill down your spine just isn't the same. For crying out loud, list a single movie, game, or book made recently that gives you the same kind of thrill from horror that you might get from one of the older forms of media. That would be my own opinion of course but I would love to hear your guyses opinion on the subject.

I remember ages ago stating things like I intend to get my name out on the social networks at some point. The funny thing about that is that now I'm using things like google plus a lot more often and I personally enjoy just looking at some of the interesting things you might find. A good laugh every once in a while to lighten the mood. Because of me going around Google plus I seem to be getting a few more views every once in a while. I think my activity alone is just getting people interested in the other things that I might post or do which is interesting to think on. Still I do get the word out a little bit more about my blog and who knows, maybe my blog could pick up someday.

Falling into place

The weather, oh the wonderful weather. It's finally becoming Autumn again and it means for me that I'm getting closer to one of my favorite times of the year, winter. Autumn has it's perks though like the beautiful changing of the leaves and the true beginning of the school year. After all, school doesn't really begin until sometime after the first quarter of the year is up. That is when the teachers come at you full tilt because by this point in the year they know for a fact how to approach the class.

Speaking of class, I have a new class. I have taken a huge liking to debate starting primarily with the recent tournament that I have attended. I decided to go into Lincoln Douglas debate and did an awesome job and came back with 3 victories and only one loss. After my previous records I was absolutely astounded to see a complete turnaround. Originally I was pretty terrible with my cases but now they have turned out awesome. I was so close to getting to the outrounds but I was off by one win to even be recognized on stage for an award, but you know, I don't think it could have gone much better.

Last thing on my list for the day is my complete lack of focus for the moment. The reason for this is just the long weekend. It has left me throughout the day, completely unfocused to the point where during math class I almost tuned out the teacher entirely and it took all of my willpower to stay on track. Even at the moment I struggle to complete my blog because of the urge to just fall into my gaming or read my book at the moment. In all, a lot of has happened over the last few days.

Second Language

I love the idea of being able to speak a second language that I can then use at a later point. This second language of choice for me is French as I have explained many times on my blog before. Only recently though have I truly been able to get the mechanics of the French sentences down. I'm only getting started but I finally have been able to learn some more of the basics. Stuff like Je parle Francais assez bien, is simple but so much fun to say. I've even got my dad going through French again and it has just been a learning experience between the two of us.

Speaking of French, my class is starting a fund raiser for the foreign language department in my school. This definitely won't be that hard. I have about 2 get all donations and then turn them into my teacher. We are selling cookies and magazines if that makes any sense. The first thought that came to mind though is of all things a bank. I don't know if banks would buy from a student looking to fundraise for their school but wouldn't that be the jackpot for this assignment? I mean just think about it real quick. You tell them that they can buy entire buckets of cookie dough fairly cheap and then you sell them a subscription to several newspaper for all of that waiting time that the bankee has. Just a thought.

I'm on a foreign language roll at the moment so lets not end it now. In order to keep my language skills up I do other things on the side that aren't too horrible. The music that I listen to at the moment usually consists of French lyrics. I also go and read some French articles every once in a while to help myself  get to a higher level of understanding of the French language. Simple stuff like this helps every little lesson that you do on a day to day basis sink in a little deeper. A little bit of immersion leads to a higher comprehension of everything you study of another language or culture. 

I love Science!

How many of you out there go and read up on some of the current events of the moment. I personally read up on it at every chance I have and because of this I want share some of the really cool things I found today. Definitely nothing like my last 2 entries which got me up to 300 posts, but I have to say I think you will enjoy some of the new things I have found.

More than anything one of the big themes of today in the tech world is the synthetic squid skin. Sounds extremely comfortable, I know. I can't wait to order it either. The primary idea behind this product though is not for comfort but it is one of the first forms of camouflage that we have at the moment. It is controlled through certain electrical currents which activate changes in texture and color. Perfect for all of those people who want to hide in a public setting.... I take that back. There is little to no way to hide in a public setting. In fact the instant you start changing colors people are going to look at you in some strange ways. You can check this one out here

Keeping on the theme of stuff with tentacles they now have a soft robotic arm. Amazing stuff really. It fills up with air and bends with the environment along with a few subtle tweaks in order to grab things. Of course eventually they intend to get this to work so that it could even pick up people which might be kinda scary. With the way things are going in robotics at the moment I wouldn't be surprised if they could do it either. After all we also have robotic cheetahs that can move faster than cheetahs. If you want to check out the robot tentacle I personally liked this link.

I'm thinking of doing stuff like this article hunting a little bit more often. Still It might be about time to start changing the name of my blog. Maybe even make a second one instead and try to keep this one dedicated to school work. It could work after all and then build off of that. I could even attempt to make a website that would allow you to get to all of the different locations. Awfully ambitious, and I'm known to not follow through with things, so we'll see how this goes.

Friends Forgotten pt. 2

Welcome back to part 2 of Friends Forgotten. This is my list of friends whom I have made throughout my almost 16 years of living. What does this accomplish? What this is supposed to do is give a great example of how friends have impacted our lives throughout time. I'll keep this short since I want to expand on this idea at the end so let's hop into this.

From part 1 of this entry I mentioned that there is 2 Jack's throughout my life who I attribute myself too. Well it's time for Jack C and there is only one thing I can call him. That would be determined. Without a doubt Jack C would fight for whatever he wanted. He was extremely loyal to all of his friends if not a little crazy at times. It was Jack who helped me remain as a kid keep my imagination moving at 50 Miles Per Hour and test the very levels of my patience at times. Much Like Carson I see him on a day to day basis but it's very rare if we ever stop to chat.

Reaching the end of my main examples we reach Daniel. Daniel was a very interesting friend for me as without him I probably wouldn't have become less shy and break down some of the boundaries that I had set down for myself. Daniel was a fantastic friend until one day we began to quarrel. We began to fight back and forth between each other until it became just too much. He was the first friend that I lost simply due to incompatibility. It stunned me for ages but it wasn't until much later that I realized just how much he had done for me. Without him I wouldn't have my current groups of friends nor would I have dealt with such an experience at a decent age. I have always hated conflict but Daniel helped me get over that over time. He doesn't know this all of course but then again, things are fine as they are.

Next up are 2 of said friends that I met through Daniel who I constantly talk too. Starting with one of the more recent ones there is Kale. Kale reminds me of myself when I was younger. He has a much more relaxed air around him as well as a little bit more "street smarts". To be frank he is just an all around awesome guy who reintroduced me to the world I used to see. Kale for the most part opened back open my eyes at seeing something familiar. Sometimes you forget that people have it worse than you. Don't mistake that for pity. He has just seen far more than I have in my life

Finally for the moment is someone I have mentioned many times on my blog. His name is Alex. Alex is my current best friend as their can only be one at a time. He is infuriating, big, and irrevocably smart. I Kind of think of him as my 2nd brother as our relationship has gone that far. We throw ideas of morals, basic concepts, and beliefs off of each other. We are almost like Philosophers in arms against the basic facts that we take for granted. With him I test the limits of my knowledge as well as always having someone to go to when I'm in some kind of annoyance. We have known each other for almost my entire time here in my little home.

There are a ton of people I have not gotten too and I don't know if I want to post another 2 or more blog entries of this. It is a fun subject but it would get boring for everyone else pretty quickly. In brief then some of these people include Trevor, Jason, Kendra, Kiele, Chris C, Kandace, Madeleine, Amber, etc etc etc.  Those are only the ones I could think of off the top of my head too. Give me some time and I could probably make that list bigger. The point here is that friends will come to you with new ideas that challenge your own. This brings out the best and worst of who you are. This is due to the conflicting ideas and adaption that you have to go through for those you hold dear. I could list the last names of almost all of the people on this list but for their sake I won't be doing any of that. Internet smarts help for their sake. Sit and think on who those people are for you. The ideas they invoke on you stick. Like a wet sock hitting a wall, you just don't want to touch it. You will leave those ideas where they are and continue to learn the many lessons they may have taught you. Who has influenced your life the most. Pay your homage to them even if they are being honored in your memories.

Friends Forgotten pt. 1

Today is very Important to the American people and of course many people all over the world for varying reasons. Just last night we had received a visit from an old family friend seeing him reminded me of how the friends I've had and have possibly lost throughout the ages. Not saying that they wouldn't remember me, but instead this entry on the internet is here to remind us of those we have drifted from that may have influenced our lives willingly or unwillingly. Lets begin down a trip through memory lane with some of the friends that have helped me throughout the ages.

The obvious one for me is my first friend whose name was Jack M. Jack M, because there will be two Jack's on this list. Anyway Jack M was an amazing kid and even if he has forgotten me he provided me with my first taste of friendship. I didn't actually meet him until 1st grade either which goes to show how lonely I was up till that point. It is him and all the fun times that we've had together that has given me my appreciation for having close friends and family. Without him I probably would have been miserable.

Up to bat now is the twins known as Brent and Logan. These two kids and me went back to the point where they were bullying me. I know how strange that sounds but bear with me. They started bullying me ages ago which got me onto my bad habits of revenge. Once again that sounds terrible, and yes it is, but here we go. After tricking them with some help from my dad they quickly began to leave me alone. It wasn't until about a month later after the trick that we ended up becoming friends. After that one day they didn't seem to do anything bad other than be really hyper kids.This helped me by allowing me to humanize even the people that seem mean or even cruel to us at first glance. With their help I can stop and think about why someone is that way before jumping to conclusions.

Next up is my first friend of this area I'm living in now. His name is Carson and he is without a doubt in my mind an extraordinary man. Carson is just one of those people that have that personality that you gravitate towards willingly or unwillingly. Carson was my rival for ages and I tried to beat him at everything but he was always one step ahead of me making extremely furious at times that I would always be outdone by him in just about every area. You win some you lose some. What did Carson teach me? He taught me how to fail and the benefits of having good friends. He was amazing as he surrounded himself with people that were just as smart as him. No bragging on my part since we have drifted apart since. Mostly due to the home schooling situation but you never really know.

Christopher was without a doubt another such genius. He was friends with Carson which is how I met Christopher. Chris has always been a whiz with math and cars. An engineering genius who knew far more than anyone of our small group combined on any one vehicle or electronic. Even then it was him who I give credit too for reminding me that friends are never as lost as you may first believe. The reason I say this is because I knew that he had been forced to go to a different school and even then we managed to find each other again over the inter webs on Google plus. Amazing stuff for me because without this he might have been another lost friend.

This is getting a little bit long so in order to make sure people don't lose interest half way through the article I'm going to start wrapping this up for the day. Remember those that you may have taken for granted and those small words that helped you carry on. One comment can change your life as I will demonstrate in pt. 2 of Friends Forgotten

Long time no See!

How is everyone today because just like last time I'm busy. Always busy, so happy with how things are going at the moment. For the most part my life is revolving around my school work which leads to one schedule set in stone. Wake up, Go to school, get home, do chores, maybe go to TKD, some homework, Dinner, Finish homework and then wrap up the day with a little bit of free time. Not complaining but this leaves very little time for seeing my friends or doing the things that I did just last year. A lot has changed over the Summer and there is no way I'm going to turn down a good challenge.

Everything outside of my Math work is actually pretty fulfilling which I will get back to that Math work later. Starting out the day with French isn't that easy because I'm not really functioning well by 8:00 in the morning when I'm waking up at 5:45. Next up though is Debate and it is proving to be a very welcome class right before Algebra. I also find that I'm not half bad at debate at the moment but it is only the first couple of weeks so we'll see where that goes. Finally other than Math there is English which is interesting enough but could be worse. I know that taking projects home that are due in one day can be annoying but I really didn't mind.

Lets get back to the math work... I hate it. I really do not like that class at all, but I intend to stick through it. Don't get me wrong the teacher isn't that bad in my opinion and I may hate math, but that still isn't the problem. It's the curriculum to be precise and that there is all grind and no lick of fun. No real help and notes constantly. I will keep going in class as I will have to take the class either way but on top of that I will need a challenging class during every semester as well as getting ready for the harder math classes yet to come.

Back to school

It's been ages since I last posted on August 9th meaning its been a good 2 weeks or so. Either way I have to say I haven't had much time up until now in order to be able to post anything. If I did post anything in between it wouldn't have been that good of quality and even now I'm debating on how good it can be. The main reason for this is due to the amount of time I am dedicating to my homework. At the beginning of this week I have managed to spend over 3 hours a night towards homework.

The worst part about all of this is that I seem to have become extremely grumpy towards the people around. I have become somewhat stressed out due to the work and time I have put into the school day. I know for a fact that it will get better with time but that's not something that I want to happen later. I want things to improve sooner rather than later because this stress is really starting to get to me lately. I try so hard to be happy I sometimes forget that just like every other kid my age I just want to go out and do something. What that something is, I have no clue to be honest with you but it has to do with my current lack of goals I think.

With that out of the way it is pretty good to be back as I'm sad to say I lost my newspaper role but gained another interesting class in return. This happens to be debate which has proved very fruitful for me with learning a few more social skills and allowing me to learn more skills in a conversation to inevitably out do my parents in an argument someday! I will eventually defeat them at their own game and hopefully get whatever my choice may be for that one argument but I don't know if I want to write a whole speech on potentially defeating them in a game of debate.

Camp Kick

Right on que Camp Kick has come back around to show us that school is almost here again. Last time I posted on camp kick was last year on August 9th. That post should cover most of the things I did this time as well. I didn't do much else that I didn't do last time so I'll probably just link the post to the camp kick post from last time. In fact you can find that one right here. Sorry if it looks like this is a lazy way of getting out of posting a new blog but there isn't that much else to cover that wasn't posted last time.

On to a new subject that isn't camp I have to say that I am very happy with my new school schedule which has given just about every class that wanted except for one but I'll get to that soon. In the first semester I have French 1, Debate and Tournament Forensics, Algebra 1A, and English Language Arts 2. A pretty good setup personally since after my failures with taking French on my own its about time I finally get that class down. In fact I am determined to get all four French classes which is going to be a pain in the neck. For Second session I have Chemistry 1, French 2, Geometry, and Computer Applications which to sum it up lightly the only things that I am not looking forward to are the math classes half way through my day. Other than that everything is going to be awesome this year.

There is that one class that is missing from my list of things that I am doing. Have you guys noticed yet that I haven't mentioned that Newspaper is not on my schedule. Well I have and it is bugging the hell out of me. I'm going to attend the workshop that is coming up to meet with the teacher and see what is going on with my schedule. I heard that she overbooked her class which will highly limit my ability to work on my English like I was hoping to do with Newspaper. It was just another outlet for what I was planning on doing but I did get English 2 which will tide me over for session 1.

Camp Week: Part 3

Alright everyone I have been given the task of wrapping up the rest of this today. No easy feat so before I begin a warning for everyone that I may begin to ramble or become unfocused during this entry as I go over the last 3 days of the camp. Now that we have that out of the way lets begin shall we?

Lucky for me there is only a little bit really worth mentioning on Wednesday. Mind you a little in comparison to other days. Lets start out with the Great Object Hunt! That's what I'm calling it at least. You remember how there was a point system while we were at camp? Well there were 4 random objects hidden around the camp with varying point values. There was a Football helmet, a bowling pin, a toy dinosaur, and a mascot for one of the local sport teams. People had claimed everything except that solitary bowling pin. This seemed baffling to me why the only bright white object which isn't that easy to hide was the only object never found. After all, bowling pins aren't exactly small and they happen to be bright white most of the time as well. Too put it bluntly I never found it either and this left me hugely dissapointed. I even went to the farthest corners of the campgrounds finding buildings that people didn't even know exist.

Next up was a small game similar to grab the bacon. A game where you have a square formation of people all around the football with each person having a number. When your number is called you run out and attempt to bring the football to your side. This game instead had 8 inner tubes like used to raft on water sitting in the middle in a tower. Our team decimated during this little exercise as we had 2 very heavyset instructors who were allowed to participate and ended up dragging anyone that tried to get in their way. It was amazing to watch but the fun soon ended even though we won there was obviously a casualty. One of the girls that were participating ended up getting trampled when someone was trying to bring back one of the inner tubes. I still don't know who did it personally.

After the injury all of the teams ended up retreating to the other side of the field and formed a humongous prayer circle. I honestly felt stupid sitting around doing nothing. That's what I felt at least. This massive display of faith and the only thing I could think was this feels ridiculous worrying about someone that not only do I not know but also worrying about something that is completely out of my control.  I was probably one of the only ones thinking this though as it was an amazing sight to behold. Something I will not forget for a very long time as it blazes in my head remembering it now.

Come Thursday most of the previous night is forgotten and people move on with their daily routine. On this day our prankster team member starts his plight on the few points that we had gained throughout the week. Starting out in the morning we all find a frog in grass as we wait in line for the breakfast doors to open up. This one mischief maker then decides to pick up the frog and hold onto it until later and breakfast is starting to wind down. He then runs over to one of the tables full of girls and throws the frog onto the table very much alive. This soon freaks out all of the girls ridding us of a lot of points. This though is sadly the beginning of his second prank.

I don't know all of the details on this one but I do know that this is how we lost the remainder of of the points we had. The same kid soon decided that during one of the morning prayers I believe on the same day to steal the bullhorn and walkie talkie of one of the instructors at the camp. He then walked all the way back to the cabin blaring the bullhorn without any of the instructors noticing. He is soon called out about the bullhorn at the next prayer meeting but he manages to keep the walkie talkie hidden for a while.

Next up we reach a brand new experience for me which is Skeet shooting! First time I have ever fired a gun personally but I had a general idea on how to fire a gun. It was truly amazing wielding a weapon for the first time and of all places at church camp. Mind you I never hit a target which left me fairly sad but I did manage to fire a 20 gauge shotgun a few times before returning to one of my favorite board games I have ever played. The game of Risk.

The first thing I always hear Risk compared to is Axis and Allies which I have never played before and neither can I find a copy of this game either. The entire game is based around world domination which I have all of the strategies to win but sadly none of the luck. The luck comes from the fact that you need to roll dice in order to determine who wins in a conflict and I had all of the awesome defensive positions and knew where to move my men but I could not defend any of the locations when I needed to. This left me sad as I lost yet another game due to some strange rules that I don't agree with. For example if one person wins then they flat out win without any casualties to their troops. This is nice for when you are attacking but because of this you can attack for a very long time after you have enough troops in one location.

One of the final things for Thursday was the Talent show. Let me tell you all something right now. I despise Talent shows! Seriously though they are pretty bad most of the time as people just end up doing a lot of singing without any real work other than remembering the words to one song or another. Usually a very popular song of that week. Also known as the flavor of the week songs. This talent show I saw some surprisingly nice talents like one kid got up on stage and did a full drum solo. Another kid managed to recited a ton of  Hamlet which was just astounding to watch him do. Even the Judges were dumbfounded by this talent of his. My team sadly were singers. I had nothing to add to my team really but the song the majority of the team was doing was clever. The classic song "Lean on Me" The kind of song that gets everyone on their feet as they start swaying back and forth with lighters in their hands singing along. Sadly we were running behind on time at this point of the show and we didn't get to finish the song costing us dearly and we overall lose the points that could be gained through this event and the whole point competition.

Here we all are on the last day of the camp trip and this day is pretty simple for me to write about. The reason why is because after the goodbyes for the day there isn't that much to talk about. I was so fatigued from the constant upbeat atmosphere as well the constant interaction with other people. This may have made me overlook some potentially interesting details on this last day and this left the most memorable part of this day the getting back to Kansas City part of things. There was the bus ride home where I was surrounded by a bunch of kids who were determined to keep me from napping on the way back home. Along with annoying me to the point of almost snapping they decided to pick on the bus driver on the way back as well. I was happy to make it home alive just like everyone else may have been but these kids didn't exactly help my confidence of getting home safe.

Anyway here we are at the end of the blog post and I hope you all haven't fallen asleep yet as I didn't have that hard of a time with this part of the blog like I thought I would. In fact it was easy enough that this only took 2-3 hours instead of the estimated 5-6 I was dreading the thought of. Now that this is done my next blog entry can be about other things like the fact that school is coming up soon and the plans with that.

Camp Week: Part 2

Alright everyone I'm going to not post as much this time nor do I think that I'm going to complete my whole camp week today. I'm going to finish up Tuesday and then stop most likely so that it isn't so much of a chore to read the whole thing. I will attempt to post for Wednesday and Thursday on their respective days but I will be at my moms so there may be some predicaments there. I can make up for them at some other point. Maybe over the weekend? Who knows?

Anyway outside of the swimming on Tuesday I attempted a game of Laser Tag with some kids I met at the camp. I think I did pretty well with my the team that I was on. Not bad for my team still means I did pretty horrible. I feel that I was too supportive and didn't do that much and since none of my team heeded any of the advice I sent my entire purpose was to make shots at people that my team was distracting. Not much, and sadly I lost a good chunk of the time but I had a lot of fun so I guess that it was all worth it.

The best part of the day comes at night with game of Capture the flag. The entire thing was done in the middle of the night. All of the lights turned off and everyone had only thin glow sticks to identify each other. It was amazing! Remember when I said that my team was there to win? Well we almost won this event because of our amazing defense. You see the main rules were that you had to be identifiable for your team hence the glow sticks, your flag had to be retrievable, your flag had to be able to be seen, and don't leave the radius of where flags could be placed which means no going behind buildings. My team had the genius idea of sticking our flag on the end of a stick along with a glow stick and shove it up a tree so that people could barely see the glow stick and could still retrieve the flag. We didn't lose since no one grabbed our flag but we didn't win because when the game was called we hadn't grabbed anyone's flag either. It was so much fun because we left so many people confused with such a plan that by the end of the game people were constantly going after our flag to no avail. 

Camp Week: Part 1

Welcome back everyone to another blog entry. I'm sorry that it has taken this long before I have been able to get around to my blog but for the last week or so I have been over at a Church camp. I also have to warn everyone in advance now that since a lot has happened over the course of the week this will be a much longer blog than usual. I'm going to try to not ramble as much as usual but I can guarantee you that everything will not fit into three paragraphs like usual. Let's begin at the beginning, shall we?

We begin with the first day and location. The campgrounds were out in the middle of nowhere in Oklahoma. The entire camp was nice and all but there was a massive feeling of isolation from the rest of the world considering that there was no electronics allowed except for camp instructors. In other words despite the huge amounts of people it almost felt like there was nothing outside of the campgrounds. I woke up at about 5:00 in the morning to make sure I got all of my stuff together and start heading out at about 6:30 to meet the bus to head down to the campgrounds. By this point in the trip barely anyone knew one another so it was a fairly quiet ride down there. The real fun starts when we get down there for the first day.

We are all assigned to a group of people around our age and how long we have all been there but for the most part randomly assigned within those areas. Doesn't sound like a huge group to work from but there were plenty of High School boys who were on their first year at the camp. I ended up with what I like to call the misfits. While there were the thinkers, the athletes, and the "players" we were the team that was there to have fun and win as a way of saying that we aren't the worst team here. Our team name was the Redneck Kings of Funk. We bonded all instantly with the common goal of winning the camp games for the year.

I haven't gone over the fact that there was a point system that took place throughout the entire week where if you did something that was worth a merit your team would be rewarded with points. These points would then win you a pizza party at the end of the week. Examples of point applicable things are like winning the Capture the flag game which we will get too later. I won't ruin anything about the ending of camp so you'll have to read to the end if you want to find out if I won or not.

Pretty soon after all of the teams have been chosen we all ended up going to bed due to the fact that everyone was pretty darn tired after waking up early to get to the camp on time. The arrangements of  the cabins weren't that bad except the fly problem and the people I bunked with were pretty quiet during the nights since we were all pretty tired. The main problem I ran into was snacks. Not the lack of snacks but the abundance there of. We weren't that hungry but we brought the equivalent of a 5 course meal of snacks each. Just a ton of food that each of us brought in separately. I decided to share mine and my full bag of cheese puffs were gone in the blink of an eye.

On to Tuesday where a lot of things start but before we begin I have to remind you all that this is a church camp so before I can continue much farther I'm going to go over what made this a church camp and not some camp where a lot of Christian kids happened to go. First off every day after breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner we all went to the chapel and started praying. Next up is that all of the kids came from Churches from Kansas and Missouri and only churches.

Everyday for me starts with breakfast and Their food was probably the worst part about the trip. Has anyone else reading this ever had a McRib from McDonald's. Well I have and they served me another one for lunch. The same mystery meat object stuffed in a bun and tastes strangely like barbeque. The most appetizing thing that they served me there was actually the salad bar which I enjoyed every day with vigor with a hearty dose of bacon bits and cheese with a drizzle of Italian dressing.

On Tuesday I went down to the springs for the first time which is pretty much the spot where everyone goes swimming. It was a constant 55 degrees Fahrenheit and that made it freezing in comparison to the rest of the area. Along with this there were several ways to enter this little area. There was the zip line, the Trapeze like object, and finally the most preferred way of entering the Blob. A giant inflatable where one person was on the far end and the other person jumps down on the opposite end sending the first person into the air and back down into the water if done properly. A simple but extremely fun way of doing things sadly I was just a bit too scared to do this myself. I personally went for the other inflatable.

The other inflatable was what I liked to call the igloo for some strange reason. It was pretty much a giant inflatable jungle jim on the water. Extremely scary for people like me. The main reason behind this is because the entire thing was in the water of course making it very slick. Along with this if more than one person climbed to the top at a time the whole thing would begin to buckle under the weight. This got even scarier if you were close to the inflatable. It never sunk but I felt that it got a little bit too close a couple of times.

Alright well everyone I think I'm going to wrap this all up here for the moment and continue it tomorrow. With the basic info out of the way part 2 should be long but I have no clue how long. I might cut out a couple of things but not too much since I haven't been posting that much lately. I hope you all come on over for tomorrows post and I'll see you all tomorrow for part 2

Hobby Hunting

Lately I have gotten back into my hunting for a new hobby. This has happened plenty of times which  can get annoying but I have to start using some of my new found discipline in order to accomplish my goals. Over time I have learned to act in ways against my current wishes at the time and it has taken a couple of years in order to finally get this down to a reasonable level. In other words I've been working on being disciplined by... being disciplined. That makes sense when you put it like that. When you think about it though you don't get better at anything without practicing that skill. Your talents are honed by using your talents after all. For example I wouldn't be this good at typing if I didn't type this much. I have about a 40 Words Per Minute typing speed that allows me to type out all 3 paragraphs in about 30 minutes if I know what I'm going to be talking about.

Talking about my blog what does everyone think about changing the focus of my blog. I know that this is a little bit sudden but I'm no longer home schooled which is important to remember. I can always reminisce but Day in Adventure just won't cut it anymore for me. I hope to dedicate a little bit more time to my blog and improve some of that quality with some of my new freedoms and time from Summer but who knows. I might set up a Twitter and possibly Instagram account in order to spread the word and let people follow me if they wish. Include some more media and maybe get a proper picture of me so that people can see who the heck I really am. I might even try to work on one blog entry over the course of a week in order to get more into a blog so there is more substance in the reading material. This could make the blog a little bit more disjointed but I will be able to start spanning myself over more paragraphs.

Did you know that I absolutely hate Selfies? Seems random, I know, but, This is the main reason why no one has ever really seen my face on the blog. Strange to see that one small choice as to not post a picture of myself can leave me wondering if anyone is even interested in me but more in the substance of my life.  Then again, That's what my blog is about. I don't primarily write to let people get to know me but so that I can review my life and day to day rituals. This blog is an exercise of sorts. It allows me to learn more about the way I speak and act in reaction to people and peoples reaction to me. Feedback is what I always want but I don't get that much surprisingly. I wish I could see more posts as over the last few months only one person has posted a comment and that was my Grandpa. I have heard that there may be a problem with the comment section on my blog but I have no clue and I may need to double check this personally to see if there is something wrong.

Driving Myself Crazy

Apologies yet again on not posting something sooner. I got wrapped up in my schedule and couldn't find much time to do this until today. Still this isn't a bad thing as I have finally completed an official class for driving motorcycles. This means that here soon I will have my license and will be able to drive myself around to other locations. This will pretty much be the opening up of the world to me like so many other people have found when obtaining freedom of movement through motor vehicles. I do have a few problems to work on in my motorcycle driving skills but nothing that can't be improved on.

Speaking of driving I have a subject that I hold to close to heart of late as it shows just how fast the world is developing. A small invention known as "Solar Roadways" or "Solar Freakin Roadways" if you are picky. If you haven't heard of them yet go here for a video describing what they do.  If you don't trust me with linking things to other pages go ahead and skip to the next paragraph if you want. Pretty much though if you didn't watch the video the entire thing is about the ability to turn all the roads within the United States into a huge source of energy for the US and then potentially the rest of the world. That is huge as most importantly solar energy is clean energy. A solution this huge could solve a lot more than just some dinky energy problem but also potentially global warming would become less of a threat as well due to no gas powered generators actually being necessary. I know that this seems all a little random but something like this can't just be hidden away and then forgotten. This is an option for us and the future and to ignore this could be passing up options for the future.

Now that I'm off my soap box I'd like to say that my Summer is doing fairly well. Things are getting exciting more than anything. My life is much like a series of books that are all leading up to some massive climax that I have yet to be able to suspect or even see come and this is one of the cool things about what I do. By doing this blog I can eventually look back at all of this and have a story to tell from scratch based on my life. While my blog does not encompass all of my life it is definitely a basis for everything major in my life I have accomplished. Someday I might sit down and write a book about my not so bad life and see how it does but today I write my little journal hoping for another good day. Some what like today.

Terribly Tense

Alright everyone welcome back to another entry on my blog and lets just say things aren't exactly easy for me at the moment. Starting with the whole driving thing I got to go down the highway with my dad and sister in the car. This wasn't at all scary. Kidding! This was absolutely terrifying for me as I didn't want to hurt anyone on the road. It was fairly simple to get those turns in and no one ended up honking at me but I wasn't doing much. I enjoyed it a lot but there was always that niggling fear of being not ready to be on the road and hurting someone.

On a school standpoint I'm doing pretty darn awesome as I just ran the mile today which may have been hard but I got one of the best times in my class! You see I managed to run the mile in 8 minutes and 14 seconds which is by far the best time I have ever gotten. No kidding here, in fact I used to be that one kid who finished with 14 minutes and everyone else was cooling down around the track. Now I'm the person who is waiting for just about everyone else. It's fantastic because I also managed to do whit without dedicating my time to working out but instead focus more on my academics leaving me my happy nerdy persona and life style.

I truly am a happy nerd who dedicates a lot of time to learning. In fact I decided to look the webster dictionary definition and this is what I came up with. A person who behaves awkwardly around other people and usually has unstylish clothes, hair, or a person who is very interested in technical subjects, computers, etc. This sounds about right as for dressing unstylish I guess if you count Khakis and Polo shirts unstylish I got this in the bag. And technical subjects are also in the same bag as I love me some computers. I don't think you guys know that I game a lot on my computer but I do and then I do some modding and the occasional programming and figuring out things like what is the difference between C++ and Java and what makes the other one better. I didn't get that far on that subject but I looked it up and tried.

Family Time.

Sorry it took me so long to post. I got really caught up with my grandma being in town and looking after me while my parents were away. As well as managing to actually catch up with grandma and get all of the information out that I wanted to talk about I just had a lot of fun with her. Last time she was in town I just ignored her quite a bit so this weekend while she was in town I wanted her to know that she wasn't being cut off from the family when she was down here. She has been so very lonely out in the country and when she is here everything seems to quiet down most of the time. This did cause me to fall behind in some of my work but that's why I'm only posting today on my blog.

More good news though and that is that I now have access to my food handlers license! This does mean that it will be easier to get out and get a job but that's when things start to get tricky for me. Getting a job is no easy feat and I was so determined to live out my last Summer this year but once I have a decent Summer job than I don't know how many Summer's I have left. This is sincerely a concern for me as I have no idea how getting a part time job will affect my life and being able to see my friends. My life could get really closely tied to getting money more than anything before I hit 18 years old and then my life could then become dedicated to my job. These are all possibilities but all very real possibilities that I don't know if I like or dislike. Only time will tell the future and the choices that I decide to make.

I have to say I have gotten a much needed vacation over this small weekend while the parents were off on their vacation. That may sound strange but the parents have had some stressful times and did deserve a vacation. The same goes for me while I juggle all of these goals to have accomplished by the end of some random week in Summer. When my plate cleans up something else comes up and this weekend was a perfect break at just the right time. If you haven't been following along then just about every week for me has another goal to accomplish. Primarily while trying to complete my Summer school on top of that. I wasn't expecting the schedule so all I could do was simply try to cope.  Things have been doing fairly well though so I guess it could've been much worse. Still very stressful for me as well.

Terror on the Roadway!

I'm absolutely astounded to say that I have managed to earn my driving permit today. I didn't honestly expect to be getting it so soon and in fact am so astounded that I don't even think I'll realize just how awesome this whole thing is until tomorrow rolls around. To think that I can officially start driving on the roads. That may be with an adult in the car but that's still a feat in of itself. Obviously I'm not at the hardest part yet but I will be when I turn 16. At that point I can start applying for my actual drivers license.

Other then the driving thing I am slogging my way through my Summer school experience. Definitely not an easy feat but, I'm trying really hard to get through it and still participate in Summer experiences. You see I was the one who decided to sign up for PE during the Summer and I have to say it wasn't the smartest class. I could've taken accounting or something and it would've been easier. than taking this class. We start out with about one hour of stretching and warmups followed closely by about an hour and a half of walking an jogging which all totals to about 3 miles.

Summer school isn't all that bad as there are some good aspects. For example after the 3 miles in the dead of the morning we get to take about 30 minutes for a break. This is then followed pretty quickly by one sport or activity which seems to very daily. This means that I get a good workout and there is a variety of things to look forward too by the end of the day. That is if you aren't horribly sore from the running. We got to on the first day play volleyball tennis which is actually kind of fun, the next day we got to do yoga which was unique and interesting, and today we all played some kickball which I turned out to be really good at but I'm very tired now. I'm currently working so hard in class that walking around hurts to a minor degree due to how sore my legs are. Can't be helped since I really need these credits to make up for the time that I was in homeschool. If I didn't tell anyone than homeschooling didn't give me any credits despite the work done so now I'm behind by about 1 semester which is 4 credits.

The end of the year.

While many people think there is only one year to end each year every kid out there will simultaneously say that there is going to be 2. One being the school year and the other being January 1st and December 30th. This also might just be a "wooptie-doo" moment for a lot of parents as now they have to deal with their kids over the summer but for kids everywhere we rejoice at the end of the school year. My year is definitely almost over but can't be over yet. This is because my teachers thought it would be really interesting to put all of the finals on tomorrow and Friday and Friday isn't even a whole day. I don't have much to look forward too but by golly I'm going to make sure that I have an awesome summer as there won't be very much more after this one where I can say I had all the time in the world to do nothing.

Sadly year after year I have made sure that my Summers were free and unburdened. Well this seemed to create a predicament in my head. You see I'm old enough at this moment to attempt to start getting a job. I don't know about you but I have done very little over the Summer and I don't know what I will do. I do know that I will at least be attempting to get a decent job even if it is just bagging groceries. This means though that I have not been using my summers very well in the past in my head since I don't have very many good memories to think back on through the summers. Not saying that I have bad memories but I don't know if that would be bad.

If you couldn't tell this Summer is going to be a major turning point for me and I hope that it will go well. I might get my permit over the summer, get a job, start saving money, and pretty soon be ready to be self sufficient. It is the one summer where things take a turn for better or for worse. I've never looked forward to summer for anything but swimming but now all of the cards are on the table and its my turn to make my plans see what I'm going to do with what I have been given. Am I going to deny what I have and breakdown or am I going to get things done and get ready for a better future? Only time will tell once again and its always in a foreign language.

Reaching new heights.

Thank you everyone once again for showing up and I also have to say thank you again for a slightly different reason. This would happen to be the fact that I have reached over 7000 total views in this almost 2 year spanning. That is a huge deal to me and I hope that everyone out there can celebrate with me on such a momentous occasion. I'm not quite there to my main goal of 10,000 but it won't be much longer now, will it? I don't have many bad things to say about today at all in fact I can even go as far as to say that things are only getting better at the moment.

Having just got back from my first meeting for newspaper I am absolutely stoked to see whats going to happen in the next school year. You see at this point all I to do over the summer is sell ads for the school paper which is definitely going to be hard but should be very rewarding. It will allow me to get better at social interaction again because I can still be just a little bit awkward when talking to people after spending so much time in home school. Other than that I still have at least a little bit of work to do.

For example some of the work I have to do includes making sure I can do whatever work is assigned to me. This could include gathering information, doing research, and then some. I know I am more prepared then I have ever been for taking on this work but there is still this little bit of doubt that has been bothering me. What if I'm not going to be able to live up to the standards of the rest of the newspaper staff? Probably not going to be a problem as I'm only a Freshman and English is one of my best classes so I'm probably worrying for nothing.

Incoming!

I have to say that things are getting pretty darn close to the end of the year with only 10 days left in the year I am really interested to see how my first "year" ends here in Park Hill South. The "year" is because I haven't actually been going to school for a full year but you guys get the basic idea. Either way tomorrow we start the Finals and EOC testing schedule which is going to mess with things horribly. The new schedule will destroy times in classes for a while by taking 30 minutes from one class and then tacking it onto the other classes to get a solid 2 hours in one class and you only get 1 hour in the original classes. In other words you fall behind in one class while in the other one you are testing before your finals! It is chaos entirely and I think I heard that the grades for the year were being pulled today.

Along with my new things going on in school with the schedule change I am going over Shakespeare for the first time and honestly I'm doing alright despite my........dislike of most poetry. I find it hard for me to appreciate art work of just about any form. From poetry to paintings there is a lot of art in the world but I can't relate with any of them very easily. You may say that Shakespeare isn't art but it is pretty darn close to poetry so I'm going to count for my purposes and explanation. Poetry and me have had a rough history but I think I'm getting the hang of it lately but why not have a change in things. Shakespeare isn't that bad and its cool to read a little bit of Shakespeare to add to my list of authors.

I'm also seeing Leif again which is really nice and with his help we managed to do a crash course on all of my science curriculum in about 2 hours. I love it because seriously I learned more from him and then some than from my actual teacher in school. My Science teacher isn't that bad but I have to say Leif did a pretty good job. I still feel pretty bad about missing my meetings with him and I don't know how long it will take for me to get rid of that feeling as a bad thing but instead as another tool in my repertoire like all other experiences that we have. I won't forget but I hope to be able to make things work better this time around.

The perfect song

Within my English class I have been working on a very interesting project. The project was to take a song that you enjoy and pull it apart for as much Figures of Speech as you could. This lead me to the question of what would be the perfect song instead of my favorite as my favorites are either foreign or have no words. In that situation I talked to the parents and they helped point me in the right direction for an awesome song choice. This song was Jeremy by Pearl Jam. A very good song that many people have probably heard before. I was ecstatic to actually have a decent song and I may not actually know my current grade but that won't stop me from looking at how good I did.

In other really cool news chemists all over the world rejoice over the founding of the 117th element of the periodic table. Pretty awesome if you ask me but I would never think that I was so interested in Science and let alone Chemistry. In fact I have been having a lot of fun within my Science class minus all of the math that goes with Physics. I guess you learn a little bit more with each passing day.

What to say, what to say. I really have no clue what to write about half the time so here's the exercise I usually end up doing. Type something like the first sentence at the top and leave it. It allows you to expand on your own thoughts like having a conversation. Kinda like using the words "I like to" and then leaving a large blank afterwards. The editing comes later though but I try to leave my blog minimally edited. Another good tip is try to avoid allowing music or other distractions go with you. Like having a family member staring over your shoulder can slow you down and distract you if you want to talk or explain what you are writing. Finally make sure you think ahead about what you plan on writing about. This way when some kind of interruption does come along you can keep yourself on the straight and narrow.

The Teacher Dilemma

I have this really awesome teacher at the moment by the name of Mr. Schasteen. He is currently teaching my English class and has helped us go through the Odyssey so far. He will be with us for the rest of the year but sadly he won't be with us come the end of the year. You see he is a long term substitute and an awesome one at that. He has made English fun so that even people that don't exactly like him seem to enjoy the class to a decent degree. He even has appropriate lessons to go with everything so as a reward for finishing the Odyssey we all sit down and watch O Brother Where Art Thou. I know it sounds like an odd movie but it is almost a complete homage to the original Odyssey. In other words a really cool teacher. I'm kinda sad to see the end of the year come up because there is no way of telling if he will manage to get a job at the school like he wants to do. Either way I wish the best of luck for him.

On a lighter note I seem to be doing really good within Physical Science at the moment. The reason behind this is because the class is leaning much more towards Physics at the moment. If I haven't said it before I used to study Physics on the side of school while I was interested in trying to make my own black hole. I even bought my own textbook to work out of but was unprepared for the thing since I didn't know most of the math that was required. I ended up not following my goals due to my lack of knowledge and my hatred for math in the end but I have retained a good chunk of the knowledge that went into all of this so I'm doing really well within my class and has even reignited my old interests within the study of the basic laws of the universe.

School is almost done and over with for all you out there that don't know. In fact it is literally 21 days left today. It is almost scary to think of the EOC's that are literally just around the corner. I'm ready for them to come but knowing how close it is doesn't help me at all. I mean seriously there is very little to look forward to as far as EOC's other than the end of the school year has come and its onto next year for you. Not much else to say really since its a dreaded experience remembered by all.

Ideas!

Welcome back everyone to another day in my life. Nothing too much going on lately but that will always change by the end of my blog. I don't really have much to go over yet on my head but another problem will arise. Like maybe things with not hearing from Leif lately. That is my fault of course since I haven't gotten in contact with him. Still it leaves me thinking back to my punishment ending and the consequences that came with that.

Becoming ungrounded comes with a little bit more effort than just those 30 days of no computer. I also must find a better way of meeting up with Leif. This of course is one thing that has plagued me for a while but under a good recommendation from dad I'm going to try and set up a reminder system on my phone. I really don't like using my phone as a reminder as I don't want to be the kind of person who relies on his phone for everything. That's not just speculation but just about every other kid my age sits there on their phone for no reason what so ever. It's a good start but its the phone or something like a notification on the computer that works as a pop up and I don't have one that I trust.

The main reason why I don't want to be like everyone else eludes even my closest friends. With an opening like that you could guess that I'm going to go into why I want to be unique. I have lived my life as well as I can and would change none of it. The ups, the downs, the loops, and the absolute failures. Then another thought comes along that haunts my deepest dreams. What if everything I did was just as easy and could be accomplished by anyone else and I am nothing special. What if everything in life that you have worked towards was just hard by the person in the situation. What if you become another face in the crowd after all of your hard work to become a unique and special person with traits and quirks that make us ourselves. This will bother me for a long time, that I might find someone that could do everything I have done, or maybe they have done what I have done and better. A more perfect version of myself might lurk around the corner and I might never know. The fear does not come from the idea of failed dreams but that I didn't learn everything from my mistakes.

Ungrounded!

I am finally ungrounded from my punishment which is by the awesome. I can actually type in front of my computer right now while I talk to everyone. Seriously,  I am so happy to be able to type this on my computer instead of on Kristi's Chrome book. The ability to work on my own computer also comes with the perks of being able to hang out with my friends on some random game. I don't like talking about what games I play just because of my audience but I can say that I enjoy them among other things when I can.

Kristi has just gotten out of yet another one of here surgeries which is sad at how insensitive I am towards them now. I do fear what could happen one day but I also know just how capable here doctors are and how tough she is. I fear that one day something will go wrong but I don't think I would ever see it coming. Much like a 16 wheeler hitting you full speed in your fenced off back yard. I can't sit here worrying though since she has made it through the surgery and she is apparently doing pretty good. All in all I think I have a reason for being comfortable with her condition.

Other then all of that I'm pretty comfortable with my overall life. I can see properly and school is looking really good for me. In fact its looking so good at the moment that I'm able to be relaxed about school for the first time in forever. Home schooling was hard, and flexible so while not as brutal as public school I didn't get to truly relax. Now of course I'm doing so well at the moment that I can sit here comfortably with little to no worry. I would say that I'm doing pretty darn well really.

What an "Odd" Story

Right now in my English class I kinda have a leg up on everyone. You see we are going over a very specific book that I think everyone has at least heard of so far. This book isn't exactly a book but more like an Epic Poem by the name of the Odyssey. Way before home schooling I have already gone over and read as close to the original as I could along with the Iliad. Because of this I already know exactly all of the parts of the story which gives me a slight unfair advantage as far as my grades. I'm honestly just happy to still be going over classics and mythology because I enjoy both of these areas immensely.

In the same class though it seems that the teacher really likes having me there. I think this is because we have more then a few things in common including the fact that we both appreciate English, he games, he obviously enjoys comics. In his words he is a nerd and this has never been a bad thing. I really enjoy having him as a teacher as he stays on task as well as relating to the other kids in class because he is still in his 20's and making sure he everyone understands everything. He is an all around awesome teacher but it is sad for me to say he is only my long term substitute. I would love to see him teach full time on a steady pay check in the school because he is an amazing teacher. Still there does not seem to be an opening for him there so I guess he'll be gone at some time at the end of the year.

I really love school projects and they seem to be coming up quite a bit lately. For example there is the project about researching the Greek gods but now I have a different one in Personal Wellness that is racking my brain for me. Despite it being such an easy class this assignment makes me happy with the challenge it presents. You see we have to come up with 10 of our most important values in life and then turn them in as a PowerPoint. We get extra credit if we present and I won't be passing that up but this little assignment means that much more. It shows what you truly care about in life and what means the most to you. It sounds so simple but what things mean to me seems to elude me when I think about it. Because of this I edit and edit hoping that things go well today.

Surprise Philosophy Bombardment!

I bet you weren't expecting me to be posting this weekend but I have had such good material I didn't want to pass it up and then cheat everyone out of a good blog entry. This blog entry has a little bit of opinions of my own that you may not agree with. That's usually not a problem but I will not be offended at any remark or stuff along that line that you may leave as a comment. This includes if you are innocent of my claims or thoughts or maybe that you think I'm saying completely irrational things. This is all fine. In fact I would be offended if no one said anything. I hope the comment system will be working properly when I post just in case though you can reshare my blog on Google plus or post on my wall on Facebook if you want to get through to me.

Starting off is a little something that I had heard in school about a certain plane crashing into the ocean. I don't know where the story is from so I can't give a link but to put to but it bluntly everyone is proclaimed dead. The main problem in this is that when this was announced the people who were in charge of giving the condolences to the different families decided to send out TEXT MESSAGES! This lead to the question by my classmate is the world becoming too self detached from each other and then this got me thinking. First off it was kind of them to send the families of the deceased a message but there is definitely a lack of closure for these people. Still how detached from thew rest of society have we become with technology. I know that I'm not that bad since I throw a fit when I have to meet someone online for the first time but to be honest with everyone we have become amazingly detached from each other down to the point where you can go to work and never know someone's name or go to school and not know half your classmates. This I can vouch for and it is very sad to me but true. This isn't all technology that has caused this either since it keeps people together as well. Without stuff like the telephone we wouldn't be able to easily keep track of relatives or what is going on with them. On that note I'll  leave you to think about if this is true or not that technology is either distancing us or is it keeping us connected or maybe bringing us so close together that we simply don't care as much about everyone else. Kinda like eating so much chocolate that you never want to eat another bite your entire life.

Time for another question for all of you since I really can't resist. With my good friend Alex I end up thinking up several questions to last me entire weeks that send my mind reeling. This week was just too good for me to drop abruptly and walk away. At what point does something become stupid? We know the line is there and we pass it every day let alone bandy the word about as a casual part of life but where does it really lye? How long does it take to get to this line where something or anything becomes stupid? decisions can become stupid through the act of making a decisions intentionally against all of your facts maybe hoping for a different outcome or something else even but what about everything else. How about the stupid carpet or the stupid clock or maybe even the stupid wall. At what point does something become stupid? You may point out that there is obviously some kind of line where something crosses over to being stupid and you are correct but how far away is that line? it could be a thin line a few steps away or a thick line that's a several hundred miles off in the distance. This question that I have come up with has had me doubled over laughing due to the absurdity of this question. I feel stupid half the time and the other half the time I'm trying to keep my head full of hot air out of the clouds. To make it even worse this word is so simple. I mean the average person uses the words several times a week. How does such a simple word in our vocabulary escape the scrutiny of the eye for so long? This I will not understand at all.

Puppy Power

These last few days I have been looking after a little puppy by the name of Lulu and I have to say that she was an amazing puppy. As far as puppies go she is definitely better then a few of them I have had but she is still a puppy after all. Being a puppy includes stuff like not wanting to go to sleep, always wanting to play with anything including stinky shoes, and then barking whenever someone isn't paying attention. For the most part this was a normal behaving puppy who was quick to learn how to walk on a leash as well as not being too hyper. She absolutely loved anyone that came into contact with her and I seriously enjoyed going on runs through the night with her to get her ready to go to bed. Lulu is a Great Pyrenees and Boxer mix and she was one of the most adorable puppies I have seen ever. All in all a positive experience with everything tying up nice and happy in the end.

On other news within English class I have been studying mythology. Greek Mythology to be precise. I honestly enjoy it a bunch and here soon were going to be going over the Odyssey but before we get to that we each have to do a report on a Greek God or Goddess. I have already done mine and as far as I can tell I did pretty darn well. I had to do one of the gods I did not want to do at all and that happened to be Hestia.  If you don't know who Hestia is then that's fine since I didn't know for the longest time either because she is a rather obscure god but a direct sibling of Zeus. She is the god of Hearth and Home and she has only one story or myth about her that isn't a fact. To be precise even unexplained events that link to her aren't even explained in a myth with her. The reason behind this is that she is content to sit up at Olympus and do little to nothing. This means that along with being one of the 3 virgin goddesses she literally has no connection to anyone at Earth whatsoever. In all not an easy person to write about and even had to resort to taking some facts about her and turning them into what seemed to have been a pretty accurate myth all from her perspective. A really fun project but it took quite a bit of work to get into proper shape.

I'm on a happy streak today so lets keep that going with the fact that I'm halfway through my punishment. I think that it went by pretty fast so far and it has done me some good to be away from the computers. Of course my friends might disagree but at the moment their disagreements are not really my concern. With the lack of computer focus I barely hop on the computer at all to do anything except for blog and some homework every once in a while. I also have had time to do other things like get A LOT of reading in.  and I do mean a lot. I have currently gone through at least 8 over 300 pg. books within the last couple of weeks which helps me think more clearly and makes it easier to be away from the computer. I have easily read over 1000 pgs. within these last couple of weeks and I also believe as I have said before this punishment is necessary and it helps a lot more then it hurts much like going to bed is better for people but that doesn't mean that they do it.

I Can See!

Welcome back everyone I am glad to be typing to everyone again if not from a slightly awkward computer. You see since i have been unable to really use my own computer I have to be using Kristi's little chrome book. I don't know if anyone out there knows this yet but I really don't like laptops and I have seen their main purpose taken away so easily from misuse that the portability that they stand for is absolutely useless. I think its the tiny keyboard as well as the lack of a mouse. Other then that though the only other problem I have with them happens to be the lack of ability to get new parts for them easily. This is certainly not a problem at the moment but the small keyboard is because it is making me screw up multiple words over and over again.

Despite the time being grounded and the punishments that come with it I think I have been doing pretty good over the time without my computer. Yes my friends are disappointed not being able to see or get a hold of me easily but thats also why I like making friends with people I can see face to face. To be honest with you all it was definitely necessary and I will say that all of the rest of my life. There is also another upside to this punishment as well and that is that I don't have to look at the computer screen so often. I usually don't mind looking at the computer screen but at the moment I can barely read any of the words without straining my eyes.

You may all be asking why I don't want to be looking at computer screens that often so I'll tell you all that i got some glasses recently! It makes all of the pixels on a computer really stand out as well as everything else. I think I can even try to count the threads on my jeans now if I wanted to. The world is much brighter looking then I remember since I did where glasses at one other point. You see back when I was a kid I was also diagnosed with Astigmatism which causes blurred vision at any distance. because of this I loved my glasses very dearly but I didn't manage to keep good care of them. This lead to my carelessness when it really mattered when I went on a field trip. This field trip had one of those sand pits where you dig for dinosaur bones in a small place in Kansas city known as Science city. This place was amazing and in order to properly participate in this small dig I needed to take off my glasses. I soon forgot about them for that small event and the rest of the field trip. I later remember and went back for them but I couldn't find them and I was to embarrassed to tell anyone. Now I am much more mature and at least a little better at not being so stubborn or forgetful so the same thing shouldn't happen anytime soon if ever.

A Love For Literature.

As many of you might know I absolutely love to read and I guess now I will have plenty of time to do so. The reason for this is that I ended up in another slight bit of trouble which leaves me slightly upset but partially relieved. You see I managed to miss another session with Leif and this has lead to the rights for my computer being taken away again. This is definitely my punishment but I can't argue with it. This costs everyone around me something including me. This costs the parents trust, Leif's time, and my education which means that while some other kids my age might take this as something small I feel like this is more then enough of a punishment that I lose my computer privileges for a while. This will not stop me from posting anything but you can believe that I will be at least a little bitter ,but who am I to complain. I now have more time then I know what to do with. This will allow me to pursue any hobby I wish without the computer standing in between me and my goal or objective.

Following on my path for literature I finally got around to watching the movie adaption for the Book Thief which is yet again another good transference of the story to the big screen. Sadly I do have my complaints and that is all in the end. If you plan to continue reading this paragraph from here you might want to go and read the Book Thief and watch the movie first to understand what I am saying and for the rest of you there is definitely some spoilers so continue at your own pace or just move onto the the third paragraph. The full ending of the movie where Max comes back into Leisel's world after disappearing for about 3 years isn't exactly good in my opinion. This is not true to the book by all rights and does not convey the story that it was designed to pass on. I understand that they needed to make it so that people would actually go and watch the movie but it is not their movie but her book and by changing the movie you convey a story that does not exist. Max was never seen again by Leisel which this may seem like some kid ranting by the keyboard but this is important because it shows the tragedy of what happened and to distort the story and truth that sprang forth in her words seems like they were only there for money and not for the story that is conveyed. Alright. I had to get that out of the way since that is one of the main parts that bothered me. I understand omitting the stuff from the movie for the sake of being able to tell the whole story but adding in one part like that just isn't right. For the most part just watch until the part where everyone else dies and there is the real story. That may sound dark and gloomy but that's how the book was made and how it ended. That is definitely why they expanded the story into a happy ending but from the perspective of a person who enjoyed the book I will say you aren't getting the real story if you continue past that part.

I also before I even attempt to wrap up the whole blog I have to say thank you to a certain celebrity from the food network channel. Cole Malouin from Rachael vs. Guy cook off kids edition decided to come to my little blog and comment on my post known as Wrapping up a Series. The link is there for anyone who hasn't read the post or needs a refresher because I certainly did. I have to say thank you for recognizing that little old me exists out here and that I appreciate that you enjoyed it. I loved you on the show and despite not knowing how to cook properly myself I know good food when I see it and trust me you need to keep cooking because without kids like you there won't be anymore good food left in the world. What little that counts for I still have to say keep up the good work and you are definitely not forgotten.

Spring Breaking

Welcome back everyone and lets open my blog entry with the oh so beloved Spring Break. To be honest with everyone out there Spring is my least favorite season with Summer close on its tail. In fact these two are so close to each other I'm still looking for a tie breaker fact to solidify one in front of the other. Spring break isn't exactly bad though and is a nessacary break to prep for the beloved EOC's or End of Course exams. Of course we don't just jump right into them after the break but its the wrap up for the year as well as getting some relaxation before you buckle up for the hardest part of the year. Spring itself adds to the heat as well as allergy's which are both pretty evil in my book. Spring isn't exactly nice to me but the break is welcome before the storm.

Good to see Lief's face again since I truly needed to thank at least face to face. Otherwise anything I typed would just not have cut it. The more times I send an apology letter to him the more it seemed like I was just blowing him off and just not trying to get to the tutoring sessions. Kinda the same way the Little boy who Cried Wold works. The more I cried Wolf ( Sorry ) the less often anyone ( Lief ) would take me seriously. Because of this I was especially determined to see him this last time. This does not mean that I should stop trying but it does relieve a little bit of stress of him thinking that I just am not trying to get things done.

Other then all of that things are pretty plain around the area. Including that last sentence I think that nothing is out of the ordinary. In fact I'm ending the last paragraph the same way I do usually and then I start rambling off into some other subject that I didn't think of. I guess I'm becoming so predictable that I'm predicting myself. Beecause of this I apologize to everyone out there that comes here and sees nothing new. To be honest there isn't anything to complain about or criticize or praise most of the time. When I was in home school I loved referencing to things that I have seen or done in public school but now there isn't much to compare too. Things are so much different from back then and because of one year. Amazing how things work like that.

Partially Free

Recently I have gotten into quite a bit of trouble for me that is. I have not been shirking off my tutoring with Lief but I have not been attending them either which is not going well for me. Due to missing 4/6 of the tutorings with Leif I have gotten into some trouble and had my computer rights revoked for the last couple of days. I'm terribly sorry for abusing Leif's time and I payed the price for it because while losing my computer does not sound like much to anyone else there is more punishment internally for me than there is over the thought of losing my computer. I feel like I have let down my parents and because of this I get to feeling all guilty and this leads me to punishing myself more then the parents could ever do in the end. If Leif is reading this then I feel like I must say sorry here as well as when I see you on Monday.

Other then my problems with tutoring, things are doing fairly well in school. Starting off my school based discussion is the fact that I am a signature away from truly being apart of the A+ program. I know that many people don't know what this is since there is only 3 states in America that even use this program but I love it. The overall idea is as an incentive for graduating you get a scholarship depending on the school that you go to. This is amazing to me as this helps pay for at least the first 2 years of school allowing me to make the money to pay off anything for the next two years and receive a complete college education! On top of all of this the requirements are easy enough which makes me that much more excited. This is because despite how awesome this system is there isn't much stopping me from getting this scholarship at the moment. There will definitely be several hurdles that I must jump but in the end the pros outweigh the cons.

To wrap all of this up I'm currently out looking into Summer school. There is a legit reason for this as well. Since I gained no credit for doing any work in home school I need to make up those 4 different missing credits in some way or another. The easiest option at the moment is to either join a club or do some Summer school classes. I'll still be doing both but I need to catch up on my credits sooner then later so Summer school it is. I also don't mind getting all of my credits out of the way early either as it won't hurt me and extra credits within school help in the long run. Next I'm considering getting a job here soon. The reason is that I am almost old enough ( 15 1/2 years old ) to start applying for jobs. The jobs may not be fantastic but they work and many are within bike riding distance. I need to get a recommendation from my councilor and then I can start building a resume among other things to start making some money. I know that when I start getting into the job market a lot of my free time will be eaten up but this comes around either way and I'm willing to accept this. All in all this is going to lead down this path unless I decided to make some iffy decisions. .