A Very Merry Christmas Indeed

The Christmas Tree

Well everyone, Christmas has finally come and gone. The thing that we've looked forward to all year has finally passed us by. If you ask me, it's kind of bittersweet the day after Christmas. We know that we've got 365 (or 366) more days before we ever see it again.

Enough with the sadness of Christmas gone by, let's talk about how Christmas went. Like most Christmas mornings, I woke, unintentionally, at the ungodly hour of 4:00. I looked at the clock, irritated. Not because I was up so early (all though that didn't exactly help), but because I knew I was going to have to wait another four or five hours before I could go downstairs and open my presents. So I tried to go back to sleep. But that doesn't always work so well for me; once I'm awake, game over. That's it. So I laid there in bed and listened to my iPod for four or five hours.

Until my little brother Andy woke me up, making a huge ruckus. Soon after my whole family waltzed groggily downstairs to our fireplace and tree, where are our huge stockings were laid down on the ground, overflowing with gifts and goodies. After rounding up everybody, we finally started. The gifts and gift-giving weren't terribly thrilling as my boyish love of material things has declined, but here are a couple of the highlights and the gifts that I got.

My older brother Micheal, one of the most arrogant people I know, got a bottle of Arrogant Bastard Ale in his stocking. Funny stuff.
My older sister got some makeup, cool clothes, and Hairspray (the movie).
My Dad got a new suit which he loved.
My Mom got socks and a flying pig broach. She's really into flying pigs for some reason.
Andy got a Nintendo Wii. We both know it's for us, but he'll probably harass me that it's his. He also got hot sauce banned in several countries.
I got some sheetmusic, some ski clothes, a digital camera (blogger's best frriend), Super Mario Galaxy, a puzzle that's actually a map with my house in the middle, and a cowbell. Whoo-hoo! Merry Christmas! I'll post again once I get my blasted camera figured out...

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everybody! I've been busy spending time with my family and playing with my new toys, but don't worry! You'll soon know what's going on. 'Til tomorrow!

Sunday Skiing

My first time skiing this season. Hopefully it will be the first of many.

Yes, I ski. I do not snowboard. I don't have anything against snowboarding, except that it's just about useless in cat tracks. You all know it's true.

I woke up early this morning for the second time in the last three days. I'm not sure I've filled my Christmas Break Sleep-In Quota. But I may have to live with that. After grumpily climbing out of bed I began to pack my skiing gear in the back of the car. After some fussing with Mom and some confusion about my boots, we headed up to Bogus Basin. Troy (my friend), Andy (my brother), Brandon (my brother's friend), and I all packed into the car and after nearly an hour of windy roads and Gregorian chants playing from the speakers, we made it.

That picture above may give you a false impression of just what the mountain was like; it was foggy as hell. The visibility was just awful and I could hardly see where I was going. But we skiied anyway, and for the record, we did pretty well. Troy and I split off from Andy and Brandon to shred the mountain as best we could. Our first run after warming up on the bunny hill was into a usually friendly terrain park off the main lift. The problem was, nothing was really done yet, so none of the jumps were there, but near the end of the run it dumped into a hellish bowl filled with moguls and dry patches. After that we played it easy for a while and built up our confidence. So we blazed a trail down the main lift, and guess what? We somehow ended up right back up at that same mogul-stricken bowl off the terrain park. I've got no idea how either.

Frustrated at the difficulty of finding jumps and/or visibility, we sat down for a nice lunch in the lodge. They make really good food. Anyway, following lunch, we went to the backside this time. This time we went off a few black diamonds and got lost a couple of times, and ended up having to ask for directions from a man named John. He kindly showed us how to get back to the frontside, and after bombing down the mountain one last time, we hung up our skiis and snowboards for the day and waited to be picked up.

Or so I thought.

It just so happened that my older brother (Micheal) and his good friend Al was there as well. They called me and Mike told me that he wanted me to take one last run with him. "Can you keep up?" he asked. "Can you?" I replied, laughing. So up on the main lift we went and guess what? I ended up in the same damn bowl as I did the other two times. But this time I ripped it up. I almost kept up with Mike and Al, and that's saying something. You should have seen them, just going down at top speeds. I'm afraid I just don't register on their Crazy-Ass-ometer. Oh well. It was still a good run, and I finished with style.

To a good day of skiing!

The Christmas Spirit

First snow of the season and Christmas is really beginning to show.

The day started out sluggishly. Like a wet sponge. Like the past few days I woke up and spent about three hours in the basement entertainment center. The thing about waking up and doing nothing is that it often makes you do nothing later. And that's just what it did. When we were called up to make Christmas cookies, I nearly sank my face down in the dough from exhaustion. But I held and we decorated our shortbread cookies with all varieties of Christmas sprinkles.

After baking them and laying them out for display, we again laid around until 5:00 PM and then went to the Saturday mass at St. Mary's Church. I like going to mass but I wish I could've served as the cross bearer. It really helps my experience of the mass when I feel I'm contributing. But instead I sat with my family and listened to the Homily about St. Joseph. I may have wavering faith in the church but it warms my heart to see the community that joins together for the Eucharist.

At any rate, after the mass, we went to Kurt and Amy's. Kurt and Amy are two of my aunts and uncles and they are the only ones that live in Boise. I have noticed that they have some questionable financial tactics, but they are good people and their daughter Ali, is the sweetest little girl alive. She is only about three and like most other three-year-old-girls, she is a princess fanatic, and I ended up playing the princess wishes card game with her. But not before seeing the tree. It seemed humble in comparison to the house, and it really got me thinking about Christmas.

As time goes on, it always seems that holidays mean less and less. Several years ago, I couldn't wait for Christmas. I was excited out of my mind. This year, it just seems to familiar. It just is less of a big deal now. I miss waking up with that irrational excitement of gifts and stockings. Because that joy is gone now. But in place of it I have picked up an appreciation of spending time with my family. I now look forward to seeing Micheal home and Jessica coming over. And I think that this is somewhat better. It may not be the same sort of luster that Christmas used to have, but it is much more meaningful now. I've had my Mount Crumpit Moment (Switch 2 Plan B) and have lost my boyish materialistic thrills of gifts and picked up a much more mature enjoyment in the company of my dear family and friends. It's not Christmas I'm looking forward to, it's the people that Christmas brings about. And that's the true spirit of Christmas.

On another note, hen I came home, I found that I had left my bike in the snow and it made this neat little imprint in the snow seen above. It gives a good impression of how much snow we got.


"It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes, or bags!" - Dr. Seus's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."

Back At School...

Well what do you know. One day out and I've already gone back into a schoolroom.

Here's how the day played out: I got up with my brother at about 7:30 AM to go to school with him. I wouldn't normally of course because, oh wait, we go to different schools, but my friend was hosting a little poker party and I decided I'd show them a thing or two about cards. That and I used to go to Andy's (my little brother's) school with him, so it was really nice to see some of my old teachers there. St. Mary's hasn't changed a bit. Unless you count the new stairs.

So after arriving and saying hi to the principal and teachers, I found my friends and left. We grabbed donuts and milk and went on our way, smothering ourselves with baked sugars. Once we got to this kid's house we busted out the cards and chips between the four of us and started playing. I'm pretty good at poker, and if you don't count the ridiculous 'all-in' round at the end, I definitely won. It's all about the odds.

My friends soon made a mess of the chips and a fifth friend showed up while we were cleaning up. Bored with cards, we decided to play football instead. We had the two best players vs. the other three. Of course, they underestimated my skill as a football player. My throw could be straighter and faster, but I can play QB pretty well for a two-hand-touch game of street football. We didn't really keep score, but I think we won.

After that, we played some hide and seek with a twist, which was that when they found me they'd beet the crap out of me for fun. I laughed and tried to beat up just one of them, but always overwhelmed. Oh well, I was outnumbered and I suck at fighting, so I can live with that. We constantly fought and beat on each other and laughed because of it. I walked out of that house with plenty of bruises and cuts, but I don't regret it. It was about as fun pain can be.

We went back to St. Mary's and chilled there for a bit until school was released at noon. I hitched a ride with one of my friends and headed back home. After two or three meaningless hours, I realized I had to find some way to occupy myself. So off to the YMCA I went. And again accomplished nothing. I somehow ended up in a deep conversation with some guy named Richard and afterwards scrambled for a pool game. Unfortunately, there were four people there who were all to busy trying to beat each other to play me. So I did virtually squat.

And now I'm back home and blogging after a nice dinner. This day has helped me realize something though. With full days to do nothing, I'm gonna have to find some way other than video games and computer to occupy myself. Maybe I could take up ice sculpting...

Finals: Day 4 (Last Day of School)

I've got an announcement everyone!

Holy crap it's Christmas Break!

The school day today was only a couple hours long and we only had one class; whatever we usually had at seventh period. For me, that was theology. And God it was easy. Our teacher basically handed the answers to it out weeks ago. Anybody who studied it would be fine, which is why I'm sure I aced it.

I asked my English 1/Speech teacher about how I did on my English final and it turns out I got 95%. I was stunned; this was one of the finals I really wasn't sure about as much. That's the only grade I've got so far aside from the health final. It looks like I did pretty well. I'll have to wait to see how I did on the others.

After the Theology final and the bell, I ran out in the hall, hugging people and shouting "School's out!" and "It's Christmas Break!" and such. Everybody was happy to finally be out of school for a while. And with good cause. Christmas is five days away. Five days. That's a normal school week. It's just so close.

With the holidays approaching, my older brother Micheal came last night and is staying with us for break. I haven't said much about him, but he's twenty, he goes to St. John's in Minnesota, and he's majoring in Philosophy. He's totally buff and spent one of his summers working as a construction worker. He's great company and conversation, and thanks to him I'll be getting my healthy doses of sarcasm this winter.

At any rate, there's no worries. It's nearing Christmas time and I've got family nearby. Happy Last Day of Finals!

Finals: Day 3

Getting a little bit colder...

It's the second to last day of finals now. One more day and it's Christmas Day. I can see it now: skiing up at Bogus; sledding in McCall; a christmas with the family... I can't wait.

Of course, I still have to.

At any rate, aside from my 'Christmas time is here' euphoria, I did pretty well on my finals today. I only had Spanish because I had Speech last week (it's a little bit different schedule for speech). The Spanish test wasn't too hard, just long. There were 116 questions, and I'm confident I got 110 of them at least. For speech I just had to listen to the speeches that had not been done yet. When the bell rang, Mr. Connor (speech teacher) said farewell and merry Christmas. And that's when it really hit me that I wouldn't have a class with a lot of these people ever again. So now I write a tribute to the friends that I'm going to see less in the next semester.

Seth Remling, I had fun hearing your stories firsthand. I hope that I can still hear from you through your blog, but I'll miss seeing you so often.
Gavin, It's good to have someone like you in a first period class. Thanks, I'll see you around.
J.J., You always called me your buddy and put a smile on my face. I hope I'll see you just as much in the next semester buddy.
Brandon, I know you're leaving Idaho soon. I wish I could've heard more of your great speeches. Thanks.
Chelsea, I wish there were more people as individual as you. I'll miss sharing speech with you.
Nikki, I've never seen you sad. Your happiness is contagious; thanks for cheering me up.

These are just a few of my good friends I won't have a class with next semester. That's life. Thanks for the memories...

Finals: Day 2

It's been a strange week so far. They completely screwed up the day-the bell rings at 8:30 and we get out about noon. We have a thirty-minute break and only two classes otherwise. The classes are extended of course and I usually end up sitting around for nearly an hour after finishing the tests. It's a four day week, and each day covers two periods, except for Thursday which only covers seventh.

So how's finals going?

It's so-so. I was right about the Health final; I did get a C, but that's the only final I've taken so far that I actually think I did badly in. So I knocked off Health and English 1 on Monday, and I just finished Geometry and C. Phys today. I think that I did really well in those two, so I'm not worried.

I was doing some thinking about what scores I needed on the finals when I realized something: you fail your finals and your screwed, but if you do well it don't make much of a difference anyhow. I can hardly raise my grades by two percent this week, even if I get one hundreds. I told my folks this and they laughed. They said that this was a "recurring theme" in life. I hope not, it sucks.

Good luck on the rest of your finals ya'all!


"I never let my school get in the way of my education" - Mark Twain

Finals: Day 1

It's Monday again, and I've finally made it to the end of the semester. And finals have begun.

It's break right now, and I just got out of my Health final. There was a fire alarm right in the middle of the exam and we all had to dump our tests and get out. After lingering around for a while, we went back in to try to finish. And guess what? Because of the fire alarm, they extended the day by about twenty minutes. I didn't know they were even allowed to do that. I'm mad.

After the test (I'm thinking I got a C or something) I walked into Freshman Hall. There are still recycling bins littered about Freshman Hall. Apparently, we're cleaning out the lockers. We're just throwing everything away, getting rid of memories. The thing is, I'm looking at the finals in a different way; these are the last days I'll get to be in a class with a bunch of great people. I'm keeping my papers.

Finals Weekend

Why is it that whenever I try to spend a weekend studying, something screws it up?

You may doubt me, but I would have spent the whole weekend in front of books if it had not been for other commitments. Why are there sports events on finals weekend anyway? I'm surprised that BK allows that sort of thing; they seem to value grades alot more than athleticism. Of course I could be wrong. But Saturday was not a good day to study for me.

I was able to finish some of my homework Saturday, but only a fraction of my ridiculously large 50-page Spanish worksheet. I would have finished more, but it's amazing how many distractions you can find in your room when there's work to be done. About quarter til 3, I put my gear in the back of the car and headed out to hockey.

We were playing the Canyon County Coyotes. Most of them were eighth graders and girls, but they didn't play half bad. Unsurprisingly, the refs sucked and the other team was hooking and roughing without penalization. They actually turned out to be really aggressive, and at one point in the game, they half knocked one of our players down in front of their net, one of those classic brawls in the crease. At any rate, we tied them, 2-2, and I got a good assist (he really deflected it more than anything else). The team's improving a lot though, and we're probably one of the strongest teams in the league by now.

After that I had to hurry to a Varsity basketball game because I'm in the pep band and I had to play. On my way over I noticed that there was a room filled with food and marshmallow shooters. And understand me, I had had no dinner and I just got back from the hockey game. So what do I do? I casually walk in and try to blend as much as possible while taking a piece of delicious brownie. After eating a few snacks I grabbed another brownie and left. My friend Cameron saw me and laughed. "Look at him! He just jacks food and leaves!" Well he's pretty much right.

At any rate I soon found myself playing keyboard with the band. And I got to say, the cheerleaders get a lot more credit than the pep band does, and that seems unfair when it the band takes more effort. I have to get up an hour earlier for band practice every morning, almost without exception. Can they say the same? We played at breaks and timeouts throughout the game and then moved all our stuff back to the music room. My folks picked me up and I was looking forward to sleeping in.

But that didn't happen.

Instead I did what most catholic boys and teenagers fear: get up early for mass. An 8:00 AM mass. School starts at that time for the love of God! Oh well, it was a good mass. I really enjoy the Homilies the most in a mass, probably because it's the most original part of the mass. This one was a good one, and it was shortly followed up by an Anointing of the Sick. When the priest called for those who wanted the sacrament to stand up, Gary stood up. As he walked up, I looked at Mom to see that there was a tear rolling down her cheek. He sat back down and we all held each other as a family, suspended in that one golden, peaceful moment.

I hardly studied at all this weekend, but I spent some good time with my family. I'm content.


"Love...is the strangest thing..." - James and the Giant Peach

100 views

Well I've made it. It took a month and a half, but my profile has finally gotten past 100! HOORAY!!! HURRAH!!! ALCATRAZ014 FOREVER!!! etc.

Of course, I didn't do this on my own. If you've noticed, there's a list of non-blog links on the sidebar. Those are all games that are accessible from school, and since adding them, I've gotten alot of people coming for the conveniency of not having to google their game everytime they want to play. I don't mind, I think it's a worthy addition to the sidebar.

Let me give you an overview of Friday and Saturday. Friday was unproductive, and I got my phone taken away. Somewhat ironically, I was taking a picture of Seth to send to a website so he could use it when Mr. Worrell caught me. He took it away, but not before I could press send. The problem is that when you send a picture to blogspot, it sends a text back, and I've got my phone set to vibrate every minute when there is a new message until it is read. So when the phone was taken to the dean of students, he had to deal with it vibrating on and off all day, rattling in his metal desk. When I finally got it back at the end of the day, he said he had wanted to throw it out the window. I shrugged and took it back gratefully.

After school I went home and lounged around. A doctor called about dad's chemo, and after a few melancholy, worried moments, we decided to try to spend some time together by watching Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. After watching it a second time, I think Gandalf represents Moses. But that could just be me after all. I had a really good time sitting down with my family.

At any rate, I was about to go to bed when my friend called me up and asked me whether or not I was going to the dance that night. I was halfway to bed and it seemed absurd to go anywhere at the time, but I decided to call for a ride and go. And so like my friends, I ended up dancing to obnoxious rap songs that I didn't care for. But I danced nonetheless. If you can call what I do dancing. I can't. It's more like bouncing up and down in time with my hands at my sides. But as far as I can tell, that's what all the guys were doing, unless they were there with someone, in which case they would do the same thing with their hands on a girl's hips. And I've noticed something. Nobody ever looks at each other in a slow dance! They just stare around them looking at other people. Well that's American dances for you, eh?

I'll fill you in on Saturday tomorrow, I'm gonna get some sleep.

Seth & Ricky

Well you know what they say. Monkey see, monkey do.

It's good to know that I have fellow bloggers looking at my blog. Seth started his blog a couple of days ago, and I already enjoy his zany adventures. And I got a comment yesterday on one of my posts from Ricky, his good friend. Well, it's going to be entertaining to hear about Seth's and Ricky's crazy adventures from two points of view.

What's funny about this whole thing is that I pretty much started that whole thing. I didn't realize that a month in, people would take a look at my blog and then start their own. That's what happens, and that's how we end up with good blogs. I started blogging after seeing Switch 2 Plan B. Seth started blogging after seeing Alcatraz014. And Ricky started blogging after seeing The Musings and General Ponderings of Master Seth. I just feel great to know that my blog led to others. I hope that Seth and Ricky don't disappoint.

My first final is Friday in Speech class. I'll keep you posted. No pun intended.


“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”-Charles Caleb Colton

Sore Shoulders

(You really should read the "two backpacks" post to fully understand this.)

All that extra weight is getting to me. My shoulders are aching like hell. But I'm still carrying it around.

I have to admit that it's more of a burden these days, but I've always been willing to sacrifice personal matters for the joy of randomness. You can call me a freak, but I'll take it as a complement.

I think it was yesterday when I recieved the last feather a couple of days ago. I walked into school carrying two backpacks, a saxophone case, and a huge hockey bag. Let me tell you, it looked ridiculous and it didn't feel too great either. Luckily, my friend was there and carried my hockey stick. What a great friend.

It's all just pulling together into one big mess. Finals are coming, and I'm basically losing it. I'm going insane. And my posts show. There all about finals or blogging. At least this one was about backpacks.

End-of-the-year Projects

Well finals are drawing ever nearer, and this means a lot of things. And for everybody in this school it means non-fiction Fridays. In every single freshman literature class, we have these little worksheets to do. Most of them are two or three pages, but the lucky ones can get a one-pager. We have to accumulate these over the course of a quarter; usually about six of them. And even though I've had a quarter to do them, I'm still sitting here, typing, with only five done. And I've got English next period.

Oh well. I'm lazy, but for me it's just another day on the blog. Speaking of blogs, my good friend Seth Remling has now started a blog. I have no idea if he's just setting it up as a joke, (probably) but I got to support him. There's a link to his page right here on the sidebar.

I took a look at my grades today. I didn't do half bad. Basically A's and B's in everything. B minus in health, but I don't give a damn about that. Like I mentioned, I hate Health.

I wonder if my grades have any relevance to my grades whatsoever. I know it's good for me to write so often, but my English teacher wouldn't give me extra credit for it (he runs a cruel dictatorship). I don't think so, but I'm happy about how my blog's doing - I've gotten three comments just this week. If you look closely, one of them looks like it's from me, but that was my editor's girlfriend playing tricks on me. That's what I get for telling them my password...


"If you pick up a bean every day, day by day, the beans fill the sack." - Jules Abromavitz.

Dan

Well I got a comment, somewhat ironically, on my previous post, "A Difference". It was like the answer to my hopes for this blog. I thought it would take a while for me to get to the point where people I don't know are compelled to post comments upon my blog. But I made it, and only a month and a half in.

Of course, I got to share the love here. It's the unwritten rules of blogging-you get commented by someone with a blog, you mention them. Of course I plan to. The guy's name is Dan, and he runs a blog called Dan's Toy Museum (he's a toy fanatic.) I took a look at it myself and it was quite entertaing-definitely worth a look. I've got the link on the side bar right next to Switch 2 Plan B. And I just got to give him some props for keeping the blog up for so long. He started his blog two years ago and has been posting since. Thanks and Kudos Dan.

In other news of my blog, I'm glad to know now that if you look up alcatraz014, you will find my blog, sitting there proudly up on the Google page, sitting right next to my Oddlabs account. Try it. And for all those who do read, spread it around; I can always use more readers.

Finals are drawing ever nearer...


"Fame is the thirst of youth.”-Lord Byron quotes

Random Acts of Kindness

I found myself in a suburbia like this one this last Saturday. My friend Richie had a birthday party and took us all out to Fast Lanes, a local go-kart racing arena. I had to go to my hockey game first, though.

I'm not proud of myself, but I did virtually nothing that morning. I resolved earlier to do some homework, but I realistically only did a bit of what was assigned. I only did what was easy. Oh well, that happens.

After hanging around lazily, I got off my ass and got ready for my hockey game. We beat Timberline JV 2-1 and I played a great game. Afterwards, I showered and head over to Fast Lanes. A half-hour of lousy directions later, I was there to race.

Fast Lanes is really fun and I suggest anybody goes there. Unfortunately, it does seem to rely mostly on luck. They put you in random cars. Some don't turn well. Some have low speed caps. Some have no speed cap and give you too much speed. But you always have fun driving your ridiculous little car through the track over and over again.

After four races (I won one, no matter what the paper said) we went to Richie's house. Soon after we left and walked around his neighborhood, looking for ding-dong ditch victims. The joy of it. Ding-dong! *run for your life*. I had to ring most of the doorbells, and my friends came up with an idea.

They found a house with people awake in it and gave me 5$. I had to improvise the rest. I bravely walked up to the doorway and knocked on the door softly. I felt my adrenaline rush as a man in his early thirties came to the doorway. It was almost midnight.

"Hi." He said to me. He seemed surprised.

"Hi. I'm from the Random Acts of Kindness Association. And you just got 5$ for opening the door. Thank you."

He looked at me incredulously, trying to decide whether to be grateful or upset at this hour. He stuttered, "Dude, th-", but he cut off as I walked away calmly, shouting back to him, "Pass it on!"

I was done ding-dong ditching after that.

There actually is a Random Acts of Kindness Foundation.

A difference

-Barilan's map of the Internet-

I keep wondering whether or not anybody really reads this blog. I can't really count family and friends, but I'm wondering if someone would look at my blog and say to themselves, This guy is good. I'd like to read about him and his life daily. I'm worried that the answer is no.

I've had two comments so far, and one of them was by my older brother while the other was from a classmate, so I can't really count them. That kind of goes for a lot of things. When you're skilled at something, you're only really skilled if you actually have people you don't know that think that. Of course my friends will tell me I'm good at something, but I need a really neutral point of view to assess myself accurately.

I guess I shouldn't worry about it too much. Such is the nature of blogging after all. My uncle blogs, and his link is up on my side menu. He says alot of really good stuff on the matter, and I would suggest you take a glimpse at his page to get a picture of an expertly crafted blog.

But I'm not going for expert writing. I don't know waht I'm going for. But I do know that I want people reading, for better or for worse. Andl I know is that you don't get a huge successful blog overnight. So I write daily, and hope that people read as such. But I rather doubt it. But who knows? Anything can happen on the World Wide Web.

"A person sits alone at his computer and presses “publish,” while across the country, a restless reader closes out a window and moves on to another blog…" - Switch 2 Plan B (Brian Cieslak)

An apology

Sorry, guys, I've been really busy this week and can't get on the computer for a while. But I'll write down a topic as a draft for each day so when I get time, I can publish a bunch of posts for the days I've missed. I'm also compiling a huge list of email addresses so I can send my web address out to a bunch of people. I'll have to write a really good post that day. Anyhow, I should have some posts up this weekend, so be sure to look on Sunday.

"I like to hold the microphone like this-see I pinch the cord and then I let it go and you hear a bunch of jokes at once." - Mitch Hedburg (comedian)

Lackluster

No matter what it is, everything eventually loses it's luster. Be it an activity, a sport, even a relationship, eventually, the initial excitement wears off. Then is when the real commitment is found. Because while it may still be fun, it takes work now. Just like writing for this blog.

I'll admit that doing this is fun and even entertaining at times, but now it does require work. Of course what doesn't? I've taken up alot of seemingly irrelevant and pointless commitments this year-wearing my bracelet 24/7 or carrying two backpacks constatntly around school. Or this blog. But I keep on doing those things, because they really don't require a lot of work. But blogging does.

I think the reason I've been able to keep this up is because I started it purely by choice. It's not like school where you have to do it either way. This takes work, but it's free work in a way. It's working toward my own goals and not those set for me by others.

Of course, everything loses it's 'spark' eventually. Relationships, school, music, sports, you name it. And once the spark is gone, that's where the real commitment to whatever it is comes out. Sure I can improvise pretty well on the piano, but it takes commitment to learn a Chopin sonata. Sure I can play hockey, but it takes commitment to go to stick time and work on my stick handling.

Key word there-work. There's no real commitment unless there's work involved. Just like there's no real gift unless there's some sacrifice involved. But we can always look back to the spark and look forward to see improvement, and that's how we keep going.

“There's a difference between interest and commitment. When you're interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstance permit. When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.” - Anon.

A little bit more of Christmas

Important, eventful day today. I may have to break it down to describe it all. First period, it turns out we have a health test tomorrow that I am utterly unprepared for. Second period I found that I had actually done more work in English than I was supposed to. Break was chaos, and I couldn't get my friends together to practice. Third period, I found a fun way to entertain myself with reflections and minigolf. Fourth period, I had a test and almost a late assignment. And Lunch, I had practice with my band. Did I mention I'm in a band? It's called the Uncrowned Kings.

I'll go into that in more detail later, but fifth period we reviewed a little bit of Spanish. And sixth period was my speech. It was a big speech for me, and I was in a suit the whole day just for the occasion. Most people used flash cards and such, but not me. Because this was a competition. The speech was on a charity, and everybody brought in money to give to the class vote. And I wanted my charity to win. So I memorized my five-and-a-half minute speech and presented my speech with empty hands and full suit. And I don't mean to boast, but I nailed it. It was worth about one hundred points and I only got two points off for pacing.

Nothing happened in seventh, and I practiced with my band after school, until the bass player's folks gave us a ride to the scool band's christmas concert. I basically faked it; I read the chords and new the melodies, and that was enough to sound good. I guess it goes to show you, eh? At any rate, it was really a pretty incredible experience to hear these christmas songs performed by a whole band with brass, percussion and everything else. We even had a song at the end that everybody played, and everybody in the audience sung as well. The band director had me play miscellaneous christmas tunes in the background as people started leaving.

And yet after this hectic day, I can always look forward to the warmth of my bed and the promise of tomorrow, hoping that it will be even better than today.

It's shaping up to be a good week...


"It is my custom to keep on talking until I get the audience cowed." - Mark Twain

A little bit of Christmas

Sorry I haven't been writing daily for a while, but ever since the teachers realized that finals are coming in two weeks, they've been doing their best to get in those final big assignments. I came home with nearly six assignments in english and speech. And the weekend caught up with me this morning.

I woke up this morning to hot water. But I wasn't laying down, I was standing up in the shower. I had actually sleep walked into my bathroom, climbed into my shower, and turned on the water. All this, unconscious. And better yet, when I finally got out of the shower and got all my stuff ready, I took a look at the clock. 3:00 A.M. Why did I get up that early? I laid back down, exhausted, onto my bed and slept for another three hours before waking up again to go to school.

Luckily, the day turned out better than I had expected as far as homework goes. I finished my grammar assignments in class and passed it in without my teacher realizing I had done it off his notes on the board.

But that's not what I'm talking about today. Today is one of the first days of advent, and it really is a transitional day. I'm starting to feel the windy cold and the christmas spirit is beginning to seep up out of the ground to cheer us up. We put a reef on the front door, and more importantly, the tin man in the picture. As you can see, Christmas is already starting to infect us with happiness. Don't you love it?

To top off the metaphorical christmas transition cake, I'm playing at a christmas concert tomorrow with the band at 7:00 P.M. I have several soloes slash one-on-one accompiniments. I'm nervous, but I'm sure I'll do just fine. I hope...

My aunt will be here in town in these coming weeks while my parents leave for San Francisco. (They're trying to figure out some chemo...)


"Christmasttime can be emotional, it may bring parties or thoughts devotional..." - Silver Bells

Dead Man Walking

Sorry I didn't get to post last nigh, but I was busy watching a movie called Dead Man Walking. This is the best and most meaningful movie I have watched in a long time. Touching really, and I can't suggest it highly enough. It was a really great experience for me, though, because I actually saw Sister Helen Prejean speak here in Boise, and the movie was based on her experiences. It was basically about the death penalty and how it affects everyone around it.

And of course, it got me wondering to what extent we should be allowed to punish people. Is it really right to be able to kill people when they kill someone else? Isn't it wrong no matter who does it? And is capital punishment really punishment or revenge? Think about it, their good questions.


"We are better than the worst thing we've ever done." - Sister Helen Prejean

A fair enough Thursday

Fair enough day today. I’ve got nearly no homework except for a few things I’d like to get done ahead of time. To be honest that’s not usually my style. My style for school is usually the procrastinating mindset. Of course, this isn’t unlike most high schoolers, but I’ve changed my mindset today. Finals are coming up faster than I would like, and I’m suddenly thinking to myself, “Better do it today. It could be harder tomorrow.”

And just as it should be. As I have mentioned before, procrastination is the root of all evil. You never know what could happen tomorrow, so why wait for then? When you find out your huge project is due tomorrow, it helps when you don’t have to worry about the silly vocabulary worksheets that you haven’t done yet.

Speaking of workbooks, I’m going to have to make some decisions here. I’ve lost several schoolbooks, and I can’t decide whether to foot the bill myself or try to make it as long as I can without it. Currently I’m missing my Spanish hardback textbook, my Spanish workbook, and my vocabulary workbook. That could add up to as much as ninety dollars if they’re expensive. I’ve got one hundred dollars saved up in my debit account, but I can’t decide. That’s the thing about money; it’s hard to spend in moderation. I seem to go either go crazy, or save every penny. Well that’s life.

I’ve also found that I’m not supposed to blog during the week. My mom says I spend too much time downstairs. To hell with her, I don’t care what she does; I’ll find a way around it. I didn’t write daily for a month to have someone essentially shut down my blog. I’ll do something. Maybe write on the weekend or get more people to write blurbs. Whatever it takes, but you all can count on me being back here every day God willing. Keep reading!


“The shifts of Fortune test the reliability of friends.”- Marcus Tullius Cicero

The DWA and Hockey Events...

Well. I was right about one thing. Today was quite a big day. My final grade in a couple of classes could have been made today with out my realization. I had two friends that copied workbook pages for me. Only one of them succeeded. I couldn't expect them to be perfect though. I now am missing assignments in C. Phyz, bu this is nothing new. I can't blame him. Next time, he'll remember. I'll recover. I always do.

At any rate, that was not what the big event of the day was. As I talked about in my previous post, I took the DWA today. For anybody reading this who took it yourself, know that I sympathize with you. Ninety minutes of straight writing can be pretty tough, especially when you get a prompt that you don't know alot about. Luckily enough, we got a decent one this year. We had to write and expository for why the driving age should be 16 or 18. I think I did pretty well. I finished ten minutes early and had to scrunch the words up to fit it all on the page. Definite four or five there.

But from what I've heard, it don't matter whether or not you ace the DWA. What's up with that? The school sets up a huge writing assessment and none of the colleges even bother checking our scores on it? Are they just trying to screw with us? That's actually quite likely...

Speaking of school, I had practice today for the school hockey team. And afterwards, we recieved some bad news. We had been getting complaints from the other players in the Junior Varsity League that we were too big and bullied them. The coaches took interest in this and tried to talk to our coach. So now we're essentially not supposed to play a physical game unless they're as big or bigger than us. Which sucks. We're just supposed to throw away our competitive spirit because a couple of eighth graders didn't like being pushed around. It's a physical sport; what did they expect? You don't take a career in football and expect not to get an injury or not to get hurt. Well, there's nothing we can do about it for right now, but make sure we don't get disqualified because our players are too big...

Pre-DWA Stress Syndrome

I've got a big day ahead of me.

I'm sure everyone reading is familiar with the Direct Writing Assessment. It's one of those big test days tommorrow at my school, and everybody is holding their breath for Hell on earth, hoping they don't get a crappy prompt. If I do, I'm screwed. Last time I got a three, but I constantly tried to change everything and made it worse.

Not only that, but I've got two assignments due tommorrow that I have absolutely no hope of finishing. It's not that their large, but it's out of my spanish and science worbooks, both of which I lost a while ago. So I'm calling up my friends, trying to get them to photocopy theirs and give it to me in the morning. I don't understand how I lose all my stuff. I'm only ever in two places where I have my stuff. Home and school. You'd think that would narrow it down, but nope.

The problem about high school is that the system makes us end up thinking that grades are the most important thing in our lives. Which it is to an extent, but this causes backlash on other aspects of our lives, such as our social life. I've probably imposed on a lot of people to try to save my grades. I feel bad to have to get people to photocopy things for me, or print assignments out for me, but what am I supposed to do?

Luckily for me, most of my friends have had this experience before, and can sympathize with me. But I can't help feeling I put a lot of pressure on them. To feel the weight of two peoples' grades on your shoulders. One is bad enough. But I do my best, and I get by with a little help from my friends. And I help others when they need it or when they ask. Even an enemy can borrow my answers if they ask for it and they obviously need it. Because I'm not one to sit by and watch someone fail and assignment when they could've passed, regardless of my thoughts about them.

So yet again, we end up in the Battle School. For those of you who have read Ender's Game, the more intelligent students learn that even though the students compete to succeed, the only real enemies are the teachers. And in real life, it's not always the teachers who are the enemy in real life, but grades as a whole. As students, we have to unite to succeed. Keep that in mind. Never be unwilling to "take one for the team" because when someone asks you for help in school, they're on their last string. They need it.


"I don't care if I pass your test, I don't care if I follow your rules. If you can cheat, so can I. I won't let you beat me unfairly - I'll beat you unfairly first." - Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game

Lego City

Ha. I bet you all were expecting me not to write today, but I took my day off on sunday. Just to screw with you. Sucks for you.

At any rate, we went to the YMCA again on Sunday, and to my surprise and joy, my tower was still standing. But it was no longer standing alone. When I walked in I found it standing next to several other worthy buildings including an eiffel tower. You've really got to zoom in to see all of them. But here is my tower's evolution.


It started small...


Got bigger...


I finished it.


What I found two days later.

There's the leaning tower of pisa, the Eiffel Tower, a collosseum, a tiny pyramid by the eiffel, a red totem pole, and a big cabin/watchtower. I was quite pleased with how it all turned out. Now I'm ready for today. Which is monday.

Just to remind everybody, this is my thirtieth post and my blog's been up for a month now. Yay! (confetti flying everywhere)

"There are nearly infinite ways to combine eight differently colored bricks." - The Lego Company.

Mondays

I've got nothing to write about today so I though I would stick in an excerpt from a story I wrote a year ago in eighth grade. Plus I'm really mad I have to go to school in less than two days from now.

I awoke to the sound of my alarm clock, blaring incessantly, tearing me away from sleep. I slammed the snooze button, even when I knew it didn’t do me any good. I fell back to sleep for a few minutes, but only to have the clock ring again as programmed. This time, sleep had left me again.

I tore myself away from the warm sheets and pillows to meet the harsh morning. As usual, I took my shower and dried off, thinking my normal Monday thoughts. This is stupid. Why do we have school today? Why do we have school at all? I always had these sorts of thoughts on Mondays, and this one was no different.

After getting dressed I walked downstairs to the kitchen to scrounge some breakfast. Bagel? Cereal? Toast? I grabbed the quickest meal available to me- a breakfast bar from the cupboard- and ate it while climbing back up the stairs. Andy had just gotten up and dressed, and we passed through the hall silently.

I brushed my teeth and gathered up my things for school, just beginning to worry about the half-dozen assignments that I hadn’t done. It was late in the morning by now, so I didn’t wait for Andy, but got my bike ready once I was packed. It was a cold morning, and the nine-block ride, albeit I had a jacket, numbed my fingers and made me shiver. Upon reaching the school, I harbored a tremendous temptation to turn around and do something useful or fun for the day, but I resisted as usual. After all, it was just another Monday.

I stepped into the gymnasium to face the day that awaited me. A few of my classmates looked as I walked in and greeted me, but most looked apathetic, concealing their own storms of anger. Not that I expected anything more; they were all as mad at the world as I was. Monday did this to people, especially students and teachers. There was something about this godforsaken day that put everybody in bad moods.

Mark, Luke, and John were three of my closest friends. Mark was a Hispanic boy who I had known since first grade. He was very strong and knew enough weak points and body locks to beat the crap out of nearly anyone in a fair fight. Luke, I had known since third or fourth grade, and though obnoxious and a bit short, was fun to be around. John was a huge, burly character who had joined the class just this year, but he immediately fit in with us and was soon a close friend of mine. I hung with them until the bell rung and we shuffled off toward homeroom.

Algebra was our first period subject, but it seemed like stupid placement to me. Most assignments that you forget to do can be done throughout the day, but not for Algebra, and when there was an assignment virtually every day, there were few days where we didn’t have homework. Mrs. Higgins was our teacher, and she was pretty nice, but I still had to go to the library to try to catch up with the math that I didn’t do. I tried to do the work that was assigned, but you always had to have a good calculator, which I didn’t have at home. And the math seemed so repetitive after a while, it was hard not to be sidetracked. I finished the unfinished work and got my late grade as usual. After all, it was just another Monday.

Leftovers

le

This was my candy stash from Halloween. And now it's all gone, all gone. If only Thanksgiving leftovers could last remotely that long. Because none of you have really had joy like my Mom's chocolate caramel tart. In retrospect, it lasted pretty long for most thanksgivings. We've still got three pieces of it left. I had two of them today, but as far as my family knows I only had one. Better to just tell them what they need to know...

That's all we had to eat today for dinner. Leftovers. Just pick out what you like from a huge tub of food. Which isn't any problem so long as you don't mind stuffing in your mashed potatoes. I don't, it's tasy. And I know everybody says this, but my mom makes the best thanksgiving dinner ever, and the leftovers are almost as good as the day before. I'd show you a picture of the dessert that's left, but my camera's screwy. Oh well.

In other news, I spent most of my day at the YMCA, building a huge lego tower. And it was huge. Again, I'd show you a picture, but the camera's messed up. I'll show it as soon as I can. It started very humbly, just a couple of handfuls of two-by-four bricks overlapping each other, but by the time I was done, It had three structurally different levels, a Empire State Building style top, and came up to my chest. I even wrote a little poem along with it to make sure that if anybody took it apart, they would do something worthwile with it:

If from these bricks does thou sow,
Take your time and let thee know,
That if a single brick is gone,
All must be used, every one.

So be it ship or plane or tank,
Then not one brick may be misplaced,
For if it does, it will come back,
To 'venge its weary, painful past.

This is just another example of my joy of randomness. At any rate, it was a good day, and the tower still stands at the local YMCA.

Right now I'm watching the football game - BSU vs. Hawaii. BSU all the way! If they win this, it's on to the Sugar bowl...


"The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for 30 years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found." - Calvin Trillin

Thanksgiving 2007

What a wonderful day. Happy and uneventful. Just the way I like it.

I'll give you an overview of how my day went. My older brother Micheal got home yesterday and Jessica (sister) came over too, so the entire immediate family was there. For the majority of the morning, we prattled and socialized. It was good to have everyone home. Micheal goes to St. John's in Minnesota, and it's his second year in college, so it's good to see him after so long. As for Jessica, she lives nearby but she's busy these days with school and work. The best part of the whole day was having everyone here for one happy holiday.

Later in the afternoon, Dad shuttled us to the park and brought a football. At first, it was just dad, andy, and me, but Micheal drove to the park and joined us before long. We scrimaged with Micheal and Andy vs. Me and Dad. Andy's team won before long, and we played pass afterwards. After getting my ass whooped by Micheal, we left. It was time for dinner.

Now dinner- the main event. We had a pretty normal thanksgiving dinner: turkey, mashed potatoes & gravy, asparagus, stuffing, and buns. Mom cooked all of it, and it was absolutely incredible. And after dinner was the dessert. Trust me, you haven't lived until you have tasted my mom's chocolate caramel tart. Take one bite and your a step closer to heaven.

All of us stuffed ourselves to the brims. It's hilarious- all any us wanted to do after dinner is go to bed, we were so full. But that's why I loved today. It was just another warm, loving, family holiday. I can't wait for the next one.


"Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but be careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude." - E.P. Powell

Friends & Enemies

I hope you enjoyed Zach's blog yesterday. We may be getting more of those in the future. But today my post is about openmindedness and enemies.

You know, sometimes I wonder if we really ever see people with an open mind. There is seems to always, without fail, be a positive or negative sway.

You don't even have to know them. We all know how often we're judged upon our looks. But what about our actions? When we tell jokes in the front of the class and everyone's laughing, what is the kid in the back thinking? The kid who's just observing? Unfortunately, nobody ever makes an informed decision, because nobody knows everything about us. There's always something people don't know about it, even if we don't realize it.

And the real problem is that we often end up looking for faults in those we don't like. It happens to me all the time, and I don't mean to do it. But it's not just me. I've constantly found myself being stared at, observed. And I look at them, and it's always the stare that says "What is wrong with you?" And it is absolutely infuriating.

But when I find myself staring blankly at the people who get on my nerves, do I give them this look? Am I as bad as them? And the unfortunate answer is that it's quite possible.

We don't even treat our friends with an open mind. I constantly observe malicious rumors passing from friends to friends. And I think to myself, aren't these people supposed to be friends? When they hear stuff like this, don't they ask themselves whether or not that sounds like their friend? Don't they first go and ask their friend personally?

Of course, it's not the friends who really spread the rumors intentionally. They spread it to their close friends, but they forget that everyone's got different circles. And the circles interlap until it reaches a spreader. A spreader is one of those people who spreads gossip regardless of who it is about. Be it a friend or a total stranger, they'll spread it if it's juicy. We all know someone like that, and it's thanks to these sorts of people that we have people being judged without reliable grounds.

So there's really only one solution. There may be someone in our class who is an asshole, but chances are, if you don't want to know them, then you don't have to. What this means is that you just have to do your best to ignore them completely. And when you do hear rumors about people, just remember. We're all different. My normal behavior could be annoying as all hell to another person, and vice versa. If you just keep that in mind, you can have a lot more friends and a lot less enemies.


"Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde

An Alcatraz014 Featured Blurb: #1: Zack Funke

What's this? a blurb? i guess i'm supposed to define it, since i'm the first to write one... when the author of this site wishes to add a little authenticity to his recounts, or if he just wants you to understand the people he talks about a little better, he'll have them write a blurb; you know, a little freestyle.

With that said, i should start. Hi! My name's Zack Funke. yeah i know, weird name, it's pronounced "funky" and it's super cool cause no one i know has that name too. uhh... I'm 14 years old, and I go to "the author's" school in Boise, Idaho. I'm a freshman, but not for long -- one day i'll help bring the Knights to another football state championship. I may even play varsity football before my junior year, that would rock! So, as you can see, I like football. I played on the junior varsity team this year, with inexperienced juniors, sophomores and talented freshman. I also play basketball... my height and weight is a great advantage, but i'm not skilled enough to make anything higher than freshman, for now. I'm 5'11 and weigh 149 pounds... kinda skinny for a football player, but i run like crazy in track and lacrosse and lift like crazy in football and conditioning, so i'm fairly lean with some above average muscle mass; nothing too exciting, though.

As far as schoolwork goes, I've always been a good student; like, straight A+. i find ways to make extra credit, and my learning style is thorough and I have a hard work ethic along with exceptional structural understanding of material.... all these big words, they come from my dad, who pushes me to go this far. I'm in one advanced math class, if you consider Algebra 1 the default math class for 9th grade; i'm in geometry. as for science, already took earth science, physical science is too easy, so i was put in conceptual physics. pretty much a dumbed down and cartooned version of regular physics, it still gives you a great understanding of the world. science has always been my strong suit... which is strange, because it's not something instinctive, like math, it's more something learned, like history. maybe somewhere inbetween... i've always been really interested in astrophysics, particle physics, quantum mechanics, how space and time work... how we think... how or brains work.... things that we don't know about yet. someday i'd like to make a discovery; i would never use my real name though, i'd never get the end of "NERD!"

that's right... my writing style makes me sound like a frickin nerd, but it's just the way i write. gets good grades in english. i have a ton of awesome friends, since i went to a catholic school for elementary school and jr. high, and the catholic-school-web called TVCS pretty much has all of the students doing stuff together. think of one huge class of about 90, only you know them all really well and you're all going to the same high school! pretty awesome, if you ask me. my girlfriend's also from my class; she's amazing too, and she might even write a blurb on here sometime. who knows, it's joe's choice!

anyway... uhh... there's probably a picture on here somewhere, but i have brown curly hair, a crooked (once broken) nose, wear contacts, braces, long arms, big legs, and big feet. it's all more or less in proportion to everything else, so, not too bad, i guess. like i said, i'm 5'11" and 149, and can play football, basketball, track and lacrosse. i know how to play baseball, but i can't play THREE spring sports. and, lastly, joe referred to me as "the bracelet heir" a couple times on here before; that's me. but call me Zack. bracelet heir makes me sound like some kind of arabian prince with a golden bracelet or something.... hahaha.

--Zack Funke

Monday

Monday's my day off. Sucks for you. Also, this is the third week of my blog. So scroll down and enjoy, there's more to this blog than meets the eye.

Beowulf (and polls)

I happened to see Beowulf this Sunday. And I'll be truthful. It was kind of weird. Of course I had to consider that this was based on a sixth century epic poem based on monsters and sex. So not much different than most movies.

It was pretty good. I would suggest it highly.

But there's big news for alcatraz014. For anyone who's been reading, I would just like you to know that the polls closed tonight at 8:00 P.M. The new web address is http://alcatraz014.blogspot.com. No more heifen.

I'm going to set up another site at the old address to make sure that if anyone actually goes back they can find my new address.

Monday is fast aproaching. Something wicked this way comes... and guess what it is? School. What's happening this week? Well I've got a test in Health, and that's all that comes to mind. Yeah, sorry this is such a short post, but I got squat to talk about. You all will just have to wait until Tuesday for something good. Maybe I can get that blurb from Zack...


"Are you the one they call Beowulf? Such a strong man you are. A man like you could own the greatest tale ever sung." - Grendel's Mother (Angelina Jolie) from Beowulf

Saturday School

Unfortunately, I spent about three hours of my Saturday in a room like this one. Because I had Saturday School, as my title would imply.

But how would someone as responsible as me have to go to Saturday school? Well, that's a good question. Apparently, they count tardies for zero hour classes. So they sent me to saturday school for three hours.

To be honest, It was fine. I got some homework done, where as I usually would do all of it on Monday morning. They just made us sit down and shut up for three hours. We could do homework or work on the computers or anything so long as was school-related. For some people it sucked, but for me, it was a good chance to get some work done. That's luck for me. A blessing in disguise.

But luckily, that's not all that happened Saturday. Otherwise, this would be a very dull post, nay?

Like last Saturday I had a hockey game. This one was at 6:15 P.M. I showed up about a half-hour early and played in the arcade until it was about time to get dressed. This time we did have a goalie; a goalie and eleven other players. We won. the final score was four to three. We whooped ass.

Afterwards, I got a ride home from the coach because my parents were out. We talked about the game on the way. Once I got back home, it was pouring out. But I was hungy. So what did I do? I ran in the pouring rain to the nearest burger king and promptly ordered ten dollars worth of fatty goodness for me and my brother.

And to finish off the day, I relaxed and wrote in my blog. So now I'm wondering: what's in store for Sunday?


“There aren't enough days in the weekend.” - Rod Schmidt quotes

The Two Backpacks

This past couple of weeks, I have taken up the habit of carrying around two backpacks instead of one. This is just one example of my randomness, as the second one serves no real purpose for me throughout the school day. The blue one on my right contains all my schoolwork. The green one on my left is filled to the brim with sheetmusic and music binders. Now, of course, I don't actually need to carry the green one around all day; I do anyway, though.

Why?

Because at least five times on any day, I get asked the same question. "Why do you have two backpacks?" I feel great joy in hearing this question, and have come up with several answers to it. So, you might ask, why ARE you carrying two backpacks?

1. (Truthful) Me: "This one's for music, and this one's for school."
Them: "But why do you need to carry music around all day?"
Me: "I don't."
Them: "..."
Me: *exit quietly.*

2. Me: "This is Pride, *pointing too blue pack* and this is Joy. *point to green pack.*"
Them: "You named your backpacks?"
Me: "Yes." *exit quietly*

3. Me: "Wait, I've been carrying two backpacks around? What have I been thinking! Oh, all the wasted time, all the wasted work!" *exit quietly*

4. Me: "This one's got a survival kit and a water bottle in it."
Them: "You need that to go through the school day?"
Me: "Yes."
Them: "..."
Me: *exit quietly*

5. (My favorite) Them: "why do you carry those two backpacks around?"
Me: "So people will ask me that question."
Them: "..."
Me: *exit quietly*

All of these answers elicited confused expressions on the askers' faces, and it brings me great entertainment to watch it them. The real reason I started carrying the second backpack was because I had piano practice one day and I knew I wouldn't have enough time to stop by my home. So I packed my music in a backpack and headed off to school. The next day I found myself without the second backpack, and a kid asked me why I didn't have it. He seemed depressed. He said, "Geez, that fun guy stopped carrying his second backpack around. There's nothing to look forward to anymore; nothing to live for!"

Upon seeing his distraught reaction, I immediately took my own action and showed up the next morning with both backpacks slung over opposite shoulders. And so what if my back's sore by the end of the day from carrying twice the usual weight? It's deifinitely worth it to see people's various and comic reactions to them!


"Two heads are better than one." - Among other places, my 'Bracelet Heir' post.

014

Some people might wonder why I would use alcatraz014 as a username. Well, for one thing, it's unique. But it does have a history. My folks took a trip to California once and came back with a T-shirt from alcatraz. It had a picture of a jail cell on it, colored in purple, yellow, and black. I loved the shirt, and I wore it all the time.

When I went to hockey camp one summer, I literally did wear it all the time (I forgot to pack enough shirts). So, I just went through the week with the same shirt on. After a while I was coined the nickname "Alcatraz." I liked it, and never objected to it.

Fast forward to my second email address. I had to get rid of the first because people used it as a trash can to send their spam. Even if I check it now, peope are still sending emails titled "SEND THIS TO 14 PEOPLE!! IT'S FOR REAL!!!!"

Yeah right.

There's no way that an email could cause neither luck nor love, nor any of the good things it so naively claims. I had forwarded them a few times, but I had gotten sick of them. It was time to move on.

So when I thought of what to name my brand new email address, alcatraz popped into my head almost automatically. It had been a long time, but I had loved that nickname and thought it would be a great username. So I started the normal process of checking availability: Alcatraz? No. Alcatraz1? No. 0alcatraz0? No. Aallccaattrraazz? No. Dr Alcatraz? No. It was all taken.

So what was I to do? I knew I would have to suck it up and pick a random number to put on the end. So much for individuality; I was only a number away from the rest. But instead of making that decision myself, I looked up 'random number'. I found a nifty little program with a 1-100 range and a start button. I clicked it, and found myself looking at 014. I hadn't actually thought that was possible. Wouldn't it just say 14 instead?

But I liked it. So I went back and entered in alcatraz014, and viola! I had my email address. And it was more than an email address. If any of you see the username alcatraz014 anywhere else, know that that's me. As I surfed the web over the years and found myself subscribing and unsubscribing to all sorts of things, I used that username. It had become an avatar for me, kind of like my own cyber-image.

So my life became synchronized. All simplified. All one username and one password. And I know it doesn't mean anything, but everyday, when I leave my locker, I set the dial to 14.


"You are entitled to food, clothing, shelter, and medical assistance. Everything else you recieve is a privilege." -- The quote on the back of the T shirt

The Bracelet Heir (and polls)

Say hello to Zack Funke, my editor and friend. This is the bracelet heir.

If you have read my earlier posts (esp. Last Will and Testament) you will have known vaguely about this shady character. But here he is now, clear as a bell. We both go to the same school and share many of the same subjects together. We are very much alike in our interests.

Me and him were in the same class in kindergarten, and we've known each other ever since. We both spent nine years at the same school, St. Mary's. It seems Zack's always been there, whether or not I wished it. Even when I started ridiculous schemes, he was there laughing and playing along. Like starting my own country. Or planning a all-out invasion of the seventh grade. Or writing a blog.

This last year though we have become somewhat closer to each other. Something about high school picked us out and recognized that we were alike, so it paired us together. We share three classes together - English & speech (same teacher) and Conceptual Physics. So just like the years before, he's always there, playing along.

Zack is very bright and has made straight A's for most his life. I'd probably have his grades, but I don't study or finish homework diligently. Oh well. You can't have everything in this life, but I think with Zack there's a good balance. He's smart, athletic, social, and quirky. I think that over the years I've inspired in him something I've always had: a joy in the randomness of things.

So now we've got a nice little duo here. Joe & Zack. The inspiration and the brains. The hand and the pen. Better watch out, blogging world. Because two heads is better than one. Hopefully I can get him to write a blurb sometime next week. We'll see how things work out.

Now, before I close on a good note, I'd like to ruin the moment by telling everyone about how the polls scored. Last week I set up a poll that asked, "If I put a poll on my blog, would anybody vote in it?" The replies were 1. Yeah, I would. 2. No... 3. This is a retarded question and I refuse to answer it. Here's the results! Drum roll please!
1. Yeah, I would 5 votes-62%
2. No 0 votes-0%
3. This is a retarded question and I refuse to answer it 3 votes-37%

I will now hold a poll on advertising. This is an important one; be sure to vote.


"I get by with a little help from my friends." - The Beatles

Blog Changes

If any of you have been reading, and I'm sure you have, you probably have noticed the difference in the template and heading. Do you like it? I did. My last one was way too bland, and I couldn't get my computer to change that horrid picture behind the heading. This is much better, and I'm able to download pictures now.

Of course, this sort of thing comes with a catch. Apparently the only place I can upload pictures to my header or videos to my blog is through the school. So I'm supposed to handle all the technical aspects of the blog now from school. I'm not sure how I'm going to do that sort of thing in twenty minutes. Oh well, I'll figure something out. I'll probably be playing around with the templates alot, so don't be surprised if my blog looks alot different every time you see it.

I took a look at my profile again today and found that my views had soared to an amazing thirty- three views! That's eleven time three! I would've wished for a more divisible number, but that is impressing. That means I get about two profile views on average a day. I'm gaining some steam here.

If any of you voted on either of my polls, thank you very much. The first one (If I put a poll on my blog...) will be closed Wednesday at noon. So if you haven't voted yet go ahead. Funny I got so many votes, I though it was more of a rhetorical question. Luckily I haven't got any 'no' votes yet.

I bet you're still waiting for the picture up there to appear, aren't you? Well tough luck, that is my picture.

In other news, I've been thinking lately about my blog and I decided that I'm going to pick one of my friends to be and editor for it. He'd have to help me out deciding the templates and figuring out a logo for the blog. I also have a friend with a digital camera, so we can maybe count on some more pictures of me (I know, I can't wait either.) And in a couple of days I'll put up another poll for whether or not I should put an advertisement up on my blog. While it may be a soreye, it will earn me money. But I won't put it up without viewer's consent.

But that's enough technical stuff for now. Remember the kid who I talked about in some of my previous posts who I said got my bracelet if I died? Well tommorrow, you'll all get to meet the bracelet heir...


"We blog. Small, yet solid, spheres of life, shot-gunned out there into cyberspace." - Brian Richard Cieslak

Monday

Monday's my day off. Sucks for you. By the way, it's my blog's two-week anniversary. This is my fifteenth post. Twelve of them are good quality with pictures and quotes. So be sure to take a look at all of them. Scroll down you lazy slobs.

The Hockey Game

note- this isn't a current picture

Well if I ever needed something to take my mind off dad, the hockey game did a good job of it. I may not have mentioned it, but I've played hockey for a long time. My Dad and older brother, Micheal, both played hockey, so they introduced me to it at a very young age. I've been skating since I was about six. I played Rec. leagues until I hit eighth grade, and then I started playing Junior Varsity for Bishop Kelly. So this is my second year on the team. I'm not great, but I'm good.

At any rate, I came thinking it was just another game, but I was dead wrong. When I got there and got dressed, I checked the time and the locker room. It was five minutes until the game and only nine players were here. And none of them were the goalie. We tried our best to find one, but we soon found that we would have to play either without a goalie or not at all. So we played.

In a situation like this, it works out like this: the team without a goalie gets to have six players out on the ice instead of the normal five. We were desperately undermanned. Nine players? We had only two offensive lines, and the three defensemen (usually two) had to play the whole game through. No joke. By the end of that game I was exhausted.

But we gave them a run for their money. At first I thought we didn't stand a chance without a goalie, but we got off to a great start and had the game tied up three to three by the end of the second period. I even got an assist on one of the goals. We really would've won if we just had had maybe one more line. But we got worn down. All of tthe players were just about done for by the end of the game. The opponent picked up the pace and we lost, six to three.

Oh well. I sure as hell had fun. I got a few shots off and played my best. So I'm happy with that.


You miss 100% of the shots you never take." - Wayne Gretzky