Halloween 2007

Happy Halloween everyone!

At 14, I'm still trick or treating! The only difference is that my costume isn't as good as last year. My folks complained that we had a full chest of old costumes from years before, but I don't like wearing the same costume twice. It takes some of the fun out of it.

So instead of putting on a valid costume, I put on a black sweatshirt complete with hood, black sweats, black socks, black shoes, and a black bandana fashioned from a black shirt. I called myself "the shadow". Well at least I was warm; I saw several people walking around as King Leonidus and could only feel sorry for them in the freezing weather. One of them asked to use my bandana to stay warm.

Halloween in Boise isn't a big thing, and there's really only a couple of interesting places to trick or treat. There was a house along Harrison that has a mechanical dragon they built. It was completely functional and would occasionally breathe fire. There was always a crowd, waiting for the flames. Another was the house with the fake graves. I know it's an old trick, but they would pop out of ditches, scaring the crap out of little kids. Several of them fell over in shock, which was just about hilarious.

But to put it truthfully, I don't like Halloween that much. There's no Halloween spirit, and if there was we would be celebrating the lives of saints. But we're not. It's just another holiday that companies have made a profit from. Like so many others. I enjoy the haunted corn maze and fun activities that pop up for halloween, but that's about as far as I go. The only reason I went trick or treating is my little cousin was going, and mom wanted me to be the "older brother". So I went along, and decided that if I was there, I sure as hell was gonna get some candy out of it.

At any rate, Halloween's through, and that means only two things to me.
1. A boatload of candy stockpiled in my room.
2. November has begun, and we're that much closer to Christmas, the best holiday ever.

So I hope you all have a happy Halloween!


"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door." - Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven

The Battle School

I hope anyone who reads this has read Ender's Game, because it's the only way you'll get this joke.

Funny thing that happened today. The first couple of periods, I was swamped, desperately trying to do unfinished work. And throughout the whole first half of the day, I could really sympathize with Ender. I felt like I was being pushed to my limits. I felt like it was driving me insane. (If you don't know about Ender's Game, I suggest highly that you read it. It is a fantastic sci-fi novel by Orson Scott Card.)

It really did get to me. I was angry at just about everyone and everything for a while, but I was still able to finish my work and get the grades I needed. And funnier still is that as the day went on, I ended up with just what I wanted. A break. I came home with no homework of any kind. No worries. Was this heaven?

Be careful what you wish for.

I found myself puzzled and dysfunctional for the rest of the day. Now that I finally had a "day off", I had become absentminded, and to some extent, unhappy. When I went to hockey practice today, I played horribly. I have done nothing noteworthy today. But tonight, I had a revelation:

I have to accomplish something in a day.
If I don't, I won't be happy.

This is quite unfortunate, but true. And upon having this revelation, I realize that I now know my own stride on the path of life. And knowing what I can do in a day will help me decide which way to go. But the path forks off in many directions. Which way to go?

At any rate, I treated today as something it's not; a weekend. It feels like a weekend to me in all ways. But the real reasoning behind this is that today's Tuesday. So far I have had a horrible week. But if today is the last day of the weekend, I'm given a clean slate. A chance for a good week. A week where I'm not Ender, but not a dysfunctional slob either. Because I can't live like either. So I have but the narrow path to walk down. But I'll make sure to keep moving forward.





"Human beings didn't evolve brains in order to lie around on lakes."-Orson Scott Card

Alcatraz014

I hope that you've heard the screenname alcatraz014 before. Because that's me. I've signed up to several dozen sites and emails all using this screenname; hoping someone would see it and remember. Futile hopes of course. The World Wide Web is a wonderful thing, but it is much too big for something as simple as a distinctive, repeating screenname to actually stand out. So how about a blog?

We'll see.

As for me myself, I plan to stand out in the real world as well. But this is easier said than done, I use the word 'plan' loosely. All I know is my goals, but not the road leading to it. And this blog is another step, and while I know that it's miniscule, it all adds up. I've got musical talent, I've got good grades, I've got athleticism. And I thought that would be enough.

But still, life, especially high school, is overwhelming sometimes, and I find it difficult to keep up. Just this weekend, I was busy for most of Saturday and while I spent all of Sunday trying to finish my homework, I just couldn't do it. Luckily, I had a couple of good friends as a safety net.

This will sound old, but life isn't fair. School, in a normal year, takes up approximately a third of a teenager's waking hours. But they have to go and assign homework on top of this! After scrambling to study for tests and ace exams throughout the week, we come home only to do the same. There's nothing I can do, save grumble on a blog.

Of course, there's one other thing I can do. They're trying to break me, push me, find my limits. The only way I can ever make them happy is to be better than they ever expected. This will never be easy, but I know that in the long run, it will be worth it.

Back in eighth grade, my teacher told me not to screw up, and she repeated it in many ways and forms throughout the year. "It's only four short years." I've had less than a semester and it feels like a lifetime.

Who said life was fair?