Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everybody! I enjoyed a nice christmas at home with my family. A nice little christmas...

Anyhow, my Aunt sent us Guitar Hero: World Tour (Thanks Kimmi!), which is awesome. Bonus points for the microphone, which I can apparently use to more effectively record vocals and music and what-not. Also lucky enough to get a iPod shuffle, a digital camera, new shades, Okami, and a vibraslap (it's an instrument, look it up).

Anyhow, Merry Christmas!

Just When It Was Supposed To Be A Happy Ending... (Part 3)

Dad was incapable of moving around on his own for that week. We had to carry him around in a wheelchair.

But it wasn't permanent. Eventually, his ankle, which had been sprained after all, got better, and things are almost back to how it was before last Thursday.

But something bothered me...

While Dad was in the wheelchair, I remember, we got our christmas tree and set it up, and began to work on the ornaments. I remember getting out Dad's first Christmas ornament and hanging it up. Dad, from his wheelchair, watched intently. I realized that no matter what happens, Gary is never going to be hanging ornaments again.

That may seem like a small revelation, but the terrible part of it is that it also means I know he won't ever be able to do so many other things. He's too handicapped to ride a bike, communicate, jump, you name it, he'd need help to do it.

So all this worries me.
I feel like we're running out of time.
And we've got no way of getting it back.

I've seen people pray and hope for Dad's health and recovery, but I know that things are beyond that. I hope that Dad dies dignified and proud, feeling good about everything that he's left about. Let's hope for that.

Just When It Was Supposed To Be A Happy Ending... (Part 2)

I rushed downstairs. Things weren't looking good. Mom and Dad had been staying in the basement, and Dad was in the bedroom, door closed. Mom was teary-eyed on the armchair, talking to Grandpa Don. I knew what had happened. Dad had had some seizures, got incredibly weak, and Mom took him to bed.

I sat with Mom for a bit, trying to comfort her. She told me a little bit of the story - Dad, although his walking had improved over the last couple of weeks, as of tonight, couldn't seem to walk. After a while, she asked me to leave so that she and Grandpa could talk.

I complied and went up to my room, trying to understand what this meant. I had gotten so used to how things had been for the past months... this was such a shock, and obviously really bad. It looked like things were going to change for the worse. I cried a bit myself, overwhelmed by the unfairness of it all. It really is terrible, especially for a man like Gary. It's hard to describe.

Eventually the night came to a gradual end. Beth and Alyssa and all their friends and relatives left for home. I packed it in for the night downstairs. I was still sleeping down there while Grandpa was in town. As if sleeping wouldn't be hard enough in my own bed.

But that's not what kept me up.

Dad got up around midnight to go to the bathroom. He fell. It woke me up with a shock. I put his arm around my neck and lifted him up. He could barely support his own weight, even with me helping. Eventually, though, I got him back into his bed.

Unfortunately, he did the same thing in an hour, and this time with worse results. He fell, again, and hurt his foot. I came in and helped him back into bed again. His foot was in pain, and it seemed pretty bad. He was barely be able to move around without it hurting. But there wasn't anything we could really do about it. It was his bad foot. Getting it cast, even if it was broken, wouldn't help us. I went back to bed. I still had to get up in six hours.

As if the situation wasn't bad enough already...

Just When It Was Supposed To Be A Happy Ending... (Part 1)

I should've known. It was too perfect of a day - something had to go wrong...

It was Thursday. The school day went smoothly, and Troy and I waited after school for the Christmas concert. I bought some food for Troy and some friends down at Subway. We came back, and the band started showing up.

We tuned and started the concert. The concert was short, but we did pretty good. We played several old classic christmas carols and then transitioned into more contemporary christmas music - Christmas Time Is Here, Adeste Phidelius, Manheim Steamroller Silent Night, and we finished it off with Wizards in Winter. That last song was the best. Troy, on his guitar, got up center stage with the bass and rocked out.

At any rate, afterwards I hung out with my friends and watched the wrestling match in the Carley Center. Troy took me home.

We had a lot of guests over that night. That's the reason that Mom and Dad didn't make it to the Christmas concert. Really busy night for them. My mom's best friend is Beth, and her daughter Alyssa is a friend of the family living here in Boise. It was Alyssa's birthday Thursday, and consequently, most of her family showed up in our house to celebrate it.

It was kind of awkward walking in - I barely know any of them at all, save Alyssa and Beth. I quickly worked my way through the mass of visitors with drinks in their hands to find Beth.

"How's it going Beth?"
"Good, you?"
"Good." I looked around. "Hey, where's Mom and Dad?"
She sighed. "They're downstairs. Your Dad had a rough night..."

Shit...

In Other News

I've been working on an album lately. I've got about ten songs so far, and a few of them are decent. The others... well, some of them are decent. I've also been working on my book. I haven't and won't be posting on my Monday Musings blog anymore, or at least, I won't be posting that story. I hope to get it published at some point. That would be fun.

The Christmas Concert is tonight. I've arranged Wizards in Winter for it, a rock christmas song. The band is somewhat unprepared, but we'll pull it off. We'll be fine. Make it if you can (event details on the sidebar).

I have relatives and friends in town this weekend, including Grandpa Don, my Mom's best friend Beth, and her daughter Alyssa. It's actually Alyssa's birthday today. (Happy birthday Alyssa) They are staying at the house, which unfortunately means that I get to sleep downstairs on the couch. It wouldn't have been so bad if Mom hadn't given me a single blanket that doesn't even cover my feet...

I haven't started studying yet, but I plan to spend most of my weekend preparing for the finals. Except for Sunday. I may or may not have a racquetball tournament with some friends at the Y that day. A lot of guys I hung out with from swim team still want to get a chance to beat me at racquetball. I won't let them get that chance, though.

Micheal's coming on back Christmas Eve. Can't wait to see him.

That's all for today... I hope you've had a good day, and from all of us here at Alcatraz014, have a good night.

Out Of Hand...

For any of you around watching the ridiculous spam-a-thon of my blog a couple days ago, you won't be surprised to hear that I'm restricting comments to actual users now. To comment, you have to sign in. It may be annoying, and I didn't really want to do it, but trust me, it's justified. I had over 50 comments on my last post. Next to all of them were spam.

My programming class are the ones to blame here. In the course of a single class period they left the most ridiculous string of comments I had ever seen on my last lyrical post. It was kind of funny at first, and I almost considered keeping it up for entertainment purposes, but it soon got out of hand. Anti-semitic comments, trying to post my email account, and links to annoying pictures soon made action necessary.

So. I deleted every single one of the comments (even the positive ones, and a thank you/shout-out to Micheal Moriarty and Thomas Allan Hawk for sticking up for me) and restricted the settings on my blog.

Listen, I've had this sort of thing happen to me before, in very different ways. But the point's the same. It may have been funny for a second, but enough is enough. It's gotten to the point where it's just annoying and malicious. So please, I've had enough of the vandalism for one blog's lifetime. Go mess up 4chan or something.

In other, less chastising news, the BK christmas concert is coming up! We do it every year as a tradition, and this time around I arranged Wizards in Winter for the event. This is going to be pretty cool, trust me.

Come if you can!

Teary-eyed Nostalgia

I went to mass a bit ago. St. Mary's is undergoing construction, and I took a walk around the old church. It's a construction zone. It inspired me to come up with this song, along to acoustic guitar.

I grew up in a small town
Didn't know what it'd do to me
Ever since I was a child
My childhood was happy, so perfect
No "come and go", just come and stay here
I graduated with a smile

Applied for college in California,
Made it in just barely, mind you
At the crossroads of life, there I stood
I packed my bags and left for Cali
I could finally follow my dreams but I
Should've know I always could

But I went back one day
Everyone had moved away and
I went back one day
Change had had its way and
I went back one day
And nothing was the same
So now I'm singing

Teary-eyed nostalgia
Can't do a thing to stop it
Teary-eyed nostalgia
Make it back the way it was
Teary-eyed nostalgia
Why does it haunt me?
Teary-eyed nostalgia
Well you know what they say
Well you know what they say
You can never go home again.

I stand there speechless
Looking at what used to be my home
The old place wouldn't last
Worse yet, the school had upgraded
Bigger and better things for them, re-
Painted the walls, and they painted over their past.

But I went back one day
Everyone had moved away and
I went back one day
Change had had its way and
I went back one day
And nothing was the same
So now I'm singing

Teary-eyed nostalgia
Can't do a thing to stop it
Teary-eyed nostalgia
Make it back the way it was
Teary-eyed nostalgia
Why does it haunt me?
Teary-eyed nostalgia
Well you know what they say
Well you know what they say
You can never go home again.

But nothing is the same
And nothing dulls the pain
of change

My childhood was happy, so perfect
No "come and go", just come and stay here
I graduated with a smile
But now I've got

Teary-eyed nostalgia
Can't do a thing to stop it
Teary-eyed nostalgia
Make it back the way it was
Teary-eyed nostalgia
Why does it haunt me?
Teary-eyed nostalgia
Why do things have to change?

Teary-eyed nostalgia...
Teary-eyed nostalgia...
Teary-eyed nostalgia...
Teary-eyed nostalgia...
Well you know what they say...
You can never go home again.

Saving Up

I've managed to spend virtually nothing all this month. And it's almost December. Which means, with my $100/month allowance, I'm going to have $200 Dec. 1st. The reason for me saving up like this is that I plan to get my little brother, Andy, something special for Christmas.

I've got it all in twenties. It makes me reluctant to spend any of it, which is a good thing. Anyway, the other day there was a jean day at my school. Kids got to wear jeans so long as they gave a dollar. The money went towards someone in Oregon who had recently lost a 5 - month old child. I would have, and seriously considered donating towards it, but that meant I would have to break a twenty, which I was reluctant to do. So, I skipped it.

Bad move. Later that day, a girl called me out on it, angry that I hadn't donated money. I thought it was pretty ridiculous that she was getting mad at me, but I did feel bad. So, when somebody offered me a couple of dollars to do some Algebra homework for him, I agreed. Later I gave donated the money towards the cause.

Moral of the story is that there is no black and white as far as morality concerned. The whole day was a gray area for me. I wonder, if higher powers ever examine my life and look at that day, will they figure that I did right, or that I did wrong?

Progress?

Well let's see the pros and cons of my week:

Pro: I've been working on Mondays. I now have twelve chapters done, nine typed, and it will be multi-part novel.

Con: There has been no band this week. At all.

Pro: I'm doing the film project with some of the drama kids. I may also be recording the music for it.

Con: The band performance from Friday wasn't very good, and I almost got a penalty. Stupid headphones....

Pro: My friend Stephen and I are now hall performing on Fridays - Stephen on the violin and me on the guitar. It's way fun.

Con: According to the office, the Christmas concert is supposed to be like December second or something, which is ridiculously early. We haven't even started working on it. We don't even have the music for it yet, really.

Pro: I finished a couple of scores this week (Light and Day by the Polyphonic Spree).

Con: I'm going to see Twilight this Friday (Please, please, don't ask why).

Pro: I may or may not be getting somebody to help me continue my young wizards graphic novel/comic idea. (if you're curious, see if you can do some research and dig up what I'm talking about)

Con: Andy's bike has been stolen, and mine needs a new tube.

Pro: I've managed to spend next to no money this month. I've currently got one hundred and one dollars in my pocket. I'm saving up for something cool.

Con: Life Sucks.

Pro: Life's Great.

Interesting Life

It's pretty much my motto. What about you?

Keytar

Well, this is the keyboard. The difference is that mine now has two of the screws in the casing replaced with hooks, and a strap is strung between the hooks, allowing me to sling it over my shoulder and play.

AKA - the Keytar, the pianist's bid for looking cooler.

I've long been wanting one, but now with just a little bit of modification on my old keyboard, I have it! Admittedly, the setup's a bit... impractical to say the least. If I just want the piano sound, I have to have some sort of amp, a jack, and power to the keytar. But if I want to have different sounds, I'd have to use the computer program GarageBand. To do this, I'll need to connect the keytar to a computer, which means I'll probably need a USB extension cord to allow any mobility, and then hook up the computer to some amplification so people can hear me. And I'll have to either switch instruments by fiddling on the computer, or having somebody else do it.

Still, it could actually happen, despite the drawbacks. Our band director actually has a Mac with GarageBand, which leaves us needing a USB extension cord and a way to amp up the volume on the computer.

Speaking of band, the football season is over after the Halloween Game, so we're now in preparation for the Christmas concert and basketball season. I could maybe see myself playing keytar at either of these....

Moreover, Mr. Haskell (director) is gone this week, so guess who's in charge? Yeah. I have to say, it's not easy to try to be productive at that hour though, especially when the actual teacher is absent. To make things better, all of the drumsticks were broken on Monday! We came in, and all of them were busted. I ended up dismissing the percussionists about a third of the way through band, realizing it was pointless for them to be there. I used to want the Music Room open all the time, but now I'm trying to work out how to lock up the drumsticks so this doesn't happen again. How things have changed.

By the way, I watched Bill Nye this morning in Biology, and I have to say, that is some freaking funny stuff! It is so much funnier now that I'm older. It reminds me of Monty Python almost.

The New America

Say hello to the 44th President of the United States! Congratulations Obama!

My Existential Halloween

Damn you Brian.

It was only a matter of time before your existential angst spread to somebody else.

Spread to me.

So when I found myself in the school chapel this Halloween, while the dance raged on just a room away, I knew who I got it from.

Thanks a lot.

Anyhow, after playing some music at the game, I did go to the dance. But it's a different animal these days than it was freshmen year. It's not that the dances have changed all that much, but I broke up with Emma a while back, and now I go to the dances without a date.

Which should be fine, but look at the dances! Essentially it's just one big massive pit of students, nearly all of them 'grinding'. Which is fine and good fun and all when you've got a date, but what about when you don't? You have to work your way through the crowd looking for somebody to dance with. Which isn't easy at all.

I still manage to have fun at the dances, most of the time. But something ticked inside me last night and I sat down in the chapel a room away, deep in existential angst. Wishing things about my faith and religion... Wishing things about my ambitions... about my grades....

And wondering quite a bit whether there's a girl out there for me. A true soulmate. I'm really, really weird. I fear that there just isn't a girl that would complement me perfectly. That there really isn't anybody like me out there....

My love-life's kind of a mess, but I'll get into that later....

Misdirection

Now that drama is over, I find myself with a lot more time. And I can't decide whether it's a good thing or a bad thing. I remember, a year ago, when I started this blog, I was having a similar dilemma. Is it better to work away, feeling pressured and stressed, or have too much time to yourself and feel unproductive?

For the past month or so, I've been living through the first of these options. A lot of work and a lot of stress. Most of that was because of the play. I can't quite express how big of a commitment it was. Everyday, after school, for two and a half hours, and then things got ridiculous later on. We spent twelve hours one Sunday rehearsing 'til ten 'o clock. I spent half of my nights up late doing homework.

The end of drama apparently coincided with a light homework week, because I've been finding myself completely free after school. I find things to do, but I get the feeling that I am indeed unproductive. And the problem about this sort of thing is that I always get into bad habits this way, making heavy homework quite a bit more difficult for me.

But I have to admit I'm enjoying this lifestyle currently. I don't know what it is, but I seem to like not having direction. I'm a kid. I love wandering around, exploring, just doing things for the sake of doing them. It feels great to me. It's complex.

It's what also gets me in trouble though. For example, I have time after school, which I would usually spend in the computer lab, playing games off the shared drive. But, I was recently called into the office because of computer violations. I thought the accusations were a bit exaggerated, but that wasn't my decision, and my computer rights are now restricted to fifth period, my computer class. But if I behave, they'll probably give me my rights at the semester. So I'll have to watch my step....

I guess I'm just enjoying my free time now, whether or not I'm doing anything useful with it. Although I did recently finish arranging Viva La Vida for the band! We're playing it this coming Friday at the football game. And afterwards, there's another Soc-hop! This has happened before, and I love doing it. I get to play keyboard and then go to a dance. It's awesome.

P.S. For anybody who knows me, I recently got a Facebook... Go ahead and add me as a friend if you like.

One Year

This blog has now been up and running for a whole year. I just kind of want to thank the few people who do read my blog - it's always a fun project to keep up with and I enjoy writing systematically like this.

You'll notice that I've written less as time has gone on. This has had a variety of reasons, but unfortunately I do not see it stopping. I'm afraid that I'll just have to do things like this, and maybe try to write some better written posts. But do give me some time. I just finished with the play and it's like recovering from an injury - it's just so weird to not have stuff after school again... After all that time, and now it's over. It was fun, but it is over...

Update (Glasses!)

Well as usual, I'm swamped. We have started performing the play, so I will be done with drama within month, but I doubt it will make me any less busy. Because guess who's helping out arrange the band Christmas Concert? Yours Truly.

Some rather big news though lately, I got glasses! For real! I went to the optometrist a couple weeks ago and it turns out my eyesight has gotten quite a bit worse, to the point where I can't legally drive without glasses. Something like 20 - 50 vision.

I couldn't wait to get them, to be honest. I was excited to be able to see correctly. And it only took me a second after putting them on to realize what a difference it made. I can see the individual leaves on trees now. I can gaze down the streets in the North End and almost see the ends of them where they join some big street. It's unbelievable. I love wearing them now.

I'll try to get a picture of it up soon.

On another topic, the one year anniversary of this blog is approaching quickly. This blog will have been up for 365 days by Oct. 21st. I will surely tell you again 'til you're sick of hearing it.

More importantly, do try to make it to the play!

"The Diary of Anne Frank"
A Bishop Kelly Drama Production
October 23-25, 7:00 - 9:00
October 26, 2:00 - 4:00
7009 Franklin Road, Boise, ID 83702
I am playing Mr. Dussel.
Please come if you can and spread the word!, CH

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Here is an incredibly funny and entertaining short movie I found a couple of nights ago, made during the Writer's Strike to try to put some good material out there. Fabulous stuff. I know it must be annoying when I attempt to make you watch something, but trust me, this is worth watching.

150 Posts (Double-edged Snowflakes)

Hey everybody, this is my 150th post! It was kind of supposed to be my last one, but I miscounted by one. But for real, this is numero cien y cincuenta! It won't be long before the one year milestone either...

In case you're wondering what's going on in my life, Boise recently got it's all-time earliest snow. October 10th, the snow came down heavy and thick. I came out of drama practice into the snow, and immediately burst into "White Christmas". The drama kids and I cheered. Christmas in October? This was going to be a great winter!

But as my title would imply, they were indeed double-edged snowflakes. Because guess what? The trees weren't really ready for snow. All of the leaves were still hanging from the branches. So when the snow came, they weighed down on the branches until they snapped. After getting home, I discovered that our neighbor's tree's branches had indeed done that all over the side yard, nearly ruining the garden over there.

We ended up running an emergency restoration mission to get the branches out of the way and shake some of the snow off of the trees, which was successful, but cold. I apparently have an uncanny ability to pick the worst damn times to wear shorts.... The year up at Bogus should be great though, with snow this early. I plan on finally getting over some of my fears and mastering some new tricks up on the slopes.

But before Winter begins to really roll up it's sleeves, I'll have to finish up with the play first, which is coming along quite well. We all have our lines fairly memorized and the props and costumes are really coming together nicely, and the set for this one is great. If you can come, I can't suggest highly enough that you do. Tell your friends.

"The Diary of Anne Frank"
A Bishop Kelly Drama Production
October 23-25, 5:30 - 9:30
October 26, 12:30 - 6:30
7009 Franklin Road, Boise, ID 83702
(I am playing Mr. Dussel.)

The Mandelbrot Set

I was looking through wikipedia a couple of days ago, and I found what struck as the most beautiful, complex thing I've ever seen. The Mandelbrot set - a fractal, a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole. Self-similarity when you zoom in, essentially. But check this out.
































Awe-inspiring, huh?

My Weekend Was So Busy I Can't Even Come Up With A Witty Title...

Whoa. All over the damn place this weekend. It was a four-day weekend, but that didn't help much.

Thursday - Woke up at twelve-ish, did chores 'til about three when I went back to school. See, we still had drama rehearsals over the weekend even though there was no school. That went well, but the fun began afterwards, at about six. Who had set up but Powderpuff football? For outsiders, Powderpuff football is an annual event where sophomore girls face off against the freshmen girls and seniors battle off the juniors in flag football.

So what was I doing?

Well.... I can't exactly tell you. See here's the thing - whenever I get in trouble for something, it's because of my big mouth. I mean I even blog about all of my mischief! But not this time. Because a week later, I still haven't gotten in trouble for it. If I keep up with the pattern I may actually get away with things! No hints. No clues. Nothing.

But I was back in time to see the Bonfire, which was incredible. Thursday was good.

Friday was better. That Friday was the Homecoming Game. The band didn't want to miss out and we promptly arrived with our gear. Although I was confined to a single keyboard, I still rocked out with the rest of the crew all the way 'til near the end of the game when it started raining. At that point we packed up. Unfortunately, the team lost. That was a bit of a bummer... but that was the end of Friday.

Saturday was the Homecoming Dance. And although that was fun, it wasn't quite as cool as last year due to a location change. But we won't be dancing out in that tent again if I have anything to say about it. And I do.

Sunday, finally, decompressed a little, and all I had to do was manage through Confirmation Classes at St.John's.

This was a special event weekend, but I'm not sure how I'm gonna manage everything... I'm already falling behind. The quarter's almost up and I haven't got the 4.0 I wanted. In fact I've got a C in History. I thought I could make it this year. I thought if I tried this hard, I would do great. I'd exceed.

I was wrong.

It's like every inch of my ambition is telling me...

"Oh Crap... This isn't good..."

(By the way, the next post will be my one hundred and fiftieth! Neat, huh?)

Repercussions (of course)

Well, I didn't really think I'd get away with my Juno McGruff stunt, so when I got called in to the Dean's (Mrs. Quillacy's) office, I knew what it was about. Of course, the note on the slip that said "per Bobby Biggs" (the janitor's name) didn't help conceal what was about to happen.

Detention.

Oh yes, of course. Repeated "Insubordination," and "Disrespect," was what I was being punished for. To be perfectly honest I suppose I deserve it, but I still wasn't looking forward to it. Luckily for me, all I got was detention, which really wasn't that bad.

On the day of reckoning, I walked to the Finances office to serve up my time with Mr. Jaszkowski. His daughter was a good friend of my family; Michael had gone out with her for quite a long time. She was incredible - national scholarships, state championship in softball, seemingly perfect. I had never met her father really, but she had been a lifeguard at Lowell a couple of years, so I did get to see her plenty.

At first, Mr. Jaszkowski was actually going to let me off the hook, worried he would run the risk of me missing my ride. But I had actually told my carpool in advance and he was happy to stay a bit late. So he gave me some stamps and some letters, and I got to stamping. What wonderful mindless work. Mr.Jaszkowski sat down next to me and asked me what I was in trouble for. "Insubordination." I told him, recalling the words of the dean.
He laughed. "I've had a lot of kids come through here for a lot of things, but never have I heard that!"

As I told him about the events of Friday, I was happy to see that he was sympathetic more than anything. He told me that he knew how Bobby Biggs could be. I nodded in agreement, beguiled by his understanding. He even told me about his own story as a kid.

When he was a kid, he went to a catholic school as well, a little bit stricter than this one, and whenever there were assemblies, one of the monks (Brother Dan, I think it was) would stand by the doorway and make sure nobody left to go home until it was done. But Mr. Jaszkowski would walk right past him, and that Brother Dan would just left him go. Because there was an unspoken agreement between Dan and Jaszkowski. Brother Dan was saying, I'll let you go home and skip the assembly. Mr. Jaszkowski was saying that he wouldn't disrupt the assembly.

Ha! What a troublemaker, huh? He reminds me of me! And he's a successful businessman, managing the funds for the best school in Boise! That cheered me up. After laughing a bit over that, he simplified Friday's situation for me. "You can walk by a pig pen and see a pig snort at you, and you can go ahead and wrestle that pig to the ground, but at the end you'll be covered in mud and pig crap. So when you wrestle with pigs, you're gonna get covered in pig crap."

I got the point.

My Crazy Friday

This was quite an eventful Friday for me. We had the day off from school, probably because it was the very first football game of the season. And the band was performing for the game, so Troy and I left for Bishop Kelly at two. That was when our band director, Mr. Haskell told us to be there. He didn't mention that he actually wouldn't be there 'til 5. So I had three hours of absolutely no obligation and virtually nothing to do.

So, I looked around the school for anything I could help out. It was a big night after all, and I though some people could help. I walked into the cafeteria to find a some mothers setting up a dinner for the football players. I asked one if there was anything I could do to help. She handed me her keys and told me to drive her car over to the Carly Center and unpack some juice and food out of the trunk for some after-game party. I felt a dilemma for a moment. I mean, I didn't really have my license. But it was only like driving around in a parking lot for God's sake. I decided to do it.

Now this is what I like to call following the spirit of the law and not the word of the law. If that makes sense.

At any rate, I did this, and after cleaning up a mess I made dropping one of the juice jugs, I returned her car exactly as I found it and handed her keys. By now the cafeteria was filled with football players in line for food. I recognized several of my friends, grabbed some food and sat down with them. After a bit, I went back to the music room. I found Troy in here and we walked to Subway to get even more food. By the time we got back, Mr.Haskell was finally there, directing people to start packing and moving all of our equipment.

It was a fairly short process, but we soon found that we didn't have near enough extension cord. So Mr. Haskell told us to go grab some from the various maintenance closets/rooms throughout the school. So two others and I set out to do so. First, we scaled the school for Kenny, one of the custodians. Had we found him, we would have asked him if he could help us find some extension cords. But we didn't. So we started searching one of the maintenance closets. We didn't find any in this one, but we did notice the ladder up to the roof, and jokingly dared each other to climb it.

That was when the trouble began. A custodian (not Kenny) walked by, overheard this, and told us, somewhat rudely, that we weren't allowed to climb the ladder. We got out of the closet and told him we were just joking around. As we were walking, he proceeded to tell us that we weren't supposed to be in the maintenance rooms anyhow. Again, quite rudely.

"Well we were looking for extension cords." I said, and I'm not sure exactly what compelled me to do it, but I followed with a sarcastic "Excuse me."

"What did you say?" He said. "Come back here!" I stopped and turned around. "What's your name, kid?"

I paused for a moment, nervous. "My name.. is Juno McGruff."

"Well Juno McGruff, the Dean of Students is going to be hearing about this." he finished, and walked off. I did as well, finally laughing when he was out of earshot. I couldn't believe I actually just did that. I couldn't believe that he bought it either!

Later, I walked into another maintenance room, looking again for extension cords. He was there again. This time, he yelled at me about my attitude. I reacted calmly and apologized, just trying to get him to lend me the cords. Eventually he let up and gave them to me.

I sighed with relief as I walked away. I brought the extension cords back to where the band was set up and connected it. As I rearranged the surge protectors, I finally set it up so that I had three keyboards to play - two in front stacked and one to the right. I had no seat so I played standing up. I may have showed off, but I was having so much damn fun doing it. The band started off the game with the Star-Spangled Banner and played other various tunes from there.

Bishop Kelly lost by three points. To be honest, I wasn't watching most of it, so that didn't bother me so much. We packed up and brought all of the stuff back to the music room. Luckily that didn't take long, but afterwards a girl told me to carry a barrel over towards the cafeteria. There was a dance there it turned out, after the game. Of course I was staying!

I got in and observed for a bit before starting to dance. This was the standard high school mob of kids, most of them grinding some girl. I jumped in and went straight through it and out when I found a couple of my favorite teachers outside. I talked to them for a bit while I got some fresh air. Something about that night was euphoric for me. I really couldn't have been happier.

The dance ended at eleven and I went home with Troy after helping set up some tables for Monday. It was among the best nights of my life. But I do have a bad feeling about the whole custodian thing. Not necessarily guilt - I mean he got what he gave. If he had wanted me to be polite, he should've been. But I've got the feeling that it's gonna come back and bite me come Monday. Hopefully though, he won't figure it out. But I can see him walking into the dean's office.

"One of your students has been giving me trouble."
"I see. Well give me his name and we'll call him in."
"His name is Juno McGruff."
"We don't have anybody by that name. Actually that's a character from the movie, Juno."
"..."

Pulling a Fast One (Clothes)

Earlier today, I walked into my World History class, waiting for Mr. Harris, the teacher, to get up and shush us. Once the bell rang, he got up and told us, nearly shouting, "Ok, this is not acceptable. I've talked to Mr. Wehde, (the principal) and he told me that I could do whatever I needed to get this class under control." The class went silent, most of them confused and frightened.

"Two rules: one. Once you come through those doors, you may not talk unless I ask you to. You will sit down in your desk silently. Two. If any of you speak out of turn, you all get an F for the day." At this point I was kissing my World History grade goodbye. We didn't stand a chance.

About halfway into class he dropped th ball and told us that he was kidding. He was frightening us to demonstrate what Hammurabai's code must've been like for the people under it. The reaction was mixed. Some people, mostly me, thought it was pretty funny. But some people seemed forlorn and hurt, which frankly only added to my amusement.

That's the third time this year that I've been tricked like that. I'm starting to get used to it. I wouldn't say it's a bad thing, because it's always funny. But the trickery is beginning to lose it's appeal...

On another topic of deceit, I was communicating with a friend of mine last week when she complained to me that she had seemingly already worn all of her clothes that week. She didn't want to wear clothes she wore Monday, Friday. Why, I asked? Would people notice?

Well, actually, I've been running a little experiment to find out. I've been switching off between the exact two pairs of clothes for the past week and a half (and I did wash in between wearing them). So far not a single person has said anything about it. My parents haven't noticed either. So just as a tip for everyone. People don't pay too much attention to what you wear. Some, yes, but inordinate amounts of time picking out clothes is simply unproductive and silly. Just pointing that out.

Drama Indeed

I feel like I don't have anything to write about most of the time, but there are some reasons behind that. One, I really am quite busy. I joined the play again, and so now I'm at school until six practicing every weekday. And the sophomore schoolwork isn't getting any easier. So it leaves me with very little time.

But I think a second, more interesting reason that I haven't been writing lately is because I've become quite numbed to the day-to-day drama that I used to be able to write about. But now it just doesn't seem interesting. That's not to say that there haven't been interesting things happening. How could I have not told all of you that my parents just got back from a cruise in Alaska, and that they were gone for a week? How could I have not told you about asking a junior out to homecoming and getting turned down (in my defense, she already had a date)? How could I have not told you about writing a song for a biology presentation? How could I not have told you about my older brother Michael, who recently started his own blog so he could write about his studying abroad? How could I not have told you about my uncle Brian's so called "intervention" for existential angst? How people keep putting games on the Bishop Kelly shared drive on my files? Or how I'm still working on Mondays, and just finished typing chapter 7? Or how I've already arranged/wrote two songs for the Bishop Kelly Band (one was Bittersweet Symphony, and the other was a "One Tin Soldier" Cover I wrote myself)? Or how I'm devising plans for another run for school president, involving the revival of the USJ and a musical performance for the speech? How I found (or rather how it found me) a way to save up basically all of my monthly allowance? How I honestly suspect that I've been subject to identity theft this month? How I heard about and found the entrance to Gnome-land (Bishop Kelly students, if you don't get this one, try asking around, you may be surprised)? And how I'm still trying to get together a functional band amidst all the chaos of my day-to-day life?

Shame on me.

You could say I'm taking for granted the randomness of life. I ought to think more about how lucky I am to be so strange and do so many things. By the way I've been posting, you'd think my life was dull.

Dull! Ha!

I laugh at the thought of me having a dull life. I have always tried to make my life exciting. And with a few exceptions in the long stretch of summer, I have always succeeded.

So look forward to some more regular posting from now on. Of course, if you do get bored, you can always switch 2 plan b...

Overwhelmed

I want to apologize for not posting much, but it turns out that being a sophomore makes things quite a bit harder, especially for me.

So hold tight, give me some time, read a few webcomics.

The Randomness of Life

What it means to be Joe Cieslak:

Starting your own country and getting the whole class to go with it.

Ding-dong ditching, but waiting for them to answer the door.

Wearing a suit and a tophat to the first day of school.

Telling jokes in Algebra class and letting homework wait until ten at night or so.

Bringing an ocarina and playing (and singing) Celtic hymns for your class.

Never going a day without getting into an argument in Theology class.

Arranging the music for a videogame concert.

Climbing onto the roof in spare time to take some good pictures.

Getting back at your swim coaches.

Writing a novel, very slowly.

Being the first and last person to play the school's grand piano.

Getting your blog blocked and then changing the address to sidestep the authorities.

Playing guitar in the halls in between and while walking to classes.

Everybody knows you but you can't remember anybody's names...

Questioning everything, everyone.

My life is so quaint when I think about it. It's so strange, but I think that it's odd in the best possible way. Maybe I'll outgrow being so different. But I doubt it. I don't think I can ever stop taking joy. Taking Joy in the Randomness of life.

Update

Like I said, I've been kind of busy. I'm trying to get better grades than last year, so it's difficult to take time for blogging. But I found some time now, and I have some highlights of the past week or so.

First Day Of School: I got a lot of stares today. It was probably because I showed up in a full suit, tie, and top-hat, complete with nice shoes.

Second Day Of School: As I get used to getting up early for band, it becomes apparent that band will both be more fun as well as more of a project for me. It'll be a big year as far as that's concerned.

Labor Day Weekend: Basically picked up the chord. By the end of the weekend I had learned all the fundamental chord changes I needed to impress people marginally.

Second Week of School: So naturally, I take a day out of the week to not carry any books, but strap a guitar on and play my guitar, walking down the halls. People seemed to like it.

Here's my schedule:
0 hour - Band
1st hour - Biology
2nd hour - Theology
3rd hour - Algebra II
4th hour - Spanish II
5th hour - Computer Programming
6th hour - English II
7th hour - World History

Oh, and I've been working on Mondays! Quite a bit...

Pictures from VHL Stock!

Right Here.

I hope this will give some people an idea what it was like.

Back to School...

Yeah, I'm back to school. I'm kind of busy and don't have much to write about as of yet, but I'd just like everybody to know that I am no longer using therandomnessoflife.com as a URL. To get to my blog, you'll have to use alcatraz014.blogspot.com like we used to. I will hopefully be registering therandomnessoflife.net sometime soon, so this is merely temporary. The reason is so that I can finally get my blog unblocked at school. Thanks for being patient.

Swim Team: Concluded

Before camp started, swim team ended. And it ended with a citywide swim meet. As you may know from past posts, I have not been happy with swim team nor my swim coaches. In fact, I was to the point where I wanted to get them back. I'm not sure I'm proud of it, but I did indeed get them back, and I think it's a story worth telling.

So I went to the citywide. My events were the medley relay, 50 free, 100 breast, 100 free, and free relay, in that order. The medley relay and 50 free were the first day, and the other three the second day. For the medley relay, I swam hard and tried to get a good time for my team. But the 50 free... Well I front-flipped for the entry. In the grand scheme that's not that bad, But there is nothing that frustrates my coaches more. By the end of the day, they were livid. It was actually kind of funny to see how immaturely they acted about it. One of them actually flipped me off.

But that was the beginning of it. Second day, I showed up earlier than I needed to and played racquet ball with my fellow swimmers. I swam regularly at the 100 breast (to their relief). But at the 100 free, I repeated my original stunt. And this time, it turned out that the swim meet people weren't very happy about it. So I got kicked out of the swim meet.

What was bad about this was that I wasn't able to swim for my free relay, and my team had to swim exhibition (they got to swim but it didn't count). I realize now that what I did was kind of immature but that feeling of righteous anger made me feel really invincible. It was the last time I would see my swim coaches and there was nothing they could do to me.

Eventually I apologized to the swim coaches, because I did regret being such a jerk. But at the same time it was still kind of funny. Well that was the end of swim team. I'm not sure if I'm going back next year, but if I am there'll be new coaches and maybe a new experience, so who knows? We'll all have to wait and see.

VHL-Stock

Let me start by saying something: there is no magic but music, and there is no magic like music. I came to VHL-stock expecting to learn that, and sure enough, I did.

As many of you know, I flew in to Los Angeles on Saturday with my aunt Amy. Unfortunately, we ended up missing our direct flight to Los Angeles and had to go through Seattle. And then the rental car took hours to get. I finally was able to go to bed at around two in the morning. It was a long, long trip.

But the trip was worth it. In the morning I got up early and had some breakfast and I practiced with the band. The band consisted of Uncle David (Calvin's Dad on the drums), Uncle Brian (guitar), my cousin Calvin (guitar), Nick (keyboard and guitar), and Wes (6-string electric bass). I really never knew music could sound quite that good. I was lucky to be part of it.

As the day progressed and practice ended, we started setting up lights and equipment for the event. In case you don't know, VHL-stock was a fundraiser for the VHL foundation. VHL stands for Von-Hippel-Lindau syndrome, a rare disease that leaves the affected person(s) especially susceptible to tumors on the eyes and adrenal glands. Unfortunately, Calvin has it. When he found out, he decided to be active and put together this fundraiser-music event thing to raise money for the VHL Foundation. Just about the whole family showed up. Aunt Kimmi even pulled a few strings to get the event sponsored by Activision.

The music, as I've said, was incredible, and the whole event was really inspirational and a fun time. And for me it was the end of the summer. I went out with a bang having an incredible musical experience with my family.

So I'd just like to say, Thank you Brian, Thank you Uncle David, and Thank you Calvin. I'm so glad we got the chance to do this. I hope to see you guys again soon!

The Good, The Bad, and Brian

The Good: Well everybody I finally made it back from Camp Orkila in the San Juans, and I had a great time! We went on a six-day kayak trip, circumnavigating Orcas Island and staying at an assortment of the islands scattered throughout the San Juans. Probably the best two weeks of my life, although I don't really count my life by groups of two weeks, so I guess I can't say that but. But it was still pretty incredible. All the people in my cabin were smart friendly people who I hit it off with, and the counselors were the best-funnier than hell too. The highlight of the week was playing an island-wide game of capture the flag on Doe Island, and island that had the absolute best beaches for climbing. It was so fun. So good.

The Bad: When you play with water, you get doused. And that sort of thing isn't good for electronics. What I'm getting at here is that my camera is broken, and I have no way to upload the pictures I did take. Mom warned me but I put it on the kayak anyway. Oh well. I'm sure I'll figure out something.

Brian: So I got back home Thursday, but guess what? I'm leaving Friday for Los Angeles! Brian and Calvin have put together a fundraiser/music event called VHL-stock. All proceeds go to the VHL foundation. VHL is a rare cancer-related disease that Calvin unfortunately has. It leaves him especially susceptible to tumors on his eyes and adrenal glands. He has in fact already had two delicate operations to get two removed. And so he's putting together a fundraiser for the cure. So anyway, I'm coming down to LA to help them out, even sit in for a couple of songs! It will be really cool. If you're reading this and happen to live in the LA area, I would suggest going.

VHL-Stock
An evening of dessert, wine, and music
featuring Calvin Cieslak
Saturday, August 16th 7:00 p.m.
23515 Hatteras St. Woodland Hills
An event to benefit the
VHL Family Alliance Cancer Research Fund
http://www.vhl.org/

Farewell

Well everybody I'm in Seattle with my Grandma right now, on my way to Camp Orkilah in the San Juan Islands. I've heard people say it's the most beautiful place on earth. At any rate I will take my camera and pen I will be gone for two weeks. I will get back a day before school. So this is the climax to the summer for me. I'll update as soon as I can. Until then just read some webcomics or other blogs to keep you busy. So see you later!

Spinning Again

Well I'm spinning around again. Last time it was spinning around without morals. This time it's spinning around without anything to do. I usually run into this at some point in the summer, so it's no unwelcome surprise. It's still unwelcome, just not a surprise.

I don't know why but I am definitely bored most of the time recently. I find myself lazier than usual (and that's saying something)-I oftentimes end up unintentionally accomplishing nothing in a day, except for lounging around. It's nobody's fault except perhaps mine, but I realize I'm going to have to be more productive sooner or later. Or at least more interesting and engaged. This past week has just seemed dull.

I suppose, when I think about it, the price to having nearly limitless time on your hands is that you don't have anything to do with it. Ironic, huh?

To try to change things up a bit, the other day I decided I would get in my bathing suit and ride my bike through the fountain downtown showed above. And of course I did. And on a hot July day in Boise, that was just the thing I needed. Something as simple as that changed my outlook on my day from "dull" to "interesting". Because I tried something new.

While that was a great fix for one day, but I doubt it will help me on a consistent basis. So I will have to find something to do with my time. Something constructive and fun that will leave me feeling good about the day when it's all said and done. What could it be....

Conversation in my head:
Maybe I could blog?
Get ahold of yourself Joe, you're not that desperate!

4th Of July

I'm sure somebody's wondering where my patriotic fourth of July post is. Well fine, here it is. The 4th wasn't a big thing for the family this year, and Mom didn't even give us money for fireworks or anything. But I had stumbled upon my camera a day before and used this opportunity to take a bunch of pictures. Around mid-day I went to Camelsbak, a park and a hill about ten blocks away from my house. There's a big hill there, and everybody climbs straight up the face because it's a great view...


So I climbed up the face as shown above....


And I looked down. Beautiful.


Looking to my right, there's a trail up top that runs right along the foothills.

Looking behind me there's bike trails and residential area and even a pond.

And looking to my right is the city of Boise.

So what's so patriotic about all of this? Well as I was leaving I looked over the trails and saw in the distance...

That's not all though! Later that night Michael and Andy and went to watch the fireworks. And I couldn't help but snap a few.



Happy Birthday America.