alcatraz014

Respect

2009-07-15T11:37:00.002-06:00

Equality.

I talk to essentially everybody as equals. Is there anything wrong with that? Most people, I'll try to have a decent one-on-one conversation with. But I'm not going to take extra steps to tread carefully in my conversation. I'm not going to put extra effort into making sure I'm being 'respectful'.

Respect.

That word is thrown around a lot, I think. There are a lot of adults that, upon meeting them, you realize that 'respect' is a big thing to them. What does that translate to? Don't tease them and treat them as your superior. Now maybe it's just because I don't like being in that position, but I think it's kind of ridiculous. Why does their age mean they can't talk to us as equals? I feel like my conversations would be cut short if I was constantly worried about disrespecting somebody.

Respect your elders. That line gives me troubles. I'm all for respecting people who deserve it, but I'm not sure respect should mean that you can't tease somebody or debate with them. And is age always an indicator that somebody deserves respect? Why? I never got that. People seem to get older and suddenly feel a sense of entitlement to people respecting them. To me this just seems like they want to feel better than other people.

If you've seen me in class, you probably wouldn't think that I respect my teachers, but I do. But the people I hold in high regard, the people I respect, I can talk to as equals. Otherwise they're just distant idols.

Sometimes people treat their equals badly. Friends do practical jokes on each other all the time, to the point where it is harassment - the only thing missing is a malicious intent. In these situations the intent is something different. Something that thinks it's funny.

Are they treating their friends as equals? I don't think so. That right there is a real lack of respect. But real respect shouldn't mean that you have to watch your step around somebody because they're your elders. The people I respect the most are the people I can be open and honest and frank to, people I can tease and have a good time with. To be honest, I have very little respect for the people who feel they are entitled to respect as elders. Somehow, to me, it just doesn't work like that.

Thoughts?

Barbados

2009-07-01T12:58:00.001-06:00

Well it's the beginning of July, the month of vacations and true summer times. Me and my family are heading to Barbados today. I probably won't be able to post for a while (although admittedly you probably won't notice any difference). Hopefully I'll come back with stories, though!

See you around. Hope you all are having great summers.

Fame

2009-06-20T23:37:00.005-06:00

Recently I have become fascinated with the Jonas Brothers.

Fascinated.

Notice the choice of words there. Not infatuated, not in love with, not a fan of.

But fascinated. Intrigued, really. Because they're at the top, pretty much. Set for life, almost as famous as it gets. Maybe not universally respected, but almost universally recognized.

How do they do it?

And I know that the real answer is Walt Disney is pulling most of the strings. But that's what gets me interested. Just which strings, and how many of them are they pulling?

There are some people who believe that these people are completely legitimate: they write all of their own songs, they write all of their lyrics by choice, and the image that they give isn't manipulated - it's just who they are.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, people such as my younger brother Andy, believe it all to be a total scam. Disney buys songs for the group, writes their lyrics to be clean, and set up their distinctive image so that nobody can say they're a bad influence.

Musicians? Or Frauds?

Now I'm pretty sure that neither of these two sides are completely right; I'm pretty certain the truth lies somewhere in the middle. I've listened to some of their songs. It's alright. Nothing special, but they're alright. They're no fantastic musicians, but I'm pretty sure they at least qualify. But at the same time, I can't help but wonder how much of it was written by them, or bought by Disney.

And then there's the whole image thing. It's a big deal because it's perfect. The image. It's too... goody two-shoes, especially when you expect musicians to be involved with parties and alcohol and drugs and whatnot. These guys wear 'purity rings', basically the same concept as a chastity belt. They have a minister, who, if I'm not mistaken, is also their father, come to all of their concerts and say a prayer beforehand. And after hearing about all of this and then listening to their lyrics... it's just hard to take them seriously.

Another facet of the possibility of them being a sham is that they are actually trapped more than we know. For all we know, Disney's got them on a restrictive, long-term contract that restrains both their musical and personal freedom. It's hard to believe that they don't sometimes, after reading about how pure their music and lifestyles are. Parents and preteens are lapping it up, throwing money at these guys.

I just want to meet these guys and have an honest conversation with them. Are they frauds with no musical integrity? Are they trapped artists? Are they self-righteous, goody-two shows pricks, or just abnormally good influences for musicians?

Who are these guys?

What makes them tick?

My Music

2009-06-13T01:13:00.002-06:00

This is as close as I could get to uploading my music directly to my blog.

Go HERE and log in as

mr.pianodude@hotmail.com

password - alcatraz

Or feel free to sign up to the website yourself. Just thought this might make things easier. Anyway, here are four songs from my first album, Save For Rachel. Enjoy listening!

Switched

2009-06-11T21:14:00.002-06:00

I used to have an urge to write. And it was a considerable urge, perhaps comparable to some of my fellow blogger's motivation. It's what drove me to write in this blog so much in the first place.

Things have changed though, unsurprisingly.

The real urge is now to play music, and it's still not very strong. But it is strong enough to have led me to produce an album in the course of a year or so.

I may have mentioned it, but I am now studying with Del Parkinson, the head of the music department at Boise State University. He's a great guy, but furthermore he is impressed with me, and is pushing me harder, and pushing me to practice more.

At any rate, most of the motivation that got me to write my book, or got me to write daily in this blog, is now gone. It's a pity too. I can force myself to write, and I'd like to think I can still write well, but I lack the motivation to do so on a regular basis and I feel as if I have nothing to say.

So that's why I'm writing less.

Cause I'm playing more.

I'm still trying to figure out how to upload music to this damn blog...

Sanctuary From Change

2009-06-08T19:44:00.004-06:00

Sitting here at the computer these nights, I wonder if I'm in my own world. Everything upstairs and outside seems so distant, it's like I could be stuck alone in this one place forever.

It's not just there though. I get that feeling other places too. Sometimes in my room, or in the car. There's this strange feeling that maybe I won't be able to get out, and this'll be the last place I ever spend time again.

You may be thinking that this is strange, but not so if you think about it. There are people who lock themselves up in a house all the time. Recluses. Hermits. Their lives are confined to a single space. Things don't change for them.

I can almost understand why people choose this way of life. The world is a scary thing. Things and people change. And change is hard. Why not try to block out the change, and make your life a ritual?

I think we all do this to an extent - We keep something in our life that we can always count on to be the same, or something that we try to keep the same. We make habits, and items, as a sanctuary from change.

For example, I've talked about my bracelets before. This one on my right wrist has been on for years now, and the one on my left wrist was on for almost a year as well. I kept them on constantly.

But now one of them is gone.

I'm not going to explain how it happened, but the bracelet on my left wrist is gone. Maybe this shouldn't matter, but it does. Those bracelets were a part of me. They stayed with me through it all - the thick and the thin, the joy and the sorrow, all of my experiences from the past years. If you could see their history, you could see me change and grow.

These two things have become two of the most spiritual things in my life. I kissed them on occasion for good luck, and before major milestones in my life. Hell, I kissed them before I got confirmed. And one of them is gone. Emotionally, it's like all those stories are gone, and I miss all the sentiment of having both of them. Physically I can actually feel that it's gone. My body's gotten so used to having these things on, and now it almost seems to miss them.

Am I being silly? I can't tell. Should it hurt like this, when you lose a sanctuary?

More Dreams

2009-05-28T13:52:00.006-06:00

Well we had our EDG3! show a while back, and it went very well. It feels great to finally get onstage and do a performance with the band. A real performance anyway. It's not like the Christmas concerts and stuff counted - this time we had lighting, and even a bit of choreography. It feels good - a big improvement on our concerts last year.

I got my name on a plaque for the second time this year. Felt good. I asked Mr. Haskell (band director) if it was possible to get the award next year, and he gave me some projects to consider.

1. Composing a piece for the band to learn and enter into a competition.
2. Composing a new piece of christmas music for the christmas concert.
3. Writing the show for next year, which very well may be a full-blown musical.

This is going to be awesome. You have no idea how this enthralls me.

On other news, now that summer has begun for me, I have found myself more bored than usual. I'm actually going to have to make up some credit in Algebra II over the summer, but I'm alright with that. I haven't started yet, that's the thing.

I'm beginning to mix up real life with my dreams. I store something, or find something somewhere, and when I wake up, part of me honestly believes that it's there. It's strange when you feel like you know where something is, and then realize that you based that off of a dream you recently had. It's like I'm going insane... I hope I'm not! Or, at least, I hope I'm not going more insane...

Oh! And I bought a microphone. Standard sort with the three prong plug in, not the greatest one out there, but pretty standard. Alon with that and the recently purchased boom stand, things are beginning to look pretty cool.

I had a piano recital this Thursday, and I played 'Oh Danny Boy' flawlessly. Listening to the other kids play their songs, I remember when I, like them, used to pause in the middle of a performance after a mistake, trying to correct it. I can't blame them. It's natural for them. But after getting used to performing, you get better and better at covering up your mistakes and truckin' right over them. It's and invaluable skill to have at this point in the game. It was a nice throwback though, and the recital was fun. Been so long since I've had a recital. Performances, sure, but recitals...

By the way, I'm bored. Anybody reading this nearby, take note, you should hang out with me. Yeah...

Focus

2009-05-25T14:18:00.000-06:00

Alright Brian, I'll try to focus my points.

Today's theme! Music.

So I finally put Save For Rachel in production and managed to start selling it. Or finish selling it. See, we made forty copies, and I sold them for five dollars a piece.

They're all pretty much gone now. I'm sold out! What with this and the money from gifts for confirmation, I have more money right now than I ever have had on hand. I plan on using the money for musical equipment. Maybe a mic.

The equipment would come in handy, because I'm finally getting my own band together. No ideas for the name yet, but we've got most of our members solidly in place. By now we've had a couple of practices.

On top of that, as you may have gathered, the original cover concert concept for the band did not go through - EDG3 took it's place this year. Now that's it's summer, I've decided to start working on the production, making it into a full-fledged show with acting, stage presence, you name it. It'll be great.

EDG3! is tomorrow. Boy, am I excited.

My brother is begging to take the place of my current bass player and I'm considering it these days.

I played at mass a couple of weeks ago. Damn, that was fun.

Oh! And I believe that I'm going to have an audition with Del Parkinson at some point this summer. He's apparently the biggest name in piano in Boise. If I studied under him, it would be a huge boon to my musical knowledge. I hope it works out.

And I may have found a new album. I'll mention it later, don't worry...

Finals Week

2009-05-19T09:10:00.003-06:00

Yes, it's that time of year again. Time for pain and constant studying. Time for pivotal grades and unimaginable stress.

Time for finals.

Funny thing is I'm writing this during my first final - advanced computer programming. I'm pretty sure I aced it, but I'm also pretty sure it doesn't matter. We already had the AP test and I'm fairly certain I passed it. Mr. Holdridge said that if we passed it we automatically get an A in the class. I could've skipped it if I had wanted to. But I didn't.

You should've seen the halls this morning. Never do you see so many people running around, trying to memorize information. It's pretty ridiculous.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't think finals is that bad of an idea, but the thing is (at least at our school), finals have become a requirement. Teachers MUST give out a test the day of finals. That's where I take objection. Teachers should not be forced to give out a huge test at the end of the year. If they feel that it's necessary, than sure, but some classes don't really fit the bill. How are you supposed to give out a final in Horticulture? Or Moral Decision-Making? Or even Theology, if you spent most of your time in deep conversation about ethics rather than church history.

Either way, I'm not going to be getting great grades this semester. I've got two confirmed A's, but I'm afraid that may be all I'm getting this time around. I'll still be lucky if I pass Algebra II.

Ah well. It's just school. I'll keep that in mind.

What To Say...

2009-05-09T22:07:00.003-06:00

Brian, help me out. What do you do when your life's so chaotic that you don't know what to blog about? It's hard to funnel these events in my life to produce some sort of moral or cohesive story at al. I just feel lost in my own life's happenings. It's all too much.

Well I'm having trouble filter it out, so I'll try to say it all.

School - My schoolwork's taking a hit because of my disorganization, and my absolute loathing of Algebra II. I'm going to have to pull out some serious studying for finals if I want to salvage myself. My interactions with my friends and acquaintances are changing rapidly, and I'm not sure how to react. Old friends suddenly start to look like trash, and bare acquaintances show an incredible person. Through it all, I find myself much more understanding than anybody in the school. I hear sharp, harsh 'shut ups' thrown around all the time to outsiders, and I hate it. I can't even remember the last time I said that and meant it seriously.

Music - The new piano lessons are going great. Did I mention? I may not have. I have a new teacher. Really cool dude. In contrast, the band is attempting a concert, but we are botching it terribly, and at this point, I dread that the thing will fail entirely - it won't happen, or won't be very good. Apart from that, I'm getting gigs weekly now, and it has had a profound affect on my life. Suddenly I work part-time (sort of). My income for a month has doubled. But on the other end of that, I'm spending a lot more on music as well - Save For Rachel is in final production stages, but with all the money by now that I've spent on CDs and cases and production in general, I'll have to sell at least ten albums to make up for my losses. Let me just say, I had better sell more than ten albums. If you're interested in receiving one, I will be selling them next week at school, and extras at any of my gigs (5 dollars a pop). If you're just a blog reader and interested, leave a comment and I'll try to figure something out. I'm still trying to get a band together...

Confirmation - I'm getting confirmed this coming Monday. I'm not sure what to think - my morality right now is still tossed about. I feel like I'm making progress, but I am so, so unsure of everything in life right now. Maybe this will help me find my way again. But I'm not sure it will.

I'm sure there's more to say, but there's too much too say to bother saying it. And if anybody knows how to upload mp3's to a blog, please, please leave a comment.

Maturity

2009-05-03T23:15:00.004-06:00

Alright, I'm not claiming to be mature, but I do think that I'm becoming more mature. I can just feel it.

I can't talk about everything on my blog, or even most things, for the obvious reasons, as well as some reasons not so obvious, but I think I'm going to start changing my ways. For the better.

The problem about trying to gauge maturity, is that who am I to say? I mean, last year, I thought I was mature, but this year I know how wrong I was. I can just hope that I'm maturing somewhat. I certainly feel like I'm more mature. But there really isn't just anyway to tell.

A sign for me that perhaps I am maturing is that I'm looking at my friends differently. Behaviors that used to seem fine now look almost obnoxious.

Obviously things are changing.

I probably should've expected as much, being a teenager and all. It feels more dramatic than I expected, though. Maybe, just maybe, I'm growing up a little. Sometimes I forget I'm still just a kid.

Lean On Me

2009-04-29T20:11:00.004-06:00

I never really saw myself as somebody that people would run to, but apparently I was wrong.

I've found myself in a position where I've become several people's confidants. It's interesting, but it's also quite a bit of responsibility. I felt good that I wouldn't have to deal with a lot of stupid freshmen relationships and problems when I got used to being a sophomore. People were more mature. Not by much, but at least we weren't freshmen.

But, I've found that many of my friends are freshmen, which means i still have to deal with their ridiculous antics. I don't mind it really. It makes me feel wise. I even have to deal with some of my own classmates occasionally too. It's usually relationships that I end up trying to intervene in, and usually I talk to the guy. I don't know as many of the girls.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not really some busybody going around trying to fix people's lives. It's not like that. But when something needs to be said, I'm gonna be the one to stand up and say it. I'll try to be soft. A lot of problems between people come down to a simple misunderstanding. I'll let them know the problem, and let them consider it. Just to make sure that they're aware of what's going on, what other people are thinking.

It's entertaining really.

I don't understand why people would want to confide in me specifically. Personally I seem like a bad candidate for such a thing. But apparently that's just me, because I have often found myself offering advice to a troubled person as best I can, on everything to music to girls to depression. Somebody recently told me I should be a psychologist.

I guess I'm a comforting person. Ha. Alright. I just try to be there, I suppose....

First Gig

2009-04-20T22:02:00.007-06:00

Disclaimer: That is not me, nor is it my guitar.

Apathy and distraction suck, let me tell you.

I rue the day that teachers invented BlackBoard (online homework system). I had a tough enough time doing homework in my room all alone. I'd get distracted even then. How did they think it was that good of an idea? Wasn't it obvious that people would end up on Facebook, or YouTube, or anywhere but where they are supposed to be?

Ugh. It sucks. My grades for this semester aren't going to be too hot, not at all. My grades this first quarter were really bad with Dad and all, and I'm not having much luck trying to make up for it this quarter.

But it doesn't matter, and you know why? I've already made up my mind about my career, and I'm fairly certain that I'll want to do the same thing for ages. I want to be a musician, plain and simple. I actually just played my first gig this last Friday at the Dream Cafe. It didn't turn out like I expected (I was double-booked, took shifts with two other musicians, and ending up playing (and singing) mostly on guitar) but for the most part it turned out well. It's a miracle too - I got the job just as I ran broke, and now I've got enough to make it through the month. Barely, but still.

So I'll try to keep up with schoolwork, but I'm not honestly too worried about it. With my music, I've got plenty of backup plans. In fact, if I do go to college, it will be mostly to try to do something more with my music, maybe join some cool music program.

Also, I kind of lied about Save For Rachel. Underestimated production time and what-not. Still looking to get cover art and booklets and what not. So may be a couple of weeks, because I'm heading to Seattle this coming weekend. Sorry, any BK readers.

For now though I'll try to keep up with my homework after practicing piano. That's my priorities right there.

A Much Needed Update

2009-04-15T15:20:00.005-06:00

Lately, I've lost interest in the blogging career, as you may have noticed. Part of it has been that I've been busy, but part of it has just been my own forgetfulness and laziness. But Mr. Harris and Rachel are both reading this, and that's enough to keep me going. Hell, maybe even Brian and Silver will pop in. Shout-out to any and all of my readers.

Well anyway, I'll try to get you up to speed.

The album's well on it's way, and the final product will be fourteen to fifteen songs in length. The genre, I believe, is folk indie rock. It's just whatever I write really, but from what I've heard, that's what my music sounds like.

The school band is on the road to putting together an awesome show for the end of the year, one combining elements of shows such as Stomp, Blue Man Group, that sort of thing. I will have an entire solo piece to myself. The whole thing will be amazing. I hope that you can come. Details will follow later.

Troy and I have both been kicked out of Event Horizon, the old band we were in, for what we see as very dumb reasons. I won't go into it in length, but we are in a new band now. Ironically, it's the one that we were very competitive while we were with Event Horizon. They're called The Absolute. We're not half bad.

I have a new piano teacher, named Danny Beal. Me and Jules split paths a while ago out of mutual agreement. Despite that sad fact, Danny is really good, and I think he's perfect for me. Unfortunately, I haven't been getting to practice as much as I would like, but I am trying. Danny tells me that he had taught kids similar to me before who are now playing at clubs for $400 upwards a night. Sounds like one hell of a backup plan for me. ha.

The campaigning starts next week. I'm running for Junior President. I have plenty of campaign ideas and posters already. If you're a sophomore and you're reading this, please vote for me, and tell others to do the same. Third time's the charm. (I've run twice in the past)

I've also managed to reach the epitome of nerd-dom. Dungeons and Dragons. Yep.

I've finished Mondays by now, and started a new book called Luck. I think I'll post the first chapter or two of that here later. If you want to receive Mondays, leave a comment with your email, then delete it (I'll see it, but you won't be spammed).

That's all I can think of right now. I'll try to post again soon.

Save For Rachel

2009-04-06T22:54:00.002-06:00

I may not have mentioned that I've done a lot of composing music lately, but I have been. In fact, with all of my old music (some of it having been remastered recently) and the new music I've managed to do, I've compiled a rough draft of my first album, called Save for Rachel.

The name of the album comes from an inside reference and I girl I'm falling for. The original name was Save for Wilson, and it was inspired by the first day of band. When we got to school, there were several boxes with 'Save for Wilson' written on them. Mr. Haskell pointed out that it'd be a good band name (or as he mentioned, at least better than 'Death Cab for Cutie'). At any rate, since that point I've been determined to start a band or do something involving that phrase. This is a compromise, and a step towards actualizing the full goal.

As for Rachel, she's a girl. And I like her. Enough to dedicate an album to her and give the prototype to her with a bonus track.

I've got other plans for the album, though. I think I'll keep the name, but I plan to add some more songs, fine-tune everything, and sell it at school for next to nothing. I can also use this to my advantage. You see, I'm running for Junior Class President. So, normally, I'll charge two dollars per album (still really cheap), but if it's a sophomore and they pledge a vote, it's a dollar. Say what you want about selling votes, but it's my material, and it's a fair discount.

I'd post some of the music up, but I don't know how. If anybody knows how to post up MP3s to a blog, please leave a comment, trying to explain, or just linking to something that will. Much appreciated.

Twilight

2009-03-25T22:35:00.004-06:00

Lately, there's been a storm of resentment building up in me against the whole twilight phenomena. The movie turned out to be such a big deal that I went, grudgingly, with a friend and sat through it. And over the last couple of days, during the trip to Seattle, we've burned through an audiobook version of New Moon, the second book in the Twilight series. I'm not sure why we listened to that before popping in To Kill A Mockingbird, a much appreciated change in pace. It was mostly for Andy's sake, who slept through most of it, due to illness. Of course, I doubt he had sincere interest in listening to the book either. More likely, he was listening to it to gain the infinite female appeal that twilight readership seems to carry with it.

After finishing the last, fourteenth disc of the book (which seemed an ungodly length for a relatively uneventful book), Mom made her own observations. Coining the term from Dad: Bubble Gum, she called it. Tastes alright, but no substance. Now I'm not necessarily against bubble gum media. It can be fun from time to time.

But this has gotten out of hand.

I haven't met a girl who hasn't gotten defensive or irrational when the quality of Twilight came into question. Often, I've heard excuses along the lines of, "You just don't get it. There's a special bond between Bella and Edward. It's true love." THEY'RE TEENAGERS! And what's more annoying is seeing girls almost worship this fictional character in all of his fantastic beauty. I've seen way too many pictures of Edward (from the movie) posted up in girl's locker. I can almost understand it. I mean, this seems to have struck a soft spot in just about every girl alive, the soft spot for romanticism and sentimentalism.

But it's still gotten out of hand.

It also wouldn't be so bad if the book series could actually claim to be a good influence. It's tried to make it's claim as a good influence, but it's not. Edward is abusive, Bella is unhealthy, and the culture that the book's popularity has formed is frightening, and frighteningly large. I know I'm biased, but at least I'm sort of backed up. This book review is from national review online. Here's the link.

If you don't feel like wading through it, here's the final summary.

In the final analysis, Meyer has deprived her characters of both choices and consequences. And young readers are left with the image of a girl who discovers her own worth and gets all she ever wanted, by giving up her identity and throwing away nearly everything in life that matters.

That’s scarier than any vampire.

Yes. Yes it is.

But, if you've seen the movie and are looking for a good laugh at it's expense, here's another link.

Expect pictures of the road trip coming up...

Spring Break

2009-03-20T23:34:00.001-06:00

It's Spring Break.

I'm getting my camera ready...

25 Random Things

2009-03-05T23:07:00.000-07:00

Note: I did this because I kept on getting tagged on Facebook to do it. It's one of those Facebook fads. Generally those annoy me. If you have a Facebook profile, please do not encourage or take part in such annoying behavior. But I put a certain amount of effort into this note, so here it is.

1. This may be difficult for me. Twenty-five things...

2. Oh! My age. There's an easy one. I'm 15. I keep on wanting to say something else. I guess it doesn't roll off the tongue quite as well as 13 does...

3. My grade. I'm a sophomore, but due to a lot of factors that have added up in a just fucking silly way, a lot of people mistake for a Junior. No joke. See, for the first semester I actually had second lunch with the Juniors and Seniors. I actually served on the lunch crew. So I guess a lot of upper classmen just assumed I was a Junior. They actually had me on BK Spotlight and they called me a Junior. So that's definitely a reliable source...

4. My friends. Well apparently I'm popular. I know most people, and I'm friends with most of them, except for those annoying-ass people in the back of the room who gossip on and on about absolutely NOTHING. And then one of the guys says some blatent insult or harrases her, or something along those lines, and all she can ever think to say is, "You're so rude." Girls, please take note. That is not going to dissuade anybody, especially if it's completely hypocritical (which it almost always is). Curse at somebody who's pissing you off. Then they'll back off.

5. Close friends. Most of the band, Troy, half of the debate club, and occasionally somebody from class or drama are among my close friends.

6. Marriage. I'm married. Yep. Me and Troy Garcia - heterosexual life partners. Essentially, we're married, but not gay. Of course we have no trouble acting like it. It's awfully fun. If you're reading this, I love you Troy!

7. Family. I am blessed with one hell of a family. My annoying little brother Andy(14), my wise older brother Michael(21), and the ever-practical older sister Jessica(23). My mother's great. My Dad was an incredible man as well, and his impression on me will never fade...

8. More Family. I've got a plethora of cousins and uncles and aunts. Many of them are musicians. Which is really cool, because family band is the epitome of awesome when it's pulled off right. And if anybody knows how to pull it off right, it's the Cieslaks. (that means you Calvin, and Brian too)

9. Strangers. They're usually uncomfortable around me. Unless they're friendly. Then it's great. But I usually come on strong... well whatever. That's more there problem than mine.

10. Wow, we're just burning through these, huh?

11. School. Let me out...................It's so bad..... but I do alright. I get good grades, usually keep myself within A's and B's. Mostly my problem is my natural tendency to sink into a rut, into lethargy. It sucks when I do...

12. Extra-Curricular. Well, drama is the only thing that really applies. I've been in two plays, both pretty fun, and both turning out to be huge commitments. It's funny, I actually started drama because of my lethargy.... Irony....

13. Music. I am a musician. And I like to think I'm a good one. I play piano primarily, a little bit of alto sax, some ocarina, and a good chunk of guitar. And I know enough about drums to write music for them. I've been playing for as long as I remember, and know a lot about music theory.

14. Band. Highly tied in to #13. Because of my experience in music and music theory, I have become a sort of assistant director for the school band. I arrange more than half of the new music we play, and I'm helping put together a concert we're planning on...

15. Other Band. We're called Event Horizon. Standard sort of basement rock band. I've been kicked out once before, and my status is usually tentative - I can be kicked out at any time. I was kicked out because I was originally too bossy, probably because of being assistant director. But I use a softer word these days, and things seem to be going well with this band...

16. Drama. I'm an actor. Sort of. I've been in two school plays - 'So Totally Over You' and 'Anne Frank'. They are fun, but they usually prove to be much bigger commitments than I predict. I hope to do a few more before I graduate. It's fun.

17. Sports. Well I'm not very athletic, but I do play hockey, of all things. I play for the Bishop Kelly hockey team. Or at least, I did, before the school decided to get rid of the hockey team. We are technically no longer affiliated with the school. It's kind of dumb that they kicked us out, but also kind of school because we're not part of the school!

18. Mondays. I've written a book, called Mondays. It's not that great, but I'd love to suppose that's it mildly entertaining. It's double spaced and above three hundred pages though, so I feel a a little bit proud about that.

19. Programming. I'm apparently quite apt at it, as I soon discovered after taking the school's introductory Java class, and switching early into the advanced class at semester. I'm still working on a text-based game similar to Fire Emblem.

20. Young Wizards. Do a little research, and you'll discover that I was involved with a bit of fan-art based off the young wizards book series, which I used to be a fanatic of. I still love the books - they're like a mix between Harry Potter and A Wrinkle In Time....

21. Three Backpacks and a Guitar. An album I've been working on for a while. I've already done some good songs, but the problem is that I really don't think the sound of my voice is good enough. Maybe I'll get somebody else to do it.

22. Video Games. Love 'em. Specifically Nintendo, although I admit I'm very disappointed in them as of late. All of the old games they used to make are incredible, and even more great considering the age they were produced, but they have gotten into a bad habit of using gimmicks instead of content and quality to make money. It's unfortunate that it works so well... let's hope they do something right with the money they make...

23. Homework. What, you think I do my homework? Why do you think I'm writing this thing?

24. The Randomness Of Life. That's my blog. If you're reading this from Facebook rather than my blog itself, here's the address - http://alcatraz014.blogspot.com

25. Well that's all I have to say right now. Oh! And check out "The Order of the Stick" if you're still bored. I'm out!

Google Maps

2009-03-02T01:37:00.004-07:00

Props to Google.

I found this picture of Elm Grove Park while virtually walking through the north end. Had a picture for every third of a block or so, and you could toggle the picture around - look up, to the left, right, down, zoom in a bit, whatever. Something is really fascinating about that.

Where did they get all those pictures? That's starting to confuse me. I mean, I understand how they can scan the earth from a bird's eyes view with their nifty satellites, but how on earth are they getting pictures like this? It looks like you'd have to be standing there, looking towards it, or looking up, to get a lot of these. It's a bit puzzling.

But it's not a bad thing. It's incredible really. It's like magic. We're getting close to a point where satellites and cameras will be interconnected in such a way that they can take high quality still-pictures of the entire earth at any point in time. They could maybe clean up their whole interface. It was a bit difficult to move virtually through the north end. Something seems fascinating about the ability, though, to look through what you neighborhood, or your planet was like at a point in time. It's a new sort of power that we've never had before.

I'm still confused though. How are they getting all of these pictures? If you've got any idea, leave a comment, because I'm still perplexed.

Uncertainty

2009-02-28T21:10:00.004-07:00

They say death and taxes are the only sure things in life.

But say your government falls into anarchy, and there are no taxes?

And say medicine advances far enough to cure death?

What then can you be sure of?

Of course, I understand what the old saying means. Nothing in life is certain. And I agree. I keep on thinking I know something, and then I find out I'm wrong.

I remember when I went to camp at Camp Orkilah back in Washington talking about certainty. These kids told me that if you believed something, truly, one hundred and ten percent believed something as a complete fact, it would become a fact. If you truly believed the wall wasn't there, it would disappear. Of course, the catch was that you can never actually be completely, one hundred percent sure of anything. Ever.

It's supposed to be a statement about the power of perception. I don't believe that, but it does point out something about certainties. They're not one hundred percent.

I thought I had death figured out, to an extent. People didn't just die unless it was a tragic accident or medical problem, whether it was preexisting or recently attained. I was wrong. I remember, I was talking to my cousin Cathy. She mentioned her first husband, who died tragically. He felt crummy one morning, Cathy and the couple's son went out for chores, and when they came back, he was dead. The doctors couldn't find the cause of the death and filed it as unknown.

So, I'm not certain of anything more. A man can look fine today and be dead or terminally ill the next day. There is an inherent chaos and instability and uncertainty to life that will ironically never change. All we can do is try to understand it.

Death and taxes... Nothing is certain.

A Warning

2009-02-14T23:13:00.001-07:00

I don't think I'll be talking about my late Dad much. I'm not trying to just move on, or whatever, I just don't really want to write about it, or I feel like I lack the eloquence to do it. So when you see new posts that make it seem like I'm just fine, it's not because I'm over it, it's just that I don't want to write about him. It still haunts me, but I knew it would. So I'm just warning you. Besides, my uncle is doing a much better job of writing about Gary than I ever could have done... (Switch2planb.com)

Requiem Part 2

2009-02-10T15:42:00.004-07:00

It's been more than a week since Dad's death.

We held the funeral in the beautifully redone St. Mary's. That Dad never got to see finished...

I've been back to school.

But it's not the same.

It never will be.

Even if it's something in the back of my head,

Reminding me when I wake up.

About that terrible year that Dad's life was slowly sucked away.

He died on January 30th, a few days before Groundhog's Day, which would've been the anniversary of the last time he walked and the last time we took him to the hospital.

Because after that we wouldn't let him leave home.

I can't believe that after that year, in the course of 365 days, that he is so gone.

Everyday, I wake up,
And I'm reminded for a moment,
For the pain a man suffered,
And the inevitable loss his family felt as he died.
I say to myself, "My Dad is dead.
I have one parent who's dealing with the intensity of her own loss,
Which I must say is alot stronger for her."

But everyday, when I go to bed, I try to remember who he was before the cancer.
I remember this quote that has been repeated many times upon Dad's death.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have
kept the faith.

And I ask myself,
Would he be proud of me right now?

Requiem

2009-02-05T20:56:00.005-07:00

When I came home Monday, Dad was unresponsive, laying there, in the hospital bed we had moved into the bedroom a week earlier. A priest was standing over Dad as I walked in, speaking some sort of blessing over him. I joined my family around him. Tears flowed freely as we realized how close our dear father was to death.

Over the course of the day, Dad miraculously sustained somewhat stable conditions while family and friends arrived at house. Mom's friend Beth, and Gary's father, Don. Dad survived the night, but remained unresponsive and of declining, hopeless health. By the end of the next day, Uncle David, Uncle Brian, Uncle Jeff, Aunt Kim, and Aunt Amy, as well as a few of their spouses. We convened in Dad's bedroom, sitting by him, standing watch.

His whole family was there in the house.
His wife, laying next to him on the hospital bed, squeezed up against the metal bars.
His siblings, scattered around the bedroom, or throughout the house helping.
His dad, sitting solemnly in the armchair.
His kids, kissing him goodnight and sleeping on the floor to be near to him.
Even his dog Yogi was there, sitting vigilantly next to him on the bed.

A hospice nurse came by, and estimated that he could last a couple of days. By Wednesday, Mom began to prepare us, telling us she anticipated Dad's death sometime that night. But he held on.

By Thursday, Gary's vitals were decreasing. Not shocking, but an ominous sign of his imminent death. Mom, with more certainty this time, told us Dad would probably die during the night. But he held on.

On Friday, a chaplain from St. Luke's came by and prayed a blessing over Dad. Mom cried silently into Dad's shoulder. The chaplain left. And suddenly, Dad's breathing became astoundingly shallow. Mom called us over, intuiting her husband's last moments. His kids came to him and held his hand, whispering "I love you, Dad"s as Gary passed away.

It was no surprise, really, to anybody.

Somehow I thought that would soften the blow.

It didn't.

The problem here is that this is more than the death of a father, or a husband, or a brother, or a son. It's so much more. Words fail to explain it.

(to be continued?)

Breaking the Weekend Down

2009-01-26T14:11:00.004-07:00

Friday -
Varsity Hockey Game. We tied, 2-2.
Band performance. We got asked to come back the following night, even though it wasn't scheduled.

Saturday -
Varsity Playoff Hockey Game. We lost, by a considerable margin. A goalie had to step in for ours, and he wasn't any good. Final score was something like 9-1.
Band performance. Pretty good, but they had something planned for halftime, which was kind of frustrating, seeing as we were asked to come and play.
Soc-hop. Came right after the game. Kind of a flop, and I didn't really dance, but still kind of fun. The student body managed to get glow stick all over the place, throw some at the DJ, and break one of the windows up front. I think that was kind of funny.

Sunday -
Helping Jessica move. What a pain. Seriously, it took forever. Having my aunt Terri there helped though.
Band practice. Not BK Band practice, but practice with a more personal band called Event Horizon. I play keyboard, obviously. I didn't get to play much, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Monday -
Oh, but nothing could quite prepare me for Monday...

Fine, I'm Not Quitting

2009-01-21T21:06:00.005-07:00

Happy now?

I can't leave this blog. I was looking back over some of my older material, and I remembered one of the concepts of this blog. I wasn't out to write big, long, articulate essays, just small muses on life or stories about my day. Or whatever. So how can I not have time for this blog?

I do have time. And to an extent I've made some time for this. I recently obtained my driver's license (yes all of you, beware) so I can stay after school later than usual - about an hour. I've been using most of this time to type up Mondays, but the book is almost done. I only have one chapter left to type. So I'll start using this time slot to write my posts.

Aside from almost finishing Mondays, I have been working on the Cover Concert for the BK Band. I've already arranged five of the thirteen songs. In contrast, the actual director is working on finishing his first. But he's busy anyhow, I can't hold it against him. I'm working on getting some singers and some lights. It will be a real show. Plan on coming. Projected Date: February 28th.

I bought my brother his bike, and showed it to him. It was about two hundred dollars, and it seems to be a fairly nice bike. We haven't assembled it yet... It looks like the semester of being on lunch crew for second lunch have finally paid off. Andy (little brother) is grateful.

In other news, the new class schedule is interesting. At some point I will discuss the new schedule and the various classes in some depth.

Thanks, if you came back.
Thanks, if you read this at all.

I Quit

2009-01-10T14:37:00.001-07:00

Until Further Notice...

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T23:58:00.002-07:00

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)

2008-12-21T14:18:00.003-07:00

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)

2008-12-16T22:45:00.005-07:00

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)

2008-12-15T12:04:00.005-07:00

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

2008-12-11T12:43:00.006-07:00

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...

2008-12-10T21:38:00.003-07:00

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

2008-12-08T12:55:00.006-07:00

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

2008-11-28T10:26:00.004-07:00

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?

2008-11-20T18:52:00.003-07:00

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

2008-11-12T17:19:00.001-07:00

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

Keytar

2008-11-05T18:38:00.000-07:00

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

2008-11-04T21:20:00.003-07:00

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

My Existential Halloween

2008-11-02T22:25:00.004-07:00

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

2008-10-28T22:40:00.005-06:00

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

2008-10-27T20:01:00.003-06:00

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!)

2008-10-21T22:46:00.006-06:00

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

2008-10-15T20:25:00.004-06:00

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)

2008-10-14T20:04:00.006-06:00

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

2008-10-11T17:12:00.024-06:00

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...

2008-10-06T21:27:00.005-06:00

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)

2008-09-30T22:54:00.001-06:00

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

2008-09-27T16:26:00.005-06:00

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)

2008-09-19T07:48:00.003-06:00

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

2008-09-17T21:08:00.006-06:00

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

2008-09-16T21:01:00.001-06:00

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

2008-09-10T22:59:00.002-06:00

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

2008-09-06T18:21:00.002-06:00

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!

2008-08-30T17:20:00.001-06:00

Right Here.

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

Back to School...

2008-08-28T20:27:00.004-06:00

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

2008-08-20T13:28:00.006-06:00

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

2008-08-16T10:41:00.000-06:00

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

2008-08-14T23:02:00.004-06:00

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

2008-07-29T08:21:00.003-06:00

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

2008-07-21T19:04:00.001-06:00

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

2008-07-15T09:54:00.013-06:00

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.

A Few Webcomics I Think Are Funny...

2008-07-10T12:54:00.001-06:00

XKCD

Questionable Content (not really all that questionable) Note: If you do read this comic, I would suggest that you try to start from the beginning and keep going. It's quite a bit funnier that way.

Basic Instructions

XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Questionable Content updates every weekday, and I don't really know what Basic Instruction's schedule is. Enjoy!

More On Swim Team

2008-07-09T12:13:00.003-06:00

I'm no good at waking up on time for things. I'm just not. It's not really my fault. It's just that sometimes, I don't really have a choice. I'll set my alarm clock, but then in the morning I'll wake up at ten as if it hadn't gone off. And it's not like I woke up and turned the alarm clock off because I was lazy; rather, I didn't wake up and I apparently turned it off without knowing it.

So yeah, it's a common occurrence for me to be late to swim team or to miss it entirely. And yes I understand that my swim coaches are upset with it (as am I, I wish I was more capable of being there on time). But when my bike broke down this morning and I had to use my little brother's midget-esque one to get to Lowell pool, I thought the water balloon that met me on the way in, with me fully clothed with electronics in my pockets, was a bit excessive. They thought it was hilarious.

As I took off my sogging clothes and put on my swimsuit, I could hear them shouting at me to hurry up and get in the pool. Ugh, I though to myself, it's seven-thirty! Shouting at me is not going to get me to go any faster! But they of course still shouted at me and got their water balloons ready for the next boy to show up late as I walked up the stairs and dived into the cool water.

There were three lanes for us that morning, as there usually was, and I quickly moved over to the far lane with my two good buddies, David and Lucas. With all respect that's due, I am usually a faster swimmer then them. So it was kind of frustrating when the swim coaches moved me to the back of the line. I asked them why and they said it was because they wanted us to swim that way. I just don't get that. We're swimming in the lane - aren't we the best people to decide what the order should be? If that isn't pointless micromanagement then I don't know what is.

Frustrations and annoyances kept piling on as they yelled at us and made us swim more whenever we forgot to to flips, or turns. Morale was low and I was pretty mad by the time I got out of the pool. The fact is, and I'm not exaggerating, my swim team coaches are the most anal-retentive people I know, and it is really getting to irk me. And whenever we complain they ask us, "Why did you sign up for swim team if you didn't want to swim?"

And here's my answer - "Sure we signed up for swim team because we wanted to swim. But nowhere did we say that we wanted to have to put up with getting up at seven in the morning every weekday, getting screamed at for not doing flip turns, yelled at for not being in the pool, and soaked for not being on time all for the sake of swimming! That stuff has nothing to do with the swimming - those things we could do without."

It seems to get worse with the coaches all the time. If it weren't for the fact that swimming is so healthy and such a good habit for me, I would really want to just quit swim team to get away from them. But I'll have to just keep swimming and try to show up on time for the remainder of July.

World of Warcraft

2008-07-03T15:33:00.000-06:00

Well guys it was only matter of time. Most of you probably already know-I'm a nerd. Or, well, I just have most of the characteristics of one. But of course it's really hard to classify me into any category unless you've got one titled "Joe" or "Other". But I am a gamer and a gaming nerd for that matter. So really it was only a matter of time before I was naturally drawn to World of Warcraft, the same way that carpenters are naturally drawn to a Lowes store.

But of course I'm not paying for the game! Blizzard has set up a ten-day free trial system for the game but there's no way to keep someone from going through it more than once. In other words, I get to play on a trial account for ten days and then when that one runs out I get another. Genius huh? I doubt I'll buy it but I have to say that it is pretty damn fun.

If any of you are interested in trying world of warcraft free for ten days (or more if you do it my way) then go here.

If you're not interested, then here is why you should be.

Trust me, it's worth trying.

Oh the epic quality of this game... to stand there with the Alliance by my side... you really have to play it to understand.

(Dwarven hunter ya'all!)

Good News

2008-07-01T15:04:00.000-06:00

"Good news is blowin' in your window
Good news is knockin' on your door
Good news is comin' round the corner
Good news is rollin' round your floor...."

I really didn't think I'd get to say it, but Dad is getting better and better. He's now able to walk fairly well. His speech still suffers but it slowly and steadily makes progress as well. They took an MRI recently and the tumors had shrunk. Everything is getting better. Even some of his hair is growing back. It really makes me happy to see him these days and be able to watch him recover.

This opens up new possibilities for the family. Before this last month or so, Dad had to constantly be watched and cared for and there would be no taking him anywhere. I can't imagine what it's been like for him... but Mitzi took him to the park the other day for a walk and he did well. We're talking about taking him up to McCall. If things keep improving we could take him to dinner or movies or vacations even.

While it's true that Dad doesn't need to be cared for anymore, he shouldn't be left alone either. He should still be watched. With all this happening this obviously means that we're not thinking weeks and months here anymore. We may still have him for many months and even years. We've been getting by on Gary's insurance (he's still taking care of us, isn't that sweet?) but it's obvious that we can't go on like this. Mom had left her work to take care of Gary, but she's going back to work now, and she talks about maybe hiring a companion for Dad (family reading this, keep it on the down-low. That means you Brian!). It's almost as if things are going back to normal...

So Mom's going back to work, Dad's getting better, and everything's turning up for the better!

"Good news Comin' down the chimney
Good news Knockin' on my door
Good news Leavin' through the window
Good news Can't take no more
Good news Spreadin' all the country
Good news For the young and old
Good news Goin' round the world, now
Good news Too hard to hold back..."

Another piece of lesser good news is that I finally found my camera, so once I get it to hook up to this dam computer right, you can expect some more pictures and such.

"Good news....
Good news...." - Randy Newman

Driver's Ed

2008-06-29T19:34:00.003-06:00

Above is the car I will most likely be driving from July 10th on. Until then I will keep going to Driver's Education. I've already driven quite a bit and I have to say that I am by no means a bad driver. But be forewarned. My friends and family warn people to try to stay off the roads when I'm around.

Sheesh... Reputations die slowly....

Spinning

2008-06-22T22:02:00.003-06:00

Well I'm not sure what caused it or why it's happening, but I seem to be spinning through the summer, losing all sense of morality and direction. I wish I knew why, or at least how to fix it, but I have no idea how to cope with this. It just seems that the voices that usually guide me to do the right thing are gone. And I'm lost without them.

As for what caused it, it may or may not be the summer mindset. Summer is what every student looks forward to for the entirety of the school year, and it tends to disappoint. But how can it not? I mean I here my friends telling me that there summer is lame even though they seem to be spending all of their time with friends and not working. They, like me, have a feeling there ought to be something more to summer. It's supposed to be the ultimate vacation, the ultimate party.

I'm not saying that this viewpoint is valid or reasonable or any of those things, but it does tend to be what teenagers think of the summer. It's hard to quell that feeling that you're missing something in the summertime. The only time it doesn't seem to bubble up and vocalize is when they're actually living up to their expectations for the moment. So at a party they won't complain, but once the party's over, it won't be long until the sensation rises up again.

Part of this feeling makes some people feel not obliged to work, when in reality, they should. I know that I never feel like doing chores or cleaning up in the summer, even if it's the last thing on the world to do. This problem plagues me in particular, and I'm beginning to wish I had my old work ethic back. It wasn't a great one but it was at least semi-functional. This one's not functional at all.

As for morality, I don't know what's going on. All I know is that I'm gonna have to fix it soon, because summer's not even close to done, and I can't go on like this...

Fun With Excel

2008-06-15T23:39:00.003-06:00

I was bored, so I did a few charts on Excel.

Some interesting data. Looks like I'll have to pick up some slack.

Swim Team

2008-06-14T23:04:00.000-06:00

Well like I mentioned earlier in my sum-up of what my summer was planned to be, I am going to be having swim team every Monday through Friday for the next month and a half, from June 9th to mid-August. Fun, right?

Well, yeah, for the most part, but here's the catch. It's at seven-thirty in an unheated pool. Oh boy.

That's not usually a problem really-in the summer the pool heats up quick and we usually complain more about the swims than we do about the cold. But lately it's been very, very cold out in the mornings, forcing them to close on some days and make us run the others (in place of swimming). I'm not sure who to blame, but I wish it would heat up. These morning swims in almost freezing water are really getting to me...

It's actually kind of entertaining to hear the swim coaches' rationalizations and baits to get us in the pool. "The water's steaming! It's warmer in the water! Get in!" Well that's not saying much, it's cold as hell above the water too. They're both cold - so what if there's a slight temperature difference? I'd rather be back in my warm, cozy bed then freezing my butt off here.

Ok, maybe I'm whining and complaining, but I'm not the only one! One morning they only had half of the swim team show up; most took the day off becuase of the cold. And they only got four and a half kids to swim out of the ones that showed up. (The half-kid refused to put his head underwater).

But with any luck, the weatherman will be right and things will be much warmer within a week or so. I hope so. As a side note, I may also find a musical venue playing for tips outside Lowell Pool. More on that later...

I'm 15!

2008-06-13T13:40:00.003-06:00

This Friday the 13th, I turned 15. I'm quite proud to be this old and I had a really great time these past couple of days. It splits into two days really.

The first day was the day before my birthday, I got up and went to swim team as usual, and went to Troy's house afterwards. Following that, we took our bikes and went all over downtown - to the library, to book stores, the movies; in fact I didn't even go home except to ask Mom whether or not I could stay the night at Troy's, and I did. Basically what I'm getting to is that this was like an all-day party for me, and I was sure grateful for it.

I skipped swim team and slept in til I had to go home. And of course then we had a little birthday party there too. We ordered lunch from Flying Pie Pizzeria and had ice cream cake (yes this was lunch). After the food I was handed a huge box in wrapping paper. I ripped it open to find a notation software called Sibelius 5 and an incredibly cool keyboard compatible with the software. So I was set to write music!

Not yet though. Unsurprisingly, the software won't install because we don't have Mac OS X 10.4. So now we have two options-let all the money we spent on this gift to go to waste, or spend an extra $130 on upgrading our computer. Technology kind of cornered us into a spend more money or lose situation. Oh well.

If indeed we get this software to work and I can start writing music, it will allow me to do alot. I can start writing original pieces for the school band to play next year, and music for my own band. But it'll take a bit to get it up no matter how it goes.

The Situation With Dad

2008-06-07T21:20:00.003-06:00

It starts with a Dance.
What makes it worse about Gary is just what a man he is.
If ever there were saints, he's one of them.
If ever there were scholars, he's one of them.
If ever there were good fathers, he's one of them.
And if ever there was true love... Gary and Mitzi have it.

So it's really quite tragic to see him diminished to what he is now - speech is incredibly difficult for him, and he has trouble moving around.

I will never forget that week under the maple tree with friends and family, near and distant, all come together to toast to Gary, the man they all know and love dearly.

So a toast! To Gary! A good Father. A good Husband. A good Doctor. And a Saint.

Finals, Essays, Tests, and Grades

2008-06-01T03:23:00.003-06:00

Well I'm not gonna say much about this - I'm just gonna say that it was a lot of stress and it boils down to my grades, which I'll put up here. I'm not the sort of person who is able to or even hard working enough to get a 4.0, so instead I slide by with a respectable 3.5. (note: my geometry grade is actually an A, it just hasn't gotten changed yet) (another note: I'm not putting my grades up to show off, it's more because I've got a lack of content right now and I need to fill in some May posts before I run out of time for it. If you're looking for fresh content from me, try reading Chapter 1 of Mondays at Monday Musings (it's on the side bar.))

Band - A
Computer Apps 2 - B
A PLEASURE TO HAVE IN CLASS NOT WORKING TO FULL POTENTIAL
English I - B
Geometry - B+
Concept Physics - B+
Spanish I - B
A PLEASURE TO HAVE IN CLASS PLEASANT AND HARD WORKING
Theology I - A
Boys' P.E. - A

A Story That Needs Finishing

2008-05-28T02:19:00.000-06:00

Well I started up on my novel again, and I've made incredible progress with paper and pencil. Remember the in-school suspension? That day I finished five rough draft pages of the story.

With all this new material, it's my pleasure to announce that I am starting a new blog that will contain what I've written of Mondays, as well as any other stories, poems, or marginally entertaining literature that I can think up. It's called Monday Musings, and you can reach it at:

mondays014.blogspot.com/

Or just use my handy sidebar. I look forward to publishing in this new blog.

My Avuncular Friend Brian

2008-05-20T08:27:00.003-06:00

Well my avuncular friend came to visit last week, mostly to visit Gary and help out our family. While he was there, he was a big help - he drove me to school, helped with the dishes, took Gary to therapy, and more. He was a big help to say the least.

And of course it's always interesting to see my Uncle Brian. He's just such a character. Having a conversation with him is truly like a battleground. He plays with words and cynicism and humor like no other man I know can. It's... inspiring.

Brian, you know what I'm talking about.

Smartass....

Anyway, I just want to give a shoutout - Thank you Brian! You have helped so much more than you needed to and you've helped the family so much. You are welcome anytime at our household and you know that we love to see you. No promises about the roof though...

The Fiddler on the Roof Part 2

2008-05-18T15:14:00.005-06:00

In case you haven't read it yet, here's part 1 of my rooftop escapades.
Well, unsurprisingly, I had to pay the piper for my rooftop expedition. Because two days later, I got a call slip from the Dean of Students, Mr. Caldwell. I walked down to his office and sat down. Looks like a teacher had heard about me on the roof and informed him.

Damn. Plus I got nobody to blame It's my fault that the teacher found out - I was the one bragging to everyone in Saturday School that I got up on the roof. And the teacher (Ms. Shea) just happened to overhear, and she was obligued to report it.

Mr.Caldwell made it clear what the punishment was - In-School Suspension and a call home. I tried to talk him out of the call home, but no luck. I walked back to my first period class, grabbed my books and my lunch, and went to the box (as portrayed in the picture above).

The box is a small room with two desks in it, a tie rack, and a bunch of other clothes and weird stuff the office has hanging around, like extra locks. There's a semifunctional one-sided mirror too, but it doesn't work too well. I can usually still see what's going on outside the box. So that was where I found myself for an entire school day last Monday.

It's not so bad though. I mean, I was able to get a lot of work done, and even narrowly dodged getting a zero on an English assignment by pure luck. Soon, though, I had nothing left to do. So I started to work on my story, Mondays. I was able to finish 5 hand-written pages of that book that day. So all-in-all, it wasn't that bad.

Here's the kicker - during the day I would periodically walk in and say something or ask something to Mr. Caldwell, and at one point I asked him if he wanted to see the pictures I took on the roof. He looked at the pictures and said, "Well, you weren't supposed to be on the roof, but the pictures turned out nice." Now that's looking on the bright side.

A Fiddler On The Roof

2008-05-16T08:38:00.006-06:00

I'm not really sure what compelled me to climb up onto the roof shortly before Saturday School last Saturday, but it was a strong enough compulsion to make me do it.

When my Mom dropped me off at the school a half-hour early and the doors were still locked, I walked around and decided to take some pictures of the school that I would publish here. Here are the three I picked up before the roof.

This should give you a nice look of what Bishop Kelly looks like. But that's not all that I got. Soon, I was bored of taking these photos though, and I found myself climbing a tree and jumping to the rooftop. (I didn't really have a fiddle, but I did think it was an interesting title)

You remember that photo from the 'May' post? That was one of these photos. My Bishop Kelly readers should recognize these right away.

Here's the football field

Here's the Carly Center

And here's me, sucessfully on the roof as this pictures proves.

I thought it was funny that as I walked around up there, I found a hackey sack that my friend had thrown up there a week ago. It was just lying there next to one of the vents. I picked it up and after taking my pictures, it was time for Saturday School, so I climbed down, safe. I got in and fould a few of my friends already there. I showed them the pictures I had gotten, and they laughed.

Unfortunately, the teacher happened to hear all of this...

An Upcoming Concert and a Broken Instrument

2008-05-14T08:45:00.004-06:00

My zero period class this past month and a half has since become obsessed with one thing. The upcoming concert. We decided that it would be mighty fun to do a concert with themes from famous video games. And so that's what we're doing. We've got some famous themes in here - Mario, Zelda, Halo, Tetris, 007, and many more. For any of you who want to come, and trust me, it's gonna be worth coming, the actual concert is May 22nd, 7:00 PM in Bishop Kelly, Boise Idaho.

Meanwhile, we are in the throes of last-minute preparations and song-learning. One of the undoubtedly biggest obstacles that we've run into is that my ocarina broke.

An obvious question - What's an ocarina?

Well, and ocarina is a small flute/whistle-like musical instrument. It is essential to one of the pieces in the upcoming concert. I bought one back in January, but it broke. So I bought another one. This time, my friend broke it. So we bought another one, but that one broke in the hall. So I bought another one. (The thing's fragile). That third one lasted - I carried it around in a case, and only when the case got taken did I finally break this one. And it's a shame. I've fallen in love with this little instrument, and I'm gonna need it for the concert.

So now we're a week away from the concert and we're missing an instrument. We're trying to order another one, but it's a little hectic. Why did it have to break? Oh well. More on this later.

May

2008-05-13T20:47:00.004-06:00

Some of you are probably wondering why I haven't written in so long. It's been ten days since my last May post. Here's the thing - it's not easy anymore. It's becoming especially more difficult to blog, what with very limited computer use both at school and at home, not to mention the things piling up on my plate right now. When it comes down to it, it can be listed like this:

An upcoming concert and a broken instrument

An unfortunate breakup

A fiddler on the roof

That fiddler in an in-school suspension

My avuncular friend, Brian

A story that needs finishing

Finals, essays, tests, and grades

And... a less than ideal situation at home with Gary.

With any luck, I will get to tell you all of these stories. My life hasn't stopped, but I haven't been fortunate enough to put my life down on the computer screen yet. I apologize for the absence. Keep reading though. My story's far from over...

Back On The Ice

2008-05-03T13:05:00.004-06:00

Well it would seem that although it is indeed May, I find myself back on the ice rink with my old Bishop Kelly teammates. And I love it.

Coach Andersohn, the hockey coach, has signed the team up for 3-on-3 hockey in the summer; a game every week. Not to be upstaged, the other high schools have done the same. So it won't be surprising if we end up playing other high school teams every other week.

For me, this all seems very exciting. I mean, what could be better? I'm going to get to play my favorite sport every week against my rivals and with my teammates, and when the school years comes around next year and the real hockey season starts, we'll all be ready to kick some ass.

I know there are a lot of people who don't like hockey, but let me tell you - getting back on the ice after four months and skating is euphoric. There's nothing better. Just being able to glide again... it's amazing.

And so the picture of my upcoming summer begins to take shape...

Student Council Elections

2008-04-30T15:11:00.004-06:00

Well I ran for Student Council again this year. I did run last year, but I lost. Luckily, I did get second place in that election and since the secretary position was untaken, I took that position. So naturally, I ran again this year.

My main slogan last year was, "Wake up to a cup of JOE!", so this year, I went with the same idea - "Are you ready for your second cup of JOE?". For the most part, I think the campaign idea was good, and it was constantly a source of laughter and applause when I would yell to people in the hall my slogan.

I was running against three other candidates this year, Scott Navert, Carey, and Juan Bravo-Iniglez. All three of us had to get up in front of the Freshmen Class and do a pre-prepared speech for them. Scott, Carey, and Juan all had good speeches, but I don't think any of them had quite the humor mine did. My opening line - "GOOD MORNING VIETNAM!" Insert solid minute of laughter from the freshmen here. (If you don't get it, it's from The Office.)

With all of my humor and campaigning, I still didn't make it past the preliminary votes, and Juan and Scott ended up being the final candidates for president, and later, Juan won. Student Council Elections can be kind of unpredictable - I had no idea I would have any real competition from Juan. I was actually pretty confident.

Oh well. I suppose that I have enough on my plate right now as it is, with finals coming up and everything. But next year... (Vote for Joe!)

David Ford: Go To Hell

2008-04-29T21:48:00.002-06:00

Freaking awesome music video I found the other day while I was surfing. All credit to David Ford. Good job man, you got crazy skill!

Back to Same Old Nothing

2008-04-28T18:27:00.003-06:00

Well, as some of you may or may not realize, the main reason I haven't been posting as often this month has been largely due to the play. It's a bigger commitment than I realized when I joined up. Not to say anything against it of course. It was really fun, and I had a great time doing it, but it was still some work getting it all done and memorized and everything. For all of our hard work though, we did get both an article in the paper and some free food. In the end, alot of people came out and saw the play, and it was fun to do. So I'm quite content with it.

Wil I do it again? Probably.

At any rate, things come down to this. I find myself yet again with a considerable amount of spare time. And of course, I still don't seem to want to do any homework ahead of time. So where do I go? To The Internet! And it always gets me thinking after a night of surfing how incredible the technology is that we have. When you think about the processes that take place behind a TV or computer screen, there are incredibly complex and unbelievably fast things happening behind it to make the images and videos that appear to us. It's all taken for granted.

But not to say that technology is perfect. Here's just one of the biggest problems I've run into, although I admit it's specific to blogging. Here's the problem. If you've got time to blog, it often means you don't have too much to blog about. And that's exactly what's happened to me.

Well I'll have to get over it and start putting my days back into words. I've nigh forgotten how to give a good summary of a chosen day with all of my recent posts. You'll have to forgive me. I am going to try to put a little bit more work into this blog in May, and I'm sure with finals and Student Council Campaigning, I should at least have something to write about. So keep reading folks. Sorry if this month wasn't as prolific or high quality as the ones before. I've been busy, but now I'm back on track. Back to same old nothing.

Banned

2008-04-26T11:48:00.003-06:00

To add injury to insult, my account at school has now been banned. I am basically now entirely cut off from the school's computer. There's now only one of two ways for me to use the computers at school: use my little brothers account or borrow a friend's account here at school.

And why, you might ask yet again, would someone like me be banned? Well I got hacked. I should have seen it coming, I suppose. After all, my password for my school account is alcatraz014. Call me Captain Obvious.

Of course, it takes more than that.

Most BK students know all this, but for anyone who's not, let me give you an overview. Here at the school, everyone signed in on a BK account has access to the "G Drive". The G drive is a public drive that anyone can put data on. Documents. Pictures. Programs. It's the last in that list that got me in trouble. There's been a game on the G drive called Unreal Tournament. Ever since it was on there, there's been a constant war between the students and the administrators. The administrators keep deleting it and the students keep putting it back on, trying to hide it from the teachers.

These students don't usually make it far before their school account is banned. And that's exactly what happened. Whoever hacked me put Unreal back on under my account. And now I'm paying the consequences.

To make matters worse, I've got another Saturday School this weekend.

Someone stop technology. I'd like to get off.

Blocked

2008-04-24T16:16:00.004-06:00

Most of you already know. My blog has been blocked by the Bishop Kelly servers. This means that nowhere in the school building can you reach my blog.

One might ask, why? You could point out that there is no objectionable content on this blog. But apparently Bishop Kelly thinks differently.

I do hang out with the same crowd that hacks and puts games on the shared drive. I can't say I've become one of them, but I can say I'm on their side. Maybe it's just because it's fun to finally be able to do something on the computers that you weren't, or just something that you aren't supposed to be able to do. But none of these people are malicious, I know that.

At any rate, the story comes down to this. Those links on the sidebar? That's what's gotten me banned. There was a special YouTube link on it that was able to sidestep the Internet blocks. There was also a MySpace link of the same kind, only it was barely functional, seeing as you couldn't log on.

And so now what does one do?

Thespis

2008-04-19T12:19:00.004-06:00

Do any of you know who Thespis is?

The king of theatre, founder of acting itself.

I'm not sure he ever even close to imagined acting like it is today. I may or may not have mentioned that I joined the school Spring Play. It's pretty fun, but it's rather difficult. The times of the practices are usually 3:30 to 6:00 PM, but the play's almost here and we're doing night practices now - 6:30 to 10:00.

The acting is fun, but it's hard work. One of the reasons I have been posting much is because I've been running lines. This week and weekend is our performance week, and I doubt I will get anything done but acting. Today is our first performance for the Senior Class. I have a semi-large role. But I'm not nervous. I'm ready.

The play's called "Totally Over You", and it's about four boyfriends who get dumped by their girlfriends who want to date celebrities. The boyfriends then proceed to trick the girls into thinking that they are celebrities. It's a comedy.

If anyone in the area would like to see it, it's everyday from Thursday to Saturday at 7:00 PM and Noon on Sunday. I'll see you out there.

Back from McCall

2008-04-13T19:27:00.000-06:00

In celebration of the end of radiation, our family and Troy went up to our cabin in McCall this weekend. It was a short trip but Troy, Andy, and I all got to get one last day of skiing in at Tamarack. I'll probably give you some pictures and videos of that at some point.

At any rate, Dad seems to be doing pretty well. He's still not quite himself, but I can't expect that so soon after finishing radiation. He's still taking plenty of medications to help him. But my point is, he is recoverng, however slowly. That's all I can wish for.

This week will be somewhat busy. I have a BK band concert and tour in the middle of the week as well as a shadow on Wednesday. I'll make sure I'll get some footage from the concert for all of you. Hopefully I'll come up with something to write about too. Because I'm stuck. Ah well.

Such is the life of a blogger.

Last Day Of Radiation

2008-04-10T15:16:00.000-06:00

Today was Dad's last day of radiation. We've come a long way since Groundhog's Day. It's been more than two months. As many of you know, my Dad, Gary, has been taking radiation treatment for a while now. And today was his last day.

He's doing alright now. He's still not quite himself, and won't be for about a week. But then, if everything goes well, he will be himself again. He'll recover.

Well it's in fate's hands now. I'll keep him in my prayers.

USJ

2008-04-06T10:37:00.006-06:00

I have a lot of memories from eighth grade. It was a really great year for me. That may be why I wrote so much at the time.

One of my favorite memories from the eighth grade though, is the USJ. What's that you ask? Well it's the United States of Joe! One day I decided we needed some sort of organization to unify the class. And I knew I was the perfect guy to do it. So the USJ was born!

Right away, I had many loyal subjects: Zack Funke, Andy Harrington, Richie Harrison, and most of the boys in the class all joined right off the bat. With a growing population, I gathered the necessary props - a flag with Latin words on it and a cool emblem, a national anthem, and some incentive for other people to join.

First off was the flag. I had just read House of the Scorpion and I thought that the emblem should be a cool-looking scorpion. So I googled scorpion and found a nice one. As for the words, I used Paint and inserted "USJ" and "LIBERTATOS NOSTRORUM NUMQUAM CAPIENT" which means "the freedom of us shall never be taken." (I was thinking about Braveheart at the time...)

Next up was the anthem, and it was unanimous. We held a vote, and the anthem became "We're Not Gonna Take It!" Before the week had passed, the class would randomly burst out into a chorus of our anthem.

And finally came the incentive. I had saved up $20 for something like this. What do all eighth graders like? Candy! So off to Albertsons. Before you know it, we had a personalized goody bag with four candies in each one and labeled for each citizen of the USJ. The morale of my subjects soared, and I soon had many new citizens.

But of course, this couldn't last forever. Before the nation could live long, we found opposition from a few of the boys. Which wouldn't be a problem if they hadn't been the largest and toughest boys in the school. We soon found ourselves challenged to an airsoft war. But before I could organize one, I came down with appendicitis. My Vice President had to take over, but he was not exactly liked in this new position of power. Morale went down, and when I came back to school, weak as I was, the USJ no longer had the strength to counter the threats that it was receiving from these boys. And so ended the USJ.

But it was one of my great memories from the eighth grade. And it's another perfect example of me taking joy in the randomness of life. It's what I do best. And I will never forget those happy months that I was the president of the USJ...

Mondays, Part 2

2008-04-06T10:18:00.004-06:00

Here's another part of my half-finished book. If you want to read the first part, here it is.
Mondays
A little background information - I wrote most of this while I was in eighth grade. At that time I went to St. Mary's Catholic School. Great place. At any rate, recess was a very big thing for most of the students, mostly because of competition. As eighth graders, we played the seventh graders in football. It often got really tense and at times both teams were known to cheat and play dirty. It was mostly from this that inspired this 2nd part of my book.
Enjoy! Comment if you like it!

After Algebra, there was History with Mrs. Lancaster. As usual in the class, I sat with everyone else, but read ahead, ignored the teacher’s discussion and did none of the checkpoint questions that everyone else did. So far, I’d been doing this for a month with no consequences. While they were reading about the War of 1812, I was reading about the end of the Depression. I had asked Mrs. Lancaster if she knew that I wasn’t with the class, but she just laughed and told me to do my work. She was a character.

While switching back to homeroom Andy bumped into me and said, “You suck. Wait for me next time you jackass.” I did my best to ignore the comment, and set my things on my desk. It was hard to ignore him sometimes, but it was always harder to punish him for it. For example, if I punched him for insulting me or annoying me, he would not logically link the two together and stop doing what caused me to punch him, but defiantly say something along the lines of “I didn’t do anything. You’re just a jerk.” This did nothing for either of us but further infuriated me. But for now it didn’t matter what he said to me. It was time for recess.

The school was small, maybe two hundred kids for the nine grades it offered: Kindergarten through eighth grade. Each of the grades got recess, but this was the last year that I would get the privilege before high school. The upper grades- the fifth, sixth seventh, and eighth grades- had their recess right after the lower grades, which were fourth on down.

As for the games, classes usually compete against the others. Eighth versus Seventh; Sixth versus Fifth; and so on. The sport was a variable, and the game pool included kickball, bump, basketball, dodgeball, four-square, wallball, red-ass, and many others. But the eighth and seventh played two-hand-touch football out on the grass field. It was what the two classes lived for. There was rivalry and friendship out on that field, and each football game was better than the last.

I ran out onto the field to face the seventh grade with my team. The odds were stacked against us. They had perhaps a seven-man advantage. Nick, our quarterback was shouting orders at everyone. We were receiving the kickoff. The ball soared into the end zone and Mark kneed it for a touchback. Hike! Nick dumped it to Luke, who made some good running yardage. Hike! An incomplete pass. Hike! A long pass to Mark. Hike! A short dump to me, touchdown. Score, 1-0, us.

I was a surprised at a touchdown so early; we weren’t usually this smooth this early in the game. When you’re in a football game and you’re outnumbered, no yardage marks, and no first downs, it’s hard to get a good start. On top of that, there were no referees, so if they cheated, than oh well.

We kicked off and I managed to tag the recipient before he could make it too far. John and I rushed Peter, the seventh grade quarterback. We had to rush through maybe three times as many blockers, but we pretty consistently made it through and if we didn’t make a sack, then we at least put good pressure on their QB, Peter.

So it was their ball. Hike! John and I sack Peter. Hike! QB run, maybe a ten yard gain. Hike! Incomplete pass. Punt! A quick recovery for us. We didn’t do so well for the next series of plays, and the game continued in such patterns until the score was 2-2, until it was late in the game. We had the ball perhaps fifteen yards from the end zone. It was fourth down, too long to give an easy pass, and too short to give a soaring one. I whispered to John, “I’ll be open.” On the hike, I ran straight into the end zone as fast as I humanly could. Still running, I turned to see the ball hurtling toward me. Still running, I felt my foot connect with a leg, and tripped over it. Crashing down, I saw Peter grin and make a grab at the ball.

He missed of course, but my class immediately sprang into action. John, having seen the deliberate tripping laid Peter out on the grass, and the seventh graders tried to come and wrestle us down. They weren’t able to; they couldn’t. While our age and strength may not be much use for two-hand-touch football, any sevie would be sadly outmatched to us when it came to fighting. But it was very hard for seven of us to fend off fifteen of them, even with our advantage of strength.

There wasn’t much else but tackles, but the two classes were in an all-out brawl by the time a teacher came and broke it up. He took the ball and said a little speech about our behavior, and said that the next time it happened, it would be gone for the week. It’s a simple thing to say, right? Not for him. He turned this into a five-minute long ordeal. I didn’t pay much attention, but there was something strange about how he said the speech. It was probably just that his voice kept on squeaking in the middle of it. I didn’t care. He was a pathetic teacher, and I had disliked him ever since I first set foot in the school. The only reason we hadn’t gotten in worse trouble was because he wouldn’t have known how to deal with it. All I gathered was that if it happened again, the football would be taken.

The bell rung and we clamored up the stairs, walked past the huge map of the world, and into our separate classrooms with plenty of exchanged glares.

To Be Continued...

Boredom VS. Stress

2008-04-03T10:04:00.005-06:00

Well I'm stuck again. This time it's at school. I've basically decided that I'm not going to do any homework. I just don't want to work right now so soon after spring break. Luckily, this hasn't hurt me too much because BK has kind of been going easy here, letting there students down easy. It's a good thing too, I wouldn't be able to handle regular weeks of school right now.

Since I stopped doing homework, I've actually felt better as far as my health. But to counter that, I have become tired and bored at points in the day. It's almost seems synonymous with how energy is always conserved. General mood seems to be conserved as well, at least for me. I can switch some of the stuff around, but it'll probably stay about the same.

So what's better? Being unproductive, but bored and tired? Or being productive, but feeling stressed? Most people would agree that it is the second choice, because the second choice allows for doing homework and projects and all that. In fact, most people try to stear clear of that first choice. But I'm trying it out for a little bit. I think it's best to find a balance between these two. It's not good to be lazy all the time, but being obsessed with work is probably not good either.

And so I find a balance. And it's what I call living. I'm not constantly working and I'm not always lazy, but I'm able to do both. Sometimes this means that I miss a homework assignment. So be it. I will not sacrifice all of my spare time and energy micromanaging my life just so I can get good grades. But I won't sacrifice all of my schoolwork so I can live a stress-free, boredom-riddled life.

So when it comes to Boredom vs. Stress, I use an old trick that any skilled musician does when he doesn't know exactly what to do. Improvise. Go with the flow. And for Goodness' sake, try to make it look good.

Maybe Our Last Day of Skiing?

2008-04-01T09:44:00.007-06:00

There's me going off the dip. I'm actually in the air but it's hard to tell from this picture.
There's my brother going off the grind. Here's two pictures from the peak of Tamarack.
One of Troy's cool jumps...

So it was a great last day of skiing! Next year it'll be even better...

Foreshadowing The Summer

2008-03-31T10:06:00.001-06:00

Ah, Boise in the Summertime.....

Well It's Monday. Again. And we all know what that means. Spring Break's over. Pack away the skis and the kites and the Wii and break out the books. What fun.

But we all have to face it at some point. School will come again, no matter how much a student groans about it. The only thing we can do is enjoy the breaks we get and try to do well as always.

I spent my Spring Break at home. I didn't go on a trip or anything, just hung out with friends around town and went to the Y and that sort of thing. Part of this was because Mom wanted us to be around to watch after Dad, and the other part was just that nobody really felt like going on a trip to anywhere. I've got a feeling this past week has been a glimpse of what summer will be like for me. An appetizer to keep me content for the rest of the school year. And then comes the entree, the jewel of every teen's year.

I haven't said anything about my plans for this summer, have I? Will luckily, I'm not terribly busy with anything, but just enough to keep me from spending too long doing any one thing. First off, every morning, starting at the beginning of the summer, I will have to get up early and bike, in the cold, to Lowell Pool for swim team. After an hour of swimming, I will shower, dress, and probably bug Troy before going back to my house to bug my parents. And once every few months, we'll have a swim meet (painful ritual - you spend hours and hours bored out of your mind so you can spend approximately two minutes of actual time in the water). Second off, on top of that, I will take part in "The Cabin", a local writing seminar for teens and kids. It will take place all week and we will probably check out some of the cool nature spots around Boise, especially near Camelsbak and the Greenbelt. Thirdly, I am signed up for an exciting two weeks at Camp Orkilah, a YMCA camp in the San Juan Islands. I took part in this camp last year, but to a lesser extent - I spent one week at the camp plus one overnight. This time around I will be spending a week at the camp and a week kayaking. Yeah, kayaking. It's gonna be great. I hope I can take some great photos while I'm up there.

And so begins the countdown to summer. It's approximately eight more weeks of school. And with each passing day I think about all the cool stuff that I will get to do this summer. The clock's ticking, and each tick will me remind of what's to come.

P.S.

2008-03-28T20:56:00.001-06:00

By the way everyone, my name is Joe Cieslak. Actually it's Joseph but I go by Joe. I've never actually given out my name on this blog, minus one or two occasions in my early days. And while I know that most of my readers know me personally, I just want to clarify for my occasional unknown reader that I am Joe Cieslak.

100th Post!

2008-03-23T13:43:00.007-06:00

Well everyone, here it is. My 100th post.

I don't know what to say here. I'm glad I've made it this far. I don't want to act like I've just gotten an award or something, I just want to say thanks to all of the people that kept me blogging.

Thanks!

Well, 100 posts, that's quite a milestone to pass. I've been aiming for it ever since I started. Every single one of my posts has the label alcatraz014 so that you can easily see just how many posts I've done. And now I'm finally in the triple-digits. I wonder, in seven or so years, will I be celebrating my 1000th post? Who knows?

At any rate, I'm really glad for all of my readers, so thanks Brian. Thanks Calvin. Thanks Silver. Thanks Bronte. Thanks Zack. Thanks Micheal. Thanks Seth Remling. Thanks all of you at BK who occasionally read me in your Computer Apps while you're trying to get to my game links. Thanks to all of you.

And to celebrate this, I am finally registering myself a domain. I will now be Therandomnessoflife.com!

Well I guess I'll just keep blogging now that I've made it this far. Keep reading!

Norms of Society

2008-03-22T17:20:00.007-06:00

I am not normal. I'm sure most of you have realized this by now. And on top of that, I am not cool. I do not enjoy rap or MTV or shooting games or football or basketball or cars or metallica or drugs or any of that. So that leaves me in the category of free-thinking individuals. Alright, that's probably a little harsh. But sometimes I wonder if it's true. Because it seems as if sometimes that so long media fits into this vague list of "cool" things it's automatically liked without any thought processes from the judge.

What I'm trying to get to are a few big questions about the society we live in. Are the idols of society actually morally impressive or even impressive by general, unbiased terms? Is fitting in anything to be proud of anymore? And how do we know?

The best way to compare society's standards to morality and pride is to compare it to a set of standards that are unchanging. Because society's standards are always changing. The N-word used to be perfectly acceptable to society, but today it is a horrible insult. In bathhouses of Victorian England, women were expected to wear cloaks and dresses in the water weighed down by lead pellets to counteract their skirts' buoyancy. Today women are expected to wear bikinis. Society's standards are always changing, and always will be so long as our culture changes.

Where could we go to find an unchanging set of reliable standards then?

Religion. Go to the Old Testament, Go to the New Testament, take out the too religious stuff (he who does not believe in me may not have eternal life), and you'll have a fine set of standards right there to compare to society. So compare, in your own mind, our society to our religious standards.

I did. I wasn't impressed.

Look at our society! Look at what's playing on the radio, what's playing on popular TV channels, what's playing in the movies, what people are listening to, what people are playing. We've got rap, MTV garbage, R-rated movies, more rap, and games like Condemned 2: Bloodshot (total gore fest). So what sort of qualities is this sort of society encouraging? Any good ones?

Which brings me back to a question I asked earlier. Is fitting in anything to be proud of anymore? You'll have to make your own decision.

Dress Code

2008-03-20T17:00:00.000-06:00

As I've said before, I go to Bishop Kelly Catholic High School. Somehow, though, I've failed to mention a certain dress code that binds all students of Bishop Kelly. A dress code that I usually abide by, but recently slipped and got a violation. Apparently if you get two violations in the whole school year, you have to serve a detention. The third and fourth violations are equal to in-school suspensions.

Well that's just bull if you ask me. For punishment, we sit in this little room with a one-sided mirror and copy down, word-for-word, the dress code policy. Now I am no fast writer. I can text. I can type. But write? You'd have to give me some time. And here is what I (and plenty others before me) had to write down, out of the student handbook:

DRESS CODE POLICY Philosophy: The purpose of the dress code policy is to contribute to the academic atmosphere of the school, to give students a sense of equality, and to lend dignity to both the individual and the school, while providing a sense of school unity and identity. The intent of this policy is to provide general guidelines for students, parents, and faculty so that expectations are clear. General Dress Code: All clothing articles should be well-kept, clean, neat and should fit appropriately. Pants - Dress slacks, business casual, khaki style, or cargo pants are acceptable and must be worn at the waist. No denim, camouflage, or athletic pants may be worn. Belts - Belts must be worn with pants that have belt loops. Shorts - Walking or cargo shorts may be worn and must extend past mid-thigh. Athletic, mesh, denim, frayed or cut-off shorts are not allowed. Skirts/Skorts – Skirts/Skorts may be worn by female students and must extend to the top of the knee when standing up straight. No denim is allowed. Shirts – All shirts must have collars and sleeves. Mock and full turtlenecks are acceptable collars. Shirts may be worn untucked if the hem is straight and does not extend past the belt line. All other shirts need to be completely tucked in. Shirts must be buttoned and worn appropriately to not show excessive neckline. Sweatshirts/Fleece/Crewneck Sweaters – Bishop Kelly, college/university, or unadorned/plain sweatshirts or crewneck sweaters may be worn with or without a collared shirt beneath it. No other sweatshirts or crewneck sweaters are allowed. Jackets/Sweaters – V-neck, button up, and zip-up sweaters, jackets and hoodies may be worn as an addition to the above stated “shirts” policy. Jewelry – Jewelry should be worn in moderation and in good taste. Excessive jewelry and ornamentation is not acceptable. Body Piercing/Tattoos – With the exception of earrings for female students, no other body piercing or tattooing is allowed to be visible. Hats/ Head Coverings – Head coverings of any kind are considered inappropriate for the school environment. No hats, visors, hoods, stocking caps, beanies, or bandanas are to be worn in the building. Shoes – Shoes must be safe and appropriate for school. Bedroom slippers are never allowed. Hair Requirements – Hair should be kept neat, clean, trimmed appropriately and properly styled. No unnatural hair colors are allowed. Hair styles should not become a distraction to the learning environment for the individual or for others. The expectation for male students is that hair should be out of the eyes when hanging naturally, off of the collar when hanging naturally, and cut above the earlobes. If a student’s hair is not appropriate, the student will be given 3 days to comply with a request from the administration and after that time the student will be placed in “In-School Suspension” until the hair is appropriate. Facial Hair is not permitted. Mass Dress: The Mass Day dress code is designed to reflect dignity and respect. Boys must wear collared shirts (No Polo Shirts) with a tied necktie and long slacks or khaki pants all day. Girls must wear dresses or skirts and collared blouses, or dress slacks and collared blouses all day. No flip-flops or sweatshirts are to be worn on Mass Days. Spirit/Team Dress: On designated spirit days, all students will be allowed to wear Bishop Kelly tee shirts. On game/competition days not designated as a school-wide Spirit Day, team members may dress alike in the spirit of team unity and school pride. Team dress includes appropriate clothing outlined in the Bishop Kelly Dress Code, Bishop Kelly tee shirts, and/or jerseys with sleeves. Consequences: The dress code is in effect from the beginning of the school day until the end, which will be signified by the first and last bell. Students will not be permitted in class if they are out of dress code. Any class time missed due to being out of dress code will be considered as an unexcused absence, and credit for any class work missed shall not be granted. Students not in dress code will need to: 1. correct the problem immediately 2. call parents for a change of clothing if the problem cannot be corrected, or 3. remain in In-School Suspension until the problem is corrected or until the school day ends. Dress Code Violations are cumulative through the academic year. The first violation will be a written reprimand/warning; a second violation will be an After-School Detention; any subsequent violations will result in a one-day, In-School Suspension.

I doubt you'll look through all of this, but personally, I think it's ridiculous. Because there's something that comes up long before the dress code policy, right there at the beginning of the student handbook.

OUR BELIEFS
† JESUS CHRIST is our ultimate teacher and role model.
† Learning is our priority.
† Moral development and service to others is central to learning.
† All students strive for excellence consistent with ability.
† All students are valued for their unique spiritual, intellectual, moral, physical, social, creative and emotional gifts and needs.
† Our Christian learning environment is the responsibility of students, parents, teachers, staff, coaches, alumni, and administrators.
† Continuous improvement is imperative to developing lifelong learners.

Notice the first statement of beliefs. Jesus Christ... would he enforce a dress code as strictly as Bishop Kelly does? Where three dress code violations throughout the entire school year result in an in-school suspension? This argument probably doesn't hold up, but I wish that we didn't have to put up with such ridiculous restrictions from a place that constantly preaches tolerance and kindness. Well that's my spin on things anyway.

Money

2008-03-19T07:59:00.005-06:00

I have apparently zero control over my money flow. I try to ration my money throughout the month so I have enough for lunches but still can afford a big purchase at the end of the month. The secret to saving money here is streamlining. 0A lot of the stuff someone gets in a month is completely unnecessary. Streamlining is recognizing the pointless stuff and avoiding it.

You'd be surprised how much this can do. If I do it right, then I'll only spend $10 in a week on lunches. That means about $40 a month. My budget's $100 a month. So if I just paid for my simple lunches, I would have $60 for movies, games, eBay, whatever.

Of course, it's not so easy just to spend money on simple $2 lunches. Just today, I was walking around with $14 dollars in my pocket. Keep in mind that's more than 10% percent of my entire budget. After a lunch, a Subway dinner, and a battle of the Rockband all in that day, my wallet was dry.

I just need to stop spending so much and start saving more. Easier said than done.

The New Me!

2008-03-18T12:06:00.004-06:00

And here it is. I'm bald. Well, close enough.

The Old Me

2008-03-14T12:03:00.001-06:00

This will be the last day that I have all my hair. This is what I look like now...

Flight Of The Conchords

2008-03-13T08:39:00.001-06:00

Flight of The Conchords
(Funny video)

Does it work?

Oh bloody hell, these videos never work on my blog. It'll be on my sidebar though for a week if you care enough to take a look. Scroll down...