25 Random Things

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!

Random Acts of Kindness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I was done ding-dong ditching after that.

There actually is a Random Acts of Kindness Foundation.

The Two Backpacks

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

Why?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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