Sore Shoulders

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

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

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

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

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

End-of-the-year Projects

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

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

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

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


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

Dan

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

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

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

Finals are drawing ever nearer...


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

Random Acts of Kindness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I was done ding-dong ditching after that.

There actually is a Random Acts of Kindness Foundation.

A difference

-Barilan's map of the Internet-

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

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

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

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

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

An apology

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

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

Lackluster

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

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

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

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

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

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

A little bit more of Christmas

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

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

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

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

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


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

A little bit of Christmas

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

Dead Man Walking

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

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


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