Pulling a Fast One (Clothes)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Drama Indeed

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

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

Shame on me.

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

Dull! Ha!

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

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

Overwhelmed

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

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

The Randomness of Life

What it means to be Joe Cieslak:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Arranging the music for a videogame concert.

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

Getting back at your swim coaches.

Writing a novel, very slowly.

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

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

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

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

Questioning everything, everyone.

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

Update

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pictures from VHL Stock!

Right Here.

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

Back to School...

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

Swim Team: Concluded

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

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

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

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

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

VHL-Stock

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Good, The Bad, and Brian

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

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

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

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