How To Be Sick...

I'm would say I'm an expert on being sick. Last year I was sick quite often due to a lack of sleep. Pretty much when you don't sleep, your immune system kinda shuts down...which isn't good.

Luckily I have improved the area of sleeping quite greatly this year, and haven't missed a day of school yet. I guess I had been well for a while now, and I didn't seen it coming. Last night, I was really thirsty. I figured I was just dehydrated, but I kept getting more and more water. My throat aching for it. I thought it weird but went to bed, and didn't worry about it.

I woke up at about three this morning to do a couple of homework assignments I was unable to do on Saturday since I left my textbooks at home and I was at my Dad's house. My head was pounding and my throat still hurting. But I figured it was all happening because I had just gotten up early. I finished my homework and went back to sleep. The next time I woke up felt officially sick.

That is why I wasn't at school today. But no worries because even though I felt ridiculously cruddy, I was lucky enough for Winston to send me some wonderful texts to cheer me up. First ,"I u sick?" Good to see you care Winston...you always take the time to write in proper grammar especially for me, and you even proof-read your messages before sending. When I responded with a "yeah" he sent me another great message, "But today is your day!" Yes, today was superhero day, and I was looking forward to it. Thanks for reminding me Winston...it made me feel so much better.

Sorry if I sound bitter. Heroes comes on tonight though! That's exciting!!!!!!!

-Brianna Rosier

PS I didn't mean to be so harsh to Winston...

Legally Blonde and other things on my mind

Hello there, blue powerblogger here!

So I just finished watching one of my favorite movies of all time, Legally Blonde. I don't just love the movie because of its humorous quotes or the quirky characters, but I am really inspired by the message that it sends the audience: Nothing is impossible if you try hard enough.

We see this theme with our young sorority girl, Elle Woods, who decides to enroll in Harvard Law. She defies all stereotypes and expectations as she continues to move up in her education and career. She basically tells all people (girls, in particular) that we can be anyone we want to be and we can do anything we want to do, as long as we have faith in ourselves.

This is especially applicable in my life.

I've always been really short and skinny, so people don't think I am capable of many things. For instance, I am constantly asked if I need help reaching things which are totally within arms length or if I need help carrying things. And they think I suck at all athletics, especially ultimate frisbee (thanks, Sam) and that I am generally weak and frail. But I am not! Nobody seems to believe me! This has caused me to overachieve at everything in life, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it can be a bit taxing at times. People just don't believe in me. I mean, my family is supportive, but my peers aren't.

I have also chosen career paths which are out of the norm for a person like me. Initally, I had wanted to be a singer. I loved the fact that my shortness worked to my advantage, that it added to the WOW! factor. People enjoyed hearing such a loud, powerful voice from such a tiny person. This helped me really accept my height and come to see it as a trait that made me unique. My current career choice is to be an architect, which defies many social and gender boundaries. Normally, engineers are nerdy males with extensive knowledge of computers, math, and/or Star Trekk. I know this from personal experience. Engineers are rarely semi-popular girls who are obsessed with clothes, boys, and cupcakes, like me. But I love the fact that I am a minority in engineering. I love the fact that there are only five girls in my engineering class of thirty-three people, and I am still one of the best students. I love the fact that if any of my classmates need help, they know to ask me. It gives me a sense of female empowerment, and a sense of accomplishment. Plus, I will always be surrounded by plenty of intelligent guys in the engineering career.

So I guess the moral of the story is that you can do the impossible if you set your mind to it.

It's the way I live my life.

That's all for now,
-Caroline

The Green Power Blogger's Music Career

Hello people. I'm just here with a throbbing knee that kept me from playing tennis today (nooooooooooooooooooooo....). This week was a tough week because I got less and less sleep along with the overburdening homework. But I'm not here to bore with you my problems. Instead I'm going to bore you with my musical past.

It all started when I was about 4 or 5. Piano was pressed upon me and my parents expected me to uphold the stereotype I was going to be in the future. Piano lessons went on for about a year (maybe a little more) and I have to say it was the least enjoyable experience of my childhood. I would cheat and not practice when the teacher left the room, I frequently wanted to quit, I did not want to practice at home, and I was a total brat. My parents reluctantly agreed one day for me to quit and I did not have to worry about anything musical until 4th grade.

Ah yes, fourth grade was when a new, alienish piece of wood was introduced to me: the violin. My mom signed me up for orchestra to see if I would like it. Haunted by the memories of my piano lessons, imagine my reaction. I dreaded and counted down the days until the inevitable day where I would meet the dark teacher. Her name was Mrs. Thomas and I have to admit she was a pretty enjoyable teacher. All of us would take out our rental violins and attempt to play those scratchy, sour notes until the calluses formed on our finger tips. To my surprise, it was much easier than I thought thanks to the hated year of piano lessons. With my prior training in the finger-coordination arts, I picked up violin pretty quickly and became the "concert master" in the elementary school.

I thought I was progressing at a good pace but my mother thought it would be better if I took private lessons. Dark teacher #3 was Shelly. She was a very bubbly lady with a fiery passion for fiddling (no joke, she was VERY enthusiastic about it). She taught me every single thing there was to violin: rhythm, site reading, intonnation, shifts, scales, and above all, how to play dynamics with feeling. She also gave me the experience of playing in front of an audience.... alone. And so, the confident little me set out for middle school and my teacher was also confident that I would shine. She gave me a collection of Suzuke books and I was off to show the world what I could do with my violin... in middle school.

Dark teacher #4 was Mr. Miller. Mr. Miller was an awesome teacher who taught me how to play in a non-solo style (in other words how to play with other people). I hated blending with the orchestra back then and would play out a lot. That was also the year where I was shown what true skill was. There were two people in the orchestra and I was amazed at their playing levels. Their names were Bri and Phil. I couldn't believe it. They were so brilliantly amazing while I was stuck with my mediocre skills. However, I discovered a new talent hidden in me that neither of them had. I could memorize a piece by simply remembering the feeling of the piece. I felt special ^-^. But Bri, Phil, and the soon to come Bailey were so much better in every way that my memorization skills seemed like nothing. I had Mr. Miller for a long 5 years (he followed us to high school) and my fire for the violin was burning out....

I just lost all interest for the violin. I wanted to practice less, I quit my private lessons, my two violins were gathering more and more dust, and my bond towards the violin was hanging on by a thread. The culprits were praise and worship. I was looking at our church band play and noticed that it was slowly disbanding. It got to the point where there was only a drummer, pianist, and singer. I wanted to worship so bad yet I had nothing to contribute except for violin... but we had no use for that. So one day, the ex-guitarist said to me," You should take up guitar. It's not that much different than the violin and it's way more fun to play." And so a new fire started to burn. I was all for the guitar and I really wanted to go up to the stage and play in the praise band. I practiced with my dad's guitar for a month and quickly got the hang of all the basic chords. In the end, violin took backseat and guitar came out as my new instrument. I loved it and I still do. It helped me in many ways than one (spiritually mostly) and I even wrote a few songs with it.

So now you know why I keep saying that I'll never go back to orchestra. Sorry if I cut the post a little short at the end or if you thought the post was long and nothing but gibberish.... but I have to start my homework now. So join us tomorrow with another juicy and scrumptious post of Caroline.

-June

Random Question: If a man was beating you with his prosthetic leg, would it be kicking or hitting?

Counting Down

Someone told me that this might be the last Power Blogger post he ever reads. And I feel really bad, because maybe Friday wasn't the best day to pick for your last day because it is not really the most entertaining.

It would be really, really amazing if the mold would go away.

I wrote a lot for this post but ended up deleting most of it.

A new Killers album is coming out in two months!

	The Last Goodnight - Stay Beautiful
	Found at skreemr.com

-Kejing

My name is not "Cole's Girlfriend"

Hey, everyone. It's Catherine, filling in for my absolute best friend in the entire world lyk omg: Jonathan. Some of you may not know me very well, and some of you may not know me at all. Maybe to you I am "Cole's girlfriend" (which annoys me to no end), or, if you remember wayyy back, "Jonathan's ex."

I could introduce myself, but what to say? I am Catherine. That's kind of it. I'm not used to this whole "blogspot" thing. I'm a devoted Xanga loyalist.

I wish I had something particularly insightful and eloquent to say, but I don't. I've been trying to think of something to talk about, and I can't come up with much. Jonathan told me to avoid the topic of religion, which is too bad, because I have my own two cents. I could talk about homosexuality (omg Clay Aiken and Lindsay/Sam in one week?!!?), abortion, or Sarah Palin, but I'm probably too liberal to even open my mouth in this arena.

I think I'll discuss the future.

We are almost done with high school. Okay, maybe not. We are juniors. First quarter juniors. But we are very close to being done. So close, in fact, it's scary. But it's exciting, isn't it? Looking at colleges, touring campuses, declaring a major (or two, if you're me), getting to soon study what you want and move on with your life...

I am usually very secure in what I want to do. But today, during PSAT practice in AP Lang, I realized (like I do occasionally) that I have so many things I want to accomplish.

Degrees I want in my lifetime:
Astronomy/Astrophysics B.S.
Space Sciences M.S., PhD
Aerospace Engineering B.S., M.S., PhD
And then, in order of interest and importance...
Neuroscience M.S., maybe PhD
Chemistry (probably M.S. since I plan on minoring in chem), maybe PhD
Religious studies
Food and Nutrition Sciences -- Dietetics/Clinical Nutrition
Voice performance

I don't have enough time in my life to learn all of this and actually find a way to use it all! I want so badly to work for NASA and be a part of the new Constellation program, but I want to be a neuroscientist. I want to help eating disordered patients (even though I should probably go through recover myself first). I want to study religion. Agghhh, life is too short.

I am so excited for the future, though. I can't wait. I need it so much.


And now, the past. I've been through my ups and downs. A slew of medical problems (most importantly chronic EDNOS ["eating disorder not otherwise specified;" in my case a combination of anorexia nervosa, exercise bulimia, and binge-eating disorders] of twelve years) almost landed me in a rehabilitation/treatment facility for thirty days this summer, with the doctors telling me I could die. But $30,000+ for 30 days of unwanted recovery isn't worth it to me, so I went to space camp instead, and had the time of my life. I came out as being bisexual in... I guess the fall of last year. (If any of you who know me are shocked, then you obviously haven't seen my facebook or been around me at all lately.) And middle school... oh those days. They were awful, but good. They are a giant blur, but every event is still very distinct. Visiting Deerlake makes me feel very tall and very old. Oh, and when I was five, I was genuinely convinced I was Pocahontas.


But I'm not trying to turn this into WAH WAH WAH MY PROBLEMS. But looking back on my life, it's interesting to see how I am the way I am and why. Have you thought about it lately? We're coming up on the truly "young adult" chapter of our lives. Do you know what made you you? Can you think of one or two or five events that completely changed your life? I know it's a lame thing to ask, but sometimes it's good to reflect.




Now, I want to mention something kind of cool. Synesthesia. Do you have it? I do. It's INTENSE. I see music in colors, I can taste some words (beach=distinct taste of salt, which makes sense), certain months have certain colors, and I could never explain how I mentally envision time/calendars and the number line through written word. I'd draw a picture, but it's not good enough. I could verbally explain it some day if you wish. But seeing as we're all gifted here, you all probably have some degree of it. I think it's why I'm so interested in neuroscience. I guess if a career with NASA/the space program falls through, I'd probably be a neuroscientist who studies synesthesia and similar subjects.


Now, another topic. Cole told me he'd be embarrassed if I talked about him in a mushy lovey dovey way. So I won't. I will make the announcement that a week form today marks one year and eight months with that kid, which is cool. I will also say that he told me I (the future astrophysicist/aerospace engineer) have the responsibility of designing our future home, making it as eco-friendly as possible, while he (the future doctor of some type) will, well, keep us from dying. We bicker a lot, and we are extremely obnoxious, and some of my friends can't believe we actually tolerate each other.
He is a very stoic guy, which is cool with me now that he's made me less of an emotional person. He isn't a movie-esque boyfriend who is constants love and kisses and butterflies and roses, which is cool with me, too... most of the time. He has quite the mouth and will say some pretty vulgar stuff...if you haven't experienced the Real Cole, you would be shocked. We're just really chill, and I like it. We lie on the couch and watch movies (Yeah, we actually watch them.), or we lie in bed and watch Scrubs or Flight of the Conchords, or we play video games, or something else terribly tame, like watching Britcoms with his mother or hanging out at the College of Engineering with one of his brothers.
He's cute. I don't know. There's not really a point to all of that rambling except for that I like him. Lots of people don't like that we're together (which is weird, because they don't know me or him), but whatever.


Well, now that I've written a novel, I guess I'll sign off.
You can find me at http://www.xanga.com/walkintotheseaaa/


Maybe you know me a bit better now.
Or maybe you just hate me a bit more.
lol if it's the latter.

-Catherine Branch

A Softer World

Hey, this is Shuyao, substituting in for Viv!
She wished me to pass along that she is most terribly sorry for not being able to post today. Hopefully she will be back next week.

I don't really have much to talk about, so instead I would rather entertain you readers by posting some of my favorite "A Softer World" works here. It was so hard to choose my favorites... I narrowed it own to these 9... And I can't seem to cut it down any further. Hopefully this won't take up too much space...









These make me smile every time I read them.
Hope you guys enjoyed it!
-Shuyao

Randomness

Hey! This is Blair, Lacey couldn't do the post today. I can't really think of one specific thing to write about, so I'll just tell you about a bunch of random stuff!

Like 10 minutes ago, my dog got into the cat litter and barfed crap up like 20 times. It was really disgusting, trust me. I was gonna barf just listening to her. But it was really sad too, cause she looked so pathetic and her little belly was hurting! It's hard to stay mad at her for more than 5 minutes.

So I'm on the golf team and it's totally taking over my life. We have matches twice a week average and I usually have to miss 7th period, but at least it's only AP Lang. That class is like a joke. Still, on those days I don't get home till like 7 or 8 o'clock, then I have to take a shower and eat dinner and usually I have a show to watch too, so I don't start homework until almost 10. Then I only have enough energy to do like 10 minutes of work before I'm just like ehh I'm too tired, I can do this in the morning. So I wake up at like 6, do 2 hours of homework, and finish it up during my classes in school. It's a system I've mastered since this is my third year of this happening, but now I have no classes to do it in, which is bad because I can't finish my homework. Sometimes I really wish I could quit, but I enjoy playing (usually). The only saving grace is that the season is one of the shortest of any sport! Yay!!

I went shopping this weekend with Caroline and Erica and we all got homecoming dresses! I'm totally in love with mine. Its like a purple slip thing with black see-through fabric over it which makes the dress look dark purple. By the way, purple is my favorite color which is another reason I love it :) Then there's like a goldish strip around the waist or whatever it's called. And Dillard's was doing the coolest thing! They had a dress registry so they took down your name, number, and dress, so if someone from your school bought the same dress, they could tell the second person and if they still buy it then they can call you and let you know someone else will have your dress. I'm really excited for homecoming! It'd be nice to have a date, but its not that important. What sucks is that I'm taking the SAT the same day. But after that's over, I'll get to have a bunch of fun with my friends in celebration!

I found a new favorite movie. Its 'Another Cinderella Story,' the new Selena Gomez movie. I was surprised how good it was. Erica, Caroline and I even tried to learn one of the dances from it (check out the title link to see which dance). We got pretty good, too. I was totally shocked at how good of a dancer Selena Gomez was. I was so obsessed that I bought the CD on iTunes and have listened to it like 10 times already.

My computer's been acting up lately. My parents called our computer guy to come fix it, and he made it run a lot faster. Somehow, though, I had exceeded the memory....I don't know how. Also, the CD drive is loose which explains why it keeps opening randomly. So my stepdad brought it to the store today to get more memory and a CD drive. I came home so excited because I've been desperate to play the sims because I couldn't install it on my computer so I thought this could fix it. I tried to install it when I got home but the CD drive was screwing up still (oh yea, I forgot to say he didn't get the drive today because they had to order it so it'll be a week) so I'm still sad about that.

I didn't really bad on my calc test. I'm sad.

I can't tell but I think this post is really long, so....sorry!

~Blair

Memories (part one)

"Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose." -The Wonder Years

In the sixth grade I started straying away from my elementary school friends, not that I didn't like them. We had different classes, and we all kind of change when we go to middle school, do we not? My first of my new middle school friends were Lacey and Caroline. Mostly I didn't talk much when I was around them, as I felt I had nothing to say. I stay near Ally, who was and still is one of my closest friends, while she would chat mostly with Caroline. I noticed Lacey didn't speak much, but nor did I, so it didn't bother me. It wasn't until the seventh grade that I finally got to know Lacey. We were in the same C period (yes, the idiotic letter schedule) and we'd walk to lunch together. I used to tell her my theories and these crazy ideas I had. We often got into debates about topics. It was fun. We shared a many laughs and smiles. I went through something awful in the seventh grade. Lacey noticed when I stopped laughing. Are lunch trips were no longer were filled with chatter. She stuck by me though....even when she had no idea what was going on. And well, we've been friends ever since.

When I entered the gifted program in the third grade I was nervous and for weeks I didn't really talk to anyone (except Ally of course). I watched the kids for a while. I was the only one in my third grade class in the gifted program, so I didn't know a lot of the kids. One stood out as quite obviously the smartest. Viv. I didn't talk to her, but when she shared something with the class, it often went over my head. One time she read a short story she had written about protons and neutrons. We, a bunch of ten-year-olds, stared blankly at her as she laughed at some joke we couldn't even begin to understand. The first time she talked to me was in the fifth grade I believe. She asked me what my reading level was. I told her. She said, "Really!? Me and Catherine Branch are at that reading level, too." I thought it was so weird for her to ask me that. I can't imagine what fifth grade version of myself would have said had I told her that Viv would eventually come one of my best friends. Though, I think the younger version of me would be more surprised that someone had traveled from the future to talk to her....

I didn't have a lot of friends in my Math Research class (a class dedicated to practicing for Mu Alpha Theta) in the seventh grade. Normally I would sit behind Ally (sorry to keep bring her up, but it's just the way it is) but one day someone had taken my seat, and I was forced to sit at the next seat back. Behind me sat a boy. I had seen him around, even had some classes with him the year prior, but I had never really spoken to him. That day our teacher said to us, "We don't have the practice books yet. You'll just have to do your homework or read a book. If you don't have either of those write a letter to your grandmother, but stay quiet!" The boy behind me tapped me with his pencil. I assumed he just wanted to borrow a sheet a paper. Surely he did not want to talk to me? I'll I knew about him was his name, Jonathan. He pointed at his paper which said "Dear grandmother..." He grinned as he wrote down ridiculous things to his grandmother who would never receive this letter. I eventually turned around, being amused for all about 5 seconds. But he continued to tap in my shoulder, laughing at the new sentences he had come up with. Finally I told him to leave me alone, that he was being annoying. I think when I said that I finally gave him a reason for living. From that day one he came up with new ways to annoy me. Eventually he stopped doing so much crap to me, and we grew to be quite good friends.

-Brianna

(PS I'll have a few more parts coming, not just with the Power Bloggers, but with all my friends.)

(PPS Happy first day of fall!)

(PPPS Heroes premieres tonight!!!!!!)

Pineapple Tidbits Part 2

So today I am in a rather spacey mood, so my post is quite fitting.

First of all, I really like speaking/writing in this manner. I guess you could call it "old fashioned", but I much enjoy writing like I imagine a british american would talk. Using words such as "peculiar", "rather", "quite", etc. is quite to my liking. So that is the style in which I will write most of this post.

So there's this awesome new guy at our school named Conor. He is in my calculus class. He has lived in Scotland, Ireland, France, and Trinidad (and other places but they seem to have slipped my mind for the moment). He is totally cool, and he plays soccer, and he has an accent. We've adopted him into our group. If you go to our school, you should definitely try to meet him!

So I just got the old Paramore CD, All We Know is Falling. Its utterly amazing!!! I have fallen in love with the title track, "Pressure", "Emergency", and my favorite of all is "My Heart". I find the screamo in the latter quite unexpected, but refreshing at the same time. Its like a hardcore love song. They are still my obsession.

So I have started reading Twilight. I must confess that at first, I was rather skeptical about reading a story containing vampires. That kind of dark fantasy stuff usually totally turns me off, but I had to figure out who this Edward Cullen guy was! I started Friday night and I am already on page 157. Its most definitely a page-turner!!!

Our youth building at church was completely renovated, and I love love love the end results. Theres all new sound equipment, Xboxes, an air hockey table, and so much more! Our youth pastor believes that the mission work begins in our communities, and that a new building would be the initial attraction to people considering our youth program. But the bottom line is, its not about the building, its about the people. A lot of people were lost on this idea, and one of the most inspiring, amazing kids left our youth program. He had a true passion for God and a spirit that was on fire, but he just didn't feel that the renovation was necessary. This I have struggled with many a night, crying in my sleep about him leaving. Its something I am trying to come to terms with.

So I was conned into watching Another Cinderella Story this weekend by my friend Blair (=p). It was okay, I guess, but I HATE Selena Gomez. I don't really even know why. She is just annoying, and she sucks at singing and acting. But she can dance, I will give her that. What I don't understand is why they let Drew Seely play her love interest. He is ten years older than her! Thats bordering illegal. We also watched Tristian + Isolde, which was so romantic. I want my own Tristian!!! I do have one slight issue with that film as well, though. They didn't have a final moment of love! Tristian sent Isolde away in the boat, then went to fight, then was killed, and Isolde barely even got to speak with him! I prefer the kind of ending where they make up before one of them dies.

I got a homecoming dress this weekend, and it is beautiful!!! I am very excited about it! The dress is dark blue with a silver sash and silver beading on the bottom of the skirt. Very elegant, very sophisticated. And its usually quite a challenge for me to find a dress that I like. It has to comply with my hair color (red) my skin tone (pale) and my build (short and skinny). Also, it can't be excessively glittery, too revealing, or too hoochie.

Now I just need my date: I have a particular person in mind already. We are good friends, we talk everyday at school, and I always get 2-3 hugs from him (on average) a day. He's super nice, intelligent, and funny. Plus, he always smells sooooo good! I am asking him to go to homecoming with me as a friend, I have decided. Now I just have to work up the courage to actually do it!

So thats about it for now. I really wanna go continue reading Twilight!!!

Cheerio!

-Caroline

Let's Talk Tennis

Hello pplz. I just want to stress one thing before I talk about my post. I hate it when people use internet/text talk in real life >:( Well I suppose it tells people what your life is dominated by.

As many people know, I play tennis. Some of you think it's just a sport where you hit the ball, chase it, and hit the ball again. That's not entirely true. So here are some things you need to know in order to have a better understanding of what goes on during the match... And what I have to work on.

For the top players, tennis has a mental aspect to the game. It's like a physical chess. You have to hit the ball, move your feet, watch where you're going to aim, and get it in while trying to find your opponent's weakness. Now of course the other opponent will try to hide his or her weakness which (in my opinion) makes it more challenging. Sometimes their weakness isn't a stroke or how fast/slow they run. For example:
Opponent: This will be an easy game.
Me: Yeah. For me anyway.
If you're thinking that I'm a cocky, arrogant, little Asian kid then it's working. Making your opponent mad or getting them out of their comfort zone will make them play worse which in turn will up your game. Now that doesn't mean you should go up to them saying,"You're going to lose you !@#$ because your !@#$ mom is a *@#*^ little !@#$ and a !@#$." That's where sportsmanship comes in.

Your mood also affects your game. If you are an angry white kid (not talking to anyone in particular), then you will focus more on how much you are angry rather than the ball that is flying towards your face. You should have one of these two emotions when playing a serious tennis match:
1. Well, it's not really an emotion but you should have no emotion =D. It should be something like this: "Hit the ball, concentrate, dang I missed. What did I do wrong? Okay yeah let's try that. Next point." Compared to: "Hit the ball, concentrate, WHAT?!?!?! I MISSED! I TOTALLY SUCK! DANG I SUCK I SUCK I SUCK I SUCK I SU-.... Did the ball just fly pass me?"
2. Nothing but optimism. I try to do this when I play a match but I do let my frustration slip sometimes. When you're optimistic, you have a feeling as if you are never going to lose and that you are going to win every set. "Hit the ball, concentrate, I missed. Hah, he needed that point anyway. I was being nice. I'm such a good person. What did I do wrong there? Okay now let's not be nice to him on this point."
Tennis can bring out a person's true colors too. I've seen a bunch of nice looking people come up to me in tournaments and say:
Opponent: Hey, my name is ____. What's yours?
Me: Hey, I'm June. Are you ready to win?
Opponent: Naw man. You're probably going to beat me.
Me: Nah, you're going to win.
Opponent: Well anyway, let's have a good match.
When we step on the court, the person turns into a totally different person =O. He starts screaming at the top of his lungs, cursing, slamming his racket down, and he's totally mad. Tennis can be scary.

Last thing about tennis mentality: it's a game people. Games are invented so people can have fun. Professionals have a different kind of fun but they have fun nonetheless. So for those of you who play tennis (or any sport for that matter) think it's a chore, you should loosen up some. Without a sort of....passion I guess, you will never improve to the level you want to be.

Well that's all I can type today because have to go play tennis right now ^_^. So join us tomorrow for another spectacular post from Caroline, the blue power blogger!

-June

8:01pm ends civil twilight.

At lunch, the green power blogger got a brain freeze. June: AH I got a brain freeze. -short pause- Now I'm awake! So I guess the moral of the story is to self-inflict brain freezes if you would like to keep your eyes open for redox equations.
In Chem, we had quite a bit of time to socialize at the end. Well, that, or do the Ch 4 homework. Ryan came up to Vicky and me, holding a portion of the end of his hair, asking us why we were holding our hair, but Vicky wasn't. I was absentmindedly holding some of my hair, but Ryan... awww.
Megan is a very smart girl. So one day, I noticed that after math, she continued on the second story, entered the art hallway, and finally went down the stairs near the bus ramps. This saves time because of the congestion on the first floor. Today, Mrs. Little saw me. This reminded me of the times in the past when she suggested I take an AP art to relieve my stress. Today, she knew exactly what to ask: Are you busy this year?
On the way home, I was sitting on the bus with Jessica. It's probably stupid to remind you of how tired we were, but yeah, we were tired. As the bus continued to drive out of McBride Estates, a boy began to sing. "I kissed a girl, and I liked it..."
Vicky asked me how we could eat at the BBQ and Logan's. I said we could eat at both places. (I was kidding, by the way.) Vicky: But then we will be full. Me: So? Vicky: And then we will get fat! Well not you because you never get fat. (Dear Vicky. You are nowhere near fat. Love, Kejing.)
Each day of the week, I lose some sleep. By the end, it feels as if by natural laws I should not be functioning.
I've never been more entertained by a library receipt. It is pretty curved and short, so if you press quickly upon an end, then it can flip over.
I probably won't do homework this afternoon and that really is amazing.
I wish you the best of luck in pursuing a marvelous weekend or in some cases, another perfect Euro test scantron.
-Kejing

Harry Potter and Halloween

This Halloween, Friday, October 31st, 2008, something magical will weigh in the air. No, I'm not talking about the presence of black magic or sorcery. Rather, the magical substance will be merriment, the laughter of children, and doubt in the cynical reason that traditionally holds us hostage. (Ever notice that magic tricks have lost their luster, since we can see through the thinly veiled guise?) Anyway, I want children to believe, or at the very least not be able to explain what they just say.


Perhaps I should explain myself.. Instead of being lame and passing out candy at my house on Halloween, I decided to be a bit more proactive. Rebecca Atkins helped me to brainstorm, and the Harry Potter themed attraction was born. This Halloween, we'll be passing out candy, dressed from head to toe in Harry Potter garb, and preforming "magic." What kind of magic, you ask? Simple, really- A functioning Marauder's Map that only shows steps when you utter the enchantment " I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," Aragog the giant spider (en forme of a very large spider with glowing red eyes on a RC truck), Buffy (bat on zip line), and some other more chemistry related ideas. Here's a picture of the two critters!




So back to making children want to believe- When I dressed up completely for the Harry Potter costume contest for the last book at Borders, something unexpected and wonderful happened. The children there completely and undoubtedly believed I was Harry Potter. I was assaulted with personal questions, questions asking me what happens to be in the 7th book (which had a few hours to go before it was released), questions asking why I was still alive because, surely, I died in this book. I was also asked questions about Ginny, J.K. Rowling (one adorable girl thought she was my mom and that Lord Voldemort killed her), and the other cast of characters. What really got to me were the kids dying to have their pictures with Harry Potter. I am in probably more photo albums than I even would care to know, which is sort of cool and creepy at the same time. The older kids tended to doubt my authenticity and pressed me with Harry Potter trivial (which, by the way, I know by heart) couldn't pin me down into a proverbial corner, much to their dismay. It was that, I guess, that I got a real high off of- stumping those older kids. I realized that I held the potential to fool these kids into forgetting Harry Potter wasn't real, suspending reality just for those few hours. I bet, years from now, the kids will figure out my tricks and ruses, but until then I hope that my Harry Potter-ian effort had a similar effect to falling back into believing in Santa Claus again. I hope I inspired a half dozen kids to passionately seek out the real Harry Potter, even if it wasn't me, and to believe. So anything I can do this Halloween to even get half the result would mean a success well beyond my wildest dreams. I really hope we convince people!


So you probably won't hear too much more about this until Halloween draws nearer, but I thought I should at least bring it up, since I'm going crazy planning it! By the way, if you're interested, please contact me and I'll give you some more information!

- Jonathan

Falling Into Place

So I've been listening to In Rainbows for a couple weeks now, and I've decided to share the joy with you all (in case you haven't already had the pleasure). Actually, this is just another shameless ploy of mine to use up space, but you don't mind right?

• MTV





• MTV







• MTV




• MTV