Grapes have wrath?

Wow! You guys did amazing last week. I knew you would all do really well, but you guys blew me away with what you wrote. I think the project had a very successful first week.

So, thanks to Google Analytics I know pretty much all the statistics about the blog. So guess which day had the most views? Well, you can guess all you want because I’m not telling you. A couple of you express nervousness with writing your first posts. I thought it ridiculous, because you are not being judged. This isn’t a matter of page views or who writes the most interesting post. It’s about us. It’s for our friends, and I promise you whatever you write they’ll enjoy because THEY LOVE YOU.

Now I’d like to address some other things that came up this past week. Runiteking1 made me realize that I was a bit unclear in the explanation. When I said I’d prefer you to not talk about the blog outside of the blog, I was referring to content. You can talk about the blog all you want. I know the Power Blogger Team has been. I also wanted to respond to Blair’s comment. Blair, I’m sorry you weren’t invited to be a writer. I thought FOREVER on who I should choose, and don’t feel left out if I didn’t choose you. I was going to only do weekdays, but I couldn’t even narrow it down then. We do want you to be a part of the blog, and there will be opportunities for fill-ins, especially over the summer. And that goes to Emily and Ryan and anyone else who reads the blog.

Ok and now a little note to the Power Bloggers team. Lacey, I’m glad you explained the Twix thing because I might’ve made the same mistake at one point, and I hope you’re less nervous this week. Viv, I loved that part about the missing cutting board. I laughed and laughed and then got Amanda and laughed some more. Jonathan, I really liked how you told us all to seize the day. I think it’s so true; time is going faster than we think. Oh and sorry the other Power Bloggers were freaking out when you posted so late. Kejing, your post was amazing. I loved the heart you put into it. June, while the Mario picture was the most impressive of the ones you posted, I must say I liked the flower one the best. And Caroline, I too went to physical therapy this past year and I know EVERYTHING you’re talking about. I didn’t even go to the same office.

Ok, sorry that was a lot. But I still have more. I’m not writing this on Monday, but on Sunday night because I’m leaving early tomorrow morning and I won’t be back until Tuesday night. So anyway I’m really angry right now. I posted something on my blog, which came from my heart and it was really important to me. It stated the beliefs in my religion and whatnot. After I made this post I made a note on Facebook where I tagged some people who I thought might like reading it. A person I DID NOT tag responded to this in a negative way which was really uncool, because he/she basically stated I was believing in something totally bogus in so many words. Blogs are public, yes. But that doesn’t mean anyone wants negative comments, because they can really hurt your feelings. We haven’t had any problems with this yet, but I want to make a new rule. Do not post any comments that are negative on someone’s post. If it’s something like we can’t read the color that’s acceptable, but nothing about the actual person’s post. It’s just rude. If you think that's lame, well you don't actually HAVE to read this blog, now do you?

Ok. No one ever really explain the colors, so I’ll do that quickly also. We all have a color, you know just like the Power Rangers. Each of our posts will be in that color. Which reminds me we should another color, in case we have to have a fill-in. What color do you guys think is best?

Now I have something really important to say. I've been reading The Grapes of Wrath, which if you haven't read is about a trek to California during the Depression...I think. I'm not sure of teh time period. Anyway, at one point the Grandma dies and the mother doesn't says anything until they stop the car in California. I decided I wouldn't like that. If we are ever making a huge journey together guys, and I die, please if you're the person sitting with me, tell the rest of the car. I'd apprecieate it.

And to close, I have a question for the Power Bloggers team. How do you think our first week went? You don’t have to answer but I’m just wondering.

-Brianna

PS I notice we got a view all the way from Egypt…wow.

Happy Anniversary!!!

Hello, Blue powerblogger here! So today is the last day of the first week of our blog!!!! It’s also the first day of June!!! So I had a little bit of trouble thinking of a subject to write on when I stumbled upon a brochure at Tallahassee Orthopedic announcing its 20th anniversary of being open. So I decided to write about how ridiculous physical therapy is.
After my back surgery in late November, I was overjoyed to hear that physical therapy would be unnecessary, but then when I visited a doctor here in Tally, he "recommended" that I attend a few sessions. It turns out that it wasn't just a recommendation; it was an order. My parents told me, "It will be just like having your own personal trainer!" They lied.
So I've been to Tallahassee Orthopedic and Sports Physical Therapy (TOSPT) three times now, and each time is as unpleasant as the previous visit. For starters, there are no good magazines to read while waiting for your turn. At the doctor's office, there are usually some year-old TIMES or NEWSWEEK journals, COUNTRY HOME AND GARDEN, and the occasional PEOPLE magazines. But no, TOSPT has to make everything ten times more boring, so you get to entertain yourself with five months of GOLFER'S DIGEST. Then, when you're finally called back, you walk into this big room and immediately stick out like a sore thumb because you are the only patient under the age of 60. Your trainer leads you to this weird bed thing, and then leaves you for another 10 minutes or so doing pointless exercises while she goes and attends to the slowest old grandma in the room. A couple minutes into your "workout", you look around the room only to notice that the 65 year old woman on the bed next to yours is wearing a midriff-bearing spaghetti strap tank top and soffee shorts. Let’s just say that sight makes you finish your exercises REALLY fast so that you can move over to the treadmills across the room. And then, while your trainer is supposed to be helping you, she is flirting with a coworker (this is why inter office relationships are discouraged) and she fails to notice that you've been running for five minutes longer than she said to. Then, when you think you're finally done, they give you a list of exercises to do as "homework". Yeah, right, I'm not doing this crap. That’s why I just lie and say that I did when they ask.

Oh, and on the way out, there aren't even stickers or lollipops like at the doctor’s office. Rip-off.

-Caroline Burnette

P.S. I don't know how to change the color of the text, so if someone could tell me, I'd greatly appreciate it.

School's Out!

Hey! Green power blogger here for the Saturday post. Now like the rest of the power bloggers before me, I had absolutely no idea what to post on here. I didn't have a Twix around so that made it even worse. So I was thinking of how to end the week with a bang since school's out and thanks to the red power blogger, I WAS STRUCK BY INSPIRATION. Yeah, I saw my USB laying on the ground and that reminded me of all the paint I drew in my first period class, typing. As you can well imagine, nobody learned anything in that class so we ended up playing games, solitaire, paint, etc. So enjoy my products of boredom below (in chronological order):

So here is where it all started. Right before Christmas break, I just started painting

I labled this one "Camping". Though you cant see them, I put a ton of stars. I'm personally proud of the fire I painted =D.



I don't even know what I was feeling at this point but this called "Rainy Day". Happy/sad painting isn't it?

This is what I consider my masterpiece because I spent a full 9 weeks trying to finish this.
Well I hope you enjoyed my little art gallery and stay tuned for the next awesome blog on Sunday.

It is Not a Conspiracy

It's not very early in the day, and I should really be awake by now, but I accidentally typed in "powerbloggers" instead of "thepowerbloggers" and ended up with a picture of a Japanese man with katakana written on its preceding post. Oh, and Brianna, you may have picked the least entertaining person to join this blogging extravaganza, but I feel so honored to have been given the opportunity to write with these wonderful people. You probably won't find this very interesting, but the Chinese named the days of the letter quite conventionally. Li3 bai4 yi1, li3 bai4 er2, li3 bai4 san3, li3 bai4 si4, li3 bai4 wu3... Just attach the number from one to six to get, respectively, Monday through Saturday. Sunday is Li3 bai4 tian1. Tian1 can mean day or sky. xckd.com is one of my favorite things on the internet. Today, the title is "Every Damn Morning," and the captions says, "There was something about a cup and a sword and a green hill..."

If you don't click on "Publish Post," then Blogger automatically saves your posts as a draft. They can be later edited, and even posted in the future on a certain day if you so choose. Today, I left this page to come back to it slightly later, and noticed that someone had begun to write a post. She reminded me that the same person who can make you feel as if you can never stop smiling is is often the same person who can easily to hurt you the most. I don't mean to sound like such an optimist, but no matter who the lucky person is, I hope you [such an awesome reader of The Power Bloggers] cherish every moment you have with him or her. I don't know her as well as I wish, but she's such an amazing girl and I'm really sorry I don't have the perfect set of words to tell her so that everything will be okay, because I know she deserves them. I wish I could talk to her. I have been sitting here, debating about whether or not to delete this paragraph completely. It's hard. It's so hard. And it's different for everyone. I want to be able to help her but there isn't anything I can do.
If only we could go back to the days when everyone talked to each other and traded Pokemon cards without a care in the world. But then, I wouldn't have met any of you guys. Or taken AP European History.

Jonathan's CEO (Kejing)

The Day of Doom

Quite honestly, until about five minutes ago, I had no idea what to write about.
That is until I found the answer (to many things) on Wikipedia.

A favorite book of mine put Thursdays in a more dry/morbid context than I like;
In The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, the character Aurthur Dent says "This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays". A few minutes later the planet Earth is destroyed.

Thursdays have always be something of a queer day for me. So close to the weekend, but you still have Friday to deal with. Also, a lot extracurricular activities (like piano for me) are scheduled on Thursdays. Weird, huh?

Well, perhaps Thursday's etymology and development in other languages will explain it's weirdness.

Old English- Þunresdæg
Latin- iovis Dies
German- donnerstag
French- jeudi
Romanian- joi
Catalan- dijous
Spanish- jueves
Italian- giovedì
Scandinavian- torsdag
Dutch- donderdag
Sanskrit- guru
Urdu- jumeraate

(Bet you didn't know more than three of those words until now!)

So what have we learned from comparing different languages here? There seem to be two different roots from with Thursday has sprung forth- the Latin (Jove) and Sanskrit (Guru). We all know, well at least those of us who took AP Human Geography that the Indo-European trunk has a few branches- two of which are Sanskrit and Latin. Why the difference? I suspect conspiracy. You see, it's all a part of the master plan of your bosses, teachers, CEO s, managers, and yes- even your parents. Anybody who is on top of you is in on the conspiracy. So what is the conspiracy? Well, remember how I said that "Thursdays were queer" and had that "so-close-to-the-weekend-yet-so-far" mentality? Well there you go. They're trying to trip us up! By disorientating us and unbalancing us, they hope to pin our mistakes on us and make us work more! IT'S ALL A CONSPIRACY!!!

Okay, Okay- I know- I wasted a good 2 and a half minutes of your time there, but hey- I think I was onto something! You never know! More important on any Thursday, at least from what I've figured out, is to "Carpe Diem" ("Seize the Day"). Don't sit there idly and wait for the weekend to come to you- go out and get it yourself! For example- I had a lovely time with a friend of mine today- even though I have two big exams tomorrow! Worth it? YES!

So Carpe Diem, everyone- or at least what's left of it!

Jonathan

Monked

Seeing as there’s nothing really new or interesting going on in my life right now, I’ll take this time to complain about something I’ve probably complained about too much already, the monk.

As some of you already know, a monk is currently living with me and has been for about a month now. Why you ask? Because his family is friends with mine and he’s giving talks here. I don’t really understand either so that’s as good of an explanation as your going to get, deal with it.

Swamiji has actually stayed with us before; he used to stay with us almost once a year for some time, but the last time he visited was probably before fifth grade. The thing I most remember about these visits was that I was forced against my will to eat vegetarian. I’m sure the protein deficiency during these visits stunted my development, and so I’ve held a perfectly justifiable grudge against him ever since.

Here’s just an excerpt of the fun that’s ensued:

Mom: Yes, there are several Africans that work at FAMU, they’re very smart.

Me (OBVIOUSLY sarcastic): What’s a race that you wouldn’t call smart, Mom?

At this point the monk takes the liberty to teach me that everyone is blessed equally by god, and it is their opportunity that determines the amount of development and success. Yes, I know I shouldn’t have used sarcasm, but I wasn’t even addressing him was I? Did I deserve to be lectured on my “racist ways”? No.

Later on in the conversation the monk wonders out loud why so many Americans don’t support providing for the poor and welfare as much as other developed countries. I then say that they might be so afraid of anything that seems socialist because of the Cold War, even if it’s at the cost of the people. I then receive a free history lesson on how the Cold War was not a real war, but entirely in people’s minds. Thank you.

So now I avoid saying mostly anything that is answering a direct question. Not that I hold it against the monk, it’s just easier if I do.

And one of the cutting boards is missing. I’m not pointing any fingers, all I’m saying is that I didn’t move it, and he’s the only other person here.

-Viv

Stage Fright

100% Sleep Deprived and exhausted from getting less than 2 and a half hours of sleep last night (and of course there is a rant that explains how that happened but I figured it's not the time to bore you with it), all I've thought of today has been this blog and how excited I am and what I am going to write. I am super nervous so just keep that in mind while you are reading this. I'm scared to post it because it seems that I have a case of stage fright.

When I read Brianna's note pitching this idea I was shocked and honored. It was so sweet of her to pick me for this endeavor and my biggest fear is that I don't live up to her expectations. Brianna I think this is a wonderful idea and will definitely keep us together.

When I was trying to choose what I would write a commercial came on. It was for a Twix bar. (One of my favorite candy bars.) And the commercial said, "Need a moment? Chew it over with Twix." Apparently if you eat a Twix bar, it buys you time to come up with something clever. But it was as I was eating the third Twix bar that I realized that it doesn't really help you in this situation because this is a blog. Sure the deadline is by the end of today but no matter how many delicious caramel treats I ate I would still need to come up with something in the same amount of time.

The most philosophically statements start with "Time. . ." in my opinion. Then there is a pause and it's often followed by something talking about how time is a force that you can't stop. And that's true. As we're nearing the end of this year I'm beginning to realize that the future that I thought about when I was so much younger, is not so much a future anymore. It's becoming present. I'm halfway through high school pretty much. I started thinking how everyone is going to go different places for college and even though it's two years away, I realized how much I would miss every single one of my friends. Because you guys are always there for me and you are the best people I know. I hope that I've been there for you too. I love you guys.

On a different note. If you thought that this blog post was lame then I should tell you that I have now purchased a notebook (it's rainbow and purdy) and I plan to write in it whenever something notable happens so next week, Tuesday may (or may not) be more interesting.

PS Looking at the shades of yellow I can't tell if this will look tacky against the background. If it does I'll pick a different one next time.

-Lacey